by which one class preys upon another and upon the nation--the
disease of parasitism and selfish domination. The health of a people
consists in that people's real _unity_, the organic life by which each
section contributes freely and generously to the welfare of the whole,
identifies itself with that welfare, and holds it a dishonour to snatch
for itself the life which should belong to all. A nation which realized
_that_ kind of life would be powerful and healthy beyond words; it would
not only be splendidly glad and prosperous and unassailable in itself,
but it would inevitably infect all other nations with whom it had
dealings with the same principle. Having the Tree of Life well rooted
within its own garden, its leaves and fruit and all its acts and
expressions would be for the healing of the peoples around. But a nation
divided against itself by parasitic and self-exalting cliques and
sections could never stand. It could never be healthy. No armaments nor
ingenuity of science and organization could save it, and even though the
form of its institutions were democratic, if the reality of Democracy
were not there, its peace crusades and prizes and sentimental
Conferences and Christianities would be of little avail.

At this juncture, then, all over Europe, when the classes are failing us
and by their underhand machinations continually embroiling one nation
with another, it is above all necessary that the mass-peoples should
move and insist upon the representation of their great unitary and
communal life and interests. It is high time that they should open
their eyes and see with clear vision what is going on over their heads,
and more than high time that they should refuse to take part in the
Quarrels of those who (professionally) live upon their labour. It is
indeed astonishing that the awakening has been so long in coming; but
surely it cannot be greatly delayed now. Underneath all the ambitions of
certain individuals and groups; underneath all the greed and chicanery
of others; underneath the widespread ignorance, mother of prejudice,
which sunders folk of different race or colour-deep down the human heart
beats practically the same in all lands, drawing us little mortals
together.

Strangely enough--and yet not strangely--it beats strongest and clearest
often in the simplest, the least sophisticated. Those who live nearest
the truth of their own hearts are nearest to the hearts of others. Those
who have known the