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diff --git a/19871.txt b/19871.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd225fc --- /dev/null +++ b/19871.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3987 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Serbia in Light and Darkness, by Nikolaj Velimirovic + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Serbia in Light and Darkness + With Preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (1916) + +Author: Nikolaj Velimirovic + +Release Date: November 19, 2006 [EBook #19871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA IN LIGHT AND DARKNESS *** + + + + +Produced by Project Rastko, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + + + +SERBIA IN LIGHT AND DARKNESS + +BY + +REV. FATHER NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC + +WITH PREFACE BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + +_WITH 25 ILLUSTRATIONS_ + +LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. + +39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON + +FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK + +BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS + +1916 + +AUTHOR'S NOTE. + +The aim of this volume is to give to the English-speaking people some +glimpses into the past struggles, sufferings and hopes of the Serbian +nation. I have tried to describe the Serbian life in _light_, in its +peace, its peaceful work, its songs and prayers; in _darkness_, in its +slavery, its sins, its resistance to evil and battle for freedom. + +It is only the peoples which suffer themselves that can understand and +sympathise deeply with the Serbian soul. I dedicate, therefore, the +following pages to all those who suffer much in these times, and whose +understandings are enlarged and human sympathies deepened by sufferings. + +I will take this opportunity of expressing my warm and respectful thanks +to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury for his kind assistance and +generous commendation of my work in England. + +My gratitude is due to the Rev. G.K.A. Bell and Dr. E. Marion Cox for +their help in the revision of these pages. + +NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC. + +London, _April_, 1916. + +CONTENTS. + +PREFACE BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + + +_PART I._ + +LECTURES ON SERBIA + ENGLAND AND SERBIA + SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM + SERBIA AT PEACE + SERBIA IN ARMS + + +_PART II._ + +FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM + + +_PART III._ + +FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN POPULAR POETRY + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +H.M. KING PETER +CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER +PREMIER N. PASHITCH +KING MILUTIN +SOLDIER ON GUARD +THE GOAT-HERD +DURING TURKISH RULE IN SERBIA +THE MONASTERY OF CETINJE +THE SECOND SERBIAN REVOLUTION OF 1815 +THE MONASTERY OF KALENIC +SERBIAN SOLDIERS WITH AN ENGLISH NURSE +SERBIAN OFFICERS UNDER ADRIANOPLE IN 1912 +THE CATTLE MARKET +A TYPICAL MONTENEGRIN LADY--H.M. QUEEN MILENA +PEASANT TYPES +THE SUPERIOR OF A MONASTERY +KING PETER AND THE TURKISH GENERAL +WOMEN DOING THE WORK OF MEN + _From a photograph by Underwood and Underwood_ +SERBIAN WOMEN CARRYING WOUNDED + _From a photograph by kind permission of Mr. Crawford Price_ +WAITING FOR A PLACE IN THE HOSPITAL + _From a photograph by Topical Press Agency_ +"MY MOTHER." + +SPLIET-SPALATO + +A SERBIAN REFUGEE + +SPINNING BY MOONLIGHT + +DUBROVNIK-RAGUSA + + + + +PREFACE + +BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. + + +The presence of Father Nicholai Velimirovic in England during the last +few months has brought to the many circles with which he has been in +touch a new message and appeal enforced by a personality evoking an +appreciation which glows more warmly the better he is known. But this +little book is more than the revelation of a personality. It will be to +many people the introduction to a new range of interest and of thought. +He would be a bold man who would endeavour at present to limit or even +to define what may be the place which the Serbia of coming years may +hold in Eastern Europe as a link between peoples who have been widely +sundered and between forces both religious and secular which for their +right understanding have needed an interpreter. Of recent days the +sculpture and the literature of Serbia have been brought to our doors, +and England's admiration for both has drawn the two countries more +closely together in a common struggle for the ideals to which that art +and literature have sought to give expression. It is not, I think, +untrue to say that to the average English home this unveiling of Serbia +has been an altogether new experience. Father Nicholai's book will help +to give to the revelation a lasting place in their minds, their hopes +and their prayers. + +RANDALL CANTUAR. + +LAMBETH, _Easter_, 1916. + + + + +_PART I_ + +LECTURES ON SERBIA + + + + +ENGLAND AND SERBIA. + +_Delivered for the first time in the Chapter House of Canterbury +Cathedral. Chairman: the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury._ + + +THE SIGN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. + +YOUR GRACE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +To come to Canterbury, to visit this Sion of the Church of England, that +has been my dream since my fourteenth year, when I for the first time +was told of what a spiritual work and of what an immortal glory this +place has been the home. I dreamed a beautiful dream of hope to come +here silently, to let every man, every house and every brick of the +houses silently teach me, and, after having learned many fair and useful +things, to return silently and thankfully home. Unfortunately I cannot +now be a silent and contemplative pupil in this place, as I desired to +be, but I must speak, forced by the time in which we are living and +suffering. I will speak in order not to teach you, but to thank you. And +I have to thank you much in the name of the Serbian nation and in my own +name. + +I thank you that you are so mindful of Serbia, of a poor and suffering +country that failed so much in many respects, but never failed in +admiration of the English character and civilisation. From central +European civilisation we received a small light and a great shadow. From +English civilisation we got--I dare say it--the light only. There is no +doubt that English civilisation, being a great light, must have its +shadow also, but our eyes, blinded by the great light, did not see the +dark side of this light. + +I thank you that you gave us Shakespeare, who is the second Bible for +the world; and Milton the divine, and Newton and Herschel, the friends +of the stars; and Wellington and Nelson, the fearless conquerors of the +ambitious tyrant of the world; and Stephenson, the great inventor of the +railway and the great annihilator of distance between man and man; and +Carlyle, the enthusiastic apostle of work and hope; and Dickens, the +advocate of the humble and poor; and Darwin, the ingenious revealer of +brotherly unity of man and nature; and Ruskin, the splendid interpreter +of beauty and truth; and Gladstone, the most accomplished type of a +humane statesman; and Bishop Westcott and Cardinal Newman, the +illuminated brains and warm hearts. No, I never will finish if I +undertake to enumerate all the illustrious names which are known in +Serbia as well as in England, and which would be preserved in their +integrity in Serbia even if this island should sink under the waters. + +I have to thank you for many sacrifices that the people of this country +have made for Serbia during the present world-struggle. Many of the +English nurses and doctors died in Serbia in trying courageously to save +Serbian lives in the time of typhus-devastation. They lost their own +lives saving ours, and I hope in losing their lives for their suffering +neighbours they have found better ones. Their work will never be +forgotten and their tombs will be respected as relics among us Serbs. +Besides, Great Britain also sent military help for Serbia. It was +dictated to Great Britain by the highest strategic reasons to send +troops to Serbia, to the Danube, in order to stop the Germans there, to +hinder their junction with the Bulgars, to annihilate all their plans +and dreams regarding the East, to defend Serbia not only as Serbia, but +as the gate of Egypt and India, and so to protect in the proper place +and in the most efficacious manner her oriental Dominions. But seemingly +England sent her troops to Serbia more to protect her honour than her +Dominions, more to help Serbia than to defend Egypt and India. The +number of these troops and the time when they arrived in Serbia +indicate that. Hundreds of miles the Serbs had been driven back by the +enemy before the British forces reached the Serbo-Greek frontier. But +still they reached the Serbian land, they fought on Serbian soil and +shed their noble blood defending that soil. Serbia will rather forget +herself than the English lives sacrificed for her in such a catastrophic +moment of her history. + +England is THE GREATEST EMPIRE OF THE WORLD, not only at the present +time, but since the beginning of human history. Neither the artificial +combination of Alexander of Macedonia nor the ancient Roman Empire, +neither Spain of Charles V. nor Napoleon's ephemeral dominion were +nearly so great as the British Empire of to-day. Never has a nation +possessed so much sea and so much land as the British. This wonderful +Empire includes people of every race, countries of every climate, human +societies of every degree of civilisation, almost all kinds of minerals, +plants and animals, lakes and rivers, mountains and forests. The most +ancient civilisations of Egypt, India and the Mediterranean Islands are +brought together in conjunction under the same rule as the new worlds, +like South Africa, Canada and Australasia. The communication between the +zones of the everlasting snow and those of the everlasting hot sun is +established in perfection. The countries and peoples which were for +thousands of years in contact with each other only through dreams are +now in real contact through business, trade, science, art, and through +common sufferings and hopes. + +Still it might be asked: Has such a great body indeed an aim? +Short-sighted people, who are ready at once with a reply on any +question, will say: The only aim of this great Empire is the +exploitation of every country and every body by the English with the +pretext of civilisation. So may think some English too. What can we say +about THE AIM OF THE GREATEST EMPIRE? The truth is that the real aim of +this Empire is larger than the selfishness of any person or of any +nation. The real aim is: + +_First_, to exchange the material products of the countries, and so to +create a greater comfort for the people that live in them. In the +wildest islands in the Pacific you can find--I will mention only little +things--the same fine sofas, fireplaces, draperies, modern kitchens, +piano and library, electric light and cablegrams, as in London. And in +foggy and smoky London you can have all the African fruits, Australian +wine and wool, Canadian metals and wood, Indian beasts and African +ivory. + +_Second_, to exchange the spiritual good of races and nations. The +wisdom of the world is not concentrated in the brains of any single +nation. Every nation has some original experiences of its own about this +life. The Eskimos have certainly something new to say to the people from +the plains of the Ganges and the Nile. And these people, these +descendants, of Buddha and Rameses, as well as the descendants of Moses +and Hamurrabai, have things to say that never were thought possible in +the countries of perpetual snow and ice in Northern Canada. Such is of +the greatest profit for science, religion, ethics, sociology, art. +Darwin and Spencer, with their immense scientific experiences, were +possible only in such a world-Empire as the English. The words of +Tagore, the Indian thinker, can be heard to-day without great delay on +the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as in India. When a genius is born in +New Zealand his message reaches the world, and his glory cannot be +concealed in the southern hemisphere. + +_Third_: this Empire is an experiment in the realisation of human +brotherhood. I repeat, through the medium of this Empire man is brought +near to man, and nation to nation, and race to race. It was very +difficult in the ancient Roman Empire to become _civis Romanus_, because +this Empire was founded upon the Pagan philosophy of lords and +servants. It is, on the contrary, very easy in the British Empire of +to-day to become a British citizen, because the British Empire is +founded upon the Christian philosophy of democratic equality and +brotherhood. All is not accomplished, but I say it is an experiment, and +a good one; a prophecy, and a hopeful one. + +_Fourth_: Great Britain is destined by Providence to be a great educator +of nations. That is her part in history. She has democracy and +tradition--two things that are considered everywhere as incongruous--and +therefore she is capable of understanding everybody and of teaching and +leading everybody. She is the nurse for the sick people of the East; she +is the schoolmaster for the rough people of the wild isolated islands; +she is the tamer of the cannibals and the guide of the civilised; she +inspires, vivifies, unites and guides; she equalises; she Christianises. + +I read the other day a German menacing song: + + We are going, we are going to see + Who will henceforth govern the world-- + England or God? + +I can say certainly--God. He will govern the world. But we can say +to-day, though in due humility: _Gesta Dei per Britannos_. Would you +know assuredly through which of the powerful nations God is working +to-day? Ask only which of these nations is most the champion of the +rights of the small and poor nations, and you will find out the truth. +For from the beginning of the world-history all the leading religions +and philosophies called the great and powerful to protect the poor and +powerless. The record of this recommendation belongs doubtless to the +Christian religion. The suggestion of all the religions was like this: +it is impossible to be proud and selfish under the eyes of God. The +suggestion of the Christian religion is: Under the eyes of God the more +you have the more you must give, and the more you give the more you +have; and if you even give your life for men, you will find a better +life in God. + + + +WHAT IS SERBIA THEN? + +If we Serbs look upon the English power on this planet, and then look +and see our own less than modest place on the globe, we must unwillingly +exclaim in the words of the Psalmist: O Lord, what is man, that thou art +mindful of him?--or with a little change: O England, what is Serbia, +that thou art mindful of her? And the poor sons of Serbia, that thou +visitest them? + +A small strip of land with five million inhabitants and without +seaboard. A peasant people devoted to agriculture and to nature, to the +forest and cattle, to songs and tales. A past full of glory, of blood +and sins. A present full of tears, pains and hopes. A king carried on a +stretcher through the rocky desert of Albania,--a loyal parliament which +refused to make a separate peace with the enemy even in the darkest hour +of national tragedy,--an honest government which did everything possible +to save the country, and which, when the country was nearly conquered, +exclaimed through its President: "It is better to die in beauty than to +live in shame!"--a fearless army, which for three years only knew +victory, now watching in snow on the mountains of Montenegro and +Albania, and lodging in the dens of wolves and eagles.[1] Another army +of old men, of women and children, fleeing away from death and rushing +to death. Shall I say that is Serbia? + +No: that is only a part of Serbia. + +You have heard talk of Greater Serbia. I personally think that Serbia +can never be greater than in this solemn hour of her supreme suffering, +in which all the civilised world in both hemispheres trembles because of +her catastrophe and sympathises with her. I personally love my little +country just because it is so little; and just because its deeds are +greater than its size. I am not sure that I should love it so much +should it happen to become territorially so big as Spain or Italy. But +I cannot help it; I must say that our Irridentists in Austro-Hungary are +more numerous than our population in Serbia. Eight millions of our +Serbo-Croat and Slovene brothers have been looking towards Serbia as +towards their Piedmont, waiting their salvation from Serbia, as +Alsace-Lorraine is waiting its salvation from France, and being proud of +Serbia as all slaves are proud of their free kinsmen. All the slaves +from Isonzo to Scutari are groaning under the yoke of an inhuman +Austro-Magyar regime, and are singing of Serbia as their redeemer from +chains and shame. Little Serbia has been conscious of her great historic +task, to liberate and unite all the Southern-Slavs in one independent +being; therefore she, with supreme effort, collected all her forces to +fulfil her task and her duty, and so to respond to the vital hopes of +her brethren. + +Shall I say that is Serbia? + +No; that is only physical Serbia. + +But there is a soul of Serbia. + +For five hundred years the Serbian soul suffered and believed. Suffering +sometimes breaks the belief. But the Serbian suffering strengthened the +belief of the Serbian people. With belief came hope, with hope strength; +and so the Serbs endured the hardest and darkest slavery ever recorded +in history, not so much by their physical strength as by the strength of +their soul. Besides, it was a great temptation for the Serbs to abandon +the Christian faith and to accept the faith of the Crescent. Under this +condition only, the Turks promised freedom to the Serbs and equal +rights. Several of the aristocratic families could not resist this +temptation and became renegade to the faith of their ancestors in order +to save their lives. But the mass of the people fearlessly continued to +be faithful to the belief in the Cross. + +Allow me to give you only a few examples of the + +ACTIVITY OF THE SERBIAN SOUL + +in the time when the Serbian body was in chains. Although the Serbian +body was enslaved, the Serbian soul was still free and active. Here are +some proverbs made during the time of slavery and abasement of the body: + +It is better not to be born than to misuse life. + +The sun sees everything and keeps silent; the foolish man knows nothing +and still talks. + +Why does God send suffering to the best of His children? Because the +weak cannot endure it. + +The tears of the weak are accusations of the strong; the tears of the +poor are accusations of the rich; the tears of the righteous will be +transformed into diamonds under the throne of God. + +A king asks another king: How many people do you govern? But if God +speaks to a king, he asks: How many people are you helping? + +Even the dry leaves cry out when trodden on; why should not the trodden +man cry out? + +It is better to give life than to take life. If you give life, you do +what God does; if you take life, you do what Satan does. + +Some men are better than others, but there is no man so good as God and +no one so bad as the devil. + +Some people are dressed in silk and satin, and others are dressed in +rags. Very often that is the only difference between man and man. + +There is a great difference between a learned man and a good man. The +learned man can do good, but the good man will do good. The learned man +can build the world up, but can destroy it too; the good man can only +build it up. + +A man's judgment lasts as long as a man's life, but God's judgment lasts +as long as God. + +It is better to dress the soul in silk and the body in rags than the +reverse. + +If life does not mean work, then life is worth nothing. + +Work and virtue are sisters, as well as idleness and vice. + +Work and prayer are two eyes on the same face. The man who works only, +without praying, has one eye only; and the man who prays without working +only has one eye too. The man who neither works nor prays has no eyes, +and walks in darkness. + +Neither be boastful of life nor fearful of death. Death is conditioned +by life, and life by death. + +You can kill me, but my son will live; you can kill my son, but my soul +will live. + +The Kingdom of God is coming as quietly as the moonlight, and it will +come fully when men learn not to live in convulsions and not to die in +convulsions. + +There are only two nations upon the earth: that which weeps and that +which laughs. + +Now I would like to indicate slightly what The English Political +Interests in Serbia are. Little as she may seem, democratic Serbia is +still the greatest moral factor in the big Slav world. She is admired by +other subjugated Slavs because she succeeded without anybody's help in +freeing herself. She is envied by all other Slavs, from near and from +far, as well as from other neighbouring nations, because of her nearly +perfect democracy. Serbia is the only democratic state among the four +independent Slav states (Russia, Montenegro, Bulgaria). And just in this +terrible war it became clear to all the world that Serbia was