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diff --git a/35461-0.txt b/35461-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f332a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/35461-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17195 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: A Short History of the World + +Author: H. G. Wells + +Release Date: March 2, 2011 [eBook #35461] +[Most recently updated: October 27, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Donald F. Behan + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD *** + + + + +A SHORT +HISTORY OF THE WORLD + +By H. G. WELLS + +New York + +THE MACMILLAN & COMPANY + +1922 + +_Copyright 1922_ + + +CONTENTS CHAPTER Page + +A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD +I. THE WORLD IN SPACE 1 +II. THE WORLD IN TIME 5 +III. THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE 11 +IV. THE AGE OF FISHES 16 +V. THE AGE OF THE COAL SWAMPS 21 +VI. THE AGE OF REPTILES 26 +VII. THE FIRST BIRDS AND THE FIRST MAMMALS 31 +VIII. THE AGE OF MAMMALS 37 +IX. MONKEYS, APES AND SUB-MEN 43 +X. THE NEANDERTHALER AND THE RHODESIAN MAN 48 +XI. THE FIRST TRUE MEN 53 +XII. PRIMITIVE THOUGHT 60 +XIII. THE BEGINNINGS OF CULTIVATION 65 +XIV. PRIMITIVE NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATIONS 71 +XV. SUMERIA, EARLY EGYPT AND WRITING 77 +XVI. PRIMITIVE NOMADIC PEOPLES 84 +XVII. THE FIRST SEA-GOING PEOPLES 91 +XVIII. EGYPT, BABYLON AND ASSYRIA 96 +XIX. THE PRIMITIVE ARYANS 104 +XX. THE LAST BABYLONIAN EMPIRE AND THE EMPIRE OF DARIUS I 109 +XXI. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE JEWS 115 +XXII. PRIESTS AND PROPHETS IN JUDEA 122 +XXIII. THE GREEKS 127 +XXIV. THE WARS OF THE GREEKS AND PERSIANS 134 +XXV. THE SPLENDOUR OF GREECE 139 +XXVI. THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 145 +XXVII. THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA 150 +XXVIII. THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA 156 +XXIX. KING ASOKA 163 +XXX. CONFUCIUS AND LAO TSE 167 +XXXI. ROME COMES INTO HISTORY 174 +XXXII. ROME AND CARTHAGE 180 +XXXIII. THE GROWTH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 185 +XXXIV. BETWEEN ROME AND CHINA 196 +XXXV. THE COMMON MAN’S LIFE UNDER THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE 201 +XXXVI. RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE 208 +XXXVII. THE TEACHING OF JESUS 214 +XXXVIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINAL CHRISTIANITY 222 +XXXIX. THE BARBARIANS BREAK THE EMPIRE INTO EAST AND WEST 227 +XL. THE HUNS AND THE END OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 233 +XLI. THE BYZANTINE AND SASSANID EMPIRES 238 +XLII. THE DYNASTIES OF SUY AND TANG IN CHINA 245 +XLIII. MUHAMMAD AND ISLAM 248 +XLIV. THE GREAT DAYS OF THE ARABS 253 +XLV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN CHRISTENDOM 258 +XLVI. THE CRUSADES AND THE AGE OF PAPAL DOMINION 267 +XLVII. RECALCITRANT PRINCES AND THE GREAT SCHISM 277 +XLVIII. THE MONGOL CONQUESTS 287 +XLIX. THE INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL OF THE EUROPEANS 294 +L. THE REFORMATION OF THE LATIN CHURCH 304 +LI. THE EMPEROR CHARLES V 309 +LII. THE AGE OF POLITICAL EXPERIMENTS; OF GRAND MONARCHY AND + PARLIAMENTS AND REPUBLICANISM IN EUROPE 318 +LIII. THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS 329 +LIV. THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 335 +LV. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE RESTORATION OF MONARCHY IN FRANCE 341 +LVI. +THE UNEASY PEACE IN EUROPE THAT FOLLOWED THE FALL OF NAPOLEON 349 +LVII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL KNOWLEDGE 355 +LVIII. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 365 +LIX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IDEAS 370 +LX. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNITED STATES 382 +LXI. THE RISE OF GERMANY TO PREDOMINANCE IN EUROPE 390 +LXII. THE NEW OVERSEAS EMPIRES OF THE STEAMSHIP AND RAILWAY 393 +LXIII. +EUROPEAN AGGRESSION IN ASIA, AND THE RISE OF JAPAN 399 +LXIV. THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1914 405 +LXV. THE AGE OF ARMAMENT IN EUROPE, AND THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-18 409 +LXVI. THE REVOLUTION AND FAMINE IN RUSSIA 415 +LXVII. THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WORLD 421 +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 429 +INDEX 439 + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +Page + +Luminous Spiral Clouds of Matter 2 + +Nebula seen Edge-on 3 + +The Great Spiral Nebula 6 + +A Dark Nebula 7 + +Another Spiral Nebula 8 + +Landscape before Life 9 + +Marine Life in the Cambrian Period 12 + +Fossil Trilobite 13 + +Early Palæozoic Fossils of various Species of + Lingula 14 + +Fossilized Footprints of a Labyrinthodont, Cheirotherium 15 + +Pterichthys Milleri 17 + +Fossil of Cladoselache 18 + +Sharks and Ganoids of the Devonian Period 19 + +A Carboniferous Swamp 22 + +Skull of a Labyrinthodont, Capitosaurus 23 + +Skeleton of a Labyrinthodont: The Eryops 24 + +A Fossil Ichthyosaurus 27 + +A Pterodactyl 28 + +The Diplodocus 29 + +Fossil of Archeopteryx 32 + +Hesperornis in its Native Seas 33 + +The Ki-wi 34 + +Slab of Marl Rich in Cainozoic Fossils 35 + +Titanotherium Robustum 38 + +Skeleton of Giraffe-camel 40 + +Skeleton of Early Horse 40 + +Comparative Sizes of Brains of Rhinoceros and Dinoceras 41 + +A Mammoth 44 + +Flint Implements from Piltdown Region 45 + +A Pithecanthropean Man 46 + +The Heidelberg Man 46 + +The Piltdown Skull 47 + +A Neanderthaler 49 + +Europe and Western Asia 50,000 years ago + +_Map_ 50 + +Comparison of Modern Skull and Rhodesian Skull 51 + +Altamira Cave Paintings 54 + +Later Palæolithic Carvings 55 + +Bust of Cro-magnon Man 57 + +Later Palæolithic Art 58 + +Relics of the Stone Age 62 + +Gray’s Inn Lane Flint Implement 63 + +Somaliland Flint Implement 63 + +Neolithic Flint Implement 67 + +Australian Spearheads 68 + +Neolithic Pottery 69 + +Relationship of Human Races _Map_ 72 + +A Maya Stele 73 + +European Neolithic Warrior 75 + +Babylonian Brick 78 + +Egyptian Cylinder Seals of First Dynasty 79 + +The Sakhara Pyramids 80 + +The Pyramid of Cheops: Scene from Summit 81 + +The Temple of Hathor 82 + +Pottery and Implements of the Lake + Dwellers 85 + +A Lake Village 86 + +Flint Knives of 4500 B.C. 87 + +Egyptian Wall Paintings of Nomads 87 + +Egyptian Peasants Going to Work 88 + +Stele of Naram Sin 89 + +The Treasure House at Mycenæ 93 + +The Palace at Cnossos 95 + +Temple at Abu Simbel 97 + +Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak 98 + +The Hypostyle Hall at Karnak 99 + +Frieze of Slaves 101 + +The Temple of Horus, Edfu 103 + +Archaic Amphora 105 + +The Mound of Nippur 107 + +Median and Chaldean Empires _Map_ 110 + +The Empire of Darius _Map_ 111 + +A Persian Monarch 112 + +The Ruins of Persepolis 113 + +The Great Porch of Xerxes 113 + +The Land of the Hebrews _Map_ 117 + +Nebuchadnezzar’s Mound at Babylon 118 + +The Ishtar Gateway, Babylon 120 + +Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II 124 + +Captive Princes making Obeisance 125 + +Statue of Meleager 128 + +Ruins of Temple of Zeus 130 + +The Temple of Neptune, Pæstum 132 + +Greek Ships on Ancient Pottery 135 + +The Temple of Corinth 137 + +The Temple of Neptune at Cape Sunium 138 + +Frieze of the Parthenon, Athens 140 + +The Acropolis, Athens 141 + +Theatre at Epidauros, Greece 141 + +The Caryatides of the Erechtheum 142 + +Athene of the Parthenon 143 + +Alexander the Great 146 + +Alexander’s Victory at Issus 147 + +The Apollo Belvedere 148 + +Aristotle 152 + +Statuette of Maitreya 153 + +The Death of Buddha 154 + +Tibetan Buddha 158 + +A Burmese Buddha 159 + +The Dhamêkh Tower, Sarnath 160 + +A Chinese Buddhist Apostle 164 + +The Court of Asoka 165 + +Asoka Panel from Bharhut 165 + +The Pillar of Lions (Asokan) 166 + +Confucius 169 + +The Great Wall of China 171 + +Early Chinese Bronze Bell 172 + +The Dying Gaul 175 + +Ancient Roman Cisterns at Carthage 177 + +Hannibal 181 + +Roman Empire and its Alliances, 150 B.C. _Map_ 183 + +The Forum, Rome 188 + +Ruined Coliseum in Tunis 189 + +Roman Arch at Ctesiphon 190 + +The Column of Trajan, Rome 193 + +Glazed Jar of Han Dynasty 197 + +Vase of Han Dynasty 198 + +Chinese Vessel in Bronze 199 + +A Gladiator (contemporary representation) 202 + +A Street in Pompeii 204 + +The Coliseum, Rome 206 + +Interior of Coliseum 206 + +Mithras Sacrificing a Bull 210 + +Isis and Horus 211 + +Bust of Emperor Commodus 212 + +Early Portrait of Jesus Christ 216 + +Road from Nazareth to Tiberias 217 + +David’s Tower and Wall of Jerusalem 218 + +A Street in Jerusalem 219 + +The Peter and Paul Mosaic at Rome 223 + +Baptism of Christ (Ivory Panel) 225 + +Roman Empire and the Barbarians _Map_ 228 + +Constantine’s Pillar, Constantinople 229 + +The Obelisk of Theodosius, Constantinople 231 + +Head of Barbarian Chief 235 + +The Church of S. Sophia, Constantinople 239 + +Roof-work in S. Sophia 240 + +Justinian and his Court 241 + +The Rock-hewn Temple at Petra 242 + +Chinese Earthenware of Tang Dynasty 246 + +At Prayer in the Desert 250 + +Looking Across the Sea of Sand 251 + +Growth of Moslem Power _Map_ 254 + +The Moslem Empire _Map_ 254 + +The Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem 255 + +Cairo Mosques 256 + +Frankish Dominions of Martel _Map_ 260 + +Statue of Charlemagne 262 + +Europe at Death of Charlemagne _Map_ 264 + +Crusader Tombs, Exeter Cathedral 268 + +View of Cairo 269 + +The Horses of S. Mark, Venice 271 + +Courtyard in the Alhambra 273 + +Milan Cathedral (showing spires) 278 + +A Typical Crusader 280 + +Burgundian Nobility (Statuettes) 283 + +Burgundian Nobility (Statuettes) 284 + +The Empire of Jengis Khan _Map_ 288 + +Ottoman Empire before 1453 _Map_ 289 + +Tartar Horsemen 291 + +Ottoman Empire, 1566 _Map_ 292 + +An Early Printing Press 296 + +Ancient Bronze from Benin 299 + +Negro Bronze-work 300 + +Early Sailing Ship (Italian Engraving) 301 + +Portrait of Martin Luther 305 + +The Church Triumphant (Italian Majolica work, 1543) 307 + +Charles V (the Titian Portrait) 311 + +S. Peter’s, Rome: the High Altar 315 + +Cromwell Dissolves the Long Parliament 321 + +The Court at Versailles 323 + +Sack of a Village, French Revolution 325 + +Central Europe after Peace of Westphalia, + 1648 _Map_ 326 + +European Territory in America, 1750 _Map_ 330 + +Europeans Tiger Hunting in India 331 + +Fall of Tippoo Sultan 332 + +George Washington 337 + +The Battle of Bunker Hill 338 + +The U.S.A., 1790 339 + +The Trial of Louis XVI 344 + +Execution of Marie Antoinette 346 + +Portrait of Napoleon 352 + +Europe after the Congress of Vienna _Map_ 353 + +Early Rolling Stock, Liverpool and Manchester + Railway 356 + +Passenger Train in 1833 356 + +The Steamboat _Clermont_ 357 + +Eighteenth Century Spinning Wheel 361 + +Arkwright’s Spinning Jenny 361 + +An Early Weaving Machine 363 + +An Incident of the Slave Trade 367 + +Early Factory, in Colebrookdale 368 + +Carl Marx 372 + +Electric Conveyor, in Coal Mine 376 + +Constructional Detail, Forth Bridge 378 + +American River Steamer 385 + +Abraham Lincoln 387 + +Europe, 1848-71 _Map_ 391 + +Victoria Falls, Zambesi 395 + +The British Empire, 1815 _Map_ 397 + +Japanese Soldier, Eighteenth Century 401 + +A Street in Tokio 403 + +Overseas Empires of Europe, 1914 _Map_ 406 + +Gibraltar 407 + +Street in Hong Kong 408 + +British Tank in Battle 410 + +The Ruins of Ypres 411 + +Modern War: War Entanglements 412 + +A View in Petersburg under Bolshevik Rule 418 + +Passenger Aeroplane in Flight 423 + +A Peaceful Garden in England 426 + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD + + + +I +THE WORLD IN SPACE + + +The story of our world is a story that is still very imperfectly known. +A couple of hundred years ago men possessed the history of little more +than the last three thousand years. What happened before that time was +a matter of legend and speculation. Over a large part of the civilized +world it was believed and taught that the world had been created +suddenly in 4004 B.C., though authorities differed as to whether this +had occurred in the spring or autumn of that year. This fantastically +precise misconception was based upon a too literal interpretation of +the Hebrew Bible, and upon rather arbitrary theological assumptions +connected therewith. Such ideas have long since been abandoned by +religious teachers, and it is universally recognized that the universe +in which we live has to all appearances existed for an enormous period +of time and possibly for endless time. Of course there may be +deception in these appearances, as a room may be made to seem endless +by putting mirrors facing each other at either end. But that the +universe in which we live has existed only for six or seven thousand +years may be regarded as an altogether exploded idea. + +The earth, as everybody knows nowadays, is a spheroid, a sphere +slightly compressed, orange fashion, with a diameter of nearly 8,000 +miles. Its spherical shape has been known at least to a limited number +of intelligent people for nearly 2,500 years, but before that time it +was supposed to be flat, and various ideas which now seem fantastic +were entertained about its relations to the sky and the stars and +planets. We know now that it rotates upon its axis (which is about 24 +miles shorter than its equatorial diameter) every twenty-four hours, +and that this is the cause of the alternations of day and night, that +it circles about the sun in a slightly distorted and slowly variable +oval path in a year. Its distance from the sun varies between +ninety-one and a half millions at its nearest and ninety-four and a +half million miles. + + +LUMINOUS SPIRAL CLOUDS OF MATTER +“LUMINOUS SPIRAL CLOUDS OF MATTER” + +(Nebula photographed 1910) + +_Photo: G. W. Ritchey_ + + +About the earth circles a smaller sphere, the moon, at an average +distance of 239,000 miles. Earth and moon are not the only bodies to +travel round the sun. There are also the planets, Mercury and Venus, +at distances of thirty-six and sixty-seven millions of miles; and +beyond the circle of the earth and disregarding a belt of numerous +smaller bodies, the planetoids, there are Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, +Uranus and Neptune at mean distances of 141, 483, 886, 1,782, and 1,793 +millions of miles respectively. These figures in millions of miles are +very difficult for the mind to grasp. It may help the reader’s +imagination if we reduce the sun and planets to a smaller, more +conceivable scale. + + +THE NEBULA SEEN EDGE ON +THE NEBULA SEEN EDGE-ON + +Note the central core which, through millions of years, is cooling to +solidity + +_Photo: G. W. Ritchey_ + + +If, then, we represent our earth as a little ball of one inch diameter, + the sun would be a big globe nine feet across and 323 yards away, that + is about a fifth of a mile, four or five minutes’ walking. The moon +would be a small pea two feet and a half from the world. Between earth +and sun there would be the two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, at +distances of one hundred and twenty-five and two hundred and fifty +yards from the sun. All round and about these bodies there would be +emptiness until you came to Mars, a hundred and seventy-five feet +beyond the earth; Jupiter nearly a mile away, a foot in diameter; +Saturn, a little smaller, two miles off; Uranus four miles off and +Neptune six miles off. Then nothingness and nothingness except for +small particles and drifting scraps of attenuated vapour for thousands +of miles. The nearest star to earth on this scale would be 40,000 +miles away. + +These figures will serve perhaps to give one some conception of the +immense emptiness of space in which the drama of life goes on. + +For in all this enormous vacancy of space we know certainly of life +only upon the surface of our earth. It does not penetrate much more +than three miles down into the 4,000 miles that separate us from the +centre of our globe, and it does not reach more than five miles above +its surface. Apparently all the limitlessness of space is otherwise +empty and dead. + +The deepest ocean dredgings go down to five miles. The highest recorded +flight of an aeroplane is little more than four miles. Men have reached +to seven miles up in balloons, but at a cost of great suffering. No +bird can fly so high as five miles, and small birds and insects which +have been carried up by aeroplanes drop off insensible far below that +level. + + + + +II +THE WORLD IN TIME + + +In the last fifty years there has been much very fine and interesting +speculation on the part of scientific men upon the age and origin of +our earth. Here we cannot pretend to give even a summary of such +speculations because they involve the most subtle mathematical and +physical considerations. The truth is that the physical and +astronomical sciences are still too undeveloped as yet to make anything +of the sort more than an illustrative guesswork. The general tendency +has been to make the estimated age of our globe longer and longer. It +now seems probable that the earth has had an independent existence as a +spinning planet flying round and round the sun for a longer period than +2,000,000,000 years. It may have been much longer than that. This is a +length of time that absolutely overpowers the imagination. + +Before that vast period of separate existence, the sun and earth and +the other planets that circulate round the sun may have been a great +swirl of diffused matter in space. The telescope reveals to us in +various parts of the heavens luminous spiral clouds of matter, the +spiral nebulæ, which appear to be in rotation about a centre. It is +supposed by many astronomers that the sun and its planets were once +such a spiral, and that their matter has undergone concentration into +its present form. Through majestic æons that concentration went on +until in that vast remoteness of the past for which we have given +figures, the world and its moon were distinguishable. They were +spinning then much faster than they are spinning now; they were at a +lesser distance from the sun; they travelled round it very much faster, +and they were probably incandescent or molten at the surface. The sun +itself was a much greater blaze in the heavens. + +THE GREAT SPIRAL NEBULA +THE GREAT SPIRAL NEBULA + +_Photo: G. W. Ritchey_ + +If we could go back through that infinitude of time and see the earth +in this earlier stage of its history, we should behold a scene more +like the interior of a blast furnace or the surface of a lava flow +before it cools and cakes over than any other contemporary scene. No +water would be visible because all the water there was would still be +superheated steam in a stormy atmosphere of sulphurous and metallic +vapours. Beneath this would swirl and boil an ocean of molten rock +substance. Across a sky of fiery clouds the glare of the hurrying sun +and moon would sweep swiftly like hot breaths of flame. + +A DARK NEBULA +A DARK NEBULA +_Taken in 1920 with the aid of the largest telescope in the world. One +of the first photographs taken by the Mount Wilson telescope._ + +There are dark nebulæ and bright nebulæ. Prof. Henry Norris Russell, +against the British theory, holds that the dark nebulæ preceded the +bright nebulæ. + +_Photo: Prof. Hale_ + + +Slowly by degrees as one million of years followed another, this fiery +scene would lose its eruptive incandescence. The vapours in the sky +would rain down and become less dense overhead; great slaggy cakes of +solidifying rock would appear upon the surface of the molten sea, and +sink under it, to be replaced by other floating masses. The sun and +moon growing now each more distant and each smaller, would rush with +diminishing swiftness across the heavens. The moon now, because of its +smaller size, would be already cooled far below incandescence, and +would be alternately obstructing and reflecting the sunlight in a +series of eclipses and full moons. + + +ANOTHER SPIRAL NEBULA +ANOTHER SPIRAL NEBULA + +_Photo: G. W. Ritchey_ + +And so with a tremendous slowness through the vastness of time, the +earth would grow more and more like the earth on which we live, until +at last an age would come when, in the cooling air, steam would begin +to condense into clouds, and the first rain would fall hissing upon the +first rocks below. For endless millenia the greater part of the +earth’s water would still be vaporized in the atmosphere, but there +would now be hot streams running over the crystallizing rocks below and +pools and lakes into which these streams would be carrying detritus and +depositing sediment. + + +LANDSCAPE BEFORE LIFE +LANDSCAPE BEFORE LIFE +“Great lava-like masses of rock without traces of soil” + + +At last a condition of things must have been attained in which a man +might have stood up on earth and looked about him and lived. If we +could have visited the earth at that time we should have stood on great +lava-like masses of rock without a trace of soil or touch of living +vegetation, under a storm-rent sky. Hot and violent winds, exceeding +the fiercest tornado that ever blows, and downpours of rain such as our +milder, slower earth to-day knows nothing of, might have assailed us. +The water of the downpour would have rushed by us, muddy with the +spoils of the rocks, coming together into torrents, cutting deep gorges +and canyons as they hurried past to deposit their sediment in the +earliest seas. Through the clouds we should have glimpsed a great sun +moving visibly across the sky, and in its wake and in the wake of the +moon would have come a diurnal tide of earthquake and upheaval. And + +the moon, which nowadays keeps one constant face to earth, would then +have been rotating visibly and showing the side it now hides so +inexorably. + +The earth aged. One million years followed another, and the day +lengthened, the sun grew more distant and milder, the moon’s pace in +the sky slackened; the intensity of rain and storm diminished and the +water in the first seas increased and ran together into the ocean +garment our planet henceforth wore. + +But there was no life as yet upon the earth; the seas were lifeless, +and the rocks were barren. + + + + +III +THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE + + +As everybody knows nowadays, the knowledge we possess of life before +the beginnings of human memory and tradition is derived from the +markings and fossils of living things in the stratified rocks. We find +preserved in shale and slate, limestone, and sandstone, bones, shells, +fibres, stems, fruits, footmarks, scratchings and the like, side by +side with the ripple marks of the earliest tides and the pittings of +the earliest rain-falls. It is by the sedulous examination of this +Record of the Rocks that the past history of the earth’s life has been +pieced together. That much nearly everybody knows to-day. The +sedimentary rocks do not lie neatly stratum above stratum; they have +been crumpled, bent, thrust about, distorted and mixed together like +the leaves of a library that has been repeatedly looted and burnt, and +it is only as a result of many devoted lifetimes of work that the +record has been put into order and read. The whole compass of time +represented by the record of the rocks is now estimated as +1,600,000,000 years. + +The earliest rocks in the record are called by geologists the Azoic +rocks, because they show no traces of life. Great areas of these Azoic +rocks lie uncovered in North America, and they are of such a thickness +that geologists consider that they represent a period of at least half +of the 1,600,000,000 which they assign to the whole geological record. +Let me repeat this profoundly significant fact. Half the great interval +of time since land and sea were first distinguishable on earth has left +us no traces of life. There are ripplings and rain marks still to be +found in these rocks, but no marks nor vestiges of any living thing. + +MARINE LIFE IN THE CAMBRIAN PERIOD +MARINE LIFE IN THE CAMBRIAN PERIOD +1 and 8, Jellyfishes; 2, Hyolithes (swimming snail); 3, Humenocaris; +4, Protospongia; 5, Lampshells (Obolella); 6, Orthoceras; 7, +Trilobite (Paradoxides) — see fossil on page 13; 9, Coral +(Archæocyathus); 10, Bryograptus; 11, Trilobite (Olenellus); 12, +Palesterina + + +Then, as we come up the record, signs of past life appear and increase. + The age of the world’s history in which we find these past traces is +called by geologists the Lower Palæozoic age. The first indications +that life was astir are vestiges of comparatively simple and lowly +things: the shells of small shellfish, the stems and flowerlike heads +of zoophytes, seaweeds and the tracks and remains of sea worms and +crustacea. Very early appear certain creatures rather like plant-lice, +crawling creatures which could roll themselves up into balls as the +plant-lice do, the trilobites. Later by a few million years or so come +certain sea scorpions, more mobile and powerful creatures than the +world had ever seen before. + + +FOSSIL TRILOBITE (SLIGHTLY MAGNIFIED) +FOSSIL TRILOBITE (SLIGHTLY MAGNIFIED) +_Photo: John J. Ward, F.E.S._ + + +None of these creatures were of very great size. Among the largest +were certain of the sea scorpions, which measured nine feet in length. +There are no signs whatever of land life of any sort, plant or animal; +there are no fishes nor any vertebrated creatures in this part of the +record. Essentially all the plants and creatures which have left us +their traces from this period of the earth’s history are shallow-water +and intertidal beings. If we wished to parallel the flora and fauna of +the Lower Palæozoic rocks on the earth to-day, we should do it best, +except in the matter of size, by taking a drop of water from a rock +pool or scummy ditch and examining it under a microscope. The little +crustacea, the small shellfish, the zoophytes and algæ we should find +there would display a quite striking resemblance to these clumsier, +larger prototypes that once were the crown of life upon our planet. + + +EARLY PALÆOLITHIC FOSSILS OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF LINGULA +EARLY PALÆOLITHIC FOSSILS OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF LINGULA + +Species of this most ancient genus of shellfish still live to-day + +_(In Natural History Museum, London)_ + + +It is well, however, to bear in mind that the Lower Palæozoic rocks +probably do not give us anything at all representative of the first +beginnings of life on our planet. Unless a creature has bones or other +hard parts, unless it wears a shell or is big enough and heavy enough +to make characteristic footprints and trails in mud, it is unlikely to +leave any fossilized traces of its existence behind. To-day there are +hundreds of thousands of species of small soft-bodied creatures in our +world which it is inconceivable can ever leave any mark for future +geologists to discover. In the world’s past, millions of millions of +species of such creatures may have lived and multiplied and flourished +and passed away without a trace remaining. The waters of the warm and +shallow lakes and seas of the so-called Azoic period may have teemed +with an infinite variety of lowly, jelly-like, shell-less and boneless +creatures, and a multitude of green scummy plants may have spread over +the sunlit intertidal rocks and beaches. The Record of the Rocks is no +more a complete record of life in the past than the books of a bank are +a record of the existence of everybody in the neighbourhood. It is +only when a species begins to secrete a shell or a spicule or a +carapace or a lime-supported stem, and so put by something for the +future, that it goes upon the Record. But in rocks of an age prior to +those which bear any fossil traces, graphite, a form of uncombined +carbon, is sometimes found, and some authorities consider that it may +have been separated out from combination through the vital activities +of unknown living things. + + + FOSSILIZED FOOTPRINTS OF A LABYRINTHODONT CHEIROTHERIUM +FOSSILIZED FOOTPRINTS OF A LABYRINTHODONT CHEIROTHERIUM + +_(In Natural History Museum, London)_ + + + + +IV +THE AGE OF FISHES + + +In the days when the world was supposed to have endured for only a few +thousand years, it was supposed that the different species of plants +and animals were fixed and final; they had all been created exactly as +they are to-day, each species by itself. But as men began to discover +and study the Record of the Rocks this belief gave place to the +suspicion that many species had changed and developed slowly through +the course of ages, and this again expanded into a belief in what is +called Organic Evolution, a belief that all species of life upon earth, +animal and vegetable alike, are descended by slow continuous processes +of change from some very simple ancestral form of life, some almost +structureless living substance, far back in the so-called Azoic seas. + +This question of Organic Evolution, like the question of the age of the +earth, has in the past been the subject of much bitter controversy. +There was a time when a belief in organic evolution was for rather +obscure reasons supposed to be incompatible with sound Christian, +Jewish and Moslem doctrine. That time has passed, and the men of the +most orthodox Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Mohammedan belief are +now free to accept this newer and broader view of a common origin of +all living things. No life seems to have happened suddenly upon earth. + Life grew and grows. Age by age through gulfs of time at which +imagination reels, life has been growing from a mere stirring in the +intertidal slime towards freedom, power and consciousness. + +Life consists of individuals. These individuals are definite things, +they are not like the lumps and masses, nor even the limitless and +motionless crystals, of non-living matter, and they have two +characteristics no dead matter possesses. They can assimilate other +matter into themselves and make it part of themselves, and they can +reproduce themselves. They eat and they breed. They can give rise to +other individuals, for the most part like themselves, but always also a +little different from themselves. There is a specific and family +resemblance between an individual and its offspring, and there is an +individual difference between every parent and every offspring it +produces, and this is true in every species and at every stage of life. + + +SPECIMEN OF THE PTERICHTHYS MILLERI OR SEA SCORPION SHOWING BODY ARMOUR +SPECIMEN OF THE PTERICHTHYS MILLERI OR SEA SCORPION SHOWING BODY ARMOUR + + +Now scientific men are not able to explain to us either why offspring +should resemble nor why they should differ from their parents. But +seeing that offspring do at once resemble and differ, it is a matter +rather of common sense than of scientific knowledge that, if the +conditions under which a species live are changed, the species should +undergo some correlated changes. Because in any generation of the +species there must be a number of individuals whose individual +differences make them better adapted to the new conditions under which +the species has to live, and a number whose individuals whose +individual differences make it rather harder for them to live. And on +the whole the former sort will live longer, bear more offspring, and +reproduce themselves more abundantly than the latter, and so generation +by generation the average of the species will change in the favourable +direction. This process, which is called Natural Selection, is not so +much a scientific theory as a necessary deduction from the facts of +reproduction and individual difference. There may be many forces at +work varying, destroying and preserving species, about which science +may still be unaware or undecided, but the man who can deny the +operation of this process of natural selection upon life since its +beginning must be either ignorant of the elementary facts of life or +incapable of ordinary thought. + +Many scientific men have speculated about the first beginning of life +and their speculations are often of great interest, but there is +absolutely no definite knowledge and no convincing guess yet of the way +in which life began. But nearly all authorities are agreed that it +probably began upon mud or sand in warm sunlit shallow brackish water, +and that it spread up the beaches to the intertidal lines and out to +the open waters. + + +FOSSIL OF THE CLADOSELACHE, A DEVONIAN SHARK +FOSSIL OF THE CLADOSELACHE, A DEVONIAN SHARK + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +That early world was a world of strong tides and currents. An +incessant destruction of individuals must have been going on through +their being swept up the beaches and dried, or by their being swept out +to sea and sinking down out of reach of air and sun. Early conditions +favoured the development of every tendency to root and hold on, every +tendency to form an outer skin and casing to protect the stranded +individual from immediate desiccation. From the very earliest any +tendency to sensitiveness to taste would turn the individual in the +direction of food, and any sensitiveness to light would assist it to +struggle back out of the darkness of the sea deeps and caverns or to +wriggle back out of the excessive glare of the dangerous shallows. + +Probably the first shells and body armour of living things were +protections against drying rather than against active enemies. But +tooth and claw come early into our earthly history. + +We have already noted the size of the earlier water scorpions. For +long ages such creatures were the supreme lords of life. Then in a +division of these Palæozoic rocks called the Silurian division, which +many geologists now suppose to be as old as five hundred million years, +there appears a new type of being, equipped with eyes and teeth and +swimming powers of an altogether more powerful kind. These were the +first known backboned animals, the earliest fishes, the first known +Vertebrata. + + +SHARKS AND GANOIDS OF THE DEVONIAN PERIOD +SHARKS AND GANOIDS OF THE DEVONIAN PERIOD + +_By Alice Woodward_ + + +These fishes increase greatly in the next division of rocks, the rocks +known as the Devonian system. They are so prevalent that this period +of the Record of the Rocks has been called the Age of Fishes. Fishes +of a pattern now gone from the earth, and fishes allied to the sharks +and sturgeons of to-day, rushed through the waters, leapt in the air, +browsed among the seaweeds, pursued and preyed upon one another, and +gave a new liveliness to the waters of the world. None of these were +excessively big by our present standards. Few of them were more than +two or three feet long, but there were exceptional forms which were as +long as twenty feet. + +We know nothing from geology of the ancestors of these fishes. They do +not appear to be related to any of the forms that preceded them. +Zoologists have the most interesting views of their ancestry, but these +they derive from the study of the development of the eggs of their +still living relations, and from other sources. Apparently the +ancestors of the vertebrata were soft-bodied and perhaps quite small +swimming creatures who began first to develop hard parts as teeth round +and about their mouths. The teeth of a skate or dogfish cover the roof +and floor of its mouth and pass at the lip into the flattened toothlike +scales that encase most of its body. As the fishes develop these teeth +scales in the geological record, they swim out of the hidden darkness +of the past into the light, the first vertebrated