122 



DISCOVERY 



motive in the whole of the JEneid as that from which 

 the Iliad starts, the lugh-handed selfishness of one 

 primitive chieftain compensating himself by robbing 

 another. Compare and contrast with this the crowning 

 scene of the Mneid in which the conquered Turnus 

 might have been spared but for what, to the ancient 

 mind, was his inhuman cruelty to Pallas and his father, 

 of which he still wore the trophy in the baldric of 

 Pallas girt upon his own shoulder. Such an offender 

 must not survive into the new era ; the violence of 

 Turnus would have continued to trample on the 

 sacred laws of humanity ; yet even Turnus Vergil 

 could not doom without a note of pity ; in the last 

 words of the whole epic the soul of Turnus passes 

 " indignant to the shades." ^ 



Now it was in this common source of human sorrow 

 and human joy that Vergil found the supreme paradox 

 which for him wrapped the world in mystery. Yet, 

 strange and mysterious as the contradiction was, he 

 held it to be the key of life. 



Here. I believe, we have reached the centre of Vergil's 

 thought. All the sorrow and all the joy of the universe 

 seemed to him to spring from one root, and he accepts, 

 nay, he welcomes, them both. There could be no 

 human affection, so Vergil saw, unless it were such as 

 to make its possessors capable, and capable in equal 

 degrees, of the most exquisite suffering and of the 

 most exquisite joy. This to him is the fundamental 

 fact of the universe — that aU pain and all joy is to be 

 measured simply in terms of human love. And if you 

 ask him his last word upon this mystery, the mysterj^ 

 on which he has pondered year after year, viewing it 

 from both sides, through all his study of life, he will tell 

 3'ou that the Golden Branch is always found in the 

 shadows of the forest, when it is sought in fulfilment of 

 duty. And while others may turn away from the 

 sight or thought of those shadows in mere dread or 

 disbelief, Vergil will bid us. like his hero, pluck the 

 Golden Branch eagerly and trust it gratefully, to bring 

 us through even darker shadows out into the light be- 

 yond ; to trust that somewhere, somehow. Death itself 

 is overcome by the power and persistence of Love. 



The best translation of Vergil is the verse-rendering of the 

 Mneid and now of the Georgics, by Mr. James Rhoades. 

 (Longmans, Green & Co.) 



* This point is developed more fully in The Messianic 

 Eclogue of Vergil, p. 46. 



NOTICE 



The June number of Discovery will contain, amongst 

 others, articles on Ut'eniploymeiit and Taxation, by 

 Professor Douglas Knoop ; Some Recent Work on the 

 Ductless Glands, by Dr. L. T. Hogben ; Fertility Rites 

 in Modern Egypt, by Miss W. S. Blackman ; and a con- 

 cluding instalment of Professor D. Fraser Harris's paper 

 on Biology in Shakespeare. 



The Airways of Europe 



By Major W. T. Blake 



Europe is rapidly being covered by a network of 

 highly organised airways. Already it is possible to 

 ?LY on regular services between the capitals of the 

 greater number of European countries, and by the 

 summer, services now being arranged will be operating 

 to most of the large towns west of Russia. 



At the present time France controls by far the 

 largest number and the largest mileage of airways. 

 The generous subsidy granted by the French Govern- 

 ment partly accounts for this, but more important 

 still is the fact that our Allies are keenly alive to the 

 commercial possibilities of aerial transport. At the 

 present moment Paris is the most important air- 

 centre of the whole world, though in respect of organ- 

 isation the Paris terminal aerodrome at Le Bourget 

 cannot compare with London's terminus at Cro\don, 

 which is the largest and best -equipped commercial air 

 station in existence. By next summer it is highly 

 probable that Croydon aerodrome will accommodate 

 as great a volume of traffic as that now passing through 

 Le Bourget. \Mien the Allied restrictions are removed, 

 Germany will make a big bid for the aerial traffic 

 of the world, and plans have already been made for 

 the extension of the many services which are already 

 running with great regularit}' throughout the whole 

 part of the German Republic. 



From Paris services run (a) to London, (b) to Brussels, 

 Rotterdam and Amsterdam, (c) to Strassbourg, Prague, 

 and ^^'arsaw, [d) to Havre, [e] to Lucerne ; and a ser- 

 vice via Strassbourg and Prague to Vienna, Bucharest, 

 and Constantinople will be opened shortly. Other 

 French services proceed from Toulouse via Barcelona, 

 Alicante, and Malaga to Rabat and Casa Blanca in 

 Morocco, whilst a service from Marseilles to Genoa is 

 being organised. There are also several smaller services 

 which operate between various towns. By means of 

 this network of air lines the traveller can proceed from 

 Paris to London in about three hours, instead of the 

 eight hours required by boat and train ; to Warsaw 

 in less than twelve hours for the complete journey, 

 as against nearly fift}' by train ; or by taking the 

 train to Toulouse and thence using the airway to 

 Morocco, can cover the journej- to Casa Blanca inside 

 two da\'s, as against nearly four days' travelling by 

 rail and steamer. There is also a probability that an 

 airship service from Marseilles to Algiers will !~hortly 

 be put into operation. 



After France, Holland controls the largest mileage 

 of airways, the K.L.M. service operating from 

 Amsterdam to Rotterdam and London in one direction, 

 and to Hamburg, Bremen, and Copenhagen to the 



