Produced by Andrew Leader of www.polishwriting.net
An Obscure Apostle
A Dramatic Story
GREENING & CO., LTD.
1899
Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited Perth.
In Lord Palmerston's days, the English public naturally heard a greatdeal about Poland, for there were a goodly number of Poles, noblemenand others, residing in London, exiles after the unsuccessfulrevolution, who, believing that England would help them to recovertheir lost liberty, made every possible effort to that end throughCount Vladislas Zamoyski, the prime minister's personal friend. Buteven in those times, when the English press was writing much about thepolitical situation in Poland, little was said about that whichconstitutes the greatest glory of a nation, namely, its literature andart, which alone can be secure of immortality. Only lately, in fact,has any public attention been paid by English people to Polishliterature. However, among the authors who have attracted considerableattention of late, is the writer of "By Fire and Sword," whose "QuoVadis," has met with a phenomenal reception. Henryk Sienkiewicz has byhis popularity proved that in unfortunate, almost forgotten, Poland,there is an abundance of literary talent and an important output ofworks of which few English readers have any conception. For instance,who has ever heard, in Great Britain, of Adam Michiewicz the greatPolish poet, who, critics declare, can be placed in the same categorywith Homer, Virgil, Dante, Tasso, Klopstock, Camoens, and Milton?Joseph Kraszewski as a novel writer occupies in Poland as high aposition as Maurice Jokai does in Hungarian literature, while Mme.Eliza Orzeszko is considered to be the Polish Georges Sand, even by theGermans, who are in many respects the rivals of Slavs in politics andliterature.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, asked by an interviewer what he thought about thecontemporary Polish literary talents, replied: "At the head of allstand Waclaw Sieroszewski and Stefan Zeromski; they are young, and verypromising writers. But Eliza Orzeszko still holds the sceptre as anovelist."
When the "Revue des Deux Mondes" asked the authors of differentnationalities to furnish an essay on women of their respectivecountries, Mme. Orzeszko was chosen among the Polish writers to writeabout the Polish women. It may be stated that translations of hernovels appeared in the same magazine more than twenty years ago. She isnot only a talented but also a prolific writer. She has suffered muchin her life, and her sufferings have brought out those sterlingqualities of soul and heart, which make her books so intensely human,and characterise all her works, and place her high above contemporaryPolish writers. The present volume may stand as a proof of herall-embracing talent.
On the summits of civilisation the various branches of the great treeof humanity are united and harmonised. Education is the best apostleof universal brotherhood. It polishes the roughness without and cutsthe overgrowth within; it permits of the development, side by sideand with mutual respect, of the natural characteristics of differentindividuals; it prunes even religious beliefs produced by the needsof the time, and reduces them to their simplest