Look
at Western Europe and you cannot disbelieve the evidence of your own
eyes. In France you have anarchy, the vulgarest frivolity and the
cheapest scepticism, joined with a sort of dull capacity for routine
work. Germany, the very heart of it eaten out with sentiment, either
the cheap military or the vague socialist brand. Spain and Italy
shadows, Denmark and Sweden farces, Turkey a sinful anachronism."
"And Britain?" George asked.
"My Scotch blood gives me the right to speak my mind," said the man,
laughing. "Honestly I don't find things much better in Britain. You
were always famous for a dogged common sense which was never tricked
with catch-words, and yet the British people seem to be growing nervous
and ingenuous. The cult of abstract ideals, which has been the curse of
the world since Adam, is as strong with you as elsewhere. The
philosophy of 'gush' is good enough in its place, but it is the devil in
politics."
"That is true enough," said Lewis solemnly. "And then you are losing
grip. A belief in sentiment means a disbelief in competence and
strength, and that is the last and fatalest heresy. And a belief in
sentiment means a foolish scepticism towards the great things of life.
There is none of the blood and bone left for honest belief. You hold
your religion half-heartedly. Honest fanaticism is a thing intolerable
to you.
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