placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant
and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is
both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is
mere shirking not to undertake it."

Headingly nodded approvingly.

"Each has its own mission. Germany is predominant in abstract thought;
France in literature, art, and grace. But we and you--for the
English-speakers are all in the same boat, however much the _New York
Sun_ may scream over it--we and you have among our best men a higher
conception of moral sense and public duty than is to be found in any
other people. Now, these are the two qualities which are needed for
directing a weaker race. You can't help them by abstract thought or by
graceful art, but only by that moral sense which will hold the scales of
Justice even, and keep itself free from every taint of corruption.
That is how we rule India. We came there by a kind of natural law, like
air rushing into a vacuum. All over the world, against our direct
interests and our deliberate intentions, we are drawn into the same
thing. And it will happen to you also. The pressure of destiny will
force you to administer the Whole of America from Mexico to the Horn."

Headingly whistled.

"Our Jingoes would be pleased to hear you, Colonel Cochrane," said he.
"They'd vote you into our Senate and make you one of the Committee on
Foreign Relations."

"The world is small, and it grows smaller every day. It's a single
organic body, and one spot of gangrene is enough to vitiate the whole.
There's no room upon it for dishonest, defaulting, tyrannical,
irresponsible Governments. As long as they exist they will always be
sources of trouble and of danger. But there are many races which appear
to be so incapable of improvement that we can never hope to get a good
Government out of them. What is to be done, then? The former device of
Providence in such a case was extermination by some more virile stock--
an Attila or a Tamerlane pruned off the weaker branch. Now, we have a
more merciful substitution of rulers, or even of mere advice from a more
advanced race. That is the case with the Central Asian Khanates and
with the protected States of India. If the work has to be done, and if
we are the best fitted for the work, then I think that it would be a
cowardice and a crime to shirk it."

"But who is to decide whether it is a fitting case for your
interference?" objected th