Page:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind.djvu/53

 appear possibilities of an immense increase in the productive powers of the earth and man, possibilities also of trouble and strife between races now being brought into a closer and more general contact. As always, elements of peril are balanced by elements of hope. The sentiment of race-pride, the keenness of race-rivalry, have been intensified. But the sense of a common humanity has grown stronger. When we think of the problems which are now being raised by the contact of races, clouds seem to hang heavy on the horizon of the future; yet light streams in when we remember that the spirit in which civilized States are preparing to meet those problems is higher and purer than it was when, four centuries ago, the great outward movement of the European peoples began.