Serbia in Light and Darkness | Page 3

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,