Certainly, so far as France is
concerned, we can see some improvement; for, although the cowardly and
abominable practice of duelling is still kept up, only one man was
killed during the past twelve months, instead of nine thousand. In
England we have had nearly two hundred years of truce from civil wars;
in Germany the sections of the populace have at any rate stopped
fighting among themselves; in Italy there are no longer the shameful
feuds of Guelf and Ghibelline. It would seem, then, that civil strife is
passing away, and that countries which were once the prey of
bloodthirsty contending factions are now at least peaceful within their
own borders.
If we reason from small things to great, we see that the squabbling
nests of murderers, or would-be murderers, who peopled France, England,
Germany, Austria, and Italy have given way to compact nations which
enjoy unbroken internal peace. The struggles of business go on; the weak
are trampled under foot in the mad rush of the cities of men, but the
actual infliction of pain and death is not now dreamed of by Frenchman
against Frenchman or German against German. We must remember that there
never was so deadly and murderous a spirit displayed as during the
Thirty Years' War, and yet the peoples who then wrestled and throttled
each other are now peaceful under the same yoke.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368