ce,--a Providence, in fact,--which is for ever getting the best out
of each nation and using it for the good of the whole. When a nation
ceases to respond, it is time that she went into hospital for a few
centuries, like Spain or Greece,--the virtue has gone out of her. A man
or a nation is not here upon this earth merely to do what is pleasant
and profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is unpleasant
and unprofitable; but if it is obviously right, it is mere shirking not
to undertake it."

Headingly nodded approvingly.

"Each has its own mission. Germany is predominant in abstract thought;
France in literature, art, and grace. But we and you,--for the
English-speakers are all in the same boat, however much the _New York
Sun_ may scream over it,--we and you have among our best men a higher
conception of moral sense and public duty than is to be found in any
other people. Now, these are the two qualities which are needed for
directing a weaker race. You can't help them by abstract thought or by
graceful art, but only by that moral sense which will hold the scales of
Justice even, and keep itself free from every taint of corruption. That
is how we rule India. We came there by a kind of natural law, like air
rushing into a vacuum. All over the world, against our direct interests
and our deliberate intentions, we are drawn into the same thing. And
it will happen to you also. The pressure of destiny will force you to
administer the whole of America from Mexico to the Horn."

Headingly whistled.

"Our Jingoes would be pleased to hear you, Colonel Cochrane," said he.
"They'd vote you into our Senate and make you one of the Committee on
Foreign Relations."

"The world is small, and it grows smaller every day. It's a single
organic body, and one spot of gangrene is enough to vitiate the
whole. There's no room upon it for dishonest, defaulting, tyrannical,
irresponsible Governments. As long as they exist they will always be
centres of trouble and of danger. But there are many races which appear
to be so incapable of improvement that we can never hope to get a good
Government out of them. What is to be done, then? The former device of
Providence in such a case was extermination by some more virile stock.
An Attila or a Tamerlane pruned off the weaker branch. Now, we have a
more merciful substitution of rulers, or even of mere advice from a more
advanced race. That is the case with the Central Asian Khanates and