INTRODUCTION v 



right for citizen to make war on citizen; for friends and 

 neighbors to rob and despoil one another when safe 

 opportunities or dire necessity arise. If there is no 

 cause for war, invent one. A good war will hallow any 

 cause. There are no "rights" to be respected, no "obli- 

 gations" to be honored. Strategic positions and eco- 

 nomic conditions alone are to be considered, correctly 

 estimated, improved, and rightly utilized at the proper 

 time for self-preservation and self-aggrandizement. 



There are no such things in the naked realities of 

 a natural life, nay there cannot be such things as faith, 

 loyalty, honor, self-sacrifice, mutual service, and benev- 

 olence. These are but empty words invented by man 

 for man's protective purposes; lies cunningly made to 

 look like truth for ornamental and polite social usages. 

 They are but conventional baits for the less intelligent; 

 traps for sentimental fools. Pledges and truces are 

 but resting spells, mantles of dignified hypocrisy, to 

 be worn only so long as they serve their purpose. 



Wholesale and indiscriminate destruction, however, 

 would be unprofitable, and unwise. Like over-greedy 

 parasitism, it would leave nothing for the destroyer 

 to live upon. Only that shall be destroyed which is 

 an obstacle to the larger purposes of the conqueror, a 

 menace to his vital interests. Only that shall endure 

 which can be mastered by him and utilized, whose will 

 can be bent to his will. Only the masterful can thrive, 

 and only the strong should endure; their armor of 

 ruthlessness is the necessary means to an end that is 

 good; the more quickly that end is gained, the better. 

 Pity and mercy prolong miserable lives and cumber 

 the earth with unfit and useless beings; they are only 

 the misguided efforts of slavish minds that draw out 



