,,the ,,salvaging ,,of ,,civilization   
,,the ,,salvaging                       
,,of ,,civilization                     
,,by                                ,h4 
,g4 ,,wells                             
,,cassell ,,and ,,company1 ,,limited    
,london1 ,new ,york1 ,toronto and       
,melbourne                              
#aiba     ,,contents                    
,,page      ,i4 ,,the ,,probable        
,,future ,,of ,,mankind                 
#a     ,,ii4 ,,the ,,project ,,of ,a    
,,world ,,state                         
#db    ,,iii4 ,,the ,,enlargement ,,of  
,,patriotism ,,to ,a ,,world ,,state    
#fh     ,,iv4 ,,the ,,bible ,,of        
,,civilization2 ,,part ,,one            
#ie      ,v4 ,,the ,,bible ,,of         
,,civilization2 ,,part ,,two            
#aah     ,,vi4 ,,the ,,schooling ,,of   
,,the ,,world                           
#aci    ,,vii4 ,,college1 ,,newspaper   
,,and ,,book                        #aff
   ,,viii4 ,,the ,,envoy                
#aic         ,,index                    

#aii     ,the ,salvaging of             
,civilization     ,i  ,,the ,,probable  
,,future ,,of ,,mankind,a      ,a ,first
 published in the ,review of ,reviews4  
,sec4 #a  ,the present outlook of human 
affairs is one that admits of broad     
generalizations and that seems to       
require broad generalizations4 ,we are  
in one of those phases of experience    
which become cardinal in history4 ,a    
series of immense and tragic events have
 shattered the self-complacency and     
challenged the will and intelligence of 
mankind4 ,that easy general forward     
movement of human affairs which for     
several generations had seemed to       
justify the persuasion of a necessary   
and invincible progress1 progress       
towards greater powers1 greater         
happiness1 and a continual enlargement  
of life1 has been checked violently and 
perhaps arrested altogether4 ,the       
spectacular catastrophe of the ,great   
,war has revealed an accumulation of    
destructive forces in our outwardly     

prosperous society1 of which few of us  
had dreamt2 and it has also revealed a  
profound incapacity to deal with and    
restrain these forces4 ,the two years of
 want1 confusion1 and indecision that   
have followed the ,great ,war in ,europe
 and ,asia1 and the uncertainties that  
have disturbed life even in the         
comparatively untouched ,american world1
 seem to many watchful minds even more  
ominous to our social order than the war
 itself4 ,what is happening to our race8
 they ask4 ,did the prosperities and    
confident hopes with which the twentieth
 century opened1 mark nothing more than 
a culmination of fortuitous good luck8  
,has the cycle of prosperity and        
progress closed8 ,to what will this     
staggering and blundering1 the hatreds  
and mischievous adventures of the       
present time1 bring us8 ,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 ,china8 ,and if  

so1 will the debacle extend to ,america8
 ,or is the ,american 7and ,pacific87   
system still sufficiently removed and   
still sufficiently autonomous to        
maintain a progressive movement of its  
own if the ,old ,world collapse8  ,some 
sort of answer to these questions1 vast 
and vague though they are1 we must each 
one of us have before we can take an    
intelligent interest or cast an         
effective vote in foreign affairs4 ,even
 though a man formulate no definite     
answer1 he must still have an implicit  
persuasion before he can act in these   
matters4 ,if he have no clear           
conclusions openly arrived at1 then he  
must act upon subconscious conclusions  
instinctively arrived at4 ,far better is
 it that he should bring them into the  
open light of thought4  ,the suppression
 of war is generally regarded as central
 to the complex of contemporary         
problems4 ,but war is not a new thing in
 human experience1 and for scores of    
centuries mankind has managed to get    

along in spite of its frequent          
recurrence4 ,most states and empires    
have been intermittently at war         
throughout their periods of stability   
and prosperity4 ,but their warfare was  
not the warfare of the present time4    
,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      
warfare1 but warfare strangely changed  
and exaggerated by novel conditions4 ,it
 is this change in conditions1          
therefore1 and not war itself1 which is 
the reality we have to analyse in its   
bearing upon our social and political   
ideas4 ,in #aiad the ,european ,great   
,powers resorted to war1 as they had    
resorted to war on many previous        
occasions1 to decide certain open       
issues4 ,this war flamed out with an    
unexpected rapidity until all the world 
was involved2 and it developed a horror1
 a monstrosity of destructiveness1 and1 
above all1 an inconclusiveness quite    

unlike any preceding war4 ,that         
unlikeness was the essence of the       
matter4 ,whatever justifications could  
be found for its use in the past1 it    
became clear to many minds that under   
the new conditions war was no longer a  
possible method of international        
dealing4 ,the thing lay upon the        
surface4 ,the idea of a ,league of      
,nations sustaining a ,supreme ,world   
,court to supersede the arbitrament of  
war1 did not so much arise at any       
particular point as break out           
simultaneously wherever there were      
intelligent men4  ,now what was this    
change in conditions that had confronted
 mankind with the perplexing necessity  
of abandoning war8 ,for perplexing it   
certainly is4 ,war has been a ruling and
 constructive idea in all human         
societies up to the present time2 few   
will be found to deny it4 ,political    
institutions have very largely developed
 in relation to the idea of war2 defence
 and aggression have shaped the outer   

form of every state in the world1 just  
as co-operation sustained by compulsion 
has shaped its inner organization4 ,and 
if abruptly man determines to give up   
the waging of war1 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 all4  ,it is to the       
general problem arising out of this     
consideration1 that this and the three  
following essays will be addressed2 the 
question3 ,what else has to go if war is
 to go out of human life8 and the       
problem of what has to be done if it is 
to be banished and barred out for ever  
from the future experiences of our race4
 ,for let us face the truth in this     
matter2 the abolition of war is no      
casting of ancient1 barbaric1 and now   
obsolete traditions1 no easy and natural
 progressive step2 the abolition of war1
 if it can be brought about1 will be a  

reversal not only of the general method 
of human life hitherto but of the       
general method of nature1 the method1   
that is1 of conflict and survival4 ,it  
will be a new phase in the history of   
life1 and not simply an incident in the 
history of man4 ,these brief essays will
 attempt to present something like the  
true dimensions of the task before      
mankind if war is indeed to be          
superseded1 and to show that the project
 of abolishing war by the occasional    
meeting of some ,council of a ,league of
 ,nations or the like1 is1 in itself1   
about as likely to succeed as a proposal
 to abolish thirst1 hunger1 and death by
 a short legislative act4  ,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      
species4 ,the change is essentially a   
change in the amount of power available 
for human purposes1 and more            

particularly in the amount of material  
power that can be controlled by one     
individual4 ,human society up to a      
couple of centuries ago was essentially 
a man-power and horse-power system4     
,there was in addition a certain limited
 use of water power and wind power1 but 
that was not on a scale to affect the   
general truth of the proposition4 ,the  
first intimation of the great change    
began seven centuries ago with the      
appearance of explosives4 ,in the       
thirteenth century the ,mongols made a  
very effective military use of the      
,chinese discovery of gunpowder4 ,they  
conquered most of the known world1 and  
their introduction of a low-grade       
explosive in warfare rapidly destroyed  
the immunity of castles and walled      
cities1 abolished knighthood1 and       
utterly wrecked and devastated the      
irrigation system of ,mesopotamia1 which
 had been a populous and civilized      
region since before the beginnings of   
history4 ,but the restricted            

metallurgical knowledge of the time set 
definite limits to the size and range of
 cannon4 ,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          
practicable4 ,the systematic extension  
of human power began in the eighteenth  
century with the utilization of steam   
and coal4 ,that opened a crescendo of   
invention and discovery which thrust    
rapidly increasing quantities of        
material energy into men's hands4 ,even 
now that crescendo may not have reached 
its climax4  ,we need not rehearse here 
the familiar story of the abolition of  
distance that ensued2 how the radiogram 
and the telegram have made every event  
of importance a simultaneous event for  
the minds of everyone in the world1 how 
journeys which formerly took months or  
weeks now take days or hours1 nor how   
printing and paper have made possible a 
universally informed community1 and so  

forth4 ,nor will we describe the effect 
of these things upon warfare4 ,the point
 that concerns us here is this1 that    
before this age of discovery communities
 had fought and struggled with each     
other much as naughty children might do 
in a crowded nursery1 within the measure
 of their strength4 ,they had hurt and  
impoverished each other1 but they had   
rarely destroyed each other completely4 
,their squabbles may have been          
distressing1 but they were tolerable4   
,it is even possible to regard these    
former wars as healthy1 hardening and   
invigorating conflicts4 ,but into this  
nursery has come ,science1 and has put  
into the fists of these children razor  
blades with poison on them1 bombs of    
frightful explosive1 corrosive fluids   
and the like4 ,the comparatively        
harmless conflicts of these infants are 
suddenly fraught with quite terrific    
possibilities1 and it is only a question
 of sooner or later before the nursery  
becomes a heap of corpses or is blown to

 smithereens4 ,a real nursery invaded by
 a reckless person distributing such    
gifts1 would be promptly saved by the   
intervention of the nurse2 but humanity 
has no nurse but its own poor wisdom4   
,and whether that poor wisdom can rise  
to the pitch of effectual intervention  
is the most fundamental problem in      
mundane affairs at the present time4    
,the deadly gifts continue4 ,there was a
 steady increase in the frightfulness   
and destructiveness of belligerence from
 #aiad up to the beginning of #aiah1    
when shortage of material and energy    
checked the process2 and since the      
armistice there has been an industrious 
development of military science4 ,the   
next well-organized war1 we are assured1
 will be far more swift and extensive in
 its destruction--more particularly of  
the civilian population4 ,armies will   
advance no longer along roads but       
extended in line1 with heavy tank       
transport which will plough up the      
entire surface of the land they         

traverse2 aerial bombing1 with bombs    
each capable of destroying a small town1
 will be practicable a thousand miles   
beyond the military front1 and the seas 
will be swept clear of shipping by mines
 and submarine activities4 ,there will  
be no distinction between combatants and
 non-combatants1 because every          
able-bodied citizen1 male or female1 is 
a potential producer of food and        
munitions2 and probably the safest1 and 
certainly the best supplied shelters in 
the universal cataclysm1 will be the    
carefully buried1 sandbagged1 and       
camouflaged general-headquarters of the 
contending armies4 ,there military      
gentlemen of limited outlook and high   
professional training will1 in          
comparative security1 achieve           
destruction beyond their understanding4 
,the hard logic of war which gives      
victory always to the most energetic and
 destructive combatant1 will turn       
warfare more and more from mere         
operations for loot or conquest or      

predominance into operations for the    
conclusive destruction of the           
antagonists4 ,a relentless thrust       
towards strenuousness is a              
characteristic of belligerent           
conditions4 ,war is war1 and vehemence  
is in its nature4 ,you must hit always  
as hard as you can4 ,offensive and      
counter-offensive methods continue to   
prevail over merely defensive ones4 ,the
 victor in the next great war will be   
bombed from the air1 starved1 and       
depleted almost as much as the loser4   
,his victory will be no easy one2 it    
will be a triumph of the exhausted and  
dying over the dead4  ,it has been      
argued that such highly organized and   
long prepared warfare as the world saw  
in #aiad-ah is not likely to recur again
 for a considerable time because of the 
shock inflicted by it upon social       
stability4 ,there may be spasmodic wars 
with improvised and scanty supplies1    
these superficially more hopeful critics
 admit1 but there remain no communities 

now so stable and so sure of their      
people as to prepare and wage again a   
fully elaborated scientific war4 ,but   
this view implies no happier outlook for
 mankind4 ,it amounts to this1 that so  
long as men remain disordered and       
impoverished they will not rise again to
 the full height of scientific war4 ,but
 manifestly this will only be for so    
long as they remain disordered and      
impoverished4 ,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   
have devised4 ,this new phase of        
disorder1 conflict1 and social          
unravelling upon which we have entered1 
this phase of decline due to the        
enhanced and increasing powers for waste
 and destruction in mankind1 is bound1  
therefore1 to continue so long as the   
divisions based upon ancient ideas of   
conflict remain2 and if for a time the  
decadence seems to be arrested1 it will 

only be to accumulate under the         
influence of those ideas a fresh        
war-storm sufficiently destructive and  
disorganizing to restore the decadent   
process4  ,unless mankind can readjust  
its political and social ideas to this  
essential new fact of its enormously    
enlarged powers1 unless it can eliminate
 or control its pugnacity1 no other     
prospect seems open to us but decadence1
 at least to such a level of barbarism  
as to lose and forget again all the     
scientific and industrial achievements  
of our present age4 ,then1 with its     
powers shrunken to their former puny    
scale1 our race may recover some sort of
 balance between the injuries and       
advantages of conflict4 ,or1 since our  
decadent species may have less vitality 
and vigour than it had in its primitive 
phases1 it may dwindle and fade out     
altogether before some emboldened animal
 antagonist1 or through some world-wide 
disease brought to it perhaps by rats   
and dogs and insects and what not1 who  

may be destined to be heirs to the      
rusting and mouldering ruins of the     
cities and ports and ways and bridges of
 to-day4  ,only one alternative to some 
such retrogression seems possible1 and  
that is the conscious1 systematic       
reconstruction of human society to avert
 it4 ,the world has been brought into   
one community1 and the human mind and   
will may be able to recognize and adapt 
itself to this fact--in time4 ,men1 as a
 race1 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  
salvage4 ,they may have the vigour to   
abandon their age-long attempt to live  
in separate sovereign states1 and to    
grapple with and master the now quite   
destructive force that traditional      
hostility has become1 and bring their   
affairs together under one law and one  
peace4 ,these new vast powers over      
nature which have been given to them1   

and which will certainly be their       
destruction if their purposes remain    
divergent and conflicting1 will then be 
the means by which they may set up a new
 order of as yet scarcely imaginable    
interest and happiness and achievement4 
,but is our race capable of such an     
effort1 such a complete reversal of its 
instinctive and traditional impulses8   
,can we find premonitions of any such   
bold and revolutionary adaptations as   
these1 in the mental and political life 
of to-day8 ,how far are we1 reader and  
writer1 for example1 working for these  
large new securities8 ,do we even keep  
them steadfastly in our minds8 ,how is  
it with the people around us8 ,are not  
we and they and all the race still just 
as much adrift in the current of        
circumstances as we were before #aiad8  
,without a great effort on our part 7or 
on someone's part7 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 wars1 to shortages1 hunger1       
miseries1 and social debacles1 at last  
either to complete extinction or to a   
degradation beyond our present          
understanding4   ,sec4#b  ,the urgent   
need for a great creative effort has    
become apparent in the affairs of       
mankind4 ,it is manifest that unless    
some unity of purpose can be achieved in
 the world1 unless the ever more violent
 and disastrous incidence of war can be 
averted1 unless some common control can 
be imposed on the headlong waste of     
man's limited inheritance of coal1 oil1 
and moral energy that is now going on1  
the history of humanity must presently  
culminate in some sort of disaster1     
repeating and exaggerating the disaster 
of the great war1 producing chaotic     
social conditions1 and going on         
thereafter in a degenerative process    
towards extinction4 ,so much all        
reasonable men seem now prepared to     
admit4 ,but upon the question of how and
 in what form a unity of purpose and a  

common control of human affairs is to be
 established1 there is still a great and
 lamentable diversity of opinion and1 as
 a consequence1 an enfeeblement and     
wasteful dispersal of will4 ,at present 
nothing has been produced but the       
manifestly quite inadequate ,league of  
,nations at ,geneva1 and a number of    
generally very vague movements for a    
world law1 world disarmament1 and the   
like1 among the intellectuals of the    
various civilized countries of the      
world4  ,the common failings of all     
these initiatives are a sort of genteel 
timidity and a defective sense of the   
scale of the enterprise before us4 ,a   
neglect of the importance of scale is   
one of the gravest faults of            
contemporary education4 ,because a      
world-wide political organ is needed1 it
 does not follow that a so-called       
,league of ,nations without             
representative sanctions1 military      
forces1 or authority of any kind1 a     
,league from which large sections of the

 world are excluded altogether1 is any  
contribution to that need4 ,people have 
a way of saying it is better than       
nothing4 ,but it may be worse than      
nothing4 ,it may create a feeling of    
disillusionment about world-unifying    
efforts4 ,if a mad elephant were loose  
in one's garden1 it would be an         
excellent thing to give one's gardener a
 gun4 ,but it would have to be an       
adequate gun1 an elephant gun4 ,to give 
him a small rook-rifle and tell him it  
was better than nothing1 and encourage  
him to face the elephant with that in   
his hand1 would be the directest way of 
getting rid not of the elephant but of  
the gardener4  ,it is1 if people will   
but think steadfastly1 inconceivable    
that there should be any world control  
without a merger of sovereignty1 but the
 framers of these early tentatives      
towards world unity have lacked the     
courage of frankness in this respect4   
,they have been afraid of outbreaks of  
bawling patriotism1 and they have tried 

to believe1 and to make others believe1 
that they contemplate nothing more than 
a league of nations1 when in reality    
they contemplate a subordination of     
nations and administrations to one      
common law and rule4 ,the elementary    
necessity of giving the council of any  
world-peace organization which is to be 
more than a sentimental international   
gesture1 not only a complete knowledge  
but an effective control of all the     
military resources and organizations in 
the world1 appalled them4 ,they did not 
even ask for such a control4 ,the       
frowning solidity of existing things was
 too much for them4 ,they wanted to     
change them1 but when it came to laying 
hands on them--,no6 ,they decided to    
leave them alone4 ,they wanted a new    
world--and it is to contain just the    
same things as the old4  ,but are these 
intellectuals right in their estimate of
 the common man8 ,is he such a shallow  
and vehement fool as they seem to       
believe8 ,is he so patriotic as they    

make out8 ,if mankind is to be saved    
from destruction there must be a world  
control2 a world control means a world  
government1 it is only another name for 
it1 and manifestly that government must 
have a navy that will supersede the     
,british navy1 artillery that will      
supersede the ,french artillery1 air    
forces superseding all existing air     
forces1 and so forth4 ,for many flags   
there must be one sovereign flag2 orbis 
terrarum4 ,unless a world control       
amounts to that it will be ridiculous1  
just as a judge supported by two or     
three unarmed policemen1 a newspaper    
reporter and the court chaplain1        
proposing to enforce his decisions in a 
court packed with the heavily armed     
friends of the plaintiff and defendant  
would be ridiculous4 ,but the common man
 is supposed to be so blindly and       
incurably set upon his ,british navy or 
his ,french army1 or whatever his pet   
national instrument of violence may be1 
that it is held to be impossible to     

supersede these beloved and adored      
forces4 ,if that is so1 then a world law
 is impossible1 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 garden4  ,but is it so8 ,if the mass
 of common men are incurably patriotic  
and belligerent why is there a note of  
querulous exhortation in nearly all     
patriotic literature8 ,why1 for         
instance1 is ,mr4 ,rudyard ,kipling's   
,history of ,england so full of goading 
and scolding8 ,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 idea1 in its first  
phase in #aiah1 before the weakening off
 and disillusionment of the ,versailles 
,conference4 ,just for a little while it
 seemed that ,president ,wilson stood   
for a new order of things in the world1 
that he had the wisdom and will and     
power to break the net of hatreds and   

nationalisms and diplomacies in which   
the ,old ,world was entangled4 ,and     
while he seemed to be capable of that1  
while he promised most in the way of    
change and national control1 then it was
 that he found his utmost support in    
every country in the world4 ,in the     
latter half of #aiah there was scarcely 
a country anywhere in which one could   
not have found men ready to die for     
,president ,wilson4 ,a great hopefulness
 was manifest in the world4 ,it faded1  
it faded very rapidly again4 ,but that  
brief wave of enthusiasm1 which set     
minds astir with the same great idea of 
one peace of justice throughout the     
earth in ,china and ,bokhara and the    
,indian bazaars1 in ,iceland and        
,basutoland and ,ireland and ,morocco1  
was indeed a fact perhaps more memorable
 in history even than the great war     
itself4 ,it displayed a possibility of  
the simultaneous operation of the same  
general ideas throughout the world quite
 beyond any previous experience4 ,it    

demonstrated that the generality of men 
are as capable of being cosmopolitan and
 pacifist as they are of being patriotic
 and belligerent4 ,both moods are       
extensions and exaltations beyond the   
everyday life1 which itself is neither  
one thing nor the other4 ,and both are  
transitory moods1 responses to external 
suggestion4  ,it is to that first wave  
of popular feeling for a world law      
transcending and moving counter to all  
contemporary diplomacies1 and not to the
 timid legalism of the framers of the   
first schemes for a ,league of ,nations 
that we must look1 if we are to hope at 
all for the establishment of a new order
 in human affairs4 ,it is upon the      
spirit of that transitory response to   
the transitory greatness of ,president  
,wilson that we have to seize2 we have  
to lay hold of that1 to recall it and   
confirm it and enlarge and strengthen   
it1 to make it a flux of patriotisms and
 a creator of new loyalties and         
devotions1 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 state4  ,we have already     
stated the clear necessity1 if mankind  
is not to perish by the hypertrophy of  
warfare1 for the establishment of an    
armed and strong world law4 ,here in    
this spirit that has already gleamed    
upon the world is the possible force to 
create and sustain such a world law4    
,what is it that intervenes between the 
universal human need and its            
satisfaction8 ,why1 since there are     
overwhelming reasons for it and a       
widespread disposition for it1 is there 
no world-wide creative effort afoot now 
in which men and women by the million   
are participating--and participating    
with all their hearts8 ,why is it that1 
except for the weak gestures of the     
,geneva ,league of ,nations and a little
 writing of books and articles1 a little
 pamphleteering1 some scattered         
committee activities on the part of     
people chiefly of the busybody class1 an

 occasional speech and a diminishing    
volume of talk and allusion1 no attempts
 are apparent to stay the plain drift of
 human society towards new conflicts and
 the sluices of final disaster8  ,the   
answer to that ,why1 probes deep into   
the question of human motives4  ,it must
 be because we are all creatures of our 
immediate surroundings1 because our     
minds and energies are chiefly occupied 
by the affairs of every day1 because we 
are all chiefly living our own lives1   
and very few of us1 except by a kind of 
unconscious contribution1 the life of   
mankind4 ,in moments of mental activity1
 in the study or in contemplation1 we   
may rise to a sense of the dangers and  
needs of human destiny1 but it is only a
 few minds and characters of prophetic  
quality that1 without elaborate         
artificial assistance1 seem able to keep
 hold upon and guide their lives by such
 relatively gigantic considerations4    
,the generality of men and women1 so far
 as their natural disposition goes1 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 sea4 ,it
 is only as the result of considerable  
educational effort and against          
considerable resistance that our minds  
are brought to a broader view4 ,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 life4 ,it is these pioneers of
 vision who have given the world its    
religions and its philosophical cults1  
its loyalties and observances2 and who  
have imposed ideas of greatness and duty
 on their fellows4 ,in every age the    
ordinary man has submitted reluctantly  
to such teachings1 has made his peculiar
 compromises with them1 has reduced them
 as far as possible to formula and      

formality1 and got back as rapidly as   
possible to the eating and drinking and 
desire1 the personal spites and         
rivalries and glories which constitute  
his reality4 ,the mass of men to-day do 
not seem to care1 nor want to care1     
whither the political and social        
institutions to which they are          
accustomed are taking them4 ,such       
considerations overstrain us4 ,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 good4 ,to nearly all 
men and women1 unless they are in the   
vein for it1 such discussion as this in 
these essays does not appeal as being   
right or wrong2 it does not really      
interest them1 rather it worries them2  
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 van4
  ,but man is a creature very different 
in his nature from a rabbit1 and if he  
is less instinctively social1 he is much
 more consciously social4 ,chief among  
his differences must be the presence of 
those tendencies which we call          
conscience1 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 life4 ,in this lies our hope  
for mankind4 ,man hates to be put right1
 and yet also he wants to be right4 ,he 
is a creature divided against himself1  
seeking both to preserve and to overcome
 his egotism4 ,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 men4  ,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 all4 ,it is  
an educational one4 ,it is a moral based
 on an intellectual reconstruction4 ,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 time1 in a    
world-wide common vision of the history 
and destinies of the race4 ,on that as a
 basis1 and on that alone1 can a world  
control be organized and maintained4    
,the effort demanded from mankind1      
therefore1 is primarily and essentially 
a bold reconstruction of the outlook    
upon life of hundreds of millions of    
minds4 ,the idea of a world commonweal  
has to be established as the criterion  
of political institutions1 and also as  

the criterion of general conduct in     
hundreds of millions of brains4 ,it has 
to dominate education everywhere in the 
world4 ,when that end is achieved1 then 
the world state will be achieved1 and it
 can be achieved in no other way4 ,and  
unless that world state can be achieved1
 it would seem that the outlook before  
mankind is a continuance of disorder and
 of more and more destructive and       
wasteful conflicts1 a steady process of 
violence1 decadence1 and misery towards 
extinction1 or towards modifications of 
our type altogether beyond our present  
understanding and sympathy4   ,sec4 #c  
,in framing an estimate of the human    
future two leading facts are dominant4  
,the first is the plain necessity for a 
political reorganization of the world as
 a unity1 to save our race from the     
social disintegration and complete      
physical destruction which war1 under   
modern conditions1 must ultimately      
entail1 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      
possible4 ,there appear to be the       
factors of such a will in men1 but they 
are for the most part unawakened1 or    
they are unorganized and ineffective4   
,and there is a very curious incapacity 
to grasp the reality of the human       
situation1 a real resistance to seeing  
things as they are--for man is an       
effort-shirking animal--which greatly   
impedes the development of such a will4 
,failing the operation of such a        
sufficient will1 human affairs are being
 directed by use and wont1 by tradition 
and accidental deflections4 ,mankind1   
after the tragic concussion of the great
 war1 seems now to be drifting again    
towards new and probably more disastrous
 concussions4  ,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 events4 ,but    

they shrank from the great implications 
of such a world control4 ,the only      
practicable way to achieve a general    
control in the face of existing         
governments1 institutions and           
prejudices1 interested obstruction and  
the common disregard1 is by extending   
this awakening to great masses of       
people4 ,this means an unprecedented    
educational effort1 an appeal to men's  
intelligence and men's imagination such 
as the world has never seen before4 ,is 
it possible to rationalize the at       
present chaotic will of mankind8 ,that  
possibility1 if it is a possibility1 is 
the most important thing in contemporary
 human affairs4  ,we are asking here for
 an immense thing1 for a change of      
ideas1 a vast enlargement of ideas1 and 
for something very like a change of     
heart in hundreds of millions of human  
beings4 ,but then we are dealing with   
the fate of the entire species4 ,we are 
discussing the prevention of wars1      
disorders1 shortages1 famines and       

miseries for centuries ahead4 ,the      
initial capital we have to go upon is as
 yet no more than the aroused           
understanding and conscience of a few   
thousands1 at most of a few score       
thousands of people4 ,can so little a   
leaven leaven so great a lump8 ,is a    
response to this appeal latent in the   
masses of mankind8 ,is there anything in
 history to justify hope for so gigantic
 a mental turnover in our race8  ,a     
consideration of the spread of          
,christianity in the first four         
centuries ,a4,d4 or of the spread of    
,islam in the seventh century will1 we  
believe1 support a reasonable hope that 
such a change in the minds of men1      
whatever else it may be1 is a           
practicable change1 that it can be done 
and that it may even probably be done4  
,consider our two instances4 ,the       
propagandas of those two great religions
 changed and changed for ever the       
political and social outlook over vast  
areas of the world's surface4 ,yet while

 the stir for world unity begins now    
simultaneously in many countries and    
many groups of people1 those two        
propagandas each radiated from a single 
centre and were in the first instance   
the teachings of single individuals2 and
 while to-day we can deal with great    
reading populations and can reach them  
by press and printed matter1 by a       
universal distribution of books1 by     
great lecturing organizations and the   
like1 those earlier great changes in    
human thought were achieved mainly by   
word of mouth and by crabbed            
manuscripts1 painfully copied and passed
 slowly from hand to hand4 ,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 distance4 ,the   
world of thought still hesitates to use 
the means of power that now exist for   
it4 ,history and political philosophy in
 the modern world are like bashful dons 

at a dinner party2 they crumble their   
bread and talk in undertones and clever 
allusions to their nearest neighbour1   
abashed at the thought of addressing the
 whole table4 ,but in a world where     
,mars can reach out in a single night   
and smite a city a thousand miles away1 
we cannot suffer wisdom to hesitate in  
an inaudible gentility4 ,the knowledge  
and vision that is good enough for the  
best of us is good enough for all4 ,this
 gospel of human brotherhood and a      
common law and rule for all mankind1 the
 attempt to meet this urgent necessity  
of a common control of human affairs1   
which indeed is no new religion but only
 an attempt to realize practically the  
common teaching of all the established  
religions of the world1 has to speak    
with dominating voice everywhere between
 the poles and round about the world4   
,and it must become part of the         
universal education4 ,it must speak     
through the school and university4 ,it  
is too often forgotten1 in ,america1    

perhaps1 even more than in ,europe1 that
 education exists for the community1 and
 for the individual only so far as it   
makes him a sufficient member of the    
community4 ,the chief end of education  
is to subjugate and sublimate for the   
collective purposes of our kind the     
savage egotism we inherit4 ,every       
school1 every college1 teaches directly 
and still more by implication1          
relationship to a community and devotion
 to a community4 ,in too many cases that
 community we let our schools and       
colleges teach to our children is an    
extremely narrow one2 it is the         
community of a sect1 of a class1 or of  
an intolerant1 greedy and unrighteous   
nationalism4 ,schools have increased    
greatly in numbers throughout the world 
during the last century1 but there has  
been little or no growth in the         
conception of education in schools4     
,education has been extended1 but it has
 not been developed4 ,if man is to be   
saved from self-destruction by the      

organization of a world community1 there
 must be a broadening of the reference  
of the teaching in the schools of all   
the world to that community of the      
world4 ,world-wide educational          
development and reform are the necessary
 preparations for and the necessary     
accompaniments of a political           
reconstruction of the world4 ,the two   
are the right and left hands of the same
 thing4 ,neither can effect much without
 the other4  ,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 change in warfare1      
communications and other conditions of  
human life brought about by scientific  
discovery during the last hundred years1
 carries with it a practical repudiation
 of the claims of every existing        
sovereign government in the world to be 
final and sovereign1 to be anything more
 than provisional and replaceable4      
,there is the difficulty that has       

checked hundreds of men after their     
first step towards this work for a      
universal peace4 ,it involves1 it cannot
 but involve1 a revision of their       
habitual allegiances4 ,at best existing 
governments are to be regarded as local 
trustees and caretakers for the coming  
human commonweal4  ,if they are not     
that1 then they are necessarily         
obstructive and antagonistic4 ,but few  
rulers1 few governments1 few officials1 
will have the greatness of mind to      
recognize and admit this plain reality4 
,by a kind of necessity they force upon 
their subjects and publics a conflict of
 loyalties4 ,the feeble driftage of     
human affairs from one base or greedy   
arrangement or cowardly evasion to      
another1 since the ,armistice of #aiah1 
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      
sequelae4 ,they are resisting           

adjustments2 their minds are fighting   
against the sacrifices of pride and     
authority that a full recognition of    
their subordination to the world        
commonweal will involve4 ,they are      
prepared1 it would seem1 to fight       
against the work of human salvation     
basely and persistently1 whenever their 
accustomed importance is threatened4    
,even in the schools and in the world of
 thought the established thing will make
 its unrighteous fight for life4 ,the   
dull and the dishonest in high places   
will suppress these greater ideas when  
they can1 and ignore when they dare not 
suppress4 ,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       
authority4 ,it is not creative minds    
that produce revolutions1 but the       
obstinate conservatism of established   
authority4 ,it is the blank refusal to  
accept the idea of an orderly evolution 

towards new things that gives a         
revolutionary quality to every          
constructive proposal4 ,the huge task of
 political and educational              
reconstruction which is needed to arrest
 the present drift of human affairs     
towards catastrophe1 must be achieved1  
if it is to be achieved at all1 mainly  
by voluntary and unofficial effort2 and 
for the most part in the teeth of       
official opposition4  ,there are one or 
two existing states to which men have   
looked for some open recognition of     
their duty to mankind as a whole1 and of
 the necessarily provisional nature of  
their contemporary constitutions4 ,the  
,united ,states of ,america constitute a
 political system1 profoundly different 
in its origin and in its spirit1 from   
any old-world state2 it was felt that   
here at least might be an evolutionary  
state2 and in the palmy days of         
,president ,wilson it did seem for a    
brief interval as if the ,new ,world was
 indeed coming to the rescue of the old1

 as if ,america was to play the role of 
a propagandist continent1 bringing its  
ideas of equality and freedom1 and      
extending the spirit of its union to all
 the nations of the earth4 ,from that   
expectation1 the world opinion is now in
 a state of excessive and unreasonable  
recoil4 ,president ,wilson fell away    
from his first intimations of that      
world-wide federal embrace2 his mind and
 will were submerged by the clamour of  
contending patriotisms and the subtle   
expedients of old-world diplomacy in    
,paris2 but ,american accessibility to  
the idea of a federalized world neither 
began with him nor will it end with his 
failure4 ,america is still a hopeful    
laboratory of world-unifying thought4 ,a
 long string of arbitration treaties    
stands to the credit of ,america1 and a 
series of developing ,pan-,american     
projects1 pointing clearly to at least a
 continental synthesis within a         
measurable time4 ,there has been1 and   
there still is1 a better understanding  

of1 and a greater receptivity to1 ideas 
of international synthesis in ,america  
than in any ,european state4  ,and the  
,british ,empire1 which according to    
many of its liberal apologists is       
already a league of nations linked      
together in a mutually advantageous     
peace1 to that too men have looked for  
some movement of adaptation to this     
greater synthesis which is the world's  
pre-eminent need4 ,but so far the       
,british ,empire has failed to respond  
to such expectations4 ,the war has left 
it strained and bruised and with its    
affairs very much in the grip of the    
military class1 the most illiterate and 
dangerous class in the community4 ,they 
have done1 perhaps1 irreparable mischief
 to the peace of the empire in ,ireland1
 ,india and ,egypt1 and they have made  
the claim of the ,british system to be  
an exemplary unification of dissimilar  
peoples seem now to many people         
incurably absurd4 ,it is a great        
misfortune for mankind that the ,british

