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diff --git a/33889-h/33889-h.htm b/33889-h/33889-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e60cff --- /dev/null +++ b/33889-h/33889-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7650 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Salvaging Of Civilization, by H. G. Wells. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Salvaging Of Civilisation, by +H. G. (Herbert George) Wells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Salvaging Of Civilisation + +Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells + +Release Date: October 29, 2010 [EBook #33889] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SALVAGING OF CIVILISATION *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h2>THE SALVAGING OF CIVILIZATION</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h1> +THE SALVAGING<br /> +OF CIVILIZATION<br /> +</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>H. G. WELLS</h2> + + +<h5>CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED<br /> +London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne<br /> +1921<br /> +</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Probable Future of Mankind</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Project of a World State</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Enlargement of Patriotism to a World State</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Bible of Civilization; Part One</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Bible of Civilization; Part Two</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Schooling of the World</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">College, Newspaper and Book</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Envoy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h1>The Salvaging of Civilization</h1> + + + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h4>THE PROBABLE FUTURE OF MANKIND<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h4> + + +<h4>§ 1</h4> + +<p>The present outlook of human affairs is one that +admits of broad generalizations and that seems to +require broad generalizations. We are in one of +those phases of experience which become cardinal +in history. A series of immense and tragic events +have shattered the self-complacency and challenged +the will and intelligence of mankind. That easy +general forward movement of human affairs which +for several generations had seemed to justify the +persuasion of a necessary and invincible progress, +progress towards greater powers, greater happiness, +and a continual enlargement of life, has been +checked violently and perhaps arrested altogether. +The spectacular catastrophe of the Great War has +revealed an accumulation of destructive forces in +our outwardly prosperous society, of which few of +us had dreamt; and it has also revealed a profound +incapacity to deal with and restrain these forces. +The two years of want, confusion, and indecision +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>that have followed the Great War in Europe and +Asia, and the uncertainties that have disturbed life +even in the comparatively untouched American +world, seem to many watchful minds even more +ominous to our social order than the war itself. +What is happening to our race? they ask. Did +the prosperities and confident hopes with which the +twentieth century opened, mark nothing more than +a culmination of fortuitous good luck? Has the +cycle of prosperity and progress closed? To what +will this staggering and blundering, the hatreds +and mischievous adventures of the present time, +bring us? Is the world in the opening of long +centuries of confusion and disaster such as ended +the Western Roman Empire in Europe or the +Han prosperity in China? And if so, will the +debacle extend to America? Or is the American +(and Pacific?) system still sufficiently removed and +still sufficiently autonomous to maintain a progressive +movement of its own if the Old World +collapse?</p> + +<p>Some sort of answer to these questions, vast +and vague though they are, we must each one of +us have before we can take an intelligent interest +or cast an effective vote in foreign affairs. Even +though a man formulate no definite answer, he +must still have an implicit persuasion before he +can act in these matters. If he have no clear +conclusions openly arrived at, then he must act +upon subconscious conclusions instinctively arrived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +at. Far better is it that he should bring them into +the open light of thought.</p> + +<p>The suppression of war is generally regarded as +central to the complex of contemporary problems. +But war is not a new thing in human experience, +and for scores of centuries mankind has managed +to get along in spite of its frequent recurrence. +Most states and empires have been intermittently +at war throughout their periods of stability and +prosperity. But their warfare was not the warfare +of the present time. The thing that has brought +the rush of progressive development of the past +century and a half to a sudden shock of arrest is +not the old and familiar warfare, but warfare +strangely changed and exaggerated by novel conditions. +It is this change in conditions, therefore, +and not war itself, which is the reality we have to +analyse in its bearing upon our social and political +ideas. In 1914 the European Great Powers resorted +to war, as they had resorted to war on many +previous occasions, to decide certain open issues. +This war flamed out with an unexpected rapidity +until all the world was involved; and it developed +a horror, a monstrosity of destructiveness, and, +above all, an inconclusiveness quite unlike any +preceding war. That unlikeness was the essence +of the matter. Whatever justifications could be +found for its use in the past, it became clear to +many minds that under the new conditions war +was no longer a possible method of international<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +dealing. The thing lay upon the surface. The +idea of a League of Nations sustaining a Supreme +World Court to supersede the arbitrament of war, +did not so much arise at any particular point as +break out simultaneously wherever there were +intelligent men.</p> + +<p>Now what was this change in conditions that +had confronted mankind with the perplexing +necessity of abandoning war? For perplexing it +certainly is. War has been a ruling and constructive +idea in all human societies up to the +present time; few will be found to deny it. +Political institutions have very largely developed +in relation to the idea of war; defence and +aggression have shaped the outer form of every +state in the world, just as co-operation sustained +by compulsion has shaped its inner organization. +And if abruptly man determines to give up the +waging of war, he may find that this determination +involves the most extensive and penetrating modifications +of political and social conceptions that do +not at the first glance betray any direct connection +with belligerent activities at all.</p> + +<p>It is to the general problem arising out of this +consideration, that this and the three following +essays will be addressed; the question: What else +has to go if war is to go out of human life? and +the problem of what has to be done if it is to be +banished and barred out for ever from the future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +experiences of our race. For let us face the truth +in this matter; the abolition of war is no casting +of ancient, barbaric, and now obsolete traditions, +no easy and natural progressive step; the abolition +of war, if it can be brought about, will be a reversal +not only of the general method of human life +hitherto but of the general method of nature, the +method, that is, of conflict and survival. It will +be a new phase in the history of life, and not simply +an incident in the history of man. These brief +essays will attempt to present something like the +true dimensions of the task before mankind if war +is indeed to be superseded, and to show that the +project of abolishing war by the occasional meeting +of some Council of a League of Nations or the like, +is, in itself, about as likely to succeed as a proposal +to abolish thirst, hunger, and death by a short +legislative act.</p> + +<p>Let us first examine the change in the conditions +of human life that has altered war from a +normal aspect of the conflict for existence of human +societies into a terror and a threat for the entire +species. The change is essentially a change in the +amount of power available for human purposes, +and more particularly in the amount of material +power that can be controlled by one individual. +Human society up to a couple of centuries ago +was essentially a man-power and horse-power +system. There was in addition a certain limited +use of water power and wind power, but that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +not on a scale to affect the general truth of the +proposition. The first intimation of the great +change began seven centuries ago with the appearance +of explosives. In the thirteenth century the +Mongols made a very effective military use of the +Chinese discovery of gunpowder. They conquered +most of the known world, and their introduction +of a low-grade explosive in warfare rapidly destroyed +the immunity of castles and walled cities, +abolished knighthood, and utterly wrecked and +devastated the irrigation system of Mesopotamia, +which had been a populous and civilized region +since before the beginnings of history. But the +restricted metallurgical knowledge of the time set +definite limits to the size and range of cannon. It +was only with the nineteenth century that the large +scale production of cast steel and the growth of +chemical knowledge made the military use of a +variety of explosives practicable. The systematic +extension of human power began in the eighteenth +century with the utilization of steam and coal. +That opened a crescendo of invention and discovery +which thrust rapidly increasing quantities of +material energy into men's hands. Even now that +crescendo may not have reached its climax.</p> + +<p>We need not rehearse here the familiar story +of the abolition of distance that ensued; how the +radiogram and the telegram have made every event +of importance a simultaneous event for the minds +of everyone in the world, how journeys which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +formerly took months or weeks now take days or +hours, nor how printing and paper have made +possible a universally informed community, and so +forth. Nor will we describe the effect of these +things upon warfare. The point that concerns us +here is this, that before this age of discovery +communities had fought and struggled with each +other much as naughty children might do in a +crowded nursery, <i>within the measure of their +strength</i>. They had hurt and impoverished each +other, but they had rarely destroyed each other +completely. Their squabbles may have been distressing, +but they were tolerable. It is even +possible to regard these former wars as healthy, +hardening and invigorating conflicts. But into +this nursery has come Science, and has put into the +fists of these children razor blades with poison on +them, bombs of frightful explosive, corrosive fluids +and the like. The comparatively harmless conflicts +of these infants are suddenly fraught with quite +terrific possibilities, and it is only a question of +sooner or later before the nursery becomes a heap +of corpses or is blown to smithereens. A real +nursery invaded by a reckless person distributing +such gifts, would be promptly saved by the intervention +of the nurse; but humanity has no +nurse but its own poor wisdom. And whether +that poor wisdom can rise to the pitch of +effectual intervention is the most fundamental +problem in mundane affairs at the present +time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>The deadly gifts continue. There was a steady +increase in the frightfulness and destructiveness of +belligerence from 1914 up to the beginning of +1918, when shortage of material and energy +checked the process; and since the armistice there +has been an industrious development of military +science. The next well-organized war, we are +assured, will be far more swift and extensive in +its destruction—more particularly of the civilian +population. Armies will advance no longer along +roads but extended in line, with heavy tank +transport which will plough up the entire surface +of the land they traverse; aerial bombing, with +bombs each capable of destroying a small town, +will be practicable a thousand miles beyond the +military front, and the seas will be swept clear +of shipping by mines and submarine activities. +There will be no distinction between combatants +and non-combatants, because every able-bodied +citizen, male or female, is a potential producer of +food and munitions; and probably the safest, and +certainly the best supplied shelters in the universal +cataclysm, will be the carefully buried, sandbagged, +and camouflaged general-headquarters of +the contending armies. There military gentlemen +of limited outlook and high professional training +will, in comparative security, achieve destruction +beyond their understanding. The hard logic of +war which gives victory always to the most +energetic and destructive combatant, will turn +warfare more and more from mere operations for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +loot or conquest or predominance into operations +for the conclusive destruction of the antagonists. +A relentless thrust towards strenuousness is a +characteristic of belligerent conditions. War is +war, and vehemence is in its nature. You must +hit always as hard as you can. Offensive and +counter-offensive methods continue to prevail over +merely defensive ones. The victor in the next +great war will be bombed from the air, starved, +and depleted almost as much as the loser. His +victory will be no easy one; it will be a triumph +of the exhausted and dying over the dead.</p> + +<p>It has been argued that such highly organized +and long prepared warfare as the world saw in +1914-18 is not likely to recur again for a considerable +time because of the shock inflicted by it upon +social stability. There may be spasmodic wars +with improvised and scanty supplies, these superficially +more hopeful critics admit, but there remain +no communities now so stable and so sure of their +people as to prepare and wage again a fully +elaborated scientific war. But this view implies +no happier outlook for mankind. It amounts to +this, that so long as men remain disordered and +impoverished they will not rise again to the full +height of scientific war. But manifestly this will +only be for so long as they remain disordered and +impoverished. When they recover they will recover +to repeat again their former disaster with +whatever modern improvements and intensifications +the ingenuity of the intervening time may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +have devised. This new phase of disorder, conflict, +and social unravelling upon which we have entered, +this phase of decline due to the enhanced and +increasing powers for waste and destruction in +mankind, is bound, therefore, to continue so long +as the divisions based upon ancient ideas of conflict +remain; and if for a time the decadence seems to +be arrested, it will only be to accumulate under +the influence of those ideas a fresh war-storm sufficiently +destructive and disorganizing to restore the +decadent process.</p> + +<p>Unless mankind can readjust its political and +social ideas to this essential new fact of its enormously +enlarged powers, unless it can eliminate +or control its pugnacity, no other prospect seems +open to us but decadence, at least to such a level +of barbarism as to lose and forget again all the +scientific and industrial achievements of our present +age. Then, with its powers shrunken to their +former puny scale, our race may recover some sort +of balance between the injuries and advantages of +conflict. Or, since our decadent species may have +less vitality and vigour than it had in its primitive +phases, it may dwindle and fade out altogether +before some emboldened animal antagonist, or +through some world-wide disease brought to it +perhaps by rats and dogs and insects and what not, +who may be destined to be heirs to the rusting +and mouldering ruins of the cities and ports and +ways and bridges of to-day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>Only one alternative to some such retrogression +seems possible, and that is the conscious, systematic +reconstruction of human society to avert it. The +world has been brought into one community, and +the human mind and will may be able to recognize +and adapt itself to this fact—in time. Men, as a +race, may succeed in turning their backs upon the +method of warfare and the methods of conflict +and in embarking upon an immense world-wide +effort of co-operation and mutual toleration and +salvage. They may have the vigour to abandon +their age-long attempt to live in separate sovereign +states, and to grapple with and master the now +quite destructive force that traditional hostility has +become, and bring their affairs together under one +law and one peace. These new vast powers over +nature which have been given to them, and which +will certainly be their destruction if their purposes +remain divergent and conflicting, will then be the +means by which they may set up a new order of +as yet scarcely imaginable interest and happiness +and achievement. But is our race capable of such +an effort, such a complete reversal of its instinctive +and traditional impulses? Can we find premonitions +of any such bold and revolutionary adaptations +as these, in the mental and political life of to-day? +How far are we, reader and writer, for example, +working for these large new securities? Do we +even keep them steadfastly in our minds? How +is it with the people around us? Are not we and +they and all the race still just as much adrift in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +the current of circumstances as we were before +1914? Without a great effort on our part (or on +someone's part) that current which swirled our kind +into a sunshine of hope and opportunity for a while +will carry our race on surely and inexorably to +fresh wars, to shortages, hunger, miseries, and +social debacles, at last either to complete extinction +or to a degradation beyond our present +understanding.</p> + + +<h4>§ 2</h4> + +<p>The urgent need for a great creative effort has become apparent in the +affairs of mankind. It is manifest that unless some unity of purpose can +be achieved in the world, unless the ever more violent and disastrous +incidence of war can be averted, unless some common control can be +imposed on the headlong waste of man's limited inheritance of coal, oil, +and moral energy that is now going on, the history of humanity must +presently culminate in some sort of disaster, repeating and exaggerating +the disaster of the great war, producing chaotic social conditions, and +going on thereafter in a degenerative process towards extinction. So +much all reasonable men seem now prepared to admit. But upon the +question of how and in what form a unity of purpose and a common control +of human affairs is to be established, there is still a great and +lamentable diversity of opinion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> and, as a consequence, an enfeeblement +and wasteful dispersal of will. At present nothing has been produced but +the manifestly quite inadequate League of Nations at Geneva, and a +number of generally very vague movements for a world law, world +disarmament, and the like, among the intellectuals of the various +civilized countries of the world.</p> + +<p>The common failings of all these initiatives are a sort of genteel +timidity and a defective sense of the scale of the enterprise before us. +A neglect of the importance of scale is one of the gravest faults of +contemporary education. Because a world-wide political organ is needed, +it does not follow that a so-called League of Nations without +representative sanctions, military forces, or authority of any kind, a +League from which large sections of the world are excluded altogether, +is any contribution to that need. People have a way of saying it is +better than nothing. But it may be worse than nothing. It may create a +feeling of disillusionment about world-unifying efforts. If a mad +elephant were loose in one's garden, it would be an excellent thing to +give one's gardener a gun. But it would have to be an adequate gun, an +elephant gun. To give him a small rook-rifle and tell him it was better +than nothing, and encourage him to face the elephant with that in his +hand, would be the directest way of getting rid not of the elephant but +of the gardener.</p> + +<p>It is, if people will but think steadfastly, incon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>ceivable that there +should be any world control without a merger of sovereignty, but the +framers of these early tentatives towards world unity have lacked the +courage of frankness in this respect. They have been afraid of outbreaks +of bawling patriotism, and they have tried to believe, and to make +others believe, that they contemplate nothing more than a league of +nations, when in reality they contemplate a subordination of nations and +administrations to one common law and rule. The elementary necessity of +giving the council of any world-peace organization which is to be more +than a sentimental international gesture, not only a complete knowledge +but an effective control of all the military resources and organizations +in the world, appalled them. They did not even ask for such a control. +The frowning solidity of existing things was too much for them. They +wanted to change them, but when it came to laying hands on them—No! +They decided to leave them alone. They wanted a new world—and it is to +contain just the same things as the old.</p> + +<p>But are these intellectuals right in their estimate +of the common man? Is he such a shallow and +vehement fool as they seem to believe? Is he so +patriotic as they make out? If mankind is to be +saved from destruction there must be a world control; +a world control means a world government, +it is only another name for it, and manifestly that +government must have a navy that will supersede +the British navy, artillery that will supersede the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +French artillery, air forces superseding all existing +air forces, and so forth. For many flags there must +be one sovereign flag; <i>orbis terrarum</i>. Unless a +world control amounts to that it will be ridiculous, +just as a judge supported by two or three unarmed +policemen, a newspaper reporter and the court +chaplain, proposing to enforce his decisions in a +court packed with the heavily armed friends of the +plaintiff and defendant would be ridiculous. But +the common man is supposed to be so blindly and +incurably set upon his British navy or his French +army, or whatever his pet national instrument of +violence may be, that it is held to be impossible to +supersede these beloved and adored forces. If that +is so, then a world law is impossible, and the wisest +course before us is to snatch such small happiness +as we may hope to do and leave the mad elephant +to work its will in the garden.</p> + +<p>But is it so? If the mass of common men are +incurably patriotic and belligerent why is there a +note of querulous exhortation in nearly all patriotic +literature? Why, for instance, is Mr. Rudyard +Kipling's "History of England" so full of goading +and scolding? And very significant indeed to any +student of the human outlook was the world-response +to President Wilson's advocacy of the +League of Nations idea, in its first phase in 1918, +before the weakening off and disillusionment of the +Versailles Conference. Just for a little while it +seemed that President Wilson stood for a new +order of things in the world, that he had the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +wisdom and will and power to break the net of +hatreds and nationalisms and diplomacies in which +the Old World was entangled. And while he +seemed to be capable of that, while he promised +most in the way of change and national control, +then it was that he found his utmost support in +every country in the world. In the latter half of +1918 there was scarcely a country anywhere in +which one could not have found men ready to die +for President Wilson. A great hopefulness was +manifest in the world. It faded, it faded very +rapidly again. But that brief wave of enthusiasm, +which set minds astir with the same great idea of +one peace of justice throughout the earth in China +and Bokhara and the Indian bazaars, in Iceland and +Basutoland and Ireland and Morocco, was indeed +a fact perhaps more memorable in history even +than the great war itself. It displayed a possibility +of the simultaneous operation of the same +general ideas throughout the world quite beyond +any previous experience. It demonstrated that +the generality of men are as capable of being cosmopolitan +and pacifist as they are of being patriotic +and belligerent. Both moods are extensions and +exaltations beyond the everyday life, which itself +is neither one thing nor the other. And both are +transitory moods, responses to external suggestion.</p> + +<p>It is to that first wave of popular feeling for a +world law transcending and moving counter to all +contemporary diplomacies, and not to the timid +legalism of the framers of the first schemes for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +League of Nations that we must look, if we are to +hope at all for the establishment of a new order in +human affairs. It is upon the spirit of that +transitory response to the transitory greatness of +President Wilson that we have to seize; we have +to lay hold of that, to recall it and confirm it and +enlarge and strengthen it, to make it a flux of +patriotisms and a creator of new loyalties and devotions, +and out of the dead dust of our present +institutions to build up for it and animate with it +the body of a true world state.</p> + +<p>We have already stated the clear necessity, if +mankind is not to perish by the hypertrophy of +warfare, for the establishment of an armed and +strong world law. Here in this spirit that has +already gleamed upon the world is the possible +force to create and sustain such a world law. What +is it that intervenes between the universal human +need and its satisfaction? Why, since there are +overwhelming reasons for it and a widespread disposition +for it, is there no world-wide creative effort +afoot now in which men and women by the million +are participating—and participating with all their +hearts? Why is it that, except for the weak +gestures of the Geneva League of Nations and +a little writing of books and articles, a little +pamphleteering, some scattered committee activities +on the part of people chiefly of the busybody +class, an occasional speech and a diminishing +volume of talk and allusion, no attempts are +apparent to stay the plain drift of human society<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +towards new conflicts and the sluices of final +disaster?</p> + +<p>The answer to that Why, probes deep into the +question of human motives.</p> + +<p>It must be because we are all creatures of our +immediate surroundings, because our minds and +energies are chiefly occupied by the affairs of +every day, because we are all chiefly living our +own lives, and very few of us, except by a kind +of unconscious contribution, the life of mankind. +In moments of mental activity, in the study or +in contemplation, we may rise to a sense of the +dangers and needs of human destiny, but it is only +a few minds and characters of prophetic quality +that, without elaborate artificial assistance, seem +able to keep hold upon and guide their lives by +such relatively gigantic considerations. The generality +of men and women, so far as their natural +disposition goes, are scarcely more capable of +apprehending and consciously serving the human +future than a van full of well-fed rabbits would +be of grasping the fact that their van was running +smoothly and steadily down an inclined plane into +the sea. It is only as the result of considerable +educational effort and against considerable resistance +that our minds are brought to a broader view. +In every age for many thousands of years men of +exceptional vision have spent their lives in passionate +efforts to bring us ordinary men into some +relation of response and service to the greater +issues of life. It is these pioneers of vision who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +have given the world its religions and its philosophical +cults, its loyalties and observances; and who +have imposed ideas of greatness and duty on their +fellows. In every age the ordinary man has submitted +reluctantly to such teachings, has made his +peculiar compromises with them, has reduced them +as far as possible to formula and formality, and +got back as rapidly as possible to the eating and +drinking and desire, the personal spites and rivalries +and glories which constitute his reality. The mass +of men to-day do not seem to care, nor want to +care, whither the political and social institutions +to which they are accustomed are taking them. +Such considerations overstrain us. And it is only +by the extremest effort of those who are capable +of a sense of racial danger and duty that the collective +energies of men can ever be gathered together +and organized and orientated towards the +common good. To nearly all men and women, +unless they are in the vein for it, such discussion +as this in these essays does not appeal as being +right or wrong; it does not really interest them, +rather it worries them; and for the most part they +would be glad to disregard it as completely as a +lecture on wheels and gravitation and the physiological +consequences of prolonged submergence +would be disregarded by those rabbits in the van.</p> + +<p>But man is a creature very different in his +nature from a rabbit, and if he is less instinctively +social, he is much more consciously social. Chief +among his differences must be the presence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +those tendencies which we call conscience, that +haunting craving to be really right and to do the +really right thing which is the basis of the moral +and perhaps also of most of the religious life. In +this lies our hope for mankind. Man hates to be +put right, and yet also he wants to be right. He +is a creature divided against himself, seeking both +to preserve and to overcome his egotism. It is +upon the presence of the latter strand in man's +complex make-up that we must rest our hopes of +a developing will for the world state which will +gradually gather together and direct into a massive +constructive effort the now quite dispersed chaotic +and traditional activities of men.</p> + +<p>As we have examined this problem it has become +clear that the task of bringing about that +consolidated world state which is necessary to prevent +the decline and decay of mankind is not +primarily one for the diplomatists and lawyers and +politicians at all. It is an educational one. It is +a moral based on an intellectual reconstruction. +The task immediately before mankind is to find +release from the contentious loyalties and hostilities +of the past which make collective world-wide action +impossible at the present time, in a world-wide +common vision of the history and destinies of the +race. On that as a basis, and on that alone, can +a world control be organized and maintained. +The effort demanded from mankind, therefore, is +primarily and essentially a bold reconstruction of +the outlook upon life of hundreds of millions of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +minds. The idea of a world commonweal has to +be established as the criterion of political institutions, +and also as the criterion of general conduct +in hundreds of millions of brains. It has to +dominate education everywhere in the world. +When that end is achieved, then the world state +will be achieved, and it can be achieved in no +other way. And unless that world state can +be achieved, it would seem that the outlook before +mankind is a continuance of disorder and of more +and more destructive and wasteful conflicts, a +steady process of violence, decadence, and misery +towards extinction, or towards modifications of our +type altogether beyond our present understanding +and sympathy.</p> + + +<h4>§ 3</h4> + +<p>In framing an estimate of the human future +two leading facts are dominant. The first is the +plain necessity for a political reorganization of the +world as a unity, to save our race from the social +disintegration and complete physical destruction +which war, under modern conditions, must ultimately +entail, and the second is the manifest +absence of any sufficient will in the general mass +of mankind at the present time to make such a +reorganization possible. There appear to be the +factors of such a will in men, but they are for the +most part unawakened, or they are unorganized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +and ineffective. And there is a very curious incapacity +to grasp the reality of the human situation, +a real resistance to seeing things as they are—for +man is an effort-shirking animal—which greatly +impedes the development of such a will. Failing +the operation of such a sufficient will, human affairs +are being directed by use and wont, by tradition +and accidental deflections. Mankind, after the +tragic concussion of the great war, seems now to +be drifting again towards new and probably more +disastrous concussions.</p> + +<p>The catastrophe of the Great War did more or +less completely awaken a certain limited number +of intelligent people to the need of some general +control replacing this ancient traditional driftage +of events. But they shrank from the great implications +of such a world control. The only practicable +way to achieve a general control in the face +of existing governments, institutions and prejudices, +interested obstruction and the common disregard, +is by extending this awakening to great +masses of people. This means an unprecedented +educational effort, an appeal to men's intelligence +and men's imagination such as the world has never +seen before. Is it possible to rationalize the at +present chaotic will of mankind? That possibility, +if it is a possibility, is the most important thing in +contemporary human affairs.</p> + +<p>We are asking here for an immense thing, for +a change of ideas, a vast enlargement of ideas, and +for something very like a change of heart in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +hundreds of millions of human beings. But then +we are dealing with the fate of the entire species. +We are discussing the prevention of wars, disorders, +shortages, famines and miseries for centuries +ahead. The initial capital we have to go +upon is as yet no more than the aroused understanding +and conscience of a few thousands, at most +of a few score thousands of people. Can so little +a leaven leaven so great a lump? Is a response +to this appeal latent in the masses of mankind? +Is there anything in history to justify hope for +so gigantic a mental turnover in our race?</p> + +<p>A consideration of the spread of Christianity +in the first four centuries A.D. or of the spread +of Islam in the seventh century will, we believe, +support a reasonable hope that such a change in +the minds of men, whatever else it may be, is a +practicable change, that it can be done and that +it may even probably be done. Consider our two +instances. The propagandas of those two great +religions changed and changed for ever the political +and social outlook over vast areas of the world's +surface. Yet while the stir for world unity begins +now simultaneously in many countries and many +groups of people, those two propagandas each +radiated from a single centre and were in the +first instance the teachings of single individuals; +and while to-day we can deal with great reading +populations and can reach them by press and +printed matter, by a universal distribution of books, +by great lecturing organizations and the like, those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +earlier great changes in human thought were +achieved mainly by word of mouth and by crabbed +manuscripts, painfully copied and passed slowly +from hand to hand. So far it is only the trader who +has made any effectual use of the vast facilities the +modern world has produced for conveying a statement +simultaneously to great numbers of people +at a distance. The world of thought still hesitates +to use the means of power that now exist for it. +History and political philosophy in the modern +world are like bashful dons at a dinner party; they +crumble their bread and talk in undertones and +clever allusions to their nearest neighbour, abashed +at the thought of addressing the whole table. But +in a world where Mars can reach out in a single +night and smite a city a thousand miles away, we +cannot suffer wisdom to hesitate in an inaudible +gentility. The knowledge and vision that is good +enough for the best of us is good enough for all. +This gospel of human brotherhood and a common +law and rule for all mankind, the attempt to meet +this urgent necessity of a common control of +human affairs, which indeed is no new religion +but only an attempt to realize practically the +common teaching of all the established religions of +the world, has to speak with dominating voice +everywhere between the poles and round about the +world.</p> + +<p>And it must become part of the universal +education. It must speak through the school and +university. It is too often forgotten, in America,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +perhaps, even more than in Europe, that education +exists for the community, and for the individual +only so far as it makes him a sufficient member of +the community. The chief end of education is to +subjugate and sublimate for the collective purposes +of our kind the savage egotism we inherit. Every +school, every college, teaches directly and still more +by implication, relationship to a community and +devotion to a community. In too many cases that +community we let our schools and colleges teach +to our children is an extremely narrow one; it +is the community of a sect, of a class, or of an +intolerant, greedy and unrighteous nationalism. +Schools have increased greatly in numbers throughout +the world during the last century, but there +has been little or no growth in the conception of +education in schools. Education has been extended, +but it has not been developed. If man +is to be saved from self-destruction by the organization +of a world community, there must be a +broadening of the reference of the teaching in the +schools of all the world to that community of the +world. World-wide educational development and +reform are the necessary preparations for and the +necessary accompaniments of a political reconstruction +of the world. The two are the right and +left hands of the same thing. Neither can effect +much without the other.</p> + +<p>Now it is manifest that this reorganization of +the world's affairs and of the world's education +which we hold to be imperatively dictated by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +change in warfare, communications and other conditions +of human life brought about by scientific +discovery during the last hundred years, carries +with it a practical repudiation of the claims of +every existing sovereign government in the world +to be final and sovereign, to be anything more +than provisional and replaceable. There is the +difficulty that has checked hundreds of men after +their first step towards this work for a universal +peace. It involves, it cannot but involve, a revision +of their habitual allegiances. At best +existing governments are to be regarded as local +trustees and caretakers for the coming human +commonweal.</p> + +<p>If they are not that, then they are necessarily +obstructive and antagonistic. But few rulers, few +governments, few officials, will have the greatness +of mind to recognize and admit this plain reality. +By a kind of necessity they force upon their subjects +and publics a conflict of loyalties. The feeble +driftage of human affairs from one base or greedy +arrangement or cowardly evasion to another, since +the Armistice of 1918, is very largely due to the +obstinate determination of those who are in +positions of authority and responsibility to ignore +the plain teachings of the great war and its sequelæ. +They are resisting adjustments; their minds are +fighting against the sacrifices of pride and authority +that a full recognition of their subordination to the +world commonweal will involve. They are prepared, +it would seem, to fight against the work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +of human salvation basely and persistently, whenever +their accustomed importance is threatened.