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SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 


SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 


BY 

EMIL  EEICH 

DOCTOR  JURIS 

AUTHOR   OF  " GR-ECO-ROMAN    INSTITUTIONS,"    "ATLAS   OF   ENGLISH   HISTORY," 
••  FOUNDATIONS    OF  MODERN  EUROPE,"  ETC. 


LONDON:  CHAPMAN  &  HALL,  ld. 
1904 


J^ 

c^^^ 

<^<^ 


PEEFACE 

In  "  Success  Among  Nations  "  the  attempt  has  been 
made  to  initiate  the  reader  into  the  psychological  view 
of  history,  by  giving,  in  outline  and  by  means  of  a  few 
illustrations,  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  human  forces  that 
have  raised  some  nations  to  the  glory  of  success,  while 
their  absence  has  prevented  other  nations  from  holding 
their  own  in  the  battle  for  historic  existence. 

It  is  certain  that  a  living  knowledge  of  the  present 
helps  us  most  essentially  in  the  comprehension  of  the  past. 
But  may  we  not  also  assume  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
past  so  gained  may  guide  us,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  a 
foreknowledge  of  the  future  ?  At  any  rate,  in  the 
present  sketch  we  have  also  essayed  to  draw  a  few 
lessons  from  history  as  to  the  probable  course  of  events 
regarding  the  leading  nations  of  Europe  and  America. 
After  a  rSsume  of  success  in  the  past,  we  have  tried  to 
sketch  the  probable  success  in  the  future. 

In  our  deductions  we  have  been  prompted  by  no 
motive  of  national  prejudice,  nor  by  any  vague  or 
traditional  view  of  politics.  Our  predictions  may  be 
entirely  wrong ;  but  we  venture  to  say  that  our  method 
of  arriving  at  them  is  the  only  one  that  can  seriously 
be  advanced.     We  may  have  applied  it  wrongly.     It  is, 


220732 


vi  PREFACE 

nevertheless,  the  method  by  which  alone  historic  insight 
can  be  obtained.  Its  principle  is  simple ;  to  carry  it  out 
is  somewhat  less  simple.  It  consists  in  a  study  both 
of  numerous  books  and  historic  "sources/'  and  of  about 
a  dozen  highly  diflferentiated  modern  nations,  each  in 
its  own  country.  The  study  of  modern  nations  is  more 
difficult  than  is  generally  assumed.  It  is  easy  to  arrive 
in  France  and  to  stay  there  for  a  month  or  two.  It 
is  difficult  to  arrive  at  the  real  soul  of  the  French  people. 
More  than  mere  passing  through  France,  America, 
Germany,  etc.,  is  needed  to  grasp  some  of  the  less 
obvious,  yet  all-important,  features  of  a  nations 
psychology.  Nothing  short  of  lengthy  struggles  for 
existence  in  a  modern  country  will  give  one  the 
opportunities  by  the  close  analysis  of  which  one  may 
arrive  at  the  real  soul  of  a  foreign  nation. 

The  author  of  the  present  work  may  claim  this 
particular  mode  of  studying  modern  nations.  From 
Hungary,  his  native  country,  to  the  United  States  he 
has  had  ample  and  eagerly  sought  for  opportunity  of 
studying  the  leading  nations  of  modern  times  during 
long  and  often  painful  conflicts  and  struggles.  The 
result  of  all  these  observations  of  the  human  soul  in  its 
various  national  manifestations  is  very  frequently  quite 
the  reverse  of  what  is  generally  held  to  be  the  case.  In 
fact,  there  is  little  danger  of  exaggeration  in  stating 
that  most  opinions  held  by  one  modern  nation  on  the 
others  are  wrong.  The  reader  is  therefore  requested 
to  give  the  author  the  benefit  of  doubt,  whenever  the 
author's  view  of  a  given  national  institution  seems  to  be 
heterodox.  Let  the  gentle  reader  ask  himself  whether 
he  has  taken  his  view  on  the  basis  of  personal  and  patient 


PKEFACE  vii 

study  of  the  given  foreign  institution  in  its  own  country, 
or  whether  he  has  derived  it  only  from  a  newspaper  or  an 
encyclopaedia.  Most  of  all,  let  the  reader  be  tolerant 
with  regard  to  views  on  the  reader's  own  country.  There 
exists  no  greater  fallacy  than  the  inference,  that  because 
a  man  is  an  Englishman  he  must  necessarily  know  all 
about  England.  An  Englishman  may  know  much  about 
England ;  or  an  American  about  America.  But  it  does 
not  necessarily  follow  at  all.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  a 
very  rare  exception.  Knowledge,  difficult  enough  in  the 
inorganic  world,  is  increasingly  difficult  in  the  organic ; 
and  with  regard  to  human  institutions  we  are  still  in  the 
infancy  of  true  knowledge. 

May  the  following  pages  contribute  to  a  better 
understanding  of  nations,  and  so  to  the  promotion  of 
the  noblest  aims  of  civilization. 

This  book  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  suggestion  made 
to  me  by  an  American  friend,  Mr.  Curtis  Brown, 
London  correspondent  of  a  distinguished  American 
newspaper,  who,  I  trust,  would  gladly  testify  to  my 
often-expressed  admiration  for  his  fellow-countrymen, 
notwithstanding  the  criticisms  I  have  ventured  to 
ojffer  here. 


EMIL  EEICH. 


London, 
December  25,  1903. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

ECONOMIC   SUCCESS 

PAGE 

Success,  as  will  be  readily  admitted,  is  either  material  or  intellectual. 
This  division  becomes  more  complete  by  subdividing  material 
success  into  (a)  economic,  and  (b)  political  success;  and  intel- 
lectual success  into  (a)  literary  and  artistic,  and  (6)  religious 
success.  In  the  present  chapter  we  shall  treat  of  economic  success ; 
in  fact,  many  a  great  nation  of  history  succeeded  pre-eminently, 
not  to  say  exclusively,  in  economic  achievements.  Examples: 
(in  ancient  times)  the  Babylonians;  the  Egyptians  (refutation, 
incidentally,  of  the  common  error,  that  the  Egyptians  created 
science,  religion,  or  art) ;  the  Carthaginians ;  China ;  (in  modern 
times)  the  pre-Columbian  states  in  America  ....         1 

CHAPTER    II 

CENTRES   OP   NATIONAL   SUCCESS 

Human  progress,  amongst  white  people,  has  historically  started  from  a 
few  centres,  not  one  of  which  offered  remarkable  natural  advan- 
tages to  man.  Man's  efforts  had  to  combat  or  supplement  Nature. 
Those  centres  are :  Jerusalem,  Athens,  Rome,  Florence,  Paris,  and 
London.    Influence  of  the  alphabet 20 

CHAPTER    III 

SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM. — I 

Some  nations  succeed  in  bringing  a  greater  or  lesser  number  of  people 
under  their  rule.  Such  are  the  Persians,  the  Mongols,  the  Mace- 
donians, the  Romans.  Distinction  between  these  nations :  (a)  some 
(examples)  mere  brute  conquerors,  establishing  tyrannies,  not 
states ;  (h)  others  (examples)  establishing  not  mere  conquests,  but 
states  proper ....      40 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    IV 

SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM. — II 


PAGE 


Other  examples  of  empire-building.  Venice.  Her  rise  and  growth. 
Causes.  Effects.  Holland  and  the  Dutch  Empire.  Keasons  of 
its  failure.    The  British  Empire.    Its  unprecedented  character      .       57 

CHAPTER    V 

INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS. — I 

Not  every  manifestation  of  man's  thinking  power  constitutes  intellectual 
progress.  The  Babylonians,  Egyptians,  Chinese,  and  Carthaginians, 
too,  had  books,  inventions,  intellectual  contrivances  of  aU  kinds. 
Examples.  Yet  they  never  had  literature,  philosophy,  science,  or 
art  proper.  What  makes  these  four  products  of  the  human  mind  ? 
Short  explanation  of  the  saHent  points  of  the  most  perfect  speci- 
mens of  literature,  philosophy,  art,  and  science,  i.e.  Greek  works. 
Their  essential  advance  on  all  previous  efforts.    Examples    .        .       76 


CHAPTER    VI 

INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS. — II 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  an  over-exuberant  growth  of  intellectuality 
deprives  nations  of  much  of  that  grit  and  rough  energy  without 
which  abiding  commonwealths  cannot  be  established.  Thus  the 
Hellenes,  the  Kenaissance  Italians,  the  eighteenth  century  Germans, 
etc.,  who  all  astounded,  and  still  astound,  the  world  with  their 
unparalleled  intellectual  achievements,  were  all  unable  to  hold  their 
own,  and  were  either  ruined  or  came  very  near  being  so.  Causes 
of  intellectual  greatness.  Not  to  be  found  in  race,  nor  in 
"  evolution,"  which  are  mere  words.    Historical  causes         .        .      95 


CHAPTER   VII 

RELIGIOUS    SUCCESS. — I 

A  few  nations  succeeded  in  founding  systems  of  religion  that  spread 
over  vast  areas  and  converted  millions  of  people.  Buddhism. 
Hebrew  Monotheism.  Christianity.  Mahometanism.  Calvinism. 
The  origins  of  the  four  latter  rehgions  are  all  from  amazingly  small 
and  apparently  insignificant  beginnings.    Where  they  do  not  lead 


CONTENTS 


XI 

PAGE 


to  the  establishment  of  an  ecclesiastical  polity  or  Church  proper, 
there  they  absorb  man's  best  powers  to  an  extent  injurious  to  his 
other  interests.    The  Roman  Catholic  Church       .        .        .         .111 


CHAPTER    VIII 

RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS. — II 

Cause  of  universal  religions  is  exclusively  :  personality.  Short  sketch 
of  the  personality  of  Moses,  Jesus,  Mahomet,  and  Calvin.  The 
futility  of  modern  so-called  higher  criticism,  which  may  or  may 
not  destroy  this  or  that  passage  or  chapter  in  a  canonical  book, 
but  which  utterly  fails  in  the  construction  of  the  main  point :  the 
personality  of  the  founders  of  religion 137 

CHAPTER    IX 

SUCCESS   AMONG   LATIN   NATIONS 

The  Latin  nations  (the  French,  the  Italians,  the  Spanish).  After 
brief  discussion  of  the  Spanish,  follow  the  Itahans.  Their  two 
besetting  evils,  in  spite  of  a  splendid  geopolitical  position,  are :  (1) 
In  the  past,  that  they  have  not  won  their  unity  by  their  own 
efforts ;  (2)  that  the  Papacy  constantly  undermines  them.  France : 
Her  history  both  the  most  interesting,  and  the  most  widely  read ; 
yet  France,  practically,  a  terra  incognita,  especially  to  English- 
speaking  people.  Profound  mistakes  about  the  character  of  the 
French.  Her  women,  her  men.  Her  basal  aspirations.  Her 
wealth.  Europe's  absolute  need  of  France.  Her  destiny.  She 
will  always  be  the  leading  nation  in  Europe  on  account  of  her 
wealth,  her  intellectuality,  and  her  numerous  reverses,  that  have 
sobered  and  steeled  her 155 

CHAPTER    X 

SUCCESS   AMONG   SLAV   NATIONS 

The  Slav  nations,  Poland,  and  especially  Russia.  Power  of  Russia  very 
much  overrated.  History  never  goes  by  numbers,  as  do  Parlia- 
ments. Has  at  the  present,  and  for  generations  to  come,  neither 
wealth  material  nor  wealth  intellectual  or  vohtional.  Gravitates, 
since  1762,  exclusively  towards  Asia.  Panslavism  is  no  danger 
whatever  to  Europe.  Russia,  moreover,  cankered  by  her  Greek 
Church 182 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    XI 

SUCCESS   AMONG   GERMANS 

PAGE 

The  Germans.  The  women.  The  men.  Education ;  especially  higher 
education.  The  Universities.  The  cause  of  the  superiority  of  the 
German  professor.  German  intellectual  activity;  its  universality 
and  wonderful  organization  {Jahrhucher,  Handhiicher,  Encyclo- 
psedien,  etc.).  Germany's  great  military  defeats  and  successes 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  Her  imperialism.  Her  internal 
dangers.  Socialism.  The  chief  obstacle  to  German  imperialism 
is  her  geography.  She  can  never  absorb  Austria.  Reasons : 
France  and  Italy  cannot  admit  it.  Irreconcilabihty  of  France. 
It  is  only  by  absorption  of  Austria  that  Germany  could,  by  obtaining 
access  to  the  Adriatic,  sit  astride  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and 
so  essentially  improve  her  chances  for  imperialism  and  world- 
policy  by  securing  real  sea-power.  Her  industrial  progress  will 
soon  be  checked  and  toned  down  by  the  rapid  and  rising  industrialism 
of  Italy,  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  numerous  minor,  but  very 
wealthy,  states  of  Europe.  Yet  with  all  that,  the  German  will 
undoubtedly  realize  much  of  the  higher  tyipe  of  civilization    .         .     202 

CHAPTER    XII 

BRITISH   SUCCESS 

The  English.  Their  women.  Their  men.  Education.  Intellectual 
activity.  Regime  (social)  of  castes.  Up  to  Elizabeth,  England 
failed  in  her  attempts  at  imperialism,  both  in  France  and  in 
Scotland ;  not  so  in  Ireland.  After  the  Tudors,  England,  chiefly 
aided  by  her  geopolitical  situation,  built  up,  by  colonization  and 
conquest,  a  vast  empire  based  on  sea-power  and,  in  modern 
times,  on  rational  and  humane  government  too.  Her  empire 
lacking  territorial  continuity.  Her  sea-power  exposed  to  serious 
challenging ;  as  has  been  her  industrial  supremacy.  Her  civiliza- 
tion will  always  be  great  and  one-sided.  In  Europe  she  can  no 
longer  be  umpire.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  sea-power,  now 
coveted  by  all  the  great  nations,  will  continue  to  remain  in  her 
possession 227 

CHAPTER     XIII 

SUCCESS    IN    AMERICA 

The  Americans.    The  women.    The  men.    The  Americans  have,  ot  ^ 
all  modern  nations,  the  greatest  chance  of  success,  economic  or 


CONTENTS  xiii 


material,  provided  the  Far  East  will  be  ready  to  undergo  a  pro- 
cess of  Europeanization.  Then  the  Americans  will  be  in  the  very- 
economic  centre  of  the  globe.  Intellectual  success  in  the  highest 
sense  is  less  likely  in  America,  in  spite  of  the  immense  increase 
in  colleges,  libraries,  and  all  the  other  means  of  conveying  know- 
ledge. For  the  highest  intellectual  progress  is  based  on  intense 
personality,  and  absolute  democracy,  which  pervades  all  the  spheres 
of  American  life  (not  as  in  Athens,  only  some),  is  hostile  to  the 
rise  of  intense  personalities  other  than  political.  Moreover, 
American  women  have,  by  over-mentalization,  weakened  their 
powers  for  good.  What  a  nation  wants  consists,  in  addition  to  a 
good  geopolitical  position,  mainly  and  exclusively  of  two  factors  : 
real  women,  who  do  not  want  to  be  men ;  and  real  men,  who  do 
not  try  to  be  women.  As  to  rule,  America  will  come  into  conflict 
with  Europe,  and  then  learn  a  wholesome  lesson.  The  true  trend 
of  history  is  :  progressive  differentiation,  not  imperialization,  of 
Europe ;  progressive  unification  of  North  America.  It  is  by  such 
vast  contrasts  between  great  peoples  that  the  highest  objects  of 
civilization  are  secured 244 


SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 


CHAPTER  I 

ECONOMIC    SUCCESS 

Success,  as  will  be  readily  admitted,  is  either  material  or  intellectual.  This 
division  becomes  more  complete  by  subdividing  material  success  into 
(a)  economic,  and  (6)  political  success;  and  intellectual  success  into 
(a)  literary  and  artistic,  and  (5)  religious  success.  In  the  present  chapter 
we  shall  treat  of  economic  success;  in  fact,  many  a  great  nation  of 
history  succeeded  pre-eminently,  not  to  say  exclusively,  in  economic 
achievements.  Examples :  (in  ancient  times)  the  Babylonians ;  the 
Egyptians  (refutation,  incidentally,  of  the  common  error,  that  the 
Egyptians  created  science,  religion,  or  art) ;  the  Carthaginians ;  China  ; 
(in  modern  times)  the  pre-Columbian  states  in  America. 

Scarcely  anybody,  upon  the  most  cursory  consideration, 
can  have  failed  to  realize  how  rarely,  if  ever,  national 
success  has  been  complete.  If,  on  meeting  with  un- 
mistakable indications  of  widespread  material  prosperity, 
he  has  looked  to  find  anything  like  a  corresponding 
degree  of  intellectual  activity,  he  must,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  singularly  disillusioned;  and  on  proceeding 
to  pass  in  review  the  great  nations  who  have  won  a 
lasting  name  in  the  world's  history,  he  must  have  been 
ever  more  and  more  struck  by  the  almost  constant 
divorce  between  great  economic  welfare  and  intellectual 
progress.     More  especially  is  this  contrast  patent  among 

B 


',1   3 


2  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  people  whom  we  find  grouped  at  the  dawn  of  history 
about  the  eastern  basin  of  the  Mediterranean.  The 
one-sided  nature  of  these  civilizations  has  long  since 
been  remarked,  and,  with  one  or  two  important  excep- 
tions, with  which  we  shall  deal  later  on,  their  develop- 
ment followed  entirely  material  lines.  In  the  present 
and  immediately  succeeding  chapter  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  the  investigation  of  material  success. 

The  parallelism  between  the  economically  successful 
nations  is  exceedingly  striking.  In  spite  of  every 
possible  difierence  of  '  race '  and  time,  we  note  the  same 
phenomena  recurring  with  almost  constant  regularity. 
Amongst  many  latter-day  historians  it  has  been  the 
fashion  to  seek  an  explanation  of  national  pre-eminence 
in  race.  This  method  certainly  has  the  advantage  of 
flattering  national  vanity,  but  it  cannot  claim  any  great 
scientific  value,  as  the  problems  it  deals  with,  though 
expressed  in  a  diS'erent  set  of  terms,  are  not  brought 
any  nearer  solution.  In  nearly  every  instance  the 
racial  threads  from  which  a  white  nation  is  woven  are 
so  inextricably  intertwined  that  it  would  be  quite  im- 
possible to  determine,  even  with  approximate  exactitude, 
what  is  the  predominant  element.  Let  us,  then,  at  once 
set  aside  the  hypothesis  of  any  peculiar  virtue  inherent 
in  a  particular  shade  of  complexion  or  variety  of  blood, 
and  seek  for  a  far  readier  explanation  of  our  facts  in 
the  physical  conditions  under  which  those  nations  lived 
and  had  their  being.  We  shall  then  see  why  it  is  that 
the  conquering  race  is  so  often  compelled  to  bow  to  the 
civilization  of  the  vanquished  and  advance  along  their 
line  of  development.  How  often  has  this  been  the  case 
in  Egypt,  Babylonia,  and  even  China ! 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  3 

The  civilization  of  those  great  nations  has  always 
exercised  a  peculiar  fascination  upon  the  imagination  of 
the  masses,  who  are  impressed  by  the  quantity  and  bulk 
of  its  productions.  The  traveller,  passing  amid  the 
countless  debris  scattered  upon  their  track,  felt  his 
imagination  dazzled.  Gazing  upon  the  mysterious 
writings  on  the  walls,  he  dreamed  that  they  infolded 
unfathomable  depths  of  wisdom,  and  for  a  moment  he 
was  eager  to  prostrate  himself  in  adoration  before  the 
cradle  of  all  human  knowledge.  Fired  by  kindred  feel- 
ings of  awe  and  curiosity,  men  of  learning  spent  years 
of  patient,  unflagging  labour  in  the  decipherment  of 
those  long-lost  tongues,  only  to  find,  when  at  last  their 
efforts  were  crowned  with  success,  when  cuneiform  and 
hieroglyph  held  no  more  enigmas,  that  they  had  only  been 
pursuing  a  will  o'  the  wisp.  At  the  most  they  could 
add  a  few  unmeaning  names  to  the  roll  of  a  yet  more 
unmeaning  dynasty.  What  wonder  that  the  greatest 
of  all  Egyptologists,  F.  de  Champollion,  died  bemoan- 
ing the  years  he  had  thus  wasted  in  unavailing  toil. 

In  all  the  mass  of  Egyptian  writings  there  is  scarcely 
a  line  which  repays  perusal.  When  Ebers  discovered 
his  famous  papyrus,  containing  all  the  secrets  of 
medicine  as  practised  from  time  immemorial  in  the  land 
of  the  Pharaohs,  there  was  a  moment's  glimmer  of  hope, 
immediately  extinguished.  Here,  again,  we  meet  with 
the  same  dull  veneration  of  what  has  gone  before,  which 
marks  all  the  works  of  Egypt.  Even  medicine  has  been 
reduced  to  a  stereotyped  code,  and  we  have  no  reason 
to  doubt  Diodorus  of  Sicily  when  he  tells  us,  that  the 
doctor  who  failed  to  comply  with  the  injunctions  therein 
laid  down  exposed  himself  to  capital  punishment.     The 


4  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Ebers  papyrus  lias  preserved  for  us  the  sixth  book  of 
this  stupendous  work  almost  unimpaired.  It  includes  a 
wealth  of  minute  anatomical  observations,  but  no  con- 
clusions are  drawn ;  added  thereto  is  a  rich  store  of 
charms  and  incantations  designed  to  relieve  the  un- 
happy patient.  Egyptian  mathematics,  as  preserved  for 
us  in  the  Aahmes  papyrus,  are  but  little  better.  A  few 
elementary  problems  are  clumsily  solved,  but  their  prac- 
tical object  is  self-evident,  and  no  general  theorems  are 
deduced. 

A  span  of  a  hundred  centuries  severs  us  from  the 
earliest  records  of  Egyptian  history  brought  to  light  by 
modern  research,  yet  ten  thousand  years  have  not 
sufficed  to  the  Egyptians  to  produce  a  single  writing  of 
real  literary  worth.  As  early  as  the  fifth  dynasty 
(3727-3479  B.C.),  short  biographical  notices  begin  to  be 
engraved  upon  the  statues ;  they  are  but  the  baldest 
statement  of  fact,  and  make  no  claim  to  literary  form  or 
style.  The  Prisse  papyrus,  although  not  written  till  well 
on  in  the  twelfth  dynasty  (2886-2726  B.C.),  was  com- 
posed in  the  fifth.  It  is  the  work  of  Prince  Ptahhotep, 
and  lays  down  the  rules  for  the  observances  of  a  virtuous 
life.  We  might  have  thought  that  this  marked  the 
dawn  of  a  new  literature,  but  from  the  fifth  dynasty 
onward  the  stream  of  literary  remains  becomes  more 
and  more  meagre.  Much  has  doubtless  been  destroyed, 
for  we  know  of  the  existence  of  well-stocked  royal 
libraries,  but  it  is  very  improbable  that  we  have  lost 
anything  but  the  records  of  official  transactions,  and  the 
reports  of  governmental  departments.  The  bulk  of 
what  we  possess  consists  of  books  of  ritual,  containing 
the  most  minute  directions  upon   points   of  religious 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  5 

ceremonial.  We  have  also  a  considerable  number  of 
fables,  but  they  certainly  do  not  rise  to  the  level  of  the 
modern  images  d'Epinal.  In  the  twelfth  dynasty 
Egyptian  letters  are  considered  to  have  reached  their 
heyday.  Hieroglyph  painting  was  certainly  never 
carried  to  a  higher  pitch  of  perfection,  and  we  are 
happy  enough  to  have  recovered  one  or  two  documents 
bearing  some  slight  trace  of  human  feeling,  and  not  the 
production  of  the  usual  official  automaton.  Our  most 
precious  record  is  the  letter  of  Duaufsechruta  to  his  son 
Pepi,  then  at  college,  in  which  are  extolled  the  excel- 
lencies of  a  religious  life.  But  this  one  vestige  of  the 
higher  aspirations  of  literature  stands  out  in  sad  and 
lonely  contrast  amid  the  waste  of  formal  inscriptions, 
unless  we  except  the  poem  composed  by  Eameses  to 
celebrate  his  triumph  over  the  Cheta  (Hittites)  in  the 
13th  century  B.C. 

Egyptian  civilization  appears  to  be  spread  over  great 
masses  of  population  with  remarkable  uniformity.  It 
is  extensive  but  not  intense.  It  is  curious  to  watch 
how,  at  a  certain  point  of  its  development,  all  its 
productions  become  petrified.  All  becomes  conven- 
tional, and  though  often  carried  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
mechanical  perfection,  it  always  bears  the  impress  of 
the  eminently  skilled  artisan,  never  the  touch  of  the 
artist.  For  generations  the  same  model  has  served 
and  has  been  copied  with  slavish  fidelity,  but  probably 
throughout  Egypt  there  is  not  a  single  work  bearing 
witness  to  the  creative  genius  of  an  individual 
artist.  Egypt  in  all  her  days  never  rose  to  the  level 
of  a  fifth-rate  Pheidias  or  of  a  sixth-rate  Praxiteles. 
The  enterprising  Birmingham  manufacturer  may  scatter 


6  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Ms  pseudo-antiquities  broadcast  upon  the  bric-d-brac 
markets  of  Cairo  and  Alexandria.  He  will  never  essay 
to  restore  the  lost  arms  of  a  Venus  of  Milo.  The 
Egyptian  is  without  ideals,  and  all  his  annals  do  not 
suffice  to  produce  a  single  personality,  a  spark  of  indi- 
vidual genius.  Conventionality  pervades  his  every  act, 
even  to  the  most  dramatic  aspects  of  life.  In  many 
instances  his  absence  of  originality  is  quite  instructive. 
When  the  invention  of  new  instruments  permitted  the 
Egyptians  to  quarry  stone,  it  might  not  unnaturally 
have  been  expected  that  their  architecture  would  have 
undergone  a  revolution,  or  at  least  would  have  received 
some  innovation.  But  the  precedent  of  his  forbears 
had  entered  into  the  Egyptian  soul,  and  the  last  stone 
building  of  ancient  Egypt  followed  the  lead  of  its 
wooden  prototype  of  untold  centuries  before. 

Of  primitive  art  in  Egypt  very  few  specimens 
have  survived,  but  though  we  are  hardly  able  to  watch 
the  successive  stages  of  its  development,  we  can  observe 
the  progress  of  the  paralysis  to  which  it  fell  an  early 
victim.  Some  of  the  earlier  statues  still  show  the  hand 
of  the  individual  artist,  such  as  the  famous  figure  of  a 
scribe  now  in  the  Paris  Louvre ;  this  dates  from  the 
fourth  dynasty.  In  the  fifth  dynasty  the  disease  has 
already  got  a  firm  hold.  There  is  a  wealth  of  detail, 
but  the  vigour  of  the  earlier  work  is  gone.  Very 
rapidly  all  artistic  initiative  vanishes,  and  all  subsequent 
productions  conform  more  and  more  to  the  conven- 
tional type.  There  is  one  very  characteristic  sign  of 
conventionality  which  clung  to  Egyptian  art  to  the 
very  last ;  this  is  the  lack  of  perspective,  which  we 
shall  see  recurring  under  similar  circumstances  in  the 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  7 

far  East.  In  all  hieroglypliical  paintings  the  human 
being  is  depicted  in  the  same  artificial  and  impossible 
pose.  The  face  and  legs  are  invariably  depicted  in 
profile,  but  the  eye  and  trunk  are  drawn  always  in  full 
face.  Even  this  incongruity  does  not  appear  to  have 
shocked  the  Egyptian  artistic  sense. 

It  is  the  land  of  Egypt  that  fashioned  the  people  of 
Egypt,  and  the  land  of  Egypt  was  made  by  the  Nile. 
The  Nile  has  made  the  Egyptian  a  cultivator,  and  in 
agriculture  the  Egyptian  found  his  unparalleled  material 
wealth,  but  at  the  cost  of  all  his  nobler  aspirations. 
Doubtless  economic  causes  played  no  small  share  in 
undermining  the  intellectual  stamina  of  the  people. 
The  ruling  classes  amassed  the  riches  of  the  country  in 
a  few  hands,  but  were  entirely  occupied  with  the  task 
of  governing  the  subservient  toiler,  and  in  gratifying 
their  own  desires  for  material  comfort.  The  workers 
split  up  into  castes,  and,  with  no  horizon  of  ambition, 
would  rapidly  sink  to  a  level  of  stupid  uniformity, 
while  learning,  likewise  confined  to  a  narrow  sacerdotal 
caste,  would  become  cumbrous  and  spiritless.  The  ideal 
of  the  Egyptian  was  a  life  of  enjoyment  in  this  world, 
and  his  great  preoccupation  was  to  prolong  the  delights 
he  had  enjoyed  here  below  after  death.  Nearly  all  the 
great  industries  of  Egypt  were  in  some  way  connected 
with  the  service  of  the  dead,  and  many  of  the  most 
gigantic  engineering  works  were  carried  out  to  the 
same  end.  The  principal  use  made  by  the  Pharaohs  of 
their  immense  powers  and  dominions  was  to  raise  the 
vast  pyramids,  which  they  no  doubt  considered  capable 
of  resisting  all  the  attacks  of  nature  and  able  to 
preserve  their  remains  through  infinite  ages. 


8  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Love  of  battle  for  battlers  sake  was  also  not  a  trait 
in  the  Egyptian  character,  and  when  his  wars  were  not 
wars  of  self-defence,  they  aimed  at  some  very  tangible 
material  object.  The  west  coast  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula 
was  conquered,  not  out  of  any  mere  ambition  of  power, 
but  in  order  to  secure  its  very  valuable  malachite  and 
copper  mines. 

As  Egyptian  history  was  fashioned  by  the  Nile,  so 
that  of  Babylonia  is  the  work  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates.  Here  rich  black  alluvial  soil  makes  farming 
easy  and  profitable.  The  results  tally  with  those  already 
noted  in  Egypt.  Herodotus  speaks  with  contempt  of 
Babylonian  doctoring  as  pure  empyricism.  Their  claim 
to  scientific  knowledge  outside  astronomy  does  not 
appear  to  be  better  founded.  The  monuments  of 
Babylonia,  though  they  have  for  the  greater  part 
crumbled  to  dust,  being  built  of  sun-dried  Euphrates 
mud,  appear  to  have  been  as  massive  as  those  of  Egypt, 
but  not  much  more  gainly.  Our  documentary  evidence 
regarding  ancient  Babylonian  history  is  far  more  copious 
than  that  we  possess  concerning  Egypt,  and  through  the 
ingenious  discovery  of  Grotefend  in  1802,  by  which  the 
decipherment  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  was  made  prac- 
ticable, and  the  further  labours  of  Burnouf,  Rawlinson, 
and  Lassen,  we  have  been  able  to  get  the  fullest  insight 
into  the  civilization  of  Niniveh  and  Babylon.  Since 
1842  vast  numbers  of  records  on  cylinders  and  earthen- 
ware tablets  have  been  turned  up  among  the  ruins  of 
Niniveh.  They  contain  information  concerning  almost 
every  d  etail  of  public  and  private  life.  There  are  dedi- 
cations of  monuments,  adulatory  inscriptions  telling  of 
the  conquests  of  great  kings,  letters,  accounts,  private 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  9 

contracts  ;  and  quite  recently  the  oldest  code  of  law, 
that  of  King  Hamurabbi,  has  been  unearthed. 

Yet  another  country  achieved  great  commercial 
success  upon  the  Mediterranean.  In  Carthage  the 
intellectual  stagnation  is  more  frank  and  open.  The 
Eoman  occupation  swept  away  almost  all  that  was  truly 
Punic,  but  what  little  has  been  gleaned  from  the  heaps 
of  debris  that  cover  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  does 
not  tend  to  exalt  Carthaginian  art  in  our  estimation. 
When  Carthage  fell  to  the  Romans  it  contained  much 
that  was  beautiful,  but  all  this  was  the  plunder  of  Greek 
cities  of  Sicily.  The  productions  of  Carthage  are  for 
the  most  part  a  close  counterfeit  of  Egyptian  models, 
but  the  refinement  achieved  by  generations  of  skilled 
Egyptian  workmen  is  wanting,  and  the  imitation  is 
awkward,  clumsy.  But  a£_a^ommercial_j)qwer^^^t^^^ 
Carthaginians  were  eminently  successful,  and  they  were 
able  to  organize  an  immense  system  of  plantation  in 
Africa,  which,  after  the  Roman  conquest,  became  one  of 
the  principal  grain-suppliers  of  Italy.  The  Carthaginian 
colonial  system  was  no  doubt  rotten  at  the  base ;  the 
colonies  were  worked  entirely  for  the  benefit  of  the 
governing  oligarchy  at  home,  without  any  regard  for 
the  native.  Carthage  would  tolerate  no  commercial 
rivalry,  and  her  harsh  conduct  towards  the  conquered 
enemy  left  her  devoid  of  friends  when  the  moment  of 
crisis  came.  In  the  days  of  their  opulence  the  Cartha- 
ginians preferred  to  delegate  their  military  duties,  and 
to  buy  soldiers  at  a  price,  rather  than  bear  the  risks 
and  fatigues  of  campaigning  in  person.  So  long  as 
there  was  money  in  the  treasury  the  system  answered 
well,  and  so  long  as  the  seat  of  war  was  far  removed 


10  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

from  home.  By  a  judicious  intermixture  of  many- 
tongued  aliens,  Carthage  was  able  to  keep  her  armies  in 
hand.  Her  wealth  made  it  possible  for  her  to  carry 
out  immense  works  at  home :  the  great  city  walls,  thirty 
cubits  high,  in  the  thickness  of  which  she  found  room 
to  stall  numberless  horses  and  elephants;  the  great 
harbour  works,  which  sheltered  vessels  from  every 
quarter  of  the  then  known  world,  and  from  which 
issued  the  fleets  which  were  to  conquer  her  the  Balearic 
Islands,  Corsica,  and  Sicily,  and  particularly  Spain. 
All  of  these  colonies  she  ruled  to  good  purpose,  if 
with  a  rod  of  iron,  establishing  irrigation  works,  and 
opening  up  metal-mines.  For  their  fellow-inhabitants 
on  African  soil  the  citizens  of  Carthage  nourished  a 
lively  distrust,  even  for  such  as  were  half  of  the  same 
blood  as  themselves.  It  is  not  astonishing,  for  the  natives 
had  long  been  reduced  to  the  state  of  fellaheen,  and 
were  forced  willy-nilly  to  enter  the  Carthaginian  armies. 
Whenever  occasion  offered  they  were  always  ready  for 
insurrection,  but  Carthage  had  prudently  reserved  for 
herself  the  privilege  of  a  walled  defence ;  she  compelled 
her  semi-Phoenician  subjects  to  dwell  in  open  villages, 
in  spite  of  the  frequent  forays  of  wild  desert  tribes  of 
Bedouins. 

The  commercial  genius  of  Carthage  had  absorbed 
all  her  other  talents.  We  have  already  had  occasion  to 
note  the  crude  productions  of  her  arts.  In  letters  she 
made,  as  far  as  we  know,  little  progress  beyond  the 
bounds  of  practical  utility.  The  one  name  which  has 
come  down  to  us  is  that  of  Mago,  whose  book  on 
agriculture  was  translated  into  Latin  by  order  of  the 
Senate.     Carthaginian  power  depended  upon   capital, 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  U 

and  when  that  capital  was  exhausted,  when  she  could 
no  longer  pay  for  her  defence,  the  whole  empire,  full  of 
dissension  within,  fell  like  a  house  of  cards  before  the 
onslaught  of  Eome.  The  famous  secular  fight  between 
Eome  and  Carthage  was,  on  the  whole,  a  fight  between 
a  real  nation,  whose  every  member  resolutely  defended 
his  country,  and  a  narrow  oligarchy  leading  mercenary 
armies.  At  times  Carthage  did  dispose  of  the  immense 
superiority  of  the  genius  of  some  of  her  individual 
leaders,  such  as  Hamilcar  Barcas,  and  his  immortal  son 
Hannibal.  In  the  long  run,  mercenaries  proved  unable 
to  defeat  national  armies. 

We  now  pass  to  the  further  Orient,  to  find  much  the 
same  state  of  afiairs  as  we  have  encountered  in  the 
near  East — great  material  prosperity  extending  unin- 
terruptedly over  many  thousands  of  years.  The  rivers 
have  been  mainly  responsible  for  this  great  economic 
success.  In  China  the  alluvial  plains  deposited  by_^the 
?^^_?S"j^!? ,  i!*?^.^-^!^-?  Yang-tse  have  jielded  the  same 
abundant  crops  time  out  of  mind,  yet  for  at  least  three 
hundred  yjears  we  can  trace  no  mark  of  advance.  In 
agriculture,  by  long  experience,  the  Chinese  have  dis- 
covered the  most  expedient  rotation  of  crops,  the  most 
advantageous  means  and  material  for  manuring  the 
land,  where  the  land  is  not  of  the  rich  yellow  earth 
which  dispenses  with  all  manure.  By  these  methods 
they  have  arrived  at  considerable  economic  prosperity, 
without  ever  troubling  themselves  about  the  why  and 
wherefore  of  their  success.  All  has  been  achieved  in 
a  groove  of  routine.  Agricultural  chemistry  is  not  even 
a  name  for  them.  Travellers  from  Europe,  impressed 
by  the  immense  output  of  productions,  have  imagined 


12  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

that  unbounded  wisdom  must  be  at  the  back  of  this 
measureless  material  welfare.  The  Jesuits,  whose 
missions  began  to  spread  over  China  after  1582,  had 
had  no  small  share  in  circulating  stories  of  the  great 
mathematical  achievements  of  the  Chinese.  Our  mis- 
conceptions on  this  score  have  only  been  finally  exploded 
within  the  last  century  by  the  labours  of  the  eminent 
French  orientalist  and  mathematician,  Emmanuel  Sedillot. 
His  researches  prove  conclusively  that  the  Chinese  were 
acquainted  very  early  with  several  important  geometrical 
and  mechanical  contrivances,  such  as  compasses,  the 
level,  the  square,  and  the  wheel.  Whence  they  procured 
these  instruments  is  exceedingly  debatable,  but  it  is 
certain  that  they  grossly  neglected  the  opportunities 
thus  afforded  them.  Except  by  purely  empirical  methods, 
they  were  incapable  of  solving  the  most  elementary 
geometrical  problems ;  and  they  had  not  the  faintest 
notion  of  classifying  and  co-ordinating  their  observations. 
With  the  secret  of  the  magnetic  needle  in  their  hands, 
they  made  no  progress  in  navigation,  and  though 
they  had  noticed  the  recurrence  of  certain  celestial 
phenomena,  their  astronomy  remained  primitive.  At 
the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  pioneers  of  Jesuit  mission 
work,  Eicci  and  Schall,  themselves  distinguished  mathe- 
maticians, a  few  trigonometrical  truths  had  no  doubt 
filtered  through  from  India  and  led  to  their  great 
overestimate  of  Chinese  science. 

Those  who  followed  Columbus  across  the  Atlantic 
lifted  the  veil  from  two  other  nations  at  the  pinnacle  of 
material  prosperity.  The  description  of  the  comrades 
of  Cortes  in  Mexico  read  like  some  fairy  tale.  But  it 
is   the   story   of  Egypt  over   again.     Here   are   huge 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  13 

pyramidal  temples,  teocallis  piled  storey  upon  storey  and 
crowned  with  lofty  towers.  The  capital,  reared  on  an 
island  in  mid-lake  Tezcuco,  is  a  marvel,  with  its  broad 
streets  of  stately  houses,  with  the  great  stone  causeways 
linking  it  with  the  mainland,  and  with  its  floating  gar- 
dens. But  all  this  at  the  cost  of  wantonly  squandered 
labour.  The  Mexican,  too,  had  eaten  of  the  forbidden 
fruit.  An  all  too  fertile  soil  yielded  in  profusion  all 
that  was  necessary  for  his  daily  wants.  The  banana 
thrived  everywhere,  while  the  hillsides  cut  in  terraces 
stood  deep  in  maize.  The  agave,  chocolatl,  and  tobacco 
were  to  be  had  for  the  minimum  of  toil.  Steeped  in  this 
atmosphere  of  material  content,  the  Mexican  remained 
insensible  to  all  mental  stimulus.  His  monuments,  like 
those  of  Egypt,  may  excite  our  astonishment  by  their 
massiveness.  To  raise  them  must  have  required  the 
toil  of  countless  servile  hands  (the  Cholulu  temple  is 
said  to  have  employed  over  200,000  workmen) ;  but 
the  strange  contorted  figures  with  which  they  are 
graven  are  too  hideous  and  grotesque  for  admiration. 
As  in  Egypt,  every  figure  is  moulded  on  the  same 
conventional  type,  on  which  the  workmen  never  ven- 
tured to  improve. 

We  are,  from  lack  of  information,  at  a  disadvantage 
in  forming  a  true  estimate  of  ancient  Mexican  culture. 
The  secret  of  the  native  records  is  unsolved,  and  it  is  very 
unlikely  that  the  future  will  do  anything  in  the  way  of 
elucidating  them.  Their  number  was  very  considerably 
reduced  by  the  Spanish  invaders,  the  ignorant  destroy- 
ing from  motives  of  superstitious  terror,  and  the 
more  educated  out  of  religious  fanaticism.  Bishop 
Zumarraga's  holocaust  of  hieroglyphic  manuscripts  at 


t> 


14  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Tlatelolco  has  become  famous,  but  there  were  doubtless 
many  Zumarragas  on  a  minor  scale  throughout  the 
land.  Grave  doubts  have  been  thrown  by  modem 
criticism  on  the  strict  veracity  of  our  Spanish  historians. 
Where  numbers  are  in  question  they  are  hopelessly,  if 
not  always  wilfully,  inaccurate.  It  was  very  natural 
for  the  conquerors  to  exaggerate  the  glory  of  their 
discovery,  and  their  accounts  have  led  us  into  great 
misconceptions  with  regard  to  the  extent  and  depth  of 
the  old  Aztec  civilization.  The  mental  calibre  of  the 
Aztec  was  certainly  not  heavy.  It  is  quite  impossible 
to  reconcile  the  rite  of  human  sacriJ&ce,  practised  on 
a  large  scale  in  Mexico,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
arrival,  with  the  idea  of  an  exalted  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion.    Cannibalism  was  also  widely  practised. 

We  are  able  to  judge  for  ourselves  of  the  proficiency 
of  the  Mexican  in  many  departments  of  mechanical 
industry.  He  was  able  to  carry  out  great  systems  of 
irrigation  by  means  of  canals.  The  Spanish  were  filled 
with  admiration  at  the  splendid  granaries  in  which  the 
surplus  corn  was  laid  by  for  times  of  need.  Agricul- 
ture, as  was  the  case  in  many  of  the  Old  World  civiliza- 
tions at  which  we  have  cast  a  glance  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  lay  at  the  root  of  Aztec  prosperity.  The  use  of 
meat  was  rare,  owing  to  the  absence  of  all  but  small 
animals. 

The  buildings  with  which  the  entire  country  is 
strewn  have  always  ofi'ered  food  for  speculation  to  the 
explorer.  Numerous  as  we  may  imagine  the  population 
to  have  been,  the  existing  ruins  are  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  inhabitants,  and  even  to 
this  day  many  a  temple  and  palace  lies  unknown  amid 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  15 

the  dense  tropical  forest-growth,  just  as  it  was  left 
by  the  destroying  hand  of  the  Spaniard.  Within  the 
last  two  years  Professor  Maler's  adventurous  journey 
up  the  Usumatsintla  led  to  the  rediscovery  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Yaxchilan,  which  is  being  gradually 
washed  away  by  the  swift  stream  of  the  passing  river. 
It  is  very  hard  to  say  why  the  Mexican  should  have 
been  seized  by  such  an  overmastering  passion  for  stone 
construction  when  abundant  timber  lay  ready  to  his 
hand.  The  toil  of  quarrying  immense  masses  of  stone 
without  iron  implements  of  any  description,  and  of 
thereafter  transporting  them  for  long  distances,  over 
uneven  ground  intersected  with  frequent  watercourses, 
without  the  aid  of  any  draught-animal,  must  have  been 
immense.  We  cannot  but  admire  the  ingenuity  with 
which  the  great  calendar  stone  of  black  porphyry, 
weighing  some  fifty  tons,  was  brought  many  miles  from 
its  original  home  into  Tezcuco.  The  buildings,  how- 
ever, show  no  great  progress  in  architecture.  In 
Yucatan  the  palaces  are  windowless,  the  doors  serving 
both  for  light  and  ventilation.  The  rude  geometrical 
designs  which  decorate  the  exterior  are  as  barbaric 
in  their  conception  as  in  their  execution.  The  Mexican 
was  never  able  to  sculpture  a  human  figure  which  was 
not  grotesque. 

Much  skill  is  shown  by  the  Aztec  in  the  working  of 
metals ;  some  of  his  woven  tissues  have  been  pro- 
nounced as  fine  as  any  found  in  Egypt,  while  in  the 
gaudy  feather-work,  which  so  struck  the  Spanish  fancy, 
he  was  a  past  master.  But  in  spite  of  all  the  cunning 
shown  in  handicraft,  the  Mexican  never  attained  any 
intellectual  heights.     The  Aztec  hieroglyphs,  to  which 


16  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

we  shall  have  occasion  to  recur,  were  but  a  small 
advance  upon  the  woodmen's  signs  employed  by  the 
Redskin,  and  Aztec  astronomy  did  not  extend  beyond  a 
certain  number  of  chronological  observations. 

We  do  not  know  upon  what  path  Aztec  culture  was 
bound  when  the  Spanish  invasion  broke  so  rudely  upon 
its  peace.  Whether  it  would  in  the  course  of  ages  have 
risen  to  greater  things,  or  whether  it  was  already  on 
the  high-road  to  decline,  is  a  question  no  longer  in  our 
power  to  answer.  All  we  know  is  that  the  Aztec's 
civilization  had  only  succeeded  to  a  yet  older  civiliza- 
tion, wrenched  by  the  right  of  might  from  the  Toltecs, 
whose  life  of  material  ease  had  rendered  them  incapable 
of  resistance  against  the  wilder  races  of  the  north. 

The  earlier  expeditions  of  Francisco  Pizarro  to  Peru 
during   the   fourth   decade   of  the   sixteenth    century 
revealed  another  State  rivalling  even  Mexico  in  wealth 
and  prosperity,  but  presenting  many  striking  features  of 
similarity  with  Aztec  institutions.     Agriculture  i^^fche^ 
foundation  of  their  success^  and  though  the^  land  is  not 
in  itself  so  favourable  to  husband^^^  it  is  rendered  prolific 
by^immense  engineering  enterprise.     By  proper  irriga- 
tion the  sandy  soil  of  both  valley  and  sierra  could  be 
made  cultivable,  and  no  effort  was  neglected  to  procure 
"   the  necessary  water.     The  mountain  lakes  were  tapped, 
1   and  stone  aqueducts  were  built  to  carry  their  waters 
many  hundred  miles  over  hill  and  valley.    The  hillsides, 
•   in  themselves  far  too  precipitous  to  bear  plantations, 
I  and    drained   by   surface   water,  had   to   be   cut   into 
i  terraces   and   faced    with   stone.     In    many   instances 
I  where  the  soil  had  been  washed  away  new  earth  was 
I  supplied,  and  carefully  fostered  into  fertility  by  loads  of 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  17 

guano  brought  from  islands  along  the  coast.  Every- 
thing was  done  by  the  hand  of  man ;  draught-animals 
there  were  none,  and  the  llama  as  a  beast  of  burden 
was  not  capable  of  carrying  heavy  loads,  and  was,  more- 
over, too  precious  for  other  purposes  to  be  frequently 
employed.  In  sandy  valleys  whole  acres  were  cleared 
of  the  superficial  arid  stratum,  and  the  subsoil,  by  dint 
of  fish  manure,  brought  under  cultivation.  Each  clearing 
had  to  be  walled  in  to  keep  off  the  encroaching  sand- 
drifts,  and  the  unfertile  detritus  to  be  removed  frequently 
attained  a  depth  of  twenty  feet.  All  these  immense 
works  were  allowed  to  fall  into  ruin  under  the  Spanish 
regime,  but  enough  remains  to  bear  witness  to  the 
indefatigable  industry  of  the  ancient  Peruvian  agri- 
culturist. 

The  Peruvian  was,  however,  yet  lower  in  the  intel- 
lectual scale  than  the  Mexican.  The  peculiar  polity  of 
the  State,  while  ensuring  a  certain  degree  of  material 
welfare,  and  visiting  idleness  with  heavy  penalties, 
was  absolutely  opposed  to  individual  enterprise.  The 
country,  though  governed  on  humane  principles,  was 
farmed  entirely  in  the  interests  of  the  governing  classes, 
who  were  exempt  from  all  taxation,  the  weight  of  which 
fell  upon  the  labouring  masses.  Caste  was  rigidly 
maintained.  We  may  query  whether  this  system  of 
afiairs  was  always  accepted  without  murmur  by  those 
subjected  to  it ;  but  so  excellent  was  the  police  organi- 
zation maintained  by  the  Incas  that  resistance  on  a 
small  scale  was  impossible.  C-reat_highway;s  radiated 
from  Cuzco,  the^apital,  in  all  directions.  These  roads, 
paved,  culverted  at  regular  intervals,"sEaded  with  trees, 
supplied  with  drinking-water,  and  dotted  with  barracks 


18  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  post-houses,  made  it  possible  to  concentrate  troops 
in  any  discontented  region  with  incredible  swiftness. 
From  Cuzco  to  Quito  the  road  was  unbroken  for  fifteen 
hundred  miles,  the  narrower  ravines  were  spanned  by 
stone  bridges,  and  where  the  valleys  were  broader  the 
road  was  carried  over  strong  suspension  bridges,  built 
of  planks  and  ropes.  Peruvian  architecture  carries  us 
back  to  Egypt.  The  buildings  are  massive,  with  walls 
immensely  thick,  calculated,  no  doubt,  to  resist  the 
frequent  earthquakes  with  which  the  country  is  visited. 
The  great  blocks  of  stone  are  fitted  together  with 
nicety,  but  there  is  the  same  lack  of  originality  in  the 
construction  as  marked  the  Mexican  palaces.  The  same 
gloom  reigned  in  the  interior,  unlit  by  windows,  and 
the  difierent  chambers  had  no  means  of  intercommuni- 
cation. It  is  singular  that  the  Peruvians,  living  in  a 
land  rich  in  iron,  should  never  have  discovered  its  uses. 
Their  implements  were  either  stone  or  copper  alloyed 
with  tin.  Peruvian  textile  fabrics  were  unrivalled, 
and  they  displayed  especial  skill  in  weaving  the  most 
delicate  tissues  from  llama  wool.  These  fabrics  were 
dyed  in  brilliant  colours,  or  bright  feathers  were  worked 
between  the  threads,  as  was  done  in  Mexico. 

We  have  advanced  ample  proofs  of  the  material 
opulence  of  ancient  Peru.  It  remains  to  show  how 
insignificant  in  comparison  with  their  technical  cunning 
was  the  intellectual  capacity  of  the  inhabitants. 

There  is  much  that  is  obscure  in  the  lore  of 
the  quipu,  or  cord  of  coloured  threads,  by  which  the 
Peruvian  endeavoured  to  compensate  for  ^e^want  of  a 
system  of  writing.  The  whole  of  the  national  adminis- 
tration   was    carried   out    by   means   of  these   cords ; 


ECONOMIC  SUCCESS  19 

taxation  returns  were  forwarded  to  the  capital,  and  all 
kinds  of  statistical  reports  were  drawn  up.  We  have 
stories  told  by  early  Spanish  colonists,  telling  of  the 
rapid  manner  in  which  the  Peruvian  was  able  to  sum 
up  his  reckonings.  But  we  cannot  fail  to  see  how 
primitive  and  inadequate  a  contrivance  this  must  have 
been  for  communicating  or  recording  abstract  ideas. 
Consequently,  Peruvian  learning,  such  as  i%  was,  must 
have  been  perpetuated  exclusively  by  oral  tradition. 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  to  whose  "  Commentarios  Eeales," 
published  at  Lisbon  in  1609,  we  owe  a  considerable 
amount  of  our  information  regarding  Peruvian  institu- 
tions at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  vouches  for 
the  existence  of  a  quantity  of  Peruvian  national  poetry 
in  which  was  recorded  the  history  of  the  land,  and  he 
even  goes  so  far  as  to  translate  for  us  a  Peruvian  ballad. 
He  also  claims  that  the  Peruvians  had  developed  a 
dramatic  literature  of  no  mean  standing.  Peruvian 
astronomy  is  so  elementary  as  to  be  practically  non- 
existent. Eecent  discoveries  by  Professor  Uhle  in  the 
Pisco  valley  have  considerably  enlarged  the  horizon  of 
Peruvian  history,  and  many  interesting  relics  have  been 
brought  to  light,  dating  probably  from  pre-Inca  times. 
It  is,  however,  scarcely  likely  that  even  more  ample 
discoveries  will  essentially  change  our  judgment  on  the 
civilization  of  the  Peruvian  Incas. 


CHAPTER  II 

CENTRES   OF   NATIONAL   SUCCESS 

Human  progress,  amongst  white  people,  has  historically  started  from  a  few 
centres,  not  one  of  which  oflfered  remarkable  natural  advantages  to  man. 
Man's  efforts  had  to  combat  or  supplement  Nature.  Those  centres  are  : 
Jerusalem,  Athens,  Rome,  Florence,  Paris,  and  London.  Lifluence  of 
the  alphabet. 

It  has  been  shown  how  diflBcult  it  is  for  intellectual 
gro^ress  to  take  £lace_  in  a  jcountrj^^  where^  the  natural 
conditions  perimt  of_the  easy  and  rapid  acquisition  of 
wealth,  and  some  of  the  ensuing  examples  will  go  far  to 
prove  that  accumulated  hoards  of  riches  are  almost  as 
potent  a  factor  in  the  demoralization  of  man's  nobler 
faculties  and  aspirations.  We  have  seen  how  great 
states,  whose  opulence  has  bj^.  foundedon  agricultural^ 
success  too  easily  won^haye  failed  to  jaise  2£for  them- 
sdyes_  anj  jdeals  in  art,  literature^,  or  even  politics. 
Where  nature  has  been  over-profuse  in  her  benefits, 
human  initiative  has  been  retarded,  if  not  wholly 
blighted.  The  desire  and  capacity  for  all  occupations 
which  do  not  present  an  immediate  prospect  of  gain  are 
slackened,  and  instead  of  going  about  his  own  business, 
which  is  the  formation  of  new  ideals,  man  simply  be- 
comes an  extra  wheel  in  the  gigantic  machinery  of 
nature.     Art,  when  it  becomes  the  monopoly   of    a 


CENTRES   OF  NATIONAL   SUCCESS        21 

limited  but  opulent  governing  class,  instead  of  being 
the  aim  and  object  of  national  ambition,  is  doomed  to 
early  sterility.  Art  will  never  consent  to  become  the 
luxury  of  those  who  can  afford  to  pay,  and  the  combined 
fortunes  of  a  dozen  industrial  millionaires  will  do  nothing 
towards  inspiring  a  masterpiece. 

If  over-opulence  is  fatal  to  man's  intellectual 
advance,  so  is  indigence.  Poverty  is  not  conducive  to 
man's  real  progress.  A  nation  whose  every  thought 
and  action  is  absorbed  in  the  winning  of  its  daily  sus- 
tenance cannot  be  expected  to  strike  out  any  new  paths 
of  thought,  or  to  conceive  any  original  or  exalted  artistic 
ideals.  There  is^no  instance  of  a^nomadic  people  having 
attained  even  to  a  moderately  high  grade  of  civilization  ; 
and  races  which,  if  they  have  ceased  from  actual  wander- 
ing, are  still  entirely  occupied  with  the  satisfaction  of 
their  immediate  wants,  remain  stationary.  The  fact  is 
too  self-evident  to  demand  any  illustration.  We  should 
no  more  look  for  instruction  in  art  from  the  Samoyedes 
of  the  Great  Tundra,  than  we  should  expect  to  discover 
a  Shakespeare  among  some  itinerant  horde  of  Sioux 
Indians.  A  certain  degree  of^copafort  is  essential  to 
the  development  of  a  higher  civilization.  It  is  equally- 
essential  that  that  degree  of  comfort  should  have  been 
achieved  by  effort.  We  need  the  creation  of  a  leisured 
class,  in  whose  memory  is  still  fresh  the  recollection  of 
those  steps  by  which  they  have  passed  to  obtain  social 
independence.  A  governing  faction,  whose  immunity 
from  the  cares  of  everyday  life  is  due  to  the  "  sweating  " 
of  a  subservient  population  of  peasants  or  fellaheen,  will 
ever  remain  intellectually  impotent. 

As  we  proceed  we  shall  notice  that  almost  every 


22  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

step  forward  that  man  has  made  in  art,  science,  or 
literature  has  started  from  some  city-state.  Such  city- 
states  do  not  appear  to  have  existed  among  any  of  the 
great  economically  successful  nations  which  we  have 
noticed  in  the  foregoing  chapter.  In  almost  all  these 
countries  the  bulk  of  the  population  is  distributed 
thickly  throughout  the  country.  It  is  impossible  for 
the  agricultural  inhabitants  to  concentrate  about  a  few 
points;  they  must  dwell  in  close  proximity  to  their 
land — that  is,  in  villages.  The  cities  of  Egypt  and 
the  Carthaginian  provinces,  like  those  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  are  the  privilege  of  the  wealthy  dominant  class ; 
they  rarely  contain  any  popular  element,  and  certainly 
never  boasted  of  anything  approaching  a  bourgeoisie. 
In  Egypt  the  great  towns  are  either  administrative 
centres,  the  seats  of  some  great  religious  observance,  or 
pleasure  habitations  of  the  rulers.  The  inhabitants  are 
rulers  or  subjects,  between  whom  there  is  nothing  in 
common.  The  mechanics  are  necessarily  grouped  more 
or  less  into  these  centres  for  the  better  convenience  of 
their  task-masters.  Such  cities  are  essentially  arti- 
ficial ;  there  is  nothing  natural  in  their  formation.  We 
have  many  instances,  in  Babylonia  especially,  of  the 
arbitrary  transfer  of  thousands  of  inhabitants  from  one 
point  of  the  country  to  another,  in  order  to  meet  with 
the  requirements  of  a  tyrannical  government,  or  some- 
times merely  to  satisfy  the  personal  whim  of  the 
sovereign. 

We  shall  endeavour  to  show  how  different  was  the 
case  among  the  real  intellectually  progressive  nations. 
It  is  due  to  no  mere  hazard  that  the  centres  from  which 
the  guiding  ideas  of  modern  humanity  have  radiated 


^. 


.^ 


v-d  «fc-*.  a»'C'<«<^ 


CENTRES   OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        23 

have  little  in  their  physical  surroundings  to  recommend 
them.  In  every  instance  their  inhabitants  have  either 
had  immense  natural  difficulties  to  overcome,  or,  at 
least,  great  natural  drawbacks  to  put  up  with.  It  is 
out  of  this  constant  wrestle  with  disadvantages  that 
they  have  emerged  with  the  temper  of  steel,  and  the 
hardened  energy  capable  of  carrying  them  irresistibljr 
ahmg^  the^ath^of  the^^^^^  t^eirjife  of  struggles 

has  helped  them^  to  conceive.  It  is  invariably  in 
spite  of  Nature  that  they  have  made  themselves  a 
place  in  the  world.  The  most  important  events  and 
institutions  of  history  have  been,  directly  or  indirectly, 
inaugurated  by  Jerusalem,  Athens,  Rome,  Florence, 
Paris,  and  London. 

No  place  in  the  world  would  seem  less  fitted  to 
become  a  centre  of  intellectual  activity  than  Jerusalem. 
Standing  high  upon  a  narrow  and  precipitous  limestone 
plateau,  ill-watered,  and  with  only  here  and  there  a 
patch  of  green  fertility  in  the  neighbourhood,  little 
oases  just  broad  enough  to  support  their  own  small 
communities,  no  town  could  appear  more  unlikely  to 
become  the  heart  of  all  the  religious  ideas  of  modern 
times.  Jerusalem  was  the  one  bond  of  union  which 
knit  together  the  scattered  units  of  Israel.  Here 
they  had  their  common  sanctuary  and  their  common 
God,  under  whose  protection  all  the  tribes  fought. 
Israel  was  the  centre  of  a  ring  of  enemies,  and  all  her 
history  is  the  record  of  a  continuous  struggle  against 
them.  It  is,  first,  the  victory  of  Ehu  over  the  Moabites, 
then  of  Barak  over  the  Canaanites,  of  Gideon  over  the 
Midianites,  of  Jephthah  over  the  Ammonites,  and  of 
Samson  over  the  Philistines.     It  is  after  half  a  century 


(TL/iCs. 


©--w^ 


24  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

of  varying  struggle  against  the  Philistines,  under  Saul 
(1055  (?)  B.a)  and  David  (1025(?)  b.c.),  that  Hebrew  ^ 
religious  poetry,  culminating  in  the  Psalms,  attained  \ 
its  glory.  -' 

The  physical  conditions  under  which  Greek 
civilization  grew  up  are  particularly  suggestive  of 
reflection.  Some  of  the  contrasts  which  we  encounter 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  Greece  are  also  especially 
instructive.  In  Attica,  Nature  had  not  been  lavish 
of  her  gifts ;  but  albeit  nowhere  spontaneous  in  her 
bounty,  she  is  always  ready  to  give  intelligent  labour 
its  reward.  Perhaps  no  country  was^ever  better  fitted^ 
to_call  forth  m^^^^^^^  energies.     The  valleys  and 

plains  of  Attica,  as  is  so  often  the  case  in  mountainous 
countries,  are  exceedingly  fertile,  but  the  lowlands  of 
Marathon  and  Eleusis,  however  generous  their  crops, 
could  never  cope  with  the  food  demands  of  the  capital. 
Attica  was  forbidden  from  the  outset  to  become  a  great 
corn-producing  country.  Cattle  raising  on  an  extensive 
scale  was  equally  out  of  the  question.  But  the  olive 
gardens  were  rich,  and  the  vineyards  productive  ;  both 
entail  the  application  of  considerable  skill.  Wine  and 
oil  are  not  the  staff  of  life,  and  the  Athenians  very  soon 
found  it  necessary  to  barter  their  surplus  supply  of 
these  commodities  against  the  more  imperative  neces- 
sities of  every  day.  Their  natural  outlet  was  towards 
the  sea,  the  only  real  communication  by  land  opening 
into  Boeotia,  whose  markets  were  already  overstocked. 
The  rudiments  of  commerce  Athens,  no  doubt,  acquired 
from  Phoenician  traders  ;  but  the  rise  of  Athenian 
greatness  coincides  with  the  decadence  of  Phoenician 
Tyre   and    Sidon,  which   had   fallen   to  Assyria,   and 


CENTRES   OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        25 

Athenian  ships  soon  took  the  place  of  their  predecessors 
on  the  high  seas.  The  Athenian  who  stood  on  the 
heights  of  the  Acropolis  of  his  beautiful  town  and 
scanned  the  wide  view  thence  over  the  Saronic  Gulf 
must  have  felt  the  call  of  the  sea.  The  regular  alter- 
nation of  westerly  morning  winds,  which  would  carry 
him  in  a  few  hours  among  the  Cyclades,  and  the 
evening  breeze  from  the  eastward  to  bring  him  home 
again,  simplified  the  difficulties  of  navigation.  But 
Athens  won  nothing  save  at  the  cost  of  toil  and 
struggle,  although  that  struggle  was  not  always  of  too 
severe  a  nature.  Her  rising  prosperity  led  her  to 
appreciate  at  their  value  many  of  the  possibilities  of 
the  home  country.  The  silver  mines  at  Laurium,  close 
to  Athens,  which  found  labour  for  20,000  men  in  the 
days  of  Athenian  greatness,  were  turned  to  account. 
Sugar  was  as  yet  unknown,  and  wine  required  the 
admixture  of  honey  for  its  good  keeping.  The  hives  of 
Hymettus  were  another  valuable  asset  in  the  island 
commerce.  The  estimates  of  the  ancient  population 
of  Attica  are  practically  valueless,  so  wide  are  the 
discrepancies  between  the  figures  advanced  by  even  the 
most  competent  authorities,  but  in  so  small  a  compass 
there  was  probably  rarely,  in  the  old  world,  so  great 
a  diversity  of  pursuits.  Athenian^  agriculture  was 
necessarilxin  the  hands  of  small  holders ;  large  slave- 
plantations  remained  unknown  jeven  in  the  days  of 
decadence,  jind  slavery  at  Athens  always  retained  a 
grea't  deal  of  that  patriarchal  element  which  com- 
pensated to  some  extent  for  its  evils.  Athens  never 
experienced  those  formidable  revolts,  even  when  she 
would  have  been  too  weak  to  stamp  them  out,  which  so 


26  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

often    threatened    the    very   existence   of  Eome  and^ 
Sparta. 

In  Athens  aloney  of  all  cities,  there  was,  in  the 
public  market-place,  an  altar  of  Pity.  The  co-existence 
of  men  of  so  many  interests  in^o  narrow  a  space 
(Attica  is  hardly  the  size  of  a  small  English  county) 
cannot  have  failed  to  quicken  the  intelligence.  On  the 
Athenian  agora  (market-place)  the  common  ground  of 
the  shepherd,  farmer,  and  merchant,  there  must  have 
been  a  constant  give  and  take  of  ideas.  Already  the 
early  Athenian's  mental  horizon  must  have  been  far 
wider  than  that  of  his  fellow-beings  in  Egypt  or 
Babylonia.  Then,  as  Athenian  vessels  spread  over  the 
more  distant  seas,  there  must  have  been  a  constant 
influx  of  new  conceptions.  The  foreigner  was  always 
tolerated  in  Athens,  even  fostered,  and  anything  of 
value  he  may  have  brought  from  his  native  land  among 
his  intellectual  baggage  soon  became  absorbed  into 
the  general  wealth  of  his  adopted  city,  there  to  flourish 
and  bear  fruit.  Caste  restrictions^  were jmkno wn ;  each^„ 
citizen  was  free  to  choose  his  own  calling.  No  priest- 
craft existed  to  monopolize  the  intelligent  thought  of 
the  nation.  Rapidly  prospering  business  drew  capital 
into  the  country,  and  a  class  grew  up  which  was  not 
compelled  to  seek  its  subsistence  by  continual  toil. 
They  had  mental  cravings  and  higher  aspirations  to 
satisfy,  and  with  what  success  they  applied  themselves 
to  this  task  we  shall  see  in  the  following  chapters. 

As  we  turn  away  from  Athens,  from  its  port,  the 
Peirseus,  with  its  motley  throng  of  traders  and  chaf- 
ferers  from  every  quarter  of  the  then  known  world, 
towards   Boeotia,  the   contrast  is  striking.     Here  the 


CENTEES  OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        27 

overflow  of  the  Cephisus,  recurring  with  the  constant 
regularity  of  the  Nile,  has  reproduced  the  condition  of 
Egypt;  ag^ricultural  prosperity  has  drawn  intellectual 
impotence  in  its  tram,  and  throughout  Greek  history 
the  Boeotian  muses  are  unheard,  save  when  the  silence 
is  broken  by  the  voices  of  Hesiod  and  Pindar,  the  latter 
of  whom  could  only  sing  beyond  the  stultifying  atmo- 
sphere of  his  own  land. 

