This war has brought out the dominant traits in all the warring peoples, and their complementary traits. Have you ever thought of the “turbaned Turk” (or, to be less Shakespearean, the fezzed Turk) as being gullible? Treacherous races are always gullible, as cruel races are apt to be sentimental--in all that touches themselves. “Free America” must beware of too many laws. England, too conscious of her virtue, will one day yield to temptation. Germany, “over all,” has got the whole world on top of her. Italy, the excitable, is now deliberating to a degree that would be dangerous for any other land. “Neutral America” is so unneutral that her right hand threatens her left, and both the whole body. Do not be impatient with President Wilson. He is dealing with the problems of the present war as if they were dated 500 B.C., and the long view is apt to be the clear view. The professor in him is safer than the politician in him. He is not happy just now. Why? Oh, that is an affair of State, and I am writing for publication! I know so many secrets that I am discreet as the family doctor. But there is an “American on guard to-night.” Who is he? Old Abraham Lincoln, who renounced heaven that he might watch over the land he lived and died for. No, I shall not tell you any more about him. There is something sacred in a soul’s renouncing rest. He will not go too far away _until America passes through her next great trial_. When will that be? As the Beautiful Being says, “Nay, Child, you ask too much.” And still you are eager to know about Abraham Lincoln! I was eager to know about him myself a few short years ago; but I did not ask too many questions. It would not have been pretty, as the French mothers say. _April 8._ LETTER XVIII A MASTER OF COMPASSION IN my former book I reminded you that your friends who had passed into the astral world did not know everything; that though their sight was longer than before and their eyes less clouded by matter, they yet could not always prophesy as glibly as fortune-tellers--or at least that they were wiser not to attempt it. Now I have in mind an illustration of that very point, only the subjects are much more exalted than the ordinary dwellers on the astral plane. There is, for instance, not perfect unanimity in our minds as to all the details of the end of this war. There are two of us who often discuss ways and means, who, while desiring the same result of peace, have slightly varying views as to the best possible way to bring that result to pass.