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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:00 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10159-0.txt b/10159-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6faec4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10159-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3526 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10159 *** + +ENGLAND AND THE WAR + +being + +SUNDRY ADDRESSES + +delivered during the war +and now first collected + +by + +WALTER RALEIGH + +OXFORD + +1918 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, + October 1914. + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + December 12, 1916. + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + An Address to the Union Society of University + College, London, March 22, 1917. + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + February 13, 1918. + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + A Paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, + March 14, 1918. + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + The Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British + Academy, delivered July 4, 1918. + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book was not planned, but grew out of the troubles of the time. +When, on one occasion or another, I was invited to lecture, I did not +find, with Milton's Satan, that the mind is its own place; I could speak +only of what I was thinking of, and my mind was fixed on the War. I am +unacquainted with military science, so my treatment of the War was +limited to an estimate of the characters of the antagonists. + +The character of Germany and the Germans is a riddle. I have seen no +convincing solution of it by any Englishman, and hardly any confident +attempt at a solution which did not speak the uncontrolled language of +passion. There is the same difficulty with the lower animals; our +description of them tends to be a description of nothing but our own +loves and hates. Who has ever fathomed the mind of a rhinoceros; or has +remembered, while he faces the beast, that a good rhinoceros is a +pleasant member of the community in which his life is passed? We see +only the folded hide, the horn, and the angry little eye. We know that +he is strong and cunning, and that his desires and instincts are +inconsistent with our welfare. Yet a rhinoceros is a simpler creature +than a German, and does not trouble our thought by conforming, on +occasion, to civilized standards and humane conditions. + +It seems unreasonable to lay great stress on racial differences. The +insuperable barrier that divides England from Germany has grown out of +circumstance and habit and thought. For many hundreds of years the +German peoples have stood to arms in their own defence against the +encroachments of successive empires; and modern Germany learned the +doctrine of the omnipotence of force by prolonged suffering at the hands +of the greatest master of that immoral school--the Emperor Napoleon. No +German can understand the attitude of disinterested patronage which the +English mind quite naturally assumes when it is brought into contact +with foreigners. The best example of this superiority of attitude is to +be seen in the people who are called pacifists. They are a peculiarly +English type, and they are the most arrogant of all the English. The +idea that they should ever have to fight for their lives is to them +supremely absurd. There must be some mistake, they think, which can be +easily remedied once it is pointed out. Their title to existence is so +clear to themselves that they are convinced it will be universally +recognized; it must not be made a matter of international conflict. +Partly, no doubt, this belief is fostered by lack of imagination. The +sheltered conditions and leisured life which they enjoy as the parasites +of a dominant race have produced in them a false sense of security. But +there is something also of the English strength and obstinacy of +character in their self-confidence, and if ever Germany were to conquer +England some of them would spring to their full stature as the heroes of +an age-long and indomitable resistance. They are not held in much esteem +to-day among their own people; they are useless for the work in hand; +and their credit has suffered from the multitude of pretenders who make +principle a cover for cowardice. But for all that, they are kin to the +makers of England, and the fact that Germany would never tolerate them +for an instant is not without its lesson. + +We shall never understand the Germans. Some of their traits may possibly +be explained by their history. Their passionate devotion to the State, +their amazing vulgarity, their worship of mechanism and mechanical +efficiency, are explicable in a people who are not strong in individual +character, who have suffered much to achieve union, and who have +achieved it by subordinating themselves, soul and body, to a brutal +taskmaster. But the convulsions of war have thrown up things that are +deeper than these, primaeval things, which, until recently, civilization +was believed to have destroyed. The old monstrous gods who gave their +names to the days of the week are alive again in Germany. The English +soldier of to-day goes into action with the cold courage of a man who is +prepared to make the best of a bad job. The German soldier sacrifices +himself, in a frenzy of religious exaltation, to the War-God. The +filthiness that the Germans use, their deliberate befouling of all that +is elegant and gracious and antique, their spitting into the food that +is to be eaten by their prisoners, their defiling with ordure the sacred +vessels in the churches--all these things, too numerous and too +monotonous to describe, are not the instinctive coarsenesses of the +brute beast; they are a solemn ritual of filth, religiously practised, +by officers no less than by men. The waves of emotional exaltation which +from time to time pass over the whole people have the same character, +the character of savage religion. + +If they are alien to civilization when they fight, they are doubly alien +when they reason. They are glib and fluent in the use of the terms which +have been devised for the needs of thought and argument, but their use +of these terms is empty, and exhibits all the intellectual processes +with the intelligence left out. I know nothing more distressing than the +attempt to follow any German argument concerning the War. If it were +merely wrong-headed, cunning, deceitful, there might still be some +compensation in its cleverness. There is no such compensation. The +statements made are not false, but empty; the arguments used are not +bad, but meaningless. It is as if they despised language, and made use +of it only because they believe that it is an instrument of deceit. But +a man who has no respect for language cannot possibly use it in such a +manner as to deceive others, especially if those others are accustomed +to handle it delicately and powerfully. It ought surely to be easy to +apologize for a war that commands the whole-hearted support of a nation; +but no apology worthy of the name has been produced in Germany. The +pleadings which have been used are servile things, written to order, and +directed to some particular address, as if the truth were of no +importance. No one of these appeals has produced any appreciable effect +on the minds of educated Frenchmen, or Englishmen, or Americans, even +among those who are eager to hear all that the enemy has to say for +himself. This is a strange thing; and is perhaps the widest breach of +all. We are hopelessly separated from the Germans; we have lost the use +of a common language, and cannot talk with them if we would. + +We cannot understand them; is it remotely possible that they will ever +understand us? Here, too, the difficulties seem insuperable. It is true +that in the past they have shown themselves willing to study us and to +imitate us. But unless they change their minds and their habits, it is +not easy to see how they are to get near enough to us to carry on their +study. While they remain what they are we do not want them in our +neighbourhood. We are not fighting to anglicize Germany, or to impose +ourselves on the Germans; our work is being done, as work is so often +done in this idle sport-loving country, with a view to a holiday. We +wish to forget the Germans; and when once we have policed them into +quiet and decency we shall have earned the right to forget them, at +least for a time. The time of our respite perhaps will not be long. If +the Allies defeat them, as the Allies will, it seems as certain as any +uncertain thing can be that a mania for imitating British and American +civilization will take possession of Germany. We are not vindictive to a +beaten enemy, and when the Germans offer themselves as pupils we are not +likely to be either enthusiastic in our welcome or obstinate in our +refusal. We shall be bored but concessive. I confess that there are +some things in the prospect of this imitation which haunt me like a +nightmare. The British soldier, whom the German knows to be second to +none, is distinguished for the levity and jocularity of his bearing in +the face of danger. What will happen when the German soldier attempts to +imitate that? We shall be delivered from the German peril as when Israel +came out of Egypt, and the mountains skipped like rams. + +The only parts of this book for which I claim any measure of authority +are the parts which describe the English character. No one of purely +English descent has ever been known to describe the English character, +or to attempt to describe it. The English newspapers are full of praises +of almost any of the allied troops other than the English regiments. I +have more Scottish and Irish blood in my veins than English; and I think +I can see the English character truly, from a little distance. If, by +some fantastic chance, the statesmen of Germany could learn what I tell +them, it would save their country from a vast loss of life and from many +hopeless misadventures. The English character is not a removable part of +the British Empire; it is the foundation of the whole structure, and the +secret strength of the American Republic. But the statesmen of Germany, +who fall easy victims to anything foolish in the shape of a theory that +flatters their vanity, would not believe a word of my essays even if +they were to read them, so they must learn to know the English character +in the usual way, as King George the Third learned to know it from +Englishmen resident in America. + +A habit of lying and a belief in the utility of lying are often +attended by the most unhappy and paralysing effects. The liars become +unable to recognize the truth when it is presented to them. This is the +misery which fate has fixed on the German cause. War, the Germans are +fond of remarking, is war. In almost all wars there is something to be +said on both sides of the question. To know that one side or the other +is right may be difficult; but it is always useful to know why your +enemies are fighting. We know why Germany is fighting; she explained it +very fully, by her most authoritative voices, on the very eve of the +struggle, and she has repeated it many times since in moments of +confidence or inadvertence. But here is the tragedy of Germany: she does +not know why we are fighting. We have told her often enough, but she +does not believe it, and treats our statement as an exercise in the +cunning use of what she calls ethical propaganda. Why ethics, or morals, +should be good enough to inspire sympathy, but not good enough to +inspire war, is one of the mysteries of German thought. No German, not +even any of those few feeble German writers who have fitfully criticized +the German plan, has any conception of the deep, sincere, unselfish, and +righteous anger that was aroused in millions of hearts by the cruelties +of the cowardly assault on Serbia and on Belgium. The late German +Chancellor became uneasily aware that the crucifixion of Belgium was one +of the causes which made this war a truceless war, and his offer, which +no doubt seemed to him perfectly reasonable, was that Germany is willing +to bargain about Belgium, and to relax her hold, in exchange for solid +advantages elsewhere. Perhaps he knew that if the Allies were to spend +five minutes in bargaining about Belgium they would thereby condone the +German crime and would lose all that they have fought for. But it seems +more likely that he did not know it. The Allies know it. + +There is hope in these clear-cut issues. Of all wars that ever were +fought this war is least likely to have an indecisive ending. It must be +settled one way or the other. If the Allied Governments were to make +peace to-day, there would be no peace; the peoples of the free countries +would not suffer it. Germany cannot make peace, for she is bound by +heavy promises to her people, and she cannot deliver the goods. She is +tied to the stake, and must fight the course. Emaciated, exhausted, +repeating, as if in a bad dream, the old boastful appeals to military +glory, she must go on till she drops, and then at last there will be +peace. + +These may themselves seem boastful words; they cannot be proved except +by the event. There are some few Englishmen, with no stomach for a +fight, who think that England is in a bad way because she is engaged in +a war of which the end is not demonstrably certain. If the issues of +wars were known beforehand, and could be discounted, there would be no +wars. Good wars are fought by nations who make their choice, and would +rather die than lose what they are fighting for. Military fortunes are +notoriously variable, and depend on a hundred accidents. Moral causes +are constant, and operate all the time. The chief of these moral causes +is the character of a people. Germany, by her vaunted study of the art +and science of war, has got herself into a position where no success can +come to her except by way of the collapse or failure of the +English-speaking peoples. A study of the moral causes, if she were +capable of making it, would not encourage her in her old impious belief +that God will destroy these peoples in order to clear the way for the +dominion of the Hohenzollerns. + + + + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + +_First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, October 1914_ + + +It is now recognized in England that our enemy in this war is not a +tyrant military caste, but the united people of modern Germany. We have +to combat an armed doctrine which is virtually the creed of all Germany. +Saxony and Bavaria, it is true, would never have invented the doctrine; +but they have accepted it from Prussia, and they believe it. The +Prussian doctrine has paid the German people handsomely; it has given +them their place in the world. When it ceases to pay them, and not till +then, they will reconsider it. They will not think, till they are +compelled to think. When they find themselves face to face with a +greater and more enduring strength than their own, they will renounce +their idol. But they are a brave people, a faithful people, and a stupid +people, so that they will need rough proofs. They cannot be driven from +their position by a little paper shot. In their present mood, if they +hear an appeal to pity, sensibility, and sympathy, they take it for a +cry of weakness. I am reminded of what I once heard said by a genial and +humane Irish officer concerning a proposal to treat with the leaders of +a Zulu rebellion. 'Kill them all,' he said, 'it's the only thing they +understand.' He meant that the Zulu chiefs would mistake moderation for +a sign of fear. By the irony of human history this sentence has become +almost true of the great German people, who built up the structure of +modern metaphysics. They can be argued with only by those who have the +will and the power to punish them. + +The doctrine that Might is Right, though it is true, is an unprofitable +doctrine, for it is true only in so broad and simple a sense that no one +would dream of denying it. If a single nation can conquer, depress, and +destroy all the other nations of the earth and acquire for itself a sole +dominion, there may be matter for question whether God approves that +dominion; what is certain is that He permits it. No earthly governor who +is conscious of his power will waste time in listening to arguments +concerning what his power ought to be. His right to wield the sword can +be challenged only by the sword. An all-powerful governor who feared no +assault would never trouble himself to assert that Might is Right. He +would smile and sit still. The doctrine, when it is propounded by weak +humanity, is never a statement of abstract truth; it is a declaration of +intention, a threat, a boast, an advertisement. It has no value except +when there is some one to be frightened. But it is a very dangerous +doctrine when it becomes the creed of a stupid people, for it flatters +their self-sufficiency, and distracts their attention from the +difficult, subtle, frail, and wavering conditions of human power. The +tragic question for Germany to-day is what she can do, not whether it is +right for her to do it. The buffaloes, it must be allowed, had a +perfect right to dominate the prairie of America, till the hunters came. +They moved in herds, they practised shock-tactics, they were violent, +and very cunning. There are but few of them now. A nation of men who +mistake violence for strength, and cunning for wisdom, may conceivably +suffer the fate of the buffaloes and perish without knowing why. + +To the English mind the German political doctrine is so incredibly +stupid that for many long years, while men in high authority in the +German Empire, ministers, generals, and professors, expounded that +doctrine at great length and with perfect clearness, hardly any one +could be found in England to take it seriously, or to regard it as +anything but the vapourings of a crazy sect. England knows better now; +the scream of the guns has awakened her. The German doctrine is to be +put to the proof. Who dares to say what the result will be? To predict +certain failure to the German arms is only a kind of boasting. Yet there +are guarded beliefs which a modest man is free to hold till they are +seen to be groundless. The Germans have taken Antwerp; they may possibly +destroy the British fleet, overrun England and France, repel Russia, +establish themselves as the dictators of Europe--in short, fulfil their +dreams. What then? At an immense cost of human suffering they will have +achieved, as it seems to us, a colossal and agonizing failure. Their +engines of destruction will never serve them to create anything so fair +as the civilization of France. Their uneasy jealousy and self-assertion +is a miserable substitute for the old laws of chivalry and regard for +the weak, which they have renounced and forgotten. The will and high +permission of all-ruling Heaven may leave them at large for a time, to +seek evil to others. When they have finished with it, the world will +have to be remade. + +We cannot be sure that the Ruler of the world will forbid this. We +cannot even be sure that the destroyers, in the peace that their +destruction will procure for them, may not themselves learn to rebuild. +The Goths, who destroyed the fabric of the Roman Empire, gave their +name, in time, to the greatest mediaeval art. Nature, it is well known, +loves the strong, and gives to them, and to them alone, the chance of +becoming civilized. Are the German people strong enough to earn that +chance? That is what we are to see. They have some admirable elements of +strength, above any other European people. No other European army can be +marched, in close order, regiment after regiment, up the slope of a +glacis, under the fire of machine guns, without flinching, to certain +death. This corporate courage and corporate discipline is so great and +impressive a thing that it may well contain a promise for the future. +Moreover, they are, within the circle of their own kin, affectionate and +dutiful beyond the average of human society. If they succeed in their +worldly ambitions, it will be a triumph of plain brute morality over all +the subtler movements of the mind and heart. + +On the other hand, it is true to say that history shows no precedent for +the attainment of world-wide power by a people so politically stupid as +the German people are to-day. There is no mistake about this; the +instances of German stupidity are so numerous that they make something +like a complete history of German international relations. Here is one. +Any time during the last twenty years it has been matter of common +knowledge in England that one event, and one only, would make it +impossible for England to remain a spectator in a European war--that +event being the violation of the neutrality of Holland or Belgium. There +was never any secret about this, it was quite well known to many people +who took no special interest in foreign politics. Germany has maintained +in this country, for many years, an army of spies and secret agents; yet +not one of them informed her of this important truth. Perhaps the +radical difference between the German and the English political systems +blinded the astute agents. In England nothing really important is a +secret, and the amount of privileged political information to be gleaned +in barbers' shops, even when they are patronized by Civil servants, is +distressingly small. Two hours of sympathetic conversation with an +ordinary Englishman would have told the German Chancellor more about +English politics than ever he heard in his life. For some reason or +other he was unable to make use of this source of intelligence, so that +he remained in complete ignorance of what every one in England knew and +said. + +Here is another instance. The programme of German ambition has been +voluminously published for the benefit of the world. France was first to +be crushed; then Russia; then, by means of the indemnities procured from +these conquests, after some years of recuperation and effort, the naval +power of England was to be challenged and destroyed. This programme was +set forth by high authorities, and was generally accepted; there was no +criticism, and no demur. The crime against the civilization of the world +foreshadowed in the horrible words 'France is to be crushed' is before a +high tribunal; it would be idle to condemn it here. What happened is +this. The French and Russian part of the programme was put into action +last July. England, who had been told that her turn was not yet, that +Germany would be ready for her in a matter of five or ten years, very +naturally refused to wait her turn. She crowded up on to the scaffold, +which even now is in peril of breaking down under the weight of its +victims, and of burying the executioner in its ruins. But because +England would not wait her turn, she is overwhelmed with accusations of +treachery and inhumanity by a sincerely indignant Germany. Could +stupidity, the stupidity of the wise men of Gotham, be more fantastic or +more monstrous? + +German stupidity was even more monstrous. A part of the accusation +against England is that she has raised her hand against the nation +nearest to her in blood. The alleged close kinship of England and +Germany is based on bad history and doubtful theory. The English are a +mixed race, with enormous infusions of Celtic and Roman blood. The Roman +sculpture gallery at Naples is full of English faces. If the German +agents would turn their attention to hatters' shops, and give the +barbers a rest, they would find that no English hat fits any German +head. But suppose we were cousins, or brothers even, what kind of +argument is that on the lips of those who but a short time before were +explaining, with a good deal of zest and with absolute frankness, how +they intended to compass our ruin? There is something almost amiable in +fatuity like this. A touch of the fool softens the brute. + +The Germans have a magnificent war-machine which rolls on its way, +crushing all that it touches. We shall break it if we can. If we fail, +the German nation is at the beginning, not the end, of its troubles. +With the making of peace, even an armed peace, the war-machine has +served its turn; some other instrument of government must then be +invented. There is no trace of a design for this new instrument in any +of the German shops. The governors of Alsace-Lorraine offer no +suggestions. The bald fact is that there is no spot in the world where +the Germans govern another race and are not hated. They know this, and +are disquieted; they meet with coldness on all hands, and their remedy +for the coldness is self-assertion and brag. The Russian statesman was +right who remarked that modern Germany has been too early admitted into +the comity of European nations. Her behaviour, in her new international +relations, is like the behaviour of an uneasy, jealous upstart in an +old-fashioned quiet drawing-room. She has no genius for equality; her +manners are a compound of threatening and flattery. When she wishes to +assert herself, she bullies; when she wishes to endear herself, she +crawls; and the one device is no more successful than the other. + +Might is Right; but the sort of might which enables one nation to govern +another in time of peace is very unlike the armoured thrust of the +war-engine. It is a power compounded of sympathy and justice. The +English (it is admitted by many foreign critics) have studied justice +and desired justice. They have inquired into and protected rights that +were unfamiliar, and even grotesque, to their own ideas, because they +believed them to be rights. In the matter of sympathy their reputation +does not stand so high; they are chill in manner, and dislike all +effusive demonstrations of feeling. Yet those who come to know them know +that they are not unimaginative; they have a genius for equality; and +they do try to put themselves in the other fellow's place, to see how +the position looks from that side. What has happened in India may +perhaps be taken to prove, among many other things, that the inhabitants +of India begin to know that England has done her best, and does feel a +disinterested solicitude for the peoples under her charge. She has long +been a mother of nations, and is not frightened by the problems of +adolescence. + +The Germans have as yet shown no sign of skill in governing other +peoples. Might is Right; and it is quite conceivable that they may +acquire colonies by violence. If they want to keep them they will have +to shut their own professors' books, and study the intimate history of +the British Empire. We are old hands at the business; we have lost more +colonies than ever they owned, and we begin to think that we have learnt +the secret of success. At any rate, our experience has done much for us, +and has helped us to avoid failure. Yet the German colonial party stare +at us with bovine malevolence. In all the library of German theorizing +you will look in vain for any explanation of the fact that the Boers +are, in the main, loyal to the British Empire. If German political +thinkers could understand that political situation, which seems to +English minds so simple, there might yet be hope for them. But they +regard it all as a piece of black magic, and refuse to reason about it. +How should a herd of cattle be driven without goads? Witchcraft, +witchcraft! + +Their world-wide experience it is, perhaps, which has made the English +quick to appreciate the virtues of other peoples. I have never known an +Englishman who travelled in Russia without falling in love with the +Russian people. I have never heard a German speak of the Russian people +without contempt and dislike. Indeed the Germans are so unable to see +any charm in that profound and humane people that they believe that the +English liking for them must be an insincere pretence, put forward for +wicked or selfish reasons. What would they say if they saw a sight that +is common in Indian towns, a British soldier and a Gurkha arm in arm, +rolling down the street in cheerful brotherhood? And how is it that it +has never occurred to any of them that this sort of brotherhood has its +value in Empire-building? The new German political doctrine has bidden +farewell to Christianity, but there are some political advantages in +Christianity which should not be overlooked. It teaches human beings to +think of one another and to care for one another. It is an antidote to +the worst and most poisonous kind of political stupidity. + +Another thing that the Germans will have to learn for the welfare of +their much-talked Empire is the value of the lone man. The architects +and builders of the British Empire were all lone men. Might is Right; +but when a young Englishman is set down at an outpost of Empire to +govern a warlike tribe, he has to do a good deal of hard thinking on the +problem of political power and its foundations. He has to trust to +himself, to form his own conclusions, and to choose his own line of +action. He has to try to find out what is in the mind of others. A young +German, inured to skilled slavery, does not shine in such a position. +Man for man, in all that asks for initiative and self-dependence, +Englishmen are the better men, and some Germans know it. There is an old +jest that if you settle an Englishman and a German together in a new +country, at the end of a year you will find the Englishman governor, and +the German his head clerk. A German must know the rules before he can +get to work. + +More than three hundred years ago a book was written in England which is +in some ways a very exact counterpart to General von Bernhardi's +notorious treatise. It is called _Tamburlaine_, and, unlike its +successor, is full of poetry and beauty. Our own colonization began with +a great deal of violent work, and much wrong done to others. We suffered +for our misdeeds, and we learned our lesson, in part at least. Why, it +may be asked, should not the Germans begin in the same manner, and by +degrees adapt themselves to the new task? Perhaps they may, but if they +do, they cannot claim the Elizabethans for their model. Of all men on +earth the German is least like the undisciplined, exuberant Elizabethan +adventurer. He is reluctant to go anywhere without a copy of the rules, +a guarantee of support, and a regular pension. His outlook is as prosaic +as General von Bernhardi's or General von der Golt's own, and that is +saying a great deal. In all the German political treatises there is an +immeasurable dreariness. They lay down rules for life, and if they be +asked what makes such a life worth living they are without any hint of +an answer. Their world is a workhouse, tyrannically ordered, and full of +pusillanimous jealousies. + +It is not impious to be hopeful. A Germanized world would be a +nightmare. We have never attempted or desired to govern them, and we +must not think that God will so far forget them as to permit them to +attempt to govern us. Now they hate us, but they do not know for how +many years the cheerful brutality of their political talk has shocked +and disgusted us. I remember meeting, in one of the French Mediterranean +dependencies, with a Prussian nobleman, a well-bred and pleasant man, +who was fond of expounding the Prussian creed. He was said to be a +political agent of sorts, but he certainly learned nothing in +conversation. He talked all the time, and propounded the most monstrous +paradoxes with an air of mathematical precision. Now it was the +character of Sir Edward Grey, a cunning Machiavel, whose only aim was to +set Europe by the ears and make neighbours fall out. A friend who was +with me, an American, laughed aloud at this, and protested, without +producing the smallest effect. The stream of talk went on. The error of +the Germans, we were told, was always that they are too humane; their +dislike of cruelty amounts to a weakness in them. They let France escape +with a paltry fine, next time France must be beaten to the dust. Always +with a pleasant outward courtesy, he passed on to England. England was +decadent and powerless, her rule must pass to the Germans. 'But we shall +treat England rather less severely than France,' said this bland apostle +of Prussian culture, 'for we wish to make it possible for ourselves to +remain in friendly relations with other English-speaking peoples.' And +so on--the whole of the Bernhardi doctrine, explained in quiet fashion +by a man whose very debility of mind made his talk the more impressive, +for he was simply parroting what he had often heard. No one criticized +his proposals, nor did we dislike him. It all seemed too mad; a rather +clumsy jest. His world of ideas did not touch our world at any point, so +that real talk between us was impossible. He came to see us several +times, and always gave the same kind of mesmerized recital of Germany's +policy. The grossness of the whole thing was in curious contrast with +the polite and quiet voice with which he uttered his insolences. When I +remember his talk I find it easy to believe that the German Emperor and +the German Chancellor have also talked in such a manner that they have +never had the smallest opportunity of learning what Englishmen think and +mean. + +While the German doctrine was the plaything merely of hysterical and +supersensitive persons, like Carlyle and Nietzsche, it mattered little +to the world of politics. An excitable man, of vivid imagination and +invalid constitution, like Carlyle, feels a natural predilection for the +cult of the healthy brute. Carlyle's English style is itself a kind of +epilepsy. Nietzsche was so nervously sensitive that everyday life was an +anguish to him, and broke his strength. Both were poets, as Marlowe was +a poet, and both sang the song of Power. The brutes of the swamp and the +field, who gathered round them and listened, found nothing new or +unfamiliar in the message of the poets. 'This', they said, 'is what we +have always known, but we did not know that it is poetry. Now that great +poets teach it, we need no longer be ashamed of it.' So they went away +resolved to be twice the brutes that they were before, and they named +themselves Culture-brutes. + +It is difficult to see how the world, or any considerable part of it, +can belong to Germany, till she changes her mind. If she can do that, +she might make a good ruler, for she has solid virtues and good +instincts. It is her intellect that has gone wrong. Bishop Butler was +one day found pondering the problem whether, a whole nation can go mad. +If he had lived to-day what would he have said about it? Would he have +admitted that that strangest of grim fancies is realized? + +It would be vain for Germany to take the world; she could not keep it; +nor, though she can make a vast number of people miserable for a long +time, could she ever hope to make all the inhabitants of the world +miserable for all time. She has a giant's power, and does not think it +infamous to use it like a giant. She can make a winter hideous, but she +cannot prohibit the return of spring, or annul the cleansing power of +water. Sanity is not only better than insanity; it is much stronger, and +Might is Right. + +Meantime, it is a delight and a consolation to Englishmen that England +is herself again. She has a cause that it is good to fight for, whether +it succeed or fail. The hope that uplifts her is the hope of a better +world, which our children shall see. She has wonderful friends. From +what self-governing nations in the world can Germany hear such messages +as came to England from the Dominions oversea? 'When England is at war, +Canada is at war.' 'To the last man and the last shilling, Australia +will support the cause of the Empire.' These are simple words, and +sufficient; having said them, Canada and Australia said no more. In the +company of such friends, and for the creed that she holds, England might +be proud to die; but surely her time is not yet. + + Our faith is ours, and comes not on a tide; + And whether Earth's great offspring by decree + Must rot if they abjure rapacity, + Not argument, but effort shall decide. + They number many heads in that hard flock, + Trim swordsmen they push forth, yet try thy steel; + Thou, fighting for poor human kind, shalt feel + The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew + A chasm sheer into the barrier rock, + And bring the army of the faithful through. + + + + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, December 12, 1916_ + + +I hold, as I daresay you do, that we are at a crisis of our history +where there is not much room for talk. The time when this struggle might +have been averted or won by talk is long past. During the hundred years +before the war we have not talked much, or listened much, to the +Germans. For fifty of those years at least the head of waters that has +now been let loose in a devastating flood over Europe was steadily +accumulating; but we paid little attention to it. People sometimes speak +of the negotiations of the twelve days before the war as if the whole +secret and cause of the war could be found there; but it is not so. +Statesmen, it is true, are the keepers of the lock-gates, but those +keepers can only delay, they cannot prevent an inundation that has great +natural causes. The world has in it evil enough, and darkness enough. +But it is not so bad and so dark that a slip in diplomacy, a careless +word, or an impolite gesture, can instantaneously, as if by magic, +involve twenty million men in a struggle to the death. It is only +clever, conceited men, proud of their neat little minds, who think that +because they cannot fathom the causes of the war, it might easily have +been prevented. I confess I find it difficult to conceive of the war in +terms of simple right and wrong. We must respect the tides, and their +huge unintelligible force teaches us to respect them. + +It is not a war of race. For all our differences with the Germans, any +cool and impartial mind must admit that we have many points of kinship +with them. During the years before the war our naval officers in the +Mediterranean found, I believe, that it was easier to associate on terms +of social friendship with the Austrians than with the officers of any +other foreign navy. We have a passionate admiration for France, and a +real devotion to her, but that is a love affair, not a family tie. We +begin to be experienced in love affairs, for Ireland steadily refuses to +be treated on any other footing. In any case, we are much closer to the +Germans than they are to the Bulgarians or the Turks. Of these three we +like the Turks the best, because they are chivalrous and generous +enemies, which the Germans are not. + +It is a war of ideas. We are fighting an armed doctrine. Yet Burke's use +of those words to describe the military power of Revolutionary France +should warn us against fallacious attempts to simplify the issue. When +ideas become motives and are filtered into practice, they lose their +clearness of outline and are often hard to recognize. They leaven the +lump, but the lump is still human clay, with its passions and +prejudices, its pride and its hate. I remember seeing in a provincial +paper, in the early days of the war, two adjacent columns, both dealing +with the war. The first was headed 'A Holy War' and set forth the great +principles of nationality, respect for treaties, and protection of the +weak, which in our opinion are the main motives of the Allies in this +war. The second was headed 'The War on Commerce; Tips to capture German +trade', and set forth those other principles and motives which, in the +opinion of the Germans, brought England into this war. + +I am not going to defend England against the charge that she entered +this war on a cold calculation of mercantile profit. Every one here +knows that the charge is utterly untrue. Those who believe the charge +could not be shaken in their belief except by being educated all over +again, and introduced to some knowledge of human nature. It is enough to +remark that this charge is a commonplace between belligerent nations. +They all like to believe that their adversaries entertain only base +motives, while they themselves act only on the loftiest ideal +promptings. If the charge means only that every nation at war is bound +to think of its own interests, to conserve its own strength, and to +seize on all material gains that are within its reach, the charge is +true and harmless. When two angry women quarrel in a back street, they +commonly accuse each other of being amorous. They might just as well +accuse each other of being human. The charge is true and insignificant. +So also with nations; they all cherish themselves and seek to preserve +their means of livelihood. + +If this were their sole concern, there would be few wars; certainly this +war, which is desolating and impoverishing Europe, would be impossible. +No one, surely, can look at the war and say that nations are moved only +by their material interests. It would be more plausible to say that they +are too little moved by those interests. Bacon, in his essay _Of Death_, +remarks that the fear of death does not much affect mankind. 'There is +no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the +fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man +hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. +Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; +grief flieth to it, fear pre-occupateth it; nay, we read, after Otho the +Emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) +provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as +the truest sort of followers.' If this is true of the fear of death, how +much truer it is of the love of material gain. Any whim, or point of +pride, or fixed idea, or old habit, is enough to make a man or a nation +forgo the hope of profit and fight for a creed. + +The German creed is by this time well known. Before the war we took +little notice of it. We sometimes saw it stated in print, but it seemed +to us too monstrous and inhuman to be the creed of a whole people. We +were wrong; it was the creed of a whole people. By the mesmerism of +State education, by the discipline of universal military service, by the +pride of the German people in their past victories, and by the fears +natural to a nation that finds enemies on all its fronts, an absolute +belief in the State, in war as the highest activity of the State, and in +the right of the State to enslave all its subjects, body and soul, to +its purposes, had become the creed of all those diverse peoples that are +united under the Prussian Monarchy. Most of them are not naturally +warlike peoples. They have been lured, and frightened, and drilled, and +bribed into war, but it is true to say that, on the whole, they enjoy +fighting less than we do. One of the truest remarks ever made on the war +was that famous remark of a British private soldier, who was telling +how his company took a trench from the enemy. Fearing that his account +of the affair might sound boastful, he added, 'You see, Sir, they're not +a military people, like we are.' Only the word was wrong, the meaning +was right. They are, as every one knows, an enormously military people, +and, if they want to fight at all, they have to be a military people, +for the vast majority of them are not a warlike people. A first-class +army could never have been fashioned in Germany out of volunteer +civilians, like our army on the Somme. That army has a little shaken the +faith of the Germans in their creed. Again I must quote one of our +soldiers: 'I don't say', he remarked, 'that our average can run rings +round their best; what I say is that our average is better than their +average, and our best is better than their best.' The Germans already +are uneasy about their creed and their system, but there is no escape +for them; they have sacrificed everything to it; they have impoverished +the mind and drilled the imagination of every German citizen, so that +Germany appears before the world with the body of a giant and the mind +of a dwarf; they have sacrificed themselves in millions that their creed +may prevail, and with their creed they must stand or fall. The State, +organized as absolute power, responsible to no one, with no duties to +its neighbour, and with only nominal duties to a strictly subordinate +God, has challenged the soul of man in its dearest possessions. We +cannot predict the course of military operations; but if we were not +sure of the ultimate issue of this great struggle, we should have no +sufficient motive for continuing to breathe. The State has challenged +the soul of man before now, and has always been defeated. A miserable +remnant of men and women, tied to stakes or starved in dungeons, have +before now shattered what seemed an omnipotent tyranny, because they +stood for the soul and were not prompted by vanity or self-regard. They +had great allies-- + + 'Their friends were exultations, agonies, + And love, and man's unconquerable mind.' + +If we are defeated we shall be defeated not by German strength but by +our own weakness. The worst enemy of the martyr is doubt and the divided +mind, which suggests the question, 'Is it, after all, worth while?' We +must know what we have believed. What do we stand for in this war? It is +only the immovable conviction that we stand for something ultimate and +essential that can help us and carry us through. No war of this kind and +on this scale is good enough to fight unless it is good enough to fail +in. 'The calculation of profit', said Burke,'in all such wars is false. +On balancing the account of such wars, ten thousand hogs-heads of sugar +are purchased at ten thousand times their price. The blood of man should +never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our +family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The +rest is vanity; the rest is crime.' + +The question I have asked is a difficult question to answer, or, rather, +the answer is not easy to formulate briefly and clearly. Most of the men +at the front know quite well what they are fighting for; they know that +it is for their country, but that it is also for their kind--for certain +ideals of humanity. We at home know that we are at war for liberty and +humanity. But these words are invoked by different nations in different +senses; the Germans, or at least most of them, have as much liberty as +they desire, and believe that the highest good of humanity is to be +found in the prevalence of their own ideas and of their own type of +government and society. No abstract demonstration can help us. Liberty +is a highly comparative notion; no one asks for it complete. Humanity is +a highly variable notion; it is interpreted in different senses by +different societies. What we are confronted by is two types of +character, two sets of aims, two ideals for society. There can be no +harm in trying to understand both. + +The Germans can never be understood by those who neglect their history. +They are a solid, brave, and earnest people, who, till quite recent +times, have been denied their share in the government of Europe. In the +sixteenth century they were deeply stirred by questions of religion, and +were rent asunder by the Reformation. Compromise proved futile; the +small German states were ranked on this side or on that at the will of +their rulers and princes; men of the same race were ranged in mortal +opposition on the question of religious belief, and there was no +solution but war. For thirty years in the seventeenth century the war +raged. It was conducted with a fierceness and inhumanity that even the +present war has not equalled. The civilian population suffered +hideously. Whole provinces were desolated and whole states were bereaved +of their men. When, from mere exhaustion, the war came to an end, +Germany lay prostrate, and the chief gains of the war fell to the rising +monarchy of France, which had intervened in the middle of the struggle. +By the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 Alsace and Lorraine went to France, +and the rule of the great monarch, Louis XIV, had nothing to fear from +the German peoples. The ambitions of Germany, for long after this, were +mainly cosmopolitan and intellectual. But political ambitions, though +they seemed almost dead, were revived by the hardy state of Prussia, and +the rest of Germany's history, down to our own time, is the history of +the welding of the Germanic peoples into a single state by Prussian +monarchs and statesmen. + +This history explains many things. If a people has a corporate memory, +if it can learn from its own sufferings, Germany has reason enough to +cherish with a passionate devotion her late achieved unity. And German +brutality, which is not the less brutality because Germans regard it as +quite natural and right, has its origin in German history. The Prussian +is a Spartan, a natural brute, but brutal to himself as well as to +others, capable of extremes of self-denial and self-discipline. From the +Prussians the softer and more emotional German peoples of the South +received the gift of national unity, and they repaid the debt by +extravagant admiration for Prussian prowess and hardihood, which had +been so serviceable to their cause. The Southern Germans, the Bavarians +especially, have developed a sort of sentimentalism of brutality, +expressed in the hysterical Hymn of Hate (which hails from Munich), +expressed also in those monstrous excesses and cruelties, surpassing +anything that mere insensibility can produce, which have given the +Bavarian troops their foul reputation in the present war. + +The last half century of German history must also be remembered. Three +assaults on neighbouring states were rewarded by a great increase of +territory and of strength. From Denmark, in 1864, Prussia took +Schleswig-Holstein. The defeat of Austria in 1866 brought Hanover and +Bavaria under the Prussian leadership; Alsace and Lorraine were regained +from France in 1870. The Prussian mind, which is not remarkable for +subtlety, found a justification in these three wars for its favourite +doctrine of frightfulness. That doctrine, put briefly, is that people +can always be frightened into submission, and that it is cheaper to +frighten them than to fight them to the bitter end. Denmark was a small +nation, and moreover was left utterly unsupported by the European powers +who had guaranteed her integrity. Bavaria was frightened, and will be +frightened again when her hot fit gives way to her cold fit. France was +divided and half-hearted under a tinsel emperor. It is Germany's +misfortune that on these three special cases she based a general +doctrine of war. A very little knowledge of human nature--a knowledge so +alien to her that she calls it psychology and assigns it to +specialists--would have taught her that, for the most part, human beings +when they are fighting for their homes and their faith cannot be +frightened, and must be killed or conciliated. The practice of +frightfulness has not worked very well in this war. It has steeled the +heart of Germany's enemies. It has produced in her victims a temper of +hate that will outlive this generation, and will make the small peoples +whom she has kicked and trampled on impossible subjects of the German +Empire. Worst of all it has suggested to onlookers that the people who +have so plenary a belief in frightfulness are not themselves strangers +to fear. There is an old English proverb, hackneyed and stale three +hundred years ago, but now freshened again by disuse, that the goodwife +would never have looked for her daughter in the oven unless she had been +there herself. + +How shall I describe the English temper, which the Germans, high and +low, learned and ignorant, have so profoundly mistaken? You can get no +description of it from the Englishman pure and simple; he has no theory +of himself, and it bores him to hear himself described. Yet it is this +temper which has given England her great place in the world and which +has cemented the British Empire. It is to be found not in England alone, +but wherever there is a strain of English blood or an acceptance of +English institutions. You can find it in Australia, in Canada, in +America; it infects Scotland, and impresses Wales. It is everywhere in +our trenches to-day. It is not clannish, or even national, it is +essentially the lonely temper of a man independent to the verge of +melancholy. An admirable French writer of to-day has said that the best +handbook and guide to the English temper is Defoe's romance of _Robinson +Crusoe_. Crusoe is practical, but is conscious of the over-shadowing +presence of the things that are greater than man. He makes his own +clothing, teaches his goats to dance, and wrestles in thought with the +problems suggested by his Bible. Another example of the same temper may +be seen in Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, and yet another in +Wordsworth's _Prelude_. There is no danger that English thought will +ever underestimate the value and meaning of the individual soul. The +greatest English literature, it might almost be said, from Shakespeare's +_Hamlet_ to Browning's _The Ring and the Book_, is concerned with no +other subject. The age-long satire against the English is that in +England every man claims the right to go to heaven his own way. English +institutions, instead of subduing men to a single pattern, are devised +chiefly with the object of saving the rights of the subject and the +liberty of the individual. 'Every man in his humour' is an English +proverb, and might almost be a statement of English constitutional +doctrine. But this extreme individualism is the right of all, and does +not favour self-exaltation. The English temper has an almost morbid +dislike of all that is showy or dramatic in expression. I remember how a +Winchester boy, when he was reproached with the fact that Winchester has +produced hardly any great men, replied, 'No, indeed, I should think not. +We would pretty soon have knocked that out of them.' And the epigrams of +the English temper usually take the form of understatement. 'Give +Dayrolles a chair' were the last dying words of Lord Chesterfield, +spoken of the friend who had come to see him. When the French troops go +over the parapet to make an advance, their battle cry shouts the praises +of their Country. The British troops prefer to celebrate the advance in +a more trivial fashion, 'This way to the early door, sixpence extra.' + +I might go on interminably with this dissertation, but I have said +enough for my purpose. The history of England has had much to do with +moulding the English temper. We have been protected from direct +exposure to the storms that have swept the Continent. Our wars on land +have been adventures undertaken by expeditionary forces. At sea, while +the power of England was growing, we have been explorers, pirates, +buccaneers. Now that we are involved in a great European war on land, +our methods have been changed. The artillery and infantry of a modern +army cannot act effectively on their own impulse. We hold the sea, and +the pirates' work for the present has passed into other hands. But our +spirit and temper is the same as of old. It has found a new world in the +air. War in the air, under the conditions of to-day, demands all the old +gallantry and initiative. The airman depends on his own brain and nerve; +he cannot fall back on orders from his superiors. Our airmen of to-day +are the true inheritors of Drake; they have the same inspired +recklessness, the same coolness, and the same chivalry to a vanquished +enemy. + +I am a very bad example of the English temper; for the English temper +grumbles at all this, to the great relief of our enemies, who believe +that what a man admits against his own nation must be true. Our +pessimists, by indulging their natural vein, serve us, without reward, +quite as well as Germany is served by her wireless press. They deceive +the enemy. + +Modern Germany has organized and regimented her people like an ant-hill +or a beehive. The people themselves, including many who belong to the +upper class, are often simple villagers in temper, full of kindness and +anger, much subject to envy and jealousy, not magnanimous, docile and +obedient to a fault. If they claimed, as individuals, to represent the +highest reach of European civilization, the claim would be merely +absurd. So they shift their ground, and pretend that society is greater +than man, and that by their painstaking organization their society has +been raised to the pinnacle of human greatness. They make this claim so +insistently, and in such obvious good faith, that some few weak tempers +and foolish minds in England have been impressed by it. These +panic-stricken counsellors advise us, without delay, to reform our +institutions and organize them upon the German model. Only thus, they +tell us, can we hold our own against so huge a power. But if we were to +take their advice, we should have nothing of our own left to hold. It is +reasonable and good to co-operate and organize in order to attain an +agreed object, but German organization goes far beyond this. The German +nation is a carefully built, smooth-running machine, with powerful +engines. It has only one fault--that any fool can drive it; and seeing +that the governing class in Germany is obstinate and unimaginative, +there is no lack of drivers to pilot it to disaster. The best ability of +Germany is seen in her military organization. Napoleon is her worshipped +model, and, like many admirers of Napoleon, she thinks only of his great +campaigns; she forgets that he died in St. Helena, and that his schemes +for the reorganization of Europe failed. + +I know that many people in England are not daunted but depressed by the +military successes of the enemy. Our soldiers in the field are not +depressed. But we who are kept at home suffer from the miasma of the +back-parlour. We read the headlines of newspapers--a form of literature +that is exciting enough, but does not merit the praise given to +Sophocles, who saw life steadily and saw it whole. We keep our ears to +the telephone, and we forget that the great causes which are always at +work, and which will shape the issues of this war, are not recorded upon +the telephone. There are things truer and more important than the latest +dispatches. Here is one of them. The organization of the second-rate can +never produce anything first-rate. We do not understand a people who, +when it comes to the last push of man against man, throw up their hands +and utter the pathetic cry of 'Kamerad'. To surrender is a weakness that +no one who has not been under modern artillery fire has any right to +condemn; to profess a sudden affection for the advancing enemy is not +weakness but baseness. Or rather, it would be baseness in a voluntary +soldier; in the Germans it means only that the war is not their own war; +that they are fighting as slaves, not as free men. The idea that we +could ever live under the rule of these people is merely comic. To do +them justice, they do not now entertain the idea, though they have +dallied with it in the past. + +No harm can be done, I think, by preaching to the English people the +necessity for organization and discipline. We shall still be ourselves, +and there is no danger that we shall overdo discipline or make +organization a thing to be worshipped for its own sake. The danger is +all the other way. We have learnt much from the war, and the work that +we shall have to do when it ends is almost more important than the terms +of peace, or concessions made this way and that. If the treacherous +assault of the Germans on the liberties and peace of Europe is rewarded +by any solid gain to the German Empire, then history may forgive them, +but this people of the British Empire will not forgive them. Nothing +will be as it was before; and our cause, which will not be lost in the +war, will still have to be won in the so-called peace. I know that some +say, 'Let us have war when we are at war, and peace when we are at +peace'. It sounds plausible and magnanimous, but it is Utopian. You must +reckon with your own people. They know that when we last had peace, the +sunshine of that peace was used by the Germans to hatch the spawn of +malice and treason. If the Germans are defeated in the war, we shall, I +suppose, forgive them, for the very English reason that it is a bore not +to forgive your enemies. But if they escape without decisive defeat in +battle, their harder trial is yet to come. + +In some ways we are stronger than we have been in all our long history. +We have found ourselves, and we have found our friends. Our dead have +taught the children of to-day more and better than any living teachers +can teach them. No one in this country will ever forget how the people +of the Dominions, at the first note of war, sprang to arms like one man. +We must not thank or praise them; like the Navy, they regard our thanks +and praise as something of an impertinence. They are not fighting, they +say, for us. But that is how we discovered them. They are doing much +better than fighting for us, they are fighting with us, because, without +a word of explanation or appeal, their ideas and ours are the same. We +never have discussed with them, and we never shall discuss, what is +decent and clean and honourable in human behaviour. A philosopher who +is interested in this question can find plenty of intellectual exercise +by discussing it with the Germans, Where an Englishman, a Canadian, and +an Australian are met, there is no material for such a debate. + +It would be extravagant to suppose that a discovery like this can leave +our future relations untouched. We now know that we are profoundly +united in a union much stronger and deeper than any mechanism can +produce. I know how difficult a problem it is to hit on the best device +for giving political expression to this union between States separated +from one another by the whole world's diameter, differing in their +circumstances, their needs, and their outlook. I do not dare to +prescribe; but I should like to make a few remarks, and to call +attention to a few points which are perhaps more present to the mind of +the ordinary citizen than they are in the discussions of constitutional +experts. + +We must arrange for co-operation and mutual support. If the arrangement +is complicated and lengthy, we must not wait for it; we must meet and +discuss our common affairs. Ministers from the Dominions have already +sat with the British Cabinet. We can never go back on that; it is a +landmark in our history. Our Ministers must travel; if their supporters +are impatient of their absence on the affairs of the Empire, they must +find some less parochial set of supporters. We have begun in the right +way; the right way is not to pass laws determining what you are to do; +but to do what is needful, and do it at once,--do a lot of things, and +regularize your successes by later legislation. Now is the time, while +the Empire is white-hot. Our first need is not lawyers, but men who, +feeling friendly, know how to behave as friends do. They will not be +impeached if they go beyond the letter of the law. One act of faith is +worth a hundred arguments. This is a family affair; the habits of an +affectionate and united family are the only good model. + +As for the Crown Colonies and India, the Dominions must share our +burden. It is objected, both here and in India, that life in the +Dominions is a very inadequate education for the sympathetic handling of +alien races and customs. So is life in many parts of this island. The +fact is that the process of learning to govern these alien peoples is +the best education in the world. The Indian Civil Service is a great +College, and it governs India. I can speak to this point, for I have +lived there and seen it at work. If India were really governed by the +ideas of the young novices who go out there fresh from their +examinations, she would be a distressful country. But the novice is +taken in hand at once by the older members of the service; he works +under the eye of the Collector and the Assistant Collector; they +shoulder him and instruct him as tame elephants shoulder and instruct +the wild; they are kind to him, and he lives in their company while his +prejudices and follies peel off him; so that within a few years he +becomes a tolerant, wise, and devoted civil servant, who speaks the +language of the College and is proud to belong to it. The success of the +Government of India is not to be credited to the classes from which the +Civil Service is recruited, but to the discipline of the Service itself, +a Service so high in tradition and so free from corruption that +advancement in it is to be gained only by intelligence and sympathy. +What I am saying is that I can imagine no finer raw material for the +political discipline of the Indian Civil Service than some of the +generous and clean-run spirits who have come from the Dominions to help +in this war. They could be introduced to a share of our responsibilities +without impeding or retarding the movement to give to selected natives +of India a larger share in the government of their country. + +But the war is not over, so I return to the main issue--the conflict +between the English idea and the German idea of world government. It is +not an accident, as Baron von Hügel remarks in his book on _The German +Soul_, that the chief colonizing nation of the world should be a nation +without a national army. We have depended enormously in the past on the +initiative and virtue of the individual adventurer; if our adventurers +were to fail us, which is not likely, or if the State were to supersede +them, and attempt to do their work, which is not conceivable, our +political power and influence would vanish with them. The world might +perhaps be well ordered, but there would be no freedom, and no fun. The +beauty of the adventurer is that he is practically invincible. He does +not wait for orders. Under the most perfect police system that Germany +could devise, he would be up and at it again. We are not so numerous as +the Germans, but there are enough and to spare of us to make German +government impossible in any place where we pitch our tents. We are +practised hands at upsetting governments. Our political system is a +training school for rebels. This is what makes our very existence an +offence to the moral instincts of the German people. They are quite +right to want to kill us; the only way to abolish fun and freedom is to +abolish life. But I must not be unjust to them; their forethought +provides for everything, and no doubt they would prescribe authorized +forms of fun for half an hour a week, and would gather together their +subjects in public assembly, under municipal regulations, to perform +approved exercises in freedom. + +Mankind lives by ideas; and if an irreconcilable difference in ideas +makes a good war, then this is a good war. The contrast between the two +ideas is profound and far-reaching. My business lies in a University. +For a good many years before the war certain selected German students, +who had had a University education in their own country, came as Rhodes +scholars to Oxford. The intention of Mr. Rhodes was benevolent; he +thought that if German students were to reside for four years at Oxford +and to associate there, at an impressionable time of life, with young +Englishmen, understanding and fellowship would be encouraged between the +two peoples. But the German government took care to defeat Mr. Rhodes's +intention. Instead of sending a small number of students for the full +period, as Mr. Rhodes had provided, Germany asked and (by whose mistake +I do not know) obtained leave to send a larger number for a shorter +stay. The students selected were intended for the political and +diplomatic service, and were older than the usual run of Oxford +freshmen. Their behaviour had a certain ambassadorial flavour about it. +They did not mix much in the many undergraduate societies which flourish +in a college, but met together in clubs of their own to drink patriotic +toasts. They were nothing if not superior. I remember a conversation I +had with one of them who came to consult me. He wished, he said, to do +some definite piece of research work in English literature. I asked him +what problems or questions in English literature most interested him, +and he replied that he would do anything that I advised. We had a talk +of some length, wholly at cross-purposes. At last I tried to make my +point of view clear by reminding him that research means finding the +answer to a question, and that if his reading of English literature, +which had been fairly extensive, had suggested no questions to his mind, +he was not in the happiest possible position to begin research. This +touched his national pride, and he gave me something not unlike a +lecture. In Germany, he said, the professor tells you what you are to +do; he gives you a subject for investigation, he names the books you are +to read, and advises you on what you are to write; you follow his +advice, and produce a thesis, which gains you the degree of Doctor of +Letters. I have seen a good many of these theses, and I am sure this +account is correct. With very rare exceptions they are as dead as +mutton, and much less nourishing. The upshot of our conversation was +that he thought me an incompetent professor, and I thought him an +unprofitable student. + +There are many people in England to-day who praise the thoroughness of +the Germans, and their devotion to systematic thought. Has any one ever +taken the trouble to trace the development of the thesis habit, and its +influence on their national life? They theorize everything, and they +believe in their theories. They have solemn theories of the English +character, of the French character, of the nature of war, of the history +of the world. No breath of scepticism dims their complacency, although +events steadily prove their theories wrong. They have courage, and when +they are seeking truth by the process of reasoning, they accept the +conclusions attained by the process, however monstrous these conclusions +may be. They not only accept them, they act upon them, and, as every one +knows, their behaviour in Belgium was dictated to them by their +philosophy. + +Thought of this kind is the enemy of the human race. It intoxicates +sluggish minds, to whom thought is not natural. It suppresses all the +gentler instincts of the heart and supplies a basis of orthodoxy for all +the cruelty and treachery in the world. I do not know, none of us knows, +when or how this war will end. But I know that it is worth fighting to +the end, whatever it may cost to all and each of us. We may have peace +with the Germans, the peace of exhaustion or the peace that is only a +breathing space in a long struggle. We can never have peace with the +German idea. It was not the idea of the older German thinkers--of Kant, +or of Goethe, who were good Europeans. Kant said that there is nothing +good in the world except the good will. The modern German doctrine is +that there is nothing good in the world except what tends to the power +and glory of the State. The inventor of this doctrine, it may be +remembered, was the Devil, who offered to the Son of Man the glory of +all the kingdoms of the world, if only He would fall down and worship +him. The Germans, exposed to a like temptation, have accepted the offer +and have fulfilled the condition. They can have no assurance that faith +will be kept with them. On the other hand, we can have no assurance that +they will suffer any signal or dramatic reverse. Human history does not +usually observe the laws of melodrama. But we know that their newly +purchased doctrine can be fought, in war and in peace, and we know that +in the end it will not prevail. + + + + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + +_An Address to the Union Society of University College, London, March +22,1917_ + + +When Professor W.P. Ker asked me to address you on this ceremonial +occasion I felt none of the confidence of the man who knows what he +wants to say, and is looking for an audience. But Professor Ker is my +old friend, and this place is the place where I picked up many of those +fragmentary impressions which I suppose must be called my education. So +I thought it would be ungrateful to refuse, even though it should prove +that I have nothing to express save goodwill and the affections of +memory. + +When I matriculated in the University of London and became a student in +this place, my professors were Professor Goodwin, Professor Church, +Professor Henrici, Professor Groom Robertson, and Professor Henry +Morley. I remember all these, though, if they were alive, I do not think +that any of them would remember me. The indescribable exhilaration, +which must be familiar to many of you, of leaving school and entering +college, is in great part the exhilaration of making acquaintance with +teachers who care much about their subject and little or nothing about +their pupils. To escape from the eternal personal judgements which make +a school a place of torment is to walk upon air. The schoolmaster looks +at you; the college professor looks the way you are looking. The +statements made by Euclid, that thoughtful Greek, are no longer +encumbered at college with all those preposterous and irrelevant moral +considerations which desolate the atmosphere of a school. The question +now is not whether you have perfectly acquainted yourself with what +Euclid said, but whether what he said is true. In my earliest days at +college I heard a complete exposition of the first six books of Euclid, +given in four lectures, with masterly ease and freedom, by Professor +Henrici, who did not hesitate to employ methods of demonstration which, +though they are perfectly legitimate and convincing, were rejected by +the daintiness of the Greek. Professor Groom Robertson introduced his +pupils to the mysteries of mental and moral philosophy, and incidentally +disaffected some of us by what seemed to us his excessive reverence for +the works of Alexander Bain. Those works were our favourite theme for +satirical verse, which we did not pain our Professor by publishing. +Professor Henry Morley lectured hour after hour to successive classes in +a room half way down the passage, on the left. Even overwork could not +deaden his enormous vitality; but I hope that his immediate successor +does not lecture so often. Outside the classrooms I remember the +passages, which resembled the cellars of an unsuccessful sculptor, the +library, where I first read _Romeo and Juliet_, and the refectory, where +we discussed human life in most, if not in all, of its aspects. In the +neighbourhood of the College there was the classic severity of Gower +Street, and, for those who preferred the richer variety of romance, +there was always the Tottenham Court Road. Beyond all, and throughout +all, there was friendship, and there was freedom. The College was +founded, I believe, partly in the interests of those who object to +subscribe to a conclusion before they are permitted to examine the +grounds for it. It has always been a free place; and if I remember it as +a place of delight, that is because I found here the delights of +freedom. + +My thoughts in these days are never very long away from the War, so that +I should feel it difficult to speak of anything else. Yet there are so +many ways in which it would be unprofitable for me to pretend to speak +of it, that the difficulty remains. I have no knowledge of military or +naval strategy. I am not intimately acquainted with Germany or with +German culture. I could praise our own people, and our own fighting men, +from a full heart; but that, I think, is not exactly what you want from +me. So I am reduced to attempting what we have all had to attempt during +the past two years or more, to try to state, for myself as much as for +you, the meaning of this War so far as we can perceive it. + +It seems to be a decree of fate that this country shall be compelled +every hundred years to fight for her very life. We live in an island +that lies across the mouths of the Rhine, and guards the access to all +the ports of northern Europe. In this island we have had enough safety +and enough leisure to develop for ourselves a system of constitutional +and individual liberty which has had an enormous influence on other +nations. It has been admired and imitated; it has also been hated and +attacked. To the majority of European statesmen and politicians it has +been merely unintelligible. Some of them have regarded it with a kind +of superstitious reverence; for we have been very successful in the +world at large, and how could so foolish and ineffective a system +achieve success except by adventitious aid? Others, including all the +statesmen and political theorists who prepared Germany for this War, +have refused to admire; the power of England, they have taught, is not +real power; she has been crafty and lucky; she has kept herself free +from the entanglements and strifes of the Continent, and has enriched +herself by filching the property of the combatants. If once she were +compelled to hold by force what she won by guile, her pretensions would +collapse, and she would fall back into her natural position as a small +agricultural island, inhabited by a people whose proudest boast would +then be that they are poor cousins of the Germans. + +It is difficult to discuss this question with German professors and +politicians: they have such simple minds, and they talk like angry +children. Their opinions concerning England are not original; their +views were held with equal fervour and expressed in very similar +language by Philip of Spain in the sixteenth century, by Louis XIV of +France in the seventeenth century, and by Napoleon at the close of the +eighteenth century. 'These all died in faith, not having received the +promises, but having seen them afar off.' I will ask you to consider the +attack made upon England by each of these three powerful rulers. + +Any one who reads the history of these three great wars will feel a +sense of illusion, as if he were reading the history of to-day. The +points of resemblance in all four wars are so many and so great that it +seems as if the four wars were all one war, repeated every century. The +cause of the war is always an ambitious ruler who covets supremacy on +the European Continent. England is always opposed to him--inevitably and +instinctively. It took the Germans twenty years to prepare their people +for this War. It took us two days to prepare ours. Our instinct is quick +and sound; for the resources and wealth of the Continent, if once they +were controlled by a single autocratic power, would make it impossible +for England to follow her fortunes upon the sea. But we never stand +quite alone. The smaller peoples of the Continent, who desire +self-government, or have achieved it, always give the conqueror trouble, +and rebel against him or resist him. England always sends help to them, +the help of an expeditionary force, or, failing that, the help of +irregular volunteers. Sir Philip Sidney dies at Zutphen; Sir John Moore +at Corunna. There is always desperate fighting in the Low Countries; and +the names of Mons, Liège, Namur, and Lille recur again and again. +England always succeeds in maintaining herself, though not without some +reverses, on the sea. In the end the power of the master of legions, +Philip, Louis, Napoleon, and shall we say William, crumbles and melts; +his ambitions are too costly to endure, his people chafe under his lash, +and his kingdom falls into insignificance or is transformed by internal +revolution. + +In all these wars there is one other resemblance which it is good to +remember to-day. The position of England, at one time or another in the +course of the war, always seems desperate. When Philip of Spain invaded +England with the greatest navy of the world, he was met on the seas by a +fleet made up chiefly of volunteers. When Louis overshadowed Europe and +threatened England, our king was in his pay and had made a secret treaty +with him; our statesmen, moreover, had destroyed our alliance with the +maritime powers of Sweden and Holland, we had war with the Dutch, and +our fleet was beaten by them. During the war against Napoleon we were in +an even worse plight; the plausible political doctrines of the +Revolution found many sympathizers in this country; our sailors mutinied +at the Nore; Ireland was aflame with discontent; and we were involved in +the Mahratta War in India, not to mention the naval war with America. +Even after Trafalgar, our European allies failed us, Napoleon disposed +of Austria and Prussia, and concluded a separate treaty with Russia. It +was then that Wordsworth wrote-- + + ''Tis well! from this day forward we shall know + That in ourselves our safety must be sought; + That by our own right hands it must be wrought; + That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low. + O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer! + We shall exult, if they who rule the land + Be men who hold its many blessings dear, + Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band, + Who are to judge of dangers which they fear, + And honour which they do not understand.' + +Always in the same cause, we have suffered worse things than we are +suffering to-day, and if there is worse to come we hope that we are +ready. The youngest and best of us, who carry on and go through with +it, though many of them are dead and many more will not live to see the +day of victory, have been easily the happiest and most confident among +us. They have believed that, at a price, they can save decency and +civilization in Europe, and, if they are wrong, they have known, as we +know, that the day when decency and civilization are trampled under the +foot of the brute is a day when it is good to die. + +When I speak of the German nation as the brute I am not speaking +controversially or rhetorically; the whole German nation has given its +hearty assent to a brutal doctrine of war and politics; no facts need be +disputed between us: what to us is their shame, to them is their glory. +This is a grave difference; yet it would be wrong to suppose that we can +treat it adequately by condemning the whole German nation as a nation of +confessed criminals. It is the paradox of war that there is always right +on both sides. When a man is ready and willing to sacrifice his life, +you cannot deny him the right to choose what he will die for. The most +beautiful virtues, faith and courage and devotion, grow like weeds upon +the battle-field. The fighters recognize these virtues in each other, +and the front lines, for all their mud and slaughter, are breathed on by +the airs of heaven. Hate and pusillanimity have little there to nourish +them. To find the meaner passions you must seek further back. Johnson, +speaking in the _Idler_ of the calamities produced by war, admits that +he does not know 'whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with +soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers +accustomed to lie'. Now that our army is the nation in arms, the danger +from a lawless soldiery has become less, or has vanished; but the other +danger has increased. Journalists are not the only offenders. It is a +strange, squalid background for the nobility of the soldier that is made +by the deceits and boasts of diplomatists and statesmen. In one of the +prison camps of England, some weeks ago, I saw a Saxon boy who had +fought bravely for his country. Simplicity and openness and loyalty were +written on his face. There are hundreds like him, and I would not +mention him if it were not that that same day I read with a new and +heightened sense of disgust a speech by the German Chancellor, writhing +with timidity and dishonesty and uneasy braggadocio. Those who feel this +contrast as I did may be excused, I think, if they come to the +conclusion that to talk about war is an accursed trade, and that to +fight well, whether on the one side or the other, is the only noble +part. + +Yet there is no escape for us; if we are to avoid chaos, if the daily +life of the world is to be re-established and carried on, there must be +an understanding between nations, and there is no possible way to come +to an understanding save by the action and words of representative men +on the one side and the other. Such representative men there are; there +is no reason to doubt that they do in the main truly express the +aspirations and wishes of their people, and on both sides they have +either explicitly or virtually made offers. The offer of the Allied +Powers is on record. What does Germany offer? She has refused to make a +definite statement, but her rulers have talked a great deal, and what +she intends is not really in doubt; only she is not sure whether she can +get it, and still clings to the hope that a favourable turn of events +may relieve her of the duty of making proposals, and put her in a +position to dictate a settlement. We all know what that settlement would +be. + +The German offer for a solution of the problem of world-government is +German sentiments, German racial pride, German manners and customs, an +immense increase of German territory and German influence, and above all +an acknowledged supremacy for the German race among the nations of the +world. She thinks she has not stated these aims in so many words; but +she has. When it was suggested that the future peace of the world might +be assured by the formation of a League to Enforce Peace, Germany, +through her official spokesmen, expressed her sympathy with that idea, +and stated that she would very gladly put herself at the head of such a +League. I can hardly help loving the Germans when their rustic +simplicity and rustic cunning lead them all unconsciously into +self-revelation. The very idea of a League to Enforce Peace implies +equality among the contracting parties; and Germany does not understand +equality. 