THE SOUL OF BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 228, 5 March 1915, Page 5

THE SOUL OF BELGIUM.

"WOUNDED, PANTING BUT FIGHTING ON." The January number q 1 the Ilibbert Journal {Williams and Norgate) opens with an Impressive article entitled the "Soul of Belgium," by the Abbe Noel. The writer gives an interesting sketch of the characteristic traits of the Belgian people, and describes some of the effects! of the brutal shock of war. "The observer, who yesterday might still have his doubts, has no difficulty to-day in discerning tlic national soul." The articles concludes as follows: "Numerous signs justify the expectation that Belgium on emerging from the present crisis will again witness that union of parties which founded the national lifa in IS3O. In the common effort which will presently remake our country the four universities will, I hope, find their part enlarged. The disaster which has overtaken the largest of them and sfruck ilown to the heart of its intellectual life, and fallen upon the memories of its past, caiHiavo but one outcome; it will cause our scientific activities and our ideal life to be born again, enlarged and broadened.

"True it is tliat during recent years the intensity of our industrial and economical effort has somewhat diminished the attention due to tlio preoccupations of the spirit. The days of poverty which will await us will lead us back to these, through reactions a little har3 but salutary in their essontial effect. And the new role we shall have to take in the world will give to our thought more fulness and more courage. . "Compelled to remain always neutral, we have taken scrupulous care to hold the balance of our affections even among all the Powers. Never have we taken sides in their quarrels. . . . Unconscious of tile right to tak« a definite attitude in international life, we became habituated to taking no interest in it, and that in no small measure has contracted our mrnds and confined our ideas and our dreams within the narrow limits of our own frontiers. .

Our industry, our literary and scientific activity, had 110 doubt won some lustre in the world; but we lucked self-con-fidence, wo felt we had no footing of equality among the nations, and so we remained among them not unlike a child in the" company of great personages.

"What our geographical frontiers will be to-morrow I know not. But I do know that our. moral position in the world will henceforth be other than it was. In tli« most terrible crisis of history we have suddenly found ourselves confronted by a duty which wo little expected. Yet, nourished as it was in reverence for right, the nation understood without a moment's hesitation, and "as one man, that his duty was sacred, and instantly grappled with it iri all the energy and loyalty of its believing soul. Jn presence of brutal aggression, the old instinct of freedom asserted itself with the energy of other days, and Belgium, iTardly herself perceiving what had happened, was plunged into a World-war for right aid for liberty. She it is who personifies this cause, and' to her has fallen the honor of suffering martyrdom on its behalf. She lies wounded, panting, but fighting on. All the nations bend over her and surround her with their love and veneration. To-morrow, when Force shall luu c yielded to Justice, Belgium will cherish the right to speak and to act in the new world which ig coming to the birtli. With a broadened national consciousness all we Belgians feel that it is so; and we are ready to raise our mind to the height of a loftier part, "Doubtless our prejudice restrains us from all immoderate dreaming. The danger is lest it confine us within limits too modest, ft is too soon to dismiss prejudice; the possibilities of the future are not ret revealeiT, and no mail can divine with certainty the roads that will open when the blood-stained veil shfiH he liftcu behind which t"e future is being prepared. And yet no task will exceed the forces of our national energy. Twenty times in the course of history Belgium has been the battlefield of Elirope. Twenty times Belgium has rebuilt her ruined castles 1 and found a new prosperity. Since she was left to herself, she Ims created laws that are sane, rational, and progressive, she lias combined traditional faith and liberty. Mi' l has founded order on respect, for ri.'.'ht. inn! she lias succeeded in winnlnsr profound happiness. The hour striic!; fur her to establish:? her independence for ever on a force which iurespect. In tlio Europe which is tu !■;' if will he hers lo extend tile rchjii <>;' l-'.iii'i, .lustice and Freedom."