advanced race within its borders--the Poles--but which in its better period allowed a genuine equality to the other races and extensive self-government to some of them. A great enthusiasm for freedom in almost every branch of life; the principle of the sovereignty of the nation, calling the citizens to participate in the responsibilities of government; the conception of the state as not a thing existing for itself, but as an instrument serving the wellbeing of society; aversion to absolute monarchy, standing armies, and militarism; disinclination to undertake aggressive wars, but a remarkable tendency to form voluntary unions with neighboring peoples--such are some of the hallmarks of the old Polish state, which make it stand out as a unique exception among the rapacious and militaristic monarchies of that age. The Poles have been only too frequently reproached for having created such a state and for not having imitated the institutions and the spirit of their neighbors; but today, after a war in which Prussia symbolized precisely the principles which Poland is blamed for not having adopted, and the Allies have stood for ideals closely akin to those of old Poland, it would seem that the time has come for a revision of our judgments about the old Polish republic. For some such reasons the Poles today, while recognizing the many blemishes that crept into the republic, particularly in its later period, are still inclined to hold that this Polish-Lithuanian-White Russian-Ukrainian-Prussian federation--which the old republic really was--represented a political organization so entirely adapted to the needs of that part of Europe, so much in the nature of things, that its violent disruption at the hands of its neighbors must be a matter of regret, and its restoration, in part, at least, on some twentieth century basis a goal to be kept in view. Since the Partitions the situation has, of course, been very substantially modified. The partitioning governments have not labored in vain to break down or destroy Polish influences in many parts of the former republic; and in recent decades strong nationalist movements have also grown up among two of the races once united to Poland, the Lithuanians and the Ukrainians. Hence no one in Poland today believes it possible or desirable simply to incorporate all the lands of the old republic in the new Polish state. No one proposes to compel the other races which have developed pronounced nationalist movements to unite with Poland against their will.