also had touched to some slight extent on the actual work of certain
departments of Government, and had offered opportunities for travel in
European countries and in the East, might furnish some qualifications
for such a task. It is not one that can be undertaken without a sense of
inadequate knowledge, and still more inadequate power of expression; but
such a challenge cannot be refused, provided that whoever accepts it
believes that he has some things to say which ought to be said, some
lines of thought which ought to be indicated, something to urge, the
truth of which he is thoroughly convinced of. Without such conviction
prevenient, "we doubt not" that books on serious subjects, even if
clever, and public speech either from platform or pulpit, "do verily
have the nature of sin," and the more eloquent they are the worse the
offence; with it, the very incompleteness and imperfection in the mode
of presentation may even stimulate others to more thought, and to make
up deficiencies all the better for themselves.

In attempting such a task, it must be recognised that during the last
three years the attention of so many minds has been devoted to problems
of "reconstruction" after the War, so much has been written and said
about them, so many suggestions made and schemes propounded, so many
commissions of inquiry appointed and reports prepared, that an attempt
at full treatment of the questions involved would require a cyclopaedia
rather than a small volume. No one person would be able ever to read
half of the valuable material already collected bearing on these
problems. To deal effectively with them all would demand several
lifetimes of preliminary special training. The difficulty is increased
by the fact that every week brings something new or some change in the
situation. Some new fact comes to light, some book or article is
published, some speech made, some report issued, or even some Act
passed, which calls for consideration, and it may be for comment.