No More Learning

In its turn Cracow rears a young generation
that throws down the gauntlet to the "ancients. "
Modernism is their watchword, but the substance
of the new tendency, the leading idea, is to express
with sincerity the true emotions of the moment. The
advance guard in . Warsaw of this new movement
were W. Lieder, Mme. M. Komornicka, and C.
Jellenta. The Cracow group passed from impres-
sionistic to individualistic modernism, and soon the
young band grew so numerous, and so strongly
felt the need of drawing more closely together, that
when, in 1897, Ludwik Szczepanski founded the
weekly Zycie (Life), all the modernists met under
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? 56 AN OUTLINE OF, THE
its banner. This weekly--a sort of continuation
of Miriam's Zycie, which appeared1 some ten years
previously in AVarsaw--undertook "the disinfection
of the musty literary atmosphere. " All the men of
aspirations were to be found there: Miriam, Tet-
majer, Kasprowicz, Jellenta, Komornicka, and the
still more recent Zulawski, Rydel, Wyrzykowski,
Perzynski, St. Eienkowski, Orkan, Mirandolla, and
Lada. These were soon joined by Stanislaw
Przybyszewski, till then resident in Germany,
where he won laurels and wide renown for his
writings in German.
The editorship of Zycie passed into the hands
of Sever, after whom Przybyszewski, the most
talented, the most influential, and the strongest
representative of young Poland, took the direction
of the paper. This keenly intellectual, spiritually
minded man gave precedence to the soul over the
brain. For the brain things exist in time and
in space; for the soul exist only, non-limited by
space and time, the ideas of things. It was this
soul of things he endeavoured to, reach and to
sound. The spiritual force of his works has exer-
cised a strong influence on the development of
Polish literature. This author has become silent;
over his standard Time has passed a softening
hand, slightly effacing i,ts colours, but Przyby-
szewski's influence brought to literature an element
of such depth of thought that since his time the
Ivory Gate of Poetry is closed to, intellectual
mediocrities.
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? HISTORY OE POLISH LITERATURE 57
The modernist movement in Polish' literature
coincides with the important internal social
changes. The caste of nobility lost its prestige,
and the town element, the middle-class,1 became
preponderant, consequently a genre that played a
certain role in literature--the; tale of the country
nobility, with its broad gesture and its old-style
Polish humour--became extinct. The last to cul-
tivate this genre were K. Laskowski, S. Kondra-
towicz, and Abgar Soltan. Artur Gruszecki's talent
is above the level of this group, although his world
of nobility is too, corrupt to be true to reality.
Jozef Weyssenhoff lives in an entirely, different
world--a world well born and well brought up,
a world of refined nerves and subtle aesthetic
culture. He himself is a nature of extreme refine-
ment, and his tact, incomparable artistic measure,
and apparent reserve, mask a heart pulsing strongly
with the love of the land1 and its people. In beau-
tifully chiselled language he stirs a wide range
of emotions. His novels, "Sprawa Dolegi"
("Dolega's Case") and "Pamietniki Podfilip-
1 The Polish middle-class is still in process of formation.
It is true that in Poland of old there was a class of burgesses,
but, in spite of their wealth and numbers, their influence was
strictly limited by a nobility jealous of its privileges. The
constitution of May 3, 1791, gave to the burgesses equal rights
with all classes. The later influx of dispossessed country
gentry to the towns, bringing with them refinement and
culture, gave an intellectual bias to the growing middle-class,
so that now the patent to it is given not by wealth or social
standing, but by the degree of intellectual development. The
name of the middle-class in Polish is " Intelligentsia. "
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? 58 AN OUTLINE OF THE
skiego" (" Podfilipski's Memoirs "), are genuinely
fine, but the flower of his talent blossoms fully
in one of his latest achievements, "Sob61 i Panna"
'("A Sable and a Maid"), in which, together with
the poetic side of sport, he displays his deep ad-
miration of the landscape and his wise compre-
hension of youthful feelings and the noble impulses
in human nature. Through all his works runs a
thread of gentle satire, as subtle as the author
himself. He might be compared to Anatole France,
had the latter Weyssenhoff's depth of feeling.
The influence of Przybyszewski and his band
would have been more durable had not their indi-
vidualism so completely severed art from life,
before they became aware of the asthenia result-
ing from this estrangement. The most gifted of
this group of poets, W. Perzynski, complains--
With no young faith into the world I go,
No suns of hope suffuse my soul with light,
The years have rolled--so many and so slow,
Through my dark room at night.
