s showing the
courage of doctors and nurses, that courage which is furthest removed
from animal instinct and most secure from panic reaction. There is no
sign in France now of the passionate hopes of the revolutionary wars;
1870 is between them and her; she has learned, like no other nation in
Europe, the great lesson of defeat, which is not to mix material dreams
with spiritual; she has passed beyond illusions, yet her spirit is as
high as if it were drunk with all the illusions of Germany.

And that is why we admire her as we have never admired a nation before.
We ourselves are an old and experienced people, who have, we hope,
outlived gaudy and dangerous dreams; but we have not been tested like
the French, and we do not know whether we or any other nation could
endure the test they have endured. It is not merely that they have
survived and kept their strength. It is that they have a kind of
strength new to nations, such as we see in beautiful women who have
endured great sorrows and outlived all the triumphs and passions of
their youth, who smile where once they laughed; and yet they are more
beautiful than ever, and seem to live with a purpose that is not only
their own, but belongs to the whole of life. So now we feel that France
is fighting not merely for her own honor and her own beautiful country,
still less for a triumph over an arrogant rival, but for what she means
to all the world; and that now she means far more than ever in the past.

*Furia Francese.*

This quarrel, as even the Germans confess, was not made by her. She saw
it gathering, and she was as quiet as if she hoped to escape war by
submission. The chance of revenge was offered as it had never been
offered in forty years; yet she did not stir to grasp it. Her enemy gave
every provocation, yet she stayed as still as if she were spiritless;
and all the while she was the proudest nation on the earth, so proud
that she did not need to threaten or boast. Then came the first failure,
and she took it as if she had expected nothing better. She had to make
war in a manner wholly contrary to her nature and genius, and she made
it as if patience, not fire, were the main strength of her soul. Yet
behind the new patience the old fire persisted; and the _Furia Francese_
is only waiting for its chance. The Germans believe they have determined
all the conditions of modern war, and, indeed of all modern competition
between the nations to suit their own national