Soame Jenyns: One good-natured act more praises gain than armies overthrown, and thousands slain

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

British writers on peace and war

Soame Jenyns: The soldier’s scarlet glowing from afar shows his bloody occupation’s war

====

Soame Jenyns
From An Essay on Virtue

No more applause would on ambition wait,
And laying waste the world be counted great,
But one good-natured act more praises gain,
Than armies overthrown, and thousands slain;
No more would brutal rage disturb our peace,
But envy, hatred, war, and discord cease;
Our own and others’ good each hour employ,
And all things smile with universal joy;
Virtue with Happiness, her consort joined,
Would regulate and bless each human mind,
And man be what his Maker first designed.