That
spirit is not easy to define; and it is easy to confuse it with much
more pardonable things. Every people can be jingo and vainglorious; it
is the mark of this spirit that the instinct to be so acts before any
other instinct can act, even those of surprise or anger. Every people
emphasizes and exaggerates its victories more than its defeats. But this
spirit emphasizes its defeats as victories. Every national calamity has
its consolations; and a nation naturally turns to them as soon as it
reasonably can. But it is the stamp of this spirit that it always thinks
of the consolation _before_ it even thinks of the calamity. It abounds
throughout the whole press of the German Empire. But it is most shortly
shown in this figure of the young officer, who makes a hero of himself
before he has even fully realized that he has made a fool of himself.
G. K. CHESTERTON.
[Illustration: GALLIPOLI
TURKISH GENERAL: "What are you firing at? The British evacuated the
place twenty-four hours ago!"
"Sorry, sir--but what a glorious victory!]
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THE BEGINNING OF THE EXPIATION
It is sometimes an unpleasant necessity to insult a man, in order to
make him understand that he is being insulted. Indeed, most strenuous
and successful appeals to an oppressed populace have involved something
of this paradox. We talk of the demagogue flattering the mob; but the
most successful demagogue generally abuses it.
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