The British Empire derives its strength from the numerical strength of its _élite_. The Russian Empire and its direct heir, the present Oligarchy, have had a small _élite_ raised above an enormous mass of what is probably the least-educated population in the world, outside Africa. The French African Empire disguises the hegemony of Paris under the liberal concession of a nominal French citizenship to its subject tribes. The French _élite_ is broader than the British, as wealth in France is more evenly distributed. In Germany, on the other hand, and in certain smaller countries, like Denmark and Finland, it is education rather than wealth which is more or less impartially distributed. This also tends to broaden the _élite_ and make the nation (as distinguished from the empire) more intrinsically powerful. We thus get an _élite_ among nations as well as individuals. This _élite_ is, however, based upon force rather than intellectual leadership, owing to the fact that a nation regarded as an organism is in a much more primitive stage of evolution than is a civilized individual. Nations have no morality, no curbs upon their greed, their hatred, their jealousy and vindictiveness. The rivalry among nations makes for progress, but its most active manifestations may produce a serious set-back of long duration, involving irreparable loss. So long as peace and goodwill do not prevail among individual men it is absurd to expect them to prevail among a collection of beasts of prey such as we have in the nations of the world. Yet it is obviously desirable that the human population of the globe should advance as one man. There is one thing, and one thing only, which can unite humanity into one closely-knit organism, and that is _an external enemy_. If Mr. H. G. Wells’s _War of the Worlds_ were to come true, and an expeditionary force of Martians were to land on the earth with a view to its annexation, then the human race might instantly unite to repel the invader. It would be an inspiring sight to see Japanese and Turks, Abyssinians and Zulus, Eskimos and Swiss, Brazilians and Mexicans and Doughboys, Tahitians and Britishers and Russians, Irish and Egyptians, Persians and Chinese, all vying with each other in devotion and bravery, fighting for their native planet against a ruthless and merciless invader.