ILLUSTRATIONS AND CRITICISMS 



ancient times the normal rate of increase of 

 population was very much slower than in such 

 a community as ours. The second Punic War 

 was, therefore, relatively as murderous as our 

 Civil War would have been had it continued 

 until between three and four million lives were 

 destroyed. And if we would appreciate the 

 direct damage to industry which it entailed, we 

 have a sufficient datum in the fact that during 

 those seventeen years more than four hundred 

 flourishing towns and villages in Italy alone 

 were blotted out of existence.^ 



Now opinions may difl^er as to the possibility 

 of our carrying on for seventeen years a war 

 which should drain our resources as the Hanni- 

 balic war drained the resources of Italy. Prob- 

 ably no country could so well sustain such a 

 trial as the United States, owing to the favour- 

 ableness of our social conditions for exceedingly 

 rapid growth in wealth and population. Never- 

 theless, even omitting foreign interference from 

 the account, I do not believe the thing would 

 be possible. I believe it perfectly safe to assert 

 that a war like the one we have lately passed 

 through would, if prolonged to seventeen years, 

 entail social disintegration throughout the com- 

 munity. Yet the absolute military power of the 

 United States is incomparably greater than that 



^ Mommsen, Romische Geschichtey torn. i. p. 671 ; see 

 also p. 536. 



