A Student in Arms Part 7

The true wisdom is that in which all knowledge is subordinate to practical aims, and blended into a working philosophy of life.

The true wisdom is that it is not what a man does, or has, or says, that matters; but what he is.

This must be the aim of practical philosophy--to make a man be _something_.

The world judges a man by his station, inherited or acquired. G.o.d judges by his character. To be our best we must share G.o.d's viewpoint.

To the world death is always a tragedy; to the Christian it is never a tragedy unless a man has been a contemptible character.

Religion is the widening of a man's horizon so as to include G.o.d.

It is in the nature of a speculation, but its returns are immediate.

True religion means betting one's life that there is a G.o.d.

Its immediate fruits are courage, stability, calm, unselfishness, friends.h.i.+p, generosity, humility, and hope.

Religion is the only possible basis of optimism.

Optimism is the essential condition of progress.

One is what one believes oneself to be. If one believes oneself to be an animal one becomes b.e.s.t.i.a.l; if one believes oneself spiritual one becomes Divine.

Faith is an effective force whose measure has never yet been taken.

Man is the creature of heredity and environment. He can only rise superior to circ.u.mstances by bringing G.o.d into environment of which he is conscious.

The recognition of G.o.d's presence upsets the balance of a man's environment, and means a new birth into a new life.

The faculties which perceive G.o.d increase with use like any other perceptive faculties.

Belief in G.o.d may be an illusion; but it is an illusion that pays.

If belief in G.o.d is illusion, happy is he who is deluded! He gains this world and thinks he will gain the next.

The disbeliever loses this world, and risks losing the next.

To be the centre of one's universe is misery. To have one's universe centred in G.o.d is the peace that pa.s.seth understanding.

Greatness is founded on inward peace.

Energy is only effective when it springs from deep calm.

The pleasure of life lies in contrasts; the fear of contrasts is a chain that binds most men.

In the hour of danger a man is proven. The boaster hides, and the egotist trembles. He whose care is for others forgets to be afraid.

Men live for eating and drinking, pa.s.sion and wealth. They die for honour.

Blessed is he of whom it has been said that he so loved giving that he even gave his own life.

X

IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS

III

SCENE. _A trench unpleasantly near the firing line. There has been an hour's intense bombardment by the British, with suitable retaliation by the Boches. The retaliation is just dying down._

CHARACTERS. ALBERT--_Round-eyed, rotund, red-cheeked, yellow-haired, and deliberate; in civil life probably a drayman._ JIM--_Small, lean, sallow, grey-eyed, with a kind of quiet restlessness; in civil life probably a mechanic with leanings towards Socialism._ POZZIE--_A thick-set, low-browed, impa.s.sive, silent_ _country youth, with a face the colour of the soil._ JINKS--_An old soldier, red, lean, wrinkled, with very blue eyes. His face is rough-hewn, almost grotesque like a gargoyle. In his eyes there is a perpetual glint of humour, and in the poise of his head a certain irrepressible jauntiness._

ALBERT (_whose eyes are more staring than ever, his cheeks pendulous and crimson, his general air that of a partly deflated air-cus.h.i.+on_).

Gawd's truth!

JINKS (_wagging his head_). Well, my old sprig o' mint, what's wrong wi' you?

ALBERT. It ain't right. (_Sententiously_) It's agin natur'. Flesh an'

blood weren't made for this sort o' think.

JIM. It ain't flesh an' blood that can't stand it. It's Mind. Look at old Pozzie. 'E's flesh an' blood, and don't turn an 'air! For myself I'll go potty one o' these days.

JINKS (_slapping POZZIE on the back_). You don't take no notice, do you, old lump o' duff?

POZZIE. Oi woulden moind if I got moy rations; but a chap can't keep a good 'eart if 'e's got an empty stummick.

JIM (_sarcastically_). You keep yer 'eart in yer stomach, don't yer?

You ain't got no mind, you ain't. Jinks was born potty, an' the rest of us'll all go potty except you. It's you an' yer Ally Sloper's Cavalry what'll win the war, I don't think!

ALBERT. What I wants ter know is 'ow long the bleedin' war's a-goin'

ter last. If it goes on much longer I'll be potty if I ain't a gone 'un.

JIM. There's only one way of ending it as I knows on.

ALBERT. What's that, matey?

JIM. Put all the bleedin' politicians on both sides in the bleedin'

trenches. Give 'em a week's bombardment, an' send 'em away for a week to make peace, with a promise of a fortnight's intense at the end of it if they've failed. They'd find a way, sure enough.

ALBERT (admiringly). Ah, that they would an' all. If old "Wait and See" 'ad been 'ere these last four days 'e wouldn't talk about fightin' to the last man!

JINKS. Don't talk stoopid. 'Oo began the bloomin' war? Don't yer know what you're fightin' for? D'you want ter leave the 'Uns in France an'

Belgium an' Serbia an' all? It ain't fer us to make peace. It's fer the 'Uns. An' if you are done in, you got to go under some day. I ain't sure as they ain't the lucky ones what's got it over and done with. And arter all, it's not us what's not proper. The 'Uns 'ave 'ad two fer our one.

ALBERT. They got dug-outs as deep as 'ell, it don't touch 'em.