--there has never been on the earth
a political organism like the British Empire. Its 433 million inhabitants,
from Great Britain to Polynesia, from India and Egypt to Central Africa,
are drawn from every division of the human race. Cut a section through
mankind, and in every layer there will be British citizens, living under
the jurisdiction of British law. Here is something to hearten those who
have looked in vain to the Hague. While international law has been
brought to a standstill through the absence of a common will and a common
executive, Great Britain has thrown a girdle of law around the globe.

Sec.7. _The Future of Civilisation_.--What hopes dare we cherish, in this hour
of conflict, for the future of civilisation?

The great, the supreme task of human politics and statesmanship is to
extend the sphere of Law. Let others labour to make men cultured or
virtuous or happy. These are the tasks of the teacher, the priest, and the
common man. The statesman's task is simpler. It is to enfold them in a
jurisdiction which will enable them to live the life of their souls'
choice. The State, said the Greek philosophers, is the foundation of the
good life; but its crown rises far above mere citizenship. "There where the
State ends," cries Nietzsche,[1] echoing Aristotle and the great tradition
of civilised political thought, "there _men begin_. There, where the State
ends, look thither, my brothers! Do you not see the rainbow and the bridge
to the Overman?" Ever since organised society began, the standards of the
individual, the ideals of priest and teacher, the doctrines of religion and
morality, have outstripped the practice of statesmanship. For the polestar
of the statesman has not been love, but law. His not the task of exhorting
men to love one another, but the simpler duty of enforcing the law, "Thou
shalt not kill." And in that simple, strenuous, necessary task statesmen
and political thinkers have watched the slow extension of the power of Law,
from the family to the tribe, from the tribe to the city, from the city to
the nation, from the nation to the Commonwealth. When will Law take its
next extension? When will warfare, which is murder between individuals and
"rebellion" between groups of citizens, be equally preventable between
nations by the common law of the world?

[Footnote 1: _Also sprach Zarathustra_, Speech xi. (end).]

The answer is simple. When the world has a common will, and has created a
comm