ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



In the course of modern history, race supplants 

 race, not so much by force of arms as by force of 

 brain. The Europeans know how to utilize the natu- 

 ral forces and make the stars fight on their side. So 

 far as they have done it by wars of conquest, they 

 have violated the great moral law and the law of 

 natural competition. All wars of conquest by civi- 

 lized nations are wicked wars. They are becoming 

 more and more odious to mankind, and are bound 

 to become still more so, till they cease entirely. A 

 century ago the conduct of Germany in the recent 

 war would have shocked mankind far less than it 

 has to-day. A century hence such an exhibition of 

 the rule of the jungle among civilized peoples will be 

 impossible. If Germany could ever come to be the 

 dominant power in Europe, it would be through the 

 law of natural competition. Her superior efficiency 

 in the arts of peace, could alone give her the vic- 

 tory. It would have given her the victory in her own 

 age had she been contented with its slow but sure 

 operation. 



in 

 The question of right and wrong must have 

 emerged, so as to become a factor in the evolution 

 of human society, very slowly — how slowly, we 

 can never know. But it did emerge, and is still 

 emerging more and more; first probably in the deal- 

 ing of man with man, then in the dealing of families 



152 



