The problem before the captains
of armies is to take the body of man, the most naturally egoistic of all
things, which hates pain and which will normally take to its legs in
danger and try to save itself, and to dominate it so that the body and
the soul inhabiting it will stand still and face all it loathes. And
the problem is solved in the vast majority of cases. After military
training the civilians who formerly would fly before a few policemen
will manfully and heroically stand, not the blows of a baton, but a
whole hail of bullets, a cannonade lasting through a day; nay, they
will for weeks and months, day by day, risk and lose life for a cause,
for an idea, at a word of command. They may not have half as good a
cause to lose life for as they had as a mob of angry civilians, but they
will face death now, and the chances of mutilation and agony worse than
death. Can we inspire civilians with the same passionate self-
forgetfulness in the pursuit of the higher ideals of peace? Men in a
regiment have to a large extent the personal interests abolished.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176