Minister he won't be suspicious, not as far as you can see;
but remember the atmosphere of generations you are in, and when he
passes you the toast-rack say to yourselves, if you would be in the
mode, 'Now, I wonder what he means by that.'

Even without striking out in the way I suggest, you are already
disturbing your betters considerably. I sometimes talk this over
with M'Connachie, with whom, as you may guess, circumstances compel
me to pass a good deal of my time. In our talks we agree that we,
your betters, constantly find you forgetting that we are your betters.
Your answer is that the war and other happenings have shown you that
age is not necessarily another name for sapience; that our avoidance
of frankness in life and in the arts is often, but not so often as
you think, a cowardly way of shirking unpalatable truths, and that
you have taken us off our pedestals because we look more natural on
the ground. You who are at the rash age even accuse your elders,
sometimes not without justification, of being more rash than
yourselves. 'If Youth but only knew,' we used to teach you to sing;
but now, just because Youth has been to the war, it wants to change
the next line into 'If Age had only to do.'

In so far as this attitude of yours is merely passive, sullen,
negative, as it mainly is, despairing of our capacity and
anticipating a future of gloom, it is no game for man or woman.
It is certainly the opposite of that for which I plead. Do not
stand aloof, despising, disbelieving, but come in and help--insist
on coming in and helping. After all, we have shown a good deal
of courage; and your part is to add a greater courage to it.
There are glorious years lying ahead of you if you choose to make
them glorious. God's in His Heaven still. So forward, brave
hearts. To what adventures I cannot tell, but I know that your
God is watching to see whether you are adventurous. I know that the
great partnership is only a first step, but I do not know what are
to be the next and the next. The partnership is but a tool; what
are you to do with it? Very little, I warn you, if you are merely
thinking of yourselves; much if what is at the marrow of your
thoughts is a future that even you can scarcely hope to see.

Learn as a beginning how world-shaking situations arise and how they
may be countered. Doubt all your betters who would deny you that
right of partnership. Begin by doubting all such in high places--
excep