the millennium! But though we deem the cruellest war of all time ended, and though the Supreme Power has given to our arms a victory so sudden and miraculous that we are left, as it were, breathless and staring, half in doubt as to whether our fortune be truly real, we are not able, apparently, to stand still in our mercifully _un_-invaded country and look each other in the face without quarrelling. Much talk there is of reform and betterment, but if each man who advocates these things begins the work by arguing foolish details with his political rival, there is little hope of any useful action ensuing. Should we not call a “hush” on these agitating folk?--a request for pause before they cast up dust into the clear spaces of the dawn? Let us have a pure and open sky! Let us watch the colours of hope and gladness deepen softly and surely on the long-darkened horizon--and let no murky miasma of discontent and disloyalty mar the happiness of the rising sun! A nobler People,--a better, grander, stronger Empire!--this is what our king and all our wisest men appeal for in this “hush of the dawn.” Surely it is the highest privilege in the world to know that we can all help in this work of Peace as we have helped in War,--we were all at one in making munitions for death;--let us all be similarly at one in making munitions for life. We are given our freedom by the sacrifice of thousands of brave men,--we shall not honour their memories now by ceaseless disputations as to our own material advantages. We desire surely that their dauntless and noble spirits shall know that our gratitude for their heroism inspires us to build up a nobler civilisation than we have ever had before,--and to this end we pray God who hath given us the victory,--so far!--in the hush of the dawn! Transcriber’s Notes Punctuation and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors in English were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced. Misspelled non-English words were not corrected. Page 15: Duplicate book title deleted by Transcriber. Page 128: “Dux Fœmina facti” should be “Dux Fæmina facti”. The French text on pages 141–144 contains several uncorrected spelling and accent errors. Page 179: “names of scared things” probably should be “sacred”. Page 213: “grudges you success” perhaps should be “your”. Page 261: “in the thoat and palate” probably should be “throat”. Page 262: “abnominations” was printed that way. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My "Little Bit", by Marie Corelli