4i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



step in this splendid advance. We grudge not the honor and glory 

 that have fallen to them therefrom, though in our hearts we may feel 

 that this might more appropriately have been the work of the race that 

 abolished slavery, both branches participating, and also abolished the 

 duel. What our race should now do is to follow the example set and 

 conclude such a treaty, operative within the wide boundaries of English- 

 speakers, empire and republic. Less than this were derogatory to our 

 past as pioneers of progress. We can not long permit these small 

 nations to march in advance. We should at least get abreast of them. 

 We have noted that honor or vital interests have hitherto been ex- 

 cepted from submission by arbitration treaties. We exclaim, ' Oh, 

 Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name ! ' — but these are 

 trifling compared with those committed in the name of ' honor,' the 

 most dishonored word in our language. Never did man or nation 

 dishonor another man or nation. This is impossible. All honor's 

 wounds are self-inflicted. All stains upon honor come from within, 

 never from without. Innocence seeks no revenge; there is nothing to 

 be revenged — guilt can never be. Man or nation whose honor needs 

 vindication beyond a statement of the truth, which puts calumny to 

 shame, is to be pitied. Innocence rests with that, truth has a quiet 

 breast, for the guiltless find that 



So dear to heaven is saintly innocence, 



A thousand liveried angels lackey her 



To keep her from all sense of sin and shame. 



Innocent honor, assailed, discards bloody revenge and seeks the halls 

 Df justice and of arbitration. It has been held in the past that, a 

 man's honor assailed, vindication lay only through the sword. To-day 

 it is sometimes still held that a nation's honor, assailed, can in like 

 manner be vindicated only through war; but it is not open to a mem- 

 ber of our race to hold this doctrine, for within its wide boundaries no 

 dispute between men can be lawfully adjusted outside the courts of 

 law. Instead of vindicating his honor, the English-speaking man who 

 violated the law by seeking redress by personal violence would dishonor 

 himself. Under our law, no wrong against man can be committed 

 that justifies the crime of private vengeance after its commission. 



The man of our race who holds that his country would be dis- 

 honored by agreeing to unrestricted arbitration forgets that according 

 to this standard he is personally dishonored by doing that very thing. 

 Individually he has become civilized, nationally he remains barbaric, 

 refusing peaceful settlement and insisting upon national revenge — all 

 for injured honor. 



Which of us would not rejoice to have Britain and America share 

 with Denmark and Holland, Chili and Argentina, the ' dishonor ' they 

 have recently incurred, and esteem it a proud possession? 



