— 34 —
XV. A Profound Comprehension of the Spirit of the Time is an Absolute Necessity.
The world is divided. The officer not of the landlord class just now most of all needs an historical comprehension of the spirit of our time. He must not heed externalities, trifles,—possibly vexatious, offensive trifles—but concentrate his attention on essentials.
In the course of these four years the world has undergone tremendous ordeals, the entire world has been cauterized with war's red-hot iron, the entire word is changing; a crisis is maturing, some terrible general break-up is approaching; such changes as take place once in five hundred or even in a thousand years.
Such a change is taking place before our eyes—with mistakes, I admit, by fits and starts. Still, the working class is advancing; it will sometimes fail, but it will rise again; it will carry on the movement it has started. We are in the midst of this movement, waist-deep in snow drifts, jumping obstacles, knocking ourselves black and blue, but still getting head.
The average officer must use his brains. He must look impersonally at the root of things, not try to account for a fatally inevitable historical process by the evil will of individuals, or even parties; such an explanation would be silly. In this matter individuals or parties are
