BEIEF ESSAYS 215 



Simpleton! their Governors had fallen out; and, 

 instead of shooting one another, had the cunning 

 to make these poor hlockheads shoot. " 



This is very witty, but is it a true picture of 

 modern -war? The Governors of these sixty men 

 had not fallen out; they had no personal quarrel; 

 they may even have had a warm feeling of friend- 

 ship for each other; it was in their representative 

 capacities that they had a quarrel; the two nations 

 quarreled through them, and it is fit the two nations 

 should send men to fight it out, and that the Gov- 

 ernors themselves should keep out of harm's way. 

 It is the narrow feeling of patriotism, of sectional- 

 ism, and race prejudices that make wars possible. 

 The European nations are jealous and suspicious of 

 each other, like African tribes. Did they all form 

 one federation, and see that the best interests of 

 one were in the end the best interests of all, war 

 between them would be impossible. 



Our admiration for war, then, is a mixed feeling, 

 in some of its elements laudable, in others question- 

 able. Our love of the heroic overrides our humani- 

 tarian feelings; our attraction for power blunts our 

 sense of right. If a man steals a chicken we hold 

 him in contempt, but if he steals a railroad we feel 

 quite differently toward him. Anybody can rob 

 a henroost, but it requires a genius and capacity 

 to steal a great corporate interest. But there are 

 grounds upon which our admiration for war is laud- 

 able. In the first place war is not personal, as a 

 quarrel between individuals is; the personal feel- 



