Darnell Inioeraitg Sibrarg 
 
 3tl?aca. JJetn i$orit 
 
 -BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 HENRY W. SAGE 
 
 1891 
 
3 1924 027 845 860 *. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027845860 
 
LETTERS AND PAPERS OF 
 ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
LETTERS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF ALGERNON HYDE 
 
 VILLIERS 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR BY 
 
 HARRY GRAHAM 
 
 Man with his burning soul 
 Has but an hour of breath 
 To build a ship of truth 
 In which his soul may sail — 
 Sail on the sea of death, 
 For death takes toll 
 Of beauty, courage, youth, 
 Of all but truth. . . . 
 
 J. Masefield 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 i9 J 9 . 
 
J\^3»a-BS 
 
A. H. V. 
 
 (February ist, 1886 — November 23RD, 1917) 
 
 ' ' ~LT IS brother-officers could not speak too highly of his 
 
 -L •!• capacity as a leader, of his charm as a companion, 
 and of all those splendid qualities of his which made him 
 the leading spirit of his mess and the idol of his men. He 
 loved his men, and they loved him, and his invincible op- 
 timism carried him safely through those dark hours of danger 
 and discomfort which set weaker men grumbling and despair- 
 ing. It is no exaggeration to say that officers and men adored 
 him. 
 
 No one more willingly gave up a life of noble promise to 
 a call which he felt was sacred. He thought that in the war 
 there was an inspiration to call men from ' poverty of out- 
 look ' (his own expression), and to direct all their energies 
 into the maintenance of a supremely righteous cause. 
 
 With all his radiant enjoyment of this world, and hi» 
 artistic temperament, which found fit expression in a lovely 
 voice, as well as in painting and spirited writing, full of ease, 
 force, and grace, the vision of the highest never left him. The 
 spiritual element in his nature was far the strongest, and the 
 life of Christ was always before him as the one great example. 
 
 He was happy in the circumstances of his death. For he 
 had a peculiar love of France, and the spirit of comradeship 
 in the Army realised his ideal of the brotherhood of man, 
 as a life of sacrifice and adventure appealed to the truest 
 instincts of his being." — The Times, December 8th, 1917. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Memoir ...... . i 
 
 II. Letters written from Egypt and on 
 
 the Journey out, 1914 ... 13 
 
 III. Letters written in 1916 and 1917 . 45 
 
 IV: Letters from France .... -63 
 
 V. Papers read to Machine-gun Pupils . 162 
 
 A Prayer 200 
 
 vu 
 
LETTERS AND PAPERS OF 
 ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 I 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 " T WISH I had time," Algernon Villiers wrote 
 j in one of his last letters, " to ' arrange my 
 A theologico-seraphic fancies into a series of 
 papers. I should like to straighten them all out into 
 a consecutive view of the whole great subject. Per- 
 haps, however, this will come later and will be better 
 worth doing with further knowledge." 
 
 This project he was not spared to carry through, 
 but in place of that " consecutive view " it has been 
 thought well to publish fragments from his corre- 
 spondence, dealing for the most part with spiritual 
 matters — the broken arc, as it were, which he was 
 never able to weld together into a perfect round. 
 
 The selection of private letters for publication, 
 after the death of the writer, is always a difficult and 
 delicate task, involving questions of discretion upon 
 which perhaps no two persons will be agreed. So 
 much that is purely personal must be eliminated 
 from such letters, that a perusal of what is left may 
 tempt the reader to reach entirely false conclusions. 
 I cannot indeed help feeling that in an age when to 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 be seriously absorbed in the only things that really 
 matter is still looked upon as a mark of slight eccen- 
 tricity, the extracts included in this volume may 
 give the impression that Algernon Villiers' interest 
 in the study of religious and spiritual questions was 
 something abnormal. That this was ever the case 
 must appear impossible to any one who knew him at 
 all ; the absurdity of such an idea would be patent 
 to his most casual acquaintance. There never was 
 a man more healthy in mind or body, nor one who 
 better loved the simple joys of life — laughter and 
 song, sunshine and beauty. None showed a keener 
 appreciation of a joke, or entered with a more in- 
 fectious gaiety into all mundane pleasures and interests. 
 Music gave him the intense delight which comes from 
 an artistic imagination, and his tuneful tenor voice 
 and powers of expression brought to his singing an 
 especial charm. He was unusually sensitive to every 
 kind of beauty, and the little water-colour sketches 
 which he was so fond of making show him to have 
 possessed a fine sense of colour and form. As a friend 
 of early days said of him, he wore his religion lightly 
 in the ordinary intercourse of life. 
 
 There was nothing on the surface of his character 
 to suggest that he was conscious of a message or in- 
 terested in any world but this. To the casual 
 acquaintance and even to some of his close friends he 
 appeared simply the embodiment of high-minded 
 common sense. He had a rare facility in combining 
 industry with enjoyment, and seemed endowed with\ 
 all the qualities which make for worldly popularity, 
 prosperity, and success — " magnificently frefared for 
 the long littleness of life." The rapidity with which 
 he established himself in the City, the ease with 
 which at an earlier date he did everything he wanted 
 to do on a small income, the readiness with which 
 he passed from serious to jest and back again in con- 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 versation ; even the dexterity with which in 1914 
 he mastered the duties and the role of a trooper, all 
 testified to a nature abundantly equipped for the 
 triumphs and trophies of a conventional career. 
 
 All this, as his friend remarked, forms a striking 
 contrast with the other Algy, mystical, prophetic, 
 turning away from the world joyfully and without 
 regret. And here I should be inclined to suggest that 
 the real interest and significance of his life are to be 
 found. His was a deliberate choice, made with a 
 full knowledge of all he was rejecting, the renuncia- 
 tion of one who had something to renounce, the 
 cheerful self -surrender of a young man " who had 
 great riches." 
 
 Algernon Hyde Villiers, the youngest son of the 
 Hon. Sir Francis Villiers, 1 British Minister at Brussels, 
 and of Lady Villiers, and grandson of the 4th Earl of 
 Clarendon, was born on February 1st, 1886. 
 
 He held a scholarship at Wellington, and had always 
 wished to be a soldier. But short sight intervened, 
 and he proceeded at the early age of seventeen, with 
 a History demyship, to Magdalen College, Oxford, 
 where he graduated with double honours and became 
 Librarian of the Union. 
 
 To his great disappointment, he failed to be elected 
 to All Souls', and this decided him to renounce his 
 intention of going to the Bar. In 191 o, therefore, 
 he entered the office of James Capel & Co., stock- 
 brokers, and in the autumn of that year was given 
 leave to accompany his friend Charles Buxton, 2 the 
 first Head of Ruskin College, to America, on a de- 
 lightful tour which included a hunting trip in Wyoming. 
 It was soon after this that he experienced the one great 
 sorrow of his life in the sudden death of this friend 
 
 1 The Rt. Hon. Sir F. H. Villiers, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., G.C.M.G., 
 etc., now British Ambassador at the Court of Belgium. 
 * Eldest son of Viscount Buxton. 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 and companion, whose original character and high 
 ideals profoundly influenced his mind. 
 
 In the same year he married Beatrix, only daughter 
 of Mr. Herbert Paul, and in 191 2 became a partner in 
 the firm of Govett. :i,:h., 
 
 On leaving Oxford he had thrown himself en- 
 thusiastically into the work of his College Mission in 
 the dreary region of Somerstown, which lies behind 
 St. Pancras Station. Here he spent many evenings 
 in company with several of his friends and contem- 
 poraries, helping to run the boys' clubs, " turning 
 those rough boys into true men," as the Head of the 
 Mission said. He had charge of what was called the 
 " Coalies " singing-class in the autumn of 191 3, and it 
 is good to know that these coal-heavers were among 
 the first to join Kitchener's Army. 
 
 To Villiers himself the declaration of war afforded 
 a welcome opportunity for putting to the test his 
 ideals of renunciation and self-sacrifice. It came as 
 no surprise, and the breaking of the storm found him 
 eager to take his share in the great ordeal. It had been 
 a source of great disappointment to him, when he 
 left Oxford, that he should have failed to become a 
 member of the Inns of Court O.T.C., on account of 
 that defective eyesight which no one would have 
 guessed at but for his eyeglass, which, moreover, did 
 not afterwards prevent his becoming a " first-class shot." 
 August 1914 therefore found him untrained, and 
 the path which lay so clearly before him beset with 
 many obstacles. His firm, however, was most generous 
 in immediately allowing him to offer his services, 
 and after vainly trying to enlist in the Infantry, he 
 succeeded in joining the Hertfordshire Yeomanry as 
 a trooper, and with them went out to Egypt in the 
 beginning of September. 
 
 " The grit and cheerfulness " he showed on that 
 trying voyage in a crowded troopship won him great 
 
 4 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 respect from his friends among the officers, and warm 
 friendships among his fellow-troopers — great indeed 
 was his delight, on a stormy day, at hearing himself 
 called " a bloody good Samaritan." 
 
 There followed eight delightful months, during 
 which he was promoted lance-corporal, and took part 
 in the defeat of the Turkish attack upon the Suez 
 Canal. 
 
 In February 1915, feeling that he had now gained 
 the necessary experience, he accepted the offer of a 
 commission in the Lothians and Border Horse, 
 joining his new regiment in Scotland three months 
 later. 
 
 The effects of malaria kept him at home for the 
 next two years, during which his unfailing interest in 
 and enjoyment o'f his profession mitigated his natural 
 impatience at not being allowed to proceed overseas. 
 He was promoted Captain early in 1917; but as by 
 this time he had begun to despair of ever getting to 
 the front as a Cavalry soldier, and his health was 
 finally restored, he sacrificed his captaincy, transferred 
 to the Machine Gun Corps, and went out to France 
 in July, in command of a section. 
 
 Four months later, on November 23rd, while 
 taking part in the glorious capture of Bourlon Wood 
 by the 40th British Infantry Division, he was killed. 
 
 His body was laid to rest in the little cemetery of 
 Anneux. 
 
 In the winter of 1916-17 Algernon Villiers had 
 helped to run a Machine Gun School in East Lothian. 
 " I have embarked on an interesting experiment 
 lately," he wrote in January. " I got some of the 
 leading spirits among the men together, and read 
 them a paper I had written for the occasion on the 
 value of the forces of the Unseen World in everyday 
 life. Afterwards they talked quite freely, and it is 
 proposed to repeat the venture, they bringing seme 
 
 5 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 of their friends, perhaps. I am writing a paper on 
 Prayer to read to them. It was on the whole a great 
 success the first meeting, and I had the sense of doing 
 something extremely valuable to myself, and almost 
 certainly useful to them." 
 
 Four papers were written, read, and discussed, and 
 their publication now needs no apology. They lay 
 no claim to literary excellence, being nothing more 
 than a simple and lucid exposition of the author's 
 religious views, especially framed to appeal to an 
 audience of average, but not exceptional, intelli- 
 gence. That they were successful in their appeal, 
 and fulfilled the purpose for which they were written, 
 is more than evident from the tributes paid to his 
 " talks " (as he called them) by those who were so 
 ready to listen to him. " I know we all felt the 
 better of his teaching," wrote one of his men ; " I 
 counted him one of my best friends, as did all the 
 other boys who were under him." 
 
 " We are all anxious to see you before you go," 
 wrote another, just before he went out to France, 
 " and we should like to have at least one more of 
 those ' talks ' which we all found so uplifting at 
 Prestonkirk. You may never know how much good 
 you did then, but one at least of your old M.G.'s 
 will never forget what you said." 
 
 His hearers had perhaps hitherto enjoyed few 
 opportunities of turning their thoughts from the 
 material to the spiritual side of life ; they had little 
 time or inclination for metaphysical speculation. 
 They were none the less eager to profit by the re- 
 ligious experience of one whom they trusted implicitly 
 as a leader, to whom they confidently looked for 
 guidance in all matters connected with their pro- 
 fession, whose judgment and advice they had rightly 
 learnt to value and rely upon. 
 
 If, as is clear, these lectures proved a source of 
 
 6" 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 help and comfort to those for whom they were origin- 
 ally compiled, it may be assumed that there are many 
 others, blindly groping for some gleam of light to 
 dispel the darkness of these latter days, who will be 
 glad to share the privilege which that handful of 
 machine-gunners found so precious. For such as 
 these the present volume is published, in the hope 
 that it may inspire and stimulate the thoughts of a 
 circle of readers wider than that of which the moral 
 and physical welfare was in his lifetime the author's 
 special concern. When the Angel of Death is abroad, 
 when his shadow darkens every home, and the beat- 
 ing of his wings is re-echoed in many a fearful heart, 
 there is courage and consolation to be derived from 
 the teaching of one who had sought and found that 
 peace of God which passes all understanding, who 
 had learned by experience, and by his own example 
 proved, that to be spiritually minded is Life Eternal. 
 It is not my intention to paint a full-length portrait 
 of Algernon Villiers, nor to attempt any meticulous 
 analysis of his character. But I may be allowed to say 
 something of him as a comrade and as a soldier, in 
 both of which capacities I had good opportunities of 
 judging him up to within a few days of his death. 
 In times of peace we had spent many evenings together, 
 when the keen discussion of every conceivable question, 
 intellectual, literary, or psychical, gave scope for the 
 unconscious display of his exceptional mental powers. 
 He was of so affectionate a disposition, so full of 
 gaiety, humour, and sympathetic interest; that one 
 could not fail to fall a victim to the irresistible charm 
 of his radiant personality. " No one could meet him 
 even in law matters without a sense of goodness and 
 happiness pervading the dull room," wrote one who 
 had only seen him on business. And during the 
 autumn of 191 7 it was my good fortune to meet him 
 in France, to walk and talk with him on occasions, 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 alas ! all too rare, the happy recollection of which is 
 one that Time can never dim. There was surely no 
 more delightful companion than he ; he was so widely 
 read, he had such an excellent memory, his con- 
 versation was always stimulating and suggestive, his 
 interest in the social and political questions of the 
 day never flagged. He loved all the sweet, the sane, 
 and simple things of life : little children, animals — 
 without any " museum knowledge " he had made a 
 special study of wild birds — the natural beauties of 
 earth and sea and sky. Whatever was vulgar and 
 base and stupid his soul abhorred, but he did not 
 shun contemplation of the sordid facts of existence, 
 facing them with an invincible optimism that proved 
 his faith in the ultimate prevalence of good. His was, 
 indeed, that purity of heart which blesses its possessor 
 with a vision of the Divine in everything. He could 
 talk about religion without self-consciousness, or that 
 assumed air of solemnity which is commonly reserved 
 for such discussions ; he had none of Dr. Arnold's 
 " manner of awful reverence when speaking of the 
 Scriptures," and would not have denied to God the 
 sense of humour and the gift of laughter of which 
 mortal men almost unanimously claim the monopoly. 
 
 " Happiness and courage — those were the two things 
 about him that caught my attention from the first, 
 and will remain with me always as the distinctive 
 marks of his rare lovable spirit," as a friend of his 
 afterwards wrote. " With all his instincts for the arts 
 and pursuits of peace" (wrote another friend), "he 
 went cheerfully to war " (the italics are mine), " and 
 made himself master of his part in it. His combined 
 strength and gentleness were very winning ; there 
 was something very knightly about him. He stood for 
 the very highest kind of duty and self-sacrifice." 
 
 The secret of his success as a soldier — for what is 
 success but the perfect accomplishment of a set task. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 however humble ? — lay in the fact that he really took 
 a keen delight in his work, that he was untiring in his 
 devotion to duty, that he never spared himself in his 
 efforts to secure the efficiency and promote the comfort 
 of his men. By his example he did much to raise 
 and maintain at a high level the tone of his unit. 
 He exercised a profound influence for good upon his 
 brother-officers, who regarded him with affection, 
 mixed with a kind of deference which the two stars 
 upon his sleeve could not account for, and of which 
 he was, I am sure, totally unaware. He was indeed 
 greatly surprised at the respect with which he was 
 treated, " especially," as he said in a letter home, 
 " when I remember the fact that I have been feeling 
 very modest in my reduced position, and among the 
 indomitable infantry men." 
 
 Modern warfare has been very justly described, 
 from the point of view of the man in the trenches, as 
 consisting to a large extent of periods of intense 
 boredom and discomfort, punctuated, at more or 
 less painfully frequent intervals, by moments of ex- 
 treme danger and anxiety. It is not therefore greatly 
 to be wondered at if, with rare exceptions, the soldier 
 of to-day should be tempted to regard his military 
 duties as an irksome and monotonous task in the 
 accomplishment of which he is only upheld by a high 
 sense of patriotism, by the traditions of military 
 discipline, by esprit de corps, and that consciousness 
 of the justice of a noble cause which renders any 
 self-sacrifice possible, any degree of filth and fatigue 
 tolerable. The Happy Warrior is rare for whom, as 
 for Algernon Villiers, soldiering supplies an adventure 
 almost pleasurable, rich in experience and interest, 
 fraught with enviable responsibilities, a perfect medium 
 for the very highest form of self-expression. 
 
 Villiers was indeed what is generally called a born 
 soldier. For him the tedium and monotony of 
 
 9 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 military training had no terrors ; as far as he was 
 concerned, they did not exist. In the early days 
 of his soldiering he displayed a remarkable capacity 
 for learning the technique of his profession, and later 
 on, as an instructor, proved himself to possess a 
 genius for imparting to others the knowledge that 
 a genuine interest in his work had enabled him to 
 acquire so easily. 
 
 To any fastidious man, as he undoubtedly was, 
 even to a fault, the squalor of trench life must always 
 appear intolerably distasteful ; yet he never seems 
 to have been adversely affected by surroundings that 
 damped the ardour of less fervent spirits but could 
 not quench the flame of his inextinguishable en- 
 thusiasm. He was gifted, to a very notable degree, 
 with that saving sense of humour which helps men 
 to face untoward circumstances with a smile. " Above 
 all things," a fellow-undergraduate had said of him 
 long before, " he taught me that to carry on and do 
 your work was fun, if you cared to make it so." Villiers 
 cared to make it so, and found food for laughter in 
 trying situations, where others could only discover 
 reasonable cause for complaint. 
 
 There was something extremely infectious about 
 his zeal, his wholehearted and eager absorption in 
 whatever work lay to his hand, and no one could be 
 in his company for long without unconsciously re- 
 flecting the glow of his enthusiasm. To discuss 
 with him a question, social, political, ethical, or re- 
 ligious — and none loved a friendly argument better 
 than he — was, as I have already suggested, a purely 
 delightful experience. His views were always uncon- 
 ventional, often very original, and to doubt their 
 sincerity was as impossible as to question his own 
 conviction of their truth. Though essentially critical, 
 he was broad-minded and tolerant enough to listen 
 patiently to a statement with which he cordially 
 
 10 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 disagreed, and this mental attitude of his, combined 
 with the clarity of his vision, the felicity of his language, 
 and the power he possessed of putting his case logically 
 and succinctly, made him a redoubtable but most 
 charming antagonist. 
 
 " I have never met any one," wrote a friend of his, 
 " who was nearer to God and the Truth. He seemed 
 to have brought the whole of his powerful brain to 
 bear upon the Teachings of Christ and his interpreta- 
 tion of them, with the result that he was able to live 
 here almost as Christ's friends of His own day must 
 have lived, in a peace and happiness that very few 
 have even a glimpse of in this world. It was evident 
 that his whole thoughts were centred in the search 
 for Truth, and I am sure that he had found it as far 
 as is possible in this state. I regard him as a prophet, 
 for want of a better word, meaning by that that he 
 had the spirit of God, and had been endowed with a 
 wonderful gift of expression, by which he was able 
 to convey his convictions to others. He must have 
 been able to enlighten many people already, and 
 if he had been able to stay here, he would have light- 
 ened the darkness of many more. Though his spiritual 
 life was so strong, yet the human ties and his love for 
 you all were as strong, and bound up in the spiritual 
 life. It is all the same thing, of course, human love 
 and divine. I do rejoice to have seen in him that it 
 is possible to be a Christian and a good soldier — not 
 that I had any doubt about it, but he is the most 
 striking example I have seen." 
 
 Reading through his letters, and recalling the last 
 talks I had with him, I think I am justified in saying 
 that latterly he drew a new inspiration from St. Paul, 
 whose personality had revealed itself to him with 
 extraordinary vividness. But the example of Christ 
 had been ever before him from the time when, as a 
 boy at school, he used to say that the words in 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LLIERS 
 
 the Baptismal Service : " Christ's faithful soldier and 
 servant unto his life's end," sent a thrill through 
 him whenever he heard them. Far from that 
 example suggesting a meek and mild attitude, it 
 acted on him like a trumpet-call, as with that sturdy 
 Apostle who fought with beasts at Ephesus, who urged 
 his readers to put on " the whole armour of light," 
 and to be " more than conquerors through Christ." 
 As he himself once said to a friend, he could never 
 have faced what was ahead of him with such perfect 
 equanimity, had it not been for the wonderful strength 
 that he derived from a spiritual source. " He was 
 extraordinarily happy in this way, and wished every 
 one to share his happiness," his friend added. 
 
 To Villiers the presence of Christ was a supreme, a 
 sublime reality. He had that sense of Communion 
 with the Divine Power which proved a very present 
 help in trouble. That God walked with him in the 
 garden he was very sure, as sure as he was that nothing 
 could separate him from the love of Christ. Thus 
 armed, and fortified with this assurance, it is not 
 strange that he faced death with perfect serenity, 
 on the morning of November 23rd, 19 17, in the 
 great attack on the Bourlon Wood. 
 
 " I went to his guns just after dawn," wrote his 
 senior officer, " and found him sitting under a bank 
 v — asleep. I woke him, and we talked over the Orders 
 which he had had some hours before. We both 
 knew he had a dangerous task to perform. He had 
 read his Orders, decided on his plans, and gone off 
 peacefully to sleep. He was extraordinarily happy, 
 and as keen as a boy. I thought at the time how 
 ready he was for whatever might come." 
 
 Harry Graham. 
 France, 1918. 
 
 u 
 
II 
 
 i 9 H 
 
 LETTERS WRITTEN FROM EGYPT AND ON 
 THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 H 
 
 Herts Yeomanry Camp, Culford, 
 September \th, 1914. 
 
 ITHERTO this adventure prospers. I was 
 with noisy but genial dogs in the train. 
 Their speech was not always very intelligible, 
 and some of their jests altogether too tricky for my 
 poor wits to follow. What would you have answered 
 in my place if you had been asked whether you 
 were growing a moustache ? The correct reply is, 
 " Rather," or " Not 'alf ." So easy when you know it. 
 
 We got to Bury about 7.30. We walked a mile, 
 and then squashed into the transport wagon, and 
 had a glorious drive in the moonlight. I found some 
 very jolly neighbours, and enjoyed it hugely. 
 
 We were to sleep in an immense barn about eighty 
 feet long, with great doors letting in the moonlight. 
 All round straw was spread, and covered with tar- 
 paulins. I found a kit-bag for my head. I took 
 off my boots and puttees, and put on a sweater. 
 I can't say I slept very much, but no doubt more 
 than I thought. At 5.30 gettings-up began, and then 
 Trooper V. helped to clean and feed some horses. . . . 
 
 Breakfast of bread and jam and bacon, and then 
 parade at eight. It is now 9.30. Between these 
 
 13 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS • 
 
 times I have led a sick horse before the officers, and 
 led him back to his fence, tying him up nicely, and 
 now I am sitting under a tree. . . . 
 
 When my hand is in, I know I shall enjoy this 
 quite vastly. As it is, I am living with delicious 
 keenness. 
 
 Saturday, September $th. 
 
 Nothing very exciting has happened since yester- 
 day morning. We spent the whole afternoon stand- 
 ing in the field here having our kit inspected and 
 made up. ... I slept much better last night, and 
 the barn was really wonderful about ten o'clock when 
 the men were all coming in and singing. It was 
 splendid. I like my companions more and more. . . . 
 
 Sunday. Still Culford. 
 
 We were all packed, and kit-bags were on wagons, 
 at eight o'clock this morning, when we were told 
 we should not go till early on Tuesday. 
 
 I am writing at sunset on a bridge in Culford Park. 
 Behind me is the eighteenth-century stucco house, in 
 front a lake from which a horde of ducks have just 
 risen, and all around is their quacking, and the chirps 
 of goldfinch gathering for Egypt, and all the loveliness 
 of evening is matching my peace of mind. I have 
 spent a little time in the church. 
 
 September "jib. 
 
 As soon as the day's work was over yesterday, I 
 went off to Bury St. Edmunds, and had a good hot 
 bath and dinner. That was why I did not write. 
 It was the wildest luxury to sit on a chair. The food 
 here is pretty loathesome. The tea is undrinkable, 
 and I can only struggle with one lump of the daily 
 stew, but I live on bread-and-jam, and buy chocolate 
 and milk from the farm. The light of day is going, 
 
LETTERS FROM CULFORD 
 
 and the one candle which lights us to bed, about sixty 
 of us, would be useless for this, so goodbye. I am 
 enjoying all the horse-coping more and more. 
 
 September Stb. 
 
 To-day recruits did musketry drill. It is by no 
 means " so blooming easy," but after another time 
 or two we shall be all right. At the moment the rifle 
 — which is only a fraction bigger than the weapon I 
 had in Wyoming — seems full of notches which catch 
 on one's clothes whenever possible. 
 
 The horriblest job I have yet had is being (with 
 another) troop orderly. This means fetching the 
 cooking-pots . . . and when finished with they have 
 to be cleaned for the next meal. That is horrible. 
 The cans are called " dixies," presumably from their 
 unutterable blackness, which is only equalled by the 
 greasiness within. One's hands get into a ghastly 
 condition. ... 
 
 It is awfully hard to keep one's clothes at all clean 
 with dixies and stables and oily guns, and a diet of 
 bread-and-jam, consumed in close conflict with the 
 wasps, which are legion. 
 
 s.s. " Ionia." September loth. 
 I have been strictly truthful in all I have said so 
 far, nor will I now conceal the fact that this may be 
 Hell. Our quarters are very nice and clean at present, 
 but they are the converted hold of a big cargo and 
 passenger steamer, and should it be rough, and the 
 portholes have to be closed, the air must become 
 terribly bad. We shall sleep in hammocks above the 
 tables where we feed. That will be a strange experi- 
 ence in itself. I must tell you the air-cushion is Ai, 
 and I have been sleeping like a top. Don't talk 
 about a commission till I am an efficient trooper. 
 You are right, I am very happy. 
 
 *5 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 September nth 
 
 So far this has been an amazing, though rather a 
 terrible experience. Let me .say at once that thanks 
 to Mothersill, or I would, rather say to God's grace 
 helping me if the Kaiser had not desecrated the language 
 of faith, I am triumphantly well in rough weather 
 and mightily close quarters. ... I must say the 
 appearance of our quarters was terrifying. On the 
 lower troop deck, where I am, the central shaft conveys 
 a certain amount of light. The portholes are about 
 10 feet apart, and 9 inches across. The whole place 
 must be about 10 feet high, and narrow tables with 
 benches project from the walls on every side. These 
 tables are the locations of the various messes — twenty 
 men each. Here we eat, and have severe blood to 
 the head in so doing, and here at night the hammocks 
 are slung. Some people slept on deck last night, 
 but even so we were packed like sardines. Besides 
 ourselves there is a whole regiment of Lancashire 
 Terriers on board, and some gunners and R.A.M.C. 
 We are said to be 3,600 in all, which is a lot too many. 
 The first night I was called out to go on guard, and 
 then told I wasn't wanted. I was too late to get a 
 hammock, so I placed a blanket on the mess table, 
 and with the air-cushion on my haversack for a pillow, 
 I slept splendidly for eight hours, with an electric 
 lamp exactly two inches from my head. Wasn't that 
 a triumph ? A glorious " dawn showed four noble 
 warships convoying us down the Channel. There 
 was a rendezvous at the Eddystone lighthouse, where 
 we hung about all the afternoon, and finally mustered 
 fifteen strong under convoy of a battleship, the 
 Ocean, I should think a pretty old one, and another 
 small ship-of-war. Unluckily one of the fifteen is a 
 wretched tramp which is carrying ammunition and 
 can only go nine knots, so we have to go slow too, 
 and Heaven knows when we shall make an end of it. 
 
 16 
 
LEftERS ON TtiE JOURNEY OUf 
 
 This morning the day broke pretty dirty, a good 
 deal^ of sea running, and perpetual bursts of rain 
 making the poor flocks of khaki sufferers very wretched. 
 I took Mothersill at once, stood on parade like an old 
 soldier, and not only enjoyed a good dinner of plain 
 soup, potatoes, and some bread-and-jam, but was 
 able to volunteer to get the food from the cook's 
 galley and help in the washing-up. Luckily the lot 
 did not fall on me to do this permanently through the 
 voyage, and to-day there were not many to wash up 
 for. The condition of the ship this morning on 
 deck and below was beyond anything. . . . 
 
 On parade man after man made for the side, and 
 I hear it was fun for A squadron parading on a lower 
 deck aft of us. There is some grousing, but the real 
 sufferers are mute. I have tried to help some of them, 
 but there is really nothing to be done except when 
 one can fetch them some bread, and so spare them 
 a descent to the inferno. The decks present an 
 extraordinary sight. Nearly every one is lying down 
 in the rain, or with what shelter they can get from 
 a deck cabin or a boat. The officers have allowed us 
 to invade a portion of their promenade deck. 
 
 Some lie clasped together, and many holding hands, 
 and their poor green faces might be those of dead men. 
 If it were really rough, and we were all kept below, 
 then indeed it would be Hell. The food is much 
 better, and the service cleaner, than at Culford. 
 In all these long and painful hours, with horrors 
 which if not the worst are real enough all around, 
 and threatening to engulf oneself in misery, I am able 
 to feel happy in profound thankfulness, and to rejoice 
 in the sense that in this and whatever may follow 
 there is real desperate need of God's help and pro- 
 tection, and that if one gets through all right, then 
 indeed there must be Someone looking after one. 
 " He that keepeth thee will not sleep." j, 
 
 C 17 
 
ALGERNON UTDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 September iph. 
 
 The Lord's Day. Writing these words will prob- 
 ably be my sole recognition of this Sunday. If we 
 forget, His property is always to have mercy, and 
 so it is to-day, for the sea seems to be going down, and 
 the sun has just come out. The sufferers are much 
 more cheerful. They had a bad time last night. 
 Tea-time is about 5, and when I had had mine I took 
 a loaf of bread on deck to see if any one wanted food. 
 You should have seen how they came for it. I made 
 three trips back to the messes, and in all I must have 
 cut up and distributed a dozen loaves. The men 
 who two days ago were swearing and bucking and 
 bursting with life now lay in prostrate droves before 
 me, and feebly raised a hand or a faint cry for a 
 crusty bit. 
 
 This evening the sea has really got quite calm. 
 A good many people still wanted their tea brought to 
 them, and lots of people were doing it. I have read 
 a good deal of Boswell to-day. My funny little 
 Corporal A. was thrilled by finding what book I had. 
 He is a great admirer of the Tour in the Hebrides. 
 He is a good fellow, an example of the nice, serious, 
 half-educated dwellers in semi-detached houses on 
 the Great Eastern Railway. He gave up reading 
 fiction at twenty-one. I could not help saying I 
 thought that was an error, as he was without know- 
 ledge of my two favourites, Jane A. and Borrow. 
 However, he had me with his knowledge of Bacon's 
 Novum Organum. I .don't think he really can have 
 understood much of it. Another fellow of some- 
 what similar type called B. is a scout-master, and also 
 lives in Essex. Both wear pince-nez. B. is more 
 voluble and priggish than A. Scouting is an eggy 
 business, I fear. Thank goodness, neither of them are 
 in my section ; they would soon drive me to a frenzy, 
 which I should bitterly regret. I like rather more 
 
 18 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 ruffianly fellows, I am sure. There is one type which 
 is worse than the "wretched meritorious B.'s," and 
 that is the schoolgirl type. There is a fellow called 
 C. who is what one would have called an out-and- 
 out squealer at Wellington. When he is one off 
 you at parade he touches you on the shoulder round 
 the intervening man, and pretends it was not he 
 when you look round ! Altogether intolerable ! And 
 had he not been taken ill last night, I should have 
 been obliged to speak to him seriously, and possibly 
 to punch his head for him. P.S. — I have had no more 
 of this. 
 
 Monday, i^th. 
 
 It is quite lovely to-day, and the flotilla slowly 
 steaming to the southward over a barely moving floor 
 of deepest blue is a beautiful sight. . . . 
 
 Tuesday, l$th. 
 
 It is deliciously calm, warm, and sunny to-day. 
 Our good fortune is wonderful. We hope to be at 
 Gib to-morrow. Last night I slept on deck. It was 
 not so comfy as in the slung hammock, but it is in- 
 finitely fresher and jollier than in the infernal hold. 
 It was wonderful this morning to open my waking 
 eyes on the red sun just peeping out between the 
 horizon and a low bank of clouds. For an unex- 
 pectedly short moment he was the jewel on a glowing 
 band of colour, and then slipped up and was gone. 
 
 The evenings, too, are beautiful when the two lines 
 of transports east of ours are all glowing in the darkened 
 sea. Later the stars come out and the ships of this 
 fine flotilla begin to show their coloured points of 
 light, putting on their diamonds and rubies for the 
 night figures of the endless quadrille. Now the sea 
 has gone down the dance goes at a better pace. 
 
 I have made my first real floater. We were -paid 
 
 r 9 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 this afternoon (ys. on account) and dismissed. I then 
 proceeded to shave, and have a thorough wash. As 
 I was alone in the wash-house I heard a bugle call and 
 a bell ring. I thought it sounded as if the ship were 
 on fire, but really paid little attention. Bugles don't 
 play any part with us. I remember thinking I should 
 soon hear more about it. When I went down to tea, 
 great questioning was made about my absence from 
 parade ! It seems it was a practice false alarm because 
 of the German cruisers rumours. 
 
 I have twice seen birds not gulls, which for lack 
 of glasses I could not make out. I should say shear- 
 waters if pressed. 
 
 September 16th. 
 
 We are steaming in perfect weather over the most 
 famous waters of history. We are showing a proper 
 sense of the great names St. Vincent and Trafalgar, 
 though I did hear a senior officer of I know not which 
 squadron telling his men that Nelson was in command 
 
 on the former of those immortal days. Major , 
 
 wisely confined his remarks to Trafalgar, and was 
 only a hundred years wrong in the date. 
 
 Last night and this morning I had a most damnable 
 job to do. I was told off to a fatigue party whose 
 business it is to get provisions up from the hold, and 
 convey them to the proper parts of the ship for use. 
 This morning we worked from 6 to 9 without having 
 had a bite since 5 p.m. the evening before. We 
 missed breakfast, but luckily got a loaf and helped 
 it out with a little chocolate which I had in- store. 
 It was hard work too, pulling on a great rope which 
 was like holding fire in one's hand, and well showed 
 the futility of " thinking on the frosty Caucasus " 
 in such circumstances. The deck was swimming in 
 slush, and the rope made one in the foulest mess. 
 The " stuff to be shifted " was mostly beer and 
 
 20 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 ginger-beer for the canteen, and as I never look at 
 either I had no enthusiasm for the job. I also carted 
 bleeding crates labelled " ox-liver " into the most fright- 
 ful recesses of the midships, where I suppose it will 
 become our dinner. Not mine under the circs., I'm 
 after thinking. I don't want that job again, but I 
 am glad to say I was well able to bear my part, and 
 took pleasure in working hard at it. A foul-mouthed 
 old sergeant presided, and distinguished me by most 
 courteous observations on the supposed unfamiliarity 
 of such tasks. Broadly speaking, I find I am treated 
 rather differently from the others. ... A good 
 many fellows call me Mr. Villiers or Sir, which I very 
 much discourage. ... I tell you all this as it is in- 
 teresting from a general point of view, but also, I 
 think, on the whole, though it is no doubt all wrong, 
 I am grateful that it should be so. Things are made 
 easier for one, and it would be affectation not to be 
 glad of that. Kindly fellows and good comrades, I 
 like being with them. . . . Yet of course I am utterly 
 alone in many ways. When those birds, come, and 
 no one cares, I feel it. . . . Often too in the crowded 
 nights and hours of leisure, when I have nowhere to 
 go and write to you away from the unending stream 
 of senseless jabber, then indeed one feels lonely in the 
 presence of so much inevitable company. 
 
 I have felt lately, more than ever before, conscious 
 of God's help, and the safety of my all in His hands. 
 It seems as if I had given Him my soul, and He had 
 given me His peace, which is indeed beyond under- 
 standing. Must not we therefore say that we should 
 seek God where He can be found, and not rest content 
 to live in separation from His Love and Power ? 
 
 Gibraltar, September lyth. 
 I must at once begin another letter to you now 
 that my first has got safely started on its long journey. 
 
 2-1 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 I have been very seedy to-day as a result of 
 the inoculation. . . . However, I am feeling more 
 like myself this evening, and better able to enjoy 
 this wonderful blue bay, drenched in light, crowded 
 with the ships of our flotilla, and dominated by the 
 Rock. . . . The colours of these southerly places 
 are, as you know, rather monotonous at this time of 
 year, and the buildings all plain rows of windows in 
 the prevailing sandy tint; but now the sun is going 
 down, one gets more variety, and the masses of dark 
 green on the Rock's face begin to tell. The harbour 
 is full of little boats rushing about amongst us. I got 
 some grapes at dinner-time, which were delicious. 
 
 The worst of the overcrowded state of the ship 
 just now is that the canteens are almost inaccessible, 
 and generally sold out when at last one gets near the 
 window. There seems to be no more chocolate, and 
 jam is hard to get. The middle-day meal of soup, 
 meat, and potatoes is good, and so would the others 
 be if we could only buy something to help the bread 
 down. . . . 
 
 September i%th. 
 
 I have been feeling gradually better all day, and 
 now about 4.30 I am quite getting back my joie de 
 vivre. You will be glad to hear that the canteen ran 
 short of beer this morning, so that I and my mess- 
 mates all laid in a store of jam. I do think the dry 
 and wet canteens ought to be distinct, so that virtuous 
 jam eaters should not be kept from their harmless 
 little luxury by the hundreds of beer-bibbers. How 
 they can drink it on board and doing nothing I can't 
 think, but I suppose it is a deep-rooted habit with 
 most of them. 
 
 Saturday, September V)th. 
 
 This day is notable as my first " on guard." . . . 
 I got a rotten post down on the lower deck troop by 
 
 22 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 the cells. It was awfully hot but interesting. There 
 was a prisoner in one of the cells. What he had done 
 I am not sure. There were two versions. One was 
 that he had lowered himself by a rope for a swim in 
 the sea. Another was that he had been caught 
 gambling below, been told to report himself every 
 half-hour, and failed to do so. He was one of the 
 Lancashire men. The cells are made like a loose box 
 with the upper iron bars going to the ceiling. I 
 could see the prisoner lying in a wooden bunk. He 
 was a neat little man, with prettily-shaped hands and 
 a gold ring on one of them. At 10.30 a sergeant came 
 down with two others and marched him off. I believe 
 he was going to be tried. During my two hours he 
 did not come back. My duties were to keep people 
 away from the cells, see that a drinMng-tap was properly 
 used, and that no smoking or gambling went on. I 
 felt the tremendous authority of military law behind 
 me as I said, " Keep clear of the cells there," and in 
 a little dialogue like this with a party of mess orderlies 
 who started playing cards. " No playing for money 
 here, you boys." " A' right, only playing for love." 
 " Don't let me hear the chink of money, then." " A' 
 right, a' right." No doubt they were gambling, 
 but not a sign of it could I detect. 
 
 About 1 1 the headquarters staff came to us on their 
 rounds. A trumpet sounded and down came the 
 regimental sergeant-major. Then followed the ship's 
 captain — a pot-bellied old Tom in ducks with a thin 
 nose like a parrot's beak in profile — our colonel walking 
 rather gouty, and a string of a dozen officers and 
 N.C.O.s. You should have seen how they sweated. 
 The old buffers were mopping for all they were worth. 
 Two complaints were lodged, about the tea and 
 about insufficiency of rations. A long discussion 
 ensued, and a Tom in white ducks was fetched and 
 questioned. One of our officers came up to me 
 
 23 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 and asked me about the tea, of which he said every 
 one was complaining. I said I was no judge,, as I 
 never had sugar and therefore never had any of the 
 tea. He was rather a nice fellow, I thought. Finally 
 they decamped, to my great relief, as standing smartly 
 to attention is heating, and in that airless region I 
 was fairly trickling from every pore, and of course 
 could not mop. The rest of my time was uneventful. 
 I sweated less towards the end. 
 
 Our midday meal was brought to us here, and I have 
 since been talking very happily with two extremely 
 nice men. One is a traveller in nautical- instruments 
 and has been in many countries. He lives near 
 Gorhambury. The other is a farmer near Broxbourne. 
 We mentioned politics, and I found them both Free 
 Traders. 
 
