WAR AND PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14820, 25 October 1911, Page 10

WAR AND PEACE.

THEIR INFLUENCE ON NATIONS.

; Wab has been ' the history of man in the past, and must be also in the future. J The introduction of civilization is not going to change entirely the conditions ■ under which man is to continue to live on this earth. . It is not to be supposed that he is going to evolve to further perfection under conditions quite different from those that governed his upward progress in the past. If this fierce struggle for existence could cease there could be no "improvement, no advance to a higher ideal. But it cannot cease, because the population will always be more or less in excess of the subsistence, and therefore the difficulty regarding the unemployed and the under-employed may never be finally removed, though it can and must be seriously attempted. And, as man interferes with natural selection, there will always exist the danger of the submergence of the fittest individuals, to be quickly followed by the submergence of the whole nation by a fittter one—that is the history of the- rise and fall, of nations and empires.

The socialism of bees and ants is far higher than, anything man can attain to, but even with them there is constant internal and external competition, and cruel war dovetailed with sublime ideals of association and co-operation for the welfare of the community. nations languish and perish under peace conditions, and it has only been by war that a people has continued to thrive and exist. Rome was never so great as during the long struggle with Carthage, when she fought for her very existence. To bo prosperous, peace and war must be alternate. Peace for a nation is like sleep to an individual, it gives time for rest and recuperation. But we must not sleep too long, or we infallibly deteriorate. Peace is a disintegrating force, whereas war consolidates a people. War ,is no doubt a dreadful ordeal, but it clears the air, and refines-the race as fire purifies the gold and silver in the furnace. ' Nations, like individuals, ultimately benefit by their chastenings— is one of the mysteries of Nature. So long as any people, white, black, brown, or . yellow, hold weapons in their hands, we must not' commit the folly of beating our swords into ploughshares. The sufferings of man and beast in war are horrible beyond description, and yet, is it not true that it is not in war, but in peace, and in great commercial prosperity, that our worst vices are developed, fostered, and . grow rank ? Without material prosperity we become self-indul-gent, luxurious, -inconsiderate, selfish, and even ' unmanly.; ; In war many of the noblest traits in human nature assert themselves, and a high sense -of honour .potass befrre everything.