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SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
A GREAT DELUSION
The remarkable interest excited by The Great Illusion
by Norman Angell. His own delusion that to accom-
plish the gigantic stride in Social evolution involved
in the Passing of War, argument addressed to self-
interest alone is sufficient. His proposal to interdict
the moral plea is (despite the damage done by indis-
creet pacifists) mistaken policy. It would exclude the
immense influence of Imagination and of the Religious
Sense. Sir Edward Grey and Lord Avebury are wiser
advocates. On this point, why quarrel with Tolstoi ?
66 La Belle Alliance." Social progress hitherto has
not been achieved by appeals to expediency. Some
instances. Telemachus, Paul, Wilberforce, Shaftes-
bury. The required level of Public Opinion can only
be reached by help of the conviction that War is
not only profitless, but fundamentally Wrong. The
siege of Human Nature therefore calls for the com-
bination of all available forces, including those of
Ethics and Religion, which appeal to the conscience and
imagination of mankind. A modern statesman on
Reform without Religion. Mr. Benjamin Kidd on the
factor of altruistic feeling in the progress of the world.
Crusades change, but Deus vult is never out of date.
Pacifist aims will not be realised except through the
victory of Moral motives over material desires. Mahan
on Mammon.
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7
10
13
14
Occasions of War to be distinguished from underlying
Cause. The War Trinity of Clausewitz. War's cause
is to be sought within the mind of man: in the lower
passions of the People: in the ambition of Statecraft
for Dominion: in the pride of Prestige and the lust
of Greed; all engendering international Hatred. Thus
War is rooted in Moral Evil. Shakespeare's witness.
This ugly fact needs to be faced by the Imagination
. 17
20
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and Conscience of Mankind. How it has come to be
ignored. Neglect of it has made Europe an armed
camp unto this day. Little harm in military pageants.
But nevertheless the exciting phenomena of War do
but mask the malignant spirit "Evil, be thou my
good." The obsession of Nietzsche. The supposed
failure of the moral appeal is not established.
Appeals are not necessarily pointless because pre-
mature. Socrates, Aristotle, Dante, Channing,
Mazzini and Tolstoi-all men in advance of their age-
will yet be justified. Leo Tolstoi's Message to the World.
As the standard of humanity progresses, truth of the
higher sort becomes more readily assimilated. Tolstoi's
conviction of the resistless power of expressed truth.
"The mills of God grind slowly." Antiquity of the
Race. Soil and surroundings to be reckoned with as
well as quality of Seed. The need of Patience.
66
CHAPTER III
The futility of the common attempt to undermine
the ground of Ethical appeal by some pretended
"inexorability of natural laws.' The bogey of
Necessity and his stuffing. Confusion of terms:
"Nature," "Natural," and "Law." Confusion worse
confounded in "natural law." Its proper meaning
and scientific use. Descriptive not prescriptive.
Prebendary Row and Prof. K. Pearson. Natural
law" does not govern," and is not inexorable."
Homer Lea's confusion with Austin's definition of Law.
"Struggle for Existence: " in what sense the phrase is
applicable; and how it is continually misapplied. The
real direction of evolutionary law in the case of Man.
Psychological "laws" at present less formulated than
Physical, but they are more relevant in this debate.
Herbert Spencer on "advance to the highest form
of man." The evolution of Conduct. Sir E. Ray
Lankester on savage tribes and Natural Selection,
which has had no connection with the wars of mankind
since the very earliest period. The attributes of
Man constitute him "a new departure in the gradual
unfolding of Nature's scheme." The effects of human-
volition. Nature's "insurgent son." Amiel justified:
"Civilisation rests on Conscience." The regenerating
power of Social imagination.
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མི་ཚ
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40
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44
46
Man is under the operation of Law. But what Law?
The imperfection of all human laws. Progressive
and Pedagogic Law continually outgrown, as the Bible
record clearly shows. Growth of Humanitarian feeling.
The Roman Domina and " the Worcester cruelty case.'
Man's Religious Sense the organ of the influence of
Eternal Law. The three stages of its evolution. The
cosmical sweep of Eternal Law, which is the expres-
sion of Eternal Mind. Its aim, direction, and goal.
Wallace's "irreducible minimum of a rational belief."
The inevitable verdict of the Highest Court. Obscuri-
ties minister to progress. Milton's golden rule. Con-
firmation of Eternal Law by the survival of our regard
for Love, Renunciation, Honour, etc. Their wide
distribution and the witness of their supremacy in
human esteem. The fictitious dilemma of the mili-
tarists. Work the true primordial Law. Why Ger-
many and England are successful. Work not War the
secret of perpetual growth. Herbert Spencer's down-
right conclusion. The verdict of Science and Philo-
sophy acclaimed by Seer and Singer heralding the reign of "universal Law."
