What do you make of all this in your scheme of
Renaissance?"
"I admit much of what you say," said Mr. Punch, "but I ascribe it, in
part at least, to a natural reaction from the strain and horror of War."
"'Reaction'!" snorted the Cynic. "A very comfortable word. But what were
the sufferings from which they are 'reacting'? The loss, you will say,
of the flower of our chivalry in battle? Well, one would think that
might have steadied them. Is this what our manhood died for--to make a
British carnival?"
"I don't pretend to understand that side of it," said the Sage, "but I
know that during the War we respected the silence of their grief; and I
know that nature must choose its own way of recovering from a loss and
reasserting its claim to happiness. Remember, too, that War must always
have its demoralising features, however splendid the cause for which you
are fighting. 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,' says the
soldier in his brief intervals of release. And some of us at home went
more than half-way to meet him, imitating an attitude excusable in him
but not in us.
Pages:
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68