the only +democratic state in the Near East. Turkey is governed by an oligarchy, +Bulgaria by a German despot, Greece by a wilful king whose patriotism is +overshadowed by his nepotism, Roumania is ruled more by the wish of the +landlords (boyars) and court than by the wish of the people. I will say +nothing about the very profanation of democracy in the dark realm of the +Hapsburgs. + +Serbia not only means a democratic state, but a democratic nation; that +is to say, that not only are the Serbian institutions (including the +church also) democratic, but the spirit of the whole of the nation is +democratic. After all, this democratic spirit of Serbia must be +victorious in the Balkans as well as in the Slav world. + +You know that England's glory has always been to stand as the champion +of democracy. England's best interests in the Near East now more than +ever imperatively require her to support democratic Serbia against her +anti-democratic enemies. How different Serbia is from all her +neighbours was clearly proved just by this war. She is alone in the Near +East fighting on the side of the democratic England and France against +Prussian militarism and autocracy. That does not happen accidentally, +but because of the Serbian democratic spirit. This spirit is very +attractive for all the Slavs who are under the Austro-Hungarian rule. +Many of them are looking towards powerful Russia to liberate them +(Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes, Slovaks). Yet they do not wish only +Freedom, but _Freedom_ and _Democracy_ together. Therefore they are +looking with one eye towards Russian power and with another towards +Serbian democracy. It is clear that the English victory over the Germans +must have as the first consequence the liberation of all the slaves in +Europe. In this case all the Southern Slav people in +Austro-Hungary--Serbs, Croats and Slovenes--wish to be one unit with +democratic Serbia, as it was formulated lately by the Southern-Slav +Committee in London, and all the others--Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes and +Slovaks--wish to be _like_ democratic Serbia. Consequently Serbia is a +kernel, a nucleus of a greater Southern-Slav state, and at the same time +the inspiring and revolutionising power for all the down-trodden Slavs. +This kernel for five hundred years was the little, but never +subjugated, Montenegro, but lately the Piedmontal role has been +transferred to Serbia. + +The English political interest in the future Greater Serbia, or +Yougoslavija, is of the first importance. The Southern-Slav state will +number about fourteen millions of inhabitants. This state will be the +very gate of the East. Yet Serbia is not only the nucleus of the united +Southern Slavdom, but the very nucleus of a Balkan Federation also, in +which the Greco-Roumanian element should be a good balance to the Slav +element in it. I repeat I like my little country just because it is so +comparatively little. But by necessity it is to become much larger. By +necessity the whole of the Serbian race is to be freed and united. By +necessity the Southern-Slav state and the Balkan Federation are to be +realised. Some of our neighbours may be against that, but all their +opposing effort will be in vain. Every intrigue against the Serbian +ideals of freedom and unity cannot effect a suppression, but only a +short prolongation of the period of its realisation. Behold, the time +has come, the fruit has grown ripe. All the Serbian race has now been +plunged into slavery. United to-day in slavery, they have now only one +wish--to be united to-morrow in Freedom. + +England is bound to Russia more by a political or military treaty, but +she is bound to Serbia, and through Serbia with all other democratic +Slav worlds more by spirit--just by this democratic spirit. This spirit +which divides the Slav world into two different camps, unites England +with one of them,--with the democratic camp, the champion of which has +been Serbia. A very curious spirit dwells in the little Serbian body, a +very curious and great spirit, which will, I am sure, give form to the +future Balkans as well as to the future democratic Slavdom. And be sure +this spirit is rather panhumanistic than panslavistic. + +But after all, when I think of 400 million inhabitants of the British +Empire and remember such a poor topic, as my country, about which I am +just speaking, I must cry again: England, what is Serbia, that thou art +mindful of her? And the poor sons of Serbia, that thou visitest them? + +Still, Serbia is an admirer and friend of England, and that is a good +reason why England should look sympathetically towards little Serbia. +There is a Serbian proverb: "A wise lion seeks friends not only among +the lions, but among the bees too." Of course Serbia needs England much +more than England needs Serbia. I will not now dwell upon Serbia's +material needs; I will tell you about what are Serbia's spiritual +needs. + +To begin with the children, the Serbian children need good education. +Our schools give more knowledge than strength of character and a humane +cultivated will. Our national poetry and history have educated our +people much better than modern science did. Still we perceive that +science is necessary for a good education in our times. Therefore we +very much need to consult England in this respect. We well know how +English education is estimated all over the world. England can help us +much to educate the new Serbian generations in the best way, because +such a country as Serbia deserves indeed a noble and worthy future in +which to live. Don't you agree with me? Only I am afraid that I am +speaking of the best education of the Serbian children just at this +moment when it were perhaps more suitable to speak about the best way to +save them from hunger, pain and death. + +The Serbian women need to develop their capacities more for social work, +so as to take a more important part in the organisation and cultivation +of their lives. The past of our women consisted in singing, weaving and +weeping. I am sure that the English women, whose sympathy for Serbia in +these tragic days will remain memorable for ever,--I am sure that after +this war they will come to Serbia and help their poor sisters over +there, teaching them and enlightening them. Yet I am again afraid to +dwell longer upon the topic of the enlightenment of the Serbian mothers +at the very moment when those mothers with their sons and daughters, +trodden down by the Prussian boot, look towards Heaven and silently +confess their sins, preparing themselves for a cruel death. + +What do the Serbian men need? They need civilisation, or in other words: +the Bible, science, art. But they do not need the Bible of killing from +Germany, nor the science of killing and the art of killing from Germany. +They do not want the civilisation which means the large and skilful +manufacture of instruments of killing. They want the Bible which makes +good, and science which makes bright, and art which makes godlike. +Therefore the men of Serbia are now looking so eagerly towards England +and her civilisation. More English civilisation in our country, more +England in Serbia--that is our great spiritual need! + +My illustrious chairman, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury, +wrote recently in one of his books: "We are everywhere trying in these +later years to understand and to alleviate human sorrow." [2] Yes, you +are. We Serbians feel your sorrows too. "To understand and to alleviate +human sorrow." That is the divine purpose of a humane civilisation. That +is the final aim of our terrestrial education--to understand each other, +and to support each other. + +Do you think that it is difficult for a rich nation as well as for a +rich man to come into the kingdom of Heaven? I am a little embarrassed +seeing rich England now coming into this kingdom. Yet she is coming into +the kingdom of God, not because she is rich, but because she being +powerful humiliated herself, took the cross and went to suffer for the +poor and sorely stricken in this world. She humiliated herself going to +support Belgium; she humiliates herself hurrying to support Serbia; she +humiliates herself mourning so much for Armenia. But her humiliation is +the best proof of her true Christianity, as her fighting and suffering +of to-day is the very fighting and suffering for Christianity. Do not be +afraid of humiliation, citizens of the greatest Empire of the world; +behold, the humiliation is the very condition of real glory and real +greatness! For more than a thousand years, from this place has been +preached the Only Son of God, whose way to Glory, Greatness and Divinity +was through painful humiliation. + +Do persist and do not weary in this way,--it will bring your dear +country nearer to God. Do persist in humiliation,--it will be the most +durable foundation of a glorious young England. Do persist in supporting +oppressed and poor Serbia,--it will be rewarded hundredfold to your +children and to the children of your children. Do persist in doing good, +that is my final word to you, my enlightened brethren and sisters. And +when I say _do persist in good_, I repeat only what for nine hundred +years has been preached within these walls by thousands and thousands of +servants of Christ, either well-known or unknown, but all more worthy +than I am. + + + + +SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM. + +_Delivered for the first time in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stroud +Green, London._ + + +I was a citizen of a small country called Serbia, and I am still a +citizen of a great country called The Universe. In my first fatherland +there is now no other light except the brightness of tears. But in my +second fatherland there is always the splendid and silent light of the +sun. My little country is now a great tear-drop, a shining and silent +tear-drop. A gentleman from South Africa wrote to me the other day and +asked about my country--"why it is so shining"? I replied: Just because +it is now transformed into a big tear-drop, therefore it is so shining +that even you from South Africa can see its splendour. I come as an echo +of the weeping splendour of my country which is now plunged into the +worst slavery. I come as a voice beyond the grave to your famous island, +brethren and sisters, not to accuse, not to complain, but to say by what +invisible bonds my country is tied to yours. I will say at once, plainly +and simply--by common beliefs and common hopes. + +At the time when Saint Patrick preached Christ's Gospel in heathen +Ireland, the Serbs were heathen as well. Their gods, with Perun at the +head, corresponded to Wothan and his divine colleagues, whose names are +recalled in your names of the days of the week still. + +About the time when Saint Augustine came over here, met Queen Bertha and +baptised King Ethelbert in Saint Martin's Church in Canterbury, the +conversion of the heathen Serbs had made good progress. + +In the time of Alfred the Great, who was "the most complete embodiment +of all that is great, all that is lovable in the English temper," as an +English historian praises him so justly, the Serbs received God's word +in their own language from the Slav apostles, Cyril and Methodius, and +soon afterwards the Christian faith was officially introduced and +established among them. + +In the time of the Conquest, when the Norman and Danish kings disputed +the possession of England, the Serbian provinces were fought over by the +Greek, Bulgar and Avar rulers. But the belief in Christ grew more and +more uninterruptedly. + +When Richard the Lion-hearted sailed from England to the Holy Land, not +to fight for the national existence, as we to-day speak of it, but to +fight for the most unselfish and idealistic aim, for Cross and Christian +Freedom, Serbia was already opening a great epoch of physical as well as +spiritual strength. Our king Nemanja, the founder of a dynasty which +ruled in Serbia for nearly 300 years, had heard tales and songs about +the English king with the lion's heart, and had helped the same cause, +the cause of the Crusades, very much. His son, Saint Sava, organised the +Christian Church wonderfully, and wonderfully he inspired the +educational and scholarly work in the state created by his father. This +Saint Sava, the Archbishop of Serbia, after he had travelled all over +Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria, preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, +died in Bulgaria. His body was transferred to and buried in a monastery +in Herzegovina. Afterwards, in times of national hardships and slavery, +great pilgrimages took place to the grave of the Saint, which became the +comforting and inspiring centre for the oppressed nation; the Turks +destroyed the tomb, carried the body over to Belgrade and burnt it, in +order to lessen the Serbian national and religious enthusiasm. The +result was just the contrary. On the very same place where Saint Sava's +body was burnt there is now a Saint Sava's chapel; close to this chapel +a new Saint Sava's seminary is to be erected, and also Saint Sava's +cathedral of Belgrade. And over all there is an acknowledged protection +of Saint Sava by all the Serbian churches and schools, and a unifying +spirit of Saint Sava for all the Serbian nation. + +Saint Sava's belief was the same as the belief of Saint Patrick and +Saint Augustine. His hopes were the same as theirs too. He believed in +the one saving Gospel of Christ, as they did. He hoped men could be +educated by this divine Gospel, to be heroic in suffering and pure and +holy in the enjoyments of life, just as the great saints of this island +doubtless hoped and worked. + + +THE BELIEF AND HOPES OF THE SERBIAN KINGS + +represented almost throughout our history the model of the true +religious spirit and of the hopeful optimism of the nation. That can be +said especially for the kings since Saint Sava's time until the definite +conquest of Serbia by the Sultans, _i.e._ since Richard and John's time +until the time of the Black Prince and Wycliffe, and from the Black +Prince and Wycliffe till the end of the Wars of the Roses in England. +Our kings did what all the kings in the world do; they fought and ruled, +they ate and drank, and danced and played, and still the majority of +them took monastic vows and died in solitude and asceticism, and a great +part of them were recognised by the people as saints and invoked by the +oppressed in the dark times as the advocates of national justice, before +God. They built beautiful churches and monasteries in the towns and +forests. They strove always to build the "Houses of God" more solid and +more costly than their own houses. Their castles and palaces they built +to their own glory, and their pleasures no longer exist, but the +churches they built to the glory of God still exist. In these churches +our pious kings of old prayed; in these churches afterwards our hard +oppressed people wept during the time of slavery; in these "Houses of +God" the fanatic Turks enclosed their cattle, their goats and sheep, +their horses and donkeys, thus abasing and ridiculing our sanctuaries. +But the more these sanctuaries have been abased and ridiculed by the +enemy, the more they have been respected and adored by the people. + +We Serbs cannot complain that our Middle Ages were as dark as the people +in Europe are accustomed to represent their own. During the three +hundred years of the reign of Neniania's dynasty not one of our kings +was killed. The importance of this fact only the historian can +understand who knows well the history of our neighbours, the Byzantines +and Venetians of that time, who in many other respects had been our +teachers. We learnt many useful as well as perilous things from them, +but we did not learn their art of poisoning kings, of torturing them, +suffocating them, making them blind, cutting out their tongues, etc. It +is only in modern times that we committed the great sins of the Middle +Ages, namely, killing our kings and making civil wars. During the last +hundred years we killed only three of our kings: Karageorge, Michael and +Alexander. In modern times three have been killed in a hundred years, +and in the Middle Ages not one in three hundred years!--a fact as +unusual as curious. But you should remember that our modern times in +Serbia began after five hundred years of a bloody slavery and dark +education under Turkish tyranny. + +I mention our great sins not in order to excuse but to accuse my people. +I will not even accuse the Turks, our rulers and educators during five +hundred years. Our ancestors were accustomed to see human blood spilt +every day. They were accustomed to hear about strangled sultans and +viziers and pashas. And, besides, they lived through the record of all +the crimes ever written in history; the Turks arranged a horrible bloody +bath in executing their plan of killing all the leaders and priests +among the Serbs! It happened only a hundred years ago, in the lifetime +of Chateaubriand and Wordsworth, in the time of Pitt and Burke, in the +time of your strenuous mission work among the cannibals. Our ancestors +lived in blood and walked in blood. Our five hundred years' long slavery +had only two colours--red and black. + +And yet I will not accuse the Turks but ourselves. Neither our kings of +old, nor our ancestors before the enslavement set us the example of +killing kings. Rather the strangers that conquered and ruled our country +set us such an example. But it is our fault for having followed an +abominable example like that. I confess our sins before you, and pray: +Forgive us, good brothers! Forgive us, if you can. God will not forgive +us. That is the belief of our people. God is merciful, but still He does +not forgive without punishment. God is righteous and sinless, and +therefore He has right to punish every sin of man. But it were a +monstrous pretension for men to punish every sin, being themselves +sinful, very sinful. We will forgive all your mediaeval, if you will +forgive us our modern sins. Remember! God will begin to "forgive us our +trespasses" only at the moment when we all forgive the trespasses of all +those that have sinned against us. He will forgive us then, because He +will not have anything more to punish. God's mercilessness begins when +our mercifulness ends. God will rule the world by justice as long as +we rule it by our mercilessness. He will rule the world by mercifulness +when we forgive each other, but not before. + +To forgive the sins of men means for us nothing more than to confess our +own sins. To forgive the sins of men means for God nothing less than to +let the events be without consequences. And it contradicts human +experiences or science. + +It contradicts also the experiences of our kings of old. They saw and +heard of the sins punished, and they feared sin. They regarded humility +and mercifulness as the greatest virtues. On the day of the "Slava," +which means a special Serbian festival of the saint patron of the family +(every Serbian family has its patron among the saints or angels which it +celebrates solemnly every year, instead of celebrating their own +birthdays), on this day our kings themselves served their guests at the +table. It was a visible sign of their humility before the divine powers +that rule human life. Besides, on every festive occasion in the royal +court was placed a bountiful table with meat and drink for beggars and +the most abject poor. The king was obliged by his Christian conscience +and even by national tradition to be merciful. How the people regarded +the kings is clear from popular sayings like these: + +Every king is from God. If a king is generous he is from God, as a king +should be from God. If a king is narrow and selfish he is from God, as +a monkey is from God. + +A wise king speaks three times to God and only once to the people. A +foolish king speaks three times to the people and only once to God. + +Speaking to God a wise king thinks always of his people, and speaking to +the people he always thinks of God. A foolish king thinks of himself +always, whether he speaks to God or to the people. + +Every king has a crown, but every kingly crown stands not on a kingly +head. + +A gipsy asked a king: Of how much value are your riches? The king +replied: Not more than your freedom. + +The smile of the king is medicine for a poor man, the laugh of the king +is an offence for the mourning one. + +A king who fears God has pity for the people, but a king who fears the +people has pity for himself. + +The face of a good king lends splendour to his crown, and the crown of a +bad king lends splendour to his face. + +The sins of the people can only sooner bring the king before God, but +the sins of the king can push the people to Satan's house. + +The belief of our kings was the same belief which Saint Sava preached, +their hopes were his hopes. God is the eternal and powerful king of the +world; Christ is the way of salvation from sin; good must be in the end +victorious over evil. That was the belief and hope of our kings. Was it +not likewise the belief and hope of King Ethelbert, of Saint Oswald and +Edward the Confessor? Did not Richard the Lion-hearted struggle for the +same belief and hope in Palestine, which was at his time as far as a +voyage around this planet to-day? Is not this same belief and hope the +corner stone of Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul's, of this church and +of every church on this island, and of every great and beautiful deed +that you inherited from your ancestors? + +Yet the belief and hopes of our kings were never different from the + +BELIEF AND HOPES OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE. + +The Serbian people have shown their individuality only in the dark time +of their slavery. The saint and the heroic kings died, but their souls +lived still in the hearts of their people, in the white churches they +built among the green mountains, in their deeds of mercifulness and +repentance. The enslaved people were conscious that there were no more +kings of their own who represented all that was the best in the Serbian +soul, and that they, the people, have now themselves to represent the +Serbian name, belief and hopes before God and their enemies. And they +have done it. + +At the time when Columbus sailed over the seas to find a new continent +in the name of the most Christian King of Spain, the Serbian suffering +for the Christian religion had already begun. + +At the time when the famous English thinker Thomas More wrote _Utopia_, +preaching brotherhood among men based upon religious and political +freedom, the Serbs stood there without any shadow of religious and +political freedom, dreaming of and singing about the human brotherhood +founded only on the ruins of both tyranny and slavery. + +At the time when the great Shakespeare wrote his tragedies in ink, the +Serbs wrote theirs in blood. + +At the time when Cromwell fought in the name of the Bible for the +domestic freedom of Parliament, the Serbian leaders gathered in the +lonely forests to tell each other of the crimes that they saw defiling +the Cross, to confess to each other their cruel sufferings and to +encourage each other to live. + +At the time when Milton wrote _Paradise Lost_, the Serbs felt more than +anybody in the world the loss of Paradise. + +At the time when Livingstone went to dark Africa with the light of human +civilisation, Serbia was ruled by darker powers even than Central +Africa. + +At the time when the great English philosopher Locke wrote his famous +book on the education of men, the people of Serbia had no schools and no +teachers at all; they educated themselves by the memories of the great +deeds of the heroes of the past, by looking at their kings' churches, +and by glorifying a death for justice and a life of suffering. + +At the time when Adam Smith wrote his famous work, _The Wealth of +Nations_, the Serbian nation possessed only one form of wealth, and that +was the inward wealth of the glorious inheritance of strong belief and +of bright hopes. All other forms of wealth that it saw around in the +large world, including its own physical life, belonged not to it but to +its enemies. + +At the time when your learned priests and bishops discussed the subtle +theological questions of the relations between time and eternity, +between justice and forgiveness, between the Son and the Holy Ghost, +between transcendence and omnipresence, our priests and patriarchs had +to defend the religion of the Cross from the aggressive Crescent, and to +protect the lives of the oppressed, and to lead and inspire the souls of +their flock. I think both your and our priests did their duty according +to the time and circumstances under which they lived and worked. + +"FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM" + +has been our national motto. It is written on our flag and in the hearts +of each of us. Our motto never was "For existence" or "For vital +interests." That was an unknown form of language to our kings of old, +and that is still a language very strange for our ears to hear to-day. +We never fought indeed solely for a poor existence in this world. We +fought always rather for the ideal contentment of this terrestrial +existence. We fought not for life only, but for what makes one's life +worth living--"For Cross and Freedom!" + +The Cross is mentioned first, and then Freedom. Why? + +Because the Cross of Christ is the condition of a real freedom. Or, +because the Cross is for God's sake and our freedom is for our sake. We +should fight for God's sake first and then for our own. That was the +idea. Or, because Cross and Freedom are two words for the same thing. +The religion of the Cross involves Freedom, and real Freedom is to be +found only in the religion of the Cross. + +"For Cross and Freedom!" + +A Serbian proverb says: + +The Cross shines better in the heart and the Crescent in the hand. + +Another: + +Why are there so many Mohammedans in the world? Because the Crescent +pays every day during life to its followers, and the Cross pays only +after death. + +Have confidence in Christ and follow him even into the house of the +Devil, because He knows the way out. + +Twelve poor apostles did more good to man than the twelve richest +sultans. + +In vain you will ask from God any good without suffering. For suffering +is the very heart of every good, of glory, and of pleasure as well. + +Every drop of Christ's innocent blood must be paid for by a lake of +men's blood. + +It is better to die for the Cross than to live against the Cross. + +When you fight for Freedom you are helping every slave in the world, not +only yourself. + +Freedom is an atmosphere which makes the sun brighter, and the air +clearer, and the honey sweeter. + +To die for the Cross and Freedom means two lives and no death. + +A wolf never can so badly enslave a fellow-wolf as a man can enslave a +fellow-man. + +It is not easier to live in freedom than to fight for freedom. One must +fight for freedom as an archangel, but one must live in freedom as a +saint. + +All men that God created can live on the earth. God gave space and air +enough for all, if men only would give goodwill. + +When you pass the tomb of a man who died for Cross and Freedom, you +should bow your head low; and when you pass the palace of a man who +lives for wealth and pleasure, only turn your head the other way. + +I observed during this world-struggle the conduct, deeds and words of +our Serbian neighbours, and I was in the end both very sorry and very +glad. I was very sorry as I read the declaration of a Bulgarian +statesman: "We Bulgars must be on the side of the victors." I was very +glad remembering that never in the whole Serbian history have such words +been uttered by a responsible person. Our kings of old said very often +that Serbia must fight on the side of justice, even if justice has for +the moment no visible chance to be victorious. Our saint King, Lazare, +refused on the eve of the _battle of Kossovo_ to negotiate with the +Turkish Sultan, whom he regarded as a bearer of injustice and an enemy +of Christianity. + +I was very sorry to see that Greece broke her pledged word and +thoughtlessly refused to keep her treaty with Serbia, whereas France +with England, who had no signed treaty with Serbia, came and did what in +the first place it was Greece's duty to do. I was still more glad and +hopeful in regard to the future of mankind, seeing a great difference of +moral views between the leading nations of human civilisation like the +English and French, and a small nation like the Greek, which is +commencing to learn again what many hundred years ago Greece taught all +other nations. And I was very glad remembering that in our _own_ Serbian +history there is no case of such an example of infidelity or even of +hesitation to fulfil the pledged word of the nation. + +In this respect the Serbian women excelled as well as men. Therefore, +and because I am speaking before you, brothers and sisters, whose +country may be proud not only of a large number of great men of every +kind, but of great and famous women as well, I must mention the +memorable qualities of the Serbian women in the long fight for Cross and +Freedom. What sacrifices _for Cross and Freedom the Serbian_ _women_ +have made cannot be enumerated from this pulpit, but only slightly +touched upon in a few examples. I take just three splendid names: +Miliza, Yerina and Ljubiza. + +_Queen Miliza_ was a lady of a peaceful domestic character. But she was +also the wife of the most tragic king in our Serbian history, of King +Lazare, who perished with all his army on the field of Kossovo fighting +for Cross and Freedom against Islam rushing over Europe. + +She had nine brothers--nine brothers and a father. All were killed on +Kossovo together with King Lazare, and Miliza survived that catastrophe. + +After the death of King Lazare, Queen Miliza ruled the country together +with her son, Stephen the Tall. But Sultan Bayazet asked three things +from the new rulers in Serbia. Firstly, he asked for Miliza's daughter +Mara for his harem. Miliza gave her daughter. Then Bayazet asked a +second, more dreadful thing, namely, that his unfortunate mother-in-law +should build a mosque in Krushevaz, the Serbian capital at that time, so +as to have a place where he could pray when he came to visit her. There +existed and still exists a beautiful church built by King Lazare. Now +Miliza was constrained to build, close to this dear monument of her +husband, in which she prayed every day for his soul and for the +salvation of Serbia, a Turkish mosque. She agreed silently and she +protested silently. Then Bayazet asked a third still more dreadful +thing, namely, that Stephen the Tall should help him with his troops in +a time of danger for the Turkish Empire. Queen Miliza with a broken +heart advised her son to sign such a treaty in order to save the rest of +the State and people. But very soon it happened that Bayazet needed and +asked for Stephen's help against the formidable Mongol conqueror +Tamerlan. Stephen hated both the Asiatic monsters--Bayazet and +Tamerlan--equally, and it was more profitable for him to break the +treaty with Bayazet and to help Tamerlan, who had more chance. But he +remained faithful to his pledged word. Bayazet was beaten, taken +prisoner and encaged as a beast by Tamerlan. And Stephen, after having +fought splendidly for his ally with the Serbian cavalry, came home. When +thinking over the present conduct of our Greek ally, I am reminded very +often of this noble and loyal king of my country. Queen Miliza could not +endure any longer all the terrible changes from bad to worse; she +transferred all the power to her son, built a wonderful monastery, +Ljubostinja, near Krushevaz, where she as a nun found a retreat in which +to pray and to live, until the end of her weary and melancholy life. + +_Queen Yerina_ was the last Serbian ruler in the country, which slowly +sank into slavery. She was very intelligent and very energetic. The +Turkish Sultan took two sons of hers as hostages. She gave them up, and +she continued to rule the country. But both of her sons were blinded by +red-hot irons and sent back to their mother. Even this did not break +Yerina's energy. She constructed great fortresses all over the country +to protect the people from the enemy's invasion. She never had any rest, +thinking and working to save Serbia. She offered the most obstinate +resistance to the Turks as well as to the discontented faction among the +Serbs. Many of her contemporaries were ungrateful to her and called her +the "cursed Yerina," but still posterity bestows upon her great +admiration and sympathy. + +_Princess Ljubiza_ came on the scene of our history only a hundred years +ago, in the days of the Serbian revolution and resurrection. As Queen +Miliza and Yerina sacrificed all to save the honour of Serbia, so +Ljubiza did her best to help her husband, Prince Milosh, to liberate the +country from the Turks. Once after the Second Revolution broke out, the +Serbian troops were engaged in a bloody battle on Morava River. But the +Turks were in an overwhelming majority, besides that they had better +arms and more munitions. The frightened Serbian troops fled. Ljubiza +saw that the situation was quite decisive for the whole future, ran to +meet the soldiers, and to admonish them to go back and fight. + +"What wretched soldiers you are!" she cried. "Are not the Turks made of +flesh and blood as you? Cannot their blood be shed as yours? Whither are +you running? Home? But we women only are at home. Well, come home, take +our distaff and spin, and give us your rifles; we will go and fight." + +The soldiers were so ashamed and encouraged by this remarkable woman +that they turned back and began to fight anew so fiercely that the enemy +was confusedly beaten and dispersed, and a decisive victory won by the +Serbs. + +For Cross and Freedom fought the Serbian women directly or indirectly, +not only the queens and princesses, but all the peasant women as well, +if not otherwise, then at least in giving life and education to the +fighters, whom powerful England repeatedly called her worthy allies. + +ENGLAND IS ALSO FIGHTING FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM, + +not for existence, not for sea, not for wealth, but for Cross and +Freedom, for the Christian Cross and for the Freedom of the smaller +nations. It means in other words: for God's cause. For who created the +small nations if not He that created all great and small things in this +wonderful world? Or who has the divine right and sad duty to +exterminate, to suffocate, to enchain, the small creations of the +Highest if the Highest wants them to exist? Great Britain justified her +greatness by entering this war so as to protest against the violation of +right, even by those who agreed to this right, and to protect the small +and poor. It is easy to be physically great, but it is difficult to be +morally great. + +Great is the power which violates the right, still greater is the power +which protects the right. To destroy is much easier than to build. To be +great and to be proud means not to be great at all. To be great and to +be modest means real greatness and belief in God. For who can be proud +believing in God? Or who can feel God in this Universe and still say, I +am great? Our modesty is only our confession that there is a God. Since +we see both ends of our life--birth and death--so near us, we must be +humiliated. + +Yet who can see any end of God, either in the past or in the future? +Where are all the greatest empires of the past? All is dust under the +feet of the Eternal. Whither are we all going, great or small? To be +dust under His feet. From this dust will survive only the small portion +of God's spirit that dwells in this dust. All our thoughts and +feelings, and deeds and strivings, and struggles and passions, which are +directed towards dust will die together with our bodily dust. Only that +portion of our being which is directed towards God will survive, will +continue to live in the presence of God, will see God. For God only can +see God. + +Fighting for Belgium, for Serbia and Montenegro, for Armenia, Poland and +Bohemia, for all the poor and oppressed--Great Britain is fighting for +God's cause. For whose cause indeed is Belgium's and Serbia's, if not +God's cause? I wonder who would protect all the oppressed in the world +if not this country, in which God's word is more taught and learned than +in any other, and which is endowed with all good gifts that God can give +to mortals? Yet fighting for God's cause, one fights best for one's own. +Yes, we fight always best for our own cause when we have it least in +sight. England entered this war not after a long calculation; she +entered the war spontaneously and only afterwards she put the question +to herself: Why did I enter this war? + +Now England is conscious why she entered the war. She knows now that +somebody else pushed her into this Avar, and that she is fighting for +somebody else's cause. This somebody else is--God. The sons of Great +Britain going to the East to fight are going the same pathway as their +ancestors went in the time of the Crusaders. The same way, the same aim: +to save the honour of the Cross and to fight for Freedom! It is the +pathway of supreme suffering, but also the only pathway of real glory +and merit. Any other way for England's greatness was impossible. England +had to choose either the way of pettiness or of greatness. She chose the +second. God bless England! + +We pray to Thee, our Father, in order not to change Thy will but ours. +Thy will be done! If Serbia is an impediment to human civilisation and +an evil, as our German brothers think, Father, make of Serbia a salt +lake before they make of her a cemetery. Yet Thy will be done and not +ours. We are thine in our righteousness and in our sins. What is, +indeed, the whole of our planet? A small grain of dust. What are we, +then, on this small grain of dust? We, men, either great or little? We, +nations, rich or poor? We, the churches, either right or wrong? One word +only I dare to say: the silence in Thy presence shall be our name, and +our prayer. Even on the brightest and most peaceful day of our life, +there is no true light except Thee. How much more we need Thy light in +the darkness of the present moment! We are a small grain of dust under +Thy throne, but remember, the only grain of dust which can consciously +worship Thee. That shall be our only glory and pride among our brothers: +animals, plants, and stones. But in worshipping Thee we become fellows +of the stars. Lord, be our everlasting Sun and cast Thy light on every +star, now and for ever. Amen. + + + + +SERBIA AT PEACE. + +_Delivered for the first time at Cambridge, in the New Lecture Rooms, +the Vice-Chancellor of the University in the chair._ + + +The most suitable language for tragedy is silence. Serbia's tragedy +needs no rhetoric, no language to describe it, to exalt it. For silence, +and not rhetoric, makes tragedy greater. Serbia's silence to-day is as +deep as her tragedy is dark. The most silent suffering is the most vocal +suffering at the same time. The most silent suffering is like a screw +boring into the conscience of the makers of the suffering. Such silent +suffering is the severe judge of the world who makes all rich people +poor, all proud humble, all pleasure bitter, all human progress abased. +There is something wrong about this life. What may it be? I do not know, +but suffering reminds us every day that there is something wrong with +this world. Suffering from surrounding nature is not the worst,--nature +can be governed by us; nor the suffering from God,--God can be touched +by our prayer; but the worst of all is our suffering from ourselves. +Thousands and thousands of serpents live in Serbia. Yet all the +serpents throughout the Serbian history, from the time of the Druids on +this island till the time of Tennyson and Kipling, effected not such a +poisonous devastation of men and cattle in Serbia as lately a host of +invaders did, who boastfully regarded themselves to be at the summit of +human civilisation. It is despairing to see what use of her power, her +"kultur," her science and her riches, Germany of to-day is making in +Serbia, among a people who for half a thousand years struggled against +the Turkish tyranny with the motto _For Cross and Freedom_, and who +looked sometimes from their dark corner towards the German Kaiser, the +knight of many Holy Orders, as towards the champion and redeemer of +enslaved Christianity in the Balkans. Never suffered a nation from +serpents as much as the poor nation of Serbs suffers to-day from +"civilised" men. Don't you think indeed that there is something wrong +about this life of ours? The Bible showed in its first sheets that there +is something very wrong with us. By the killing of his brother, Cain +fore-shadowed all the history of mankind. Even the first man on earth +was not a balanced and happy creature. All our earthly time is filled up +with a passionate convulsion in a struggle for life and light. Yet our +confusion and unhappiness chiefly come from ourselves, and neither from +nature nor from God. When will this suffering of man from man stop? We +have been accustomed to speak hopefully about the twentieth century. We +supposed that that century at least would show the serpents as greater +enemies of men than men themselves. We see despairingly to-day that the +serpents are innocent creatures in comparison with men. The tragedy of +crushed and murdered Serbia is a crying proof of how the serpents are +comparatively innocent creatures. Yet Serbia is silent in her tragedy. I +myself would prefer to be silent too. But I cannot, being not only an +unhappy survivor of a horrible shipwreck, but above all a priest and +servant of God. + +If our national pride bids us Serbs be silent in this shipwreck, my +Christian honour and pride bids me cry out and protest. I am a surviving +protest of my murdered country. Yet I am still a transitory protest, a +protest only for a moment before God the Slow and the Righteous begins +to protest Himself. My protest is in words, my words are from the air. +But God's protest will be, as always, from the unquenchable fire, which +burns bodies and souls. I indicate only the terrible protest which will +come. Why am I protesting now before you, sons and daughters of Great +Britain? Because you have been the champions of the Bible in the world, +i.e. the champions of justice, freedom and the brotherhood of men. +Because your knights have fought for the Christian Cross and Freedom. +Your island has been an Island of Salvation for all the refugees, who as +champions of liberty must escape from their own countries--among others, +Rousseau, Voltaire