THE GREAT WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2724, 20 March 1916, Page 8

THE GREAT WAR

THEOSOPHIOAL SOCIETY LECTURE

"The Great War" was the subject of a lecture by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater, read at last' night's meeting of the Theosophical Society by Mr. W. S. Short. "The tragedy of Belgium," said tho leoturer, "had horrified tho world. It had been, one of tho most terrible things that the world had ever known; I but the tragedy of the moral downfall of Germany was greater oven than that —that such a great nation,. with such possibilities, should sink to this. That was, in truth', a more awful thing to see than, all the pain and misery of countless ruined homes. That a Taco which produced Goethe and Schiller should so fall as ot becorhe a byword [among the nations, so that for centuries to coiuo all decent men will be ashamed of any connection with it, and none shall speak its name without a shudder of.horror —surely that was a tragedy unequalled since the world began. "Therefore, not hatred, but pity should fill our minds. But on no account and under no circumstances must our pity j be allowed to degenerate into weakness, or to interfere with our absolute firmIness. We stand for. liberty, for right, for honour, and for tho keeping of tho pledged word of the nation, and that work which has come into our hands must be done, and it' must bo done thoroughly. But we must do it becausewo stand on the side of the Deity, because we are very truly the Sword of the Lord. Let us tako caro. that wo do not spoil our work and our attitude by such an unworthy passion as hatred. Wo do not hate the wild beast that is attacking our children, but' wa suppress it. Wo do not hato a mafl dog, but for the sake of humanity wo shoot it. We do not hate the scorpion wo tread under foot, but we tread on. it effectively. There must bo no thought of hatred, but there must be no weakness. There must bo no sickly' sontimontality or wavering.' Tliero aro those who clamour that the mad dog is our brother, and that it is unfraternal |to shoot him. They forget that the men whom Jiis bite would doom to an awful death are also our brothers, and that they have tho first' claim on our consideration. Germany is the mad dog of Europe, and must ho suppressed at all costs. 'Therefore, fight, 0 Arjuna.' Remember, wo are fighting for the lib-1 erty of the world; Germany itself is la part of that world, and wc aro fighting ' to free Germany from its obsession. "Let us have that well in our minds, and wo shall begin to see what k the attitude wo .must take with regard to this terrible- war; and if wc do our duty unflinchingly in maintaining .that attitude we shall make the final settlement infinitely easier.