THE TREATY OF PEACE

i. Paris (1919)

The power to become habituated to his sur-roundings is a marked characteristic of mankind.Very few of us realise with conviction the in-tensely unusual, unstable, complicated, unreli-able, temporary nature of the economic organisa-tion by which Western Europe has lived forthe last half-century. We assume some of themost peculiar and temporary of our late advan-tages as natural, permanent, and to be dependedon, and we lay our plans accordingly. On thissandy and false foundation we scheme for socialimprovement and dress our political platforms,pursue our animosities and particular ambitions,and feel ourselves with enough margin in handto foster, not assuage, civil conflict in theEuropean family. Moved by insane delusionand reckless self-regard, the German peopleoverturned the foundations on which we alllived and built. But the spokesmen of theFrench and British people have run the risk ofcompleting the ruin, which Germany began,by a Peace which, if it is carried into effect,must impair yet further, when it might haverestored, the delicate, complicated organisation,