elves as
creators of material force. A simple idea, the heroic conception which
a small people had formed of its honour, enabled it to make head
against a powerful empire. At the cry of outraged justice we saw,
moreover, in a nation which till then had trusted in its fleet, one
million, two millions of soldiers suddenly rise from the earth. A yet
greater miracle: in a nation thought to be mortally divided against
itself all became brothers in the space of a day. From that moment the
issue of the conflict was not open to doubt. On the one side, there
was force spread out on the surface; on the other, there was force in
the depths. On one side, mechanism, the manufactured article which
cannot repair its own injuries; on the other, life, the power of
creation which makes and remakes itself at every instant. On one side,
that which uses itself up; on the other, that which does not use
itself up.

Indeed, our philosopher will conclude, the machine did use itself up.
For a long time it resisted; then it bent; then it broke. Alas! it had
crushed under it a multitude of our children; and over the fate of
this young life, which was so naturally and purely heroic, our tears
will continue to fall. An implacable law decrees that spirit must
encounter the resistance of matter, that life cannot advance without
bruising that which lives, and that great moral results are purchased
by much blood and by many tears. But this time the sacrifice was to be
rich in fruit as it had been rich in beauty. That the powers of death
might be matched against life in one supreme combat, destiny had
gathered them all at a single point. And behold how death was
conquered; how humanity was saved by material suffering from the moral
downfall which would have been its end; while the peoples, joyful in
their desolation, raised on high the song of deliverance from the
depths of ruin and of grief!

THE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE

THE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE

The issue of the struggle is not doubtful. Germany will succumb.
Material force and moral force, all which is sustaining her, will end
by failing her, because she is living on provision she has
accumulated, is spending it, and has no way of renewing it.

Of her material resources all is known. She has money, but her credit
is falling, and one does not see where she is to borrow. She needs
nitrates for her explosives, fuel for her motors, b