In  the  moulding  of  Athenian  destinies  a  yet  more 
powerful  agent  was  at  work.  On  all  sides  Attica  was 
open  to  attack.  The  hostility  of  the  neighbouring 
countries,  if  not  always  active,  needed  but  little  to  be- 
come so.  Jealousy  of  the  Athenian  hegemony,  envy  of 
her  affluence  and  of  her  colonial  dominions,  had  taken  a 
deep  hold  upon  them.  The  allies  of  Athens  were  seldom 
loyal  for  long,  and  their  friendship,  based  on  interested 
motives,  inspired  but  little  confidence.  They  had  con- 
templated with  equanimity  the  devastation  of  Attica 
and  the  burning  of  Athens  at  the  hands  of  the  Persians 
(480  B.C.),  little  dreaming  how  soon  she  would  rise  with 
greater  glory  than  ever  from  her  ruins.  The  Persians 
were  hardly  disposed  of,  when  Athens  was  plunged  into 
wars  at  home,  marked  by  the  battles  of  Tanagra  (457) 
and  Coronea  (447).  During  the  long  struggle  of  the 
Peloponnesian  War  the  Athenian  citizen  was  compelled 
to  watch  from  the  walls  the  wasting  of  his  crops,  until 
the  almost  annual  inroads  of  his  enemies  gave  place 
to  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  hostile  garrison  at 
Decelea,  in  Attica  (413-404),  within  striking  distance 
of  the  city  gates.  This  constant  exposure  to  danger, 
the  mere  fact  that  he  must  be  constantly  on  the  alert 
to   ward   off  a  sudden   onslaught,  did   not  allow  the 


28  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Athenian  to  sink  into  a  condition  of  mental  coma.  It? 
was  only  by  the  exercise  of  all  his  ingenuity,  the  strain-^ 
ing  of  every  nerve  and  muscle,  that  he  could  make  up 
for  the  losses  suffered  at  home.  His  enterprise  abroad 
received  new  impulse.  The  sea  must  be  kept  open  at 
all  costs ;  once  the  Bosphorus  was  closed  and  the  Black 
Sea  corn  ships  cut  off,  Athens  must  inevitably  succumb. 
War^is  the  parent  of  all  things^  oncesaidjerhaps  the 
greatest   of _  Greek  _^^  and    in   that    short 

apophthegm  of  Heraclitus  there  lies  more  of  the  secret 
of  Greek  intellectual  success  than  in  all  the  elucubra- 
tions  of  subsequent  theorizers  put  together.  Not  only 
Athens,  but  almost  every  other  Greek  state  of  impor- 
tance, owed  its  all  to  the  constant  struggles  in  which 
it  was  involved.  The  enemy  hammering  at  the  city 
gates,  no  matter  whether  he  was  an  Asiatic  barbarian 
or  fellow-Greek,  caused  every  inhabitant  of  the  state 
to  feel  to  the  full  his  citizen  nationality  and  his  own 
importance  as  a  national  unit.  InJ^he^few  y^ears_of  jhe 
so-called  thirtyyears'  jeace,  which  onl^  l5^*l^  frona 
445-431,  Athens  reached  those  heights  of  axt  and 
letters  which  have  never  been  surpassed.  Sophocles, 
the  great  dramatist,  took  part  in  the  dances  offered  to 
the  gods  for  the  immense  victory  over  the  Persians  at 
Salamis.  He  himself  bore  a  hand  in  carrying  out  the 
Periclean  policy,  and  in  443-442  filled  the  important 
office  of  Hellenotamias,  being  thus  closely  associated 
with  Athenian  colonial  ideas.  Euripides,  the  dramatist, 
was  born  on  the  day  of  the  victory  of  Salamis  (480), 
and  was  brought  up  amid  fresh  memories  of  the  Persian 
war ;  he  saw  the  fall  of  Themistocles,  lived  through  the 
years  when  Pericles  and  Cimon  were  battling  for  political 


(Z 

CENTEES  OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        29 

supremacy,  and  went  through  all  the  hope  and  despair 
of  the  Poloponnesian  War.  ^schylus,  the  first  of  the 
great  Athenian  dramatists,  fought  at  Salamis.  Some 
of  the  greatest  masterpieces  of  Athenian  drama  were 
staged  when  the  war  was  at  its  height.  The  OEdipus 
Coloneus  appeared  about  430  B.C.,  the  Philoctetes  in 
409  B.C.,  and  the  Orestes  of  Euripides  in  408.  The  life 
of  Athens  was  peculiarly  calculated  to  encourage  intel- 
lectual activity.  The  distinction  between  rich  and 
poor  raised  up  no  social  barrier,  and  the  needy  were 
always  welcomed  by  their  more  fortunate  countrymen 
if  they  only  displayed  some  slight  signs  of  intelligence. 
From  morning  to  night  everybody  was  out  of  doors, 
and  it  was  in  the  street  and  public  places  that  there 
was  a  constant  interchange  of  ideas.  The  dialogues 
of  Plato  show  how  keen  was  speculation  in  every 
department,  how  fervent  was  the  thirst  for  knowledge. 
These  were  the  times  when  Protagoras  and  Gorgias 
came  to  Athens  and  held  debates  with  Socrates,  the 
culminating  figure  of  the  age  of  Pericles.  We  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  later  of  the  great  artistic  works 
with  which  Athens  was  filled  at  this  time. 

Could  we  look  back  three  hundred  years  and  see 
the  spot  on  which  Eome  now  stands,  there  would  be 
little  in  the  sight  which  would  lead  us  to  suspect  that 
we  were  contemplating  the  future  capital  of  the  world. 
A  low  group  of  hills,  round  which  the  yellow  Tiber 
sweeps  with  a  bend  some  fifteen  miles  before  reaching 
the  sea,  and  about  their  foot  a  sodden  swamp  from 
which  the  fever-laden  miasma  cannot  have  failed  to 
work  havoc  in  the  ranks  of  the  early  settlers.  Such 
is  no  site  to  allure  the  wanderer  seeking  for  a  home, 


30  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  we  can  well  imagine  that  the  primitive  inhabitant 
did  not  take  up  his  abode  thereon  as  the  outcome  of  his 
own  untrammelled  choice.  For  the  lowlander,  harried 
from  the  plains  by  the  forays  of  his  predatory  neighbours, 
it  is  an  ideal  haven  of  refuge  to  which  to  fly  in  stress 
of  need,  and  an  ideal  coign  of  vantage,  whence  his  eye 
might  scan  the  undulating  campagna,  and  from  which 
he  could  swoop  down  to  exact  reprisals.  The  origin  of 
Rome  is  wrapped  about  in  the  same  fog  of  uncertainties 
which  veils  the  beginnings  of  Athens,  yet  we  cannot 
doubt  that  the  Eternal  City  was  of  humble  parentage. 
In  the  passion  for  discipline  and  the  stern  law  which 
she  created,  can  we  not  yet  discern  the  strict  and  severe 
order  which  had  to  crush  out  all  dissension  in  a  banditti 
fastness  ?  Why  seek  to  disprove  the  legend  which  tells 
of  the  asylum  opened  on  the  Palatine  Hill  to  harbour 
the  persecuted  stranger,  whether  innocent  or  criminal  ? 
Already  in  the  prehistoric  days  Rome  was  building  up 
those  ideals  which  were  to  make  her  mistress  of  the 
Western  world.  We  shall  see  how  different  were 
her  ideals  from  those  which  animated  the  cities  of 
Greece. 

Unfavourable  as  the  position  at  first  glance  might 
appear  to  be,  it  yet  contained  the  elements  of  success. 
As  the  Greek  colonists  along  the  western  and  southern 
Italian  coasts  began  to  extend  their  relations  into  their 
hinterland,  carrying  their  products  into  Etruria,  the 
main  trade-route  would  naturally  seek  to  cross  the 
Tiber  somewhere  near  Rome.  We  know  the  importance 
which  attached  to  bridge-building  among  the  ancient 
Romans ;  the  name  has  survived  in  the  pontifical  title, 
if  the   thought   thereof  has   been   lost.      Caravans   of 


CENTEES  OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        31 

merchandise  must  have  been  unceasingly  on  the  come 
and  go  across  the  Pons  Sublicius  on  their  way  to  and 
from  Caere,  the  commercial  city  of  Etruria.  The  in- 
hospitable sea-coast  would  render  the  land  route  prefer- 
able to  any  other,  even  should  it  be  more  costly. 
Later,  no  doubt,  light  vessels  would  adventure  them- 
selves across  the  sand-bar  of  Ostia  and  up  the  Tiber. 
A  non-peasant  population,  principally  aliens,  soon  settled 
at  Rome.  The  increasing  opulence  of  Rome,  and  her 
cramped  position,  hemmed  in  by  a  number  of  Latin 
cities,  whose  hostility  was  now  embittered  by  jealousy, 
initiated  the  struggle  which  made  her  the  mistress  of 
Italy.  Thenceforth  the  intervals  of  peace  were  to  be 
few  and  far  between.  Already  Rome  had  grasped  her 
ideal  of  Empire-building,  and  was  beginning  to  assimi- 
late her  conquests  with  a  completeness  and  rapidity 
which  is  stupendous. 

In .  the  short  interval  between  the  Italian  wars  and 
the  opening  of  the  struggle  against  Carthage,  every- 
thing that  we  regard  as  essentially  Roman  is  in  full 
development.  The  foundations  of  Roman  law  were  laid 
which  were  to  remain  unshaken  till  this  very  day  ;  ^e 
great  colonizing  policy^  far-seeing^  severe  when  severity 
was^ called  for,  and  mild  when  expedient,  was  tested  and 
found  good.  In  art,  letters,  and  science  Rome  never 
approached  Greece.  In  all  these  spheres  of  thought  the 
Roman  was  unimaginative.  Roman  art  must  be  sought 
in  her  great  roads  of  morticed  stone,  in  adamantine 
buildings,  and,  above  all,  in  the  arch  which  Rome  created, 
if  not  for  beauty,  yet  for  utility.  Roman  art  must  be 
sought  for  in  her  laws  and  institutions  ;  here  it  is  that 
the  vigour  and  initiative  of  the  Roman  mind  is  felt. 


32  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Eome  did  not  remain  insensible  to  the  higher,  if  not 
always  practical,  flights  of  human  intellect.  Greek  art 
was  studied  and  assimilated  with  fervour,  but  never 
carried  further.  We  have  Eoman  statues  which  are 
equal  to  the  Greek  in  lightness  of  touch  and  technical 
execution,  but  the  inspiration  is  Greek.  It  is  imitation, 
not  originality.  No  doubt  the  encounter  with  Greek 
art,  which  had  reached  perfection  before  Eome  had 
emerged  from  barbarism,  must  have  had  a  paralyzing 
effect  upon  the  would-be  Eoman  artist.  Latin  literature, 
which  was  gradually  beginning  to  flow  slowly  in 
channels  of  its  own,  is  parched  up  at  the  outset,  and 
Greek  letters  take  its  place.  Eome  never  developed  a 
middle  class  in  the  sense  that  such  a  class  existed  in 
Greece.  The  early  Jnflux  of  slave  labour  and  the 
innate  ^contempt  of  the  Eoman  for  handicraft  had^ 
much  to  do  with  the  absence  of  a  l)ourgeoisie  j^ioi^eTy^ 
and  we  have  seen  that  it  is  from  this  class  that  art 
has  always  sprung.  A  slave-born  art  is  impossible. 
It  is  a  striking  fact  that,  with  barely  an  exception,  not 
one  of  the  names  of  honour  in  the  annals  of  Eoman 
literature  is  that  of  a  native  Eoman.  All  her  authors, 
except  Caesar  and  Lucretius,  are  provincials,  so  that  we 
may  with  justice  speak  rather  of  a  Latin  than  a  Eoman 
literature.  The  first  Latin  literary  works  are  those  of 
a  Greek  slave  transplanted  to  Eome  after  the  capture 
of  Tarentum. 

But  Eome  was  impatient  of  unofiicial  initiative. 
The  great  personalities  of  early  Eome  are  her  magis- 
trates, her  consuls,  her  praetors,  her  quaestors.  What 
particular  family  name  that  magistrate  may  have  borne 
is  not  material.    Such  a  man  was  consul;  not  a  particular 


CENTRES   OF  NATIONAL   SUCCESS        33 

member  of  a  particular  gens^  however  distinguished 
that  gens  might  be.  He  impersonated  some  state 
prerogative,  and  with  that  his  own  initiative  was 
merged.  Outside  these  state  personalities,  individuality 
wa^  not  encouraged.  It  wasl&etter  for  the  Eoman 
burgess  to  be  as  like  his  fellow-burgess  as  possible. 
Rome  was  organized  upon  a  military  system  which 
shows  in  striking  contrast  with  that  of  Greece,  where 
all  is  overflowing  with  exuberant  vitality  coming  from 
unofl&cial  or  private  sources. 

Florence  is  the  chief  centre  from  which  the  blaze  of 
the  Renaissance  radiated  over  all  Europe,  yet  the 
physical  surroundings  of  the  city  do  not  mark  her  out 
as  destined  to  play  the  principal  rdle  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  humanity.  She  was,  indeed,  little  indebted  to 
nature.  Her  beautiful  position  on  the  Arno,  backed  by 
the  Apennines,  lent  lustre  to  her  glory,  but  did  little  in 
helping  her  to  acquire  pre-eminence.  The  plains  were 
no  doubt  fertile,  but  her  inhabitants  never  turned  the 
soil  to  full  account,  and  when  some  of  the  richer 
capitalists,  in  the  days  of  the  city's  incipient  decline, 
invested  their  money  in  land  and  essayed  farming  on 
a  considerable  scale,  the  enterprise  either  ended  in 
failure  or  was  early  abandoned.  Florence  did  not 
enjoy  the  sanitary  advantages  of  modern  times ;  malaria, 
miliary  fever,  typhoid  did  not  encourage  the  citizen  to 
settle  in  the  plains  rather  than  on  the  more  salubrious 
heights  of  Fiesole.  The  plague  visited  Florence  in 
1347  with  even  more  disastrous  effect  than  other  towns 
of  Northern  Italy.  Two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  are 
estimated  to  have  perished.  A  famous  Florentine 
doctor  of  the  eighteenth  century,  T.  Targioni  Tozetti, 

D 


34  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

expresses  his  sorrow,  from  the  health  point  of  view, 
that  the  design  of  destroying  Florence  (in  1760)  was 
not  carried  into  effect,  and  the  inhabitants  were  not 
transplanted  to  Empoli.  The  mean  temperature  is 
exceedingly  high  and  liable  to  sudden  and  extreme 
variations.  The  Florentine  has  not  the  sturdy  build  of 
the  Siennese  or  Milanese. 

Well  on  into  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  the 
historical  rdle  of  Florence  was  insignificant.  Under  the 
Eoman  Empire,  Fiesole  (Fsesulse)  was  the  only  place  of 
importance.  After  the  fall  of  Eome  the  route  from  north 
to  south  changed.  The  Eoman  had  been  accustomed 
to  pass  by  way  of  Ancona,  but  in  the  Middle  Ages 
the  armies  of  invasion  crossed  the  Apennines  at  Florence 
and  marched  by  way  of  Siena  and  Viterbo  upon 
Eome.  The  geographical  position  of  Florence  became 
in  consequence  one  of  first-rate  importance.  As  a 
commercial  centre  its  development  was  rapid.  The 
continual  going  and  coming  of  foreigners  of  many 
nations  suggested  to  the  Florentine  new  vistas  of 
business  ambition.  He  originated  new  systems  of  busi- 
ness methods,  and  began  to  feel  the  force  of  capital  and 
to  inaugurate  a  new  era  thereby  in  industrial  production. 
The  opulence  to  which  Florence  rose  in  a  very  short 
space  of  time  could  not  but  raise  her  a  swarm  of  foes, 
while  she  herself  was  not  insensible  to  the  desire  of 
extending  her  power  at  the  expense  of  her  economic 
rivals.  Hence  these  interminable  struggles  with  Pisa, 
with  Lucca,  with  Siena,  Arezzo,  San  Miniato  and 
Fiesole.  Many  points  of  resemblance  with  Athenian 
history  will  at  once  strike  the  most  casual  observer. 
The  banditti  of  the  neighbouring  regions  had  to  be 


CENTRES  OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        35 

disciplined  by  force  and  compelled  to  take  up  their 
abode  in  Florence.  Hardly  for  a  year  together  was  the 
city  quit  of  intestine  dissensions.  At  one  time  it  was 
the  massacre  of  the  Paterini  (1240),  at  another  the 
secular  struggle  of  Guelph  against  Ghibelline.  The 
predominant  faction  drives  its  rival  into  exile,  until 
the  vanquished,  gathering  forces  abroad,  find  means  of 
re-establishing  themselves  and  reversing  the  process. 
Artisan  riots,  often  very  serious  afi*airs  like  that 
of  the  Ciompi  (1378),  are  not  of  rare  occurrence. 
We  can  imagine  what  the  everyday  life  of  Florence 
must  have  been  when  eleven  years  of  comparative 
tranquillity  are  considered  as  something  abnormal 
(1379-1390). 

The  struggles  of  Guelph  and  Ghibelline  attained 
their  maximum  of  fury  during  the  course  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries ;  yet  it  was  precisely 
at  this,  epoch  that  Florence  stood  at  the  height  of 
artistic  glory.  Dante  took  part  in  several  expeditions 
against  the  Ghibellines  of  Pisa,  Arezzo,  and  Bologna. 
His  gallantry  at  the  battle  of  Campaldino  (1289),  in 
which  the  Arezzo  Ghibellines  were  crushed,  was  con- 
spicuous, and  he  bore  himself  with  valour  at  the  assault 
of  Caprona  (1290),  when  that  city  was  wrested  from 
Pisa.  The  quarrels  of  the  Guelphs  among  themselves, 
the  struggle  of  the  Bianchi  against  the  Neri,  drove  him 
abroad  (1302).  It  is  impossible  to  describe  in  detail 
the  part  played  by  many  another  great  Florentine  in 
the  fortunes  of  his  mother  city,  but  let  dates  speak  for 
themselves.  Cimabue  the  painter  lived  from  1240  to 
1302;  Giotto  the  painter  (1276-1336)  was  the  friend 
of  Dante,  w^ho  devotes  several  stanzas  of  the  Divina 


36  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Commedia  to  his  praises  ;  not  to  mention  many  others 
who  belong  to  this  period. 

In  Florence  feudal  ideas  of  nobility  met  with  little 
respect.  Work  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and  enterprise 
in  business  brought  esteem  and  honour.  Growing 
affluence  created  a  leisured  bourgeoisie.  Of  this  class 
came  Boccaccio,  who  was  the  son  of  a  merchant,  and 
was  himself  put  to  work  in  counting-houses  at  Florence, 
Naples,  and  Paris.  And  how  many  another  great  man 
of  the  Florentine  school  of  art  and  letters  went  through 
the  same  training.  It  was  under  free  institutions  that 
Florence  attained  the  maximum  of  her  grandeur.  The 
impulse  of  those  times  still  produced  many  great  men 
under  the  Medici.  We  need  only  mention  Lionardo 
da  Vinci,  Machiavelli,  and  Michael  Angelo,  but  from 
that  time  the  glory  of  Florence  began  to  wane. 

Of  Paris  little  need  be  said,  save  that  its  position  was 
none  of  the  most  favourable  for  the  founding  of  a  great 
city.  Throughout  the  early  Middle  Ages  Paris  remained 
a  town  of  comparatively  small  importance,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  royal  power  began  to  assert  itself  over  the 
surrounding  feudal  nobility  that  the  city  began  to  raise 
its  head.  Henceforth  Paris  was  to  share  the  good  or 
evil  fortune  of  the  King  of  France,  and  it  is  when  the 
monarchical  power,  after  long  years  of  strife,  succeeded 
in  establishing  its  supreme  right,  that  Paris  became  the 
focus  of  French  thought  and  civilization.  Naturally 
Paris  is  not  at  all  the  centre  of  France,  the  true  central 
point  lying  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bourges. 

One  salient  mark  of  intellectual  inferiority  character- 
izes almost  every  one  of  the  nations  of  whose  material 
success  we  spoke  in  the  last  chapter.     The  want  of  an 


CENTRES  OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        37 

alphabetical  system  of  writing  was  as  fatal  to  their 
intellectual  progress  as  its  absence  was  the  stamp  of 
their  intellectual  stagnation.  Of  all  these  nations,  the 
Egyptians  came  nearest  to  a  complete  phonetic  system, 
and  it  appears  almost  inconceivable  that  they  should 
have  hovered  for  thousands  of  years  upon  the  brink  of 
that  momentous  discovery  without  ever  achieving  it. 
They  were  within  a  step  of  realizing  an  alphabet,  but 
that  step  they  were  never  able  to  make.  The  hiero- 
glyphic script,  which  shows  but  little  advance  through 
all  the  known  periods,  was  even  in  its  highest  develop- 
ment only  a  conglomeration  of  ideographic,  syllabic, 
and  alphabetic  elements.  The  difficulties  which  are 
entailed  in  mastering  so  complicated  a  contrivance  must 
have  always  caused  it  to  remain  the  prerogative  of  an 
extremely  limited  section  of  the  community,  and  it  was 
consequently  wholly  unavailable  as  a  medium  of  general 
culture.  Many  of  the  symbols  which  we  employ  to-day 
are  no  doubt  descendants,  battered  out  of  all  shape  and 
recognition  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  centuries,  of  some 
of  the  ancient  ideograms  of  Egypt  and  Chaldaea.  The 
erudite  labours  of  German  philologists  have  succeeded 
in  establishing  in  many  instances  a  practically  unbroken 
genealogical  tree  of  our  modern  characters,  but  this 
philological  method  of  research  is  liable  to  lead  to 
serious  misapprehensions.  It  is  quite  unjustifiable  to 
conclude  that,  because  one  or  two  of  the  signs  are 
Egyptian,  therefore  the  alphabet  was  derived  from 
Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  Whence  the  symbols  were 
borrowed  is  absolutely  immaterial.  The  fact  remains 
that  the  Egyptian  was  never  able  thoroughly  to  realize 
the  restricted  number  of  sounds  in  speech.     He  was 


38  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

quite  unable  to  grasp  that  the  whole  gamut  of  ele- 
mentary sounds  which  his  tongue  articulated  did  not 
outnumber  thirty  at  the  most.  This  brilliant  generali- 
zation was  to  be  made  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  their 
traditional  claim  to  this  high  honour  has  never  been 
seriously  shaken,  in  spite  of  the  learned  disquisitions  of 
Dr.  Hugo  Winckler. 

A  homely  comparison  will  perhaps  help  to  enforce 
the  absurdity  of  ascribing  the  invention  of  the  alphabet 
to  the  Egyptians.  It  is  well  known  that  prisoners  in 
convict  establishments,  no  matter  of  what  country,  are 
able  to  communicate  with  one  another  by  a  series  of 
preconcerted  tapping  signals.  For  instance,  any  arbitrary 
combination  of  short  and  long  raps,  such  as  ^  ^  -  ", 
might  express  some  particular  meaning  according  to 
pre-arranged  plan.  It  would  be,  however,  quite  ridiculous 
to  conclude  from  this  that  our  convict  was  the  originator 
of  the  Morse  system  of  electric  telegraphy,  because  in 
that  system,  as  is  well  known,  letters  are  signalled  in 
the  same  manner  by  a  succession  of  long  or  short  raps. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overrate  the  importance  of 
the  Phoenician  discovery.  At  one  bound  man  was 
given  the  most  perfect  instrument  for  recording  his 
thought.  The  Egyptians  must  have  had  every  oppor- 
tunity of  profiting  by  the  Phoenician  invention,  but  the 
extent  to  which  conservatism  and  conventionalism  had 
taken  hold  of  them  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  never 
adopted  a  truly  alphabetical  writing.  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphs were,  however,  an  immeasurable  advance  upon 
cuneiform  writing,  and  in  comparison  with  both  the 
Mexican  picture  records  were  absolutely  primitive. 
We  have  nothing  to  show  that  the  Mexican  had  ever 


CENTRES   OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS        39 

reached  even  the  first  stage  of  phonetic  writing.  His 
pictures  bore  an  arbitrary  and  conventional  ideographic 
sense  which  was  in  no  way  related  to  the  sound. 
The  practice  of  such  a  contrivance  necessitated  years  of 
labour  with  an  excellent  memory  to  boot,  and  had  not 
very  much  to  recommend  it  above  oral  tradition.  Many 
great  authorities  assert  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
adapt  any  alphabetical  system  to  the  requirements  of 
Chinese  ;  if  that  is  the  case,  the  Chinese  nation  has  an 
insuperable  barrier  in  the  way  of  its  future  progress. 
A  system  of  writing  which  entails  not  only  a  good 
memory  and  skilful  hand,  but  also  compels  a  man  to 
spend  the  best  years,  or  at  least  the  most  receptive 
years,  of  his  life  in  its  acquisition,  can  never  serve  as  the 
medium  of  a  high  culture.  It  need  hardly  be  men- 
tioned that  the  quipu  or  Peruvian  thread  writing,  if 
writing  it  may  be  called,  though  its  secret  has  been 
lost,  can  have  been  little  better  than  a  memoria  technica. 


CHAPTER   III 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM. — I 


Some  nations  succeed  in  bringing  a  greater  or  lesser  number  of  people  under 
their  rule.  Such  are  the  Persians,  the  Mongols,  the  Macedonians,  the 
Romans.  Distinction  between  these  nations :  (a)  some  (examples)  mere 
brute  conquerors,  establishing  tyrannies,  not  states ;  (6)  others  (examples) 
establishing  not  mere  conquests,  but  states  proper. 

The  next  variety  of  success  coming  under  our  consider- 
ation is  political,  or  rather  the  success  experienced  by 
some  nations  in  bringing  a  lesser  or  greater  number  of 
other  nations  under  their  dominion.  When  the  number 
of  nations  subdued  is  large,  or  when  the  territory 
acquired  is  extensive,  it  is  generally  customary  to  give 
these  conquests  the  title  of  Empire.  We  shall  have 
occasion  to  observe  that  empires  have  differed  widely 
not  only  in  quantity  but  in  quality,  and  with  this 
object  we  shall  select  some  of  the  most  typical  examples 
of  empire-building,  it  being  impossible  within  so  narrow 
a  compass  to  enter  into  exhaustive  descriptions  of  all 
the  imperial  states  which  have  risen  into  eminence  and 
fallen  into  decline  during  the  world's  history.  The 
selection  of  a  few  salient  types  cannot  fail  to  be 
more  profitable  and  instructive. 

At  the  very  outset  we  cannot  help  being  profoundly 


SUCCESS  IN  IMPERIALISM  41 

struck  by  certain  general  features  which  invariably 
characterize  the  growth  of  these  empires,  and,  amongst 
other  things,  we  cannot  help  wondering  at  the  facility 
and  comparative  rapidity  with  which  these  vast  territorial 
acquisitions  have  been  accumulated  when  compared 
with  the  slow  and  painful  steps  by  which  the  governing 
nation  has  often  attained  its  own  national  unity.  It 
has  been  a  matter  of  far  greater  difficulty  to  weld 
together  a  few  small  but  highly  individualized  tribes  or 
nations,  such,  for  instance,  as  constitute  the  countries  of 
modern  Europe,  than  to  pile  together  an  immense 
agglomeration  of  land,  peopled  by  races  whose  con- 
science of  their  national  entity  is  either  undeveloped  or 
degenerated. 

The  whole  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  constructed 
within  the  short  space  of  a  couple  of  centuries,  whilst 
the  nnitj  of  modern  Italy  has  only  been  reached 
after  fifteen  centuries  of  struggle,  and  at  the  price  of 
untold  misery  and  J3loodsh^. 

When  we  know  the  history  of  one  Oriental  dynasty, 
a  slight  change  of  names  will  allow  us  to  reconstruct 
the  history  of  any  other  with  almost  mathematical 
precision.  In  every  case  some  warlike,  courageous  chief 
puts  himself  at  the  head  of  a  needy  but  no  less  coura- 
geous tribe,  and  hurls  himself  against  the  already 
decadent  structure  of  the  empire  to  which  he  is 
nominally  a  subject.  The  empire  promptly  collapses, 
aad  the  insurgent  chieftain  possesses  himself  of  the 
inheritance  of  his  sometime  masters,  and  becomes  the 
founder  of  a  new  empire,  which  in  its  turn  is  doomed 
to  a  similar  end.  Such  is  the  history  of  Cyrus  and  of 
the  rise  of  the  Persian  dominion.     Of  the  early  doings 


42  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

of  Cyrus  we  know  but  little,  save  that  at  the  head  of 
the  malcontent  Persians,  who  chafed  under  the  yoke 
of  the  Medes,  he  defeated  these  latter  in  a  couple  of 
battles,  and  possessed  himself  of  the  Medic  Empire  (544). 
Carried  on  by  the  impetus  of  his  success,  he  proceeded 
next  to  demolish  the  kingdom  of  Lydia.  Croesus  was 
beaten  in  the  Thymbrsean  plains  and  taken  alive  at 
Sardis  (544),  Babylon  was  the  next  to  fall  (538),  and 
with  it  all  its  possessions  passed  under  Persian  rule. 

Macedonia  was  far  behind  the  rest  of  Greece  in 
point  of  view  of  intellectual  culture,  and,  politically 
speaking,  the  part  played  by  the  country  is  insignificant 
down  to  the  time  of  King  Philip  11. ,  in  the  fourth 
century  B.C.  It  was  through  the  personality  of  Philip 
alone  that  Macedonia  came  to  the  forefront  of  Hellenic 
afiairs.  In  a  short  reign  of  twenty-three  years,  by  dint 
of  sheer  political  genius,  he  raised  his  country  to  the 
position  of  arbiter,  or  rather  dictator,  over  the  whole  of 
Greece,  with  the  exception  of  Sparta.  As  Philip  had 
possessed  political  ability  of  the  first  order,  his  son 
Alexander  had  pre-eminent  military  talent,  and  we  shall 
see  that,  as  the  regeneration  of  Macedonia  was  entirely 
the  personal  achievement  of  Philip,  so  the  conquest  of 
a  vast  oriental  dominion  by  Alexander  was  exclusively 
the  outcome  of  that  monarch's  individual  ambition. 
Alexander  is  in  no  way  a  personification  of  Greek  or 
Macedonian  aspirations. 

Philip  had  grasped  one  fact  of  immeasurable  impor- 
tance, and  upon  that  fact  he  had  based  the  whole  of 
his  far-reaching  policy.  This  fact  was  the  absolute 
incapability  of  the  Greek  states  for  concerted  action. 
The  grandiose  raid  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks  right  into 


SUCCESS  IN  IMPERIALISM  43 

the  heart  of  the  Persian  dominions  had  revealed  the 
impotence  of  the  Persian  Empire.  This  was  the  lesson 
which  Alexander  took  to  heart.  It  is  not  at  all  in- 
credible that  Philip  may  have  conceived  the  plan  of 
overthrowing  the  power  of  Persia.  At  all  events, 
Alexander  had  learnt  the  lesson  well  before  he  had 
reached  his  twentieth  year.  After  disposing  of  a  few 
insurrectionary  movements  at  home,  he  hastened  to  put 
his  plan  to  the  test.  In  little  more  than  twelve  years 
Alexander  had  built  up  an  empire  in  which  the  domin- 
ions of  Persia  were  only  the  major  part. 

Leaving  Pella  in  the  spring  of  334,  at  the  head  of 
an  army  of  30,000  infantry  and  5000  cavalry,  Alex- 
ander marched  by  way  of  Thrace  and  the  Chersonese 
to  the  Hellespont,  which  he  crossed  at  Eleontes.  Thence 
the  route  lay  along  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  via  Abydos 
and  Lampsacus.  The  Persian  army  which  sought  to 
dispute  his  passage  of  the  Granicus  was  utterly  defeated 
(May  or  June,  334)  in  the  battle  of  that  name.  In  two 
years  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor,  as  far  as  Cappadocia 
and  Cilicia,  lay  at  the  feet  of  Alexander,  and  he  was  in 
a  position  to  push  forward. 

The  Persians  had  again  occupied  an  important 
strategic  point,  where  the  road  lay  squeezed  between 
mountain  and  sea  at  Issus.  This  time  the  Persian 
army,  reinforced  by  Greek  mercenaries,  who  alone 
considerably  outnumbered  the  force  of  Alexander,  was 
commanded  by  the  Persian  King  Darius  in  person.  It 
was  again  routed  (October,  333),  and  Alexander's  road 
lay  clear  into  Syria  and  Phoenicia.  Tyre  fell  after  a 
desperate  resistance  of  seven  months ;  the  siege  of  Gaza 
occupied  two    more    months    (November,   332) ;    and 


44  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Alexander,  after  thus  mastering  Palestine,  was  enabled 
to  proceed  to  the  annexation  of  Egypt,  which  oflfered 
no  great  difficulties.  At  this  time  took  place  the 
foundation  of  Alexandria.  On  his  return  from  Egypt, 
and  having,  by  the  conquest  of  Western  Asia,  assured 
his  base  and  communications,  Alexander  turned  to  the 
heart  of  the  Persian  Empire.  Not  far  from  Nineveh,  at 
Gaugamela,  he  again  encountered  Darius  at  the  head 
of  overwhelming  numbers.  Alexanders  consummate 
strategy  and  disciplined  troops  once  more  secured  him 
a  crushing  victory  (October  1,  331),  and  Darius  fled  to 
the  mountains,  to  be  butchered  by  the  revolted  satrap 
Bessus.  Babylon,  Susa,  Persepolis,  next  fell  to  the 
conqueror,  and  the  latter  city  was  burnt  to  the  ground. 
Alexander,  moving  with  an  incredible  rapidity,  secured 
all  the  provinces  of  the  Persian  Empire  from  the  Caspian 
to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Indian  Ocean.  He  penetrated 
into  the  depths  of  Russian  Turkestan,  where  he  founded 
Alexandria  Eschate.  By  this  time  the  mutinous  atti- 
tude of  the  troops  was  growing  more  and  more  menac- 
ing ;  but  Alexander,  still  hankering  for  fresh  conquests, 
pushed  on  towards  India.  On  the  Indus  he  defeated 
King  Porus,  the  ruler  of  a  great  kingdom  occupying 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Punjaub.  Alexander  was 
now  bent  on  reaching  the  Ganges,  and  the  Sutlej  was 
already  behind  him,  when  his  men  categorically  declined 
to  move  a  step  further,  and  he  was  compelled,  bitterly 
unwilling,  to  retire  to  the  delta  of  the  Indus  (325), 
whence  half  his  army  were  shipped  by  sea  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Tigris,  while  he  himself  returned  by  land  to 
Babylon. 

In  the  early  summer  of  323  Alexander  fell  a  victim 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  45 

to  an  attack  of  fever,  and  his  plans  of  fresh  conquest 
perished  with  him ;  and  as  he  left  no  successor,  the 
empire  which  he  had  built  up  fell  a  prey  to  internal 
dissension,  and  in  no  long  time  collapsed. 

It  is  a  widely  prevalent  opinion  that  to  Alexander 
is  due  the  Hellenization  of  Asia,  so  far  as  Hellenization 
ever  did  lay  hold  of  Asia.  To  Alexander  also  have 
been  attributed,  on  what  authority  it  is  difficult  to 
divine,  the  most  elaborate  projects  of  interior  adminis- 
tration. It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  the  life  of 
Alexander  anything  that  could  justify  us  in  the  hypo- 
thesis that  he  was  contemplating  anything  like  an 
organized  government  of  his  unwieldy  dominions.  Had 
he  survived,  we  can  only  suppose  that  he  would  have 
endeavoured  to  indefinitely  extend  the  sphere  of  his 
conquests.  At  the  moment  of  his  death  he  was  pre- 
paring for  the  subjugation  of  Arabia,  and,  from  his 
private  correspondence  with  Crater  us,  we  learn  that  he 
had  really  conceived  the  ideal  of  universal  dominion. 
It  seems  most  unlikely  that  he  would  have  materially 
interfered  with  the  old  system  of  things  which  had 
existed  under  the  Persian  rule,  except  in  so  far  as  his 
iron  hand  would  have  ensured  him  a  greater  degree  of 
respect  and  obedience  upon  the  part  of  the  frequently 
too  independent  satraps.  Alexander  regarded  his 
newly  acquired  possessions  as  important  only  so  long  as 
they  were  capable  of  supplying  him  with  fresh  treasures 
of  money  and  fresh  bodies  of  recruits  wherewith  to 
prosecute  his  grandiose  designs.  His  whole  govern- 
ment was  an  efficient  tax-levying  machine. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Alexander  was  any  fervent 
admirer  of  Hellenic  institutions,  and  we  have  no  reason 


46  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

to  suppose  that  lie  was  at  all  set  upon  introducing  such 
institutions  into  Eastern  dominions.  He,  on  the  con- 
trary, assumed  oriental  habits  of  life  himself,  and,  as 
far  as  we  can  see,  endeavoured  to  induce  his  principal 
oflEicers  to  follow  suit.  On  the  authority  of  Plutarch,  we 
learn  that  Alexander  consulted  Aristotle  upon  the  best 
methods  to  follow  in  colonizing  his  new  empire;  but 
this  was,  no  doubt,  early  in  his  career,  as  we  know  the 
deep  hatred  which  he  conceived  for  Aristotle  later  in 
life. 

Nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  the  contrast 
between  the  Roman  conception  of  empire  building  and 
the  achievements  of  Alexander  the  Great,  hi^  the  forma- 
tion of^he  Eoman  Em^ireJndJviduaJ^^^^^^  had 
very  little  share  ;  Rome  was  fortunate  from  time  to 
time  in  the  possession  of  military  genius  of  the  first 
order  ;  but  the  Roman  dominions  continued  to  extend 
with  amazing  rapidity,  no  matter  who  was  at  the  head 
of  the  Roman  armies.  No  country  has  ever  carried  out 
an  imperial  ambition  with  such  thoroughness,  for  in  the 
Roman  Empire  our  admiration  is  not  excited  by  the 
marvellous  strategic  combinations^  by  which  it  was 
acg[uired,  so  much  as  by  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
newly  won  provinces  were  absorbed_and  Romanized. 
The  Roman  provincial  very  soon  became  more  Roman 
than  if  he  had  been  born  within  the  circle  of  the  seven 
hills.  All  the  great  empires  of  the  East  have  suc- 
cumbed, leaving  scarcely  a  trace  upon  the  countries 
which  they  embrace.  The  Eoman  language  is  still 
spoken  from  the  iBlack  Sea  to  the  Atlantic,  and  all  the 
invasions  of  barbaric  hordes,  Slav,  Teutonic,  or  Turanian, 
have  not  succeeded  in  materially  reducing  its  domain. 


SUCCESS  IN   IMPERIALISM  47 

Surely  it  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  Greek,  who  was 
intellectually  far  and  away  the  superior  of  the  Roman, 
has  not  succeeded  in  imposing  his  tongue  upon  a  single 
non -Hellenic  nation,  while  Spain  within  the  second 
century  of  its  conquest  was  adding  such  names  as 
Seneca,  Lucan,  Martial,  and  Pomponius  Mela,  to  the  list 
of  Eoman  writers. 

We  cannot  explain  Roman  success  by  the  superior 
military  organization  of  the  Roman  army.  As  a 
matter  of  historic  fact,  every  one  nation  of  antiquity 
had  the  honour  and  glory  of  having  signally  defeated 
Roman  armies  in  more  than  one  sanguinary  battle. 
We  should  far  rather  seek  a  solution  of  the  problem 
in  the  history  of  the  peoples  which  Rome  had  overcome. 
Much  light  will  be  shed  upon  the  subject  if  we  compare 
the  position  of  the  Romans  as  conquerors  of  Europe  and 
Asia  with  that  of  the  English  invaders  of  India.  In 
very  many  countries  which  the  Romans  absorbed  there 
was,  after  149  B.C.,  no  attempt  at  really  serious  op- 
position. The  inhabitants  had  become  nationally 
^effete  after  centuries  of  struggle  for  independence 
followed  by  a  period  of  pressing  and  tyrannical  misrule. 
Except  in  Gaul,  which  gave  serious  trouble,  but  was 
unable  to  resist  from  want  of  any  stable  unity,  the 
Roman  dominion  succeeded  to  some  previous  foreign 
rule.  Thus  Sicily  had  been  finally  enervated  by  the 
Punic  occupation ;  when  the  Carthaginians  were  turned 
out,  the  country  showed  no  desire  to  regain  inde- 
pendence. Its  virility  had  been  stamped  out,  and  the 
land,  no  doubt,  in  great  degree  depopulated.  It,  at 
all  events,  became  a  Roman  province  without  demur. 
The   same   may  be  said  of  the  Asiatic   dominions  of 


48  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Eome,  except  Pontus,  under  its  heroic  King  Mithri- 
dates,  of  those  in  Carthaginian  Spain,  in  Macedonia, 
after  some  serious  resistance,  and  finally  in  Africa. 
The  resisting  power  of  the  native  had  spent  itself  in 
vain  attempts  to  throw  ofi*  the  yoke  of  his  foreign  task- 
masters ;  when,  by  foreign  intervention,  the  taskmaster 
was  finally  thrown  down,  the  native  was  already  too 
far  gone  to  reassert  himself.  As  he  would  fight  to  no 
good  purpose  for  his  master,  so  he  would  not  fight  to 
recover  his  own  autonomy.  Rome's  peculiar  good  fortune 
was  that  she  was  able  to  avail  herself  of  precisely  the 
moment  when  all  these  nations  had  been  reduced  to 
this  condition  of  efi'eteness.  Surely  we  have  another 
striking  proof  of  the  state  of  the  enervation  of  these 
people  in  the  fact  that,  under  the  whole  long  period  of 
comparatively  beneficent  rule  which  they  enjoyed 
under  Eoman  government,  not  one  of  them  developed 
above  the  dead  level  of  mediocrity.  It  is,  moreover, 
quite  out  of  the  question  that  Rome  should  ever  have 
succeeded  in  keeping  down  the  immense  population  of 
her  empire,  however  superior  may  have  been  her 
military  system.  The  Roman  troops  of  occupation 
were  but  as  a  drop  in  the  ocean  among  the  native 
inhabitants,  and  those  troops  were  continually  engaged 
in  border-wars  among  the  tribes,  which  were  always 
endeavouring  to  overstep  the  boundaries  of  the  empire. 
In  these  little  afiairs  Roman  reverses  were  anything  but 
exceptional ;  yet  the  subject  people  never  made  use  of 
these  moments  of  stress  and  trouble  to  strike  a  blow 
for  themselves.  A  map  of  the  military  organization  of 
the  empire  at  the  end  of  the  first  century  a.d.  would 
show  nearly   all   the   legions   massed   in   the   frontier 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  49 

states.  The  whole  of  Spain  requires  but  one  legion ; 
in  Gaul,  south  of  Paris,  there  is  not  a  Roman  soldier, 
but  all  along  the  Rhine  and  Danube,  one  might  say, 
with  little  exaggeration,  that  the  garrisons  are  within 
hail  of  one  another.  The  reader  cannot  fail  to  be 
struck  by  the  remarkable  similarity  of  affairs  in  modern 
India.  Here,  too,  the  English  rule  established  itself 
with  the  greatest  facility  in  the  seat  of  the  Moghul 
emperors.  The  native  did  not  resist,  and  has  seldom 
risen,  and  the  famous  mutiny  itself,  rich  as  it  may 
be  in  dramatic  and  heroic  incidents,  did  not  really 
entail  any  immense  exertions  to  blot  it  out.  Compare 
the  number  of  troops  (450,000  British)  necessary  for 
the  pacification  of  the  small  Dutch  republics  of  South 
Africa,  and  of  those  which  were  requisite  to  quell  the 
Indian  mutiny  (125,000  British  only).  In  India  the 
population  has  lost  its  vitality,  and  in  India  the  distri- 
bution of  military  force  is  chiefly  towards  the  north- 
west frontier.  A  reverse  in  the  frontier  campaigns  is 
not  reflected  by  an  outbreak  in  the  rear  of  the  British 
line  of  defence.  We  leave  the  reader  to  think  out  in 
greater  detail  the  striking  points  of  coincidence  with 
which  the  above  comparison  teems. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  show  the  principal 
steps  by  which  Rome  achieved  the  subjugation  of  Italy. 
The  era  of  her  territorial  expansion  and  foreign  con- 
quests begins  with  the  close  of  the  first  Punic  war  (264 
-241  B.C.).  Sicily  was  now  Roman.  The  victors,  no 
longer  fearing  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Carthaginians, 
who  were  exhausted  and,  moreover,  in  great  difficulties 
on  account  of  the  mutiny  of  their  mercenary  troops, 
made  use  of  the  most  flimsy  pretext  for  seizing  Sardinia 

E 


50  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  Corsica  (238);  Demetrius  of  Pharus  and  Queen 
Teuta  of  Scodra  (in  Dalmatia)  were  the  next  to  be 
attacked.  These  two  sovereigns  had  been  oppressing 
a  number  of  Greek  cities  along  the  lUyrian  coast,  which 
finally  appealed  to  Eome  and  were  taken  under  her 
protectorate  (229-219  B.C.),  while  the  realms  of  Deme- 
trius were  annexed.  From  225-222  the  Gauls  of  the 
Po  valley  (Boii  and  Insubri)  were  brought  into  obedience, 
although  their  final  pacification  was  yet  to  be  the  work 
of  years.  The  Koman  acquisition  during  the  war  with 
Hannibal  (218-201)  were  of  far  greater  importance. 
Syracuse,  which  had  been  imprudent  enough  to  fight  in 
the  Carthaginian  rank,  was  conquered.  All  Punic 
possessions  in  Spain,  and  all  their  island  dominions 
between  Sicily  and  Spain,  were  surrendered  wholesale 
to  Eome.  The  definitive  subjugation  of  North  Spain 
cost  the  Romans  another  seventy  years  of  hard  fighting 
against  the  wild  Celtiberian  guerillas.  In  197  B.C.  King 
Philip  of  Macedonia  was  compelled  to  make  large 
territorial  concessions,  which  the  Eomans,  however,  did 
not  add  to  the  Empire,  warned  as  they  were  by  their 
Spanish  experience  of  the  cost  and  unprofitability  of 
militarily  occupying  a  broken,  mountainous  country. 
The  same  policy  was  observed  in  190,  when  Antiochus 
was  forced  to  cede  all  his  lands  west  of  the  Taurus. 
The  Eomans  divided  them  among  their  friends  and 
allies  of  Pergamum  and  Ehodes.  Macedonia  again 
gave  trouble  from  171  to  168,  when  it  was  finally 
crushed  and  partitioned  out  into  four  confederate 
republics,  the  inhabitants  at  the  same  time  undergoing 
disarmament  and  being  constrained  to  pay  tribute.  It 
was  not  until  after  the  insurrection  of  146  B.C.  that  the 


SUCCESS  IN  IMPERIALISM  51 

Romans  saw  that  if  Macedonia  was  to  be  held  at  all 
it  must  be  held  as  a  Roman  province.  The  same  years 
which  witnessed  the  incorporation  of  Macedonia  and 
Achaia  beheld  the  fall  of  Carthage  after  a  heroic  defence 
of  three  years.  Rome  thus  acquired  her  great  Province 
of  Africa. 

The  Celtiberians  who  had  struggled  against  sub- 
jection under  the  brave  chieftainship  of  Viriathus,  who 
fell  a  victim  to  Roman  treachery  and  was  assassinated, 
were  finally  defeated  in  133  at  Numantia,  and  Spain 
was  thus  Roman  except  the  north-west  corner  of  Lusi- 
tania  and  Galicia.  Attains,  King  of  Pergamum,  had 
received  the  lion's  share  of  the  spoil  when  King 
Antiochus  had  been  crushed  by  the  Romans  at  Chseronea 
(191)  and  Magnesia  (189).  In  the  same  years  that 
Numantia  fell,  Attains  died,  bequeathing  all  his 
dominions,  for  want  of  heirs  of  his  body,  to  the  Roman 
Senate.  The  Romans,  who  were  still  opposed  to 
extending  their  dominions  beyond  their  then  bounds, 
would  not  accept  the  legacy  in  its  entirety.  Several 
of  the  Pergamean  provinces  were  abandoned  to  native 
sovereigns,  the  Romans  only  occupying  the  coast 
district,  Thrace,  Mysia,  Lydia,  and  Caria,  which  latter 
country  had  for  some  time  enjoyed  a  quasi-indepen- 
dence.  The  Romans  were  thus  in  possession  of  con- 
siderable territories  at  either  end  of  the  Mediterranean, 
but  the  connecting  links  were  missing,  and  their 
dominion  was  necessarily  dependent  upon  their  mari- 
time supremacy.  The  Romans,  launched  now  upon  a 
career  of  imperial  policy,  were  compelled,  from  mere 
self-preservation,  to  consolidate  their  possessions. 
Called  to  the  aid  of  the  Marseillais,  who  were  with 


52  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

difficulty  holding  their  ground  against  Celts  of  the 
Khone  Valley,  the  Eomans,  after  defeating  the  aggres- 
sors in  121,  established  themselves  all  along  the 
seaboard,  and  founded  two  important  colonies — Narbo- 
(Narbonne)  and  Aquae  Sextia  (Aix-en-Provence).  Spain 
was  then  connected  with  Italy  by  the  via  Emilia. 

The  power  of  Eome  at  sea  was  seriously  jeopardized 
by  the  growth  of  piracy,  and  buccaneers  made  frequent 
and  unavenged  descents  upon  the  Eoman  watering- 
places  in  the  Campania.  M.  Antonius,  who  was 
entrusted  (103)  with  the  suppression  of  this  nuisance, 
added  Pamphilia,  Pisidia,  and  Phrygia  to  the  Eoman 
possessions  in  Asia  Minor.  Further  legacies  brought 
Eome  the  Cyrenaica  (96),  and  Bythynia  in  74,  but 
this  latter  bequest  entailed  a  considerable  war  with 
King  Mithridates.  The  Eoman  sufi'ered  many  severe 
reverses  until  the  campaign  was  entrusted  to  Pompeius, 
the  conqueror  of  Cilicia  (fo7).  Mithridates,  after  a 
severe  defeat  near  Sinope,  fled  to  the  Caucasus,  where, 
in  despair,  he  committed  suicide.  The  whole  of  the 
dead  monarch's  realms,  save  Armenia,  fell  to  Eome, 
which  thus  acquired  Paphlagonia,  Syria,  and  Palestine. 
Meanwhile  Crete  had  been  occupied  (^7)  by  Metellus, 
and  Cyprus  was  taken  in  58  by  Cato. 

The  already  enormous  territory  of  Eome  was  in 
the  next  few  years  doubled  by  the  conquests  of  Csesar 
in  Spain  and  Gaul.  In  Spain  the  whole  of  the  western 
coast  was  brought  into  subjection,  and  in  eight  years 
(58-51)  Gaul  as  far  as  the  Ehine  was  added  to  the 
Eoman  Empire.  Marseilles,  which  had  served  the 
enemy,  was  stripped  of  the  major  part  of  her  posses- 
sions, and  Numidia  in   Africa   was   likewise   reduced. 


SUCCESS   IN  IMPEEIALISM  53 

Meanwhile  M.  Antonius,  Caesar's  second  in  command, 
had  been  making  himself  master  of  the  Dalmatian 
highlands.  Thus,  at  the  death  of  Caesar,  Eome  was 
mistress  of  almost  the  whole  of  the  Mediterranean 
basin.  The  work  of  organization  and  the  task  of 
rounding  off  these  extensive  dominions  fell  to  Caesar's 
successor,  Augustus.  The  campaign  against  Antonius 
and  Cleopatra  brought  him  Egypt.  The  reduction  of 
Ehaetia,  Noricum,  and  Pannonia  assured  the  Danube 
frontier.  In  25  B.C.,  by  the  will  of  King  Amyntas, 
Galatia  was  included  in  the  Empire.  Beyond  these 
limits  the  Empire  never  extended  permanently.  The 
signal  defeat  of  Varus  in  9  B.C.,  at  the  hands  of  the 
Germans  under  Arminius,  dissuaded  the  Eomans  from 
attempting  the  serious  conquest  of  Germany,  and  the 
acquisitions  of  Trajan,  Dacia,  Arabia,  Armenia,  and 
Babylonia  were  either  abandoned  by  his  successors,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  two  latter,  or  maintained  with 
difficulty. 

Far  away  upon  the  northern  border  of  China,  in  the 
sterile,  inhospitable  land  about  the  Gobi  desert,  there 
have  dwelt,  time  out  of  mind,  a  number  of  nomadic 
tribes  of  Tartaric  people.  There  was  no  common  bond 
of  union  between  them,  and  only  when  some  Khan 
of  exceptional  personal  vigour  arose  were  a  few  of 
these  scattered  communities  brought  together  for  a 
short  time  and  forced  into  common  action.  Directly 
the  strong  hand  was  removed  there  was  sure  to  be  a 
recrudescence  of  intestine  quarrelling.  It  was  under 
these  conditions  that  Temuchin,  who  was  later  to  wear 
the  proud  title  of  Gengiz  Khan,  was  born.  There  was 
but   little   in   the   circumstances   of    his    birth   which 


54  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

presaged  his  future  career.  On  the  banks  of  the  Onon 
river,  in  some  rough  tent  of  a  Tartar  encampment, 
Temuchin  first  saw  the  light.  His  father  went  the 
way  of  most  Tartar  chieftains  and  was  killed  in  battle, 
while  his  young  son  was  left  to  shift  for  himself. 
It  was  only  through  the  virile  energy  of  his  mother 
Yulun,  that  his  rebellious  followers  were  kept  to 
their  allegiance. 

The  greater  part  of  Temuchin's  life  was  spent  in 
this  kind  of  petty  tribal  bickering  ;  it  was  not  until  he 
was  fifty  years  of  age  that  he  felt  himself  strong  enough 
to  summon  a  "  kuraltar,"  a  solemn  assembly  of  Mongolian 
chieftains,  and  exact  the  title  of  Gengiz  Khan,  by  which 
he  was  recognized  as  head  of  the  united  hordes.  With 
this  force  at  his  back  Gengiz  Khan  swept  down  upon 
the  north  of  China,  and,  after  three  years'  hard  fighting, 
compelled  his  former  suzerain,  the  Emperor,  to  sue 
for  peace  upon  humiliating  terms.  The  Khitan  were 
next  in  turn,  and  were  rapidly  subdued.  For  a 
moment  it  seemed  as  if  Gengiz  Khan  would  be  content 
to  rest  upon  his  laurels ;  but,  unhappily,  the  Sultan, 
Mohammed  III.,  of  Khowaresm,  forgot  himself  so  far 
as  to  arrest  the  envoys  of  the  great  Kian,  who  had 
been  sent  to  his  country  with  a  caravan,  and  to  plunder 
their  merchandise.  Gengiz  Khan,  highly  incensed  at 
this  afiront,  determined  upon  war.  Accompanied  by  his 
sons,  he  moved  with  great  rapidity  upon  Samarcand, 
which  was  soon  captured.  The  Sultan  Mohammed 
endeavoured  to  avoid  a  decisive  battle,  and  withdrew  in 
the  direction  of  Bokhara,  which  he  abandoned  to  the 
Mongols,  who  pressed  close  upon  his  track.  The  fate  of 
Bokhara  is  typical  of  the  fate  of  all  the  cities  in  which 


SUCCESS  IN  IMPERIALISM  55 

tlie  Mongolian  conquerors  set  foot.  Many  of  these 
cities  of  Turkestan  had  become  active  centres  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  Bokhara  especially  was  famous  for  its  books  and 
learning.  The  Mongols  spared  nothing  ;  the  male 
population  was  put  to  the  sword,  and  the  women  and 
children  thrown  into  bondage,  while  the  city  itself,  with 
all  its  valuable  libraries  and  rich  mosques,  was  given  to 
the  flames.  Meanwhile  Mohammed  had  perished  for 
want  somewhere  upon  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea, 
and  had  left  the  salvation  of  his  realm  to  his  son 
Djelaleddin. 

Gengiz  Khan  pursued  him  through  Ghasna  to  the 
Indus,  where  he  compelled  him  to  accept  battle.  He 
was  defeated,  but  fought  with  such  unexampled  bravery, 
and  escaped  by  swimming  the  Indus  under  a  heavy 
shower  of  arrows,  that  he  wrung  a  mede  of  praise  even 
from  his  vanquishers.  Beyond  the  Indus  the  flood  of 
Mongol  invasion  did  not  pass,  but  recoiled  upon  Persia. 
It  was  then  that  Gengiz  Khan's  son  Tuji  was  detached 
to  overrun  the  southern  provinces  of  Eussia ;  his  son 
Batu  conquered  the  whole  of  Eussia,  and  pushed 
forward  as  far  as  the  Dniester  (1237).  In  the  mean 
time  Gengiz  Khan  was  spending  his  time  in  Persia, 
hunting  upon  a  gigantic  scale,  and  drawing  up  a  code 
of  constitution,  half  religious,  half  political,  and  wholly 
patriarchal  for  the  government  of  his  people.  This,  the 
famous  "  Yassa,'^  is  in  force  to  the  present  day. 
Shortly  after  his  return  to  Karakorum  (1224)  Gengiz 
Khan  died  (1227). 

By  testamentary  disposition,  he  split  up  his  do- 
minions among  his  sons,  by  whom  they  were  yet  more 
extended.     The  Mongolians  were  only  prevented  from 


56  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

speading    over   Western    Europe   by   their   defeat    at 
Liegnitz  (1241). 

The  story  of  the  great  Mongolian  Empire  is  so  full 
of  romantic  details,  that  it  has  been  a  favourite  subject 
for  song  and  poetry  ever  since  the  dawn  of  European 
letters.  There  are  few  who  have  not  heard  of  the  glory 
of  Kublai  Khan  and  his  ''stately  pleasure-dome''  at 
Peking.  But  in  reality,  from  a  historical  point  of  view, 
the  conquests  of  the  Mongols  are  of  second-rate  im- 
portance. They  passed  like  a  storm  over  half  the 
world,  destroying  everything  in  their  path,  but  their 
trace  has  vanished,  and  they  have  left  nothing  to  mark 
their  passage,  save  here  and  there  a  vestige  of  their 
vandalism.  Where  the  Mongolian  conqueror  became  a 
permanent  ruler,  he  was  soon  absorbed  into  the  superior 
civilization  of  his  subjects,  just  as  in  China  ;  he  entirely 
lost  any  marked  national  characteristics  he  may  have 
possessed. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM. — II 

Other  examples  of  empire-building.  Venice.  Her  rise  and  growth.  Causes. 
Effects.  Holland  and  the  Dutch  Empire.  Reasons  of  its  failure.  The 
British  Empire.    Its  unprecedented  character. 

Scarcely  could  there  be  a  more  impressive  example 
of  the  paramount  influence  of  geographical  position 
upon  the  destinies  of  human  communities  than  that 
afibrded  by  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Venetian  Republic. 
The  advantages  which  Venice  obtained  from  her  peculiar 
situation  are  obvious.  Protected  from  the  inroad  of  the 
sea  by  the  strong  bulwark  of  the  Lidi,  rendered  even 
more  powerful  through  the  labours  of  her  engineers, 
and  from  assault  from  the  mainland  by  the  intervening 
expanse  of  lagunes  and  morass,  Venice  remained 
throughout  the  days  of  her  prosperity  practically  un- 
assailable, although  her  aggressive  policy  and  gathering 
wealth  secured  her  her  full  share  of  foes.  Venice  is 
peculiarly  suitable  to  navigation,  as  the  rise  and  fall  of 
tide  there  is  greater  than  at  any  other  part  of  the 
Adriatic.  But  all  these  advantages  do  not  suffice  to 
explain  Venetian  success,  or  why  in  so  brief  a  space  of 
time  she  rose  from  insignificance  to  hold  the  proud 
dominion  of  all  the  then  known  seas.     Things  must  have 


v< 


58  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

materially  altered  since  the  days  of  the  Eoman  Empire, 
when  it  is  not  even  sure  that  the  long-shore  fishermen 
had  deigned  to  form  a  settlement  on  the  Venetian 
Islands. 

During  the  early  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages  the 
countries  of  Northern  Europe  had  been  growing  rapidly 
in  importance.  There  was  a  constant  flow  of  trade 
between  those  lands  and  the  Mediterranean  basin,  and 
this  stream  of  commerce  was  forced  to  find  its  way  for 
the  most  part  through  the  passes  of  the  Corinthian 
Alps  and  to  the  sea.  Half  of  Europe  thus  became,  as 
it  were,  the  hinterland  of  Venice.  It  is  clear  that  Venice 
boasts  certain  advantages  over  the  modern  ports  of 
Fiume  and  Trieste,  and  her  island  position  allowed  her 
early  to  assert  her  independence  of  the  Empire. 

For  several  centuries  Venice  was  practically  the 
centre  of  the  civilized  world ;  at  the'  opening  of  her 
career  a  series  of  historical  events  contributed  con- 
siderably to  the  increase  of  her  power.  These  were  the 
crusades.  Venice  had  already  at  that  time  gained  a 
firm  foothold  on  the  Dalmatian  coast,  and  had  been 
successful  in  defeating  the  Normans  off  Buthrotum 
(1084),  in  gratitude  for  which  the  Byzantine  Emperor 
Alexius  had  granted  the  Venetians  peculiar  trading 
facilities  and  right  of  domicile  in  many  of  the  Levantine 
ports.  During  the  first  crusade  the  Christian  army  in 
Syria  depended  almost  entirely  for  their  provisions 
upon  supplies  shipped  by  Venetian  vessels,  and  we  may 
feel  sure  that  the  Venetian  merchant  knew  how  to  look 
after  his  profits,  and  that  he  was  well  paid  for  his  assist- 
ance in  reducing  Kaifa,  Acre,  and  Sidon.  Pisa,  the 
only  possible  rival,  was  disposed  of  in  an  engagement 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  59 

off  Ehodes.  The  increasing  prosperity  of  Venice 
led  unavoidably  to  her  territorial  expansion.  Her 
'possessions  in  Dalmatia  and  Croatia  were  becoming  more 
and  more  important,  as  she  drew  from  thence  the  rough 
materials  for  her  dockyard.  We  accordingly  find  her  at 
constant  variance  with  the  Hungarians,  and  losing  and  re- 
gaining (1116)  Zara,  Spalato,  Sebenico,  and  Trani.  This 
is  the  beginning  of  Venice's  Colonial  Empire,  and  already 
her  doges  style  themselves  "  Duces  Venetiarum,  Dal- 
matise  et  Croatise!^  During  the  second  crusade,  these 
dominions  were  augmented  by  the  capture  of  Tyre 
(1147),  by  the  Doge  Domenico  Michieli,  and  this 
conquest  is  already  organized  on  the  plan  which  we 
shall  see  observed  with  regard  to  all  future  Venetian 
colonies. 

Soon  after  this  Venice  became  involved  in  hostilities 
with  the  Byzantine  Empire.  The  keen  commercial 
competition  of  the  Venetians  was  driving  the  Byzantine 
out  of  the  market,  and  the  Emperor  Manuel  Comnenus 
was  greatly  incensed  at  the  support  given  by  Venice  to 
the  Latin  conquerors  of  Syria.  This  quarrel  soon  burst 
into  open  flame,  the  Dalmatian  colonies,  backed  by  an 
imperial  army,  broke  into  insurrection,  and  the  Vene- 
tian doge,  Vitale  Michieli,  found  great  difficulty  in 
reducing  Trani.  He  then  (1172)  sailed  to  the  ^gean 
and  seized  the  imperial  possessions  Lesbos,  Chios, 
and  Samos.  Plague  drove  the  fleet  home,  after  an 
unsuccessful  descent  upon  Euboea,  and  the  pestilence 
spread  over  Venice ;  the  troubles  which  ensued  ended 
in  a  remodelling  of  the  constitution  on  a  more  popular 
basis  (1172). 

Momentous  in  Venetian  history  is  the  date  of  the 


60  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

fourth  Crusade  (1203).  The  Crusaders,  now  cut  oflF 
from  the  Holy  Land  by  the  hostile  empire,  were  com- 
pelled to  charter  the  Venetian  fleet.  This  they  were 
only  able  to  obtain  after  helping  to  reduce  the  revolted 
city  of  Zara.  The  Doge  Dandolo,  who  had  personal 
motives  for  wreaking  a  terrible  revenge  upon  the 
Emperor  Manuel,  who  had  had  him  blinded,  succeeded 
by  artful  diplomacy  in  diverting  the  Crusading  army 
upon  Constantinople.  The  partition  of  the  Byzantine 
territories  ensued,  and  a  large  share  fell  to  Venice, 
which  thus  became  an  imperial  power  of  the  first 
magnitude.  At  one  blow  she  obtained  the  Morea, 
Buboea,  a  number  of  islands  in  the  ^gean,  including 
Andros,  Salamis,  and  ^gina,  Lesbos  and  Abydos,  which 
gave  her  the  command  of  the  Dardanelles,  practically 
the  whole  of  the  east  coast  of  the  Adriatic,  and  not 
least  important,  the  island  of  Crete. 

Crete  became  the  bone  of  contention  between  Venice 
and  her  great  rival,  Genoa.  Soon  after  1261  the  war 
broke  out  which  was  to  last  with  few  interruptions 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  Venetians  soon 
realized  that  the  policy  which  they  had  hitherto  prac- 
tised with  regard  to  their  new  acquisitions  was  incapable 
of  securing  their  permanent  dominion,  and  accordingly 
several  attempts  were  made  at  colonizing  Crete  with  native 
Venetians  ;  colonies  were  likewise  settled  in  Cyprus,  the 
Morea,  and  the  Ionian  Islands.  Peace  had  been  patched 
up  between  Venice  and  Genoa  in  1238  by  papal  interven- 
tion, but  the  war  again  broke  into  flame  in  1258.  The 
interests  of  the  two  powers  would  not  allow  of  any 
lasting  pacification.  Henceforth  it  was  a  struggle  a 
outrance.     We  cannot  here  follow  out  in  detail  all  the 


SUCCESS  IN   IMPERIALISM  61 

vicissitudes  of  this  great  contest,  which  after  many 
victories  and  defeats  was  to  end  in  the  utter  undoing 
of  Genoa  at  the  battle  of  Chioggia  (1380),  when  Venice 
herself  had  been  brought  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  and 
only  escaped  destruction  through  the  opportune  arrival 
of  her  admiral.  Carlo  Feno,  from  the  East,  who,  by 
blockading  the  port  of  Chioggia,  compelled  the  entire 
Genoese  armada  to  surrender  at  discretion. 

Many  circumstances  drove  Venice  into  playing  a 
Continental  policy.  It  became  absolutely  necessary  for 
her  to  secure  the  command  of  the  Brenta,  as  upon  the 
maintenance  of  the  course  of  that  river  depended  the 
insular  position  of  the  Eepublic.  The  diversion  of 
the  river  channel  was  equally  important  to  several  of 
the  mainland  cities,  whose  domains  were  continually 
liable  to  the  most  destructive  inundations. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  Venice 
stood  at  the  height  of  her  power.  We  have  the  reports 
of  Tommaso  Mocenigo,  which  bear  witness  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Republic  in  every  branch  of  industry 
and  trade.  We  possess  detailed  records  of  the  imports 
and  the  exports,  and  valuations  of  property  in  Venice 
itself.  Venetian  agents  were  at  that  time  stationed  in 
almost  every  important  city  of  Europe.  Besides  its 
fleet  of  45  galleys,  manned  by  11,000  men,  which  was 
continually  cruising  in  the  Adriatic,  Venice  possessed 
300  first-class .  vessels,  and  as  many  thousand  smaller 
merchantmen,  of  which  the  crews  are  estimated  at 
36,000. 

Very  shortly  after  this  Venice  reached  the  limits 
of  her  territorial  expansion.  On  the  mainland  her 
domain  spread  from  the  Alps  above  Bergamo  to    the 


62  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Adriatic  at  Kimini.  The  whole  of  the  Adriatic  east 
coast  belonged  to  her,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Po  to  the 
Morea.  Besides  this  she  possessed  the  islands  of  Zante, 
Crete,  and  Cyprus,  not  to  speak  of  numberless  isolated 
trading-posts  on  the  Black  Sea,  nay  even  on  the 
Caspian,  in  Syria,  and  along  the  north  coast  of  Africa. 
Venetian  exports  ran  into  close  upon  five  millions  of 
pounds  sterling  per  annum,  then  worth  from  six  to  fifteen 
times  the  purchasing  power  of  that  amount.  Every 
year  officials  were  despatched  to  inspect  the  Venetian 
possessions  on  the  mainland  ;  they  criticized  the  condi- 
tion in  which  the  fortifications  were  kept,  and  forwarded 
home  reports  ;  the  accounts  were  gone  into  and  audited. 
The  island  colonies  were  subjected  to  the  same  system 
of  control,  but  at  less  frequent  intervals.  We  still 
possess  the  notes  of  a  famous  proveditore  for  the  year 
1482.  This  forms  part  of  the  diary  of  Marino  Sanuto, 
and  it  shows  into  what  minute  details  the  inspectors 
went  in  the  fifty  odd  towns  which  they  visited  upon 
this  particular  tour  of  supervision. 

There  is  much  of  the  irony  of  fate  in  the  fact  that 
Genoa,  at  last  reduced  to  impotence  after  a  secular 
struggle  with  Venice,  should  have  given  birth  to  the 
man  who  was  to  compass,  unconsciously  enough,  the 
ruin  of  her  rival.  The  discovery  of  America  by 
ChristoghiM;^  Coljimbi^^  in  1492  sounded^  the  knell^jof 
Venice^s  ^ood  fortune.  Misfortunes  never  come  sin^i^. 
The  opening  of  the  sea-route  to  the  Far  lEastHjy  the 
Cape  of  Goo5TEo£e  was^^j^n^equa^^ 
VenetiajQCommerce.  The  whole  cponcmical^eguilibrium 
of  the  world  was  shaken,  ^5^J^^®^4y?£J^®£j^-^  Venice's 
geographical  position  were  nullified.     At^  one  blow  the 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  63 

Mediterranean^  instead  of  bein^  the  sea  about  which  all 
SeToteri^tsof^e  world  were  grouped,  became  a  com- 
^^^^X^lrJi^^ffiP^?^^^*  lake.  The  land  routes  to  the 
East,  always  expensive,  and  now  rendered  more  and 
more  perilous  every  day  by  the  advance  of  the  Turks, 
were  abandoned,  and  trade  began  to  flow  round  the 
Cape  instead  of  into  the  eastern  end  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. Continental  commerce  began  in  the  same 
way  to  drift  westward  towards  Atlantic  ports  instead  of 
coming  south  to  the  Adriatic.  To  crown  all  these 
disasters,  the  Turks,  since  1453  in  possession  of  Con- 
stantinople, assumed  every  year  a  more  uncompromising 
attitude.  Of  the  conventions  signed  with  the  Osmanli 
in  1479,  1503,  1540,  none  ended  to  Venice's  advantage, 
and  she  was  compelled  to  renounce  her  possessions  one 
after  another,  and  to  give  up  all  idea  of  regaining 
access  to  the  Black  Sea.  The  Venetian  merchant  must 
have  grasped  too  clearly  the  agents  which  were  under- 
mining his  welfare,  and  must  have  understood  how 
irrevocable  was  his  doom.  All  his  efibrts  were  unavail- 
ing. On  the  Continent  all  were  against  him.  France, 
Aragon,  the  Pope  and  the  empire,  leagued  at  Cambrai 
(1508),  defeated  him  at  Agnadello,  and  all  the  mainland 
possessions  of  Venice  were  plundered  and  destroyed. 
In  1571  even  Cyprus  was  taken  away.  A  few  days 
after  the  fall  of  Famagusta,  the  last  Venetian  stronghold 
in  Cyprus,  the  united  Spanish,  Pontifical,  and  Venetian 
fleets,  under  Don  Juan  of  Austria,  succeeded  in  winning 
a  signal  victory  over  the  Turks  off  Lepanto  (October  7, 
1571).  Spain,  however,  withdrew  from  the  alliance, 
and  thus  to  a  great  extent  sterilized  the  results  of  this 
success.     The  Venetians  considered  it  advisable  to  come 


64  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

to  terms,  while  yet  the  Porte  was  dismayed  at  its  dis- 
comfiture, and  accordingly  a  treaty  was  concluded  at 
Constantinople,  March  7,  1573.  The  signory  agreed 
to  pay  300,000  ducats  in  annual  instalments  spread 
over  three  years,  besides  1000  ducats  a  year  to  be 
allowed  to  retain  Zante.  Cyprus,  however,  was  gone 
irrevocably. 

