el sure of his soldiers in case of labor strikes; did it never occur
to him that the men had relatives among the workers, and might some
time refuse to shoot them? His answer was that he was aware of it, the
military had worked out its technique with care. He would never think
of ordering his men to fire upon a mob in cold blood; he would first
start the spell of discipline to work, he would march them round the
block, and get them in the swing, get their blood moving to military
music; then, when he gave the order, in they would go. I have never
forgotten the gesture, the animation with which he illustrated their
going--I could hear the grunting of bayonets in the flesh of men. The
social system prevailing in England has made necessary the perfecting
of such military technique; also, you discover, English piety has made
necessary the providing of a religious sanction for it. After the job
has been done and the bayonets have been wiped clean, the company is
marched to church, and the officer kneels in his family pew, and the
privates kneel with the parlor-maids, and the clergyman raises his
hands to heaven and intones: "We bless thy Holy Name, that it hath
pleased Thee to appease the seditious tumults which have been lately
raised up among us!"

And sometimes the clergyman does more than bless the killers--he even
takes part in their bloody work. In the Home Office Records of the
British Government I read (vol. 40, page 17) how certain miners were on
strike against low wages and the "truck" system, and the Vicar of
Abergavenny put himself at the head of the yeomanry and the Greys. He
wrote the Home Office a lively account of his military operations. All
that remained was to apprehend certain of the strikers, "and then I
shall be able to return to my Clerical duties." Later he wrote of the
"sinister influences" which kept the miners from returning to their
work, and how he had put half a dozen of the most obstinate in prison.

#The Babylonian Fire-god#

So we come to the most important of the functions of the tribal god,
as an ally in war, an inspirer to martial valour. When in ancient
Babylonia you wished to overcome your enemies, you went to the shrine
of the Fire-god, and with awful rites the priest pronounced
incantations, which have been preserved on bricks and handed down for
the use of modern churches. "Pronounce in a whisper, and have a bronze
image therewith," commands the ancient text, and runs on for many
s