need fear a trial of
strength with any other Power or any union of Powers, is beside the
question. Consciousness of its own strength is no guarantee to any
nation that it will not be forced into conflict. Rather, by making it
certain that it, at least, will not draw back, does it close up one
possible avenue of escape from catastrophe when a crisis threatens.

But beyond all this--apart from, and vastly greater than, the
considerations of the interest or the security of either Great Britain
or the United States--is the claim of humanity. The two peoples have it
in their hands to give to the whole world no less a gift than that of
Universal and Perpetual Peace. It involves no self-sacrifice, the giving
of this wonderful boon, for the two peoples themselves would share in
the benefit no less than other peoples, and they would be the richer by
the giving. It involves hardly any effort, for they have but to hold out
their hands together and give. It matters not that the world has not
appealed to them. The fact remains that they can do this thing and they
alone; and it is for them to ask their own consciences whether any
considerations of pride, any prejudice, any absorption in their own
affairs--any consideration actual or conceivable--can justify them in
holding back. Still more does it rest with the American people--usually
so quick to respond to high ideals--to ask its conscience whether any
consideration, actual or conceivable, can justify it in refusal when
Great Britain is willing--anxious--to do her share.

That such an alliance must some day come is, I believe, not
questionable. That it has not already come is due only to the
misunderstanding by each people of the character of the other.
Primarily, the two peoples do not understand how closely akin--how of
one kind--they are, how alike they are in their virtues, and how their
failings are but the defects of the same inherited qualities, even
though shaped to somewhat diverse manifestations by differences of
environment. Two brothers seldom recognise their likeness one to the
other, until either looks at the other beside a stranger. Members of one
family do not easily perceive the family resemblance which they share;
rather are they aware only of the individual differences. But strangers
see the likeness, and in their eyes the differences often disappear. So
Englishmen and Americans only come to a realisation of their resemblance
when either compares the other criti