On the other hand, when Tolstoy responded to an inquirer that, if he saw a child being attacked by a brutal ruffian, he would not use force to intervene and protect the child:  that, too, is non-resistance fit for the insane asylum.  One of these is just as far from sane, balanced human morality as the other.

It is a terrible thing to suffer injustice; it is far worse to perpetrate it.  If one had to choose between being victim or tyrant, one would always choose to be victim:  it is safer for the moral life and there is more recovery afterward.  If, however, it is better to suffer injustice than to perpetrate it, better than either is to resist it, fight it and, if possible, overthrow it.

It has been said so many times by extreme pacifists that even sane human beings sometimes take it for granted, that “force never accomplished anything permanent in human history.”  It is false, and the reasoning by which it is supported involves the most sophistical of fallacies.  All depends on who uses the force and the purpose for which it is used.  The force employed by tyranny and injustice accomplishes nothing permanent in history.  Why?  Because tyranny and injustice are in their very nature transient, they are opposed to the moral order of the universe and, in the end, must pass.  On the other hand, the force employed on the part of liberty and justice has attained most of the ends of civilization we cherish to-day.  The force of the million of mercenaries, collected through Asia and Africa by Darius and Xerxes, to overwhelm a few Greek cities, accomplished nothing permanent in history; but the force of the ten thousand Athenians who fought at Marathon and of the other thousands at Salamis, saved democracy for Europe and made possible the civilization of the Occident.  The force employed by King Louis of France to support a tottering throne and continue the exploitation of the people by an idle and selfish aristocratic caste, accomplished nothing permanent in history; but the force of those Frenchmen who marched upon Paris, singing the Marseillaise, made possible the freedom and culture of the last hundred years.  The force employed by King George of England, to wring taxes without representation from reluctant colonies, accomplished nothing permanent in history, but the force which, at Bunker Hill and Concord Bridge, “fired the shot heard round the world,” achieved the liberty and democracy of the American continent.

It may be freely admitted that all use of force is a confession of failure to find a better way.  If you use force in the education of a child, it is such a confession of failure.  So is it if force is used in controlling defectives and criminals, or in adjusting the relations of the nations; but note that the failure may be one for which the individual parent, teacher, society, state or nation is in no degree responsible.  Force is a tragic weapon—­and the ultimate one.

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