The New Dark Age

Upon this battle depends the battle of civilization
Upon it depends our own life
And the long continuity of our institutions and our empire
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us
They will have to break us in this island or lose the war

If we can stand up to him
The life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands
But if we fail
Then the whole world, including all that we have known and cared for
Will sink into the abyss of a new dark age
Made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted,
By the lights of perverted science

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves
That if the British Empire and its Commonwealth
Lasts for a thousand years
Men will still say
This was their finest hour