MIXED MUSINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16561, 9 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

MIXED MUSINGS.

EVILS OF PREMATURE PEACE.

BY J. GILES. .... Heartless things Are done and said i' the world, and many worms And boasts and men live on, and mighty Earth, From sea and mountain, city and wilderness, In vesper low. or joyous orison. Lifts still its solemn voice.

I This association of worms and beasts and ! men, if it were possible to suspect a, trace of cynicism in such a soul as Shelley's, might suggest as his meaning that it is only when the souls of men are no nobler than those of beasts or worms that they can live on in the face of the heartless things that are said and. done in the world. But we may not attribute cynicism to Shelley, and it seems as if, even while lamenting the loss of " some ''surpassing Spirit" which loft nothing behind "but pale despair and cold tranquility," the sub-conscious mind of the poet was still holding fast to the belief that, in spite of the heartless things, all earth's inhabitants, worms and beasts and men, could still live on in silent sympathy with tho ""solemn voice ever arising alike from her peopled and her desert places. And who is there who has not felt the inspiration of this " voice of the Silence " that is whispered from the spiritual influences that guide our Mother Earth towards her high destiny? ' The Ooncientious Objector.

Perhaps we have been indifferent to these influences, and have failed to respond to their whisperings, and so " earth, ocean, air, beloved brotherhood," as they are, and capable of bringing us sweet tranquility if we had only perceived the invisible links that connect them with the "deep heart of man," speak to us now in other tones. For, immersed in the pursuit of things that tend rather to the subversion than the strengthening of brotherhood, we have neglected the too patent signs until insulted, outraged and ravaged, earth, ocean and air have called upon us with sound of trumpet to stand forth with armed hand and soul of diamond temper and slay the dragon that is devastating earth with its "heartless" atrocities. And so we take up our weapons, resolved to use them for the restoration and confirmation of that brotherhood of men for the destruction of ' which they seem, to have been specially invented by the devil. For we know that the scruples of the so-called " conscientious objector " mean a revolt against tho higher instincts of humanity and against a loftier ethio which lies too deep to be discovered by those who carefully explore the letter to find an excuse for their own spiritual lethargy.

Mischevious Literature. But worse, as far more mischevious, than the conscientious objector is the able writer, tho philosopher, who uses his trained literary faculty to advocate a premature peace that would cut short our work when only half done, and therefore not done at all to any effectual purpose, and would afford to the baleful dragon the opportunity to repair his teeth and claws and to replenish 'his poison bag for a new assault upon humanity. I should be sorry to do an injustice to Mr. Bertrand Russell,. of .whose - writings I have read' just enough to convince nte that his intelligence is of a high order, and that itt philosophy and metaphysics he is an original and suggestive- thinker. I must also add that I have not read " The Principles of Social Reconstruction " and therefow cannot say how far the sentiment of the short passage I am going to quote may be modified by other parts of the book, but it certainly seems to be sufficiently crisp and self-contained to challenge criticism on its own merits. Mr. Russell says :—" The utmost evil that the enemy could inflict through an unfavourable peace would be a trifle compared to the evil which all the nations inflict upon themselves by contiuing to fight." Is it prejudice or clearness of thought that induces one, on coming upon a passage like this to lay down the book with the exclamation, ex uno disce omnes?" For what in the rest of the book can turn the point of a sentence which tells us that it is better to make an unfavourable peace than to go on with' the work that we have taken in hand ?

Moral Effect of German Peace. By aD unfavourable peace we may suppose Mr. Russell meariß a peace that would N fail to give" tie allied and injured nations the restorations and reparations thatNare reasonable,, and to reduce the spirit of Prussian aggression to impotence; and he may he understood to mean that even such a peace would leave the enemy's resources so impaired that he would never again be able to bring upon the nations such a loss of Wood and treasure as will be caused by continuing the war. Well, that conclusion may b e questioned, but we will let it pass, and go on to ask what about tho spirit of the enemy, unbroken, unrepentant, overflowing more than ever with bitter hatred against the one Power which more than all others has thrown itself, gratuitously, as he thinks, in his path, challenged his ideals, and frustrated his monstrous ambition? Are we to take no account of the moral effects of a premature neace; of the quenching in futility and disappointment of the, fiery chivalry of a world-empire which rushed to the battlefield in pursuit of no gam for itself, but for the help of the outraged nations against the enemy of humanity? Surely those who might thus be baulked of the victory which alone could compensate their efforts, their sacrifices, and their sufferings, might well in their bitter grief and disappointment, exclaim with Virgil's hero- "0 thrice and four-fold happy!" those who fell gloriously in fight, while those who gave the craven counsel might be content to " live an."

Germany Must Repent.

We must go on with the war with set teeth, remorseless purpose, and unabated ve.iemenee, until our enemy's sword falls from his hand, for only then can we hope that Germany, humbled and repentant, will begin to see the falseness and baseness of her ideals, and that the Divine purpose for the world is hot to be foiled by mortals, however ambitious and clever, who say, " Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven, and let us make us a name." Is there any on© who hates Germany so much as not to wish to see her repentant, but would prefer that she should continue in sin," not " that grace may abound," but that penalties may accumulate? I think no one is so far tainted with Germanism as that, but the inoculation may come with very small beginnings. A lady of rather vehement temperament, lately rebuked me for having expressed myself in one of these musings, so as to imply that I felt sorry for the Germans. I replied that I used to be sorry for Satan when I believed in him ! I admit the difficulty to average human nature, in which I copiously share, of slaying without hate when the enemy has filled our souls with wrath by his revolting atrocities; and with or without hate the bayonet and the bomb are the fitting means of teaching the necessary lesson to inhuman-ruffians. But let us use a little self-analysis in our calmer moments, and beware how we admit the German virus into our veins. We have all achieved Tennyson's ideal of the poet as "dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love." Do we renounce the ideal because Germany, had picked it into .th&:Kraß-h.eap.i r '