s in our spirit some reserve force which on occasion
the will uses to stiffen resolution--the second wind of determination.

Fear is the "purgative of the soul"! There is nothing so wholesome for
a man as to be "scared to death"! Nothing that so drives out the
littlenesses that poison his life and set up the toxaemia of
selfishness. Many a man that before the war made the acquiring of
wealth or the gaining of the plaudits of his friends his chief aim, now
finds that these things have no appeal for him. For he has been to the
edge of life and looked into the abyss, and fear has stripped from him
the rags of self-adornment; and standing naked between the worlds his
soul has found that it needs no beautifying but the cleansing of
self-forgetfulness.

This war is one of the greatest blessings this world has ever known,
for it has brought to us fear of selfish force, fear of the engines of
our own construction, fear of isolation in world politics, fear of
secret diplomacy, fear of an unguarded peace, fear of an unprepared
future, fear of an undisciplined people, fear of an irresponsible
government, and, above all THE FEAR OF FORGETTING!

But there is another reason why a man in battle, though afraid, does
not fail. The fact is that men in a regiment or an army are not under
the domination of their own will at all, but of the collective will of
the whole. That is why some regiments are so anxious to keep alive
their traditions, and emblazon their battles on their colors. That is
why we devote so much time in the training of young recruits to the
knowledge of the esprit de corps of the regiment. That is why the
regulars are always the best fighters. It is not their longer
training, for that is a handicap with new methods of warfare. It is
not because of their superior discipline, for the territorials have not
lacked perfect discipline. But there is an atmosphere in the regular
regiments that makes one brother that goes into the regulars a better
soldier than the other that enlists in militia. This atmosphere is
compounded of pride in past achievements and confidence that the colors
that have never been lowered, though shot down on many a field, cannot
be shamed to-day. The victors of many engagements have an enormous
advantage in battle. No one expected anything but the most heroic
courage from the British regulars who had never failed when called
upon, but every one was not a little anxious how "Kitchener's" w