The following paper is timely and interesting from a scientific point of view in general and from a psychological standpoint in particular. The present European war is well termed a world war, the greatest war of nations on the records of history, a war shaking social organizations with their conflicting instincts and passions to the very foundations. This world maelstrom in which nations, large and small, are caught unawares is fraught with events no one can foresee, with consequences no contemporary can conceive. We have the good fortune of living in one of the greatest epochs in the history of mankind. Revolutionary changes are taking place on a gigantic scale under our very eyes without our realization of their trend and significance. We are in the midst of the mad whirl of this raging world hurricane so that our mental vision is obscured, our mind is paralyzed by the very magnitude of the furious struggle of frenzied social and psychic forces. No scientist, no statesman can forecast any of the consequences, or estimate the meaning of the profound and extensive transformations rapidly taking place in the nature of society and man. This much we seem to feel and know, that humanity is in labor with big events which are far beyond our ken, that society is in the throes of a new social order the character or even the outlines of which cannot be discerned in this infernal confusion of supreme struggle of social elements and human passions. Man and society are now being forged into new forms, hammered by Vulcan blows of war and revolt.
