Events at the close of the nineteenth century
have been indeed deplorable; they were also deplored--and this is the
significant thing--more than such events were ever deplored before. The
body of protest against unnecessary and unrighteous wars becomes
steadily larger, bolder, and more outspoken; the public conscience is
more troubled by them; more and more men perceive their wastefulness and
wrong, and discern the more excellent way; and to-morrow the total of
protesting insight and morality shall be great enough to tip the balance
and hold the tempted, ruffling nation to self-restraint, respect for
others, and respect for civilization. There was much less war in
Christendom during the nineteenth century than during the eighteenth,
and there will be less during the twentieth century than during the
nineteenth. The steady and sure progress of the world is toward the
supplanting of the ways of greed and violence among nations by the
methods of reason, legality, and mutual regard. As one travels over
Europe, one is never far from some great battle-field.
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