ar-reaching effects of the sacrifice
of loved ones could be perceived, there seemed to be little reason or
right for such a train of desolation. They were perfectly justified,
too, in thinking this, when insufficient time had elapsed to enable
them to judge of the immense, sweeping, beneficial effects that this
struggle has produced in the moral fibre and stamina of the nations
engaged.

It must be remembered that the horrors of the imagination are far
worse than the realities. The men who fight and the women who tend
their wounds suffer mentally far less than those who paint the
pictures in their minds, from data which so very often are grossly
exaggerated. One must realize that the hardships of war are merely
transient. Men suffer untold discomforts, and yet, when these
sufferings are over and mind and body are at ease for a while, they
are completely forgotten. The only mark they leave is the
disinclination to undergo them again. But on those who do not realize
them in their actuality, they cause a far more terrifying effect.

Now, others, as well, have discovered that war's advantages outweigh
so much its losses. They who with their own eyes had seen the
wonderful fortitude with which men stand pain, and the amazing
submission with which women bear sorrow, returned full of zeal and
enthusiasm, to carry the torch of this uplifting flame to their own
countrymen.

Others will realize, too, that although one may lose one's best, yet
one's worst is made better. The women will find that the characters of
their men will become softened. The clear-cut essentials of a life of
war must make the mind of man direct. It may be brutal in its
simplicity, but it is clear and frank. Yet to counteract this, the
continual sight of suffering bravely borne, the deep love and humility
that the devotion of others unconsciously produces, bring about this
charity of feeling, this desire to forgive and this moderation in
criticism, which is so marked in those who have passed through the
strenuous, searing realities of war. Since the thirty pieces of
silver, no minted coin in the world has bought so much as has the
King's shilling of to-day.

THE END

The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U.S.A

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