AMERICANISM TRIUMPHANT
That Americanism which to-day is a dominant world force is not alone of
North or South or East or West. Out of the blended greatness of all the
sections of the United States came the hope of peace and universal
democracy in that dark hour when the allied armies of Europe were
backing doggedly toward the tottering gates of Paris. That hope was born
of the reunited blood of the gray and the blue armies.
As it was Americanism that tipped the doubtful scale of victory on the
field of battle, so it was Americanism that inspired the war-sick world
to seek the great League.
And now that all eyes are turned toward Geneva as the chosen capital of
the earth, the fascinating history of that far corner of Switzerland
will be lifted by a thousand pens from the dust of neglect. Poured into
the stream of current literature, it will add mellowness and flavor, as
if a flagon of old wine were resurrected from some long-deserted cellar
and poured into the spiritless punch bowl of to-day.
This new seat of world deliberation has ever been a home of thought--a
place of dreams.
From the brain of a dreamer who dreamed there more than a hundred years
ago there issued a ghost--the most monstrous and terrifying that ever
looked from the pages of fantastic literature--for a century considered
only a gloomy fancy of a wonderful imagination, but now revealed in the
light of the world revolution as a hideous prophecy of the terror and
agony of the great war. Perchance the prophecy was an accident. It may
be that there was nothing miraculous--no inspired vision back of the
dream; and still it may be that some yet undiscovered force of mind and
soul mirrored in the brain of that bright dreamer the troubled future of
the world and caused its expression in the mental creation of a
monster.
In reviewing this ghost of accidental or miraculous prophecy, as the
case may be, it is well to remember that this country of landmarks and
memories has ever held a charm for the restless spirits of genius. The
hill of Geneva is cathedral-crowned. Its unique and historic river, born
of snow and ice and reborn of a crystal lake, divides the city like a
stream of blue and trembling light, and the lands that sustain its
countryside are a succession of orchards, gardens, and vineyards.
The beautiful Lake of Geneva, touching the city with its western
extremity, stretches eastward for more than forty miles. Great spirits
of many centuries have gathered about this place of dreams to sing their
songs to all the future or work out their messages to mankind--poets,
philosophers, painters, sculptors, theologians, astronomers, and
scientists.
There Calvin lived and taught and died. There Rousseau was born to be
the siren of free thought, and from that base of dreams went forth to
lead his life of wonderful, dissolute, and brilliant vagabondage.
And so the list of the great whose lives have touched this charmed and
charming place could be extended on and on; but let us leave this to the
research of the interested, while we pass to the immortals who are
linked with our strange story.
In the eventful summer of 1816, while all Europe was being adjusted to
the new sensation of living without fear of the great Napoleon, then
just settled in his cage at St. Helena; when Germany, at last free from
his dominating genius, was already beginning to steel the national heart
for a career of supermilitarism, there came to the lonesome shore of
this famous lake Lord Byron, the poet Shelley, and Mary Godwin
(afterwards Mary Shelley).
Mutually possessed with the spirit of mysticism which seemed ever to
brood over the moss-grown city, the beautiful lake and its environs,
these impressionable children of nature entered into a playful contest
to determine who could write the most harrowing story dealing with the
supernatural. At least, it is known that Lord Byron, Mary Godwin, and
Byron’s physician entered the contest. So supremely terrifying was the
story of Mary Godwin that Byron never finished his story, and the story
of the physician is unknown to the world of literature.
Her story tells of the secret ambition and dreadful realization of a
German student of science in the University of Ingolstadt. Pushing his
clandestine research into the realm of the unknown until he discovered
the secret of human life, ambition kindled in his soul to mimic the
master work of God. He created a soulless body of a man, and, by the
application of his discovered chemical, infused into the cold, dead form
the vital spark. It did not step from his touch as Adam stepped from the
Divine Hand--in beauty and in grace--but came groveling into
consciousness, a distorted monster. The student fled from his work; but
in the silent hours of the night that followed, his horrid creature
stood, with bloodshot eyes, above his bed, and, with hideous face and
wildly waving arms, cursed the daring intelligence which had called it
from the night of nothingness into an unnatural and miserable existence.
Again the student fled, and continued to flee from the awful work of
his hands; but ever the monster followed, penetrating the barriers of
his most secret lodgings, begging death at the hands of its creator, or
silently pressing against the pane of his window a face of suffering and
rage. It murdered his friends and the members of his family. It pursued
him through life, and at last stood and shrieked above his coffin--a
terrible witness to the folly of his wisdom. Its work of vengeance
ended, it stepped into a self-kindled fire and perished.
Could it not have been that this monster was more than a fantastic dream
of Mary Godwin’s brain? Did not this imaginary German student, misusing
the discoveries of science to ape the power of God, foreshadow the
mighty German nation harnessing every art and discovery of civilization
for the creation of a monster a thousand times more terrible than that
of the strange story--the monster of Militarism? Have we not seen this
German-created monster, with body of steel and breath of fire, go forth
to terrorize the world? Failing in its unnatural purpose, have we not
seen it, like the awful ghost, turn upon its creator and hound a
dynasty to its death? And is not this monster, like the other, now
perishing in its self-builded fires?
Beautiful Mary Shelley! You cannot arise from your long sleep to answer
our anxious question and tell us whether your uncommon story was the
picture of a dream or the record of a vision!
Ring on, the soft bells of your golden past, O Geneva, and keep the
sweet cadence of their ancient song to mellow the newness of your
greater life to come! The heart of the world will beat within your
gates; and may truth and liberty, clear and changeless as the waters of
your Rhone, flow from the deliberations of your gathered wisdom.
[Illustration]
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
could me loaded and unloaded=> could be loaded and unloaded {pg 35}
Alantic Railroad line=> Atlantic Railroad line {pg 118}
the Middle Tensee=> the Middle Tennessee {pg 175}
to our line the eneemy=> to our line the enemy {pg 191}
This reverie may be meangingless=> This reverie may be meaningless {pg
198}