Chapter I
Introductory: On the State and Its Relation To War
and Peace
The inquiry is not concerned with the intrinsic merits
of peace or war, 2.
—But with the nature, causes and consequences of the
preconceptions favoring peace or war, 3.
—A breach of the peace is an act of the government,
or State, 3.
—Patriotism is indispensable to furtherance of warlike
enterprise, 4.
—All the peoples of Christendom are sufficiently patriotic, 6.
—Peace established by the State, an armistice—the State
is an instrumentality for making peace, not for perpetuating it, 7.
—The governmental establishments and their powers in all
the Christian nations are derived from the feudal establishments
of the Middle Ages, 9.
—Still retain the right of coercively controlling the actions
of their citizens, 11.
—Contrast of Icelandic Commonwealth, 12.
—The statecraft of the past half century has been
one of competitive preparedness, 14.
—Prussianised Germany has forced the pace in this
competitive preparedness, 20.
—An avowedly predatory enterprise no longer meets
with approval, 21.
—When a warlike enterprise has been entered upon, it
will have the support of popular sentiment even if it
is an aggressive war, 22.
—The moral indignation of both parties to the quarrel
is to be taken for granted, 23.
—The spiritual forces of any Christian nation may be
mobilised for war by either of two pleas: (1) The
preservation or furtherance of the community’s material
interests, real or fancied, and (2) vindication of the
National Honour; as perhaps also perpetuation of the
national “Culture,” 23.