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Page 9
_American_. Ah--Germans!
_Englishman_. Certainly one does not expect honor or sincerity from
German psychology. Even the little Teutonic Republic of to-day is
tricky, scheming always to get a foothold for power, a beginning for the
army they will never again be allowed to have. Even after the Kaiser and
the Crown Prince and the other rascals were punished they tried to cheat
us, if you remember. Yet it is not that which I had in mind. The point I
was making was that today it would be out of drawing for a government
even of charlatans, like the Prussians, to advance the sort of claims
which they did. In commonplace words, it was expected then that
governments, as against each other, would be self-seeking. To-day
decency demands that they should be, as men must be, unselfish.
_America_. (_Musingly_.) It's odd how long it took the
world--governments--human beings--to find the truth of the very old
phrase that "he who findeth his life must lose it."
_Englishman_. The simple fact of that phrase before the Great War was
not commonly grasped. People thought it purely religious and reserved
for saints and church services. As a working hypothesis it was not
generally known. The every-day ideals of our generation, the friendships
and brotherhoods of nations as we know them would have been thought
Utopian.
_American_. Utopian? Perhaps our civilization is better than Utopian.
The race has grown with a bound since we all went through hell together.
How far the civilization of 1914 stood above that of 1614! The
difference between galley-slaves and able-bodied seamen, of your and
our navy! Greater yet than the change in that three hundred years is the
change in the last one hundred. I look at it with a soldier's somewhat
direct view. Humanity went helpless and alone into a fiery furnace and
came through holding on to God's hand. We have clung closely to that
powerful grasp since.
_Englishman_. Certainly the race has emerged from an epoch of intellect
to an epoch of spirituality--which comprehends and extends intellect.
There have never been inventions such as those of our era. And the
inventors have been, as it were, men inspired. Something beyond
themselves has worked through them for the world. A force like that was
known only sporadically before our time.
_American_. (_Looks into old ditch_.) It would be strange to the lads
who charged through horror across this flowery field to hear our talk
and to know that to them and their deeds we owe the happiness and the
greatness of the world we now live in.
_Englishman_. Their short, Homeric episode of life admitted few
generalizations, I fancy. To be ready and strong and brave--there was
scant time for more than that in those strenuous days. Yet under that
simple formula lay a sea of patriotism and self-sacrifice, from which
sprang their soldiers' force. "Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends." It was their love--love of
country, of humanity, of freedom--which silenced in the end the great
engine of evil--Prussianism. The motive power of life is proved, through
those dead soldiers, to be not hate, as the Prussians taught, but love.
_American_. Do you see something shining among the flowers at the bottom
of the ditch?
_Englishman_. Why, yes. Is it--a leaf which catches the light?
_American_. (_Stepping down_.) I'll see. (_He picks up a metal
identification disk worn by a soldier. Ang�lique has rubbed it so that
the letters may mostly be read_.) This is rather wonderful. (_He reads
aloud_.) "R.V.H. Randolph--Blank_th_ Regiment--U.S." I can't make out
the rest.
_Englishman_. (_Takes the disk_.) Extraordinary! The name and regiment
are plain. The identification disk, evidently, of a soldier who died in
the trench here. Your own man, General.
_American_. (_Much stirred_.) And--my own regiment. Two years ago I was
the colonel of "The Charging Blank_th_."
HER COUNTRY TOO
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