The Question Whether The Long Effort To

It Is Natural To Try To Understand One's Own Time And To Seek To Analyse The Forces That Move It.

A Third Ideal That Has Made Its Way In The Modern World Is Reliance On Reason, Especially Reason Disciplined And Enriched By Modern Science. An Eternal Basis Of Human Intercommunication Is Reason.

We Are Not Asked To Subscribe To Any Utopia Or To Believe In A Perfect World Just Around The Corner. We Are Asked To Be Patient With Necessarily Slow And Groping Advance On The Road Forward, And To Be Ready For Each Step Ahead As It Become Practicable. We Are Asked To Equip Ourselves With Courage, Hope, Readiness For Hard Work, And To Cherish Large And Generous Ideals.

The Role Of Italy And Of Austria Has Diminished As Has That Of France And Britain; Germany And Japan Have Suffered Catastrophically.

A Second Characteristic Of Our Time Is The Prevalence Of Nationalism. This Is Still Spreading, Affecting New Communities, More Peripheral Regions And So-called Backward Peoples.