we did not mention them by name--because our hearts were not set on praying for the well-being of all nations and all governments alike. Had we been capable of so praying, it would have meant that a real change of heart had come to us, and that we were offering that changed heart to all the world alike for the establishment of the new International. But to such change of heart we could not attain--could not even consent; for it would have implied that there was something morally wrong in our national institutions, in our government and our whole social structure, which we would not admit. We would not admit that the chemic elements of our own national life had conduced to war in common with the chemic elements of the nation whose flagrant violation of treaties had given us the immediate materials for a good conscience. We fattened our hearts for war on the immediate material thus provided us, ignoring those other materials which lay behind, and which we and all other nations shared alike--though not necessarily in equal degrees. And here we have the essential and fundamental difference between the genuine profession of Christianity and the profession of Cæsarism. For the follower of Christ to confess that he has done wrong, that he needs a change of heart, redounds to his honour--he goes down to his house justified. But when a nation has given itself to Cæsar, its main idea of “honour” is to refuse to admit it has done wrong, or to accept punishment; it may be beaten, crushed, but you cannot extract from it a confession of moral wrong-doing; a sense of sin is the negation not only of the German State system, but of all. A “proud nation” will not own that it has been in the wrong, least of all when it embarks on war; if it did it would go down to its house in dust. Now that being, as I see it, the moral product of Cæsarism, in all its degrees and kinds--whether autocratic or democratic Cæsarism--of the setting up of the Will to Power over the Will to Love--it follows that the change of heart which I predicate in these pages for the solution of our social and international problems, is almost a Tolstoian negation of the principle upon which the modern state system stands. As such, it will be very unwelcome to many of my readers; but I hope that, as here set down, I have made my standpoint plain. The ploughshare and the pruning-hook are not mine to wield; I only point in the direction where I think they are to be found. L. H. CONTENTS PAGE Great Possessions 1 Crime and Punishment 26 Christianity a Danger to the State 48 The Salt of the Earth 63 The Rights of Majorities 85 Discreditable Conduct 109 What is Womanly? 135 Use and Ornament 157 Art and Citizenship 189