ce
he said:

"Massed armies, long-range ordnance, impregnable forts, steel-armored
battle-ships, and deadly, explosive coast marine mines are simply
bellicose forms of pacific, neutral notes commanding the 'peace of
Europe.' The jealousy of nations will not permit wars of conquest for
colonial extension, and the mouths of frowning cannon are imperious
pledges of international comity. Weak dynasties will find tranquillity
in the fears of more august powers. Even the unspeakable Moslem will be
unmolested in his massacres, to insure regular clipping of Turkish bonds
in money markets of European capitals."

Here Sir Donald suggested that possibly this pacific, commercial
tendency had its perils, and through unforeseen complications might
cause war.

"The enervating influences of wealth, the extreme conservatism thereby
fostered, and the resulting disposition to accept any compromise rather
than interfere with the free course of trade, may create conditions
breeding hostilities. May not such extreme aversion to commercial
disturbance, and disposition to think lightly of national honor,
compared with financial security, be bids for attack from more hardy,
martial peoples, having little respect for the prerogatives of traffic
or the hypocritical refinements of diplomatic craft? Are not such
conditions, with the luxurious licentiousness so natural thereto,
combined with the stolid indifference and poverty of the masses, most
potent factors in the decline and fall of nations?"

Struck by the force of these suggestions, Oswald is silent.

Seeing that this interesting young man is pondering upon these
possibilities and resulting changes in the maps of the world, Sir Donald
watches him with much admiration. He thinks, I may not live to behold
much of this, but would like to see a cast of his horoscope.

After a brief pause, Oswald replies:

"Serious contingencies may grow out of these tendencies of the times.
These may require diplomacy and forbearance among the powers. Barbarous
peoples would be at a great disadvantage in a conflict with any of the
greater nations of the earth. Personal prowess, resistless in the
whirlwind of the charge, is of little avail against modern artillery or
long-range ordnance. The destructive power of modern military equipment
will make adjustment of international differences by arbitration
imperative."

He hedges at this point with the suggestion:

"Still, some crazy autocrat or frenzied pe