THE GROWTH OF THE MODERN NATION 7their imaginary kingdoms. Its essentially spiritual nature has been underlined by
all the most sensitive foreign observers of the nineteenth century—from
Helmuth von Moltke, who took an instant liking to the place during his visit in
1828-31, to J. H. Sutherland Edwards, The Times correspondent, who was
there in 1861-2, and Georg Brandes, the Dane, who recorded his impressions in
the 1880s and 1890s.^2 Its attributes could best be described by poetry, by
metaphor, and by parable. It presented a challenge which exercised all the
romantic and patriotic poets, but none so effectively as Adam Mickiewicz:
In the beginning, there was belief in one God, and there was Freedom in the world. And
there were no laws, only the will of God, and there were no lords and slaves, only patri-
archs and their children. But later the people turned aside from the Lord their God, and
made themselves graven images, and bowed down... Thus God sent upon them the
greatest punishment which is Slavery...
Then the Kings, renouncing Christ, made new idols which they set up in the sight of
the people, and bade them bow down ... So the kings made an idol for the French and
called it HONOUR; and this was the same that was called ... the Golden Calf. And for
the Spaniards, their king made an idol called POLITICAL POWER; and this was the
same that the Assyrians worshipped as Baal... And for the English, their king made an
idol called SEA POWER AND COMMERCE, which was the same as Mammon... And
for the Germans, an idol was made called BROTSINN or Prosperity which was the same
as Moloch... And the nations forgot they had sprung from one Father...
Finally, in idolatrous Europe there rose three rulers ... a Satanic Trinity, Frederick,
whose name signifieth 'Friend of Peace'... Catherine, which in Greek signifieth 'pure'.
.. and Maria Theresa, who bore the name of the immaculate Mother of the Saviour...
Their names were thus three blasphemies, their lives three crimes, their memory three
curses... And this Trinity fashioned a new idol, which was unknown to the ancients,
and they called it INTEREST...
But the Polish nation alone did not bow down. .. And finally Poland said: 'Whosoever
will come to me shall be free and equal, for I am FREEDOM'. But the Kings when they
heard were frightened in their hearts, and said... 'Come, let us slay this nation'. And
they conspired together... And they crucified the Polish Nation, and laid it in its grave,
and cried out 'We have slain and buried Freedom'. But they cried out foolishly...
For the Polish Nation did not die. Its body lieth in the grave; but its spirit has
descended into the abyss, that is into the private lives of people who suffer slavery in their
country... But on the third day the soul shall return again to the body, and the Nation
shall arise, and free all the peoples of Europe from slavery.^3
Kazimierz Brodzinski (1791-1835) expressed the same thoughts in simpler
words:
Hail, O Christ, Thou Lord of Men!
Poland, in Thy footsteps treading
Like Thee suffers, at Thy bidding;
Like Thee, too, shall rise again.^4
The implications of Poland's 'Descent into the Tomb' affect the historian's
task most profoundly. Many of the social, economic, constitutional, and diplo-
matic themes which dominate studies of the pre-Partition period, come to an