and Victor Hugo, even the sons of a very liberal +nation. Your most famous generals and admirals have humiliated the +greatest conqueror of the world and granted him a cottage on a small +island in which to live, instead of the world Empire of which he +dreamed. Your statesmen--I will mention only a few of them: Pitt, +Bright, Gladstone--asserted repeatedly that the domestic and foreign +policy of this country should be founded on Christian principles. Your +women are famous in the world because of the fine and humane education +that they give to their children in order to make every new generation a +new proof to the world of how this island is obviously worthy of its +great role on our planet. Your working people possess a healthy sense of +both reality and idealism, and avoiding all extremes and extravagances, +to which poverty necessarily leads the working class in other countries, +are powerfully promoting human progress, the material as well as the +moral. Your nobility, far from being corrupted and degenerated by their +wealth, have filled the world with astonishment from the beginning of +this war by their extraordinary patriotism and willingness to sacrifice +everything, including life itself, in the struggle for the honour and +the unshakable ideals of their country. + +That is why I am protesting before you, valiant sons and daughters of +Great Britain, the heirs of the most valuable heritage that ever a +nation could call its own. Serbian life in peace time is the most +eloquent accusation and the mightiest protest against the crime of two +great Christian Kaisers. These two Christian Kaisers conquered Serbia by +their iron and mercilessness, and bound Serbia's throat so horribly that +in Serbia there is now air and light only for the conquerors and not for +the conquered. Breath-less and breadless, Serbia cannot protest, but I +can. Well, I propose to describe to you to-night Serbia and the Serbians +in peace time, in order to show you what life your smallest allies lived +before the great storm came over their country. I will begin with: + +THE SERBIAN VILLAGE. + +Why? Because the village is the very foundation of all that we possess +in material, spiritual and moral good. After the Turks conquered Serbia, +five hundred years ago, the Serbian population was forced by the +conquerors by degrees to abandon the towns and to retreat into the +villages, and then to abandon even the villages in the plains, on the +banks of the rivers, where the soil was the most fruitful, and to escape +into the forests, mountains and less accessible country. The village +thus became the very soil upon which has grown our democracy. That is +the difference between our democracy and the west European, where the +democrats movement started and developed in the towns. Driven into the +forests and mountains by the common enemy, despoiled of freedom and +riches the upper and lower classes, the learned and the illiterate, +suffered the same abasement and injustice, did the same work, ploughed +and sowed, struggled against the same evil, the Turkish yoke, and sang +of the same hopes. Under such conditions was born our democratic spirit, +which served wonderfully afterwards, in the time of liberation and +freedom, as a base for our democratic institutions, social, political +and ecclesiastical. + +I said that our village is the very foundation of our material wealth. +We have, so to say, no industry, but every one of our peasants has his +own land. The land being fertile, our country never knew what hunger +was. It was a pleasure to see the peasants in the spring ploughing their +own soil; in the summer looking over the-golden harvest of their own; in +the autumn contemplating the stores plenteously filled; in the winter +feasting and resting in their own houses. If you should ask any of the +Serbian peasants: "To whom does this house belong? or this field? or +this harvest?" he would unmistakably reply: "To God and to me!"--so in +the mind of our peasants God is the first landlord, and the second they +themselves. + +Even during the last three years of war in Serbia there was plenty of +all the necessaries of life, especially of wheat and cattle, of fruits +and hay, of vegetables and wood. + +But now--in Serbia all the wealth is in the past; it exists only in the +memories of the despoiled, plundered, devastated, starved and silent +slaves. In the German papers there was published a private letter from a +German soldier in Serbia. "We are very well here. We have plenty of food +and everything. Much more abundantly than we had on the Western front!" +I am sure you understand well what this soldier meant and whence such an +abundance in food supply "and everything" for the German invaders in +Serbia came. Almost simultaneously a German army commander wrote to a +man in a neutral country these words: "Not only I permit you to come +into Serbia and help the Serbs, but I pray you come at once. Among the +population in Serbia there is the greatest misery and almost starvation +_en masse._" What happened? The "civilised" subjects of Kaiser William +would not kill the civil people in Serbia directly as the stupid Turks +did, but indirectly in order to save the faithless honour of +"civilisation." They drove away the population--that means the old and +sick men, women and children--all other Serbs serving as soldiers and +being in retreat; they drove the population away, took food, cattle, +copper, warm clothes, carpets, covers, everything, and after this was +done, allowed the people graciously to come back "to their homes and +their customs," as the Kaiser declared. But to come how and where? +Thousands died on the way back, thousands succeeded in coming back to +their cold and breadless homes to die there; they are considered as the +happier; and thousands fled with the Serbian troops into Albania and to +the Mediterranean islands, where they died or are still dying from +hunger, but because they died in freedom and not as slaves they are +considered as the happiest. + +We are beggars now. This is the first year in our history that we must +pray to men for bread; until now we prayed only to God for daily bread, +and God gave it to us abundantly. But we became beggars for bread only +after the German civilisation showed itself to be a beggar, poor in +moral, poor in truth and heart. + +Now I will try to show you how the Serbian village + +BECAME THE FOUNDATION OF THE SERBIAN SPIRIT. + +No universities, no schools, no libraries, no written literature and no +lectures for five hundred years! Imagine such a people. That is the +Serbian people. + +The only men who could write--the priests; the only library--the memory; +the only education--the mother; the only university--nature; the only +historians--the blind bards; the only friend and comforter--God! Imagine +such a people and call them--Serbs. + +Imagine the English people for half a thousand years without schools, +without education, without universities, without historians, authors, +friends and comforters! I am sure it is difficult for you to imagine +your country even without Shakespeare, and without Oxford and Cambridge +scholarships and the British Museum, not to mention other things. It may +be of great interest to a psychologist as well as to a historian to know +what kind of mental activity a people shows who are deprived of all that +we to-day consider as an indispensable need of daily life. What may such +a people be doing? Well, when by such a people are meant the Eskimos, it +is clear: they hunt, eat, talk and sleep. But when by such a people is +meant a people of the European, Aryan race--what then? The Serbs are a +European, Aryan race. What did they do? Three things--they thought, sang +and hoped. + +They _thought_. They thought about heaven and earth, about life and +death, and man and animal, and about everything that affects human +nature. They made comparisons and asked for the reason and purpose of +everything. They drew their conclusions and expressed the results of +their long observations. They thought a very, very long time before they +uttered a short sentence. These sentences lived in the oral traditions, +and have been transferred from one generation to another. These +sentences are very like the Proverbs in the Bible, very like La +Rochefoucauld or extracts and quotations from famous works. The Serbian +sentences are striking. I have read a good deal by the great writers of +Europe, but very often a popular Serbian saying strikes me more forcibly +than a famous book. + +Here is just one saying: + +God is on the height, Satan is in the depth, man is in the middle. If +God will, He can be above, below and in the middle. If Satan will, he +can be below and in the middle. If man will, he can be like God +everywhere, in the middle, or above or below. + +Another: + +A bird envied the serpent; thou knowest earth very well. The serpent +envied the bird: thou knowest heaven very well. And both envied man: +thou knowest heaven and earth. Man replied: "My knowledge and my +ignorance make me equally unhappy." + +Another: + +Either snow or ice, or steam or fluid, water is always water. Either +poor or rich, or ignorant or learned, man is always man. + +Another: + +Only a half-good man can be disappointed in this world. But a wholly +good man never is disappointed because he never expects a reward for his +good actions. + +The Serbian people _sang_ also. Sitting around the fire in the long +winter nights, the Serbian peasants sang their glorious past, their dark +present and their hopes for the future. There is a Serbian instrument +called the _gusle_, more interesting than the Greek lyre, because more +appropriate for the epic songs. It looks also like the Indian instrument +_tamboura_. Well, as the ancient Greek bards sang their Achilles, using +the lyre, and as the ancient Indian singers sang their Krishna with the +help of the tamboura, so the Serbian epic singers accompanied with the +gusle their songs on their hero of old, Marko. Marko was a historic +person, a king's son. He was the never-weary champion of right and +justice, the protector of the poor and oppressed, a believer in the +victorious good, a man who left an impression on the coming generations +like a lightning flash in the dark clouds. In every village house in +Serbia there is a gusle, and almost in every family a good singer with +the gusle. The blind bards sang on the occasion of the festival or a +meeting. + +The great Pitt, when once asked from whom he learned the English history +so well, replied: "From Shakespeare." To the same question we Serbs can +reply: "From our national poetry." It is very rare for a people in the +mass to know their past as well as the Serbs know their own. The Serbs +regard their history not so much as a dry science, but rather as an art, +a drama, which must be told in a solemn language. They knew their +history, and therefore they sang it; they sang it, and therefore they +knew it better and better. + +The Serbian men sang, but not only the men, the women sang as well. When +the harvest was being gathered during July and August, the women and +girls sang in the fields or under the fruit trees. In our country we +have the sun abundantly, and the outdoor singing responds fully to the +luxuriance of light. What shall I say then about our women's singing in +the autumn in the dry and soft moonlight? It is the time of spinning on +the distaff. The tired men go to bed, but the women sit down in a circle +in the houseyard in the open place. They chat and they sing without +stopping their spinning. They sing two and two, in duet, but so that a +new duet is begun when the other finishes. This duet singing is not only +in one family, but in many at the same time, in different parts of the +village. Moonlight--we have wonderful clear and white moonlight in +Serbia--silence, singing from every side, from every house, from girls, +nightingales and other birds. The whole of the village is the stage, +hundreds of singers, moonlight and open starry space--I am sure you +would be much more fascinated by such a Serbian rustic opera than by +many modern operas on a stage in London. And now--there rushed into +Serbia: + +THE KAISER, WHO DOES NOT SING, + +and our singing stopped. Under the Turks the Serbian people sang. You +can find in the British Museum ten big volumes of the Serbian national +poetry which was composed during the time of the Turkish rule in Serbia. +This rule was very hard and very dark indeed, but still we considered +ourselves as the champions of the Cross against the Crescent, and we +imagined that we should be the bulwark of Christian Europe, i.e. of +Central Europe in the first place. Therefore we endured the struggle +with the Turks, singing and hoping. And now--the two _Christian_ +Kaisers, with a fox from Sofia, have crushed Serbia more completely than +she ever was crushed by the Turks. "Come back to your homes and your +customs," so the Kaiser William invited the Serbian refugees. + +"To your customs!" But, oh _illustrissime Caesar,_ we could reply, our +first and best custom is to sing. Tell us, how we could sing now? You +know, oh Kaiser, because you preached the Bible also, you must know the +Biblical complaints of the Israel of old: "By the rivers of Babylon, +there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our +harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried +us away captive required of us a song, saying, Sing us one of the songs +of Zion? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" You are +now playing a real Babylonian role towards us Serbs, i.e. towards a +people who fought for the Cross, who sang freedom and who were crucified +for justice. You are not a better man than any peasant from the Serbian +villages. Do you want a proof? The Serbian peasant can sing, and you +cannot. You cannot sing, not because of your diseased throat, but +because of your evil conscience. You stopped the singing in a country +of songs, oh ill majesty! How could we now sing our songs while our +homes are transformed into empty caves? How could we sing, seeing our +bread in strangers' hands and cold stones in ours? How could we sing +now, when all our past protests against you and all our dead are +disturbed in their graves? You covered our country with sins and crimes, +and it is not our custom to sing of sins and crimes, but of virtues. +When will you show us your virtues? You have shown us until now only +your iron and fire, your brutality and brutality, and again brutality +and brutality,--and, did I say?--iron and fire. That is the essence of +your religion and science, of your soul and glory. We will despise all +that you brought into our country. Let us be silent, Sire, and you may +continue to show your Mephistophelean civilisation, and after you have +crushed all those who are weaker and smaller than you, Sire, open your +lips and preach upon their ruin to your admirers: _cantate Domino!_ But +we will not sing after our custom of old in your presence. We prefer to +be silent and to wait for God's judgment. + +The Hidden Moral Treasures of the Serbian people are now shining, as +always, throughout all the times of darkness and suffering. + +You will remember from the beginning of the war all the declarations of +the Serbian government about the Serbian loyalty to the end. Some among +you might have thought: such declarations are dictated by political +reasons. No, such declarations have been only a poor expression of what +we all in Serbia thought and felt. Loyalty to friends, devotion to our +pledged word, fidelity to the signed and unsigned treaties were always +considered in Serbia as sacred duties in the conscience of the people. +Our morale is not something that was learned in the schools--do not +forget we had no schools for centuries--but rather an inherited treasure +which every man was obliged to keep in great brilliancy. It is not a +morale supported by learning, sophisms and quotations, it is an +elementary power which is not a possession, but which has possession of +everybody. Our Prime Minister uttered the other day these words: "Better +to die in beauty than to live in shame!" Fifteen hundred years ago +similar words were uttered on this island of yours by a knight of +Beowulf's escort: "Death is better than a life of shame." Every child in +Serbia thinks the same as our Prime Minister about the value of life and +death. + +"Better to die than" to live so and so, or than to do this or +that--hundreds of the Serbian proverbs begin with those words. In +proverbs is expressed our moral wisdom, in proverbs and poetry. Yet our +proverbs are poetry as well. The morale is regarded not so much as a +teaching, rather as poetry, like history. History and morality are +things which shall be sung, history and morality are such dignified +topics that they must be expressed in a dignified, solemn language. +Poetry is the very essence of things. It is the most earnest thing in +the world. That is our opinion. + +The Serbs read the Bible very little, although they had the Bible in +their own language and used it in divine service before you used it in +the church of your own. The Bible was listened to in the church, but +poetry at home. As Shakespeare can be called your second Bible, so, and +still more, our national poetry for us has been indeed a second Bible. +Our poetry has been our history, our moral, our beauty, our hopes, our +education, our encouragement--our Bible. By our poetry, as by the Bible, +the morale is not only taught but inspired. What is this morale, taught +by Serbian poetry and proverbs, when uttered in a dry form? + +"Dear God, we thank thee for all," that is the usual beginning of every +poem. + +Love? Love is better than justice. + +Justice? Justice is better than injustice. + +Injustice? It must be punished. + +Suffering? It must be relieved. + +Patience? That is the great virtue of the sufferers. + +Honour? Better to die than to give up honour. + +Dishonour? It means as much as death. + +Mercifulness? It shines like the sun over the world. + +A beggar? He puts your heart to the test. + +Death? God is behind death and therefore death is no evil. + +Prayer? It shall be used always, but it never helps unless we do our +best. + +Humility? It is always rewarded by love. + +Fearlessness? It is commended very strongly. + +Cowardice? It is repudiated and despised to the utmost. + +Obedience? Youth must be obedient and respectful towards old people. + +Chastity? Better to burn down a church than to take or to give away +chastity. + +Protection of the weak? Marko protected weak people and animals. That is +a great merit. + +Chivalry? Always; towards friends and enemies. + +Work? Without work prayer does not help. + +Freedom? Man is man only in living in freedom and in fighting for +freedom. + +Wealth? It is no virtue, and if it does not support virtue, it is a +vice. + +God? He is the Lord of the World and thy steady companion. + +Such morals have been preached, yea, sung by our ancestors, and by +ourselves. Certainly we have sinned often against these morals, but in +our sins and in our virtues they have been always regarded as a standard +of all that is good and beautiful. + + +SINNING SERBIA. + +Serbia sinned and repented her sins, and again sinned. Put yourselves, +gentlemen, in the chair of a judge, and I will confess to you all the +sins of Serbia. Serbia sinned and suffered. Her sins have been her hell, +her sufferings--her purgatory. I don't pray you to forgive Serbia, but +only to compare justly her sins with her sufferings. The Serbs sinned +against all the ten commandments, it is true, but still regarded the ten +commandments as the standard which is better than a nation's doings. +Although the people said beautifully: "A grain of truth is better than a +ton of lies," still the lie, like a parasite, had its nest in Serbia as +elsewhere. Although the people said: "It is better to be blind with +justice than to have eyes with injustice," still injustice had its seed, +its growth and fruits among the same people. Although Cain's sin has +been abhorred by the conscience of the Serbs, still this sin of taking +the life of a brother has defiled the very soil of Serbia, which has +been so much sanctified by the sufferings and unselfish sacrifices of +her people. You will not find certainly in Serbia the refined vices +which are practised in the shadow of great civilisations, but you will +find quite enough great and small sins, which the Serbian conscience +does not justify any more than yours. + + +THE SERBIAN AND THE BULGARIAN SPIRIT. + +Besides, I will confess to you one great sin of the Serbian people. It +is an exaggerated love for independence. It is a virtue as every honest +love is a virtue, but it becomes a sin if exaggerated. It is a brilliant +quality like the sunshine in the time of fighting against the common +enemy, but it is a sin in peace time when organised efforts for the +social welfare are required. This spirit of independence, the +independence from enemies as well as from friends, has considerably +disturbed our social life and progress-during the last century. Now, by +this greatest of our sins and greatest of our virtues as well, we Serbs +differed chiefly from our neighbours. The people in Great Britain have +been accustomed to look towards the Balkans as towards a country with +one and the same spirit. This is a great mistake. There are chiefly two +spirits: the Serbian and the Bulgarian, _i.e._ the spirit of +independence and the spirit of slavery. The Serbian spirit resisted +until the end stubbornly and tenaciously against the Turks conquering +the Balkans five centuries ago. The Bulgarian spirit surrendered without +any resistance. "The Kral of Bulgaria did not wait to be conquered, but +humbly begged for mercy"; so writes an English historian.