5

Nevertheless, they seemed much stronger than we are, all those who
came before us. They were rude, austere, much closer to nature, poor
and often unhappy. They had a simpler and a more rigid code of
thought; they had the habit of physical suffering, of hardship and of
death. But I do not believe that any one dares contend that these men
would have done what our soldiers are now doing, that they would have
endured what is being endured all around us. Are we not entitled to
conclude from this that civilization, contrary to what was feared, so
far from enervating, depraving, weakening, lowering and dwarfing man,
elevates him, purifies him, strengthens him, ennobles him, makes him
capable of acts of sacrifice, generosity and courage which he did not
know before? The fact is that civilization, even when it seems to
entail corruption, brings intelligence with it and that intelligence,
in days of trial, stands for potential pride, nobility and heroism.
That, as I said in the beginning, is the unexpected and consoling
revelation of this horrible war: we can rely on man implicitly, place
the greatest trust in him, nor fear lest, in laying aside his
primitive brutality, he should lose his manly qualities. The greater
his progress in the conquest of nature and the greater his apparent
attachment to material welfare, the more does he become capable,
nevertheless, unconsciously, deep down in the best part of him, of
self-detachment and of self-sacrifice for the common safety and the
more does he understand that he is nothing when he compares himself
with the eternal life of his forbears and his children.

It was so great a trial that we dared not, before this war, have
contemplated it. The future of the human race was at stake; and the