Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921 — John Shaqi
Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921Graham, Stephen
History
Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921
Graham, Stephen
Europe -- Description and travel
Prophecy can be left to all men--it does not alter the course of
events. The historian in the future will ask what was the actual
condition of Europe at this time, and it is possible to assume that he
would grasp eagerly at an account of a visit by an impartial observer
to all the principal capitals of Europe in the year 1921. An effort to
record what Europe looks like now, a series of true reflections and
verbal photographs of swirling humanity at the great congregating
places, the capitals, cannot but be of value. So with the motto: "See
all: reserve your judgment," let us proceed.
The winds of the mountains traverse the well-shod civilization of a
great city. At the end of each of the long streets rises a mountain,
and on the mountain rest the clouds and the sky. You walk outwards,
and climb the nearest and most prominent of the heights to the
Acropolis, to the mighty slabs of the marble of the Parthenon, simple
and pure in the mountain air, a point of view where it is always
morning, and you look down from the ancient Athens to the new. Your
eyes rest on modern Athens all built in white stone, and extensive and
handsome in a setting of mountains and sea, but the heart refuses to
travel with the eyes. The heart remains in the ancient city, and
there, somehow, is perfect happiness, and it is a place in which to
abide.
Not without some sacred thought does one place one's feet upon the bare
rock where walked the bright spirits of ancient Athens. The morning
sun of Europe, the dawning vision of all that we Europeans could be or
mean, dawns again in the soul. As an old or invalid man, or one at
least who in middle years has sinned and gone astray, one looks back to
the innocence and promise of childhood. Here shone the light of our
being undimmed; here was kindled in Europe the faith of the ideal.
Yonder is Mars Hill from which St. Paul showed the new way when the
light was growing dim. For Greece identified man in part with the
Divine, but the new religion gave forgetful humanity its altar of
remembrance, affirming that we do not belong to the beasts that perish
but are affiliated to the Almighty.
It is perhaps strange that to-day the city which was the cradle of the
ideal is a city where there are no ideals at all--either old or new,
where Plato now means nothing, where even Bolshevism is not heard of.
S----, who took his bachelorate on divinity at Oxford, is writing a
sympathetic treatise on Nietzsche and Christianity for his doctorate at
the University of Athens. But what a mistake! What an unfortunate
choice of place and theme! Who was Nietzsche? "I have changed my
title to 'Nietzsche as the Devil'" says S----. "Ah, that's better,"
says his professor, "that we can understand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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