'By all means', she says,'let us sit at a round table, and I +will sit at the top of it.' Her panacea for human ills is Germanism. She +has nothing to offer but a purely national sentiment, which some, +greatly privileged, may share, and the rest must revere and bow to. In +the Book of Genesis we are told how Joseph was thrown into a pit by his +elder brothers for talking just like this; but he meant it quite +innocently, and so do the Germans. They do not intend irreverence to God +when they call Him the good German God. On the contrary, they choose for +His praise a word that to them stands for all goodness and all +greatness. Their worship expresses itself naturally in the tribal ritual +and the tribal creed. This tribal creed, there can be no doubt, is what +they offer us for a talisman to ensure the right ordering of the world. + +Patriotism and loyalty to hearth and home are passions so strong in +humanity that a creed like this, when men are under its influence, is +not easily seen to be absurd. The Saxon boy, whom I saw in his prison +camp, probably would not quarrel with it. And even in the wider world of +thought the illusions of nationalism are all-pervading. I once heard +Professor Henry Sidgwick remark that it is not easy for us to understand +how the troops of Portugal are stirred to heroic effort when their +commanders call on them to remember that they are Portuguese. He would +no doubt have been the first to admit, for he had an alert and sceptical +mind, that it is only our stupidity which finds anything comic in such +an appeal. But it is stupidity of this kind which unfits men to deal +with other races, and it is stupidity of this kind which has been +exalted by the Germans as a primal duty, and has, indeed, been advanced +by them as their principal claim to undertake the government of the +world. + +This extreme nationalism, this unwillingness to feel any sympathy for +other peoples, or to show them any consideration, has stupefied and +blinded the Germans. One of the heaviest charges that can be brought +against them is that they have seen no virtue in France, I do not ask +that they shall interrupt the War to express admiration for their +enemies: I am speaking of the time before the War. France is the chief +modern inheritor of that great Roman civilization which found us painted +savages, and made us into citizens of the world. The French mind, it is +admitted, and admitted most readily by the most intelligent men, is +quick and delicate and perceptive, surer and clearer in its operation +than the average European mind. Yet the Germans, infatuated with a +belief in their own numbers and their own brute strength, have dared to +express contempt for the genius of France. A contempt for foreigners is +common enough among the vulgar and unthinking of all nations, but I do +not believe that you will find anywhere but in Germany a large number of +men trained in the learned professions who are so besotted by vanity as +to deny to France her place in the vanguard of civilization. These louts +cannot be informed or argued with; they are interested in no one but +themselves, and naked self-assertion is their only idea of political +argument. Treitschke, who was for twenty years Professor of History at +Berlin, and who did perhaps more than any other man to build up the +modern German creed, has crystallized German politics in a single +sentence. 'War', he says, 'is politics _par excellence_,' that is to +say, politics at their purest and highest. Our political doctrine, if it +must be put in as brief a form, would be better expressed in the +sentence, 'War is the failure of politics'. + +If England were given over to nationalism as Germany is given over, +then a war between these two Powers, though it would still be a great +dramatic spectacle, would have as little meaning as a duel between two +rival gamebirds in a cockpit. We know, and it will some day dawn on the +Germans, that this War has a deeper meaning than that. We are not +nationalist; we are too deeply experienced in politics to stumble into +that trap. We have had a better and longer political education than has +come to Germany in her short and feverish national life. It is often +said that the Germans are better educated than we are, and in a sense +that is true; they are better furnished with schools and colleges and +the public means of education. The best boy in a school is the boy who +best minds his book, and even if he dutifully believes all that it tells +him, that will not lose him the prize. When he leaves school and +graduates in a wider world, where men must depend on their own judgement +and their own energy, he is often a little disconcerted to find that +some of his less bookish fellows easily outgo him in quickness of +understanding and resource. German education is too elaborate; it +attempts to do for its pupils much that they had better be left to do +for themselves. The pupils are docile and obedient, not troubled with +unruly doubts and questionings, so that the German system of public +education is a system of public mesmerism, and, now that we see it in +its effects, may be truly described as a national disease. + +I have said that England is not nationalist. If the English believed in +England as the Germans believe in Germany, there would be nothing for +it but a duel to the death, the extinction of one people or the other, +and darkness as the burier of the dead. Peace would be attained by a +great simplification and impoverishment of the world. But the English do +not believe in themselves in that mad-bull fashion. They come of mixed +blood, and have been accustomed for many long centuries to settle their +differences by compromise and mutual accommodation. They do not inquire +too curiously into a man's descent if he shares their ideas. They have +shown again and again that they prefer a tolerant and intelligent +foreigner to rule over them rather than an obstinate and wrong-headed +man of native origin. The earliest strong union of the various parts of +England was achieved by William the Norman, a man of French and +Scandinavian descent. Our native-born king, Charles the First, was put +to death by his people; his son, James the Second, was banished, and the +Dutchman, William the Third, who had proved himself a statesman and +soldier of genius in his opposition to Louis the Fourteenth, was elected +to the throne of England. The fierce struggles of the seventeenth +century, between Royalists and Parliamentarians, between Cavaliers and +Puritans, were settled at last, not by the destruction of either party, +but by the stereotyping of the dispute in the milder and more tolerable +shape of the party system. The only people we have ever shown ourselves +unwilling to tolerate are the people who will tolerate no one but their +own kind. We hate all Acts of Uniformity with a deadly hatred. We are +careful for the rights of minorities. We think life should be made +possible, and we do not object to its being made happy, for dissenters. +Voltaire, the acutest French mind of his age, remarked on this when he +visited England in 1726. 'England', he says, 'is the country of sects. +"In my father's house are many mansions".... Although the Episcopalians +and the Presbyterians are the two dominant sects in Great Britain, all +the others are welcomed there, and live together very fairly, whilst +most of the preachers hate one another almost as cordially as a +Jansenist damns a Jesuit. Enter the London Exchange, a place much more +worthy of respect than most Courts, and you see assembled for the +benefit of mankind representatives of all nations. There the Jew, the +Mohammedan, and the Christian deal with each other as if they were of +the same religion, and call infidels only those who become bankrupt. +There the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist, and the Anabaptist relies +on the promise of the Quaker. On leaving these free and peaceful +assemblies, some proceed to the synagogue, others to the tavern.... If +in England there were only one religion, its despotism would be to be +dreaded; if there were only two, their followers would cut each other's +throats; but there are thirty of them, and they live in peace and +happiness.' + +Since we have had so much practice in tolerating one another, and in +living together even when our ideas on life and the conduct of life seem +absolutely incompatible, it is no wonder that we approach the treatment +of international affairs in a temper very unlike the solemn and dogmatic +ferocity of the German. We do not expect or desire that other peoples +shall resemble us. The world is wide; and the world-drama is enriched +by multiplicity and diversity of character. We like bad men, if there is +salt and spirit in their badness. We even admire a brute, if he is a +whole-hearted brute. I have often thought that if the Germans had been +true to their principles and their programme--if, after proclaiming that +they meant to win by sheer strength and that they recognized no other +right, they had continued as they began, and had battered and hacked, +burned and killed, without fear or pity, a certain reluctant admiration +for them might have been felt in this country. There is no chance of +that now, since they took to whining about humanity. Yet it is very +difficult wholly to alienate the sympathies of the English people. It is +perhaps in some ways a weakness, as it is certainly in other ways a +strength, that we are fanciers of other peoples. Our soldiers have a +tendency to make pets of their prisoners, to cherish them as curiosities +and souvenirs. The fancy becomes a passion when we find a little fellow +struggling valiantly against odds. I suppose we should be at war with +Germany to-day, even if the Germans had respected the neutrality of +Belgium. But the unprovoked assault upon a little people that asked only +to be let alone united all opinions in this country and brought us in +with a rush. I believe there is one German, at least (I hope he is +alive), who understands this. Early in July, 1914, a German student at +Oxford, who was a friend and pupil of mine, came to say good-bye to me. +I have since wondered whether he was under orders to join his regiment. +Anyhow, we talked very freely of many things, and he told me of an +adventure that had befallen him in an Oxford picture-palace. Portraits +of notabilities were being thrown on the screen. When a portrait of the +German Emperor appeared, a youth, sitting just behind my friend, shouted +out an insulting and scurrilous remark. So my friend stood up and turned +round and, catching him a cuff on the head, said,'That's my emperor'. +The house was full of undergraduates, and he expected to be seized and +thrown into the street. To his great surprise the undergraduates, many +of whom have now fallen on the fields of France, broke into rounds of +cheering. 'I should like to think', my friend said, 'that a thing like +that could possibly happen in a German city, but I am afraid that the +feeling there would always be against the foreigner. I admire the +English; they are so just.' I have heard nothing of him since, except a +rumour that he is with the German army of occupation in Belgium. If so, +I like to think of him at a regimental mess, suggesting doubts, or, if +that is an impossible breach of military discipline, keeping silence, +when the loud-voiced major explains that the sympathy of the English for +Belgium is all pretence and cant. + +Ideal and disinterested motives are always to be reckoned with in human +nature. What the Germans call 'real politics', that is to say, politics +which treat disinterested motives as negligible, have led them into a +morass and have bogged them there. How easy it is to explain that the +British Empire depends on trade, that we are a nation of traders, that +all our policy is shaped by trade, that therefore it can only be +hypocrisy in us to pretend to any of the finer feelings. This is not, +as you might suppose, the harmless sally of a one-eyed wit; it is the +carefully reasoned belief of Germany's profoundest political thinkers. +They do not understand a cavalier, so they confidently assert that there +is no such thing in nature. That is a bad mistake to make about any +nation, but perhaps worst when it is made about the English, for the +cavalier temper in England runs through all classes. You can find it in +the schoolmaster, the small trader, the clerk, and the labourer, as +readily as in the officer of dragoons, or the Arctic explorer. The +Roundheads won the Civil War, and bequeathed to us their political +achievements. From the Cavaliers we have a more intimate bequest: it is +from them, not from the Puritans, that the fighting forces of the +British Empire inherit their outlook on the world, their freedom from +pedantry, and that gaiety and lightness of courage which makes them +carry their lives like a feather in the cap. + +I am not saying that our qualities, good or bad, commend us very readily +to strangers. The people of England, on the whole, are respected more +than they are liked. When I call them fanciers of other nations, I feel +it only fair to add that some of those other nations express the same +truth in different language. I have often heard the complaint made that +Englishmen cannot speak of foreigners without an air of patronage. It is +impossible to deny this charge, for, in a question of manners, the +impressions you produce are your manners; and there is no doubt about +this impression. There is a certain coldness about the upright and +humane Englishman which repels and intimidates any trivial human being +who approaches him. Most men would forgo their claim to justice for the +chance of being liked. They would rather have their heads broken, or +accept a bribe, than be the objects of a dispassionate judgement, +however kindly. They feel this so strongly that they experience a dull +discomfort in any relationship that is not tinctured with passion. As +there are many such relationships, not to be avoided even by the most +emotional natures, they escape from them by simulating lively feeling, +and are sometimes exaggerated and insincere in manner. They issue a very +large paper currency on a very small gold reserve. This, which is +commonly known as the Irish Question, is an insoluble problem, for it is +a clash not of interests but of temperaments. The English, it must in +fairness be admitted, do as they would be done by. No Englishman pure +and simple is incommoded by the coldness of strangers. He prefers it, +for there are many stupid little businesses in the world, which are +falsified when they are made much of; and even when important facts are +to be told, he would rather have them told in a dreary manner. He hates +a fuss. + +The Germans, who are a highly emotional and excitable people, have +concentrated all their energy on a few simple ideas. Their moral outlook +is as narrow as their geographical outlook is wide. Will their faith +prevail by its intensity, narrow and false though it be? I cannot prove +that it will not, but I have a suspicion, which I think has already +occurred to some of them, that the world is too large and wilful and +strong to be mastered by them. We have seen what their hatchets and +explosives can do, and they are nearing the end of their resources. They +can still repeat some of their old exploits, but they make no headway, +and time is not their friend. + +One service, perhaps, they have done to civilization. There is a growing +number of people who hold that when this War is over international +relations must not be permitted to slip back into the unstable condition +which tempted the Germans to their crime. A good many pacific theorists, +no doubt, have not the experience and the imagination which would enable +them to pass a useful judgement, or to make a valuable suggestion, on +the affairs of nations. The abolition of war would be easily obtained if +it were generally agreed that war is the worst thing that can befall a +people. But this is not generally agreed; and, further, it is not true. +While men are men they cannot be sure that they will never be challenged +on a point of deep and intimate concern, where they would rather die +than yield. But something can perhaps be done to discourage gamblers' +wars, though even here any stockbroker will tell you how difficult it is +to suppress gambling without injuring the spirit of enterprise. The only +real check on war is an understanding between nations. For the +strengthening of such an understanding the Allies have a great +opportunity, and admirable instruments. I do not think that we shall +call on Germany to preside at our conferences. But we shall have the +help of all those qualities of heart and mind which are possessed by +France, by Russia, by Italy, and by America, who, for all her caution, +hates cruelty even more than she loves peace. There has never been an +alliance of greater promise for the government and peace of the world. + +What is the contribution of the British Empire, and of England, towards +this settlement? Many of our domestic problems, as I have said, bear a +curious resemblance to international problems. We have not solved them +all. We have had many stumblings and many backslidings. But we have +shown again and again that we believe in toleration on the widest +possible basis, and that we are capable of generosity, which is a virtue +much more commonly shown by private persons than by communities. We +abolished the slave trade. We granted self-government to South Africa +just after our war with her. Only a few days ago we gave India her will, +and allowed her to impose a duty on our manufactures. Ireland could have +self-government to-morrow if she did not value her feuds more than +anything else in the world. All these are peoples to whom we have been +bound by ties of kinship or trusteeship. A wider and greater opportunity +is on its way to us. We are to see whether we are capable of generosity +and trust towards peoples who are neither our kin nor our wards. Our +understanding with France and Russia will call for great goodwill on +both sides, not so much in the drafting of formal treaties as in +indulging one another in our national habits. Families who fail to live +together in unity commonly fail not because they quarrel about large +interests, but because they do not like each other's little ways. The +French are not a dull people; and the Russians are not a tedious people +(what they do they do suddenly, without explanation); so that if we +fail to take pleasure in them we have ourselves to blame. If we are not +equal to our opportunities, if we do not learn to feel any affection for +them, then not all the pacts and congresses in the world can make peace +secure. + +Of Germany it is too early to speak. We have not yet defeated her. If we +do defeat her, no one who is acquainted with our temper and our record +believes that we shall impose cruel or vindictive terms. If it were only +the engineers of this war who were in question, we would destroy them +gladly as common pests. But the thing is not so easy. A single home is +in many ways a greater and more appealing thing than a nation; we should +find ourselves thinking of the miseries of simple and ignorant people +who have given their all for the country of their birth; and our hearts +would fail us. + +The Germans would certainly despise this address of mine, for I have +talked only of morality, while they talk and think chiefly of machines. +Zeppelins are a sad disappointment; but if any address on the War is +being delivered to-night by a German professor, there can be no doubt +that it deals with submarines, and treats them as the saviours of the +Fatherland. Well, I know very little about submarines, but I notice that +they have not had much success against ships of war. We are so +easy-going that we expected to carry on our commerce in war very much as +we did in peace. We have to change all that, and it will cost us not a +little inconvenience, or even great hardships. But I cannot believe that +a scheme of privy attacks on the traders of all nations, devised as a +last resort, in lieu of naval victory, can be successful when it is no +longer a surprise. And when I read history, I am strengthened in my +belief that morality is all-important. I do not find that any war +between great nations was ever won by a machine. The Trojan horse will +be trotted out against me, but that was a municipal affair. Wars are won +by the temper of a people. Serbia is not yet defeated. It is a frenzied +and desperate quest that the Germans undertook when they began to seek +for some mechanical trick or dodge, some monstrous engine, which should +enable the less resolved and more excited people to defeat the more +resolved and less excited. If we are to be defeated, it must be by them, +not by their bogey-men. We got their measure on the Somme, and we found +that when their guns failed to protect them, many of them threw up their +hands. These men will never be our masters until we deserve to be their +slaves. + +So I am glad to be able to end on a note of agreement with the German +military party. If they defeat us, it will be no more than we deserve. +Till then, or till they throw up their hands, we shall fight them, and +God will defend the right. + + + + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, February 13, 1918_ + + +Our losses in this War continue to be enormous, and we are not yet near +to the end. So it may seem absurd to speak of our gains, of gains that +we have already achieved. But if you will look at the thing in a large +light, I think you will see that it is not absurd. + +I do not speak of gains of territory, and prisoners, and booty. It is +true that we have taken from the Germans about a million square miles of +land in Africa, where land is cheap. We have taken more prisoners from +them than they have taken from us, and we have whole parks of German +artillery to set over against the battered and broken remnants of +British field-guns which were exhibited in Berlin--a monument to the +immortal valour of the little old Army. I am speaking rather of gains +which cannot be counted as guns are counted, or measured as land is +measured, but which are none the less real and important. + +The Germans have achieved certain great material gains in this War, and +they are fighting now to hold them. If they fail to hold them, the +Germany of the war-lords is ruined. She will have to give up all her +bloated ambitions, to purge and live cleanly, and painfully to +reconstruct her prosperity on a quieter and sounder basis. She will not +do this until she is forced to it by defeat. No doubt there are moderate +and sensible men in Germany, as in other countries; but in Germany they +are without influence, and can do nothing. War is the national industry +of Prussia; Prussia has knit together the several states of the larger +Germany by means of war, and has promised them prosperity and power in +the future, to be achieved by war. You know the Prussian doctrine of +war. Every one now knows it. According to that doctrine it is a foolish +thing for a nation to wait till it is attacked. It should carefully +calculate its own strength and the strength of its neighbours, and, when +it is ready, it should attack them, on any pretext, suddenly, without +warning, and should take from them money and land. When it has gained +territory in this fashion, it should subject the population of the +conquered territory to the strictest laws of military service, and so +supply itself with an instrument for new and bolder aggression. This is +not only the German doctrine; it is the German practice. In this way and +no other modern Germany has been built up. It is a huge new State, +founded on force, cemented by fear, and financed on speculative gains to +be derived from the great gamble of war. You may have noticed that the +German people have not been called on, as yet, to pay any considerable +sum in taxation towards the expenses of this war. Those expenses (that, +at least, was the original idea) were to be borne wholly by the +conquered enemy. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans to-day who +firmly believe that their war-lords will return in triumph from the +stricken field, bringing with them the spoils of war, and scattering a +largess of peace and plenty. + +To us it seems a marvel that any people should accept such a doctrine, +and should willingly give their lives and their fortunes to the work of +carrying it out in practice; but it is not so marvellous as it seems. +The German peoples are brave and obedient, and so make good soldiers; +they are easily lured by the hope of profit; they are naturally +attracted by the spectacular and sentimental side of war; above all, +they are so curiously stupid that many of them do actually believe that +they are a divinely chosen race, superior to the other races of the +world. They are very carefully educated, and their education, which is +ordered by the State, is part of the military machine. Their thinking is +done for them by officials. It would require an extraordinary degree of +courage and independence for a German youth to cut himself loose and +begin thinking and judging for himself. It must always be remembered, +moreover, that their recent history seems to justify their creed. I will +not go back to Frederick the Great, though the history of his wars is +the Prussian handbook, which teaches all the characteristic Prussian +methods of treachery and deceit. But consider only the last two German +wars. How, in the face of these, can it be proved to any German that war +is not the most profitable of adventures? In 1866 Prussia had war with +Austria. The war lasted forty days, and Prussia had from five to six +thousand soldiers killed in action. As a consequence of the war Prussia +gained much territory, and established her control over the states of +greater Germany. In 1870 she had war with France. Her total casualties +in that war were approximately a hundred thousand, just about the same +as our casualties in Gallipoli. From the war she gained, besides a great +increase of strength at home, the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, +with all their mineral wealth, and an indemnity of two hundred million +pounds, that is to say, four times the actual cost of the war in money. +How then can it be maintained that war is not good business? If you say +so to any Prussian, he thinks you are talking like a child. + +Not only were these two wars rich in profit for the Germans, but they +did not lose them much esteem. There was sympathy in this country for +the union of the German peoples, just as there was sympathy, a few years +earlier, for the union of the various states of Italy. There was not a +little admiration for German efficiency and strength. So that Bismarck, +who was an expert in all the uses of bullying, blackmail, and fraud, was +accepted as a great European statesman. I have always believed, and I +still believe, that Germany will have to pay a heavy price for +Bismarck--all the heavier because the payment has been so long deferred. + +The present War, then, is in the direct line of succession to these +former wars; it was planned by Germany, elaborately and deliberately +planned, on a calculation of the profits to be derived from operations +on a large scale. + +Well, as I said, we, as a people, do not believe in gambling in human +misery to attain uncertain speculative gains. We hold that war can be +justified only by a good cause, not by a lucky event. The German +doctrine seems to us impious and wicked. Though we have defined our war +aims in detail, and the Germans have not dared publicly to define +theirs, our real and sufficient war aim is to break the monstrous and +inhuman doctrine and practice of the enemy--to make their calculations +miscarry. And observe, if their calculations miscarry, they have fought +and suffered for nothing. They entered into this War for profit, and in +the conduct of the War, though they have made many mistakes, they have +made none of those generous and magnanimous mistakes which redeem and +beautify a losing cause. + +The essence of our cause, and its greatest strength, is that we are not +fighting for profit. We are fighting for no privilege except the +privilege of possessing our souls, of being ourselves--a privilege which +we claim also for other weaker nations. The inestimable strength of that +position is that if the odds are against us it does not matter. If you +see a ruffian torturing a child, and interfere to prevent him, do you +feel that your attempt was a wrong one because he knocks you down? And +if you succeed, what material profit is there in saving a child from +torture? We have sometimes fought in the past for doubtful causes and +for wrong causes, but this time there is no mistake. Our cause is better +than we deserve; we embraced it by an act of faith, and it is only by +continuing in that faith that we shall see it through. The little old +Army, when they went to France in August 1914, did not ask what profits +were likely to come their way. They knew that there were none, but they +were willing to sacrifice themselves to save decency and humanity from +being trampled in the mud. This was the Army that the Germans called a +mercenary Army, and its epitaph has been written by a good poet: + + These, in the day when heaven was falling, + The hour when earth's foundations fled, + Followed their mercenary calling, + And took their wages, and are dead. + + Their shoulders held the heavens suspended, + They stood, and earth's foundations stay, + What God abandoned these defended, + And saved the sum of things for pay. + +We must follow their example, for we shall never get a better. We must +not make too much of calculation, especially when it deals with +incalculable things. Nervous public critics, like Mr. H.G. Wells, are +always calling out for more cleverness in our methods, for new and +effective tricks, so that we may win the War. I would never disparage +cleverness; the more you can get of it, the better; but it is useless +unless it is in the service of something stronger and greater than +itself, and that is character. Cleverness can grasp; it is only +character that can hold. The Duke of Wellington was not a clever man; he +was a man of simple and honourable mind, with an infinite capacity for +patience, persistence, and endurance, so that neither unexpected +reverses abroad nor a flood of idle criticism at home could shake him or +change him. So he bore a chief part in laying low the last great tyranny +that desolated Europe. + +None of our great wars was won by cleverness; they were all won by +resolution and perseverance. In all of them we were near to despair and +did not despair. In all of them we won through to victory in the end. + +But in none of them did victory come in the expected shape. The worst of +making elaborate plans of victory, and programmes of all that is to +follow victory, is that the mixed event is sure to defeat those plans. +Not every war finds its decision in a single great battle. Think of our +war with Spain in the sixteenth century. Spain was then the greatest of +European Powers. She had larger armies than we could raise; she had +more than our wealth, and more than our shipping. The newly discovered +continent of America was an appanage of Spain, and her great galleons +were wafted lazily to and fro, bringing her all the treasures of the +western hemisphere. We defeated her by standing out and holding on. We +fought her in the Low Countries, which she enslaved and oppressed. We +refused to recognize her exclusive rights in America, and our merchant +seamen kept the sea undaunted, as they have kept it for the last three +years. When at last we became an intolerable vexation to Spain, she +collected a great Armada, or war-fleet, to invade and destroy us; and it +was shattered, by the winds of heaven and the sailors of England, in +1588. The defeat of the Armada was the turning-point of the war, but it +was not the end. It lifted a great shadow of fear from the hearts of the +people, as a great shadow of fear has already been lifted from their +hearts in the present War, but during the years that followed we +suffered many and serious reverses at the hand of Spain, before peace +and security were reached. So late as 1601, thirteen years after the +defeat of the Armada, the King of Denmark offered to mediate between +England and Spain, so that the long and disastrous war might be ended. +Queen Elizabeth was then old and frail, but this was what she said--and +if you want to understand why she was almost adored by her people, +listen to her words: 'I would have the King of Denmark, and all Princes +Christian and Heathen to know, that England hath no need to crave peace; +nor myself endured one hour's fear since I attained the crown thereof, +being guarded with so valiant and faithful subjects.' In the end the +power and menace of Spain faded away, and when peace was made, in 1604, +this nation never again, from that day to this, feared the worst that +Spain could do. + +What were our gains from the war with Spain? Freedom to live our lives +in our own way, unthreatened; freedom to colonize America. The gains of +a great war are never visible immediately; they are deferred, and +extended over many years. What did we gain by our war with Napoleon, +which ended in the victory of Waterloo? For long years after Waterloo +this country was full of riots and discontents; there were +rick-burnings, agitations, popular risings, and something very near to +famine in the land. But all these things, from a distance, are now seen +to have been the broken water that follows the passage of a great storm. +The real gains of Waterloo, and still more of Trafalgar, are evident in +the enormous commercial and industrial development of England during the +nineteenth century, and in the peaceful foundation of the great +dominions of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, which was made +possible only by our unchallenged use of the seas. The men who won those +two great battles did not live to gather the fruits of their victory; +but their children did. If we defeat Germany as completely as we hope, +we shall not be able to point at once to our gains. But it is not a rash +forecast to say that our children and children's children will live in +greater security and freedom than we have ever tasted. + +A man must have a good and wide imagination if he is to be willing to +face wounds and death for the sake of his unborn descendants and +kinsfolk. We cannot count on the popular imagination being equal to the +task. Fortunately, there is a substitute for imagination which does the +work as well or better, and that is character. Our people are sound in +instinct; they understand a fight. They know that a wrestler who +considers, while he is in the grip of his adversary, whether he would +not do well to give over, and so put an end to the weariness and the +strain, is no sort of a wrestler. They have never failed under a strain +of this kind, and they will not fail now. The people who do the +half-hearted and timid talking are either young egotists, who are angry +at being deprived of their personal ease and independence; or elderly +pensive gentlemen, in public offices and clubs, who are no longer fit +for action, and, being denied action, fall into melancholy; or feverish +journalists, who live on the proceeds of excitement, who feel the pulse +and take the temperature of the War every morning, and then rush into +the street to announce their fluttering hopes and fears; or cosmopolitan +philosophers, to whom the change from London to Berlin means nothing but +a change in diet and a pleasant addition to their opportunities of +hearing good music; or aliens in heart, to whom the historic fame of +England, 'dear for her reputation through the world,' is less than +nothing; or practical jokers, who are calm and confident enough +themselves, but delight in startling and depressing others. These are +not the people of England; they are the parasites of the people of +England. The people of England understand a fight. + +That brings me to the first great gain of the War. We have found +ourselves. Which of us, in the early months of 1914, would have dared +to predict the splendours of the youth of this Empire--splendours which +are now a part of our history? We are adepts at self-criticism and +self-depreciation. We hate the language of emotion. Some of us, if we +were taken to heaven and asked what we thought of it, would say that it +is decent, or not so bad. I suppose we are jealous to keep our standard +high, and to have something to say if a better place should be found. +But in spite of all this, we do now know, and it is worth knowing, that +we are not weaker than our fathers. We know that the people who inhabit +these islands and this commonwealth of nations cannot be pushed on one +side, or driven under, or denied a great share in the future ordering of +the world. We know this, and our knowledge of it is the debt that we owe +to our dead. It is not vanity to admit that we know it; on the contrary, +it would be vanity to pretend that we do not know it. It is visible to +other eyes than ours. Some time ago I heard an address given by a friend +of mine, an Indian Mohammedan of warrior descent, to University students +of his own faith. He was urging on them the futility of dreams and the +necessity of self-discipline and self-devotion. 'Why do the people of +this country', he said, 'count for so much all the world over? It is not +because of their dreams; it is because thousands of them are lying at +the bottom of the sea.' + +Further, we have not only found ourselves; we have found one another. A +new kindliness has grown up, during the War, between people divided by +the barriers of class, or wealth, or circumstance. A statesman of the +seventeenth century remarks that _It is a Misfortune for a Man not to +have a Friend in the World, but for that reason he shall have no Enemy_. +I might invert his maxim and say, _It is a Misfortune for a Man to have +many Enemies, but for that reason he shall know who are his Friends_. No +Radical member of Parliament will again, while any of us live, cast +contempt on 'the carpet Captains of Mayfair'. No idle Tory talker will +again dare to say that the working men of England care nothing for their +country. Even the manners of railway travel have improved. I was +travelling in a third-class compartment of a crowded train the other +day; we were twenty in the compartment, but it seemed a pity to leave +any one behind, and we made room for number twenty-one. Nothing but a +very kindly human feeling could have packed us tight enough for this. +Yet now is the time that has been chosen by some of these pensive +gentlemen that I spoke of, and by some of these excitable journalists, +to threaten us with class-war, and to try to make our flesh creep by +conjuring up the horrors of revolution. I advise them to take their +opinions to the third-class compartment and discuss them there. It is a +good tribunal, for, sooner or later, you will find every one there--even +officers, when they are travelling in mufti at their own expense. I have +visited this tribunal very often, and I have always come away from it +with the same impression, that this people means to win the War. But I +do not travel much in the North of England, so I asked a friend of mine, +whose dealings are with the industrial North, what the workpeople of +Lancashire and Yorkshire think of the War. He said, 'Their view is very +simple: they mean to win it; and they mean to make as much money out of +it as ever they can.' Certainly, that is very simple; but before you +judge them, put yourselves in their place. There are great outcries +against profiteers, for making exorbitant profits out of the War, and +against munition workers, for delaying work in order to get higher +wages. I do not defend either of them; they are unimaginative and +selfish, and I do not care how severely they are dealt with; but I do +say that the majority of them are not wicked in intention. A good many +of the more innocent profiteers are men whose sin is that they take an +offer of two shillings rather than an offer of eighteenpence for what +cost them one and a penny. Some of us, in our weaker moments, might be +betrayed into doing the same. As for the munition workers, I remember +what Goldsmith, who had known the bitterest poverty, wrote to his +brother. 'Avarice', he said, 'in the lower orders of mankind is true +ambition; avarice is the only ladder the poor can use to preferment. +Preach then, my dear Sir, to your son, not the excellence of human +nature nor the disrespect of riches, but endeavour to teach him thrift +and economy. Let his poor wandering uncle's example be placed in his +eyes. I had learned from books to love virtue before I was taught from +experience the necessity of being selfish.' + +The profiteers and the munition workers are endeavouring, incidentally, +to better their own position. But make no mistake; the bulk of these +people would rather die than allow one spire of English grass to be +trodden under the foot of a foreign trespasser. Their chief sin is that +they do not fear. They think that there is plenty of time to do a little +business for themselves on the way to defeat the enemy. I cannot help +remembering the mutiny at the Nore, which broke out in our fleet during +the Napoleonic wars. The mutineers struck for more pay and better +treatment, but they agreed together that if the French fleet should put +in an appearance during the mutiny, all their claims should be postponed +for a time, and the French fleet should have their first attention. + +Employers and employed do, no doubt, find in some trades to-day that +their relations are strained and irksome. They would do well to take a +lesson from the Army, where, with very few exceptions, there is harmony +and understanding between those who take orders and those who give them. +It is only in the Army that you can see realized the ideal of ancient +Rome. + + Then none was for a party, + Then all were for the State; + Then the great man helped the poor, + And the poor man loved the great. + +Why is the Army so far superior to most commercial and industrial +businesses? The secret does not lie in State employment. There is plenty +of discontent and unrest among the State-employed railway men and +munition workers. It lies rather in the habit of mutual help and mutual +trust. If any civilian employer of labour wants to have willing +workpeople, let him take a hint from the Army. Let him live with his +workpeople, and share all their dangers and discomforts. Let him take +thought for their welfare before his own, and teach self-sacrifice by +example. Let him put the good of the nation before all private +interests; and those whom he commands will do for him anything that he +asks. + +I cannot believe that the benefits which have come to us from the Army +will pass away with the passing of the War. Those who have been comrades +in danger will surely take with them something of the old spirit into +civil life. And those who have kept clear of the Army in order to carry +on their own trades and businesses will surely realize that they have +missed the great opportunity of their lives. + +In a wider sense the War has brought us to an understanding of one +another. This great Commonwealth of independent nations which is called +the British Empire is scattered over the surface of the habitable globe. +It embraces people who live ten thousand miles apart, and whose ways of +life are so different that they might seem to have nothing in common. +But the War has brought them together, and has done more than half a +century of peace could do to promote a common understanding. Hundreds of +thousands of men of our blood who, before the War, had never seen this +little island, have now made acquaintance with it. Hundreds of thousands +of the inhabitants of this island to whom the Dominions were strange, +far places, if, after the War, they should be called on to settle there, +will not feel that they are leaving home. I can only hope that the +Canadians and Anzacs think as well of us as we do of them. We do not +like to praise our friends in their hearing, so I will say no more than +this: I am told that a new kind of peerage, very haughty and very +self-important, has arisen in South London. Its members are those +house-holders who have been privileged to have Anzac soldiers billeted +on them. It is private ties of this kind, invisible to the +constitutional lawyer and the political historian, which make the fine +meshes of the web of Empire. + +Because he knew that the strength of the whole texture depends on the +strength of the fine meshes, Earl Grey, who died last year, will always +be remembered in our history. Not many men have his opportunity to make +acquaintance with the domain that is their birthright, for he had +administered a province of South Africa, and had been Governor-General +of Canada, He rediscovered the glory of the Empire, as poets rediscover +the glory of common speech. 'He had breathed its air,' a friend of his +says, 'fished its rivers, walked in its valleys, stood on its mountains, +met its people face to face. He had seen it in all the zones of the +world. He knew what it meant to mankind. Under the British flag, +wherever he journeyed, he found men of English speech living in an +atmosphere of liberty and carrying on the dear domestic traditions of +the British Isles. He saw justice firmly planted there, industry and +invention hard at work unfettered by tyrants of any kind, domestic life +prospering in natural conditions, and our old English kindness and +cheerfulness and broad-minded tolerance keeping things together. But he +also saw room under that same flag, ample room, for millions and +millions more of the human race. The Empire wasn't a word to him. It was +a vast, an almost boundless, home for honest men.' + +The War did not dishearten him. When he died, in August, 1917, he said, +'Here I lie on my death-bed, looking clear into the Promised Land. I'm +not allowed to enter it, but there it is before my eyes. After the War +the people of this country will enter it, and those who laughed at me +for a dreamer will see that I wasn't so wrong after all. But there's +still work to do for those who didn't laugh, hard work, and with much +opposition in the way; all the same, it is work right up against the +goal. My dreams have come true.' + +One of the clear gains of the War is to be found in the increased +activity and alertness of our own people. The motto of to-day is, 'Let +those now work who never worked before, And those who always worked now +work the more.' Before the War we had a great national reputation for +idleness--in this island, at least. I remember a friendly critic from +Canada who, some five or six years ago, expressed to me, with much +disquiet, his opinion that there was something very far wrong with the +old country; that we had gone soft. As for our German critics, they +expressed the same view in gross and unmistakable fashion. Wit is not a +native product in Germany, it all has to be imported, so they could not +satirize us; but their caricatures of the typical Englishman showed us +what they thought. He was a young weakling with a foolish face, and was +dressed in cricketing flannels. It would have been worth their while to +notice what they did not notice, that his muscles and nerves are not +soft. They learned that later, when the bank-clerks of Manchester broke +the Prussian Guard into fragments at Contalmaison. This must have been a +sad surprise, for the Germans had always taught, in their delightful +authoritative fashion, that the chief industries of the young Englishman +are lawn-tennis and afternoon tea. They are a fussy people, and they +find it difficult to understand the calm of the man who, having nothing +to do, does it. Perhaps they were right, and we were too idle. The +disease was never so serious as they thought it, and now, thanks to +them, we are in a fair way to recovery. The idle classes have turned +their hand to the lathe and the plough. Women are doing a hundred things +that they never did before, and are doing them well. The elasticity and +resourcefulness that the War has developed will not be lost or destroyed +by the coming of peace. Least of all will those qualities be lost if we +should prove unable, in this War, to impose our own terms on Germany. +Then the peace that follows will be a long struggle, and in that +struggle we shall prevail. In the last long peace we were not +suspicious; we felt friendly enough to the Germans, and we gave them +every advantage. They despised us for our friendliness and used the +peace to prepare our downfall. That will never happen again. If we +cannot tame the cunning animal that has assaulted humanity, at least we +can and will tether him. Laws will not be necessary; there are millions +of others besides the seamen of England who will have no dealings with +an unsubdued and unrepentant Germany. What the Germans are not taught by +the War they will have to learn in the more tedious and no less costly +school of peace. + +In any case, whether we win through to real peace and real security, or +whether we are thrown back on an armed peace and the duty of unbroken +vigilance, we shall be dependent for our future on the children who are +now learning in the schools or playing in the streets. It is a good +dependence. The children of to-day are better than the children whom I +knew when I was a child. I think they have more intelligence and +sympathy; they certainly have more public spirit. We cannot do too much +for them. The most that we can do is nothing to what they are going to +do for us, for their own nation and people. I am not concerned to +discuss the education problem. Formal education, carried on chiefly by +means of books, is a very small part of the making of a man or a woman. +But I am interested to know what the children are thinking. You cannot +fathom a child's thoughts, but we know who are their best teachers, and +what lessons have been stamped indelibly on their minds. Their teachers, +whom they never saw, and whose lessons they will never forget, lie in +graves in Flanders and France and Gallipoli and Syria and Mesopotamia, +or unburied at the bottom of the sea. The runner falls, but the torch is +carried forward. This is what Julian Grenfell, who gave his mind and his +life to the War, has said in his splendid poem called _Into Battle_: + + And life is colour and warmth and light, + And a striving evermore for these; + And he is dead who will not fight, + And who dies fighting hath increase. + +Those who died fighting will have such increase that a whole new +generation, better even than the old, will be ready, no long time hence, +to uphold and extend and decorate the Commonwealth of nations which +their fathers and brothers saved from ruin. + +One thing I have never heard discussed, but it is the clearest gain of +all, and already it may be called a certain gain. After the War the +English language will have such a position as it has never had before. +It will be established in world-wide security. Even before the War, it +may be truly said, our language was in no danger from the competition of +the German language. The Germans have never had much success in the +attempt to get their language adopted by other peoples. Not all the +military laws of Prussia can drive out French from the hearts and homes +of the people of Alsace. In the ports of the near and far East you will +hear English spoken--pidgin English, as it is called, that is to say, a +selection of English words suited for the business of daily life. But +you may roam the world over, and you will hear no pidgin German. Before +the War many Germans learned English, while very few English-speaking +people learned German. In other matters we disagreed, but we both knew +which way the wind was blowing. It may be said, and said truly, that our +well-known laziness was one cause of our failing or neglecting to learn +German. But it was not the only cause; and we are not lazy in tasks +which we believe to be worth our while. Rather we had an instinctive +belief that the future does not belong to the German tongue. That belief +is not likely to be impaired by the War. Armed ruffians can do some +things, but one thing they cannot do; they cannot endear their language +to those who have suffered from their violence. The Germans poisoned the +wells in South-West Africa; in Europe they did all they could to poison +the wells of mutual trust and mutual understanding among civilized men. +Do they think that these things will make a good advertisement for the +explosive guttural sounds and the huddled deformed syntax of the speech +in which they express their arrogance and their hate? Which of the +chief European languages will come first, after the War, with the little +nations? Will Serbia be content to speak German? Will Norway and Denmark +feel a new affection for the speech of the men who have degraded the old +humanity of the seas? Neighbourhood, kinship, and the necessities of +commerce may retain for the German language a certain measure of custom +in Sweden and Switzerland, and in Holland. But for the most part Germans +will have to be content to be addressed in their own tongue only by +those who fear them, or by those who hope to cheat them. + +This gain, which I make bold to predict for the English language, is a +real gain, apart from all patriotic bias. The English language is +incomparably richer, more fluid, and more vital than the German +language. Where the German has but one way of saying a thing, we have +two or three, each with its distinctions and its subtleties of usage. +Our capital wealth is greater, and so are our powers of borrowing. +English sprang from the old Teutonic stock, and we can still coin new +words, such as 'food-hoard' and 'joy-ride', in the German fashion. But +long centuries ago we added thousands of Romance words, words which came +into English through the French or Norman-French, and brought with them +the ideas of Latin civilization and of mediaeval Christianity. Later on, +when the renewed study of Latin and Greek quickened the intellectual +life of Europe, we imported thousands of Greek and Latin words direct +from the ancient world, learned words, many of them, suitable for +philosophers, or for writers who pride themselves on shooting a little +above the vulgar apprehension. Yet many of these, too, have found their +way into daily speech, so that we can say most things in three ways, +according as we draw on one or another of the three main sources of our +speech. Thus, you can Begin, or Commence, or Initiate an undertaking, +with Boldness, or Courage, or Resolution. If you are a Workman, or +Labourer, or Operative, you can Ask, or Bequest, or Solicit your +employer to Yield, or Grant, or Concede, an increase in the Earnings, or +Wages, or Remuneration which fall to the lot of your Fellow, or +Companion, or Associate. Your employer is perhaps Old, or Veteran, or +Superannuated, which may Hinder, or Delay, or Retard the success of your +application. But if you Foretell, or Prophesy, or Predict that the War +will have an End, or Close, or Termination that shall not only be +Speedy, or Rapid, or Accelerated, but also Great, or Grand, or +Magnificent, you may perhaps Stir, or Move, or Actuate him to have Ruth, +or Pity, or Compassion on your Mate, or Colleague, or Collaborator. The +English language, then, is a language of great wealth--much greater +wealth than can be illustrated by any brief example. But wealth is +nothing unless you can use it. The real strength of English lies in the +inspired freedom and variety of its syntax. There is no grammar of the +English speech which is not comic in its stiffness and inadequacy. An +English grammar does not explain all that we can do with our speech; it +merely explains what shackles and restraints we must put upon our speech +if we would bring it within the comprehension of a school-bred +grammarian. But the speech itself is like the sea, and soon breaks down +the dykes built by the inland engineer. It was the fashion, in the +eighteenth century, to speak of the divine Shakespeare. The reach and +catholicity of his imagination was what earned him that extravagant +praise; but his syntax has no less title to be called divine. It is not +cast or wrought, like metal; it leaps like fire, and moves like air. So +is every one that is born of the spirit. Our speech is our great +charter. Far better than in the long constitutional process whereby we +subjected our kings to law, and gave dignity and strength to our +Commons, the meaning of English freedom is to be seen in the illimitable +freedom of our English speech. + +Our literature is almost as rich as our language. Modern German +literature begins in the eighteenth century. Modern English literature +began with Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, and has been full of +great names and great books ever since. Nothing has been done in German +literature for which we have not a counterpart, done as well or +better--except the work of Heine, and Heine was a Jew. His opinion of +the Prussians was that they are a compost of beer, deceit, and sand. +French literature and English literature can be compared, throughout +their long course, sometimes to the great advantage of the French. +German literature cannot seriously be compared with either. + +It may be objected that literature and art are ornamental affairs, which +count for little in the deadly strife of nations. But that is not so. +Our language cannot go anywhere without taking our ideas and our creed +with it, not to mention our institutions and our games. If the Germans +could understand what Chaucer means when he says of his Knight that + + he lovèd chivalry, + Truth and honoùr, freedom and courtesy, + +then indeed we might be near to an understanding. I asked a good German +scholar the other day what is the German word for 'fair play'. He +replied, as they do in Parliament, that he must ask for notice of that +question. I fear there is no German word for 'fair play'. + +The little countries, the pawns and victims of German policy, understand +our ideas better. The peoples who have suffered from tyranny and +oppression look to England for help, and it is a generous weakness in us +that we sometimes deceive them by our sympathy, for our power is +limited, and we cannot help them all. But it will not count against us +at the final reckoning that in most places where humanity has suffered +cruelty and indignity the name of England has been invoked: not always +in vain. + +And now, for I have kept to the last what I believe to be the greatest +gain of all, the entry of America into the War assures the triumph of +our common language. America is peopled by many races; only a minority +of the inhabitants--an influential and governing minority--are of the +English stock. But here, again, the language carries it; and the ideas +that inspire America are ideas which had their origin in the long +English struggle for freedom. Our sufferings in this War are great, but +they are not so great that we cannot recognize virtue in a new recruit +to the cause. No nation, in the whole course of human history, has ever +made a more splendid decision, or performed a more magnanimous act, than +America, when she decided to enter this War. She had nothing to gain, +for, to say the bare truth, she had little to lose. If Germany were to +dominate the world, America, no doubt, would be ruined; but in all human +likelihood, Germany's impious attempt would have spent itself and been +broken long before it reached the coasts of America. America might have +stood out of the War in the assurance that her own interests were safe, +and that, when the tempest had passed, the centre of civilization would +be transferred from a broken and exhausted Europe to a peaceful and +prosperous America. Some few Americans talked in this strain, and +favoured a decision in this sense. But it was not for nothing that +America was founded upon religion. When she saw humanity in anguish, she +did not pass by on the other side. Her entry into the War has put an +end, I hope for ever, to the family quarrel, not very profound or +significant, which for a century and a half has been a jarring note in +the relations of mother and daughter. And it has put an end to another +danger. It seemed at one time not unlikely that the English language as +it is spoken overseas would set up a life of its own, and become +separated from the language of the old country. A development of this +kind would be natural enough. The Boers of South Africa speak Dutch, but +not the Dutch spoken in Holland. The French Canadians speak French, but +not the French of Molière. Half a century ago, when America was +exploring and settling her own country, in wild and lone places, her +pioneers enriched the English speech with all kinds of new and vivid +phrases. The tendency was then for America to go her own way, and to +cultivate what is new in language at the expense of what is old. She +prided herself even on having a spelling of her own, and seemed almost +willing to break loose from tradition and to coin a new American +English. + +This has not happened; and now, I think, it will not happen. For one +thing, the American colonists left us when already we had a great +literature. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Spenser belong to America no less +than to us, and America has never forgotten them. The education which +has been fostered in American schools and colleges keeps the whole +nation in touch with the past. Some of their best authors write in a +style that Milton and Burke would understand and approve. There is no +more beautiful English prose than Nathaniel Hawthorne's. The best +speeches of Abraham Lincoln, and, we may truly add, of President Wilson, +are merely classic English. During my own lifetime I am sure I have seen +the speech usages of the two peoples draw closer together. For one +thing, we on this side now borrow, and borrow very freely, the more +picturesque colloquialisms of America. On informal occasions I sometimes +brighten my own speech with phrases which I think I owe to one of the +best of living American authors, Mr. George Ade, of Chicago, the author +of _Fables in Slang_. The press, the telegraph, the telephone, and the +growing habit of travel bind us closer together every year; and the +English that we speak, however rich and various it may be, is going to +remain one and the same English, our common inheritance. + +One question, the most important and difficult of all, remains to be +asked. Will this War, in its course and in its effects, tend to prevent +or discourage later wars? If the gains that it brings prove to be merely +partial and national gains, if it exalts one nation by unjustly +depressing another, and conquers cruelty by equal cruelty, then nothing +can be more certain than that the peace of the world is farther off than +ever. When she was near her death, Edith Cavell, patriot and martyr, +said that patriotism is not enough. Every one who thinks on +international affairs knows this; almost every one forgets it in time of +war. What can be done to prevent nations from appealing to the wild +justice of revenge? + +A League of Nations may do good, but I am surprised that any one who has +imagination and a knowledge of the facts should entertain high hopes of +it as a full solution. There is a League of Nations to-day which has +given a verdict against the Central Powers, and that verdict is being +enforced by the most terrible War in all human history. If the verdict +had been given before the War began, it may be said, then Germany might +have accepted it, and refrained. So she might, but what then? She would +have felt herself wronged; she would have deferred the War, and, in ways +that she knows so well, would have set about making a party for herself +among the nations of the League. Who can be confident that she would +have failed either to divide her judges, or to accumulate such elements +of strength that she might dare to defy them? A League of Nations would +work well only if its verdicts were loyally accepted by all the nations +composing it. To make majority-rule possible you must have a community +made up of members who are reasonably well informed upon one another's +affairs, and who are bound together by a tie of loyalty stronger and +more enduring than their causes of difference. It would be a happy thing +if the nations of the world made such a community; and the sufferings of +this War have brought them nearer to desiring it. But those who believe +that such a community can be formed to-day or to-morrow are too +sanguine. It must not be forgotten that the very principle of the +League, if its judgements are to take effect, involves a world-war in +cases where a strong minority resists those judgements. Every war would +become a world-war. Perhaps this very fact would prevent wars, but it +cannot be said that experience favours such a conclusion. + +There is no escape for us by way of the Gospels. The Gospel precept to +turn the other cheek to the aggressor was not addressed to a meeting of +trustees. Christianity has never shirked war, or even much disliked it. +Where the whole soul is set on things unseen, wounds and death become of +less account. And if the Christians have not helped us to avoid war, how +should the pacifists be of use? Those of them whom I happen to know, or +to have met, have shown themselves, in the relations of civil life, to +be irritable, self-willed, combative creatures, where the average +soldier is calm, unselfish, and placable. There is something incongruous +and absurd in the pacifist of British descent. He has fighting in his +blood, and when his creed, or his nervous sensibility to physical +horrors, denies him the use of fighting, his blood turns sour. He can +argue, and object, and criticize, but he cannot lead. All that he can +offer us in effect is eternal quarrels in place of occasional fights. + +No one can do anything to prevent war who does not recognize its +splendour, for it is by its splendour that it keeps its hold on +humanity, and persists. The wickedest and most selfish war in the world +is not fought by wicked and selfish soldiers. The spirit of man is +immense, and for an old memory, a pledged word, a sense of fellowship, +offers this frail and complicated tissue of flesh and blood, which a pin +or a grain of sand will disorder, to be the victim of all the atrocities +that the wit of man can compound out of fire and steel and poison. If +that spirit is to be changed, or directed into new courses, it must be +by one who understands it, and approaches it reverently, with bared +head. + +The best hope seems to me to lie in paying chief attention to the +improvement of war rather than to its abolition; to the decencies of the +craft; to the style rather than the matter. Style is often more +important than matter, and this War would not have been so fierce or so +prolonged if it had not become largely a war on a point of style, a war, +that is to say, to determine the question how war should be waged. If +the Germans had behaved humanely and considerately to the civil +population of Belgium, if they had kept their solemn promise not to use +poison-gas, if they had refrained from murder at sea, if their valour +had been accompanied by chivalry, the War might now have been ended, +perhaps not in their disfavour, for it would not have been felt, as it +now is felt, that they must be defeated at no matter how great a cost, +or civilization will perish. + +Even as things are, there have been some gains in the manner of +conducting war, which, when future generations look back on them, will +be seen to be considerable. It is true that modern science has devised +new and appalling weapons. The invention of a new weapon in war always +arouses protest, but it does not usually, in the long run, make war more +inhuman. There was a great outcry in Europe when the broadsword was +superseded by the rapier, and a tall man of his hands could be spitted +like a cat or a rabbit by any dexterous little fellow with a trained +wrist. There was a wave of indignation, which was a hundred years in +passing, when musketry first came into use, and a man-at-arms of great +prowess could be killed from behind a wall by one who would not have +dared to meet him in open combat. But these changes did not, in effect, +make war crueller or more deadly. They gave more play to intelligence, +and abolished the tyranny of the bully, who took the wall of every man +he met, and made himself a public nuisance. The introduction of +poison-gas, which is a small thing compared with the invention of +fire-arms, has given the chemist a place in the ranks of fighting-men. +And if science has lent its aid to the destruction of life, it has spent +greater zeal and more prolonged effort on the saving of life. No +previous war will compare with this in care for the wounded and maimed. +In all countries, and on all fronts, an army of skilled workers devote +themselves to this single end. I believe that this quickening of the +human conscience, for that is what it is, will prove to be the greatest +gain of the War, and the greatest advance made in restraint of war. If +the nations come to recognize that their first duty, and their first +responsibility, is to those who give so much in their service, that +recognition will of itself do more than can be done by any conclave of +statesmen to discourage war. It was the monk Telemachus, according to +the old story, who stopped the gladiatorial games at Rome, and was +stoned by the people. If war, in process of time, shall be abolished, +or, failing that, shall be governed by the codes of humanity and +chivalry, like a decent tournament; then the one sacrificial figure +which will everywhere be honoured for the change will be the figure not +of a priest or a politician, but of a hospital nurse. + + + + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + +_A paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, March 14, 1918._ + + +When you asked me to read or speak to you, I promised to speak about the +War. What I have to say is wholly orthodox, but it is none the worse for +that. Indeed, when I think how entirely the War possesses our thoughts +and how entirely we are agreed concerning it, I seem to see a new +meaning in the creeds of the religions. These creeds grew up by general +consent, and no one who believed them grudged repeating them. In the +face of an indifferent or hostile world the faithful found themselves +obliged to define their belief, and to strengthen themselves by an +unwearying and united profession of faith. It is the enemy who gives +meaning to a religious creed: without our creed we cannot win. So I am +willing to remind you of what you know, rather than to try to introduce +you to novelties. + +The strength of the enemy lies in his creed; not in the lands that he +has ravished from his neighbours. If his creed does not prevail, his +lands will not help him. Germany has taken lands from Belgium, Serbia, +Roumania, Russia, and the rest, but unless her digestion is as strong as +her appetite, she will fail to keep them. If she is to hold them in +peace, the peoples who inhabit these lands must be either exterminated +or converted to the German creed. Lands can be annexed by a successful +campaign; they can be permanently conquered only by the operations of +peace. The people who survive will be a weakness to the German Empire +unless they accept what they are offered, a share in the German creed. + +That creed has not many natural attractions for the peoples on whom it +is imposed by force. It is an intensely patriotic creed; it insists on +racial supremacy, and on unity to be achieved by violence. Pleading and +persuasion have little part in it except as instruments of deceit. There +is no use in listening to what the Germans say; they do not believe it +themselves. What they say is for others; what they do is for themselves. +While they are at war, language for them has only two uses--to conceal +their thoughts, and to deceive their enemies. + +The creed of Western civilization, for which they feel nothing but +contempt, and on which they will be broken, is not a simple thing, like +theirs. The words by which it is commonly expressed--democracy, +parliamentarism, individual liberty, diversity, free development--are +puzzling theoretic words, which make no instinctive appeal to the heart. +Nevertheless, we stand for growth as against order; and for life as +against death. If Germany wins this war, her system will have to be +broken or to decay before growth can start again. Must we lose even a +hundred years in shaking ourselves free from the paralysis of the German +nightmare? + +The Germans have shown themselves strong in their unity, and strong in +their willingness to make great sacrifices to preserve that unity. No +one can deny nobility to the sacrifice made by the simple-minded German +soldier who dies fighting bravely for his people and his creed. His +narrowness is his strength, and makes unselfishness easier by saving his +mind from question. 'This one thing you shall do', his country says to +him, 'fight and die for your country, so that your country and your +people shall have lordship over other countries and other peoples. You +are nothing; Germany is everything.' + +We who live in this island love our country with at least as deep a +passion; but a creed so simple as the German creed will never do for us. +We are patriotic, but our patriotism is often overlaid and confused by a +wider thought and a wider sympathy than the Germans have ever known. +Much extravagant praise has lately been given to the German power of +thinking, which produces the elaborate marvels of German organization. +But this thinking is slave-thinking, not master-thinking; it spends +itself wholly on devising complicated means to achieve a very simple +end. That is what makes the Germans so like the animals. Their wisdom is +all cunning. I have had German friends, two or three, in the course of +my life, but none of them ever understood a word that I said if I tried +to say what I thought. You could talk to them about food, and they +responded easily. It was all very restful and pleasant, like talking to +an intelligent dog. + +If each of the allied nations were devoted to the creed of nationalism, +the alliance could not endure. We depend for our strength on what we +hold in common. The weakness of this wider creed is that it makes no +such immediate and strong appeal to the natural instincts as is made by +the mother-country. It demands the habitual exercise of reason and +imagination. Further, seeing that we are infinitely less tame and less +docile than the Germans, we depend for our strength on informing and +convincing our people, and on obtaining agreement among them. Questions +which in Germany are discussed only in the gloomy Berlin head-quarters +of the General Staff are discussed here in the newspapers. In the press, +even under the censorship, we think aloud. It records our differences +and debates our policy. You could not suppress these differences and +these debates without damaging our cause. There is no freedom worth +having which does not, sooner or later, include the freedom to say what +you think. + +No doubt we could, if necessary, carry on for a time without the press; +and I agree with those newspaper writers who have been saying recently +that the importance of the press is monstrously exaggerated by some of +its critics. The working-man, so far as I know him, does not depend for +his patriotism on the leader-writers of the newspapers. He takes even +the news with a very large grain of salt. 'So the papers say', he +remarks; 'it may be true or it may not.' Yet the press has done good +service, and might do better, in putting the meaning of the War before +our people and in holding them together. Freedom means that we must love +our diversity well enough to be willing to unite to protect it. We must +die for our differences as cheerfully as the Germans die for their +pattern. Or, if we can sketch a design of our cause, we must be as +passionate in defence of that large vague design as the Germans are +passionate in defence of their tight uniformity and their drill. If we +were to fail to keep together, our cause, I believe, would still +prevail, but at a cost that we dare not contemplate, by way of anarchy, +and the dissolution of societies, by long tortures, and tears, and +martyrdoms. If we refuse to die in the ranks against the German tyranny +we can keep our faith by dying at the stake. There are those who think +martyrdom the better way; and certainly that was how Christianity +prevailed in Europe; you can read the story in Caxton's translation of +the _Golden Legend_. But these saints and martyrs were making a +beginning; we are fighting to keep what we have won, and it would be a +huge failure on our part if we could keep nothing of it, but had to +begin all over again. + +The business of the press, then, at this present crisis, is to keep the +cause for which we are fighting clearly before us, and this it has done +well; also, because we do not fight best in blinders, to tell us all +that can be known of the facts of the situation, and this it has done +not so well. + +The power of the newspapers is that most people read them, and that many +people read nothing else. Their weakness is that they have to sell or +cease to be, so that by a natural instinct of self-preservation they +fall back on the two sure methods whereby you can always capture the +attention of the public. Any man who is trying to say what he thinks, +making full allowance for all doubts and differences, runs the risk of +losing his audience. He can regain their attention by flattering them or +by frightening them. Flattery and fright, the one following the other +from day to day, and often from paragraph to paragraph, is a very large +part of the newspaper reader's diet. If he is a sane and busy man, he is +not too much impressed by either. He is not mercurial enough for the +quick changes of an orator's or journalist's fancy, whereby he is called +on, one day, to dig the German warships like rats out of their harbour, +and, not many days later, to spend his last shilling on the purchase of +the last bullet to shoot at the German invader. He knows that this is +such stuff as dreams are made of. He knows also that the orator or +journalist, after calling on him for these achievements, goes home to +dinner. No great harm is done, just as no great harm is done by bad +novels. But an opportunity is lost; the press and the platform might do +more than they do to strengthen us and inform us, and help forward our +cause. + +I name the press and the platform together because they are essentially +the same thing. Journalism is a kind of talk. The press, it is fair to +say, is ourselves; and every people, it may truly be said, has the press +that it deserves. But reading is a thing that we do chiefly for +indulgence and pleasure in our idle time; and the press falls in with +our mood, and supplies us with what we want in our weaker and lazier +moments. No responsible man, with an eager and active mind, spends much +of his time on the newspapers. Those who are excited to action by what +they read in the papers are mostly content with the mild exercise of +writing to these same papers to explain that some one else ought to do +something and to do it at once. Their excitement worries themselves more +than it hurts others. When the devil, with horns and hooves, appeared to +Cuvier, the naturalist, and threatened to devour him, Cuvier, who was +asleep at the time, opened his eyes and looked at the terrible +apparition. 