were appalled at the frightful drain on the 

 nation's strength." "In less than half a year 

 after the loss of half a million men a new 

 army nearly as numerous was marshalled 

 under the imperial eagles. But the major- 

 ity were young, untrained troops, and it was 

 remarked that the conscripts born in the 

 year of Terror had not the stamina of the 

 earlier levies. Brave they were, superbly 

 brave, and the emperor sought by every 

 means to breathe into them his indomitable 

 spirit." "Truly the emperor could make 

 boys heroes, but he could never repair the 

 losses of 1 812." "Soldiers were wanting, 

 youths were dragged forth." The human 

 harvest was at its very worst. "To fill hell 

 with heroes," — in these words some one 

 has summed up the life-work of the great 

 Napoleon. 



And the sequel of it all is the decadence 

 of France. In the presence of war — of war 

 on such a mighty, ruthless and ruinous scale 

 — one does not have to look far to find in 

 what constitutes the superiority of the 

 Anglo-Saxon. And we see the truth in 

 Franklin's words, the deeper truth of their 



The 



Human 



Harvest 



[75] 



