and we are not lazy in tasks which we believe to be worth our while.  Rather we had an instinctive belief that the future does not belong to the German tongue.  That belief is not likely to be impaired by the War.  Armed ruffians can do some things, but one thing they cannot do; they cannot endear their language to those who have suffered from their violence.  The Germans poisoned the wells in South-West Africa; in Europe they did all they could to poison the wells of mutual trust and mutual understanding among civilized men.  Do they think that these things will make a good advertisement for the explosive guttural sounds and the huddled deformed syntax of the speech in which they express their arrogance and their hate?  Which of the chief European languages will come first, after the War, with the little nations?  Will Serbia be content to speak German?  Will Norway and Denmark feel a new affection for the speech of the men who have degraded the old humanity of the seas?  Neighbourhood, kinship, and the necessities of commerce may retain for the German language a certain measure of custom in Sweden and Switzerland, and in Holland.  But for the most part Germans will have to be content to be addressed in their own tongue only by those who fear them, or by those who hope to cheat them.

This gain, which I make bold to predict for the English language, is a real gain, apart from all patriotic bias.  The English language is incomparably richer, more fluid, and more vital than the German language.  Where the German has but one way of saying a thing, we have two or three, each with its distinctions and its subtleties of usage.  Our capital wealth is greater, and so are our powers of borrowing.  English sprang from the old Teutonic stock, and we can still coin new words, such as ‘food-hoard’ and ‘joy-ride’, in the German fashion.  But long centuries ago we added thousands of Romance words, words which came into English through the French or Norman-French, and brought with them the ideas of Latin civilization and of mediaeval Christianity.  Later on, when the renewed study of Latin and Greek quickened the intellectual life of Europe, we imported thousands of Greek and Latin words direct from the ancient world, learned words, many of them, suitable for philosophers, or for writers who pride themselves on shooting a little above the vulgar apprehension.  Yet many of these, too, have found their way into daily speech, so that we can say most things in three ways, according as we draw on one or another of the three main sources of our speech.  Thus, you can Begin, or Commence, or Initiate an undertaking, with Boldness, or Courage, or Resolution.  If you are a Workman, or Labourer, or Operative, you can Ask, or Bequest, or Solicit your employer to Yield, or Grant, or Concede, an increase in the Earnings, or Wages, or Remuneration which fall to the lot of your Fellow, or Companion, or Associate.  Your employer is perhaps Old, or Veteran, or Superannuated, which