 ,empire1 which played so sturdy and    
central a part in the great war1 could  
at its close achieve no splendid and    
helpful gesture towards a generous      
reconstruction4  ,since the armistice   
there has been an extraordinary         
opportunity for the ,british monarchy to
 have displayed a sense of the new      
occasions before the world1 and to have 
led the way towards the efforts and     
renunciations of an international       
renascence4 ,it could have taken up a   
lead that the ,president of the ,united 
,states had initiated and relinquished2 
it could have used its peculiar position
 to make an unexampled appeal to the    
whole world4 ,it could have created a   
new epoch in history4 ,the ,prince of   
,wales has been touring the world-wide  
dominions of which1 some day1 he is to  
be the crowned head4 ,he has received   
addresses1 visited sights1 been         
entertained1 shaken hands with scores of
 thousands of people and submitted      
himself to the eager1 yet unpenetrating 

gaze of vast multitudes4 ,his smallest  
acts have been observed with            
premeditated admiration1 his lightest   
words recorded4 ,he is not now a boy2 he
 saw something of the great war1 even if
 his exalted position denied him any    
large share of its severer hardships and
 dangers2 he cannot be blind to the     
general posture of the world's affairs4 
,here1 surely1 was a chance of saying   
something that would be heard from end  
to end of the earth1 something kingly   
and great-minded4 ,here was the occasion
 for a fine restatement of the          
obligations and duties of empire4 ,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     
times1 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       
peoples4 ,here we are1 said the old     

order in those demonstrations1 and here 
we mean to stick4 ,just as we have been1
 so we remain4 ,british6--we are        
,bourbons4 ,these smiling tours of the  
,prince of ,wales in these years of     
shortage1 stress1 and insecurity1       
constitute a propaganda of inanity      
unparalleled in the world's history4    
99       99       99       99       99  
,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       
government4 ,these official and ruling  
people1 more than any other people1 are 
under the sway of that life of use and  
wont which dominates us all4 ,they are  
often trained to their positions1 or    
they have won their way to their        
positions of authority through a career 
of political activities which amounts to
 a training4 ,and that training is not a
 training in enterprise and change2 it  
is a training in sticking tight and     

getting back to precedent4 ,we can      
expect nothing from them4 ,we shall be  
lucky if the resistance of the          
administrative side of existing states  
to the conception of a world commonweal 
is merely passive4 ,there is little or  
no prospect of any existing governing   
system1 unless it be such a federal     
system as ,switzerland or the ,united   
,states1 passing directly and without   
extensive internal changes into         
combination with other sovereign powers 
as part of a sovereign world system4 ,at
 some point the independent states will 
as systems resist1 and unless an        
overwhelming world conscience for the   
world state has been brought into being 
and surrounds them with an understanding
 watchfulness1 and invades the          
consciences of their supporters and so  
weakens their resisting power1 they will
 resist violently and disastrously4 ,but
 it will be an incoherent resistance    
because the very nature of the sovereign
 states of to-day is incoherence4 ,there

 can be no world-wide combination of    
sovereign states to resist the world    
state1 because that would be to create  
the world state in the attempt to defeat
 it4   ,sec4 #d  ,in the three preceding
 essays an attempt has been made to     
state the pass at which mankind has     
arrived1 the dangers and mischiefs that 
threaten our race1 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 world4      
,stress has been laid chiefly upon the  
monstrous evils and disasters a         
continuation of our present divisions1  
our nationalisms and imperialisms and   
the like1 will certainly entail4 ,these 
considerations of evil however are only 
the negative argument for this creative 
effort2 they have been thrust forward   
because war1 disorder1 insufficiency1   
and the ill health1 the partings1       
deprivations1 boredom and unhappiness   

that arise out of these things are well 
within our experience and entirely      
credible2 the positive argument for a   
world order demands at once more faith  
and imagination4  ,given a world law and
 world security1 a release from the net 
of bickering frontiers1 world-wide      
freedom of movement1 and world-wide     
fellowship1 a thousand good things that 
are now beyond hope or dreaming would   
come into the ordinary life4 ,the whole 
world would be our habitation1 and the  
energies of men1 released from their    
preoccupation with contention1 would go 
more and more abundantly into the       
accumulation and application of         
scientific knowledge1 that is to say    
into the increase of mental and bodily  
health1 of human power1 of interest and 
happiness4 ,even to-day the most        
delightful possibilities stand waiting1 
inaccessible to nearly all of us because
 of the general insecurity1 distrust and
 anger4 ,flying1 in a world safely      
united in peace1 could take us now to   

the ends of the earth smoothly1 securely
 through the sweet upper air1 in five or
 six days4 ,in two or three years there 
could again be abundance of food and    
pleasant clothing for everyone          
throughout the whole world4 ,men could  
be destroying their slums and           
pestilential habitations and rebuilding 
spacious and beautiful cities4 ,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      
growth4 ,we could live in a universal   
palace and make the whole globe our     
garden and playground4  ,but these are  
not considerations that sway people to  
effort4 ,fear and hate1 not hope and    
desire1 have been hitherto the effective
 spurs for men4 ,the most popular       
religions are those which hold out the  
widest hopes of damnation4 ,our lives   
are lives of use and wont1 we distrust  
the promise of delightful experience and
 achievements beyond our accustomed     

ways2 it offends our self-satisfaction  
even to regard them as possibilities2 we
 do not like the implied cheapening of  
familiar things4 ,we are all ready to   
sneer at ,utopias1 as elderly invalids  
sneer at the buoyant hopes of youth and 
do their best to think them sure of     
frustration4 ,the aged and disillusioned
 profess a keen appreciation of the bath
 chair and the homely spoonful of       
medicine1 and pity a crudity that misses
 the fine quality of those ripe         
established things4 ,most people are    
quite ready to dismiss the promise of a 
full free life for all mankind with a   
sneer4 ,that would rob the world of     
romance1 they say1 the romance of       
passport offices1 custom houses1        
shortages of food1 endless petty        
deprivations1 slums1 pestilence1        
under-educated stunted children1 youths 
dying in heaps in muddy trenches1 an    
almost universal lack of vitality1 and  
all the picturesque eventfulness of     
contemporary conditions4 ,so that we    

have not dwelt here upon the life-giving
 aspect of a possible world state1 but  
only on its life-saving aspects4 ,we    
have not argued that our present life of
 use and wont could be replaced by an   
infinitely better way of living4 ,we    
have rather pointed out that if things  
continue to drift as they are doing1 the
 present life of use and wont will      
become intolerably insecure4 ,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 men1 if they are to be    
moved at all1 towards a world peace4    
,but whether the lever that moves them  
is desire or fear the majority of men1  
unless the species is to perish1 must be
 brought within a measurable time to an 
understanding of1 and a will for1 a     
single world government4 ,and since at  
first existing institutions1 established
 traditions1 educational organizations  
and the like1 will all be passively if  
not actively resistant to the spread of 

this saving idea1 and much more so to   
any attempts to realize this saving     
idea1 there remains nothing for us to   
look to1 at the present time1 for the   
first organization of this immense      
effort of mental reversal1 but the zeal 
and devotion and self-sacrifice of      
convinced individuals4 ,the world state 
must begin2 it can only begin1 as a     
propagandist cult1 or as a group of     
propagandist cults1 to which men and    
women must give themselves and their    
energies1 regardless of the consequences
 to themselves4 ,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 sentiment2 they will have to    
face the possibility of lives of        
conflict1 misunderstanding1 much        
thankless exertion2 they must count on  
little honour and considerable active   
dislike2 and they will have to find what

 consolation they can in the interest of
 the conflict itself and in the thought 
of a world1 made at last by such efforts
 as theirs1 peaceful and secure and     
vigorous1 a world they can never hope to
 see4 ,so stated it seems a bad bargain 
that the worker for the world state is  
invited to make1 yet the world has never
 lacked people prepared to make such a  
bargain and they will not fail it now4  
,there are worse things than conflict   
without manifest victory and effort     
without apparent reward4 ,to the finer  
kind of mind it is infinitely more      
tragic and distressing to find that     
existence bears a foolish aimless face4 
,many people1 tormented by the          
discontent of conscience1 and wanting1  
more than they can ever want any        
satisfaction1 some satisfying rule of   
life1 some criterion of conduct1 will   
find in this cult of the world state    
just that sustaining reality they need4 
,and their number will grow4 ,because it
 is a practical and reasonable shape for

 a life1 arising naturally out of a     
proper understanding of history and     
physical science1 and embodying in a    
unifying plan the teaching of all the   
great religions of the world4 ,it comes 
to us not to destroy but to fulfil4     
,the activities of a cult which set     
itself to bring about the world state   
would at first be propagandist1 they    
would be intellectual and educational1  
and only as a sufficient mass of opinion
 and will had accumulated would they    
become to a predominant extent          
politically constructive4 ,such a cult  
must direct itself particularly to the  
teaching of the young4 ,so far the      
propaganda for a world law1 the ,league 
of ,nations propaganda1 since it has    
sought immediate political results1 has 
been addressed almost entirely to       
adults2 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 nationality1   
and to the general absence as yet in the

 world of any vision of the welfare of  
mankind as one whole4 ,it is because of 
this acceptance of current adult ideas  
about patriotism and nationality that   
the movement has adopted the            
unsatisfactory phrase1 a ,league of     
,nations1 when what is contemplated is  
much more than a league and a very      
considerable subordination of national  
sovereignty4 ,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 possess1 ideas that propaganda has 
hitherto left unassailed4 ,the worker   
for the world state will look further   
and plough deeper4 ,it is these         
fundamental ideas which are the vitally 
important objective of a world-unifying 
movement1 and they can only be brought  
into that world-wide uniformity which is
 essential to the enduring peace of     

mankind1 by teaching children throughout
 all the earth the common history of    
their kind1 and so directing their      
attention to the common future of their 
descendants4 ,the driving force that    
makes either war or peace is engendered 
where the young are taught4 ,the        
teacher1 whether mother1 priest1 or     
schoolmaster1 is the real maker of      
history2 rulers1 statesmen and soldiers 
do but work out the possibilities of    
co-operation or conflict the teacher    
creates4 ,this is no rhetorical         
flourish2 it is a sober fact4 ,the      
politicians and masses of our time dance
 on the wires of their early education4 
,teaching then is the initial and       
decisive factor in the future of        
mankind1 and the first duty of everyone 
who has the ability and opportunity1 is 
to teach1 or to subserve the teaching   
of1 the true history of mankind and of  
the possibilities of this vision of a   
single world state that history opens   
out to us4 ,men and women can help the  

spread of the saving doctrine in a      
thousand various ways2 for it is not    
only in homes and schools that minds are
 shaped4 ,they can print and publish    
books1 endow schools and teaching1      
organize the distribution of literature1
 insist upon the proper instruction of  
children in world wide charity and      
fellowship1 fight against every sort of 
suppression or restrictive control of   
right education1 bring pressure through 
political and social channels upon every
 teaching organization to teach history 
aright1 sustain missions and a new sort 
of missionary1 the missionaries to all  
mankind of knowledge and the idea of one
 world civilization and one world       
community2 they can promote and help the
 progress of historical and ethnological
 and political science1 they can set    
their faces against every campaign of   
hate1 racial suspicion1 and patriotic   
falsehood1 they can refuse1 they are    
bound to refuse1 obedience to any public
 authority which oppresses and embitters

 class against class1 race against race1
 and people against people4 ,a          
belligerent government as such1 they can
 refuse to obey2 and they can refuse to 
help or suffer any military preparations
 that are not directed wholly and       
plainly to preserving the peace of the  
world4 ,this is the plain duty of every 
honest man to-day1 to judge his         
magistrate before he obeys him1 and to  
render unto ,caesar nothing that he owes
 to ,god and mankind4 ,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      
state4 ,blatant1 aggressive patriotism  
and the incitements against foreign     
peoples that usually go with it1 are    
just as criminal and far more injurious 
to our race than1 for example1 indecent 
provocations and open incitements to    
sexual vice2 they produce a much        

beastlier and crueller state of mind1   
and they deserve at least an equal      
condemnation4 ,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 altar4  ,so far the movement     
towards a world state has lacked any    
driving power of passion4 ,we have been 
passing through a phase of intellectual 
revision4 ,the idea of a world unity and
 brotherhood has come back again into   
the world almost apologetically1        
deferentially1 asking for the kind words
 of successful politicians and for a    
gesture of patronage from kings4 ,yet   
this demand for one world-empire of     
righteousness was inherent in the       
teachings of ,buddha1 it flashed for a  
little while behind the sword of ,islam1
 it is the embodiment in earthly affairs
 of the spirit of ,christ4 ,it is a call
 to men for service as of right1 it is  
not an appeal to them that they may     
refuse1 not a voice that they may       

disregard4 ,it is too great a thing to  
hover for long thus deferentially on the
 outskirts of the active world it has   
come to save4 ,to-day the world state   
says ,please listen2 make way for me4   
,to-morrow it will say3 ,make way for   
me1 little people4 ,the day is not      
remote when disregardful patriotic men  
hectoring in the crowd will be twisted  
round perforce to the light they refuse 
to see4 ,first comes the idea and then  
slowly the full comprehension of the    
idea1 comes realization1 and with that  
realization will come a kindling anger  
at the vulgarity1 the meanness1 the     
greed and baseness and utter stupidity  
that refuses to attend to this clear    
voice1 this definite demand of our      
racial necessity4 ,to-day we teach1 but 
as understanding grows we must begin to 
act4 ,we must put ourselves and our     
rulers and our fellow men on trial4 ,we 
must ask3 ,what have you done1 what are 
you doing to help or hinder the peace   
and order of mankind8 ,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 homicide4 ,it is not reasonable 
that those who gamble with men's lives  
should not stake their own4 ,the service
 of the world state calls for much more 
than passive resistance to belligerent  
authorities1 for much more than         
exemplary martyrdoms4 ,it calls for the 
greater effort of active interference   
with mischievous men4 ,i will believe in
 the ,league of ,nations1 one man has   
written1 when men will fight for it4    
,for this ,league of ,nations at        
,geneva1 this little corner of          
,balfourian jobs and gentility1 no man  
would dream of fighting1 but for the    
great state of mankind1 men will        
presently be very ready to fight and1 as
 the thing may go1 either to kill or    
die4 ,things must come in their order2  
first the idea1 then the kindling of    
imaginations1 then the world wide       

battle4 ,we who live in the bleak days  
after a great crisis1 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      
,march4 ,the ploughing has been done1   
and the seed is in the ground1 and the  
world state stirs in a multitude of     
germinating minds4     ,,ii  ,,the      
,,project ,,of ,a ,,world ,,state,b     
,b ,written originally as a lecture to  
be delivered in ,america4   ,in this    
paper1 ,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 peace4 ,and ,i want to   
say what ,i have to say1 so far as      
regards the main argument of it1 as     
accurately and plainly as possible1     
without any eloquence or flourishes4    
,when ,i first planned this paper1 ,i   
chose as the title ,the ,utopia of a    

,world ,state4 ,well1 there is something
 a little too flimsy and unpracticable  
about that word ,utopia4 ,to most people
 ,utopia conveys the idea of a          
high-toned political and ethical        
dream--agreeable and edifying1 no doubt1
 but of no practical value whatever4    
,what ,i have to talk about this evening
 is not a bit dreamlike1 it is about    
real dangers and urgent necessities4 ,it
 is a ,project and not a ,utopia4 ,it   
may be a vast and impossible project4   
,it may be a hopeless project4 ,but if  
it fails our civilization fails4 ,and so
 ,i have called this paper not the      
,utopia but ,the ,project of a ,world   
,state4 ,there are some things that it  
is almost impossible to tell without    
seeming to scream and exaggerate1 and   
yet these things may be in reality the  
soberest matter of fact4 ,i want to say 
that this civilization in which we are  
living is tumbling down1 and ,i think   
tumbling down very fast2 that ,i think  
rapid enormous efforts will be needed to

 save it2 and that ,i see no such       
efforts being made at the present time4 
,i do not know if these words convey any
 concrete ideas to the reader's mind4   
,there are statements that can open such
 unfamiliar vistas as to seem devoid of 
any real practical meaning at all1 and  
this ,i think may be one of them4  ,in  
the past year ,i have been going about  
,europe4 ,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 ago4 ,i have seen a great  
city that had over two million          
inhabitants1 dying1 and dying with      
incredible rapidity4 ,in #aiad ,i was in
 the city of ,st4 ,petersburg and it    
seemed as safe and orderly a great city 
as yours4 ,i went thither in comfortable
 and punctual trains4 ,i stayed in an   
hotel as well equipped and managed as   
any ,american hotel4 ,i went to dine    
with and visit households of cultivated 
people4 ,i walked along streets of      

brilliantly lit and well-furnished      
shops4 ,it was1 in fact1 much the same  
sort of life that you are living here   
to-day--a part of our 7then7 world-wide 
modern civilization4  ,i revisited these
 things last summer4 ,i found such a    
spectacle of decay that it seems almost 
impossible to describe it to those who  
have never seen the like4 ,streets with 
great holes where the drains had fallen 
in4 ,stretches of roadway from which the
 wood paving had been torn for firewood4
 ,lampposts that had been knocked over  
lying as they were left1 without an     
attempt to set them up again4 ,shops and
 markets deserted and decayed and       
ruinous4 ,not closed shops but abandoned
 shops1 as abandoned-looking as an old  
boot or an old can by the wayside4 ,the 
railways falling out of use4 ,a         
population of half a million where      
formerly there had been two4 ,a         
strangely homeless city1 a city of      
discomforts and anxieties1 a city of    
want and ill-health and death4 ,such was

 ,petersburg in #aibj4  ,i know there   
are people who have a quick and glib    
explanation of this vast and            
awe-inspiring spectacle of a great      
empire in collapse4 ,they say it is     
,bolshevism has caused all this         
destruction4 ,but ,i hope to show here1 
among other more important things1 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 history4  
,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 rule4      
,austria and ,hungary present spectacles
 hardly less desolating than ,russia4   
,there is a conspicuous ebb in          
civilization in ,eastern ,germany4 ,and 
even when you come to ,france and ,italy
 and ,ireland there are cities1         

townships1 whole wide regions1 where you
 can say3 ,this has gone back since     
#aiad and it is still going back in     
material prosperity1 in health1 in      
social order4  ,even in ,england and    
,scotland1 in ,holland and ,denmark and 
,sweden1 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         
#aiac-ad4 ,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 illness4     
,now what ,i want to do here is to      
theorize about this shadow1 this chill  
and arrest1 that seems to have come upon
 the flourishing and expanding          
civilization in which all of us were    
born and reared4 ,i want to put a       
particular view of what is happening    
before you1 and what it is that we are  
up against4 ,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 uprush1 to
 that tremendous expansion of human     
knowledge and power and life4 ,and that 
that breaking up is an inevitable thing 
unless we meet it by a very great effort
 of a particular kind4  ,now the gist of
 my case is this3 ,that the civilization
 of the past three centuries has        
produced a great store of scientific    
knowledge1 and that this scientific     
knowledge has altered the material scale
 of human affairs and enormously        
enlarged the physical range of human    
activities1 but that there has been no  
adequate adjustment of men's political  
ideas to the new conditions4  ,this     
adjustment is a subtle and a difficult  
task4 ,it is also a greatly neglected   
task4 ,and upon the possibility of our  
making this adjustment depends the issue

 whether the ebb of civilizing energy1  
the actual smashing and breaking down of
 modern civilization1 which has already 
gone very far indeed in ,russia and     
which is going on in most of ,eastern   
and ,central ,europe1 extends to the    
whole civilized world4  ,let me make a  
very rough and small scale analysis of  
what is happening to the world to-day4  
,and let us disregard many very         
important issues and concentrate upon   
the chief1 most typical issue1 the      
revolution in the facilities of         
locomotion and communication that has   
occurred to the world and the           
consequences of that revolution4 ,for   
the international problem to-day is     
essentially dependent upon the question 
of transport and communication--all     
others are subordinate to that4 ,i shall
 particularly call your attention to    
certain wide differences between the    
,american case and the old-world case in
 this matter4  ,it is not understood    
clearly enough at the present time how  

different is the ,american international
 problem from the ,european             
international problem1 and how          
inevitable it is that ,america and      
,europe should approach international   
problems from a different angle and in a
 different spirit4 ,both lines of       
thought and experience do1 ,i believe1  
lead at last to the world state1 but    
they get there by a different route and 
in a different manner4  ,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      
world1 is1 ,i believe1 a mistaken and   
unworkable idea4 ,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 world1 and that the role they are  
destined to play in the development of a
 world state of mankind is essentially a

 distinctive one4 ,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 years1 as one that is1 at once1 a 
little too much for complete ,american  
participation1 and not sufficient for   
the urgent needs of ,europe4 ,it is not 
really so practicable and reasonable a  
proposition as it seemed at first4  ,the
 idea of a world state1 though it looks 
a far greater and more difficult        
project1 is1 in the long run1 a sounder 
and more hopeful proposition4  ,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  
rests4 ,it is this3 forgive me for a    
repetition--that there has been a       
complete alteration in the range and    
power of human activities in the last   
hundred years4 ,men can react upon men  
with a rapidity and at a distance       
inconceivable a hundred years ago4 ,this

 is particularly the case with          
locomotion and methods of communication 
generally4 ,i will not remind you in any
 detail of facts with which you are     
familiar2 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 hour4 ,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 speed4 ,in those days1 too1 
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 
so4  ,since then we have seen a         
development of telegraphy that has at   
last made news almost simultaneous about
 the world1 and a steady increase in the
 rate of travel until1 as we worked it  
out in the ,civil ,air ,transport       
,committee in ,london1 it is possible1  
if not at present practicable1 to fly   

from ,london to ,australia1 half way    
round the earth1 in about eight days4 ,i
 say possible1 but not practicable1     
because at present properly surveyed    
routes1 landing grounds and adequate    
supplies of petrol and spare parts do   
not exist4 ,given those things1 that    
journey could be done now in the time ,i
 have stated4 ,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-day4  ,it is a curious  
thing that ,america1 which owes most to 
this acceleration in locomotion1 has    
felt it least4 ,the ,united ,states have
 taken the railway1 the river steamboat1
 the telegraph and so forth as though   
they were a natural part of their       
growth4 ,they were not4 ,these things   
happened to come along just in time to  
save ,american unity4 ,the ,united      
,states of to-day were made first by the
 river steamboat1 and then by the       

railway4 ,without these things1 the     
present ,united ,states1 this vast      
continental nation1 would have been     
altogether impossible4 ,the westward    
flow of population would have been far  
more sluggish4 ,it might never have     
crossed the great central plains4 ,it   
took1 you will remember1 nearly two     
hundred years for effective settlement  
to reach from the coast to the          
,missouri1 much less than half-way      
across the continent4 ,the first state  
established beyond the river was the    
steamboat state of ,missouri in #ahba4  
,but the rest of the distance to the    
,pacific was done in a few decades4  ,if
 we had the resources of the cinema it  
would be interesting to show a map of   
,north ,america year by year from #afjj 
onward1 with little dots to represent   
hundreds of people1 each dot a hundred1 
and stars to represent cities of a      
hundred thousand people4  ,for two      
hundred years you would see that        
stippling creeping slowly along the     

coastal districts and navigable waters1 
spreading still more gradually into     
,indiana1 ,kentucky1 and so forth4 ,then
 somewhere about #ahaj would come a     
change4 ,things would get more lively   
along the river courses4 ,the dots would
 be multiplying and spreading4 ,that    
would be the steamboat4 ,the pioneer    
dots would be spreading soon from a     
number of jumping-off places along the  
great rivers over ,kansas and ,nebraska4
  ,then from about #ahcj onward would   
come the black lines of the railways1   
and after that the little black dots    
would not simply creep but run4 ,they   
would appear now so rapidly1 it would be
 almost as though they were being put on
 by some sort of spraying machine4 ,and 
suddenly here and then there would      
appear the first stars to indicate the  
first great cities of a hundred thousand
 people4 ,first one or two and then a   
multitude of cities--each like a knot in
 the growing net of the railways4  ,this
 is a familiar story4 ,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 history2 it is a new kind of    
occurrence4 ,such a community could not 
have come into existence before1 and if 
it had it would1 without railways1 have 
certainly dropped to pieces long before 
now4 ,without railways or telegraph it  
would be far easier to administer       
,california from ,pekin than from       
,washington4 ,but this great population 
of the ,united ,states of ,america has  
not only grown outrageously2 it has kept
 uniform4 ,nay1 it has become more      
uniform4 ,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 ago4 ,and
 the process of assimilation goes on    
unimpeded4 ,the ,united ,states is being
 woven by railway1 by telegraph1 more   
and more into one vast human unity1     
speaking1 thinking1 and acting          
harmoniously with itself4 ,soon aviation

 will be helping in the work4  ,now this
 great community of the ,united ,states 
is1 ,i repeat1 an altogether new thing  
in history4 ,there have been great      
empires before with populations         
exceeding #ajj millions1 but these were 
associations of divergent peoples2 there
 has never been one single people on    
this scale before4 ,we want a new term  
for this new thing4 ,we call the ,united
 ,states a country1 just as we call     
,france or ,holland a country4 ,but     
really the two things are as different  
as an automobile and a one-horse shay4  
,they are the creations of different    
periods and different conditions2 they  
are going to work at a different pace   
and in an entirely different way4 ,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      
vehicle1 ,i venture to think the ,peace 
of the ,world will be subjected to some 
very considerable strains4  ,let me now 

make a brief comparison between the     
,american and the ,european situation in
 relation to these vital matters1       
locomotion and the general means of     
communicating4 ,i said just now that the
 ,united ,states of ,america owe most to
 the revolution in locomotion and have  
felt it least4 ,europe on the other hand
 owes least to the revolution in        
locomotion and has felt it most4 ,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 expand1 and into which it   
was free to expand4 ,the steamboat and  
railway seemed to come as a natural part
 of that expansion4 ,they came as       
unqualified blessings4 ,but into        
,western ,europe they came as a         
frightful nuisance4  ,the ,states of    
,europe1 excepting ,russia1 were already
 a settled1 established and balanced    
system4 ,they were living in final and  
conclusive boundaries with no further   

possibility of peaceful expansion4      
,every extension of a ,european state   
involved a war2 it was only possible    
through war4 ,and while the limits to   
the ,united ,states have been set by the
 steamship and the railroad1 the limits 
to the ,european sovereign states were  
drawn at a much earlier time4 ,they were
 drawn by the horse1 and particularly   
the coach-horse travelling along the    
high road4 ,if you will examine a series
 of political maps of ,europe for the   
last two thousand years1 you will see   
that there has evidently been a definite
 limit to the size of sovereign states  
through all that time1 due to the       
impossibility of keeping them together  
because of the difficulty of            
intercommunication if they grew bigger4 
,and this was in spite of the fact that 
there were two great unifying ideas     
present in men's minds in ,europe       
throughout that period1 namely1 the     
unifying idea of the ,roman ,empire1 and
 the unifying idea of ,christendom4     

