Earth's Holocaust (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") by Nathaniel Hawthorne
page 11 of 27 (40%)
page 11 of 27 (40%)
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Be that as it might, numberless great guns, whose thunder had long
been the voice of battle,--the artillery of the Armada, the battering trains of Marlborough, and the adverse cannon of Napoleon and Wellington,--were trundled into the midst of the fire. By the continual addition of dry combustibles, it had now waxed so intense that neither brass nor iron could withstand it. It was wonderful to behold how these terrible instruments of slaughter melted away like playthings of wax. Then the armies of the earth wheeled around the mighty furnace, with their military music playing triumphant marches,--and flung in their muskets and swords. The standard- bearers, likewise, cast one look upward at their banners, all tattered with shot-holes and inscribed with the names of victorious fields; and, giving them a last flourish on the breeze, they lowered them into the flame, which snatched them upward in its rush towards the clouds. This ceremony being over, the world was left without a single weapon in its hands, except possibly a few old king's arms and rusty swords and other trophies of the Revolution in some of our State armories. And now the drums were beaten and the trumpets brayed all together, as a prelude to the proclamation of universal and eternal peace and the announcement that glory was no longer to be won by blood, but that it would henceforth be the contention of the human race to work out the greatest mutual good, and that beneficence, in the future annals of the earth, would claim the praise of valor. The blessed tidings were accordingly promulgated, and caused infinite rejoicings among those who had stood aghast at the horror and absurdity of war. But I saw a grim smile pass over the seared visage of a stately old commander,--by his war-worn figure and rich military dress, he might have been one of Napoleon's famous marshals,--who, with the |
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