For
although there may be no positive obligation to believe in such an
end, yet even if there were not the least theoretical probability of
action being carried out in accordance with it, so long as its
impossibility cannot be demonstrated, there still remains a duty
incumbent upon us with regard to it.
Now, as a matter of fact, the morally practical reason utters within
us its irrevocable veto: There shall be no war. So there ought to be
no war, neither between me and you in the condition of nature, nor
between us as members of states which, although internally in a
condition of law, are still externally in their relation to each other
in a condition of lawlessness; for this is not the way by which any
one should prosecute his right. Hence the question no longer is as
to whether perpetual peace is a real thing or not a real thing, or
as to whether we may not be deceiving ourselves when we adopt the
former alternative, but we must act on the supposition of its being
real. We must work for what may perhaps not be realized, and establish
that constitution which yet seems best adapted to bring it about
(mayhap republicanism in all states, together and separately). And
thus we may put an end to the evil of wars, which have been the
chief interest of the internal arrangements of all the states
without exception.
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