An army is a despotism; military service is a bondage; nor can the
passion for arms be reconciled with a true civilization. The
present failure to acknowledge this incompatibility is only
another illustration how the clear light of truth is discolored
and refracted by an atmosphere where the cloud of war still
lingers. Soon must this cloud be dispersed. From war to peace is a
change indeed; but Nature herself testifies to change. Sirius,
brightest of all the fixed stars, was noted by Ptolemy as of
reddish hue, [Footnote: Almagest, ed. et tr. Halma, (Paris, 1816-
20,) Tom. II. pp. 72, 73.] and by Seneca as redder than Mars;
[Footnote: Naturales Quaestiones, Lib. I. Cap. 1.] but since then
it has changed to white. To the morose remark, whether in the
philosophy of Hobbes or the apology of the soldier, that man is a
fighting animal and that war is natural, I reply,--Natural for
savages rejoicing in the tattoo, natural for barbarians rejoicing
in violence, but not natural for man in a true civilization, which
I insist is the natural state to which he tends by a sure
progression. The true state of Nature is not war, but peace. Not
only every war, but every recognition of war as the mode of
determining international differences, is evidence that we are yet
barbarians,--and so also is every ambition for empire founded on
force, and not on the consent of the people. A ghastly, bleeding,
human head was discovered by the early Romans, as they dug the
foundations of that Capitol which finally swayed the world.
[Footnote: Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Antiquitates Romanae, Lib.
IV. Capp. 59-61.] That ghastly, bleeding, human head is the fit
symbol of military power.
Let the War System be abolished, and, in the glory of this
consummation, how vulgar all that comes from battle! By the side
of this serene, beneficent civilization, how petty in its
pretensions is military power! how vain its triumphs! At this
moment the great general who has organized victory for Germany is
veiled, and his name does not appear even in the military
bulletins. Time is the glory of arms passing from sight, and
battle losing its ancient renown. Peace does not arrest the mind
like war. It does not glare like battle. Its operations, like
those of Nature, are gentle, yet sure. It is not the tumbling,
sounding cataract, but the tranquil, fruitful river. Even the
majestic Niagara, with thunder like war, cannot compare with the
peaceful plains of water which it divides. How easy to see that
the repose of nations, like the repose of Nature, is the great
parent of the most precious bounties vouchsafed by Providence! Add
Peace to Liberty,--
"And with that virtue, every virtue lives."
As peace is assured, the traditional sensibilities of nations will
disappear. Their frontiers will no longer frown with hostile
cannon, nor will their people be nursed to hate each other. By
ties of constant fellowship will they be interwoven together, no
sudden trumpet waking to arms, no sharp summons disturbing the
uniform repose. By steam, by telegraph, by the press, have they
already conquered time, subdued space,--thus breaking down old
walls of partition by which they have been separated. Ancient
example loses its influence. The prejudices of another generation
are removed, and the old geography gives place to a new. The
heavens are divided into constellations, with names from beasts,
or from some form of brute force,--as Leo, Taurus, Sagittarius,
and Orion with his club; but this is human device. By similar
scheme is the earth divided. But in the sight of God there is one
Human Family without division, where all are equal in rights; and
the attempt to set up distinctions, keeping men asunder, or in
barbarous groups, is a practical denial of that great truth,
religious and political, the Brotherhood of Man. The Christian's
Fatherland is not merely the nation in which he was born, but the
whole earth appointed by the Heavenly Father for his home. In this
Fatherland there can be no place for unfriendly boundaries set up
by any,--least of all, place for the War System, making nations as
hostile camps.
At Lassa, in Thibet, there is a venerable stone in memory of the
treaty between the courts of Thibet and China, as long ago as 821,
bearing an inscription worthy of a true civilization. From Eastern
story learn now the beauty of peace. After the titles of the two
august sovereigns, the monument proceeds: "These two wise, holy,
spiritual, and accomplished princes, foreseeing the changes hidden
in the most distant futurity, touched with sentiments of
compassion towards their people, and not knowing, in their
beneficent protection, any difference between their subjects and
strangers, have, after mature reflection and by mutual consent,
resolved to give peace to their people... In perfect harmony with
each other, they will henceforth be good neighbors, and will do
their utmost to draw still closer the bonds of union and
friendship. Henceforward the two empires of Han (China) and Pho
(Thibet) shall have fixed boundaries... In preserving these
limits, the respective parties shall not endeavor to injure each
other; they shall not attack each other in arms, or make any more
incursions beyond the frontiers now determined." Then declaring
that the two "must reciprocally exalt their virtues and banish
forever all mistrust between them, that travellers may be without
uneasiness, that the inhabitants of the villages and fields may
live at peace, and that nothing may happen to cause a misunderstanding,"
the inscription announces, in terms doubtless Oriental: "This
benefit will be extended to future generations, and the voice
of love (towards its authors) will be heard wherever the
splendor of the sun and the moon is seen. The Pho will be
tranquil in their kingdom, and the Han will be joyful in their
empire." [Footnote: Travels of the Russian Mission through
Mongolia to China, and Residence in Peking, in 1820-21, by George
Timkowski, Vol. I. pp. 460-64.] Such is the benediction which from
early times has spoken from one of the monuments erected by the
god Terminus. Call it Oriental; would it were universal! While
recognizing a frontier, there is equal recognition of peace as the
rule of international life.