[3] The +rebellious spirit of the Serbs arose first in the Balkan darkness a +hundred years ago against the tyranny and the despotic wickedness of the +Turkish rulers, and liberated the Serbian fatherland. The Bulgarian +spirit waited until strangers came and liberated the Bulgarian country. +Those strangers have been: Russians, Serbians, Roumanians and Mr. +Gladstone. The Bulgarian spirit has been since 1878 under the rule of +the German kings, as slavishly subordinate as it was for five hundred +years under the rule of the Turkish viziers and pashas. It was pure +ignorance which made some people exclaim some months ago: "It is King +Ferdinand's war against Serbia and the Allies, and not the Bulgarian +people's. The Bulgars will never fight against the Russians, their +liberators." Yet the fact is and will remain: the Bulgarian people have +only one thought, i.e. the thought of their ruler, be it Ferdinand or +somebody else, and they have only one will, i.e. the will of their +ruler. They will fight against the Russians as fiercely as they fought +against the Turks yesterday, and against the French and British to-day, +if it is only the plan and will of their ruler. + +This slavish spirit, which is a disgrace to a nation in the most tragic +and decisive events of the world's history, makes the Bulgarian people +in peace very happy and fit for peaceful organised work, when obedience +and subordination are required. This slavish spirit is the greatest +virtue and the greatest sin of the Bulgarian nation. + +Yet, I am speaking of our own sins, and I confess that our greatest sin +has been the too greatly developed love of personal independence. It is +the truest spirit of the Serbs. From this spirit originated all our +fortunes and all our misfortunes. From the point of view of this spirit +consider, please, all our sins in modern times: the killing of our +kings, the internal disturbances, and all the irregularity in the +political and social life of our country, and you will understand us +better; and if you understand us better, I am sure you will forgive us +more easily. + + +SERBIA IN PRAYER. + +Serbia has sinned, Serbia has prayed. If you put on one side of the +scales Serbia's sins and on the other Serbia's sufferings and prayers, I +am sure the latter will send the balance down. + +Again I must come back to the Serbian village. Prayer is there +considered not only as an epilogue to a sin but as a daily necessity. +The first duty after one's ablution in the morning is prayer. That is a +sanctified custom. Many songs on our national hero, Marko, begin as +follows: + + "Marko got up early in the morning, + Washed his face and prayed to God." + +And all the songs begin, I repeat it, with the verse: + + "Dear God, we are thankful to Thee for all." + +But not only the songs begin with prayer, every work and every pleasure +begins with prayer as well, every day and every night, every feast, +every rest and every journey. This custom has been partly broken and +abandoned only in the towns under the influence of the central European +materialistic civilisation. In the villages unbelief is unknown. In our +green fields, under our dark-blue heaven, in our little white houses and +wooden cottages, on the banks of our murmuring brooks and magnificent +rivers, atheism is unknown. Every family in a house is regarded as a +little religious community. The head of the family presides over this +community and prays with it. When I tell you that, I tell you my +personal experience. I was born in a village, in a family of forty-five +members. We prayed together every Saturday, after the weekly work was +over. In the evening my grandfather, the head of the family, called us +to prayer. We had no chapel in the house. In bad weather we prayed in +the house, in fine weather out of doors, in the yard. The starry heaven +served as our temple, the moon as our guardian, the silent breath of the +surrounding nature as our inspiration. My grandfather took a chalice +with fire and incense, and sprinkled every one of us. Then he came +forward, stood before us and bowed deeply, and his example was followed +by us all. Then began a silent prayer, interrupted only here and there +by a sighing or by some whispering voice. We crossed ourselves and +prayed, looking to the earth and looking to the stars. The prayer ended +again with deep bowing and with a loud Amen. + +When I recall this prayer in my memory, I feel more piety, more humility +and more comfort than I ever felt in any of the big cathedrals in either +hemisphere where I have had the opportunity of praying. This prayer of +the Serbian peasants, beautiful in its simplicity and touching in its +sincerity, survived generation after generation, and has been victorious +over all crimes that the strangers of the Asiatic or of the European +faith have committed on us. Our tenacious and incessant prayer is an +evident sign of our tenacious and unbroken hope. We pray because we +hope; we hope still more after we have prayed. + +Everything can be disturbed in Serbia except prayer. The invasion of the +Kaiser's troops in Serbia disturbed and perturbed everything in Serbia, +but the prayer of the Serbian people still continues. Enslaved in +Serbia, dispersed as the refugees are all over the world, we pray to the +God of Justice, now as always. Our prayer means our hope. The Kaiser's +subjects and the Bulgarian slaves can kill everything in Serbia--and the +purpose of their coming into Serbia is killing--but they never can kill +our hope. Martyred Serbia, your loyal ally, oh noble sons and daughters +of Great Britain, is now silent and powerless. Enemies and friends can +now laugh her to scorn. She will remain silent. I am sure you will +respect this silence of the Crucified. I am sure everyone of you will +do his best to redeem Serbia. Well, Serbia can now give, after all, her +cause to God and can wait the end hopefully. She can now say to the +Kaiser, her conqueror and lord, the words of one of your great poets: + + "I have lost, you have won this hazard yet perchance + My loss may shine yet goodlier than your gain + When time and God give judgement." + +A C Swinburne (_Faliero_). + + + + +SERBIA IN ARMS. + +Delivered before the English Soldiers. + + +I propose to-night, gentlemen, to describe to you Serbia, my native +country, my dream of the past, my dream of the future, and one of your +Allies, loyal and faithful in life and death. I will try, of course, to +give you only some glances at and slight insight into what Serbia has +represented with her soul, her efforts, ideals and hopes. The time is +short, yea, our time to-day is more empty than the events which surprise +us every day, every night, and overwhelm us like an avalanche of snow +and ice from the Alps. How poor and insufficient is our human language +to-day, even the language of the most eloquent mortals from this island +like Burke, Macaulay and Carlyle, to describe the events which our eyes +are seeing and our ears listening to at the present moment! Do not +expect from me an equivalent description of Serbia, which has been one +of the greatest factors in this world-war during many months, and which +has disturbed your hearts for so long and attracted thousands of your +sons and friends over the seas, to take the sword from Serbia's mangled +hands and continue the struggle for the same cause for which she fought +until death. All that I can tell you consists in some poor instances and +remembrances which will be sufficient to show you that Serbia has been +worthy to live and to be your ally, and consequently that she is worthy +of your great sympathy with her and of your helping her resurrection. + +Serbia has been at war since 1912. + +IN AUTUMN 1912 + +King Peter of Serbia consecrated his church of white marble, built in +Topola, the birthplace of his grandfather, Karageorge, the protagonist +of Balkan liberation. On the same hill, on which Karageorge took the +resolution to begin one of the greatest things that ever happened on the +troublesome Balkan soil, on the hill of Oplenaz, Karageorge's grandson, +King Peter, erected a beautiful church and then declared war on Turkey. +It was one of many wars that we had with Turkey, one of many--known and +unknown to you--during five hundred years. We have had our old accounts +with the Turks. We despised them as the slaves will despise their lords, +and they despised us as the lords will despise their slaves. Yet we +respected their virtues, and they recognised some of ours. With the +sword they conquered our country, and we knew that only with the sword +we could reconquer it from them. Our Christian drama with the Turks in +the Balkans began with blood, and we all believed it must finish with +blood. In our bloody conflict with the Turks we, the Christians, lost +three kings--one of them was King Constantine of Byzantium, and two were +the Serbian kings, Vukashin and Lazare--during a period of seventeen +years. As well as Serbia and Greece, Roumania also offered great +resistance to the Turks. It is a historic fact, that after the decisive +Balkan battle on the field of Kossovo, the Roumanians also fought +against the Turks. In the battle of Rovina between the Turks and +Roumanians, our epic Serbian hero, Marko Kralevich, the last king of +Macedonia, called Marko of Prilep, also participated, and was killed +there. He was the third Serbian king killed in the defence of Christian +freedom in the Balkans. That was the time when the Albanians, too, +showed their virtues more than ever before. Under Skenderbeg, the +prince from Croya, they resisted the Mussulmans very bravely. But they +fell into slavery in the same way as Serbia, Greece, Roumania and +Croatia. The only country in the Balkans which surrendered without any +resistance was Bulgaria. The only country in the Balkans that never was +conquered by the Turks was Montenegro. Poor Montenegro, a skeleton of +rocky mountains, has shown during five hundred years more heroic beauty +and idealistic enthusiasm than many great empires in Asiatic and +European history, which fought their selfish battles for power and +comfort, and have been respected and adored merely because of their +numbers and dimensions. + +Now, in the year of our Lord, 1912, two Serbian kingdoms, Serbia and +Montenegro, with two other Christian kingdoms, Greece and Bulgaria, +declared war on the Turks. The Roumanians were with their sympathies on +the side of the Christian allies. The Albanians, degenerate and +disorganised, very different from Skenderbeg's contemporaries, standing +now under the influence of Austria, were pro-Turks and against the +Christian warriors. + +Shall I remind you of the results? I suppose the surprising fact is +fresh in your memories even now that only two months after the Balkan +war had been declared the delegates of the belligerents for peace stayed +in Hyde Park Hotel in London. Turkey lost and the Christians won. + +The Serbian troops crossed the frontier and fighting proceeded in three +different directions, towards Skoplje and Prilep, towards Adrianople +and towards Scutari. A foreigner never can realise what a Serbian +soldier thought and felt at that time. Skoplje had been the centre of +our mediaeval kingdom; in Prilep lived and ruled king Marko, our +national hero; under the walls of. Adrianople King Vukashin, Marko's +father, was killed resisting the Turkish invasion; Scutari was the last +free dominion of the Serbian kings Balshic before universal darkness +covered the whole of the Balkans, except Montenegro. In every direction +the Serbian soldiers faced their own history. Their past glory has been +revived; their heroes of old excited their imagination; many saw them in +visions or in dreams, all imitated them in heroic deeds and in +sufferings. + +Here succumbed the Saint King Lazare! exclaimed our soldier in the field +of Kossovo. Here fell the Duke Milosh after he killed the Turkish Sultan +Murad! Here lived Marko of Prilep! From this fortress he protected the +remnants of the Serbian people and their past glory after the fatal +battle of Kossovo! Here on the stones the hoofs of Shiraz, Marko's +cherished horse, are to be seen. There are churches built by King Urosh, +or Stephen, or Milutin, or Dushan, or Lazare! Here on the Mariza River +fell Vukashin with sixty thousand of the most splendid Serbian warriors +defending the freedom of the Balkans. There on Scutari stand lofty +walls constructed by the same King Vukashin. This is the way by which +the Byzantine princesses had come to be the wives of our kings or dukes. +There is the town where King Dushan, in allegiance with Kantakusen and +the Greeks, fought against the first Turkish invaders. On this lake of +Ochrida was a beautiful church with a Serbian archbishopric. That is the +mountain where the _villas_ (fairies) lived and from which they flew +down to help our heroes or to preserve the Serbian down-trodden rights. +In this town King Nemanja met the Crusaders from the West proceeding to +the East and gave them hospitality. In that town our greatest king +proclaimed the famous codex of laws, _Zakonik_, which is comparable with +the best codexes of that kind. Here are the tombs of our patriarchs, who +led and protected the nation during centuries of oppression and slavery. +There are the towers built from the skeletons of the Serbian leaders, +who were slaughtered for their ideals of freedom; and there again is the +spot where were hanged several _voivodas_ and _bishops_. Bones upon +bones, blood upon blood, sin upon sin, heroism upon heroism! Kossovo, +Scutari, Kumanovo, Skoplje, Prilep, Bitolj, Adrianople--all these names +were well known by every Serbian soldier. In their childhood and boyhood +they sang these very names, they sang them and knew the historical +events and heroes connected with them. And so they came now not as +guests and strangers, but they returned home after a long absence. It +seems to every one of them like a dream: the land which has been for +generations and generations the topic of poetry now stood before the +Serbian warriors as a reality. The Serbian brothers from Austria-Hungary +came to Macedonia, kissed the sacred soil, and each one took a handful +of the sacred dust from the tombs of our kings and heroes of old. Two +months after the outbreak of war King Peter returned to Topola and +prayed gratefully in his white church to God and to Saint George. This +democratic king, who has been elected by the Serbian Parliament +(_Skupshtina_), thanked God that he with his people had finished the +work of liberation from the Turkish yoke, which work was started by +Karageorge, his grandfather, who also was elected by the people to be +their leader. + + + +IN SUMMER 1913. + +The war with the Turks was a short one. Yet the war with the Bulgars was +still shorter. The Bulgars attacked us in a dark night. Austria +suggested such an attack, and this quite suited the Bulgarian spirit. It +is a slavish spirit, full of slavish ambitions and slavish abject +methods. + +When I tell you that, believe me, I tell it neither as a chauvinist nor +even as a Serbian patriot, but as a man who has studied very carefully +the history and psychology of the Balkan peoples. + +The Bulgarian attack against the Serbian army was resisted not only by +the Serbs, as the Bulgars hoped, but by the Greeks and Roumanians as +well. I visited the battlefield afterwards. I have been in Stip, a town +on the Bregalniza river, where the attack began. I saw the tree on the +bank of the river, under which the Serbian and Bulgarian officers rested +together the very day before the treacherous night. The Bulgarians +smiled and chatted with their Serbian colleagues; they spoke about the +everlasting brotherhood between the Serbian and Bulgarian nations; they +ate and drank from the same plates and glasses with the Serbs, their +allies, while the order of the night attack lay in their pockets. It +happened nineteen hundred years after a treacherous apostle ate and +drank in the same manner with his Master. + +The unnatural ambitions of the Bulgars were repudiated by all the Balkan +nations. Therefore the Bulgars saw one day against them, not one enemy +as they expected, but three. Serbs, Greeks and Roumanians marched +together towards Sofia. The Bulgars asked for peace. In the conference +of Bucharest, as you remember, the new frontiers of the Balkan States +were marked. Serbia came out from this war victorious, it is true, but +with a broken heart, for she had been forced to fight against her ally +of yesterday--with a broken heart, with many thousands of her best sons +killed and crippled, and with still many more swept away by cholera, +which was raging in the summer of 1913. + +THE HOME OF THE SERBIAN SOUL + +is Macedonia. It must have been once a charming country worthy of the +great men like Philip and Alexander, worthy of Saint Paul's mission to +it, worthy of Byzantium's effort to save it from the Slavs, worthy of +all the Turkish sacrifices to conquer it, worthy of several Serbian +kings who gave their lives defending it. It was a rich and beautiful +spot on this earth. It was the centre of the Serbian mediaeval state and +power, the very heart of the Serbian glory from the time when the Serbs +became Christians till the tragedy of Kossovo, and after this tragedy +till the death of King Marko of Prilep in the beginning of the fifteenth +century. Even during the time of slavery under the Turks, Macedonia was +the source of all the spiritual and moral inspirations and supports of +the enslaved nation. It happened only accidentally that the northern +part of Serbia, was liberated a hundred years ago while Macedonia +remained still in chains. In the north, in the dense forests and the +mountains around Belgrade and Kraguievaz, the guerilla war started a +great insurrection which succeeded. + +This guerilla war meant a gradual destruction of the Turkish dominions +in the whole northern part: in Shumadija, Bosnia, Croatia and Dalmatia. +But I say the guerilla war in Shumadija, around Belgrade and Kraguievaz, +was a success. Karageorge liberated a part of the Serbian country in the +north, and this part was finally recognised by the great powers of +Europe and called _Serbia_. But neither Karageorge nor anybody in Serbia +has forgotten Macedonia. Macedonia was not only a part of our history, +but it has become a part of our soul. The principal and the greater part +of our national poetry, which means our Shakespeare and which meant our +Bible, describes Serbian Macedonia, her heroes, her historic events, her +struggle with the Turks, her slavery, and her customs and hopes. Serbian +children know the names of the towns like Skoplje, Prilep, Ochrida, and +the heroes' names, Urosh, Stephen, Milutin, Dushan, Marko and Ugljesha, +before they learn in the school to write these names. Our national +poetry is our national education, our education is our soul. Macedonia +represents a great part of our poetry, which means that she forms a +great part of our soul. To say Macedonia does not belong to Serbia means +the same as to say, the Serbian soul does not belong to the Serbians. +Could you imagine England without Stratford, the birthplace of +Shakespeare? I don't think you could. So we cannot imagine a Serbia +without Prilep, the source, yea, the birthplace of our national poetry. +Every people must have some sacred soil in their country, a part more +sacred than other parts, which binds them more to their fatherland, +which excites their enthusiasm, and which obliges them to defend and to +die for it. I was born in Northern Serbia, in a town which has been very +important in our modern history. But I must tell you that it was not +Valve, my birthplace, which inspired me to be a Serb in soul, but rather +Prilep, Skoplje and Ochrida, the places where our spirit and our virtues +of old flourished, together with Kossovo, where our national body was +destroyed. Valevo has been very little mentioned in our national poetry, +Valevo and even Belgrade, in comparison with Macedonia. Northern Serbia +has been in our Middle Ages more a part of our body than of our soul. +But Macedonia.... A Bulgarian diplomat formerly in Rome once ironically +told a Serbian sculptor in a discussion about Macedonia: 'We Bulgars +know that King Marko of Prilep is a Serbian. Well, give us Prilep, that +is what we want, and keep King Marko for yourselves!' That is the true +Bulgarian spirit. The Greeks have understood us better. They have many +brothers of their own in Monastir and Ochrida, and still they recognised +the Serbian rights in the central and northern parts of Macedonia, +claiming for themselves only the southern part, and giving to the +Bulgars the eastern part of it. Yet they could claim Macedonia not with +less rights than the Bulgars did. Why? Because Macedonia never was the +centre of a Greek Empire, as it never was the centre of a Bulgarian +Empire. It was a provincial country of the old Byzantine Empire. It was +a country temporarily conquered by the Bulgars, the centre of the +Bulgarian kingdom being Tirnovo and its neighbourhood. But it was quite +a centre of all the best things that we Serbs created and