i 5 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



They have mostly seen more of German methods than I have." 

 Our sentimentalists are, as Swinburne said, lovers of every 

 country but their own, and it is instructive to learn what the 

 young men who are fighting for us actually think about them. 

 While the enemy destroy our sons by ever}' means, fair or foul, 

 from honest shooting to the use of poisonous gases, the 

 treacherous employment of the white flag, and other gentle 

 artifices of their own, our " stay-at-homes" are exercising their 

 delicate souls to find excuses for their action, and sweet words 

 of forgiveness which they fondly hope may turn away the wrath 

 of the brigands who are trying to rob the world. Similarly our 

 anti-scientific cranks are continuing to do their utmost to help 

 the enemy by tying our hands against typhoid in order to 

 prove (such is their notion of proof) their ridiculous hypotheses 

 about anti-vivisection and anti-vaccination. All these people 

 belong to the same class. It seems to be a weak spot in the 

 British intellect, to help enemies of all kinds as much as 

 possible in order to demonstrate one's own wisdom and 

 magnanimity. 



The Real Order of Merit 



Viscount Haldane, who prepared the nation so admirably 

 for the present war, has been given the Order of Merit on 

 retirement from the Ministry ; but there is another Order oi 

 Merit which is seldom bestowed on such occasions. Our soldiers 

 who have been disabled at the front receive it, however, with 

 a lavish hand. From the numerous letters which appear in the 

 press upon the subject, this Order seems to amount to a maximum 

 sum of seventeen shillings and sixpence a week given in full 

 recognition of the fact that such soldiers have been incapacitated 

 for all work by their sense of duty to their country and by the 

 terrible wounds which have been inflicted upon them in its 

 defence. On the whole this latter order of merit appears to 

 us to be on all fours with the similar orders of merit given 

 to so many of the benefactors of the human race — to which 

 we have often referred. How grateful our soldiers must be 

 to their fatherland. Perhaps there are a few grumblers— but 

 what then? One poor fellow is reputed to have said, "They 

 seem to look on us as they do on their guns — when worn out 

 to be cast aside as old iron." But surely he has forgotten the 

 honour which he will always receive in the workhouse in 



