"The Sphynx at the war office.  Soldier: 'That's a grand thing.'  Civilian: 'Yes—rather imposing; but what does it mean?'"  From Harper's Weekly, 1867.

From Kunst, Krieg und Krieger by Konrad Escher, 1917.

From Die Märztage des Jahres 1798 by Gustav Adolf Badertscher, 1898.

From Na Úsvitě Nové Doby by Josef Jakub Touzinsky, 1848.

From Na Úsvitě Nové Doby by Josef Jakub Touzinsky, 1848.

We're down on this illustration.  From Wanderings of a War Artist, written and illustrated by Irving Montagu, 1889.  The caption reads, "Down with everything."

Q: Why, in the apparition at Fátima in 1917, did the Virgin Mary predict a war with Russia, when such information implanted that idea on a mass scale, with tremendous authority behind it, and went on to foster a World War?  Why didn't she predict world peace for thousands of years into the future? —Jim

A: The philosophy of Humanitism, outlined in Machado de Assis' novel Epitaph of a Small Winner, suggests that every man is Humanity in miniature, so no man can fundamentally be opposed to another, however much appearances may suggest the contrary.  "Envy is nothing but a fighting admiration, and, as fighting or struggle is the great function of the human race, all bellicose feelings tend toward its welfare.  ...  [W]ar, which to many persons seems to be a calamity, is really a desirable activity—a snap of Humanity's fingers, so to speak.  ...  The main thing is to fight.  Life is a struggle.  A life without fighting is a dead sea in the universal organism."