In the interval between Baha'u'llah's conversation with Kamal Pashain 1863 and his Epistle to Shaykh Muhammad Tagf in 1891, two intemational languages had been created and were in use: Volapŭk, which was already in decline and which later died out; and Esperanto. But neither the shaykh nor anyone else ever asked Baha'u'llah the name of the language to which He was referring.
Baha'u'llah wrote of the concept of a universal language on other occasions and explicitly included the possibility of using a created language for the intemational tongue. The importance He ascribed to the principle of a universal language is evident in His specifying it in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, His Book of Laws. The achievement of this principle, He aflfirmed, would be a sign ofthe 'coming ofage ofthe human race'.
Early on, some Baha'fs had been attracted to Esperanto and had seen it as the fulfillment of Baha'u'llah's words. Among those who leamed Esperanto during Zamenhof s lifetime were Agnes Alexander, who came from a Christian missionary family in the Hawaiian Islands and lived in Japan; J. E. Esslemont, a Scot; and Lutfu'llah Hakim and Mirza Muhammad Labib, Persians. Martha Root, the well-known American Baha'i who would play an important role in Lidia's life, apparently began to study Esperanto in 1912 although she did not master it until many years later.
As to the 'command' to leam Esperanto, which the interviewer mentioned to Dr Zamenhof in Bem, although 'Abdu'1-Baha had strongly and repeatedly encouraged Baha'1's to study Esperanto, most of the Baha'is never took this as a binding requirement. However, according to the published translations of remarks made in two addresses in 1913, 'Abdu'1-Baha seems to have expressed his wishes very clearly. In February 1913 'Abdu'1-Baha had addressed an Esperanto meeting in Paris, and his words were reported in the Baha'i magazine Star of the West thus:
'In the world of existence an international auxiliary language is the greatest bond to unite the people. Today the causes of differences in Europe are the diversities of language. We say, this man is a German, the other is an Italian, then we meet an Englishman and then again a Frenchman. Although they belong to the same race, yet language is the greatest barrier between them. Were a universal auxiliary language now in operation they would all be considered as one . . .
'Now, praise be to God, that Dr Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort, for in this way he has served his fellow-men well. He has invented a language which will bestow the greatest benefits on all people. With untiring effort and self sacrifice on the part ofits devotees it will become universal. Therefore every one of us must study this language and spread it as far as possible so that day by day it may receive a broader recognition, be accepted by all nations and govemments of the world and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that the language of all the future international conferences and congresses will become Esperanto, so that all people may acquire only two languages - one their own tongue and the other the intemational auxiliary language. Then perfect union will be established between the people of the world.
. . I hope that you will make the utmost effort, so that this language of Esperanto may be widely spread. Send some teachers to Persia if you can, so that they may teach it to the young people, and I have written to Persia to tell some of the Persians to come here and study it.'
And in an address given in January in Edinburgh, Scotland, under the auspices of the Edinburgh Esperanto Association, 'Abdu'1-Baha was reported in Star of the IVest to have said:'We. . . have commanded all Baha'xs in the East to study this language very carefull»y, and ere long it will be spread through the entire East.'
Dr Zamenhof answered the interviewer's question: 'I feel greatly interested in the Baha'i movement, as it is one of the great world- movements which, like our own, is insisting upon the brotherhood of mankind, and is calling on men to understand one another and to learn to love each other. The Baha'fs will understand the internal idea of Esperanto better than most people. That idea is, "on the basis of a neutral language to break down the walls which divide men and accustom them to see in their neighbour a man and a brother". I, therefore, think that, when the Baha'fs learn Esperanto, its intemal idea will be a great moral force that will compel them to propagate it ... I haVe always found that the most zealous workers for Esperanto are those who appreciate its internal idea, and not those who see in it merely an instrument for material profit . . . Many people have doubted whether Esperanto would be accepted by Eastem peoples; I have never done so, and I feel certain that the Baha'fs will carry the language into many places where ordinary European propagandists would never have gone.'
This quickly proved to be true: Baha'is such as Mfrza Muhammad Labib were soon teaching Esperanto classes in Persia. Martha Root would use Esperanto extensively in her world travels and would be instrumental in introducing the language into China, while Agnes Alexander would be one of its proponents injapan. Many years later, an Esperanto historian commented: 'The active sympathy of the Baha'is greatly helped the spread [of Esperanto] in the Oriental countries. Often a traveling Esperantist is asked if he is a Baha'f.'
The connection between the two movements, Baha'i and Esperanto, would have great meaning to Lidia in years to come. But that day in Bern, while her father was discussing the matter with the interviewer, she was surely more interested in watching the whimsical Zytglogge and the big brown bears, the city's mascots, in their Bear Pit.
On Thursday morning, the streets of Bern were wet with a light rain that had fallen during the night, and light fog hung in the Aare valley. But as two special railway carriages left Bern for an excursion to Interlaken, the fog slowly dissolved and the sun came out.
They went by train to the shore of the Thunersee and from there by steamer to Interlaken. There were so many Esperantists - about 650 - that luncheon had to be held in sixteen different hotels. In the aftemoon, in an open air theater, they watched a performance of Schiller's IVilliam Tell and in the evening enjoyed a concert and fireworks display. 'The color green formed - coincidentally or not,' a correspondent reported, 'a large part of the fireworks, and every time that it could be seen, a cry was wrenched from the throats of the crowd.' The sprays of rockets lit up the soft Alpine night as if it were day, and 'Bengal lights' filled the garden with changing colors. The Esperantists arrived back in Bem around midnight.
At the Esperanto oratory contest that week, a French Esperantist's speech on 'Fatherland' won first prize. Other orators spoke on heroism, courage, universal brotherhood and capital punishment. The Esperantists went home cherishing memories of Bem and wishing each other 'Till the Tenth!' But much would happen before the Esperantists gathered in a congress again. Fatherland, courage, brotherhood and death would soon be more than topics for speech contests, and the Bengal lights and rockets that lit up the sky all over Europe would not be a mere fireworks display.
SIX
Something Is Guiding Us
Soon after the Zamenhofs retumed home from Bem, Lidia entered the first class of the eight-year Modem School for Girls, in the center of Warsaw. She had had to pass an examination in order to be accepted. For the next eight years, Lidia would attend school there six days a week, studying science, mathematics, history, geography, languages, literature and drawing. As a Jew, she was excused from religion classes.
A contemporary remembered Lidia at ten as a bright student, obedient and neat, and lovely 'as an angel', with long blond braids and a big blue silk ribbon tied in a bow, which 'accented her angelic nature even more'. As a child Lidia was apparently interested in art and painting, and seems to have continued to paint and dabble in applied art until her college years, when other activities claimed her interest.