APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 171 



Playing Providence is a game at which one is very 

 apt to burn one's fingers. 



I conceive that the leading characteristic of the 

 nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the 

 scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientfic 

 methods of investigation to all the problems with 

 which the human mind is occupied, and the cor- 

 relative rejection of traditional beliefs which have 

 proved their incompetence to bear such investigation. 



Science reckons many prophets, but there is not 

 even a promise of a Messiah. 



I have not the slightest doubt about the magni- 

 tude of the evils which accrue from the steady 

 increase of European armaments ; but I think 

 that this regrettable fact is merely the superficial 

 expression of social forces, the operation of which 

 cannot be sensibly affected by agreements between 

 Governments. 



In my opinion it is a delusion to attribute the 

 growth of armaments to the " exactions of mili- 

 tarism." The " exactions of industrialism," gen- 

 erated by international commercial competition, 

 may, I believe, claim a much larger snare in 

 prompting that growth. Add to this the French 

 thirst for revenge, the most just determination of the 



