Have kept the lamp of chivalry
Alight in hearts of gold.
And considering Mr. Jane’s theory, that hate makes a good fighter, it is as false to-day as it was in the heyday of chivalry. The poet is right in his view that “the bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring.”
The old British idea, inherited from the teachings of Nelson and his half-corsair predecessors, that an Englishman “should hate a Frenchman like the devil,” is a sentiment that could well have had its origin in the place to which Nelson went for his sprightly imagery.
The best fighters of the world to-day are the men who can remain cool, unperturbed, unblinded by passion in the midst of battle. This is necessary in order that they may see straight and shoot straight; it is necessary in order that they may be able to protect themselves from the shot and shell of the enemy.
Contrary to the Scientific Theory.
It is conceivable that a warrior of the olden time might have been a bit more effective when rushing furious with hate into the ranks of his foe and laying about him with short-sword, or falchion, or claymore; although even in such case the cool-headed warrior was generally able to meet and overcome the raging brute. To maintain that hate makes a good soldier is to challenge the scientific theory of warfare.
Hate has never made a man more efficient in any good cause, and in very few bad ones. Browning says of Dante that he “loved well because he hated,” but Dante “hated wickedness that hinders loving.” No mere hate adds anything to a man’s efficiency. It saps his real strength by misdirecting it and spending it on the air in blind fury; it poisons and corrodes the heart and mind.
Chaucer says that “hate is old wrath”; it is, therefore, a demoralizing and debasing passion, weakening alike to body and the mind. The recklessness it inspires on the battle-field or in the daily struggles of life is ineffective against the coolness, deliberateness, and resourcefulness of the passionless fighter.