animals visible in +the record. + + + + +V +THE AGE OF THE COAL SWAMPS + + +The land during this Age of Fishes was apparently quite lifeless. Crags +and uplands of barren rock lay under the sun and rain. There was no +real soil—for as yet there were no earthworms which help to make a +soil, and no plants to break up the rock particles into mould; there +was no trace of moss or lichen. Life was still only in the sea. + +Over this world of barren rock played great changes of climate. The +causes of these changes of climate were very complex and they have +still to be properly estimated. The changing shape of the earth’s +orbit, the gradual shifting of the poles of rotation, changes in the +shapes of the continents, probably even fluctuations in the warmth of +the sun, now conspired to plunge great areas of the earth’s surface +into long periods of cold and ice and now again for millions of years +spread a warm or equable climate over this planet. There seem to have +been phases of great internal activity in the world’s history, when in +the course of a few million years accumulated upthrusts would break out +in lines of volcanic eruption and upheaval and rearrange the mountain +and continental outlines of the globe, increasing the depth of the sea +and the height of the mountains and exaggerating the extremes of +climate. And these would be followed by vast ages of comparative +quiescence, when frost, rain and river would wear down the mountain +heights and carry great masses of silt to fill and raise the sea +bottoms and spread the seas, ever shallower and wider, over more and +more of the land. There have been “high and deep” ages in the world’s +history and “low and level” ages. The reader must dismiss from his +mind any idea that the surface of the earth has been growing steadily +cooler since its crust grew solid. After that much cooling had been +achieved, the internal temperature ceased to affect surface conditions. +There are traces of periods of superabundant ice and snow, of “Glacial +Ages,” that is, even in the Azoic period. + +It was only towards the close of the Age of Fishes, in a period of +extensive shallow seas and lagoons, that life spread itself out in any +effectual way from the waters on to the land. No doubt the earlier +types of the forms that now begin to appear in great abundance had +already been developing in a rare and obscure manner for many scores of +millions of years. But now came their opportunity. + + +A CARBONIFEROUS SWAMP +A CARBONIFEROUS SWAMP + +_A Coal Seam in the Making_ + + +Plants no doubt preceded animal forms in this invasion of the land, but +the animals probably followed up the plant emigration very closely. The +first problem that the plant had to solve was the problem of some +sustaining stiff support to hold up its fronds to the sunlight when the +buoyant water was withdrawn; the second was the problem of getting +water from the swampy ground below to the tissues of the plant, now +that it was no longer close at hand. The two problems were solved by +the development of woody tissue which both sustained the plant and +acted as water carrier to the leaves. The Record of the Rocks is +suddenly crowded by a vast variety of woody swamp plants, many of them +of great size, big tree mosses, tree ferns, gigantic horsetails and the +like. And with these, age by age, there crawled out of the water a +great variety of animal forms. There were centipedes and millipedes; +there were the first primitive insects; there were creatures related to +the ancient king crabs and sea scorpions which became the earliest +spiders and land scorpions, and presently there were vertebrated +animals. + + +SKULL OF A LABYRINTHODONT, CAPITOSAURUS +SKULL OF A LABYRINTHODONT, CAPITOSAURUS + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +Some of the earlier insects were very large. There were dragon flies in +this period with wings that spread out to twenty-nine inches. + +In various ways these new orders and genera had adapted themselves to +breathing air. Hitherto all animals had breathed air dissolved in +water, and that indeed is what all animals still have to do. But now in +divers fashions the animal kingdom was acquiring the power of supplying +its own moisture where it was needed. A man with a perfectly dry lung +would suffocate to-day; his lung surfaces must be moist in order that +air may pass through them into his blood. The adaptation to air +breathing consists in all cases either in the development of a cover to +the old-fashioned gills to stop evaporation, or in the development of +tubes or other new breathing organs lying deep inside the body and +moistened by a watery secretion. The old gills with which the +ancestral fish of the vertebrated line had breathed were inadaptable to +breathing upon land, and in the case of this division of the animal +kingdom it is the swimming bladder of the fish which becomes a new, +deep-seated breathing organ, the lung. The kind of animals known as +amphibia, the frogs and newts of to-day, begin their lives in the water +and breathe by gills; and subsequently the lung, developing in the same +way as the swimming bladder of many fishes do, as a baglike outgrowth +from the throat, takes over the business of breathing, the animal comes +out on land, and the gills dwindle and the gill slits disappear. (All +except an outgrowth of one gill slit, which becomes the passage of the +ear and ear-drum.) The animal can now live only in the air, but it +must return at least to the edge of the water to lay its eggs and +reproduce its kind. + + +SKELETON OF A LABYRINTHODONT: THE ERYOPS +SKELETON OF A LABYRINTHODONT: THE ERYOPS + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +All the air-breathing vertebrata of this age of swamps and plants +belonged to the class amphibia. They were nearly all of them forms +related to the newts of to-day, and some of them attained a +considerable size. They were land animals, it is true, but they were +land animals needing to live in and near moist and swampy places, and +all the great trees of this period were equally amphibious in their +habits. None of them had yet developed fruits and seeds of a kind that +could fall on land and develop with the help only of such moisture as +dew and rain could bring. They all had to shed their spores in water, +it would seem, if they were to germinate. + +It is one of the most beautiful interests of that beautiful science, +comparative anatomy, to trace the complex and wonderful adaptations of +living things to the necessities of existence in air. All living +things, plants and animals alike, are primarily water things. For +example all the higher vertebrated animals above the fishes, up to and +including man, pass through a stage in their development in the egg or +before birth in which they have gill slits which are obliterated before +the young emerge. The bare, water-washed eye of the fish is protected +in the higher forms from drying up by eyelids and glands which secrete +moisture. The weaker sound vibrations of air necessitate an ear-drum. +In nearly every organ of the body similar modifications and adaptations +are to be detected, similar patchings-up to meet aerial conditions. + +This Carboniferous age, this age of the amphibia, was an age of life in +the swamps and lagoons and on the low banks among these waters. Thus +far life had now extended. The hills and high lands were still quite +barren and lifeless. Life had learnt to breathe air indeed, but it +still had its roots in its native water; it still had to return to the +water to reproduce its kind. + + + + +VI +THE AGE OF REPTILES + + +The abundant life of the Carboniferous period was succeeded by a vast +cycle of dry and bitter ages. They are represented in the Record of +the Rocks by thick deposits of sandstones and the like, in which +fossils are comparatively few. The temperature of the world fluctuated +widely, and there were long periods of glacial cold. Over great areas +the former profusion of swamp vegetation ceased, and, overlaid by these +newer deposits, it began that process of compression and mineralization +that gave the world most of the coal deposits of to-day. + +But it is during periods of change that life undergoes its most rapid +modifications, and under hardship that it learns its hardest lessons. +As conditions revert towards warmth and moisture again we find a new +series of animal and plant forms established, We find in the record +the remains of vertebrated animals that laid eggs which, instead of +hatching out tadpoles which needed to live for a time in water, carried +on their development before hatching to a stage so nearly like the +adult form that the young could live in air from the first moment of +independent existence. Gills had been cut out altogether, and the gill +slits only appeared as an embryonic phase. + +These new creatures without a tadpole stage were the Reptiles. +Concurrently there had been a development of seed-bearing trees, which +could spread their seed, independently of swamp or lakes. There were +now palmlike cycads and many tropical conifers, though as yet there +were no flowering plants and no grasses. There was a great number of +ferns. And there was now also an increased variety of insects. There +were beetles, though bees and butterflies had yet to come. But all the +fundamental forms of a new real land fauna and flora had been laid down +during these vast ages of severity. This new land life needed only the +opportunity of favourable conditions to flourish and prevail. + + +A FOSSIL ICHTHYOSAURUS, A MESOZOIC FISH-LIZARD +A FOSSIL ICHTHYOSAURUS, A MESOZOIC FISH-LIZARD + +Found in the Lower Lias in Somersetshire + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +Age by age and with abundant fluctuations that mitigation came. The +still incalculable movements of the earth’s crust, the changes in its +orbit, the increase and diminution of the mutual inclination of orbit +and pole, worked together to produce a great spell of widely diffused +warm conditions. The period lasted altogether, it is now supposed, +upwards of two hundred million years. It is called the Mesozoic +period, to distinguish it from the altogether vaster Palæozoic and +Azoic periods (together fourteen hundred millions) that preceded it, +and from the Cainozoic or new life period that intervened between its +close and the present time, and it is also called the Age of Reptiles +because of the astonishing predominance and variety of this form of +life. It came to an end some eighty million years ago. + +In the world to-day the genera of Reptiles are comparatively few and +their distribution is very limited. They are more various, it is true, +than are the few surviving members of the order of the amphibia which +once in the Carboniferous period ruled the world. We still have the +snakes, the turtles and tortoises (the Chelonia), the alligators and +crocodiles, and the lizards. Without exception they are creatures +requiring warmth all the year round; they cannot stand exposure to +cold, and it is probable that all the reptilian beings of the Mesozoic +suffered under the same limitation. It was a hothouse fauna, living +amidst a hothouse flora. It endured no frosts. But the world had at +least attained a real dry land fauna and flora as distinguished from +the mud and swamp fauna and flora of the previous heyday of life upon +earth. + + +A PTERODACTYL +A PTERODACTYL + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +All the sorts of reptile we know now were much more abundantly +represented then, great turtles and tortoises, big crocodiles and many +lizards and snakes, but in addition there was a number of series of +wonderful creatures that have now vanished altogether from the earth. +There was a vast variety of beings called the Dinosaurs. Vegetation was +now spreading over the lower levels of the world, reeds, brakes of fern +and the like; and browsing upon this abundance came a multitude of +herbivorous reptiles, which increased in size as the Mesozoic period +rose to its climax. Some of these beasts exceeded in size any other +land animals that have ever lived; they were as large as whales. The +_Diplodocus Carnegii_ for example measured eighty-four feet from snout +to tail; the Gigantosaurus was even greater; it measured a hundred +feet. Living upon these monsters was a swarm of carnivorous Dinosaurs +of a corresponding size. One of these, the Tyrannosaurus, is figured +and described in many books as the last word in reptilian +frightfulness. + + +A BIG SWAMP-INHABITING DINOSAUR, THE DIPLODOCUS, OVER EIGHTY FEET FROM +SNOUT TO TAIL-TIP +A BIG SWAMP-INHABITING DINOSAUR, THE DIPLODOCUS, OVER EIGHTY FEET FROM +SNOUT TO TAIL-TIP + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +While these great creatures pastured and pursued amidst the fronds and +evergreens of the Mesozoic jungles, another now vanished tribe of +reptiles, with a bat-like development of the fore limbs, pursued +insects and one another, first leapt and parachuted and presently flew +amidst the fronds and branches of the forest trees. These were the +Pterodactyls. These were the first flying creatures with backbones; +they mark a new achievement in the growing powers of vertebrated life. + +Moreover some of the reptiles were returning to the sea waters. Three +groups of big swimming beings had invaded the sea from which their +ancestors had come: the Mososaurs, the Plesiosaurs, and Ichthyosaurs. +Some of these again approached the proportions of our present whales. +The Ichthyosaurs seem to have been quite seagoing creatures, but the +Plesiosaurs were a type of animal that has no cognate form to-day. The +body was stout and big with paddles, adapted either for swimming or +crawling through marshes, or along the bottom of shallow waters. The +comparatively small head was poised on a vast snake of neck, altogether +outdoing the neck of the swan. Either the Plesiosaur swam and searched +for food under the water and fed as the swan will do, or it lurked +under water and snatched at passing fish or beast. + +Such was the predominant land life throughout the Mesozoic age. It was +by our human standards an advance upon anything that had preceded it. +It had produced land animals greater in size, range, power and +activity, more “vital” as people say, than anything the world had seen +before. In the seas there had been no such advance but a great +proliferation of new forms of life. An enormous variety of squid-like +creatures with chambered shells, for the most part coiled, had appeared +in the shallow seas, the Ammonites. They had had predecessors in the +Palæozoic seas, but now was their age of glory. To-day they have left +no survivors at all; their nearest relation is the pearly Nautilus, an +inhabitant of tropical waters. And a new and more prolific type of +fish with lighter, finer scales than the plate-like and tooth-like +coverings that had hitherto prevailed, became and has since remained +predominant in the seas and rivers. + + + + +VII +THE FIRST BIRDS AND THE FIRST MAMMALS + + +In a few paragraphs a picture of the lush vegetation and swarming +reptiles of that first great summer of life, the Mesozoic period, has +been sketched. But while the Dinosaurs lorded it over the hot selvas +and marshy plains and the Pterodactyls filled the forests with their +flutterings and possibly with shrieks and croakings as they pursued the +humming insect life of the still flowerless shrubs and trees, some less +conspicuous and less abundant forms upon the margins of this abounding +life were acquiring certain powers and learning certain lessons of +endurance, that were to be of the utmost value to their race when at +last the smiling generosity of sun and earth began to fade. + +A group of tribes and genera of hopping reptiles, small creatures of +the dinosaur type, seem to have been pushed by competition and the +pursuit of their enemies towards the alternatives of extinction or +adaptation to colder conditions in the higher hills or by the sea. +Among these distressed tribes there was developed a new type of +scale—scales that were elongated into quill-like forms and that +presently branched into the crude beginnings of feathers. These +quill-like scales layover one another and formed a heat-retaining +covering more efficient than any reptilian covering that had hitherto +existed. So they permitted an invasion of colder regions that were +otherwise uninhabited. Perhaps simultaneously with these changes there +arose in these creatures a greater solicitude for their eggs. Most +reptiles are apparently quite careless about their eggs, which are left +for sun and season to hatch. But some of the varieties upon this new +branch of the tree of life were acquiring a habit of guarding their +eggs and keeping them warm with the warmth of their bodies. + +With these adaptations to cold other internal modifications were going +on that made these creatures, the primitive birds, warm-blooded and +independent of basking. The very earliest birds seem to have been +seabirds living upon fish, and their fore limbs were not wings but +paddles rather after the penguin type. That peculiarly primitive bird, +the New Zealand Ki-Wi, has feathers of a very simple sort, and neither +flies nor appears to be descended from flying ancestors. In the +development of the birds, feathers came before wings. But once the +feather was developed the possibility of making a light spread of +feathers led inevitably to the wing. We know of the fossil remains of +one bird at least which had reptilian teeth in its jaw and a long +reptilian tail, but which also had a true bird’s wing and which +certainly flew and held its own among the pterodactyls of the Mesozoic +time. Nevertheless birds were neither varied nor abundant in Mesozoic +times. If a man could go back to typical Mesozoic country, he might +walk for days and never see or hear such a thing as a bird, though he +would see a great abundance of pterodactyls and insects among the +fronds and reeds. + + +FOSSIL OF THE ARCHEOPTERYX; ONE OF THE EARLIEST BIRDS +FOSSIL OF THE ARCHEOPTERYX; ONE OF THE EARLIEST BIRDS + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +And another thing he would probably never see, and that would be any +sign of a mammal. Probably the first mammals were in existence +millions of years before the first thing one could call a bird, but +they were altogether too small and obscure and remote for attention. + + +HESPERORNIS IN ITS NATIVE SEAS +HESPERORNIS IN ITS NATIVE SEAS + + +The earliest mammals, like the earliest birds, were creatures driven by +competition and pursuit into a life of hardship and adaptation to cold. + With them also the scale became quill-like, and was developed into a +heat-retaining covering; and they too underwent modifications, similar +in kind though different in detail, to become warm-blooded and +independent of basking. Instead of feathers they developed hairs, and +instead of guarding and incubating their eggs they kept them warm and +safe by retaining them inside their bodies until they were almost +mature. Most of them became altogether vivaparous and brought their +young into the world alive. And even after their young were born they +tended to maintain a protective and nutritive association with them. +Most but not all mammals to-day have mammæ and suckle their young. Two +mammals still live which lay eggs and which have not proper mammæ, +though they nourish their young by a nutritive secretion of the under +skin; these are the duck-billed platypus and the echidna. The echidna +lays leathery eggs and then puts them into a pouch under its belly, and +so carries them about warm and safe until they hatch. + +But just as a visitor to the Mesozoic world might have searched for +days and weeks before finding a bird, so, unless he knew exactly where +to go and look, he might have searched in vain for any traces of a +mammal. Both birds and mammals would have seemed very eccentric and +secondary and unimportant creatures in Mesozoic times. + + +THE KI-WI, APTERYX, STILL FOUND IN NEW ZEALAND +THE KI-WI, APTERYX, STILL FOUND IN NEW ZEALAND +_Photo: Autotype Fine Art Co._ + +SLAB OF LOWER PLIOCENE MARL +SLAB OF LOWER PLIOCENE MARL +Discovered in Greece; it is rich in fossilized bones of early mammals + + +The Age of Reptiles lasted, it is now guessed, eighty million years. +Had any quasi-human intelligence been watching the world through that +inconceivable length of time, how safe and eternal the sunshine and +abundance must have seemed, how assured the wallowing prosperity of the +dinosaurs and the flapping abundance of the flying lizards! And then +the mysterious rhythms and accumulating forces of the universe began to +turn against that quasi-eternal stability. That run of luck for life +was running out. Age by age, myriad of years after myriad of years, +with halts no doubt and retrogressions, came a change towards hardship +and extreme conditions, came great alterations of level and great +redistributions of mountain and sea. We find one thing in the Record +of the Rocks during the decadence of the long Mesozoic age of +prosperity that is very significant of steadily sustained changes of +condition, and that is a violent fluctuation of living forms and the +appearance of new and strange species. Under the gathering threat of +extinction the older orders and genera are displaying their utmost +capacity for variation and adaptation. The Ammonites for example in +these last pages of the Mesozoic chapter exhibit a multitude of +fantastic forms. Under settled conditions there is no encouragement +for novelties; they do not develop, they are suppressed; what is best +adapted is already there. Under novel conditions it is the ordinary +type that suffers, and the novelty that may have a better chance to +survive and establish itself.... + +There comes a break in the Record of the Rocks that may represent +several million years. There is a veil here still, over even the +outline of the history of life. When it lifts again, the Age of +Reptiles is at an end; the Dinosaurs, the Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs, +the Pterodactyls, the innumerable genera and species of Ammonite have +all gone absolutely. In all their stupendous variety they have died +out and left no descendants. The cold has killed them. All their +final variations were insufficient; they had never hit upon survival +conditions. The world had passed through a phase of extreme conditions +beyond their powers of endurance, a slow and complete massacre of +Mesozoic life has occurred, and we find now a new scene, a new and +hardier flora, and a new and hardier fauna in possession of the world. + +It is still a bleak and impoverished scene with which this new volume +of the book of life begins. The cycads and tropical conifers have given +place very largely to trees that shed their leaves to avoid destruction +by the snows of winter and to flowering plants and shrubs, and where +there was formerly a profusion of reptiles, an increasing variety of +birds and mammals is entering into their inheritance. + + + + +VIII +THE AGE OF MAMMALS + + +The opening of the next great period in the life of the earth, the +Cainozoic period, was a period of upheaval and extreme volcanic +activity. Now it was that the vast masses of the Alps and Himalayas and +the mountain backbone of the Rockies and Andes were thrust up, and that +the rude outlines of our present oceans and continents appeared. The +map of the world begins to display a first dim resemblance to the map +of to-day. It is estimated now that between forty and eighty million +years have elapsed from the beginnings of the Cainozoic period to the +present time. + +At the outset of the Cainozoic period the climate of the world was +austere. It grew generally warmer until a fresh phase of great +abundance was reached, after which conditions grew hard again and the +earth passed into a series of extremely cold cycles, the Glacial Ages, +from which apparently it is now slowly emerging. + +But we do not know sufficient of the causes of climatic change at +present to forecast the possible fluctuations of climatic conditions +that lie before us. We may be moving towards increasing sunshine or +lapsing towards another glacial age; volcanic activity and the upheaval +of mountain masses may be increasing or diminishing; we do not know; we +lack sufficient science. + +With the opening of this period the grasses appear; for the first time +there is pasture in the world; and with the full development of the +once obscure mammalian type, appear a number of interesting grazing +animals and of carnivorous types which prey upon these. + +At first these early mammals seem to differ only in a few characters +from the great herbivorous and carnivorous reptiles that ages before +had flourished and then vanished from the earth. A careless observer +might suppose that in this second long age of warmth and plenty that +was now beginning, nature was merely repeating the first, with +herbivorous and carnivorous mammals to parallel the herbivorous and +carnivorous dinosaurs, with birds replacing pterodactyls and so on. +But this would be an altogether superficial comparison. The variety of +the universe is infinite and incessant; it progresses eternally; +history never repeats itself and no parallels are precisely true. The +differences between the life of the Cainozoic and Mesozoic periods are +far profounder than the resemblances. + + +A MAMMAL OF THE EARLY CAINOZOIC PERIOD +A MAMMAL OF THE EARLY CAINOZOIC PERIOD + +The Titanotherum (Brontops) Robustum + + +The most fundamental of all these differences lies in the mental life +of the two periods. It arises essentially out of the continuing +contact of parent and offspring which distinguishes mammalian and in a +lesser degree bird life, from the life of the reptile. With very few +exceptions the reptile abandons its egg to hatch alone. The young +reptile has no knowledge whatever of its parent; its mental life, such +as it is, begins and ends with its own experiences. It may tolerate the +existence of its fellows but it has no communication with them; it +never imitates, never learns from them, is incapable of concerted +action with them. Its life is that of an isolated individual. But +with the suckling and cherishing of young which was distinctive of the +new mammalian and avian strains arose the possibility of learning by +imitation, of communication, by warning cries and other concerted +action, of mutual control and instruction. A teachable type of life +had come into the world. + +The earliest mammals of the Cainozoic period are but little superior in +brain size to the more active carnivorous dinosaurs, but as we read on +through the record towards modern times we find, in every tribe and +race of the mammalian animals, a steady universal increase in brain +capacity. For instance we find at a comparatively early stage that +rhinoceros-like beasts appear. There is a creature, the Titanotherium, +which lived in the earliest division of this period. It was probably +very like a modern rhinoceros in its habits and needs. But its brain +capacity was not one tenth that of its living successor. + +The earlier mammals probably parted from their offspring as soon as +suckling was over, but, once the capacity for mutual understanding has +arisen, the advantages of continuing the association are very great; +and we presently find a number of mammalian species displaying the +beginnings of a true social life and keeping together in herds, packs +and flocks, watching each other, imitating each other, taking warning +from each other’s acts and cries. This is something that the world had +not seen before among vertebrated animals. Reptiles and fish may no +doubt be found in swarms and shoals; they have been hatched in +quantities and similar conditions have kept them together, but in the +case of the social and gregarious mammals the association arises not +simply from a community of external forces, it is sustained by an inner +impulse. They are not merely like one another and so found in the same +places at the same times; they like one another and so they keep +together. + + +STENOMYLUS HITCHCOCKI--A GIRAFFE-CAMEL +STENOMYLUS HITCHCOCKI—A GIRAFFE-CAMEL + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +SKELETON OF PROTOHIPPUS VENTICOLUS—EARLY HORSE +SKELETON OF PROTOHIPPUS VENTICOLUS--EARLY HORSE + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +This difference between the reptile world and the world of our human +minds is one our sympathies seem unable to pass. We cannot conceive in +ourselves the swift uncomplicated urgency of a reptile’s instinctive +motives, its appetites, fears and hates. We cannot understand them in +their simplicity because all our motives are complicated; our’s are +balances and resultants and not simple urgencies. But the mammals and +birds have self-restraint and consideration for other individuals, a +social appeal, a self- control that is, at its lower level, after our +own fashion. We can in consequence establish relations with almost all +sorts of them. When they suffer they utter cries and make movements +that rouse our feelings. We can make understanding pets of them with a +mutual recognition. They can be tamed to self-restraint towards us, +domesticated and taught. + + +COMPARATIVE SIZES OF BRAINS OF RHINOCEROS AND DINOCERAS +COMPARATIVE SIZES OF BRAINS OF RHINOCEROS AND DINOCERAS + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + + +That unusual growth of brain which is the central fact of Cainozoic +times marks a new communication and interdependence of individuals. It +foreshadows the development of human societies of which we shall soon +be telling. + +As the Cainozoic period unrolled, the resemblance of its flora and +fauna to the plants and animals that inhabit the world to-day +increased. The big clumsy Uintatheres and Titanotheres, the +Entelodonts and Hyracodons, big clumsy brutes like nothing living, +disappeared. On the other hand a series of forms led up by steady +degrees from grotesque and clumsy predecessors to the giraffes, camels, +horses, elephants, deer, dogs and lions and tigers of the existing +world. The evolution of the horse is particularly legible upon the +geological record. We have a fairly complete series of forms from a +small tapir-like ancestor in the early Cainozoic. Another line of +development that has now been pieced together with some precision is +that of the llamas and camels. + + + + +IX +MONKEYS, APES AND SUB-MEN + + +Naturalists divide the class _Mammalia_ into a number of orders. At the +head of these is the order _Primates_, which includes the lemurs, the +monkeys, apes and man. Their classification was based originally upon +anatomical resemblances and took no account of any mental qualities. + +Now the past history of the Primates is one very difficult to decipher +in the geological record. They are for the most part animals which +live in forests like the lemurs and monkeys or in bare rocky places +like the baboons. They are rarely drowned and covered up by sediment, +nor are most of them very numerous species, and so they do not figure +so largely among the fossils as the ancestors of the horses, camels and +so forth do. But we know that quite early in the Cainozoic period, +that is to say some forty million years ago or so, primitive monkeys +and lemuroid creatures had appeared, poorer in brain and not so +specialized as their later successors. + +The great world summer of the middle Cainozoic period drew at last to +an end. It was to follow those other two great summers in the history +of life, the summer of the Coal Swamps and the vast summer of the Age +of Reptiles. Once more the earth spun towards an ice age. The world +chilled, grew milder for a time and chilled again. In the warm past +hippopotami had wallowed through a lush sub-tropical vegetation, and a +tremendous tiger with fangs like sabres, the sabre-toothed tiger, had +hunted its prey where now the journalists of Fleet Street go to and +fro. Now came a bleaker age and still bleaker ages. A great weeding +and extinction of species occurred. A woolly rhinoceros, adapted to a +cold climate, and the mammoth, a big woolly cousin of the elephants, +the Arctic musk ox and the reindeer passed across the scene. Then +century by century the Arctic ice cap, the wintry death of the great +Ice Age, crept southward. In England it came almost down to the +Thames, in America it reached Ohio. There would be warmer spells of a +few thousand years and relapses towards a bitterer cold. + +Geologists talk of these wintry phases as the First, Second, Third and +Fourth Glacial Ages, and of the interludes as Interglacial periods. We +live to-day in a world that is still impoverished and scarred by that +terrible winter. The First Glacial Age was coming on 600,000 years +ago; the Fourth Glacial Age reached its bitterest some fifty thousand +years ago. And it was amidst the snows of this long universal winter +that the first man-like beings lived upon our planet. + +A MAMMOTH +A MAMMOTH + +By the middle Cainozoic period there have appeared various apes with +many quasi-human attributes of the jaws and leg bones, but it is only +as we approach these Glacial Ages that we find traces of creatures that +we can speak of as “almost human.” These traces are not bones but +implements. In Europe, in deposits of this period, between half a +million and a million years old, we find flints and stones that have +evidently been chipped intentionally by some handy creature desirous of +hammering, scraping or fighting with the sharpened edge. These things +have been called “Eoliths” (dawn stones). In Europe there are no bones +nor other remains of the creature which made these objects, simply the +objects themselves. For all the certainty we have it may have been +some entirely un-human but intelligent monkey. But at Trinil in Java, +in accumulations of this age, a piece of a skull and various teeth and +bones have been found of a sort of ape man, with a brain case bigger +than that of any living apes, which seems to have walked erect. This +creature is now called _Pithecanthropus erectus_, the walking ape man, +and the little trayful of its bones is the only help our imaginations +have as yet in figuring to, ourselves the makers of the Eoliths. + +FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN PILTDOWN REGION +FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN PILTDOWN REGION + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + +It is not until we come to sands that are almost a quarter of a million +years old that we find any other particle of a sub- human being. But +there are plenty of implements, and they are steadily improving in +quality as we read on through the record. They are no longer clumsy +Eoliths; they are now shapely instruments made with considerable skill. + _And they are much bigger than the similar implements afterwards made +by true man._ Then, in a sandpit at Heidelberg, appears a single +quasi-human jaw-bone, a clumsy jaw-bone, absolutely chinless, far +heavier than a true human jaw-bone and narrower, so that it is +improbable the creature’s tongue could have moved about for articulate +speech. On the strength of this jaw-bone, scientific men suppose this +creature to have been a heavy, almost human monster, possibly with huge +limbs and hands, possibly with a thick felt of hair, and they call it +the Heidelberg Man. + +A THEORETICAL RESTORATION OF THE PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS BY PROF. RUTOT +A THEORETICAL RESTORATION OF THE PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS BY PROF. RUTOT + +This jaw-bone is, I think, one of the most tormenting objects in the +world to our human curiosity. To see it is like looking through a +defective glass into the past and catching just one blurred and +tantalizing glimpse of this Thing, shambling through the bleak +wilderness, clambering to avoid the sabre- toothed tiger, watching the +woolly rhinoceros in the woods. Then before we can scrutinize the +monster, he vanishes. Yet the soil is littered abundantly with the +indestructible implements he chipped out for his uses. + +THE HEIDELBERG MAN +THE HEIDELBERG MAN + +The Heidelberg Man, as modelled under the supervision of Prof. Rutot + +Still more fascinatingly enigmatical are the remains of a creature +found at Piltdown in Sussex in a deposit that may indicate an age +between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand years ago, though +some authorities would put these particular remains back in time to +before the Heidelberg jaw- bone. Here there are the remains of a thick +sub-human skull much larger than any existing ape’s, and a +chimpanzee-like jaw-bone which may or may not belong to it, and, in +addition, a bat-shaped piece of elephant bone evidently carefully +manufactured, through which a hole had apparently been bored. There is +also the thigh-bone of a deer with cuts upon it like a tally. That is +all. + +THE PILTDOWN SKULL, AS RECONSTRUCTED FROM ORIGINAL FRAGMENT +THE PILTDOWN SKULL, AS RECONSTRUCTED FROM ORIGINAL FRAGMENT + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + +What sort of beast was this creature which sat and bored holes in +bones? + +Scientific men have named him Eoanthropus, the Dawn Man. He stands +apart from his kindred; a very different being either from the +Heidelberg creature or from any living ape. No other vestige like him +is known. But the gravels and deposits of from one hundred thousand +years onward are increasingly rich in implements of flint and similar +stone. And these implements are no longer rude “Eoliths.” The +archæologists are presently able to distinguish scrapers, borers, +knives, darts, throwing stones and hand axes .... + +We are drawing very near to man. In our next section we shall have to +describe the strangest of all these precursors of humanity, the +Neanderthalers, the men who were almost, but not quite, true men. + +But it may be well perhaps to state quite clearly here that no +scientific man supposes either of these creatures, the Heidelberg Man +or _Eoanthropus_, to be direct ancestors of the men of to-day. These +are, at the closest, related forms. + + + + +X +THE NEANDERTHALER AND THE RHODESIAN MAN + + +About fifty or sixty thousand years ago, before the climax of the +Fourth Glacial Age, there lived a creature on earth so like a man that +until a few years ago its remains were considered to be altogether +human. We have skulls and bones of it and a great accumulation of the +large implements it made and used. It made fires. It sheltered in caves +from the cold. It probably dressed skins roughly and wore them. It was +right-handed as men are. + +Yet now the ethnologists tell us these creatures were not true men. +They were of a different species of the same genus. They had heavy +protruding jaws and great brow ridges above the eyes and very low +foreheads. Their thumbs were not opposable to the fingers as men’s +are; their necks were so poised that they could not turn back their +heads and look up to the sky. They probably slouched along, head down +and forward. Their chinless jaw-bones resemble the Heidelberg jaw-bone +and are markedly unlike human jaw-bones. And there were great +differences from the human pattern in their teeth. Their cheek teeth +were more complicated in structure than ours, more complicated and not +less so; they had not the long fangs of our cheek teeth; and also these +quasi-men had not the marked canines (dog teeth) of an ordinary human +being. The capacity of their skulls was quite human, but the brain was +bigger behind and lower in front than the human brain. Their +intellectual faculties were differently arranged. They were not +ancestral to the human line. Mentally and physically they were upon a +different line from the human line. + +Skulls and bones of this extinct species of man were found at +Neanderthal among other places, and from that place these strange +proto-men have been christened Neanderthal Men, or Neanderthalers. They +must have endured in Europe for many hundreds or even thousands of +years. + +THE NEANDERTHALER, ACCORDING TO PROF. RUTOT +THE NEANDERTHALER, ACCORDING TO PROF. RUTOT + +At that time the climate and geography of our world was very different +from what they are at the present time. Europe for example was covered +with ice reaching as far south as the Thames and into Central Germany +and Russia; there was no Channel separating Britain from France; the +Mediterranean and the Red Sea were great valleys, with perhaps a chain +of lakes in their deeper portions, and a great inland sea spread from +the present Black Sea across South Russia and far into Central Asia. +Spain and all of Europe not actually under ice consisted of bleak +uplands under a harder climate than that of Labrador, and it was only +when North Africa was reached that one would have found a temperate +climate. Across the cold steppes of Southern Europe with its sparse +arctic vegetation, drifted such hardy creatures as the woolly mammoth, +and woolly rhinoceros, great oxen and reindeer, no doubt following the +vegetation northward in spring and southward in autumn. + +Map: Possible Outline of Europe and Western Asia at the Maximum of the +Fourth Ice Age (about 50,000 years ago) + +Such was the scene through which the Neanderthaler wandered, gathering +such subsistence as he could from small game or fruits and berries and +roots. Possibly he was mainly a vegetarian, chewing twigs and roots. +His level elaborate teeth suggest a largely vegetarian dietary. But we +also find the long marrow bones of great animals in his caves, cracked +to extract the marrow. His weapons could not have been of much avail +in open conflict with great beasts, but it is supposed that he attacked +them with spears at difficult river crossings and even constructed +pitfalls for them. Possibly he followed the herds and preyed upon any +dead that were killed in fights, and perhaps he played the part of +jackal to the sabre-toothed tiger which still survived in his day. +Possibly in the bitter hardships of the Glacial Ages this creature had +taken to attacking animals after long ages of vegetarian adaptation. + +We cannot guess what this Neanderthal man looked like. He may have been +very hairy and very unhuman-looking indeed. It is even doubtful if he +went erect. He may have used his knuckles as well as his feet to hold +himself up. Probably he went about alone or in small family groups. It +is inferred from the structure of his jaw that he was incapable of +speech as we understand it. + +For thousands of years these Neanderthalers were the highest animals +that the European area had ever seen; and then some thirty or +thirty-five thousand years ago as the climate grew warmer a race of +kindred beings, more intelligent, knowing more, talking and +co-operating together, came drifting into the Neanderthaler’s world +from the south. They ousted the Neanderthalers from their caves and +squatting places; they hunted the same food; they probably made war +upon their grisly predecessors and killed them off. These newcomers +from the south or the east—for at present we do not know their region +of origin—who at last drove the Neanderthalers out of existence +altogether, were beings of our own blood and kin, the first True Men. +Their brain-cases and thumbs and necks and teeth were anatomically the +same as our own. In a cave at Cro-Magnon and in another at Grimaldi, a +number of skeletons have been found, the earliest truly human remains +that are so far known. + +So it is our race comes into the Record of the Rocks, and the story of +mankind begins. + +COMPARISON OF (1) MODERN SKULL AND (2) RHODESIAN SKULL +COMPARISON OF (1) MODERN SKULL AND (2) RHODESIAN SKULL + +_Nat. Hist. Mus._ + +The world was growing liker our own in those days though the climate +was still austere. The glaciers of the Ice Age were receding in +Europe; the reindeer of France and Spain presently gave way to great +herds of horses as grass increased upon the steppes, and the mammoth +became more and more rare in southern Europe and finally receded +northward altogether .... + +We do not know where the True Men first originated. But in the summer +of 1921, an extremely interesting skull was found together with pieces +of a skeleton at Broken Hill in South Africa, which seems to be a relic +of a third sort of man, intermediate in its characteristics between the +Neanderthaler and the human being. The brain-case indicates a brain +bigger in front and smaller behind than the Neanderthaler’s, and the +skull was poised erect upon the backbone in a quite human way. The +teeth also and the bones are quite human. But the face must have been +ape-like with enormous brow ridges and a ridge along the middle of the +skull. The creature was indeed a true man, so to speak, with an ape- +like, Neanderthaler face. This Rhodesian Man is evidently still closer +to real men than the Neanderthal Man. + +This Rhodesian skull is probably only the second of what in the end may +prove to be a long list of finds of sub-human species which lived on +the earth in the vast interval of time between the beginnings of the +Ice Age and the appearance of their common heir, and perhaps their +common exterminator, the True Man. The Rhodesian skull itself may not +be very ancient. Up to the time of publishing this book there has been +no exact determination of its probable age. It may be that this +sub-human creature survived in South Africa until quite recent times. + + + + +XI +THE FIRST TRUE MEN + + +The earliest signs and traces at present known to science, of a +humanity which is indisputably kindred with ourselves, have been found +in western Europe and particularly in France and Spain. Bones, weapons, +scratchings upon bone and rock, carved fragments of bone, and paintings +in caves and upon rock surfaces dating. it is supposed. from 30,000 +years ago or more, have been discovered in both these countries. Spain +is at present the richest country in the world in these first relics of +our real human ancestors. + +Of course our present collections of these things are the merest +beginnings of the accumulations we may hope for in the future, when +there are searchers enough to make a thorough examination of all +possible sources and when other countries in the world, now +inaccessible to archæologists, have been explored in some detail. The +greater part of Africa and Asia has never even been traversed yet by a +trained observer interested in these matters and free to explore, and +we must be very careful therefore not to conclude that the early true +men were distinctively inhabitants of western Europe or that they first +appeared in that region. + +In Asia or Africa or submerged beneath the sea of to-day there may be +richer and much earlier deposits of real human remains than anything +that has yet come to light. I write in Asia or Africa, and I do not +mention America because so far there have been no finds at all of any +of the higher Primates, either of great apes, sub-men, Neanderthalers +nor early true men. This development of life seems to have been an +exclusively old world development, and it was only apparently at the +end of the Old Stone Age that human beings first made their way across +the land connexion that is now cut by Behring Straits, into the +American continent. + +ONE OF THE MARVELLOUS CAVE PAINTINGS OF ALTAMIRA, NORTH SPAIN +ONE OF THE MARVELLOUS CAVE PAINTINGS OF ALTAMIRA, NORTH SPAIN + +The Walls of the Caves are covered in these representations of Bulls, +etc., painted in the soft tones of red shaded to black. They may be +fifteen or twenty thousand years old + +These first real human beings we know of in Europe appear already to +have belonged to one or other of at least two very distinct races. One +of these races was of a very high type indeed; it was tall and big +brained. One of the women’s skulls found exceeds in capacity that of +the average man of to-day. One of the men’s skeletons is over six feet +in height. The physical type resembled that of the North American +Indian. From the Cro-Magnon cave in which the first skeletons were +found these people have been called Cro-Magnards. They were savages, +but savages of a high order. The second race, the race of the Grimaldi +cave remains, was distinctly negroid in its characters. Its nearest +living affinities are the Bushmen and Hottentots of South Africa. It +is interesting to find at the very outset of the known human story, +that mankind was already racially divided into at least two main +varieties; and one is tempted to such unwarrantable guesses as that the +former race was probably brownish rather than black and that it came +from the East or North, and that the latter was blackish rather than +brown and came from the equatorial south. + +BONE CARVINGS OF THE PALÆOLITHIC PERIOD +BONE CARVINGS OF THE PALÆOLITHIC PERIOD + +(1 and 2) Mammoth tusk carved to shape of Reindeer, (3) Dagger Handle +representing Mammoth, and (4) Bone engraved with Horses’ Heads + +_Brit. Mus._ + +And these savages of perhaps forty thousand years ago were so human +that they pierced shells to make necklaces, painted themselves, carved +images of bone and stone, scratched figures on rocks and bones, and +painted rude but often very able sketches of beasts and the like upon +the smooth walls of caves and upon inviting rock surfaces. They made a +great variety of implements, much smaller in scale and finer than those +of the Neanderthal men. We have now in our museums great quantities of +their implements, their statuettes, their rock drawings and the like. + +The earliest of them were hunters. Their chief pursuit was the wild +horse, the little bearded pony of that time. They followed it as it +moved after pasture. And also they followed the bison. They knew the +mammoth, because they have left us strikingly effective pictures of +that creature. To judge by one rather ambiguous drawing they trapped +and killed it. + +They hunted with spears and throwing stones. They do not seem to have +had the bow, and it is doubtful if they had yet learnt to tame any +animals. They had no dogs. There is one carving of a horse’s head and +one or two drawings that suggest a bridled horse, with a twisted skin +or tendon round it. But the little horses of that age and region could +not have carried a man, and if the horse was domesticated it was used +as a led horse. It is doubtful and improbable that they had yet learnt +the rather unnatural use of animal’s milk as food. + +They do not seem to have erected any buildings though they may have had +tents of skins, and though they made clay figures they never rose to +the making of pottery. Since they had no cooking implements their +cookery must have been rudimentary or nonexistent. They knew nothing +of cultivation and nothing of any sort of basket work or woven cloth. +Except for their robes of skin or fur they were naked painted savages. + +These earliest known men hunted the open steppes of Europe for a +hundred centuries perhaps, and then slowly drifted and changed before a +change of climate. Europe, century by century, was growing milder and +damper. Reindeer receded northward and eastward, and bison and horse +followed. The steppes gave way to forests, and red deer took the place +of horse and bison. There is a change in the character of the +implements with this change in their application. River and lake +fishing becomes of great importance to men, and fine implements of bone +increased. “The bone needles of this age,” says de Mortillet, “are +much superior to those of later, even historical times, down to the +Renaissance. The Romans, for example, never had needles comparable to +those of this epoch.” + +THE RUTOT BUST OF A CRO-MAGNON MAN +THE RUTOT BUST OF A CRO-MAGNON MAN + +Almost fifteen or twelve thousand years ago a fresh people drifted into +the south of Spain, and left very remarkable drawings of themselves +upon exposed rock faces there. These were the Azilians (named from the +Mas d’Azil cave). They had the bow; they seem to have worn feather +headdresses; they drew vividly; but also they had reduced their +drawings to a sort of symbolism—a man for instance would be represented +by a vertical dab with two or three horizontal dabs—that suggest the +dawn of the writing idea. Against hunting sketches there are often +marks like tallies. One drawing shows two men smoking out a bees’ nest. + +FIGHT OF BOWMEN +Among the most recent discoveries of Palæolithic Art are these +specimens found in 1920 in Spain. They are probably ten or twelve +thousand years old + +These are the latest of the men that we call Palæolithic (Old Stone +Age) because they had only chipped implements. By ten or twelve +thousand years a new sort of life has dawned in Europe, men have learnt +not only to chip but to polish and grind stone implements, and they +have begun cultivation. The Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) was +beginning. + +It is interesting to note that less than a century ago there still +survived in a remote part of the world, in Tasmania, a race of human +beings at a lower level of physical and intellectual development than +any of these earliest races of mankind who have left traces in Europe. +These people had long ago been cut off by geographical changes from the +rest of the species, and from stimulation and improvement. They seem +to have degenerated rather than developed. They lived a base life +subsisting upon shellfish and small game. They had no habitations but +only squatting places. They were real men of our species, but they had +neither the manual dexterity nor the artistic powers of the first true +men. + + + + +XII +PRIMITIVE THOUGHT + + +And now let us indulge in a very interesting speculation; how did it +feel to be a man in those early days of the human adventure? How did +men think and what did they think in those remote days of hunting and +wandering four hundred centuries ago before seed time and harvest +began. Those were days long before the written record of any human +impressions, and we are left almost entirely to inference and guesswork +in our answers to these questions. + +The sources to which scientific men have gone in their attempts to +reconstruct that primitive mentality are very various. Recently the +science of psycho-analysis, which analyzes the way in which the +egotistic and passionate impulses of the child are restrained, +suppressed, modified or overlaid, to adapt them to the needs of social +life, seems to have thrown a considerable amount of light upon the +history of primitive society; and another fruitful source of suggestion +has been the study of the ideas and customs of such contemporary +savages as still survive. Again there is a sort of mental +fossilization which we find in folk-lore and the deep-lying irrational +superstitions and prejudices that still survive among modern civilized +people. And finally we have in the increasingly numerous pictures, +statues, carvings, symbols and the like, as we draw near to our own +time, clearer and clearer indications of what man found interesting and +worthy of record and representation. + +Primitive man probably thought very much as a child thinks, that is to +say in a series of imaginative pictures. He conjured up images or +images presented themselves to his mind, and he acted in accordance +with the emotions they aroused. So a child or an uneducated person +does to-day. Systematic thinking is apparently a comparatively late +development in human experience; it has not played any great part in +human life until within the last three thousand years. And even to-day +those who really control and order their thoughts are but a small +minority of mankind. Most of the world still lives by imagination and +passion. + +Probably the earliest human societies, in the opening stages of the +true human story, were small family groups. Just as the flocks and +herds of the earlier mammals arose out of families which remained +together and multiplied, so probably did the earliest tribes. But +before this could happen a certain restraint upon the primitive +egotisms of the individual had to be established. The fear of the +father and respect for the mother had to be extended into adult life, +and the natural jealousy of the old man of the group for the younger +males as they grew up had to be mitigated. The mother on the other +hand was the natural adviser and protector of the young. Human social +life grew up out of the reaction between the crude instinct of the +young to go off and pair by themselves as they grew up, on the one +hand, and the dangers and disadvantages of separation on the other. An +anthropological writer of great genius, J. J. Atkinson, in his _Primal +Law_, has shown how much of the customary law of savages, the _Tabus_, +that are so remarkable a fact in tribal life, can be ascribed to such a +mental adjustment of the needs of the primitive human animal to a +developing social life, and the later work of the psycho- analysts has +done much to confirm his interpretation of these possibilities. + +Some speculative writers would have us believe that respect and fear of +the Old Man and the emotional reaction of the primitive savage to older +protective women, exaggerated in dreams and enriched by fanciful mental +play, played a large part in the beginnings of primitive religion and +in the conception of gods and goddesses. Associated with this respect +for powerful or helpful personalities was a dread and exaltation of +such personages after their deaths, due to their reappearance in +dreams. It was easy to believe they were not truly dead but only +fantastically transferred to a remoteness of greater power. + +The dreams, imaginations and fears of a child are far more vivid and +real than those of a modern adult, and primitive man was always +something of a child. He was nearer to the animals also, and he could +suppose them to have motives and reactions like his own. He could +imagine animal helpers, animal enemies, animal gods. One needs to have +been an imaginative child oneself to realize again how important, +significant, portentous or friendly, strangely shaped rocks, lumps of +wood, exceptional trees or the like may have appeared to the men of the +Old Stone Age, and how dream and fancy would create stories and legends +about such things that would become credible as they told them. Some +of these stories would be good enough to remember and tell again. The +women would tell them to the children and so establish a tradition. To +this day most imaginative children invent long stories in which some +favourite doll or animal or some fantastic semi-human being figures as +the hero, and primitive man probably did the same—with a much stronger +disposition to believe his hero real. + +RELICS OF THE STONE AGE +RELICS OF THE STONE AGE + +Chert implements from Somaliland. In general form they are similar to +those found in Western and Northern Europe + +_Brit. Mus._ + +For the very earliest of the true men that we know of were probably +quite talkative beings. In that way they have differed from the +Neanderthalers and had an advantage over them. The Neanderthaler may +have been a dumb animal. Of course the primitive human speech was +probably a very scanty collection of names, and may have been eked out +with gestures and signs. + +There is no sort of savage so low as not to have a kind of science of +cause and effect. But primitive man was not very critical in his +associations of cause with effect; he very easily connected an effect +with something quite wrong as its cause. “You do so and so,” he said, +“and so and so happens.” You give a child a poisonous berry and it +dies. You eat the heart of a valiant enemy and you become strong. +There we have two bits of cause and effect association, one true one +false. We call the system of cause and effect in the mind of a savage, +Fetish; but Fetish is simply savage science. It differs from modern +science in that it is totally unsystematic and uncritical and so more +frequently wrong. + +WIDESPREAD SIMILARITY OF MEN OF THE STONE AGE +WIDESPREAD SIMILARITY OF MEN OF THE STONE AGE + +On the left is a flint implement excavated in Gray’s Inn Lane, London; +on the right one of similar form chipped by primitive men of Somaliland + +_Brit. Mus._ + +In many cases it is not difficult to link cause and effect, in many +others erroneous ideas were soon corrected by experience; but there was +a large series of issues of very great importance to primitive man, +where he sought persistently for causes and found explanations that +were wrong but not sufficiently wrong nor so obviously wrong as to be +detected. It was a matter of great importance to him that game should +be abundant or fish plentiful and easily caught, and no doubt he tried +and believed in a thousand charms, incantations and omens to determine +these desirable results. Another great concern of his was illness and +death. Occasionally infections crept through the land and men died of +them. Occasionally men were stricken by illness and died or were +enfeebled without any manifest cause. This too must have given the +hasty, emotional mind of primitive man much feverish exercise. Dreams +and fantastic guesses made him blame this, or appeal for help to that +man or beast or thing. He had the child’s aptitude for fear and panic. + +Quite early in the little human tribe, older, steadier minds sharing +the fears, sharing the imaginations, but a little more forceful than +the others, must have asserted themselves, to advise, to prescribe, to +command. This they declared unpropitious and that imperative, this an +omen of good and that an omen of evil. The expert in Fetish, the +Medicine Man, was the first priest. He exhorted, he interpreted +dreams, he warned, he performed the complicated hocus pocus that +brought luck or averted calamity. Primitive religion was not so much +what we now call religion as practice and observance, and the early +priest dictated what was indeed an arbitrary primitive practical +science. + + + + +XIII +THE BEGINNINGS OF CULTIVATION + + +We are still very ignorant about the beginnings of cultivation and +settlement in the world although a vast amount of research and +speculation has been given to these matters in the last fifty years. +All that we can say with any confidence at present is that somewhen +about 15,000 and 12,000 B.C. while the Azilian people were in the south +of Spain and while the remnants of the earlier hunters were drifting +northward and eastward, somewhere in North Africa or Western Asia or in +that great Mediterranean valley that is now submerged under the waters +of the Mediterranean sea, there were people who, age by age, were +working out two vitally important things; they were beginning +cultivation and they were domesticating animals. They were also +beginning to make, in addition to the chipped implements of their +hunter forebears, implements of polished stone. They had discovered the +possibility of basketwork and roughly woven textiles of plant fibre, +and they were beginning to make a rudely modelled pottery. + +They were entering upon a new phase in human culture, the Neolithic +phase (New Stone Age) as distinguished from the Palæolithic (Old Stone) +phase of the Cro-Magnards, the Grimaldi people, the Azilians and their +like. [1] Slowly these Neolithic people spread over the warmer parts +of the world; and the arts they had mastered, the plants and animals +they had learnt to use, spread by imitation and acquisition even more +widely than they did. By 10,000 B.C., most of mankind was at the +Neolithic level. + +Now the ploughing of land, the sowing of seed, the reaping of harvest, +threshing and grinding, may seem the most obviously reasonable steps to +a modern mind just as to a modern mind it is a commonplace that the +world is round. What else could you do? people will ask. What else +can it be? But to the primitive man of twenty thousand years ago +neither of the systems of action and reasoning that seem so sure and +manifest to us to-day were at all obvious. He felt his way to +effectual practice through a multitude of trials and misconceptions, +with fantastic and unnecessary elaborations and false interpretations +at every turn. Somewhere in the Mediterranean region, wheat grew wild; +and man may have learnt to pound and then grind up its seeds for food +long before he learnt to sow. He reaped before he sowed. + +And it is a very remarkable thing that throughout the world wherever +there is sowing and harvesting there is still traceable the vestiges of +a strong primitive association of the idea of sowing with the idea of a +blood sacrifice, and primarily of the sacrifice of a human being. The +study of the original entanglement of these two things is a profoundly +attractive one to the curious mind; the interested reader will find it +very fully developed in that monumental work, Sir J. G. Frazer’s +_Golden Bough_. It was an entanglement, we must remember, in the +childish, dreaming, myth-making primitive mind; no reasoned process +will explain it. But in that world of 12,000 to 20,000 years ago, it +would seem that whenever seed time came round to the Neolithic peoples +there was a human sacrifice. And it was not the sacrifice of any mean +or outcast person; it was the sacrifice usually of a chosen youth or +maiden, a youth more often who was treated with profound deference and +even worship up to the moment of his immolation. He was a sort of +sacrificial god-king, and all the details of his killing had become a +ritual directed by the old, knowing men and sanctioned by the +accumulated usage of ages. + +NEOLITHIC FLINT IMPLEMENTS +NEOLITHIC FLINT IMPLEMENTS + +_Brit. Mus._ + +At first primitive men, with only a very rough idea of the seasons, +must have found great difficulty in determining when was the propitious +moment for the seed-time sacrifice and the sowing. There is some +reason for supposing that there was an early stage in human experience +when men had no idea of a year. The first chronology was in lunar +months; it is supposed that the years of the Biblical patriarchs are +really moons, and the Babylonian calendar shows distinct traces of an +attempt to reckon seed time by taking thirteen lunar months to see it +round. This lunar influence upon the calendar reaches down to our own +days. If usage did not dull our sense of its strangeness we should +think it a very remarkable thing indeed that the Christian Church does +not commemorate the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ on the +proper anniversaries but on dates that vary year by year with the +phases of the moon. + +It may be doubted whether the first agriculturalists made any +observation of the stars. It is more likely that stars were first +observed by migratory herdsmen, who found them a convenient mark of +direction. But once their use in determining seasons was realized, +their importance to agriculture became very great. The seed-time +sacrifice was linked up with the southing or northing of some prominent +star. A myth and worship of that star was for primitive man an almost +inevitable consequence. + +NEOLITHICISM OF TO-DAY +NEOLITHICISM OF TO-DAY + +Spearheads, exactly as in the true Neolithic days, but made recently by +Australian Natives, + +(1) Made from a telegraph insulator; + +(2) from a piece of broken bottle glass. + +_Brit. Mus._ + +It is easy to see how important the man of knowledge and experience, +the man who knew about the blood sacrifice and the stars, became in +this early Neolithic world. + +The fear of uncleanness and pollution, and the methods of cleansing +that were advisable, constituted another source of power for the +knowledgeable men and women. For there have always been witches as well +as wizards, and priestesses as well as priests. The early priest was +really not so much a religious man as a man of applied science. His +science was generally empirical and often bad; he kept it secret from +the generality of men very jealously; but that does not alter the fact +that his primary function was knowledge and that his primary use was a +practical use. + +SPECIMEN OF NEOLITHIC POTTERY +SPECIMEN OF NEOLITHIC POTTERY + +Dug up at Mortlake from the Thames Bed + +_Brit. Mus._ + +Twelve or fifteen thousand years ago, in all the warm and fairly +well-watered parts of the Old World these Neolithic human communities, +with their class and tradition of priests and priestesses and their +cultivated fields and their development of villages and little walled +cities, were spreading. Age by age a drift and exchange of ideas went +on between these communities. Eliot Smith and Rivers have used the +term “Heliolithic culture” for the culture of these first agricultural +peoples. “Heliolithic” (Sun and Stone) is not perhaps the best +possible word to use for this, but until scientific men give us a +better one we shall have to use it. Originating somewhere in the +Mediterranean and western Asiatic area, it spread age by age eastward +and from island to island across the Pacific until it may even have +reached America and mingled with the more primitive ways of living of +the Mongoloid immigrants coming down from the North. + +Wherever the brownish people with the Heliolithic culture went they +took with them all or most of a certain group of curious ideas and +practices. Some of them are such queer ideas that they call for the +explanation of the mental expert. They made pyramids and great mounds, +and set up great circles of big stones, perhaps to facilitate the +astronomical observation of the priests; they made mummies of some or +all of their dead; they tattooed and circumcized; they had the old +custom, known as the _couvade_, of sending the _father_ to bed and rest +when a child was born, and they had as a luck symbol the well-known +Swastika. + +If we were to make a map of the world with dots to show how far these +group practices have left their traces, we should make a belt along the +temperate and sub-tropical coasts of the world from Stonehenge and +Spain across the world to Mexico and Peru. But Africa below the +equator, north central Europe, and north Asia would show none of these +dottings; there lived races who were developing along practically +independent lines. + +[1] The term Palæolithic we may note is also used to cover the +Neanderthaler and even the Eolithic implements. The pre-human age is +called the “Older Palæolithic;” the age of true men using unpolished +stones in the “Newer Palæolithic.” + + +XIV +PRIMITIVE NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATIONS + + +About 10,000 B.C. the geography of the world was very similar in its +general outline to that of the world to-day. It is probable that by +that time the great barrier across the Straits of Gibraltar that had +hitherto banked back the ocean waters from the Mediterranean valley had +been eaten through, and that the Mediterranean was a sea following much +the same coastlines as it does now. The Caspian Sea was probably still +far more extensive than it is at present, and it may have been +continuous with the Black Sea to the north of the Caucasus Mountains. +About this great Central Asian