For fifty years England held undisputed sway upon the
sea, controlled markets, and domineered trade, laying, during that
period, the foundations of her empire. Since then other naval powers
have arisen, their attitudes bearing significantly upon the future;
for they have learned that the mastery of the world belongs to the
masters of the sea.
That many of the phases of this world shrinkage are pathetic, goes
without question. There is much to condemn in the rise of the
economic over the imaginative spirit, much for which the energetic
Philistine can never atone. Perhaps the deepest pathos of all may be
found in the spectacle of John Ruskin weeping at the profanation of
the world by the vandalism of the age. Steam launches violate the
sanctity of the Venetian canals; where Xerxes bridged the Hellespont
ply the filthy funnels of our modern shipping; electric cars run in
the shadow of the pyramids; and it was only the other day that Lord
Kitchener was in a railroad wreck near the site of ancient Luxor.
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