However long he may have to hunt, the blind man who is seeking service
and an end to bickerings will come to that at last, because of all the
thousand other things he may clutch at, nothing else can satisfy his
manifest need.
VI. THE ENDING OF THE WAR
1
About the end of the war there are two chief ways of thinking, there is
a simpler sort of mind which desires merely a date, and a more complex
kind which wants particulars. To the former class belong most of the men
out at the front. They are so bored by this war that they would
welcome any peace that did not definitely admit defeat--and examine
the particulars later. The "tone" of the German army, to judge by its
captured letters, is even lower. It would welcome peace in any form.
Never in the whole history of the world has a war been so universally
unpopular as this war.
The mind of the soldier is obsessed by a vision of home-coming for
good, so vivid and alluring that it blots out nearly every other
consideration. The visions of people at home are of plenty instead
of privation, lights up, and the cessation of a hundred tiresome
restrictions. And it is natural therefore that a writer rather given to
guesses and forecasts should be asked very frequently to guess how long
the war has still to run.
All such forecasting is the very wildest of shooting.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234