WAR AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION. 823 



these birds will fly in a circle, on the lookout for game, in the 

 direction toward which they are dispatched by command, or by 

 the course of the horsemen. When one of them perceives a hare, 

 he aims for it, in order to fall headlong upon it, trying to strike 

 it with his claws or with his beak. If the animal does not remain 

 still and the dash is therefore a failure, the bird reascends and 

 tries his manoeuvre over again, calling at the same time to his 

 comrades. They respond, and dash in turn at the game till it is 

 dispatched. If it escapes after it has been missed and succeeds 

 in hiding itself, the birds describe circles as dogs do on similar 

 hunts, and the one which finds it first calls to the others. 



The Turkistan birds hunt each on his own account, and are 

 indifferent about seeking game that they have missed. In a few 

 instances, where wealthy proprietors have large packs, the birds 

 have been taught to hunt together and to rally to one another ; 

 but such cases are exceptional. Translated for The Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly from the Revue Scienlifique. 



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WAR AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION. 



By CHARLES MOREIS. 



MAN'S progress toward civilization has been by no royal 

 road. His every step has been met by opposing influences, 

 some of them inherent in Nature, others in the conditions of the 

 social organism, whose action is to prevent any rapid or contin- 

 uous development. He has, on the other hand, been helped by 

 numerous agencies, some of them such as seem by no means 

 adapted to become aids to civilization. Of these, unlikely as it 

 may appear, the most important and effective has probably been 

 that of war, an agent usually looked upon as simply destructive, 

 but which is, as I hope to show, largely constructive in its 

 effects. 



It may seem to many readers absurd to speak of war as a help- 

 ful agency in civilization. It is the general impression that a 

 state of profound peace, with its consequent agricultural and 

 mechanical industries, is most conducive to human advancement. 

 Warfare is usually looked upon as simply destructive, and as 

 destitute of any redeeming feature ; and yet I venture to claim 

 that all the civilizations to-day existing were in their origin 

 largely the results of ancient wars ; and that peace, in the long 

 past of the human race, was almost a synonym for social and 

 intellectual stagnation. The views usually entertained as to the 

 comparative advantages of peace and war apply only to our own 

 enlightened age, and are not wholly correct even now. As applied 



