Page 237 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

218 A Twentieth- Century Outlook.

tury such as a magazine article, or series of arti-
cles, could not contemplate for a moment. The
scope proposed to himself by the present writer,
itself almost unmanageable within the necessary
limits, looks not to the internal conditions of
states, to those economical and social tenden-
cies which occupy so large a part of contempo-
rary attention, seeming to many the sole subjects
that deserve attention, and that from the most
purely material and fleshly point of view. Im-
portant as these things are, it may be affirmed
at least that they are not everything ; and that,
great as has been the material progress of the
century, the changes in international relations
and relative importance, not merely in states
of the European family, but among the peoples
of the world at large, have been no less striking.
It is from this direction that the writer wishes
to approach his subject, which, if applied to
any particular country, might be said to be
that of its external relations ; but which, in the
broader view that it will be sought to attain,
regards rather the general future of the world
as indicated by movements already begun and

in progress, as well as by tendencies now
dimly discernible, which, if not counteracted,