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just and enduring relations, and build his policy upon them. A 

 venerable and experienced ambassador once confessed to the writer 

 that he had for months deceived himself and seriously misled his 

 government by assuming that a certain minister of foreign affairs 

 meant the opposite of what he said. Afterward, with shame and 

 humiliation, he was obliged to confess his error. 



VI. The Relation of Diplomacy to Education 



The advance made since the middle of the last century in the princi- 

 ples and methods of diplomacy are chiefly owing to two causes, both 

 of which are educational. The first of these is the better prepara- 

 tion of men for the work of establishing just and reasonable inter- 

 national relations. In nearly all the countries of the world -- except 

 the United States of America -- candidates for the diplomatic serv- 

 ice are rigorously examined before they are received, not only in 

 international law and history, but in the laws, languages, and con- 

 stitutions of other countries, and especially in commercial geography 

 and the statistics of foreign trade. The result is that the men who 

 serve modern governments as diplomatic representatives are coming 

 to have, in general, a knowledge of what is true, what is just, what 

 is expedient, and what is right in the relations and conduct of foreign 

 states. They constitute a valuable body of peacemakers and public 

 advisers, whose counsel is useful because it is based on knowledge. 



The second cause is the enlightenment of public opinion by means 

 of travel, the press, and the increased interest in foreign trade. 

 Even where the people do not participate in affairs of state, they are- 

 beginning to regard with a new solicitude the part their governments 

 are taking in the great field of international politics. Statesmen 

 and diplomatists are, therefore, working in the presence of a public 

 interest more keen and intelligent than has ever before been awak- 

 ened in questions of foreign policy. 



To train men for the diplomatic service and to create and guide 

 public opinion in the right way, through the knowledge and influ- 

 ence of properly qualified journalists, legislators, and other public 

 officers, special schools, like the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques 

 at Paris, have been established in several countries, in which inter- 

 national subjects are receiving increased attention, but no educa- 

 tional enterprise of a truly international character has yet been 

 undertaken. 



Here is a vast, fruitful, and wholly uncultivated field for public 

 benefaction. One can imagine a time when teachers and students 

 of different nationalities will meet at a common center, or pass from 

 country to country to examine and discuss, in a scientific spirit, 

 questions which concern the general welfare. If it is true that at 



