The Destiny of Man. 93 



tendencies at work ; the tendency toward 

 the formation of larger and larger political 

 aggregates, and toward the more perfect 

 maintenance of local self-government and 

 individual freedom among the parts of the 

 aggregate. This two-sided process began 

 with the beginnings of industrial civiliza- 

 tion ; it has aided the progress of industry 

 and been aided by it ; and the result has 

 been to diminish the quantity of warfare, 

 and to lessen the number of points at 

 which it touches the ordinary course of 

 civilized life. With the further continu- 

 ance of this process, but one ultimate re- 

 sult is possible. It must go on until war- 

 fare becomes obsolete. The nineteenth 

 century, which has witnessed an unpre- 

 cedented development of industrial civiliza- 

 tion, with its attendant arts and sciences, 

 has also witnessed an unprecedented dimi- 

 nution in the strength of the primeval 

 spirit of militancy. It is not that we have 

 got rid of great wars, but that the relative 

 proportion of human strength which has 