,both these ideas tended to make ,europe
 one1 but the difficulties of           
communication defeated that tendency4   
,it is quite interesting to watch the   
adventures of what is called first the  
,roman ,empire and afterwards the ,holy 
,roman ,empire1 in a series of          
historical maps4 ,it keeps expanding and
 then dropping to pieces again4 ,it is  
like the efforts of someone who is      
trying to pack up a parcel which is much
 too big1 in wet blotting paper4 ,the   
cohesion was inadequate4 ,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 states1 each with a highly  
developed foreign policy1 each with an  
intense sense of national difference and
 each with intense traditional          
antagonisms4  ,then came this revolution
 in the means of locomotion1 which has  
increased the normal range of human     
activity at least ten times4 ,the effect
 of that in ,america was opportunity2   

the effect of it in ,europe was         
congestion4 ,it is as if some rather    
careless worker of miracles had decided 
suddenly to make giants of a score of   
ordinary men1 and chose the moment for  
the miracle when they were all with one 
exception strap-hanging in a street car4
 ,the ,united ,states was that fortunate
 exception4  ,now this is what modern   
civilization has come up against1 and it
 is the essential riddle of the modern  
sphinx which must be solved if we are to
 live4 ,all the ,european boundaries of 
to-day are impossibly small for modern  
conditions4 ,and they are sustained by  
an intensity of ancient tradition and   
patriotic passion4444 ,that is where we 
stand4  ,the citizens of the ,united    
,states of ,america are not without     
their experience in this matter4 ,the   
crisis of the national history of the   
,american community1 the war between    
,union and ,secession1 was essentially a
 crisis between the great state of the  
new age and the local feeling of an     

earlier period4 ,but ,union triumphed4  
,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 ,europe4 ,except by foreign travel1 
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 disunion4  ,let me take 
a small but quite significant set of    
differences1 the inconveniences of      
travel upon a journey of a little over a
 thousand miles4 ,they are in themselves
 petty inconveniences1 but they will    
serve to illustrate the net that is     
making free civilized life in ,europe   
more and more impossible4  ,take first  
the ,american case4 ,an ,american wants 
to travel from ,new ,york to ,st4       
,louis4 ,he looks up the next train1    
packs his bag1 gets aboard a sleeper and
 turns out at ,st4 ,louis next day ready

 for business4  ,take now the ,european 
parallel4 ,a ,european wants to travel  
from ,london to ,warsaw4 ,now that is a 
shorter distance by fifty or sixty miles
 than the distance from ,new ,york to   
,st4 ,louis4 ,will he pack his bag1 get 
aboard a train and go there8 ,he will   
not4 ,he will have to get a passport1   
and getting a passport involves all     
sorts of tiresome little errands4 ,one  
has to go to a photographer1 for        
example1 to get photographs to stick on 
the passport4 ,the good ,european has   
then to take his passport to the ,french
 representative in ,london for a ,french
 visa1 or1 if he is going through       
,belgium1 for a ,belgian visa4 ,after   
that he must get a ,german visa4 ,then  
he must go round to the ,czecho-,slovak 
office for a ,czechoslovak visa4        
,finally will come the ,polish visa4    
,each of these endorsements necessitates
 something vexatious1 personal          
attendance1 photography1 stamps1 rubber 
stamps1 mysterious signatures and the   

like1 and always the payment of fees4   
,also they necessitate delays4 ,the     
other day ,i had occasion to go to      
,moscow1 and ,i learnt that it takes    
three weeks to get a visa for ,finland  
and three weeks to get a visa for       
,esthonia4 ,you see you can't travel    
about ,europe at all without weeks and  
weeks of preparation4 ,the preparations 
for a little journey to ,russia the     
other day took three whole days out of  
my life1 cost me several pounds in      
stamps and fees1 and five in bribery4   
,ultimately1 however1 the good ,european
 is free to start4 ,arriving at the     
,french frontier in an hour or so1 he   
will be held up for a long customs'     
examination4 ,also he will need to      
change some of his money into francs4   
,his ,english money will be no good in  
,france4 ,the exchange in ,europe is    
always fluctuating1 and he will be      
cheated on the exchange4 ,all ,european 
countries1 including my own1 cheat      
travellers on the exchange--that is     

apparently what the exchange is for4    
,he will then travel for a few hours to 
the ,german frontier4 ,there he will be 
bundled out again4 ,the ,french will    
investigate him closely to see that he  
is not carrying gold or large sums of   
money out of ,france4 ,then he will be  
handed over to the ,germans4 ,he will go
 through the same business with the     
customs and the same business with the  
money4 ,his ,french money is no further 
use to him and he must get ,german4 ,a  
few more hours and he will arrive on the
 frontier of ,bohemia4 ,same search for 
gold4 ,then customs' examination and    
change of money again4 ,a few hours more
 and he will be in ,poland4 ,search for 
gold1 customs1 fresh money4  ,as most of
 these countries are pursuing different 
railway policies1 he will probably have 
to change trains and rebook his luggage 
three or four times4 ,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 states4 ,he will be lucky  
if he gets to ,warsaw in four days4     
,arrived in ,warsaw1 he will probably   
need a permit to stay there1 and he will
 certainly need no end of permits to    
leave4  ,now here is a fuss over a      
fiddling little journey of #a1ajj miles4
 ,is it any wonder that the bookings    
from ,london to ,warsaw are             
infinitesimal in comparison with the    
bookings from ,new ,york to ,st4 ,louis8
 ,but what ,i have noted here are only  
the normal inconveniences of the        
traveller4 ,they are by no means the    
most serious inconveniences4  ,the same 
obstructions that hamper the free       
movement of a traveller1 hamper the     
movement of foodstuffs and all sorts of 
merchandise in a much greater degree4   
,everywhere in ,europe trade is being   
throttled by tariffs and crippled by the
 ,st4 ,vitus' dance of the exchanges4   
,each of these ,european sovereign      
states turns out paper money at its own 
sweet will4 ,last summer ,i went to     

,prague and exchanged pounds for        
kroners4 ,they ought to have been #be to
 the pound4 ,on ,monday they were #ahj  
to the pound3 on ,friday #afi4 ,they    
jump about between #bbj and #aej1 and   
everybody is inconvenienced except the  
bankers and money changers4 ,and this   
uncertain exchange diverts considerable 
amounts of money that should be         
stimulating business enterprise into a  
barren and mischievous gambling with the
 circulation4  ,between each one of     
these compressed ,european countries the
 movement of food or labour is still    
more blocked and impeded4 ,and in       
addition to these nuisances of national 
tariffs and independent national        
coinages at every few score miles1      
,europe is extraordinarily crippled by  
its want of any central authority to    
manage the most elementary collective   
interests2 the control of vice1 for     
example2 the handling of infectious     
diseases2 the suppression of            
international criminals4  ,europe is now

 confronted by a new problem--the       
problem of air transport4 ,so far as ,i 
can see1 air transport is going to be   
strangled in ,europe by international   
difficulties4 ,one can fly comfortably  
and safely from ,london to ,paris in two
 or three hours4 ,but the passport      
preliminaries will take days beforehand4
  ,the other day ,i wanted to get       
quickly to ,reval in ,esthonia from     
,england and back again4 ,the distance  
is about the same as from ,boston to    
,minneapolis1 and it could be done      
comfortably in #aj or #ab hours' flying4
 ,i proposed to the ,handley ,page      
,company that they should arrange this  
for me4 ,they explained that they had no
 power to fly beyond ,amsterdam in      
,holland2 thence it might be possible to
 get a ,german plane to ,hamburg1 and   
thence again a ,danish plane to         
,copenhagen--leaving about #ejj miles   
which were too complicated politically  
to fly4 ,each stoppage would involve    
passport and other difficulties4 ,in the

 end it took me five days to get to     
,reval and seven days to get back4 ,in  
,europe1 with its present frontiers1    
flying is not worth having4 ,it can     
never be worth having--it can never be  
worked successfully--until it is worked 
as at least a pan-,european affair4     
,all these are the normal inconveniences
 of the national divisions of ,europe in
 peace time4 ,by themselves they are    
strangling all hope of economic         
recovery4 ,for ,europe is not getting on
 to its feet economically4 ,only a      
united effort can effect that4 ,but     
along each of the ridiculously          
restricted frontiers into which the     
,european countries are packed1 lies    
also the possibility of war4 ,national  
independence means the right to declare 
war4 ,and so each of these packed and   
strangulated ,european countries is     
obliged1 by its blessed independence1 to
 maintain as big an army and as big a   
military equipment as its bankrupt      
condition--for we are all               

bankrupt--permits4  ,since the end of   
the ,great ,war1 nothing has been done  
of any real value to ensure any         
,european country against the threat of 
war1 and nothing will be done1 and      
nothing can be done to lift that threat1
 so long as the idea of national        
independence overrides all other        
considerations4  ,and again1 it is a    
little difficult for a mind accustomed  
to ,american conditions1 to realize what
 modern war will mean in ,europe4  ,not 
one of these sovereign ,european states 
,i have named between ,london and       
,warsaw is any larger than the one      
single ,american state of ,texas1 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 war4 ,we can  
fly from ,london to ,paris in two or    
three hours4 ,and the aerial bombs of   
to-day1 ,i can assure you1 will make the
 biggest bombs of #aiah seem like little
 crackers4 ,over all these ,european    

countries broods this immediate threat  
of a warfare that will strain and       
torment the nerves of every living man1 
woman or child in the countries         
affected4 ,nothing of the sort can      
approach the ,american citizen except   
after a long warning4 ,the worst war    
that could happen to any ,north         
,american country would merely touch its
 coasts4  ,now ,i have dwelt on these   
differences between ,america and ,europe
 because they involve an absolute       
difference in outlook towards world     
peace projects1 towards leagues of      
nations1 world states and the like1     
between the ,american and the ,european4
  ,the ,american lives in a political   
unity on the big modern scale4 ,he can  
go on comfortably for a hundred years   
yet before he begins to feel tight in   
his political skin1 and before he begins
 to feel the threat of immediate warfare
 close to his domestic life4 ,he        
believes by experience in peace1 but he 
feels under no passionate urgency to    

organize it4 ,so far as he himself is   
concerned1 he has got peace organized   
for a good long time ahead4 ,i doubt if 
it would make any very serious          
difference for some time in the ordinary
 daily life of ,kansas ,city1 let us    
say1 if all ,europe were reduced to a   
desert in the next five years4  ,but on 
the other hand1 the intelligent         
,european is up against the unity of    
,europe problem night and day4 ,europe  
cannot go on4 ,european civilization    
cannot go on1 unless that net of        
boundaries which strangles her is       
dissolved away4 ,the difficulties       
created by language differences1 by     
bitter national traditions1 by bad      
political habits and the like1 are no   
doubt stupendous4 ,but stupendous though
 they are1 they have to be faced4       
,unless they are overcome1 and overcome 
in a very few years1 ,europe--entangled 
in this net of boundaries1 and under a  
perpetual fear of war1 will1 ,i am      
convinced1 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
 ,empire4  ,the ,american intelligence  
and the ,european intelligence approach 
this question of a world peace1         
therefore1 from an entirely different   
angle and in an entirely different      
spirit4 ,to the ,american in the blessed
 ease of his great unbroken territory1  
it seems a matter simply of making his  
own ample securities world-wide by      
treaties of arbitration and such-like   
simple agreements4 ,and my impression is
 that he thinks of ,europeans as living 
under precisely similar conditions4     
,nothing of that sort will meet the     
problem of the ,old ,world4 ,the        
,european situation is altogether more  
intense and tragic than the ,american4  
,europe needs not treaties but a        
profound change in its political ideas  
and habits4 ,europe is saturated with   
narrow patriotism like a body saturated 

by some evil inherited disease4 ,she is 
haunted by narrow ambitions and ancient 
animosities4  ,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 time4  ,the ,american type of   
state and the ,european type of state   
are different things1 incapable of an   
effectual alliance2 the steam tractor   
and the ox cannot plough this furrow    
together4 ,american thought1 ,american  
individuals1 may no doubt play a very   
great part in the task of reconstruction
 that lies before ,europe1 but not the  
,american federal government as a       
sovereign state among equal states4     
,the ,united ,states constitute a state 
on a different scale and level from any 
old world state4 ,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 state4  ,any ,league of ,nations 
aiming at stability now1 would          
necessarily be a league seeking to      
stereotype existing boundaries and      
existing national ideas4 ,now these     
boundaries and these ideas are just what
 have to be got rid of at any cost4     
,before ,europe can get on to a level   
and on to equal terms with the ,united  
,states1 the ,european communities have 
to go through a process that ,america   
went through--under much easier         
conditions--a century and a half ago4   
,they have to repeat1 on a much greater 
scale and against profounder prejudices1
 the feat of understanding and          
readjustment that was accomplished by   
the ,american people between #agha and  
#aghh4  ,as you will all remember1 these
 ,states after they had decided upon    
,independence1 framed certain ,articles 
of ,confederation2 they were articles of
 confederation between thirteen nations1
 between the people of ,massachusetts1  
the people of ,virginia1 the people of  

,georgia1 and so forth--thirteen        
distinct and separate sovereign peoples4
 ,they made a ,union so lax and feeble  
that it could neither keep order at home
 nor maintain respect abroad4 ,then they
 produced another constitution4 ,they   
swept aside all that talk about the     
people of ,massachusetts1 the people of 
,virginia1 and the rest of their        
thirteen nations4 ,they based their     
union on a wider idea3 the people of the
 ,united ,states4  ,now ,europe1 if it  
is not to sink down to anarchy1 has to  
do a parallel thing4 ,if ,europe is to  
be saved from ultimate disaster1 ,europe
 has to stop thinking in terms of the   
people of ,france1 the people of        
,england1 the people of ,germany1 the   
,french1 the ,british1 the ,germans1 and
 so forth4 ,europe has to think at least
 of the people of ,europe1 if not of the
 civilized people of the world4 ,if we  
,europeans cannot bring our minds to    
that1 there is no hope for us4 ,only by 
thinking of all peoples can any people  

be saved in ,europe4 ,fresh wars will   
destroy the social fabric of ,europe1   
and ,europe will perish as nations1     
fighting4  ,there are many people who   
think that there is at least one        
political system in the old world which1
 like the ,united ,states1 is large     
enough and world wide enough to go on by
 itself under modern conditions for some
 considerable time4 ,they think that the
 ,british ,empire can1 as it were1 stand
 out of the rest of the ,old ,world as a
 self-sufficient system4 ,they think    
that it can stand out freely as the     
,united ,states can stand out1 and that 
these two ,english-speaking powers have 
merely to agree together to dominate and
 keep the peace of the world4  ,let me  
give a little attention to this idea4   
,it is ,i believe a wrong idea1 and one 
that may be very disastrous to our      
common ,english-speaking culture if it  
is too fondly cherished4  ,there can be 
no denying that the ,british ,imperial  
system is a system different in its     

nature and size from a typical ,european
 state1 from a state of the horse and   
road scale1 like ,france1 let us say1 or
 ,germany4 ,and equally it is with the  
,united ,states a new growth4 ,the      
present ,british ,empire is indeed a    
newer growth than the ,united ,states4  
,but while the ,united ,states          
constitute a homogeneous system and grow
 more homogeneous1 the ,british ,empire 
is heterogeneous and shows little or no 
assimilative power4 ,and while the      
,united ,states are all gathered        
together and are still very remote from 
any serious antagonist1 the ,british    
,empire is scattered all over the world1
 entangled with and stressed against a  
multitude of possible antagonists4  ,i  
have been arguing that the size and     
manageability of all political states is
 finally a matter of transport and      
communications4 ,they grow to a limit   
strictly determined by these            
considerations4 ,beyond that limit they 
are unstable4 ,let us now apply these   

ideas to the ,british ,empire4  ,i have 
shown that the great system of the      
,united ,states is the creation of the  
river steamboat and the railway4 ,quite 
as much so is the present ,british      
,empire the creation of the ocean-going 
steamship--protected by a great navy4   
,the ,british ,empire is a modern ocean 
state just as the ,united ,states is a  
modern continental state4 ,the political
 and economic cohesion of the ,british  
,empire rests upon this one thing1 upon 
the steamship remaining the dominant and
 secure means of world transport in the 
future4 ,if the ,british ,empire is to  
remain sovereign and secure and         
independent of the approval and         
co-operation of other states1 it is     
necessary that steamship transport      
7ocean transport7 should remain dominant
 in peace and invulnerable in war4      
,well1 that brings us face to face with 
two comparatively new facts that throw a
 shadow upon both that predominance and 
upon that invulnerability4 ,one is air  

transport2 the other the submarine4 ,the
 possibilities of the ocean-going       
submarine ,i will not enlarge upon now4 
,they will be familiar to everyone who  
followed the later phases of the ,great 
,war4  ,it must be clear that sea power 
is no longer the simple and decisive    
thing it was before the coming of the   
submarine4 ,the sea ways can no longer  
be taken and possessed completely4 ,to  
no other power1 except ,japan1 is this  
so grave a consideration as it is to    
,britain4  ,and if we turn to the       
possibilities of air-transport in the   
future we are forced towards the same   
conclusion1 that the security of the    
,british ,empire must rest in the future
 not on its strength in warfare1 but on 
its keeping the peace within and without
 its boundaries4  ,i was a member of the
 ,british ,civil ,air ,transport        
,committee1 and we went with care and   
thoroughness into the possibilities and 
probabilities of the air4 ,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  
mails1 for long-distance passenger      
traffic1 and for the carriage of most   
valuable and compact commodities4 ,the  
ocean ways are likely to be only the    
ways for slow travel and for staple and 
bulky trade4  ,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 air4    
,moreover1 it was borne in upon me that 
the chief air routes of the world will  
lie over the great plains of the world1 
that they will cross wide stretches of  
sea or mountainous country only very    
reluctantly4  ,now think of how the     
,british ,empire lies with relation to  
the great sea and land masses of the    
world4 ,there has been talk in ,great   
,britain of what people have called     
all-red air routes1 that is to say1     
all-,british air routes4 ,there are no  
all-red air routes4 ,you cannot get out 

of ,britain to any other parts of the   
,empire1 unless perhaps it is ,canada1  
without crossing foreign territory4     
,that is a fact that ,british people    
have to face and digest1 and the sooner 
they grasp it the better for them4      
,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       
neighbours4 ,if she embarks             
single-handed on any considerable war   
she will find both her air and her sea  
communications almost completely cut4   
,and so the ,british ,empire1 in spite  
of its size and its modernity1 is not   
much better off now in the way of       
standing alone than the other ,european 
countries4 ,it is no exception to our   
generalization that 7apart from all     
other questions7 the scale and form of  
the ,european states are out of harmony 
with contemporary and developing        
transport conditions1 and that all these
 powers are1 if only on this account1   

under one urgent necessity to sink those
 ideas of complete independence that    
have hitherto dominated them4 ,it is a  
life and death necessity4 ,if they      
cannot obey it they will all be         
destroyed4     ,,iii  ,,the             
,,enlargement ,,of ,,patriotism ,,to ,a 
,,world ,,state   ,in my opening        
argument ,i have shown the connexion    
between the present intense political   
troubles of the world and more          
particularly of ,europe1 and the advance
 in mechanical knowledge during the past
 hundred and fifty years4 ,i have shown 
that without a very drastic readjustment
 of political ideas and habits1 there   
opens before ,europe and the world      
generally1 a sure prospect of           
degenerative conflicts2 that without    
such a readjustment1 our civilization   
has passed its zenith and must continue 
the process of collapse that has been in
 progress since ,august1 #aiad4  ,now   
this readjustment means an immediate    
conflict with existing patriotism4 ,we  

have embarked here upon a discussion in 
which emotion and passion seem quite    
unavoidable1 the discussion of          
nationality4 ,at the very outset we bump
 violently against patriotism as any    
,european understands that word4 ,and it
 is1 ,i hold1 impossible not to bump    
against ,european patriotisms4 ,we      
cannot temporize with patriotism1 as one
 finds it in ,europe1 and get on towards
 a common human welfare4 ,the two things
 are flatly opposed4 ,one or other must 
be sacrificed4 ,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 ,europe4  ,do we want to 
get rid of patriotism altogether8  ,i do
 not think we want to get rid of        
patriotism1 and ,i do not think we      
could1 even if we wanted to do so4 ,it  
seems to be necessary to his moral life1
 that a man should feel himself part of 
a community1 belonging to it1 and it    
belonging to him4 ,and that this        

community should be a single and lovable
 reality1 inspired by a common idea1    
with a common fashion and aim4  ,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 state1 materially bigger and
 materially less encumbered than any    
,european state4 ,and he also finds an  
intensely patriotic people whose        
patriotism isn't really the equivalent  
of a ,european patriotism4 ,it is       
historically and practically a synthesis
 of ,european patriotisms4 ,it is       
numerically bigger4 ,it is              
geographically ten times as big4 ,that  
is very important indeed from the point 
of view of this discussion4 ,and it is  
synthetic2 it is a thing made out of    
something smaller4 ,people1 ,i believe1 
talk of #ajj per cent4 ,americans4      
,there is no #ajj per cent4 ,american   
except the ,red ,indian4 ,there isn't a 
white man in the ,united ,states from   

whose blood a large factor of ,european 
patriotism hasn't been washed out to    
make way for his ,american patriotism4  
,upon this fact of ,american patriotism1
 as a larger different thing than       
,european patriotism1 ,i build4 ,the    
thing can be done4 ,if it can be done in
 the ,europeans and their descendants   
who have come to ,america1 it can       
conceivably be done in the ,europeans   
who abide in ,europe4 ,and how can we   
set about doing it8  ,america1 the      
silent1 comprehensive continent of      
,america1 did the thing by taking all   
the various nationalities who have made 
up her population and obliging them to  
live together4  ,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    
wisdom4 ,there are no more virgin       
continents4 ,europe must stay where she 
is4444  ,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 direction4 ,let  
us then1 for a few moments1 instead of  
talking of the expansion and synthesis  
of patriotism in ,europe1 imagine a     
development of narrow patriotism in     
,america and consider how that case     
could be dealt with4  ,suppose1 for     
instance1 there was a serious outbreak  
of local patriotism in ,kentucky4       
,suppose you found the people of        
,kentucky starting a flag of their own  
and objecting to what they would        
probably call the vague internationalism
 of the stars and stripes4 ,suppose you 
found them wanting to set up tariff     
barriers to the trade of the states     
round about them4 ,suppose you found    
they were preparing to annex            
considerable parts of the state of      
,virginia by force1 in order to secure a
 proper strategic frontier among the    
mountains to the east1 and that they    
were also talking darkly of their need  
for an outlet to the sea of their very  

own4  ,what would an ,american citizen  
think of such an outbreak8 ,he would    
probably think that ,kentucky had gone  
mad4 ,but this1 which seems such        
fantastic behaviour when we imagine it  
occurring in ,kentucky1 is exactly what 
is happening in ,europe in the case of  
little states that are hardly any larger
 than ,kentucky4 ,they have always been 
so4 ,they have not gone mad2 if this    
sort of thing is madness then they were 
born mad4 ,and they have never been     
cured4 ,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 trouble4     
,and what would the ,american community 
probably do in such a case8 ,it would   
probably begin by inquiring where       
,kentucky had got these strange ideas4  
,they would look for sources of         
infection4 ,somebody must have been     
preaching there or writing in the       
newspapers or teaching mischief in the  
school4 ,and ,i suppose the people of   

the ,united ,states would set themselves
 very earnestly to see that sounder     
sense was talked and taught to the      
people of ,kentucky about these things4 
,now that is precisely what has to be   
done in the parallel ,european case4    
,everywhere in ,europe there goes on in 
the national schools1 in the patriotic  
churches1 in the national presses1 in   
the highly nationalized literatures1 a  
unity-destroying propaganda of          
patriotism4 ,the schools of all the     
,european countries at the present time 
with scarcely an exception1 teach the   
most rancid patriotism2 they are centres
 of an abominable political infection4  
,the children of ,europe grow up with an
 intensity of national egotism that     
makes them1 for all practical           
international purposes1 insane4 ,they   
are not born with it1 but they are      
infected with it as soon as they can    
read and write4 ,the ,british learn     
nothing but the glories of ,britain and 
the ,british ,empire2 the ,french are1  

if possible1 still more insanely        
concentrated on ,france2 the ,germans   
are just recovering from the bitter     
consequences of forty years of intensive
 nationalist education4 ,and so on4     
,every country in ,europe is its own    
,sinn ,fein1 cultivating that ugly and  
silly obsession of ourselves alone4     
,ourselves alone is the sure guide to   
conflict and disaster1 to want1 misery1 
violence1 degradation and death for our 
children and our children's             
children--until our race is dead4  ,the 
first task before us in ,europe is1 at  
any cost1 to release our children from  
this nationalist obsession1 to teach the
 mass of ,european people a little      
truthful history in which each one will 
see the past and future of his own      
country in their proper proportions1 and
 a little truthful ethnology in which   
each country will get over the delusion 
that its people are a distinct and      
individual race4 ,the history teaching  
in the schools of ,europe is at the very

 core of this business4  ,but that is   
only1 so to speak1 the point of         
application of great complex influences1
 the influences that mould us in        
childhood1 the teachings of literature1 
of the various religious bodies1 and the
 daily reiteration of the press4 ,before
 ,europe can get on1 there has to be a  
colossal turnover of these moral and    
intellectual forces in the direction of 
creating an international mind4 ,if that
 can be effected then there is hope for 
,europe and the ,old ,world4 ,if it     
cannot be effected1 then certainly      
,europe will go down--with its flags    
nailed to its masts4 ,we are on a       
sinking ship that only one thing can    
save4 ,we have to oust these ,european  
patriotisms by some greater idea or     
perish4  ,what is this greater idea to  
be8  ,now ,i submit that this greater   
idea had best be the idea of the ,world 
,state of ,all ,mankind4  ,i will admit 
that so far ,i have made a case only for
 teaching the idea of a ,united ,states 

of ,europe in ,europe4 ,i have          
concentrated our attention upon that    
region of maximum congestion and        
conflict4 ,but as a matter of fact there
 are no real and effective barriers and 
boundaries in the ,old ,world between   
,europe and ,asia and ,africa4 ,the     
ordinary ,russian talks of ,europe as   
one who is outside it4 ,the ,european   
political systems flow over and have    
always overflowed into the greater areas
 to the east and south4 ,remember the   
early empires of ,macedonia and ,rome4  
,see how the ,russian language runs to  
the ,pacific1 and how ,islam radiates   
into all three continents4 ,i will not  
elaborate this case4  ,when you bear    
such things in mind1 ,i think you will  
agree with me that if we are to talk of 
a ,united ,states of ,europe1 it is just
 as easy and practicable to talk of a   
,united ,states of the ,old ,world4 ,and
 are we to stop at a ,united ,states of 
the ,old ,world8  ,no doubt the most    
evident synthetic forces in ,america at 

the present time point towards some sort
 of pan-,american unification4 ,that is 
the nearest thing4 ,that may come first4
  ,but are we to contemplate a sort of  
dual world--the ,new ,world against the 
,old8  ,i do not think that would be any
 very permanent or satisfactory         
stopping-place4 ,why make two bites at a
 planet8 ,if we work for unity on the   
large scale we are contemplating1 we may
 as well work for world unity4  ,not    
only in distance but in a score of other
 matters are ,london and ,rome nearer to
 ,new ,york than is ,patagonia1 and ,san
 ,francisco is always likely to be more 
interesting to ,japan than ,paris or    
,madrid4 ,i cannot see any reason for   
supposing that the mechanical drawing   
together of the peoples of the world    
into one economic and political unity is
 likely to cease--unless our            
civilization ceases4 ,i see no signs    
that our present facilities for         
transport and communication are the     
ultimate possible facilities4 ,once we  

break away from current nationalist     
limitations in our political ideas1 then
 there is no reason and no advantage in 
contemplating any halfway house to a    
complete human unity4  ,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 ,nations4  ,let me first   
admit the extraordinary educational     
value of the ,league of ,nations        
propaganda1 and of the attempt that has 
been made to create a ,league of        
,nations4 ,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 way4  ,but is it a
 league of nations that is wanted8  ,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 continue4 ,and the phrase 
has a thin and legal and litigious      
flavour4 ,what loyalty and what devotion
 can we expect this multiple association
 to command8 ,it has no unity--no       
personality4 ,it is like asking a man to
 love the average member of a woman's   
club instead of loving his wife4  ,for  
the idea of ,man1 for human unity1 for  
our common blood1 for the one order of  
the world1 ,i can imagine men living and
 dying1 but not for a miscellaneous     
assembly that will not mix--even in its 
name4 ,it has no central idea1 no heart 
to it1 this ,league of ,nations formula4
 ,it is weak and compromising just where
 it should be strong--in defining its   
antagonism to separate national         
sovereignty4 ,for that is what it aims  
at1 if it means business4 ,if it means  
business it means at least a super-state
 overriding the autonomy of existing    
states1 and if it does not mean business
 then we have no use for it whatever4   

,it may seem a much greater undertaking 
to attack nationality and nationalism   
instead of patching up a compromise with
 these things1 but along the line of    
independent nationality lies no hope of 
unity and peace and continuing progress 
for mankind4 ,we cannot suffer these old
 concentrations of loyalty because we   
want that very loyalty which now1       
concentrates upon them to cement and    
sustain the peace of all the world4     
,just as in the past provincial         
patriotisms have given place to national
 patriotisms1 so now we need to oust    
these still too narrow devotions by a   
new unity and a new reigning idea1 the  
idea of one state and one flag in all   
the earth4  ,the idea of the ,world     
,state stands to the idea of the ,league
 of ,nations much as the idea of the 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 gods4 ,there is no  

compromise possible in the one matter as
 in the other4 ,there is no way round4  
,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-day4 ,we have already glanced at the 
near and current consequences of our    
failure to bring about that             
substitution4  ,now this is an immense  
proposal4 ,is it a preposterous one8    
,let us not shirk the tremendous scale  
upon which the foundations of a world   
state of all mankind must be laid4 ,but 
remember1 however great that task before
 us may seem1 however near it may come  
to the impossible1 nevertheless1 in the 
establishment of one world rule and one 
world law lies the only hope of escape  
from an increasing tangle of wars1 from 
social overstrain1 and at last a social 
dissolution so complete as to end for   
ever the tale of mankind as we          
understand mankind4  ,personally ,i am  

appalled by the destruction already done
 in the world in the past seven years4  
,i doubt if any untravelled ,american   
can realize how much of ,europe is      
already broken up4 ,i do not think many 
people realize how swiftly ,europe is   
still sinking1 how urgent it is to get  
,european affairs put back upon a basis 
of the common good if civilization is to
 be saved4  ,and now1 as to the         
immensity of this project of            
substituting loyalty to a world         
commonweal for loyalty to a single      
egotistical belligerent nation4 ,it is a
 project to invade hundreds of millions 
of minds1 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 commonweal4 
,we have to get not only into the at    
present intensely patriotic minds of    
,frenchmen1 ,germans1 ,english1 ,irish  
and ,japanese1 but into the remote and  
difficult minds of ,arabs and ,indians  

and into the minds of the countless     
millions of ,china4 ,is there any       
precedent to justify us in hoping that  
such a change in world ideas is         
possible8  ,i think there is4 ,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 
matters4 ,in the past there have been   
very great changes in human thought4 ,i 
need scarcely remind you of the spread  
of ,christianity in ,western ,europe4   
,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   
,empire1 into the unity of ,christendom1
 into a community with such an idea of  
unity that it could be roused from end  
to end by the common idea of the        
,crusades4  ,still more remarkable was  
the swift transformation in less than a 
century of all the nations and peoples  
to the south and west of the            

