ABSTRACT
If we look back steadily upon all that is known to us of the nature and condition of mankind in past times and then review justly the state and apparent tendencies of the race at the present day we shall hardly fail to discern the track of a spiritual ascent. The formation of great empires from time to time enlarged the areas within which internal peace prevailed; but these empires themselves were for the most part at war with other peoples. In a word, the increasing aversion from war and preference for peace is only one aspect of the progress of the race from the nature of the brute towards that of the perfect man. ‘Nature guarantees the coming of perpetual peace, through the natural course of human propensities: not indeed with sufficient certainty to enable us to prophesy the future of this ideal theoretically, but yet clearly enough for practical purposes.
