which I have often sent details, goes steadily on.” M. Thibaudin “hopes for peace, as do all other diplomats trained and admired for their ability to say what they don’t think; and finally he announces that France is ready to fight whenever the time comes.” January 29 he writes: “The Daily News war scare which shook us up early in the week seems not to have exhausted its disquieting influence yet.” “France and Germany are looked upon as certain to lead off the ball, and Germany, it is generally thought, will be found at the head of the set and take the initiative. Preparations for a big fight continue in every direction.” “Russia, if we can believe the tales from that unreliable country, is quietly making preparations on a tremendous scale to have her paw fall heavily on somebody.”

The French Revue des Deux Mondes said about this time that a war between France and Germany would almost inevitably lead to a general European war, on a scale such as the world has never before seen.

The Russian Viedomosti of February 5 said: “No compromise is possible between Russia and Austria concerning Eastern affairs, without detriment to Russia and the Eastern races. German intervention is useless, and will only create hostility between Russia and Germany.”

The Boston Herald correspondent of February 5, said of France and Germany: “Now both are counted as among the most civilized and most humanitarian on the face of the globe, and yet the certainty of war between the two hereditary enemies on either side of the Rhine is as certain as anything can be. When it comes, be it sooner or later, one of the two adversaries is inevitably condemned, if not to total annihilation, at least to such a crushing punishment that for many long years the defeated power will be little more than a geographical expression on modern maps.” His letter concluded with an elaborate statement of the military resources and condition of the two nations, which approximate an equality in the aggregate.

A Paris dispatch of the same date said that “Prince Bismarck has succeeded in establishing a coalition between Austria, England, and Italy against Russia. Germany will join the coalition if France supports Russia.”

The New York Sun of February 7, said: “We suppose there is no subject which just now is more earnestly discussed among intelligent Americans than the probable result of the war between France and Germany which is believed to be approaching. France ought by this time to have outstripped her enemy in point of military efficiency. She has laid out since 1871 nearly twice as much on her permanent armament, and she devotes nearly twice as much to the current military expenses of each year. She has maintained a larger peace establishment, and she should have it in her power to bring to the field a larger number of soldiers who have served under the colors.”

February 10 the Paris correspondent of the Berlin Post said that General Boulanger was growing in popularity, and “is regarded by the masses as the long-expected liberator. The whole country is anxious for revanche [revenge], and is arming silently, but with the evident belief that the hour is coming.” To add to the growing hostility, the Post quotes from the Paris Figaro an article imputing the grossest immorality to German women.

At the same date, the Buda Pesth Journal urged Austria to attack Russia before the latter has completed her preparations on the lower Danube. It said: “War is inevitable, and it is better to begin fighting before the Balkan states have been Russianized.”

Senor Castillo, the Spanish minister of the interior, said that Spain had taken steps to augment her defences and protect her colonies, in view of the possible European war.

February 12 a despatch to the London News from St. Petersburg said: “Ominous fears of a European war prevail here. It is announced that German colonists in the Caucasus have been notified to hold themselves in readiness to return to Germany and join the reserves.”

At the same date the North German Gazette said that since General Boulanger had assumed charge of the French war office not a day had passed without measures being taken to augment the offensive strength of the army, and there were constant movements of troops upon the frontiers.

February 19 the news was still more alarming at Berlin. Work was going on night and day on the fortifications at Verdun and Belfort. “All commerce has been suspended at Metz, excepting in food. The inhabitants are storing their houses from cellar to garret.” A Russian paper of that date said, “Existing circumstances admit of no delay.”

At Vienna, February 18, it was announced that “a semi-official letter from St. Petersburg represents that Russia is waiting for a Franco-German conflict, which she considers inevitable, to realize her own Balkan projects. Russia would consider it to be to her own interest not to allow Germany to be victorious.”

February 19 Senator Beck at Washington referred to an extract from a late speech of Count von Moltke before the German Reichstag, to show that war is inevitable.

February 27 the London despatch to the Boston Herald said: “Within the last forty-eight hours confidence in the maintenance of peace has visibly lessened.”

About the same time in Russian government circles the conviction was said to be gaining ground that a Franco-German war was inevitable, and that it would be for the interest of Russia to save France from disaster.

March 6 the North German Gazette said that the Alsace elections had strengthened the war party in France. War seems to have been the general anticipation of military men. General Wolseley (February 26) is reported to have said: “I feel sure that a vast, appalling war is certainly in the near future; but this, indeed, everybody may be said to know.”

But “everybody” is as liable to be mistaken on questions of futurity as on questions of philosophy and religion, on which the multitude called “everybody” has been largely mistaken ever since the earliest periods known to history. “Everybody” is generally pessimistic, apt to be superstitious, and never philosophic. A single good psychometric perception is worth much more than Mr. Everybody’s opinion, whether upon national policy, personal character, historical truth, or medical science.

The psychometric opinion is the opposite of that of General Wolseley and Senator Beck, for the psychometric soul is in the calm sphere of truth, in which the passions have no deceiving power. I have already published in the “Manual of Psychometry” the prediction of universal peace at the end of five years from the prophecy, and I now repeat the statement that great Franco-German war is but the fantasy of passion and fear. The last psychometric expression, March 11, confirms the uniform statements heretofore. Upon the question “What of the war in Europe?” this was the impression:

“This seems a question of occurrences. I seem to disagree with other people on this question. It does not seem to me that it will occur. If there are any prognostications, they are intensified. The result will not be what is predicted. There is something like a foreshadowing that might cause a prediction, but it will pass over. There is a good deal of agitation and concern, but nothing will occur this year as apprehended. I feel that it will all subside, and a picture of brightness and a clear sky appears. The fire will burn out; the boiling caldron which sends up steam will be quiet; a peaceful time is coming.”

When the Journal shall have a little more space, for it must