Another cause of the war was the inherent incompatibility of religious views among the people. Religious discord exists to-day, but it is not decided by bloody contests, because of breadth of religious insight, general indifference, and increasing skepticism. The convictions of the people of the seventeenth century, as to the truth of their own opinions and the errors of their opponents, were of such an absolute character as can not be found nowadays even among people with the most rigid beliefs. They did not know then that it was possible to live together and yet have the most varied and contradictory religious convictions. To suppose that these people were stupid is an error. The chances are that they were less stupid than the people are to-day. How many, at the present time, can look at their country, its ideals, ideas, and customs justly and without prejudice? Naturally very few. But to place ourselves outside of not only our country but our generation is much more difficult. How could we then expect the people of the seventeenth century to do this? IGNORANCE THE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE OF THE WAR. The fundamental cause that brought the Thirty Years' War to a close was mental insight into the uselessness and hopelessness of further struggle, caused by the feeling of exhaustion due to the long continuance of the war. The reason why this war put an end to all religious wars was, that this intellectual insight became general in Europe, inculcating more liberal religious views. This psychological attitude, with increasing indifference to religion and resultant skepticism, caused religious questions to be regarded less seriously, making further wars for such purposes impossible. The basal reason, therefore, was the intellectual realization of the foolishness of bloodshed on account of difference of religious convictions; that is, lack of knowledge of this fact in the past--in short, ignorance--was at the bottom of it all, as of most evils in the world. COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR AND THE EUROPEAN WAR. In order to learn what suggestions from the Thirty Years' War may be of use for the League of Nations in the future it will be well to mention the general similarities and differences between this war and the recent European war. The similarities are as follows: 1. The Thirty Years' War began with the throwing out of a window (defenestration) of detested persons; the European war started from an assassination. 2. The Thirty Years' War had been expected for some time; a general European war had been predicted for many years. 3. The Thirty Years' War, beginning with a local incident, spread from country to country, just like the European war did. 4. The Thirty Years' War was exceedingly brutal for its generation, just as the European war has been for our time. 5. The Thirty Years' War was a very long one for its generation; the European war has been a relatively long one for recent times.