Government), they cannot claim superior humanity. It is therefore waste
of time for the pot to call the kettle black. Our outcry against the
Germans for sowing the North Sea with mines was followed too closely by
the laying of a mine field there by ourselves to be revived without
flagrant Pharisaism. The case of Rheims cathedral also fell to the
ground as completely as a good deal of the building itself when it was
stated that the French had placed a post of observation on the roof.
Whether they did or not, all military experts were aware that an officer
neglecting to avail himself of the cathedral roof in this way, or an
opposing officer hestitating to fire on the cathedral so used, would
have been court-martialed in any of the armies engaged. The injury to
the cathedral must therefore be suffered as a strong hint from
Providence that though we can have glorious wars or glorious cathedrals
we cannot have both.

7. To sum up, we must remember that if this war does not make an end of
war in the west, our allies of to-day may be our enemies of to-morrow,
as they are of yesterday, and our enemies of to-day our allies of
to-morrow as they are of yesterday; so that if we aim merely at a fresh
balance of military power, we are as likely as not to negotiate our own
destruction. We must use the war to give the _coup de grace_ to medieval
diplomacy, medieval autocracy, and anarchic export of capital, and make
its conclusion convince the world that Democracy is invincible, and
Militarism a rusty sword that breaks in the hand. We must free our
soldiers, and give them homes worth fighting for. And we must, as the
old phrase goes, discard the filthy rags of our righteousness, and fight
like men with everything, even a good name, to win, inspiring and
encouraging ourselves with definite noble purposes (abstract nobility
butters no parsnips) to face whatever may be the price of proving that
war cannot conquer us, and that he who dares not appeal to our