The Seed of Empire by Fred M. White

This kind of thing was beyond the grasp of a foreign mind. It was certainly a thing no German could understand. Though the Teuton has invaded this country to his advantage and our detriment for the last fifty years, he has never grasped, and probably never will grasp, the true inwardness of the British spirit. He knows, of course, that England finally overthrew Napoleon at Waterloo and freed Europe from the same menace that the Kaiser would impose upon her now, but he could not grasp the true inwardness of Wellington's expression that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

The commercial German, with his nose ever pressed close to the mercantile grindstone, cannot understand that the British Empire has been founded and maintained by the sporting spirit. That is why there can only be one end to the present conflict. With the German it is war all the time, it is one constant struggle, with no relaxation at all; and that is what is going to beat him. That the British Tommy should turn his back, even for it moment, on the foe and indulge in one of his favourite pastimes, causes the German to sneer and speak spitefully of a race that is utterly incapable of taking anything seriously for many days together. But it is this very lightheartedness and optimistic spirit that render England impervious to defeat.