Moreover, by the means of Wisdom I shall obtain immortality, and
leave behind me an everlasting memorial to them that come after me.
"I shall set the people in order, and the nations shall be subject
unto me.
"Horrible tyrants shall be afraid, when they do but hear of me; I
shall be found good among the multitude, and valiant in war."
(Wisdom viii. 13, 14, 15.)
* * * * *
Wisdom and Wisdom alone could have painted this terrible picture the
most terrible perhaps which Raemaekers has ever done and yet the
simplest. That he should have dared to leave almost everything to the
imagination of the beholder is evidence of the wonderful power which he
exercises over the mind of the people. Each of us knows what is in that
goods-van and we shudder at its hideous hidden freight, fearing lest it
may be disclosed before our eyes. Wisdom is but another name for supreme
genius. So apposite are the verses which are quoted here from "The
Wisdom of Solomon" in the "Apocrypha" that they seem almost to have been
written on Louis Raemaekers.
Moreover, this picture brings home to all of us in the most forcible
manner possible the full reality of the horror of war.