Note 783 — Chapter XVIII · THE MORAL EVOLUTION SINCE THE INCOMING OF DEMOCRACY: THE NEW SOCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONSCIENCE

This archaic nature of the code is shown especially in its retention as a survival of the principle of collective responsibility, which, long outgrown by ordinary morality, still forms the very basis of the war system. Again, the true nature of the war code as a heritage from the low level of savagery is shown in its retention of the primitive rule that the one suffering an injury shall be the judge of his own cause and the avenger of his wrong, a principle of self-redress long since discarded by the private law of all civilized peoples.