OUR INSULAR MIND
in the atmosphere of the sea; adventurous, self-reliant and impatient of restraint. And now we have reached a point where we must submit our untamed qualities to the harness of a scientific organization in order that we may compete with our rivals on equal terms. For no nation under heaven is this lesson harder to learn than for ours; but the measure of its severity is the measure of its necessity. Side by side with the unorganized, anarchic energy of the vital men in trade and industry, there is the lethargy of the third generation, the inheritors of their fathers' wealth, who dissipate, by ignorance and indolence, the means of production which they have inherited. Both of these need discipline; both need the infusion of science to make their industry fruitful; and if it be said that science may drive the indolent to the wall, it can also be said that it will treble the production of the others.
Now, apply all this to politics, domestic and foreign. Insularity has cut us off from the world, robbing us of the knowledge of foreign peoples, by which alone we could choose the right path in peace and in war. It has given us the leaders we deserve; such leaders as, for instance, can carry us safely through such a crisis as the adoption of universal military service without an upheaval — a far greater service to the nation than is commonly realised — but cannot back the right horse for us in the Balkans. It has given us a matchless fleet and the Diplomatic Service which we know. The contrast between these last two is worth pursuing a little further, for it proves that when the British people sets its heart upon a thing it will get what it wants. There is not a man — nor, even in time of peace, were there many — who does not know the meaning of naval supremacy to our island kingdom; and upon this sure basis the Admiralty stood and stands in its demands for ships and men. The Admiralty thus gets the best of ships and men, because, in naval affairs, we mean business. But who cares about diplomacy? Who has ever time to probe the shrouded depths of our foreign relations? Not the House of Commons, not the people as a whole. No strong light is ever thrown upon the foreign service of Great Britain except at times of crisis, when we are all too deeply preoccupied with the machinations of the enemy to take true observations of the behaviour of our servants. When the crisis has passed, the waves of domestic strife engulf us once more, and we forget the great lesson that the domestic and foreign concerns of a nation are complementary, and that neither can be ignored without peril to the other. It is the besetting sin of Democracy, especially on an island, to ignore foreign affairs till they come home to roost! And it will be one of our chief tasks after the war so to educate ourselves that, while retaining our best qualities as islanders, we may acquire the enriching characteristics of "the Good European."
Education, generously interpreted, alone can do it. If we read Dr. Gray's book as a footnote to the story of la Victoire Intégrale, we can agree with him that the supreme need of the moment is the training of British intelligence. In his own words, "'War after war' — not so much upon our enemies or our rivals as upon our-
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