14 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



more striking and significant. Fifty years ago 

 the most prominent feature in the case for inter- 

 national peace was that it was made to rest on 

 the high ground of an immutable moral doctrine. 

 War was held to be a crime, a crime against the 

 principle of civilization, a direct challenge to the 

 fundamental conception of Christianity. It was 

 held, therefore, that the higher nations must evolve 

 beyond war, just as the higher individual has 

 been raised beyond crime, through the growth of 

 an internal moral standard producing a feeling of 

 absolute abhorrence. 



But almost under the eyes of the current genera- 

 tion this view became replaced by another con- 

 ception. The high inflexible conviction urged 

 against war in the past, that the spirit of war was 

 a crime, that peace was a moral end to be sought 

 for its own sake and irrespective of any cost or 

 sacrifice whatever, ceased to be urged. Peace came 

 to be advocated because it was said to be the con- 

 dition which paid best in civilization ; war was 

 argued to be economically unsound because it 

 was said to be a great illusion to believe that a 

 national policy founded on war could be a profitable 

 policy for any people in the long run. 



In no phase of the time has the rapid lowering 

 of the standards of opinion in the West been more 



