i THE STATE OF OPINION 7

megalomania of war has passed away, and every onewishes to conform himself with the facts. For thesereasons the Reparation Chapter of the Treaty ofVersailles is crumbling. There is little prospect nowof the disastrous consequences of its fulfilment.

I undertake in the following chapters a doubletask, beginning with a chronicle of events and astatement of the present facts, and concluding withproposals of what we ought to do. I naturally attachprimary importance to the latter. But it is not onlyof historical interest to glance at the recent past. Ifwe look back a little closely on the two years whichhave just elapsed (and the general memory unaidedis now so weak that we know the past little betterthan the future), we shall be chiefly struck, I think,by the large element of injurious make-believe. Myconcluding proposals assume that this element ofmake-believe has ceased to be politically necessary ;that outside opinion is now ready for inside opinionto disclose, and act upon, its secret convictions ; andthat it is no longer an act of futile indiscretion tospeak sensibly in public.