sea lands that are now steppes and +deserts were fertile and habitable. Generally it was a moister and more +fertile world. European Russia was much more a land of swamp and lake +than it is now, and there may still have been a land connexion between +Asia and America at Behring Straits. + +It would have been already possible at that time to have distinguished +the main racial divisions of mankind as we know them to-day. Across +the warm temperate regions of this rather warmer and better-wooded +world, and along the coasts, stretched the brownish peoples of the +Heliolithic culture, the ancestors of the bulk of the living +inhabitants of the Mediterranean world, of the Berbers, the Egyptians +and of much of the population of South and Eastern Asia. This great +race had of course a number of varieties. The Iberian or Mediterranean +or “dark-white” race of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, the +“Hamitic” peoples which include the Berbers and Egyptians, the +Dravidians; the darker people of India, a multitude of East Indian +people, many Polynesian races and the Maoris are all divisions of +various value of this great main mass of humanity. Its western +varieties are whiter than its eastern. + +In the forests of central and northern Europe a more blonde variety of +men with blue eyes was becoming distinguishable, branching off from the +main mass of brownish people, a variety which many people now speak of +as the Nordic race. In the more open regions of northeastern Asia was +another differentiation of this brownish humanity in the direction of a +type with more oblique eyes, high cheek-bones, a yellowish skin, and +very straight black hair, the Mongolian peoples. In South Africa, +Australia, in many tropical islands in the south of Asia were remains +of the early negroid peoples. The central parts of Africa were already +a region of racial intermixture. Nearly all the coloured races of +Africa to-day seem to be blends of the brownish peoples of the north +with a negroid substratum. + + +A Diagrammatic Summary of Current Ideas of the Relationship of Human +Races + +We have to remember that human races can all interbreed freely and that +they separate, mingle and reunite as clouds do. Human races do not +branch out like trees with branches that never come together again. It +is a thing we need to bear constantly in mind, this remingling of races +at any opportunity. It will save us from many cruel delusions and +prejudices if we do so. People will use such a word as race in the +loosest manner, and base the most preposterous generalizations upon it. + They will speak of a “British” race or of a “European” race. But +nearly all the European nations are confused mixtures of brownish, +dark-white, white and Mongolian elements. + + +A MAYA STELE +A MAYA STELE + +Showing a worshipper and a Serpent God. Note the grotesque faces in +the writing + +_Brit. Mus._ + + +It was at the Neolithic phase of human development that peoples of the +Mongolian breed first made their way into America. Apparently they +came by way of Behring Straits and spread southward. They found +caribou, the American reindeer, in the north and great herds of bison +in the south. When they reached South America there were still living +the Glyptodon, a gigantic armadillo, and the Megatherium, a monstrous +clumsy sloth as high as an elephant. They probably exterminated the +latter beast, which was as helpless as it was big. + +The greater portion of these American tribes never rose above a hunting +nomadic Neolithic life. They never discovered the use of iron, and +their chief metal possessions were native gold and copper. But in +Mexico, Yucatan and Peru conditions existed favourable to settled +cultivation, and here about 1000 B.C. or so arose very interesting +civilizations of a parallel but different type from the old-world +civilization. Like the much earlier primitive civilizations of the old +world these communities displayed a great development of human +sacrifice about the processes of seed time and harvest; but while in +the old world, as we shall see, these primary ideas were ultimately +mitigated, complicated and overlaid by others, in America they +developed and were elaborated, to a very high degree of intensity. +These American civilized countries were essentially priest-ruled +countries; their war chiefs and rulers were under a rigorous rule of +law and omen. + +These priests carried astronomical science to a high level of accuracy. + They knew their year better than the Babylonians of whom we shall +presently tell. In Yucatan they had a kind of writing, the Maya +writing, of the most curious and elaborate character. So far as we +have been able to decipher it, it was used mainly for keeping the exact +and complicated calendars upon which the priests expended their +intelligence. The art of the Maya civilization came to a climax about +700 or 800 A.D. The sculptured work of these people amazes the modern +observer by its great plastic power and its frequent beauty, and +perplexes him by a grotesqueness and by a sort of insane +conventionality and intricacy outside the circle of his ideas. There +is nothing quite like it in the old world. The nearest approach, and +that is a remote one, is found in archaic Indian carvings. Everywhere +there are woven feathers and serpents twine in and out. Many Maya +inscriptions resemble a certain sort of elaborate drawing made by +lunatics in European asylums, more than any other old-world work. It +is as if the Maya mind had developed upon a different line from the +old-world mind, had a different twist to its ideas, was not, by +old-world standards, a rational mind at all. + +This linking of these aberrant American civilizations to the idea of a +general mental aberration finds support in their extraordinary +obsession by the shedding of human blood. The Mexican civilization in +particular ran blood; it offered thousands of human victims yearly. +The cutting open of living victims, the tearing out of the still +beating heart, was an act that dominated the minds and lives of these +strange priesthoods. The public life, the national festivities all +turned on this fantastically horrible act. + + +NEOLITHIC WARRIOR +NEOLITHIC WARRIOR + +Modelled from drawing by Prof. Rutot + + +The ordinary existence of the common people in these communities was +very like the ordinary existence of any other barbaric peasantry. +Their pottery, weaving and dyeing was very good. The Maya writing was +not only carven on stone but written and painted upon skins and the +like. The European and American museums contain many enigmatical Maya +manuscripts of which at present little has been deciphered except the +dates. In Peru there were beginnings of a similar writing but they +were superseded by a method of keeping records by knotting cords. A +similar method of mnemonics was in use in China thousands of years ago. + +In the old world before 4000 or 5000 B.C., that is to say three or four +thousand years earlier, there were primitive civilizations not unlike +these American civilizations; civilizations based upon a temple, having +a vast quantity of blood sacrifices and with an intensely astronomical +priesthood. But in the old world the primitive civilizations reacted +upon one another and developed towards the conditions of our own world. + In America these primitive civilizations never progressed beyond this +primitive stage. Each of them was in a little world of its own. +Mexico it seems knew little or nothing of Peru, until the Europeans +came to America. The potato, which was the principal food stuff in +Peru, was unknown in Mexico. + +Age by age these peoples lived and marvelled at their gods and made +their sacrifices and died. Maya art rose to high levels of decorative +beauty. Men made love and tribes made war. Drought and plenty, +pestilence and health, followed one another. The priests elaborated +their calendar and their sacrificial ritual through long centuries, but +made little progress in other directions. + + + + +XV +SUMERIA, EARLY EGYPT AND WRITING + + +The old world is a wider, more varied stage than the new. By 6000 or +7000 B.C. there were already quasi-civilized communities almost at the +Peruvian level, appearing in various fertile regions of Asia and in the +Nile valley. At that time north Persia and western Turkestan and south +Arabia were all more fertile than they are now, and there are traces of +very early communities in these regions. It is in lower Mesopotamia +however and in Egypt that there first appear cities, temples, +systematic irrigation, and evidences of a social organization rising +above the level of a mere barbaric village-town. In those days the +Euphrates and Tigris flowed by separate mouths into the Persian Gulf, +and it was in the country between them that the Sumerians built their +first cities. About the same time, for chronology is still vague, the +great history of Egypt was beginning. + +These Sumerians appear to have been a brownish people with prominent +noses. They employed a sort of writing that has been deciphered, and +their language is now known. They had discovered the use of bronze and +they built great tower-like temples of sun-dried brick. The clay of +this country is very fine; they used it to write upon, and so it is +that their inscriptions have been preserved to us. They had cattle, +sheep, goats and asses, but no horses. They fought on foot, in close +formation, carrying spears and shields of skin. Their clothing was of +wool and they shaved their heads. + +Each of the Sumerian cities seems generally to have been an independent +state with a god of its own and priests of its own. But sometimes one +city would establish an ascendancy over others and exact tribute from +their population. A very ancient inscription at Nippur records the +“empire,” the first recorded empire, of the Sumerian city of Erech. +Its god and its priest-king claimed an authority from the Persian Gulf +to the Red Sea. + + +BRICK OF HAMMURABI, KING OF BABYLON ABOUT 2200 B.C. +BRICK OF HAMMURABI, KING OF BABYLON ABOUT 2200 B.C. + +Note the cuneiform characters of the inscription, which records the +building of a temple to a Sun God + + +At first writing was merely an abbreviated method of pictorial record. +Even before Neolithic times men were beginning to write. The Azilian +rock pictures to which we have already referred show the beginning of +the process. Many of them record hunts and expeditions, and in most of +these the human figures are plainly drawn. But in some the painter +would not bother with head and limbs; he just indicated men by a +vertical and one or two transverse strokes. From this to a +conventional condensed picture writing was an easy transition. In +Sumeria, where the writing was done on clay with a stick, the dabs of +the characters soon became unrecognizably unlike the things they stood +for, but in Egypt where men painted on walls and on strips of the +papyrus reed (the first paper) the likeness to the thing imitated +remained. From the fact that the wooden styles used in Sumeria made +wedge-shaped marks, the Sumerian writing is called cuneiform (= +wedge-shaped). + + +EBONY CYLINDER SEALS OF FIRST EGYPTIAN DYNASTY +EBONY CYLINDER SEALS OF FIRST EGYPTIAN DYNASTY + +Recovered from the Tombs at Abydos in 1921 by the British School of +Archæology. They give evidence of early form of block printing + + +An important step towards writing was made when pictures were used to +indicate not the thing represented but some similar thing. In the +rebus dear to children of a suitable age, this is still done to-day. +We draw a camp with tents and a bell, and the child is delighted to +guess that this is the Scotch name Campbell. The Sumerian language was +a language made up of accumulated syllables rather like some +contemporary Amerindian languages, and it lent itself very readily to +this syllabic method of writing words expressing ideas that could not +be conveyed by pictures directly. Egyptian writing underwent parallel +developments. Later on, when foreign peoples with less distinctly +syllabled methods of speech were to learn and use these picture scripts +they were to make those further modifications and simplifications that +developed at last into alphabetical writing. All the true alphabets of +the later world derived from a mixture of the Sumerian cuneiform and +the Egyptian hieroglyphic (priest writing). Later in China there was +to develop a conventionalized picture writing, but in China it never +got to the alphabetical stage. + +The invention of writing was of very great importance in the +development of human societies. It put agreements, laws, commandments +on record. It made the growth of states larger than the old city +states possible. It made a continuous historical consciousness +possible. The command of the priest or king and his seal could go far +beyond his sight and voice and could survive his death. It is +interesting to note that in ancient Sumeria seals were greatly used. A +king or a nobleman or a merchant would have his seal often very +artistically carved, and would impress it on any clay document he +wished to authorize. So close had civilization got to printing six +thousand years ago. Then the clay was dried hard and became permanent. + For the reader must remember that in the land of Mesopotamia for +countless years, letters, records and accounts were all written on +comparatively indestructible tiles. To that fact we owe a great wealth +of recovered knowledge. + + +THE SAKHARA PYRAMIDS +THE SAKHARA PYRAMIDS + +The Pyramid to the right, the step Pyramid, is the oldest stone +building in the world + +_Photo: F. Boyer_ + + +Bronze, copper, gold, silver and, as a precious rarity, meteoric iron +were known in both Sumeria and Egypt at a very early stage. + + +VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS +VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS + +Showing how these great monuments dominate the plain + +_Photo: D. McLeish_ + +THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDEREH +THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDEREH + +_Photo: D. McLeish_ + + +Daily life in those first city lands of the old world must have been +very similar in both Egypt and Sumeria. And except for the asses and +cattle in the streets it must have been not unlike the life in the Maya +cities of America three or four thousand years later. Most of the +people in peace time were busy with irrigation and cultivation—except +on days of religious festivity. They had no money and no need for it. +They managed their small occasional trades by barter. The princes and +rulers who alone had more than a few possessions used gold and silver +bars and precious stones for any incidental act of trade. The temple +dominated life; in Sumeria it was a great towering temple that went up +to a roof from which the stars were observed; in Egypt it was a massive +building with only a ground floor. In Sumeria the priest ruler was the +greatest, most splendid of beings. In Egypt however there was one who +was raised above the priests; he was the living incarnation of the +chief god of the land, the Pharaoh, the god king. + +There were few changes in the world in those days; men’s days were +sunny, toilsome and conventional. Few strangers came into the land and +such as did fared uncomfortably. The priest directed life according to +immemorial rules and watched the stars for seed time and marked the +omens of the sacrifices and interpreted the warnings of dreams. Men +worked and loved and died, not unhappily, forgetful of the savage past +of their race and heedless of its future. Sometimes the ruler was +benign. Such was Pepi II, who reigned in Egypt for ninety years. +Sometimes he was ambitious and took men’s sons to be soldiers and sent +them against neighbouring city states to war and plunder, or he made +them toil to build great buildings. Such were Cheops and Chephren and +Mycerinus, who built those vast sepulchral piles, the pyramids at +Gizeh. The largest of these is 450 feet high and the weight of stone in +it is 4,883,000 tons. All this was brought down the Nile in boats and +lugged into place chiefly by human muscle. Its erection must have +exhausted Egypt more than a great war would have done. + + + + +XVI +PRIMITIVE NOMADIC PEOPLES + + +It was not only in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley that men were +settling down to agriculture and the formation of city states in the +centuries between 6000 and 8000 B.C. Wherever there were possibilities +of irrigation and a steady all-the-year-round food supply men were +exchanging the uncertainties and hardships of hunting and wandering for +the routines of settlement. On the upper Tigris a people called the +Assyrians were founding cities; in the valleys of Asia Minor and on the +Mediterranean shores and islands, there were small communities growing +up to civilization. Possibly parallel developments of human life were +already going on in favourable regions of India, and China. In many +parts of Europe where there were lakes well stocked with fish, little +communities of men had long settled in dwellings built on piles over +the water, and were eking out agriculture by fishing and hunting. But +over much larger areas of the old world no such settlement was +possible. The land was too harsh, too thickly wooded or too arid, or +the seasons too uncertain for mankind, with only the implements and +science of that age to take root. + +For settlement under the conditions of the primitive civilizations men +needed a constant water supply and warmth and sunshine. Where these +needs were not satisfied, man could live as a transient, as a hunter +following his game, as a herdsman following the seasonal grass, but he +could not settle. The transition from the hunting to the herding life +may have been very gradual. From following herds of wild cattle or (in +Asia) wild horses, men may have come to an idea of property in them, +have learnt to pen them into valleys, have fought for them against +wolves, wild dogs and other predatory beasts. + + +POTTERY AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE LAKE DWELLERS +POTTERY AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE LAKE DWELLERS + +_Brit. Mus._ + +A CONTEMPORARY LAKE VILLAGE +A CONTEMPORARY LAKE VILLAGE + +These Borneo dwellings are practically counterparts of the homes of +European neolithic communities 6000 B.C. + + +So while the primitive civilizations of the cultivators were growing up +chiefly in the great river valleys, a different way of living, the +nomadic life, a life in constant movement to and fro from winter +pasture to summer pasture, was also growing up. The nomadic peoples +were on the whole hardier than the agriculturalists; they were less +prolific and numerous, they had no permanent temples and no highly +organized priesthood; they had less gear; but the reader must not +suppose that theirs was necessarily a less highly developed way of +living on that account. In many ways this free life was a fuller life +than that of the tillers of the soil. The individual was more +self-reliant; less of a unit in a crowd. The leader was more +important; the medicine man perhaps less so. + + +NOMADS IN EGYPT + +NOMADS IN EGYPT +NOMADS IN EGYPT + +Egyptian wall painting in a tomb near ancient Beni Hassan, middle +Egypt. It depicts the arrival of a tribe of Semitic Nomads in Egypt +about the year of 1895 B.C. + + +Moving over large stretches of country the nomad took a wider view of +life. He touched on the confines of this settled land and that. He +was used to the sight of strange faces. He had to scheme and treat for +pasture with competing tribes. He knew more of minerals than the folk +upon the plough lands because he went over mountain passes and into +rocky places. He may have been a better metallurgist. Possibly bronze +and much more probably iron smelting were nomadic discoveries. Some of +the earliest implements of iron reduced from its ores have been found +in Central Europe far away from the early civilizations. + + +FLINT KNIVES OF 4500 B.C. +FLINT KNIVES OF 4500 B.C. + +Excavated 1922 by the British School of Archæology in Egypt from First +Dynasty Tombs + + +On the other hand the settled folk had their textiles and their pottery +and made many desirable things. It was inevitable that as the two +sorts of life, the agricultural and the nomadic differentiated, a +certain amount of looting and trading should develop between the two. +In Sumeria particularly which had deserts and seasonal country on +either hand it must have been usual to have the nomads camping close to +the cultivated fields, trading and stealing and perhaps tinkering, as +gipsies do to this day. (But hens they would not steal, because the +domestic fowl—an Indian jungle fowl originally was not domesticated by +man until about 1000 B.C.) They would bring precious stones and things +of metal and leather. If they were hunters they would bring skins. +They would get in exchange pottery and beads and glass, garments and +suchlike manufactured things. + + +EGYPT PEASANTS GOING TO WORK +EGYPT PEASANTS GOING TO WORK + +From an ancient and curiously painted model in the British Museum + + +Three main regions and three main kinds of wandering and imperfectly +settled people there were in those remote days of the first +civilizations in Sumeria and early Egypt. Away in the forests of +Europe were the blonde Nordic peoples, hunters and herdsmen, a lowly +race. The primitive civilizations saw very little of this race before +1500 B.C. Away on the steppes of eastern Asia various Mongolian +tribes, the Hunnish peoples, were domesticating the horse and +developing a very wide sweeping habit of seasonal movement between +their summer and winter camping places. Possibly the Nordic and Hunnish +peoples were still separated from one another by the swamps of Russia +and the greater Caspian Sea of that time. For very much of Russia +there was swamp and lake. In the deserts, which were growing more arid +now, of Syria and Arabia, tribes of a dark white or brownish people, +the Semitic tribes, were driving flocks of sheep and goats and asses +from pasture to pasture. It was these Semitic shepherds and certain +more negroid people from southern Persia, the Elamites, who were the +first nomads to come into close contact with the early civilizations. +They came as traders and as raiders. Finally there arose leaders among +them with bolder imaginations, and they became conquerors. + + +STELE GLORIFYING KING NARAM SIN, OF AKKAD +STELE GLORIFYING KING NARAM SIN, OF AKKAD + +This monarch, son of Sargon I, was a great architecht as well as a +famous conqueror. Discovered in 1898 among the ruins of Susa, Persia + + +About 2750 B.C. a great Semitic leader, Sargon, had conquered the whole +Sumerian land and was master of all the world from the Persian Gulf to +the Mediterranean Sea. He was an illiterate barbarian and his people, +the Akkadians, learnt the Sumerian writing and adopted the Sumerian +language as the speech of the officials and the learned. The empire he +founded decayed after two centuries, and after one inundation of +Elamites a fresh Semitic people, the Amorites, by degrees established +their rule over Sumeria. They made their capital in what had hitherto +been a small up-river town, Babylon, and their empire is called the +first Babylonian Empire. It was consolidated by a great king called +Hammurabi (circa 2100 B.C.) who made the earliest code of laws yet +known to history. + +The narrow valley of the Nile lies less open to nomadic invasion than +Mesopotamia, but about the time of Hammurabi occurred a successful +Semitic invasion of Egypt and a line of Pharaohs was set up, the Hyksos +or “shepherd kings,” which lasted for several centuries. These Semitic +conquerors never assimilated themselves with the Egyptians; they were +always regarded with hostility as foreigners and barbarians; and they +were at last expelled by a popular uprising about 1600 B.C. + +But the Semites had come into Sumeria for good and all, the two races +assimilated and the Babylonian Empire became Semitic in its language +and character. + + + + +XVII +THE FIRST SEAGOING PEOPLES + + +The earliest boats and ships must have come into use some twenty-five +or thirty thousand years ago. Man was probably paddling about on the +water with a log of wood or an inflated skin to assist him, at latest +in the beginnings of the Neolithic period. A basketwork boat covered +with skin and caulked was used in Egypt and Sumeria from the beginnings +of our knowledge. Such boats are still used there. They are used to +this day in Ireland and Wales and in Alaska; sealskin boats still make +the crossing of Behring Straits. The hollow log followed as tools +improved. The building of boats and then ships came in a natural +succession. + +Perhaps the legend of Noah’s Ark preserves the memory of some early +exploit in shipbuilding, just as the story of the Flood, so widely +distributed among the peoples of the world, may be the tradition of the +flooding of the Mediterranean basin. + +There were ships upon the Red Sea long before the pyramids were built, +and there were ships on the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf by 7000 B.C. + Mostly these were the ships of fishermen, but some were already +trading and pirate ships—for knowing what we do of mankind we may guess +pretty safely that the first sailors plundered where they could and +traded where they had to do so. + +The seas on which these first ships adventured were inland seas on +which the wind blew fitfully and which were often at a dead calm for +days together, so that sailing did not develop beyond an accessory use. + It is only in the last four hundred years that the well-rigged, +ocean-going, sailing ship has developed. The ships of the ancient +world were essentially rowing ships which hugged the shore and went +into harbour at the first sign of rough weather. As ships grew into +big galleys they caused a demand for war captives as galley slaves. + +We have already noted the appearance of the Semitic people as wanderers +and nomads in the region of Syria and Arabia, and how they conquered +Sumeria and set up first the Akkadian and then the first Babylonian +Empire. In the west these same Semitic peoples were taking to the sea. + They set up a string of harbour towns along the Eastern coast of the +Mediterranean, of which Tyre and Sidon were the chief; and by the time +of Hammurabi in Babylon, they had spread as traders, wanderers and +colonizers over the whole Mediterranean basin. These sea Semites were +called the Phœnicians, They settled largely in Spain, pushing back the +old Iberian Basque population and sending coasting expeditions through +the straits of Gibraltar; and they set up colonies upon the north coast +of Africa. Of Carthage, one of these Phœnician cities, we shall have +much more to tell later. + +But the Phœnicians were not the first people to have galleys in the +Mediterranean waters. There was already a series of towns and cities +among the islands and coasts of that sea belonging to a race or races +apparently connected by blood and language with the Basques to the west +and the Berbers and Egyptians to the south, the Ægean peoples. These +peoples must not be confused with the Greeks, who come much later into +our story; they were pre-Greek, but they had cities in Greece and Asia +Minor; Mycenæ and Troy for example, and they had a great and prosperous +establishment at Cnossos in Crete. + +It is only in the last half century that the industry of excavating +archæologists has brought the extent and civilization of the Ægean +peoples to our knowledge. Cnossos has been most thoroughly explored; it +was happily not succeeded by any city big enough to destroy its ruins, +and so it is our chief source of information about this once almost +forgotten civilization. + +The history of Cnossos goes back as far as the history of Egypt; the +two countries were trading actively across the sea by 4000 B.C. By +2500 B.C., that is between the time of Sargon I and Hammurabi, Cretan +civilization was at its zenith. + +Cnossos was not so much a town as a great palace for the Cretan monarch +and his people. It was not even fortified. It was only fortified later +as the Phœnicians grew strong, and as a new and more terrible breed of +pirates, the Greeks, came upon the sea from the north. + + +THE TREASURE HOUSE AT MYCENÆ +THE TREASURE HOUSE AT MYCENÆ + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +The monarch was called Minos, as the Egyptian monarch was called +Pharaoh; and he kept his state in a palace fitted with running water, +with bathrooms and the like conveniences such as we know of in no other +ancient remains. There he held great festivals and shows. There was +bull-fighting, singularly like the bull-fighting that still survives in +Spain; there was resemblance even in the costumes of the bull-fighters; +and there were gymnastic displays. The women’s clothes were remarkably +modern in spirit; they wore corsets and flounced dresses. The pottery, +the textile manufactures, the sculpture, painting, jewellery, ivory, +metal and inlay work of these Cretans was often astonishingly +beautiful. And they had a system of writing, but that still remains to +be deciphered. + +This happy and sunny and civilized life lasted for some score of +centuries. About 2000 B.C. Cnossos and Babylon abounded in comfortable +and cultivated people who probably led very pleasant lives. They had +shows and they had religious festivals, they had domestic slaves to +look after them and industrial slaves to make a profit for them. Life +must have seemed very secure in Cnossos for such people, sunlit and +girdled by the blue sea. Egypt of course must have appeared rather a +declining country in those days under the rule of her half-barbaric +shepherd kings, and if one took an interest in politics one must have +noticed how the Semitic people seemed to be getting everywhere, ruling +Egypt, ruling distant Babylon, building Nineveh on the upper Tigris, +sailing west to the Pillars of Hercules (the straits of Gibraltar) and +setting up their colonies on those distant coasts. + +There were some active arid curious minds in Cnossos, because later on +the Greeks told legends of a certain skilful Cretan artificer, Dædalus, +who attempted to make some sort of flying machine, perhaps a glider, +which collapsed and fell into the sea. + +It is interesting to note some of the differences as well as the +resemblances between the life of Cnossos and our own. To a Cretan +gentleman of 2500 B.C. iron was a rare metal which fell out of the sky +and was curious rather than useful—for as yet only meteoric iron was +known, iron had not been obtained from its ores. Compare that with our +modern state of affairs pervaded by iron everywhere. The horse again +would be a quite legendary creature to our Cretan, a sort of super-ass +which lived in the bleak northern lands far away beyond the Black Sea. +Civilization for him dwelt chiefly in Ægean Greece and Asia Minor, +where Lydians and Carians and Trojans lived a life and probably spoke +languages like his own. There were Phœnicians and Ægeans settled in +Spain and North Africa, but those were very remote regions to his +imagination. Italy was still a desolate land covered with dense +forests; the brown-skinned Etruscans had not yet gone there from Asia +Minor. And one day perhaps this Cretan gentleman went down to the +harbour and saw a captive who attracted his attention because he was +very fair-complexioned and had blue eyes. Perhaps our Cretan tried to +talk to him and was answered in an unintelligible gibberish. This +creature came from somewhere beyond the Black Sea and seemed to be an +altogether benighted savage. But indeed he was an Aryan tribesman, of +a race and culture of which we shall soon have much to tell, and the +strange gibberish he spoke was to differentiate some day into Sanskrit, +Persian, Greek, Latin, German, English and most of the chief languages +of the world. + + +THE PALACE AT CNOSSOS +THE PALACE AT CNOSSOS + +The painted walls of the Throne Room + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +Such was Cnossos at its zenith, intelligent, enterprising, bright and +happy. But about 1400 B.C. disaster came perhaps very suddenly upon +its prosperity. The palace of Minos was destroyed, and its ruins have +never been rebuilt or inhabited from that day to this. We do not know +how this disaster occurred. The excavators note what appears to be +scattered plunder and the marks of the fire. But the traces of a very +destructive earthquake have also been found. Nature alone may have +destroyed Cnossos, or the Greeks may have finished what the earthquake +began. + + + + +XVIII +EGYPT, BABYLON AND ASSYRIA + + +The Egyptians had never submitted very willingly to the rule of their +Semitic shepherd kings and about 1600 A.D. a vigorous patriotic +movement expelled these foreigners. Followed a new phase or revival for +Egypt, a period known to Egyptologists as the New Empire. Egypt, which +had not been closely consolidated before the Hyksos invasion, was now a +united country; and the phase of subjugation and insurrection left her +full of military spirit. The Pharaohs became aggressive conquerors. +They had now acquired the war horse and the war chariot, which the +Hyksos had brought to them. Under Thothmes III and Amenophis III Egypt +had extended her rule into Asia as far as the Euphrates. + +We are entering now upon a thousand years of warfare between the once +quite separated civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Nile. At first +Egypt was ascendant. The great dynasties, the Seventeenth Dynasty, +which included Thothmes III and Amenophis III and IV and a great queen +Hatasu, and the Nineteenth, when Rameses II, supposed by some to have +been the Pharaoh of Moses, reigned for sixty-seven years, raised Egypt +to high levels of prosperity. In between there were phases of +depression for Egypt, conquest by the Syrians and later conquest by the +Ethiopians from the South. In Mesopotamia Babylon ruled, then the +Hittites and the Syrians of Damascus rose to a transitory predominance; +at one time the Syrians conquered Egypt; the fortunes of the Assyrians +of Nineveh ebbed and flowed; sometimes the city was a conquered city; +sometimes the Assyrians ruled in Babylon and assailed Egypt. Our space +is too limited here to tell of the comings and goings of the armies of +the Egyptians and of the various Semitic powers of Asia Minor, Syria +and Mesopotamia. They were armies now provided with vast droves of war +chariots, for the horse—still used only for war and glory—had spread by +this time into the old civilizations from Central Asia. + + +TEMPLE AT ABU SIMBEL +TEMPLE AT ABU SIMBEL + +Showing the statues of Rameses II at entrance + + +Great conquerors appear in the dim light of that distant time and pass, +Tushratta, King of Mitanni, who captured Nineveh, Tiglath Pileser I of +Assyria who conquered Babylon. At last the Assyrians became the +greatest military power of the time. Tiglath Pileser III conquered +Babylon in 745 B.C. and founded what historians call the New Assyrian +Empire. Iron had also come now into civilization out of the north; the +Hittites, the precursors of the Armenians, had it first and +communicated its use to the Assyrians, and an Assyrian usurper, Sargon +II, armed his troops with it. Assyria became the first power to +expound the doctrine of blood and iron. Sargon’s son Sennacherib led +an army to the borders of Egypt, and was defeated not by