Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/97

Rh point of Asia, and measures only one sixty-fifth of the surface of the Globe.

Thus the three so-called new continents are in point of area merely satellites of the old continent. There is one ocean covering nine-twelfths of the Globe; there is one continent—the World-Island—covering two-twelfths of the Globe; and there are many smaller islands, whereof North America and South America are for effective purposes two, which together cover the remaining one-twelfth. The term 'New World' implies, now that we can see the Realities and not merely historic appearances, a wrong perspective.

The truth, seen with a broad vision, is that in the great World-Promontory, extending southward to the Cape of Good Hope, and in the North American sea-base we have, on a vast scale, yet a third contrast of peninsula and island to be set beside the Greek peninsula and the island of Crete, and the Latin Peninsula and the British Island. But there is this vital difference, that the World-Promontory, when united by modern overland communications, is in fact the World-Island, possessed potentially of the advantages both of insularity and of incomparably great resources.

Leading Americans have for some time