'Hm,' he said, 'cloven-footed; graminivorous; needn't be +afraid of you;' and he went to sleep again. A man who says that he has +not time to read the morning papers carefully is commonly a man who +counts; he knows what he has to do, and he goes on doing it. So far as I +have observed, the cadets who are training for command in the army take +very little interest in the exhortations of the newspapers. They even +prefer the miserable trickle which is all that is left of football news. + +One of the chief problems connected with the press is therefore +this--how can it be prevented from producing hysteria in the +feeble-minded? In time of war the censorship no doubt does something to +prevent this; and I think it might do more. 'Scare-lines', as they are +called--that is, sensational headings in large capital letters--might be +reduced by law to modest dimensions. More important, the censorship +might insist that all who write shall sign their names to their +articles. Why should journalists alone be relieved of responsibility to +their country? Is it possible that the Government is afraid of the +press? There is no need for fear. 'Beware of Aristophanes', says Landor, +'he can cast your name as a byword to a thousand cities of Asia for a +thousand years. But all that the press can do by its disfavour is to +keep your name obscure in a hundred cities of England for a hundred +days. Signed articles are robbed of their vague impressiveness, and are +known for what they are--the opinions of one man. I would also recommend +that a photograph of the author be placed at the head of every article. +I have been saved from many bad novels by the helpful pictorial +advertisements of modern publishers. + +The real work of the Press, as I said, is to help to hold the people +together. Nothing else that it can do is of any importance compared with +this. We are at one in this War as we have never been at one before +within living memory, as we were not at one against Napoleon or against +Louis XIV. Our trial is on us; and if we cannot preserve our oneness, we +fail. What would be left to us I do not know; but I am sure that an +England which had accepted conditions of peace at Germany's hands would +not be the England that any of us know. There might still be a few +Englishmen, but they would have to look about for somewhere to live. +Serbia would be a good place; it has made no peace-treaty with Germany. + +We are profoundly at one; and are divided only by illusions, which the +press, in times past, has done much to keep alive. One of these +illusions is the illusion of party. I have never been behind the scenes, +among the creaking machinery, but my impression, as a spectator, is that +parties in England are made very much as you pick up sides for a game. I +have observed that they are all conservative. The affections are +conservative; every one has a liking for his old habits and his old +associates. There is something comic in a well-nourished rich man who +believes that he is a bold reformer and a destructive thinker. For real +clotted reactionary sentiment I know nothing to match the table-talk of +any aged parliamentary Radical. When we get a Labour Government, it will +be patriotic, prejudiced, opposed to all innovation, superstitiously +reverential of the past, sticky and, probably, tyrannical. + +The party illusion has been much weakened by the War, and those who +still repeat the old catch-words are very near to lunacy. There is a +deeper and more dangerous illusion which has not been killed--the class +illusion. We are all very much alike; but we live in water-tight +compartments called classes, and the inhabitants of each compartment +tend to believe that they alone are patriotic. This illusion, to be +just, is not fostered chiefly by the press, which wants to sell its work +to all classes; but it has strong hold of the Government office. The +Government does not know the people, except as an actor knows the +audience; and therefore does not trust the people. It is pathetic to +hear officials talking timidly of the people--will they endure hardships +and sacrifices, will they carry through? Yet most of the successes we +have won in the War have to be credited not so much to the skill of the +management as to the amazing high courage of the ordinary soldier and +sailor. Even soldiers are often subject to class illusion. I remember +listening, in the first month of the War, to a retired colonel, who +explained, with some heat, that the territorials could never be of any +use. That illusion has gone. Then it was Kitchener's army--well-meaning +people, no doubt, but impossible for a European war. Kitchener's army +made good. Now it is the civil population, who, though they are the +blood relatives of the soldiers, are distrusted, and believed to be +likely to fail under a strain. Yet all the time, if you want to hear +half-hearted, timid, pusillanimous talk, the place where you are most +likely to hear it is in the public offices. Most of those who talk in +this way would be brave enough in fight, but they are kept at desks, and +worried with detailed business, and harassed by speculative dangers, and +they lose perspective. Soon or late, we are going to win this War; and +it is the people who are going to win it. + +If the press (or perhaps the Government, which controls the press) is +not afraid of the people, why does it tell them so little about our +reverses, and the merits of our enemies? For information concerning +these things we have to depend wholly on conversation with returned +soldiers. For instance, the horrible stories that we hear of the brutal +treatment of our prisoners are numerous, and are true, and make a heavy +bill against Germany, which bill we mean to present. But are they fair +examples of the average treatment? We cannot tell; the accounts +published are almost exclusively confined to the worst happenings. Most +of the officers with whom I have talked who had been in several German +military prisons said that they had nothing serious to complain of. +Prison is not a good place, and it is not pleasant to have your +pea-soup and your coffee, one after the other, in the same tin dipper; +but they were soldiers, and they agreed that it would be absurd to make +a grievance of things like that. One private soldier was an even greater +philosopher. 'No', he said, 'I have nothing to complain of. Of course, +they do spit at you a good deal.' That man was unconquerable. + +In shipping returns and the like we are given averages; why are we told +nothing at all of the milder experiences of our soldier prisoners? It +would not make us less resolved to do all that we can to better the lot +of those who are suffering insult and torture, and to exact full +retribution from the enemy. And it would bring some hope to those whose +husbands or children or friends are in German military prisons, and who +are racked every day by tales of what, in fact, are exceptional +atrocities. + +Or take the question of the conduct of German officers. We know that the +Prussian military Government, in its approved handbooks, teaches its +officers the use of brutality and terror as military weapons. The German +philosophy of war, of which this is a part, is not really a philosophy +of war; it is a philosophy of victory. For a long time now the Germans +have been accustomed to victory, and have studied the arts of breaking +the spirit and torturing the mind of the peoples whom they invade. Their +philosophy of war will have to be rewritten when the time comes for them +to accommodate their doctrine to their own defeat. In the meantime they +teach frightfulness to their officers, and most of their officers prove +ready pupils. There must be some, one would think, here and there, if +only a sprinkling, who fall short of the Prussian doctrine, and are +betrayed by human feeling into what we should recognize as decent and +honourable conduct. And so there are; only we do not hear of them +through the press. I should like to tell two stories which come to me +from personal sources. The first may be called the story of the +Christmas truce and the German captain. In the lull which fell on the +fighting at the time of the first Christmas of the War, a British +officer was disquieted to notice that his men were fraternizing with the +Germans, who were standing about with them in No-man's land, laughing +and talking. He went out to them at once, to bring them back to their +own trenches. When he came up to his men, he met a German captain who +had arrived on the same errand. The two officers, British and German, +fell into talk, and while they were standing together, in not unfriendly +fashion, one of the men took a snapshot photograph of them, copies of +which were afterwards circulated in the trenches. Then the men were +recalled to their duty, on the one side and the other, and, after an +interval of some days, the war began again. A little time after this the +British officer was in charge of a patrol, and, having lost his way, +found himself in the German trenches, where he and his men were +surrounded and captured. As they were being marched off along the +trenches, they met the German captain, who ordered the men to be taken +to the rear, and then, addressing the officer without any sign of +recognition, said in a loud voice, 'You, follow me!' He led him by +complicated ways along a whole series of trenches and up a sap, at the +end of which he stopped, saluted, and, pointing with his hand, said +'Your trenches are there. Good day.' + +My second story, the story of the British lieutenant in No-man's land, +is briefer. I was with a friend of mine, a young officer back from the +front, wounded, and the conduct of German officers was being discussed. +He said, 'You can't expect me to be very hard on German officers, for +one of them saved my life'. He then told how he and a companion crept +out into No-man's land to bring in some of our wounded who were lying +there. When they had reached the wounded, and were preparing to bring +them in, they were discovered by the Germans opposite, who at once +whipped up a machine-gun and turned it on them. Their lives were not +worth half a minute's purchase, when suddenly a German officer leapt up +on to the parapet, and, angrily waving back the machine-gunners, called +out, in English, 'That's all right. You may take them in.' + +These are no doubt exceptional cases; the rule is very different. But a +good many of such cases are known to soldiers, and I have seen none of +them in the press. Soldiers are silent by law, and journalists either do +not hear these things, or, believing that hate is a valuable asset, +suppress all mention of them. If England could ever be disgraced by a +mishap, she would be disgraced by having given birth to those +Englishmen, few and wretched, who, when an enemy behaves generously, +conceal or deny the fact. And consider the effect of this silence on the +Germans. There are some German officers, as I said, who are better than +the German military handbooks, and better than their monstrous chiefs. +Which of them will pay the smallest attention to what our papers say +when he finds that they collect only atrocities, and are blind to +humanity if they see it in an enemy? He will regard our press accounts +of the German army as the work of malicious cripples; and our perfectly +true narrative of the unspeakable brutality and filthiness of the German +army's doings will lose credit with him. + +If I had my way, I would staff the newspaper offices, as far as +possible, with wounded soldiers, and I would give some of the present +staff a holiday as stretcher-bearers. Then we should hear more of the +truth. + +Is it feared that we should have no heart for the War if once we are +convinced that among the Germans there are some human beings? Is it +believed that our people can be heroic on one condition only, that they +shall be asked to fight no one but orangoutangs? Our airmen fight as +well as any one, in this world or above it, has ever fought; and we owe +them a great debt of thanks for maintaining, and, by their example, +actually teaching the Germans to maintain, a high standard of decency. + +This War has shown, what we might have gathered from our history, that +we fight best up hill. From our history also we may learn that it does +not relax our sinews to be told that our enemy has some good qualities. +We should like him better as an enemy if he had more. We know what we +have believed; and we are not going to fail in resolve or perseverance +because we find that our task is difficult, and that we have not a +monopoly of all the virtues. + +Most of us will not live to see it, for our recovery from this disease +will be long and troublesome, but the War will do great things for us. +It will make a reality of the British Commonwealth, which until now has +been only an aspiration and a dream. It will lay the sure foundation of +a League of Nations in the affection and understanding which it has +promoted among all English-speaking peoples, and in the relations of +mutual respect and mutual service which it has established between the +English-speaking peoples and the Latin races. Our united Rolls of Honour +make the most magnificent list of benefactors that the world has ever +seen. In the end, the War may perhaps even save the soul of the main +criminal, awaken him from his bloody dream, and lead him back by degrees +to the possibility of innocence and goodwill. + + + + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + +_Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy, delivered July 4, +1918_ + + +There is nothing new and important to be said of Shakespeare. In recent +years antiquaries have made some additions to our knowledge of the facts +of his life. These additions are all tantalizing and comparatively +insignificant. The history of the publication of his works has also +become clearer and more intelligible, especially by the labours of Mr. +Pollard; but the whole question of quartos and folios remains thorny and +difficult, so that no one can reach any definite conclusion in this +matter without a liberal use of conjecture. + +I propose to return to the old catholic doctrine which has been +illuminated by so many disciples of Shakespeare, and to speak of him as +our great national poet. He embodies and exemplifies all the virtues, +and most of the faults, of England. Any one who reads and understands +him understands England. This method of studying Shakespeare by reading +him has perhaps gone somewhat out of vogue in favour of more roundabout +ways of approach, but it is the best method for all that. Shakespeare +tells us more about himself and his mind than we could learn even from +those who knew him in his habit as he lived, if they were all alive and +all talking. To learn what he tells we have only to listen. + +I think there is no national poet, of any great nation whatsoever, who +is so completely representative of his own people as Shakespeare is +representative of the English. There is certainly no other English poet +who comes near to Shakespeare in embodying our character and our +foibles. No one, in this connexion, would venture even to mention +Spenser or Milton. Chaucer is English, but he lived at a time when +England was not yet completely English, so that he is only +half-conscious of his nation. Wordsworth is English, but he was a +recluse. Browning is English, but he lived apart or abroad, and was a +tourist of genius. The most English of all our great men of letters, +next to Shakespeare, is certainly Dr. Johnson, but he was no great poet. +Shakespeare, it may be suspected, is too poetic to be a perfect +Englishman; but his works refute that suspicion. He is the Englishman +endowed, by a fortunate chance, with matchless powers of expression. He +is not silent or dull; but he understands silent men, and he enters into +the minds of dull men. Moreover, the Englishman seems duller than he is. +It is a point of pride with him not to be witty and not to give voice to +his feelings. The shepherd Corin, who was never in court, has the true +philosophy. 'He that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain +of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred.' + +Shakespeare knew nothing of the British Empire. He was an islander, and +his patriotism was centred on + + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive to a house, + Against the envy of less happier lands. + +When he speaks of Britons and British he always means the Celtic +peoples of the island. Once only he makes a slip. There is a passage in +_King Lear_ (IV. vi. 249) where the followers of the King, who in the +text of the quarto versions are correctly called 'the British party', +appear in the folio version as 'the English party'. Perhaps the quartos +contain Shakespeare's own correction of his own inadvertence; but those +of us, and we are many, who have been blamed by northern patriots for +the misuse of the word English may claim Shakespeare as a brother in +misfortune. + +Our critics, at home and abroad, accuse us of arrogance. I doubt if we +can prove them wrong; but they do not always understand the nature of +English arrogance. It does not commonly take the form of self-assertion. +Shakespeare's casual allusions to our national characteristics are +almost all of a kind; they are humorous and depreciatory. Here are some +of them. Every holiday fool in England, we learn from Trinculo in _The +Tempest_, would give a piece of silver to see a strange fish, though no +one will give a doit to relieve a lame beggar. The English are +quarrelsome, Master Slender testifies, at the game of bear-baiting. They +are great drinkers, says Iago, 'most potent in potting; your Dane, your +German, and your swag-bellied Hollander are nothing to your English'. +They are epicures, says Macbeth. They will eat like wolves and fight +like devils, says the Constable of France. An English nobleman, +according to the Lady of Belmont, can speak no language but his own. An +English tailor, according to the porter of Macbeth's castle, will steal +cloth where there is hardly any cloth to be stolen, out of a French +hose. The devil, says the clown in _All's Well_, has an English name; he +is called the Black Prince. + +Nothing has been changed in this vein of humorous banter since +Shakespeare died. One of the best pieces of Shakespeare criticism ever +written is contained in four words of the present Poet Laureate's Ode +for the Tercentenary of Shakespeare, 'London's laughter is thine'. The +wit of our trenches in this war, especially perhaps among the Cockney +and South country regiments, is pure Shakespeare. Falstaff would find +himself at home there, and would recognize a brother in Old Bill. + +The best known of Shakespeare's allusions to England are no doubt those +splendid outbursts of patriotism which occur in _King John_, and +_Richard II,_ and _Henry V_. And of these the dying speech of John of +Gaunt, in _Richard II_, is the deepest in feeling. It is a lament upon +the decay of England, 'this dear, dear land'. Since we began to be a +nation we have always lamented our decay. I am afraid that the Germans, +whose self-esteem takes another form, were deceived by this. To the +right English temper all bragging is a thing of evil omen. That temper +is well expressed, where perhaps you would least expect to find it, in +the speech of King Henry V to the French herald: + + To say the sooth,-- + Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much + Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,-- + My people are with sickness much enfeebled, + My numbers lessened, and those few I have + Almost no better than so many French; + Who, when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, + I thought upon one pair of English legs + Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, + That I do brag thus! This your air of France + Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. + Go therefore, tell thy master here I am: + My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; + My army but a weak and sickly guard; + Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, + Though France himself and such another neighbour + Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. + Go bid thy master well advise himself: + If we may pass, we will; if we be hindered, + We shall your tawny ground with your red blood + Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well. + The sum of all our answer is but this: + We would not seek a battle as we are; + Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it; + So tell your master. + +That speech might have been written for the war which we are waging +to-day against a less honourable enemy. But, indeed, Shakespeare is full +of prophecy. Here is his description of the volunteers who flocked to +the colours in the early days of the war: + + Rash inconsiderate fiery voluntaries, + With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens, + Have sold their fortunes at their native homes, + Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, + To make a hazard of new fortunes here. + In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits + Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er + Did never float upon the swelling tide. + +And here is his sermon on national unity, preached by the Bishop of +Carlisle: + + O, if you rear this house against this house, + It will the woefullest division prove + That ever fell upon this cursed earth. + Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, + Lest child, child's children, cry against you 'Woe!' + +The patriotism of the women is described by the Bastard in _King John_: + + Your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids + Like Amazons come tripping after drums: + Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, + Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts + To fierce and bloody inclination. + +Lastly, Queen Isabella's blessing, spoken over King Henry V and his +French bride, predicts an enduring friendship between England and +France: + + As man and wife, being two, are one in love, + So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, + That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, + Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, + Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, + To make divorce of their incorporate league; + That English may as French, French Englishmen, + Receive each other! God speak this Amen! + +One of the delights of a literature as rich and as old as ours is that +at every step we take backwards we find ourselves again. We are +delivered from that foolish vein of thought, so dear to ignorant +conceit, which degrades the past in order to exalt the present and the +future. It is easy to feel ourselves superior to men who no longer +breathe and walk, and whom we do not trouble to understand. Here is the +real benefit of scholarship; it reduces men to kinship with their race. +Science, pressing forward, and beating against the bars which guard the +secrets of the future, has no such sympathy in its gift. + +Anyhow, in Shakespeare's time, England was already old England; which if +she could ever cease to be, she might be Jerusalem, or Paradise, but +would not be England at all. What Shakespeare and his fellows of the +sixteenth century gave her was a new self-consciousness and a new +self-confidence. They foraged in the past; they recognized themselves in +their ancestors; they found feudal England, which had existed for many +hundreds of years, a dumb thing; and when she did not know her own +meaning, they endowed her purposes with words. They gave her a new +delight in herself, a new sense of power and exhilaration, which has +remained with her to this day, surviving all the airy philosophic +theories of humanity which thought to supersede the old solid national +temper. The English national temper is better fitted for traffic with +the world than any mere doctrine can ever be, for it is marked by an +immense tolerance. And this, too, Shakespeare has expressed. Falstaff is +perhaps the most tolerant man who was ever made in God's image. But it +is rather late in the day to introduce Falstaff to an English audience. +Perhaps you will let me modernize a brief scene from Shakespeare, +altering nothing essential, to illustrate how completely his spirit is +the spirit of our troops in Flanders and France. + +A small British expeditionary force, bound on an international mission, +finds itself stranded in an unknown country. The force is composed of +men very various in rank and profession. Two of them, whom we may call +a non-commissioned officer and a private, go exploring by themselves, +and take one of the natives of the place prisoner. This native is an +ugly low-born creature, of great physical strength and violent criminal +tendencies, a liar, and ready at any time for theft, rape, and murder. +He is a child of Nature, a lover of music, slavish in his devotion to +power and rank, and very easily imposed upon by authority. His captors +do not fear him, and, which is more, they do not dislike him. They found +him lying out in a kind of no-man's land, drenched to the skin, so they +determine to keep him as a souvenir, and to take him home with them. +They nickname him, in friendly fashion, the monster, and the mooncalf, +as who should say Fritz, or the Boche. But their first care is to give +him a drink, and to make him swear allegiance upon the bottle. 'Where +the devil should he learn our language?' says the non-commissioned +officer, when the monster speaks. 'I will give him some relief, if it be +but for that.' The prisoner then offers to kiss the foot of his captor. +'I shall laugh myself to death', says the private, 'at this puppy-headed +monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him, +but that the poor monster's in drink.' When the private continues to +rail at the monster, his officer calls him to order. 'Trinculo, keep a +good tongue in your head: if you prove a mutineer, the next tree------ +The poor monster's my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.' + +In this scene from _The Tempest_, everything is English except the +names. The incident has been repeated many times in the last four years. +'This is Bill,' one private said, introducing a German soldier to his +company. 'He's my prisoner. I wounded him, and I took him, and where I +go he goes. Come on, Bill, old man.' The Germans have known many +failures since they began the War, but one failure is more tragic than +all the rest. They love to be impressive, to produce a panic of +apprehension and a thrill of reverence in their enemy; and they have +completely failed to impress the ordinary British private. He remains +incurably humorous, and so little moved to passion that his daily +offices of kindness are hardly interrupted. + +Shakespeare's tolerance, which is no greater than the tolerance of the +common English soldier, may be well seen in his treatment of his +villains. Is a liar, or a thief, merely a bad man? Shakespeare does not +much encourage you to think so. Is a murderer a bad man? He would be an +undiscerning critic who should accept that phrase as a true and adequate +description of Macbeth. Shakespeare does not dislike liars, thieves, and +murderers as such, and he does not pretend to dislike them. He has his +own dislikes. I once asked a friend of mine, long since dead, who +refused to condemn almost anything, whether there were any vices that he +could not find it in his heart to tolerate. He replied at once that +there were two--cruelty, and bilking; which, if the word is not +academic, I may paraphrase as cheating the helpless, swindling a child +out of its pennies, or leaving a house by the back door in order to +avoid paying your cabman his lawful fare. These exclusions from mercy +Shakespeare would accept; and I think he would add a third. His worst +villains are all theorists, who cheat and murder by the book of +arithmetic. They are men of principle, and are ready to expound their +principle and to defend it in argument. They follow it, without remorse +or mitigation, wherever it leads them. It is Iago's logic that makes him +so terrible; his mind is as cold as a snake and as hard as a surgeon's +knife. The Italian Renaissance did produce some such men; the modern +German imitation is a grosser and feebler thing, brutality trying to +emulate the glitter and flourish of refined cruelty. + +With his wonderful quickness of intuition and his unsurpassed subtlety +of expression Shakespeare drew the characters of the Englishmen that he +saw around him. Why is it that he has given us no full-length portrait, +carefully drawn, of a hypocrite? It can hardly have been for lack of +models. Outside England, not only among our enemies, but among our +friends and allies, it is agreed that hypocrisy is our national vice, +our ruling passion. There must be some meaning in so widely held an +opinion; and, on our side, there are damaging admissions by many +witnesses. The portrait gallery of Charles Dickens is crowded with +hypocrites. Some of them are greasy and servile, like Mr. Pumblechook or +Uriah Heep; others rise to poetic heights of daring, like Mr. Chadband +or Mr. Squeers. But Shakespeare's hypocrites enjoy themselves too much; +they are artists to the finger-tips. It may be said, no doubt, that +Shakespeare lived before organized religious dissent had developed a new +type of character among the weaker brethren. But the Low Church +Protestant, whom Shakespeare certainly knew, is not very different from +the evangelical dissenter of later days; and he did not interest +Shakespeare. + +My own impression is that Shakespeare had a free and happy childhood, +and grew up without much check from his elders. It is the child who sees +hypocrites. These preposterous grown-up people, who, if they are +well-mannered, do not seem to enjoy their food, who are fussy about +meaningless employments, and never give way to natural impulses, must +surely assume this veil of decorum with intent to deceive. Charles +Dickens was hard driven in his childhood, and the impressions that were +then burnt into him governed all his seeing. The creative spirit in him +transformed his sufferings into delight; but he never outgrew them; and, +when he died, the eyes of a child were closed upon a scene touched, it +is true, here and there with rapturous pleasure, rich in oddity, and +trembling with pathos, but, in the main, as bleak and unsatisfying as +the wards of a workhouse. The intense emotions of his childhood made the +usual fervours of adolescence a faint thing in the comparison, and if +you want to know how lovers think and feel you do not go to Dickens to +tell you. You go to Shakespeare, who put his childhood behind him, so +that he almost forgot it, and ran forward to seize life with both hands. +He sometimes looked back on children, and saw them through the eyes of +their elders. Dickens saw men and women as they appear to children. + +This comparison suggests a certain lack of sympathy or lack of +understanding in those who are quick to see hypocrisy in others. In +Dickens lack of sympathy was a fair revenge; moreover, his hypocrites +amused him so much that he did not wish to understand them. What a loss +it would have been to the world if he had explained them away! But it is +difficult, I think, to see a hypocrite in a man whose intimacy you have +cultivated, whose mind you have entered into, as Shakespeare entered +into the mind of his creatures. Hypocrisy, in its ordinary forms, is a +superficial thing--a skin disease, not a cancer. It is not easy, at +best, to bring the outward and inward relations of the soul into perfect +harmony; a hypocrite is one who too readily consents to their +separation. The English, for I am ready now to return to my point, are a +people of a divided mind, slow to drive anything through on principle, +very ready to find reason in compromise. They are passionate, and they +are idealists, but they are also a practical people, and they dare not +give the rein to a passion or an idea. They know that in this world an +unmitigated principle simply will not work; that a clean cut will never +take you through the maze. So they restrain themselves, and listen, and +seem patient. They are not so patient as they seem; they must be +hypocrites! A cruder, simpler people like the Germans feel indignation, +not unmixed perhaps with envy, when they hear the quiet voice and see +the white lips of the thoroughbred Englishman who is angry. It is not +manly or honest, they think, to be angry without getting red in the +face. They certainly feel pride in their own honesty when they give +explosive vent to their emotions. They have not learned the elements of +self-distrust. The Englishman is seldom quite content to be himself; +often his thoughts are troubled by something better. He suffers from the +divided mind; and earns the reputation of a hypocrite. But the simpler +nature that indulges itself and believes in itself has an even heavier +penalty to pay. If, in the name of honesty, you cease to distinguish +between what you are and what you would wish to be, between how you act +and how you would like to act, you are in some danger of reeling back +into the beast. It is true that man is an animal; and before long you +feel a glow of conscious virtue in proclaiming and illustrating that +truth. You scorn the hypocrisy of pretending to be better than you are, +and that very scorn fixes you in what you are. 'He that is unjust, let +him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.' +That is the epitaph on German honesty. I have drifted away from +Shakespeare, who knew nothing of the sea of troubles that England would +one day take arms against, and who could not know that on that day she +would outgo his most splendid praise and more than vindicate his +reverence and his affection. But Shakespeare is still so live a mind +that it is vain to try to expound him by selected texts, or to pin him +to a mosaic of quotations from his book. Often, if you seek to know what +he thought on questions which must have exercised his imagination, you +can gather it only from a hint dropped by accident, and quite +irrelevant. What were his views on literature, and on the literary +controversies which have been agitated from his day to our own? He tells +us very little. He must have heard discussions and arguments on metre, +on classical precedent, on the ancient and modern drama; but he makes no +mention of these questions. He does not seem to have attached any +prophetic importance to poetry. The poets who exalt their craft are of a +more slender build. Is it conceivable that he would have given his +support to a literary academy,--a project which began to find advocates +during his lifetime? I think not. It is true that he is full of good +sense, and that an academy exists to promulgate good sense. Moreover his +own free experiments brought him nearer and nearer into conformity with +classical models. _Othello_ and _Macbeth_ are better constructed plays +than _Hamlet_. The only one of his plays which, whether by chance or by +design, observes the so-called unities, of action and time and place, is +one of his latest plays--_The Tempest_. But he was an Englishman, and +would have been jealous of his freedom and independence. When the +grave-digger remarks that it is no great matter if Hamlet do not recover +his wits in England, because there the men are as mad as he, the satire +has a sympathetic ring in it. Shakespeare did not wish to see the mad +English altered. Nor are they likely to alter; our fears and our hopes +are vain. We entered on the greatest of our wars with an army no bigger, +so we are told, than the Bulgarian army. Since that time we have +regimented and organized our people, not without success; and our +soothsayers are now directing our attention to the danger that after the +war we shall be kept in uniform and shall become tame creatures, losing +our independence and our spirit of enterprise. There is nothing that +soothsayers will not predict when they are gravelled for lack of matter, +but this is the stupidest of all their efforts. The national character +is not so flimsy a thing; it has gone through good and evil fortune for +hundreds of years without turning a hair. You can make a soldier, and a +good soldier, of a humorist; but you cannot militarize him. He remains a +free thinker. + +New institutions do not flourish in England. The town is a comparatively +modern innovation; it has never, so to say, caught on. Most schemes of +town-planning are schemes for pretending that you live in the country. +This is one of the most persistent of our many hypocrisies. Wherever +working people inhabit a street of continuous red-brick cottages, the +names that they give to their homes are one long catalogue of romantic +lies. The houses have no gardens, and the only prospect that they +command is the view of over the way. But read their names--The Dingle, +The Elms, Pine Grove, Windermere, The Nook, The Nest. Even social +pretence, which is said to be one of our weaknesses, and which may be +read in such names as Belvoir or Apsley House, is less in evidence than +the Englishman's passion for the country. He cannot bear to think that +he lives in a town. He does not much respect the institutions of a town. +A policeman, before he has been long in the force, has to face the fact +that he is generally regarded as a comic character. The police are +Englishmen and good fellows, and they accept a situation which would +rouse any continental gendarme to heroic indignation. Mayors, Aldermen, +and Justices of the Peace are comic, and take it not quite so well. +Beadles were so wholly dedicated to the purposes of comedy that I +suppose they found their position unendurable and went to earth; at any +rate it is very difficult to catch one in his official costume. + +All this is reflected in Shakespeare. He knew the country, and he knew +the town; and he has not left it in doubt which was the cherished home +of his imagination. He preferred the fields to the streets, but the +Arcadia of his choice is not agricultural or even pastoral; it is rather +a desert island, or the uninhabited stretches of wild and woodland +country. Indeed, he has both described it and named it. 'Where will the +old Duke live?' says Oliver in _As You Like It_. 'They say he is already +in the forest of Arden,' says Charles the wrestler, 'and a many merry +men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. +They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time +carelessly, as they did in the golden world.' That is Shakespeare's +Arcadia; and who that has read _As You Like It_ will deny that it +breathes the air of Paradise? + +It is quite plain that the freedom that Shakespeare valued was in fact +freedom, not any of those ingenious mechanisms to which that name has +been applied by political theorists. He thought long and profoundly on +the problems of society; and anarchy has no place among his political +ideals. It is by all means to be avoided--at a cost. But what harm would +anarchy do if it meant no more than freedom for all the impulses of the +enlightened imagination and the tender heart? The ideals of his heart +were not political; and when he indulges himself, as he did in his +latest plays, you must look for him in the wilds; whether on the road +near the shepherd's cottage, or in the cave among the mountains of +Wales, or on the seashore in the Bermudas. The laws that are imposed +upon the intricate relations of men in society were a weariness to him; +and in this he is thoroughly English. The Englishman has always been an +objector, and he has a right to object, though it may very well be held +that he is too fond of larding his objection with the plea of +conscience. But even this has a meaning in our annals; as a mere +question of right we are very slow to prefer the claim of the organized +opinions of society to the claim of the individual conscience. We know +that there is no good in a man who is doing what he does not will to do. +We are not like our poets or our men of action to be void of +inspiration. A gift is nothing if there is no benevolence in the giver: + + For to the noble mind + Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. + +We ask for the impulse as well as the deed. Even when he is speaking of +social obligations Shakespeare makes his strongest appeal not to force +or command, but to the natural piety of the heart: + + If ever you have looked on better days, + If ever been where bells have knolled to church, + If ever sat at any good man's feast, + If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear, + And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied, + Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: + In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword. + +So speaks Orlando when the Duke has met his threats with fair words; +and he adds an apology: + + Pardon me, I pray you; + I thought that all things had been savage here, + And therefore put I on the countenance + Of stern commandment. + +The ultimate law between man and man, according to Shakespeare, is the +law of pity. I suppose that most of us have had our ears so dulled by +early familiarity with Portia's famous speech, which we probably knew by +heart long before we were fit to understand it, that the heavenly +quality of it, equal to almost anything in the New Testament, is +obscured and lost. There is no remedy but to read it again; to remember +that it was conceived in passion; and to notice how the meaning is +raised and perfected as line follows line: + + _Portia_. Then must the Jew be merciful. + + _Shylock_. On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. + + _Portia_. The quality of mercy is not strained. + It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven + Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd; + It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: + 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes + The throned monarch better than his crown. + His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, + The attribute to awe and majesty, + Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; + But mercy is above this sceptred sway, + It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, + It is an attribute to God himself, + And earthly power doth then show likest God's + When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, + Though justice be thy plea, consider this, + That in the course of justice none of us + Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, + And that same prayer doth teach us all to render + The deeds of mercy. + +That speech rises above the strife of nations; it belongs to humanity. +But an Englishman wrote it; and the author, we may be sure, if he ever +met with the doctrine that a man who is called on to help his own people +is in duty bound to set aside the claims of humanity, and to stop his +ears to the call of mercy, knew that the doctrine is an invention of the +devil, stupid and angry, as the devil commonly is. There are hundreds of +thousands of Englishmen who, though they could not have written the +speech, yet know all that it teaches, and act on the knowledge. It is +part of the creed of the Navy. We can speak more confidently than we +could have spoken three or four years ago. We know that not the +extremest pressure of circumstance could ever bring the people of +England to forget all the natural pieties, to permit official duties to +annul private charities, and to join in the frenzied dance of hate and +lust which leads to the mouth of the pit. + +Yet Germany, where all this seems to have happened, was not very long +ago a country where it was easy to find humanity, and simplicity, and +kindness. It was a country of quiet industry and content, the home of +fairy stories, which Shakespeare himself would have loved. The Germans +of our day have made a religion of war and terror, and have used +commerce as a means for the treacherous destruction of the independence +and freedom of others. They were not always like that. In the fifteenth +century they spread the art of printing through Europe, for the service +of man, by the method of peaceful penetration. My friend Mr. John +Sampson recently expressed to me a hope that our air-forces would not +bomb Mainz, 'for Mainz', he said, 'is a sacred place to the +bibliographer'. According to a statement published in Cologne in 1499, +'the highly valuable art of printing was invented first of all in +Germany at Mainz on the Rhine. And it is a great honour to the German +nation that such ingenious men are to be found among them....And in the +year of our Lord 1450 it was a golden year, and they began to print, and +the first book they printed was the Bible in Latin: it was printed in a +large character, resembling the types with which the present mass-books +are printed.' Gutenberg, the printer of this Bible, never mentions his +own name, and the only personal note we have of his, in the colophon of +the _Catholicon_, printed in 1460, is a hymn in praise of his city: +'With the aid of the Most High, who unlooses the tongues of infants and +oft-times reveals to babes that which is hidden from learned men, this +admirable book, the _Catholicon_, was finished in the year of the +incarnation of our Saviour MCCCCLX, in the foster town of Mainz, a town +of the famous German nation, which God in his clemency, by granting to +it this high illumination of the mind, has preferred before the other +nations of the world.' + +There is something not quite unlike modern Germany in that; and yet +these older activities of the Germans make a strange contrast with their +work to-day. It was in the city of Cologne that Caxton first made +acquaintance with his craft. Everywhere the Germans spread printing like +a new religion, adapting it to existing conditions. In Bavaria they used +the skill of the wood-engravers, and at Augsburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg +produced the first illustrated printed books. It was two Germans of the +old school, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, who carried the art to +Italy, casting the first type in Roman characters, and printing editions +of the classics, first in the Benedictine monastery of St. Scholastica +at Subiaco, and later at Rome. They also cast the first Greek type. It +was three Germans, Gering, Kranz, and Freyburger, who first printed at +Paris, in 1470. It was a German who set up the first printing-press in +Spain, in 1474. The Germans were once the cherishers, as now they are +the destroyers, of the inheritance of civilization. I do not pretend to +explain the change. Perhaps it is a tragedy of education. That is a +dangerous moment in the life of a child when he begins to be uneasily +aware that he is valued for his simplicity and innocence. Then he +resolves to break with the past, to put away childish things, to forgo +affection, and to earn respect by imitating the activities of his +elders. The strange power of words and the virtues of abstract thought +begin to fascinate him. He loses touch with the things of sense, and +ceases to speak as a child. If his first attempts at argument and dogma +win him praise and esteem, if he proves himself a better fighter than an +older boy next door, who has often bullied him, and if at the same time +he comes into money, he is on the road to ruin. His very simplicity is a +snare to him. 'What a fool I was', he thinks, 'to let myself be put +upon; I now see that I am a great philosopher and a splendid soldier, +born to subdue others rather than to agree with them, and entitled to a +chief share in all the luxuries of the world. It is for me to say what +is good and true, and if any of these people contradict me I shall knock +them down.' He suits his behaviour to his new conception of himself, and +is soon hated by all the neighbours. Then he turns bitter. These people, +he thinks, are all in a plot against him. They must be blind to goodness +and beauty, or why do they dislike him! His rage reaches the point of +madness; he stabs and poisons the villagers, and burns down their +houses. We are still waiting to see what will become of him. + +This outbreak has been long preparing. Seventy years before the War the +German poet Freiligrath wrote a poem to prove that Germany is Hamlet, +urged by the spirit of her fathers to claim her inheritance, vacillating +and lost in thought, but destined, before the Fifth Act ends, to strew +the stage with the corpses of her enemies. Only a German could have hit +on the idea that Germany is Hamlet. The English, for whom the play was +written, know that Hamlet is Hamlet, and that Shakespeare was thinking +of a young man, not of the pomposities of national ambition. But if +these clumsy allegories must be imposed upon great poets, Germany need +not go abroad to seek the likeness of her destiny. Germany is Faust; she +desired science and power and pleasure, and to get them on a short lease +she paid the price of her soul. + +For the present, at any rate, the best thing the Germans can do with +Shakespeare is to leave him alone. They have divorced themselves from +their own great poets, to follow vulgar half-witted political prophets. +As for Shakespeare, they have studied him assiduously, with the complete +apparatus of criticism, for a hundred years, and they do not understand +the plainest words of all his teaching. + +In England he has always been understood; and it is only fair, to him +and to ourselves, to add that he has never been regarded first and +foremost as a national poet. His humanity is too calm and broad to +suffer the prejudices and exclusions of international enmities. The +sovereignty that he holds has been allowed to him by men of all parties. +The schools of literature have, from the very first, united in his +praise. Ben Jonson, who knew him and loved him, was a classical scholar, +and disapproved of some of his romantic escapades, yet no one will ever +outgo Ben Jonson's praise of Shakespeare. + + Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, + To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe. + He was not-of an ago, but for all time! + +The sects of religion forget their disputes and recognize the spirit of +religion in this profane author. He cannot be identified with any +institution. According to the old saying, he gave up the Church and took +to religion. Ho gave up the State, and took to humanity. The formularies +and breviaries to which political and religious philosophers profess +their allegiance were nothing to him. These formularies are a convenient +shorthand, to save the trouble of thinking. But Shakespeare always +thought. Every question that he treats is brought out of the realm of +abstraction, and exhibited in its relation to daily life and the minds +and hearts of men. He could never have been satisfied with such a smug +phrase as 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. His mind +would have been eager for details. In what do the greatest number find +their happiness? How far is the happiness of one consistent with the +happiness of another? What difficulties and miscarriages attend the +business of transmuting the recognized materials for happiness into +living human joy? Even these questions he would not have been content to +handle in high philosophic fashion; he would have insisted on instances, +and would have subscribed to no code that is not carefully built out of +case-law. He knew that sanity is in the life of the senses; and that if +there are some philosophers who are not mad it is because they live a +double life, and have consolations and resources of which their books +tell you nothing. It is the part of their life which they do not think +it worth their while to mention that would have interested Shakespeare. +He loves to reduce things to their elements. 'Is man no more than this?' +says the old king on the heath, as he gazes on the naked madman. +'Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the +sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are +sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more +but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you +lendings!' That is how Shakespeare lays the mind of man bare, and strips +him of his pretences, to try if he be indeed noble. And he finds that +man, naked and weak, hunted by misfortune, liable to all the sins and +all the evils that follow frailty, still has faith left to him, and +charity. King Lear is still every inch a king. + +That is not a little discovery, for when his mind came to grips with +human life Shakespeare did not deal in rhetoric; so that the good he +finds is real good--''tis in grain; 'twill endure wind and weather'. +Nothing is easier than to make a party of humanity, and to exalt mankind +by ignorantly vilifying the rest of the animal creation, which is full +of strange virtues and abilities. Shakespeare refused that way; he saw +man weak and wretched, not able to maintain himself except as a +pensioner on the bounty of the world, curiously ignorant of his nature +and his destiny, yet endowed with certain gifts in which he can find +sustenance and rest, brave by instinct, so that courage is not so much +his virtue as cowardice is his lamentable and exceptional fault, ready +to forget his pains or to turn them into pleasures by the alchemy of his +mind, quick to believe, and slow to suspect or distrust, generous and +tender to others, in so far as his thought and imagination, which are +the weakest things about him, enable him to bridge the spaces that +separate man from man, willing to make of life a great thing while he +has it, and a little thing when he comes to lose it. These are some of +his gifts; and Shakespeare would not have denied the saying of a thinker +with whom he has no very strong or natural affinity, that 'the greatest +of these is charity'. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of England and the War, by Walter Raleigh + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10159 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3583ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10159 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10159) diff --git a/old/10159-8.txt b/old/10159-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb1a6bb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10159-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3948 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of England and the War, by Walter Raleigh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: England and the War + +Author: Walter Raleigh + +Release Date: November 20, 2003 [EBook #10159] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND AND THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +ENGLAND AND THE WAR + +being + +SUNDRY ADDRESSES + +delivered during the war +and now first collected + +by + +WALTER RALEIGH + +OXFORD + +1918 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, + October 1914. + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + December 12, 1916. + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + An Address to the Union Society of University + College, London, March 22, 1917. + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + February 13, 1918. + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + A Paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, + March 14, 1918. + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + The Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British + Academy, delivered July 4, 1918. + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book was not planned, but grew out of the troubles of the time. +When, on one occasion or another, I was invited to lecture, I did not +find, with Milton's Satan, that the mind is its own place; I could speak +only of what I was thinking of, and my mind was fixed on the War. I am +unacquainted with military science, so my treatment of the War was +limited to an estimate of the characters of the antagonists. + +The character of Germany and the Germans is a riddle. I have seen no +convincing solution of it by any Englishman, and hardly any confident +attempt at a solution which did not speak the uncontrolled language of +passion. There is the same difficulty with the lower animals; our +description of them tends to be a description of nothing but our own +loves and hates. Who has ever fathomed the mind of a rhinoceros; or has +remembered, while he faces the beast, that a good rhinoceros is a +pleasant member of the community in which his life is passed? We see +only the folded hide, the horn, and the angry little eye. We know that +he is strong and cunning, and that his desires and instincts are +inconsistent with our welfare. Yet a rhinoceros is a simpler creature +than a German, and does not trouble our thought by conforming, on +occasion, to civilized standards and humane conditions. + +It seems unreasonable to lay great stress on racial differences. The +insuperable barrier that divides England from Germany has grown out of +circumstance and habit and thought. For many hundreds of years the +German peoples have stood to arms in their own defence against the +encroachments of successive empires; and modern Germany learned the +doctrine of the omnipotence of force by prolonged suffering at the hands +of the greatest master of that immoral school--the Emperor Napoleon. No +German can understand the attitude of disinterested patronage which the +English mind quite naturally assumes when it is brought into contact +with foreigners. The best example of this superiority of attitude is to +be seen in the people who are called pacifists. They are a peculiarly +English type, and they are the most arrogant of all the English. The +idea that they should ever have to fight for their lives is to them +supremely absurd. There must be some mistake, they think, which can be +easily remedied once it is pointed out. Their title to existence is so +clear to themselves that they are convinced it will be universally +recognized; it must not be made a matter of international conflict. +Partly, no doubt, this belief is fostered by lack of imagination. The +sheltered conditions and leisured life which they enjoy as the parasites +of a dominant race have produced in them a false sense of security. But +there is something also of the English strength and obstinacy of +character in their self-confidence, and if ever Germany were to conquer +England some of them would spring to their full stature as the heroes of +an age-long and indomitable resistance. They are not held in much esteem +to-day among their own people; they are useless for the work in hand; +and their credit has suffered from the multitude of pretenders who make +principle a cover for cowardice. But for all that, they are kin to the +makers of England, and the fact that Germany would never tolerate them +for an instant is not without its lesson. + +We shall never understand the Germans. Some of their traits may possibly +be explained by their history. Their passionate devotion to the State, +their amazing vulgarity, their worship of mechanism and mechanical +efficiency, are explicable in a people who are not strong in individual +character, who have suffered much to achieve union, and who have +achieved it by subordinating themselves, soul and body, to a brutal +taskmaster. But the convulsions of war have thrown up things that are +deeper than these, primaeval things, which, until recently, civilization +was believed to have destroyed. The old monstrous gods who gave their +names to the days of the week are alive again in Germany. The English +soldier of to-day goes into action with the cold courage of a man who is +prepared to make the best of a bad job. The German soldier sacrifices +himself, in a frenzy of religious exaltation, to the War-God. The +filthiness that the Germans use, their deliberate befouling of all that +is elegant and gracious and antique, their spitting into the food that +is to be eaten by their prisoners, their defiling with ordure the sacred +vessels in the churches--all these things, too numerous and too +monotonous to describe, are not the instinctive coarsenesses of the +brute beast; they are a solemn ritual of filth, religiously practised, +by officers no less than by men. The waves of emotional exaltation which +from time to time pass over the whole people have the same character, +the character of savage religion. + +If they are alien to civilization when they fight, they are doubly alien +when they reason. They are glib and fluent in the use of the terms which +have been devised for the needs of thought and argument, but their use +of these terms is empty, and exhibits all the intellectual processes +with the intelligence left out. I know nothing more distressing than the +attempt to follow any German argument concerning the War. If it were +merely wrong-headed, cunning, deceitful, there might still be some +compensation in its cleverness. There is no such compensation. The +statements made are not false, but empty; the arguments used are not +bad, but meaningless. It is as if they despised language, and made use +of it only because they believe that it is an instrument of deceit. But +a man who has no respect for language cannot possibly use it in such a +manner as to deceive others, especially if those others are accustomed +to handle it delicately and powerfully. It ought surely to be easy to +apologize for a war that commands the whole-hearted support of a nation; +but no apology worthy of the name has been produced in Germany. The +pleadings which have been used are servile things, written to order, and +directed to some particular address, as if the truth were of no +importance. No one of these appeals has produced any appreciable effect +on the minds of educated Frenchmen, or Englishmen, or Americans, even +among those who are eager to hear all that the enemy has to say for +himself. This is a strange thing; and is perhaps the widest breach of +all. We are hopelessly separated from the Germans; we have lost the use +of a common language, and cannot talk with them if we would. + +We cannot understand them; is it remotely possible that they will ever +understand us? Here, too, the difficulties seem insuperable. It is true +that in the past they have shown themselves willing to study us and to +imitate us. But unless they change their minds and their habits, it is +not easy to see how they are to get near enough to us to carry on their +study. While they remain what they are we do not want them in our +neighbourhood. We are not fighting to anglicize Germany, or to impose +ourselves on the Germans; our work is being done, as work is so often +done in this idle sport-loving country, with a view to a holiday. We +wish to forget the Germans; and when once we have policed them into +quiet and decency we shall have earned the right to forget them, at +least for a time. The time of our respite perhaps will not be long. If +the Allies defeat them, as the Allies will, it seems as certain as any +uncertain thing can be that a mania for imitating British and American +civilization will take possession of Germany. We are not vindictive to a +beaten enemy, and when the Germans offer themselves as pupils we are not +likely to be either enthusiastic in our welcome or obstinate in our +refusal. We shall be bored but concessive. I confess that there are +some things in the prospect of this imitation which haunt me like a +nightmare. The British soldier, whom the German knows to be second to +none, is distinguished for the levity and jocularity of his bearing in +the face of danger. What will happen when the German soldier attempts to +imitate that? We shall be delivered from the German peril as when Israel +came out of Egypt, and the mountains skipped like rams. + +The only parts of this book for which I claim any measure of authority +are the parts which describe the English character. No one of purely +English descent has ever been known to describe the English character, +or to attempt to describe it. The English newspapers are full of praises +of almost any of the allied troops other than the English regiments. I +have more Scottish and Irish blood in my veins than English; and I think +I can see the English character truly, from a little distance. If, by +some fantastic chance, the statesmen of Germany could learn what I tell +them, it would save their country from a vast loss of life and from many +hopeless misadventures. The English character is not a removable part of +the British Empire; it is the foundation of the whole structure, and the +secret strength of the American Republic. But the statesmen of Germany, +who fall easy victims to anything foolish in the shape of a theory that +flatters their vanity, would not believe a word of my essays even if +they were to read them, so they must learn to know the English character +in the usual way, as King George the Third learned to know it from +Englishmen resident in America. + +A habit of lying and a belief in the utility of lying are often +attended by the most unhappy and paralysing effects. The liars become +unable to recognize the truth when it is presented to them. This is the +misery which fate has fixed on the German cause. War, the Germans are +fond of remarking, is war. In almost all wars there is something to be +said on both sides of the question. To know that one side or the other +is right may be difficult; but it is always useful to know why your +enemies are fighting. We know why Germany is fighting; she explained it +very fully, by her most authoritative voices, on the very eve of the +struggle, and she has repeated it many times since in moments of +confidence or inadvertence. But here is the tragedy of Germany: she does +not know why we are fighting. We have told her often enough, but she +does not believe it, and treats our statement as an exercise in the +cunning use of what she calls ethical propaganda. Why ethics, or morals, +should be good enough to inspire sympathy, but not good enough to +inspire war, is one of the mysteries of German thought. No German, not +even any of those few feeble German writers who have fitfully criticized +the German plan, has any conception of the deep, sincere, unselfish, and +righteous anger that was aroused in millions of hearts by the cruelties +of the cowardly assault on Serbia and on Belgium. The late German +Chancellor became uneasily aware that the crucifixion of Belgium was one +of the causes which made this war a truceless war, and his offer, which +no doubt seemed to him perfectly reasonable, was that Germany is willing +to bargain about Belgium, and to relax her hold, in exchange for solid +advantages elsewhere. Perhaps he knew that if the Allies were to spend +five minutes in bargaining about Belgium they would thereby condone the +German crime and would lose all that they have fought for. But it seems +more likely that he did not know it. The Allies know it. + +There is hope in these clear-cut issues. Of all wars that ever were +fought this war is least likely to have an indecisive ending. It must be +settled one way or the other. If the Allied Governments were to make +peace to-day, there would be no peace; the peoples of the free countries +would not suffer it. Germany cannot make peace, for she is bound by +heavy promises to her people, and she cannot deliver the goods. She is +tied to the stake, and must fight the course. Emaciated, exhausted, +repeating, as if in a bad dream, the old boastful appeals to military +glory, she must go on till she drops, and then at last there will be +peace. + +These may themselves seem boastful words; they cannot be proved except +by the event. There are some few Englishmen, with no stomach for a +fight, who think that England is in a bad way because she is engaged in +a war of which the end is not demonstrably certain. If the issues of +wars were known beforehand, and could be discounted, there would be no +wars. Good wars are fought by nations who make their choice, and would +rather die than lose what they are fighting for. Military fortunes are +notoriously variable, and depend on a hundred accidents. Moral causes +are constant, and operate all the time. The chief of these moral causes +is the character of a people. Germany, by her vaunted study of the art +and science of war, has got herself into a position where no success can +come to her except by way of the collapse or failure of the +English-speaking peoples. A study of the moral causes, if she were +capable of making it, would not encourage her in her old impious belief +that God will destroy these peoples in order to clear the way for the +dominion of the Hohenzollerns. + + + + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + +_First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, October 1914_ + + +It is now recognized in England that our enemy in this war is not a +tyrant military caste, but the united people of modern Germany. We have +to combat an armed doctrine which is virtually the creed of all Germany. +Saxony and Bavaria, it is true, would never have invented the doctrine; +but they have accepted it from Prussia, and they believe it. The +Prussian doctrine has paid the German people handsomely; it has given +them their place in the world. When it ceases to pay them, and not till +then, they will reconsider it. They will not think, till they are +compelled to think. When they find themselves face to face with a +greater and more enduring strength than their own, they will renounce +their idol. But they are a brave people, a faithful people, and a stupid +people, so that they will need rough proofs. They cannot be driven from +their position by a little paper shot. In their present mood, if they +hear an appeal to pity, sensibility, and sympathy, they take it for a +cry of weakness. I am reminded of what I once heard said by a genial and +humane Irish officer concerning a proposal to treat with the leaders of +a Zulu rebellion. 'Kill them all,' he said, 'it's the only thing they +understand.' He meant that the Zulu chiefs would mistake moderation for +a sign of fear. By the irony of human history this sentence has become +almost true of the great German people, who built up the structure of +modern metaphysics. They can be argued with only by those who have the +will and the power to punish them. + +The doctrine that Might is Right, though it is true, is an unprofitable +doctrine, for it is true only in so broad and simple a sense that no one +would dream of denying it. If a single nation can conquer, depress, and +destroy all the other nations of the earth and acquire for itself a sole +dominion, there may be matter for question whether God approves that +dominion; what is certain is that He permits it. No earthly governor who +is conscious of his power will waste time in listening to arguments +concerning what his power ought to be. His right to wield the sword can +be challenged only by the sword. An all-powerful governor who feared no +assault would never trouble himself to assert that Might is Right. He +would smile and sit still. The doctrine, when it is propounded by weak +humanity, is never a statement of abstract truth; it is a declaration of +intention, a threat, a boast, an advertisement. It has no value except +when there is some one to be frightened. But it is a very dangerous +doctrine when it becomes the creed of a stupid people, for it flatters +their self-sufficiency, and distracts their attention from the +difficult, subtle, frail, and wavering conditions of human power. The +tragic question for Germany to-day is what she can do, not whether it is +right for her to do it. The buffaloes, it must be allowed, had a +perfect right to dominate the prairie of America, till the hunters came. +They moved in herds, they practised shock-tactics, they were violent, +and very cunning. There are but few of them now. A nation of men who +mistake violence for strength, and cunning for wisdom, may conceivably +suffer the fate of the buffaloes and perish without knowing why. + +To the English mind the German political doctrine is so incredibly +stupid that for many long years, while men in high authority in the +German Empire, ministers, generals, and professors, expounded that +doctrine at great length and with perfect clearness, hardly any one +could be found in England to take it seriously, or to regard it as +anything but the vapourings of a crazy sect. England knows better now; +the scream of the guns has awakened her. The German doctrine is to be +put to the proof. Who dares to say what the result will be? To predict +certain failure to the German arms is only a kind of boasting. Yet there +are guarded beliefs which a modest man is free to hold till they are +seen to be groundless. The Germans have taken Antwerp; they may possibly +destroy the British fleet, overrun England and France, repel Russia, +establish themselves as the dictators of Europe--in short, fulfil their +dreams. What then? At an immense cost of human suffering they will have +achieved, as it seems to us, a colossal and agonizing failure. Their +engines of destruction will never serve them to create anything so fair +as the civilization of France. Their uneasy jealousy and self-assertion +is a miserable substitute for the old laws of chivalry and regard for +the weak, which they have renounced and forgotten. The will and high +permission of all-ruling Heaven may leave them at large for a time, to +seek evil to others. When they have finished with it, the world will +have to be remade. + +We cannot be sure that the Ruler of the world will forbid this. We +cannot even be sure that the destroyers, in the peace that their +destruction will procure for them, may not themselves learn to rebuild. +The Goths, who destroyed the fabric of the Roman Empire, gave their +name, in time, to the greatest mediaeval art. Nature, it is well known, +loves the strong, and gives to them, and to them alone, the chance of +becoming civilized. Are the German people strong enough to earn that +chance? That is what we are to see. They have some admirable elements of +strength, above any other European people. No other European army can be +marched, in close order, regiment after regiment, up the slope of a +glacis, under the fire of machine guns, without flinching, to certain +death. This corporate courage and corporate discipline is so great and +impressive a thing that it may well contain a promise for the future. +Moreover, they are, within the circle of their own kin, affectionate and +dutiful beyond the average of human society. If they succeed in their +worldly ambitions, it will be a triumph of plain brute morality over all +the subtler movements of the mind and heart. + +On the other hand, it is true to say that history shows no precedent for +the attainment of world-wide power by a people so politically stupid as +the German people are to-day. There is no mistake about this; the +instances of German stupidity are so numerous that they make something +like a complete history of German international relations. Here is one. +Any time during the last twenty years it has been matter of common +knowledge in England that one event, and one only, would make it +impossible for England to remain a spectator in a European war--that +event being the violation of the neutrality of Holland or Belgium. There +was never any secret about this, it was quite well known to many people +who took no special interest in foreign politics. Germany has maintained +in this country, for many years, an army of spies and secret agents; yet +not one of them informed her of this important truth. Perhaps the +radical difference between the German and the English political systems +blinded the astute agents. In England nothing really important is a +secret, and the amount of privileged political information to be gleaned +in barbers' shops, even when they are patronized by Civil servants, is +distressingly small. Two hours of sympathetic conversation with an +ordinary Englishman would have told the German Chancellor more about +English politics than ever he heard in his life. For some reason or +other he was unable to make use of this source of intelligence, so that +he remained in complete ignorance of what every one in England knew and +said. + +Here is another instance. The programme of German ambition has been +voluminously published for the benefit of the world. France was first to +be crushed; then Russia; then, by means of the indemnities procured from +these conquests, after some years of recuperation and effort, the naval +power of England was to be challenged and destroyed. This programme was +set forth by high authorities, and was generally accepted; there was no +criticism, and no demur. The crime against the civilization of the world +foreshadowed in the horrible words 'France is to be crushed' is before a +high tribunal; it would be idle to condemn it here. What happened is +this. The French and Russian part of the programme was put into action +last July. England, who had been told that her turn was not yet, that +Germany would be ready for her in a matter of five or ten years, very +naturally refused to wait her turn. She crowded up on to the scaffold, +which even now is in peril of breaking down under the weight of its +victims, and of burying the executioner in its ruins. But because +England would not wait her turn, she is overwhelmed with accusations of +treachery and inhumanity by a sincerely indignant Germany. Could +stupidity, the stupidity of the wise men of Gotham, be more fantastic or +more monstrous? + +German stupidity was even more monstrous. A part of the accusation +against England is that she has raised her hand against the nation +nearest to her in blood. The alleged close kinship of England and +Germany is based on bad history and doubtful theory. The English are a +mixed race, with enormous infusions of Celtic and Roman blood. The Roman +sculpture gallery at Naples is full of English faces. If the German +agents would turn their attention to hatters' shops, and give the +barbers a rest, they would find that no English hat fits any German +head. But suppose we were cousins, or brothers even, what kind of +argument is that on the lips of those who but a short time before were +explaining, with a good deal of zest and with absolute frankness, how +they intended to compass our ruin? There is something almost amiable in +fatuity like this. A touch of the fool softens the brute. + +The Germans have a magnificent war-machine which rolls on its way, +crushing all that it touches. We shall break it if we can. If we fail, +the German nation is at the beginning, not the end, of its troubles. +With the making of peace, even an armed peace, the war-machine has +served its turn; some other instrument of government must then be +invented. There is no trace of a design for this new instrument in any +of the German shops. The governors of Alsace-Lorraine offer no +suggestions. The bald fact is that there is no spot in the world where +the Germans govern another race and are not hated. They know this, and +are disquieted; they meet with coldness on all hands, and their remedy +for the coldness is self-assertion and brag. The Russian statesman was +right who remarked that modern Germany has been too early admitted into +the comity of European nations. Her behaviour, in her new international +relations, is like the behaviour of an uneasy, jealous upstart in an +old-fashioned quiet drawing-room. She has no genius for equality; her +manners are a compound of threatening and flattery. When she wishes to +assert herself, she bullies; when she wishes to endear herself, she +crawls; and the one device is no more successful than the other. + +Might is Right; but the sort of might which enables one nation to govern +another in time of peace is very unlike the armoured thrust of the +war-engine. It is a power compounded of sympathy and justice. The +English (it is admitted by many foreign critics) have studied justice +and desired justice. They have inquired into and protected rights that +were unfamiliar, and even grotesque, to their own ideas, because they +believed them to be rights. In the matter of sympathy their reputation +does not stand so high; they are chill in manner, and dislike all +effusive demonstrations of feeling. Yet those who come to know them know +that they are not unimaginative; they have a genius for equality; and +they do try to put themselves in the other fellow's place, to see how +the position looks from that side. What has happened in India may +perhaps be taken to prove, among many other things, that the inhabitants +of India begin to know that England has done her best, and does feel a +disinterested solicitude for the peoples under her charge. She has long +been a mother of nations, and is not frightened by the problems of +adolescence. + +The Germans have as yet shown no sign of skill in governing other +peoples. Might is Right; and it is quite conceivable that they may +acquire colonies by violence. If they want to keep them they will have +to shut their own professors' books, and study the intimate history of +the British Empire. We are old hands at the business; we have lost more +colonies than ever they owned, and we begin to think that we have learnt +the secret of success. At any rate, our experience has done much for us, +and has helped us to avoid failure. Yet the German colonial party stare +at us with bovine malevolence. In all the library of German theorizing +you will look in vain for any explanation of the fact that the Boers +are, in the main, loyal to the British Empire. If German political +thinkers could understand that political situation, which seems to +English minds so simple, there might yet be hope for them. But they +regard it all as a piece of black magic, and refuse to reason about it. +How should a herd of cattle be driven without goads? Witchcraft, +witchcraft! + +Their world-wide experience it is, perhaps, which has made the English +quick to appreciate the virtues of other peoples. I have never known an +Englishman who travelled in Russia without falling in love with the +Russian people. I have never heard a German speak of the Russian people +without contempt and dislike. Indeed the Germans are so unable to see +any charm in that profound and humane people that they believe that the +English liking for them must be an insincere pretence, put forward for +wicked or selfish reasons. What would they say if they saw a sight that +is common in Indian towns, a British soldier and a Gurkha arm in arm, +rolling down the street in cheerful brotherhood? And how is it that it +has never occurred to any of them that this sort of brotherhood has its +value in Empire-building? The new German political doctrine has bidden +farewell to Christianity, but there are some political advantages in +Christianity which should not be overlooked. It teaches human beings to +think of one another and to care for one another. It is an antidote to +the worst and most poisonous kind of political stupidity. + +Another thing that the Germans will have to learn for the welfare of +their much-talked Empire is the value of the lone man. The architects +and builders of the British Empire were all lone men. Might is Right; +but when a young Englishman is set down at an outpost of Empire to +govern a warlike tribe, he has to do a good deal of hard thinking on the +problem of political power and its foundations. He has to trust to +himself, to form his own conclusions, and to choose his own line of +action. He has to try to find out what is in the mind of others. A young +German, inured to skilled slavery, does not shine in such a position. +Man for man, in all that asks for initiative and self-dependence, +Englishmen are the better men, and some Germans know it. There is an old +jest that if you settle an Englishman and a German together in a new +country, at the end of a year you will find the Englishman governor, and +the German his head clerk. A German must know the rules before he can +get to work. + +More than three hundred years ago a book was written in England which is +in some ways a very exact counterpart to General von Bernhardi's +notorious treatise. It is called _Tamburlaine_, and, unlike its +successor, is full of poetry and beauty. Our own colonization began with +a great deal of violent work, and much wrong done to others. We suffered +for our misdeeds, and we learned our lesson, in part at least. Why, it +may be asked, should not the Germans begin in the same manner, and by +degrees adapt themselves to the new task? Perhaps they may, but if they +do, they cannot claim the Elizabethans for their model. Of all men on +earth the German is least like the undisciplined, exuberant Elizabethan +adventurer. He is reluctant to go anywhere without a copy of the rules, +a guarantee of support, and a regular pension. His outlook is as prosaic +as General von Bernhardi's or General von der Golt's own, and that is +saying a great deal. In all the German political treatises there is an +immeasurable dreariness. They lay down rules for life, and if they be +asked what makes such a life worth living they are without any hint of +an answer. Their world is a workhouse, tyrannically ordered, and full of +pusillanimous jealousies. + +It is not impious to be hopeful. A Germanized world would be a +nightmare. We have never attempted or desired to govern them, and we +must not think that God will so far forget them as to permit them to +attempt to govern us. Now they hate us, but they do not know for how +many years the cheerful brutality of their political talk has shocked +and disgusted us. I remember meeting, in one of the French Mediterranean +dependencies, with a Prussian nobleman, a well-bred and pleasant man, +who was fond of expounding the Prussian creed. He was said to be a +political agent of sorts, but he certainly learned nothing in +conversation. He talked all the time, and propounded the most monstrous +paradoxes with an air of mathematical precision. Now it was the +character of Sir Edward Grey, a cunning Machiavel, whose only aim was to +set Europe by the ears and make neighbours fall out. A friend who was +with me, an American, laughed aloud at this, and protested, without +producing the smallest effect. The stream of talk went on. The error of +the Germans, we were told, was always that they are too humane; their +dislike of cruelty amounts to a weakness in them. They let France escape +with a paltry fine, next time France must be beaten to the dust. Always +with a pleasant outward courtesy, he passed on to England. England was +decadent and powerless, her rule must pass to the Germans. 