Civilization -- Philosophy; Death -- Psychological aspects; Psychoanalysis; Psychoanalysis and culture; War -- Psychological aspects
Trusting to this unity of civilized races countless people left hearth
and home to live in strange lands and trusted their fortunes to the
friendly relations existing between the various countries. And even he
who was not tied down to the same spot by the exigencies of life could
combine all the advantages and charms of civilized countries into a
newer and greater fatherland which he could enjoy without hindrance or
suspicion. He thus took delight in the blue and the grey ocean, the
beauty of snow clad mountains and of the green lowlands, the magic of
the north woods and the grandeur of southern vegetation, the atmosphere
of landscapes upon which great historical memories rest, and the peace
of untouched nature. The new fatherland was to him also a museum, filled
with the treasure that all the artists of the world for many centuries
had created and left behind. While he wandered from one hall to another
in this museum he could give his impartial appreciation to the varied
types of perfection that had been developed among his distant
compatriots by the mixture of blood, by history, and by the
peculiarities of physical environment. Here cool, inflexible energy was
developed to the highest degree, there the graceful art of beautifying
life, elsewhere the sense of law and order, or other qualities that have
made man master of the earth.
We must not forget that every civilized citizen of the world had created
his own special "Parnassus" and his own "School of Athens." Among the
great philosophers, poets, and artists of all nations he had selected
those to whom he considered himself indebted for the best enjoyment and
understanding of life, and he associated them in his homage both with
the immortal ancients and with the familiar masters of his own tongue.
Not one of these great figures seemed alien to him just because he spoke
in a different language; be it the incomparable explorer of human
passions or the intoxicated worshiper of beauty, the mighty and
threatening seer or the sensitive scoffer, and yet he never reproached
himself with having become an apostate to his own nation and his beloved
mother tongue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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