ABSTRACT
T HE war fell upon us in the sunlmer of 1914 as a terriblesurprise. Hardly anybody had believed in its coming.A handful of dismal pacifists in the different countries, pointing to the gro\vth of armalllents, had uttered their vaticinations. Little knots of ardent nlilitarists with their business companions. bent upon increased preparedness, talked confidently of the inevitable day, forgetting to reconcile their prediction with the preventive virtues which they attributed to \varlike· preparations. But few even of these extremists of either ~roup seriously believed that \var \vas imminent. There were, no doubt, a few in Germany and elsewhere who in the latter days believed in war because they had contrived it and resolved upon it. But for our imnlediate purposes these may stand out of the account.
