als, but not in a nation or in a race. The
future has use for the peoples now at war; they have a necessary part
in that destiny which mankind must work out together regardless of
these ebullitions of anger. The Lord might have made all flowers of
one kind, of one color and alike in fragrance--but He did not. And
because He did not, the world is more beautiful. Variety, not
uniformity, is the law among men as well as among the flowers. The
nations which are actively participating in this war are what they are
because of struggles that have lasted for centuries. They differ in
language, in institutions, in race characteristics, and in national
history, but together they constitute a great living bouquet that is
of surpassing beauty.

We may put aside, therefore, as wholly impracticable, if not
inconceivable, the thought that this war can continue until one side
has annihilated the other. What, then, can be the purpose? The
complete domination of Europe by one nation or group of nations? The
absurdity of such a plan is only second to the absurdity of the
thought that either side can annihilate the other. The world is not
looking for a master; the day of the despot is gone. The future will
be gloomy indeed if the smaller nations must pass under the yoke of
any power or combination of powers. The question is not who shall
dictate on land, or who shall dominate upon the sea. These questions
are not practical ones. The real question is, not how a few can lay
burdens upon the rest, but how all can work together as comrades and
brothers.

Even if it were possible for one side to force the other side to its
knees in supplication, even if it were possible for one side to write
the terms of the treaty in blood and compel the other side to sign it,
face downward and prostrate on the ground, it could not afford to do
so; and unless the belligerents have read history to no purpose, they
will not desire to do so. Time and again some nation, boastful of its
strength, has thought itself invincible, but the ruins of these
mistaken and misguided nations line the pathway along which the masses
have marched to higher ground. Despotism has in it the seeds of death;
the spirit that leads a nation to aspire to a supremacy based on force
is the spirit that destroys its hope of immortality. Only those who
are unacquainted with the larger influences can place their sole
reliance on the weapons used in physical warfare. They see only the
things