"The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."

SHAKESPEARE: The Tempest.

THE NIGHT before the invasion of southern France in August, 1944, by the American and French Armies, the officers at General Bethouart's mess talked not about the World War in which they were engaged, but about the next World War. They knew that all the Great Powers were working on the problem of utilizing atomic energy for slaughter, and they let their imaginations run on a future war of robot planes and rockets loaded with atomic bombs.

The General closed the conversation with a parable: "The end of the next World War? The human race is destroyed by atomic bombs. Two aviators remain alive chasing each other around the earth in jet planes. Over a forest in Africa, propulsive energy exhausted, first one, then the other, crashes at the foot of a high tree in the branches of which sit an aged chimpanzee and his mate. The old ape shrugs his shoulders, turns wearily to his wife and says: 'There you are, Ma; now we have to start it all over again.' . . ."