 The instrument man is quite intelligent. He has 
 two daughters, about five and two, and is a great 
 poetaster in his own estimation. Byron and Gold- 
 smith are his favourites. The farmer is a delightful 
 being, and told me a lot about his farm. He has 
 300 acres, and his principal interest is his herd of cows. 
 I gathered he made a pretty good thing of it and has 
 a dozen men under him. He has an old father whom 
 he has left in charge. He has a charming graceful 
 way with him which much adorns this ship's company. 
 
 We go on guard again from 4 to 6, from 10 to mid- 
 night, and from 4 to 6 to-morrow morning. Between 
 times we must be here, where it is nice and cool. . . . 
 I hope I shall get a better billet next time, 
 
 Sunday, September 20th. 
 I did get a much better post for my second bout 
 of guard on the extreme stern of the ship. I had to 
 keep men off a little area near the flag, and to keep a 
 gangway free to the nearest companion ladder. When 
 I first went on, the sun directly behind me was tre- 
 
 24 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 mendous. It was not just hot on the back of one's 
 neck, but like hot needles pricking one. By 5 the 
 fierce quality was gone and the evening closed in 
 the most serene peace of sky and water. Just before 
 six o'clock behold two signallers and the colonel and 
 adjutant came bustling up, and began frantic efforts 
 to talk to the ship just behind us. I found out after- 
 wards from a signaller that it was all about helmets, 
 but from the fussification I quite thought German 
 warships were about. 
 
 I had some food and sleep before 10, when I took 
 up my post on the main open deck, again aft. About 
 20 yards farther down the deck was a row of huge 
 cauldrons standing outside the main cook's galley, 
 and pouring forth clouds of steam. The exhaust 
 was evidently being driven through them. The 
 clouds of steam had a fantastic air in the uneven light 
 given by a few electric burners. Now and again they 
 would suck to seaward, and I could see a fat man in 
 shirt-sleeves sitting on a crate and holding a pack 
 of cards. I suppose he was not playing "patience," 
 but I could never detect his opponent. 
 
 After more sleep, rather disturbed by the lack of 
 space and by rats and by the relief, which came off 
 at 2, walking on one's face, we went on again at 4. 
 This time I was guarding the forward galley, where a 
 jolly Italian rascal, who smilingly presides over it, 
 very soon started a roaring trade in hot tea and coffee 
 and sandwiches at 3^. a head. It must have been 
 quite illicit, as the goods can hardly have been his to 
 sell, but I was mightily glad of some coffee, as a 
 wind had got up and it was chilly. As the light 
 began to come the hose threatened the forward deck, 
 which I cleared of sleepers. The men sleep very 
 peacefully and silently on deck, many of them in 
 Charles's darling attitude of head and arm, but with 
 all the difference! 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 Before my watch was out I had some very interest- 
 ing talk with an old soldier who had served in India 
 
 and South Africa, and joined the ■ with some 
 
 friends of his recent civil life. He told me that his 
 officers and N.C.O.s were perfectly futile. The 
 colonel is secretary to the Board of Guardians in 
 , and is hopeless. There are four sergeant- 
 majors who are old regulars, but they cannot officer 
 a battalion. The old Terriers know very little more 
 than the recruits, and have got into bad disciplinary 
 ways in their picnic camps, which make them very 
 much worse material. . . . K.'s army would be very 
 much better stuff to work on in all probability. 
 
 It is nearly 3, and a cool breeze is flicking the 
 water with white crests as it tumbles joyously about, 
 abounding in its own marvellous blue. When one 
 thinks of the grizzly cruel masses of the Atlantic, this 
 is like a laughing lake. 
 
 Church this morning was agonisingly funny as 
 only these things can be. The band was in the waist 
 and we on the promenade deck, and the version of 
 " Fight the good fight " became a contrapuntal duel 
 between us and the Lanes. They having the band 
 were bound to win ; " Victrix causa deis placuit sed 
 victa Catoni," and we enjoyed our independent 
 version as long as we could hold it more than they 
 can have relished a tame obedience to the drum- 
 major. 
 
 One is so helpless when bottom dog, unable to 
 command things in one's ordinary, I now see to be, 
 glorious fashion, and also particularly in one's com- 
 plete ignorance. There is no means of knowing 
 where we are, what we are going to do, e.g. stay at 
 Malta or not, or why things happen. Endless idle 
 rumours run around, and one realises that one is only 
 a bit of a machine and not meant to be too inquisitive. 
 These little drawbacks don't mean much, however. 
 
 26 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNET OUT 
 
 It was delightful to find to-day that old Z. in my 
 section has a profound reverence for E. G., 1 and 
 was thrilled to hear I knew him. 
 
 Who do you think has been on board these last 
 two days ? None other than Turtur-turtur-turtur, 8 
 and I have seen a little bird which might be a gold- 
 finch ! 
 
 Tuesday, September 22nd. 
 
 Yesterday was very uneventful, calm and cool, and 
 ended near Malta. I did not write, because I had not 
 realised, through being on guard all Saturday, that 
 the now regular 5 p.m. parade carries one into the 
 dark hours. The principal event of the day was the 
 discovery that a winked-at hot bath in the officers' 
 quarters is to be enjoyed for 6d. to the steward. The 
 bath was too delicious. The luxury of reposing in 
 the actual bath is very great, for though I no longer 
 realise the hardness of the benches below or the deck 
 above, they do not give one a positive sense of com- 
 fort ! Then to get thoroughly clean from about a 
 fortnight's dirt was wonderfully refreshing. . . . 
 
 I hardly eat any of the meat foods. Yesterday, 
 e.g., we were given liver sausages — quite disgusting 
 and surely very unsuitable. To-day a sort of hunk 
 of mule which was quite cold. It is, I imagine, better 
 so, for soup and bread can't put one far wrong, and 
 as we take very little exercise, one is in no great need 
 of heavy meals. I enjoy the quarter of an hour's 
 exercises every morning thoroughly. . . . Later this 
 morning we did some semaphore, at which I rather 
 distinguished myself. I have pretty well mastered 
 it for the moment, at any rate. ... 
 
 The voyage is beginning to hang heavy on one's 
 hands, and Alexandria will be very welcome. In the 
 
 1 Viscount Grey of Fallodec. 
 
 2 Turtle-dove. 
 
 27 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 meanwhile Boswell is a great prop. The farther on 
 L go the more I like it, and I am going very leisurely, 
 savouring the amusing things on every page. This 
 sentence struck me as just hitting oft my present 
 case : " Men will submit to any rule by which they 
 may be exempted from the tyranny of caprice and 
 chance." These are truly the brokers' tyrants. Last 
 night I talked with a young man who is heavily de- 
 pressed by the discomforts of his position at this 
 -moment. I found out what life he had left. He told 
 me he was a farmer and that his principal business 
 was buying horses in Ireland, breaking, hunting, and 
 selling them. I was better able to understand his 
 disconsolate mood. . . . 
 
 Four o'clock. A wonderful sight — the Indian 
 Army for Europe is just passing us to the south'ard 
 — twenty-two great liners and a cruiser with them. 
 Added to our own numbers it is a great display of 
 sea-power, and all this is made possible by gallant, 
 patient Jellicoe in the North Sea. The thought of 
 the Sikhs and Gurkhas knifing les sales Alleboches 
 gives me intense pleasure. They'll fight like devils, 
 I dare say, and let the enemy know what it means 
 when you take on the British Empire. Almost daily 
 in these times one feels the great resources we are 
 slowly displaying to drive home victory to the utmost. 
 One must hope for this, mustn't one, though it 
 sounds vindictive, and in the end I believe our English 
 system of life, on which conscription is so hard to graft, 
 may turn out to be the best and the determining factor 
 in this deadly business. 
 
 Thursday, 2^th. 
 
 To-day we paraded half an hour earlier and stood 
 to attention with our caps off, while the engines were 
 stopped, to honour the burial at sea of a man of 
 another battalion of Lancashire Fusiliers, who died 
 
 28 
 
LETTERS ON THE JOURNET OUT 
 
 on the Aragon. This is the third death which has 
 occurred on the voyage, and, because of our having 
 men of the same regiment as the dead on board, the 
 most noticeable to us. In the other cases, one observed 
 the stopping of the ship for a few moments, the flags 
 half-mast, and the superstitious turn from their course 
 of the ships following that from which the burial 
 took place, that they might not go over the spot 
 where the body was committed to the water. Among 
 so large a number of men in unfamiliar circumstances, 
 such casualties are sure to occur. The only case of 
 which we know the particulars is that of a man who 
 fell down a hatchway into the hold and broke his 
 neck. It is a pathetic ending to the military vows 
 of these three, to die on board and rest under this 
 lovely azure floor. . . . Pray for me that I do not 
 lose the sense of needing God's protection at every 
 turn, and the happiness of leaning on His strength. 
 Pray too, that I may maintain the principle of un- 
 selfishness, and help to set an example of kindness and 
 of thinking about others before myself, if possible. 
 This is a great source of happiness, and sorely needed 
 to be done in a society where there is a tendency to 
 admire the man who looks out for himself. One is 
 told that this is what one must do, and it is quite 
 true that every one must fend for himself and see 
 to his own needs. But this emphasis tends to make 
 men indifferent to the fate of others and has, I think, 
 helped to produce a most noxious epidemic of petty 
 thefts. 
 
 I was a victim to-day. I found my puttees gone 
 from their usual nook. Fortunately for me, there 
 are two who would help me, if need be, by lending me 
 a pair. But losing one's kit in any way is an offence, 
 and the stealer simply wished to push that offence 
 of his making off on to some innocent person. 
 
 I have been lucky in making friends with all sorts 
 
 29 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 on the voyage, and feel sure they will stand me in 
 good stead in all kinds of ways. At the same time, 
 I have made no particular pal or chum, and don't 
 really feel the need of one. 
 
 Later. — My puttees have been returned. They 
 were taken by a genuine mistake, I'm sure. This has 
 greatly cheered me. I am looking forward to the 
 disembarkation. 
 
 Sunday Evening. Abbassia Barracks. 
 
 We got into Alexandria first thing on Friday and 
 were berthed opposite a long row of coal mountains. 
 The whole ground was made of coal dust, and about 
 midday the heat and filth were awful. I was put on 
 " a fatigue" (of which life largely consists) to unload 
 our stuff and put it on the train. We had no helmets. 
 Mercifully, after an hour our second-in-command 
 came and put some natives on to the job. They put 
 us into the train drawn up between us and the coal 
 at 5 o'clock. We were allowed to get out and stay 
 near by. After a time we four — the section — started 
 out in search of a rumoured pub. Very soon X. and 
 Y. got funk and said we were going too far, but old 
 Z. and I stuck it out and had rather a lark wandering 
 among weird quays in the half-dark, though we never 
 found the pub. The officers were obviously having 
 dinner. We two raided the deserted ship, now bound 
 fqr India to fetch home more men, and did very well 
 to get drinks of milk and a big pot of jam in sub- 
 terranean regions. Food and drink are one's supreme 
 objects. It is very primitive and amusing. There 
 was a cataract of hot water coming from the liner 
 and running over the quay and down a hole. Here 
 we all washed in the far-away light coming from the 
 ship, and not intended for us. At last at 9.30 the 
 train went off. It was quite impossible to sleep, 
 and we were very much j ammed with all our accoutre- 
 
 3° 
 
LETTERS FROM EGTPT 
 
 ments and kit, but we ate much bread-and-jam to 
 keep us going. At one station there was lager beer 
 and a regular rush for it. It fetched is. a bottle, 
 and by gum it was good. I stood out on the tail 
 platform a good deal. It was a lovely night and the 
 starlight exquisite. Then one looked inside. What 
 a contrast! The dreary burners in the thick air 
 showed the men and their stuff in every attitude of 
 hideous discomfort. Some on the floor — others sang 
 and smoked. 
 
 We got out here to the Abbassia Barracks at about 
 4.30 just as the dawn was coming, and marched off 
 in the growing daylight to our quarters — beautiful 
 airy dormitories with verandas north and south, just 
 as good as could be, with shower-baths and glorious 
 Dragoon Guards welcoming us to breakfast. 
 
 September 29th. 
 
 We are beginning to settle down a bit now, and I 
 
 mean. to take up again my plan of writing every day 
 
 a running letter ; . . . the fact that one has not got 
 
 to finish off and make a letter of it each day rather 
 
 adds to the pleasure of this mode of intercourse. 
 
 Now where shall I begin ? Our arrival here is the 
 
 point, I think. In the first rays of daylight, as We 
 
 got out of the train, the feature was a mosque-like 
 
 building which I remember bothered my eye by 
 
 being distinctly out of drawing in the minaret part. 
 
 This is the central feature of the newer and eastern 
 
 part of this regular settlement of barracks. ... In this 
 
 region all the barrack buildings are alike, exactly 
 
 the colour of the sand and three big stories high. 
 
 The colonnades on each side of each floor are really 
 
 quite fine, and delightful in use. . . . To the south 
 
 and east we have a sight of the fringes of the desert. 
 
 It is thrilling to see even the edge of this great thing 
 
 in nature. It is just a colour to the east. Very low 
 
 3 1 
 
ALGERNON HTDE F1LLIERS 
 
 ridges- come first, and then a purple or violet vanishing 
 into the sky. In the south the stony hills rise, quite 
 quickly and glow a bright red at times. Some people 
 have found the light very trying — others the sand, 
 which is all-penetrating. I don't really mind the 
 heat a bit, and the light and the air are too wonder- 
 ful for anything. The sunshine is a blaze or a flood, 
 or anything else which can suggest a gorgeous pro- 
 fusion. The air is lightness itself, into which shapes 
 and colours cut with a clearness and vigour which 
 give a beauty to the simplest bush or building. It 
 would be terribly hard to make a sketch of anything. 
 The sky at night is a wonder. As I look up through 
 the columns, the stars are like a diamond network over 
 the world-wide curtain of sumptuous blue. Some- 
 times it looks black like a superb creature's coat — a 
 Bagheera black. For a moment at sunset the light 
 which has been poured out all day rushes back from 
 the earth to the sky, and both glow in a level glory. 
 Descriptions are no use. It is just a glorious climate. 
 
 October 1st. 
 
 ... As to grooming, I enjoy it hugely, and do not 
 find it hard at all. You can work just as hard as 
 you like at it, and I enjoy putting in the elbow-grease. 
 It is so satisfactory to see the result in a glossy coat, 
 fresh face and feet, and air of well-being in the brave 
 beast. Besides my own already beloved animal here, 
 I have groomed about four or five others, and always 
 with skill or luck as to quietness. Being repeatedly 
 in the stable every day gives one great assurance. 
 I should like to live to be a hundred for hunting and 
 stalking. 
 
 Friday, October 2nd. 
 
 I rode my horse this morning with complete success. 
 He is a darling, and I am as pleased as Punch about 
 it all. ... 
 
 32 
 
LETTERS FROM EGTPT 
 
 The soldier's spirit as 'one sees it here, and as I 
 read of it yesterday in Lloyd's Weekly, is a remarkable 
 compound. Things that really matter are taken with 
 calm, while the grousing and cursing over trifles is 
 unending. For instance, sea-sickness and that night 
 journey, and the following night's trek to Cairo were 
 all taken exceedingly well ; but you've no idea of the 
 outcry there is if anything goes wrong with the 
 rations, or the canteen runs out of jam or beer. If 
 we heard we were to go into action this evening, there 
 would be hardly any agitation; but suppose it got 
 about that id. a. day was to be stopped from our pay 
 to (say) keep our kits in repair free of charge, or some 
 such convenient scheme, the to-do would be fierce 
 and interminable. The tea and the cooking of the 
 meat arouse the most bitter passions. You would say 
 superficially that we worshipped the Belly with whole- 
 hearted monotheistic devotion. 
 
 This moment I have just had my first sight of the 
 Pyramids ! It is marvellously clear to-day, " sharp 
 as a sickle is the edge of shade and shine," and C, 
 standing at the end of the veranda suddenly, said, 
 " There are the Pyramids." Planting this safely under 
 a mustard-pot, I rushed off, and there they were — 
 fourteen miles away to the west the two immortal 
 masses, wonders of the world. 
 
 Later. 
 
 After tea I started for a delicious walk from which 
 I am just back. . . . The moon was well up in the 
 vsky when I went off, but the gorgeous sunset light was 
 still the master. I went over to the lines of the 
 camel corps. The ships of the desert lay in four long 
 lines of about twenty-five or thirty each, chewing 
 with their peculiar air of indifference, very unlike our 
 restless steeds. The camel corps have evidently got 
 one of the early parts of the barracks and the scene 
 
 d 33 
 
Algernon Utde villiers 
 
 was fully Pentateuchian. There was the round well- 
 head with the two short thick foliages trees beside it, 
 and as I came by an Arab began his prayers. The 
 camels who came in to-day from work in the desert 
 lay very solemn and still, white-brown and dusty 
 coloured, waving their heads, and now and again one 
 would get up with much deliberation, turn round, 
 and lie down again. Beyond them I came to some 
 old fortifications with big guns of Napoleon's time 
 in their old positions. Farther on there was a pleasant- 
 looking residency of some sort with a grove of poplar 
 trees, and beyond the open desert. I looked out over 
 it for a time stretching away under the brilliant moon, 
 and two men riding arabs went by inaudibly perhaps 
 200 yards away. I came home through other Egyptian 
 Army quarters to find a glorious donkey-race going 
 on near the barracks. 
 
 Abbassia. October 12th, 1914. 
 
 Yesterday there was a good deal of light left when 
 we got back to barracks. So A. and I set off to walk 
 out over the desert to the " south' ard." The desert 
 is full of incident. Old trenches, dried-up streams 
 where the sand is caked hard, odd little bushes, outcrops 
 of rock, and glowing to our right a gorgeous sky burn- 
 ing from yellow to orange and orange to smoky red 
 behind all sorts of dim architectural features, chief 
 among them the dome and pinnacles of Arabi Pasha's 
 citadel. We crossed a crazy-looking railway -line 
 which vanished up a sandy valley in front of us and 
 found a curious enclosure — an old fort or caravanserai 
 at the foot of the hills. We climbed the lowest 
 slopes of these, and wished we had had more light for 
 the northward view. But still it was very beautiful 
 and utterly unfamiliar. I don't seem to have got any 
 grip on the landscape. It is still quite en dehors. It 
 was d: rk in a few minutes, and we came home by the 
 
 34 
 
LETTERS FROM ECfPf 
 
 guide of the barrack lights which shone in steady 
 regiments in front of us. It was a good walk. 
 
 I have had extremely nice letters from Sybil 
 Graham l and hope to go to luncheon with them on 
 Wednesday. She is lending me some books, as I want 
 a change from Johnson ! He doesn't suit barracks 
 as he did the ship. On Sunday morning after break- 
 fast I read through Ecclesiastes and the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians. It was splendid to come from the pale 
 exquisite beauty of the weary philosopher to the 
 triumphing apostle. And how beautiful he can be 
 too : Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
 forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake 
 hath forgiven you. 
 
 October l^th. 
 
 An unlucky day too. Last night in the course of 
 a battle with No. 4 troop across the way I had a 
 violent blow on the head from a stoutish bolster 
 powerfully wielded, and I think this spoilt my night. 
 . . . An interesting thing I have been meaning to 
 mention is the great flights of hawks which fill the 
 air above the barracks at meal times. They tell 
 me the birds are Indian kites, not native here but 
 imported from India as scavengers. They are not 
 handsome, but their numbers and quaint whistling 
 noise are very striking. I have noticed very little else 
 in the way of birds. 
 
 Thursday, 15th. 
 
 Immediately after stables I made myself as present- 
 able as possible and went off to luncheon with the 
 Grahams. It was desperately good to be in a lovely 
 cool dark house full of nice things, and to talk at 
 large with one's own sort of people. They gave me 
 a lot of papers and books and were altogether more 
 1 The Hon. Lady Graham. 
 
 35 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 than kind. She drove me home in a motor by way of 
 a colour-man's shop, where I got the materials for 
 some sketching. No sooner was I back than I had to 
 get ready for night stable guard. There was some 
 straw to sleep on outside the stable guardroom, and 
 we took down a blanket each. I was on from 9 to 1 1 
 and then from 3.30 to 6. 
 
 The prospect of controlling loose horses in our 
 squadron's three stables- frightened me, I must own, 
 but all went well. One rascal, who was a sore trial 
 to the man whom I relieved at 9, I managed to fix 
 up all right and had no trouble. One soon gets 
 used to going up to strange horses and seeing they 
 are properly fixed. It was also rather eerie patrolling 
 the dim stables all warm and lined with shadowy 
 horse-forms in a half-silence of moving and munching, 
 broken by sudden loud noises when one animal got up 
 from a lie-down, and indulged in a kick or two at his 
 neighbour. Outside the stars were blazing, and 
 a young crescent moon sailed along, showing the 
 buildings and trees and troughs in a new fantastic 
 aspect. 
 
 October, Jth. 
 
 It is magical to read of the conduct of our troops. 
 Why are they like that ? M., in a very nice letter, 
 speaks of my having no excitement of battle to com- 
 pensate me for giving up my ordinary life, but adds 
 that something much deeper than mere excitement 
 must be animating our soldiers. I wonder what that 
 is ? We understand of course that we must beat the 
 Germans, but one would suppose some deeper-seated 
 motive power necessary. Do you meet with any 
 passion ? Among my comrades there is not a trace 
 — nothing even faintly resembling Chabanne's * fine 
 fury. Yet I think when and if our turn comes, the 
 1 His brother's French chauffeur. 
 
 36 
 
LETTERS FROM EGYPT 
 
 needful will be done, not without " grousing," but yet 
 done perhaps as well as any men could do it. How- 
 ever that may be in our case, the stories from the 
 front suggest that there is a power of faith working 
 in our Army. The men have faith in their officers, 
 the officers implicit faith in their religion of sports- 
 manship. " Play the game " is a phrase which may 
 be eggy in peace times, but is absolute law now. 
 
 I take it some faith is the foundation of all great 
 or good life. The search is ever for a more com- 
 prehensive form of faith, isn't it ? which will always 
 work and make all life great and good. 
 
 Tuesday, 20th. 
 
 On Sunday I spent a most pleasant afternoon and 
 evening with R. 
 
 We went up to Mohammed Ali's citadel, covered 
 by the mosque which he had built in the Italian 
 style ! The native output of builders was by then 
 reduced to nothing and foreigners had to be got for 
 work of this size. The effect of the Palladian mosque 
 is pretty bad and some- of the details are hideous. 
 The lights were lit in hundreds, and produced as one 
 went in a sense of flatness which was curious. All 
 hung low above the red carpets spread over the vast 
 unfurnished space — they illumine a great low expanse 
 and leave the upper heights of the dome in semi- 
 darkness. It was very unlike our great churches, 
 where one always has the sense of height. Before 
 going in we went out on to the terrace and watched 
 a gorgeous sunset looking over the town, which lay 
 in a dim semicircle at our feet. Beyond it lay the 
 Nile, and beyond that the mighty Pyramids stood 
 out even from here higher than the distant hills, so 
 that their summits were cut against the fiery sky. It 
 was a wonderful sight — a sea of domes and minarets 
 
 37 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 all rising up to one, and all in sight and sound so 
 strange and so very old. 
 
 October z\th. 
 
 My faith is that what is coming to me is coming 
 for a purpose. Trust God nor be afraid. Perhaps 
 the purpose is for a new life, perhaps for a better 
 grappling with the old, but we will wait for His guid- 
 ance, won't we ? One learns among the thousand 
 lessons of this time to wait for orders and to accept 
 them without question. 
 
 Abbassia. October 25 th. 
 
 One of the many miseries of war is the confusion 
 it brings. I remember French stories about '70 
 which made one feel the desolation brought by the 
 destruction of the many little certainties on which 
 we commonly depend. It is just when by the war 
 we need them most that these things go, isn't it ? 
 and that suggests the only grain of comfort which 
 one can get from this hideous state of things — that 
 the true values of life emerge with irresistible clear- 
 ness. There is a moral value in the great upheaval 
 and the testing which all are going through, but I 
 remember of old that I used to argue against Johnner 
 that the destruction and ruin lasting on for genera- 
 tions, after the moral elan of a warlike effort was 
 spent, more than outweighed the value of the latter. 
 I am of the same opinion still. If one could really 
 believe that a different world would come out of this 
 "struggle, one could be more hopeful. But I don't now 
 see any good reason for the feeling one had in the first 
 excitement that the old order was changing. Not by 
 such means are the changes brought which matter. 
 We shall go back to the same world with more anta- 
 gonisms and a huge legacy of broken lives, broken 
 homes, and broken resources. Poverty will be greater 
 
 38 
 
LETTERS FROM EGYPT 
 
 and the hope of alleviating it dimmer. Still, there 
 is for me at least a strong sense of the other side of the 
 medal. . . . 
 
 I will try and set down after a month's trial what 
 seem to be the really good things which this life is 
 teaching me to recognise. I speak with full conscious- 
 ness of the shortness of the trial, and therefore very 
 " provisionally," and of the difficulty of making such 
 things clear to oneself, still more to anybody else. First 
 there is the delight of having quite definite new things 
 to master. In every life one is always learning about 
 new things. Here, however, they are gloriously 
 defined — to ride and groom, to drill and shoot. Then 
 there is the health of these simple things and the 
 satisfaction of doing them. . . . One feels one's suc- 
 cesses so keenly too — a horse under good control — a 
 horse nicely groomed — a good bit of drill, and without 
 doubt in time a straight shot — these are very savour eux 
 things. The long and short of it all is, this is a man's 
 life, and it does look as if by the sweat of his brow a 
 man should live. 
 
 November 3rd. 
 
 The march through Cairo of the whole division was 
 really a great success. The Herts Yeomanry and B 
 Squadron, in particular, were picked out for applause 
 by the General. We went right through the native 
 quarter by narrow streets which we quite filled riding 
 in sections, i.e. four abreast — past numbers of beautiful 
 mosques under a heavenly blue sky. The native crowds 
 were very large, and extremely clean-looking on the 
 whole. They were very respectful and silent. There 
 is vague talk of disturbance and martial law has been 
 proclaimed in Cairo, but I don't think it amounts to 
 anything. We have double guards at stables now and 
 then, and carry bayonets which we don't know how to 
 use, and no rifles to fix them to. Ako, whenever I plot 
 
 39 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 with the Robertsons to go to the Pyramids, we are 
 confined to barracks, which is tiresome. . . . Staying 
 here is no doubt rather a picnic, unheroic enough, 
 but there it is, one can't do more than the powers 
 decree, can one ? . . . 
 
 November yth. 
 
 All your news of the war is most interesting. It 
 does look as if the Germans had made a real bungle of 
 the whole thing — right, left, and centre — and succeeded 
 only in devastating Belgium, which every principle of 
 decency and respect for what is of good report should 
 have constrained them to spare. 
 
 " Their necks shall pay for all when they die." I 
 am for the uttermost farthing of humiliation of the 
 dynasty and people : consistent with not attempting 
 to turn them by annexation into anything but their 
 beastly selves. 
 
 Maadi. November %%ih. 
 
 All day yesterday a horrible wind was blowing which 
 smothered the whole sky and landscape under a film of 
 mist or sand — a bit of both, I expect, and there was 
 really nothing to be seen anywhere. This morning 
 the hills were clear amethystine on the upper contours, 
 fading into dreamy softness lower down, so that each 
 ridge told sharply against the ridge behind it. The 
 sun was heralded by a flying robe of glowing yellow 
 folded with light clouds, and I sat entranced for half 
 an hour trying to catch the loveliness of the dawn, 
 till up came the sun himself and shone straight in my 
 face. It was delicious, but I fear my sketch is not. 
 
 Hotel des Voyageurs, Ismailia. 
 • February yd. 
 
 I penetrated to the Flying Corps camp in search of 
 Sam Cockerell, and we dine together to-morr.ow, He 
 
LETTERS FROM EGYPT 
 
 recommended me hither for a meal this evening. After 
 the first quasi-normal meal since we parted, I feel 
 vastly cheered up, and the fact of having a table and 
 chair handy, not to mention such luxuries as pen and 
 ink, clearly point to my seizing the opportunity of 
 writing to you. If you could realise the extreme, 
 difficulty of life in a sand camp, especially at first — 
 though, of course, I keep reminding myself that a sand 
 camp must be heaven compared to a mud camp — I 
 don't think you would expect much. 
 
 We have dug ourselves holes and stretched our 
 waterproof sheets over the top to shelter us from the 
 cold wind and very heavy dews. We have got a 
 rather limited allowance of not very clean straw on 
 the floor. Thus sleeping close together we manage 
 to keep pretty warm. Isn't it bad luck getting this 
 cold spell ? 
 
 The food is conducted on the same principle as at 
 Culford, only the meat of which the dirty stew is made 
 is much better. There is a ramshackle canteen pro- 
 viding eggs, sardines, and oranges, and some German 
 biscuits. The sand and the cold are our enemies, but 
 one gets used to both. 
 
 Our long day was really thrilling. Of course from 
 the soldiering point of view it was a great failure, as 
 we saw nothing but a few dead camels and a little 
 Turkish debris, but crossing the canal at dawn was 
 glorious. It was the opening of a beautiful day. We 
 went over a pontoon bridge and then joined the 
 Indian cavalry. One could see their lances in front 
 like a dim forest against the reddening east. Alto- 
 gether I enjoyed it, though it was a little flat when an 
 aero came and said the Turks were out of reach. 
 Yes, it was a disappointment when the advance on the 
 Friday night was given up. 
 
 4 1 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 El Kantara. 
 Wednesday, February ijth. 
 
 Our three days' glorious trek into the desert came 
 to an end this morning. It has been a wonderful 
 experience. . . . Soon after my last most unsatis- 
 factory note I entrained for this spot. Jolly very 
 kindly met me, or I should never have found my way 
 across the Canal and through the trenches and wire 
 entanglements to our lines. The Canal was thrilling. 
 
 The great ships following one another in the dark- 
 ness with searchlights blazing at the bows. We crossed 
 on a tiny ferry-boat. The point was guarded by Indian 
 sentries, and one of their officers wanting to hurry the 
 ferryman, called out to the guard on the far side using 
 the true vocation " O Sentry," and then a sentence in 
 Hindustani. I shall never forget that " O Sentry." 
 
 I got to sleep at 2 and we were up by 4. Our way 
 led east, along a great caravan route where the sand 
 of the desert has been hardened into quite a road by 
 the feet of innumerable millions of camels. This is 
 one of the highways " down into Egypt." 
 
 Along this road came Joseph, sold to the Ishmaelites, 
 and then Jacob and his family, and by the same way 
 Joseph and Mary made their flight. 
 
 At first the way was flat with a good deal of scrub, 
 then the levels became more varied, and we passed 
 little palm groves here and there. After leaving a 
 bigger one, where we were to camp, we went on to 
 quite a high ridge to protect the front while the 
 infantry marched up and made themselves good for 
 the night. We had with us the 14th Sikhs and 
 some Gurkhas, the Patiala Lancers and part of the 
 Bikanir Camel Corps. The Lancers, though a purely 
 native regiment, have an English officer attached to 
 them, a certain Captain Willis, who was really in 
 command of the Cavalry. 
 
 Willis's headdress was exquisite — a turban with a 
 
 43 
 
LETTERS FROM EGYPT 
 
 little grey-green pyramid sticking out, and the whole 
 bound with a silk scarf of a moonlight green, the end 
 of it hanging down over his shoulder. Beautiful being ! 
 his bewitching fragrant panache gave an atmosphere to 
 all our dull, stiff-clad ranks when he sailed by on his 
 long comfortable charger. All the Indians are beauti- 
 ful. The Sikhs keep their clothing and arms so fresh 
 and spick while the Gurkhas are the picture of nimble- 
 ness and dexterity. The Lancers did the advance 
 patrols in a way which we mightily admired. 
 
 I was corporal of the main guard that night, pro- 
 tecting our precious ammunition and not less precious 
 water. I enjoyed performing my duties, and I also 
 had a better night than most — who had to go and 
 sleep in trenches surrounding the lines. This appears 
 to have been highly unpopular. We were up at 4.15 
 for Der Tag. The aero had reported small bodies 
 at Katiah the day before, and we were to go and chase 
 them out. 
 
 We watered in the palm grove at dawn — a pictur- 
 esque but protracted business. 
 
 After a time X took out a patrol, and my section 
 was detailed to maintain connection between him and 
 Sergeant Jolly with the main part of No. 3 Troop. 
 
 X went fast, though the going was cruel heavy 
 at first — reached Katiah — found no trace of a foe, 
 rallied us and took us. back to the main body by about 
 1.30. We then had a long march home to our palm- 
 grove camp. No doubt the Turks have gone right 
 away. There was not a sign of them. 
 
 The country all day was magnificent — great moun- 
 tains of wind-smoothed sand with sharp, golden edges 
 against the blue. The distances to the east were 
 purple and greys at a range of mountains somewhere 
 towards the frontier. Katiah is nothing but a flat, 
 marshy stretch peopled by insects and a few herdsmen. 
 Still, it's on the map ! In all we did between thirty 
 
 43 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 and forty miles. I wouldn't have missed it for any- 
 thing, though X thinks that probably there 
 vanished with it our last chance of using our rifles in 
 earnest. 
 
 ' This morning we came quietly in here, and go back 
 to Ismailia to-morrow bearded and dirty, but glad of 
 our luck, such as it was. The ponies have done ex- 
 cellently. Ismailia after this will be the limit. 
 
 44 
 
Ill 
 
 LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1916 AND 1917 
 
 April 8th, 1916. 
 
 THE proposal finally toabandonthe cosmopolitan 
 idea in trade relations and embark on a 
 boycott of Germany after the war is terribly 
 
 foolishly wicked. As so well said the other 
 
 day, what we hope for and are fighting for is a new 
 Germany, and to declare war beforehand on the unborn 
 realisation of all our hopes is indeed to doom ourselves 
 to a useless sacrifice. 
 
 From the earliest week of the war I have felt what a 
 bitter irony it would be if our hideous combat with 
 Prussia ended in our own surrender to Prussian ideas. 
 It is the sort of thing that does happen. Cuckoos, 
 
 like N , are spell-bound by Germany as by a 
 
 basilisk. Like old barndoor fowls, they cannot get 
 their beaks away from the chalk line, and while we 
 are in the very act of proving that the German way 
 is fatally wrong, they will vow and swear that unless 
 we follow the German way we must be lost for ever. 
 To me it is beyond the bounds of rationality — like the 
 ideas of lunatics. Forgive my ranting ! 
 
 Amisfield. October 27th. 
 
 I have finished St. Paul's epistles and am putting 
 down the leading thoughts of each, as I understand 
 them, with the idea of finding out what it was that 
 
 45 
 
ALQEkNON HTM V1LLIEM 
 
 made the Thessalonians, etc., become Christians, and 
 what St. Paul conceived Christ's revelation to be. 
 
 It is most fascinating work, and quite takes the place 
 of sketching ! ! 
 
 These last days have been lovely. 
 
 The sides have been softest greys, and moving 
 gently towards the east. 
 
 The hills are looking very dark and solemn, and the 
 hedgerows beautiful in their faded colours, like the 
 Reynolds windows in New College chapel. . . . 
 
 I am going to Tynningham to see if there are any 
 waders in. 
 
 November ijth. 
 
 Why did St. Paul become a Christian ? It was surely 
 the power to live and die which he had seen in the 
 early believers, and perhaps especially in Stephen, 
 which led up to the paroxysm of revelation on the 
 road to Damascus. In his own preaching that, I suspect, 
 was the primary thing in approaching the unconverted 
 — e.g. i Thess. i. 5, and 1 Cor. ii. 4. The Epistles 
 have only allusions to primary teaching. They are in 
 every case addressed to believers. Thus St. Paul seems 
 to say, Here is a tremendous practical new fact — if 
 you want the theory of it and the implications, here 
 they are. 
 
 St. John writes as if he were by way of answering 
 a more sophisticated questioning : How came this 
 obscure life to be the initiation of so much — a church, 
 a power to turn the world upside-down ? 
 
 The contrast seems to be largely one of date — St. Paul 
 representing the full career of active Christian life ; 
 St. John the later years, when a man turns back on his 
 life, and recalls its beginnings into the full light of 
 spiritual experience. 
 
 I try every day to realise this saying. Here the 
 thing is proved beyond question of doubt — there is 
 
 46 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1916 
 
 only one power, only one joy, only one health, only 
 one goodness, only one pearl of great price, to seek 
 honestly to be led by the Spirit of God. 
 
 It is a mathematical demonstration really (though 
 oddly enough you can ignore it if you like — hence the 
 pearliness), and none but an idiot would lose his own 
 soul when once he has found it. The only reason we 
 do not " believe in God " as completely as in 2 x 2=4 
 is that the subconscious self seems to carry on still in 
 the old way, and can, so to speak, rush us and suddenly 
 dominate consciousness quite unexpectedly — Zw 
 flotzlich. 
 
 November 29th. 
 
 Horses would be no good to us now — bitter thought 
 — there is hardly anybody left who could ride them. 
 As I marched this afternoon, immediately behind my 
 old gun men, my heart was wrung to think what fine 
 fellows they are, and no finer than their former com- 
 rades. They are the last leaf of our summer pride. 
 
 I am, however, glad to say that it will fall with 
 certitude and honour, for the Brigadier has warmly 
 taken up my idea of their going to the mounted 
 M.G.C. ... 
 
 I was much interested to hear of your readings about 
 the dark ages of the East. Life is indeed hid with 
 Christ in God. 
 
 November \\ih, 1916. 
 
 To N. B. 
 
 I think actually sharing one's thought with other 
 minds keeps it saner and clearer and more vigorous 
 than it would be otherwise. 
 
 Shall we agree not to use the word " matter " any 
 more ? It is too full of rubbishy, outworn notions to 
 be good for us. It needs a rest. 
 
 47 
 
ALGERNON HYDE FILLIERS 
 
 About animal decay your thoughts are excellent. 
 Why should the poor microbes that change us one 
 way be worse than those which change us the other ? 
 
 I am sure you are right in feeling that evil is in our 
 thoughts. That's why we can get rid of it. And evil 
 I take to be ignorance and limitation. Complete 
 knowledge and complete power (si jeunesse savait, si 
 vieillesse pouvait) would exclude or eliminate evil. 
 I am entirely with you — all things are of God — the 
 content of God's constitutive thought. To me it is 
 equally misleading and confusing to call all things 
 matter or spirit. So long as you grasp that the sun 
 and stars, the tables and chairs, are both universal and 
 particular, and have an existence, not dependent on 
 our knowledge of them, but capable of being, under- 
 stood by us to be constituted by the All Mind, that is 
 all you want to know about them from an existential 
 point of view. As for the glorified replica and " the 
 reflection " and " the true reality shining through," 
 that is all perfect nonsense. There is one reality only, 
 but it is not yet perfectly mastered (that's the word 
 covering both intellectual and moral power — " Thanks 
 be to God which giveth us the mastery ") by us. 
 
 Mrs. Eddy's English is indeed awful. I suppose 
 that's where her followers get the idea of Truth 
 shining through. She erects a pretty effective blanket, 
 I must say. 
 
 Here then is the problem — " Why is reality not 
 completely mastered by us ; why are we ignorant and 
 limited ? " 
 
 I have got an attempt at an answer, which I will 
 give you ; but some common notions must be dispelled 
 first. 
 
 It is generally assumed that reality is indestructible, 
 incorruptible. This means that reality is changeless 
 and good. I think it is neither. 
 
 Reality more deeply considered is not merely God's 
 
 48 
 
LETT fillS WRITTEN IN 1916 
 
 thought, it is God's purpose. In the idea of purpose 1 
 you can account for the development, change, which 
 we see so inevitably, and for the homogeneity without 
 which we cannot be satisfied. In a divine purpose the 
 End is immanent in every means. Perfection in every 
 stage. " Each note of one scale is nought," " but give 
 it to me to use." ..." Consider and bow the head." 
 Then reality is beyond Good and Evil. Not only 
 beyond evil, but also beyond good. It is Truth and 
 Beauty probably, but not good. Good is a false 
 absolute. 
 
 Look at Phil. iii. 7, 8, and 9, " I count all things but 
 loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ." 
 
 All these wonderful passages, e.g. Col. iii. 11," Where 
 there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor 
 uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but 
 Christ is all and in all," what do they mean ? This, I 
 take it — that not only what men' hold evil, but what 
 they hold good — race, creed, civilisation, status — all 
 is done away in Christ. 
 
 Is not the life and teaching of Jesus the same ? 
 " My meat is to do the will of My Father," and " Who 
 are My mother and sister and brother ? " " They that 
 do the will of My Father." 
 And the Cross — what of it ? 
 
 To me it is Truth and Beauty cutting good and evil 
 to ribbons. 
 
