Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE MEANING OF THE WAR LIFE & MATTER IN CONFLICT BY HENRI BERGSON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY H. WILDON CARR LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN LTD. ADELPHI TERRACE _English translation first published June 1915_ _Second impression, July 1915_ _Third impression, August 1915_ (_All rights reserved_) CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 9 LIFE AND MATTER AT WAR 15 THE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE 41 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION This little volume contains the discourse delivered by M. Bergson as President of the _Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques_ at its annual public meeting on December 12, 1914. It is the address which preceded the announcement of the prizes and awards bestowed by the Academy. It is now issued in book form with the consent of the author, and his full appreciation of the object, to give it the widest circulation. Although it is brief, it is a message addressed directly to the heart of our people in the crisis of war. To it is added a short article on the same theme, contributed to the _Bulletin des Armees de la Republique_, November 4, 1914. It has been said that war, with all its terrible evils, is the occasion of at least one good which humanity values as above price: it inspires great poetry. On the other hand, it seems to crush philosophy. Many may think that in this message it is poetry to which M. Bergson is giving expression. It is, however, from the depth of his philosophy that the inspiration is drawn. The full significance of the doctrines he has been teaching, and their whole moral and political bearing, are brought into clear light, focussed, as it were, on the actual present struggle. Yet is there no word that breathes hatred to any person or to any race. It is by the triumph of a spiritual principle that philosophy may hope to free humanity from the oppression of a materialist doctrine.