THE TEMPER OF THE PEOPLE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR."]
• Sue—In your striking article under the above title you say that the feeling of which you speak " never will have a name." Is it
• detracting from the spirit of the writing to say that it is the soul of - the nation, after many days, " finding God " I And is it vain or foolish to believe that its advent is the answer to the . prayers of the living, and of the holy dead, " heard before the . glory of the great God " ? Another sentence in your article has deep sigufficance-e-" the thought of vengeance is not in us." I believe we may go further even than that and say that deep down in the national consciousness (hardly known yet to itself): there is a profound pity for Germany, and for the retribution she is bringing on herself. Punishment—just and righteous, as far as human frailty can make it—should ho hers for her crimes against mankind and the heritage of our common humanity. But her greatest punishment is being deliberately wrought by her own - hands. For generations to come she will lie in her nakedness a
foul and unclean thing upon the highways of the world,. and will need all that is noblest in humanity,, all that is most pitiful in Christianity, to help her to bear the sense of her degradation and shame. Perhaps the most searching test of ouzselves as a' nation will come at such a time, and our noblest triumph and greatest victory will be seen in how far we are enabled to aid her then to redeem her life and find again her soul.—I am,
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