Would that a new era might dawn, thanks to them, that a new world might be born in which we might breathe more freely, where injustices centuries old might be made good, where France, arising from long humiliation, might resume her rank and destiny.  Then, in that cured, vivified France, what an awakening, what a renewal, what a sap, what a magnificent flowering there would be!  This will be thy work, soldier of 1914!  To you we shall owe this resurrection of our beloved country.  And later on, and always, in everything beautiful and good that may be done among us, in the creations of our poets and the discoveries of our savants, in the thousand forms of national activity, in the strength of our young men and the grace of our young women, in all that will be the France of tomorrow, there will be, soldier so brave and so simple in your greatness, a little of your heroic soul!

Germany’s Civilized Barbarism

By Emile Boutroux.

From the Revue des Deux Mondes.

I sincerely thank M. Emile Boutroux for the letter he has been good enough to write to me; and the readers of the Revue will join me, for it is addressed to them also.  No one could speak of Germany more authoritatively than M. Boutroux; no one, indeed, is better acquainted with the Germany of yesterday and that of today, or better equipped to draw a comparison between them, which for the Prussianized Germany of the present is a verdict and a condemnation.  The violence, brutality, barbarism which she displays—­a frightful spectacle—­doubtless spring from the deepest instincts of race; but man always feels the need of justifying his conduct, and the Germans are too much philosophers not to seek justification for theirs in a scientific system in which these doctrinaires of a new sort are encouraged to persevere without the least scruple or pity.  M. Boutroux explains to us the detestable sophism which has perverted the entire German soul and made of a nation which our grandfathers loved and admired, a monster whose implacable egotism weighs heavily on the world.  But let M. Boutroux speak.

FRANCIS CHARMES.

* * * * *

PARIS, 28 September, 1914.

To the Director of the Revue des Deux Mondes: 

Mr. Director and Dear Colleague:  You have done me the honor to ask me, as I have lived in Germany and studied in part German philosophy and literature, whether I was not prepared to submit some observations touching the present war.  I confess that at this moment words, and even thoughts, seem to me to amount to little.  Like every Frenchman,

[Illustration:  FREDERIC HARRISON. See Page 192]

[Illustration:  YVES GUYOT. See Page 194]

I am given up wholly to the task of the hour; all my interest is in our generous and admirable army, and my sole concern is to take part, however modestly, in the work of the nation.  True, a thousand memories and reflections crowd my mind; the notion of pausing to express them in writing had not occurred to me, but it would be ungracious in me to decline your kind invitation.  Please omit from the ideas I throw on paper whatever seems to you to be lacking in interest.