generation, that the enemy is in the ascendant, that they cannot unseat
him, and their action, where any is made, is but to show their attitude,
never to convince opponents that the battle is again beginning, that
this is a bid for freedom, that history will be called on to record
their fight and pay tribute to their times. Their action has never this
great significance. When stung to fitful madness by the boastful
votaries of power, their occasional frantic efforts are more as relief
to their feelings than destructive to the tyranny in being. Let us
realise this to the full; and seeing the futility in other years of
every pathetic makeshift to annoy or circumvent the enemy, put by
futilities and do a great work to justify our time.


V


We have, then, to consider and decide our immediate attitude to life,
where we stand. There are errors to remove. The first is the assumption
that we are only required to acknowledge the flag in places, offer it
allegiance at certain meetings at certain times that form but a small
part of our existence; while we allow ourselves to be dispensed from
fidelity to our principles when in other places, where other standards
are either explicitly or tacitly recognised. That we must carry our flag
everywhere; that there must be no dispensation: these are the cardinal
points of our philosophy. Life is a great battlefield, and any hour in
the day a man's flag may be challenged and he must stand and justify it.
An idea you hold as true is not to be professed only where it is
proclaimed; it will whisper and you must be its prophet in strange
places; it is insistent of all things--you must glory in it or deny it;
there is no escaping it, and there is no middle way; wherever your path