South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-07-24
Peculiar p safs:
BY II. X. CHeSterrOn
the Distinguished English PubIicIst,

slip for instant into unconsciousness. even
In order TO be as unconscious as a law Of
nature. They viii not let anything slide. even
In order TO be landslide overwhelming their
enemies. IL might be said that the German
nights with a battleaxe, which Is lifted with
the owners purpose, but which falls with its
own weight; while the Frenchman fights with
a rapier. which must still be held lightly, even
In the lunge that kills. But this more hack
neyed metaphor would be misleading; II would
mix the matter up with mere questions OF
quickness and Vivacity. which belonged TO the
stage Frenchman, and have very much falsifed
the real Frenchman.
Most OF the realities OF his wisdom have
been masked by his reputation for wit. The
best possible corrective to such errors can be
found by studying the map and the manoeuvres
of Verdun. The Frenchman's faith in mind
does not make him fight particularly quickly:
on the contrary. he fights rather slowly 1t Is
rather the Germans who specialize in swift.
ness and suddenness IN warfare. But indeed
the real and significant distinction Is not one
OF swiftness or slOwness: IL is a distinction of
an utterly different type. The Frenchman
trusts not In his wit. but In his wits-in having
as the excellent phrase goes, all his wits about
him. In other words his principle Is to think
all the time; never to cease thinking; never
TO be too hurried TO think: never. above all. to
think it is too late TO think
In short, the Germans believe profoundly N
forethought; they think that almost anything
can be done by forethought. But the French
believe every bit as profoundly in after
thoughts To use legal term for a military
matter, they always reserve their defense.
The word reserve" is, OF course, the key Of
all their strategy. They keep a large free
force behind their lines. and with this they
feed the fight here. there and everywhere, ex-
actly according to how the tight develops So
far from being quick in the sense of being
precipitate, they found everything on the fact
that second thoughts are best
Edgar Allan Poe had in many ways a very
French mind. and. in the amateur detective
Dupin, he created, what is very rare in Eng
lsh and American fiction. something like
q French character. And It will be remem
bered that one of Dupins most individual
ideas was what be called calculating on the
unforeseen" or what may be more roughly ex
pressed as expecting the unexpected. The
French commanders always expect the un-
expected. They do not merely accumulate
plans as the Germans do; they also accumulate
remedies. All this Is evident enough from the
daily developments OF the campaign: but Its
most interesting moral element is the light 1t
throws on the great fixed faith of France IN
the human intellect the only lawful master
10 earthly things. For the French always be
ieve in reason, and never more than when
they also believe In religion.
But the difference is important in peace as
well as war 1t extends to the internal regu-
lations as much as to the external relations Of
the different States. Germany boasts. and
boasts quite Justly. OF the thoroughness Of a
certain type of sociological construction. 1t Is
something also urged and even initiated in
Notwithstanding which its advocates call
social reform, and which l call slavery.