</p> + +<p>Even in the schools and in the world of thought +the established thing will make its unrighteous +fight for life. The dull and the dishonest in high +places will suppress these greater ideas when they +can, and ignore when they dare not suppress. It +seems too much to hope for that there should be any +willingness on the part of any established authority +to admit its obsolescence and prepare the way for +its merger in a world authority. It is not creative +minds that produce revolutions, but the obstinate +conservatism of established authority. It is the +blank refusal to accept the idea of an orderly +evolution towards new things that gives a revolutionary +quality to every constructive proposal. +The huge task of political and educational reconstruction +which is needed to arrest the present drift +of human affairs towards catastrophe, must be +achieved, if it is to be achieved at all, mainly by +voluntary and unofficial effort; and for the most +part in the teeth of official opposition.</p> + +<p>There are one or two existing states to which +men have looked for some open recognition of their +duty to mankind as a whole, and of the necessarily +provisional nature of their contemporary constitutions. +The United States of America constitute +a political system, profoundly different in its origin +and in its spirit, from any old-world state; it was +felt that here at least might be an evolutionary +state; and in the palmy days of President Wilson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +it did seem for a brief interval as if the New +World was indeed coming to the rescue of the +old, as if America was to play the rôle of a propagandist +continent, bringing its ideas of equality +and freedom, and extending the spirit of its union +to all the nations of the earth. From that expectation, +the world opinion is now in a state of +excessive and unreasonable recoil. President +Wilson fell away from his first intimations of that +world-wide federal embrace; his mind and will were +submerged by the clamour of contending patriotisms +and the subtle expedients of old-world +diplomacy in Paris; but American accessibility to +the idea of a federalized world neither began with +him nor will it end with his failure. America is +still a hopeful laboratory of world-unifying +thought. A long string of arbitration treaties +stands to the credit of America, and a series of developing +Pan-American projects, pointing clearly +to at least a continental synthesis within a measurable +time. There has been, and there still is, a +better understanding of, and a greater receptivity +to, ideas of international synthesis in America than +in any European state.</p> + +<p>And the British Empire, which according to +many of its liberal apologists is already a league +of nations linked together in a mutually advantageous +peace, to that too men have looked for +some movement of adaptation to this greater synthesis +which is the world's pre-eminent need. But +so far the British Empire has failed to respond to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +such expectations. The war has left it strained +and bruised and with its affairs very much in the +grip of the military class, the most illiterate and +dangerous class in the community. They have +done, perhaps, irreparable mischief to the peace +of the empire in Ireland, India and Egypt, and +they have made the claim of the British system +to be an exemplary unification of dissimilar peoples +seem now to many people incurably absurd. It +is a great misfortune for mankind that the British +Empire, which played so sturdy and central a part +in the great war, could at its close achieve no +splendid and helpful gesture towards a generous +reconstruction.</p> + +<p>Since the armistice there has been an extraordinary +opportunity for the British monarchy to +have displayed a sense of the new occasions before +the world, and to have led the way towards the +efforts and renunciations of an international renascence. +It could have taken up a lead that the +President of the United States had initiated and +relinquished; it could have used its peculiar position +to make an unexampled appeal to the whole world. +It could have created a new epoch in history. The +Prince of Wales has been touring the world-wide +dominions of which, some day, he is to be the +crowned head. He has received addresses, visited +sights, been entertained, shaken hands with scores +of thousands of people and submitted himself to +the eager, yet unpenetrating gaze of vast multitudes. +His smallest acts have been observed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +premeditated admiration, his lightest words recorded. +He is not now a boy; he saw something +of the great war, even if his exalted position denied +him any large share of its severer hardships and +dangers; he cannot be blind to the general posture +of the world's affairs. Here, surely, was a chance +of saying something that would be heard from end +to end of the earth, something kingly and great-minded. +Here was the occasion for a fine restatement +of the obligations and duties of empire. But +from first to last the prince has said nothing to +quicken the imaginations of the multitude of his +future subjects to the gigantic possibilities of these +times, nothing to reassure the foreign observer that +the British Empire embodies anything more than +the colossal national egotism and impenetrable self-satisfaction +of the British peoples. "Here we +are," said the old order in those demonstrations, +"and here we mean to stick. Just as we have +been, so we remain. British!—we are Bourbons." +These smiling tours of the Prince of Wales in these +years of shortage, stress, and insecurity, constitute +a propaganda of inanity unparalleled in the world's +history.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Nor do we find in the nominal rulers and official +representatives of other countries any clear admission +of the necessity for a great and fundamental +change in the scope and spirit of government. +These official and ruling people, more than any +other people, are under the sway of that life of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +use and wont which dominates us all. They are +often trained to their positions, or they have won +their way to their positions of authority through +a career of political activities which amounts to a +training. And that training is not a training in +enterprise and change; it is a training in sticking +tight and getting back to precedent. We can expect +nothing from them. We shall be lucky if +the resistance of the administrative side of existing +states to the conception of a world commonweal +is merely passive. There is little or no prospect +of any existing governing system, unless it be such +a federal system as Switzerland or the United +States, passing directly and without extensive internal +changes into combination with other +sovereign powers as part of a sovereign world +system. At some point the independent states +will as systems resist, and unless an overwhelming +world conscience for the world state has been +brought into being and surrounds them with an +understanding watchfulness, and invades the consciences +of their supporters and so weakens their +resisting power, they will resist violently and +disastrously. But it will be an incoherent resistance +because the very nature of the sovereign states +of to-day is incoherence. There can be no world-wide +combination of sovereign states to resist the +world state, because that would be to create the +world state in the attempt to defeat it.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h4>§ 4</h4> + +<p>In the three preceding essays an attempt has +been made to state the pass at which mankind has +arrived, the dangers and mischiefs that threaten +our race, and the need there is and the opportunities +there are for a strenuous attempt to end +the age-long bickerings of nations and empires and +establish one community of law and effort throughout +the whole world. Stress has been laid chiefly +upon the monstrous evils and disasters a continuation +of our present divisions, our nationalisms and +imperialisms and the like, will certainly entail. +These considerations of evil however are only the +negative argument for this creative effort; they +have been thrust forward because war, disorder, +insufficiency, and the ill health, the partings, deprivations, +boredom and unhappiness that arise out +of these things are well within our experience and +entirely credible; the positive argument for a +world order demands at once more faith and +imagination.</p> + +<p>Given a world law and world security, a +release from the net of bickering frontiers, world-wide +freedom of movement, and world-wide +fellowship, a thousand good things that are now +beyond hope or dreaming would come into the +ordinary life. The whole world would be our +habitation, and the energies of men, released from +their preoccupation with contention, would go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +more and more abundantly into the accumulation +and application of scientific knowledge, that is to +say into the increase of mental and bodily health, +of human power, of interest and happiness. Even +to-day the most delightful possibilities stand waiting, +inaccessible to nearly all of us because of the +general insecurity, distrust and anger. Flying, in +a world safely united in peace, could take us now +to the ends of the earth smoothly, securely through +the sweet upper air, in five or six days. In two +or three years there could again be abundance of +food and pleasant clothing for everyone throughout +the whole world. Men could be destroying their +slums and pestilential habitations and rebuilding +spacious and beautiful cities. Given only peace +and confidence and union we could double our +yearly production of all that makes life desirable +and still double our leisure for thought and growth. +We could live in a universal palace and make the +whole globe our garden and playground.</p> + +<p>But these are not considerations that sway +people to effort. Fear and hate, not hope and +desire, have been hitherto the effective spurs for +men. The most popular religions are those which +hold out the widest hopes of damnation. Our lives +are lives of use and wont, we distrust the promise +of delightful experience and achievements beyond +our accustomed ways; it offends our self-satisfaction +even to regard them as possibilities; we do +not like the implied cheapening of familiar things. +We are all ready to sneer at "Utopias," as elderly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +invalids sneer at the buoyant hopes of youth and +do their best to think them sure of frustration. +The aged and disillusioned profess a keen appreciation +of the bath chair and the homely spoonful of +medicine, and pity a crudity that misses the fine +quality of those ripe established things. Most +people are quite ready to dismiss the promise of +a full free life for all mankind with a sneer. That +would rob the world of romance, they say, the +romance of passport offices, custom houses, shortages +of food, endless petty deprivations, slums, +pestilence, under-educated stunted children, +youths dying in heaps in muddy trenches, an +almost universal lack of vitality, and all the picturesque +eventfulness of contemporary conditions. +So that we have not dwelt here upon the life-giving +aspect of a possible world state, but only on +its life-saving aspects. We have not argued that +our present life of use and wont could be replaced +by an infinitely better way of living. We have +rather pointed out that if things continue to drift +as they are doing, the present life of use and wont +will become intolerably insecure. It is the thought +of the large bombing aeroplane and not the hope +of swift travelling across the sky that will move the +generality of men, if they are to be moved at all, +towards a world peace.</p> + +<p>But whether the lever that moves them is desire +or fear the majority of men, unless the species is +to perish, must be brought within a measurable +time to an understanding of, and a will for, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +single world government. And since at first existing +institutions, established traditions, educational +organizations and the like, will all be passively if +not actively resistant to the spread of this saving +idea, and much more so to any attempts to realize +this saving idea, there remains nothing for us to +look to, at the present time, for the first organization +of this immense effort of mental reversal, but +the zeal and devotion and self-sacrifice of convinced +individuals. The world state must begin; it can +only begin, as a propagandist cult, or as a group +of propagandist cults, to which men and women +must give themselves and their energies, regardless +of the consequences to themselves. Laying the +foundations of a world state upon a site already +occupied by a muddle of buildings is an undertaking +which will almost necessarily bring its +votaries into conflict with established authority and +current sentiment; they will have to face the possibility +of lives of conflict, misunderstanding, much +thankless exertion; they must count on little +honour and considerable active dislike; and they +will have to find what consolation they can in the +interest of the conflict itself and in the thought +of a world, made at last by such efforts as theirs, +peaceful and secure and vigorous, a world they can +never hope to see. So stated it seems a bad bargain +that the worker for the world state is invited to +make, yet the world has never lacked people prepared +to make such a bargain and they will not +fail it now. There are worse things than conflict<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +without manifest victory and effort without apparent +reward. To the finer kind of mind it is +infinitely more tragic and distressing to find that +existence bears a foolish aimless face. Many +people, tormented by the discontent of conscience, +and wanting, more than they can ever want any +satisfaction, some satisfying rule of life, some +criterion of conduct, will find in this cult of the +world state just that sustaining reality they need. +And their number will grow. Because it is a +practical and reasonable shape for a life, arising +naturally out of a proper understanding of history +and physical science, and embodying in a unifying +plan the teaching of all the great religions of the +world. It comes to us not to destroy but to fulfil.</p> + +<p>The activities of a cult which set itself to bring +about the world state would at first be propagandist, +they would be intellectual and educational, +and only as a sufficient mass of opinion and will had +accumulated would they become to a predominant +extent politically constructive. Such a cult must +direct itself particularly to the teaching of the +young. So far the propaganda for a world law, +the League of Nations propaganda, since it has +sought immediate political results, has been addressed +almost entirely to adults; and as a consequence +it has had to adapt itself as far as possible +to their preconceptions about the history and outlook +of their own nationality, and to the general +absence as yet in the world of any vision of the +welfare of mankind as one whole. It is because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +of this acceptance of current adult ideas about +patriotism and nationality that the movement has +adopted the unsatisfactory phrase, a League of +Nations, when what is contemplated is much +more than a league and a very considerable subordination +of national sovereignty. And a large +share in the current ineffectiveness of the League +of Nations is evidently due to the fact that men +interpret the phrase and the proposition of the +League of Nations differently in accordance with +the different fundamental historical ideas they +possess, ideas that propaganda has hitherto left +unassailed. The worker for the world state will +look further and plough deeper. It is these fundamental +ideas which are the vitally important objective +of a world-unifying movement, and they can +only be brought into that world-wide uniformity +which is essential to the enduring peace of mankind, +by teaching children throughout all the earth +the common history of their kind, and so directing +their attention to the common future of their +descendants. The driving force that makes either +war or peace is engendered where the young are +taught. The teacher, whether mother, priest, or +schoolmaster, is the real maker of history; rulers, +statesmen and soldiers do but work out the possibilities +of co-operation or conflict the teacher +creates. This is no rhetorical flourish; it is a sober +fact. The politicians and masses of our time dance +on the wires of their early education.</p> + +<p>Teaching then is the initial and decisive factor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +in the future of mankind, and the first duty of +everyone who has the ability and opportunity, is to +teach, or to subserve the teaching of, the true +history of mankind and of the possibilities of this +vision of a single world state that history opens +out to us. Men and women can help the spread +of the saving doctrine in a thousand various ways; +for it is not only in homes and schools that minds +are shaped. They can print and publish books, +endow schools and teaching, organize the distribution +of literature, insist upon the proper instruction +of children in world wide charity and fellowship, +fight against every sort of suppression or restrictive +control of right education, bring pressure through +political and social channels upon every teaching +organization to teach history aright, sustain +missions and a new sort of missionary, the missionaries +to all mankind of knowledge and the idea of +one world civilization and one world community; +they can promote and help the progress of historical +and ethnological and political science, they can set +their faces against every campaign of hate, racial +suspicion, and patriotic falsehood, they can refuse, +they are bound to refuse, obedience to any public +authority which oppresses and embitters class +against class, race against race, and people against +people. A belligerent government as such, they +can refuse to obey; and they can refuse to help +or suffer any military preparations that are not +directed wholly and plainly to preserving the peace +of the world. This is the plain duty of every honest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +man to-day, to judge his magistrate before he obeys +him, and to render unto Cæsar nothing that he +owes to God and mankind. And those who are +awakened to the full significance of the vast +creative effort now before mankind will set themselves +particularly to revise the common moral +judgment upon many acts and methods of living +that obstruct the way of the world state. Blatant, +aggressive patriotism and the incitements against +foreign peoples that usually go with it, are just as +criminal and far more injurious to our race than, +for example, indecent provocations and open +incitements to sexual vice; they produce a much +beastlier and crueller state of mind, and they +deserve at least an equal condemnation. Yet you +will find even priests and clergymen to-day rousing +the war passions of their flocks and preaching +conflict from the very steps of the altar.</p> + +<p>So far the movement towards a world state has +lacked any driving power of passion. We have +been passing through a phase of intellectual +revision. The idea of a world unity and brotherhood +has come back again into the world almost +apologetically, deferentially, asking for the kind +words of successful politicians and for a gesture of +patronage from kings. Yet this demand for one +world-empire of righteousness was inherent in the +teachings of Buddha, it flashed for a little while +behind the sword of Islam, it is the embodiment +in earthly affairs of the spirit of Christ. It is a +call to men for service as of right, it is not an appeal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +to them that they may refuse, not a voice that +they may disregard. It is too great a thing to +hover for long thus deferentially on the outskirts +of the active world it has come to save. To-day +the world state says "Please listen; make way for +me." To-morrow it will say: "Make way for +me, little people." The day is not remote when +disregardful "patriotic" men hectoring in the +crowd will be twisted round perforce to the light +they refuse to see. First comes the idea and then +slowly the full comprehension of the idea, comes +realization, and with that realization will come a +kindling anger at the vulgarity, the meanness, the +greed and baseness and utter stupidity that refuses +to attend to this clear voice, this definite demand +of our racial necessity. To-day we teach, but as +understanding grows we must begin to act. We +must put ourselves and our rulers and our fellow +men on trial. We must ask: "What have you +done, what are you doing to help or hinder the +peace and order of mankind?" A time will come +when a politician who has wilfully made war and +promoted international dissension will be as sure of +the dock and much surer of the noose than a private +homicide. It is not reasonable that those who +gamble with men's lives should not stake their own. +The service of the world state calls for much more +than passive resistance to belligerent authorities, +for much more than exemplary martyrdoms. It +calls for the greater effort of active interference +with mischievous men. "I will believe in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +League of Nations," one man has written, "when +men will fight for it." For this League of Nations +at Geneva, this little corner of Balfourian jobs and +gentility, no man would dream of fighting, but for +the great state of mankind, men will presently be +very ready to fight and, as the thing may go, either +to kill or die. Things must come in their order; +first the idea, then the kindling of imaginations, +then the world wide battle. We who live in the +bleak days after a great crisis, need be no more +discouraged by the apparent indifference of the +present time than are fields that are ploughed and +sown by the wet days of February and the cold +indifference of the winds of early March. The +ploughing has been done, and the seed is in the +ground, and the world state stirs in a multitude +of germinating minds.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h4>THE PROJECT OF A WORLD STATE<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></h4> + + +<p>In this paper, I want to tell you of the idea that +now shapes and dominates my public life—the idea +of a world politically united—of a world securely +and permanently at peace. And I want to say +what I have to say, so far as regards the main +argument of it, as accurately and plainly as +possible, without any eloquence or flourishes.</p> + + +<p>When I first planned this paper, I chose as the +title <i>The Utopia of a World State</i>. Well, there +is something a little too flimsy and unpracticable +about that word Utopia. To most people Utopia +conveys the idea of a high-toned political and +ethical dream—agreeable and edifying, no doubt, +but of no practical value whatever. What I have +to talk about this evening is not a bit dreamlike, +it is about real dangers and urgent necessities. It +is a Project and not a Utopia. It may be a vast +and impossible project. It may be a hopeless +project. But if it fails our civilization fails. And +so I have called this paper not the Utopia but <i>The +Project of a World State.</i> +There are some things that it is almost +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>impossible to tell without seeming to scream and +exaggerate, and yet these things may be in reality +the soberest matter of fact. I want to say that +this civilization in which we are living is tumbling +down, and I think tumbling down very fast; that +I think rapid enormous efforts will be needed to +save it; and that I see no such efforts being made +at the present time. I do not know if these words +convey any concrete ideas to the reader's mind. +There are statements that can open such unfamiliar +vistas as to seem devoid of any real practical meaning +at all, and this I think may be one of them.</p> + +<p>In the past year I have been going about +Europe. I have had glimpses of a new phase of +this civilization of ours—a new phase that would +have sounded like a fantastic dream if one had told +about it ten years ago. I have seen a great city +that had over two million inhabitants, dying, and +dying with incredible rapidity. In 1914 I was in +the city of St. Petersburg and it seemed as safe +and orderly a great city as yours. I went thither +in comfortable and punctual trains. I stayed in +an hotel as well equipped and managed as any +American hotel. I went to dine with and visit +households of cultivated people. I walked along +streets of brilliantly lit and well-furnished shops. +It was, in fact, much the same sort of life that you +are living here to-day—a part of our (then) world-wide +modern civilization.</p> + +<p>I revisited these things last summer. I found +such a spectacle of decay that it seems almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +impossible to describe it to those who have never +seen the like. Streets with great holes where +the drains had fallen in. Stretches of roadway +from which the wood paving had been torn for +firewood. Lampposts that had been knocked over +lying as they were left, without an attempt to set +them up again. Shops and markets deserted and +decayed and ruinous. Not closed shops but abandoned +shops, as abandoned-looking as an old boot +or an old can by the wayside. The railways falling +out of use. A population of half a million +where formerly there had been two. A strangely +homeless city, a city of discomforts and anxieties, +a city of want and ill-health and death. Such was +Petersburg in 1920.</p> + +<p>I know there are people who have a quick and +glib explanation of this vast and awe-inspiring +spectacle of a great empire in collapse. They say +it is Bolshevism has caused all this destruction. +But I hope to show here, among other more important +things, that Bolshevism is merely a part +of this immense collapse—that the overthrow of a +huge civilized organization needs some more comprehensive +explanation than that a little man +named Lenin was able to get from Geneva to +Russia at a particular crisis in Russian history. +And particularly is it to be noted that this immense +destruction of civilized life has not been confined +to Russia or to regions under Bolshevik rule. +Austria and Hungary present spectacles hardly +less desolating than Russia. There is a conspicuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +ebb in civilization in Eastern Germany. And even +when you come to France and Italy and Ireland +there are cities, townships, whole wide regions, +where you can say: This has gone back since 1914 +and it is still going back in material prosperity, in +health, in social order.</p> + +<p>Even in England and Scotland, in Holland and +Denmark and Sweden, it is hard to determine +whether things are stagnant or moving forward or +moving back—they are certainly not going ahead +as they were before 1913-14. The feeling in +England is rather like the feeling of a man who +is not quite sure whether he has caught a slight +chill or whether he is in the opening stage of a +serious illness.</p> + +<p>Now what I want to do here is to theorize +about this shadow, this chill and arrest, that seems +to have come upon the flourishing and expanding +civilization in which all of us were born and reared. +I want to put a particular view of what is happening +before you, and what it is that we are up +against. I want to put before you for your judgment +the view that this overstrain and breaking +down and stoppage of the great uprush of civilization +that has gone on for the past three centuries +is due to the same forces and is the logical outcome +of the same forces that led to that uprush, to that +tremendous expansion of human knowledge and +power and life. And that that breaking up is an +inevitable thing unless we meet it by a very great +effort of a particular kind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now the gist of my case is this: That the +civilization of the past three centuries has produced +a great store of scientific knowledge, and that this +scientific knowledge has altered the material scale +of human affairs and enormously enlarged the +physical range of human activities, but that there +has been no adequate adjustment of men's political +ideas to the new conditions.</p> + +<p>This adjustment is a subtle and a difficult task. +It is also a greatly neglected task. And upon the +possibility of our making this adjustment depends +the issue whether the ebb of civilizing energy, the +actual smashing and breaking down of modern +civilization, which has already gone very far indeed +in Russia and which is going on in most of Eastern +and Central Europe, extends to the whole civilized +world.</p> + +<p>Let me make a very rough and small scale +analysis of what is happening to the world to-day. +And let us disregard many very important issues +and concentrate upon the chief, most typical issue, +the revolution in the facilities of locomotion and +communication that has occurred to the world and +the consequences of that revolution. For the international +problem to-day is essentially dependent +upon the question of transport and communication—all +others are subordinate to that. I shall particularly +call your attention to certain wide differences +between the American case and the old-world +case in this matter.</p> + +<p>It is not understood clearly enough at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +present time how different is the American international +problem from the European international +problem, and how inevitable it is that America and +Europe should approach international problems +from a different angle and in a different spirit. +Both lines of thought and experience do, I believe, +lead at last to the world state, but they get there +by a different route and in a different manner.</p> + +<p>The idea that the government of the United +States can take its place side by side with the +governments of the old world on terms of equality +with those governments in order to organize the +peace of the world, is, I believe, a mistaken and +unworkable idea. I shall argue that the government +of the United States and the community of +the United States are things different politically +and mentally from those of the states of the old +world, and that the rôle they are destined to play +in the development of a world state of mankind +is essentially a distinctive one. And I shall try +to show cause for regarding the very noble and +splendid project of a world-wide League of Nations +that has held the attention of the world for the past +three years, as one that is, at once, a little too much +for complete American participation, and not sufficient +for the urgent needs of Europe. It is not +really so practicable and reasonable a proposition +as it seemed at first.</p> + +<p>The idea of a world state, though it looks a far +greater and more difficult project, is, in the long +run, a sounder and more hopeful proposition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now let me make myself as clear as I can be +about the central idea upon which the whole of the +arguments in this lecture rests. It is this: forgive +me for a repetition—that there has been a complete +alteration in the range and power of human +activities in the last hundred years. Men can +react upon men with a rapidity and at a distance +inconceivable a hundred years ago. This is particularly +the case with locomotion and methods +of communication generally. I will not remind +you in any detail of facts with which you are +familiar; how that in the time of Napoleon the +most rapid travel possible of the great conqueror +himself did not average all over as much as four and +a half miles an hour. A hundred and seven miles a +day for thirteen days—the pace of his rush from +Vilna to Paris after the Moscow disaster—was +regarded as a triumph of speed. In those days, too, +it was a marvel that by means of semaphores it was +possible to transmit a short message from London +to Portsmouth in the course of an hour or so.</p> + +<p>Since then we have seen a development of +telegraphy that has at last made news almost simultaneous +about the world, and a steady increase in +the rate of travel until, as we worked it out in the +Civil Air Transport Committee in London, it is +possible, if not at present practicable, to fly from +London to Australia, half way round the earth, in +about eight days. I say possible, but not practicable, +because at present properly surveyed +routes, landing grounds and adequate supplies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +petrol and spare parts do not exist. Given those +things, that journey could be done now in the time +I have stated. This tremendous change in the +range of human activities involves changes in the +conditions of our political life that we are only +beginning to work out to their proper consequences +to-day.</p> + +<p>It is a curious thing that America, which owes +most to this acceleration in locomotion, has felt it +least. The United States have taken the railway, +the river steamboat, the telegraph and so +forth as though they were a natural part of their +growth. They were not. These things happened +to come along just in time to save American unity. +The United States of to-day were made first by the +river steamboat, and then by the railway. Without +these things, the present United States, this +vast continental nation, would have been altogether +impossible. The westward flow of population +would have been far more sluggish. It might +never have crossed the great central plains. It +took, you will remember, nearly two hundred years +for effective settlement to reach from the coast to +the Missouri, much less than half-way across the +continent. The first state established beyond the +river was the steamboat state of Missouri in 1821. +But the rest of the distance to the Pacific was done +in a few decades.</p> + +<p>If we had the resources of the cinema it +would be interesting to show a map of North +America year by year from 1600 onward, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +little dots to represent hundreds of people, each +dot a hundred, and stars to represent cities of a +hundred thousand people.</p> + +<p>For two hundred years you would see that +stippling creeping slowly along the coastal districts +and navigable waters, spreading still more gradually +into Indiana, Kentucky, and so forth. Then somewhere +about 1810 would come a change. Things +would get more lively along the river courses. The +dots would be multiplying and spreading. That +would be the steamboat. The pioneer dots would +be spreading soon from a number of jumping-off +places along the great rivers over Kansas and +Nebraska.</p> + +<p>Then from about 1830 onward would come the +black lines of the railways, and after that the little +black dots would not simply creep but run. They +would appear now so rapidly, it would be almost +as though they were being put on by some sort of +spraying machine. And suddenly here and then +there would appear the first stars to indicate the +first great cities of a hundred thousand people. +First one or two and then a multitude of cities—each +like a knot in the growing net of the railways.</p> + +<p>This is a familiar story. I recall it to you +now to enforce this point—that the growth of the +United States is a process that has no precedent +in the world's history; it is a new kind of occurrence. +Such a community could not have come +into existence before, and if it had it would, without +railways, have certainly dropped to pieces long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +before now. Without railways or telegraph it +would be far easier to administer California from +Pekin than from Washington. But this great +population of the United States of America has +not only grown outrageously; it has kept uniform. +Nay, it has become more uniform. The man of +San Francisco is more like the man of New York +to-day than the man of Virginia was like the man +of New England a century ago. And the process +of assimilation goes on unimpeded. The United +States is being woven by railway, by telegraph, +more and more into one vast human unity, speaking, +thinking, and acting harmoniously with itself. +Soon aviation will be helping in the work.</p> + +<p>Now this great community of the United States +is, I repeat, an altogether new thing in history. +There have been great empires before with populations +exceeding 100 millions, but these were +associations of divergent peoples; there has never +been one single people on this scale before. We +want a new term for this new thing. We +call the United States a country, just as we call +France or Holland a country. But really the two +things are as different as an automobile and a one-horse +shay. They are the creations of different +periods and different conditions; they are going to +work at a different pace and in an entirely different +way. If you propose—as I gather some of the +League of Nations people propose—to push the +Peace of the World along on a combination of +these two sorts of vehicle, I venture to think the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +Peace of the World will be subjected to some very +considerable strains.</p> + +<p>Let me now make a brief comparison between +the American and the European situation in relation +to these vital matters, locomotion and the +general means of communicating. I said just now +that the United States of America owe most to the +revolution in locomotion and have felt it least. +Europe on the other hand owes least to the revolution +in locomotion and has felt it most. The +revolution in locomotion found the United States +of America a fringe of population on the sea +margins of a great rich virgin empty country into +which it desired to expand, and into which it was +free to expand. The steamboat and railway +seemed to come as a natural part of that expansion. +They came as unqualified blessings. But into +Western Europe they came as a frightful nuisance.</p> + +<p>The States of Europe, excepting Russia, were +already a settled, established and balanced system. +They were living in final and conclusive boundaries +with no further possibility of peaceful expansion. +Every extension of a European state involved a +war; it was only possible through war. And while +the limits to the United States have been set by +the steamship and the railroad, the limits to the +European sovereign states were drawn at a much +earlier time. They were drawn by the horse, and +particularly the coach-horse travelling along the +high road. If you will examine a series of political +maps of Europe for the last two thousand years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +you will see that there has evidently been a definite +limit to the size of sovereign states through all that +time, due to the impossibility of keeping them +together because of the difficulty of intercommunication +if they grew bigger. And this was in spite +of the fact that there were two great unifying ideas +present in men's minds in Europe throughout that +period, namely, the unifying idea of the Roman +Empire, and the unifying idea of Christendom. +Both these ideas tended to make Europe one, but +the difficulties of communication defeated that +tendency. It is quite interesting to watch the +adventures of what is called first the Roman Empire +and afterwards the Holy Roman Empire, in a series +of historical maps. It keeps expanding and then +dropping to pieces again. It is like the efforts of +someone who is trying to pack up a parcel which +is much too big, in wet blotting paper. The +cohesion was inadequate. And so it was that the +eighteenth century found Europe still divided up +into what I may perhaps call these high-road and +coach-horse states, each with a highly developed +foreign policy, each with an intense sense of +national difference and each with intense traditional +antagonisms.