This man had dreamed a dream.  Climbing from the humble youth of a poor student, nourished in classroom and library with the burning visions of great teachers, he had hoped in this highest of positions to guide his country in the difficult path of a higher patriotism.  Philosopher, idealist, keen student of men, he had been able to keep his eyes steadfast on his goal despite the intolerable cloud of unjust criticism that had rolled round him.  Venomous and shameful attacks had hurt him, but had never abated his purpose.  In a world reeling and smoking with the insane fury of war, one nation should stand unshaken for the message of the spirit, for the glory of humanity; for the settlement of disputes by other means than gunpowder and women’s tears.  That was his dream.  To that he had clung.

He shifted grimly in his chair, and took up the pen.

What a long, heart-rending strain it had been!  His mind went back to the golden August day when the telegram was laid on his desk announcing that the old civilization of Europe had fallen into fragments.  He remembered the first meeting thereafter, when his associates, with grave, anxious faces, debated the proper stand for them to take.  He remembered how, in the swinging relaxation of an afternoon of golf, he had thoughtfully planned the wording of his first neutrality proclamation.

In those dim, far-off days, who had dreamed what would come?  Who could have believed that great nations would discard without compunction all the carefully built-up conventions of international law?  That murder in the air, on land, on the sea, under the sea, would be rewarded by the highest military honours?  That a supposedly friendly nation would fill another land with spies—­even among the accredited envoys of diplomacy?

Sadly this man thought of the long painful fight he had made to keep one nation at least out of the tragic, barbaric struggle.  Giving due honour to convinced militarist and sincere pacifist, his own course was still different.  That his country, disregarding the old fetishes of honour and insult, should stand solidly for humanity; should endure all things, suffer all things, for humanity’s sake; should seek to bind up the wounds and fill the starving mouths.  That one nation—­not because she was weak, but because she was strong—­should, with God’s help, make a firm stand for peace and show to all mankind that force can never conquer force.

“A nation can be so right that it should be too proud to fight.”  Magnificent words, true words, which one day would re-echo in history as the utterance of a man years in advance of his time—­but what rolling thunders of vituperation they had cost him! Too proud to fight!...  If only it had been possible to carry through to the end this message from Judea!