being. If the body of the national soul is too
martial in character, it will by reflex action communicate its character
to the spirit, and make it harsh and domineering, and unite against it
in hatred all other nations. We have seen that in Europe but yesterday.
The predominance in the body of militarist practice will finally drive
out from the soul those unfathomable spiritual elements which are the
body's last source power in conflict, and it will in the end defeat its
own object, which is power. When nations at war call up their reserves
of humanity to the last man capable of bearing arms, their leaders begin
also to summon up those bodiless moods and national sentiments which
are the souls of races, and their last and most profound sources of
inspiration and deathless courage. The war then becomes a conflict of
civilizations and of spiritual ideals, the aspirations and memories
which constitute the fundamental basis of those civilizations. Without
the inspiration of great memories or of great hopes, men are incapable
of great sacrifices. They are rationalists, and the preservation of the
life they know grows to be a desire greater than the immortality of the
spiritual life of their race. A famous Japanese general once said it was
the power to hold out for the last desperate quarter of an hour which
won victories, and it is there spiritual stamina reinforces physical
power. It is a mood akin to the ecstasy of the martyr through his
burning. Though in these mad moments neither spiritual nor material is
consciously differentiated, the spiritual is there in a fiery fusion
with all other forces. If it is absent, the body unsupported may take
to its heels or will yield. It has played its only card, and has not
eternity to fling upon the table in a last gamble for victory.

A military organization may strengthen the national being, but if it
dominates it, it will impoverish its life. How little Sparta has given
to the world compared with Attica. Yet when national ideals have been
created they assume an immeasurably greater dignity when the citizens
organize themselves for the defense of their ideals, and are prepared to
yield up life itself as a sacrifice if by this the national being may
be preserved. A creed always gains respect through its martyrs. We may
grant all this, yet be doubtful whether a militarist organization should
be the main support of the national being in Ireland. The character of
the ideal should, I beli