in
general anarchy; or must reduce the people to the most lamentable
condition. Is this unique state of mind justified by possible
contingencies?

It is true that the ruinousness of war under modern conditions is
apparent to all. But this gives no sufficient guarantee that war will
not break forth suddenly, even in opposition to the wishes of those who
take part in it. Involuntarily we call to mind the words of the great
Bacon, that "in the vanity of the world a greater field of action is
open for folly than for reason, and frivolity always enjoys more
influence than judgment."

War, it would appear from an analysis of the history of mankind, has in
the past been a normal attribute of human life. The position now has
changed in much, but still the new continues to contend with the old.
With the innumerable voices which are now bound up in our public
opinion, and the many different representatives of its interests,
naturally appear very different views on militarism and its object--war.
The propertied classes are inclined to confuse even the intellectual
movement against militarism with aspirations for the subversion of
social order; on the other hand, agitators, seeking influence on the
minds of the masses, deny all existing rights, and promise to the masses
more than the most perfect institutions could give them. And although
the masses are slow to surrender themselves to abstract reasoning, and
act usually only under the influence of passion, there can be no doubt
that this agitation penetrates the people more and more deeply.

With such a position of affairs, it is necessary that influential and
educated men should seriously attempt to give themselves a clear account
of the effect of war under modern conditions; whether it will be
possible to realise the aims of war, and whether the extermination of
millions of men will not be wholly without result.

If, after consideration of all circumstances, we answer ourselves: "War
with such conditions is impossible; armies could not sustain those
cataclysms which a future war would call forth; the civil population
could not bear the famine and interruption of industry"; then we might
ask the general question: "Why do the peoples more and more exhaust
their strength in accumulating means of destruction which are valueless
even to accomplish the ends for which they are prepared?"

In recent times war has become even more terrible than before in
consequence of perfected we