ht, these proclamations that darkened the
heavens, making the stars but a background for vaunting--what are they
but the pursuit of the ideal; the scaling of heaven by force; the soul
laying hold on immensity by both hands. It is humanity on its knees
before the wrong altar.

II

It is the same when the Great War is recalled, as it inevitably is
every hour. To the American his share looms so vast that he is
convinced he won the war. Among certain classes 'We won the war' has
become a watchword. 'My brother last year travelled through Italy and
France and part of Germany,' a typical American will confide in you,
'and he met a German officer, and this German told him that they
thought little of the English and less of the French, but that when the
Americans came in they recognised their masters and quitted at once.'
Hereupon a quiet man in a corner begins to talk. 'We air a wonderful
nation, sir, and that's a sure thing,' he nasalises; 'we had only
50,000 casualties, and you had a million, and the French a million and
a half, and the Russians perhaps two millions, and the Italians half a
million--say five millions in all among the Europeans. My friend says
we won the war with 50,000 casualties! His idea seems to be that an
American is worth a hundred of his brethren in Europe. It is the
atmosphere here, sir. We air a great nation, sir.' Upon this the
first eyes the second speaker askance. But a Canadian takes up the
tale. 'There was an Englishman down in Florida this summer and he went
bathing,' thus the Canadian. 'There was a poster forbidding bathing at
a particular beach; but there the Englishman, having donned his bathing
suit, plunged in. The watcher of the beach rushed to him on his return
to shore and reprimanded him for disobeying orders. "Oh! I am all
right, for I took precautions," was the answer. "What precautions?"
exclaimed the watcher, at once professionally interested. And the
bather turned round and showed his newly-bought bathing suit. On one
side it bore the stars and stripes and on the other the legend "We won
the war." Pointing to these he said, "I was perfectly safe, for no
shark that ever swam in the ocean would swallow that!"' ... The
Canadian can beat the Yankee at his own game. He just pricks the tube
and you hear the wind whizzing. But in a few years nobody in the
States outside the ranks of the learned will know anything about any
one's sufferings and heroisms in the Gr