214 The Intellectual Revolution 



piracy would never disappear because you cannot 

 change human nature. But when pubHc opinion 

 became sufficiently enlightened to realize the 

 damage caused to commerce by the insecurity of 

 the high seas, it created such effective police 

 measures that piracy as an institution became an 

 increasingly unprofitable and dangerous occupa- 

 tion, and finally completely disappeared, the 

 "unchanging hiunan nature" to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. In other words, when force 

 became obviously ineffective for achieving the 

 end which the pirates desired, it was abandoned. 



Another analogy is given by the disappearance 

 of the religious wars.' When men realized the 

 futility of physical force for changing intellectual 

 convictions and religious beliefs, the religious wars 

 ceased. No change in human nature was necessary 

 and the "fighting instincts" remained as vigorous 

 as ever. All that occurred was a change in certain 

 ideas in the minds of men, in regard to the effective- 

 ness or futility of physical force in intellectual 

 struggles. 



But force has now become futile, as we have 

 seen in the preceding chapter, to advance any of 

 those interests, economic, social, or moral, for 

 which men live and strive. 



What will any of the nations — Germany, 

 England, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, 

 Turkey — gain from the Great War to compensate 

 them for the loss in life and treasure, the burden of 



' See supra, pp. 206-208. 