We  have  said  that  the  great  geographical  discoveries 
at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  changed  as  lib 
were  the  economical  centre  of  gravity  of  the  world. 
Let  us  now  go  on  to  observe  how  the  same  causes  which 
brought  about^Jhe  abasement  of  Venice  led  to  the  rise^ 
of  Holland  and  Jaid  the  foundations  ^  England's 
Imperial  ambitions.  The  revelation  of  a  new  world  in 
the  west  had  stimulated  the  flagging  energies  of  Dutch 
commerce  and  Dutch  industry  into  fresh  vigour,  and 
although  the  country  had  now  fallen  under  the  yoke  of 
Spain,  her  prosperity  made  rapid  strides.  Nevertheless, 
the  land  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  immense  colonial  role 
it  was  destined  to  play  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  struggle  for  independence  (1566-1609)  cut  off  the 
country  from  all  participation  in  the  profits  of  the  new 
Spanish  conquests.  Moreover,  Spain  continued  to 
regard  her  American  colonies  with  the  utmost  jealousy, 
and  was  not  inclined  Ijo  see  with  equanimity  any 
European  intruder,  were  he  Dutch  or  were  he  English, 
poaching  on  her  rich  preserves.  She  intended  to  preserve 
the  strictest  monopoly  of  her  fresh  field  of  commercial 
enterprise.  Portugal,  in  like  fashion,  having  disclosed 
the  new  route  to  the  East,  made  haste  to  close  it  with 
all  the  barriers  and  obstacles  in  her  reach.  Even  the 
nautical    data,   which    might    assist    a    navigator    in 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  65 

weathering  the  Cape,  were  kept  as  far  a  secret  as 
possible,  and  Houtman  picked  up  the  information  which 
he  was  to  turn  to  such  good  account  only  when  he  was 
held  in  captivity  in  Lisbon.  Portugal  grasped  to  the 
full  the  grand  importance  of  the  achievement  of  Vasco 
de  Gama,  who  returned  in  1499,  after  circumventing 
the  Cape  and  reaching  Calicut.  He  was  welcomed  with 
the  utmost  enthusiasm.  King  Emanuel  loaded  him  with 
distinctions,  and  in  1502  he  was  sent  to  sea  again  at  the 
head  of  a  little  fleet  of  nineteen  vessels.  On  this  voyage 
he  took  possession  of  portions  of  Mozambique  and  Sofala, 
entered  into  advantageous  arrangements  with  several 
Indian  potentates,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
Portuguese  colonial  dominions.  His  successors,  Almeida, 
Albuquerque,  and  Cabral,  the  discoverer  of  Brazil,  set 
their  country  on  an  even  footing  with  Spain.  The 
wealth  accruing  from  these  new  dominions  raised  the 
Portuguese  naval  power  to  the  second  rank. 

Holland,  though  unable  to  reap  immediate  benefit 
from  the  Portuguese  colonies,benefited  by  them  indirectly. 
Dutch  vessels  at  Lisbon  transhipped  the  wares  from  the 
Indies,  and  were  aided  in  their  distribution  over  Europe. 
The  carrying  trade  of  Holland  was  already  of  very  great 
importance,  and  Dutch  ships  might  be  seen  in  the 
Norwegian  ports  loading  timber,  filling  their  holds  with 
grain  at  Baltic  harbours,  or  taking  aboard  cargoes  of 
wine  in  the  French  rivers  or  on  the  Ehine.  The  North 
Sea  fishing-grounds  were  not  only  a  source  of  enormous 
wealth,  but  an  unrivalled  school  of  seamanship.  It  was 
not  likely  that  the  Dutch  would  watch  very  long  with 
complacency  the  treasures  of  half  the  world  flowing  into 
the  cofiers  of  their  foes.     Many  a  Dutch  seaman  had 

F 


66  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

served  his  apprenticesliip  on  board  a  Portuguese  mer- 
chantman, and  when  Portugal  fell  to  Spain  in  1580  the 
Dutch  were  not  long  in  trespassing  on  her  defenceless 
possessions,  and  no  doubt  the  fact  that  those  possessions 
were  the  property  of  their  arch-enemy,  Spain,  lent  zest 
to  their  incursions. 

In  1594,  four  vessels  under  Houtman  started  for  a 
cruise  in  the  East  Indies,  which  lasted  for  two  years 
and  four  months,  and  turned  out  so  much  to  their 
financial  betterment  that  their  example  was  followed 
by  several  small  companies  formed  at  Eotterdam,  Delft, 
and  Hoorn.  It  was  dangerous  work  navigating  in 
those  days,  except  in  force  suflBcient  to  be  able  to 
dispose  of  troublesome  rivals,  and  the  sea  was  not  yet 
severely  policed  as  it  is  in  modern  times.  A  large 
company  was  consequently  more  likely  to  prove  success- 
ful than  a  small.  Such  considerations  led  to  the 
founding  of  the  two  great  Dutch  Indian  companies, 
which  were  the  prime  agents  of  Dutch  colonial  aggran- 
dizement. Dutch  colonial  history  is  the  history  of 
those  companies.  The  West  Indian  Company,  founded 
1621,  did  not  prove  an  unqualified  success,  and  after 
spending  five  millions  of  money,  they  gave  way  before 
the  Portuguese;  the  company,  remodelled  in  1671 
and  1692,  secured  Dutch  Guiana  and  Surinam.  The 
rapidity  with  which  possessions  were  acquired  by  the 
Eastern  Company,  founded  1602,  is  stupendous.  From 
the  Cape,  occupied  in  1653,  they  spread  to  Ceylon. 
Quite  unscrupulous  in  their  colonial  policy,  they  here 
combined  with  the  natives  to  eject  the  Portuguese 
(1632-1657).  The  acquisition  of  Ceylon  secured  them 
the    monopoly    of    the    cinnamon    trade,    which    was 


SUCCESS  IN  IMPERIALISM  67 

immensely  lucrative,  and  by  the  occupation  of  the 
Moluccas  they  obtained  a  similar  monopoly  of  cloves. 
From  1650  to  1680  Java  was  being  reduced  to  sub- 
mission, and  Batavia,  founded  as  early  as  1619,  became 
the  focus  of  Oriental  commerce.  In  India,  the  taking  of 
Negapatam  (1660),  Cochin  (1663),  St.  Thome  (1674), 
mark  the  principal  stages  of  Dutch  expansion. 

The  Dutch  colonial  system  has  been  subjected  to 
adverse  criticism  on  many  grounds.  We  have  here  to 
regard  it  chiefly  from  an  historical  point  of  view.  The 
P-Q^llgJPl  Holland  was  dictated  by  purelj  commercial 
ambition;  it  was  carried  out  with  the  sole  object  of 
enriching  the  mercantile  class  at  home.  In  this  object 
it  was  eminently  successful,  and  the  influx  of  wealth 
into  the  mother  country  was  enormous.  Small  traders 
and  retailers  were  rich  enough  to  covet  highly  finished 
pictures  from  the  famous  Dutch  painters.  This  accounts 
for  the!  predominance  of  still-life  pictures,  to  meet  the 
taste  of  the  Dutch  rich  small  bourgeoisie.  Colonial 
expansion  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  was  never 
existent.  Holland  was  not  afilicted  with  any  surplus 
population,  and  consequently  her  colonies  had  never 
really  come  under  the  influence  of  a  Dutch  colonial 
population,  with  Dutch  ideas  or  Dutch  culture.  The 
proportion  of  Dutch  colonists,  beyond  the  ofiicial 
governing  staff*,  in  Java  for  example,  is  entirely  in- 
significant. The  culture-system  of  wholesale  exploita- 
tion, on  which  the  colonies  were  administered,  though 
now  somewhat  mitigated,  is  still  in  vigour.  By  this 
arrangement  the  native  is  compelled  to  cultivate  the 
plantation  of  the  Dutch  owners,  and  after  a  sufficient 
amount  of  the  product  has  been  put  on  one  side  for  his 


68  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

sustenance,  the  rest  is  disposed  of  to  the  profit  of  the 
master.  The  distinction  between  this  system  and 
slavery  is  obviously  only  a  verbal  one,  and  it  is  no 
matter  for  surprise  that  those  subjected  to  it  are  only 
too  ready  to  exchange  Dutch  dominion  for  any  other. 
Holland  was  unable  to  oppose  any  serious  resistance  to 
Clive  in  India  (1759),  or  to  Cornwallis  in  Ceylon 
(1795).  It  would,  however,  be  quite  erroneous  to  run 
away  with  the  idea  that  the  defects  of  the  Dutch  system 
are  connected  with  any  inherent  racial  inferiority  of  the 
Hollander  as  a  colonist.  The  same  phenomenon  will 
be  seen  to  recur  with  inevitable  regularity  whenever  a 
small  power,  carried  away  by  mercantile  enthusiasm, 
is  led  to  found  a  broad  colonial  empire.  It  was  as 
impossible  for  Holland Jbo  people  her  transmarine  jos; 
sessions  with  a  Dutch  population,  as  we  have  seen  it^ 
was  impossible  for  Venice  to  really  colonize  her  ac^ui-^ 
sitions  in  the  Mediterranean.  Such  a  proceeding,  if  it 
were  at  all  feasible,  would  entail  a  fatal  depletion  of 
the  home  country.  An  empire,  however,  built  up 
on  entirely  commercial  lines  is  necessarily  unstable. 
Any  blow  dealt  at  the  centre  of  such  an  empire  brings 
the  whole  colonial  superstructure  tumbling  down  like 
a  house  of  cards.  The  various  members  either  fall  a 
prey  to  the  ambition  of  some  fresh  empire-builder,  or 
else  lapse  into  their  original  quasi-independence.  We 
have  seen  how,  on  the  decline  of  Venice,  her  various 
colonies  fell  away,  and  it  would  be  impossible  at  the 
present  day  to  discover  the  faintest  trace  of  Venetian 
influence  on  her  former  possessions.  In  Crete,  Venice 
has,  in  spite  of  secular  dominion,  left  no  mark.  The 
same  was  the  case,  in  antiquity,  with  the  Phoenician 


SUCCESS   IN   IMPERIALISM  69 

dominions  in  Sicily ;  and  although  the  merchants  of 
Tyre  and  Sidon  held  for  centuries  innumerable  trading- 
posts  along  the  Sicilian  littoral,  they  have  left  not  a 
trace  of  their  civilization. 

For  Holland,  with  her  one  million  (or  a  little  above) 
of  inhabitants  in  the  seventeenth  century,  to  people 
colonial  possessions  containing  indigenous  populations 
ten  or  twenty  times  as  great  was  out  of  the  question. 
When  by  immense  expenditure  of  capital  and  effort  she 
has  finally  succeeded  in  quelling  the  native,  and  bring- 
ing his  heritage  into  profitable  working  order,  her 
domain  will  fall  to  the  lot  of  some  power  whose  super- 
abundant home  population  must  find  an  outlet. 

It  is  difficult  for  the  present  generation  to  realize 
that  the  colonial  empire  of  Great  Britain  is  the  fabric 
of  comparatively  recent  times.  England,  although  the 
last  of  the  great  powers  to  embark  upon  an  extensive 
colonial  policy,  has  far  outstripped  all  her  competitors, 
with  the  result  that,  at  the  present  day,  she  is  in 
possession  of  over  one-fifth  of  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
and  rules  over  a  quarter  of  the  world's  inhabitants. 
England's  insular  position  has  been  the  principal  agent 
in  building  up  this  immense  empire,  and  she  has  been 
thereby  enabled  to  take  full  advantage  of  any  conti- 
nental complications  in  which  her  rivals  may  have 
found  themselves  involved.  Thus  the  three  dates 
which  mark  successive  reductions  in  the  colonial  empire 
of  France  (1713,  1763,  1814)  are  red-letter  days  in^ 
British  colonial  annak. 

When  tEe  first  agents  of  the  new  European  trading 
companies  began  to  found  their  factories  along  the 
Indian  coast,  the  whole  of  the  peninsula  was  still  held 


70  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

by  the  strong  hand  of  the  Moghul  dynasty.  Accordingly 
we  j&nd  very  few  high-handed  proceedings  upon  the 
part  of  the  new-comers  such  as  we  shall  encounter  later 
on.  They  were  content  if  their  humble  suit  to  the 
Moghul  Emperor  secured  them  the  commercial  privileges 
which  as  yet  formed  the  uttermost  horizon  of  their 
ambitions.  At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
idea  of  making  broad  territorial  conquests  in  India  does 
not  seem  to  have  even  suggested  itself  to  the  servants 
of  the  European  companies.  The  English  company 
(chartered  in  1600)  did  not  seek  more  than  to  partici- 
pate in  the  prosperity  enjoyed  by  its  Portuguese  and 
Dutch  forerunners,  and  was  highly  well-pleased  at 
obtaining  from  1612  to  1616  grants  of  settlement  from 
the  Great  Moghul  at  Surat,  Ahmedabad  and  Cambay,  on 
the  west  coast.  It  was  advisable  to  keep  on  good  terms 
with  the  native  rulers,  whatever  might  be  their  dissen- 
sions with  European  rivals.  These  latter  led  to 
frequent  quarrels,  some  of  which  were  marked  by  horrors 
like  the  massacre  of  the  English  by  the  Dutch  at 
Amboyna  (1623). 

Had  the  Europeans  sought  at  this  period  to  obtain 
a  foothold  in  the  peninsula  on  anything  but  terms  of 
toleration,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  they  would 
have  found  their  match  in  Akbar  or  his  successors,  but 
even  as  late  as  1706  no  notion  of  conquest  had  passed 
through  the  minds  of  the  peaceful  members  of  the  old 
"John  Company."  A  good  dividend  was  the  whole  of 
their  desire.  But  the  days  of  the  Moghul  dynasty  were 
numbered;  the  chief  administrators  of  the  Moghul 
government  were  no  longer  to  be  kept  in  hand.  With 
the  death  of  Aurungzeb  the  dissolution  was  precipitated, 


SUCCESS  IN   IMPEEIALISM  71 

and  the  provincial  viceroys,  no  longer  held  in  awe  by 
the  central  authority  at  Delhi,  began  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. Thus  the  Nawab  Wazir  of  Oudh  became  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  independent.  Such  was  the  Nizam 
of  Hyderabad,  under  whom  stood  the  Nawab  of  Arcot, 
lord  of  the  Carnatic.  In  addition  to  this  internal  dis- 
ruption came  the  invasions  of  the  Hindu  powers,  Mara- 
thas,  Sikhs,  and  Rajputs,  and  the  power  of  the  Great 
Moghul  was  still  further  shaken  by  the  irruption  of  the 
Persians  under  Nadir  Shah  (1728),  which  ended  in  the 
sack  of  Delhi. 

It  was  this  state  of  aflfairs  which  led  Dupleix,  the 
French  director-general  at  Pondicherry,  to  conceive  the 
possibility  of  a  French  colonial  empire  in  India,  and 
his  rapid  progress  very  soon  showed  how  feasible  was 
his  idea.  The  English  were  now  not  long  in  adopting 
the  same  ambitions  as  those  of  the  French  director- 
general.  The  struggle  for  mastery  between  France 
and  England  lasted  with  very  brief  moments  of  respite 
from  1744  to  1763,  but  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  men 
like  Dupleix,  Labourdonnais,  Bussy,  and  not  least  of  all 
of  the  Bailli  de  Suffren,  who  worsted  the  English  fleet 
time  after  time  off  the  east  coast  of  India,  in  1782-1783, 
the  idea  of  colonial  expansion  had  not  really  been 
taken  to  heart  by  the  French  Government  at  home,  and 
the  successes  of  her  Indian  agents  were  unhesitatingly 
immolated  to  the  exigencies  of  European  politics.  We 
cannot  follow  out  the  course  of  subsequent  English 
expansion  in  India,  under  Clive,  Warren  Hastings, 
Cornwallis,  and  Wellesley.  The  resistance  they  met 
with  was  not  really  serious,  and  India  was  never  here- 
af ter^apable^  of  any  undivided  effort.     The  enei^ies^oJ 


72  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  country  appear  to  have  been  sapped  and  exhausted 
by_the_Mogh^  and  England^  in  buUdingup^^^h^ 

Indian  Empire,  was_  confronted^  with  jnu^ 
state  of  affairs  as  were  the  Eomans  in  their  imperial 
development.  The  nationalities  of  India  are  eflfete,  and 
both  with  and  without  the  benefits  of  British  rule  they 
have  remained  incapable  of  progress.  Will  they  ever 
arise  with  vigour  from  this  long  torpor  ? 

The  British  colonial  empire  is  entirely  dependent 
for  its  maintenance  upon  the  predominance  of  the 
British  fleet,  and  this  will  explain  the  care  and  lavish 
expenditure  which  Great  Britain  has  devoted  to  some  of 
her  smaller  possessions.  They  are  destined,  in  case 
of  war,  to  act  as  bases  for  naval  operations,  and  to  link 
together  the  outlying  colonies  of  the  Empire.  It  is, 
of  course,  quite  out  of  the  question  to  introduce  inde- 
pendent systems  of  government  in  these  purely  strategic 
possessions,  which  are  accordingly  bound  to  the  home- 
country  by  far  closer  ties  than  the  larger  agricultural 
colonies.  In  Europe,  England  possesses  Gibraltar, 
captured  from  the  Spanish  in  1704  by  a  combination  of 
the  English  and  Dutch,  and  ceded  in  1713  to  England 
by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  The  various  attempts  to 
retake  it  have  been  abortive,  and  from  1779  to  1783  it 
withstood  a  siege  upon  the  part  of  the  allied  Spanish 
and  French.  The  possession  of  Gibraltar,  now  rendered 
impregnable  at  immense  cost  of  money  and  labour, 
assures  England  an  entry  into  the  Mediterranean  in 
time  of  war,  and  communication  with  her  two  other 
European  outposts,  Malta  and  Cyprus.  It  is  probable 
that  the  artillery  of  Gibraltar  would  prevent  any  hostile 
fleet  from   coming   in   or   out   of    the   Mediterranean. 


SUCCESS  IN   IMPERIALISM  73 

Malta,  handed  over  to  England  by  the  Maltese  in  1800, 
after  the  capitulation  of  the  French  garrison,  and  ceded 
finally  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  1814,  is  a  strategic  point 
of  first-rate  importance,  dividing,  as  it  does,  the  Medi- 
terranean into  two  basins,  standing  midway  between 
France  and  her  most  important  colonies,  and  forming  a 
convenient  centre  of  operations  against  the  new  French 
naval  base  at  Bizerta.  Cyprus,  although  only  held 
under  convention,  is  not  likely  to  be  evacuated  except 
under  compulsion,  and  is  an  advanced  post  for  the 
control  of  the  Dardanelles.  It  is  possible  that  it  will 
be  converted  into  a  naval  station  as  important  as  Malta, 
whose  harbour  Valetta  is  considered  the  finest  in  the 
world.  Besides  these  important  points,  England  also 
retains  the^  Channel^ Islands  as  sentinels  to  watch  the 
movements  of  France's  magnificent  chain  of  northern 
ports.  We  can  do  little  more  than  enumerate  the 
British  points  of  vantage  in  remoter  parts.  Ad<^  and 
Perim  guard  the  Red  Sea,  Mauritius  stands  as  a  van- 
guard upon  the  Cape  route  to  India,  and  a  series  of 
strong  positions,  Pulo-Penang,  Singapore,  Labuan, 
Hong-Kong,  Port  Hamilton,  and  Wei-hei-Wei  are  ready 
to  meet  eventualities  in  the  Far  East.  It  ha-s  always 
been  the  policy  of  Great  Britam_to  try  and  close  all  the 
minor  seas  by  a  powerful  fortified  post  pitched  at  their 
outlet,  and  British  endeavours  to  secure  such  a  position 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Persian  Gulf  have  threatened  from 
time  to  time  to  induce  serious  European  complications. 
In  the  Atlantic  England  holds  three  exceptionally 
strong  points,  the  Bermuda^ Islands  acting  as  a  balance 
to  the  American  naval  base  at  Key  West,  and  further 
south  the  islands  of  Ascension  and  St.  Helena 


74  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

In  dealing  with  the  British  Empire,  we  cannot  insist 
too  strongly  upon  the  fact  that  historical  precedents  are 
entirely  wanting.  We  cannot  forecast  the  future  of  the 
British  Empire  by  an  appeal  to  the  lot  which  has 
befallen  the  greal  empires  of  the  past.  Any  comparison 
is  fictitious.  The  British  Empire  is  an  empire  sui 
generis.  We  have  seen  that  the  Roman  Empire  was  on 
the  whole  built  up  and  governed  on  entirely  difierent 
principles.  The  causes  of  the  growth  were  chiefly 
negative.  Other  empires  have  been  constructed  through 
the  individual  energies  of  great  fighters,  great  strategists; 
but  immediately  the  personal  link  was  broken  they  were 
destined  to  subdivide,  to  melt  away  as  rapidly  as  they 
had  been  put  together.  Perhaps  a  comparison  with  the 
present  Kussian  Empire  is  most  fruitful  in  reflection. 
The  Russian  Empire,  although  it  enjoys  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  geographical  continuity,  is  not  by  any 
means  at  the  same  stage  of  development  as  the  British 
Empire.  Russia's  energies  are  quite  absorbed  in  the 
task  of  assimilating  and  welding  into  a  homogeneous 
mass  her  vast  territories,  in  the  industrial  and  the 
agricultural  exploitation  of  her  dominions,  and  this  task 
will  preoccupy  her  for  generations,  at  least  for  a  century 
to^ma  Russia  is  really  already  at  a  standstill  in  her 
expansion,  and  as  soon  as  she  has  secured  her  maritime 
outlet  with  the  necessary  hinterland  we  may  expect  her 
to  limit  her  eS'orts  to  the  improvement  and  absorption 
of  her  present  possessions.  The  two  great  ambitions 
which  have  been  and  still  are  ascribed  to  Russia  are 
certainly  quiescent,  if  not  dead.  No  attempt  has  been 
made  on  the  part  of  the  Russians  since  1762  to  advance 
at  the  expense  of  Germany,  and  with  that  country  she 


SUCCESS  IN   IMPERIALISM  75 

has  maintained  unshaken  amity.  No  serious  endeavour 
has  been  aimed  at  conquering  Constantinople,  a  policy 
with  which  Russia  is  still  generally  credited. 

We  have  spent,  perhaps,  too  much  time  in  dwelling 
on  the  history  of  England's  tropical  colonies,  when  it 
is  to  her  colonies  of  white  population,  such  as  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  South  Africa,  and  Canada,  that  her 
grandeur  is  chiefly  due.  No  other  country  has  hitherto 
carried  out  a  colonial  policy  of  anything  like  comparable 
extent.  English  colonists  have  almost  always  preceded, 
not  followed,  the  addition  j)f_a  fresh  dominion  to  the 
Empire.  The  "  colony"  was  first  peopled  up  with  an 
energetic  British  population,  and  only  subsequently 
formally  annexed.  Owing  to  this  particular  feature, 
England  is  enabled  to  maintain  an  immensely  wide 
sway  at  the  minimum  of  expense.  The  plantation 
colonies  are  likewise  administered  at  the  present  day  on 
more  humane  lines,  and  their  government  is  not  carried 
out  with  a  main  view  to  benefiting  the  home  country. 


CHAPTER  Y 

INTELLECTUAL    SUCCESS. — I 

Not  every  manifestation  of  man's  thinking  power  constitutes  intellectual  pro- 
gress. The  Babylonians,  Egyptians,  Chinese,  and  Carthaginians,  too, 
had  books,  inventions,  intellectual  contrivances  of  all  kinds.  Examples. 
Yet  they  never  had  literature,  philosophy,  science,  or  art  proper.  What 
makes  these  four  products  of  the  human  mind  ?  Short  explanation  of 
the  salient  points  of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  literature,  philosophy, 
art,  and  science,  i.e.  Greek  works.  Their  essential  advance  on  all  pre- 
vious efforts.    Examples. 

We  have  in  the  present  chapter  to  deal  with  intellec- 
tual success,  and  from  the  beginning  crave  the  reader's 
indulgence  for  any  digressions  it  may  be  found  necessary 
to  make.  By  intellectual  success  should  be  understood 
success  in  the  production  of  works  of  artistic  value.  At 
the  very  outset  the  word  art  brings  us  into  collision 
with  a  stumbling-block.  Very  few  people  indeed  are 
possessed  of  anything  but  the  most  vague  and  illusory 
conception  of  the  nature  and  aims  of  true  art.  They 
have  doubtless,  as  they  are  themselves  convinced,  the 
capacity  for  appreciating  a  work  of  art  when  it  is  set 
before  them ;  but  ask  them  on  what  ground  and  prin- 
ciples they  base  their  appreciation,  and  they  will  be 
exceedingly  hard  put  to  find  an  answer.  Their  concep- 
tions may  be  instinctively  correct,  but  they  would  find  the 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  77 

greatest  diflSculty  in  formulating  them.  Perhaps  they 
have  even  been  led  astray  by  the  catchwords  of  so-called 
naturalistic  and  realistic  schools,  which  have  been 
founded  in  quite  recent  days  in  consequence  of  a  mis- 
conception of  the  very  essence  of  art.  They  profess 
that  the  very  perfection  of  art  lies  in  the  closest  possible 
imitation  of  nature.  Nothing  could  be  more  remote 
from  the  truth.  As  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see,  nature 
is  essentially  inartistic,  and  art  is  the  pride  and  privilege 
of  man  alone.  Perhaps  we  shall  have  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  true  definition  if  we  strike  a  mean 
between  two  famous  sayings  of  Aristotle,  that  art 
imitates  nature,  and,  secondly,  that  art  makes  that 
which  nature  could  never  make. 

Throughout  antiquity  one  nation  alone  can  be  said 
to  have  made  real  intellectual  progress.  Put  their 
hands,  put  their  minds  to  what  they  would,  the  Greeks 
almost  inevitably  produced  perfection.  There  exist 
people,  nevertheless,  who  would  still  rank  the  crude 
productions  of  Egyptian  manufactories  with  the  master- 
piece of  Pheidias  and  Praxiteles.  It  devolves  upon  us  to 
show  wherein  lies  the  difference  between  Greek  art  and 
Egyptian  pseudo-art ;  to  prove  that  the  same  principles 
underlie  Greek  art  in  all  its  branches ;  to  prove  that  our 
admiration  of  a  play  of  Sophocles,  and  of  the  Belvedere 
Apollo,  though  it  may  be  generated  by  difierent  senses, 
depends  upon  essentially  kindred  feelings. 

If  we  are  brought  into  contact  with  anything  that 
is  beautiful  we  experience  a  sensation  of  pleasure,  and 
granted  that  the  sensation  of  pleasure  is  at  all  keen, 
our  instinctive  desire  is  to  obtain  its  recurrence.  Our 
pleasurable  feeling    has   been   caused  by   a   beautiful 


78  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

object,  and  it  is  our  aim  to  reproduce  the  form  of  that 
beauty — that  is,  to  create  a  work  of  art.  Here  at  once 
becomes  apparent  the  wide  gulf  that  separates  nature 
from  art.  The  beauty  of  nature  is  almost  always 
defective,  or  at  least  it  is  accidental.  Possible  things, 
or,  at  best,  utility,  is  the  main  object  for  which  nature 
works,  it  is  not  her  end  to  be  beautiful.  Man  perceives 
the  beauty  of  nature,  idealizes  it,  laying  aside  all  utili- 
tarian imperfections,  and  produces  a  masterpiece  which 
is  perfect.  The  sole  aim  of  art  is  to  attain  the  supremely 
beautiful,  and  it  is  accordingly  freed  from  the  trammels 
which  hamper  nature. 

To  produce  a  work  of  art  requires  genius,  that  is, 
the  combination  of  a  true  appreciation  of  the  beautiful 
with  the  creative  power.  Without  the  creative  faculty 
a  man  may  have  subtle  taste ;  he  may  be  a  connoisseur, 
but  no  genius.  As  man  is  unable  to  create  the  sub- 
stantive part  of  his  work,  it  stands  to  reason  that  what 
he  does  create  is  the  form  in  which  the  substantive  part 
supplied  by  nature  is  presentable.  It  is  in  the  creation 
of  artistic  forms  that  the  Greek  excelled.  The  great 
problem  which  the  historian  of  Greece  has  to  solve 
is  why  a  small  nation  of  relatively  insignificant  numbers 
should,  in  the  short  span  of  only  a  few  centuries,  have 
been  enabled  to  conceive  ideals  in  almost  every  branch  of 
art,  after  which  all  the  other  peoples  of  antiquity  had 
striven  in  vain.  Until  he  can  throw  some  light  on  this, 
the  main  question  of  his  subject,  the  historian  has  done 
little  to  advance  us  in  the  true  knowledge  of  Greece. 

Let  us  note  a  few  of  the  artistic  forms  invented  by 
the  Greek,  especially  in  literature.  We  have  already 
seen   that,   among   the    pre-Hellenic    nations    of    the 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  79 

Mediterranean  basin,  literature  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word  cannot  be  claimed  to  have  existed.  Egypt  cannot 
boast  of  a  single  literary  form,  even  less  so  Babylonia. 
At  the  very  outset  of  Greek  history  we  have  to  face  the 
problem  of  the  Homeric  epics,  so  true  and  perfect  in 
their  form  that  they  have  never  since  been  rivalled. 
When  we  shall  see  later  with  what  painful  and  in- 
eflfectual  efforts  the  Middle  Ages  endeavoured  to  again 
realize  the  lost  ideal  of  the  epic,  we  shall  have  a  true 
grasp  of  the  magnitude  of  this  the  first  achievement 
of  Greek  letters.  The  Greek  then  presents  us  with  a 
tragedy  perfectly  developed,  a  form  of  literary  expres- 
sion which  was  entirely  original,  and  in  speaking  of  the 
tragedy  we  have  a  very  good  opportunity  of  disproving 
the  common  idea  that  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  art  is  perfect 
rendering  of  nature.  What  would  be  the  result  of  a 
faultless  reproduction  of  nature  in  tragedy  ?  Would  it 
not  be  the  achievement  of  disastrously  complete  illusion  ? 
It  is  the  aim  of  the  poet  to  excite  either  our  pity  or 
terror,  but  only  in  a  certain  degree  of  moderation.  Were 
the  illusion  complete,  what  audience  would  stand  such 
a  play  as  the  Iphigenia  in  Aulis?  Theatrical  reality 
would  of  all  things  be  the  most  intolerable  ;  it  would 
at  the  same  time  be  ineffectual ;  for  it  could  never  hope 
to  compass  the  horror  or  pity  experienced  in  real  life. 
If  illusion  were  what  we  really  desired,  we  should  rather 
go  to  the  operating  theatre  of  some  hospital,  or  visit 
a  slaughter-house.  It  is  clear  that  the  Greek  aimed  at 
something  very  different  when  his  sense  of  moderation 
forbade  him  to  represent  death  on  the  stage.  In  a 
Greek  play  murder  is  never  done  before  the  eyes  of 
the  audience,  and  if,  as  is  generally  the  case,  the  tragedy 


80  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

must  culminate  in  death,  the  supreme  act  takes  place 
out  of  sight  behind  the  scenes,  and  the  audience  is  only 
given  to  understand  indirectly  what  is  happening  or 
what  has  happened.  And  this  is  the  result  not  of  any 
religious  or  moral  scruple,  but  of  a  keen  artistic  sense 
of  what  is  befitting.  Modern  ideas  of  tragedy  are  not 
so  reserved,  and  often  lead  to  the  production  of  melo- 
drama, in  which  the  illusion  is  as  complete  as  it  is 
possible  to  make  it,  and  the  play  consequently  loses  its 
artistic  value.  Melodrama  and  literature  are  contra- 
dictions in  terms.  Let  the  reader  try  to  think  of  any 
melodrama  of  the  present  day  which  is  likely  to  be  read 
by  future  generations.  Our  children's  children  will 
not  read  The  Lights  of  London  or  Tlie  Silver  King 
in  place  of  Hamlet^  or,  at  least,  let  us  hope  not. 
Yet  those  two  plays  are  melodrama  carried  to  its 
perfection.     They  are  also  far  from  being  works  of  art. 

A  vitiated  conception  of  what  we  should  expect 
from  the  drama  has  been  conducive  to  several  other 
features  of  modern  theatrical  representations.  In  order 
to  heighten  the  illusion,  plays  are  over-staged,  enormous 
expense  is  incurred  in  obtaining  the  utmost  correctness 
of  historical  costume,  every  mechanical  contrivance  is 
requisitioned  to  produce  perfection  of  scenic  effects,  and 
yet  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  a  latter-day 
audience  listens  to  a  performance  of  Shakespeare  with 
the  keen  enjoyment  of  the  gatherings  at  the  old 
'*  Globe  "  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  scenery 
was,  for  the  most  part,  left  to  the  imagination  of  the 
spectator. 

With  the  decadence  of  the  Roman  Empire  the  ideals 
of  the  drama  were  lost  with  those  of  the  rest  of  art  and 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  81 

literature.  As  we  have  seen  the  Middle  Ages  groping 
to  recover  the  epic,  so  we  can  watch  them  feeling  about 
tentatively  after  the  long-forgotten  dramatic  forms,  or, 
rather,  endeavouring  to  create  them  afresh.  Their 
success  was  very  qualified ;  popular  as  the  mystery 
play  may  have  been  in  its  day,  it  never  realized  the 
height  of  art.  It  was  a  vain  endeavour  to  crush 
religious  thought  into  an  uncongenial  form.  The 
miracles  and  mysteries  are  now  dead  to  all  save  those 
who  care  to  resuscitate  them  out  of  philological  or 
historical  interest. 

It  has  never  yet  been  our  good  fortune  to  see  any- 
thing like  an  adequate  explanation  of  how  it  was  that 
the  Greeks  were  enabled  to  create  de  toutes  pieces  the 
drama.  Books  dealing  with  Hellenic  literature  either 
ignore  the  problem  altogether,  although  the  problem 
is  one  which  we  cannot  afford  to  neglect,  or  else  furbish 
up  some  solution  which  shivers  forlorn  in  spite  of  its 
ample  clothing  of  rhetoric.  Perhaps  this  indifference 
to  the  great  fundamental  questions  of  Greek  literature 
is  less  astonishing  when  we  reflect  how  little  has  been 
done  to  clear  up  the  origins  of  English  national  drama. 
Surely  it  is  a  matter  for  surprise  that  the  English,  of 
all  modern  nations,  should  have  produced  the  greatest 
of  all  European  dramatic  literatures  ;  that  a  country  in 
which  the  outward  display  of  emotion,  the  making  of 
gestures,  is  steadily  suppressed  from  the  earliest  age, 
should  have  brought  forth  tragedies  and  comedies  which 
can_standjcomparison  with  the  models  of  ancient  Greece. 
In  Italy,  where  we  could  well  have  expected  to  witness 
the  blossoming  of  a  great  and  original  drama,  where 
everyday  life  is  dramatic,  in  a  land  of  animation  and 


82  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

movement,  there  is  nothing  to  tally  with  our  expecta- 
tions. These  are  among  the  problems  which  lie  at  the 
base  of  literary  criticism,  but  which,  so  far,  have  been 
studiously  avoided. 

It  is  chiefly  this  bold  difi*erentiation  of  literary 
form  which  strikes  us  from  the  very  beginning  in 
Greek  letters.  By  the  time  that  Greek  literature  had 
begun  to  decline,  almost  every  form  known  to  us  in 
modern  times  had  been  developed  and  had  given  forth 
brilliant  examples.  We  have  added  very  little  to  these 
original  forms  created  by  Greece,  and  in  few  has^  the 
same  pitch  of  excellence  been  attained.  The  history  of 
European  intellectual  progress  is  the  history  of  spread- 
ing Hellenization.  The  real  advance  does  not  begin 
until  the  rediscovery  of  Greek  forms  at  the  Renaissance. 
It  was  the  recovery  of  the  old  forms  which  gave  the 
great  impetus  to  modern  literature.  The  subject- 
matter  already  existed,  and  was  only  waiting  for  a 
befitting  setting.  The  great  invention  of  modern 
literature  is  the  novel,  which  does  not  really  find  its 
prototype  in  ancient  literature.  We  are  in  no  way 
indebted  to  the  novels  of  Herondas  and  Apuleius. 

We  have  already  said  how  little  has  been  done  to 
explain  the  origin  of  Greek  literary  forms.  Let  us 
reflect  for  a  while  why  so  little  has  been  done.  Literary 
criticism  is  as  yet  in  its  infancy  ;  it  has  not  even  made 
the  progress  which  history  has  upon  scientific  lines. 
The  base  on  which  a  true  literary  criticism  will  have  to 
be  founded  is  the  psychology  of  nations,  and  as  yet 
little  has  been  done  in  this  direction.  It  is  only  in  quite 
modern  days  that  books  like  the  **  Volkerpsychologie  " 
of  Wundt  have  appeared  ;  and,  valuable  as  these  books 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  83 

may  be,  they  are  only  pioneers  which  are  opening  up 
the  first  tracks  through  a  primeval  waste  of  ignorance 
and  prejudice.  A  man  like  Professor  Wundt  has  to 
deal  with  very  great  problems,  however  simple,  almost 
childish,  they  may  appear  at  the  first  glance.  But  the 
great  problems  of  nature  generally  aim  at  the  explana- 
tion of  the  commonplace.  It  may  well  be  said  that 
the  genius  is  the  man  who  can  solve  the  commonplace. 
It  very  often  requires  a  genius  to  perceive  that 
great  questions  lie  in  the  simplest  phenomena  of  every- 
day observation.  It  required  a  Galileo  to  see  that  the 
solution  of  the  riddle  of  the  physical  universe  would  be 
substantially  advanced  by  watching  the  falling  of  two 
stones  of  unequal  magnitude  and  weight  from  the  top 
of  the  tower  of  Pisa.  Many  had  sought  to  explain  the 
startling,  striking  appearance  of  comets,  no  one  thought 
of  looking  into  so  simple  and  everyday  thing  as  the 
comparative  velocity  of  falling  stones.  Perhaps  the 
reason  why  so  little  progress  has  been  made  in  the 
scientific  study  of  history  and  literature  is  that  in  these 
branches  of  learning  we  are  less  ready  to  recognize  our 
want  of  knowledge.  Many  people  will  confront  you 
with  the  statement  that  they  know  history ;  they  would 
not  venture  to  say  the  same  with  regard  to  physics 
or  another  branch  of  natural  science.  In  effect  they 
not  only  do  not  know  history,  but  are  devoid  of  all  idea 
of  what  there  is  to  know.  In  dealing  with  questions  of 
history  and  letters,  both,  as  we  have  noted,  dependent 
upon  psychology,  we  are  met  with  another  considerable 
difficulty.  All  our  generalizations  must  of  necessity  be 
based  upon  sense  impressions  which  we  have  worked  up 
into  concepts.    Now,  in  questions,  say,  of  physics,  these 


84  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

sense  impressions  may  be  obtained  readily,  and  can,  as  a 
rule,  be  reproduced  with  suitable  apparatus  in  any  labo- 
ratory. But  suppose  we  wish  to  investigate  a  question 
of  national  psychology,  we  have  no  laboratory  to  appeal 
to,  we  must  seek  sense  impressions  in  the  world  abroad. 
In  order  to  comprehend  the  characteristics  of  one's  own 
nation,  one  must  subject  it  to  a  scrutinizing  com- 
parison with  other  nations.  How  difficult  is  this  com- 
parison to  make.  How  few  have  even  the  opportunity 
of  making  it.  It  implies  a  long  sojourn  in  foreign 
countries  of  a  person  endowed  with  keen  and  critical 
faculties  of  observation,  and  a  mastery  of  the  language 
and  literature  of  those  countries.  These  are  the 
essentials,  and  how  rarely  are  they  fulfilled.  But  with- 
out comparison  after  this  manner  there  can  be  no  real 
advance.  In  dealing  with  an  ancient  literature  our 
difficulties  are  increased  a  hundred-fold.  Direct  sense^ 
impression  it  is  impossible^or  us  to  have,  sojbhat  we^re^ 
compelled  to  establish  an  analogy  with  something^  ^^^L 
living  which  is  within  our  sjphere  of  observation.  In 
such  questions,  moreover,  our  judgment  is  especially 
liable  to  be  led  away  by  national  vanities  and  pre- 
judices and  personal  feelings.  It  is  almost  as  impossible 
for  an  Englishman  to  arrive  at  a  just  appreciation  of 
France  as  it  is  for  a  Frenchman  to  give  an  unbiassed 
opinion  upon  England.  The  statements  of  both  are 
certain  to  be  tinged  with  something  of  their  secular 
prejudices,  something  of  their  long-standing  antagonism. 
This  contempt  often  leads  to  the  neglect  of  comparison 
altogether.  Let  us  take  a  very  familiar  example. 
Nothing  strikes  an  Englishman  abroad  as  do  the  gestures 
with  which  all  those  who  meet  him  punctuate  their 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  85 

conversation.  The  continental  visitor  to  England  is 
equally  struck  by  the  absence  of  all  gesticulation.  Both 
will  be  pretty  certain  to  leap  at  an  uncharitable  explana- 
tion of  this  remarkable  diversity  of  manners.  As  the 
continental  will  ascribe  the  Englishman's  lack  of  anima- 
tion to  a  supposed  glacial  insularity  of  character,  the 
Englishman,  with  equal  bias,  will  put  down  the  vivacity 
of  the  foreigner  to  a  morbidly  nervous  state  of  tempera- 
ment, or  dismiss  it  as  a  ridiculous  affectation.  Surely 
it  is  a  little  too  much  to  suppose  that  some  forty 
millions  of  French  people  are  suffering  from  shattered 
nerves,  not  to  speak  of  countless  millions  of  Germans, 
to  whom  at  the  same  time  we  attribute  the  most  un- 
nervous  stolidity.  These  are  problems  which  must 
be  faced  without  national  prejudice.  They  may,  per- 
haps, at  first  appear  almost  childish  in  their  simplicity, 
but,  as  we  have  already  said,  it  may  be  the  solution 
of  just  such  a  simple  problem  which  will  supply  us  with 
the  key  to  far  greater  questions.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  facts  in  the  history  of  Greek  thought  that  the 
Greeks  devoted  themselves  especially  to  the  explanation^ 
of  the  apparently  most  simple  phenomena,  which  had 
hitherto  been  looked  upon  with  contempt  as  hardly 
worthy  of  notice.  Another  illustration  of  the  difficulty 
of  accounting  for  the  excellence  of  Greek  literature  can 
readily  be  found  when  we  reflect  on  the  difficulty  which 
attaches  to  a  subject  even  more  familiar  to  us.  We 
mean  French  prose. 

Very  little  has  ever  been  done  to  explain  the 
excellence  of  French  prose,  that  is  to  say,  how  it  is  that 
the  French  have  brought  their  prose  to  so  far  higher  a 
level  of  artistic  perfection  than  is  attained  by  English 


86  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

prose.  In  English  writers  the  subjectiveness  of  the 
prose  has  done  much  to  destroy  its  artistic  beauty. 
When  we  come  to  poetry  we  find  the  very  reverse  is 
the  case.  Here  English  is  as  far  above  French  as  we 
have  seen  French  is  superior  to  English  with  regard  to 
prose.  In  poetry  alone  does  English  escape  from  the 
trammels  imposed  upon  it  by  its  subject,  and  it  is  just 
in  poetry  that  French  falls  a  victim  to  its  subjectivity. 
In  modern  times  French  lyric  poetry  can  hardly  claim 
to  exist.  There  are  beautiful  pieces  by  Musset  and 
Victor  Hugo  and  many  others,  but  they  are  never  quite 
first  class.  Is  not  this  due  to  the  difierent  relation  of 
man  and  woman  in  France  ?  But  to  this  we  shall  recur 
when  speaking  more  particularly  of  France  in  a  later 
chapter.  The  best  way  of  realizing  the  great  art  of 
Greek  epics  is  to  compare  them  with  the  epics  of  other 
nations.  Not  long  after  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century,  attention  was  drawn  to  the  considerable  amount 
of  poetry  which  was  current  orally  among  the  older 
inhabitants  of  Finland,  and  was,  with  the  advance  of 
European  civilization,  in  imminent  peril  of  lapsing  into 
irrevocable  oblivion.  By  the  successive  labours  of  two 
Finnologues  of  eminent  learning,  Topelius  and  Lonnrot, 
a  great  quantity  of  this  indigenous  Finnish  literature 
was  saved ;  most  remarkable  is  the  celebrated  epic  the 
*'  Kalevala,"  which  excited  so  keen  an  interest  through- 
out Europe  that  it  was  translated  into  almost  every 
European  language.  Here  we  find  a  far  greater  effort 
towards  distinctive  form  than  we  have  seen  in  previous 
works  of  popular  poetry  ;  there  is  a  fine  metre  running 
all  through  the  poem,  which,  nevertheless,  falls  short  of 
the  Homeric  epics  by  an  immeasurable  gap.     And  what 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  87 

is  the  reason  ?  The  epic  form  is  impaired  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  mass  of  extraneous  matter,  which  detract 
from  the  unity  of  the  poem. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Greeks  clung  to  their  distinct  literary  forms 
will  be  found  in  their  conception  of  an  ideal  historical 
writing  such  as  we!  have  in  Thucydides.  Read 
Thucydides,  and  then  take  up  a  volume  of  some 
modern  historical  work,  and  the  immense  difference 
of  method  between  the  two  authors  will  be  at  once 
apparent.  We  do  not  intend  to  institute  a  comparison 
in  disparagement  of  modern  historians ;  all  that  we 
would  wish  to  show  is  that  their  aim  and  manner  of 
proceeding  is  essentially  different.  In  modern  writers 
the  historic  form  is  crushed  by  the  subjectiveness  of 
the  historian  himself ;  the  book  is  a  work  of  practical 
didactic  utility,  and  does  not  pretend  to  being  a  work 
of  art.  Let  us  take  a  typical  example  of  difference  of 
methods.  A  latter-day  writer  of  history  in  dealing 
with,  for  instance,  a  party  question,  takes  up  a  stand 
outside  his  subject.  He  will  express  in  his  own  words 
what  he  considers  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  the 
"Whigs,  or  the  tenets  of  the  Tories.  In  Thucydides 
there  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  personality  of  the 
author  is  relegated  to  the  background,  and  it  is  the 
historical  characters  themselves  who  speak  and  give  us 
an  insight  into  party  politics.  We  are  present  at  a 
debate  in  the  Ecclesia  (Assembly),  and  hear  the  great 
men  of  the  day  themselves  debating  the  pros  and  cons 
of  going  to  war.  The  speeches  reported  are  not  ver- 
batim notes  of  what  actually  took  place ;  they  are  very 
possibly  drawn,  as  far  as  language  is  concerned,  from 


88  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  imagination  of  the  author.  This  is  the  artistic 
method  of  writing  history.  It  has  the  advantage  of 
being  exceedingly  life-like,  and  any  one  who  has  read 
the  discussion  in  Thucydides  which  precedes  the  Sicilian 
expedition  is  not  likely  to  forget  it.  Whether  it  is  the 
best  method  with  a  view  to  subjective  utility  is  beyond 
the  question.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  comparative 
merits ;  nearly  all  our  great  historical  works  deal  with 
past  events  ;  Thucydides  is  the  historian  of  his  own  days. 
But  what  is  essential  is  that  Thucydides  has  produced 
a  work  of  art,  and  is  the  first  to  entirely  differentiate 
history  and  to  give  it  its  particular  and  appropriate 
form. 

It  is  precisely  this  form  that  is  difficult  of  attain- 
ment. Many  nations  of  modern  Europe,  as  well  as  of 
antiquity,  have  searched  for  it  in  vain.  Especially  is 
this  true  of  literary  formlessness.  We  find  peoples 
existing  for  whole  centuries  without  anything  at  all 
deserving  of  the  name  of  a  national  literature.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  among  them  are  very  many  people 
with  strong  mental  intellectual  qualities,  and  yet  they 
succeed  in  producing  nothing.  Is  not  this  because 
they  fail  to  find  the  appropriate  form  in  which  to 
embody  their  higher  aspirations  ?  Among  many  of  the 
nations  of  Eastern  Europe,  for  instance,  we  find  an 
astounding  faculty  for  brilliant  conversation.  In  every- 
day talk  it  is  often  one's  good  fortune  to  hear  gems  of 
thought  let  fall  with  the  utmost  nonchalance.  One 
would  expect  to  find  this  brilliant  wit  reflected  in  an 
equally  brilliant  literature.  But  nothing  of  this  kind 
happens,  and  it  never  reaches  paper,  and  if  ever  it  does, 
appears  stifi*,  awkward,  and  uninteresting  in  the  extreme. 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  89 

And  what  is  the  cause  ?  There  is  no  kind  of  literary 
form  to  give  it  appropriate  expression.  It  is  mere 
parlature ;  it  is  not  literature. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  it  is  especially  interesting  to 
note  the  ineffective  struggle  to  reach  this  form.  Objec- 
tive material  is  there  in  abundance.  There  are  adven- 
tures and  events  enough  to  provide  a  whole  library 
of  epics.  Nevertheless,  the  medieval  romances  are 
singularly  disappointing,  and  always  because  the  form 
is  indistinct  and  imperfect.  No  one  would  for  an 
instant  deny  that  the  "  Chanson  de  Eoland  "  contains 
the  most  brilliant  inspired  passages.  It  is  in  the  whole 
that  it  is  disappointing.  The  real  idea  of  an  epic  has 
become  blurred,  and  an  epical  poem  is  likely  enough  to 
contain  disquisitions  on  metaphysical  and  semi-scientific 
subjects,  an  intermixture  of  religion  and  of  almost 
anything  else.  It  becomes  finally  an  inextricable  maze, 
in  which  the  medieval  clerk  tries  to  give  vent  to  his 
views  and  ideas  upon  almost  every  conceivable  matter. 
Modern  poets,  with  a  truer  appreciation  of  their  art, 
have  taken  the  ground-ideas  of  very  many  of  those 
early  romances,  washed  them  free  of  all  their  unromantic 
dross,  and  served  them  up  for  us  in  a  clear-cut  poetic 
form.  But  any  one  who  has  had  his  imagination 
captivated  by,  say,  the  "  Idyls  of  the  King  "  of  Tenny- 
son, and  has  turned  back  to  see  what  the  medieval 
poems  a  the  Arthurian  circle  have  made  of  the  same 
material,  would  recognize  at  once  the  immeasurable 
superiority  of  the  modern  poet.  Men  of  decided  ability 
there  were  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  and  with  much 
of  value  to  impart,  but  they  were  unable  to  find  their 
true    literary   form,   and   accordingly   were   compelled 


90  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

either  to  hold  their  peace  or  to  express  themselves 
in  an  uncongenial  manner,  and  very  often  to  become 
grotesque. 

It  is  the  form  which  makes  the  artist,  as  it  is  the 
artist  who  makes  the  form.  Consider  what  would  have 
been  a  Wagner  without  his  particular  form.  His  glory- 
is  in  having  originated  a  new  form  of  operatic  expres- 
sion. Had  he  been  forced  to  adopt  one  of  the  already 
existing  forms  of  opera,  had  he  been  compelled  to  write, 
say,  sonatas  instead  of  discovering  the  famous  leitmotiv- 
music,  he  must  have  ended  in  fiasco.  A  similar  example 
is  afforded  by  Mr.  Whistler,  the  painter. 

In  Greek  philosophy  we  shall  also  observe  this  same 
conception  of  form,  but  in  philosophy  we  are  wont  to 
give  it  the  name  of  system ;  it  is  the  creation  of  one 
dominant  principle  from  which  radiate  all  other  thoughts 
and  conceptions.  The  Greek  was  the  first  to  distinguish 
between  a  systematic  philosophy  and  the  collections 
of  apophthegms  or  wise  sayings  which  had  hitherto 
been  the  supreme  achievement  of  other  nations  in  the 
direction  of  philosophy.  To  the  Greeks  we  owe  a 
system  of  thought ;  the  other  nations  of  antiquity  have 
no  doubt  bequeathed  us  learned  saws,  and  isolated 
thoughts  in  abundance.  They  are  mere  sparks,  mere 
scintillations  which  for  an  instant  of  time  illumine  the 
dark  abyss  of  human  existence  ;  the  Greek  has  kindled 
a  steady  burning  flame  by  which  we  may  pursue  our 
investigations.  In  a  word,  to  the  Greek  alone  we  owe 
system.  The  Greek  alone  was  able  to  generalize,  and 
we  shall  see  later  on  with  what  power  he  did  so  in  the 
realm  of  natural  science. 

Already  the  early  pre-Socratic  writers,  the  philo- 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  91 

sophers  of  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries  B.C.,  had  seized 
upon  the  two  main  ideas,  on  the  elaboration  of  which 
all  later  philosophies  depend.  These  are  the  ideas  of 
"  being  "  and  "  becoming  "  which  we  owe  to  Parmenides 
and  Heraclitus  respectively.  To  this  all  philosophic 
problems  come  back ;  they  are  all  problems  of  "  static  " 
or  of  "dynamic"  forces,  and  thus  depend  upon  the 
original  idea  of  Parmenides,  or  they  go  back  to  Herac- 
litus for  their  basis.  The  early  Greek  had  thus  hit 
upon  the  soul  of  philosophy.  Very  shortly  after  came 
Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle,  who  laid  the  foundations 
of  all  researches  into  human  thought.  Hitherto  all 
researches  had  been  directed,  as  it  were,  to  the  thought 
of  the  world.  The  philosophers  now  began  to  turn 
their  attention  to  the  mind  itself,  and  to  look  into 
the  working  of  man's  thought.  In  their  opinion  it 
was  useless  to  pursue  any  further  their  researches  into 
the  great  questions  of  the  causes  of  the  world  until 
they  should  have  discovered  the  value  of  their  instru- 
ment of  thinking  itself.  It  is  this  very  idea  which  lies 
at  the  root  of  Kant  and  his  philosophical  school.  The 
chief  thought  of  these  men  was  the  laying  down  of  the 
rule  of  relation  between  general  and  particular  concepts, 
a  relation  without  which  there  is  no  philosophic  thinking 
at  all.  The  predecessors  of  the  Greek  philosophers  had 
never  been  able  to  arrive  at  any  such  distinction. 
Their  isolated  ideas  they  had  embodied  in  Dicta,  in 
semi-scientific  myths  and  stories,  but  these  wise  sayings 
were  devoid  of  all  power  of  correlation,  or  philosophical 
power. 

In  science   the   Greek   supplied   the   same   artistic 
principles.     As  we  have  seen  in  former  chapters,  many 


92  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

of  the  great  nations  of  antiquity  had  of  necessity 
accumulated  masses  of  empirical  observations,  but 
system  they  were  never  able  to  attain.  In  all  their 
works  there  is  no  trace  of  correlation  or  co-ordination. 
Science,  if  looked  at  from  the  standpoint  of  mere  formal 
appearance,  may  very  properly  be  considered  to  be  an 
increasing  power  of  mental  "stenography."  As  our 
ability  to  generalize  becomes  greater,  so  the  bulk  of 
our  scientific  knowledge  is  continually  reduced.  We 
may  rightly  imagine  that,  say,  in  some  five  hundred 
years,  sciences  which  now  fill  some  three  or  four  folio 
volumes  may  by  generalization  be  reduced  within  the 
covers  of  a  thin  octavo.  It  is  quite  erroneous  to 
suppose  that  as  science  progresses  it  must  necessarily 
increase  in  mass.  It  is  frequently  said,  nevertheless, 
that  if  science  continues  to  advance  at  its  present  rate, 
scientists  will  be  compelled  to  specialize  in  very  narrow 
limits,  and  to  devote  themselves  to  some  outlying 
branch  of  science  exclusively.  All  this  is  essentially 
untrue.  In  order  to  obtain  a  concrete  idea,  onljr  look 
at  the  bulky  boqks^  pubUshed  on  natural  philosophy  ^ 
before  and  after  the  appearance  of  Newton^s  small 
treatise  on  natural  philosophy,  hi^  "Prin^^^^  (1687), 

and  you  are  at  once  struck  by  the  immense  reduction 
which  has  taken  place.  By  this  faculty  for  mental 
stenography,  by  powerful  and  far-reaching  generaliza- 
tion, whole  masses  of  material  are  narrowed  into  the 
smallest  possible  space.  Let  us  take  a  very  simple 
example.  Imagine  trigonometry  before  the  discovery 
of  the  famous  Pythagorean  theorem,  by  which  the  square 
on  the  hypotenuse  of  a  right-angle  triangle  is  proved  to 
be  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  squares  on  the  other  two 


INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS  93 

sides.  The  Egyptians,  although  able,  from  sheer 
empirical  data,  to  compute  the  length  of  the  third  side 
of  a  few  rectangular  triangles  whose  two  other  sides 
were  given,  were  yet  unable  to  make  this  computation 
for  any  triangle  of  that  kind.  What  the  Egyptian 
would  have  required  whole  shops  full  of  papyrus  to 
express,  was  reduced  by  the  Greek  formula  to  the  brief 
expression  a^  +  6^  =  c^.  Thus  also  the  very  converse 
of  the  common  idea  is  truth.  The  more  science  advances, 
the  less  will  the  scientist  require  to  specialize,  in  the 
old  sense  of  the  word. 

We  have  seen  during  the  last  century  men  of  the 
greatest  scientific  genius,  but  not  one  of  them  can  be 
said  to  have  been  a  specialist.  Helmholtz,  Virchow, 
Darwin,  Bunsen,  Lord  Kelvin^  all  spread  their  investi- 
gations over  wide  spheres  of  ^ience,  and  their  power 
of  generalization^as  thus  vastly  increased.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  the  human  mind  to  generalize.  In  art 
the  case  is  entirely  different.  Our  muscles  cannot 
generalize,  and  must  be  constantly  trained  to  their 
special  objects.  How  rare  it  is  to  find  even  an  eminent 
sculptor  who  is  an  eminent  painter.  It  is  to  the  Greek 
that  we  owe  the  power  of  scientific  generalization.  We 
must,  however,  not  suppose  that  the  Greek  was  a  despiser 
of  particular  facts.  We  have  only  to  read  the  works  of 
Aristotle  on  natural  history  to  have  an  idea  of  the 
immense  labour  he  must  have  undergone  in  the  col- 
lection of  facts.  He  always  went  to  the  direct  source  of 
knowledge  ;  he  must  have  gathered  his  information 
at  first  hand  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  He 
must  have  talked  with  fishermen  and  conversed  with 
farmers  and  cattle-breeders,  fowlers  and  hunters.     True, 


94  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

many  a  sage  in  Asia  had  done  the  same  before  Aristotle. 
The  Chinese  collected  vast  unwieldy  storehouses  and 
encyclopaedias  of  facts.  But  Aristotle  differs  from  them 
in  the  unerring  way  in  which  he  can  throw  his  know- 
ledge together  and  at  once  seize  upon  the  guiding 
generality  which  runs  through  it  all.  In  many 
instances  Aristotle  advances  theories  which  modern 
science  is  still  unable  either  to  confirm  or  refute.  He 
systematized  science.  What  the  great  Greek  artists 
and  poets  did  for  art  and  poetry,  Aristotle  and  his 
disciples  did  for  science.  They  gave  it,  once  for  ever, 
the  form  or  system,  without  which  knowledge  remains 
powerless,  because  shapeless.  The  moderns  have 
pointed  out  many  a  mistake  in  the  scientific  writings  of 
Aristotle,  and  Whewell  has  even  gone  to  the  extent 
of  saying  generally  that  he  tried  to  hang  a  real  pitcher 
on  to  a  painted  nail.  However,  Aristotle  only  erred, 
just  as  "omniscient"  Whewell  erred,  because  he  was 
human.  His  method  and  system  are  still  the  guiding 
stars  of  scientific  thinking.  He  fully  appreciated  in- 
ductive methods,  and  gave  its  true  value  to  thinking 
deductive.  The  form  of  strict  scientific  thought  is  still 
the  same  that  he  taught  it  to  be  when  walking  up  and 
down  in  the  Lyceum  of  Athens  over  two  thousand 
years  ago. 


CHAPTER  VI 

INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS. — II 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  an  over-exuberant  growth  of  intellectuality  deprives 
nations  of  much  of  that  grit  and  rough  energy  without  which  abiding 
commonwealths  cannot  be  established.  Thus  the  Hellenes,  the  Kenais- 
sance  Italians,  the  eighteenth  century  Germans,  etc.,  who  all  astounded, 
and  still  astound,  the  world  with  their  unparalleled  intellectual  achieve- 
ments, were  all  unable  to  hold  their  own,  and  were  either  ruined  or  came 
very  near  being  so.  Causes  of  intellectual  greatness.  Not  to  be  found 
in  race,  nor  in  ''  evolution,"  which  are  mere  words.    Historical  causes. 

Before  entering  on  an  investigation  of  the  causes  of 
intellectual  success,  we  hold  it  necessary  to  premise  a 
few  remarks  on  the  contrast  between  will  and  intel- 
lectual power.  Nature  has  drawn  a  very  clean-cut  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  two  powers.  In  the  brute 
creation  we  may  see  volition  at  work  untrammelled.  It 
is  not  our  business  here  to  discuss  the  vexed  question  of 
instinct,  but  suffice  it  to  say  that  when  once  the 
animal  has  conceived  some  particular  desire,  the  whole 
of  its  energies,  the  whole  of  its  being,  is  centred  on  the 
accomplishment  of  that  desire.  No  matter  what  hin- 
drances, what  obstacles  be  strewn  upon  its  path,  the 
animal  pushes  on  blindly  to  the  achievement  of  its 
object.  Especially  interesting  is  it  to  watch  the  action 
of    undiluted    will-power    in   the   case    of    gregarious 


96  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

animals,  where  the  community,  fired  by  the  same  wish, 
is  able  to  bring  most  formidable  forces  to  bear.  There 
is  no  reasoning  when  once  the  desire  has  flashed  across 
the  animal  brain.  Consider  the  migrant  birds  when 
once  they  feel  that  it  is  time  to  be  moving  southwards ; 
nothing  can  stay  them.  Storms  and  high  winds  will 
not  make  them  postpone  for  one  hour  the  moment 
of  their  leave-taking.  Theirs  is  not  to  reason  out  their 
travelling  prospects,  to  balance  the  risks  of  delay 
against  the  risks  of  voyage  by  inclement  weather. 
They  must  obey  the  imperious  call  of  their  volition, 
unquestioning  and  unreasoning.  Every  one  must  re- 
member years  when  thousands  of  swallows  have  been 
driven  back  to  perish  upon  the  coasts,  all  for  having 
precipitated  their  journey  by  a  few  hours.  The 
lemmings  of  Sweden,  advancing  over  hill  and  water 
straight  for  the  sea,  where  all  of  them  are  drowned,  are 
the  martyrs  of  a  dominant  will-power.  In  every 
branch  of  animal  life  we  may  observe  the  same 
phenomena  in  a  more  or  less  striking  degree.  Volition 
is  followed  by  headlong  action  which  cannot  be  checked 
by  any  sense  of  shame  or  even  fear.  It  is  this  gigantic 
'  development  of  will-power  alone  which  enables  creatures 
like  ants  and  bees  to  accomplish  works  which  man 
would  consider  a  glory.  But  these  works  are,  as  a  rule, 
carried  out  at  a  cost  of  life  and  limb  which  man,  en- 
dowed with  reasoning  power,  and  refusing  to  be  entirely 
enslaved  by  his  desires,  would  avoid  through  some 
intelligent  expedient.  The  life  of  an  animal,  however, 
turns  entirely  upon  the  carrying  out  of  its  specific  duty, 
and  if  it  is  hindered  in  this,  life  is,  as  a  rule,  the  penalty. 
It  is  the  prerogative  of  man  to  be  able  to  dominate 


INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS  97 

his  will-power  instead  of  allowing  his  will-power  to 
entirely  master  him.  But  this  prerogative  is  not 
shared  by  all  mankind  in  an  equal  degree.  The  balance 
between  will-power  and  intellect  is  rarely,  if  ever,  level ; 
it  sometimes  dips  in  the  direction  of  the  former,  some- 
times of  the  latter.  We  have  here  to  treat  of  nations, 
and  not  of  individuals,  and  we  shall  find  the  distinction 
clearly  marked  between  what  we  may,  perhaps,  be 
permitted  to  call  the  volitional  nations  and  the  intel- 
lectual nations.  To  the  former  class  belong  the 
Romans  and  the  English.  To  the  latter,  in  a  greater  or 
lesser  deo-ree,  belonoj  most  of  the  countries  of  con- 
temporary  continental  Europe,  and  to  it  belonged  the 
Italians  of  the  Renaissance  and  the  ancient  Greeks. 

No  one  can  deny  that  the  over-intellectualization  of 
a  nation  entails  the  loss  of  a  great  deal  of  that  grit  and 
rough  energy  which  is  necessary  in  the  struggle  for 
existence.  We  find,  the  Greeks,  after  a  short  period, 
during  which^  their  intellectual  activity  \^^^  displayed 
with  unparalleled  brilliance,  falling jtdctims  to  the  in- 
vader;  political  steadfastness  and  integrity  are  missing, 
and  treachery  is  rife.  We  see  the  same  thing  again 
among  the  fifteenFh  and  sixteenth  century  Renaissance 
Italians,  whose  marvellous  outburst^  of  intellectual 
vigour  is  quickly  followed  by  national  ajgathy.  Once 
more  the  same  thing  happens  with  the  eighteenth 
century  Germans.  It  is  then  that  German  literature 
grew  up  in  a  very  few  years,  after  centuries  of  almost 
complete  silence.  But  these  prodigies  of  art  are  not 
accompanied  by  any  corresponding  move  forward  in  the 
growth  of  national  unity.  Germany  is,  then,  even  more 
dismembered  and  torn  by  internal  dissensions  than  ever. 

H 


98  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

The  Germans  themselves  appear  politically  enervated, 
atrophied.  Every  petty  German  princelet  is  able  to 
sell  his  subjects  with  impunity  to  the  highest  bidder. 
There  scarcely  seems  any  one  to  utter  a  word  of  protest, 
and  German  troops  are  bartered  to  any  power  whose 
purse  is  deep  enough  to  pay  for  them.  England  is  an 
especially  good  customer  in  this  military  slave-market, 
and  Hessian  regiments  are  employed  by  her  in  her  un- 
availing attempts  to  keep  down  the  insurgents  in  her 
revolted  American  colonies.  English  subsidies  keep 
the  heads  of  many  a  minor  German  sovereign  above 
water.  But  Germany  had  not  gone  absolutely  to  wreck 
and  ruin  when  there  came  the  battle  of  Jena,  October, 
1806,  which  in  one  day  brought  her  to  the  lowest 
verge  of  humiliation ;  it  also  called  her  to  her  senses 
before  it  was  too  late.  Germans  began  to  see  that,  if 
you  require  to  keep  a  place  in  the  world,  you  must  have 
something  of  a  more  virile  fibre  than  mere  Gemut, 
Gefuhl,  and  Idealismus,  something  more  than  an 
eternal  adoration  of  abstract  Schonheit,  The  day  of 
jJena  was  the^  foundation  of  German  greatness.  A 
sudden  change  came  over  German  minds,  and  they 
began  to  strike  out  the  new  path  which  was  to  lead 
them  on  the  road  to  Sedan  and  the  capitulation  of 
Paris.  Without  abandoning  his  intellectual  ambitions, 
the  German  began  to  cast  aside  the  unpractical  ex- 
aggerations to  which  he  had  carried  them,  and  to  take 
a  more  matter-of-fact  and  worldly  view  of  life. 

It  is  very  questionable  whether  nations  ever  have, 
or  ever  will  be,  able  to  maintain  a  mean  between 
intellect  and  will-power;  of  all  modern  nations,  the 
Germans  have  certainly  come  nearest  to  the  attainment 


INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS  99 

of  such  an  ideal.  The  Americans  have  not  reached  it, 
as  a  whole,  though  doubtless  there  are  many  men  in 
the  Eastern  States  who  may  claim  to  have  reached  it 
individually.  We  are,  however,  not  dealing  with  in- 
dividuals, but  with  nations.  This  balance  between 
intellect  and  volition  is  rare  enough  even  in  single 
persons,  and  when  it  does  occur  it  produces  such  men 
as  Napoleon  or  Bismarck.  Napoleon  had  an  iron  will, 
rather  a  will  of  hardest  tempered  steel,  but  it  was  allied 
to  a  military  and  political  genius  of  the  first  order. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  investigate  the  nations  gifted  with 
superabundant  will-power.  Typical  are  the  English, 
and  when  once  this  leading  trait  of  all-predominating 
will-power  is  grasped,  it  will  serve  as  a  lever  to  solve 
many  of  the  most  interesting  problems  of  English 
national  psychology.  In  England  we  have  the  true 
cult  of  will-power.  The  Englishman's  idea  is  that  the 
world  is  ruled  by  character,  by  will,  and  in  order  to 
secure  himself  that  dominion,  he  applies  himself  to  the 
development  of  those  qualities.  The  world,  however,  as 
we  shall  later  on  see,  cannot  be  governed  by  will  alone. 
This  hypertrophy  of  the  will-power  can,  indeed,  claim 
manifold  advantages.  It  is  to  this  that  the  Englishman 
owes  that  persistent  bull-dog  tenacity  which  he  sets  on 
high  as  his  ideal.  It  is  an  ideal  which  will  carry  a  man 
far  in  business,  will  permit  him  to  hold  on  through 
years  of  comparative  ill-success,  until  he  finally  succeeds. 
It  is  to  this  quality  that  the  Englishman  owes,  no 
doubt,  in  no  small  degree,  his  success  as  a  colonist  and 
as  an  empire-builder.  It  is  the  quality  which  will  keep 
a  man  at  his  post  in  the  distant  out-stations  of  civili- 
zation, and  make  him  settle  far  away  from  home. 


