Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of beneficent deity, which not only adds to the national honor but uplifts a nation and develops patriotism and courage.

Davis is criticizing the romanticization of war—especially among the young—as if it were a morally improving force. By calling war a “beneficent deity,” she suggests a quasi-religious reverence that masks war’s real costs and turns violence into a source of national self-esteem. The quote implies that appeals to “honor,” “patriotism,” and “courage” can function as cultural propaganda, encouraging people to treat war as character-building rather than destructive. In Davis’s broader realist and reform-minded outlook, such idealization is dangerous: it substitutes myth for experience and makes societies more willing to accept suffering, militarism, and the sacrifice of lives for abstract national narratives.