THE DRAMA OF 365 DAYS
uprooting of that sympathy of nation with nation which had seemed to unite us with the future. As a consequence of this war a great part of Europe will be closed to some of us for the rest of our natural lives, and the world will contain more than a hundred millions fewer of our fellow- creatures in whose welfare we shall take joy.
WAR'S SPIRITUAL COMPENSATIONS
But, thank God, there is another side to the
picture, both for young and old. If we are to
be poorer we shall be more free. If we are to be
weak and faint from loss of blood we shall rest
at night without dread of that shadow of the
sword which has darkened the sleep of humanity
for forty years. If the countries of our enemies
are to be closed to some of us in the future, the
countries of our Allies will be more than ever
open; nay, they will be almost the same to us
as our own. France will be our France, Italy
our Italy, Belgium our Belgium, and the next
time I, for one, sit by the stove in the log cabin
of a Russian moujik on the Steppes, I shall feel
as if I were in the thatched cottage of one of
my own people in our little island in the Irish
Sea. So does blood shed in a common cause
break down the barriers of race and language
and bind together the children of one Father.
