22 WILL CHRISTIANITY SURVIVE THE WAR? 



only existed for an expeditionary force of trivial size, it seems 

 likely that an appalling mass of error, waste, and disorder 

 has everywhere overlain the plans that have been thought 

 out. As regards the political and economic arrangements of 

 the country, and what may be called the war-mind of the 

 nation, they show a manifest decline of rationality as compared 

 with the normal order. 



In every belligerent nation self-glorification, vilification of 

 the enemy, a mania of suspicion, and a bottomless credulity 

 are prevailing notes. The fine qualities of comradeship, 

 self-sacrifice, courageous endeavour, which accompany the 

 struggle, contribute little or nothing to that toughness of mind 

 upon which the reasoning processes depend. 



Not only do "chance" and the miraculous abound in the 

 occurrences of war, but the whole episode is the substitution 

 of an irrational for rational modes of settling differences. 

 The terms of settlement must materially affect the future lives 

 of countless millions of human beings. These terms will 

 have been determined and imposed by physical force not by 

 reason, appeal to justice, or any moral or intellectual prin- 

 ciple. Thus war is itself a liberal education in unreason. It 

 leaves behind a legacy of terrible memories, smouldering 

 passions, herd enthusiasms, disordered nerves, and broken 

 careers. In every department of life the period of the war 

 will register a violent break into the past. Under such con- 

 ditions there is little to favour the cause of Rationalism. It 

 is unlikely that politics, industry, education, social and 

 domestic activities, will be induced by experience of the 

 war to base themselves on "science and reason." Some 

 urgent attempts thus to reform life in reasonable methods 

 will doubtless be made, but the atmosphere will be unfavour- 

 able. 



I expect to see a rapid spread of religious, political, 

 economic, philosophic, and scientific fads and supersti- 

 tions, the products of mental irritability, sensationalism, and 

 credulity. The old dull puritan Protestantism, with its dogmas 

 and austerities, is doubtless doomed. But in all likelihood 

 we are in for an era of swift-changing florid superstitions and 

 quackeries of every sort. A process of mental recuperation 

 will doubtless supervene, provided that some tolerable security 

 can be provided against another plunge into the higher 

 barbarism. But I confidently expect to see a rich crop of 

 religious varieties springing out of the blood-soaked mind of 

 the nations. 



