The greatest illusions in respect to these social forces have been harboured by persons, whose situation in life gave them the power, by word and voice, either to assist or to check those influences in European life, which, in 1914, were rushing us into the catastrophe of war. These persons actually believed, that a military victory for their country would hush the mutterings of the social storm. They have since been obliged to recognise, that it was the consequences of their own attitude that first brought these social tendencies fully to light. Indeed, the present catastrophe,--which is the catastrophe of mankind,--has shewn itself to be the very event, through which, historically, these tendencies gained the opportunity to make themselves felt in their full force. During these last fateful years, both the leading persons and the leading classes have been constantly obliged to tune their own behaviour to the note sounded in socialist circles. Could they have disregarded the tone of these circles, they would often gladly have acted differently. And the effects of this live on in the form which events are taking to-day. And now the thing, which for years past has been drawing on in mankind's life-evolution, preparing its way before it, has arrived at a decisive stage,--and now comes the tragedy: The facts are with us in all their ripeness, but the thoughts that came up with the growth of the facts are no match for them. There are many persons who trained their thoughts on the lines of the growing process, hoping thereby to serve the social ideal which they recognised in it; and these persons find themselves to-day practically powerless before the problems which the accomplished facts present, and on which the destinies of mankind hang. A good many of these persons, it is true, still believe that the things they have so long thought necessary to the remodelling of human life will now be realised, and will then prove powerful enough to give these facts a possible turn and meet their requirements. One may dismiss the opinion of those, who, even now, are still under the delusion, that it must be possible to maintain the old scheme of things against the new demands that are being urged by a large part of mankind. We may confine ourselves to examining what is going on in the wills of those people who are convinced that a remodelling of social life is necessary. Even so, we shall be forced to own to ourselves, that party shibboleths go wandering up and down amongst us like the dessicated corpses of once animate creeds,--everywhere flouted and set at naught by the evolution of facts. The facts call for decisions, for which the creeds of the old parties are all unprepared. These parties certainly evolved along with the facts,--but they, and their habits of thought, have not kept pace with the facts. One may perhaps venture without presumption to hold,--in the face of still common opinion,--that the course of