'But we shall +treat England rather less severely than France,' said this bland apostle +of Prussian culture, 'for we wish to make it possible for ourselves to +remain in friendly relations with other English-speaking peoples.' And +so on--the whole of the Bernhardi doctrine, explained in quiet fashion +by a man whose very debility of mind made his talk the more impressive, +for he was simply parroting what he had often heard. No one criticized +his proposals, nor did we dislike him. It all seemed too mad; a rather +clumsy jest. His world of ideas did not touch our world at any point, so +that real talk between us was impossible. He came to see us several +times, and always gave the same kind of mesmerized recital of Germany's +policy. The grossness of the whole thing was in curious contrast with +the polite and quiet voice with which he uttered his insolences. When I +remember his talk I find it easy to believe that the German Emperor and +the German Chancellor have also talked in such a manner that they have +never had the smallest opportunity of learning what Englishmen think and +mean. + +While the German doctrine was the plaything merely of hysterical and +supersensitive persons, like Carlyle and Nietzsche, it mattered little +to the world of politics. An excitable man, of vivid imagination and +invalid constitution, like Carlyle, feels a natural predilection for the +cult of the healthy brute. Carlyle's English style is itself a kind of +epilepsy. Nietzsche was so nervously sensitive that everyday life was an +anguish to him, and broke his strength. Both were poets, as Marlowe was +a poet, and both sang the song of Power. The brutes of the swamp and the +field, who gathered round them and listened, found nothing new or +unfamiliar in the message of the poets. 'This', they said, 'is what we +have always known, but we did not know that it is poetry. Now that great +poets teach it, we need no longer be ashamed of it.' So they went away +resolved to be twice the brutes that they were before, and they named +themselves Culture-brutes. + +It is difficult to see how the world, or any considerable part of it, +can belong to Germany, till she changes her mind. If she can do that, +she might make a good ruler, for she has solid virtues and good +instincts. It is her intellect that has gone wrong. Bishop Butler was +one day found pondering the problem whether, a whole nation can go mad. +If he had lived to-day what would he have said about it? Would he have +admitted that that strangest of grim fancies is realized? + +It would be vain for Germany to take the world; she could not keep it; +nor, though she can make a vast number of people miserable for a long +time, could she ever hope to make all the inhabitants of the world +miserable for all time. She has a giant's power, and does not think it +infamous to use it like a giant. She can make a winter hideous, but she +cannot prohibit the return of spring, or annul the cleansing power of +water. Sanity is not only better than insanity; it is much stronger, and +Might is Right. + +Meantime, it is a delight and a consolation to Englishmen that England +is herself again. She has a cause that it is good to fight for, whether +it succeed or fail. The hope that uplifts her is the hope of a better +world, which our children shall see. She has wonderful friends. From +what self-governing nations in the world can Germany hear such messages +as came to England from the Dominions oversea? 'When England is at war, +Canada is at war.' 'To the last man and the last shilling, Australia +will support the cause of the Empire.' These are simple words, and +sufficient; having said them, Canada and Australia said no more. In the +company of such friends, and for the creed that she holds, England might +be proud to die; but surely her time is not yet. + + Our faith is ours, and comes not on a tide; + And whether Earth's great offspring by decree + Must rot if they abjure rapacity, + Not argument, but effort shall decide. + They number many heads in that hard flock, + Trim swordsmen they push forth, yet try thy steel; + Thou, fighting for poor human kind, shalt feel + The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew + A chasm sheer into the barrier rock, + And bring the army of the faithful through. + + + + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, December 12, 1916_ + + +I hold, as I daresay you do, that we are at a crisis of our history +where there is not much room for talk. The time when this struggle might +have been averted or won by talk is long past. During the hundred years +before the war we have not talked much, or listened much, to the +Germans. For fifty of those years at least the head of waters that has +now been let loose in a devastating flood over Europe was steadily +accumulating; but we paid little attention to it. People sometimes speak +of the negotiations of the twelve days before the war as if the whole +secret and cause of the war could be found there; but it is not so. +Statesmen, it is true, are the keepers of the lock-gates, but those +keepers can only delay, they cannot prevent an inundation that has great +natural causes. The world has in it evil enough, and darkness enough. +But it is not so bad and so dark that a slip in diplomacy, a careless +word, or an impolite gesture, can instantaneously, as if by magic, +involve twenty million men in a struggle to the death. It is only +clever, conceited men, proud of their neat little minds, who think that +because they cannot fathom the causes of the war, it might easily have +been prevented. I confess I find it difficult to conceive of the war in +terms of simple right and wrong. We must respect the tides, and their +huge unintelligible force teaches us to respect them. + +It is not a war of race. For all our differences with the Germans, any +cool and impartial mind must admit that we have many points of kinship +with them. During the years before the war our naval officers in the +Mediterranean found, I believe, that it was easier to associate on terms +of social friendship with the Austrians than with the officers of any +other foreign navy. We have a passionate admiration for France, and a +real devotion to her, but that is a love affair, not a family tie. We +begin to be experienced in love affairs, for Ireland steadily refuses to +be treated on any other footing. In any case, we are much closer to the +Germans than they are to the Bulgarians or the Turks. Of these three we +like the Turks the best, because they are chivalrous and generous +enemies, which the Germans are not. + +It is a war of ideas. We are fighting an armed doctrine. Yet Burke's use +of those words to describe the military power of Revolutionary France +should warn us against fallacious attempts to simplify the issue. When +ideas become motives and are filtered into practice, they lose their +clearness of outline and are often hard to recognize. They leaven the +lump, but the lump is still human clay, with its passions and +prejudices, its pride and its hate. I remember seeing in a provincial +paper, in the early days of the war, two adjacent columns, both dealing +with the war. The first was headed 'A Holy War' and set forth the great +principles of nationality, respect for treaties, and protection of the +weak, which in our opinion are the main motives of the Allies in this +war. The second was headed 'The War on Commerce; Tips to capture German +trade', and set forth those other principles and motives which, in the +opinion of the Germans, brought England into this war. + +I am not going to defend England against the charge that she entered +this war on a cold calculation of mercantile profit. Every one here +knows that the charge is utterly untrue. Those who believe the charge +could not be shaken in their belief except by being educated all over +again, and introduced to some knowledge of human nature. It is enough to +remark that this charge is a commonplace between belligerent nations. +They all like to believe that their adversaries entertain only base +motives, while they themselves act only on the loftiest ideal +promptings. If the charge means only that every nation at war is bound +to think of its own interests, to conserve its own strength, and to +seize on all material gains that are within its reach, the charge is +true and harmless. When two angry women quarrel in a back street, they +commonly accuse each other of being amorous. They might just as well +accuse each other of being human. The charge is true and insignificant. +So also with nations; they all cherish themselves and seek to preserve +their means of livelihood. + +If this were their sole concern, there would be few wars; certainly this +war, which is desolating and impoverishing Europe, would be impossible. +No one, surely, can look at the war and say that nations are moved only +by their material interests. It would be more plausible to say that they +are too little moved by those interests. Bacon, in his essay _Of Death_, +remarks that the fear of death does not much affect mankind. 'There is +no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the +fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man +hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. +Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; +grief flieth to it, fear pre-occupateth it; nay, we read, after Otho the +Emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) +provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as +the truest sort of followers.' If this is true of the fear of death, how +much truer it is of the love of material gain. Any whim, or point of +pride, or fixed idea, or old habit, is enough to make a man or a nation +forgo the hope of profit and fight for a creed. + +The German creed is by this time well known. Before the war we took +little notice of it. We sometimes saw it stated in print, but it seemed +to us too monstrous and inhuman to be the creed of a whole people. We +were wrong; it was the creed of a whole people. By the mesmerism of +State education, by the discipline of universal military service, by the +pride of the German people in their past victories, and by the fears +natural to a nation that finds enemies on all its fronts, an absolute +belief in the State, in war as the highest activity of the State, and in +the right of the State to enslave all its subjects, body and soul, to +its purposes, had become the creed of all those diverse peoples that are +united under the Prussian Monarchy. Most of them are not naturally +warlike peoples. They have been lured, and frightened, and drilled, and +bribed into war, but it is true to say that, on the whole, they enjoy +fighting less than we do. One of the truest remarks ever made on the war +was that famous remark of a British private soldier, who was telling +how his company took a trench from the enemy. Fearing that his account +of the affair might sound boastful, he added, 'You see, Sir, they're not +a military people, like we are.' Only the word was wrong, the meaning +was right. They are, as every one knows, an enormously military people, +and, if they want to fight at all, they have to be a military people, +for the vast majority of them are not a warlike people. A first-class +army could never have been fashioned in Germany out of volunteer +civilians, like our army on the Somme. That army has a little shaken the +faith of the Germans in their creed. Again I must quote one of our +soldiers: 'I don't say', he remarked, 'that our average can run rings +round their best; what I say is that our average is better than their +average, and our best is better than their best.' The Germans already +are uneasy about their creed and their system, but there is no escape +for them; they have sacrificed everything to it; they have impoverished +the mind and drilled the imagination of every German citizen, so that +Germany appears before the world with the body of a giant and the mind +of a dwarf; they have sacrificed themselves in millions that their creed +may prevail, and with their creed they must stand or fall. The State, +organized as absolute power, responsible to no one, with no duties to +its neighbour, and with only nominal duties to a strictly subordinate +God, has challenged the soul of man in its dearest possessions. We +cannot predict the course of military operations; but if we were not +sure of the ultimate issue of this great struggle, we should have no +sufficient motive for continuing to breathe. The State has challenged +the soul of man before now, and has always been defeated. A miserable +remnant of men and women, tied to stakes or starved in dungeons, have +before now shattered what seemed an omnipotent tyranny, because they +stood for the soul and were not prompted by vanity or self-regard. They +had great allies-- + + 'Their friends were exultations, agonies, + And love, and man's unconquerable mind.' + +If we are defeated we shall be defeated not by German strength but by +our own weakness. The worst enemy of the martyr is doubt and the divided +mind, which suggests the question, 'Is it, after all, worth while?' We +must know what we have believed. What do we stand for in this war? It is +only the immovable conviction that we stand for something ultimate and +essential that can help us and carry us through. No war of this kind and +on this scale is good enough to fight unless it is good enough to fail +in. 'The calculation of profit', said Burke,'in all such wars is false. +On balancing the account of such wars, ten thousand hogs-heads of sugar +are purchased at ten thousand times their price. The blood of man should +never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our +family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The +rest is vanity; the rest is crime.' + +The question I have asked is a difficult question to answer, or, rather, +the answer is not easy to formulate briefly and clearly. Most of the men +at the front know quite well what they are fighting for; they know that +it is for their country, but that it is also for their kind--for certain +ideals of humanity. We at home know that we are at war for liberty and +humanity. But these words are invoked by different nations in different +senses; the Germans, or at least most of them, have as much liberty as +they desire, and believe that the highest good of humanity is to be +found in the prevalence of their own ideas and of their own type of +government and society. No abstract demonstration can help us. Liberty +is a highly comparative notion; no one asks for it complete. Humanity is +a highly variable notion; it is interpreted in different senses by +different societies. What we are confronted by is two types of +character, two sets of aims, two ideals for society. There can be no +harm in trying to understand both. + +The Germans can never be understood by those who neglect their history. +They are a solid, brave, and earnest people, who, till quite recent +times, have been denied their share in the government of Europe. In the +sixteenth century they were deeply stirred by questions of religion, and +were rent asunder by the Reformation. Compromise proved futile; the +small German states were ranked on this side or on that at the will of +their rulers and princes; men of the same race were ranged in mortal +opposition on the question of religious belief, and there was no +solution but war. For thirty years in the seventeenth century the war +raged. It was conducted with a fierceness and inhumanity that even the +present war has not equalled. The civilian population suffered +hideously. Whole provinces were desolated and whole states were bereaved +of their men. When, from mere exhaustion, the war came to an end, +Germany lay prostrate, and the chief gains of the war fell to the rising +monarchy of France, which had intervened in the middle of the struggle. +By the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 Alsace and Lorraine went to France, +and the rule of the great monarch, Louis XIV, had nothing to fear from +the German peoples. The ambitions of Germany, for long after this, were +mainly cosmopolitan and intellectual. But political ambitions, though +they seemed almost dead, were revived by the hardy state of Prussia, and +the rest of Germany's history, down to our own time, is the history of +the welding of the Germanic peoples into a single state by Prussian +monarchs and statesmen. + +This history explains many things. If a people has a corporate memory, +if it can learn from its own sufferings, Germany has reason enough to +cherish with a passionate devotion her late achieved unity. And German +brutality, which is not the less brutality because Germans regard it as +quite natural and right, has its origin in German history. The Prussian +is a Spartan, a natural brute, but brutal to himself as well as to +others, capable of extremes of self-denial and self-discipline. From the +Prussians the softer and more emotional German peoples of the South +received the gift of national unity, and they repaid the debt by +extravagant admiration for Prussian prowess and hardihood, which had +been so serviceable to their cause. The Southern Germans, the Bavarians +especially, have developed a sort of sentimentalism of brutality, +expressed in the hysterical Hymn of Hate (which hails from Munich), +expressed also in those monstrous excesses and cruelties, surpassing +anything that mere insensibility can produce, which have given the +Bavarian troops their foul reputation in the present war. + +The last half century of German history must also be remembered. Three +assaults on neighbouring states were rewarded by a great increase of +territory and of strength. From Denmark, in 1864, Prussia took +Schleswig-Holstein. The defeat of Austria in 1866 brought Hanover and +Bavaria under the Prussian leadership; Alsace and Lorraine were regained +from France in 1870. The Prussian mind, which is not remarkable for +subtlety, found a justification in these three wars for its favourite +doctrine of frightfulness. That doctrine, put briefly, is that people +can always be frightened into submission, and that it is cheaper to +frighten them than to fight them to the bitter end. Denmark was a small +nation, and moreover was left utterly unsupported by the European powers +who had guaranteed her integrity. Bavaria was frightened, and will be +frightened again when her hot fit gives way to her cold fit. France was +divided and half-hearted under a tinsel emperor. It is Germany's +misfortune that on these three special cases she based a general +doctrine of war. A very little knowledge of human nature--a knowledge so +alien to her that she calls it psychology and assigns it to +specialists--would have taught her that, for the most part, human beings +when they are fighting for their homes and their faith cannot be +frightened, and must be killed or conciliated. The practice of +frightfulness has not worked very well in this war. It has steeled the +heart of Germany's enemies. It has produced in her victims a temper of +hate that will outlive this generation, and will make the small peoples +whom she has kicked and trampled on impossible subjects of the German +Empire. Worst of all it has suggested to onlookers that the people who +have so plenary a belief in frightfulness are not themselves strangers +to fear. There is an old English proverb, hackneyed and stale three +hundred years ago, but now freshened again by disuse, that the goodwife +would never have looked for her daughter in the oven unless she had been +there herself. + +How shall I describe the English temper, which the Germans, high and +low, learned and ignorant, have so profoundly mistaken? You can get no +description of it from the Englishman pure and simple; he has no theory +of himself, and it bores him to hear himself described. Yet it is this +temper which has given England her great place in the world and which +has cemented the British Empire. It is to be found not in England alone, +but wherever there is a strain of English blood or an acceptance of +English institutions. You can find it in Australia, in Canada, in +America; it infects Scotland, and impresses Wales. It is everywhere in +our trenches to-day. It is not clannish, or even national, it is +essentially the lonely temper of a man independent to the verge of +melancholy. An admirable French writer of to-day has said that the best +handbook and guide to the English temper is Defoe's romance of _Robinson +Crusoe_. Crusoe is practical, but is conscious of the over-shadowing +presence of the things that are greater than man. He makes his own +clothing, teaches his goats to dance, and wrestles in thought with the +problems suggested by his Bible. Another example of the same temper may +be seen in Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, and yet another in +Wordsworth's _Prelude_. There is no danger that English thought will +ever underestimate the value and meaning of the individual soul. The +greatest English literature, it might almost be said, from Shakespeare's +_Hamlet_ to Browning's _The Ring and the Book_, is concerned with no +other subject. The age-long satire against the English is that in +England every man claims the right to go to heaven his own way. English +institutions, instead of subduing men to a single pattern, are devised +chiefly with the object of saving the rights of the subject and the +liberty of the individual. 'Every man in his humour' is an English +proverb, and might almost be a statement of English constitutional +doctrine. But this extreme individualism is the right of all, and does +not favour self-exaltation. The English temper has an almost morbid +dislike of all that is showy or dramatic in expression. I remember how a +Winchester boy, when he was reproached with the fact that Winchester has +produced hardly any great men, replied, 'No, indeed, I should think not. +We would pretty soon have knocked that out of them.' And the epigrams of +the English temper usually take the form of understatement. 'Give +Dayrolles a chair' were the last dying words of Lord Chesterfield, +spoken of the friend who had come to see him. When the French troops go +over the parapet to make an advance, their battle cry shouts the praises +of their Country. The British troops prefer to celebrate the advance in +a more trivial fashion, 'This way to the early door, sixpence extra.' + +I might go on interminably with this dissertation, but I have said +enough for my purpose. The history of England has had much to do with +moulding the English temper. We have been protected from direct +exposure to the storms that have swept the Continent. Our wars on land +have been adventures undertaken by expeditionary forces. At sea, while +the power of England was growing, we have been explorers, pirates, +buccaneers. Now that we are involved in a great European war on land, +our methods have been changed. The artillery and infantry of a modern +army cannot act effectively on their own impulse. We hold the sea, and +the pirates' work for the present has passed into other hands. But our +spirit and temper is the same as of old. It has found a new world in the +air. War in the air, under the conditions of to-day, demands all the old +gallantry and initiative. The airman depends on his own brain and nerve; +he cannot fall back on orders from his superiors. Our airmen of to-day +are the true inheritors of Drake; they have the same inspired +recklessness, the same coolness, and the same chivalry to a vanquished +enemy. + +I am a very bad example of the English temper; for the English temper +grumbles at all this, to the great relief of our enemies, who believe +that what a man admits against his own nation must be true. Our +pessimists, by indulging their natural vein, serve us, without reward, +quite as well as Germany is served by her wireless press. They deceive +the enemy. + +Modern Germany has organized and regimented her people like an ant-hill +or a beehive. The people themselves, including many who belong to the +upper class, are often simple villagers in temper, full of kindness and +anger, much subject to envy and jealousy, not magnanimous, docile and +obedient to a fault. If they claimed, as individuals, to represent the +highest reach of European civilization, the claim would be merely +absurd. So they shift their ground, and pretend that society is greater +than man, and that by their painstaking organization their society has +been raised to the pinnacle of human greatness. They make this claim so +insistently, and in such obvious good faith, that some few weak tempers +and foolish minds in England have been impressed by it. These +panic-stricken counsellors advise us, without delay, to reform our +institutions and organize them upon the German model. Only thus, they +tell us, can we hold our own against so huge a power. But if we were to +take their advice, we should have nothing of our own left to hold. It is +reasonable and good to co-operate and organize in order to attain an +agreed object, but German organization goes far beyond this. The German +nation is a carefully built, smooth-running machine, with powerful +engines. It has only one fault--that any fool can drive it; and seeing +that the governing class in Germany is obstinate and unimaginative, +there is no lack of drivers to pilot it to disaster. The best ability of +Germany is seen in her military organization. Napoleon is her worshipped +model, and, like many admirers of Napoleon, she thinks only of his great +campaigns; she forgets that he died in St. Helena, and that his schemes +for the reorganization of Europe failed. + +I know that many people in England are not daunted but depressed by the +military successes of the enemy. Our soldiers in the field are not +depressed. But we who are kept at home suffer from the miasma of the +back-parlour. We read the headlines of newspapers--a form of literature +that is exciting enough, but does not merit the praise given to +Sophocles, who saw life steadily and saw it whole. We keep our ears to +the telephone, and we forget that the great causes which are always at +work, and which will shape the issues of this war, are not recorded upon +the telephone. There are things truer and more important than the latest +dispatches. Here is one of them. The organization of the second-rate can +never produce anything first-rate. We do not understand a people who, +when it comes to the last push of man against man, throw up their hands +and utter the pathetic cry of 'Kamerad'. To surrender is a weakness that +no one who has not been under modern artillery fire has any right to +condemn; to profess a sudden affection for the advancing enemy is not +weakness but baseness. Or rather, it would be baseness in a voluntary +soldier; in the Germans it means only that the war is not their own war; +that they are fighting as slaves, not as free men. The idea that we +could ever live under the rule of these people is merely comic. To do +them justice, they do not now entertain the idea, though they have +dallied with it in the past. + +No harm can be done, I think, by preaching to the English people the +necessity for organization and discipline. We shall still be ourselves, +and there is no danger that we shall overdo discipline or make +organization a thing to be worshipped for its own sake. The danger is +all the other way. We have learnt much from the war, and the work that +we shall have to do when it ends is almost more important than the terms +of peace, or concessions made this way and that. If the treacherous +assault of the Germans on the liberties and peace of Europe is rewarded +by any solid gain to the German Empire, then history may forgive them, +but this people of the British Empire will not forgive them. Nothing +will be as it was before; and our cause, which will not be lost in the +war, will still have to be won in the so-called peace. I know that some +say, 'Let us have war when we are at war, and peace when we are at +peace'. It sounds plausible and magnanimous, but it is Utopian. You must +reckon with your own people. They know that when we last had peace, the +sunshine of that peace was used by the Germans to hatch the spawn of +malice and treason. If the Germans are defeated in the war, we shall, I +suppose, forgive them, for the very English reason that it is a bore not +to forgive your enemies. But if they escape without decisive defeat in +battle, their harder trial is yet to come. + +In some ways we are stronger than we have been in all our long history. +We have found ourselves, and we have found our friends. Our dead have +taught the children of to-day more and better than any living teachers +can teach them. No one in this country will ever forget how the people +of the Dominions, at the first note of war, sprang to arms like one man. +We must not thank or praise them; like the Navy, they regard our thanks +and praise as something of an impertinence. They are not fighting, they +say, for us. But that is how we discovered them. They are doing much +better than fighting for us, they are fighting with us, because, without +a word of explanation or appeal, their ideas and ours are the same. We +never have discussed with them, and we never shall discuss, what is +decent and clean and honourable in human behaviour. A philosopher who +is interested in this question can find plenty of intellectual exercise +by discussing it with the Germans, Where an Englishman, a Canadian, and +an Australian are met, there is no material for such a debate. + +It would be extravagant to suppose that a discovery like this can leave +our future relations untouched. We now know that we are profoundly +united in a union much stronger and deeper than any mechanism can +produce. I know how difficult a problem it is to hit on the best device +for giving political expression to this union between States separated +from one another by the whole world's diameter, differing in their +circumstances, their needs, and their outlook. I do not dare to +prescribe; but I should like to make a few remarks, and to call +attention to a few points which are perhaps more present to the mind of +the ordinary citizen than they are in the discussions of constitutional +experts. + +We must arrange for co-operation and mutual support. If the arrangement +is complicated and lengthy, we must not wait for it; we must meet and +discuss our common affairs. Ministers from the Dominions have already +sat with the British Cabinet. We can never go back on that; it is a +landmark in our history. Our Ministers must travel; if their supporters +are impatient of their absence on the affairs of the Empire, they must +find some less parochial set of supporters. We have begun in the right +way; the right way is not to pass laws determining what you are to do; +but to do what is needful, and do it at once,--do a lot of things, and +regularize your successes by later legislation. Now is the time, while +the Empire is white-hot. Our first need is not lawyers, but men who, +feeling friendly, know how to behave as friends do. They will not be +impeached if they go beyond the letter of the law. One act of faith is +worth a hundred arguments. This is a family affair; the habits of an +affectionate and united family are the only good model. + +As for the Crown Colonies and India, the Dominions must share our +burden. It is objected, both here and in India, that life in the +Dominions is a very inadequate education for the sympathetic handling of +alien races and customs. So is life in many parts of this island. The +fact is that the process of learning to govern these alien peoples is +the best education in the world. The Indian Civil Service is a great +College, and it governs India. I can speak to this point, for I have +lived there and seen it at work. If India were really governed by the +ideas of the young novices who go out there fresh from their +examinations, she would be a distressful country. But the novice is +taken in hand at once by the older members of the service; he works +under the eye of the Collector and the Assistant Collector; they +shoulder him and instruct him as tame elephants shoulder and instruct +the wild; they are kind to him, and he lives in their company while his +prejudices and follies peel off him; so that within a few years he +becomes a tolerant, wise, and devoted civil servant, who speaks the +language of the College and is proud to belong to it. The success of the +Government of India is not to be credited to the classes from which the +Civil Service is recruited, but to the discipline of the Service itself, +a Service so high in tradition and so free from corruption that +advancement in it is to be gained only by intelligence and sympathy. +What I am saying is that I can imagine no finer raw material for the +political discipline of the Indian Civil Service than some of the +generous and clean-run spirits who have come from the Dominions to help +in this war. They could be introduced to a share of our responsibilities +without impeding or retarding the movement to give to selected natives +of India a larger share in the government of their country. + +But the war is not over, so I return to the main issue--the conflict +between the English idea and the German idea of world government. It is +not an accident, as Baron von Hügel remarks in his book on _The German +Soul_, that the chief colonizing nation of the world should be a nation +without a national army. We have depended enormously in the past on the +initiative and virtue of the individual adventurer; if our adventurers +were to fail us, which is not likely, or if the State were to supersede +them, and attempt to do their work, which is not conceivable, our +political power and influence would vanish with them. The world might +perhaps be well ordered, but there would be no freedom, and no fun. The +beauty of the adventurer is that he is practically invincible. He does +not wait for orders. Under the most perfect police system that Germany +could devise, he would be up and at it again. We are not so numerous as +the Germans, but there are enough and to spare of us to make German +government impossible in any place where we pitch our tents. We are +practised hands at upsetting governments. Our political system is a +training school for rebels. This is what makes our very existence an +offence to the moral instincts of the German people. They are quite +right to want to kill us; the only way to abolish fun and freedom is to +abolish life. But I must not be unjust to them; their forethought +provides for everything, and no doubt they would prescribe authorized +forms of fun for half an hour a week, and would gather together their +subjects in public assembly, under municipal regulations, to perform +approved exercises in freedom. + +Mankind lives by ideas; and if an irreconcilable difference in ideas +makes a good war, then this is a good war. The contrast between the two +ideas is profound and far-reaching. My business lies in a University. +For a good many years before the war certain selected German students, +who had had a University education in their own country, came as Rhodes +scholars to Oxford. The intention of Mr. Rhodes was benevolent; he +thought that if German students were to reside for four years at Oxford +and to associate there, at an impressionable time of life, with young +Englishmen, understanding and fellowship would be encouraged between the +two peoples. But the German government took care to defeat Mr. Rhodes's +intention. Instead of sending a small number of students for the full +period, as Mr. Rhodes had provided, Germany asked and (by whose mistake +I do not know) obtained leave to send a larger number for a shorter +stay. The students selected were intended for the political and +diplomatic service, and were older than the usual run of Oxford +freshmen. Their behaviour had a certain ambassadorial flavour about it. +They did not mix much in the many undergraduate societies which flourish +in a college, but met together in clubs of their own to drink patriotic +toasts. They were nothing if not superior. I remember a conversation I +had with one of them who came to consult me. He wished, he said, to do +some definite piece of research work in English literature. I asked him +what problems or questions in English literature most interested him, +and he replied that he would do anything that I advised. We had a talk +of some length, wholly at cross-purposes. At last I tried to make my +point of view clear by reminding him that research means finding the +answer to a question, and that if his reading of English literature, +which had been fairly extensive, had suggested no questions to his mind, +he was not in the happiest possible position to begin research. This +touched his national pride, and he gave me something not unlike a +lecture. In Germany, he said, the professor tells you what you are to +do; he gives you a subject for investigation, he names the books you are +to read, and advises you on what you are to write; you follow his +advice, and produce a thesis, which gains you the degree of Doctor of +Letters. I have seen a good many of these theses, and I am sure this +account is correct. With very rare exceptions they are as dead as +mutton, and much less nourishing. The upshot of our conversation was +that he thought me an incompetent professor, and I thought him an +unprofitable student. + +There are many people in England to-day who praise the thoroughness of +the Germans, and their devotion to systematic thought. Has any one ever +taken the trouble to trace the development of the thesis habit, and its +influence on their national life? They theorize everything, and they +believe in their theories. They have solemn theories of the English +character, of the French character, of the nature of war, of the history +of the world. No breath of scepticism dims their complacency, although +events steadily prove their theories wrong. They have courage, and when +they are seeking truth by the process of reasoning, they accept the +conclusions attained by the process, however monstrous these conclusions +may be. They not only accept them, they act upon them, and, as every one +knows, their behaviour in Belgium was dictated to them by their +philosophy. + +Thought of this kind is the enemy of the human race. It intoxicates +sluggish minds, to whom thought is not natural. It suppresses all the +gentler instincts of the heart and supplies a basis of orthodoxy for all +the cruelty and treachery in the world. I do not know, none of us knows, +when or how this war will end. But I know that it is worth fighting to +the end, whatever it may cost to all and each of us. We may have peace +with the Germans, the peace of exhaustion or the peace that is only a +breathing space in a long struggle. We can never have peace with the +German idea. It was not the idea of the older German thinkers--of Kant, +or of Goethe, who were good Europeans. Kant said that there is nothing +good in the world except the good will. The modern German doctrine is +that there is nothing good in the world except what tends to the power +and glory of the State. The inventor of this doctrine, it may be +remembered, was the Devil, who offered to the Son of Man the glory of +all the kingdoms of the world, if only He would fall down and worship +him. The Germans, exposed to a like temptation, have accepted the offer +and have fulfilled the condition. They can have no assurance that faith +will be kept with them. On the other hand, we can have no assurance that +they will suffer any signal or dramatic reverse. Human history does not +usually observe the laws of melodrama. But we know that their newly +purchased doctrine can be fought, in war and in peace, and we know that +in the end it will not prevail. + + + + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + +_An Address to the Union Society of University College, London, March +22,1917_ + + +When Professor W.P. Ker asked me to address you on this ceremonial +occasion I felt none of the confidence of the man who knows what he +wants to say, and is looking for an audience. But Professor Ker is my +old friend, and this place is the place where I picked up many of those +fragmentary impressions which I suppose must be called my education. So +I thought it would be ungrateful to refuse, even though it should prove +that I have nothing to express save goodwill and the affections of +memory. + +When I matriculated in the University of London and became a student in +this place, my professors were Professor Goodwin, Professor Church, +Professor Henrici, Professor Groom Robertson, and Professor Henry +Morley. I remember all these, though, if they were alive, I do not think +that any of them would remember me. The indescribable exhilaration, +which must be familiar to many of you, of leaving school and entering +college, is in great part the exhilaration of making acquaintance with +teachers who care much about their subject and little or nothing about +their pupils. To escape from the eternal personal judgements which make +a school a place of torment is to walk upon air. The schoolmaster looks +at you; the college professor looks the way you are looking. The +statements made by Euclid, that thoughtful Greek, are no longer +encumbered at college with all those preposterous and irrelevant moral +considerations which desolate the atmosphere of a school. The question +now is not whether you have perfectly acquainted yourself with what +Euclid said, but whether what he said is true. In my earliest days at +college I heard a complete exposition of the first six books of Euclid, +given in four lectures, with masterly ease and freedom, by Professor +Henrici, who did not hesitate to employ methods of demonstration which, +though they are perfectly legitimate and convincing, were rejected by +the daintiness of the Greek. Professor Groom Robertson introduced his +pupils to the mysteries of mental and moral philosophy, and incidentally +disaffected some of us by what seemed to us his excessive reverence for +the works of Alexander Bain. Those works were our favourite theme for +satirical verse, which we did not pain our Professor by publishing. +Professor Henry Morley lectured hour after hour to successive classes in +a room half way down the passage, on the left. Even overwork could not +deaden his enormous vitality; but I hope that his immediate successor +does not lecture so often. Outside the classrooms I remember the +passages, which resembled the cellars of an unsuccessful sculptor, the +library, where I first read _Romeo and Juliet_, and the refectory, where +we discussed human life in most, if not in all, of its aspects. In the +neighbourhood of the College there was the classic severity of Gower +Street, and, for those who preferred the richer variety of romance, +there was always the Tottenham Court Road. Beyond all, and throughout +all, there was friendship, and there was freedom. The College was +founded, I believe, partly in the interests of those who object to +subscribe to a conclusion before they are permitted to examine the +grounds for it. It has always been a free place; and if I remember it as +a place of delight, that is because I found here the delights of +freedom. + +My thoughts in these days are never very long away from the War, so that +I should feel it difficult to speak of anything else. Yet there are so +many ways in which it would be unprofitable for me to pretend to speak +of it, that the difficulty remains. I have no knowledge of military or +naval strategy. I am not intimately acquainted with Germany or with +German culture. I could praise our own people, and our own fighting men, +from a full heart; but that, I think, is not exactly what you want from +me. So I am reduced to attempting what we have all had to attempt during +the past two years or more, to try to state, for myself as much as for +you, the meaning of this War so far as we can perceive it. + +It seems to be a decree of fate that this country shall be compelled +every hundred years to fight for her very life. We live in an island +that lies across the mouths of the Rhine, and guards the access to all +the ports of northern Europe. In this island we have had enough safety +and enough leisure to develop for ourselves a system of constitutional +and individual liberty which has had an enormous influence on other +nations. It has been admired and imitated; it has also been hated and +attacked. To the majority of European statesmen and politicians it has +been merely unintelligible. Some of them have regarded it with a kind +of superstitious reverence; for we have been very successful in the +world at large, and how could so foolish and ineffective a system +achieve success except by adventitious aid? Others, including all the +statesmen and political theorists who prepared Germany for this War, +have refused to admire; the power of England, they have taught, is not +real power; she has been crafty and lucky; she has kept herself free +from the entanglements and strifes of the Continent, and has enriched +herself by filching the property of the combatants. If once she were +compelled to hold by force what she won by guile, her pretensions would +collapse, and she would fall back into her natural position as a small +agricultural island, inhabited by a people whose proudest boast would +then be that they are poor cousins of the Germans. + +It is difficult to discuss this question with German professors and +politicians: they have such simple minds, and they talk like angry +children. Their opinions concerning England are not original; their +views were held with equal fervour and expressed in very similar +language by Philip of Spain in the sixteenth century, by Louis XIV of +France in the seventeenth century, and by Napoleon at the close of the +eighteenth century. 'These all died in faith, not having received the +promises, but having seen them afar off.' I will ask you to consider the +attack made upon England by each of these three powerful rulers. + +Any one who reads the history of these three great wars will feel a +sense of illusion, as if he were reading the history of to-day. The +points of resemblance in all four wars are so many and so great that it +seems as if the four wars were all one war, repeated every century. The +cause of the war is always an ambitious ruler who covets supremacy on +the European Continent. England is always opposed to him--inevitably and +instinctively. It took the Germans twenty years to prepare their people +for this War. It took us two days to prepare ours. Our instinct is quick +and sound; for the resources and wealth of the Continent, if once they +were controlled by a single autocratic power, would make it impossible +for England to follow her fortunes upon the sea. But we never stand +quite alone. The smaller peoples of the Continent, who desire +self-government, or have achieved it, always give the conqueror trouble, +and rebel against him or resist him. England always sends help to them, +the help of an expeditionary force, or, failing that, the help of +irregular volunteers. Sir Philip Sidney dies at Zutphen; Sir John Moore +at Corunna. There is always desperate fighting in the Low Countries; and +the names of Mons, Liège, Namur, and Lille recur again and again. +England always succeeds in maintaining herself, though not without some +reverses, on the sea. In the end the power of the master of legions, +Philip, Louis, Napoleon, and shall we say William, crumbles and melts; +his ambitions are too costly to endure, his people chafe under his lash, +and his kingdom falls into insignificance or is transformed by internal +revolution. + +In all these wars there is one other resemblance which it is good to +remember to-day. The position of England, at one time or another in the +course of the war, always seems desperate. When Philip of Spain invaded +England with the greatest navy of the world, he was met on the seas by a +fleet made up chiefly of volunteers. When Louis overshadowed Europe and +threatened England, our king was in his pay and had made a secret treaty +with him; our statesmen, moreover, had destroyed our alliance with the +maritime powers of Sweden and Holland, we had war with the Dutch, and +our fleet was beaten by them. During the war against Napoleon we were in +an even worse plight; the plausible political doctrines of the +Revolution found many sympathizers in this country; our sailors mutinied +at the Nore; Ireland was aflame with discontent; and we were involved in +the Mahratta War in India, not to mention the naval war with America. +Even after Trafalgar, our European allies failed us, Napoleon disposed +of Austria and Prussia, and concluded a separate treaty with Russia. It +was then that Wordsworth wrote-- + + ''Tis well! from this day forward we shall know + That in ourselves our safety must be sought; + That by our own right hands it must be wrought; + That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low. + O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer! + We shall exult, if they who rule the land + Be men who hold its many blessings dear, + Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band, + Who are to judge of dangers which they fear, + And honour which they do not understand.' + +Always in the same cause, we have suffered worse things than we are +suffering to-day, and if there is worse to come we hope that we are +ready. The youngest and best of us, who carry on and go through with +it, though many of them are dead and many more will not live to see the +day of victory, have been easily the happiest and most confident among +us. They have believed that, at a price, they can save decency and +civilization in Europe, and, if they are wrong, they have known, as we +know, that the day when decency and civilization are trampled under the +foot of the brute is a day when it is good to die. + +When I speak of the German nation as the brute I am not speaking +controversially or rhetorically; the whole German nation has given its +hearty assent to a brutal doctrine of war and politics; no facts need be +disputed between us: what to us is their shame, to them is their glory. +This is a grave difference; yet it would be wrong to suppose that we can +treat it adequately by condemning the whole German nation as a nation of +confessed criminals. It is the paradox of war that there is always right +on both sides. When a man is ready and willing to sacrifice his life, +you cannot deny him the right to choose what he will die for. The most +beautiful virtues, faith and courage and devotion, grow like weeds upon +the battle-field. The fighters recognize these virtues in each other, +and the front lines, for all their mud and slaughter, are breathed on by +the airs of heaven. Hate and pusillanimity have little there to nourish +them. To find the meaner passions you must seek further back. Johnson, +speaking in the _Idler_ of the calamities produced by war, admits that +he does not know 'whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with +soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers +accustomed to lie'. Now that our army is the nation in arms, the danger +from a lawless soldiery has become less, or has vanished; but the other +danger has increased. Journalists are not the only offenders. It is a +strange, squalid background for the nobility of the soldier that is made +by the deceits and boasts of diplomatists and statesmen. In one of the +prison camps of England, some weeks ago, I saw a Saxon boy who had +fought bravely for his country. Simplicity and openness and loyalty were +written on his face. There are hundreds like him, and I would not +mention him if it were not that that same day I read with a new and +heightened sense of disgust a speech by the German Chancellor, writhing +with timidity and dishonesty and uneasy braggadocio. Those who feel this +contrast as I did may be excused, I think, if they come to the +conclusion that to talk about war is an accursed trade, and that to +fight well, whether on the one side or the other, is the only noble +part. + +Yet there is no escape for us; if we are to avoid chaos, if the daily +life of the world is to be re-established and carried on, there must be +an understanding between nations, and there is no possible way to come +to an understanding save by the action and words of representative men +on the one side and the other. Such representative men there are; there +is no reason to doubt that they do in the main truly express the +aspirations and wishes of their people, and on both sides they have +either explicitly or virtually made offers. The offer of the Allied +Powers is on record. What does Germany offer? She has refused to make a +definite statement, but her rulers have talked a great deal, and what +she intends is not really in doubt; only she is not sure whether she can +get it, and still clings to the hope that a favourable turn of events +may relieve her of the duty of making proposals, and put her in a +position to dictate a settlement. We all know what that settlement would +be. + +The German offer for a solution of the problem of world-government is +German sentiments, German racial pride, German manners and customs, an +immense increase of German territory and German influence, and above all +an acknowledged supremacy for the German race among the nations of the +world. She thinks she has not stated these aims in so many words; but +she has. When it was suggested that the future peace of the world might +be assured by the formation of a League to Enforce Peace, Germany, +through her official spokesmen, expressed her sympathy with that idea, +and stated that she would very gladly put herself at the head of such a +League. I can hardly help loving the Germans when their rustic +simplicity and rustic cunning lead them all unconsciously into +self-revelation. The very idea of a League to Enforce Peace implies +equality among the contracting parties; and Germany does not understand +equality. 'By all means', she says,'let us sit at a round table, and I +will sit at the top of it.' Her panacea for human ills is Germanism. She +has nothing to offer but a purely national sentiment, which some, +greatly privileged, may share, and the rest must revere and bow to. In +the Book of Genesis we are told how Joseph was thrown into a pit by his +elder brothers for talking just like this; but he meant it quite +innocently, and so do the Germans. They do not intend irreverence to God +when they call Him the good German God. On the contrary, they choose for +His praise a word that to them stands for all goodness and all +greatness. Their worship expresses itself naturally in the tribal ritual +and the tribal creed. This tribal creed, there can be no doubt, is what +they offer us for a talisman to ensure the right ordering of the world. + +Patriotism and loyalty to hearth and home are passions so strong in +humanity that a creed like this, when men are under its influence, is +not easily seen to be absurd. The Saxon boy, whom I saw in his prison +camp, probably would not quarrel with it. And even in the wider world of +thought the illusions of nationalism are all-pervading. I once heard +Professor Henry Sidgwick remark that it is not easy for us to understand +how the troops of Portugal are stirred to heroic effort when their +commanders call on them to remember that they are Portuguese. He would +no doubt have been the first to admit, for he had an alert and sceptical +mind, that it is only our stupidity which finds anything comic in such +an appeal. But it is stupidity of this kind which unfits men to deal +with other races, and it is stupidity of this kind which has been +exalted by the Germans as a primal duty, and has, indeed, been advanced +by them as their principal claim to undertake the government of the +world. + +This extreme nationalism, this unwillingness to feel any sympathy for +other peoples, or to show them any consideration, has stupefied and +blinded the Germans. One of the heaviest charges that can be brought +against them is that they have seen no virtue in France, I do not ask +that they shall interrupt the War to express admiration for their +enemies: I am speaking of the time before the War. France is the chief +modern inheritor of that great Roman civilization which found us painted +savages, and made us into citizens of the world. The French mind, it is +admitted, and admitted most readily by the most intelligent men, is +quick and delicate and perceptive, surer and clearer in its operation +than the average European mind. Yet the Germans, infatuated with a +belief in their own numbers and their own brute strength, have dared to +express contempt for the genius of France. A contempt for foreigners is +common enough among the vulgar and unthinking of all nations, but I do +not believe that you will find anywhere but in Germany a large number of +men trained in the learned professions who are so besotted by vanity as +to deny to France her place in the vanguard of civilization. These louts +cannot be informed or argued with; they are interested in no one but +themselves, and naked self-assertion is their only idea of political +argument. Treitschke, who was for twenty years Professor of History at +Berlin, and who did perhaps more than any other man to build up the +modern German creed, has crystallized German politics in a single +sentence. 'War', he says, 'is politics _par excellence_,' that is to +say, politics at their purest and highest. Our political doctrine, if it +must be put in as brief a form, would be better expressed in the +sentence, 'War is the failure of politics'. + +If England were given over to nationalism as Germany is given over, +then a war between these two Powers, though it would still be a great +dramatic spectacle, would have as little meaning as a duel between two +rival gamebirds in a cockpit. We know, and it will some day dawn on the +Germans, that this War has a deeper meaning than that. We are not +nationalist; we are too deeply experienced in politics to stumble into +that trap. We have had a better and longer political education than has +come to Germany in her short and feverish national life. It is often +said that the Germans are better educated than we are, and in a sense +that is true; they are better furnished with schools and colleges and +the public means of education. The best boy in a school is the boy who +best minds his book, and even if he dutifully believes all that it tells +him, that will not lose him the prize. When he leaves school and +graduates in a wider world, where men must depend on their own judgement +and their own energy, he is often a little disconcerted to find that +some of his less bookish fellows easily outgo him in quickness of +understanding and resource. German education is too elaborate; it +attempts to do for its pupils much that they had better be left to do +for themselves. The pupils are docile and obedient, not troubled with +unruly doubts and questionings, so that the German system of public +education is a system of public mesmerism, and, now that we see it in +its effects, may be truly described as a national disease. + +I have said that England is not nationalist. If the English believed in +England as the Germans believe in Germany, there would be nothing for +it but a duel to the death, the extinction of one people or the other, +and darkness as the burier of the dead. Peace would be attained by a +great simplification and impoverishment of the world. But the English do +not believe in themselves in that mad-bull fashion. They come of mixed +blood, and have been accustomed for many long centuries to settle their +differences by compromise and mutual accommodation. They do not inquire +too curiously into a man's descent if he shares their ideas. They have +shown again and again that they prefer a tolerant and intelligent +foreigner to rule over them rather than an obstinate and wrong-headed +man of native origin. The earliest strong union of the various parts of +England was achieved by William the Norman, a man of French and +Scandinavian descent. Our native-born king, Charles the First, was put +to death by his people; his son, James the Second, was banished, and the +Dutchman, William the Third, who had proved himself a statesman and +soldier of genius in his opposition to Louis the Fourteenth, was elected +to the throne of England. The fierce struggles of the seventeenth +century, between Royalists and Parliamentarians, between Cavaliers and +Puritans, were settled at last, not by the destruction of either party, +but by the stereotyping of the dispute in the milder and more tolerable +shape of the party system. The only people we have ever shown ourselves +unwilling to tolerate are the people who will tolerate no one but their +own kind. We hate all Acts of Uniformity with a deadly hatred. We are +careful for the rights of minorities. We think life should be made +possible, and we do not object to its being made happy, for dissenters. +Voltaire, the acutest French mind of his age, remarked on this when he +visited England in 1726. 'England', he says, 'is the country of sects. +"In my father's house are many mansions".... Although the Episcopalians +and the Presbyterians are the two dominant sects in Great Britain, all +the others are welcomed there, and live together very fairly, whilst +most of the preachers hate one another almost as cordially as a +Jansenist damns a Jesuit. Enter the London Exchange, a place much more +worthy of respect than most Courts, and you see assembled for the +benefit of mankind representatives of all nations. There the Jew, the +Mohammedan, and the Christian deal with each other as if they were of +the same religion, and call infidels only those who become bankrupt. +There the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist, and the Anabaptist relies +on the promise of the Quaker. On leaving these free and peaceful +assemblies, some proceed to the synagogue, others to the tavern.... If +in England there were only one religion, its despotism would be to be +dreaded; if there were only two, their followers would cut each other's +throats; but there are thirty of them, and they live in peace and +happiness.' + +Since we have had so much practice in tolerating one another, and in +living together even when our ideas on life and the conduct of life seem +absolutely incompatible, it is no wonder that we approach the treatment +of international affairs in a temper very unlike the solemn and dogmatic +ferocity of the German. We do not expect or desire that other peoples +shall resemble us. The world is wide; and the world-drama is enriched +by multiplicity and diversity of character. We like bad men, if there is +salt and spirit in their badness. We even admire a brute, if he is a +whole-hearted brute. I have often thought that if the Germans had been +true to their principles and their programme--if, after proclaiming that +they meant to win by sheer strength and that they recognized no other +right, they had continued as they began, and had battered and hacked, +burned and killed, without fear or pity, a certain reluctant admiration +for them might have been felt in this country. There is no chance of +that now, since they took to whining about humanity. Yet it is very +difficult wholly to alienate the sympathies of the English people. It is +perhaps in some ways a weakness, as it is certainly in other ways a +strength, that we are fanciers of other peoples. Our soldiers have a +tendency to make pets of their prisoners, to cherish them as curiosities +and souvenirs. The fancy becomes a passion when we find a little fellow +struggling valiantly against odds. I suppose we should be at war with +Germany to-day, even if the Germans had respected the neutrality of +Belgium. But the unprovoked assault upon a little people that asked only +to be let alone united all opinions in this country and brought us in +with a rush. I believe there is one German, at least (I hope he is +alive), who understands this. Early in July, 1914, a German student at +Oxford, who was a friend and pupil of mine, came to say good-bye to me. +I have since wondered whether he was under orders to join his regiment. +Anyhow, we talked very freely of many things, and he told me of an +adventure that had befallen him in an Oxford picture-palace. Portraits +of notabilities were being thrown on the screen. When a portrait of the +German Emperor appeared, a youth, sitting just behind my friend, shouted +out an insulting and scurrilous remark. So my friend stood up and turned +round and, catching him a cuff on the head, said,'That's my emperor'. +The house was full of undergraduates, and he expected to be seized and +thrown into the street. To his great surprise the undergraduates, many +of whom have now fallen on the fields of France, broke into rounds of +cheering. 'I should like to think', my friend said, 'that a thing like +that could possibly happen in a German city, but I am afraid that the +feeling there would always be against the foreigner. I admire the +English; they are so just.' I have heard nothing of him since, except a +rumour that he is with the German army of occupation in Belgium. If so, +I like to think of him at a regimental mess, suggesting doubts, or, if +that is an impossible breach of military discipline, keeping silence, +when the loud-voiced major explains that the sympathy of the English for +Belgium is all pretence and cant. + +Ideal and disinterested motives are always to be reckoned with in human +nature. What the Germans call 'real politics', that is to say, politics +which treat disinterested motives as negligible, have led them into a +morass and have bogged them there. How easy it is to explain that the +British Empire depends on trade, that we are a nation of traders, that +all our policy is shaped by trade, that therefore it can only be +hypocrisy in us to pretend to any of the finer feelings. This is not, +as you might suppose, the harmless sally of a one-eyed wit; it is the +carefully reasoned belief of Germany's profoundest political thinkers. +They do not understand a cavalier, so they confidently assert that there +is no such thing in nature. That is a bad mistake to make about any +nation, but perhaps worst when it is made about the English, for the +cavalier temper in England runs through all classes. You can find it in +the schoolmaster, the small trader, the clerk, and the labourer, as +readily as in the officer of dragoons, or the Arctic explorer. The +Roundheads won the Civil War, and bequeathed to us their political +achievements. From the Cavaliers we have a more intimate bequest: it is +from them, not from the Puritans, that the fighting forces of the +British Empire inherit their outlook on the world, their freedom from +pedantry, and that gaiety and lightness of courage which makes them +carry their lives like a feather in the cap. + +I am not saying that our qualities, good or bad, commend us very readily +to strangers. The people of England, on the whole, are respected more +than they are liked. When I call them fanciers of other nations, I feel +it only fair to add that some of those other nations express the same +truth in different language. I have often heard the complaint made that +Englishmen cannot speak of foreigners without an air of patronage. It is +impossible to deny this charge, for, in a question of manners, the +impressions you produce are your manners; and there is no doubt about +this impression. There is a certain coldness about the upright and +humane Englishman which repels and intimidates any trivial human being +who approaches him. Most men would forgo their claim to justice for the +chance of being liked. They would rather have their heads broken, or +accept a bribe, than be the objects of a dispassionate judgement, +however kindly. They feel this so strongly that they experience a dull +discomfort in any relationship that is not tinctured with passion. As +there are many such relationships, not to be avoided even by the most +emotional natures, they escape from them by simulating lively feeling, +and are sometimes exaggerated and insincere in manner. They issue a very +large paper currency on a very small gold reserve. This, which is +commonly known as the Irish Question, is an insoluble problem, for it is +a clash not of interests but of temperaments. The English, it must in +fairness be admitted, do as they would be done by. No Englishman pure +and simple is incommoded by the coldness of strangers. He prefers it, +for there are many stupid little businesses in the world, which are +falsified when they are made much of; and even when important facts are +to be told, he would rather have them told in a dreary manner. He hates +a fuss. + +The Germans, who are a highly emotional and excitable people, have +concentrated all their energy on a few simple ideas. Their moral outlook +is as narrow as their geographical outlook is wide. Will their faith +prevail by its intensity, narrow and false though it be? I cannot prove +that it will not, but I have a suspicion, which I think has already +occurred to some of them, that the world is too large and wilful and +strong to be mastered by them. We have seen what their hatchets and +explosives can do, and they are nearing the end of their resources. They +can still repeat some of their old exploits, but they make no headway, +and time is not their friend. + +One service, perhaps, they have done to civilization. There is a growing +number of people who hold that when this War is over international +relations must not be permitted to slip back into the unstable condition +which tempted the Germans to their crime. A good many pacific theorists, +no doubt, have not the experience and the imagination which would enable +them to pass a useful judgement, or to make a valuable suggestion, on +the affairs of nations. The abolition of war would be easily obtained if +it were generally agreed that war is the worst thing that can befall a +people. But this is not generally agreed; and, further, it is not true. +While men are men they cannot be sure that they will never be challenged +on a point of deep and intimate concern, where they would rather die +than yield. But something can perhaps be done to discourage gamblers' +wars, though even here any stockbroker will tell you how difficult it is +to suppress gambling without injuring the spirit of enterprise. The only +real check on war is an understanding between nations. For the +strengthening of such an understanding the Allies have a great +opportunity, and admirable instruments. I do not think that we shall +call on Germany to preside at our conferences. But we shall have the +help of all those qualities of heart and mind which are possessed by +France, by Russia, by Italy, and by America, who, for all her caution, +hates cruelty even more than she loves peace. There has never been an +alliance of greater promise for the government and peace of the world. + +What is the contribution of the British Empire, and of England, towards +this settlement? Many of our domestic problems, as I have said, bear a +curious resemblance to international problems. We have not solved them +all. We have had many stumblings and many backslidings. But we have +shown again and again that we believe in toleration on the widest +possible basis, and that we are capable of generosity, which is a virtue +much more commonly shown by private persons than by communities. We +abolished the slave trade. We granted self-government to South Africa +just after our war with her. Only a few days ago we gave India her will, +and allowed her to impose a duty on our manufactures. Ireland could have +self-government to-morrow if she did not value her feuds more than +anything else in the world. All these are peoples to whom we have been +bound by ties of kinship or trusteeship. A wider and greater opportunity +is on its way to us. We are to see whether we are capable of generosity +and trust towards peoples who are neither our kin nor our wards. Our +understanding with France and Russia will call for great goodwill on +both sides, not so much in the drafting of formal treaties as in +indulging one another in our national habits. Families who fail to live +together in unity commonly fail not because they quarrel about large +interests, but because they do not like each other's little ways. The +French are not a dull people; and the Russians are not a tedious people +(what they do they do suddenly, without explanation); so that if we +fail to take pleasure in them we have ourselves to blame. If we are not +equal to our opportunities, if we do not learn to feel any affection for +them, then not all the pacts and congresses in the world can make peace +secure. + +Of Germany it is too early to speak. We have not yet defeated her. If we +do defeat her, no one who is acquainted with our temper and our record +believes that we shall impose cruel or vindictive terms. If it were only +the engineers of this war who were in question, we would destroy them +gladly as common pests. But the thing is not so easy. A single home is +in many ways a greater and more appealing thing than a nation; we should +find ourselves thinking of the miseries of simple and ignorant people +who have given their all for the country of their birth; and our hearts +would fail us. + +The Germans would certainly despise this address of mine, for I have +talked only of morality, while they talk and think chiefly of machines. +Zeppelins are a sad disappointment; but if any address on the War is +being delivered to-night by a German professor, there can be no doubt +that it deals with submarines, and treats them as the saviours of the +Fatherland. Well, I know very little about submarines, but I notice that +they have not had much success against ships of war. We are so +easy-going that we expected to carry on our commerce in war very much as +we did in peace. We have to change all that, and it will cost us not a +little inconvenience, or even great hardships. But I cannot believe that +a scheme of privy attacks on the traders of all nations, devised as a +last resort, in lieu of naval victory, can be successful when it is no +longer a surprise. And when I read history, I am strengthened in my +belief that morality is all-important. I do not find that any war +between great nations was ever won by a machine. The Trojan horse will +be trotted out against me, but that was a municipal affair. Wars are won +by the temper of a people. Serbia is not yet defeated. It is a frenzied +and desperate quest that the Germans undertook when they began to seek +for some mechanical trick or dodge, some monstrous engine, which should +enable the less resolved and more excited people to defeat the more +resolved and less excited. If we are to be defeated, it must be by them, +not by their bogey-men. We got their measure on the Somme, and we found +that when their guns failed to protect them, many of them threw up their +hands. These men will never be our masters until we deserve to be their +slaves. + +So I am glad to be able to end on a note of agreement with the German +military party. If they defeat us, it will be no more than we deserve. +Till then, or till they throw up their hands, we shall fight them, and +God will defend the right. + + + + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, February 13, 1918_ + + +Our losses in this War continue to be enormous, and we are not yet near +to the end. So it may seem absurd to speak of our gains, of gains that +we have already achieved. But if you will look at the thing in a large +light, I think you will see that it is not absurd. + +I do not speak of gains of territory, and prisoners, and booty. It is +true that we have taken from the Germans about a million square miles of +land in Africa, where land is cheap. We have taken more prisoners from +them than they have taken from us, and we have whole parks of German +artillery to set over against the battered and broken remnants of +British field-guns which were exhibited in Berlin--a monument to the +immortal valour of the little old Army. I am speaking rather of gains +which cannot be counted as guns are counted, or measured as land is +measured, but which are none the less real and important. + +The Germans have achieved certain great material gains in this War, and +they are fighting now to hold them. If they fail to hold them, the +Germany of the war-lords is ruined. She will have to give up all her +bloated ambitions, to purge and live cleanly, and painfully to +reconstruct her prosperity on a quieter and sounder basis. She will not +do this until she is forced to it by defeat. No doubt there are moderate +and sensible men in Germany, as in other countries; but in Germany they +are without influence, and can do nothing. War is the national industry +of Prussia; Prussia has knit together the several states of the larger +Germany by means of war, and has promised them prosperity and power in +the future, to be achieved by war. You know the Prussian doctrine of +war. Every one now knows it. According to that doctrine it is a foolish +thing for a nation to wait till it is attacked. It should carefully +calculate its own strength and the strength of its neighbours, and, when +it is ready, it should attack them, on any pretext, suddenly, without +warning, and should take from them money and land. When it has gained +territory in this fashion, it should subject the population of the +conquered territory to the strictest laws of military service, and so +supply itself with an instrument for new and bolder aggression. This is +not only the German doctrine; it is the German practice. In this way and +no other modern Germany has been built up. It is a huge new State, +founded on force, cemented by fear, and financed on speculative gains to +be derived from the great gamble of war. You may have noticed that the +German people have not been called on, as yet, to pay any considerable +sum in taxation towards the expenses of this war. Those expenses (that, +at least, was the original idea) were to be borne wholly by the +conquered enemy. