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ravage in the form of the most insolent, 'Because I choose to, damn you
all!' recorded in history.

"The pretension to smashing world rule by a single people, in virtue of
a monopoly of every title, every gift and every right, ought perhaps to
confound us more by its grotesqueness than to alarm us by its energy;
but never do cherished possessions, whether of the hand or of the
spirit, become so dear to us as when overshadowed by vociferous
aggression. How can one help seeing that such aggression, if hideously
successful in Europe, would, with as little loss of time as possible,
proceed to apply itself to the American side of the world, and how can
one, therefore, not feel that the Allies are fighting to the death for
the soul and the purpose and the future that are in _us_, for the
defense of every ideal that has most guided our growth and that most
assures our unity?

"Of course, since you ask me, my many years of exhibited attachment to
the conditions of French and of English life, with whatever fond play of
reflection and reaction may have been involved in it, make it inevitable
that these countries should peculiarly appeal to me at the hour of their
peril, their need and their heroism, and I am glad to declare that,
though I had supposed I knew what that attachment was, I find I have any
number of things more to learn about it. English life, wound up to the
heroic pitch, is at present most immediately before me, and I can
scarcely tell you what a privilege I feel it to share the inspiration
and see further revealed the character of this decent and dauntless
people.

"However, I am indeed as far as you may suppose from assuming that what
you speak to me of as the 'political' bias is the only ground on which
the work of our corps for the Allies should appeal to the American
public. Political, I confess, has become for me in all this a loose and
question-begging term, but if we must resign ourselves to it as
explaining some people's indifference, let us use a much better one for
inviting their confidence. It will do beautifully well if givers and
workers and helpers are moved by intelligent human pity, and they are
with us abundantly enough if they feel themselves simply roused by, and
respond to, the most awful exhibition of physical and moral anguish the
world has ever faced, and which it is the strange fate of our actual
generations to see unrolled before them. We welcome any lapse of logic
that may connect i