PREFACE THE sort of truth that is in most danger of getting itself ignored is the whole truth. It is usually too monotonously obvious to attract attention, too insipid to lend a relish to conversation, and too dull to point a paragraph. Half-truths hold the stage, and divide the allegiance of mankind among them. Thus, instead of agreeing that we are somewhere in the middle of progress, with something done and something yet to do, opinion is divided between the old and the young, between those who believe that the world is rapidly approaching its end and those who believe that it has just begun. Optimist and pessimist, anarchist and reactionary, atheist and bigot, feminist and misogynist, these are some of the character-parts which the human mind admires and loves to assume. The present crisis in human affairs has given a fearful urgency to two great human problems. First, how shall one be secure and yet peaceful? Second, how shall we act in concert and yet remain free in dividuals? In each case the solution of the problem requires the reconciliation of two indispensable values. And yet men divide themselves into parties and become blind to one of these values through excess of zeal for the other. Thus militarists for security's sake abandon the ideal of peace, and pacifists for the sake of peace shut their eyes to violence and danger. Or individualists in the name of freedom protest against organization and authority; while nationalists from love of country forget that no country is worthy of being loved that is not the home of independent and happy individuals. Thus the solid truth escapes notice, from too much looking at one or another of its flat surfaces. Even if the truth be hard to win, it is worth something to see it on both sides and to comprehend its dimensions. Whatever be sound policy in the present crisis it must provide a way by which liberty and peace shall be consistent with solidarity and strength; by which a man may take his place as a soldier in the ranks, and yet remain free. Essays I, II, IV, and V have appeared in part in The New Republic; VI and XI in The Atlantic Monthly; VII in The International Journal of |