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Preface to the First EditionThe chapters of this book were written in a serial form in thepages of the monthly review, Arya, and from the necessity ofspeedy publication have been reprinted as they stood withoutthe alterations which would have been necessary to give thema greater unity of treatment. They reflect the rapidly changingphases of ideas, facts and possibilities which emerged in thecourse of the European conflict. The earlier chapters were writtenwhen Russia was still an Empire and an autocracy, the laterparts after the Russian revolution and when the war had comenearer to its end, but the dramatic circumstances of the issue,in itself inevitable, could not be foreseen. The reader may guidehimself in regard to the references to contemporary conditionsby observing that the first four chapters cover the close of theyear 1915, the next twelve 1916, the seventeenth to the twentyeighth1917, while the remaining seven extend to July 1918. Therapid change of circumstances reflected will serve to bring homethe swiftness of the evolution by which what was a hesitatingidea and a doubtful possibility at the commencement has becomea settled necessity awaiting speedy formulation.Subsequent events have rendered certain speculations andbalancings out of date, for they have been solved by the logicof events. Austria is a name of the past, the Empire of theHohenzollerns has disappeared like a dream of the night, allEurope between the Rhine and the Volga is republican. Finally,most important of all, the League of Nations has now beendecided upon, the American idea having triumphed at least inprinciple, and is in travail of formation. But the main suggestionsput forward in the book remain unaffected, or rather acquire amore pressing actuality. The two great difficulties which attendthe incipience of this first stage of loose world-union will stillbe, first, the difficulty of bringing into one system the few great