The 

 Human 

 Harvest 



Vienvs of 



Otto 



Seeck 



[28] 



found in the army, and these men in gen- 

 eral cannot marry."^ 



What is true of standing armies is far more 

 true of armies that fight and fall ; for, as 

 Franklin said again, "Wars are not paid 

 for in war times : the bill comes later." For 

 "in all times," as Novicow observes, "war 

 must reverse the process of selection."^ 

 Similar observations as to the effects of 

 military selection are recorded by Herbert 

 Spencer. 



In his great history of "The Downfall of 

 the Ancient World " (Der Untergang der 

 antiken Welt), Professor Otto Seeck, of the 

 University of Greifeswald, finds this down- 

 fall due solely to the rooting out of the best 

 ("die Ausrottung der Besten"). The his- 

 torian of the " Decline and Fall of the Ro- 

 man Empire," or any other empire, is en- 

 gaged solely with the details of the process 

 by which the best men are exterminated. 

 Speaking of Greece, Dr. Seeck says, "A 

 wealth of force of spirit went down in the 



^ Parton's *' Life of Franklin/' II, p. 572. 

 ^ La guerre a produit de tout temps une selection a 

 rebours" (Novicow). 



