up courage to come to any independent decision. That terrible fact is a curse of our education, for in that cruel catastrophe there appeared on a vast scale what was universally present in minor matters. It is this lack of will-power and not lack of war material which makes us to-day incapable of serious resistance. It lies deep down in our nation and prevents us taking up decision with a risk attached, just as if greatness in action did not consist of the daring displayed. A German general succeeded, without realizing it, in discovering a classic formula for this miserable want of decision ; he said : “I never act unless I can count on fifty-one per cent, of success.” This “fifty-one per cent.” sums up the tragedy of the German collapse.
The present-day terror of responsibility is all on the same lines. The fault is in the education of the young ; it permeates all public life and finds its crown in the institution of parliamentary government.
Just as the national State must in future pay