A new inspiration for literature is at hand. The times, with its mighty
impetus for world movements, more than ever demands a class of
literature that has at its heart the world consciousness. And the man
that is to write the literature, it seems to me, must familiarize
himself with three master-minds:
Walt Whitman, who chatted in terms of world democracy and whose spirit
was as readily attuned to the earth as to the dew drop and flower.
Homer, the blind bard of Greece, the masterful interpreter of the power
of the oceans, who talked about the seas as easily as the ordinary man
converses about village events.
Christ, the child-like but universal minded Leader of the human race,
who has quickened men to move toward the essential unity of the races
and nations.
Literature can now come to its own as never before. Writers of fiction
now have a new and superb opportunity of introducing a majestic back
ground to their stories. Men everywhere feel the lure of a new
inspiration. They want to talk and write in grander terms, bringing new
glory to the simple and common place. And they are sure to break forth
in the song of a better literature, orchestral with the spirit of world
consciousness and broadly sympathetic with the yearning for essential
world democracy. Commerce, science and religion are active in world
movements, and what a mighty help it will be toward the realization of
the ideal when many writers of fiction and poetry, as well as of history
and politics, begin to take advantage of this opportunity. I can think
of no higher calling that can engage the attention of man than that of
trying to express the inspiration of these days in a worthy literature;
which shall be majestically spiritual, and will tell what the unscaled
eyes see, microscoped and telescoped to find the message of nature and
history thrilling with a divine life.
And when the masses who have not had the opportunity to travel, catch
the spirit of a world patriotism and learn to think and talk in world
terms--interested not only in their city, their state, their nation, but
also in their world movements,--then a world government unifying the
nations will be more easily formulated. I say, when the people once
glimpse the vision of world peace, world harmony (or democracy) in its
full grandeur, a spirit will be aroused that all the warring kings and
illegitimate trusts on earth cannot check! David Starr Jordan well says
in a most capable and thorough series of articles on "How to End War"
that "people under the stress of immediate excitement might vote for
war, especially if told of some vicious aggression." How true that is!
And we should also add that there is a cure, a substitute for this false
excitement. For the excitement about war is only coarse vaudeville in
comparison with the noble passion that takes hold of men's lives when
they become interested in the struggle and movements that make for world
harmony.
And to create this higher enthusiasm--which can never be quenched when
once it is kindled in a man's heart--the constructive workers need the
co-operation and help of the deepest and clearest visioned men of
letters in every nation. The task of reconstruction will be so
stupendous that the orator, the press, the writer, must be enlisted to
bring the vision to the people so that they and their rulers can be more
readily led by the constructive international statesman into essential
world democracy.
And it is the uniting of the two hemispheric seas that so irresistibly
suggests the essential union of the nations. There never was an
Exposition held, nor ever will be, affording such a vision of world
unity; not only because of the union of these two oceans associated with
this event, but also because of the world war, which cannot avoid being
interpreted by some of the most penetrating thinkers as the darkness
before the dawn. Any man of clear vision who stands with Goethals at the
mingling of the two hemispheric bodies of water looking through the
clouds of war cannot help but speak prophetically. The world has been
brought together geographically. It will also be brought into essential
harmony politically and racially. The new proximity of the nations
created by the canal demands it. And above all, it is the inevitable
drift of things. Blessed then are the people that have the vision! And
twice blessed are those who give it to others! And above all, blessed
are the men who are laboring to make the vision a reality!