The Soul and Body of an Army

ISBN: 9781330305942 出版年：2016 页码：325 Ian Hamilton Forgotten Books

The Armies thus differ more typically than their nation, but where an Army is based upon voluntary service it may be conceded that it represents that part of the nation which has responded to a high appeal, and in so responding has left the residue below par. Our British Army was the pick of the nation (speaking broadly), and the balance (still speaking broadly) consisted of its leavings. The whole of the young virility of town and country-side flows into the ranks, and so, in war, an Army becomes dominant to the civilian crowd left at home, who are, in Mendelian phrase, recessive. The impact of the opinion of a Victoriously returning Army upon the people who had remained behind should produce the same result as the impact of a black bull upon a red heifer: i.e. The black or dominant colour should appear in the calf, or post-war policy, although that calf may carry in it the factors, the germs, the potentialities, of reasserting in time to come a recessive character or colour.