rew prophets, about these things.
But he has a very comfortable pew, in a very soporific church, and he is
only half awake, and the echo dies away and leaves no sign. _He_ is just
the man to tell us all about the demoralization of war.

Now quietness and good order, sober, discreet, self-seeking, decorous
epicureanism and the rest, are not precisely the virtues that will save
a people. There are certain old foundation virtues of another kind,
which are the only safe substratum for national or personal salvation.
These are courage--hard, muscular, manly courage--fortitude, patience,
obedience to discipline, self-denial, self-sacrifice, veracity of
purpose, and such like. These rough old virtues must lie at the base of
all right character. You may add, as ornaments to your edifice, as
frieze, cornices, and capitals to the pillars, refinements, and
courtesies, and gentleness, and so on. But the foundation must rest on
the rude granite blocks we have mentioned, or your gingerbread erection
will go down in the first storm.

And the simple fact is that peace has a tendency to eat out just these
foundation virtues. They are _war_ virtues; just the things called out
by a life-and-death battle for some good cause. In these virtues we
claim the land has grown. The national character has deepened and
intensified in these. We have strengthened anew these rocky foundations
of a nation's greatness. Men lapped in luxury have patiently bowed to
toil and weariness. Men living in self-indulgence have shaken off their
sloth, and roused the old slumbering fearlessness of their race. Men,
living for selfish ends, have been penetrated by the light of a great
purpose, and have risen to the loftiness of human duty. Men, who shrank
from pain as the sorest evil, have voluntarily accepted pain, and borne
it with a fortitude we once believed lost from among mankind; and, over
all, the flaming light of a worthy cause that men might worthily live
for and worthily die for, has led the thousands of the land out of their
narrow lives, and low endeavors, to the clear mountain heights of
sacrifice! We stand now, a courageous, patient, steadfast, unselfish
people before all the world. We stand, a people that has taken its life
in its hand for a purely unselfish cause. We have won our place in the
foremost rank of nations, not on our wealth, our numbers, or our
prosperity, but on the truer test of our manhood, truth, and
steadfastness. We stand justified