The first is that it must not be supposed that the experiences of myself, of Trenchard, of Nikitin in this business found their parallel in any other single human being alive.

It would be quite possible to select every individual member of our Otriad and to prove from their case that the effect of war upon the human soul--whether Russian or English--was thus and thus.

A study, for example, might be made of Anna Petrovna to show that the effect of war is simply nothing at all, that any one who pretends to extract cases and contrasts from the contact of war with the soul is simply peddling in melodrama.

Anna Petrovna herself would certainly have been of that opinion.

Or one might select Sister K---- and prove from her case that the effect of war was to display the earthly failings and wickedness of mankind, that it was a punishment hurled by an irate God upon an unrepentant people and that any one who saw beauty or courage in such a business was a sham sentimentalist.