Lest We Forget: World War StoriesThompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
History
Lest We Forget: World War Stories
Thompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
Readers -- History; Readers -- World War, 1914-1918
No, most people who are thinking about the subject to-day are agreed
that wars will not end because of the destructive power of men, but
through the constructive power of human feeling and intellect. When the
great majority of men recognize, as so many do now, that as the world
exists to-day, no nation can ever gain by a war of aggression, but that
the nation at war loses her best, her young and strong, and has left
only the old and defective who cannot fight, that she loses her
industrial and commercial prosperity as well, and through these losses
loses more than she can ever gain by conquest; when all nations realize
that the destruction of great cathedrals like Rheims, of the beautiful
town hall at Lille, of the unique Cloth Market at Ypres, and of a
University like that of Louvain makes the whole world poorer beyond
measure, then will men agree that no small group of men, and no single
nation shall, in the future, be allowed to cause war; and then they
will organize some power strong enough to prevent war.
Then will come the League of Nations to Enforce Peace, or the
Parliament of Man of which Tennyson wrote in "Locksley Hall"
seventy-five years ago. The poet seemed as in a vision to see the
present World War with its terrors and its battles in the air. Perhaps
his vision of the abolition of war and the federation of the world is
equally true.
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder storm;
Till the war drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
[Illustration: SIR DOUGLAS HAIG--IN COMMAND OF THE BRITISH ARMIES
_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._]
WHEN GERMANY LOST THE WAR[4]
No man knows exactly when and where the three and twenty allies will
win the war, but all men know when and where Germany lost it. It was
four years ago this morning, at a point near Gemmenich, a village
southwest of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was then and there that the first gray
uniform crossed the frontier from Germany into Belgium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account