16 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



writing some years before the war, described in a 

 vivid article the altogether extraordinary conditions 

 which for a considerable period had come to prevail 

 in European diplomacy. It seemed, the journal 

 urged, as if civilization in Europe in the highest 

 environment of culture had returned to conditions 

 of primitive savagery. The crudity of the purposes, 

 the danger of the aims, the thinly veiled barbarisms 

 of the methods which were coming to prevail 

 amongst diplomatists, were forcibly described. 



Speaking of the conditions surrounding the 

 diplomatists who were guiding modern affairs 

 at the points of contact of the principal nations 

 of the West, the journal with great seriousness 

 continued: "We see them pulling wires, stealing 

 marches on each other, laying long and crafty 

 plans which almost invariably miscarry, and missing 

 obvious events which throw all their designs into 

 confusion. And on one side or the other there is 

 a perpetual exploiting of the inherent loyalty and 

 patriotism of their countries in quarrels which are 

 mere combativeness for no purpose." In inter- 

 national relations, in short, the minds of the men 

 of leading and culture who were guiding the affairs 

 of the West seemed to the journal in question to 

 have returned so near to a state of primitive 

 barbarism that the journal gravely wondered why 



