The engineers, mechanicians, and technicians of the moral forces are the poets and prophets, the philosophers and artists; they are the dynamic agents of thought, the leaders of intellect, the pathfinders in the jungles of social institutions, the aviators in the eternal sphere of ideas! Yet they are scattered through the centuries, scattered in space. One lives in New York; another in Paris; the third at Yasnaya Polyana; their names go from the élite in one land to the élite in other lands, but do not reach the masses. How much more powerful their work would be if it were coördinated, if the knowledge of their doctrines, the glory of their names, the magic of their art, proceeding from one central point, should radiate in all directions. Motors and propellers have taught us that power must be concentrated and compressed, in order—by explosions—to drive the vehicle.
THE ROSE-WEEK IN LUCERNE
This festival-time, which in my opinion will surpass in outward glory all the previous “aviation meets,” all the Wagner festivals in Bayreuth, all the carnivals in Rome or Cologne, all the regattas at Kiel or at Cowes, all the races at Baden-Baden, will last with its public functions from the eighth until the fifteenth of June. The period from the first till the eighth belongs to my guests for uninterrupted social intercourse. I believe that my great contemporaries will thus find unique opportunity for high social enjoyment, for the most fruitful inspiration. How rarely is it vouchsafed for those who stand on the eminences of Humanity to consort with their fellows!
The second week will belong to the public, which will have the unique enjoyment of seeing and hearing the laurel-crowned of all countries assembled in the same place and of absorbing the lofty thoughts which will flow from their words.
The attendance at the lectures and art performances will in all probability be immense.
But what my guests will have to say is not to be limited to those present. The echo of it will ring through the whole world. The great journals will certainly send their representatives who will telegraph long extracts from the various addresses. And involuntarily the Press will in this way fulfill what ought to be its most important function: to further the great universal interests of mankind instead of stirring up international strife and cultivating local gossip. But we will not depend on them: we ourselves will institute a large and complete staff of secretaries and translators; we will employ a printing-office and have the principal addresses set forth in extenso, and send them out as pamphlets to all parts of the world. And still more: gramophones will catch the very intonations of the speakers, kinematographs will reproduce the gestures of the orators, and the records and films will be sent out to thousands of schools and settlements all over the world. In all regions and in all classes shall be scattered the messages of the Rose-Week!
What the men and women whom I have in mind will say, is not for any particular race or class: its sole aim and object will be, “to elevate all humanity.”
And why roses?
That I have chosen out of the twelve months of the year the month of roses, that I am going to conduct the whole arrangement under the emblem of roses—all the programmes, all the invitations, and so forth, will be adorned with these flowers; on the buildings and festal arches roses will be garlanded as escutcheons—a sardanapalian abundance of living, blooming roses will be entwined around all the pillars, will adorn the tables and walls; bushes blooming with roses and rose-beds will be planted in the grounds—intoxicating perfume of roses will fill all the air—a rose-bacchanal: all this is not, perhaps, a whimsical fancy, an ostentatious piece of extravagance such as the multimillionaires of Fifth Avenue are accustomed to vulgarize their festivities with;—a deeper symbolism is involved in it: the whole undertaking is to stand under the protection and the shelter of Beauty!