living people to believe that they too are in the
midst of great transformations. What looks to
us like an incredible rush of events sloping to-
wards a great historical crisis was to our an-
cestors little else than the occasional punctuation
of daily life with an exciting incident. Even
to-day when we have begun to speak of our age
as a transition, there are millions of people who
live in an undisturbed routine. Even those of
us who regard ourselves as active in mothering
the process and alert in detecting its growth are
by no means constantly aware of any great
change. For even the fondest mother cannot
watch her child grow.

I remember how tremendously surprised I was
in visiting Russia several years ago to find that
in Moscow or St. Petersburg men were interested
in all sorts of things besides the revolution. I
had expected every Russian to be absorbed in
the struggle. It seemed at first as if my notions
of what a revolution ought to be were contra-
dicted everywhere. And I assure you it wrenched
the imagination to see tidy nursemaids wheeling
perambulators and children playing diavolo on
the very square where Bloody Sunday had gone
into history. It takes a long perspective and no
very vivid acquaintance with revolution to be

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