', and leave it
to others, possibly wicked and certainly far from simple, to cultivate
art and science.

Nor again is it absurd to hope for a world in which all should have at
least the opportunity for the development of any faculties they may
possess. The social gain would be immense. It would be like the change
from a harmony which is produced by a few amateurs to one of a full
orchestra.

Thirdly, it is increasingly evident that no one state or nation can act
effectively in social reform unless it acts in concert with others.
Treaties of commerce, common prison legislation, and common measures for
sanitation and medicine have proved effective because they are in the
nature of things. They are necessary means for the desired prosperity
even of the most selfish and segregated state.

But ignorance and prejudice and irrational violence spread as easily as
disease or crime. Knowledge is not secure until it is widespread; and
civilization perishes, which is segregated in a world of barbarism.
Therefore education also, in its widest sense, must be contrived in
common. Not merely school systems influenced by foreign ideas, but the
very atmosphere of thought must change in harmony among all nations, if
we are not to go toppling down into the abyss from which by painful
centuries we have ascended.

* * * * *

This ideal of social reform then seems to be agreed upon between some
men of all nations, that more common action should be taken. It is not a
vague sentiment for the abolition of conflict between states; nor is it
a pious aspiration for peace. It is the clear perception that the state
cannot fulfil its functions in modern life if it continues to act as
isolated or segregated. That for which the state itself stands cannot be
attained even within the frontiers of one state by any state acting
alone.

This is not the place to distinguish those subjects upon which states
should act together from those on which they should act separately. That
is simply the problem as to the limits of political regionalism. The
fact which is sufficient for our argument here is that certain forces,
chiefly economic, have come into existence in recent years, which
disregard state boundaries. In concrete terms, these are international
trusts and international labour interests. But it is increasingly
evident that these cannot be effectively dealt with by any one state
acting separately. The isolated soverei