THE HALICTI 209 



And, to play the brigand to better purpose, he invents war, 

 the art of killing wholesale and of doing with glory that 

 which, when done on a smaller scale, leads to the gallows. 



Shall we never behold the realization of that sublime 

 dream which is sung on Sundays in the smallest village 

 church : Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus 

 bonce voluntatis ! If war affected humanity alone, perhaps 

 the future would have peace in store for us, seeing that 

 generous minds are working for it with might and main ; 

 but the scourge also rages in the brute, which, in its 

 obstinate way, will never listen to reason. Once the evil 

 is laid down as a general condition, it perhaps becomes 

 incurable. Life in the future, there is every cause to 

 fear, will be what it is to-day, a perpetual massacre. 



Whereupon, by a desperate effort of the imagination, 

 one pictures to one's self a giant capable of juggling 

 with the planets. He is irresistible strength ; he is also 

 law and justice. He knows of our battles, our butcheries, 

 our farm-burnings, our town-burnings, our brutal 

 triumphs ; he knows our explosives, our shells, our 

 torpedo-boats, our iron-clads and all our cunning engines 

 of destruction ; he knows as well the appalling extent of 

 the appetites among all creatures, down to the very 

 lowest. Well, if that just, that mighty one held the 

 earth under his thumb, would he hesitate whether he 

 ought to crush it ? 



He would not hesitate. He would let things take their 

 course. He would say to himself : 



" The old belief is right ; the earth is a rotten nut, 

 gnawed by the vermin of evil. It is a barbarous essay, a 

 painful stage towards a kindlier destiny. Let it be : 

 order and justice are waiting at the end." 



27 



