So it was that Joan saw the beginning of the great winnowing1 of mankind, and Peter came home in search of his duty.
Within the first month of the war nearly every one of the men in Joan’s world had been spun2 into the vortex; hers was so largely a world of young or unattached people, with no deep roots in business or employment to hold them back. Even Oswald at last, in spite of many rebuffs, found a use for himself in connection with a corps3 of African labourers behind the front, and contrived4 after a steady pressure of many months towards the danger zone, to get himself wounded while he was talking to some of his dear Masai at an ammunition5 dump. A Hun raider dropped a bomb, and some flying splinters of wood cut him deeply and extensively. The splinters were vicious splinters; there were complications; and he found himself back at Pelham Ford6 before the end of 1916, aged7 by ten years. The Woman’s Legion captured Joan from the date of its formation, and presently had her driving a car for the new Ministry8 of Munitions9, which came into existence in the middle of 1915.
Her career as a chauffeuse was a brilliant one. She lived, after the free manner of the Legion, with Miss Jepson at Hampstead; she went down every morning to her work, she drove her best and her best continually improved, so that she became distinguished10 among her fellows. The Ministry grew aware of her and proud of her. A time arrived when important officials quarrelled to secure her for their journeys. Eminent11 foreign visitors invariably found themselves behind her.
“But she drives like a man,” they would say, a little breathlessly, after some marvellously skidded12 corner.
“All our girls drive like this,” the Ministry of Munitions would remark, carelessly, loyally, but untruthfully.
Joan’s habitual13 wear became khaki; she had puttees and stout14 boots and little brass15 letterings upon her shoulders and sleeves, and the only distinctive16 touches she permitted herself were the fur of her overcoat collar and a certain foppery about her gauntlets....
459Extraordinary and profound changes of mood and relationship occurred in the British mind during those first two years of the war, and reflected themselves upon the minds of Joan and Peter. To begin with, and for nearly a year, there was a quality of spectacularity about the war for the British. They felt it to be an immense process and a vitally significant process; they read, they talked, they thought of little else; but it was not yet felt to be an intimate process. The habit of detachment was too deeply ingrained. Great Britain was an island of onlookers17. To begin with the war seemed like something tremendous and arresting going on in an arena18. “Business as usual,” said the business man, putting up the price of anything the country seemed to need. There was a profound conviction that British life and the British community were eternal things; they might play a part—a considerable part—in these foreign affairs; they might even have to struggle, but it was inconceivable that they should change or end. September and October in 1914 saw an immense wave of volunteer enthusiasm—enthusiasm for the most part thwarted20 and wasted by the unpreparedness of the authorities for anything of the sort, but it was the enthusiasm of an audience eager to go on the stage; it was not the enthusiasm of performers in the arena and unable to quit the arena, fighting for life or death. To secure any sort of official work was to step out of the undistinguished throng21. In uniform one felt dressed up and part of the pageant22. Young soldiers were self-conscious in those early days, and inclined to pose at the ordinary citizen. The ordinary citizen wanted to pat young soldiers on the back and stand them drinks out of his free largesse23. They were “in it,” he felt, and he at most was a patron of the affair.
That spectacularity gave way to a sense of necessary participation24 only very slowly indeed. The change began as the fresh, bright confidence that the Battle of the Marne had begotten26 gave place to a deepening realization27 of the difficulties on the road to any effective victory. The persuasion28 spread from mind to mind that if Great Britain was to fight this war as she had lived through sixty years of peace, the gentleman amateur among the nations, she would lose this 460war. The change of spirit that produced its first marked result in the creation of the Ministry of Munitions with a new note of quite unofficial hustle29, and led on through a series of inevitable30 steps to the adoption31 of conscription, marks a real turning about of the British mind, the close of a period of chaotic32 freedom almost unprecedented33 in the history of communities. It was the rediscovery of the State as the necessary form into which the individual life must fit.
