{"id":763,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=763"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:15","slug":"65-preface-to-the-first-edition-of-the-ideal-of-human-unity-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/27-supplement-volume-27\/65-preface-to-the-first-edition-of-the-ideal-of-human-unity-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-65_Preface to the first Edition of The Ideal of Human Unity.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nS<\/span><\/font>UPPLEMENT  <\/span>TO <\/span>
\n
\nV<\/font>OLUME<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/span>15<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nSOCIAL
\nAND POLITICAL THOUGHT<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Preface<\/span> <\/span>to
\nthe first edition (1919) of <\/span>THE
\nIDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Preface 
\n<\/span>*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span>                                 <\/span><\/span>T<\/span>HE
\nchapters of this book were written in a se<\/span>rial
\nform in the pages of the monthly review, Arya, <\/i>and from necessity of
\nspeedy publication have been reprinted as they stood without the alterations
\nwhich would have been necessary to give them a greater unity of treatment. They
\nreflect the rapidly <\/span>changing<\/span>
\n<\/span>phases
\nof ideas, facts and possibilities which emerged <\/span>in
\nthe <\/span>course
\nof the European conflict. The earlier chapters were <\/span>written
\nwhen Russia was still an Empire and an autocracy, the latter parts after the
\nRussian revolution and when the war had come nearer to its end, but the dramatic
\ncircumstances of the issue, in itself inevitable, could not be foreseen. The
\nreader may guide himself in regard to the references to contemporary conditions <\/span>by
\n<\/span>observing
\nthat the first four chapters cover the close of the <\/span>year<\/span>
\n1915, the next twelve 1916, the seventeenth to the twenty-eighth<\/span>
\n<\/span>1917,
\nwhile the remaining seven extend to July 1918. The rapid <\/span>change
\nof circumstances reflected will serve to bring home
\nthe swiftness of the evolution by which what was a hesitating idea and <\/span>a
\ndoubtful possibility at the commencement has become a set<\/span>tled
\nnecessity awaiting speedy formulation.
\n        Subsequent events have
\nrendered certain speculations and balancings out of date, for they have been
\nsolved by the logic of ev<\/span>ents.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Austria
\nis a name of the past, the Empire of the Hohenzollerns<\/span>
\nhas disappeared like a dream of the night, all Europe between the Rhine and the
\nVolga is republican. Finally, most important of all, the League of Nations has
\nnow been decided upon, the American idea having triumphed at least in principle,
\n<\/span>an<\/span>d
\nis in travail of formation. But the main suggestions put for<\/span>ward
\n<\/span>in
\nthe book remain unaffected, or rather acquire a more p<\/span>ressing
\nactuality. The two great difficulties which attend the incipience of this first
\nstage of loose world-union will still be, first,
\nbe difficulty of bringing into one system the few great Empires<\/p>\n

<\/span>   <\/span>    
\n<\/span>*
\n<\/span>Preface<\/span>
\n<\/span>to
\nthe first edition of The Ideal of Human Unity <\/i>published by Sons of India,
\n<\/span>Madras<\/span>
\n<\/span>in 1919<\/span><\/span><\/font>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-347
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nremaining, few but immensely increased in power, influence and the extent of
\ntheir responsibilities, and the greatly increased swarm of free nations which
\nthe force of events or the Power <\/span>guiding
\nthem rather than the will of nations and Governments<\/span>
\n<\/span>has
\nbrought into being, and the approaching struggle between. Labour and Capitalism.
\nThe former is only a difficulty and embarrassment, though it may become serious
\nif it turns into a conflict between the imperialistic and the nationalistic
\nideas or reproduces in the international scheme the strife of the old oligarchic
\nand democratic tendencies in a new form, a question between control of the
\nworld-system by the will and influence of a few powerful imperial States and the
\nfree and equal control by all, small nations and great, European and American
\nand Asiatic peoples. The second is a danger which may even lead to
\ndisintegration of this first attempt at unification, especially if, as seems to
\nbe the tendency, the League undertakes the policing of the world against the
\nforces of extreme revolutionary socialism. On the other hand, the conflict may
\naccelerate, whatever its result, the necessity and actuality of a more close and
\nrigorous system, the incipience at least of the second stage of unification. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

       
\nThe main contentions advanced in these pages also remain <\/span>unaffected
\nby the course of events, <\/span>–<\/span>
\n<\/span>the
\ninevitability of the unifi<\/span>cation
\nof the life of humanity as a result of those imperative natural forces which
\nlead always to the creation of larger and larger human aggregates, the choice of
\nthe principles which may be followed in the process, the need for preserving and
\nbringing to fullness the principle of individual and group freedom within the
\nhuman unity, and the insufficiency of formal unity without a growth of the
\nreligion of humanity which can alone make it a great psychological advance in
\nthe spiritual evolution of the race.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-348<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUPPLEMENT  TO VOLUME  15 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT Preface to the first edition (1919) of THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY   Preface  *                                       THE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-27-supplement-volume-27","wpcat-16-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}