414 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



conclude a defensive alliance with France ; but unnatural hostility to Ger- 

 many has caused her to form a pact which may be considered as ofiensive 

 rather than defensive. From every point of view such a pact appears 

 short-sighted. It does not seem that France would be able to render any 

 efficient aid to England in the event of war with Germany ; and it is hard 

 to see how England could prevent an invasion of France and the occupa- 

 tion of Paris. From a higher and more philosophical point of view, the 

 actual rapprochement between France and England, directed as it is against 

 Germany, can only tend to render more difficult than ever the hope of 

 reconciling France and Germany ; whUe it must excite suspicion in Ger- 

 many against England, thereby giving rise to much avoidable friction; 

 and both these results, in the light of the ultimate consequences to Western 

 civilisation of Slav aggression, are equally deplorable. 



