THE GROWTH OF THE MODERN NATION 33Antoni Radziwill (1775-1833), Viceroy of the Grand Duchy of Posen in Prussia,
and of a long line of Kaisertreu Galicians in Austria. After the January Rising of
1863, Conciliation became the dominant trend in Polish politics for almost half
a century. It found its first serious ideologues in the Stanczyk Group in Cracow,
and was elaborated by a formidable array of writers including Piotr
Chmielowski (1848-1904), Aleksander Swiftochowski (1849-1938), Julian
Klaczko (1825-1906), Adam Wislicki (1836-1912), Wlodzimierz Spasowicz
(1829-1906), and above all by the novelist, Boleslaw Prus (1847-1912). It was
connected with a variety of related cultural and intellectual movements which
carried labels such as 'Organic Work', 'Sobriety', 'Warsaw Positivism', and
'Literary Realism'. Its leading organ in the later decades of the century was the
Przeglqd Tygodniowy (Weekly Review), edited throughout its existence by
Wislicki from 1866 to 1905.
Predictably enough, the most fervent advocates of Conciliation were drawn
from the ranks of disillusioned insurrectionists - from men and women who
had followed the revolutionary road in their youth and who had seen its limi-
tations with their own eyes. Karol Swidzinski (1841—77) was exactly such a
figure. As a youngster, he joined the radical 'Reds' of the January Rising,
served as Dabrowski's adjutant on the barricades of the Paris Commune, and
had passed his term of political exile in England. Yet when he returned home,
he composed the verse which is often remembered as the manifesto of the
Conciliatory camp:
FORWARD THROUGH WORKThe strains of the harp are not for you,
No cavalry charge, no flashes of lightning,
No eagles soaring on the wing,
Neither sabre, nor spear, nor arrow.
What you need is unremitting toil,
The food of the mind, the bread of the soul.What have you ever gained from your whirling swords?
Just a few notches in the mildew of History.
What benefit came from your lutes and your poetry?
The world will doze through a million chords.Young comrade, one fights
Not with the sword, but by other lights,
Head down, poring over the page
Of wisdom. There your heart can gauge
The true current of affairs;
And from the harvest of our forebears
You will learn to understand and to love
Everything which makes it good to live.