LETTERS
543
that "to be with Acton was like being with the cultivated mind of Europe."
When he would speak of his history of freedom, as James Bryce testifies,
"it was as
if
the whole landscape of history had been suddenly lit up by
a burst of sunlight". And Gooch has gone so far as to say of him that very
few moderns indeed "came so near mastering the whole range of human
knowledge".
If
(as the frontispiece quotation from Euripides has it)
"blessed are those who comprehend the instruction of history", no less
"blessed" surely are those who comprehend the instruction of historians,
and in Lord Acton's biography there are lessons for all.
Letters
LETTER FROM THE ARMY
Dear Editors:
I
am
now studying at the
Link
Trainer
School, the hardest goddam school in the
Army Air Force Technical Training Com–
mand, and have at the most one hour of
leisure out of a day beginning at
4.00
A.M. and ending at 9:00 P.M.
I
am
delighted beyond measure with
the Air Corps and am happier than I've
been for years. What most impresses me
about the Army, and particularly the Air
Force, is the extreme pains they take to
find out the work you are best fitted for,
and the intelligent and considerate ap–
proach they take to the problem of pre–
paring you for that work.
Another revelation is the extreme de–
cency, charm, and comradeliness (is there
such a word?) of the average soldier.
Among themselves, soldiers are courteous
and considerate to a remarkable degree.
If
you want to lie on your bunk and
read Shakespeare, your neighbors try not
to disturb you or else start up a discus–
sion about the character of Macbeth. My
barracks is teeming with arguments over
pragmatism, Richard Strauss, and whom
did Mary Queen of Scots really love.
We very decidedly do not discuss poli–
tics, the national scene, or the inter–
national scene; in other words, in my
experience, the average soldier is abso·
lutely lacking in political consciousness.
Neither does he have any conception of
what the war is about or what we are
fighting for. His attitude is quite simply
that we must lick the Axis, and we're the
guys who have to do it, so let's be for
doing it. We cheer and
boo
at the right
places in pep talks (I've heard two in
MELVIN
J.
LASKY
two months), but the atmosphere is very
much that of a high school football pep
talk. Morale, on the other hand, to use
a word I heartily dislike, is very high
indeed, at least in the Air Corps. We
gripe at every opportunity, but under–
neath we're so goddam proud of being
in the Air Corps we could burst.
Yours,
Ex-CoNTRIBUTOR
CHANUTE FIELD, IL.L.
ON THE LAST ISSUE
Sirs:
This particular issue prompts me to
write you, to come out of anonymity, as
it were. Your prose is always of the
highest order and were it only that,
I'd have nothing to say. .In passing,
though,
I
thought Serge simple and in–
telligent and quite the right antidote to
Max Eastman, Inc. Silone is always a
deep pleasure. I could not understand
Maritain and so I thank Rosenberg for
his clarified opposition which caused me
to see the implications of Maritain's
piece. (Could it have been a bad, that
is clever, translation?)
It is the poetry that prompts me to
write what must be, somehow, meaning–
less paper to you. For · the first time I
• thought each poem good (three poems,
three good ones) . You have always been
' lmeven there, and so one was tempted
not to have faith in your poetry judg–
ment. This issue's poetry makes me
think that perhaps the mss. received
aren't always the best. But Breit's The
Son of God
is a courageous, terrible and
wonderfully moving poem.
It
is by far
one ·of the best things I've. seen.
Yours,
JosEPH
McGREw
Los ANCELES, CAur.