100  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

It  is  the  superabundance  of  this  quality  which  will 
go  far  to  explain  the  many  anomalies  of  English  life 
and  customs.     From  the  verj  earliest   childhood   the^ 
I  English  boy^  is  subjected  to  methodical  will-culture ; 
he   is  soon  trained  to  suppress  to  the  uttermost  all 
external  signs  of  emotion ;  he  is  habituated  to  seeing 
his  future  in  the  exercise  of  his  will-power ;  and  when 
he  goes  to  school  he  is  practically  given  over  to  his 
j  own  initiative.     At  fifteen  he  already  feels  oppressed 
by  the  responsibility  of  his  own  career ;   the  wnole  of 
»  his  education  runs  on  profoundly  anti-continental  lines  ; 
\  he  is  not  at  all  discouraged  in  the  idea  that  his  school 
j  is  intended  to  develop  his  pluck  and  resistance  very 
\  much  more  than  his   intellectual   capacities.     At   the 
f  time   when   a   French   boy,  perhaps   intellectually  far 
j  more  advanced,  is  yet  a  child  in  character,  the  English 
I  boy  is  already  in  possession  of  the  qualities  which  are 
«  to  carry  him  through  life.     His  mental  equipage  may 
not  be  very  heavy,  but  he  has  an  energy  d  toute  epreuve. 
Surely  there  is  much  in  all  this  to  account  for  the  gloom 
which  overhangs  most  circles  of  English  private  life? 
It  is  in  the  youth  of  a  country,  careless  of  the  morrow, 
that  lies  the  cheerfulness  of  a  people.     The  English  boj 
Js  not  careless  of  the  morrow;   he  feels  the  responsi^ 
bilities  of  man's  estate,  and  nothing  ages  so  much  as 
responsibility.     Surely  there  is  something  much  more 
logical  in  this  explanation  than  in  the  pseudo-psychology 
of  Professor  Boutmy,  of  Paris,  who  ascribes  all  the  idio- 
syncracies  of  English  character   to   the   most   absurd 
climatic  influences.     But,  like  many  latter-day  philoso- 
phers on  both  sides  of  the  Channel,  he  draws  the  data 
for  his  comparisons  in  great  measure  from  books,  and 


INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS  101 

books  do  not,  as  a  rule,  give  a  true  reflection  of  national 
life.  The  French  novel  accounts  for  the  numberless 
caricatures  of  French  life  which  people  the  English 
brain,  but  the  gulf  between  the  French  novel  and 
French  life  is  as  wide  as  the  gulf  between  earth  and 
heaven.  The  French  novel  gives  a  picture  of  French 
life  much  like  the  image  which  the  convex  mirror  gives 
of  the  human  form. 

The  idealization  of  will-power  has  played  no  in- 
significant rdle  in  the  growth  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion. In  no  modern  state,  save  England,  has  the  action 
of  will-power  been  allowed  so  free  a  course.  Where 
other  European  countries  have  introduced  bureaucratic 
methods,  England  has  adhered  to  what  we  may  perhaps 
call  volitional  methods.  What  could  be  more  foreign 
to  the  Continental  mind  than  the  growth  of  English 
judge-made  law?  Continental  law  and  procedure  has, 
thrqugh^the  actionjDf  intellect,  long  been  reduced  to  a 
code,  while  in  England  the  judge  retains  not  only  the 
prerogative  of  law  administration,  but  also  of  law- 
making. Law,  as  it  were,  has  beenjeft  largely  to  the 
will  of  Englishjudges. 

This  very  brief  outline  of  the  action  of  a  super- 
developed  volition  upon  the  progress  of  a  nation  will 
serve  as  an  excellent  basis  of  comparison  against  which 
the  institutions  of  Continental  nations,  the  intellectual 
nations  par  excellence  should  show  up  in  bold  relief. 
We  shall  later  have  an  opportunity  of  amplifying  what 
we  have  to  say  of  England.  For  the  nonce  let  us  con- 
fine ourselves  to  the  investigation  of  the  causes,  results, 
and  methods  of  intellectual  success. 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  downfall  of  the 


102  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Greek  states  may  to  no  mean  extent  be  attributed  to 
their  over-intellectualization.  Consider  for  a  moment 
the  effect  of  this  abnormal  culture  of  intellect  on  the 
Greek  character  in  general.  The  artistic  temperament 
must  certainly  have  been  distributed  through  the 
population  of  the  Greek  city-states  to  an  extent  which 
at  the  present  day  we  have  the  greatest  diflSculty  in 
realizing.  Even  in  latter-day  France,  where  esprit  is 
spread  over  almost  every  class  of  society,  there  is, 
nevertheless,  nothing  like  a  parallel.  Think  of  the 
vast  theatre  of  Dionysus  at  Athens,  which  could  hold 
almost  the  whole  population  of  the  city,  packed  to  over- 
flowing with  an  enthusiastic  and  really  appreciative 
audience,  that  never  missed  a  point,  however  subtle, 
either  in  comedy  or  tragedy  ;  and  we  shall  probably 
gain  some  faint  idea  of  what  the  inhabitants  of  a  Hel- 
lenic city-state  were  intellectually.  But  the  abuse  of 
intellect  brings  its  inevitable  consequences.  This  ex- 
aggerated artistic  temperament  hates  the  rough  contact 
of  real  life.  It  engenders  an  over-sensitiveness  to 
which  physical  hardships  become  intolerably  repugnant. 
It  creates  what  the  French  have  so  aptly  termed 
Vame  du  jouisseur.  We  can  very  well  imagine  how  to 
the  subtle  mind  of  the  Greek  of  the  period  of  de- 
cadence any  decided  course  of  action  became  difficult, 
if  not  impossible.  The  fault  with  him  was  not  that  he 
was  not  able  to  grasp  the  political  questions  with 
which  he  was  confronted,  but  that  he  grasped  them  so 
well,  that  he  was  able  to  conceive  endless  solutions 
to  them.  Ways  out  of  his  difficulties  he  could  find 
in  numbers;  but  he  lacked  the  will-power  and  deter- 
mination  to   carry  out  any  one   of  them  with   con- 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  103 

sistency.  He  could  see  not  only  one  side  of  a  question, 
but  infinite  sides.  His  misfortune  was  to  see  not  only 
the  pros  of  a  course  of  action,  but  the  cons  too ;  and 
by  the  time  the  balancing  of  this  advantage  against 
that  drawback  was  complete,  the  moment  for  action 
was  gone  by.  He  had  to  pay  the  penalty  for  his  over- 
subtlety,  which  could  not  only  split  a  hair,  but  split 
again  into  five  or  six  the  hair  which  had  already  been 
split  countless  times  before.  It  was  thus  that  the 
Greek,  after  the  Roman  conquest,  became  the  little 
Grceculus  of  his  victor,  who  was  found  useful  as  a 
tutor  or  as  an  ofiSce-clerk,  to  be  treated  with  a  certain 
sort  of  mild  contempt.  We  can  quite  understand  the 
double  current  of  feeling  which  we  see  running  through 
Roman  minds,  an  admiration  of  Hellenic  culture  at  its 
best,  the  culture  on  which  all  Eoman  intellectual  pro- 
gress was  based,  and  a  contemptuous  disdain  for  its 
latter-day  representatives.  The  Greek,  under  the  later 
Roman  Republic  and  the  beginning  of  the  empire, 
stood  very  much  upon  the  same  footing  as  the  Bahu  of 
contemporary  India,  another  very  typical  example  of 
the  efiects  of  over-intellectuality. 

In  the  city-states  of  Italy  under  the  Renaissance 
every  one  was  an  artist,  men  and  women,  we  might 
even  say  children ;  for  many  a  genius  of  the  Renais- 
sance began  to  display  his  powers  at  a  precociously 
early  age.  If  every  ^citizen  was  not  an  author  of 
artistic  productions,  he  was  at  least  a  refined  ^(?w- 
noisseur.  In  art,  as  we  have  seen,  individualization 
is  all-important — it  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  art;  but 
the  Renaissance  Italian  carried  this  individuality  be- 
yond the  domain  of  art  into  every  sphere  of  practical 


104  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  political  life.  His  whole  being  was  revolted  by  the 
idea  of  a  syndicate.  He^  could  as  little  conceive  that 
«iny_advantage_  should  arise  in  matters  political  from 
union  as  he  couW„  imagine  that  a  masterpiece  jof_art 
could  be^reatedby_the  collaboration  of  several  separate 
artists.  The  national  unity  of  Italy  appeared  as  great 
an  absurdity  to  him  as  would  have  seemed  the  execu- 
tion of  a  statue  by  a  combination  of  several  workmen. 
It  became  his  ambition  to  multiply  political  in- 
dividualities as  it  had  hitherto  been  his  business  to 
multiply  artistic  individualities.  Concerted  action  on 
the  part  of  the  Italian  city-states  scarcely  entered  his 
mind.  When  such  concerted  action  did  take  place  it 
was  never  complete,  never  unanimous,  and  was  only 
performed  at  a  moment  of  imminent  and  overwhelming 
danger.  Directly  immediate  peril  had  disappeared  this 
momentary  union  collapsed,  and  the  various  small 
states  reassumed  their  normal  state  of  internecine 
hostility.  There  is  continual  war  of  Pisa  against 
Florence,  of  Genoa  against  Venice,  of  Lucca  against 
Arezzo,  in  fact  of  every  city  against  every  other  city. 
As  Aristotle  has  well  said,  with  that  keen  and  astound- 
ing insight  into  the  very  heart  of  things  which 
characterizes  his  remarks  on  almost  every  subject  he 
may  happen  to  handle,  Greece  united  could  have  ruled 
the  world.  With  how  much  more  truth  might  the 
same  have  been  said  of  the  Italians  at  the  Eenaissance. 
But  this  want  of  union  was  also  the  essential  of  their 
artistic  pre-eminence.  Italy  was  redundant  with  the 
greatest  men  of  genius  that  have  been  known  to  modern 
times.  But  the  very  passion  for  indiyid.uality  which 
gave  birth  to  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Leon  Battista  Alberti, 


INTELLECTUAL   SUCCESS  105 

Kafael,  to  Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti,  to  Macliiavelli, 
to  Giordano  Bruno,  produced  as  a  necessary  pendant 
such  types  as  the  Sforzas  and  Borgias.  The  Italians, 
sunk  in  artistic  abstraction,  fell  a  prey  to  a  handful  of 
vile,  and  profligate,  and  often  illiterate  despots,  whose 
yoke  the  want  of  political  cohesion  and  decision 
amongst  the  people  of  Italy  would  not  permit  them  to 
shake  offl  How  similar,  how  strikingly  parallel,  was 
the  state  of  affairs  in  Germany  towards  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  we  have  already  had  occasion 
to  show. 

The  most  ingenious  books  have  been  written  en- 
deavouring to  apply  the  theory  of  race  to  the  explana- 
tion of  the  rise  of  intellect  among  nations.  But  the 
racial  theory  has  been  ridden  to  death.  After  a  long 
struggle,  it  is  now  being  eventually  abandoned  by  its 
most  fanatical  adherents  in  the  ranks  of  modern  his- 
torians. But  the  average  man  still  pins  his  faith  to  it. 
The  ordinary  Englishman  still  attributes,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  attribute,  the  success  of  his  nation  to  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock ;  there  is  something 
extremely  flattering  to  national  pride  in  the  notion.  It 
also  permits  of  a  rapid  and  complete  annihilation  of  the 
so-called  Latin  races.  The  Frenchman  is  also  fired  by 
a  kindred  admiration  for  all  that  has  issued  from  the 
Gallo-Eoman  blood,  a  theory  which  also  allows  of  the 
equally  rapid  and  complete  disposal  of  all  that  is  Teutonic 
and  Anglo-Saxon.  We  have  already  shown  how  abso- 
lutely impossible  and  inapplicable  such  theories  are  in 
the  scientific  study  of  history.  Race  is  quite  impossible 
of  identification,  and  where  we  can  to  some  extent  follow 
out  the  lines  of  ethnographical  demarcation,  it  does  not 


106  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

in  any  way  correspond  with  the  national  frontier.  We 
must  seek  for  some  more  substantial  basis  on  which  to 
found  our  theories  of  the  causes  of  intellectual  growth. 

We  must  at  once  insist  upon  the  state  of  intellectual 
stagnation  in  which  the  nations,  who  have  been  pre- 
served from  all  contact  with  foreign  neighbours,  who 
have  been  cut  off  from  all  sources  of  foreign  immigration, 
have  remained.  We  have  in  the  earliest  chapters,  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  succeeded  to  some  extent  in  convincing 
the  reader  of  the  intellectual  nonentity  of  ancient 
Egypt.  Now  Egypt  is,  above  all,  a  neighbourless 
land,  shut  off  by  impenetrable,  natural  boundaries  of 
waste  and  desert  from  uninterrupted  contact  with  the 
outside  world.  Let  this  sufl&ce  as  a  negative  illustra- 
tion of  our  theory.  We  shall  now  proceed  to  prove 
that  all  the  nations  of  antiquity,  as  of  modern  times, 
which  have  the  glory  of  being  initiators  of  great  intel- 
lectual progress,  have  been  border  nations.  Situated 
upon  the  confines  of  some  great  empire,  they  have  also 
been,  on  the  whole,  comparatively  insignificant  nations 
on  the  score  of  numbers.  The  mind  of  man,  it  must  be 
said  with  regret,  is  very  prone  to  sloth.  Unless  he  is 
to  derive  some  benefit  from  mental  activity,  he  is  not 
likely  to  put  himself  out.  This  applies  to  the  early 
manifestations  of  intellectual  activity ;  once  the  stimulus 
is  given  the  process  is  likely  to  continue  for  some  time. 
But  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  principle,  that  progress  of 
intellect  has  always  been  manifested  in  response  to  some 
external  stimulus.  Let  us  consider  for  the  moment  the 
conditions  of  existence  of  border  nations.  Their  num- 
bers will  not  permit  them  to  sustain  a  struggle  of  main 
force  against  their  more  powerful  neighbours ;  they  must 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  107 

seek  for  some  efficient  weapon  with  which  to  ward  off 
the  onslaught  of  their  outnumbering  foes.  The  only 
such  weapon  is  to  be  found  in  a  superior  intelligence ; 
directly  intelligence  stands  at  a  premium  it  begins  to 
appear.  A  superior  degree  of  intelligence,  superior 
mental  capacity  alone,  could  save  the  Phoenicians  from 
their  Hittite,  Assyrian,  Persian,  Egyptian,  and  other 
neighbours.  The  great  outburst  of  Greek  genius  takes 
place  just  at  the  moment  when  the  Hellenes  had  suc- 
ceeded in  stemming  first  the  old  Asiatic  empires 
(1000  B.C.)  and  then  the  flood  of  Persian  invasion 
(fifth  century  B.C.).  The  cities  of  North  Italy  rise  into 
eminence  at  the  very  moment  they  are  able  to  cast  off 
the  yoke  of  subservience  to  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire; 
Venice  when  she  was  free  from  allegiance  to  the  Byzan- 
tines. The  manifestations  of  Italian  intellect  are  the 
echo  of  Legnano,  where  Emperor  Barbarossa  was  utterly 
routed  by  the  Lombard  city-states. 

We  have  seen  some  of  the  pernicious  results  of  over- 
intellectuality  upon  the  nations  of  modern  Europe.  Let 
us  endeavour  to  show  some  of  the  means  by  which  they 
seek  to  combat  this  over-intellectuality,  or  rather  to 
compensate  for  it  by  a  restoration  of  the  balance  of 
will-power.  The  great  nations  of  Continental  con- 
temporary Europe  have  adopted  an  artificial  means  of 
developing  the  defective  volition  of  their  citizens.  Up 
to  the  time  of  his  majority  the  young  man  of  the  Con- 
tinent has  led  a  very  different  life  to  his  English  counter- 
part. He  has  been  subjected  to  a  course  of  intellectual 
raining,  which  has  been  carried  out  with  but  little 
regard  to  the  development  of  his  will-power.  Few 
people  have  any  idea  of  the  grinding  intellectual  mill 


108  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

through  which  the  average  Continental  youth  has  to 
pass.  In  Hungary  the  Prussian  system  of  intellectual 
gymnastics  is  carried  out  with  unheard-of  vigour.  For 
nine  and  a  half  months  in  every  year  the  average 
Hungarian  boy  is  compelled,  in  accordance  with  the 
Ministerial  curriculum  of  secondary  education,  to  toil 
every  week  through  twenty-eight  lectures,  dealing  with 
almost  every  branch  of  knowledge.  The  ordinary  day's 
labour,  when  home-work  is  included,  can  seldom  fall  short 
of  eight  hours.  Physical  and  bodily  exercise  are  only 
assigned  two  hours  a  week,  and  the  games  which  form 
so  prominent  a  feature  of  English  school-life  are  prac- 
tically unheard  of.  The  pity  of  it  all  is  that  this 
intellectual  surfeiting  entirely  misses  its  object.  If  this 
educational  system  does  not  prepare  a  man  for  the 
actual  difficulties  of  existence,  we  might  at  least  expect 
that  it  would  lead  to  the  most  remarkable  intellectual 
achievements.  Alas !  nothing  of  the  kind.  Hungary 
has  failed  to  startle  the  world  with  great  philosophies, 
great  inventions,  or  great  commercial  enterprises ;  she 
has  not  even  produced,  in  contemporary  days,  an  even 
third-rate  musical  composer!  And  the  reason  is  that 
the  state  has  developed  the  intellectual  faculties  at  the 
cost  of  the  volitional.  The  reaction  from  this  intellectual 
grind  is  very  great,  and  there  is  nothing  to  be  surprised 
at  when  we  see  the  young  man,  who  has  by  eighteen 
rushed  superficially  over  half  the  sciences,  disgusted 
for  the  rest  of  his  life  with  all  serious  reading.  His 
varnish  of  education,  however,  has  given  him  the  idea 
that  he  is  really  instructed ;  it  has,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
only  enabled  him  to  dilute  all  knowledge  with  a  flood  of 
rhetoric.    Taine,  in  one  of  his  best  passages,  has  branded 


INTELLECTUAL  SUCCESS  109 

this  system  of  over-straining  the  young  mind.  We 
quote  him  in  his  own  words  :  **  Lorsque  Tacquisition 
des  cadres  generaux  est  aisee  et  precoce  I'esprit  court 
risque  de  devenir  paresseux.  .  .  .  Souvent,  au  sortir  du 
college,  presque  toujours  avant  vingt-cinq  ans,  il  possede 
ces  cadres,  et  comme  ils  sont  commodes,  il  les  applique  a 
tout  sujet ;  desormais  il  n'apprend  plus,  il  se  croit  suffi- 
samment  muni.  II  se  contente  de  raisonner  et  souvent 
il  raisonne  a  vide.  II  n*est  pas  au  fait;  il  n'a  pas  le 
renseignement  special  et  concluant ;  il  ne  sent  pas  qu'il 
lui  manque,  il  ne  va  pas  le  chercher,  il  repete  des  idees 
de  vieux  journal." 

In  the  over-intellectualized  <^^^  system  of 

education  is  almost  invariablj  reflected  in_a  highly^ 
bureaucratic  government,  which  is,  after  all,  the  natural 
outcome  of  a  mind  which  has  always  been  trained  in 
the  formal  systematization  of  things.  But  nothing  can 
be  more  paralyzing  to  national  energies  than  a  bureau- 
crat government,  which,  by  its  red-tape  routine,  very 
soon  reduces  all  its  members,  through  all  the  stages  of 
mental  atrophy,  to  the  condition  of  mechanical  auto- 
mata. It  has  been  shown  time  after  time  that  energy 
can  only  be  maintained  by  constant  struggle.  The 
leisured  ease,  which  is  the  fond  dream  of  men  of  science 
and  letters,  rarely  leads  to  anything  great.  Otherwise 
we  should  look  for  the  greatest  works  of  genius  among 
the  members  of  the  monastic  orders  or  among  the  class 
of  well-paid  and  leisured  civil-servants  ;  but  this  arti- 
ficial freedom  from  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  existence 
is  destructive  of  all  individual  initiative. 

The  Continental  Powers  have,  from  political  motives, 
adopted  the  system  of  conscription,  which  goes  far  to 


110  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

remedy  the  effects  of  a  faulty  education  of  the  will- 
power ;  the  result  has  no  doubt  been  attained  uncon- 
sciously, but  should  the  agitators  for  international 
disarmament  and  the  abolition  of  compulsory  military 
service  meet  with  success,  it  will  be  an  evil  day  for 
the  Continental  countries. 


CHAPTER  YII 

RELIGIOUS    SUCCESS, — I 

A  few  nations  succeeded  in  founding  systems  of  religion  that  spread  over  vast 
areas  and  converted  millions  of  people.  Buddhism.  Hebrew  Monotheism. 
Christianity.  Mahometanism.  Calvinism.  The  origins  of  the  four  latter 
religions  are  all  from  amazingly  small  and  apparently  insignificant  begin- 
nings. Where  they  do  not  lead  to  the  establishment  of  an  ecclesiastical 
•polity  or  Church  proper,  there  they  absorb  man's  best  powers  to  an 
extent  injurious  to  his  other  interests.    The  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

In  Eriglisli-speaking  countries  the  majority  of  persons 
who  have  pursued  their  studies  after  they  have  been 
released  from  the  compulsory  acquisition  of  a  certain 
quota  of  knowledge  during  their  period  of  school  life 
have  been  drawn  to  the  almost  exclusive  pursuit  of  the 
physical  sciences.  The  very  English  language  is  an 
imposing  witness  to  this  fact.  German  has  the  word 
Wissenscliaft  and  English  has  the  word  Science,  but 
although  the  German  word  contains  all  that  is  implied 
by  the  English  term,  it  cannot  fitly  be  translated  by  the 
word  "  science  "  ;  it  contains  a  great  deal  more,  and  may 
include  literature,  history  and  art,  all  of  which,  to  the 
English  mind,  appear  eminently  unscientific.  Science 
means  practically  the  physical  sciences,  and  the  physical 
sciences  alone.  It  is,  then,  not  unnatural  that  the 
English  mind,  when  it  is  brought  to  bear  on  historical 


112  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  social  questions,  should  seek  to  apply  to  them  the 
same  processes  of  reasoning  which  it  has  found  so 
successful  in  physics.  It  is  notjiinnatural  that  the 
Englishman  should  imagine  that  the  jame Jaws  of  mass 
and  number  which  hold  good  in  mechanics  shoul3~lSnc[ 
also  appropriate  application  in  history  and  sociology^ 
It  has  been  our  constant  endeavour  to  point  out 
throughout  this  volume  the  absolute  error^of  all  con- 
siderations  of  mass  in  history.  But  it  is  out  of  this 
fundamental  error  that  have  grown  the  exaggerated 
ideas  generally  prevalent  as  to  the  immense  part  to  be 
played  by  America  and  Russia  in  the  future ;  out  of  this 
error  likewise  has  grown  that  Chinese  phantom  which 
has  for  years  haunted  the  minds  of  European  politicians, 
the  YeUow  Terror.  Equally  empty  is  the  bugbear  of 
Panslavism  which  has  long  hung  as  an  imaginary 
menace  over  Europe.  Although  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  enter  into  American  politics  in  greater  detail,  we 
may  state  now  that  whatever  influence  America  may  be 
destined  to  exercise  upon  the  central  and  southern 
parts  of  the  great  Western  continent,  she  will  never 
become  a  decisive  factor  in  European  history.  If  there 
is  any  teaching  clearly  derivable  from  European  history, 
it  is  that  it  has  always  been  decided  by  quality  and  not 
by  quantity.  And  since  high-strung  and  intense 
quality  exists  only  in  a  few  people,  we  may  well  say 
that  the  history  of  Europe  has  gone  by  minorities. 
The  wealth  of  highly  differentiated  types,  individualities, 
and  national  personalities  in  Europe  is  an  insurmount- 
able bulwark  against  which  the  uniform  undiflerentiated 
masses,  emerging  possibly  from  the  far  East  or  from  the 
far  West,  may  expend  their  efforts  in  vain. 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  113 

This  great  and  indisputable  fact,  this  basal  and 
fundamental  experience  of  all  European  history,  shows 
nowhere  more  clearly  than  in  the  history  of  religious 
success  secured  by  a  few  nations  who  succeeded  in 
founding  religious  systems  and  churches  embracing 
millions  and  even  hundreds  of  millions  of  people. 

All  the  great  religious  institutions,  ideals,  and 
dogmas  came  not  only  from  a  very  few  people,  from 
peoples  whose  numbers  were  insignificant,  but  from  the 
most  remote  of  peoples,  from  the  most  obscure  and 
unexpected  corners.  The  Roman  Empire,  the  vastest 
fabric  of  human  ingenuity  and  force  that  has  ever  been 
raised,  was  sapped,  undermined,  and  dissolved  by  a 
mere  handful  of  Jews,  issuing  from  the  least  important 
of  the  then  Roman  provinces.  Again  the  constant  and 
startling  correlation  between  the  immense  success  of 
a  certain  religion  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  exiguity  of 
its  origin  on  the  other,  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
spread  of  Mahometanism,  now  covering  broad  tracts  in 
Africa,  Asia,  and  Eastern  Europe.  Of  these  religions, 
as  is  generally  known,  some  are  universal  in  extent, 
others  are  not  so.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  for 
instance,  may  be  fairly  called  universal,  comprising  as  it 
does  hundreds  of  millions  of  adherents  distributed  over 
all  the  surface  of  the  globe.  Mahometanism  and 
Buddhism  have  extended  their  influence  over  such 
immense  expanses  of  territory  that  they,  too,  may  be 
fittingly  ranked  among  the  universal  religions. 

In  studying  the  sects  of  these  various  creeds,  the 
religions  within  religions,  we  observe  the  same  con- 
stant relation  between  ultimate  immense  success  and 
poor  and  petty  beginnings.     Let  us  take  as  an  example 

I 


114  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Calvinism.  It  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that, 
with  the  exception  of  Christopher  Columbus,  no  man  of 
the  Kenaissance,  and  for  centuries  after,  has  influenced 
the  fate  of  European  politics  more  profoundly  than  has 
Calvin.  He  really^ introduced  the^^rinci^^^  of^demo- 
c^ra£7,  imder  the^guise  of  theo^^^^  and  this  principle, 
as  it  spread  in  ever-widening  circles,  became  every- 
where the  seed  of  political  revolution.  On  reaching 
Holland,  it  kindled  into  flame  that  titanic  rebellion  and 
struggle  for  liberty  which,  after  lasting  four  score  years, 
ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  Dutch.  As  Calvinism 
spread  over  the  British  Islands,  it  stirred  into  being, 
first  in  Scotland,  and  subsequently  in  England,  the 
greatest  civil  wars  which  these  islands  have  ever 
witnessed,  and  by  means  of  which  the  whole  constitu- 
tion of  England  was  altered  in  aU  its  vital  elements. 
When  Calvinism  burst  upon  France  it  led  to  four  and 
thirty  years  of  civil  strife  from  1559  to  1593,  and  was 
thus  the  indirect  means  of  unification  in  France,  and 
hence  of  the  pre-eminence  of  that  country  in  Europe. 
On  reaching  America,  it  inspired  the  early  settlers  in 
New  England  with  that  steadfastness,  that  tenacity  of 
purpose,  which  was  destined  to  make  the  colonies  the 
haven  of  refuge  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
oppressed  and  downtrodden  of  Europe.  We  omit  a 
multitude  of  examples  which  we  might  adduce  of  the 
influence  of  Calvinism  upon  Hungarian,  Polish,  and 
Swedish  history.  There,  too,  it  was  the  all-pervading 
leaven  which  induced  political  fermentation  and  pro- 
gress. Calvinism  is  not  yet  dead,  and  the  latest  mark 
of  its  power  is  the  three  years  of  heroic  struggle  of  the 
South  African  Boers,  devoted  adherents  of  Calvinism. 


JL.^  ^c 


.^es 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  115 

Its  latest  apostles  are  named  Botha,  De  la  Rey, 
De  Wet. 

And  all  this  mighty  influence  came  from  the  obscure 
citizen  of  a  yet  obscurer  township  of  Picardy.  On  con- 
sidering the  immense  efi"ect  upon  religious,  or  rather 
upon  politico-religious  ideas  of  this  insignificant  Picard ; 
when,  moreover,  we  remember  that  his  famous  head- 
quarters in  Geneva  were  laid  in  a  town  of  then  not 
more  than  twelve  thousand  inhabitants  ;  we  cannot  but 
stand  amazed  at  the  apparent  disproportion  between 
the  cause  and  the  efi'ect.  Religious  success,  indeed,  has 
as  its  chief  and  essential  conditions  small  numbers 
gravitating  about  a  central  force  of  intense  quality — a 
personality.  Of  personality  we  shall  speak  at  length  in  the 
succeeding  chapter.  Let  us  now  take  a  typical  example 
of  the  rise  of  a  great  religious  power.  Let  us  briefly 
trace  the  conditions  which  have  contributed  to  the  vast 
influence  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  order  of  Jesuits. 

We  may  well  regard  this  order  as  a  political  unity. 
In  our  preceding  chapters  we  have  pointed  out  that  an 
ideal  balance  between  the  volitional  and  intellectual 
powers  would  be  likely  to  procure  the  supreme  degree 
of  success  in  a  nation.  We  have  also  intimated  that 
this  balance  has  been  rarely  even  partially  attained ; 
that  the  development  of  an  excess  of  will-power  entails, 
as  a  rule,  a  serious  diminution  of  the  elasticity  of  the 
intellectual  power;  the  converse  we  have  likewise 
proved  to  hold  true. 

If  we  read  the  rule  for  the  government  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  we  are  struck  by  little  that  is  novel.  He  that 
joins  the  order  must  take  the  same  solemn  triple  oath, 
of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience,  which  is  the  base 


116  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

upon  which  all  other  great  monastic  institutions  have 
been  built.  The  rule  of  the  Jesuits  has  nothing  that  is 
characteristically  distinct  from  the  regulce  of  the  Bene- 
dictines, the  Franciscans,  or  from  those  of  a  score  of 
other  orders.  There  are  the  same  minute  directions  for 
the  observation  of  a  spiritual  life,  but  they  are  not 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  rapid  spread  of  the  society, 
which  in  a  few  years  swept  like  a  prairie-fire  over 
Europe  from  end  to  end,  gathering  multitudes  of  fresh 
adherents  in  every  country.  In  1759,  fourteen  years 
before  its  abolition  by  Clement  XIV.,  the  order  numbered 
22,589  members.  These  figures  alone  will  serve  to  give 
some  idea  of  the  widespread  power  of  the  society,  which 
will  only  be  heightened  when  we  come  to  see  what 
every  unit  of  this  immense  total  represented  in  energy 
and  intelligence.  To-day  they  are  still  the  most  powerful 
order  existing,  numbering  probably  over  eleven  thousand 
members,  and  extending  their  influence  by  a  vast 
missionary  system  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe. 

It  is  clear  that  the  seeds  of  Jesuit  success  are  not  to 
be  found  in  its  regula ;  they  must  be  sought  for  in  the 
personality  of  Loyola  himself.  To  feel  the  full  force  of 
this,  we  should  have  lived  with  him  on  the  Montmartre 
at  Paris  during  those  seven  years  of  toil  (1528-1535) 
during  which  he  was  making  himself  ready  for  his  great 
mission ;  we  should  have  had  a  life  in  common  with 
Peter  Faber,  Francis  Xavier,  Laynez,  Salmeron,  Boba- 
dilla,  and  Kodriguez  de  Azevedo,  who  were  to  become 
the  first  members  of  the  great  society ;  we  should  have 
felt  what  they  felt  in  the  presence  of  Loyola. 

The  idea  which  Loyola  had  succeeded  in  grasping 
was,  after  all,  simple.     He  may  not  have  framed  it  in 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  117 

the  same  words  as  we  should  put  it  nowadays,  but  he 
had,  at  any  rate,  realized  the  fact  that  ^reat  intellect, 
impelled  by  unflinching,  indefatigable  will-power,  con- 
stitutes the  greatest  possible  human  force.  He  knew 
that  in  nature  such  a  combination  rarely  exists,  even  in 
the  case  of  single  persons,  and  never  in  the  case  of 
communities.  If,  then,  by  artificial  means  he  were  able 
to  make  members  of  an  association  combining  both  these 
qualities  to  an  eminent  degree,  there  would  be  no 
political,  no  religious  institution  which  would  not  be 
compelled  to  bow  before  it.  It  was  Loyola's  own 
personality  alone  which  enabled  him  to  carry  this  ideal 
into  execution.  Of  its  details  we  know  enough,  but  we 
know,  nevertheless,  but  a  fraction  of  what  is  to  be  known. 
The  Jesuits  have  been  careful  to  cover  up  their  traces, 
and  all  the  archives  in  Europe  are  incapable  of  showing 
the  important  part  they  have  played  in  nine-tenths  of  the 
otherwise  incomprehensible  events  of  European  history. 

We  have  seen  that  this  combination  of  intellect  and 
will-power  can  only  be  obtained  by  artificial  means. 
Let  us  cast  a  rapid  glance  at  the  mechanism  which  turns 
out  a  Jesuit,  and  what  is  the  cost  at  which  it  is  kept 
active.  Assuredly  if  any  proof  were  needed  of  the  price 
at  which  ideals  are  purchased,  the  Society  of  Jesus  would 
furnish  the  most  striking  of  examples.  The  method  of 
Jesuit-making  is  the  conception  of  Ignatius  Loyola. 

The  training  of  the  will-power  probably  offered  the 
greatest  difficulties,  for  the  will-power  was  to  be 
developed,  not  for  the  benefit  of  him  that  exercised 
it,  but  for  the  service  of  the  order.  It  was  to  be  a 
living  instrument  which  the  society  might  always  expect 
to   act   with   mathematical  precision.     To  obtain  this 


118  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

perfect  instrument,  it  was  expedient  to  get  rid  of  all 
human  passions  and  emotions  which  might  possibly 
cause  it  to  waver.  This  was  the  object  of  the  moral 
education  of  the  Jesuit.  All  the  sources  of  emotion 
must  be  choked.  Love  of  parents,  love  of  relations, 
love  of  country  must  be  annihilated  in  order  that 
nothing  shall  interfere  with  the  divine  mission.  "  They 
must  free  themselves  of  all  love  for  the  created,  in  order 
to  bestow  their  whole  love  upon  the  Creator."  Even 
friendship  was  crushed  out,  for  although  a  semblance  of 
friendship  was  maintained  between  novices,  we  may 
imagine  the  utter  isolation  which  really  existed  when 
we  learn  that  every  novice  was  compelled  to  send  in  a 
regular  report  to  his  superior  of  the  conduct  and  feelings 
of  his  companion  in  the  recreation  hours.  All  passion 
and  sentiment  were  crushed  out  by  the  most  humiliating 
religious  exercises,  until  the  Jesuit  was  finally  reduced 
to  the  level  of  a  foreigner  even  in  his  own  country. 
He  was  freed  of  all  scruples  save  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  his  superior;  the  responsibility  for  all 
other  actions  he  might  scruple  to  perform  being  assumed 
by  the  order.  He  was  an  unemotional  automaton,  with 
an  abnormal  will-power  on  which  the  order  might  im- 
plicitly depend  to  carry  him  through  any  degree  of  self- 
abnegation  and  self-sacrifice.  To  make  man  the  willing 
slave  of  this  crushing  psychological  ideal  required  the 
personality  of  a  Loyola. 

The  intellectual  training  was  equally  severe.  If  the 
instrument  was  steeled  in  temper,  it  must  also  be  of 
the  proper  and  most  useful  design.  Any  original  stock 
of  talent  that  the  novice  might  possess  the  order  pro- 
ceeded to  develop  to  its  own  advantage.     No  expense 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  119 

or  care  was  spared  in  giving  the  novice  the  most  perfect 
education ;  that  is  to  say,  the  real  education  does  not 
begin  until  the  two  years  of  noviciate  proper,  during 
which  the  novice  may  return  to  the  world,  or  the  order 
may  refuse  to  keep  him,  are  ended.  In  the  class  of 
scholastici  approbati  the  Jesuit  passes  from  eight  to 
fifteen  years,  during  which  he  undergoes  a  most  searching 
educational  curriculum. 

Much  has  been  said,  and  justly  been  said,  of  the  evil 
done  by  the  order  of  Jesus,  but  the  general  tone  of  re- 
viling is  to'the  real  student  of  history  revoltingly  unjust. 

The  Jesuits  are,  as  we  have  already  said,  not  an 
order,  but  a  state.  As  is  the  case  with  all  states,  their 
history  abounds  in  things  great  and  small,  sublime  and 
vile.  We  should  like  to  remind  the  reader  of  a  few  only 
of  their  immortal  merits.  During  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  when  the  most  abominable  jof  all 
pr^ddces^ajid^ superstitions^  the  beHef  m  witchcraft^ 
was  rampant,  there  was,  save  ajnong  the  Jesuits,  th^^^ 
most  piti^We  lack  of  moral  courage.  Neither  Bacon 
nor  Leibniz,  neither  Descartes  nor  Spinoza,  had  the 
moral  courage  to  combat  publicly  the  terrible  supersti- 
tion that  claimed  thousands  of  innocent  victims,  down 
to  children  of  six  years,  who  were  burnt,  for  instance,  as 
witches  at  Wiirzburg.  Among  the  first  men  who  had 
that  rare  courage  were  Jesuits,  the  Paters  Adam  Tanner, 
Paul  Layman,  and  more  particularly  the  noble  Frederick 
Spec.  The  latter  s  "Cautio  Criminalis"  was  so  power- 
ful an  argument  against  witch-trials  that  it  actually 
brought  about  a  change  in  the  horrible  practice.  It 
was,  therefore,  very  much  more  effective  than  the  works 
of  Weir  and  Reginald  Scot. 


120  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

As  to  the  merits  of  the  Jesuits  in  regard  to  science, 
they  are  exceedingly  great.  They  produced  several 
first-class  mathematicians  and  physicists  (Guldin,  Christ, 
Scheiner,  Grimaldi,  etc.),  and  at  present  one  of  the  most 
comprehensive  conspectuses  of  higher  mathematics  is 
published  by  Pater  Hagen  in  America.  Another  Pater, 
E.  Wasmann,  has  quite  recently  been  publishing  very 
important  monographs,  adding  new  evidence  for  the 
theory  of  evolution.  To  the  historian  proper  many  of 
the  works  of  the  Jesuits  are  absolutely  indispensable. 
Quinine  was  brought  over  by  the  Jesuits,  and  the  camelia 
is  named  after  Pater  C.  J.  Camel. 

But  when  we  again  return  to  the  consideration  of 
origins  we  are  startled.  The  Spanish,  as  we  shall  show, 
and  as  is,  moreover,  very  well  known  to  every  one  from 
their  history,  have  never  been  able  to  establish  and 
build  up  permanently  powerful  polities.  Their  empire 
was  always  loosely  knit  together,  and  ready  to  collapse 
at  the  earliest  shock.  A  hundred  years  after  the  dis- 
covery of  America  it  was  already  on  the  high-road  to 
dissolution.  Of  the  greatest  imperial  opportunities  ever 
vouchsafed  to  any  nation,  the  Spanish  only  succeeded 
in  making  political  bankruptcy.  Is  it  not,  then,  highly 
remarkable  that  a  man  should  arise  out  of  this,  of  all 
nations,  to  found  the  greatest  body  politic  ever  estab- 
lished ?  So  true  is  it  that  religious  success,  the  most 
powerful  influence  upon  mankind,  and  upon  which 
depends  the  whole  material,  intellectual  and  moral  life 
of  nations,  is  originated  by  one  commanding  personality, 
emerging  from  the  most  insignificant  beginnings  and 
the  most  unexpected  quarters. 

It  has  long  been  remarked,  and  often  repeated,  that 


KELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  121 

it  was  a  providential  fact  that  the  Christian  religion 
came  from  remote  Bethlehem,  a  village  whose  name  was 
unknown  to  the  Romans.  Had  it  pleased  Providence 
to  kindle  Christianity  in  Eome  by  fixing  there  the 
birthplace  of  the  Saviour,  struggles  infinitely  more 
intense  might  have  crippled  and  retarded  the  spread  of 
Christianity.  Eome  had  succeeded  in  subjugating 
other  nations  politically  ;  in  intellect  and  religion,  how- 
ever, she  remained  in  many  instances  their  decided 
inferior.  These  nations,  conscious  of  their  intellectual 
and  religious  superiority,  were  perhaps  readier  to 
acquiesce  in  the  otherwise  beneficial  political  supremacy 
of  Rome.  Had,  however,  Rome  acquired  also  the 
immense  leverage  of  religious  pre-eminence  by  becoming 
the  birthplace  of  a  Messiah,  it  is  impossible  to  predict 
what  fearful  religious  wars  and  convulsions  might  not 
have  arisen  whereby  the  progress  of  religion  would  have 
been  indefinitely  impeded. 

The  Jew  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  quantity  to 
analyze.  It  is  certainly  most  expedient  to  regard  him 
under  the  head  of  religious  success,  for  although  we  shall 
see  that  there  have  been  many  other  agencies  at  work 
contributing  to  his  success,  it  is,  after  all,  the  bond  of 
religion  which  most  closely  unites  Jew  to  Jew.  We 
shall  devote  a  few  words  to  showing  that  the  Jews  are 
certainly  not  a  distinctive  unmixed  race,  in  spite  of  the 
strong  ethnical  characteristics  which  have  set  their  mark 
upon  the  majority  of  them.  The  Jew  in  historical  times 
has  not  lived  in  that  absolutely  strict  racial  isolation  in 
which  he  is  popularly  supposed  to  have  lived.  We 
have  the  most  conclusive  evidence,  documentary 
evidence,  showing   that   among  the   Jews   of  Central, 


122  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Southern,  and  Eastern  Europe  there  was  during  the 
Middle  Ages  a  very  considerable  infusion  of  non- 
Hebrew  blood.  Moreover,  albeit  the  Jews  have  main- 
tained a  distinct  type  such  as  few  other  tribes  have 
preserved,  there  is,  nevertheless,  ibetween  the  Jew  of 
Poland  and  the  Jew  of  Spain,  between  the  Jew  of 
Austro-Hungary  and  the  Jew  of  Germany,  the  most 
decided  physical  dissimilarity.  But  whatever  bodily 
variety  there  may  exist  among  the  Jews,  the  moral  and 
social,  the  psychological  type  is  remarkably  uniform. 
The  Jew  is  the  Jew  all  the  world  over,  be  he  fair  or  be 
he  swarthy,  and  the  theory  of  race  breaks  down  utterly 
when  it  endeavours  to  reconcile  this  psychological 
uniformity  with  this  physical  variety.  Let  us  glance 
for  a  moment  at  another  nationality  of  exceedingly 
mixed  blood,  the  South  African  Boers.  No  one  could 
deny  that  there  is  one  prevalent  Boer  character ;  but  in 
order  to  explain  it  we  must  seek  for  some  more  workable 
theory  than  the  theory  of  race,  for  among  the  Boers  the 
racial  confusion  is  quite  inextricable.  The  very  names 
point  to  the  frequent  influx  of  foreign  elements,  French, 
English,  German,  Portuguese,  or  any  other  nationality. 
But  all  these  discordant  factors  have  been  reduced  to 
one  homogeneous  whole.  A  De  la  Eey,  despite  his 
name,  is  Boer  to  the  backbone,  and  nothing  but  Boer ; 
the  same  may  be  said  of  a  Joubert  or  a  Villiers. 

One  of  the  greatest  men  that  has  ever  arisen  among 
the  Jews,  Spinoza,  has  accounted  for  the  remarkable 
persistence  of  type  among  his  co-religionists,  and  for 
the  unflinching,  uncompromising  attitude  which  they 
maintain  towards  modern  civilization,  by  referring  to 
the  very  hatred  which   other  nations  have  preserved 


RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS  123 

towards  that  type.  Spinoza  has  certainly  made  the  first 
step  towards  solving  the  problem,  but  it  would  be  very 
much  more  satisfactory  to  say  that  the  Jew  is  the 
foreigner  par  excellence.  He  has  at  all  times  reaped 
the  benefits  of  his  foreign  status. 

We  will  here  digress  for  a  moment  in  order  to  give 
in  some  detail  the  general  theory  of  the  foreigner  at 
which  we  have  from  time  to  time  referred  in  other 
chapters.  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  stranger 
in  a  country  is  at  a  decided  disadvantage.  The  teach- 
ings of  history  point  very  much  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. Is  it,  after  all,  so  very  surprising  that  the 
foreigner  in  a  strange  land  should,  as  a  general  rule, 
succeed  ?  He  is,  to  begin  with,  in  circumstances  which 
are  likely  to  fill  him  with  energy,  and  in  order  to 
expatriate  himself,  he  must  already  have  required  no 
inconsiderable  amount  of  energy  and  determination. 
His  stock  of  knowledge,  being  that  of  a  foreigner,  will 
probably  be  novel,  and  be  able  to  realize  a  good  price 
in  a  new  country.  He  is  determined  at  all  costs  to 
succeed,  and,  indeed,  if  he  does  not,  he  must  regard 
himself  as  irrevocably  lost.  He  has  set  all  upon  his 
last  venture.  It  is  only  necessary  to  glance  rapidly  at 
some  of  the  greatest  personalities  that  have  illustrated 
history  to  convince  ourselves  of  the  all-important  part 
which  has  been  played  by  foreigners  in  the  building  up 
of  countries.  At  Athens,  Themistocles,  the  saviour  of 
Hellas,  was  not  a  pure  Athenian  born,  but  the  son  of 
an  alien  mother.  Lysander,  Sparta's  greatest  man,  was 
not  a  Spartan  at  all,  but  the  child  oiperioeci,  or  resident 
aliens.  But  to  come  to  modern  days,  where  the  names 
occur  in  abundance,  so  that  we  can  only  choose  one  or 


124  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

two  out  of  the  profusion.  There  is  Mazarin  in  France, 
perhaps  her  greatest  statesman,  but  of  Italian  birth. 
In  England  we  need  only  mention  such  famous  names 
as  Simon  de  Montfort,  King  William  III.,  Disraeli.  It 
is  a  singular  fact,  though  perhaps  not  so  astonishing 
when  we  come  to  look  deeper  into  the  matter,  that 
the  Christianizing  of  Europe  has  been  almost  exclu- 
sively the  outcome  of  foreign  missionary  zeal.  Verily, 
a  man  is  not  a  prophet  in  his  own  country,  and,  as 
if  in  confirmation  of  the  words  of  Scripture,  almost 
every  land  of  Europe  has  sent  preachers  to  its  neigh- 
bours, and  received  from  them  preachers  in  return. 
Three  of  the  greatest  monastic  orders  have  been  founded 
in  France  by  foreigners  :  the  Carthusians  by  St.  Bruno 
of  Cologne;  the  Cistercians  by  St.  Stephen  Harding, 
an  Englishman  ;  and  the  Order  of  Pr^montre  (Prsemon- 
stratensians)  by  St.  Norbert,  from  Xanten,  in  West- 
phalia. We  might  adduce  an  infinity  of  other  striking 
examples,  but  the  brief  space  which  we  can  allow  to 
this  digression  forbids  it.  We  should  like,  however, 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  debt  of  England  to 
foreign  importations  is  immense,  especially  in  the 
industrial  and  commercial  world.  How  many  trades 
and  industries  in  England  have  been  based  upon  foreign 
energies  !  We  need  only  think  of  weaving,  introduced 
and  developed  by  Flemings;  of  the  great  drainage 
works  of  the  Eastern  Counties,  carried  out  almost 
entirely  by  Dutch  labour,  many  traces  of  which  remain 
in  the  local  geography,  in  such  names  as  Little  Holland 
and  in  the  title  Dutch  Eiver  applied  to  the  Goole  Canal. 
In  South  Wales,  again,  the  mining  and  smelting  works 
are   in   no  small  part   due   to  Flemish  initiative  and 


EELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  125 

enterprise.  Two  of  the  most  thriving  towns,  Swansea 
and  Milford,  were  founded  by  refugees  driven  in  the 
twelfth  century  from  their  homes  in  the  Netherlands 
by  the  terrible  floods.  Again,  there  is  the  London 
watch  industry,  originated  by  French  settlers  in  Clerken- 
well.  The  expulsion  of  the  Huguenots  from  France, 
which  followed  upon  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  scattered  a  multitude  of  the  most  intelligent 
inhabitants  of  France  over  the  rest  of  Europe,  and 
Louis  XIV.,  by  this  act  of  religious  intolerance,  con- 
ferred unwittingly  enough  an  inestimable  boon  upon 
his  neighbouring  enemies.  We  have  already  pointed 
out  that  Egypt,  fenced  off  among  its  desert  barriers,  and 
almost  completely  insulated  from  foreign  contact,  was 
inevitably  predestined  to  lapse  into  a  condition  of  stag- 
nant conservatism ;  in  our  later  pages  we  shall  show 
that  the  same  conditions^are  now  having  a  practically 
identical^ result  in  the  ca^e  of  .Spain.  It  is  needless  to 
insist  that  the  immense  energy  of  the  Americans  is 
owing  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  they  are  all  foreigners. 

With  these  few  observations  to  guide  us,  we  may 
come  back  to  the  consideration  of  the  Jew.  As  we 
have  said,  he  is  the  classical  stranger,  the  foreigner 
par  excellence.  In  his  case  the  conditions  of  the  alien 
are  doubly  accentuated.  The  hatred  with  which,  from 
religious  motives,  he  was  visited  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  is  even  now  visited,  have  completed  his  almost 
utter  loneliness,  and  prevented  him  from  absorption 
into  the  environing  nationality.  His  foreign  status 
has  been  indefinitely  prolonged,  and  he  has  thus  con- 
tinued to  reap  the  benefit  accruing  from  this  state. 
Moreover,    in     the    early    Middle    Ages,    when    the 


126  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

bourgeoisie  was  hardly  even  yet  nascent,  he  was  almost 
the  only  man  ready  to  undertake  commerce,  or  who  had 
any  business  faculties.  He  made  use  of  all  the  splendid 
opportunities  offered  to  him  greatly  to  his  financial 
betterment.  His  success  certainly  did  not  add  to  the 
love  and  esteem  in  which  he  was  held,  and  so  his 
foreign  position,  as  time  went  on,  was  more  and  more 
keenly  impressed  on  him,  until  in  some  cases  he  was 
expelled,  as  he  was  from  England  in  1290. 

The  prevailing  notion  of  universal  Jewish  success  is, 
however,  highly  exaggerated.  The  vast  majority  of 
the  Jews  are  paupers.  It  hardly  needs  a  journey  in 
Eastern  Europe  to  bring  home  this  fact,  when  there 
are  such  numbers  of  poverty-ridden  Israelites  in  the 
Western  capitals.  Their  misery  is,  no  doubt,  to  some 
extent  hidden,  in  that  the  rich  Jew,  animated  by  that 
spirit  of  solidarity  which  marks  all  Jewish  communities, 
comes  to  the  succour  of  his  poorer  brethren,  who  would 
otherwise  become  a  burthen  on  the  public  relief  funds. 
The  number  of  Jews  who  have  attained  exalted  posi- 
tions in  wealth  and  politics  (we  need  only  cite  the 
Eothschilds  for  riches ;  and  Cremieux  in  France,  Lassalle 
in  Germany,  Disraeli  in  England  for  political  distinc- 
tion) has,  no  doubt,  tended  to  give  this  overdone  idea 
of  Israelite  prosperity.  The  example  of  his  more  fortu- 
nate brethren  who  have  succeeded  cannot  but  give  an 
immense  stimulus  and  high  hopes  to  the  still  struggling 
Jew.  If  his  ambitions  are  less  confined  to  money,  and 
soar  into  the  ideal,  he  need  only  remind  himself  of  such 
names  as  Heine  and  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.  The  isola- 
tion in  which  the  Jew  is  held  by  his  inimical  environ- 
ments is  yet  further  heightened  by  his  religion  and  by 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  127 

his  religious  observances.  His  God  is,  after  all,  chiefly 
his  own  God,  the  God  of  the  elect,  who  is  mostly 
indifferent  or  hostile  to  Gentiles. 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  the  Jew  derives  his  strength 
from  his  almost  pariah-like  exclusion  from  his  surround- 
ings, which,  while  it  increases  his  energy  and  fighting 
instincts,  must  also  free  him,  to  some  extent,  from  his 
scruples  in  dealing  with  Gentiles.  Against  such  a 
position  the  storm  of  anti-Semitism  must  expend  its 
fury  in  vain,  as  it  only  serves  to  strengthen  its  foe.  It 
can  only  help  to  make  them  more  aggressive,  and,  con- 
sequently, more  successful.  Is  it  not,  perhaps,  for  this 
very  reason  that  the  Jews  have  never  sought  to  offer  a 
corporate  resistance  to  their  modern  aggressors  ? 

Should  the  present  Zionist  propaganda,  which  is 
being  pursued  with  such  enthusiasm  by  its  promoters, 
really  lead  to  something  practical  being  done  in  the 
way  of  repatriating  the  Jews  in  the  land  of  their  origin, 
the  friends  of  the  racial  theory  will  be  astonished  at 
the  results.  All  the  distinguishing  traits  which  at 
present  stamp  the  Jews  as  something  quite  apart  would 
rapidly  fade  away  ;  and  though  it  is  impossible  to  fore- 
cast what  their  future  might  be,  it  is  certain  that  it 
would  proceed  along  lines  quite  different  from  those  of 
their  present  activity. 

A  word  or  two  remains  to  be  said  about  the  very 
important  reform  movements  which  have,  during  the 
last  thirty  years,  been  going  forward  in  America,  and 
as  to  what  may  be  expected  from  them.  Jewry  there 
has  been  undergoing  a  process  of  modernization.  The 
strict  rules  of  ritual  with  which  the  Jew,  if  an  observant 
Jew,  was  expected  to  comply,  are  being  relaxed — the 


128  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Sabbath  need  not  be  observed  so  severely,  and  restric- 
tions in  dress  and  diet,  and  in  intercourse  with  Gentiles 
have  been  allowed  in  great  part  to  lapse  into  abeyance. 
In  spite  of  all  these  modifications  in  his  mode  of  life, 
the  Jew  is  not  likely  to  merge  into  his  non-Jewish 
surroundings ;  he  will  neither  allow  himself  to  be 
absorbed  nor  will  he  be  allowed  to  do  so.  Antipathy 
against  him  is  still  unabated,  and  as  long  as  this  anti- 
pathy persists  he  will  remain  a  foreigner,  and  not  infre- 
quently a  successful  foreigner. 

Of  all  examples  of  religious  success,  that  offered  by 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  is  certainly  the  most  mag- 
nificent, although  that  success  is  obscured  in  Protestant 
countries  by  the  strong  tide  of  misunderstandings  and 
misconceptions.  On  closer  examination,  we  shall  see 
that  most  of  these  misunderstandings  rest  their  founda- 
tion upon  a  substratum  of  ignorance,  for  in  these  same 
Protestant  countries  the  past  history  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  as  well  as  its  present  organization,  are  almost 
utterly  unknown.  While  the  Protestant  countries  are 
willing  to  admit  any  degree  of  cunning  and  subtle 
diplomacy  in  the  dealings  of  the  popes  and  of  their 
dependent  bishops,  they  affect  to  despise  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  Eoman  Church  as  a  gigantic  imposture 
now  tottering  to  its  fall.  Their  disdain,  we  shall  have 
no  difficulty  in  proving,  is  entirely  unjustifiable,  while 
their  auguries  have  no  prospect,  within  all  human  per- 
spective, of  being  fulfilled. 

Of  all  organized  polities,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  has,  by  its  organization,  realized  the  deepest 
goliticaj  jpsycholo^.  It  has  inherited,  in  all  their 
vigorous  vitality,  the  ground  principles  which  led  to  the 


KELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  129 

building  up  of  the  Eoman  Empire,  and  which  gave  that 
Empire  its  strength ;  those  principles  it  has,  however, 
utilized  with  such  wisdom  and  developed  to  such  good 
effect  that  it  is  to-day,  though  shorn  of  much  of  its 
influence,  still  the  mightiest  body  politic  ever  reared  in 
history,  and  the  most  enduring.  It  is  unwise  to  rate 
the  present  political  power  of  the  Papacy  too  low,  and 
those  who  are  inclined  to  do  so  should  remember  that 
one  of  Europe's  greatest  statesmen,  Bismarck,  found 
that  he  had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in  making  light  of 
papal  power.  In  1874,  when  Bismarck  promulgated 
the  famous  May  Laws  against  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church,  he  gave  utterance  to  the  proud  saying,  "  Non 
Canossamus,"  meaning  thereby  that  it  would  never 
again  be  the  dire  necessity  of  the  German  Empire  to 
humiliate  itself  before  the  Papacy,  as  Emperor  Henry 
IV.  had  been  driven  to  bow  in  abject  submission  to 
Pope  Gregory  VII.  at  Canossa  in  1077.  Fortune 
proved  that  he  was  wrong,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
yield.  Thus,  after  eight  hundred  years,  the  Holy  See 
has  not  lost  the  upper  hand  in  Germany,  and  still 
to-day  the  Central  or  Catholic  party  in  the  German 
Keichstag  is  the  decisive  party.  Macaulay  has  re- 
marked, and  he  here  only  repeats  what  had  been 
remarked  before,  that  the  Catholic  Church  owes  no 
small  part  of  its  success  to  the  capacity  it  has  at  all 
times  displayed  for  making  use  of  the  excessive.  To 
make  ourselves  clearer,  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has 
at  no  time  found  it  necessary  to  exclude  from  its  com- 
munion even  its  most  fanatical  members.  Where 
Protestantism  would  have  split  ofl"  into  some  fresh  and 
independent  sect,  Eoman  Catholicism  has  created  an 

K 


130  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

order,  or  something  equivalent.  Instead  of  driving  the 
over-zealous  into  opposition  by  an  attempt  to  reduce 
them  to  a  level  of  conformity,  it  has  turned  the  super- 
abundant fervour  into  a  useful  and  appropriate  channel, 
thus  avoiding  the  excessive  subdivision  and  decentrali- 
zation which  makes  the  weakness  of  Protestantism. 
Eoman  Catholicism  finds  room  within  its  limits  for  such 
associations  as  the  Jansenists,  the  Trappists,  and  the 
Poor  Clares,  all  of  which  may  be  considered  as  extreme 
sects,  but  all  of  which  remain  faithful  to  the  mother 
church. 

It  was  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  stood  at  the  summit  of  her  glory,  and  it  is  then 
that  she  rendered  the  most  conspicuous  service  to  man- 
kind. It  is  impossible  to  even  hazard  a  guess  as  to  what 
the  modern  countries  of  Europe  would  be  even  now  had 
it  not  been  for  the  monastic  establishments  in  medieval 
times.  They  alone  shielded  the  flickering  light  of 
civilization  from  utter  extinction,  and  the  great  monas- 
teries were  the  only  bright  spots  that  stood  out  against 
the  night  of  feudal  barbarity.  In  has  unhappily  become 
the  fashion  in  later  days  to  depreciate  the  merits  of 
those  early  monks.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  overestimate  the  worth  of  what  they  have 
done.  The  darkness  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries 
would  without  them  be  almost  complete.  It  was  they 
alone  who  still  cherished  some  hankering  after  better 
things,  and  if  they  were  not  always  able  to  carry  out 
every  desire  of  their  ideals,  it  is,  at  any  rate,  something 
that  they  should  have  preserved  for  humanity  the 
tradition  of  nobler  ideals.  They  alone  were  able  to 
afford  some  relief  amid  the  surrounding  poverty  and 


RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS  131 

misery,  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  downtrodden  serf, 
and  curb  the  passion  for  destruction  of  the  nobility. 
Between  serf  and  lord  there  was  little  to  discriminate 
as  far  as  culture  was  concerned ;  learning,  such  as  it 
was,  was  the  monopoly  of  the  clergy,  and  in  the  clerical 
state  alone  was  it  possible  to  rise  above  the  strict  class 
distinctions;  from  the  clerical  schools  and  universities 
radiated  the  light  of  knowledge.  The  early  Middle  Ages 
were  times  of  struggle  and  strife;  scarcely  a  foot  of 
continental  soil  but  was  not  yearly  drenched  with  blood. 
The  clergy  alone  ventured  to  maintain  the  ideal  of 
peace,  and  they  alone  conceived,  and  to  some  extent 
enforced,  such  measures  as  the  truce  of  God  and  the 
peace  of  God,  by  which  fighting  was  forbidden,  under 
heavy  ecclesiastical  pains  and  penalties,  at  certain  times 
of  festival  and  on  certain  days  of  the  week.  All  these 
were  tendencies  in  the  right  direction.  In  that  period 
of  tumult  and  disorder  organization  was  to  be  found 
hardly  anywhere  save  within  monastic  walls.  We  must 
not  imagine  that  the  monks  restricted  themselves  to 
spiritual  exercises  and  spiritual  action.  Their  life  was 
eminently  a  life  of  practical  toil.  At  a  time  when  all 
was  disunion  and  infinite  subdivision  the  massed  capital 
of  the  religious  orders  was  especially  efi'ective.  They 
were  great  agriculturists  and  landowners,  as  many  of 
their  surviving  cartularies  or  property  inventories  show. 
They  possessed  wide  lands  and  numberless  bond  servants, 
the  latter  treated,  no  doubt,  more  humanely  than  their 
brethren  under  lay  feudal  landowners.  The  monastic 
settlements  were  like  little  oases  of  deforestation  in  the 
ever-increasing,  ever-spreading,  ever-thickening  jungle 
of  Europe,  fast  relapsing  into  its  primeval  undergrowth. 


132  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

The  monks,  however,  did  great  spiritual  services  as  well, 
when  the  secular  clergy,  through  simony  and  worldliness, 
were  becoming  rapidly  undistinguishable  from  the  rest 
of  the  feudal  nobility.  Amid  all  this  work  of  digging 
and  delving,  farming  and  deforesting,  the  regular  clergy 
found  time  to  think  out  artistic  ideals,  and  to  apply 
themselves  to  executing  them.  To  them  we  owe  Grothic 
art  in  its  entirety,  and  especially  Gothic  architecture, 
which  at  this  time  was  beginning  to  clothe  Europe  with 
its  fair  robe  of  churches  and  cathedrals,  delicate  lace-like 
tracery,  and  pointed  ogival  arches.  Of  course,  those 
orders  living  a  life  of  artificial  abstinence,  being,  as  it 
were,  dehumanized,  were  liable  to  periods  of  decadence ; 
in  fact,  most  of  the  new  foundations  were  movements 
in  the  direction  of  reform,  but  until  the  twelfth  century 
reform  was  always  active,  always  ready  to  cauterize  the 
diseased  monastic  communities. 

The  orders  were  at  first  independent — rather,  each 
monastery  was  an  independent,  self-governing  unity — 
but  by  degrees  the  tendency  to  centralization  began  to 
dominate.  The  monasteries  became  grouped,  and  also 
gradually  came  to  be  of  a  more  monarchic  constitution ; 
the  abbots  were  made  answerable  to  the  Holy  See ;  the 
abbot  of  Cluny  was  so  important  as  to  enjoy  ipso  facto 
the  privileges  of  a  cardinal.  Thus  the  papacy,  at 
variance  often  with  the  secular  clergy,  still  possessed 
through  the  regular  clergy  a  strong  hold  over  nearly 
the  whole  of  Europe.  It  was  by  organization,  when 
organization  was  elsewhere  unknown,  that  the  monastic 
orders  achieved  their  great  success. 

We  have  now  seen  what  wonderful  success  the 
Eoman  Catholic  Church  achieved  in  the  organization 


RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS  133 

of  the  monastic  or  regular  clergy,  and  how  that 
clergy,  in  order  to  free  itself  from  interference  upon 
the  part  of  its  secular  ecclesiastical  superiors,  placed 
itself  under  the  immediate  domination  of  Rome.  But 
this  is  by  no  means  all  the  work  of  Rome.  There 
was  still  the  secular  clergy  to  bring  to  a  kindred  stage_ 
oi  organization.  This  was  brought  about  by  two  prin- 
cipal series  of  measures,  due  almost  entirely  in  con- 
ception and  execution  to  the  great  Pope  Hildebrand 
(G-regory  VII.).  He  saw  that,  if  Rome  was  to  maintain 
her  dominion,  she  must  make  her  ruling  agents  entirely 
dissimilar  to  those  over  whom  they  were  to  rule.  This 
is  a  broad  political  principle  which  has  often  since  been 
recognized  and  formulated,  perhaps  by  none  more  suc- 
cinctly and  precisely  than  by  John  Selden,  who  declares 
that  "'  all_mgn  that  would  get  ppwer  oyer  others  must 
make  themselves  as  unlike  them  as  they  can."  This 
deep  psychological  idea  was  grasped  once  and  for  all  by 
Hildebrand,  and  by  a  series  of  measures  he  established 
the  celibacy  of  the  secular  clergy,  who  up  to  1073  a.d. 
had  been  permitted  to  marry.  They  were  thus  estranged 
from  their  surroundings,  and  it  is  certainly  due  in  no 
small  degree  to  this  fact  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
has  achieved  a  degree  of  political  success  which  the  Pro- 
testant and  Greek  Churches,  where  marriage  of  priests  is 
permitted,  have  never  been  able  to  attain.  The  other  set 
of  measures  by  which  the  power  of  the  Roman  Church  was 
secured  has  been  called  the  Strife  of  the  Investitures. 
It  aimed  at  freeing  all  ecclesiastical  appointments  from 
lay  interference,  conferring  the  right  to  nominate  to  all 
ecclesiastical  benefices  upon  the  pope  alone ;  in  this  it 
was  eminently  successful.     The  Protestant  Church  has 


134  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

failed  to  establish  any  such  principle,  as  is  amply  testi- 
fied by  the  conge  d'elire,  by  which  the  English  Govern- 
ment practically  nominates  to  all  bishoprics,  and  also 
by  the  lay  bestowal  of  livings. 

All  questions  of  dogma  were  laid  once  and  for  all 
to  rest  by  the  declarations  of  the  great  Council  of  Trent 
(1545-1563),  and  so  strictly  were  the  dogmatic  prin- 
ciples formulated  that  they  are  for  ever  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  casuistry  and  debate.  On  points  of  dogma 
it  is  impossible  that  any  further  serious  difierences 
should  arise.  So  much  did  the  Koman  Catholic  Church 
achieve  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  in  spite  of  her  previous 
unsuccessful  attempts  at  Pisa  (1409),  Constance  (1414- 
1418),  and  Basle  (1431-1443).  No  lay  state  can  boast 
such  a  degree  of  internal  organization  or  such  a  formu- 
lation of  its  political  tenets.  The  dogmas  proclaimed 
at  the  last  oecumenical  or  general  council  (1869-1870) 
are  only  logical  consequences  of  the  Tridentine  council's 
declarations. 

