Contents
THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
The author wishes to express his thanks to the Editors of theAtlantic Monthly and the Century Magazine for their courtesy inpermitting the publication in this volume of certain essays which haveappeared in their magazines.
"Humanly speaking, it is impossible." So the old theologian would saywhen denying any escape from his own argument. His logical machine wasgoing at full speed, and the grim engineer had no notion of putting onthe brakes. His was a non-stop train and there was to be noslowing-down till he reached the terminus.
But in the middle of the track was an indubitable fact. By all therules of argumentation it had no business to be there, trespassing onthe right of way. But there it was! We trembled to think of theimpending collision.
But the collision between the argument and the fact never happened.The "humanly speaking" was the switch that turned the argument safelyon a parallel track, where it went whizzing by the fact without theleast injury to either. Many things which are humanly speakingimpossible are of the most common occurrence and the theologian knewit.
It is only by the use of this saving clause that one may safelymoralize or generalize or indulge in the mildest form of prediction.Strictly speaking, no one has a right to express any opinion aboutsuch complex and incomprehensible aggregations of humanity as theUnited States of America or the British Empire. Humanly speaking, theyboth are impossible. Antecedently to experience the Constitution ofUtopia as expounded by Sir Thomas More would be much more probable. Ithas a certain rational coherence. If it existed at all it would hangtogether, being made out of whole cloth. But how does the BritishEmpire hold together