 To return to the problem, then. Do you think this 
 parable can stand ? The Kingdom of Heaven is like 
 unto a great artist who made a picture of a man's 
 head ; and he painted the shadows first, and the man 
 said, What a puzzling picture, and ugly too ! But when 
 the picture was finished, the shadows were still there. 
 Yet the man hung the picture in his dining-room, and 
 everybody said, What a likeness, and what a fine 
 picture ! 
 
 The shadows are our apparent ignorance and limita- 
 
 e 49 
 
Algernon htde villiers 
 
 tion, but when we have conquered them we shall know 
 they are the embodying contrasts of our knowledge 
 and power. Perhaps the old sillies who said that 
 God sent us evil for our good were not quite so silly 
 after all. It is a great mystery. I find in an old hymn 
 — hoary theological — so much completeness and satis- 
 faction : 
 
 " O come in this sweet morning hour, 
 Feed me with food divine, 
 And fill with all Thy love and power 
 This worthless heart of mine." 
 
 I cling to my " sweet morning hour " and my 
 " worthless heart." 
 
 There is truth expressed in both. 
 
 St. Paul does not mean that a natural body and a 
 spiritual body exist together. The context makes this 
 quite clear. Christ really died, but death had no 
 dominion over Him, and the bird really decays and 
 dies, and the leaves fall and flowers wither, but never 
 mind, Death is swallowed up in Mastery. 
 
 December Jth, 191 6. 
 
 I walked home by Hailes. It was really rather 
 beautiful — not a puff of wind, and the horses creeping 
 up the furrows the only signs of life or promise of 
 renewal. Yet there they were in the still passing of 
 the year, working for next year's golden October. 
 
 So, I thought, we must remember that deep in the 
 core of life God's purpose works through the per- 
 plexities of German victories, and apparently inade- 
 quate statesmen, towards the harvest of souls. 
 
 The papers are hard to bear just now. There is 
 only one thing to do — to turn away from the whole 
 apparent failure of our efforts. 
 
 5° 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 191 6 
 To E. P. 
 
 December loth, 1916. 
 
 I think it is essential to remember that the distinction 
 of outward and inward is very flimsy. Christ calls us 
 not so much to a change as to a thorough re-valuation 
 of life, inside and outside and all through. 
 
 I quite agree that " we are citizens of the world," and 
 to seek to avoid common life in any way is as impossible 
 as the Christian Scientists' effort to deny it — but as 
 having the freedom of the Ci vitas Dei we must not care 
 what may befall. Love is the supreme function of 
 life, and it is natural that love should wish to see its 
 objects happy, but love must not end there. We must 
 welcome the whole will of God for ourselves and for 
 one another — and what was the will of God for Christ, 
 in Whose life alone His will was utterly fulfilled ? 
 
 It so happened after getting your letter that I read 
 the account of Jesus' temptation. How was He going 
 to use the tremendous power He now felt within Him ? 
 Not to feed men, not to shelter men, not to govern 
 men (which is what we so often think we should like 
 above all things), for to change the existing order of 
 life would be to imply that in the goods and evils of 
 this life there is the possibility of reconciliation with 
 God. Christ evidently decided to leave the facts of life 
 as He found them and to show us by His life and death 
 and resurrection how to understand and value them. 
 His full insight showed that thus alone could He fulfil 
 His mission. He quite clearly taught an indifference 
 to human goods and a victory over human ills, and to 
 my mind His example is in exact accord with such 
 teaching. It is a familiar thought with me, but when 
 I first met with it I do not know, that the striking 
 thing about Christ's example is not His various 
 "works," but the fact that with such power as He 
 
 Si 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VlLLiERS 
 
 possessed He did so little and left the world practically 
 as He found it. 
 
 Nothing, I think, is more sublime in Him than the 
 absolute confidence He displayed in Truth and its 
 power, which made Him quite indifferent how many 
 He reached and healed. He needed only time enough 
 to declare His message, His revelation of God's attitude 
 to life, and to seal the truths of it by the complete 
 experience which it involved. For the last week of 
 His life, when if "works" had been His object He 
 would have been seeking to do all He could to destroy 
 " evil," He did no works of healing save Malchus' 
 ear, so far as we know. Surely He would have plainly 
 given men the key to health if that had been His 
 mission. Rather He gave us the key to life, and in 
 those last days was concerned to reveal by word and 
 deed the deep things of God. " Render therefore 
 unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto 
 God the things that are God's." If people came to 
 Him who had realised His powers, He could not but 
 heal them. He does not seem to have sought them. 
 Even in His preaching there is a complete absence of 
 that urgency which is so characteristic of St. Paul. 
 I am every time struck with this when I turn from the 
 Epistles 'to' the Gospels. 
 
 To E. P. 
 
 January i^tb, 1917. 
 
 " Hope is Faith in action " is a telling phrase, but 
 still Faith, whether in reflection of action, should 
 remain Faith — the goal reached even in the pursuit ; 
 whereas Hope is the beautiful expectancy, waiting for 
 the fullness of revelation not reached even by Faith, 
 which is clearly an element in the Christian character 
 and which I can understand that St. Paul should rank 
 with Faith and Love as the three which abide. This 
 
 52 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1916 
 
 is just where Beauty comes in. It is not a matter 
 of Faith, is it ? though we may well have Faith that 
 it is an ultimate thing. Beauty comes to complete, 
 with the seal or character of God in His fullness. We 
 wait for the hour when the King in His beauty shall 
 draw us in j oyf ul surrender to be one with Him. The 
 foretaste comes to us in the pure passion for loveliness 
 " which leaves the earth to lose itself in the sky." 
 
 What you say about Christ and the aesthetic fact 
 in life is quite true. He does not teach the Beautiful 
 as He taught the Truth, because that is not the way to 
 convey it. He reveals the Beautiful by the faultless 
 grace of His earthly life and death. In a lyric of 
 bewildering beauty such as the twenty- first chapter of 
 St. John, is it not clear how some profound follower 
 of our Lord grasped the significance of the Resurrection 
 as the consummation, on this side too* of the Word 
 Who dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory full of 
 Grace and Truth ? 
 
 I wonder if you will think anything of the idea, but 
 it has been in my mind lately that we might be right 
 to associate our ideas of " Beauty " with the word 
 Glory in our translations. It is a far more appropriate 
 word for the object of aesthetic experience in the case 
 of any one living in the East, I should think. I was 
 constantly being penetrated by the experiences of the 
 eyes when I was in Egypt. But a beautiful land is 
 not exactly what you would call it. The rising and 
 the setting of the sun are too tremendous to be called 
 beautiful. " The Heavens declare the glory of God." 
 " Thou that makest the outgoings of the morning 
 and evening to praise Thee." 
 
 And the noonday does not reveal beauties of shape 
 and colour, but there is just a radiance of light and 
 richness of shadow, an aerial splendour which is exactly 
 a glory. 
 
 I have embarked on an interesting experiment 
 
 53 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 lately. I got some of the leading spirits among the 
 men together, and read them a paper I had written 
 for the occasion on the value of the forces of the 
 unseen world in everyday life. Afterwards they 
 talked quite freely, and it is proposed to repeat the 
 venture, they bringing some of their friends perhaps. 
 I am writing a paper on Prayer to read to them. 
 
 It was on the whole a great success, the first meeting, 
 and I had the sense of doing something extremely 
 valuable to myself and almost certainly useful to them. 
 
 To E. P. 
 
 December 10th, 1916. 
 
 We can from another point of view see the necessity 
 for transcending our judgments of life as good and 
 evil. After all, without evil there is no good. To 
 think that by removing evil you reach good is absurd. 
 We could not live for more than a day or so were it not 
 for the pain of hunger and thirst which forces us to 
 nourish ourselves. Security from danger is no good 
 except in so far as the ordinary accidents of life are 
 evil, and peace of mind is only a good in so far as 
 the questionings and strivings of mind are evil. All 
 efforts to make a heaven of human goods end in absurd 
 scenes with crowns and harps and so forth. At the 
 same time we cannot rest content with a world con- 
 stituted thus. Such relativity is intolerable. We 
 inevitably seek an absolute. Can we not find it in 
 Truth, Beauty, and Love, and was not this Christ's 
 message ? Truth needs no falsehood, Beauty no 
 blemish, Love no hate to make. them true, beautiful, 
 and tender, and what else did Christ value but sincerity, 
 grace, and tenderness in every moment of life ? I 
 think St. Paul is, on the whole, true to Him,, though 
 the servant is not greater than his Lord. 
 
 54 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 19 17 
 
 As you say, he accepts the goods and evils of life, and 
 does not demand that goods should be sacrificed or evils 
 self-imposed, but he welcomes life as it comes that he 
 may as it were climb over its limitations and con- 
 trasts into the fuller land of liberty, " where there is 
 neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircum- 
 cision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ 
 is all in all." And now abideth Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity — these three ; and are they not the conviction 
 of Truth, the hope of perfect beauty, and the love 
 " which seeketh not her own" ? 
 
 To R. G. B. 
 
 February 191 7. 
 
 . . . One way and another these times are bringing 
 men back to God — are they not ? 
 
 I have had some interesting and precious hours 
 with my men, and found them very willing to listen 
 to what I had to urge upon them. 
 
 These have now just left, going before me to the 
 M.G. Corps. I miss them greatly — for our thinking 
 together of the deep things of God has made a very 
 happy relation between us in our daily work, giving 
 even in the alienation of our military ranks a new 
 value for one another, which I felt greatly added to 
 our efficiency. 
 
 We talk a great deal these days about building a 
 better world from out the wreck of the past, but we 
 need more boldly to proclaim the true foundation, 
 the link between man and man which has no flaw, 
 reverence for one another, for God is in us all — calm 
 and cheer in our hearts because our lives are in His 
 hands — " He in us and we in Him." I take that to 
 be the centre of the revelation of Christ, the corner- 
 stone of a happier temple of life. 
 
 55 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 Harrowby Camp, Grantham. 
 May 6th, 1917. 
 
 I have arrived very safely, and find myself in a rather 
 minute cubicle copiously adorned with pictures from 
 the papers of ladies more or less undressed. 
 
 I found Temple's Mens Creatrix the most excellent 
 reading, and the time in the train seemed very 
 short. 
 
 I was glad to find a sentence in Temple of how we 
 have to play our parts in life in a " surround " of almost 
 all but complete ignorance. I feel that so strongly. 
 " Lighten our darkness " is a universal sort of prayer. 
 That reminds me that I went into St. Pancras Church 
 and heard a very war-time curate gabbling through 
 the great charge to Joshua as if he were reading an Act 
 of Parliament. The choir was good and I enjoyed 
 singing the Te Deum. 
 
 May nth. 
 
 One feels quite like being in a tunnel here, taken 
 up with the minute study of the things they teach, 
 and lost to the world for the next few weeks. The 
 end of the tunnel is only a tiny spot in the distance, 
 but one knows it means liberation. 
 
 Human nature, however, can never be eliminated, 
 even by a machine-gun course, and there was a mess 
 meeting last night which was very entertaining. The 
 President, a very nice fellow evidently, while assuring 
 us that this was the only mess in the camp worth 
 considering at all, yet felt obliged to call this meeting 
 and warn the members of this social paradise against 
 insulting the waitresses and pouring their drinks into 
 the piano ! . . . 
 
 I have just been having an absorbing discussion on 
 the position of the black races with an ex-officer of a 
 West Indian regiment, and a student of Glasgow 
 
 56 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1917 
 
 University who honours the H.L.I. The former was 
 very interesting, the latter very loquacious. . . . 
 
 May I2tb. 
 
 I set out after luncheon by way of the town, and 
 went out of it westwards towards Melton for a mile 
 or two till I came to a place called Harlaxton. . . . 
 Here I found a village of wonderful cottages with the 
 quaintest porches of wood and wooden crowned 
 gables on the brick walls. Such a jumble of dear 
 little buildings and unexpected courts and archways 
 you never saw. 
 
 It lies just off the road, and almost prevents any 
 access to the fine church, well cared for and graceful 
 with a clerestory and spire. . . . 
 
 Then I came out on to a great plateau of sweeping 
 fields with splendid views to the north and west. 
 It is a fine country indeed, real agricultural and much 
 nearer than Sussex to the French feeling. The hedge- 
 rows were lovely and full of white-throats. . . . There 
 is no question here of listening for warblers. White- 
 throats, blackcaps, and tree-pippits simply shout at 
 one all the time. The air rings with larks, and every 
 group of trees is pealing with blackbirds. . . . Beyond 
 Ponton I got into a regular downs' valley, deep grass 
 slopes on either side. When I came out at the top of 
 this the country began to roll out in fine style, and a 
 little farther north (I was beginning to work home- 
 wards) I came to a great open cross-roads and the 
 sense of high Lincolnshire fairly overtook me. It 
 certainly is grand to see the wide roads with their 
 generous verges, and the great fenced fields flat on 
 every hand. Not even a distant air-station could 
 spoil the " high " feeling. What a good word that is 
 so used ! The sun was gone and the vast sky-scene 
 was every exquisite shade of grey. It was thrilling. 
 
 57 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 There is a solemnity about a great dull landscape 
 which no work of man quite rivals. No doubt it is 
 partly, or largely, the sty-scape that produces so much 
 effect, but Lincolnshire is fit to lie under a wide 
 expanse of sky. 
 
 I was now getting to the country which lies immedi- 
 ately above this camp which is east of Grantham town. 
 I found a picturesque derelict inn on Ermine Street, 
 and there I had some tea and made a sketch. . . . 
 
 So I pitched down off the heights and the still soli- 
 tudes into the valley and the hideous hutted camps — 
 rather sad. Then it began to rain, and I took refuge 
 with my sketch when I got in. 
 
 May 2$th. 
 
 So far I have two firsts. This afternoon we have 
 another exam, in gun drill. 
 
 I have been thinking of the relation of these little 
 efforts to my prayers, and trying to express the 
 reconciliation which I feel between the thought that 
 God will not exactly cause one to get first-class marks, 
 and the sense that it does make all the difference 
 whether or no we share such small worldly things with 
 Him. The difference made must, it seems to me, 
 touch not only our own feelings about these things, 
 but also our actual power of doing them well, or at 
 any rate better than we otherwise would. For if the 
 former only held good, it would reduce one to an 
 attitude of indifference to effectiveness in the daily 
 round which amounts to paralysis. If we literally 
 don't care what happens, there is no reason for trying, 
 is there ? The reconciliation comes, I think, in the 
 idea of God as a real Person not wholly unlike a 
 human being who loves us and whom we love. Thus 
 He is at once a pure incentive to effort leading to 
 effectiveness, and a consolation by the proportion of His 
 
 58 
 
LETTERS- WRITTEN IN 1917 
 
 great gift of the power of communion with Himself to 
 the transitory- character of our immediate strivings. 
 That quite extraordinary gift is being given to me in 
 greater fullness as time goes on, allowing of course for 
 ups and downs depending apparently upon health and 
 environment, and so on. For instance, when I am feel- 
 ing bored at a lecture, as I was this morning, there will 
 sometimes reach me just the recollection of God with 
 the most cheering effect. We think far too exclusively 
 of God and religion enforcing things upon us, requiring 
 things of us, and so we just throw away the happiness 
 of His friendship. Other forms of happiness cheer us 
 with the remembrance of them, but this one, I fancy, 
 will never cloy for one thing, and, for another, can 
 never be out of our grasp. " Who shall separate us 
 from the love of Christ ? " 
 
 It is because of this unique goodness for life in the 
 realised relation of God and man that it is so important 
 for us to find that way of access to the Divine along 
 which we really find Him as a friend we can truly 
 enjoy. This is the essential liberty of the Sons of God 
 to which we so hesitate to trust ourselves. We are 
 all children of His alike, but also each in his or her 
 own way. Don't you think that people imagine that 
 God only cares for a certain type of character — shall 
 we say as like Jesus' as possible ? — and forget that we 
 insult God by supposing Him to prefer a copy, how- 
 ever good, to an original ? The life of Jesus is not a 
 pattern (as some people have tried to make it quite 
 literally, haven't they ?), but an inspiration to move us 
 by its power in. the present moment towards the great 
 end of God's children for which we were made, the 
 taking, that is, of a fuller and fuller share in the life 
 of His family or Kingdom. 
 
 What a sermon ! 
 
 59 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 To V. V. 
 
 May zoth, 1917. 
 
 I went to Lincoln yesterday. 
 
 It is a mighty cathedral, and the Whitsun service 
 'was profoundly beautiful and blessed. The splendid 
 clothes of bishop and clergy, the simple music sailing 
 away down the glorious flights of columns and arches, 
 and the exquisite old windows glowing like fields of 
 flowers in Paradise made a memorable setting for the 
 worship of God. 
 
 The service was, as it should be everywhere, the 
 central one. God's own institution has gathered 
 round it the very kernel of living faith, and in a tin 
 hut in camp here, or among the splendours of Lincoln 
 Cathedral, I find His promise fulfilled : Where two 
 or three are gathered together 
 
 Harrowby Camp. 
 
 May 2<)th, 1917. 
 
 I am sorry to hear of all the vexations you were 
 caused. . . . 
 
 , It is the most wretched thing to feel alienated from 
 God, for it means a contradiction in one's own soul 
 which is the gist of unhappiness. One longs to be at 
 one with oneself, and at peace with Him, and it seems 
 so hard that the other law should be working, in 
 us, which we would so gladly expel but cannot. 
 It is a mystery, but I expect that progressively Christ 
 .can, and will, lead us out of the maze. So one 
 must never despair of oneself or Him, but make 
 the most of our best moments, enjoying them, 
 realising how much best they are, and how un- 
 natural, in a sense, is everything which is out of 
 
 60 
 
LETTERS WRITTEN IN 19 17 
 
 tune with them and which obscures the truth in 
 them revealed. 
 
 Belton Park Camp. 
 July \\th, 1917. 
 
 This is a nice little mess and a man is playing Gilbert 
 and Sullivan awfully well, to my great consolation. 
 There has not been a draft of officers for some weeks, 1 
 and they expect to be sending one soon, so I dare say 
 I shall not be here long. . . . 
 
 The perfect smoothness and happiness of my morn- 
 ing, and the kindly, generous attitude I have found 
 everywhere, seem clearly to flow from my half-hour 
 of close communion with the Unseen and Eternal 
 before I set out on my round of office calls, and I look 
 forward with something like enthusiasm to the far 
 greater and more searching trials which lie before my 
 spirit, absolutely sure that the Key to every difficulty 
 is in His hands Who is able to do exceedingly abund- 
 antly above all that we ask and think, and wondering 
 and hoping if perhaps I may live to say with St. Paul, 
 " Now fehanks be to God our Father, Who always 
 maketh us to triumph in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 Think of me as trying day by day (for simple sense's 
 sake and because it seems so plainly the thing to do) 
 to rely more and more on the power that can never 
 fail to be true to itself, and on the love from which 
 neither life nor death nor any other creature can 
 separate us. 
 
 If I should die in France — let us face this once and 
 for all — you must think that God led me that way, 
 and remember that to go when one is most keenly alive 
 to God's Being is surely a great blessing. I will not 
 for an instant seek such an end, because I love to live 
 with you. Yet, if it is so to be, you surely will not 
 sorrow as those who have no hope, for I have proved 
 1 He had asked to have his name put down for the next. 
 6l 
 
ALGERNON HTM VILLIEkS 
 
 and know that a human, soul in its real nature, when 
 it is most composed and serene, most truly undis- 
 • turbedly itself, passes out beyond life and death, and 
 has its place in the fullness of Him Who filleth all 
 in all. 
 
 62 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 OSTERHAVE, 
 
 July 29th, 1917 
 
 VERY leisurely we proceed on our way to 
 Camiers. The crossing was smoothness it- 
 self, and the approach to Boulogne of our 
 little flotilla, three Channel boats and two escorting 
 torpedo-boats, was a beautiful scene. The monument 
 on the down top — it is Napoleon and his camp that it 
 commemorates, I think — is just what the French can, 
 and we cannot, achieve. It has a minaret-like air, 
 with its soaring, slender column, and the cupola effect 
 of the pedestal for the statue, which tops the whole 
 without the common look of toppling off ! I enjoyed 
 the sense of being in France, and the vehement energy 
 of our young one-eyed porter, who slung our two 
 valises over his shoulder and went reeling away with 
 them to the motor-lorry — grommelant et bougonnant 
 in an inarticulate but to me wholly delightful fashion. 
 B. and I sailed serenely through the harum-scarum of 
 the quay-swarms of soldiers, Major-Generals, military 
 landing officers, Staff-Captains, and A.S.C. drivers, 
 all sorting themselves with the utmost quiet and calm, 
 but wholly without direction — a triumph of good 
 organisation really, but full of pleasing disinvolture 
 to the unaccustomed eye. We formed an M.G. party 
 and rumbled away up the most precipitous slopes to 
 
 63 
 
ALGERNON BTDE FlLLlERS 
 
 this camp, where " reinforcing ofHcers " spend the 
 night. 
 
 An admirable young Scotsman seems to be in charge 
 of the camp. A Second-Lieutenant with a most tire- 
 some job, he wears his Balmoral on one ear with 
 unruffled jauntiness, and in cooing accents explains 
 to a fresh batch of ofHcers of all ranks each night that 
 they are confined to camp, will sleep six in a tent, and 
 that there will be some tea at 9 p.m. in yon hut (where 
 I now write). " Tea " was inimitable, and took me 
 straight back to August 1914. The Salvation ladies 
 rating everybody up hill and down, and the same old 
 j am on which I lived at Culf ord, and the same old tea 
 I learned to drink at Abbassia, and after- thoughts of 
 tinned salmon, and the sense of irresponsible picnicking 
 which can never be arranged, but is so acutely enjoy- 
 able when one drops into it. . . . 
 
 Officers' Club, Etaples. 
 July 30th. 
 
 Active service at the back of the front is a perfect 
 picnic so far. We have had the day to go into Etaples, 
 and arrange about pay-books, etc., which took two 
 minutes, and we have found a most excellent club 
 here, where we had luncheon, and are just going to 
 have dinner. The afternoon was spent on a visit to 
 Paris Plage. The tramway went through nice Corot 
 woods to the cheerful little collection of laughably 
 dodgy houselets which constitute P.P. Even the rain 
 could not make the expedition a failure. We had the 
 most excellent tea — not the equal of the Veuve 
 Devasour at Chamonix, where alone peach ices blossom, 
 but still very light and delicious. The place is swarm- 
 ing with soldiers — the coast a camp simply. We saw 
 some 6-mm. guns rolling on their railway-cars, camou- 
 flaged like giraffes. I have applied for leave to go to 
 Havre, and the Adjutant was by no means discouraging. 
 
 64 ' 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 Everywhere the utmost bonhomie and cheerfulness 
 are conspicuous. . . . 
 
 The downs behind the camp at Camiers are very 
 jolly, quite like Wiltshire, and I expect if it clears 
 they will be sketched before long. 
 
 A.P.O. S. 18. 
 
 July 3U<. 
 
 It is another rough, dark day, but most luckily our 
 tent is watertight, and my position out of reach of 
 the small stream that inevitably comes in at the door. 
 We walked home some four miles last night in heavy 
 rain. . . . 
 
 Our outing of yesterday was really great fun. 
 Joffre ' appeared at the tent door this morning, and 
 we trysted for the afternoon. I have just come back 
 from a walk with him, and tea at a sort of an ancient 
 bungalow business, looking out on a lake, surrounded 
 by fir-clad sandhills, exactly like a bit of Surrey — say 
 Frensham Pond — where Conrad once saw nine different 
 ducks, or something equally fantastic. He seems to 
 have had some imperial ructions with his flock, but 
 to be in good spirits generally. We had a good lecture 
 on Vimy to-day, and should have done some revolver 
 if it had not poured with rain. I read my favourite 
 Ps. cvii. for the thirty-first this morning. 
 
 A.P.O. S. 1 8. 
 
 August \th. 
 
 Yet another twenty-four hours of delay. I am not 
 sorry, for I hope it will just make the series of your 
 letters go on reaching me without a break, and also 
 because it does at last seem possible that the rain is 
 going to stop, so that I shall travel the better, and find 
 things partially dried up when I arrive. ... I must 
 1 Captain Robert Jeffrey 
 F 65 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 tell you that the Osterhove Camp has only quite 
 recently been made a necessity for reinforcing officers, 
 and' the very primitive arrangements were of an 
 improvised order. We mess much better here. The 
 anteroom, however, is most deplorable. There is 
 nothing to sit on, because the officers have broken the 
 chairs to pieces at such a rate that the Mess President 
 refuses to buy any more. J.'s hut, with tables and 
 chairs, is a perfect boon. We have had no parades 
 this morning, so I have had an interesting hour study- 
 ing a W.O. pamphlet and reading Smuts's fine speech 
 at the Parliamentary dinner. What a fine man he 
 must be! It is water in the desert to read such a 
 speech, with so much penetration and spiritual force. 
 
 Don't you think this of Pascal is fine ? — " God puts 
 religion into the mind by its reasonableness, and into 
 the heart by grace." 
 
 Intellectual honesty and thoroughness are absolutely 
 part of Christian living, and grow, so I hope and 
 believe, more and more possible as we try so to live. 
 " The testimony of the Lord is sure, and giveth wisdom 
 unto the simple," as we read this morning. 
 
 In St. Luke I read the chapter that begins with the 
 Lord's Prayer. The woes of the Pharisees are strangely 
 little different from ours, aren't they ? I thought they 
 fell upon our well-meaning, trumpery English life, 
 both public and private, while the last verse rips open 
 the emptiness of it all with terrible precision. But 
 the fact that Christ's piercing criticisms were made 
 of a section only of His contemporaries reminds one 
 that there are, in all probability, far more people 
 who have not forsaken judgment, and the love of God, 
 nor allowed themselves to be given to the folly of 
 ambition and vanity, than we commonly suppose. 
 " Judgment " here means discernment, I take it— a 
 true estimate of life's values. One cannot suppose 
 that, taken together, human life is all as pathetically 
 
 66 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 beside the mark as a forgotten grave, though such a 
 description has only too much applicability to any 
 individual life. 
 
 I think it is quite certain that I get off to-morrow 
 morning. It is a good thing, as I have had enough 
 of waiting here. The clear- up makes possible a demon- 
 stration of the new barrage work, which I am glad not 
 to be going to miss. 
 
 Peronne, Officers' Club. 
 August $th. 
 
 Before trying to describe what to me has been an 
 intensely interesting afternoon, I must tell you that 
 I spend to-night here, and go up to the company 
 to-morrow morning. They are in the trenches, which 
 they tell me are " Luxe, calme " — though " volupte " 
 would be slightly overdoing it, I suppose. 
 
 Well, now for the famous scenes I have just passed 
 through. The first signal of the war zone was a 
 distant sight of Albert tower, with the drooping 
 Madonna, and then we entered a fine rolling country 
 very wide and bare, and the clumps of trees began to 
 look a bit battered. As we went on the land became 
 a wilderness — nothing to indicate the presence of man, 
 as we are accustomed to recognise it. There are no 
 divisions between fields in this region, and cultivation 
 having ceased, the ground is covered with wild grass, 
 and flowers — sheets of keck, and patches of poppies, 
 loose-strife, and that coarse yellow flower that flourishes 
 in every forsaken plot of ground. One can see that 
 there were once woods here and there, but nothing 
 but a few bare stumps remain, and they do not the 
 least break the sense of smooth annihilation — the 
 blotted-out look of the land. In the distance I could 
 see the soft, furry brown slopes, just picked out with 
 white, where I suppose trenches had been, but close 
 at hand one does not notice them. The wild-flowers 
 
 6 7 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 have mastered them already. In one or two places 
 one can imagine what was a village. Perhaps one 
 house-corner suggests it— the only thing standing; 
 and then one can see a few foundations, otherwise — 
 blank. Every western side of a ridge — we seemed to 
 pass several a few hundred yards or so long, shows 
 the neglected rubbish of a whole soldier colony, 
 punctuated in its dirty white clothes, with the little 
 black doorway leading to the dug-outs. There was 
 not a living creature to be seen but a couple of magpies 
 and a couple of rooks. The river has the appearance 
 of a great marsh, most beautifully still and mysterious, 
 a broken wooden trestle-bridge in front, and the 
 low ridge flat against the sky on the other side — such 
 a sketch ! It was a lovely afternoon, breathless, and 
 violet skies to the east, with a luminous western heaven. 
 Who has described the scene in verses we know well ? 
 " Where no birds sing." Even more than of the 
 downs, Robert Bridges might have said of these 
 valleys, " O still solitudes, only matched in the skies." 
 
 Even the touching groups of graves could not make 
 the scene pathetic ; it was too fine a burial-ground for 
 sadness, where the brave bodies lie, crowning as it 
 were the dead landscape with deep loneliness, and 
 undisturbed or intruded upon by any but their passing 
 comrades. We were then in a truck — the familiar 
 Hommes 40, Chevaux 8, and everybody was very 
 silent. 
 
 One little Captain sat looking too wretched for 
 words, and an Indian Lancer officer seemed to shrivel 
 up more and more as we went on. Near me an N.F. 
 Captain was very determined to enjoy Mrs. Proudie's 
 reception in Bar Chester Towers. But he didn't seem 
 to get on very well with it, moving his finger across 
 the page to keep himself up to it, as I used to do with 
 Cicero or Demosthenes. 
 
 We got here, and some went straight into the town. 
 
 68 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 With a melancholy infantry Second Lieutenant, of 
 perhaps some forty summers, I went up to the camp, 
 had tea, picked my tent and disposed of my belongings. 
 " East Surrey " gradually cheered up. Perhaps he 
 was encouraged by my irrepressible zest for everything. 
 The camp much better than Osterhove — no Salva- 
 tionists — was America all over, just perching, untidily, 
 like a missel-thrush's nest, on the famous high ground 
 above the town. 
 
 After tea we came down here, " E. S. " becoming 
 quite communicative, and less anxious to remind me 
 of how soon I should hate every sight and sound of 
 France. We both thought the town had not been 
 much knocked about, but there is not a building 
 intact. Felix Potin — 'the ubiquitous — keeps his name- 
 board leaning, but legible. The road has been 
 repaired — a fine, wide street like Dunbar, narrowing 
 at either end — and the houses simply heaps of rubbish. 
 The church is a ruin. It must have been fine, to 
 judge from what remains of the west front, and a few 
 windows. The place is uninhabited, of course — 
 another striking novelty for me — 'and gives one a 
 sense of the utmost pitifulness. It has no flowers to 
 hide its abject state, its forlorn desertion, but just 
 hangs its poor head, done for, halas. 1 Whether this 
 house was spared, or escaped, I don't know, but it is 
 very handsome, and little damaged. There is a great 
 deal of good decoration about the panellings, and the 
 rooms look over a little terraced garden to the river, 
 and another stretch of soft, smooth vacancy. It is a 
 pleasant, characteristic place, wonderfully welcome 
 after the miserable mess-huts at Camiers. 
 
 " E. S." and I are going to dine here. 
 
 1 Arabic for "finished." 1 
 
 69 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 40th Divisional Reinforcement Camp. 
 August 6th. 
 
 This is the most lovely morning, the summer fairly 
 come back to us. Would you believe it ? we don't go 
 on until 1.45, so I am going to try and make a sketch 
 away down by the river, if I can get there. 
 
 I have had the most comfortable night on a wood 
 and wire bedstead of luxurious design. I like this 
 camp, and last night I was able to get a regular bath, 
 in a balmy moonlight which was quite romantic, while 
 this morning damp things are getting thoroughly dry. 
 
 I must tell you that as we were sitting down to 
 dinner last night, the reader of Barchester Towers came 
 along unaccompanied, so as I liked his looks, and was 
 not too much thrilled by " East Surrey," I beckoned 
 him to our table. 
 
 He proved a most charming and guileless child; 
 He has commanded a company of a notably rough 
 battalion for over a year, and is now only twenty- three. 
 He told us all his affairs. He is a wholesale fruiterer, 
 and vastly proud of his business. His love-affairs and 
 his disputes with his seniors were all related. He proved 
 a capital sauce to our good dinner, and it is really 
 wonderful to think of one so juvenile in every way 
 having such a position. We are a great people un- 
 doubtedly. 
 
 August yth. 
 It seems ages since I last wrote to you, though it 
 was only yesterday morning, but the critical moment 
 of passing into the war zone puts a great gulf between 
 past and present. I must tell you all about it. We 
 left the rest-camp and bumbled along on a little trolly- 
 line for some time in the early afternoon. Then I 
 found the transport, and waited some ages for the 
 return of the transport officer. He was a jolly, cheery 
 fellow, and with his aid I reorganised my kit for the 
 
 7P 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 trenches. His wagons started, and we sat down 
 to an excellent dinner. Then, mounted on a bold, 
 black light draft horse, I set out in pursuit with him. 
 So I rode to the war after all! and a jolly good ride it 
 was. We went fast at first, while it was still pretty 
 light, and caught up the teams halted with others 
 under the brow of a ridge. When the light was gone 
 we crossed it, and I nearly jumped out of the saddle 
 when a big battery, no distance away, suddenly banged 
 off a burst. I love the roar and sighing of the shells, 
 and the sense of incredible velocity which the sound 
 of their passage conveys. From this sentiment you 
 will collect that we do not have too much of such 
 music ! 
 
 To-day I have waited many miles, and visited 
 numerous tiny little nests of destruction for the Boche. 
 Soon I shall be in charge of one. For the present I 
 remain at Company Headquarters, where we do ex- 
 cellently well. The dug-outs are not dark or stuffy, 
 and I feel thoroughly at home. The one blow is a 
 kindly but preposterous being — a sort of buckram Mr. 
 Jingle, full of gas, and bluff, and oaths, and stupidity 
 — most tiresome. . . . 
 
 To-night I shall go out firing, I expect, and so the 
 days will fly away, full of novelties and human interest. 
 I wish I could think of you as well off as I am. The 
 Company has been in for thirty-seven days, and expect 
 soon to get a short reprieve. They go down one by 
 "one to have a bath in a fairly distant village. The 
 weather is misty and hot. I have not seen a paper 
 since Sunday. Poor Kerensky — what a dreadful 
 plunging into the abyss it all is ! 
 
 August 8th. 
 
 We had quite an amusing time of it last night. 
 All went well, and I was back here by 12.30, and had 
 a good sleep this morning. At one moment the artillery 
 
 71 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 did what they are pleased to call a concentration. 
 In other words, they made the air blue for a few 
 moments. They were going plumb over our heads, 
 and, added to our own four guns, the din was 
 terrific. What it must be like to live in that condition 
 of atmosphere for weeks, I simply cannot imagine. 
 There must be moments of pause, of course, but they 
 say the racket is more continuous than one could 
 conceive possible. On a small scale it was simply a 
 new thrill. I have spent the day going round with 
 the CO. . . . and enjoying it all immensely. . . . 
 There has been tremendous rain this evening, and the 
 mess dug-out is a huge puddle. 
 
 August ytb. 
 
 Those days — July 30th to August 2nd — certainly 
 were dreadful, but it is splendid that we did not fail 
 to achieve something substantial, in spite of the awful 
 rain. Now I must take up the question of God, the 
 Psalms, and the weather. I can, of course, only give 
 you the effect upon my mind of my own experience, 
 and I don't lose sight of the fact that every one has 
 got to find these things for himself. Still, I should 
 like to think that you would try and see it my way. 
 
 I don't think God is on either side in the sense in 
 which I am on one side and a given Boche on the 
 other. Again, I don't think it less absurd to blame 
 or charge Him with the weather than Lucian did, 
 when he described that cart-load of hail for Cappadocia. 
 The root of the thing is that His ways are not as our 
 ways, but that our ways might become something like, 
 or in conformity with, His, only we won't have it so. 
 God is a Spirit, and speaks primarily to the spirit of 
 man which is listening for His voice. The reactions 
 of a human spirit, which has allowed God to possess 
 it, upon its so-called material surroundings, would 
 probably, in fact I think certainly, rob them of their 
 
 72 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 cruelty and provocation, but that does not mean that 
 they would be altered. Why God does not arrange 
 the rainfall like the sunrise is not our affair ; but if we 
 choose to have a war on, it can hardly be said that He 
 is against us because the rain spoils our offensive. . . . 
 
 Then as regards the praise of God in the Psalms, 
 how can praise of Him ever be " excessive " ? 
 
 For praise is not flattery; it is acclamation, being 
 possessed by God, and lifted by Him into the sunlight 
 of His presence. You cannot have too much of that ; 
 for it is just exactly that which carries us to victory 
 over circumstances, and which we need most when 
 things look blackest. So it has always been, I think, 
 down the history of the saints. At the time of their 
 trial, in prisons and tortures and lions' dens, and at all 
 times of anguish, they have praised God because in 
 so doing they came nearest to Him, and felt His strength 
 sufficient for them. 
 
 If you reject this view, where are you to turn in 
 hours of anguish ? " Master, to whom shall we go ? " 
 " Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee." 
 
 I think when Christ says hard things about hating 
 father and mother, and let the dead bury their dead, 
 he conveys that there are times when neither human 
 relations nor a sense of duty can save us from misery, 
 weakness, and the spoiling of our lives, but that God 
 always can, so that there is no earthly claim so essential 
 as His claim to our thoughts and wills. " My peace 
 I give unto you," but " not as the world giveth give I 
 unto you." Not as the world giveth, that's the point. 
 Don't look for God's action in the same direction as 
 you would for a man's. He belongs to another order 
 of peace and power and fullness to us, but He will come 
 and be with us if we could only manage to let Him in, 
 if we only could see the things that belong to our 
 peace. 
 
 73 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 I feel it hard, just as perhaps you do, to keep looking 
 in the right direction. ... I build fancies of ambition, 
 but I know very well that my real happiness is not made 
 up of getting on, and being rewarded or acknowledged 
 by men, but in the simple thought of my destiny being 
 guided by Him. When I feel clear on that point, 
 then I am not worried, or anxious about success, or 
 failure, or recognition, then I always enjoy the sense 
 of triumph through my tiny atom of love for Him 
 leading me to the marvellous hem of His garment. 
 
 August loth. 
 
 I had to stop short yesterday in writing to you, for 
 which I was sorry. I know you don't like all-sermon 
 letters — quite right too, but the Major was ready to 
 go. He took me off to my post, and I began to settle 
 down by myself in a cellar, with a very picturesque 
 painted figure of the Madonna standing on a table. 
 
 The church must have been near, but I can't 
 recognise it. However I was turned out later in the 
 evening, and settled in here with some jolly infantry 
 boys, with whom my guns co-operate, and whose 
 telephone I can use to get through to Company Head- 
 quarters. Now I am properly in the saddle my days 
 are rather like a journalist's. I am up all night, and 
 sleep till about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I don't 
 mind it at all, though it was beastly wet and sticky 
 last night. Now it is a lovely clear night and a pleasure 
 to be out in the dark. I have a nice orderly, who 
 always goes with me wherever I go, so that if I were hit 
 I should not lie helpless. He wrote such a nice letter 
 to his wife to-day, which I censored, about their 
 praying for one another. 
 
 The teams which I look after want a little brisking 
 up, in small ways, but seem to be most excellent fellows. 
 I wish I saw more of them. If ever we go out of the 
 line I shall get to know them better. 
 
 74 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 I liked the article on " prayer." It is a little vague, 
 and to my mind that is a little unfortunate on a subject 
 of such importance that clarity is essential. " Lord, 
 teach us how to pray," was a most sensible prayer, 
 wasn't it ? and one does want to work out one's own 
 method with the greatest care and honesty. 
 
 Well-meant humbug was our Lord's peculiar aver- 
 sion, and though the «WZ-meaning is a great set-off 
 to the humbug, greater than in His time because 
 better meant, still humbug defeats itself, and must 
 do so, whether He condemns it or no. That's just 
 how Christ's teaching often strikes me. He taught, 
 not some fancy of His own, but the principles on 
 which the world is run in any case, but taught them 
 in such a way that we get from Him, better than from 
 elsewhere, the cue to our part, and light on our dark- 
 ness about ultimate things. 
 
 It is 3 a.m., and the others are turning in. I have 
 to go round at 3.45, and am going to do my read 
 now when all is quiet. I have finished Luke xv — 
 beautiful tales and the Mwprodigal son so full of mean- 
 ing. But I love chapter x, the good Samaritan, and 
 Mary and Martha — one of the most vivid, touching 
 episodes in the Gospels, I think. Good morning. 
 
 August nth. 
 
 Don't be alarmed at my account of Boche projectiles. 
 He never hits anybody, and only does it to annoy, 
 because he thinks it teases. We of course do the same, 
 only more of it. Countess B.'s news is interesting. 
 I am glad to hear of the old regime not regretted, for 
 treachery is even worse than the crazy folly with which 
 poor Kerensky has to struggle. What a reed in the 
 storm he seems. 
 
