The Lessons of France's History

"Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world," he writes. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly." France has taught many lessons to other nations, but perhaps one of the most important teaches: high artistic development compatible with notable leadership in arms and statecraft. The brilliant gallantry of the French soldier has for many centuries been proverbial.