Thus, like a fertile country flooded with mud, England showed no
sign of her greatness in the days when she was putting forth all
her strength to save herself from the worst consequences of her
littleness. Most of the men of action, occupied to the last hour
of their time with urgent practical work, had to leave to idler
people, or to professional rhetoricians, the presentation of the
war to the reason and imagination of the country and the world in
speeches, poems, manifestoes, picture posters, and newspaper
articles. I have had the privilege of hearing some of our ablest
commanders talking about their work; and I have shared the common
lot of reading the accounts of that work given to the world by
the newspapers. No two experiences could be more different. But
in the end the talkers obtained a dangerous ascendancy over the
rank and file of the men of action; for though the great men of
action are always inveterate talkers and often very clever
writers, and therefore cannot have their minds formed for them by
others, the average man of action, like the average fighter with
the bayonet, can give no account of himself in words even to
himself, and is apt to pick up and accept what he reads about
himself and other people in the papers, except when the writer is
rash enough to commit himself on technical points. It was not
uncommon during the war to hear a soldier, or a civilian engaged
on war work, describing events within his own experience that
reduced to utter absurdity the ravings and maunderings of his
daily paper, and yet echo the opinions of that paper like a
parrot. Thus, to escape from the prevailing confusion and folly,
it was not enough to seek the company of the ordinary man of
action: one had to get into contact with the master spirits. This
was a privilege which only a handful of people could enjoy. For
the unprivileged citizen there was no escape. To him the whole