"Thank you for your letter of Dec. 31" (not extant). BR discusses what Sedgwick is publishing for him in The Atlantic Monthly and thinks it would be better if "War as an Institution" appeared elsewhere. [It did appear in The Atlantic Monthly.]

His lectures ("Principles of Social Reconstruction") began yesterday. All went well, attendance was larger than he had expected.

"We are all here in the throes of conscription."

He predicts the effect of the war on America. "As soon as you have a strong army and navy, you will embark upon a policy of conquest, little as you intend it in advance. Armaments have a will of their own, which makes slaves of those who have created them."

Someone has scribbled the names of some French women and an address in Paris in pencil on this letter.