The only way for these truths to affect policy, to become operative in the conduct of nations, is to make them operative in the minds of men; *therefore* discussion of them is futile. Our troubles arise from the wrong ideas of nations; *therefore* ideas do not count—they are "theories." General conception and insight in this matter is vague and ill-defined, so that action is always in danger of being decided by sheer passion and irrationalism; *therefore* we shall do nothing to render insight clear and well-defined. The empire of sheer impulse, of the non-rational, is strongest when associated with ignorance (*e.g.*, Mohammedan fanaticism, Chinese Boxerism), and only yields to the general progress of ideas (*e.g.*, sounder religious notions sweeping away the hate and horrors of religious persecution); *therefore* the best way to maintain peace is to pay no attention to the progress of political ideas. The progress of ideas has completely transformed religious feeling in so far as it settles the policy of one religious group in relation to another; *therefore* the progress of ideas will never transform patriotic feeling, which settles the policy of one political group in relation to another.
What, in short, does the argument of my critics amount to? This: that so slow, so stupid is the world that, though the facts may be unassailable, they will never be learned within any period that need concern us.
Without in the least desiring to score off my critics, and still less to be discourteous, I sometimes wonder it has never struck them that in the