Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/576

 S70 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

punishment was^ as we see in the Bible^ limited to the family of the offender. Furthermore, vengeance is one of the most permanent of all feelings. It may last for years^ and even be instilled in the coming generation. But the most remarkable thing is the extent to which vengeance passes as justice. Half of our cries for justice on our enemy are nothing but vengeance.

Finally, one more instinct should be mentioned — ^f ear. Fear is the «tamp of the coward. But the coward that fears to-day may fight to- morrow, because continued fear is the worse of the two evils. When fear is once turned loose it is cruel beyond measure. When Schiller was analyzing the human heart to find the most ungovernable, the most ^Mon't care'^ emotion of man, he pointed out terror as that emotion. Terror is fear gone mad.

The manifestation of these instincts of economic possession, to have and to hold, of pugnacity, of self -elation, of achievement^ of imitation, of envy, of jealousy, of race hatred, of fear, of vengeance, cooperating to the same end, through a few million years, have developed habits and customs that carry these forces beyond their aims and continue them in operation even when the grounds for operation have disappeared. When joined with intelligence, the instincts develop the most powerful forces of human society — sentiments of superiority, of egotism, of love and hate, of patriotism, of economic dominance or morals, of honor. Each age or peoples of the same age^ who have developed different sen- timents, pronounce damnation on all others. Here, and not in the intellect^ is the foundation for all the divergent and dogmatic claims about justice, right, human welfare, etc. Such interpretations and claims are chiefiy based consciously or unconsciously upon what the individual or nation feels to be of most vital personal interest.

If any one could make a careful diagnosis of all the forces operating in producing the war spirit in the United States to-day, he would find every one of these forces at work on the people of our country, even down to the contradictory absurdity of imitating Qermany. We are only dimly conscious of the most powerful forces that move society.

While war is by all odds the dominant rule with savages and primi- tive peoples, there are those who rarely if ever engage in war. It is also true that there are other instincts, impulses and sentiments that have always been developing in opposition to these forces that make for -war. To claim that might, and might alone, makes right is certainly a one-sided view. It is equally wrong to claim that might has nothing to do with making things right. No small part of our international laws have been directly or indirectly dictated by the most powerful Truth, honor, justice, beneficence and love of mankind have been devel- oped largely through human intelligence, but they are nevertheless founded on fundamental instincts, and most generally their interpre-

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