ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



terial efficiency, suddenly preaching and practicing 

 the doctrine of might over right which prevails in 

 the orders below man. The German philosophers 

 brazenly justified their nation's course in their ag- 

 gressive war, with all its attendant horrors, by an 

 appeal to the Darwinian doctrines of the strug- 

 gle for existence, and the consequent survival of 

 the fittest, doctrines which play such a prominent 

 part in biological evolution. The nation suddenly 

 slumped into a barbarism worse than that of their 

 ancestral Huns. The Hun was again triumphant, 

 gloating over the prospect of the rich plunder and 

 the orgies of wine and lust that awaited him in new 

 fields of conquest. It was a spectacle to make the 

 Genius of Humanity veil her face and weep tears of 

 blood. 



All that was noble and precious in international 

 relations; standards of conduct that it had taken 

 long generations to achieve; the peace and good- 

 will of the world; cooperation in scientific fields, and 

 in endeavors toward human betterment — all went 

 by the board before the Teutonic debauch of greed 

 and Just for blood and conquest. 



Seriously to discuss in our day the question of the 

 rule of might over right — that force is the arbiter 

 of justice in human relations, except when it is in- 

 voked to chastise the offender — seems a waste of 

 time. On how low a plane must a people live whose 

 leaders appeal to the way of the tiger with his prey, 



136 



