192 A Century of Science 



political revolution reached its consummation in 

 replacing it by a completely organized federal gov 

 ernment. In 1754 the possibility of a permanent 

 federation of American states was derided as an 

 idle dream of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas 

 Hutchinson. Very little love was lost between 

 the people of different colonies; and when the 

 crisis came on, after 1783, the majority hated and 

 dreaded a permanent Federal Union, and accepted 

 it only as the alternative to something worse, 

 namely, anarchy and civil war. In like manner, 

 it may be surmised as not improbable that in 

 course of time the occasions for summoning Eu 

 ropean congresses will recur with increasing fre 

 quency until the functions which they are called 

 upon to discharge will convert them into a perma 

 nent institution. Such a development, combined 

 with the increased employment of arbitration, must 

 ultimately tend toward the creation of a Federal 

 Union in Europe. The fact that such a result 

 will be hated and dreaded by many people, per 

 haps by the great majority, need not prevent its 

 being accepted and acquiesced in as the alternative 

 to something worse, namely, the indefinite contin 

 uance of the system of vast armaments. 



By the time when such a result comes clearly 

 within sight, it will very likely have been made 



