Ebook A History of the Greek People (1821-1921)

The outstanding feature of our age is neither nationality nor democracy, nor applied science, but the growing conscious ness of the essential unity of mankind, both on the material 'and on the spiritual plane. Since the murders at Sarajevo in 1914 it can no longer be argued that any part of the earth is too remote or any country too insignificant to concern the life and fortunes of every one of us. The world has become a hall of echoes, a vast whispering gallery. For good or evil the civilized nations form a single family. Isolation spells stagnation and hermit kingdoms are out of date. The most urgent task of the coming years is to substitute the reign of law in the relations of States for the moral anarchy which brought the old Europe to its doom. But the League of Nations will only establish itself as our guardian and our guide if it rests on the explicit assent of the plain citizen, by whom governments are chosen and to whom statesmen are ultimately responsible.