And even race wars—­which at first sight seem to have little to do with the Class trouble—­illustrate the truth of my contention.  For they almost always arise from the hatred generated in a nation by an alien class establishing itself in the midst of that nation—­establishing itself, maybe, as a governmental or dominant class (generally a military or landlord clique) or maybe as a parasitical or competing class (as in the case of the Jews in Europe and the Japanese in America and so forth).  They arise, like all other wars, from the existence of a class within the nation which is not really in accord with the people of that nation, but is pursuing its own interests apart from theirs.  In the second of the following papers, “The Roots of the Great War,” I have drawn attention to the influence of the military and commercial classes, especially in Germany, and the way in which their policy, coming into conflict with a similar policy in the other Western nations, has inevitably led to the present embroilment.  In Eastern Europe similar causes are at work, but there the race elements—­and even the religious—­constitute a more important factor in the problem.

By a curious fatality Germany has become the centre of this great war and world-movement, which is undoubtedly destined—­as the Germans themselves think, though in a way quite other than they think—­to be of vast importance, and the beginning of a new era in human evolution.  And the more one considers Germany’s part in the affair, the more one sees, I think, that from the combined influence of her historical antecedents and her national psychology this fatality was to be expected.  In roughly putting together these antecedent elements and influences, I have entitled the chapter “The Case for Germany,” because on the principle of tout comprendre the fact of the evolution being inevitable constitutes her justification.  The nations cannot fairly complain of her having moved along a line which for a century or more has been slowly and irresistibly prepared for her.  On the other hand, the nations do complain of the manner and the methods with which at the last she has precipitated and conducted the war—­as indeed they have shown by so widely combining against her.  However right, from the point of view of destiny and necessity, Germany may be, she has apparently from the point of view of the moment put herself in the wrong.  And the chapter dealing with this phase of the question I have called “The Case against Germany.”

Whatever further complications and postponements may arise, there will certainly come a time of recovery and reconstruction on a wide and extended scale over Europe and a large part of the world.  To even outline this period would be impossible at present; but in the sixth chapter and the last, as well as in the intermediate pieces, I have given some suggestions towards this future Healing of the Nations.

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