The
amalgamation of individuals into nationalities and empires is as much in
the cosmic plan as the development of highly organized beings out of
unicellular organisms. I believe this process will continue until
humanity itself is so psychically knit together that, as a being, it
will manifest some form of cosmic consciousness in which the individual
will share. Our spiritual intuitions and the great religions of the
world alike indicate some such goal as that to which this turbulent
cavalcade of humanity is wending. A knowledge of this must be in our
subconscious being, or we would find the sacrifices men make for the
State otherwise inexplicable. The State, though now ostensibly secular,
makes more imperious claims on man than the ancient gods did. It lays
hold of life. It asserts its right to take father, brother, and son, and
to send them to meet death in its own defense. It denies them a choice
or judgment as to whether its action is right or wrong. Right or
wrong, the individual must be prepared to give his body for the
commonwealth, and when one gives the body unresistingly, one gives the
soul also.
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