A very large proportion of those who have lived through it will necessarily carry a warlike bent through life.

By that much, whatever it may count for, the decay of the dynastic spirit--or the growth of tolerance and equity in national sentiment, if one chooses to put it that way--will be retarded from beforehand.

So also the Imperial establishment, or whatever is left of it, may be counted on to do everything in its power to preserve the popular spirit of loyalty and national animosity, by all means at its disposal; since the Imperial establishment finally rests on the effectual body of national animosity.

What hindrance will come in from this agency of retardation can at least vaguely be guessed at, in the light of what has been accomplished in that way under the strenuously reactionary rule of the present reign.
Again, there is the chance, as there always is a chance of human folly, that the neighboring peoples will undertake, whether jointly or severally, to restrict or prohibit trade relations between the people of the Empire and their enemies in the present war; thereby fomenting international animosity, as well as contributing directly to the economic readiness for war both on their own part and on that of the Empire.

This is also, and in an eminent degree, an unknown factor in the case, on which not even a reasonable guess can be made beforehand.