CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF DIPLOMACY 381 



throne upon the earth. In a world of mingled good and evil, there 

 can be no perpetual peace. 



Of this no one is more fully conscious than the diplomatist, whose 

 negotiations would degenerate into empty words if they were not 

 supported by a material force capable of vindicating disregarded 

 rights. But certainly the measure of force is in no sense the measure 

 of international rights and obligations, which exist independently 

 of military strength. The little states have the same right to exist- 

 ence and to respect as the great powers; for, as moral entities, all 

 civilized nations, pursuing a common end, have an equal claim to 

 ethical consideration. 



It will be a great advance in education when our text-books on 

 ethics devote their concluding chapter to international morality, 

 for no ethical system can be complete, either in a public or a scien- 

 tific sense, which does not include in the scope of its theory the moral 

 functions of the state and the ethics of international intercourse. 

 When, in the schools of all civilized countries, the young are taught 

 that moral obligation does not end with national frontiers, that 

 states are moral entities subject to the great principles of ethics, 

 and that treaties once freely accepted are sacred; when national his- 

 tory has learned to be fair and honest in its representation of other 

 nations, a new era of human development will be opened, and diplo- 

 macy will enter upon a new period of efficiency. 



The national conscience of every people cannot fail to be touched 

 by the mere recital of the decalogue which will be written in that 

 new Book of Genesis: 



I am the God of truth and righteousness, and thou shalt have no 

 other gods before me; 

 Thou shalt not steal; 

 Thou shalt do no murder; 



Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's industries, nor his foreign 

 commerce, nor his colonial possessions, nor anything that is thy 

 neighbor's; 



Thou shalt honor thy wise men and thy teachers of righteousness, 

 that thy name may be long in the land which the Lord thy God 

 giveth thee. 



Who will venture to complete that august code of public duty? 

 Who, bravest of all, will dare to apply it in practice? Yet, who will 

 be so bold as to deny its application to the affairs of nations? 



Diplomacy already reveals the influence of that growth in public 

 morality which is characteristic of our time. The day has passed 

 away forever when intelligent men would accept Sir Henry Wotton's 

 definition of an ambassador as " a clever man sent abroad to lie for 

 his country." Permanent diplomatic success cannot be based on 

 falsehood; and the highest attribute of a statesman is to discern 



