their pacifism and carried them forward into the wider field of conflict. But the Peace Movement in the years before the War suffered from another defect, in common with other aspects of the Democratic Movement. There was no real belief in the possibility of any early large-scale war, or in such a collapse of democracy as followed. The long period of peace in Western Europe, the steady progress of popular self-government in all civilized countries, had fastened these achievements upon our minds as permanent testimonials to rationalism and ethics in the field of politics. This confidence in peaceful democracy as an accepted principle of political evolution became (as we now see) a source of weakness when a sudden challenge was presented. Pacifists were disconcerted by the discovery that the sort of peace in which they believed was unreal, just as later on democrats found themselves compelled for the first time to doubt the accepted methods of democracy.
In the pre-War period I, like others, found myself living in this atmosphere of illusion. It was not merely a popular illusion, it held the minds of the thoughtful minorities seriously concerned in politics.
Several members of the Nation group belonged also to a somewhat larger body known as the Rainbow Circle, which met monthly for free political and economic discussions. This title had no symbolic significance. Formed originally inside the National Liberal Club by Mr. Murray MacDonald, Mr. W. M.
