The 'little Sir,' however, has devised a new order for the world, and apparently he will never rest satisfied until Heaven itself conforms to his initiative. He is audacious, for like the Titans he has challenged Zeus. But at times we are inclined to wonder--is he not perhaps trying too much? Is he not in fact engaged in an attempt to outflank Providence, whose pivot is infinity? And for this he is relying solely upon the resources of his own active little finite mind. He presses his attack most gallantly against human nature--back and forwards, up and down--but opposing all his efforts is there not a screen of adamantine crystal which cannot be pierced, of interminable superficies which cannot be circumvented? Is he not in some ways like a wasp, which beats itself angrily against a pane of glass? [1] Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay. PART III THE SPIRIT OF BRITISH POLICY I saw then in my dream that he went on _thus_, even until he came at a bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three Men fast asleep with Fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was _Simple_, another _Sloth_, and the third _Presumption_. _Christian_ then seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if Peradventure he might awake them. And cried, you are like them that sleep on the top of a Mast, for the dead Sea is under you, a Gulf that hath no bottom. Awake therefore and come away; be willing also, and I will help you off with your Irons. He also told them, If he that goeth about like a _roaring Lion_ comes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth. With that they lookt upon him, and began to reply in this sort: _Simple_ said, _I see no danger_; _Sloth_ said, _Yet a little more sleep_; and _Presumption_ said, _Every Vat must stand upon his own bottom_. And so they lay down to sleep again, and _Christian_ went on his way. _The Pilgrim's Progress_. {181} CHAPTER I A REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (_January_ 1901-_July_ 1914) It is not true to say that this is a war between the rival principles of democracy and autocracy. A too great absorption in our own particular sector of the situation has led certain writers to put forward, as a general explanation, this formula which is not only inadequate, but misleading. The real issue is something wider and deeper than a struggle between forms of government. It is concerned with the groundwork of human beliefs.