The decadent works of K. Lewandowski, St.
Brzozowski, and even the exquisite artificiality of
E. Leszczynski bear the same stamp; Jerzy
Zulawski alone seeks a new synthesis. About this
time Jan KasprOwicz's talent returns to earth, and,
like Antaeus, from its contact his poetic person-
ality gains in strength.
In the bitter times that followed the instinct
of self-preservation drove the Poles again to seek
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? HISTORY OF POLISH LITERATURE 59
salvation in the national ideas. The bowing down
to foreign gods did not satisfy the poets. An
attempt was made by Lucjan Rydel to nationalize
the stage by the introduction of the Polish fable,
but his high artistic culture was not adequately
supported by a creative imagination. Tetmajer on
analyzing his soul discovered there the need of
"Polish Saints"; Zeromski, Reymont, and Kas-
prowicz had felt this intuitively, attaching them-
selves to the landscape, the people, and the
sufferings of Poland. Stanislaw Szczepanowski
having, in 1897, sacrificed his parliamentary career
and come to Cracow to better serve the national
cause, gave expression to the national feelings in
his work "The Polish Idea and Internationalism. "
His fiery appeals aroused the romanticism lying
dormant at the bottom1 of everyone's soul. Then
came Stanislaw Wyspianski, the man who was a
national revelation. He chose the stage as the
medium through which Polish neo-romantic poetry
should be heard again, and in soul-stirring tones
give voice to the deepest national emotions. The
national myth Was his substance, which, with all the
force of his genius, he incarnated in tragedy. The
synthesis of the yearning of the Polish nation for
might he gave in his "Legion," the antithesis in
"Wesele" ("The Marriage Feast"). In all re-
spects he was an exceptional phenomenon. He
came from the world of pictorial art, in which
his labours were of short duration, but his achieve-
ments testified again to the immensity of his talent.
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? 60 AN; OUTLINE OE THE
He was an artist to the marrow of his bones, a
lover of beauty, a lover of purity, and yet the
extent of his talent was such that it enabled him
to descend deep into naturalism and from thence
rise to the summit of the sublimest symbolism.
With the same force he depicts realistic scenes
and visions of the World beyond. The works
of Wyspianski are conceived in a lightning-flash of
inspiration; he chisels and elaborates, constantly
testing them with the touchstone of his high
critical standard. Death bereaved Polish litera-
ture of him all too soon, but his spirit still stands,
and will ever stand, like a pillar of fire for the
enlightenment and guidance of the nation. He
marked an epoch in Polish poetry, and inaugu-
rated the era of neo-romanticism. Under his
breath decadence melted away, the soul of the
nation became regenerated, and poetry nationalized.
From the seeds of his sowing sprang a host
of young worshippers of might: iW. Orkan, with
his songs of the foothills of Tatra; Danilowski,
with his vision of purity, goodness, and salvation;
L. Staff, with the Promethean soul; T. Micinski,
endowed with an extraordinary and original
poetical organization, is more akin to the mystics
of Spain or Belgium than to the romanticists of
Poland. Eagles are his companions, and if his
flight is lower than that of . Wyspianski, it is more
sustained, more equal.
The great moral influence of the Polish poetry
of recent years is due not to its didactics but to
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? HISTORY OE POLISH LITERATURE 61
its high artistic value. When we read such master-^
pieces as "On the King's Lake" of Tetmajer, "By
the Sea" of Przybyszewski, "Ahriman Revenges
Himself" of Zeromski, "Dies Irse" of Kasprowicz,
"Legion" of Wyspianski, "Oaks of Czarnobyle"
of Micinski, we soar to such a height that we lose
sight of all that crawls and creeps upon the face
of the earth, and we begin to discern how beau-
tiful, reposeful, and stimulative the God of Good-
ness must have intended Nature and Life to be.
But this becomes perceivable only from the height
at which our souls begin to vibrate in unison with
the symphony of the Universe.
Poland through her literature has demonstrated
to the world an inexhaustible amount of vitality.
Moreover, her spiritual achievements contribute to
the universal culture, and it is only for the universe
to avail itself of the treasures displayed before it.
Printed in GreatlBritain by
BKWIN BBOTHEBS, IJinTED, THB ORKSHAM FREES, -WOKING AND LONDON
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? Social Science Series
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New Edition, with two additional Essays on Human Evolution.
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? SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES--{Continued)
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61. THE STATE AND PENSIONS IN OLD AGE.
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