Perhaps  the  dogma  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church 
which  has  been  most  obnoxious  to  Protestants  is  that  of 
the  infallibility  of  the  pope.  This  dogma  is,  however, 
for  the  most  part,  completely  misunderstood ;  it  is  the 
logical  sequence  of  the  whole  constitution  of  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church,  and  was  really  already  consecrated  by- 
the  Council  of  Trent,  which  declares  the  papal  authority 
superior  to  that  of  any  oecumenical  council.  If  the  word 
'infallibility'  is  not  there,  the  essence  of  the  dogma 
is  certainly  there.  There  is  nothing  personal  in  papal 
infallibility ;  it  is  merely  official,  and  only  applies  to 
declarations  made  by  the  pope  ex  cathedra.  As  in  a 
state  there  must  be  finality  in  matters  political,  so  in 


EELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  135 

the  ecclesiastical  polity  there  must  be  finality  in  matters 
ecclesiastical.  Thus  papal  infallibility  stands  on  a  line 
with  the  final  jurisdiction  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  a  current  notion  in  Protestant  countries  that 
with  the  spread  of  enlightenment  must  come  the  decline 
of  the  Eoman  Church.  There  is  at  present  no  sign  of 
such  a  decay,  and  no  reason  for  us  to  forebode  its 
approach.  The  Eoman  Church  is  not  directly  founded 
on  enlightenment,  and  cannot  therefore  be  destroyed 
by  the  spread  of  such  enlightenment.  There  is,  indeed, 
something  impressive  in  the  present  attitude  of  whole- 
sale condemnation  which  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church 
maintains  towards  the  progress  of  modern  science,  an 
attitude  which  is  proclaimed  in  the  most  uncompro- 
mising fashion  by  the  syllabus  of  1864.  According  to 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church,  man  can  neither  create  nor 
invent  truth ;  he  can  only  grasp  revealed  truth.  Since 
all  truth  has  been  long  ago  revealed,  according  to 
Eoman  Catholic  dogma,  modern  science  is  a  mere  con- 
tradiction in  terms,  there  being  no  principles  of  know- 
ledge left  to  discover.  This  is  the  philosophical  atti- 
tude of  the  medieval  scholastics,  chief  among  them 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  is  still  the  attitude  of  Eoman 
Catholic  Thomistic  philosophers.  The  popes  themselves 
are  constantly  complaining  that  they  have  sustained, 
through  the  usurpation  of  their  temporal  possessions 
in  Italy,  at  the  hands  of  the  Italian  kings,  grave 
loss  of  authority  and  influence.  However,  from  the 
consideration  of  Eoman  Church  history,  and  of  the 
actual  influence  of  the  Eoman  Church  at  present, 
nothing  is   more   certain  than   that  the  Curia  in  the 


136  SUCCESS  AMONG' NATIONS 

Vatican,  now  reduced  to  what  is  apparently  purely- 
spiritual  influences,  has  still  a  power  so  great  that 
nothing  short  of  ignorance  or  wilful  blindness  can 
venture  to  predict  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS. — II 

Cause  of  universal  religions  is  exclusively :  personality.  Short  sketch  of  the 
personality  of  Moses,  Jesus,  Mahomet,  and  Calvin.  The  futility  of 
modern  so-called  higher  criticism,  which  may  or  may  not  destroy  this  or 
that  passage  or  chapter  in  a  canonical  book,  but  which  utterly  fails  in 
the  construction  of  the  main  point :  the  personality  of  the  founders  of 
religion. 

All  the  numerous  facts  that  we  have  grouped  together 
to  form  the  preceding  chapter  have  been  intended  to 
impress  the  reader  with  the  immense  and  lasting  effects 
wrought  by  the  so-called  universal  religions.  With 
regard  to  Buddhism  and  Mahometanism,  vast  as  has 
been  the  expenditure  of  erudition  and  research,  we  really 
know  comparatively  little  ;  and  as  to  the  causes  of  their 
widespread  influence  we  are  still  woefully  ignorant. 
With  Christianity  and  Judaism,  although  the  amount  of 
learned  toil  which  has  been  concentrated  on  them  has 
been  infinitely  greater,  we  are  not  much  further 
advanced.  The  countless  efforts  which  have  been  made, 
and  are  every  day  being  made,  to  solve  the  riddle  of 
their  immense  effect  upon  most  parts  of  the  world  have 
so  far  been  singularly  fruitless.  Of  course,  to  fervent 
believers  who  unhesitatingly  ascribe  everything  to  direct 
revelation  and  to  the  will  of  God,  and  attempt  to  ofier 


138  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

no  further  explanation,  the  problem  offers  no  difficulties. 
With  unbelievers  the  case  is  different ;  and  it  were  vain 
to  deny  that  both  in  Europe  and  America  untold 
numbers  of  more  or  less  highly  cultured  people  have,  by 
a  false  and  incompetent  method,  arrived  at  a  wholesale 
condemnation  of  Christianity,  or  at  an  attitude  of 
sneering  and  contemptuous  indifference.  For  them  the 
Bible  is  a  book  like  any  other  book,  full  of  half  historical, 
half  legendary  stories,  which  you  may  believe  or  not, 
according  to  the  measure  of  your  credulity.  When 
they  discover  that  many  of  those  stories  have  been  found 
in  earlier  forms  unearthed  among  the  most  ancient 
tablets  and  inscriptions  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
brought  to  light  in  Egypt,  or  rediscovered  in  very 
modified  form  in  pre-Christian  Buddhist  records,  their 
scepticism  is  only  heightened,  and  they  are  hardly 
willing  to  leave  the  Bible  the  credit  of  being  an  artistic 
but  plagiaristic  compilation.  Others,  again,  with  a  more 
learned  turn  of  mind,  have  gone  deeply  into  such  books 
as  the  famous  "  Supernatural  Eeligion,'*  in  which  the 
results  of  the  so-called  Higher  Criticism,  or  the  researches 
of  mostly  German  neo-theologians,  have  been  dished  up 
in  the  most  erudite  and  imposing  fashion.  The  former 
class  of  unbelievers  is  convinced  that  Christianity  is 
purely  derivative,  that  it  is  a  mere  collection  of  old 
stories,  myths,  and  legends  tricked  out  in  a  new  and 
more  or  less  attractive  garb.  The  followers  of  the  Higher 
Criticism  are  either  convinced  that  the  whole  life  of 
Jesus  is  a  mere  myth,  or  that  at  the  best  it  is  an  allegory 
or  a  downright  historical  mystification. 

In  order  to  grasp  firmly  and  completely  the  causes 
of  the  unique  success  of  Christianity,  we  are  bound  to 


EELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  139 

dwell  on  the  two  classes  of  unbelievers  whose  views  we 
have  just  briefly  outlined. 

It  is  the  aim  of  the  first  group  to  disprove  the 
peculiar  power  of  Christianity  by  tracing,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  externals,  such  as  the  signs,  symbols,  and 
emblems,  to  the  legends  of  the  old  nations  of  Asia  and 
elsewhere.  When  they  are  enabled  to  demonstrate  that 
the  festivals  of  the  Christian  church  are  merely  survivals 
of  far  more  ancient  holidays ;  that  Christmas  was  insti- 
tuted long  ages  before  the  first  year  of  the  Christian  era, 
and  is  identical  with  the  Saturnalia  of  the  Romans ; 
that  the  cross  was  employed  as  a  religious  emblem  long 
before  the  date  assigned  for  the  great  crucifixion,  when 
they  can  prove  indisputably  the  non-Christian  origin  of 
a  thousand  such  details,  they  are  ready  to  rub  their 
hands  with  contentment,  thinking,  as  they  do,  that  they 
have  thereby  dealt  the  final  blow  to  the  agonizing 
phantom  of  Christianity.  Perhaps  the  most  famous 
leader  of  this  school  of  sceptics  was  Frangois  Dupuis,  who 
published  his  great  work  on  the  "  Origine  de  tons  les 
Cultes  "  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution.  He  began 
by  making  many  very  remarkable  discoveries  concerning 
the  chronological  systems  of  the  ancients,  and  especially 
concerning  the  Zodiac.  He  very  soon  began,  carried 
away  by  the  ingenious  nature  of  his  theories,  to  see  in 
the  Zodiac  an  explanation  of  all  mythological  stories  of 
the  ancients,  and  he  thereupon  endeavoured  to  show 
that  all  the  legends  of  Christianity,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  Babylonian  and  other  religions,  are  merely  trans- 
muted tales  about  the  Zodiac.  Another  book  very  well 
known  in  its  day  was  the  "  Anacalypsis,"  by  Godfrey 
Higgins;    its   tendency   is   identical.      The   Christian 


140  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

emblems  of  baptism,  Christian  ritual,  Christian  vestments 
are  none  of  them  original.  All  find  their  counterpart  in 
the  Druidic  ceremonial,  or  at  least  in  the  ceremonial  of 
other  pre-Christian  beliefs.  We  shall  not  be  at  pains 
to  disprove  such  statements  as  the  above,  all  of  which 
we  shall,  however,  endeavour  to  point  out  are  wide  of 
the  real  question.  It  is  not  for  a  moment  possible,  nor 
is  it  our  intention  to  deny  that  there  is  often  a  remark- 
able similarity,  and  very  possibly  a  relationship,  between 
the  signs  and  symbols  of  the  old  Christian  ritual  and 
those  of  more  ancient  creeds.  We  would  not  refuse  to 
believe  that  between  the  parables  and  legends  of  the 
New  Testament  and  similar  stories  in  pre-Christian  and 
Buddhist  books  there  exists  a  strong  family  likeness. 
The  similarity  is  too  evident  to  escape  the  least  per- 
spicacious eye.  What  is,  however,  now  asserted,  and 
what  we  shall  later  on  £roye  in  greaterdetail,  is  tEat_ 
the  greatest  number  _of  those  similarities,  of  those 
coincidences,  of  those  identities,  is  insufficient  to  show 
that  Christianity  is  a  niere  transmutation  of  Buddhism^^ 
Druidism,  or  any  other  pre^ChristianisnL 

The  theme  of  the  second  category  of  unbelievers 
is  essentially  the  same,  although  in  this  case  it  depends 
for  support  upon  more  subtle  philological  refinements. 
We  shall  now  trace,  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  the  drift 
of  the  school  of  Tubingen.  It  is  now  universally  recog- 
nized by  critics  of  the  New  Testament  that  a  very 
great  number  of  the  books  which  are  usually  associated 
with  the  names  of  the  Apostles  are  not  really  directly 
apostolic.  The  different  schools  of  theologians  have 
waged  bitter  war  as  to  what  is  the  real  authority  on 
which  these  books  repose.     Are  they  really  true  and 


RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS  141 

fair  representations  of  what  was  actually  taught  by  the 
Apostles  ?  Do  they  preserve  for  us  the  story  of  the 
life  of  Christ  as  it  was  handed  down  by  the  Apostles  ? 
Did  St.  Paul  really  write  such  and  such  an  Epistle,  or 
is  it  composed  by  another?  The  Tubingen  school, 
which  dates  its  foundation  from  the  appearance  of  the 
famous  "  Life  of  Christ "  by  Strauss,  has  on  the  whole 
taken  up  a  very  strong  negative  position.  It  asserts 
that  nearly  all,  or  at  all  events  the  large  majority,  of 
the  New  Testamentary  writings  are  mere  frauds  con- 
cocted by  later  theologians,  after  the  second  century 
A.D.,  to  support  doctrines  of  their  own  creation.  Our 
extraneous  evidence  as  to  the  early  existence  of  most 
of  the  New  Testament  books  is  very  fragmentary, 
consisting  for  the  most  part  in  second-hand  passages 
from  Papias,  a  disciple  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist, 
who  was  Bishop  of  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia,  and  is  con- 
jectured to  have  died  about  156  a.d.  These  passages, 
preserved  for  us  by  Eusebius,  have  been  turned,  twisted, 
and  contorted  in  order  to  supply  any  kind  of  evidence. 
Thus  every  book  of  the  New  Testament  has  been 
subjected  to  the  most  detailed  and  destructive  criticism, 
until  very  little  survives  beyond  the  four  major  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul ;  the  text  even  of  these  is  declared  corrupt 
in  the  extreme,  and  full  of  subsequent  embroideries 
and  interpolations.  These  are  the  main  lines  of  the 
great  book  by  Ferdinand  Baur,  "Paul,  the  Apostle 
of  Jesus  Christ."  He  declares  that  the  four  Epistles, 
to  the  Eomans,  to  the  Corinthians,  and  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  are  alone  undoubtedly  genuine.  All  the  other 
Epistles  are  subject  to  greater  or  lesser  degrees  of 
suspicion.      He   then   goes   on   to   investigate,  in   his 


142  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

*'  Critical  Kesearches  into  the  Canonical  Gospels  (1847)," 
the  discrepancies  between  the  four  Evangelists ;  he 
endeavours  to  prove  what  are  the  theological  motives 
with  which  the  Gospels  have  been  written,  and  to  show 
that  the  more  this  theological  motive  predominates, 
the  less  can  the  Gospel  possess  of  historical  value.  The 
results  of  these  two  important  books  are  embodied  in 
one  great  work,  the  third  of  the  series,  "  Christianity 
and  the  Christian  Church  in  the  Three  First  Centuries." 
It  is  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  unity  which  is 
supposed  to  have  prevailed  in  the  early  Christian 
Church  is  a  mere  empty  imagination,  and  that  all  the 
extant  New  Testament  writings  are  fragments  of  a 
widespread  controversial  literature ;  they  are  all  written 
with  the  object  of  supporting  some  particular  dogma, 
and  this  argumentative  basis  must  necessarily  impair, 
not  to  say  destroy,  their  historical  value.  When  we 
get  up  after  reading  the  masterpieces  of  the  Tubingen 
school,  it  is  to  behold  all  our  authorities  shattered  into 
a  thousand  atoms,  and  if  we  have  been  carried  away 
by  their  philological  methods  of  reasoning,  to  see  in 
the  life  of  Christ  a  mere  myth,  a  mere  creation  of  some 
obscure  sect  of  controversialists. 

The  Old  Testament  has  fared  but  little  better;  it 
also  has  been  subjected  to  a  minute  process  of  philo- 
logical criticism;  here  it  is  the  personality  of  Moses 
which  has  been  torn  into  shreds.  Layer  upon  layer 
of  additions  have  been  discovered,  more  especially  in 
the  Pentateuch.  We  cannot  go  into  details  about  the 
disputes  between  the  various  schools  of  Jehovists,  and 
Jahvists,  the  theories  of  Graaf  and  De  Wette,  but 
suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Old  Testament  issues  from 


RELIGIOUS   SUCCESS  143 

this  war  of  criticism  as  battered  and  unrecognizable  as 
did  the  New  Testament. 

With  the  limited  space  at  our  disposal,  it  would 
be  quite  out  of  the  question  for  us  to  endeavour  to 
give  a  full  orientation  of  the  history  and  value  of 
these  various  schools  of  Higher  Criticism.  We  shall 
limit  ourselves  to  pointing  out  _the  fallacy  of  their 
methods. 

Few  of  the  historians  of  Christianity  have  ap- 
proached their  task  in  anything  like  a  philosophical 
spirit.  It  has  never  entered  their  minds  to  ask  them- 
selves the  simple  question,  whether  the  means  at  their 
disposal,  their  instruments  for  investigating  the  subject, 
are  really  sufficient  or  satisfactory.  It  is  the  first  step 
in  philosophy  to  investigate  the  main  tool  of  philo- 
sophy, to  investigate  the  nature  of  the  mind,  and  to 
find  out  whether  it  is  a  proper  and  adequate  instru- 
ment of  thought.  It  has  rarely  happened  that  a 
theologian  has  ever  cast  any  doubt  upon  his  means  and 
methods.  Has  he  sufficient  data  in  the  Greek  texts 
which  have  been  handed  down  to  him,  and  which  are 
at  best  one-sided  reports  of  events,  perhaps  very  in- 
sufficiently understood  by  those  by  whom  they  were 
compiled  ?  Must  he  not  widen  his  horizon  of  observa 
tion  ?  Must  he  not  apply  some  more  living  test  ?  In 
all  other  domains  of  science  we  see  the  worker,  who 
is  confronted  by  an  inexplicable  phenomenon,  seeking 
anxiously  for  some  kindred  phenomenon  in  order  that 
he  may  institute  a  comparison.  The  physicist  often 
has  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  reproduce  the 
required  phenomenon,  and  so  to  arrive  at  the  causes. 
The  historian  and  theologian  must  adopt  some  similar 


144  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

method  of  research.  They  cannot,  of  course,  reproduce 
their  phenomena  at  will ;  they  are,  however,  sometimes 
able  to  watch  kindred  phenomena  that  have  been 
reproduced  in  the  course  of  history.  Failing  this, 
they  are  at  least  able  to  make  a  comparison  between 
kindred  events  which  they  will  find  recurring  through- 
out history.  It  will  at  once  be  seen  how  remote  such  a 
scientific  method  has,  as  a  rule,  been  from  the  historical 
and  theological  investigator.  Even  during  our  own  days 
it  has  been  possible  to  watch,  in  Europe  and  America, 
the  growth  of  great  religious  sects,  which,  if  they 
cannot  be  for  a  moment  ranked  on  the  same  level  as 
Christianity,  have  at  least  developed  along  sufficiently 
similar  lines  to  make  a  comparison  between  them  and 
Christianity  a  fruitful  source  of  investigation.  The 
origins  of  Christianity  are  remote  and  obscure ;  let  us 
admit  that  the  records  dealing  with  them  are  tinctured 
with  party  bias  and  untrustworthy,  but  the  whole 
history,  say  of  Wesleyanism,  or  even  of  Mormonism, 
is  within  our  immediate  reach ;  we  can  yet  talk  with 
people  whose  ancestors  or  who  themselves  have  been 
influenced  by  the  teachings  and  felt  the  personality 
of  John  Wesley  or  of  Joseph  Smith.  There  is  a  better 
chance  of  our  being  able  to  understand  the  influence 
of  Calvinism,  or  Mahometanism,  where  our  information 
is  more  copious,  and  where  a  finnicking  process  of 
verbal  criticism  is  not  necessary  to  verify  our  argu- 
ments step  by  step,  than  we  have  of  explaining  the 
spread  of  Christianity.  When  we  have  succeeded  in 
grasping  the  minor,  the  more  modern  and  less  obscure 
phenomenon,  we  shall  possess  a  powerful  leverage  with 
which  to  approach  the  major  question. 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  145 

It  is,  however,  imperatively  necessary  that  the 
reader  should  grasp  the  main  point  with  absolute 
clearness,  and  it  will  be  advisable  to  make  him  do  so 
by  an  apparent  digression. 

The  storm  of  controversy  which  has  raged  unremit- 
tingly about  the  Homeric  question  for  the  last  century 
bears  in  many  points  a  striking  resemblance  to  that 
which  has  been  battering  against  the  authority  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  has  been  raised  by  much  the  same 
philological  wind.  The  authorship  of  Homer  has  been 
split,  subdivided,  and  pared  down  until  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  there  remains  a  single  isolated  line 
which  can  be  safely  left  to  the  credit  of  Homer  or  "  the 
other  author  of  the  same  name."  Differences  of  dialect 
have  been  pointed  out,  and  lines  that  have  been 
interpolated;  passages  stolen  from  other  poets  have 
been  carefully  dissected  out  of  the  main  body  of  the 
poems.  Especially  has  the  Odyssey  been  victimized, 
and  the  various  cantos  from  which  it  is  supposed  to  have 
been  welded  together  have  been  precipitated  and 
assigned  to  independent  rhapsodists.  No  man  has 
distinguished  himself  more  in  this  field  of  polemics  than 
tlfe  proto  and  arch-mutilator  of  Homer,  F.  A.  Wolf, 
who  first  gave  vent  to  the  disruptive  theory  in  his 
famous  '*  Prolegomena  in  Homerum,"  printed  in  1795. 

But  all  this  mass  of  verbal  criticism  falls  wide  of 
the  mark.  Wolf  and  the  true  admirer  of  Homer  are 
not  really  interested  in  the  same  thing.  It  is  difficult 
in  a  few  simple  words  to  sketch  their  diflerent  attitudes 
of  mind.  Wolfs  criticism  is  almost  exclusively  directed 
against  the  external,  almost  tangible,  elements  of  the 
Odyssey;   ugon^the   soul   of  the^jgo^   he  does   not 

L 


146  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

really  touch  at  all.  There  is,  however,  a  great  deal 
more  in  the  Odyssey  than  a  mere  linking  together  of 
melodious  lines  full  of  fine  phrases,  and  telling  more 
or  less  interesting  stories.  A  man  may  have  read  the 
Odyssey  and  appreciated  it,  he  may  have  forgotten 
the  words,  and  have  but  a  dim  and  uncertain  ring  in 
his  ears  of  the  majestic  roll  of  its  verse,  but,  never- 
theless, he  has  not  forgotten  Homer.  He  has  but  to 
close  his  eyes  a  moment  and  there  will  rise  before  his 
mind  the  grand  figure  of  Ulysses,  the  man  of  unyield- 
ing patience,  the  man  of  infinite  cunning,  the  ever- 
faithful  husband  of  Penelope. 

It  is  in  vain  that  the  philologers  have  spent  lives 
of  toil  in  stratifying  the  Odyssey ;  in  assigning  dates 
to  particular  poetical  deposits,  because  at  these  dates 
alone  such  and  such  a  particle  was  used,  or  because 
at  this  date  they  conceive  the  fossilized  digamma  to 
have  disappeared.  All  their  geologizing  will  not  do 
away  with  the  personality  of  Homer,  because  Homer 
does  not  consist,  as  may  perhaps  be  imagined,  of  a 
definite  number  of  stanzas,  a  definite  number  of  lines. 
The  immortal  value  of  his  poems  lies  in  a  few  and 
exceedingly  beautiful  types  of  humanity.  The  story 
of  the  Odyssey  is  amusing,  interesting,  but  without 
the  great  ethical  worth  of  its  great  characters,  of 
Ulysses,  of  Penelope,  of  Telemachus,  it  could  not  claim 
to  rank  higher  than  many  a  German  fairy  tale.  Each 
of  these  mighty  personalities  must  have  been  drawn  by 
a  single  hand.  A  personality  in  literature  cannot  be 
the  outcome  of  a  process  of  evolution ;  it  is  the  con- 
ception of  one  man,  taken  from  a  single  model,  perhaps 
a  little  idealized.     The  moral  type  cannot  have  been 


EELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  147 

created  by  the  author  out  of  his  own  inner  conscious- 
ness ;  we  may  be  as  sure  of  the  real  existence  of  the 
prototype  of  Ulysses  as  we  may  be  sure  of  the  real 
existence  of  Homer.  Whether  all  the  great  characters 
are  the  work  of  the  same  author  is  not  quite  so  certain. 
At  all  events,  the  only  permissible  stratification  of  the 
Odyssey  would  be  a  character  stratification.  The 
philological  method  is  futile.  The  character  of  Ulysses 
running  through  the  whole  poem  from  end  to  end 
is  of  one  piece,  and  bears  the  impress  of  one  great 
mind.  We  do  not  for  a  moment  wish  to  imply  that 
Homer  did  not  borrow  one  anecdote  from  one  author, 
one  from  another,  in  order  to  beautify  his  work ;  he 
may  have  bodily  transferred  whole  passages — this  is 
quite  possible.  The  point  is  that  the  unity  of  the 
poem,  the  guiding  spirit,  reflects  the  mind  of  one 
man. 

To  bring  home  the  essence  of  what  it  has  been  our 
wish  to  demonstrate  above,  let  us  take  a  few  conclusive 
examples  from  more  modern  authors,  and  more  modern 
books,  the  history  of  the  composition  of  which  is  more 
familiar  to  us.  What  work  could  better  serve  our 
purpose  than  "Hamlet,"  which  will  also  give  us  an 
opportunity  for  saying  a  word  or  two  upon  another 
heated  literary  squabble.  In  this  case  we  need  hardly 
do  anything  but  repeat  what  we  have  already  said 
concerning  the  Odyssey.  What  is  it  that  we  find  to 
admire  in  Hamlet  ?  Is  it  the  famous  soliloquy,  "  to 
be  or  not  to  be  ?  "  Is  it  the  apparition  of  the  spectre 
of  Hamlet's  father?  Is  it  the  famous  scene  within  a 
scene  ?  No,  it  is  the  great  solitary  and  melancholy 
figure  of  Hamlet  himself  which   sinks   deep  into  our 


148  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

brain  and  there  remains  unalterable,  indelible  long 
after  the  words,  the  lines,  the  scenes,  and  the  acts  have 
vanished  in  oblivion.  It  is  in  this  that  lies  the  great- 
ness of  Shakespeare,  and  it  is  this  which  is  ignored  or 
avoided  by  all  Baconian  theorists.  Of  Hamlet  we  know 
the  sources,  as  we  do  of  many  of  the  other  plays.  But 
nobody  reads  the  crabbed  Latin  of  Saxo  Grammaticus, 
because  he  will  not  find  there  the  great  personality  of 
Hamlet.  The  external  garb  of  the  play  is  not  dubious 
in  its  origin,  but  from  whom  among  his  contemporaries 
Shakespeare  took  the  soul  of  Hamlet  we  do  not  know. 
This  is  the  point  missed  by  all  the  Baconian  party. 
Even  if,  by  aid  of  ciphers  or  other  mystifications,  we 
were  enabled  to  track  down  whole  passages  from  the 
plays  to  Bacon,  we  should  not  by  any  means  have 
proved  the  case,  even  if  we  had  proved  a  primd  facie 
probability.  The  words  are  second  rate,  the  character 
is  the  essential.  As  far  as  verbal  dexterity  is  concerned, 
a  clever  collaboration  of  authors  might  well  have  pro- 
duced the  play,  but  a  syndicate  could  not  have  given 
birth  to  the  great  and  fascinating  type.  Personality 
alone  creates  personality,  and  it  is  in  this  faculty  that 
Shakespeare  outstrips  Marlowe,  often  his  peer  as  far  as 
words  go. 

To  return  to  Homer,  he  excells  not  only  in  metre 
and  language,  in  naivete  and  wisdom ;  all  these  features 
we  find  in  very  many  less  valued  epics.  His  paramount 
excellence  is  in  the  delineation  of  those  great  types  of  gods 
and  men  which  have  until  to-day  charmed  and  fascinated 
the  reader,  inspired  the  artist  and  the  thinker;  types 
that  interest  us  in  childhood,  manhood,  and  old  age. 
It  is  in  this  that  Homer  is  superior  to  Virgil  and  Tasso. 


EELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  149 

Both  these  poets  are  inferior  to  him,  not  in  language, 
but  in  their  incapacity  to  create  great  poetical  types. 

Let  us  now  apply  the  standards  which  we  have 
made  to  the  consideration  of  the  Bible.  We  shall  at 
once  see  that  the  ethical  and  religious  value  of  Moses, 
the  Prophets,  and  Jesus  is  not  so  much  in  what  they 
said  and  did,  but  in  their  very  personalities.  The 
moral  teaching  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  is 
exceedingly  elevating,  exceedingly  beautiful ;  we  cannot 
conceive  any  one  wishing  to  deny  it.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, owing  to  these  teachings  that  Christianity  has 
achieved  its  unique  success.  The  books  of  all  the 
other  great  religions  contain  ethical  rules  and  moral 
precepts  equally,  perhaps  even  more  sublime.  Mankind 
have  always  professed  a  strong  liking  for  such  sublime 
sayings,  the  injunctions  of  which  they,  however,  uni- 
formly fail  to  practise.  They  form,  nevertheless,  a 
moral  ideal,  which,  if  it  is  never  attained,  serves  at  any 
rate  as  a  guiding  light.  What  can  be  fairer  than  many 
of  the  noble  maxims  contained  in  the  Buddhistic  books, 
or  in  the  Koran  ?  We  are  not  surprised  that  mission- 
aries among  Mahometan  and  Buddhist  nations  do  not 
succeed  in  gathering  many  converts  when  the  mission- 
aries limit  their  preaching  to  pointing  out  the  beautiful 
moral  code  inculcated  by  the  Christian  writings ;  un- 
believers find  in  their  own  holy  books  ennobling  precepts 
enough  for  them  to  follow.  It  is  only  when  they  are 
able  to  give  something  of  the  wonderful  personality 
of  Jesus  that  they  can  hope  to  succeed  in  gaining 
proselytes. 

It  is  in  this  that  we  must  find  the  great  reason  for  the 
success  of  St.  Paul ;  he  was  able  to  impress  those  among 


150  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

whom  he  went  with  that  marvellous  personality  of  the 
Saviour.  That  he  should  have  invented  that  personality 
is  as  impossible  as  that  Plato  should  have  invented  the 
personality  of  Socrates.  That  it  was  not  from  repeating 
the  mere  verbal  teachings  of  Jesus  that  St.  Paul  suc- 
ceeded we  know  full  well.  There  was  not  one  of  his 
hearers  who  had  not  heard  such  teachings  a  score  of 
times  before.  It  was  not  the  abstract  duty  of  a  moral 
doctrine  which  would  drive  the  rich  young  man  into 
selling  all  that  he  had,  and  following  in  the  steps  of 
the  Apostle;  it  was  the  magnetism  of  an  irresistible 
personality.  Those  who  hesitate  to  believe  that  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  were  not  entirely  original,  who  are 
shocked  at  the  idea  that  those  teachings  contain  much 
of  the  moral  commonplace,  should  look  up  the  book  of 
Edmund  Spiess,  printed  at  Leipzig  in  1871.  Spiess 
himself  was  a  fervent,  unshaken  believer,  but  in  his 
**  Logos  Spermatikos  "  he  has  made  an  exhaustive  com- 
parison between  the  ancient  Greek  authors  and  the 
lessons  of  the  New  Testament.  For  every  quotation 
chapter  and  verse  is  given,  and  the  coincidences  are 
astounding,  both  in  number  and  quality.  Ancient 
Greece  had  then  the  Christian  teachings,  but  it  did  not 
have  Christianity.  What  was  then  lacking?  The 
personality  of  Christ  alone. 

We  should  like  to  bear  out  our  statement  by  a  few 
examples  taken  from  more  recent  times.  We  shall 
speak  of  great  historical  personages,  great  religious 
characters,  and  we  shall  seek  to  show  that  their  great 
achievements  were  due  not  to  their  personal  genius 
alone,  not  to  their  peculiar  intelligence,  not  to  their 
station  of  life,  not  to  their  situation,  but  to  the  sheer 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  151 

force  of  their  personalities.  It  is  no  mere  hazard  that 
the  great  men  and  women  who  have  left  such  a  mark 
upon  history  have  arisen  out  of  obscure  and  humble 
places.  It  is  no  mere  chance  that  Napoleon  came  from 
half-unknown  Ajaccio;  that  Ignatius  Loyola  issued 
from  an  obscure  mountain  fastness  in  the  equally  ob- 
scure province  of  Guipuzcoa ;  that  Jeanne  D'Arc  saw 
the  light  in  the  before  unheard-of  hamlet  of  Domremy, 
on  the  marches  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine ;  above  all,  that 
Jesus  came  from  the  most  out-of-the-way  village  Beth- 
lehem. In  all  these  personalities  we  find  one  striking 
similitude.  All  of  them  have  been  early  conscious  of 
themselves,  all  of  them  have  realized  their  vocation 
before.  Yet  to  the  eye  of  the  stranger,  there  was  no- 
thing to  justify  such  a  conviction.  They  had  nothing  to 
depend  upon  save  their  own  personalities.  Already,  in 
the  autumn  of  1796,  at  the  time  of  his  campaign  for  the 
Quadrilateral,  Napoleon's  letters  are  full  of  the  con- 
viction that  he  is  predestined  to  become  the  ruler  of  the 
world. 

The  same  clear  prescience  filled  the  heart  of  young 
Loyola.  The  great  order  of  Jesuits  contained  nothing 
particularly  original,  nothing  that  seemed  to  proclaim 
that  it  would  surpass  in  power  all  the  great  monastic 
orders  which  had  gone  before;  its  success  was  due 
entirely  to  the  great  personality  of  Loyola,  who 
already,  as  he  lay  upon  his  bed  of  sufiering  at 
Pampeluna,  wounded  almost  to  death,  felt  that  it  was 
his  vocation  to  save  the  agonizing  Catholic  Church 
from  being  annihilated  by  the  Reformation,  and  to 
restore  it  to  its  dominating  position.  Yet  in  Loyola, 
a  poor  Basque  knight,  of  no  apparent  talent,  ignorant 


152  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

beyond  the  ordinary  degree  of  ignorance  of  his 
fellows,  there  appeared  to  be  nothing  which  predestined 
him  to  such  a  rdle ;  all  the  same,  he  was  already 
convinced  of  his  success,  and  within  fifteen  years  he 
had  founded  his  order,  had  convinced,  by  the  sheer 
force  of  his  conviction,  men  far  and  away  his  in- 
tellectual superiors,  won  over  the  hesitant  pope  to  a 
belief  in  him,  and  in  great  measure  accomplished  his 
task. 

So  again  with  Jeanne  D'Arc.  What  could  have,  on 
the  face  of  things,  appeared  a  more  ridiculous  absurdity 
than  that  a  rough  village  girl,  from  the  most  unimpor- 
tant bourgade  on  half  French  territory,  should  save 
France  from  the  tide  of  invasion  which  the  King  of 
France  and  the  pick  of  French  military  talent  had  been 
powerless  to  resist?  We  know  the  intellectual  capa- 
cities of  a  French  peasant-girl  of  to-day.  What  can 
they  have  been  in  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages? 
Such  a  girl  was  certainly  not  likely  to  give  the  French 
generals  tutoring  in  strategy.  Yet  from  the  first  she 
was  possessed  of  her  conviction,  and  this  conviction 
carried  her  through  all  the  coarse  pleasantries  of 
scoffers,  and  subdued  the  seigneur  of  Vaucouleurs  into 
belief  in  her  until  he  sent  her  to  the  Kings  head- 
quarters. In  a  few  months  her  task  was  done.  We 
are  not  surprised  to  hear  of  mystic  visions,  nor  is  there 
need  for  us  to  be  astonished.  How  else  should  we 
expect  this  peasant-girl  to  express  her  self-conviction  ? 
She  knew  of  no  such  abstractions  as  ''  personality ; " 
she  could  only  express  herself  in  the  terms  which  were 
natural  to  her  and  comprehensible  to  her  surroundings. 
Of  course,  she  saw  visions  ;  how  else  should  she  explain 


RELIGIOUS  SUCCESS  153 

the  certainty  with  which  she  was  filled  ?  We  know 
that  Jeanne  was  anything  rather  than  a  languishing 
mystic;  she  was  all  life  and  youth,  full  of  ready 
rejoinders  for  her  persecutors. 

Precisely  similar  is  the  conviction  of  a  higher  nature 
of  Jesus  that  He  is  the  Saviour.  We  can  well  under- 
stand that  those  about  Jesus,  impressed  by  His  grand 
personality,  would  seek  some  means  of  expressing  what 
they  felt  and  what  they  could  not  understand.  They  had 
not  at  their  fingers*  ends  the  psychological  phraseology 
of  to-day  ;  they  were,  moreover,  common  people ;  they 
were,  besides,  orientals,  and  to  represent  this,  to  them, 
superhuman  personality  they  employed  superhuman 
imagery.  The  story  of  a  miraculous  birth  is,  after  all, 
common  to  nearly  all  the  great  personalities  of  anti- 
quity ;  the  birth  of  Romulus  is  supernatural,  so  is  that 
of  Lycurgus,  and  of  many  other  great  figures  of  ancient 
history  which  we  might  mention.  Why  should  we 
take  all  these  stories  au  pied  de  la  lettre  ?  How  else 
would  it  have  been  possible  for  these  people  to  express 
themselves  ? 

It  is  sufficient  to  see  that,  as  in  a  few  other  cases  of 
history,  so  in  that  of  Jesus,  the  chief,  the  only,  problem 
is  not  this  or  that  text,  but  the  personality  of  the 
Saviour.  To  deny  this  personality  is  to  deny  the  fact 
that  Christianity  has  now  been  in  existence  close  on 
two  thousand  years.  Such  phenomena,  as  Christianity, 
derive  all  their  immense  ethical  power  from  a  com- 
manding ethical  personality,  and  from  nothing  else. 
Their  dependence  on  such  a  personality  is  a  psycho- 
logical truth,  not  a  theological  or  an  historical.  It 
cannot  be  denied ;  the  experience  of  every  day  proves 


154  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

it.  As  the  immense  force  of  Calvinism  is  all  based  on 
the  personality  of  Calvin,  and  not  on  his  theological 
teachings ;  as  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has  always 
been  vastly  superior  to  the  Catholic  Greek  Church, 
because  the  latter  does  not  admit  the  supreme  person- 
ality of  a  pope ;  even  so  the  whole  of  Christianity  is 
derived  from,  based  upon,  and  consummated  in  the 
unique  personality  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SUCCESS   AMONG   LATIN   NATIONS 

The  Latin  nations  (the  French,  the  Italians,  the  Spanish).  After  brief  dis- 
cussion of  the  Spanish,  follow  the  Italians.  Their  two  besetting  evils,  in 
spite  of  a  splendid  geopolitical  position,  are :  (1)  In  the  past,  that  they 
have  not  won  their  unity  by  their  own  efforts ;  (2)  that  the  Papacy  con- 
stantly undermines  them.  France :  Her  history  both  the  most  interest- 
ing, and  the  most  widely  read ;  yet  France,  practically,  a  terra  incognita^ 
especially  to  English-speaking  people.  Profound  mistakes  about  the 
character  of  the  French.  Her  women,  her  men.  Her  basal  aspirations. 
Her  wealth.  Europe's  absolute  need  of  France.  Her  destiny.  She  will 
always  be  the  leading  nation  in  Europe  on  account  of  her  wealth,  her 
intellectuality,  and  her  numerous  reverses,  that  have  sobered  and  steeled 
her. 

We  have  hitherto  confined  our  observations  to  success 
in  the  past ;  we  have  endeavoured,  as  far  as  has  been 
within  our  power,  to  show  what  have  been  the  causes  of 
national  success,  and  when  that  success  has  not  been 
maintained,  to  assign  a  sufficient  reason  for  its  decline. 
When  success  has  been  only  one-sided,  as  we  have  seen 
was  especially  the  case  among  the  nations  of  antiquity, 
it  has  been  our  aim  to  search  out  an  explanation  of 
these  limitations.  It  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that  the 
lessons  which  we  have  gleaned  from  these  historical 
investigations  may  prove  of  great  utility  in  examining 
the  causes  underlying  the  success  of  modern  nations, 
and  in  forecasting,  within  reasonable  bounds,  what  we 


156  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

may  expect  to  be  the  fortunes  of  those  nations  in  the 
future.  We  have  set  ourselves  up  standards  according 
to  which  we  may  judge,  and  for  this  reason  we  hope 
the  reader,  impatient  to  get  at  a  solution  of  the 
more  personal  and  more  palpitating  questions  of  the 
present,  will  pardon  any  tedious  pages  he  may  have 
found. 

It  will  be  most  convenient  to  deal  first  with  the 
so-called  Latin  nations.  Nothing  can  be  more  mis- 
leading than  the  name,  which  would  induce  us  to 
suppose  that  there  is  a  strong  bond  of  unity  existing 
between  the  nations  speaking  Eomance  languages. 
The  bond  is  purely  philological,  and  in  our  preceding 
chapters  we  have  done  all  in  our  power  to  show  that 
philology  and  race  can  never  form  the  basis  of  history. 
Much  less  can  aflSnity  of  language  do  so  when  aflSnity 
of  "race"  is  wanting.  But  the  resemblance  between  the 
Latin  races  is  purely  superficial.  In  national  character 
there  can  be  nothing  more  opposed  than  are  the  Italians, 
Spanish,  and  French.  Ethnographically  speaking,  there 
is  an  equally  striking  diversity,  and  among  these 
nations  internal  individualization  is  carried  to  a  pitch 
which  we  find  nowhere  else.  Nothing  can  be  more 
dangerous  than  to  hazard  generalities  concerning  the 
so-called  Latin  nations.  Between  the  French  and 
Italians  there  is  a  far  wider  gulf  than  exists,  for 
instance,  between  Germans  and  Dutch.  The  Spanish, 
again,  are  absolutely  distinct  in  every  way  from  French 
or  Italians.  We  are  not  justified  in  attempting  to 
carry  the  methods  of  the  naturalist  into  the  study  of 
history.  Spain  has  fallen  from  her  high  estate,  and 
she  can  no  longer  boast  anything  but  an  insignificant 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      157 

vestige  of  the  magnificent  power  which  she  wielded  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  when  for  a  short  time  she  stood 
in  the  van  of  European  nations.  But  her  might  had 
been  fostered  into  greatness  by  peculiarly  artificial 
means,  and  when  those  means  were  cut  off  she  was 
bound  to  relapse  into  her  former  line  of  progress.  It 
is  true  that  she  has  lost,  probably  without  recall,  her 
oversea  dominions,  from  which  she  drew  in  no  small 
part  the  wealth  which  enabled  her  for  a  short  time  to 
pursue  the  most  grandiose  ambitions  in  Europe.  Before 
her  transmarine  possessions  had  fallen  entirely  away, 
they  had  already  ceased  to  be  the  fathomless  mine  of 
riches  for  which  they  had  at  first  been  held.  The 
exhaustion  of  her  means  has  compelled  Spain  to 
curtail  her  exaggerated  projects,  but  it  would  be  rash 
to  conclude  that  she  is  really  a  decadent  nation.  Her 
late  humiliation  at  the  hands  of  the  United  States  has 
drawn  upon  her  an  undue  share  of  contempt.  It  is 
well  to  remember  that  the  home  country  of  Spain  is  a 
poor  country,  in  which  it  requires  all  the  ingenuity  of 
the  inhabitants  to  make  both  ends  meet.  Spain  has 
not  the  superabundant  fertility  of  France,  and  the  land 
is  very  greatly  underpopulated.  She  thus  lacks  the 
financial  means  for  maintaining  an  imperial  policy,  and 
the  money  for  internal  government  can  only  be  wrung 
with  infinite  pain  from  the  poverty-ridden  inhabitant. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  drawback  from  which  Spain  suffers 
is  her  isolation.  The  insurmountable  barrier  of  the 
Pyrenees,  with  its  scanty  passes,  renders  Spain  an  almost 
utter  stranger  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  She  lies  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the  Continent,  and  has  no  passing 
travellers ;  there  is  no   going  to  and  fro  of  strangers 


158  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

through  her  midst,  and  thus  we  are  not  surprised  to 
find  in  her  the  most  conservative  country  of  the  west. 
She  is  almost  entirely  cut  off  from  the  intercourse  with 
the  outer  world,  and  lacks  the  stimulus  of  the  foreigners 
importing  novel  ideas  and  excess  of  energy  which  we 
have  shown  again  and  again  to  be  so  powerful  an 
incentive  to  progress.  Spain  is  the  least  visited 
country  of  Europe;  the  number  of  pleasure-seeking 
travellers  thither  is  most  restricted.  Is  there,  then, 
anything  astonishing  in  the  Spanish  peasant  and 
Spanish  gentleman  being  still  tinged  with  the  old-world 
courtesy  of  centuries  ago  ?  Spain  is  the  land  of  quaint 
manners  and  quaint  customs  which  the  rest  of  Europe 
has  long  ago  discarded  in  the  hurry  and  scurry  of 
progress.  But  manners  and  customs  are  not  all  that 
has  remained  unchanged  in  Spain.  Spain  has  been 
called  the  priest-ridden.  It  is  easy  enough  to  say 
that  she  has  been  ruined  by  her  priestcraft,  but  the 
problem  is  far  more  complicated  than  that.  It  is  certain 
that  her  isolation  is  one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles 
that  bar  her  way,  and  one  that  she  will  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  surmount.  Her  natural  resources 
are  poor,  but,  such  as  they  are,  they  are  very  imperfectly 
developed.  The  fertile  districts,  scattered  like  oases 
along  the  coast  of  Eastern  Spain,  are  susceptible  of 
considerable  extension.  This  is  a  question  of  irrigation, 
and  irrigation  is  expensive  work,  and  we  may  look 
forward  to  a  very  good  proportion  of  the  savings  of 
needy  Spain  being  devoted  for  some  time  to  come  to 
this  kind  of  work,  at  present  suffering  from  many 
restrictions.  Water,  in  the  greater  part  of  the  country, 
is   worth   money.      A  most   interesting   work   by   M. 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      159 

Brunhes,  wMcli  has  only  just  appeared,  makes  a  special 
study  of  Spanish  irrigation,  and  the  writer,  who  can 
speak  with  the  authority  of  a  specialist,  holds  out  most 
sanguine  prospects  for  the  future. 

The  division  of  nations  into  the  living  and  the 
dying  was  the  idea  of  a  late  English  statesman.  We 
may  be  permitted  to  doubt  whether  any  of  the  nations 
of  modern  Europe  is  yet  in  so  morbid  a  condition  as  to 
justify  any  prediction  of  its  death.  Spain  has  certainly 
declined  since  the  sixteenth  century,  when,  in  1582, 
she  was  able  to  discomfit  a  fleet  of  Italian,  English,  and 
French  ships  on  sea  off  Terceira,  and  when  her  infantry 
battalions  were  the  envy  of  the  world.  There  is  no 
reason  to  despair  of  her  future.  For  some  time  she 
may  lag  behind  her  brethren  on  the  path  of  progress  ; 
we  have  shown  that  her  position  predestines  her  to 
slowness  of  advance.  Bodily  and  mentally  the  Spanish 
are  as  sane  and  sound  as  any,  and  though  they  may 
perhaps  never  be  permitted  to  regain  the  proud  station 
which  once  they  held  in  the  forefront  of  Europe,  they 
may  very  well  attain  a  humbler  degree  of  ambition, 
develop  their  own  home  country,  and  build  up  a  polity 
as  remarkable  as  any  which  at  present  exists. 

To  pass  to  the  Italians,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  they  are  the  most  gifted  nation  in  Europe.  In 
the  world  of  action,  as  in  the  world  of  thought,  they 
have  produced  men  not  only  of  great  power,  but  of 
unique  power.  Probably  no  man,  single-handed,  and 
through  the  sheer  force  of  his  own  personal  genius,  has 
ever  done  so  much  to  change  the  face  of  the  world  as 
did  the  great  Genoese,  Christopher  Columbus;  and 
what  Columbus  did  in  the  West,  Marco  Polo,  another 


160  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Italian,  accomplislied  in  the  East.  Dante  raised  the 
finest  cathedral  in  words,  and  one  well  comparable  with 
the  greatest  buildings  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  work  of 
generations.  What  characterizes  the  Italians  above  all 
is  their  initiative.  It  is  the  first  step  which  is  the 
hardest  to  make ;  but  it  is  the  Italians  who  have  always 
been  ready  to  take  the  first  step  in  action,  and  able  to 
make  the  first  step  in  new  paths  of  science.  When 
once  the  route  across  the  Atlantic  was  shown  by  a 
Columbus  or  a  Vespucci,  it  required  no  remarkable 
courage  or  enterprise  to  follow  in  their  track.  But 
imagine  the  cool  nerves  necessary  in  those  days  of  yet 
imperfect  seamanship  to  strike  boldly  out  across  that 
vast  waste  of  unchartered  waters,  in  vessels  little  larger 
than  our  coastwise  fishing  smacks,  and  with  more  than 
a  good  chance  of  never  returning.  In  all  modern 
sciences  the  Italians  have  played  the  part  of  pioneers. 
It  is  they  who  have  taken  up  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
where  the  Greeks  or  Arabs  had  left  it.  They  have 
laid  the  foundations  of  arithmetic  and  algebra,  of 
physics,  electricity,  pathological  anatomy  (the  creation 
of  Morgagni) ;  they  have  traced  the  first  lines  in  socio- 
logy and  in  the  philosophy  of  history.  Often  enough 
they  have  left  traces  of  their  labours  upon  scientific 
terminology,  to  remain  as  a  memorial  of  their  achieve- 
ments. Thus  it  is  that  in  electricity  we  have  retained 
the  name  of  Volta,  the  renowned  physicist  of  Pavia, 
who  lived  from  1745  to  1825.  We  might  multiply 
examples  without  end. 

We  cannot  help  being  overpoweringly  impressed  by 
their  extraordinary  mental  activity,  and  by  the  diversity 
of  their  attainments,  which  is  almost  incredible.     The 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN   NATIONS      161 

history  of  Italy  teems  for  the  last  eight  centuries  with 
the  most  intense  personalities.  As  we  may  observe 
this  wonderful  display  of  individuality  among  Italy's 
great  men,  so  we  may  observe  it  in  the  country  itself. 
We  cannot  judge  of  the  land  until  we  have  seen  it  all. 
Each  province,  each  city,  we  might  almost  say  each 
quarter  of  each  city,  has  its  distinctive  character,  its 
own  peculiar  individuality.  This  is  the  mark  of  a 
highly  civilized  and  progressive  country.  The  Floren- 
tine is  not  a  Eoman  in  language,  looks,  or  mind,  any 
more  than  the  Eoman  is  a  Neapolitan.  Just  as  the 
country  has  no  universal  language — for  the  Tuscan,  the 
literary  vehicle,  is  an  acquired  tongue  over  most  of 
the  peninsula,  and  is  not  the  everyday  speech  of  even 
the  educated  classes  throughout  the  country — even  so 
there  exists  no  universal  mental  type.  While  political 
union  should  give  the  land  political  strength,  its  intel- 
lectual disunion  should  be  no  less  a  source  of  intellectual 
strength. 

It  is  important  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the 
woman  of  Italy,  in  that  we  conceive  the  ideal  perfection 
of  a  country  to  consist  in  the  possession  of  men  ripened 
to  the  perfection  of  manhood,  and  of  women  grown  to 
the  perfection  of  womanhood.  Woman  in  Italy,  though 
far  from  being  so  all-important  a  force  as  in  France,  is, 
nevertheless,  of  very  great  influence.  She  is  frequently 
of  surprising  beauty,  of  deeply  emotional  life,  and  yet 
marked  by  the  greatest  devotion  to  her  household 
duties ;  she  is,  above  all,  thoroughly  womanly  in  the 
most  noble  sense  of  the  word. 

Perhaps  Italy's  trump  card  in  the  future  is  her 
supremely  excellent  geopolitical  position.     In  speaking 

M 


162  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

of  political  success,  we  have  had  occasion  to  point  out 
the  great  geographical  advantages  which  were  contribu- 
tory to  the  rise  and  prosperity  of  Venice .  During  the 
latter  half  of  the  last  century  the  conditions  of  Venice 
from  the  thirteenth  to  the  sixteenth  centuries  have,  by 
the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal,  reappeared  to  a  great 
extent,  but  this  time  for  the  benefit  of  Italy  as  a  whole. 
Italy  is  still  the  centre  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  but 
of  a  regenerated  Mediterranean  world,  in  which  the 
going  to  and  fro  of  commerce  is  increasing  every  day. 
She  has  now  reassumed  her  former  position  midway 
between  the  Orient  and  the  Western  world. 

The  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  promises  well  for 
the  future  of  Italy.  Italy  has  not  been  able  to  avail 
herself  to  the  full  of  the  benefits  of  her  newly  acquired 
position.  She  has  had  great  evils  at  home  with  which 
to  contend,  but  within  the  coming  few  years  she  must 
forcibly  make  use  of  her  advantages.  A  good  geo- 
graphical situation  inevitably,  almost  automatically, 
confers  prosperity. 

Let  us  cast  a  glance  at  two  of  the  great  evils  against 
which  Italy  has  had  to  struggle.  After  a  thousand 
years  of  unsuccessful  straining  after  unity,  she  has  at 
last  succeeded  in  reaching  the  longed-for  goal.  Un- 
happily, union  has  not  come  as  the  fruit  of  her  own 
efforts,  but  has  been  conferred  upon  her  by  the  victories 
of  France  and  Prussia  over  the  Austrians  in  1859  and 
in  1866  respectively.  When  a  nation  has  won  its  own 
independence  by  the  expenditure  of  its  own  energies 
and  at  the  cost  of  its  own  blood,  it  receives  an  incal- 
culable stimulus  to  further  progress.  We  have  seen 
what  was  the  efiect  upon  Athens  of  her  triumphant 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      163 

issue  from  the  wrestle  for  life  or  death  against  the  over- 
whelming might  of  Persia.  No  sooner  had  she  come 
off  victorious,  than  she  rose  at  one  bound  to  the  zenith 
of  her  intellectual  and  political  glory.  Two  thousand 
years  later  history  repeats  itself.  The  crushing  defeat 
of  Philip  II.,  and  the  destruction  of  his  "invincible" 
Armada,  is  for  England  the  opening  of  her  career  of 
fame ;  it  was  immediately  followed  by  her  golden  age 
of  letters  and  intellect.  To  return  to  Italy,  as  we  have 
said,  her  independence  was  not  her  own  achievement. 
Is  it,  therefore,  a  matter  for  surprise  that  her  union  has 
not  had  as  a  sequence  that  leap  forward  in  prosperity 
which  seems  to  have  been  so  confidently  expected 
from  it  ? 

Moreover,  the  union  is  by  no  means  so  thorough  as 
externals  would  lead  us  to  conclude.  This  is  Italy's 
second  evil.  The  House  of  Savoy,  the  present  reigning 
family,  has  stripped  the  Holy  See  of  its  temporal 
dominions,  and  has  raised  up  for  itself  an  irreconcilable 
foe  in  the  papal  curia.  Since  Italy  is  still  almost 
exclusively  Catholic,  the  Church  has  at  its  beck  and 
call  an  immense  power  of  latent  hostility  to  the  exist- 
ing Government.  This  is  the  one  great  shadow  which 
is  cast  upon  the  otherwise  brilliant  future  of  Italy. 

No  modern  nation's  history  has  ever  exercised  such 
a  fascination  or  cast  such  a  glamour  over  the  minds  of 
men  as  has  that  of  France.  Every  volume  that  tells 
of  France's  doings  in  the  past,  and  every  fresh  batch  of 
memoires,  authentic  or  apocryphal,  is  read  with  keen 
interest  and  keen  delight  by  quite  as  many  thousands 
of  people  outside  French  frontiers  as  within.  And 
while  speaking  of  apocryphal  memoires ^  is  there  any  other 


164  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

country  in  Europe  where  the  writer  of  this,  the  most 
ingenious  form  of  literary  charlatanism,  could  ply  his 
calling  to  profit  and  advantage  ?  The  throng  of  people 
in  England,  America,  and  Germany  whose  lot  it  is  to 
earn  their  bread  in  the  less  exalted  branches  of  letters, 
know  well  how  great  their  debt  of  gratitude  is  to 
French  authors  who  keep  them  busy  with  an  unfailing 
supply  of  translating  and  re-editing  to  do.  In  no  other 
country,  certainly,  do  the  rights  of  translation  find  so 
ready  a  market.  But  we  need  hardly  insist  upon  a 
fact  which  will  so  readily  be  accorded  by  all  as  is  the 
popularity  of  the  history  of  France.  When  Archduke 
Charles  of  Austria,  the  great  adversary  of  Napoleon, 
once  said  (it  will  be  found  in  his  memoires)  that  he 
took  no  interest  in  any  history  but  in  that  of  France, 
if  he  cannot  be  said  exactly  to  have  been  talking 
platitudes,  he  was  at  least  repeating  what  had  been  said 
countless  times  before,  and  what  has  been  the  unspoken 
thought  of  very  many  others  after  him.  We  shall 
make  some  endeavour  to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  wonder- 
ful charm  pervading  French  history.  It  is  a  charm, 
however,  which  is  anything  but  confined  to  history.  It 
will  not  be  difficult  to  prove  that  it  is  neither  un- 
justified nor  unnatural.  Surely,  when  we  institute  a 
comparison,  the  annals  of  all  other  people  seem  some- 
what one-sided ;  they  rarely  speak  of  more  than  one-half 
of  the  people.  In  France  history  has  been  made  by 
man  and  woman  ;  we  meet  countless  entrancing  person- 
alities of  either  sex,  and  this  goes  no  small  way  to 
explain  the  interest  of  the  general  reader.  The  study 
of  institutions  to  him  seems  dry ;  he  wishes  for  a 
history  not  only  instructive  but  amusing,  and  in  which 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      165 

he  can  still  feel  the  pulses  of  human  life.     And  this  he 
finds  pre-eminently  in  France. 

But  this  explanation,  much  as  it  doubtless  contains 
of  truth,  is  not  entirely  satisfying ;  it  will  not  tell  us 
why  people  took  so  keen  a  delight  in  all  that  hailed 
from  France  long  before  France  had  got  any  very  long 
tale  of  history  to  boast.  Dante,  at  the  dawn  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  tells  us  that  French  dress,  French 
manners,  French  customs  were  everywhere  the  fashion 
of  the  day.  French  was  spoken  by  everybody,  and 
ever  since,  though  it  has  become  modified  into  some- 
thing very  different,  the  French  language  has  been 
spoken  widely  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other. 
In  olden  days  it  was  a  language  of  deep,  sonorous 
melody ;  but  we  will  speak  more  of  its  present-day 
qualities.  It  still  has  elegance  of  tone  and  clear-cut 
form,  but  it  is  more  to  its,  may  we  say,  psychological 
excellencies  than  to  its  physical  good  points  that  it  owes 
its  pre-eminence.  Its  diplomatic  use  may  recall  the  days 
when  French  influence,  the  influence  of  Louis  XIV., 
was  paramount  in  Europe;  but  its  survival  points  to 
permanent  advantages.  It  is  the  most  delicate  weapon 
of  diplomatic  fence;  it  is  the  foil  which  touches,  dis- 
comfits the  adversary  without  inflicting  any  open 
wound.  It  is  to  this  unhlundeTing  finesse  that  French 
owes  much  of  its  popularity ;  it  is  the  language  of  tact, 
and  the  only  tongue  which  has  developed  to  a  fine  art 
the  use  of  sous-entendu.  The  rigid  moralist  may  feel  a 
preference  for  the  speech  which  says  everything  bluntly, 
in  bare,  bald  nudity  ;  but  it  is  a  speech  which  will, 
perhaps,  leave  him  a  few  times  too  often  in  awkward 
predicaments  in  life.     One  more  proof  of  the  spread  of 


166  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

French  linguistic  influence.  German,  in  spite  of  its 
modern  re-Germanization,  is  saturated  to  the  core  with 
French.  It  was  the  language  which  Goethe  knew  as  well 
as  his  own  ;  it  was  the  language  in  which  Lessing  long 
meditated  writing  his  "  Laokoon  ; "  it  was  the  language 
in  which  the  great  German  philosopher  and  mathe- 
matician, Leibniz,  did  compose  his  famous  "  Theodicee." 
Need  we  add  the  well-known  example  of  Gibbon,  who 
habitually  threw  all  his  thoughts  into  form  in  French, 
and  subsequently  turned  them  into  English. 

In  opposition  to  this  almost  universal  knowledge  of 
French  comes  the  equally  universal  ignorance  of  France. 
Nor  is  this  a  matter  of  very  great  surprise.  Perhaps 
it  would  be  nearer  the  mark  to  say  that  France  is  not 
so  much  unknown  as  misunderstood.  Despite  external 
signs  of  amity,  the  deep-rooted,  lasting  prejudices 
against  France  are  legion.  The  hard  things  said  of 
her  are  as  the  sands  of  the  sea.  These  misconceptions 
are  not  the  result  of  envy  or  jealousy  alone ;  the  most 
patriotic  Frenchman  would  not  put  so  harsh  a  construc- 
tion upon  them.  The  truth  is  that  France,  like  every 
other  complicated  nation,  but  perhaps  even  more  so 
than  other  nations,  lends  herself  to  misinterpretation. 
If  we  know  the  character  of  one  Servian,  we  know  the 
character  of  all  Servia.  Not  so  with  France.  We  do 
not  know  the  character  of  France  from  the  type  of  a 
single  Frenchman.  In  the  highly  civilized  nations 
there  is  a  light  and  shade  which  is  quite  absent  among 
the  smaller,  less-developed,  less-cultured  peoples.  In 
France  probably  the  scale  of  jights  and  shad.es  is  wider 
than  anj;where  else.  Unhappily,  the  foreigner  is,  as  a 
rule,  far  more jgrgne  to  see  the  shades.    To  the  foreigner. 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      167 

moreover,  the  association  of  ideas  in  which  he  has  lived 
and  been  brought  up  is  overpowering.  It  entails  the 
greatest  effort  for  him  to  enter  into  or  appreciate  other 
national  ideals.  Of  the  antipathy  of  character  between 
the  Englishman  and  the  Frenchman  we  have  spoken 
before,  without  any  endeavour  to  judge  their  relative 
merits.  From  the  familiar  example  of  gestures  and 
gesticulation,  which  we  have  already  called  into  service, 
let  us  seek  to  draw  another  lesson.  Imagine  the  asso- 
ciations which  an  average  young  Englishman  has  with 
gestures.  In  everyday  life  they  are  quite  unfamiliar 
to  him,  and  the  only  place  where  he  is  likely  to  see 
them  is  on  the  stage.  There  they  are  theatrical.  From 
theatrical  the  transition  to  artificial  is  almost  imper- 
ceptible; and  from  artificial  his  thoughts  will  at  once 
lead  him  on  through  all  the  gamut  of  human  short- 
comings, imperfections,  and  even  vices.  Our  young 
Englishman,  supremely  unconscious  of  the  associations 
with  which  his  mind  already  teems,  betakes  himself 
across  the  Channel,  and  the  first  young  Frenchman  or 
Frenchwoman  with  whom  he  falls  into  talk  will  ges- 
ticulate, and  will  consequently  be  at  once  set  down  as 
theatrical,  i  thence  artificial,  and  hence  we  shudder  to 
think  what. 

All  that  we  have  so  far  said  of  France  is  more 
or  less  introductory.  But  we  could  hardly  pursue  our 
subject  before  the  reader  was  forewarned  and,  we  hope 
in  some  measure,  forearmed  against  national  prejudice 
in  general  and  its  subtle  causes.  In  pursuit  of  our 
uniform  plan,  let  us  now  investigate  some  of  the 
elements  upon  which  the  mainsprings  of  French  life 
depend,  and  which  are  likely  or  not  to  contribute  to 


168  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  future  welfare  of  France.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  do  better  than  to  begin  with  the  Frenchwoman,  the 
most  important  person  of  the  French  social  economy, 
in  which  she  certainly  ranks  before  the  man. 

This  not  being  an  anthropological  treatise,  we  are 
not  called  upon  to  go  into  the  Frenchwoman's  physical 
characteristics  in  any  detail.  There  are  beautiful  women 
in  France  as  there  are  unbeautiful ;  whether  the  average 
standard  of  good  looks  is  higher  or  lower  in  France 
than  elsewhere  is  not  very  material.  We  shall  have 
something  to  say  of  the  Frenchwoman's  peculiar  charm 
later.  Let  us  now  take  her  when  she  is  yet  a  young 
girl,  and  see  by  what  steps  her  character  is  moulded. 
Outside  the  Orient,  the  French  girl  is  the  most  secluded 
of  any.  To  those  who  have  not  seen  it,  the  almost 
penitential  isolation  in  which  the  French  girl,  up  to 
the  time  of  her  marriage,  is  kept  from  the  other  sex, 
except  from  the  members  of  her  immediate  family,  is 
almost  inconceivable.  To  this  seclusion  must  be  attri- 
buted very  largely  two  cardinal  defects  of  France,  one 
literary,  the  other  social.  It  has  often  been  wondered 
why  French  poetry  is  sterile  in  lyrics ;  but  is  not  the 
very  fountain  of  lyric  verse  wanting  ?  Are  not  modern 
lyrics  inspired  by  the  social  intercourse  of  the  young 
man  with  the  young  and  innocent  girl  ?  We  shall  not 
perhaps  find  a  fitter  occasion  for  speaking  of  the 
French  noyelj  which  has  probably  been  productive  of 
more  misunderstanding  with  regard  to  France  than 
anything  else.  It  is  certainly  the  chief  yehicle^  through 
which^  knowledge^  or  rather  pseudo-knowledge,  of 
France  is  spjead.  Numberless  people  are  conversant 
enough  with  French  to  read  with  ease  this  lighter  form 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      169 

of  French  literature,  but  their  psychological  insight  is 
quite  insuflScient.  The  novelist  in  France  is  driven 
into  an  unenviable  position.  He  is  absolutely  debarred 
from  introducing  the  jeune  Jille  into  his  writings.  In 
life  she  is  a  nonentity ;  in  the  novel  she  would  be  an 
absurdity.  There  is  no  subject  of  interest  on  which  to 
build  a  romance  except  the  illicit  amour  after  marriage. 
The  novelist  is  compelled,  in  spite  of  himself,  to  treat 
life  invariably  from  the  point  of  view  of  adultery.  By 
no  other  means  can  he  give  his  book  even  a  semblance 
of  plausibility.  The  foreign  novel  reader,  however, 
leaps  at  once  to  the  conclusion  that  his  French  author 
depicts  the  prevalent  features  of  French  married  life. 
Nothing  could  certainly  be  more  absurdly  untrue,  as  a 
few  months'  sojourn  in  France  would  certainly  convince 
the  most  rabid  of  Francophobes.  The  future  of  the 
French  novel  is  not  bright ;  these  limitations  which  are 
imposed  upon  its  topic  doom  it  to  monotony.  With 
whatever  grace  of  style  or  interesting  setting  the  author 
may  surround  his  plot,  it  is  bound  to  revolve  upon  the 
same  unsavoury  theme,  which  finally  becomes  wearisome 
in  the  extreme.  The  influence  of  the  French  novel  is 
undoubtedly  pernicious,  but  it  is  certainly  far  from 
being  so  great  as  is  currently  supposed.  By  the  woman 
of  France  the  novel  is  scarcely  read :  she  has  no  time 
for  it,  as  we  shall  see  when  we  come  to  look  into  her 
real  sphere  of  activity.  Let  us,  then,  admit  that  the 
French  novel  is  doomed,  owing  to  the  social  conditions 
of  France :  the  ordinary  married  woman,  important  as 
her  part  may  be  in  actual  life,  does  not  offer  the  interest 
necessary  for  a  romance ;  and  in  spite  of  the  profound 
thought  with  which  a  Balzac  may  enwrap  his  theme,  or 


170  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  brilliants  with  which  many  more  recent  novelists 
have  studded  their  work,  there  can  be  no  permanent 
success.  The  French  may  remain  the  most  dazzling  of 
raconteurs^  they  will  never,  so  long  as  the  conditions  in 
which  they  live  persist,  rise  to  the  heights  of  first-class 
novel-writing. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  social  result  of  the  seclusion 
of  the  French  girl,  and  here  the  outlook  is  even  less 
promising.  We  shall  find,  later,  much  which  compen- 
sates for  the  deleterious  effect  _exercised^^^i^^ 
character  of  the  young  men  of  France  by  their  complete 
severance  from  the  respectable  portion  of  the  other  sex. 
It  is  this  isolation  which  has  given  rise  to  the  great 
bane  of  France,  the  demi-monde  and  the  grisette,  though 
the  latter  name  is  somewhat  out  of  fashion.  Of  course, 
when  viewed  through  foreign  glasses,  this  side  of 
French  life  is  also  liable  to  be  set  down  as  another 
feature  of  general  moral  depravity.  But  we  must 
always  be  on  our  guard  against  moral  generalizations. 
The  attitude  of  the  shocked  and  indignant  moralist  is 
not  conducive  to  a  real  insight  into  the  truth.  This 
characteristic  of  France  is  a  necessary  consequence  and 
concomitant  of  the  other  social  institutions  of  the 
country.  The  strict^seclusion  in  which Jhe  French  girl 
is  held  before  marriage,  although,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
is  the  prime  cause  of  the  virtue,  the  energy  and  restless 
industry  of  the  married  Frenchwoman,  yet,  on  the  other 
han^jit  isjiin^^^^  indirect  £rinie 

cause_of  jmny^^of  the  social   habits  of 

French  joung  men  and  \kevc  declassees  mates.  For 
this  is  the  great  principle  of  all  sociology,  that  for 
institutions  making  for  ideals,  such  as  virtue,  order, 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      171 

national  glory,  etc.,  we  must  invariably  pay  heavy 
prices.  So  far,  at  any  rate,  those  ideals  have  never 
been  realized  without  very  grave  drawbacks  in  another 
direction.  The  Athenian  was  a  glorious^  specimen  of 
mankind  ;  but  he  was_£gssiU[e_qnly^  OTi^aje  of 

dx)wntrodd^  slaves^  So  it  is  with  every  nation;  and 
it  is  only  the  conventional  hypocrisy  or  ignorance  that 
disguises  or  misses  the  fact  of  the  melancholy  inter- 
dependence^ bet  w^en^M  paid  for 
them. 

It  is  out  of  this  captivity  of  years  that  the  French 
girl  emerges  the  French  woman.  She  has  the  character 
which  will  carry  her  through  the  numberless  difficulties, 
the  numberless  deprivations,  the  innumerable  self-abne- 
gations, with  which  her  path  is  strewn.  Her  character 
has  been  bought  with  a  Spartan  training  in  her  youth. 
We  have  seen  the  cost  at  which  English  will-power  and 
English  virility  are  purchased.  From  the  age  of  ten, 
by  the  systematic  suppression  of  youth  and  gaiety,  by 
the  equally  searching  test  of  a  precocious  responsibility, 
the  English  boy  at  eighteen  has  become  a  volitional 
athlete,  without  peer  in  Continental  Europe.  He  can 
be,  and  frequently  is,  entrusted  with  positions  of  con- 
fidence and  responsibility  at  an  age  when  the  Frenchman 
is  certainly  still  in  parental  leading-strings.  The  Eng- 
lish boy  has  his  complement,  his  counterpart  in  the 
French  girl,  whose  training  on  her  side  is  equally 
searching,  thorough  and  severe.  The  physical  discipline 
of  old  time  Sparta  was  nothing  to  the  moral  drill  of 
the  French  girl.  According  to  the  unshakable  principle 
laid  down  a  few  lines  above,  French  womanhood  is 
bought  at  the  price  of  French  girlhood.     When   she 


172  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

emerges  from  her  seclusion  she  has  all  the  high-strung, 
braced-up  energies  which  enable  her  to  fill  her  position 
in  the  home.  People  who  have  only  seen  England  and 
America  can,  with  difficulty,  realize  how  thoroughly 
the  Frenchwoman  pervades  every  detail  of  family  life. 
Nothing  is  done  without  her  counsel  and  consent.  In 
business  she  has  her  say,  and  many  of  the  great  com- 
mercial houses  trace  their  descent  in  the  feminine  liiXQ^ 
It  is  the  Frenchwoman  who  rules  from  the  caisse,  who 
keeps  the  books,  who  sees  the  travellers,  etc.  She 
realizes  to  the  full  her  importance  in  her  world ;  how 
much  her  influence  may  achieve  and  contribute  to  the 
family  advancement.  Her  amiability  will  secure  her 
friends,  and  she  knows  the  value  of  friends.  May  not 
any  stranger  contain  potential  utility  ?  Nothing,  at  all 
events,  is  lost  if  you  secure  his  good  feeling.  Her  good 
nature,  which  has  become  her  second  nature,  rather  her 
only  nature,  has  its  origin  in  the  most  logical,  the  most 
longheaded,  and  practical  reasons.  We  do  not  wish  to 
imply  it  is  interested  and  self-seeking ;  it  has  so  long 
ago  become  part  of  her  being,  that  the  origins  are 
dimmed  and  forgotten.  But  the  great  element  of  her 
charm  is  in  her  righteous  self-respect.  Those  who 
would  wish  for  a  tangible  concrete  proof  of  the  French- 
woman's supreme  importance,  should  remember  one 
striking  feature  of  French  cities,  at  least  to  the  foreign 
idea.  The  frequency  with  which  in  shop  signs  the 
names  of  husband  and  wife  are  coupled  together,  the 
common  occurrence  of  widows'  names  in  the  same  way, 
and  many  other  familiar  examples. 

