180 



land passed into the hands of magnates; patriotism was 

 weakened and destroyed in the heart of the people; mo- 

 rality was ruined upon the lust of spoil and the love 

 of war, so that at last this mightiest empire in the 

 world was ruined, and perished finally. There was a 

 time when ancient Greece reigned over the Balkan Pe- 

 ninsula and dominated the Mediterranean sea. But easy 

 conquests attracted many slaves, into whose hands the 

 work of agriculture passed. The citizens of Greece gave 

 themselves up to art and sport, and Greece fell a victim 

 to their error, for the alien slave could feel no love for 

 alien ground, and the Hellenes themselves, shirking all 

 work upon the land, grew to become like foreigners 

 upon their native soil. 



And thus those historical data which I have produced 

 confirm the idea that only agricultural states are durable. 

 From .this point of view the future of Russia is more 

 hopeful than that of any other of the European coun- 

 tries, for the land contains all those natural conditions 

 which bind inhabitants to a soil, and compel them to 

 devote their energies to its culture. In Germany though 

 the necessity of agriculture is duly appreciated, the small 

 area of that country and the abnormal development of 

 the towns and manufacturing centres prevents the natu- 

 ral supremary of the land from asserting itself in the 

 lives of the people, and I assume that in the near future 

 in the face of the military aggressiveness of the modern 

 Germans the time for the extinction of Germany is draw- 

 ing nigh, as such outbursts of militarism are always, 

 the beginning of the end. 



One cannot but see however that German politics are 

 visibly changing in a more healthful direction. The latest 

 events of the Russo-Japanese war show us that Ger- 

 many has made a great step towards the peaceful con- 

 quest of her neighbours on the ground of economical 

 development of her own people. Standing beyond all 

 competition in the matter of technical production she is 

 at the same time forming settlements on the most fertile 



