Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 4.pdf/263

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IX

THE FAITH, MORALS, AND PUBLIC POLICY OF THE NEW REPUBLIC

If the surmise of a developing New Republic, a Republic that must ultimately become a World State of capable rational men developing amidst the fading contours and colours of our existing nations and institutions, be indeed no idle dream, but an attainable possibility in the future—and to that end it is that the preceding "Anticipations" have been mainly written—it becomes a speculation of very great interest to forecast something of the general shape and something even of certain details of that common body of opinion which the New Republic, when at last it discovers and declares itself, will possess. Since we have supposed this New Republic will already be consciously and pretty freely controlling the general affairs of humanity before this century closes, its broad principles and opinions must necessarily shape and determine that still ampler future of which the coming hundred years is but the opening phase. There are many processes, many aspects of things, that are now as it were in the domain of natural laws and outside human control, or controlled unintelligently and superstitiously, that in the future, in the days of the coming New Republic, will be definitely taken in hand as

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