A Lesson from History

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 October 1915, Page 2

A Lesson from History

J'r -f. L. iStrachan-Daviusoii plaster of Jjalhol College, (Jxiurd).

I'erhap* at the preseiu crisis solilOi liny may be learned out of i'ulyljiiis's history, trout the words ui wisdom addressed by Agelaus of .Naupautus to the Greeks at i.he crisis ol the Second Tunic War. Jbe politics ot Greece bad bei >nie unreal in view oi the master, whether Kotiiaii or Cartliagian, destined i>i all ihe disputants. The Greeks i; id always ample; material for disI :tes amongst themselves, and in the y >ar '217 H.C. .Macedon Achaea, .Etolia, and moist ol the inner Powers were enniged in war with one another on petty Matters of controvery. just as we in Kimland are squabbling over trade uni(.ii rules or cmpli v vei«' profits. What doc*-, it matter uheii the very existence oj oni' nation is at .<take whether the workmen jj;et a U'\v .shillings a week e.VIra or the employers a traction more or l< ss in their percentage, provided .ve si cure the one thing needful, that the it , en aii(l munitions are lortlicoming I'or tie .threat ? This is how Agi>latiN ])lead.s for peace, in words which ii'ight have been written for to-day:—-

"/or if once we wait till the cloud, which appears on the western horizon, settles over Greece, my foreboding is that we shall all ot us find our truces and our wars and all those child's games which we now play Avith one another,

~i iin'lely eiil .short tTiat our first prayer to fhe gods should he that we may retain the power, to make war and p''ace wiih each other when we pleaso ami be able to decide our own quarrels among ourselves." "W'o have only this advantage over the Greeks, that wo are not merely striving to alleviate thn miseries of an inevitable fate, but that the ureal question—Are we to have a mafll-erP- depends upon ourselves. "Does not this make internal dissension at this hour the folly which only coinef? t<; tho.se whom Heaven would destroy?