Submarine and Anti-submarine

Submarine and Anti-submarine

It is probable that a good deal of the information contained in this book will be new to the public; for it has been collected under favour of exceptional circumstances. But the reader will gain little if he cannot contribute something on his sideif he cannot share with the writer certain fundamental beliefs. The first of these is that every nation has a spirit of its owna spirit which is the mainspring of national action. It is more than a mechanical spring; for it not only supplies a motive force, but determines the moral character of the action which results. When we read the history of nations, and especially the history of their explorations, wars, and revolutions, we soon recognise the spirit of each, and learn to expect its appearance in every moment of crisis or endurance. If it duly appears, our impression is confirmed; if it fails on any occasion, we are disappointed. But the disappointments are fewnations may at times surprise us; but, as a rule, they are like themselves. Even when2 they develop and seem to change, they are apt, under the stress of action, to return to their aboriginal character, and to exhibit it in their old historic fashion. To attempt, then, to give an account of any national struggle, without paying attention to the influence of the characteristic spirit of the country or countries concerned, would be a difficult undertaking, and a mistaken one. Even in a short crisis, a great people will probably display its historic colours, and in a long one it certainly will. To ignore this, to describe national actions without giving a sense of the animating spirit, would be not only a tame and inadequate method; it would lower the value of life itself by making mere prose of what should, by right, partake of the nature of poetry. History cannot often be entirely poetical, or poetry entirely historical. When Homer told the tale of Troy, he did not make proseor even historyof it. He everywhere infused into it an incomparable ardourhe made an epic. But Mr. Thomas Hardy wrote history in The Dynasts, and made it an epic too. An epicthe common definition tells usis a theme of action treated in heroic proportions and style. The Dynasts certainly is thatthe struggle is great, the issues are great, the men are great. Even more than their heroic fighting, their speech and manners in the moment of action are such as to show unfailingly by what a distinctive and ever-present spirit national life may be sustained and magnified. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 52425
Author: Newbolt, Henry John
Release Date: Jun 28, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Wilkinson, Norman, 1882-1934