The cases of cowardice in active warfare are extremely rare; a mechanical
chattering of teeth, or shaking of limbs, but practically never a refusal
to obey the command to advance. But it is this very courage which breeds
callousness, and, combined with bestial conditions, inevitably brutalizes.
When good people (far, oh far, from the zones of danger) can no longer in
the face of accumulating evidence, cling to their sentimental theory that
war ennobles, they take refuge in the vague but plausible substitute that
at least it makes the good better and the bad worse. Possibly, but it is to
be remembered that there is bad in the best even where there is no good in
the worst.
Indubitably it leaves its indelible mark in a collection of hideous
memories, on the just and the unjust, alike; as it is more difficult
(Nature having made human nature in an ironical mood) to recall the
pleasant moments of life than the poignantly unpleasant, so is it far more
difficult to recall the moments of exaltation, of that intense spiritual
desire which visits the high and low alike, to give their all for the
safety of their country and the honor of their flag. Moreover, the sublime
indifference in the face of certain death often has its origin in a still
deeper necessity to relieve the insufferable strain on scarified nerves,
and forever. As for the much vaunted recrudescence of the religious spirit
which is one of the recurring phenomena of war, it is merely an instinct
of the subtle mind, in its subtlest depths called soul, to indulge in the
cowardice of dependence since the body must know no fear.
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