THE EMOTION OF THE IDEAL 143 



cannot be better exemplified than by attempting 

 to imagine it in operation in the most difficult 

 and extreme example which it is possible to con- 

 ceive. 



The most distant ideal, in the sense of being the 

 most remote from realization, which the human 

 mind could possibly have set before itself in the 

 West for some generations past has been the ideal 

 of permanent universal peace. The utter remote- 

 ness of the prospect under existing conditions was 

 visible to all thinking minds immediately before 

 the outbreak of the world war in 1914. It was 

 visible in the spectacle of the armed and arming 

 nations of civilization getting down to the first 

 principles of force. But it was apparent also for a 

 deeper reason through another fact, namely, the 

 nature of the case for peace which had come to be 

 presented by pacifists to the world. 



In the case for peace, as it had come to be put 

 before the war which began in 1914, peace was urged 

 upon civilization, not because it was an object 

 worthy of the vastest sacrifice in its attainment, 

 but because it was the sound economic policy of 

 the nations. War was condemned vehemently, not 

 because it was the last crime of civilization, but 

 because it was held to be a great illusion to believe 

 that it was a more profitable national policy than 



