*/ Observations on the Causes of War | CHAPTER 1 Happy is he who is able to know the causes of things. – Virgil 1. Original causes 2. Want of inquiry 3. National irritability 4. Balance of power 5. Pecuniary interest 6. Ambition 7. Military glory 8. Books – Historians – Poets

*/ Inquiry into Christianity and War | CHAPTER 2 1. Palpable ferocity of war 2. Reasonableness of the inquiry 3. Revealed will of God the sole standard of decision 4. Declarations of great men that Christianity prohibits war 5. Christianity 6. General character of Christianity 7. Precepts and declarations of Jesus Christ 8. Arguments that the precepts are figurative only

*/ The Effects of War | CHAPTER 3 War’s least horror is the ensanguined field . – Barbauld. 1. Social consequences 2. Political consequences 3. Moral consequences UPON THE MILITARY CHARACTER 4. Familiarity with human destruction – with plunder 5. Incapacity for regular pursuits – half-pay 6. Implicit submission to superiors.- Its effects on the independence of the mind 7.

Original causes In the attempt to form an accurate estimate of the moral character of human actions and opinions, it is often of importance to inquire how they have been produced. There is always great reason to doubt the rectitude of that of which the causes and motives are impure; and if, therefore, it should appear from the observations which

Want of inquiry It would not, perhaps, be affectation to say that of the reasons why we so readily engage in war, one of the principal is that we do not inquire into the subject. We have been accustomed, from earliest life, to a familiarity with all its “ pomp and circumstance ”; soldiers have passed us at every step,

National irritability Among the immediate causes of the frequency of war, there is one that is, indisputably, irreconcilable in its nature with the principles of our religion: I speak of the critical sense of national pride , and the consequent aptitude of offence and violence of resentment. National irritability is at once a cause of war, and an effect. It

Balance of power The “ balance of power ” is a phrase with which we are made sufficiently familiar, as one of the great objects of national policy, which must be attained at whatever cost of treasure or of blood. The support of this balance, therefore, is one of the great purposes of war, and one of the great occasions

Pecuniary interest Wars are often promoted from considerations of interest, as well as from passion: The love of gain adds its influence to our other motives to support them, and without other motives, we know that this love is sufficient to give great obliquity to the moral judgment, and to tempt us to many crimes. During a war of 10

Ambition Of the wars of statesmen’s ambition, it is not necessary to speak, because no one, to whom the world will listen, is willing to defend them. But statesmen have, besides ambition, many purposes of nice policy that make wars convenient; and when they have such purposes, they are cool speculators in blood. They who have many dependants have much