Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 87.djvu/170

166 God of battles, and the primitive morality of right as might. It brings rest to the higher brain centers, it brings social relaxation, it brings release from the high tension which is the condition of progress. After the war, almost in a day, the nation resumes its accustomed moral standards, just as the debauchee returns to his daily life chastened and subdued.

If the theory of war here suggested is correct, it might be inferred that in modern times, as life becomes more rapid and more strenuous and the brain tension greater, wars would become more and more necessary to relieve the tension and restore equilibrium. It is true that with the heightening of mental life, relaxation of some kind becomes more and more imperative. But with the growth of intelligence the absurdity, futility, and unreason of war as a means of settling disputes becomes more and more evident and with the increase of culture and refinement and of Christian love and sympathy the spectacle of war becomes more and more anomalous and grotesque, so that we have in modern times powerful counteracting forces—forces which are still further augmented by the vigorous humanitarian movements of the times. The motives which make for peace are so great and the absurdity of war so apparent that the fact that wars continue quite as general and quite as frequent as in former times shows that the deep-lying psychological forces which lead to war are more powerful than ever.

In case some way is found to prevent international rivalries, if war between nations is made less and less possible by schemes of international arbitration and conciliation, why, then, it is probable, unless we also discover some method of diminishing the mental tension of our present mode of life, that "unrest," social irritability and probably civil wars will increase. Professor James was wholly right when he hoped for some substitute for war.

The fact is that it does not take a very careful reader of the human mind to see that all the Utopias and all the socialistic schemes are based on a mistaken motion of the nature of this mind.

In fact, it is by no means sure that what man wants is peace, and quiet and tranquility. That is too close to ennui, which is his greatest dread. What man wants is not peace, but a battle. He must pit his force against someone or something. Every language is most rich in synonyms for battle, war, contest, conflict, quarrel, combat, fight. German children play all day long with their toy soldiers. Our sports take the form of contests in football, baseball, and hundreds of others. Prize-fights, dog-fights, cock-fights have pleased in all ages. When Rome for a season was not engaged in real war, Claudius staged a sea-fight for the delectation of an immense concourse, in which 19,000 gladiators were compelled to take a tragic part, so that the ships were broken to pieces and the waters of the lake were red with blood.