Page 277 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

258 A Twentieth-Century Outlook. ;

yet distant, to all those who have drawn their
present civilization from the same remote
sources. The phrase is so pregnant of solution
for the problems of the future, as conceived by
the writer, that he hopes to see it obtain the
currency due to the value of the idea which it
formulates. That this disposition on the part
of Great Britain, towards her colonies and
towards the United States, shows sound policy
as well as sentiment, may be granted readily
but why should sound policy, the seeking of
one's own advantage, if by open and honest
means, be imputed as a crime ? In democra-
cies, however, policy cannot long dispute the
sceptre with sentiment. That there is luke-
warm response in the United States is due to
that narrow conception which grew up with
the middle of the century, whose analogue in
Great Britain is the Little England party, and
which in our own country would turn all eyes
inward, and see no duty save to ourselves.
How shall two walk together except they be
agreed ? How shall there be true sympathy
between a nation whose political activities are
world-wide, and one that eats out its heart in
merely internal political strife ? When we