118 THE SHADOW OF THE WORLD’S FUTURE 
more humble life, physically, with a deeper regard for 
the higher issues, is a sine gua non, if it be really desired 
to see the earth covered with contented peoples, whose 
well-being is assured and whose living is a disclosure 
of generous attitude and noble purpose. When such 
propositions are really examined, it is at once apparent, 
that for mankind to multiply greatly is not merely 
a physical difficulty : it is one involving his higher 
powers, and that view lies behind much of what Sir 
Rabindranath Tagore has had to say in regard to the 
limitations of nationalism. We do not accept his 
view as an unassailable verdict as to the essence of the 
whole position, but it is one which it is desirable to 
analyse carefully. And, reverting again to Japan, the 
Bushido ideals of that nation, exemplified in the 
readiness of the former Daimios to forgo their privi- 
leges for the nation’s well-being, shows that ethical 
elements can play a very real part in the numerical and 
dynamic development of a people. 
Finally, one may say that although the dream of a 
densely peopled earth, living in relative contentment, 
is not an impossible one, it is, of course, a dream of 
the impossible, as things are. The earth numbers 
to-day only 1950 millions, after its long life-history ; 
an amazing fact even after only its 10,000 years of 
recent development. This has been because of its 
great intellectual, and also its great moral, limitations. 
The cynic may well say these dreams of the world’s 
possible future are but idle phantasies,” and the sneer 
would be well-founded. Nevertheless, it is suggested 
that the world’s future can be vastly better than 
its present, and the future is worthy of sympathetic 
consideration, as to ways and means of advance, by 
the finest minds and the noblest characters. 
At the present time the mere increase of population, 
coupled with the fact that Man’s moral development 
has not kept pace with scientific knowledge, is threaten-