ABSTRACT
The process of the world has brought an age in which it is strictly and simply without meaning. The social conditions out of which war arose have been transformed into social conditions which leave no place for war. A war between civilized peoples is essentially “civil war,” because the peoples are all today inter-civilized. It is the breakdown of existing community and not the assumption of hostility between communities. One form of early community deserves special notice in this respect, because it was the most advanced in civilization, and because its legacy of thought determines our thought. The civilized world is becoming more and more rapidly an effective society. Each country is becoming more and more bound up in the welfare of each. The new civilization has made war unintelligible—it will some day make war impossible. But the unintelligible often has a long life, in politics at any rate.
