From ‘Depression and its Causes’, The Spectator, 6 June 1915: The British nation have still great possessions in the way of liberty of action, of liberty not to fight for their country, of liberty to spend their money in the sedative of drink, the sedative which slows down the pace and energy of the human machine — liberty to go on money-making as usual, liberty to spend time in amusements which might be spent in putting energy into the war, liberty to grumble and to criticise those who put us to shame by their cheerful self-sacrifice. All these seem ‘great possessions’ to the popular mind. At any rate, they are great indulgences, and the thought of giving them up is as terrible as was the thought which went through the mind of the young man in the Gospel like a stab through the heart. Though the country may now be ‘going away sorrowful’, this mood will not last long. We have the most absolute faith that it will soon come to itself, make the necessary renunciation of its great possessions, and then find, as all those who have made it have found, that renunciation leads to greater happiness, greater quietness of soul, greater sense of well-being, than the refusal to make the sacrifice. It is the making up one’s mind to jump, not the jump, which is unpleasant.
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