,mediterranean1 from ,spain to ,central 
,asia1 into the unity of ,islam1 a unity
 which has lasted to this day4 ,in both 
these cases1 what ,i may call the mental
 turnover was immense4  ,i think if you 
will consider the spread of these very  
complex and difficult religions1 and    
compare the means at the disposal of    
their promoters with the means at the   
disposal of intelligent people to-day1  
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 project4      
,those great teachings of the past were 
spread largely by word of mouth4 ,their 
teachers had to travel slowly and       
dangerously4 ,people were gathered      
together to hear with great difficulty1 
except in a few crowded towns4 ,books   
could be used only sparingly4 ,few      
people could read1 fewer still could    
translate1 and ,,mss4 were copied with  
extreme slowness upon parchment4 ,there 
was no printing1 no paper1 no post4 ,and

 except for a very few people there were
 no schools4 ,both ,christendom and     
,islam had to create their common       
schools in order to preserve even a     
minimum of their doctrine intact from   
generation to generation4 ,all this was 
done in the teeth of much bitter        
opposition and persecution4  ,now to-day
 we have means of putting ideas and     
arguments swiftly and effectively before
 people all over the world at the same  
time1 such as no one could have dreamt  
of a hundred years ago4 ,we have not    
only books and papers1 but in the cinema
 we have a means of rapid1 vivid        
presentation still hardly used4 ,we have
 schools nearly everywhere4 ,and here in
 the need for an overruling world state1
 and the idea of world service replacing
 combative patriotism1 we have an       
urgent1 a commanding human need4 ,we    
have an invincible case for this world  
state and an unanswerable objection to  
the nationalisms and patriotisms that   
would oppose it4  ,is it not almost     

inevitable that some of us should get   
together and begin a propaganda upon    
modern lines of this organized world    
peace1 without which our race must      
perish8 ,the world perishes for the want
 of a common political idea4 ,it is     
still quite possible to give the world  
this common political idea1 the idea of 
a federal world state4 ,we cannot help  
but set about doing it4  ,so ,i put it  
to you that the most important work     
before men and women to-day is the      
preaching and teaching1 the elaboration 
and then at last the realization of this
 ,project of the ,world ,state4 ,we have
 to create a vision of it1 to make it   
seem first a possibility and then an    
approaching reality4 ,this is a task    
that demands the work and thought of    
thousands of minds4 ,we have to spread  
the idea of a ,federal ,world ,state1 as
 an approaching reality1 throughout the 
world4 ,we can do this nowadays through 
a hundred various channels4 ,we can do  
it through the press1 through all sorts 

of literary expression1 in our schools1 
colleges1 and universities1 through     
political mouthpieces1 by special       
organizations1 and last1 but not least1 
through the teaching of the churches4   
,for remember that all the great        
religions of the world are in theory    
universalist2 they may tolerate the     
divisions of men but they cannot        
sanction them4 ,we propose no religious 
revolution1 but at most a religious     
revival4 ,we can spread ideas and       
suggestions now with a hundred times the
 utmost rapidity of a century ago4      
,this movement need not at once         
intervene in politics4 ,it is a         
prospective movement1 and its special   
concern will be with young and still    
growing minds4 ,but as it spreads it    
will inevitably change politics4 ,the   
nations1 states1 and kingdoms of to-day1
 which fight and scheme against each    
other as though they had to go on       
fighting and scheming for ever1 will    
become more and more openly and         

manifestly merely guardian governments1 
governments playing a waiting part in   
the world1 while the world state comes  
of age4 ,for this ,world ,state1 for    
which the world is waiting1 must        
necessarily be a fusion of all          
governments1 and heir to all the        
empires4  ,so far ,i have been occupied 
by establishing a case for the ,world   
,state4 ,it has been1 ,i fear1 rather an
 abstract discussion4 ,i have kept      
closely to the bare hard logic of the   
present human situation4  ,but now let  
me attempt very briefly1 in the barest  
outline1 some concrete realization of   
what a ,world ,state would mean4 ,let us
 try and conceive for ourselves the form
 a ,world ,state would take4 ,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 it4 ,as
 it stands ,world ,state means simply a 
politically undivided world4 ,let us try
 and carry that over to the idea of a   

unified organized state throughout the  
world4  ,let us try to imagine what a   
,world ,government would be like4 ,i    
find that when one speaks of a ,world   
,state people think at once of some     
existing government and magnify it to   
world proportions4 ,they ask1 for       
example1 where will the ,world ,congress
 meet2 and how will you elect your      
,world ,president8 ,won't your ,world   
,president1 they say1 be rather a       
tremendous personage8 ,how are we to    
choose him8 ,or will there be a ,world  
,king8 ,these are very natural          
questions1 at the first onset4 ,but are 
they sound questions8 ,may they not be a
 little affected by false analogies8    
,the governing of the whole of the world
 may turn out to be not a magnified     
version of governing a part of the      
world1 but a different sort of job      
altogether4 ,these analogies that people
 draw so readily from national states   
may not really work in a world state4   
,and first with regard to this question 

of a king or president4 ,let us ask     
whether it is probable that the world   
state will have any single personal head
 at all8  ,is the world state likely to 
be a monarchy--either an elective short 
term limited monarchy such as is the    
,united ,states1 or an inherited limited
 monarchy like the ,british ,empire8    
,many people will say1 you must have a  
head of the state4 ,but must you8 ,is   
not this idea a legacy from the days    
when states were small communities      
needing a leader in war and diplomacy8  
,in the ,world ,state we must remember  
there will be no war--and no diplomacy  
as such4  ,i would even question whether
 in such a great modern state as the    
,u4,s4,a4 the idea and the functions of 
the president may not be made too       
important4 ,indeed ,i believe that      
question has been asked by many people  
in the ,states lately1 and has been     
answered in the affirmative4  ,the broad
 lines of the ,united ,states           
constitution were drawn in a period of  

almost universal monarchy4 ,american    
affairs were overshadowed by the        
personality of ,george ,washington1 and 
as you know1 monarchist ideas were so   
rife that there was a project1 during   
the years of doubt and division that    
followed the ,war of ,independence1 for 
importing a ,german ,king1 a ,prussian  
,prince1 in imitation of the ,british   
,monarchy4 ,but if the ,united ,states  
were beginning again to-day on its      
present scale1 would it put so much     
power and importance upon a single      
individual as it put upon ,george       
,washington and his successors in the   
,white ,house8 ,i doubt it very much4   
,there may be a limit1 ,i suggest1 to   
the size and complexity of a community  
that can be directed by a single        
personal head4 ,perhaps that limit may  
have been passed by both the ,united    
,states and by the ,british ,empire at  
the present time4 ,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
 millions4 ,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 cities8  ,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 link4 ,after tremendous exertions
 a very large amount of the ground still
 remains to be covered4  ,i will confess
 ,i cannot see any single individual    
human head in my vision of the ,world   
,state4  ,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 mankind4  ,if at any   
time1 for any purpose1 some one         
individual had to step out and act for  
the ,world ,state as a whole1 then ,i   

suppose the senior judges of the        
,supreme ,court1 or the ,speaker of the 
,council1 or the head of the ,associated
 ,scientific ,societies1 or some such   
person1 could step out and do what had  
to be done4  ,but if there is to be no  
single head person1 there must be at    
least some sort of assembly or council4 
,that seems to be necessary4 ,but will  
it be a gathering at all like ,congress 
or the ,british ,parliament1 with a     
,government side and an opposition ruled
 by party traditions and party ideas8   
,there again1 ,i think we may be too    
easily misled by existing but temporary 
conditions4 ,i do not think it is       
necessary to assume that the council of 
the ,world ,state will be an assembly of
 party politicians4 ,i believe it will  
be possible to have it a real gathering 
of representatives1 a fair sample of the
 thought and will of mankind at large1  
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 ,parliament1 devices that play 
directly into the hands of the party    
organizer who trades upon the defects of
 political method4  ,will this council  
be directly elected8 ,that1 ,i think1   
may be found to be essential4 ,and upon 
a very broad franchise4 ,because1       
firstly1 it is before all things        
important that every adult in the world 
should feel a direct and personal       
contact between himself and the ,world  
,state1 and that he is an assenting and 
participating citizen of the world2 and 
secondly1 because if your council is    
appointed by any intermediate body1 all 
sorts of local and national             
considerations1 essential in the        
business of the subordinate body1 will  
get in the way of a simple and direct   
regard for the world commonweal4  ,and  
as to this council3 ,will it have great 
debates and wonderful scenes and crises 
and so forth--the sort of thing that    
looks well in a large historical        

painting8 ,there again we may be easily 
misled by analogy4 ,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 eloquence4 ,eloquence is  
far more adapted to the conditions of a 
,red ,indian pow-wow than to the        
ordering of large and complicated       
affairs4 ,the ,world ,council may be a  
very taciturn assembly4 ,it may even    
meet infrequently4 ,its members may     
communicate their views largely by notes
 which may have to be very clear and    
explicit1 because they will have to     
stand translation1 and short--to escape 
neglect4  ,and what will be the chief   
organs and organizations and works and  
methods with which this ,council of the 
,world ,state will be concerned8  ,there
 will be a ,supreme ,court determining  
not ,international ,law1 but ,world     
,law4 ,there will be a growing ,code of 
,world ,law4  ,there will be a world    

currency4  ,there will be a ministry of 
posts1 transport and communications     
generally4  ,there will be a ministry of
 trade in staple products and for the   
conservation and development of the     
natural resources of the earth4  ,there 
will be a ministry of social and labour 
conditions4  ,there will be a ministry  
of world health4  ,there will be a      
ministry1 the most important ministry of
 all1 watching and supplementing        
national educational work and taking up 
the care and stimulation of backward    
communities4  ,and instead of a ,war    
,office and ,naval and ,military        
departments1 there will be a ,peace     
,ministry studying the belligerent      
possibilities of every new invention1   
watching for armed disturbances         
everywhere1 and having complete control 
of every armed force that remains in the
 world4 ,all these world ministries will
 be working in co-operation with local  
authorities who will apply world-wide   
general principles to local conditions4 

,these items probably comprehend        
everything that the government of a     
,world ,state would have to do4 ,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 discussions4 ,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 ,empire4 ,in   
many respects it will have an enormously
 simplified task4 ,there will be no     
foreign enemy1 no foreign competition1  
no tariffs1 so far as it is concerned1  
or tariff wars4 ,it will be keeping     
order2 it will not be carrying on a     
contest4 ,there will be no necessity for
 secrecy2 it will not be necessary to   
have a ,cabinet plotting and planning   
behind closed doors2 there will be no   
general policy except a steady attention
 to the common welfare4 ,even the       

primary origin of a ,world ,council must
 necessarily be different from that of  
any national government4 ,every existing
 government owes its beginnings to force
 and is in its fundamental nature       
militant4 ,it is an offensive-defensive 
organ4 ,this fact saturates our legal   
and social tradition more than one      
realizes at first4 ,there is1 about     
civil law everywhere1 a faint flavour of
 a relaxed state of siege4 ,but a world 
government will arise out of different  
motives and realize a different ideal4  
,it will be primarily an organ for      
keeping the peace4  ,and now perhaps we 
may look at this project of a ,world    
,state mirrored in the circumstances of 
the life of one individual citizen4 ,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-day4  ,he    
will have been born in some one of the  
,united ,states of the ,world--in ,new  
,york or ,california1 or ,ontario or    

,new ,zealand1 or ,portugal or ,france  
or ,bengal or ,shan-si2 but wherever his
 lot may fall1 the first history he will
 learn will be the wonderful history of 
mankind1 from its nearly animal         
beginnings1 a few score thousand years  
ago1 with no tools1 but implements of   
chipped stone and hacked wood1 up to the
 power and knowledge of our own time4   
,his education will trace for him the   
beginnings of speech1 of writing1 of    
cultivation and settlement4  ,he will   
learn of the peoples and nations of the 
past1 and how each one has brought its  
peculiar gifts and its distinctive      
contribution to the accumulating        
inheritance of our race4  ,he will know1
 perhaps1 less of wars1 battles1        
conquests1 massacres1 kings and the like
 unpleasant invasions of human dignity  
and welfare1 and he will know more of   
explorers1 discoverers and stout        
outspoken men than our contemporary     
citizen4  ,while he is still a little   
boy1 he will have the great outlines of 

the human adventure brought home to his 
mind by all sorts of vivid methods of   
presentation1 such as the poor          
poverty-struck schools of our own time  
cannot dream of employing4  ,and on this
 broad foundation he will build up his  
knowledge of his own particular state   
and nation and people1 learning not     
tales of ancient grievances and triumphs
 and revenges1 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 world4 ,on   
such foundations his social             
consciousness will be built4  ,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 know4 ,his curiosity and  
his imagination will be roused and      
developed4  ,he will probably be        
educated continuously at least until he 
is eighteen or nineteen1 and perhaps    
until he is two or three and twenty4    
,for a world that wastes none of its    

resources upon armaments or soldiering1 
and which produces whatever it wants in 
the regions best adapted to that        
production1 and delivers them to the    
consumer by the directest route1 will be
 rich enough not only to spare the first
 quarter of everybody's life for        
education entirely1 but to keep on with 
some education throughout the whole     
lifetime4  ,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-day1     
understaffed with underpaid assistants1 
and having bare walls4 ,it will have    
benefited by some of the intelligence   
and wealth we lavish to-day on          
range-finders and submarines4  ,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-day4 ,i know 
this will sound like shocking           
extravagance to many contemporary       
hearers1 but in the ,world ,state the   

standards will be different4  ,i don't  
know whether any of us really grasp what
 we are saying when we talk of greater  
educational efficiency in the future4   
,that means--if it means                
anything--teaching more with much less  
trouble4 ,it will mean1 for instance1   
that most people will have three or four
 languages properly learnt2 that they   
will think about things mathematical    
with a quickness and clearness that     
puzzles us2 that about all sorts of     
things their minds will move in daylight
 where ours move in a haze of ignorance 
or in an emotional fog4  ,this          
clear-headed1 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 world4 ,mankind 
will have machines and power enough to  
do most of the toil for it4 ,why1       
between #aiad and #aiah 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 ever6  ,our young citizen will 
choose some sort of interesting         
work--perhaps creative work4 ,and he    
will be free to travel about the whole  
world without a passport or visa1       
without a change of money2 everywhere   
will be his country2 he will find people
 everywhere who will be endlessly       
different1 but none suspicious or       
hostile4 ,everywhere he will find       
beautiful and distinctive cities1 freely
 expressive of the spirit of the land in
 which they have arisen4 ,strange and   
yet friendly cities4  ,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 men1 but of men against  
malarias and diseases and infections4   
,probably he will never know what a cold
 is1 or a headache4 ,he will be able to 
go through the great forests of the     
tropics without shivering with fever and

 without saturating himself with        
preventive drugs4 ,he will go freely    
among great mountains2 he will fly to   
the ,poles of the earth if he chooses1  
and dive into the cold1 now hidden1 deep
 places of the sea4  ,but it is very    
difficult to fill in the picture of his 
adult life so that it will seem real to 
our experience4 ,it is hard to conceive 
and still more difficult to convey4 ,we 
live in this congested1 bickering1      
elbowing1 shoving world1 and it has     
soaked into our natures and made us a   
part of itself4 ,hardly any of us know  
what it is to be properly educated1 and 
hardly any what it is to be in constant 
general good health4  ,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 hopeless1 gin-soaked
 drudge in a slum4 ,the creature is so  
devitalized2 the dirt is so ingrained1  
so much a second nature1 that a bath    
really isn't attractive4 ,clean and     
beautiful clothes sound like a mockery  

or priggishness4 ,to talk of spacious   
and beautiful places only arouses a     
violent desire in the poor thing to get 
away somewhere and hide4 ,in squalor and
 misery1 quarrelling and fighting make a
 sort of nervous relief4 ,to multitudes 
of slum-bred people the prospect of no  
more fighting is a disagreeable         
prospect1 a dull outlook4  ,well1 all   
this world of ours may seem a slum to   
the people of a happier age4 ,they will 
feel about our world just as we feel    
about the ninth or tenth century1 when  
we read of its brigands and its         
insecurities1 its pestilences1 its      
miserable housing1 its abstinence from  
ablutions4  ,but our young citizen will 
not have been inured to our base world4 
,he will have little of our ingrained   
dirt in his mind and heart4 ,he will    
love4 ,he will love beautifully4 ,as    
most of us once hoped to do in our more 
romantic moments4 ,he will have         
ambitions--for the world state will give
 great scope to ambition4 ,he will work 

skilfully and brilliantly1 or he will   
administer public services1 or he will  
be an able teacher1 or a mental or      
physical physician1 or he will be an    
interpretative or creative artist2 he   
may be a writer or a scientific         
investigator1 he may be a statesman in  
his state1 or even a world statesman4   
,if he is a statesman he may be going up
 perhaps to the federal world congress4 
,in the year #bjbj there will still be  
politics1 but they will be great        
politics4 ,instead of the world's       
affairs being managed in a score of     
foreign offices1 all scheming meanly and
 cunningly against each other1 all      
planning to thwart and injure each      
other1 they will be managed under the   
direction of an educated and organized  
common intelligence intent only upon the
 common good4  ,dear6 ,dear6 ,dear6     
,does it sound like rubbish to you8 ,i  
suppose it does4 ,you think ,i am       
talking of a dreamland1 of an           
unattainable ,utopia8 ,perhaps ,i am6   

,this dear1 jolly old world of dirt1    
war1 bankruptcy1 murder and malice1     
thwarted lives1 wasted lives1 tormented 
lives1 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 course8   
,how priggish and impracticable6 ,how   
impertinent6 ,how preposterous6 ,i seem 
to hear a distant hooting4444           
,sometimes it seems to me that the      
barriers that separate man and man are  
nearly insurmountable and invincible1   
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 end4    
,sometimes again1 in other moods1 it    
seems to me that these barriers and     
nationalities and separations are so    
illogical1 so much a matter of          
tradition1 so plainly mischievous and   
cruel1 that at any time we may find the 
common sense of our race dissolving them

 away4444  ,who can see into that       
darkest of all mysteries1 the hearts and
 wills of mankind8 ,it may be that it is
 well for us not to know of the many    
generations who will have to sustain    
this conflict4  ,yes1 that is one mood1 
and there is the other4 ,perhaps we fear
 too much4 ,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  
years4     ,,iv  ,,the ,,bible ,,of     
,,civilization  ,,part ,,one   ,sec4 #a 
,in my next two papers ,i am going to   
discuss and--what shall ,i              
say8--experiment with an old but        
neglected idea1 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           
,amsterdam4  ,the man who propounded    
this idea was a certain great ,bohemian1
 ,komensky1 who is perhaps better known 
in our western world by his ,latinized  

name ,comenius4 ,he professed himself   
the pupil of ,bacon4 ,he was the friend 
of ,milton4 ,he travelled from one      
,european country to another with his   
political and educational ideas4 ,for a 
time he thought of coming to ,america4  
,it is a great pity that he never came4 
,and his idea1 the particular idea of   
his we are going to discuss1 was the    
idea of a common book1 a book of        
history1 science and wisdom1 which      
should form the basis and framework for 
the thoughts and imaginations of every  
citizen in the world4  ,in many ways the
 thinkers and writers of the early      
seventeenth century seem more akin to us
 and more sympathetic with the world of 
to-day1 than any intervening group of   
literary figures4 ,they strike us as    
having a longer vision than the men of  
the eighteenth century1 and as being    
bolder--and1 how shall ,i put it8--more 
desperate in their thinking than the    
nineteenth century minds4 ,and this     
closer affinity to our own time arises1 

,i should think1 directly and naturally1
 out of the closer resemblance of their 
circumstances4 ,between #afdj and #afej1
 just as in our present age1 the world  
was tremendously unsettled and          
distressed4 ,a century and more of      
expansion and prosperity had given place
 to a phase of conflict1 exhaustion and 
entire political unsettlement4 ,britain 
was involved in the bitter political    
struggle that culminated in the         
execution of ,king ,charles ,i4 ,ireland
 was a land of massacre and             
counter-massacre4 ,the ,thirty ,years   
,war in ,central ,europe was in its     
closing1 most dreadful stages of famine 
and plunder4 ,in ,france the crown and  
the nobles were striving desperately for
 ascendancy in the ,war of the ,fronde4 
,the ,turk threatened ,vienna4 ,nowhere 
in ,western ,europe did there remain any
 secure and settled political           
arrangements4 ,everywhere there was     
disorder1 everywhere it seemed that     
anything might happen1 and it is just   

those disordered and indeterminate times
 that are most fruitful of bold         
religious and social and political and  
educational speculations and            
initiatives4  ,this was the period that 
produced the ,quakers and a number of   
the most vigorous developments of       
,puritanism1 in which the foundations of
 modern republicanism were laid1 and in 
which the project of a world league of  
nations--or rather of a world           
state--received wide attention4 ,and the
 student of ,comenius will find in him  
an active and sensitive mind responding 
with a most interesting similarity to   
our own responses1 to the similar       
conditions of his time4 ,he has been    
distressed and dismayed--as most of us  
have been distressed and dismayed--by a 
rapid development of violence1 by a     
great release of cruelty and suffering  
in human affairs4 ,he felt none of the  
security that was felt in the eighteenth
 and nineteenth centuries of the        
certainty of progress4 ,he realized as  

we do that the outlook for humanity is a
 very dark and uncertain one unless     
human effort is stimulated and          
organized4 ,he traced the evils of his  
time to human discords and divisions1 to
 our political divisions1 and the mutual
 misconceptions due to our diversity of 
languages and leading ideas4 ,in all    
that he might be writing and thinking in
 #aiba4 ,and his proposed remedies find 
an echo in a number of our contemporary 
movements4 ,he wanted to bring all      
nations to form one single state4 ,he   
wanted to have a universal language as  
the common medium of instruction and    
discussion1 and he wanted to create a   
common ,book of ,necessary ,knowledge1 a
 sort of common basis of wisdom1 for all
 educated men in the world4  ,now this  
last is the idea ,i would like to       
develop now4 ,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      
,wisdom2 and 7having attempted to answer
 that enquiry in the affirmative7 ,i    
shall then attempt a sketch of such a   
book4  ,but to begin with perhaps ,i may
 meet an objection that is likely to    
arise4 ,i have called this hypothetical 
book of ours the ,bible of              
,civilization1 and it may be that       
someone will say3 ,yes1 but you have a  
sufficient book of that sort already2   
you have the ,bible itself and that is  
all you need4 ,well1 ,i am taking the   
,bible as my model4 ,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 culture1 and unified and   
kept together through many generations  
great masses of people4 ,it has been the
 basis of the ,jewish and ,christian    
civilizations alike4 ,and even in the   
,new ,world the ,state of ,connecticut  
did1 ,i believe1 in its earliest        
beginnings take the ,bible as its only  

law4 ,nevertheless1 ,i hope ,i shall not
 offend any reader if ,i point out that 
the ,bible is not all that we need      
to-day1 and that also in some respects  
it is redundant4 ,its very virtues      
created its limitations4 ,it served men 
so well that they made a ,canon of it   
and refused to alter it further4        
,throughout the most vital phases of    
,hebrew history1 throughout the most    
living years of ,christian development  
the ,bible changed and grew4 ,then its  
growth ceased and its text became fixed4
 ,but the world went on growing and     
discovering new needs and new           
necessities4  ,let me deal first with   
its redundancy4 ,so far as redundancy   
goes1 a great deal of the ,book of      
,leviticus1 for example1 seems not      
vitally necessary for the ordinary      
citizen of to-day2 there are long       
explicit directions for temple worship  
and sacrificial procedure4 ,there is    
again1 so far as the latter day citizen 
is concerned1 an excess of information  

about the minor ,kings of ,israel and   
,judah4 ,and there is more light than   
most of us feel we require nowadays upon
 the foreign policies of ,assyria and   
,egypt4 ,it stirs our pulses feebly1 it 
helps us only very indirectly to learn  
that ,attai begat ,nathan and ,nathan   
begat ,zabad1 or that ,obed begat ,jehu 
and ,jehu begat ,azariah1 and so on for 
two or three hundred verses4  ,and so   
far as deficiencies go1 there is a great
 multitude of modern problems--problems 
that enter intimately into the moral    
life of all of us1 with which the ,bible
 does not deal1 the establishment of    
,american ,independence1 for example1   
and the age-long feud of ,russia and    
,poland that has gone on with varying   
fortunes for four centuries4 ,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 record4 ,and there are
 all sorts of moral problems arising out
 of modern conditions on which the      

,bible sheds little or no direct light3 
the duties of a citizen at an election1 
or the duties of a shareholder to the   
labour employed by his company1 for     
example4 ,for these things we need at   
least a supplement1 if we are still to  
keep our community upon one general     
basis of understanding1 upon one        
unifying standard of thought and        
behaviour4  ,we are so brought up upon  
the ,bible1 we are so used to it long   
before we begin to think hard about it1 
that all sorts of things that are really
 very striking about it1 the facts that 
the history of ,judah and ,israel is    
told twice over and that the gospel     
narrative is repeated four times over   
for example1 do not seem at all odd to  
us4 ,how else1 we ask1 could you have   
it8 ,yet these are very odd features if 
we are to regard the ,bible as the      
compactest and most perfect statement of
 essential truth and wisdom4  ,and still
 more remarkable1 it seems to me1 is it 
that the ,bible breaks off4 ,one could  

understand very well if the ,bible broke
 off with the foundation of             
,christianity4 ,now this event has      
happened1 it might say1 nothing else    
matters4 ,it is the culmination4 ,but   
the ,bible does not do that4 ,it goes on
 to a fairly detailed account of the    
beginnings and early politics of the    
,christian ,church4 ,it gives the       
opening literature of theological       
exposition4 ,and then1 with that strange
 and doubtful book1 the ,revelation of  
,st4 ,john the ,divine1 it comes to an  
end4 ,as ,i say1 it leaves off4 ,it     
leaves off in the middle of ,roman      
imperial and social conflicts4 ,but the 
world has gone on and goes              
on--elaborating its problems1           
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 time4  ,i make these       
observations in no spirit of detraction4
 ,if anything1 these peculiarities of   

the ,bible add to the wonder of its     
influence over the lives and minds of   
men4 ,it has been ,the ,book that has   
held together the fabric of western     
civilization4 ,it has been the handbook 
of life to countless millions of men and
 women4 ,the civilization we possess    
could not have come into existence and  
could not have been sustained without   
it4 ,it has explained the world to the  
mass of our people1 and it has given    
them moral standards and a form into    
which their consciences could work4 ,but
 does it do that to-day8 ,frankly1 ,i do
 not think it does4 ,i think that during
 the last century the ,bible has lost   
much of its former hold4 ,it no longer  
grips the community4 ,and ,i think it   
has lost hold because of those sundering
 eighteen centuries1 to which every     
fresh year adds itself1 because of      
profound changes in the methods and     
mechanisms of life1 and because of the  
vast extension of our ideas by the      
development of science in the last      

century or so4  ,it has lost hold1 but  
nothing has arisen to take its place4   
,that is the gravest aspect of this     
matter4 ,it was the cement with which   
our western communities were built and  
by which they were held together4 ,and  
the weathering of these centuries and   
the acids of these later years have     
eaten into its social and personal      
influence4 ,it is no longer a sufficient
 cement4 ,and--this is the essence of   
what ,i am driving at--our modern       
communities are no longer cemented1 they
 lack organized solidarity1 they are not
 prepared to stand shocks and strains1  
they have become dangerously loose      
mentally and morally4 ,that1 ,i believe1
 is the clue to a great proportion of   
the present social and political        
troubles of the world4 ,we need to get  
back to a cement4 ,we want a ,bible4 ,we
 want a ,bible so badly that we cannot  
afford to put the old ,bible on a       
pinnacle out of daily use4 ,we want it  
re-adapted for use4 ,if it is true that 

the old ,bible falls short in its       
history and does not apply closely to   
many modern problems1 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 together4   
,now let us see what the ,bible gave a  
man in the days when it could really    
grip and hold and contain him2 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 living4 ,can we re-cement  
our increasingly unstable civilization8 
,i will not ask now whether there is    
still time left for us to do anything of
 the sort4  ,the first thing the ,bible 
gave a man was a ,cosmogony4 ,it gave   
him an account of the world in which he 
found himself and of his place in it4   
,and then it went on to a general       
history of mankind4 ,it did not tell him
 that history as a string of facts and  
dates1 but as a moving and interesting  

story into which he himself finally     
came1 a story of promises made and      
destinies to be fulfilled4 ,it gave him 
a dramatic relationship to the schemes  
of things4 ,it linked him to all mankind
 with a conception of relationships and 
duties4 ,it gave him a place in the     
world and put a meaning into his life4  
,it explained him to himself and to     
other people1 and it explained other    
people to him4 ,in other words1 out of  
the individual it made a citizen with a 
code of duties and expectations4  ,now  
,i take it that both from the point of  
view of individual happiness and from   
the point of view of the general        
welfare1 this development of the        
citizenship of a man1 this placing of a 
man in his own world1 is of primary     
importance4 ,it is the necessary basis  
of all right education2 it is the       
fundamental purpose of the school1 and  
,i do not believe an individual can be  
happy or a community be prosperous      
without it4 ,the ,bible and the         

religions based on it gave that idea of 
a place in the world to the people it   
taught4 ,but do we provide that idea of 
a place in the world for our people     
to-day8 ,i suggest that we do not4 ,we  
do not give them a clear vision of the  
universe in which they live1 and we do  
not give them a history that invests    
their lives with meaning and dignity4   
,the cosmogony of the ,bible has lost   
grip and conviction upon men's minds1   
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-day4 ,nothing has been done to fill  
up these widening gaps4 ,we have so     
great a respect for the letter of the   
,bible that we ignore its spirit and its
 proper use4 ,we do not rewrite and     
retell ,genesis in the light and        
language of modern knowledge1 and we do 
not revise and bring its history up to  
date and so apply it to the problems of 
our own time4 ,so we have allowed the   

,bible to become antiquated and remote1 
venerable and unhelpful4  ,there has    
been a great extension of what we call  
education in the past hundred years1 but
 while we have spread education widely1 
there has been a sort of shrinkage and  
enfeeblement of its aims4 ,education in 
the past set out to make a ,christian   
and a citizen and afterwards a gentleman
 out of the crude1 vulgar1 self-seeking 
individual4 ,does education even pretend
 to do as much to-day8 ,it does nothing 
of the sort4 ,our young people are      
taught to read and write4 ,they are     
taught bookkeeping and languages that   
are likely to be useful to them4 ,they  
are given a certain measure of technical
 education1 and they are taught to      
shove4 ,and then we turn them out into  
the world to get on4 ,our test of a     
college education is--,does it make a   
successful business man8  ,well1 this1  
,i take it1 is the absolute degradation 
of education4 ,it is a modern error that
 education exists for the individual4   

