"T. H. White - The Once and Future King" - читать интересную книгу автора (White T.H)
its way outтАФif you see what I mean?"
"I see what you think you mean," said the magician, "but you are wrong. There is no excuse for war,
none whatever, and whatever the wrong which your nation might be doing to mineтАФshort of warтАФmy
nation would be in the wrong if it started a war so as to redress it. A murderer, for instance, is not
allowed to plead that his victim was rich and oppressing himтАФso why should a nation be allowed to?
Wrongs have to be redressed by reason, not by force."
Kay said: "Suppose King Lot of Orkney was to draw up his army all along the northern border, what
could our King here do except send his own army to stand on the same line? Then supposing all Lot's
men drew their swords, what could we do except draw ours? The situation could be more complicated
than that. It seems to me that aggression is a difficult thing to be sure about."
Merlyn was annoyed.
"Only because you want it to seem so," he said. "Obviously Lot would be the aggressor, for making the
threat of force. You can always spot the villain, if you keep a fair mind. In the last resort, it is ultimately
the man who strikes the first blow."
Kay persisted with his argument.
"Let it be two men," he said, "instead of two armies. They stand opposite each otherтАФthey draw their
swords, pretending it is for some other reasonтАФthey move about, so as to get the weak side of one
anotherтАФthey even make feints with their swords, pretending to strike, but not doing so. Do you mean
to tell me that the aggressor is the one who actually hits first?"
"Yes, if there is nothing else to decide by. But in your case it is obviously the man who first took his
army to the frontier."
"This first blow business brings it down to a matter of nothing. Suppose they both struck at once, or
suppose you could not see which one gave the first blow, because there were so many facing each
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Incipit%20Liber%20Secundus.html
other?"
"But there nearly always is something else to decide by," exclaimed the old man. "Use your common
sense. Look at this Gaelic revolt, for example. What reason has the King here for being an aggressor? He
is their feudal overlord already. It isn't sensible to pretend that he is making the attack. People don't
attack their own possessions."
"I certainly don't feel, " said Arthur, "as if I had started it. Indeed, I didn't know it was going to start,
until it had. I suppose that was due to my having been brought up in the country."
"Any reasoning man," continued his tutor, ignoring the interruption, "who keeps a steady mind, can tell
which side is the aggressor in ninety wars out of a hundred. He can see which side is likely to benefit by
going to war in the first place, and that is a strong reason for suspicion. He can see which side began to
make the threat of force or was the first to arm itself. And finally he can often put his finger on the one
who struck the first blow."
"But supposing," said Kay, "that one side was the one to make the threat, while the other side was the
one to strike the first blow?"
"Oh, go and put your head in a bucket. I'm not suggesting that all of them can be decided. I was saying,
from the start of the argument, that there are many wars in which the aggression is as plain as a pike-
staff, and that in those wars at any rate it might be the duty of decent men to fight the criminal. If you
aren't sure that he is the criminalтАФand you must sum it up for yourself with every ounce of fairness you
can musterтАФthen go and be a pacifist by all means. I recollect that I was a fervent pacifist myself once,
in the Boer War, when my own country was the aggressor, and a young woman blew a squeaker at me
on Mafeking Night."
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