The Higher Powers of Mind and SpiritTrine, Ralph Waldo
Religion
The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit
Trine, Ralph Waldo
Mind and body; New Thought
We need not fear militarism arising in America as long as the
fundamental principles of democracy are preserved and continually
extended, which can be done only through the feeling of the individual
responsibility of every man and every woman to take a keen and constant
interest in the matters of their own government--community, state,
national, and now international. We must realise and ever more fully
realise that in a government such as ours, the people are the
government, and that when in it anything goes wrong, or wrongs and
injustices are allowed to grow and hold sway, we are to blame.
Universal military training has not militarised Switzerland nor has it
Australia. It is rather the very essence of democracy and the very
antithesis of militarism.
"Let each son of Freedom bear
His portion of the burden. Should not each one do his share?
To sacrifice the splendid few--
The strong of heart, the brave, the true,
Who live--or die--as heroes do,
While cowards profit--is not fair!"
Many still recall that not a few well-meaning people at the close of the
Civil War proclaimed that, with upwards of two million trained men
behind him, General Grant would become a military dictator, and that
this would be followed by the disappearance of democracy in the nation.
But the mind, the temper, the traditions of our people are all a
guarantee against militarism. The gospel, the hallucination of the
shining armour, the will to power, has no attraction for us. We loathe
it; nor do we fear its undermining and crushing our own liberties
internally. Nevertheless, it is true that vigilance is always and always
will be the price of liberty. There must be a constant education towards
citizenship. There must be an alert democracy, so that any land and sea
force is always the servant of the spirit; for only otherwise it can
become its master--but otherwise it will become its master.
XIII
OUR SOLE AGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE, AND INTERNATIONAL CONCORD
The consensus of intelligent thought throughout the world is to the
effect that just as we have established an orderly method for the
settlement of disputes between individuals or groups of individuals in
any particular nation, we must now move forward and establish such
methods for the settlement of disputes among nations. There is no
civilised country in the world that any longer permits the individual to
take the law into his own hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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