possessed in +our past. Our national soul cannot live without this part of our +national body. I remember a conversation in Nish between a French sailor +and a Serbian writer. The French sailor said: "But you will perish if +you do not give Macedonia to the Bulgars?" The Serbian writer replied +quietly: "Let us perish for the sake of our soul!" An English gentleman +asked me the other day: "Why have you been obstinate in not yielding +Macedonia to the Bulgars, while we even are ready to yield to the +Greeks, offering them Cyprus?" "Yes," I said, "we can well appreciate +your sacrifice, but still Prilep for us is rather what Stratford--and +not Cyprus--is for you. And even I, not being an Englishman, could never +agree that you should offer Shakespeare's birthplace to anybody in the +world." + +Perhaps the Bulgars would not have attacked us in this war if we had +given Macedonia to them, although it is not certain, because the +frontiers of their ambitions are in Constantinople, Salonica and on the +Adriatic. Still Serbia could not barter her soul like Faust with +Mephistopheles. Five hundred years ago the Serbs and Greeks defended +Macedonia from the Turkish invasion. In 1912 it was Serbia with Greece +again who liberated Macedonia from the Turkish yoke. Bulgaria never +defended Macedonia from the Turks. Her first fighting for Macedonia was +in 1913 against Serbs, Greeks and Roumanians. And Serbia sacrificed not +only many things and many lives for Macedonia, but twice even her +independence--once five hundred years ago, and for the second time at +the present moment. _Yes, Serbia is now killed because of Macedonia._ +Indeed, all Serbia's fighting and suffering have been because of +Macedonia. She fought against the Turks because of Macedonia. She fought +against the Bulgars because of Macedonia. And she now is losing her +independence because of Macedonia. Because she could not give Macedonia, +which means her glory, her history, her poetry, her soul, she is now +trodden down and killed. Serbia could not live without Macedonia. Serbia +did what she could--she died for Macedonia. And if one day, God willing, +from this blessed island should sound the trumpet for the Resurrection +for all the dead, killed by the German sword, I hope Serbia will rise +from her grave together with Macedonia, as one body and one soul. + + +Serbia and the World-War. + +In three years Serbia got three decisive victories which attracted +attention to her in both hemispheres. She got a decisive victory at +Kumanovo, against the Turks, in 1912. She got the second decisive +victory on the Bregalniza, against the Bulgars, in 1913. She got a third +decisive victory at Rudnik, against the Austrians and Magyars, in 1914. +But finally she perished, in 1915, under the blow of the allied Turks, +Bulgars, Austrians and Magyars with their common lord and leader against +Serbia, the Germans. + +Why? + +"Because she caused this world-war. That is a just punishment which she +well deserves," so say the Germans and their dupes. And saying so, they +think of the assassination in Sarajevo. A Serbian boy killed the Crown +Prince of Austria. Therefore Austria pretended to think that Serbia must +lose her independence. To punish Serbia for the crime in Sarajevo, +Austria sent the famous ultimatum to Serbia in the summer of 1914, +asking nothing less than what Shylock asked from Antonio--his life. To +punish Serbia, Germany made an alliance with the Bulgars, and sent her +troops and her iron--the best product of their culture--to destroy the +Serbian state, to devastate the Serbian country, and to take more than a +million of human lives for the life of the Austrian Crown Prince. And +this has been done with an unprecedented perfection. And this +destructive deed has been praised with eloquent words in all the +parliaments, churches, schools and papers all over Central Europe. + +We could reply to this German accusation: "Did not your greatest +national poet, Schiller, glorify William Tell, who killed Gesler, the +Austrian tyrannous ruler in Switzerland? Why do you, who adore Schiller, +and who praise William Tell's deed, blame the Serbian boy, Princip, who +did the same thing in killing Franz Ferdinand, the tyrant of Bosnia, his +fatherland? And after all, shall a whole nation, which was as surprised +by the affair in Sarajevo as anyone in the world, be crushed because of +the crime of one man? Is that the principle of Frederick the Great, or +Leasing, or Kant and Schiller?" + +The Magyars said through their leading men: "Serbia must be punished not +because of the affair in Sarajevo, but because she is making a +propaganda to liberate and unite all the Southern Slav people, which +means a great blow for the Magyar interests and for the crown of Saint +Stephen." Therefore the Magyars, rushing into Serbia in the first +invasion, in August 1914, devastated a northern district of Serbia, the +district of Drina, in such a way that only the Bulgars could compete +with them. Henri Barby, the French publicist, has visited this district +after the invasion. His description of the Magyar atrocities and the +original pictures taken on the spot of the crimes committed make one +ashamed to be the contemporary of such a nation. + +We could reply to the Magyar accusations: Not so much is it that Serbia +has been making a propaganda to liberate her brothers from your yoke, as +that they themselves have made this propaganda. Before the Crown Prince +was killed in Sarajevo there were several outbursts in Agram on the Bans +of Croatia, who were Magyar agents and tyrants just as Gesler was in +Switzerland many hundred years ago. All the outbursts and all the +tragi-comic high trials in Croatia, Bosnia and Dalmatia, all the +successes of the Hapsburg Monarchy in the south and all the protests +prove two things: + +First, that the Southern Slavs, Serbia's brothers, have suffered and +have been abased very much by the Magyar's brutal rule, and; + +Second, that they have grown to be free and to live independently from a +nation which showed itself very inferior in many respects to the nation +ruled by it. + +The Bulgars even mocked the Serbs for allying themselves with the +"degenerate" French, with the "faithless traders," the English, and with +the "barbarians," the Russians. They mocked us that we have not been +"real" politicians, that we have been stupid and could not foresee the +German victory. They accused us even in their declaration of war of +being "the felons" who caused the "world's conflagration." And they +regarded as their mission to rise "in the name of civilisation" to +punish "a criminal nation." + +We Serbs have nothing to reply to this Bulgar mockery, since they +distinctly claimed that they are not Slavs but Mongols; since they +condemned the English, French and Russian civilisations, and declared +themselves to be the champions of the true civilisation. I will tell you +only how they fulfilled their "mission" in defending the human +civilisation from the Serbs. I will not speak myself, but I will repeat +what a well-known English gentleman reported from Salonica: + +"About five o'clock in the afternoon, while we still waited for orders +where to take our guns, we saw coming out of the town towards us a long, +straggling procession of Serbian soldier prisoners, about 300, +surrounded by a strong escort of infantry. They were of all ages, some +young boys of 15, some old men, bowed of back, with grey in their +beards, hungry-looking, ragged, bearing the marks of their long fight in +the pass. They shambled along, evidently without any idea as to what +their fate was to be, till they came close to where this newly-dug pit +lay open. There the command to halt was given, and they stood or sat, +surrounded by their guards, for about an hour. + +"At the end of that time another body of men could be seen coming out of +the town. They were Bulgarian cavalry, about eighty of them, with a +captain in command. At a deliberate walk they came on towards the throng +of prisoners and guards at the pit-side. When they were still several +hundred yards away, a young Serbian soldier evidently grasped what was +preparing. Making a sudden dart, he sprang through the cordon of guards, +and was off, running at a surprising speed. The guards shouted, but +their rifles, though with bayonets fixed, were not loaded, and it +looked for the moment as if he might get clear away. Then the captain of +the cavalry troop caught sight of him, turned round in the saddle, and +shouted an order to his men. Half a dozen spurred their horses, and left +the ranks at a gallop. It was a short chase. Hearing the thud of the +horses' hoofs behind him, the young Serbian turned his head for an +instant, then ran on faster than before. The galloping cavalry were soon +close up with him. As the first man, with a shout, raised his sword, the +fugitive doubled like a hare, and was away at right angles. Two more +horsemen were close behind, though. The first rode him down; the second +leaned out of his saddle and pierced him through, as he scrambled to +regain his feet. By this time the guards with the rest of the Serbians +had loaded their rifles, and stood round them in a ring, with levelled +bayonets, while, huddled together, their prisoners embraced each other +or sank in apathy to the ground. + +"The cavalry captain rode up to the miserable throng. 'Each man will +bind the eyes of his neighbour,' he shouted in Serbian. They did so. It +took a long time, and was a pitiable sight. Some young boys were crying. +Many of the men shouted defiance at the guards, who looked expectantly +on, and at the cavalry, whose swords were drawn ready for the butchery. +They blindfolded each other with strips torn from their waistcloths, or +whatever else they had. 'Now kneel down,' came the harsh order, and one +by one the victims crouched on the ground. The captain turned again to +his troopers. 'Start work,' was the order he gave. The infantry guards, +still keeping a circle to drive back any who might try to flee, drew off +a little to give more room, and passing through the intervals of their +line, the Bulgar cavalry rode in among the kneeling throng of prisoners +at a canter. With yells of cruel delight they pushed to and fro, +slashing and thrusting at the unarmed victims. Some of the Serbians +tried to seize the dripping sabre blades in their hands. An arm slashed +off at the shoulder would fall from their bodies. Others, tearing off +the bandages that blindfolded them, attempted to unhorse their +executioners, gripping them by the boot to throw them out of the saddle. +But even the 300, though brave, could do nothing against eighty armed +men. + +"I could see the living trying to save themselves, crawling under the +little heaps of dead. Others rushed towards the line of infantry, +surrounding them, as if to break through to safety, but the foot +soldiers, intoxicated by the sight of the deliberate bloodshed going on +before their eyes, ran to meet them with their bayonets, and thrust +them through and through again with savage cries. 'We are doing this in +charity,' shouted some of the Bulgarians. 'We have no bread to feed you, +so if we spared you it would be to die of hunger.' The massacre went on +for half an hour. At the end of that time there was little left to kill, +and the troopers were tired of cutting and thrusting. A few of them +dismounted, and, sword in hand, walked here and there among the bleeding +groups of dead, pricking them to see if any still lived. Some, though +badly wounded, were still alive, but the Bulgarian captain did not give +time for them all to be finished off, and at his orders the whole pile +of murdered prisoners, whether breathing or extinct, were pushed by the +infantry into the grave dug earlier in the afternoon, and earth +shovelled at once on top of them." [4] + +"England betrayed the White Race!" So exclaimed the other day Herr +Dernburg, the former German minister for the colonies. Why? Because +England mobilised all the races, including the black and yellow, +Negroes, Indians, Maoris and Japanese, against the Germans. Herr +Dernburg thinks that England has very much damaged European civilisation +by so doing. That is a very curious conception of the present world +situation. I could reply to Herr Dernburg's objection: + +First, the history of mankind does not report that the Negroes enslaved +anybody and kept him enslaved through a bloody regime five hundred years +long as the Turks, the German allies, did with the Balkan Christians. + +Second, I never have been told that the Japanese are more barbarous +people than the Magyars. + +Third, I doubt very strongly that there is any madman in the world who +will even try to make a comparison between the noble soul of India and a +blood-thirsty subject of Ferdinand of Coburg. + +And fourth, if Kaiser William with the Prussian junkers should govern +Europe through the superman's philosophy and Krupp's industry, let us +hurry to open the door of Europe as soon as possible for the Chinese and +Japanese, for Indians and Negroes, and even for all the cannibals, the +innocent doves, who need more time to eat up one fellow-man with their +teeth than a trained Prussian needs to slaughter ten thousand by help of +his "kultur." + +If England is doing anything right she doubtless is doing right in +mobilising all the nations, yea, all the human beings upon this planet, +cultured or uncultured, civilised or uncivilised, of every colour of +skin, of every size, to protest in this or another way against a +military and inhuman civilisation which is worse than the most primitive +barbarism of man. All the races of the world who are fighting to-day +with England against Germany may not understand either each other's +language or customs, religion or traditions, but they all understand one +thing very well, _i.e._ that they must fight together against a nation +which despises all other nations and tries to conquer them, to govern +them, to suppress their language, their customs, their traditions and +their belief in their own worth and mission in this world. + + + +ONLY SOME ANECDOTES. + +A Serbian detachment from the VIIth regiment had been ordered one night +to cross the river Sava to make explorations about the positions and +vigilance of the enemy. The soldiers prepared themselves to fulfil their +task with silence and depression. The commander of the detachment +remarked that and said: + + "Yes, our task is very dangerous, my friends; we may die to-night, + but remember that English lords on the battlefield to-night are in + danger of death too for the same cause as we." + +On hearing that the soldiers became cheerful. + + * * * * * + +An officer said to his private: "If I should be killed in the battle, +don't leave my body here, but carry it to Kraguievaz, where my wife is, +and bury it there." + +It happened indeed that the officer was killed. The private asked +permission to transfer the body as he was told. The permission was not +given. In the night he took the dead body on his back, and after a +journey of three nights brought it to Kraguievaz and buried it. +Therefore he was judged by the military court and sentenced to a very +heavy punishment. But he showed himself very satisfied, saying: + + "I did what I was ordered and what I promised to do. Now you can + sentence me even to death; at least I will not be ashamed in the + other world meeting my commander." + + * * * * * + +In the offensive against the Austrians in December 1914 a Serbian +company found in a trench three Magyar soldiers. They laid down their +arms. + +"Would you kill them, Andrea?" asked the officer of one of his men to +prove him. + +The man replied with astonishment: + +"Marko of Prilep never killed a disarmed man" + + * * * * * + +A peasant one day dug the ground behind his home. It was after the +Austrian army had been beaten and repulsed, and the Serbian refugees +returned home. The peasant was asked: + +"What are you digging for?" + +"Our tricolours. I put it three weeks ago under the ground. I was afraid +the Austrians would spit on it, and it means the same as to spit in +one's face." + + * * * * * + +In the battle on Krivolak a Serbian was wounded in the chest. He could +scarcely breathe. He was sent to the hospital. Moving slowly, he came to +a spot where he saw a wounded Bulgarian lying down among the dead and +crying with pain, his legs being broken. The Serbian stood thoughtful a +minute, then he took the enemy on his back and brought him to the +hospital, both very exhausted. He was asked: + +"Why did you take such a burden, since you are a burden to yourself?" + +He kept silent for a moment and then replied: + +"You know, sire, I have been shooting with all the others. Who knows, +perhaps _I_ wounded him." + + * * * * * + +"Why should not I believe in Fate?" an under-officer once asked me. +"Should somebody relate to me what I am going to tell you, I could not +believe it. But it happened to me. Once in my boyhood I cut the +branches of a tree; a gipsy woman saw me and said: + +"'Don't injure the tree; a tree may once save your life when all your +hopes are gone.'" + +"Now, listen! I was taken prisoner by the Austrians. In their retreat +they let me go with their column. We went through a thick forest. I +thought myself lost. All my past life came before my eyes. I remembered +the gipsy woman and her advice. I looked around. In a few moments I +jumped aside and found myself on the top of a tree. Nobody saw me. Hours +and hours the Austrians marched close to my protecting tree. At once two +Magyar hussars rushed back looking around, evidently searching for me. +They went. Then came our first advance guard, and I slipped down from +the tree and surprised them. Is that not Fate?" + + * * * * * + +Typhus fever raged most in Valevo, where the Austrian troops came first +and brought it, a worse enemy of Serbia than even the Austrians +themselves. A Serbian women's association in Nish held a meeting and +consulted a doctor how they could help. + +"Don't go to Valevo," advised the doctor. "Whoever enters the hospital +over there must die." + +The president, a well-known woman, kept silent, went home, packed her +luggage and took the first train for Valevo. After two weeks she was +brought home infected by typhus, and died soon afterwards. + + * * * * * + +A patrician mother fled before the Bulgars with two girls. For several +days they had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. As they reached the +rocky frontier of Albania, the girls asked the mother: + +"And now, whither?" + +The mother smiled and said: + +"I will give you now the last bit to eat, and then we will go where we +will be perfectly safe from enemy and hunger." + +And she gave to the girls and she herself took--poison. + + * * * * * + +In spring 1913 the Montenegrins took Scutari after immense sacrifice of +lives. Yet they were forced by the Great Powers through Austria's +intrigues to leave the very dear town. Soon afterwards a Serbian from +Montenegro travelled from Cattaro to Fiume. An Austrian officer saw him +in his picturesque costume, and said to him with irony: + +"You see after all you must yield Scutari to us." + +"Yes," replied the Montenegrin, "we Montenegrins and you Austrians are +as different as lions and foxes. There are many dens of lions where the +foxes creep in and not one den of foxes where you could find a lion." + + + +SERBIA ON THE ISLANDS + +Serbia suffered shipwreck, and her broken pieces are now dispersed all +over the islands in the Mediterranean. A little island of the Serbian +refugees is formed in Greece, and also in Italy, in France, in England +and in America. And what happened with the ship of the Serbian nation? +She plunged to the bottom of a hell of darkness and suffering. The +people from the neutral countries coming now from Serbia describe Serbia +as a silent grave, her towns with deserted streets, with plundered or +shut-up shops, her villages under a nightmare of starvation. There are +only children and women at home, and very soon there will be no more +either children or women. The Russian and Italian prisoners are brought +to Serbia to make roads, railways and fortifications for Serbia's +enemies, and all the males from Serbia have been taken away--who can +divine where? The Serbian bishops and priests, and all the leaders of +the nation have been carried away too. There are neither leaders nor +nation in the Serbian country. I don't exaggerate when I say that all +the sufferings of poor and sorely stricken Belgium is still only a +shadow of what Serbia sutlers in that dark corner of the world which is +called the Balkans, far off from all friendly eyes, friendly ears and +hearts. Yet I will not compare the sufferings of all these nations +crucified and martyred by the Germans. I will say only that martyred +Serbia, with Montenegro, has been recently ranked among the other +martyred nations: Poland, Belgium and Armenia. Her cross is very heavy, +her wounds very deep, her bleeding deadly. I know, gentlemen, how your +generous hearts are now quite open for Serbia. But, unfortunately, +Serbia is now closed to your generosity. Between your generosity and +Serbia's suffering, between your medicaments and her wounds, between +your bread and her hunger, there stands a hedge of Germano-Bulgar +bayonets. All that you can do is to save Serbia on the islands, and, if +possible, to hurry to liberate Serbia's country from the darkest slavery +in which she was ever plunged. Serbia