rsified.

I do not propose to prophesy whether humanity will succeed (any more
than the ant communities) in gaining the mastery over blind instinct.
But what strikes me, as I read Auguste Forel, is the conviction that no
more in man than in the ants is such a victory radically impossible. To
recognize that a particular advance is not impracticable even though we
should fail to realise that advance, seems to me more encouraging than
the belief that, whatever we attempt, we shall run our heads against a
stone wall. The window is closed. It is thick with grime. Perhaps we
shall never be able to open it. But between us and the sunlit air there
is nothing but a pane of glass, which we can break if we will.[84]

_June 1, 1918._

"Revue Mensuelle," Geneva, August, 1918.

XXII

ON BEHALF OF THE INTERNATIONAL OF THE MIND

This chapter relates to the plan for an Institute of the Nations,
suggested by Gerhard Gran, professor at the University of
Christiania, writing in the "Revue Politique Internationale" of
Lausanne. My reply was first published in the same periodical,
under the title "Pour une culture universelle" (On behalf of a
universal civilisation).

Gerhard Gran's broad-minded appeal cannot fail to arouse echoes. I have
read it with lively sympathy. He displays the virtue of modesty, so rare
in our day. At a time when all the nations are making an arrogant parade
of a superior mission of order or justice, organisation or liberty, a
mission which authorises them to impose on other nations their own
hallowed individuality (for each looks upon itself as the chosen
people), we draw a breath of relief when we hear one of them, by the
voice of Gerhard Gran, speaking not of its rights, but of its "debts."
How noble, too, are his tones of frankness and gratitude!

"Among all the nations, ours is perhaps the one which has the greatest
duty to perform, for our nation owes most to the others. What we have
gained from international science is incalculable.... Our debts are
manifest in all directions.... When we draw up our scientific
balance-sheet in account with the rest of the world, the credit side is
meagre. In this respect we have to speak chiefly of our passive
advantages, and our modesty forbids us to refer to our active
contributions."

How refreshing is such modesty! How refreshing is it in this
world-crisis of delirious vanity! Nevertheless Ibsen's fellow-countrymen
are entit