The old world, at least, believed in ideals. It believed that
justice, fair play, liberty, righteousness must triumph in the
end; that is, however you interpret the phrase, the old world
believed in God, and it staked its existence on that belief.
Millions of gallant young men volunteered to die for that divine
faith. But if wrong emerged triumphant out of this conflict, the
new world would feel in its soul that brute force alone counted in
the government of man; and the hopelessness of the dark ages would
once more fall on the earth like a cloud.