Emersons mind is complex because it has resulted from his wide reading of the East and the West.
Emerson is not blind to the merits of waging war. He does begin his discourse by pointing out that people are educated by war and they become manly by indulging in it. He maintains that some of the most civilized of people have stood by the necessity of war. Yet the page of history shows how war has declined because it has gradually lost its glory and yet is far from over.
For Emerson ideas are more meaningful than circumstances and war is the outcome of the latter. It seems that Emersons ideas on war have led so many great minds to cogitate on the topic. Bernard Shaw, Vivekananda and Gandhi are just a few. Wordsworthian and Indian spiritualistic thought seem to come together in Emersons mind that refuses to take views for granted. Even Christianity is questioned as it has fostered religious wars. Those who can shun war are morally advanced for they have not so much madness left in their brains, you have a nation of lovers, of benefactors, of true, great, and able, men.
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