“Whoever fights in this war in the front ranks,
whoever realizes all the misery and unspeakable wretchedness
caused by a modern war ...
will unavoidably arrive
at the conviction, if he had not acquired it earlier,
that mankind must find a way of overcoming war.
It is untrue that eternal peace is a dream, and not
even a beautiful one. A time will and must arrive
which will no longer know war, and this time will mark
a gigantic progress in comparison with our own.
Just as human morality has overcome the war of all
against all; just as the individual had to accustom
himself to seek redress of his grievances at the hands
of the State after blood feuds and duels had been
banished by civil peace, so in their development will
the nations discover ways and means to settle budding
conflicts not by means of wars, but in some other regulated
fashion, irrespective of what each of us individually
may think.”
Unfortunately, the writer of this thoughtful letter
fell on the battlefield.
