The 

 Human 

 Harvest 



[lOO] 



In so far as this is true, of course the pres- 

 ent argument fails. If war in England is a 

 means of race improvement, the lesson I 

 would read does not apply to her. If Eng- 

 land's best do not fall on the field of battle, 

 then we may not accuse war of their de- 

 struction. The fact could be shown by 

 statistics. If the men who have fallen in 

 England's wars, officers and soldiers, rank 

 and file, are not on the whole fairly repre- 

 sentative of "the flower of England's chiv- 

 alry," then fame has been singularly given 

 to deception. We have been told that the 

 glories of Blenheim, Trafalgar, Waterloo, 

 Majuba Hill, were won by real Englishmen. 

 And this, in fact, is the truth. In every na- 

 tion of Europe the men chosen for the army 

 are above the average of their fellows. The 

 absolute best doubtless they are not, but 

 still less are they the worst. Doubtless, too, 

 physical excellence is more considered than 

 moral or mental strength; and certainly, 

 again, the more noble the cause, the more 

 worthy the class of men who will risk their 

 lives for it. 



Not to confuse the point by modern in- 



