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Herman Melville: Minister of the Prince of Peace serving the God of War
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Herman Melville: Selections on peace and war
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Herman Melville
From Billy Budd, Sailor
The Chaplain coming to see him and finding him thus, and perceiving no sign that he was conscious of his presence, attentively regarded him for a space, then slipping aside, withdrew for the time, peradventure feeling that even he the minister of Christ, though receiving his stipend from Mars, had no consolation to proffer which could result in a peace transcending that which he beheld….
Bluntly put, a chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving in the host of the God of War – Mars. As such, he is as incongruous as a musket would be on the altar at Christmas. Why then is he there? Because he indirectly subserves the purpose attested by the cannon; because too he lends the sanction of the religion of the meek to that which practically is the abrogation of everything but brute Force.
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For peace, against war: literary selections 