rinted
illustrates the point. Did we not know that it was published some
fifteen years ago in a volume entitled "The Haunted Temple," we should
assume that it was written on the occasion of the fall of the Czar. In
fact, however, it merely foretells this event by some dozen years. And
how terribly applicable are the lines to the facts of today! The
prophecy is one capable of repeated fulfillment.

But it is as a prophet of nationalism that this man compels our
particular attention. The prophecy is embodied in a play entitled "The
Comet, a Play of Our Times," brought out as far back as 1908. The play
is a microcosm of American life. The chief character is a college
president, and he it is that is chosen to expound the true nature of
nationalism and to give voice and utterance to the principle of
self-determination. (Is it merely a coincidence that at that time
Woodrow Wilson was President of Princeton, or is it a case of poetic
vision. Wilson, be it remembered, was already a national figure, and
there were already glimmerings that he was destined to usher in a new
era in politics.) According to the protagonist, America is not "a
boiling cauldron in which the elements seethe, but never settle," but
rather a college where every class is taught to translate--

"Into the common speech of daily life
The country's loftiest ideals--"

and any body of citizens form a part of our republic only in so far--

"As they contribute to its character
As leader of the nations unto Right
By thought or deed, in service for mankind."

We must lead the peoples of the world to freedom. And what is freedom?

"'Tis intelligence
Aloof from harm and hamper, grandly circling
Its native sun-lit peaks, the highest hopes
Heaved from the heart of man upon the earth,
In ranges long as time and soul endure."

What, then, is America's duty to the oppressed race or the small nation?
It is to "wake and disabuse it of false hope"--

"and urge it on
To the development of its own powers,
The culmination of its own ideals,
The star seed sown by God,--the only means
By which a tribe can thrive to its perfection."

To make this possible, civilization must be given a more human content.
It is therefore necessary to awake human intelligence, "the godlike
genius," to a realization of the fact--

"--that, on having brought
This world from out the chaos dark
Of waters