Patriotism cannot be good. What produces war is the desire for an exclusive good for one’s own nation – that is called patriotism. And so to abolish war, it is necessary to abolish patriotism, and to abolish patriotism, it is necessary first to become convinced that it is an evil.
It was dreadful. Especially when it was raining -- the whole performance of getting all the plastic hoods off the double buggy, then trying to womanhandle double buggy, shopping, both boys onto the bus. You ended up by 'army volunteering' the passengers behind you.
And there is one night in the year I have always observed – the good old Methodist vigil called Watch-night, popularly described as seeing the old year out and the new year in. […] I have only been a Methodist once a year; and peculiar, accordingly, have my watch-night emotions been. There stands the old portico in —— street; can it be a year since I ascended those steps? These are the aisles, the columns, the pulpit, the recess with its inscriptions, the Christmas evergreens yet fresh over the Communion Table – silent preachers all, that seem to say: You and I are a year older, friend; but we have seen more watch-nights than you, and are likely to see more yet;[…][ ]
Mnemonically and semantically, an afterset consists of all those elements which can correctly be written after a given element, a foreset of those which can correctly be written before it.