omewhat mean, but which he
believes to be just and lofty; and a sacrifice of this kind, whatever
its object, is always the proof of a force which survives those who
devote themselves to making it and must command respect.

I know very well that this heroism is not like the heroism which we
love. For us, heroism must before all be voluntary, freed from any
constraint, active, ardent, eager and spontaneous; whereas with them
it has mingled with it a great deal of servility, passiveness,
sadness, gloomy, ignorant, massive submission and rather base fears.
It is nevertheless the fact that, in the moment of supreme peril,
little remains of all these distinctions and that no force in the
world can drive to its death a people which does not bear within
itself the strength to confront it. Our soldiers make no mistake upon
this point. Question the men returning from the trenches: they detest
the enemy, they abhor the aggressor, the unjust and arrogant
aggressor, uncouth, too often cruel and treacherous; but they do not
hate the man: they do him justice; they pity him; and, after the
battle, in the defenceless wounded soldier or disarmed prisoner they
recognize, with astonishment, a brother in misfortune who, like
themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves,
he too believes lofty and necessary. Under the insufferable enemy they
see an unhappy man who also is bearing the burden of life. They forget
the things that divide them to recall only those which unite them in a
common destiny; and they teach us a great lesson. Better than
ourselves, who are removed from danger, at the contact of profound and
fearful verities and realities they are already beginning to discern
something that we cannot yet perceive; and their obscure instinct is
probably anticipating the judgment of history and our own judgment,
when we see more clearly. Let us learn from them to be just and to
distinguish that which we are bound to despise and loathe from that
which we may pity, love and respect.

Setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation
of treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a
bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism and the spirit of
sacrifice. Humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all
that it had hitherto accomplished. It has surpassed it. Never before
had nations been seen capable, for months on end, perhaps for years,
of renouncing their repose,