The Days of a Man 



D910 



La Fon- 

 taine 



Otlet, 

 Lange, 

 and 

 Rossignol 



thus wholly ignoring the persistent campaign of the 

 Pangermanists carried on before his very eyes. 

 Afterward he sent me an affecting extract (which I 

 here translate) from the last letter of his son, who 

 was killed in Poland: 



One who stands in the field so often face to face with death 

 learns how to value life. But he loses also the fear of death, 

 for he knows that the highest fortune is the forgetting of per- 

 sonality, the offering up of self. And this takes from death all 

 terror. 



In Brussels I made several helpful acquaintances, 

 among them Henri La Fontaine, secretary of the 

 Senate and director of the National Library, a man 

 of high character and large intellectual caliber, and 

 a leader in conciliation. I subsequently met him 

 several times under varied conditions — as president 

 of the World Peace Congress at The Hague, director 

 of the International Peace Bureau at Berne, Belgian 

 refugee in London in 19 14, and lecturer in behalf of 

 peace and arbitration in America in 191 5. La Fon- 

 taine is an author of note in international law, and 

 the recipient (1913) of the Nobel Peace Prize. 



Dr. Paul Otlet, La Fontaine's associate in the 

 National Library, is the author of "La Charte 

 Mondiale" and other important contributions to 

 international law. Dr. Christian F. Lange, formerly 

 professor in the University of Christiania, a quiet 

 scholar whose judgment in public matters was of the 

 highest order, had his office in Brussels as secretary 

 of the Interparliamentary Union. Dr. Charles 

 Rossignol, head of the Bureau of Public Instruction 

 in Belgium, was a man of high ability and charming 

 personality, who spoke English with perfect accent. 

 His special interest lay in the introduction of demo- 



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