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans to-day who +firmly believe that their war-lords will return in triumph from the +stricken field, bringing with them the spoils of war, and scattering a +largess of peace and plenty. + +To us it seems a marvel that any people should accept such a doctrine, +and should willingly give their lives and their fortunes to the work of +carrying it out in practice; but it is not so marvellous as it seems. +The German peoples are brave and obedient, and so make good soldiers; +they are easily lured by the hope of profit; they are naturally +attracted by the spectacular and sentimental side of war; above all, +they are so curiously stupid that many of them do actually believe that +they are a divinely chosen race, superior to the other races of the +world. They are very carefully educated, and their education, which is +ordered by the State, is part of the military machine. Their thinking is +done for them by officials. It would require an extraordinary degree of +courage and independence for a German youth to cut himself loose and +begin thinking and judging for himself. It must always be remembered, +moreover, that their recent history seems to justify their creed. I will +not go back to Frederick the Great, though the history of his wars is +the Prussian handbook, which teaches all the characteristic Prussian +methods of treachery and deceit. But consider only the last two German +wars. How, in the face of these, can it be proved to any German that war +is not the most profitable of adventures? In 1866 Prussia had war with +Austria. The war lasted forty days, and Prussia had from five to six +thousand soldiers killed in action. As a consequence of the war Prussia +gained much territory, and established her control over the states of +greater Germany. In 1870 she had war with France. Her total casualties +in that war were approximately a hundred thousand, just about the same +as our casualties in Gallipoli. From the war she gained, besides a great +increase of strength at home, the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, +with all their mineral wealth, and an indemnity of two hundred million +pounds, that is to say, four times the actual cost of the war in money. +How then can it be maintained that war is not good business? If you say +so to any Prussian, he thinks you are talking like a child. + +Not only were these two wars rich in profit for the Germans, but they +did not lose them much esteem. There was sympathy in this country for +the union of the German peoples, just as there was sympathy, a few years +earlier, for the union of the various states of Italy. There was not a +little admiration for German efficiency and strength. So that Bismarck, +who was an expert in all the uses of bullying, blackmail, and fraud, was +accepted as a great European statesman. I have always believed, and I +still believe, that Germany will have to pay a heavy price for +Bismarck--all the heavier because the payment has been so long deferred. + +The present War, then, is in the direct line of succession to these +former wars; it was planned by Germany, elaborately and deliberately +planned, on a calculation of the profits to be derived from operations +on a large scale. + +Well, as I said, we, as a people, do not believe in gambling in human +misery to attain uncertain speculative gains. We hold that war can be +justified only by a good cause, not by a lucky event. The German +doctrine seems to us impious and wicked. Though we have defined our war +aims in detail, and the Germans have not dared publicly to define +theirs, our real and sufficient war aim is to break the monstrous and +inhuman doctrine and practice of the enemy--to make their calculations +miscarry. And observe, if their calculations miscarry, they have fought +and suffered for nothing. They entered into this War for profit, and in +the conduct of the War, though they have made many mistakes, they have +made none of those generous and magnanimous mistakes which redeem and +beautify a losing cause. + +The essence of our cause, and its greatest strength, is that we are not +fighting for profit. We are fighting for no privilege except the +privilege of possessing our souls, of being ourselves--a privilege which +we claim also for other weaker nations. The inestimable strength of that +position is that if the odds are against us it does not matter. If you +see a ruffian torturing a child, and interfere to prevent him, do you +feel that your attempt was a wrong one because he knocks you down? And +if you succeed, what material profit is there in saving a child from +torture? We have sometimes fought in the past for doubtful causes and +for wrong causes, but this time there is no mistake. Our cause is better +than we deserve; we embraced it by an act of faith, and it is only by +continuing in that faith that we shall see it through. The little old +Army, when they went to France in August 1914, did not ask what profits +were likely to come their way. They knew that there were none, but they +were willing to sacrifice themselves to save decency and humanity from +being trampled in the mud. This was the Army that the Germans called a +mercenary Army, and its epitaph has been written by a good poet: + + These, in the day when heaven was falling, + The hour when earth's foundations fled, + Followed their mercenary calling, + And took their wages, and are dead. + + Their shoulders held the heavens suspended, + They stood, and earth's foundations stay, + What God abandoned these defended, + And saved the sum of things for pay. + +We must follow their example, for we shall never get a better. We must +not make too much of calculation, especially when it deals with +incalculable things. Nervous public critics, like Mr. H.G. Wells, are +always calling out for more cleverness in our methods, for new and +effective tricks, so that we may win the War. I would never disparage +cleverness; the more you can get of it, the better; but it is useless +unless it is in the service of something stronger and greater than +itself, and that is character. Cleverness can grasp; it is only +character that can hold. The Duke of Wellington was not a clever man; he +was a man of simple and honourable mind, with an infinite capacity for +patience, persistence, and endurance, so that neither unexpected +reverses abroad nor a flood of idle criticism at home could shake him or +change him. So he bore a chief part in laying low the last great tyranny +that desolated Europe. + +None of our great wars was won by cleverness; they were all won by +resolution and perseverance. In all of them we were near to despair and +did not despair. In all of them we won through to victory in the end. + +But in none of them did victory come in the expected shape. The worst of +making elaborate plans of victory, and programmes of all that is to +follow victory, is that the mixed event is sure to defeat those plans. +Not every war finds its decision in a single great battle. Think of our +war with Spain in the sixteenth century. Spain was then the greatest of +European Powers. She had larger armies than we could raise; she had +more than our wealth, and more than our shipping. The newly discovered +continent of America was an appanage of Spain, and her great galleons +were wafted lazily to and fro, bringing her all the treasures of the +western hemisphere. We defeated her by standing out and holding on. We +fought her in the Low Countries, which she enslaved and oppressed. We +refused to recognize her exclusive rights in America, and our merchant +seamen kept the sea undaunted, as they have kept it for the last three +years. When at last we became an intolerable vexation to Spain, she +collected a great Armada, or war-fleet, to invade and destroy us; and it +was shattered, by the winds of heaven and the sailors of England, in +1588. The defeat of the Armada was the turning-point of the war, but it +was not the end. It lifted a great shadow of fear from the hearts of the +people, as a great shadow of fear has already been lifted from their +hearts in the present War, but during the years that followed we +suffered many and serious reverses at the hand of Spain, before peace +and security were reached. So late as 1601, thirteen years after the +defeat of the Armada, the King of Denmark offered to mediate between +England and Spain, so that the long and disastrous war might be ended. +Queen Elizabeth was then old and frail, but this was what she said--and +if you want to understand why she was almost adored by her people, +listen to her words: 'I would have the King of Denmark, and all Princes +Christian and Heathen to know, that England hath no need to crave peace; +nor myself endured one hour's fear since I attained the crown thereof, +being guarded with so valiant and faithful subjects.' In the end the +power and menace of Spain faded away, and when peace was made, in 1604, +this nation never again, from that day to this, feared the worst that +Spain could do. + +What were our gains from the war with Spain? Freedom to live our lives +in our own way, unthreatened; freedom to colonize America. The gains of +a great war are never visible immediately; they are deferred, and +extended over many years. What did we gain by our war with Napoleon, +which ended in the victory of Waterloo? For long years after Waterloo +this country was full of riots and discontents; there were +rick-burnings, agitations, popular risings, and something very near to +famine in the land. But all these things, from a distance, are now seen +to have been the broken water that follows the passage of a great storm. +The real gains of Waterloo, and still more of Trafalgar, are evident in +the enormous commercial and industrial development of England during the +nineteenth century, and in the peaceful foundation of the great +dominions of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, which was made +possible only by our unchallenged use of the seas. The men who won those +two great battles did not live to gather the fruits of their victory; +but their children did. If we defeat Germany as completely as we hope, +we shall not be able to point at once to our gains. But it is not a rash +forecast to say that our children and children's children will live in +greater security and freedom than we have ever tasted. + +A man must have a good and wide imagination if he is to be willing to +face wounds and death for the sake of his unborn descendants and +kinsfolk. We cannot count on the popular imagination being equal to the +task. Fortunately, there is a substitute for imagination which does the +work as well or better, and that is character. Our people are sound in +instinct; they understand a fight. They know that a wrestler who +considers, while he is in the grip of his adversary, whether he would +not do well to give over, and so put an end to the weariness and the +strain, is no sort of a wrestler. They have never failed under a strain +of this kind, and they will not fail now. The people who do the +half-hearted and timid talking are either young egotists, who are angry +at being deprived of their personal ease and independence; or elderly +pensive gentlemen, in public offices and clubs, who are no longer fit +for action, and, being denied action, fall into melancholy; or feverish +journalists, who live on the proceeds of excitement, who feel the pulse +and take the temperature of the War every morning, and then rush into +the street to announce their fluttering hopes and fears; or cosmopolitan +philosophers, to whom the change from London to Berlin means nothing but +a change in diet and a pleasant addition to their opportunities of +hearing good music; or aliens in heart, to whom the historic fame of +England, 'dear for her reputation through the world,' is less than +nothing; or practical jokers, who are calm and confident enough +themselves, but delight in startling and depressing others. These are +not the people of England; they are the parasites of the people of +England. The people of England understand a fight. + +That brings me to the first great gain of the War. We have found +ourselves. Which of us, in the early months of 1914, would have dared +to predict the splendours of the youth of this Empire--splendours which +are now a part of our history? We are adepts at self-criticism and +self-depreciation. We hate the language of emotion. Some of us, if we +were taken to heaven and asked what we thought of it, would say that it +is decent, or not so bad. I suppose we are jealous to keep our standard +high, and to have something to say if a better place should be found. +But in spite of all this, we do now know, and it is worth knowing, that +we are not weaker than our fathers. We know that the people who inhabit +these islands and this commonwealth of nations cannot be pushed on one +side, or driven under, or denied a great share in the future ordering of +the world. We know this, and our knowledge of it is the debt that we owe +to our dead. It is not vanity to admit that we know it; on the contrary, +it would be vanity to pretend that we do not know it. It is visible to +other eyes than ours. Some time ago I heard an address given by a friend +of mine, an Indian Mohammedan of warrior descent, to University students +of his own faith. He was urging on them the futility of dreams and the +necessity of self-discipline and self-devotion. 'Why do the people of +this country', he said, 'count for so much all the world over? It is not +because of their dreams; it is because thousands of them are lying at +the bottom of the sea.' + +Further, we have not only found ourselves; we have found one another. A +new kindliness has grown up, during the War, between people divided by +the barriers of class, or wealth, or circumstance. A statesman of the +seventeenth century remarks that _It is a Misfortune for a Man not to +have a Friend in the World, but for that reason he shall have no Enemy_. +I might invert his maxim and say, _It is a Misfortune for a Man to have +many Enemies, but for that reason he shall know who are his Friends_. No +Radical member of Parliament will again, while any of us live, cast +contempt on 'the carpet Captains of Mayfair'. No idle Tory talker will +again dare to say that the working men of England care nothing for their +country. Even the manners of railway travel have improved. I was +travelling in a third-class compartment of a crowded train the other +day; we were twenty in the compartment, but it seemed a pity to leave +any one behind, and we made room for number twenty-one. Nothing but a +very kindly human feeling could have packed us tight enough for this. +Yet now is the time that has been chosen by some of these pensive +gentlemen that I spoke of, and by some of these excitable journalists, +to threaten us with class-war, and to try to make our flesh creep by +conjuring up the horrors of revolution. I advise them to take their +opinions to the third-class compartment and discuss them there. It is a +good tribunal, for, sooner or later, you will find every one there--even +officers, when they are travelling in mufti at their own expense. I have +visited this tribunal very often, and I have always come away from it +with the same impression, that this people means to win the War. But I +do not travel much in the North of England, so I asked a friend of mine, +whose dealings are with the industrial North, what the workpeople of +Lancashire and Yorkshire think of the War. He said, 'Their view is very +simple: they mean to win it; and they mean to make as much money out of +it as ever they can.' Certainly, that is very simple; but before you +judge them, put yourselves in their place. There are great outcries +against profiteers, for making exorbitant profits out of the War, and +against munition workers, for delaying work in order to get higher +wages. I do not defend either of them; they are unimaginative and +selfish, and I do not care how severely they are dealt with; but I do +say that the majority of them are not wicked in intention. A good many +of the more innocent profiteers are men whose sin is that they take an +offer of two shillings rather than an offer of eighteenpence for what +cost them one and a penny. Some of us, in our weaker moments, might be +betrayed into doing the same. As for the munition workers, I remember +what Goldsmith, who had known the bitterest poverty, wrote to his +brother. 'Avarice', he said, 'in the lower orders of mankind is true +ambition; avarice is the only ladder the poor can use to preferment. +Preach then, my dear Sir, to your son, not the excellence of human +nature nor the disrespect of riches, but endeavour to teach him thrift +and economy. Let his poor wandering uncle's example be placed in his +eyes. I had learned from books to love virtue before I was taught from +experience the necessity of being selfish.' + +The profiteers and the munition workers are endeavouring, incidentally, +to better their own position. But make no mistake; the bulk of these +people would rather die than allow one spire of English grass to be +trodden under the foot of a foreign trespasser. Their chief sin is that +they do not fear. They think that there is plenty of time to do a little +business for themselves on the way to defeat the enemy. I cannot help +remembering the mutiny at the Nore, which broke out in our fleet during +the Napoleonic wars. The mutineers struck for more pay and better +treatment, but they agreed together that if the French fleet should put +in an appearance during the mutiny, all their claims should be postponed +for a time, and the French fleet should have their first attention. + +Employers and employed do, no doubt, find in some trades to-day that +their relations are strained and irksome. They would do well to take a +lesson from the Army, where, with very few exceptions, there is harmony +and understanding between those who take orders and those who give them. +It is only in the Army that you can see realized the ideal of ancient +Rome. + + Then none was for a party, + Then all were for the State; + Then the great man helped the poor, + And the poor man loved the great. + +Why is the Army so far superior to most commercial and industrial +businesses? The secret does not lie in State employment. There is plenty +of discontent and unrest among the State-employed railway men and +munition workers. It lies rather in the habit of mutual help and mutual +trust. If any civilian employer of labour wants to have willing +workpeople, let him take a hint from the Army. Let him live with his +workpeople, and share all their dangers and discomforts. Let him take +thought for their welfare before his own, and teach self-sacrifice by +example. Let him put the good of the nation before all private +interests; and those whom he commands will do for him anything that he +asks. + +I cannot believe that the benefits which have come to us from the Army +will pass away with the passing of the War. Those who have been comrades +in danger will surely take with them something of the old spirit into +civil life. And those who have kept clear of the Army in order to carry +on their own trades and businesses will surely realize that they have +missed the great opportunity of their lives. + +In a wider sense the War has brought us to an understanding of one +another. This great Commonwealth of independent nations which is called +the British Empire is scattered over the surface of the habitable globe. +It embraces people who live ten thousand miles apart, and whose ways of +life are so different that they might seem to have nothing in common. +But the War has brought them together, and has done more than half a +century of peace could do to promote a common understanding. Hundreds of +thousands of men of our blood who, before the War, had never seen this +little island, have now made acquaintance with it. Hundreds of thousands +of the inhabitants of this island to whom the Dominions were strange, +far places, if, after the War, they should be called on to settle there, +will not feel that they are leaving home. I can only hope that the +Canadians and Anzacs think as well of us as we do of them. We do not +like to praise our friends in their hearing, so I will say no more than +this: I am told that a new kind of peerage, very haughty and very +self-important, has arisen in South London. Its members are those +house-holders who have been privileged to have Anzac soldiers billeted +on them. It is private ties of this kind, invisible to the +constitutional lawyer and the political historian, which make the fine +meshes of the web of Empire. + +Because he knew that the strength of the whole texture depends on the +strength of the fine meshes, Earl Grey, who died last year, will always +be remembered in our history. Not many men have his opportunity to make +acquaintance with the domain that is their birthright, for he had +administered a province of South Africa, and had been Governor-General +of Canada, He rediscovered the glory of the Empire, as poets rediscover +the glory of common speech. 'He had breathed its air,' a friend of his +says, 'fished its rivers, walked in its valleys, stood on its mountains, +met its people face to face. He had seen it in all the zones of the +world. He knew what it meant to mankind. Under the British flag, +wherever he journeyed, he found men of English speech living in an +atmosphere of liberty and carrying on the dear domestic traditions of +the British Isles. He saw justice firmly planted there, industry and +invention hard at work unfettered by tyrants of any kind, domestic life +prospering in natural conditions, and our old English kindness and +cheerfulness and broad-minded tolerance keeping things together. But he +also saw room under that same flag, ample room, for millions and +millions more of the human race. The Empire wasn't a word to him. It was +a vast, an almost boundless, home for honest men.' + +The War did not dishearten him. When he died, in August, 1917, he said, +'Here I lie on my death-bed, looking clear into the Promised Land. I'm +not allowed to enter it, but there it is before my eyes. After the War +the people of this country will enter it, and those who laughed at me +for a dreamer will see that I wasn't so wrong after all. But there's +still work to do for those who didn't laugh, hard work, and with much +opposition in the way; all the same, it is work right up against the +goal. My dreams have come true.' + +One of the clear gains of the War is to be found in the increased +activity and alertness of our own people. The motto of to-day is, 'Let +those now work who never worked before, And those who always worked now +work the more.' Before the War we had a great national reputation for +idleness--in this island, at least. I remember a friendly critic from +Canada who, some five or six years ago, expressed to me, with much +disquiet, his opinion that there was something very far wrong with the +old country; that we had gone soft. As for our German critics, they +expressed the same view in gross and unmistakable fashion. Wit is not a +native product in Germany, it all has to be imported, so they could not +satirize us; but their caricatures of the typical Englishman showed us +what they thought. He was a young weakling with a foolish face, and was +dressed in cricketing flannels. It would have been worth their while to +notice what they did not notice, that his muscles and nerves are not +soft. They learned that later, when the bank-clerks of Manchester broke +the Prussian Guard into fragments at Contalmaison. This must have been a +sad surprise, for the Germans had always taught, in their delightful +authoritative fashion, that the chief industries of the young Englishman +are lawn-tennis and afternoon tea. They are a fussy people, and they +find it difficult to understand the calm of the man who, having nothing +to do, does it. Perhaps they were right, and we were too idle. The +disease was never so serious as they thought it, and now, thanks to +them, we are in a fair way to recovery. The idle classes have turned +their hand to the lathe and the plough. Women are doing a hundred things +that they never did before, and are doing them well. The elasticity and +resourcefulness that the War has developed will not be lost or destroyed +by the coming of peace. Least of all will those qualities be lost if we +should prove unable, in this War, to impose our own terms on Germany. +Then the peace that follows will be a long struggle, and in that +struggle we shall prevail. In the last long peace we were not +suspicious; we felt friendly enough to the Germans, and we gave them +every advantage. They despised us for our friendliness and used the +peace to prepare our downfall. That will never happen again. If we +cannot tame the cunning animal that has assaulted humanity, at least we +can and will tether him. Laws will not be necessary; there are millions +of others besides the seamen of England who will have no dealings with +an unsubdued and unrepentant Germany. What the Germans are not taught by +the War they will have to learn in the more tedious and no less costly +school of peace. + +In any case, whether we win through to real peace and real security, or +whether we are thrown back on an armed peace and the duty of unbroken +vigilance, we shall be dependent for our future on the children who are +now learning in the schools or playing in the streets. It is a good +dependence. The children of to-day are better than the children whom I +knew when I was a child. I think they have more intelligence and +sympathy; they certainly have more public spirit. We cannot do too much +for them. The most that we can do is nothing to what they are going to +do for us, for their own nation and people. I am not concerned to +discuss the education problem. Formal education, carried on chiefly by +means of books, is a very small part of the making of a man or a woman. +But I am interested to know what the children are thinking. You cannot +fathom a child's thoughts, but we know who are their best teachers, and +what lessons have been stamped indelibly on their minds. Their teachers, +whom they never saw, and whose lessons they will never forget, lie in +graves in Flanders and France and Gallipoli and Syria and Mesopotamia, +or unburied at the bottom of the sea. The runner falls, but the torch is +carried forward. This is what Julian Grenfell, who gave his mind and his +life to the War, has said in his splendid poem called _Into Battle_: + + And life is colour and warmth and light, + And a striving evermore for these; + And he is dead who will not fight, + And who dies fighting hath increase. + +Those who died fighting will have such increase that a whole new +generation, better even than the old, will be ready, no long time hence, +to uphold and extend and decorate the Commonwealth of nations which +their fathers and brothers saved from ruin. + +One thing I have never heard discussed, but it is the clearest gain of +all, and already it may be called a certain gain. After the War the +English language will have such a position as it has never had before. +It will be established in world-wide security. Even before the War, it +may be truly said, our language was in no danger from the competition of +the German language. The Germans have never had much success in the +attempt to get their language adopted by other peoples. Not all the +military laws of Prussia can drive out French from the hearts and homes +of the people of Alsace. In the ports of the near and far East you will +hear English spoken--pidgin English, as it is called, that is to say, a +selection of English words suited for the business of daily life. But +you may roam the world over, and you will hear no pidgin German. Before +the War many Germans learned English, while very few English-speaking +people learned German. In other matters we disagreed, but we both knew +which way the wind was blowing. It may be said, and said truly, that our +well-known laziness was one cause of our failing or neglecting to learn +German. But it was not the only cause; and we are not lazy in tasks +which we believe to be worth our while. Rather we had an instinctive +belief that the future does not belong to the German tongue. That belief +is not likely to be impaired by the War. Armed ruffians can do some +things, but one thing they cannot do; they cannot endear their language +to those who have suffered from their violence. The Germans poisoned the +wells in South-West Africa; in Europe they did all they could to poison +the wells of mutual trust and mutual understanding among civilized men. +Do they think that these things will make a good advertisement for the +explosive guttural sounds and the huddled deformed syntax of the speech +in which they express their arrogance and their hate? Which of the +chief European languages will come first, after the War, with the little +nations? Will Serbia be content to speak German? Will Norway and Denmark +feel a new affection for the speech of the men who have degraded the old +humanity of the seas? Neighbourhood, kinship, and the necessities of +commerce may retain for the German language a certain measure of custom +in Sweden and Switzerland, and in Holland. But for the most part Germans +will have to be content to be addressed in their own tongue only by +those who fear them, or by those who hope to cheat them. + +This gain, which I make bold to predict for the English language, is a +real gain, apart from all patriotic bias. The English language is +incomparably richer, more fluid, and more vital than the German +language. Where the German has but one way of saying a thing, we have +two or three, each with its distinctions and its subtleties of usage. +Our capital wealth is greater, and so are our powers of borrowing. +English sprang from the old Teutonic stock, and we can still coin new +words, such as 'food-hoard' and 'joy-ride', in the German fashion. But +long centuries ago we added thousands of Romance words, words which came +into English through the French or Norman-French, and brought with them +the ideas of Latin civilization and of mediaeval Christianity. Later on, +when the renewed study of Latin and Greek quickened the intellectual +life of Europe, we imported thousands of Greek and Latin words direct +from the ancient world, learned words, many of them, suitable for +philosophers, or for writers who pride themselves on shooting a little +above the vulgar apprehension. Yet many of these, too, have found their +way into daily speech, so that we can say most things in three ways, +according as we draw on one or another of the three main sources of our +speech. Thus, you can Begin, or Commence, or Initiate an undertaking, +with Boldness, or Courage, or Resolution. If you are a Workman, or +Labourer, or Operative, you can Ask, or Bequest, or Solicit your +employer to Yield, or Grant, or Concede, an increase in the Earnings, or +Wages, or Remuneration which fall to the lot of your Fellow, or +Companion, or Associate. Your employer is perhaps Old, or Veteran, or +Superannuated, which may Hinder, or Delay, or Retard the success of your +application. But if you Foretell, or Prophesy, or Predict that the War +will have an End, or Close, or Termination that shall not only be +Speedy, or Rapid, or Accelerated, but also Great, or Grand, or +Magnificent, you may perhaps Stir, or Move, or Actuate him to have Ruth, +or Pity, or Compassion on your Mate, or Colleague, or Collaborator. The +English language, then, is a language of great wealth--much greater +wealth than can be illustrated by any brief example. But wealth is +nothing unless you can use it. The real strength of English lies in the +inspired freedom and variety of its syntax. There is no grammar of the +English speech which is not comic in its stiffness and inadequacy. An +English grammar does not explain all that we can do with our speech; it +merely explains what shackles and restraints we must put upon our speech +if we would bring it within the comprehension of a school-bred +grammarian. But the speech itself is like the sea, and soon breaks down +the dykes built by the inland engineer. It was the fashion, in the +eighteenth century, to speak of the divine Shakespeare. The reach and +catholicity of his imagination was what earned him that extravagant +praise; but his syntax has no less title to be called divine. It is not +cast or wrought, like metal; it leaps like fire, and moves like air. So +is every one that is born of the spirit. Our speech is our great +charter. Far better than in the long constitutional process whereby we +subjected our kings to law, and gave dignity and strength to our +Commons, the meaning of English freedom is to be seen in the illimitable +freedom of our English speech. + +Our literature is almost as rich as our language. Modern German +literature begins in the eighteenth century. Modern English literature +began with Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, and has been full of +great names and great books ever since. Nothing has been done in German +literature for which we have not a counterpart, done as well or +better--except the work of Heine, and Heine was a Jew. His opinion of +the Prussians was that they are a compost of beer, deceit, and sand. +French literature and English literature can be compared, throughout +their long course, sometimes to the great advantage of the French. +German literature cannot seriously be compared with either. + +It may be objected that literature and art are ornamental affairs, which +count for little in the deadly strife of nations. But that is not so. +Our language cannot go anywhere without taking our ideas and our creed +with it, not to mention our institutions and our games. If the Germans +could understand what Chaucer means when he says of his Knight that + + he lovèd chivalry, + Truth and honoùr, freedom and courtesy, + +then indeed we might be near to an understanding. I asked a good German +scholar the other day what is the German word for 'fair play'. He +replied, as they do in Parliament, that he must ask for notice of that +question. I fear there is no German word for 'fair play'. + +The little countries, the pawns and victims of German policy, understand +our ideas better. The peoples who have suffered from tyranny and +oppression look to England for help, and it is a generous weakness in us +that we sometimes deceive them by our sympathy, for our power is +limited, and we cannot help them all. But it will not count against us +at the final reckoning that in most places where humanity has suffered +cruelty and indignity the name of England has been invoked: not always +in vain. + +And now, for I have kept to the last what I believe to be the greatest +gain of all, the entry of America into the War assures the triumph of +our common language. America is peopled by many races; only a minority +of the inhabitants--an influential and governing minority--are of the +English stock. But here, again, the language carries it; and the ideas +that inspire America are ideas which had their origin in the long +English struggle for freedom. Our sufferings in this War are great, but +they are not so great that we cannot recognize virtue in a new recruit +to the cause. No nation, in the whole course of human history, has ever +made a more splendid decision, or performed a more magnanimous act, than +America, when she decided to enter this War. She had nothing to gain, +for, to say the bare truth, she had little to lose. If Germany were to +dominate the world, America, no doubt, would be ruined; but in all human +likelihood, Germany's impious attempt would have spent itself and been +broken long before it reached the coasts of America. America might have +stood out of the War in the assurance that her own interests were safe, +and that, when the tempest had passed, the centre of civilization would +be transferred from a broken and exhausted Europe to a peaceful and +prosperous America. Some few Americans talked in this strain, and +favoured a decision in this sense. But it was not for nothing that +America was founded upon religion. When she saw humanity in anguish, she +did not pass by on the other side. Her entry into the War has put an +end, I hope for ever, to the family quarrel, not very profound or +significant, which for a century and a half has been a jarring note in +the relations of mother and daughter. And it has put an end to another +danger. It seemed at one time not unlikely that the English language as +it is spoken overseas would set up a life of its own, and become +separated from the language of the old country. A development of this +kind would be natural enough. The Boers of South Africa speak Dutch, but +not the Dutch spoken in Holland. The French Canadians speak French, but +not the French of Molière. Half a century ago, when America was +exploring and settling her own country, in wild and lone places, her +pioneers enriched the English speech with all kinds of new and vivid +phrases. The tendency was then for America to go her own way, and to +cultivate what is new in language at the expense of what is old. She +prided herself even on having a spelling of her own, and seemed almost +willing to break loose from tradition and to coin a new American +English. + +This has not happened; and now, I think, it will not happen. For one +thing, the American colonists left us when already we had a great +literature. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Spenser belong to America no less +than to us, and America has never forgotten them. The education which +has been fostered in American schools and colleges keeps the whole +nation in touch with the past. Some of their best authors write in a +style that Milton and Burke would understand and approve. There is no +more beautiful English prose than Nathaniel Hawthorne's. The best +speeches of Abraham Lincoln, and, we may truly add, of President Wilson, +are merely classic English. During my own lifetime I am sure I have seen +the speech usages of the two peoples draw closer together. For one +thing, we on this side now borrow, and borrow very freely, the more +picturesque colloquialisms of America. On informal occasions I sometimes +brighten my own speech with phrases which I think I owe to one of the +best of living American authors, Mr. George Ade, of Chicago, the author +of _Fables in Slang_. The press, the telegraph, the telephone, and the +growing habit of travel bind us closer together every year; and the +English that we speak, however rich and various it may be, is going to +remain one and the same English, our common inheritance. + +One question, the most important and difficult of all, remains to be +asked. Will this War, in its course and in its effects, tend to prevent +or discourage later wars? If the gains that it brings prove to be merely +partial and national gains, if it exalts one nation by unjustly +depressing another, and conquers cruelty by equal cruelty, then nothing +can be more certain than that the peace of the world is farther off than +ever. When she was near her death, Edith Cavell, patriot and martyr, +said that patriotism is not enough. Every one who thinks on +international affairs knows this; almost every one forgets it in time of +war. What can be done to prevent nations from appealing to the wild +justice of revenge? + +A League of Nations may do good, but I am surprised that any one who has +imagination and a knowledge of the facts should entertain high hopes of +it as a full solution. There is a League of Nations to-day which has +given a verdict against the Central Powers, and that verdict is being +enforced by the most terrible War in all human history. If the verdict +had been given before the War began, it may be said, then Germany might +have accepted it, and refrained. So she might, but what then? She would +have felt herself wronged; she would have deferred the War, and, in ways +that she knows so well, would have set about making a party for herself +among the nations of the League. Who can be confident that she would +have failed either to divide her judges, or to accumulate such elements +of strength that she might dare to defy them? A League of Nations would +work well only if its verdicts were loyally accepted by all the nations +composing it. To make majority-rule possible you must have a community +made up of members who are reasonably well informed upon one another's +affairs, and who are bound together by a tie of loyalty stronger and +more enduring than their causes of difference. It would be a happy thing +if the nations of the world made such a community; and the sufferings of +this War have brought them nearer to desiring it. But those who believe +that such a community can be formed to-day or to-morrow are too +sanguine. It must not be forgotten that the very principle of the +League, if its judgements are to take effect, involves a world-war in +cases where a strong minority resists those judgements. Every war would +become a world-war. Perhaps this very fact would prevent wars, but it +cannot be said that experience favours such a conclusion. + +There is no escape for us by way of the Gospels. The Gospel precept to +turn the other cheek to the aggressor was not addressed to a meeting of +trustees. Christianity has never shirked war, or even much disliked it. +Where the whole soul is set on things unseen, wounds and death become of +less account. And if the Christians have not helped us to avoid war, how +should the pacifists be of use? Those of them whom I happen to know, or +to have met, have shown themselves, in the relations of civil life, to +be irritable, self-willed, combative creatures, where the average +soldier is calm, unselfish, and placable. There is something incongruous +and absurd in the pacifist of British descent. He has fighting in his +blood, and when his creed, or his nervous sensibility to physical +horrors, denies him the use of fighting, his blood turns sour. He can +argue, and object, and criticize, but he cannot lead. All that he can +offer us in effect is eternal quarrels in place of occasional fights. + +No one can do anything to prevent war who does not recognize its +splendour, for it is by its splendour that it keeps its hold on +humanity, and persists. The wickedest and most selfish war in the world +is not fought by wicked and selfish soldiers. The spirit of man is +immense, and for an old memory, a pledged word, a sense of fellowship, +offers this frail and complicated tissue of flesh and blood, which a pin +or a grain of sand will disorder, to be the victim of all the atrocities +that the wit of man can compound out of fire and steel and poison. If +that spirit is to be changed, or directed into new courses, it must be +by one who understands it, and approaches it reverently, with bared +head. + +The best hope seems to me to lie in paying chief attention to the +improvement of war rather than to its abolition; to the decencies of the +craft; to the style rather than the matter. Style is often more +important than matter, and this War would not have been so fierce or so +prolonged if it had not become largely a war on a point of style, a war, +that is to say, to determine the question how war should be waged. If +the Germans had behaved humanely and considerately to the civil +population of Belgium, if they had kept their solemn promise not to use +poison-gas, if they had refrained from murder at sea, if their valour +had been accompanied by chivalry, the War might now have been ended, +perhaps not in their disfavour, for it would not have been felt, as it +now is felt, that they must be defeated at no matter how great a cost, +or civilization will perish. + +Even as things are, there have been some gains in the manner of +conducting war, which, when future generations look back on them, will +be seen to be considerable. It is true that modern science has devised +new and appalling weapons. The invention of a new weapon in war always +arouses protest, but it does not usually, in the long run, make war more +inhuman. There was a great outcry in Europe when the broadsword was +superseded by the rapier, and a tall man of his hands could be spitted +like a cat or a rabbit by any dexterous little fellow with a trained +wrist. There was a wave of indignation, which was a hundred years in +passing, when musketry first came into use, and a man-at-arms of great +prowess could be killed from behind a wall by one who would not have +dared to meet him in open combat. But these changes did not, in effect, +make war crueller or more deadly. They gave more play to intelligence, +and abolished the tyranny of the bully, who took the wall of every man +he met, and made himself a public nuisance. The introduction of +poison-gas, which is a small thing compared with the invention of +fire-arms, has given the chemist a place in the ranks of fighting-men. +And if science has lent its aid to the destruction of life, it has spent +greater zeal and more prolonged effort on the saving of life. No +previous war will compare with this in care for the wounded and maimed. +In all countries, and on all fronts, an army of skilled workers devote +themselves to this single end. I believe that this quickening of the +human conscience, for that is what it is, will prove to be the greatest +gain of the War, and the greatest advance made in restraint of war. If +the nations come to recognize that their first duty, and their first +responsibility, is to those who give so much in their service, that +recognition will of itself do more than can be done by any conclave of +statesmen to discourage war. It was the monk Telemachus, according to +the old story, who stopped the gladiatorial games at Rome, and was +stoned by the people. If war, in process of time, shall be abolished, +or, failing that, shall be governed by the codes of humanity and +chivalry, like a decent tournament; then the one sacrificial figure +which will everywhere be honoured for the change will be the figure not +of a priest or a politician, but of a hospital nurse. + + + + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + +_A paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, March 14, 1918._ + + +When you asked me to read or speak to you, I promised to speak about the +War. What I have to say is wholly orthodox, but it is none the worse for +that. Indeed, when I think how entirely the War possesses our thoughts +and how entirely we are agreed concerning it, I seem to see a new +meaning in the creeds of the religions. These creeds grew up by general +consent, and no one who believed them grudged repeating them. In the +face of an indifferent or hostile world the faithful found themselves +obliged to define their belief, and to strengthen themselves by an +unwearying and united profession of faith. It is the enemy who gives +meaning to a religious creed: without our creed we cannot win. So I am +willing to remind you of what you know, rather than to try to introduce +you to novelties. + +The strength of the enemy lies in his creed; not in the lands that he +has ravished from his neighbours. If his creed does not prevail, his +lands will not help him. Germany has taken lands from Belgium, Serbia, +Roumania, Russia, and the rest, but unless her digestion is as strong as +her appetite, she will fail to keep them. If she is to hold them in +peace, the peoples who inhabit these lands must be either exterminated +or converted to the German creed. Lands can be annexed by a successful +campaign; they can be permanently conquered only by the operations of +peace. The people who survive will be a weakness to the German Empire +unless they accept what they are offered, a share in the German creed. + +That creed has not many natural attractions for the peoples on whom it +is imposed by force. It is an intensely patriotic creed; it insists on +racial supremacy, and on unity to be achieved by violence. Pleading and +persuasion have little part in it except as instruments of deceit. There +is no use in listening to what the Germans say; they do not believe it +themselves. What they say is for others; what they do is for themselves. +While they are at war, language for them has only two uses--to conceal +their thoughts, and to deceive their enemies. + +The creed of Western civilization, for which they feel nothing but +contempt, and on which they will be broken, is not a simple thing, like +theirs. The words by which it is commonly expressed--democracy, +parliamentarism, individual liberty, diversity, free development--are +puzzling theoretic words, which make no instinctive appeal to the heart. +Nevertheless, we stand for growth as against order; and for life as +against death. If Germany wins this war, her system will have to be +broken or to decay before growth can start again. Must we lose even a +hundred years in shaking ourselves free from the paralysis of the German +nightmare? + +The Germans have shown themselves strong in their unity, and strong in +their willingness to make great sacrifices to preserve that unity. No +one can deny nobility to the sacrifice made by the simple-minded German +soldier who dies fighting bravely for his people and his creed. His +narrowness is his strength, and makes unselfishness easier by saving his +mind from question. 'This one thing you shall do', his country says to +him, 'fight and die for your country, so that your country and your +people shall have lordship over other countries and other peoples. You +are nothing; Germany is everything.' + +We who live in this island love our country with at least as deep a +passion; but a creed so simple as the German creed will never do for us. +We are patriotic, but our patriotism is often overlaid and confused by a +wider thought and a wider sympathy than the Germans have ever known. +Much extravagant praise has lately been given to the German power of +thinking, which produces the elaborate marvels of German organization. +But this thinking is slave-thinking, not master-thinking; it spends +itself wholly on devising complicated means to achieve a very simple +end. That is what makes the Germans so like the animals. Their wisdom is +all cunning. I have had German friends, two or three, in the course of +my life, but none of them ever understood a word that I said if I tried +to say what I thought. You could talk to them about food, and they +responded easily. It was all very restful and pleasant, like talking to +an intelligent dog. + +If each of the allied nations were devoted to the creed of nationalism, +the alliance could not endure. We depend for our strength on what we +hold in common. The weakness of this wider creed is that it makes no +such immediate and strong appeal to the natural instincts as is made by +the mother-country. It demands the habitual exercise of reason and +imagination. Further, seeing that we are infinitely less tame and less +docile than the Germans, we depend for our strength on informing and +convincing our people, and on obtaining agreement among them. Questions +which in Germany are discussed only in the gloomy Berlin head-quarters +of the General Staff are discussed here in the newspapers. In the press, +even under the censorship, we think aloud. It records our differences +and debates our policy. You could not suppress these differences and +these debates without damaging our cause. There is no freedom worth +having which does not, sooner or later, include the freedom to say what +you think. + +No doubt we could, if necessary, carry on for a time without the press; +and I agree with those newspaper writers who have been saying recently +that the importance of the press is monstrously exaggerated by some of +its critics. The working-man, so far as I know him, does not depend for +his patriotism on the leader-writers of the newspapers. He takes even +the news with a very large grain of salt. 'So the papers say', he +remarks; 'it may be true or it may not.' Yet the press has done good +service, and might do better, in putting the meaning of the War before +our people and in holding them together. Freedom means that we must love +our diversity well enough to be willing to unite to protect it. We must +die for our differences as cheerfully as the Germans die for their +pattern. Or, if we can sketch a design of our cause, we must be as +passionate in defence of that large vague design as the Germans are +passionate in defence of their tight uniformity and their drill. If we +were to fail to keep together, our cause, I believe, would still +prevail, but at a cost that we dare not contemplate, by way of anarchy, +and the dissolution of societies, by long tortures, and tears, and +martyrdoms. If we refuse to die in the ranks against the German tyranny +we can keep our faith by dying at the stake. There are those who think +martyrdom the better way; and certainly that was how Christianity +prevailed in Europe; you can read the story in Caxton's translation of +the _Golden Legend_. But these saints and martyrs were making a +beginning; we are fighting to keep what we have won, and it would be a +huge failure on our part if we could keep nothing of it, but had to +begin all over again. + +The business of the press, then, at this present crisis, is to keep the +cause for which we are fighting clearly before us, and this it has done +well; also, because we do not fight best in blinders, to tell us all +that can be known of the facts of the situation, and this it has done +not so well. + +The power of the newspapers is that most people read them, and that many +people read nothing else. Their weakness is that they have to sell or +cease to be, so that by a natural instinct of self-preservation they +fall back on the two sure methods whereby you can always capture the +attention of the public. Any man who is trying to say what he thinks, +making full allowance for all doubts and differences, runs the risk of +losing his audience. He can regain their attention by flattering them or +by frightening them. Flattery and fright, the one following the other +from day to day, and often from paragraph to paragraph, is a very large +part of the newspaper reader's diet. If he is a sane and busy man, he is +not too much impressed by either. He is not mercurial enough for the +quick changes of an orator's or journalist's fancy, whereby he is called +on, one day, to dig the German warships like rats out of their harbour, +and, not many days later, to spend his last shilling on the purchase of +the last bullet to shoot at the German invader. He knows that this is +such stuff as dreams are made of. He knows also that the orator or +journalist, after calling on him for these achievements, goes home to +dinner. No great harm is done, just as no great harm is done by bad +novels. But an opportunity is lost; the press and the platform might do +more than they do to strengthen us and inform us, and help forward our +cause. + +I name the press and the platform together because they are essentially +the same thing. Journalism is a kind of talk. The press, it is fair to +say, is ourselves; and every people, it may truly be said, has the press +that it deserves. But reading is a thing that we do chiefly for +indulgence and pleasure in our idle time; and the press falls in with +our mood, and supplies us with what we want in our weaker and lazier +moments. No responsible man, with an eager and active mind, spends much +of his time on the newspapers. Those who are excited to action by what +they read in the papers are mostly content with the mild exercise of +writing to these same papers to explain that some one else ought to do +something and to do it at once. Their excitement worries themselves more +than it hurts others. When the devil, with horns and hooves, appeared to +Cuvier, the naturalist, and threatened to devour him, Cuvier, who was +asleep at the time, opened his eyes and looked at the terrible +apparition. 'Hm,' he said, 'cloven-footed; graminivorous; needn't be +afraid of you;' and he went to sleep again. A man who says that he has +not time to read the morning papers carefully is commonly a man who +counts; he knows what he has to do, and he goes on doing it. So far as I +have observed, the cadets who are training for command in the army take +very little interest in the exhortations of the newspapers. They even +prefer the miserable trickle which is all that is left of football news. + +One of the chief problems connected with the press is therefore +this--how can it be prevented from producing hysteria in the +feeble-minded? In time of war the censorship no doubt does something to +prevent this; and I think it might do more. 'Scare-lines', as they are +called--that is, sensational headings in large capital letters--might be +reduced by law to modest dimensions. More important, the censorship +might insist that all who write shall sign their names to their +articles. Why should journalists alone be relieved of responsibility to +their country? Is it possible that the Government is afraid of the +press? There is no need for fear. 'Beware of Aristophanes', says Landor, +'he can cast your name as a byword to a thousand cities of Asia for a +thousand years. But all that the press can do by its disfavour is to +keep your name obscure in a hundred cities of England for a hundred +days. Signed articles are robbed of their vague impressiveness, and are +known for what they are--the opinions of one man. I would also recommend +that a photograph of the author be placed at the head of every article. +I have been saved from many bad novels by the helpful pictorial +advertisements of modern publishers. + +The real work of the Press, as I said, is to help to hold the people +together. Nothing else that it can do is of any importance compared with +this. We are at one in this War as we have never been at one before +within living memory, as we were not at one against Napoleon or against +Louis XIV. Our trial is on us; and if we cannot preserve our oneness, we +fail. What would be left to us I do not know; but I am sure that an +England which had accepted conditions of peace at Germany's hands would +not be the England that any of us know. There might still be a few +Englishmen, but they would have to look about for somewhere to live. +Serbia would be a good place; it has made no peace-treaty with Germany. + +We are profoundly at one; and are divided only by illusions, which the +press, in times past, has done much to keep alive. One of these +illusions is the illusion of party. I have never been behind the scenes, +among the creaking machinery, but my impression, as a spectator, is that +parties in England are made very much as you pick up sides for a game. I +have observed that they are all conservative. The affections are +conservative; every one has a liking for his old habits and his old +associates. There is something comic in a well-nourished rich man who +believes that he is a bold reformer and a destructive thinker. For real +clotted reactionary sentiment I know nothing to match the table-talk of +any aged parliamentary Radical. When we get a Labour Government, it will +be patriotic, prejudiced, opposed to all innovation, superstitiously +reverential of the past, sticky and, probably, tyrannical. + +The party illusion has been much weakened by the War, and those who +still repeat the old catch-words are very near to lunacy. There is a +deeper and more dangerous illusion which has not been killed--the class +illusion. We are all very much alike; but we live in water-tight +compartments called classes, and the inhabitants of each compartment +tend to believe that they alone are patriotic. This illusion, to be +just, is not fostered chiefly by the press, which wants to sell its work +to all classes; but it has strong hold of the Government office. The +Government does not know the people, except as an actor knows the +audience; and therefore does not trust the people. It is pathetic to +hear officials talking timidly of the people--will they endure hardships +and sacrifices, will they carry through? Yet most of the successes we +have won in the War have to be credited not so much to the skill of the +management as to the amazing high courage of the ordinary soldier and +sailor. Even soldiers are often subject to class illusion. I remember +listening, in the first month of the War, to a retired colonel, who +explained, with some heat, that the territorials could never be of any +use. That illusion has gone. Then it was Kitchener's army--well-meaning +people, no doubt, but impossible for a European war. Kitchener's army +made good. Now it is the civil population, who, though they are the +blood relatives of the soldiers, are distrusted, and believed to be +likely to fail under a strain. Yet all the time, if you want to hear +half-hearted, timid, pusillanimous talk, the place where you are most +likely to hear it is in the public offices. Most of those who talk in +this way would be brave enough in fight, but they are kept at desks, and +worried with detailed business, and harassed by speculative dangers, and +they lose perspective. Soon or late, we are going to win this War; and +it is the people who are going to win it. + +If the press (or perhaps the Government, which controls the press) is +not afraid of the people, why does it tell them so little about our +reverses, and the merits of our enemies? For information concerning +these things we have to depend wholly on conversation with returned +soldiers. For instance, the horrible stories that we hear of the brutal +treatment of our prisoners are numerous, and are true, and make a heavy +bill against Germany, which bill we mean to present. But are they fair +examples of the average treatment? We cannot tell; the accounts +published are almost exclusively confined to the worst happenings. Most +of the officers with whom I have talked who had been in several German +military prisons said that they had nothing serious to complain of. +Prison is not a good place, and it is not pleasant to have your +pea-soup and your coffee, one after the other, in the same tin dipper; +but they were soldiers, and they agreed that it would be absurd to make +a grievance of things like that. One private soldier was an even greater +philosopher. 'No', he said, 'I have nothing to complain of. Of course, +they do spit at you a good deal.' That man was unconquerable. + +In shipping returns and the like we are given averages; why are we told +nothing at all of the milder experiences of our soldier prisoners? It +would not make us less resolved to do all that we can to better the lot +of those who are suffering insult and torture, and to exact full +retribution from the enemy. And it would bring some hope to those whose +husbands or children or friends are in German military prisons, and who +are racked every day by tales of what, in fact, are exceptional +atrocities. + +Or take the question of the conduct of German officers. We know that the +Prussian military Government, in its approved handbooks, teaches its +officers the use of brutality and terror as military weapons. The German +philosophy of war, of which this is a part, is not really a philosophy +of war; it is a philosophy of victory. For a long time now the Germans +have been accustomed to victory, and have studied the arts of breaking +the spirit and torturing the mind of the peoples whom they invade. Their +philosophy of war will have to be rewritten when the time comes for them +to accommodate their doctrine to their own defeat. In the meantime they +teach frightfulness to their officers, and most of their officers prove +ready pupils. There must be some, one would think, here and there, if +only a sprinkling, who fall short of the Prussian doctrine, and are +betrayed by human feeling into what we should recognize as decent and +honourable conduct. And so there are; only we do not hear of them +through the press. I should like to tell two stories which come to me +from personal sources. The first may be called the story of the +Christmas truce and the German captain. In the lull which fell on the +fighting at the time of the first Christmas of the War, a British +officer was disquieted to notice that his men were fraternizing with the +Germans, who were standing about with them in No-man's land, laughing +and talking. He went out to them at once, to bring them back to their +own trenches. When he came up to his men, he met a German captain who +had arrived on the same errand. The two officers, British and German, +fell into talk, and while they were standing together, in not unfriendly +fashion, one of the men took a snapshot photograph of them, copies of +which were afterwards circulated in the trenches. Then the men were +recalled to their duty, on the one side and the other, and, after an +interval of some days, the war began again. A little time after this the +British officer was in charge of a patrol, and, having lost his way, +found himself in the German trenches, where he and his men were +surrounded and captured. As they were being marched off along the +trenches, they met the German captain, who ordered the men to be taken +to the rear, and then, addressing the officer without any sign of +recognition, said in a loud voice, 'You, follow me!' He led him by +complicated ways along a whole series of trenches and up a sap, at the +end of which he stopped, saluted, and, pointing with his hand, said +'Your trenches are there. Good day.' + +My second story, the story of the British lieutenant in No-man's land, +is briefer. I was with a friend of mine, a young officer back from the +front, wounded, and the conduct of German officers was being discussed. +He said, 'You can't expect me to be very hard on German officers, for +one of them saved my life'. He then told how he and a companion crept +out into No-man's land to bring in some of our wounded who were lying +there. When they had reached the wounded, and were preparing to bring +them in, they were discovered by the Germans opposite, who at once +whipped up a machine-gun and turned it on them. Their lives were not +worth half a minute's purchase, when suddenly a German officer leapt up +on to the parapet, and, angrily waving back the machine-gunners, called +out, in English, 'That's all right. You may take them in.' + +These are no doubt exceptional cases; the rule is very different. But a +good many of such cases are known to soldiers, and I have seen none of +them in the press. Soldiers are silent by law, and journalists either do +not hear these things, or, believing that hate is a valuable asset, +suppress all mention of them. If England could ever be disgraced by a +mishap, she would be disgraced by having given birth to those +Englishmen, few and wretched, who, when an enemy behaves generously, +conceal or deny the fact. And consider the effect of this silence on the +Germans. There are some German officers, as I said, who are better than +the German military handbooks, and better than their monstrous chiefs. +Which of them will pay the smallest attention to what our papers say +when he finds that they collect only atrocities, and are blind to +humanity if they see it in an enemy? He will regard our press accounts +of the German army as the work of malicious cripples; and our perfectly +true narrative of the unspeakable brutality and filthiness of the German +army's doings will lose credit with him. + +If I had my way, I would staff the newspaper offices, as far as +possible, with wounded soldiers, and I would give some of the present +staff a holiday as stretcher-bearers. Then we should hear more of the +truth. + +Is it feared that we should have no heart for the War if once we are +convinced that among the Germans there are some human beings? Is it +believed that our people can be heroic on one condition only, that they +shall be asked to fight no one but orangoutangs? Our airmen fight as +well as any one, in this world or above it, has ever fought; and we owe +them a great debt of thanks for maintaining, and, by their example, +actually teaching the Germans to maintain, a high standard of decency. + +This War has shown, what we might have gathered from our history, that +we fight best up hill. From our history also we may learn that it does +not relax our sinews to be told that our enemy has some good qualities. +We should like him better as an enemy if he had more. We know what we +have believed; and we are not going to fail in resolve or perseverance +because we find that our task is difficult, and that we have not a +monopoly of all the virtues. + +Most of us will not live to see it, for our recovery from this disease +will be long and troublesome, but the War will do great things for us. +It will make a reality of the British Commonwealth, which until now has +been only an aspiration and a dream. It will lay the sure foundation of +a League of Nations in the affection and understanding which it has +promoted among all English-speaking peoples, and in the relations of +mutual respect and mutual service which it has established between the +English-speaking peoples and the Latin races. Our united Rolls of Honour +make the most magnificent list of benefactors that the world has ever +seen. In the end, the War may perhaps even save the soul of the main +criminal, awaken him from his bloody dream, and lead him back by degrees +to the possibility of innocence and goodwill. + + + + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + +_Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy, delivered July 4, +1918_ + + +There is nothing new and important to be said of Shakespeare. In recent +years antiquaries have made some additions to our knowledge of the facts +of his life. These additions are all tantalizing and comparatively +insignificant. The history of the publication of his works has also +become clearer and more intelligible, especially by the labours of Mr. +Pollard; but the whole question of quartos and folios remains thorny and +difficult, so that no one can reach any definite conclusion in this +matter without a liberal use of conjecture. + +I propose to return to the old catholic doctrine which has been +illuminated by so many disciples of Shakespeare, and to speak of him as +our great national poet. He embodies and exemplifies all the virtues, +and most of the faults, of England. Any one who reads and understands +him understands England. This method of studying Shakespeare by reading +him has perhaps gone somewhat out of vogue in favour of more roundabout +ways of approach, but it is the best method for all that. Shakespeare +tells us more about himself and his mind than we could learn even from +those who knew him in his habit as he lived, if they were all alive and +all talking. To learn what he tells we have only to listen. + +I think there is no national poet, of any great nation whatsoever, who +is so completely representative of his own people as Shakespeare is +representative of the English. There is certainly no other English poet +who comes near to Shakespeare in embodying our character and our +foibles. No one, in this connexion, would venture even to mention +Spenser or Milton. Chaucer is English, but he lived at a time when +England was not yet completely English, so that he is only +half-conscious of his nation. Wordsworth is English, but he was a +recluse. Browning is English, but he lived apart or abroad, and was a +tourist of genius. The most English of all our great men of letters, +next to Shakespeare, is certainly Dr. Johnson, but he was no great poet. +Shakespeare, it may be suspected, is too poetic to be a perfect +Englishman; but his works refute that suspicion. He is the Englishman +endowed, by a fortunate chance, with matchless powers of expression. He +is not silent or dull; but he understands silent men, and he enters into +the minds of dull men. Moreover, the Englishman seems duller than he is. +It is a point of pride with him not to be witty and not to give voice to +his feelings. The shepherd Corin, who was never in court, has the true +philosophy. 'He that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain +of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred.' + +Shakespeare knew nothing of the British Empire. He was an islander, and +his patriotism was centred on + + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive to a house, + Against the envy of less happier lands. + +When he speaks of Britons and British he always means the Celtic +peoples of the island. Once only he makes a slip. There is a passage in +_King Lear_ (IV. vi. 249) where the followers of the King, who in the +text of the quarto versions are correctly called 'the British party', +appear in the folio version as 'the English party'. Perhaps the quartos +contain Shakespeare's own correction of his own inadvertence; but those +of us, and we are many, who have been blamed by northern patriots for +the misuse of the word English may claim Shakespeare as a brother in +misfortune. + +Our critics, at home and abroad, accuse us of arrogance. I doubt if we +can prove them wrong; but they do not always understand the nature of +English arrogance. It does not commonly take the form of self-assertion. +Shakespeare's casual allusions to our national characteristics are +almost all of a kind; they are humorous and depreciatory. Here are some +of them. Every holiday fool in England, we learn from Trinculo in _The +Tempest_, would give a piece of silver to see a strange fish, though no +one will give a doit to relieve a lame beggar. The English are +quarrelsome, Master Slender testifies, at the game of bear-baiting. They +are great drinkers, says Iago, 'most potent in potting; your Dane, your +German, and your swag-bellied Hollander are nothing to your English'. +They are epicures, says Macbeth. They will eat like wolves and fight +like devils, says the Constable of France. An English nobleman, +according to the Lady of Belmont, can speak no language but his own. An +English tailor, according to the porter of Macbeth's castle, will steal +cloth where there is hardly any cloth to be stolen, out of a French +hose. The devil, says the clown in _All's Well_, has an English name; he +is called the Black Prince. + +Nothing has been changed in this vein of humorous banter since +Shakespeare died. One of the best pieces of Shakespeare criticism ever +written is contained in four words of the present Poet Laureate's Ode +for the Tercentenary of Shakespeare, 'London's laughter is thine'. The +wit of our trenches in this war, especially perhaps among the Cockney +and South country regiments, is pure Shakespeare. Falstaff would find +himself at home there, and would recognize a brother in Old Bill. + +The best known of Shakespeare's allusions to England are no doubt those +splendid outbursts of patriotism which occur in _King John_, and +_Richard II,_ and _Henry V_. And of these the dying speech of John of +Gaunt, in _Richard II_, is the deepest in feeling. It is a lament upon +the decay of England, 'this dear, dear land'. Since we began to be a +nation we have always lamented our decay. I am afraid that the Germans, +whose self-esteem takes another form, were deceived by this. To the +right English temper all bragging is a thing of evil omen. That temper +is well expressed, where perhaps you would least expect to find it, in +the speech of King Henry V to the French herald: + + To say the sooth,-- + Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much + Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,-- + My people are with sickness much enfeebled, + My numbers lessened, and those few I have + Almost no better than so many French; + Who, when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, + I thought upon one pair of English legs + Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, + That I do brag thus! This your air of France + Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. + Go therefore, tell thy master here I am: + My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; + My army but a weak and sickly guard; + Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, + Though France himself and such another neighbour + Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. + Go bid thy master well advise himself: + If we may pass, we will; if we be hindered, + We shall your tawny ground with your red blood + Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well. + The sum of all our answer is but this: + We would not seek a battle as we are; + Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it; + So tell your master. + +That speech might have been written for the war which we are waging +to-day against a less honourable enemy. But, indeed, Shakespeare is full +of prophecy. Here is his description of the volunteers who flocked to +the colours in the early days of the war: + + Rash inconsiderate fiery voluntaries, + With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens, + Have sold their fortunes at their native homes, + Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, + To make a hazard of new fortunes here. + In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits + Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er + Did never float upon the swelling tide. + +And here is his sermon on national unity, preached by the Bishop of +Carlisle: + + O, if you rear this house against this house, + It will the woefullest division prove + That ever fell upon this cursed earth. + Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, + Lest child, child's children, cry against you 'Woe!' + +The patriotism of the women is described by the Bastard in _King John_: + + Your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids + Like Amazons come tripping after drums: + Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, + Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts + To fierce and bloody inclination. + +Lastly, Queen Isabella's blessing, spoken over King Henry V and his +French bride, predicts an enduring friendship between England and +France: + + As man and wife, being two, are one in love, + So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, + That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, + Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, + Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, + To make divorce of their incorporate league; + That English may as French, French Englishmen, + Receive each other! God speak this Amen! + +One of the delights of a literature as rich and as old as ours is that +at every step we take backwards we find ourselves again. We are +delivered from that foolish vein of thought, so dear to ignorant +conceit, which degrades the past in order to exalt the present and the +future. It is easy to feel ourselves superior to men who no longer +breathe and walk, and whom we do not trouble to understand. Here is the +real benefit of scholarship; it reduces men to kinship with their race. +Science, pressing forward, and beating against the bars which guard the +secrets of the future, has no such sympathy in its gift. + +Anyhow, in Shakespeare's time, England was already old England; which if +she could ever cease to be, she might be Jerusalem, or Paradise, but +would not be England at all. What Shakespeare and his fellows of the +sixteenth century gave her was a new self-consciousness and a new +self-confidence. They foraged in the past; they recognized themselves in +their ancestors; they found feudal England, which had existed for many +hundreds of years, a dumb thing; and when she did not know her own +meaning, they endowed her purposes with words. They gave her a new +delight in herself, a new sense of power and exhilaration, which has +remained with her to this day, surviving all the airy philosophic +theories of humanity which thought to supersede the old solid national +temper. The English national temper is better fitted for traffic with +the world than any mere doctrine can ever be, for it is marked by an +immense tolerance. And this, too, Shakespeare has expressed. Falstaff is +perhaps the most tolerant man who was ever made in God's image. But it +is rather late in the day to introduce Falstaff to an English audience. +Perhaps you will let me modernize a brief scene from Shakespeare, +altering nothing essential, to illustrate how completely his spirit is +the spirit of our troops in Flanders and France. + +A small British expeditionary force, bound on an international mission, +finds itself stranded in an unknown country. The force is composed of +men very various in rank and profession. Two of them, whom we may call +a non-commissioned officer and a private, go exploring by themselves, +and take one of the natives of the place prisoner. This native is an +ugly low-born creature, of great physical strength and violent criminal +tendencies, a liar, and ready at any time for theft, rape, and murder. +He is a child of Nature, a lover of music, slavish in his devotion to +power and rank, and very easily imposed upon by authority. His captors +do not fear him, and, which is more, they do not dislike him. They found +him lying out in a kind of no-man's land, drenched to the skin, so they +determine to keep him as a souvenir, and to take him home with them. +They nickname him, in friendly fashion, the monster, and the mooncalf, +as who should say Fritz, or the Boche. But their first care is to give +him a drink, and to make him swear allegiance upon the bottle. 'Where +the devil should he learn our language?' says the non-commissioned +officer, when the monster speaks. 'I will give him some relief, if it be +but for that.' The prisoner then offers to kiss the foot of his captor. +'I shall laugh myself to death', says the private, 'at this puppy-headed +monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him, +but that the poor monster's in drink.' When the private continues to +rail at the monster, his officer calls him to order. 'Trinculo, keep a +good tongue in your head: if you prove a mutineer, the next tree------ +The poor monster's my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.' + +In this scene from _The Tempest_, everything is English except the +names. The incident has been repeated many times in the last four years. +'This is Bill,' one private said, introducing a German soldier to his +company. 