15 do not know whether American statesmen appreciate these truths and whether they proceed in accordance with them. The laws of evolution, however, being inexorable, it matters little whether they do or not. No one can prevent the operation of these laws, and the political party that attempts to do so is working against humanity and civilization.
VII.
From another point of view, it may be stated, in the light of human history, that the policy of non intervention was always an impossibility in this world. All the nations of Europe, before the middle ages, throughout the course of those uncultured centuries, and after the renaissance, lived in a state of constant warfare, sometimes for the purpose of involving one nation in the destiny of another, sometimes with the object of carrying beliefs or idolatries to distant lands, or, again, to sustain this or that prince on the throne of his forefathers, or, perhaps, a usurper on the throne of another.
It is needless to turn over the pages of the history of France, England, Spain or Germany. It is enough to recall the intervention of the Powers for the independence of Greece and the intervention of the United States to secure the independence of Cuba. The facts, therefore, are written upon the universal conscience.
The temperament of mankind, as well as that of nations, cannot contain itself within bounds of neutrality and indifference. And if this element of human nature could not restrain itself when correspondence required moi ai sometimes years to ach its destination, at a