War is a biological necessity of the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed with, since without it an unhealthy development will follow, which excludes every advancement of the race, and therefore all real civilization.

"War is the father of all things." [A] The sages of antiquity long before Darwin recognized this.
[Footnote A: (Heraclitus of Ephesus).] The struggle for existence is, in the life of Nature, the basis of all healthy development.

All existing things show themselves to be the result of contesting forces.

So in the life of man the struggle is not merely the destructive, but the life-giving principle.

"To supplant or to be supplanted is the essence of life," says Goethe, and the strong life gains the upper hand.