</p> + +<p>Then came this revolution in the means of +locomotion, which has increased the normal range +of human activity at least ten times. The effect +of that in America was opportunity; the effect of +it in Europe was congestion. It is as if some +rather careless worker of miracles had decided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +suddenly to make giants of a score of ordinary men, +and chose the moment for the miracle when they +were all with one exception strap-hanging in a +street car. The United States was that fortunate +exception.</p> + +<p>Now this is what modern civilization has come +up against, and it is the essential riddle of the +modern sphinx which must be solved if we are to +live. All the European boundaries of to-day are +impossibly small for modern conditions. And +they are sustained by an intensity of ancient +tradition and patriotic passion.... That is +where we stand.</p> + +<p>The citizens of the United States of America +are not without their experience in this matter. +The crisis of the national history of the American +community, the war between Union and Secession, +was essentially a crisis between the great state of +the new age and the local feeling of an earlier +period. But Union triumphed. Americans live +now in a generation that has almost forgotten that +there once seemed a possibility that the map of +North America might be broken up at last into as +many communities as the map of Europe. Except +by foreign travel, the present generation of Americans +can have no idea of the net of vexations and +limitations in which Europeans are living at the +present time because of their political disunion.</p> + +<p>Let me take a small but quite significant set +of differences, the inconveniences of travel upon +a journey of a little over a thousand miles. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +are in themselves petty inconveniences, but they +will serve to illustrate the net that is making free +civilized life in Europe more and more impossible.</p> + +<p>Take first the American case. An American +wants to travel from New York to St. Louis. He +looks up the next train, packs his bag, gets aboard +a sleeper and turns out at St. Louis next day +ready for business.</p> + +<p>Take now the European parallel. A European +wants to travel from London to Warsaw. Now +that is a shorter distance by fifty or sixty miles +than the distance from New York to St. Louis. +Will he pack his bag, get aboard a train and go +there? He will not. He will have to get a passport, +and getting a passport involves all sorts of +tiresome little errands. One has to go to a photographer, +for example, to get photographs to stick +on the passport. The good European has then +to take his passport to the French representative +in London for a French visa, or, if he is going +through Belgium, for a Belgian visa. After that +he must get a German visa. Then he must go +round to the Czecho-Slovak office for a Czechoslovak +visa. Finally will come the Polish visa.</p> + +<p>Each of these endorsements necessitates something +vexatious, personal attendance, photography, +stamps, rubber stamps, mysterious signatures and +the like, and always the payment of fees. Also +they necessitate delays. The other day I had +occasion to go to Moscow, and I learnt that it +takes three weeks to get a visa for Finland and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +three weeks to get a visa for Esthonia. You see +you can't travel about Europe at all without weeks +and weeks of preparation. The preparations for +a little journey to Russia the other day took three +whole days out of my life, cost me several pounds +in stamps and fees, and five in bribery.</p> + +<p>Ultimately, however, the good European is free +to start. Arriving at the French frontier in an +hour or so, he will be held up for a long customs' +examination. Also he will need to change some +of his money into francs. His English money will +be no good in France. The exchange in Europe +is always fluctuating, and he will be cheated on the +exchange. All European countries, including my +own, cheat travellers on the exchange—that is +apparently what the exchange is for.</p> + +<p>He will then travel for a few hours to the +German frontier. There he will be bundled out +again. The French will investigate him closely to +see that he is not carrying gold or large sums of +money out of France. Then he will be handed +over to the Germans. He will go through the same +business with the customs and the same business +with the money. His French money is no further +use to him and he must get German. A few more +hours and he will arrive on the frontier of Bohemia. +Same search for gold. Then customs' examination +and change of money again. A few hours more +and he will be in Poland. Search for gold, customs, +fresh money.</p> + +<p>As most of these countries are pursuing dif<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>ferent +railway policies, he will probably have to +change trains and rebook his luggage three or four +times. The trains may be ingeniously contrived +not to connect so as to force him to take some +longer route politically favoured by one of the intervening +states. He will be lucky if he gets to +Warsaw in four days.</p> + +<p>Arrived in Warsaw, he will probably need a +permit to stay there, and he will certainly need +no end of permits to leave.</p> + +<p>Now here is a fuss over a fiddling little journey +of 1,100 miles. Is it any wonder that the bookings +from London to Warsaw are infinitesimal in +comparison with the bookings from New York to +St. Louis? But what I have noted here are only +the normal inconveniences of the traveller. They +are by no means the most serious inconveniences.</p> + +<p>The same obstructions that hamper the free +movement of a traveller, hamper the movement +of foodstuffs and all sorts of merchandise in a much +greater degree. Everywhere in Europe trade is +being throttled by tariffs and crippled by the St. +Vitus' dance of the exchanges. Each of these +European sovereign states turns out paper money +at its own sweet will. Last summer I went to +Prague and exchanged pounds for kroners. They +ought to have been 25 to the pound. On Monday +they were 180 to the pound: on Friday 169. They +jump about between 220 and 150, and everybody +is inconvenienced except the bankers and money +changers. And this uncertain exchange diverts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +considerable amounts of money that should be +stimulating business enterprise into a barren and +mischievous gambling with the circulation.</p> + +<p>Between each one of these compressed +European countries the movement of food or +labour is still more blocked and impeded. And +in addition to these nuisances of national tariffs +and independent national coinages at every few +score miles, Europe is extraordinarily crippled by +its want of any central authority to manage the +most elementary collective interests; the control +of vice, for example; the handling of infectious +diseases; the suppression of international criminals.</p> + +<p>Europe is now confronted by a new problem—the +problem of air transport. So far as I can +see, air transport is going to be strangled in Europe +by international difficulties. One can fly comfortably +and safely from London to Paris in two or +three hours. But the passport preliminaries will +take days beforehand.</p> + +<p>The other day I wanted to get quickly to Reval +in Esthonia from England and back again. The +distance is about the same as from Boston to +Minneapolis, and it could be done comfortably in +10 or 12 hours' flying. I proposed to the Handley +Page Company that they should arrange this for +me. They explained that they had no power to +fly beyond Amsterdam in Holland; thence it might +be possible to get a German plane to Hamburg, +and thence again a Danish plane to Copenhagen—leaving +about 500 miles which were too compli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>cated +politically to fly. Each stoppage would involve +passport and other difficulties. In the end it +took me five days to get to Reval and seven days to +get back. In Europe, with its present frontiers, +flying is not worth having. It can never be worth +having—it can never be worked successfully—until +it is worked as at least a pan-European affair.</p> + +<p>All these are the normal inconveniences of the +national divisions of Europe in peace time. By +themselves they are strangling all hope of economic +recovery. For Europe is <i>not</i> getting on to its feet +economically. Only a united effort can effect that. +But along each of the ridiculously restricted +frontiers into which the European countries are +packed, lies also the possibility of war. National +independence means the right to declare war. +And so each of these packed and strangulated +European countries is obliged, by its blessed independence, +to maintain as big an army and as +big a military equipment as its bankrupt condition—for +we are all bankrupt—permits.</p> + +<p>Since the end of the Great War, nothing has +been done of any real value to ensure any European +country against the threat of war, and nothing +will be done, and nothing can be done to lift that +threat, so long as the idea of national independence +overrides all other considerations.</p> + +<p>And again, it is a little difficult for a mind +accustomed to American conditions, to realize what +modern war will mean in Europe.</p> + +<p>Not one of these sovereign European states I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +have named between London and Warsaw is any +larger than the one single American state of Texas, +and not one has a capital that cannot be effectively +bombed by aeroplane raiders from its frontier +within five or six hours of a declaration of war. +We can fly from London to Paris in two or three +hours. And the aerial bombs of to-day, I can +assure you, will make the biggest bombs of 1918 +seem like little crackers. Over all these European +countries broods this immediate threat of a warfare +that will strain and torment the nerves of every +living man, woman or child in the countries +affected. Nothing of the sort can approach the +American citizen except after a long warning. +The worst war that could happen to any North +American country would merely touch its coasts.</p> + +<p>Now I have dwelt on these differences between +America and Europe because they involve an absolute +difference in outlook towards world peace projects, +towards leagues of nations, world states and +the like, between the American and the European.</p> + +<p>The American lives in a political unity on the +big modern scale. He can go on comfortably for +a hundred years yet before he begins to feel tight +in his political skin, and before he begins to feel +the threat of immediate warfare close to his +domestic life. He believes by experience in peace, +but he feels under no passionate urgency to organize +it. So far as he himself is concerned, he has got +peace organized for a good long time ahead. I +doubt if it would make any very serious difference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +for some time in the ordinary daily life of Kansas +City, let us say, if all Europe were reduced to a +desert in the next five years.</p> + +<p>But on the other hand, the intelligent European +is up against the unity of Europe problem night +and day. Europe cannot go on. European +civilization cannot go on, unless that net of +boundaries which strangles her is dissolved away. +The difficulties created by language differences, by +bitter national traditions, by bad political habits +and the like, are no doubt stupendous. But +stupendous though they are, they have to be faced. +Unless they are overcome, and overcome in a very +few years, Europe—entangled in this net of +boundaries, and under a perpetual fear of war, +will, I am convinced, follow Russia and slide down +beyond any hope of recovery into a process of social +dissolution as profound and disastrous as that which +closed the career of the Western Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>The American intelligence and the European +intelligence approach this question of a world peace, +therefore, from an entirely different angle and in +an entirely different spirit. To the American in +the blessed ease of his great unbroken territory, it +seems a matter simply of making his own ample +securities world-wide by treaties of arbitration and +such-like simple agreements. And my impression +is that he thinks of Europeans as living under +precisely similar conditions.</p> + +<p>Nothing of that sort will meet the problem of +the Old World. The European situation is alto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>gether +more intense and tragic than the American. +Europe needs not treaties but a profound change +in its political ideas and habits. Europe is saturated +with narrow patriotism like a body saturated by +some evil inherited disease. She is haunted by +narrow ambitions and ancient animosities.</p> + +<p>It is because of this profound difference of +situation and outlook that I am convinced of the +impossibility of any common political co-operation +to organize a world peace between America and +Europe at the present time.</p> + +<p>The American type of state and the European +type of state are different things, incapable of an +effectual alliance; the steam tractor and the ox +cannot plough this furrow together. American +thought, American individuals, may no doubt play +a very great part in the task of reconstruction that +lies before Europe, but not the American federal +government as a sovereign state among equal +states.</p> + +<p>The United States constitute a state on a +different scale and level from any old world state. +Patriotism and the national idea in America is a +different thing and a bigger scale thing than the +patriotism and national idea in any old world state.</p> + +<p>Any League of Nations aiming at stability +now, would necessarily be a league seeking to +stereotype existing boundaries and existing national +ideas. Now these boundaries and these ideas are +just what have to be got rid of at any cost. Before +Europe can get on to a level and on to equal terms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +with the United States, the European communities +have to go through a process that America went +through—under much easier conditions—a century +and a half ago. They have to repeat, on a much +greater scale and against profounder prejudices, the +feat of understanding and readjustment that was +accomplished by the American people between +1781 and 1788.</p> + +<p>As you will all remember, these States after +they had decided upon Independence, framed +certain Articles of Confederation; they were +articles of confederation between thirteen nations, +between the people of Massachusetts, the people +of Virginia, the people of Georgia, and so forth—thirteen +distinct and separate sovereign peoples. +They made a Union so lax and feeble that it could +neither keep order at home nor maintain respect +abroad. Then they produced another constitution. +They swept aside all that talk about the people of +Massachusetts, the people of Virginia, and the rest +of their thirteen nations. They based their union +on a wider idea: the people of the United States.</p> + +<p>Now Europe, if it is not to sink down to +anarchy, has to do a parallel thing. If Europe is +to be saved from ultimate disaster, Europe has to +stop thinking in terms of the people of France, +the people of England, the people of Germany, +the French, the British, the Germans, and so forth. +Europe has to think at least of the people of +Europe, if not of the civilized people of the world. +If we Europeans cannot bring our minds to that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +there is no hope for us. Only by thinking of all +peoples can any people be saved in Europe. Fresh +wars will destroy the social fabric of Europe, and +Europe will perish as nations, fighting.</p> + +<p>There are many people who think that there is +at least one political system in the old world which, +like the United States, is large enough and world +wide enough to go on by itself under modern conditions +for some considerable time. They think +that the British Empire can, as it were, stand out +of the rest of the Old World as a self-sufficient +system. They think that it can stand out freely +as the United States can stand out, and that these +two English-speaking powers have merely to agree +together to dominate and keep the peace of the +world.</p> + +<p>Let me give a little attention to this idea. It +is I believe a wrong idea, and one that may be +very disastrous to our common English-speaking +culture if it is too fondly cherished.</p> + +<p>There can be no denying that the British Imperial +system is a system different in its nature +and size from a typical European state, from a state +of the horse and road scale, like France, let us +say, or Germany. And equally it is with the +United States a new growth. The present British +Empire is indeed a newer growth than the United +States. But while the United States constitute a +homogeneous system and grow more homogeneous, +the British Empire is heterogeneous and shows +little or no assimilative power. And while the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +United States are all gathered together and are +still very remote from any serious antagonist, the +British Empire is scattered all over the world, entangled +with and stressed against a multitude of +possible antagonists.</p> + +<p>I have been arguing that the size and manageability +of all political states is finally a matter of +transport and communications. They grow to a +limit strictly determined by these considerations. +Beyond that limit they are unstable. Let us now +apply these ideas to the British Empire.</p> + +<p>I have shown that the great system of the +United States is the creation of the river steamboat +and the railway. Quite as much so is the present +British Empire the creation of the ocean-going +steamship—protected by a great navy.</p> + +<p>The British Empire is a modern ocean state just +as the United States is a modern continental state. +The political and economic cohesion of the British +Empire rests upon this one thing, upon the steamship +remaining the dominant and secure means of +world transport in the future. If the British +Empire is to remain sovereign and secure and +independent of the approval and co-operation of +other states, it is necessary that steamship transport +(ocean transport) should remain dominant in peace +and invulnerable in war.</p> + +<p>Well, that brings us face to face with two comparatively +new facts that throw a shadow upon both +that predominance and upon that invulnerability. +One is air transport; the other the submarine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +The possibilities of the ocean-going submarine I +will not enlarge upon now. They will be familiar +to everyone who followed the later phases of the +Great War.</p> + +<p>It must be clear that sea power is no longer +the simple and decisive thing it was before the +coming of the submarine. The sea ways can no +longer be taken and possessed completely. To no +other power, except Japan, is this so grave a +consideration as it is to Britain.</p> + +<p>And if we turn to the possibilities of air-transport +in the future we are forced towards the +same conclusion, that the security of the British +Empire must rest in the future not on its strength +in warfare, but on its keeping the peace within +and without its boundaries.</p> + +<p>I was a member of the British Civil Air Transport +Committee, and we went with care and +thoroughness into the possibilities and probabilities +of the air. My work on that committee convinced +me that in the near future the air may be the chief +if not the only highway for long-distance mails, for +long-distance passenger traffic, and for the carriage +of most valuable and compact commodities. The +ocean ways are likely to be only the ways for slow +travel and for staple and bulky trade.</p> + +<p>And my studies on that committee did much +to confirm my opinion that in quite a brief time +the chief line of military attack will be neither by +sea nor land but through the air. Moreover, it was +borne in upon me that the chief air routes of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +world will lie over the great plains of the world, +that they will cross wide stretches of sea or +mountainous country only very reluctantly.</p> + +<p>Now think of how the British Empire lies with +relation to the great sea and land masses of the +world. There has been talk in Great Britain of +what people have called "all-red air routes," that +is to say, all-British air routes. There are no all-red +air routes. You cannot get out of Britain to +any other parts of the Empire, unless perhaps it is +Canada, without crossing foreign territory. That +is a fact that British people have to face and digest, +and the sooner they grasp it the better for them. +Britain cannot use air ways even to develop her +commerce in peace time without the consent and +co-operation of a large number of her intervening +neighbours. If she embarks single-handed on any +considerable war she will find both her air and her +sea communications almost completely cut.</p> + +<p>And so the British Empire, in spite of its size +and its modernity, is not much better off now in the +way of standing alone than the other European +countries. It is no exception to our generalization +that (apart from all other questions) the scale and +form of the European states are out of harmony +with contemporary and developing transport conditions, +and that all these powers are, if only on this +account, under one urgent necessity to sink those +ideas of complete independence that have hitherto +dominated them. It is a life and death necessity. +If they cannot obey it they will all be destroyed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h4>THE ENLARGEMENT OF PATRIOTISM TO A WORLD +STATE</h4> + + +<p>In my opening argument I have shown the connexion +between the present intense political +troubles of the world and more particularly of +Europe, and the advance in mechanical knowledge +during the past hundred and fifty years. I have +shown that without a very drastic readjustment of +political ideas and habits, there opens before +Europe and the world generally, a sure prospect +of degenerative conflicts; that without such a readjustment, +our civilization has passed its zenith +and must continue the process of collapse that has +been in progress since August, 1914.</p> + +<p>Now this readjustment means an immediate +conflict with existing patriotism. We have embarked +here upon a discussion in which emotion +and passion seem quite unavoidable, the discussion +of nationality. At the very outset we bump +violently against patriotism as any European understands +that word. And it is, I hold, impossible +not to bump against European patriotisms. We +cannot temporize with patriotism, as one finds it +in Europe, and get on towards a common human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +welfare. The two things are flatly opposed. One +or other must be sacrificed. The political and +social muddle of Europe at the present time is very +largely due to the attempt to compromise between +patriotism and the common good of Europe.</p> + +<p>Do we want to get rid of patriotism altogether?</p> + +<p>I do not think we want to get rid of patriotism, +and I do not think we could, even if we wanted to +do so. It seems to be necessary to his moral life, +that a man should feel himself part of a community, +belonging to it, and it belonging to him. And +that this community should be a single and lovable +reality, inspired by a common idea, with a common +fashion and aim.</p> + +<p>But a point I have been trying to bring out +throughout all this argument so far is this—that +when a European goes to the United States of +America he finds a new sort of state, materially +bigger and materially less encumbered than any +European state. And he also finds an intensely +patriotic people whose patriotism isn't really the +equivalent of a European patriotism. It is historically +and practically a synthesis of European +patriotisms. It is numerically bigger. It is +geographically ten times as big. That is very +important indeed from the point of view of this +discussion. And it is synthetic; it is a thing made +out of something smaller. People, I believe, talk +of 100 per cent. Americans. There is no 100 per +cent. American except the Red Indian. There +isn't a white man in the United States from whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +blood a large factor of European patriotism hasn't +been washed out to make way for his American +patriotism.</p> + +<p>Upon this fact of American patriotism, as a +larger different thing than European patriotism, I +build. The thing can be done. If it can be done +in the Europeans and their descendants who have +come to America, it can conceivably be done in +the Europeans who abide in Europe. And how +can we set about doing it?</p> + +<p>America, the silent, comprehensive continent +of America, did the thing by taking all the various +nationalities who have made up her population and +obliging them to live together.</p> + +<p>Unhappily we cannot take the rest of our +European nations now and put them on to a great +virgin continent to learn a wider political wisdom. +There are no more virgin continents. Europe +must stay where she is....</p> + +<p>Now I am told it sometimes helps scientific men +to clear up their ideas about a process by imagining +that process reversed and so getting a view of it +from a different direction. Let us then, for a few +moments, instead of talking of the expansion and +synthesis of patriotism in Europe, imagine a +development of narrow patriotism in America and +consider how that case could be dealt with.</p> + +<p>Suppose, for instance, there was a serious outbreak +of local patriotism in Kentucky. Suppose +you found the people of Kentucky starting a flag +of their own and objecting to what they would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +probably call the "vague internationalism" of the +stars and stripes. Suppose you found them wanting +to set up tariff barriers to the trade of the +states round about them. Suppose you found they +were preparing to annex considerable parts of the +state of Virginia by force, in order to secure a +proper strategic frontier among the mountains to +the east, and that they were also talking darkly of +their need for an outlet to the sea of their very own.</p> + +<p>What would an American citizen think of such +an outbreak? He would probably think that +Kentucky had gone mad. But this, which seems +such fantastic behaviour when we imagine it +occurring in Kentucky, is exactly what is happening +in Europe in the case of little states that are hardly +any larger than Kentucky. They have always +been so. They have not gone mad; if this sort +of thing is madness then they were born mad. +And they have never been cured. A state of +affairs that is regarded in Europe as normal would +be regarded in the United States as a grave case of +local mental trouble.</p> + +<p>And what would the American community +probably do in such a case? It would probably +begin by inquiring where Kentucky had got these +strange ideas. They would look for sources of +infection. Somebody must have been preaching +there or writing in the newspapers or teaching +mischief in the school. And I suppose the people +of the United States would set themselves very +earnestly to see that sounder sense was talked and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +taught to the people of Kentucky about these +things.</p> + +<p>Now that is precisely what has to be done in the +parallel European case. Everywhere in Europe +there goes on in the national schools, in the +patriotic churches, in the national presses, in the +highly nationalized literatures, a unity-destroying +propaganda of patriotism. The schools of all the +European countries at the present time with +scarcely an exception, teach the most rancid +patriotism; they are centres of an abominable +political infection. The children of Europe grow +up with an intensity of national egotism that makes +them, for all practical international purposes, +insane. They are not born with it, but they are +infected with it as soon as they can read and write. +The British learn nothing but the glories of Britain +and the British Empire; the French are, if possible, +still more insanely concentrated on France; the +Germans are just recovering from the bitter consequences +of forty years of intensive nationalist +education. And so on. Every country in Europe +is its own <i>Sinn Fein</i>, cultivating that ugly and +silly obsession of "ourselves alone." "Ourselves +alone" is the sure guide to conflict and disaster, +to want, misery, violence, degradation and death +for our children and our children's children—until +our race is dead.</p> + +<p>The first task before us in Europe is, at any +cost, to release our children from this nationalist +obsession, to teach the mass of European people a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +little truthful history in which each one will see +the past and future of his own country in their +proper proportions, and a little truthful ethnology +in which each country will get over the delusion +that its people are a distinct and individual race. +The history teaching in the schools of Europe is +at the very core of this business.</p> + +<p>But that is only, so to speak, the point of +application of great complex influences, the influences +that mould us in childhood, the teachings +of literature, of the various religious bodies, and +the daily reiteration of the press. Before Europe +can get on, there has to be a colossal turnover of +these moral and intellectual forces in the direction +of creating an international mind. If that can be +effected then there is hope for Europe and the Old +World. If it cannot be effected, then certainly +Europe will go down—with its flags nailed to its +masts. We are on a sinking ship that only one +thing can save. We have to oust these European +patriotisms by some greater idea or perish.</p> + +<p>What is this greater idea to be?</p> + +<p>Now I submit that this greater idea had best +be the idea of the World State of All Mankind.</p> + +<p>I will admit that so far I have made a case only +for teaching the idea of a United States of Europe +in Europe. I have concentrated our attention upon +that region of maximum congestion and conflict. +But as a matter of fact there are no real and effective +barriers and boundaries in the Old World +between Europe and Asia and Africa. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +ordinary Russian talks of "Europe" as one who +is outside it. The European political systems flow +over and have always overflowed into the greater +areas to the east and south. Remember the early +empires of Macedonia and Rome. See how the +Russian language runs to the Pacific, and how +Islam radiates into all three continents. I will +not elaborate this case.</p> + +<p>When you bear such things in mind, I think +you will agree with me that if we are to talk of +a United States of Europe, it is just as easy and +practicable to talk of a United States of the Old +World. And are we to stop at a United States +of the Old World?</p> + +<p>No doubt the most evident synthetic forces in +America at the present time point towards some +sort of pan-American unification. That is the +nearest thing. That may come first.</p> + +<p>But are we to contemplate a sort of dual world—the +New World against the Old?</p> + +<p>I do not think that would be any very +permanent or satisfactory stopping-place. Why +make two bites at a planet? If we work for unity +on the large scale we are contemplating, we may +as well work for world unity.</p> + +<p>Not only in distance but in a score of other +matters are London and Rome nearer to New +York than is Patagonia, and San Francisco is +always likely to be more interesting to Japan than +Paris or Madrid. I cannot see any reason for +supposing that the mechanical drawing together<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +of the peoples of the world into one economic +and political unity is likely to cease—unless our +civilization ceases. I see no signs that our present +facilities for transport and communication are the +ultimate possible facilities. Once we break away +from current nationalist limitations in our political +ideas, then there is no reason and no advantage in +contemplating any halfway house to a complete +human unity.</p> + +<p>Now after what I have been saying it is very +easy to explain why I would have this idea of +human unity put before people's minds in the +form of a World State and not of a League of +Nations.</p> + +<p>Let me first admit the extraordinary educational +value of the League of Nations propaganda, +and of the attempt that has been made to create +a League of Nations. It has brought before the +general intelligence of the world the proposition +of a world law and a world unity that could not +perhaps have been broached in any other way.</p> + +<p>But is it a league of nations that is wanted?</p> + +<p>I submit to you that the word "nations" is +just the word that should have been avoided—that +it admits and tends to stereotype just those conceptions +of division and difference that we must +at any cost minimize and obliterate if our species +is to continue. And the phrase has a thin and +legal and litigious flavour. What loyalty and what +devotion can we expect this multiple association to +command? It has no unity—no personality. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +is like asking a man to love the average member +of a woman's club instead of loving his wife.</p> + +<p>For the idea of Man, for human unity, for our +common blood, for the one order of the world, I +can imagine men living and dying, but not for a +miscellaneous assembly that will not mix—even +in its name. It has no central idea, no heart to +it, this League of Nations formula. It is weak +and compromising just where it should be strong—in +defining its antagonism to separate national +sovereignty. For that is what it aims at, if it +means business. If it means business it means at +least a super-state overriding the autonomy of +existing states, and if it does not mean business +then we have no use for it whatever.</p> + +<p>It may seem a much greater undertaking to +attack nationality and nationalism instead of +patching up a compromise with these things, but +along the line of independent nationality lies no +hope of unity and peace and continuing progress +for mankind. We cannot suffer these old concentrations +of loyalty because we want that very +loyalty which now, concentrates upon them to +cement and sustain the peace of all the world. +Just as in the past provincial patriotisms have given +place to national patriotisms, so now we need to +oust these still too narrow devotions by a new unity +and a new reigning idea, the idea of one state +and one flag in all the earth.</p> + +<p>The idea of the World State stands to the idea +of the League of Nations much as the idea of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +one God of Earth and Heaven stands to a Divine +Committee composed of Wodin and Baal and +Jupiter and Amon Ra and Mumbo Jumbo and +all the other national and tribal gods. There is +no compromise possible in the one matter as in the +other. There is no way round. The task before +mankind is to substitute the one common idea of +an overriding world commonweal for the multitudinous +ideas of little commonweals that prevail +everywhere to-day. We have already glanced at +the near and current consequences of our failure +to bring about that substitution.</p> + +<p>Now this is an immense proposal. Is it a +preposterous one? Let us not shirk the tremendous +scale upon which the foundations of a world state +of all mankind must be laid. But remember, however +great that task before us may seem, however +near it may come to the impossible, nevertheless, in +the establishment of one world rule and one world +law lies the only hope of escape from an increasing +tangle of wars, from social overstrain, and at last a +social dissolution so complete as to end for ever the +tale of mankind as we understand mankind.</p> + +<p>Personally I am appalled by the destruction +already done in the world in the past seven years. +I doubt if any untravelled American can realize +how much of Europe is already broken up. I do +not think many people realize how swiftly Europe +is still sinking, how urgent it is to get European +affairs put back upon a basis of the common good +if civilization is to be saved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now, as to the immensity of this project +of substituting loyalty to a world commonweal for +loyalty to a single egotistical belligerent nation. +It is a project to invade hundreds of millions of +minds, to attack certain ideas established in those +minds and either to efface those ideas altogether or +to supplement and correct them profoundly by +this new idea of a human commonweal. We have +to get not only into the at present intensely +patriotic minds of Frenchmen, Germans, English, +Irish and Japanese, but into the remote and difficult +minds of Arabs and Indians and into the minds +of the countless millions of China. Is there any +precedent to justify us in hoping that such a +change in world ideas is possible?</p> + +<p>I think there is. I would suggest that the +general tendency of thought about these things +to-day is altogether too sceptical of what teaching +and propaganda can do in these matters. In the +past there have been very great changes in human +thought. I need scarcely remind you of the spread +of Christianity in Western Europe. In a few +centuries the whole of Western Europe was +changed from the wild confusion of warring tribes +that succeeded the breakdown of the Roman +Empire, into the unity of Christendom, into a +community with such an idea of unity that it could +be roused from end to end by the common idea +of the Crusades.</p> + +<p>Still more remarkable was the swift transformation +in less than a century of all the nations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +and peoples to the south and west of the Mediterranean, +from Spain to Central Asia, into the +unity of Islam, a unity which has lasted to this +day. In both these cases, what I may call the +mental turnover was immense.</p> + +<p>I think if you will consider the spread of these +very complex and difficult religions, and compare +the means at the disposal of their promoters with +the means at the disposal of intelligent people +to-day, you will find many reasons for believing +that a recasting of people's ideas into the framework +of a universal state is by no means an +impossible project.</p> + +<p>Those great teachings of the past were spread +largely by word of mouth. Their teachers had +to travel slowly and dangerously. People were +gathered together to hear with great difficulty, +except in a few crowded towns. Books could be +used only sparingly. Few people could read, fewer +still could translate, and MSS. were copied with +extreme slowness upon parchment. There was no +printing, no paper, no post. And except for a +very few people there were no schools. Both +Christendom and Islam had to create their common +schools in order to preserve even a minimum of +their doctrine intact from generation to generation. +All this was done in the teeth of much bitter +opposition and persecution.</p> + +<p>Now to-day we have means of putting ideas and +arguments swiftly and effectively before people all +over the world at the same time, such as no one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +could have dreamt of a hundred years ago. We +have not only books and papers, but in the cinema +we have a means of rapid, vivid presentation still +hardly used. We have schools nearly everywhere. +And here in the need for an overruling world state, +and the idea of world service replacing combative +patriotism, we have an urgent, a commanding +human need. We have an invincible case for this +world state and an unanswerable objection to the +nationalisms and patriotisms that would oppose it.</p> + +<p>Is it not almost inevitable that some of us +should get together and begin a propaganda upon +modern lines of this organized world peace, without +which our race must perish? The world +perishes for the want of a common political idea. +It is still quite possible to give the world this +common political idea, the idea of a federal world +state. We cannot help but set about doing it.