THE SPIRIT THAT ANIMATES FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 September 1915, Page 4

THE SPIRIT THAT ANIMATES FRANCE.

Those who can for a while relax their concentration on the all absorbing movements at the front, and devote a little time to the contemplation of the spirit that is animating the French people in this titanic struggle, will, says the Dunedin Star, find fresh evidence of that immortal spirit which has inspired our brave Ally to face with undaunted front and strong heart the savage boast that has thrust itself across its threshold, and hourly threatens to rend it limb from limb. France has been engaged in many wars, but in this, her greatest struggle, she is not seeking cither glory or profit, but is fighting with all her strength to save France, to restore Belgium, and to regain Alsace and Lorraine. There arc many tilings said and done by Englishmen that France does not understand, and especially is this the case with regard to the many doubts and fears that find a place in a section of the British press. The French people have no doubts. They at least are convinced of the reality of their existence, as well as that they will prove the decisive factor in the struggle now raging between the powers of darkness and light. Of one thing we are sure, tlwt this war, unlike most if not all others, will be decided not so much by the material as by the spiritual forces that arc at the. command of the belligerents. M. Henri Bergson recently propounded the question aa to what would happen if the moral effect of humanity should suddenly turn in its tracks and produce the mechanism of spirit instead of the spiritualisation of matter? Germany affords the answer, for there military mechanism and industrial mechanism walked hand in hand towards the ignoble end of the triumph of matter and force. The results we know, for they are proclaimed in blood and fire, as well as in ruin and unutterable, nameless agony across the map of Europe, while, next to Belgium, Franco herself is the chief sufferer. ''Have no fear," are the final words of the French philosopher to his countrymen, "our force will slay theirs." Such is the spirit of France. It shines as a brilliant constellation over the country; it imbues the people with a self-sacrifice that <s phenomenal, and it fosters the martial spirit that is so essential to the success of their efforts to save France and rid the world of the doctrine that is right. With such ideals as these the immortal spirit of France must prove, an ally of whom we may well be proud, and it augurs well for the success of the cause that this should be so.