Publisher's Synopsis
HAS Britain, in the course of her long history, ever been prepared for a great war? I do not believe she has; she certainly was not ready last August, when the Kaiser launched his thunderbolt upon the world. Perhaps, paradoxical as it may seem, this perpetual unreadiness may be, in a sense, part of Britain's strength. We are a people slow of speech, and slow to anger. It takes much-very much- to rouse the British nation to put forth its full strength. "Beware of the wrath of the man slow to anger" is a useful working maxim, and it may be that the difficulty of arousing England is, in some degree, a measure of her terrible power once she is awakened.
