V IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 209 



of war, and the wickedness of the mihtary spirit, 

 and we are never weary of dilating on the blessed- 

 ness of peace and the innocent beneficence of In- 

 dustry. In their moments of expansion, even 

 statesmen and men of business go thus far. The 

 finer spirits look to an ideal civitas Dei; a state 

 when, every man having reached the point of ab- 

 solute self-negation, and having nothing but moral 

 perfection to strive after, peace will truly reign, 

 not merely among nations, but among men, and 

 the struggle for existence will be at an end. 



Whether human nature is competent, under 

 any circumstances, to reach, or even seriously ad- 

 vance towards, this ideal condition, is a question 

 which need not be discussed. It will be admitted 

 that mankind has not yet reached this stage by a 

 very long way, and my business is with the pres- 

 ent. And that which I wish to point out is that, 

 so long as the natural man increases and multi- 

 plies without restraint, so long will peace and in- 

 dustry not only permit, but they will necessitate, 

 a struggle for existence as sharp as any that ever 

 went on under the regime of war. If Istar is to 

 reign on the one hand, she will demand her hu- 

 man sacrifices on the other. 



Let us look at home. For seventy years peace 

 and industry have had their way among us with 

 less interruption and under more favourable con- 

 ditions than in any other country on the face of 

 the earth. The wealth of Croesus was nothinsr to 



