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-