brotherhood in which the essential
likeness of all that breathes and feels is paramount. Personally, I have
never found the slightest difficulty in accepting our near relationship
to the apes. On the contrary, every monkey I meet--and I have specially
cultivated their acquaintance--reminds me sharply of the simian origin
of our dearest traditions.

The consciousness of unity and the consequent sense of separateness from
some other body or bodies are subject to constant change and
surprisingly erratic in their application. A bare hint to the Welshman,
the Scotsman, the Breton, the Provencal, or the Bavarian that his
national idiosyncrasies do not exist, and you will speedily see a
demonstration of them. And yet, a moment ago, they felt entirely British
or French or German. Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians have each a keen
sense of national separateness (and superiority), but let the tongue of
slander touch their common nature, and Scandinavia rises in indignant
unity. I have attended many International Congresses, and have observed
how easily the party is on the verge of grave national crises. Each
alliance musters a good-humoured tolerance of the deficiencies of
others. But let an opponent of the whole scheme, for which they have
assembled, attack the principle which is sacred to all, and there is an
immediate truce and concerted action against the intruder. Russian and
German troops have found it necessary to suspend their fighting in order
to defend themselves against the attacks of wolves. The hungry pack of
wolves, waiting by the trenches at night, presented a force which called
for united opposition, and the European war had to wait whilst the men
of the opposite armies joined in killing them. When the slaughter of
wolves was happily over, the human battle was resumed. Supposing,
instead of wolves, an airship of super-terrestrial proportions had
brought an army of ten-armed, four-headed, and six-legged creatures,
bent on dealing out death to the occupants of the trenches, what would
have happened? Supposing the inhabitants of a more cruel and vicious
planet than ours (cosmological specialists assure us such exist)
developed powers of warfare before which the exploits of Hannibal or
Attila paled into insignificance, and learnt the art of destroying life
not only in their own world but in others as well? They might come armed
with new atmospheric weapons, trailing clouds of suffocating fumes to
which resistance with gun