PREFATORY NOTE 



THIS lecture was delivered in Newcastle on 

 November 19, 1900, to the members of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society. At the 

 time of writing and delivering it the South 

 African War and its lessons were far more 

 omnipresent in thought and feeling than, 

 perhaps unfortunately, they are to-day. The 

 wave of emotion which for a time roused 

 the nation to self-consciousness has passed, 

 scouring out very little of our stagnant back- 

 waters in the process. It is possibly with a 

 nation as with an individual both feel only 

 intensely and are only capable of vigorous 

 self-reform in moments of unwonted stress, 

 or of novel spiritual experience. Still, in 



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