Excerpt from The Future of the Indo-British Commonwealth I had the opportunity of reading the manuscript of this little book. I was so impressed with its outlook that I have asked leave to write a few lines on the subject. To the whole of the diagnosis of the present state of affairs throughout the British Empire, I do not profess to commit myself. I do not know enough, and I do not think anyone can know enough, to be certain of all the ground. What interests me is the breadth of outlook, and a certain quality in the estimate of results, amounting to brilliance. The author sees, as others of us do, that the great war has precipitated what was already in solution. There is now a definite residuum which was not distinctly observable earlier. This is likely, not only to increase, but to be of increasing importance. For the rest, thatfrom which the precipitation has come is growing clearer. For alarm, I doubt whether there is any real cause at all. The process in operation to-day is one which has been as unavoidable as it has been natural. It is only if we are narrow minded and try to interfere artificially with What we cannot safely endeavour to arrest, that danger is likely to arise. The age is one of a tendency which has become both obvious and universal. But it is taking effect within the limits of human nature - human nature, which is everywhere in the main the same, and which history has shown to be in the end dominating for good when not interfered with. What we have to do is to cultivate in our selves and in our neighbours the larger outlook upon our national lines. We all need more knowledge, intellectual and spiritual. Both fall within the forms of knowledge, and without both the world will remain incomplete. The change which is coming is not greater than that which Christianity introduced nearly two thousand years ago. Then many were alarmed, for reasons which were to prove so misplaced that we have now forgotten them. To-day the world is moving nearly as rapidly. One has only to live in London at the present time in order to become aware of the fact. What is extreme in some phases of new movements is steadily losing its sharp edges as democracy grows. We are learning that democracy is in the main conservative in tendency. That is because it appears as cautious, in this country certainly, wherever it does not know and is therefore not convinced. Only when it is thwarted in what it is striving towards, does it become alert and aggressive. Now it does not seem as if to-day democracy, here at least, were striving after anything very dangerous or even definite. What it asks for is more knowledge, for itself and for its rulers, and more knowledgehas not in the past resulted in violent action. It is narrowness of view, arising from the lack of the larger outlook, that the history of the past shows to have caused danger of violent action. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.