nd going up
to Zillebeke. I've been in worse places to bury a man of my own
Church. But for a Baptist it strikes me, O'Grady----'

"'Excuse me,' interrupted Church of Scotland. 'Baptism is the most
conservative form of British Christianity, and the Anglican Church
itself boasts----'

"'I dare say, I dare say,' said the other, 'but is not the Baptist
Church a democratic one, like the Presbyterian?'

"They might have gone on in this strain till the poor beggar was in
his grave, had not Roman Church suddenly interrupted in a mild voice,
without taking his nose out of his little book:

"'I'll go, if you like.'

"Hatred of Popery is the beginning of union, and they both went up
the line together."

CHAPTER XIII

THE CURE

"Le _Schein_ et le _Wesen_ sont, pour l'esprit allemand, une seule
et meme chose."--Jacques Riviere.

"The only decent whisky," said the doctor, "is Irish whisky."
Whereupon he helped himself to a generous allowance of Scotch
whisky, and as they had just been talking about Ludendorff's coming
offensive, he began to discourse upon the Germans.

"One of the most astounding things about German psychology," he said,
"is their passion for suggesting the appearance of results which they
know they are powerless to attain. A German general who is not in a
position to undertake a real offensive deludes himself into believing
that he will strike terror into his opponent by describing an absurd
and appalling attack in his reports; and a Solingen cutler, if he
cannot manufacture really sharp blades at the required price, will
endeavour to invoke a sort of metaphysical blade which can give its
owner the illusion of a useful instrument.

"When once this trait of the national character is properly
understood, all the German shoddy which is so much talked about seems
no longer the swindling practice of dishonest tradesmen, but is
simply the material expression of their ingrained Kantianism, and
their congenital inability to distinguish Appearance from Reality.

"At the sanatorium at Wiesdorf, where I was working when the war
broke out, this method was practised with quite unusual rigour.

"Doctor Professor Baron von Goeteburg was a second-rate scientist,
and he knew it. He had made a lifelong study of the expression,
clothes and manners which would most successfully impress his clients
with the idea that he was the great physician he knew he could never
be.

"After innumerable careful exper