r the Greek word [Greek:
hybris], which implies much more. Some translate it "pride." It is a
sense of superiority, greater strength, higher culture, leading to a
claim to dominate the minds and the lives, the destinies, of others, and
then in its arrogant self-assertion to override all laws and all
restraints imposed by justice. It is the exact opposite of the Christian
precept: "Let each esteem other better than himself." This, like some
other Christian precepts, may never have been meant to express the whole
truth, but only that side which men are naturally apt to neglect. It was
hardly necessary to insist that men should defend themselves against
attack, maintain their rights, and keep their self-respect. There are
some crimes, too, which it required no special revelation to condemn;
man revolts from them as _contra naturam_. One of these crimes is
refusal to aid their fellow-countrymen who are fighting against
aggression.

With the spirit that claims to dominate in its "will to power," to
override the eternal laws of justice, there can be no compromise. Until
that spirit is vanquished, the answer to the question, "Is it peace?"
must be, "What hast thou to do with peace, so long as thy brutal acts
and thy tyrannies are so many?" The order is given to smite. With profit
now we may recall the old narrative,--"And he smote thrice, and stayed.
And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have
smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten" the enemy till thou
hadst destroyed his evil will. The work must be completed thoroughly;
but that task once accomplished, to continue war, whether open or
veiled, either to satisfy national hatred and the mere wish for
vengeance, or, still more, in the desire of gain, would be to become--to
use George Herbert's words--"parcel devils in damnation" with those who
have driven or beguiled Germany to crime against humanity and to her own
undoing. It is but too easy for heroic effort and firm determination to
defend the right, to be corrupted either by a spirit of insolence or
greed. Even as we sow the seeds for a fruitful harvest of good, the
arch-enemy may be sowing the tares. On the other hand, to cease from
work and from struggle, either through fear or slackness or weariness,
or even from that pacific temperament which shrinks from contest of any
kind, may have results almost equally fatal. That other prayer of the
Greek poet is for us also. "But I ask that the