An empty urn within her withered hands, 

 Whose sacred dust was scattered long ago! 



It suggests the inevitable end of all em- 

 pire, of all dominion of man over man by 

 force of arms. More than all who fall in bat- 

 tle or are wasted in the camps, the nation 

 misses the "fair women and brave men" 

 who should have been the descendants of 

 the strong and the manly. If we may per- 

 sonify the spirit of the nation, it grieves 

 most not over its "unreturning brave," but 

 over those who might have been, but never 

 were, and who, so long as history lasts, can 

 never be. 



Against this view is urged the statement 

 that the soldier is not the best, but the 

 worst, product of the blood of the English 

 nation. Tommy Atkins comes from the 

 streets, the wharves, the graduate of the 

 London slums, and if the empire is "blue 

 with his bones," it is, after all, to the gain 

 of England that her better blood is saved 

 for home consumption, and that, as matters 

 are, the wars of England make no real drain 

 of English blood. 



The 



Human 



Harvest 



Tommy 

 Atkins 



[99] 



