04.]

ABOVE THE BATTLE

BY
ROMAIN ROLLAND

TRANSLATED BY
C. K. OGDEN, M. A.
(Editor of _The Cambridge Magazine_)

CHICAGO

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
1916

_Copyright 1916_

_The Open Court Pub. Co., Chicago._

_First published in 1916._

(_All rights reserved._)

INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
PREFACE
NOTES
FOOTNOTES

INTRODUCTION

_"Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problem of
freedom yet._

* * * * *

_(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers?
Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?
Nay, nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere.)"_

These lines of Walt Whitman will be recalled by many who read the
following pages: for not only does Rolland himself refer to Whitman in
his brief Introduction, but, were it not for a certain _bizarrerie_
apart from their context, the words "Over the Carnage" might perhaps
have stood on the cover of this volume as a striking variant on
_Au-dessus de la Melee_.

Yet though the voice comes to us over the carnage, its message is not
marred by the passions of the moment. After eighteen months of war we
are learning to look about us more calmly, and to distinguish amid the
ruins those of Europe's intellectual leaders who have not been swept off
their feet by the fury of the tempest. Almost alone Romain Rolland has
stood the test. The two main characteristics which strike us in all that
he writes are lucidity and common sense--the qualities most needed by
every one in thought upon the war. But there is another feature of
Rolland's work which contributes to its universal appeal. He describes
our feelings and sensations in the presence of a given situation, not
what actually passes before our eyes: he describes the effects and
causes of things, but not the things themselves. Through his work for
the _Agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre_, to which one of
the articles now collected is largely devoted, he is, moreover, in a
position to observe every phase of the great battle between ideals and
between nations which fills him with such anguish and indignation. And
with his matchless insight and sympathy he gives permanent form to our
vague feelings in these noble and inspiring essays.

It will not, however, surprise the vast public who have read
_Jean-Christophe_ to find that while so many