idual, a living man,
acts in a certain way, he will speak about the general interests of the
nation, about the State, civilization, the white race. In the same way,
all those who prepare war will explain their participation in that work.
They will perhaps agree that it would be desirable to abolish war, but at
present this is impossible. At present they as Russians and as men who
occupy certain positions, such as heads of the nobility, representatives
of local self-government, doctors, workers of the Red Cross, are called
upon to act and not to argue. "There is no time to argue and to think of
oneself," they will say, "when there is a great common work to be done."
The same will be said by the Tsar, seemingly responsible for the whole
thing. He, like the soldier, will be astonished at the question, whether
war is now necessary. He does not even admit the idea that the war might
yet be arrested. He will say that he cannot refrain from fulfilling that
which is demanded of him by the whole nation, that, although he does
recognize that war is a great evil, and has used, and is ready to use,
all possible means for its abolition--in the present case he could not
help declaring war, and cannot help continuing it. It is necessary for
the welfare and glory of Russia.

Every one of these men, to the question why he, so and so, Ivan, Peter,
Nicholas, whilst recognizing as binding upon him the Christian law which
not only forbids the killing of one's neighbor but demands that one
should love him, serve him, why he permits himself to participate in war;
_i.e._ in violence, loot, murder, will infallibly answer the same thing,
that he is thus acting in the name of his fatherland, or faith, or oath,
or honor, or civilization, or the future welfare of the whole of
mankind--in general, of something abstract and indefinite. Moreover,
these men are always so urgently occupied either by preparation for war,
or by its organization, or discussions about it, that in their leisure
time they can only rest from their labors, and have not time to occupy
themselves with discussions about their life, regarding such discussions
as idle.

V

Men of our Christian world and of our time are like a man who, having
missed the right turning, the further he goes the more he becomes
convinced that he is going the wrong way. Yet the greater his doubts, the
quicker and the more desperately does he hurry on, consoling