Then, ten years later, most of this suffering a mere memory; governments reorganized and liberalized; men made more efficient by this strenuous three years' work; the fields got back their bloom, and life going on much as it did before--with this chief difference--some kings have gone and many privileges have been abolished.

The lessons are two--( 1) that no government can successfully set out and conquer the world; and (2) that the hold that privilege holders acquire costs more to dislodge than any one could ever have guessed.

That's the sum of it.

Kings and privilege mongers, of course, have held the parts of the world separate from one another.

They fatten on provincialism, which is mistaken for patriotism.