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and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
SOMETIME SENIOR SCHOLAR OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD
AUTHOR OF THE LIVING PAST
1915
The following essays are the substance of a course of lectures deliveredat a Summer School at the Woodbrooke Settlement, near Birmingham, inAugust 1915. The general purpose of the course will be apparent from theessays themselves. No forced or mechanical uniformity of view was aimedat. The writers will be found, very naturally and properly, to differ indetail and in the stress they lay on different aspects of the case. Butthey agree in thinking that while our country's cause and the cause ofour Allies is just and necessary and must be prosecuted with the utmostvigour, it is not inopportune to reflect on those common andineradicable elements in the civilization of the West which tend to forma real commonwealth of nations and will survive even the most shatteringof conflicts. That we on the Allied side stand fundamentally for thisideal is one of our most valuable assets.
The fact that the lectures were delivered at a settlement for trainingpersons for social work in a religious spirit, suggested to more thanone of those who took part in the course, how similar is the task whichnow lies before us in international affairs to that which Canon Barnettinitiated thirty years ago for the treatment of the social question athome. We need in both cases to associate ourselves mentally with othersin order to realize the common elements which underlie the seemingdiversity in the civilization of the West.
The method of the course was primarily historical, though certain essayshave been added of a more idealist type. It is hoped that the point ofview suggested, though prompted by current events, may be found to havesome permanent value. It could obviously be applied to many otheraspects of European life, e.g. morality and politics, to whichconditions of space have only permitted indirect reference to be made inthis volume.
F.S.M.