Tárogató, 1941-1942 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1941-07-01 / 1-2. szám
TÁROGATÓ IS ciples. They have come to him by Christianity and by other great religious. They have drawn vitality from the best of human thought throughout the centuries. For us they are expressed and protected by democracy, and that is why we value it. Nazi Ambitions “The Nazi system is bondage, bodily and spiritual, political and economic. According to the Nazi philosophy the State both may and must claim the whole allegiance of man’s body and soul. Truth, conscience, mercy, honour, justice, love — where these clash with what is held to be the overriding interest of the State, they are regarded by Hitler as offences. Stark Realities “It is sometimes suggested that the evil things against which we strive are less black than they appear. We are but witnessing to-day — so runs the argument — one of those titanic outbursts of human energy that since the dawn of history have blazed the path of progress. As then, so now. Time will purge the dross until from the ashes new truth and new beauty spring. “Such a judgment takes no account of the stark realities with which we are faced. This struggle is a mortal clash of two philosophies, and we only delude ourselves if we suppose that the civilisation we share with you could survive a Nazi victory. It is not only with physical invasion that you or I are concerned, but with a spiritual invasion which, if permitted, would work greater havoc than all the tons of high explosive that it is in the power of the German Air Force to unload. “We will never accept Hitler’s ‘New Order,’ which is in truth a reversion to the old order before men were civilised, and which would paralyse them again with the chains of brutal, selfish and material force. “We reject it because, as the President finely said on January 6th, we prefer that conception of moral order, based on noble human qualities, that Hitler would destroy, by which nations and men can grow to full stature through service freely given to the common good.” The World of Books There is one world in which all men get their chance—the world of books. The republic of letters shows no favourtism: the power of appreciation is the only passport to citizenship. Even education in the accepted sense is not a necessary qualification, for many with scanty schooling have the insight to recognize what is true and beautiful. After all, it is not the number of books we read but how we read that matters; and many a Welsh miner or Scottish shepherd—to take but two examples—may be thoroughly versed in good literature, even though the range of it be limited. Sir Walter Scott, indeed, maintained that poverty sometimes made for a wise choice in literature. — Every Man’s Book. Animals In The War E. M. Buchanan (An English journalist recently arrived in Boston, having been sent to America in charge of a group of evacuated children, tells this story.) That animals’ instinct of danger is keener than humans’, has had many proofs during the present war in England. A donkey had been some little time in a London shelter for animals, awaiting removal to a place in the country. I was walking along this street one day, when the donkey began to “Hee-haw” loudly. Someone seized my arm and dragged me quickly down into an air-raid shelter. “What’s the hurry?” I panted. “I didn’t hear the final warning.” A bomb exploding horribly near prevented an answer. When the noise subsided somewhat my rescuer nodded wisely, and explained, “That donkey is the best air-raid warning I’ve ever known. Never fails to tell us when danger is near.” And so it proved. Then there is the old lady who sleeps peacefully in her bedroom, in her London home, yet is always down in her shelter before the bombs come too near. Congratulated on her bravery, she laughed. “I’m not brave. It’s this clever old parrot of mine.” She pointed to a knowin-looking gray bird in a cage near
