And therefore, when the war is over in fact, it takes time and
struggle to regain self-control, and to deal with the problems of
peace in civilian character.
Modern war, as Mr. Herbert Croly has said, is inherent in the
political structure of modern society, but outlawed by its ideals. For
the civilian population there exists no ideal code of conduct in war,
such as the soldier still possesses and chivalry once prescribed. The
civilians are without standards, except those that the best of them
manage to improvise. The only standards they possess make war an
accursed thing. Yet though the war may be a necessary one, no moral
training has prepared them for it. Only their higher selves have a
code and patterns, and when they have to act in what the higher
regards as a lower character profound disturbance results.
The preparation of characters for all the situations in which men may
find themselves is one function of a moral education. Clearly then, it
depends for its success upon the sincerity and knowledge with which
the environment has been explored. For in a world falsely conceived,
our own characters are falsely conceived, and we misbehave. So the
moralist must choose: either he must offer a pattern of conduct for
every phase of life, however distasteful some of its phases may be, or
he must guarantee that his pupils will never be confronted by the
situations he disapproves.
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