mechanic arts? Are we any more artistic, strong, or beautiful than
the Greeks in their palmy days? Are we braver than the Spartans,
more honest than the Chinese, more spiritual than the Hindoos,
more religious than the Puritans? Is not the superior civilization
of the present day a mechanical civilization pure and simple? And
has not the invention of electrical and mechanical appliances,
with the resulting insuring of communication and transportation,
and the improvements in instruments of destruction, advantaged
the great nations more than the weaker ones, and increased the
temptation to great nations to use force rather than decreased
it? Do not civilization's improvements in weapons of destruction
augment the effectiveness of warlike methods, as compared with
the peaceful methods of argument and persuasion?

Diplomacy is an agency of civilization that was invented to avoid
war, to enable nations to accommodate themselves to each other
without going to war; but, practically, diplomacy seems to have
caused almost as many wars as it has averted. And even if it be
granted that the influence of diplomacy has been in the main for
peace rather than for war, we know that diplomacy has been in use
for centuries, that its resources are well understood, and that
they have all been tried out many times; and therefore we ought
to realize clearly that diplomacy cannot introduce any new force
into international politics now, or exert, an influence for peace
that will be more potent in the future than the influence that
it has exerted in the past.

These considerations seem to show that we cannot reasonably expect
civilization to divert nations from the path they have followed
hitherto.