" -fi ,
Conservative * fc
great people. And its divinest attribute
is the pacific nature of its aims ; its con
trast with the Spartan code of Lycurgus
is like storm and sunshine. It hardly
seems to contemplate a state of war at
all , or a people addicted to any such pur
suit ; though there were legendary if not
historic glories of the martial sort , and
Solon himself was a successful warrior
on occasion. Then , Athens had evolved
the greatest if not the only effective
frame of self-government the world had
seen ; a gradual development of ages , it
had grown toward completion under
Solon and Glisthenes , in the course of
the century just before the Persian war.
Next , Athens was in full career of that
production wherein she far surpassed all
nations of the world , the finer arts ; her
sculptures and her architectures were
approaching the perfection , which raised
the level of human talent itself forever
after.
Just as all these branches of national
genius were upon the mellowing of their
. , . , ripest fruit , the
Militarism. .
,5 , ,
Medic tempest
swept across the land. For a time , these
brighter works were suspended for
sterner ones , which made Greece a camp
instead of an Academe , and her heroes
warriors , instead of gods ; in place of
Solon now was Aristides , for Ohsthenes
was Themistocles , for arts were only
arms. The invasion gloriously repelled ,
those beautiful impulses resumed their
sway ; no doubt with quickened current
after the obstruction , with new data of
experience , new pride of national life.
Bnt not one form of art or public work
appeared , of which we can say that it
was not well on its way before that
strenuous crisis , and that it might not
have matured as soon without the inter
ruption. The culmination might have
been in some respects less brilliant , than
it was on the "razed tablet" of desolated
Attica ; but it might have been far more
abiding , and harmoniously completed
For that pride of victory sowed in the
bosom of Athens a fatal seed. No
sooner had the psoans of glorification
died away or receded but a little , for
they have never died than the rising
generation began to thirst for new
triumphs. They could not bear to fall
so far below their fathers , and as they
had not now their own existence to
defend , they began to reach out after
empire. Within a short lifetime after
the Asian peril , they were involved in a
sore conflict still , the inevitable result of
their unscrupulous aggressions , which
gnawed their vitals put for thirty years ,
and left them tottering to their fall. In
conclusion , Athens owed her glory to
her larger measure of peace , and her
degradation to the usurping spirit of
war.
If , walking only the high places and
the broader ways of history , we now
_ . _ turn to Rome , we
Rome In Peace. _ , . . .
may find at the
first glance little here of the triumphs of
i
} >
peace. It may hardly occur to us at
once that in the Roman world , not the
pen indeed but the plow was mightier
than the sword. The story of the
Eternal Oity comes before us as essen
tially one of war and conquest , varied
only by faction , which was little else
than internal war. If so , then all the
more affecting is the ideal of the Roman
sovereign , "crowned with olive , found
ing first in laws the urban state , " in
whose reign alone of kings the gates of
war were shut , whose rule was inspira
tion straight from Heaven , the gentle
and holy yet imperial Numa. Only
twice again , according to Roman legend ,
those gates were closed ; the last time , a
few years before the birth of Ohrist , and
they dwelt on the record with a joy and
love which showed that even in those
iron hearts the image of peace was
higher throned than that of war. Bnt
on the whole , undoubtedly Rome en
forces the lesson rather by practice of
the opposite. Insatiable aggression , as
in the case of Athens but by larger scale
and longer period , brought on corruption
first and finally downfall. Yet when
Rome had ceased to exist as a state , the
most enduring life of all her work was
her system of civic law.
A thousand years of Middle Ages fol
lowed , the essential business of which
_ , , _ , was the working
Now Breeds of Men.
up of new races
over the whole scene of Europe into
civilization and Ohristiauity. This
could afford but few examples of ex
tended peace , except that the good of
the period arose chiefly from the teach
ing of the Gospel and such other as
followed , which was naturally pacific ;
and the evil , from the condition of war ,
intestine as well as external , which per
vaded all the continent so deeply.
Whatever was to advance the condition
of man , in those ages as in others , came
in the main by ways of peace ; what
arrested and delayed , by war , though
often an unavoidable scourge. But it
was unavoidable exactly as the estate of
man was nearer that of the brute. Here
and there a shining figure'might appear ,
like Alfred , who fought his way to
peace it was the works of the latter
that gave to these their truest glory.
At last that sombre interval drew
toward its close , the term being marked
by the accomplishment of the work ; the
organization of these peoples in such
measure as to take up the part of civil
ized nations in the modern world. It is
instructive to remark the nature and
the origin of the various causes or infl u-
euces which brought this general change ,
the greatest and most progressive since
Christianity. Naturally they were very
manifold , regarding almost every aspect
of human faculty and condition. And
scarcely one of all these influences had
any direct relation with war. First oc
curs the Revival of Learning , with its
new art and thought ; which instinctive
ly flies the shook of arms. In the train
of this Renaissance.or Now Birth of the
Imman mind , was innumerable follow
ing , all of the same kindred. The ad
vance of industry and commerce was
among the foremost , flourishing in
peace and wasting in war. The liber
ties of town were an offspring of this.
The liberties of peoples were normally a
matter of unarmed struggle , once in a
while needing to bo fought for , and
then the fighting as a matter of course
gets all the credit. The growth of
science , notably associated with the op
ening of the modern period , is the very
symbol of man's intellectual expansion ;
and if its ways are not always pleasant
ness , its paths are essentially peace.
Its conquests are the opposite of war ,
and its inventions are for the brother
hood of mankind. Among them indeed
may be those that serve the purposes of
war , as that of gunpowder , whose ex
tending use was an influence in the
modern system ; but war is no more to
be credited with such discoveries , than
with the mining industries that fur
nish its arms. Far greater than this
was the art of printing , toward which
war could contribute nothing. The rise
of schools and universities was another
such blessing. The explorations of the
world , which brought now continents
into ken , had almost as little military
connection in their mainspring ; at least
they were primarily a business of peace
ful enterprise. The new grasp of Christ
ianity which took effect in the Reforma
tion , might bring on wars eventually ;
but it was of no such origin , and Luther
as absolutely discarded the sword for
his own part as Jesus did. One special
means of European illumination which
is reckoned among the agencies that
brought on the modern era , took partic
ular impulse from a war : the diffusion
of Greek learning among the nations
from the fall of Constantinople. If any
one should call up this exile then as
witness that "war is kind" , and the
Turks the enlighteners of Europe , we
would contest that point no further.
So we have re-
Expanding Peace. , . . . .
covered our civili
zation , and this time , we may hope , to
lose no more. From that epoch to the
present , according to the lines we have
traced , in the natural order of things the
functions of peace are likely to enlarge ,
and those of war in relation of import
ance to abate ; on however mightier
scale the wars themselves may rage.
Less and less is it likely that the true
interests of man will be advanced by
them ; the best that can be hoped is that
eomo old encumbrances will be removed
by them ; and more and more this will
be better accomplished by pacific
growth and increase of intelligence , by
the sun instead of the storm. More and
more the statesman is the leader rather
than the general ; in our United States ,
no general in command has ever deter
mined the policy of the country. In Eng
