章节正文
lay between ourselves and Spain, or France, or Germany, or any foreign
power, England stood with us against them.
"And another thing. Not all Americans boast, but we have a reputation for
boasting. Our Secretary of the Navy gave our navy the whole credit for
transporting our soldiers to Europe when England did more than half of
it. At Annapolis there has been a poster, showing a big American sailor
with a doughboy on his back, and underneath the words, 'We put them
across.' A brigadier general has written a book entitled, How the Marines
Saved Paris. Beside the marines there were some engineers. And how about
M Company of the 23rd regiment of the 2nd Division? It lost in one day at
Chateau-Thierry all its men but seven. And did the general forget the 3rd
Division between Chateau-Thierry and Dormans? Don't be like that
brigadier general, and don't be like that American officer returning on
the Lapland who told the British at his table he was glad to get home
after cleaning up the mess which the British had made. Resemble as little
as possible our present Secretary of the Navy. Avoid boasting. Our
contribution to victory was quite enough without boasting. The
head-master of one of our great schools has put it thus to his schoolboys
who fought: Some people had to raise a hundred dollars. After struggling
for years they could only raise seventy-five. Then a man came along and
furnished the remaining necessary twenty-five dollars. That is a good way
to put it. What good would our twenty-five dollars have been, and where
should we have been, if the other fellows hadn't raised the seventy-five
dollars first? "
Chapter XIX: Lion and Cub
My task is done. I have discussed with as much brevity as I could the
three foundations of our ancient grudge against England: our school
textbooks, our various controversies from the Revolution to the Alaskan
boundary dispute, and certain differences in customs and manners. Some of
our historians to whom I refer are themselves affected by the ancient
grudge. You will see this if you read them; you will find the facts,
which they give faithfully, and you will also find that they often (and I
think unconsciously) color such facts as are to England's discredit and
leave pale such as are to her credit, just as we remember the Alabama,
and forget the Lancashire cotton-spinners. You cannot fail to find,
unless your anti-English complex tilts your judgment incurably, that
England has been to us, on the whole, very much more friendly than
unfriendly--if not at the beginning, certainly at the end of each
controversy. What an anti-English complex can do in the face of 1914, is
hard to imagine: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Boers, all
Great Britain's colonies, coming across the world to pour their gold and
their blood out for her! She did not ask them; she could not force them;
of their own free will they did it. In the whole story of mankind such a
splendid tribute of confidence and loyalty has never before been paid to
any nation.
In this many-peopled world England is our nearest relation. From
Bonaparte to the Kaiser, never has she allowed any outsider to harm us.
We are her cub. She has often clawed us, and we have clawed her in
return. This will probably go on. Once earlier in these pages, I asked
the reader not to misinterpret me, and now at the end I make the same
request. I have not sought to persuade him that Great Britain is a
charitable institution. What nation is, or could be, given the nature of
man? Her good treatment of us has been to her own interest. She is wise,
farseeing, less of an opportunist in her statesmanship than any other
nation. She has seen clearly and ever more clearly that our good will was
to her advantage. And beneath her wisdom, at the bottom of all, is her
sense of our kinship through liberty defined and assured by law. If we
were so far-seeing as she is, we also should know that her good will is
equally important to us: not alone for material reasons, or for the sake
of our safety, but also for those few deep, ultimate ideals of law,
liberty, life, manhood and womanhood, which we share with her, which we
got from her, because she is our nearest relation in this many-peopled
world.
End
power, England stood with us against them.
