Page:Hubert W. Peet - 112 Days' Hard Labour, Being Some Reflections On the First of My Sentences as a Conscientious Objector - 1917.pdf/4

 now with the prison temporarily behind me and with the prospect of a fortnight’s quasi-liberty in the guard-room, I was overwhelmed.

But this was, and is, only one side of the lantern—the dark one—the half-truth that ever deceives. I fell into a doze, to awake suddenly to a realisation that the flood of depression had rolled away. Running through my head were those verses of John Addington Symonds that deserve, when wedded to a tune worthy of them, to be the spring song of victory—

These things shall be. A loftier race Than e’er the world has known shall rise With fire of freedom in their hearts And light of knowledge in their eyes They shall be gentle, brave and strong To spill no drop of blood, but dare All that shall plant man’s lordship firm In earth and fire and sea and air.”

Instead of the depression, there came into my mind that joy that had so continually been mine in prison; the experience that the isolation, driving one back upon oneself, had brought one into the presence of the Beyond-Oneself; the sense that God, and Good, and Beauty were one; the honour of being privileged to help stem the tide of an evil force.

Thus, in the attempt to reproduce something of the conflict of that tumultuous midnight hour do I think I can best crystallise the sensations and experiences of the last few months, and put before you the obverse and reverse of my impressions behind prison walls. Further detailed analysis I have not time to make or to record before returning for my second sentence very shortly. I believe, therefore, I shall best spend my limited time in pigeon-holing mainly in subject and paragraph form, as completely as I can, an account of the ordinary life that I and my fellow C.O. prisoners have led, and shall again be leading by the time this will be read by you. Thus, and thus only, can we best serve our dear ones, our country and humanity in the upward struggle towards that great Unity of life here and hereafter.

Detention Room, Hounslow Barracks.

March 1st, 1917.