A LEAGUE OF PEACE A RECTORIAL ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS BY ANDREW CARNEGIE, Esq., LL.D. PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON 1906 RECTORIAL ADDRESS PRINCIPAL AND STUDENTS OF ST. ANDREWS: My first words must be words of thanks, very grateful thanks, to those who have so kindly re-elected me their Rector without a contest. The honor is deeply appreciated, I assure you. There is one feature, at least, connected with your choice, upon which I may venture to congratulate you, and also the University, the continuance of the services of my able and zealous assessor, Dr. Ross of Dunfermline, which I learn are highly valued. My young constituents, you are busily preparing to play your parts in the drama of life, resolved, I trust, to oppose and attack what is evil, to defend and strengthen what is good, and, if possible, to leave your part of the world a little better than you found it. You are already pondering over the career you will pursue, what problems you will study, upon what, and how, your powers can be most profitably exerted; and apart from the choice of a career I trust you ask yourselves what are the evils of this life, in which all our duties lie, which you should most strenuously endeavor to eradicate or at least to lessen, what causes you will espouse, giving preference to these beyond all other public questions, for the Student of St. Andrews is expected to devote both time and labor to his duties as a citizen, whatever his professional career. You will find the world much better I than your forefathers did. There is profound satisfaction in this, that all grows better; but there is still one evil in our day, so far exceeding any other in extent and effect, that I venture to bring it to your notice. Polygamy and slavery have been abolished by civilized nations. Duelling no longer exists where English is spoken. The right of private war and of privateering have passed away. Many other beneficent abolitions have been made in various fields; but there still remains the foulest blot that has ever disgraced the earth, the killing of civilized men by men like wild beasts as a permissible mode of settling international disputes, altho in Rousseau's words, "War is the foulest fiend ever vomited forth from the mouth of Hell." As such, it has received from the earliest times, in each successive age till now, the fiercest denunciations of the holiest, wisest and best of men. Homer, about eight hundred and fifty years before Christ, tells us it is by no means fit for a man stained with blood and gore to pray to the gods, and that "Religious, social and domestic ties alike he violates, who willingly would court the honors of internal strife." (Iliad, IX., 63.) He makes Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, look sternly at Ares, the God of War, saying: "Nay, thou renegade, sit not by me and whine. Most hateful art thou to me of all the Gods that dwell in Olympus; thou ever lovest strife, and wars and battles." (Iliad, V., line 891.) Euripides, 480-406 B.C., cries, "Hapless mortals, why do ye get your spears and deal out death to fellow-men? Stay! from such work forbear!" "Oh fools all ye who try to win the meed of valor through war, seeking thus to still this mortal coil, for if bloody contests are to decide, strife will never cease!" Thucydides, who wrote his great work sometime between 423 B.C. and 403 B.C., asserts that "Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger." And he gives us the needed lesson for our day which should be accepted as an axiom: "It is wicked to proceed against him as a wrong-doer who is ready to refer the question to arbitration." Aristides praised Pericles, because, to avoid war, "he is willing to accept arbitration." Andocides, about 440-388 B.C., says: "This then is the distinction, Athenians, which I draw between the two: peace means security for the people, war inevitable downfall." Isocrates, 436-338 B.C., teaches that "Peace should be made with all mankind. It should be our care not only to make peace, but to maintain it. But this will never be until we are persuaded that quiet is better than disturbance, justice than injustice, the care of our own than grasping at what belongs to others." (Oration on Peace.) The sacred books of the East make peace their chief concern. "Thus does he (Buddha) live as a binder together of those who are divided, an encourager of those who are friends, a peacemaker, a lover of peace, impassioned for peace, a speaker of words that make for peace." (Buddhist Suttas, 5th Century B.C.) "Now, wherein is his conduct good? Herein, that putting away the murder of that which lives, he abstains from destroying life. The |