ever he should materialize—is that the phrase? [laughter] I think he might well be left to the police. [Laughter.] But while the super-man is simply absurd the super-state is dangerous. It is the ideal of the super-state which has brought civilization to the peril in which it now stands, and it is this ideal which we have got to crush. [Hear, hear.]
There are persons so ignorant of history and of human nature that they think it matters little what ideals of conduct men and nations entertain. Believe me it is all important. And if the world is now at war it is because the Germans have mistaken the true ideal of national greatness, because they are trying by the most brutal methods to force themselves into a position absolutely inconsistent with the very notion of a great community of independent nations. After all, the world is made up of nations. It never will be one nation. I don't think it is desirable that it should ever be one nation. [Hear, hear.] But if it is to be made up, as it is now, always has been, and always will be, of many nations, is it not absolutely imperative that those who love civilization should gradually come to an understanding as to how international relations should be conducted? [Cheers.] Are we, while we talk of civilization within the nation, going to press forward ideals of barbarism between nations? ["No."] Are the powerful always going to trample on the weak? ["No."] Is the fate of the small nations, as the author I have already quoted said, always to be miserable? ["No."] To me, and I believe to all men of English speech, wherever they may live, it seems that the future of our race—the international future of our race—lies in, so far as possible, spreading wide the grip and power of international law, of raising more and more dignity of treaties between States [cheers], more and more striving that controversies between States should be decided not by the sword, but by arbitration. [Cheers.] That is the ideal which we hold. That is the ideal which we wish to see grow in all parts of the world. That is the ideal which, with every mark of contumely, contempt, and derision, the Germans trample under foot, both in theory and in practice. [Cheers.]
You will gather from what I have said that to my thinking the struggle on which we are engaged is more than national; the whole international future of the world is hanging in the balance. If victory should go to those the law of whose being seems to be to grasp domination irrespective of scruples, and by all means—if that should be
