THE POISONED WELLS.


We must never forget, when we speak of the moral resistance of the
Belgian people, that they have been completely isolated from their
friends abroad for more than two years and that meanwhile they have been
exposed to all the systematic and skilful manoeuvres of German
propaganda. Not only are they without news from abroad, but all the news
they receive is calculated to spread discouragement and distrust.

How true lovers could resist a long separation and the most wicked
calumnies without losing faith in one another has been the theme of many
a story. From the story-writer's point of view, the true narrative of
the German occupation of Belgium is much more romantic than any romance,
much more wonderful than any poem. The mass is not supposed to show the
same constancy as the individual, and one does not expect from a whole
people the ideal loyalty of Desdemona and Imogen. Besides, we do not
want the reader to imagine that, before the war, the Belgians were
ideally in love with one another. Like the English, the Americans and
the French, we had our differences. It is one of the unavoidable
drawbacks of Democracy that politics should exaggerate the importance of
dissensions. Therefore it is all the more remarkable that the sudden
friendship which sprang up between classes, parties and races in
Belgium, on the eve of August 4th, should so long have defied the
untiring efforts of the enemy and should remain as unshakeable to-day as
it was at the beginning.

We do not wonder that the German intellectuals who have undertaken to
break down Belgian unity are at a loss to explain their failure.