</p> + +<p>So I put it to you that the most important +work before men and women to-day is the preaching +and teaching, the elaboration and then at last +the realization of this Project of the World State. +We have to create a vision of it, to make it seem +first a possibility and then an approaching reality. +This is a task that demands the work and thought +of thousands of minds. We have to spread the +idea of a Federal World State, as an approaching +reality, throughout the world. We can do this +nowadays through a hundred various channels. +We can do it through the press, through all sorts +of literary expression, in our schools, colleges, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +universities, through political mouthpieces, by +special organizations, and last, but not least, +through the teaching of the churches. For remember +that all the great religions of the world are in +theory universalist; they may tolerate the divisions +of men but they cannot sanction them. We propose +no religious revolution, but at most a religious +revival. We can spread ideas and suggestions +now with a hundred times the utmost rapidity of +a century ago.</p> + +<p>This movement need not at once intervene in +politics. It is a prospective movement, and its +special concern will be with young and still growing +minds. But as it spreads it will inevitably +change politics. The nations, states, and kingdoms +of to-day, which fight and scheme against +each other as though they had to go on fighting +and scheming for ever, will become more and more +openly and manifestly merely guardian governments, +governments playing a waiting part in the +world, while the world state comes of age. For +this World State, for which the world is waiting, +must necessarily be a fusion of all governments, +and heir to all the empires.</p> + +<p>So far I have been occupied by establishing a +case for the World State. It has been, I fear, +rather an abstract discussion. I have kept +closely to the bare hard logic of the present +human situation.</p> + +<p>But now let me attempt very briefly, in the +barest outline, some concrete realization of what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +a World State would mean. Let us try and conceive +for ourselves the form a World State would +take. I do not care to leave this discussion with +nothing to it but a phrase which is really hardly +more than a negative phrase until we put some +body to it. As it stands World State means simply +a politically undivided world. Let us try and +carry that over to the idea of a unified organized +state throughout the world.</p> + +<p>Let us try to imagine what a World Government +would be like. I find that when one speaks +of a World State people think at once of some +existing government and magnify it to world proportions. +They ask, for example, where will the +World Congress meet; and how will you elect your +World President? Won't your World President, +they say, be rather a tremendous personage? How +are we to choose him? Or will there be a World +King? These are very natural questions, at the +first onset. But are they sound questions? May +they not be a little affected by false analogies? +The governing of the whole of the world may turn +out to be <i>not</i> a magnified version of governing a +part of the world, but a different sort of job +altogether. These analogies that people draw so +readily from national states may not really work +in a world state.</p> + +<p>And first with regard to this question of a +king or president. Let us ask whether it is +probable that the world state will have any single +personal head at all?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>Is the world state likely to be a monarchy—either +an elective short term limited monarchy such +as is the United States, or an inherited limited +monarchy like the British Empire?</p> + +<p>Many people will say, you <i>must</i> have a head +of the state. But <i>must</i> you? Is not this idea a +legacy from the days when states were small +communities needing a leader in war and +diplomacy?</p> + +<p>In the World State we must remember there +will be no war—and no diplomacy as such.</p> + +<p>I would even question whether in such a great +modern state as the U.S.A. the idea and the +functions of the president may not be made too +important. Indeed I believe that question has +been asked by many people in the States lately, +and has been answered in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>The broad lines of the United States constitution +were drawn in a period of almost universal +monarchy. American affairs were overshadowed +by the personality of George Washington, and as +you know, monarchist ideas were so rife that there +was a project, during the years of doubt and +division that followed the War of Independence, +for importing a German King, a Prussian Prince, +in imitation of the British Monarchy. But if the +United States were beginning again to-day on its +present scale, would it put so much power and +importance upon a single individual as it put +upon George Washington and his successors in +the White House? I doubt it very much.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>There may be a limit, I suggest, to the size +and complexity of a community that can be +directed by a single personal head. Perhaps that +limit may have been passed by both the United +States and by the British Empire at the present +time. It may be possible for one person to be +leader and to have an effect of directing personality +in a community of millions or even of tens +of millions. But is it possible for one small short-lived +individual to get over and affect and make +any sort of contact with hundreds of millions in +thousands of towns and cities?</p> + +<p>Recently we have watched with admiration +and sympathy the heroic efforts of the Prince of +Wales to shake hands with and get his smile well +home into the hearts of the entire population of +the British Empire of which he is destined to +become the "golden link." After tremendous +exertions a very large amount of the ground still +remains to be covered.</p> + +<p>I will confess I cannot see any single individual +human head in my vision of the World State.</p> + +<p>The linking reality of the World State is much +more likely to be not an individual but an idea—such +an idea as that of a human commonweal +under the God of all mankind.</p> + +<p>If at any time, for any purpose, some one +individual had to step out and act for the World +State as a whole, then I suppose the senior judges +of the Supreme Court, or the Speaker of the +Council, or the head of the Associated Scientific<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +Societies, or some such person, could step out and +do what had to be done.</p> + +<p>But if there is to be no single head person, +there must be at least some sort of assembly or +council. That seems to be necessary. But will +it be a gathering at all like Congress or the British +Parliament, with a Government side and an +opposition ruled by party traditions and party +ideas?</p> + +<p>There again, I think we may be too easily +misled by existing but temporary conditions. I +do not think it is necessary to assume that the +council of the World State will be an assembly of +party politicians. I believe it will be possible to +have it a real gathering of representatives, a fair +sample of the thought and will of mankind at large, +and to avoid a party development by a more +scientific method of voting than the barbaric +devices used for electing representatives to Congress +or the British Parliament, devices that play +directly into the hands of the party organizer who +trades upon the defects of political method.</p> + +<p>Will this council be directly elected? That, I +think, may be found to be essential. And upon +a very broad franchise. Because, <i>firstly</i>, it is +before all things important that every adult in the +world should feel a direct and personal contact +between himself and the World State, and that he +is an assenting and participating citizen of the +world; and <i>secondly</i>, because if your council is +appointed by any intermediate body, all sorts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +local and national considerations, essential in the +business of the subordinate body, will get in the +way of a simple and direct regard for the world +commonweal.</p> + +<p>And as to this council: Will it have great +debates and wonderful scenes and crises and so +forth—the sort of thing that looks well in a large +historical painting? There again we may be easily +misled by analogy. One consideration that bars +the way to anything of that sort is that its members +will have no common language which they will be +all able to speak with the facility necessary for +eloquence. Eloquence is far more adapted to the +conditions of a Red Indian pow-wow than to the +ordering of large and complicated affairs. The +World Council may be a very taciturn assembly. +It may even meet infrequently. Its members may +communicate their views largely by <i>notes</i> which +may have to be very clear and explicit, because +they will have to stand translation, and short—to +escape neglect.</p> + +<p>And what will be the chief organs and organizations +and works and methods with which this +Council of the World State will be concerned?</p> + +<p>There will be a Supreme Court determining +<i>not</i> International Law, but World Law. There +will be a growing Code of World Law.</p> + +<p>There will be a world currency.</p> + +<p>There will be a ministry of posts, transport and +communications generally.</p> + +<p>There will be a ministry of trade in staple pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>ducts +and for the conservation and development of +the natural resources of the earth.</p> + +<p>There will be a ministry of social and labour +conditions.</p> + +<p>There will be a ministry of world health.</p> + +<p>There will be a ministry, the most important +ministry of all, watching and supplementing +national educational work and taking up the care +and stimulation of backward communities.</p> + +<p>And instead of a War Office and Naval and +Military departments, there will be a <i>Peace +Ministry</i> studying the belligerent possibilities of +every new invention, watching for armed disturbances +everywhere, and having complete control of +every armed force that remains in the world. All +these world ministries will be working in co-operation +with local authorities who will apply +world-wide general principles to local conditions.</p> + +<p>These items probably comprehend everything +that the government of a World State would have +to do. Much of its activity would be merely the +co-ordination and adjustment of activities already +very thoroughly discussed and prepared for it by +local and national discussions. I think it will be +a mistake for us to assume that the work of a world +government will be vaster and more complex than +that of such governments as those of the United +States or the British Empire. In many respects +it will have an enormously simplified task. There +will be no foreign enemy, no foreign competition, +no tariffs, so far as it is concerned, or tariff wars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +It will be keeping order; it will not be carrying on +a contest. There will be no necessity for secrecy; +it will not be necessary to have a Cabinet plotting +and planning behind closed doors; there will be no +general policy except a steady attention to the +common welfare. Even the primary origin of a +World Council must necessarily be different from +that of any national government. Every existing +government owes its beginnings to force and is +in its fundamental nature militant. It is an +offensive-defensive organ. This fact saturates our +legal and social tradition more than one realizes at +first. There is, about civil law everywhere, a faint +flavour of a relaxed state of siege. But a world +government will arise out of different motives and +realize a different ideal. It will be primarily an +organ for keeping the peace.</p> + +<p>And now perhaps we may look at this project +of a World State mirrored in the circumstances of +the life of one individual citizen. Let us consider +very briefly the life of an ordinary young man +living in a World State and consider how it would +differ from a commonplace life to-day.</p> + +<p>He will have been born in some one of the +United States of the World—in New York or +California, or Ontario or New Zealand, or Portugal +or France or Bengal or Shan-si; but wherever +his lot may fall, the first history he will learn will +be the wonderful history of mankind, from its +nearly animal beginnings, a few score thousand +years ago, with no tools, but implements of chipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +stone and hacked wood, up to the power and knowledge +of our own time. His education will trace +for him the beginnings of speech, of writing, of +cultivation and settlement.</p> + +<p>He will learn of the peoples and nations of the +past, and how each one has brought its peculiar +gifts and its distinctive contribution to the accumulating +inheritance of our race.</p> + +<p>He will know, perhaps, less of wars, battles, +conquests, massacres, kings and the like unpleasant +invasions of human dignity and welfare, and he will +know more of explorers, discoverers and stout outspoken +men than our contemporary citizen.</p> + +<p>While he is still a little boy, he will have the +great outlines of the human adventure brought +home to his mind by all sorts of vivid methods of +presentation, such as the poor poverty-struck +schools of our own time cannot dream of +employing.</p> + +<p>And on this broad foundation he will build up +his knowledge of his own particular state and +nation and people, learning not tales of ancient +grievances and triumphs and revenges, but what his +particular race and countryside have given and +what it gives and may be expected to give to +the common welfare of the world. On such +foundations his social consciousness will be +built.</p> + +<p>He will learn an outline of all that mankind +knows and of the fascinating realms of half knowledge +in which man is still struggling to know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +His curiosity and his imagination will be roused +and developed.</p> + +<p>He will probably be educated continuously at +least until he is eighteen or nineteen, and perhaps +until he is two or three and twenty. For a world +that wastes none of its resources upon armaments +or soldiering, and which produces whatever it wants +in the regions best adapted to that production, and +delivers them to the consumer by the directest +route, will be rich enough not only to spare the +first quarter of everybody's life for education +entirely, but to keep on with some education +throughout the whole lifetime.</p> + +<p>Of course the school to which our young +citizen of the world will go will be very different +from the rough and tumble schools of to-day, +understaffed with underpaid assistants, and having +bare walls. It will have benefited by some of the +intelligence and wealth we lavish to-day on range-finders +and submarines.</p> + +<p>Even a village school will be in a beautiful +little building costing as much perhaps as a big +naval gun or a bombing-aeroplane costs to-day. I +know this will sound like shocking extravagance to +many contemporary hearers, but in the World +State the standards will be different.</p> + +<p>I don't know whether any of us really grasp +what we are saying when we talk of greater educational +efficiency in the future. That means—if it +means anything—teaching more with much less +trouble. It will mean, for instance, that most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +people will have three or four languages properly +learnt; that they will think about things mathematical +with a quickness and clearness that puzzles +us; that about all sorts of things their minds will +move in daylight where ours move in a haze of +ignorance or in an emotional fog.</p> + +<p>This clear-headed, broad-thinking young citizen +of the World State will not be given up after his +educational years to a life of toil—there will be +very little toil left in the world. Mankind will have +machines and power enough to do most of the toil +for it. Why, between 1914 and 1918 we blew away +enough energy and destroyed enough machinery +and turned enough good grey matter into stinking +filth to release hundreds of millions of toilers from +toil for ever!</p> + +<p>Our young citizen will choose some sort of +interesting work—perhaps creative work. And he +will be free to travel about the whole world without +a passport or visa, without a change of money; +everywhere will be his country; he will find people +everywhere who will be endlessly different, but +none suspicious or hostile. Everywhere he will +find beautiful and distinctive cities, freely expressive +of the spirit of the land in which they have +arisen. Strange and yet friendly cities.</p> + +<p>The world will be a far healthier place than it +is now—for mankind as a whole will still carry on +organized wars—no longer wars of men against +men, but of men against malarias and diseases and +infections. Probably he will never know what a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +cold is, or a headache. He will be able to go +through the great forests of the tropics without +shivering with fever and without saturating himself +with preventive drugs. He will go freely among +great mountains; he will fly to the Poles of the +earth if he chooses, and dive into the cold, now +hidden, deep places of the sea.</p> + +<p>But it is very difficult to fill in the picture of +his adult life so that it will seem real to our experience. +It is hard to conceive and still more +difficult to convey. We live in this congested, +bickering, elbowing, shoving world, and it has +soaked into our natures and made us a part of itself. +Hardly any of us know what it is to be properly +educated, and hardly any what it is to be in constant +general good health.</p> + +<p>To talk of what the world may be to most of +us is like talking of baths and leisure and happy +things to some poor hopeless, gin-soaked drudge in +a slum. The creature is so devitalized; the dirt is +so ingrained, so much a second nature, that a bath +really isn't attractive. Clean and beautiful clothes +sound like a mockery or priggishness. To talk of +spacious and beautiful places only arouses a violent +desire in the poor thing to get away somewhere and +hide. In squalor and misery, quarrelling and fighting +make a sort of nervous relief. To multitudes +of slum-bred people the prospect of no more fighting +is a disagreeable prospect, a dull outlook.</p> + +<p>Well, all this world of ours may seem a slum to +the people of a happier age. They will feel about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +our world just as we feel about the ninth or tenth +century, when we read of its brigands and its +insecurities, its pestilences, its miserable housing, +its abstinence from ablutions.</p> + +<p>But our young citizen will not have been +inured to our base world. He will have little of +our ingrained dirt in his mind and heart. He will +love. He will love beautifully. As most of us once +hoped to do in our more romantic moments. He +will have ambitions—for the world state will give +great scope to ambition. He will work skilfully +and brilliantly, or he will administer public services, +or he will be an able teacher, or a mental or +physical physician, or he will be an interpretative +or creative artist; he may be a writer or a scientific +investigator, he may be a statesman in his state, +or even a world statesman. If he is a statesman +he may be going up perhaps to the federal world +congress. In the year 2020 there will still be +politics, but they will be great politics. Instead of +the world's affairs being managed in a score of +foreign offices, all scheming meanly and cunningly +against each other, all planning to thwart and +injure each other, they will be managed under the +direction of an educated and organized common +intelligence intent only upon the common good.</p> + +<p>Dear! Dear! Dear! Does it sound like +rubbish to you? I suppose it does. You think I +am talking of a dreamland, of an unattainable +Utopia? Perhaps I am! This dear, jolly old +world of dirt, war, bankruptcy, murder and malice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +thwarted lives, wasted lives, tormented lives, +general ill health and a social decadence that +spreads and deepens towards a universal smash—how +can we hope to turn it back from its course? +How priggish and impracticable! How impertinent! +How preposterous! I seem to hear a +distant hooting....</p> + +<p>Sometimes it seems to me that the barriers +that separate man and man are nearly insurmountable +and invincible, that we who talk of a world +state now are only the pioneers of a vast uphill +struggle in the minds and hearts of men that may +need to be waged for centuries—that may fail in +the end.</p> + +<p>Sometimes again, in other moods, it seems to +me that these barriers and nationalities and separations +are so illogical, so much a matter of tradition, +so plainly mischievous and cruel, that at any time +we may find the common sense of our race dissolving +them away....</p> + +<p>Who can see into that darkest of all mysteries, +the hearts and wills of mankind? It may be that +it is well for us not to know of the many generations +who will have to sustain this conflict.</p> + +<p>Yes, that is one mood, and there is the other. +Perhaps we fear too much. Even before our lives +run out we may feel the dawn of a greater age +perceptible among the black shadows and artificial +glares of these unhappy years.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h4>THE BIBLE OF CIVILIZATION</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Part One</span></h3> + + +<h4>§ 1</h4> + +<p>In my next two papers I am going to discuss and—what +shall I say?—experiment with an old but +neglected idea, an idea that was first broached I +believe about the time when the State of Connecticut +was coming into existence and while New +York was still the Dutch city of New Amsterdam.</p> + +<p>The man who propounded this idea was +a certain great Bohemian, Komensky, who is +perhaps better known in our western world by +his Latinized name Comenius. He professed himself +the pupil of Bacon. He was the friend of +Milton. He travelled from one European country +to another with his political and educational ideas. +For a time he thought of coming to America. It +is a great pity that he never came. And his idea, +the particular idea of his we are going to discuss, +was the idea of a common book, a book of history, +science and wisdom, which should form the basis +and framework for the thoughts and imaginations +of every citizen in the world.</p> + +<p>In many ways the thinkers and writers of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +the early seventeenth century seem more akin +to us and more sympathetic with the world of +to-day, than any intervening group of literary +figures. They strike us as having a longer vision +than the men of the eighteenth century, and as +being bolder—and, how shall I put it?—more +desperate in their thinking than the nineteenth +century minds. And this closer affinity to our +own time arises, I should think, directly and +naturally, out of the closer resemblance of their +circumstances. Between 1640 and 1650, just as +in our present age, the world was tremendously +unsettled and distressed. A century and more of +expansion and prosperity had given place to a +phase of conflict, exhaustion and entire political +unsettlement. Britain was involved in the bitter +political struggle that culminated in the execution +of King Charles I. Ireland was a land of massacre +and counter-massacre. The Thirty Years War in +Central Europe was in its closing, most dreadful +stages of famine and plunder. In France the +crown and the nobles were striving desperately +for ascendancy in the War of the Fronde. The +Turk threatened Vienna. Nowhere in Western +Europe did there remain any secure and settled +political arrangements. Everywhere there was +disorder, everywhere it seemed that anything +might happen, and it is just those disordered and +indeterminate times that are most fruitful of bold +religious and social and political and educational +speculations and initiatives.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the period that produced the Quakers +and a number of the most vigorous developments +of Puritanism, in which the foundations of modern +republicanism were laid, and in which the project +of a world league of nations—or rather of a world +state—received wide attention. And the student +of Comenius will find in him an active and sensitive +mind responding with a most interesting similarity +to our own responses, to the similar conditions of +his time. He has been distressed and dismayed—as +most of us have been distressed and dismayed—by +a rapid development of violence, by a great +release of cruelty and suffering in human affairs. +He felt none of the security that was felt in +the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of the +<i>certainty</i> of progress. He realized as we do that +the outlook for humanity is a very dark and +uncertain one unless human effort is stimulated +and organized. He traced the evils of his time to +human discords and divisions, to our political +divisions, and the mutual misconceptions due to our +diversity of languages and leading ideas. In all +that he might be writing and thinking in 1921. +And his proposed remedies find an echo in a +number of our contemporary movements. He +wanted to bring all nations to form one single +state. He wanted to have a universal language +as the common medium of instruction and discussion, +and he wanted to create a common Book of +Necessary Knowledge, a sort of common basis of +wisdom, for all educated men in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now this last is the idea I would like to develop +now. I would like to discuss whether our +education—which nowadays in our modern states +reaches everyone—whether our education can include +and ought to include such a Book of Necessary +Knowledge and Wisdom; and (having +attempted to answer that enquiry in the affirmative) +I shall then attempt a sketch of such a book.</p> + +<p>But to begin with perhaps I may meet an +objection that is likely to arise. I have called this +hypothetical book of ours the Bible of Civilization, +and it may be that someone will say: Yes, but +you have a sufficient book of that sort already; +you have the Bible itself and that is all you need. +Well, I am taking the Bible as my model. I am +taking it because twice in history—first as the +Old Testament and then again as the Old and +New Testament together—it has formed a culture, +and unified and kept together through many +generations great masses of people. It has been +the basis of the Jewish and Christian civilizations +alike. And even in the New World the State of +Connecticut did, I believe, in its earliest beginnings +take the Bible as its only law. Nevertheless, +I hope I shall not offend any reader if I point +out that the Bible is not all that we need to-day, +and that also in some respects it is redundant. +Its very virtues created its limitations. It served +men so well that they made a Canon of it +and refused to alter it further. Throughout the +most vital phases of Hebrew history, throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +the most living years of Christian development +the Bible changed and grew. Then its growth +ceased and its text became fixed. But the world +went on growing and discovering new needs and +new necessities.</p> + +<p>Let me deal first with its redundancy. So far +as redundancy goes, a great deal of the Book of +Leviticus, for example, seems not vitally necessary +for the ordinary citizen of to-day; there are long +explicit directions for temple worship and sacrificial +procedure. There is again, so far as the latter day +citizen is concerned, an excess of information about +the minor Kings of Israel and Judah. And there +is more light than most of us feel we require nowadays +upon the foreign policies of Assyria and +Egypt. It stirs our pulses feebly, it helps us only +very indirectly to learn that Attai begat Nathan +and Nathan begat Zabad, or that Obed begat Jehu +and Jehu begat Azariah, and so on for two or +three hundred verses.</p> + +<p>And so far as deficiencies go, there is a great +multitude of modern problems—problems that +enter intimately into the moral life of all of us, +with which the Bible does not deal, the establishment +of American Independence, for example, +and the age-long feud of Russia and Poland that +has gone on with varying fortunes for four +centuries. That is much more important to our +modern world than the ancient conflict of Assyria +and Egypt which plays so large a part in the old +Bible record. And there are all sorts of moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +problems arising out of modern conditions on +which the Bible sheds little or no direct light: the +duties of a citizen at an election, or the duties of +a shareholder to the labour employed by his company, +for example. For these things we need at +least a supplement, if we are still to keep our community +upon one general basis of understanding, +upon one unifying standard of thought and behaviour.</p> + +<p>We are so brought up upon the Bible, we +are so used to it long before we begin to think +hard about it, that all sorts of things that are +really very striking about it, the facts that the +history of Judah and Israel is told twice over and +that the gospel narrative is repeated four times +over for example, do not seem at all odd to us. +How else, we ask, could you have it? Yet these +are very odd features if we are to regard the Bible +as the compactest and most perfect statement of +essential truth and wisdom.</p> + +<p>And still more remarkable, it seems to me, +is it that the Bible breaks off. One could understand +very well if the Bible broke off with the +foundation of Christianity. Now this event has +happened, it might say, nothing else matters. It +is the culmination. But the Bible does not do +that. It goes on to a fairly detailed account of +the beginnings and early politics of the Christian +Church. It gives the opening literature of theological +exposition. And then, with that strange +and doubtful book, the Revelation of St. John the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +Divine, it comes to an end. As I say, it leaves +off. It leaves off in the middle of Roman imperial +and social conflicts. But the world has gone on +and goes on—elaborating its problems, encountering +fresh problems—until now there is a gulf of +upwards of eighteen hundred years between us and +the concluding expression of the thought of that +ancient time.</p> + +<p>I make these observations in no spirit of detraction. +If anything, these peculiarities of the +Bible add to the wonder of its influence over the +lives and minds of men. It has been The Book +that has held together the fabric of western civilization. +It has been the handbook of life to countless +millions of men and women. The civilization +we possess could not have come into existence and +could not have been sustained without it. It has +explained the world to the mass of our people, +and it has given them moral standards and a form +into which their consciences could work. But does +it do that to-day? Frankly, I do not think it +does. I think that during the last century the +Bible has lost much of its former hold. It no +longer grips the community. And I think it has +lost hold because of those sundering eighteen +centuries, to which every fresh year adds itself, +because of profound changes in the methods and +mechanisms of life, and because of the vast extension +of our ideas by the development of science +in the last century or so.</p> + +<p>It has lost hold, but nothing has arisen to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +its place. That is the gravest aspect of this matter. +It was the cement with which our western communities +were built and by which they were held +together. And the weathering of these centuries +and the acids of these later years have eaten into +its social and personal influence. It is no longer +a sufficient cement. And—this is the essence of +what I am driving at—<i>our modern communities +are no longer cemented</i>, they lack organized +solidarity, they are not prepared to stand shocks +and strains, they have become dangerously loose +mentally and morally. That, I believe, is the clue +to a great proportion of the present social and +political troubles of the world. We need to get +back to a cement. We want a Bible. We want +a Bible so badly that we cannot afford to put the +old Bible on a pinnacle out of daily use. We want +it re-adapted for use. If it is true that the old +Bible falls short in its history and does not apply +closely to many modern problems, then we need +a revised and enlarged Bible in our schools and +homes to restore a common ground of ideas and +interpretations if our civilization is to hold +together.</p> + +<p>Now let us see what the Bible gave a man in +the days when it could really grip and hold and +contain him; and let us ask if it is impossible to +restore and reconstruct a Bible for the needs of +these great and dangerous days in which we are +living. Can we re-cement our increasingly unstable +civilization? I will not ask now whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +there is still time left for us to do anything of +the sort.</p> + +<p>The first thing the Bible gave a man was a +Cosmogony. It gave him an account of the world +in which he found himself and of his place in it. +And then it went on to a general history of mankind. +It did not tell him that history as a string +of facts and dates, but as a moving and interesting +story into which he himself finally came, a story +of promises made and destinies to be fulfilled. It +gave him a dramatic relationship to the schemes +of things. It linked him to all mankind with a +conception of relationships and duties. It gave +him a place in the world and put a meaning into +his life. It explained him to himself and to other +people, and it explained other people to him. In +other words, out of the individual it made a citizen +with a code of duties and expectations.</p> + +<p>Now I take it that both from the point of +view of individual happiness and from the point +of view of the general welfare, this development +of the citizenship of a man, this placing of a man +in his own world, is of primary importance. It +is the necessary basis of all right education; it is +the fundamental purpose of the school, and I do +not believe an individual can be happy or a community +be prosperous without it. The Bible and +the religions based on it gave that idea of a place +in the world to the people it taught. But do we +provide that idea of a place in the world for our +people to-day? I suggest that we do not. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +do not give them a clear vision of the universe +in which they live, and we do not give them a +history that invests their lives with meaning and +dignity.</p> + +<p>The cosmogony of the Bible has lost grip and +conviction upon men's minds, and the ever-widening +gulf of years makes its history and its political +teaching more and more remote and unhelpful +amidst the great needs of to-day. Nothing has +been done to fill up these widening gaps. We +have so great a respect for the letter of the Bible +that we ignore its spirit and its proper use. We +do not rewrite and retell Genesis in the light and +language of modern knowledge, and we do not +revise and bring its history up to date and so apply +it to the problems of our own time. So we have +allowed the Bible to become antiquated and remote, +venerable and unhelpful.</p> + +<p>There has been a great extension of what we +call education in the past hundred years, but while +we have spread education widely, there has been +a sort of shrinkage and enfeeblement of its aims. +Education in the past set out to make a Christian +and a citizen and afterwards a gentleman out of +the crude, vulgar, self-seeking individual. Does +education even pretend to do as much to-day? It +does nothing of the sort. Our young people are +taught to read and write. They are taught bookkeeping +and languages that are likely to be useful +to them. They are given a certain measure of +technical education, and <i>they are taught to shove</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +And then we turn them out into the world to +get on. Our test of a college education is—Does +it make a successful business man?</p> + +<p>Well, this, I take it, is the absolute degradation +of education. It is a modern error that +education exists for the individual. Education +exists for the community and the race; it exists +to subdue the individual for the good of the world +and his own ultimate happiness.</p> + +<p>But we have been letting the essentials of +education slip back into a secondary place in our +pursuit of mere equipment, and we see the results +to-day throughout all the modern states of the +world, in a loss of cohesion, discipline and co-operation. +Men will not co-operate except to raise +prices on the consumer or wages on the employer, +and everyone scrambles for a front place and a +good time. And they do so, partly no doubt by +virtue of an ineradicable factor in them known as +Original Sin, but also very largely because the +vision of life that was built up in their minds at +school and in their homes was fragmentary and +uninspiring; it had no commanding appeal for +their imaginations, and no imperatives for their +lives.</p> + +<p>So I put it, that for the opening books of our +Bible of Civilization, our Bible translated into +terms of modern knowledge, and as the basis of +all our culture, we shall follow the old Bible precedent +exactly. We shall tell to every citizen of +our community, as plainly, simply and beautifully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +as we can, the New Story of Genesis, the tremendous +spectacle of the Universe that science has +opened to us, the flaming beginnings of our world, +the vast ages of its making and the astounding +unfolding, age after age, of Life. We shall tell +of the changing climates of this spinning globe +and the coming and going of great floras and +faunas, mighty races of living things, until out of +the vast, slow process our own kind emerged. And +we shall tell the story of our race. How through +hundreds of thousands of years it won power over +nature, hunted and presently sowed and reaped. +How it learnt the secrets of the metals, mastered +the riddle of the seasons, and took to the seas. +That story of our common inheritance and of our +slow upward struggle has to be taught throughout +our entire community, in the city slums and in +the out-of-the-way farmsteads most of all. By +teaching it, we restore again to our people the lost +basis of a community, a common idea of their place +in space and time.</p> + +<p>Then, still following the Bible precedent, we +must tell a universal history of man. And though +on the surface it may seem to be a very different +history from the Bible story, in substance it will +really be very much the same history, only robbed +of ancient trappings and symbols, and made real +and fresh again for our present ideas. It will still +be a story of conditional promises, the promises +of human possibility, a record of sins and blunders +and lost opportunities, of men who walked not in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +the ways of righteousness, of stiff-necked generations, +and of merciful renewals of hope. It will +still point our lives to a common future which will +be the reward and judgment of our present lives.</p> + +<p>You may say that no such book exists—which +is perfectly true—and that no such book could be +written. But there I think you underrate the +capacity of our English-speaking people. It +would be quite possible to get together a committee +that would give us the compact and clear +cosmogony of history that is needed. Some of the +greatest, most inspiring books and documents in +the world have been produced by Committees: +Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, +the English Translation of the Bible, and the +Prayer Book of the English Church are all the +productions of committees, and they are all fine +and inspiring compilations. For the last three +years I have been experimenting with this particular +task, and, with the help of six other people, +I have sketched out and published an outline of +our world's origins and history to show the sort +of thing I mean. That <i>Outline</i> is, of course, a +corrupting mass of faults and minor inaccuracies, +but it does demonstrate the possibility of doing +what is required. And its reception both in +America and England has shown how ready, how +greedy many people are, on account of themselves +and on account of their children, for an ordered +general account of the existing knowledge of our +place in space and time. For want of anything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +better they have taken my <i>Outline</i> very eagerly. +Far more eagerly would they have taken a finer, +sounder and more authoritative work.