 In reading about the mammon of unrighteousness 
 last night, I felt quite sure the verse about making 
 friends with it is satirical. The close of the passage is 
 
 75 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 very suggestive, isn't it ? — " Who shall give you that 
 which is your own ? " 
 
 August I2tb. 
 
 We are in for a noisy night to-night, as some neigh- 
 bours of ours are getting busy. To-morrow I shall be 
 able to tell you all about it. 
 
 Meantime I am rather tired. My new landlords 
 made a lot of noise getting up, and disturbed my 
 slumbers. I don't like them half as much as their 
 predecessors. The night after to-morrow I go to 
 another place near by, which I hear is very well found. 
 
 August 13th. 
 
 There was not much of a concert last night, and the 
 choir left the orchestra in the lurch somewhere or 
 other, so that nothing came of it. The performance is 
 doing again now. I have just come in from listening 
 to the overture. It was rather splendid, but nothing 
 overwhelming. 
 
 I was truly distressed to see beloved Esmond's 1 
 death. Those people who contribute so much to life 
 by just being delightful are the most painful losses. 
 Esmond will be passionately mourned at Amisfield, 
 and elsewhere. Poor Colonel, I am sorry to think how 
 wretched he will be about it. 
 
 August 14*/;. 
 
 Now I am writing from my new quarters — a proper 
 subterranean affair. 
 
 It has been a great night, pitch dark, and slippery 
 as the devil, and I have got fairly plastered with mud. 
 However, in spite of difficulties, all has been got happily 
 done, and I have been wonderfully kept up in my 
 floundering struggles by the thought of Christ in the 
 
 1 The Hon. Esmond Elliot. 
 
 76 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 storm — Why are ye fearful ? I have had some trouble 
 with an N.C.O., but I expect I shall get him right if 
 he doesn't do anything too hopeless in the meantime. 
 The other one is a fine fellow with a D.C.M. He 
 won it near Loos for rescuing a gun out of a bust-up 
 position in the middle of a " straf," when all the team 
 proper had been knocked out. . . . 
 
 I made the acquaintance of the General to-day. 
 Everybody says he is exactly like me to look at. Any- 
 how, he_ seems a fine fellow ! ! ! I had a pleasant, brief 
 impression of him. ... 
 
 August 15th. 
 
 To-day I must tell you I went to an observation 
 post and saw my first free Boche. He was a funny- 
 looking old thing, and toddled across the picture in 
 a very unwarlike fashion. I dare say he was a cook. 
 Then I saw a sentry with his helmet, a sort of bluish 
 colour. But what made me most jealous of the Boche 
 is the pleasant landscape in which he lives. I saw 
 big fields all stooked and ready to be carried, and then 
 happy church spires still quite intact. It was quite 
 a surprise, which shows how quickly one gets accus- 
 tomed even to such unfamiliar things as my battered 
 village. 1 There is not anything approaching an 
 entire house left — a bit of wall here and a dangling 
 roof there is about all. I notice that there are no 
 farms among the fields here. The farms and farm 
 buildings of a neighbourhood evidently concentrate 
 themselves into a village, and work the land from it. 
 Thus one gets a lot of what were quite big villages 
 (with traces of very substantial buildings), but no ruins 
 between one of them and another. " Well, dear " (as 
 the men say in their nice letters), " I don't think I've 
 anything more to say at present, so will close." 
 
 1 Gonnelieu. 
 
 77 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 August 16th. 
 
 The presence of God always with one is a great 
 comfort and joy. So when I lie down to sleep, or have 
 times of waiting or weariness, I am linked to all I love 
 best, and most enjoy, by the thought of God — the 
 act of looking His way, which is the same act here, 
 there and all the world over. I hope you under- 
 stand how natural and inevitable, and not at all artificial, 
 this is ? I begin to believe that all the great phrases 
 of religious experience, which have in the past seemed 
 wonderful, but beyond my literal comprehension, are 
 really true in quite a simple way, and require no great 
 or special endowment, or temperament, for us to 
 realise them in common life. "Lo, I am with you 
 alway," which you love so much, and, " I will not 
 leave you comfortless, I will come to you," and " Who 
 shall separate us from the love of Christ ? " — all these 
 so prodigious in a way .are, I think, fulfilled in quite a 
 simple fashion, though none the less a glorious one. 
 But I begin to wish one could see God face to face in 
 some way, and talk directly to Him. . . . Life will have 
 more of one than a perpetual delicious walk across the 
 links. There is no escape from that. We cannot be 
 happy on that plane indefinitely. So there come 
 effort and sacrifice and sadness, to make up the fullness 
 of life, to give us a larger share in the Divine nature, 
 and so constitute our only true and lasting joy. As 
 Christ said to the sons of Zebedee, " Ye know not what 
 spirit ye are of." Although it is in a sense ours, we 
 do not know the Divine nature in anything like its 
 fullness. We recognise its outline in Christ, and for 
 the rest we must trust God to be in us, as He was in Him 
 " through all the changing scenes of life, its trouble 
 and its joy." 
 
 It is puzzling to know how far it is up to us to seek 
 God, since what we want is to be found of him — " not 
 having our own nature," as St. Paul says. Practically, 
 
 78 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 however, there appears to be no difficulty. For the 
 act of looking His way is itself inspired by Him. 
 Pascal's greatest phrase is : " Be comforted ; thou 
 wouldst not seek me if thou hadst not found me." 
 
 Another sermon, but a cheerful one, I hope. 
 
 All goes well here, and after to-morrow night I 
 shall go back where I was before, and be glad of the 
 change from this mole's existence. 
 
 August 17th. 
 
 No, I never see a Frenchman of any sort, and hardly 
 a French word. The horrible Germans even renamed 
 the streets — Haupt Strasse, Schloss Strasse, and Juden 
 Gasse one reads, and on what were evidently the best 
 houses Offz. Qu., very black and clear. . . . 
 
 We have had two exquisite days and nights, in which 
 the country here has had a lovely look of its own. You 
 know the effect of width one gets so much in French 
 landscapes. The skies have been filled with creamy 
 gleaming clouds, and all the colour has been in them 
 above the brownish green ground. I have explored 
 the pathetic little village. One farm we should have 
 loved. It was just the right mixture, I should say, 
 between mansion and workplace. In the dwelling- 
 house the hat-rack remains conspicuously intact, among 
 the ruin of walls and ceilings and roofs. There is never 
 one stick of furniture. Outside the creepers were 
 bushing out all over the crumbled walls. Near by 
 there stands quite a chateau, with a mansarde window 
 still leaning precariously out of the smashed tile roof. 
 
 August 19th. 
 
 I wish I could tell you how happy and well I feel, 
 what a different man, for the change from subterranean 
 gropings to the light of heaven. The nights, I think, 
 make the greatest difference — or rather, I should say, 
 the hours devoted to sleep. In a deep dug-out one 
 
 79 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 wakes up like an underdone bun, and though I did not 
 sleep heavily, this morning I feel thoroughly refreshed. 
 The air was free to come in six inches from my nose, 
 and there is a draught clean through the shelter. 
 Then a bath in a half-tub filled with rain-water and a 
 thorough inspection of my clothes was greatly cheering. 
 . . . Now, instead of a chilly, stuffy, one-candle-lighted 
 den, I am at ease in a sandbag and steel shelter, with 
 bright sunshine pouring into it. The lack of air, and 
 the unnecessarily bad messing of my late hosts, had 
 quite upset my interior economy . . . but all that 
 has gone and I have enjoyed an excellent luncheon, 
 with salad and stewed plums and delicious biscuits. 
 In the dug-out we had tea and coffee -mixed one day, 
 and on another occasion the tea was made in a tin half 
 full of disinfectant. In a deep dug-out the dark makes 
 it Very hard for the cooks, and nothing tastes right in 
 that stale atmosphere. It is curious, too, how chilly it 
 gets down there in the small hours. It must be horrible 
 in winter. I did my level best not to think of these 
 things when I was there, and insisted with myself that 
 I must be glad to share, in a trifling measure, the 
 discomforts of which thousands had had months, and 
 even years, to put up with. Having managed to get 
 through my first such spell, " superasque evadere ad 
 auras," I expect subsequent descents will be much 
 easier. We carried on with four guns from 11.30 to 
 2.30 last night, supporting an operation of a minor 
 character, which turned out quite well. 
 
 During the night there were some glorious big 
 bombardments to either side of us, splendid to watch, 
 and really prodigious to think of in relation to our 
 position of two years ago, in the matter of artillery. 
 Our own firing was interesting. The guns did very 
 well. They need careful supplying on such occa- 
 sions, and I thought that should have been better 
 organised. 
 
 80 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 August 21st. 
 
 The Boche posted in No Man's Land last night a 
 long news-sheet in favour of peace, written in admirable 
 English. It purported to give the views of an eminent 
 Russian statesman to the effect that instant peace was a 
 necessity for Russia if she would avoid complete pros- 
 tration. The sublime strategic developments of the 
 march of the German armies in Galicia was enlarged 
 upon. In a final paragraph the enmity of England 
 to peace was discussed in a hopeful tone. Her great 
 expansion and power were set down to her far-sighted 
 policy, and her readiness to use blood and iron. I 
 wonder what purpose they thought all this would serve ? 
 
 August 2ISt. 
 
 I appreciate the force of all you say about my sermon 
 on God, the war, and the weather, very keenly. I 
 am quite off the mark where I seem to convey that God 
 is an invisible King, Who knows nothing of our wars, and 
 of Whom we can know nothing. I did not mean to 
 suggest that, and I quite agree with you that we are 
 taught by Christ to lay all our lives and interests before 
 God. But I suggest that we are wrong if we do so 
 with our minds already made up as to how those lives 
 should be directed and those interests satisfied. 
 That seems to fore-doom our prayers to ineffective- 
 ness, for the essence of prayer is the receiving of new 
 light and vision from God on the things which are 
 weighing upon us. 
 
 Again, I think we are wrong and unwise, asking for 
 disappointment, if we ask God to stop the war, as we 
 imagine the Kaiser could, by a coup de main. Broadly 
 speaking, His way is to do things through us, not for us. 
 That was why it was a temptation to Christ to com- 
 mand the stones to be made bread. At the same time 
 I strongly agree that the Kingdom of God belongs 
 g 81 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LLIERS 
 
 here and now. In any heart wherein God is King 
 there is a mighty power to mould the world for good. 
 Christ Himself is the supreme example, and it is very 
 noticeable that the Kingdom of God in Him has been 
 manifested, not nearly so much by the mighty works 
 which He performed among His contemporaries, as 
 by the influencing of millions of lives, through the 
 handful of friends whose love for Him on earth trans- 
 formed their lives. He worked primarily through men, 
 not for them. He always attributes His miracles to 
 the spiritual condition He has produced in the people 
 helped. " Thy faith hath saved thee " — not " my 
 external power." What you say about praise is just 
 what I feel. It is in the dark hour that it is most 
 appropriate. I wish I could sum it all up. . . . 
 
 Surely I am thoroughly normal and commonplace. 
 That used to be said to be my characteristic. 
 
 It was so said by the President of Magdalen to 
 Pollock about my demyship, and the latter, in handing 
 it on, said, " What better endowment for the service 
 of God and of men ? " And in this business of turning 
 to God, I don't think I have any ecstatic or exalte strain. 
 I think the best sense is contained in the Bible, and that 
 the effort to seek to follow Christ, at however great a 
 distance, is the most sensible thing a man can do. 
 " Master, to whom shall we go ? " His life was 
 centred upon the thought of God. He and His 
 Father were one. Such perfection is our unattainable 
 goal, but as we strive towards it, real happiness comes. 
 The more often we remember the name of the Lord 
 our God each day, the stronger and happier we become. 
 So we may begin to love Him for the happiness which 
 comes from the thought of Him, and as we slowly grow 
 in that wonderful human capacity — that of loving God 
 — our whole nature falls into harmony ; we may hope 
 to rise higher and higher above the transitory things 
 of this life, and so reach to the heart of the human and 
 
 82 
 
LEfTMS FROM FRJNCE 
 
 divine enigma, that our days may be fulfilled with 
 God's grace and heavenly benediction, and pass imper- 
 ceptibly into that fullness of time and place, which is 
 ever with the Lord. 
 
 So it seems to me plainly worth while, and supremely 
 worth while, to try and receive into our souls the mes- 
 sage God has to give us, and that is what I mean by 
 prayer, and praise, and study, and meditation — the 
 search for that true and perfect way that leadeth unto 
 life. 
 
 I must stop now. I have some interesting work to 
 do, and, asking God not to leave me to do it without His 
 inner guidance, I must set about it. My section is 
 coming together, and everything looks very promising. 
 I cannot help seeing God's hand in all the events of 
 these days. How easily I have been led on! How 
 " luckily " everything has gone ! But if He seem to 
 forsake me in putting me to trials of failure and things 
 going all wrong, then will be the chance to make Him a 
 home in my heart He will never be able to leave. 
 
 August 22nd. 
 
 ... I have got to the middle of chapter xxii of 
 Luke. How very vigorous is Christ's conduct — the 
 word is too weak — how He overpowers His arresting 
 party and His judges with a word, the bullies, during 
 the long wait for the High Priest to get up in the 
 morning, by His silence, and poor Peter by a look ! I 
 like the thought of Cardinal Merrier saying the Psalms 
 for the 15 th. 
 
 The thought of all the Christians great and small 
 who read and have read the Psalms is a good thought 
 to me. Mr. Prothero gave it of course. He mainly 
 left me with the idea of lonely cells and glorious abbey 
 churches, the prison, the scaffold, camps and ships' 
 cabins, quiet homes and desert places, all sounding with 
 those astonishing words of praise and power. 
 
 83 
 
ALGERNON HTDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 I must tell you we jog along. very happily here in 
 lovely weather. There are excursions and alarms. 
 Majors and Colonels sweat and swear, while subaltern 
 officers say " all bloody wind" and are justified. My 
 section looks like being a jolly good one. . . . Now for a 
 tour d'inspection, so good-bye. How good the sun- 
 shine is ! 
 
 To E. P. 
 
 August 22nd. 
 
 Does this not show just what it all means, and how. 
 trials and sorrows do but open for us access to fuller 
 sharing in the Divine character and power ? " Not 
 as the world giveth give I unto you," has been 
 much in my thoughts lately. And not less so that 
 God does give, in good measure, to them that ask 
 Him. 
 
 Alas ! I never have a whiff of living France, except, 
 occasionally, one can imagine that a far-distant rumble 
 to the southward is the voice of the incomparable 
 seventy-fives. Vivent les soixante-quinzes ! — a thrilling 
 cry to me. 
 
 As I wrote the date on the top of this letter, sitting 
 by a white roadside on a hot morning of violet horizons, 
 my mind jumped to the story of forty-seven Augusts 
 ago. . . . What a neighbour for the leaders of our 
 civilisation! What a brutal abomination! Twice 
 in half a century to vent a childish spite on these 
 tenderly loved fields and villages. It is an inconceiv- 
 able outrage, and raises at times in me an Old Testa- 
 ment cry, " Down with it, down with it — even to the 
 ground." Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, all pronounce their 
 culminating anathema on the rulers who made terms 
 with their enemies. Something of their strength of 
 soul might well be ours, but the time is not yet. First 
 we have manfully to wipe out the stain of our own 
 
 84 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 meanness and poverty of outlook ; but I hope the time 
 may come when, with an authority sanctioned beyond 
 cavil by our steadfastness and sufferings, we may be 
 able to say to a foe beneath our heel, " We take the 
 full responsibility for this long continuance of war. 
 Thus would we have it, and so we will do again to 
 you and all the sort of you." 
 
 I hate this arguing about who began the war. We 
 should be proud to say we are fighting with all our 
 might against the lowest conceptions of national life. 
 
 The village is infinitely touching here. It was a 
 substantial, soigne little place. Out of the heaps of 
 ruins little traces of decoration on window and pillar 
 convey a sense of former dignity. 
 
 The largest heap was meaningless to me for days, 
 till I noticed a single minute cross on a block of white 
 stone. I hear that a few people have been seen coming 
 back to look at the town of Charles Temeraire's Castle, 
 and, gazing helplessly at the ruins, have gone pitifully 
 away again. What an undertaking to repatriate the 
 whole country, to win it back again from wilderness ! 
 That will be yet another French epic. 
 
 August 2yd. 
 
 We have been having a windy time lately — but 
 nothing more. Last night we joined the gunners in 
 three concentrations. My four guns fired splendidly. 
 It was great fun. The " draughtiness " brought into 
 our line some other M.G. fellows of a very efficient, 
 scientific company. I picked up a good deal from 
 them, and now that my section is made up complete 
 under my hand, I propose to get a move on, and am 
 full of satisfaction at the prospect. With organisation 
 gone to the wind there is never any life in anything. 
 It is something to have got my corner into better 
 shape. ... 
 
 •85 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 August z\th. 
 
 I am so glad you approve of the appearance of my 
 letters. The light by which they are written is no 
 other than the dip or tolley. 
 
 Last night I carried out firing on my own lines, 
 which I greatly enjoyed. When I went to explain 
 my little arrangements to the local infantry O.C., he 
 was highly delighted, and dewdrops were conveyed 
 to me by the little Welshman who visited Battalion 
 Headquarters later, and came on to me. This after- 
 noon I have been visiting local O.P.s, and besides 
 collecting much information to my purposes, enjoyed 
 making acquaintance with a jolly red-headed gunner. 
 
 There were wonderful skies last night during the 
 long hours of intermittent firing. . . . 
 
 Great wreaths of black circled the middle sky, with 
 the starry night blue, above and below. 
 
 August 25th. 
 
 There is something very sublime about the French 
 devotion to the soil. . . . But I should have thought 
 their cleverness and intense acquisitive instincts were 
 less Christian than the cheerful good-nature of the 
 English — silly though that may often be. 
 
 Yes, the apostles and their places in the Kingdom are 
 very pathetic, and we need to remember in our own 
 case how silly personal ambition appears in the face of 
 God's revelation of Himself. . . . Though Christ was 
 not stern, yet it is clear that that sort of thing does 
 separate us from Him, and that is what I understand by 
 sin. ... 
 
 Poor Esmond, or rather poor everybody else who 
 knew him. I find I mind his loss more than I should 
 have expected. ... I souvenired — pinched-^a table 
 from a house in the village yesterday, and have put it 
 at the end of the shelter, so that I can write and do 
 
 86 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 my calculations very comfortably now. The ugliness 
 here is a thing to be combated. 
 
 Sunday to-morrow. I miss the weekly break, and 
 the service which lately has grown to be so much to 
 me. No padre ever appears except to smoke a cigarette 
 and say " Cheeri-o " — and that only twice since I have 
 been here — incredibly futile. However, my work and 
 its^ success make me very happy, and I am really 
 enjoying life thoroughly. 
 
 August z6tb. 
 
 I miss my day of rest a good deal. It is the break 
 which one values as well as the day of worship. How- 
 ever, I have observed it to-day by going round to my 
 gun-positions, and, after explaining my reasons, 
 reading them the collect, epistle, and gospel. I hope 
 they will care to keep Sunday regularly in this way. 
 It was a great piece of good fortune that when I had 
 already resolved to do this, I read in a Challenge 
 an excellent sermon by one Burroughs, strongly con- 
 firming my resolve. 
 
 August 27th. 
 
 Yes, it is sad to think of how Russia rose to such 
 heights, and so sadly failed to cling to her inspiration. 
 It must indeed be a melancholy outlook for the Czar 
 and his family. But Russians are at their best in 
 melancholy situations, and perhaps they will be 
 happier at Tobolsk than they have been in Petro- 
 grad. . . . 
 
 " Yet not I, but the grace of God which is given 
 me." St. Paul's constant confession. That is how 
 one would have it, wouldn't one, for so only one can 
 feel that one is building on the rock. You must not 
 think of me as constantly exalte. In writing to you 
 I often let my pen run on to say all that seems to be 
 implied in what I hope and believe, but the splendid 
 
 87 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 things of the spirit can only grow on a foundation of 
 plain sense and quiet conviction. The confused con- 
 ditions of my days, and the lack of privacy, seem to make 
 it harder for me to catch glimpses of the Divine, but 
 the solid belief in all that religion involves grows 
 stronger "by the struggle to keep itself in the front of 
 one's thoughts under difficult circumstances. I expect 
 when a more peaceful normal routine returns, I shall 
 find I have been carried further than would now 
 appear. Next to seeing you again, I would most like 
 to have an hour alone in some quiet empty church, 
 and collect all the impressions and improvisations of 
 these recent days, review them all before God, and 
 hear His voice to guide me. Perhaps I will have a 
 chance to-night to do something of the sort. One 
 company is going out and another coming in, and in 
 this heavy rain there may well be a big gap. I am 
 feeling rather muddly and hand-to-mouthish. 
 
 To E. P. 
 
 August 2Jtb, 1917. 
 
 I was quite delighted by the post-cards. It was a 
 brilliant idea of yours, and it gives me the keenest 
 pleasure to look at them. The ugliness of my sur- 
 roundings is an influence to be combated, and the 
 lovely details of those Italian pictures give one just the 
 sense which is most to seek out here. My favourite 
 is the " di St. Bernardino," closely rivalled by the " dell' 
 Oratorio." How exquisite is the front of St. Vulfran 
 d' Abbeville ! I must try to see that, but I dare say it 
 is all protected by sandbags now. Finally, the 
 Donatello is a crowning joy. That indeed is an in- 
 spiration, of loveliness. It is really in another world 
 than that of the Bonfighos, isn't it ? and not to be com- 
 pared to them to their detraction — but it is a higher 
 
 88 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 world both in idea and execution. There is the real 
 universal quality. 
 
 It is a struggle here with the crowded quarters, 
 hours all upside-down, and generally cramped and 
 awkward conditions, to give full play to the best things 
 within one ; but I welcome the effort and seem to see 
 that less clear progress here may carry one farther 
 than one would be able to go under more normal 
 circumstances. 
 
 August 28th. 
 
 I got my little quiet spell last night, and feel much 
 the better for it, and for a good night. The soak has 
 been followed by a bright day, and a roaring gale, which 
 is drying everything up in most cheering fashion. 
 
 August 29th. 
 
 I had a lovely bunch of letters last night to keep me 
 going through a long vigil. It was a " windy " night, 
 but nothing happened, so I was robbed of sleep, and 
 also of the opportunity of doing something for my pets, 
 for nothing. . . . 
 
 I have good news of myself. I shan't have to live 
 in that foul dug-out again. Isn't that a comfort ? 
 How favoured I am in all these ways ! The subsection 
 officer is a very good fellow. He goes to church, 
 and loves the Prayer-book. . . . There is evidence all 
 round of an increase of scientific method in our branch 
 of the service, which I keenly welcome. . . . 
 
 The weather is grey and stormy, but not deluging, 
 so we are doing well. 
 
 How wonderful is the opening of St. John ! There 
 is an intense penetration in every word, which seems 
 to reveal a whole new world. That is the mystic 
 world, I suppose. I like ,to read quite short passages at 
 3 time, and let their effect sink into me. 
 
 89 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 By degrees, and especially lately, I am growing in 
 what Smuts calls, in the speech which I so much 
 admired, " strength of soul." An episode of to-day 
 proves this, I think. The CO. observed, " I hear you 
 are holding Church services with your men," and 
 proceeded quite kindly to make it plain that he did 
 not wish me to proceed with the start made last 
 Sunday. There are some R.C.s in the section, and 
 though I remembered to make it plain that I did not 
 want anybody to stay while I read who objected, and 
 especially mentioned R.C.s, it seems some of them 
 told an R.C. subaltern that they were being made to 
 attend C. of E. services. There can be no doubt that 
 I gave them all warning, for one, the corporal whose 
 stripes I saved him the other day, got up, said he was 
 an R.C, and went away. However, what with the 
 complaint and the R.C. officer thinking it all a great 
 joke, the CO. very kindly gave me to understand that 
 he did not wish the thing to continue. I have been 
 able to accept this without any bitterness, and also not 
 to mind a bit the thought of having been laughed at. 
 That is what I mean by growth in strength of soul. 
 As I have thought of the matter during the day, it 
 has been almost a source of happiness, though I did 
 not like telling the men, some of whom, I am sure, were 
 disappointed. 
 
 Then again in the venture with the artillery, I have 
 needed, and found, better resources than I used to have 
 available. You see, I am doing it quite on my own, 
 H.Q. giving a very tepid support, and being 
 very ready to squash if anything I wanted, or did, 
 could be objected to, and to disown altogether if 
 anything went wrong or simply didn't come off. 
 But I am persevering steadily and warily, and hope 
 and believe all will turn out well. I'm sure it is the 
 right policy. About the reading with the men the 
 thought occurs to me : By a quite unforeseen turn of 
 
 90 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 affairs, God's colours have been nailed to my mast 
 among my brother-officers. Now, is it tempting Him 
 to wonder whether in any sense He will let my ship 
 go down ? Will the result be that they will have 
 occasion to blaspheme, and say, " These religious 
 fellows are no good" ? I must remember my own 
 rule of looking in the right direction, and of Whom it 
 was said, " He saved others, Himself He cannot save," 
 but may I perhaps even so have, as it were, a claim for 
 strength of soul whatever befall ? 
 
 September 1st. 
 
 Yesterday morning we had a little battle. It was 
 only a very small affair, but still, there it was — my first 
 experience of having my guns called into action. 
 The Boche made a raid. It was a failure, I rejoice to 
 say, and luckily I was actually at the right spot when 
 our fire was called for. Again most happily he did not 
 shell my positions. So it was just a nice sort of trial 
 of how we contribute to the general defence. Of 
 course I loved it, and on the whole my fellows did 
 quite well. Interesting points to me were brought 
 out, and it was great fun to have everybody working, 
 to appreciate my own part, and also the function 
 assigned to us as a whole. The incident has bucked 
 my men up very satisfactorily. 
 
 Then you will be glad to hear that the CO. con- 
 tinues to get ahead with the work in conjunction with 
 the artillery. I am very keen on this, as you know, 
 and from his change of tone from assent to stimulation 
 I surmise that the local war lords have been bringing 
 forward the same principle, and it is well I should have 
 been in good time with my moves in that direction. 
 
 The weather is very stormy, but the rain is reasonably 
 moderate, for which one cannot be too thankful. 
 Last night was exquisite. The moon blazed from 
 8 p.m. to 5 in the morning out of an almost cloud- 
 
 91 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 less sky. One could see all the distances in hazy 
 silhouette, and at dawn she went down bright orange 
 into a bank of dark powder-blue cloud. I do enjoy 
 the skies here. One is driven to look at them more 
 than one is used to by the sadness of the landscape. 
 The battalion from the county of my first camp is 
 here now, and I like being with them. The company 
 living in this shelter is commanded by a very clever 
 and agreeable Jew. 
 
 September 2nd. 
 
 I have been more fearfully busy the last twenty-four 
 hours than I think I ever was before. At this point 
 I must tell you that sleep overcame me, and I am going 
 on now after four hours' most refreshing slumber. 
 This will go down by my runner at dawn. It is 
 wonderful how well I am learning to sleep irregularly, 
 and make up a good amount of rest by adding two or 
 . three bits together. It gives one a good sense of another 
 point mastered. . . . 
 
 You will be pleased I know, that my stunt with the 
 artillery came off yesterday evening, and was a brilliant 
 success — quite beyond anything I had expected. 
 Accuracy was really remarkable. Fun to make a 
 sentry bob quickly down at 2,000 yards using indirect 
 fire — i.e. not being able to see him at the firing-point. 
 The whole thing directed and observed by me perched 
 in an eerie litle loft in the roof of a ruin — telephone, 
 telescope, all complete. Report to G.O.C. — D.S.O. 
 or at least M.C. confidently expected ! ! But seriously, 
 it is proud for me to feel that I have transformed my 
 little corner of the M.G. world. Not with special 
 references to myself, an infantry Tom thanked me 
 yesterday for the work of the company the other 
 morning. " It did us good," he said. . . . 
 
 I would not oppose Martha and Mary at bottom. 
 There cannot be two right ways of approaching life 
 
 92 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 between which we are obliged to make a compromise. 
 One must fix on Jesus Himself, Who was perfectly 
 spiritual and perfectly practical, and each because 
 He was the other. He might have been a voice crying 
 in the wilderness, or a constructive statesman, but he 
 failed in neither direction, because the two tendencies 
 were in Him perfectly balanced. I would take the 
 position myself that the seeking first of the Kingdom. 
 of God is the true common sense, and similarly that 
 in the common, straightforward course of life the 
 deep things of God are unveiled. 
 
 Yes, indeed I agree that we must "ask God's help 
 against the powers of darkness. Strength of soul — 
 that is my motive phrase just now — to be conquerors 
 for righteousness' sake. That is the way I think we' 
 may reasonably ask for things of God, i.e. side by side 
 and only in relation to the power to use such things 
 for His ends. Such a prayer admits of no disap- 
 pointment. It is only in another form the deepest 
 prayer of all which cannot be uttered before it is 
 answered — " Thy Kingdom come." 
 
 Yes, LI. G. and Kerensky have a certain quality 
 which by its rarity in public men wears a heaven-sent 
 air, but I stick to the balance, and plump for E. G. 
 As Mr. G. wrote of Lord Aberdeen, " All the parts 
 in which he was great are the foundation-stones of our 
 nature. . . . Time is their witness and their friend, 
 and in the final distribution of posthumous fame 
 Lord A. has nothing to forfeit, he has only to receive." 
 Fame may or may not be E. G.'s fate. It is an in- 
 different matter. But his patience, wisdom, and 
 honour are established facts in the history of our 
 nation, which may be ignored, but cannot be undone. 
 
 We must expect no spiritual revival while the war 
 lasts. I see that. Men are too tired and jumpy, too 
 much absorbed by the passionate longing to be done 
 with the horrible job. In many ways they are smaller 
 
 93 
 
JLGERNON UTDE PILL1ERS 
 
 at the moment, not greater, but in human life and 
 character every time is seed-time and harvest at once, 
 and as we are now reaping as we have sown, we can 
 believe that we are also sowing to a certain happier 
 harvest. Good-bye — day will soon be dawning. 
 Avanti. 
 
 To E. M. R. 
 
 September yrcl, 1917. 
 
 Yes, we have had fine days. One looks at, and 
 cares about the sky a great deal here where the earth 
 is so pitifully sad. You need, or I do or did, to see 
 it every day, this melancholy abime landscape, in 
 order to realise what an awful sin it is to preach war 
 and deliberately practise it. One feels, too, that the 
 simple avocations of men, toiling and building, gather- 
 ing and spending, are more in line with a beneficent 
 purpose in the world than one thought — that God 
 needs man as gardener to His world, in the thought of 
 the first Bible legend. 
 
 May we have strength of soul to withstand to the 
 end, and mete out so awful a punishment as would 
 have satisfied even a Psalmist. Most likely we shall 
 fail in so supremely difficult a part. . . . 
 
 There is room for an inspired Avenger. 
 
 September \th. 
 
 Did you read a letter in the about Humour 
 
 and Humility, in which the writer said that St. John 
 was full of humour, and instances especially Nicodemus 
 — the whole incident ? I cannot see the humour of it, 
 can you ? but with the general statement I quite agree, 
 and I should instance first the calling of Nathanael, 
 where every saying is smiling, so to speak. With the 
 
 94 
 
• LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 Woman of Samaria there are clear gleams too, I think, 
 " In that saidst thou truly," e.g. The whole point 
 is important, to my thinking, for the conventional 
 teaching of the Divine Nature is far too stilted, and 
 must be expanded to include a great deal more than it 
 commonly does now, if it is not to prove inadequate 
 and be forsaken when apparently conflicting " goods " 
 come strongly before the mind. I was praying the 
 other day to be able to hold fast to the faith of the 
 universal sovereignty of the Divine by realising better 
 the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all. We must 
 learn to worship God not only as Love and Justice, 
 Wisdom and Mercy, but also as Gaiety and Sim- 
 plicity and Ardour, for one cannot afford a one-sided 
 conception of the All Good and Great. Our thought 
 must have no flanks which can be turned. 
 
 September $th. 
 
 The day before yesterday I had a very tart exchange 
 of notes with Jingle. He is building himself a spacious 
 winter palace, and will not spare a man to help my 
 tiny teams to make themselves a shelter. It is too 
 bad, for they all always have to be up half the night 
 on guard, and have to find for themselves entirely as 
 to cooking, getting rations, clearing up, etc. . . . 
 
 The thought of Christ sleeping in the storm is 
 always wonderful magic, isn't it ? One must face and 
 appreciate His degree of detachment, and triumph 
 over the things which agitate us. It is almost the 
 central feature of His revelation, I think, combined 
 as it is in Him with intense realisation of the other 
 world, and power to reign in that sphere here on earth. 
 I was reading chapter v this morning and verse 44 
 brought me up short. " How can ye believe that 
 receive, honour one of another, and seek not the 
 honour that cometh from God only ? " I have to 
 
 95 
 
ALGERNON BTDE V1LLIERS 
 
 lay that to heart very closely. No man's favour, or 
 the expectation of his approval, must turn me in future, 
 and God be my only recompense. How happy one 
 would be then, wouldn't one ? . . . I follow you 
 absolutely in the instinctive sense of direct contact 
 with Christ and his surroundings in St. John's Gospel. 
 He must have been there. Though the artistry is 
 plain all through, so too is the essential veracity and 
 lack of " composition." There is nothing made up 
 about it all, is there ? 
 
 Yes, I noticed the interpretation of Peter's " I go* 
 a fishing" — very sure, I think. Christ had com- 
 manded them otherwise ; the first day they got back 
 into those boats was a day of crisis for the whole world, 
 and so Christ came and called them back. How kind 
 He is to them too, though poor Peter has to be grieved. 
 
 My corner of the shelter is rather dark for sticking 
 up the post-cards. I prefer to be able to have them 
 out on my table. But I have a pot with lovely white 
 phlox in it, which I found blowing in a forsaken garden, 
 and I have stuck up the Millet. The young man and 
 woman going to work in just such fields as these — they 
 are what one so cruelly misses, looking over these 
 slopes even on such a divine evening as was yesterday's. 
 
 September 6th, 1917. 
 
 Events have taken a delightful turn. I The transport 
 officer has gone sick, and I go to take his place.} I am 
 now at H.Q. waiting for my horse — think of it — to 
 come up for me. I have just told Harrison to get my 
 spurs out, which I haven't worn for a month. It 
 will be the most pleasant change. ... I write this 
 now, in case I find on getting down there that I have 
 a good deal to do before I start up again with the 
 limbers. How I shall enjoy the relative privacy down 
 there ! The place is actually Epehy. There is only 
 
 96 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 the padre there. I have met him — he is an R.C., 
 but seems a very attractive fellow, and by all accounts 
 is an educated man. 
 
 Here the horse was signalled. He turned out to be 
 Jingle's grey mare, as rough a broken-winded old screw 
 as you could find, but I pushed her along a good pace, 
 and here I am, full of excellent tea, and rejoicing in 
 the prospect of my valise and pyjamas and every 
 manner of good thing from stables to sketching. It 
 is said that, once taken into hospital, a man usually 
 manages to stay there a month or so. I hardly hope 
 for such a holiday, and in one way it would be rather 
 too long. At present, however, it seems one could 
 not have too much of such palatial surroundings. The 
 hut shared by the padre and me is four or five times 
 the size of the shelter occupied by the officers of an 
 infantry company, four to seven and myself. It is 
 divided into two rooms, and has windows and doors, 
 and I shall have a wash-hand-stand, and once more 
 pyjamas. _ _ 
 
 What luck! just when I was getting a bit stale and 
 quarrelsome, I am afraid. However, I was bearing 
 the critical moment of getting into the collar after the 
 first novelty capers, with the consciousness of God's 
 help, and with much comfort from St. John. 
 
 I had a very happy read this morning of chapter vi. 
 I felt so much sympathy with the people who asked, 
 What must we do that we may work the works of God ? 
 As you and I may look at our own lives, " Why," may 
 we not ask, " do we not see God's power more clearly 
 manifested in us ? " We are trying to come to Christ 
 with a real belief in Him, conviction, that is, that, as 
 St. Peter felt, we have no other to go to, and He says 
 that he that cometh He will in no wise cast out. Is 
 God playing us false ? one must ask in order to be quite 
 honest. Towards an answer I start with two obvious 
 contributions. First, that, in any view you and I are 
 
 h 97 
 
ALGERNON HYDE F1LL1ERS 
 
 singularly happy people, and that we may with 
 reverence thank God for His grace that is given unto 
 us. In spite of all our faults, we are growing in the 
 mastery of life, and are rich in some of the best bless- 
 ings. The second thought is that the life of Jesus, 
 in which we must see the only complete answer God 
 has been able to give to the question What shall we do ? 
 shows us that God's giving is not as the world's. 
 We, you and I, have still far to go before we have 
 learnt the lesson — What to ask of God, and what are 
 those good things which God has prepared for them 
 that love Him. So in the end we seem to reach the 
 conclusion Christ Himself so often declared. Only 
 believe. We do not know even what our true good is. 
 We are so utterly dependent in fact upon God that 
 there is no other way open to the spirit of man than 
 to follow suit to the lead of plain palpable circum- 
 stances and believe — 
 
 "All that thou sendest me 
 In mercy given, 
 Angels to beckon me 
 Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 Nearer to Thee." 
 
 Those are truly great words, I think, and the 
 thought places one at the very centre of the true 
 religious experience. It is the voice of Charles 
 seeking you in his troubles, and in the act of 
 perfect seeking (perfect' because untrammelled by 
 a shade of doubt or self-consciousness) actually 
 finding what he needs. Just to be nearer to God 
 — that is the aim of life, the function proper to 
 human nature. The wish, hope, aim,- or whatever 
 we call it, seems to be ours, the power to get there, to 
 get to Him, seems to be His entirely. So every time 
 our waking thoughts, waking from our sleep of mis- 
 guided selfishness, will be bright with His praise. 
 
 98 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 September yth. 
 
 The flies have invaded this hut in thousands, and 
 I play the Abdou game on them in vain. However, 
 they are not the equals of their oriental brothers, 
 thank goodness, in their powers of vexation — an easy- 
 going race of insects compared with their pestiferous 
 fellows of the desert. . . . 
 
 When I had finished my letter to you last night, 
 I went out and inspected the parade of limbers " pro- 
 ceeding up the line." Bits filthy, my dear ! You 
 wouldn't believe such a state of things. So I kicked 
 up the necessary how-de-do and expect a great change 
 before long. Then I came in and dined, and at dusk 
 mounted a stout bay, and pushed off in pursuit of the 
 transport. You may imagine I was not long at 
 H.Q., with a vision of certain pink things reposing 
 on a white pillow at the head of a soft jaeger bag 
 calling to me across the night ! Swiftly we trotted 
 home, and I gave myself up to the luxury of sleep in 
 civilised conditions — surely there is no greater bless- 
 ing than a good bed. I read the Psalms first though, 
 especially my favourite xxxiv. Verses 5, 8, 10, and n 
 are exquisite. The day before, No. xxvii, one of the very 
 greatest, was good to meet again. This morning I was 
 able to have a real good leisurely " read " in perfect 
 peace, which I enjoyed beyond everything. The 
 first eleven verses of Psalm xxxvii are very beautiful, 
 and I like to think of the whole as the " Rabbi Ben 
 Ezra" of the Book (v. 25). Later I read St. John 
 vii and viii. One sees far more clearly than elsewhere 
 all the stupid hostility that Christ was up against. 
 How discouraging it must have been, and how amazing 
 is His dauntless self-assertion — dedication ! — is it not 
 both fully, seeing the circumstances ? His half -re- 
 luctance to go up to the Feast, and the Jews' mani- 
 festly deadly antipathy ? Yet, what triumphs Christ 
 draws from under His enemies' very noses ! The 
 
 99 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 officers who dare not touch Him, the accusers of the 
 woman His purity so terribly confounds, His perfect 
 confidence that physically God has determined the 
 hour of His final offering of His body, so that no 
 plottings or conspiracies of violence can reach Him 
 before the moment which God's purpose requires. 
 It is all a marvellous revelation. It is God Himself 
 indeed Who stands revealed. 
 
 I have looked at my X. sketch and I think it can 
 become something pos:ibly. This afternoon, how- 
 ever, must be devoted to a bath ! Luxe upon luxe ! 
 Think of me very full of beans. 
 
 September 8th. 
 
