Thus had they been able to destroy that spirit of militarism which, after a certain stage, is the implacable foe of true progress. It is based on two of the most childish and most primitive of forces in the human breast, combativeness and the passion for display. Hence the impossibility of stamping out the contagion. Ever and anon in the former history of the island the age of peace seemed to have begun; but marauders from abroad would land and stir the instinct of brigandage and make an army and a military leader necessary. Thenceforward again all the arrangements of the community were made subordinate to the ambition of the soldier. An intrusion of savagery and brute force, however veiled in glory and the panoplies of civilisation, is irresistible by the powers of peace. Only slow and silent conquest of the armed power brought back progress in peaceful arts again, again to be maimed and thrown back from some external accident. Not that they ever pretended that they could eject struggle out of their life, but they did aim to raise the plane of conflict and competition. Never could this people have entered on the rapid development of their powers without their lava ramparts and their storm-cone to keep off all occasions of militarism. These lava wells had still other uses. Out of their flow were made the rock foundations on which the houses of this people were built. It puzzled me for years to know how they succeeded in making their immense platforms and terraces out of the hardest trap. Their mansions stood out from the precipices and cliffy sides of the mountain on isolated plateaus that gave the inmates free view on every side and free circulation of air around. They rose picturesque and romantic from the top of lonely rocks, like the castles of the Rhine, dominating the whole locality. Down the rocky foundations poured at times torrents of water from the sluice-gates of the mountain, cleansing or cooling the surroundings; yet never was there any danger for these everlasting ramparts. Another use to which these lava wells were put was to modify the temperature. They were generally opened and let flow in the coolest months of winter, and the red-hot cascades falling into the sea heated it to such an extent that the climate of the whole island was mellowed and tempered. From the wells far up the slope of the mountain the lava flow had been so guided and moulded that immense channels had been made down to the edge of the cliffs, with sides as lofty as the precipitous shores themselves. Down these were shot in summer great avalanches of mountain snow right into the ocean, so tempering the strength of the summer heat.