ht him to delight in the most simple and natural
of things. This throwing aside of the perversions and fripperies of an
over-civilization has forced him to regard them with a disgust that
can never allow him to be tempted again by their inducements of
delight and dissipation. The natural, healthy desires which a man is
sometimes inclined to indulge in are no longer veiled under a mask of
hypocrisy. They are treated in a perfectly outspoken fashion as the
necessary accompaniments to a hard, open-air life, where a man's
vitality is at its best. In consequence of this, and as the result of
the deepening of man's character which war inevitably produces, the
sense of adventure and mystery which accompanied the fulfilment of
these desires has disappeared, and with it to a great extent the
desires themselves have assumed a far less importance.

In peace, and especially in war, the young man's creed is casualness.
Not the casualness of carelessness, but that which comes from the
knowledge that up to each given point he has done his best. It is
this fundamental peace of mind which comes to a soldier that forms the
beauty of his life. The order received must be obeyed in its exact
degree, neither more nor less; and the responsibility, though great,
is clearly defined. Each man must use his individual intelligence
within the scope of the part assigned to him. The responsibility
differs in kind, but not in degree, and the last link of the chain is
as important as the first. There can be no shirking or shifting, and,
knowing this, each task is finished, rounded out, and put away. One
might think that this made thought mechanical: but it is mechanical
only in so far as each man's intelligence is concentrated on his own
particular duty, and each part working in perfect order contributes to
the unison through which the whole machine develops its power. Thus
the military life induces in men a clearer and more accurate habit of
thought, and teaches each one to do his work well and above all to do
his own work only.

From this very simplicity of life, which brings out a calmness of mind
and that equable temperament that minor worries can no longer shake,
springs the mental leisure which gives time for other and unaccustomed
ideas. Men who wittingly, time and again, have faced but escaped
death, will inevitably begin to think what death may mean. As the
first lessons of obedience teach each man that he needs a leader to
pass through a ce