military +strength but by the plague. Sennacherib’s grandson Assurbanipal (who is +also known in history by his Greek name of Sardanapalus) did actually +conquer Egypt in 670 B.C. But Egypt was already a conquered country +then under an Ethiopian dynasty. Sardanapalus simply replaced one +conqueror by another. + + +AVENUE OF SPHINXES +AVENUE OF SPHINXES + +Leading from the Nile to the great Temple of Karnak + +_Photo: D. McLeish_ + + +If one had a series of political maps of this long period of history, +this interval of ten centuries, we should have Egypt expanding and +contracting like an amœba under a microscope, and we should see these +various Semitic states of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Hittites +and the Syrians coming and going, eating each other up and disgorging +each other again. To the west of Asia Minor there would be little +Ægean states like Lydia, whose capital was Sardis, and Caria. But +after about 1200 B.C. and perhaps earlier, a new set of names would +come into the map of the ancient world from the north-east and from the +north- west. These would be the names of certain barbaric tribes, +armed with iron weapons and using horse-chariots, who were becoming a +great affliction to the Ægean and Semitic civilizations on the northern +borders. They all spoke variants of what once must have been the same +language, Aryan. + + +THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK +THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK + +_Photo: D. McLeish_ + + +Round the north-east of the Black and Caspian Seas were coming the +Medes and Persians. Confused with these in the records of the time +were Scythians and Samatians. From north-east or north-west came the +Armenians, from the north- west of the sea-barrier through the Balkan +peninsula came Cimmerians, Phrygians and the Hellenic tribes whom now +we call the Greeks. They were raiders and robbers and plunderers of +cities, these Ayrans, east and west alike. They were all kindred and +similar peoples, hardy herdsmen who had taken to plunder. In the east +they were still only borderers and raiders, but in the west they were +taking cities and driving out the civilized Ægean populations. The +Ægean peoples were so pressed that they were seeking new homes in lands +beyond the Aryan range. Some were seeking a settlement in the delta of +the Nile and being repulsed by the Egyptians; some, the Etruscans, seem +to have sailed from Asia Minor to found a state in the forest +wildernesses of middle Italy; some built themselves cities upon the +south- east coasts of the Mediterranean and became later that people +known in history as the Philistines. + +Of these Aryans who came thus rudely upon the scene of the ancient +civilizations we will tell more fully in a later section. Here we note +simply all this stir and emigration amidst the area of the ancient +civilizations, that was set up by the swirl of the gradual and +continuous advance of these Aryan barbarians out of the northern +forests and wildernesses between 1600 and 600 B.C. + +And in a section to follow we must tell also of a little Semitic +people, the Hebrews, in the hills behind the Phœnician and Philistine +coasts, who began to be of significance in the world towards the end of +this period. They produced a literature of very great importance in +subsequent history, a collection of books, histories, poems, books of +wisdom and prophetic works, the Hebrew Bible. + +In Mesopotamia and Egypt the coming of the Aryans did not cause +fundamental changes until after 600 B.C. The flight of the Ægeans +before the Greeks and even the destruction of Cnossos must have seemed +a very remote disturbance to both the citizens of Egypt and of Babylon. + Dynasties came and went in these cradle states of civilization, but +the main tenor of human life went on, with a slow increase in +refinement and complexity age by age. In Egypt the accumulated +monuments of more ancient times—the pyramids were already in their +third thousand of years and a show for visitors just as they are to- +day—were supplemented by fresh and splendid buildings, more +particularly in the time of the seventeenth and nineteenth dynasties. +The great temples at Karnak and Luxor date from this time. All the +chief monuments of Nineveh, the great temples, the winged bulls with +human heads, the reliefs of kings and chariots and lion hunts, were +done in these centuries between 1600 and 600 B.C., and this period also +covers most of the splendours of Babylon. + + +FRIEZE SHOWING EGYPTIAN FEMALE SLAVES CARRYING LUXURIOUS FOODS +FRIEZE SHOWING EGYPTIAN FEMALE SLAVES CARRYING LUXURIOUS FOODS + +_Photo: Jacques Boyer_ + + +Both from Mesopotamia and Egypt we now have abundant public records, +business accounts, stories, poetry and private correspondence. We know +that life, for prosperous and influential people in such cities as +Babylon and the Egyptian Thebes, was already almost as refined and as +luxurious as that of comfortable and prosperous people to-day. Such +people lived an orderly and ceremonious life in beautiful and +beautifully furnished and decorated houses, wore richly decorated +clothing and lovely jewels; they had feasts and festivals, entertained +one another with music and dancing, were waited upon by highly trained +servants, were cared for by doctors and dentists. They did not travel +very much or very far, but boating excursions were a common summer +pleasure both on the Nile and on the Euphrates. The beast of burthen +was the ass; the horse was still used only in chariots for war and upon +occasions of state. The mule was still novel and the camel, though it +was known in Mesopotamia, had not been brought into Egypt. And there +were few utensils of iron; copper and bronze remained the prevailing +metals. Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool. But +there was no silk yet. Glass was known and beautifully coloured, but +glass things were usually small. There was no clear glass and no +optical use of glass. People had gold stoppings in their teeth but no +spectacles on their noses. + +One odd contrast between the life of old Thebes or Babylon and modern +life was the absence of coined money. Most trade was still done by +barter. Babylon was financially far ahead of Egypt. Gold and silver +were used for exchange and kept in ingots; and there were bankers, +before coinage, who stamped their names and the weight on these lumps +of precious metal. A merchant or traveller would carry precious stones +to sell to pay for his necessities. Most servants and workers were +slaves who were paid not money but in kind. As money came in slavery +declined. + +A modern visitor to these crowning cities of the ancient world would +have missed two very important articles of diet; there were no hens and +no eggs. A French cook would have found small joy in Babylon. These +things came from the East somewhere about the time of the last Assyrian +empire. + +Religion like everything else had undergone great refinement. Human +sacrifice for instance had long since disappeared; animals or bread +dummies had been substituted for the victim. (But the Phœnicians and +especially the citizens of Carthage, their greatest settlement in +Africa, were accused, later of immolating human beings.) When a great +chief had died in the ancient days it had been customary to sacrifice +his wives and slaves and break spear and bow at his tomb so that he +should not go unattended and unarmed in the spirit world. In Egypt +there survived of this dark tradition the pleasant custom of burying +small models of house and shop and servants and cattle with the dead, +models that give us to-day the liveliest realization of the safe and +cultivated life of these ancient people, three thousand years and more +ago. + + +THE TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU +THE TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU + + +Such was the ancient world before the coming of the Aryans out of the +northern forests and plains. In India and China there were parallel +developments. In the great valleys of both these regions agricultural +city states of brownish peoples were growing up, but in India they do +not seem to have advanced or coalesced so rapidly as the city states of +Mesopotamia or Egypt. They were nearer the level of the ancient +Sumerians or of the Maya civilization of America. Chinese history has +still to be modernized by Chinese scholars and cleared of much +legendary matter. Probably China at this time was in advance of India. + Contemporary with the seventeenth dynasty in Egypt, there was a +dynasty of emperors in China, the Shang dynasty, priest emperors over a +loose-knit empire of subordinate kings. The chief duty of these early +emperors was to perform the seasonal sacrifices. Beautiful bronze +vessels from the time of the Shang dynasty still exist, and their +beauty and workmanship compel us to recognize that many centuries of +civilization must have preceded their manufacture. + + + + +XIX +THE PRIMITIVE ARYANS + + +Four thousand years ago, that is to say about 2000 B.C., central and +south-eastern Europe and central Asia were probably warmer, moister and +better wooded than they are now. In these regions of the earth wandered +a group of tribes mainly of the fair and blue-eyed Nordic race, +sufficiently in touch with one another to speak merely variations of +one common language from the Rhine to the Caspian Sea. At that time +they may not have been a very numerous people, and their existence was +unsuspected by the Babylonians to whom Hammurabi was giving laws, or by +the already ancient and cultivated land of Egypt which was tasting in +those days for the first time the bitterness of foreign conquest. + +These Nordic people were destined to play a very important part indeed +in the world’s history. They were a people of the parklands and the +forest clearings; they had no horses at first but they had cattle; when +they wandered they put their tents and other gear on rough ox waggons; +when they settled for a time they may have made huts of wattle and mud. +They burnt their important dead; they did not bury them ceremoniously +as the brunette peoples did. They put the ashes of their greater +leaders in urns and then made a great circular mound about them. These +mounds are the “round barrows” that occur all over north Europe. The +brunette people, their predecessors, did not burn their dead but buried +them in a sitting position in elongated mounds; the “long barrows.” + +The Aryans raised crops of wheat, ploughing with oxen, but they did not +settle down by their crops; they would reap and move on. They had +bronze, and somewhen about 1500 B.C. they acquired iron. They may have +been the discoverers of iron smelting. And somewhen vaguely about that +time they also got the horse—which to begin with they used only for +draught purposes. Their social life did not centre upon a temple like +that of the more settled people round the Mediterranean, and their +chief men were leaders rather than priests. They had an aristocratic +social order rather than a divine and regal order; from a very early +stage they distinguished certain families as leaderly and noble. + + +A BEAUTIFUL ARCHAIC AMPHORA +A BEAUTIFUL ARCHAIC AMPHORA + +Compare the horses and other animals with the Altamira drawing on p. +54, and also with the Greek frieze, p. 140 + + +They were a very vocal people. They enlivened their wanderings by +feasts, at which there was much drunkenness and at which a special sort +of man, the bards, would sing and recite. They had no writing until +they had come into contact with civilization, and the memories of these +bards were their living literature. This use of recited language as an +entertainment did much to make it a fine and beautiful instrument of +expression, and to that no doubt the subsequent predominance of the +languages derived from Aryan is, in part, to be ascribed. Every Aryan +people had its legendary history crystallized in bardic recitations, +epics, sagas and vedas, as they were variously called. + +The social life of these people centred about the households of their +leading men. The hall of the chief where they settled for a time was +often a very capacious timber building. There were no doubt huts for +herds and outlying farm buildings; but with most of the Aryan peoples +this hall was the general centre, everyone went there to feast and hear +the bards and take part in games and discussions. Cowsheds and +stabling surrounded it. The chief and his wife and so forth would +sleep on a dais or in an upper gallery; the commoner sort slept about +anywhere, as people still do in Indian households. Except for weapons, +ornaments, tools and suchlike personal possessions there was a sort of +patriarchal communism in the tribe. The chief owned the cattle and +grazing lands in the common interest; forest and rivers were the wild. + +This was the fashion of the people who were increasing and multiplying +over the great spaces of central Europe and west central Asia during +the growth of the great civilization of Mesopotamia and the Nile, and +whom we find pressing upon the heliolithic peoples everywhere in the +second millennium before Christ. They were coming into France and +Britain and into Spain. They pushed westward in two waves. The first +of these people who reached Britain and Ireland were armed with bronze +weapons. They exterminated or subjugated the people who had made the +great stone monuments of Carnac in Brittany and Stonehenge and Avebury +in England. They reached Ireland. They are called the Goidelic Celts. +The second wave of a closely kindred people, perhaps intermixed with +other racial elements, brought iron with it into Great Britain, and is +known as the wave of Brythonic Celts. From them the Welsh derive their +language. + + +THE MOUND OF NIPPUR +THE MOUND OF NIPPUR + +The site of a city which recent excavations have proved to date from at +least as early as 5000 B.C., and probably 1000 years earlier + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +Kindred Celtic peoples were pressing southward into Spain and coming +into contact not only with the heliolithic Basque people who still +occupied the country but with the Semitic Phœnician colonies of the sea +coast. A closely allied series of tribes, the Italians, were making +their way down the still wild and wooded Italian peninsula. They did +not always conquer. In the eighth century B.C. Rome appears in +history, a trading town on the Tiber, inhabited by Aryan Latins but +under the rule of Etruscan nobles and kings. + +At the other extremity of the Aryan range there was a similar progress +southward of similar tribes. Aryan peoples, speaking Sanskrit, had +come down through the western passes into North India long before 1000 +B.C. There they came into contact with a primordial brunette +civilization, the Dravidian civilization, and learnt much from it. +Other Aryan tribes seem to have spread over the mountain masses of +Central Asia far to the east of the present range of such peoples. In +Eastern Turkestan there are still fair, blue-eyed Nordic tribes, but +now they speak Mongolian tongues. + +Between the Black and Caspian Seas the ancient Hittites had been +submerged and “Aryanized” by the Armenians before 1000 B.C., and the +Assyrians and Babylonians were already aware of a new and formidable +fighting barbarism on the north-eastern frontiers, a group of tribes +amidst which the Scythians, the Medes and the Persians remain as +outstanding names. + +But it was through the Balkan peninsula that Aryan tribes made their +first heavy thrust into the heart of the old-world civilization. They +were already coming southward and crossing into Asia Minor many +centuries before 1000 B.C. First came a group of tribes of whom the +Phrygians were the most conspicuous, and then in succession the Æolic, +the Ionic and the Dorian Greeks. By 1000 B.C. they had wiped out the +ancient Ægean civilization both in the mainland of Greece and in most +of the Greek islands; the cities of Mycenæ and Tiryns were obliterated +and Cnossos was nearly forgotten. The Greeks had taken to the sea +before 1000 A.D., they had settled in Crete and Rhodes, and they were +founding colonies in Sicily and the south of Italy after the fashion of +the Phœnician trading cities that were dotted along the Mediterranean +coasts. + +So it was, while Tiglath Pileser III and Sargon II and Sardanapalus +were ruling in Assyria and fighting with Babylonia and Syria and Egypt, +the Aryan peoples were learning the methods of civilization and making +it over for their own purposes in Italy and Greece and north Persia. +The theme of history from the ninth century B.C. A.D. onward for six +centuries is the story of how these Aryan peoples grew to power and +enterprise and how at last they subjugated the whole Ancient World, +Semitic, Ægean and Egyptian alike. In form the Aryan peoples were +altogether victorious; but the struggle of Aryan, Semitic and Egyptian +ideas and methods was continued long after the sceptre was in Aryan +hands. It is indeed a struggle that goes on through all the rest of +history and still in a manner continues to this day. + + + + +XX +THE LAST BABYLONIAN EMPIRE AND THE EMPIRE OF DARIUS I + + +We have already mentioned how Assyria became a great military power +under Tiglath Pileser III and under the usurper Sargon II. Sargon was +not this man’s original name; he adopted it to flatter the conquered +Babylonians by reminding them of that ancient founder of the Akkadian +Empire, Sargon I, two thousand years before his time. Babylon, for all +that it was a conquered city, was of greater population and importance +than Nineveh, and its great god Bel Marduk and its traders and priests +had to be treated politely. In Mesopotamia in the eighth century B.C. +A.D. we are already far beyond the barbaric days when the capture of a +town meant loot and massacre. Conquerors sought to propitiate and win +the conquered. For a century and a half after Sargon the new Assyrian +empire endured and, as we have noted, Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus) held +at least lower Egypt. + +But the power and solidarity of Assyria waned rapidly. Egypt by an +effort threw off the foreigner under a Pharoah Psammetichus I, and +under Necho II attempted a war of conquest in Syria. By that time +Assyria was grappling with foes nearer at hand, and could make but a +poor resistance. A Semitic people from south-east Mesopotamia, the +Chaldeans, combined with Aryan Medes and Persians from the north-east +against Nineveh, and in 606 B.C.—for now we are coming down to exact +chronology—took that city. + +There was a division of the spoils of Assyria. A Median Empire was set +up in the north under Cyaxares. It included Nineveh, and its capital +was Ecbatana. Eastward it reached to the borders of India. To the +south of this in a great crescent was a new Chaldean Empire, the Second +Babylonian Empire, which rose to a very great degree of wealth and +power under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar the Great (the Nebuchadnezzar of +the Bible). The last great days, the greatest days of all, for Babylon +began. For a time the two Empires remained at peace, and the daughter +of Nebuchadnezzar was married to Cyaxares. + +Meanwhile Necho II was pursuing his easy conquests in Syria. He had +defeated and slain King Josiah of Judah, a small country of which there +is more to tell presently, at the battle of Megiddo in 608 B.C., and he +pushed on to the Euphrates to encounter not a decadent Assyria but a +renascent Babylonia. The Chaldeans dealt very vigorously with the +Egyptians. Necho was routed and driven back to Egypt, and the +Babylonian frontier pushed down to the ancient Egyptian boundaries. + + +Map showing the relation of the Median and Second Babylonian (Chaldæan) +Empires in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar the Great + +From 606 until 589 B.C. the Second Babylonian Empire flourished +insecurely. It flourished so long as it kept the peace with the +stronger, hardier Median Empire to the north. And during these +sixty-seven years not only life but learning flourished in the ancient +city. + + +Map: The Empire of Darius (tribute-paying countries) at its greatest +extent + +Even under the Assyrian monarchs and especially under Sardanapalus, +Babylon had been a scene of great intellectual activity. Sardanapalus, +though an Assyrian, had been quite Babylon-ized. He made a library, a +library not of paper but of the clay tablets that were used for writing +in Mesopotamia since early Sumerian days. His collection has been +unearthed and is perhaps the most precious store of historical material +in the world. The last of the Chaldean line of Babylonian monarchs, +Nabonidus, had even keener literary tastes. He patronized antiquarian +researches, and when a date was worked out by his investigators for the +accession of Sargon I he commemorated the fact by inscriptions. But +there were many signs of disunion in his empire, and he sought to +centralize it by bringing a number of the various local gods to Babylon +and setting up temples to them there. This device was to be practised +quite successfully by the Romans in later times, but in Babylon it +roused the jealousy of the powerful priesthood of Bel Marduk, the +dominant god of the Babylonians. They cast about for a possible +alternative to Nabonidus and found it in Cyrus the Persian, the ruler +of the adjacent Median Empire. Cyrus had already distinguished himself +by conquering Croesus, the rich king of Lydia in Eastern Asia Minor. +He came up against Babylon, there was a battle outside the walls, and +the gates of the city were opened to him (538 B.C.). His soldiers +entered the city without fighting. The crown prince Belshazzar, the +son of Nabonidus, was feasting, the Bible relates, when a hand appeared +and wrote in letters of fire upon the wall these mystical words: +_“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,”_ which was interpreted by the prophet +Daniel, whom he summoned to read the riddle, as “God has numbered thy +kingdom and finished it; thou art weighed in the balance and found +wanting and thy kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians.” Possibly +the priests of Bel Marduk knew something about that writing on the +wall. Belshazzar was killed that night, says the Bible. Nabonidus was +taken prisoner, and the occupation of the city was so peaceful that the +services of Bel Marduk continued without intermission. + + +PERSIAN MONARCH +PERSIAN MONARCH + +From the ruins of Persepolis + +_Photo: Miss F. Biggs_ + + +Thus it was the Babylonian and Median empires were united. Cambyses, +the son of Cyrus, subjugated Egypt. Cambyses went mad and was +accidentally killed, and was presently succeeded by Darius the Mede, +Darius I, the son of Hystaspes, one of the chief councillors of Cyrus. + + +THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS +THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS + +The capital city of the Persian Empire; burnt by Alexander the Great + +_Photo: Major W. F. P. Rodd_ + + +THE GREAT PORCH OF XERXES, AT PERSEPOLIS +THE GREAT PORCH OF XERXES, AT PERSEPOLIS + +_Photo: Major W. F. P. Rodd_ + + +The Persian Empire of Darius I, the first of the new Aryan empires in +the seat of the old civilizations, was the greatest empire the world +had hitherto seen. It included all Asia Minor and Syria, all the old +Assyrian and Babylonian empires, Egypt, the Caucasus and Caspian +regions, Media, Persia, and it extended into India as far as the Indus. + Such an empire was possible because the horse and rider and the +chariot and the made-road had now been brought into the world. +Hitherto the ass and ox and the camel for desert use had afforded the +swiftest method of transport. Great arterial roads were made by the +Persian rulers to hold their new empire, and post horses were always in +waiting for the imperial messenger or the traveller with an official +permit. Moreover the world was now beginning to use coined money, +which greatly facilitated trade and intercourse. But the capital of +this vast empire was no longer Babylon. In the long run the priesthood +of Bel Marduk gained nothing by their treason. Babylon though still +important was now a declining city, and the great cities of the new +empire were Persepolis and Susa and Ecbatana. The capital was Susa. +Nineveh was already abandoned and sinking into ruins. + + + + +XXI +THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE JEWS + + +And now we can tell of the Hebrews, a Semitic people, not so important +in their own time as in their influence upon the later history of the +world. They were settled in Judea long before 1000 B.C., and their +capital city after that time was Jerusalem. Their story is interwoven +with that of the great empires on either side of them, Egypt to the +south and the changing empires of Syria, Assyria and Babylon to the +north. Their country was an inevitable high road between these latter +powers and Egypt. + +Their importance in the world is due to the fact that they produced a +written literature, a world history, a collection of laws, chronicles, +psalms, books of wisdom, poetry and fiction and political utterances +which became at last what Christians know as the Old Testament, the +Hebrew Bible. This literature appears in history in the fourth or +fifth century B.C. + +Probably this literature was first put together in Babylon. We have +already told how the Pharaoh, Necho II, invaded the Assyrian Empire +while Assyria was fighting for life against Medes, Persians and +Chaldeans. Josiah King of Judah opposed him, and was defeated and +slain at Megiddo (608 B.C.). Judah became a tributary to Egypt, and +when Nebuchadnezzar the Great, the new Chaldean king in Babylon, rolled +back Necho into Egypt, he attempted to manage Judah by setting up +puppet kings in Jerusalem. The experiment failed, the people massacred +his Babylonian officials, and he then determined to break up this +little state altogether, which had long been playing off Egypt against +the northern empire. Jerusalem was sacked and burnt, and the remnant +of the people was carried off captive to Babylon. + +There they remained until Cyrus took Babylon (538 B.C.). He then +collected them together and sent them back to resettle their country +and rebuild the walls and temple of Jerusalem. + +Before that time the Jews do not seem to have been a very civilized or +united people. Probably only a very few of them could read or write. +In their own history one never hears of the early books of the Bible +being read; the first mention of a book is in the time of Josiah. The +Babylonian captivity civilized them and consolidated them. They +returned aware of their own literature, an acutely self-conscious and +political people. + +Their Bible at that time seems to have consisted only of the +Pentateuch, that is to say the first five books of the Old Testament as +we know it. In addition, as separate books they already had many of +the other books that have since been incorporated with the Pentateuch +into the present Hebrew Bible, Chronicles, the Psalms and Proverbs for +example. + +The accounts of the Creation of the World, of Adam and Eve and of the +Flood, with which the Bible begins, run closely parallel with similar +Babylonian legends; they seem to have been part of the common beliefs +of all the Semitic peoples. So too the stories of Moses and of Samson +have Sumerian and Babylonian parallels. But with the story of Abraham +and onward begins something more special to the Jewish race. + +Abraham may have lived as early as the days of Hammurabi in Babylon. +He was a patriarchal Semitic nomad. To the book of Genesis the reader +must go for the story of his wanderings and for the stories of his sons +and grandchildren and how they became captive in the Land of Egypt. He +travelled through Canaan, and the God of Abraham, says the Bible story, +promised this smiling land of prosperous cities to him and to his +children. + +And after a long sojourn in Egypt and after fifty years of wandering in +the wilderness under the leadership of Moses, the children of Abraham, +grown now to a host of twelve tribes, invaded the land of Canaan from +the Arabian deserts to the East. They may have done this somewhen +between 1600 B.C. and 1300 B.C.; there are no Egyptian records of Moses +nor of Canaan at this time to help out the story. But at any rate they +did not succeed in conquering any more than the hilly backgrounds of +the promised land. The coast was now in the hands, not of the +Canaanites but of newcomers, those Ægean peoples, the Philistines; and +their cities, Gaza, Gath, Ashdod, Ascalon and Joppa successfully +withstood the Hebrew attack. For many generations the children of +Abraham remained an obscure people of the hilly back country engaged in +incessant bickerings with the Philistines and with the kindred tribes +about them, the Moabites, the Midianites and so forth. The reader will +find in the book of Judges a record of their struggles and disasters +during this period. For very largely it is a record of disasters and +failures frankly told. + + +Map: The Land of the Hebrews + +For most of this period the Hebrews were ruled, so far as there was any +rule among them, by priestly judges selected by the elders of the +people, but at last somewhen towards 1000 B.C. they chose themselves a +king, Saul, to lead them in battle. But Saul’s leading was no great +improvement upon the leading of the Judges; he perished under the hail +of Philistine arrows at the battle of Mount Gilboa, his armour went +into the temple of the Philistine Venus, and his body was nailed to the +walls of Beth-shan. + + +MOUND AT BABYLON +THE MOUND AT BABYLON + +Beneath which are the remains of a great palace of Nebuchadnezzar + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +His successor David was more successful and more politic. With David +dawned the only period of prosperity the Hebrew peoples were ever to +know. It was based on a close alliance with the Phœnician city of +Tyre, whose King Hiram seems to have been a man of very great +intelligence and enterprise. He wished to secure a trade route to the +Red Sea through the Hebrew hill country. Normally Phœnician trade went +to the Red Sea by Egypt, but Egypt was in a state of profound disorder +at this time; there may have been other obstructions to Phœnician trade +along this line, and at any rate Hiram established the very closest +relations both with David and with his son and successor Solomon. +Under Hiram’s auspices the walls, palace and temple of Jerusalem arose, +and in return Hiram built and launched his ships on the Red Sea. A +very considerable trade passed northward and southward through +Jerusalem. And Solomon achieved a prosperity and magnificence +unprecedented in the experience of his people. He was even given a +daughter of Pharaoh in marriage. + +But it is well to keep the proportion of things in mind. At the climax +of his glories Solomon was only a little subordinate king in a little +city. His power was so transitory that within a few years of his +death, Shishak the first Pharaoh of the twenty-second dynasty, had +taken Jerusalem and looted most of its splendours. The account of +Solomon’s magnificence given in the books of Kings and Chronicles is +questioned by many critics. They say that it was added to and +exaggerated by the patriotic pride of later writers. But the Bible +account read carefully is not so overwhelming as it appears at the +first reading. Solomon’s temple, if one works out the measurements, +would go inside a small suburban church, and his fourteen hundred +chariots cease to impress us when we learn from an Assyrian monument +that his successor Ahab sent a contingent of two thousand to the +Assyrian army. It is also plainly manifest from the Bible narrative +that Solomon spent himself in display and overtaxed and overworked his +people. At his death the northern part of his kingdom broke off from +Jerusalem and became the independent kingdom of Israel. Jerusalem +remained the capital city of Judah. + + +THE ISHTAR GATEWAY, BABYLON +THE ISHTAR GATEWAY, BABYLON + +The bulls are in richly coloured enamel on baked brick + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +The prosperity of the Hebrew people was short-lived. Hiram died, and +the help of Tyre ceased to strengthen Jerusalem. Egypt grew strong +again. The history of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah +becomes a history of two little states ground between, first, Syria, +then Assyria and then Babylon to the north and Egypt to the south. It +is a tale of disasters and of deliverances that only delayed disaster. +It is a tale of barbaric kings ruling a barbaric people. In 721 B.C. +the kingdom of Israel was swept away into captivity by the Assyrians +and its people utterly lost to history. Judah struggled on until in +604 B.C., as we have told, it shared the fate of Israel. There may be +details open to criticism in the Bible story of Hebrew history from the +days of the Judges onward, but on the whole it is evidently a true +story which squares with all that has been learnt in the excavation of +Egypt and Assyria and Babylon during the past century. + +It was in Babylon that the Hebrew people got their history together and +evolved their tradition. The people who came back to Jerusalem at the +command of Cyrus were a very different people in spirit and knowledge +from those who had gone into captivity. They had learnt civilization. +In the development of their peculiar character a very great part was +played by certain men, a new sort of men, the Prophets, to whom we must +now direct our attention. These Prophets mark the appearance of new +and remarkable forces in the steady development of human society. + + + + +XXII +PRIESTS AND PROPHETS IN JUDEA + + +The fall of Assyria and Babylon were only the first of a series of +disasters that were to happen to the Semitic peoples. In the seventh +century B.C. it would have seemed as though the whole civilized world +was to be dominated by Semitic rulers. They ruled the great Assyrian +empire and they had conquered Egypt; Assyria, Babylon, Syria were all +Semitic, speaking languages that were mutually intelligible. The trade +of the world was in Semitic hands. Tyre, Sidon, the great mother cities +of the Phœnician coast, had thrown out colonies that grew at last to +even greater proportion in Spain, Sicily and Africa. Carthage, founded +before 800 B.C., had risen to a population of more than a million. It +was for a time the greatest city on earth. Its ships went to Britain +and out into the Atlantic. They may have reached Madeira. We have +already noted how Hiram co-operated with Solomon to build ships on the +Red Sea for the Arabian and perhaps for the Indian trade. In the time +of the Pharaoh Necho, a Phœnician expedition sailed completely round +Africa. + +At that time the Aryan peoples were still barbarians. Only the Greeks +were reconstructing a new civilization of the ruins of the one they had +destroyed, and the Medes were becoming “formidable,” as an Assyrian +inscription calls them, in central Asia. In 800 B.C. no one could have +prophesied that before the third century B.C. every trace of Semitic +dominion would be wiped out by Aryan-speaking conquerors, and that +everywhere the Semitic peoples would be subjects or tributaries or +scattered altogether. Everywhere except in the northern deserts of +Arabia, where the Bedouin adhered steadily to the nomadic way of life, +the ancient