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Excerpt from Military Miscellanies "But the fact is that here as elsewhere, poetry has reached the truth while science and common sense have missed it. It has distinguished, as in spite of all mercenary and feeble sophistry, men ever will distinguish, war from mere bloodshed. It has discerned the higher feelings which lie beneath its revolting features. Carnage is terrible. The conversion of producers into destroyers is a calamity. Death, and insults to women worse than death, and human features obliterated beneath the hoof of the war-horse, and reeking hospitals, and ruined commerce, and violated homes, and broken hearts - they are all awful. But there is something worse than death. Cowardice is worse. And the decay of enthusiasm and manliness is worse. And it is worse than death, aye, worse than a hundred thousand deaths, when a people has gravitated down into the creed that the 'wealth of nations' consists not in generous hearts - 'fire in each breast and freedom on each brow' - in national virtues and primitive simplicity, and heroic endurance, and preference of duty to life - not in men, but in silk and cotton, and something that they call 'Capital.' Peace is blessed. Peace arising out of charity But peace springing out of the calculations of selfishness is not blessed. If the price to be paid for peace is this, that wealth accumulate and men decay, better far that every street in every town of our once noble country should run blood." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the