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48, and must bring her nearer to the centres of civilization. Realists and Jingoists desire it because it must bring with it wealth and empire!

V these desires and all these dreams suffered a terrible check ten years ago through the disasters in the Far East. Therein mainly resides the pathetic interest of the Russo-Japanese War. Therein also lies largely the explanation of the internal convulsions which followed. For generations Russia had been advancing slowly but surely towards the ultimate goal of what she considers her "historic mission." Like a weary traveller, exhausted by a long march, and who, arriving near the end, wanting to make one supreme effort to hasten on the desirable consummation—falls down prostrate, in view of the promised land—even so the Russians, on the eve of achieving their dreams, after patiently waiting for centuries, were suddenly seized with a feverish impatience and tried to precipitate events. They failed, and they paid for their impatience with the temporary ruin of their hopes, with unheard-of disasters and with a tragic revolution.