</p> + +<p>In England this <i>Outline</i> was almost the first +experiment of the kind that has been made—the +only other I know of in England, was a very +compact General History of the World by Mr. +Oscar Browning published in 1913. But there are +several educationists in America who have been +at work on the same task. In this matter of a +more generalized history teaching, the New World +is decidedly leading the Old. The particular +problems of a population of mixed origins have +forced it upon teachers in the United States.</p> + +<p>My friend—I am very happy to be able to call +him my friend—Professor Breasted, in conjunction +with that very able teacher Professor +Robinson, has produced two books, <i>Ancient Times</i> +and <i>Mediæval and Modern Times</i>, which together +make a very complete history of civilized man. +They do not, however, give a history of life before +man, nor very much of human pre-history. +Another admirable American summary of history +is Doctor Hutton Webster's <i>History of the +Ancient World</i> together with his <i>Mediæval and +Modern History</i>. This again is very sparing of +the story of primitive man.</p> + +<p>But the work of these gentlemen confirms my +own experience that it is quite possible to tell in +a comprehensible and inspiring outline the whole +history of life and mankind in the compass of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +couple of manageable volumes. Neither Browning +nor Breasted and Robinson, nor Hutton Webster, +nor my own effort are very much longer than +twice the length of Dickens' novel of <i>Bleak House</i>. +So there you have it. There is the thing shown +to be possible. If it is possible for us isolated +workers to do as much then why should not the +thing be done in a big and authoritative manner? +Why should we not have a great educational conference +of teachers, scientific men and historians +from all the civilized peoples of the world, and why +should they not draft out a standard World +History for general use in the world's schools? +Why should that draft not be revised by scores of +specialists? Discussed and re-discussed? Polished +and finished, and made the opening part of a new +Bible of Civilization, a new common basis for a +world culture?</p> + +<p>At intervals it would need to be revised, and it +could be revised and brought up to date in the +same manner.</p> + +<p>Now such a book and such a book alone would +put the people of the world upon an absolutely +new footing with regard to social and international +affairs. They would be told a history coming +right up to the Daily Newspaper. They would +see themselves and the news of to-day as part of +one great development. It would give their lives +significance and dignity. It would give the events +of the current day significance and dignity. It +would lift their imaginations up to a new level.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +I say lift, but I mean restore their imaginations +to a former level. Because if you look back into +the lives of the Pilgrim Fathers, let us say, or into +those of the great soldiers and statesmen of Cromwellian +England, you will find that these men had +a sense of personal significance, a sense of destiny, +such as no one in politics or literature seems to +possess to-day. They were still in touch with the +old Bible. To-day if life seems adventurous and +fragmentary and generally aimless it is largely +because of this one thing. We have lost touch +with history. We have ceased to see human affairs +as one great epic unfolding. And only by the +universal teaching of Universal History can that +epic quality be restored.</p> + +<p>You see then the first part of my project for a +Bible of Civilization, a rewriting of Genesis and +Exodus and Judges and Chronicles in terms of +World History. It would be a quite possible +thing to do....</p> + +<p>Is it worth doing?</p> + +<p>And let me add here that when we do get our +New Genesis and our new historical books, they +will have a great number of illustrations as a living +and necessary part of them. For nowadays we +can not only have a canonical text, but canonical +maps and illustrations. The old Hebrew Bible +was merely the written word. Indeed it was not +even that, for it was written without vowels. That +was not a merit, nor a precedent for us; it was +an unavoidable limitation in those days; but under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +modern conditions there is no reason whatever why +we should confine our Bible to words when a drawing +or a map can better express the thing we wish +to convey. It is one of the great advantages of +the modern book over the ancient book that because +of printing it can use pictures as well as +words. When books had to be reproduced by +copyists the use of pictures was impossible. They +would have varied with each copying until they +became hopelessly distorted....</p> + + +<h4>§ 2</h4> + +<p>But the cosmological and historical part of the +old Bible was merely the opening, the groundwork +upon which the rest was built. Let us now +consider what else the Bible gave a man and a +community, and what would be the modern form +of the things it gave.</p> + +<p>The next thing in order that the Bible gave a +man and the community to which he belonged +was the Law. Rules of Life. Rules of Health. +Prescriptions—often very detailed and intimate—of +permissible and unpermissible conduct. This +also the modern citizen needs and should have: he +and she need a book of personal wisdom.</p> + +<p>First as to Health. One of the first duties of +a citizen is to keep himself in mental and bodily +health in order to be fit for the rest of his duties. +Now the real Bible, our model, is extremely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +explicit upon a number of points, upon what constitutes +cleanness or uncleanness, upon ablutions, +upon what a man or woman may eat and what may +not be eaten, upon a number of such points. It +was for its times and circumstances a directory of +healthy practice. Well, I do not see why the +Bible of a Modern Civilization should not contain +a book of similarly clear injunctions and warnings—why +we should not tell every one of our people +what is to be known about self-care.</p> + +<p>And closely connected with the care of one's +mental and bodily health is sexual morality, upon +which again Deuteronomy and Leviticus are most +explicit, leaving very little to the imagination. I +am all for imitating the wholesome frankness of +the ancient book. Where there are no dark +corners there is very little fermentation, there is +very little foulness or infection. But in nearly +every detail and in method and manner, the Bible +of our Civilization needs to be fuller and different +from its prototype upon these matters. The real +Bible dealt with an oriental population living under +much cruder conditions than our own, engaged +mainly in agriculture, and with a far less various +dietary than ours. They had fermented but not +distilled liquors; they had no preserved nor refrigerated +foods; they married at adolescence; +many grave diseases that prevail to-day were unknown +to them, and their sanitary problems were +entirely different. Generally our New Leviticus +will have to be much fuller. It must deal with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +exercise—which came naturally to those Hebrew +shepherds. It must deal with the preservation of +energy under conditions of enervation of which the +prophets knew nothing. On the other hand our +New Leviticus can afford to give much less attention +to leprosy—which almost dominates the health +instructions of the ancient law-giver.</p> + +<p>I do not know anything very much about the +movements in America that aim at the improvement +of the public health and at the removal of +public ignorance upon vital things. In Britain +we have a number of powerful organizations active +in disseminating knowledge to counteract the +spread of this or that infectious or contagious +disease. The War has made us in Europe much +more outspoken and fearless in dealing with lurking +hideous evils. We believe much more than we did +in the curative value of light and knowledge. And +we have a very considerable literature of books on—what +shall I call it? on Sex Wisdom, which aim +to prevent some of that great volume of misery, +deprivation and nervous disease due to the prevailing +ignorance and secrecy in these matters. For +in these matters great multitudes of modern people +still live in an ignorance that would have been +inconceivable to an ancient Hebrew. In England +now the books of such a writer as Dr. Marie Stopes +are enormously read, and—though they are by no +means perfect works—do much to mitigate the +hidden disappointments, discontents, stresses and +cruelties of married life. Now I believe that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +would be possible to compile a modern Leviticus +and Deuteronomy to tell our whole modern community +decently and plainly—just as plainly as the +old Hebrew Bible instructed its Hebrew population—what +was to be known and what had to be done, +and what had not to be done in these intimate +matters.</p> + +<p>But Health and Sex do not exhaust the +problems of conduct. There are also the problems +of Property and Trade and Labour. Upon these +also the old Bible did not hesitate to be explicit. +For example, it insisted meticulously upon the +right of labour to glean and upon the seller giving +a "full measure brimming over," and it prohibited +usury. But here again the Bible is extraordinarily +unhelpful when we come to modern issues, because +its rules and regulations were framed for a community +and for an economic system altogether +cruder, more limited and less complicated than our +own. Much of the Old Testament we have to +remember was already in existence before the free +use of coined metal. The vast credit system of our +days, joint-stock company enterprise and the like, +were beyond the imagination of that time. So too +was any anticipation of modern industrialism. +And accordingly we live to-day in a world in which +neither property nor employment have ever been +properly moralized. The bulk of our present social +and economic troubles is due very largely to that.</p> + +<p>In no matter is this muddled civilization of ours +more hopelessly at sixes and sevens than in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +matter of the rights and duties of property. Manifestly +property is a trust for the community varying +in its responsibilities with the nature of the +property. The property one has in one's toothbrush +is different from the property one has in ten +thousand acres of land; the property one has in a +photograph of a friend is different from the +property one has in some irreplaceable masterpiece +of portraiture. The former one may destroy with +a good conscience, but not the latter. At least so +it seems to me.</p> + +<p>But opinions vary enormously on these matters +because we have never really worked them out. +On the one hand, in this matter of property, we +have the extreme individualist who declares that a +man has an unlimited right to do what he likes +with his own—so that a man who owns a coal mine +may just burn it out to please himself or spite the +world, or raise the price of coal generally—and on +the other hand we have the extreme communist +who denies all property and in practice—so far as +I can understand his practice—goes on the principle +that everything belongs to somebody else or that +one is entitled to exercise proprietary rights over +everything that does not belong to oneself. (I +confess that communistic practice is a little difficult +to formulate.) Between these extremists you can +find every variety of idea about what one may do +and about what one may not do with money and +credit and property generally. Is it an offence to +gamble? Is it an offence to speculate? Is it an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +offence to hold fertile fields and not cultivate them? +Is it an offence to hold fertile fields and undercultivate +them? Is it an offence to use your +invested money merely to live pleasantly without +working? Is it an offence to spend your money +on yourself and refuse your wife more than bare +necessities? Is it an offence to spend exorbitant +sums that might otherwise go in reproductive +investments, to gratify the whims and vanities of +your wife? You will find different people answering +any of these questions with Yes or No. But it +cannot be both Yes and No. There must be a +definable Right or Wrong upon all these issues.</p> + +<p>Almost all the labour trouble in the world +springs directly from our lack of an effective +detailed moral code about property. The freedom +that is claimed for all sorts of property and exercised +by all sorts of property to waste or withhold +is the clue to that savage resentment which flares +out nowadays in every great labour conflict. +Labour is a rebel because property is a libertine.</p> + +<p>Now this untilled field of conduct, this moral +wilderness of the rights and duties and limitations +of property, the Books of the Law in a modern +Bible could clear up in the most lucid and satisfying +way. I want to get those parts of Deuteronomy +and Leviticus written again, more urgently than +any other part of the modern Bible. I want to see +it at work in the schools and in the law-courts. I +admit that it would be a most difficult book to write +and that we should raise controversial storms over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +every verse. But what an excellent thing to have +it out, once for all, with some of these rankling +problems! What an excellent thing if we could +get together a choice group of representative men—strictly +rationed as to paper—and get them to set +down clearly and exactly just what classes of +property they recognized and what limitations the +community was entitled to impose upon each sort.</p> + +<p>Every country in the world does impose limitations. +In Italy you may not export an ancient +work of art, although it is your own. In England +you may not maltreat your own dog or cat. In +the United States, I am told, you may not use +your dollars to buy alcohol. Why should we not +make all this classification of property and the +restraints upon each class of property, systematic +and world-wide? If we could so moralize the use +of property, if we could arrive at a clear idea of just +what use an owner could make of his machinery, +or a financier could make of his credit, would there +be much left of the incessant labour conflicts of the +present time? For if you will look into it, you will +find there is hardly ever a labour conflict into which +some unsettled question of principle, some unsettled +question of the permissible use of property, +does not enter as the final and essential dispute.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h4>THE BIBLE OF CIVILIZATION</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Part Two</span></h3> + + +<h4>§ 3</h4> + +<p>In the preceding sections we have discussed +Genesis and the Historical Books generally as +they would appear in a modernized Bible, and +we have dealt with the Law. But these are only +the foundations and openings of the Bible as we +know it. We come now to the Psalms and +Proverbs, the Song of Songs, the Book of Job—and +the Prophets. What are the modern equivalents +of these books?</p> + +<p>Well, what were they?</p> + +<p>They were the entire Hebrew literature down +to about the time of Ezra; they include sacred +songs, love songs, a dramatic dialogue, a sort of +novel in the Books of Ruth and Esther, and so +forth. What would be our equivalent of this part +of the Bible to-day? What would be the equivalent +for the Bible of a world civilization?</p> + +<p>I suppose that it would be the whole world +literature.</p> + +<p>That, I admit, is a rather tremendous pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>position. +Are we to contemplate the prospect of +a modern Bible in twenty or thirty thousand +volumes? Such a vast Bible would defeat its own +end. We want a Bible that everyone will know, +which will be grasped by the mind of everyone. +That is essential to our idea of a Bible as a social +cement.</p> + +<p>Fortunately our model Bible, as we have it +to-day, gives us a lead in this matter. Its contents +are classified. We have first of all the canonical +books, which are treated as the vitally important +books; they are the books, to quote the phrase +used in the English prayer book, which are +"necessary to salvation." And then we have a +collection of other books, the Apocrypha, the +books set aside, books often admirable and beautiful, +but not essential, good to be read for +"example of life and instruction of manners," yet +books that everyone need not read and know. Let +us take this lead and let us ask whether we can—with +the whole accumulated literature of the world +as our material—select a bookful or so of matter, +of such exceptional value that it would be well for +all mankind to read it and know it. This will be +our equivalent for the canonical Books. I will +return to that in a moment.</p> + +<p>And outside this canonical Book or Books, +shall we leave all the rest of literature in a limitless +Apocrypha? I am doubtful about that. I +would suggest that we make a second intermediate +class between the canonical books that everyone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +in our civilization ought to read and the outer +Apocrypha that you may read or not as you +choose. This intermediate class I would call the +Great Books of the World. It would not be a +part of our Bible, but it would come next to our +Bible. It would not be what one must read but +only what it is desirable the people should read.</p> + +<p>Now this canonical literature we are discussing +is to be the third vital part of our modern Bible. +I conceive of it as something that would go into +the hands of every man and woman in that coming +great civilization which is the dream of our race. +Together with the Book of World History and the +Book of Law and Righteousness and Wisdom that +I have sketched out to you, and another Book of +which I shall have something to say later, this +canonical literature will constitute the intellectual +and moral cement of the World Society, that +intellectual and moral cement for the want of which +our world falls into political and social confusion +and disaster to-day. Upon such a basis, upon a +common body of ideas, a common moral teaching +and the world-wide assimilation of the same +emotional and æsthetic material, it may still be +possible to build up humanity into one co-operative +various and understanding community.</p> + +<p>Now if we bear this idea of a cementing +function firmly in mind, we shall have a criterion +by which to judge what shall be omitted from and +what shall be included in the Books of Literature +in this modern Bible of ours. We shall begin, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +course, by levying toll upon the Old and New +Testaments. I do not think I need justify that +step. I suppose that there will be no doubt of +the inclusion of many of the Psalms—but I question +if we should include them all—and of a +number of splendid passages from the Prophets. +Should we include the Song of Songs? I am inclined +to think that the compilers of a new Bible +would hesitate at that. Should we include the +Book of Job? That I think would be a very +difficult question indeed for our compilers. The +Book of Job is a very wonderful and beautiful discussion +of the profound problem of evil in the +world. It is a tremendous exercise to read and +understand, but is it universally necessary? I +am disposed to think that the Book of Job, +possibly with the illustrations of Blake, would not +make a part of our Canon but would rank among +our Great Books. It is a part of a very large +literature of discussion, of which I shall have more +to say in a moment. So too I question if we should +make the story of Ruth or the story of Esther +fundamental teaching for our world civilization. +Daniel, again, I imagine relegated to the Apocrypha. +But to this I will return later.</p> + +<p>The story of the Gospels would, of course, have +been incorporated in our Historical Book, but in +addition as part of our first canon, each of the four +gospels—with the possible omission of the genealogies—would +have a place, for the sake of their +matchless directness, simplicity and beauty. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +give a picture, they convey an atmosphere of +supreme value to us all, incommunicable in any +other form or language. Again there is a great +wealth of material in the Epistles. It is, for +example, inconceivable that such a passage as that +of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians—"Though +I speak with the tongues of men and angels and +have not charity I am become as sounding brass +or a tinkling cymbal"—the whole of that wonderful +chapter—should ever pass out of the common +heritage of mankind.</p> + +<p>So much from the Ancient Bible for our +modern Bible, all its inspiration and beauty and +fire. And now what else?</p> + +<p>Speaking in English to an English-speaking +audience one name comes close upon the Bible, +Shakespear. What are we going to do about +Shakespear? If you were to waylay almost any +Englishman or American and put this project of a +modern Bible before him, and then begin your +list of ingredients with the Bible and the whole +of Shakespear, he would almost certainly say, +"Yes, Yes."</p> + +<p>But would he be right?</p> + +<p>On reflection he might perhaps recede and say +"Not the whole of Shakespear," but well, <i>Hamlet</i>, +<i>The Tempest</i>, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, <i>A Midsummer-Night's +Dream</i>. But even these! Are they +"generally necessary to salvation"? We run our +minds through the treasures of Shakespear as we +might run our fingers through the contents of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +box of very precious and beautiful jewels—before +equipping a youth for battle.</p> + +<p>No. These things are for ornament and joy. +I doubt if we could have a single play—a single +scene of Shakespear's in our Canon. He goes +altogether into the Great Books, all of him; he +joins the aristocracy of the Apocrypha. And, +I believe, nearly all the great plays of the world +would have to join him there. Euripides and +Sophocles, Schiller and Ibsen. Perhaps some +speeches and such-like passages might be quoted +in the Canon, but that is all.</p> + +<p>Our Canon, remember, is to be the essential +cementing stuff of our community and nothing +more. If once we admit merely beautiful and +delightful things, then I see an overwhelming +inrush of jewels and flowers. If we admit <i>A +Midsummer-Night's Dream</i>, then I must insist +that we also admit such lovely nonsense as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In Xanadu did Kubla Khan<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A stately pleasure dome decree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Alph the sacred river ran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through caverns measureless to man<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Down to a sunless sea....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Our Canon I am afraid cannot take in such +things, and with the plays we must banish also +all the novels; the greater books of such writers +as Cervantes, Defoe, Dickens, Fielding, Tolstoi, +Hardy, Hamsun, that great succession of writers—they +are all good for "example of life and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>struction +of manners," and to the Apocrypha +they must go. And so it is that since I would +banish <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, I would also banish +the Song of Songs, and since I must put away +<i>Vanity Fair</i> and the <i>Shabby Genteel Story</i>, I +would also put away <i>Esther</i> and <i>Ruth</i>. And I +find myself most reluctant to exclude not any +novels written in English, but one or two great +sweeping books by non-English writers. It +seems to me that Tolstoi's <i>War and Peace</i> and +Hamsun's <i>Growth of the Soil</i> are books on an +almost Biblical scale, that they deal with life so +greatly as to come nearest to the idea of a universally +inspiring and illuminating literature which +underlies the idea of our Canon. If we put in any +whole novels into the Canon I would plead for +these. But I will not plead now even for these. +I do not think any novels at all can go into our +modern Bible, as whole works. The possibility +of long passages going in, is of course, quite a +different matter.</p> + +<p>And passing now from great plays and great +novels and romances, we come to the still more +difficult problem of great philosophical and critical +works. Take <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>—an intense, dark, +stirring criticism of life and social order—and +the <i>Dialogues of Plato</i>, full of light and inspiration. +In these latter we might quarry for +beautiful passages for our Canon, but I do not +think we could take them in as wholes, and if +we do not take them in as complete books, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +I think that Semitic parallel to these Greek +dialogues, The Book of Job, must stand not in +our Canon, but in the Great Book section of our +Apocrypha.</p> + +<p>And next we have to consider all the great +Epics in the world. There again I am for exclusion. +This Bible we are considering must be +universally available. If it is too bulky for +universal use it loses its primary function of a +moral cement. We cannot include the <i>Iliad</i>, the +Norse Sagas, the <i>Æneid</i> or <i>Paradise Lost</i> in our +Canon. Let them swell the great sack of our +Apocrypha, and let the children read them if +they will.</p> + +<p>When one glances in this fashion over the +accumulated literary resources of mankind it becomes +plain that our canonical books of literature +in this modern Bible of ours can be little more than +an Anthology or a group of Anthologies. Perhaps +they might be gathered under separate heads, as +the 'Book of Freedom,' the 'Book of Justice,' +the 'Book of Charity.' And now having done +nothing as yet but reject, let me begin to accept. +Let me quote a few samples of the kind of thing +that I imagine would best serve the purpose of +our Bible and that should certainly be included.</p> + +<p>Here are words that every American knows +by heart already—I would like every man in the +world to know them by heart and to repeat them. +It is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and I will not +spare you a word of it:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers +brought forth on this continent a new nation, +conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition +that all men are created equal. Now we +are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether +that nation, or any nation so conceived and so +dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a +great battlefield of that war. We have come to +dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place +for those who here gave their lives that that +nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. But in a larger +sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we +cannot hallow—this ground. The brave +men, living and dead, who struggled here, have +consecrated it, far above our poor power to add +or detract. The world will little note, nor long +remember what we say here, but it can never +forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, +rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work +which they who fought here have thus far so nobly +advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated +to the great task remaining before us—that from +these honored dead we take increased devotion to +that cause for which they gave the last full measure +of devotion. That we here highly resolve that +these dead shall not have died in vain—that this +nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and +that government of the people, by the +people, for the people, shall not perish from the +earth."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>And here is something that might perhaps make +another short chapter in the same Book of Freedom—but +it deals with Freedom of a different sort:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the night that covers me<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Black as the pit from pole to pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I thank whatever gods may be<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For my unconquerable soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the fell clutch of circumstance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have not winced nor cried aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the bludgeonings of Chance,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My head is bloody but unbowed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Beyond this Place of wrath and tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Looms but the Horror of the Shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet the Menace of the years<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Finds and shall find me Unafraid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It matters not how strait the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How charged with punishments the scroll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am the Master of my Fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I am the Captain of my Soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That, as you know, was Henley's, and as I +turned up his volume of poems to copy out that +poem I came again on these familiar lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ways of Death are soothing and serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the words of Death are grave and sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From camp and church, the fireside and the street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She beckons forth—and strife and song have been.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A summer's night descending cool and green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And dark on daytime's dust and stress and heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ways of Death are soothing and serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>There seems something in that also which I +could spare only very reluctantly from a new Bible +in the world. Yet I tender those lines very doubtfully. +For I am not a very cultivated and well-read +person, and note only the things that have struck +upon my mind; but I quite understand that there +must be many things of the same sort, but better, +that I have never encountered, or that I have not +heard or read under circumstances that were +favourable to their proper appreciation. I would +rather say about what I am quoting in this section, +not positively "this thing," but merely "this sort +of thing."</p> + +<p>And in the vein of "this sort of thing" let me +quote you—again for the Book of Freedom—a +passage from Milton, defending the ancient English +tradition of free speech and free decision and +praising London and England. This London and +England of which he boasts have broadened out as +the idea of Jerusalem has broadened out, to world-wide +comprehensions. Let no false modesty blind +us to our great tradition; you and I are still +thinking in Milton's city; we continue, however +unworthily, the great inheritance of the world-wide +responsibility and service, of His Englishmen. +Here is my passage:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Now once again by all concurrence of signs, +and by the general instinct of holy and devout men, +as they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, +God is decreeing to begin some new and great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +period in His Church, even to the reforming of +reformation itself; what does He then but reveal +Himself to His servants, and as His manner is, +first to His Englishmen? I say, as His manner +is, first to us, though we mark not the method of +His counsels, and are unworthy. Behold now this +vast city, a city of refuge, the mansion-house of +liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection; +the shop of war hath not there more anvils +and hammers working, to fashion out the plates +and instruments of armed justice in defence of +beleaguered truth, than there be pens and heads +there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, +searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith +to present, as with their homage and their +fealty, the approaching reformation: others as fast +reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of +reason and convincement.</p> + +<p>"What could a man require more from a +nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? +What wants there to such a towardly and +pregnant soil, but wise and faithful labourers, to +make a knowing people, a nation of prophets, of +sages, and of worthies? We reckon more than five +months yet to harvest; there need not be five +weeks, had we but eyes to lift up, the fields are +white already. Where there is much desire to +learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, +much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good +men is but knowledge in the making. Under these +fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and +understanding, which God hath stirred up in this +city. What some lament of, we rather should +rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness +among men, to reassume the ill-deputed care +of their religion into their own hands again. A +little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one +another, and some grain of charity might win all +these diligencies to join and unite into one general +and brotherly search after truth; could we but +forego this prelatical tradition of crowding free +consciences and Christian liberties into canons and +precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and +worthy stranger should come among us, wise to +discern the mould and temper of a people, and +how to govern it, observing the high hopes and +aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts +and reasonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, +but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, +admiring the Roman docility and courage: 'If +such were my Epirots, I would not despair the +greatest design that could be attempted to make +a church or kingdom happy.'</p> + +<p>"Yet these are the men cried out against for +schismatics and sectaries, as if, while the temple of +the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring +the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should +be a sort of irrational men, who could not consider +there must be many schisms and many dissections +made in the quarry and in the timber ere the house +of God can be built. And when every stone is laid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, +it can but be contiguous in this world: +neither can every piece of the building be of +one form; nay, rather the perfection consists +in this, that out of many moderate varieties and +brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional, +arises the goodly and the graceful +symmetry that commends the whole pile and +structure."</p></div> + +<p>But I will not go on turning over the pages of +books and reciting prose and poetry to you. I +cannot even begin to remind you of the immense +treasure of noble and ennobling prose and verse +that this world has accumulated in the past three +thousand years. Not one soul in ten thousand that +is born into this world even tastes from that store. +For most of mankind now that treasure is as if it +had never been. Is it too much to suggest that +we should make some organized attempt to gather +up the quintessence of literature now, and make it +accessible to the masses of our race? Why should +we not on a large scale with a certain breadth and +dignity set about compiling the Poetic Books, the +Books of Inspiration for a renewed Bible, for a +Bible of Civilization? It seems to me that such a +Book made universally accessible, made a basis of +teaching everywhere could set the key of the whole +world's thought.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<h4>§ 4 Today</h4> + +<p>There remains one other element if we are to +complete the parallelism of the old Bible and the +new. The Christian Bible ends with a forecast, the +Book of Revelation; the Hebrew Bible ended also +with forecasts, the Prophets. To that the old +Bible owed much of its magic power over men's +imaginations and the inspiration it gave them. It +was not a dead record, not an accumulation of +things finished and of songs sung. It pointed +steadily and plainly to the Days to Come as the +end and explanation of all that went before. So +too our Modern Bible, if it is to hold and rule the +imagination of men, must close I think with a <i>Book +of Forecasts</i>. +We want to make our world think more than it +does about the consequences of the lives it leads +and the political deeds that it does and that it +permits to be done. We want to turn the human +imagination round again towards the future which +our lives create. We want a collection and digest +of forecasts and warnings to complete this modern +Bible of ours. Now here I think you will say—and +I admit with perfect reason—that I am floating +away from any reasonable possibility at all. How +can we have forecasts and prophecies of things that +are happening now? Well, I will make a clean +breast of it, and admit that I am asking for something +that may be impossible. Nevertheless it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +something that is very necessary if men are to +remain indeed intelligent co-operating communities. +In the past you will find where there have +been orderly and successful communities the men +in them had an idea of a Destiny, of some object, +something that would amount to a criterion and +judgment upon their collective conduct. Well, I +believe that we have to get back to something of +that sort.</p> + +<p>We have statesmen and politicians who profess +to guide our destinies. Whither are they guiding +our destinies?</p> + +<p>Surely they have some idea. The great American +statesmen and the great European statesmen +are making To-morrow. What is the To-morrow +they are making?</p> + +<p>They must have some idea of it. Otherwise +they must be imposters. I am loth to believe them +imposters, mere adventurers who have blundered +into positions of power and honour with no idea of +what they are doing to the world. But if they have +an idea of what they are doing to the world, they +foresee and intend a Future. That, I take it, is +sound reasoning and the inference is plain.</p> + +<p>They ought to write down their ideas of this +Future before us. It would be helpful to all of us. +It might be a very helpful exercise for them. It +is, I think, reasonable for Americans to ask the +great political personages of America, the president +and so forth, for example: whether they +think the United States will stand alone in twenty-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>five +years' time as they stand alone now? Or +whether they think that there will be a greater +United States—of all America—or of all the +world? They must know their own will about +that. And it is equally reasonable to ask the great +political personages of the British Empire: what +will Ireland be in twenty-five years' time? What +will India be? There must be a plan, an intended +thing. Otherwise these men have no intentions; +otherwise they must be, in two words, dangerous +fools. The sooner we substitute a type of man +with a sufficient foresight and capable of articulate +speech in the matter, the better for our race.</p> + +<p>And again every statesman and every politician +throughout the world says that the relations of +industrial enterprise to the labour it employs are +unsatisfactory. Yes. But how are those relations +going to develop? How do they mean them to +develop?