 Last night I got the transport officer's message that 
 he was coming out of hospital to-day. What's more, 
 he has actually come — tactless fellow. However, 
 though I must go back to the line to-night, I feel ever 
 so much refreshed by my outing. I am going to try 
 and squeeze in a sketch before going up to-night. 
 It is very hard for a padre to be anything but a cheerio 
 visitor, one sees that ; but it is none the less a lack 
 in our social life that there are no " holy men " going 
 about. They would have their drawbacks too, no 
 doubt. I read the man born blind this morning, just 
 right ! It is indeed splendid. What must have been 
 the feelings of the woman of Samaria and the blind 
 man when the supreme revelation was made point 
 blank at them. How significant it seems that they 
 should have been, too, quite stray people. But of 
 course nobody was stray to Christ. I much agree 
 with you about the authorship, and specially do I 
 respond to your words " that never-to-be-forgotten 
 Feast." What a memory it was to him. " In the 
 last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst " How do you 
 
 think it all happened f I expect men were crowding 
 
 ioo 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 round Him as He sat and trying to hear Him talking, 
 and He would suddenly get up, and in His unique way 
 of blended passion and calm carry them away into a 
 world of new ideas and expanded horizons. 
 
 Now I must pack away those too much but too 
 briefly enjoyed pink garments, and then try a sketch. 
 
 September gtb. 
 
 You can't think how much the better I feel for my 
 two nights at the transport. I am taking up my jobs 
 here with a sense of freshness which is very satisfactory 
 after so short a rest. That first month was rather hard 
 work, I expect, being the first, with all the novelty 
 to engage one's mind and use up one's powers. I 
 enjoyed it, of course, but I am conscious that it was a 
 strain. Now I feel very calm and collected, with things 
 well in hand so to speak. 
 
 It was the most admirable plan my doing that 
 sketch. I enjoyed it at the moment, and I think it is 
 very successful, but the fact of having done it — the 
 recollection of doing it — is most delightful and has 
 given me pleasure ever since. It took me out of war 
 interests so completely for the moment, although it 
 was inevitably a war subject — just a ruin and a hut 
 against the evening sky. I think you will like it. I 
 had a good clean up while I was away, clothes and 
 body and boots have all come back revived. I wore 
 my slacks, and my nice tunic, and my leggings and my 
 slippers, all the things I cannot have here, with a 
 childish joy, but the best was the cap, I think. The 
 steel hat is not a convenient head-gear. 
 
 The animals, too, were a great joy. The majority 
 were mules. It was an interesting thing to be in close 
 touch with them. I thought them such ugly, pathetic 
 creatures, looking conscious of their irregular breed- 
 ing. The meanest horse has more carriage, and any 
 donkey a more satisfied air. The crossed animal looks 
 
 101 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 it all over. But they are very good and quiet and 
 healthy, and good workers, and one feels it very hard 
 that they should seem to be a little ashamed of them- 
 selves. 
 
 It was a delightful interlude, and I shall linger over 
 it for many days, I hope. We are having a wonderful 
 spell of weather, aren't we ? The mists in the morn- 
 ing are the only drawback, as we have to stand-to till 
 they lift. The complete absence of northern news is 
 exciting. I suppose we shall wait till it rains again ! 
 Was there anything so lamentable as the Russians. 
 Where will it end ? 
 
 September lotb. 
 
 I like the article . . . on the need for more thought. 
 That thoughtlessness and a disregard for the value of 
 truth are among our chief vices, is very true, I think. 
 Most people do take everything at second hand, and 
 without reflection, don't they ? I occasionally have 
 time for a dip into d'Artagnan. I do like it so much. 
 There is something so fresh and overflowing about 
 him — a delightful creation, and most refreshing to 
 come in contact with. 
 
 It is something of that sort which may for a moment 
 threaten the pale Nazarene. But after a moment's 
 thought one sees how one is only the victim of a silly 
 convention about Jesus in having such a thought. On 
 the contrary, the threat is soon turned into an illumi- 
 nation of the spontaneity, daring, and unconquerable 
 mind of the great adventurer. ... I suppose such 
 language is irreverent, but one must be irreverent to 
 be real, don't you think ? Any other way of thinking 
 of Christ our Saviour allows to rival ideals a tacit 
 existence beside His own, and involves a betrayal of 
 Him by the failure honestly to use the simple straight- 
 forward revelation of Himself which He has given us. 
 
 103 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 September 12th. 
 It is a new experience for me to. be writing to you 
 at 9.30 in the morning. It has been very foggy, which 
 necessitates a long watch, and also gave an opportunity 
 for getting on with some work which cannot be done 
 in bright light for fear of observation, but which had 
 been getting all behind, and required my personal 
 supervision. It is nice to have a perfectly quiet 
 moment ; all the others are still asleep. It is amusing 
 to find the Brigadier taking up his pen, and recom- 
 mending the very course which I have got going in 
 this corner. The fact was very cordially recognised 
 at Battalion H.Q. 
 
 To E. P. 
 
 September 13th. 
 
 The Italian P.C.s are again deeply interesting. 
 Anything of the kind is acutely delightful to me just 
 now. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires. It is inimitable. The pure air 
 of romance one breathes in its pages is refreshing 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Renan's paper — Qu'est ce qu'une Nation P — I have 
 also intensely enjoyed. That is the sort of thing 
 which can only be done in French prose. It reminds 
 me of Guizot, but is more brilliant in point of style. 
 It is touching, at this moment, to see how experience 
 cannot be kept out of sight, in spite of the most solemn 
 resolutions of detachment and impartiality. . . . 
 
 The account of the building of the wall of Nehemiah 
 is strikingly appropriate to this modern warfare ; " one 
 far from another" is only too often true of our posts. 
 
 The conduct of the R.C.s was positively comic in 
 its microcosmic conforming to a tradition which its 
 age and consistency almost make a great one. " No 
 quarter " has ever been their cry, but it is really amusing 
 
 103 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 to see the same spirit coming out so promptly on such 
 a tiny occasion. No other opportunity is likely to 
 turn up, I am afraid. 
 
 September i$th. 
 
 I had to go some way back to get to the dentist, and 
 enjoyed seeing fresh country from anR.A.M.C. motor. 
 In the morning, too, coming down from H.Q. on my 
 horse, I made a detour and had a lovely gallop. " My 
 j oy no man taketh from you " is a glorious thought. . . . 
 
 The T.O. tells me that Jingle admits that the war 
 has been his chance, and says he thinks J. never had 
 any position or decent income in his life before. To 
 my mind this accounts for a great deal, and explains, 
 if it does not excuse, his wretched attitude towards 
 those above him. 
 
 September \\ih. 
 
 I had a j oily ride up the now familiar ways from the 
 transport to H.Q. I have been much occupied 
 making two beautiful little charts for this combination 
 stunt of the Brigadier's. They produced many 
 approving comments from my friends at Battalion 
 H.Q. We made a first trial this evening, and every- 
 thing worked well, except for the lack of light, which 
 we could not help, and for certain defects in the 
 position which Jingle insisted upon my taking up. 
 He is one of those difficult people to whom Macaulay's 
 amusing sentences about James II and listening to 
 reason conspicuously apply. 
 
 However, I have quite made up my mind to take 
 everything very calmly and make the best of things 
 as they come, rather than dwell on thoughts of how 
 much better I should manage things ! 
 
 We have had a few showers to-day. The roads are 
 truly deplorable. The least thing covers them with a 
 slime which hugs one's boots, and makes walking a, 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 perfect nuisance. The flying boys have the best of 
 it after the transport people. The former were doing 
 great feats to-night. It was great to see them against 
 a very fierce sky — one sees the black puffs of smoke 
 soiling the sky around them, and then well after 
 comes the bang, by which time the pilot has swerved 
 or mounted, and is sailing away again in the most 
 nonchalant fashion. I have never seen one brought 
 down yet — by either side. . . . 
 
 September i$th. 
 As the days go by, and no decisive military action is 
 taken, one is more and more inclined to think that the 
 next move will be some sort of ultimatum from the 
 Yanks. Whether the Huns will cave in to Wilson or 
 not remains to be seen. I should not myself be too 
 certain of it. The American terms will be sufficiently 
 drastic, one supposes, or the Huns would close with 
 them, and keep their Kaiser, which would be no good. 
 If the terms are as they should be, the Kaiser's Govern- 
 ment would have no ground for accepting them and 
 committing suicide, and the question remains whether 
 there is any other body of opinion in Germany capable 
 of speaking for the nation, and giving Wilhelm the 
 go-by. ... 
 
 What you say of the influence of such books as Mr. 
 Glover's is very true. I quite think that a more 
 emancipated frame of mind in approaching the Gospels 
 and religion in general is one of the only hopes remain- 
 ing to us. At present, as J said to me at Camiers, 
 
 a man who reads the Bible is -prima facie set down as a 
 fool — at any rate by men of his generation, and I 
 expect that is because such people have equipped 
 themselves with a second-hand idea of what they 
 would find in the Bible if they studied it at all. To 
 approach any religious thought or act in this way 
 involves repudiating the whole thing, so it seems to 
 
 105 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 me, and it was the thing Christ always inveighed 
 against, wasn't it ? He is the great champion of mental 
 freedom, I think. 
 
 You put that matter of praise of men and the service 
 of God exactly right. The relative indifference thus 
 formed proceeds from the concentration on the latter. 
 But there is clearly a danger of revising the relation 
 between the two. Would you not say that vanity 
 and personal ambition — the last infirmity — are among 
 the most successful opponents of the spirit of Truth ? 
 
 The Dean on the Logos doctrine is truly splendid 
 reading, and uplifts me by its noble width of con- 
 fidence. I like the emphasis on knowledge. That 
 which we study to know passes inevitably into what 
 we are actually becoming. One does feel that the 
 mass of men are totally ignorant about God — have no 
 ideas about Him whatever. In this way one is in- 
 clined to say that conventional religious teaching and 
 practice do more harm than good. 
 
 September 16th. 
 
 . . . The General has come down heavily in favour 
 of the co-operation methods I claim to have intro- 
 duced. Consequently I have had a long morning 
 lying out in the sun, occasionally having a shoot, and 
 shall soon go back for evening straffing. The critical 
 issue remains in the balance, however. Will he, or 
 will he not, let one gun for this duty off night duty ? 
 Otherwise we are undone. 
 
 September ijth. 
 
 Life among the silences of the hills is indeed a sooth- 
 ing, happy thought, and I do believe we should be 
 able to make that sort of life what it appears to be to 
 the distant imagination. . . . But whether in the 
 hills, or the plains, growth in the power of the spirit 
 will be slow but sure. It will indeed be a rich harvest 
 
 jq6 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE . 
 
 for the short time of earthly life, if at its close we can 
 feel that we have so grown into the knowledge and 
 love of God that we understand how He works, and 
 how we can be fellow-workers with Him. Perhaps, 
 too, we may hope to hand on to our children some idea 
 of the possibility and supreme value of such an attain- 
 ment. I was reading last night the mighty fourteenth 
 chapter of St. John, " Let not your heart be troubled." 
 We may, I think, take that blessed work to ourselves, 
 for according to our lights we do indeed believe in 
 God, and also in Christ. By "believing" I mean 
 that we cannot now contemplate a life in which the 
 revelation of Jesus Christ is not the most precious 
 possession. Our achievement may be small, our pro- 
 gress a mere groping, but let us repeat Pascal's " Thou 
 wouldst not seek me if thou hadst not found me." 
 I must leave you for to-day, with thoughts which 
 carry us above all the changes and chances into the 
 world of peace and stillness where God reigns and 
 welcomes us. 
 
 To Charles Villiers (aged 5) 
 
 September ljth, 1917. 
 
 I was ever so pleased to get your letter last night, 
 and as for the blackberry jelly, it is the most delicious 
 thing I ever did taste. 
 
 I am glad to hear you are having such a jolly time. 
 But you must never make a " row " before 7 o'clock 
 or at any other time. 
 
 Germans make rows. You should have heard them 
 last night. I must admit we began it, but they started 
 banging about all over the shop, and sending up rockets 
 like a firework show. You shall have fireworks for 
 your birthday when you are six, and then you will 
 know what the Germans do when we frighten them. 
 Up in the air go red lights and green lights, and great 
 
 107 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 blazing stars which make everything as plain as day- 
 light for a mile round. Then they have a splendid 
 golden rain which comes down in a gleaming fountain. 
 It is altogether a pretty sight, but usually there is such 
 a racket going on at the same time that one cannot 
 enjoy it thoroughly — field guns going " Whiiiiiiiiz- 
 bang," and trench mortars going " Crrrump, crrrump," 
 and machine guns barking like a pack of dogs. 
 
 September i%th. 
 
 We had a great success to-day. A party of Boche 
 workers was reported from the O.P., and pouff went 
 down five out of ten, and the rest scuttled for a trench, 
 so the observer declares. This shows that the lay-out 
 of the lines by me is accurate to a T. I am awfully 
 pleased about it. 
 
 September igtb. 
 
 Yesterday's letter came at the close of a happy day 
 — the good shooting, and in the evening the finding 
 of some splendid Michaelmas daisies, yellow daisies 
 and beautiful scarlet-leaved stuff, in a wilderness 
 garden, which I brought home to adorn the " dining- 
 room," in an elegant shell-case for a flower-pot. It 
 was a wonderful sunset evening, and there was a calm 
 glow which made even this country look happy. . . . 
 
 September zoth. 
 
 I read the Litany this morning after the joyful 
 Psalms. It is wonderfully beautiful, the picture of 
 the perfectly ordered private and public life is a 
 triumph, but alas ! how well the " miserable sinners " is 
 justified by the contrast of that picture and this. . . . 
 
 All goes well here. The date of our relief seems 
 to hold good. I shall be very glad of it, and especially 
 for the men, who are getting pretty well fagged. They 
 will have been three solid months in the trenches, 
 
 io8 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 September list. 
 
 I remember one or two excellent leaders and notes 
 in the Challenge which seemed to bring Christ's mind 
 to bear on our common lives. That is what one wants, 
 to my mind, and what the clergy cannot manage to 
 do for us in nine cases out of ten. They seem to live 
 in a world of their own, don't they ? and clerical shop 
 is as remote from most men's concerns as clergymen's 
 clothes are unthinkable for some people's costume. 
 I remember a sermon at Belton — the last I have heard, 
 by the way — in which the preacher begged his hearers 
 not to be ashamed of being Christians and standing 
 up for Christ in their billets. That would have been 
 all very well if the men he had been talking to had 
 been in any real sense professing Christians or conscious 
 of any obligation or loyalty towards Christ. But 
 I'm perfectly sure that the vast majority of them 
 needed to be made Christians first before it was 
 conceivable that they should be ashamed of professing 
 Christ. Nor had they in all probability any idea of 
 what they were being asked to stand up for, beyond a 
 sort of conventional piety and righteousness. Airing 
 that sort of thing they would immediately know to 
 be impossibly priggish conduct for them, or indeed 
 for anybody. My contention is that we don't half 
 know, and are not being taught, what Christianity 
 was, or is, or ever shall be. 
 
 I I is very interesting to hear of your reading the great 
 Durham Bishop on St. John. Temple quotes him in 
 Mens Creatrix as saying that St. John, Origen, and 
 Browning had been the master influences on his mind. 
 Pollock had a favourite story of him. Some one was 
 arguing that all sport fostered a combative or com- 
 petitive instinct, and the Bishop asked whether that 
 could be said of battledore and shuttle-cock ! The 
 speech is no doubt disproportionate, like the Duke of 
 W.'s oath, to the greatness of its author. I wish 
 
 109 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 we had a towering figure among the Bishops. A great 
 ecclesiastic is a good thought, but no doubt with 
 cathedrals they are out of date ! . . . 
 
 Seftember 2yd. 
 
 There was a magnificent " straf " by us (within 
 sight of this) last night. It really was a glorious sight, 
 and its effect must have been deuced unpleasant for 
 the Boche. 
 
 I have had another interesting day in my O.P., and 
 am making great progress in the very difficult job of 
 map-spotting — i.e. finding the exact position on the 
 map of an object seen through the telescope. We 
 have had some quite successful shoots, and our reports 
 figure prominently in Brigade Intelligence Sum- 
 maries. 
 
 September z\th. 
 
 " Come, Wm., let us sing the ninetieth Psalm," 1 is 
 capital. 
 
 The 1 8th day is a great day. Side by side with the 
 humble and contrite ones there are at least as many 
 rejoicing in the power of the Lord to sustain vic- 
 toriously, aren't there ? 
 
 I saw a magnificent sight to-day — a fleet of some 
 twenty of our planes going over. The sun was low 
 behind them, and they looked all golden as they 
 swarmed above us. I don't know what they were 
 after. 
 
 September 26th. 
 
 . . . Yesterday was the day for which we have been 
 working up for the past week. . . . 
 
 It was a great affair. The heavies were up and 
 were firing all day, and at dusk the fun began. ' By 
 
 1 Luther speaking to Melanchthon. 
 IIO 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 Jove ! it was magnificent. The great feature was the 
 burning oil, which bursts in great sheets of flame, 
 lighting up the whole scene wfth a savage brilliance. 
 M.G.s were in great force, and the heavies poured 
 forth their huge crumps in an endless strain. Sudden 
 momentary silences occur, which is odd. You think 
 something has happened, the stillness is so deep, and 
 in a second or two the chorus opens again. The Boche 
 line was a chaos of smoke and flame. At first one felt 
 the bombardment a glorious spectacle, but as it 
 went grinding on through the hour and ten minutes 
 of its hideous course I began to feel it was horrible 
 and hideous only. There was something dreary about 
 the one-sidedness of it. The Boche put back a certain 
 amount of stuff, but broadly one had the sense of 
 our just grinding him down laboriously, unimagi- 
 natively, almost ridiculously. Altogether it is a 
 Boche business, to my mind, a bombardment. We 
 should never have done that sort of thing if he had 
 not taught us. 
 
 I can feel no pity for him. He has brought us down 
 to his beastly level in too many ways. 
 
 The infantry had a pretty hot time, and had about 
 as many casualties as the number of my old home in 
 Sloane Street. My nice little friend the Captain has 
 been killed, I am sorry to say. But the damage done 
 is reckoned to have been very heavy, and the whole 
 raid to have been a thorough success. 
 
 From daylight to 9 o'clock I was strafing the place 
 where the Boche was probably trying to get things 
 right under cover of the mist, and did not get to bed 
 till ten. So I have been sleeping serenely all day, 
 and enjoyed it enormously. 
 
 September 2%th. 
 
 Ever since the show I have been as busy as a bee 
 — really not more than time to eat and sleep — the 
 
 in 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 latter a minimum. It is obvious that after the tre- 
 mendous hammering of the other day, a lot of work 
 has got to be put in by Brer Boche, if he is to get his 
 house in order again. . 
 
 Consequently we have been strafing him day and 
 night at short intervals ever since. . . . 
 
 We had a casualty last night while firing. This 
 time it was M.G.s which got on to us. The man 
 was of course a particularly good one. His wound 
 is not dangerous, I'm glad to say. 
 
 I am with the gun now in a cosy corner of trench, 
 safely removed from the spot where the shells came 
 and sitting in a pleasant sunshine. From time to 
 time we send over a message of heartfelt hate to likely 
 spots across the way. It would be quite harmless if 
 I could get proper relief, but dawn to dusk is rather 
 a long time, and I don't like to leave the sergeant, 
 except for quite a short space. On top of this the 
 night-firing is rather a burden. However, I got four 
 hours' sleep last night, but none the night before, and 
 only a short spell during yesterday. 
 
 September ztyh. 
 
 . . . The comparison of the "Benedic, animamea " 
 (Psalm civ) to a great picture is true indeed, and 
 there can hardly be a greater, more universal poem 
 than the great song of praise. It is good to remember 
 that our lives are set in the midst of so many and 
 great glories, and that the glorious majesty of the 
 Lord shall endure for ever, the Lord shall rejoice in 
 His works. The two Psalms (civ and cvii) taken to- 
 gether seem to be a genuinely adequate treatment of 
 the illimitable thought of God, the splendour of His 
 expression in nature, and the unfailing "stability" 
 of His dealing with man. For He satisfieth the empty 
 soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. . . . 
 
 There is a danger of the Challenge degenerating into 
 
 112 
 
LMTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 a specialist paper, always uninteresting a la longue, 
 and where religion is concerned just another feature 
 of the whole attitude needing to be reversed. I like 
 what you say of the need for natural handling of great 
 subjects. A stilted attitude is so much worse than 
 blank ignorance or indifference. 
 
 I often think how strange it is to be surrounded by 
 young men of many excellences, good-humoured, 
 kindly, not unduly coarse many of them, and with 
 plenty of courage and capacity, but, as far as one knows, 
 living quite without thought of God. However, for 
 a long time I was ostensibly the same, though a seed 
 must have been growing all the time. My quotation 
 from Pascal has a nice origin. I found it in a little 
 book which I bought in glorious St. Botolph's at Boston 
 under the stump. . . . 
 
 This letter has been constantly interrupted by cheer- 
 ful visitors, and by aeroplanes from time to time. 
 We have to keep a look-out for them. 
 
 September 30th. 
 
 We have had some fun shooting to-day. Aeros 
 have been in great force on both sides, and we have 
 had one or two other good targets. . . . 
 
 All the writing I have seen, or seen commented on, 
 in the matter of God and omnipotence is vitiated, to 
 my mind, by the ignoring of the essential fact, so 
 firmly grasped by the -two greatest Christians of all 
 time, St. Paul and St. John, that God is not only above 
 us, but in us. To set Him over against His world, and 
 say what can He, or can He not, do with it, is a hope- 
 less way of approaching the question. Some form of 
 Logos idea is vital. 
 
 The relieving man turned up while I was writing 
 this. I sent him away for a moment, but he now 
 returns. 
 
 1 113 
 
ALGERNON HTDE F1LL1ERS 
 
 October 1st. 
 
 It has been most refreshing to escape to this com- 
 paratively peaceful spot, almost out of hearing of the 
 guns, and quite free of the long-spun-out feeling of 
 responsibility. Two letters this morning completed 
 the joy of the sunshine and the freedom of the hour. 
 
 My friends of the nicest battalion (Suffolks) have 
 been at the neighbouring Battalion H.Q. lately, and 
 I have enjoyed being au mieux with them. They are, 
 of course, the heroes of last week's show, and very 
 pleased with the way their gallant men conducted 
 themselves. 
 
 That brings me to R.'s article. I thought it quite 
 in his worst manner — overdone for a start, and 
 merely provocative. If he had been able to tell us 
 in what way the fighting -men propose to reconstruct 
 there would have been some point in the article. I 
 am pretty sure they have no ideas on the subject, nor 
 are they likely to have them in future simply as fighting- 
 men. No one could reverence the incomparable 
 " foot " more than I, but I feel it quite absurd that 
 their greatness should be made the ground of a padre's 
 sneers at people who are ventilating more hopeful 
 ideas in a better spirit than was formerly the case, by 
 reason of the very work which they are doing so 
 splendidly. 
 
 Havre, 
 
 October yrcl. 
 
 It seems such a simple thing just to cross the Channel 
 after the amazing effort of getting thus far. I must 
 tell you all about it. I started on the night of my last 
 letter — Monday — and rode down by lovely moon- 
 light to the terminus of the light railway. We 
 bumbled along by the roadside, and got to X. 1 at about 
 1.30 in the morning. I had rather a nice companion — ■ 
 
 1 Peronne. 
 II 4 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 an artillery officer. I always rather like them. The 
 R.T.O. at X. announced that the Havre train was off, 
 and all officers going on leave were now proceeding 
 via Boulogne. There was a supply train which might 
 or might not reach Havre by i a.m. the following 
 morning. Very little encouraged by this news, I 
 went to the club, and found every bed occupied. So 
 I nodded uneasily in a chair, and dropped off to sleep 
 perhaps about 5, waking just in time to get breakfast 
 and catch the Amiens train. I had made up my mind 
 to go that far by the Boulogne train, and see what 
 could be done from there. It was a lovely morning, 
 and the marshy Somme was as picturesque as ever. 
 I saw quite a lot of moorhens. A genial French 
 commergant got in, and sat next to me, and we had a 
 long conversation on the war. He was very warlike, 
 and very admiring of Sir D. H. and of our armies. We 
 exchanged many compliments, and I found his loathing 
 of the Boche very sympathetic. He was from near 
 Metz, so, as he said, he knew all about them ; my 
 reading of Dumas has quite revived my French, and 
 I enjoyed talking. 
 
 When I got to Amiens, there seemed to be no hope 
 of getting here except by Paris, which would have 
 been as long a business as the supply train. So I 
 thought I must go by it, and was consulting with a 
 jovial facteur on the supply train platform as to when 
 it was likely to arrive, when a French supply train 
 rolled in which was going as far as Rouen. I implored 
 it to wait five minutes, hurriedly wired to Father to 
 send his car to meet me at Rouen at 4, bought some 
 excellent pears, sandwiches, and choc, and jumped 
 into the funny little guard's compartment, and off 
 we went. The country was looking radiant. It is 
 very hilly, and thickly clothed with trees. All the 
 smiling happiness of the farm-workers and orchards 
 was a joy to behold. The normal functioning of life 
 
 "5 
 
JLGEkNON HTDE VlLLlEkS 
 
 is beautiful. The common getting and spending and 
 caring for the kindly fruits is surely part of God's plan. 
 At Rouen Station there was no motor, so I telephoned 
 here, and found that Father had set off in it to meet 
 me. We chased each other from one station to 
 another — there are five in Rouen — but met at last. 
 
 The motor tore up the steepest precipices along the 
 noble Seine valley through Caudebec and to jolly old 
 Havre in time for dinner. 
 
 2 Place Frederic Sauvage, Havre, 
 October \th, 1917. 
 
 I have just returned from a most successful expedi- 
 tion with Monsieur le Minis tre to Caudebec and 
 Jumieges. The former is a dear little village on the 
 edge of the river, with the quaintest old streets, a fine 
 flamboyant Gothic church — a mass of bewildering lace- 
 like decoration — and a beautiful airy frontage on the 
 water. It was a grey, clear morning, the river looking 
 steely, and the trees very dark against the sky. There 
 were many regrets for the sunshine, but I quite enjoyed 
 the neutral tint of the thoroughly French scene. The 
 country we passed through is really beautiful, and 
 with a character quite its own. The ground is very 
 steep and broken, and the woods and fields jumbled 
 up together with an attractive air of prosperous 
 profusion. Little roads wind about the valleys, and 
 big roads zigzag up the high cotes. Luncheon was 
 delicious, needless to say — omelettes and Camembert. 
 We went on to Jumieges, a superb ruin. All that 
 remains is de I'onzieme, though there were additions 
 du quatorzieme, since demolished. The simplicity of 
 the entrance and the soaring height of the chancel 
 arch leave memorable impressions. 
 
 The garden steps are of original and engaging plan. 
 
 Unfortunately, the weather seems to have broken, 
 but nothing can seriously detract from my enjoyment 
 
 116 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 of my clean sheets and frequent baths, and of the 
 joyful sense of relaxation from the responsibilities of 
 command ! How pompous ! 
 
 I enjoyed meeting my beloved twentieth Psalm 
 this morning. The fourth of the month is another 
 good day with nineteenth and twentieth in the morn- 
 ing, and matchless twenty-third in the evening. 
 M. Hymans, a distinguished, very clever Belgian, told 
 us at luncheon that M. P. Cambon had said of Mr. 
 Asquith, " C'est l'homme d'etat qui a connu quand il 
 fallait faire la guerre, et c'est l'homme d'etat qui saura 
 quand il faut faire la paix." 
 
 October $th. 
 
 I have got such a lot of interesting things to tell you 
 that I hope I shall make up for my scrappy letter of 
 yesterday. 
 
 The dinner-party on Thursday was a delightful 
 experience. ... I had the most amusing talk with 
 my host, M. Ancel, and with le Gouverneur du Havre, 
 Amiral Didelot. The former has the very cleverest 
 face and the most engaging ease and polish of manner. 
 I liked meeting a Frenchman who one felt at once 
 was quite first-class. He gave an inimitable recit of 
 the Bolo Pasha incident. The inconvenience les hauts 
 fersonnages involved must submit to in the matter he 
 spoke of in a deprecating vein of amusement quite 
 inconceivable in an Englishman under similar circum- 
 stances. It made one reflect that they must feel the 
 core of their national life quite beyond the reach of 
 any adverse influence from such affairs. The attitude, 
 at any rate, conveys an admirable absence of self- 
 consciousness. 
 
 M. Ancel, in his unflurried, analysing way, is splendid 
 on the Boche. His estimate of their intellectual level, 
 expressed entirely without heat, brought home to one 
 whatthe threat of German domination means toFrance. 
 
 117 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 October "jth 
 (no sending yesterday). 
 
 The admiral was a charming figure, tall and spare, 
 and full of animation. He gave the most deplorable 
 account of parties of Russian sailors that he had had 
 to deal with. They straggled in at any time, half 
 of them drunk, and their officers declined to take any 
 disciplinary measures whatever. Eventually they were 
 persuaded to get on board a French ship. The captain 
 of it subsequently reported that the men formed a 
 Soviet to control things on board, and that a fresh 
 member announced himself as president every day. 
 
 The admiral said that Edward VII. would have been 
 a great asset to the Entente, as he would have been 
 accepted as the titular chief of the whole alliance. 
 One knows about French sentiment for him, but this 
 is a new notion of the extent of their regard. 
 
 Both Ancel and Didelot were very grave about their 
 losses, and absolutely unfaltering and unqualified in 
 their expressions of determination to go on till the 
 Boche was beat. 
 
 Their eulogy of our efforts was wonderfully under- 
 standing. . . . 
 
 I shall always remember the evening, for the impres- 
 sion one had of genuine regard and affection existing 
 between these men and women of the two nations, 
 and delighting to give itself expression in unmistakable 
 looks and words. 
 
 The next day was for Belgium, when M. Hymans 
 came to luncheon. He is just retiring from being 
 Minister in London. I told you of M. Cambon's 
 saying about Mr. Asquith. Hymans gave a wonderful 
 account of the Crown Council at the Palace in Brussels 
 on the night of August 2nd, 1914. When they 
 ■ came out after half an hour's unanimity in face of 
 . the ultimatum, the principal stairs were crowded with 
 
 118 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 every sort of person who could gain access to the place, 
 asking desperately," Nous resistons ? Nous resistons ? " 
 and when they said, "Yes," "lis etaient comme 
 transformes." 
 
 He says that the sufferings of the Belgians are be- 
 coming more acute every day, and their hatred of the 
 Boche more intense. There will be a hopeless shortage 
 of food before long. The situation in this respect 
 has been serious for some month:. Instead of attempt- 
 ing to conciliate them, the Germans go on taking every 
 opportunity to terrorise and insult them, and the spirit 
 of the people remains undaunted. . . . The one 
 bright spot is the appearance in Brussels every day of a 
 small Belgian paper which the Germans would give 
 their eyes to suppress, but the secret of its production, 
 by a miracle, remains, to their rage, absolutely undis- 
 coverable. 
 
 All this grandeur cPdme on the part of the Belgians 
 was a revelation to me. Father assures me that it is 
 all true. Every day the Belgian papers here have the 
 same story, every official he meets feels the same furious 
 loathing of the enemy. I urged Hymans to take every 
 means in his power to make the public with us realise 
 the situation more vividly. Nothing could be a better 
 correction to peace-talk at home. 
 
 My visit and holiday end in a few hours. A motor 
 has been found to take me as far as Amiens, so my 
 return will be very much quicker than my coming 
 here. . . . 
 
 I was greatly struck by Psalm xxxvi this morning. 
 The picture of the foolish " ungodly," all over the 
 place, deceiving himself and others, is very acute ; and 
 then follows so splendidly, not a picture of the good 
 man, but " Thy Mercy, O Lord, Thy faithfulness, Thy 
 righteousness standeth like the strong mountains." 
 The ninth verse is one of the great expressions of all 
 time. 
 
 119 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 October $th. 
 
 . . . Your accounts of the raids are deeply interest- 
 ing. That we have to reprise is a bitter thing — another 
 foul thing they have forced upon us. 
 
 It seems to me that sitting helpless in a house, with 
 as much chance as anybody else of getting a bomb, 
 must be about as trying a form of persecution as one 
 can imagine. It is quite another story when you can 
 think it is part of the natural course of affairs, and that 
 all your surroundings have been arranged for such a 
 situation. 
 
 Such a journey I had from Havre! A Belgian 
 army motor was lent to Father for me to go to Amiens. 
 Three breaks-down lost the train easily. There was 
 nothing for it but to go on to X. The lights gave 
 out ; but a stray Yank was picked up who knew the 
 way. We crept forward, often at a foot's pace, in 
 the pitchy dark of the rain-stormy night. 
 
 When we did get to X. the light railway train had 
 left ! One more effort ! I succeeded in stopping it, 
 bringing the chauffeur up to one more groping etape, 
 and at last he had done with me. . . . 
 
 When I got to the railhead I wandered long in the 
 mud looking for the horses, but found them at last. 
 But I forgot — the light train went off the lines ! and 
 I had to walk the last three miles with my awkward 
 package of apples. A regular chapter of adventures, 
 wasn't it ? If I was glad to get in to a roaring fire and 
 bed! 
 
 Things are quite jolly and comfortable here. 
 "Recreational training" is the programme of an 
 afternoon. 
 
 Think of me taking to Rugby football again ! . . . 
 
 It is pouring outside. Am I not lucky to be able 
 to sit in a jolly French kitchen with a high-perched 
 blaze of logs ? 
 
 120 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 October 9th. 
 As I was coming back from the " furious sport," 
 I met the T.O. and orderly, and we spoke somehow of 
 jumps. He said there was one round the corner, and 
 while he went in to see Jingle, I had both horses over. 
 One couldn't jump a bit, and as there were no wings, 
 we didn't make a great job of it. The other with a 
 more Englishy shoulder was fine, and finally went 
 sailing most willingly over the little rail. I was glad 
 to find I was still chez mot in the saddle. Ah dear ! 
 how I love horses and what an expensive taste ! Why 
 isn't it gardening ? 
 
 Peronne, 
 October loth. 
 
 Here am I once more at my now quite familiar 
 haunt in X. It is full of friends this evening. All my 
 former hosts in the line turning up, full of greeting, 
 and envy of my four days at Havre. Spirits are high, 
 of course, as always on the move, and more especially 
 when it is a move in the right direction. We go on 
 to-morrow to a place near Arras. Most luckily we 
 have had a perfect afternoon for our first etafe. It 
 was a little cold as we sat on the edges of open trucks, 
 but the sky was of radiant clarity, and the views at 
 moments really lovely. 
 
 We crossed the country evacuated by the Boche, 
 and one well saw how it was our cavalry could do little 
 in pursuit. There is nothing but wire, wire every- 
 where, great belts of it. Strange to say, there is as yet 
 no sign of normal life returning to the precious fields. 
 This place, however, has come on a good deal since 
 my first visit, more than two months ago, and there 
 are several shops of a sort open now. Felix Potin has 
 straightened his board, and somebody is selling vege- 
 tables under it. The delight of the men at the faintest 
 signa of civilised life is touching. They are such capital 
 
 121 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 fellows, and they do have to put up with very trying 
 conditions. Before I went to Havre I invented a 
 message of congratulation from Jingle which they 
 liked, I expect. 
 
 Last night I began VHomme qui Assassina. The 
 pictures of Constantinople are exquisite, and I had the 
 delicious smiling sense of going off into a vivid dream 
 as I read. . . . 
 
 October nth. 
 
 It is very jolly to have a day of complete calm to 
 dispose of quite a son gre. Last night I began Etafes 
 et Combats, and have just finished it. A wonderful 
 little book. But the fantassin did not really care 
 about his horses. There is one awful allusion to their 
 sore backs, but never that ^occupation with their 
 state, which must have filled our officers and men 
 under a like ordeal. One puts the book down with a 
 feeling of real reverence for every man who took the 
 first shock of the Boche machine. 
 
 We shall never be called upon to do what they did, 
 and one can hardly wonder that the Germans under- 
 estimated the strength of soul they had to meet. 
 When Mallet becomes fantassin, and the scene is 
 shifted to the trenches, the power and magic go out 
 of the book to some extent, and again I can't quite 
 forgive him for having left his regiment without a 
 pang at parting from those faithful animals. 
 
 On this occasion I have been able to form a more 
 adequate idea of X. As I walked the streets under last 
 night's brilliant sky, the half-light hid the tattered 
 condition of the houses, and revealed the fine width 
 of the main street, and the dignified disposal of the 
 surrounding masses of building. Out of the main 
 street one is in a world of winding ruelles, slightly 
 reminiscent of Cognac. They give their special note 
 most clearly in a brilliant midday light, when the high 
 
 122 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 walls cast deep shadows, and hold brilliant patches of 
 colour. Most of the houses are brick of a fine dark 
 colour. The church is a ruin, or nearly, though the 
 western facade stands as a recognisable thing, with 
 three unexploded shells stuck fast in the stones. I 
 found the castle which I think M. associates with 
 Charles Temeraire. It has three fat towers and an 
 immense moat, but I wished I had known more of its 
 history, in order to appreciate it better. The hotel 
 de ville is Renaissance, and has salamanders all over 
 it, like the Chateau de Francois Ier at Cognac. 
 It has been cruelly battered, but a fine frontal arcade 
 remains, propped up with beams of a rare shade of 
 colour — a sea-green tint in the grey of the stone. 
 Under the salamanders is the inscription, " Nutrisco et 
 extingo." Altogether it is a fine old place, and we 
 have been very lucky to spend a glorious autumn day 
 here. . . . 
 
 There is a recently-erected monument in the middle 
 of the Place, a sculptured tablet is all broken to pieces 
 — underneath it is the date 1536. Then on one side 
 an inscription to "Catherine de Poix,surnommee Marie 
 Foure, heroine du siege." Does this suggest anything 
 to you ? My present enthusiasm for the French is 
 lighted up by the sight of a pair of cherry breeches in 
 the street to-day. I hope, but without much con- 
 fidence, to see more of them these next days. I 
 would so love to do a course on the 75's, or in some way 
 or other to find contact with their martial mind. 
 
 La Herliere, i " ,i 
 
 October 13th. 
 
 How much do you feel that religion with you is a 
 " success " ? To my mind, as you know, that is a 
 very important thing. Men have ceased to be afraid 
 of God, and they won't abandon low standards and 
 interests except for something which they can ration- 
 
 123 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 ally call " better." As regards religion, the mass of 
 men are not hypocrites to-day, are they ? They are 
 waiting to be convinced. It is very much one's 
 business to " prove all things " in these times ; and if 
 Christianity stands the test, why should there not be 
 a future for the reality of it ? It looks to me as 
 if it were the one thing for which there were a 
 future. . . . 
 
 But I have got so much to" tell you of other things 
 and to answer in your letters. Let me first describe 
 our second eta-pe. 
 
 We bustled off early to the station and sat there 
 for three hours ! At last the train arrived. 
 
 The loading of the limbers was fun. Imagine a 
 sloped bank about four feet high and as wide as an 
 average road. The reverse side is steep-perpendicular, 
 and up against it the end of a string of flat, open rail- 
 way trucks is butted. The ends of the cars are lowered, 
 and sleepers put on the buffers to fill the space between 
 one car and another. Thus a straight road is made 
 right down the train. A loading-party is told off 
 beforehand. Up come the limbers at the trot to the 
 top of the slope — Halt ! Unhitch the mules, and 
 away they go to be boxed, while so many men take 
 their place at the pole and hang on to the wheels, 
 and the limber trundles away, bumping and heaving 
 down the train causeway to the furthest end. We had 
 a lot to get on, and the thing was done in under one 
 minute per axle. That is the official way of reckoning. 
 It rained a good deal at intervals. When we got into 
 the train the weather settled into a downpour. 
 
 Coming along we played round games and sang, 
 and were very amusing about the major and the real 
 credit he was to the plumbing trade, so that the five 
 hours of our tiny journey soon passed. When we got 
 out it was dark, blowing a gale, and pouring. Nobody 
 to meet us, or say what was to be done. We stood in 
 
 ,124 
 
LMTEkS FkOM FRANCE 
 
 the rain hoping the limbers might be shunted and left. 
 Not at all. The brigade-major estimated we had a 
 six hours' job to clear the train and get away! In 
 three and a half from the time we came in, we were 
 marching out of the station in high fettle, soaked (the 
 men), and singing as I had not heard our company 
 before. The men are really splendid, and to see them 
 trundling the Umbers and cook-carts and R.A.M.C. 
 carts and all the rest of it away down the road with 
 the rain drenching their khaki was a truly excellent 
 thing. 
 
 The last effort of the day was a real stiff one. We 
 had five miles to march to where we are now. The 
 wind had got up to a regular gale, and beat the rain 
 right into us marching against it. 
 
 We started at 10 p.m., so we had had no meal for 
 some time. If I felt tired, what must they have felt 
 like, with far more stuff to carry, and much more 
 work to their credit. 
 
 The whole thing was positively weird, and I had a 
 strange sensation of drifting on in an unknown element, 
 and almost losing the sense of identity. However, it 
 wasn't really far, though quite far enough. We got 
 the men settled in at last, and issued a tot of rum to 
 keep the cold out, and then R. and I got up to our 
 billet and had a scrumptious feast. For the first time 
 all your preparations for such an emergency came right 
 in. First the turtle soup — delicious and boiling hot 
 from the cooker. Then meat tablets, a Havre cake 
 and cheese straws — choc, too, of course. We did enjoy 
 it. Three o'clock saw us in bed at last, gloriously 
 tired and happy, as one always is to have made an effort, 
 and made good on it. 
 
