12 SEPTEMBER 1914, Page 3

We have read with much pleasure an article entitled "Revenge

" in the New Statesman of last week. The writer has shown, better than we could argue the case ourselves, how natural is the awakening of a spirit of revenge at the spectacle of such barbarities as Germany has committed in Belgium, and yet how utterly barren and unprofitable revenge is in practice :-

" Outrages should incite ns to overthrow the outrager. That is all. The women he has defiled cannot be restored to happiness by the unhappiness of yet other women. A dead German child will not bring a dead Belgian child to life again. Louvain will not rise from its ashes even though you burn down Heidelberg to the last book in its libraries. One can see at once what a world of futilities one would be led into by revenge."