The Days of a Man 1:1913 



of courage and magnanimity, he said (in effect, for the sake of 

 brevity I condense the passage) — "If that be so, it would be 

 desirable to have war every thirty years — once for every gen- 

 eration. It would be better to have it at home than in some other 

 place. If it is good for the Philippines, it is good for Scotland. 

 Why not have it in England? Divide England from north to 

 south in half, and let the East fight the West, with the First 

 Lord of the Admiralty as umpire." And so on -^ a skillful kind 

 of badinage more effectually destructive of the enemy's position 

 than argument. 



Professor Jordan has all the bright serenity of outlook that 

 distinguishes a happy old age.^ He is completing his education, 

 he told us, by studying the men and things of other countries; 

 in his lecture he is trying to educate himself rather than his 

 audience. And to such a bright serenity the pointless fury of 

 the war system seems doubly irrational. Moreover the kindness, 

 the humanness of the men of other countries has deepened his 

 faith in the qualities that by and by will make war impossible. 

 "I have seen," Professor Jordan said, "that the thoughts of men 

 are much the same the world over. The people of Germany 

 listened to me as kindly, as sympathetically, as the people in 

 England and Scotland." ^ 



We hear much of the warlike qualities of the Japanese 

 people. 



"The people of Japan," he continued, with an irresistible 

 twinkle, " are about as anxious for another war as the people of 

 San Francisco for another cheerful earthquake." 



When he spoke of the awful cost of impersonal hatred among 

 nations, one was reminded of the dramatic instance given of 

 precisely the same feeling in a curious little Hardy poem, where 

 a soldier who has shot another wonders dully why. Had he met 

 the same man by the roadside he might have offered him a drink 

 at a wayside inn, and entered into a pleasant human intercourse 

 with him. 



Before we left Dundee, Dr. James Malloch, pro- 

 fessor of Education, whom I had already met at 



1 ! 



' This statement, I may say, was entirely true so far as my own audiences 

 were concerned. 



X. 546 3 



