THE WORLD REVOLUTION 15 



directly in evidence than in this modification oi 

 the principle upon which the demand for peace was 

 based. The degeneracy and futility of the argu- 

 ment which had come to rest the cause of peace on 

 no higher ground than this was deeply and in- 

 stinctively felt by every mind which understood 

 the nature of the forces on which Western civiliza- 

 tion rests. Even in the standards of those who 

 had begun to base the policy of nations upon the 

 omnipotence of force, the demand at least was 

 everywhere for the capacity for sacrifice. 



The state of international relations in the West 

 for many years before the outbreak of the war 

 which opened in 1914 will be one to cause marvel 

 to students in history in times to come. We have 

 passed so rapidly through such moving events in our 

 time that the existing world has never seen in focus 

 the period through which we are living. It has 

 never fully realized that the great movements in 

 the West in recent times are but phases of a larger 

 development which in a generation or two has come 

 to envelop the whole of civilization. 



The gradual lowering of the standards of opinion 

 and conduct has extended to all centres of Western 

 thought and action. But it was at the beginning 

 most clearly visible in international relations. One 

 of the most influential of British Liberal journals, 