on the islands--it seems so--will +be the only population of the future Serbia. Those who escaped from the +Germano-Bulgar annihilation will be the people who will enter into the +Promised Land, into free Serbia. I am sure you will save in time these +remnants of the Serbian nation, which is now as always the faithful +English ally and admirer. I am sure you will give protection to them +who have given you, in the time of light and in the time of darkness, +their friendship and devotion. By this protection of Serbia, as well as +of all the little and oppressed nations in Europe and Asia, you will do +more for the glory of your country than by any extension of its frontier +or accumulation of riches. Serbia suffers and still hopes. Serbia's +hopes go to God, crossing this island of yours, crossing your hearts and +souls, as the bridge between her and God. Serbia hopes to be free with +all her brothers, who are suffering under the manifold yokes of +merciless strangers. _Serbia militans_ did every possible thing you +expected her to do. She has been for you, not only politically and +militantly, correct, but childish, sincere and devout. Now she is +sitting on your threshold and looking towards you with shining tears in +her eyes. And the God of Heaven knows Serbia and knows England. He waits +to see what you are going to do for Serbia. Who dares to doubt that you, +descendants of Shakespeare and Pitt, of Carlyle and Gladstone, will show +yourself less chivalrous towards the little Serbia than Serbia has shown +herself chivalrous towards you? + +_I_ dare not doubt it. + + + + +_PART II_ + + + +FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM + + +Be as patient as an ox, as brave as a lion, as industrious as a bee, and +as cheerful as a bird. + +Help the beggar. He is not a beggar because God cannot feed all His +children, but because He placed him as a beggar on the street to test +your heart. + +Every penny that you give to a beggar, God counts double as His debt to +you. + +What is the first principle for humanity? + +Some say to eat, others not to eat. + +Some say to speak, others to remain silent. + +Some say to hasten, others to go slowly. + +Some say to work, others to idle. + +Some say to pray, others not to pray. + +Some say to destroy life, and others to preserve it. + +What, then, is this first principle? + +It is Life and Death, and God over both. + +The moonlight accentuates the silence of the churchyard, the sunshine +the clamour of the market-place. + +By our good works we help God very little, and by our evil deeds we do +Him no harm. But by our good works we help ourselves, and by our evil +deeds we harm ourselves. Nevertheless, do good not for your own sake, +but for God's, so that your joy may be greater and your determination +more lasting. + + Sin is worse than failure. + Vice is worse than sin. + Obstinacy in evil is worse than vice. + +To be a drunkard means making an alliance with Satan, to steal means to +do Satan's work, and to kill means to become Satan's slave. + + Whether you go slowly or quickly, + Death keeps his appointment. + +There are three kinds of men: first, those who plough and sow with the +devil; second, those who plough with the devil and sow with God; and +third, those who plough and sow with God. + +The riddle of life is so mysterious that the more we try to solve it the +deeper seems the mystery, but the more we work and pray, the nearer +seems the solution. + +Scrutiny magnifies the enigma of life, prayer lessens it. + +Whether righteous or unrighteous, you must die; but if you die +righteous you will be mourned, but if unrighteous you will be scoffed +at. + + * * * * * + + If I see your eyes, I know you a little. + If I hear your voice, I know you still more. + If I see your actions, I will know you altogether. + +When Christ Crucified was contemptuously asked by His executioners why +His followers were not trying to avenge Him, He answered: "They will not +remove your sin by committing one of their own." + +When St. Peter was asked why he would be crucified head down, he +answered: "Because in leaving this life I wish to look toward heaven, +not toward you." + +A man, asked what two things he did not like, said a worm in the ear and +an enemy at the door. + +A man, asked what things he disliked, said an old bachelor telling love +stories of his youth. + +A hermit, asked what excited his compassion most, said an ox with a +thorn in his foot and a man whose feet have never felt the thorn; or a +thirsty eagle in a desert and a man who has never felt thirst. + +There are two brotherhoods among men, that of purity and that of +impurity. + +Be as courageous as the days which come and go, even when they know that +men are waiting to fill them with impurity. + +If a man casts clay at the sun, it falls back on his face; if he casts +stones against God, they fall on his head. + +The man who utters lies defiles not only the air, but his own heart. The +man who counts gold pieces in the dark has only gold for his sun and is +miserable. + + * * * * * + +Both man and the air are purified by movement. + +By using our hands we become strong; by using our brains, wise; and by +using our hearts, merciful. + +When the cow lies down to ruminate and a man goes to do evil, the cow is +better than the man. + +When an oak turns towards the sun to enjoy its life, and a man comes +with an axe to cut it down, the oak is better than the man. + +A gold piece lying shining in the dust is better than the man attempting +to steal it. + +Life has silken wings, but Death uses iron scissors. + +Our disappointments prove only that Fate refuses to further our projects +in life. + + * * * * * + +Happiness forgets many, Death nobody. + +Life allures us with a full glass, and in the end casts us and the glass +together into the grave. + +Life and Death are each other's heirs. + +Living, we see the bright side of life and the dark side of death, but +afterwards we will see each reversed. + +As many tears and sighs are caused by life as by death. + +A man cannot understand his father until he has experienced fatherhood, +nor can a woman understand her mother before she herself becomes a +mother. + +Our birth is a mingling of pleasure and pain; the pain sanctifies the +pleasure. + +Although opposed, the pleasure and the pain lend strength to one +another. + +Even the thief pays for what he steals, for in getting an inch of good +for his body he loses an inch of his soul. + +In this life God follows you as your shadow, in the next you will go as +God's shadow. + +Seeing, suffering, and death are three teachers of men. Seeing makes men +wise, suffering makes them wiser, and death makes them wisest of all. + +The finest music of hearts and stars is heard only in the silence of +death. + +In every humble superstition there is greater beauty than in any +vain-glorious wisdom. + +Man's greatest wisdom is nearer the wisdom of the horse than it is to +the wisdom of God. + +Our bodies are only bridges over which our souls communicate with one +another. + +Our eyes are windows of our souls, Hypocrisy is a curtain covering these +windows. + + * * * * * + +What is Death? + +If you are freezing on a winter night, it is a warm couch. + +If you are hungry, it is a place where hunger is never felt. + +If you are persecuted, it is a kind-hearted overlord who welcomes you at +the open door. + +If you are alone and forgotten, it is a hall where your dearest kinsmen +are expecting you. + +If you are a sinner, then it is for you a period of pain and shame. + +If you are a slave, it is your liberty. + + * * * * * + +A slave came daily to a noisy brook and, sitting down, listened in +silence. "Why do you come every day to me?" asked the brook. "I am +condemned to silence by my tyrants, and I come to voice my complaints +through your clamorous babbling." + +A slave listened every night to a nightingale. "Why are you listening to +me?" said the bird. The answer was: "My ears are denied all day by the +curses of my master, and I listen all night to your voice so that my +ears may be purified." + +A slave looked every day towards the clouds. "O man, why do you look at +us?" said the clouds. "Because," said the slave, "I hope you understand +my thought, and will tell them to Him to whom you are nearer than I am." + + * * * * * + +Until a man is a father he looks back to his own father; when he is +himself a father he looks forward and loses his father. + +Men with little wisdom have much passion; men with much wisdom have +great compassion and little passion. + +Never in prayer try to teach God what He should do for you, but rather +ask Him what you should do for Him. + +Too much light as well as too much darkness causes blindness. + +Construct a better world, and then you may say that this one is bad. + +When you kill a lion, you can say: "I sinned because I killed my +brother." When you kill a man, you can say: "I sinned because I killed +myself." + +If you love God, you cannot fear Him; if you fear Him, you cannot love +Him. + +Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; +be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you. + + * * * * * + +When the wind blows, the fool tries to compete by shouting. + +Summer is most loved in winter, and winter in summer. + +Ugliness moves slowly, but beauty is in great haste. + + God speaks every language except the godless, + God grants everything except eternity, + God takes back everything but sins. + +The best thing that the last man on earth can do is just what the first +man could do. He can kneel on the earth, his mother, and pray to God, +his father. + +The fool is wisest when he sleeps; the wise man is most foolish when he +dances. + +When young men stand at the bier of an old man, it is pathetic; if old +men stand at the bier of a young man, it is grievous; but God sees all +and keeps silent. Why should you lament? + + * * * * * + +If you kill a solitary man, his kinsmen from the other world will +persecute you. + +Nobody can forever conceal what is good in you, nor can you yourself +conceal what is evil. + +There is no real death except the death of the soul. + +There is no real joy except the joy of a righteous man. + +The joy of the sinner is half joy and half retribution. + +The eyes are the controller of the tongue. A clever man tells his lies +with his eyes closed. + +What is the news? + +There is no news but what is half old. + +It is better to talk about what you know than to talk about what you do +not know. + +He who can love passionately can hate passionately. Maternal love is +most enduring, a brother's hatred the shortest. + +There is no harvest without seed. We see often a harvest of evil, the +seed of which time has concealed. + + * * * * * + +In the life to come all our senses will be doubled and quadrupled, so +that when we see we shall see not only with our eyes but with our whole +being, and when we hear and when we smell or taste it is the same. Thus +will it be where the morning sun shines always. + +We see only the beams of the sun, but the spirits also hear them; we +hear the song of the nightingale, but the spirits also see it. + +In the next world what we now hear we shall see; what we now see we +shall hear, and shall taste what we now smell. + +Gold shines, and by shining speaks. How can you understand its language? +God does, because He sent its language to the gold. + + * * * * * + +What is man? Something between God and clay. + +What is clay? Something that God makes. + +What is God? Something of which clay and man are the shadow. + +It is no wonder that an animal should be selfish, not knowing its end. +But it is wonderful that man can be selfish, knowing and foreseeing his +end. + + * * * * * + +A Turk once asked a Serb why the Serbs wept so much. The Serb replied, +"To wash away your Turkish sins." + +A Turk asked a Serb why the Serbs reminded people of the field of +Kossovo. "Because," said the Serb, "our dead are better than your +living." + +All men are born in an impure state, but only the good reach a state of +purity in life and in death. + +Men are unhappy when striving to know all truth, because truth is +greater than their life, and for this life only a small part of truth is +necessary. + +A wolf, asked when he would stop killing sheep, replied, "When man stops +killing man." + +The grass in the field, asked if it were not ashamed always to see +nothing but the feet of men, replied: "Not so much ashamed as men should +be when they never see our heads." + + * * * * * + +A good custom hallows life and keeps men in brotherly unity. + +Not God, but the prophets make division among men. + +God likes it more if you think, than if you speak about Him. In speaking +evil of Him you do harm not only to yourself, but to your hearers too. + +Different languages, but the same prayer; different prayers, but the +same God. + +God is the spirit and form-maker; man is only the imitator of the +form-maker. + +A silver piece, asked what it was worth, replied: "If a man could shine +as I can, then I am merely worth a man." + +When the Lord speaks you have to be silent; and the Lord speaks in the +night through the stars, in the day through better men than you. + +The foolish man speaks much because he has to apologise his foolishness, +but why must you speak so much? + + * * * * * + +The man who fears customs fears the touch of dead and living. + +Under every success lies a new enemy, the demon of pride. + +Do not despise even the cicadas; their song is the only solace to the +slave in prison. + +Among all immoderate things the unrestrained tongue is the most +annoying. + +Death is not a punishment for him that dies, but a warning for the +living. + +A long work and a short prayer edifies the house, but a long prayer and +a short work destroys it. + +Life without prayer--night without moonlight. + +God is not hidden, but our eyes are too small to see Him. + +The smile in the sunshine is easy and common; the smile in the stormy +weather is beautiful and rare. + +It is better to go to bed hungry than with a stolen supper in the +stomach. + + * * * * * + +If you like to get friendship from a man, say only a good word about him +in his absence. If you like to pacify a dog, say a good word to his +face. + +Life gives to every slave an empty glass to fill it either with tears or +with hopes. + +When God wishes to punish a man He lets him be born among the rough +neighbours. + +The night rebuked the clouds because they were so black. The wolf +rebuked the dog because he was so wicked. + +It is better to be as patient as God than as righteous as God. + +By true prayer we confess our sins; by false prayer we report our deeds +to God. + +Every welcome guest may fail to come, except death, the most unwelcome. + +The grass asked a cow: "Is it right that you eat me and tread on me?" "I +don't know," replied the cow; "but tell me: Is it right that the grass +grows up from the bodies of my parents and will grow up from my own +body?" + + * * * * * + +Solitude is full of God. Worldly clamour is godless. In solitude one +feels both eternity of time and immensity of space. In worldly clamour +one feels eternity and immensity only when death intervenes. + +The birds think that men cannot understand each other. Why should not +men think better of birds? + +The wise man feels God most in the silence of night; the child most in +the crash of lightnings and in the rolling waters. + +Three persons rushed the same way: a child, a learned man and a poor +man. "Where to?" asked the angel. + +"To grow old quickly and to see God," said the child. + +"To acquire profit and learning, and to know God," said the learned man. + +"To become rich and to serve God," said the poor man. + +The angel said: + +"If the clear eyes of a child cannot see God, how can the dim eye of +passionate man see Him? + +"If the simple mind of the unlearned man cannot know God, how can the +bewildered mind of a learned man know Him? + +"If a poor man cannot serve God with his heart, how can a rich one serve +Him with gold?" + + * * * * * + +If you marry, you will repent; if you do not marry, you will likewise +repent. + +We never repent our brutality as much as our vulgarity. In being brutal +we are equal to animals, but in being vulgar we are below them. + +When two blind men sit quarrelling about what is light, they are like +two men quarrelling about what is God. + +A bird speaks and you do not understand, but God does, for it speaks his +language. A lion speaks and you do not understand, but God does. The +lion speaks his language. + +A brook speaks, and you stand on the bank and do not understand it, but +God does. He made the brook's language. + +An oak speaks, and you wonder what it may say, but God does not wonder. +He made the oak's language. + + * * * * * + +The devil has hopes as a man has, for he hopes that at the end God will +listen to him, and the man hopes that at the end all men will listen to +God. + +Every murder means also partly a suicide. + +If you oppose a boastful man, he will believe his own words and hate +you. If you listen to him silently and go from him silently, he will +feel himself punished, and will follow you and ask you, if you believed +his words. + +What represents a boastful man? Poverty in spirit or in heart and wealth +in words. + +The universe is too big for you to ask it to serve you, and you are too +little to hope to change it. + +Blood binds men with a thread, but love binds them with a metal band. + + The bonds of blood hold longer, + The bonds of love hold stronger. + +Easier it is for the sun to hate its own light than for a mother to hate +her own son. + + * * * * * + +When men are quarrelling about the land, God is standing among them and +whispering: "I am the Proprietor!" + +God may be either accompanying or pursuing you. It depends upon you. + +A lake at the foot of a mountain is a mirror for the mountain; just so +is the past a mirror for mankind. + +A pine-tree looks towards heaven expecting with confidence rain, snow, +or light. You can protect yourself from rain, snow and light, but there +is no roof to protect you from death. + +Our life is obscure, our death is obscure; God is the only light of +both. + +Our body is fragile, our soul is fragile; God is the only strength of +both. Our works are dust, our hopes are dust; God only makes both +enduring. + +From three sides God encircles us; He remains behind us in the past, He +is with us in the present, and He awaits us in the future. + + * * * * * + +Death relieves a rich man more than a poor one, for from the poor man it +takes only life, while from the rich it takes both life and fortune. + +If you cannot admire the animal's dull life, you must at least admire +its noiseless death. + +The sea, when asked why it roared, replied: "To show men how petty their +noisy quarrels are." + +An oak, when asked in what way it thought oaks superior to men, said: +"We oaks are more decent in taking our food, for we hide our mouths and +eat only in the darkness under the earth." + +A raven, when asked the difference between the flesh of an innocent man +and a wicked one, replied: "The flesh of an innocent man supports my +life, but the flesh of a wicked man is difficult for me to find." + +A dog knows the world by smell, a wolf by appetite, a bird by hearing, a +worm by tasting, and a man by seeing. + +Are you afraid to touch the unclean man? The sun which is purer than you +is not afraid. + +Except his soul, there is nothing in man which can be saved from +corruption. + +A little dog said to a wolf: "Don't eat me now; when my teeth have +grown, I will be sweeter for you." + +A calf said to the cow, its mother, who wore a heavy yoke: "You are old +enough not to be so stupid as to wear a yoke." "Wait a little," replied +the cow, "and by degrees you will take my burden, if you should not be +roast meat sooner." + + * * * * * + +What is it to be a gentleman? To be the first to thank, and the last to +complain. + +The words "Thank you" show that life is founded on injustice. + +Death is the cleverest thief. He can steal a living man who is +surrounded by the most formidable guard. + +The water shines because the sun shines. Gold shines because the sun +shines. Snow shines because the sun shines. The sun shines because God +shines, and He shines because He is God. + + * * * * * + +Every tear is not a sign of distress; every smile is not a sign of joy. + +Wine and beauty can both intoxicate, but without passion neither can +cause real intoxication. + +Death and passion are only different temperatures of man. We can change +the temperature of passion, but God only can change the temperature of +death. + +Copper is fine, but gold is finer. Gold is fine, but the air is finer. +The air is fine, but the spirit is finer. The spirit is fine, but God is +finer. One can live without copper, but not without gold. One can live +without gold, but not without air. One can live without air, but not +without spirit. One can live without spirit, but not without God. + + Many people sing, but few are singers. + Many people write, but few are writers. + Many people speak, but few are orators. + Many people think, but few are thinkers. + Many people pray, but few are religious. + Many people smile, but few are happy. + Many people hope, but few are not disappointed. + Many people die, but few will survive. + + * * * * * + +Sweetness and bitterness are enemies, but both are necessary in this +world. + +Light and darkness are enemies, but both are necessary. + +Poison