</p> + +<p>Are we just drifting into an unknown darkness +in all these matters with blind leaders of our blindness? +Or cannot a lot of these things be figured +out by able and intelligent people? I put it to you +that they can. That it is a reasonable and proper +thing to ask our statesmen and politicians: what +is going to happen to the world? What sort of +better social order are you making for? What +sort of world order are you creating? Let them +open their minds to us, let them put upon permanent +record the significance of all their intrigues +and manœuvres. Then as they go on we can check<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +their capacity and good faith. We can establish a +control at last that will rule presidents and kings.</p> + +<p>Now the answer to these questions for statesmen +is what I mean by a <i>Book of Forecasts</i>. +Such a book I believe is urgently needed to help +our civilization. It is a book we ought all to possess +and read. I know you will say that such a +<i>Book of Forecasts</i> will be at first a preposterously +insufficient book—that every year will show it up +and make it more absurd. I quite agree. The +first <i>Book of Forecasts</i> will be a poor thing. +Miserably poor. So poor that people will presently +clamour to have it thoroughly revised.</p> + +<p>The revised <i>Book of Forecasts</i> will not be quite +so bad. It will have been tested against realities. +It will form the basis of a vast amount of criticism +and discussion.</p> + +<p>When again it comes to be revised, it will be +much nearer possible realities.</p> + +<p>I put it to you that the psychology, the mentality +of a community that has a <i>Book of Forecasts</i> +in hand and under watchful revision will be +altogether steadier and stronger and clearer than +that of a community which lives as we do to-day, +mere adventurers, without foresight, in a world of +catastrophies and accidents and unexpected things. +We shall be living again in a plan. Our lives +will be shaped to certain defined ends. We shall +fall into place in a great scheme of activities. +We shall recover again some or all of the +steadfastness and dignity of the old religious life.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<h4>§ 5 Today</h4> + +<p>Let me with this <i>Book of Forecasts</i> round off +my fantasy. I would picture to you this modern +Bible, perhaps two or three times as bulky as the +old Bible, and consisting first of</p> + +<p>The Historical Books with maps and the like;</p> + +<p>The Books of Conduct and Wisdom;</p> + +<p>The Anthologies of Poetry and Literature; +and finally the</p> + +<p>Book of Forecasts, taking the place of the +Prophets and Revelations.</p> + +<p>I would picture this revivified Bible to you as +most carefully done and printed and made accessible +to all, the basis of education in every school, +the common platform of all discussion—just as in +the past the old Bible used to be. I would ask you +to imagine it translated into every language, a +common material of understanding throughout all +the world.</p> + +<p>And furthermore, I imagine something else +about this—quite unlike the old Bible—I imagine +all of it periodically revised. The historical books +would need to be revised and brought up to date, +there would be new lights on health and conduct, +there would be fresh additions to the anthologies, +and there would be Forecasts that would have to +be struck out because they were realized or because +they were shown to be hopeless or undesirable, and +fresh Forecasts would be added to replace them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +It would be a Bible moving forward and changing +and gaining with human experience and human +destiny....</p> + +<p>Well, that is my dream of a Bible of Civilization. +Have I in any way carried my vision out +to you of this little row of four or five volumes +in every house, in every life, throughout the +world, holding the lives and ideas and imaginations +of men together in a net of common familiar +phrases and common established hopes?</p> + +<p>And is this a mere fantastic talk, or is this a +thing that could be done and that ought to be +done?</p> + +<p>I do not know how it will appear to you, but +to me it seems that this book I have been talking +about, the Bible of to-day's civilization, is not +simply a conceivable possibility, it is a great and +urgent need. Our education is, I think, pointless +without it, a shell without a core. Our social life +is aimless without it, we are a crowd without a +common understanding. Only by means of some +such unifying instrument, I believe, can we hope +to lift human life out of its present dangerous drift +towards confusion and disaster.</p> + +<p>It is, I think therefore, an urgently desirable +undertaking.</p> + +<p>It is also a very practicable one. The creation +of such a Bible, its printing and its translation, +and a propaganda that would carry it into the +homes and schools of most of the world, could I +think all be achieved by a few hundred resolute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +and capable people at a cost of thirty or forty +million dollars. That is a less sum than that the +United States—in a time when they have no +enemy to fear in all the world—are prepared to +spend upon the building of what is for them an +entirely superfluous and extravagant toy, a great +navy.</p> + +<p>You may, you probably will, differ very widely +upon much that I have here put before you. Let +me ask you not to let any of the details of my +sketching set you against the fundamental idea, +that old creative idea of the Bohemian educationist +who was the pupil of Bacon and the friend of +Milton, the idea of Komensky, the idea of creating +and using a common book, a book of knowledge +and wisdom, as the necessary foundation for any +enduring human unanimity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h4>THE SCHOOLING OF THE WORLD</h4> + + +<p>And now I am going on to a review of the broad +facts of the educational organization of our present +world.</p> + +<p>I am myself a very under-educated person. It +is a constant trouble to me. Like seeks like in +this world. I propose to ask the question whether +the whole world is not under-educated, and I warn +you in advance that I am going to answer in the +affirmative.</p> + +<p>I am going to discuss the possibility of raising +the general educational level very considerably, and +I am going to consider what such a raising of the +educational level would mean in human life.</p> + +<p>I propose to adopt rather a vulgar, business-like +tone about all this. I am going to apply to +the human community much the same sort of tests +that a manufacturer applies to his factory. His +factory has some distinctive product, and when he +looks into his affairs he tries to find out whether +he gets the utmost quantity of the product, whether +he gets the best possible quality of the product, +whether he gets it as efficiently and inexpensively +as possible, and constantly how he can improve his +factory and his processes in all these matters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now the human community may be regarded +as a concern engaged in the production of human +life. And it may be judged very largely by the +question whether the human life it produces is +abundant and full and intense and beautiful.</p> + +<p>Most of the tests that we apply to a state or +a city or a period or a nation resolve themselves, +you will find, into these questions:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What was the life it produced?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What is the life it produces?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now I will further assume that as yet the community +has little or no control over the raw product, +over the life, that is to say, that comes into +it. I admit that from at least the time of Plato +onward the possibility has been discussed of <i>breeding</i> +human beings as we do horses and dogs. There +is an enormous amount of what is called eugenic +literature and discussion to-day. But I will set all +that sort of thing aside from our present discussion +because I do not think anything of the kind is +practicable at the present time.</p> + +<p>Quite apart from any other considerations, one +has to remember one entire difference between the +possible breeding of human beings and the actual +breeding of dogs and horses. We breed dogs and +horses for uniformity, for certain very limited +specified <i>points</i>—speed, scent and the like. But +human beings we should have to breed for variety: +we cannot specify any particular <i>points</i> we want. +We want statesmen and poets and musicians and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +philosophers and swift men and strong men and +delicate men and brave men. The qualities of one +would be the weaknesses of another.</p> + +<p>It is really a false analogy, that between the +breeding of men and the breeding of horses and +dogs. In the case of human beings we want much +more subtle and delicate combinations of qualities. +For any practical purposes we do not know what +we want nor do we know how to get it. So let us +rule that theme out of our present discussion +altogether.</p> + +<p>And I also propose to rule out another set of +topics from this discussion—simply because if we +don't do so we shall have more matter than we +can handle conveniently in the time at our disposal. +I propose to leave out all questions of health and +physical welfare. There is, as you know, a vast +literature now in existence, concerned with the +health and welfare of children before and after +birth, concerned with infantile life, with social conditions +and social work directed to the production +of a vigorous population. I am going to assume +here that all that sort of thing is seen to—that +it is all right, that somebody is doing that, that +we need not trouble for the present about any of +those things.</p> + +<p>This leaves us with the mental life only of our +community and its individuals to consider. On +that I propose to concentrate this discussion.</p> + +<p>Now the human mind in its opening stages in +a civilized community passes through a process<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +which may best be named as <i>schooling</i>. And under +schooling I would include not only the sort of +things that we do to a prospective citizen in the +school and the infant school but also anything in +the nature of a school-like lesson that is done by +the mother or nurse or tutor at home, or by playmates +and companions anywhere. Out of this +schooling arises the general mental life. It is the +structural ground-stuff of all education and +thought.</p> + +<p>Now what is this <i>schooling</i> to do—what is it +doing to the new human being?</p> + +<p>Let us recall what our own schooling was.</p> + +<p>It fell into two pretty clearly defined parts. +We learnt reading and writing, we made a certain +study of grammar, the method of language, +perhaps we learnt the beginnings of some other +language than our own; we learnt some arithmetic +and perhaps a little geometry and algebra; we did +some drawing. All these things were ways of expression, +means of expressing ourselves, means of +comprehending our thoughts in terms of other +people's minds, and of understanding the expressions +of others. That was the basis and +substance of our schooling; a training in mental +elucidation and in communication with other +minds. But also as our schooling went on there +was something more; we learnt a little history, +some geography, the beginnings of science. This +second part of education was not so much expression +as <i>wisdom</i>. We learnt what was generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +known of the world about us and of its past. We +entered into the common knowledge and common +ideas of the world.</p> + +<p>Now, obviously, this <i>schooling</i> is merely a +specialization and expansion of a parental function.</p> + +<p>In the primitive ages of our race the parent, +and particularly the mother, out of an instinctive +impulse and practical necessity, restrained and +showed and taught, and the child, with an instinctive +imitativeness and docility, obeyed and learnt. +And as the primitive family grew into a tribe, as +functions specialized and the range of knowledge +widened, this primitive schooling by the mother +was supplemented and extended by the showing +of things by companions and by the maxims and +initiations of old men.</p> + +<p>It was only with the development of early +civilizations, as the mysteries of writing and +reading began to be important in life, that the +school, <i>qua</i> school, became a thing in itself. And +as the community expanded, the scope of instruction +expanded with it. Schooling is, in fact, and +always has been, the expansion and development +of the primitive savage mind, which is still all that +we inherit, to adapt it to the needs of a larger +community. It makes out of the savage raw +material which is our basal mental stuff, a citizen. +It is a necessary process of fusion if a civilized +community is to keep in being. Without at least +a network of schooled persons, able to communicate +its common ideas and act in intelligent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +co-operation, no community beyond a mere family +group can ever hold together.</p> + +<p>As the human community expands, therefore, +the range of schooling must expand to keep pace +with it.</p> + +<p>I want to base my inquiry upon that proposition. +If it is sound, certain very interesting conclusions +follow.</p> + +<p>I have already shown in the preceding discussions +that the <i>range</i> of the modern state has +increased at least ten times in the past century, +and that the scale of our community of intercourse +has increased correspondingly. I want now to ask +if there has been any corresponding enlargement +of the scope of the schooling—either of the community +as a whole or of any special governing +classes in the community—to keep pace with this +tremendous extension of range. I am going to +argue that there has not been such an enlargement, +and that a large factor in our present troubles is +the failure of education and educational method to +keep pace with the new demands made upon them.</p> + +<p>Now I will first ask what would one like one's +son or daughter to get at school to make him or +her a full living citizen of this modern world. And +at first I will not take into consideration the question +of expense or any such practical difficulties. +I will suppose that for the education of this fortunate +young citizen whose case we are considering +we have limitless means, the best possible tutors, +the best apparatus and absolutely the most favour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>able +conditions. The only limits to the teaching +of this young citizen are his or her own limitations. +We suppose a pupil of fair average intelligence +only.</p> + +<p>Now first we shall want our pupil to understand, +speak, read and write the mother tongue +well. To do this thoroughly in English involves a +fairly sound knowledge of Latin grammar and at +least some slight knowledge of the elements of +Greek. Latin and Greek, which are disappearing +as distinct and separate subjects from many school +curricula, are returning as necessary parts of the +English course.</p> + +<p>But nowadays a full life is not to be lived with +a single language. The world becomes polyglot. +Even if we do not want to live among foreigners, +we want to read their books and newspapers and +understand and follow their thought. Few of us +there are who would not gladly read and speak +several more languages if we had the chance of +doing so. I would therefore set down as a desirable +part of this ideal education we are planning, +two or three other languages in addition to the +mother tongue learnt early and thoroughly. These +additional languages can be acquired easily if they +are learnt in the right way. The easiest way to +learn a language is to learn it when you are quite +young. Many prosperous people in Europe nowadays +contrive to bring up their children with two +or three foreign languages, by employing foreign +nurses and nursery governesses who never speak to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +the children except in the foreign languages. In +many cases what is known as the alternate week +system prevails. The governess is Swiss and for +one week she talks nothing but French and for +another nothing but German. In this way the +children at the age of eight or nine can be made to +talk all three languages with a perfect accent and +an easy idiom.</p> + +<p>Now, if this can be done for some children it +could be done for all children—provided we could +find the nurses and governesses or some equivalent +for the nurses and governesses, and if we can +organize the business efficiently. That point I +will defer. I note here simply that the thing is +possible, if not practicable.</p> + +<p>Children, however, who have made this much +start with languages are unable, in England and +America at least, to go on properly with the +learning of languages when they pass into a school. +Our schools are so badly organized that it is rare +to find even French well taught, and there is rarely +any teaching at all of modern languages other +than French or German. Often the two foreign +languages are taught by different teachers employing +different methods, and both employing a +different grammatical nomenclature from that used +in studying the mother tongue. The classes are +encumbered with belated beginners. The child +who has got languages from its governess, therefore, +marks time—that is to say, wastes time in +these subjects at school. The child well grounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +in some foreign tongue is often a source of irritation +to the teacher, and gets into trouble because +it uses idiomatic expressions with which the teacher +is unfamiliar, or seems to reflect upon the teacher's +accent. These are the limitations of the school +and not the limitations of the pupil. <i>Given +facilities</i>, there is no reason why there should not +be a rapid expansion of the language syllabus at +thirteen or fourteen, and why language generally +should not be studied. Some Slavonic language +could be taken up—Russian or Czech—and a beginning +made with some non-Aryan tongue—Arabic, +for example.</p> + +<p>The object of language teaching in a civilized +state is twofold: to give a thorough, intimate, +usable knowledge of the mother tongue and of +certain key languages. But if teaching were +systematic and no time were wasted, if schooling +joined on and were continuous instead of being +catastrophically disconnected, there is another side +of language teaching altogether—now entirely disregarded—and +that is the acquisition <i>in skeleton</i> of +quite a number of languages clustering round the +key languages. If at the end of his schooling a +boy knows English, French and German very +well and nothing more, he is still a helpless +foreigner in relation to large parts of the world. +But if, in addition, he has an outline knowledge of +Russian and Arabic or Turkish or Hindustani—it +need only be a quite bare outline—and if he has +had a term or so of Spanish in relation to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +French, or Swedish in relation to his German, then +he has the key in his hands for almost any language +he may want. If he has not the language in his +head, he has it very conveniently on call—he needs +but a sensible conversation dictionary and in a little +while he can possess himself of it.</p> + +<p>You may think this a large order; you may +think I am demanding linguistic prodigies; but +remember that I am upon my own ground here; I +am a trained teacher and a student of pedagogic +science, and I am a watchful parent; I know how +time and opportunity are wasted in school, and +particularly in language teaching. Languages are +not things that exist in water-tight compartments; +each one illuminates the other and—unless it is +taught with stupefying stupidity—leads on to +others. A child can acquire the polyglot +habit almost unawares. This widening grasp of +languages is or was within the capacity of nearly +everyone born into the world—given the facilities.</p> + +<p>I ask you to note that qualification—"given +the facilities."</p> + +<p>And now let us turn from the language side to +the rest of schooling. A second main division of +our schooling was mathematical instruction of a +sort. It fell into the three more or less isolated +subjects of arithmetic, algebra and Euclid. We +carried on in these closed cells what was, I now +perceive, a needlessly laborious and needlessly +muddled struggle to comprehend quantity, series +and form.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<p>In all these matters, looking back upon what I +was taught, comparing it with what I now know, +and comparing my mind with the minds of more +fortunate individuals, I cannot resist the persuasion +that I was very badly done indeed in this section. +And it is small consolation to me to note that most +people's minds seem to be no better done than +mine.</p> + +<p>My arithmetic, for instance, is mediocre. It +is pervaded by inaccuracy. You may say that +this is probably want of aptitude. Partly, no +doubt, but not altogether. What is want of aptitude? +Bad as my arithmetic is now it is not so bad +as it was when I left school. When I was about +twenty I held a sort of inquest upon it and found +out a number of things. I found that I had been +allowed to acquire certain bad habits and besetting +sins—most people do. For instance, when I ran +up a column of figures to add them I would pass +from nine to seven quite surely and say sixteen; +but if I went from seven to nine I had a vicious +disposition to make it eighteen. Endless additions +went wrong through that one error. I had fumbled +into this vice and—this is my point—my school had +no apparatus, and no system of checks, to discover +that this had occurred. I used to get my addition +wrong and I used to be punished—stupidly—by +keeping me in from exercise. Time after time this +happened; there was no investigation and no improvement. +Nobody ever put me through a series +of test sums that would have analysed my errors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +and discovered these besetting sins of mine that led +to my inaccurate arithmetic.</p> + +<p>And another thing that made my arithmetic +wrong was a defect in eyesight. My two eyes +haven't quite the same focal length and this often +puts me out of the straight with a column of +figures. But there was nothing in my school +to discover that, and my school never did +discover it.</p> + +<p>My geometrical faculties are also very poor and +undeveloped. Euclid's elements, indeed, I have +always found simple and straightforward, but +when it comes to anything in solid geometry—the +intersection of a sphere by a cone, let us say, or +something of that sort—I am hopelessly at sea. +Deep-seated habits of faulting and fogging, which +were actually developed by my schooling, prevent +my forming any conception of the surfaces +involved.</p> + +<p>Here again, just as with the language teaching, +hardly any of us are really fully educated. We +suffer, nearly all of us, from a lack of quantitative +grasp and from an imperfect grasp of form. Few +of us have acquired such a grasp. Few of us ever +made a proper use of models, and nearly all of us +have miserably trained hands. <i>Given proper +facilities</i>—and here again I ask you to note that +proviso—given proper educational facilities, most +of us would not only be able to talk with most +people in the world but we should also have a +conception of form and quantity far more subtle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +than that possessed by any but a few mathematicians +and mechanical geniuses to-day.</p> + +<p>Let me now come to a third main division of +what we call <i>schooling</i>. In our schooling there was +an attempt to give us a view of the world about us +and a view of our place in it, under the headings +of History and Geography.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to imagine a feebler +attempt. The History and Geography I had was +perhaps, in one respect, the next best thing to a +good course. It was so thoroughly and hopelessly +bad that it left me with a vivid sense of ignorance. +I read, therefore, with great avidity during my +adolescence.</p> + +<p>In English schools now I doubt if the teaching +of history is much better than it was in my +time, but geography has grown and improved—largely +through the vigorous initiative of Professor +Huxley, who replaced the old dreary topography +by a vivid description of the world and mingled +with it a sort of <i>general elementary science</i> under +the name of Physiography. This subject, with +the addition of some elementary Biology and +Physiology does now serve to give many young +people in Great Britain something like a general +view of the world as a whole. We need now to +make a parallel push with the teaching of history. +Upon this matter of the teaching of history I am +a fanatic. I cannot think of an education as even +half done until there has been a fairly sound review +of the whole of the known past, from the begin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>nings +of the geological record up to our own time. +Until that is done, the pupil has not been <i>placed</i> in +the world. He is incapable of understanding his +relationship to and his rôle in the scheme of +things. He is, whatever else he may have learnt, +essentially an ignorant person.</p> + +<p>And now let me recapitulate these demands I +have made upon the process of schooling—this +process of teaching that begins in the nursery +and ends about the age of sixteen or seventeen. +I have asked that it should involve a +practical mastery of three or four languages, +including the mother tongue, and that perhaps +four or five other additional languages shall +have been studied, so to speak, in skeleton. I +have added mathematics carried much higher and +farther than most of our schools do to-day. I have +demanded a sound knowledge of universal history, +a knowledge of general physical and general biological +science, and I have thrown in, with scarcely +a word of apology, a good training of the eyes +and hands in drawing and manual work.</p> + +<p>So far as the pupil goes, I submit this is an +entirely practicable proposal. It can be done, I am +convinced, with any ordinary pupil of average all-round +ability, given—what is now almost universally +wanting—the proper educational facilities. +And now I will go on to examine the question of +why these facilities are wanting. I want to ask +why a large class, if not the whole of our population, +is not educated up to the level of wide under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>standing +and fully developed capacity such a +schooling as I have sketched out implies.</p> + +<p>Well, the first fact obvious to every parent who +has ever enquired closely into the educational outlook +of his offspring, the first fact we have to face +is this: there are not enough properly equipped +schools and, still more, not enough good teachers, +to do the job. It is proclaiming no very profound +secret to declare that there is hardly such a thing +in the world to-day as a fully equipped school, +that is to say a school having all the possible +material and apparatus and staffed sufficiently with +a bright and able teacher, a really live and alert +educationist, in every necessary subject, such as +would be needed to give this ideal education. That +is the great primary obstacle, that is the core of +our present problem. We cannot get our modern +community educated to anything like its full possibilities +as yet because we have neither the teachers +nor the schools.</p> + +<p>Now is this a final limitation?</p> + +<p>For a moment I will leave the question of the +possibilities of more and better equipped schools +on one side. I will deal with the supply of teachers. +At present we do not even attempt to get good +teachers; we do not offer any approach to a tolerable +life for an ordinary teacher; we compel them +to lead mean and restricted lives; we underpay +them shockingly; we do not deserve nearly such +good teachers as we get. But even supposing we +were to offer reasonable wages for teachers; an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +average all-round wage of £1,000 a year or so, and +respect and dignity; it does not follow that we +should get as many as we should need—using the +methods that are in use to-day—to provide this +ideal schooling for most of our population, or, +indeed, for any large section of our population.</p> + +<p>You will note a new proviso creeping in at this +point—"using the methods that are used to-day."</p> + +<p>Because you must remember it is not simply a +matter of payment that makes the teacher. +Teachers are born and not made. Good teaching +requires a peculiar temperament and distinctive +aptitudes. I doubt very much, even if you could +secure the services of every human being who had +the natural gifts needed in a good teacher, if you +could disregard every question of cost and payment, +I doubt whether even then you would +command the services of more than one passable +teacher for a hundred children and of more than one +really inspired and inspiring teacher for five hundred +children. No doubt you could get <i>a sort of +teacher</i> for every score or even for every dozen +children, a commonplace person who could be +trained to do a few simple educational things, but +I am speaking now of good teachers who have the +mental subtlety, the sympathy and the devotion +necessary for efficient teaching by the individualistic +methods in use to-day. And since, <i>using the +methods that are used to-day</i>, you can only hope to +secure fully satisfactory results with one teacher to +every score of pupils, or fewer, and since it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +unlikely we shall ever be able to command the +services of more than a tithe of the people who +could teach well, it seems that we come up here +against an insurmountable obstacle to an educated +population.</p> + +<p>Now I want to press home the idea of that +difficulty. I am an old and seasoned educationist; +most of my earliest writings are concealed in the +anonymity of the London educational papers of a +quarter of a century ago, and my knowledge of +educational literature is fairly extensive. I know +in particular the literature of educational reform. +And I do not recall that I have ever encountered +any recognition of this fundamental difficulty in +the way of educational development. The literature +of educational reform is always assuming +parents of limitless intelligence, sympathy and +means, employing teachers of limitless energy and +capacity. And that to an extreme degree is what +we haven't got and what we can never hope to +have.</p> + +<p>Educational reformers seem always to be looking +at education from the point of view of the +individual scholastic enterprise and of the individual +pupil, and hardly ever from the point of view of a +public task dealing with the community as a whole. +For all practical purposes this makes waste paper +of a considerable proportion of educational literature. +This literature, the reader will find, is pervaded +by certain fixed ideas. There is a sort of +standing objection to any <i>machining</i> of education.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +There is, we are constantly told, to be no syllabus +of instruction, no examinations and no controls, no +prescribed text-books or diagrams because these +things limit the genius of the teacher. And this +goes on with a blissful invincible disregard of the +fact that in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out +of the thousand the genius of the teacher isn't and +can't be there. And also of the fact that this +affair of elementary education has in its essentials +been done over and over and over again for thousands +of millions of times. There ought to be as +much scope left for genius and originality in +ordinary teaching as there is for genius and originality +in a hen laying an ordinary egg.</p> + +<p>These educational idealists are always disregarding +the fundamental problem of educational +organization altogether, the problem of economy, +economy of the most precious thing of all, <i>teaching +power</i>. It is the problem of stretching the competent +teacher over the maximum number of +pupils, and that can be done only by the same +methods of economy that are practised in every +other large-scale production—by the standardization +of everything that can be standardized, and by +the use of every possible time and labour-saving +device and every possible replacement of human +effort, not in order to dispense with originality and +initiative but in order to conserve them for +application at their points of maximum efficiency.</p> + +<p>I have said that a disregard of the possibilities +of wide organization and its associated economy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +effort is characteristic of most "advanced" educational +literature. You will, if you will examine +them, find that disregard working out to its natural +consequences in what are called the "advanced" +schools that appeal to educationally anxious parents +nowadays. You will find that these places, often +very picturesque and pleasing-looking places, are +rarely prosperous enough to maintain more than one +or two good teachers. The rest of the staff shrinks +from scrutiny. You will find these schools adorned +with attractive diagrams drawn by the teachers, +and strikingly original models and apparatus made +by the teachers, and if you look closely into the +matter or consult an intelligent pupil, you will find +there are never enough diagrams and apparatus to +see a course through. If you press that matter +you will find that they haven't had time to make +them so far. And they will never get so far. No +school, however rich and prosperous and however +enthusiastically run, can hope to make for itself +all the plant and diagrams and apparatus needed +for a fully efficient modern education such as we +have sketched out. As well might a busy man hope +to array himself, by his own efforts, with hats, suits +and boots made by himself out of wool and raw +hides.</p> + +<p>But now I think you will begin to see what I +am driving at. It is this: that if the general level +of education is to be raised in our modern community, +and if that better education is to be +spread over most of our community, it is necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +to reorganize education in the world upon entirely +bolder, more efficient, and more economical lines. +We are inexorably limited as to the number of +good teachers we can get into the educational +organization, and we are limited as inexorably as +to the quality of the rank and file of our teaching +profession; but we are not limited in the equipment +and systematic organization of teaching methods +and apparatus. That is what I want particularly +to enlarge upon now.</p> + +<p>Think of the ordinary schoolhouse—a mere empty brick building with a +few hat-pegs, a stale map or so, half a dozen plaster casts, a few +hundred tattered books, a blackboard, and some broken chemical +apparatus: think of it as the dingy insufficiency it is! In such a place +the best teacher must needs waste three-fourths of his energies. In such +a place staff and pupils meet chiefly to waste each other's time. This +is the first and principal point at which we can stanch the wastage of +teaching energy that now goes on. Everywhere about the world nowadays, +the schoolhouse is set up and equipped by a private person or a local +authority in more or less complete ignorance of educational +possibilities, in more or less complete disconnectedness, without any of +the help or any of the economy that comes from a centralized mass +production. Let us now consider what we might have in the place of this +typical schoolhouse of to-day.</p> + +<p>Let me first suggest that every school should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> have a complete library +of very full and explicit lesson notes, properly sorted and classified. +All the ordinary subjects in schools have been taught over and over +again millions and millions of times. Few people, I think, realize that, +and fewer still realize the reasonable consequences of that. Human minds +are very much the same everywhere, and the best way of teaching every +ordinary school subject, the best possible lesson and the best possible +succession of lessons, ought to have been worked out to the last point, +and the courses ought to have been stereotyped long ago. Yet if you go +into any school to-day, in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred you will +find an inexpert and ill-prepared young teacher giving a clumsy, +vamped-up lesson as though it had never been given before. He or she +will have no proper notes and no proper diagrams, and a halting and +faulty discourse will be eked out by feeble scratchings with chalk on a +blackboard, by querulous questioning of the pupils, and irrelevancies. +The thing is preposterous.</p> + +<p>And linked up with this complete equipment +of proper lesson notes upon which the teacher will +give the lessons, there should be a thing which +does not exist at present in any school and which +ought to exist in every school, a collection of some +hundreds of thousands of pictures and diagrams, +properly and compactly filed; a copious supply of +maps, views of scenery, pictures of towns, and so +forth for teaching geography, diagrams and tables +for scientific subjects, and so on and so on. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +must remember that if the schools of the world +were thought of as a whole and dealt with as a +whole, these things could be produced wholesale at a +cost out of comparison cheaper than they are made +to-day. There is no reason whatever why school +equipment should not be a world market. A +lesson upon the geography of Sweden needs precisely +the same maps, the same pictures of scenery, +types of people, animals, cities, and so forth, +whether that lesson is given in China or Peru or +Morocco or London. There is no reason why +these pictures and maps should not be printed from +the same blocks and distributed from the same +centre for the schools of all mankind. If the +government of any large country had the vigour +and intelligence to go right ahead and manufacture +a proper equipment of notes and diagrams for its +own use in all its own schools, it would probably +be able to recoup itself for most of the outlay by +dominating the map and diagram markets of the +rest of the world.</p> + +<p>And next to this full and manageable collection +of pictures and diagrams, which the teacher would +whip out, with the appropriate notes, five minutes +before his lesson began, the modern school would +have quite a considerable number of gramophones. +These would be used not only to supply music for +drill and so forth, and for the analytical study of +music, but for the language teaching. Instead of +the teacher having to pretend, as he usually pretends +now, to a complete knowledge of the foreign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +language he can really only smatter, he would +become the honest assistant of the real teaching +instrument—the gramophone. Here, again, it is +a case for big methods or none—a case for mass +production. A mass production of gramophone +records for language teaching throughout the world +would so reduce the cost that every school could +quite easily be equipped with a big repertory of +language records. For the first year of any +language study, at any rate, the work would go +always to the accompaniment of the proper accent +and intonation. And all over the world each +language would be taught with the same accent +and quantities and idioms—a very desirable thing +indeed.</p> + +<p>And now let me pass on to another requirement +for an efficient school that our educational organization +has still to discover—the method of using +the cinematograph. I ask for half a dozen projectors +or so in every school, and for a well-stocked +storehouse of films. The possibilities of certain +branches of teaching have been altogether revolutionized +by the cinematograph. In nearly every +school nowadays you will find a lot of more or less +worn and damaged scientific apparatus which is +supposed to be used for demonstrating the elementary +facts of chemistry, physics and the like. +There is a belief that the science teachers—and +they do their best with the time and skill and +material at their disposal—rig up experimental +displays of the more illuminating experimental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +facts with this damaged litter. Many of us can +recall the realities of the sort of demonstration I +mean. The performance took two or three hours +to prepare, an hour to deliver and an hour or so to +clear away; it was difficult to follow, impossible +to repeat, it usually went wrong, and almost +invariably the teacher lost his temper. These +practical demonstrations occurred usually in the +opening enthusiasm of the term. As the weeks +wore on, the pretence of practical teaching was +quietly dropped, and we crammed our science out +of the text-book.