1 SEPTEMBER 1939, Page 16

PEOPLE AND THINGS

By HAROLD NICOLSON

HUMAN beings, when tuning themselves to resist great ordeals with placid resolution, become unduly sensitive to minor irritations ; the concentration of all our faculties upon a single point leaves the flanks of our awareness exposes to secondary incursions, and while our nerves can confront without vibration the vital dangers by which we are menaced, we find ourselves losing our sense of proportion about lesser things. I am conscious, for instance, of a break-down in my own reasonableness when I hear people remark upon the " brilliance " of Herr von Ribbentrop's diplomacy. Such eulogies make me wish to yell with rage.