On one side there is the will of earth, or of nature, which openly, in the human species, as in all others, favors physical and brutal force; on the other, the will of humanity, or at least of a part of humanity that is seeking to establish the reign of other energies more subtile and less animal. It is incontestable that brute force thus far has always triumphed. But it is equally certain that it has never triumphed save in appearance and for a brief moment. Gaul, invaded and overcome, quickly assimilated the invaders, and England gradually transformed her conquerors. The instruments of the will of earth turned against it on the morrow of victory and armed the hand of the vanquished. It is probable that, even today, if events followed the course prescribed by destiny, the same phenomenon would be reproduced. Germany, after having crushed and enslaved the greater part of Europe, throwing it back and overwhelming it with numberless evils, would herself end by turning against the will which she represents; and that will, which hitherto had found a docile instrument and a chosen accomplice in the German race, would be obliged to find these elsewhere, a task less easy than formerly. But now, to the stupefaction of those who will some day examine this epoch dispassionately, behold, events are suddenly moving upward against the irresistible current, and, for the first time since man is in a position to observe it, brute force is meeting an unexpected and insurmountable resistance. If this resistance remains victorious to the end, there will, perhaps, never have been a change of course comparable to it in the history of man; it will mean a triumph over the will of earth, of nature, or of fate, a triumph infinitely more significant, more heavy with consequences, and perhaps more decisive, than all those which in other domains appear to have crowned our effort with more glory. Let us be not at all astonished, then, that the resistance is enormous and prolonged beyond all that experience of war has taught us. Our prompt and easy defeat was written in the annals of destiny. We had against us all the force of aggression acquired since the origin of Europe. We have to reverse the wheel of history. We are on the point of succeeding; and if it is true that intelligent beings on the heights of other worlds are watching us, they are doubtless contemplating the most curious spectacle that our planet has offered them since they discovered it in the star dust scintillating around them in space. They must be saying to themselves, disconcerted, that age-long and fundamental laws are being unexpectedly transgressed.