To the philosophical34 historian of the future the efforts of governing and leading people in Great Britain to get wills together, to explain necessities, to supplement the frightful35 gaps in the education of every class by hastily improvised36 organizations, by speeches, press-campaigns, posters, circulars, cinema shows, parades and proclamations; hasty, fitful, ill-conducted and sometimes dishonestly conducted appeals though they were, will be far more interesting than any story of battles and campaigns. They remind one of a hand scrambling37 in the dark for something long neglected and now found to be vitally important; they are like voices calling in a dark confusion. They were England seeking to comprehend herself and her situation after the slumber38 of two centuries. But to people like Joan and Peter, who were not philosophical historians, the process went on, not as a process, but as an apparently39 quite disconnected succession of events. Imperceptibly their thoughts changed and were socialized. Joan herself had no suspicion of the difference in orientation40 between the Joan who stood at her bedroom window in August, 1914, the most perfect spectator of life, staring out at the darkness of the garden, dumbly resenting the call that England was making upon the free lives of all her friends, and the Joan of 1917, in khaki and a fur-collared coat, who slung41 a great car with a swift, unerring confidence through the London traffic and out to Woolwich or Hendon or Waltham or Aldershot or Chelmsford or what not, keen and observant of the work her passengers discussed, a conscious part now of a great and growing understanding and criticism and will, of a rediscovered unity19, which was England—awakening.
Youth grew wise very fast in those tremendous years. From the simple and spectacular acceptance of every obvious 461appearance, the younger minds passed very rapidly to a critical and intricate examination. In the first blaze of indignation against Germany, in the first enthusiasm, there was a disposition42 to trust and confide25 in every one in a position of authority and responsibility. The War Office was supposed—against every possibility—to be planning wisely and acting43 rapidly; the wisdom of the Admiralty was taken for granted, the politicians now could have no end in view but victory. It was assumed that Sir Edward Carson could become patriotic44, Lord Curzon self-forgetful, Mr. Asquith energetic, and Mr. Lloyd George straightforward45. It was indeed a phase of extravagant46 idealism. Throughout the opening weeks of the war there was an appearance, there was more than an appearance, of a common purpose and a mutual47 confidence. The swift response of the Irish to the call of the time, the generous loyalty48 of India, were like intimations of a new age. The whole Empire was uplifted; a flush of unwonted splendour suffused49 British affairs.
Then the light faded again. There was no depth of understanding to sustain it; habit is in the long run a more powerful thing than even the supremest need. In a little time all the inglorious characteristics of Britain at peace, the double-mindedness, the slackness, were reappearing through the glow of warlike emotion. Fifty years of undereducation are not to be atoned50 for in a week of crisis. The men in power were just the same men. The inefficient51 were still inefficient; the individualists still self-seeking. The party politicians forgot their good resolutions, and reverted52 to their familiar intrigues53 and manœuvres. Redmond and Ireland learnt a bitter lesson of the value of generosity54 in the face of such ignorant and implacable antagonists55 as the Carsonites. Britain, it became manifest, had neither the greatness of education nor yet the simplicity56 of will to make war brilliantly or to sustain herself splendidly. At every point devoted57 and able people found themselves baffled by the dull inertias of the old system. And the clear flame of enthusiasm that blazed out from the youth of the country at the first call of the war was coloured more and more by disillusionment as that general bickering58 which was British public life revived again, and a gathering59 tale of waste, failure, 462and needless suffering mocked the reasonable expectation of a swift and glorious victory.
The change in the thought and attitude of the youth of Britain is to be found expressed very vividly60 in the war poetry of the successive years. Such glowing young heroes as Julian Grenfell and Rupert Brooke shine with a faith undimmed; they fight consciously, confident of the nearness of victory; they sing and die in what they believe to be a splendid cause and for a splendid end. An early death in the great war was not an unmitigated misfortune. Three years later the young soldier’s mind found a voice in such poetry as that of young Siegfried Sassoon, who came home from the war with medals and honours only to denounce the war in verse of the extremest bitterness. His song is no longer of picturesque61 nobilities and death in a glorious cause; it is a cry of anger at the old men who have led the world to destruction; of anger against the dull, ignorant men who can neither make war nor end war; the men who have lost the freshness and simplicity but none of the greed and egotism of youth. Germany is no longer the villain62 of the piece. Youth turns upon age, upon laws and institutions, upon the whole elaborate rottenness of the European system, saying: “What is this to which you have brought us? What have you done with our lives?”
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1
winnowing
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| v.扬( winnow的现在分词 )；辨别；选择；除去 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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munitions
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| n.军火，弹药；v.供应…军需品 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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skidded
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| v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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largesse
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| n.慷慨援助，施舍 | |
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participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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orientation
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| n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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atoned
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| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
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51
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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52
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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53
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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54
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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55
antagonists
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| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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58
bickering
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| v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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