The Warrior
EVERY great picture gallery has always had its picture of a "Warrior." In the life of nations war plays a great rôle, and the "Warrior" may not be lacking where the national soul is immortalized in color. Every gallery, therefore, has its "Warriors" or its "Warrior."
I cannot recall which "Warrior" I first beheld. Nor can I recollect where I first met him. I only remember that he made a deep impression and now the war brings him again to my mind; he stands before me as if alive.
How wonderful is the helmet alone which the "Warrior" wears upon his head! Clear and sharp and finely chased, it scintillates and throws off sparks, glowing sparks, in all directions, just as when the cold metal from which it was made was melted and let into its copper shell, aglow with warm life.
It is an established fact that the dull lifeless pearls only then acquire their proper lustre when they have reposed for a time on the neck of a beautiful healthy woman. And there are women whose occupation consists solely in wearing pearls. They possess the remarkable faculty of being able to draw out from the pearls their hidden brilliance. Between them and the pearls there is an intimate relationship. They reveal themselves to each other, but the world has been so created that those who have pearls to wear do not possess the faculty of extracting their lustre, and those who are able to illuminate them have no pearls to wear! From this circumstance has arisen the new trade of "bringing out pearls."
ale Er SE Sa lade — Ile - re ee Similarly the warrior’s helmet would be nothing more than a mere copper vessel if it did not repose on the,warrior’s head, and if the warrior's head did not throw out such rays of power to illume the lifeless helmet.
Beneath the helmet sit a pair of eyes. God knows how many times I have gazed at them, I have strained all my faculties in order to grasp the secret that lies in that pair of eyes. I have only felt that from whatever angle I might gaze at them they rested upon me and beckoned to me. If I would stare them out they laugh at me and put me out of countenance. I stand and admire them for hours and 20 home ashamed.
On my way home the two eyes accompany me and I begin to understand that I have really no reason to be ashamed. The warrior has no desire to put me to shame; that is merely a way he has. He is a warrior, he is the embodiment of war, and he may not allow, he dare not permit himself to be fully understood. If one understands him with all his plans, one prevails over him. If one prevails over him, one has him already conquered. But he is the eternal warrior; he is the conqueror. And I begin to understand further that I shall never succeed in probing the depths of the two deep-set eyes, because they have no depth, because they are differently constituted from eyes of ordinary flesh and blood. With our eyes we can only look upon the outer world and only in those directions where our glance is not interrupted by obstacles. The “Warrior” has, however, quite different eyes. Two kinds of rays proceed therefrom. Rays en-
grossed in thoughts of power, which pierce to the very depths of that little selfish world which we call "man;" and rays that look far into that great extensive world which we call "the battlefield of life."
Like the eyes, so is the whole face of the "Warrior." In every line is engraved power, in every wrinkle a bit of the conqueror. And the whole expression speaks to us of courage and resolution, of determination and boundless trust. It speaks to us of the אִיש מִלְחָמָה. "Have no fear. Do not shrink from me. I know my road and I will pursue it. I know the obstacle and I will remove it. I know my aim and I will attain it."
And the NPMPOW’S speaks to us further: “Come children and behold me. Have I such an evil countenance? Does my face betray only hate and the lust of revenge? Have I, then, lost all human feeling? Have I been converted into a wild beast? You know me not. I am really one of you—flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood. For whom, then, do I go fortlı to wage war? For whom do I strive with all my might to conquer, if not for you! I am cruel? Give me a child and I will cover it with my kisses. Give me a brother, a sister, and I will caress them. Give me a friend and I willembrace him. And ifIseea defrauded widow or an oppressed orphan, tears steal from my eyes in sympathy and wrath. You stand afar off and you speak so smoothly fair, your tongue is anointed with mercy and your speech is as soft as if the world were rent in twain. You and I—the man and the ‘warrior—could our positions not be reversed, that I should remain a man and you should become a warrior? My helmet has not grown on to my head. To-day or to-morrow I can lift it off and return home, and you shall put it on. You shall be ‘I,’ and I shall be ‘you.’ My great Creator made me and when I was designed I was not what I am, I was taken from your midst. My Maker made me not because He knew me but onlv because He knew vou.
Br Ze A Ve te a a Nenn ED A Ye 3 “Sons of men without helmets! Be not so proud and speak not foolishness. Throw not mud at the warrior and cover him not with curses. Curses are cheap and in them is no understanding, no wisdom, no ideal feelings, no inner honesty. I, “The Warrior,’ by the great master, am no more than a picture, a svm- bol. To-day I hang in Berlin. To-morrow I may hang in the London National Gallery, in the Paris Louvre, in the Petrograd Hermitage, and the day after to-morrow I may be bought by a rich American, and the ‘New World’ will sieze me as a national treasure. Am I, then, “The Warrior?’ I am really the man. The man of his age, the man as he will appear for many a long day. And you come to me and seek to understand me. Am I then different from you? Do I hail from another world? You look perplexed as if you do not recognize me. A wall of antipathy and antagonism rises between us. Why do you look at me with strange eyes? We are near neighbors. \We are more than neiohhnrs!
"You speak with wormwood, with bitterness, and hate, by which you poison your own future. You contaminate the spring from which I or your children may come to drink!"
"Return by yourselves, alone!"