Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/582

 576 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and the heartaches of a thousand mothers ? If that is the way we are to value life so late as the twentieth century^ we may well hope for Huxley's friendly comet that will wipe this world into non-existence.

The developing instincts and sentiment that were once too weak to oppose war have been steadily gaining ground. This makes conditions quite different from what we find in the early history of men. Nothing has been so much needed to allay hatred and to bring about a proper understanding of conditions as a psychological explanation of conduct in war. Bight is a very slippery word, especially when it is applied to the criticism of others or to those whom we dislike. But you say: ''Have not agreements made some things wrong and others right?" Yes, the first criminal laws of Pennsylvania made twelve crimes pun- ishable by death, and at the same time England applied the death pen- alty to over two hundred offenses. How long will the agreement for the state to murder criminals driven by circumstances and heredity to their destiny continue to be right?

I am inclined to think that all our agreements about having a humane war are mistakes; because they delude us into believing that we are civilized and are civilizing war. Such persons should see the humor in the title of an article in The Forum — ^''Thou Shalt Not Kill " in War.

Both history and the study of human nature warrants us in giving as a general law that all the so-called civilized nations will act very similarly in war under similar circumstances. This is not saying that no nation has any moral superiority; but I do mean to say that our moral superiority is by no means what we constantly assume it to be. It would be too painful to cite all the historic proofs that come to mind. How common it is in daily life for us to say: If I were in such and such a one's place, I should not do so and so. What we really mean is that with our present ideas, judgments and feelings we should do so and so. We do not figure on the changes that would come over us in these changed conditions. So long as the intellect has the right-of-way, the lately acquired forms of conduct and character of individuals and of nations remain comparatively stable. But when the older forms of instinct, custom and passions are aroused these are easily set aside. Only those who have studied history from the stand- point of human feelings, as Le Bon has suggested, can understand what it means to invade an enemy's country with bitter hatred in your heart and with all the brutal instincts that war arouses. Neither do we real- ize what it means to try to judge where hatred and enmity are involved. There never was a time when men so much needed to apply some psy- chological analysis to their own opinions^ beliefs, condemnations and praise.

Finally, if war has been backed by a network of instincts and sen-

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