religion, sudden conversions under the stress of
circumstances are not unknown, and they may be genuine and lasting. And
what holds of individual wills and judgements holds also of the
collective mind. That human nature in its fundaments of thought and
feeling, its primary needs, desires and emotions, will not be
appreciably changed even by this shattering experience of war must be
conceded. But what we may call the general state of mind, or the moral
and intellectual atmosphere, will be profoundly affected. This will be
in part the result of the great economic and political disturbances
which are occurring, and which will have undermined and loosened the old
ideas and valuations in relation to such important institutions as
property, the control of industry, the activities of woman, the party
system, the State itself. But more profound still will be the direct
reaction of sorrow and suffering of war, the revelation of the power of
the organized destructiveness and cruelty, and of the inadequacy of
reason, justice, and goodwill as defences of civilization. The very
foundations of organized religion in the hearts of men will be shaken.
The patent failure of the State to perform its primary function of
safeguarding life and property is likely to feed currents of
revolutionism in every country. The sudden changes produced in the
balance of age and of sex by the destruction of so large a proportion
of the young and energetic men of every nation, will affect all
processes of thought and policy. Some of these changes will seem
favourable to conservatism, timidity, and reaction. Everywhere, at the
close of the war, military and official autocracy will be enthroned in
the seats of power, and the spirit of political authority will be
stoking the fires of fevered nationalism which war evokes. But other
forces will be making for bold political experiments. Not only the fear
of restive and impoverished workmen, who have recently acquired the use
of arms and perhaps the taste for risks, but the havoc wrought upon
industry and commerce, and above all the crushing burden of taxation,
will dispose the controlling and possessing classes to seek alternatives
to a return to the era of competing alliances and armaments. Mild and
conservative measures will be obviously unavailing. During the years of
exhaustion following the war, resolute leaders of public opinion will be
setting themselves everywhere to frame schemes of international
relati