t, of course, your professors. But doubt all other professors--
yet not conceitedly, as some do, with their noses in the air; avoid
all such physical risks. If it necessitates your pushing some of us
out of our places, still push; you will find it needs some shoving.
But the things courage can do! The things that even incompetence
can do if it works with singleness of purpose. The war has done at
least one big thing: it has taken spring out of the year. And, this
accomplished, our leading people are amazed to find that the other
seasons are not conducting themselves as usual. The spring of the
year lies buried in the fields of France and elsewhere. By the time
the next eruption comes it may be you who are responsible for it and
your sons who are in the lava. All, perhaps, because this year you
let things slide.

We are a nice and kindly people, but it is already evident that we
are stealing back into the old grooves, seeking cushions for our old
bones, rather than attempting to build up a fairer future. That is
what we mean when we say that the country is settling down. Make
haste, or you will become like us, with only the thing we proudly
call experience to add to your stock, a poor exchange for the
generous feelings that time will take away. We have no intention
of giving you your share. Look around and see how much share Youth
has now that the war is over. You got a handsome share while it
lasted.

I expect we shall beat you; unless your fortitude be doubly girded
by a desire to send a message of cheer to your brothers who fell,
the only message, I believe, for which they crave; they are not
worrying about their Aunt Jane. They want to know if you have
learned wisely from what befell them; if you have, they will be
braced in the feeling that they did not die in vain. Some of them
think they did. They will not take our word for it that they did not.
You are their living image; they know you could not lie to them, but
they distrust our flattery and our cunning faces. To us they have
passed away; but are you who stepped into their heritage only
yesterday, whose books are scarcely cold to their hands, you who
still hear their cries being blown across the links--are you
already relegating them to the shades? The gaps they have left
in this University are among the most honourable of her wounds.
But we are not here to acclaim them. Where they are now, hero is,
I think, a very little word. They call t