CHAPTER VII

REMEDIES

It is difficult to maintain true perspective inlarge affairs. I have criticised the work of Paris , andhave depicted in sombre colours the condition andthe prospects of Europe . This is one aspect of theposition and, I believe, a true one. But in so com-plex a phenomenon the prognostics do not all pointone way ; and we may make the error of expectingconsequences to follow too swiftly and too inevitablyfrom what perhaps are not all the relevant causes.The blackness of the prospect itself leads us to doubtits accuracy ; our imagination is dulled rather thanstimulated by too woeful a narration, and our mindsrebound from what is felt " too bad to be true."But before the reader allows himself to be too muchswayed by these natural reflections, and before I leadhim, as is the intention of this chapter, towardsremedies and ameliorations and the discovery ofhappier tendencies, let him redress the balance ofhis thought by recalling two contrasts—England and

Eussia, of which the one may encourage his optimism

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