Smith College - Smith College Yearbook (Northampton, MA)

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Cbe element of Retribution in $bak$pere ' $ tragedies RETRIBUTION is a law of life. It is as invincible, as mysterious, as irresistible as is the law of gravitation : a fixed law, changeless and remorseless. It is the give and it shall be given unto you changed into the give and it must be given unto you. It is the effect of the cause and effect of the nineteenth century. There has never been a law more universally known to the world ; vet, strangest of all paradoxes, there has never been a law more vague, more difficult for man to fathom. The ignorant one speaks of retribution and his words seem wise ; the greatest philoso- pher stands baffled by the very thought. It is a law so simple yet so intricate, so shallow yet so deep. Since the beginning of the world there has always been a longing in the heart of man to express his thoughts in words, to give utterance to the best that is within him. So sound changed into language, language into poetry, poetry into literature. What are books? Are they not the records of the inner life of man, the life, it may be, of fancy, of ideals, of knowledge, of struggles, of actions ? What not ? And what is life? A compound made of many elements. So far man has discovered — yet even