Page:Some soldier poets.djvu/40

Rh For a young officer to refuse to lead more men to death may give proof of truer courage than to continue to do it without conviction. Such insubordination is abundantly excused both by the facts that prompted it and by the action that retrieved it.

Were all men capable of such mutinies war would cease. War is forced on many whose souls rebel against it by many who seek profit in it, whether for themselves, their caste or their nation. But these were surely more numerous and more dominant among our enemies than on our side: yet even Prussians are men. How many of us repel the offer of an unfair advantage? how many pounce on it? This solidarity of the average man with them gives warlords their power, which must be broken symbolically in fact before the human spirit will discipline its appetite for exploiting weaker men. Grenfells are needed to subjugate this dragon; but they will recognise brother spirits among the conscientious objectors, who brave not only the enemy but the whole world. Just as Sassoon's scorn for many common attitudes towards the war is too intellectual to inspire his best poetry, so censors of all mankind discover a theoretical nudity. Our dependence on our neighbours, even when we are forced to despise their judgment, is more certain than our own wisdom can be. Peace with its commerce was blighted with a like shame, waste and ruthlessness, yet who dissociated himself thus completely from its prosperity? Then to refuse to soil the hands when millions must be stained will appear ungenerous, unless the danger run in keeping them so daintily clean exceed the common danger; and even then the grace of a divine humility may not be superfluous. History has proved, however, that the Prince of Peace necessarily appears hostile to the average man until he rises from death, no longer to reason about property and liberty in the world but to appeal for service and integrity in the heart. 36