Indeed, the South African war was to prove that, even without diagrams, ...

Indeed, the South African war was to prove that, even without diagrams, hearts were not always so stout or heads so cool as a state school education might have been expected to ensure.

It was becoming doubtful how long the personal energy of the manufacturer, even the high quality of his wares, would make up for an ignorance of chemistry and the metric system, and a lordly indifference to the tastes and requirements of his customers. The age of the pioneers was over, and for an age of close cultivation we were imperfectly equipped.

It was once the boast of Manchester that if a railway were opened to Jupiter, Lancashire could provide all the Jovians with shirts in a year. Fifty years later it seemed more probable that the first traveller would find a German already established and doing good business.

But the German secret was an open secret. There was no reason to suppose that they were individually or in the mass more intelligent or determined than their neighbours.