The University of the South, SEWANEE, TENN. THE University is under the joint control of fifteen dioceses of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Opened in 1868. Located at Sewanee, Tenn., on the plateau of the Cumberland Mountains, 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. Sewanee has a national reputation as a health resort. Vacation from December 20th to March 15th, instead of during the summer months. The following Departments of the University are well equipped and fully organized: ACADEMIC, THEOLOGICAL, MEDICAL, A SPECIAL BUSINESS COURSE in Finance and Economy is provided for students not intending to study for degrees. This course extends over two years, and includes the study of Bookkeeping, Commercial Law, Banking, Political Science, History, English, and Modern Languages. THE SEWANEE GRAMMAR SCHOOL prepares boys for this and other Universities and for business. The Lent term of the University begins March 15th, 1900, and the Trinity term on August 9th. For catalogues and other information, address B. Lawton Wiggins, M.A., LL.D., Vice Chancellor. PRINTED AT THE PUBLISHING HOUSE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, BARBEE & SMITH, AGENTS, NASHVILLE, TENN., AND DALLAS, TEX. OCT 11 190 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. THE SEWANEE REVIEW. VOL. VIII.] OCTOBER, 1900. [No. 4. WAR AND CIVILIZATION.1 It is almost needless for me to say how deeply I appreciate the invitation to address you to-night extended me by your honored President, and how much I regret that the occasion should be one marked by the severance of ties both intimate and tender. During the twelve years of my connection with Sewanee, my relations with your body have been, to me, a source both of profit and of the most genuine pleasure. I simply cannot imagine pleasanter relations, and it is because they mean so much to me that I am at once going to talk about something else. What that something else should be is clear enough to my own mind, but I have some difficulty in finding a title that will name or describe it with sufficient brevity. Perhaps if it were not for the sake of avoiding the appearance of an even partial competition with that unique and unapproachable genius, Carlyle, I might be tempted to entitle my remarks: "A Sign of the Times." I should, indeed, like to take a broader sweep, and deal with the "Signs of the Times" generally; but a topic of such scope would seem out of place to-night, and there are special advantages in a concentration of attention and interest. The special Sign of the Times that I propose to speak about is, however, one of such broad import that when I name it you will perhaps think that I might have spared my 1 An address delivered at the invitation of the Alumni Association of the University of the South, on the occasion of their annual meeting and banquet at Sewanee, Tenn., August 1, 1900. self all thought of the advantages of delimitation. It is of importance to us as Americans, as Anglo-Saxons, as human beings; it is of importance to us from the point of view of politics and religion, and, briefly, of civilization. It is nothing less than the present prevalence of the war spirit among the civilized nations. That such a spirit is prevalent, needs hardly any proof. Ten years ago there was some talk in the United States about the necessity of an enlarged navy, and, shortly after, there was an absurd flurry with Chili; but on the whole, when people in this country spoke or thought of war, it was to felicitate themselves that they would have no more civil wars, and that they were spared the standing armies and military taxes and the dread of the horrors of carnage that rendered life oppressive in the chief nations of Europe. In Great Britain also, while the soldiers of the empire were never idle, there was no marked display of the military spirit among the people at large. Dreams of an Anglo-Saxon world-empire were indeed cherished in some quarters, but while Mr. Gladstone lived, cynical indifference to the rights of other peoples was always liable to stern rebuke from the voice that had protested, in the name of civilization, against the atrocities of the Neapolitan Bourbon and of the "unspeakable Turk." But nous avons changé tout cela: we have changed all that. We wrote and talked about our new navy until a desire to use it took possession of many minds—a desire that has been amply fulfilled. We almost worked ourselves up into war with Great Britain over a boundary question, which has since been decided mainly in her favor. Then came the troubles in Cuba, the blowing up of the Maine, and the figurative, not real, loss of our heads. The war followed, presenting us with heroes who have already lost most of their luster; with scandals that have shed a sinister light upon the incompetency and corruption of many public officials; with accessions of territory which we may or may not govern properly; and with an immense augmentation of national conceit, or of moral earnestness for the good of |