ruled all our ideals and gaveform to all our ambitions.

Every man was to be definitelyrelated to that, to have his

predominant duty to that. Such was the England renewed we had in

mind, and how to serve that end, to subdue undisciplined worker and

undisciplined wealth to it, and make the Scientific Commonweal,

King, was thecontinuing substance of our intercourse.

11

Every day the wine of the mountains was stronger in our blood, and

the flush of our youth deeper. We would go in the morning sunlight

along some narrow Alpine mule-path shouting large suggestions for

national re-organisation, and weighing considerations as lightly as

though the world was wax in our hands. "Great England," we said in

effect, over and over again, "and we will be among the makers!

England renewed! The country has been warned; it has learnt its

lesson. The disasters and anxieties of the war have sunk in.

England has become serious… Oh! there are big things before

us to do; big enduring things!"

One evening we walked up to the loggia of a little pilgrimage

church, I forget its name, that stands out on a conical hill at the

head of a winding stair above the town of Locarno. Down below the

houses clustered amidst aconfusion of heat-bitten greenery. I had

been sitting silently on the parapet, looking across to the purple

mountain masses where Switzerland passes into Italy, and the drift

of our talk seemed suddenly to gather to a head.

I broke into speech, givingform to thethoughts that had been

accumulating. My words have long since passed out of mymemory, the

phrases of familiar expression have altered for me, but the

substance remains as clear as ever. I said how we were in our

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