WAR AND PEACE 95 



to perceive how closely both ideas are interwoven, 

 and how often, out of the terrors of war, ensue 

 blessings of peace. As this never-to-be-forgotten 

 Christmas draws to an end, the opening scene of 

 Hamlet seems especially appropriate, and let us 

 hope that the two ideas that are there put into 

 the mouth of the same speaker may be of good 

 omen for the times that are before us. He says : 



" Tell me, he that knows 

 Why this same strict and most observant watch 

 So nightly toils the subject of the land, 

 And why such daily cast of brazen cannon 

 And foreign mast for implements of war ; 

 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 

 Does not divide the Sunday from the week ; 

 What might be toward, that this sweaty haste 

 Doth make the night joint labourer with the day ? 

 Some say that ever 'gainst the season comes 

 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 

 The bird of dawning singeth all night long, 

 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad ; 

 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, 

 So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." 



