the rarest and loveliest wares and fabrics that the
hand of man has wrought were stored in the Imperial Palace of Pekin; the
savage military hordes of the West broke in less than a century ago and
recklessly trampled down and fired all that they could not loot. In
every such case the loss is final; the exquisite incarnation of some
stage in the soul of man that is for ever gone is permanently
diminished, deformed, or annihilated.

At the present time all civilized countries are becoming keenly aware of
the value of their embodied artistic possessions. This is shown, in the
most decisive manner possible, by the enormous prices placed upon them.
Their pecuniary value enables even the stupidest and most unimaginative
to realize the crime that is committed when they are ruthlessly and
wantonly destroyed. Nor is it only the products of ancient art which
have to-day become so peculiarly valuable. The products of modern
science are only less valuable. So highly complex and elaborate is the
mechanism now required to ensure progress in some of the sciences that
enormous sums of money, the most delicate skill, long periods of time,
are necessary to produce it. Galileo could replace his telescope with
but little trouble; the destruction of a single modern observatory would
be almost a calamity to the human race.

Such considerations as these are, indeed, at last recognized in all
civilized countries. The engines of destruction now placed at the
service of war are vastly more potent than any used in the wars of the
past. On the other hand, the value of the products they can destroy is
raised in a correspondingly high degree. But a third factor is now
intervening. And if the museums of Paris or the laboratories of Berlin
were threatened by a hostile army it would certainly be felt that an
international power, if it existed, should be empowered to intervene, at
whatever cost to national susceptibilities, in order to keep the peace.
Civilization, we now realize, is wrought out of inspirations and
discoveries which are for ever passed and repassed from land to land; it
cannot be claimed by any individual land. A nation's art-products and
its scientific activities are not mere national property; they are
international possessions, for the joy and service of the whole world.
The nations hold them in trust for humanity. The international force
which will inspire respect for that truth it is our business to create.

The only question th