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64
CHAPTER V
THE CHOICE.
Man freed from Nature's ancient rule. A. R. Wallace
on the crowning product of the cosmic process. Science
and Religion at one. Unity of Truth. "First that
which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual."
How will Man use his Freedom? His weight of re-
sponsibility and power of Choice. What this choice.
involves. Admiral Mahan's Confession of Faith.
Propitious omens. President Taft, Messrs. Asquith
and Balfour on International Arbitration. The
reality of the Peace Movement. Dawning Power.
The attitude of the world surveyed. Germany hangs
back. Why? Youth is banal. So with a young
Nation in process of development. England, too, has
had a "mailed fist" and "shining armour "stage.
The demand for outlet and expansion of a rapidly
increasing people. Dr. Creighton and the German
advocate of Duels. Effect of the different habit of
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mind in England and Germany. Zeit-Geist neverthe-
less at work. The German Chancellor's Anglo-American
speech, and the Kaiser's declaration of six years ago.
Conduct of Peru and of Italy illustrates the effect of
good example, and of bad, in politics. The power
passing to the people makes their ideal of great im-
portance. Religion, Association, Liberty, elements of
this ideal. How each of them makes for Peace. The
eternal Choice. Chaos or Christ. The increasing pain
of shutting out the Light.
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83
CHAPTER VI
THE SOUL OF PATRIOTISM
85
The
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96
The next step upward in Social evolution is dependent
on the decision of the whole of Human Nature.
influence of feeling on Ideas. The tribal conscience
and humanity at large. Is Patriotism the enemy
of Peace? Čertainly not. Tolstoi's great mistake.
Where he is nevertheless quite right. Where he went
wrong, and why. The gipsy's horse. The prohibition-
ist reformer. Because some milk is sour, all milk is
not therefore bad. The modern cosmopolitan instinct :
typical of what is needed in personal and national
relations. No man loves his Home less for loving his
Country, neither is Patriotism incompatible with love
to all Mankind. Concentration of affection involves no
hostility to other people. As Home is the nursery of
Patriotism, Patriotism may be perfected in a larger and
completer Love. No cause can ever be served by the
vilification of Love in any shape. A great example of
unpatriotic "patriotism." Why America was lost
to the British Crown. To Burke's splendid failure at
the time belongs the eternal honour of having initiated
all subsequent successes of our Colonial policy. The 99
Dominion Premiers in London and Lord Rosebery's
message. Bishop Talbot at Berlin on the larger
Patriotism. The higher air we need to breathe easily 100
and naturally.
98
CHAPTER VII
THE SALT OF CITIZENSHIP
Story of Croesus and Cyrus. A primitive economic
argument. Some awkward modern incidents. Their
lesson is, first, particular; in regard to German ill-feeling.
103
The microbe "sword-in-mouth." Saner influences. 105
The general lesson is that the whole of human nature
must join to relax dangerous tension. To supplement
appeal to reason, three Factors are chiefly called for. 107
(1) The extension of the patriotic ideal in accordance
with the principles of the last Chapter. (2) The
general development of the Social sense, through the
cultivation and expansion of the tribal conscience. (3)
The united, free, and publicly arrayed manifestation of
the forces of Religion. The second of these factors is
the subject of this Chapter. Prof. Karl Pearson on
the ideal Citizen." The passing of War conditioned
by a high development of man's Social sense. For
"wars are the manifestations of policy." Policy is 110
determined by Public Opinion which depends on the
view taken of “interests.' That view is determined
by the stage of development reached by the Social
sense of the Community. In accordance with this
development, policy is perfected either by War or by
Peace. Burke's great principles. The Impeachment 112
that failed: the Witness that succeeded. War doomed
by the gradual transformation of Policy. Two ways
of staggering humanity." Social Science and Pure
Religion make for Human Solidarity. Church and 116
State in Russia. Rome's suicidal Temporal Claims.
Vexation decreed to Violence. Religion, ordained to be
the greatest unifying power in existence, has been made
"the great Divider of Mankind." Aristotle; Kesub 118
Chundah Sen. Nature and effect of Bushido. Japanese
Self-Poise. No "motoritis." The Moral supremacy
of Christendom challenged. A British workman's
"thirsting mind" satisfied only by reading Marcus 121
Aurelius. What this must imply. A lesson for
Church and Chapel. A pathetic proposal. Francis
Bacon. God, or wolf. Nietzsche's cult of the ham- 123
mer. The Social idea matures in the light of the
Religious. No political "second-best" satisfies our
Religious sense. The Religion which can never die.
The accordant voices of Religion, Philosophy, Experi- 124
ence, on those high communal aims which constitute
the Salt of Citizenship.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CALL OF RELIGION
The Unanimity of the greatest Teachers of Mankind.
Their unremitting witness despite general disregard.
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