At present the nation is fighting for its very life. _Inter arma silent musæ_, and when a nation has to bear first the occupation and then the annexation of the heart of its territory; when it has to wage an incessant war, even in times of so-called peace, against an implacable neighbour like Austria-Hungary; when the strength of the nation is absorbed in the mere struggle for _existence_; then it is impossible to realize the possession of a great artist. The Serbian nation has waged three wars of life and death, and always against an enemy stronger than herself; first against Turkey, then against Bulgaria, and now against Austria—all within three years. At such a time it is impossible to create a great civilization, and still less possible not to appear to the world as a nation created solely for war. Diplomatic Europe is interested in Serbian politics—_not_ from motives of humanity and justice. And to the Europe of civilization, philosophy, science, art and ethics the spirit of Yougoslavia is not even a name. Who knows that even apart from Meštrović—who, as the peer of Phidias and Michelangelo, cannot be compared with mere mortals—the finest architect of the present day is a Southern Slav—a Slovene—the son of a small nation of three million people? This great architect of modern Europe is Josip Plečnik; he was director of the Arts Academy in Prague, and a few months ago was promoted to the Vienna Academy. Downtrodden Dalmatia boasts such powerful writers, thinkers and scientists as Count Ivo Vojnović, Antun Tresić-Pavićić, the philosopher Petrić, and the historian Nodilo. At the time of Carducci and Swinburne Bosnia possessed a typical poet, Silvije Kranjčević, and at the present time Serbia has in Borislav Stankovi a novelist worthy to rank with Leonid Andreeff. In Yougoslavia there are to-day splendidly edited reviews, particularly good theatres and opera (as for instance the Opera at Zagreb), and good universities with distinguished professors and scientific men. Assuredly the Southern Slavs are not to blame if the whole world has seen this gifted and important nation through the spectacles of the Viennese Press, a nation which is worth more to the human race than the whole of the Hapsburg dynasty—or _was_, until the outbreak of the present war.... In all their poverty and slavery, and without the help even of Serbia, they undertook a campaign of enlightenment in the European Press, organized art exhibitions, and by concerts, lectures, and translations made known their art and literature to the world. English literature has greatly influenced Serbo-Croat literature; and not only Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron and Shelley are translated into Serbian, but Carlyle, Buckle, and Draper have also exercised great influence upon Serbian culture; and the most modern literature of Britain has found worthy translators and admirers. The poems of Rossetti, Browning, Keats, Swinburne and Walt Whitman, the