</p> + +<p>Now that is the sort of thing that still goes on. +But it ought to be entirely out of date. All that +scientific bric-a-brac in the cupboard had far better +be thrown away. All the demonstration experiments +that science teachers will require in the +future can be performed once for all—before a +cinematograph. They can be done <i>finally</i>; they +need never be done again. You can get the best +and most dexterous teacher in the world—he can +do what has to be done with the best apparatus, in +the best light; anything that is very minute or +subtle you can magnify or repeat from another +point of view; anything that is intricate you can +record with extreme slowness; you can show the +facts a mile off or six inches off, and all that your +actual class teacher need do now is to spend five +minutes on getting out the films he wants, ten +minutes in reading over the corresponding lecture +notes, and then he can run the film, give the lesson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +question his class upon it, note what they miss and +how they take it, run the film again for a second +scrutiny, and get out for the subsequent study of +the class the ample supply of diagrams and pictures +needed to fix the lesson. Can there be any comparison +between the educational efficiency of the +two methods?</p> + +<p>So I put it to you, that it is possible now to +make—and that the world needs badly that we +should make—a new sort of school, a standardized +school, a school richly equipped with modern +apparatus and economizing the labour of teaching +to an extent at present undreamt of, in which, all +over the world, the same stereotyped lessons, leading +the youth of the whole world through a parallel +course of schooling, can be delivered.</p> + +<p>I know that in putting this before you I +challenge some of the most popular affectations +of cultivated people. I know that many people +will be already writhing with a genteel horror at +the idea of the same lesson being given in identical +terms to everybody in turn throughout the world. +It sounds monotonous. It will rob the world of +variety—and so on and so on. But indeed it will +not be monotonous at all. That lesson will be +new and fresh and good to every pupil who receives +it. And remember it is by our hypothesis the +best possible form and arrangement of that lesson. +It is to take the place of a sham lesson or no +lesson at all. There is an eternal freshness in +learning as in all the other main things in life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +It will be no more monotonous than having one's +seventh birthday or falling in love for the first +time.</p> + +<p>And as for variety, I for one do not care how +soon every possible variety of ignorance and misconception +is banished from the world. The sun +shines on the whole world and it is the same sun. +I have still to be persuaded that our planet would +be more various and interesting if it were lit by +two or three thousand uncertain, spasmodic and +differently coloured searchlights directed upon it +from every direction. I am pleading for a clear +white light of education that shall go like the sun +round the whole world.</p> + +<p>You see that in all this I am driving at—what +shall I call it?—syndicated schools, syndicated +lesson notes, and, so far as equipment goes, mass +production. I want to see the sort of thing happening +to schools that has already happened to many +sorts of retail shops. In the place of little ill-equipped +schools, each run by its own teacher and +buying its own books and diagrams and material +and so forth in small quantities at high prices, I +want to see a great central organization, employing +teachers of genius, working in consultation and +co-operation and producing lesson notes, diagrams, +films, phonograph records, cheaply, abundantly, +on a big scale for a nation, or a group of nations, +or, if you like, for all the world, just as America +produces watches and alarum clocks and cheap +automobiles for all the world. And I want to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +the schools of the world being run, so far as the +intellectual training goes, not by local committees +but by that <i>central organization</i>.</p> + +<p>It is only by this reorganization of schooling +upon the lines of big production that we can hope +to get a civilized community in the world at an +educational level very markedly higher than the +existing educational level.</p> + +<p>But if we could so economize teaching energy—if +we made our really great teachers, by the use +of modern appliances, teachers not of handfuls but +of millions; if we insisted upon a universal application +of the best and most effective methods of +teaching, just as we insist upon the best and most +effective methods of street traction and town lighting—then +I believe it would be possible to build +the civilization of the years to come on a foundation +of mental preparation incomparably sounder +and higher than anything we know of to-day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h4>COLLEGE, NEWSPAPER AND BOOK</h4> + + +<p>And now let us go on to the next stages of +education.</p> + +<p>The schooling process is a natural phase in +human development—it is our elaboration of the +natural learning of boyhood and girlhood and of +adolescence. There was schooling before schools; +there was schooling before humanity. I have +watched a cat schooling her kittens. Schooling is +a part of being young. And we grow up. So +there comes a time when schooling is over, when +the process of equipment gives place to an +increasing share in the activities and decisions of +adult life.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless for us education must still go on.</p> + +<p>I suppose that the savage or the barbarian or +the peasant in any part of the world or the +uneducated man anywhere would laugh if you told +him that the adult must still learn. But in our +modern world—I mean the more or less civilized +world of the last twenty-five centuries or so—there +has grown up a new idea—new, I mean, in +the sense that it runs counter to the life scheme +of primitive humanity and of most other living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +things—and that is <i>the idea that one can go on +learning right up to the end of life</i>. It marks off +modern man from all animals, that in his adult +life he can display a sense that there remains +something still to be investigated and wisdom still +to be acquired.</p> + +<p>I do not know enough history to tell you with +any confidence when adult men, instead of just +going about the business of life after they had +grown up, continued to devote themselves to +learning, to a deliberate prolongation of what is +for all other animals an adolescent phase. But by +the time of Buddha in India and Confucius in +China and the schools of the philosophers in the +Greek world the thing was in full progress. That +was twenty-six centuries ago or more.</p> + +<p>Something of the sort may have been going +on in the temples of Egypt or Samaria a score of +centuries before. I do not know. You must ask +some such great authority as Professor Breasted +about that. It may be fifty or a hundred centuries +since men, although they were fully grown up, still +went on trying to learn.</p> + +<p>The idea of adult learning has spread ever +since. To-day I suppose most educated people +would agree that so long as we live we learn and +ought to learn—that we ought to develop our ideas +and enlarge, correct and change our ideas.</p> + +<p>But even to-day you will find people who have +not yet acquired this view. You will find even +teachers and doctors and business men who are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +persuaded that they had learnt all that there was +to learn by twenty-five or thirty. It is only quite +recently that this idea has passed beyond a special +class and pervaded the world generally—the idea +of everyone being a life-long student and of the +whole world becoming, as it were, a university for +those who have passed beyond the schooling stage.</p> + +<p>It has spread recently because in recent years +the world has changed so rapidly that the idea of +settling down for life has passed out of our minds, +has given place to a new realization of the need +of continuous adaptation to the very end of our +days. It is no good settling down in a world that, +on its part, refuses to do anything of the sort.</p> + +<p>But hitherto, before these new ideas began to +spread in our community, the mass of men and +women definitely <i>settled down</i>. At twelve, or +fifteen, or sixteen, or twenty it was decided that +they should stop learning. It has only been a +rare and exceptional class hitherto that has gone +on learning throughout life. The scene and field of +that learning hitherto has been, in our Western +communities, the University. Essentially the University +is and has been an organization of adult +learning as distinguished from preparatory and +adolescent learning.</p> + +<p>But between the phase of schooling and the +phase of adult learning there is an intermediate +stage.</p> + +<p>In Scotland and America that is distinguished +and thought of clearly as the <i>college stage</i>. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +in England, where we do not think so clearly, this +college stage is mixed up with and done partly at +school and partly in the University. It is not +marked off so definitely from the stage of general +preparation that precedes it or from the stage of +free intellectual enterprise that follows it.</p> + +<p>Now what should college give the young +citizen, male or female, upon the foundation of +schooling we have already sketched out? In +practice we find a good deal of technical study +comes into the college stage. The budding lawyer +begins to read law, the doctor starts his professional +studies, the future engineer becomes technical, and +the young merchant sets to work, or should do, to +study the great movements of commerce and +business method and organization.</p> + +<p>As the college stage of those who do not, as +a matter of fact, go to college, we have now in +every civilized country the evening continuation +school, the evening technical school and the works +school.</p> + +<p>But important as these things are from the +point of view of service, they are not the <i>soul</i>—not +the real meaning of the college stage.</p> + +<p>The soul of the college stage, the most +important value about it, is that in it is a sort of +preparatory pause and inspection of the whole +arena of life. It is the educational concomitant of +the stage of adolescence.</p> + +<p>The young man and the young woman begin +to think for themselves, and the college education<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +is essentially the supply of stimulus and material +for that process.</p> + +<p>It was in the college stage that most of us made +out our religion and made it real for ourselves. It +was then we really took hold of social and political +ideas, when we became alive to literature and art, +when we began the delightful and distressful enterprise +of finding ourselves.</p> + +<p>And I think most of us will agree when we look +back that the most real thing in our college life was +not the lecturing and the lessons—very much of +that stuff could very well have been done in the +schooling stage—but the arguments of the debating +society, the discussions that broke out in the classroom +or laboratory, the talks in one's rooms about +God and religion, about the state and freedom, +about art, about every possible and impossible +social relationship.</p> + +<p>Now in addition to that I had something else +in my own college course—something of the same +sort of thing but better.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of myself as under-educated. +My schooling was shocking but, as a blessed compensation, +my college stage was rather exceptionally +good. My schooling ended when I was thirteen. +My father, who was a professional cricketer, +was smashed up by an accident, and I had three +horrible years in employment in shops. Then my +luck changed and I found myself under one of the +very greatest teachers of his time, Professor +Huxley. I worked at the Royal College of Science<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +in London for one year under him in his great +course in zoology, and for a year and a half under +a very good but rather uninspiring teacher, Professor +Judd, the geologist. I did also physics and +astronomy. Altogether I had three full years of +science study. And the teaching of biology at +that time, as Huxley had planned it, was a continuing, +systematic, illuminating study of life, of +the forms and appearances of life, of the way of +life, of the interplay of life, of the past of life and +the present prospect of life. It was a tremendous +training in the sifting of evidence and the examination +of appearances.</p> + +<p>Every man is likely to be biassed, I suppose, in +favour of his own educational course. Yet it seems +to me that those three years of work were educational—that +they gave a vision of the universe as a +whole and a discipline and a power such as no other +course, no classical or mathematical course I have +ever had a chance of testing, could do.</p> + +<p>I am so far a believer in a biological backbone +for the college phase of education that I have +secured it for my sons and I have done all I can +to extend it in England. Nevertheless, important +as that formal college work was to me, it still seems +to me that the informal part of our college life—the +talk, the debates, the discussion, the scampering +about London to attend great political +meetings, to hear William Morris on Socialism, +Auberon Herbert on Individualism, Gladstone on +Home Rule, or Bradlaugh on Atheism—for those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +were the lights of my remote student days—was +about equally important.</p> + +<p>If schooling is a training in expression and communication, +college is essentially the establishment +of broad convictions. And in order that they may +be established firmly and clearly, it is necessary +that the developing young man or woman should +hear all possible views and see the medal of truth +not only from the obverse but from the reverse +side.</p> + +<p>Now here again I want to put the same sort of +questions I have put about schooling.</p> + +<p>Is the college stage of our present educational +system anywhere near its maximum possible +efficiency? And could it not be extended from its +present limited range until it reached practically +the whole adolescent community?</p> + +<p>Let me deal with the first of these questions +first.</p> + +<p>Could we not do much more than we do to make +the broad issues of various current questions plain +and accessible to our students in the college stage?</p> + +<p>For example, there is a vast discussion afoot +upon the questions that centre upon Property, its +rights and its limitations. There is a great +literature of Collectivist Socialism and Guild +Socialism and Communism. About these things +our young people must know. They are very +urgent questions; our sons and daughters will have +to begin to deal with them from the moment they +leave college. Upon them they must form working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +opinions, and they must know not only what they +themselves believe but, if our public affairs are not +to degenerate into the squalid, obstinate, hopeless +conflicts of prejudiced adherents, they must know +also what is believed by other people whose convictions +are different from theirs.</p> + +<p>You may want to hush these matters up. Many +elderly people do. You will fail.</p> + +<p>All our intelligent students will insist upon +learning what they can of these discussions and +forming opinions for themselves. And if the +college will not give them the representative +books, a fair statement of the facts and views, and +some guidance through the maze of these questions, +it means merely that they will get a few books in +a defiant or underhand way and form one-sided and +impassioned opinions.</p> + +<p>Another great set of questions upon which the +adolescent want to judge for themselves, and ought +to judge for themselves, are the religious questions.</p> + +<p>And a third group are those that determine the +principles of sexual conduct.</p> + +<p>I know that in all these matters, on both sides +of the Atlantic, a great battle rages between +dogma and concealment on the one hand and open +ventilation on the other.</p> + +<p>Upon the issue I have no doubt. I find it hard +even to imagine the case for the former side.</p> + +<p>So long as <i>schooling</i> goes on, the youngster is +immature, needs to be protected, is not called +upon for judgments and initiatives, and may well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +be kept under mental limitations. I do not care +very much how you censor or select the reading +and talking and thinking of the schoolboy or schoolgirl. +But it seems to me that with adolescence +comes the right to knowledge and the right of +judgment. And that it is the <i>task and duty</i> of the +college to give matters of opinion in the solid—to +let the student walk round and see them from +every side.</p> + +<p>Now how is this to be done?</p> + +<p>I suggest that to begin with we open wide our +colleges to propaganda of every sort. There is still +a general tendency in universities on both sides of +the Atlantic to treat propaganda as infection. For +the adolescent it is not—it is a stimulating drug.</p> + +<p>Let me instance my own case. I am a man +of Protestant origins and with a Protestant habit +of mind. But it is a matter of great regret to me +that there is no good Roman Catholic propaganda +available for my sons in their college life. I would +like to have the old Mother Church giving my boys +an account of herself and of the part she has played +in the history of the world, telling them what she +stands for and claims to be, giving her own account +of the Mass. These things are interwoven with our +past; they are part of us. I do not like them to go +into a church and stare like foreigners and strangers +at the altar.</p> + +<p>And side by side with that Catholic propaganda +I would like them to hear an interpretation of +religious origins and church history by some non<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>-catholic +or sceptical ethnologist. He, too, should +be free to tell his story and drive his conclusions +home.</p> + +<p>But you will find most colleges and most college +societies bar religious instruction and discussion. +What do they think they are training? Some sort +of genteel recluse—or men and women?</p> + +<p>So, too, with the discussion of Bolshevism. I +do not know how things are in America but in +England there has been a ridiculous attempt to +suppress Bolshevik propaganda. I have seen a lot +of Bolshevik propaganda and it is not very convincing +stuff. But by suppressing it, by police +seizures of books and papers and the like, it has +been invested with a quality of romantic mystery +and enormous significance. Our boys and girls, +especially the brighter and more imaginative, +naturally enough think it must be tremendous +stuff to agitate the authorities in this fashion.</p> + +<p>At our universities, moreover, the more loutish +types of student have been incited to attack and +smash up the youths suspected of such reading. +This gives it the glamour of high intellectual +quality.</p> + +<p>The result is that every youngster in the British +colleges with a spark of mental enterprise and self-respect +is anxious to be convinced of Bolshevik +doctrine. He believes in Lenin—because he has +been prevented from reading him. Sober collectivists +like myself haven't a chance with him.</p> + +<p>But you see my conception of the college<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +course? Its backbone should be the study of +biology and its substance should be the threshing +out of the burning questions of our day.</p> + +<p>You may object to this that I am proposing +the final rejection of that discipline in classical +philosophy which is still claimed as the highest +form of college education in the world——the sort of +course that the men take in what is called <i>Greats</i> at +Oxford. You will accuse me of wanting to bury +and forget Aristotle and Plato, Heraclitus and +Lucretius, and so forth and so on.</p> + +<p>But I don't want to do that—<i>so far as their +thought is still alive</i>. So far as their thought is +still alive these men will come into the discussion +of living questions now. If they are Ancients and +dead then let them be buried and left to the +archæological excavator. If they are still Moderns +and alive, I defy you to bury them if you are discussing +living questions in a full and honest way. +But don't go hunting after them, <a name="erratum" id="erratum"></a>there are still +modern Immortals in the darkness of a forgotten +language. Don't make a superstition of them. +Let them come hunting after you. Either they +are unavoidable if your living questions are fully +discussed, or they are irrelevant and they do not +matter. That there is a wisdom and beauty +in the classics which is incommunicable in any +modern language, which obviously neither ennobles +nor empowers, but which is nevertheless supremely +precious, is a kind of nonsense dear to the second-rate +classical don, but it has nothing endearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +about it for any other human beings. I will not +bother you further with that sort of affectation +here.</p> + +<p>And this college course I have sketched should, +in the modern state, pass insensibly into adult +mental activities.</p> + +<p>Concurrently with it there will be going on, as +I have said, a man's special technical training. He +will be preparing himself for a life of industrialism, +commerce, engineering, agriculture, medicine, administration, +education or what not. And as with +the man, so with the woman. That, too, is a +process which in this changing new world of ours +can never be completed. Neither of these college +activities will ever really leave off. All through his +life a man or woman should be confirming, fixing +or modifying his or her general opinions; and all +the time his or her technical knowledge and power +should be consciously increased.</p> + +<p>And now let me come to the second problem we +opened up in connection with college education—the +problem of its extension.</p> + +<p>Can we extend it over most or all of a modern +population?</p> + +<p>I don't think we can, if we are to see it in terms +of college buildings, class rooms, tutors, professors +and the like. Here again, just as in the case of +schooling, we have to raise the neglected problem—neglected +so far as education goes—of economy +of effort; and we have to look once more at the +new facilities that our educational institutions have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +so far refused to utilize. Our European colleges +and universities have a long and honourable tradition +that again owes much to the educational +methods of the Roman Empire and the Hellenic +world. This tradition was already highly developed +before the days of printing from movable +type, and long before the days when maps or illustrations +were printed. The higher education, +therefore, was still, as it was in the Stone Age, +largely vocal. And the absence of paper and so +forth, rendering notebooks costly and rare, made +a large amount of memorizing necessary. For that +reason the mediæval university teacher was always +dividing his subject into firstly and secondly and +fourthly and sixthly and so on, so that the student +could afterwards tick off and reproduce the points +on his fingers—a sort of thumb and finger method +of thought—still to be found in perfection in the +discourses of that eminent Catholic apologist, Mr. +Hilaire Belloc. It is a method that destroys all +sense of proportion between the headings; main +considerations and secondary and tertiary points get +all catalogued off as equivalent numbers, but it was +a mnemonic necessity of those vanished days.</p> + +<p>And they have by no means completely +vanished. We still use the lecture as the normal +basis of instruction in our colleges, we still hear +discourses in the firstly, secondly and thirdly form, +and we still prefer even a second-rate professor on +the spot to the printed word of the ablest teacher +at a distance. Most of us who have been through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +college courses can recall the distress of hearing a +dull and inadequate view of a subject being laboriously +unfolded in a long series of tedious lectures, in +spite of the existence of full and competent text-books. +And here again it would seem that the +time has come to centralize our best teaching, to +create a new sort of wide teaching professor who +will teach not in one college but in many, and to +direct the local professor to the more suitable task +of ensuring by a commentary, by organized critical +work, and so forth, that the text-book is duly read, +discussed and compared with the kindred books in +the college library.</p> + +<p>This means that the great teaching professors +will not lecture, or that they will lecture only to +try over their treatment of a subject before an +intelligent audience as a prelude to publication. +They may perhaps visit the colleges under their +influence, but their basis instrument of instruction +will be not a course of lectures but a book. They +will carry out the dictum of Carlyle that the +modern university is a university of books.</p> + +<p>Now the frank recognition of the book and not +the lecture as the substantial basis of instruction +opens up a large and interesting range of possibilities. +It releases the process of learning from its +old servitude to place and to time. It is no longer +necessary for the student to go to a particular room, +at a particular hour, to hear the golden words drop +from the lips of a particular teacher. The young +man who reads at eleven o'clock in the morning in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +luxurious rooms in Trinity College, Cambridge, +will have no very marked advantage over another +young man, employed during the day, who reads +at eleven o'clock at night in a bed-sitting-room in +Glasgow. The former, you will say, may get +commentary and discussion, but there is no particular +reason why the latter should not form some +sort of reading society with his fellows, and discuss +the question with them in the dinner hour and on +the way to the works. Nor is there any reason +why he should not get tutorial help as a university +extension from the general educational organization, +as good in quality as any other tutorial help.</p> + +<p>And this release of the essentials of a college +education from limitations of locality and time +brought about by modern conditions, not only +makes it unnecessary for a man to come "up" to +college to be educated, but abolishes the idea that +his educational effort comes to an end when he goes +"down." Attendance at college no longer justifies +a claim to education; inability to enter a college is +no longer an excuse for illiteracy.</p> + +<p>I do not think that our educational and university +authorities realize how far the college stage +of education has already escaped from the local +limitations of colleges; they do not understand +what a great and growing volume of adolescent +learning and thought, of college education in the +highest and best sense of the word, goes on outside +the walls of colleges altogether; and on the other +they do not grasp the significant fact that, thanks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +to the high organization of sports and amusements +and social life in our more prosperous universities, +a great proportion of the youngsters who come in +to their colleges never get the realities of a college +education at all, and go out into the world again as +shallow and uneducated as they came in. And this +failure to grasp the great change in educational +conditions brought about, for the most part, in the +last half-century, accounts for the fact that when +we think of any extension of higher education in +the modern community we are all too apt to think +of it as a great proliferation of expensive, pretentious +college buildings and a great multiplication +of little teaching professorships, and a further +segregation of so many hundreds or thousands of +our adolescents from the general community, when +as a matter of fact the reality of education has +ceased to lie in that direction at all. The modern +task is not to multiply teachers <i>but to exalt and +intensify exceptionally good teachers</i>, to recognize +their close relationship with the work of university +research—which it is their business to digest and +interpret—and to secure the production and wide +distribution of books throughout the community.</p> + +<p>I am inclined to think that the type of +adolescent education, very much segregated in out-of-the-way +colleges and aristocratic in spirit, such +as goes on now at Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, +Holloway, Wellesley and the like, has probably +reached and passed its maximum development. I +doubt if the modern community can afford to con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>tinue +it; it certainly cannot afford to extend it very +widely.</p> + +<p>But as I have pointed out, there has always +been a second strand to college education—the +technical side, the professional training or apprenticeship. +Here there are sound reasons that the +student should go to a particular place, to the +special museums and laboratories, to the institutes +of research, to the hospitals, factories, works, ports, +industrial centres and the like where the realities he +studies are to be found, or to the studios or workshops +or theatres where they practise the art to +which he aspires. Here it seems we have natural +centres of aggregation in relation to which the college +stage of a civilized community, the general +adolescent education, the vision of the world as a +whole and the realization of the individual place in +it, can be organized most conveniently.</p> + +<p>You see that what I am suggesting here is in +effect that we should take our colleges, so far as +they are segregations of young people for general +adolescent education, and break them as a cook +breaks eggs—and stir them up again into the +general intellectual life of the community.</p> + +<p>Coupled with that there should, of course, be a +proposal to restrict the hours of industrial work or +specialized technical study up to the age of twenty, +at least, in order to leave time for this college stage +in the general education of every citizen of the +world.</p> + +<p>The idea has already been broached that men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +and women in the modern community are no longer +inclined to consider themselves as ever completely +adult and finished; there is a growing disposition +and a growing necessity to keep on learning +throughout life. In the worlds of research, of +literature and art and economic enterprise, that +adult learning takes highly specialized forms which +I will not discuss now; but in the general modern +community the process of continuing education +after the college stage is still evidently only at a +primitive level of development. There are a certain +number of literary societies and societies for +the study of particular subjects; the pulpit still +performs an educational function; there are public +lectures and in America there are the hopeful germs +of what may become later on a very considerable +organization of adult study in the Lyceum +Chautauqua system; but for the generality of +people the daily newspaper, the Sunday newspaper, +the magazine and the book constitute the only +methods of mental revision and enlargement after +the school or college stage is past.</p> + +<p>Now we have to remember that the bulk of this +great organization of newspapers and periodicals +and all the wide distribution of books that goes on +to-day are extremely recent things. This new +nexus of print has grown up in the lifetime of four +or five generations, and it is undergoing constant +changes. We are apt to forget its extreme newness +in history and to disregard the profound +difference in mental conditions it makes between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +our own times and any former period. It is impossible +to believe that thus far it is anything but +a sketch and intimation of what it will presently +be. It has grown. No man foresaw it; no one +planned it. We of this generation have grown up +with it and are in the habit of behaving as though +this nexus had always been with us and as though +it would certainly remain with us. The latter +conclusion is almost wilder than the former.</p> + +<p>By what we can only consider a series of fortunate +accidents, the press and the book world have +provided and do provide a necessary organ in the +modern world state, an organ for swift general +information upon matters of fact and for the rapid +promulgation and diffusion of ideas and interpretations. +The newspaper grew, as we know, out of +the news-letter which in a manuscript form existed +before the Roman Empire; it owes its later +developments largely to the advertisement possibilities +that came with the expansion of the range +of trading as the railways and suchlike means of +communication developed. Modern newspapers +have been described, not altogether inaptly, as +sheets of advertisements with news and discussions +printed on the back. The extension of book reading +from a small class, chiefly of men, to the whole +community has also been largely a response to new +facilities; though it owes something also to the +religious disputes of the last three centuries. The +population of Europe, one may say with a certain +truth, first learnt to read the Bible, and only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +afterwards to read books in general. A large proportion +of the book publishing in the English +language in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries +still consisted of sermons and controversial +theological works.</p> + +<p>Both newspaper and book production began in +a small way as the enterprise of free individuals, +without anyone realizing the dimensions to which +the thing would grow. Our modern press and +book trade, in spite of many efforts to centralize +and control it, in spite of Defence of the Realm +Acts and the like, is still the production of an +unorganized multitude of persons. It is not centralized; +it is not controlled. To this fact the +nexus of print owes what is still its most valuable +quality. Thoughts and ideas of the most varied +and conflicting sort arise and are developed and +worked out and fought out in this nexus, just as +they do in a freely thinking vigorous mind.</p> + +<p>I am not, you will note, saying that this freedom +is perfect or that the thought process of the +print nexus could not go very much better than it +does, but I am saying that it has a very considerable +freedom and vigour and that so far as it has these +qualities it is a very fine thing indeed.</p> + +<p>Now many people think that we are moving in +the direction of world socialism to-day. Collectivism +is perhaps a better, more definite word than +socialism, and, so far as keeping the peace goes, +and in matters of transport and communication, +trade, currency, elementary education, the pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>duction +and distribution of staples and the +conservation of the natural resources of the world +go, I believe that the world and the common sense +of mankind move steadily towards a world collectivism. +But the more co-operation we have in +our common interests, the more necessary is it to +guard very jealously the freedom of the mind, that +is to say, the liberty of discussion and suggestion.</p> + +<p>It is here that the Communist regime in Russia +has encountered its most fatal difficulty. A +catastrophic unqualified abolition of private property +has necessarily resulted in all the paper, all +the printing machinery, all the libraries, all the +news-stalls and book shops, becoming Government +property. It is impossible to print anything +without the consent of the Government. One +cannot buy a book or newspaper; one must take +what the Government distributes. Free discussion—never +a very free thing in Russia—has now on +any general scale become quite impossible. It was +a difficulty foreseen long ago in Socialist discussions, +but never completely met by the thorough-paced +Communist. At one blow the active mental life +of Russia has been ended, and so long as Russia +remains completely and consistently communist it +cannot be resumed. It can only be resumed by +some surrender of paper, printing and book distribution +from absolute Government ownership to +free individual control. That can only be done by +an abandonment of the full rigours of communist +theory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>In our western communities the dangers to the +intellectual nexus lie rather on the other side. The +war period produced considerable efforts at Government +control and as a consequence considerable +annoyance to writers, much concealment and some +interference with the expression of opinion; but on +the whole both newspapers and books held their +own. There is to-day probably as much freedom +of publishing as ever there was. It is not from +the western governments that mischief is likely to +come to free intellectual activity in the western +communities but from the undisciplined individual, +and from the incitements to mob violence by propagandist +religions and cults against free discussion.</p> + +<p>About the American press I know and can say +little. I will speak only of things with which I am +familiar. I am inclined to think that there has +been a considerable increase of deliberate lying in +the British press since 1914, and a marked loss of +journalistic self-respect. Particular interests have +secured control of large groups of papers and +pushed their particular schemes in entire disregard +of the general mental well-being. For instance, +there has recently been a remarkable boycott in +the London press of a very able collectivist book, +Sir Leo Money's <i>Triumph of Nationalization</i>, because +it would have interfered with the operation +of very large groups which were concerned in +getting back public property into private hands on +terms advantageous to the latter. It is a book not +only important as a statement of a peculiar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +economic view, but because of the statesmanlike +gravity and clearness of its exposition. I do not +think it would have been possible to stand between +the public and a writer in this way in the years +before 1914. A considerable proportion of the +industrial and commercial news is now written +to an end. The British press has also suffered +greatly from the outbreak of social and nationalist +rancour arising out of the great war, the inability +of the European mind to grasp the Bolshevik issue, +and the clumsy blunderings of the Versailles settlement. +Quite half the news from Eastern Europe +that appears in the London press is now deliberate +fabrication, and a considerable proportion of the +rest is rephrased and mutilated to give a misleading +impression to the reader.</p> + +<p>But people cannot be continuously deceived in +this way, and the consequence of this press demoralization +has been a great loss of influence for +the daily paper. A diminishing number of people +now believe the news as it is given them, and fewer +still take the unsigned portions of the newspaper as +written in good faith. And there has been a consequent +enhancement of the importance of signed +journalism. Men of manifest honesty, men with +names to keep clean, have built up reputations and +influence upon the ruins of editorial prestige. The +exploitation of newspapers by the adventurers of +"private enterprise" in business, has carried with +it this immense depreciation in the power and +honour of the newspaper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>I am inclined to think that this swamping of +a large part of the world's press by calculated +falsehood and partisan propaganda is a temporary +phase in the development of the print nexus: +nevertheless, it is a very great inconvenience and +danger to the world. It stands very much in +the way of that universal adult education which +is our present concern. Reality is horribly +distorted. Men cannot see the world clearly and +they cannot, therefore, begin to think about it +rightly.