ABSTRACT
IT is impossible for me, perhaps for anyone else, to perform in a really satisfactory manner the task which I have undertaken to-night. If, as has been said, prophecy is the most gratuitous form of human error, interpretation of current politics may be conceded the second place. For the ideal interpreter is himself a contradiction in terms. Interpretation is impossible without a sympathetic understanding, and -a sympathy directed with entire impartiality and, what is more, capable of convincing others of tbat impartiality, is not attainable. For what sort of a citizen would he be, who in the present current of public affairs, could guarantee to himself or to others this complete impartiality? An intelligent foreigner might indeed set forth the measurable facts of the subject without bias, but he could hardly give them the meaning and the valuation essential to the process of interpretation.