"And another thing. Not all Americans boast, but we have a reputation for
boasting. Our Secretary of the Navy gave our navy the whole credit for
transporting our soldiers to Europe when England did more than half of
it. At Annapolis there has been a poster, showing a big American sailor
with a doughboy on his back, and underneath the words, 'We put them
across.' A brigadier general has written a book entitled, How the Marines
Saved Paris. Beside the marines there were some engineers. And how about
M Company of the 23rd regiment of the 2nd Division? It lost in one day at
Chateau-Thierry all its men but seven. And did the general forget the 3rd
Division between Chateau-Thierry and Dormans? Don't be like that
brigadier general, and don't be like that American officer returning on
the Lapland who told the British at his table he was glad to get home
after cleaning up the mess which the British had made. Resemble as little
as possible our present Secretary of the Navy. Avoid boasting. Our
contribution to victory was quite enough without boasting. The
head-master of one of our great schools has put it thus to his schoolboys
who fought: Some people had to raise a hundred dollars. After struggling
for years they could only raise seventy-five. Then a man came along and
furnished the remaining necessary twenty-five dollars. That is a good way
to put it. What good would our twenty-five dollars have been, and where
should we have been, if the other fellows hadn't raised the seventy-five
dollars first? "
Chapter XIX: Lion and Cub
My task is done. I have discussed with as much brevity as I could the
three foundations of our ancient grudge against England: our school
textbooks, our various controversies from the Revolution to the Alaskan
boundary dispute, and certain differences in customs and manners. Some of
our historians to whom I refer are themselves affected by the ancient
grudge. You will see this if you read them; you will find the facts,
which they give faithfully, and you will also find that they often (and I
think unconsciously) color such facts as are to England's discredit and
leave pale such as are to her credit, just as we remember the Alabama,
and forget the Lancashire cotton-spinners. You cannot fail to find,
unless your anti-English complex tilts your judgment incurably, that
England has been to us, on the whole, very much more friendly than
unfriendly--if not at the beginning, certainly at the end of each
controversy. What an anti-English complex can do in the face of 1914, is
hard to imagine: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Boers, all
Great Britain's colonies, coming across the world to pour their gold and
their blood out for her! She did not ask them; she could not force them;
of their own free will they did it. In the whole story of mankind such a
splendid tribute of confidence and loyalty has never before been paid to
any nation.
In this many-peopled world England is our nearest relation. From
Bonaparte to the Kaiser, never has she allowed any outsider to harm us.
We are her cub. She has often clawed us, and we have clawed her in
return. This will probably go on. Once earlier in these pages, I asked
the reader not to misinterpret me, and now at the end I make the same
request. I have not sought to persuade him that Great Britain is a
charitable institution. What nation is, or could be, given the nature of
man? Her good treatment of us has been to her own interest. She is wise,
farseeing, less of an opportunist in her statesmanship than any other
nation. She has seen clearly and ever more clearly that our good will was
to her advantage. And beneath her wisdom, at the bottom of all, is her
sense of our kinship through liberty defined and assured by law. If we
were so far-seeing as she is, we also should know that her good will is
equally important to us: not alone for material reasons, or for the sake
of our safety, but also for those few deep, ultimate ideals of law,
liberty, life, manhood and womanhood, which we share with her, which we
got from her, because she is our nearest relation in this many-peopled
world.
End
- underneath [,ʌndə´ni:θ]
ad.&prep.在底下 (初中英语单词) - regiment [´redʒimənt] n.团；一大群 (初中英语单词)
- resemble [ri´zembəl] vt.类似，象 (初中英语单词)
- victory [´viktəri] n.胜利，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- dispute [di´spju:t] v.&n.争论，辩论；争吵 (初中英语单词)
- complex [´kɔmpleks] a.复杂的 n.综合企业 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- tribute [´tribju:t] n.贡物；献礼；颂词 (初中英语单词)
- persuade [pə´sweid] v.(被)说服；使相信 (初中英语单词)
- institution [,insti´tju:ʃən] n.建立；制定；制度 (初中英语单词)
- treatment [´tri:tmənt] n.待遇；对待；治疗 (初中英语单词)
- advantage [əd´vɑ:ntidʒ] n.优势；利益 (初中英语单词)
- wisdom [´wizdəm] n.智慧，聪明，才智 (初中英语单词)
- grudge [grʌdʒ] vt.&n.吝啬；怨恨 (高中英语单词)
- faithfully [´feiθfəli] ad.忠实地；诚恳地 (高中英语单词)
- loyalty [´lɔiəlti] n.忠诚；忠心；忠实 (高中英语单词)
- ultimate [´ʌltimit] a.最终的 n.终极；顶点 (高中英语单词)
- manhood [´mænhud] n.人格；男子气概 (高中英语单词)
- reputation [repju´teiʃən] n.名誉；名声；信誉 (英语四级单词)
- poster [´pəustə] n.招贴；贴标语的人 (英语六级单词)
- affected [ə´fektid] a.做作的；假装的 (英语六级单词)
- discredit [dis´kredit] n.&vt.不信任；丢(脸) (英语六级单词)
- kaiser [´kaizə] n.皇帝；独裁者 (英语六级单词)
- assured [ə´ʃuəd] a.确实的 n.被保险人 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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