to the slaughter for the love of God ? Is truth found and opinion reconciled thereby ? Is man in his ultimate endeavor only physical ? The killing alters no facts in the case. Must reason, then, go for naught ? Can no way but brute force be found to settle ultimate differences'? Then give the brutish in our nature the glory, and talk no more of the majesty of mind.
All admit that war is an evil—a necessary evil, some say, though necessary evil implies good, for the presence of the evil is better for us than the absence of it; hence, war is not an evil but a benefit. In other words, there is no such thing as necessary evil. "War is an evil; who is to blame for it? Not you or I, for we would put an end to ifc if we could; not the nation, which is but an aggregation of you's and I's; not the rulers of mankind, who can do nothing of lasting moment without the acquiescence of the ruled. We simply know that it is ; not why nor whence.
Virtue they call it, on both sides the same; they are noble men and true, they who fight for the ideal, whatever it may be, religion, country, freedom. Virtue then wars on virtue; this is the truth of it, for virtue is never wholly on one side, and he is virtuous who fights for what he believes right, whether he be rioht or not. Virtue then slays virtue, as vice kills vice. War and religion; strange companionship. One kills to cure, and the other cures to kill. Kill and call it honor; serve God and butcher his people!
Why should hate be glorified and deadly strife; that thing we so despise in brutes, prize-fighters, bull-fighters, duellists, and all that ilk, why in nations should we so exalt it? Both to the memory of the slain in battle, and to those who kill them, poets raise their most exalted strains, and God's ministers bless them from sacred desks. Hirelings or haters it is all the same, if they fight brutally well let them be exalted. Let truth and humanity be taught, instead of fanaticism and brute force, and war, like any other
