Greek words in the text have been crudely translated into
Western European capital letters. Sincere apologies to Greek
scholars! Longer passages in Greek have been omitted and where
possible replaced with a reference to the original from which
they were taken.




PREFACE.

It is an honourable characteristic of the Spirit of this Age,
that projects of violence and warfare are regarded among
civilized states with gradually increasing aversion. The
Universal Peace Society certainly does not, and probably never
will, enrol the majority of statesmen among its members. But
even those who look upon the Appeal of Battle as occasionally
unavoidable in international controversies, concur in thinking it
a deplorable necessity, only to be resorted to when all peaceful
modes of arrangement have been vainly tried; and when the law of
self-defence justifies a State, like an individual, in using
force to protect itself from imminent and serious injury. For a
writer, therefore, of the present day to choose battles for his
favourite topic, merely because they were battles, merely because
so many myriads of troops were arrayed in them, and so many
hundreds or thousands of human beings stabbed, hewed, or shot
each other to death during them, would argue strange weakness or
depravity of mind. Yet it cannot be denied that a fearful and
wonderful interest is attached to these scenes of carnage. There