"Let me assure you," Thorwald made haste to say, "that the earth is still
young. I can see by all you say that your age is one of unusual vitality
and progress. A firm faith that victory will come and that the golden age
is before you will be a great help in your struggle with evil. Lay hold of
that faith. It is yours. It needs no prophet to tell you that your race
will one day reach our blessed state. First will come the spirit of peace,
and as I am sure war must be repugnant to such minds as yours, you will
readily learn to put it away from you. Then will begin to cease all
bitterness between man and man, and you will be started on the road that
leads to brotherly kindness. A world of sorrows will fall away with the
passing of individual and national strife, not only the horror of the
battlefield and the misery that follows it, but also the more secret and
world-wide unhappiness that comes from the petty conflicts over the
so-called rights of person and property. Selfishness, that monstrous source
of evil, must be dethroned, and then the rights of each will be cared for
by all. This will usher in for you a new era.

"And now, when the mighty energy that has been expended in learning and
practicing the science of war, the skill that has been given to the art of
killing, the treasures of money and blood, the time, the brain and the
activities that have been employed in carrying out plans of aggression,
large and small, of neighbor against neighbor--when these have all been
turned toward the betterment of your condition and the salvation of men
from degradation and sin, then will the arts of peace flourish and your
day begin. Then will nature herself come to your assistance, molding her
laws to your convenience and comfort. It will doubtless be a long time
before a man can love and consider his neighbor as himself, and before all
of God's creatures on your planet can dwell together in perfect peace,
but, believe me, the earth will live to see that time."