 We are in a farm, and the farm is in a real village, 
 unshelled though very tumble-down, with live French 
 people in it, and seas of mud and manure ! 
 
 125 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VlLLIERS 
 
 October l\th. 
 
 ... I have gone on to Mark, which is ever splen- 
 didly sharp and vigorous. How quickly Christ and the 
 Pharisees crossed swords ! He really almost seems to 
 provoke them — at any rate, to challenge them. 
 
 I love hearing about the live stock and the trees. 
 It is sad indeed about the poplar. They are so lovely 
 out here ; standing in little groups or singly, or with 
 other trees, they are always beautiful and fit the French 
 landscapes everywhere. There is a lightness and pliant 
 grace about them which is always taking my eye. This 
 is a very lovely place. The camp is down a little wee 
 lane, overhung with trees and beastly muddy, which 
 branches off a second-class, which branches off a big 
 main road. The men are in huts which have been 
 put up in regular little " clos " with old fruit-trees 
 and deep grass. It is some time since last they were 
 used. Robinson and I are in luck. We are in the 
 farm to which the " clos " belongs, quite near the 
 camp. We have two nice attics with beds. When we 
 came there was no mess arranged, but I soon fixed 
 it with my landlady that we should have her -piece. 
 This is convenient for all for its nearness to the men, 
 but especially for R. and myself sleeping overhead. 
 My French has come in most useful. . . . 
 
 But to return to the lane. As you go down the 
 trees end, and it goes on — dry now — between pleasant 
 cultivation on either side, with here and there a 
 poplar patch. The valley is closed by the view of 
 another wood with a windmill, and a bit of white 
 building showing in front and in the middle of it. 
 Marvellously pleasant to me. But my first sketch 
 will be of the house seen from across the lane with 
 high trees behind it. There is a depth about the village 
 and its trees which is delicious, with the width of the 
 cultivation. It is an oasis and desert effect. To 
 understand my " depth " think of deep lanes, deep 
 
 126 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 embowered buildings, deep grass, and, alas ! deep 
 muck ! 
 
 October 15th. 
 
 . . . Jingle is a very curious creature. The first 
 evening we were here, he very rightly made a speech 
 after mess about the immediate future, and preparing 
 to meet the winter — it lasted one hour. The word 
 " appalling " and the phrase " baffles description " 
 were used some 500 times, I should think, and the 
 whole thing was delivered with a vehemence of tone 
 and gesture quite unlike anything you could conceive. 
 I was amazed ; though I had often heard him jaw 
 and jaw about his affairs, this terrible jobation on the 
 war "and the weather, and the men and the Hun, was 
 wholly unexpected. It seems he has combined plumb- 
 ing with temperance lecturing. I can believe it. He 
 has a regular " ranter's " resources — rather horrible, 
 for one feels all sense is lost in a torrent of sound, and 
 that is an abject spectacle. The wildest confusion 
 results. What he really thinks about anything can 
 probably not be determined, as he can hardly be said 
 to think at all. What he says is this sort of thing : 
 " The British Tommy — by God — 'there's nobody like 
 him on the face of the earth," and almost in the 
 same breath, " By God, the swine, they'll let you down 
 every bloody time." There it is — 'his powers of utter- 
 ance and of working himself up by the sound of his own 
 voice are unusual. 
 
 October ijth. 
 
 The inspiring call of Christ has sounded in — • — • once 
 and for all, so that now and always His Kingdom has 
 
 come in 's heart beyond questioning or recall. 
 
 I suppose one may fail almost indefinitely to achieve in 
 practice all that that implies, but the conviction that 
 Christ is Lord is the sure stronghold of the spirit against 
 which the floods may beat, yet it will stand firm. 
 
 127 
 
JLGEkNON HTM PlLLlERS 
 
 This is the point of the Christian appeal, " Only be- 
 lieve. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, 
 and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." 
 
 How can we thank God enough for the revelation 
 whereby we are growing in the supreme faith that this 
 is true ? 
 
 I was reading my little Pascal book the other night, 
 and I thought you would like this : 
 
 " Resolve — to do little things as if they were great 
 things for the Majesty of Jesus Christ, Who does them 
 in us, and Who lives our life : and to do great things 
 as if they were little and easy because of His all-power- 
 fulness." I should like to have the original for that 
 and the other greatest saying, " Console thyself. ..." 
 
 The absurdity of putting anything beside Christ's 
 own institution is as clear to me as it is to you. No 
 difficulties can really exist in such a case. It is only 
 necessary to fix on the essential fact that here we have 
 His one construction of the kind — His sole institution 
 — 'and be faithful to that fact, and obstacles will be 
 found to have disappeared. That is the sort of way 
 in which God's omnipotence is true. In so far as we 
 take Christ as our way and truth and life, we are 
 more than conquerors. I find so much in the Psalms 
 which faultlessly expresses this. For example, 
 lxxxi, 9 to the end. After all, idolatry is still the 
 great hindrance to the coming of the kingdom, and 
 it still leads, as we see, " even weeping " to-day, to 
 the same tragically stupid disaster, as it did in Hebrew 
 history. 
 
 Gwatkin's sermons sound the sort of thing one longs 
 for and rejoices in above all. I look forward intensely 
 to reading them. Your quotations are most enhunger- 
 ing. 
 
 About the French. Yes, their grosses fertes were 
 constantly before the minds of those I met. But no 
 mention of a separate peace was ever made, and my 
 
 128 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 impression was exactly the contrary — .one of a deaf 
 grasp that en finir was becoming a real possibility, 
 and that to relax now were not disloyalty so mtich as 
 utter folly. 
 
 I too heard of Kerensky in the palace with powdered 
 footmen in white silk stockings, but not of doping. 
 But one cannot understand Russians. All this may 
 be all right, though it is so bitter for us to hear. . . . 
 
 I have had such a jolly ride this afternoon by myself 
 on a pony that may almost have been intended for a 
 saddle. The going was perfect, and I had some lovely 
 canters on roadsides guiltless of drains — 'they were 
 more fieldsides than roadsides. The landscape is very 
 appealing. One is so deep en campagne — -little fields 
 carpeting the gentle slopes, little roads winding ill- 
 defined among them, at some distance the long line 
 of tree tops like candle flames, as strictly conventional 
 as toy trees out of a farm box, which line some grande 
 route, and in front and behind, to right and left, middle- 
 sized masses of sepia-coloured woods hiding each its 
 well-intentioned but slightly disarrayed village, which 
 the steeple reveals at a distance. There is a combina- 
 tion of open airiness and of cosiness about the whole 
 scene which may well command a passion. It is all 
 pale, almost wan on an October afternoon, but very 
 tender and touching. 
 
 On Sunday a very excellent padre came over in the 
 afternoon, and after church parade R., the O.C., 
 Divisional M.G. Co., and I stayed to a Communion. 
 It is all one, a trots in a tin hut, and in such a setting 
 as my Whitsun service in gorgeous Lincoln, God's pres- 
 ence is always the same. 
 
 Afterwards R. and I walked for an hour and held 
 much converse on eternal things ! He seems to me 
 to have got to the root of the matter with a simpler 
 view than my own. I have no doubt his will stand 
 the test for him, though it could not for me. It 
 
 K I29 
 
ALGERNON HTDE FILLIERS 
 
 doesn't matter so much what you think about God, 
 if you really know Him personally ! On the other 
 hand, some thoughts about Him are a barrier for 
 many, I fancy, and better thoughts would help many 
 to the essential knowledge. 
 
 October 18th. 
 
 We had a route-march to-day — such a lovely after- 
 noon of sunshine and cool breeze. 
 
 I was in command, and thoroughly enjoyed the walk, 
 not so much as my ride, of course, but still it is very 
 satisfactory to me to get familiar with this corner of 
 great France. The lightness of the trees' foliage is 
 the great joy. Perhaps a few leaves may have fallen, 
 but only quite a few. The transparency of the bushy 
 tops is an exquisite feature, and here one has extra- 
 ordinary variety of disposal. At the place where we 
 halted to-day there was a group of three stems in 
 front, perhaps 500 yards away — a picture of graceful 
 loveliness. in itself. Then to the left a massif pierced 
 by the regular village spire and showing a high stockade 
 of elague stems, while to the right the long avenue 
 line of a main highway stretched out of sight. Here 
 and there a real yellow patch is coming, but for the 
 most part the colouring is very neutral this year. 
 The sense that I have of the landscape as a whole 
 is that it is absolutely free from anything like mere- 
 tricious, exciting, and ephemeral beauties, and that it 
 asserts with extraordinary authority its own absolute 
 value and fitness. It has the finest feminine qualities 
 of quiet and of dignity, with a touch of mystery, ex- 
 pressed in the simplest and most gracious form. There 
 is nothing heavy or magnificent, nothing bold or 
 challenging, but an appeal as of something delicate, 
 almost frail, an influence as of something assured and 
 final, knowing all things and hoping all things. A 
 
 130 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 very wise, mature country, patient and inwardly 
 beautiful. 
 
 I hope my attempt to describe the indescribable 
 will not be tiresome to you. It is rather fun to try 
 and put words to what has been just sense as one looked 
 and delighted. 
 
 I think the Challenge of October 12th is a bit flat. 
 The Cuddesdon Sermon is no doubt calculated to 
 soothe and smooth. But do you think all this oil on 
 the water is really wise ? I feel rather Charley-esque x 
 in face of so much placating on all sides. Love is 
 the Christian ideal, but love is a passion, isn't it ? It 
 is all rather Laodicean, and does make one feel rather 
 spewy at moments. I miss Temple's freshness and 
 vigour more than I can say. Fairness to other men's 
 minds is frightfully important, but must that mean 
 feebleness in the expression of one's own ? To distort 
 other people's arguments, and even not to be genuinely 
 interested in them and what is behind them — 'motive 
 and character — is utterly wrong, foolish, and stultifying. 
 The party point is nauseous. But I am all for a clear 
 lead. There will be plenty of time to make con- 
 cessions. But there should be something from which 
 to concede. 
 
 Don't you think it is very poor of the note-writer to 
 assume that we are not " in spirit aggressive " ? He 
 is quite certain we should not be, and believes we are 
 not. I rather think we should be, and hope that we 
 are. I should say Christ and St. Paul and all great 
 Christians are essentially aggressive. The Gospel is 
 most intolerant. An easy-going attitude is worlds 
 away from it. But it is an intolerance not so much of 
 temper as of conviction — a clear-sightedness which 
 insists on separating black and white, and refuses to 
 rest in any attitude which obscures their difference — 
 and above all, it is an unselfish intolerance. It is 
 1 Charles Sydney Buxton, son of Viscount Buxton. 
 
 131 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 selfishness which defeats love. It is not amiability 
 which promotes it. Thus in the case of the war, I 
 think it is fair to say of the demand for victory that we 
 do not seek it to gratify an obstinate vanity, but because 
 the German national idea is a hideous outrage. " II 
 faut en finir." " This practice must cease," as army 
 orders have it. Jt would be positively wicked to drop 
 our attitude of hostility in such a case, or look around 
 for some means of decently forgetting it. 
 
 I'm afraid all this is only too familiar, and too well 
 agreed between us to be very interesting. . . . 
 
 October 2Zni. 
 
 When I was already fast asleep last night, our second- 
 in-command came and told me I was to go for the 
 day to Doullens for a jaunt. 
 
 Two of the nicest brother-officers came too, and I 
 have just got in from a very good day. 
 
 We started at 8 from Brigade H.Q., a few miles 
 away, so breakfast was ordered early, and failed to 
 appear. Our mess is run by the too inefficient padre. 
 He is the laziest, most useless individual I have ever 
 struck. He exercises no direct and practically no 
 indirect influence on our manners and customs, but 
 sits like a dough pudding smiling amiably at nothing. 
 Yet he has an intelligent face, and he has read a fair 
 amount. Supine' is not the word for him. 
 
 The result of our late breakfast was a wild skirmish 
 along the hard high to Brigade. However, we arrived 
 in time with horses sadly heated. Fortunately it is 
 not far. Thence we lumbered in a motor -lorry to 
 the nice little " bourg." It is exactly that. . . . After 
 luncheon I went just out of the town and made a 
 sketch of the delicious beftroi. Tea and some pur- 
 chases for the mess, and a sleepy rumble home, brought 
 me to your letter. . . . 
 
 Yes, I am inclined to think my happiness does depend 
 
 132 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 on the clear realisation of the strength of the Spirit. 
 As we bumped along our return j ourney this evening, 
 I had a very decisive sense of the value of these things — 
 the things of the Spirit. 
 
 The first great advantage which comes to me is, I 
 think, " clarity." Grasping God's hand, I see things 
 so much more steadily. "Be still and know that I am 
 God" is a very true and suggestive thought. He 
 seems to stop the boat rolling, as it were, so that one 
 can see with certainty how to steer. It is then a 
 steering by the stars, isn't it ? He puts an end to our 
 confusion of mind where, without Him, vanity, love 
 of pleasure, laziness, conceit, and irritability, are 
 alternately master. But His rule in the heart gives 
 order, patience, power, serenity, and that deep sense 
 of joy which one has in things being as they should be. 
 It is not wholly a question of success or failure, but of 
 poise which nothing can shake. . . . 
 
 The quotation, " Behold I stand at the door and 
 knock," is surely the most deeply moving in all the New 
 Testament. How precisely true it is ! As we vibrate 
 to the pathos of it in the case of Christ's earthly life 
 among those whose ears were so cruelly stopped against 
 His message, so we must feel it of God's eternal life 
 in relation to mankind. Such utter patience is a thing 
 to dwell upon with deepest reverence. " Consider 
 and bow the head." When at last we do listen to the 
 sound we have really been wanting so long, what an 
 example of the Divine method it is ! . . . 
 
 " Behold I stand at the door and knock." You 
 could not find a more penetrating picture of the Divine, 
 or one which gave more pointedly what seems to be 
 the mark of the Divine — the Majesty of Spiritual 
 might which belongs to the plainest externals. . . . 
 
 Well, no, I think active service on the whole makes 
 it easier to be a Christian. The disturbance and 
 publicity of which life so largely consists are against 
 
 *33 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 it, certainly, but on the other hand the need for God 
 is great, and the clean and honourable life of a soldier 
 is given you in exchange for the mean complacencies 
 of a money-getting existence. There is less love in 
 civil than in military life. Harry told me of the most 
 heartfelt manifestations on his leaving Caterham. . . . 
 
 October 24th, 
 
 Please send me Gwatkin, if at all practicable. I feel 
 certain he would be a continual inspiration. Not 
 -that I have been feeling " dry" just lately or unsus- 
 tained. A few days ago, after I had been less regular 
 than usual in making a nice time for mountaineering, 
 I felt a sense of poverty in life most distinctly. It 
 was a touch, but unmistakable, of all-over-the-place- 
 ishness. The remedy is quite infallible, and for these 
 last days I have had the happiest touch with the seen 
 and temporal, by way of the unseen and eternal. It 
 is lovely when one is going off to sleep to have no 
 disordered or discontented mind, but one which the 
 idea of Christ's goodness and greatness fills with a 
 sense of security and benediction. It is very much 
 like being well nourished in the spirit. " The Bread 
 of Life " is a very apt phrase, I think. Christ comes 
 into our lives under greater forms, no doubt, but the 
 great occasions will, I should say, be best met by the 
 soul which has been led every day to the green pastures 
 and waters of comfort. . . . 
 
 Etaples, 
 
 October 26th. 
 
 We got here in time for an hour and a half's sleep, 
 wash-up and breakfast. When I say " we," it includes 
 a delightful lad of about twenty, who commands 
 another company in the division. He was at Welling- 
 ton, and went to Sandhurst when war broke out. He 
 
 r 34 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 is a very pleasant and they say a most competent fellow 
 — wonderful to think of his age. 
 
 We started along the road to Camiers hoping to 
 pick up a car of sorts. There was a perfect hurricane 
 of wind and sand, and after several disappointments, 
 and walking nearly halfway, we tumbled with intense 
 relief into an R.A.M.C. motor driven by a kindly 
 lady, and going just where we wanted to go. 
 
 The gale was really terrific and the sand for ever 
 filling one's eyes — a distinctly vexatious business. 
 However, the sunshine cheered us. I was glad to see 
 the fine downs, which were practically lost to view 
 in the incessant rain of my former days here. 
 
 There was a great gathering of notables for the 
 demonstration. The red hats must, I think, have 
 outnumbered the plain in a crowd of 200 or 300 men. 
 None of our heaviest were there, but a large assort- 
 ment of brigadiers and divisional commanders. 
 These were full of salutes for a minute Portuguee, 
 who must have been the G.O.C.-in-Chief we thought. 
 He was quite four feet high, and wore his green chin- 
 strap festooning his back hair. The general impres- 
 sion of the omnium gatherum from all our armies was 
 decidedly good. The cavalry were conspicuous — 
 they have an unmistakable air ; lovely, spindle-legged 
 lads in soft leggings and distinguished-looking colonels 
 stopping their unaccustomed ears when the guns fired ! 
 While we were waiting for the opening chorus I spotted 
 General Lawrence, looking handsome but battered. 
 His division is just out from the Ypres fighting. 
 He seemed fairly well and in good spirits, and was 
 most kind and pleasant during our few minutes' 
 chat. 
 
 Our own general was in great form, and threw out 
 some genial remarks in my direction. His table at 
 luncheon was positively uproarious. Altogether I 
 greatly enjoyed the human aspect of the occasion. 
 
 *35 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 From the technical point of view it was interesting, 
 instructive, and admirably stage-managed. . . . 
 
 I must prepare you for events in the near future. . . . 
 
 We expect to be in the thick of it before we are 
 very much older. You will not be worried or anxious, 
 I know, for your " heart standeth fast and believeth in 
 the Lord." Ask His blessing on my efforts in new and 
 surely difficult conditions. This great experience 
 which I expect is coming will complete my training. 
 
 October 27th. 
 
 All the joy of four letters from you has been over- 
 cast by the thought of those poor Buxtons. The 
 account in the Times of yesterday by Denis's Eton 
 contemporary is very touching to me, who have also 
 had a Buxton friend. Denis need not have been 
 Charley's equal to be a bitter loss to all who knew 
 him. . . . 
 
 I liked Aunt B.'s sad saying, " French soil the finest 
 for the dead." . . . 
 
 Jingle goes on leave to-day. . . . Last night we were 
 talking to the R.C. padre about the visit of Cardinal 
 Bourne to France, when J. from the other end of the 
 table shouts out, " The Archbishop of York, he's the 
 hell of a nut." I frankly guffawed. It appeared he 
 meant the Bishop *of London from his subsequent 
 remarks. . . . 
 
 October 29th. 
 
 Yesterday I was suddenly whipped off on my new 
 job. I had not far to go, but an awful long time 
 before I could start work. In fact it was too late to 
 do much, so I had to be very early this morning. 
 Everything fitted in beautifully, and I have been much 
 touched and pleased by the cordiality of everybody 
 on my first performance. They accuse me, with only 
 very slight reason, of unselfishness, and the happiness 
 
 136 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 that gives me is worth anything. There is a look 
 in men's faces sometimes which is the wonderfullest 
 recompense for any amount of trouble. 
 
 I must repeat again that my warning was premature. 
 I am sorry I sent it, for in this case "premature " may 
 so well mean "entirely mistaken." 
 
 If I am cryptic, it is because I am afraid to be any- 
 thing else. . . . 
 
 It is a fine thought — a country one has " marched 
 over and fought for." I am so glad you liked my 
 attempt to convey its rare quality. It has looked 
 lovely to-day, the trees quite turned, but not very 
 brilliant, and great rain-storms charging across the 
 sky. The church has got its steeple cross bent right 
 over, playing at being Albert. 
 
 A " clos " — how convey the expressive word ? — is 
 primarily an enclosure, but to me it has a significance 
 of something small, cosy, withdrawn, and intimate. 
 
 SOMBRIN, 
 
 October 31st. 
 
 I gather the harvests here are good. I am always 
 asking, and the reply is invariably cheering. 
 
 You can guess the latest idiotic rumour — we are 
 for the Julian front ! 
 
 Yes, the padre is R.C. and exceedingly indolent. 
 However, I have had two very good talks with him 
 lately. The first was in the nature of an argument, 
 and I found him more utterly R.C.-ish than I had 
 expected. I was quite taken aback to find that he 
 believed in the Garden of Eden and the Fall story of 
 Genesis as being substantially true. Altogether 1 felt 
 R.C.-ism was impossible. But this evening after tea 
 we went for a walk together, and I found to my 
 great delight that he is also a Christian. It took a 
 long time to rouse him from a rather lethargic general 
 conversation frame of mind, but I succeeded at last, 
 
 137 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 and I intensely enjoyed the walk home. We discussed 
 Christ and Peter and Paul, and got well warmed up, 
 and I found that he really loved them, and we were 
 entirely at one. 
 
 I am interested in St. Mark, but rather as a study 
 than an inspiration. I look forward to another dose 
 of Paul before long. 
 
 October 31.fi. 
 
 The French victory is truly great, isn't it ? There 
 seems to be a conciseness about their efforts which we 
 do not quite equal. On the other hand, one must 
 admit with sorrow that the Germans have got in a 
 good blow against ever valorous Cadorna. It is 
 astonishing that they have resources sufficient for an 
 attack on such a scale. We have not got to the bottom 
 of them yet. Their power of cohesion is a remarkable 
 thing when one remembers their long history of dis- 
 union and internal conflict, but I remain unimpressed 
 by it in my heart of hearts. The low level of the 
 whole thing makes the actual achievement almost 
 worthless. . . . 
 
 There is indeed with me a feeling that real life is 
 only going to begin when this peculiar dream is over. 
 It'is not too bad a dream just now. Jingle's absence 
 leaves us a very harmonious party. 
 
 1 have been much interested in the new work with 
 the artillery we have been doing. My wet days at 
 Camiers in August enable me to take the lead in this, 
 and I have enjoyed the lecturing and drilling involved. 
 It is always fun to bring order out of chaos in the 
 men's minds and on the parade-ground. The only 
 drawback is the beastly cold and the shortage of fuel. 
 The latter is really most trying. I go for a good walk 
 along the road, before going to bed, to warm up. How- 
 ever, things will be better to-morrow. R. and I have 
 a nice big empty room in which we have our sleeping- 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 bags spread on wire beds of the usual order. I could 
 not stand up in my former gite, but here I actually 
 Miiller in the mornings. The brick floor and black- 
 beamed ceiling are rather jolly, and when Harrison 
 has fixed me up a table I shall be admirably placed. 
 The village is gathered round its church very pleas- 
 antly, and, as usual, is deep in trees. 
 
 The mules have a delicious " clos," and the horses 
 a stable just next door to me, so that I can go and 
 see them at any minute, which I do, with some enjoy- 
 ment. There is a theatre just exactly like the drill- 
 hall at E. Linton, and we had the usual awful concert 
 last night. It is a great thing, though, when it rains 
 and for lectures. . . . 
 
 The beliefs so precious to us and so hard to spread 
 are easy to ridicule, and yet sorely needed on every 
 hand. I found myself composing a sort of credo this 
 morning. . . . 
 
 November 1st. 
 
 There has been no mail to-day. . . . Whatever 
 the reason, I am letterless. That is always sad, and 
 this evening an idiotic sing-songing or songrbawling 
 mood overtook the young lads after dinner and bored 
 me rather heavily. So I feel a little depressed. 
 Nothing, however, is more refreshing and cheering 
 than to sit down for an hour's chat with you. It 
 is hard on those who are not married, and married 
 as you and I are, so that they really lift one another 
 above the transit oriness of the common world into 
 the timeless world of eternal verities. I find that idea 
 — that we can discover here and now in various ways 
 a road from the fugitive and unsatisfactory into the 
 eternal " now " — most consoling. Temple's Mens 
 Creatrix gave it to me, and I have proved it very true. 
 What a significant fact it is that an idea is, if true, 
 only a vision of what was true before, but yet, by being 
 
 J 39 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 stated and brought home to one, it actually creates 
 something new for one. The fitness of the name 
 Mens Creatrix is very well illustrated in this. 
 
 As I talked with the padre last night, I was very 
 conscious of the absurdity of sectarian differences. 
 They rest on such trivial issues — trivial, at any rate, 
 in comparison to the unifying convictions. I found 
 that when it was a question of the special value of the 
 fact of Christ, or of the reason that made so many 
 neglect that precious fact, or of the delight in St. 
 Paul, or of the significance of prayer and sacrament, 
 or apparently any of the things which really matter 
 to the inner man, the R.C. and I were brothers, 
 rejoicing in one another. The love we felt for Christ, 
 faint enough I dare say, was yet strong enough to 
 constrain us really to love one another. This must 
 be the most beautiful and the most hopeful fact 
 in the world — that there is this wonderful Being 
 Whose magic Personality — once we are really in- 
 terested in Him — unites, uplifts and rejoices all sorts 
 and conditions of men. When we are together again, 
 let us not forget to make the effort — happy and de- 
 lightful in itself — of meeting one another more and 
 more in Him. 
 
 I take it there is nothing obscure or mystical about 
 this except in its results. It is simply the taking an 
 interest in Christ, reading and thinking about Him, 
 and coming to care about Him and to grow fond of 
 Him, just as we might study and grow devoted to 
 some lesser historical figure, that leads perhaps in the 
 end to the fullness of God. The method is quite 
 commonplace, the result quite obvious and to be 
 expected. It is in the quality of the result that we see 
 with whom we have to do. . . . 
 
 I am sorry (a little) that the Omnipotence corre- 
 spondence is closed, for L.M. puts us back at just the 
 misleading angle that I was seeking to get away from. 
 
 140 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 When she speaks of God deliberately willing sin with 
 so much horror, she is thinking of Him as outside the 
 world and responsible (or not), as it were, for what 
 happens in it. Whereas, if I am right, God is in His 
 world facing the necessity of sin, and for ever redeem- 
 ing it, by working it into the triumph of goodness, 
 till we all come to a perfect man, far greater by our 
 sins than any mere innocence could make us. There 
 must be some meaning in, " There is more joy in 
 Heaven over one sinner that repenteth " ; and God's 
 ways of redeeming the sins of the world are far more 
 various and inscrutable than the single way of repent- 
 ance in the individual heart. 
 
 Christ's triumph did depend upon the exceeding 
 sinfulness of the Jews, and so we may be sure that God 
 is not mocked. He is not worsted iby our wrongdoing. 
 He knows how to use it all. 
 
 Do you know the famous saying, " O felix culpa 
 quae tantum et talem meruit habere Redemptorem " ? 
 Is it an outburst of St. Augustine's ? It is, in any case, 
 a thing to keep in one's mind waiting for the full 
 illumination of it to reach the level of complete con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 I have just re-read this, and wonder how I could 
 have been so faithless as to mention my mood at 
 starting. I really knew quite well that I should have 
 to unsay it before I had gone very far. It seems 
 worlds away now. . . . 
 
 The Italian news is rather awful, isn't it ? Strength 
 of soul ! We aren't going to win easily even now. 
 But what times to live in ! Immense in their terror 
 and challenge. 
 
 November <znd. 
 
 I go unrefreshed by a letter . . . once more to-day. 
 However, I am in high spirits, having played a capital, 
 mud-larking game of football this afternoon. 
 
 141 
 
ALGERNON HTDE P1LLIERS 
 
 One feels extraordinarily good all over after that 
 most remarkably excellent sport. We, with some help 
 from the Divisional M.G. Co., are playing the 
 Brigade to-morrow, and expect to have an almighty 
 tough fight of it. 
 
 Provided you use some familiar phrases, you can get 
 a hearing, at least from our thoughtless people, for 
 almost any nonsense or wrong. In consequence of 
 meeting with this horrible idea, I find myself being 
 much more pro-Russian than I had been. With all 
 their tragic folly and incapacity, they are still a thou- 
 sand times nearer to us than the man-eating ants of 
 Prussia. 
 
 I was cheered by Smuts's cool, firm speech on Italy. 
 
 All Saints' Day was very real and happy to me. A 
 great deal of attention was paid to it in the village, 
 as everywhere in France, I think. The bell of the 
 church has a beautiful note. It seemed to be sum- 
 moning the parish at all hours. 
 
 I have such a delicious reminder of Finedon from 
 my room. I look out on. to the tall spire at just the 
 same angle and from just the same distance. The 
 window itself, too, is of the Finedon proportion, and 
 has a smaller part at the top which doesn't open, and 
 a double light below opening down the middle. That 
 is right, isn't it ? Of course, the dear little panes are 
 not there, and the tiled spire is as unworthy as you 
 like to be compared with the perfect spring of the 
 red and grey at Finedon. Still, it has been enough 
 to remind me of all the beauty, dignity, and peace, 
 which belonged to that cherished spot. 
 
 There are two delightfully French trees at the edge 
 of the churchyard which I greatly enjoy, and am always 
 intending to sketch. . . . 
 
 I wish I had time to arrange my theologico-seraphic 
 fancies into a series of papers. I should like to straighten 
 them all out into a consecutive view of the whole 
 
 142 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 great subject. Perhaps, however, that will come 
 later, and will be better, worth doing with fuller 
 knowledge. 
 
 It has been a warm, drizzling day, by no means un- 
 pleasant, rather comfy in fact. I do hate a pene- 
 trating wind. This is my fourth month in France, 
 and twelfth of foreign service. What luck I have 
 had ! . . . 
 
 November \th. 
 I am afraid I allowed the sense of discomfort and 
 stuffiness to creep into my letter of yesterday. I am 
 so sorry. Things are very different to-night. I have 
 been for a very jolly ride this afternoon, and am now 
 established in the room occupied by two " of ours," 
 with table and chair and fire — the acme of cosiness. . . . 
 
 I was thrilled by your mention of Cyrano on the 
 leaves. Can I quote the lines ? Je crois bien. j 
 
 "... Comme elles tombent bien 
 Dans ce trajet si court de la branche a la terre. 
 Comme eUes savent mettre une beaute derniere, 
 Et malgre leur terreur de pourrir sur le sol, 
 Veulent que cette chute ait la grace d'un vol.' 
 
 They are indeed favourites — a wonderful swinging 
 movement about them, like nothing outside Hardy on 
 the trees. . . . 
 
 I have written a Challenge letter about sin, suggested 
 by L.M.'s letter in answer to mine, and founded on 
 what I wrote to you two nights ago. I long to see a 
 determined effort to get to the facts on these and the 
 other great problems of life. There is no more in- 
 sidious devil than the one that suddenly sends a f eeling, 
 more than a thought, into one's consciousness, that 
 the religious position is a piece of hocus-pocus — all right 
 for certain moods, but not real life — not workable 
 fact. I know him at once and can deal with him, 
 
 H3 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 but I see what a real devil he is, and what an immense 
 amount of material he has to his hand in the second- 
 rate thinking and practice of Christianity. Christ, 
 on the other hand, completely bowls him out every 
 time, and gives one the exactly opposite sense that 
 only through the unseen and eternal can we cope 
 with the seen and temporal. 
 
 ■ It is still warm and muggy — the mist very thick, 
 but I rather enjoy this, as you know. I am now 
 definitely recommended for second-in-command, and 
 warmly congratulated. . . . 
 
 ... I haven't any news, and I must tell you that I 
 shall probably seem very jejune on soldiering. 
 
 Heavy warnings keep coming out on " Leakage" of 
 information. 
 
 One cheerful detail (of which the Boche could not 
 possibly make any use) is that I am splendidly well ! 
 
 A lady of the village is contemplating a claim against 
 Charlie Clay's department, " pour la degradation de 
 ses herbes." Isn't that nice — the degradation of the 
 herbs ? I have been reading your Tolstoy. It is 
 charming, but his idea of Christianity is outre. He is 
 a finer writer than thinker, I should say. I wonder if 
 that strange people may recover at all during the 
 hibernation of the next months. The figures of the 
 captures of guns and M.G.s by the French impressed 
 me profoundly this morning. They are really mar- 
 vellous. I find the more intelligent here manage to 
 un-British themselves enough to be acutely admiring 
 of them. 
 
 November 6th. 
 Very good news to-day, as the Arab paper-boys used 
 to say — Jingle is not coming back. We believe his 
 successor is a very good fellow. 
 
 We played football again to-day. I'm sure I played 
 futilely, but it was great fun, and makes one feel very 
 
 144 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 beatific, though slightly tired. Another game is in 
 prospect to-morrow, so I am doing well for exercise. 
 That is all my news, so I will turn to your letters. 
 Yes, your weather is evidently much better than ours. 
 We don't have great downpours, but the ground is 
 thoroughly soaked, and the air simply full of moisture. 
 
 I am taking advantage of the kindness of M. le Cure, 
 who lets us use a little warm room of his next his 
 kitchen, where he sits with his sister and mother. 
 It is usually rather full, but to-night there is a boxing 
 competition in our drill-hall, so everybody has gone 
 over there. 
 
 Having no Bible with me prevents my answering 
 you in detail about the Psalms. I agree in a general 
 way about the wicked, but have I never told you how 
 I habitually, and now almost unconsciously, interpret 
 those passages ? 
 
 They stand for me, those wicked, for all the " evil 
 thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul." I find 
 in nine cases out of ten there is not the slightest diffi- 
 culty in so understanding the words. It is also 
 perfectly natural that some such interpreting should 
 be necessary, for the evils of different ages are not 
 the same. The way to meet them, however, does not 
 change. That is why the Psalms are immortal poems, 
 for they give the sovereign rule of life in unrivalled 
 simplicity and beauty of form. " Seek His face ever- 
 more" — that is the way to tackle whatever oppresses 
 the human soul. " I have set God always before me " 
 — that is the way in all ages that the true greatness of 
 life is revealed in thought and in action. 
 
 As the world goes on, the enemy will be ever more 
 subtle, but not less strong maybe, and we shall still 
 need the Psalms to sound again in our hearts the war 
 songs of God's primitive chosen. 
 
 One cannot too eagerly long that our enemies, the 
 haters of the Lord — the things against God in life, 
 
ALGERNON HTM VILLIERS 
 
 the God who is in us, our best self, the hope of our 
 glorified future — that such shall come into slippery- 
 places and, falling down, disclose their instability. 
 
 The "stability" of Christ — that was a fine word of 
 yours. I see the Archbishop's sermon was on " Jesus 
 Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," but 
 with ever new worlds to conquer and to subdue, till 
 we all come in the fullness of time unto a perfect man 
 to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 
 Glorious words ! To transcribe them is a religious 
 act, and the eloquence of St. Paul is not an easy-flowing 
 thing, wherein subj ect is a mere content of form : it 
 is the upstruggling into speech of the things too 
 wonderful and excellent for me, but the truest, most 
 precious things of all. 
 
 Well ... I have got a lot of men's letters to censor, 
 as I am orderly to-day, and get H.Q. as well as the 
 section to do. H.Q. men are very verbose too — so I 
 will stop and wish you good night. 
 
 November %ih. 
 
 I did not write to you yesterday, I am sorry to say. 
 My day was very full. The morning was occupied 
 with the troops. After luncheon we had a con- 
 ference to consider the field-day, from which I have 
 just come in. I then hurried over to Har, 1 and got 
 back just as a show by the divisional entertainers was 
 opening. I felt I must throw myself into this, though 
 it was not too good to be missed by any means. . . . 
 
 I liked seeing Harry very much . . . had been 
 thrilled by the accounts given by his local maire of all 
 the political devilries which centre in Caillaux. . . . 
 
 The only man who could cope with Caillaux seems 
 to have been old Gallieni, who placed him under 
 arrest in the early days for clamorously demanding 
 
 1 Captain H. Graham. 
 146 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 an interview when the General was busy with other 
 things. . . . The maire, who is royalist and Catholic, 
 says that before the war all moral sense had been 
 abandoned or lost in France, but that the war was 
 bringing it back. He lost a Government inspector- 
 ship when he entered his son at a Jesuit school, and 
 has a story of General Castelnau, who thought it 
 necessary to explain that he had a Jesuit brother when 
 some post was offered him, lest he should be thought 
 to have taken it under false pretences. 
 
 The field-day has been rather feeble, confused, and 
 fatiguing, not a success, I should say. Our new CO. 1 
 is a capital fellow as far as I can see, very conscientious 
 and keen. A serious person, at any rate. I'm sure he 
 is not simply pour rire, like his predecessor. The 
 situation in Italy is certainly terribly anxious. One 
 does so dread a desecration of Castelfranco, Venice, 
 Padua, and the places that we and so many thousands 
 have so ardently loved. The news of Wm. Temple is 
 very good and fine. 
 
 To M. V. 
 
 November ytb. 
 
 Thank goodness, human beings are actually far more 
 elastic than a great many who have never been 
 stretched can bring themselves to admit. It is good 
 to be stretched and establish one's elasticity, isn't 
 it ? . . . 
 
 This country is most beautiful. The villages are 
 hidden in trees and betrayed by their fleches alone. 
 There are any number of them, joined by little wet 
 roads between the open fields. It attracts me strongly. 
 It has an air of authority and dignity which is more 
 affecting than the picturesque. One feels at once 
 it is a Mother earth. . . . 
 
 1 Major S. G. Davey. Killed March 23rd* 191 8. 
 
 H7 
 
ALGERNON HTDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 There was an account of Denis Buxton in the Times 
 which recalled Charley. Though I hardly knew Denis, 
 I felt his death for what it reminded me of. I have 
 never yet met anyone I admired and liked so much as 
 Charley. He had a very rare combination of spiritual, 
 intellectual and social gifts. I often wonder what 
 he would have done in the war. Been killed, I suppose, 
 to a certainty. 
 
 We are thoroughly enjoying these times, but the 
 winter, is a terrible prospect, especially for those who 
 have been through one. 
 
 November gth. 
 
 . . . The more I see of our. new CO. the more I 
 like him. He is full of energy, and no " eye-wash" 
 man at all. I am sure he knows his job and is wrapped 
 up in it. . . . 
 
 It is a joy to have such a man for a CO. . . . 
 
 I had a long talk this morning with M. le Cure. He 
 spoke faultlessly-chiselled sentences of really expressive 
 richness on the great topics of Christ and His place in 
 life. I loved to hear him. When we came to the 
 things that divide, I found a stone wall behind his 
 handsome, animated features. 
 
 He admitted that a sincere Protestant, though in 
 error, is ie bonne foi, and may be saved. I asked him 
 why, if this were so, it was quite certain' that all the 
 truth was on his side, all the error on mine, if we were 
 both sincere. He said that they were quite certain 
 of the whole truth being with them, because of the 
 Apostolic Succession. I was horrified, and said I 
 could not understand how, in questions of such magni- 
 tude, a mechanical fact (doubtful in itself historically, 
 I fancy) could be made to carry such weight. We 
 parted very good friends, but I was grieved at his 
 intransigeance. He is a splendid man to look at, 
 young, tall and beautifully turned-out in cassock and 
 
 148 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 hat caught up on each side. His beard is most elegant, 
 and his bright brown eyes full of expression. If only 
 our clergyman could look like him, have half his facility 
 of speech and a liberal mind into the bargain ! That 
 is too much to hope for. It is a great thing, however, 
 that our worthy men are not trained in his rigid 
 mould. It is a paltry thing at bottom, that fixity of 
 statement. One cannot . believe it is quite fully 
 sincere. It smells second-hand. 
 
 To Charles 
 
 November 8th. 
 
 . . . We have had a field-day to-day. Uncle Har 
 was one of the umpires, .and looked very fine on his 
 big horse and with his bright red tabs and brassard. 
 We all got rather wet in the morning, but got dry 
 again by the afternoon. 
 
 It is great fun when we move from one position to 
 another. I blow, my whistle and wave my arms 
 round and round, and immediately all the men jump 
 up and carry off the guns and the tripods, and the 
 ammunition, and all the things they have, and pack 
 them like lightning into the limbers, which are like 
 boxes on wheels. Then crack go the whips, the men 
 scramble up somehow on to the limbers, and the good 
 little mules go galloping off as fast as they can till I 
 stop them, and everybody and everything tumbles 
 out again, and a new position is taken from which 
 to fire. We don't really fire on field-days, which 
 make things a little bit silly, but all the same it is 
 great fun. 
 
 I like the real firing best, especially when you see 
 the horrible Germans fall or scuttle for shelter, as we 
 often could see them when we were in the line. I must 
 stop now 
 
 H9 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 November loth. 
 
 Can you imagine what our feelings were when the 
 door was blown in last night (when we were at dinner) 
 by no other than Jingle himself ? We spent anxious 
 hours till all was made clear this morning and his 
 orders to proceed to duly arrived. 
 
