trophes in this fashion:

Let them die, but let me live!
Let them be put under a ban, but let me prosper!
Let them perish, but let me increase!
Let them become weak, but let me wax strong!
O, fire-god, mighty, exalted among the gods,
Thou art the god, thou art my lord, etc.

This was in heathen Babylon, some three thousand years ago. Since
then, the world has moved on--

Three thousand years of war and peace and glory,
Of hope and work and deeds and golden schemes,
Of mighty voices raised in song and story,
Of huge inventions and of splendid dreams--

And in one of the world's leading nations the people stand up and bare
their heads, and sing to their god to save their king and punish those
who oppose him--

O Lord our God, arise, Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall; Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On him our hopes we fix, God save us all.

Recently, I understand, it has become the custom to omit this stanza
from the English national anthem; but it is clear that this is because
of its crudity of expression, not because of objection to the idea of
praying to a god to assist one nation and injure others; for the same
sentiment is expressed again and again in the most carefully edited of
prayer-books:

Abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices.
Defend us, Thy humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies.
Strengthen him (the King) that he may vanquish and overcome all
his enemies.
There is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, O God.

Prayers such as these are pronounced in every so-called civilized
nation today. Behind every battle-line in Europe you may see the
priests of the Babylonian Fire-god with their bronze images and their
ancient incantations; you may see magic spells being wrought, magic
standards sanctified, magic bread eaten and magic wine drunk, fetishes
blessed and hoodoos lifted, eternity ransacked to find means of
inciting soldiers to the mood where they will "go in". Throughout all
civilization, the phobias and manias of war have thrown the people
back into the toils of the priest, and that church which forced
Galileo to recant under threat of torture, and had Ferrer shot beneath
the walls of the fortress of Montjuich, is rejoicing in a "rebirth of
religion".

#The Medicine-men#

Andrew D. White tells us that

It was noted