We can see for the
first time the fundamental things that matter in life, and that have
been obscured from our vision by the tropical growth of prosperity.
["Hear, hear!"]
"The Vision."
May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this war is doing for
us? I know a valley in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea.
It is a beautiful valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains
from all the bitter blasts. But it is very enervating, and I remember
how the boys were in the habit of climbing the hill above the village to
have a glimpse of the great mountains in the distance, and to be
stimulated and freshened by the breezes which came from the hilltops,
and by the great spectacle of their grandeur. We have been living in a
sheltered valley for generations. We have been too comfortable and too
indulgent, many, perhaps, too selfish, and the stern hand of fate has
scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting
things that matter for a nation--the great peaks we had forgotten, of
honor, duty, patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great
pinnacle of sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall
descend into the valleys again; but as long as the men and women of this
generation last, they will carry in their hearts the image of those
great mountain peaks whose foundations are not shaken, though Europe
rock and sway in the convulsions of a great war.
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