England and that little church were a long way off now, perhaps all eternity away. I saw one boy standing quite motionless, with wet eyes, without self-consciousness. This music, this place of thoughtfulness, had made something break in his heart... Some of our young officers, but not many, knelt on the cane chairs and prayed, face in hands. French officers crossed themselves and their medals tinkled as they walked up the aisles. Always there were women in black weeds kneeling before the side--altars, praying to the Virgin for husbands and sons, dead or alive, lighting candles below holy pictures and statues. Our men tiptoed past them, holding steel hats or field--caps, and putting their packs against the pillars. On the steps of the cathedral I heard two officers talking one day. “How can one reconcile all this with the war?” “Why not?... I suppose we're fighting for justice and all that. That's what The Daily Mail tells us.” “Seriously, old man. Where does Christ come in?” “He wasn't against righteous force. He chased the money-changers out of the Temple.” “Yes, but His whole teaching was love and forgiveness. 'Thou shalt not kill.' 'Little children, love one another!' 'Turn the other cheek.'. .. Is it all sheer tosh? If so, why go on pretending?... Take chaplains in khaki--these lieutenant-colonels with black crosses. They make me sick. It's either one thing or the other. Brute force or Christianity. I am harking back to the brute--force theory. But I'm not going to say 'God is love' one day and then prod a man in the stomach the next. Let's be consistent.” “The other fellows asked for it. They attacked first.” “Yes, but we are all involved. Our diplomacy, our secret treaties, our philosophical dope over the masses, our imperial egotism, our trade rivalries--all that was a direct challenge of Might against Right. The Germans are more efficient and more logical--that's all. They prepared for the inevitable and struck first. We knew the inevitable was coming, but didn't prepare, being too damned inefficient... I have a leaning toward religion. Instinctively I'm for Christ. But it doesn't work in with efficiency and machine-guns.” “It belongs to another department, that's all. We're spiritual and animal at the same time. In one part of my brain I'm a gentleman. In another, a beast. It's conflict. We can't eliminate the beast, but we can control it now and then when it gets too obstreperous, and that's where religion helps. It's the high ideal--otherworldliness.” “The Germans pray to the same God. Praise Christ and ask for victory.” “Let them. It may do them a bit of good. It seems to me God is above all the squabbles of humanity--doesn't care a damn about them!--but the human soul can get into touch with the infinite and the ideal, even while he is doing butcher's work, and beastliness. That doesn't matter very much. It's part of the routine of life.”