way of life of the Semites before Sargon I and his +Akkadians went down to conquer Sumeria. But the Arab Bedouin were +never conquered by Aryan masters. + +Now of all these civilized Semites who were beaten and overrun in these +five eventful centuries one people only held together and clung to its +ancient traditions and that was this little people, the Jews, who were +sent back to build their city of Jerusalem by Cyrus the Persian. And +they were able to do this, because they had got together this +literature of theirs, their Bible, in Babylon. It is not so much the +Jews who made the Bible as the Bible which made the Jews. Running +through this Bible were certain ideas, different from the ideas of the +people about them, very stimulating and sustaining ideas, to which they +were destined to cling through five and twenty centuries of hardship, +adventure and oppression. + +Foremost of these Jewish ideas was this, that their God was invisible +and remote, an invisible God in a temple not made with hands, a Lord of +Righteousness throughout the earth. All other peoples had national gods +embodied in images that lived in temples. If the image was smashed and +the temple razed, presently that god died out. But this was a new +idea, this God of the Jews, in the heavens, high above priests and +sacrifices. And this God of Abraham, the Jews believed, had chosen +them to be his peculiar people, to restore Jerusalem and make it the +capital of Righteousness in the World. They were a people exalted by +their sense of a common destiny. This belief saturated them all when +they returned to Jerusalem after the captivity in Babylon. + +Is it any miracle that in their days of overthrow and subjugation many +Babylonians and Syrians and so forth and later on many Phœnicians, +speaking practically the same language and having endless customs, +habits, tastes and traditions in common, should be attracted by this +inspiring cult and should seek to share in its fellowship and its +promise? After the fall of Tyre, Sidon, Carthage and the Spanish +Phœnician cities, the Phœnicians suddenly vanish from history; and as +suddenly we find, not simply in Jerusalem but in Spain, Africa, Egypt, +Arabia, the East, wherever the Phœnicians had set their feet, +communities of Jews. And they were all held together by the Bible and +by the reading of the Bible. Jerusalem was from the first only their +nominal capital; their real city was this book of books. This is a new +sort of thing in history. It is something of which the seeds were sown +long before, when the Sumerians and Egyptians began to turn their +hieroglyphics into writing. The Jews were a new thing, a people +without a king and presently without a temple (for as we shall tell +Jerusalem itself was broken up in 70 A.D.), held together and +consolidated out of heterogeneous elements by nothing but the power of +the written word. + +And this mental welding of the Jews was neither planned nor foreseen +nor done by either priests or statesmen. Not only a new kind of +community but a new kind of man comes into history with the development +of the Jews. In the days of Solomon the Hebrews looked like becoming a +little people just like any other little people of that time clustering +around court and temple, ruled by the wisdom of the priest and led by +the ambition of the king. But already, the reader may learn from the +Bible, this new sort of man of which we speak, the Prophet, was in +evidence. + +As troubles thicken round the divided Hebrews the importance of these +Prophets increases. + + +THE BLACK OBELISK OF SHALMANESER II +THE BLACK OBELISK OF SHALMANESER II + +This obelisk (in the British Museum) of the King of Assyria mentions, +in cuneiform, “Jehu the son of Omri.” Panel showing Jewish captives +bringing tribute + + +What were these Prophets? They were men of the most diverse origins. +The Prophet Ezekiel was of the priestly caste and the Prophet Amos wore +the goatskin mantle of a shepherd, but all had this in common, that +they gave allegiance to no one but to the God of Righteousness and that +they spoke directly to the people. They came without licence or +consecration. “Now the word of the Lord came unto me;” that was the +formula. They were intensely political. They exhorted the people +against Egypt, “that broken reed,” or against Assyria or Babylon; they +denounced the indolence of the priestly order or the flagrant sins of +the King. Some of them turned their attention to what we should now +call “social reform.” The rich were “grinding the faces of the poor,” +the luxurious were consuming the children’s bread; wealthy people made +friends with and imitated the splendours and vices of foreigners; and +this was hateful to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, who would certainly +punish this land. + + +ANOTHER PANEL OF THE BLACK OBELISK +ANOTHER PANEL OF THE BLACK OBELISK + +Captive Princes making obeisance to Shalmaneser II + + +These fulminations were written down and preserved and studied. They +went wherever the Jews went, and wherever they went they spread a new +religious spirit. They carried the common man past priest and temple, +past court and king and brought him face to face with the Rule of +Righteousness. That is their supreme importance in the history of +mankind. In the great utterances of Isaiah the prophetic voice rises to +a pitch of splendid anticipation and foreshadows the whole earth united +and at peace under one God. Therein the Jewish prophecies culminate. + +All the Prophets did not speak in this fashion, and the intelligent +reader of the prophetic books will find much hate in them, much +prejudice, and much that will remind him of the propaganda pamphlets of +the present time. Nevertheless it is the Hebrew Prophets of the period +round and about the Babylonian captivity who mark the appearance of a +new power in the world, the power of individual moral appeal, of an +appeal to the free conscience of mankind against the fetish sacrifices +and slavish loyalties that had hitherto bridled and harnessed our race. + + + + +XXIII +THE GREEKS + + +Now while after Solomon (whose reign was probably about 960 B.C.) the +divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah were suffering destruction and +deportation, and while the Jewish people were developing their +tradition in captivity in Babylon, another great power over the human +mind, the Greek tradition, was also arising. While the Hebrew prophets +were working out a new sense of direct moral responsibility between the +people and an eternal and universal God of Right, the Greek +philosophers were training the human mind in a new method and spirit of +intellectual adventure. + +The Greek tribes as we have told were a branch of the Aryan- speaking +stem. They had come down among the Ægean cities and islands some +centuries before 1000 B.C. They were probably already in southward +movement before the Pharaoh Thothmes hunted his first elephants beyond +the conquered Euphrates. For in those days there were elephants in +Mesopotamia and lions in Greece. + +It is possible that it was a Greek raid that burnt Cnossos, but there +are no Greek legends of such a victory though there are stories of +Minos and his palace (the Labyrinth) and of the skill of the Cretan +artificers. + + +STATUE OF MELEAGER +STATUE OF MELEAGER + +Note the progress in plastic power from the earlier wooden statue on +left + +_Photo: Sebah & Foaillier_ + + +Like most of the Aryans these Greeks had singers and reciters whose +performances were an important social link, and these handed down from +the barbaric beginnings of their people two great epics, the _Iliad_, +telling how a league of Greek tribes besieged and took and sacked the +town of Troy in Asia Minor, and the _Odyssey_, being a long adventure +story of the return of the sage captain, Odysseus, from Troy to his own +island. These epics were written down somewhen in the eighth or +seventh century B.C., when the Greeks had acquired the use of an +alphabet from their more civilized neighbours, but they are supposed to +have been in existence very much earlier. Formerly they were ascribed +to a particular blind bard, Homer, who was supposed to have sat down +and composed them as Milton composed Paradise Lost. Whether there +really was such a poet, whether he composed or only wrote down and +polished these epics and so forth, is a favourite quarrelling ground +for the erudite. We need not concern ourselves with such bickerings +here. The thing that matters from our point of view is that the Greeks +were in possession of their epics in the eighth century B.C., and that +they were a common possession and a link between their various tribes, +giving them a sense of fellowship as against the outer barbarians. +They were a group of kindred peoples linked by the spoken and +afterwards by the written word, and sharing common ideals of courage +and behaviour. + +The epics showed the Greeks a barbaric people without iron, without +writing, and still not living in cities. They seem to have lived at +first in open villages of huts around the halls of their chiefs outside +the ruins of the Ægean cities they had destroyed. Then they began to +wall their cities and to adopt the idea of temples from the people they +had conquered. It has been said that the cities of the primitive +civilizations grew up about the altar of some tribal god, and that the +wall was added; in the cities of the Greeks the wall preceded the +temple. They began to trade and send out colonies. By the seventh +century B.C. a new series of cities had grown up in the valleys and +islands of Greece, forgetful of the Ægean cities and civilization that +had preceded them; Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Samos, Miletus +among the chief. There were already Greek settlements along the coast +of the Black Sea and in Italy and Sicily. The heel and toe of Italy +was called Magna Græcia. Marseilles was a Greek town established on +the site of an earlier Phœnician colony. + +Now countries which are great plains or which have as a chief means of +transport some great river like the Euphrates or Nile tend to become +united under some common rule. The cities of Egypt and the cities of +Sumeria, for example, ran together under one system of government. But +the Greek peoples were cut up among islands and mountain valleys; both +Greece and Magna Græcia are very mountainous; and the tendency was all +the other way. When the Greeks come into history they are divided up +into a number of little states which showed no signs of coalescence. +They are different even in race. Some consist chiefly of citizens of +this or that Greek tribe, Ionic, Æolian or Doric; some have a mingled +population of Greeks and descendants of the pre-Greek “Mediterranean” +folk; some have an unmixed free citizenship of Greeks lording it over +an enslaved conquered population like the “Helots” in Sparta. In some +the old leaderly Aryan families have become a close aristocracy; in +some there is a democracy of all the Aryan citizens; in some there are +elected or even hereditary kings, in some usurpers or tyrants. + + +RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA +RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +And the same geographical conditions that kept the Greek states divided +and various, kept them small. The largest states were smaller than +many English counties, and it is doubtful if the population of any of +their cities ever exceeded a third of a million. Few came up even to +50,000. There were unions of interest and sympathy but no coalescences. + Cities made leagues and alliances as trade increased, and small cities +put themselves under the protection of great ones. Yet all Greece was +held together in a certain community of feeling by two things, by the +epics and by the custom of taking part every fourth year in the +athletic contests at Olympia. This did not prevent wars and feuds, but +it mitigated something of the savagery of war between them, and a truce +protected all travellers to and from the games. As time went on the +sentiment of a common heritage grew and the number of states +participating in the Olympic games increased until at last not only +Greeks but competitors from the closely kindred countries of Epirus and +Macedonia to the north were admitted. + +The Greek cities grew in trade and importance, and the quality of their +civilization rose steadily in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. +Their social life differed in many interesting points from the social +life of the Ægean and river valley civilizations. They had splendid +temples but the priesthood was not the great traditional body it was in +the cities of the older world, the-repository of all knowledge, the +storehouse of ideas. They had leaders and noble families, but no +quasi- divine monarch surrounded by an elaborately organized court. +Rather their organization was aristocratic, with leading families which +kept each other in order. Even their so- called “democracies” were +aristocratic; every citizen had a share in public affairs and came to +the assembly in a democracy, _but everybody was not a citizen_. The +Greek democracies were not like our modern “democracies” in which +everyone has a vote. Many of the Greek democracies had a few hundred +or a few thousand citizens and then many thousands of slaves, freedmen +and so forth, with no share in public affairs. Generally in Greece +affairs were in the hands of a community of substantial men. Their +kings and their tyrants alike were just men set in front of other men +or usurping a leadership; they were not quasi-divine overmen like +Pharaoh or Minos or the monarchs of Mesopotamia. Both thought and +government therefore had a freedom under Greek conditions such as they +had known in none of the older civilizations. The Greeks had brought +down into cities the individualism, the personal initiative of the +wandering life of the northern parklands. They were the first +republicans of importance in history. + + +THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE (POSEIDON), PÆSTUM, SICILY +THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE (POSEIDON), PÆSTUM, SICILY + +_Photo: Alinari_ + + +And we find that as they emerge from a condition of barbaric warfare a +new thing becomes apparent in their intellectual life. We find men who +are not priests seeking and recording knowledge and enquiring into the +mysteries of life and being, in a way that has hitherto been the +sublime privilege of priesthood or the presumptuous amusement of kings. + We find already in the sixth century B.C.—perhaps while Isaiah was +still prophesying in Babylon—such men as Thales and Anaximander of +Miletus and Heraclitus of Ephesus, who were what we should now call +independent gentlemen, giving their minds to shrewd questionings of the +world in which we live, asking what its real nature was, whence it came +and what its destiny might be, and refusing all ready-made or evasive +answers. Of these questionings of the universe by the Greek mind, we +shall have more to say a little later in this history. These Greek +enquirers who begin to be remarkable in the sixth century B.C. are the +first philosophers, the first “wisdom-lovers,” in the world. + +And it may be noted here how important a century this sixth century +B.C. was in the history of humanity. For not only were these Greek +philosophers beginning the research for clear ideas about this universe +and man’s place in it and Isaiah carrying Jewish prophecy to its +sublimest levels, but as we shall tell later Gautama Buddha was then +teaching in India and Confucius and Lao Tse in China. From Athens to +the Pacific the human mind was astir. + + + + +XXIV +THE WARS OF THE GREEKS AND PERSIANS + + +While the Greeks in the cities in Greece, South Italy and Asia Minor +were embarking upon free intellectual enquiry and while in Babylon and +Jerusalem the last of the Hebrew prophets were creating a free +conscience for mankind, two adventurous Aryan peoples, the Medes and +the Persians, were in possession of the civilization of the ancient +world and were making a great empire, the Persian empire, which was far +larger in extent than any empire the world had seen hitherto. Under +Cyrus, Babylon and the rich and ancient civilization of Lydia had been +added to the Persian rule; the Phœnician cities of the Levant and all +the Greek cities in Asia Minor had been made tributary, Cambyses had +subjected Egypt, and Darius I, the Mede, the third of the Persian +rulers (521 B.C.), found himself monarch as it seemed of all the world. +His couriers rode with his decrees from the Dardanelles to the Indus +and from Upper Egypt to Central Asia. + +The Greeks in Europe, it is true, Italy, Carthage, Sicily and the +Spanish Phœnician settlements, were not under the Persian Peace; but +they treated it with respect and the only people who gave any serious +trouble were the old parent hordes of Nordic people in South Russia and +Central Asia, the Scythians, who raided the northern and north-eastern +borders. + +Of course the population of this great Persian empire was not a +population of Persians, The Persians were only the small conquering +minority of this enormous realm. The rest of the population was what +it had been before the Persians came from time immemorial, only that +Persian was the administrative language. Trade and finance were still +largely Semitic, Tyre and Sidon as of old were the great Mediterranean +ports and Semitic shipping plied upon the seas. But many of these +Semitic merchants and business people as they went from place to place +already found a sympathetic and convenient common history in the Hebrew +tradition and the Hebrew scriptures. A new element which was +increasing rapidly in this empire was the Greek element. The Greeks +were becoming serious rivals to the Semites upon the sea, and their +detached and vigorous intelligence made them useful and, unprejudiced +officials. + + +FINE PIECE OF ATHENIAN POTTERY +FINE PIECE OF ATHENIAN POTTERY + +Showing Greek merchant vesselswith sails and oars statue on left + +_Brit. Mus._ + + +It was on account of the Scythians that Darius I invaded Europe. He +wanted to reach South Russia, the homeland of the Scythian horsemen. +He crossed the Bosphorus with a great army and marched through Bulgaria +to the Danube, crossed this by a bridge of boats and pushed far +northward. His army suffered terribly. It was largely an infantry +force and the mounted Scythians rode all round it, cut off its +supplies, destroyed any stragglers and never came to a pitched battle. +Darius was forced into an inglorious retreat. + +He returned himself to Susa but he left an army in Thrace and +Macedonia, and Macedonia submitted to Darius. Insurrections of the +Greek cities in Asia followed this failure, and the European Greeks +were drawn into the contest. Darius resolved upon the subjugation of +the Greeks in Europe. With the Phœnician fleet at his disposal he was +able to subdue one island after another, and finally in 490 B.C. he +made his main attack upon Athens. A considerable Armada sailed from +the ports of Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, and the +expedition landed its troops at Marathon to the north of Athens. There +they were met and signally defeated by the Athenians. + +An extraordinary thing happened at this time. The bitterest rival of +Athens in Greece was Sparta, but now Athens appealed to Sparta, sending +a herald, a swift runner, imploring the Spartans not to let Greeks +become slaves to barbarians. This runner (the prototype of all +“Marathon” runners) did over a hundred miles of broken country in less +than two days. The Spartans responded promptly and generously; but +when, in three days, the Spartan force reached Athens, there was +nothing for it to do but to view the battlefield and the bodies of the +defeated Persian soldiers. The Persian fleet had returned to Asia. So +ended the first Persian attack on Greece. + +The next was much more impressive. Darius died soon after the news of +his defeat at Marathon reached him, and for four years his son and +successor, Xerxes, prepared a host to crush the Greeks. For a time +terror united all the Greeks. The army of Xerxes was certainly the +greatest that had hitherto been assembled in the world. It was a huge +assembly of discordant elements. It crossed the Dardanelles, 480 B.C., +by a bridge of boats; and along the coast as it advanced moved an +equally miscellaneous fleet carrying supplies. At the narrow pass of +Thermopylæ a small force of 1400 men under the Spartan Leonidas +resisted this multitude, and after a fight of unsurpassed heroism was +completely destroyed. Every man was killed. But the losses they +inflicted upon the Persians were enormous, and the army of Xerxes +pushed on to Thebes and Athens in a chastened mood. Thebes surrendered +and made terms. The Athenians abandoned their city and it was burnt. + +Greece seemed in the hands of the conqueror, but again came victory +against the odds and all expectations. The Greek fleet, though not a +third the size of the Persian, assailed it in the bay of Salamis and +destroyed it. Xerxes found himself and his immense army cut off from +supplies and his heart failed him. He retreated to Asia with one half +of his army, leaving the rest to be defeated at Platea (479 B.C.) what +time the remnants of the Persian fleet were hunted down by the Greeks +and destroyed at Mycalæ in Asia Minor. + + +ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF CORINTH +ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF CORINTH + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +The Persian danger was at an end. Most of the Greek cities in Asia +became free. All this is told in great detail and with much +picturesqueness in the first of written histories, the _History_ of +Herodotus. This Herodotus was born about 484 B.C. in the Ionian city +of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, and he visited Babylon and Egypt in his +search for exact particulars. From Mycalæ onward Persia sank into a +confusion of dynastic troubles. Xerxes was murdered in 465 B.C. and +rebellions in Egypt, Syria and Media broke up the brief order of that +mighty realm. The history of Herodotus lays stress on the weakness of +Persia. This history is indeed what we should now call +propaganda—propaganda for Greece to unite and conquer Persia. +Herodotus makes one character, Aristagoras, go to the Spartans with a +map of the known world and say to them: “These Barbarians are not +valiant in fight. You on the other hand have now attained the utmost +skill in war .... No other nations in the world have what they possess: +gold, silver, bronze, embroidered garments, beasts and slaves. _All +this you might have for yourselves, if you so desired_.” + + +THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE (POSEIDON) AT CAPE SUNIUM +THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE (POSEIDON) AT CAPE SUNIUM + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + + + +XXV +THE SPLENDOUR OF GREECE + + +The century and a half that followed the defeat of Persia was one of +very great splendour for the Greek civilization. True that Greece was +torn by a desperate struggle for ascendancy between Athens, Sparta and +other states (the Peloponnesian War 431 to 404 B.C.) and that in 338 +B.C. the Macedonians became virtually masters of Greece; nevertheless +during this period the thought and the creative and artistic impulse of +the Greeks rose to levels that made their achievement a lamp to mankind +for all the rest of history. + +The head and centre of this mental activity was Athens. For over +thirty years (466 to 428 B.C.) Athens was dominated by a man of great +vigour and liberality of mind, Pericles, who set himself to rebuild the +city from the ashes to which the Persians had reduced it. The beautiful +ruins that still glorify Athens to-day are chiefly the remains of this +great effort. And he did not simply rebuild a material Athens. He +rebuilt Athens intellectually. He gathered about him not only +architects and sculptors but poets, dramatists, philosophers and +teachers. Herodotus came to Athens to recite his history (438 B.C.). +Anaxagoras came with the beginnings of a scientific description of the +sun and stars. Æschylus, Sophocles and Euripides one after the other +carried the Greek drama to its highest levels or beauty and nobility. + +The impetus Pericles gave to the intellectual life of Athens lived on +after his death, and in spite of the fact that the peace of Greece was +now broken by the Peloponnesian War and a long and wasteful struggle +for “ascendancy” was beginning. Indeed the darkling of the political +horizon seems for a time to have quickened rather than discouraged +men’s minds. + +Already long before the time of Pericles the peculiar freedom of Greek +institutions had given great importance to skill in discussion. +Decision rested neither with king nor with priest but in the assemblies +of the people or of leading men. Eloquence and able argument became +very desirable accomplishments therefore, and a class of teachers +arose, the Sophists, who undertook to strengthen young men in these +arts. But one cannot reason without matter, and knowledge followed in +the wake of speech. The activities and rivalries of these Sophists led +very naturally to an acute examination of style, of methods of thought +and of the validity of arguments. When Pericles died a certain +Socrates was becoming prominent as an able and destructive critic of +bad argument—and much of the teaching of the Sophists was bad argument. + A group of brilliant young men gathered about Socrates. In the end +Socrates was executed for disturbing people’s minds (399 B.C.), he was +condemned after the dignified fashion of the Athens of those days to +drink in his own house and among his own friends a poisonous draught +made from hemlock, but the disturbance of people’s minds went on in +spite of his condemnation. His young men carried on his teaching. + + +PART OF THE FAMOUS FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON, ATHENS +PART OF THE FAMOUS FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON, ATHENS + +A specimen of Grecian sculpture in its finest expression. Compare the +advance of art with that seen in the animals shown on p. 105 + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + +THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS +THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS + +The marvellous group of Temples and monuments built under the +inspriration of Pericles + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +THE THEATRE AT EPIDAUROS, GREECE +THE THEATRE AT EPIDAUROS, GREECE + +A wonderfully preserved specimen showing the vast auditorium + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + + +Chief among these young men was Plato (427 to 347 B.C.) who presently +began to teach philosophy in the grove of the Academy. His teaching +fell into two main divisions, an examination of the foundations and +methods of human thinking and an examination of political institutions. +He was the first man to write a Utopia, that is to say the plan of a +community different from and better than any existing community. This +shows an altogether unprecedented boldness in the human mind which had +hitherto accepted social traditions and usages with scarcely a +question. Plato said plainly to mankind: “Most of the social and +political ills from which you suffer are under your control, given only +the will and courage to change them. You can live in another and a +wiser fashion if you choose to think it out and work it out. You are +not awake to your own power.” That is a high adventurous teaching that +has still to soak in to the common intelligence of our race. One of +his earliest works was the Republic, a dream of a communist +aristocracy; his last unfinished work was the Laws, a scheme of +regulation for another such Utopian state. + + +THE CARYATIDES OF THE ERECHTHEUM +THE CARYATIDES OF THE ERECHTHEUM + +The ancient sanctuary on the Acropolis at Athens + +_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_ + +ATHENE OF THE PARTHENON +ATHENE OF THE PARTHENON +_Photo: Alinart_ + + +The criticism of methods of thinking and methods of government was +carried on after Plato’s death by Aristotle, who had been his pupil and +who taught in the Lyceum. Aristotle came from the city of Stagira in +Macedonia, and his father was court physician to the Macedonian king. +For a time Aristotle was tutor to Alexander, the king’s son, who was +destined to achieve very great things of which we shall soon be +telling. Aristotle’s work upon methods of thinking carried the science +of Logic to a level at which it remained for fifteen hundred years or +more, until the mediæval schoolmen took up the ancient questions again. + He made no Utopias. Before man could really control his destiny as +Plato taught, Aristotle perceived that he needed far more knowledge and +far more accurate knowledge than he possessed. And so Aristotle began +that systematic collection of knowledge which nowadays we call Science. + He sent out explorers to collect _facts_. He was the father of +natural history. He was the founder of political science. His students +at the Lyceum examined and compared the constitutions of 158 different +states .... + +Here in the fourth century B.C. we find men who are practically “modern +thinkers.” The child-like, dream-like methods of primitive thought had +given way to a disciplined and critical attack upon the problems of +life. The weird and monstrous symbolism and imagery of the gods and +god monsters, and all the taboos and awes and restraints that have +hitherto encumbered thinking are here completely set aside. Free, +exact and systematic thinking has begun. The fresh and unencumbered +mind of these newcomers out of the northern forests has thrust itself +into the mysteries of the temple and let the daylight in. + + + + +XXVI +THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT + + +From 431 to 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian War wasted Greece. Meanwhile to +the north of Greece, the kindred country of Macedonia was rising slowly +to power and civilization. The Macedonians spoke a language closely +akin to Greek, and on several occasions Macedonian competitors had +taken part in the Olympic games. In 359 B.C. a man of very great +abilities and ambition became king of this little country—Philip. +Philip had previously been a hostage in Greece; he had had a thoroughly +Greek education and he was probably aware of the ideas of +Herodotus—which had also been developed by the philosopher Isocrates—of +a possible conquest of Asia by a consolidated Greece. + +He set himself first to extend and organize his own realm and to +remodel his army. For a thousand years now the charging horse-chariot +had been the decisive factor in battles, that and the close-fighting +infantry. Mounted horsemen had also fought, but as a cloud of +skirmishers, individually and without discipline. Philip made his +infantry fight in a closely packed mass, the Macedonian phalanx, and he +trained his mounted gentlemen, the knights or companions, to fight in +formation and so invented cavalry. The master move in most of his +battles and in the battles of his son Alexander was a cavalry charge. +The phalanx _held_ the enemy infantry in front while the cavalry swept +away the enemy horse on his wings and poured in on the flank and rear +of his infantry. Chariots were disabled by bowmen, who shot the horses. + +With this new army Philip extended his frontiers through Thessaly to +Greece; and the battle of Chæronia (338 B.C.), fought against Athens +and her allies, put all Greece at his feet. At last the dream of +Herodotus was bearing fruit. A congress of all the Greek states +appointed Philip captain-general of the Græco- Macedonian confederacy +against Persia, and in 336 B.C. his advanced guard crossed into Asia +upon this long premeditated adventure. But he never followed it. He +was assassinated; it is believed at the instigation of his queen +Olympias, Alexander’s mother. She was jealous because Philip had +married a second wife. + + +BUST OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT +BUST OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT +_(As in the British Museum)_ + + +But Philip had taken unusual pains with his son’s education. He had +not only secured Aristotle, the greatest philosopher in the world, as +this boy’s tutor, but he had shared his ideas with him and thrust +military experience upon him. At Chæronia Alexander, who was then only +eighteen years old, had been in command of the cavalry. And so it was +possible for this young man, who was still only twenty years old at the +time of his accession, to take up his father’s task at once and to +proceed successfully with the Persian adventure. + +In 334 B.C.