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688 The Human CycleThe Ideal of Human Unity first appeared in the Arya in thirty-fivechapters between September 1915 and July 1918. At the time hecommenced the series, Sri Aurobindo wrote to the Mother:I have begun in the issue of the Arya which is just out anumber of articles on the Ideal of Human Unity. I intend toproceed very cautiously and not go very deep at first, but as ifI were leading the intelligence of the reader gradually towardsthe deeper meaning of unity — especially to discourage theidea that mistakes uniformity and mechanical association forunity.The Arya text of The Ideal of Human Unity was brought out as a bookby the Sons of India, Ltd., Madras, in 1919. Sri Aurobindo revised thisduring the late 1930s, apparently in 1938. (The date is inferred partlyfrom a footnote he added while revising Chapter 5 — later replacedby a different footnote — referring to the “Anschluss”, Germany’sannexation of Austria in March 1938. Sri Aurobindo is unlikely tohave worked on the revision after his accident in November 1938.)The revised text remained unpublished for more than a decade. InJune 1949, asked about the possiblity of publishing this book and ThePsychology of Social Development (which had not yet been renamedThe Human Cycle), Sri Aurobindo answered thatthey have to be altered by the introduction of new chaptersand rewriting of passages and in The Ideal changes have to bemade all through the book in order to bring it up to date, so itis quite impossible to make these alterations on the proofs. Ipropose however to revise these two books as soon as possible;they will receive my first attention.Sri Aurobindo did not revise either book to the extent he had proposed.Although he made minor changes throughout The Ideal ofHuman Unity, his attempt to bring it up to date was largely confinedto adding and revising footnotes (see the next paragraph). The onlynew chapter introduced was a long Postscript Chapter reviewing thebook’s conclusions in the light of recent international developments.The second edition of The Ideal of Human Unity was published by theSri Aurobindo Ashram in 1950; it was followed by an American edition