re going to do it.

The Sacrifice.

I envy you young people your opportunity. They have put up the age limit
for the army, but I am sorry to say I have marched a good many years
even beyond that. It is a great opportunity, an opportunity that only
comes once in many centuries to the children of men. For most
generations sacrifice comes in drab and weariness of spirit. It comes to
you today, and it comes today to us all, in the form of the glow and
thrill of a great movement for liberty, that impels millions throughout
Europe to the same noble end. [Applause.] It is a great war for the
emancipation of Europe from the thralldom of a military caste which has
thrown its shadows upon two generations of men, and is now plunging the
world into a welter of bloodshed and death. Some have already given
their lives. There are some who have given more than their own lives;
they have given the lives of those who are dear to them. I honor their
courage, and may God be their comfort and their strength. But their
reward is at hand; those who have fallen have died consecrated deaths.
They have taken their part in the making of a new Europe--a new world. I
can see signs of its coming in the glare of the battlefield.

The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands than they
comprehend at the present moment. ["Hear, hear!"] It is true they will
be free of the greatest menace to their freedom. That is not
all. There is something infinitely greater and more enduring which is
emerging already out of this great conflict--a new patriotism, richer,
nobler, and more exalted than the old. [Applause.] I see among all
classes, high and low, shedding themselves of selfishness, a new
recognition that the honor of the country does not depend merely on the
maintenance of its glory in the stricken field, but also in protecting
its homes from distress. ["Hear, hear!"] It is bringing a new outlook
for all classes. The great flood of luxury and sloth which had submerged
the land is receding, and a new Britain is appearing. We can see for the
first time the fundamental things that matter in life, and that have
been obscured from our vision by the tropical growth of prosperity.
["Hear, hear!"]

"The Vision."

May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this war is doing for
us? I know a valley in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea.
It is a beautiful valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains
from all the bitter blasts