“If we’d told the Germans we would stop the moment Belgium was evacuated, the war would have been over in ’14. And we shouldn’t have an unemployed army marching through London to-day,” I added savagely. We squeezed our way forward till a sudden thinning of the crowd enabled us to escape into the park. “I think we’re individually the better for the sacrifices we all of us made,” he answered slowly. “For one moment there was a real spirit of fraternity; and, when the reaction has run its course, I hope to see that again. I’m recruiting people now, with quite fair success: reminding them what they did once and asking them to give up everything for one month or six or a year for the service of their country. I’m only asking them to do what I’ve done myself. I tell them, as I tell you, _that’s_ the new idea that we must capture from the war. Fraternity . . .” “Your new idea is at least as old as Christ and Buddha,” I objected. “Will you succeed where they failed?” “Had they ever such a chance as we have? We’ve seen the quality of modern war. We know that, if there’s another, it will bury civilization under a sea of lava. Men, women, sheep, cattle, the very blades of grass. Another war is synonymous with the end of the world.” “But how does one set about being fraternal?,” I asked. O’Rane walked for some distance without answering; and I thought he had not heard my question. Then he laughed and gave my arm a squeeze: “By realizing the alternative, as every one’s had every chance of doing in this war. By seeing that, if we trample on people weaker than ourselves, there’ll be people stronger than ourselves to trample on us. When I first saw ‘fraternity’ shining in front of me like Constantine’s Cross, I was a very small, very young, very miserable boy. I went through hell till I learnt how to defend myself. And then . . . many years afterwards . . . I began to think . . . about the poor devils who couldn’t defend _themselves_. I saw that we must make a world in which man wasn’t always measuring his strength. Yes, I admit Christ had made the discovery before me,” he ended with another laugh. I forebore to ask whether the second discovery was likely to change the hearts of men more than the first. The rule of force, I pointed out, had to be repudiated by every one at the same time: “If we’d been fraternal when the Germans were marching on Calais . . .” “If we’d been fraternal rather earlier, perhaps they’d never have marched there. Some one has to make a beginning. That’s one reason I had to give up this money. Fraternity can’t exist side by side with vast differences of wealth, among nations or individuals. It’s our sense of possession, George, that stands between us and our souls.” “Unfortunately, ever since man appeared on this planet, it’s been the instinct that keeps soul and body together. Will you be the first to strip for the plunge?” “_I’m_ ready.”