</p> + +<p>We need a much better and more trustworthy +press than we possess. We cannot get on to a +new and better world without it. The remedy is +to be found not, I believe, in any sort of Government +control, but in a legal campaign against the +one thing harmful—the lie. It would be in the +interests of most big advertisers, for most big +advertisement is honest; it would be, in the long +run, in the interests of the Press; and it would +mean an enormous step forward in the general +mental clarity of the world if a deliberate lie, +whether in an advertisement or in the news or other +columns of the press, was punishable—punishable +whether it did or did not involve anything that is +now an actionable damage. And it would still +further strengthen the print nexus and clear the +mind of the world if it were compulsory to correct +untrue statements in the periodical press, whether +they had been made in good faith or not, at least +as conspicuously and lengthily as the original state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>ment. +I can see no impossibility in the realization +of either of these proposals, and no objection that a +really honest newspaper proprietor or advertiser +could offer to them. It would make everyone careful, +of course, but I fail to see any grievance +in that. The sanitary effect upon the festering +disputes of our time would be incalculably great. +It would be like opening the windows upon a stuffy, +overcrowded and unventilated room of disputing +people.</p> + +<p>Given adequate laws to prevent the cornering +of paper or the partisan control of the means of +distribution of books and printed matter, I believe +that the present freedoms and the unhampered +individualism of the world of thought, discussion +and literary expression are and must remain conditions +essential to the proper growth and activity +of a common world mind. On the basis of that +sounder education I have sketched in a preceding +paper, there is possible such an extension of +understanding, such an increase of intelligent co-operations +and such a clarification of wills as to +dissolve away half the difficulties and conflicts of +the present time and to provide for the other half +such a power of solution as we, in the heats, +entanglements and limitations of our present ignorance, +doubt and misinformation can scarcely begin +to imagine.</p> + +<p>I do not know how far I have conveyed to you +in the last two papers my underlying idea of an +education not merely intensive but extensive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +planned so economically and so ably as to reach +every man and woman in the world.</p> + +<p>It is a dream not of <i>individuals educated</i>—we +have thought too much of the individual educated +<i>for</i> the individual—but of a <i>world educated</i> to a +pitch of understanding and co-operation far beyond +anything we know of to-day, for the sake of all +mankind.</p> + +<p>I have tried to show that, given organization, +given the will for it, such a world-wide education is +possible.</p> + +<p>I wish I had the gift of eloquence so that I +could touch your wills in this matter. I do not +know how this world of to-day strikes upon you. +I am not ungrateful for the gift of life. While +there is life and a human mind, it seems to me there +must always be excitements and beauty, even if +the excitements are fierce and the beauty terrible +and tragic. Nevertheless, this world of mankind +to-day seems to me to be a very sinister and dreadful +world. It has come to this—that I open my +newspaper every morning with a sinking heart, and +usually I find little to console me. Every day there +is a new tale of silly bloodshed. Every day I read +of anger and hate, oppression and misery and want—stupid +anger and oppression, needless misery and +want—the insults and suspicions of ignorant men, +and the inane and horrible self-satisfaction of the +well-to-do. It is a vile world because it is an under-educated +world, unreasonable, suspicious, base and +ferocious. The air of our lives is a close and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +wrathful air; it has the closeness of a prison—the +indescribable offence of crowded and restricted +humanity.</p> + +<p>And yet I know that there is a way out.</p> + +<p>Up certain steps there is a door to this dark +prison of ignorance, prejudice and passion in which +we live—and that door is only locked on the inside. +It is within our power, given the will for it, given +the courage for it—it is within our power to go out. +The key to all our human disorder is organized +education, comprehensive and universal. The +watchword of conduct that will clear up all our +difficulties is, the <i>plain truth</i>. Rely upon that +watchword, use that key with courage and we can +go out of the prison in which we live; we can go +right out of the conditions of war, shortage, angry +scrambling, mutual thwarting and malaise and +disease in which we live; we and our kind can go +out into sunlight, into a sweet air of understanding, +into confident freedoms and a full creative life—for +ever.</p> + +<p>I do not know—I do not dare to believe—that +I shall live to hear that key grating in the lock. +It may be our children and our children's children +will still be living in this jail. But a day will surely +come when that door will open wide and all our +race will pass out from this magic prison of +ignorance, suspicion and indiscipline in which we +now all suffer together.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h4>THE ENVOY</h4> + + +<p>In the preceding papers I have, with some repetition +and much stumbling, set out a fairly complete +theory of what men and women have to do at the +present time if human life is to go on hopefully to +any great happiness and achievement in the days +to come. Much of this material was first prepared +to be delivered to a lecture audience, and I regret +that ill-health has prevented a complete re-writing +of these portions. There is more of the uplifted +forefinger and the reiterated point than I should +have allowed myself in an essay. But this is a loss +of grace rather than of clearness. And since I am +stating a case and not offering the reader anything +professing to be a literary work, I shall not +apologise for finally summing up and underlining +the chief points of this book.</p> + +<p>They are, firstly: that a great change in human +conditions has been brought about during the past +century, and secondly that a vast task of adaptation, +which must be, initially and fundamentally, +<i>mental</i> adaptation, has to be undertaken by our +race. It is a task which politicians, who live from +day to day, and statesmen, who live from event to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +event, may hinder or aid very greatly, but which +they cannot be expected to conduct or control. +Politicians and statesmen perforce live and work in +the scheme of ideas they find about them; the +conditions of their activities are made for them. +They can be compelled by the weight of public +opinion to help it, but the driving force for this +great task must come not from official sources but +from the steadfast educational pressure of a great +and growing multitude of convinced people. In +times of fluctuation and dissolving landmarks, the +importance of the teacher—using the word in its +widest sense—rises with the progressive dissolution +of the established order.</p> + +<p>The creative responsibility for the world to-day +passes steadily into the hands of writers and school +teachers, students of social and economic science, +professors and poets, editors and journalists, publishers +and newspaper proprietors, preachers, every +sort of propagandist and every sort of disinterested +person who can give time and energy to the reconstruction +of the social idea. Human life will +continue to be more and more dangerously chaotic +until a world social idea crystallizes out. That—and +no existing institution and no current issue—is +the primary concern of the present age.</p> + +<p>We need, therefore, before all other sorts of +organization, educational organizations; we need, +before any other sort of work, work of education +and enlightenment; we need everywhere active +societies pressing for a better, more efficient con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>duct +of public schooling, for a wider, more +enlightening school curriculum, for a world-wide +linking-up of educational systems, for a ruthless +subordination of naval, military and court expenditure +to educational needs, and for a systematic +discouragement of mischief-making between nation +and nation and race and race and class and class. I +could wish to see Educational Societies, organized +as such, springing up everywhere, watching local +bodies in order to divert economies from the +educational starvation of a district to other less +harmful saving; watching for obscurantism and +reaction and mischievous nationalist teaching in the +local schools and colleges and in the local press; +watching members of parliament and congressmen +for evidences of educational good-will or malignity; +watching and getting control of the administration +of public libraries; assisting, when necessary, in the +supply of sound literature in their districts; raising +funds for invigorating educational propaganda in +poor countries like China and in atrociously +educated countries like Ireland, and corresponding +with kindred societies throughout the world. I +believe such societies would speedily become much +more influential than the ordinary political party +clubs and associations that now use up so much +human energy in the western communities. Subordinating +all vulgar political considerations to +educational development as the supreme need in +the world's affairs, even quite small societies could +exercise a powerful decisive voice in a great number<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +of political contests. And an educational movement +is more tenacious than any other sort of social +or political movement whatever. It trains its +adherents. What it wins it holds.</p> + +<p>I know that in thus putting all the importance +upon educational needs at the present time I shall +seem to many readers to be ignoring quite excessively +the profound racial, social and economic +conflicts that are in progress. I do. I believe we +shall never get on with human affairs until we do +ignore them. I offer no suggestion whatever as to +what sides people should take in such an issue as +that between France and Germany or between +Sinn Fein and the British Government, or in the +class war. I offer no such suggestion because I +believe that all these conflicts and all such current +conflicts are so irrational and destructive that it is +impossible for a sane man who wishes to serve the +world to identify himself with either side in any of +them. These conflicts are mere aspects of the +gross and passionate stupidity and ignorance and +sectionalism of our present world. The class war, +the push for and the resistance to some vague reorganization +called the Social Revolution—such +things are the natural inevitable result of the sordid +moral and intellectual muddle of our common ideas +about property. The capitalist, the employer, the +property-owning class, as a class, have neither the +intelligence nor the conscience to comprehend any +moral limitations, any limitations whatever but the +strong arm of the law, upon what they do with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +their property. Their black and obstinate ignorance, +the clumsy adventurousness they call private enterprise, +their unconscious insolence to poor people, +their stupidly conspicuous self-indulgence, produce +as a necessary result the black hatred of the employed +and the expropriated. On one side we have +greed, insensibility and incapacity, on the other +envy and suffering stung to vindictive revolt: on +neither side light nor generosity nor creative will. +Neither side has any power to give us any reality +we need. Neither side is more than a hate and an +aggression. How can one take sides between +them?</p> + +<p>The present system, <i>unless it can develop a +better intelligence and a better heart</i>, is manifestly +destined to foster fresh wars and to continue wasting +what is left of the substance of mankind, until +absolute social disaster overtakes us all. And +manifestly the revolutionary communist, <i>at his +present level of education</i>, has neither the plans +nor the capacity to substitute any more efficient +system for this crazy edifice of ill-disciplined private +enterprise that is now blundering to destruction. +But at a higher level of intelligence, at a level at +which it is possible to define the limitations of +private property clearly and to ensure a really loyal +and effectual co-operation between individual and +state, this issue—this wholly destructive conflict +between the property manipulator and the communist +fanatic which is now rapidly wrecking our +world—disappears. It disappears as completely as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +the causes of a murderous conflict between two +drunken men will disappear when they are +separated and put under a stream of clear cold +water.</p> + +<p>So it is that, in spite of their apparent urgency, +I ask the reader to detach himself from these +present conflicts of national politics, of political +parties and of the class war as completely as he +can; or, if he cannot detach himself completely, +then to play such a part in them, regardless of any +other consideration, as may be most conducive to +a wide-thinking, wide-ranging education upon +which we can base a new world order. A resolute +push for quite a short period now might reconstruct +the entire basis of our collective human +life.</p> + +<p>In this book I have tried to show what form +that push should take, to show that it has a reasonable +hope of an ultimate success, and that unless +it is made, the outlook for mankind is likely to +become an entirely dismal prospect. I put these +theses before the reader for his consideration. +They are not discursive criticisms of life, not +haphazard grumblings at our present discontents, +they are offered as the fundamental propositions +of an ordered constructive project in which he can +easily find a part to play commensurate with his +ability and opportunities.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> First published in the <i>Review of Reviews</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Written originally as a lecture to be delivered in America.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +Adult learning, spread of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br /> +<br /> +Aircraft as a means of quick travel, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in future wars, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Air transport a problem for Europe, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">possibilities of future, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"All-red air routes," <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +America and the League of Nations, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">generalized history teaching in, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her part in European reconstruction, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">locomotion in, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political unity of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>see also</i> United States)</span><br /> +<br /> +American social system, comparisons, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Americans, patriotism of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br /> +<br /> +Anthology and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +Apocrypha, the, and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_119">119</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Arithmetic, a wrong way of teaching, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +<br /> +Austria after the war, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Belloc, Hilaire, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Bible, the, a criticism of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the theory of origin, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English translation of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its effect upon civilization, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">redundancy in, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rules of health in, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why it has lost hold on the people, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Bible of Civilization, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">need for frequent revision, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">what it will contain, <a href="#Page_105">105</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Biology, Huxley's system of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">study of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Bolshevik propaganda, suppression of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +<br /> +Bolshevism and the overthrow of Russia, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Books and mentality, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br /> +<br /> +Boundary question in Europe, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br /> +<br /> +Bradlaugh, Charles, lectures of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Breasted, Professor, works of, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Breeding, points required in, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +<br /> +Britain, national egotism of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +British Civil Air Transport Committee, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +British Empire, the, a prime necessity for security of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a wrong conception of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an ocean state, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its failure with reconstruction, <a href="#Page_28">28-9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +British monarchy, the, lost opportunities of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +Browning, Oscar, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Canonical books and the Bible of Civilization, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br /> +<br /> +Chinese discovery of gunpowder, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Christianity, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spread of, in Western Europe, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cinematograph, the, as an aid to teaching, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Civilization, adjustment of political ideas necessary for, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of the Bible on, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">impotence of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bible of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the war and, <a href="#Page_43">43</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +College stage of education, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changed conditions of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how it could be improved, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">problem of its extension, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Comenius, political and educational ideas of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +<br /> +Committees, good work by, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Communism and property, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Communists, Russian, and the Press, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +Connecticut, State of, the Bible as its only law, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Conscience the basis of moral life, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br /> +<br /> +Contemporary problems, complexity of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span><br /> +Cosmogony of the Bible, the, <a href="#Page_103">103-4</a><br /> +<br /> +Customs, the, and European travel, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Denmark, present-day conditions in, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +Disarmament, ineffectual movements for, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Discovery, the age of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Education a fundamental difficulty, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief end of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">degradation of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the world state, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">necessary basis of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">neglect of language teaching, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">past and present, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">primary obstacle to, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">progressive character of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reorganization of, needed, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Educational organization, a review of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">need of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br /> +<br /> +England before and after the war, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +Epics and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +Eugenic literature, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +Europe, and the League of Nations, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">boundary question of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the seventeenth century, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">problem of air transport, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">propaganda of patriotism in, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of political disunion, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slow economic recovery of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<br /> +European travel, preparations needed for, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Evening continuation and technical schools, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br /> +<br /> +Exchange, fluctuating nature of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Federal World State, an approaching reality, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Forecasts, a Book of, and the modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br /> +<br /> +Foresight, need of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +France, national egotism of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">post-war decadence in, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Frontiers and the possibility of war, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Geography, improved method of teaching, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Germany, ebb in civilization in, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intensive nationalist education in, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, Mr., a speech by, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Gramophones as aids to school teaching, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br /> +<br /> +Gunpowder, discovery of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hamsun's <i>Growth of the Soil</i>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Health and the citizen, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Hebrew Bible, the, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +Henley, a poem by, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br /> +<br /> +Herbert, Auberon, lectures by, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Higher education, a false conception of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Historical books, value of illustrations and maps in, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +History, and national egotism, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cardinal experiences in, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<i>History of the Ancient World</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +History teaching in schools, unsatisfactory nature of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Holland, post-war condition of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +Human brotherhood, gospel of, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Human disorder, the key to, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Human outlook, the, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br /> +<br /> +Human society, ancient and modern, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">needs reconstruction, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Human unity and a world state, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Hungary, post-war desolation in, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Huxley, Professor, author's tribute to, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his system of teaching geography, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Illustrations, need of, in books, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +Independent nationality, need for, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Individualists and property, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Industrialism, modern, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Intellectuals, their estimate of man, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +International mind, an, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +International problem of to-day, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +Ireland, after-effects of war in, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condition of (1640-1650), <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Islam, lasting unity of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spread of, in seventh century, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Italy, after the war, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forbids export of works of art, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Judd, Professor, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Kipling, Rudyard, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Komensky (<i>see</i> Comenius)<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Labour problems, the Bible and, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Labour trouble, and from what it springs, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +<br /> +Language teaching, a necessary part of education, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggested use of gramophones for, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">twofold object of, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +League of Nations, the, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the boundary question, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">educational value of its propaganda, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ineffectiveness of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President Wilson and, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lectures as basis of instruction, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Lenin and Russia, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Locomotion and methods of communication, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Machinery, in a world state, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br /> +<br /> +Magna Carta, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Man, his plain duty, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">social nature of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mankind, influence of surroundings on, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probable future of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Mathematics, teaching of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Mediæval and Modern History</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Mediæval and Modern Times</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Mental life, schooling and the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +<br /> +Mesopotamia, irrigation system of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Military class, mischief of a, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +Milton's defence of free speech, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +Missouri, establishment of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br /> +<br /> +Money, Sir Leo, his <i>Triumph of Nationalization</i>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +<br /> +Morris, William, lectures by, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +National independence, meaning of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br /> +<br /> +Newspapers, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evolution of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journalistic demoralization, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Novels, and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ocean transport, importance of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Organized education, the key to human disorder, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Organized solidarity and modern communities, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Original Sin, the factor of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Outline of History</i>, Wells's, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Passports, delays attendant on, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Patriotism, a unity-destroying propaganda of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">aggressive, dangers of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">American, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">true and false conceptions of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Peace Ministry, functions of a, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Philosophical works and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Physiography, Huxley and, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Physiology, value of study of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Pilgrim Fathers, the, and the Bible, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +Plays and a modernized Bible, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<br /> +Political reconstruction, accompaniments of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br /> +<br /> +Politicians, their need of foresight, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Politics in a world state, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +Prayer Book, the, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Press, the, demoralization of, <a href="#Page_187">187-8</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">freedom of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Government control of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Printing and the community, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +<br /> +Progress, arrest of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br /> +<br /> +Property, class war and, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">labour trouble and, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">problems of, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rights and duties of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Puritanism in the seventeenth century, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Quakers, the, foundation of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Radiogram, the, and its results, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Railways, American, <a href="#Page_49">49</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span><br /> +Readjustment of political ideas, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Religion and the political and social outlook, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">universalist in theory, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Religious instruction and discussion barred by colleges, <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +<br /> +Revolutions and how produced, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br /> +<br /> +Robinson, Professor, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Roman Empire, the, rise and fall of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +<br /> +Russia, Bolshevism in, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Press in, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vexatious delays in a journey to, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +St. Petersburg before and after the war, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Schoolhouse, an ordinary, and an ideal, <a href="#Page_158">158-9</a><br /> +<br /> +Schooling of the world, the, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and what should be taught, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why so often a failure, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Schools and the development of education, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of a world state, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Science teaching under difficulties and a suggested remedy, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Scotland after the war, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +Sea power and the submarine, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Semaphores, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +Sexual morality, need for, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br /> +<br /> +Shakespear and the Bible of Civilization, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +<br /> +Social nature of man, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br /> +<br /> +Sovereign states, incoherent nature of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br /> +<br /> +Steamboats, American, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Stopes, Dr. Marie, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +<br /> +Submarine, the, and sea power, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Sweden, before and after the war, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Teachers, lack of, and the reason, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +<br /> +Teaching and the future of mankind, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br /> +<br /> +Teaching power and how it might be economized, <a href="#Page_156">156</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Technical study, specialized, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +<br /> +Telegraphy, development of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +Thirty Years War, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +<br /> +Tolstoi's <i>War and Peace</i>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Trade problems, the Bible and, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Transport and the international problem, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +Travel, inconveniences of European, <a href="#Page_55">55</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +United States, the government of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">growth of, <a href="#Page_49">49-50</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political system of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>see also</i> America)</span><br /> +<br /> +University, the, and adult learning, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Vienna threatened by the Turk, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Wales, Prince of, world tour of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br /> +<br /> +War, a ruling and constructive idea, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolition of, and what it means, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frequent recurrence of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military science in, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Washington, George, and his successors, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<br /> +Webster, Dr. Hutton, historical summaries of, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Wells, H. G., as educationist, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">college life of, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Outline of History</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideals of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">serves on British Civil Air Transport Committee, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views on teaching of history, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wilson, President, and the League of Nations, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br /> +<br /> +World control, and what it means, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br /> +<br /> +World History, a suggested, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +World peace, American and European view of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br /> +<br /> +World state, the, cult of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enlargement of patriotism to, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fundamental ideas of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">government of, <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">life in, <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meaning of, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">project of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Council and its functions, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></span><br /> +<br /> +World, the, as a university, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br /> +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.<sub>4</sub></span></h4> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> +<h2>ERRATUM.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +<i><a href="#erratum">Page 176, line 20</a></i>,<br /> + ", there are still modern Immortals in the +darkness"<br /> +<i>should read</i>,<br /> + ", if they are still modern Immortals, in the +darkness"</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center">Mr. WELLS has also written the +following novels:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +LOVE AND MR. LEWISHAM<br /> +KIPPS<br /> +MR. POLLY<br /> +THE WHEELS OF CHANCE<br /> +THE NEW MACHIAVELLI<br /> +ANN VERONICA<br /> +TONO BUNGAY<br /> +MARRIAGE<br /> +BEALBY<br /> +THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS<br /> +THE WIFE OF SIR ISAAC HARMAN<br /> +THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT<br /> +MR. BRITLING SEES IT THROUGH<br /> +THE SOUL OF A BISHOP<br /> +JOAN AND PETER<br /> +THE UNDYING FIRE<br /> +</p></div> + +<p class="center">The following fantastic and imaginative +romances:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +THE WAR OF THE WORLDS<br /> +THE TIME MACHINE<br /> +THE WONDERFUL VISIT<br /> +THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU<br /> +THE SEA LADY<br /> +THE SLEEPER AWAKES<br /> +THE FOOD OF THE GODS<br /> +THE WAR IN THE AIR<br /> +THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON<br /> +IN THE DAYS OF THE COMET<br /> +THE WORLD SET FREE<br /> +</p></div> + +<p class="center">And numerous Short Stories now collected in +One Volume under the title of</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND<br /> +</p></div> + +<p class="center">A Series of books upon Social, Religious +and Political questions:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +ANTICIPATIONS (1900)<br /> +MANKIND IN THE MAKING<br /> +FIRST AND LAST THINGS<br /> +NEW WORLDS FOR OLD<br /> +A MODERN UTOPIA<br /> +THE FUTURE IN AMERICA<br /> +AN ENGLISHMAN LOOKS AT THE WORLD<br /> +WHAT IS COMING?<br /> +WAR AND THE FUTURE<br /> +IN THE FOURTH YEAR<br /> +GOD THE INVISIBLE KING<br /> +THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY<br /> +RUSSIA IN THE SHADOWS<br /> +</p></div> + +<p class="center">And two little books about children's +play, called:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +FLOOR GAMES and LITTLE WARS<br /> +</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Salvaging Of Civilisation, by +H. 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