ing to look about us more calmly, and to distinguish
amid the ruins those of Europe's intellectual leaders
who have not been swept off their feet by the fury
of the tempest. Almost alone Romain Rolland has
stood the test. The two main characteristics which
strike us in all that he writes are lucidity and com-
mon sense--the qualities most needed by every one
in thought upon the war. But there is another fea-
ture of Rolland's work which contributes to its
universal appeal. He describes our feelings and
sensations in the presence of a given situation, not
what actually passes before our eyes: he describes
the effects and causes of things, but not the things
themselves. Through his work for the Agence in-
ternationale des prisonniers de guerre, to which one
of the articles now collected is largely devoted, he
is, moreover, in a position to observe every phase
of the great battle between ideals and between na-
tions which fills him with such anguish and indig-
nation. And with his matchless insight and sym-
pathy he gives permanent form to our vague feelings
in these noble and inspiring essays.

It will not, however, surprise the vast public who
have read Jean-Christophe to find that while so
many have capitulated to the madness of the terrible

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