CHANGE AND EXCHANGE
changed its direction. And now and then is a new source of abundance and overflow. And now and then too, by a mysterious interaction of forces, the stream reverses its course.
The new source to-day is America; and the mighty currents, which flowed from the East to the West in the past, are now flowing from the West to the East. There is always too a counter-current of different temperature which tempers the stream and moderates its speed. And in this is the essense of exchange; in this is the assurance of the balance, the sanity, in fact, of nations.
When the stream of civilization flowed in the past from the East, the cradle of religion, the counter-currents flowed from Venice, the cradle of trade, from Cordova, the cradle of reason, from Geneva, the cradle of intellectual freedom. But these in time so increased in volume and power that they dominated, overwhelmed the original westward flowing currents. The stream, therefore, not only changes its
[165]
