One thing above all,
conditions have changed in a startling manner; England is threatened
within as without; there are labour complications of all kinds of which
no one can foresee the end, while as a result of another complication
we find the Prime Minister of England going about as carefully protected
as the Czar of Russia.[Footnote: The militant suffragette agitation.]
The unrest of the times is apt to be even bewildering. England is not
alone in her troubles--all the great Powers are likewise; and it is at
least as likely for any one of them to be paralysed by an internal war
as to be prepared to wage an external one. This stands put clearly--we
cannot go away from the turmoil and sit down undisturbed; we must stand
in and fight for our own hand or the hand of someone else. Let us
prepare and stand for our own. However it be, no one can deny that in
all the present upheavals it is at least practical to discuss the ethics
of revolt.
III
We can count on a minority who will see wisdom in such a discussion; it
must be our aim to make the discussion effective. We must be patient as
well as resolute. We are apt to get impatient and by hasty denunciation
drive off many who are wavering and may be won. These are held back,
perhaps, by some scruple or nervousness, and by a fine breath of the
truth and a natural discipline may yet be made our truest soldiers.
Emerson, in his address at the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument,
Concord, made touching reference in some such in the American Civil War.
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