To  pass  on  to  the  Frenchman,   we  have   seen   to 
what  perils  his  youth  is  exposed,  owing  to  his  complete 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      173 

absorption  by  his  family ;  he  is  even  more  likely  to  fall 
a  ready  victim  to  temptation,  owing  to  the  comparative 
dependence  in  which  his  boyhood  and  early  manhood 
are  passed.  We  have  seen  that  the  education  of  his 
character  and  will-power  are  really  neglected,  and  he  is 
kept  in  a  state  of  tutelage,  which,  to  the  English  boy, 
would  savour  too  much  of  "  bemothering."  He  is  then 
suddenly  given  over  to  his  own  devices,  often  with 
disastrous  results.  We  have  examples,  which  are  hardly 
exaggerated,  in  the  classical  works  of  ''  Sapho ''  and  '*  La 
Dame  aux  Camelias."  From  the  age  of  twenty- one  he 
will,  in  the  generality  of  cases,  be  subjected  to  a  course 
of  severe  discipline,  this  time  in  the  army  ;  and  we  shall 
not  again  have  an  opportunity  of  judging  to  what  extent 
his  character  has  been  formed  until  he  has  completed  his 
period  of  conscription,  formerly  three,  now,  eventually, 
two  years.  It  is  improbable  that  he  will  have  attained  his 
complete  moral  development  before  the  age  of  thirty.  At 
that  age,  or  soon  after,  he  will  afford  the  rare  spectacle  of 
a  man  with  all  the  pluck  and  energy  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  associate  with  British  youth,  and  yet  retaining 
the  cheerfulness  of  disposition  of  boyhood.  He  is  in  the 
position  of  one  who  has  had  his  fling,  and  is  now  ready 
to  settle  down  to  the  sober  realities  of  existence.  It  is 
probable,  if  statistics  may  be  taken  as  a  criterion,  that 
he  has  more  stamina  and  resisting  power,  as  the  rate  of 
mortality  in  France,  between  the  ages  of  fifty  and  sixty, 
is  considerably  lower  than  in  either  England  or  Germany. 
Much  has  been  said  of  the  nervous  and  fidgety 
temperament  of  the  French ;  it  is  a  superficial  judg- 
ment which  assigns  them  such  a  nature.  Apart  from 
his  more  or  less  artistic  style  of  conversation,  there  are 


174  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

probably  few  more  matter-of-fact  men  tban  the  French- 
men. He^  carries  reasoning  into  many  more  branches  of 
actual  life  than  is  usually  the  case  among  other  nations. 
Seldom  does  his  eye  lose  sight  of  the  main  chanceT" 
Eeasoning  in  France  has  been  carried  into  the  arrange- 
ment of  marriage  ;  and  reason  is  everywhere.  It  is  no 
doubt  due  in  a  great  part  to  this  exaggerated  love  of 
cold  reasoning,  and  traditional  systematization  of  every- 
thing, that  there  are  few  openings  in  French  commercial 
or  public  life  for  the  free  lance.  There  are  few  French- 
men in  France  who  have  succeeded  in  a  single  lifetime 
as  the  result  of  their  own  unaided  energies.  The  idea 
of  French  nervousness  has  no  doubt  principally  arisen 
from  a  wrong  interpretation  of  the  vicissitudes  of  French 
public  life  and  political  history.  It  is  drawn  in  no  small 
part  from  the  spectacle  of  rapidly  succeeding  French 
Cabinets  and  Parliaments.  But  it  would  be  only  just 
to  remember  that  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies  is  an 
institution  of  far  less  consequence  than  the  English 
Lower  House.  We  must  look  for  the  real  battle  of 
French  Government  in  the  bureaucratic  administration^  ^ 
than  which  nothing  could  be  more  sober  and  less  nervous. 
French  nerves  are,  doubtless,  less  steady  since  the  humi- 
liation of  1871,  and,  like  all  people  humbled  by  defeat, 
they  are  somewhat  demoralized.  Consider  what  would 
be  the  state  of  the  English  mind  if  Dover  and  Kent 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans  and  being  rapidly 
Teutonized. 

But  what  is  least  realized  in  France  by  the  casual 
stranger  is  her  immense  wealth.  It  has  long  been  well 
known  to  the  economist  and  the  statistician  that  France 
is  the  richest  country  in  Europe,  but  to  the  general  public 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      175 

her  wealth  seems  incredible,  and  chiefly  for  the  reason 
that  it  leads  to  very  little  outward  display.  It  requires, 
for  example,  a  very  keen  insight  into  the  workings  of 
French  social  manners  and  customs  to  enable  you  to 
assign  the  inhabitants,  say,  of  a  small  provincial  town 
to  their  respective  places  in  the  scale  of  wealth.  The 
accumulation  of  riches  does  not  draw  in  its  train  all 
those  diflerences  in  the  way  of  life,  in  dress  and  social 
position,  which  we  are  wont  to  associate  with  it  in 
England.  Enter  the  principal  cafe  of  some  depart- 
mental capital  and  watch  those  two  men  playing 
billiards,  and  who  appear  to  be  on  a  footing  of  perfect 
familiarity  one  towards  another,  you  would  hardly  guess, 
for  there  is  certainly  no  distinction  of  attire,  that  the 
one  is  living  on  his  income  of  some  £4000  a  year,  the 
other  is  still  a  struggling  chemist  in  the  town.  It  is 
wonderful,  too,  how  much  opulence  very  often  lies 
hidden,  almost  unsuspected,  under  the  apparently 
humble  externals  of  the  ordinary  tradesman.  When  he 
has  laid  by  a  pile,  on  which  the  English  tradesman 
would  certainly  consider  himselfjustified  in  retiring^  the_ 
Frenchman  still  clings  to  business.  Although  his  every- 
day expenses  are  very  probably  less,  he  has,  as  a  rule, 
far  heavier  drains  on  his  purse.  Each  of  his  daughters 
will  claim  a  handsome  dowry  if  she  is  to  be  married 
well,  and  these  dowries  must  be  paid  without  im- 
poverishing the  business ;  a  course  which  would  entail 
an  injury  to  the  prospects  of  his  son.  It  is  obvious 
that  the  Frenchman  has  very  good  reasons  for  sticking 
to  his  shop,  and  these  reasons  are  reinforced  by  two 
points  in  his  character,  which  are  essentially  French.  In 
no^ountry  is  the  passion  for  hoarding  money  developed 


176  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

to  such  a  degree  as  it  is  in  France.  The  bounds 
of  praiseworthy  thrift  and  economy  are  too  often  left 
behind,  and  the  passion  for  saving  grows  into  miserly 
avarice.  Herein  the  French  suffer  from  the  defects  of 
their  good  qualities.  The  thrift  of  France  is  known  all 
the  world  over.  Pauperdom  in  France  has  been  reduced 
to  the  lowest  possible  minimum,  while  most  of  the 
tradesmen  have  two  or  three  lines  of  financial  defence 
behind  which  to  retire  in  case  of  business  reverses.  To 
come,  however,  to  the  second  point  in  his  character 
which  keeps  the  French  shopkeeper  to  his  counter.  In 
retiring  he  sees  no  prospect  of  greatly  modifying  his 
social  standing,  nor  has  he  any  desire  so  to  do.  The 
retailer  in  France  has  no  feeling  of  dishonour  in  belong- 
ing to  his  allotted  station  in  life.  Small-trading  leaves 
no  slur,  and  he  does  not  feel  any  passion  for  dis- 
associating himself  with  anything  suggestive  of  the 
shop.  Shopkeeper  he  is,  and  shopkeeper  he  is  proud  to 
be  and  to  have  been.  His  calling  has  given  him  a  self- 
respect,  which  a  similar  calling  could  not  give  in  every 
country  of  Europe. 

Here  we  have  struck  the  keynote  of  French  private 
life.  No  country  of  Europe  has  been  so  thoroughly  de- 
medievalized  as  France.  The  barriers  of  class  and  caste 
have  been  levelled  to  the  uttermost,  and  though  these 
barriers  still  subsist,  as  they  must,  there  is  nothing  in 
them  that  is  galling  or  preventive  of  a  thoroughly  good 
understanding  through  all  ranks  of  society.  There  is 
no  straining  of  one  class  to  enter  another,  and  conse- 
quently very  little  of  that  sense  of  discomfort  which 
arises  from  false  position.  Very  few  men  in  France  find 
it  desirable  to  conceal  their  social  origin.     They  are 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      177 

fully  conscious  of  the  position  in  life  they  have  been 
born  in,  and  are  well  pleased  with  it. 

We  have  been  induced  somewhat  to  digress.  A  few 
striking  examples  of  the  almost  fabulous  wealth  of 
France,  and  we  will  pass  on  to  discuss  her  political 
prospects.  Peasant  dowries  ranging  between  10,000 
and  50,000  francs  are  anything  but  uncommon,  and  as 
we  rise  in  the  social  scale,  so  the  figures  rise.  The 
statistical  returns  of  moneys  devolving  by  inheritance 
show  a  total  for  France  nearly  thirty  times  as  great  as 
those  for   England,  Austria^  jO£j^^  It  is  not 

uncommon  in  England  to  receive  money  by  legacy ;  in 
Hungary  the  legacy  has  become  so  fabulous  as  to  be  the 
stock  subject  for  jokes  and  pleasantries ;  but  in  France 
the  acquisition  of  riches  by  bequest  is  so  common  as  to 
be  almost  the  rule.  In  no  other  country  could  the 
famous  Humbert  frauds  have  gained  credence  for  a 
moment;  in  France  the  huge  heritage  of  the  "Craw- 
fords"  was  not  extraordinary  enough  to  excite  very 
critical  comment.  The  success  of  this  giant  escamotage 
was  due  less  to  the  personal  genius  of  that  arch-swindler 
Therese  Humbert,  than  to  the  social  conditions  of  the 
land  in  which  she  had  the  astuteness  to  lay  her  plans. 
It  isjrobable  that  no  other  country  sajeFranxie  coiJ^ 
have  paid,  with  so  little  difficulty^  the  immense  in- 
demnity  exacted  by  Germany  after  the  close  of^the  war 
of^  1870-71.  Germany  herself  thought  that  France 
would  be  crippled  for  years  to  come  by  the  payment  of 
£200,000,000  ($1,000,000,000).  It  is  well  known  with 
what  astounding  rapidity  France  discharged  the  debt, 
and  how  quickly  her  finances  recovered  afterwards  ;  but 
it  is  not  always  remembered  that  the  French   losses 

N 


178  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

during  the  period  of  actual  warfare  cannot  well  be 
estimated  at  less  than  £1,000,000,000  ($5,000,000,000) ; 
yet  a  few  years  later  France  was  already  on  the  save, 
and  any  municipal  corporation  requiring  loans  for  public 
works  and  improvements  was  able  to  obtain  them  at  a 
very  moderate  rate  of  interest. 

It  is  anything  but  uncommon  to  hear  France  classed 
among  the  decadent  nations  of  Europe ;  but  even  when 
apparently  unmistakable  symptoms  of  decay  can  be 
observed  in  a  people,  it  is  very  rash  to  predict  its 
approaching  downfall  and  dissolution.  Such  predictions 
have  almost  invariably  fallen  very  wide  of  the  truth. 
We  have  only  to  go  back  a  century  and  a  quarter,  to 
the  days  when  England  had  just  come  out  of  her  fruit- 
less struggle  to  crush  the  revolt  of  her  American 
colonists  (1783),  to  see  how  the  confident  prophecies  of 
her  political  opponents,  that  she  would  no  longer  be 
capable  of  interfering  in  European  affairs,  were  terribly 
disappointed.  The  Courts  of  the  Continent  made  haste 
to  chant  the  dirge  of  English  greatness,  little  dreaming 
that  after  the  lapse  of  but  a  few  brief  years  England 
resurgent  would  become  one  of  the  arbiters  of  their  own 
fortunes.  She  refused  to  be  relegated  to  the  position  of 
a  second-rate  Holland,  but  by  1798  had  so  far  restored 
her  shattered  navy  as  to  be  able  to  secure,  by  the  battle 
of  the  Nile,  the  maritime  ascendency  which  she  had 
struggled  through  more  than  a  century  to  win.  This  is 
the  era  of  England's  dominant  sea-power,  for  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War  (1756-63)  she  had  not  done  more 
than  hold  her  own,  while  from  1775  to  1783  her  fleet  was 
defeated  time  after  time,  and  England  owed  her  safety  at 
home  only  to  the  unreadiness  of  the  Spanish  and  French. 


SUCCESS  AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      179 

England,  by  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  had 
long  ago  given  up  all  idea  of  territorial  acquisitions  on 
the  Continental  mainland.  But  the  possession  of  an 
overwhelming  fleet  and  superabundant  capital  per- 
mitted her  to  interfere  with  the  greatest  efiect  in  Con- 
tinental afiairs,  and  the  side  on  which  she  chose  to  fight, 
or  which  she  thought  fit  to  subsidise,  was  pretty  safe  to 
come  ofi"  with  flying  colours. 

We  have  been  led  into  this  momentary  digression  in 
order  the  better  to  show  the  position  of  contemporary 
France,  which  has  almost,  so  to  speak,  stepped  into  the 
shoes  in  which  England  stood  a  hundred  years  back. 
If  England  reaped  advantages  from  her  insulated 
position,  France's  position  on  the  Continent  to-day  is 
one  of  political  insulation.  She  is  the  country  which 
can  afford  to  subsidise  her  friends ;  and  her  army,  pro- 
bably the  most  effective  in  Europe,  with  the  second  navy 
of  the  world,  makes  her  a  coveted  ally.  She  has  the 
advantage  of  having  no  hankering  after  territorial 
aggrandisement,  her  desires  being  limited  to  the  re- 
covery of  the  Ehine  frontier  and  Alsace  and  Lorraine, 
and  her  lost  prestige.  Her  Continental  neighbours  are 
not  so  unambitious,  and  Germany  is  still  credited  with 
the  wish  to  regain  the  German-speaking  Eussian  pro- 
vinces of  Livland  and  Courland,  and  to  absorb  the 
Teutonic  part  of  Austria.  When  the  day  of  conflict 
comes,  France  will  sit  astride  the  balance,  which  she 
will  be  able  to  incline  one  way  or  another,  as  best  suits 
her  ends.  We  must  not  give  too  willing  credence  to 
the  propaganda  of  the  franc-maqons  and  others,  who 
now  hold  a  high  position  in  France,  and  foretell  an 
era  of  peace  for  France,  during  which  she  will  be  the 


180  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

ville  lumiere,  whence  shall  radiate  art  and  civilization.  It 
is  a  fair  ideal,  but  one  which  would  cost  too  dear.  Such 
a  torch  would  consume  five  hundred  thousand  lives  a 
day,  and  would  serve  but  to  cast  a  lurid  glow  upon  the 
death  agonies  of  France.  The  peacefulness  of  France  is 
but  surface  deep,  and  she  only  awaits  an  occasion  to 
avenge  the  disgrace  of  the  war  of  '70.  She  has  obeyed 
the  behest  of  Gambetta,  *'  N'en  parler  jamais,  y  penser 
toujour  sr 

Nothing  can  be  of  greater  service  to  a  nation  than  a 
true  sense  of  its  own  value,  a  true  sense  of  proportion, 
even  if  dearly  purchased.  The  disasters  of  Vannee 
terrible  had  a  sobering  efi"ect  upon  France  which  cannot 
fail  to  prove  highly  beneficial.  Before  1870  the  French 
had  reached  a  most  injurious  degree  of  self-satisfaction. 
France  was  not  only  a  great  nation,  but  la  grande  nation^ 
the  other  great  Powers  of  Europe  being  reckoned  as  of 
little  importance.  France  now  knows  that  there  are 
other  nations  in  Europe,  that  it  is  well  for  her  to  be 
ever  on  her  guard  against  them,  and  that  she  cannot 
afford  to  trust  to  an  inflated  reputation. 

One  of  the  greatest  assets  of  France,  however,  is  her 
wonderful  homogeneity.  She  is  much  more  united  and 
consolidated  than  any  other  European  country,  but  the 
provinces,  although  thoroughly  merged  in  a  national 
whole,  still  preserve  to  a  great  extent  their  individual 
types.  To  speak  of  a  Bourguignon,  or  Picard,  or  a 
Gascon,  is  not  only  to  give  a  man  a  distinct  geographical 
position,  it  is  also  to  describe  his  character. 

The  Republic,  much  as  it  may  be  abused,  was  a 
powerful  agent  of  French  success,  as  it  has  proved  by 
surviving  longer  than  any  other  form  of  government 


SUCCESS   AMONG  LATIN  NATIONS      181 

since  the  ancien  regime  was  thrown  down.  It  is,  after 
all,  the  natural  form  of  government  for  a  country  so 
homogeneous  as  France,  just  as  Eoyalty  is  the  necessary 
adjunct  of  a  land  which  is  much  divided  by  hetero- 
geneous forces.  In  such  a  country,  for  instance,  as 
Austria,  the  throne  forms  the  one  rallying  point  of 
innumerable  discordant  elements.  Where  the  bond  of 
Eoyalty  is  so  all-important,  we  may  be  sure  that  the 
line  of  succession  will  be  carefully  maintained,  no 
matter  what  the  qualities  or  the  defects  of  the  particular 
monarch.  But  where  a  Eepublic  is  at  all  feasible,  it 
certainly  confers  manifold  benefits.  The  decease  or 
incapability  of  the  ruler  in  a  monarchical  or  imperial 
country  may  be  productive  of  the  direst  consequences ; 
in  a  Eepublic  it  is  always  possible  to  have  a  capable 
man  at  the  helm,  and  if  he  be  tried  and  found  wanting, 
he  can  be  readily  replaced. 

It  has  long  been  customary  to  regard  the  French 
colonial  empire  as  more  or  less  a  failure;  it  should, 
however,  not  be  forgotten  that  it  embraces  many  of  the 
richest  portions  of  the  globe,  and  would  prove  an 
immense  source  of  capital  in  the  event  of  European  war. 
The  African  colonies  have  the  additional  advantage  of 
being  within  a  few  hours'  steam  of  the  mother  country. 

The  late  policy  of  France  with  regard  to  the  Holy 
See  has  done  much  to  nullify  the  sapping  influence  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  France,  and  to  rid  the  French 
of  the  one  discordant  element  within  their  frontiers. 

With  so  many  points  to  favour  her,  we  can  hardly 
doubt  that  France  has  the  greatest  chances  of  future 
success* 


CHAPTER  X 

SUCCESS   AMONG   SLAV   NATIONS 

The  Slav  nations,  Poland,  and  especially  Russia.  Power  of  Russia  very  much 
overrated.  History  never  goes  by  numbers,  as  do  Parliaments.  Has 
at  the  present,  and  for  generations  to  come,  neither  wealth  material  nor 
wealth  intellectual  or  volitional.  Gravitates,  since  1762,  exclusively 
towards  Asia.  Panslavism  is  no  danger  whatever  to  Europe.  Russia, 
moreover,  cankered  by  her  Greek  Church. 

It  has  become  customary  of  late  years  to  look  upon 
the  Slav  as  something  so  essentially  extra-European, 
that  it  comes  almost  as  a  shock  when,  upon  examining 
him  more  closely,  we  discover  that  he  is,  after  all,  but 
part  and  parcel  of  the  same  family  to  which  the 
majority  of  European  nations  appertain.  In  his 
language  there  is  really  nothing  strange  to  the  Western 
ear,  and  the  student  accustomed  to  looking  at  various 
tongues  from  a  philological  point  of  view  is  imme- 
diately struck  by  the  close  relationship  evident  between 
the  numerous  Slavonic  languages  and  other  branches 
of  the  Indo-European  stock.  Familiar  sounds  and 
words  at  once  strike  his  ear,  and  he  is  delighted  at 
recognizing,  under  a  very  thin  veil  of  disguise,  verbal 
terminations  and  inflexions  already  familiar  to  him 
through  Latin  and  Greek.  If  the  language  of  the 
Slav  is  not  foreign  to  us,  even  less  so  are  his  physical 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       183 

characteristics.  We  meet  with  the  same  fair  hair,  the 
same  fresh  complexion,  the  same  clear,  light-blue  eyes 
which  we  have  been  wont  to  set  down  as  peculiarly 
Teutonic,  and  by  the  time  we  have  made  out  all  these 
features  of  similitude  a  great  deal  of  the  original 
feeling  of  strangeness  has  worn  off,  and  we  are  prepared, 
as  far  as  externals  go,  to  accept  the  Slav  for  our 
kinsman.  When  we  have  learned  a  little  more  of  the 
working  of  his  soul,  perhaps  we  shall  not  have  quite 
such  a  brotherly  feeling  towards  him. 

For  over  a  thousand  years  the  Slav,  under  varying 
styles  and  titles,  has  peopled  the  whole  of  Europe  east 
of  the  Elbe  Eiver.  A  very  great  proportion  of  that 
country  he  may  very  well  look  upon  as  quite  his  own ; 
over  the  rest  he  forms  a  very  considerable  per- 
centage of  the  population.  All  about  the  Central  and 
Lower  Danubian  basin  he  is  scattered  especially  thick, 
and  forms  decidedly  the  preponderant  element. 

In  point  of  language  the  Slav  falls  into  three  natural 
divisions,  the  Southern,  the  Central,  and  the  Northern. 
In  character  he  displays  very  slight  diversity,  and  the 
Slav  from  the  extreme  South  would  on  most  subjects 
find  himself  in  complete  sentimental  harmony  with 
his  Northern  brother.  His  chief  feature  is  an  over- 
sensitive, frequently  over-sentimental,  mind,  easily 
prone  to  rhapsodic  vagaries,  alternating  with  fits  of 
the  profoundest  melancholy.  Much  of  this  is  reflected 
in  Slav  music,  and  nothing  can  equal  the  inexpressible 
depths  of  despondency  of  some  of  their  folk-songs  in 
the  minor  key.  From  these  crises  of  despair  they  burst, 
without  the  slightest  warning,  into  the  most  extravagant 
hallali.      For   the   rest   of  his   character   the   Slav   is 


184  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

stamped  rather  with  subtlety  and  cunning  than  with 
real  intelligence.  He  seems  to  prefer  attaining  his 
end  by  ruse  and  craft  rather  than  by  open  and  straight- 
forward means.  The  same  inequality,  the  same  un- 
evenness,  the  same  extremes  which  characterize  the 
emotions  of  the  Slav,  have  also  set  their  mark  upon 
his  education.  If  he  is  of  the  upper  class,  be  he  Eussian, 
Pole,  Servian,  or  Bulgarian,  we  shall  find  him  over- 
educated.  His  mind  is  overloaded  with  instruction, 
and  this  defect  is  shared  even  by  the  women,  who 
devote  themselves  with  enthusiasm  to  study,  and  often 
take  up  a  prominent  position  in  the  learned  professions. 
The  number  of  women  doctors  who  are  Polish  and 
Eussian  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  nationality. 

In  his  intellectual  pursuits  the  Slav  enjoys  the 
advantage  of  being  an  excellent  linguist,  and  here  we 
may  be  pardoned  a  momentary  digression.  It  has 
frequently  been  supposed  that  the  Slav  owes  his  talent 
for  languages  in  no  small  part  to  the  difficulties  with 
which  his  own  tongue  bristles.  This  theory  is  distinctly 
erroneous.  No  Slav  language  can  be  difficult.  It  is 
only  the  old  languages,  which  have  for  centuries  been 
the  vehicles  for  every  kind  of  thought,  that  can  finally 
attain  that  degree  of  subtlety  andjinesse  which  render 
English,  German,  and  French  especially,  so  exceedingly 
difficult.  A  language  which  has  never,  or  has  only  for 
some  few  decades,  been  a  literary  medium,  must  in- 
evitably be  exceedingly  simple.  Extensive  vocabulary 
Slav  languages  may  boast,  but  this  is  the  criterion  of 
linguistic  poverty.  French  and  Greek,  probably  the 
most  perfect  instruments  of  human  thought,  are  com- 
paratively indigent  in  word-forms.     Whence  the  Slav 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       185 

really  draws  his  linguistic  talent  is  from  his  polyglot 
surroundings.  In  the  events  of  everyday  life  he  may 
be  called  upon  to  employ  half  a  dozen  independent 
tongues.  His  household  will  certainly  contain  servants 
speaking  several  Slav  idioms,  and  in  Eussia  he  will  very 
probably  have  Tartar  domestics  as  well.  French  and 
German  are  essential  to  social  intercourse,^  and  the 
Slav  is  absolutely  dependent  on  foreign  literature  to 
compensate  for  the  deficiencies  of  his  own.  To  the 
Slav,  therefore,  the  knowledge  of  languages  is  an  im- 
mense stimulus  to  wide  reading,  and  the  necessity  of 
reading  is  an  equally  potent  motive  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  languages.  Thus  it  frequently  happens  that  a 
Kussian  is  quite  as  familiar,  if  not  more  familiar,  than 
we  are  ourselves,  with  the  works  of  our  latter-day 
philosophers.  It  would  probably  be  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  the  writings  of  Herbert  Spencer  are  quite 
as  well  known  in  Russia  as  they  are  at  home. 

But  to  return  to  our  theme.  If  the  upper  class  of 
Slav  countries  suffers  from  superabundant  intellectu- 
ality, the  lower  class  compensates  for  this  by  an  equally 
exaggerated  extent  of  ignorance.  Among  the  peasant 
class  there  is  no  intellectual  activity  whatever.  And 
here,  in  speaking  of  the  upper  and  lower  class,  we  have 
set  our  finger  on  the  great  besetting  sore  of  all  Slav 
countries.  The  country  of  the  Slav  is  no  country  in 
which  to  seek  the  mean,  either  emotional,  intellectual, 
or  social.  His  is  the  land  of  extremes.  There  is  no 
bourgeoisie  proper  in  Slav  countries. 

The  one  immense  drawback  of  the  Slav  is  that  he 
must  be  either  peasant  or  noble.  The  middle  class 
does   not  exist,  or   is   only  very  slowly  beginning  to 


186  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

exist.  As  far  as  the  great  majority  of  its  members 
is  concerned,  a  Slav  population  consists  of  an  agricuL 
tural  peasantry  attached  to  the  soil.  The  peasants, 
who  have  but  lately  emerged  from  a  condition  of 
serfdom,  rarely  possess  the  freeholds  of  their  lands, 
and  have  been  little  benefited  by  the  exchange  of  a 
servile  for  a  free  position.  They  are  still  dependent 
upon  a  not  very  numerous  and  not  very  wealthy 
nobility,  the  landholders.  Eural  life  is  the  hall-mark 
of  Slav  countries.  Urban  life  is  very  poorly  developed, 
owing  to  the  want  of  a  bourgeoisie. 

In  Slav  countries,  as  an  indigenous  bourgeoisie  does 
not  exist,  the  whole  of  the  commercial  movement  is 
monopolized  by  the  foreigner  or  by  the  Jew.  We  at 
once  see  why  the  Jewish  population  of  Europe  gravitates 
to  the  East,  and  repressive  measures  against  Jews  in 
those  countries  can  only  result  in  the  stagnation  and 
paralysis  of  commerce,  unless  the  exiled  Jews  are 
immediately  replaced  by  foreigners.  Any  one  who 
has  travelled  in  North  Hungary,  where  the  social 
distinction  is  between  a  Slav  peasantry  and  an  Hun- 
garian landed  nobility,  cannot  fail  to  have  been  struck 
by  the  completeness  with  which  the  Jew  has  mono- 
polized the  functions  of  a  middle  class.  Every  tavern 
along  the  roads  is  kept  by  an  Israelite  innkeeper.  A 
glance  at  the  map  will  suffice  to  convince  the  reader 
how  sparsely  scattered  are  the  centres  of  city  life  over 
Slav  countries,  and  if  he  were  to  visit  those  centres 
he  would  see  how  widely  they  difier  from  Western 
European  cities  in  the  life  which  they  harbour. 

The  Slavs  of  the  South  are  split  up  into  several 
small  kingdoms  and  principalities,  and  of  them  we  shall 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV   NATIONS       187 

not  speak  at  length.  The  rdle  they  play  in  modern 
Europe  is  of  very  second-rate  importance.  It  is  of  the 
two  great  groups  of  the  North  that  we  shall  have  most 
to  say — Poland  and  Eussia.  The  Poles  have  always 
occupied  a  large  position  in  European  interest  and 
sympathies,  ever  since  the  tragic  end  which  befell  their 
political  liberty,  now  over  a  century  ago.  We  shall 
not  here  trouble  the  reader  with  a  recapitulation  of  the 
history  of  the  years  from  1772  to  1795,  which  ended 
in  Poland's  extinction  as  an  independent  Power,  and 
in  the  partition  of  the  ancient  kingdom  between  Austria, 
Prussia,  and  Eussia.  During  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  Poland  was  still  a  mighty  and  im- 
posing monarchy.  The  Elector  of  Brandenburg  yet 
acknowledged  the  King  of  Poland  as  his  suzerain.  But 
in  consequence  of  vices  in  the  national  character,  fatal 
diplomatic  mistakes,  and  an  absolutely  erroneous 
political  strategy,  Poland  was,  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  reduced  to  such  a  state  of  internal 
anarchy  as  to  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  three  neighbour- 
ing monarchies.  These  diplomatic  and  political  errors 
are  at  present  beyond  our  subject,  but  it  is  of  great 
importance  that  we  should  note  several  of  the  national 
shortcomings,  and  the  fundamental  mistakes  of  Polish 
society,  which  contributed  no  small  part  to  the  undoing 
of  the  country. 

The  whole  of  the  civic  rights  were  in  the  hands  of 
a  very  few  noblemen,  while  the  whole  mass  of  the 
peasantry,  numbering  over  twelve  millions,  was  abso- 
lutely excluded  from  all  participation  in  political 
liberty.  As  in  all  Slav  countries  a  bourgeoisie  proper 
did  not  exist,  its  place  being  taken  either  by  foreigners 


188  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

or  Jews,  neither  of  which  classes  could  reasonably  be 
expected  to  feel  any  patriotic  in,terest  in  preserving  the 
integrity  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  upon  a  strong  middle 
class  that  a  country  must  rely  for  its  preservation  in 
a  moment  of  national  peril.  The  peasants,  on  the 
whole,  in  a  state  of  miserable  semi-servitude,  were 
unlikely  to  rise  in  defence  of  the  country.  It  made 
but  small  difference  to  them  which  way  things  went. 
All  that  they  could  look  forward  to  was  a  change  of 
masters,  which  could  not  for  them  result  in  anything 
much  worse  than  their  actual  condition.  The  national 
defence,  therefore,  devolved  almost  entirely  upon  the 
nobility,  and  what  could  a  handful  of  fifty  to  sixty 
thousand  men  accomplish  in  the  face  of  incomparably 
more  powerful  and  resourceful  foes  ?  Poland's  eventual 
fate,  were  she  left  isolated,  was  a  foregone  conclusion 
with  the  partitioning  Powers. 

But  of  all  Poland's  shortcomings,  the  greatest  is  her 
woman.  Her  appearance  is  generally  enough  to  carry 
all  before  her.  Her  beauty  is,  as  a  rule,  of  the  type 
w^hich  the  French  have  so  expressively  called  the  fausse 
maigre;  she  has  flashing  eyes  and  very  much  of  the 
grace  of  the  women  of  France,  but  with  a  deeper 
current  of  passion.  To  set  off  her  beauty  she  has,  as 
a  rule,  a  wealth  of  brilliant  and  engaging  conversation, 
which  is  irresistible  when  it  flows  in  her  own  melodious 
language,  with  its  magnificent  cadences.  Liszt  has 
said  that  the  only  safety  from  the  sorcery  of  the 
Polish  i  (liquid  I)  as  spoken  by  a  Polish  woman,  is  in 
flight.  The  love,  the  necessity  for  intrigue,  which  is 
part  of  the  being  of  every  Slav,  is  carried  to  a  fine  art 
by  the  Polish  woman.     But  all  her  power  of  fascination 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       189 

is  counterbalanced  by  an  absolute  lack  of  any  capacity 
for  her  household  duties.  She  is  not  like  the  French- 
woman, who  can  be  always  charming  without  disdaining 
the  cares  and  troubles  of  her  own  menage.  The 
existence  of  the  Polishwoman  is  truly  that  of  a  butter- 
fly; never  did  a  proverbial  expression  find  a  better 
application.  She  is  brilliant,  dazzlingly  brilliant  and 
captivating  in  the  salon,  and  at  times  heroically  brave, 
even  on  the  battlefield.  But  for  the  hum-drum  exist- 
ence of  everyday,  which  nourishes  the  stamina  of  a 
nation,  she  has  no  aptitude,  no  inclination.  Her  life 
is  anything  rather  than  home-life.  She,  as  a  rule, 
talks  French  as  well  as  Polish,  and  she  did  havoc  in 
the  French  armies.  The  only  real  passion,  feminine 
passion,  to  which  Napoleon  is  known  to  have  fallen  a 
victim,  except  his  real  love  for  Josephine,  was  that  for 
Madame  Walewska,  which  kept  him  dallying  at  Warsaw 
from  December,  1806,  till  January,  1807.  The  Polish- 
woman  is  capable  of  anything  in  a  moment  of  passion, 
but  is  marked  by  a  temper  of  reckless  enjoyment  of 
life  which  renders  her  unfit  for  the  worries  of  everyday 
existence. 

Even  at  the  present  day,  when  Poland  exists  no 
more,  her  women  still  remain  a  power.  Wherever 
they  are  they  make  formidable  opponents  to  the 
partitioning  Powers.  It  is  with  the  Kussian  as  with 
the  German.  Wherever  the  Polishwoman  enters  in, 
the  process  of  Eussification  or  Germanization,  as  the 
case  may  be,  ceases,  and  a  current  of  Polonization 
begins.  Thus  it  is  that  many  of  the  East  German 
villages,  which  before  the  partition  hardly  bore  a  trace 
of  Polish  influence,  have  now  become  entirely  Polish, 


190  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  this  metamorphosis  has  taken  place  almost  ex- 
clusively through  feminine  influence.  So  extensive  has 
this  process  become  that  the  German  Chancellor  has 
of  late  declared,  and  in  no  spirit  of  exaggeration,  that 
one  of  the  most  formidable  perils  with  which  Germany's 
future  is  confronted  is  the  Polonization  of  her  Eastern 
inhabitants,  and  even  of  the  Westphalian  mining 
districts  filled  with  Poles.  All  efi'orts,  even  those  of 
the  most  tyrannical  description,  to  keep  Polish  nation- 
ality within  bounds  on  German  soil,  have  proved 
ineffectual.  The  papers  tell  every  day  of  fresh  terror- 
izing methods  in  Eastern  Pomerania,  of  Polish  riots 
rigorously  repressed;  but  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
these  disturbances  frequently  take  place  in  a  country 
which  has  only  recently  become  Polonized.  In  the 
primary  schools  of  Russian  Poland,  the  State-paid 
teachers  are  compelled  to  teach  the  Russian  National 
Anthem,  but  although  the  masters,  in  order  to  retain 
their  berths,  do  make  some  effort  to  execute  orders, 
they  never  meet  with  any  response  upon  the  part  of 
the  Polish  children.  In  Germany  the  same  thing  takes 
place,  and  from  there  we  hear  of  persecutions  for  Use- 
majestS  against  children  hardly  in  their  teens.  All 
these  are  signs  that  the  idea  of  Polish  nationality  is 
still  green,  and  far  from  losing  ground  owing  to  the 
harsh  measures  of  the  conquerors. 

Hopeless  as  the  cause  of  Poland  may  seem  to  be, 
it  would  yet  be  rash  to  assume  that  the  famous 
exclamation  of  one  of  the  Polish  patriots  on  the  field  of 
Ostrolenka,  **  Finis  Polonise  ! ''  is  really  the  final  word 
in  the  destinies  of  that  country.  Perhaps  there  is  more 
truth   in   the   refrain   of  the   great   Polish   folk-song, 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       191 

"Poland  is  not  ended  so  long  as  we  live."  Over  a 
hundred  years  have  gone  by,  and  yet  Poland  seems  to 
have  been  rejuvenated  by  her  disasters.  The  dormant 
sense  of  nationality  is  waking  into  life,  despite  the 
drugs  and  opiates  with  which  the  partitioners  would 
like  to  prolong  the  lethargy.  This  reawakening  is 
becoming  every  day  more  apparent.  A  new  literature 
has  arisen  in  the  days  of  captivity. 

May  we  not  even  now  look  forward  to  the  day 
when  Poland  will  confront  Germany  with  a  demand 
for  internal  independence  ?  When  she  will  claim  to 
enter  the  German  confederation  on  a  footing  of  equality, 
with  her  internal  institutions  swept  clean  of  Teutonic 
influence?  Poland  will,  perhaps,  some  day  take  up 
towards  Germany  the  same  position  that  Hungary  has 
taken  up  towards  Austria,  and  we  may  witness  the 
formation  of  a  Polono-German  dualism,  on  the  same 
lines  as  the  present  Austro-Hungarian  dualism,  in 
which  the  union  is  only  maintained  in  external  rela- 
tions. In  politics  it  has  often  and  truly  been  said  there 
is  no  morality,  but  it  looks  very  much  as  if  there  was 
a  Nemesis  which,  sooner  or  later,  inevitably  overtakes 
the  doers  of  great  political  crimes,  and  that  Prussia, 
too,  will  not  escape  punishment  for  her  share  in  the 
partition  of  unhappy  Poland. 

Eussian  power  is  overrated.  But  the  exaggerated 
conception  of  the  invincible  and  resistless  might  of 
Eussia  shows  no  sign  of  waning.  Although  almost 
every  historical  event  of  the  last  century  in  which 
Eussia  has  had  a  hand  might  seem  to  have  been 
specially  designed  to  relieve  Europe  of  the  bugbear 
of  a  Muscovite   terror,  the  myth   of  Eussia's   hostile 


192  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

intentions  towards  the  West,  and  of  her  capacity  for 
carrying  her  inimical  designs  into  execution,  has  been 
steadily  gaining  ground.  Its  origin  has  been  attributed 
to  Napoleon,  who  is  represented  to  have  said  that 
within  fifty  years  from  his  time  the  whole  of  Europe 
would  be  Eepublican  or  Muscovite.  Very  possibly  the 
dictum  may  be  apocryphal ;  we  are  not  concerned  with 
proving  its  authenticity.  All  we  would  wish  to  indicate 
is  that  the  idea  had  already  gained  currency  during  the 
latter  years  of  Napoleon,  and  has  continued  to  strike 
deeper  root  ever  since.  To  disclose  the  fallacies  which 
this  idea  involves  will  be  the  main  thread  which  will 
guide  us  in  what  we  have  to  say  of  Eussia. 

It  is  true  that  almost  every  year  of  the  last  century 
and  a  half  has  witnessed  the  increase  of  Russia's  terri- 
torial possessions,  until  now  they  stretch  unbroken  from 
Polish  Wilna  in  the  West  to  Vladivostok  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  But  immense  territorial  conglomerations  and 
vast  throngs  of  population  have  not  gone  for  much 
in  the  making  of  history.  We  can  never  insist  too 
much  that  history  does  not  go  by  masses  and  majorities, 
which,  however  important  they  may  be  in  the  building 
up  of  institutions,  are  not  the  main  producers  of  history. 
Small  ^nd  intense  minorities  are^  the  stuff  fromjwhich 
start  the  causes  of  hjgtoy.  We  may  admit  that  a  mass 
of  population  throughout  which  a  comparatively  high 
state  of  civilization  prevails,  in  which  there  is  unity 
and  homogeneity,  and  which  is  bound  together  by  a 
chain  of  common  civil  and  moral  institutions,  may  be 
of  great  power.  The  United  States  of  America  afford  us 
a  striking  instance.  In  America  there  is  a  uniformity 
of  civilization,    sentiment,   and   aspirations,  which    is 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       193 

exceedingly  astonishing  to  a  stranger  fresh  from  intensely 
differentiated  Europe,  who  is,  as  a  rule,  accustomed  to 
meet  with  at  least  three  degrees  or  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion within  a  day's  travel.  At  home  he  has  been  wont 
to  class  his  fellow-beings  roughly  as  either  peasants, 
bourgeois,  or  nobility ;  in  America  he  meets  with  the 
bourgeois  alone.  Consequently,  any  given  idea  in 
America,  once  it  takes,  spreads  with  the  swiftness  of 
an  immense  prairie-fire ;  it  is  impossible  to  foresee 
where  it  may  end ;  it  is  a  spectacle  at  once  sublime 
and  powerful. 

But  to  return  to  Kussia.  Nowhere  is  there  homo- 
geneity. We  have  already  shown  the  class  distinction 
prevalent  in  all  the  Slav  countries.  Besides  this  there 
are  a  thousand  elements  of  subdivision.  The  creeds 
and  sects  of  Eussia  may  be  counted  by  the  score  ;  the 
different  and  mutually  unintelligible  tongues  run  into 
hundreds,  and  there  are  besides  a  legion  of  conflicting 
psychological  forces.  The  average  degree  of  civilization 
is  very  low  when  measured  by  European  standards. 
The  only  tie  which  binds  Russians  together  is  an  out- 
ward semblance  of  political  unity,  maintained  by  an 
army  of  eight  or  nine  hundred  thousand  State  ofiicials, 
who  themselves  constitute  a  class  apart.  The  more  you 
study  Eussia  the  more  the  conviction  will  be  borne  in 
upon  you  that  she  is  not  greatly  to  be  feared.  The 
spectre  of  Panslavism,  as  taught  by  Bakunin,  has,  or 
ought  to  have,  completely  disappeared. 

Let  us  examine  for  a  moment  the  Eussian  peril  to 
Europe  from  a  military  point  of  view.  It  is  quite 
impossible  that  an  invasion  of  Europe  such  as  took 
place  in  the  thirteenth  century,  at  the  hands  of  the 

0 


194  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Mongols   under   the  son  of  Gengiz  Khan,  could  any 
longer  succeed.     We  have  no  longer  to  fear  anything 
like  the  hordes  of  Turks  who  swept  down  upon  Europe 
in    the   fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries. 
The  days  of  Soliman  are  over,  and  the  defensive  organi- 
zation of  the  modern  Western  nations  would  make  very 
short   work   of  such   an   unsystematic  foray.      But  a 
methodically  and  scientifically  planned  invasion  on  the 
part  of  Eussia  is  equally  beyond  the  horizon  of  possi- 
bilities.     For  warfare  on   this   grandiose  and  regular 
scale  Eussia  is  in  no  wise  prepared.     Her  armies  are 
filled  with  excellent  recruits,  who  have  proved  them- 
selves, time  after  time,  endowed  with  all  the  essential 
fighting  qualities,  dogged  perseverance,  resistance,  and 
unflinching  bravery  in  time  of  defeat.     The  figures  of 
modern  military  statisticians  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
sterling  worth  of  the  Eussian  rank  and  file.     The  com- 
parison of  the  losses  sustained  by  Eussian  troops  in 
battle  against  an  enemy  of  equal  strength,  with  the 
casualties  of  Italian  forces  under  like  circumstances,  is 
peculiarly  instructive,  and  will  show  immediately  that, 
as  far  as  the  courage  of  the  common  soldier  is  concerned, 
Eussia  has  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied.     At  the  battle 
of  Zorndorf  (1758),  45  per  cent,  of  the  Eussian  army 
was  left  upon  the  field,  and  the  losses  at  Kunersdorf 
(1759)  were  equally  heavy.     Here  are  the  percentages 
of  Eussian  casualties  in  several  other  famous  engage- 
ments:  Austerlitz  (1805),  15  per  cent. ;  Eylau  (1807), 
28  per  cent. ;  Friedland  (1807),  24  per  cent. ;  Borodino 
(1812),   31   per  cent. ;    Warsaw  (1831),  18  per  cent.  ; 
Inkermann  (1854),  24  per  cent. ;    Plevna  (I.)  (1877), 
28  per  cent. ;  Plevna  (II.)>  28  per  cent. ;  Plevna  (III.), 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       195 

17  per  cent.  Observe  now  the  Italian  lists,  and  the 
striking  contrast  which  they  show :  St.  Lucia  (1848), 
2  per  cent.;  Custozza  (1848),  1*2  per  cent.;  Mortara 
(1849),  2*2  per  cent.  ;  Novara  (1849),  5  per  cent.  ; 
Solferino  (1859),  8  per  cent.;  Custozza  (1866),  4  per 
cent.  But  physical  bravery  alone  will  not  suffice  unless 
it  is  directed  by  first-class  strategic  ability,  and  the 
Eussian  generals  have  not  by  any  means  shone  so 
brightly  as  have  the  men  under  their  command.  In 
the  Caucasus  it  was  only  after  thirty-five  years  of 
almost  uninterrupted  fighting,  with  vast  resources  of 
men  and  money  at  their  disposal,  a  free  hand  to  use 
any  repressive  measures  against  the  enemy,  and  after 
sustaining  many  defeats  and  enormous  losses,  that  the 
Kussians  eventually  succeeded  in  partially  pacifying 
the  heroic  mountain  tribes  who  were  opposed  to  them 
(1829-64).  The  story  of  the  Crimean  War  (1854-56), 
and  of  the  Eusso-Turkish  "War  (1877-78),  is  so  well 
known  that  we  hardly  need  say  that  Eussian  general- 
ship was  anything  but  an  unmitigated  success.  Nor  is 
this  incapacity  difficult  of  explanation.  In  modern 
warfare  more  than  the  weapon  is  needed ;  the  intelligent 
initiative  of  each  individual  officer  is  required  in  the 
first  place,  and  although  this  may  be  increased  to  a 
great  extent  by  a  special  military  training,  it  is  more 
largely  the  result  of  the  national  moral  and  intellectual 
education. 

Eussia  would  be  even  more  handicapped  in  a  Euro- 
pean war  by  her  lack  of  money.  She  is  really  a 
poverty-stricken  country,  and  what  capital  she  has  at 
her  disposal  is  almost  entirely  absorbed  by  her  nascent 
industrial  development.     She  has  none  of  the  hoarded 


196  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

wealth  of  Western  countries  to  fall  back  upon  in  time 
of  need,  and  the  funds  to  which  she  owes  her  present 
financial  position  have  been  drawn  to  a  considerable 
extent  from  the  surplus  riches  of  France,  her  ally.  The 
great  famines  with  which  the  country  is  so  frequently 
visited  are  an  unmistakable  sign  of  her  economical* 
backwardness.  What  commerce  there  is  is  almost  ex- 
clusively in  foreign  or  Israelitish  hands.  The  native 
industry  is  insignificant,  or  rather  nil ;  for  the  immense 
mineral  wealth,  the  petroleum  wells  of  Baku,  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  English  capitalists.  Repressive  and 
terrorizing  measures  against  the  Jews  can  only  end  in 
crippling  what  little  commercial  enterprise  there  is. 
The  Russian  having  as  yet  been  unable  to  create  a 
mercantile  middle  class,  the  exchange  of  goods  is  prac- 
tically limited  to  the  great  fairs,  such  as  those  of  Nijni 
Novgorod.  Commerce  is  thus  in  Russia  still  very  much 
in  the  same  stage  of  development  as  it  was  in  Europe 
during  the  early  Middle  Ages.  The  country  is  agricul- 
tural, but  the  absence  of  a  numerous  class  of  middlemen 
paralyzes  the  movement  of  corn  and  other  agricultural 
products.  For  the  development  of  a  really  extensive 
network  of  railways,  capital  is  wanting,  and  other 
means  of  transport  are  hopelessly  inadequate.  The 
great  rivers  are  quite  insufficient,  and  the  magnificent 
project  of  linking  the  Black  Sea  with  the  Baltic  by  a 
canal  still  remains  a  project.  But  of  all  the  drawbacks 
under  which  Russia  labours,  the  greatest  is  her  geo- 
graphical position,  that  is  to  say,  the  position  of  Euro- 
pean Russia,  shut  in  between  three  closed  seas,  the 
Caspian,  the  Baltic,  and  the  Black  Sea.  We  shall  see 
later   that   Russian   policy  tends   always   towards  the 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       197 

acquisition  of  a  real  and  unimpeded  maritime  outlet, 
and  that  on  this  point  alone  she  is  likely  to  come  into 
hostile  collision  with  other  European  Powers.  We  have 
so  far  shown  that  Kussia  is  incapable  of  seriously 
menacing  the  peace  of  Europe  from  a  military  point  of 
view,  and  that,  even  had  she  the  military  capacity,  the 
financial  straits  in  which  she  stands  would  preclude  her 
from  espousing  such  an  enterprise.  It  remains  to  point 
out  that  an  unfriendly  attitude  towards  Europe  is 
absolutely  inconsistent  with  Eussian  policy,  and  that 
nothing  could  be  more  remote  from  the  minds  of 
Eussian  statesmen  than  an  invasion  of  Europe. 

The  whole  of  Eussian  policy  points  towards  the  East. 
For  the  last  hundred  years  the  expansion  of  Eussia  has 
always  been  away  from  Europe,  and  she  has  annexed 
vast  tracts  of  land  beyond  the  Ural  Mountains.  Quite 
erroneous  is  the  idea,  very  generally  current,  that  these 
recent  acquisitions  consist  only  of  barren  and  inhospit- 
able steppes.  Much  of  these  newly  won  possessions  ofi'ers 
the  brightest  prospects  to  the  agricultural  colonist,  and^ 
it  is  their  development  and  exploitation  which  will 
monagolize  all  the  enerj^ies  of  the  Eussian  nation  for 
generations  to  come.  The  Eussian  peasant  is  cut  out 
by  nature  for  a  colonist.  He  has  one  great  advantage 
over  other  European  nations.  His  generally  low  state  of 
culture  permits  him  to  intermarry,  without  any  undue 
sense  of  debasement,  with  the  indigenous  tribes  of  the 
ultra-Ural  districts.  In  times  of  peace  he  is  prodigiously 
prolific,  so  that  there  is  every  prospect  of  Eussia,  in  the 
end,  really  absorbing  her  Asiatic  conquests,  with  the 
result  that  the  whole  of  her  immense  dominion,  from 
west  to  east,  will  be  peopled  with  a  Eussian-speaking 


198  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  Eussian  -  thinking  population.  In  this  she  will 
stand  in  marked  contrast  with,  and  have  a  considerable 
advantage  over,  the  French,  English,  and  Dutch,  who 
have  never  been  able  to  form  in  Asia  any  other  but 
"  provincial "  colonies,  that  is  to  say,  colonies  of  natives 
with  a  European  government  of  officials.  Thus,  while 
other  Europeans  are  hindered  by  climatic  drawbacks^ 
and  their  superior  culture  from  ever  really  Europeanizing 
their  colonial  acquisitions,  the  Eussian^  from  his  com- 
paratively low  state  of  culture,  stands  an  excellent 
chance  of  completely  Eussifying  the  whole^  qf^  his 
emjpire.  But  this  is  still  the  work  of  centuries.  Whether 
Eussia  will  also  succeed  in  denationalizing  Manchuria 
and  North  China  is  a  question  of  the  very  far  future, 
and  on  which  it  would  be  rash  to  risk  an  opinion.  Our 
knowledge  of  the  interior  of  China  is  too  imperfect  to 
permit  of  any  serious  prediction. 

There  has  always  been  a  tendency  to  exaggerate 
the  grounds  of  hostility  that  exist  between  England 
and  Eussia.  The  slightest  movement  of  the  Muscovite 
Government,  either  on  the  Pamir  frontier,  in  Persia, 
or  in  the  Far  East,  is  construed  as  a  harbinger  of  war. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  serious  statesmen  hold  the  same 
view.  In  Russian  policy  two  points  must  be  firmly^ 
gTasped,_firstlyj^_that  sooner  or  later  Eussia  must 
acquire  an  ice-free  and  open  port  on  the  ocean^  and, 
secondly,  that  she  is  irresistible  on  land.  She  is  already 
in  possession  of  the  hinterland  of  Persia  and  of  North 
China ;  whether  she  will  open  her  first  harbour  on  the 
Indian  Ocean  or  the  North  Chinese  coast  may  still  be 
doubtful.  What  is  quite  certain  is  that,  once  Eussia 
is  in  possession  of  the  hinterland,  it  is  quite  impossible 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       199 

that  any  other  European  Power  should  debar  her  from 
the  sea- coast. 

What  Russia  will  do  intellectually,  what  she  will 
achieve  in  the  interests  of  civilization,  is  a  matter  of 
the  deepest  interest.  Will  she  produce  a  new  type 
of  culture,  different,  but  as  valuable  in  its  way  as  those 
evolved  by  England,  France,  and  Germany  ?  To  this 
question,  at  least,  we  are  in  a  position  to  hazard  a 
preliminary  answer.  Very  many  obstacles  stand  in 
Eussia's  way  along  the  path  of  progress,  but  it  is  a  very 
wrong  notion  to  imagine  that  the  autocratic  govern- 
ment now  prevailing  is  among  the  greatest.  The  idea 
that  a  country  may  be  given  a  beneficial  constitution 
in  a  day ;  the  Benthamite  conception  that  a  form  of 
government  can  be  drawn  up  upon  ideal  lines  to  fit  the 
requirements  of  any  nation,  and  that  that  nation  will 
be  able  to  don  it  and  wear  it  like  a  new  suit  of  clothes, 
has  long  been  proved  false.  A  constitution,  unless  it 
has  been  won  by  the  efforts  of  the  people  themselves,  is 
not  likely  to  prove  a  good  fit.  And  in  Russia  the  lower 
classes  have  not  manifested  any  desire  for  a  superior 
form  of  government  to  that  under  which  they  at  present 
live.  The  class  that  desires  constitutional  reforms  is 
the  middle  class,  and  this  class,  in  the  real  sense  of 
bourgeoisie,  we  have  already  shown  does  not  exist.  Its 
absence,  however,  is  the  greatest  check  upon  the  advance 
of  Russian  culture.  It  has  been  our  aim  throughout 
this  book  to  show,  that  all  the  great  streams  of  modern 
civilization,  all  its  ideals,  have  risen  among  the  bour- 
geoisie. The  bourgeoisie  is  the  outcome  and  the  one 
great  creation  for  which  we  have  to  thank  the  Middle 
Ages.     Russia  is  still  mediaeval,  although  possibly  her 


200  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

mediaevalism  may  be  slightly  tinctured  with  humanity, 
borrowed  from  Western  states.  Serfdom  may  be 
abolished,  but  Eussia  has  still  to  live  through  her 
Middle  Ages,  and  we  may  well  be  permitted  to  doubt 
whether  she  will  attain  to  a  parallel  degree  of  culture 
wifch  the  great  European  countries,  unless  she  first 
passes  through  the  stages  through  which  those  countries 
have  passed.     There  is  no  royal  road  to  civilization. 

But  the  most  hopeless  barrier  to  Eussian  progress 
is  her  Church,  the  Greek  Church.  From  the  Greek 
Church  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  she  will  escape. 
Wherever  the  Greek  Church  has  become  paramount,  it 
has  proved  infinitely  more  sterilizing,  infinitely  more 
paralyzing  in  its  influence  than  has  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church.  We  cannot  here  go  into  the  causes  of  this 
baneful  power,  which  the  author  has  sought  to  follow 
out  in  detail  in  a  chapter  of  his  "  General  History," 
which  is  to  appear  during  the  course  of  the  present 
year.  We  must  ask  the  reader  to  take  the  fact  for 
the  present  as  he  finds  it.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
Catholic  Church,  much  as  may  be  the  misery  and  sufi'er- 
ing  it  has  caused,  has  always  acted  as  a  potent  civilizing 
agent.  Even  the  opposition  it  has  called  forth,  has 
been  for  good.  But  the  Greek  Church  has  never  excited 
opposition.  It  has  had  neither  a  saint  Bernard  nor  a 
Torquemada.  It  has  had  believers  and  heretics,  but  no 
passionately  aggressive  and  inquisitive  doubters.  Now 
that  the  Eussian s  themselves  have  opened  their  eyes  to 
its  imperfections,  sects  innumerable  have  risen  against 
it,  but  none  capable  of  seriously  opposing,  much  less  of 
replacing,  it.  For  a  moment  there  seemed  some  hope 
that  Tolstoiism  might  supply  the  remedy,  but  it  is  to 


SUCCESS  AMONG  SLAV  NATIONS       201 

be  feared  that  it  contains  too  much  quietism  and 
qualities  that  make  for  stagnation  to  really  replace  the 
Greek  Church.  Hungary  has  no  benefactor  to  whom 
she  is  more  indebted  than  to  Pope  Sylvester  II. 
(999-1003  A.D.),  to  whom  she  owes  her  catholicization, 
and  her  admittance  to  participate  in  Western  thought. 

Every  one  of  the  great  Western  nations  has  had 
to  stand  the  test  of  a  triple  trial,  before  it  could  reach 
its  actual  condition.  It  has  had  to  pass  through  an 
intellectual  Renaissance,  a  religious  Keformation,  and 
a  political  Eevolution.  And  we  may  suppose  that 
Russia  will  not  escape  the  necessity  of  passing  through 
a  like  series  of  stages.  Incidentally,  it  may  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  Catholic  countries,  too,  have  had  their 
Reformation  in  the  Council  of  Trent. 

To  resume,  we  may  predict  with  fair  confidence  that 
Russia  will  no  longer  prove  a  serious  menace  to  the 
peace  of  Europe ;  that  her  future  will  be  fully  occupied 
with  her  colonial,  industrial,  social,  and  political  develop- 
ment, and  if  we  may  judge  from  historic  precedent,  her 
social  growth  will  of  necessity  precede  her  political 
development.  So  far,  revolutions  in  Western  Europe 
have  not  been  of  the  making  of  a  discontented  peasantry, 
but  of  a  middle  class  which  has  risen  to  consciousness 
of  its  own  power,  and  has  grasped  the  fact  that  it  is  its 
prerogative  to  govern  itself. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SUCCESS   AMONG   GERMANS 

The  Germans.  The  women.  The  men.  Education ;  especially  higher  edu- 
cation. The  Universities.  The  cause  of  the  superiority  of  the  German 
professor.  German  intellectual  activity ;  its  universality  and  wonderful 
organization  {Jdhrbucherj  Eandhucher^  Encydopasdien,  etc.).  Germany's 
great  military  defeats  and  successes  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Her 
imperialism.  Her  internal  dangers.  SociaHsm.  The  chief  obstacle 
to  German  imperialism  is  her  geography.  She  can  never  absorb 
Austria.  Reasons:  France  and  Italy  cannot  admit  it.  Irreconcila- 
bility of  France.  It  is  only  by  absorption  of  Austria  that  Germany 
could,  by  obtaining  access  to  the  Adriatic,  sit  astride  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  so  essentially  improve  her  chances  for  imperialism  and  world- 
policy  by  securing  real  sea-power.  Her  industrial  progress  will  soon  be 
checked  and  toned  down  by  the  rapid  and  rising  industriahsm  of  Italy, 
Austria-Hungary,  and  the  numerous  minor,  but  very  wealthy,  states  of 
Europe.  Yet  with  all  that,  the  German  will  undoubtedly  realize  much 
of  the  higher  type  of  civilization. 

At  the  present  day  there  is  no  problem  which  excites 
keener  interest  than  the  future  career  of  Germany. 
Every  one  would  like  to  know  whether  she  is  destined 
to  become  the  great  power  which  will  be  able  to  impose 
its  dictates  upon  the  whole  of  Europe,  or  rather  upon 
the  whole  world,  or  whether  the  bond  of  unity,  by 
which  she  is  now  held  together,  will,  when  the  master 
hand,  now  directing  her  policy,  is  relaxed,  burst  asunder, 
leaving  the  component  states  once  more  in  their  primitive 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GEEMANS  203 

disunion.  To  most  people  these  are  problems  of  more 
than  academic  interest ;  they  touch  the  man  of  business 
in  the  dealings  of  everyday  life  just  as  much  as  they 
absorb  the  student  of  history.  Within  a  generation 
Germany  has  risen  by  leaps  and  bounds  from  a  level  of 
comparative  unimportance  to  a  position  in  which  she 
makes  her  commercial,  political,  and  intellectual  com- 
petition felt  the  whole  world  over.  We  shall  do  our 
best  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  pages  to  sketch  out 
the  main  lines  along  which  the  future  of  Germany  is 
likely  to  proceed,  and  to  give,  at  any  rate,  a  provisional 
answer  to  some  of  the  questions  raised  above. 

It  is  all-important  to  gain  first  a  clear  idea  of  the 
social  forces  which  are  at  work  in  Germany.  The 
German  character  is  not  so  difficult  of  appreciation  as  is 
the  French,  and  we  have  a  great  advantage  in  speaking 
of  Germany  in  that  we  have  not  first  to  stem  such  a 
tide  of  prejudice  and  misconception,  as  we  have  had  to 
do  in  the  case  of  France. 

Germany  is  certainly  less  known,  either  to  her 
advantage  or  disadvantage,  than  is  France,  and  what 
knowledge  of  her  does  prevail  in  foreign  countries  is  in 
no  small  degree  tinctured  by  the  rather  envious  ad- 
miration of  her  success,  and  the  methods  by  which  she 
has  attained  it.  The  social  types  of  Germany  are  com- 
paratively simple,  though  they  diff'er  considerably  accord- 
ing to  place.  The  German  of  the  South,  much  as  he  has 
in  common  withth  e  German  of  the  North  politically,  is 
strongly  differentiated  from  him  both  physically  and 
socially.  Let  us  first  take  the  typical  woman  of  North 
Germany.  Her  feminine  charms  are  certainly  some- 
what less  than  those  of  her  Southern .  sister.     There  is 


204  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

something  slightly  angular  in  her  temperament,  as  there 
is  in  her  person,  something  a  little  too  harsh,  a  little 
too  severe.  The  faces  which  you  see  in  one  of  the  great 
Northern  cities  are  rarely  beautiful,  though,  of  course, 
there  are  exceptions ;  the  features  are  more  often  cast 
in  a  rather  rigid  and  unpleasing  mould.  Perhaps  these 
characteristics  are  the  outcome  of  a  long  process  of 
social  evolution.  We  can  imagine  what  life  has  been 
in  the  Hanseatic  cities  for  generation  upon  generation. 
They  were  the  first  great  centres  of  commercial  activity, 
and  their  wealth  grew  rapidly.  An  early  result  of  this 
thriving_  business  life  was  the  institution  of  the  maricbge_ 
^^J^2I\VSI!^'^^^'  Alliances  were  doubtless  contracted  out 
of  purely  interested  motives.  Such  and  such  a  family 
combination  was  bound  to  prove  highly  advantageous 
to  business,  as  it  would  secure  the  co-operation  of  two 
great  firms.  The  bargain  was  struck,  the  marriage  was 
concluded  entirely  as  a  business  move,  without  one  jot 
or  tittle  of  a  sentimental  character.  Suppose  this  pro- 
cedure to  have  been  repeated  an  indefinite  number  of 
times  in  successive  generations,  and  is  there  anything 
surprising  in  the  physical  type  being  finally  affected  ? 
Speaking  more  in  general,  it  would  appear  that  feminine 
beauty  is  certainly  more  common  amongst  those  nations 
who  keep  business  and  private  life  strictly  separate ; 
where  marriage  is,  as  a  rule,  the  outcome  of  mutual 
attraction  and  conformability  of  disposition,  rather  than 
of  a  money  arrangement.  The  average  of  beauty  in 
America,  for  instance,  is  certainly  higher  than  in  the 
countries  of  Europe,  where  the  dowry  system  has  been 
of  long  standing,  and  still  prevails. 

As  we  go  South,  the  women  of  Germany  become 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GERMANS  205 

more  genial,  more  attractive,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
social  environments  are  modified.  We  have  passed  out 
of  the  region  of  the  large  and  ancient  free  cities  into  a 
district  where  urban  life  is  only  now  developing  widely, 
but  where  the  bulk  of  the  population  consists  of  well- 
to-do  peasants,  living  a  healthy  open-air  life  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  in  which  subsistence  is  cheap  and 
good,  with  plenty  of  wine  and  beer.  The  money- 
marriage  has  not  here  been  the  rule,  and  the  physical 
type  is  consequently  finer. 

The  German  woman  has  not  been  nearly  so  active 
in  the  making  of  her  country's  history  as  has  the  woman 
of  France.  Her  rdle  is  not  nearly  so  important  in  public 
life;  moreover,  her  bringing  up  is  very  different.  If 
the  Frenchwoman  arrives  at  the  perfection  of  her  being 
in  married  life,  the  German  woman  is  probably  of  greater 
influence  during  her  maidenhood.  Although  she  cannot 
claim  the  unfettered  freedom  of  the  American  girl,  she 
is  not,  in  her  youth,  cloistered  and  cooped  up  with  the 
severity  enforced  upon  the  French  girl.  She  strikes  the 
happy  mean,  and  enjoys  considerable  liberty,  without 
the  loss  of  that  naivete  and  idealistic  turn  of  mind 
which  appeals  so  strongly  to  the  purer  imagination  of 
the  young  man.  We  can  at  once  grasp  the  reason  why 
Germany  has  bloomed  into  a  wealth  of  lyric  verse, 
utterly  foreign  to  France.  After  marriage,  the  German 
woman,  as  a  rule,  lapses  into  almost  entire  obscurity  ; 
the  cares  of  her  household  absorb  her  thoroughly,  and 
she  becomes  the  Hausfrau,  whose  stolid  dulness  has 
become  almost  proverbial  throughout  Europe,  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  this  reputation  is  not  quite  un- 
merited. 


206  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

In  Germany  the  triple  class  distinction  is  maintained, 
much  as  in  France,  and  generally  over  the  whole 
continent.  This  distinction,  of  course,  does  not  exist 
before  the  law,  in  the  eyes  of  which  there  is  complete 
equality  ;  it  is  none  the  less  real.  It  does  not,  however, 
preserve  much  of  its  mediaeval  character,  and  peasant, 
bourgeois,  and  noble,  although  clearly  differentiated, 
each  have  a  pride  in  their  position,  and  do  not  visit 
each  other  with  mutual  disdain.  In  America,  where 
the  peasant  population  is  non-existent,  and  in  England, 
where  it  has  to  all  intents  and  purposes  ceased  to  exist, 
there  can  be  little  conception  of  what  this  Bauernstolz^ 
the  pride   of    t^^^^  ^25^7   ^'      ^^^   German 

peasant  is  in  many  ways  different  from  his  French 
counterpart,  who,  either  as  a  result  of  his  grasping, 
miserly  avarice,  or  for  some  other  reason,  has  become 
almost  everywhere  depoeticized.  The  word  paysan,  in 
French,  and  the  word  Bauer,  in  German,  conjure  up 
very  different  pictures  before  the  mind's  eye.  When 
a  Frenchman  applies  the  name  "  peasant,"  he  suggests 
a  thousand  niggardly,  cunning,  money-grabbing,  utili- 
tarian, commonplace  qualities,  and  the  word  certainly 
has  in  it  a  ring  of  contempt.  The  German  Bauer,  on 
the  contrary,  has  retained  much  of  the  poetry  of  olden 
days  ;  he  has  clung  tenaciously  to  a  thousand  quaint 
customs,  to  his  picturesque  costume,  and  he  still  has 
that  wealth  of  fantastic  and  poetical  imagination  which 
has  left  so  profound  a  mark  on  German  literature  ;  he 
still  is  the  repository  of  stories,  legends,  and  fairy  tales, 
which  he  has  refused  to  forget  under  the  grindstone  of 
a  matter-of-fact,  prosaic  age.  The  folklorist,  who  might 
live  for  a  lifetime  in  some  French  country  districts  with- 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GEEMANS  207 

out  enriching  his  collections  by  a  single  item,  would  find 
his  paradise  in  the  wild  surroundings  of  the  Harz  and 
the  Black  Forest.  We  shall  see  how  powerful,  in  other 
walks  of  life  in  Germany,  is  this  tendency  to  idealism, 
and  what  a  valuable  adjunct  it  is  to  German  national 
life.  Unhappily,  the  third  estate  is  being,  ever  so 
slowly,  undermined  by  the  spread  of  a  constantly 
widening  industrialism.  The  preservation  of  a  large 
peasant  population  is  one  of  the  most  indispensable 
necessities  for  all  the  great  continental  Powers,  for  it  is 
upon  the  sound  and  healthy  recruits  furnished  by  this 
class  that  these  nations  most  chiefly  rely  in  time  of  war. 
They  are  the  physical  basis  of  national  prosperity. 

The  bourgeois  section  of  the  community  has  im- 
mensely increased  with  the  growth  of  urban  life  ;  it  is 
from  the  bourgeoisie  that  the  intellectual  backbone  of 
the  country  is  built  up,  all  being  more  or  less  highly 
educated  as  the  result  of  a  thorough  state  training  in 
the  schools,  which  are  open  and  compulsory  to  all. 

