At the date of the republication of this pamphlet we face a peril immeasurably greater than that, if not equal to the Napoleonic terror of 1803; and we face it, as concerns the mass of our population, with a calmness which--to critical eyes and in view of the appeal made by the Government to the country--is at least susceptible of an unsatisfactory explanation. If surprise, misunderstanding, may in a measure account for that, it would be idle to pretend that the national mood and temper (and the moods and tempers of nations will vary) were altogether--if they could ever be--such as encouraged the most sanguine hopes of our success when exposed to an ordeal of suddenness, extent, and severity unknown in the world’s history. In estimating the risks of our situation, thoughtful criticism may be said to run naturally into two channels. Firstly, in the political world--for reasons which cannot here be considered--the past decade has seen a predominance of idealist activity and ratiocination scarcely known before. Hence the State has exhibited, to some extent, a _Utopiste_ attitude likely to mislead foreign nations--it may be said with mild brevity--alike as to our real views of their conduct, and as to our national belief in the right or duty of self-assertion. If, in 1871, we were represented as the helpless dupes of foreign diplomacy, in 1914 we rather appear to have deceived the enemy to our own hurt. A humane aversion to War--though, for that matter, it is only by a philanthropic “illusion” that the extreme stage of self-assertion can be morally differentiated from those that precede it, may tempt politicians by a too sedulous avoidance of the unpleasing phrase to invite the dreadful reality. But, again, in the private life of the nation, other traits (some noted in the pamphlet of ’71) have given cause for critical reflection. Besides Luxury--remarkable enough in its novel and fantastic forms, though a commonplace complaint of tractarians in all ages--a generally increased relaxation of all old-established ties of religion, convention or tradition, a tendency noticeable in general conduct, art and letters alike, a sort of orgy of intellectual and literary Erastianism, a _blasé_ craving for sensational novelty (encouraged perhaps if not sated by the startling novelties of the age) have given scope for anxiety as to the conservation in the English nature of that solid _morale_, that “gesundes und sicheres Gefühl” defined by an eminent thinker as the source of all worthy activity. These words can but very crudely sketch a complex sense of uneasiness and dissatisfaction familiar to most of us.