BATTLE    IN    THE    MUD	28l
"Comfort, content, delight—
The ages slow-bought gain—•
They shrivelled in a night,
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.
No easy hopes or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will and soul.
There is but one task for all—
One life for each to give.
Who stands if Freedom fall ?
Who dies if England live?
It was an astonishing spectacle. On the continent of Europe
patriotism was the peculiar concern of the State. It was taught
in the schools: it was officially stamped on the mind and body
of the individual citizen in his conscript years. There was not a
Frenchman, a German, a Russian or even an Italian between
the ages of 18 and 60 who was not trained and liable at a moment's
notice to serve in his country's army* When war came, his place
in a mobilised nation was awaiting him.
In England it was different. The State did not teach the
citizen patriotism: it scrupulously ignored the subject It did
not teach Wm nor expect him to serve his country. The State
existed to serve the individual, not the individual the State. It
provided him with legal and police protection, street lighting
and paving and, under recent socialist legislation, with—for those
who wanted them—free education, municipal baths and health
insurance* It asked nothing in return except obedience to the
law and the payment of taxes. If the individual chose to be
patriotic, that was his own affair—a kind of hobby like collecting
stamps or big-game shooting. Thus there was a voluntary
Navy League, supported by private subscriptions, for awakening
public interest in the Navy, and quite a number of rival Empire
Societies for persuading people to think imperially. But die
State itself had nothing to do with them except to assess them