This conception of national greatness has prevailed at many different
epochs--Macedonian, Roman, Saracen, Spanish, English, and French--and,
indeed, has appeared from time to time in almost all the nations and
tribes of the earth; but the civilized world is now looking for better
foundations of national greatness than force and fighting.
The partial successes of democracy in Europe have much increased the
evils of war. Sir Francis Bacon looked for a fighting class; under the
feudal system when a Baron went to war he took with him his vassals, or
that portion of them that could be spared from the fields at home.
Universal conscription is a modern invention, the horrors of which, as
now exhibited in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and France, much exceed those
of earlier martial methods. There has never been such an interruption of
agricultural and industrial production, or such a rending of family ties
in consequence of war as is now taking place in the greater part of
Europe. Moreover, mankind has never before had the use of such
destructive implements as the machine gun, the torpedo, and the dynamite
bomb.
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