may do no harm if used properly; nor is darkness harmful if it +comes and goes at due times. + +It is better that your good deed should be forgotten than that your +evil deed should make you famous. + +You will begin to be a good man when you prefer anonymity to false fame. + +If you offend a mother, remember that her son will be angry with you, +and you will understand him because you are a son too. + +If you offend a girl, remember that her brother will be angry with you, +and you will understand because you are a brother too. + +If you hate a man, remember that there is a woman who does better than +that, for he had a mother who loves him. Can you not equal a woman? + +God and a mother asked each other the same question: "How long will you +continue to forgive your children?" + + * * * * * + +A man is like a drop of water, but mankind is like the ocean. A drop of +water cannot endure a look of the sun, but the ocean bears iron and +lead. + +A man is like one blade of grass. Mankind is like a meadow. A traveller +going along does not see the blade, but the meadow rejoices his sight. + +A man's life is not one man's life, but is the life of mankind so +closely interwoven that it resembles the carpet covering the floor of a +room. + +Things happen to-day, the cause of which began yesterday; but things +also happen to-day, the cause of which date from the beginning of the +world. + +Man grows old, but not the world. Man dies, but the world cannot. + +The world cannot die, because it is in touch with God, and therefore is +immortal. + +Not everything is in touch with God, nor yet with the sun. + +Everything is affected by the sun directly or indirectly, and the same +is true of God. + +The best things are a bridge between God and the world, but God only +knows what the best things are. + +Cold makes darkness deeper, just as darkness makes cold more intense. +The progress of the heart is slower than the progress of the brain. + + * * * * * + +A serpent lives in the water, but the water is not poisonous; if your +tongue is poisonous, keep the mouth closed so as not to poison the air. + +Giving is pleasanter than receiving. + +A king boasted that he would rule all the earth, but the sun looking +down upon him could not distinguish him from the clay on which he stood. + +That man is my friend who lives laboriously like the bee and dies +quietly like the grass. + +When wolves and sheep are brothers, what will the wolves eat? + +Lift up your hearts to heaven. The foulest water is purified when it is +lifted to the clouds of heaven. + +The greatest pain should not be the subject of speech. + +The headache is worse than a pain in the hand, a toothache than a +headache, crucifixion than toothache, and hopeless slavery than +crucifixion. + +A gipsy, asked what pain is greatest, said: "To be hungry and to see +bread before the householder's dog." + +A mother, asked what pain is greatest, said: "To see a snake coming from +the grave of one's child." + +A man, asked what three things he did not like, said: "To be compelled +to cut down the tree planted by his own hands, to be on the watch for a +blow, and to go hunting with a deaf man." + + * * * * * + +Economise in speaking, but not in thinking. + +Only an oath to do evil may you break with God's permission. + +If you have fixed to-morrow as a day for revenge, do not sleep but talk +with death, and see if it were not better to postpone your vengeance. + +If you help a beggar, you wipe out the fault of your ancestors. + +When will the world become better? When the ass stops competing with the +nightingale. + +When will the world become better? When men build two bridges--one to +God and one to nature--and when rich men learn to consider themselves +great debtors to God. + +God is more silent than silence in observing sins, and more audible than +a cart in punishing them. + +God and sinners wish to annihilate one another. + +A Turk asked a Serb what there would be at the end. The answer was: "I +know not what there will be, but I know what there will not be--there +will not be Turkish dominion over Serbia." + +The imitator remains in the shadow of him whom he imitates. The imitated +lives in the sunshine, but the imitator remains always in shadow. + + + + +PART III + +FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN POPULAR POETRY + + JAKSHICH'S PARTITIONING. + + Hark! the moon is to the day-star calling: + "Morning star! say, where hast thou been wandering; + Tell me where thou hast so long been lingering; + Where hast white days three so wasted,--tell me?" + To the moon, anon, the day-star answer'd: + "I have wander'd, moon! and I have linger'd, + Lingered o'er Belgrad's white towers, and wondered + At the marvellous things which I have witnessed: + How two brothers have their wealth partitioned, + Jakshich Dmitar and Jakshich Bogdana. + They had thus arranged the shares allotted, + Well their father's substance had divided: + Dmitar took Wallachia[5] for his portion, + Took Wallachia and entire Moldavia;[6] + Banat also, to the river Danube. + Bogdan took the level plains of Sermia, + And the even country of the Sava; + Servia, too, as far as Ujitz's fortress. + Dmitar took the lower fortress'd cities, + And Neboisha's tower upon the Danube; + Bogdan took the upper fortress'd cities, + And the church-possessing town, Rujitza. + Then a strife arose about a trifle,-- + Such a trifle; but a feud soon follow'd,-- + A black courser and a grey-wing'd falcon! + Dmitar claims the steed, as elder brother + Claims the steed, and claims the grey-wing'd falcon. + Bogdan will not yield or horse or falcon. + When the morning of the morrow waken'd, + Dmitar flung him on the sable courser, + Took upon his hand the grey-wing'd falcon, + Went to hunt into the mountain forest; + And he called his wife, fair Angelia: + 'Angelia! thou my faithful lady! + Kill with poison thou my brother Bogdan; + But if thou refuse to kill my brother, + Tarry thou in my white court no longer." + + When the lady heard her lord's commandments, + Down she sat all sorrowful and gloomy; + To herself she thought, and said in silence, + --'And shall I attempt it?--I, poor cuckoo! + Shall I kill my brother--kill with poison!-- + 'Twere a monstrous crime before high heaven, + 'Twere a sin and shame before my people. + + + Great and small would point their fingers at me, + Saying,--'That is the unhappy woman, + That is she who kill'd her husband's brother!' + But if I refuse to poison Bogdan, + Never will my husband come to bless me!' + Thus she thought, until a thought relieved her; + She descended to the castle's cavern, + Took the consecrated cup of blessing. + 'Twas a cup of beaten gold her father + Had bestow'd upon his daughter's nuptials; + Full of golden wine she fill'd the vessel, + And she bore it to her brother Bogdan. + Low to earth she bow'd herself before him, + And she kiss'd his hands and garments meekly. + + 'Lo! I bring to thee this cup, my brother! + This gold cup, with golden wine o'erflowing. + Give me for my cup a horse and falcon.' + Bogdan heard the lady speak complacent, + And most cheerfully gave steed and falcon. + + Meanwhile through the day was Dmitar wandering + In the mountain-forest; nought he found there; + But chance brought him at the fall of evening + To a green lake far within the forest, + Where a golden-pinion'd duck was swimming. + Dmitar loosen'd then his grey-wing'd falcon, + Bade him seize the golden-pinion'd swimmer. + Faster than the hunter's eye could follow, + Lo! the duck had seized the grey-wing'd falcon, + And against his sides had crush'd his pinion. + Soon as Dmitar Jakshich saw, he stripp'd him, + Stripp'd him swiftly of his hunting garments;-- + Speedily into the lake he plung'd him, + And he bore his falcon from its waters. + Then with pitying voice he ask'd his falcon: + 'Hast thou courage yet, my faithful falcon! + Now thy wings are from thy body riven?' + Whispering, said the falcon to his master: + 'I without my pinions nought resemble, + But a brother riven from a brother.' + Then the thought pierced through the breast of Dmitar, + That his wife was charged to kill his brother. + Swift he threw him on his mighty courser-- + Swift he hurried to Bijoegrad's[7] fortress, + Praying that his brother had not perish'd. + + He had hardly reached the bridge of Chekmel,[8] + When he spurr'd his raven steed so fiercely + That the impetuous courser's feet sank under, + And were crushed and broken on the pavement. + In his deep perplexity and trouble, + Dmitar took the saddle off his courser, + Flung it on the courser's nether haunches, + And he fled alone to Belgrad's fortress. + First he sought, impatient, for his lady-- + 'Angelia! thou my bride all faithful! + Tell me, tell me, hast thou kill'd my brother?' + Sweet indeed was Angelia's answer: + 'No! indeed I have not killed thy brother; + To thy brother have I reconciled thee.'" + + JELITZA AND HER BROTHERS. + + Nine fair sons possessed a happy mother; + And the tenth, the loveliest and the latest, + Was Jelitza,--a beloved daughter. + They had grown together up to manhood, + Till the sons were ripe for bridal altars, + And the maid was ready for betrothing. + Many a lover asked the maid in marriage; + First a Ban;[9] a chieftain was the other; + And the third, a neighbour from her village. + So her mother for the neighbour pleaded; + For the far-off dwelling ban her brothers. + Thus they urged it to their lovely sister: + "Go, we pray thee, our beloved sister, + With the ban across the distant waters: + Go! thy brothers oft will hasten to thee; + Every month of every year will seek thee; + Every week of every month will seek thee." + So the maiden listened to her brothers, + With the ban she crossed the distant waters: + But, behold! O melancholy marvel! + God sent down the plague, and all the brothers. + All the nine, were swept away, and lonely + Stood their miserable sonless mother. + + Three long years had pass'd away unheeded; + Often had Jelitza sighed in silence: + "Heaven of mercy! 'tis indeed a marvel! + Have I sinn'd against them?--that my brothers, + Spite of all their vows, come never near me." + Then did her stepsisters scorn and jeer her: + "Cast away! thy brothers must despise thee! + Never have they come to greet their sister." + + Bitter was the sorrow of Jelitza, + Bitter from the morning to the evening, + Till the God of heaven took pity on her, + And he summon'd two celestial angels: + "Hasten down to earth," he said, "my angels! + To the white grave, where Jovan is sleeping,-- + Young Jovan, the maiden's youngest brother. + Breathe your spirit into him; and fashion + From the white grave-stone a steed to bear him: + From the mouldering earth his food prepare him: + Let him take his grave shroud for a present! + Then equip and send him to his sister." + + Swiftly hasten'd God's celestial angels + To the white grave where Jovan was sleeping. + From the white grave-stone a steed they fashion'd; + Into his dead corpse they breathed their spirit; + From the ready earth the bread they moulded; + For a present his grave-shroud they folded; + And equipp'd, and bade him seek his sister. + + Swiftly rode Jovan to greet his sister. + Long before he had approach'd her dwelling, + Far, far off his sister saw and hail'd him; + Hastened to him--threw her on his bosom, + Loosed his vest, and stamp'd his cheeks with kisses. + + Then she sobb'd with bitterness and anguish, + Then she wept, and thus address'd her brother: + "O! Jovan! to me--to me, a maiden, + Thou, and all my brothers, all, ye promised + Oft and oft to seek your distant sister: + Every month in every year to seek her,-- + Every week in every month to seek her. + Three long years have sped away unheeded, + And ye have not sought me"--For a moment + She was silent; and then said, "My brother! + Thou art deadly pale! why look so deadly + Pale, as if in death thou hadst been sleeping?" + But Jovan thus check'd his sister: "Silence, + Silence, sister! as in God thou trustest; + For a heavy sorrow has o'erta'en me. + When eight brothers had prepared their nuptials, + Eight stepsisters ready to espouse them, + Hardly was the marriage service ended + Ere we built us eight white dwellings, sister! + Therefore do I look so dark, Jelitza." + + Three white days had pass'd away unheeded, + And the maid equipp'd her for a journey. + Many a costly present she provided + For her brothers and her bridal sisters: + For her brothers, fairest silken vestments; + For her bridal-sisters, rings and jewels. + But Jovan would fain detain her--"Go not, + Go not now, I pray thee--my Jelitza! + Wait until thy brothers come and greet thee." + But she would not listen to her brother: + She prepared the costliest, fairest presents. + So the young Jovan began his journey, + And his sister travell'd patient by him. + + So as they approach'd their mother's dwelling, + Near the house a tall white church was standing, + Young Jovan he whispered to his sister-- + "Stop, I pray thee, my beloved sister! + Let me enter the white church an instant. + When my middle brother here was married, + Lo! I lost a golden ring, my sister! + Let me go an instant--I shall find it." + + Jovan went--into his grave he glided-- + And Jelitza stood--she stood impatient-- + Wondering--wondering--but in vain she waited. + Then she left the spot to seek her brother. + Many and many a grave was in the churchyard + Newly made--Jovan was nowhere--Sighing, + On she hasten'd--hasten'd to the city, + Saw her mother's dwelling, and press'd forward + Eager to that old white dwelling. + + Listen + To that cuckoo's cry within the dwelling! + Lo! it was not the gray cuckoo's crying-- + 'Twas her aged, her gray-headed mother. + To the door Jelitza press'd--outstretching + Her white neck, she call'd--"Make ope, my mother! + Hasten to make ope the door, my mother!" + But her mother to her cry made answer: + "Plague of God! avaunt! my sons have perish'd-- + All--all nine have perish'd--Wilt thou also, + Take their aged mother!" Then Jelitza + Shriek'd, "O open--open, dearest mother! + I am not God's plague--I am thy daughter. + Thine own daughter--thy Jelitza, mother!" + Then the mother push'd the door wide open, + And she scream'd aloud, and groan'd, and flung her + Old arms round her daughter--All was silent-- + Stiff and dead they fell to earth together. + + + + THE HOLY NICHOLAS. + + + God of mercy! what a wond'rous wonder! + Such a wonder ne'er before was witness'd. + In Saint Paul's--within the holy cloister, + Gather'd round a golden table, seated + In three ranks, the saints are all collected; + O'er them sits the thunderer Elias;[10] + In the midst are Sava and Maria; + At the ends are Petka and Nedelia; + And their health the holy Nicholas pledges. + Pledges them their health to Jesus' glory.[11] + But behold, behold the saint!--he slumbers; + From his hand the cup of wine has fallen, + Fallen from it on the golden table: + Yet the wine's unspilt,--the cup unbroken. + Then laughed out the thunderer Elias: + "O my brother! O thou holy Nicholas: + Often drank we cooling wine together; + But it was our duty not to slumber. + Not to drop the cup--And tell me, brother, + Why to-day does slumber's power subdue thee?" + Him thus answer'd Nicholas the holy: + "Jest not thus with me, thou sainted thunderer! + For I fell asleep, and dreamt three hundred, + Dreamt three hundred friars had embark'd them + In one vessel on the azure ocean; + Bearing offerings to the holy mountain, + Offerings,--golden wax, and snowy incense. + From the clouds there broke a furious tempest, + Lash'd the blue waves of the trembling ocean, + Scooping watery graves for all the friars. + Then I heard their blended voices call me, + 'Help, O God! and help, O holy Nicholas! + Would that thou, where'er thou art, wert with us!' + So I hurried down to help the suppliants-- + So I saved the whole three hundred friars + So I shipped them full of joy and courage; + Brought their offerings to the holy mountain, + Brought their golden wax, their snowy incense;-- + And meanwhile I seem'd in gentle slumber, + And my cup fell on the golden table." + + THE MAIDEN AND THE SUN. + + A maiden proudly thus the sun accosted: + "Sun! I am fairer than thou,--far fairer; + Fairer than is thy sister[12] or thy brethren,-- + Fairer than yon bright moon at midnight shining, + Fairer than yon gay star in heav'n's arch twinkling, + That star, all other stars preceding proudly, + As walks before his sheep the careful shepherd." + + The sun complain'd to God of such an insult: + "What shall be done with this presumptuous maiden?" + And to the sun God gave a speedy answer: + "Thou glorious Sun! thou my beloved daughter![13] + Be joyous yet! say, why art thou dejected? + Wilt thou reward the maiden for her folly-- + Shine on, and burn the maiden's snowy forehead. + But I a gloomier dowry yet will give her; + Evil to her shall be her husband's brother; + Evil to her shall be her husband's father. + Then shall she think upon the affront she gave thee." + + FROZEN HEART. + + Thick fell the snow upon St. George's day; + The little birds all left their cloudy bed; + The maiden wander'd bare-foot on her way; + Her brother bore her sandals, and he said: + "O sister mine! cold, cold thy feet must be." + "No! not my feet, sweet brother! not my feet-- + But my poor heart is cold with misery. + There's nought to chill me in the snowy sleet: + My mother--'tis my mother who hath chill'd me, + Bound me to one who with disgust hath fill'd me." + + LIBERTY. + + Nightingale sings sweetly + In the verdant forest: + In the verdant forest, + On the slender branches. + + Thither came three sportsmen, + Nightingale to shoot at. + She implored the sportsmen, + "Shoot me not, ye sportsmen! + + "Shoot me not, ye sportsmen! + I will give you music, + In the verdant garden, + On the crimson rose-tree." + + But the sportsmen seize her; + They deceive the songster, + In a cage confine her, + Give her to their loved one. + + Nightingale will sing not-- + Hangs its head in silence: + Then the sportsmen bear her + To the verdant forests. + + Soon her song is waken'd; + Woe! woe! woe betide us, + Friend from friend divided, + Bird from forest banish'd! + + BROTHERLESS SISTERS. + + Two solitary sisters, who + A brother's fondness never knew, + Agreed, poor girls, with one another, + That they would make themselves a brother: + They cut them silk, as snow-drops white; + And silk, as richest rubies bright; + They carved his body from a bough + Of box-tree from the mountain's brow; + + Two jewels dark for eyes they gave; + For eyebrows, from the ocean's wave + They took two leeches; and for teeth + Fix'd pearls above, and pearls beneath; + For food they gave him honey sweet, + And said, "Now live, and speak, and eat." + + +PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS +GLASGOW, GREAT BRITAIN. + +PHOTOS + +[Illustration: KING PETER.] + +[Illustration: CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER] + +[Illustration: PREMIER N.???] + +[Illustration: KING The fourteenth century] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: DURING TURKISH RULE IN SERBIA. Serbs?? away?? the????] + +[Illustration: ???] + +[Illustration: THE SECOND SERBIAN REVOLUTION OF 1815.] + +[Illustration: THE MONASTERY OF KALENIC. Built by Stephen the Tall.] + +[Illustration: SERBIAN SOLDIERS WITH AN ENGLISH NURSE.] + +[Illustration: SERBIAN OFFICERS UNDER ADRIANOPLE IN 1912.] + +[Illustration: THE CATTLE MARKET.] + +[Illustration:] + +[Illustration: A TYPICAL MONTENEGRIN LADY: H.M. QUEEN MILENA.] + +[Illustration: PEASANT TYPES.] + +[Illustration: THE SUPERIOR OF A MONASTERY.] + +[Illustration: KING PETER: "How did it happen, General, that you Turks +lost the battle on Kumanovo?" + +THE TURKISH GENERAL: "Kismet!"] + +[Illustration: _Photo-Underwood and Underwood_ + +WOMEN DOING THE WORK OF MEN.] + +[Illustration: SERBIAN WOMEN CARRYING WOUNDED. + +_From photograph by kind permission of Mr. Crawford Price._] + +[Illustration: WAITING FOR A PLACE AT THE HOSPITAL.] + +[Illustration: "MY MOTHER" + +Sculptor: T. Mestovic] + +[Illustration: SPLIET-SPALATO.] + +[Illustration:] + +[Illustration: DUBROVNIC RAGUSA] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: This lecture was delivered in December, 1915.] + +[Footnote 2: The Archbishop of Canterbury, _The Character and Call of +the Church of England_, p. 118.] + +[Footnote 3: Stanley Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 40.] + +[Footnote 4: _Daily Telegraph_, 5th February.] + +[Footnote 5: Kavavlashka.] + +[Footnote 6: Karabogdanska. + +_The above and following poems are taken from John BOWRING: Serbian +Popular Poetry_. London, 1827.] + +[Footnote 7: Belgrad.] + +[Footnote 8: Chekmel-Juprija.] + +[Footnote 9: _Ban_, a title frequently used in Servia. Its general +acceptation is governor. It may be derived from _Pan_, the old Slavonic +for _Lord_.] + +[Footnote 10: Gromovnik Daja.] + +[Footnote 11: I napij, i u slavu Ristovn.] + +[Footnote 12: _Svezda_, star, is of the feminine gender.] + +[Footnote 13: _Sun_ is feminine in Servian.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Serbia in Light and Darkness, by +Nikolaj Velimirovic + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA IN LIGHT AND DARKNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 19871.txt or 19871.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/7/19871/ + +Produced by Project Rastko, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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