32 LAND & WATER August lo, 1916 
can put her in a sumptuous cradle or claim a prize for himself and his society what is called a revolt of the Old 
her at a Baby Show. But the point about the Prussian Adam. Now the peculiar p^-ril that appeared in North 
illusion is suiticiently curious to require a more indirect (krmany was this; men made a false discovery that the 
explanation. ^^'^ Adam was really the New Adam ; was indeed the 
Broadly speaking, man is pre-eminent o\cr the brutes newest of all possible Adams. The fresh and unique 
by certain perceptions which to them would appear c\il consisted in a curious idea that all this ordinary 
paradoxes. \\'hat is true of the man and the brutes is hmnan backsliding was prof^rcss : that the barbaric 
true, with differences important but here irrelevant, short cut was actually the path of impro\'ement. The 
of the civilised and the quite brutalised man. These heads of the (iermans were not only turned with success, 
perceptions are really paradoxes, in the sense that a they were turned backwards They beheld the miry 
sub-human intelligence would find them fantastic. To path from the dens of bestiality as a new avenue pointing 
take the obvious case " Thoushalt not steal" would seem to a new goal. So far from fleeing from the Cities of the 
to make a mystical difference between some ai^jiles and Plain and their red aboriginal sins, they regarded them 
other apples ;' a quality which is not in their being green not merely as Jerusalem but specifically as the New 
fruit, or red fruit, or ripe fruit, but forbidden fruit. It Jerusalem. The stale sins of sa\agery were suddenly 
needs a certain stride of primeval paradox to perceive reinvigoratcd by all the energies which men must always 
that in ensuring our neighbour's apples we ensure our associate with the ideas of expectancy and youth. The 
own. To avoid confusion, I will note here that this is true (iermans had hope ; but it was hope in all the things 
quite apart from current debates about pri\ate property, that ha\e made humanity seem a hopeless business. 
and applies as certainly to public property. E\-en if It was an idealism of opportunism ; a paradise of cynics ; 
the apples were everybody's, they could not be any- a golden age of brass. Like other tribes, they marched 
body's. There is the same paradox in any other moral towards a promised land ; but it was a promised land of 
platitude, such as that of keeping one's word. The broken promises. Like other religions, they believed 
purely brutal mind could not understand how it could be vaguely that their redeemer or a\enger would appear 
bound this year by certain gasps and grunts which had in the latter days of the earth. Bvit they believed that 
issued from its mouth last year. Nor could it make a he would not only come like a thief in the night, but 
mental picture of itself a year hence, and compel the behave as such. This extraordinary nmtiny of the mire, 
person in that picture to behave in a certain way. These under a mad illusion of novelty, has since filled dermany, 
truisms are tremendous ; they are, to the reflective, and infected many other parts of Europe, with every 
startling. Therefore the prophets and poets have fantastic form of short-sighted self-indulgence and 
rightly conceived these truisms as sculptured on super- superficial self-excuse. But its first appearance in Euro- 
human tables by the finger of God, and given in the pean history was in the irreligious \-acuum of the early 
blaze of lightning" when the thunder was in the mountains. eighteenth centurj" ; and its form was that wholly new and 
Now of course everyone knew, and had always known, frightful thing called the diplomacy of Prussia, 
that man has a sort of high insecurity on this mountain of In one sense it is true that the old tables have been 
vision ; that he is always slipping down into the i>rim- broken, and that those we now behold are new. The 
ordial slime of all that is obvious and vicious. He grows commandments of chaos and the old red clay have 
weary in well-doing ; and is bored with the bold and broken at a touch, and it will be long before men again 
brilliant epigrams of morality. He easily grows dull ; pretend to find any freshness in them ; but the divine 
and whenever he grows dull he grows lawless. He takes discoveries of right and wrong are indeed new in the 
apples that do not belong to him, because he has lost his sense that they are renewed with a light and savour of 
taste for the fruits of his own garden ; as in the first of the morning. Many a man during the passage of this 
all stories of such human frailty and fatigue. He takes apocalypse has really found his conscience as a man 
short cuts through broken fences and broken faith. finds first love, and has learnt for himself where flow the 
Everyone in human history, in short, has experienced in fountains of the youth of the world. 
Extension of the Union Jack Club 
By The Editor 
THIS summer our attention was drawn to the urgent tages are fully appreciated, and lack of space should not be 
need of the Union Jack Club (the London Club of permitted to check their development. The subscriptions 
the sailor and soldier from all parts of the British acknowledged here are for week ending August 5th : 
Empire) for an extension of its Club house in the £ s. d. 
Waterloo Road. The accommodation was beginning Previously acknowledged . . . . . . . . iSOd 4 
to be too limited before the war; since the war " In Memory of the late Capt. Geoffry W. Herring- 
i; has been found often impossible to meet all the de- ham, 5th Dragoon Guards," per Mrs. Wills .. 103 3 o 
mands of its members; and although mattresses are laid F. B. Anderson, Esq.. . .. 40 o 
out nightly in the larger public rooms, enabHng several " From an old Nightingale Nurse" . . . . . . 25 o o 
hundred members to sleep beneath its roof, many have to From the Officers, 2nd Cameron Highlanders . . 25 o 
be turned away. L.\nd & Water has been averse from Anonymous 10 o o 
appeaUng to its readers for subscriptions, knowing the multi- Herbert A. Dugard, Esq 10 
tudinous claims on their purses in these times, but the exten- p. Frank Hadow, Esq. . . . . . . . . 500 
sion of this Club seemed to be something out of the common A. A. Coombs. Esq., 2nd Lieut., K.E 500 
and to be of peculiar interest to readers of this journal, many " Skomagcr, Edinburgh " 440 
of whom — and in all parts of the Empire— first glance through Edward Adic, Esq., of Toronto 2 • lo o 
its pages in their own Clubs. Nor have we erred. Sub- Rowland, F. A. Orr, Esq 220 
scriptions have come in steadily from the first. From the Miss J. Schiff, i x o 
Overseas Dominions we are only just beginning to hear ; The Rev. G. W. Barnard i i o 
Canada has begun to subscribe, also West Africa, and dona- " A.C.D." iio 
tions have reached us from Egypt, Morocco and the Canary " R.D.T." iio 
Islands. More money is still required for this purpose, so " H.W.E." iio 
while thanking our readers for their generous support hitherto, " E.S." .. .. •. •• •• •• iio 
we would ask them to continue it. Miss Gilda Joynt 100 
The Union Jack Club is a splendid institution. There is not " M.B.K." Belfast, .. .. .. .. •• 100 
a better run Club in the Metropohs, the convenience and " E.B.," Belfast .. .. .. •• .. 100 
comfort of its members are studied from first to last. It is a R. Bonner Morgan, Esq. . . . . . . . . o 10 6 
home for the sailor or soldier on leave in London in the best , 
sense of the word, and being conducted on business principles ^n contributions should be forwarded tO .* 
it pays its way. We should like to see the extra capital ^ _ , ." „ 
required to construct and fit out this proposed Extension The Editor, " LAND & WATER," 
provided with as little delay as possible ; for tlie sooner work Empire House, Kingsway, 
can be begun on the new premises the better. The letters London, W.G. 
which have reached the Comptroller of the Club from sailors „ , , 7 /j ; ,„^^j « rr TT V^m^ " nnd 
and soldiers (belonging in private life to almost exerv class of Envelopes should he marked U.J.C. timd ana 
iile), are eloquent of the good which it achieves. Its advan- all the cheques should bc crossed LOUUs tiann. 
