The, Blood of the Nation 



these forms of destructive selection may 

 find its antidote. This is very true. 

 The antidote is found in the spirit of 

 democracy, and the spirit of democracy 

 is the spirit of peace. Doubtless these 

 pages constitute an exaggeration. They 

 were written for that purpose. I would 

 show the " ugly, old, and wrinkled truth 

 stripped clean of all the vesture that 

 beguiles." To see anything clearly and 

 separately is to exaggerate it. The 

 naked truth is always a caricature unless 

 clothed in conventions, fragments taken 

 from lesser truths. The moral law is an 

 exaggeration : " The soul that sinneth, 

 it shall die." Doubtless one war will 

 not ruin a nation. Doubtless it will not 

 destroy its virility or impair its blood. 

 Doubtless a dozen wars may do all this. 

 The difference is one of degree alone ; 

 I wish only to point out the tendency. 

 That the death of the strong is a true 

 cause of the decline of nations is a fact 



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