Georges Ohnet: God forbid

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

French writers on war and peace

Georges Ohnet: Selections on war

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Georges Ohnet
In Deep Abyss
Translated by Fred Rothwell

“You are heaping ridicule on us Americans,” resumed Harvey, “because we are ingenuous. You
look upon us almost as savages who dance with joy at the sight of paltry glass trinkets. There is some basis for your judgment. But this ingenuousness is not permanent. We shall become polished in time, and when we know our own strength we shall be able to do without Europe ; then we shall manufacture our own counterfeit pictures. Even in the last twenty years we have taken great strides forward. Every year we draw nearer perfection. We are already sending you leather, wood, machines, horses, wheat. Soon we shall supply you with everything. “

“Perhaps even cannon balls; who knows?” said Marenval bitterly.

“God forbid,” replied Harvey. “We should indeed be ungrateful sons, for we owe everything to
Europe, which gave us our very birth, and particularly to France, which helped us obtain our
liberty.”