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Against this my subconscious intuition, whose judgment is to be trusted absolutely, is altogether 
opposed. I propose therefore to set forth first of all that which the Holy Spirit within me moves to 
utter, and afterwards to record the observed facts which influence my human consciousness to be 
so antagonistic to almost every feature of life and thought as I found it. 
I definitely appeal to my American readers to stand apart from their natural gratification at the first 
and their natural indignation at the second of these sections of my work, and to understand that my 
spiritual apprehension 
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of truth represents my real self, while my intellectual perceptions are necessarily coloured by my 
nationality, caste, education and personal predilection. I am not trying to shirk the responsibility 
for the harsh judgments which I promulgate. I should prefer to keep silent. I speak only in the hope 
that Americans may learn how shocking much of their morals and manners is to the educated 
European, and I insist upon the intensity of my utmost love for them and faith in their future, so 
that they may discriminate between my criticisms and those of such people as Mrs Asquith who are 
unable to go deeper than the facts and cherish an unalloyed animosity. 
Let me then begin by an analysis of my inmost spiritual sympathy for the people of the United 
States. First of all, let me explain about Europe. The war of 1914, and its sequel of revolution and 
economic catastrophe, is in my eyes the culmination of its many centuries of corruption by 
Christianity. The initial lesion was due to the decay of the Roman republican virtue. The immediate 
effect of the rise of Christianity was the break-up of social order, the suppression of philosophy and 
scholarship by fanaticism and the gradual engulfment of enlightenment in the Dark Ages. A partial 
resurrection was brought about by the Renaissance and from that moment began the long struggle 
between science and freedom on the one hand and dogmatism and tyranny on the other. During the 
ninteenth century, the triumph of the former seemed assured and almost complete. The forces of 
obscurantism and reaction were driven into dark corners but their natural cunning developed by 
centuries of experience inspired them to a final effort to regain their lost prestige and power. They 
adopted a new policy. They ceased to oppose openly the advance of science and the associated 
ethical and political principles which science indicated. They clipped the claws of the Lion of 
Enlightenment by establishing an unspoken convention to the effect that it was bad form to insist 
upon applying the new ideas to practical politics. The Church of England was to retain its official 
status in spite of its spiritual death. Dissent and agnosticism ought to be tolerated indeed but 
ignored. The system of social snobbery was to continue concurrently with the boast of the triumph 
of democratic principles. In every subject which might give rise to controversy there was a tacit 
agreement not to tell the truth. The people who persecuted Byron, Shelley, Darwin, Bradlaugh and 
Foote smiled amiably at the much more outspoken blasphemies of Bernard Shaw. The hollowness of 
Christianity and feudalism became shameless. No one dared to defend his convictions, if indeed he 
possessed them. There was a universal conspiracy to shirk facing the facts of life, with the result 
that the most complete moral darkness shrouded the causes and conduct of the war. We maintain 
our stupid shame with desperate determinations. A sham peace succeeded the sham war and the 
only realities were the revolutions which reduced civilization to chaos. Such reactions as that of 
Fascismo are manifestly phantasmagoric 
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and I cannot but conclude that at least for a long period anarchy will triumph in Europe. I turn 
therefore to America from an expiring solar system to a nebulous mass which I expect to develop 
into an organized galaxy. 
The elements of the United States are heterogeneous in a manner unprecedented in history. Every 
race, language and creed of Europe is represented. There is, moreover, an established contingent of 
Africans, a new infiltration of Asiatics, of whom the Jews are a critically important factor in the 
social and economic problems of the day, while even the Far East, despite fanatical opposition, is 
seeking to obtain a foothold. That so many inimical elements should consent to even a semblance of 
fraternity indicates some common spiritual impulse sufficiently strong to dominate lesser