Here  we  come  to  the  greatest  force  which  is  working 
for  the  future  welfare  of  Germany.  This  is  her  intel- 
lectuality. The  systematic  thoroughness  with  which 
everything  is  carried  out  in  the  world  of  intellect  is 
almost  inconceivable.  When  any  one  has  been  com- 
pelled for  years  to  make  use  of  German  books,  he  will 
begin  to  realize  the  immense  labour  which  has  been 
done  by  Germans  in  the  organization  of  knowledge. 
From  his  earliest  years  the  German  youth,  whatever 
degree  of  learning  he  may  eventually  be  meant  to 
attain,  is,  at  any  rate,  taught  to  learn  systematically. 
He  is  never  permitted  to  specialize  in  any  subject  until 
he  has  a  complete  grasp  of  generalities,  in  order  that 


208  SUCCESS   AMONG  NATIONS 

he  may  have  in  his  mind  at  least  a  sense  of  the  propor- 
tion of  what  he  has  to  learn.  The  schools  are  also 
systematized,,  and  fall  into  two  strictly  demarcated 
categories,  the  Realschulen  and  the  Gymnasia.  In  the 
former  are  taught  chiefly  the  natural  sciences,  some- 
what as  in  the  modern  sides  of  English  schools  ;  in  the 
latter  the  principal  subjects  of  instruction  are  Latin 
and  Q-reek  ;  but  the  student  is  in  all  cases  compelled 
to  go  through  a  preliminary  general  curriculum.  By 
the  time  the  young  man  goes  to  the  University,  his 
knowledge  will  probably  be  already  very  extensive  ; 
he,  at  all  events,  has  his  mind  thoroughly  ordered,  and 
knows  in  what  particular  receptacle  to  classify  all  sub- 
sequently acquired  information.  His  studies  are  never 
allowed  to  proceed  haphazard.  In  the  higher  walks  of 
scientific  research  the  same  methods  are  pursued.  Many 
of  the  Universities  have  at  their  disposition  very  con- 
siderable sums  for  bestowal  in  the  form  of  prizes  for 
the  furtherance  of  original  scientific  work.  This  patri- 
mony is  very  carefully  administered,  and  subjects 
suitable  for  research,  and  requiring  elucidation,  are 
pointed  out  to  the  competitors,  in  order  that  none  of 
the  precious  store  of  energy  need  be  expended  in  vain. 
This  system  of  education  looks  very  perfect  upon  paper  : 
we  have  already  shown  what  are  the  evil  eff*ects  of 
over-intellectualization.  The  Germans  have  certainly 
hit  the  mean,  as  far  as  it  is  feasible  to  hit  a  mean 
between  first-rate  intellectual  development  and  a  degree 
of  volitional  energy  indispensable  to  render  that  intel- 
lectual development  fertile. 

A   few   words   will   show   what   immense    services 
have  been  rendered  by  the  Germans  in  the  systematic 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GERMANS  209 

classification  of  knowledge.  The  very  names  of  books 
have  received  a  technical  significance  quite  unknown  in 
other  countries.  To  the  German  mind,  for  instance, 
the  word  Encyclopddie  represents  something  quite 
different  from  the  alphabetical  agglomeration  of  facts 
which  we  usually  associate  with  the  term  Encyclopaedia. 
Such  a  work  would  be  called  a  Konversationslexicon,  or 
Reallexicon ;  the  Encyclopddie  is  something  quite  apart. 
If  you  wish  to  study  a  science,  the  first  book  you  must 
lay  your  hand  on  must  be  its  Encyclopadie.  Itjvill 
not^necessari^  big  book  at  all,  and^  it^  is  not  the 
place  in  which  to  seek  for  minute  details  of  knowledge^ 
but^b^jmeans^of^it  a  grasp  of  the  jgound 

whkh  your  particular  science  covers j  you  will  get  an 
idea  of  its  organization,  its  divisions,  its  system  ;  you 
will  get  a  summary  view  of  the  whole  science,  so  that 
you  will  know  exactly  how  far  it  has  been  carried,  and 
what  there  is  for  you  to  learn.  All  this  is  implied  to 
the  German  by  the  word  Encyclopddie,  Should  you 
wish  to  pursue  your  studies  further  you  will  have  to 
purchase  a  Grymdnss^ :  this  will  take  you  over  the 
same  ground  again,  but  will  give  you  much  fuller 
detail ;  it  will,  above  all,  give  quotations  from  the 
original  sources,  from  the  great  books  on  the  subject, 
together  with  the  fullest  bibliographies,  whereas  the 
Encyclopddie  has  only  given  select  bibliographies.  The 
next  books  are  the  Lehrbueh  and  the  Handhuch, 
The  former  is  a  yet  further  expansion  of  the  Grundriss^ 
especially  destined  for  the  use  of  the  student ;  the 
latter  a  complete  compendium  of  the  science,  for  the 
use  and  reference  of  the  specialist.  You  have  now 
made  yourself  a  thorough  master  of  your  subject  by 


210  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

dint  of  assiduous  labour  on  this  organized  system,  but 
you  will  still  require  to  be  kept  au  courant  of  the 
subsequent  progress  in  your  study.  Your  Handbuch, 
in  spite  of  frequent  new  editions,  will  be  a  little  behind 
the  times.  To  combat  this  drawback,  the  Germans 
have  devised  yet  another  instrument.  This  is  the 
Jahrhuch,  the  triumph  of  German  scientific  methods. 
As  the  name  implies,  these  books  appear  annually. 
They  are  edited  by  the  most  competent  authorities 
upon  the  subjects  with  which  they  deal.  Let  us  con- 
sider, for  example's  sake,  a  Jahrhuch  on  botany.  Its 
internal  classification  will  be  arranged  upon  a  system 
which  has  already  been  inculcated  on  the  student  in 
the  Encydopddie,  so  that  in  turning  over  its  pages  he 
will  not  have  a  moment's  hesitation  as  to  what  par- 
ticular section  will  contain  the  information  of  which  he 
is  in  search.  It  is  the  object  of  the  Jahrhuch  in  question 
to  enregister  everything  that  has  been  done  during  the 
preceding  year  with  regard  to  botany.  Every  fresh 
discovery  is  noted,  every  periodical  article  dealing  with 
botanical  questions  or  researches  is  carefully  recorded, 
every  book  which  has  been  published  during  the  year 
is  given,  very  often  with  the  fullest  critical  notes. 
Nothing  which  has  appeared  in  any  country  relating  to 
their  particular  subject  can  for  a  moment  elude  the 
vigilant  eyes  of  the  compilers  of  the  Jahrhuch,  It  needs 
no  keen  insight  to  see  what  invaluable  services  this 
work  may  render  to  the  writer  upon  botany  or  to  the 
scientific  investigator  himself.  The  writer  is  sure  of 
having  absolutely  the  latest  and  most  accurate  infor- 
mation concerning  the  matter  of  which  he  is  writing, 
the  scientist  can  assure  himself  that  he  is  not  frittering 


SUCCESS  AMONG    GERMANS  211 

away  his  time  in  researches  which  have  already  been 
worked  out  to  a  successful  or  unsuccessful  result  by 
another.  Even  if  the  Jahrhuch  be  only  looked  upon  as 
a  saver  of  time,  an  economizer  of  labour,  it  would  be 
hard  to  overrate  its  value.  Every  science  has  its 
Jahrhuch  There  are  Jahrhucher  on  Teutonic  Philology, 
on  Oriental  Philology,  on  Ancient  Philology,  on  Modern 
History ;  there  are  Jahrhucher  on  almost  everything. 
Some  of  the  series  cover  many  years,  some  are  of  only 
recent  institution.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  German 
scholar,  in  quest  of  the  most  up-to-date  literature  on 
his  particular  speciality,  can  really  not  be  nonplussed 
in  his  search.  If  he  wants  to  know  what  the  latest 
traveller  has  had  to  say  upon  the  obscurest  Tungusic 
dialect  spoken  somewhere  almost  out  of  ken  in  the 
wilds  of  Siberia,  he  can  find  it  within  the  minute  so 
long  as  his  Jahrhuch  is  within  his  reach.  So,  too, 
the  doctor,  interested  in  malaria,  can  discover,  with 
mechanical  ease,  the  latest  specialist  literature  on  his 
subject. 

We  have  gone  somewhat  fully  into  the  social  and 
intellectual  aspects  of  modern  Germany,  for  it  is  very 
necessary  to  have  a  clear  notion  of  the  way  a  nation 
lives  and  thinks,  before  embarking  upon  what  may 
appear  a  somewhat  ambitious  attempt  to  forecast  that 
nation's  political  career.  It  is  in  the  everyday  life  of 
the  people,  and  from  long  habitation  among  them,  that 
one  can  alone  hope  to  win  some  knowledge  of  the 
ideals  by  which  they  are  impelled.  Without  this  ex- 
perience a  man's  ideas  of  the  great  motive  forces  by 
which  a  nation  is  influenced  will,  in  all  likelihood,  be 
nothing  but  a  dim  and  distorted  phantom  of  his  own 


212  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

strivings  and  ambitions.  We  shall  now  endeavour, 
within  the  limits  of  our  power,  to  sketch  the  ideals  by 
which  the  future  of  Germany  is  being  moulded,  and  to 
estimate  what  chances  those  ideals  possess  of  being 
fulfilled. 

Imperialism,  which  has  become  the  watchword  of 
the  external  policy  of  several  great  nations  of  to-day, 
has  laid  hold  of  the  German  mind  with  especial  force. 
Now  that,  by  the  successive  defeats  of  Austria  and 
France,  the  Germans  have  built  up  and  assured  the 
stability  of  their  internal  union,  they  have  begun  to 
aspire  to  a  far  wider  extension  of  their  power.  It  is 
their  ambition,  by  the  development  of  their  naval 
strength,  to  carry  their  sphere  of  influence  over  the 
whole  globe.  The  Emperor,  when  he  declared  that 
"Germany's  future  lay  upon  the  water,"  was  only 
giving  voice  to  the  idea  which  animates  a  very  con- 
siderable majority  of  the  nation,  which  is  full  well 
aware  that  Germany  cannot  make  good  her  claim  to  be 
a  first-rate  power  until  she  can  make  herself  respected 
and  feared  upon  the  sea.  She  must  raise  her  maritime 
force  until  it  is  able  to  stand  upon  a  footing  of  equality 
with  the  other  great  naval  Powers  of  Europe.  For  the 
last  ten  years  Germany  has  been  toiling  unremittingly 
to  bring  about  the  accomplishment  of  this  design.  Her 
dockyards  have  been  at  work  ceaselessly,  building  and 
equipping  battleship  upon  battleship,  cruiser  upon 
cruiser,  until  to-day  she  has  a  very  considerable  fleet 
in  commission,  while  her  programme  of  naval  construc- 
tion during  the  next  decade  is  upon  grandiose  lines. 
The  German  scientific  journals  show  us  that  Germany 
is  pursuing  her  object  with  the  systematic  thoroughness 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GERMANS  213 

which  characterizes  all  her  work.  Every  month  witnesses 
the  publication  of  some  new  book  on  naval  tactics,  naval 
construction,  or  naval  history,  and  no  pains  are  being 
spared  in  order  that  Germans  may  make  the  most 
minute  and  searching  study  of  all  that  appertains  to  an 
exhaustive  and  practical  knowledge  of  everything  that 
is  requisite  to  a  first-class  navy.  The  drift  of  all  this 
busy,  unflagging  preparation  can  hardly  be  doubtful. 
For  fifty  years  there  was  the  same  hum  of  an  army 
making  ready,  the  same  keen  attention  to  military 
affairs,  the  same  drilling  of  soldiers  and  training  of 
oflicers,  before  Germany  hurled  herself  irresistibly  upon 
France,  full  of  sanguine  confidence  in  her  success.  In 
the  same  manner  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Germany 
is  arming  herself  with  patient,  calculating,  and  laborious 
perseverance  for  the  day  when  she  shall  at  last  feel 
ready  to  throw  down  the  gauntlet  of  defiance  in  the 
face  of  England.  Germany  is  of  those  that  look, 
meditate,  and  prepare  before  they  leap,  in  order  that 
they  need  have  to  leap  but  once. 

Technically,  then,  the  German  dream  of  a  world- 
power  means  immense  power  both  by  land  and  by  sea. 
In  order  to  obtain  this,  Germany  would  like  to  have 
direct  access  to  the  Adriatic.  Once  she  gains  this 
access,  she  can  put  into  execution  the  oft-meditated 
plan  of  drawing  a  canal  from  the  Elbe  to  Trieste,  and 
she  would  thus  sit  astride  of  Europe,  and  could  afibrd 
to  make  light  of  any  Franco-Eussian  combination 
against  her.  She  has  carried  out  a  very  similar  design 
in  linking  the  Baltic  to  the  North  Sea,  and  rendering 
herself  independent  of  the  dangerous  passage  of  the 
Kattegat,  easily  closed  by  a  hostile  power  in  time  of  war, 


214  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

and  of  which  she  is  able  to  control  neither  entry.  By 
a  trans-European  canal  she  would  nullify  the  strategic 
value  of  the  English  Channel,  where  very  possibly  she 
would  have,  far  from  any  protecting  base  or  haven  of 
shelter,  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  combined  English 
and  French  navies.  In  the  construction  of  such  a  canal 
she  would  only  be  realizing,  on  a  somewhat  more 
grandiose  scale,  the  dream  which  has  been  cherished  by 
some  great  French  statesmen,  and  is  still  cherished  by 
Russia.  Richelieu  already  pointed  out  that  a  canal  on 
the  grandest  scale,  linking  Bordeaux  to  Nimes,  would 
undermine  the  value  of  Gibraltar.  A  French  fleet 
could  be  carried,  as  it  were,  overland  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Mediterranean  much  more  rapidly  than  a  hostile 
armada  could  sail  round  the  whole  Iberian  peninsula, 
and  France  could  change  the  scene  of  operations  in  a 
naval  war  as  best  suited  her  convenience,  and  offer 
battle  with  her  whole  combined  fleets  against  the  dis- 
united squadrons  of  her  enemy  in  whichever  sea  she 
preferred.  The  French  maritime  forces,  if  swept  out 
of  the  Mediterranean,  need  not  any  more  dread  being 
cooped  up  in  the  harbours  of  the  southern  littoral,  but 
could  re-emerge  upon  the  western  coast.  The  project 
has  remained  a  project,  and  it  seems  almost  inexplicable 
that  the  French  should  take  so  little  interest  in  securing 
the  pre-eminence  of  their  navy  by  a  work  which  would 
have  rendered  a  battle  of  Trafalgar  out  of  the  question, 
and  which  would  certainly  prevent  the  recurrence  of 
such  a  battle.  Russia  has  much  the  same  scheme  for 
uniting  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic ;  but,  as  we  have 
before  pointed  out,  Russia's  policy  tends  ever  eastwards, 
and  we  need  hardly  be  astonished  that  she  hesitates  to 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GERMANS  215 

strain  her  already  impoverislied  finances  in  order  to 
secure  her  pre-eminence  in  two  land-locked  seas.  With 
Germany  the  prospective  gains  are  immeasurably  grander. 

There  is  one  circumstance  which  promises  well  for 
the  future  of  Germany's  naval  ambitions,  and  this  is 
the  ever-increasing  growth  of  her  mercantile  marine. 
Hitherto  England  alone  has  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  an 
immense  unofficial  reserve  of  ofiBcers  and  men,  on  which 
she  could  draw  in  moments  of  stress,  to  fill  the  breaches 
caused  by  war,  and  to  man  her  spare  vessels.  But  the 
number  of  German  sailors  is  growing  daily,  as  is  the 
number  of  ships  that  fly  her  flag ;  and  Germany,  too, 
may  soon  have  an  equal,  if  not  superior,  stock  from 
which  to  replenish  her  navy  when  need  arises.  The 
statistics  of  the  Suez  Canal  show  that  the  number  of 
German  vessels  passing  backwards  and  forwards  between 
^JQE-^,  M^^__  j^^  .^QjSt  is  now  only  surpassed  bj  the 
number  of  British  ships,  a  fact  which  alone  boldly  illus- 
trates the  metamorphosis  which  the  shipping:  world  has 
undergone  in  the  course  of  the  last  two  or  three  decades. 

Germany's  over-sea  policy  is  not  the  outcome  of 
sheer  ambition,  mere  desire  to  participate  in  the  game 
of  grab  ;  it  is  inspired  by  imperious  necessity.  It  is 
the  result  of  no  artificial  impulse.  Since  1870  the 
figures  of  her  population  have  well-nigh  doubled,  the 
elbow-room  in  the  Fatherland  is  becoming  cramped, 
and  the  energetic  portion  of  the  inhabitants  is  compelled 
to  emigrate  to  America,  where  it  ceases  to  contribute 
to  the  force  of  the  home-country.  It  is  a  matter  of 
crucial  importance  to  Germany  that  she  should  have 
fields  of  colonial  expansion  under  her  own  imperial 
control.      But   where    are   such   fields    to   be   found  ? 


§16  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Almost  all  available  space  has  long  been  occupied  by 
other  Powers,  and  Germany  is,  at  all  events,  not  yet 
desirous  of  winning  territory  by  hostile  means.  In  her 
distress  her  eyes  have  fallen  upon  the  nearer  east. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  her  forbearance  and  solicitude 
for  the  sublime  Porte  ;  it  lies  in  no  disinterested  affec- 
tion, but  Germany  would  like  to  win  a  firm  foothold  in 
Asia  Minor,  already  the  scene  of  her  brilliant  railway 
schemes.  And  if  eventually  Germany  should  colonize 
the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean,  she  will  have 
even  more  potent  inducements  for  securing  a  naval 
base  in  the  Adriatic. 

We  have  sketched  out  in  brief  and  summary  outline 
what  we  may  expect  to  be  the  tendency  of  German 
foreign  policy  in  the  near  future.  It  is  now  time  to 
observe  the  hindrances  and  stumbling-blocks  with  which 
such  a  policy  is  sown.  Perhaps  the  most  formidable 
antagonist  with  which  Germany  has  to  contend  will  be 
found  within  her  own  borders,  in  the  socialist  party. 
We  must  not  by  any  means  impute  anarchist  tenets  to 
this  party,  but  they  constitute  a  powerful  disruptive 
element  in  the  Imperial  Federation,  to  the  foreign 
policy  of  which  they  are  violently  opposed,  and  they 
are  strong  enough  to  make  their  opposition  very  keenly 
sensible.  In  the  last  elections  they  disposed  of  over 
three  million  votes,  out  of  a  total  of  between  ten  and 
eleven  million  voters.  An  active  minority  with  such 
numbers  cannot  fail  to  he  influential.  It  is  on  principle 
strongly  against  any  manifestations  of  imperial  control 
over  the  component  twenty-six  polities  of  the  German 
union.  For  a  strong  imperial  policy  the  union,  how- 
ever, must  remain  supreme.    Statistics,  moreover,  prove 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GEEMANS  217 

irrefutably  that  socialism,  far  from  falling  off,  gathers 
fresh  forces  with  every  successive  election.  So  far  for 
the  internal  conditions  militating  against  German 
imperialism.  Let  us  now  extend  our  horizon  of  obser- 
vation. 

Difficult  as  would  be  the  physical  obstacles  to  over- 
come in  building  an^  Elbe-Trieste  canal,  they  are  not 
sufficient  to  daunt  the  modern  engineer ;  the  political 
barrier  is  a  far  harder  matter  to  negotiate.  Germany 
is  cut  off  from  the  Adriatic  by  Austria,  and  it  is  any- 
thing but  probable  that  Austria  would  contemplate 
with  docile  equanimity  the  fulfilment  of  German  ambi- 
tions. The  canal  is  the  one  remedy  which  wiU  cure^ 
Germany's  geographical  deformity  as  a  wqrld-powerj 
the  construction  of  such  a  canal  presupposes  the  down- 
fall of  Austria.  This  may  be  procured  in  two  or  three 
fashions,  but  it  is  uncertain  that  any  of  them  offer  any 
considerable  chance  of  success.  It  has  been  hazarded 
that  Austria,  owing  to  the  reigning  political  anarchy, 
would  be  incapable  of  showing  an  unbroken  front  to 
German  military  aggression.  But  is  not  this  semblance 
of  anarchy  liable  to  great  misinterpretation?  Before 
1867  Austria  did  not  cause  the  politicians  of  Europe 
any  grave  anxiety,  though  threatening  disruptive 
symptoms.  But  under  this  superficial  calm  lay  political 
gangrene  and  stagnation.  Are  not  the  frequent  crises 
which  in  latter  days  have  shaken  the  political  frame  of 
Austria  wholesome  signs  which  indicate  the  malady  of 
the  patient,  but  also  his  capacity  of  resisting  it  ?  Even 
civil  war  is  not  by  any  means  the  horrible  and  unquali- 
fied evil  which  it  is  represented  to  be,  and  should  the 
differences    of   Hungary    and   the   Austrian   provinces 


218  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

eventually  culminate  in  a  hostile  encounter,  may  not 
the  country,  as  a  whole,  come  out  of  the  trial  saner 
and  sounder,  as  have  the  other  great  nations  of 
modern  times  ?  The  seeds  of  French,  English,  and 
American  national  strength  have  all  been  sown  in  civil 
bloodshed.  But  to  return  to  the  thread  of  our  argument. 
Germany  will  probably  not  hazard  a  war-like  venture, 
which  might,  if  only  from  a  purely  military  point  of 
view,  prove  disastrous  until  she  has  fully  essayed  pacific 
means  of  attaining  her  end.  These  means  are  twofold. 
The  absorption  of  German  Austria  into  the  German 
Empire.  This  solution  is  also  rich  in  improbabilities. 
The  only  method  left  is  to  bribe  Austria  into  assent, 
and  this  is  the  method  which  might,  perhaps,  succeed, 
for  Germany  could  afibrd  to  pay  a  long  price ;  but 
Austria  is  wide  awake  enough  to  be  well  aware  that  her 
assent,  bribed  or  not,  must  end  in  her  political  sub- 
jection. Granted  that  Germany  gains  eventually  access 
to  the  northern  Adriatic,  what  sort  of  a  reception  may 
she  not  expect  from  her  Italian  rivals,  who,  as  we  have 
shown,  are  in  a  fair  way  to  become  arbiters  of  the 
Mediterranean  ? 

Let  us  now  assume  that  Germany's  hypothetical 
designs  upon  the  Adriatic  have  failed  or  collapsed.  We 
have  shown  that  her  swiftly  augmenting  population 
must  find  an  outlet,  cost  what  it  may.  The  number  of 
her  inhabitants,  now  some  fifty-seven  millions,  will,  if 
the  present  rate  of  increase  is  maintained,  soon  become 
overwhelming.  Germany's  almost  only  other  means  of 
finding  a  dumping  ground  for  her  surplus  population  is 
in  the  defeat  of  England  and  in  the  seizure  of  her  rival's 
colonies.      The   idea  of    England   being   overpowered 


SUCCESS   AMONG  GEEMANS  219 

on  sea  is  still  received  in  most  quarters  with  an 
incredulous  smile,  especially  by  those  who  have  not 
made  a  study  of  naval  history.  The  uncertainty  of 
naval  power,  however,  is  well  known  to  those  who  have 
really  gone  deeply  into  the  annals  of  the  past.  Its  rise 
and  downfall  may  be  the  matter  of  a  single  fight,  and 
one  great  maritime  engagement  may  prove  the  undoing 
of  a  Power  which  depends  for  its  existence  upon  the 
sea.  An  army  may  be  annihilated,  but  new  armies  can 
be  got  together  and  knocked  into  shape  in  a  compara- 
tively brief  time.  A  fleet  cannot  be  improvised,  and  more 
especially  is  this  true  in  modern  times,  when  the  war- 
vessel  has  become  specialized  into  something  entirely 
difi'erent  from  the  merchant  ship,  and  requiring,  to 
maintain  its  eflSciency,  a  higher  trained  and  disciplined 
crew.  It  is  common  knowledge  that,  whereas  a  blue- 
jacket must  go  through  a  course  of  education  covering 
years,  a  soldier  may  be  made  in  a  few  days,  or  can  be 
spontaneously  developed  in  a  single  engagement.  What 
Bacon  in  his  Essays  has  said  of  sea-power  has  been 
little  modified  by  subsequent  experience.  We  quote 
his  famous  passage  in  his  own  words.  "  To  be  master 
of  the  seas  is  an  abridgement  of  a  monarchy.  Cicero 
writing  to  Atticus  of  Pompey  his  preparation  against 
Caesar,  saith,  '  Consilium  Pompeii  plane  Themistocleum 
est ;  putat  enim,  qui  mari  potitur  eum  rerum  potiri.' 
.  ,  .  And  without  doubt  Pompey  had  tired  out  Caesar, 
if  upon  vain  confidence  he  had  not  left  that  way.  We 
see  the  great  efiects  of  battles  by  sea.  The  battle  of 
Actium  decided  the  empire  of  the  world.  The  battle 
of  Lepanto  arrested  the  greatness  of  the  Turk.  There 
be  many  examples  where  sea-fights  have  been  final  to 


220  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

the  war ;  but  this,  when  princes  or  states  have  set-up 
their  rest  upon  the  battles.  But  thus  much  is  certain  ; 
that  he  that  commands  the  sea  is  at  liberty  and  may 
take  as  much  and  as  little  of  the  war  as  he  will. 
Whereas  those  that  be  strongest  by  land  are  many 
times,  nevertheless,  in  great  straits.  Surely  at  this  day 
with  us  of  Europe,  the  vantage  of  strength  at  sea, 
which  is  one  of  the  principal  dowries  of  this  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain,  is  great ;  both  because  most  of  the  king- 
doms of  Europe  are  not  merely  inland,  but  girt  with 
the  sea,  most  part  of  their  compass ;  and  because  the 
wealth  of  both  Indies  seems  in  great  part  but  an 
accessary  to  the  command  of  the  seas."  English  history 
contains  the  record  of  some  of  the  most  unaccountable 
and  almost  incredible  fluctuations  of  naval  power.  We 
need  only  recall  the  utter  discomfiture  of  the  English 
fleet  ofi'  Cape  Henry  by  the  French  admiral,  de  Grasse 
(1781),  a  defeat  which  dealt  the  coup  de  grace  to  the 
British  dominion  over  the  American  colonies,  and  had 
as  immediate  sequence  the  capitulation  of  York  Town 
and  the  close  of  the  War  of  Independence.  England 
was  no  longer  mistress  of  the  seas,  yet  after  the  lapse 
of  only  a  few  years  her  navy  had  regained  all  its  lost 
prestige,  and  was  able  to  achieve  brilliant  victories  like 
those  of  the  Nile  and  Trafalgar,  while  again,  a  few  years 
later — only  seven  years,  in  fact,  after  Trafalgar — the 
English  were  once  more  powerless  to  overcome  a  few 
improvised  American  ships  of  war.  We  have  made  this 
momentary  digression  in  order  to  point  out  that  naval 
power  alone  is  very  uncertain,  and  the  result  of  a 
struggle  upon  sea  is  even  more  dubious  to-day,  after  a 
long  interval  of  peace.     Few  commanders  to-day  have 


SUCCESS   AMONG  GERMANS  221 

ever  seen  anything  like  an  actual  engagement,  and 
when  the  theory  of  naval  warfare  comes  to  be  subjected 
to  the  test  of  reality,  we  may  likely  enough  discover 
that  it  holds  as  many  surprises  as  did  military  warfare 
in  the  late  South  African  campaign. 

In  the  event  of  hostilities,  England  undeniably 
would  dispose  of  many  great  advantages.  She  would, 
in  all  probability,  be  called  upon  to  fight  in  her  own 
waters,  within  easy  reach  of  supplies.  The  morale  of 
her  crews  and  officers  should  be  splendid,  reposing,  as  it 
does,  on  long  traditions  of  victory  and  invincibility,  and 
the  value  of  a  good  morale  in  warfare  cannot  be  placed 
too  high.  The  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  the  people 
would  be  immense,  conscious,  as  they  would  undoubtedly 
be,  that  the  hour  for  the  final  struggle  for  life  and  death 
had  come.  The  whole  nation  would  be  ready  to  serve 
either  with  body  or  with  money,  and  it  is  hard  to 
believe  that  England  could  be  crushed.  It  is  very 
possible  that  France,  in  the  event  of  an  Anglo-German 
rupture,  might  utilize  the  favourable  moment  for 
advancing  her  own  designs.  Despite  the  outward 
signs  of  tranquillity  which  now  give  the  German  pro- 
vinces of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  a  delusive  semblance  of 
resignation,  one  traveller  after  another  during  the  last 
few  years,  and  among  them  many  worthy  of  the  most 
implicit  confidence,  have  pointed  out  that  the  rigorous 
regime  by  which  Germany  has  sought  to  de-Gallicize 
her  conquests  is  an  unqualified  failure.  It  is  said  that 
the  eyes  of  all  that  is  left  of  the  one-time  French 
inhabitants  are  strained  upon  the  Vosges,  from  beyond 
which  they  still  hope  for  salvation.  And  France  may 
seem  to  slumber;  but  who  knows  but  what  she  may 


222  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

turn  the  right  moment  to  account  to  heap  humiliation 
upon  her  old  enemy,  and  demand  the  restoration  of  the 
Rhine  frontier.  If  the  terms  of  her  neutrality  were 
rejected,  might  she  not  throw  her  fleet  and  treasures 
into  the  balance  against  Germany  ?  The  present 
amicable  relations  between  France  and  England  may 
ripen  into  a  communion  of  interests. 

In  politics  the  moral  code  of  everyday  life  is 
suspended.  The  superficial  morals  under  which  political 
moves  are  cloaked  are  hypocrisy.  We  do  nothing  but 
formulate  what  has  been  acknowledged  upon  all  hands 
again  and  again.  Where  the  contracting  parties  are 
not  really  bound  together  by  mutual  interests,  no 
convention  can  be  of  long  or  sound  duration.  We  must 
not,  therefore,  be  misunderstood  when  we  state  that, 
from  the  standpoint  of  strict  politics,  Germany  has 
committed  a  sovereign  error.  It  was  her  political  cue 
to  clandestinely  give  succour  to  the  Boers,  to  prolong, 
as  it  was  in  her  power,  the  struggle  of  the  two  Republics 
against  England,  and  to  maintain  in  them  a  scourge 
against  Britain  in  her  day  of  distress.  Be  it  under- 
stood, once  more,  that  we  speak  from  the  purely 
political  standpoint,  and  not  from  the  moral  view. 

We  may  conjecture  one  more  foreign  policy  for 
Germany  which  demands,  as  its  voluntary  or  involun- 
tary victim,  Holland.  It  is  a  policy  which  has  so  many 
prospects  of  being  carried  to  accomplishment,  that  it 
has  already  excited  the  liveliest  anxieties  in  the  Nether- 
lands, where  more  than  one  book  has  been  written 
dealing  with  its  probable  lines  of  conduct. 

The  integrity  of  Holland  being  guaranteed  by  inter- 
national   convention,   any    armed   move   of  Germany 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GEEMANS  223 

against  her  would  at  once  furnish,  the  other  contracting 
powers  with  a  casus  belli.  It  is  exceedingly  improbable 
that  Germany  would  risk  incurring  the  combined 
hostility  of  Europe,  but  she  is  at  full  liberty  to  under- 
mine Batavian  liberty  with  diplomatic  instruments. 
The  constitution  of  the  German  Empire  furnishes  it 
with  admirable  machinery  for  increasing  its  territory, 
such  as  is  possessed  by  no  other  European  country. 
Should  France,  for  instance,  endeavour  to  annex  the 
Netherlands  in  spite  of  treaty  engagements,  the  Nether- 
lands would  see  that  the  last  hour  of  their  national 
existence  had  come,  that  they  would  henceforth  be 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  French  province,  a  depart- 
ment of  the  Bas-Ehin.  When  Germany  adds  a  new 
state  to  her  Confederacy  the  case  is  different.  The 
new-comer  is  merely  enrolled  as  a  part  of  the  Federa- 
tion, and  his  internal  economy  is  in  no  wise  tampered 
with.  Holland,  if  she  joined  the  Empire  to-morrow, 
might  retain  her  Queen,  her  internal  law  and  constitu- 
tion ;  it  is  only  in  foreign  policy  that  she  would 
necessarily  be  compelled  to  follow  the  dictates  of  the 
Federal  diet.  But  what  inducements  can  Germany 
hold  out  to  Holland  to  even  thus  much  sacrifice  her 
political  freedom  ?  In  all  such  agreements  there  must 
be  as  much  give  as  there  is  take.  Germany  would 
acquire  a  broad  and  important  sea-board,  and  the 
Dutch  colonies  would  become  Imperial  colonies;  but 
what  can  Germany  offer  in  return  ?  German  protection 
might  hardly  seem  a  suflSciently  satisfying  equivalent 
for  a  guaranteed  immunity  from  foreign  interference. 
All  that  Germany  can  do  is  to  offer  the  Dutch  a 
sufficient  pecuniary   compensation   for  their  accession 


224  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

to  the  Union,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  in  this  way 
she  might  be  successful.  We  must  remember  that 
Germany  could  afford  to  pay  a  long  price  for  a  purchase 
which  would  dispense  her  with  the  necessity  of  a 
European  war. 

Of  German  commercial  enterprise  we  propose  to 
say  little  or  nothing,  save  that  it  should  not  appear  to 
be  such  a  bugbear  as  it  does,  when  small  industrial 
countries  like  Belgium  can  so  successfully  resist  its 
onslaught. 

It  is  in  the  higher  interests  of  humanity  quite 
desirable  that  the  type  of  civilization  which  the 
Germans  have  developed  during  the  last  four  centuries 
should  continue.  They  have  undoubtedly  succeeded  in 
creating,  both  in  philosophy  and  in  one  of  the  great 
arts,  in  music,  works  of  imperishable  value.  It  would 
be  equally  impossible  to  deny  that  in  their  literature 
they  have  produced  in  Goethe,  Schiller,  Lessing,  and  a 
few  other  poets  and  writers,  intellectual  personalities 
not  unworthy  of  the  best  specimens  of  Hellenic  thought. 
As  Macaulay  used  to  say,  even  English  literature  must 
envy  Germany  for  her  Lessing,  and  Goethe  is,  in  the 
universal  opinion  of  all  students  of  literature,  by  far 
the  greatest  figure  of  modern  intellect.  It  is  equally 
well  known  that  the  steadiness  and  systematic  com- 
pleteness of  German  work  cannot  but  lead  to  a  more 
rapid  progress  in  the  world  of  science ;  nay,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  Germans  alone»of  all  nations  have  realized 
the  idea  of  a  Republic  of  Letters.  They  recognize  no 
*'  standard  work  "  and  no  authority.  As  the  French 
have  completely  demedievalized  their  social  life,  so 
have  the  Germans  their  intellectual  life.     In  Germany 


SUCCESS  AMONG  GERMANS  225 

the  youngest  scholar  is  quite  welcome  to  combat  publicly 
the  views  and  theories  of  the  oldest  professor.  Neither 
the  attacked  professor  nor  the  public  regard  that  young 
scholar  with  any  misgivings  at  all.  As  an  outward 
sign  of  this  truly  democratic  attitude  in  the  Republic 
of  Letters,  we  may  note  that  in  German  books  of 
science  or  philosophy  alone  authors  are  quoted  without 
any  title  whatever,  not  even  that  of  Mr.,  let  alone  that 
of  Dr.  or  Professor,  although  in  private  life  no  nation 
is  more  title-ridden  than  are  the  Germans. 

These  preceding  remarks  are  sufficient  to  indicate 
the  great  qualities  of  the  Germans  in  intellectual 
pursuits.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  difficult  to  believe, 
judging  from  the  past,  that  the  Germans  will  ever  be 
able  to  mature  that  ideal  development  of  both  man  and 
woman  which  alone  can  be  considered  as  the  palm  and 
prize  of  the  highest  form  of  civilization.  The  German 
woman,  in  spite  of  many  a  great  national  quality,  has 
so  far  not  given  proof  or  hopes  justifying  us  in  the 
assumption  that  she  will,  in  her  proper  sphere,  create 
the  same  charm  of  graceful  idealism  that  so  many 
German  intellectual  men  have  succeeded  in  creating  in 
the  sphere  of  intellectual  idealism.  More  serious  still 
is  the  deficiency  of  the  Germans  in  that  they  have 
suffered  their  whole  political  and  too  much  of  their 
intellectual  life  to  be  officialized  and  Byzantinized. 

Even  within  the  last  thirty  years  they  have,  outside 
Bismarck,  produced  not  a  single  great  political  person- 
ality. We  see  a  number  of  hard,  steady,  and  honest 
workers,  but  not  a  single  great  personality.  The  over- 
bureaucratization  of  nearly  the  whole  of  intellectual  life 
in  Germany  leaves,  as  a  rule,  little  elbow-room  for  the 

Q 


226  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

growth  of  free,  untrammelled,  and  elastic  forces.  The 
reader  will  not  have  forgotten  that  Rome  owed  her 
greatness  chiefly,  as  does  England  in  our  own  time,  to 
the  great  number  of  men  who,  unfettered  by  any 
bureaucratic  routine,  devoted  all  their  strength  to  the 
great  political  and  social  problems  of  their  country. 
Germany,  therefore,  runs  the  great  danger  of  quicken- 
ing but  little  the  onward  march  of  women  towards  the 
ideal,  and  of  paralyzing  the  resources  of  her  men  by 
subjecting  them  to  an  excessive  bureaucratism. 


CHAPTER  XII 

BRITISH   SUCCESS 

The  English.  Their  women.  Their  men.  Education.  Intellectual  activity. 
Begime  (social)  of  castes.  Up  to  Elizabeth,  England  failed  in  her  attempts 
at  imperialism,  both  in  France  and  in  Scotland ;  not  so  in  Ireland.  After 
the  Tudors,  England,  chiefly  aided  by  her  geopolitical  situation,  built  up, 
by  colonization  and  conquest,  a  vast  empire  based  on  sea-power  and,  in 
modern  times,  on  rational  and  humane  government  too.  Her  empire 
lacking  territorial  continuity.  Her  sea-power  exposed  to  serious  chal- 
lenging; as  has  been  her  industrial  supremacy.  Her  civilization  will 
always  be  great  and  one-sided.  In  Europe  she  can  no  longer  be  umpire. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  sea-power,  now  coveted  by  all  the  great 
nations,  will  continue  to  remain  in  her  possession. 

Our  attempt  to  sum  up  the  immediate  prospects  of 
England  and  America  is  by  no  means  novel,  although 
the  lines  upon  which  it  is  carried  out  may  have  some 
right  to  be  considered  novel.  The  books,  pamphlets, 
magazines,  and  newspaper  articles  which  have  appeared 
during  the  last  few  years  dealing  with  England  and 
America,  now  and  in  the  near  future,  are  numberless. 
Although  we,  of  course,  cannot  claim  to  exemption  from 
mistakes,  we  may  at  least  venture  to  hope  that  what  we 
have  to  say  may  serve  as  a  complement,  and  to  some  extent 
as  a  corrective,  of  what  has  been  said  by  foregoing  writers. 
During  the  last  few  decades  the  number  of  books  of 
travel  has  incessantly  multiplied.    Many  of  these  books 


228  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

no  longer  deal  with  remote  tribes  and  people,  but  treat 
of  nations  nearer  home,  and  with  whom  we  are  in  daily 
and  immediate  contact.  For  the  most  part  these  books 
are  of  little  practical  value.  They  have  too  much  about 
them  of  the  method  of  the  professional  globe-trotter ; 
they  deal  almost  exclusively  in  externals,  and  rarely,  if 
ever,  dip  for  a  moment  beneath  the  surface.  It  may 
very  well  be  possible,  after  a  few  days'  sojourn  in  a 
Samoyede  encampment,  to  give  a  correct  and  detailed 
account  of  all  the  Samoyede  nation.  Their  life  is  all 
upon  the  outside ;  their  actions  are  entirely  dependent 
upon  natural  wants  or  desires ;  beyond  a  few  simple 
barbaric  customs,  there  is  nothing  to  observe.  We  cannot 
approach  the  study  of  a  modern  highly  civilized  nation 
in  the  same  manner.  A  few  weeks'  stay  in  a  London 
hotel  or  travelling  through  the  English  counties  would 
not  permit  us  to  estimate  so  complicated,  so  intricate 
a  phenomenon  as  the  English  national  character.  The 
traveller  will,  no  doubt,  have  been  struck  by  a  multitude 
of  singularities,  which  he  will  have  jotted  down,  and 
which  he  can  work  up  into  a  piquant,  racy,  and  amusing 
volume ;  beyond  this  his  observation  does  not  go. 
Many  of  these  latter-day  books  of  travel  have  been  put 
together  by  foreigners,  who,  before  disembarking,  had 
widely  advertised  their  mission.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
these  unfortunate  people  have  ever  been  allowed  the 
opportunity  of  getting  a  real  insight.  Their  model 
has,  voluntarily  or  involuntarily,  assumed  a  pose  which 
they,  all  too  unconscious,  have  mistaken  for  his  natural 
attitude.  The  result  has  been  a  series  of  national 
caricatures,  some  flattering,  others  the  reverse,  which 
may  be  exceedingly  amusing,  but  are  devoid  of  real  value. 


BRITISH  SUCCESS  229 

The  essentials  upon  which  a  true  appreciation  of  a 
people  can  be  based  are  a  long  sojourn  among  them, 
not  as  a  wealthy  and  independent  stranger,  but  as  a 
2articipator  in  their  struggle  for  existence.  To  know 
a  people  well,  you  must  have  seen  them  in  good  fortune 
and  in  the  despair  of  adversity  ;  you  must  have  fought 
against  their  men  and  against  their  women ;  then, 
finally,  perhaps,  it  will  be  granted  you  to  penetrate 
behind  the  mask  of  conventionality.  Many  a  man  has 
struggled  for  life  in  foreign  countries,  many  have 
succeeded,  but  few  have  thought  fit  to  commit  their 
experience  to  paper.  In  many  instances  the  struggle 
has  resulted  in  the  extinction  of  their  own  national 
character,  and  they  have  not  preserved  about  them 
enough  of  the  foreign  atmosphere  to  enable  them  to 
stand  outside  their  subject.  A  foreigner  is,  as  a  rule, 
better  qualified  to  criticize  a  country  than  the  native ; 
he  has  to  begin  with  a  basis  of  comparison  on  which  to 
go,  for  without  comparison  how  shall  he  throw  into 
relief  the  peculiarities  and  idiosyncrasies  of  the  country 
under  study  ? 

As  untrustworthy  as  the  accounts  of  the  passing 
travellers  are  the  judgments  based  on  tabulations  of 
statistics,  upon  demographical,  anthropological,  and 
other  so-called  scientific  formulations.  Of  what  is 
really  going  forward  in  the  soul  of  a  people  they  really 
tell  nothing.  We  could  give  numberless  examples  in 
support  of  what  we  have  above  stated.  We  will  limit 
ourselves  to  recalling  the  classical  instance  of  Arthur 
Young's  travels  through  France  (1787-8)  just  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  Kevolution.  He  is  the  type  of 
the   well-informed    and    conscientious    traveller.      He 


230  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

spares  himself  no  trouble  in  collecting  details,  we  might 
almost  say  in  drawing  up  statistical  reports  on  all  that 
he  heard  and  saw;  nevertheless,  no  one  could  have 
been  further  from  suspecting  that  he  was  walking  upon 
the  thin  crust  which  would  soon  be  shattered  by  the 
most  titanic  upheaval  the  world  has  ever  known.  He 
exemplifies  the  futility  of  judgments  founded  upon  the 
cursory  observations  of  a  rapid  journey,  however  intelli- 
gent, however  keen  an  investigator  is  the  traveller. 
With  long  sojourn  in  a  country,  moreover,  the  student 
must,  of  course,  combine  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
language,  and  should  likewise  be  well  acquainted  with 
the  national  history.  The  past  annals  of  a  nation  are 
an  armoury  from  which  may  be  taken  instruments  to 
explain  many  of  its  present  peculiarities. 

The  knowledge  of  a  country  means  for  the  most 
part  a  knowledge  of  its  men  and  women,  and  of  their 
relative  stations  and  importance.  Of  the  young  Eng- 
lishman we  have  already  said  much.  We  have  watched 
in  his  school-days  the  precocious  development  of  his 
virility,  will-power,  and  independence,  due  principally 
to  the  non-interference,  except  when  absolutely  neces- 
sary, of  his  parents.  His  volitional  resources  are  very 
early  brought  into  play ;  as  he  advances  in  life  he  will 
find  his  will-power  impelled  by  other  puissant  motives. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  strikes  the  Continental 
mind  with  astonishment,  it  is  the  extraordinary  social 
distinctions  which  still  prevail  in  England.  In  his  own 
country  he  has  probably  lived  among  the  bourgeoisie, 
which  he  has  been  accustomed  to  regard  wiih  pride  as 
the  backbone  of  the  state,  to  which  he  himself  belongs, 
and  which  he  feels  no  desire  to  leave.     In  England  he 


BRITISH   SUCCESS  231 

will  also  find  a  commercial  middle  class,  on  which  the 
country  also  chiefly  depends  ;  but  in  this  middle  class 
he  will  not  discover  the  same  pride  of  position,  but  a 
constant  yearning  to  be  free  of  its  surroundings.  Small 
trading  in  England  breeds  contempt,  and  big  trading 
fails  to  breed  respect.  Between  nobility  and  middle 
class  exists  another  social  layer,  which  on  the  Continent, 
if  it  exists  at  all,  is  exceedingly  attenuated.  This 
layer  considers  itself  to  be  the  sole  repository  of  the 
true  principles  of  honour,  of  the  only  code  of  good 
manners,  and  consequently  treats  the  middle  class, 
numerically  infinitely  more  extensive,  if  not  always 
with  active,  at  least  with  latent  contempt.  The  barrier 
of  caste  is  inexorably  maintained.  The  middle  class, 
on  the  other  hand,  suflers  under  this  contempt,  which 
it  apparently  recognizes  as  justified,  in  that  it  does  not 
rebel  against  it.  Self-respect  it  has  none ;  the  word 
shopkeeper,  retailer,  trader,  all  have  in  them  a  ring  of 
disdain  which  they  themselves  arp  the  first  to  detect. 
It  would  seem  inexplicable  that,  in  a  country  whose 
greatness  is  built  up  on  commercial  success,  the  com- 
mercial classes  should  not  have  succeeded  in  establishing 
their  own  proper  dignity.  On  the  contrary,  their  sole 
ambition  is  to  escape  from  their  own  social  connection, 
to  disassociate  themselves  from  commerce ;  and  this  is 
their  prime  motive  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  This 
want  of  self-respect  in  the  middle  class  results  in 
its  isolation,  the  middle  class  being  rarely  admitted, 
and  then  only  on  sufi'erance  and  out  of  interested 
motives,  to  participate  in  the  pleasures  of  the  '*  gentry." 
Another  result  of  this  want  of  self-respect  is  internal 
division  among  the  middle  class  itself.     Its  members. 


232  SUCCESS  AMONG   NATIONS 

never  knowing  when  they  will  be  able  to  quit  their 
surroundings,  disown  their  acquaintances,  and  form 
fresh  connections  somewhat  higher  up  the  social  ladder. 
To  those  who  have  lived  for  any  time  in  France,  the 
difference  between  the  Continental  bourgeoisie  and  the 
English  middle  class  cannot  fail  to  be  especially  patent. 
Let  us  only  for  a  moment  consider  one  or  two  of  the 
purely  superficial  forms  in  which  it  is  reflected.  In 
the  everyday  manners  of  a  people  there  is  much  which 
is  instructive,  if  we  only  have  in  our  possession  the 
psychological  key  by  which  they  are  explained.  Who, 
for  instance,  would  dream  of  entering  or  leaving  a  shop 
in  France  or  Germany  without  taking  ofi*  his  hat,  and 
without  some  words  of  greeting  ?  This  is  not  so  much 
a  sign  of  superior  Continental  courtesy  as  a  sign  of  the 
respect  in  which  the  Continental  bourgeois  holds  himself 
and  expects  to  be  held.  Any  one  failing  to  observe 
these  rules  would  be  set  down  at  once  as  an  unman- 
nerly dog.  Then  turn  to  English  shops.  It  is  possible 
that  the  customer,  on  entering,  may  utter  a  brusque 
"  good  morning ; "  should  he  bow  or  take  off  his  hat, 
he  would  certainly  be  considered  an  eccentric  oddity  ; 
should  he  show  any  signs  of  wishing  to  shake  hands 
with  a  shopkeeper,  he  would  probably  seek  in  vain  for 
a  hand  to  shake,  and  he  would  assuredly  not  be  held 
in  any  regard  or  affection  for  having  so  far  demeaned 
himself.  These  are  but  a  couple  of  a  thousand  similar 
traits.  It  is  less  easy  to  see  why  the  English  trader 
should  acquiesce  so  readily  in  this  degradation.  Perhaps 
we  may  be  able  to  find  an  historical  explanation  not 
quite  unsatisfactory.  England  has  never  witnessed  the 
social  revolutions   which   for   centuries   tore   the  very 


BRITISH   SUCCESS  233 

vitals  of  France.  The  political  revolution,  the  only- 
one  which  England  underwent,  had  no  appreciable  effect 
upon  her  social  conditions.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
English  cities  have  won  their  rights  and  liberties  by 
means  entirely  different  from  those,  for  instance,  which 
secured  the  privileges  of  the  communes  of  Northern 
France.  Tlie  chronicles  of  Amiens,  Abbeville,  Laon^ 
Langres,  Nantes,  Rouen,  Nancy,  tell  of  year  after  year 
of  carnage  and  massacre,  battle  from  street  to  street. 
In  every  town  we  find  the  same  division  between  a 
bishop,  a  very  secular  person  as  a  rule,  and  the 
seigneur,  the  temporal  lord.  Between  their  incessant 
quarrels  the  bourgeoisie,  now  espousing  one  side,  now 
another,  and  always  aiming  at  its  own  ends,  was  gradu- 
ally able  to  raise  itself  to  a  position  in  which  it  could 
no  longer  be  dictated  to  by  either  party.  This  develop- 
ment of  a  communal  bourgeois  is  not  by  any  means 
limited  to  France.  There  are  even  bloodier  and  more 
protracted  fights  in  the  great  Rhenish  cities,  such  as 
Bonn  and  Cologne.  Italian  city  states,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  unremitting 
struggles  and  bloodshed.  We  can  well  imagine  that 
liberties  achieved  at  such  terrific  cost  of  life  and  limb 
gave  the  new  free  citizen  a  pride  and  a  self-importance 
which  he  could  not  have  otherwise  come  by.  English 
burgess  liberties  have  been  acquired  in  a  very  different 
manner.  At  no  epoch  of  English  history  do  we  find 
the  land  studded  with  cities  each  filled  with  intestine 
strife.  There  are  no  quarrels  of  bishop  and  noble. 
When  liberties  were  granted,  charters  given,  it  was 
either  in  return  for  some  pecuniary  advantage  or  out 
of  the  goodwill  of  the  overlord  ;  they  have  never  been 


234  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

extorted  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  at  infinite  per- 
sonal peril.  Is  it,  then,  a  matter  for  surprise  that  the 
English  middle  class  should  not  have  won  such  recog- 
nition at  the  hands  of  their  superiors,  as  the  Continental 
bourgeoisie  has  only  been  able  to  obtain,  by  displaying 
its  own  capacity  for  proving  troublesome  ?  We  would 
not  insist  upon  the  exclusiveness  of  this  historical  proof 
of  that  debasement  of  the  English  middle  class.  It  is 
undoubtedly  more  than  a  mere  survival,  and  there 
must  have  been  and  are  other  concurrent  causes  for  its 
continuance. 

The  isolation  of  the  middle  class  has  had  far-reach- 
ing social  results ;  the  solitude  of  the  English  young 
man  in  general  is  intensified  in  this  stratum  of  society. 
In  religion  it  has  produced  nonconformity  and  dissent 
of  all  kinds,  which  are  no  survival  of  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  century  Puritanism,  but  the  outcome  of 
contemporary  social  conditions.  The  preoccupation  of 
the  young  Englishman  for  ethical  questions  is  un- 
doubtedly caused  by  his  solitude.  His  emotions  must 
find  vent  in  some  direction,  and  as  most  of  the  other 
natural  channels  of  emotion  are  choked,  or,  at  any  rate, 
obstructed,  they  translate  themselves  by  a  religious 
semi-moralizing  vein.  In  no  country  do  religious 
questions,  although  equally  strong,  or  even  stronger, 
religious  convictions  exist,  find  such  eccentric  expression 
as  in  England. 

Again,  English  wit  has  taken  a  form  elsewhere 
completely  unknown.  It  has  adapted  itself  to  cir- 
cumstances. English  humour  is  excellent;  it  is  also 
characteristic  of  the  nation.  To  the  Continental  mind 
unacquainted  with  English   life   it  appears  absolutely 


BRITISH  SUCCESS  235 

incomprehensible.  But  what  is  English  humour  almost 
invariably  based  upon?  On  false  position.  The  con- 
ditions of  English  fife  lead  to  an  inordinately  large 
number  of  false  positions.  In  France  they  are  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  unknown,  the  distinctions  of  class 
giving  rise  to  no  misunderstanding.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  ancient  Greece  and  Eome.  All  of  these 
countries  have  given  birth  to  excellent  wit,  without 
a  trace  of  real  humour.  What  the  English  middle 
class  lacks  in  social  respect  it  endeavours  to  compensate 
for  by  an  assumption  of  a  gravity,  very  far  removed 
from  the  true  seriousness  inspired  by  a  sense  of 
responsibilities  and  dignity. 

We  thus  see  that  England  has  not  become  entirely 
demedievalized.  We  must  not  be  construed  to  have 
viewed  all  English  life  with  jaundiced  eyes,  because 
we  point  out  that  many  of  the  class  barriers  of  the 
Middle  Ages  have  not  yet  given  way.  There  is  much 
that  richly  compensates.  If  some  of  the  medieval 
barbarisms  remain,  there  has  also  been  retained  much 
of  that  indefinable  medieval  charm.  The  ideals  of  the 
gentleman  are  high,  and  he  is  surrounded  by  an  atmo- 
sphere of  stately  grandezza,  such  as  is  difficult  to  find 
elsewhere  in  an  age  of  hurry  and  rush.  He  still 
professes  unfailing  adherence  to  the  given  word,  and 
undying  hatred  of  untruths. 

Before  saying  a  few  words  upon  the  Englishwoman, 
we  would  like  to  remark  in  passing  that  the  mainte- 
nance of  primogenitura,  the  right  of  the  eldest  son,  has 
supplied  another  keen  incentive  to  English  energies ; 
it  increases  the  number  of  men  who  must  carve  out 
their  future  by  means  of  their  own  resources. 


236  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

In  spite  of  her  frequently  rare  degree  of  personal 
beauty,  the  Englishwoman  has  not  been  the  important 
factor  in  the  history  of  her  country  which  the  French- 
woman has  been  in  France.  She  has,  as  a  rule,  been 
retiring,  engaging  man  through  her  sweetness  of  dis- 
position rather  than  by  qualities  playing  upon  deeper 
emotions.  Her  duty  as  a  childbearer  she  has  carried 
out  as  behoved  her,  much  of  England's  greatness  having 
depended  on  a  constant  surplus  of  population.  The 
population  of  the  country,  despite  the  incessant  stream 
of  emigration,  has  risen  by  leaps  and  bounds  since  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  it  numbered 
some  fifteen  millions,  until  to-day  it  surpasses  that  of 
France.  As  a  rule  the  Englishwoman  seems — and  here 
she  is  probably  distinguished  from  her  Continental 
sisters — more  attached  to  her  husband  than  to  her 
children.  With  the  latter  she  certainly,  in  the  case 
of  the  sons,  does  not  interfere  so  as  to  cripple  their 
personal  independence;  she  does  not  superintend  all 
their  affairs,  as  does  the  French  mother,  nor  does  she 
exercise  over  them,  when  married,  the  irksome  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  French  belle-mere.  In  the  higher  ranks  of 
society  her  dignity,  graceful  restraint,  and  distingui 
manner  make  her  the  embellishment  rather  than  the 
nucleus  of  social  life.  Beyond  these  spheres  the 
Englishwoman  is  certainly  much  less  successful ;  she 
is  no  business  woman ;  there  are  few  great  firms  in 
England  who  would  not  smile  at  the  idea  of  any 
personal  feminine  influence  being  exercised  upon  their 
direction  ;  although  a  woman  happens  to  stand  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  greatest  London  banks,  she  is  an 
exception,  and  even  her  authority  is  for  the  most  part 


BRITISH   SUCCESS  237 

delegated.  But  that  a  woman  should  throne  it  in  the 
managerial  penetralia  of  a  city  office  would  seem  to 
the  Englishman  quite  as  incongruous  as  it  would 
appear  natural  to  a  Frenchman.  The  title  Veuve 
Cliquot  in  France  appears  as  little  worthy  of  comment 
as  a  firm  trading  as  Mrs.  Bass  would  strike  the  English 
mind  as  absurd.  The  Englishwoman  has  apparently 
not  been  able  to  reconcile  the  rdle  of  a  business  woman 
with  her  natural  role  as  a  woman.  If  she  takes  to 
business  she  appears  to  become  defeminized  in  the  act ; 
she  has  a  tendency  to  degenerate  into  Mrs.  Grundyism, 
and  thus  to  become  a  centre  for  the  propagation  of 
gloom.  However,  it  cannot  be  stated  that  the  defects 
just  mentioned,  while  conducive  to  much  cheerlessness, 
really  constitute  a  national  danger.  The  objectionable 
qualities  of  the  English  middle-class  woman  can  almost 
all  be  traced  to  the  lack  of  self-respect  characterizing 
her  caste.  Whether  they  will  ever  be  remedied  is  more 
than  doubtful.  Social  respect  is  the  ozone,  the  oxygen, 
without  which  all  the  attempts  of  man  or  woman  to 
attain  a  complete  culture  must  be  stifled.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  that  ozone  can  be  distilled  from  the  retorts 
and  crucibles  of  higher  education,  readings,  and  feminist 
movements.  Is  it  not  generated  alone  by  the  storms 
of  a  social  revolution  of  which  the  hour  for  England  is 
irrevocably  past  ? 

In  another  place  we  have  spoken  in  some  detail  of 
the  success  of  England  in  the  past ;  we  have  endeavoured 
to  lay  bare  some  of  the  causes,  geopolitical  and  other, 
which  have  contributed  thereto.  Of  the  prospects  of 
her  future  career  we  have  hitherto  said  nothing.  Un- 
doubted as  her  success  has  been  up  to  now,  can  we  with 


238  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

equal  confidence  predict  her  continuous  prosperity  in 
time  to  come  ?  Does  the  present  drift  of  English  policy 
really  appear  the  best  means  of  securing  such  future 
prosperity?  Those  are  the  two  principal  questions 
which  we  shall  now  bring  under  consideration.  By 
way  of  recapitulation,  we  would  recall  to  the  reader's 
mind  that  the  British  dominion  forms  an  empire  sui 
generis.  In  instituting  comparisons  between  it  and 
other  great  empires  of  bygone  days,  it  is  necessary  to 
proceed  with  the  utmost  precaution.  The  comparison 
is  bound  to  break  down  upon  many  serious  points. 
Between  the  British  Empire  and  the  present-day 
empires,  such  as  the  Russian  and  American,  the  dis- 
similarity is  so  obvious  that  we  are  less  likely  to  be  led 
into  error. 

It  must  be  ever  borne  in  mind  that  the  British 
dominions  comprise  two  very  distinctly  separate  cate- 
gories of  possessions.  There  are,  on  the  one  hand, 
countries  peopled  by  English-speaking  inhabitants, 
chiefly  emigrants,  or  the  descendants  of  emigrants, 
from  the  mother  country.  They  are  bound  by  the 
strongest  ties  of  sentiment  to  the  central  nucleus  of 
the  Empire,  from  which  they  do  not,  at  all  events  for 
the  moment,  show  any  tendency  to  fall  away.  Com- 
pared, however,  with  the  countries  under  British  rule 
populated  by  coloured  tribes,  they  stand  in  an  almost 
insignificant  minority.  The  native  population  of  India, 
for  example,  would,  as  far  as  numbers  are  concerned, 
engulf  several  times  over  the  whole  of  the  white 
inhabitants  of  the  Empire. 

We  have  seen  that  the  growth  of  the  British 
Empire   was   induced,  or  at   all  events  facilitated,  in 


BEITISH  SUCCESS  239 

past  times  by  England's  unique  insular  position,  which 
permitted  of  her  assuming  a  rdle  in  international 
politics  peculiarly  advantageous  to  herself.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  England  was  the  power 
disposing  of  the  greatest  amount  of  available  capital. 
She  possessed  a  dominant  naval  power ;  and  on  the  sea 
no  country,  save  France  alone,  showed  even  an  am- 
bition of  disputing  her  power.  These  two  adjuncts 
rendered  her  an  estimable  ally,  and  she  was  able  to 
utilize  the  vacillations  of  European  politics  to  her  own 
profit.  Those  were  also  days  when  the  great  armies  of 
universal  conscription  did  not  as  yet  exist,  and  when 
forty  thousand  English  soldiers  thrown  in  the  balance 
on  one  side  or  another  might  very  well  turn  the 
fortunes  of  the  day.  Meanwhile,  England's  inter- 
national position  has  been  completely  revolutionized. 
Hitherto  she  has  been  geographically  and  politically  an 
island ;  she  is  now  a  political  peninsula.  She  can  no 
longer  play  the  part  of  umpire,  and  she  can  no  longer 
disassociate  herself  from  European  disputes.  Her  navy 
is  no  longer  the  only  navy  upon  the  seas,  although  it 
may  very  probably  prove  the  most  powerful.  The 
great  European  Powers  have  drawn  heavily  upon  their 
treasuries  in  order  to  carry  out  their  great  naval  pro- 
gramme. Germany,  Italy,  Eussia,  and  France  are  each 
possessors  of  considerable  and  highly  organized  fleets. 
From  the  military  point  of  view,  England  is  now  a 
negligible  quantity  upon  the  European  mainland,  where 
any  force  she  might  venture  to  land  would  be  swamped 
in  the  immense  national  levies. 

The  splendid  isolation  of  which  England  has  made 
so  proud  a  boast  is  no  longer  feasible.     She  can,  in  her 


240  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

naval  construction,  with  difficulty  maintain  a  two-power 
standard.  Alliance  with  a  Continental  power  is  a 
matter  of  first-rate  necessity.  The  great  stumbling- 
block  to  such  alliance  is  British  imperialism. 

But  British  imperialism,  if  it  is  to  do  away  with 
all  prospects  of  foreign  alliance,  if  it  aims  at  rendering 
England  superior  to  Continental  amity  or  enmity,  will 
have  to  overcome  very  great  drawbacks.  Even  if 
these  drawbacks  are  surmountable,  it  is  open  to  grave 
question  whether  they  can  be  overcome  with  sufficient 
expedition  to  render  British  imperialism  a  substitute, 
or  at  least  a  workable  substitute,  for  a  powerful 
Continental  ally. 

We  must  not  forget  that  British  imperialism  neces- 
sarily proceeds  upon  lines  very  diflferent  from  Russian 
or  American  imperialism.  This  is  a  matter  of  geo- 
graphical necessity.  America  and  Russia  have  the 
immense  advantage  of  territorial  continuity  in  their 
possession.  The  British  dominions  are  scattered  broad- 
cast in  all  the  quarters  of  the  globe ;  they  are  difficult 
enough  of  protection  against  foreign  aggression  ;  against 
internal  dissension  they  are  powerless.  Their  immunity 
from  foreign  attack  depends  upon  the  thin  thread  of 
sea  power,  of  whose  strength  no  man  may  judge.  No 
home  compulsion  could  ever  succeed  in  stifling  intestine 
disruption.  We  have  seen,  by  the  bitter  experiences 
of  the  late  South  African  War,  at  what  disproportionate 
cost  England  can  alone  hope  to  extend  her  rule  over 
recalcitrant  white  people.  This  disproportion  is  thrown 
into  even  greater  relief  if  we  reflect  upon  the  com- 
paratively insignificant  expenditure,  of  both  money  and 
men,  at  which  America  acquired  her  formerly  Mexican 


BEITISH   SUCCESS  241 

dominions,  or  even  the  cost  of  her  victory  over  Spain 
in  the  Cuban  War. 

It  is  an  open  secret  that  there  are  at  the  moment  of 
writing  two  conflicting  policies,  both  animated  by  the 
sincerest  desire  to  procure  their  country's  welfare, 
struggling  to  place  themselves  at  the  helm  of  Britain's 
foreign  policy.  The  one  party  is  headed — unofficially,  it 
goes  without  saying — by  the  King,  and  aims  at  the  con- 
tinuance of  British  prosperity  by  means  of  an  improve- 
ment in  her  international  status.  The  other  party  has 
the  same  object,  but  seeks  to  obtain  it  by  a  rigid  anti- 
foreign  policy  of  imperialism.  The  Empire,  drawn  closer 
together  by  the  bonds  of  a  fiscal  scheme  extending 
over  all  the  colonial  possessions  of  England,  is  to  oppose 
an  unbroken  front  to  the  Continental  Powers  to  which 
it  is  designed  to  prove  a  match.  Which  of  these  two 
parties  will  gain  the  upper  hand  is  the  burning  question 
of  the  day.  It  would  certainly  seem  that  the  King 
pursues  the  wiser  and  more  feasible  line  of  action.  No 
student  of  history  can  for  a  moment  doubt  that  inter- 
national agencies  have  for  the  last  three  hundred  years 
been  infinitely  more  important  in  every  European  country 
than  have  agencies  irrespective  of  international  powers. 

With  the  greatest  tact,  and  with  his  characteristic 
lack  of  ostentation,  the  King  is  pursuing  the  traditions 
of  a  hereditary  policy.  He  is  knitting  together  the 
bonds  of  friendship  which  are  to  help  in  the  final 
struggle,  which  must  inevitably  take  place  before  the 
colonies  are  ready  to  assist,  and  which  an  aggressive 
fiscal  policy  may  even  precipitate.  All  durable  and 
sound  policies  must  be  based  on  a  permanent  stratum 
of  mutual  advantage. 


242  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

There  remains  one  question  which  requires  a  few 
words.  Does  the  English  type  of  civilization  show  a 
likelihood  of  persisting  or  even  of  being  adopted  as  the 
type  of  civilization  of  the  entire  world  ?  Much  of  what 
we  have  said  in  previous  chapters  has  gone  to  show 
what  are  the  essential  diflferences  marking  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  English  and  other  Continental  types 
of  civilization.  We  may  be  allowed,  then,  to  sum- 
marize briefly.  We  have  seen  that  English  civilization 
is  productive  of  a  special  degree  of  virility ;  that  it 
develops  a  genius  for  action  and  a  genius  for  poetry 
proper  such  as  in  youth  is  unknown  over  the  rest  of 
Europe.  With  all  this,  we  have  seen  English  civiliza- 
tion to  be  somewhat  one-sided.  It  has  least  of  all 
civilizations  contributed  to  all-round  perfection.  It^is 
the  civilization  of  the  specialist.  Thus  the  mass  of 
English  people  is  indifferent,  or,  rather,  almost  hostile, 
to  art  proper,  whether  in  manners,  words,  painting, 
sound,  or  marble  ;  the  mass  is  indifferent  to  system  and 
general  ideas,  without  the  cultivation  of  which  complete 
civilization  is  impossible.  Those  qualities  are,  however, 
by  no  means  entirely  disadvantageous.  As  a  comple- 
ment and  corrective  to  other  European  types  of 
civilization  they  are  exceedingly  valuable.  Many 
Continental  tendencies  of  thought,  enfeebled  by  lack 
of  vigour  and  virility,  have  been,  and  may  in  the  future 
be,  braced  up  to  greater  things  on  contact  with  English 
civilization;  their  laxity  in  the  consideration  of  facts 
and  their  tendency  to  prose  literature  may  be  checked. 
Thus  far  English  civilization  is  likely  to  be  successful 
in  its  spread.  But  the  ideals  which  have  been  put 
forward  by  Professor  Mahaffy  and  many  others  do  not 


BRITISH  SUCCESS  243 

show  any  probability  of  fulfilment.  The  minor  nations 
of  Europe,  it  has  been  hazarded,  may,  in  the  future, 
think  fit  to  adopt  the  English  language  and  English 
modes  of  thought.  Such  a  conversion  would,  no  doubt, 
result  in  very  great  economic  advantages  for  those 
nations ;  it  is,  however,  too  Utopian  to  be  really 
seriously  considered.  England  has,  moreover,  hitherto 
not  displayed  any  marked  capacity  for  absorbing  the 
civilizations  of  other  white  peoples.  So  far  only  the 
Latin,  or,  more  correctly  speaking,  the  Graeco-Latin 
civilizations,  have  proved  at  all  able,  in  the  realm  of 
culture,  to  exercise  real  powers  of  imperialism.  France 
has  in  this  manner  assimilated  much  more  than  England 
or  Germany.  From  the  international  standpoint,  how- 
ever, it  is  infinitely  more  desirable  that  each  nation 
should  excel  in  one  or  more  branches  of  culture  rather 
than  attempt  to  attain  uniform  excellence  in  all.  Up 
to  now  no  nation  has  succeeded  in  becoming  a  general 
model  of  civilization,  and  no  nation  can  hope  so  to 
become  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

SUCCESS   IN   AMERICA 

The  Americans.  The  women.  The  men.  The  Americans  have,  of  all 
modern  nations,  the  greatest  chance  of  success,  economic  or  mateiial, 
provided  the  Far  East  will  be  ready  to  undergo  a  process  of  Europe- 
anization.  Then  the  Americans  will  be  in  the  very  economic  centre  o 
the  globe.  Intellectual  success  in  the  highest  sense  is  less  likely  in 
America,  in  spite  of  the  immense  increase  in  colleges,  libraries,  and  all 
the  other  means  of  conveying  knowledge.  For  the  highest  intellectual 
progress  is  based  on  intense  personality,  and  absolute  democracy,  which 
pervades  all  the  spheres  of  American  life  (not  as  in  Athens,  only  some), 
is  hostile  to  the  rise  of  intense  personalities  other  than  political.  More- 
over, American  women  have,  by  over-mentalization,  weakened  their 
powers  for  good.  What  a  nation  wants  consists,  in  addition  to  a  good 
geopolitical  position,  mainly  and  exclusively  of  two  factors :  real  women, 
who  do  not  want  to  be  men ;  and  real  men,  who  do  not  try  to  be  women. 
As  to  rule,  America  will  come  into  conflict  with  Europe,  and  then  learn 
a  wholesome  lesson.  The  true  trend  of  history  is :  progressive  differentia- 
tion, not  imperiahzation,  of  Europe;  progressive  unification  of  North 
America.  It  is  by  such  vast  contrasts  between  great  peoples  that  the 
highest  objects  of  civilization  are  secured. 

