No End of a Lesson

The quotation is, of course, from Rudyard Kipling, the poet of patriotism, of purpose, of great dignity at a time of loss. Both Kipling and Winston Churchill were audible in the extraordinary speech that President Bush gave last week. When Kipling wrote those words, 100 years ago, the British Empire had been humbled in South Africa by a small group of Boer fighters who hated the overweening presence of Queen Victoria's realm. They were scruffy, hairy faced, profoundly religious in their battle against Anglo-Saxon materialism and extremely hard to find and destroy. It took no less than 300,000 men from Britain...

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