Yet these men have proved as heroic and even as skilful in the game
of war as the men of Germany, where war is idolised and where the
practice of military virtues and military exercises is regarded as the
highest function alike of the individual and of the State. We see that we
need not any longer worry over the possible extinction of these heroic
qualities. What we may more profitably worry over is the question whether
there is not some higher and nobler way of employing them than in the
destruction of the finest fruits of civilisation and the slaughter of
those very stocks on which Eugenics mainly relies for its materials.
We can also realise to-day that war is not only an opportunity for the
exercise of virtues. It is also an opportunity for the exercise of vices.
"War is Hell" said Sherman, and that is the opinion of most great
reflective soldiers. We see that there is nothing too brutal, too cruel,
too cowardly, too mean, and too filthy for some, at all events, of modern
civilised troops to commit, whether by, or against, the orders of their
officers. In France, a few months before the present War, I found myself
in a railway train at Laon with two or three soldiers; a young woman came
to the carriage door, but, seeing the soldiers, she passed on; they were
decent, well-behaved men, and one of them remarked, with a smile, on the
suspicion which the military costume arouses in women. Perhaps, however,
it is a suspicion that is firmly based on ancient traditions.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96