"How would it be possible, in an hour like this, for us to meet women of the enemy's countries?... Have they disavowed the ... crimes of their government? Have they protested against the violation1 of Belgium's neutrality? Against offenses2 to the law of nations? Against the crimes of their army and navy? If their voices had been raised it was too feebly for the echo of their protest to reach us across our violated and devastated3 territories...."
And one celebrated4 lady writes to a delegate at The Hague:
"Madam, are you really English?... I confess I understand better Englishwomen who wish to fight.... To ask Frenchwomen in such an hour to come and talk of arbitration5 and mediation6 and discourse7 of an armistice8 is to ask them to deny their nation.... All that Frenchwomen could desire is to awake and acclaim9 in their children, their husbands and brothers, and in their very fathers, the conviction that defensive10 war is a thing so holy that all must be abandoned, forgotten, sacrificed, and death must be faced heroically to defend and save that which is most sacred ... our country.... It would be to deny my dead to look for anything beside that which is and ought to be!—if the God of right and justice, the enemy of the devil and of force and crazy pride, is the true God."
Thus awakened11 and transfigured by Calamity12 do men and women rise in their full spiritual nature, efface13 themselves, and utter sacred words. Calamity, when the Lusitania went down, wrung14 from the lips of an awakened German, Kuno Francke, this noble burst of patriotism15:
Ends Europe so? Then, in Thy mercy, God,
Out of the foundering16 planet's gruesome night
Pluck Thou my people's soul. From rage and craze
Of the staled Earth, O lift Thou it aloft,
So beaming shall it light the newer time,
And heavenly, on a world refreshed, unfold.
Soul of my race, thou sinkest not to dust.
If Germany's tragedy be, as I think, the deepest of all, the hope is that she, too, will be touched by the Pentecost of Calamity, and pluck her soul from Prussia, to whom she gave it in 1870. Thus shall the curse be lifted.
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1 violation | |
n.违反(行为),违背(行为),侵犯 | |
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2 offenses | |
n.进攻( offense的名词复数 );(球队的)前锋;进攻方法;攻势 | |
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3 devastated | |
v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词);摧毁;毁灭;在感情上(精神上、财务上等)压垮adj.毁坏的;极为震惊的 | |
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4 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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5 arbitration | |
n.调停,仲裁 | |
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6 mediation | |
n.调解 | |
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7 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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8 armistice | |
n.休战,停战协定 | |
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9 acclaim | |
v.向…欢呼,公认;n.欢呼,喝彩,称赞 | |
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10 defensive | |
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的 | |
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11 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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12 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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13 efface | |
v.擦掉,抹去 | |
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14 wrung | |
绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 ); 握紧(尤指别人的手); 把(湿衣服)拧干; 绞掉(水) | |
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15 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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16 foundering | |
v.创始人( founder的现在分词 ) | |
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17 cleansed | |
弄干净,清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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