ch could at all dispute with the hereditary leisure
class the honor of an habitual bellicose frame of mind is that of
the lower-class delinquents. In ordinary times, the large body of the
industrial classes is relatively apathetic touching warlike interests.
When unexcited, this body of the common people, which makes up the
effective force of the industrial community, is rather averse to any
other than a defensive fight; indeed, it responds a little tardily even
to a provocation which makes for an attitude of defense. In the more
civilized communities, or rather in the communities which have reached
an advanced industrial development, the spirit of warlike aggression
may be said to be obsolescent among the common people. This does not
say that there is not an appreciable number of individuals among
the industrial classes in whom the martial spirit asserts itself
obtrusively. Nor does it say that the body of the people may not be
fired with martial ardor for a time under the stimulus of some special
provocation, such as is seen in operation today in more than one of the
countries of Europe, and for the time in America. But except for such
seasons of temporary exaltation, and except for those individuals who
are endowed with an archaic temperament of the predatory type, together
with the similarly endowed body of individuals among the higher and
the lowest classes, the inertness of the mass of any modern civilized
community in this respect is probably so great as would make war
impracticable, except against actual invasion. The habits and aptitudes
of the common run of men make for an unfolding of activity in other,
less picturesque directions than that of war.

This class difference in temperament may be due in part to a difference
in the inheritance of acquired traits in the several classes, but it
seems also, in some measure, to correspond with a difference in ethnic
derivation. The class difference is in this respect visibly less in
those countries whose population is relatively homogeneous, ethnically,
than in the countries where there is a broader divergence between the
ethnic elements that make up the several classes of the community. In
the same connection it may be noted that the later accessions to the
leisure class in the latter countries, in a general way, show less of
the martial spirit than contemporary representatives of the aristocracy
of the ancient line. These nouveaux arrives have recently emerged from