in the past. Whether it will be in the future depends
upon whether some sublimated form of procedure can adequately be
substituted. We have succeeded to a large extent in dealing with our
combative instincts by developing sports and the competition of
business, and we have largely sublimated our hate instinct in dealing
with various forms of anti-social conduct as exhibited in the so-called
"criminal." It remains to be seen whether nations can unite to a similar
end and perhaps, by the establishment of an international court, and by
other means, deal in a similar way with infractions of international
law.

2. War as a Form of Relaxation[210]

The fact is that it does not take a very careful reader of the human
mind to see that all the utopias and all the socialistic schemes are
based on a mistaken notion of the nature of this mind.

It is by no means sure that what man wants is peace and quiet and
tranquillity. That is too close to ennui, which is his greatest dread.
What man wants is not peace but a battle. He must pit his force against
someone or something. Every language is most rich in synonyms for
battle, war, contest, conflict, quarrel, combat, fight. German children
play all day long with their toy soldiers. Our sports take the form of
contests in football, baseball, and hundreds of others. Prize fights,
dog fights, cock fights, have pleased in all ages. When Rome for a
season was not engaged in real war, Claudius staged a sea fight for the
delectation of an immense concourse, in which 19,000 gladiators were
compelled to take a tragic part, so that the ships were broken to pieces
and the waters of the lake were red with blood.

You may perhaps recall Professor James's astonishing picture of his
visit to a Chautauqua. Here he found modern culture at its best, no
poverty, no drunkenness, no zymotic diseases, no crime, no police, only
polite and refined and harmless people. Here was a middle-class
paradise, kindergarten and model schools, lectures and classes and
music, bicycling and swimming, and culture and kindness and elysian
peace. But at the end of a week he came out into the real world, and he
said:

Ouf! What a relief! Now for something primordial and savage,
even though it were as bad as an Armenian massacre, to set the
balance straight again. This order is too tame, this culture
too second-rate, this goodness too uninspiring. This human
drama, without a villain or a pang; t