War is the last and worst stain of barbarism on the escutcheon of
civilisation.
The question of real interest is, therefore, the historical question.
Those of us who did not foresee this war until we were in the very
penumbra of the tragedy cannot complain that our Christian neighbours
did not foresee and prevent it. Those of us who feel that the
participation of our country is just and necessary may, with no strain
of imagination, conceive the men of other countries equally persuading
themselves that the action of their country is just and necessary. But
from the day when we awoke to an adult perception of the life of the
world we have been aware that the established system of settling
international quarrels was barbaric and might in any year lead to just
such a catastrophe. How comes it that such a system has survived fifteen
hundred years of profound Christian influence? Whatever we may think of
the clergy of to-day, with the more powerful clergy of yesterday we have
a grave reckoning. The Rationalist is a new thing in Europe. The very
name is little more than a century old, and until a few decades ago only
a few thousand would accept it. Not from such a new and struggling
movement do we ask why this military system has dominated Europe for
ages and has only in recent times been seriously challenged.
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