England and the War | Page 3

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