It  is  with  the  very  greatest  diffidence  that  we  begin 
our  remarks  resper-ting  the  Americans.  This  diffidence 
has  been  inspired  by  nve  unbroken  years  of  sojourn  in 
the  United  States,  and  those  five  years  have  only 
succeeded  in  confirming  the  impressions  received  on  the 
first  day  of  landing.  The  Americans  are  filled  with 
such  an  implicit  and  absolute  confidence  in  their  Union 


SUCCESS   IN  AMERICA  245 

and  in  their  future  success,  that  any  remark  other  than 
laudatory  is  unacceptable  to  the  majority  of  them. 
We  have  had  innumerable  opportunities  of  hearing 
public  speakers  in  America  cast  doubts  upon  the  very 
existence  of  God  and  of  Providence,  question  the 
historic  nature  or  veracity  of  the  whole  fabric  of 
Christianity,  but  never  has  it  been  our  fortune  to  catch 
the  slightest  whisper  of  doubt,  the  slightest  want  of 
faith,  in  the  chief  god  of  America — unbounded  belief 
in  the  future  of  America.  The  habit,  which  is  common 
to  all  Americans,  of  lumping  all  the  countries  of  modern 
Europe  together  into  the  half-contemptuous  name  "  the 
old  country,"  has  at  last,  by  a  persistent  and  constant 
association  of  ideas,  filled  every  citizen  of  the  United 
States  with  the  conviction  that  America  alone  is  the 
young,  the  fresh,  and  better-equipped  country.  Europe 
is  considered  to  be  an  agglomeration  of  nations  of  petty 
extent,  already  economically  efiete,  and  bound  within 
a  very  short  period  of  time  to  collapse  before  the 
vigorous  onslaught  of  American  energy.  One  circum- 
stance especially  strikes  the  stranger  newly  landed  on 
American  shores.  He  may  have  travelled  through 
France,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  England,  but  no- 
where will  he  be  pressed  to  vouchsafe  an  opinion  as  to 
what  he  thinks  of  those  countries.  Immediately  he 
sets  foot  in  America  he  will  be  asked  how  he  likes  the 
country ;  but  he  must  not  be  led  to  regard  those 
questions  as  anything  but  rhetorical,  for  nothing  but 
laudatory  statements  are  expected  in  reply. 

To  speak  a  few  words  of  America  itself,  Peschel 
and  many  other  eminent  geographers  have  long  ago 
proved  that  the  American  continent  as  a  continent  is, 


246  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

physiographically  speaking,  very  much  inferior  to 
Europe.  A  number  of  the  most  valuable  cereals,  as  well 
as  other  edible  plants,  the  vine,  etc.,  will  either  not 
grow  there  at  all  or  grow  in  very  restricted  quantities. 

Geopolitically,  it  is  certain  that  America  is  placed 
in  both  a  new  and  an  inferior  position.  If  there  is  one 
thing  which  follows  with  absolute  and  indubitable 
clearness  from  European  history,  it  is  the  fact  that  each 
nation  in  modern  Europe  was  made  infinitely  less  by 
its  own  spontaneous  efforts  than  by  the  necessity  of 
averting  the  hostility  and  aggression,  military  and 
otherwise,  of  its  own  immediate  neighbours.  Every 
European  nation  has  been  built  up  by  struggle  and 
fight,  and  the  great  countries  of  Europe  have  become 
great  not  owing  to  some  supposed  racial  excellence,  but 
simply  and  exclusively  as  the  outcome  of  the  struggles 
imposed  upon  them  by  their  geopolitical  position.  We 
might  compose  a  scale  of  European  grandeur,  and  it 
would  be  clearly  seen  that  those  peoples  which  have  had 
the  least  fight  to  maintain  themselves  stand  lowest 
and  have  made  least  progress.  Each  square  foot  of 
European  soil  has  cost  thousands,  not  to  say  hundreds 
of  thousands,  of  European  lives.  The  sweat  and  tears 
of  generations  have  fertilized  every  square  inch  of 
European  territory.  The  Union,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  been  placed,  ever  since  the  War  of  American  Inde- 
pendence, in  an  entirely  different  position.  The  geo- 
political necessity  of  fight  for  every  rood  of  land  during 
centuries  has  never  existed  in  America.  Territories  such 
as  in  Europe  would  have  taken  untold  years  to  conquer 
and  annex  were  acquired  by  the  Union  in  a  few  months. 

To  sum  up,  the  Union  is  neighbourless ;  no  enemy 


SUCCESS  IN  AMERICA  247 

threatens  it  in  the  north,  no  enemy  threatens  it  in 
the  east,  none  in  the  west,  and  there  is  no  menace  of 
importance  in  the  south.  This  cardinal  circumstance 
differentiates  American  history  completely  from  Euro- 
pean history,  and  in  attempting  to  draw  any  analogy 
from  European  to  American,  or  from  American  to 
European  history  the  utmost  caution  must  be  observed. 
The  reader,  remembering  the  importance  we  have 
attached  throughout  this  volume  to  fight  and  struggle 
against  enemies  as  the  formative  agent  of  historical 
progress,  will  ask  whence,  then,  comes  the  undeniable 
energy  so  characteristic  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  ?  In  reality  we  have  long  answered  this 
question  by  insisting  in  rapid  detail  upon  the  psycho- 
logy of  the  foreigner.  The  Americans,  as  far  as  the 
majority  is  concerned,  are  still  what  in  every  European 
country  would  be  considered  foreigners ;  that  is,  if 
we  leave  out  the  negroes,  the  mass  of  white  men  in 
America  are  unable  to  trace  their  family  beyond  the 
grandfather  as  coming  from  American  stock.  Such 
people  in  Europe  still  rank  as  foreigners,  and  in  this 
sense  the  majority  of  Americans  are  foreigners,  and 
still  participate  naturally  in  the  characteristic  energy 
and  vitality  so  peculiar  to  the  foreigner. 

We  now  come  to  the  third  great  difference  between 
America  and  Europe,  and  that  is  the  American  woman. 
In  Europe,  despite  the  numerous  attempts  at  feminism 
— a  movement  which  might  be  more  aptly  termed 
defeminization  of  the  woman — the  woman  has  still 
kept,  with  more  or  less  success  and  grace,  her  position 
as  a  mother,  ruler  of  the  household,  and  wife — that 
domestic  Trinity  which  is  the  chief  credo  of  her  life. 


248  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

In  her  attitude  towards  the  man  she  does  indeed 
recognize  that  he  is,  from  certain  points  of  view  of 
the  social  economy  and  of  social  ethics,  her  master,  and 
the  mastery  she  wants  to  exercise  over  him  she 
n^turaJly^^seeks  to  win,  not  bj  superior  masterfulness, 
but  b^  greater  grace  and  womanliness.  The  greatest 
European  poets  have  long  typified  her  in  the  poetical 
forms  of  Penelope,  Marguerite,  Ophelia,  and  a  few 
others,  which  attach  man  both  physically  and  mentally 
with  an  unshakable  passion  by  means  of  the  most  naive 
womanliness  proper.  Had  Homer  made  Ulysses  fall  the 
victim  of  the  charms  of  Calypso,  or  had  Goethe  made 
the  love  of  Faust  a  haughty  hyper-educated  princess, 
both  would  have  spoiled  their  masterpieces  for  ever. 

We  can  now  turn  our  attention  to  what  constitutes 
the  third  great  diEference  between  America  and  Europe. 
We  find  that  in  the  United  States  the  attitude  of 
woman  to  man  is  essentially  altered.  The  American 
woman,  especially  in  the  course  of  the  last  fifty  years, 
has  assumed  an  outward  tone  and  an  internal  attitude 
diametrically  opposed  to  what  it  is  customary  to  esteem 
feminine  in  Europe.  The  old-world  imivete  of  Europe 
appears  to  her  quite  out  of  date ;  the  retiring  dignity, 
the  restraint,  the  self-efiacement  of  the  European 
woman  is  repugnant  to  her.  Her  ambition  is  to  win 
the  recognition  of  her  bright  intelligence ;  she  likes 
to  pass  for  a  person  of  energetic  verve,  ready  at  a 
moment's  notice  for  action  of  every  description.  The 
incessant  craving  for  movement  has  taJien  h^^ 
even^  mm:e  strongly  than  it  has  taken  hold  of  the 
American  man.  She  ctannot  stand  being  stationary. 
"We  have  often  heard  in  America  the  singular  remark 


SUCCESS   IN  AMERICA  249 

that  the  Americans  are  attached  to  family  life.  The 
incredible  host  of  boarding-houses,  with  which  the  land 
is  eaten  up,  would  seem  but  a  poor  proof  of  that  state- 
ment. There  is  probably  little  exaggeration  in  saying 
that  the  burthen  of  latent  contempt,  heaped  by  the 
gentry  in  England  upon  the  middle  class,  is  in  America 
heaped  by  woman  upon  man.  In  both  cases  we  meet 
with  the  same  passive  acceptance,  the  same  absence  of 
all  spirit  of  revolt.  The  brighter  the  American  wife, 
the  more  overwhelming  her  conversation,  the  greater 
her  anxiety  to  augment  her  knowledge,  the  more  joyous 
is  her  submerged  spouse.  He  is  proud  of  her  superiority, 
and  submits  thereto  unquestioningly,  not  to  say  with 
satisfaction. 

But    the   evils   of    this   over-mLentalization   of  the 
American  jvN^onan,  j^^^  h^;£er-galyankation  of  hej[^ 

^nergy,  are  now  no  longer  the  theme  of  foreign  inveigh- 
ings  alone.  Of  late  years  they  have  been  pointed  out 
in  condemnatory  spirit  by  American  women  themselves. 
It  must  indeed  be  feared  that  this  cultivation  of  a  fierce 
energy  is  beyond  the  role  of  woman,  and  bids  fair  to 
culminate  finally  in  her  absolute  physical  breakdown. 
It  also  misses  its  mark,  for  nothing  is  shown  more 
clearly  by  statistics  than  that  the  number  of  dis- 
tinguished women  workers  in  the  domains  of  art,  letters, 
and  science  is  small  compared  with  the  number  of 
brilliant  women  authors  and  women  painters  of  Europe. 
We  cannot  fail  to  note  the  vast  disproportion  between 
the  all  but  frantic  passion  with  which  the  humanities 
and  arts  are  cultivated  in  America,  and  the  number  of 
successes  produced.  Even  among  the  Americans  them- 
selves   the   number    of    their  really   great  women   is 


250  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

confessed  to  be  exceedingly  restricted.  They  have  'not 
yet  had  their  Sophie  Germain,  their  George  Eliot,  their 
Georges  Sand,  their  Madame  de  Stael. 

One  of  the  most  serious  questions  which  clouds 
the  already  threatening  future  of  America  is  the  break- 
down of  American  maternity.  The  problem  is  of  too 
painful  a  nature  to  be  discussed  here,  but  statistics 
reveal  that  the  United  States  can  in  nowise  depend 
for  its  future  prosperity  upon  the  offspring  of  its  own 
women.  We  speak,  of  course,  of  American  women 
bred  and  born.*  The  recent  immigrant  does  not  form 
part  lof  the  question.  But  it  is  already  well  known 
that  America  depends  for  the  increase  of  its  population 
upon  a  continuous  inflow  of  alien  immigration,  with- 
out ^  which  the  population  would  already  be  certainly 
stationary,  and  would,  in  the  future,  most  assuredly 
decline.  In  Europe  the  great  problems  have  been  what 
we  may  well  call  vertical  problems.  They  have,  as  a 
rule,  depended  upon  some  difference  between  the  upper 
and  lower  strata  of  society.  Where  these  differences 
could  not  be  amicably  settled  they  have  given  rise  to 
social  revolutions.  In  America  the  problem  is,  on  the 
contrary,  horizontal ;  it  is  the  problem  of  the  antagonism 
between  man  and  woman,  and  cannot  be  solved  by  an 
appeal  to  force.  Only  the  educational  means  of 
solution  remain,  and  these  offer  the  most  dubious  pro- 
spects of  success.  From  the  European  point  of  view,  it 
is  quite  clear  that  the  American  woman  has  taken  up 
her  whole  attitude  owing  to  the  absolute  want  of  all 
class  systems  in  America.  In  Europe  the  triple  division 
into  nobility,  bourgeoisie,  and  peasantry  gives  the 
woman  her  distinct  sphere  of  action,  mental  and  moral ; 


SUCCESS  IN  AMERICA  251 

in  America,  there  being  no  such  class  division,  the 
woman  has  lost  all  powers  of  social  perspective.  She 
is  rooted  upon  no  broad  basis  whatever;  she  has  no 
concrete  foundation  beneath  her  feet,  and  it  is,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  most  problematical  whether  education 
can  furnish  that  basis — that  sense  of  position  without 
which  woman  is  incapable  of  finding  her  social  bear- 
ings. It  is  hopeless  to  attempt  to  offer  any  solution 
of  this  grave  and  immense  problem.  Many  a  state 
has  been  brought  to  ruin  by  its  women.  The  Spartan 
married  woman,  a  typical  example  of  feminism  in  the 
worst  sense,  certainly  contributed  as  much,  or  more, 
to  the  downfall  of  her  country  as  did  the  hetcerce  to  the 
collapse  of  Athens. 

We  have  now  to  consider,  if  somewhat  rapidly,  the 
salient  characteristics  of  the  American  man.  It  is 
needless  to  show,  having  pointed  out  as  we  have  the 
three  fundamental  differences  which  must  of  necessity 
render  every  organ  of  American  social  life  distinct  from 
that  of  Europe,  that  the  American  man  differs  essentially 
from  the  European  man.  His  energy  and  push  are 
well  known  ;  his  readiness  for  constant  change,  his 
quickness  in  grasping  practical  facts,  his  eagerness  in 
collecting  knowledge — these  are  general  and  certain 
facts.  If  the  American  is  un-European,  he  is  certainly 
to  a  far  higher  degree  un-English ;  this  is  already 
marked  by  his  un-English  love  of  system  and  method. 
He  has  the  deepest  respect  for  knowledge ;  we  know  it 
from  the  immense  sums  of  money  lavished  in  America 
upon  educational  benefaction ;  we  know  it  from  the 
crowds  of  American  students  who  flock  east  to  fill  the 
German   universities.      From  Germany  the  American 


252  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

has  imported  much  of  the  Germanic  systematization  of 
learning ;  he  has  brought  home,  and  to  some  degree 
acclimatized,  the  German  scientific  monograph.  His 
passion  for  ordered  system  is  borne  out  in  the  immense 
output  of  bibliographical  publications,  and  the  elaborate 
indexes  which  accompany  every  work  with  the  slightest 
pretence  to  serious  interest.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
American  man  is  lacking  in  natural  completeness.  We 
may  say  that  each  nation  has  the  women  it  merits  ;  the 
Americans  have  been  unable  to  create  that  form  of 
womanhood  which  in  Europe  is  esteemed  best.  The 
American  consequently  lacks  many  of  the  influences 
which  such  women  alone  can  bring  i;o  bear.  His  develop- 
ment is  far  too  rapid ;  he  springs  into  manhood  far 
too  quickly,  and  jumps  out  of  it  again  with  too  great 
rapidity.  This  same  rapidity  characterizes  all  his 
doings.  His  patience,  even,  is  rapid  ;  it  is,  as  Alphonse 
Karr  has  so  wittily  said,  immense,  mais  pas  pour 
longtemps.  To  summarize,  he  lacks  that  great  regu- 
lator of  our  inner  steadiness,  a  well-balanced  emotional 
life ;  and  this  renders  him  incapable  of  applying  all  his 
heart  or  all  his  intellect  to  any  one  thing  for  any  con- 
siderable time.  He  is,  indeed,  sensation-ridden  to  an 
extreme,  and  his  individuality  is  not  well  developed. 

This  latter  affirmation,  we  are  well  aware,  cannot 
fail  to  be  most  indignantly  combated  by  some 
Americans.  It  is,  however,  to  the  impartial  observer, 
quite  clear  that  two  types  alone  have  developed,  and 
can  possibly  develop,  in  the  United  States — the  poli- 
tician and  the  commercial  man.  Literature  is  the  make 
of  intense  personalities,  and  it  is  to  the  lack  of  such 
personalities,  and  not  to  the  youth  of  the  Union,  that 


SUCCESS   IN   AMERICA  253 

America's  failure  to  accomplish  great  things  in  art  and 
letters  is  due.  It  is  also  exceedingly  doubtful  whether 
a  nation  having  no  native  language  of  its  own  can  rise 
to  a  first  place  in  literature.  As  Austria  has  not  sur- 
passed Germany  in  letters,  as  Scotland  has  not  surpassed 
England,  so  America  has  not  surpassed  Europe. 

We  have  pointed  out  the  three  great  differences 
which  for  ever  mark  the  Americans  as  a  nation  apart. 
It  must  have  been  clear  to  the  reader  that  these  are  not 
the  peculiarities  of  a  supposed  Anglo-Saxon  "  race,"  but 
the  outcome  of  the  particular  circumstances  under 
which  the  American  nation  and  civilization  have 
developed.  In  many  respects  the  Americans  are  more 
antipathetic  to  England  than  to  the  rest  of  Europe — a 
fact  to  which  we  shall  revert  in  considering  the  political 
prospects  of  America.  For  once  and  all  the  reader  must 
sacrifice  the  theory  of  race  with  which  all,  or  almost  all, 
the  modern  popular  works  on  history  are  indissolubly 
blended.  America,  we  have  seen,  owes  infinitely  more 
to  the  constant  influx  of  foreigners  than  to  any  sup- 
posititious strain  of  semi-Teutonic  blood  among  its 
original  settlers.  The  absence  of  individuality  is  due, 
not  to  the  unoriginal  character  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
— England  certainly  cannot  be  said  to  be  deficient  in 
strong  personalities — but  to  the  complete  isolation  in 
which  America  finds  herself  from  all  hostile  foreign 
interference.  It  would  be  easier  for  America  to  establish 
a  filial  relation  with  any  other  European  nation  than 
to  maintain  her  cousinship  with  the  English.  Perhaps, 
save  for  the  chance  identity  of  language,  no  two  nations 
are  more  absolutely  and  irreconcilably  dissimilar  than 
are  the  Americans  and  the  English. 


254  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

Let  us  pass  on,  now  that  we  have  pointed  out  the 
principal  social  features  of  America,  to  a  very  brief  con- 
sideration of  what  may  possibly  await  her  upon  her 
political  career. 

The  ever-increasing  exploitation  of  the  Far  East, 
the  rapid  rise  of  the  Japanese  to  the  position  of  a  first- 
class  naval  and  industrial  power,  the  awakening  of  the 
Chinese  from  their  recluse-like  slumber  of  two  thousand 
years  to  fresh  economic  activity,  which  is  now  con- 
fidently predicted,  are  circumstances  which  may  pro- 
foundly modify  the  present  political  geography  of  the 
globe.  America  will  certainly  be  the  first  country  to 
feel  the  effects  of  the  change.  She  will  be  in  very 
much  the  same  position  in  which  England  stood  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century  ;  that  is  to  say,  she_would 
become  the  centre  of  all  the  economic  movements  of  the 
world — of  a  world  much  more  extensive  than  it  was  in 
the'^days  of  Columbus,  and  of  far  keener  commercial 
activities.  America  would  become  the  focus  of  trade ; 
very  possibly  she  might,  with  rising  prosperity,  become 
the  focus  of  the  hatred  of  many  rivals — a  hatred  which 
would  save  her  from  the  intellectual  stagnation  which 
we  have  seen  to  be  the  invariable  concomitant  of  riches 
which  have  been  easily  won  without  struggle  or  strife. 
We  see  in  this  that  America  would  certainly  have 
greater  reasons  for  incurring  the  enmity  of  England, 
whose  geopolitical  position  would  be  vastly  impaired 
by  the  increasing  welfare  of  America.  We  should  then 
have  additional  proof  of  how  easily  the  fictitious  bond 
of  consanguinity  would  be  broken  asunder,  when  real 
and  tangible  interests  come  into  play.  England  would 
be  opposed  to  America  both  in  the  Atlantic  and  in  the 


SUCCESS  IN  AMERICA  255 

Pacific.  The  same  struggles  that  England  had  to 
sustain  against  Holland,  France,  and  Spain,  America 
will  have  to  sustain  upon  a  far  grander  scale.  When 
Panama  becomes  the  centre  about  which  the  whole 
world  gravitates,  America,  we  may  be  convinced,  will 
not  be  left  to  enjoy  the  possession  of  the  isthmus  in 
peace,  and  to  reap  therefrom  advantages  at  the  cost  of 
all  the  other  European  Powers.  We  have  at  all  times 
insisted  upon  the  futility  of  all  calculations  in  history 
based  upon  numbers  to  the  disregard  of  quality,  but 
what  would  be  the  result  for  America  in  a  struggle  in 
which  she  would  have  to  face  the  confederate  quality 
and  four  hundred  million  inhabitants  of  Europe  ?  It  is 
only  after  a  secular  war  against  Europe,  the  course  of 
which  would  profoundly  modify  the  whole  American 
character,  that  America  could  hope  to  win  her  inde- 
pendence from  European  dictation. 

After  the  somewhat  adverse  criticisms  which  we  have 
passed  upon  much  that  is  American,  we  hope  that  we 
have  at  least  established  our  claim  to  perfect  sincerity, 
and  our  readers  will  certainly  give  us  credit  for  speak- 
ing the  truth  when  we  say  that  we  are  of  opinion  that, 
despite  her  serious  drawbacks,  America  has  solved  ideals, 
moral  and  social,  which  European  nations  have  in  vain 
endeavoured  to  attain.  Many  of  the  popular  myths 
which  are  in  Europe  substituted  for  a  true  knowledge 
of  the  American  character  are  most  hopelessly  incorrect. 
Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  of  all  the  current 
legends  attaching  to  the  American  is  the  legend  of 
the  almighty  dollar.  In  Europe  it  is  currently  supposed 
that  all  the  five  senses  of  the  American  are  concentrated 
to  form  a  sixth  sense — the  sense  of  dollar-grabbing. 


256  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS  -t^ 

Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  Years  of 
residence  in  America  have  convinced  us  of  the  fact  that 
while  America  is  no  doubt  the  country  where  most 
money  is  earned,  it  is  probably  the  country  where  least 
value  is  really  attached  to  money.  Wealth  raises  up 
no  spiked  railings  of  social  distinction,  and  generosity 
is  perhaps  more  general  than  in  any  other  country  of 
the  world.  Money  is  easily  acquired,  and  in  the 
acquisition  of  money  alone  does  American  talent  find 
the  outlet  which  it  cannot  find  in  artistic  and  literary 
channels.  There  is  a  general  atmosphere  of  urbanity 
and  hospitality  pervading  the  whole  land,  which  is 
delightful  to  the  stranger  fresh  landed  from  Europe; 
this  atmosphere  is  far  more  real  and  far  more  genuine 
than  anything  of  the  kind  to  be  found  in  the  old  world. 
To  what  is  it  to  be  attributed  ?  The  social  palisades 
within  which  most  European  households  are  doubly  and 
triply  entrenched  are  non-existent;  there  is  no  pride 
of  caste  which  fences  about  the  access  to  a  house,  and 
a  stranger,  provided  he  makes  himself  liked,  may  very 
well  be  asked  anywhere.  This  is  the  rosy  side  of 
democracy.  But  what  is  the  true  cause  of  this  general 
urbanity  and  good-fellowship  ?  Is  it  not  in  great  part 
due  to  the  preponderance  of  the  foreign  element  ?  All 
that  is  comparable  to  it  in  Europe  we  find  in  summer 
watering-places,  and  in  places  where  strangers  are 
gathered  together.  Here  for  a  while  an  artificial  atmo- 
sphere of  contentment,  freedom  from  care  and  from 
restraint,  is  created,  and  people  make  the  best  of  one 
another,  without  too  deep  a  regard  for  all  the  little 
social  bolts  and  bars  which  separate  them  in  normal 
times.     This  is  the  prevailing  atmosphere  of  America. 


SUCCESS  IN   AMERICA  257 

The  freedom  of  the  American  woman  also  supplies 
another  undoubted  charm  to  American  life,  although 
we  have  seen  at  what  heavy  a  price  that  charm  is 
purchased. 

The  reader  may  have  gathered  what  our  opinion 
is  about  any  future  Americanization  of  Europe,  an  idea 
— fantastic  and  absurd  as  it  may  appear  in  the  eyes  of 
the  citizens  of  the  Old  World — that  is  prevalent  in  the 
New  World.  It  is  difficult  for  the  European  to  enter 
sufficiently  into  the  American  frame  of  mind,  to  have 
any  conception  of  what  is  the  real  American  mental 
attitude  towards  Europe.  The  American  looks  upon 
the  great  European  Powers  very  much  in  the  same  way 
as  we  Europeans  look  upon  the  minor  states  of  the 
Balkan  peninsula.  He  cannot  conceive  that  Europe, 
unless  federated  into  a  kind  of  United  European  States, 
should  be  able  to  offer  any  resistance  to  American 
onslaughts.  He  has  no  idea  of  the  individuality,  and 
hence  vitality,  of  every  country  of  modern  Europe, 
much  less  does  he  see  that  this  individualization  of  the 
various  parts  of  Europe  is  an  increasing,  and  not  a 
decreasing,  phenomenon,  and  that  by  means  thereof 
Europe  will  only  increase  in  strength.  None  of  the 
countries  of  modern  Europe  can  be  said,  when  taken 
separately,  to  have  achieved  complete  success,  but  their 
individual  successes  combined  together  build  a  perfect 
and  invincible  whole.  Europe  as  a  whole  has  been 
completely  successful.  The  lesser  nations,  such  as 
Bulgaria,  Servia,  Denmark,  and  Roumania,  are  asserting 
more  and  more  loudly  every  day  their  claim  to  be 
considered  as  independent  units.  Those  claims  will 
not    be   crushed    and   overwhelmed   by   the   wave   of 

s 


258  SUCCESS  AMONG  NATIONS 

imperialism  which  is  now  passing  over  Europe.  Should 
the  great  Powers  endeavour  to  grind  them  into  sub- 
servience, Europe  may  again  see  a  repetition  of  its 
Platsea  and  its  Salamis.  We  may  confidently  predict 
that  these  minor  nations  will,  in  the  near  future,  win 
recognition  among  the  other  great  countries  of  Europe, 
and  that  they  will  develop  independent,  new,  and 
complex  types  of  civilization. 

We  cannot  deny  that  a  close  study  of  American 
history  and  of  American  institutions  inspires  us  with 
far  greater  apprehensions  as  to  a  sound  development  of 
America  in  the  future,  than  with  fear  for  the  fortunes  of 
Europe.  The  path  of  America  is  strewn  with  stumbling- 
blocks  which  it  will  require  her  utmost  ingenuity  to 
circumvent  or  to  surmount. 


INDEX 


Aahmes  papyrus,  contents  of  the,  4 
Abbeville,  internal  quarrels  of,  233 
Abydos,  added  to  Venetian  dominion, 

60 
Achaia,   incorporated    with    Koman 

Empire,  51 
Acre,  conquest  of,  58 
Aden,  as  guard  to  the  Red  Sea,  73 
Adriatic,  Germany's  designs  on  the, 

213,  216 
^gina,  added  to  Venetian  dominion, 

60 
^schylus,  patriotism  of,  29 
Agnadello,  Venetian  defeat  at,  63 
Ahmedabad,     conceded     to     Great 

Britain,  70 
Akbar,  70 

Alberti,  Leon  Battista,  104 
Albuquerque,  explorer,  65 
Alexander  the  Great,  the  conquests 

of,  42-46 
Alexius,  Byzantine  Emperor,  58 
Alphabet,  the,  importance  and  origin 

of,  37-39 
Almeida,  achievements  of,  65 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  France's  lost 

possessions  of,  179,  221 
Amboyna,   massacre  of  English  by 

Dutch  at,  70 
America,  effect  of  Calvinism  in,  114; 

uniformity  of  civilization  in,  192; 

discussed,   absolute  confidence  in 

her    success,    244;    geographical 

position  of,  246 ;  influence  of  the 

foreigner  in,  247 ;  American  women, 


247;  their  attitude  to  man,  248; 
evil  effect  of  over-mentalization, 
149;  question  of  maternity,  250; 
the  American  man,  251 ;  dissimi- 
larity to  England,  253;  political 
aspect  of,  254;  money-making 
capacity,  255 ;  freedom  from  class 
restraints,  256 ;  their  contempt  of 
European  powers,  257 

Amiens,  disturbances  of,  233 

Amyntas,  King,  53 

^*  Anacalypsis,^^  by  Godfrey  Higgins, 
139 

Ancona,  34 

Andros,  added  to  Venetian  dominion, 
60 

Angelo,  Michael,  36 

Antiochus,  his  concessions  to  Borne, 
50,51 

Antonius,  M.,  conquests  of,  for  Roman 
Empire,  52,  53 

Apuleius,  works  of,  82 

Arabia,  added  to  Roman  Empire,  53 

Arezzo,  at  war  with  Florence,  34, 104 

Aristotle,  Alexander's  opinion  of,  46 ; 
philosophy  of,  91 ;  science  of,  93 ; 
quoted,  104 

Armada,  stimulating  effect  on  Eng- 
land of  the  destruction  of  the,  163 

Armenia,  added  to  Roman  Empire,  53 

Arminius,  Varus  defeated  by,  53 

Art,  Egyptian,  6  ;  Carthaginian,  9  ; 
Mexican,  13;  Peruvian,  18;  con- 
ditions favourable  to  the  cultivation 
of,  20;  Roman,  31;  Dutch,  67; 
definition  of,  discussed,  76;  Grecian, 
78 


260 


INDEX 


Ascension,  naval  importance  of,  73 
Asia  Minor,  conquered  by  Alexander, 

43 ;  Germany's  designs  on,  216 
Assyria,  Tyre  and  Sidon  conquered 

by,  24 
Athens,   civilization    of,   considered, 

24-29 
Attalus,  King  of  Pergamum,  51 
Augustus,  53 
Aurungzeb,  death  of,  70 
Austerlitz,  Kussian  losses  at,  194 
Australia,  England's  colony  of,  75 
Austria,  necessity  of  royalty  to,  181 ; 

Germany's  policy  towards,  217 
Azevedo,  Rodriguez  de,  one  of  the 

first  members  of  the  Jesuits,  116 
Aztec  civilization,  13-16 

B 

Babu,  effects  of  over-intellectuality 
on  the,  103 

Babylonia,  civilization  of,  2;  con- 
sidered, 8 ;  Athens  compared  with, 
26 ;  fall  of,  42, 44, 53 ;  imperfection 
of  its  art,  79 

Bacon,  lack  of  moral  courage,  119, 
138;  quoted  on  sea-power,  219 

Bailli  de  Saffren,  his  engagements 
against  the  English,  71 

Baku,  petroleum  wells  of,  196 

Bakunin,  erroneous  teaching  of,  193 

Barak,  his  victory  over  the  Canaan- 
ites,  23 

Barbarossa,  Emperor,  defeated  at  Leg- 
nano,  107 

Basle,  unsuccessful  Catholic  council 
at,  134 

Batavia  acquired  by  the  Dutch,  67 

Batu,  conquests  of,  55 

Baur,  Ferdinand,  on  the  authenticity 
of  the  New  Testament,  141 

Belgium,  224 

Belvedere 'Apollo,  beauty  of,  77 

Bermuda  Islands,  British  possessions 
in,  73 

Bessus,  Darius  killed  by,  44 

Bethlehem,  121 

Bianchi,  their  quarrels  with  the  Neri, 
35 

Bismarck,  character  of,  99 ;  his  atti- 
tude towards  Papacy,  129,  225 


Bizerta,  French  naval  base  at,  73 

BobadiUa,  one  of  the  first  members 
of  the  Jesuits,  116 

Boccaccio,  36 

Boeotia,  agricultural  prosperity  of,  27 

Boer,  effect  of  Calvinism  on  the,  114; 
characteristics  of  the,  122;  Ger- 
many's encouragement  of  the,  222 

Bokhara,  fate  of,  at  the  hands  of 
Mongolian  conquerors,  54 

Bonn,  internal  disturbances  of,  233 

Borgias,  the,  105 

Borodino,  Russian  losses  at  the  battle 
of,  194 

Bourgeoisie.     See  Middle  Class 

Boutmy,  Professor,  his  estimate  of 
English  character,  100 

British  Empire,  magnitude  of,  67; 
rise  and  growth  of  her  Indian  Em- 
pire, 70-72;  her  colonial  poHcy, 
72-75.     See  England 

Brunhes,  M.,  on  Spanish  irrigation, 
159 

Buddhism,  113 

Bulgaria,  progress  of,  257 

Bunsen,  scientific  investigations  of,  93 

Bumouf,  his  research  in  cuneiform 
writings,  8 

Bussy,  his  opposition  to  English 
advance  in  India,  71 

Buthrotum,  defeat  of  Normans  off,  58 

Bythynia,  added  to  Roman  Empire,  52 

Byzantine  Empire,  58;  at  war  with 
Venice,  59 ;  fall  of,  60 


Cabral,  discoverer  of  Brazil,  65 
Caesar,  writings  of,  32 ;  conquests  of, 

52 
Calicut,  Vasco  de  Gama's  voyage  to, 

65 
Calvin,  influence  of,  114, 115 ;  person- 
ality of,  154 
Calvinism,  considered,  114,  138 
Cambay,  conceded  to  Great  Britain,  70 
Camel,  Pater  C.  J.,  the  Camelia  named 

after,  120 
Campaldino,  battle  of,  35 
Canada,  England's  colony,  75 
Canossa,  Henry  IV. 's  submission  to 
the  Pope  at,  129 


INDEX 


261 


Cape,  the,  passage  to  the  East  round, 

65 ;  added  to  Dutch  dominion,  66 
Cape   Henry,  English    defeated   ofif, 

220 
Caprona,  the  assault  of,  35 
Caria,  added  to  Koman  Empire,  51 
Carlo  Feno,  Venetian  admiral,  61 
Carthage,  art  and  commerce  of,  con- 
sidered, 9-11 ;  war  with  Kome,  50; 

fall  of,  51 
Carthusians,  founded  by  St.  Bruno,  124 
Cato,  Cyprus  conquered  by,  52 
Caucasus,  Kussian  policy  in  the,  195 
^^  Cautio  Criminalism''''  hy  Frederick 

Spec,  119 
Ceylon,  acquired  by  the  Dutch,  65 
Chseronea,  Koman  victory  at,  51 
ChampoUion,  F.  de,  Egyptologist,  2 
**  Chanson  de  Roland  "  criticized,  89 
Charles  of  Austria,  archduke,  quoted 

on  France,  164 
China,  civilization  of,  2;  considered, 

11,  12,  53,  54;  Russia's  policy  in, 

198 
Chioggia,  Genoa  defeated  by  Venice 

at,  61     . 
Chios,  seized  by  Vitale  Michieli,  59 
Cholulu,  ancient  temple  of  the  Aztecs, 

13 
Christianity,  founding  of,  124;  con- 
sidered, 137-154 
**  Christianity    and    the     Christian 

Church  in  the  Three  First   Cen- 

turies;'  142 
Cimabue,  the  conditions  of  his  time, 

35 
Cimon,  political  contests  of,  28 
Ciompi,  riots  of  the,  35 
Cistercians,  founded  by  St.  Stephen 

Harding,  124 
City-states,  development  of,  22 ;  effect 

of  over-intellectuality  on  Italian, 

103-105 
Clement  XIV.,  abolition  of  Society  of 

Jesuits  by,  116 
Cleopatra,  war  against  Rome,  53 
Clive,  68;  Enghsh  expansion  in  India 

under,  71 
Cluny,  privileges  of  the  abbot  of,  132 
Cochin,  taken  by  the  Dutch,  67 
Cologne,  internal  disturbances  of,  233 
Columbus,  Christopher,  his  discovery 


of  America,  62;  influence  of,  114; 
great  personal  force  of,  159 

"  Commentarios  i?ea?es,"  by  Garci- 
lasBO  de  la  Vega,  19 

Constance,  unsuccessful  Catholic 
Council  at,  134 

Constantinople,  fall  of,  60 ;  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Turks,  63 ;  treaty  con- 
cluded at,  64;  Russia's  desire  for, 
75 

Continental  education,  107-110 

Comwallis,  68 ;  English  expansion  in 
India  under,  7 

Coronea,  battle  of,  27 

Corsica,  added  to  Roman  Empire,  50 

Cortes,  his  conquest  of  Mexico,  12 

Council  of  Trent,  question  of  Catholic 
dogma  settled  by  the,  134 

Courland,  Germany's  designs  on,  179 

Craterus,  Alexander's  correspondence 
with,  45 

Cremieux,  as  type  of  successful  Jew, 
126 

Crete,  added  to  Venetian  dominion,  60 

Crimean  war,  195 

"  Critical  Researches  into  the  Canon- 
ical Gos'pelSj''  by  Ferdinand  Baur, 
142 

Croatia,  Venetian  possessions  in,  59 

Croesus,  defeat  of,  42 

Crusades,  the,  58,  60 

Cuban  war,  cost  of,  241 

Cuneiform  writing  considered,  3,  8 

Custozza,  Italian  losses  in  the  battle 
of,  195 

Cuzco,  ancient  capital  of  Peru,  17 

Cyprus  added  to  Roman  Empire,  52 ; 
added  to  Venetian  dominion,  62; 
and  loss  of,  63 ;  Enghsh  occupation 
of,  72,  73 

Cyrenaica  added  to  Roman  Empire, 
52 

Cyrus,  the  conquests  of,  41 


Dacia,  53 

Dalmatia,  Venetian  possessions  in,  59 

Dandolo,  Doge,  his  revenge  on  the 

Emperor  Manuel,  60 
Dante   takes  part  in  the   wars   of 


262 


INDEX 


Florence,  35 ;  Giotto,  friend  of,  35 ; 

greatness  of  his  works,  160 
Dardanelles,  command  of,  obtained 

by  Venice,  60 ;  English  control  of, 

73 
Darius,  King,  defeated  by  Alexander, 

43 ;  death  of,  44 
Darwin,  scientific  investigations  of, 

93 
David,  King  of  Israel,  Hebrew  reli- 
gious poetry  under,  24 
Decelea,  garrison  at,  27 
De  la  Key,  effect  of  Calvinism  on, 

115,  122 
Delhi,  sack  of,  71 
Demetrius,  his  appeal  to  Rome  for 

help,  50 
Denmark,  progress  of,  257 
Descartes,  119 

De  Wet,  effect  of  Calvinism  on,  115 
De  Wette,  his  criticism  of  the  Old 

Testament,  142 
Diodorus  of  Sicily,  quoted,  3 
Dionysus,  theatre  of,  102 
Disraeli  as  type  of  successful  Jew, 

124, 126 
JDivina  Commedia,  by  Dante,  35 
Djelaleddin  defeated  by  Gengiz  Khan, 

55 
Domenico  Michieli,  Doge  of  Venice, 

his  capture  of  Tyre,  69 
Don  Juan  of  Austria,  victory  over 

Turks,  63 
Duaufsechruta,  his  letter  to  his  son 

Pepi,  5 
Dupleix,    French     director-general, 

Indian  policy  of,  71 
Dupuis,  Fran9ois,  his  work  on  Chris- 
tianity, 139 
Dutch  Empire,  rise  and  growth  of, 

64-69 
Dutch  Indian  Companies,  the  found- 
ing and  growth  of,  66 


E 

Ebers,    his    discovery   of  Egyptian 

papyrus,  3, 4 
Edward  VII.,  policy  of,  241 
Egypt,  2 ,  value  of  the  writings  of,  con- 
sidered, 3;  literature  of,  4;  civili- 


zation of,  5 ;  art  of,  6  ;  the  people 
of,  7 ;  Athens  compared  witii,  26; 
annexed  by  Alexander,  44;  im- 
perfection of  its  art,  79  ;  stagnation 
of,  125 

Ehu,  his  victory  over  the  Moabites,  23 

Elbe-Trieste,  Germany's  proposed 
canal,  213,  217 

Eliot,  George,  250 

Emanuel,  King,  of  Portugal,  his  en- 
couragement to  explorers,  65 

Empire-building,  Alexander  the 
Great's  method  of,  42-46  ;  Rome's 
method,  46-53;  the  Mongoh'an 
Empire,  53-56;  rise  and  growth 
of  Venetian  dominions,  57-64 ; 
Dutch  policy,  64-69;  English 
methods  of,  69-75 

England,  possessions  of  (see  British 
Empire),  hterature  of,  81 ;  will- 
power of,  99-101;  effect  of  Cal- 
vinism in,  114;  her  indebtedness 
to  foreign  importations,  124; 
stimulating  effect  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Armada  on,  163 ;  her  mis- 
understanding of  the  French,  167  ; 
method  of  training  compared  with 
that  of  Fmnce,  171,  173 ;  wealth 
compared  with  that  of  France,  175 ; 
policy  of  Germany  towards,  218- 
221 ;  discussed,  227 ;  class  dis- 
tinctions in,  considered,  230-234; 
humour,  234;  effect  of  primo- 
geniture, 235;  women  of,  con- 
sidered, 236,  237 ;  dominions  of, 
238 ;  her  navy,  239 ;  Imperialism 
of,  240 ;  policy  of,  241 ;  future  of, 
242 

Etruria,  Greek  produce  sent  to,  30 

Euboea,  Venetian  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt upon,  59;  obtained  by 
Venice,  60 

Euphrates,  its  influence  on  Baby- 
lonian civilization,  8 

Euripides,  patriotism  of,  28;  his 
Orestes,  29 

Eusebius,  141 

F 

Faber,  Peter,  one  of  the  first  members 
of  the  Jesuits,  116 


INDEX 


263 


Fiesole,  importance  of,  34 

Finland,  literature  of,  86 

Florence,  growth  of,  considered,  33- 
36, 104 

Foreigners,  influence  of,  considered, 
123-125 ;  influence  of,  in  America, 
247,  250 

France  in  league  against  Venice,  63 ; 
decline  of  colonial  empire  of,  69 ; 
Indian  policy  of,  71 ;  literature  of, 
compared  with  English,  85 ;  eifect 
of  Calvinism  in,  114;  discussed, 
the  fascination  of,  163,  166; 
foreign  misunderstanding  of,  166- 
168 ;  women  of,  168-172:  men  of, 
173;  wealth  of,  174-178;  status 
of,  178-181;  comparisons  with 
Germany,  205,  206;  Kichelieu's 
idea  of  grand  canal  for,  214; 
attitude  of,  in  the  event  of  an 
Anglo-German  war,  221 ;  Eng- 
land's middle  class  compared  with 
bourgeoisie  of,  232 


G 

Galatia  added  to  Koman  Empire,  53 

Gambetta  quoted,  180 

Gaul  conquered  by  Rome,  52 

Gaza,  siege  of,  43 

Genoa  at  war  with  Venice,  60,  104 

Genziz  Khan,  conquests  of,  53-55, 
194 

George  Eliot,  250 

Georges  Sand,  250 

Germain,  Sophie,  250 

Germany,  intellectual  progress  in, 
97,  98;  indemnity  exacted  from 
France,  177;  designs  of,  on  Liv- 
land  and  Courland,  179;  her 
Polish  possessions,  189-191 ;  con- 
sidered, 202 ;  the  women,  203-205 ; 
class  distinctions  in,  206 ;  intel- 
lectuahty  and  organization  of,  207 ; 
211;  political  aspects  of,  211; 
Imperialism,  212-216;  socialism 
in,  216;  geographical  disadvantages 
of,  217;  poh'cy  towards  England, 
218-222;  pohcy  towards  Holland, 
222-224;  future  of,  224-226,  239  ; 
American  students  in,  252 


Ghibelline  struggle  with  the  Guelphs, 
35 

Gibbon,  his  use  of  the  French  lan- 
guage, 166 

Gibraltar  taken  by  the  English,  72 ; 
Richelieu's  proposed  canal  to 
undermine  the  power  of,  214 

Gideon,  his  victory  over  the  Midian- 
ites,  23 

Giotto,  the  conditions  of  his  time,  35 

Goethe,  his  knowledge  of  French, 
166 ;  greatness  of,  224,  248 

Gorgias,  his  debates  with  Socrates, 
29 

Graaf,  his  criticism  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, 142 

Granicus,  defeat  of  Persians  at,  43 

Grasse,  Admiral  de,  defeated  the 
English  off  Cape  Henry,  220 

Greece,  intellectual  progress  of,  dis- 
cussed, 77;  literature  of,  78-94; 
causes  of  the  downfall  of,  101-103, 
107 

Greek  Church,  the,  retarding  in- 
fluence of,  200 

Gregory  VII.,  Pope,  Emperor  Henry 
IV.'s  submission  to,  129 ;  organi- 
zation of,  133 

Grimaldi,  120 

Grotefend,  his  discovery  of  the 
decipherment  of  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions, 8 

Guelph  struggle  with  the  Ghibellines, 
35 

Guiana  added  to  Dutch  Dominion,  66 

Gulden,  120 

H 

Hagen,  Pater,  mathematician,  120 

Hamilcar  Barcas,  11 

Hamlet,  80 ;  the  personality  of,  147, 

148 
Hamurabbi,  King,  code  of  law  of,  9 
Hannibal,  11 
Hastings,  Warren,  English  expansion 

in  India  under,  71 
Heine  as  type  of  intellectual  Jew,  126 
Helmholtz,   scientific    investigations 

of,  93 
Henry  IV.,  Emperor,  his  submission 

to  the  Pope,  129 


264 


INDEX 


Heraclitus,  quoted,  28 ;  philosophy  of, 
91 

Herodotus  quoted,  8 

Herondas,  novels  of,  82 

Hesiod,  poetry  of,  27 

Hieroglyphic  paintings  considered,  3, 
6,  7;  Aztec  manuscripts,  13-15; 
limitations  of,  37 

Higgins,  Godfrey,  on  the  origin  of 
Christianity,  139 

Hindu  invasions,  71 

Holland  {see  Dutch  Empire),  Ger- 
many's policy  towards,  222-224 

Homer,  controversy  on  the  author- 
ship of  the  works  of,  145-148,  248 

Homeric  Epics,  perfection  of,  79 

Hong-Kong,  English  strong  position 
of,  73 

Houtman,  learns  information  for 
weathering  the  Cape,  65 ;  voyages 
of,  66 

Hugo,  Victor,  poetry  of,  86 

Humbert,  Therese,  frauds  of,  177 

Hungary,  educational  system  in,  108 ; 
effect  of  Calvinism  in,  114  ;  status 
of  Jews  in,  186 ;  benefit  of  Catho- 
licism in,  201,  217 

Hymettus,  beehives  of,  25 


^^  Idyls  of  the  King^''  Tennyson's, 
compared  with  medieval  poems,  89 

Incas,  ancient  civilization  of  the,  17- 
19 

India,  Dutch  possessions  in,  67 ;  rise 
and  growth  of  England's  Empire 
of,  70-72  ;  population  of,  288 

Indian  Companies,  Dutch,  66 ; 
English  chartered,  70 

Indies,  trade  to  the,  65 

Inkermann,  Kussian  losses  at  the 
battle  of,  194 

Intellectual  progress  discussed,  76- 
94 ;  its  effect  on  a  nation,  97, 101- 
105;  causes  of  the  development 
of,  105-107;  Continental  educa- 
tion, 107-110 

Iphigenia  in  AuUs,  79 

Italy  discussed,  most  gifted  nation, 
159-161 ;    women  of,   161 ;   geo- 


graphical advantages  of,  162;  its 
disadvantages,  161-163;  its  navy, 
239 


Jahrhuchy  described,  210,  211 

Jansenists,  130 

Java  taken  by  the  Dutch,  67 

Jeanne  d'Arc,  personaUty  of,  152 

Jena,  battle  of,  its  effect  on  Germany, 
98 

Jephthah,  his  victory  over  the  Am- 
monites, 23 

Jerusalem,  civilization  of,  considered, 
23 

"JoAti  Company f'  policy  of,  70 

Joubert,  122 

Jesuits,  The,  the  rise,  growth,  and 
influence  of,  115-120;  personality 
of,  151 

Jesus  Christ,  personality  of,  150,  153 

Jew,  The,  considered,  121-128 ;  com- 
mercial importance  of,  in  Slav 
countries,  186 

K 

Kaifa,  reduction  of,  58 

Kaiser,  the,  quoted,  212 

"  KalevalaJ'^  celebrated  Finnish  epic, 

86 
Kant,  philosophy  of,  91 
Karr,  Alphonse,  quoted,  252 
Kelvin,  Lord,  scientific  investigations 

of,  93 
Key  West,  American  naval  base  at,  73 
Khitan  subdued  by  Gengiz  Khan,  54 
Kublai  Khan,  56 
Kunersdorf,  Russian  losses  at,  194 


Labourdonnais,    his    opposition    to 

English  advance  in  India,  71 
"  La  Dame  aux  Camelias"  173 
Langres,  disturbances  of,  233 
^^  Laokoon,^''  by  Lessing,  166 
Laon,  disturbances  of,  233 


INDEX 


265 


Lassalle,  as  type  of  successful  Jew, 

126 
Lassen,  his  research   in   cuneiform 

writings,  8 
Latin  nations  considered — Spain,  156- 

169 ;  Italy,  159-163 ;  France,  163- 

181 
Laurium,  silver  mines  at,  25 
Layman,  Paul,  moral  courage  of,  119 
Laynez,  one  of  the  first  members  of 

the  Jesuits,  116 
Legnano,  Emperor    Barbarossa   de- 
feated at,  107 
Leibniz,  lack  of  moral  courage  of,  119 ; 

his  use  of  the  French  language,  166 
Lesbos  seized  by  Vitale  Michieli,  59, 

60 
Lessing,  his  knowledge  of  French, 

166 ;  greatness  of  the  works  of,  224 
Liegnitz,  defeat  of  Mongolians  at,  56 
''Life  of  Christ;'  by  Strauss,  141 
Lights  of  London,  The,  criticised,  80 
Liszt,  his  opinion  of  Polish  women, 

188 
Literature,  Peruvian,  19;  conditions 

favourable  to  the  cultivation  of,  20 ; 

Hebrew  poetry,  24 ;  of  Greece,  28 ; 

of  Kome,  32 ;  of  Greece,  discussed, 

78-94 ;  of  America,  250,  252 
Livland,  Germany's  designs  on,  179 
''Logos   Spermatikos^'  by  Edmund 

Spiess,  150 
Lonnrot,    his    services    to    Finnish 

literature,  86 
Louis  XIV.,  influence  of,  165 
Loyola,  Ignatius,  founder  of  the  order 

of  Jesuits,  116-120;  personality  of, 

Lucan,  47 

Lucca  at  war  with  Florence,  34,  104 

Lucretius,  writings  of,  32 

Lydia,   conquest  of,  by  Cyrus,  42; 

added  to  Koman  Empire,  51 
Lysander,  his  services  to  Sparta,  123 


M 

Macaulay,  quoted  on  the  Catholic 
Church,  129  ;  his  opmion  of  Goethe 
and  Lessing,  224 


Macedonia,  rise  and  growth  of,  42-46 ; 

fall  of,  50 
MachiaveUi,  36,  105 
Magnesia,  Eoman  victory  at,  51 
Mago,  his  book  on  agriculture,  10 
Mahaffy,  Professor,  opinions  of,  243 
Mahometanism,  113 
Maler,  Professor,  his  journey  up  the 

Usumatsintla,  15 
Malta,  importance  of,  as  naval  base, 

72,  73 
Manchuria,  Russia's  policy  in,  198 
Manuel  Commenus,  Byzantine  Em- 
peror, 59,  60 
Marino  Sanuto,  diary  of,  62 
Marlowe,  148 
Marseilles,  territories  of,  taken  by 

Rome,  52 
Martial,  47 

Mauritius,  naval  importance  of,  73 
Mazarin,  his  services  to  France,  124 
Modes,  conquest  of  the,  by  Cyrus,  42 
Melodrama  opposed  to  true  art,  80 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,   as  type   of 

intellectual  Jew,  126 
Metellus,  Crete  taken  by,  52 
Mexico,   civilization    of,   considered, 

12-16;  America's  war  with,  240 
Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti,  105 
Middle  Ages,  literature  in  the,  81,  89 ; 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the, 
130-132 ;  class  distinctions  of,  235 
Middle  class,  importance  of,  lack  of, 
in  Slav  nations,  185-188 ;  of  Ger- 
many, 207;    French  and  British, 
discussed,  230-234 
Milford  founded  by  refugees,  125 
Mithridates,  King,  48;   war  against 

Rome,  52 
Moghul  Empire,  concessions  to  Great 
Britain,  70 ;  internal  disruptions,  71 
Mohammed  III.,  of  Khowaresm,  de- 
feated by  Gengiz  Khan,  54 
Moluccas,  the,  occupied  by  the  Dutch, 

67 
Mongolian  Empire,  rise  of,  54-56 
Morea  obtained  by  Venice,  60 
Morgagni,    founder    of   pathological 

anatomy,  160 
Mormonism,  the  founding  of,  144 
Mortara,  Italian  losses  in  the  battle 
of,  195 


266 


INDEX 


Moses,  personality  of,  149 
Mozambique,   taken   by    Vasco    da 

Gama,  65 
Musset,  poetry  of,  86 
Mysia,  added  to  Roman  Empire,  51 


N 

Nancy,  233 

Napoleon,  character  of.  99 ;  .person- 
ality of,  161,  189 
Navy,  English,  importance  of,  72,  73, 

239 
Nawab  of  Arcot,  71 
Nawab  Wazir  of  Oudh,  71 
Negapatam  taken  by  the  Dutch,  67 
Neri,  their  quarrels  against  the  Bian- 

chi,  35 
New  Testament,  authenticity  of  the, 

140-143 
Newton,  his  "  Principia,'''  92 
New  Zealand,  England's  colony,  75 
Nijni  Novgorod,  great  Russian  fair  of, 

196 
Nile,  the,  its  influence  on  Egypt,  7 ; 

battle  of  the,  178,220 
Niniveh.  See  Babylonia 
Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  independence 

of,  71 
Noricum,  reduction  of,  by  Rome,  53 
Novara,  Italian  losses  in  the  battie  of, 

195 
Numantia,  Roman  victory  at,  51 
Numidia,  defeated  by  Rome,  52 


O 

Odyssey,  controversy'  on  the  author- 
ship of  the,  145-147 

(EdipuSj  Coloneus,  the,  29 

Old  Testament,  criticism  on  the,  142 

Order  of  Pr^montre,  124 

Orders,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
124,  130;  organization  of,  132 

Orestes,  the,  of  Euripides,  29 

"  Origine  de  tons  les  Cultes,''^  by 
Fran9ois  Dupuis,  139 

Ostrolenka,  battle  of,  190 


Palestine  added  to  Roman  Empire, 
52 

Pamphilia  added  to  Roman  Empire, 
52 

Pannonia,  reduction  of,  by  Rome,  53 

Paphlagonia  added  to  Roman  Empire, 
52 

Papias,  disciple  of  St.  John,  his  evi- 
dence of  the  New  Testament,  141 

Papyrus,  various  Egyptian,  con- 
sidered, 3,  4 

Paris,  growth  of,  36 

Parmenides,  philosophy  of,  91 

Paterini,  massacre  of  the,  35 

" Faul,  the  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ" 
by  Ferdinand  Baur,  141 

Peirseus,  the,  26 

Peloponnesian  war,  27,  29 

Pergamum,  50 

Pericles,  political  contests  of,  28 

Perim,  guard  to  the  Red  Sea,  73 

Persepolis  conquered  by  Alexander, 
44 

Persia,  invasion  of  Greece  by,  27; 
battle  of  Salamis,  28;  rise  of  do- 
minion of,  41;  Alexander's  con- 
quest of,  43 

Personality,  force  of,  144 ;  of  Homer, 
145;  of  Shakespeare,  147;  of 
Moses,  149;  of  Loyola,  151;  of 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  152 ;  of  Jesus,  153 

Peru,  civilization  of,  16-19 

Peschel  quoted  on  America,  245 

Pheidias,  perfection  of  the  works  of, 
77 

Philip  n.  of  Macedonia,  42 

Philip  of  Macedonia,  his  concessions 
to  Rome,  50 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  defeat  of  his 
Armada,  163 

Philoctetes,  the,  29 

Philosophy,  Greek,  discussed,  90-94 

Phoenicians,  the  alphabet  discovered 
by  the,  38 ;  intelligence  of,  107 

Phiygia  added  to  Roman  Empire,  52 

Pindar,  the  poetry,  27 

Pisa,  at  war  with  Florence,  34 ;  de- 
feated by  Venice,  59,  104;  un- 
successfcd  Cathohc  Council  at,  134 

Pisidia  added  to  Roman  Empire,  52 


INDEX 


267 


Pizarro  Francisco,  his  conquest  of 
Peru,  16 

Plato,  the  dialogues  of,  29;  philosophy 
of,  91 

Plevna,  Eussian  losses  in  the  battles 
of,  194 

Plutarch  on  Alexander  the  Great,  46 

Poland,  effect  of  Calvinism  in,  114; 
discussed,  187 ;  women  of,  dis- 
cussed, 188-190 ;  spirit  of  nation- 
alism, 190,  191 

Polo,  Marco,  great  personal  force  of, 
159 

Pompeius,  conquests  of,  52 

Pomponius  Mela,  47 

Pons  Sublicius,  31 

Poor  Clares,  religious  order  of,  130 

Port  Hamilton,  English  strong  posi- 
tion of,  73 

Portugal,  imperial  policy  of,  64; 
conquered  by  Spain,  Q6 

Porus,  King,  defeated  by  Alexander, 
44 

Praxiteles,  perfection  of  the  works 
of,  77 

"  JPrincipia,^''  Newton's,  92 

Prisse  papyrus  considered,  4 

^^Prolegomena  in  Homermny  F.  A. 
Wolf,  145 

Protagoras,  his  debates  with  Socrates, 
29 

Protestant  Church,  the,  as  compared 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
128,  129,  133-135 

Psychology  of  nations,  82 

Ptahhotep,  Prince,  author  of  the 
Prisse  papyrus,  4 

Pulo-Penang,  English  strong  position 
of,  73 


Quipu,    the,    or    Peruvian    thread- 
writing,  18,  39 
Quito,  ancient  road  to,  18 


Race,  influence  of,  2 ;   characteristics 
not    attributable    to,    105,    106; 


Jewish,  considered,  121 ;  Anglo- 
Saxon,  253 

Rafael,  105 

Rameses,  poem  composed  by,  4 

Rawlinson,  his  research  in  cuneiform 
writings,  8 

Religion,  Jerusalem,  23;  various, 
considered,  113;  Calvinism,  114; 
the  Jesuits,  115-120;  Jewish, 
121-128;  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  128-136;  personality  the 
cause  of  the  founding  of,  137-154 

Rhaetia,  reduction  of,  by  Rome,  53 

Rhodes,  50 

Ricci,  mathematician,  12 

Richelieu,  his  idea  of  a  grand  canal 
for  France,  214 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  the,  organi- 
zation of,  128-134 ;  attitude  towards 
science,  135;  personality  of  the 
Pope,  154 ;  French  Government's 
attitude  towards,  181 

Roman  Empire,  beginnings  and 
growth  of,  29;  compared  with 
Greece,*  31-33;  its  method  of 
empire-building,  46-53,  113 

Rothschilds  as  types  of  successful 
Jews,  126 

Rouen,  disturbances  of,  233 

Roumania,  progress  of,  257 

Russia,  added  to  Mongolian  Empire, 
55 ;  empire  of,  compared  with 
British,  74,  112;  power  of,  over- 
rated, 191 ;  civilization  of,  192 ; 
military  strength  of,  discussed,  193, 
194;  poverty  of,  195;  geographi- 
cal position  of,  196 ;  Eastern  policy 
of,  197;  future  of,  198-201; 
scheme  for  a  grand  canal,  214 

Russo-Turkish  War,  195 


S 


Salamis,  battle  of,  28 

Salmeron  one  of  the  first  members  of 
the  Jesuits,  116 

Samarcand  captured  by  Gengiz 
Khan,  54 

Samos  seized  by  Vitali  Michieli,  59 

Samson,  his  victory  over  the  Philis- 
tines, 23 


268 


INDEX 


San  Miniato  at  war  with  Florence,  34 

"  Sapho;'  173 

Sardinia  added  to  Roman  Empire,  49 

Saul,  King  of  Israel,  Hebrew  religious 
poetry  under,  24 

Savoy,  House  of,  hostility  of  the  Holy 
See  to,  163 

Schall,  mathematician,  12 

Scheiner,  120 

Schiller,  greatness  of  the  works  of, 
224 

Science,  discussed,  91-94,  111 ;  Ro- 
man Catholic  attitude  towards,  135 

Scot,  Reginald,  119 

Scotland,  Calvinism  in,  114 

Sebenico,  reduction  of,  by  Venice,  59 

SediUot,  Emmanuel,  his  oriental  re- 
search, 12 

Selden,  John,  quoted  on  ruling,  133 

Seneca,  47 

Servia,  progress  of,  257 

Sforzas,  the,  105 

Shakespeare,  his  personality  im- 
printed in  his  works,  148 

Sicily  added  to  Roman  dominion,  47 

Sidon,  fall  of,  24,  58 

Siena,  34 

Silver  King,  The,  criticised,  80 

Simon  de  Montfort,  124 

Sinope,  Mithridates  defeated  at,  52 

Slav  nations  discussed,  language  and 
characteristics  of,  182-186;  Poland, 
187-191 ;  Russia,  191-201 

Smith,  John,  founder  of  Mormonism, 
144 

Society  of  Jesus.     See  Jesuits 

Socrates,  the  debates  of  Protagoras 
and  Gorgias  with,  29 ;  philosophy 
of,  91 

Sofala  taken  by  Vasco  de  Gama,  65 

Solferino,  Italian  losses  in  the  battle 
of,  195 

Sophocles,  his  celebration  on  the 
victory  of  Salamis,  28 ;  the  plays 
of,  77 

South  Africa,  England's  colony  of, 
75;  effect  of  Calvinism  on  Boers, 
114 ;  cost  of  war  in,  240 

Spain,  conquered  by  Rome,  51,  52 ; 
in  league  against  Venice,  63 ;  con- 
quests and  pohcy  of,  64 ;  jealousy 
of,  64;  discussed,  156-159 


Spalato,  reduction  of,  by  Venice,  59 
Spec,  Frederick,  his  "  Cautio  Crimi- 

nalis,"  119 
Spencer,  Herbert,  Russian  knowledge 

of  the  writings  of,  185 
Spiess,  Edmund,  his  book  on  Chris- 
tianity, 150 
Spinoza,  119  ;  on  Jewish  type,  122 
Stael,  Madame  de,  250 
St.  Bruno,  founder  of  the  Carthusian 

order,  124 
St.  Helena,  naval  importance  of,  73 
St.  Lucia,  Italian  losses  in  the  battle 

of,  195 
St.  Norbert,  founder  of  the  Order  of 

Premontre,  124 
St.  Paul,  authenticity  of  his  Epistles, 

141 ;  his  teaching,  149 
St.  Stephen  Harding,  founder  of  the 

Cistercian  Order,  124 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  philosophical 

attitude  of,  135 
St.  Thome  taken  by  the  Dutch,  67 
Strauss,  his  "  Life  of  Christ,'''  141 
Suez  Canal,  of  great  advantage  to 

Italy,  162;  statistics  of,  215 
Suftren.     See  Bailli  de 
"  Supernatural  Religion,'^  138 
Surat  conceded  to  Great  Britam,  70 
Surinam  added  to  Dutch  dominion, 

66 
Susa,  fall  of,  44 

Swansea  founded  by  refugees,  125 
Sweden,  effect  of  Calvinism  in,  114 
Sylvester  II.,  Pope,  his  benefits  to 

Hungary,  201 
Syracuse  conquered  by  Rome,  50 
Syria  added  to  Roman  Empire,  52 


Tanagra,  battle  of,  27 

Temuchin,  afterwards  made  Gengiz 

Khan,  conquests  of,  53-55 
Terceira,   Spanish  naval  victory  off, 

159 
Teuta,  Queen,  her  appeal  to  Rome 

for  help,  50 
Tezcuco,   Mexico's    ancient  capital, 

13,  15 


INDEX 


269 


Themistocles,    28;    his    services  to 

Greece,  123 
"  Theodicee^''  by  Leibniz,   composed 

in  the  French  language,  166 
Thrace  added  to  Roman  Empire,  51 
Thucydides,  historical    writings    of, 

compared,  87 
Tiber,  the,  29,  31 
Tigris,  its  influence   on   Babylonian 

civilization,  8 
Tolstoi,  influence  of,  200 
Toltecs,  ancient  civihzation  of  the,  16 
Tommaso  Mocenigo,  his  testimony  of 

Venetian  greatness,  61 
Topelius,    his    services    to    Finnish 

literature,  86 
Tozetti,  T.  Targioni,  quoted,  33 
Trafalgar,  battle  of,  220 
Trajan,  conquests  of,  53 
Trani,  reduction  of,  by  Venice,  59 
Trappists,  Order  of,  130 
Treaty  of  Paris,  73 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  72 
Tubingen  school  of  criticism,  140-142 
Tuji,  conquests  of,  55 
Turks,  63;  defeated  by  Don  Juan  of 

Austria,  63 
Turner,  Pater  Adam,  courage  of,  119 
Tyre,   fall   of,    24,   43;    taken   by 

Venice,  59 

U 

Uhle,  Professor,  his  researches  into 
Peruvian  history,  19 

United  States.     See  America 

Usumatsintla,  Professor  Maler's  jour- 
ney up  the,  15 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  72 


Varus  defeated  by  the  Germans,  53 
Vasco  de  Gama,  voyages  of,  65 
Vega,  Garcilasso  de  la,  quoted  on 

Peru,  19 
Venice,  its  rise  and  growth,  57-64, 

104 ;  geographical  advantages  of, 

162 
Vespucci,  pioneer  work  of,  160 
Via  JEmilia,  52 


Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  36,  104 
Virchow,  scientific  investigations  of, 

93 
Viriathus,  assassination  of,  51 
Vitale    Michieli,    Doge    of   Venice, 

conquests  of,  59 
Viterbo,  34 
Vladivostok,  192 
Volition  discussed,  95 
"  Volherpsychologie,''  by  Wundt,  82 
Volta,  physicist  of  Pa  via,  160 


W 

Wagner,  originator  of  new  form  of 

musical  expression,  90 
Walewska,  Madame,  Napoleon's  re- 
lations with,  189 
Warsaw,  Russian  losses  at  the  battle 

of,  194 
Wasmann,  Pater  E.,   on  evolution, 

120 
Wei-hei-Wei,  English  strong  position 

of,  73 
Weir,  119 
Wellesley,    English    expansion    in 

Lidia  under,  71 
Wesley,  John,  founder  of  a  religious 

sect,  144 
Wesleyanism,  the  beginning  of,  144 
West  Indian  Company,  Dutch,  Q^ 
Whewell,  his  criticism  of  Aristotle, 

94 
Whistler,  original  manner  of  painting, 

90 
William  in.,  124 
Will-power  discussed,  95-97,  107- 

110,  230 
Winckler,  Dr.  Hugo,  on  the  alphabet, 

38 
Wolf,  F.  A.,  his  criticism  of  Homer, 

145 
Wundt,    Professor,    "  VolJcerpsycho- 

logiey"  by,  82 
Wiirzburg,  burning  of  witches  at,  119 


Xavier,    Francis,   one   of    the    first 
members  of  the  Jesuits,  116 


270 


INDEX 


Yang-tse,  11 

"  Tassa,''^  the  code   of  constitution 

drawn  up  by  Gengiz  Khan,  55 
Yaxchilan,  discovery  of  ancient  city 

of,  15 
Yellow  Terror,  the,  112 
Young,  Arthur,  his  book  on  travels 

through  France,  229 
Yulun,  mother  of  Gengiz  Khan,  54 


Zante  retained  by  Venice,  64 

Zara,  reduction  of,  by  Venice,  59, 

60 
Zodiac,  the,  139 
Zorndorf,  Russian  losses  at,  194 
Zumarraga,  Bishop,  his  discovery  of 

Aztec    hieroglyphic    manuscripts, 

13 


THE  END 


1 


PKINTED  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES   AND  SONS,  LIMITED,  LONDON  AND  BE0CLB8. 


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