ABSTRACT
Statement of the Subject. If anything about the future of a nation can be inferred with high probability from its past, it is safe to assert that within the next fifty years England will have to decide whether or not to take part in another European war. Some of my readers, or the sons of some of them, will therefore almost certainly be faced with the following question: 'Ought England to enter into this threatened war or not, and ought I to use such influence as I have as a speaker, writer, or voter, for or against participation?' I fit should happen that the nation decides to engage in war, each citizen will be confronted with another set of problems: 'Ought I to do all that I can to enable my country to win a com plete victory, or ought I to work for a peace by mutual agreement? And, in particular, ought I to fight or to refuse to fight for my country?' These are the questions which I am going to discuss in this lecture. Before doing so, however, I propose to make some general remarks in order to clear the ground and to obviate certain preliminary criticisms.
