possible, we should be glad to enter into a closer political association with them. In other words, while the fact of our independence must be assumed by the two governments, our sentiments must be colonial! A few days ago I was talking with a retired colonel, who is convinced that war may break out any day, and he said to me: "I suppose if the old country had her back to the wall you would come to her help?" I answered: "I do not think you could count on it. It would depend a good deal on the cause of the quarrel. There was a strong feeling against England during the Boer War, and there are thousands of Americans of pure British stock who do not think that Ireland has had a fair deal." He looked at me for a moment as if he could not credit his ears, and then simply said: "My G--d!" Had I known how deeply it would wound him, I would not have spoken. Certainly the thought of war between us and England is too horrible to put into words, and I dare say if there were a possibility of England's being crushed by a world power the superficial differences would be swept away like the sand-forts of the children, and deep would call to deep as it was recognized that the two peoples share a common ideal, and that it must be defended for the good of mankind. You know how I feel about war, yet I confess that should there be a righteous war in which England and America fought side by side it might not only remove the petty misunderstandings of the past but also lead to an abiding peace in the future. If only England could see that the Irish question is an American question! Meanwhile, I wish the _Times_ would let Germany alone, and English travellers let us alone for a while! Dr. Weir Mitchell once told me that he had a patient--a policeman from somewhere in the Jerseys--Newark, I think--who was a victim of an _idée fixe_. He asked him if he had ever been bitten by a mosquito? The man, with a wan smile, said: "What do you think?" "Very good," said Dr. Mitchell. "When you let it alone it soon ceased to trouble you, but if you scratched it it festered, and you had a hard time. _You must quit scratching this thought!_" But what was the poor fellow to do if every passer-by scratched it? XXXIV A PROBLEM IN CASUISTRY