'He's my prisoner. I wounded him, and I took him, and where I +go he goes. Come on, Bill, old man.' The Germans have known many +failures since they began the War, but one failure is more tragic than +all the rest. They love to be impressive, to produce a panic of +apprehension and a thrill of reverence in their enemy; and they have +completely failed to impress the ordinary British private. He remains +incurably humorous, and so little moved to passion that his daily +offices of kindness are hardly interrupted. + +Shakespeare's tolerance, which is no greater than the tolerance of the +common English soldier, may be well seen in his treatment of his +villains. Is a liar, or a thief, merely a bad man? Shakespeare does not +much encourage you to think so. Is a murderer a bad man? He would be an +undiscerning critic who should accept that phrase as a true and adequate +description of Macbeth. Shakespeare does not dislike liars, thieves, and +murderers as such, and he does not pretend to dislike them. He has his +own dislikes. I once asked a friend of mine, long since dead, who +refused to condemn almost anything, whether there were any vices that he +could not find it in his heart to tolerate. He replied at once that +there were two--cruelty, and bilking; which, if the word is not +academic, I may paraphrase as cheating the helpless, swindling a child +out of its pennies, or leaving a house by the back door in order to +avoid paying your cabman his lawful fare. These exclusions from mercy +Shakespeare would accept; and I think he would add a third. His worst +villains are all theorists, who cheat and murder by the book of +arithmetic. They are men of principle, and are ready to expound their +principle and to defend it in argument. They follow it, without remorse +or mitigation, wherever it leads them. It is Iago's logic that makes him +so terrible; his mind is as cold as a snake and as hard as a surgeon's +knife. The Italian Renaissance did produce some such men; the modern +German imitation is a grosser and feebler thing, brutality trying to +emulate the glitter and flourish of refined cruelty. + +With his wonderful quickness of intuition and his unsurpassed subtlety +of expression Shakespeare drew the characters of the Englishmen that he +saw around him. Why is it that he has given us no full-length portrait, +carefully drawn, of a hypocrite? It can hardly have been for lack of +models. Outside England, not only among our enemies, but among our +friends and allies, it is agreed that hypocrisy is our national vice, +our ruling passion. There must be some meaning in so widely held an +opinion; and, on our side, there are damaging admissions by many +witnesses. The portrait gallery of Charles Dickens is crowded with +hypocrites. Some of them are greasy and servile, like Mr. Pumblechook or +Uriah Heep; others rise to poetic heights of daring, like Mr. Chadband +or Mr. Squeers. But Shakespeare's hypocrites enjoy themselves too much; +they are artists to the finger-tips. It may be said, no doubt, that +Shakespeare lived before organized religious dissent had developed a new +type of character among the weaker brethren. But the Low Church +Protestant, whom Shakespeare certainly knew, is not very different from +the evangelical dissenter of later days; and he did not interest +Shakespeare. + +My own impression is that Shakespeare had a free and happy childhood, +and grew up without much check from his elders. It is the child who sees +hypocrites. These preposterous grown-up people, who, if they are +well-mannered, do not seem to enjoy their food, who are fussy about +meaningless employments, and never give way to natural impulses, must +surely assume this veil of decorum with intent to deceive. Charles +Dickens was hard driven in his childhood, and the impressions that were +then burnt into him governed all his seeing. The creative spirit in him +transformed his sufferings into delight; but he never outgrew them; and, +when he died, the eyes of a child were closed upon a scene touched, it +is true, here and there with rapturous pleasure, rich in oddity, and +trembling with pathos, but, in the main, as bleak and unsatisfying as +the wards of a workhouse. The intense emotions of his childhood made the +usual fervours of adolescence a faint thing in the comparison, and if +you want to know how lovers think and feel you do not go to Dickens to +tell you. You go to Shakespeare, who put his childhood behind him, so +that he almost forgot it, and ran forward to seize life with both hands. +He sometimes looked back on children, and saw them through the eyes of +their elders. Dickens saw men and women as they appear to children. + +This comparison suggests a certain lack of sympathy or lack of +understanding in those who are quick to see hypocrisy in others. In +Dickens lack of sympathy was a fair revenge; moreover, his hypocrites +amused him so much that he did not wish to understand them. What a loss +it would have been to the world if he had explained them away! But it is +difficult, I think, to see a hypocrite in a man whose intimacy you have +cultivated, whose mind you have entered into, as Shakespeare entered +into the mind of his creatures. Hypocrisy, in its ordinary forms, is a +superficial thing--a skin disease, not a cancer. It is not easy, at +best, to bring the outward and inward relations of the soul into perfect +harmony; a hypocrite is one who too readily consents to their +separation. The English, for I am ready now to return to my point, are a +people of a divided mind, slow to drive anything through on principle, +very ready to find reason in compromise. They are passionate, and they +are idealists, but they are also a practical people, and they dare not +give the rein to a passion or an idea. They know that in this world an +unmitigated principle simply will not work; that a clean cut will never +take you through the maze. So they restrain themselves, and listen, and +seem patient. They are not so patient as they seem; they must be +hypocrites! A cruder, simpler people like the Germans feel indignation, +not unmixed perhaps with envy, when they hear the quiet voice and see +the white lips of the thoroughbred Englishman who is angry. It is not +manly or honest, they think, to be angry without getting red in the +face. They certainly feel pride in their own honesty when they give +explosive vent to their emotions. They have not learned the elements of +self-distrust. The Englishman is seldom quite content to be himself; +often his thoughts are troubled by something better. He suffers from the +divided mind; and earns the reputation of a hypocrite. But the simpler +nature that indulges itself and believes in itself has an even heavier +penalty to pay. If, in the name of honesty, you cease to distinguish +between what you are and what you would wish to be, between how you act +and how you would like to act, you are in some danger of reeling back +into the beast. It is true that man is an animal; and before long you +feel a glow of conscious virtue in proclaiming and illustrating that +truth. You scorn the hypocrisy of pretending to be better than you are, +and that very scorn fixes you in what you are. 'He that is unjust, let +him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.' +That is the epitaph on German honesty. I have drifted away from +Shakespeare, who knew nothing of the sea of troubles that England would +one day take arms against, and who could not know that on that day she +would outgo his most splendid praise and more than vindicate his +reverence and his affection. But Shakespeare is still so live a mind +that it is vain to try to expound him by selected texts, or to pin him +to a mosaic of quotations from his book. Often, if you seek to know what +he thought on questions which must have exercised his imagination, you +can gather it only from a hint dropped by accident, and quite +irrelevant. What were his views on literature, and on the literary +controversies which have been agitated from his day to our own? He tells +us very little. He must have heard discussions and arguments on metre, +on classical precedent, on the ancient and modern drama; but he makes no +mention of these questions. He does not seem to have attached any +prophetic importance to poetry. The poets who exalt their craft are of a +more slender build. Is it conceivable that he would have given his +support to a literary academy,--a project which began to find advocates +during his lifetime? I think not. It is true that he is full of good +sense, and that an academy exists to promulgate good sense. Moreover his +own free experiments brought him nearer and nearer into conformity with +classical models. _Othello_ and _Macbeth_ are better constructed plays +than _Hamlet_. The only one of his plays which, whether by chance or by +design, observes the so-called unities, of action and time and place, is +one of his latest plays--_The Tempest_. But he was an Englishman, and +would have been jealous of his freedom and independence. When the +grave-digger remarks that it is no great matter if Hamlet do not recover +his wits in England, because there the men are as mad as he, the satire +has a sympathetic ring in it. Shakespeare did not wish to see the mad +English altered. Nor are they likely to alter; our fears and our hopes +are vain. We entered on the greatest of our wars with an army no bigger, +so we are told, than the Bulgarian army. Since that time we have +regimented and organized our people, not without success; and our +soothsayers are now directing our attention to the danger that after the +war we shall be kept in uniform and shall become tame creatures, losing +our independence and our spirit of enterprise. There is nothing that +soothsayers will not predict when they are gravelled for lack of matter, +but this is the stupidest of all their efforts. The national character +is not so flimsy a thing; it has gone through good and evil fortune for +hundreds of years without turning a hair. You can make a soldier, and a +good soldier, of a humorist; but you cannot militarize him. He remains a +free thinker. + +New institutions do not flourish in England. The town is a comparatively +modern innovation; it has never, so to say, caught on. Most schemes of +town-planning are schemes for pretending that you live in the country. +This is one of the most persistent of our many hypocrisies. Wherever +working people inhabit a street of continuous red-brick cottages, the +names that they give to their homes are one long catalogue of romantic +lies. The houses have no gardens, and the only prospect that they +command is the view of over the way. But read their names--The Dingle, +The Elms, Pine Grove, Windermere, The Nook, The Nest. Even social +pretence, which is said to be one of our weaknesses, and which may be +read in such names as Belvoir or Apsley House, is less in evidence than +the Englishman's passion for the country. He cannot bear to think that +he lives in a town. He does not much respect the institutions of a town. +A policeman, before he has been long in the force, has to face the fact +that he is generally regarded as a comic character. The police are +Englishmen and good fellows, and they accept a situation which would +rouse any continental gendarme to heroic indignation. Mayors, Aldermen, +and Justices of the Peace are comic, and take it not quite so well. +Beadles were so wholly dedicated to the purposes of comedy that I +suppose they found their position unendurable and went to earth; at any +rate it is very difficult to catch one in his official costume. + +All this is reflected in Shakespeare. He knew the country, and he knew +the town; and he has not left it in doubt which was the cherished home +of his imagination. He preferred the fields to the streets, but the +Arcadia of his choice is not agricultural or even pastoral; it is rather +a desert island, or the uninhabited stretches of wild and woodland +country. Indeed, he has both described it and named it. 'Where will the +old Duke live?' says Oliver in _As You Like It_. 'They say he is already +in the forest of Arden,' says Charles the wrestler, 'and a many merry +men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. +They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time +carelessly, as they did in the golden world.' That is Shakespeare's +Arcadia; and who that has read _As You Like It_ will deny that it +breathes the air of Paradise? + +It is quite plain that the freedom that Shakespeare valued was in fact +freedom, not any of those ingenious mechanisms to which that name has +been applied by political theorists. He thought long and profoundly on +the problems of society; and anarchy has no place among his political +ideals. It is by all means to be avoided--at a cost. But what harm would +anarchy do if it meant no more than freedom for all the impulses of the +enlightened imagination and the tender heart? The ideals of his heart +were not political; and when he indulges himself, as he did in his +latest plays, you must look for him in the wilds; whether on the road +near the shepherd's cottage, or in the cave among the mountains of +Wales, or on the seashore in the Bermudas. The laws that are imposed +upon the intricate relations of men in society were a weariness to him; +and in this he is thoroughly English. The Englishman has always been an +objector, and he has a right to object, though it may very well be held +that he is too fond of larding his objection with the plea of +conscience. But even this has a meaning in our annals; as a mere +question of right we are very slow to prefer the claim of the organized +opinions of society to the claim of the individual conscience. We know +that there is no good in a man who is doing what he does not will to do. +We are not like our poets or our men of action to be void of +inspiration. A gift is nothing if there is no benevolence in the giver: + + For to the noble mind + Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. + +We ask for the impulse as well as the deed. Even when he is speaking of +social obligations Shakespeare makes his strongest appeal not to force +or command, but to the natural piety of the heart: + + If ever you have looked on better days, + If ever been where bells have knolled to church, + If ever sat at any good man's feast, + If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear, + And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied, + Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: + In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword. + +So speaks Orlando when the Duke has met his threats with fair words; +and he adds an apology: + + Pardon me, I pray you; + I thought that all things had been savage here, + And therefore put I on the countenance + Of stern commandment. + +The ultimate law between man and man, according to Shakespeare, is the +law of pity. I suppose that most of us have had our ears so dulled by +early familiarity with Portia's famous speech, which we probably knew by +heart long before we were fit to understand it, that the heavenly +quality of it, equal to almost anything in the New Testament, is +obscured and lost. There is no remedy but to read it again; to remember +that it was conceived in passion; and to notice how the meaning is +raised and perfected as line follows line: + + _Portia_. Then must the Jew be merciful. + + _Shylock_. On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. + + _Portia_. The quality of mercy is not strained. + It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven + Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd; + It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: + 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes + The throned monarch better than his crown. + His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, + The attribute to awe and majesty, + Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; + But mercy is above this sceptred sway, + It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, + It is an attribute to God himself, + And earthly power doth then show likest God's + When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, + Though justice be thy plea, consider this, + That in the course of justice none of us + Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, + And that same prayer doth teach us all to render + The deeds of mercy. + +That speech rises above the strife of nations; it belongs to humanity. +But an Englishman wrote it; and the author, we may be sure, if he ever +met with the doctrine that a man who is called on to help his own people +is in duty bound to set aside the claims of humanity, and to stop his +ears to the call of mercy, knew that the doctrine is an invention of the +devil, stupid and angry, as the devil commonly is. There are hundreds of +thousands of Englishmen who, though they could not have written the +speech, yet know all that it teaches, and act on the knowledge. It is +part of the creed of the Navy. We can speak more confidently than we +could have spoken three or four years ago. We know that not the +extremest pressure of circumstance could ever bring the people of +England to forget all the natural pieties, to permit official duties to +annul private charities, and to join in the frenzied dance of hate and +lust which leads to the mouth of the pit. + +Yet Germany, where all this seems to have happened, was not very long +ago a country where it was easy to find humanity, and simplicity, and +kindness. It was a country of quiet industry and content, the home of +fairy stories, which Shakespeare himself would have loved. The Germans +of our day have made a religion of war and terror, and have used +commerce as a means for the treacherous destruction of the independence +and freedom of others. They were not always like that. In the fifteenth +century they spread the art of printing through Europe, for the service +of man, by the method of peaceful penetration. My friend Mr. John +Sampson recently expressed to me a hope that our air-forces would not +bomb Mainz, 'for Mainz', he said, 'is a sacred place to the +bibliographer'. According to a statement published in Cologne in 1499, +'the highly valuable art of printing was invented first of all in +Germany at Mainz on the Rhine. And it is a great honour to the German +nation that such ingenious men are to be found among them....And in the +year of our Lord 1450 it was a golden year, and they began to print, and +the first book they printed was the Bible in Latin: it was printed in a +large character, resembling the types with which the present mass-books +are printed.' Gutenberg, the printer of this Bible, never mentions his +own name, and the only personal note we have of his, in the colophon of +the _Catholicon_, printed in 1460, is a hymn in praise of his city: +'With the aid of the Most High, who unlooses the tongues of infants and +oft-times reveals to babes that which is hidden from learned men, this +admirable book, the _Catholicon_, was finished in the year of the +incarnation of our Saviour MCCCCLX, in the foster town of Mainz, a town +of the famous German nation, which God in his clemency, by granting to +it this high illumination of the mind, has preferred before the other +nations of the world.' + +There is something not quite unlike modern Germany in that; and yet +these older activities of the Germans make a strange contrast with their +work to-day. It was in the city of Cologne that Caxton first made +acquaintance with his craft. Everywhere the Germans spread printing like +a new religion, adapting it to existing conditions. In Bavaria they used +the skill of the wood-engravers, and at Augsburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg +produced the first illustrated printed books. It was two Germans of the +old school, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, who carried the art to +Italy, casting the first type in Roman characters, and printing editions +of the classics, first in the Benedictine monastery of St. Scholastica +at Subiaco, and later at Rome. They also cast the first Greek type. It +was three Germans, Gering, Kranz, and Freyburger, who first printed at +Paris, in 1470. It was a German who set up the first printing-press in +Spain, in 1474. The Germans were once the cherishers, as now they are +the destroyers, of the inheritance of civilization. I do not pretend to +explain the change. Perhaps it is a tragedy of education. That is a +dangerous moment in the life of a child when he begins to be uneasily +aware that he is valued for his simplicity and innocence. Then he +resolves to break with the past, to put away childish things, to forgo +affection, and to earn respect by imitating the activities of his +elders. The strange power of words and the virtues of abstract thought +begin to fascinate him. He loses touch with the things of sense, and +ceases to speak as a child. If his first attempts at argument and dogma +win him praise and esteem, if he proves himself a better fighter than an +older boy next door, who has often bullied him, and if at the same time +he comes into money, he is on the road to ruin. His very simplicity is a +snare to him. 'What a fool I was', he thinks, 'to let myself be put +upon; I now see that I am a great philosopher and a splendid soldier, +born to subdue others rather than to agree with them, and entitled to a +chief share in all the luxuries of the world. It is for me to say what +is good and true, and if any of these people contradict me I shall knock +them down.' He suits his behaviour to his new conception of himself, and +is soon hated by all the neighbours. Then he turns bitter. These people, +he thinks, are all in a plot against him. They must be blind to goodness +and beauty, or why do they dislike him! His rage reaches the point of +madness; he stabs and poisons the villagers, and burns down their +houses. We are still waiting to see what will become of him. + +This outbreak has been long preparing. Seventy years before the War the +German poet Freiligrath wrote a poem to prove that Germany is Hamlet, +urged by the spirit of her fathers to claim her inheritance, vacillating +and lost in thought, but destined, before the Fifth Act ends, to strew +the stage with the corpses of her enemies. Only a German could have hit +on the idea that Germany is Hamlet. The English, for whom the play was +written, know that Hamlet is Hamlet, and that Shakespeare was thinking +of a young man, not of the pomposities of national ambition. But if +these clumsy allegories must be imposed upon great poets, Germany need +not go abroad to seek the likeness of her destiny. Germany is Faust; she +desired science and power and pleasure, and to get them on a short lease +she paid the price of her soul. + +For the present, at any rate, the best thing the Germans can do with +Shakespeare is to leave him alone. They have divorced themselves from +their own great poets, to follow vulgar half-witted political prophets. +As for Shakespeare, they have studied him assiduously, with the complete +apparatus of criticism, for a hundred years, and they do not understand +the plainest words of all his teaching. + +In England he has always been understood; and it is only fair, to him +and to ourselves, to add that he has never been regarded first and +foremost as a national poet. His humanity is too calm and broad to +suffer the prejudices and exclusions of international enmities. The +sovereignty that he holds has been allowed to him by men of all parties. +The schools of literature have, from the very first, united in his +praise. Ben Jonson, who knew him and loved him, was a classical scholar, +and disapproved of some of his romantic escapades, yet no one will ever +outgo Ben Jonson's praise of Shakespeare. + + Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, + To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe. + He was not-of an ago, but for all time! + +The sects of religion forget their disputes and recognize the spirit of +religion in this profane author. He cannot be identified with any +institution. According to the old saying, he gave up the Church and took +to religion. Ho gave up the State, and took to humanity. The formularies +and breviaries to which political and religious philosophers profess +their allegiance were nothing to him. These formularies are a convenient +shorthand, to save the trouble of thinking. But Shakespeare always +thought. Every question that he treats is brought out of the realm of +abstraction, and exhibited in its relation to daily life and the minds +and hearts of men. He could never have been satisfied with such a smug +phrase as 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. His mind +would have been eager for details. In what do the greatest number find +their happiness? How far is the happiness of one consistent with the +happiness of another? What difficulties and miscarriages attend the +business of transmuting the recognized materials for happiness into +living human joy? Even these questions he would not have been content to +handle in high philosophic fashion; he would have insisted on instances, +and would have subscribed to no code that is not carefully built out of +case-law. He knew that sanity is in the life of the senses; and that if +there are some philosophers who are not mad it is because they live a +double life, and have consolations and resources of which their books +tell you nothing. It is the part of their life which they do not think +it worth their while to mention that would have interested Shakespeare. +He loves to reduce things to their elements. 'Is man no more than this?' +says the old king on the heath, as he gazes on the naked madman. +'Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the +sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are +sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more +but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you +lendings!' That is how Shakespeare lays the mind of man bare, and strips +him of his pretences, to try if he be indeed noble. And he finds that +man, naked and weak, hunted by misfortune, liable to all the sins and +all the evils that follow frailty, still has faith left to him, and +charity. King Lear is still every inch a king. + +That is not a little discovery, for when his mind came to grips with +human life Shakespeare did not deal in rhetoric; so that the good he +finds is real good--''tis in grain; 'twill endure wind and weather'. +Nothing is easier than to make a party of humanity, and to exalt mankind +by ignorantly vilifying the rest of the animal creation, which is full +of strange virtues and abilities. Shakespeare refused that way; he saw +man weak and wretched, not able to maintain himself except as a +pensioner on the bounty of the world, curiously ignorant of his nature +and his destiny, yet endowed with certain gifts in which he can find +sustenance and rest, brave by instinct, so that courage is not so much +his virtue as cowardice is his lamentable and exceptional fault, ready +to forget his pains or to turn them into pleasures by the alchemy of his +mind, quick to believe, and slow to suspect or distrust, generous and +tender to others, in so far as his thought and imagination, which are +the weakest things about him, enable him to bridge the spaces that +separate man from man, willing to make of life a great thing while he +has it, and a little thing when he comes to lose it. These are some of +his gifts; and Shakespeare would not have denied the saying of a thinker +with whom he has no very strong or natural affinity, that 'the greatest +of these is charity'. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of England and the War, by Walter Raleigh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND AND THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 10159-8.txt or 10159-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/5/10159/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: England and the War + +Author: Walter Raleigh + +Release Date: November 20, 2003 [EBook #10159] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND AND THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +ENGLAND AND THE WAR + +being + +SUNDRY ADDRESSES + +delivered during the war +and now first collected + +by + +WALTER RALEIGH + +OXFORD + +1918 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, + October 1914. + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + December 12, 1916. + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + An Address to the Union Society of University + College, London, March 22, 1917. + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, + February 13, 1918. + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + A Paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, + March 14, 1918. + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + The Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British + Academy, delivered July 4, 1918. + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book was not planned, but grew out of the troubles of the time. +When, on one occasion or another, I was invited to lecture, I did not +find, with Milton's Satan, that the mind is its own place; I could speak +only of what I was thinking of, and my mind was fixed on the War. I am +unacquainted with military science, so my treatment of the War was +limited to an estimate of the characters of the antagonists. + +The character of Germany and the Germans is a riddle. I have seen no +convincing solution of it by any Englishman, and hardly any confident +attempt at a solution which did not speak the uncontrolled language of +passion. There is the same difficulty with the lower animals; our +description of them tends to be a description of nothing but our own +loves and hates. Who has ever fathomed the mind of a rhinoceros; or has +remembered, while he faces the beast, that a good rhinoceros is a +pleasant member of the community in which his life is passed? We see +only the folded hide, the horn, and the angry little eye. We know that +he is strong and cunning, and that his desires and instincts are +inconsistent with our welfare. Yet a rhinoceros is a simpler creature +than a German, and does not trouble our thought by conforming, on +occasion, to civilized standards and humane conditions. + +It seems unreasonable to lay great stress on racial differences. The +insuperable barrier that divides England from Germany has grown out of +circumstance and habit and thought. For many hundreds of years the +German peoples have stood to arms in their own defence against the +encroachments of successive empires; and modern Germany learned the +doctrine of the omnipotence of force by prolonged suffering at the hands +of the greatest master of that immoral school--the Emperor Napoleon. No +German can understand the attitude of disinterested patronage which the +English mind quite naturally assumes when it is brought into contact +with foreigners. The best example of this superiority of attitude is to +be seen in the people who are called pacifists. They are a peculiarly +English type, and they are the most arrogant of all the English. The +idea that they should ever have to fight for their lives is to them +supremely absurd. There must be some mistake, they think, which can be +easily remedied once it is pointed out. Their title to existence is so +clear to themselves that they are convinced it will be universally +recognized; it must not be made a matter of international conflict. +Partly, no doubt, this belief is fostered by lack of imagination. The +sheltered conditions and leisured life which they enjoy as the parasites +of a dominant race have produced in them a false sense of security. But +there is something also of the English strength and obstinacy of +character in their self-confidence, and if ever Germany were to conquer +England some of them would spring to their full stature as the heroes of +an age-long and indomitable resistance. They are not held in much esteem +to-day among their own people; they are useless for the work in hand; +and their credit has suffered from the multitude of pretenders who make +principle a cover for cowardice. But for all that, they are kin to the +makers of England, and the fact that Germany would never tolerate them +for an instant is not without its lesson. + +We shall never understand the Germans. Some of their traits may possibly +be explained by their history. Their passionate devotion to the State, +their amazing vulgarity, their worship of mechanism and mechanical +efficiency, are explicable in a people who are not strong in individual +character, who have suffered much to achieve union, and who have +achieved it by subordinating themselves, soul and body, to a brutal +taskmaster. But the convulsions of war have thrown up things that are +deeper than these, primaeval things, which, until recently, civilization +was believed to have destroyed. The old monstrous gods who gave their +names to the days of the week are alive again in Germany. The English +soldier of to-day goes into action with the cold courage of a man who is +prepared to make the best of a bad job. The German soldier sacrifices +himself, in a frenzy of religious exaltation, to the War-God. The +filthiness that the Germans use, their deliberate befouling of all that +is elegant and gracious and antique, their spitting into the food that +is to be eaten by their prisoners, their defiling with ordure the sacred +vessels in the churches--all these things, too numerous and too +monotonous to describe, are not the instinctive coarsenesses of the +brute beast; they are a solemn ritual of filth, religiously practised, +by officers no less than by men. The waves of emotional exaltation which +from time to time pass over the whole people have the same character, +the character of savage religion. + +If they are alien to civilization when they fight, they are doubly alien +when they reason. They are glib and fluent in the use of the terms which +have been devised for the needs of thought and argument, but their use +of these terms is empty, and exhibits all the intellectual processes +with the intelligence left out. I know nothing more distressing than the +attempt to follow any German argument concerning the War. If it were +merely wrong-headed, cunning, deceitful, there might still be some +compensation in its cleverness. There is no such compensation. The +statements made are not false, but empty; the arguments used are not +bad, but meaningless. It is as if they despised language, and made use +of it only because they believe that it is an instrument of deceit. But +a man who has no respect for language cannot possibly use it in such a +manner as to deceive others, especially if those others are accustomed +to handle it delicately and powerfully. It ought surely to be easy to +apologize for a war that commands the whole-hearted support of a nation; +but no apology worthy of the name has been produced in Germany. The +pleadings which have been used are servile things, written to order, and +directed to some particular address, as if the truth were of no +importance. No one of these appeals has produced any appreciable effect +on the minds of educated Frenchmen, or Englishmen, or Americans, even +among those who are eager to hear all that the enemy has to say for +himself. This is a strange thing; and is perhaps the widest breach of +all. We are hopelessly separated from the Germans; we have lost the use +of a common language, and cannot talk with them if we would. + +We cannot understand them; is it remotely possible that they will ever +understand us? Here, too, the difficulties seem insuperable. It is true +that in the past they have shown themselves willing to study us and to +imitate us. But unless they change their minds and their habits, it is +not easy to see how they are to get near enough to us to carry on their +study. While they remain what they are we do not want them in our +neighbourhood. We are not fighting to anglicize Germany, or to impose +ourselves on the Germans; our work is being done, as work is so often +done in this idle sport-loving country, with a view to a holiday. We +wish to forget the Germans; and when once we have policed them into +quiet and decency we shall have earned the right to forget them, at +least for a time. The time of our respite perhaps will not be long. If +the Allies defeat them, as the Allies will, it seems as certain as any +uncertain thing can be that a mania for imitating British and American +civilization will take possession of Germany. We are not vindictive to a +beaten enemy, and when the Germans offer themselves as pupils we are not +likely to be either enthusiastic in our welcome or obstinate in our +refusal. We shall be bored but concessive. I confess that there are +some things in the prospect of this imitation which haunt me like a +nightmare. The British soldier, whom the German knows to be second to +none, is distinguished for the levity and jocularity of his bearing in +the face of danger. What will happen when the German soldier attempts to +imitate that? We shall be delivered from the German peril as when Israel +came out of Egypt, and the mountains skipped like rams. + +The only parts of this book for which I claim any measure of authority +are the parts which describe the English character. No one of purely +English descent has ever been known to describe the English character, +or to attempt to describe it. The English newspapers are full of praises +of almost any of the allied troops other than the English regiments. I +have more Scottish and Irish blood in my veins than English; and I think +I can see the English character truly, from a little distance. If, by +some fantastic chance, the statesmen of Germany could learn what I tell +them, it would save their country from a vast loss of life and from many +hopeless misadventures. The English character is not a removable part of +the British Empire; it is the foundation of the whole structure, and the +secret strength of the American Republic. But the statesmen of Germany, +who fall easy victims to anything foolish in the shape of a theory that +flatters their vanity, would not believe a word of my essays even if +they were to read them, so they must learn to know the English character +in the usual way, as King George the Third learned to know it from +Englishmen resident in America. + +A habit of lying and a belief in the utility of lying are often +attended by the most unhappy and paralysing effects. The liars become +unable to recognize the truth when it is presented to them. This is the +misery which fate has fixed on the German cause. War, the Germans are +fond of remarking, is war. In almost all wars there is something to be +said on both sides of the question. To know that one side or the other +is right may be difficult; but it is always useful to know why your +enemies are fighting. We know why Germany is fighting; she explained it +very fully, by her most authoritative voices, on the very eve of the +struggle, and she has repeated it many times since in moments of +confidence or inadvertence. But here is the tragedy of Germany: she does +not know why we are fighting. We have told her often enough, but she +does not believe it, and treats our statement as an exercise in the +cunning use of what she calls ethical propaganda. Why ethics, or morals, +should be good enough to inspire sympathy, but not good enough to +inspire war, is one of the mysteries of German thought. No German, not +even any of those few feeble German writers who have fitfully criticized +the German plan, has any conception of the deep, sincere, unselfish, and +righteous anger that was aroused in millions of hearts by the cruelties +of the cowardly assault on Serbia and on Belgium. The late German +Chancellor became uneasily aware that the crucifixion of Belgium was one +of the causes which made this war a truceless war, and his offer, which +no doubt seemed to him perfectly reasonable, was that Germany is willing +to bargain about Belgium, and to relax her hold, in exchange for solid +advantages elsewhere. Perhaps he knew that if the Allies were to spend +five minutes in bargaining about Belgium they would thereby condone the +German crime and would lose all that they have fought for. But it seems +more likely that he did not know it. The Allies know it. + +There is hope in these clear-cut issues. Of all wars that ever were +fought this war is least likely to have an indecisive ending. It must be +settled one way or the other. If the Allied Governments were to make +peace to-day, there would be no peace; the peoples of the free countries +would not suffer it. Germany cannot make peace, for she is bound by +heavy promises to her people, and she cannot deliver the goods. She is +tied to the stake, and must fight the course. Emaciated, exhausted, +repeating, as if in a bad dream, the old boastful appeals to military +glory, she must go on till she drops, and then at last there will be +peace. + +These may themselves seem boastful words; they cannot be proved except +by the event. There are some few Englishmen, with no stomach for a +fight, who think that England is in a bad way because she is engaged in +a war of which the end is not demonstrably certain. If the issues of +wars were known beforehand, and could be discounted, there would be no +wars. Good wars are fought by nations who make their choice, and would +rather die than lose what they are fighting for. Military fortunes are +notoriously variable, and depend on a hundred accidents. Moral causes +are constant, and operate all the time. The chief of these moral causes +is the character of a people. Germany, by her vaunted study of the art +and science of war, has got herself into a position where no success can +come to her except by way of the collapse or failure of the +English-speaking peoples. A study of the moral causes, if she were +capable of making it, would not encourage her in her old impious belief +that God will destroy these peoples in order to clear the way for the +dominion of the Hohenzollerns. + + + + +MIGHT IS RIGHT + +_First published as one of the Oxford Pamphlets, October 1914_ + + +It is now recognized in England that our enemy in this war is not a +tyrant military caste, but the united people of modern Germany. We have +to combat an armed doctrine which is virtually the creed of all Germany. +Saxony and Bavaria, it is true, would never have invented the doctrine; +but they have accepted it from Prussia, and they believe it. The +Prussian doctrine has paid the German people handsomely; it has given +them their place in the world. When it ceases to pay them, and not till +then, they will reconsider it. They will not think, till they are +compelled to think. When they find themselves face to face with a +greater and more enduring strength than their own, they will renounce +their idol. But they are a brave people, a faithful people, and a stupid +people, so that they will need rough proofs. They cannot be driven from +their position by a little paper shot. In their present mood, if they +hear an appeal to pity, sensibility, and sympathy, they take it for a +cry of weakness. I am reminded of what I once heard said by a genial and +humane Irish officer concerning a proposal to treat with the leaders of +a Zulu rebellion. 'Kill them all,' he said, 'it's the only thing they +understand.' He meant that the Zulu chiefs would mistake moderation for +a sign of fear. By the irony of human history this sentence has become +almost true of the great German people, who built up the structure of +modern metaphysics. They can be argued with only by those who have the +will and the power to punish them. + +The doctrine that Might is Right, though it is true, is an unprofitable +doctrine, for it is true only in so broad and simple a sense that no one +would dream of denying it. If a single nation can conquer, depress, and +destroy all the other nations of the earth and acquire for itself a sole +dominion, there may be matter for question whether God approves that +dominion; what is certain is that He permits it. No earthly governor who +is conscious of his power will waste time in listening to arguments +concerning what his power ought to be. His right to wield the sword can +be challenged only by the sword. An all-powerful governor who feared no +assault would never trouble himself to assert that Might is Right. He +would smile and sit still. The doctrine, when it is propounded by weak +humanity, is never a statement of abstract truth; it is a declaration of +intention, a threat, a boast, an advertisement. It has no value except +when there is some one to be frightened. But it is a very dangerous +doctrine when it becomes the creed of a stupid people, for it flatters +their self-sufficiency, and distracts their attention from the +difficult, subtle, frail, and wavering conditions of human power. The +tragic question for Germany to-day is what she can do, not whether it is +right for her to do it. The buffaloes, it must be allowed, had a +perfect right to dominate the prairie of America, till the hunters came. +They moved in herds, they practised shock-tactics, they were violent, +and very cunning. There are but few of them now. A nation of men who +mistake violence for strength, and cunning for wisdom, may conceivably +suffer the fate of the buffaloes and perish without knowing why. + +To the English mind the German political doctrine is so incredibly +stupid that for many long years, while men in high authority in the +German Empire, ministers, generals, and professors, expounded that +doctrine at great length and with perfect clearness, hardly any one +could be found in England to take it seriously, or to regard it as +anything but the vapourings of a crazy sect. England knows better now; +the scream of the guns has awakened her. The German doctrine is to be +put to the proof. Who dares to say what the result will be? To predict +certain failure to the German arms is only a kind of boasting. Yet there +are guarded beliefs which a modest man is free to hold till they are +seen to be groundless. The Germans have taken Antwerp; they may possibly +destroy the British fleet, overrun England and France, repel Russia, +establish themselves as the dictators of Europe--in short, fulfil their +dreams. What then? At an immense cost of human suffering they will have +achieved, as it seems to us, a colossal and agonizing failure. Their +engines of destruction will never serve them to create anything so fair +as the civilization of France. Their uneasy jealousy and self-assertion +is a miserable substitute for the old laws of chivalry and regard for +the weak, which they have renounced and forgotten. The will and high +permission of all-ruling Heaven may leave them at large for a time, to +seek evil to others. When they have finished with it, the world will +have to be remade. + +We cannot be sure that the Ruler of the world will forbid this. We +cannot even be sure that the destroyers, in the peace that their +destruction will procure for them, may not themselves learn to rebuild. +The Goths, who destroyed the fabric of the Roman Empire, gave their +name, in time, to the greatest mediaeval art. Nature, it is well known, +loves the strong, and gives to them, and to them alone, the chance of +becoming civilized. Are the German people strong enough to earn that +chance? That is what we are to see. They have some admirable elements of +strength, above any other European people. No other European army can be +marched, in close order, regiment after regiment, up the slope of a +glacis, under the fire of machine guns, without flinching, to certain +death. This corporate courage and corporate discipline is so great and +impressive a thing that it may well contain a promise for the future. +Moreover, they are, within the circle of their own kin, affectionate and +dutiful beyond the average of human society. If they succeed in their +worldly ambitions, it will be a triumph of plain brute morality over all +the subtler movements of the mind and heart. + +On the other hand, it is true to say that history shows no precedent for +the attainment of world-wide power by a people so politically stupid as +the German people are to-day. There is no mistake about this; the +instances of German stupidity are so numerous that they make something +like a complete history of German international relations. Here is one. +Any time during the last twenty years it has been matter of common +knowledge in England that one event, and one only, would make it +impossible for England to remain a spectator in a European war--that +event being the violation of the neutrality of Holland or Belgium. There +was never any secret about this, it was quite well known to many people +who took no special interest in foreign politics. Germany has maintained +in this country, for many years, an army of spies and secret agents; yet +not one of them informed her of this important truth. Perhaps the +radical difference between the German and the English political systems +blinded the astute agents. In England nothing really important is a +secret, and the amount of privileged political information to be gleaned +in barbers' shops, even when they are patronized by Civil servants, is +distressingly small. Two hours of sympathetic conversation with an +ordinary Englishman would have told the German Chancellor more about +English politics than ever he heard in his life. For some reason or +other he was unable to make use of this source of intelligence, so that +he remained in complete ignorance of what every one in England knew and +said. + +Here is another instance. The programme of German ambition has been +voluminously published for the benefit of the world. France was first to +be crushed; then Russia; then, by means of the indemnities procured from +these conquests, after some years of recuperation and effort, the naval +power of England was to be challenged and destroyed. This programme was +set forth by high authorities, and was generally accepted; there was no +criticism, and no demur. The crime against the civilization of the world +foreshadowed in the horrible words 'France is to be crushed' is before a +high tribunal; it would be idle to condemn it here. What happened is +this. The French and Russian part of the programme was put into action +last July. England, who had been told that her turn was not yet, that +Germany would be ready for her in a matter of five or ten years, very +naturally refused to wait her turn. She crowded up on to the scaffold, +which even now is in peril of breaking down under the weight of its +victims, and of burying the executioner in its ruins. But because +England would not wait her turn, she is overwhelmed with accusations of +treachery and inhumanity by a sincerely indignant Germany. Could +stupidity, the stupidity of the wise men of Gotham, be more fantastic or +more monstrous? + +German stupidity was even more monstrous. A part of the accusation +against England is that she has raised her hand against the nation +nearest to her in blood. The alleged close kinship of England and +Germany is based on bad history and doubtful theory. The English are a +mixed race, with enormous infusions of Celtic and Roman blood. The Roman +sculpture gallery at Naples is full of English faces. If the German +agents would turn their attention to hatters' shops, and give the +barbers a rest, they would find that no English hat fits any German +head. But suppose we were cousins, or brothers even, what kind of +argument is that on the lips of those who but a short time before were +explaining, with a good deal of zest and with absolute frankness, how +they intended to compass our ruin? There is something almost amiable in +fatuity like this. A touch of the fool softens the brute. + +The Germans have a magnificent war-machine which rolls on its way, +crushing all that it touches. We shall break it if we can. If we fail, +the German nation is at the beginning, not the end, of its troubles. +With the making of peace, even an armed peace, the war-machine has +served its turn; some other instrument of government must then be +invented. There is no trace of a design for this new instrument in any +of the German shops. The governors of Alsace-Lorraine offer no +suggestions. The bald fact is that there is no spot in the world where +the Germans govern another race and are not hated. They know this, and +are disquieted; they meet with coldness on all hands, and their remedy +for the coldness is self-assertion and brag. The Russian statesman was +right who remarked that modern Germany has been too early admitted into +the comity of European nations. Her behaviour, in her new international +relations, is like the behaviour of an uneasy, jealous upstart in an +old-fashioned quiet drawing-room. She has no genius for equality; her +manners are a compound of threatening and flattery. When she wishes to +assert herself, she bullies; when she wishes to endear herself, she +crawls; and the one device is no more successful than the other. + +Might is Right; but the sort of might which enables one nation to govern +another in time of peace is very unlike the armoured thrust of the +war-engine. It is a power compounded of sympathy and justice. The +English (it is admitted by many foreign critics) have studied justice +and desired justice. They have inquired into and protected rights that +were unfamiliar, and even grotesque, to their own ideas, because they +believed them to be rights. In the matter of sympathy their reputation +does not stand so high; they are chill in manner, and dislike all +effusive demonstrations of feeling. Yet those who come to know them know +that they are not unimaginative; they have a genius for equality; and +they do try to put themselves in the other fellow's place, to see how +the position looks from that side. What has happened in India may +perhaps be taken to prove, among many other things, that the inhabitants +of India begin to know that England has done her best, and does feel a +disinterested solicitude for the peoples under her charge. She has long +been a mother of nations, and is not frightened by the problems of +adolescence. + +The Germans have as yet shown no sign of skill in governing other +peoples. Might is Right; and it is quite conceivable that they may +acquire colonies by violence. If they want to keep them they will have +to shut their own professors' books, and study the intimate history of +the British Empire. We are old hands at the business; we have lost more +colonies than ever they owned, and we begin to think that we have learnt +the secret of success. At any rate, our experience has done much for us, +and has helped us to avoid failure. Yet the German colonial party stare +at us with bovine malevolence. In all the library of German theorizing +you will look in vain for any explanation of the fact that the Boers +are, in the main, loyal to the British Empire. If German political +thinkers could understand that political situation, which seems to +English minds so simple, there might yet be hope for them. But they +regard it all as a piece of black magic, and refuse to reason about it. +How should a herd of cattle be driven without goads? Witchcraft, +witchcraft! + +Their world-wide experience it is, perhaps, which has made the English +quick to appreciate the virtues of other peoples. I have never known an +Englishman who travelled in Russia without falling in love with the +Russian people. I have never heard a German speak of the Russian people +without contempt and dislike. Indeed the Germans are so unable to see +any charm in that profound and humane people that they believe that the +English liking for them must be an insincere pretence, put forward for +wicked or selfish reasons. What would they say if they saw a sight that +is common in Indian towns, a British soldier and a Gurkha arm in arm, +rolling down the street in cheerful brotherhood? And how is it that it +has never occurred to any of them that this sort of brotherhood has its +value in Empire-building? The new German political doctrine has bidden +farewell to Christianity, but there are some political advantages in +Christianity which should not be overlooked. It teaches human beings to +think of one another and to care for one another. It is an antidote to +the worst and most poisonous kind of political stupidity. + +Another thing that the Germans will have to learn for the welfare of +their much-talked Empire is the value of the lone man. The architects +and builders of the British Empire were all lone men. Might is Right; +but when a young Englishman is set down at an outpost of Empire to +govern a warlike tribe, he has to do a good deal of hard thinking on the +problem of political power and its foundations. He has to trust to +himself, to form his own conclusions, and to choose his own line of +action. He has to try to find out what is in the mind of others. A young +German, inured to skilled slavery, does not shine in such a position. +Man for man, in all that asks for initiative and self-dependence, +Englishmen are the better men, and some Germans know it. There is an old +jest that if you settle an Englishman and a German together in a new +country, at the end of a year you will find the Englishman governor, and +the German his head clerk. A German must know the rules before he can +get to work. + +More than three hundred years ago a book was written in England which is +in some ways a very exact counterpart to General von Bernhardi's +notorious treatise. It is called _Tamburlaine_, and, unlike its +successor, is full of poetry and beauty. Our own colonization began with +a great deal of violent work, and much wrong done to others. We suffered +for our misdeeds, and we learned our lesson, in part at least. Why, it +may be asked, should not the Germans begin in the same manner, and by +degrees adapt themselves to the new task? Perhaps they may, but if they +do, they cannot claim the Elizabethans for their model. Of all men on +earth the German is least like the undisciplined, exuberant Elizabethan +adventurer. He is reluctant to go anywhere without a copy of the rules, +a guarantee of support, and a regular pension. His outlook is as prosaic +as General von Bernhardi's or General von der Golt's own, and that is +saying a great deal. In all the German political treatises there is an +immeasurable dreariness. They lay down rules for life, and if they be +asked what makes such a life worth living they are without any hint of +an answer. Their world is a workhouse, tyrannically ordered, and full of +pusillanimous jealousies. + +It is not impious to be hopeful. A Germanized world would be a +nightmare. We have never attempted or desired to govern them, and we +must not think that God will so far forget them as to permit them to +attempt to govern us. Now they hate us, but they do not know for how +many years the cheerful brutality of their political talk has shocked +and disgusted us. I remember meeting, in one of the French Mediterranean +dependencies, with a Prussian nobleman, a well-bred and pleasant man, +who was fond of expounding the Prussian creed. He was said to be a +political agent of sorts, but he certainly learned nothing in +conversation. He talked all the time, and propounded the most monstrous +paradoxes with an air of mathematical precision. Now it was the +character of Sir Edward Grey, a cunning Machiavel, whose only aim was to +set Europe by the ears and make neighbours fall out. A friend who was +with me, an American, laughed aloud at this, and protested, without +producing the smallest effect. The stream of talk went on. The error of +the Germans, we were told, was always that they are too humane; their +dislike of cruelty amounts to a weakness in them. They let France escape +with a paltry fine, next time France must be beaten to the dust. Always +with a pleasant outward courtesy, he passed on to England. England was +decadent and powerless, her rule must pass to the Germans. 'But we shall +treat England rather less severely than France,' said this bland apostle +of Prussian culture, 'for we wish to make it possible for ourselves to +remain in friendly relations with other English-speaking peoples.' And +so on--the whole of the Bernhardi doctrine, explained in quiet fashion +by a man whose very debility of mind made his talk the more impressive, +for he was simply parroting what he had often heard. No one criticized +his proposals, nor did we dislike him. It all seemed too mad; a rather +clumsy jest. His world of ideas did not touch our world at any point, so +that real talk between us was impossible. He came to see us several +times, and always gave the same kind of mesmerized recital of Germany's +policy. The grossness of the whole thing was in curious contrast with +the polite and quiet voice with which he uttered his insolences. When I +remember his talk I find it easy to believe that the German Emperor and +the German Chancellor have also talked in such a manner that they have +never had the smallest opportunity of learning what Englishmen think and +mean. + +While the German doctrine was the plaything merely of hysterical and +supersensitive persons, like Carlyle and Nietzsche, it mattered little +to the world of politics. An excitable man, of vivid imagination and +invalid constitution, like Carlyle, feels a natural predilection for the +cult of the healthy brute. Carlyle's English style is itself a kind of +epilepsy. Nietzsche was so nervously sensitive that everyday life was an +anguish to him, and broke his strength. Both were poets, as Marlowe was +a poet, and both sang the song of Power. The brutes of the swamp and the +field, who gathered round them and listened, found nothing new or +unfamiliar in the message of the poets. 'This', they said, 'is what we +have always known, but we did not know that it is poetry. Now that great +poets teach it, we need no longer be ashamed of it.' So they went away +resolved to be twice the brutes that they were before, and they named +themselves Culture-brutes. + +It is difficult to see how the world, or any considerable part of it, +can belong to Germany, till she changes her mind. If she can do that, +she might make a good ruler, for she has solid virtues and good +instincts. It is her intellect that has gone wrong. Bishop Butler was +one day found pondering the problem whether, a whole nation can go mad. +If he had lived to-day what would he have said about it? Would he have +admitted that that strangest of grim fancies is realized? + +It would be vain for Germany to take the world; she could not keep it; +nor, though she can make a vast number of people miserable for a long +time, could she ever hope to make all the inhabitants of the world +miserable for all time. She has a giant's power, and does not think it +infamous to use it like a giant. She can make a winter hideous, but she +cannot prohibit the return of spring, or annul the cleansing power of +water. Sanity is not only better than insanity; it is much stronger, and +Might is Right. + +Meantime, it is a delight and a consolation to Englishmen that England +is herself again. She has a cause that it is good to fight for, whether +it succeed or fail. The hope that uplifts her is the hope of a better +world, which our children shall see. She has wonderful friends. From +what self-governing nations in the world can Germany hear such messages +as came to England from the Dominions oversea? 'When England is at war, +Canada is at war.' 'To the last man and the last shilling, Australia +will support the cause of the Empire.' These are simple words, and +sufficient; having said them, Canada and Australia said no more. In the +company of such friends, and for the creed that she holds, England might +be proud to die; but surely her time is not yet. + + Our faith is ours, and comes not on a tide; + And whether Earth's great offspring by decree + Must rot if they abjure rapacity, + Not argument, but effort shall decide. + They number many heads in that hard flock, + Trim swordsmen they push forth, yet try thy steel; + Thou, fighting for poor human kind, shalt feel + The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew + A chasm sheer into the barrier rock, + And bring the army of the faithful through. + + + + +THE WAR OF IDEAS + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, December 12, 1916_ + + +I hold, as I daresay you do, that we are at a crisis of our history +where there is not much room for talk. The time when this struggle might +have been averted or won by talk is long past. During the hundred years +before the war we have not talked much, or listened much, to the +Germans. For fifty of those years at least the head of waters that has +now been let loose in a devastating flood over Europe was steadily +accumulating; but we paid little attention to it. People sometimes speak +of the negotiations of the twelve days before the war as if the whole +secret and cause of the war could be found there; but it is not so. +Statesmen, it is true, are the keepers of the lock-gates, but those +keepers can only delay, they cannot prevent an inundation that has great +natural causes. The world has in it evil enough, and darkness enough. +But it is not so bad and so dark that a slip in diplomacy, a careless +word, or an impolite gesture, can instantaneously, as if by magic, +involve twenty million men in a struggle to the death. It is only +clever, conceited men, proud of their neat little minds, who think that +because they cannot fathom the causes of the war, it might easily have +been prevented. I confess I find it difficult to conceive of the war in +terms of simple right and wrong. We must respect the tides, and their +huge unintelligible force teaches us to respect them. + +It is not a war of race. For all our differences with the Germans, any +cool and impartial mind must admit that we have many points of kinship +with them. During the years before the war our naval officers in the +Mediterranean found, I believe, that it was easier to associate on terms +of social friendship with the Austrians than with the officers of any +other foreign navy. We have a passionate admiration for France, and a +real devotion to her, but that is a love affair, not a family tie. We +begin to be experienced in love affairs, for Ireland steadily refuses to +be treated on any other footing. In any case, we are much closer to the +Germans than they are to the Bulgarians or the Turks. Of these three we +like the Turks the best, because they are chivalrous and generous +enemies, which the Germans are not. + +It is a war of ideas. We are fighting an armed doctrine. Yet Burke's use +of those words to describe the military power of Revolutionary France +should warn us against fallacious attempts to simplify the issue. When +ideas become motives and are filtered into practice, they lose their +clearness of outline and are often hard to recognize. They leaven the +lump, but the lump is still human clay, with its passions and +prejudices, its pride and its hate. I remember seeing in a provincial +paper, in the early days of the war, two adjacent columns, both dealing +with the war. The first was headed 'A Holy War' and set forth the great +principles of nationality, respect for treaties, and protection of the +weak, which in our opinion are the main motives of the Allies in this +war. The second was headed 'The War on Commerce; Tips to capture German +trade', and set forth those other principles and motives which, in the +opinion of the Germans, brought England into this war. + +I am not going to defend England against the charge that she entered +this war on a cold calculation of mercantile profit. Every one here +knows that the charge is utterly untrue. Those who believe the charge +could not be shaken in their belief except by being educated all over +again, and introduced to some knowledge of human nature. It is enough to +remark that this charge is a commonplace between belligerent nations. +They all like to believe that their adversaries entertain only base +motives, while they themselves act only on the loftiest ideal +promptings. If the charge means only that every nation at war is bound +to think of its own interests, to conserve its own strength, and to +seize on all material gains that are within its reach, the charge is +true and harmless. When two angry women quarrel in a back street, they +commonly accuse each other of being amorous. They might just as well +accuse each other of being human. The charge is true and insignificant. +So also with nations; they all cherish themselves and seek to preserve +their means of livelihood. + +If this were their sole concern, there would be few wars; certainly this +war, which is desolating and impoverishing Europe, would be impossible. +No one, surely, can look at the war and say that nations are moved only +by their material interests. It would be more plausible to say that they +are too little moved by those interests. Bacon, in his essay _Of Death_, +remarks that the fear of death does not much affect mankind. 'There is +no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the +fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man +hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. +Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; +grief flieth to it, fear pre-occupateth it; nay, we read, after Otho the +Emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) +provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as +the truest sort of followers.' If this is true of the fear of death, how +much truer it is of the love of material gain. Any whim, or point of +pride, or fixed idea, or old habit, is enough to make a man or a nation +forgo the hope of profit and fight for a creed. + +The German creed is by this time well known. Before the war we took +little notice of it. We sometimes saw it stated in print, but it seemed +to us too monstrous and inhuman to be the creed of a whole people. We +were wrong; it was the creed of a whole people. By the mesmerism of +State education, by the discipline of universal military service, by the +pride of the German people in their past victories, and by the fears +natural to a nation that finds enemies on all its fronts, an absolute +belief in the State, in war as the highest activity of the State, and in +the right of the State to enslave all its subjects, body and soul, to +its purposes, had become the creed of all those diverse peoples that are +united under the Prussian Monarchy. Most of them are not naturally +warlike peoples. They have been lured, and frightened, and drilled, and +bribed into war, but it is true to say that, on the whole, they enjoy +fighting less than we do. One of the truest remarks ever made on the war +was that famous remark of a British private soldier, who was telling +how his company took a trench from the enemy. Fearing that his account +of the affair might sound boastful, he added, 'You see, Sir, they're not +a military people, like we are.' Only the word was wrong, the meaning +was right. They are, as every one knows, an enormously military people, +and, if they want to fight at all, they have to be a military people, +for the vast majority of them are not a warlike people. A first-class +army could never have been fashioned in Germany out of volunteer +civilians, like our army on the Somme. That army has a little shaken the +faith of the Germans in their creed. Again I must quote one of our +soldiers: 'I don't say', he remarked, 'that our average can run rings +round their best; what I say is that our average is better than their +average, and our best is better than their best.' The Germans already +are uneasy about their creed and their system, but there is no escape +for them; they have sacrificed everything to it; they have impoverished +the mind and drilled the imagination of every German citizen, so that +Germany appears before the world with the body of a giant and the mind +of a dwarf; they have sacrificed themselves in millions that their creed +may prevail, and with their creed they must stand or fall. The State, +organized as absolute power, responsible to no one, with no duties to +its neighbour, and with only nominal duties to a strictly subordinate +God, has challenged the soul of man in its dearest possessions. We +cannot predict the course of military operations; but if we were not +sure of the ultimate issue of this great struggle, we should have no +sufficient motive for continuing to breathe. The State has challenged +the soul of man before now, and has always been defeated. A miserable +remnant of men and women, tied to stakes or starved in dungeons, have +before now shattered what seemed an omnipotent tyranny, because they +stood for the soul and were not prompted by vanity or self-regard. They +had great allies-- + + 'Their friends were exultations, agonies, + And love, and man's unconquerable mind.' + +If we are defeated we shall be defeated not by German strength but by +our own weakness. The worst enemy of the martyr is doubt and the divided +mind, which suggests the question, 'Is it, after all, worth while?' We +must know what we have believed. What do we stand for in this war? It is +only the immovable conviction that we stand for something ultimate and +essential that can help us and carry us through. No war of this kind and +on this scale is good enough to fight unless it is good enough to fail +in. 'The calculation of profit', said Burke,'in all such wars is false. +On balancing the account of such wars, ten thousand hogs-heads of sugar +are purchased at ten thousand times their price. The blood of man should +never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our +family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The +rest is vanity; the rest is crime.' + +The question I have asked is a difficult question to answer, or, rather, +the answer is not easy to formulate briefly and clearly. Most of the men +at the front know quite well what they are fighting for; they know that +it is for their country, but that it is also for their kind--for certain +ideals of humanity. We at home know that we are at war for liberty and +humanity. But these words are invoked by different nations in different +senses; the Germans, or at least most of them, have as much liberty as +they desire, and believe that the highest good of humanity is to be +found in the prevalence of their own ideas and of their own type of +government and society. No abstract demonstration can help us. Liberty +is a highly comparative notion; no one asks for it complete. Humanity is +a highly variable notion; it is interpreted in different senses by +different societies. What we are confronted by is two types of +character, two sets of aims, two ideals for society. There can be no +harm in trying to understand both. + +The Germans can never be understood by those who neglect their history. +They are a solid, brave, and earnest people, who, till quite recent +times, have been denied their share in the government of Europe. In the +sixteenth century they were deeply stirred by questions of religion, and +were rent asunder by the Reformation. Compromise proved futile; the +small German states were ranked on this side or on that at the will of +their rulers and princes; men of the same race were ranged in mortal +opposition on the question of religious belief, and there was no +solution but war. For thirty years in the seventeenth century the war +raged. It was conducted with a fierceness and inhumanity that even the +present war has not equalled. The civilian population suffered +hideously. Whole provinces were desolated and whole states were bereaved +of their men. When, from mere exhaustion, the war came to an end, +Germany lay prostrate, and the chief gains of the war fell to the rising +monarchy of France, which had intervened in the middle of the struggle. +By the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 Alsace and Lorraine went to France, +and the rule of the great monarch, Louis XIV, had nothing to fear from +the German peoples. The ambitions of Germany, for long after this, were +mainly cosmopolitan and intellectual. But political ambitions, though +they seemed almost dead, were revived by the hardy state of Prussia, and +the rest of Germany's history, down to our own time, is the history of +the welding of the Germanic peoples into a single state by Prussian +monarchs and statesmen. + +This history explains many things. If a people has a corporate memory, +if it can learn from its own sufferings, Germany has reason enough to +cherish with a passionate devotion her late achieved unity. And German +brutality, which is not the less brutality because Germans regard it as +quite natural and right, has its origin in German history. The Prussian +is a Spartan, a natural brute, but brutal to himself as well as to +others, capable of extremes of self-denial and self-discipline. From the +Prussians the softer and more emotional German peoples of the South +received the gift of national unity, and they repaid the debt by +extravagant admiration for Prussian prowess and hardihood, which had +been so serviceable to their cause. The Southern Germans, the Bavarians +especially, have developed a sort of sentimentalism of brutality, +expressed in the hysterical Hymn of Hate (which hails from Munich), +expressed also in those monstrous excesses and cruelties, surpassing +anything that mere insensibility can produce, which have given the +Bavarian troops their foul reputation in the present war. + +The last half century of German history must also be remembered. Three +assaults on neighbouring states were rewarded by a great increase of +territory and of strength. From Denmark, in 1864, Prussia took +Schleswig-Holstein. The defeat of Austria in 1866 brought Hanover and +Bavaria under the Prussian leadership; Alsace and Lorraine were regained +from France in 1870. The Prussian mind, which is not remarkable for +subtlety, found a justification in these three wars for its favourite +doctrine of frightfulness. That doctrine, put briefly, is that people +can always be frightened into submission, and that it is cheaper to +frighten them than to fight them to the bitter end. Denmark was a small +nation, and moreover was left utterly unsupported by the European powers +who had guaranteed her integrity. Bavaria was frightened, and will be +frightened again when her hot fit gives way to her cold fit. France was +divided and half-hearted under a tinsel emperor. It is Germany's +misfortune that on these three special cases she based a general +doctrine of war. A very little knowledge of human nature--a knowledge so +alien to her that she calls it psychology and assigns it to +specialists--would have taught her that, for the most part, human beings +when they are fighting for their homes and their faith cannot be +frightened, and must be killed or conciliated. The practice of +frightfulness has not worked very well in this war. It has steeled the +heart of Germany's enemies. It has produced in her victims a temper of +hate that will outlive this generation, and will make the small peoples +whom she has kicked and trampled on impossible subjects of the German +Empire. Worst of all it has suggested to onlookers that the people who +have so plenary a belief in frightfulness are not themselves strangers +to fear. There is an old English proverb, hackneyed and stale three +hundred years ago, but now freshened again by disuse, that the goodwife +would never have looked for her daughter in the oven unless she had been +there herself. + +How shall I describe the English temper, which the Germans, high and +low, learned and ignorant, have so profoundly mistaken? You can get no +description of it from the Englishman pure and simple; he has no theory +of himself, and it bores him to hear himself described. Yet it is this +temper which has given England her great place in the world and which +has cemented the British Empire. It is to be found not in England alone, +but wherever there is a strain of English blood or an acceptance of +English institutions. You can find it in Australia, in Canada, in +America; it infects Scotland, and impresses Wales. It is everywhere in +our trenches to-day. It is not clannish, or even national, it is +essentially the lonely temper of a man independent to the verge of +melancholy. An admirable French writer of to-day has said that the best +handbook and guide to the English temper is Defoe's romance of _Robinson +Crusoe_. Crusoe is practical, but is conscious of the over-shadowing +presence of the things that are greater than man. He makes his own +clothing, teaches his goats to dance, and wrestles in thought with the +problems suggested by his Bible. Another example of the same temper may +be seen in Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, and yet another in +Wordsworth's _Prelude_. There is no danger that English thought will +ever underestimate the value and meaning of the individual soul. The +greatest English literature, it might almost be said, from Shakespeare's +_Hamlet_ to Browning's _The Ring and the Book_, is concerned with no +other subject. The age-long satire against the English is that in +England every man claims the right to go to heaven his own way. English +institutions, instead of subduing men to a single pattern, are devised +chiefly with the object of saving the rights of the subject and the +liberty of the individual. 'Every man in his humour' is an English +proverb, and might almost be a statement of English constitutional +doctrine. But this extreme individualism is the right of all, and does +not favour self-exaltation. The English temper has an almost morbid +dislike of all that is showy or dramatic in expression. I remember how a +Winchester boy, when he was reproached with the fact that Winchester has +produced hardly any great men, replied, 'No, indeed, I should think not. +We would pretty soon have knocked that out of them.' And the epigrams of +the English temper usually take the form of understatement. 