NOTES 323 



from any Dublin bookseller except to order," and wonders why this should be the 

 case " in a city that is the seat of two universities." Alas, if Irish people, who are 

 certainly the most charming and in some respects the most capable people in the 

 world, had paid more attention to great science and great art and less to the most 

 contemptible and fraudulent politics, Ireland would not now have been the " dis- 

 tressful country " they say she is. And if England had done the same, she would 

 not now have been losing her sons at the rate of a thousand a day. Our rights 

 are insignificant compared with our duties. Man may forgive, but nature never. 



What a magnificent idol is the German Lie-God ! In July the Kaiser is reported 

 to have said that " the English built up during the years before the war the com- 

 bination of countries which at the given signal fell upon us and attacked us, the 

 most peaceful and most peace-desiring people in the world." What— we proposed 

 to take Berlin with " our contemptible little army " ! No, the world will not 

 believe it. The Times says that the German casualties actually reported during 

 the two years of war amount to 3,135,177, of whom 735,866 were killed. That is 

 the price which the Germans have paid for worshipping Baal. And yet we read 

 in the July papers that, when this man was at Cologne, " rich and poor uncovered 

 their heads, and women without distinction of class greeted the War-Lord with 

 waving handkerchiefs." Yes, men may forgive — but what about God ? 



The other day we asked a soldier in high position on leave from the front what 

 his opinions were upon our capacity as a fighting nation. He replied that the 

 individual British soldier is acknowledged to be worth two of the Germans, to be 

 simply heroic as regards self-sacrifice, and to possess extreme cheerfulness under 

 all circumstances. " One would think," he said, " that men who are living 

 under the appalling conditions of the trenches would be morose or even 

 despondent. Not so, however. The men are really wonderful in their cheerful- 

 ness." He had asked one senior man who had been through the war and was 

 going home for a few days' leave, whether he was not glad to get out of the 

 trenches. " Well, sir," said the man, " them trenches are not so bad as they are 

 painted." Our informant also said that the junior officers are beyond all praise ; 

 and we must remember that these officers and men have been in no wise com- 

 pelled to undergo these hardships, but have done so quite voluntarily. It is in 

 fact a sublime spectacle such as has seldom been presented in the world before ; 

 and the advocates of free enlistment are right in this respect, that the picture 

 shown by our armies is in a sense more noble than that shown by the Germans— 

 though they are equally wrong in supposing that free enlistment is a proper 

 business proposition for the conduct of a great war. On the other hand, however ^ 

 our informant said that there his praise ended ; that the people who managed our 

 affairs in Parliament had failed to foresee almost everything and had prepared 

 for nothing. In fact, he said, we as a nation possess a ge?iius for disorganisation ! 

 That is clear from many other things besides the conduct of the war. But the 

 Battle of the Somme shows that we are improving ! 



The British Medical Association has appointed a Committee to work with the 

 Science and State Committee of the British Science Guild regarding the position 

 and pay of pathologists. 



