THE first fifty years of Romain Rolland's life were passed in mconspicuous aud almost soli-tary labors. Thenceforward, his name was to become a storm center of European discussion. Until shortly before the apocalyptic year, hardly an artist of our days
worked in such completeotheremen or re-ceived so litde recognition. Since that year, no artist has been the subjct of so much conroversy. His fundamental ideas were notdestined to make themselves generally known unil therewas a worId in arms bent
upon destroying tbem.Euvious fate works ever thun, iute-g the livesof the great with tragical threads. She tries her powersto the uttermost upou the theng, Sending events to runcowher to their plans, permeating their lives with strangeallegories, imposi
ng obstacles in their pathtwt theymay be guided more unmistakabiy in the right course.Fate plays with them, Plays a game with a subime issue,
for all experince is precious.Think of the greatestamong our contemporaries; thinl of Wagner NietzscheDostoevsky, Strindberg; in the case of each ofthern, deshay ba8 SUPeradded to the creayions of theartist's mind, the drama of personal experience.Notably do these considerations apply to the life ofRomain Ronand The sigUificance of his lifes workboomes Plain only when it is conemplated as a whole.It was slowly produced, for it had to encounter greatdangers; it was a gradual revelation, tardily consum-mated. foundations of this splendid structure weredeeply dug in the form ground of knowledge, and werelaid upon the hidden masonry years spent in isola-tion. Thus tempered by tha ordeal of a furnace seventimes heated his work has the essential imprint of hu-manity.Precisely owing to tha strength of its founda-tions, to the solidity of its moral energy, was Rolland'sthough able to stand unshaken throughout the war stormsthat have been ravaging Europe. While other monu-ments to which we had looked up with veneration, craching and crumbling, have been leveled with the quakingearth, the monument he had builded stands form"abovethe battle," above the medley of opinions, a pillar ofstrength towards which all free spirits can turn for con-solation amid the tumul of the world.