'Give +Dayrolles a chair' were the last dying words of Lord Chesterfield, +spoken of the friend who had come to see him. When the French troops go +over the parapet to make an advance, their battle cry shouts the praises +of their Country. The British troops prefer to celebrate the advance in +a more trivial fashion, 'This way to the early door, sixpence extra.' + +I might go on interminably with this dissertation, but I have said +enough for my purpose. The history of England has had much to do with +moulding the English temper. We have been protected from direct +exposure to the storms that have swept the Continent. Our wars on land +have been adventures undertaken by expeditionary forces. At sea, while +the power of England was growing, we have been explorers, pirates, +buccaneers. Now that we are involved in a great European war on land, +our methods have been changed. The artillery and infantry of a modern +army cannot act effectively on their own impulse. We hold the sea, and +the pirates' work for the present has passed into other hands. But our +spirit and temper is the same as of old. It has found a new world in the +air. War in the air, under the conditions of to-day, demands all the old +gallantry and initiative. The airman depends on his own brain and nerve; +he cannot fall back on orders from his superiors. Our airmen of to-day +are the true inheritors of Drake; they have the same inspired +recklessness, the same coolness, and the same chivalry to a vanquished +enemy. + +I am a very bad example of the English temper; for the English temper +grumbles at all this, to the great relief of our enemies, who believe +that what a man admits against his own nation must be true. Our +pessimists, by indulging their natural vein, serve us, without reward, +quite as well as Germany is served by her wireless press. They deceive +the enemy. + +Modern Germany has organized and regimented her people like an ant-hill +or a beehive. The people themselves, including many who belong to the +upper class, are often simple villagers in temper, full of kindness and +anger, much subject to envy and jealousy, not magnanimous, docile and +obedient to a fault. If they claimed, as individuals, to represent the +highest reach of European civilization, the claim would be merely +absurd. So they shift their ground, and pretend that society is greater +than man, and that by their painstaking organization their society has +been raised to the pinnacle of human greatness. They make this claim so +insistently, and in such obvious good faith, that some few weak tempers +and foolish minds in England have been impressed by it. These +panic-stricken counsellors advise us, without delay, to reform our +institutions and organize them upon the German model. Only thus, they +tell us, can we hold our own against so huge a power. But if we were to +take their advice, we should have nothing of our own left to hold. It is +reasonable and good to co-operate and organize in order to attain an +agreed object, but German organization goes far beyond this. The German +nation is a carefully built, smooth-running machine, with powerful +engines. It has only one fault--that any fool can drive it; and seeing +that the governing class in Germany is obstinate and unimaginative, +there is no lack of drivers to pilot it to disaster. The best ability of +Germany is seen in her military organization. Napoleon is her worshipped +model, and, like many admirers of Napoleon, she thinks only of his great +campaigns; she forgets that he died in St. Helena, and that his schemes +for the reorganization of Europe failed. + +I know that many people in England are not daunted but depressed by the +military successes of the enemy. Our soldiers in the field are not +depressed. But we who are kept at home suffer from the miasma of the +back-parlour. We read the headlines of newspapers--a form of literature +that is exciting enough, but does not merit the praise given to +Sophocles, who saw life steadily and saw it whole. We keep our ears to +the telephone, and we forget that the great causes which are always at +work, and which will shape the issues of this war, are not recorded upon +the telephone. There are things truer and more important than the latest +dispatches. Here is one of them. The organization of the second-rate can +never produce anything first-rate. We do not understand a people who, +when it comes to the last push of man against man, throw up their hands +and utter the pathetic cry of 'Kamerad'. To surrender is a weakness that +no one who has not been under modern artillery fire has any right to +condemn; to profess a sudden affection for the advancing enemy is not +weakness but baseness. Or rather, it would be baseness in a voluntary +soldier; in the Germans it means only that the war is not their own war; +that they are fighting as slaves, not as free men. The idea that we +could ever live under the rule of these people is merely comic. To do +them justice, they do not now entertain the idea, though they have +dallied with it in the past. + +No harm can be done, I think, by preaching to the English people the +necessity for organization and discipline. We shall still be ourselves, +and there is no danger that we shall overdo discipline or make +organization a thing to be worshipped for its own sake. The danger is +all the other way. We have learnt much from the war, and the work that +we shall have to do when it ends is almost more important than the terms +of peace, or concessions made this way and that. If the treacherous +assault of the Germans on the liberties and peace of Europe is rewarded +by any solid gain to the German Empire, then history may forgive them, +but this people of the British Empire will not forgive them. Nothing +will be as it was before; and our cause, which will not be lost in the +war, will still have to be won in the so-called peace. I know that some +say, 'Let us have war when we are at war, and peace when we are at +peace'. It sounds plausible and magnanimous, but it is Utopian. You must +reckon with your own people. They know that when we last had peace, the +sunshine of that peace was used by the Germans to hatch the spawn of +malice and treason. If the Germans are defeated in the war, we shall, I +suppose, forgive them, for the very English reason that it is a bore not +to forgive your enemies. But if they escape without decisive defeat in +battle, their harder trial is yet to come. + +In some ways we are stronger than we have been in all our long history. +We have found ourselves, and we have found our friends. Our dead have +taught the children of to-day more and better than any living teachers +can teach them. No one in this country will ever forget how the people +of the Dominions, at the first note of war, sprang to arms like one man. +We must not thank or praise them; like the Navy, they regard our thanks +and praise as something of an impertinence. They are not fighting, they +say, for us. But that is how we discovered them. They are doing much +better than fighting for us, they are fighting with us, because, without +a word of explanation or appeal, their ideas and ours are the same. We +never have discussed with them, and we never shall discuss, what is +decent and clean and honourable in human behaviour. A philosopher who +is interested in this question can find plenty of intellectual exercise +by discussing it with the Germans, Where an Englishman, a Canadian, and +an Australian are met, there is no material for such a debate. + +It would be extravagant to suppose that a discovery like this can leave +our future relations untouched. We now know that we are profoundly +united in a union much stronger and deeper than any mechanism can +produce. I know how difficult a problem it is to hit on the best device +for giving political expression to this union between States separated +from one another by the whole world's diameter, differing in their +circumstances, their needs, and their outlook. I do not dare to +prescribe; but I should like to make a few remarks, and to call +attention to a few points which are perhaps more present to the mind of +the ordinary citizen than they are in the discussions of constitutional +experts. + +We must arrange for co-operation and mutual support. If the arrangement +is complicated and lengthy, we must not wait for it; we must meet and +discuss our common affairs. Ministers from the Dominions have already +sat with the British Cabinet. We can never go back on that; it is a +landmark in our history. Our Ministers must travel; if their supporters +are impatient of their absence on the affairs of the Empire, they must +find some less parochial set of supporters. We have begun in the right +way; the right way is not to pass laws determining what you are to do; +but to do what is needful, and do it at once,--do a lot of things, and +regularize your successes by later legislation. Now is the time, while +the Empire is white-hot. Our first need is not lawyers, but men who, +feeling friendly, know how to behave as friends do. They will not be +impeached if they go beyond the letter of the law. One act of faith is +worth a hundred arguments. This is a family affair; the habits of an +affectionate and united family are the only good model. + +As for the Crown Colonies and India, the Dominions must share our +burden. It is objected, both here and in India, that life in the +Dominions is a very inadequate education for the sympathetic handling of +alien races and customs. So is life in many parts of this island. The +fact is that the process of learning to govern these alien peoples is +the best education in the world. The Indian Civil Service is a great +College, and it governs India. I can speak to this point, for I have +lived there and seen it at work. If India were really governed by the +ideas of the young novices who go out there fresh from their +examinations, she would be a distressful country. But the novice is +taken in hand at once by the older members of the service; he works +under the eye of the Collector and the Assistant Collector; they +shoulder him and instruct him as tame elephants shoulder and instruct +the wild; they are kind to him, and he lives in their company while his +prejudices and follies peel off him; so that within a few years he +becomes a tolerant, wise, and devoted civil servant, who speaks the +language of the College and is proud to belong to it. The success of the +Government of India is not to be credited to the classes from which the +Civil Service is recruited, but to the discipline of the Service itself, +a Service so high in tradition and so free from corruption that +advancement in it is to be gained only by intelligence and sympathy. +What I am saying is that I can imagine no finer raw material for the +political discipline of the Indian Civil Service than some of the +generous and clean-run spirits who have come from the Dominions to help +in this war. They could be introduced to a share of our responsibilities +without impeding or retarding the movement to give to selected natives +of India a larger share in the government of their country. + +But the war is not over, so I return to the main issue--the conflict +between the English idea and the German idea of world government. It is +not an accident, as Baron von Huegel remarks in his book on _The German +Soul_, that the chief colonizing nation of the world should be a nation +without a national army. We have depended enormously in the past on the +initiative and virtue of the individual adventurer; if our adventurers +were to fail us, which is not likely, or if the State were to supersede +them, and attempt to do their work, which is not conceivable, our +political power and influence would vanish with them. The world might +perhaps be well ordered, but there would be no freedom, and no fun. The +beauty of the adventurer is that he is practically invincible. He does +not wait for orders. Under the most perfect police system that Germany +could devise, he would be up and at it again. We are not so numerous as +the Germans, but there are enough and to spare of us to make German +government impossible in any place where we pitch our tents. We are +practised hands at upsetting governments. Our political system is a +training school for rebels. This is what makes our very existence an +offence to the moral instincts of the German people. They are quite +right to want to kill us; the only way to abolish fun and freedom is to +abolish life. But I must not be unjust to them; their forethought +provides for everything, and no doubt they would prescribe authorized +forms of fun for half an hour a week, and would gather together their +subjects in public assembly, under municipal regulations, to perform +approved exercises in freedom. + +Mankind lives by ideas; and if an irreconcilable difference in ideas +makes a good war, then this is a good war. The contrast between the two +ideas is profound and far-reaching. My business lies in a University. +For a good many years before the war certain selected German students, +who had had a University education in their own country, came as Rhodes +scholars to Oxford. The intention of Mr. Rhodes was benevolent; he +thought that if German students were to reside for four years at Oxford +and to associate there, at an impressionable time of life, with young +Englishmen, understanding and fellowship would be encouraged between the +two peoples. But the German government took care to defeat Mr. Rhodes's +intention. Instead of sending a small number of students for the full +period, as Mr. Rhodes had provided, Germany asked and (by whose mistake +I do not know) obtained leave to send a larger number for a shorter +stay. The students selected were intended for the political and +diplomatic service, and were older than the usual run of Oxford +freshmen. Their behaviour had a certain ambassadorial flavour about it. +They did not mix much in the many undergraduate societies which flourish +in a college, but met together in clubs of their own to drink patriotic +toasts. They were nothing if not superior. I remember a conversation I +had with one of them who came to consult me. He wished, he said, to do +some definite piece of research work in English literature. I asked him +what problems or questions in English literature most interested him, +and he replied that he would do anything that I advised. We had a talk +of some length, wholly at cross-purposes. At last I tried to make my +point of view clear by reminding him that research means finding the +answer to a question, and that if his reading of English literature, +which had been fairly extensive, had suggested no questions to his mind, +he was not in the happiest possible position to begin research. This +touched his national pride, and he gave me something not unlike a +lecture. In Germany, he said, the professor tells you what you are to +do; he gives you a subject for investigation, he names the books you are +to read, and advises you on what you are to write; you follow his +advice, and produce a thesis, which gains you the degree of Doctor of +Letters. I have seen a good many of these theses, and I am sure this +account is correct. With very rare exceptions they are as dead as +mutton, and much less nourishing. The upshot of our conversation was +that he thought me an incompetent professor, and I thought him an +unprofitable student. + +There are many people in England to-day who praise the thoroughness of +the Germans, and their devotion to systematic thought. Has any one ever +taken the trouble to trace the development of the thesis habit, and its +influence on their national life? They theorize everything, and they +believe in their theories. They have solemn theories of the English +character, of the French character, of the nature of war, of the history +of the world. No breath of scepticism dims their complacency, although +events steadily prove their theories wrong. They have courage, and when +they are seeking truth by the process of reasoning, they accept the +conclusions attained by the process, however monstrous these conclusions +may be. They not only accept them, they act upon them, and, as every one +knows, their behaviour in Belgium was dictated to them by their +philosophy. + +Thought of this kind is the enemy of the human race. It intoxicates +sluggish minds, to whom thought is not natural. It suppresses all the +gentler instincts of the heart and supplies a basis of orthodoxy for all +the cruelty and treachery in the world. I do not know, none of us knows, +when or how this war will end. But I know that it is worth fighting to +the end, whatever it may cost to all and each of us. We may have peace +with the Germans, the peace of exhaustion or the peace that is only a +breathing space in a long struggle. We can never have peace with the +German idea. It was not the idea of the older German thinkers--of Kant, +or of Goethe, who were good Europeans. Kant said that there is nothing +good in the world except the good will. The modern German doctrine is +that there is nothing good in the world except what tends to the power +and glory of the State. The inventor of this doctrine, it may be +remembered, was the Devil, who offered to the Son of Man the glory of +all the kingdoms of the world, if only He would fall down and worship +him. The Germans, exposed to a like temptation, have accepted the offer +and have fulfilled the condition. They can have no assurance that faith +will be kept with them. On the other hand, we can have no assurance that +they will suffer any signal or dramatic reverse. Human history does not +usually observe the laws of melodrama. But we know that their newly +purchased doctrine can be fought, in war and in peace, and we know that +in the end it will not prevail. + + + + +THE FAITH OF ENGLAND + +_An Address to the Union Society of University College, London, March +22,1917_ + + +When Professor W.P. Ker asked me to address you on this ceremonial +occasion I felt none of the confidence of the man who knows what he +wants to say, and is looking for an audience. But Professor Ker is my +old friend, and this place is the place where I picked up many of those +fragmentary impressions which I suppose must be called my education. So +I thought it would be ungrateful to refuse, even though it should prove +that I have nothing to express save goodwill and the affections of +memory. + +When I matriculated in the University of London and became a student in +this place, my professors were Professor Goodwin, Professor Church, +Professor Henrici, Professor Groom Robertson, and Professor Henry +Morley. I remember all these, though, if they were alive, I do not think +that any of them would remember me. The indescribable exhilaration, +which must be familiar to many of you, of leaving school and entering +college, is in great part the exhilaration of making acquaintance with +teachers who care much about their subject and little or nothing about +their pupils. To escape from the eternal personal judgements which make +a school a place of torment is to walk upon air. The schoolmaster looks +at you; the college professor looks the way you are looking. The +statements made by Euclid, that thoughtful Greek, are no longer +encumbered at college with all those preposterous and irrelevant moral +considerations which desolate the atmosphere of a school. The question +now is not whether you have perfectly acquainted yourself with what +Euclid said, but whether what he said is true. In my earliest days at +college I heard a complete exposition of the first six books of Euclid, +given in four lectures, with masterly ease and freedom, by Professor +Henrici, who did not hesitate to employ methods of demonstration which, +though they are perfectly legitimate and convincing, were rejected by +the daintiness of the Greek. Professor Groom Robertson introduced his +pupils to the mysteries of mental and moral philosophy, and incidentally +disaffected some of us by what seemed to us his excessive reverence for +the works of Alexander Bain. Those works were our favourite theme for +satirical verse, which we did not pain our Professor by publishing. +Professor Henry Morley lectured hour after hour to successive classes in +a room half way down the passage, on the left. Even overwork could not +deaden his enormous vitality; but I hope that his immediate successor +does not lecture so often. Outside the classrooms I remember the +passages, which resembled the cellars of an unsuccessful sculptor, the +library, where I first read _Romeo and Juliet_, and the refectory, where +we discussed human life in most, if not in all, of its aspects. In the +neighbourhood of the College there was the classic severity of Gower +Street, and, for those who preferred the richer variety of romance, +there was always the Tottenham Court Road. Beyond all, and throughout +all, there was friendship, and there was freedom. The College was +founded, I believe, partly in the interests of those who object to +subscribe to a conclusion before they are permitted to examine the +grounds for it. It has always been a free place; and if I remember it as +a place of delight, that is because I found here the delights of +freedom. + +My thoughts in these days are never very long away from the War, so that +I should feel it difficult to speak of anything else. Yet there are so +many ways in which it would be unprofitable for me to pretend to speak +of it, that the difficulty remains. I have no knowledge of military or +naval strategy. I am not intimately acquainted with Germany or with +German culture. I could praise our own people, and our own fighting men, +from a full heart; but that, I think, is not exactly what you want from +me. So I am reduced to attempting what we have all had to attempt during +the past two years or more, to try to state, for myself as much as for +you, the meaning of this War so far as we can perceive it. + +It seems to be a decree of fate that this country shall be compelled +every hundred years to fight for her very life. We live in an island +that lies across the mouths of the Rhine, and guards the access to all +the ports of northern Europe. In this island we have had enough safety +and enough leisure to develop for ourselves a system of constitutional +and individual liberty which has had an enormous influence on other +nations. It has been admired and imitated; it has also been hated and +attacked. To the majority of European statesmen and politicians it has +been merely unintelligible. Some of them have regarded it with a kind +of superstitious reverence; for we have been very successful in the +world at large, and how could so foolish and ineffective a system +achieve success except by adventitious aid? Others, including all the +statesmen and political theorists who prepared Germany for this War, +have refused to admire; the power of England, they have taught, is not +real power; she has been crafty and lucky; she has kept herself free +from the entanglements and strifes of the Continent, and has enriched +herself by filching the property of the combatants. If once she were +compelled to hold by force what she won by guile, her pretensions would +collapse, and she would fall back into her natural position as a small +agricultural island, inhabited by a people whose proudest boast would +then be that they are poor cousins of the Germans. + +It is difficult to discuss this question with German professors and +politicians: they have such simple minds, and they talk like angry +children. Their opinions concerning England are not original; their +views were held with equal fervour and expressed in very similar +language by Philip of Spain in the sixteenth century, by Louis XIV of +France in the seventeenth century, and by Napoleon at the close of the +eighteenth century. 'These all died in faith, not having received the +promises, but having seen them afar off.' I will ask you to consider the +attack made upon England by each of these three powerful rulers. + +Any one who reads the history of these three great wars will feel a +sense of illusion, as if he were reading the history of to-day. The +points of resemblance in all four wars are so many and so great that it +seems as if the four wars were all one war, repeated every century. The +cause of the war is always an ambitious ruler who covets supremacy on +the European Continent. England is always opposed to him--inevitably and +instinctively. It took the Germans twenty years to prepare their people +for this War. It took us two days to prepare ours. Our instinct is quick +and sound; for the resources and wealth of the Continent, if once they +were controlled by a single autocratic power, would make it impossible +for England to follow her fortunes upon the sea. But we never stand +quite alone. The smaller peoples of the Continent, who desire +self-government, or have achieved it, always give the conqueror trouble, +and rebel against him or resist him. England always sends help to them, +the help of an expeditionary force, or, failing that, the help of +irregular volunteers. Sir Philip Sidney dies at Zutphen; Sir John Moore +at Corunna. There is always desperate fighting in the Low Countries; and +the names of Mons, Liege, Namur, and Lille recur again and again. +England always succeeds in maintaining herself, though not without some +reverses, on the sea. In the end the power of the master of legions, +Philip, Louis, Napoleon, and shall we say William, crumbles and melts; +his ambitions are too costly to endure, his people chafe under his lash, +and his kingdom falls into insignificance or is transformed by internal +revolution. + +In all these wars there is one other resemblance which it is good to +remember to-day. The position of England, at one time or another in the +course of the war, always seems desperate. When Philip of Spain invaded +England with the greatest navy of the world, he was met on the seas by a +fleet made up chiefly of volunteers. When Louis overshadowed Europe and +threatened England, our king was in his pay and had made a secret treaty +with him; our statesmen, moreover, had destroyed our alliance with the +maritime powers of Sweden and Holland, we had war with the Dutch, and +our fleet was beaten by them. During the war against Napoleon we were in +an even worse plight; the plausible political doctrines of the +Revolution found many sympathizers in this country; our sailors mutinied +at the Nore; Ireland was aflame with discontent; and we were involved in +the Mahratta War in India, not to mention the naval war with America. +Even after Trafalgar, our European allies failed us, Napoleon disposed +of Austria and Prussia, and concluded a separate treaty with Russia. It +was then that Wordsworth wrote-- + + ''Tis well! from this day forward we shall know + That in ourselves our safety must be sought; + That by our own right hands it must be wrought; + That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low. + O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer! + We shall exult, if they who rule the land + Be men who hold its many blessings dear, + Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band, + Who are to judge of dangers which they fear, + And honour which they do not understand.' + +Always in the same cause, we have suffered worse things than we are +suffering to-day, and if there is worse to come we hope that we are +ready. The youngest and best of us, who carry on and go through with +it, though many of them are dead and many more will not live to see the +day of victory, have been easily the happiest and most confident among +us. They have believed that, at a price, they can save decency and +civilization in Europe, and, if they are wrong, they have known, as we +know, that the day when decency and civilization are trampled under the +foot of the brute is a day when it is good to die. + +When I speak of the German nation as the brute I am not speaking +controversially or rhetorically; the whole German nation has given its +hearty assent to a brutal doctrine of war and politics; no facts need be +disputed between us: what to us is their shame, to them is their glory. +This is a grave difference; yet it would be wrong to suppose that we can +treat it adequately by condemning the whole German nation as a nation of +confessed criminals. It is the paradox of war that there is always right +on both sides. When a man is ready and willing to sacrifice his life, +you cannot deny him the right to choose what he will die for. The most +beautiful virtues, faith and courage and devotion, grow like weeds upon +the battle-field. The fighters recognize these virtues in each other, +and the front lines, for all their mud and slaughter, are breathed on by +the airs of heaven. Hate and pusillanimity have little there to nourish +them. To find the meaner passions you must seek further back. Johnson, +speaking in the _Idler_ of the calamities produced by war, admits that +he does not know 'whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with +soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers +accustomed to lie'. Now that our army is the nation in arms, the danger +from a lawless soldiery has become less, or has vanished; but the other +danger has increased. Journalists are not the only offenders. It is a +strange, squalid background for the nobility of the soldier that is made +by the deceits and boasts of diplomatists and statesmen. In one of the +prison camps of England, some weeks ago, I saw a Saxon boy who had +fought bravely for his country. Simplicity and openness and loyalty were +written on his face. There are hundreds like him, and I would not +mention him if it were not that that same day I read with a new and +heightened sense of disgust a speech by the German Chancellor, writhing +with timidity and dishonesty and uneasy braggadocio. Those who feel this +contrast as I did may be excused, I think, if they come to the +conclusion that to talk about war is an accursed trade, and that to +fight well, whether on the one side or the other, is the only noble +part. + +Yet there is no escape for us; if we are to avoid chaos, if the daily +life of the world is to be re-established and carried on, there must be +an understanding between nations, and there is no possible way to come +to an understanding save by the action and words of representative men +on the one side and the other. Such representative men there are; there +is no reason to doubt that they do in the main truly express the +aspirations and wishes of their people, and on both sides they have +either explicitly or virtually made offers. The offer of the Allied +Powers is on record. What does Germany offer? She has refused to make a +definite statement, but her rulers have talked a great deal, and what +she intends is not really in doubt; only she is not sure whether she can +get it, and still clings to the hope that a favourable turn of events +may relieve her of the duty of making proposals, and put her in a +position to dictate a settlement. We all know what that settlement would +be. + +The German offer for a solution of the problem of world-government is +German sentiments, German racial pride, German manners and customs, an +immense increase of German territory and German influence, and above all +an acknowledged supremacy for the German race among the nations of the +world. She thinks she has not stated these aims in so many words; but +she has. When it was suggested that the future peace of the world might +be assured by the formation of a League to Enforce Peace, Germany, +through her official spokesmen, expressed her sympathy with that idea, +and stated that she would very gladly put herself at the head of such a +League. I can hardly help loving the Germans when their rustic +simplicity and rustic cunning lead them all unconsciously into +self-revelation. The very idea of a League to Enforce Peace implies +equality among the contracting parties; and Germany does not understand +equality. 'By all means', she says,'let us sit at a round table, and I +will sit at the top of it.' Her panacea for human ills is Germanism. She +has nothing to offer but a purely national sentiment, which some, +greatly privileged, may share, and the rest must revere and bow to. In +the Book of Genesis we are told how Joseph was thrown into a pit by his +elder brothers for talking just like this; but he meant it quite +innocently, and so do the Germans. They do not intend irreverence to God +when they call Him the good German God. On the contrary, they choose for +His praise a word that to them stands for all goodness and all +greatness. Their worship expresses itself naturally in the tribal ritual +and the tribal creed. This tribal creed, there can be no doubt, is what +they offer us for a talisman to ensure the right ordering of the world. + +Patriotism and loyalty to hearth and home are passions so strong in +humanity that a creed like this, when men are under its influence, is +not easily seen to be absurd. The Saxon boy, whom I saw in his prison +camp, probably would not quarrel with it. And even in the wider world of +thought the illusions of nationalism are all-pervading. I once heard +Professor Henry Sidgwick remark that it is not easy for us to understand +how the troops of Portugal are stirred to heroic effort when their +commanders call on them to remember that they are Portuguese. He would +no doubt have been the first to admit, for he had an alert and sceptical +mind, that it is only our stupidity which finds anything comic in such +an appeal. But it is stupidity of this kind which unfits men to deal +with other races, and it is stupidity of this kind which has been +exalted by the Germans as a primal duty, and has, indeed, been advanced +by them as their principal claim to undertake the government of the +world. + +This extreme nationalism, this unwillingness to feel any sympathy for +other peoples, or to show them any consideration, has stupefied and +blinded the Germans. One of the heaviest charges that can be brought +against them is that they have seen no virtue in France, I do not ask +that they shall interrupt the War to express admiration for their +enemies: I am speaking of the time before the War. France is the chief +modern inheritor of that great Roman civilization which found us painted +savages, and made us into citizens of the world. The French mind, it is +admitted, and admitted most readily by the most intelligent men, is +quick and delicate and perceptive, surer and clearer in its operation +than the average European mind. Yet the Germans, infatuated with a +belief in their own numbers and their own brute strength, have dared to +express contempt for the genius of France. A contempt for foreigners is +common enough among the vulgar and unthinking of all nations, but I do +not believe that you will find anywhere but in Germany a large number of +men trained in the learned professions who are so besotted by vanity as +to deny to France her place in the vanguard of civilization. These louts +cannot be informed or argued with; they are interested in no one but +themselves, and naked self-assertion is their only idea of political +argument. Treitschke, who was for twenty years Professor of History at +Berlin, and who did perhaps more than any other man to build up the +modern German creed, has crystallized German politics in a single +sentence. 'War', he says, 'is politics _par excellence_,' that is to +say, politics at their purest and highest. Our political doctrine, if it +must be put in as brief a form, would be better expressed in the +sentence, 'War is the failure of politics'. + +If England were given over to nationalism as Germany is given over, +then a war between these two Powers, though it would still be a great +dramatic spectacle, would have as little meaning as a duel between two +rival gamebirds in a cockpit. We know, and it will some day dawn on the +Germans, that this War has a deeper meaning than that. We are not +nationalist; we are too deeply experienced in politics to stumble into +that trap. We have had a better and longer political education than has +come to Germany in her short and feverish national life. It is often +said that the Germans are better educated than we are, and in a sense +that is true; they are better furnished with schools and colleges and +the public means of education. The best boy in a school is the boy who +best minds his book, and even if he dutifully believes all that it tells +him, that will not lose him the prize. When he leaves school and +graduates in a wider world, where men must depend on their own judgement +and their own energy, he is often a little disconcerted to find that +some of his less bookish fellows easily outgo him in quickness of +understanding and resource. German education is too elaborate; it +attempts to do for its pupils much that they had better be left to do +for themselves. The pupils are docile and obedient, not troubled with +unruly doubts and questionings, so that the German system of public +education is a system of public mesmerism, and, now that we see it in +its effects, may be truly described as a national disease. + +I have said that England is not nationalist. If the English believed in +England as the Germans believe in Germany, there would be nothing for +it but a duel to the death, the extinction of one people or the other, +and darkness as the burier of the dead. Peace would be attained by a +great simplification and impoverishment of the world. But the English do +not believe in themselves in that mad-bull fashion. They come of mixed +blood, and have been accustomed for many long centuries to settle their +differences by compromise and mutual accommodation. They do not inquire +too curiously into a man's descent if he shares their ideas. They have +shown again and again that they prefer a tolerant and intelligent +foreigner to rule over them rather than an obstinate and wrong-headed +man of native origin. The earliest strong union of the various parts of +England was achieved by William the Norman, a man of French and +Scandinavian descent. Our native-born king, Charles the First, was put +to death by his people; his son, James the Second, was banished, and the +Dutchman, William the Third, who had proved himself a statesman and +soldier of genius in his opposition to Louis the Fourteenth, was elected +to the throne of England. The fierce struggles of the seventeenth +century, between Royalists and Parliamentarians, between Cavaliers and +Puritans, were settled at last, not by the destruction of either party, +but by the stereotyping of the dispute in the milder and more tolerable +shape of the party system. The only people we have ever shown ourselves +unwilling to tolerate are the people who will tolerate no one but their +own kind. We hate all Acts of Uniformity with a deadly hatred. We are +careful for the rights of minorities. We think life should be made +possible, and we do not object to its being made happy, for dissenters. +Voltaire, the acutest French mind of his age, remarked on this when he +visited England in 1726. 'England', he says, 'is the country of sects. +"In my father's house are many mansions".... Although the Episcopalians +and the Presbyterians are the two dominant sects in Great Britain, all +the others are welcomed there, and live together very fairly, whilst +most of the preachers hate one another almost as cordially as a +Jansenist damns a Jesuit. Enter the London Exchange, a place much more +worthy of respect than most Courts, and you see assembled for the +benefit of mankind representatives of all nations. There the Jew, the +Mohammedan, and the Christian deal with each other as if they were of +the same religion, and call infidels only those who become bankrupt. +There the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist, and the Anabaptist relies +on the promise of the Quaker. On leaving these free and peaceful +assemblies, some proceed to the synagogue, others to the tavern.... If +in England there were only one religion, its despotism would be to be +dreaded; if there were only two, their followers would cut each other's +throats; but there are thirty of them, and they live in peace and +happiness.' + +Since we have had so much practice in tolerating one another, and in +living together even when our ideas on life and the conduct of life seem +absolutely incompatible, it is no wonder that we approach the treatment +of international affairs in a temper very unlike the solemn and dogmatic +ferocity of the German. We do not expect or desire that other peoples +shall resemble us. The world is wide; and the world-drama is enriched +by multiplicity and diversity of character. We like bad men, if there is +salt and spirit in their badness. We even admire a brute, if he is a +whole-hearted brute. I have often thought that if the Germans had been +true to their principles and their programme--if, after proclaiming that +they meant to win by sheer strength and that they recognized no other +right, they had continued as they began, and had battered and hacked, +burned and killed, without fear or pity, a certain reluctant admiration +for them might have been felt in this country. There is no chance of +that now, since they took to whining about humanity. Yet it is very +difficult wholly to alienate the sympathies of the English people. It is +perhaps in some ways a weakness, as it is certainly in other ways a +strength, that we are fanciers of other peoples. Our soldiers have a +tendency to make pets of their prisoners, to cherish them as curiosities +and souvenirs. The fancy becomes a passion when we find a little fellow +struggling valiantly against odds. I suppose we should be at war with +Germany to-day, even if the Germans had respected the neutrality of +Belgium. But the unprovoked assault upon a little people that asked only +to be let alone united all opinions in this country and brought us in +with a rush. I believe there is one German, at least (I hope he is +alive), who understands this. Early in July, 1914, a German student at +Oxford, who was a friend and pupil of mine, came to say good-bye to me. +I have since wondered whether he was under orders to join his regiment. +Anyhow, we talked very freely of many things, and he told me of an +adventure that had befallen him in an Oxford picture-palace. Portraits +of notabilities were being thrown on the screen. When a portrait of the +German Emperor appeared, a youth, sitting just behind my friend, shouted +out an insulting and scurrilous remark. So my friend stood up and turned +round and, catching him a cuff on the head, said,'That's my emperor'. +The house was full of undergraduates, and he expected to be seized and +thrown into the street. To his great surprise the undergraduates, many +of whom have now fallen on the fields of France, broke into rounds of +cheering. 'I should like to think', my friend said, 'that a thing like +that could possibly happen in a German city, but I am afraid that the +feeling there would always be against the foreigner. I admire the +English; they are so just.' I have heard nothing of him since, except a +rumour that he is with the German army of occupation in Belgium. If so, +I like to think of him at a regimental mess, suggesting doubts, or, if +that is an impossible breach of military discipline, keeping silence, +when the loud-voiced major explains that the sympathy of the English for +Belgium is all pretence and cant. + +Ideal and disinterested motives are always to be reckoned with in human +nature. What the Germans call 'real politics', that is to say, politics +which treat disinterested motives as negligible, have led them into a +morass and have bogged them there. How easy it is to explain that the +British Empire depends on trade, that we are a nation of traders, that +all our policy is shaped by trade, that therefore it can only be +hypocrisy in us to pretend to any of the finer feelings. This is not, +as you might suppose, the harmless sally of a one-eyed wit; it is the +carefully reasoned belief of Germany's profoundest political thinkers. +They do not understand a cavalier, so they confidently assert that there +is no such thing in nature. That is a bad mistake to make about any +nation, but perhaps worst when it is made about the English, for the +cavalier temper in England runs through all classes. You can find it in +the schoolmaster, the small trader, the clerk, and the labourer, as +readily as in the officer of dragoons, or the Arctic explorer. The +Roundheads won the Civil War, and bequeathed to us their political +achievements. From the Cavaliers we have a more intimate bequest: it is +from them, not from the Puritans, that the fighting forces of the +British Empire inherit their outlook on the world, their freedom from +pedantry, and that gaiety and lightness of courage which makes them +carry their lives like a feather in the cap. + +I am not saying that our qualities, good or bad, commend us very readily +to strangers. The people of England, on the whole, are respected more +than they are liked. When I call them fanciers of other nations, I feel +it only fair to add that some of those other nations express the same +truth in different language. I have often heard the complaint made that +Englishmen cannot speak of foreigners without an air of patronage. It is +impossible to deny this charge, for, in a question of manners, the +impressions you produce are your manners; and there is no doubt about +this impression. There is a certain coldness about the upright and +humane Englishman which repels and intimidates any trivial human being +who approaches him. Most men would forgo their claim to justice for the +chance of being liked. They would rather have their heads broken, or +accept a bribe, than be the objects of a dispassionate judgement, +however kindly. They feel this so strongly that they experience a dull +discomfort in any relationship that is not tinctured with passion. As +there are many such relationships, not to be avoided even by the most +emotional natures, they escape from them by simulating lively feeling, +and are sometimes exaggerated and insincere in manner. They issue a very +large paper currency on a very small gold reserve. This, which is +commonly known as the Irish Question, is an insoluble problem, for it is +a clash not of interests but of temperaments. The English, it must in +fairness be admitted, do as they would be done by. No Englishman pure +and simple is incommoded by the coldness of strangers. He prefers it, +for there are many stupid little businesses in the world, which are +falsified when they are made much of; and even when important facts are +to be told, he would rather have them told in a dreary manner. He hates +a fuss. + +The Germans, who are a highly emotional and excitable people, have +concentrated all their energy on a few simple ideas. Their moral outlook +is as narrow as their geographical outlook is wide. Will their faith +prevail by its intensity, narrow and false though it be? I cannot prove +that it will not, but I have a suspicion, which I think has already +occurred to some of them, that the world is too large and wilful and +strong to be mastered by them. We have seen what their hatchets and +explosives can do, and they are nearing the end of their resources. They +can still repeat some of their old exploits, but they make no headway, +and time is not their friend. + +One service, perhaps, they have done to civilization. There is a growing +number of people who hold that when this War is over international +relations must not be permitted to slip back into the unstable condition +which tempted the Germans to their crime. A good many pacific theorists, +no doubt, have not the experience and the imagination which would enable +them to pass a useful judgement, or to make a valuable suggestion, on +the affairs of nations. The abolition of war would be easily obtained if +it were generally agreed that war is the worst thing that can befall a +people. But this is not generally agreed; and, further, it is not true. +While men are men they cannot be sure that they will never be challenged +on a point of deep and intimate concern, where they would rather die +than yield. But something can perhaps be done to discourage gamblers' +wars, though even here any stockbroker will tell you how difficult it is +to suppress gambling without injuring the spirit of enterprise. The only +real check on war is an understanding between nations. For the +strengthening of such an understanding the Allies have a great +opportunity, and admirable instruments. I do not think that we shall +call on Germany to preside at our conferences. But we shall have the +help of all those qualities of heart and mind which are possessed by +France, by Russia, by Italy, and by America, who, for all her caution, +hates cruelty even more than she loves peace. There has never been an +alliance of greater promise for the government and peace of the world. + +What is the contribution of the British Empire, and of England, towards +this settlement? Many of our domestic problems, as I have said, bear a +curious resemblance to international problems. We have not solved them +all. We have had many stumblings and many backslidings. But we have +shown again and again that we believe in toleration on the widest +possible basis, and that we are capable of generosity, which is a virtue +much more commonly shown by private persons than by communities. We +abolished the slave trade. We granted self-government to South Africa +just after our war with her. Only a few days ago we gave India her will, +and allowed her to impose a duty on our manufactures. Ireland could have +self-government to-morrow if she did not value her feuds more than +anything else in the world. All these are peoples to whom we have been +bound by ties of kinship or trusteeship. A wider and greater opportunity +is on its way to us. We are to see whether we are capable of generosity +and trust towards peoples who are neither our kin nor our wards. Our +understanding with France and Russia will call for great goodwill on +both sides, not so much in the drafting of formal treaties as in +indulging one another in our national habits. Families who fail to live +together in unity commonly fail not because they quarrel about large +interests, but because they do not like each other's little ways. The +French are not a dull people; and the Russians are not a tedious people +(what they do they do suddenly, without explanation); so that if we +fail to take pleasure in them we have ourselves to blame. If we are not +equal to our opportunities, if we do not learn to feel any affection for +them, then not all the pacts and congresses in the world can make peace +secure. + +Of Germany it is too early to speak. We have not yet defeated her. If we +do defeat her, no one who is acquainted with our temper and our record +believes that we shall impose cruel or vindictive terms. If it were only +the engineers of this war who were in question, we would destroy them +gladly as common pests. But the thing is not so easy. A single home is +in many ways a greater and more appealing thing than a nation; we should +find ourselves thinking of the miseries of simple and ignorant people +who have given their all for the country of their birth; and our hearts +would fail us. + +The Germans would certainly despise this address of mine, for I have +talked only of morality, while they talk and think chiefly of machines. +Zeppelins are a sad disappointment; but if any address on the War is +being delivered to-night by a German professor, there can be no doubt +that it deals with submarines, and treats them as the saviours of the +Fatherland. Well, I know very little about submarines, but I notice that +they have not had much success against ships of war. We are so +easy-going that we expected to carry on our commerce in war very much as +we did in peace. We have to change all that, and it will cost us not a +little inconvenience, or even great hardships. But I cannot believe that +a scheme of privy attacks on the traders of all nations, devised as a +last resort, in lieu of naval victory, can be successful when it is no +longer a surprise. And when I read history, I am strengthened in my +belief that morality is all-important. I do not find that any war +between great nations was ever won by a machine. The Trojan horse will +be trotted out against me, but that was a municipal affair. Wars are won +by the temper of a people. Serbia is not yet defeated. It is a frenzied +and desperate quest that the Germans undertook when they began to seek +for some mechanical trick or dodge, some monstrous engine, which should +enable the less resolved and more excited people to defeat the more +resolved and less excited. If we are to be defeated, it must be by them, +not by their bogey-men. We got their measure on the Somme, and we found +that when their guns failed to protect them, many of them threw up their +hands. These men will never be our masters until we deserve to be their +slaves. + +So I am glad to be able to end on a note of agreement with the German +military party. If they defeat us, it will be no more than we deserve. +Till then, or till they throw up their hands, we shall fight them, and +God will defend the right. + + + + +SOME GAINS OF THE WAR + +_An Address to the Royal Colonial Institute, February 13, 1918_ + + +Our losses in this War continue to be enormous, and we are not yet near +to the end. So it may seem absurd to speak of our gains, of gains that +we have already achieved. But if you will look at the thing in a large +light, I think you will see that it is not absurd. + +I do not speak of gains of territory, and prisoners, and booty. It is +true that we have taken from the Germans about a million square miles of +land in Africa, where land is cheap. We have taken more prisoners from +them than they have taken from us, and we have whole parks of German +artillery to set over against the battered and broken remnants of +British field-guns which were exhibited in Berlin--a monument to the +immortal valour of the little old Army. I am speaking rather of gains +which cannot be counted as guns are counted, or measured as land is +measured, but which are none the less real and important. + +The Germans have achieved certain great material gains in this War, and +they are fighting now to hold them. If they fail to hold them, the +Germany of the war-lords is ruined. She will have to give up all her +bloated ambitions, to purge and live cleanly, and painfully to +reconstruct her prosperity on a quieter and sounder basis. She will not +do this until she is forced to it by defeat. No doubt there are moderate +and sensible men in Germany, as in other countries; but in Germany they +are without influence, and can do nothing. War is the national industry +of Prussia; Prussia has knit together the several states of the larger +Germany by means of war, and has promised them prosperity and power in +the future, to be achieved by war. You know the Prussian doctrine of +war. Every one now knows it. According to that doctrine it is a foolish +thing for a nation to wait till it is attacked. It should carefully +calculate its own strength and the strength of its neighbours, and, when +it is ready, it should attack them, on any pretext, suddenly, without +warning, and should take from them money and land. When it has gained +territory in this fashion, it should subject the population of the +conquered territory to the strictest laws of military service, and so +supply itself with an instrument for new and bolder aggression. This is +not only the German doctrine; it is the German practice. In this way and +no other modern Germany has been built up. It is a huge new State, +founded on force, cemented by fear, and financed on speculative gains to +be derived from the great gamble of war. You may have noticed that the +German people have not been called on, as yet, to pay any considerable +sum in taxation towards the expenses of this war. Those expenses (that, +at least, was the original idea) were to be borne wholly by the +conquered enemy. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans to-day who +firmly believe that their war-lords will return in triumph from the +stricken field, bringing with them the spoils of war, and scattering a +largess of peace and plenty. + +To us it seems a marvel that any people should accept such a doctrine, +and should willingly give their lives and their fortunes to the work of +carrying it out in practice; but it is not so marvellous as it seems. +The German peoples are brave and obedient, and so make good soldiers; +they are easily lured by the hope of profit; they are naturally +attracted by the spectacular and sentimental side of war; above all, +they are so curiously stupid that many of them do actually believe that +they are a divinely chosen race, superior to the other races of the +world. They are very carefully educated, and their education, which is +ordered by the State, is part of the military machine. Their thinking is +done for them by officials. It would require an extraordinary degree of +courage and independence for a German youth to cut himself loose and +begin thinking and judging for himself. It must always be remembered, +moreover, that their recent history seems to justify their creed. I will +not go back to Frederick the Great, though the history of his wars is +the Prussian handbook, which teaches all the characteristic Prussian +methods of treachery and deceit. But consider only the last two German +wars. How, in the face of these, can it be proved to any German that war +is not the most profitable of adventures? In 1866 Prussia had war with +Austria. The war lasted forty days, and Prussia had from five to six +thousand soldiers killed in action. As a consequence of the war Prussia +gained much territory, and established her control over the states of +greater Germany. In 1870 she had war with France. Her total casualties +in that war were approximately a hundred thousand, just about the same +as our casualties in Gallipoli. From the war she gained, besides a great +increase of strength at home, the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, +with all their mineral wealth, and an indemnity of two hundred million +pounds, that is to say, four times the actual cost of the war in money. +How then can it be maintained that war is not good business? If you say +so to any Prussian, he thinks you are talking like a child. + +Not only were these two wars rich in profit for the Germans, but they +did not lose them much esteem. There was sympathy in this country for +the union of the German peoples, just as there was sympathy, a few years +earlier, for the union of the various states of Italy. There was not a +little admiration for German efficiency and strength. So that Bismarck, +who was an expert in all the uses of bullying, blackmail, and fraud, was +accepted as a great European statesman. I have always believed, and I +still believe, that Germany will have to pay a heavy price for +Bismarck--all the heavier because the payment has been so long deferred. + +The present War, then, is in the direct line of succession to these +former wars; it was planned by Germany, elaborately and deliberately +planned, on a calculation of the profits to be derived from operations +on a large scale. + +Well, as I said, we, as a people, do not believe in gambling in human +misery to attain uncertain speculative gains. We hold that war can be +justified only by a good cause, not by a lucky event. The German +doctrine seems to us impious and wicked. Though we have defined our war +aims in detail, and the Germans have not dared publicly to define +theirs, our real and sufficient war aim is to break the monstrous and +inhuman doctrine and practice of the enemy--to make their calculations +miscarry. And observe, if their calculations miscarry, they have fought +and suffered for nothing. They entered into this War for profit, and in +the conduct of the War, though they have made many mistakes, they have +made none of those generous and magnanimous mistakes which redeem and +beautify a losing cause. + +The essence of our cause, and its greatest strength, is that we are not +fighting for profit. We are fighting for no privilege except the +privilege of possessing our souls, of being ourselves--a privilege which +we claim also for other weaker nations. The inestimable strength of that +position is that if the odds are against us it does not matter. If you +see a ruffian torturing a child, and interfere to prevent him, do you +feel that your attempt was a wrong one because he knocks you down? And +if you succeed, what material profit is there in saving a child from +torture? We have sometimes fought in the past for doubtful causes and +for wrong causes, but this time there is no mistake. Our cause is better +than we deserve; we embraced it by an act of faith, and it is only by +continuing in that faith that we shall see it through. The little old +Army, when they went to France in August 1914, did not ask what profits +were likely to come their way. They knew that there were none, but they +were willing to sacrifice themselves to save decency and humanity from +being trampled in the mud. This was the Army that the Germans called a +mercenary Army, and its epitaph has been written by a good poet: + + These, in the day when heaven was falling, + The hour when earth's foundations fled, + Followed their mercenary calling, + And took their wages, and are dead. + + Their shoulders held the heavens suspended, + They stood, and earth's foundations stay, + What God abandoned these defended, + And saved the sum of things for pay. + +We must follow their example, for we shall never get a better. We must +not make too much of calculation, especially when it deals with +incalculable things. Nervous public critics, like Mr. H.G. Wells, are +always calling out for more cleverness in our methods, for new and +effective tricks, so that we may win the War. I would never disparage +cleverness; the more you can get of it, the better; but it is useless +unless it is in the service of something stronger and greater than +itself, and that is character. Cleverness can grasp; it is only +character that can hold. The Duke of Wellington was not a clever man; he +was a man of simple and honourable mind, with an infinite capacity for +patience, persistence, and endurance, so that neither unexpected +reverses abroad nor a flood of idle criticism at home could shake him or +change him. So he bore a chief part in laying low the last great tyranny +that desolated Europe. + +None of our great wars was won by cleverness; they were all won by +resolution and perseverance. In all of them we were near to despair and +did not despair. In all of them we won through to victory in the end. + +But in none of them did victory come in the expected shape. The worst of +making elaborate plans of victory, and programmes of all that is to +follow victory, is that the mixed event is sure to defeat those plans. +Not every war finds its decision in a single great battle. Think of our +war with Spain in the sixteenth century. Spain was then the greatest of +European Powers. She had larger armies than we could raise; she had +more than our wealth, and more than our shipping. The newly discovered +continent of America was an appanage of Spain, and her great galleons +were wafted lazily to and fro, bringing her all the treasures of the +western hemisphere. We defeated her by standing out and holding on. We +fought her in the Low Countries, which she enslaved and oppressed. We +refused to recognize her exclusive rights in America, and our merchant +seamen kept the sea undaunted, as they have kept it for the last three +years. When at last we became an intolerable vexation to Spain, she +collected a great Armada, or war-fleet, to invade and destroy us; and it +was shattered, by the winds of heaven and the sailors of England, in +1588. The defeat of the Armada was the turning-point of the war, but it +was not the end. It lifted a great shadow of fear from the hearts of the +people, as a great shadow of fear has already been lifted from their +hearts in the present War, but during the years that followed we +suffered many and serious reverses at the hand of Spain, before peace +and security were reached. So late as 1601, thirteen years after the +defeat of the Armada, the King of Denmark offered to mediate between +England and Spain, so that the long and disastrous war might be ended. +Queen Elizabeth was then old and frail, but this was what she said--and +if you want to understand why she was almost adored by her people, +listen to her words: 'I would have the King of Denmark, and all Princes +Christian and Heathen to know, that England hath no need to crave peace; +nor myself endured one hour's fear since I attained the crown thereof, +being guarded with so valiant and faithful subjects.' In the end the +power and menace of Spain faded away, and when peace was made, in 1604, +this nation never again, from that day to this, feared the worst that +Spain could do. + +What were our gains from the war with Spain? Freedom to live our lives +in our own way, unthreatened; freedom to colonize America. The gains of +a great war are never visible immediately; they are deferred, and +extended over many years. What did we gain by our war with Napoleon, +which ended in the victory of Waterloo? For long years after Waterloo +this country was full of riots and discontents; there were +rick-burnings, agitations, popular risings, and something very near to +famine in the land. But all these things, from a distance, are now seen +to have been the broken water that follows the passage of a great storm. +The real gains of Waterloo, and still more of Trafalgar, are evident in +the enormous commercial and industrial development of England during the +nineteenth century, and in the peaceful foundation of the great +dominions of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, which was made +possible only by our unchallenged use of the seas. The men who won those +two great battles did not live to gather the fruits of their victory; +but their children did. If we defeat Germany as completely as we hope, +we shall not be able to point at once to our gains. But it is not a rash +forecast to say that our children and children's children will live in +greater security and freedom than we have ever tasted. + +A man must have a good and wide imagination if he is to be willing to +face wounds and death for the sake of his unborn descendants and +kinsfolk. We cannot count on the popular imagination being equal to the +task. Fortunately, there is a substitute for imagination which does the +work as well or better, and that is character. Our people are sound in +instinct; they understand a fight. They know that a wrestler who +considers, while he is in the grip of his adversary, whether he would +not do well to give over, and so put an end to the weariness and the +strain, is no sort of a wrestler. They have never failed under a strain +of this kind, and they will not fail now. The people who do the +half-hearted and timid talking are either young egotists, who are angry +at being deprived of their personal ease and independence; or elderly +pensive gentlemen, in public offices and clubs, who are no longer fit +for action, and, being denied action, fall into melancholy; or feverish +journalists, who live on the proceeds of excitement, who feel the pulse +and take the temperature of the War every morning, and then rush into +the street to announce their fluttering hopes and fears; or cosmopolitan +philosophers, to whom the change from London to Berlin means nothing but +a change in diet and a pleasant addition to their opportunities of +hearing good music; or aliens in heart, to whom the historic fame of +England, 'dear for her reputation through the world,' is less than +nothing; or practical jokers, who are calm and confident enough +themselves, but delight in startling and depressing others. These are +not the people of England; they are the parasites of the people of +England. The people of England understand a fight. + +That brings me to the first great gain of the War. We have found +ourselves. Which of us, in the early months of 1914, would have dared +to predict the splendours of the youth of this Empire--splendours which +are now a part of our history? We are adepts at self-criticism and +self-depreciation. We hate the language of emotion. Some of us, if we +were taken to heaven and asked what we thought of it, would say that it +is decent, or not so bad. I suppose we are jealous to keep our standard +high, and to have something to say if a better place should be found. +But in spite of all this, we do now know, and it is worth knowing, that +we are not weaker than our fathers. We know that the people who inhabit +these islands and this commonwealth of nations cannot be pushed on one +side, or driven under, or denied a great share in the future ordering of +the world. We know this, and our knowledge of it is the debt that we owe +to our dead. It is not vanity to admit that we know it; on the contrary, +it would be vanity to pretend that we do not know it. It is visible to +other eyes than ours. Some time ago I heard an address given by a friend +of mine, an Indian Mohammedan of warrior descent, to University students +of his own faith. He was urging on them the futility of dreams and the +necessity of self-discipline and self-devotion. 'Why do the people of +this country', he said, 'count for so much all the world over? It is not +because of their dreams; it is because thousands of them are lying at +the bottom of the sea.' + +Further, we have not only found ourselves; we have found one another. A +new kindliness has grown up, during the War, between people divided by +the barriers of class, or wealth, or circumstance. A statesman of the +seventeenth century remarks that _It is a Misfortune for a Man not to +have a Friend in the World, but for that reason he shall have no Enemy_. +I might invert his maxim and say, _It is a Misfortune for a Man to have +many Enemies, but for that reason he shall know who are his Friends_. No +Radical member of Parliament will again, while any of us live, cast +contempt on 'the carpet Captains of Mayfair'. No idle Tory talker will +again dare to say that the working men of England care nothing for their +country. Even the manners of railway travel have improved. I was +travelling in a third-class compartment of a crowded train the other +day; we were twenty in the compartment, but it seemed a pity to leave +any one behind, and we made room for number twenty-one. Nothing but a +very kindly human feeling could have packed us tight enough for this. +Yet now is the time that has been chosen by some of these pensive +gentlemen that I spoke of, and by some of these excitable journalists, +to threaten us with class-war, and to try to make our flesh creep by +conjuring up the horrors of revolution. I advise them to take their +opinions to the third-class compartment and discuss them there. It is a +good tribunal, for, sooner or later, you will find every one there--even +officers, when they are travelling in mufti at their own expense. I have +visited this tribunal very often, and I have always come away from it +with the same impression, that this people means to win the War. But I +do not travel much in the North of England, so I asked a friend of mine, +whose dealings are with the industrial North, what the workpeople of +Lancashire and Yorkshire think of the War. He said, 'Their view is very +simple: they mean to win it; and they mean to make as much money out of +it as ever they can.' Certainly, that is very simple; but before you +judge them, put yourselves in their place. There are great outcries +against profiteers, for making exorbitant profits out of the War, and +against munition workers, for delaying work in order to get higher +wages. I do not defend either of them; they are unimaginative and +selfish, and I do not care how severely they are dealt with; but I do +say that the majority of them are not wicked in intention. A good many +of the more innocent profiteers are men whose sin is that they take an +offer of two shillings rather than an offer of eighteenpence for what +cost them one and a penny. Some of us, in our weaker moments, might be +betrayed into doing the same. As for the munition workers, I remember +what Goldsmith, who had known the bitterest poverty, wrote to his +brother. 'Avarice', he said, 'in the lower orders of mankind is true +ambition; avarice is the only ladder the poor can use to preferment. +Preach then, my dear Sir, to your son, not the excellence of human +nature nor the disrespect of riches, but endeavour to teach him thrift +and economy. Let his poor wandering uncle's example be placed in his +eyes. I had learned from books to love virtue before I was taught from +experience the necessity of being selfish.' + +The profiteers and the munition workers are endeavouring, incidentally, +to better their own position. But make no mistake; the bulk of these +people would rather die than allow one spire of English grass to be +trodden under the foot of a foreign trespasser. Their chief sin is that +they do not fear. They think that there is plenty of time to do a little +business for themselves on the way to defeat the enemy. I cannot help +remembering the mutiny at the Nore, which broke out in our fleet during +the Napoleonic wars. The mutineers struck for more pay and better +treatment, but they agreed together that if the French fleet should put +in an appearance during the mutiny, all their claims should be postponed +for a time, and the French fleet should have their first attention. + +Employers and employed do, no doubt, find in some trades to-day that +their relations are strained and irksome. They would do well to take a +lesson from the Army, where, with very few exceptions, there is harmony +and understanding between those who take orders and those who give them. +It is only in the Army that you can see realized the ideal of ancient +Rome. + + Then none was for a party, + Then all were for the State; + Then the great man helped the poor, + And the poor man loved the great. + +Why is the Army so far superior to most commercial and industrial +businesses? The secret does not lie in State employment. There is plenty +of discontent and unrest among the State-employed railway men and +munition workers. It lies rather in the habit of mutual help and mutual +trust. If any civilian employer of labour wants to have willing +workpeople, let him take a hint from the Army. Let him live with his +workpeople, and share all their dangers and discomforts. Let him take +thought for their welfare before his own, and teach self-sacrifice by +example. Let him put the good of the nation before all private +interests; and those whom he commands will do for him anything that he +asks. + +I cannot believe that the benefits which have come to us from the Army +will pass away with the passing of the War. Those who have been comrades +in danger will surely take with them something of the old spirit into +civil life. And those who have kept clear of the Army in order to carry +on their own trades and businesses will surely realize that they have +missed the great opportunity of their lives. + +In a wider sense the War has brought us to an understanding of one +another. This great Commonwealth of independent nations which is called +the British Empire is scattered over the surface of the habitable globe. +It embraces people who live ten thousand miles apart, and whose ways of +life are so different that they might seem to have nothing in common. +But the War has brought them together, and has done more than half a +century of peace could do to promote a common understanding. Hundreds of +thousands of men of our blood who, before the War, had never seen this +little island, have now made acquaintance with it. Hundreds of thousands +of the inhabitants of this island to whom the Dominions were strange, +far places, if, after the War, they should be called on to settle there, +will not feel that they are leaving home. I can only hope that the +Canadians and Anzacs think as well of us as we do of them. We do not +like to praise our friends in their hearing, so I will say no more than +this: I am told that a new kind of peerage, very haughty and very +self-important, has arisen in South London. Its members are those +house-holders who have been privileged to have Anzac soldiers billeted +on them. It is private ties of this kind, invisible to the +constitutional lawyer and the political historian, which make the fine +meshes of the web of Empire. + +Because he knew that the strength of the whole texture depends on the +strength of the fine meshes, Earl Grey, who died last year, will always +be remembered in our history. Not many men have his opportunity to make +acquaintance with the domain that is their birthright, for he had +administered a province of South Africa, and had been Governor-General +of Canada, He rediscovered the glory of the Empire, as poets rediscover +the glory of common speech. 