The Spectator at war: Taking one’s pleasure

From a letter, ‘Ascot in Wartime’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915:

[To the editor of The Spectator]

Sir,—”Pleasure as usual” is “certainly a vile motto,” say you in your note to “Schoolmaster’s” letter regarding Ascot in last week’s Spectator. You are profoundly comprehensive. I had, by the way, turned to your note almost immediately after reading the following on your front page: “in human affairs, military as well as moral and political, nothing absolute can be affirmed.”