Later ages were
to store and neglect the vast insane literature of this obsession, the
intricate treaties, the secret agreements, the infinite knowingness of
the political writer, the cunning refusals to accept plain facts, the
strategic devices, the tactical manoeuvres, the records of mobilisations
and counter-mobilisations. It ceased to be credible almost as soon as
it ceased to happen, but in the very dawn of the new age their state
craftsmen sat with their historical candles burning, and, in spite
of strange, new reflections and unfamiliar lights and shadows, still
wrangling and planning to rearrange the maps of Europe and the world.
It was to become a matter for subtle inquiry how far the millions of men
and women outside the world of these specialists sympathised and agreed
with their portentous activities. One school of psychologists inclined
to minimise this participation, but the balance of evidence goes to
show that there were massive responses to these suggestions of the
belligerent schemer. Primitive man had been a fiercely combative animal;
innumerable generations had passed their lives in tribal warfare, and
the weight of tradition, the example of history, the ideals of
loyalty and devotion fell in easily enough with the incitements of the
international mischief-maker.
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