p. 111) he writes:
If the foolishness, negligence, idleness, and short-sightedness of States did not involve their occasional collision, it is difficult to imagine the degree of degeneracy to which the human race would descend. War is one of the conditions of progress, the sting which prevents a country from going to sleep, and compels satisfied mediocrity itself to awaken from its apathy. Man is only sustained by effort and struggle. The day that humanity achieves a great pacific Roman Empire, having no external enemies, that day its morality and its intelligence will be placed in the very greatest peril.
In our own times a philosophy not very dissimilar has been voiced in the public declarations of ex-President Roosevelt. I choose a few phrases from his speeches and writings, at random:
We despise a nation, just as we despise a man, who submits to insult. What is true of a man ought to be true of a nation.8 We must play a great part in the world, and especially ... perform those deeds of blood, of valor, which above everything else bring national renown. We do not admire a man of timid peace. By war alone can we acquire those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. In this world the nation that is trained to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound to go down in the end before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities.9
Professor William James covers the whole ground of these