And, after all, you see now that the only man who matters is the man who can shoulder a gun and carry a sword. It is a weird, it is a strange reflection in the twentieth century of civilization and enlightenment, but the fact remains that, in the last resort, we have to depend upon the physical valour and the martial spirit of our race. Perhaps one of the first lessons resulting from this war will be that in future, instead of passing our soldiers by and treating them with indifference, we shall raise our hats to them; we shall salute them, and be proud if they will walk on the same side of the street as ourselves. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a mighty struggle. It is a Marathon of the gods of battle, and I confess that, if I were a young man of fighting age, I should yearn to be in it. I feel that those of us who cannot join the Army are placed at a terrible disadvantage, because I cannot think of any prouder boast for any Britisher to make when the war is over—that he took an active and vital part in ridding England and the world of a great, a hideous menace, which, but for his intervention, might have wiped out the civilization of our past ages and everything worth living for or dying for on the earth. [Loud cheers.] I ask those young men if they do not really feel that there is a call to them. I ask them if they cannot hear their comrades calling to them from the trenches, calling to them from the hospitals, calling to them from the decks of the sea-dogs who are guarding our shores day in and night in. If they do not hear that call they are unworthy to claim the name of Englishman. [Cheers.]
After all, we are the greatest martial race the world has ever known. We have had a good time in the past, because we have led in the van of commerce and trade, and perhaps the rising generation has never been sufficiently taught—our system of education is so incomplete that you cannot blame them—has never been sufficiently taught the meaning of the words "the British Empire." Still, I do believe that the day is coming rapidly when the manhood of the nation will realize the call that is being made to them. I wonder if I might not also say that it is something more solemn than even the call of the men in the trenches, I am no religionist, and I would rather cut my tongue from its roots than talk hypocritical cant in the name of religion. I have always said that, and while I respect and esteem the honest priest, I have nothing but contempt for the self-righteous individual, who makes his religion a cloak for hypocrisy and
