the elms, and in the smiles and tears wherein heaven bathes the fruits
of the trees in the orchard closes. It is not in the laws, which are
made by the rich and powerful for the maintenance of their own power and
riches.

"Ye forget how ye are all born poor and naked. And He who came to lie in
the manger at Bethlehem, has come without profiting you. And He must
needs be born again and be crucified a second time for your salvation.

"The man of violence has laid hold of the arms you forged; and is well
compared to the warriors you hold in honour because they have destroyed
cities. What is defended by force shall be attacked by force. And if you
have wit to read the book you have written, you will find what I say
therein. For you have put in your book that the right of nations is the
right of war; and you have glorified violence, paying honours to
conquering generals and raising statues in your public squares to them
and their war-horses.

"And you have laid it down, 'There is violence that is right, and
violence that is wrong. And this is the right of nations and this is the
law.' But so soon as the men shall have put you outside the law, they
will be the law, even as you became the law, when you had overthrown the
tyrant that was the law before you.

"Now, be assured, it is very certain that there is no true right save in
the renouncing of right. There is no hallowed law save in love. There is
no Justice save in Charity. 'Tis not by force we should resist force,
for strife only hardens the fighters' hearts and the issue of battles is
aye dubious. But if we oppose gentleness to violence, this latter
getting no hold upon its adversary, falls dead of itself.