,education exists for the community and 
the race2 it exists to subdue the       
individual for the good of the world and
 his own ultimate happiness4  ,but we   
have been letting the essentials of     
education slip back into a secondary    
place in our pursuit of mere equipment1 
and we see the results to-day throughout
 all the modern states of the world1 in 
a loss of cohesion1 discipline and      
co-operation4 ,men will not co-operate  
except to raise prices on the consumer  
or wages on the employer1 and everyone  
scrambles for a front place and a good  
time4 ,and they do so1 partly no doubt  
by virtue of an ineradicable factor in  
them known as ,original ,sin1 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 uninspiring2 it had no  
commanding appeal for their             
imaginations1 and no imperatives for    
their lives4  ,so ,i put it1 that for   
the opening books of our ,bible of      

,civilization1 our ,bible translated    
into terms of modern knowledge1 and as  
the basis of all our culture1 we shall  
follow the old ,bible precedent exactly4
 ,we shall tell to every citizen of our 
community1 as plainly1 simply and       
beautifully as we can1 the ,new ,story  
of ,genesis1 the tremendous spectacle of
 the ,universe that science has opened  
to us1 the flaming beginnings of our    
world1 the vast ages of its making and  
the astounding unfolding1 age after age1
 of ,life4 ,we shall tell of the        
changing climates of this spinning globe
 and the coming and going of great      
floras and faunas1 mighty races of      
living things1 until out of the vast1   
slow process our own kind emerged4 ,and 
we shall tell the story of our race4    
,how through hundreds of thousands of   
years it won power over nature1 hunted  
and presently sowed and reaped4 ,how it 
learnt the secrets of the metals1       
mastered the riddle of the seasons1 and 
took to the seas4 ,that story of our    

common inheritance and of our slow      
upward struggle has to be taught        
throughout our entire community1 in the 
city slums and in the out-of-the-way    
farmsteads most of all4 ,by teaching it1
 we restore again to our people the lost
 basis of a community1 a common idea of 
their place in space and time4  ,then1  
still following the ,bible precedent1 we
 must tell a universal history of man4  
,and though on the surface it may seem  
to be a very different history from the 
,bible story1 in substance it will      
really be very much the same history1   
only robbed of ancient trappings and    
symbols1 and made real and fresh again  
for our present ideas4 ,it will still be
 a story of conditional promises1 the   
promises of human possibility1 a record 
of sins and blunders and lost           
opportunities1 of men who walked not in 
the ways of righteousness1 of           
stiff-necked generations1 and of        
merciful renewals of hope4 ,it will     
still point our lives to a common future

 which will be the reward and judgment  
of our present lives4  ,you may say that
 no such book exists--which is perfectly
 true--and that no such book could be   
written4 ,but there ,i think you        
underrate the capacity of our           
,english-speaking people4 ,it would be  
quite possible to get together a        
committee that would give us the compact
 and clear cosmogony of history that is 
needed4 ,some of the greatest1 most     
inspiring books and documents in the    
world have been produced by ,committees3
 ,magna ,carta1 the ,declaration of     
,independence1 the ,english ,translation
 of the ,bible1 and the ,prayer ,book of
 the ,english ,church are all the       
productions of committees1 and they are 
all fine and inspiring compilations4    
,for the last three years ,i have been  
experimenting with this particular task1
 and1 with the help of six other people1
 ,i have sketched out and published an  
outline of our world's origins and      
history to show the sort of thing ,i    

mean4 ,that ,outline is1 of course1 a   
corrupting mass of faults and minor     
inaccuracies1 but it does demonstrate   
the possibility of doing what is        
required4 ,and its reception both in    
,america and ,england has shown how     
ready1 how greedy many people are1 on   
account of themselves and on account of 
their children1 for an ordered general  
account of the existing knowledge of our
 place in space and time4 ,for want of  
anything better they have taken my      
,outline very eagerly4 ,far more eagerly
 would they have taken a finer1 sounder 
and more authoritative work4  ,in       
,england this ,outline was almost the   
first experiment of the kind that has   
been made--the only other ,i know of in 
,england1 was a very compact ,general   
,history of the ,world by ,mr4 ,oscar   
,browning published in #aiac4 ,but there
 are several educationists in ,america  
who have been at work on the same task4 
,in this matter of a more generalized   
history teaching1 the ,new ,world is    

decidedly leading the ,old4 ,the        
particular problems of a population of  
mixed origins have forced it upon       
teachers in the ,united ,states4  ,my   
friend--,i am very happy to be able to  
call him my friend--,professor          
,breasted1 in conjunction with that very
 able teacher ,professor ,robinson1 has 
produced two books1 ,ancient ,times and 
,mediaeval and ,modern ,times1 which    
together make a very complete history of
 civilized man4 ,they do not1 however1  
give a history of life before man1 nor  
very much of human pre-history4 ,another
 admirable ,american summary of history 
is ,doctor ,hutton ,webster's ,history  
of the ,ancient ,world together with his
 ,mediaeval and ,modern ,history4 ,this 
again is very sparing of the story of   
primitive man4  ,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 couple of manageable   

volumes4 ,neither ,browning nor         
,breasted and ,robinson1 nor ,hutton    
,webster1 nor my own effort are very    
much longer than twice the length of    
,dickens' novel of ,bleak ,house4 ,so   
there you have it4 ,there is the thing  
shown to be possible4 ,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 manner8 ,why   
should we not have a great educational  
conference of teachers1 scientific men  
and historians from all the civilized   
peoples of the world1 and why should    
they not draft out a standard ,world    
,history for general use in the world's 
schools8 ,why should that draft not be  
revised by scores of specialists8       
,discussed and re-discussed8 ,polished  
and finished1 and made the opening part 
of a new ,bible of ,civilization1 a new 
common basis for a world culture8  ,at  
intervals it would need to be revised1  
and it could be revised and brought up  
to date in the same manner4  ,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 affairs4 ,they 
would be told a history coming right up 
to the ,daily ,newspaper4 ,they would   
see themselves and the news of to-day as
 part of one great development4 ,it     
would give their lives significance and 
dignity4 ,it would give the events of   
the current day significance and        
dignity4 ,it would lift their           
imaginations up to a new level4 ,i say  
lift1 but ,i mean restore their         
imaginations to a former level4 ,because
 if you look back into the lives of the 
,pilgrim ,fathers1 let us say1 or into  
those of the great soldiers and         
statesmen of ,cromwellian ,england1 you 
will find that these men had a sense of 
personal significance1 a sense of       
destiny1 such as no one in politics or  
literature seems to possess to-day4     
,they were still in touch with the old  
,bible4 ,to-day if life seems           

adventurous and fragmentary and         
generally aimless it is largely because 
of this one thing4 ,we have lost touch  
with history4 ,we have ceased to see    
human affairs as one great epic         
unfolding4 ,and only by the universal   
teaching of ,universal ,history can that
 epic quality be restored4  ,you see    
then the first part of my project for a 
,bible of ,civilization1 a rewriting of 
,genesis and ,exodus and ,judges and    
,chronicles in terms of ,world ,history4
 ,it would be a quite possible thing to 
do4444  ,is it worth doing8  ,and let me
 add here that when we do get our ,new  
,genesis and our new historical books1  
they will have a great number of        
illustrations as a living and necessary 
part of them4 ,for nowadays we can not  
only have a canonical text1 but         
canonical maps and illustrations4 ,the  
old ,hebrew ,bible was merely the       
written word4 ,indeed it was not even   
that1 for it was written without vowels4
 ,that was not a merit1 nor a precedent 

for us2 it was an unavoidable limitation
 in those days2 but under 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 convey4   
,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 words4 ,when books  
had to be reproduced by copyists the use
 of pictures was impossible4 ,they would
 have varied with each copying until    
they became hopelessly distorted4444    
,sec4 #b  ,but the cosmological and     
historical part of the old ,bible was   
merely the opening1 the groundwork upon 
which the rest was built4 ,let us now   
consider what else the ,bible gave a man
 and a community1 and what would be the 
modern form of the things it gave4  ,the
 next thing in order that the ,bible    
gave a man and the community to which he
 belonged was the ,law4 ,rules of ,life4
 ,rules of ,health4                     

,prescriptions--often very detailed and 
intimate--of permissible and            
unpermissible conduct4 ,this also the   
modern citizen needs and should have3 he
 and she need a book of personal wisdom4
  ,first as to ,health4 ,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     
duties4 ,now the real ,bible1 our model1
 is extremely explicit upon a number of 
points1 upon what constitutes cleanness 
or uncleanness1 upon ablutions1 upon    
what a man or woman may eat and what may
 not be eaten1 upon a number of such    
points4 ,it was for its times and       
circumstances a directory of healthy    
practice4 ,well1 ,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-care4  ,and     
closely connected with the care of one's
 mental and bodily health is sexual     

morality1 upon which again ,deuteronomy 
and ,leviticus are most explicit1       
leaving very little to the imagination4 
,i am all for imitating the wholesome   
frankness of the ancient book4 ,where   
there are no dark corners there is very 
little fermentation1 there is very      
little foulness or infection4 ,but in   
nearly every detail and in method and   
manner1 the ,bible of our ,civilization 
needs to be fuller and different from   
its prototype upon these matters4 ,the  
real ,bible dealt with an oriental      
population living under much cruder     
conditions than our own1 engaged mainly 
in agriculture1 and with a far less     
various dietary than ours4 ,they had    
fermented but not distilled liquors2    
they had no preserved nor refrigerated  
foods2 they married at adolescence2 many
 grave diseases that prevail to-day were
 unknown to them1 and their sanitary    
problems were entirely different4       
,generally our ,new ,leviticus will have
 to be much fuller4 ,it must deal with  

exercise--which came naturally to those 
,hebrew shepherds4 ,it must deal with   
the preservation of energy under        
conditions of enervation of which the   
prophets knew nothing4 ,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-giver4  ,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 things4 ,in 
,britain we have a number of powerful   
organizations active in disseminating   
knowledge to counteract the spread of   
this or that infectious or contagious   
disease4 ,the ,war has made us in       
,europe much more outspoken and fearless
 in dealing with lurking hideous evils4 
,we believe much more than we did in the
 curative value of light and knowledge4 
,and we have a very considerable        
literature of books on--what shall ,i   

call it8 on ,sex ,wisdom1 which aim to  
prevent some of that great volume of    
misery1 deprivation and nervous disease 
due to the prevailing ignorance and     
secrecy in these matters4 ,for in these 
matters great multitudes of modern      
people still live in an ignorance that  
would have been inconceivable to an     
ancient ,hebrew4 ,in ,england now the   
books of such a writer as ,dr4 ,marie   
,stopes are enormously read1 and--though
 they are by no means perfect works--do 
much to mitigate the hidden             
disappointments1 discontents1 stresses  
and cruelties of married life4 ,now ,i  
believe that it 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 done1
 and what had not to be done in these   
intimate matters4  ,but ,health and ,sex
 do not exhaust the problems of conduct4

 ,there are also the problems of        
,property and ,trade and ,labour4 ,upon 
these also the old ,bible did not       
hesitate to be explicit4 ,for example1  
it insisted meticulously upon the right 
of labour to glean and upon the seller  
giving a full measure brimming over1 and
 it prohibited usury4 ,but here again   
the ,bible is extraordinarily unhelpful 
when we come to modern issues1 because  
its rules and regulations were framed   
for a community and for an economic     
system altogether cruder1 more limited  
and less complicated than our own4 ,much
 of the ,old ,testament we have to      
remember was already in existence before
 the free use of coined metal4 ,the vast
 credit system of our days1 joint-stock 
company enterprise and the like1 were   
beyond the imagination of that time4 ,so
 too was any anticipation of modern     
industrialism4 ,and accordingly we live 
to-day in a world in which neither      
property nor employment have ever been  
properly moralized4 ,the bulk of our    

present social and economic troubles is 
due very largely to that4  ,in no matter
 is this muddled civilization of ours   
more hopelessly at sixes and sevens than
 in this matter of the rights and duties
 of property4 ,manifestly property is a 
trust for the community varying in its  
responsibilities with the nature of the 
property4 ,the property one has in one's
 toothbrush is different from the       
property one has in ten thousand acres  
of land2 the property one has in a      
photograph of a friend is different from
 the property one has in some           
irreplaceable masterpiece of            
portraiture4 ,the former one may destroy
 with a good conscience1 but not the    
latter4 ,at least so it seems to me4    
,but opinions vary enormously on these  
matters because we have never really    
worked them out4 ,on the one hand1 in   
this matter of property1 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 world1 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 oneself4 7,i confess 
that communistic practice is a little   
difficult to formulate47 ,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 generally4 ,is it an
 offence to gamble8 ,is it an offence to
 speculate8 ,is it an offence to hold   
fertile fields and not cultivate them8  
,is it an offence to hold fertile fields
 and undercultivate them8 ,is it an     
offence to use your invested money      
merely to live pleasantly without       
working8 ,is it an offence to spend your

 money on yourself and refuse your wife 
more than bare necessities8 ,is it an   
offence to spend exorbitant sums that   
might otherwise go in reproductive      
investments1 to gratify the whims and   
vanities of your wife8 ,you will find   
different people answering any of these 
questions with ,yes or ,no4 ,but it     
cannot be both ,yes and ,no4 ,there must
 be a definable ,right or ,wrong upon   
all these issues4  ,almost all the      
labour trouble in the world springs     
directly from our lack of an effective  
detailed moral code about property4 ,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 conflict4 ,labour is a rebel     
because property is a libertine4  ,now  
this untilled field of conduct1 this    
moral wilderness of the rights and      
duties and limitations of property1 the 
,books of the ,law in a modern ,bible   

could clear up in the most lucid and    
satisfying way4 ,i want to get those    
parts of ,deuteronomy and ,leviticus    
written again1 more urgently than any   
other part of the modern ,bible4 ,i want
 to see it at work in the schools and in
 the law-courts4 ,i admit that it would 
be a most difficult book to write and   
that we should raise controversial      
storms over every verse4 ,but what an   
excellent thing to have it out1 once for
 all1 with some of these rankling       
problems6 ,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 sort4  ,every       
country in the world does impose        
limitations4 ,in ,italy you may not     
export an ancient work of art1 although 
it is your own4 ,in ,england you may not
 maltreat your own dog or cat4 ,in the  

,united ,states1 ,i am told1 you may not
 use your dollars to buy alcohol4 ,why  
should we not make all this             
classification of property and the      
restraints upon each class of property1 
systematic and world-wide8 ,if we could 
so moralize the use of property1 if we  
could arrive at a clear idea of just    
what use an owner could make of his     
machinery1 or a financier could make of 
his credit1 would there be much left of 
the incessant labour conflicts of the   
present time8 ,for if you will look into
 it1 you will find there is hardly ever 
a labour conflict into which some       
unsettled question of principle1 some   
unsettled question of the permissible   
use of property1 does not enter as the  
final and essential dispute4     ,v     
,,the ,,bible ,,of ,,civilization       
,,part ,,two   ,sec4 #c  ,in the        
preceding sections we have discussed    
,genesis and the ,historical ,books     
generally as they would appear in a     
modernized ,bible1 and we have dealt    

with the ,law4 ,but these are only the  
foundations and openings of the ,bible  
as we know it4 ,we come now to the      
,psalms and ,proverbs1 the ,song of     
,songs1 the ,book of ,job--and the      
,prophets4 ,what are the modern         
equivalents of these books8  ,well1 what
 were they8  ,they were the entire      
,hebrew literature down to about the    
time of ,ezra2 they include sacred      
songs1 love songs1 a dramatic dialogue1 
a sort of novel in the ,books of ,ruth  
and ,esther1 and so forth4 ,what would  
be our equivalent of this part of the   
,bible to-day8 ,what would be the       
equivalent for the ,bible of a world    
civilization8  ,i suppose that it would 
be the whole world literature4  ,that1  
,i admit1 is a rather tremendous        
proposition4 ,are we to contemplate the 
prospect of a modern ,bible in twenty or
 thirty thousand volumes8 ,such a vast  
,bible would defeat its own end4 ,we    
want a ,bible that everyone will know1  
which will be grasped by the mind of    

everyone4 ,that is essential to our idea
 of a ,bible as a social cement4        
,fortunately our model ,bible1 as we    
have it to-day1 gives us a lead in this 
matter4 ,its contents are classified4   
,we have first of all the canonical     
books1 which are treated as the vitally 
important books2 they are the books1 to 
quote the phrase used in the ,english   
prayer book1 which are necessary to     
salvation4 ,and then we have a          
collection of other books1 the          
,apocrypha1 the books set aside1 books  
often admirable and beautiful1 but not  
essential1 good to be read for example  
of life and instruction of manners1 yet 
books that everyone need not read and   
know4 ,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 
matter1 of such exceptional value that  
it would be well for all mankind to read
 it and know it4 ,this will be our      
equivalent for the canonical ,books4 ,i 

will return to that in a moment4  ,and  
outside this canonical ,book or ,books1 
shall we leave all the rest of          
literature in a limitless ,apocrypha8 ,i
 am doubtful about that4 ,i would       
suggest that we make a second           
intermediate class between the canonical
 books that everyone in our civilization
 ought to read and the outer ,apocrypha 
that you may read or not as you choose4 
,this intermediate class ,i would call  
the ,great ,books of the ,world4 ,it    
would not be a part of our ,bible1 but  
it would come next to our ,bible4 ,it   
would not be what one must read but only
 what it is desirable the people should 
read4  ,now this canonical literature we
 are discussing is to be the third vital
 part of our modern ,bible4 ,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 race4 ,together with the   
,book of ,world ,history and the ,book  
of ,law and ,righteousness and ,wisdom  

that ,i have sketched out to you1 and   
another ,book of which ,i shall have    
something to say later1 this canonical  
literature will constitute the          
intellectual and moral cement of the    
,world ,society1 that intellectual and  
moral cement for the want of which our  
world falls into political and social   
confusion and disaster to-day4 ,upon    
such a basis1 upon a common body of     
ideas1 a common moral teaching and the  
world-wide assimilation of the same     
emotional and aesthetic material1 it may
 still be possible to build up humanity 
into one co-operative various and       
understanding community4  ,now if we    
bear this idea of a cementing function  
firmly in mind1 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 ours4 ,we shall  
begin1 of course1 by levying toll upon  
the ,old and ,new ,testaments4 ,i do not
 think ,i need justify that step4 ,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 ,prophets4   
,should we include the ,song of ,songs8 
,i am inclined to think that the        
compilers of a new ,bible would hesitate
 at that4 ,should we include the ,book  
of ,job8 ,that ,i think would be a very 
difficult question indeed for our       
compilers4 ,the ,book of ,job is a very 
wonderful and beautiful discussion of   
the profound problem of evil in the     
world4 ,it is a tremendous exercise to  
read and understand1 but is it          
universally necessary8 ,i am disposed to
 think that the ,book of ,job1 possibly 
with the illustrations of ,blake1 would 
not make a part of our ,canon but would 
rank among our ,great ,books4 ,it is a  
part of a very large literature of      
discussion1 of which ,i shall have more 
to say in a moment4 ,so too ,i question 
if we should make the story of ,ruth or 

the story of ,esther fundamental        
teaching for our world civilization4    
,daniel1 again1 ,i imagine relegated to 
the ,apocrypha4 ,but to this ,i will    
return later4  ,the story of the        
,gospels would1 of course1 have been    
incorporated in our ,historical ,book1  
but in addition as part of our first    
canon1 each of the four gospels--with   
the possible omission of the            
genealogies--would have a place1 for the
 sake of their matchless directness1    
simplicity and beauty4 ,they give a     
picture1 they convey an atmosphere of   
supreme value to us all1 incommunicable 
in any other form or language4 ,again   
there is a great wealth of material in  
the ,epistles4 ,it is1 for example1     
inconceivable that such a passage as    
that of ,st4 ,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 mankind4  ,so 
much from the ,ancient ,bible for our   
modern ,bible1 all its inspiration and  
beauty and fire4 ,and now what else8    
,speaking in ,english to an             
,english-speaking audience one name     
comes close upon the ,bible1            
,shakespear4 ,what are we going to do   
about ,shakespear8 ,if you were to      
waylay almost any ,englishman or        
,american and put this project of a     
modern ,bible before him1 and then begin
 your list of ingredients with the      
,bible and the whole of ,shakespear1 he 
would almost certainly say1 ,yes1 ,yes4 
,but would he be right8  ,on reflection 
he might perhaps recede and say ,not the
 whole of ,shakespear1 but well1        
,hamlet1 ,the ,tempest1 ,romeo and      
,juliet1 ,a ,midsummer-,night's ,dream4 
,but even these6 ,are they generally    
necessary to salvation8 ,we run our     
minds through the treasures of          
,shakespear as we might run our fingers 
through the contents of a box of very   

precious and beautiful jewels--before   
equipping a youth for battle4  ,no4     
,these things are for ornament and joy4 
,i doubt if we could have a single      
play--a single scene of ,shakespear's in
 our ,canon4 ,he goes altogether into   
the ,great ,books1 all of him2 he joins 
the aristocracy of the ,apocrypha4 ,and1
 ,i believe1 nearly all the great plays 
of the world would have to join him     
there4 ,euripides and ,sophocles1       
,schiller and ,ibsen4 ,perhaps some     
speeches and such-like passages might be
 quoted in the ,canon1 but that is all4 
,our ,canon1 remember1 is to be the     
essential cementing stuff of our        
community and nothing more4 ,if once we 
admit merely beautiful and delightful   
things1 then ,i see an overwhelming     
inrush of jewels and flowers4 ,if we    
admit ,a ,midsummer-,night's ,dream1    
then ,i must insist that we also admit  
such lovely nonsense as    ,in ,xanadu  
did ,kubla ,khan     ,a stately pleasure
 dome decree1   ,where ,alph the sacred 

river ran   ,through caverns measureless
 to man     ,down to a sunless sea4444  
,our ,canon ,i am afraid cannot take in 
such things1 and with the plays we must 
banish also all the novels2 the greater 
books of such writers as ,cervantes1    
,defoe1 ,dickens1 ,fielding1 ,tolstoi1  
,hardy1 ,hamsun1 that great succession  
of writers--they are all good for       
example of life and instruction of      
manners1 and to the ,apocrypha they must
 go4 ,and so it is that since ,i would  
banish ,romeo and ,juliet1 ,i would also
 banish the ,song of ,songs1 and since  
,i must put away ,vanity ,fair and the  
,shabby ,genteel ,story1 ,i would also  
put away ,esther and ,ruth4 ,and ,i find
 myself most reluctant to exclude not   
any novels written in ,english1 but one 
or two great sweeping books by          
non-,english writers4 ,it seems to me   
that ,tolstoi's ,war and ,peace and     
,hamsun's ,growth of the ,soil are books
 on an almost ,biblical scale1 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 ,canon4 
,if we put in any whole novels into the 
,canon ,i would plead for these4 ,but ,i
 will not plead now even for these4 ,i  
do not think any novels at all can go   
into our modern ,bible1 as whole works4 
,the possibility of long passages going 
in1 is of course1 quite a different     
matter4  ,and passing now from great    
plays and great novels and romances1 we 
come to the still more difficult problem
 of great philosophical and critical    
works4 ,take ,gulliver's ,travels--an   
intense1 dark1 stirring criticism of    
life and social order--and the          
,dialogues of ,plato1 full of light and 
inspiration4 ,in these latter we might  
quarry for beautiful passages for our   
,canon1 but ,i do not think we could    
take them in as wholes1 and if we do not
 take them in as complete books1 then ,i
 think that ,semitic parallel to these  
,greek dialogues1 ,the ,book of ,job1   

must stand not in our ,canon1 but in the
 ,great ,book section of our ,apocrypha4
  ,and next we have to consider all the 
great ,epics in the world4 ,there again 
,i am for exclusion4 ,this ,bible we are
 considering must be universally        
available4 ,if it is too bulky for      
universal use it loses its primary      
function of a moral cement4 ,we cannot  
include the ,iliad1 the ,norse ,sagas1  
the ,a,eneid or ,paradise ,lost in our  
,canon4 ,let them swell the great sack  
of our ,apocrypha1 and let the children 
read them if they will4  ,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       
,anthologies4 ,perhaps they might be    
gathered under separate heads1 as the   
',book of ,freedom1' the ',book of      
,justice1' the ',book of ,charity4' ,and
 now having done nothing as yet but     

reject1 let me begin to accept4 ,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 included4  ,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 them4 ,it is ,lincoln's          
,gettysburg ,address and ,i will not    
spare you a word of it3  ,fourscore and 
seven years ago our fathers brought     
forth on this continent a new nation1   
conceived in liberty1 and dedicated to  
the proposition that all men are created
 equal4 ,now we are engaged in a great  
civil war1 testing whether that nation1 
or any nation so conceived and so       
dedicated1 can long endure4 ,we are met 
on a great battlefield of that war4 ,we 
have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field1 as a final resting-place for     
those who here gave their lives that    
that nation might live4 ,it is          
altogether fitting and proper that we   

should do this4 ,but in a larger sense1 
we cannot dedicate--we cannot           
consecrate--we cannot hallow--this      
ground4 ,the brave men1 living and dead1
 who struggled here1 have consecrated   
it1 far above our poor power to add or  
detract4 ,the world will little note1   
nor long remember what we say here1 but 
it can never forget what they did here4 
,it is for us1 the living1 rather1 to be
 dedicated here to the unfinished work  
which they who fought here have thus far
 so nobly advanced4 ,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 devotion4 ,that we 
here highly resolve that these dead     
shall not have died in vain--that this  
nation1 under ,god1 shall have a new    
birth of freedom--and that government of
 the people1 by the people1 for the     
people1 shall not perish from the earth4
  ,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 sort3     
,out of the night that covers me        
,black as the pit from pole to pole1    
,i thank whatever gods may be     ,for  
my unconquerable soul4   ,in the fell   
clutch of circumstance     ,i have not  
winced nor cried aloud1   ,under the    
bludgeonings of ,chance1     ,my head is
 bloody but unbowed4    ,beyond this    
,place of wrath and tears1     ,looms   
but the ,horror of the ,shade1   ,and   
yet the ,menace of the years     ,finds 
and shall find me ,unafraid4   ,it      
matters not how strait the gate1        
,how charged with punishments the       
scroll1   ,i am the ,master of my ,fate1
     ,i am the ,captain of my ,soul4    
,that1 as you know1 was ,henley's1 and  
as ,i turned up his volume of poems to  
copy out that poem ,i came again on     
these familiar lines3    ,the ways of   
,death are soothing and serene1     ,and
 all the words of ,death are grave and  

sweet1     ,from camp and church1 the   
fireside and the street1   ,she beckons 
forth--and strife and song have been4   
,a summer's night descending cool and   
green1     ,and dark on daytime's dust  
and stress and heat1   ,the ways of     
,death are soothing and serene1     ,and
 all the words of ,death are grave and  
sweet4  ,there seems something in that  
also which ,i could spare only very     
reluctantly from a new ,bible in the    
world4 ,yet ,i tender those lines very  
doubtfully4 ,for ,i am not a very       
cultivated and well-read person1 and    
note only the things that have struck   
upon my mind2 but ,i quite understand   
that there must be many things of the   
same sort1 but better1 that ,i have     
never encountered1 or that ,i have not  
heard or read under circumstances that  
were favourable to their proper         
appreciation4 ,i would rather say about 
what ,i am quoting in this section1 not 
positively this thing1 but merely this  
sort of thing4  ,and in the vein of this

 sort of thing let me quote you--again  
for the ,book of ,freedom--a passage    
from ,milton1 defending the ancient     
,english tradition of free speech and   
free decision and praising ,london and  
,england4 ,this ,london and ,england of 
which he boasts have broadened out as   
the idea of ,jerusalem has broadened    
out1 to world-wide comprehensions4 ,let 
no false modesty blind us to our great  
tradition2 you and ,i are still thinking
 in ,milton's city2 we continue1 however
 unworthily1 the great inheritance of   
the world-wide responsibility and       
service1 of ,his ,englishmen4 ,here is  
my passage3       ,now once again by all
 concurrence of signs1 and by the       
general      instinct of holy and devout
 men1 as they daily and solemnly        
express their thoughts1 ,god is         
decreeing to begin some new and         
great period in ,his ,church1 even to   
the reforming of      reformation       
itself2 what does ,he then but reveal   
,himself to ,his      servants1 and as  

