220 The Intellectual Revolution 



of men as a consequence of the Great War are 

 much more important than those which will be 

 made on the map of Europe, and the results of 

 the struggle in the intellectual realm are fraught 

 with greater issues for the future of humanity 

 than the results of any military campaign. 



In spite of the unfavourable factors of militari- 

 zation and inertia, there are many indications 

 that the time is ripe for the intellectual revolution 

 which must precede a reconstruction of human 

 society on sounder foundations. The fallacy that 

 war is an effective method for advancing national 

 welfare, so widely spread as the result of a super- 

 ficial reading of the historical events of 1870, 

 has been completely exposed. Moreover, in the 

 presence of the incontestable facts of the Great 

 War, such as casualty lists running up into the 

 millions, we shall probably have less of the glorifi- 

 cation of war. The doctrine that collective homi- 

 cide is the cause of human progress will not be 

 in such high favour in the future, especially with 

 the democracies of the nations which will have to 

 bear the burdens of the war. A significant change 

 can be noticed in the public opinion of the nations 

 of Europe, as reflected in the official documents 

 issued at the beginning of the war, in which there 

 is a general repudiation of all aggressive design 

 and each nation insists that it is fighting only a 

 defensive war for its national existence. 



This almost universal repudiation of aggressive 

 design, which indicates the rise of a new interna- 



