PDF-file (The same edition. Another cover. 2.2 Mb)

Summary and Conclusion 575idea; but it is one which, under certain conditions that are by nomeans beyond the scope of ultimate possibility, may well becomefeasible and even, after a certain point is reached, inevitable. Afederal system and still more a confederacy would mean, on theother hand, the preservation of the national basis and a greateror less freedom of national life, but the subordination of theseparate national to the larger common interests and of fullseparate freedom to the greater international necessities.It may be questioned whether past analogies are a safe guidein a problem so new and whether something else might not beevolved more intimately and independently arising from it andsuitable to its complexities. But mankind even in dealing with itsnew problems works upon past experience and therefore uponpast motives and analogies. Even when it seizes on new ideas, itgoes to the past for the form it gives to them. Behind the apparentchanges of the most radical revolutions we see this unavoidableprinciple of continuity surviving in the heart of the new order.Moreover, these alternatives seem the only way in which thetwo forces in presence can work out their conflict, either by thedisappearance of the one, the separative national instinct, or byan accommodation between them. On the other hand, it is quitepossible that human thought and action may take so new a turnas to bring in a number of unforeseen possibilities and lead toa quite different ending. And one might upon these lines setone’s imagination to work and produce perhaps a utopia of abetter kind. Such constructive efforts of the human imaginationhave their value and often a very great value; but any suchspeculations would evidently have been out of place in the studyI have attempted.Assuredly, neither of the two alternatives and none of thethree forms considered are free from serious objections. A centralisedWorld-State would signify the triumph of the idea ofmechanical unity or rather of uniformity. It would inevitablymean the undue depression of an indispensable element in thevigour of human life and progress, the free life of the individual,the free variation of the peoples. It must end, if it becomespermanent and fulfils all its tendencies, either in a death in