Excerpt from Cubists and Post-Impressionism
This book was written in 1913 and published in March, 1914. Six months later Europe was in war.
The academic historian will seek the cause or causes of the war in more or less concrete events and more or less obvious ambitions and aspirations of this or that nation.
The profounder and more philosophical searcher after the motives and forces that control the destinies of man may reach the conclusion that the development of the western world had reached a condition where an explosion was inevitable, or, as one might say, an equilibrium so unstable a crash could not be avoided.
The assassination of a Grand Duke could not plunge a world into war unless the world was on the verge of war. Princes, Grand-dukes, Kings and Queens have been assassinated with no results other than a few headlines and messages of condolence, but when Europe is ready for war and war is inevitable one excuse is as good as another. For a long time prior to the assassination of the Grand Duke at Sarajevo, 1914, the nations of not only Europe but the Orient were on edge. A war spirit was prevalent in even this country.
In 1912 a the writer published a book which dealt with the existing competitive conditions in the industrial and commercial world. On pages 41-42 of that book I said:
"The history of nations shows how the pendulum of progress swings to and fro from perfection in little things to perfection in big things. At the same period one nation may be doing things intensively, while another is doing things in a spirit of extension; one may be living a life of extraordinary fullness within its gates, another may find satisfaction only in conquering the earth.
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