Voices from within the Veil
Originally published in 1920 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.
May 12, 1896
These are the things of which men think, who live: of their own selves
and the dwelling place of their fathers; of their neighbors; of work and
service; of rule and reason and women and children; of Beauty and Death
and War. To this thinking I have only to add a point of view: I have
been in the world, but not of it. I have seen the human drama from a
veiled corner, where all the outer tragedy and comedy have reproduced
themselves in microcosm within. From this inner torment of souls the
human scene without has interpreted itself to me in unusual and even
illuminating ways. For this reason, and this alone, I venture to write
again on themes on which great souls have already said greater words, in
the hope that I may strike here and there a half-tone, newer even if
slighter, up from the heart of my problem and the problems of my people.
Between the sterner flights of logic, I have sought to set some little
alightings of what may be poetry. They are tributes to Beauty, unworthy
to stand alone; yet perversely, in my mind, now at the end, I know not
whether I mean the Thought for the Fancy--or the Fancy for the Thought,
or why the book trails off to playing, rather than standing strong on
unanswering fact. But this is alway--is it not?--the Riddle of Life.
Many of my words appear here transformed from other publications and I
thank the _Atlantic_, the _Independent_, the _Crisis_, and the _Journal
of Race Development_ for letting me use them again.
W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS.
New York, 1919.
Contents
POSTSCRIPT ix
_Credo_ 1
I. THE SHADOW OF YEARS 3
_A Litany at Atlanta_ 14
II. THE SOULS OF WHITE FOLK 17
_The Riddle of the Sphinx_ 30
III. THE HANDS OF ETHIOPIA 32
_The Princess of the Hither Isles_ 43
IV. OF WORK AND WEALTH 47
_The Second Coming_ 60
V. "THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE" 63
_Jesus Christ in Texas_ 70
VI. OF THE RULING OF MEN 78
_The Call_ 93
VII. THE DAMNATION OF WOMEN 95
_Children of the Moon_ 109
VIII. THE IMMORTAL CHILD 114
_Almighty Death_ 128
IX. OF BEAUTY AND DEATH 130
_The Prayers of God_ 145
X. THE COMET 149
_A Hymn to the Peoples_ 161
_Credo_
I believe in God, who made of one blood all nations that on earth do
dwell. I believe that all men, black and brown and white, are brothers,
varying through time and opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but
differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and the
possibility of infinite development.
Especially do I believe in the Negro Race: in the beauty of its genius,
the sweetness of its soul, and its strength in that meekness which shall
yet inherit this turbulent earth.