just passed through an agony of pain compared to which the
French Revolution was a mere incident. The shock has been so great that
it has killed the last spark of hope in the breasts of millions of
men. They were chanting a hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter
followed their prayers for peace. "Is it worth while," so they ask,
"to work and slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed
beyond the stage of the earliest cave men?"

There is but one answer.

That answer is "Yes!"

The World War was a terrible calamity. But it did not mean the end of
things. On the contrary it brought about the coming of a new day.

It is easy to write a history of Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages.
The actors who played their parts upon that long-forgotten stage are
all dead. We can criticize them with a cool head. The audience that
applauded their efforts has dispersed. Our remarks cannot possibly hurt
their feelings.

But it is very difficult to give a true account of contemporary events.
The problems that fill the minds of the people with whom we pass through
life, are our own problems, and they hurt us too much or they please us
too well to be described with that fairness which is necessary when we
are writing history and not blowing the trumpet of propaganda. All the
same I shall endeavour to tell you why I agree with poor Condorcet when
he expressed his firm faith in a better future.

Often before have I warned you against the false impression which is
created by the use of our so-called historical epochs which divide the
story of man into four parts, the ancient world, the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance and the Reformation, and Modern Time. The last of these
terms is the most dangerous. The word "modern" implies that we, the
people of the twentieth century, are at the top of human achievement.
Fifty years ago the liberals of England who followed the leadership of
Gladstone felt that the problem of a truly representative and democratic
form of government had been solved forever by the second great Reform
Bill, which gave workmen an equal share in the government with their
employers. When Disraeli and his conservative friends talked of a
dangerous "leap in the dark" they answered "No." They felt certain of
their cause and trusted that henceforth all classes of society would
co-operate to make the government of their common country a success.
Since then many things have happened, and the few liberals who are