 It has at any rate given us an increased sense of 
 the excellent fortune which has befallen us in his 
 departure. However, it is only fair to mention that 
 he was most complimentary to me. . . . 
 
 It is a pity that one cannot value his good opinion 
 in the very least. I don't think I ever met such a 
 buckram person all round. . . . 
 
 Yes, it does seem absurd to empty the church for 
 the Lord's own service, and to fill it in order to hear a 
 timid curate discoursing from the pulpit. Mattins 
 followed by Communion is the worst possible arrange- 
 ment. . . . 
 
 November nth. 
 
 I am waiting for Hum l to turn up. He was to have 
 been here by twelve o'clock, but it is now nearly two, 
 and there is no sign of him. It will be a great blow 
 if he doesn't come. 
 
 The news is as bad as even he could expect, isn't it ? 
 One really requires all one's fortitude to contemplate 
 the conquest of Venetia and the final pourriture of 
 Russia under Lenin. How long shall we and the 
 French be able to keep loyal in the midst of so much 
 collapse ? I don't really doubt that we both shall be 
 able to hold on, but this winter will evidently be a 
 time of supreme strain and testing. 
 
 The cure here speaks of his countrymen just as one 
 has been led to think of them. 
 
 1 Captain Humphrey Paul. 
 150 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 He dwelt on the coldness of their clear vision, and 
 the strength which that brought them. 
 
 He is a royalist and has a touching faith in the value 
 of monarchical institutions. He is as rigid about 
 politics as he is about religion. Except for the pleasure 
 of his speech, he would not be very interesting com- 
 pany. 
 
 As it is, I am looking forward to his dining with us 
 to-morrow. It will be a strain on our conversational 
 powers, but I have imported an infantryman who 
 is pretty fluent, and have hopes, too, that the CO. will 
 be able to support me. . . . 
 
 November 13th. 
 
 Another miss yesterday was greatly regretted by me, 
 but was quite unavoidable. We were off early, and 
 had a long march to a range among lovely dark 
 woods. 
 
 It was a perfect day, dark and warm, and our road 
 ran along a beautiful valley with steep, tree-clad sides, 
 and through a j oily old town, the feature of which is 
 an archway with a high building and a steep brown 
 roof over it. The dignity of the little place and 
 the radiant quiet of its surroundings put the war a 
 very long way off. We had a most successful time on 
 the range. My section remains in for the final in an 
 M.G. competition to take place before the Brigadier, 
 and my sergeant, by excellent rifle shooting, looked 
 like doing us great credit in that line. . . . 
 
 To-day we have won the brigade cross-country run, 
 one of our officers coming in first. This gives the 
 greatest satisfaction to all, and is of real importance 
 to our position in the brigade. Such things count 
 for a lot, not altogether absurdly, I should say, and it 
 is our great object to make the M.G. Corps the name 
 it should have. 
 
 I was out with the CO. this afternoon, and liked him 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 very much. We were doing a little professional stunt, 
 and I greatly admired his imaginative good sense. His 
 keenness and good manner make him entirely satis- 
 factory. . . . 
 
 The cure's coming was a great success. He was just 
 as I have described him, and harped on the same 
 themes. We talked of books a little. He has read 
 nothing but French literature. His detestation of 
 the Republic and of democracy knows no bounds. I 
 greatly enjoyed his beautiful speech and fine presence. 
 He has gone back to be an R.A.M.C. sergeant to-day. 
 His going has brought about an event of which you 
 will love to hear. His room is occupied by the CO. 
 and R., and I have moved into the one in which I 
 slept the first night I was here, likewise in the fres- 
 bytere. I am writing in it now at a nice solid table, 
 with the white sheets of my bed just visible out of the 
 corner of my eye. It has the warmth of an inhabited 
 house about it, which is good. We are now in clover, 
 though the other place was not bad at all really. It 
 was larger than this, had two nice windows, and was 
 on the ground floor. The cold and absence of furni- 
 ture were, of course, great drawbacks. I am glad 
 indeed of the change. . . . 
 
 Daily duty surely comes first in the general laying- 
 out of one's time and efforts. I can't believe God's 
 will is that one should be inefficient. But nothing 
 should stand in the way of a daily meeting with God, 
 and that for purely practical, if for no other reasons. 
 I am orderly officer to-morrow, and I'm sure I shall 
 not do my job as well as I might if I do not take good 
 care to allow for a time to be alone with our Father 
 which is in heaven. The more anxious and difficult 
 the work to be done, the more essential it is to get the 
 spiritual succour needed to see it through. Orderly 
 officer is a very small job out here — I only took it as an 
 example of a very ordinary kind. The trouble is to 
 
 152 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 do well whatever there may be to do without seeking 
 God's help. . . . 
 
 I feel I am on the rock when I am, with Pascal, 
 conscious of the Majesty of Christ in the small sphere, 
 and looking to His all-powerfulness should I be called 
 to a greater. This way one is happy in the present 
 and for the future. 
 
 I must stop now. I have got to make some arrange- 
 ments for a field-day to-morrow, and am going out 
 to dine with the infantry. . . . 
 
 Wingy's J death made me quite sick to hear of for 
 a moment. It is profoundly melancholy. How and 
 when was it ? There is nothing to do, in the face 
 of the long succession of tragedies, but to bow the 
 head. But it is navrant. 
 
 November i$th. 
 
 Yesterday an extreme form of field-day was suddenly 
 sprung upon us. 
 
 We had to get up at four in the morning, and do 
 a goodish march to the champ d'exercice before 
 starting the proper activities of the day. These were 
 quite strenuous, and we did not get home till 6 o'clock. 
 Who should I find but Harry come to pay me a visit ? 
 He was very genial and cheerful, and made himself 
 at home in our uncomfortable and unfamiliar sur- 
 roundings, till I had some tea and brought him over 
 here to chat for a little time till he went off home. 
 
 My new job comes into play again to-morrow, but 
 it will cause me no trouble at all, as the ground to be 
 dealt with is already perfectly familiar. . . . 
 
 I must really apologise for my flow of theology. 
 I was positively overflowing with it about ten days 
 ago. 
 
 Apropos of M.'s comment on my conference letter, 
 
 I wonder whether (in the line of Wells's argument) 
 
 1 Lieutenant W. Stuart was, happily, not killed, but a prisoner. 
 
 153 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 we have not passed the stage where individuals can 
 really dominate, and must not be prepared to face the 
 more difficult method of advance by means of general 
 raising of the intellectual and spiritual level. . . . 
 
 The idea of a Russian's idea of madness is indeed 
 portentous. Could they mean what we call "sane " ? 
 But really I am sorry for them, and hate to hear them 
 abused, and the same with the Italians. Think how 
 awful it would be, for us if our armies and Government 
 got into such a frightful condition. . . . 
 
 November i6tb. 
 
 The duties of the " new job " were quite success- 
 fully carried out this morning. Everybody was most 
 genial, even " affecting," and there were no difficulties 
 of any kind. 
 
 There will be another similar venture to-morrow. 
 Meantime the " depth" has, if anything, increased, 
 especially as regards the muck. The excellent table 
 Harrison fixed up for me remains intact, and I am 
 writing from it now. He is an excellent old bird, but I 
 hear from R. that the CO. " ticked him off " heavily 
 this morning for having a dirty tunic and long hair. 
 Poor old thing, he has been chasing the company 
 barber ever since, in spite of having been inoculated 
 yesterday. It will be my turn soon, I expect. That is 
 all my news ! 
 
 I am sorry to think that should feel quasi- 
 agnostic. I agree, of course, that the fullness of God 
 is a mystery. But, though He is wrapped in mystery, 
 He is surely not lost in it. Does she really feel that 
 one cannot be sure of anything about Him ? That 
 seems to me to be a melancholy position, and not 
 really in accordance with facts. However, perhaps 
 it is beside the mark to say that, since the only relevant 
 facts are facts of one's own experience, and these will 
 be different in different cases. But then, again, that 
 
 *54 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 is true of everything or anything which is commonly 
 called a fact. 
 
 So here we run right up against the vital question : 
 Can we have knowledge of God at all comparable to 
 our knowledge of one another ? It seems to me that 
 everything turns on this. A vague surmise, an eternal 
 question, is worlds away from a work a day piece 
 of common knowledge. Do you think you could try 
 and tell me what would be your own answer to this 
 question ? I will try and tell you something about 
 mine. 
 
 I feel perfectly sure of one thing — the foundation 
 of all the rest — that there is available for our constant 
 use an unseen source of personal power. That to 
 me is a fact like a table or chair, only, as the Dean 
 would say I think, more unshakable than the tables 
 and chairs. This is the fact of God. It is no good 
 saying that it is a piece of self-deception, for this 
 reason : that this fact of God stands on exactly the same 
 level as the fact of self. It goes through all experience 
 from top to bottom, and throughout its length and 
 breadth. It is in essence the same fact as that of self, 
 and one, clearly, cannot be self-deceived on the fact 
 of self-. If self itself is a fraud, then there is no self 
 to deceive or be deceived. In, other words, the whole 
 of experience falls to the ground. The fact of God 
 likewise, once grasped, is ultimate. You cannot over- 
 throw it and leave anything standing at all. 
 
 I have received a measure of power to live in the 
 fullest sense, and I have not received it from any 
 visible or tangible source. I don't think it is possible 
 for me to be argued out of this. I come back to this 
 fundamental thing whenever I am tempted to doubt, 
 and there it is staring me in the face. I cannot get 
 away from it. The means to this knowledge is mainly, 
 almost wholly, indirect contact with the historical 
 Christ, which convinces me that in Him we have the 
 
 *55 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 expression of that power which was, and which is, the 
 spring of veritable manhood. 
 
 These are deep thoughts, but the experience is very 
 elementary. It is hard to capture God, and enclose 
 Him in a sentence, but it is also quite impossible, 
 if He shows Himself to you, to avoid seeing 
 Him. . . . 
 
 Now I must turn to more easily-handled matters, 
 or it will be food time before I have answered your 
 letter. . . . 
 
 Yes, I was much struck by the letter to Lord 
 Rothschild. I feel it will be intensely interesting and 
 helpful to us to have the Jewish people re-established 
 as a political entity. I am quite glad Wells's Bishop is 
 trashy. . . . 
 
 November i%th. 
 
 I did not write to you yesterday, as my day was very 
 full. My work went off very satisfactorily, and I 
 really enjoyed it! 
 
 Alas ! I had no letter from you, and again none 
 to-day. 
 
 The weather is wonderful — rather misty in the 
 mornings, but very dry for the season, and with gleams 
 of sunlight now and then. It is not anything like 
 as cold as it was in Scotland this time last year. I 
 remember the icy keen afternoons, and the long even- 
 ings spent in absorbing St. Paul and writing to that 
 absurd " Active Service." The fall seems to be 
 my composing season, doesn't it ? 
 
 One great advantage, I notice, is possessed by 
 religious novelties and side-shows. They are quite 
 easy to confess. There is no difficulty about saying, 
 " I am not afraid of being shot, because I am a Christian 
 Scientist." It is extremely difficult to say that one is 
 a Christian, and there is no other way of saying that 
 one is seeking to follow Christ. Unfortunately, the 
 
 156 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 word Christian has become so closely associated with 
 moral perfection that one cannot call oneself the 
 former without appearing to lay claim to the latter. 
 It is offensive, and indeed absurd, to say, " I did this, 
 or feel so, because I am a good man," isn't it ? But 
 that's what one will be understood to mean by saying 
 one is a Christian. I want some way of saying that 
 I believe in Christ without implying that I am like 
 Him, just as Harry can believe in Mrs. Eddy without 
 suggesting that his literary sense has forsaken him ! 
 Perhaps I shall find a way before long ; one usually 
 does by being patient. 
 
 Last night I was taken to task again for the way I 
 had done this job, and I longed to be able to say, " Of 
 course I did the thing that way — it is the only sensible 
 way to do things," remembering " the words of the 
 Lord Jesus, how He said ..." 
 
 It seemed such a chance to set forward His cause 
 when people were touched, and I was so entirely 
 solid and happy. However, it seems that it was not 
 to be. I felt as if I was restrained. I expect when I 
 have more fully tested the power that worketh in us, 
 and proved beyond any possibility of doubt that it is 
 the Lord, then I shall be able to witness to it. 
 
 It looks to me as if that time must soon be coming. 
 After all, I have lived by His light for over a year now, 
 with the torch burning away in the pitcher, only 
 showing through chinks to the nearest at hand, and 
 soon the signal ought to come to break the pitcher 
 and blow the trumpet, and shout for the Sword of the 
 Lord. Perhaps it never will. It is in God's hands. 
 I feel no fear of heavy trials, no doubt which is the rock 
 on which to build a safe and happy house. I read 
 glorious Joshua i 1-9 yesterday. Nearly twenty years 
 ago Bull set the text on the fly-leaf of the little book I 
 am using still. It is' a supreme passage, none finer in 
 the Old Testament. . . . 
 
 r 57 
 
JLGEkNON HYDE PlLLlEkS 
 
 November 19th. 
 
 Yes, I alluded to vicarious suffering (in letter of 
 November 1st). That does seem to be a fact, strange 
 though it is, and the important thing is to try and 
 stick to the facts, and not fit them into the ideas of 
 what we should like to be true. 
 
 It is growing rather cold these days, isn't it ? And 
 a brazier of wood makes such an infernal smoke that 
 it is hardly worth having it. . . . 
 
 Impossible write more now, too much interrupted. 
 
 From Major S. G. Davey 
 
 Machine-Gun Company. 
 
 You will probably know that I have only been with 
 the company some three weeks, but during that time 
 I had seen a good deal of your husband, and we were 
 beginning to form a friendship which I hoped would 
 be very close. As an officer, no words are too good 
 for him, he was so extremely thorough and efficient : 
 his whole heart was in his work, and his loss is a very 
 great blow to all of us. 
 
 Two days before he died we went for a long walk, 
 and he told me of you . . . ; he talked, too, of his hopes 
 for later on, when the social problems come to be solved, 
 and of the share he wished to take in their solving. 
 
 His influence in the company was splendid : as 
 you know, we have many boys of nineteen or under 
 serving in the army, and he was excellent with these 
 younger ones. 
 
 He died in full health and spirits, shot through the 
 head by a sniper. There could have been no pain. 
 He was going forward ahead of his men to reconnoitre. 
 
 Later on, at dusk, I went up near the spot myself. 
 It was a hillside with longish rough grass : on the right 
 
 158 
 
LETTERS FROM FRANCE 
 
 there was a big wood, from which the hill sloped 
 down. 
 
 A flock of mallard flew across the sky just before 
 dark, and I thought that he would have liked that : 
 he was very fond of birds. 
 
 Despite the fact that there was a good deal of rifle- 
 fire going on, and some shelling, there was a kind of 
 peacefulness over everything, and he himself was very 
 peaceful. . . . 
 
 You must have a realisation that he was ready to go 
 on to other work, and I am perfectly sure that that was 
 so. 
 
 Letter from the Subsection Officer 
 
 The day before we went into action the CO. had 
 the details of the attack given him, and decided that 
 one section should go over the top behind the last 
 wave of infantry, to help them in case of need, and 
 to consolidate the objectives in turn, as they were 
 won. The remaining three sections, it was arranged, 
 should stay behind to do barrage work. 
 
 The CO. at once decided that No. 2 Section should 
 be the one to go with the infantry, which was a great 
 honour, and compliment to the section in general, 
 but to your husband in particular, as he was in com- 
 mand of it, and the work it was called upon to do was 
 much more dangerous and difficult than the task of 
 the other sections, and demanded much greater leader- 
 ship on the part of the man in charge. It is only 
 fair and right to say that his section was undoubtedly 
 the best, and deserved this distinction, and it was 
 all through his zeal and energy that the section was 
 so good. The men would have followed him any- 
 where, under any conditions. 
 
 At 10.30 on the 23rd the attack started, and our four 
 guns followed about 400 yards behind the last wave ■ 
 
 iS9 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LLIERS 
 
 of infantry. For the sake of co-operation and liaison 
 with the infantry, we decided that your husband $hould 
 stay all the time with the last infantry wave, while I 
 followed behind with the section. Our first objective 
 was a ridge on the left of Bourlon Wood, and just out- 
 side it, known as " ioo Spur " ; and our second, Bourlon 
 village and the high ground beyond. 
 
 All went well as far as the first objective, and the 
 brigade on our right, which attacked the wood, seemed 
 to be going well. We were held up by machine guns 
 at " ioo Spur" (the Boche machine guns were very 
 numerous, and he put up a very effective barrage 
 with them, though he had no artillery to speak of), 
 and your husband came back to help me to get the 
 guns into action, to try and help the troops in front 
 to advance. 
 
 I was hit in the thigh as we were doing this, and 
 he turned to me and shouted, " Hard luck ! " as a fare- 
 well message, for, of course, in a show like this, once 
 a man is wounded no more notice can be taken of him 
 by the people who are advancing. My last view of 
 your husband was of him directing the guns' fire and 
 encouraging his men in face of a pretty deadly fire, and 
 I think it is a picture of him of which you may well 
 be proud. I can tell you I was. 
 
 On my way down to the dressing-station, a man 
 overtook me with a message from him to the CO., 
 so I know that he was all right for at any rate half an 
 hour after I got hit. I heard a rumour of his death 
 at the dressing-station about five (I was hit about 
 noon), but I kept on hoping against hope till I saw his 
 name in the casualty list. 
 
 I would like to tell you once more how very dear his 
 friendship was to me. He came to us in August, and 
 I was appointed subsection officer under him almost 
 at once. . . . 
 
 Your husband, by his unbounded zeal, and tireless 
 
 1 60 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 energy and keenness, made us see that things were 
 worth doing well, and it was through him more than 
 anyone else that, when we went into action on the 
 23rd, we were a company to be proud of, and our 
 section was one of which I will be proud to my dying 
 day. 
 
 The officer commanding the infantry company 
 wrote : 
 
 We soon came under fairly trying enemy artillery 
 and machine gun fire. 
 
 Mr. Villiers' work was particularly arduous, and 
 consisted chiefly of moving his guns about to deal with 
 isolated enemy posts. 
 
 In spite of the fact that he was forming a good 
 target for enemy snipers and machine guns, Mr. 
 Villiers moved calmly about the field directing his 
 battery, and I know that he successfully put one, if not 
 two, enemy posts out of action, and prisoners were 
 brought back. 
 
 He walked about with cigarette and walking-stick, 
 and his cheerfulness and remarkable coolness must 
 have inspired his men. 
 
 M l61 
 
V 
 
 I 
 
 PAPERS READ TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS, 
 JANUARY— FEBRUARY, 1917 
 
 ENGLAND, certainly Scotland, is called a 
 Christian country ; and though perhaps we 
 cannot see anything very Christ-like in our 
 common way of life in these islands, it is at any rate 
 true that most of us have at one time in our lives had 
 the wish to make something real and practical of the 
 Christian religion. We should all be quite glad if we 
 could find out something about that religion which 
 would make it of use to us and make us proud of it. 
 I admit this is not a strong justification of our calling 
 ourselves a Christian people. In ordinary times it is 
 not enough to make us overcome our habit of lazily 
 accepting things as they are, and ask whether, behind 
 the absurdity of clergymen's clothes and the dullness 
 of going to church on Sunday, there is not something 
 worth taking trouble about, possibly even a supremely 
 valuable thing, a pearl of great price. I expect it has 
 occurred to you, however, that in these very extra- 
 ordinary times we have got a peculiarly good oppor- 
 tunity of making something of our supposed Chris- 
 tianity. Even we who have had as yet no great or 
 terrible war experience can say this — that ever since 
 we enlisted we have been living not for our own private 
 ambitions or amusements alone, and also that we have 
 undertaken and are even rather anxious to risk our lives. 
 
 162 
 
PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 This does us no particular credit. We really had no 
 choice about joining. The fact remains, however, 
 that in those two ways we are nearer than we used to 
 be to Christ's situation in life, and this undoubtedly 
 makes religion easier to fit on to our lives than it was 
 three years ago. 
 
 At any rate, I have found it very much easier to take 
 an interest in the subject, and this interest has proved 
 of so much value that I am proposing to you to share 
 it with me. 
 
 To avoid any misunderstanding, I had better say — 
 First, that I have no idea what your attitudes may be 
 towards this subject — and I am equally prepared to find 
 you much farther advanced in it than I, or on the 
 other hand, altogether disrespectful towards the whole 
 business. Secondly, I have no wish to convert anybody 
 to any belief. My object in reading this paper is 
 really to satisfy the wish that always goes with a keen 
 interest — namely, the wish to share it with other people. 
 
 Although, as I say, the war makes it easier to fit an 
 interest in spiritual things into our lives, there are 
 two objections to so doing, which I think men may still 
 feel, and about which I propose to say a word. 
 
 We have a feeling that if we are going to try and 
 get something, in the way of help or strength, or what- 
 ever it may be, out of the religion of Christ, we must 
 give up our sins of the flesh, and lead very different 
 lives. It is quite true that these sins are the exact 
 opposite of the things of the Spirit, and that a man 
 cannot have it both ways. There is nothing more 
 disgusting than pious lechery. But it is very easy to 
 make some such idea as this an excuse for neglecting 
 the highest thing in our natures. We say : At any rate 
 let us be honest brutes if brutes we are going to be — 
 and although by putting it in that way we show that 
 we care for something besides mere brutishness, we 
 are content to leave that something undeveloped until 
 
 163 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 our habits are confirmed, and it is almost impossible 
 to change them. 
 
 Now to say, " I must be ' good ' " — whatever that 
 means — "before I bother about Christ," is really very 
 absurd. In fact, it is like putting the cart before 
 the horse. You cannot know what good is until you 
 bother about Christ. Then you will probably find 
 it is something very different from what you thought. 
 It is not the misdeeds of yesterday, but the intention 
 to do the same to-morrow, that cannot be combined 
 with an honest search for spiritual strength. But if a 
 man, when not actually being tempted to the sins of 
 the flesh, can say, " I hope I may not be tempted 
 again," or, " I wish I were free from this weakness," 
 then he is just the very man whom Christ said he 
 was most willing to help. There can be no doubt that 
 He very much preferred the society of sinners to that 
 of the religious and pious people of His day. 
 
 Another objection which, under present circum- 
 stances, naturally arises is this : We got on very well 
 without paying any attention to spiritual things 
 before, and it is only a sort of cowardice to turn to 
 them now. Were we really getting on very well 
 before the war ? Certainly vast numbers were bitterly 
 dissatisfied. Rich people were finding it harder and 
 harder to get satisfaction from amusing themselves. 
 Poor people were growing more and more impatient 
 of dreary work, and dingy homes, and the general dull- 
 ness of existence. Between these extremes those 
 who were better off struggled to compete with the 
 rich, those who were less well off dreaded falling to 
 poverty. The war caught u ; when we were still'young, 
 and on the whole enjoying ourselves, but if we try and 
 remember what we were like and what we were doing 
 before war broke out, do we find that we had much 
 to look forward to in a world which for the most part 
 left God out of account ? 
 
 164 
 
PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 It is my own decided opinion that, in spite of all 
 its sorrows, the war, which, as I said at the beginning of 
 this paper, has forced us into something slightly re- 
 sembling the position of Christ towards life, has, for 
 the time being at all events, made our lives less stupid 
 and ugly and small, more- interesting in some ways, 
 and more satisfying to a proper pride in ourselves. 
 Should we want to go back to our old lives just as 
 they were ? We cannot, of course, do so. The war 
 has changed them for good and all. But I see no 
 reason why, if we survive, we should not find that we 
 are sliding back into something nearly as uninspiring, 
 andprobably much less prosperous. I think we shall need 
 God then — or at least something we hadn't got before. 
 Meanwhile you and I have not been out to France. 
 How are we going to cope with that ? It is quite 
 certain that we want to do well there, to come out of 
 that test of our manhood without shame. Can it be 
 called cowardice to try and get hold of anything which 
 may help us, then ? Rather, it is absolute folly to 
 neglect any means in our power of preparing our- 
 selves for such an ordeal as we are now fast approach- 
 ing. Nobody questions the need for military training 
 on the technical side. Nobody doubts either that 
 it is the spirit of armies, or regiments, or machine gun 
 teams, which in the end decides battles. If we are 
 to make a job of this show, no matter how well we 
 were getting on before the war, we need all we can get 
 of the great gifts of the spirit — calm and cheerfulness, 
 comradeship and courage. 
 
 The two objections, then, which I mentioned do 
 not, on inspection,, prove to be fatal. There is really 
 no reason why we should not start on the search for 
 the Power of God. But the question now arises, 
 " Is there any such power ? " It is easy to talk of 
 religion and spiritual life and God's help — the sort of 
 thing we have heard in church from our youth up — 
 
 165 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 but is there any substantial truth in it all ? The points 
 we ought to satisfy ourselves about are — 
 
 First — Is there a spring of power, useful for everyday 
 life in this world, which we could draw from, but 
 which hitherto we have been content to neglect ? 
 
 Second. — Is this power, if it exists, the sort of thing 
 we want ? 
 
 Third. — If it exists, and we want it, how are we to 
 get it ? 
 
 The age of Queen Victoria, or the nineteenth 
 century, was one of the most remarkable in the history 
 of the world. The whole face of Western Europe, 
 and indeed of the greater part of the world, has been 
 changed by the discoveries of those times. The use 
 of steam and the manufacture of steel, the discovery 
 and development of electricity, are only the most 
 obvious of the tremendous strides which men have 
 recently made in their mastery of the world around 
 them. Now that we can fly in the air and remain 
 under the water, it seems as if the conquest of the 
 visible world were complete. But if all our new know- 
 ledge and power has led to this war, the greatest and 
 weariest slaughter ever known, it almost seems a 
 doubtful question whether it was worth having. 
 
 Meantime, in all ages there have been men who be- 
 lieved in another field of knowledge and power, and 
 sought a mastery over the invisible world, of thought, 
 motive, will, and the like. This side of life is receiving 
 just lately very much more attention than it did, say, 
 ten years ago. You all probably know something 
 about Christian Science. There are any number of 
 faith-healing bodies coming into existence. America 
 is the special home of these, but in this country too 
 a movement away from material to immaterial objects 
 of knowledge is very conspicuous. As we so often 
 find, Christ was the Person who expressed this point 
 most clearly. When He talked by the well with the 
 
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 woman of Samaria, He said : " If thou knewest the 
 Gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give 
 me to drink ; thou wouldst have asked of Him and He 
 would have given thee living water " (St. John 4). 
 
 I think it is quite certain that every man has in the 
 deepest part of his nature that gift of God — that is 
 to say, he is able to get hold of, and use as if it were 
 his own, a power which he feels is not himself, but part 
 of a much bigger and stronger Being. Most of us 
 guess, and some are quite sure, that this power we 
 dimly feel within us is the very same power that 
 makes the world go round. If you attend honestly 
 to the familiar facts about your own nature, you will 
 come to the remarkable conclusion that, whether 
 you like it or not, there was born in you not only a 
 man, but also God. 
 
 There have always been men to whom some such 
 knowledge as this has been the most important thing 
 in life. They have felt that they were in the hands 
 of a power which made their own private selves seem 
 a trifling matter, and which provided the real motive 
 force in their life, and at the same time a great personal 
 uplifting in the other being's strength, a sense of being 
 conquerors, triumphant masters of the world. St. Paul 
 is a splendid example (2 Cor. ii 24-27, and Rom. viii 37). 
 
 The second question proposed was — Is this power 
 the sort of thing we want ? It would appear to vary 
 very much in its effect upon different lives. The 
 backbone of the thing, however, seems always to be 
 the same — namely, the power to make a fresh valuation 
 of the different facts of our experience, and also the 
 power to take the consequences of so doing. When a 
 man begins to explore this side of his nature — that 
 which binds him to the unseen world of spiritual 
 forces — he finds that a good many things he used to 
 care a great deal about have become relatively unim- 
 portant, because of the greater importance of the new 
 
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ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 things he is discovering. Perhaps he was very anxious 
 that people should think well of him — susceptible to the 
 opinion of others. If he gets hold of the Gift of God he 
 will not only know that he need not worry about his 
 neighbours' idea of him, but he will actually be com- 
 paratively indifferent to it. Pleasures or indulgences 
 which we have cherished will probably cease to 
 occupy our minds, and we may find some difficulty 
 in accounting for this to our old companions. We 
 need to count the cost. But the result of developing 
 our spiritual side ought to be that we shall be well 
 physically, cheerful, generously minded to each other, 
 fearless and confident. Now, if there is any chance 
 of getting rid to some extent of illness, grumbling, 
 selfishness, and funk, through the development of our 
 spiritual powers, then surely this power is the thing 
 above all others we most want. 
 
 Finally, how is such a power to be got ? Like every- 
 thing else, it is to be had if we really want it. In this 
 life we get, on the whole, what we make up our minds 
 we want. The trouble is we want such stupid things, 
 that we are not satisfied when we get them. In the 
 first place, then, we must look ourselves fairly in the 
 face, and we shall surely say : "I lack a lot — I am not 
 always well, and I am often disagreeable, selfish, and 
 afraid." This must be put a stop to as far as possible. 
 The next perfectly obvious step is to study the life 
 and character of Jesus Christ. Many people seeking 
 for the key to life, and spiritual power, leave out this 
 step. This is quite clearly a great mistake. He was 
 the most wonderful Person we know anything about, 
 and merely being interested in Him and His story 
 makes an immense difference to us. Do you remember 
 what happened to Zacchzeus ? (St. Luke xix. i-io). 
 
 There are very puzzling passages in the New Testa- 
 ment, but it is clear that Christ Himself was — 
 First. — Well in health. He slept in the storm ; and 
 
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PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 over natural forces, and disease in others, He showed 
 a power which must have extended to His own bodily 
 health. There is not the smallest hint of disease 
 reaching Him in the Gospels. 
 
 Second. — Cheerful. He went to marriage feasts. 
 The pious people of His day said He was gluttonous 
 and a wine-bibber. He was extraordinarily free from 
 worry. He claimed to be the Son of God, and to 
 have a unique message for the world. But He was 
 quite content to have only a dozen followers, one of 
 whom betrayed Him, and the rest deserted Him when 
 His enemies got hold of Him. When He saw that 
 all this was going to happen, He still could say, " Be 
 of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 
 
 Third. — Generous. He had powers of healing quite 
 unlike any before or since, and He was always ready 
 to use them for anybody who came and asked Him to 
 do so. 
 
 Fourth. — He was brave and undismayed above all 
 heroes. 
 
 The utmost injustice, stupidity, and cruelty, could 
 not even ruffle Him for a moment, or turn Him from 
 His sublime purpose of teaching men, not only how 
 to live, but how to die. 
 
 In spite of all the dullness and unreality which is 
 sometimes offered to us as His religion, we cannot 
 help feeling that to appreciate the greatness of His 
 character is beyond the power of our common speech. 
 For while He was man, He was, in a supreme degree, 
 man living in God, and God revealed in man. 
 
 It is possible for us to a limited extent to take Christ 
 as our model. In the case of an ordinary friend or 
 acquaintance whom we admire, we tend to grow like 
 him in character. The more striking his character, 
 the more he draws us after him. The unique character 
 of Christ, even at this great distance of time, is the 
 most stirring call to our spiritual natures, because we 
 
 169 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 can faintly realise the fact that His power, His wisdom, 
 His character, were the very same as those which now 
 and always give life and meaning to the whole world. 
 
 Before you go from here to Uckfield, and so to 
 France, I have wanted to give to you, who have been 
 those whom I have most enjoyed teaching in certain 
 military matters, my thoughts on even more im- 
 portant thing . I hope we shall meet again before 
 long, if you would like it, and carry farther the 
 beginning made to-night. 
 
 II 
 
 The last time we met we came to certain conclusions, 
 and agreed to try and carry farther the beginning then 
 made. 
 
 These conclusions were — (i) that it is a sensible 
 thing to take account deliberately of the forces of an 
 unseen world, to which many great men in all ages 
 have attached the greatest ' importance ; (2) that in 
 this side of life there is a source of power, which might 
 be made much more freely available than it is, for the 
 concerns of our everyday life ; and (3) that to get hold 
 of this power, we have to realise that we stand in real 
 need of something of this kind, while the next step is 
 to increase our knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We might possibly hit on some way of taking this 
 step together before long, but before considering that 
 matte'r I think it would be better to discuss the practice 
 universal among those who have lived in close relation 
 with the invisible world, the practice of Prayer. 
 
 All Christians are supposed to pray ; most children 
 are taught to say their prayers ; but as the children 
 become men, a great many find that the practice is 
 quite out of keeping with the rest of their lives, and 
 give it up. Prayers are one of the principal parts of 
 services in church, but they are somebody else's 
 
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 prayers, and are too often expressed in a peculiar set 
 of general phrases, which mean little or nothing to us. 
 In spite of this we may, I think, be quite sure that 
 there is something in it. So many great men have 
 found prayer to be the best way of drawing upon the 
 Gift of God within them, that we cannot afford to 
 neglect an effort to understand what prayer is, how 
 we can use it, and what value it may have for us. 
 
 " Seize hold of God's hand, look full in the face of His 
 creation, and there is nothing He will not enable you 
 to achieve" (Ruskin). 
 
 We cannot do better than °tart with an example. 
 At the Battle of Edge Hill, fought in 1640 between 
 the royalist supporters of Charles I and the Parliament 
 men, afterwards led by Cromwell, the King's standard 
 was carried by Sir Edmund Verney. Before he went 
 into the fight he prayed : " Lord, Thou knowest how 
 busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not 
 Thou forget me, O Merciful Guardian." That is a 
 prayer worth saying. We admire it because it is 
 honest. There it no shutting of one eye to the things 
 of common life about such a prayer as that. It is 
 not only honest, but inspiring. It is a splendid 
 confidence that takes it for granted that the connection 
 between the visible and the invisible world is not a 
 thing which concerns us on Sundays only, or in 
 church, but all day and every day. 
 
 If we could pray like that it would be worth doing. 
 Why can't we ? The chief reasons I think are : First, 
 that while prayer is addressed to God, we don't know 
 what we mean by God. If there is a God, we are 
 more or less unfamiliar with Him. Second, that, 
 whether because God does not exist, or does not care, 
 or because we are not good enough, we think it would 
 make little or no difference if we did pray. Prayer is 
 usually explained, by those who use and value it, as 
 speaking to God. But one feels it is ridiculous to 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE FULLERS 
 
 talk to a Person of whom one has no clear idea at all. 
 It is also certain that a great many things which realty 
 good people ask for in their prayers do not happen. 
 
 It seems, therefore, that, in order to understand what 
 prayer may be for us, we must try and form some idea 
 of God, and also ask ourselves in what sense we expect, 
 or can reasonably hope, that our prayers will be 
 answered. 
 
 Fully to understand God, to get a complete idea of 
 Him, is impossible in this life. But that need not 
 make us give up the attempt to form some idea of 
 Him, which, though not complete, may be true, useful, 
 and even satisfying. 
 
 It is really impossible to form a complete idea of 
 another human being, but that does not prevent us 
 from understanding our friends well enough to love 
 them and to rely on them. Besides, when we try to 
 enter into the meaning and power of the invisible 
 world, it is not like starting to learn the mechanism of 
 a maxim gun. 
 
 Whichever way we look at it, we are face to face 
 with a mystery, we are setting out on a voyage of dis- 
 covery. Where it may end we cannot tell, and we 
 hardly want to know. The whole thing is an adventure. 
 
 I want to put two thoughts about God before you, 
 which I believe to be true, and which to my mind are 
 necessary to the right understanding of prayer. 
 
 In nearly all our prayers, including that of Sir E. 
 Verney at Edge Hill, it is assumed that God is a Person 
 altogether separate from us, who looks after us from 
 outside, as a man might look after his horse on a day's 
 march. Now, although it is quite certain that all 
 those who have had true spiritual power have thought 
 of God as infinitely greater than themselves, yet there 
 is a sense, as we saw last time, in which God is actually 
 to be found in each one of us. Christ Himself seems 
 to have believed this. He says, " I am in the Father 
 
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 and^the Father in me," and, " I and my Father are 
 one." We cannot put it so strongly as that. The 
 imperfection of our whole nature forbids us utterly 
 to claim such a complete union with God ; but still, I 
 think we can say of God, first, that He is something 
 very near to us — in fact the best part of ourselves ; 
 and, second, that through this fact we are connected 
 up with the God " Who made heaven and earth, the 
 sea, and all that in them is." 
 
 So we have two ideas of God, as we might have two 
 ideas of another human being. It is He in us that 
 makes our hearts sing sometimes, and our courage 
 rise, and all the world seem our friend. That in us is 
 God. Again, when we are carried out of our common 
 round of interests and efforts, and forget our private 
 selves altogether in the thought of a greater world 
 than the one we usually call our own, the world where 
 some mighty plan brings the sun up every morning, and 
 rolls the earth at night through the wonderful system 
 of the stars, then it is that we know that, being part of 
 that world, we are in God's hands, that our true life 
 is in Him. 
 
 We must think, then, of God in us, and also of 
 ourselves in God, and so get an idea of what God is. 
 The Lord's Prayer begins : " Our Father which art 
 in Heaven." God is very near to us, and also very far 
 above us, a very homely and also a very mysterious fact. 
 
 Now, when we pray to God we should pray to Him 
 in both these ideas of Him, and when we have begun 
 to think such thoughts of God we shall find that we 
 have already begun to pray. 
 
 But in prayer we have an object. We pray for 
 something we want, and the question we have asked 
 ourselves is this : Are we likely to get it ? 
 
 When we speak of asking God for something, it is 
 really to the God in us that we are praying. We are 
 speaking to our own best selves, and forming the wish 
 
 *73 , 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LLIERS 
 
 that the power of God within us . should produce 
 such and such results. We may ask for various kinds 
 of results. They may depend principally on ourselves, 
 principally upon other people, or principally on 
 external things, such as the weather. For example, 
 we might pray for cheerfulness ; or for peace of mind. 
 We might pray for leave to be granted us to go to 
 Edinburgh, or, again, for fine weather on a field-day. 
 
 Now, so far as the matter depends upon ourselves, 
 there can be no doubt that prayer is answered, or, 
 rather, answers itself. By reminding ourselves de- 
 liberately of what we are trying to make of our own 
 characters, we help ourselves, very powerfully, . to 
 succeed. The Psalms say : " Commune with thine 
 own heart and in thy chamber, and be still." The 
 value of some such moment of attention to the best 
 that is in us, it is quite impossible to exaggerate. And 
 this is truly to pray, if we believe that the best that 
 is in us is God. 
 
 So far as the thing we ask in prayer depends upon 
 other people, we have to remember that it is obviously 
 not the plan upon which the universe is ordered, that 
 one man can be forced to treat another well. It is 
 absurd to think that God can force another man to 
 give us leave to go to Edinburgh. The example of 
 Christ helps us again. . If God would not compel 
 men to treat Him well, He certainly won't do more 
 for us. The reason is that, as we have seen, the're is 
 God to be found in every man, so that it is ridiculous 
 to suppose that the God who rules the heavens can 
 compel, or overpower, a man on earth in whom He 
 dwells. That would be treating Himself like a piece 
 of machinery. But the point to bear in mind about 
 such prayers as depend upon other men for their 
 answers is, that prayer ought to be made in common. 
 Men ought to pray together, and in the presence of 
 God to make known to one another the things which 
 
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 they seek from one another. But even without 
 prayer in common, it is, all the same, a good thing to 
 pray for the things which depend on others for their 
 coming to us. We do need such things constantly, 
 and by remembering them before God, we can better 
 control our aims, strengthen our purpose, and under- 
 stand the right relation of our own to other men's lives. 
 
 So far as the things we seek depend on the external 
 world around us — for example, on the weather — we 
 do not at first sight seem to have much chance of 
 getting them. But we must remember that we are 
 on a voyage of discovery. We must not make up our 
 minds that we shall never reach a certain country 
 which now seems a very long way off. Two other 
 points are worth making. The extent of the mastery 
 of mind over matter is quite uncertain. In the power 
 of taming the animals its beginnings go back beyond 
 the memory of our race. In recent years, by 
 mechanical means and scientific knowledge, we have 
 gone forward in a marvellous way. Who can tell 
 what may be the powers lying unused in our spiritual 
 nature ? We are only lately started in the investigation 
 of these — that is to say, in an intelligent and sincere 
 investigation. It is also impossible for Christians to 
 forget that their whole religion, as a plain matter of 
 history, rests on the fact that Christ rose from the 
 dead. Nothing else can explain the existence of the 
 Christian religion. It was this fact which turned 
 the Apostles from doubtful followers, of very doubtful 
 courage and reliability, into the men who founded 
 the Christian Church, and for Christ's sake lived, 
 worked, and died as martyrs. 
 
