The new comradeship between classes of society which
scarcely knew one another before, the common service of master
and man, of landlord and tenant, of rich and poor, of men
and women, in resistance to a foe whose insolent aggression
threatened equally the life of all, ought surely to have produced
a sympathy, a recognition, a love of one another, and above all, a
devotion to the common weal, which should make national service
(of course, I do not use the word in the sense of conscript armies),
a true brotherhood and sisterhood, a respect for life and not goods
as the ultimate standard of value, the inspiring principles upon
which industry, commerce, the distribution of the common
resources and opportunities shall henceforth rest. Discipline,
labour, education, development, duty—on these we must insist
as we have never done before, but for the good of all and without
loss to the freedom of any. I speak of these ideals as principles
of the national life, of that reconstruction to which we are to
address ourselves with brave hearts and good will, not as results
which are going to be attained without struggle and without cost.
We are not victims of that strange delusion that social conditions
will regenerate the hearts of men; but neither are we going to
subscribe any longer to that proposition, which is too often
nothing more than an excuse for indolence, that it is the pigs which
make the sty. Because selfishness is deep rooted in our fallen
human nature, that is no reason why society should lend itself to
the vices of mankind by refusing to organize itself upon principles
to which we all find it hard to rise.
No, this work of reconstruction will not be easy. It will
demand the exercise of all those qualities which almost with
amazement we have found to be still present in the great mass of
our fellow countrymen, unspoiled by luxury and not atrophied by
a century of peace. All that makes a good soldier will be needed
in yet greater measure for those who are engaged in the yet
nobler task of rebuilding England and renewing the world. We
want men and women who pine for “the crowded hour of
glorious life”; whose faith will never fail and cry that “the
struggle nought availeth”; whose patience will not be exhausted
by reverses, who will endure suffering and face death itself in
redeeming life.

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