![]() And that is bad for my pacifism, however it may affect their own. I would like to do it in this way, too, because never as yet have I had the good fortune to encounter a true pacifist in verbal argument who will let me finish a single sentence of my apologia without breaking in upon me with some quick denial or some eager interruption. The very loftiness of their position puts me, I confess, upon the defensive, and lays upon me the burden of proof. I want to do this because such a question, coming from persons of such nobility of motive and purity of heart, seems to me to demand my most serious consideration. Putting tempers aside, strictly aside, I would like to bear my humble testimony to the question they raise, ‘ Why are you not a pacifist?’ True, they sometimes, more often than not, tax my temper but then, I doubtless tax theirs, so we are quits. These are the people I myself have in mind when I say ‘pacifist.’ They have my utmost respect. To such people pacifism is a religion, an interpretation of Christianity, a genuine spiritual passion. With another class, however, and, as I hopefully believe, with the largest class of all, pacifism connotes a very pure and a very lofty idealism. I repeat, it is not to such pacifists that these remarks are addressed. They are symptomatic of various phases of ‘ human natur’,’ and are, I suppose, to be viewed as dispassionately as one contemplates red hair, warts, and crooked noses. I have no quarrel with these forms of pacifism. When you examine its motives, pacifism is seen to connote, variously in various men, cowardice, selfishness, laziness, sentimentalism, expediency, or spiritual inertia. The other kinds are beneath the notice of any self-respecting man. ![]() I desire to confine my attention to what I consider the good. It seems to me there are several kinds of pacifism, some good and some bad. I crave this man’s patience, which I know is a bold thing to do, if I refuse to grant that point. The mere fact that it is pacifism lifts it in his eyes above the reach of the analytical critic. Like the Kentucky colonel who affirmed that there was no such thingas bad whiskey, he will declare at once that there is no such thing as unworthy pacifism. The only man who will deny that, is the man whose own pacifism is of so ardent a quality that he will find little patience for its analysis in others. Pacifism arises from a variety of motives, some worthy and others unworthy. Would it be worth while, I wonder, to put them down on paper? If they manage to awaken in other minds a better articulation of reasoning, either for or against pacifism, they might serve some good purpose. Gradually they have become somewhat articulate. At first, I was unable to give an answer - any more of an answer than merely, ‘I don’t know, but I’m not.’ As a matter of fact, my reasons were purely intuitive at first. THAT question is quite frequently put to me.
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