Advice of a Philosopher Who Ponders the Eternal Flux of Things.
To the Editor of The Sun—Sir: To those who think in units of fifty thousand years instead of in units of five years, as does the average mind, this European war means absolutely nothing. Life on the planet Earth is an eternally rising and falling wave, and the present international massacre is only a bubble on the top of one of those waves. We attach such great importance to it because we think in terms of our span of life instead of thinking in terms of geological and biological eras.
New redeemers, new dreams, international socialism, international paganism, a new medievalism, a new Renaissance, a new Waterloo, a new Armageddon—that is the future, a procession of yesterdays coming toward us.
Finale: a billion fissures on the face of this dried up sun spark, and then pitch! bang! pouff! we are a million aerolites in the ghastly vortices of space.
So what difference does it make whether the Kaiser strolls down the Champs Elysées or M. Poincaré eats sauerkraut in Berlin?
Benjamin De Casseres.
New York, September 2.
Source: Letter to the Editor, The Sun, Sept. 3, 1914, p. 6