peace congresses and conferences at The Hague and elsewhere,
fully satisfied that the last war had been fought and that
arbitration boards would settle all future disputes among
nations, however serious.

Such occasions occur at frequent intervals in nature, in which a
deep calm, a profound peace, rests over land and sea. The winds
are hushed, the waves at rest; only the needful processes of the
universe are in action, while for the time the world forgets the
chained demons of unrest and destruction. But too quickly the
chains are loosened, the winds and waves set free; and the
hostile forces of nature rush over earth and sea, spreading
terror and devastation in their path. Such energies of hostility
are not confined to the elements. They exist in human
communities. They underlie the political conditions of the
nations, and their outbreak is at times as sudden and
unlooked-for as that of the winds and waves. Such was the state
of political affairs in Europe at the date mentioned, apparently
calm and restful, while below the surface hostile forces which
had long been fomenting unseen were ready to burst forth and
whelm the world.

DRAMATIC SUDDENNESS OF THE OUTBREAK

On the night of July 25th the people of the civilized world
settled down to restful slumbers, with no dreams of the turmoil
that was ready to burst forth. On the morning of the 26th they
rose to learn that a great war had begun, a conflict the possible
width and depth of which no man was yet able to foresee; and as
day after day passed on, each day some new nation springing into