 Not only in His resurrection, but throughout His 
 life, Christ showed Himself to be the Master of the 
 external world. His healing of sick people was 
 wonderful enough, and we have also the story of His 
 stilling the storm, so that men were amazed at Him, 
 
 *75 
 
ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 and said, " What manner of man is this that even the 
 winds and the sea obey Him ? " I think, therefore, 
 that there is no reason why we should abstain from 
 laying before God those needs of our daily life which 
 depend for their satisfaction upon a power to control 
 the world of nature. 
 
 There are many other kinds of prayer which we 
 have not time to speak of to-night, such as the prayer 
 for health, which depends for its answer partly upon 
 ourselves, partly on other men, partly on external 
 conditions, and the prayer for other people, which 
 is called intercession, and which has always been 
 thought to be natural and right. There are also the 
 common experiences of feeling sorry for our wrong- 
 doings, and thankful for our blessings, which also 
 enter into prayer. But it is natural to begin with 
 the expression of our own needs in prayer, and we 
 may be content to go no farther in our present dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 There is one more side of prayer, however, which 
 always comes in, and of which we must say something. 
 
 Up to now we have been thinking of that sort of 
 prayer which is addressed to that within ourselves 
 which is God. Its object is to develop the gift of 
 God which is in us. In this way we may almost be 
 said to be speaking to ourselves when we pray. But 
 there is the other side of prayer which thinks of 
 God as something going far beyond us, and when we 
 think of this our private needs and efforts seem quite 
 small and insignificant. This is really the greatest 
 side of prayer, when our hearts and minds are lifted 
 up above our everyday life into a bigger world. We 
 remember then that we came into this world from 
 we know not where, and that one day we shall pass 
 out of life as mysteriously as we came into it. We 
 realise then that we are in God's hands, and that 
 it is enough for us to leave our lives, and the lives of 
 
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 those we love in His Almighty keeping. This side of 
 prayer always brings its own answer. We come back 
 to our own little world from the glimpse of that greater 
 world, with what we may, perhaps, call more inde- 
 pendence of mind. We shall worry less, we shall fear 
 nothing, if we carry in our hearts the thought that 
 we are in God, that in His care we live and move and 
 have our being. 
 
 Now we have seen to a small extent the way we 
 should look for our prayers to be answered. We have 
 also formed some idea of God — the two thoughts, 
 that is to say, of God in us and we in Him. 
 
 I am afraid that what I have written may appear 
 altogether too complicated, and that if we have to 
 think of all these things we shall never get started with 
 prayer at all. That is quite true, but it is a good thing 
 to try and think things out sometimes, so as to satisfy 
 ourselves that we are not just taking somebody else's 
 ideas at second-hand, and going in for some sort of 
 trickery which won't bear too much examination, and 
 is really rather nonsense at bottom. But prayer in 
 practice is perfectly simple and easy, and the more 
 simple and natural we make it, the better it is, and 
 the more likely to find its answer. 
 
 You remember that when Christ was dying on the 
 Cross, one of the thieves who were crucified with Him 
 grumbled at His not being able to save them from 
 so cruel and painful a death. But the other one 
 somehow or other knew Who it was that was hanging 
 beside him, and just said to Christ : " Lord, remember 
 me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom." That is 
 a prayer we could all say, and Jesus answered and said 
 to him : " Verily, verily, I say unto thee : this day 
 thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." 
 
 That is really the whole truth about prayer — the 
 more plainly and honestly we speak to God, the nearer 
 we get to Him. We can hardly doubt which of the 
 
 n 177 
 
Algernon htde villiers 
 
 two thieves died the more bravely. If we can make 
 it our practice to turn our thoughts towards God 
 every day we live, just when we have opportunity, and 
 feel the need of Him, we shall go through the world 
 braver, stronger, happier men. 
 
 Some of the shortest and most simple prayers are 
 the very best ; and, though it is in our own words that 
 we should mostly pray, I should like to give you the 
 prayer which comes from the English Confirmation 
 Service — sometimes you may wish to use it : 
 
 " Defend, O Lord, these Thy children with Thy 
 Heavenly Grace, that they may continue Thine for 
 ever, and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and 
 more, until they come to Thine Everlasting Kingdom." 
 
 Ill 
 
 In our first two papers we sought to satisfy ourselves 
 that the life of the Spirit was a genuine, possible and 
 valuable thing, and that prayer, which has been of 
 so much importance to great men in the past, was 
 for us, also, the best way of entering into the invisible 
 world, and drawing from it the power we need for our 
 everyday life. 
 
 We found that, in attempting to develop and im- 
 prove our spiritual nature, we were brought face to 
 face with forces we could not estimate, and mysteries 
 we could not fathom — " the deep things of God," as 
 St. Paul calls them — so that we described the attempt 
 to live this highest kind of life as a voyage of discovery. 
 Once we have embarked on the adventure, our part 
 is largely that of faith — the conviction, that is, that 
 though with man many things seem impossible, yet 
 with God all things are possible. He, who is the Port 
 in which we hope to end our journey, is Himself also 
 the only means whereby we can reach it. Trust in 
 God's power and protection, God's faithfulness, and 
 
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PAPERS TO MJCH1NE-QUN PUPILS 
 
 God's love will see us through, if we keep our hearts 
 and minds set upon the great purpose of our adventure. 
 For, " no man having set his hand to the plough and 
 looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God." 
 
 Happily for us, therefore, the spiritual life is not a 
 voyage across a sea, forlorn and deserted, towards a 
 country still unseen beyond the horizon. It is better 
 compared to the climbing of a hill, when, as we go up, 
 the range of our view grows gradually wider. When 
 we reach the top there will, we believe, be a new and 
 glorious country laid out before us ; but even as we 
 climb the lower slopes we expand and enrich our 
 knowledge of the land from which we set out. For 
 this too, when from the crest we can take it all in, 
 will form part, with the unknown land beyond, of the 
 glorious heritage of the sons of God. 
 
 This increase and development of our spiritual 
 range, as we ascend the hill of the Lord, is God's part 
 in response to our venture of faith. As we grow in 
 the power of trusting Him, so He reveals Himself 
 more and more to us through Jesus Christ. God 
 does not leave us to find our way to Him without a 
 guide. " For God so loved the world that He gave 
 His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth on 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 To perish is to be shut out of God's Kingdom, but the 
 life eternal, as St. John says, is that " we should know 
 God, through Jesus Christ whom He has sent." 
 
 Hitherto we have thought of the life of the spirit 
 as being a direct relation between man and God. This 
 is at the bottom of all true religion. We seek nothing 
 less than God Himself, and we believe that that 
 which speaks to us, and uplifts us when we lift up our 
 hearts and minds in prayer, is nothing less than God 
 Himself. It is all-important to hold fast to this direct 
 knowledge and experience of God, for without that 
 foundation, other religious beliefs are only built upon 
 
 179 
 
ALGERNON HYDE V1LL1ERS 
 
 the sand. But to help us to build securely upon that 
 foundation, we have available the story and the 
 teaching of Jesus Christ. 
 
 You will perhaps remember that in the first paper 
 I said I thought one of the surest ways of laying hold 
 of the forces of the invisible, or spiritual world, was 
 to increase our knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is a 
 great thing to be religious in a general way — to believe 
 that there is a God, and that in prayer we can come 
 into contact with Him ; but it is an even better and 
 stronger thing to be religious also in a special way, 
 to be definitely a Christian, to believe that in the life 
 and thought of Jesus Christ we have a true revelation 
 of the character and purpose of Almighty- God. The 
 Christian religion exists to assert the truth of Christ's 
 words when He said : " He that hath seen Me hath 
 seen the Father ... I and my Father are one." 
 
 Now, I don't wish to say that a man cannot lead a 
 good life, and a spiritual life, without being a Christian ; 
 but I am satisfied for myself that it is easier to live 
 well if we believe in the revelation of God to us in 
 the life and death and resurrection of Christ, and I 
 am sure, also, that we should do our best to get an 
 idea of what that revelation was before we go in for 
 Christian Science, or any other of the new ways of 
 approaching God, and declare that Christianity is 
 played out. 
 
 I propose, therefore, that in this and a succeeding 
 paper, which I hope I shall be able to read before you 
 go, that we should consider what it is which Christ 
 tells us about God, and what sort of a pattern it is 
 which He sets before us. 
 
 Christ reveals God to us in three principal ways : 
 He reveals Him as Power, as Judgment, and as 
 Redemption. 
 
 These are all ideas which want some thinking over 
 before we understand them. We have, however, said 
 
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PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 a good deal already about the Power of God. It is 
 the idea of God to which men are most attracted at 
 the present time. We have thoroughly explored 
 the regions of mechanical and scientific power, and 
 still all is not well with us. We seek to bring into 
 our lives the Power of God. It was so in our Lord's 
 time, and in the early days of the Church which the 
 Apostles founded. Men came from all parts to hear 
 what Christ had to say, when they heard of the 
 wonderful works which He performed, and it is quite 
 clear, from the book of the Acts, that those who had 
 been with Christ were able to show signs and wonders, 
 and thereby to attract men's attention to their preach- 
 ing. We are absolutely in accord, therefore, with the 
 revelation of Christ, as it is contained in the Gospels 
 and the Acts, in seeking to realise the Power of God, 
 " both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our 
 souls." 
 
 In this respect Christian Science and similar move- 
 ments, which aim at bringing the power to heal by 
 spiritual means back into our ordinary estimate of 
 religious forces, are more faithful to Christ than the 
 Christian Churches. If we want to follow Christ, 
 we must see to it that we do not shut up our minds 
 against the belief that, as shown by Him, God is 
 willing to help us in all our troubles of whatever kind. 
 If we do not see very clear evidence of God's Power 
 in our daily lives, it is much more likely to be our 
 fault than His. The more we get hold of this, the 
 nearer we shall be to getting back to the more satis- 
 fying experiences of the Early Christians. 
 
 I will say no more on the subject of God's Power 
 as revealed by Jesus Christ. God's work of Redemp- 
 tion — that is, of bringing us into union with Himself — 
 I will try and say something about in another paper. 
 There remains the revelation by Christ of God as 
 Judgment. What do I mean by that ? 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE VILLJERS - 
 
 It is not true that Christ shows us the character of 
 God as an angry, vindictive Person, condemning 
 human beings to roast in hell fire. 
 
 Christ Himself lived a perfect life, perfectly good 
 in the ordinary sense of the word, and perfectly centred 
 upon God. With Him every joy would have been a 
 thanksgiving, every trouble an acceptance of God'sWill. 
 In contrast with His perfection He shows us clearly, 
 what is bad, and what it is which keeps us away from 
 God. We mentioned the other night the possibility 
 of a man keeping up his habit of prayer openly in 
 billets. Such a man's action would be a judgment 
 on all of us for our slackness and feebleness of faith. So 
 it is with the Judgment of God, as revealed by Christ. 
 His life shows us what to aim at in life, and what to 
 avoid. He gives His verdict upon life. I believe that, 
 if we reject His verdict, the punishment follows 
 automatically. But that is our affair. Now, what is 
 that verdict ? 
 
 It is a stern one in many ways. There is no getting 
 out of that. They who would follow Christ have got 
 to march up-hill, not down. After all, it is no more 
 than common sense that life is not a go-as-you-please 
 affair. If we have any object whatever in view, we 
 know perfectly that, it does matter what we do and 
 what we leave undone. In the highest things of life 
 this is especially true, and I think if we are honest 
 we shall be glad of this, and welcome the need to pull 
 ourselves together, to make up our minds about what 
 is good and evil, and to stick it out like men. 
 
 The parable of the Sower is a passage which shows 
 us very clearly what Christ taught about the verdict 
 which God pronounces upon our lives (St. Mark iv). 
 
 There are the three classes of people from whom 
 God reaps no harvest of strong and joyful lives : 
 
 First, the people whose hearts are like the hard, 
 trodden wayside path. The word or message of God 
 
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 makes no impression on them at all. It lies on the 
 surface for a moment, as they hear the truth with 
 their physical ears, and immediately the birds come 
 and pick it up, and it might just as well never have 
 been brought before them. What sort of people are 
 these ? Those on whom Christ Himself could make 
 no impression, even the Scribes and Pharisees, so the 
 Gospels tell us. Christ called them hypocrites, and 
 was grieved for the hardness - of their hearts. Can 
 we say of ourselves that we are in no way like them ? 
 I am afraid we often have a seed of God's Word sown 
 for us, and it bounces off, so that we go on in our every- 
 day lives just the same as before. If this were not 
 so, our public and general life in the world would be 
 very different from what it is. We find it very hard to 
 allow God's Word a say all through the day. How 
 much of God's Word and message do we bring on 
 parade, and how much of it do we remember in the 
 mess-hut and in billets ? We are all more or less hard- 
 hearted. Why is it ? Christ called the hard-hearted 
 of His day hypocrites. The word means "actors," 
 and I think that word gives us the key with which we 
 can unlock our hearts and let God in. We are actors 
 too. We have some idea of our own about ourselves 
 which we are trying to realise, just as an actor tries 
 to represent his part. We have never bothered to ask 
 whether this part we propose to ourselves to play is 
 the part God intended for us, the part which is really 
 our own, because it agrees with the gift of God within 
 us. There are any number of such parts which we 
 commonly act. For example, we go in for being a 
 man of the world, making his way boldly through 
 life, not too squeamish about right and wrong, reflect- 
 ing that, if a man doem'tlook out for himself, nobody 
 else is going to look out for him. Again, we may go 
 in for being a sportsman, a jolly sort of fellow who 
 doesn't care a damn what happens. Or we may set 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 before ourselves the idea of simply having a good time, 
 or, again, of being generally respected and looked up to 
 as a successful man by all our acquaintances and neigh- 
 bours. We accept these pictures of ourselves, these 
 parts we propose to play, like actors on a stage, without 
 thinking much about them, and they become so 
 habitual that any suggestion which does not fit in 
 with them simply bounces off us, leaving no impression 
 at all. What has Christ to say about all this ? Two 
 things, I think. First, these ideas are idols ; they are 
 our false Gods. Christ-says : pull them down, knock 
 them off their pedestals. There is only one God, and 
 Him only shalt thou serve. Second, when you have 
 knocked them down to their proper levels, bring them 
 before me, compare them with my plan of life, and 
 you will see how much in them is good and how much 
 is bad. 
 
 I do not attribute this judgment of our little aims 
 and ideals to Christ without being able to show from 
 the Gospels that He did give such a verdict. Take 
 the case of the man of the world (St. Luke xvi 1-8). 
 Though the unjust steward's cleverness was actually 
 commended, nevertheless his master does not change 
 the decision : " Thou mayest be no longer steward." 
 
 The story of the Prodigal Son illustrates Christ's 
 attitude towards a reckless, though amiable, char- 
 acter. A complete change of mind is necessary to 
 bring him back into his father's home, and restore 
 him to his father's love. The same parable shows 
 how little Christ cared for respectability if it stands 
 in the way of a man's love for his fellow-man 
 (Luke xv 2). 
 
 In what Christ said to Simon the Pharisee (Luke 
 vii 36), and the parable of the Good Samaritan, we can 
 see very plainly what He thought of any superiority of 
 education, social position, or of religious observance, 
 when it did not prevent a want of tenderness for the 
 
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 sins and sorrows of other men and women. It is 
 equally plain that He bids us compare our ideas of 
 ourselves with His own conduct and character. He 
 says, " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" ; " No 
 man cometh to the Father but by Me " ; "I am the 
 Good Shepherd " — our best guide ; " I am the true 
 Vine" — the stock from which we should draw our 
 principle of life. He offers Himself to us as a touch- 
 stone with which we can test our standard, and 
 distinguish the true and eternal from the false and 
 mean ideals of human life, thought, and action. 
 
 There is one point in which we are very apt to feel 
 quite sure we are right, and that is when we stick out 
 for our rights, and refuse to be put upon. Christ has 
 not much use for that rather favourite attitude of ours. 
 " But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
 that curse you, do good to them that hate you " 
 (Matt. v.44). 
 
 This seems very extreme, very difficult. Christ does 
 not deny that. " Strait (meaning small) is the gate, 
 and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few 
 there be that find it " ; but He claims unhesitatingly 
 that His view is not fantastical, but simply common 
 sense (Matt, vii 24). (He practised what He 
 preached.) Such, then, is Christ's judgment upon our 
 common ideas about ourselves. They form a sort of 
 crust or shell of hardness round our hearts. We need 
 to break this up before the Word of God can take root 
 within us. 
 
 The second class of people alluded to in the parable 
 of the Sower are the faint-hearted. Though they 
 start well, they soon collapse, and bring in nothing 
 at harvest-time. They cannot endure any " afflic- 
 tion" for the Word's sake. 
 
 People are not much persecuted in our time for their 
 religious opinions or practices. They may be laughed 
 at sometimes, but on the whole I doubt whether it 
 
 4s 
 
ALGERNON HYDE VILL1ERS 
 
 can be said that other men make it seriously more 
 difficult for us to follow Christ. Our f aint-heartedness 
 more often comes out in the thinness and poorness of 
 our own belief. We don't care keenly enough about 
 making the best of life. We are content to be second- 
 class shots. This was more true before the war than 
 it is now. Our meeting as we have done lately, to talk 
 over these things, shows that just at present, owing 
 to the unusual position in which we find ourselves, we 
 are able to receive the Message of God. 
 
 Whether or no the Word has fallen in our case upon 
 poor ground, where there is not much depth of earth, 
 will be better seen after the war, if we come back to 
 our ordinary civilian occupations. 
 
 People to whom Christ appealed, when He was on 
 earth, felt the same fear that the seed would be 
 withered before harvest. The Disciples said to him : 
 " Increase our faith," and another declared : " Lord, 
 I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief." 
 
 The Apostles had to wait till after Christ was 
 crucified and risen again, and then for a further period, 
 until something happened, which is called the coming 
 of the Holy Ghost, to transform their unbelief into 
 so powerful a conviction that through them the whole 
 course of history was altered. 
 
 We shall probably have to show patience — it was 
 one of Christ's most striking qualities — but two things 
 we can do to increase our faith. First, we can give 
 ourselves the trouble to find out, in a simple and 
 ordinary way, about the facts of religious experience 
 in ourselves, and the revelation of God made by Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Second, we can practise ourselves in the art (one 
 may almost call it so) of connecting our thoughts 
 about the highest things with the incidents of our 
 common life. It may seem difficult, or silly, or even 
 irreverent, to connect the thought of God with platoon 
 
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 drill ; but I cannot see myself how, if we are in God 
 and He in us, the thought of Him can be incongruous 
 with any honest activity or harmless pleasure. 
 
 We may know our drill well, and feel contemp- 
 tuously irritated with those who cannot remember 
 which is left and which right. We may be doing it 
 badly, and feel thoroughly fed-up. We may be 
 getting through it passably, but feeling bored to death 
 by it. In each case we are allowing ourselves to get 
 into a frame of mind which is not only bad in itself, 
 but demoralising. 
 
 Evil is not merely the doing of positively wicked 
 things, but also the not doing of good things, and 
 the not feeling vigorous and cheerful and kindly. We 
 can serve God, and increase our ability to serve Him, 
 by remembering and trying to act upon this idea. 
 Is it not extraordinarily foolish to do anything else ? 
 Who was ever the least bit the better for being bored 
 or disagreeable ? Everyone who is vigorous, cheerful, 
 and kindly, is God's servant, whether he knows it or 
 not. But if he does know it he will be able to increase 
 these good qualities in himself, to deepen and enrich 
 the soil of his character, and in the end to hear the 
 imperishable welcome of his Master : " Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant." 
 
 The third class of persons who bring no fruit to 
 perfection are those in whom the seed springs up into 
 blade, but is choked by the weeds, which are the 
 trumpery cares and concerns of everyday life. 
 
 You remember the story of Martha and Mary ? 
 (Luke x 38). I do not think that Christ means that 
 we are to let common duties and routine work go 
 undone, or be done in a slovenly way. He calls us 
 to a sense of proportion, and tells us to care most 
 for those things which are most worth caring for. 
 It is only common sense, once more, to say: Don't 
 fuss or worry. As far as you possibly can, keep your 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 head above the drowning waters of anxiety. Christ 
 tells us that our Heavenly Father knows very well 
 that we have need of the ordinary things of life. To 
 earn our living is a necessity, but He says : " Seek ye 
 first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and 
 all these things shall be added unto you." Don't 
 forget to be like Mary, because Martha was very 
 likely a most capable and worthy housekeeper. She 
 would have been a better one still if she had been 
 less cumbered by her duties, for she would have given 
 an even better welcome to that Guest whom she most 
 wished to honour. Men, and especially when soldier- 
 ing, are to a great extent free from the smallest worries, 
 which are the ones hardest, to be rid of, if we have 
 them ; but small, trivial, and really very ridiculous 
 things do often pester our lives, and leave us no time 
 to let God's Word grow up in our hearts. 
 
 Such it seems is God's Judgment, on our lives and 
 characters, as revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 It is revealed above all in the facts of His life and 
 character. It is His greatness which displays our 
 littleness, and His greatness consists in the fact that 
 He " came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
 and to give His life a ransom for many." 
 
 This brings us to the thought of Christ's revelation 
 of the redemption of God. I will try and show in 
 another paper how and why it is that we speak of Christ 
 as our Saviour. ^ 
 
 IV I 
 
 In the current number of a weekly paper called The 
 Challenge the following words are printed : " It is 
 probable that the deepest impulse moving in religion 
 is the desire for friendly intercourse with a power 
 1 In a late letter (p. 66) he identified " Judgment " with discernment. 
 
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PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 capable of giving help and protection, and willing to 
 do so." 
 
 This sentence summarises the thoughts of our first 
 two papers. In the third we went on to consider the 
 revelation of God in Christ which is available to meet 
 this impulse. We found that this revelation carried 
 us beyond the rather vague sense, with which religion 
 begins, of the presence of a great and friendly though 
 unseen power, to an understanding of the character 
 and purpose of God. 
 
 It appeared that we were in accord with the life 
 and teaching of Jesus Christ in seeking the Power of 
 God to give us health and happiness, " both outwardly 
 in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls." We then 
 considered the judgment, or verdict, which by the 
 greatness of His character, expressed both in thought 
 and action, Christ gives upon our standards of con- 
 duct, and our aims in life. A knowledge of His mind 
 gives us a sharp, and in some ways a surprising, line 
 of division between what we do well to follow, and 
 what we do well to avoid. On the one side of this 
 line are selfishness or hardness of heart, feebleness of 
 faith, and concentration upon the small or base interests 
 of our lives. We did not develop to any extent the 
 qualities which stand on the other side of the line. It 
 is plain, however, that they are — openness of heart, 
 forgetfulness of self, and ready sympathy with others, 
 determination to trust God out and out, right through 
 the common course of each day, and a continual 
 lifting of our minds towards the highest no don we can 
 approach of the grand possibilities of a human soul in 
 this world and the world to come. 
 
 It is very important, however, to remember that 
 the object with which Christ came into the world was 
 to show us a God whose plan it was not to judge the 
 world of men, but to save, or help, or redeem man- 
 kind, by bringing it into union with Himself. 
 
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ALGERNON' tiTM FlLLlERS 
 
 " For Christ came not into the world to condemn 
 the world, but that the world through Him might be 
 saved." 
 
 The judgment, or separation of good from evil, is 
 closely connected with the purpose of redemption, 
 because God has allowed to men, alone of His creatures, 
 the possibility of taking an active part with Him in 
 the accomplishment of His plan. He therefore shows 
 us what is good, and what evil ; for good is that which 
 brings us nearer to Him, and evil that which keeps 
 us away from Him. We are, then, in a position to avoid 
 the latter, and choose the former, and so help ourselves 
 to become in the end united with Him, to take a full 
 share in the Divine Nature. But, whatever we do, 
 God's plan remains the same — to save. 
 
 God gave us life here on earth, and the wonderful 
 gift of freedom — the chance, that is, to shape our own 
 course through the world to a great extent. It is 
 this gift which gives to our existence all its point and 
 value, and which distinguishes us from the animals or 
 the lifeless world of earth and sky and sea. But God 
 does not leave us without a help to use this great chance 
 of ours in the way which will bring about our real 
 happiness. He is for ever saving us from the disaster 
 of using it in the wrong way. He will not make us 
 go the right and sensible way by force, for thus it 
 would bring us no real happiness. His plan is finer 
 than that, and requires a much higher sort of power. 
 His plan is to win our hearts and minds to a genuine, 
 independent love of Himself, so that willing and 
 joyfully we enter into His Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 This wonderful work of God, His Divine Purpose of 
 Redemption, was revealed to men in the life of Jesus 
 Christ. The purpose did not begin with the coming 
 of Christ, nor end with His death. It always has 
 gone on, and always will go on. It was made plain 
 to men, revealed by Christ. But in such a matter 
 
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 as this, to make the purpose plain is to go a great way 
 towards realising and accomplishing it. By showing 
 us God's love for us, He draws an answering love from 
 our hearts. That is why Christ Himself is thought 
 and spoken of as being in a special degree the 
 Redeemer, or Saviour of the world. 
 
 We must go rather more carefully into the idea of 
 Christ as the Saviour if we want to grasp it in such 
 a way that it will really help us, and so prove itself 
 true in our case. 
 
 When it is said that God, especially in Christ, was 
 and is redeeming the world, we naturally ask — first, 
 what is He redeeming us from ; second, by what means 
 is He working this redemption ; and, third, into what 
 condition does His redemption bring us ? 
 
 From what, then, does Christ save us f 
 
 It used to be thought, and perhaps it is still believed, 
 that when God was angry with men, and intended 
 to destroy them, Jesus Christ, by the goodness of His 
 life and the painfulness of His death, compensated 
 for the sins of men, and, as it were, put God in a good 
 temper again, or at any rate made it possible for God 
 to give up His intention of sending every Jack man 
 of us to hell. 
 
 It is ridiculous nonsense of this sort which con- 
 sciously, or unconsciously, disgusts men with religion 
 altogether. We entirely decline to accept such an 
 idea of God as is suggested by the above. It is 
 revolting in many ways. To take but one point, 
 we can only worship a God who at any rate knows His 
 own mind. It is quite impossible that Christ was 
 turning God from His previous intention of destroy- 
 ing the world. He says Himself that He came to do 
 His Father's will, and carry out His Father's plan. 
 We altogether reject the notion, therefore, that Christ 
 came to save us from the wrath or anger of God. 
 
 Christ does not save us from God, but from ourselves. 
 
 i 9 i 
 
ALGERNON HTDE FILLIERS 
 
 What is it that we are most hampered by ? What 
 is it which keeps us bound like prisoners ? What is it 
 that prevents our best nature from triumphing over 
 our worse ? At bottom it is ignorance. As Jesus 
 Christ said of the people of Jerusalem, we do not know 
 the things that belong to our peace — the things which 
 would make us really happy. We may even know them 
 with our brains, but we are ignorant of them in our 
 bones. We don't possess the sort of knowledge which 
 enables us to act in such a way that we make the best 
 of life, either as individuals or as a nation. We are 
 ignorant of the principles which lie below the surface, 
 and we can't get hold of the way in which the show is 
 being run. We are ignorant of God. It is from this 
 profound ignorance of ours that Christ can, and will, 
 save us. 
 
 Now, without Christ it is hardly possible for us to 
 know much about God. We have said that a personal 
 experience, or sense of God, in our own hearts is the 
 foundation of all real religion. This is to my mind 
 absolutely true ; but we need something to give more 
 exactness to our ideas of God. This we have offered 
 to us by Christ. He says, " He that hath seen Me 
 hath seen the Father." It is our business to try and 
 understand what Christ really was, and what He 
 proposed that we should be, till we have such a know- 
 ledge of Him that the knowledge leads immediately to 
 action, just as we "half load" when the gun stops 
 with the crank handle vertical. Then, if we find that 
 action based on this knowledge brings us greater power 
 and happiness, brings us nearer to what every man 
 longs for, and which the Gospels call the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, then we shall see how true it is that Christ, by 
 taking away our ignorance of God, has been our Saviour. 
 I shall mention briefly two points in respect of which 
 Christ takes away our cramping ignorance of God. It 
 is often said that Christ redeemed us from sin. What 
 
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 does this mean ? As early as St. Paul's time, who was 
 born before Christ died, people were saying that by 
 redeeming us from sin it was meant that when God had 
 said, "Right turn ! " and we had made a slovenly sort 
 of turn to the left, Christ intervened and said it was 
 no matter. It was thought that we were under an 
 obligation to be moral— e.g., not to lie— and that, 
 though we did lie, Christ let us off the punishment 
 which would otherwise have followed on our breaking 
 the law of God ; and not only that, but that He also 
 somehow made things " as you were " — as if we hadn't 
 broken the rules at all. 
 
 All this is very much like the absurdity of thinking 
 that Christ redeemed us from the wrath of God. 
 Throughout His life on earth Christ was always 
 protesting against this lawyer's view of right and 
 wrong. He had the greatest contempt for that 
 notion of life which makes it a matter of Divine 
 regulation and human obedience — rules made by God, 
 and binding upon human beings. He is constantly 
 warning His followers against the leaven of the Scribes 
 and Pharisees. They were people who looked at life 
 in this way, and, by using the word " leaven " of their 
 ideas, He evidently meant that they were deceptively, 
 insidiously evil — a regular trap into which we must 
 take care not to fall. 
 
 Then, again, take His own death. There never was 
 such a case of breaking the rules as that. He was 
 perfectly good, and without any kind of excuse He 
 was condemned to the most cruel and humiliating 
 death. Nevertheless, He accepted this as God's will. 
 Just think what that means. It was God's will that 
 this outrageous thing should happen. After that 
 we can hardly believe that God has imposed the rules. 
 If He makes the rules and then wills that they should 
 be flagrantly broken, He is not a God we can worship. 
 
 What, then, are good and evil, right and wrong, as 
 
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ALGERNON HTDE VILLIERS 
 
 shown by the life and death of Christ ? I do not 
 pretend for a moment to be able to give a complete 
 answer to this question, but I feel sure of this — that 
 right is what leads us to God, and wrong is what leads 
 us away from Him. God will not punish us if we 
 turn away from Him. He wants our love, not our 
 obedience. But punished we shall be, and terribly 
 indeed, if we deliberately reject the chance He has 
 given us of entering His Kingdom. 
 
 "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" 
 — don't we see it now ? — as Christ says, when we 
 find we have chosen the things which turn to dust and 
 ashes, and have shut ourselves off from God's Presence, 
 and cut ourselves out of the splendid inheritance 
 which was ours. "The wages of sin," says St. Paul, 
 " is death ; but the gift of God eternal life." 
 
 Make no mistake about it, right and wrong are the 
 most important things in the world, far more tre- 
 mendous in what depends upon them than any break- 
 ing or keeping of rules. Christ has shown us what 
 things are right, and what wrong, and He has shown us 
 what right and wrong really mean and involve for us. 
 Unless He drove us like sheep into His Kingdom, what 
 more could He do ? 
 
 There can be no doubt how we shall choose, once 
 we know what He has done for us. If, then, you wish 
 to follow right, to take up your inheritance in Christ's 
 Kingdom, to enter into the joy of your Lord, never 
 think of right as a legal obligation, something which 
 you ought to do, but as something which with all your 
 heart you must love to do, because it is the condition 
 of your own happiness, progress, and power. 
 
 Never reject the redemption brought by Christ,, 
 from the bondage of a law we could never satisfy, into 
 the freedom of brotherhood with Him who is the 
 Son of God. 
 
 Another point which Christ's life makes clear to us. 
 
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 is the place of suffering in the world. He suffered to 
 the utmost, morally and physically. His Divinely 
 beautiful and tender nature was outraged and insulted 
 with the worst of cruelty and stupidity. No one was 
 ever so unjustly treated as He. His body, which He 
 seems to have known how to keep in perfect health, 
 and which He absolutely controlled by His Spirit, was 
 tortured and destroyed in the most brutal form of 
 public execution. What is the meaning of this ? 
 It is another revelation of God's character. In our 
 ignorance we think that goodness will get us an earthly 
 reward, that our virtues will be recognised in the end. 
 If Christ truly shows us the nature of God, this idea 
 is quite wrong. He showed that suffering itself was 
 a Divine thing, and that God Himself could taste of 
 death. We, therefore, are never to run away from 
 injustice or pain. We are not to be afraid of them 
 any more. We may confidently risk the contempt of 
 men, and the collapse of our bodily selves, because 
 Christ has shown that the Divine element in us is 
 altogether above these things, and that, in our times 
 of greatest trial and distress, we may be coming nearer 
 to God, and tasting more fully the strength of His 
 power and protection. Here, again, Christ the Re- 
 deemer has shown us that we can be free from the 
 bitterness of revolt against the hard things of life. 
 It is possible for a man to take these blows full in the 
 face without a word, and to come out stronger than 
 ever in this life, or, if need be, " to depart and be with 
 Christ, which is far better." 
 
 There is, indeed, abundance of meaning in the 
 Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Our second question was — By what means is the 
 Redemption carried out ? 
 
 It was begun with the beginnings of human nature. 
 For as soon as our natures could be called human, 
 God began revealing Himself to men, and bringing 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 them to a capacity for understanding Him. Then, 
 by the coming into the world of Jesus Christ, the 
 nature of God was declared, and ever since God the 
 Holy Spirit has continued the work, which He began 
 so many thousands of years ago, the work of developing 
 and renewing our inner lives. 
 
 The life of Christ is the foundation, but the Temple 
 of God to be built on it — that is to say, a world re- 
 deemed and brought into full harmony with God — 
 that is not yet completed. Christ did not claim, when 
 He was on earth, to have finished the whole purpose of 
 God for mankind. He speaks of the Holy Spirit, the 
 Comforter as He is called in the Gospels, who will carry 
 on His work in the world, and of a day of triumph, the 
 second coming of Christ, when the redemption of 
 human nature shall be finally accomplished. 
 
 This thought, that the redemption of man by God 
 is still going on, corresponds with our experience. We 
 feel that as the woods and fields are for ever renewing 
 themselves, so that God's creation still seems to be 
 going on, so also in our own lives the Spiritual power 
 is always capable of being renewed and refreshed, and 
 our natures are constantly receiving new opportunities 
 of drawing nearer to God. This is the redeeming 
 work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Two points here seem to me clear and important : 
 
 First. — We must not allow ourselves to be despond- 
 ent about our own spiritual progress. We are all 
 liable to ups and downs. Very often we feel quite 
 unable to get a practical grip of the truth we hold 
 with our minds. It is quite possible to realise dis- 
 tinctly what we must do to inherit eternal life, but 
 somehow to fail in setting about it. If we remember, 
 then, that God is still redeeming the world from its 
 ignorance of Him, we shall be able to watch and wait 
 for the saving Word, which will give us the thought 
 of God we are needing in order to get on the move 
 
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 once more in our j ourney up the mountain. God does,, 
 I think, explain Himself to us directly, and especially 
 if we keep on the watch for His Message. Some 
 thought may come into our minds, some incident may 
 touch our hearts, so that we feel again the sense we 
 had lost of God's presence in the world, of the happi- 
 ness of seeking for Him, and of the joy of meeting Him. 
 
 Second. — If the Holy Spirit is redeeming the world 
 still, He is redeeming it through us. Each one of us 
 has, as we saw in our first paper, something of the 
 Spirit of God within him. Something in us is God- 
 Then, since God's work is that of helping, saving, and 
 enlightening human nature, our work is the same. 
 Each of us possesses this wonderful chance of sharing 
 in the work of God. We are all in our way redeemers. 
 We none of us live alone, and our lives have more 
 influence on each other than we always remember. 
 We have the possibility of showing in our own lives 
 more or less of the character of God, and of bringing 
 the knowledge of Him to the help of others. At the 
 same time we receive from others the same sustaining 
 and uplifting message. We are all bound up with one 
 another, and the happiness of each one of us depends, 
 to a very great extent, upon the happiness of all. 
 
 To be truly happy is to know and love God, and 
 when all men know and love Him, and not before, the 
 Kingdom of Heaven will be come. 
 
 Remember this, then — that as you try and under- 
 stand and seek to follow Christ by attending to the 
 Word of God's Holy Spirit within you, and giving it 
 room in your lives to soften and strengthen them^ so 
 you are sharing in the very life and work of Christ, 
 whom His and our Heavenly Father sent into the 
 world, that the world through Him might be saved. 
 
 This brings us to our third question: Into what 
 condition does God's redemption bring us ? 
 
 Christ always speaks of Himself as preaching the 
 
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ALGERNON HYDE VILLIERS 
 
 Kingdom of God, and in various parables conveys to us 
 what He understood that phrase to mean. It is to this 
 Kingdom that Christ's work of redemption brings us. 
 
 A great deal of rubbish has been thought and written 
 about Heaven, into which harps and golden crowns 
 and hallelujahs are introduced with a strikingly 
 depressing effect. I think, though the subject of 
 Heaven must be difficult, that we can do better than 
 that. I will try and put three thoughts before you : 
 
 First. — The Kingdom of Heaven is a society. Its 
 social character is a most important point. Christ 
 does not come to save us, and bring us into His King- 
 dom one by one, but all together. 
 
 Second. — This Kingdom consists of a spiritual con- 
 dition in its members. It depends upon a change in 
 their minds, a transformation of their estimate of 
 and outlook on life, whether in this world or the next. 
 
 Third. — The motto and sole principle of this society 
 is called Love. " A new commandment give I unto 
 you that ye love one another." These are Christ's 
 words, and they are the clue to His teaching about the 
 Kingdom He came to found. 
 
 It begins in thi' world when men meet together. for 
 any purpose in a generous and sympathetic frame of 
 mind, and honestly try to help, to understand, and to 
 value one another. In any other life which may lie 
 beyond the grave we may be perfectly sure that no 
 selfish happiness will crown the efforts of those who 
 have tried to lead unselfish lives on earth. Jesus 
 Christ says : " Follow Me," and He means, I think, 
 that to follow Him is not merely to be on the road to 
 eternal life, but that following Him is the life eternal. 
 No private advantage lies at the end of the journey, 
 for following Christ means becoming more and more 
 devoted, not to oneself, but to the work of offering 
 one's strength of body, gifts of mind, powers of 
 imagination or sympathy, and even one's bodily life, 
 
 198 
 
PAPERS TO MACHINE-GUN PUPILS 
 
 in the service of our fellow-men. We shall probably 
 find that in so trying to follow Christ we shall be 
 constantly experiencing, on a small scale as it were, His 
 death and resurrection. We shall need to nerve our 
 hearts to do difficult things, and to accept misunder- 
 standing by others of what we are doing. Life, as 
 we have said before, will be an adventure. But if, as 
 St. Paul says, we have to die daily, there is no doubt, 
 in the report of those who have so lived for Christ,, 
 that death is nothing but the gateway leading to life. 
 
 If we dare anything for His sake, in His power our 
 soul's victory is certain. It is a grand call. There is 
 a ring about it which wakes one's manhood. Christians 
 in all times, who have deserved the name, have been a. 
 small company striking out into the unknown. They 
 are pioneers always, pointing to things they cannot 
 altogether explain, trusting in God for strength, for 
 knowledge, and for the triumph of their faith. 
 
 Since we have been meeting here we must, I think, 
 have felt that we had a little more idea than we had 
 before of the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 Wherever men who honour one another meet to speak 
 the truth, and to search out the secrets of God, there 
 the Kingdom is come. We know that there is no 
 happiness to compare with this, and that these hours 
 have spread their influence over the rest of our lives,, 
 not only in relation to one another, but to other men. 
 Now we are to be parted, or, rather, I am to be parted 
 from you. I hope this will not be for long. But let 
 us swear to remember, to cheer ourselves with the 
 memory, wherever our ways may lead us, that we have 
 tasted together the finest fruit of life, that we have had 
 a glimpse in one another of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 " Let all anger and clamour and evil.speaking be put 
 away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to 
 another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even 
 as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 
 
 199 
 
A PRAYER WRITTEN FOR THE MEN 
 
 ALMIGHTY GOD, who hast promised that when two or 
 three are gathered together in Thy name Thou art there 
 *n the midst of them, help us to understand that Thou art near 
 to every one of us, and that Thou art able and willing to share 
 •our joys and sorrows. 
 
 Standing in Thy presence, we tell Thee what things we need 
 in our daily lives. We need health and strength. We need 
 cheerfulness and courage. We need to be good comrades to 
 one another. We need to remember more than we do the 
 example of Jesus Christ, and to remember how He thought of 
 ■others before Himself, and promised eternal life to all who try 
 .and follow Him. 
 
 These and many other things we need. Lord, give us what 
 we need, and help us to be Thy faithful soldiers and servants 
 unto our life's end. 
 
 We believe that Thou dost help and cheer all that truly turn 
 to Thee. We entrust our lives to Thy holy keeping. 
 
 Defend, Lord, us Thy children with Thy heavenly grace, 
 that we may continue Thine for ever ; and daily increase in 
 Thy Holy Spirit more and more, until we come to Thine 
 •everlasting Kingdom. 
 
 February 191 7. 
 
 -Printed by Razell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.