Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war
Generally speaking, victory is associated with war. It is commonly used to describe success attending on a struggle–a battle-a war. Here milton has used it in the sense of ‘achievement’ since struggles and wars have dominated human history and historians have preserved their records of victories in battles and wars. The achievements of war are more spectacular than the achievements of peace-times. As C E M Joad has put it: “The past of mankind has been pretty beastly’ a business of gorging, bossing and bullying. And “our history is a record of human crimes and misfortunes,” to use a phrase of Gibbons. But this romantic conception of war has given way to a more realistic one. In the modern times, History lays less stress on wars which led to the founding of one dynasty and overthrowing of another and more on the constructive achievements of peaceful periods. It is true that the times of peace have been comparatively rare, and their achievements are not so spectacular, it is they that have, slowly it may be but surely, brought mankind from savagery to civilization. Civilization consists in thinking noble thoughts, and making beautiful and useful things. The first leads to religion and morality, the second to arts—architecture, sculpture, painting, music and literature, and the third to useful scientific inventions and discoveries which add to our comforts. Victories of war have proved inimical to all that civilization stands for i.e. religion and morality, art and beauty, and pursuits of prosperity and plenty. Our peaceful pursuits have been frequently interrupted by war. Even at present these glittering—not glorious—victories of war sometimes seem to be irresistible. But if humanity is lured by them, they may very well lead it to the destruction of all that man has slowly accumulated through thousands of years of intermittent wars. They might prove the graveyard of glorious victories of peace or to be more precise, Civilization itself.
