SCIENCE AND WAR 37 



adopted by civilised peoples as the ostensible 

 principle of their internal private relationships, it 

 has never been adopted by any nation in its inter- 

 national relationships. The principle of force as 

 ultimate arbiter in international quarrels remained 

 unchallenged through the nineteenth century, though 

 a strong, if politically impotent, revulsion against 

 it grew in this country, through the development of 

 a stronger public conscience, as it appeared to us, 

 through satiety in conquest and physical deteriora- 

 tion, as our enemies preferred to believe. 



But do not make the fatal mistake of supposing 

 that what always has been, necessarily always will 

 be. When man rose to the intellectual stature at 

 which he could command the waterfall to do his 

 will, kindle a fire and marshal the chaos of motion 

 we call heat into the rhythmic working movement of 

 a fuel-fed engine, irrigate the desert and make two 

 grains of corn grow where one grew before, he 

 broke with his past, for good or evil, once for all. 

 The physical factors of life till the nineteenth century 

 had been practically stereotyped. But now a new 

 factor is at work in the world which alters its 

 whole economy, and in light of which everything old, 

 whether appertaining to peace or war, to the body, 

 the brain or the soul, awaits its turn to be re- 

 examined, and, if found wanting, discarded. 



Science multiplied man's physical powers ten 

 thousand-fold, and increased his capacity both of 

 construction and destruction in like ratio. He spent 

 the vast increase of wealth, which had accrued to 

 him from the peaceful applications of science, in 

 preparing, like his ancestors, for war. The war has 

 come. As to its results, there is nothing in history 

 that can give the slightest clue. The principle of 

 force as the ultimate arbiter is now undergoing its 

 re-examination. It has survived nineteen centuries 



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