They demanded the gospel of hate, not that of love. But
hate, when it dominates the psychology of men, is not restricted to
one objective, such as a body of men behind barbed wire. It is a
spreading poison. It envenoms the whole mind. Like jealousy
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Our men, living in holes in the earth like ape-men, were taught the
ancient code of the jungle law, to track down human beasts in No Man's
Land, to jump upon their bodies in the trenches, to kill quickly,
silently, in a raid, to drop a hand-grenade down a dugout crowded with
men, blowing their bodies to bits, to lie patiently for hours in a
shell-hole for a sniping shot at any head which showed, to bludgeon
their enemy to death or spit him on a bit of steel, to get at his
throat if need be with nails and teeth. The code of the ape-man is bad
for some temperaments. It is apt to become a habit of mind. It may
surge up again when there are no Germans present, but some old woman
behind an open till, or some policeman with a bull's-eye lantern and a
truncheon, or in a street riot where fellow-citizens are for the time
being "the enemy.
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