,his manner is1 first to ,his           
,englishmen8 ,i say1      as ,his manner
 is1 first to us1 though we mark not the
 method of      ,his counsels1 and are  
unworthy4 ,behold now this vast city1 a 
city of refuge1 the mansion-house of    
liberty1 encompassed and      surrounded
 with ,his protection2 the shop of war  
hath not there      more anvils and     
hammers working1 to fashion out the     
plates and      instruments of armed    
justice in defence of beleaguered truth1
      than there be pens and heads      
there1 sitting by their studious        
lamps1 musing1 searching1 revolving new 
notions and ideas      wherewith to     
present1 as with their homage and their 
fealty1      the approaching            
reformation3 others as fast reading1    
trying all      things1 assenting to the
 force of reason and convincement4      
,what could a man require more from a   
nation so pliant and so      prone to   
seek after knowledge8 ,what wants there 
to such a      towardly and pregnant    

soil1 but wise and faithful labourers1  
to      make a knowing people1 a nation 
of prophets1 of sages1 and of           
worthies8 ,we reckon more than five     
months yet to harvest2 there      need  
not be five weeks1 had we but eyes to   
lift up1 the fields      are white      
already4 ,where there is much desire to 
learn1 there      of necessity will be  
much arguing1 much writing1 many        
opinions2      for opinion in good men  
is but knowledge in the making4 ,under  
these fantastic terrors of sect and     
schism1 we wrong the      earnest and   
zealous thirst after knowledge and      
understanding1      which ,god hath     
stirred up in this city4 ,what some     
lament of1 we      rather should rejoice
 at1 should rather praise this pious    
forwardness among men1 to reassume the  
ill-deputed care of      their religion 
into their own hands again4 ,a little   
generous      prudence1 a little        
forbearance of one another1 and some    
grain      of charity might win all     

these diligencies to join and unite     
into one general and brotherly search   
after truth2 could we but      forego   
this prelatical tradition of crowding   
free consciences      and ,christian    
liberties into canons and precepts of   
men4 ,i      doubt not1 if some great   
and worthy stranger should come among   
us1 wise to discern the mould and temper
 of a people1 and how      to govern it1
 observing the high hopes and aims1 the 
diligent      alacrity of our extended  
thoughts and reasonings in the          
pursuance of truth and freedom1 but that
 he would cry out as      ,pyrrhus did1 
admiring the ,roman docility and        
courage3 ',if such      were my         
,epirots1 ,i would not despair the      
greatest design that      could be      
attempted to make a church or kingdom   
happy4'       ,yet these are the men    
cried out against for schismatics and   
sectaries1 as if1 while the temple of   
the ,lord was building1      some       
cutting1 some squaring the marble1      

others hewing the      cedars1 there    
should be a sort of irrational men1 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      built4 ,and   
when every stone is laid artfully       
together1 it      cannot be united into 
a continuity1 it can but be contiguous  
in      this world3 neither can every   
piece of the building be of one         
form2 nay1 rather the perfection        
consists in this1 that out of      many 
moderate varieties and brotherly        
dissimilitudes that are      not vastly 
disproportional1 arises the goodly and  
the graceful      symmetry that commends
 the whole pile and structure4  ,but ,i 
will not go on turning over the pages of
 books and reciting prose and poetry to 
you4 ,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 years4 ,not one soul in ten    

thousand that is born into this world   
even tastes from that store4 ,for most  
of mankind now that treasure is as if it
 had never been4 ,is it too much to     
suggest that we should make some        
organized attempt to gather up the      
quintessence of literature now1 and make
 it accessible to the masses of our     
race8 ,why should we not on a large     
scale with a certain breadth and dignity
 set about compiling the ,poetic ,books1
 the ,books of ,inspiration for a       
renewed ,bible1 for a ,bible of         
,civilization8 ,it seems to me that such
 a ,book made universally accessible1   
made a basis of teaching everywhere     
could set the key of the whole world's  
thought4   ,sec4 #d ,today  ,there      
remains one other element if we are to  
complete the parallelism of the old     
,bible and the new4 ,the ,christian     
,bible ends with a forecast1 the ,book  
of ,revelation2 the ,hebrew ,bible ended
 also with forecasts1 the ,prophets4 ,to
 that the old ,bible owed much of its   

magic power over men's imaginations and 
the inspiration it gave them4 ,it was   
not a dead record1 not an accumulation  
of things finished and of songs sung4   
,it pointed steadily and plainly to the 
,days to ,come as the end and           
explanation of all that went before4 ,so
 too our ,modern ,bible1 if it is to    
hold and rule the imagination of men1   
must close ,i think with a ,book of     
,forecasts4 ,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 done4 ,we want to 
turn the human imagination round again  
towards the future which our lives      
create4 ,we want a collection and digest
 of forecasts and warnings to complete  
this modern ,bible of ours4 ,now here ,i
 think you will say--and ,i admit with  
perfect reason--that ,i am floating away
 from any reasonable possibility at all4
 ,how can we have forecasts and         
prophecies of things that are happening 

now8 ,well1 ,i will make a clean breast 
of it1 and admit that ,i am asking for  
something that may be impossible4       
,nevertheless it is something that is   
very necessary if men are to remain     
indeed intelligent co-operating         
communities4 ,in the past you will find 
where there have been orderly and       
successful communities the men in them  
had an idea of a ,destiny1 of some      
object1 something that would amount to a
 criterion and judgment upon their      
collective conduct4 ,well1 ,i believe   
that we have to get back to something of
 that sort4  ,we have statesmen and     
politicians who profess to guide our    
destinies4 ,whither are they guiding our
 destinies8  ,surely they have some     
idea4 ,the great ,american statesmen and
 the great ,european statesmen are      
making ,to-morrow4 ,what is the         
,to-morrow they are making8  ,they must 
have some idea of it4 ,otherwise they   
must be imposters4 ,i am loth to believe
 them imposters1 mere adventurers who   

have blundered into positions of power  
and honour with no idea of what they are
 doing to the world4 ,but if they have  
an idea of what they are doing to the   
world1 they foresee and intend a        
,future4 ,that1 ,i take it1 is sound    
reasoning and the inference is plain4   
,they ought to write down their ideas of
 this ,future before us4 ,it would be   
helpful to all of us4 ,it might be a    
very helpful exercise for them4 ,it is1 
,i think1 reasonable for ,americans to  
ask the great political personages of   
,america1 the president and so forth1   
for example3 whether they think the     
,united ,states will stand alone in     
twenty-five years' time as they stand   
alone now8 ,or whether they think that  
there will be a greater ,united         
,states--of all ,america--or of all the 
world8 ,they must know their own will   
about that4 ,and it is equally          
reasonable to ask the great political   
personages of the ,british ,empire3 what
 will ,ireland be in twenty-five years' 

time8 ,what will ,india be8 ,there must 
be a plan1 an intended thing4 ,otherwise
 these men have no intentions2 otherwise
 they must be1 in two words1 dangerous  
fools4 ,the sooner we substitute a type 
of man with a sufficient foresight and  
capable of articulate speech in the     
matter1 the better for our race4  ,and  
again every statesman and every         
politician throughout the world says    
that the relations of industrial        
enterprise to the labour it employs are 
unsatisfactory4 ,yes4 ,but how are those
 relations going to develop8 ,how do    
they mean them to develop8  ,are we just
 drifting into an unknown darkness in   
all these matters with blind leaders of 
our blindness8 ,or cannot a lot of these
 things be figured out by able and      
intelligent people8 ,i put it to you    
that they can4 ,that it is a reasonable 
and proper thing to ask our statesmen   
and politicians3 what is going to happen
 to the world8 ,what sort of better     
social order are you making for8 ,what  

sort of world order are you creating8   
,let them open their minds to us1 let   
them put upon permanent record the      
significance of all their intrigues and 
manoeuvres4 ,then as they go on we can  
check their capacity and good faith4 ,we
 can establish a control at last that   
will rule presidents and kings4  ,now   
the answer to these questions for       
statesmen is what ,i mean by a ,book of 
,forecasts4 ,such a book ,i believe is  
urgently needed to help our             
civilization4 ,it is a book we ought all
 to possess and read4 ,i know you will  
say that such a ,book of ,forecasts will
 be at first a preposterously           
insufficient book--that every year will 
show it up and make it more absurd4 ,i  
quite agree4 ,the first ,book of        
,forecasts will be a poor thing4        
,miserably poor4 ,so poor that people   
will presently clamour to have it       
thoroughly revised4  ,the revised ,book 
of ,forecasts will not be quite so bad4 
,it will have been tested against       

realities4 ,it will form the basis of a 
vast amount of criticism and discussion4
  ,when again it comes to be revised1 it
 will be much nearer possible realities4
  ,i put it to you that the psychology1 
the mentality of a community that has a 
,book of ,forecasts 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-day1 mere adventurers1 without      
foresight1 in a world of catastrophies  
and accidents and unexpected things4 ,we
 shall be living again in a plan4 ,our  
lives will be shaped to certain defined 
ends4 ,we shall fall into place in a    
great scheme of activities4 ,we shall   
recover again some or all of the        
steadfastness and dignity of the old    
religious life4   ,sec4 #e ,today  ,let 
me with this ,book of ,forecasts round  
off my fantasy4 ,i would picture to you 
this modern ,bible1 perhaps two or three
 times as bulky as the old ,bible1 and  
consisting first of    ,the ,historical 

,books with maps and the like2   ,the   
,books of ,conduct and ,wisdom2   ,the  
,anthologies of ,poetry and ,literature2
 and finally the   ,book of ,forecasts1 
taking the place of the ,prophets and   
,revelations4  ,i would picture this    
revivified ,bible to you as most        
carefully done and printed and made     
accessible to all1 the basis of         
education in every school1 the common   
platform of all discussion--just as in  
the past the old ,bible used to be4 ,i  
would ask you to imagine it translated  
into every language1 a common material  
of understanding throughout all the     
world4  ,and furthermore1 ,i imagine    
something else about this--quite unlike 
the old ,bible--,i imagine all of it    
periodically revised4 ,the historical   
books would need to be revised and      
brought up to date1 there would be new  
lights on health and conduct1 there     
would be fresh additions to the         
anthologies1 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 undesirable1 and fresh ,forecasts    
would be added to replace them4 ,it     
would be a ,bible moving forward and    
changing and gaining with human         
experience and human destiny4444  ,well1
 that is my dream of a ,bible of        
,civilization4 ,have ,i in any way      
carried my vision out to you of this    
little row of four or five volumes in   
every house1 in every life1 throughout  
the world1 holding the lives and ideas  
and imaginations of men together in a   
net of common familiar phrases and      
common established hopes8  ,and is this 
a mere fantastic talk1 or is this a     
thing that could be done and that ought 
to be done8  ,i do not know how it will 
appear to you1 but to me it seems that  
this book ,i have been talking about1   
the ,bible of to-day's civilization1 is 
not simply a conceivable possibility1 it
 is a great and urgent need4 ,our       
education is1 ,i think1 pointless       

without it1 a shell without a core4 ,our
 social life is aimless without it1 we  
are a crowd without a common            
understanding4 ,only by means of some   
such unifying instrument1 ,i believe1   
can we hope to lift human life out of   
its present dangerous drift towards     
confusion and disaster4  ,it is1 ,i     
think therefore1 an urgently desirable  
undertaking4  ,it is also a very        
practicable one4 ,the creation of such a
 ,bible1 its printing and its           
translation1 and a propaganda that would
 carry it into the homes and schools of 
most of the world1 could ,i think all be
 achieved by a few hundred resolute and 
capable people at a cost of thirty or   
forty million dollars4 ,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   
toy1 a great navy4  ,you may1 you       
probably will1 differ very widely upon  

much that ,i have here put before you4  
,let me ask you not to let any of the   
details of my sketching set you against 
the fundamental idea1 that old creative 
idea of the ,bohemian educationist who  
was the pupil of ,bacon and the friend  
of ,milton1 the idea of ,komensky1 the  
idea of creating and using a common     
book1 a book of knowledge and wisdom1 as
 the necessary foundation for any       
enduring human unanimity4     ,,vi      
,,the ,,schooling ,,of ,,the ,,world    
,and now ,i am going on to a review of  
the broad facts of the educational      
organization of our present world4  ,i  
am myself a very under-educated person4 
,it is a constant trouble to me4 ,like  
seeks like in this world4 ,i propose to 
ask the question whether the whole world
 is not under-educated1 and ,i warn you 
in advance that ,i am going to answer in
 the affirmative4  ,i am going to       
discuss the possibility of raising the  
general educational level very          
considerably1 and ,i am going to        

consider what such a raising of the     
educational level would mean in human   
life4  ,i propose to adopt rather a     
vulgar1 business-like tone about all    
this4 ,i am going to apply to the human 
community much the same sort of tests   
that a manufacturer applies to his      
factory4 ,his factory has some          
distinctive product1 and when he looks  
into his affairs he tries to find out   
whether he gets the utmost quantity of  
the product1 whether he gets the best   
possible quality of the product1 whether
 he gets it as efficiently and          
inexpensively as possible1 and          
constantly how he can improve his       
factory and his processes in all these  
matters4  ,now the human community may  
be regarded as a concern engaged in the 
production of human life4 ,and it may be
 judged very largely by the question    
whether the human life it produces is   
abundant and full and intense and       
beautiful4  ,most of the tests that we  
apply to a state or a city or a period  

or a nation resolve themselves1 you will
 find1 into these questions3--    ,what 
was the life it produced8   ,what is the
 life it produces8  ,now ,i will further
 assume that as yet the community has   
little or no control over the raw       
product1 over the life1 that is to say1 
that comes into it4 ,i admit that from  
at least the time of ,plato onward the  
possibility has been discussed of       
breeding human beings as we do horses   
and dogs4 ,there is an enormous amount  
of what is called eugenic literature and
 discussion to-day4 ,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 time4  ,quite
 apart from any other considerations1   
one has to remember one entire          
difference between the possible breeding
 of human beings and the actual breeding
 of dogs and horses4 ,we breed dogs and 
horses for uniformity1 for certain very 
limited specified points--speed1 scent  

and the like4 ,but human beings we      
should have to breed for variety3 we    
cannot specify any particular points we 
want4 ,we want statesmen and poets and  
musicians and philosophers and swift men
 and strong men and delicate men and    
brave men4 ,the qualities of one would  
be the weaknesses of another4  ,it is   
really a false analogy1 that between the
 breeding of men and the breeding of    
horses and dogs4 ,in the case of human  
beings we want much more subtle and     
delicate combinations of qualities4 ,for
 any practical purposes we do not know  
what we want nor do we know how to get  
it4 ,so let us rule that theme out of   
our present discussion altogether4  ,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         
disposal4 ,i propose to leave out all   
questions of health and physical        
welfare4 ,there is1 as you know1 a vast 

literature now in existence1 concerned  
with the health and welfare of children 
before and after birth1 concerned with  
infantile life1 with social conditions  
and social work directed to the         
production of a vigorous population4 ,i 
am going to assume here that all that   
sort of thing is seen to--that it is all
 right1 that somebody is doing that1    
that we need not trouble for the present
 about any of those things4  ,this      
leaves us with the mental life only of  
our community and its individuals to    
consider4 ,on that ,i propose to        
concentrate this discussion4  ,now the  
human mind in its opening stages in a   
civilized community passes through a    
process which may best be named as      
schooling4 ,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 home1 or by 

playmates and companions anywhere4 ,out 
of this schooling arises the general    
mental life4 ,it is the structural      
ground-stuff of all education and       
thought4  ,now what is this schooling to
 do--what is it doing to the new human  
being8  ,let us recall what our own     
schooling was4  ,it fell into two pretty
 clearly defined parts4 ,we learnt      
reading and writing1 we made a certain  
study of grammar1 the method of         
language1 perhaps we learnt the         
beginnings of some other language than  
our own2 we learnt some arithmetic and  
perhaps a little geometry and algebra2  
we did some drawing4 ,all these things  
were ways of expression1 means of       
expressing ourselves1 means of          
comprehending our thoughts in terms of  
other people's minds1 and of            
understanding the expressions of others4
 ,that was the basis and substance of   
our schooling2 a training in mental     
elucidation and in communication with   
other minds4 ,but also as our schooling 

went on there was something more2 we    
learnt a little history1 some geography1
 the beginnings of science4 ,this second
 part of education was not so much      
expression as wisdom4 ,we learnt what   
was generally known of the world about  
us and of its past4 ,we entered into the
 common knowledge and common ideas of   
the world4  ,now1 obviously1 this       
schooling is merely a specialization and
 expansion of a parental function4  ,in 
the primitive ages of our race the      
parent1 and particularly the mother1 out
 of an instinctive impulse and practical
 necessity1 restrained and showed and   
taught1 and the child1 with an          
instinctive imitativeness and docility1 
obeyed and learnt4 ,and as the primitive
 family grew into a tribe1 as functions 
specialized and the range of knowledge  
widened1 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   
men4  ,it was only with the development 

of early civilizations1 as the mysteries
 of writing and reading began to be     
important in life1 that the school1 qua 
school1 became a thing in itself4 ,and  
as the community expanded1 the scope of 
instruction expanded with it4 ,schooling
 is1 in fact1 and always has been1 the  
expansion and development of the        
primitive savage mind1 which is still   
all that we inherit1 to adapt it to the 
needs of a larger community4 ,it makes  
out of the savage raw material which is 
our basal mental stuff1 a citizen4 ,it  
is a necessary process of fusion if a   
civilized community is to keep in being4
 ,without at least a network of schooled
 persons1 able to communicate its common
 ideas and act in intelligent           
co-operation1 no community beyond a mere
 family group can ever hold together4   
,as the human community expands1        
therefore1 the range of schooling must  
expand to keep pace with it4  ,i want to
 base my inquiry upon that proposition4 
,if it is sound1 certain very           

interesting conclusions follow4  ,i have
 already shown in the preceding         
discussions that the range of the modern
 state has increased at least ten times 
in the past century1 and that the scale 
of our community of intercourse has     
increased correspondingly4 ,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 range4 ,i am going to argue that    
there has not been such an enlargement1 
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 them4  ,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 world4 ,and at first ,i 
will not take into consideration the    
question of expense or any such         

practical difficulties4 ,i will suppose 
that for the education of this fortunate
 young citizen whose case we are        
considering we have limitless means1 the
 best possible tutors1 the best         
apparatus and absolutely the most       
favourable conditions4 ,the only limits 
to the teaching of this young citizen   
are his or her own limitations4 ,we     
suppose a pupil of fair average         
intelligence only4  ,now first we shall 
want our pupil to understand1 speak1    
read and write the mother tongue well4  
,to do this thoroughly in ,english      
involves a fairly sound knowledge of    
,latin grammar and at least some slight 
knowledge of the elements of ,greek4    
,latin and ,greek1 which are            
disappearing as distinct and separate   
subjects from many school curricula1 are
 returning as necessary parts of the    
,english course4  ,but nowadays a full  
life is not to be lived with a single   
language4 ,the world becomes polyglot4  
,even if we do not want to live among   

foreigners1 we want to read their books 
and newspapers and understand and follow
 their thought4 ,few of us there are who
 would not gladly read and speak several
 more languages if we had the chance of 
doing so4 ,i would therefore set down as
 a desirable part of this ideal         
education we are planning1 two or three 
other languages in addition to the      
mother tongue learnt early and          
thoroughly4 ,these additional languages 
can be acquired easily if they are      
learnt in the right way4 ,the easiest   
way to learn a language is to learn it  
when you are quite young4 ,many         
prosperous people in ,europe nowadays   
contrive to bring up their children with
 two or three foreign languages1 by     
employing foreign nurses and nursery    
governesses who never speak to the      
children except in the foreign          
languages4 ,in many cases what is known 
as the alternate week system prevails4  
,the governess is ,swiss and for one    
week she talks nothing but ,french and  

for another nothing but ,german4 ,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 idiom4  ,now1 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           
governesses1 and if we can organize the 
business efficiently4 ,that point ,i    
will defer4 ,i note here simply that the
 thing is possible1 if not practicable4 
,children1 however1 who have made this  
much start with languages are unable1 in
 ,england and ,america at least1 to go  
on properly with the learning of        
languages when they pass into a school4 
,our schools are so badly organized that
 it is rare to find even ,french well   
taught1 and there is rarely any teaching
 at all of modern languages other than  
,french or ,german4 ,often the two      
foreign languages are taught by         
different teachers employing different  

methods1 and both employing a different 
grammatical nomenclature from that used 
in studying the mother tongue4 ,the     
classes are encumbered with belated     
beginners4 ,the child who has got       
languages from its governess1 therefore1
 marks time--that is to say1 wastes time
 in these subjects at school4 ,the child
 well grounded in some foreign tongue is
 often a source of irritation to the    
teacher1 and gets into trouble because  
it uses idiomatic expressions with which
 the teacher is unfamiliar1 or seems to 
reflect upon the teacher's accent4      
,these are the limitations of the school
 and not the limitations of the pupil4  
,given facilities1 there is no reason   
why there should not be a rapid         
expansion of the language syllabus at   
thirteen or fourteen1 and why language  
generally should not be studied4 ,some  
,slavonic language could be taken       
up--,russian or ,czech--and a beginning 
made with some non-,aryan               
tongue--,arabic1 for example4  ,the     

object of language teaching in a        
civilized state is twofold3 to give a   
thorough1 intimate1 usable knowledge of 
the mother tongue and of certain key    
languages4 ,but if teaching were        
systematic and no time were wasted1 if  
schooling joined on and were continuous 
instead of being catastrophically       
disconnected1 there is another side of  
language teaching altogether--now       
entirely disregarded--and that is the   
acquisition in skeleton of quite a      
number of languages clustering round the
 key languages4 ,if at the end of his   
schooling a boy knows ,english1 ,french 
and ,german very well and nothing more1 
he is still a helpless foreigner in     
relation to large parts of the world4   
,but if1 in addition1 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 ,french1 or ,swedish in relation to
 his ,german1 then he has the key in his

 hands for almost any language he may   
want4 ,if he has not the language in his
 head1 he has it very conveniently on   
call--he needs but a sensible           
conversation dictionary and in a little 
while he can possess himself of it4     
,you may think this a large order2 you  
may think ,i am demanding linguistic    
prodigies2 but remember that ,i am upon 
my own ground here2 ,i am a trained     
teacher and a student of pedagogic      
science1 and ,i am a watchful parent2 ,i
 know how time and opportunity are      
wasted in school1 and particularly in   
language teaching4 ,languages are not   
things that exist in water-tight        
compartments2 each one illuminates the  
other and--unless it is taught with     
stupefying stupidity--leads on to       
others4 ,a child can acquire the        
polyglot habit almost unawares4 ,this   
widening grasp of languages is or was   
within the capacity of nearly everyone  
born into the world--given the          
facilities4  ,i ask you to note that    

qualification--given the facilities4    
,and now let us turn from the language  
side to the rest of schooling4 ,a second
 main division of our schooling was     
mathematical instruction of a sort4 ,it 
fell into the three more or less        
isolated subjects of arithmetic1 algebra
 and ,euclid4 ,we carried on in these   
closed cells what was1 ,i now perceive1 
a needlessly laborious and needlessly   
muddled struggle to comprehend quantity1
 series and form4  ,in all these        
matters1 looking back upon what ,i was  
taught1 comparing it with what ,i now   
know1 and comparing my mind with the    
minds of more fortunate individuals1 ,i 
cannot resist the persuasion that ,i was
 very badly done indeed in this section4
 ,and it is small consolation to me to  
note that most people's minds seem to be
 no better done than mine4  ,my         
arithmetic1 for instance1 is mediocre4  
,it is pervaded by inaccuracy4 ,you may 
say that this is probably want of       
aptitude4 ,partly1 no doubt1 but not    

altogether4 ,what is want of aptitude8  
,bad as my arithmetic is now it is not  
so bad as it was when ,i left school4   
,when ,i was about twenty ,i held a sort
 of inquest upon it and found out a     
number of things4 ,i found that ,i had  
been allowed to acquire certain bad     
habits and besetting sins--most people  
do4 ,for instance1 when ,i ran up a     
column of figures to add them ,i would  
pass from nine to seven quite surely and
 say sixteen2 but if ,i went from seven 
to nine ,i had a vicious disposition to 
make it eighteen4 ,endless additions    
went wrong through that one error4 ,i   
had fumbled into this vice and--this is 
my point--my school had no apparatus1   
and no system of checks1 to discover    
that this had occurred4 ,i used to get  
my addition wrong and ,i used to be     
punished--stupidly--by keeping me in    
from exercise4 ,time after time this    
happened2 there was no investigation and
 no improvement4 ,nobody ever put me    
through a series of test sums that would

 have analysed my errors and discovered 
these besetting sins of mine that led to
 my inaccurate arithmetic4  ,and another
 thing that made my arithmetic wrong was
 a defect in eyesight4 ,my two eyes     
haven't quite the same focal length and 
this often puts me out of the straight  
with a column of figures4 ,but there was
 nothing in my school to discover that1 
and my school never did discover it4    
,my geometrical faculties are also very 
poor and undeveloped4 ,euclid's         
elements1 indeed1 ,i have always found  
simple and straightforward1 but when it 
comes to anything in solid geometry--the
 intersection of a sphere by a cone1 let
 us say1 or something of that sort--,i  
am hopelessly at sea4 ,deep-seated      
habits of faulting and fogging1 which   
were actually developed by my schooling1
 prevent my forming any conception of   
the surfaces involved4  ,here again1    
just as with the language teaching1     
hardly any of us are really fully       
educated4 ,we suffer1 nearly all of us1 

from a lack of quantitative grasp and   
from an imperfect grasp of form4 ,few of
 us have acquired such a grasp4 ,few of 
us ever made a proper use of models1 and
 nearly all of us have miserably trained
 hands4 ,given proper facilities--and   
here again ,i ask you to note that      
proviso--given proper educational       
facilities1 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 than that possessed by any but a
 few mathematicians and mechanical      
geniuses to-day4  ,let me now come to a 
third main division of what we call     
schooling4 ,in our schooling there was  
an attempt to give us a view of the     
world about us and a view of our place  
in it1 under the headings of ,history   
and ,geography4  ,it would be impossible
 to imagine a feebler attempt4 ,the     
,history and ,geography ,i had was      
perhaps1 in one respect1 the next best  
thing to a good course4 ,it was so      

thoroughly and hopelessly bad that it   
left me with a vivid sense of ignorance4
 ,i read1 therefore1 with great avidity 
during my adolescence4  ,in ,english    
schools now ,i doubt if the teaching of 
history is much better than it was in my
 time1 but geography has grown and      
improved--largely through the vigorous  
initiative of ,professor ,huxley1 who   
replaced the old dreary topography by a 
vivid description of the world and      
mingled with it a sort of general       
elementary science under the name of    
,physiography4 ,this subject1 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 whole4 ,we need now to make a
 parallel push with the teaching of     
history4 ,upon this matter of the       
teaching of history ,i am a fanatic4 ,i 
cannot think of an education as even    
half done until there has been a fairly 
sound review of the whole of the known  

past1 from the beginnings of the        
geological record up to our own time4   
,until that is done1 the pupil has not  
been placed in the world4 ,he is        
incapable of understanding his          
relationship to and his role in the     
scheme of things4 ,he is1 whatever else 
he may have learnt1 essentially an      
ignorant person4  ,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 seventeen4 ,i have asked that
 it should involve a practical mastery  
of three or four languages1 including   
the mother tongue1 and that perhaps four
 or five other additional languages     
shall have been studied1 so to speak1 in
 skeleton4 ,i have added mathematics    
carried much higher and farther than    
most of our schools do to-day4 ,i have  
demanded a sound knowledge of universal 
history1 a knowledge of general physical
 and general biological science1 and ,i 

have thrown in1 with scarcely a word of 
apology1 a good training of the eyes and
 hands in drawing and manual work4  ,so 
far as the pupil goes1 ,i submit this is
 an entirely practicable proposal4 ,it  
can be done1 ,i am convinced1 with any  
ordinary pupil of average all-round     
ability1 given--what is now almost      
universally wanting--the proper         
educational facilities4 ,and now ,i will
 go on to examine the question of why   
these facilities are wanting4 ,i want to
 ask why a large class1 if not the whole
 of our population1 is not educated up  
to the level of wide understanding and  
fully developed capacity such a         
schooling as ,i have sketched out       
implies4  ,well1 the first fact obvious 
to every parent who has ever enquired   
closely into the educational outlook of 
his offspring1 the first fact we have to
 face is this3 there are not enough     
properly equipped schools and1 still    
more1 not enough good teachers1 to do   
the job4 ,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 school1 that is to 
say a school having all the possible    
material and apparatus and staffed      
sufficiently with a bright and able     
teacher1 a really live and alert        
educationist1 in every necessary        
subject1 such as would be needed to give
 this ideal education4 ,that is the     
great primary obstacle1 that is the core
 of our present problem4 ,we cannot get 
our modern community educated to        
anything like its full possibilities as 
yet because we have neither the teachers
 nor the schools4  ,now is this a final 
limitation8  ,for a moment ,i will leave
 the question of the possibilities of   
more and better equipped schools on one 
side4 ,i will deal with the supply of   
teachers4 ,at present we do not even    
attempt to get good teachers2 we do not 
offer any approach to a tolerable life  
for an ordinary teacher2 we compel them 
to lead mean and restricted lives2 we   

underpay them shockingly2 we do not     
deserve nearly such good teachers as we 
get4 ,but even supposing we were to     
offer reasonable wages for teachers2 an 
average all-round wage of ,l#a1jjj a    
year or so1 and respect and dignity2 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 population1 or1 indeed1 for any    
large section of our population4  ,you  
will note a new proviso creeping in at  
this point--using the methods that are  
used to-day4  ,because you must remember
 it is not simply a matter of payment   
that makes the teacher4 ,teachers are   
born and not made4 ,good teaching       
requires a peculiar temperament and     
distinctive aptitudes4 ,i doubt very    
much1 even if you could secure the      
services of every human being who had   
the natural gifts needed in a good      
teacher1 if you could disregard every   
question of cost and payment1 ,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      
children4 ,no doubt you could get a sort
 of teacher for every score or even for 
every dozen children1 a commonplace     
person who could be trained to do a few 
simple educational things1 but ,i am    
speaking now of good teachers who have  
the mental subtlety1 the sympathy and   
the devotion necessary for efficient    
teaching by the individualistic methods 
in use to-day4 ,and since1 using the    
methods that are used to-day1 you can   
only hope to secure fully satisfactory  
results with one teacher to every score 
of pupils1 or fewer1 and since it is    
unlikely we shall ever be able to       
command the services of more than a     
tithe of the people who could teach     
well1 it seems that we come up here     
against an insurmountable obstacle to an
 educated population4  ,now ,i want to  

press home the idea of that difficulty4 
,i am an old and seasoned educationist2 
most of my earliest writings are        
concealed in the anonymity of the       
,london educational papers of a quarter 
of a century ago1 and my knowledge of   
educational literature is fairly        
extensive4 ,i know in particular the    
literature of educational reform4 ,and  
,i do not recall that ,i have ever      
encountered any recognition of this     
fundamental difficulty in the way of    
educational development4 ,the literature
 of educational reform is always        
assuming parents of limitless           
intelligence1 sympathy and means1       
employing teachers of limitless energy  
and capacity4 ,and that to an extreme   
degree is what we haven't got and what  
we can never hope to have4  ,educational
 reformers seem always to be looking at 
education from the point of view of the 
individual scholastic enterprise and of 
the individual pupil1 and hardly ever   
from the point of view of a public task 

dealing with the community as a whole4  
,for all practical purposes this makes  
waste paper of a considerable proportion
 of educational literature4 ,this       
literature1 the reader will find1 is    
pervaded by certain fixed ideas4 ,there 
is a sort of standing objection to any  
machining of education4 ,there is1 we   
are constantly told1 to be no syllabus  
of instruction1 no examinations and no  
controls1 no prescribed text-books or   
diagrams because these things limit the 
genius of the teacher4 ,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 there4 ,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 times4 ,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 egg4  ,these    
educational idealists are always        
disregarding the fundamental problem of 
educational organization altogether1 the
 problem of economy1 economy of the most
 precious thing of all1 teaching power4 
,it is the problem of stretching the    
competent teacher over the maximum      
number of pupils1 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 standardized1 and by the use of every
 possible time and labour-saving device 
and every possible replacement of human 
effort1 not in order to dispense with   
originality and initiative but in order 
to conserve them for application at     
their points of maximum efficiency4  ,i 
have said that a disregard of the       
possibilities of wide organization and  
its associated economy of effort is     
characteristic of most advanced         
educational literature4 ,you will1 if   

you will examine them1 find that        
disregard working out to its natural    
consequences in what are called the     
advanced schools that appeal to         
educationally anxious parents nowadays4 
,you will find that these places1 often 
very picturesque and pleasing-looking   
places1 are rarely prosperous enough to 
maintain more than one or two good      
teachers4 ,the rest of the staff shrinks
 from scrutiny4 ,you will find these    
schools adorned with attractive diagrams
 drawn by the teachers1 and strikingly  
original models and apparatus made by   
the teachers1 and if you look closely   
into the matter or consult an           
intelligent pupil1 you will find there  
are never enough diagrams and apparatus 
to see a course through4 ,if you press  
that matter you will find that they     
haven't had time to make them so far4   
,and they will never get so far4 ,no    
school1 however rich and prosperous and 
however enthusiastically run1 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 out4 ,as well might a 
busy man hope to array himself1 by his  
own efforts1 with hats1 suits and boots 
made by himself out of wool and raw     
hides4  ,but now ,i think you will begin
 to see what ,i am driving at4 ,it is   
this3 that if the general level of      
education is to be raised in our modern 
community1 and if that better education 
is to be spread over most of our        
community1 it is necessary to reorganize
 education in the world upon entirely   
bolder1 more efficient1 and more        
economical lines4 ,we are inexorably    
limited as to the number of good        
teachers we can get into the educational
 organization1 and we are limited as    
inexorably as to the quality of the rank
 and file of our teaching profession2   
but we are not limited in the equipment 
and systematic organization of teaching 
methods and apparatus4 ,that is what ,i 
want particularly to enlarge upon now4  

