forces meeting in battle with equal numbers of another nationality, endowed with the same intellectual power and having the same mysterious forces at their command!
"Such a state of things is too awful to contemplate. Yet we must be and are prepared.
"While we make no military display, we have among us those who make a study of war. We know that much will depend on strategy, generalship, and discipline; and so we have our generals, our officers, and petty officers all prepared.
"It is our constant and sincere prayer that such terrible events should never take place. Oh yes! My son, we have need to pray that we may never be afflicted with a scourge of this kind. It would mean the destruction of a large number of our greatest intellects, as all our greatest minds must of necessity be the first to meet the enemy. This destruction of intellectual power would be a terrible blow to the contending nations and to the entire world, a blow that it would take ages to recover from.
