The three portraits were first exhibited as a course of lectures at
the Royal Institution in February of this year. They have been revised
and considerably enlarged. For the English of the passages translated
or paraphrased I am in every case responsible. The chapter on "The
Gallantry of France" appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_, and I thank
the editor and publisher of that periodical for their courteous
permission to include it here.
_April 1918_.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
One of the most gifted of the young officers who gave their lives for
France at the beginning of the war, Quartermaster Paul Lintier, in the
admirable notes which he wrote on his knee at intervals during the
battle of the Meuse in August 1914, said--
"The imperative instinct for making the best you can of life, the
sentiment of duty, and anxiety for the good opinion of others, in a
word _honour_--these are the main educators of the soldier under fire.
This is not a discovery, it is simply a personal statement."
Taken almost at random from the records of the war, this utterance may
serve us as well as any other to distinguish the attitude of the
Frenchman in the face of violent and critical action from the equally
brave and effective attitude of other races.
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