y of four thousand years ago--having
realized that they already possessed something better, namely, the glory
of the sky and the earth, the sun and the desert sands, and the freedom
of love and adventure. How strange, and yet how natural, that sundered
only by a narrow strip of sea they even now should look back upon all
the laborious, feverish, and overcrowded wealth of Europe and _seeing
the cost thereof_ should feel for it only contempt! For that, indeed,
is actually for the most part the case--though not of course without
exceptions among certain sections of the population.

Or again, the millions and millions of Great and Little Russian
peasants. Big-framed, big-hearted, patient, friendly, with a great
natural gift for association and co-operation, peacefully minded and
profoundly religious; yet superstitious, and capable of rising at any
moment _en masse_ to the call of a great crusade or "holy war"; it might
seem that they hold all Western Europe in the hollow of their hands.
Indeed they constitute not only a hope and promise of deliverance to our
modern world, but also a considerable danger. All depends on how we
dispose ourselves towards them. Should the nations of Western Europe
rouse their hatred by chicanery and mean treatment the result might be
fatal. If their flood once began to move, no battle array of armaments
would be of any use--any more than a revolver against a rising tide--the
flood would flow round and over us. But if on the other hand we could
really reach the heart of this great people, if we could treat them
really generously and with understanding, we should create a response
there, and a recognition, which would remove all risk to ourselves, and
possibly help to free Russia from the great burden of political
servitude and ignorance which has so long oppressed her peasantry.

Or think of the Servians--that hospitable people, good lovers and good
haters, with their ancient, almost prehistoric, system of family
communities surviving down to modern days, and blossoming out in a
perfect genius for co-operative agriculture and Raffeisen banks!

Or the Finns, the Swedes, the Norwegians, and the Danes (if I may class
these together); what a clear, clean-minded, healthy people are these,
so direct in their touch on Nature and the human instincts, so
democratic, bold, and progressive in their social organizations--what a
privilege to have them as our near neighbours and relatives! Or the
Germans, in