—for two years were needed to establish and confirm his +position in Macedonia and Greece—he crossed into Asia, defeated a not +very much bigger Persian army at the battle of the Granicus and +captured a number of cities in Asia Minor. He kept along the +sea-coast. It was necessary for him to reduce and garrison all the +coast towns as he advanced because the Persians had control of the +fleets of Tyre and Sidon and so had command of the sea. Had he left a +hostile port in his rear the Persians might have landed forces to raid +his communications and cut him off. At Issus (333 B.C.) he met and +smashed a vast conglomerate host under Darius III. Like the host of +Xerxes that had crossed the Dardanelles a century and a half before, it +was an incoherent accumulation of contingents and it was encumbered +with a multitude of court officials, the harem of Darius and many camp +followers. Sidon surrendered to Alexander but Tyre resisted +obstinately. Finally that great city was stormed and plundered and +destroyed. Gaza also was stormed, and towards the end of 332 B.C. the +conqueror entered Egypt and took over its rule from the Persians. + + +ALEXANDER’S VICTORY OVER THE PERSIANS AT ISSUS +ALEXANDER’S VICTORY OVER THE PERSIANS AT ISSUS +_(From the Pompeian Mosaic)_ + +Alexander charges in on the left, Darius is in the chariot to the right + + +At Alexandretta and at Alexandria in Egypt he built great cities, +accessible from the land and so incapable of revolt. To these the trade +of the Phœnician cities was diverted. The Phœnicians of the western +Mediterranean suddenly disappear from history—and as immediately the +Jews of Alexandria and the other new trading cities created by +Alexander appear. + +In 331 B.C. Alexander marched out of Egypt upon Babylon as Thothmes and +Rameses and Necho had done before him. But he marched by way of Tyre. +At Arbela near the ruins of Nineveh, which was already a forgotten +city, he met Darius and fought the decisive battle of the war. The +Persian chariot charge failed, a Macedonian cavalry charge broke up the +great composite host and the phalanx completed the victory. Darius led +the retreat. He made no further attempt to resist the invader but fled +northward into the country of the Medes. Alexander marched on to +Babylon, still prosperous and important, and then to Susa and +Persepolis. There after a drunken festival he burnt down the palace of +Darius, the king of kings. + + +THE APOLLO BELVEDERE +THE APOLLO BELVEDERE + +_(In the Vatican Museum)_ + + +Thence Alexander presently made a military parade of central Asia, +going to the utmost bounds of the Persian empire. At first he turned +northward. Darius was pursued; and he was overtaken at dawn dying in +his chariot, having been murdered by his own people. He was still +living when the foremost Greeks reached him. Alexander came up to find +him dead. Alexander skirted the Caspian Sea, he went up into the +mountains of western Turkestan, he came down by Herat (which he +founded) and Cabul and the Khyber Pass into India. He fought a great +battle on the Indus with an Indian king, Porus, and here the Macedonian +troops met elephants for the first time and defeated them. Finally he +built himself ships, sailed down to the mouth of the Indus, and marched +back by the coast of Beluchistan, reaching Susa again in 324 B.C. after +an absence of six years. He then prepared to consolidate and organize +this vast empire he had won. He sought to win over his new subjects. +He assumed the robes and tiara of a Persian monarch, and this roused +the jealousy of his Macedonian commanders. He had much trouble with +them. He arranged a number of marriages between these Macedonian +officers and Persian and Babylonian women: the “Marriage of the East +and West.” He never lived to effect the consolidation he had planned. +A fever seized him after a drinking bout in Babylon and he died in 323 +B.C. + +Immediately this vast dominion fell to pieces. One of his generals, +Seleucus, retained most of the old Persian empire from the Indus to +Ephesus; another, Ptolemy, seized Egypt, and Antigonus secured +Macedonia. The rest of the empire remained unstable, passing under the +control of a succession of local adventurers. Barbarian raids began +from the north and grew in scope and intensity. Until at last, as we +shall tell, a new power, the power of the Roman republic, came out of +the west to subjugate one fragment after another and weld them together +into a new and more enduring empire. + + + + +XXVII +THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA + + +Before the time of Alexander Greeks had already been spreading as +merchants, artists, officials, mercenary soldiers, over most of the +Persian dominions. In the dynastic disputes that followed the death of +Xerxes, a band of ten thousand Greek mercenaries played a part under +the leadership of Xenophon. Their return to Asiatic Greece from Babylon +is described in his _Retreat of the Ten Thousand_, one of the first war +stories that was ever written by a general in command. But the +conquests of Alexander and the division of his brief empire among his +subordinate generals, greatly stimulated this permeation of the ancient +world by the Greeks and their language and fashions and culture. Traces +of this Greek dissemination are to be found far away in central Asia +and in north-west India. Their influence upon the development of Indian +art was profound. + +For many centuries Athens retained her prestige as a centre of art and +culture; her schools went on indeed to 529 A.D., that is to say for +nearly a thousand years; but the leadership in the intellectual +activity of the world passed presently across the Mediterranean to +Alexandria, the new trading city that Alexander had founded. Here the +Macedonian general Ptolemy had become Pharaoh, with a court that spoke +Greek. He had become an intimate of Alexander before he became king, +and he was deeply saturated with the ideas of Aristotle. He set +himself, with great energy and capacity, to organize knowledge and +investigation. He also wrote a history of Alexander’s campaigns which, +unhappily, is lost to the world. + +Alexander had already devoted considerable sums to finance the +enquiries of Aristotle, but Ptolemy I was the first person to make a +permanent endowment of science. He set up a foundation in Alexandria +which was formerly dedicated to the Muses, the Museum of Alexandria. +For two or three generations the scientific work done at Alexandria was +extraordinarily good. Euclid, Eratosthenes who measured the size of +the earth and came within fifty miles of its true diameter, Apollonius +who wrote on conic sections, Hipparchus who made the first star map and +catalogue, and Hero who devised the first steam engine are among the +greater stars of an extraordinary constellation of scientific pioneers. +Archimedes came from Syracuse to Alexandria to study, and was a +frequent correspondent of the Museum. Herophilus was one of the +greatest of Greek anatomists, and is said to have practised +vivisection. + +For a generation or so during the reigns of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II +there was such a blaze of knowledge and discovery at Alexandria as the +world was not to see again until the sixteenth century A.D. But it did +not continue. There may have been several causes of this decline. +Chief among them, the late Professor Mahaffy suggested, was the fact +that the Museum was a “royal” college and all its professors and +fellows were appointed and paid by Pharaoh. This was all very well +when Pharaoh was Ptolemy I, the pupil and friend of Aristotle. But as +the dynasty of the Ptolemies went on they became Egyptianized, they +fell under the sway of Egyptian priests and Egyptian religious +developments, they ceased to follow the work that was done, and their +control stifled the spirit of enquiry altogether. The Museum produced +little good work after its first century of activity. + +Ptolemy I not only sought in the most modern spirit to organize the +finding of fresh knowledge. He tried also to set up an encyclopædic +storehouse of wisdom in the Library of Alexandria. It was not simply a +storehouse, it was also a book-copying and book-selling organization. +A great army of copyists was set to work perpetually multiplying copies +of books. + +Here then we have the definite first opening up of the intellectual +process in which we live to-day; here we have the systematic gathering +and distribution of knowledge. The foundation of this Museum and +Library marks one of the great epochs in the history of mankind. It is +the true beginning of Modern History. + + +ARISTOTLE +ARISTOTLE +From Herculaneum, probably Fourth Century B.C. + +_Photo: Dr. Singer_ + + +Both the work of research and the work of dissemination went on under +serious handicaps. One of these was the great social gap that +separated the philosopher, who was a gentleman, from the trader and the +artisan. There were glass workers and metal workers in abundance in +those days, but they were not in mental contact with the thinkers. The +glass worker was making the most beautifully coloured beads and phials +and so forth, but he never made a Florentine flask or a lens. Clear +glass does not seem to have interested him. The metal worker made +weapons and jewellery but he never made a chemical balance. The +philosopher speculated loftily about atoms and the nature of things, +but he had no practical experience of enamels and pigments and philters +and so forth. He was not interested in substances. So Alexandria in +its brief day of opportunity produced no microscopes and no chemistry. +And though Hero invented a steam engine it was never set either to pump +or drive a boat or do any useful thing. There were few practical +applications of science except in the realm of medicine, and the +progress of science was not stimulated and sustained by the interest +and excitement of practical applications. There was nothing to keep +the work going therefore when the intellectual curiosity of Ptolemy I +and Ptolemy II was withdrawn. The discoveries of the Museum went on +record in obscure manuscripts and never, until the revival of +scientific curiosity at the Renascence, reached out to the mass of +mankind. + +Nor did the Library produce any improvements in book making. That +ancient world had no paper made in definite sizes from rag pulp. Paper +was a Chinese invention and it did not reach the western world until +the ninth century A.D. The only book materials were parchment and +strips of the papyrus reed joined edge to edge. These strips were kept +on rolls which were very unwieldy to wind to and fro and read, and very +inconvenient for reference. It was these things that prevented the +development of paged and printed books. Printing itself was known in +the world it would seem as early as the Old Stone Age; there were seals +in ancient Sumeria; but without abundant paper there was little +advantage in printing books, an improvement that may further have been +resisted by trades unionism on the part of the copyists employed. +Alexandria produced abundant books but not cheap books, and it never +spread knowledge into the population of the ancient world below the +level of a wealthy and influential class. + + +STATUETTE OF MAITREYA: THE BUDDHA TO COME +STATUETTE OF MAITREYA: THE BUDDHA TO COME +A Græco-Buddhist sculpture of the Third Century A.D. + +_(From Malakand, N. W. Province, now in the India Museum)_ + + +So it was that this blaze of intellectual enterprise never reached +beyond a small circle of people in touch with the group of philosophers +collected by the first two Ptolemies. It was like the light in a dark +lantern which is shut off from the world at large. Within the blaze +may be blindingly bright, but nevertheless it is unseen. The rest of +the world went on its old ways unaware that the seed of scientific +knowledge that was one day to revolutionize it altogether had been +sown. Presently a darkness of bigotry fell even upon Alexandria. +Thereafter for a thousand years of darkness the seed that Aristotle had +sown lay hidden. Then it stirred and began to germinate. In a few +centuries it had become that widespread growth of knowledge and clear +ideas that is now changing the whole of human life. + + +THE DEATH OF BUDDHA +THE DEATH OF BUDDHA +Græco-Buddhist carving from Sivat Valley, N. W. Province, probably A.D. +350 + +_India Mus._ + + +Alexandria was not the only centre of Greek intellectual activity in +the third century B.C. There were many other cities that displayed a +brilliant intellectual life amidst the disintegrating fragments of the +brief empire of Alexander. There was, for example, the Greek city of +Syracuse in Sicily, where thought and science flourished for two +centuries; there was Pergamum in Asia Minor, which also had a great +library. But this brilliant Hellenic world was now stricken by +invasion from the north. New Nordic barbarians, the Gauls, were +striking down along the tracks that had once been followed by the +ancestors of the Greeks and Phrygians and Macedonians. They raided, +shattered and destroyed. And in the wake of the Gauls came a new +conquering people out of Italy, the Romans, who gradually subjugated +all the western half of the vast realm of Darius and Alexander. They +were an able but unimaginative people, preferring law and profit to +either science or art. New invaders were also coming down out of +central Asia to shatter and subdue the Seleucid empire and to cut off +the western world again from India. These were the Parthians, hosts of +mounted bowmen, who treated the Græco-Persian empire of Persepolis and +Susa in the third century B.C. in much the same fashion that the Medes +and Persians had treated it in the seventh and sixth. And there were +now other nomadic peoples also coming out of the northeast, peoples who +were not fair and Nordic and Aryan- speaking but yellow-skinned and +black-haired and with a Mongolian speech. But of these latter people +we shall tell more in a subsequent chapter. + + + + +XXVIII +THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA + + +But now we must go back three centuries in our story to tell of a great +teacher who came near to revolutionizing the religious thought and +feeling of all Asia. This was Gautama Buddha, who taught his disciples +at Benares in India about the same time that Isaiah was prophesying +among the Jews in Babylon and Heraclitus was carrying on his +speculative enquiries into the nature of things at Ephesus. All these +men were in the world at the same time, in the sixth century +B.C.—unaware of one another. + +This sixth century B.C. was indeed one of the most remarkable in all +history. Everywhere—for as we shall tell it was also the case in +China—men’s minds were displaying a new boldness. Everywhere they were +waking up out of the traditions of kingships and priests and blood +sacrifices and asking the most penetrating questions. It is as if the +race had reached a stage of adolescence—after a childhood of twenty +thousand years. + +The early history of India is still very obscure. Somewhen perhaps +about 2000 B.C., an Aryan- speaking people came down from the +north-west into India either in one invasion or in a series of +invasions; and was able to spread its language and traditions over most +of north India. Its peculiar variety of Aryan speech was the Sanskrit. + They found a brunette people with a more elaborate civilization and +less vigour of will, in possession of the country of the Indus and +Ganges. But they do not seem to have mingled with their predecessors +as freely as did the Greeks and Persians. They remained aloof. When +the past of India becomes dimly visible to the historian, Indian +society is already stratified into several layers, with a variable +number of sub-divisions, which do not eat together nor intermarry nor +associate freely. And throughout history this stratification into +castes continues. This makes the Indian population something different +from the simple, freely inter-breeding European or Mongolian +communities. It is really a community of communities. + +Siddhattha Gautama was the son of an aristocratic family which ruled a +small district on the Himalayan slopes. He was married at nineteen to +a beautiful cousin. He hunted and played and went about in his sunny +world of gardens and groves and irrigated rice-fields. And it was +amidst this life that a great discontent fell upon him. It was the +unhappiness of a fine brain that seeks employment. He felt that the +existence he was leading was not the reality of life, but a holiday—a +holiday that had gone on too long. + +The sense of disease and mortality, the insecurity and the +un-satisfactoriness of all happiness, descended upon the mind of +Gautama. While he was in this mood he met one of those wandering +ascetics who already existed in great numbers in India. These men +lived under severe rules, spending much time in meditation and in +religious discussion. They were supposed to be seeking some deeper +reality in life, and a passionate desire to do likewise took possession +of Gautama. + +He was meditating upon this project, says the story, when the news was +brought to him that his wife had been delivered of his first-born son. +“This is another tie to break,” said Gautama. + +He returned to the village amidst the rejoicings of his fellow +clansmen. There was a great feast and a Nautch dance to celebrate the +birth of this new tie, and in the night Gautama awoke in a great agony +of spirit, “like a man who is told that his house is on fire.” He +resolved to leave his happy aimless life forthwith. He went softly to +the threshold of his wife’s chamber, and saw her by the light of a +little oil lamp, sleeping sweetly, surrounded by flowers, with his +infant son in her arms. He felt a great craving to take up the child +in one first and last embrace before he departed, but the fear of +waking his wife prevented him, and at last he turned away and went out +into the bright Indian moonshine and mounted his horse and rode off +into the world. + + +TIBETAN BUDDHA +TIBETAN BUDDHA +Gilt Brass Casting in India Museum, showing Gautama Buddha in the +“earth witness” attitude + +_India Mus._ + + +Very far he rode that night, and in the morning he stopped outside the +lands of his clan, and dismounted beside a sandy river. There he cut +off his flowing locks with his sword, removed all his ornaments and +sent them and his horse and sword back to his house. Going on he +presently met a ragged man and exchanged clothes with him, and so +having divested himself of all worldly entanglements he was free to +pursue his search after wisdom. He made his way southward to a resort +of hermits and teachers in a hilly spur of the Vindhya Mountains. +There lived a number of wise men in a warren of caves, going into the +town for their simple supplies and imparting their knowledge by word of +mouth to such as cared to come to them. Gautama became versed in all +the metaphysics of his age. But his acute intelligence was +dissatisfied with the solutions offered him. + + +A BURMESE BUDDHA +A BURMESE BUDDHA +Marble Figure from Mandalay, eighteenth century work, now in the India +Museum + + +The Indian mind has always been disposed to believe that power and +knowledge may be obtained by extreme asceticism, by fasting, +sleeplessness, and self-torment, and these ideas Gautama now put to the +test. He betook himself with five disciple companions to the jungle +and there he gave himself up to fasting and terrible penances. His +fame spread, “like the sound of a great bell hung in the canopy of the +skies.” But it brought him no sense of truth achieved. One day he was +walking up and down, trying to think in spite of his enfeebled state. +Suddenly he fell unconscious. When he recovered, the preposterousness +of these semi-magical ways to wisdom was plain to him. + + +THE DHAMÊKH TOWER +THE DHAMÊKH TOWER +In the Deer Park at Sarnath. Sixth Century A.D. + +_(From a Painting in the India Museum)_ + + +He horrified his companions by demanding ordinary food and refusing to +continue his mortifications. He had realized that whatever truth a man +may reach is reached best by a nourished brain in a healthy body. Such +a conception was absolutely foreign to the ideas of the land and age. +His disciples deserted him, and went off in a melancholy state to +Benares. Gautama wandered alone. + +When the mind grapples with a great and intricate problem, it makes its +advances step by step, with but little realization of the gains it has +made, until suddenly, with an effect of abrupt illumination, it +realizes its victory. So it happened to Gautama. He had seated +himself under a great tree by the side of a river to eat, when this +sense of clear vision came to him. It seemed to him that he saw life +plain. He is said to have sat all day and all night in profound +thought, and then he rose up to impart his vision to the world. + +He went on to Benares and there he sought out and won back his lost +disciples to his new teaching. In the King’s Deer Park at Benares they +built themselves huts and set up a sort of school to which came many +who were seeking after wisdom. + +The starting point of his teaching was his own question as a fortunate +young man, “Why am I not completely happy?” It was an introspective +question. It was a question very different in quality from the frank +and self-forgetful _externalized_ curiosity with which Thales and +Heraclitus were attacking the problems of the universe, or the equally +self-forgetful burthen of moral obligation that the culminating +prophets were imposing upon the Hebrew mind. The Indian teacher did +not forget self, he concentrated upon self and sought to destroy it. +All suffering, he taught, was due to the greedy desires of the +individual. Until man has conquered his personal cravings his life is +trouble and his end sorrow. There were three principal forms that the +craving for life took and they were all evil. The first was the desire +of the appetites, greed and all forms of sensuousness, the second was +the desire for a personal and egotistic immortality, the third was the +craving for personal success, worldliness, avarice and the like. All +these forms of desire had to be overcome to escape from the distresses +and chagrins of life. When they were overcome, when self had vanished +altogether, then serenity of soul, Nirvana, the highest good was +attained. + +This was the gist of his teaching, a very subtle and metaphysical +teaching indeed, not nearly so easy to understand as the Greek +injunction to see and know fearlessly and rightly and the Hebrew +command to fear God and accomplish righteousness. It was a teaching +much beyond the understanding of even Gautama’s immediate disciples, +and it is no wonder that so soon as his personal influence was +withdrawn it became corrupted and coarsened. There was a widespread +belief in India at that time that at long intervals Wisdom came to +earth and was incarnate in some chosen person who was known as the +Buddha. Gautama’s disciples declared that he was a Buddha, the latest +of the Buddhas, though there is no evidence that he himself ever +accepted the title. Before he was well dead, a cycle of fantastic +legends began to be woven about him. The human heart has always +preferred a wonder story to a moral effort, and Gautama Buddha became +very wonderful. + +Yet there remained a substantial gain in the world. If Nirvana was too +high and subtle for most men’s imaginations, if the myth-making impulse +in the race was too strong for the simple facts of Gautama’s life, they +could at least grasp something of the intention of what Gautama called +the Eight-fold way, the Aryan or Noble Path in life. In this there was +an insistence upon mental uprightness, upon right aims and speech, +right conduct and honest livelihood. There was a quickening of the +conscience and an appeal to generous and self-forgetful ends. + + + + +XXIX +KING ASOKA + + +For some generations after the death of Gautama, these high and noble +Buddhist teachings, this first plain teaching that the highest good for +man is the subjugation of self, made comparatively little headway in +the world. Then they conquered the imagination of one of the greatest +monarchs the world has ever seen. + +We have already mentioned how Alexander the Great came down into India +and fought with Porus upon the Indus. It is related by the Greek +historians that a certain Chandragupta Maurya came into Alexander’s +camp and tried to persuade him to go on to the Ganges and conquer all +India. Alexander could not do this because of the refusal of his +Macedonians to go further into what was for them an unknown world, and +later on (303 B.C.) Chandragupta was able to secure the help or various +hill tribes and realize his dream without Greek help. He built up an +empire in North India and was presently (303 B.C.) able to attack +Seleucus I in the Punjab and drive the last vestige of Greek power out +of India. His son extended this new empire. His grandson, Asoka, the +monarch of whom we now have to tell, found himself in 264 B.C. ruling +from Afghanistan to Madras. + +Asoka was at first disposed to follow the example of his father and +grandfather and complete the conquest of the Indian peninsula. He +invaded Kalinga (255 B.C.), a country on the east coast of Madras, he +was successful in his military operations and—alone among conquerors—he +was so disgusted by the cruelty and horror of war that he renounced it. + He would have no more of it. He adopted the peaceful doctrines of +Buddhism and declared that henceforth his conquests should be the +conquests of religion. + + +A LOHAN OR BUDDHIST APOSTLE (Tang Dynasty) +A LOHAN OR BUDDHIST APOSTLE (Tang Dynasty) + +_(From the statue in the British Museum)_ + + +His reign for eight-and-twenty years was one of the brightest +interludes in the troubled history of mankind. He organized a great +digging of wells in India and the planting of trees for shade. He +founded hospitals and public gardens and gardens for the growing of +medicinal herbs. He created a ministry for the care of the aborigines +and subject races of India. He made provision for the education of +women. He made vast benefactions to the Buddhist teaching orders, and +tried to stimulate them to a better and more energetic criticism of +their own accumulated literature. For corruptions and superstitious +accretions had accumulated very speedily upon the pure and simple +teaching of the great Indian master. Missionaries went from Asoka to +Kashmir, to Persia, to Ceylon and Alexandria. + + +TRANSOME SHOWING THE COURT OF ASOKA +TRANSOME SHOWING THE COURT OF ASOKA + +_India Mus._ + +ASOKA PANEL FROM BHARHUT +ASOKA PANEL FROM BHARHUT + +_India Mus._ + + +Such was Asoka, greatest of kings. He was far in advance of his age. +He left no prince and no organization of men to carry on his work, and +within a century of his death the great days of his reign had become a +glorious memory in a shattered and decaying India. The priestly caste +of the Brahmins, the highest and most privileged caste in the Indian +social body, has always been opposed to the frank and open teaching of +Buddha. Gradually they undermined the Buddhist influence in the land. +The old monstrous gods, the innumerable cults of Hinduism, resumed +their sway. Caste became more rigorous and complicated. For long +centuries Buddhism and Brahminism flourished side by side, and then +slowly Buddhism decayed and Brahminism in a multitude of forms replaced +it. But beyond the confines of India and the realms of caste Buddhism +spread—until it had won China and Siam and Burma and Japan, countries +in which it is predominant to this day. + + +THE PILLAR OF LIONS +THE PILLAR OF LIONS +Capital of the Pillar (column lying on side) erected in Deer Park in +the time of Asoka, where Buddha preached his first sermon + +_(From a print in the India Museum)_ + + + + +XXX +CONFUCIUS AND LAO TSE + + +We have still to tell of two other great men, Confucius and Lao Tse, +who lived in that wonderful century which began the adolescence of +mankind, the sixth century B.C. In this history thus far we have told +very little of the early story of China. At present that early history +is still very obscure, and we look to Chinese explorers and +archæolologists in the new China that is now arising to work out their +past as thoroughly as the European past has been worked out during the +last century. Very long ago the first primitive Chinese civilizations +arose in the great river valleys out of the primordial heliolithic +culture. They had, like Egypt and Sumeria, the general characteristics +of that culture, and they centred upon temples in which priests and +priest kings offered the seasonal blood sacrifices. The life in those +cities must have been very like the Egyptian and Sumerian life of six +or seven thousand years ago and very like the Maya life of Central +America a thousand years ago. + +If there were human sacrifices they had long given way to animal +sacrifices before the dawn of history. And a form of picture writing +was growing up long before a thousand years B.C. + +And just as the primitive civilizations of Europe and western Asia were +in conflict with the nomads of the desert and the nomads of the north, +so the primitive Chinese civilizations had a great cloud of nomadic +peoples on their northern borders. There was a number of tribes akin +in language and ways of living, who are spoken of in history in +succession as the Huns, the Mongols, the Turks and Tartars. They +changed and divided and combined and re-combined, just as the Nordic +peoples in north Europe and central Asia changed and varied in name +rather than in nature. These Mongolian nomads had horses earlier than +the Nordic peoples, and it may be that in the region of the Altai +Mountains they made an independent discovery of iron somewhen after +1000 B.C. And just as in the western case so ever and again these +eastern nomads would achieve a sort of political unity, and become the +conquerors and masters and revivers of this or that settled and +civilized region. + +It is quite possible that the earliest civilization of China was not +Mongolian at all any more than the earliest civilization of Europe and +western Asia was Nordic or Semitic. It is quite possible that the +earliest civilization of China was a brunette civilization and of a +piece with the earliest Egyptian, Sumerian and Dravidian civilizations, +and that when the first recorded history of China began there had +already been conquests and intermixture. At any rate we find that by +1750 B.C. China was already a vast system of little kingdoms and city +states, all acknowledging a loose allegiance and paying more or less +regularly, more or less definite feudal dues to one great priest +emperor, the “Son of Heaven.” The “Shang” dynasty came to an end in +1125 B.C. A “Chow” dynasty succeeded “Shang,” and maintained China in +a relaxing unity until the days of Asoka in India and of the Ptolemies +in Egypt. Gradually China went to pieces during that long “Chow” +period. Hunnish peoples came down and set up principalities; local +rulers discontinued their tribute and became independent. There was in +the sixth century B.C., says one Chinese authority, five or six +thousand practically independent states in China. It was what the +Chinese call in their records an “Age of Confusion.” + +But this Age of Confusion was compatible with much intellectual +activity and with the existence of many local centres of art and +civilized living. When we know more of Chinese history we shall find +that China also had her Miletus and her Athens, her Pergamum and her +Macedonia. At present we must be vague and brief about this period of +Chinese division simply because our knowledge is not sufficient for us +to frame a coherent and consecutive story. + + +CONFUCIUS +CONFUCIUS +Copy of stone carving in the Temple of Confucius at K’iu Fu + +_(From the records of the Archæological Mission to North China +(Chavannes))_ + + +And just as in divided Greece there were philosophers and in shattered +and captive Jewry prophets, so in disordered China there were +philosophers and teachers at this time. In all these cases insecurity +and uncertainty seemed to have quickened the better sort of mind. +Confucius was a man of aristocratic origin and some official importance +in a small state called Lu. Here in a very parallel mood to the Greek +impulse he set up a sort of Academy for discovering and teaching +Wisdom. The lawlessness and disorder of China distressed him +profoundly. He conceived an ideal of a better government and a better +life, and travelled from state to state seeking a prince who would +carry out his legislative and educational ideas. He never found his +prince; he found a prince, but court intrigues undermined the influence +of the teacher and finally defeated his reforming proposals. It is +interesting to note that a century and a half later the Greek +philosopher Plato also sought a prince, and was for a time adviser to +the tyrant Dionysius who ruled Syracuse in Sicily. + +Confucius died a disappointed man. “No intelligent ruler arises to +take me as his master,” he said, “and my time has come to die.” But +his teaching had more vitality than he imagined in his declining and +hopeless years, and it became a great formative influence with the +Chinese people. It became one of what the Chinese call the Three +Teachings, the other two being those of Buddha and of Lao Tse. + +The gist of the teaching of Confucius was the way of the noble or +aristocratic man. He was concerned with personal conduct as much as +Gautama was concerned with the peace of self-forgetfulness and the +Greek with external knowledge and the Jew with righteousness. He was +the most public-minded of all great teachers. He was supremely +concerned by the confusion and miseries of the world, and he wanted to +make men noble in order to bring about a noble world. He sought to +regulate conduct to an extraordinary extent; to provide sound rules for +every occasion in life. A polite, public- spirited gentleman, rather +sternly self-disciplined, was the ideal he found already developing in +the northern Chinese world and one to which he gave a permanent form. + + +THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA +THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA +As it crosses the mountains in Manchuria + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +The teaching of Lao Tse, who was for a long time in charge of the +imperial library of the Chow dynasty, was much more mystical and vague +and elusive than that of Confucius. He seems to have preached a +stoical indifference to the pleasures and powers of the world and a +return to an imaginary simple life of the past. He left writings very +contracted in style and very obscure. He wrote in riddles. After his +death his teachings, like the teachings of Gautama Buddha, were +corrupted and overlaid by legends and had the most complex and +extraordinary observances and superstitious ideas grafted upon them. +In China just as in India primordial ideas of magic and monstrous +legends out of the childish past of our race struggled against the new +thinking in the world and succeeded in plastering it over with +grotesque, irrational and antiquated observances. Both Buddhism and +Taoism (which ascribes itself largely to Lao Tse) as one finds them in +China now, are religions of monk, temple, priest and offering of a type +as ancient in form, if not in thought, as the sacrificial religions of +ancient Sumeria and Egypt. But the teaching of Confucius was not so +overlaid because it was limited and plain and straightforward and lent +itself to no such distortions. + + +EARLY CHINESE BRONZE BELL +EARLY CHINESE BRONZE BELL +Inscribed in archaic characters: “made for use by the elder of Hing +village in Ting district;” latter half of the Chou Dynasty, Sixth +Century B.C. + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +North China, the China of the Hwang-ho River, became Confucian in +thought and spirit; south China, Yang-tse-Kiang China, became Taoist. +Since those days a conflict has always been traceable in Chinese +affairs between these two spirits, the spirit of the north and the +spirit of the south, between (in latter times) Pekin and Nankin, +between the official- minded, upright and conservative north, and the +sceptical, artistic, lax and experimental south. + +The divisions of China of the Age of Confusion reached their worst +stage in the sixth century B.C. The Chow dynasty was so enfeebled and +so discredited that Lao Tse left the unhappy court and retired into +private life. + +Three nominally subordinate powers dominated the situation in those +days, Ts’i and Ts’in, both northern powers, and Ch’u, which was an +aggressive military power in the Yangtse valley. At last Ts’i and +Ts’in formed an alliance, subdued Ch’u and imposed a general treaty of +disarmament and peace in China. The power of Ts’in became predominant. + Finally about the time of Asoka in India the Ts’in monarch seized upon +the sacrificial vessels of the Chow emperor and took over his +sacrificial duties. His son, Shi-Hwang-ti (king in 246 B.C., emperor in +220 B.C.), is called in the Chinese Chronicles “the First Universal +Emperor.” + +More fortunate than Alexander, Shi-Hwang-ti reigned for thirty-six +years as king and emperor. His energetic reign marks the beginning of +a new era of unity and prosperity for the Chinese people. He fought +vigorously against the Hunnish invaders from the northern deserts, and +he began that immense work, the Great Wall of China, to set a limit to +their incursions. + + + + +XXXI +ROME COMES INTO HISTORY + + +The reader will note a general similarity in the history of all these +civilizations in spite of the effectual separation caused by the great +barriers of the Indian north-west frontier and of the mountain masses +of Central Asia and further India. First for thousands of years the +heliolithic culture spread over all the warm and fertile river valleys +of the old world and developed a temple system and priest rulers about +its sacrificial traditions. Apparently its first