ABSTRACT
To primitive thought, culture changes are cataclysmic and discontinuous; the mergings are not perceived, and successive stages appear to be abrupt transitions. In civilization, too, a similar view of culture is sometimes taken. Thus nations are said to be at peace for a period of years and then at war; but the threats of war are constantly present and the contest begins long before the outbreak of hostilities. The World War of 1914–1918 was not a fortuitous phenomenon. The absurdities, callousness, waste and destruction of life, power, and wealth, and the war insanity existed in European civilization before 1914; the war merely tore the mask and disclosed forces which had long existed.
Humans resemble red deer in some respects. Any talk of fighting seems to wake up a sort of imp in their breasts, and they bell one to the other, exactly like challenging bucks. This is noticeable even in men who consider themselves superior to privates of the line: it shows the refining influence of civilization and the march of progress.
