238 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



fluenced you, but on the whole I take it that what moved 

 you most was a sense of duty combined with a desire for 

 the splendid natural activity of a military life. Yet behind 

 all your feelings there was something else, something bigger 

 and something which, though really obscure, is not beyond 

 comprehension. Most of us in life do things, and believe 

 we can say why. We use our intellect to make apologies 

 for our own actions, and sometimes succeed in the task to 

 our own satisfaction. And still we may wonder in our 

 hearts whether there was not some instinct in us that 

 was the real motive power. Again, many of you must 

 have felt the heavy weight of our economic civilization, 

 and to become a soldier is, in a way, to get back to nature. 

 You therefore come here to be trained, and to learn to 

 train others, in the very ancient organization called an 

 army. Busy as you may be, you should be free from many 

 of the worries besetting those who are all " on their own." 

 Discipline and control may obstruct some activities, but 

 they leave others free. Young men especially like change. 

 Here you certainly get it, sometimes to your surprise. 

 Besides these reasons for your actions there is the other 

 reason which I hope presently to make plain. As a hint, 

 it may be said that, though in some ways you are now 

 more yourselves than you ever seemed, in another and a 

 very strange and not unpleasing way you are less. You 

 will exercise powers you never had yet, and will be re- 

 strained in ways you would once have resented fiercely. 



Let me phrase it plainly. You are here as grist for 

 the military mill. You have to go through the machine. 

 The reason of many of the processes through which you 

 are put are probably obscure to you. Some seem a little 

 absurd, some too severe, some, perhaps, totally unintel- 

 ligible. You wonder why you are being trained in such 



