THE FLIGHT OF ROMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1551, 21 September 1912, Page 9

THE FLIGHT OF ROMANCE.

■ Lovers of the brave days of old will bo more pained than surprised to learn or tho undoing of romance in China, following tho establishment of the Great Republic. Almost any one, indeed, must 00 somewhat shocked upon hearing that the Ministry,.for Agriculture proposes to f r o Te , mp ' e of Eartli into a hoise-breedmg place, the Temple of Agri-ciiltiirc-although this is less revolution-aiT-Tiuto an experimental station for forestry and the Temple of Heaven into a model farm. This last is enough to warrant intervention, and protests ore ?, ire , ad 7 Mas made against it. Of all that Poking contains that is picturesque or impressive, declares a Shanghai journal, there is nothing to compare with tne benuty. and majesty of this temple mid its attendant altar. Other temples m Lluna may offend by their grotesque and even terrifj ing images, but tho Temple of Heaven appeals by its pure emptin? s . s ', ,ts wclnsiou, and its associations. Uiie- among the latter is the custom of tlio former- Emperors of doing eacrifice at certain seasons of the year, thus making atonement for the people. Tho Emperors aregone, and now their, successors are meditating the impious project of turning one of their most sacred spots into a model-farm I If the Chinese aro half as worshipful of the past as thev are represented to be, the carrying out o"f this design will only render model farming, the most unpopular of all the innovations of the foreign devils. But China is not alone iu this sacrifice of romance to utility. Inlndia, complains a British journal, the English destroved a large part of Shah Jehan's fairylike wlace at Delhi after the Mutiny in order to make room for barracks. The old dainty and.delicate Japan is fast passing. Ancient -distinctions of costume, are beng ironed out by the steam-roller of civiisation, -so that half of the charm of ravel is Wing-lost. Tho latest blow has >een struck at Rugby, where the. silk hat hitherto ivorn by the boys has been officially doomed. After this, Anything is possible. As a consequence, vacations, in ■biirope at. least, are rapidly becoming a mad rush for a final glimpse of what is left of all the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome. A few more years, and what a halo will be that of him who can tell of seeing the Jungfrau before it was merely a'railway station, or Stratford in the distant days when it was something more than a post-card emporium and tho headquarters of tho Strat- ] ford Shakespeare Society, or the Zuyder Zee previous to the time when it had become a' boro in moving-pictures. There, is, however, an odd selfishness in this devotion to romance. Every nation demands that every other preserve, protect, and-defend, at whatever, cost, all that is picturesque or historic in its scenery, its structures, or is ruins. Yet every nation- also feels ' itself under

the necessity of doing whatever it deems wise in the direction of utilising for tho present- generation every square foot of its. soil, regardless of the effect upon the work of former ages, or of nature. An apparent exception to this policy is the caro that is expended in keeping regions or edifices that have an appeal for tourists unscathed; " Tho'fnotive in this kind of activity is. sufficient, proof that it constitutes no real exception'to the general utilitarian trend! Parallel to. this Phari-see-like calling of nation upon nation- to look after ; the portion ■. of romance that has been committed to it, is our loud denunciation of the'past for not taking better, care of itself for our sakes. Even

ill. the threatened Tenvpio of Heaven at Peking", tho courtyards are described as overgrown with weeds, the roofs,.and terrace's us marred with grassland shrubs/ "a- witness," in the accusingworas'oT an 1 ' English writer, "to the strange carelessness of the Chinese for preserving'' in beauty what they have made in the first place so beautiful." And every'Toiio lids been, stirred to indignation at some time and place or another over the ,stupid, shortsightedness of sonib ancient-or mediaeval people that was too indifferent" to interests, to leave more relics of its civilisation than barely enough to proyokq curiosity, while .rnaking it forover impossible, to. satisfy ri.tj V.'- •■:, : - ■ All thi3: seems, to-point', to in gloomy'future for romance. If weitlestroy, however slowly, the treasures that have .'been'bequeathed, to us by the storied past, and fashion none for ourselves, the end of the picturesque and the historic is but a problem in mathematics. Yet everybody hastens to admit that if life in any preceding epoch .was more interesting that it is in the twentieth century, scholars have failed to give an adequate account of it. The romance that, so promptly gathered about the telegraph, and particularly the wireless, is no less romance for being of. a new .pattern.. But f.here is a deeper, consideration than this creation of new forms for the old spirit. • No age is romantic to itself. We are no moro modern.in pur own conceit than the Egyptians Were in-theirs. Romance attaches to the dying day rather than to the dawn. All those differences in cos-

tume, therefore, concerning which travellers are becoming solicitous, are of lit-

tle moment compared -ivith the great mass of ,what for us 'is romantic. Indeed, when we stop to look at. it, we find that this treasure is, for the most part, not contained in" earthen vessels. Is the Coliseum,-for. all its visible aggregate of marble, richer in romance for us than the vanished tournaments that no Queen of Love and Beauty will ever witness more? , Will anyone exchange the story of Helen for the site of Troy? Nay, is there- not far greater romance for us in

the tales of the Hound -Table-than thero. could have been for Arthur and his knirrhts or'than there .could be for ourselves in the actual discovery of Excalibur? How interesting it "would be to revisit America in the thirtieth century and to listen to the' general regret that it ip so barren of the romance in which the twentieth was •so rich!— New York "Nation." •