The object of the following pages is, to give a view of the principal arguments which maintain the indefensibility and impolicy of war, and to examine the reasoning which is advanced in its favor.The author has not found, either in those works which treat exclusively of war, or in those which refer to it as part of a general system, any examination of the question that embraced it in all its bearings. In these pages, therefore, he has attempted, not only to inquire into its accorda...

In his Inquiry, the early 19th-century Quaker philosopher Jonathan Dymond investigates the centuries-old question of whether war is compatible with the teachings of Christianity. Examining the question through both the lenses of Christian tradition and secular philosophy, Dymond argues that war is thoroughly incompatible with Christianity in its preceding causes, present reality, and following consequences. Much of the tract is dedicated to refuting the arguments of his opponents,...

"Wars are often promoted from considerations of interest, as well as from passion. The love of gain adds its influence to our other motives to support them, and without other motives, we know that this love is sufficient to give great obliquity to the moral judgment, and to tempt us to many crimes. During a war of ten years, there will always be many whose income depends on its continuance; and a countless host of commissaries, and purveyors, and agents, and mechanics, commend a war, becau...