ould
stand their first ordeal of fire.

Every mass of men has, besides the will and mind of each one of them, a
collective will and mind. Every town has this--who has not felt, on
entering a town and viewing its shops and people, a certain pushing
toward behavior--some towns tend to make one frivolous, others grave.
I know a city which, every time I enter, makes me think when last I was
in church, while there is another in which I always want to dance or
view the Follies. Have you not seen countrymen in town, whose clothes
proclaim that they have never been out later than nine o'clock in a
lifetime, trying to be the gay Lothario, drinking wine in a cabaret?
Every house has its personality made up of the collective minds of the
people who inhabit it. Take your child to one strange house and he
will fidget uncomfortably on the edge of his chair; but take him to
another, just as strange, and he will romp about without hesitation.
Children are like the canaries we use to detect the presence of
poisonous gases, most sensitive to atmosphere.

In the same way an army has ONE WILL, and that is why in battle you
will not see one man fail, or there will be panic and all will fail.
In every army there are individual men weak in resolution who, left to
themselves, would run away; but as the MIND of the army as a whole is
courageous, so they are swept along in spite of themselves. The German
army has ONE MIND for bestiality, and the Allied army has ONE MIND for
victory.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE SPLENDOR OF THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY

To those who are thrilled by the old-time tales of adventurous chivalry
or moved by the narrative of high endeavor and heroic achievement for
some noble ideal, I bring a conception of the marvellous glory of these
present days. We have been wont to sing of the times when thousands
left home and comfort on a Holy Crusade, but the Crusaders of these
days are numbered in millions.

Never were there such stirring times as these, never since the first
tick of time have the hours been so crowded! Never before did so many
men live nobly or die bravely. The young knights from many lands are
seeking the Holy Grail, and finding it in forgetfulness of self and in
sacrifice for their fellows. You and I are living to-day among the
deeds of men that make the deeds of the heroes of past times pale into
insignificance. Never were there bred men of such large and heroic
mould as the men of to-day.

Here'