LIX THE FIRST PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE (_continued_) J. Novikof · Reception at the Baroness Grovestins’s · Dr. Holls · Utterances of the nationalistic press · Excursion to Scheveningen · We give a small dinner · Threatening letter to Herr von Staal · At Ten Kate’s · Reports from Descamps · Beernaert on the Geneva Convention · Letter from Levysohn · Results in the matter of mediation · New acquaintances · First of Bloch’s evening lectures: subject, “The Development of Firearms” · Stead publishes a daily chronicle on the Conference · Young Vasily’s album · Removal to Scheveningen · Baron Pirquet brings a letter from the Interparliamentary Union of Brussels · Bloch’s second lecture: subject, “Mobilization” · My birthday · Dinner at Okoliczany’s · Lieutenant Pichon · Letters from aëronauts · Discussion on the permanent tribunal · President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner · An amusing incident · Bloch’s third lecture: subject, “Naval Warfare” · A conversation with Léon Bourgeois · His call to Paris · False reports and denials · What Emperor Nicholas said to Stead · Rumor of the blocking of the arbitration business · Bloch’s final lecture: subject, “The War of the Future” May 28. Novikof arrived. What kind of a man do you think is the author of sociological-philosophical works of seven hundred royal-octavo pages each, with such titles as _Les luttes entre sociétés humaines et leurs phases successives_, _La théorie organique des sociétés_, and the like? I have read these books and this is the idea of the man which I had in my mind: White bearded, with spectacles, in externalities a trifle neglectful of appearances,—for if a person sticks all day long poring over learned books and carries round socialistic problems in his head, he can scarcely be expected to bother himself with the petty vanities of the toilet; I imagined him very earnest but free from pedantry,—for his style is fresh and sparkling,—and probably a bit gloomy, for if one looks so searchingly into the motive powers of the world, has been busied so incessantly with the phenomena of wretchedness and suffering, a mood of melancholy might well be expected. And the actual Novikof? An elegant man of the world, the jolliest of companions, with far too youthful an appearance for his forty-nine years; full of wit and _entrain_ in his conversation. I believe these characteristics, charming as they are, injure him to a certain extent. Any one who has not read his books would not suspect what a man he is, would not take up the reading of them with that feeling of awe with which one should bury one’s self in scientific works.