It is the consciousness of fighting in this war which has been forced
upon us, against the direst calamity threatening our kind and on behalf
of the most precious conquests of progress and civilization, which
enhances our moral force so as to make it unconquerable. The hope which
I expressed in my first letter, that Serbia's doom would soon be
fulfilled, has been prostrated by the mistakes of an over-confident
Commander in Chief; but that means postponement only and does not alter
the prospects of war in their essentials.
Good progress is achieved in the campaign against Russia; a chapter of
it may be brought to a happy close before long. The spirit of the
country shows no symptom of weakening; it is really wonderful what a
firm resolve pervades our whole people, though every man between twenty
and forty-two stands in the field, and though the losses are frightful.
Economically we hold out easily; the expenses of war are defrayed by
inner loans, which give unexpected results; every bit of arable land is
tilled as in time of peace, the old, the women and the half-grown youths
doing the work of their absent supporters, neighbors assisting each
other in a spirit of brotherhood truly admirable.
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