,think of the ordinary schoolhouse--a   
mere empty brick building with a few    
hat-pegs1 a stale map or so1 half a     
dozen plaster casts1 a few hundred      
tattered books1 a blackboard1 and some  
broken chemical apparatus3 think of it  
as the dingy insufficiency it is6 ,in   
such a place the best teacher must needs
 waste three-fourths of his energies4   
,in such a place staff and pupils meet  
chiefly to waste each other's time4     
,this is the first and principal point  
at which we can stanch the wastage of   
teaching energy that now goes on4       
,everywhere about the world nowadays1   
the schoolhouse is set up and equipped  
by a private person or a local authority
 in more or less complete ignorance of  
educational possibilities1 in more or   
less complete disconnectedness1 without 
any of the help or any of the economy   
that comes from a centralized mass      
production4 ,let us now consider what we
 might have in the place of this typical
 schoolhouse of to-day4  ,let me first  

suggest that every school should have a 
complete library of very full and       
explicit lesson notes1 properly sorted  
and classified4 ,all the ordinary       
subjects in schools have been taught    
over and over again millions and        
millions of times4 ,few people1 ,i      
think1 realize that1 and fewer still    
realize the reasonable consequences of  
that4 ,human minds are very much the    
same everywhere1 and the best way of    
teaching every ordinary school subject1 
the best possible lesson and the best   
possible succession of lessons1 ought to
 have been worked out to the last point1
 and the courses ought to have been     
stereotyped long ago4 ,yet if you go    
into any school to-day1 in ninety-nine  
cases out of the hundred you will find  
an inexpert and ill-prepared young      
teacher giving a clumsy1 vamped-up      
lesson as though it had never been given
 before4 ,he or she will have no proper 
notes and no proper diagrams1 and a     
halting and faulty discourse will be    

eked out by feeble scratchings with     
chalk on a blackboard1 by querulous     
questioning of the pupils1 and          
irrelevancies4 ,the thing is            
preposterous4  ,and linked up with this 
complete equipment of proper lesson     
notes upon which the teacher will give  
the lessons1 there should be a thing    
which does not exist at present in any  
school and which ought to exist in every
 school1 a collection of some hundreds  
of thousands of pictures and diagrams1  
properly and compactly filed2 a copious 
supply of maps1 views of scenery1       
pictures of towns1 and so forth for     
teaching geography1 diagrams and tables 
for scientific subjects1 and so on and  
so on4 ,you must remember that if the   
schools of the world were thought of as 
a whole and dealt with as a whole1 these
 things could be produced wholesale at a
 cost out of comparison cheaper than    
they are made to-day4 ,there is no      
reason whatever why school equipment    
should not be a world market4 ,a lesson 

upon the geography of ,sweden needs     
precisely the same maps1 the same       
pictures of scenery1 types of people1   
animals1 cities1 and so forth1 whether  
that lesson is given in ,china or ,peru 
or ,morocco or ,london4 ,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 mankind4  
,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 schools1 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 
world4  ,and next to this full and      
manageable collection of pictures and   
diagrams1 which the teacher would whip  
out1 with the appropriate notes1 five   
minutes before his lesson began1 the    
modern school would have quite a        
considerable number of gramophones4     

,these would be used not only to supply 
music for drill and so forth1 and for   
the analytical study of music1 but for  
the language teaching4 ,instead of the  
teacher having to pretend1 as he usually
 pretends now1 to a complete knowledge  
of the foreign language he can really   
only smatter1 he would become the honest
 assistant of the real teaching         
instrument--the gramophone4 ,here1      
again1 it is a case for big methods or  
none--a case for mass production4 ,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 records4 ,for the first year of
 any language study1 at any rate1 the   
work would go always to the             
accompaniment of the proper accent and  
intonation4 ,and all over the world each
 language would be taught with the same 
accent and quantities and idioms--a very
 desirable thing indeed4  ,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 cinematograph4 ,i   
ask for half a dozen projectors or so in
 every school1 and for a well-stocked   
storehouse of films4 ,the possibilities 
of certain branches of teaching have    
been altogether revolutionized by the   
cinematograph4 ,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 chemistry1 physics and the like4     
,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   
facts with this damaged litter4 ,many of
 us can recall the realities of the sort
 of demonstration ,i mean4 ,the         
performance took two or three hours to  
prepare1 an hour to deliver and an hour 

or so to clear away2 it was difficult to
 follow1 impossible to repeat1 it       
usually went wrong1 and almost          
invariably the teacher lost his temper4 
,these practical demonstrations occurred
 usually in the opening enthusiasm of   
the term4 ,as the weeks wore on1 the    
pretence of practical teaching was      
quietly dropped1 and we crammed our     
science out of the text-book4  ,now that
 is the sort of thing that still goes   
on4 ,but it ought to be entirely out of 
date4 ,all that scientific bric-a-brac  
in the cupboard had far better be thrown
 away4 ,all the demonstration           
experiments that science teachers will  
require in the future can be performed  
once for all--before a cinematograph4   
,they can be done finally2 they need    
never be done again4 ,you can get the   
best and most dexterous teacher in the  
world--he can do what has to be done    
with the best apparatus1 in the best    
light2 anything that is very minute or  
subtle you can magnify or repeat from   

another point of view2 anything that is 
intricate you can record with extreme   
slowness2 you can show the facts a mile 
off or six inches off1 and all that your
 actual class teacher need do now is to 
spend five minutes on getting out the   
films he wants1 ten minutes in reading  
over the corresponding lecture notes1   
and then he can run the film1 give the  
lesson1 question his class upon it1 note
 what they miss and how they take it1   
run the film again for a second         
scrutiny1 and get out for the subsequent
 study of the class the ample supply of 
diagrams and pictures needed to fix the 
lesson4 ,can there be any comparison    
between the educational efficiency of   
the two methods8  ,so ,i put it to you1 
that it is possible now to make--and    
that the world needs badly that we      
should make--a new sort of school1 a    
standardized school1 a school richly    
equipped with modern apparatus and      
economizing the labour of teaching to an
 extent at present undreamt of1 in      

which1 all over the world1 the same     
stereotyped lessons1 leading the youth  
of the whole world through a parallel   
course of schooling1 can be delivered4  
,i know that in putting this before you 
,i challenge some of the most popular   
affectations of cultivated people4 ,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 world4 ,it sounds        
monotonous4 ,it will rob the world of   
variety--and so on and so on4 ,but      
indeed it will not be monotonous at all4
 ,that lesson will be new and fresh and 
good to every pupil who receives it4    
,and remember it is by our hypothesis   
the best possible form and arrangement  
of that lesson4 ,it is to take the place
 of a sham lesson or no lesson at all4  
,there is an eternal freshness in       
learning as in all the other main things
 in life4 ,it will be no more monotonous
 than having one's seventh birthday or  

falling in love for the first time4     
,and as for variety1 ,i for one do not  
care how soon every possible variety of 
ignorance and misconception is banished 
from the world4 ,the sun shines on the  
whole world and it is the same sun4 ,i  
have still to be persuaded that our     
planet would be more various and        
interesting if it were lit by two or    
three thousand uncertain1 spasmodic and 
differently coloured searchlights       
directed upon it from every direction4  
,i am pleading for a clear white light  
of education that shall go like the sun 
round the whole world4  ,you see that in
 all this ,i am driving at--what shall  
,i call it8--syndicated schools1        
syndicated lesson notes1 and1 so far as 
equipment goes1 mass production4 ,i want
 to see the sort of thing happening to  
schools that has already happened to    
many sorts of retail shops4 ,in the     
place of little ill-equipped schools1   
each run by its own teacher and buying  
its own books and diagrams and material 

and so forth in small quantities at high
 prices1 ,i want to see a great central 
organization1 employing teachers of     
genius1 working in consultation and     
co-operation and producing lesson notes1
 diagrams1 films1 phonograph records1   
cheaply1 abundantly1 on a big scale for 
a nation1 or a group of nations1 or1 if 
you like1 for all the world1 just as    
,america produces watches and alarum    
clocks and cheap automobiles for all the
 world4 ,and ,i want to see the schools 
of the world being run1 so far as the   
intellectual training goes1 not by local
 committees but by that central         
organization4  ,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 level4  ,but if we could so 
economize teaching energy--if we made   
our really great teachers1 by the use of
 modern appliances1 teachers not of     

handfuls but of millions2 if we insisted
 upon a universal application of the    
best and most effective methods of      
teaching1 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-day4     ,,vii   
,,college1 ,,newspaper ,,and ,,book     
,and now let us go on to the next stages
 of education4  ,the schooling process  
is a natural phase in human             
development--it is our elaboration of   
the natural learning of boyhood and     
girlhood and of adolescence4 ,there was 
schooling before schools2 there was     
schooling before humanity4 ,i have      
watched a cat schooling her kittens4    
,schooling is a part of being young4    
,and we grow up4 ,so there comes a time 
when schooling is over1 when the process
 of equipment gives place to an         

increasing share in the activities and  
decisions of adult life4  ,nevertheless 
for us education must still go on4  ,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 learn4 ,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--new1 ,i mean1 in the sense    
that it runs counter to the life scheme 
of primitive humanity and of most other 
living things--and that is the idea that
 one can go on learning right up to the 
end of life4 ,it marks off modern man   
from all animals1 that in his adult life
 he can display a sense that there      
remains something still to be           
investigated and wisdom still to be     
acquired4  ,i do not know enough history
 to tell you with any confidence when   
adult men1 instead of just going about  
the business of life after they had     

grown up1 continued to devote themselves
 to learning1 to a deliberate           
prolongation of what is for all other   
animals an adolescent phase4 ,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 progress4 ,that was  
twenty-six centuries ago or more4       
,something of the sort may have been    
going on in the temples of ,egypt or    
,samaria a score of centuries before4 ,i
 do not know4 ,you must ask some such   
great authority as ,professor ,breasted 
about that4 ,it may be fifty or a       
hundred centuries since men1 although   
they were fully grown up1 still went on 
trying to learn4  ,the idea of adult    
learning has spread ever since4 ,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 enlarge1 correct  
and change our ideas4  ,but even to-day 
you will find people who have not yet   

acquired this view4 ,you will find even 
teachers and doctors and business men   
who are persuaded that they had learnt  
all that there was to learn by          
twenty-five or thirty4 ,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 becoming1 as it were1 a     
university for those who have passed    
beyond the schooling stage4  ,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 minds1 has given place
 to a new realization of the need of    
continuous adaptation to the very end of
 our days4 ,it is no good settling down 
in a world that1 on its part1 refuses to
 do anything of the sort4  ,but         
hitherto1 before these new ideas began  
to spread in our community1 the mass of 
men and women definitely settled down4  
,at twelve1 or fifteen1 or sixteen1 or  

twenty it was decided that they should  
stop learning4 ,it has only been a rare 
and exceptional class hitherto that has 
gone on learning throughout life4 ,the  
scene and field of that learning        
hitherto has been1 in our ,western      
communities1 the ,university4           
,essentially the ,university is and has 
been an organization of adult learning  
as distinguished from preparatory and   
adolescent learning4  ,but between the  
phase of schooling and the phase of     
adult learning there is an intermediate 
stage4  ,in ,scotland and ,america that 
is distinguished and thought of clearly 
as the college stage4 ,but in ,england1 
where we do not think so clearly1 this  
college stage is mixed up with and done 
partly at school and partly in the      
,university4 ,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 it4  ,now what should      
college give the young citizen1 male or 

female1 upon the foundation of schooling
 we have already sketched out8 ,in      
practice we find a good deal of         
technical study comes into the college  
stage4 ,the budding lawyer begins to    
read law1 the doctor starts his         
professional studies1 the future        
engineer becomes technical1 and the     
young merchant sets to work1 or should  
do1 to study the great movements of     
commerce and business method and        
organization4  ,as the college stage of 
those who do not1 as a matter of fact1  
go to college1 we have now in every     
civilized country the evening           
continuation school1 the evening        
technical school and the works school4  
,but important as these things are from 
the point of view of service1 they are  
not the soul--not the real meaning of   
the college stage4  ,the soul of the    
college stage1 the most important value 
about it1 is that in it is a sort of    
preparatory pause and inspection of the 
whole arena of life4 ,it is the         

educational concomitant of the stage of 
adolescence4  ,the young man and the    
young woman begin to think for          
themselves1 and the college education is
 essentially the supply of stimulus and 
material for that process4  ,it was in  
the college stage that most of us made  
out our religion and made it real for   
ourselves4 ,it was then we really took  
hold of social and political ideas1 when
 we became alive to literature and art1 
when we began the delightful and        
distressful enterprise of finding       
ourselves4  ,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 society1  
the discussions that broke out in the   
classroom or laboratory1 the talks in   
one's rooms about ,god and religion1    
about the state and freedom1 about art1 
about every possible and impossible     

social relationship4  ,now in addition  
to that ,i had something else in my own 
college course--something of the same   
sort of thing but better4  ,i have      
spoken of myself as under-educated4 ,my 
schooling was shocking but1 as a blessed
 compensation1 my college stage was     
rather exceptionally good4 ,my schooling
 ended when ,i was thirteen4 ,my father1
 who was a professional cricketer1 was  
smashed up by an accident1 and ,i had   
three horrible years in employment in   
shops4 ,then my luck changed and ,i     
found myself under one of the very      
greatest teachers of his time1          
,professor ,huxley4 ,i worked at the    
,royal ,college of ,science in ,london  
for one year under him in his great     
course in zoology1 and for a year and a 
half under a very good but rather       
uninspiring teacher1 ,professor ,judd1  
the geologist4 ,i did also physics and  
astronomy4 ,altogether ,i had three full
 years of science study4 ,and the       
teaching of biology at that time1 as    

,huxley had planned it1 was a           
continuing1 systematic1 illuminating    
study of life1 of the forms and         
appearances of life1 of the way of life1
 of the interplay of life1 of the past  
of life and the present prospect of     
life4 ,it was a tremendous training in  
the sifting of evidence and the         
examination of appearances4  ,every man 
is likely to be biassed1 ,i suppose1 in 
favour of his own educational course4   
,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 course1 no classical or     
mathematical course ,i have ever had a  
chance of testing1 could do4  ,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    
,england4 ,nevertheless1 important as   
that formal college work was to me1 it  
still seems to me that the informal part

 of our college life--the talk1 the     
debates1 the discussion1 the scampering 
about ,london to attend great political 
meetings1 to hear ,william ,morris on   
,socialism1 ,auberon ,herbert on        
,individualism1 ,gladstone on ,home     
,rule1 or ,bradlaugh on ,atheism--for   
those were the lights of my remote      
student days--was about equally         
important4  ,if schooling is a training 
in expression and communication1 college
 is essentially the establishment of    
broad convictions4 ,and in order that   
they may be established firmly and      
clearly1 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 side4  ,now here  
again ,i want to put the same sort of   
questions ,i have put about schooling4  
,is the college stage of our present    
educational system anywhere near its    
maximum possible efficiency8 ,and could 
it not be extended from its present     

limited range until it reached          
practically the whole adolescent        
community8  ,let me deal with the first 
of these questions first4  ,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 stage8  ,for    
example1 there is a vast discussion     
afoot upon the questions that centre    
upon ,property1 its rights and its      
limitations4 ,there is a great          
literature of ,collectivist ,socialism  
and ,guild ,socialism and ,communism4   
,about these things our young people    
must know4 ,they are very urgent        
questions2 our sons and daughters will  
have to begin to deal with them from the
 moment they leave college4 ,upon them  
they must form working opinions1 and    
they must know not only what they       
themselves believe but1 if our public   
affairs are not to degenerate into the  
squalid1 obstinate1 hopeless conflicts  
of prejudiced adherents1 they must know 

also what is believed by other people   
whose convictions are different from    
theirs4  ,you may want to hush these    
matters up4 ,many elderly people do4    
,you will fail4  ,all our intelligent   
students will insist upon learning what 
they can of these discussions and       
forming opinions for themselves4 ,and if
 the college will not give them the     
representative books1 a fair statement  
of the facts and views1 and some        
guidance through the maze of these      
questions1 it means merely that they    
will get a few books in a defiant or    
underhand way and form one-sided and    
impassioned opinions4  ,another great   
set of questions upon which the         
adolescent want to judge for themselves1
 and ought to judge for themselves1 are 
the religious questions4  ,and a third  
group are those that determine the      
principles of sexual conduct4  ,i know  
that in all these matters1 on both sides
 of the ,atlantic1 a great battle rages 
between dogma and concealment on the one

 hand and open ventilation on the other4
  ,upon the issue ,i have no doubt4 ,i  
find it hard even to imagine the case   
for the former side4  ,so long as       
schooling goes on1 the youngster is     
immature1 needs to be protected1 is not 
called upon for judgments and           
initiatives1 and may well be kept under 
mental limitations4 ,i do not care very 
much how you censor or select the       
reading and talking and thinking of the 
schoolboy or schoolgirl4 ,but it seems  
to me that with adolescence comes the   
right to knowledge and the right of     
judgment4 ,and that it is the task and  
duty of the college to give matters of  
opinion in the solid--to let the student
 walk round and see them from every     
side4  ,now how is this to be done8  ,i 
suggest that to begin with we open wide 
our colleges to propaganda of every     
sort4 ,there is still a general tendency
 in universities on both sides of the   
,atlantic to treat propaganda as        
infection4 ,for the adolescent it is    

not--it is a stimulating drug4  ,let me 
instance my own case4 ,i am a man of    
,protestant origins and with a          
,protestant habit of mind4 ,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  
life4 ,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 world1 
telling them what she stands for and    
claims to be1 giving her own account of 
the ,mass4 ,these things are interwoven 
with our past2 they are part of us4 ,i  
do not like them to go into a church and
 stare like foreigners and strangers at 
the altar4  ,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-catholic or sceptical ethnologist4  
,he1 too1 should be free to tell his    
story and drive his conclusions home4   
,but you will find most colleges and    

most college societies bar religious    
instruction and discussion4 ,what do    
they think they are training8 ,some sort
 of genteel recluse--or men and women8  
,so1 too1 with the discussion of        
,bolshevism4 ,i do not know how things  
are in ,america but in ,england there   
has been a ridiculous attempt to        
suppress ,bolshevik propaganda4 ,i have 
seen a lot of ,bolshevik propaganda and 
it is not very convincing stuff4 ,but by
 suppressing it1 by police seizures of  
books and papers and the like1 it has   
been invested with a quality of romantic
 mystery and enormous significance4 ,our
 boys and girls1 especially the brighter
 and more imaginative1 naturally enough 
think it must be tremendous stuff to    
agitate the authorities in this fashion4
  ,at our universities1 moreover1 the   
more loutish types of student have been 
incited to attack and smash up the      
youths suspected of such reading4 ,this 
gives it the glamour of high            
intellectual quality4  ,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 doctrine4 
,he believes in ,lenin--because he has  
been prevented from reading him4 ,sober 
collectivists like myself haven't a     
chance with him4  ,but you see my       
conception of the college course8 ,its  
backbone should be the study of biology 
and its substance should be the         
threshing out of the burning questions  
of our day4  ,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 ,greats at  
,oxford4 ,you will accuse me of wanting 
to bury and forget ,aristotle and       
,plato1 ,heraclitus and ,lucretius1 and 
so forth and so on4  ,but ,i don't want 
to do that--so far as their thought is  
still alive4 ,so far as their thought is

 still alive these men will come into   
the discussion of living questions now4 
,if they are ,ancients and dead then let
 them be buried and left to the         
archaeological excavator4 ,if they are  
still ,moderns and alive1 ,i defy you to
 bury them if you are discussing living 
questions in a full and honest way4 ,but
 don't go hunting after them1 there are 
still modern ,immortals in the darkness 
of a forgotten language4 ,don't make a  
superstition of them4 ,let them come    
hunting after you4 ,either they are     
unavoidable if your living questions are
 fully discussed1 or they are irrelevant
 and they do not matter4 ,that there is 
a wisdom and beauty in the classics     
which is incommunicable in any modern   
language1 which obviously neither       
ennobles nor empowers1 but which is     
nevertheless supremely precious1 is a   
kind of nonsense dear to the second-rate
 classical don1 but it has nothing      
endearing about it for any other human  
beings4 ,i will not bother you further  

with that sort of affectation here4     
,and this college course ,i have        
sketched should1 in the modern state1   
pass insensibly into adult mental       
activities4  ,concurrently with it there
 will be going on1 as ,i have said1 a   
man's special technical training4 ,he   
will be preparing himself for a life of 
industrialism1 commerce1 engineering1   
agriculture1 medicine1 administration1  
education or what not4 ,and as with the 
man1 so with the woman4 ,that1 too1 is a
 process which in this changing new     
world of ours can never be completed4   
,neither of these college activities    
will ever really leave off4 ,all through
 his life a man or woman should be      
confirming1 fixing or modifying his or  
her general opinions2 and all the time  
his or her technical knowledge and power
 should be consciously increased4  ,and 
now let me come to the second problem we
 opened up in connection with college   
education--the problem of its extension4
  ,can we extend it over most or all of 

a modern population8  ,i don't think we 
can1 if we are to see it in terms of    
college buildings1 class rooms1 tutors1 
professors and the like4 ,here again1   
just as in the case of schooling1 we    
have to raise the neglected             
problem--neglected so far as education  
goes--of economy of effort2 and we have 
to look once more at the new facilities 
that our educational institutions have  
so far refused to utilize4 ,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 world4 ,this tradition was    
already highly developed before the days
 of printing from movable type1 and long
 before the days when maps or           
illustrations were printed4 ,the higher 
education1 therefore1 was still1 as it  
was in the ,stone ,age1 largely vocal4  
,and the absence of paper and so forth1 
rendering notebooks costly and rare1    
made a large amount of memorizing       

necessary4 ,for that reason the         
mediaeval university teacher was always 
dividing his subject into firstly and   
secondly and fourthly and sixthly and so
 on1 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 apologist1   
,mr4 ,hilaire ,belloc4 ,it is a method  
that destroys all sense of proportion   
between the headings2 main              
considerations and secondary and        
tertiary points get all catalogued off  
as equivalent numbers1 but it was a     
mnemonic necessity of those vanished    
days4  ,and they have by no means       
completely vanished4 ,we still use the  
lecture as the normal basis of          
instruction in our colleges1 we still   
hear discourses in the firstly1 secondly
 and thirdly form1 and we still prefer  
even a second-rate professor on the spot
 to the printed word of the ablest      

teacher at a distance4 ,most of us who  
have been through 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 lectures1 in spite of the      
existence of full and competent         
text-books4 ,and here again it would    
seem that the time has come to          
centralize our best teaching1 to create 
a new sort of wide teaching professor   
who will teach not in one college but in
 many1 and to direct the local professor
 to the more suitable task of ensuring  
by a commentary1 by organized critical  
work1 and so forth1 that the text-book  
is duly read1 discussed and compared    
with the kindred books in the college   
library4  ,this means that the great    
teaching professors will not lecture1 or
 that they will lecture only to try over
 their treatment of a subject before an 
intelligent audience as a prelude to    
publication4 ,they may perhaps visit the
 colleges under their influence1 but    

their basis instrument of instruction   
will be not a course of lectures but a  
book4 ,they will carry out the dictum of
 ,carlyle that the modern university is 
a university of books4  ,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 possibilities4 ,it 
releases the process of learning from   
its old servitude to place and to time4 
,it is no longer necessary for the      
student to go to a particular room1 at a
 particular hour1 to hear the golden    
words drop from the lips of a particular
 teacher4 ,the young man who reads at   
eleven o'clock in the morning in        
luxurious rooms in ,trinity ,college1   
,cambridge1 will have no very marked    
advantage over another young man1       
employed during the day1 who reads at   
eleven o'clock at night in a            
bed-sitting-room in ,glasgow4 ,the      
former1 you will say1 may get commentary
 and discussion1 but there is no        

particular reason why the latter should 
not form some sort of reading society   
with his fellows1 and discuss the       
question with them in the dinner hour   
and on the way to the works4 ,nor is    
there any reason why he should not get  
tutorial help as a university extension 
from the general educational            
organization1 as good in quality as any 
other tutorial help4  ,and this release 
of the essentials of a college education
 from limitations of locality and time  
brought about by modern conditions1 not 
only makes it unnecessary for a man to  
come up to college to be educated1 but  
abolishes the idea that his educational 
effort comes to an end when he goes     
down4 ,attendance at college no longer  
justifies a claim to education2         
inability to enter a college is no      
longer an excuse for illiteracy4  ,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 colleges2 they do not    
understand what a great and growing     
volume of adolescent learning and       
thought1 of college education in the    
highest and best sense of the word1 goes
 on outside the walls of colleges       
altogether2 and on the other they do not
 grasp the significant fact that1 thanks
 to the high organization of sports and 
amusements and social life in our more  
prosperous universities1 a great        
proportion of the youngsters who come in
 to their colleges never get the        
realities of a college education at all1
 and go out into the world again as     
shallow and uneducated as they came in4 
,and this failure to grasp the great    
change in educational conditions brought
 about1 for the most part1 in the last  
half-century1 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 expensive1       
pretentious college buildings and a     

great multiplication of little teaching 
professorships1 and a further           
segregation of so many hundreds or      
thousands of our adolescents from the   
general community1 when as a matter of  
fact the reality of education has ceased
 to lie in that direction at all4 ,the  
modern task is not to multiply teachers 
but to exalt and intensify exceptionally
 good teachers1 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    
community4  ,i am inclined to think that
 the type of adolescent education1 very 
much segregated in out-of-the-way       
colleges and aristocratic in spirit1    
such as goes on now at ,oxford1         
,cambridge1 ,yale1 ,holloway1 ,wellesley
 and the like1 has probably reached and 
passed its maximum development4 ,i doubt
 if the modern community can afford to  
continue it2 it certainly cannot afford 

to extend it very widely4  ,but as ,i   
have pointed out1 there has always been 
a second strand to college              
education--the technical side1 the      
professional training or apprenticeship4
 ,here there are sound reasons that the 
student should go to a particular place1
 to the special museums and             
laboratories1 to the institutes of      
research1 to the hospitals1 factories1  
works1 ports1 industrial centres and the
 like where the realities he studies are
 to be found1 or to the studios or      
workshops or theatres where they        
practise the art to which he aspires4   
,here it seems we have natural centres  
of aggregation in relation to which the 
college stage of a civilized community1 
the general adolescent education1 the   
vision of the world as a whole and the  
realization of the individual place in  
it1 can be organized most conveniently4 
,you see that what ,i am suggesting here
 is in effect that we should take our   
colleges1 so far as they are            

segregations of young people for general
 adolescent education1 and break them as
 a cook breaks eggs--and stir them up   
again into the general intellectual life
 of the community4  ,coupled with that  
there should1 of course1 be a proposal  
to restrict the hours of industrial work
 or specialized technical study up to   
the age of twenty1 at least1 in order to
 leave time for this college stage in   
the general education of every citizen  
of the world4  ,the idea has already    
been broached that men and women in the 
modern community are no longer inclined 
to consider themselves as ever          
completely adult and finished2 there is 
a growing disposition and a growing     
necessity to keep on learning throughout
 life4 ,in the worlds of research1 of   
literature and art and economic         
enterprise1 that adult learning takes   
highly specialized forms which ,i will  
not discuss now2 but in the general     
modern community the process of         
continuing education after the college  

stage is still evidently only at a      
primitive level of development4 ,there  
are a certain number of literary        
societies and societies for the study of
 particular subjects2 the pulpit still  
performs an educational function2 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 system2 but for the 
generality of people the daily          
newspaper1 the ,sunday newspaper1 the   
magazine and the book constitute the    
only methods of mental revision and     
enlargement after the school or college 
stage is past4  ,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 things4     
,this new nexus of print has grown up in
 the lifetime of four or five           
generations1 and it is undergoing       

constant changes4 ,we are apt to forget 
its extreme newness in history and to   
disregard the profound difference in    
mental conditions it makes between our  
own times and any former period4 ,it is 
impossible to believe that thus far it  
is anything but a sketch and intimation 
of what it will presently be4 ,it has   
grown4 ,no man foresaw it2 no one       
planned it4 ,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 us4 ,the    
latter conclusion is almost wilder than 
the former4  ,by what we can only       
consider a series of fortunate          
accidents1 the press and the book world 
have provided and do provide a necessary
 organ in the modern world state1 an    
organ for swift general information upon
 matters of fact and for the rapid      
promulgation and diffusion of ideas and 
interpretations4 ,the newspaper grew1 as
 we know1 out of the news-letter which  

in a manuscript form existed before the 
,roman ,empire2 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 developed4       
,modern newspapers have been described1 
not altogether inaptly1 as sheets of    
advertisements with news and discussions
 printed on the back4 ,the extension of 
book reading from a small class1 chiefly
 of men1 to the whole community has also
 been largely a response to new         
facilities2 though it owes something    
also to the religious disputes of the   
last three centuries4 ,the population of
 ,europe1 one may say with a certain    
truth1 first learnt to read the ,bible1 
and only afterwards to read books in    
general4 ,a large proportion of the book
 publishing in the ,english language in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
 still consisted of sermons and         
controversial theological works4  ,both 

