The Ilalicti : a Parasite 



voluntatis! If war affected humanity alone, 

 perhaps the future would have peace in store 

 for us, seeing that generous minds are work- 

 ing for it with might and main; but the 

 scourge also rages among the lower animals, 

 which, in their obstinate way, will never listen 

 to reason. Once the evil is laid down as a 

 general condition, it perhaps becomes incur- 

 able. Life in the future, it is to be feared, 

 W' ill 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 just- 

 ice. 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 ironclads and 

 all our cunning engines of destruction; he 

 knows as well the appalling extent of the ap- 

 petites among all creatures, down to the very 

 lowest. Well, if that just and 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: 



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