96 SKETCHES OF GREAT TRUTHS In a word, this has been the hypocrisy of the past. There is a danger of the same being carried on in the present, and what is done now is going to rule the future. The time has now come when internationalism is a possibility. Let us look back say a thousand years when the world was separate one part from another, shut up as it were into water- tight compartments, divided by distance, many lands unknown and ungetatable, when inter- course between nations was practically impos- sible. Wars have been the means of helping international relations. This seems a strange contradiction, but if we can imagine the world without war, we have also to imagine the world with no intercourse with other nations. After each war internationalism has spread and a desire to know more of other countries, other lands, has come out of each war. A respect for other nations has grown out of each war, for war has its place and has been necessary, nay, has been part of the evolution of the world. The greatest war is now over, and never has there been such a desire shown on all sides for a better understanding and for closer international relations. The special work of the Theosophical Society has helped this to a large degree by the