Subscription price, $1.00 per annum; single copies, 25 cents Published by The Theosophical Society at July; October; January; April In Europe single copies may be obtained from, and subscriptions sent to, Entered July 17, 1905, at Brooklyn, N. Y., as second-class matter, Copyright, 1918, by The Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. T LESSONS OF THE WAR* HE WAR is a great revelation; it is bringing to light the spiritual reality of every nation, as of every man. We are standing in the field of conflict between the divine and the infernal powers, and we can see the combatants almost as clearly as though we were present at the war in heaven, which Milton depicts. And in the blaze of that supernatural light, the very souls of men and nations stand forth revealed splendid or abominable. First France: In the years that followed the devastation and despoiling of France by her barbarous foe in 1870, the world had come greatly to misapprehend her. Leon Daudet has described the France in which he grew up, discouraged, despondent, or hard and materialistic, with a literature which, so far as it was widely known in other lands, seemed to show the life of France as marred by ugly evils. But the true France was there always, for those who had eyes of wisdom to perceive, la France éternelle, ablaze with the splendor of devotion, magnificent in heroic patriotism, in reality inspired by the highest ideal of purity. That France now stands superbly revealed, recognized by herself, by the whole world, a living manifestation of pure, selfless love, of magnificent patriotism. "You have not touched the war yet," a French officer said recently to an American, "nor has the war touched you. For me, three of my brothers have died fighting, my father and mother have been murdered by the Germans, my sister, a Red Cross nurse, made prisoner by the Germans, had her hands cut off, and suffered nameless infamies. I am on my way back, to fight for my France . . ." Patriotism, duty, sacrifice in the spirit of debonnair grace, radiant as an outburst of Spring flowers . . . France is the revelation of the power of Love. England has revealed the sense of honour, something bewildering and unintelligible to her foe. England has given new life to the old, A Lecture delivered at the Annual Convention of The Theosophical Society, by Charles Johnston. |
