620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and its repression ? If we have no longer highway robberies, how 

 many more cases of fraud exist, most of it not touched by our crimi- 

 nal laws ! As to litigation, I am perhaps not an impartial judge, 

 but it seems to me that, if law were as cheap as it is desired, every 

 next-door neighbor would be in litigation. It would seem as if 

 social order had never more than the turn of the scale which is 

 necessary to social existence in its favor when contrasted with the 

 disorganizing forces. Without that there would be perpetual in- 

 surrections and anarchy. But though antagonism takes a differ- 

 ent form, it is still there. Are wars more regulated by justice than 

 of yore ? I venture to doubt it, though probably many may dis- 

 agree with me. National self-interest or self-aggrandizement is, 

 I think, the predominant factor, and is frequently admittedly so. 

 I also doubt if the old maxim, " If you wish for peace, prepare for 

 war," is of much value. Large armaments and improvements in 

 the means of destruction (whose inventors are more thought of 

 than the discoverers of natural truths) are as frequently the cause 

 of war as of its prevention. Are wars less sanguinary with 100- 

 ton guns than with bows and arrows ? I can not enter into statis- 

 tics on this subject, but a sensible writer who has, viz., Mr. Fin- 

 laison, came to the conclusion that wars cease now as anciently, 

 not in the ratio of the improvements in killing implements, but 

 from exhaustion of men or means. Wars undoubtedly occur at 

 more distant intervals, or the human race would become extinct. 

 Probably the largely increased competition supplies their place : 

 we fight commercially more and militarily less. It is a sad reflec- 

 tion that man is almost the only animal Uiat fights, not for food 

 or means of life or of perpetuating its race, but from motives of 

 the merest vanity, ambition, or passion. War is, however, not 

 wholly evil. It develops noble qualities — courage, endurance, 

 self-sacrifice, friendship, etc. — and tends to get rid of the silly 

 incumbrances of fashion and ostentation. But do the much-be- 

 praised inventions of peace bring less antagonism ? Consider the 

 enormous labor and waste of time due to competition in the adver- 

 tising system alone. Paper-making, type-founding, printing, past- 

 ing, posting or otherwise circulating, sandwich-men, etc., all at 

 work for purposes which I venture to think are in great part use- 

 less ; and those who might add to the productiveness of the earth, 

 or to the enriching our knowledge, are helping to extend the lim- 

 its of the black country, and wasting their time in interested self- 

 laudation. And the consumer pays the costs. " Buy my clothing, 

 which will never wear out." " Become a shareholder in our com- 

 pany, which will pay cent per cent." " Take my pills, which will 

 cure all diseases," etc. These eulogies come from those highly 

 impartial persons the advertisers, all promising golden rewards, 

 but, as with the alchemists, on condition tliat gold be paid in ad- 



