FIRE.
IN view of the present shortage of fuel, the naval and military authorities have decided to place at the disposal of the "Central Committee Peace Celebration Beacons and Bonfires" their "large surplus stocks of Dover Flares, Rockets, and Handlighte."
"Those bright signals of transmitted fire" by which from time immemorial men have celebrated victory should not be lacking because coal is scarce and wood precious. We have other means of creating fire. By other means we can lift men's eyes to the hills whence cometh hope, and so give expression to a mystic emotion whose symbol since " the fire thief " filched the burning stick from the heavens has always been a flame. Some sparks of fire-worship still smoulder in the heart of man. Fire is a symbol that he needs. It gives expression to something which lies not only deeper than reason, but deeper than super- stition. The veriest rationalist sees something in fire other than its chemical analysis. The household fire was sacred to the Greeks and R01118118 when their mythology had become but a poetic convention. Men could not set the symbol aside. Christianity might quench the sacrificial smoke, and smother its embers under the Divine Metaphor, but the Church was constrained to find a place upon her altar for the vestal torch, and her children still grouped themselves—and in the larger half of Christendom they do now group themselves—around the sacred fire to partake of the sacred feast. In the very heart of the new religion the old sign kept its place, and simple worshippers still find apt expression for their devotion to the saints in the offering of a little point of light. Is it too fanciful to suggest that in the household darkness and household chill of the war winters some emotion in the heart of man has been silenced, and he has been deprived of something more essential to his well-being than comfort 7 The household gods are not lightly to be profaned. But anyhow let us celebrate peace with fire. We have waited and worked long for it, more than half as long as Agamemnon's watchman. " Well I may the nightly flame soon with glad news release " us " from our toil," and may the country resound with "clamour of joy to hail this beacon light."
The analogy between a man and a nation is never complete. Yet without the light thrown by that analogy neither the heart of man nor the heart of a nation can ever be fully discovered. It is impossible that the heart of a nation should ever be single in the sense that the heart of a man is single. There will be men and women at the Peace Celebrations who will be entirely happy—women whose sons have come through the war un- scathed, men who return to their homes as to " the haven where they would be." "From fearful trip comes in the ship." For the moment such people may be entirely without care. They have a sense of " frankincense fuming on every side." They feel themselves in the favour of the gods:—
"Of all the gods that in Argos dwell, Gods of Olympus and gods of Hell, Gods of the palace, gods of the street, Gods who preside where the people meet." They may rejoice with their whole hearts as they look where " Here, there, and yonder on high doth spire With holy meaning the fragrant fire."
But a nation can never be in such a mood as this. There must be men and women in bitter pain upon days of national rejoicing, especially when the rejoicings celebrate the end of a long war. They saw their children go:—
"Shouting they went with hearts aflame For the furious War-god's eager game."
They have not come back. Their sufferings are part of the national life. Like Agamemnon's troops, they died on the battle- field and in the sea. Unlike the Greek heroes, some were also lost in the air. A new heroism led them to a new death. A new discovery and new dangers set upon them a new stamp. There must be something strange about the sorrow of their parents, a sorrow unmollified by custom and by precedent. Such mourners will not be able to fix their minds upon thanksgiving. They cannot hope to avoid the distractions of grief which have come with this new illustration of " the sharpness of death " :- " As eagles that over their eyrie wheel, Driven wide by the sudden pang they feel For their eaglets torn From the long-watched nest."
A nation is never perfectly happy ; neither is it ever in despair. Even our enemy now in her deep humiliation, her hunger, her chagrin, has happy elements in her national life. Simple people axe still glad to find themselves alive and among those who love them. There is still a spring, still courting, still for individuals the deliverance from anxious fear.
But if a nation is never overwhelmed by any emotion, the sum of its joy is immeasurably greater than that of an indi- vidual, and it must find some elemental expression. Vast and complex as it is, fire is still its fitting symbol. There is something of dread even in a bonfire. The leaping, joyona flame can destroy or cleanse, devastate or enlighten, blacken or gild. Its possi- bilities axe boundless. It represents life. It is the most vivid thing on earth and the most exultant. It suggests every joy and every danger. Men want to be happy, they want to feel happiness like fire in their veins. From the brute who seeks it in sensuality to the saint who asks it from the highest experience of which man is capable, they all want it. But a brave man's idea of happiness, whether he be a saint or a savage—and he may be either—is not safety. He must have an element of risk. All nations accept risk, choose risks. The upward road lies past horrible risks. The man with vision sees beyond them. He follows the torch, the thing which he dare not handle and whose attraction he cannot resist.
What fearful risks men have run in the conquest of the air- s thing of infinitely more importance than the conquest of the Germans ! Next to the bonfires, these "strange birds" who fly across the heavens should bear their part in the peace spec- tacle. Could they not shower stars from heaven in celebration of their greater victory ?
The subject is one which excuses riotous imaginings. Mean- while no national celebration of gladness can be as spontaneous as that of individuals. If we want to express ourselves, we must prepare to express ourselves ; and if we choose fire as our sym- bolic means of expression, we must work and think and plan and organize. The Government will help us. An " a well-attended meeting of members in the How* of Commons " it was resolved " that a circular should be sent to the Lords-Lieutenant, the Chairmen of County Councils, Lord Mayors and Mayors, Lord Provosts and Provosts, Conveners of Counties, and others, asking them to urge, through their respective bodies, in the local Press or otherwise, that their Counties and Boroughs should co-operate by forming Beacon and Bonfire Committees to promote general illumination simultaneously at 11 o'clock p.m. Summer time, 10 o'clock p.m. Greenwich time, on the date fixed. If it is in June or July, it is recommended that north of the Border the time should be half-an-hour later."
The fireWorks will not be expensive. " Flares " will be 10s. each, large rockets ls. 2d., small 10d. :— " These Flares, the invention of the late Wing-Commander Brook, brilliantly illuminate an area of three miles radius, and can be seen from a great distance. They burn for seven and a half minutes, weigh 90 lb., stand 3 feet high by 8 in. diameter, are not explosive, and are fired by friction. When used on mountain tops they should be lit just below the summit to gain the best effect. They must not be fired from any building or tower because the red-hot dross splashes to a considerable dis- tance. For this reason spectator; are advised to keep at a safe distance from the Flares."
We are also informed that applications for these illuminante should be made to the Hon. Secretary, Canon Rawneley, Allan Bank, Grasmere.
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