wars of savage tribes are far less terrible than the infrequent
wars of enlightened powers.

This indicates that, even though a nation may be able to avert
war for a long time, war will come some day, in a form which the
present war foreshadows; and it suggests the possibility that the
longer the war is averted, the more tremendous it will be, the
greater the relative unpreparedness of a slothful nation, and the
sharper her punishment when war finally breaks upon her.




CHAPTER V

NAVAL DEFENSE

There has never been a time since Cain slew Abel when men have
not been compelled to devote a considerable part of their energies
to self-defense. In the early ages, before large organizations
existed or the mechanic arts had made much progress, defense was
mostly defense of life itself. As time went on, and people amassed
goods and chattels, and organized in groups and tribes, it came
to include the defense of property--not only the property of
individuals, but also of the tribe and the land it occupied. Still
later, defense carne to include good name or reputation, when it
was realized that the reputation, even of an organization, could
not be destroyed without doing it an injury.

At the present day, owing to the complexity of nations and other