ks
And barren glaciers. Life is fight, thank God!

"Take war away and men would sink to molluscs,
Limpets that wait the tide to wash them food.
The nations would grow foul with lazy feeling.
What heaven loves is breeds with life a-tingle,
Swift-gliding, flashing, darting death at rivals,
Men fearing God and with no other fear.
Thus were the Albans, now the turn is ours
To be the chosen people of Jehovah."

And the King endorses such sentiments with the sage observation,

"No doubt we must protect our growing commerce."

In opposition to such militarists stands Count Frithiof, in whom we
may easily see the lineaments of Tolstoi. His motto is, "Resist not
evil, but reform yourself." In answer to the Chancellor's declaration,
"To safeguard peace, we must prepare for war," he replies,

"I know that maxim; it was forged in hell.
This wealth of ships and guns inflames the vulgar
And makes the very war it guards against.
How often, as the mighty master said, the sight
Of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done."

_A Voice for Social Justice_

Quite outside the dramatic action of the play stands the Jew, Blum,
the Chancellor's secretary. Through his astuteness in managing the
Chancellor, he has hitherto moulded public policy according to his own
will. Finally, near the end of the play, he denounces Christian
civilization in a passage worthy of quotation:

"Man wins the realm of air and might have been
An eagle with a soul; you make him harpy,
More murderous than dragons of the ooze.
I tell you, we outsiders see the game,
We Jews, who bidden rise beyond the code
Of eye for eye, must rub both eyes to see
Not e'en eye-justice done in Christendom,
Whose cannon thunder 'gainst both God and Christ."

So might have spoken one of the ancient prophets of his race. Indeed
Amos, amid the orgies of the autumn festival at Bethel, did speak in
the same spirit when he denounced the formal service of worshippers
who ignored the claims of social justice. "Seek good and not evil,"
cries Amos, "that ye may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts,
shall be with you, as ye say. Hate the evil, and love the good, and
establish judgment (justice) in the gate. It may be that the Lord God
of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph."

So it is