newspaper and book production began in a
 small way as the enterprise of free    
individuals1 without anyone realizing   
the dimensions to which the thing would 
grow4 ,our modern press and book trade1 
in spite of many efforts to centralize  
and control it1 in spite of ,defence of 
the ,realm ,acts and the like1 is still 
the production of an unorganized        
multitude of persons4 ,it is not        
centralized2 it is not controlled4 ,to  
this fact the nexus of print owes what  
is still its most valuable quality4     
,thoughts and ideas of the most varied  
and conflicting sort arise and are      
developed and worked out and fought out 
in this nexus1 just as they do in a     
freely thinking vigorous mind4  ,i am   
not1 you will note1 saying that this    
freedom is perfect or that the thought  
process of the print nexus could not go 
very much better than it does1 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 indeed4  ,now many people think   
that we are moving in the direction of  
world socialism to-day4 ,collectivism is
 perhaps a better1 more definite word   
than socialism1 and1 so far as keeping  
the peace goes1 and in matters of       
transport and communication1 trade1     
currency1 elementary education1 the     
production and distribution of staples  
and the conservation of the natural     
resources of the world go1 ,i believe   
that the world and the common sense of  
mankind move steadily towards a world   
collectivism4 ,but the more co-operation
 we have in our common interests1 the   
more necessary is it to guard very      
jealously the freedom of the mind1 that 
is to say1 the liberty of discussion and
 suggestion4  ,it is here that the      
,communist regime in ,russia has        
encountered its most fatal difficulty4  
,a catastrophic unqualified abolition of
 private property has necessarily       
resulted in all the paper1 all the      
printing machinery1 all the libraries1  

all the news-stalls and book shops1     
becoming ,government property4 ,it is   
impossible to print anything without the
 consent of the ,government4 ,one cannot
 buy a book or newspaper2 one must take 
what the ,government distributes4 ,free 
discussion--never a very free thing in  
,russia--has now on any general scale   
become quite impossible4 ,it was a      
difficulty foreseen long ago in         
,socialist discussions1 but never       
completely met by the thorough-paced    
,communist4 ,at one blow the active     
mental life of ,russia has been ended1  
and so long as ,russia remains          
completely and consistently communist it
 cannot be resumed4 ,it can only be     
resumed by some surrender of paper1     
printing and book distribution from     
absolute ,government ownership to free  
individual control4 ,that can only be   
done by an abandonment of the full      
rigours of communist theory4  ,in our   
western communities the dangers to the  
intellectual nexus lie rather on the    

other side4 ,the war period produced    
considerable efforts at ,government     
control and as a consequence            
considerable annoyance to writers1 much 
concealment and some interference with  
the expression of opinion2 but on the   
whole both newspapers and books held    
their own4 ,there is to-day probably as 
much freedom of publishing as ever there
 was4 ,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 individual1 and from the  
incitements to mob violence by          
propagandist religions and cults against
 free discussion4  ,about the ,american 
press ,i know and can say little4 ,i    
will speak only of things with which ,i 
am familiar4 ,i am inclined to think    
that there has been a considerable      
increase of deliberate lying in the     
,british press since #aiad1 and a marked
 loss of journalistic self-respect4     
,particular interests have secured      

control of large groups of papers and   
pushed their particular schemes in      
entire disregard of the general mental  
well-being4 ,for instance1 there has    
recently been a remarkable boycott in   
the ,london press of a very able        
collectivist book1 ,sir ,leo ,money's   
,triumph of ,nationalization1 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 latter4 ,it is a    
book not only important as a statement  
of a peculiar economic view1 but because
 of the statesmanlike gravity and       
clearness of its exposition4 ,i do not  
think it would have been possible to    
stand between the public and a writer in
 this way in the years before #aiad4 ,a 
considerable proportion of the          
industrial and commercial news is now   
written to an end4 ,the ,british press  
has also suffered greatly from the      
outbreak of social and nationalist      

rancour arising out of the great war1   
the inability of the ,european mind to  
grasp the ,bolshevik issue1 and the     
clumsy blunderings of the ,versailles   
settlement4 ,quite half the news from   
,eastern ,europe that appears in the    
,london press is now deliberate         
fabrication1 and a considerable         
proportion of the rest is rephrased and 
mutilated to give a misleading          
impression to the reader4  ,but people  
cannot be continuously deceived in this 
way1 and the consequence of this press  
demoralization has been a great loss of 
influence for the daily paper4 ,a       
diminishing number of people now believe
 the news as it is given them1 and fewer
 still take the unsigned portions of the
 newspaper as written in good faith4    
,and there has been a consequent        
enhancement of the importance of signed 
journalism4 ,men of manifest honesty1   
men with names to keep clean1 have built
 up reputations and influence upon the  
ruins of editorial prestige4 ,the       

exploitation of newspapers by the       
adventurers of private enterprise in    
business1 has carried with it this      
immense depreciation in the power and   
honour of the newspaper4  ,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 nexus3 nevertheless1 it is a  
very great inconvenience and danger to  
the world4 ,it stands very much in the  
way of that universal adult education   
which is our present concern4 ,reality  
is horribly distorted4 ,men cannot see  
the world clearly and they cannot1      
therefore1 begin to think about it      
rightly4  ,we need a much better and    
more trustworthy press than we possess4 
,we cannot get on to a new and better   
world without it4 ,the remedy is to be  
found not1 ,i believe1 in any sort of   
,government control1 but in a legal     
campaign against the one thing          
harmful--the lie4 ,it would be in the   

interests of most big advertisers1 for  
most big advertisement is honest2 it    
would be1 in the long run1 in the       
interests of the ,press2 and it would   
mean an enormous step forward in the    
general mental clarity of the world if a
 deliberate lie1 whether in an          
advertisement or in the news or other   
columns of the press1 was               
punishable--punishable whether it did or
 did not involve anything that is now an
 actionable damage4 ,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 press1 whether they   
had been made in good faith or not1 at  
least as conspicuously and lengthily as 
the original statement4 ,i can see no   
impossibility in the realization of     
either of these proposals1 and no       
objection that a really honest newspaper
 proprietor or advertiser could offer to
 them4 ,it would make everyone careful1 
of course1 but ,i fail to see any       

grievance in that4 ,the sanitary effect 
upon the festering disputes of our time 
would be incalculably great4 ,it would  
be like opening the windows upon a      
stuffy1 overcrowded and unventilated    
room of disputing people4  ,given       
adequate laws to prevent the cornering  
of paper or the partisan control of the 
means of distribution of books and      
printed matter1 ,i believe that the     
present freedoms and the unhampered     
individualism of the world of thought1  
discussion and literary expression are  
and must remain conditions essential to 
the proper growth and activity of a     
common world mind4 ,on the basis of that
 sounder education ,i have sketched in a
 preceding paper1 there is possible such
 an extension of understanding1 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 we1 in the heats1        

entanglements and limitations of our    
present ignorance1 doubt and            
misinformation can scarcely begin to    
imagine4  ,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 extensive1 planned 
so economically and so ably as to reach 
every man and woman in the world4  ,it  
is a dream not of individuals           
educated--we have thought too much of   
the individual educated for the         
individual--but of a world educated to a
 pitch of understanding and co-operation
 far beyond anything we know of to-day1 
for the sake of all mankind4  ,i have   
tried to show that1 given organization1 
given the will for it1 such a world-wide
 education is possible4  ,i wish ,i had 
the gift of eloquence so that ,i could  
touch your wills in this matter4 ,i do  
not know how this world of to-day       
strikes upon you4 ,i am not ungrateful  
for the gift of life4 ,while there is   
life and a human mind1 it seems to me   

there must always be excitements and    
beauty1 even if the excitements are     
fierce and the beauty terrible and      
tragic4 ,nevertheless1 this world of    
mankind to-day seems to me to be a very 
sinister and dreadful world4 ,it has    
come to this--that ,i open my newspaper 
every morning with a sinking heart1 and 
usually ,i find little to console me4   
,every day there is a new tale of silly 
bloodshed4 ,every day ,i read of anger  
and hate1 oppression and misery and     
want--stupid anger and oppression1      
needless misery and want--the insults   
and suspicions of ignorant men1 and the 
inane and horrible self-satisfaction of 
the well-to-do4 ,it is a vile world     
because it is an under-educated world1  
unreasonable1 suspicious1 base and      
ferocious4 ,the air of our lives is a   
close and wrathful air2 it has the      
closeness of a prison--the indescribable
 offence of crowded and restricted      
humanity4  ,and yet ,i know that there  
is a way out4  ,up certain steps there  

is a door to this dark prison of        
ignorance1 prejudice and passion in     
which we live--and that door is only    
locked on the inside4 ,it is within our 
power1 given the will for it1 given the 
courage for it--it is within our power  
to go out4 ,the key to all our human    
disorder is organized education1        
comprehensive and universal4 ,the       
watchword of conduct that will clear up 
all our difficulties is1 the plain      
truth4 ,rely upon that watchword1 use   
that key with courage and we can go out 
of the prison in which we live2 we can  
go right out of the conditions of war1  
shortage1 angry scrambling1 mutual      
thwarting and malaise and disease in    
which we live2 we and our kind can go   
out into sunlight1 into a sweet air of  
understanding1 into confident freedoms  
and a full creative life--for ever4  ,i 
do not know--,i do not dare to          
believe--that ,i shall live to hear that
 key grating in the lock4 ,it may be our
 children and our children's children   

will still be living in this jail4 ,but 
a day will surely come when that door   
will open wide and all our race will    
pass out from this magic prison of      
ignorance1 suspicion and indiscipline in
 which we now all suffer together4      
,,viii  ,,the ,,envoy   ,in the         
preceding papers ,i have1 with some     
repetition and much stumbling1 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 come4 ,much of this material was
 first prepared to be delivered to a    
lecture audience1 and ,i regret that    
ill-health has prevented a complete     
re-writing of these portions4 ,there is 
more of the uplifted forefinger and the 
reiterated point than ,i should have    
allowed myself in an essay4 ,but this is
 a loss of grace rather than of         
clearness4 ,and since ,i am stating a   
case and not offering the reader        
anything professing to be a literary    

work1 ,i shall not apologise for finally
 summing up and underlining the chief   
points of this book4  ,they are1        
firstly3 that a great change in human   
conditions has been brought about during
 the past century1 and secondly that a  
vast task of adaptation1 which must be1 
initially and fundamentally1 mental     
adaptation1 has to be undertaken by our 
race4 ,it is a task which politicians1  
who live from day to day1 and statesmen1
 who live from event to event1 may      
hinder or aid very greatly1 but which   
they cannot be expected to conduct or   
control4 ,politicians and statesmen     
perforce live and work in the scheme of 
ideas they find about them2 the         
conditions of their activities are made 
for them4 ,they can be compelled by the 
weight of public opinion to help it1 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 people4 ,in times of          

fluctuation and dissolving landmarks1   
the importance of the teacher--using the
 word in its widest sense--rises with   
the progressive dissolution of the      
established order4  ,the creative       
responsibility for the world to-day     
passes steadily into the hands of       
writers and school teachers1 students of
 social and economic science1 professors
 and poets1 editors and journalists1    
publishers and newspaper proprietors1   
preachers1 every sort of propagandist   
and every sort of disinterested person  
who can give time and energy to the     
reconstruction of the social idea4      
,human life will continue to be more and
 more dangerously chaotic until a world 
social idea crystallizes out4 ,that--and
 no existing institution and no current 
issue--is the primary concern of the    
present age4  ,we need1 therefore1      
before all other sorts of organization1 
educational organizations2 we need1     
before any other sort of work1 work of  
education and enlightenment2 we need    

everywhere active societies pressing for
 a better1 more efficient conduct of    
public schooling1 for a wider1 more     
enlightening school curriculum1 for a   
world-wide linking-up of educational    
systems1 for a ruthless subordination of
 naval1 military and court expenditure  
to educational needs1 and for a         
systematic discouragement of            
mischief-making between nation and      
nation and race and race and class and  
class4 ,i could wish to see ,educational
 ,societies1 organized as such1         
springing up everywhere1 watching local 
bodies in order to divert economies from
 the educational starvation of a        
district to other less harmful saving2  
watching for obscurantism and reaction  
and mischievous nationalist teaching in 
the local schools and colleges and in   
the local press2 watching members of    
parliament and congressmen for evidences
 of educational good-will or malignity2 
watching and getting control of the     
administration of public libraries2     

assisting1 when necessary1 in the supply
 of sound literature in their districts2
 raising funds for invigorating         
educational propaganda in poor countries
 like ,china and in atrociously educated
 countries like ,ireland1 and           
corresponding with kindred societies    
throughout the world4 ,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 communities4 ,subordinating 
all vulgar political considerations to  
educational development as the supreme  
need in the world's affairs1 even quite 
small societies could exercise a        
powerful decisive voice in a great      
number of political contests4 ,and an   
educational movement is more tenacious  
than any other sort of social or        
political movement whatever4 ,it trains 
its adherents4 ,what it wins it holds4  
,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 racial1 social and        
economic conflicts that are in progress4
 ,i do4 ,i believe we shall never get on
 with human affairs until we do ignore  
them4 ,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 ,government1 or in the     
class war4 ,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 them4
 ,these conflicts are mere aspects of   
the gross and passionate stupidity and  
ignorance and sectionalism of our       
present world4 ,the class war1 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 property4 ,the capitalist1  
the employer1 the property-owning class1
 as a class1 have neither the           
intelligence nor the conscience to      
comprehend any moral limitations1 any   
limitations whatever but the strong arm 
of the law1 upon what they do with their
 property4 ,their black and obstinate   
ignorance1 the clumsy adventurousness   
they call private enterprise1 their     
unconscious insolence to poor people1   
their stupidly conspicuous              
self-indulgence1 produce as a necessary 
result the black hatred of the employed 
and the expropriated4 ,on one side we   
have greed1 insensibility and           
incapacity1 on the other envy and       
suffering stung to vindictive revolt3 on
 neither side light nor generosity nor  
creative will4 ,neither side has any    
power to give us any reality we need4   
,neither side is more than a hate and an
 aggression4 ,how can one take sides    

between them8  ,the present system1     
unless it can develop a better          
intelligence and a better heart1 is     
manifestly destined to foster fresh wars
 and to continue wasting what is left of
 the substance of mankind1 until        
absolute social disaster overtakes us   
all4 ,and manifestly the revolutionary  
communist1 at his present level of      
education1 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 destruction4  
,but at a higher level of intelligence1 
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 state1 this issue--this 
wholly destructive conflict between the 
property manipulator and the communist  
fanatic which is now rapidly wrecking   
our world--disappears4 ,it disappears as
 completely as the causes of a murderous

 conflict between two drunken men will  
disappear when they are separated and   
put under a stream of clear cold water4 
,so it is that1 in spite of their       
apparent urgency1 ,i ask the reader to  
detach himself from these present       
conflicts of national politics1 of      
political parties and of the class war  
as completely as he can2 or1 if he      
cannot detach himself completely1 then  
to play such a part in them1 regardless 
of any other consideration1 as may be   
most conducive to a wide-thinking1      
wide-ranging education upon which we can
 base a new world order4 ,a resolute    
push for quite a short period now might 
reconstruct the entire basis of our     
collective human life4  ,in this book ,i
 have tried to show what form that push 
should take1 to show that it has a      
reasonable hope of an ultimate success1 
and that unless it is made1 the outlook 
for mankind is likely to become an      
entirely dismal prospect4 ,i put these  
theses before the reader for his        

consideration4 ,they are not discursive 
criticisms of life1 not haphazard       
grumblings at our present discontents1  
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 opportunities4     ,,index  
,adult learning1 spread of1 #afg        
,aircraft as a means of quick travel1   
#dh     in future wars1 #i    ,air      
transport a problem for ,europe1 #eh    
possibilities of future1 #ff    ,all-red
 air routes1 #fg    ,america and the    
,league of ,nations1 #ae1 #bh1 #dg      
generalized history teaching in1 #ajh   
her part in ,european reconstruction1   
#fb     locomotion in1 #di1 #eb         
political unity of1 #fj     7see also   
,united ,states7    ,american social    
system1 comparisons1 #b    ,americans1  
patriotism of1 #fi    ,anthology and a  
modernized ,bible1 #abe    ,apocrypha1  
the1 and a modernized ,bible1 #aai et   
seq4    ,arithmetic1 a wrong way of     

teaching1 #adi    ,austria after the    
war1 #dd     ,belloc1 ,hilaire1 #agh    
,bible1 the1 a criticism of1 #ih et seq4
     and the theory of origin1 #ajc     
,english translation of1 #ajg     its   
effect upon civilization1 #aja          
redundancy in1 #ii     rules of health  
in1 #aaa     why it has lost hold on the
 people1 #aja    ,bible of              
,civilization1 the1 #ie et seq4     need
 for frequent revision1 #acf     what it
 will contain1 #aje et seq4    ,biology1
 ,huxley's system of1 #aga     study of1
 #aea1 #aeb    ,bolshevik propaganda1   
suppression of1 #age    ,bolshevism and 
the overthrow of ,russia1 #dd    ,books 
and mentality1 #ahc    ,boundary        
question in ,europe1 #ed1 #ei1 #fa1 #fb 
,bradlaugh1 ,charles1 lectures of1 #aga 
,breasted1 ,professor1 works of1 #ajh   
,breeding1 points required in1 #adj     
,britain1 national egotism of1 #gb      
,british ,civil ,air ,transport         
,committee1 #dh1 #ff    ,british        
,empire1 the1 a prime necessity for     

security of1 #fe     a wrong conception 
of1 #fd     an ocean state1 #fe     its 
failure with reconstruction1 #bh-i      
,british monarchy1 the1 lost            
opportunities of1 #bi    ,browning1     
,oscar1 #ajh     ,canonical books and   
the ,bible of ,civilization1 #aai       
,chinese discovery of gunpowder1 #f     
,christianity1 #bc     spread of1 in    
,western ,europe1 #gh                   
,cinematograph1 the1 as an aid to       
teaching1 #hj1 #afa    ,civilization1   
adjustment of political ideas necessary 
for1 #df     effect of the ,bible on1   
#aja     impotence of1 #a     the ,bible
 of1 #ie et seq4     the war and1 #dc et
 seq4    ,college stage of education1   
#afh     changed conditions of1 #ahj    
how it could be improved1 #agb          
problem of its extension1 #agg          
,comenius1 political and educational    
ideas of1 #ie1 #ig1 #ach    ,committees1
 good work by1 #ajg    ,communism and   
property1 #aae    ,communists1 ,russian1
 and the ,press1 #ahf    ,connecticut1  

,state of1 the ,bible as its only law1  
#ih    ,conscience the basis of moral   
life1 #bj    ,contemporary problems1    
complexity of1 #c    ,cosmogony of the  
,bible1 the1 #ajc-d    ,customs1 the1   
and ,european travel1 #ef               
,declaration of ,independence1 #fc1 #ajg
    ,denmark1 present-day conditions in1
 #de    ,disarmament1 ineffectual       
movements for1 #ac    ,discovery1 the   
age of1 #f     ,education a fundamental 
difficulty1 #aee     chief end of1 #be  
degradation of1 #aje     in the world   
state1 #bj1 #ij     necessary basis of1 
#ajc     neglect of language teaching1  
#ade     past and present1 #gi1 #ajd    
primary obstacle to1 #aec               
progressive character of1 #aff1 #ahc    
reorganization of1 needed1 #aeh1 #afe   
,educational organization1 a review of1 
#aci     need of1 #aid    ,england      
before and after the war1 #de    ,epics 
and a modernized ,bible1 #abe           
,eugenic literature1 #adj1 #ada         
,europe1 and the ,league of ,nations1   

#dg     boundary question of1 #ed1 #ei1 
#fa1 #fb     in the seventeenth century1
 #if     problem of air transport1 #eh  
propaganda of patriotism in1 #gb        
results of political disunion1 #ed      
slow economic recovery of1 #ei          
,european travel1 preparations needed   
for1 #ee    ,evening continuation and   
technical schools1 #afi    ,exchange1   
fluctuating nature of1 #ef1 #eg         
,federal ,world ,state1 an approaching  
reality1 #hj    ,forecasts1 a ,book of1 
and the modernized ,bible1 #acb         
,foresight1 need of1 #acc    ,france1   
national egotism of1 #gb     post-war   
decadence in1 #de    ,frontiers and the 
possibility of war1 #ei     ,geography1 
improved method of teaching1 #aea       
,germany1 ebb in civilization in1 #de   
intensive nationalist education in1 #gb 
,gladstone1 ,mr41 a speech by1 #aga     
,gramophones as aids to school teaching1
 #afj    ,gunpowder1 discovery of1 #f   
,hamsun's ,growth of the ,soil1 #abd    
,health and the citizen1 #aaa    ,hebrew

 ,bible1 the1 #aaj    ,henley1 a poem   
by1 #abg    ,herbert1 ,auberon1 lectures
 by1 #aga    ,higher education1 a false 
conception of1 #aha    ,historical      
books1 value of illustrations and maps  
in1 #aaj    ,history1 and national      
egotism1 #gc     cardinal experiences   
in1 #a    ,history of the ,ancient      
,world1 #ajh    ,history teaching in    
schools1 unsatisfactory nature of1 #aea 
,holland1 post-war condition of1 #de    
,human brotherhood1 gospel of1 #bd      
,human disorder1 the key to1 #aib       
,human outlook1 the1 #a    ,human       
society1 ancient and modern1 #e         
needs reconstruction1 #aa    ,human     
unity and a world state1 #ge            
,hungary1 post-war desolation in1 #dd   
,huxley1 ,professor1 author's tribute   
to1 #agj     his system of teaching     
geography1 #aea     ,illustrations1 need
 of1 in books1 #aaj    ,independent     
nationality1 need for1 #gf              
,individualists and property1 #aae      
,industrialism1 modern1 #aad            

,intellectuals1 their estimate of man1  
#ad    ,international mind1 an1 #gc     
,international problem of to-day1 #df   
,ireland1 after-effects of war in1 #de  
condition of 7#afdj-afej71 #if          
,islam1 lasting unity of1 #gi     spread
 of1 in seventh century1 #bc    ,italy1 
after the war1 #de     forbids export of
 works of art1 #aag     ,judd1          
,professor1 #aga    ,kipling1 ,rudyard1 
#ae    ,komensky 7see ,comenius7        
,labour problems1 the ,bible and1 #aad  
,labour trouble1 and from what it       
springs1 #aaf1 #aag    ,language        
teaching1 a necessary part of education1
 #ade     suggested use of gramophones  
for1 #afj     twofold object of1 #adg   
,league of ,nations1 the1 #ac1 #ag      
and the boundary question1 #fb          
educational value of its propaganda1 #ge
     ineffectiveness of1 #e1 #cg1 #da1  
#dg1 #gf     ,president ,wilson and1    
#ae1 #bh    ,lectures as basis of       
instruction1 #agh    ,lenin and ,russia1
 #dd    ,lincoln's ,gettysburg ,address1

 #abf    ,locomotion and methods of     
communication1 #dh1 #eb1 #ec            
,machinery1 in a world state1 #ia       
,magna ,carta1 #ajg    ,man1 his plain  
duty1 #ch     social nature of1 #ai     
,mankind1 influence of surroundings on1 
#ah     probable future of1 #a et seq4  
,mathematics1 teaching of1 #adi         
,mediaeval and ,modern ,history1 #ajh   
,mediaeval and ,modern ,times1 #ajh     
,mental life1 schooling and the1 #adb   
,mesopotamia1 irrigation system of1 #f  
,military class1 mischief of a1 #bi     
,milton's defence of free speech1 #abh  
,missouri1 establishment of1 #di        
,money1 ,sir ,leo1 his ,triumph of      
,nationalization1 #ahg    ,morris1      
,william1 lectures by1 #aga             
,napoleon's retreat from ,moscow1 #dh   
,national independence1 meaning of1 #ei 
,newspapers1 #ahc     evolution of1 #ahd
     journalistic demoralization1 #ahg1 
#ahh    ,novels1 and a modernized       
,bible1 #abc     ,ocean transport1      
importance of1 #fe    ,organized        

education1 the key to human disorder1   
#aib    ,organized solidarity and modern
 communities1 #ajb    ,original ,sin1   
the factor of1 #aje    ,outline of      
,history1 ,wells's1 #ajg1 #ajh          
,passports1 delays attendant on1 #ee    
,patriotism1 a unity-destroying         
propaganda of1 #gb     aggressive1      
dangers of1 #ci     ,american1 #fi      
true and false conceptions of1 #fh1 #fi 
,peace ,ministry1 functions of a1 #hg   
,philosophical works and a modernized   
,bible1 #abd    ,physiography1 ,huxley  
and1 #aea    ,physiology1 value of study
 of1 #aea    ,pilgrim ,fathers1 the1 and
 the ,bible1 #aaj    ,plays and a       
modernized ,bible1 #abc    ,political   
reconstruction1 accompaniments of1 #be  
,politicians1 their need of foresight1  
#acc    ,politics in a world state1 #ha1
 #ic    ,prayer ,book1 the1 #ajg        
,press1 the1 demoralization of1 #ahg-h  
freedom of1 #ahe     ,government control
 of1 #ahf1 #ahg    ,printing and the    
community1 #g    ,progress1 arrest of1  

#a    ,property1 class war and1 #aif    
labour trouble and1 #aaf1 #aag          
problems of1 #aad     rights and duties 
of1 #aae    ,puritanism in the          
seventeenth century1 #ig     ,quakers1  
the1 foundation of1 #ig     ,radiogram1 
the1 and its results1 #f    ,railways1  
,american1 #di et seq41 #fe             
,readjustment of political ideas1 #df et
 seq41 #fh    ,religion and the         
political and social outlook1 #bc1 #gi  
universalist in theory1 #ha             
,religious instruction and discussion   
barred by colleges1 #age    ,revolutions
 and how produced1 #bg    ,robinson1    
,professor1 #ajh    ,roman ,empire1 the1
 rise and fall of1 #ec    ,russia1      
,bolshevism in1 #dd     the ,press in1  
#ahf     vexatious delays in a journey  
to1 #ef et seq4     ,st4 ,petersburg    
before and after the war1 #dc1 #dd      
,schoolhouse1 an ordinary1 and an ideal1
 #aeh-i    ,schooling of the world1 the1
 #aci et seq4     and what should be    
taught1 #adc     why so often a failure1

 #aec    ,schools and the development of
 education1 #be     of a world state1   
#ij    ,science teaching under          
difficulties and a suggested remedy1    
#afa    ,scotland after the war1 #de    
,sea power and the submarine1 #ff       
,semaphores1 #dh    ,sexual morality1   
need for1 #aab    ,shakespear and the   
,bible of ,civilization1 #abb    ,social
 nature of man1 #ai    ,sovereign       
states1 incoherent nature of1 #ca       
,steamboats1 ,american1 #di1 #fe        
,stopes1 ,dr4 ,marie1 #aac              
,submarine1 the1 and sea power1 #ff     
,sweden1 before and after the war1 #de  
,teachers1 lack of1 and the reason1 #aec
    ,teaching and the future of mankind1
 #cg    ,teaching power and how it might
 be economized1 #aef et seq4            
,technical study1 specialized1 #ahb     
,telegraphy1 development of1 #f1 #dh    
,thirty ,years ,war1 the1 #if           
,tolstoi's ,war and ,peace1 #abd        
,trade problems1 the ,bible and1 #aad   
,transport and the international        

problem1 #df    ,travel1 inconveniences 
of ,european1 #ee et seq4     ,united   
,states1 the government of1 #dg1 #hc    
growth of1 #di-ej     political system  
of1 #bg     7see also ,america7         
,university1 the1 and adult learning1   
#afh     ,vienna threatened by the      
,turk1 #if     ,wales1 ,prince of1 world
 tour of1 #bi1 #hd    ,war1 a ruling and
 constructive idea1 #d     abolition of1
 and what it means1 #e     frequent     
recurrence of1 #c     military science  
in1 #h    ,washington1 ,george1 and his 
successors1 #hc    ,webster1 ,dr4       
,hutton1 historical summaries of1 #ajh  
,wells1 ,h4 ,g41 as educationist1 #aee  
college life of1 #agj     his ,outline  
of ,history1 #ajg1 #ajh     ideals of1  
#db     serves on ,british ,civil ,air  
,transport ,committee1 #dh1 #ff         
views on teaching of history1 #aea      
,wilson1 ,president1 and the ,league of 
,nations1 #ae1 #bh    ,world control1   
and what it means1 #ad1 #ag    ,world   
,history1 a suggested1 #aji    ,world   

peace1 ,american and ,european view of1 
#fa    ,world state1 the1 cult of1 #ce  
enlargement of patriotism to1 #fh       
fundamental ideas of1 #cg     government
 of1 #hb et seq4     life in1 #hh et    
seq4     meaning of1 #hb     project of1
 #db et seq4     the ,council and its   
functions1 #he    ,world1 the1 as a     
university1 #afh   ,,printed ,,by       
,,cassell  ,,company1 ,,limited1 ,,la   
,,belle ,,sauvage1 ,,london1 ,e4,c4#d   
,,erratum4     ,page #agf1 line #bj1    
there are still modern ,immortals in the
 darkness   should read1        if they 
are still modern ,immortals1 in the     
darkness         99       99       99   
99       99     ,mr4 ,,wells has also   
written the following novels3    ,,love 
,,and ,,mr4 ,,lewisham   ,,kipps   ,,mr4
 ,,polly   ,,the ,,wheels ,,of ,,chance 
,,the ,,new ,,machiavelli   ,,ann       
,,veronica   ,,tono ,,bungay            
,,marriage   ,,bealby   ,,the           
,,passionate ,,friends   ,,the ,,wife   
,,of ,,sir ,,isaac ,,harman   ,,the     

,,research ,,magnificent   ,,mr4        
,,britling ,,sees ,,it ,,through   ,,the
 ,,soul ,,of ,a ,,bishop   ,,joan ,,and 
,,peter   ,,the ,,undying ,,fire  ,the  
following fantastic and imaginative     
romances3    ,,the ,,war ,,of ,,the     
,,worlds   ,,the ,,time ,,machine       
,,the ,,wonderful ,,visit   ,,the       
,,island ,,of ,,dr4 ,,moreau   ,,the    
,,sea ,,lady   ,,the ,,sleeper ,,awakes 
,,the ,,food ,,of ,,the ,,gods   ,,the  
,,war ,,in ,,the ,,air   ,,the ,,first  
,,men ,,in ,,the ,,moon   ,,in ,,the    
,,days ,,of ,,the ,,comet   ,,the       
,,world ,,set ,,free  ,and numerous     
,short ,stories now collected in ,one   
,volume under the title of ,,the        
,,country ,,of ,,the ,,blind  ,a ,series
 of books upon ,social1 ,religious and  
,political questions3    ,,anticipations
 7#aijj7   ,,mankind ,,in ,,the ,,making
   ,,first ,,and ,,last ,,things   ,,new
 ,,worlds ,,for ,,old   ,a ,,modern     
,,utopia   ,,the ,,future ,,in ,,america
   ,,an ,,englishman ,,looks ,,at ,,the 

,,world   ,,what ,,is ,,coming8   ,,war 
,,and ,,the ,,future   ,,in ,,the       
,,fourth ,,year   ,,god ,,the           
,,invisible ,,king   ,,the ,,outline    
,,of ,,history   ,,russia ,,in ,,the    
,,shadows  ,and two little books about  
children's play1 called3    ,,floor     
,,games and ,,little ,,wars