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merce and community of the elements of civilisation 

 are of far greater importance, because of their greater 

 permanency and growing stringency, than the mistrusts 

 and racial antipathies that at present keep the Great 

 Powers armed to the teeth, and that burden their 

 peoples with an almost intolerable load of taxation. 

 The present military situation in Europe may be 

 regarded as an evanescent phase in the march of 

 civilisation, marking the period of transition from 

 what may be called pre-nineteenth century civilisa- 

 tion, characterised by the isolation of the individual 

 communities of the world, to the era whose harbinger 

 radiance may almost be seen by hopeful watchers 

 " dawning," to use the eloquent words of a great 

 orator, " over the hilltops of time," when men shall 

 beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears 

 into pruning-hooks. 



Alongside of the great, strong, civilised nations of 

 the world embraced in Christendom, a new, highly 

 civilised Power has in recent years ranged itself. It 

 is a mistake to assume that the civilisation of Japan 

 took its rise when she began to equip herself with the 

 material resources of what is called Western civilisation. 

 The Japanese possessed an old civilisation and an 

 enlightened social order, graced with a high refinement, 

 when Europe was sunk in the barbarous rudeness of 

 the dark ages. When, half a century ago, Japan 

 realised her inability to cope with nations possessed 

 of the material resources of the Western Powers, she 

 astounded the world by putting herself to school until 



