The victories of Peace, on the other hand, have brought numerous benefits to mankind. Great writers, thinkers and scientists have devoted their energies in times of peace to eradicate poverty, disease and ignorance.
Arts and science could flourish only in peaceful times when good and stable governments prevailed. This was the state in the Golden Ages of Rome, Britain and India in the reigns of Augustus, Elizabeth and the Imperial Guptas respectively. During their regimes these nations prospered and made all-round progress, intellectual, cultural and scientific. Solid and splendid structures rose everywhere in Rome during the Augustan Era. Great writers and poets like Virgil, Horace, Livy and Ovid lived at that time. Just as Latin literature flourished during the Augustan Era, Sanskrit literature flourished in India under the Guptas. Nor did scientific learning lag behind. The study of astrology, mathematics and medicine made great strides. Again, it was in the reign of Elizabeth that England became the Mistress of the High Seas. Explorers like Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Forbisher, Davis Hawkins and others scoured the seas and amassed wealth and secured new lands for their country.
The achievements of peace are indeed too many to recount here. Notable among them are some of the scientific discoveries and inventions that have contributed to the welfare of the human race. The discovery of x-ray, anaesthetics and antiseptics has revolutionized surgery. The discovery by Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, of minute living organisms is epoch-making, for it has effectively checked many a disease. His successful method of treating hydrophobia is based on the fundamental theory that many diseases are caused by germs. Thanks to this advance in the field of medicine, the death rate in the world has been lowered.
The radio and the telegraph have bridged distances. Messages can be flashed across the seas in a matter of seconds. Today every home has a radio; and pictures as well as voices are transmitted through the air.
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The conquest of the sea and air has brought the world closer. The modern luxurious and commodious Ocean Liners and Jet Planes are noteworthy achievements of peace, though, paradoxically enough, they are used in war.
Electricity has become another wonder-working servant of man. It is used in running trains, trams and machines to illuminate our houses and streets, | and to operate the numerous gadgets used in household chores. In everyday life and industry electricity is our servant, magical and practical.
All these inventions and discoveries are the achievements of peace. They have brought comfort and happiness to mankind all over the world. Beside them the victories of war pale into insignificance.