POSTSCRIPT TO THE PREFACE xxxiii scripted soldier risks his life, there is no reason in law or justice why one whose religion forbids him to take life should not be enrolled among that portion of the army whose work it is to save life. I cannot, with every attempt to be just and even generous, refrain from maintaining that one who refuses to do this may be justly branded as a coward. But it might also be maintained that "Conscientious Objection" without being based upon religion, may be grounded upon political conviction which ought to be equally respected. Yet it is well for such "objectors" to remember that every deliberate act—including the most illegal-is the result of "conviction"; but, if it be illegal, the degree of its deliberateness increases its criminality. Those who believe (as we all do) that war is in itself a crime and an anachronism might maintain that it ought in action to be resisted by every one who firmly holds this faith. Their convictions, I believe, should be respected before the outbreak of war. But when war emerges from the preparatory and potential stage and actually comes upon us; when it is an undeniable fact which no amount of reasoning, logic and morality can dissolve or counteract; the whole position is essentially altered. Christian Scientists, so-called, though also constituting a religious sect, do not believe in the reality of disease and carry their belief into the practice of life. So long as it remains a belief it cannot be interfered with by the State. But if the community finds it necessary to issue sanitary enactments in order to combat an actual disease which endangers the existence of the whole community, the Christian Scientist has no right to refuse to conform by taking the precautions enjoined, and by actively fighting the disease in order to increase public security, even if he does not believe in it himself. In such a case it is right that he be forced to obey the law. Whatever we may believe with regard to the iniquity and folly of war, when it comes upon us as a great disease, we must all join to combat it, and the law designed for this purpose may force us to comply with its enactments. He who in spite of these (in our own opinion) irrefutable and just arguments, nevertheless believes that he ought to resist (and his convictions may be absolutely sincere) must resign himself to become a martyr to his convictions. We must admit such action as we admit the action arising from conviction in many cases in which public security forces us to counteract it, without bitterness and even with pity, but decidedly not with the respect which we reserve for those deeds which respond to our best judgment and our moral ideals. We cannot forget that there are cases in which highly conscientious actions turn into an act of folly; and tragedy merges into comedy even though it be tragi-comedy. August, 1917. C. W. PREFACE CONTENTS POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE II. PROGRESSION FROM PROXIMATE TO ULTI- MATE IN THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. Assassination of the Archduke. Austria and Serbia 20 PATRIOTISM I INTRODUCTION THERE have been many causes for this war, immediate and ultimate. I shall try to show in this essay that among the latter, i. e. the ultimate causes, German so-called patriotism, in the form of the corporate pride of the individual German citizen, has ultimately been most effective in producing this war. If this has been the sinister effect of patriotism, admittedly a high social virtue, evolved by the development of the human being and human society, we are bound to revise our idea of patriotism in the light of our tragic experiences, and we are driven to look more closely into the real meaning and import of nationalism in itself and its relation to what might be called internationalism. We are of necessity driven further in our inquiry into a critical examination of the origin, meaning, aims and history of all corporate bodies as such; and we shall ultimately find that the right of existence of such corporate bodies must be constantly tested in the light of the original purposes which called them into B |