'He had breathed its air,' a friend of his +says, 'fished its rivers, walked in its valleys, stood on its mountains, +met its people face to face. He had seen it in all the zones of the +world. He knew what it meant to mankind. Under the British flag, +wherever he journeyed, he found men of English speech living in an +atmosphere of liberty and carrying on the dear domestic traditions of +the British Isles. He saw justice firmly planted there, industry and +invention hard at work unfettered by tyrants of any kind, domestic life +prospering in natural conditions, and our old English kindness and +cheerfulness and broad-minded tolerance keeping things together. But he +also saw room under that same flag, ample room, for millions and +millions more of the human race. The Empire wasn't a word to him. It was +a vast, an almost boundless, home for honest men.' + +The War did not dishearten him. When he died, in August, 1917, he said, +'Here I lie on my death-bed, looking clear into the Promised Land. I'm +not allowed to enter it, but there it is before my eyes. After the War +the people of this country will enter it, and those who laughed at me +for a dreamer will see that I wasn't so wrong after all. But there's +still work to do for those who didn't laugh, hard work, and with much +opposition in the way; all the same, it is work right up against the +goal. My dreams have come true.' + +One of the clear gains of the War is to be found in the increased +activity and alertness of our own people. The motto of to-day is, 'Let +those now work who never worked before, And those who always worked now +work the more.' Before the War we had a great national reputation for +idleness--in this island, at least. I remember a friendly critic from +Canada who, some five or six years ago, expressed to me, with much +disquiet, his opinion that there was something very far wrong with the +old country; that we had gone soft. As for our German critics, they +expressed the same view in gross and unmistakable fashion. Wit is not a +native product in Germany, it all has to be imported, so they could not +satirize us; but their caricatures of the typical Englishman showed us +what they thought. He was a young weakling with a foolish face, and was +dressed in cricketing flannels. It would have been worth their while to +notice what they did not notice, that his muscles and nerves are not +soft. They learned that later, when the bank-clerks of Manchester broke +the Prussian Guard into fragments at Contalmaison. This must have been a +sad surprise, for the Germans had always taught, in their delightful +authoritative fashion, that the chief industries of the young Englishman +are lawn-tennis and afternoon tea. They are a fussy people, and they +find it difficult to understand the calm of the man who, having nothing +to do, does it. Perhaps they were right, and we were too idle. The +disease was never so serious as they thought it, and now, thanks to +them, we are in a fair way to recovery. The idle classes have turned +their hand to the lathe and the plough. Women are doing a hundred things +that they never did before, and are doing them well. The elasticity and +resourcefulness that the War has developed will not be lost or destroyed +by the coming of peace. Least of all will those qualities be lost if we +should prove unable, in this War, to impose our own terms on Germany. +Then the peace that follows will be a long struggle, and in that +struggle we shall prevail. In the last long peace we were not +suspicious; we felt friendly enough to the Germans, and we gave them +every advantage. They despised us for our friendliness and used the +peace to prepare our downfall. That will never happen again. If we +cannot tame the cunning animal that has assaulted humanity, at least we +can and will tether him. Laws will not be necessary; there are millions +of others besides the seamen of England who will have no dealings with +an unsubdued and unrepentant Germany. What the Germans are not taught by +the War they will have to learn in the more tedious and no less costly +school of peace. + +In any case, whether we win through to real peace and real security, or +whether we are thrown back on an armed peace and the duty of unbroken +vigilance, we shall be dependent for our future on the children who are +now learning in the schools or playing in the streets. It is a good +dependence. The children of to-day are better than the children whom I +knew when I was a child. I think they have more intelligence and +sympathy; they certainly have more public spirit. We cannot do too much +for them. The most that we can do is nothing to what they are going to +do for us, for their own nation and people. I am not concerned to +discuss the education problem. Formal education, carried on chiefly by +means of books, is a very small part of the making of a man or a woman. +But I am interested to know what the children are thinking. You cannot +fathom a child's thoughts, but we know who are their best teachers, and +what lessons have been stamped indelibly on their minds. Their teachers, +whom they never saw, and whose lessons they will never forget, lie in +graves in Flanders and France and Gallipoli and Syria and Mesopotamia, +or unburied at the bottom of the sea. The runner falls, but the torch is +carried forward. This is what Julian Grenfell, who gave his mind and his +life to the War, has said in his splendid poem called _Into Battle_: + + And life is colour and warmth and light, + And a striving evermore for these; + And he is dead who will not fight, + And who dies fighting hath increase. + +Those who died fighting will have such increase that a whole new +generation, better even than the old, will be ready, no long time hence, +to uphold and extend and decorate the Commonwealth of nations which +their fathers and brothers saved from ruin. + +One thing I have never heard discussed, but it is the clearest gain of +all, and already it may be called a certain gain. After the War the +English language will have such a position as it has never had before. +It will be established in world-wide security. Even before the War, it +may be truly said, our language was in no danger from the competition of +the German language. The Germans have never had much success in the +attempt to get their language adopted by other peoples. Not all the +military laws of Prussia can drive out French from the hearts and homes +of the people of Alsace. In the ports of the near and far East you will +hear English spoken--pidgin English, as it is called, that is to say, a +selection of English words suited for the business of daily life. But +you may roam the world over, and you will hear no pidgin German. Before +the War many Germans learned English, while very few English-speaking +people learned German. In other matters we disagreed, but we both knew +which way the wind was blowing. It may be said, and said truly, that our +well-known laziness was one cause of our failing or neglecting to learn +German. But it was not the only cause; and we are not lazy in tasks +which we believe to be worth our while. Rather we had an instinctive +belief that the future does not belong to the German tongue. That belief +is not likely to be impaired by the War. Armed ruffians can do some +things, but one thing they cannot do; they cannot endear their language +to those who have suffered from their violence. The Germans poisoned the +wells in South-West Africa; in Europe they did all they could to poison +the wells of mutual trust and mutual understanding among civilized men. +Do they think that these things will make a good advertisement for the +explosive guttural sounds and the huddled deformed syntax of the speech +in which they express their arrogance and their hate? Which of the +chief European languages will come first, after the War, with the little +nations? Will Serbia be content to speak German? Will Norway and Denmark +feel a new affection for the speech of the men who have degraded the old +humanity of the seas? Neighbourhood, kinship, and the necessities of +commerce may retain for the German language a certain measure of custom +in Sweden and Switzerland, and in Holland. But for the most part Germans +will have to be content to be addressed in their own tongue only by +those who fear them, or by those who hope to cheat them. + +This gain, which I make bold to predict for the English language, is a +real gain, apart from all patriotic bias. The English language is +incomparably richer, more fluid, and more vital than the German +language. Where the German has but one way of saying a thing, we have +two or three, each with its distinctions and its subtleties of usage. +Our capital wealth is greater, and so are our powers of borrowing. +English sprang from the old Teutonic stock, and we can still coin new +words, such as 'food-hoard' and 'joy-ride', in the German fashion. But +long centuries ago we added thousands of Romance words, words which came +into English through the French or Norman-French, and brought with them +the ideas of Latin civilization and of mediaeval Christianity. Later on, +when the renewed study of Latin and Greek quickened the intellectual +life of Europe, we imported thousands of Greek and Latin words direct +from the ancient world, learned words, many of them, suitable for +philosophers, or for writers who pride themselves on shooting a little +above the vulgar apprehension. Yet many of these, too, have found their +way into daily speech, so that we can say most things in three ways, +according as we draw on one or another of the three main sources of our +speech. Thus, you can Begin, or Commence, or Initiate an undertaking, +with Boldness, or Courage, or Resolution. If you are a Workman, or +Labourer, or Operative, you can Ask, or Bequest, or Solicit your +employer to Yield, or Grant, or Concede, an increase in the Earnings, or +Wages, or Remuneration which fall to the lot of your Fellow, or +Companion, or Associate. Your employer is perhaps Old, or Veteran, or +Superannuated, which may Hinder, or Delay, or Retard the success of your +application. But if you Foretell, or Prophesy, or Predict that the War +will have an End, or Close, or Termination that shall not only be +Speedy, or Rapid, or Accelerated, but also Great, or Grand, or +Magnificent, you may perhaps Stir, or Move, or Actuate him to have Ruth, +or Pity, or Compassion on your Mate, or Colleague, or Collaborator. The +English language, then, is a language of great wealth--much greater +wealth than can be illustrated by any brief example. But wealth is +nothing unless you can use it. The real strength of English lies in the +inspired freedom and variety of its syntax. There is no grammar of the +English speech which is not comic in its stiffness and inadequacy. An +English grammar does not explain all that we can do with our speech; it +merely explains what shackles and restraints we must put upon our speech +if we would bring it within the comprehension of a school-bred +grammarian. But the speech itself is like the sea, and soon breaks down +the dykes built by the inland engineer. It was the fashion, in the +eighteenth century, to speak of the divine Shakespeare. The reach and +catholicity of his imagination was what earned him that extravagant +praise; but his syntax has no less title to be called divine. It is not +cast or wrought, like metal; it leaps like fire, and moves like air. So +is every one that is born of the spirit. Our speech is our great +charter. Far better than in the long constitutional process whereby we +subjected our kings to law, and gave dignity and strength to our +Commons, the meaning of English freedom is to be seen in the illimitable +freedom of our English speech. + +Our literature is almost as rich as our language. Modern German +literature begins in the eighteenth century. Modern English literature +began with Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, and has been full of +great names and great books ever since. Nothing has been done in German +literature for which we have not a counterpart, done as well or +better--except the work of Heine, and Heine was a Jew. His opinion of +the Prussians was that they are a compost of beer, deceit, and sand. +French literature and English literature can be compared, throughout +their long course, sometimes to the great advantage of the French. +German literature cannot seriously be compared with either. + +It may be objected that literature and art are ornamental affairs, which +count for little in the deadly strife of nations. But that is not so. +Our language cannot go anywhere without taking our ideas and our creed +with it, not to mention our institutions and our games. If the Germans +could understand what Chaucer means when he says of his Knight that + + he loved chivalry, + Truth and honour, freedom and courtesy, + +then indeed we might be near to an understanding. I asked a good German +scholar the other day what is the German word for 'fair play'. He +replied, as they do in Parliament, that he must ask for notice of that +question. I fear there is no German word for 'fair play'. + +The little countries, the pawns and victims of German policy, understand +our ideas better. The peoples who have suffered from tyranny and +oppression look to England for help, and it is a generous weakness in us +that we sometimes deceive them by our sympathy, for our power is +limited, and we cannot help them all. But it will not count against us +at the final reckoning that in most places where humanity has suffered +cruelty and indignity the name of England has been invoked: not always +in vain. + +And now, for I have kept to the last what I believe to be the greatest +gain of all, the entry of America into the War assures the triumph of +our common language. America is peopled by many races; only a minority +of the inhabitants--an influential and governing minority--are of the +English stock. But here, again, the language carries it; and the ideas +that inspire America are ideas which had their origin in the long +English struggle for freedom. Our sufferings in this War are great, but +they are not so great that we cannot recognize virtue in a new recruit +to the cause. No nation, in the whole course of human history, has ever +made a more splendid decision, or performed a more magnanimous act, than +America, when she decided to enter this War. She had nothing to gain, +for, to say the bare truth, she had little to lose. If Germany were to +dominate the world, America, no doubt, would be ruined; but in all human +likelihood, Germany's impious attempt would have spent itself and been +broken long before it reached the coasts of America. America might have +stood out of the War in the assurance that her own interests were safe, +and that, when the tempest had passed, the centre of civilization would +be transferred from a broken and exhausted Europe to a peaceful and +prosperous America. Some few Americans talked in this strain, and +favoured a decision in this sense. But it was not for nothing that +America was founded upon religion. When she saw humanity in anguish, she +did not pass by on the other side. Her entry into the War has put an +end, I hope for ever, to the family quarrel, not very profound or +significant, which for a century and a half has been a jarring note in +the relations of mother and daughter. And it has put an end to another +danger. It seemed at one time not unlikely that the English language as +it is spoken overseas would set up a life of its own, and become +separated from the language of the old country. A development of this +kind would be natural enough. The Boers of South Africa speak Dutch, but +not the Dutch spoken in Holland. The French Canadians speak French, but +not the French of Moliere. Half a century ago, when America was +exploring and settling her own country, in wild and lone places, her +pioneers enriched the English speech with all kinds of new and vivid +phrases. The tendency was then for America to go her own way, and to +cultivate what is new in language at the expense of what is old. She +prided herself even on having a spelling of her own, and seemed almost +willing to break loose from tradition and to coin a new American +English. + +This has not happened; and now, I think, it will not happen. For one +thing, the American colonists left us when already we had a great +literature. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Spenser belong to America no less +than to us, and America has never forgotten them. The education which +has been fostered in American schools and colleges keeps the whole +nation in touch with the past. Some of their best authors write in a +style that Milton and Burke would understand and approve. There is no +more beautiful English prose than Nathaniel Hawthorne's. The best +speeches of Abraham Lincoln, and, we may truly add, of President Wilson, +are merely classic English. During my own lifetime I am sure I have seen +the speech usages of the two peoples draw closer together. For one +thing, we on this side now borrow, and borrow very freely, the more +picturesque colloquialisms of America. On informal occasions I sometimes +brighten my own speech with phrases which I think I owe to one of the +best of living American authors, Mr. George Ade, of Chicago, the author +of _Fables in Slang_. The press, the telegraph, the telephone, and the +growing habit of travel bind us closer together every year; and the +English that we speak, however rich and various it may be, is going to +remain one and the same English, our common inheritance. + +One question, the most important and difficult of all, remains to be +asked. Will this War, in its course and in its effects, tend to prevent +or discourage later wars? If the gains that it brings prove to be merely +partial and national gains, if it exalts one nation by unjustly +depressing another, and conquers cruelty by equal cruelty, then nothing +can be more certain than that the peace of the world is farther off than +ever. When she was near her death, Edith Cavell, patriot and martyr, +said that patriotism is not enough. Every one who thinks on +international affairs knows this; almost every one forgets it in time of +war. What can be done to prevent nations from appealing to the wild +justice of revenge? + +A League of Nations may do good, but I am surprised that any one who has +imagination and a knowledge of the facts should entertain high hopes of +it as a full solution. There is a League of Nations to-day which has +given a verdict against the Central Powers, and that verdict is being +enforced by the most terrible War in all human history. If the verdict +had been given before the War began, it may be said, then Germany might +have accepted it, and refrained. So she might, but what then? She would +have felt herself wronged; she would have deferred the War, and, in ways +that she knows so well, would have set about making a party for herself +among the nations of the League. Who can be confident that she would +have failed either to divide her judges, or to accumulate such elements +of strength that she might dare to defy them? A League of Nations would +work well only if its verdicts were loyally accepted by all the nations +composing it. To make majority-rule possible you must have a community +made up of members who are reasonably well informed upon one another's +affairs, and who are bound together by a tie of loyalty stronger and +more enduring than their causes of difference. It would be a happy thing +if the nations of the world made such a community; and the sufferings of +this War have brought them nearer to desiring it. But those who believe +that such a community can be formed to-day or to-morrow are too +sanguine. It must not be forgotten that the very principle of the +League, if its judgements are to take effect, involves a world-war in +cases where a strong minority resists those judgements. Every war would +become a world-war. Perhaps this very fact would prevent wars, but it +cannot be said that experience favours such a conclusion. + +There is no escape for us by way of the Gospels. The Gospel precept to +turn the other cheek to the aggressor was not addressed to a meeting of +trustees. Christianity has never shirked war, or even much disliked it. +Where the whole soul is set on things unseen, wounds and death become of +less account. And if the Christians have not helped us to avoid war, how +should the pacifists be of use? Those of them whom I happen to know, or +to have met, have shown themselves, in the relations of civil life, to +be irritable, self-willed, combative creatures, where the average +soldier is calm, unselfish, and placable. There is something incongruous +and absurd in the pacifist of British descent. He has fighting in his +blood, and when his creed, or his nervous sensibility to physical +horrors, denies him the use of fighting, his blood turns sour. He can +argue, and object, and criticize, but he cannot lead. All that he can +offer us in effect is eternal quarrels in place of occasional fights. + +No one can do anything to prevent war who does not recognize its +splendour, for it is by its splendour that it keeps its hold on +humanity, and persists. The wickedest and most selfish war in the world +is not fought by wicked and selfish soldiers. The spirit of man is +immense, and for an old memory, a pledged word, a sense of fellowship, +offers this frail and complicated tissue of flesh and blood, which a pin +or a grain of sand will disorder, to be the victim of all the atrocities +that the wit of man can compound out of fire and steel and poison. If +that spirit is to be changed, or directed into new courses, it must be +by one who understands it, and approaches it reverently, with bared +head. + +The best hope seems to me to lie in paying chief attention to the +improvement of war rather than to its abolition; to the decencies of the +craft; to the style rather than the matter. Style is often more +important than matter, and this War would not have been so fierce or so +prolonged if it had not become largely a war on a point of style, a war, +that is to say, to determine the question how war should be waged. If +the Germans had behaved humanely and considerately to the civil +population of Belgium, if they had kept their solemn promise not to use +poison-gas, if they had refrained from murder at sea, if their valour +had been accompanied by chivalry, the War might now have been ended, +perhaps not in their disfavour, for it would not have been felt, as it +now is felt, that they must be defeated at no matter how great a cost, +or civilization will perish. + +Even as things are, there have been some gains in the manner of +conducting war, which, when future generations look back on them, will +be seen to be considerable. It is true that modern science has devised +new and appalling weapons. The invention of a new weapon in war always +arouses protest, but it does not usually, in the long run, make war more +inhuman. There was a great outcry in Europe when the broadsword was +superseded by the rapier, and a tall man of his hands could be spitted +like a cat or a rabbit by any dexterous little fellow with a trained +wrist. There was a wave of indignation, which was a hundred years in +passing, when musketry first came into use, and a man-at-arms of great +prowess could be killed from behind a wall by one who would not have +dared to meet him in open combat. But these changes did not, in effect, +make war crueller or more deadly. They gave more play to intelligence, +and abolished the tyranny of the bully, who took the wall of every man +he met, and made himself a public nuisance. The introduction of +poison-gas, which is a small thing compared with the invention of +fire-arms, has given the chemist a place in the ranks of fighting-men. +And if science has lent its aid to the destruction of life, it has spent +greater zeal and more prolonged effort on the saving of life. No +previous war will compare with this in care for the wounded and maimed. +In all countries, and on all fronts, an army of skilled workers devote +themselves to this single end. I believe that this quickening of the +human conscience, for that is what it is, will prove to be the greatest +gain of the War, and the greatest advance made in restraint of war. If +the nations come to recognize that their first duty, and their first +responsibility, is to those who give so much in their service, that +recognition will of itself do more than can be done by any conclave of +statesmen to discourage war. It was the monk Telemachus, according to +the old story, who stopped the gladiatorial games at Rome, and was +stoned by the people. If war, in process of time, shall be abolished, +or, failing that, shall be governed by the codes of humanity and +chivalry, like a decent tournament; then the one sacrificial figure +which will everywhere be honoured for the change will be the figure not +of a priest or a politician, but of a hospital nurse. + + + + +THE WAR AND THE PRESS + +_A paper read to the Essay Society, Eton College, March 14, 1918._ + + +When you asked me to read or speak to you, I promised to speak about the +War. What I have to say is wholly orthodox, but it is none the worse for +that. Indeed, when I think how entirely the War possesses our thoughts +and how entirely we are agreed concerning it, I seem to see a new +meaning in the creeds of the religions. These creeds grew up by general +consent, and no one who believed them grudged repeating them. In the +face of an indifferent or hostile world the faithful found themselves +obliged to define their belief, and to strengthen themselves by an +unwearying and united profession of faith. It is the enemy who gives +meaning to a religious creed: without our creed we cannot win. So I am +willing to remind you of what you know, rather than to try to introduce +you to novelties. + +The strength of the enemy lies in his creed; not in the lands that he +has ravished from his neighbours. If his creed does not prevail, his +lands will not help him. Germany has taken lands from Belgium, Serbia, +Roumania, Russia, and the rest, but unless her digestion is as strong as +her appetite, she will fail to keep them. If she is to hold them in +peace, the peoples who inhabit these lands must be either exterminated +or converted to the German creed. Lands can be annexed by a successful +campaign; they can be permanently conquered only by the operations of +peace. The people who survive will be a weakness to the German Empire +unless they accept what they are offered, a share in the German creed. + +That creed has not many natural attractions for the peoples on whom it +is imposed by force. It is an intensely patriotic creed; it insists on +racial supremacy, and on unity to be achieved by violence. Pleading and +persuasion have little part in it except as instruments of deceit. There +is no use in listening to what the Germans say; they do not believe it +themselves. What they say is for others; what they do is for themselves. +While they are at war, language for them has only two uses--to conceal +their thoughts, and to deceive their enemies. + +The creed of Western civilization, for which they feel nothing but +contempt, and on which they will be broken, is not a simple thing, like +theirs. The words by which it is commonly expressed--democracy, +parliamentarism, individual liberty, diversity, free development--are +puzzling theoretic words, which make no instinctive appeal to the heart. +Nevertheless, we stand for growth as against order; and for life as +against death. If Germany wins this war, her system will have to be +broken or to decay before growth can start again. Must we lose even a +hundred years in shaking ourselves free from the paralysis of the German +nightmare? + +The Germans have shown themselves strong in their unity, and strong in +their willingness to make great sacrifices to preserve that unity. No +one can deny nobility to the sacrifice made by the simple-minded German +soldier who dies fighting bravely for his people and his creed. His +narrowness is his strength, and makes unselfishness easier by saving his +mind from question. 'This one thing you shall do', his country says to +him, 'fight and die for your country, so that your country and your +people shall have lordship over other countries and other peoples. You +are nothing; Germany is everything.' + +We who live in this island love our country with at least as deep a +passion; but a creed so simple as the German creed will never do for us. +We are patriotic, but our patriotism is often overlaid and confused by a +wider thought and a wider sympathy than the Germans have ever known. +Much extravagant praise has lately been given to the German power of +thinking, which produces the elaborate marvels of German organization. +But this thinking is slave-thinking, not master-thinking; it spends +itself wholly on devising complicated means to achieve a very simple +end. That is what makes the Germans so like the animals. Their wisdom is +all cunning. I have had German friends, two or three, in the course of +my life, but none of them ever understood a word that I said if I tried +to say what I thought. You could talk to them about food, and they +responded easily. It was all very restful and pleasant, like talking to +an intelligent dog. + +If each of the allied nations were devoted to the creed of nationalism, +the alliance could not endure. We depend for our strength on what we +hold in common. The weakness of this wider creed is that it makes no +such immediate and strong appeal to the natural instincts as is made by +the mother-country. It demands the habitual exercise of reason and +imagination. Further, seeing that we are infinitely less tame and less +docile than the Germans, we depend for our strength on informing and +convincing our people, and on obtaining agreement among them. Questions +which in Germany are discussed only in the gloomy Berlin head-quarters +of the General Staff are discussed here in the newspapers. In the press, +even under the censorship, we think aloud. It records our differences +and debates our policy. You could not suppress these differences and +these debates without damaging our cause. There is no freedom worth +having which does not, sooner or later, include the freedom to say what +you think. + +No doubt we could, if necessary, carry on for a time without the press; +and I agree with those newspaper writers who have been saying recently +that the importance of the press is monstrously exaggerated by some of +its critics. The working-man, so far as I know him, does not depend for +his patriotism on the leader-writers of the newspapers. He takes even +the news with a very large grain of salt. 'So the papers say', he +remarks; 'it may be true or it may not.' Yet the press has done good +service, and might do better, in putting the meaning of the War before +our people and in holding them together. Freedom means that we must love +our diversity well enough to be willing to unite to protect it. We must +die for our differences as cheerfully as the Germans die for their +pattern. Or, if we can sketch a design of our cause, we must be as +passionate in defence of that large vague design as the Germans are +passionate in defence of their tight uniformity and their drill. If we +were to fail to keep together, our cause, I believe, would still +prevail, but at a cost that we dare not contemplate, by way of anarchy, +and the dissolution of societies, by long tortures, and tears, and +martyrdoms. If we refuse to die in the ranks against the German tyranny +we can keep our faith by dying at the stake. There are those who think +martyrdom the better way; and certainly that was how Christianity +prevailed in Europe; you can read the story in Caxton's translation of +the _Golden Legend_. But these saints and martyrs were making a +beginning; we are fighting to keep what we have won, and it would be a +huge failure on our part if we could keep nothing of it, but had to +begin all over again. + +The business of the press, then, at this present crisis, is to keep the +cause for which we are fighting clearly before us, and this it has done +well; also, because we do not fight best in blinders, to tell us all +that can be known of the facts of the situation, and this it has done +not so well. + +The power of the newspapers is that most people read them, and that many +people read nothing else. Their weakness is that they have to sell or +cease to be, so that by a natural instinct of self-preservation they +fall back on the two sure methods whereby you can always capture the +attention of the public. Any man who is trying to say what he thinks, +making full allowance for all doubts and differences, runs the risk of +losing his audience. He can regain their attention by flattering them or +by frightening them. Flattery and fright, the one following the other +from day to day, and often from paragraph to paragraph, is a very large +part of the newspaper reader's diet. If he is a sane and busy man, he is +not too much impressed by either. He is not mercurial enough for the +quick changes of an orator's or journalist's fancy, whereby he is called +on, one day, to dig the German warships like rats out of their harbour, +and, not many days later, to spend his last shilling on the purchase of +the last bullet to shoot at the German invader. He knows that this is +such stuff as dreams are made of. He knows also that the orator or +journalist, after calling on him for these achievements, goes home to +dinner. No great harm is done, just as no great harm is done by bad +novels. But an opportunity is lost; the press and the platform might do +more than they do to strengthen us and inform us, and help forward our +cause. + +I name the press and the platform together because they are essentially +the same thing. Journalism is a kind of talk. The press, it is fair to +say, is ourselves; and every people, it may truly be said, has the press +that it deserves. But reading is a thing that we do chiefly for +indulgence and pleasure in our idle time; and the press falls in with +our mood, and supplies us with what we want in our weaker and lazier +moments. No responsible man, with an eager and active mind, spends much +of his time on the newspapers. Those who are excited to action by what +they read in the papers are mostly content with the mild exercise of +writing to these same papers to explain that some one else ought to do +something and to do it at once. Their excitement worries themselves more +than it hurts others. When the devil, with horns and hooves, appeared to +Cuvier, the naturalist, and threatened to devour him, Cuvier, who was +asleep at the time, opened his eyes and looked at the terrible +apparition. 'Hm,' he said, 'cloven-footed; graminivorous; needn't be +afraid of you;' and he went to sleep again. A man who says that he has +not time to read the morning papers carefully is commonly a man who +counts; he knows what he has to do, and he goes on doing it. So far as I +have observed, the cadets who are training for command in the army take +very little interest in the exhortations of the newspapers. They even +prefer the miserable trickle which is all that is left of football news. + +One of the chief problems connected with the press is therefore +this--how can it be prevented from producing hysteria in the +feeble-minded? In time of war the censorship no doubt does something to +prevent this; and I think it might do more. 'Scare-lines', as they are +called--that is, sensational headings in large capital letters--might be +reduced by law to modest dimensions. More important, the censorship +might insist that all who write shall sign their names to their +articles. Why should journalists alone be relieved of responsibility to +their country? Is it possible that the Government is afraid of the +press? There is no need for fear. 'Beware of Aristophanes', says Landor, +'he can cast your name as a byword to a thousand cities of Asia for a +thousand years. But all that the press can do by its disfavour is to +keep your name obscure in a hundred cities of England for a hundred +days. Signed articles are robbed of their vague impressiveness, and are +known for what they are--the opinions of one man. I would also recommend +that a photograph of the author be placed at the head of every article. +I have been saved from many bad novels by the helpful pictorial +advertisements of modern publishers. + +The real work of the Press, as I said, is to help to hold the people +together. Nothing else that it can do is of any importance compared with +this. We are at one in this War as we have never been at one before +within living memory, as we were not at one against Napoleon or against +Louis XIV. Our trial is on us; and if we cannot preserve our oneness, we +fail. What would be left to us I do not know; but I am sure that an +England which had accepted conditions of peace at Germany's hands would +not be the England that any of us know. There might still be a few +Englishmen, but they would have to look about for somewhere to live. +Serbia would be a good place; it has made no peace-treaty with Germany. + +We are profoundly at one; and are divided only by illusions, which the +press, in times past, has done much to keep alive. One of these +illusions is the illusion of party. I have never been behind the scenes, +among the creaking machinery, but my impression, as a spectator, is that +parties in England are made very much as you pick up sides for a game. I +have observed that they are all conservative. The affections are +conservative; every one has a liking for his old habits and his old +associates. There is something comic in a well-nourished rich man who +believes that he is a bold reformer and a destructive thinker. For real +clotted reactionary sentiment I know nothing to match the table-talk of +any aged parliamentary Radical. When we get a Labour Government, it will +be patriotic, prejudiced, opposed to all innovation, superstitiously +reverential of the past, sticky and, probably, tyrannical. + +The party illusion has been much weakened by the War, and those who +still repeat the old catch-words are very near to lunacy. There is a +deeper and more dangerous illusion which has not been killed--the class +illusion. We are all very much alike; but we live in water-tight +compartments called classes, and the inhabitants of each compartment +tend to believe that they alone are patriotic. This illusion, to be +just, is not fostered chiefly by the press, which wants to sell its work +to all classes; but it has strong hold of the Government office. The +Government does not know the people, except as an actor knows the +audience; and therefore does not trust the people. It is pathetic to +hear officials talking timidly of the people--will they endure hardships +and sacrifices, will they carry through? Yet most of the successes we +have won in the War have to be credited not so much to the skill of the +management as to the amazing high courage of the ordinary soldier and +sailor. Even soldiers are often subject to class illusion. I remember +listening, in the first month of the War, to a retired colonel, who +explained, with some heat, that the territorials could never be of any +use. That illusion has gone. Then it was Kitchener's army--well-meaning +people, no doubt, but impossible for a European war. Kitchener's army +made good. Now it is the civil population, who, though they are the +blood relatives of the soldiers, are distrusted, and believed to be +likely to fail under a strain. Yet all the time, if you want to hear +half-hearted, timid, pusillanimous talk, the place where you are most +likely to hear it is in the public offices. Most of those who talk in +this way would be brave enough in fight, but they are kept at desks, and +worried with detailed business, and harassed by speculative dangers, and +they lose perspective. Soon or late, we are going to win this War; and +it is the people who are going to win it. + +If the press (or perhaps the Government, which controls the press) is +not afraid of the people, why does it tell them so little about our +reverses, and the merits of our enemies? For information concerning +these things we have to depend wholly on conversation with returned +soldiers. For instance, the horrible stories that we hear of the brutal +treatment of our prisoners are numerous, and are true, and make a heavy +bill against Germany, which bill we mean to present. But are they fair +examples of the average treatment? We cannot tell; the accounts +published are almost exclusively confined to the worst happenings. Most +of the officers with whom I have talked who had been in several German +military prisons said that they had nothing serious to complain of. +Prison is not a good place, and it is not pleasant to have your +pea-soup and your coffee, one after the other, in the same tin dipper; +but they were soldiers, and they agreed that it would be absurd to make +a grievance of things like that. One private soldier was an even greater +philosopher. 'No', he said, 'I have nothing to complain of. Of course, +they do spit at you a good deal.' That man was unconquerable. + +In shipping returns and the like we are given averages; why are we told +nothing at all of the milder experiences of our soldier prisoners? It +would not make us less resolved to do all that we can to better the lot +of those who are suffering insult and torture, and to exact full +retribution from the enemy. And it would bring some hope to those whose +husbands or children or friends are in German military prisons, and who +are racked every day by tales of what, in fact, are exceptional +atrocities. + +Or take the question of the conduct of German officers. We know that the +Prussian military Government, in its approved handbooks, teaches its +officers the use of brutality and terror as military weapons. The German +philosophy of war, of which this is a part, is not really a philosophy +of war; it is a philosophy of victory. For a long time now the Germans +have been accustomed to victory, and have studied the arts of breaking +the spirit and torturing the mind of the peoples whom they invade. Their +philosophy of war will have to be rewritten when the time comes for them +to accommodate their doctrine to their own defeat. In the meantime they +teach frightfulness to their officers, and most of their officers prove +ready pupils. There must be some, one would think, here and there, if +only a sprinkling, who fall short of the Prussian doctrine, and are +betrayed by human feeling into what we should recognize as decent and +honourable conduct. And so there are; only we do not hear of them +through the press. I should like to tell two stories which come to me +from personal sources. The first may be called the story of the +Christmas truce and the German captain. In the lull which fell on the +fighting at the time of the first Christmas of the War, a British +officer was disquieted to notice that his men were fraternizing with the +Germans, who were standing about with them in No-man's land, laughing +and talking. He went out to them at once, to bring them back to their +own trenches. When he came up to his men, he met a German captain who +had arrived on the same errand. The two officers, British and German, +fell into talk, and while they were standing together, in not unfriendly +fashion, one of the men took a snapshot photograph of them, copies of +which were afterwards circulated in the trenches. Then the men were +recalled to their duty, on the one side and the other, and, after an +interval of some days, the war began again. A little time after this the +British officer was in charge of a patrol, and, having lost his way, +found himself in the German trenches, where he and his men were +surrounded and captured. As they were being marched off along the +trenches, they met the German captain, who ordered the men to be taken +to the rear, and then, addressing the officer without any sign of +recognition, said in a loud voice, 'You, follow me!' He led him by +complicated ways along a whole series of trenches and up a sap, at the +end of which he stopped, saluted, and, pointing with his hand, said +'Your trenches are there. Good day.' + +My second story, the story of the British lieutenant in No-man's land, +is briefer. I was with a friend of mine, a young officer back from the +front, wounded, and the conduct of German officers was being discussed. +He said, 'You can't expect me to be very hard on German officers, for +one of them saved my life'. He then told how he and a companion crept +out into No-man's land to bring in some of our wounded who were lying +there. When they had reached the wounded, and were preparing to bring +them in, they were discovered by the Germans opposite, who at once +whipped up a machine-gun and turned it on them. Their lives were not +worth half a minute's purchase, when suddenly a German officer leapt up +on to the parapet, and, angrily waving back the machine-gunners, called +out, in English, 'That's all right. You may take them in.' + +These are no doubt exceptional cases; the rule is very different. But a +good many of such cases are known to soldiers, and I have seen none of +them in the press. Soldiers are silent by law, and journalists either do +not hear these things, or, believing that hate is a valuable asset, +suppress all mention of them. If England could ever be disgraced by a +mishap, she would be disgraced by having given birth to those +Englishmen, few and wretched, who, when an enemy behaves generously, +conceal or deny the fact. And consider the effect of this silence on the +Germans. There are some German officers, as I said, who are better than +the German military handbooks, and better than their monstrous chiefs. +Which of them will pay the smallest attention to what our papers say +when he finds that they collect only atrocities, and are blind to +humanity if they see it in an enemy? He will regard our press accounts +of the German army as the work of malicious cripples; and our perfectly +true narrative of the unspeakable brutality and filthiness of the German +army's doings will lose credit with him. + +If I had my way, I would staff the newspaper offices, as far as +possible, with wounded soldiers, and I would give some of the present +staff a holiday as stretcher-bearers. Then we should hear more of the +truth. + +Is it feared that we should have no heart for the War if once we are +convinced that among the Germans there are some human beings? Is it +believed that our people can be heroic on one condition only, that they +shall be asked to fight no one but orangoutangs? Our airmen fight as +well as any one, in this world or above it, has ever fought; and we owe +them a great debt of thanks for maintaining, and, by their example, +actually teaching the Germans to maintain, a high standard of decency. + +This War has shown, what we might have gathered from our history, that +we fight best up hill. From our history also we may learn that it does +not relax our sinews to be told that our enemy has some good qualities. +We should like him better as an enemy if he had more. We know what we +have believed; and we are not going to fail in resolve or perseverance +because we find that our task is difficult, and that we have not a +monopoly of all the virtues. + +Most of us will not live to see it, for our recovery from this disease +will be long and troublesome, but the War will do great things for us. +It will make a reality of the British Commonwealth, which until now has +been only an aspiration and a dream. It will lay the sure foundation of +a League of Nations in the affection and understanding which it has +promoted among all English-speaking peoples, and in the relations of +mutual respect and mutual service which it has established between the +English-speaking peoples and the Latin races. Our united Rolls of Honour +make the most magnificent list of benefactors that the world has ever +seen. In the end, the War may perhaps even save the soul of the main +criminal, awaken him from his bloody dream, and lead him back by degrees +to the possibility of innocence and goodwill. + + + + +SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND + +_Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy, delivered July 4, +1918_ + + +There is nothing new and important to be said of Shakespeare. In recent +years antiquaries have made some additions to our knowledge of the facts +of his life. These additions are all tantalizing and comparatively +insignificant. The history of the publication of his works has also +become clearer and more intelligible, especially by the labours of Mr. +Pollard; but the whole question of quartos and folios remains thorny and +difficult, so that no one can reach any definite conclusion in this +matter without a liberal use of conjecture. + +I propose to return to the old catholic doctrine which has been +illuminated by so many disciples of Shakespeare, and to speak of him as +our great national poet. He embodies and exemplifies all the virtues, +and most of the faults, of England. Any one who reads and understands +him understands England. This method of studying Shakespeare by reading +him has perhaps gone somewhat out of vogue in favour of more roundabout +ways of approach, but it is the best method for all that. Shakespeare +tells us more about himself and his mind than we could learn even from +those who knew him in his habit as he lived, if they were all alive and +all talking. To learn what he tells we have only to listen. + +I think there is no national poet, of any great nation whatsoever, who +is so completely representative of his own people as Shakespeare is +representative of the English. There is certainly no other English poet +who comes near to Shakespeare in embodying our character and our +foibles. No one, in this connexion, would venture even to mention +Spenser or Milton. Chaucer is English, but he lived at a time when +England was not yet completely English, so that he is only +half-conscious of his nation. Wordsworth is English, but he was a +recluse. Browning is English, but he lived apart or abroad, and was a +tourist of genius. The most English of all our great men of letters, +next to Shakespeare, is certainly Dr. Johnson, but he was no great poet. +Shakespeare, it may be suspected, is too poetic to be a perfect +Englishman; but his works refute that suspicion. He is the Englishman +endowed, by a fortunate chance, with matchless powers of expression. He +is not silent or dull; but he understands silent men, and he enters into +the minds of dull men. Moreover, the Englishman seems duller than he is. +It is a point of pride with him not to be witty and not to give voice to +his feelings. The shepherd Corin, who was never in court, has the true +philosophy. 'He that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain +of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred.' + +Shakespeare knew nothing of the British Empire. He was an islander, and +his patriotism was centred on + + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive to a house, + Against the envy of less happier lands. + +When he speaks of Britons and British he always means the Celtic +peoples of the island. Once only he makes a slip. There is a passage in +_King Lear_ (IV. vi. 249) where the followers of the King, who in the +text of the quarto versions are correctly called 'the British party', +appear in the folio version as 'the English party'. Perhaps the quartos +contain Shakespeare's own correction of his own inadvertence; but those +of us, and we are many, who have been blamed by northern patriots for +the misuse of the word English may claim Shakespeare as a brother in +misfortune. + +Our critics, at home and abroad, accuse us of arrogance. I doubt if we +can prove them wrong; but they do not always understand the nature of +English arrogance. It does not commonly take the form of self-assertion. +Shakespeare's casual allusions to our national characteristics are +almost all of a kind; they are humorous and depreciatory. Here are some +of them. Every holiday fool in England, we learn from Trinculo in _The +Tempest_, would give a piece of silver to see a strange fish, though no +one will give a doit to relieve a lame beggar. The English are +quarrelsome, Master Slender testifies, at the game of bear-baiting. They +are great drinkers, says Iago, 'most potent in potting; your Dane, your +German, and your swag-bellied Hollander are nothing to your English'. +They are epicures, says Macbeth. They will eat like wolves and fight +like devils, says the Constable of France. An English nobleman, +according to the Lady of Belmont, can speak no language but his own. An +English tailor, according to the porter of Macbeth's castle, will steal +cloth where there is hardly any cloth to be stolen, out of a French +hose. The devil, says the clown in _All's Well_, has an English name; he +is called the Black Prince. + +Nothing has been changed in this vein of humorous banter since +Shakespeare died. One of the best pieces of Shakespeare criticism ever +written is contained in four words of the present Poet Laureate's Ode +for the Tercentenary of Shakespeare, 'London's laughter is thine'. The +wit of our trenches in this war, especially perhaps among the Cockney +and South country regiments, is pure Shakespeare. Falstaff would find +himself at home there, and would recognize a brother in Old Bill. + +The best known of Shakespeare's allusions to England are no doubt those +splendid outbursts of patriotism which occur in _King John_, and +_Richard II,_ and _Henry V_. And of these the dying speech of John of +Gaunt, in _Richard II_, is the deepest in feeling. It is a lament upon +the decay of England, 'this dear, dear land'. Since we began to be a +nation we have always lamented our decay. I am afraid that the Germans, +whose self-esteem takes another form, were deceived by this. To the +right English temper all bragging is a thing of evil omen. That temper +is well expressed, where perhaps you would least expect to find it, in +the speech of King Henry V to the French herald: + + To say the sooth,-- + Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much + Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,-- + My people are with sickness much enfeebled, + My numbers lessened, and those few I have + Almost no better than so many French; + Who, when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, + I thought upon one pair of English legs + Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, + That I do brag thus! This your air of France + Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. + Go therefore, tell thy master here I am: + My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; + My army but a weak and sickly guard; + Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, + Though France himself and such another neighbour + Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. + Go bid thy master well advise himself: + If we may pass, we will; if we be hindered, + We shall your tawny ground with your red blood + Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well. + The sum of all our answer is but this: + We would not seek a battle as we are; + Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it; + So tell your master. + +That speech might have been written for the war which we are waging +to-day against a less honourable enemy. But, indeed, Shakespeare is full +of prophecy. Here is his description of the volunteers who flocked to +the colours in the early days of the war: + + Rash inconsiderate fiery voluntaries, + With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens, + Have sold their fortunes at their native homes, + Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, + To make a hazard of new fortunes here. + In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits + Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er + Did never float upon the swelling tide. + +And here is his sermon on national unity, preached by the Bishop of +Carlisle: + + O, if you rear this house against this house, + It will the woefullest division prove + That ever fell upon this cursed earth. + Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, + Lest child, child's children, cry against you 'Woe!' + +The patriotism of the women is described by the Bastard in _King John_: + + Your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids + Like Amazons come tripping after drums: + Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, + Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts + To fierce and bloody inclination. + +Lastly, Queen Isabella's blessing, spoken over King Henry V and his +French bride, predicts an enduring friendship between England and +France: + + As man and wife, being two, are one in love, + So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, + That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, + Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, + Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, + To make divorce of their incorporate league; + That English may as French, French Englishmen, + Receive each other! God speak this Amen! + +One of the delights of a literature as rich and as old as ours is that +at every step we take backwards we find ourselves again. We are +delivered from that foolish vein of thought, so dear to ignorant +conceit, which degrades the past in order to exalt the present and the +future. It is easy to feel ourselves superior to men who no longer +breathe and walk, and whom we do not trouble to understand. Here is the +real benefit of scholarship; it reduces men to kinship with their race. +Science, pressing forward, and beating against the bars which guard the +secrets of the future, has no such sympathy in its gift. + +Anyhow, in Shakespeare's time, England was already old England; which if +she could ever cease to be, she might be Jerusalem, or Paradise, but +would not be England at all. What Shakespeare and his fellows of the +sixteenth century gave her was a new self-consciousness and a new +self-confidence. They foraged in the past; they recognized themselves in +their ancestors; they found feudal England, which had existed for many +hundreds of years, a dumb thing; and when she did not know her own +meaning, they endowed her purposes with words. They gave her a new +delight in herself, a new sense of power and exhilaration, which has +remained with her to this day, surviving all the airy philosophic +theories of humanity which thought to supersede the old solid national +temper. The English national temper is better fitted for traffic with +the world than any mere doctrine can ever be, for it is marked by an +immense tolerance. And this, too, Shakespeare has expressed. Falstaff is +perhaps the most tolerant man who was ever made in God's image. But it +is rather late in the day to introduce Falstaff to an English audience. +Perhaps you will let me modernize a brief scene from Shakespeare, +altering nothing essential, to illustrate how completely his spirit is +the spirit of our troops in Flanders and France. + +A small British expeditionary force, bound on an international mission, +finds itself stranded in an unknown country. The force is composed of +men very various in rank and profession. Two of them, whom we may call +a non-commissioned officer and a private, go exploring by themselves, +and take one of the natives of the place prisoner. This native is an +ugly low-born creature, of great physical strength and violent criminal +tendencies, a liar, and ready at any time for theft, rape, and murder. +He is a child of Nature, a lover of music, slavish in his devotion to +power and rank, and very easily imposed upon by authority. His captors +do not fear him, and, which is more, they do not dislike him. They found +him lying out in a kind of no-man's land, drenched to the skin, so they +determine to keep him as a souvenir, and to take him home with them. +They nickname him, in friendly fashion, the monster, and the mooncalf, +as who should say Fritz, or the Boche. But their first care is to give +him a drink, and to make him swear allegiance upon the bottle. 'Where +the devil should he learn our language?' says the non-commissioned +officer, when the monster speaks. 'I will give him some relief, if it be +but for that.' The prisoner then offers to kiss the foot of his captor. +'I shall laugh myself to death', says the private, 'at this puppy-headed +monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him, +but that the poor monster's in drink.' When the private continues to +rail at the monster, his officer calls him to order. 'Trinculo, keep a +good tongue in your head: if you prove a mutineer, the next tree------ +The poor monster's my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.' + +In this scene from _The Tempest_, everything is English except the +names. The incident has been repeated many times in the last four years. +'This is Bill,' one private said, introducing a German soldier to his +company. 'He's my prisoner. I wounded him, and I took him, and where I +go he goes. Come on, Bill, old man.' The Germans have known many +failures since they began the War, but one failure is more tragic than +all the rest. They love to be impressive, to produce a panic of +apprehension and a thrill of reverence in their enemy; and they have +completely failed to impress the ordinary British private. He remains +incurably humorous, and so little moved to passion that his daily +offices of kindness are hardly interrupted. + +Shakespeare's tolerance, which is no greater than the tolerance of the +common English soldier, may be well seen in his treatment of his +villains. Is a liar, or a thief, merely a bad man? Shakespeare does not +much encourage you to think so. Is a murderer a bad man? He would be an +undiscerning critic who should accept that phrase as a true and adequate +description of Macbeth. Shakespeare does not dislike liars, thieves, and +murderers as such, and he does not pretend to dislike them. He has his +own dislikes. I once asked a friend of mine, long since dead, who +refused to condemn almost anything, whether there were any vices that he +could not find it in his heart to tolerate. He replied at once that +there were two--cruelty, and bilking; which, if the word is not +academic, I may paraphrase as cheating the helpless, swindling a child +out of its pennies, or leaving a house by the back door in order to +avoid paying your cabman his lawful fare. These exclusions from mercy +Shakespeare would accept; and I think he would add a third. His worst +villains are all theorists, who cheat and murder by the book of +arithmetic. They are men of principle, and are ready to expound their +principle and to defend it in argument. They follow it, without remorse +or mitigation, wherever it leads them. It is Iago's logic that makes him +so terrible; his mind is as cold as a snake and as hard as a surgeon's +knife. The Italian Renaissance did produce some such men; the modern +German imitation is a grosser and feebler thing, brutality trying to +emulate the glitter and flourish of refined cruelty. + +With his wonderful quickness of intuition and his unsurpassed subtlety +of expression Shakespeare drew the characters of the Englishmen that he +saw around him. Why is it that he has given us no full-length portrait, +carefully drawn, of a hypocrite? It can hardly have been for lack of +models. Outside England, not only among our enemies, but among our +friends and allies, it is agreed that hypocrisy is our national vice, +our ruling passion. There must be some meaning in so widely held an +opinion; and, on our side, there are damaging admissions by many +witnesses. The portrait gallery of Charles Dickens is crowded with +hypocrites. Some of them are greasy and servile, like Mr. Pumblechook or +Uriah Heep; others rise to poetic heights of daring, like Mr. Chadband +or Mr. Squeers. But Shakespeare's hypocrites enjoy themselves too much; +they are artists to the finger-tips. It may be said, no doubt, that +Shakespeare lived before organized religious dissent had developed a new +type of character among the weaker brethren. But the Low Church +Protestant, whom Shakespeare certainly knew, is not very different from +the evangelical dissenter of later days; and he did not interest +Shakespeare. + +My own impression is that Shakespeare had a free and happy childhood, +and grew up without much check from his elders. It is the child who sees +hypocrites. These preposterous grown-up people, who, if they are +well-mannered, do not seem to enjoy their food, who are fussy about +meaningless employments, and never give way to natural impulses, must +surely assume this veil of decorum with intent to deceive. Charles +Dickens was hard driven in his childhood, and the impressions that were +then burnt into him governed all his seeing. The creative spirit in him +transformed his sufferings into delight; but he never outgrew them; and, +when he died, the eyes of a child were closed upon a scene touched, it +is true, here and there with rapturous pleasure, rich in oddity, and +trembling with pathos, but, in the main, as bleak and unsatisfying as +the wards of a workhouse. The intense emotions of his childhood made the +usual fervours of adolescence a faint thing in the comparison, and if +you want to know how lovers think and feel you do not go to Dickens to +tell you. You go to Shakespeare, who put his childhood behind him, so +that he almost forgot it, and ran forward to seize life with both hands. +He sometimes looked back on children, and saw them through the eyes of +their elders. Dickens saw men and women as they appear to children. + +This comparison suggests a certain lack of sympathy or lack of +understanding in those who are quick to see hypocrisy in others. In +Dickens lack of sympathy was a fair revenge; moreover, his hypocrites +amused him so much that he did not wish to understand them. What a loss +it would have been to the world if he had explained them away! But it is +difficult, I think, to see a hypocrite in a man whose intimacy you have +cultivated, whose mind you have entered into, as Shakespeare entered +into the mind of his creatures. Hypocrisy, in its ordinary forms, is a +superficial thing--a skin disease, not a cancer. It is not easy, at +best, to bring the outward and inward relations of the soul into perfect +harmony; a hypocrite is one who too readily consents to their +separation. The English, for I am ready now to return to my point, are a +people of a divided mind, slow to drive anything through on principle, +very ready to find reason in compromise. They are passionate, and they +are idealists, but they are also a practical people, and they dare not +give the rein to a passion or an idea. They know that in this world an +unmitigated principle simply will not work; that a clean cut will never +take you through the maze. So they restrain themselves, and listen, and +seem patient. They are not so patient as they seem; they must be +hypocrites! A cruder, simpler people like the Germans feel indignation, +not unmixed perhaps with envy, when they hear the quiet voice and see +the white lips of the thoroughbred Englishman who is angry. It is not +manly or honest, they think, to be angry without getting red in the +face. They certainly feel pride in their own honesty when they give +explosive vent to their emotions. They have not learned the elements of +self-distrust. The Englishman is seldom quite content to be himself; +often his thoughts are troubled by something better. He suffers from the +divided mind; and earns the reputation of a hypocrite. But the simpler +nature that indulges itself and believes in itself has an even heavier +penalty to pay. If, in the name of honesty, you cease to distinguish +between what you are and what you would wish to be, between how you act +and how you would like to act, you are in some danger of reeling back +into the beast. It is true that man is an animal; and before long you +feel a glow of conscious virtue in proclaiming and illustrating that +truth. You scorn the hypocrisy of pretending to be better than you are, +and that very scorn fixes you in what you are. 'He that is unjust, let +him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.' +That is the epitaph on German honesty. I have drifted away from +Shakespeare, who knew nothing of the sea of troubles that England would +one day take arms against, and who could not know that on that day she +would outgo his most splendid praise and more than vindicate his +reverence and his affection. But Shakespeare is still so live a mind +that it is vain to try to expound him by selected texts, or to pin him +to a mosaic of quotations from his book. Often, if you seek to know what +he thought on questions which must have exercised his imagination, you +can gather it only from a hint dropped by accident, and quite +irrelevant. What were his views on literature, and on the literary +controversies which have been agitated from his day to our own? He tells +us very little. He must have heard discussions and arguments on metre, +on classical precedent, on the ancient and modern drama; but he makes no +mention of these questions. He does not seem to have attached any +prophetic importance to poetry. The poets who exalt their craft are of a +more slender build. Is it conceivable that he would have given his +support to a literary academy,--a project which began to find advocates +during his lifetime? I think not. It is true that he is full of good +sense, and that an academy exists to promulgate good sense. Moreover his +own free experiments brought him nearer and nearer into conformity with +classical models. _Othello_ and _Macbeth_ are better constructed plays +than _Hamlet_. The only one of his plays which, whether by chance or by +design, observes the so-called unities, of action and time and place, is +one of his latest plays--_The Tempest_. But he was an Englishman, and +would have been jealous of his freedom and independence. When the +grave-digger remarks that it is no great matter if Hamlet do not recover +his wits in England, because there the men are as mad as he, the satire +has a sympathetic ring in it. Shakespeare did not wish to see the mad +English altered. Nor are they likely to alter; our fears and our hopes +are vain. We entered on the greatest of our wars with an army no bigger, +so we are told, than the Bulgarian army. Since that time we have +regimented and organized our people, not without success; and our +soothsayers are now directing our attention to the danger that after the +war we shall be kept in uniform and shall become tame creatures, losing +our independence and our spirit of enterprise. There is nothing that +soothsayers will not predict when they are gravelled for lack of matter, +but this is the stupidest of all their efforts. The national character +is not so flimsy a thing; it has gone through good and evil fortune for +hundreds of years without turning a hair. You can make a soldier, and a +good soldier, of a humorist; but you cannot militarize him. He remains a +free thinker. + +New institutions do not flourish in England. The town is a comparatively +modern innovation; it has never, so to say, caught on. Most schemes of +town-planning are schemes for pretending that you live in the country. +This is one of the most persistent of our many hypocrisies. Wherever +working people inhabit a street of continuous red-brick cottages, the +names that they give to their homes are one long catalogue of romantic +lies. The houses have no gardens, and the only prospect that they +command is the view of over the way. But read their names--The Dingle, +The Elms, Pine Grove, Windermere, The Nook, The Nest. Even social +pretence, which is said to be one of our weaknesses, and which may be +read in such names as Belvoir or Apsley House, is less in evidence than +the Englishman's passion for the country. He cannot bear to think that +he lives in a town. He does not much respect the institutions of a town. +A policeman, before he has been long in the force, has to face the fact +that he is generally regarded as a comic character. The police are +Englishmen and good fellows, and they accept a situation which would +rouse any continental gendarme to heroic indignation. Mayors, Aldermen, +and Justices of the Peace are comic, and take it not quite so well. +Beadles were so wholly dedicated to the purposes of comedy that I +suppose they found their position unendurable and went to earth; at any +rate it is very difficult to catch one in his official costume. + +All this is reflected in Shakespeare. He knew the country, and he knew +the town; and he has not left it in doubt which was the cherished home +of his imagination. He preferred the fields to the streets, but the +Arcadia of his choice is not agricultural or even pastoral; it is rather +a desert island, or the uninhabited stretches of wild and woodland +country. Indeed, he has both described it and named it. 'Where will the +old Duke live?' says Oliver in _As You Like It_. 'They say he is already +in the forest of Arden,' says Charles the wrestler, 'and a many merry +men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. +They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time +carelessly, as they did in the golden world.' That is Shakespeare's +Arcadia; and who that has read _As You Like It_ will deny that it +breathes the air of Paradise? + +It is quite plain that the freedom that Shakespeare valued was in fact +freedom, not any of those ingenious mechanisms to which that name has +been applied by political theorists. He thought long and profoundly on +the problems of society; and anarchy has no place among his political +ideals. It is by all means to be avoided--at a cost. But what harm would +anarchy do if it meant no more than freedom for all the impulses of the +enlightened imagination and the tender heart? The ideals of his heart +were not political; and when he indulges himself, as he did in his +latest plays, you must look for him in the wilds; whether on the road +near the shepherd's cottage, or in the cave among the mountains of +Wales, or on the seashore in the Bermudas. The laws that are imposed +upon the intricate relations of men in society were a weariness to him; +and in this he is thoroughly English. The Englishman has always been an +objector, and he has a right to object, though it may very well be held +that he is too fond of larding his objection with the plea of +conscience. But even this has a meaning in our annals; as a mere +question of right we are very slow to prefer the claim of the organized +opinions of society to the claim of the individual conscience. We know +that there is no good in a man who is doing what he does not will to do. +We are not like our poets or our men of action to be void of +inspiration. A gift is nothing if there is no benevolence in the giver: + + For to the noble mind + Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. + +We ask for the impulse as well as the deed. Even when he is speaking of +social obligations Shakespeare makes his strongest appeal not to force +or command, but to the natural piety of the heart: + + If ever you have looked on better days, + If ever been where bells have knolled to church, + If ever sat at any good man's feast, + If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear, + And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied, + Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: + In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword. + +So speaks Orlando when the Duke has met his threats with fair words; +and he adds an apology: + + Pardon me, I pray you; + I thought that all things had been savage here, + And therefore put I on the countenance + Of stern commandment. + +The ultimate law between man and man, according to Shakespeare, is the +law of pity. I suppose that most of us have had our ears so dulled by +early familiarity with Portia's famous speech, which we probably knew by +heart long before we were fit to understand it, that the heavenly +quality of it, equal to almost anything in the New Testament, is +obscured and lost. There is no remedy but to read it again; to remember +that it was conceived in passion; and to notice how the meaning is +raised and perfected as line follows line: + + _Portia_. Then must the Jew be merciful. + + _Shylock_. On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. + + _Portia_. The quality of mercy is not strained. + It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven + Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd; + It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: + 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes + The throned monarch better than his crown. + His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, + The attribute to awe and majesty, + Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; + But mercy is above this sceptred sway, + It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, + It is an attribute to God himself, + And earthly power doth then show likest God's + When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, + Though justice be thy plea, consider this, + That in the course of justice none of us + Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, + And that same prayer doth teach us all to render + The deeds of mercy. + +That speech rises above the strife of nations; it belongs to humanity. +But an Englishman wrote it; and the author, we may be sure, if he ever +met with the doctrine that a man who is called on to help his own people +is in duty bound to set aside the claims of humanity, and to stop his +ears to the call of mercy, knew that the doctrine is an invention of the +devil, stupid and angry, as the devil commonly is. There are hundreds of +thousands of Englishmen who, though they could not have written the +speech, yet know all that it teaches, and act on the knowledge. It is +part of the creed of the Navy. We can speak more confidently than we +could have spoken three or four years ago. We know that not the +extremest pressure of circumstance could ever bring the people of +England to forget all the natural pieties, to permit official duties to +annul private charities, and to join in the frenzied dance of hate and +lust which leads to the mouth of the pit. + +Yet Germany, where all this seems to have happened, was not very long +ago a country where it was easy to find humanity, and simplicity, and +kindness. It was a country of quiet industry and content, the home of +fairy stories, which Shakespeare himself would have loved. The Germans +of our day have made a religion of war and terror, and have used +commerce as a means for the treacherous destruction of the independence +and freedom of others. They were not always like that. In the fifteenth +century they spread the art of printing through Europe, for the service +of man, by the method of peaceful penetration. My friend Mr. John +Sampson recently expressed to me a hope that our air-forces would not +bomb Mainz, 'for Mainz', he said, 'is a sacred place to the +bibliographer'. According to a statement published in Cologne in 1499, +'the highly valuable art of printing was invented first of all in +Germany at Mainz on the Rhine. And it is a great honour to the German +nation that such ingenious men are to be found among them....And in the +year of our Lord 1450 it was a golden year, and they began to print, and +the first book they printed was the Bible in Latin: it was printed in a +large character, resembling the types with which the present mass-books +are printed.' Gutenberg, the printer of this Bible, never mentions his +own name, and the only personal note we have of his, in the colophon of +the _Catholicon_, printed in 1460, is a hymn in praise of his city: +'With the aid of the Most High, who unlooses the tongues of infants and +oft-times reveals to babes that which is hidden from learned men, this +admirable book, the _Catholicon_, was finished in the year of the +incarnation of our Saviour MCCCCLX, in the foster town of Mainz, a town +of the famous German nation, which God in his clemency, by granting to +it this high illumination of the mind, has preferred before the other +nations of the world.' + +There is something not quite unlike modern Germany in that; and yet +these older activities of the Germans make a strange contrast with their +work to-day. It was in the city of Cologne that Caxton first made +acquaintance with his craft. Everywhere the Germans spread printing like +a new religion, adapting it to existing conditions. In Bavaria they used +the skill of the wood-engravers, and at Augsburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg +produced the first illustrated printed books. It was two Germans of the +old school, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, who carried the art to +Italy, casting the first type in Roman characters, and printing editions +of the classics, first in the Benedictine monastery of St. Scholastica +at Subiaco, and later at Rome. They also cast the first Greek type. It +was three Germans, Gering, Kranz, and Freyburger, who first printed at +Paris, in 1470. It was a German who set up the first printing-press in +Spain, in 1474. The Germans were once the cherishers, as now they are +the destroyers, of the inheritance of civilization. I do not pretend to +explain the change. Perhaps it is a tragedy of education. That is a +dangerous moment in the life of a child when he begins to be uneasily +aware that he is valued for his simplicity and innocence. Then he +resolves to break with the past, to put away childish things, to forgo +affection, and to earn respect by imitating the activities of his +elders. The strange power of words and the virtues of abstract thought +begin to fascinate him. He loses touch with the things of sense, and +ceases to speak as a child. If his first attempts at argument and dogma +win him praise and esteem, if he proves himself a better fighter than an +older boy next door, who has often bullied him, and if at the same time +he comes into money, he is on the road to ruin. His very simplicity is a +snare to him. 'What a fool I was', he thinks, 'to let myself be put +upon; I now see that I am a great philosopher and a splendid soldier, +born to subdue others rather than to agree with them, and entitled to a +chief share in all the luxuries of the world. It is for me to say what +is good and true, and if any of these people contradict me I shall knock +them down.' He suits his behaviour to his new conception of himself, and +is soon hated by all the neighbours. Then he turns bitter. These people, +he thinks, are all in a plot against him. They must be blind to goodness +and beauty, or why do they dislike him! His rage reaches the point of +madness; he stabs and poisons the villagers, and burns down their +houses. We are still waiting to see what will become of him. + +This outbreak has been long preparing. Seventy years before the War the +German poet Freiligrath wrote a poem to prove that Germany is Hamlet, +urged by the spirit of her fathers to claim her inheritance, vacillating +and lost in thought, but destined, before the Fifth Act ends, to strew +the stage with the corpses of her enemies. Only a German could have hit +on the idea that Germany is Hamlet. The English, for whom the play was +written, know that Hamlet is Hamlet, and that Shakespeare was thinking +of a young man, not of the pomposities of national ambition. But if +these clumsy allegories must be imposed upon great poets, Germany need +not go abroad to seek the likeness of her destiny. Germany is Faust; she +desired science and power and pleasure, and to get them on a short lease +she paid the price of her soul. + +For the present, at any rate, the best thing the Germans can do with +Shakespeare is to leave him alone. They have divorced themselves from +their own great poets, to follow vulgar half-witted political prophets. +As for Shakespeare, they have studied him assiduously, with the complete +apparatus of criticism, for a hundred years, and they do not understand +the plainest words of all his teaching. + +In England he has always been understood; and it is only fair, to him +and to ourselves, to add that he has never been regarded first and +foremost as a national poet. His humanity is too calm and broad to +suffer the prejudices and exclusions of international enmities. The +sovereignty that he holds has been allowed to him by men of all parties. +The schools of literature have, from the very first, united in his +praise. Ben Jonson, who knew him and loved him, was a classical scholar, +and disapproved of some of his romantic escapades, yet no one will ever +outgo Ben Jonson's praise of Shakespeare. + + Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, + To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe. + He was not-of an ago, but for all time! + +The sects of religion forget their disputes and recognize the spirit of +religion in this profane author. He cannot be identified with any +institution. According to the old saying, he gave up the Church and took +to religion. Ho gave up the State, and took to humanity. The formularies +and breviaries to which political and religious philosophers profess +their allegiance were nothing to him. These formularies are a convenient +shorthand, to save the trouble of thinking. But Shakespeare always +thought. Every question that he treats is brought out of the realm of +abstraction, and exhibited in its relation to daily life and the minds +and hearts of men. He could never have been satisfied with such a smug +phrase as 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. His mind +would have been eager for details. In what do the greatest number find +their happiness? How far is the happiness of one consistent with the +happiness of another? What difficulties and miscarriages attend the +business of transmuting the recognized materials for happiness into +living human joy? Even these questions he would not have been content to +handle in high philosophic fashion; he would have insisted on instances, +and would have subscribed to no code that is not carefully built out of +case-law. He knew that sanity is in the life of the senses; and that if +there are some philosophers who are not mad it is because they live a +double life, and have consolations and resources of which their books +tell you nothing. It is the part of their life which they do not think +it worth their while to mention that would have interested Shakespeare. +He loves to reduce things to their elements. 'Is man no more than this?' +says the old king on the heath, as he gazes on the naked madman. +'Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the +sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are +sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more +but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you +lendings!' That is how Shakespeare lays the mind of man bare, and strips +him of his pretences, to try if he be indeed noble. And he finds that +man, naked and weak, hunted by misfortune, liable to all the sins and +all the evils that follow frailty, still has faith left to him, and +charity. King Lear is still every inch a king. + +That is not a little discovery, for when his mind came to grips with +human life Shakespeare did not deal in rhetoric; so that the good he +finds is real good--''tis in grain; 'twill endure wind and weather'. +Nothing is easier than to make a party of humanity, and to exalt mankind +by ignorantly vilifying the rest of the animal creation, which is full +of strange virtues and abilities. Shakespeare refused that way; he saw +man weak and wretched, not able to maintain himself except as a +pensioner on the bounty of the world, curiously ignorant of his nature +and his destiny, yet endowed with certain gifts in which he can find +sustenance and rest, brave by instinct, so that courage is not so much +his virtue as cowardice is his lamentable and exceptional fault, ready +to forget his pains or to turn them into pleasures by the alchemy of his +mind, quick to believe, and slow to suspect or distrust, generous and +tender to others, in so far as his thought and imagination, which are +the weakest things about him, enable him to bridge the spaces that +separate man from man, willing to make of life a great thing while he +has it, and a little thing when he comes to lose it. These are some of +his gifts; and Shakespeare would not have denied the saying of a thinker +with whom he has no very strong or natural affinity, that 'the greatest +of these is charity'. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of England and the War, by Walter Raleigh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND AND THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 10159.txt or 10159.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/5/10159/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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