"
Nations Like Individuals.
"In such circumstances nations must be like individuals under similar
conditions. The individual believing himself to have been in the right,
yet finding himself beaten in his efforts to maintain it, will not
accept the situation philosophically; he will be angry and rebellious;
he will nurse what he believes to be his wrong.
"To nurse a wrong, whether it be real or fancied, is to help it grow in
the imagination, and that must mean at least the wish to find some
future means of righting it, either by strategy or increased strength.
"There are two things which humanity does not forget--one is an injury,
and, no matter how strongly some may argue against the truth of this
contention, the other is a kindness.
"In the long run both will be repaid. And nations, like individuals,
prefer the coin which pays the latter debt. Military force never has
accomplished kindness. Kindness means industrial armies decked with the
garlands of peace; military armies, armed and epauletted, must mean
minds obsessed with the spirit of revenge or conquest, hands clenched to
strike, hearts eager to invade.
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