“There, all alone, in the very highest, in the imperturbable calm of absolute self-possession, waiting for nothing but a succession of unerring motions gauged by correctness of eyesight and promptness of bold decisions, on the edge of a bottomless abyss ready to swallow everything, without the supreme aid of a look or the hand of a friend—is that not something far above all the historic beauty of the greatest sacrifices for the noblest causes—something as it were of a miraculous concentration of superhumanity? To face every day the sublime adventure, in the sun, in the wind, in the rain, to pursue the enemy and seize upon the decisive moment that will place him at the mercy of the cannonading, beneath the fugitive angle which is offered suddenly, and will never occur again, to begin, and begin again, every day, and to always come back victorious. Thus lived Guynemer, now borne away in a great apotheosis, amid the acclamations of his companions in glory.
“Guynemer, born to civil life like so many of his companions, when William II of Germany decided that the hour had come for France to demonstrate what she had preserved of that nobility of blood in which her history had been moulded—Guynemer, without a word, resolved to lift his France to the highest! And upon that day when his destiny was achieved, all of us bear witness that he acted upon his resolution.
“One day, it was granted me to clasp that hand in which not a quiver revealed the control of the supreme power of nerves and courage. Eyes of lovable youth! A gentle smile of timidity! Simple, quiet replies, gestures disguising the consciousness of great hours incessantly lived over! In the greatest heart lies the purest simplicity.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE MENTOR—DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHY
SERIAL NUMBER 166
GEORGES GUYNEMER
The Wingèd Sword of France
By HOWARD W. COOK
Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N.Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1918, by The Mentor Association, Inc.
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