The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915 | Page 3

a deep sense of having discovered
a new home, of meeting our unknown kindred, of finding expressed
great burdens of thought which had lain unspoken and half-realized at
the depths of our own minds. The books were very different one from
another, sometimes they were mutually hostile; yet we found in all
some quality which made them one, and made us at one with them. We
will not attempt to analyze that quality. It was, perhaps, in part, that
deep Russian tenderness, which never derides but only pities and
respects the unfortunate; in part that simple Russian sincerity which
never fears to see the truth and to express it; but most of all it was that
ever-present sense of spiritual values, behind the material and utterly
transcending the material, which enables Russian literature to move so
naturally in a world of the spirit, where there are no barriers between

the ages and the nations, but all mankind is one.
And they call you "barbarians"! The fact should make us ask again
what we mean by the words "culture" and "civilization." Critics used
once to call our Shakespeare a barbarian, and might equally well give
the same name to Aeschylus or Isaiah. All poets and prophets are in
this sense barbarians, that they will not measure life by the standards of
external "culture." And it is at a time like this, when the material
civilization of Europe seems to have betrayed us and shown the lie at
its heart, that we realize that the poets and prophets are right, and that
we must, like them and like your great writers, once more see life with
the simplicity of the barbarian or the child, if we are to regain our peace
and freedom and build up a better civilization on the ruins of this that is
crumbling.
That task, we trust, will some day lie before us. When at last our
victorious fleets and armies meet together, and the allied nations of
East and West set themselves to restore the well-being of many
millions of ruined homes, France and Great Britain will assuredly bring
their large contributions of good-will and wisdom, but your country
will have something to contribute which is all its own. It is not only
because of your valor in war and your achievements in art, science, and
letters that we rejoice to have you for allies and friends; it is for some
quality in Russia herself, something both profound and humane, of
which these achievements are the outcome and the expression.
You, like us, entered upon this war to defend a weak and threatened
nation, which trusted you, against the lawless aggression of a strong
military power; you, like us, have continued it as a war of self-defense
and self-emancipation. When the end comes and we can breathe again,
we will help one another to remember the spirit in which our allied
nations took up arms, and thus work together in a changed Europe to
protect the weak, to liberate the oppressed, and to bring eventual
healing to the wounds inflicted on suffering mankind both by ourselves
and our enemies.
With assurances of our friendship and gratitude, we sign ourselves,

WILLIAM ARCHER, J.W. MACKAIL, MAURICE BARING, JOHN
MASEFIELD, J.M. BARRIE, A.E.W. MASON, ARNOLD BENNETT,
AYLMER MAUDE, A.C. BRADLEY, ALICE MEYNELL, ROBERT
BRIDGES, GILBERT MURRAY, HALL CAINE, HENRY
NEWBOLT, G.K. CHESTERTON, GILBERT PARKER, ARTHUR
CONAN DOYLE, ERNEST DE SELINCOURT, NEVILL FORBES,
MAY SINCLAIR, JOHN GALSWORTHY, D. MACKENZIE
WALLACE, CONSTANCE GARNETT, MARY A. WARD,
EDWARD GARNETT, WILLIAM WATSON, A.P. GOUDY, H.G.
WELLS, THOMAS HARDY, MARGARET L. WOODS, JANE
HARRISON, C. HAGBERG WRIGHT. ANTHONY HOPE, HENRY
JAMES,

Russia and Europe's War
By Paul Vinogradoff.
The following letter to The London Times by Paul Vinogradoff, Corpus
Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University, appeared on Sept. 14,
1914. Prof. Vinogradoff was invited to return to Russia a few years ago
to become a Minister of State, but on going there he found the Ministry
not liberal enough for him, and returned to Oxford.
To the Editor of The Times:
SIR: I hope you may see your way to publish the following somewhat
lengthy statement on one of the burning questions of the day.
In this time of crisis, when the clash of ideas seems as fierce as the
struggle of the hosts, it is the duty of those who possess authentic
information on one or the other point in dispute to speak out firmly and
clearly. I should like to contribute some observations on German and
Russian conceptions in matters of culture. I base my claim to be heard
on the fact that I have had the privilege of being closely connected with
Russian, German, and English life. As a Russian Liberal, who had to
give up an honorable position at home for the