I envy you young people your youth. They have put up the age limit
for the Army, but I march, I am sorry to say, a good many years even
beyond that. But still our turn will come. It is a great opportunity.
It only comes once in many centuries to the children of men. For most
generations sacrifice comes in drab weariness of spirit to men. It has
come to-day to you; it has come to-day to us all, in the form of the
glory and thrill of a great movement for liberty, that impels
millions throughout Europe to the same end. It is a great war for the
emancipation of Europe from the thraldom of a military caste, which
has cast its shadow upon two generations of men, and which has now
plunged the world into a welter of bloodshed. Some have already given
their lives. There are some who have given more than their own lives.
They have given the lives of those who are dear to them. I honour
their courage, and may God be their comfort and their strength.
But their reward is at hand. Those who have fallen have consecrated
deaths. They have taken their part in the making of a new Europe,
a new world. I can see signs of its coming in the glare of the
battlefield. The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands
than they comprehend at the present moment. It is true they will be
rid of the menace to their freedom. But that is not all. There is
something infinitely greater and more enduring which is emerging
already out of this great conflict; a new patriotism, richer, nobler,
more exalted than the old.
Pages:
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559