228 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



lust of gain? Less careful of the good of others ? 

 " What is it," asks St. Augustine, " that we blame in 

 war ? Not the fact of death, for all must die ; but 

 " the desire for wrong, the cruelty of revenge, the 

 implacable spirit, the savagery of fighting, the lust 

 of lordship this is what we blame in war, and this 

 is what is condemned by Divine and human law." 

 The attempt to distinguish between just and unjust 

 wars is one which, till the Spirit of Peace inspires 

 our motives, can only lead to casuistry. Not only 

 religious wars, but wars of mere earthly empire 

 darken the page of human history. Yet was there 

 ever a war which could not be justified, on the 

 plea of self-defence, or the service of God ? Are 

 we to blame a Christian nation if, like the errant 

 knights of old, it goes about redressing human 

 wrongs with earthly weapons ? Does not the end 

 justify the means ? Is not there something of truth 

 in the sneer that even missionary work, which was 

 once done by a Henry Martyn, is now done by a 

 Martini- Henry ? Has not the maxim si vis pacem 

 para bellum been perverted into a justification for 

 all the armaments of Europe, when there was little 

 real thought or wish for peace ? What has the 

 religion of Christ to say to us here ? 



I answer, For the tone and temper of popular 

 " Jingoism," for the thinly disguised policy of 

 bluster, for the craving after military display, for 

 the readiness to stamp every effort for peace as 



