Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-04
INTELLECTUAL CHARM OF WAR
The Civilized Worlds Interest IN Conn
bats Between Notions.
From tie London Spectator.


From the London Spectator.
1t must we fear, be admitted that, ex-
cept with very few men upon whom the
feminine side of Christianity-the side
which breaches resignation-has taken a
strong hold, or who realize with painful
thoroughness the horrors inseparable from
battle. war, as such, has for cultivated
mankind. a distinct intellectual charm.
Ii attracts them as nothing else does, I'M
til in its presence they cannot turn their
ewes away, and every other subject of
thought becomes comparatively insipid.
and this even if the war is not one in
which they are personally concerned. OF
course if they are their absorb
ton is easily explained. The results of a
war are so tremendous and approaching,
they affect all interests so deeply. and
they may involve the future of country
so lneXtricably, That it is impossible for
men who have any patriotic or political
imagination at all not to study its pro-
gress, and even its minute details, with
concentrated attention. One big blunder
In war may PROSTATE nation. Even
when, as is rarely the case, invasion is out
Of the question, the incidents of a cam
IL. IL
pacity or imbecility of the Generals, be-
comes matters of personal and vital in
terests-a victory seems a pleasure be-
vond all others, a defeat cruel and in
dividual catastrophe. Mems interests.
their hopes, their virtues, their f0ibles,
and their fears are so involved in a war
in which the nation is engaged. that
every turn of fortune is an event of per-
sOnal moment, and the excitement be-
80. I,.-I
himself engaged. Men have been known
to go mad with joy after great victory,
and to sicken mOrtaly Of the grief pro-
duced by great defeat, and this in cases
when, as it turned out, neither victory
nor defeat fingered long in the general
memory There is nothing to be explained
in thar kind of interest, but the intellec-
tual charm Of war extends much further
than this. Wars which are not ours in
terest us nearly as was which are. Scores
Of thousands of Enghshmen followed the
great American civil war with an
attention which missed no detail, and the
European world watched the duel between
France and Germany with gaze which
was almost painful in its intensity of
watchfulness. The journals, which al
ways reflect the popular curiosity better
then the popular thought, We're full OF
nothing else, and the excitement was felt
as keenly by men ordinarily devoted to
study as by men who had been soldiers or
"a curously common case in a nation so
devoted to civil pursuits-were soldiers
by inner prepCssessi0n. 1t is usual to
ascriDe this attraction to unconscious
self-interest, desire that one or the other
side should win; but we do not think that
BIAS very much to do with the matter. The
OnlOOkers In war take sides, no doubt,
often enthusiastically, and with persist
ence which it is not easy to explain; but
it is not because of their hopes or fears
that they become so absorbed. They are
hardly less attracted by the wars of his
tory, which they ought to regard without
passion; and there may be keen excite
menu, though they fail to decide which
side they wish to win. The English peO-
pie in the FrancO-German war swerved
distinctly from one side to the other; but
they watched Gambetta and ChanZy with
as much interest as they had watched
Bismarck and Won M0ltke. Moreover, in
visible WsifsF though they may strongly
affect the interests Of men, do not eXer-
else this attraction. The war waged by
Francs in Tonquin has hardly been
watched at all, while the two great Chi
nese wars of our day have hardly received
anything beyond a casual mention. and
never, even when IN progress, excited the
slightest popular attention. Yet th war in
TonqulR was in many respects the most
important colonial war of our time; and
the two Chinese wars We're, IN the
strangeness of their incidents and their
awful eebsumption Of life, among pho.
n0menal occurrences of the century.