174 The Special Sociological Errors 



the institutions which were common then had 

 fallen from the skies. If systematic warfare 

 existed in Egypt at the time of Mena, it must have 

 been preceded by a series of facts dating back to 

 the animal period of the quaternary time. For 

 Egypt also, then, before Mena there must have 

 been a primitive period in which systematic war 

 did not exist. 



But what is more recent still than war, is the 

 prestige of war. The idea that it is beneficial, 

 and has been the cause of the progress of the 

 human race, is a philosophic speculation. How- 

 ever, philosophic speculations are relatively very 

 recent facts in human history, extending probably, 

 not beyond the seventh century before our era. 

 The period of the glorification of war extends from 

 about the time of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who 

 has been called the father of militarism, and who 

 died about 480 B.C. In our age, therefore, when 

 Marshal von Moltke tells us that war is an 

 element of order estabHshed by God, he formu- 

 lates a very modern idea, considering the general 

 antiquity of the human race, but an idea which 

 has already wrought more evil to the peoples of 

 Christendom than any other error of the hiiman 

 mind. 



