556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



calamity, war is in certain circum- 

 stances to be defended as a necessity ; 

 but those who make it a business are 

 rarely contented to leave it on tliis 

 ground. The brutal bluntness of the 

 member of Parliament who advocated 

 war in a distant English province, and, 

 upon being pressed for his reasons, re- 

 plied, " Why, d n it, I have two sons 

 in the army ! " is not often emulated ; 

 even those who are interested in it as a 

 vocation seek plausible excuses for it. 



Lieutenant - Commander Goodrich, 

 of the United States Navy, for example, 

 writes, in the "Century Magazine": 

 " I am not sure, however, that it is not 

 well once in a while to assert ourselves 

 as standing on a right because it is 

 right, and as prepared to maintain it at 

 any cost." It would seem the dictate 

 of a wise statesmanship, on a matter of 

 such supreme importance, to lay down 

 the principles that should govern a na- 

 tion, in resorting to war, as an estab- 

 lished and inflexible policy. But Lieu- 

 tenant Goodrich seems to think that 

 war may be desirable, once in a while, 

 anyhow or on its own account, or as a 

 display of power, without reference to 

 its usual provocations. 



War is generally regarded as a last 

 brutal resort, when the higher agencies 

 of reason and diplomacy have failed, 

 and the resources of civilization to keep 

 the peace have broken down; but Von 

 Moltke maintains that war is itself a 

 natural and permanent element of civil- 

 ization, and that the hope of ending it 

 is equally illusive and undesirable. 



But the most curious attempt to 

 throw a glamour over the intrinsic abom- 

 inations of war, and make it seem a 

 thing worthy of admiration, is made by 

 the " Spectator," which maintains that, 

 in the systematic and professional kill- 

 ing of men on a vast scale, which con- 

 stitutes war, there is a peculiar " intel- 

 lectual charm." The " Spectator " inti- 

 mates that Christians of the feminine 

 type, and sentimental people who viv- 

 idly realize the horrors of battle, may 



shrink from the system ; but it says 

 that " war, as such, has for cultivated 

 mankind a distinct intellectual charm." 

 The terrible fascination is admitted, but 

 how its charm can be qualified as dis- 

 tinctly intellectual does not appear. 

 The " Spectator " expatiates on the tre- 

 mendous interests staked in war, which 

 may involve the national fate, and be 

 of immense moment to citizens ; but, 

 then, it goes on to say, " Wars which 

 are not ours interest us nearly as much 

 as those which are." The truth is, war 

 appeals not so especially to the intellect 

 as to the deeper life-instincts of hu- 

 manity. Men are thrilled by the ex- 

 citement of war with no regard to their 

 culture. There is no more " intellectual 

 charm " in war than in any great crime 

 or catastrophe or the coming of cholera. 

 It is probable, indeed, that the " Spec- 

 tator" has here committed itself to the 

 very opposite of what is true. It is 

 impossible to think of the intellectual 

 classes as such, people of cultivated 

 sensibilities, except as repelled and 

 shocked instead of being charmed by 

 war; while, on the contrary, the dis- 

 tinctively uncultivated classes are most 

 profoundly stirred and attracted by it. 

 The admiration of war is indeed the 

 deepest among savages and barbarians, 

 with whose undeveloped natures it is 

 in harmony. The recent war experi- 

 ment of the " Century Magazine " is 

 said to have doubled its circulation ; 

 will it be claimed that the hundred 

 thousaud new patrons that have been 

 found in addition to its former read- 

 ers, are to be ranked as especially intel- 

 lectual and cultivated, or are they not 

 probably quite of the opposite kind ? 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Transactions of the New York State 

 Medical Association for the Year 

 1884. Edited, for the Association, by 

 Dr. Austin Flint, Jr. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 654. Price, $5. 



The first meeting of the Association was 

 held in the city of New York on the 18th, 



