IS ENGLAND SPENT?

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3252, 24 June 1911, Page 9

IS ENGLAND SPENT?

MAXIM CORK! ON HOOKING BACK

WHY POETS SHI N TO DAY.

“London! In that name methinks, I hear vibrating the memories of History, land a voice, surging from the deeps of the dead centuries, seems to cry: Children of Nature, strive to a better understanding of one another !” Avrites the Russian novelist Gorki in the “Fortnightly Review “One could say that this monstrously huge city, enveloped in log, dreams night and day of the great drama of her Past; of her prosperous Present, and •peers cautiously, yet hopefully, into the eyes of t-hd Future for the advent of the luminous days overflowing with joy, for the coming of a new race of men endowed with the strength of creation.

LONDON’S DREAM

“Dotiwgly she muses over those of her sons who have made England great: awaits the re-birth of the glorious children who are imortal, like those whose names have rendered her famous to tho length and breadth of the universe. It seemis to me that London has need of a new Shakespeare, a second Byron, a Shelley, a Gibbon, a Macaulay, another Walter Scott, troubadour of Old England and her glory! What did that glory consist of? In. a phrase: Of the unquenchable desire for intellectual independence. At the moment, this desire lias vanished before it has been sated : and it must, of necessity,' be once again awakened in the slumbering- soul of the people. IS ENGLAND SPENT?

“I imagine the great city thinks. \L.. the chimes of my mind resound once again in the ears of the nations, that my immense trumpets may proclaim to the universe entire the hopes and thoughts of tho English people.? “To one inclined as I am, the British Museum is the most precious pearl, the most priceless treasure, the purest jewel England can show. It is tho living panorama of all the peoples on our earth’s surface, a magnificent intellectual creation due to the all-powerful hand of the English nation! “This immense and massive palace of rarities is as solid as England herself One might say that it was the stone binding of the Great Book of Human civilisation'—a book in- great request for many centuries! MADE BY JOYOUS MEN.

“Everywhere one witnesses the immense resources of intelligence and innovation at London’s command. But one finds oneself asking involuntarily: Has the English nation spent the great genius of its mind in a proportionate manner within the last few decades ? Is it not tending rather towards the narrowing aims of a co a r se (!> m a ter ial ism ? And this deviation, will it' not warp the development of the Spirit of Liberty of that truly creative mind that lias enriched the earth with such imperishable treasures ? “The miniature specimens of modern art one meets with manifest equally a tendency tl> simplicity. Tile tendene- is noble—certainly! But it, nevertheless, renders the objects cold a nd colorless. Involuntarily, they make you think of the decadence of the creative strength in Art, and of the gradual but steady metamorphosis of Art into Commerce. The antique tilings are preferable. They have been conceived by men who were healthy and joyous. Let us, for example, take Rosetti and Burne-Jones. Why have these masterly and divinely gifted men of genius exhausted the whole of their inspiration in depicting the Past? - Why were they so. irresistibly drawn towards Botticelli ? Why would they net, or could they not, seek their inspiration amid the diversity of our contemporary lde? Is it not because the latter-day life of the cultured Society we live m has become too narrow, too obtuse, ana too wearisome, and because mankind suffers itself to be dominated,_ in a glowing degree, by its lower instincts ? “Poets can no longer find a place m the life we live to-day. - They are instead compelled to go in quest, of beauty to the Tombs of tho Pest. There is naught in the Presn.t to inspire these artists with fecund thoughts. tor them there is no glittering ‘to-morrow, and thus they must perforce dwell in the distant ‘yesterday.’ It is a sad existence that which enfeebles the creative strength. . . . ! CULTURED HUMANITY LOOKS BACK.

“The power of gold, of iron, and ostone: 'the power of greed, of curiosity, and of hate, dissimulate the Future before our eyes, veiling m with niggardly preoccupations. In a Society fatigued with bustle and nervousness, and worn out by incessant struggle for existence, what wonder that the living faith m the possibility of happiness for all humans kind fails to and enthusiastic disciples I “Nor is it exclusively in England that these signs are manifest. All the hu-manitv of so-called cultured Europe looks rearward, seeking beauty and beatitude in Hie Past. This is proof positive of intellectual decay, the infallible indication for the necessity of infusing new blood into our anaemic organisms.