Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/507

 That man is essentially of pacific virtues rests on an assumption not sustained by his eyolutionary or political history.

If it is true that powerful nations systematically nurture the demon of antagonism through all forms of educational agencies, if we rightly interpret the genesis and dynamics of ideas, and if, lastly, the human race is still in the condition of bellum omnium contra omnes, then, national preparedness, it seems, becomes a plain matter of duty. There is no alternative, regrettable as it is, so long as nations insist on so organizing from earliest infancy to maturity the brains of their citizens in such a way that any wholly irrelevant stimulus may pull the trigger and let loose the engines of war. Pacific nations, unprepared, but potentially powerful, must submit, under certain circumstances, to indignities which may often amount to nothing short of complete abnegation of self-respect. Who is there who does not wish it might be otherwise? But wishes and sentimental longings go down like chaff before the wintery blasts of energetic action. The present world disturbance demands intelligence, cold calculation, action; this is no time for any nation to swim about in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, no time for spineless fulminations and dreams. Nor will it be maintained that similar situations will not recur. In view of recent events, in view of what man is and what he has shown himself to be on every page of his bloody history, it would be folly, and in the long run suicidal, for any vigorous people to close deliberately their eyes to the simplest laws of human behavior.

Imperative as preparation now appears, it will be even more so after the war by reason of untold increment of economic stresses which strain immeasurably man’s native good will. Future economic struggles and practises may inaugurate a low grade of trade ethics far removed from the altruistic soothing-syrup variety. The blamelessly enriched onlooker, with almost fatal surety, acts as a salve which heals the wounds, buries the differences of fierce antagonists and, under economic stresses, this onlooker incurs the unrighteous, united envy and secret, if not open, hatred of the combatants. The best is not even to be hoped for; the worst may be expected.