Page:Heresies of Sea Power (1906).djvu/318

292 lain in its losing sight of the primary reason for which navies exist. The difficulties of the case lie in the fact that danger lurks not in imported vices but in the overdoing of things of themselves good and useful. And this is so true that no Sea Empire can endure for more than a space any more than summer greenery can last beyond the autumn, or the fruit that has ripened to perfection long resist the ravages of decay.

It is in perfection that danger lies. An imperfect, inefficient navy has always a possible future before it. That is why the Russian Navy will probably exist long after the British and Japanese Fleets have sunk into relative non-existence,—the Russian Navy being very singularly far from ripeness. This doctrine of decay through perfection is a pessimistic one; it is also, perhaps, in some degree dangerous, in that taken too literally it may suggest that it is dangerous to aim at perfection, and that badness is the true test of ultimate merit! Fortunately, however, there are modifying qualities. So long as powerful rivals exist no navy is very likely to reach a stage of perfection. It is the Navy which is supreme beyond all possible question that goes in danger of decay. The rivalry of other Powers is the breath of life to a Fleet. Nothing for instance could be better for the British Navy than Germany's avowed ambition to challenge the sovereignty of the seas. Germany's decision in 1905 to build monster battleships of the very first rank was