makers were always +those brunette peoples we have spoken of as the central race of +mankind. Then the nomads came in from the regions of seasonal grass and +seasonal migrations and superposed their own characteristics and often +their own language on the primitive civilization. They subjugated and +stimulated it, and were stimulated to fresh developments and made it +here one thing and here another. In Mesopotamia it was the Elamite and +then the Semite, and at last the Nordic Medes and Persians and the +Greeks who supplied the ferment; over the region of the Ægean peoples +it was the Greeks; in India it was the Aryan-speakers; in Egypt there +was a thinner infusion of conquerors into a more intensely saturated +priestly civilization; in China, the Hun conquered and was absorbed and +was followed by fresh Huns. China was Mongolized just as Greece and +North India were Aryanized and Mesopotamia Semitized and Aryanized. +Everywhere the nomads destroyed much, but everywhere they brought in a +new spirit of free enquiry and moral innovation. They questioned the +beliefs of immemorial ages. They let daylight into the temples. They +set up kings who were neither priests nor gods but mere leaders among +their captains and companions. + + +THE DYING GAUL +THE DYING GAUL +The statue in the National Museum, Rome, depicting a Gaul stabbing +himself, after killing his wife, in the presence of his enemies + +_Photo: Anderson_ + +In the centuries following the sixth century B.C. we find everywhere a +great breaking down of ancient traditions and a new spirit of moral and +intellectual enquiry awake, a spirit never more to be altogether +stilled in the great progressive movement of mankind. We find reading +and writing becoming common and accessible accomplishments among the +ruling and prosperous minority; they were no longer the jealously +guarded secret of the priests. Travel is increasing and transport +growing easier by reason of horses and roads. A new and easy device to +facilitate trade has been found in coined money. + +Let us now transfer our attention back from China in the extreme east +of the old world to the western half of the Mediterranean. Here we +have to note the appearance of a city which was destined to play at +last a very great part indeed in human affairs, Rome. + +Hitherto we have told very little about Italy in our story. It was +before 1000 B.C. a land of mountain and forest and thinly populated. +Aryan-speaking tribes had pressed down this peninsula and formed little +towns and cities, and the southern extremity was studded with Greek +settlements. The noble ruins of Pæstum preserve for us to this day +something of the dignity and splendour of these early Greek +establishments. A non-Aryan people, probably akin to the Ægean +peoples, the Etruscans, had established themselves in the central part +of the peninsula. They had reversed the usual process by subjugating +various Aryan tribes. Rome, when it comes into the light of history, +is a little trading city at a ford on the Tiber, with a Latin-speaking +population ruled over by Etruscan kings. The old chronologies gave 753 +B.C. as the date of the founding of Rome, half a century later than the +founding of the great Phœnician city of Carthage and twenty-three years +after the first Olympiad. Etruscan tombs of a much earlier date than +753 B.C. have, however, been excavated in the Roman Forum. + +In that red-letter century, the sixth century B.C., the Etruscan kings +were expelled (510 B.C.) and Rome became an aristocratic republic with +a lordly class of “patrician” families dominating a commonalty of +“plebeians.” Except that it spoke Latin it was not unlike many +aristocratic Greek republics. + +For some centuries the internal history of Rome was the story of a long +and obstinate struggle for freedom and a share in the government on the +part of the plebeians. It would not be difficult to find Greek +parallels to this conflict, which the Greeks would have called a +conflict of aristocracy with democracy. In the end the plebeians broke +down most of the exclusive barriers of the old families and established +a working equality with them. They destroyed the old exclusiveness, +and made it possible and acceptable for Rome to extend her citizenship +by the inclusion of more and more “outsiders.” For while she still +struggled at home, she was extending her power abroad. + + +REMAINS OF THE ANCIENT ROMAN CISTERNS AT CARTHAGE +REMAINS OF THE ANCIENT ROMAN CISTERNS AT CARTHAGE + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +The extension of Roman power began in the fifth century B.C. Until +that time they had waged war, and generally unsuccessful war, with the +Etruscans. There was an Etruscan fort, Veii, only a few miles from +Rome which the Romans had never been able to capture. In 474 B.C., +however, a great misfortune came to the Etruscans. Their fleet was +destroyed by the Greeks of Syracuse in Sicily. At the same time a wave +of Nordic invaders came down upon them from the north, the Gauls. +Caught between Roman and Gaul, the Etruscans fell—and disappear from +history. Veii was captured by the Romans, The Gauls came through to +Rome and sacked the city (390 B.C.A.D.) but could not capture the +Capitol. An attempted night surprise was betrayed by the cackling of +some geese, and finally the invaders were bought off and retired to the +north of Italy again. + +The Gaulish raid seems to have invigorated rather than weakened Rome. +The Romans conquered and assimilated the Etruscans, and extended their +power over all central Italy from the Arno to Naples. To this they had +reached within a few years of 300 B.C. Their conquests in Italy were +going on simultaneously with the growth of Philip’s power in Macedonia +and Greece, and the tremendous raid of Alexander to Egypt and the +Indus. The Romans had become notable people in the civilized world to +the east of them by the break-up of Alexander’s empire. + +To the north of the Roman power were the Gauls; to the south of them +were the Greek settlements of Magna Græcia, that is to say of Sicily +and of the toe and heel of Italy. The Gauls were a hardy, warlike +people and the Romans held that boundary by a line of forts and +fortified settlements. The Greek cities in the south headed by +Tarentum (now Taranto) and by Syracuse in Sicily, did not so much +threaten as fear the Romans. They looked about for some help against +these new conquerors. + +We have already told how the empire of Alexander fell to pieces and was +divided among his generals and companions. Among these adventurers was +a kinsman of Alexander’s named Pyrrhus, who established himself in +Epirus, which is across the Adriatic Sea over against the heel of +Italy. It was his ambition to play the part of Philip of Macedonia to +Magna Græcia, and to become protector and master-general of Tarentum, +Syracuse and the rest of that part of the world. He had what was then +it very efficient modern army; he had an infantry phalanx, cavalry from +Thessaly—which was now quite as good as the original Macedonian +cavalry—and twenty fighting elephants; he invaded Italy and routed the +Romans in two considerable battles, Heraclea (280 B.C.) and Ausculum +(279 B.C.), and having driven them north, he turned his attention to +the subjugation of Sicily. + +But this brought against him a more formidable enemy than were the +Romans at that time, the Phœnician trading city of Carthage, which was +probably then the greatest city in the world. Sicily was too near +Carthage for a new Alexander to be welcome there, and Carthage was +mindful of the fate that had befallen her mother city Tyre half a +century before. So she sent a fleet to encourage or compel Rome to +continue the struggle, and she cut the overseas communications of +Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus found himself freshly assailed by the Romans, and +suffered a disastrous repulse in an attack he had made upon their camp +at Beneventum between Naples and Rome. + +And suddenly came news that recalled him to Epirus. The Gauls were +raiding south. But this time they were not raiding down into Italy; +the Roman frontier, fortified and guarded, had become too formidable +for them. They were raiding down through Illyria (which is now Serbia +and Albania) to Macedonia and Epirus. Repulsed by the Romans, +endangered at sea by the Carthaginians, and threatened at home by the +Gauls, Pyrrhus abandoned his dream of conquest and went home (275 +B.C.), and the power of Rome was extended to the Straits of Messina. + +On the Sicilian side of the Straits was the Greek city of Messina, and +this presently fell into the hands of a gang of pirates. The +Carthaginians, who were already practically overlords of Sicily and +allies of Syracuse, suppressed these pirates (270 B.C.) and put in a +Carthaginian garrison there. The pirates appealed to Rome and Rome +listened to their complaint. And so across the Straits of Messina the +great trading power of Carthage and this new conquering people, the +Romans, found themselves in antagonism, face to face. + + + + +XXXII +ROME AND CARTHAGE + + +It was in 264 B.C. that the great struggle between Rome and Carthage, +the Punic Wars, began. In that year Asoka was beginning his reign in +Behar and Shi- Hwang-ti was a little child, the Museum in Alexandria +was still doing good scientific work, and the barbaric Gauls were now +in Asia Minor and exacting a tribute from Pergamum. The different +regions of the world were still separated by insurmountable distances, +and probably the rest of mankind heard only vague and remote rumours of +the mortal fight that went on for a century and a half in Spain, Italy, +North Africa and the western Mediterranean, between the last stronghold +of Semitic power and Rome, this newcomer among Aryan-speaking peoples. + +That war has left its traces upon issues that still stir the world. +Rome triumphed over Carthage, but the rivalry of Aryan and Semite was +to merge itself later on in the conflict of Gentile and Jew. Our +history now is coming to events whose consequences and distorted +traditions still maintain a lingering and expiring vitality in, and +exercise a complicating and confusing influence upon, the conflicts and +controversies of to-day. + +The First Punic War began in 264 B.C. about the pirates of Messina. It +developed into a struggle for the possession of all Sicily except the +dominions of the Greek king of Syracuse. The advantage of the sea was +at first with the Carthaginians. They had great fighting ships of what +was hitherto an unheard-of size, quinqueremes, galleys with five banks +of oars and a huge ram. At the battle of Salamis, two centuries +before, the leading battleships had only been triremes with three +banks. But the Romans, with extraordinary energy and in spite of the +fact that they had little naval experience, set themselves to outbuild +the Carthaginians. They manned the new navy they created chiefly with +Greek seamen, and they invented grappling and boarding to make up for +the superior seamanship of the enemy. When the Carthaginian came up to +ram or shear the oars of the Roman, huge grappling irons seized him and +the Roman soldiers swarmed aboard him. At Mylæ (260 B.C.) and at +Ecnomus (256 B.C.) the Carthaginians were disastrously beaten. They +repulsed a Roman landing near Carthage but were badly beaten at +Palermo, losing one hundred and four elephants there—to grace such a +triumphal procession through the Forum as Rome had never seen before. +But after that came two Roman defeats and then a Roman recovery. The +last naval forces of Carthage were defeated by it last Roman effort at +the battle of the Ægatian Isles (241 B.C.) and Carthage sued for peace. + All Sicily except the dominions of Hiero, king of Syracuse, was ceded +to the Romans. + + +HANNIBAL +HANNIBAL + +Bust in the National Museum at Naples + +_Photo: Mansell_ + + +For twenty-two years Rome and Carthage kept the peace. Both had +trouble enough at home. In Italy the Gauls came south again, +threatened Rome—_which in a state of panic offered human sacrifices to +the Gods!_—and were routed at Telamon. Rome pushed forward to the +Alps, and even extended her dominions down the Adriatic coast to +Illyria. Carthage suffered from domestic insurrections and from revolts +in Corsica and Sardinia, and displayed far less recuperative power. +Finally, an act of intolerable aggression, Rome seized and annexed the +two revolting islands. + +Spain at that time was Carthaginian as far north as the river Ebro. To +that boundary the Romans restricted them. Any crossing of the Ebro by +the Carthaginians was to be considered an act of war against the +Romans. At last in 218 B.C. the Carthaginians, provoked by new Roman +aggressions, did cross this river under a young general named Hannibal, +one of the most brilliant commanders in the whole of history. He +marched his army from Spain over the Alps into Italy, raised the Gauls +against the Romans, and carried on the Second Punic War in Italy itself +for fifteen years. He inflicted tremendous defeats upon the Romans at +Lake Trasimere and at Cannæ, and throughout all his Italian campaigns +no Roman army stood against him and escaped disaster. But a Roman army +had landed at Marseilles and cut his communications with Spain; he had +no siege train, and he could never capture Rome. Finally the +Carthaginians, threatened by the revolt of the Numidians at home, were +forced back upon the defence of their own city in Africa, a Roman army +crossed into Africa, and Hannibal experienced his first defeat under +its walls at the battle of Zama (202 B.C. at the hands of Scipio +Africanus the Elder. The battle of Zama ended this Second Punic War. +Carthage capitulated; she surrendered Spain and her war fleet; she paid +an enormous indemnity and agreed to give up Hannibal to the vengeance +of the Romans. But Hannibal escaped and fled to Asia where later, +being in danger of falling into the hands of his relentless enemies, he +took poison and died. + +For fifty-six years Rome and the shorn city of Carthage were at peace. +And meanwhile Rome spread her empire over confused and divided Greece, +invaded Asia Minor, and defeated Antiochus III, the Seleucid monarch, +at Magnesia in Lydia. She made Egypt, still under the Ptolemies, and +Pergamum and most of the small states of Asia Minor into “Allies,” or, +as we should call them now, “protected states.” + +Meanwhile Carthage, subjugated and enfeebled, had been slowly regaining +something of her former prosperity. Her recovery revived the hate and +suspicion of the Romans. She was attacked upon the most shallow and +artificial of quarrels (149 B.C.), she made an obstinate and bitter +resistance, stood a long siege and was stormed (146 B.C.). The street +fighting, or massacre, lasted six days; it was extraordinarily bloody, +and when the citadel capitulated only about fifty thousand of the +Carthaginian population remained alive out of a quarter of a million. +They were sold into slavery, and the city was burnt and elaborately +destroyed. The blackened ruins were ploughed and sown as a sort of +ceremonial effacement. + + +Map: The Extent of the Roman Power & its Alliances about 150 B.C. + +So ended the Third Punic War. Of all the Semitic states and cities +that had flourished in the world five centuries before only one little +country remained free under native rulers. This was Judea, which had +liberated itself from the Seleucids and was under the rule of the +native Maccabean princes. By this time it had its Bible almost +complete, and was developing the distinctive traditions of the Jewish +world as we know it now. It was natural that the Carthaginians, +Phoenicians and kindred peoples dispersed about the world should find a +common link in their practically identical language and in this +literature of hope and courage. To a large extent they were still the +traders and bankers of the world. The Semitic world had been submerged +rather than replaced. + +Jerusalem, which has always been rather the symbol than the centre of +Judaism, was taken by the Romans in 65 B.C.; and after various +vicissitudes of quasi- independence and revolt was besieged by them in +70 A.D. and captured after a stubborn struggle. The Temple was +destroyed. A later rebellion in 132 A.D. completed its destruction, +and the Jerusalem we know to-day was rebuilt later under Roman +auspices. A temple to the Roman god, Jupiter Capitolinus, stood in the +place of the Temple, and Jews were forbidden to inhabit the city. + + + + +XXXIII +THE GROWTH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE + + +Now this new Roman power which arose to dominate the western world in +the second and first centuries B.C. was in several respects a different +thing from any of the great empires that had hitherto prevailed in the +civilized world. It was not at first a monarchy, and it was not the +creation of any one great conqueror. It was not indeed the first of +republican empires; Athens had dominated a group of Allies and +dependents in the time of Pericles, and Carthage when she entered upon +her fatal struggle with Rome was mistress of Sardinia and Corsica, +Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and most of Spain and Sicily. But it was the +first republican empire that escaped extinction and went on to fresh +developments. + +The centre of this new system lay far to the west of the more ancient +centres of empire, which had hitherto been the river valleys of +Mesopotamia and Egypt. This westward position enabled Rome to bring in +to civilization quite fresh regions and peoples. The Roman power +extended to Morocco and Spain, and was presently able to thrust +north-westward over what is now France and Belgium to Britain and +north-eastward into Hungary and South Russia. But on the other hand it +was never able to maintain itself in Central Asia or Persia because +they were too far from its administrative centres. It included +therefore great masses of fresh Nordic Aryan- speaking peoples, it +presently incorporated nearly all the Greek people in the world, and +its population was less strongly Hamitic and Semitic than that of any +preceding empire. + +For some centuries this Roman Empire did not fall into the grooves of +precedent that had so speedily swallowed up Persian and Greek, and all +that time it developed. The rulers of the Medes and Persians became +entirely Babylonized in a generation or so; they took over the tiara of +the king of kings and the temples and priesthoods of his gods; +Alexander and his successors followed in the same easy path of +assimilation; the Seleucid monarchs had much the same court and +administrative methods as Nebuchadnezzar; the Ptolemies became Pharaohs +and altogether Egyptian. They were assimilated just as before them the +Semitic conquerors of the Sumerians had been assimilated. But the +Romans ruled in their own city, and for some centuries kept to the laws +of their own nature. The only people who exercised any great mental +influence upon them before the second or third century A.D. were the +kindred and similar Greeks. So that the Roman Empire was essentially a +first attempt to rule a great dominion upon mainly Aryan lines. It was +so far a new pattern in history, it was an expanded Aryan republic. +The old pattern of a personal conqueror ruling over a capital city that +had grown up round the temple of a harvest god did not apply to it. +The Romans had gods and temples, but like the gods of the Greeks their +gods were quasi-human immortals, divine patricians. The Romans also +had blood sacrifices and even made human ones in times of stress, +things they may have learnt to do from their dusky Etruscan teachers; +but until Rome was long past its zenith neither priest nor temple +played a large part in Roman history. + +The Roman Empire was a growth, an unplanned novel growth; the Roman +people found themselves engaged almost unawares in a vast +administrative experiment. It cannot be called a successful +experiment. In the end their empire collapsed altogether. And it +changed enormously in form and method from century to century. It +changed more in a hundred years than Bengal or Mesopotamia or Egypt +changed in a thousand. It was always changing. It never attained to +any fixity. + +In a sense the experiment failed. In a sense the experiment remains +unfinished, and Europe and America to-day are still working out the +riddles of world-wide statescraft first confronted by the Roman people. + +It is well for the student of history to bear in mind the very great +changes not only in political but in social and moral matters that went +on throughout the period of Roman dominion. There is much too strong a +tendency in people’s minds to think of the Roman rule as something +finished and stable, firm, rounded, noble and decisive. Macaulay’s +_Lays of Ancient Rome_, S.P.Q.R. the elder Cato, the Scipios, Julius +Cæsar, Diocletian, Constantine the Great, triumphs, orations, +gladiatorial combats and Christian martyrs are all mixed up together in +a picture of something high and cruel and dignified. The items of that +picture have to be disentangled. They are collected at different +points from a process of change profounder than that which separates +the London of William the Conqueror from the London of to-day. + +We may very conveniently divide the expansion of Rome into four stages. + The first stage began after the sack of Rome by the Goths in 390 B.C. +and went on until the end of the First Punic War (240 B.C,). We may +call this stage the stage of the Assimilative Republic. It was perhaps +the finest, most characteristic stage in Roman history. The age-long +dissensions of patrician and plebeian were drawing to it close, the +Etruscan threat had come to an end, no one was very rich yet nor very +poor, and most men were public-spirited. It was a republic like the +republic of the South African Boers before 1900 or like the northern +states of the American union between 1800 and 1850; a free- farmers +republic. At the outset of this stage Rome was a little state scarcely +twenty miles square. She fought the sturdy but kindred states about +her, and sought not their destruction but coalescence. Her centuries +of civil dissension had trained her people in compromise and +concessions. Some of the defeated cities became altogether Roman with +a voting share in the government, some became self-governing with the +right to trade and marry in Rome; garrisons full of citizens were set +up at strategic points and colonies of varied privileges founded among +the freshly conquered people. Great roads were made. The rapid +Latinization of all Italy was the inevitable consequence of such a +policy. In 89 B.C. all the free inhabitants of Italy became citizens +of the city of Rome. Formally the whole Roman Empire became at last an +extended city. In 212 A.D. every free man in the entire extent of the +empire was given citizenship; the right, if he could get there, to vote +in the town meeting in Rome. + +This extension of citizenship to tractable cities and to whole +countries was the distinctive device of Roman expansion. It reversed +the old process of conquest and assimilation altogether. By the Roman +method the conquerors assimilated the conquered. + + +THE FORUM AT ROME AS IT IS TO-DAY +THE FORUM AT ROME AS IT IS TO-DAY + + +But after the First Punic War and the annexation of Sicily, though the +old process of assimilation still went on, another process arose by its +side. Sicily for instance was treated as a conquered prey. It was +declared an “estate” of the Roman people. Its rich soil and +industrious population was exploited to make Rome rich. The patricians +and the more influential among the plebeians secured the major share of +that wealth. And the war also brought in a large supply of slaves. +Before the First Punic War the population of the republic had been +largely a population of citizen farmers. Military service was their +privilege and liability. While they were on active service their farms +fell into debt and a new large-scale slave agriculture grew up; when +they returned they found their produce in competition with slave-grown +produce from Sicily and from the new estates at home. Times had +changed. The republic had altered its character. Not only was Sicily +in the hands of Rome, the common man was in the hands of the rich +creditor and the rich competitor. Rome had entered upon its second +stage, the Republic of Adventurous Rich Men. + +For two hundred years the Roman soldier farmers had struggled for +freedom and a share in the government of their state; for a hundred +years they had enjoyed their privileges. The First Punic War wasted +them and robbed them of all they had won. + + +RELICS OF ROMAN RULE +RELICS OF ROMAN RULE + +Ruins of Coliseum in Tunis + +_Photo: Jacques Boyer_ + + +The value of their electoral privileges had also evaporated. The +governing bodies of the Roman republic were two in number. The first +and more important was the Senate. This was a body originally of +patricians and then of prominent men of all sorts, who were summoned to +it first by certain powerful officials, the consuls and censors. Like +the British House of Lords it became a gathering of great landowners, +prominent politicians, big business men and the like. It was much more +like the British House of Lords than it was like the American Senate. +For three centuries, from the Punic Wars onward, it was the centre of +Roman political thought and purpose. The second body was the Popular +Assembly. This was supposed to be an assembly of _all_ the citizens of +Rome. When Rome was a little state twenty miles square this was a +possible gathering. When the citizenship of Rome had spread beyond the +confines in Italy, it was an altogether impossible one. Its meetings, +proclaimed by horn-blowing from the Capitol and the city walls, became +more and more a gathering of political hacks and city riff-raff. In +the fourth century B.C. the Popular Assembly was a considerable check +upon the Senate, a competent representation of the claims and rights of +the common man. By the end of the Punic Wars it was an impotent relic +of a vanquished popular control. No effectual legal check remained +upon the big men. + + +THE GREAT ROMAN ARCH AT CTESIPHON NEAR BAGDAD +THE GREAT ROMAN ARCH AT CTESIPHON NEAR BAGDAD + + +Nothing of the nature of representative government was ever introduced +into the Roman republic. No one thought of electing delegates to +represent the will of the citizens. This is a very important point for +the student to grasp. The Popular Assembly never became the equivalent +of the American House of Representatives or the British House of +Commons. In theory it was all the citizens; in practice it ceased to +be anything at all worth consideration. + +The common citizen of the Roman Empire was therefore in a very poor +case after the Second Punic War; he was impoverished, he had often lost +his farm, he was ousted from profitable production by slaves, and he +had no political power left to him to remedy these things. The only +methods of popular expression left to a people without any form of +political expression are the strike and the revolt. The story of the +second and first centuries B.C., so far as internal politics go, is a +story of futile revolutionary upheaval. The scale of this history will +not permit us to tell of the intricate struggles of that time, of the +attempts to break up estates and restore the land to the free farmer, +of proposals to abolish debts in whole or in part. There was revolt +and civil war. In 73 B.C., the distresses of Italy were enhanced by a +great insurrection, of the slaves under Spartacus. The slaves of Italy +revolted with some effect, for among them were the trained fighters of +the gladiatorial shows. For two years Spartacus held out in the crater +of Vesuvius, which seemed at that time to be an extinct volcano. This +insurrection was defeated at last and suppressed with frantic cruelty. +Six thousand captured Spartacists were crucified along the Appian Way, +the great highway that runs southward out of Rome (71 B.C.). + +The common man never made head against the forces that were subjugating +and degrading him. But the big rich men who were overcoming him were +even in his defeat preparing a new power in the Roman world over +themselves and him, the power of the army. + +Before the Second Punic War the army of Rome was a levy of free +farmers, who, according to their quality, rode or marched afoot to +battle. This was a very good force for wars close at hand, but not the +sort of army that will go abroad and bear long campaigns with patience. + And moreover as the slaves multiplied and the estates grew, the supply +of free- spirited fighting farmers declined. It was a popular leader +named Marius who introduced a new factor. North Africa after the +overthrow of the Carthaginian civilization had become a semi-barbaric +kingdom, the kingdom of Numidia. The Roman power fell into conflict +with Jugurtha, king of this state, and experienced enormous +difficulties in subduing him. Marius was made consul, in a phase of +public indignation, to end this discreditable war. This he did by +raising _paid troops_ and drilling them hard. Jugurtha was brought in +chains to Rome (106 B.C.) and Marius, when his time of office had +expired, held on to his consulship illegally with his newly created +legions. There was no power in Rome to restrain him. + +With Marius began the third phase in the development of the Roman +power, the Republic of the Military Commanders. For now began a period +in which the leaders of the paid legions fought for the mastery of the +Roman world. Against Marius was pitted the aristocratic Sulla who had +served under him in Africa. Each in turn made a great massacre of his +political opponents. Men were proscribed and executed by the thousand, +and their estates were sold. After the bloody rivalry of these two and +the horror of the revolt of Spartacus, came a phase in which Lucullus +and Pompey the Great and Crassus and Julius Cæsar were the masters of +armies and dominated affairs. It was Crassus who defeated Spartacus. +Lucullus conquered Asia Minor and penetrated to Armenia, and retired +with great wealth into private life. Crassus thrusting further invaded +Persia and was defeated and slain by the Parthians. After a long +rivalry Pompey was defeated by Julius Cæsar (48 B.C.) and murdered in +Egypt, leaving Julius Cæsar sole master of the Roman world. + +The figure of Julius Cæsar is one that has stirred the human +imagination out of all proportion to its merit or true importance. He +has become a legend and a symbol. For us he is chiefly important as +marking the transition from the phase of military adventurers to the +beginning of the fourth stage in Roman expansion, the Early Empire. +For in spite of the profoundest economic and political convulsions, in +spite of civil war and social degeneration, throughout all this time +the boundaries of the Roman state crept outward and continued to creep +outward to their maximum about 100 A.D. There had been something like +an ebb during the doubtful phases of the Second Punic War, and again a +manifest loss of vigour before the reconstruction of the army by +Marius. The revolt of Spartacus marked a third phase. Julius Cæsar +made his reputation as a military leader in Gaul, which is now France +and Belgium. (The chief tribes inhabiting this country belonged to the +same Celtic people as the Gauls who had occupied north Italy for a +time, and who had afterwards raided into Asia Minor and settled down as +the Galatians.) Cæsar drove back a German invasion of Gaul and added +all that country to the empire, and he twice crossed the Straits of +Dover into Britain (55 and 54 B.C.), where however he made no permanent +conquest. Meanwhile Pompey the Great was consolidating Roman conquests +that reached in the east to the Caspian Sea. + + +THE COLUMN OF TRAJAN AT ROME +THE COLUMN OF TRAJAN AT ROME + +Representing his conquests at Dacia and elsewhere + + +At this time, the middle of the first century B.C., the Roman Senate +was still the nominal centre of the Roman government, appointing +consuls and other officials, granting powers and the like; and a number +of politicians, among whom Cicero was an outstanding figure, were +struggling to preserve the great traditions of republican Rome and to +maintain respect for its laws. But the spirit of citizenship had gone +from Italy with the wasting away of the free farmers; it was a land now +of slaves and impoverished men with neither the understanding nor the +desire for freedom. There was nothing whatever behind these republican +leaders in the Senate, while behind the great adventurers they feared +and desired to control were the legions. Over the heads of the Senate +Crassus and Pompey and Cæsar divided the rule of the Empire between +them (The First Triumvirate). When presently Crassus was killed at +distant Carrhæ by the Parthians, Pompey and Cæsar fell out. Pompey took +up the republican side, and laws were passed to bring Cæsar to trial +for his breaches of law and his disobedience to the decrees of the +Senate. + +It was illegal for a general to bring his troops out of the boundary of +his command, and the boundary between Cæsar’s command and Italy was the +Rubicon. In 49 B.C. he crossed the Rubicon, saying “The die is cast” +and marched upon Pompey and Rome. + +It had been the custom in Rome in the past, in periods of military +extremity, to elect a “dictator” with practically unlimited powers to +rule through the crisis. After his overthrow of Pompey, Cæsar was made +dictator first for ten years and then (in 45 B.C.) for life. In effect +he was made monarch of the empire for life. There was talk of a king, +a word abhorrent to Rome since the expulsion of the Etruscans five +centuries before. Cæsar refused to be king, but adopted throne and +sceptre. After his defeat of Pompey, Cæsar had gone on into Egypt and +had made love to Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, the goddess +queen of Egypt. She seems to have turned his head very completely. He +had brought back to Rome the Egyptian idea of a god-king. His statue +was set up in a temple with an inscription “To the Unconquerable God.” +The expiring republicanism of Rome flared up in a last protest, and +Cæsar was stabbed to death in the Senate at the foot of the statue of +his murdered rival, Pompey the Great. + +Thirteen years more of this conflict of ambitious personalities +followed. There was a second Triumvirate of Lepidus, Mark Antony and +Octavian Cæsar, the latter the nephew of Julius Cæsar. Octavian like +his uncle took the poorer, hardier western provinces where the best +legions were recruited. In 31 B.C., he defeated Mark Antony, his only +serious rival, at the naval battle of Actium, and made himself sole +master of the Roman world. But Octavian was a man of different quality +altogether from Julius Cæsar. He had no foolish craving to be God or +King. He had no queen-lover that he wished to dazzle. He restored +freedom to the Senate and people of Rome. He declined to be dictator. +The grateful Senate in return gave him the reality instead of the forms +of power. He was to be called not King indeed, but “Princeps” and +“Augustus.” He became Augustus Cæsar, the first of the Roman emperors +(27 B.C. to 14 A.D.). + +He was followed by Tiberius Cæsar (14 to 37 A.D.) and he by others, +Caligula, Claudius, Nero and so on up to Trajan (98 A.D.), Hadrian (117 +A.D.), Antonius Pius (138 A.D.) and Marcus Aurelius (161- 180 A.D.). +All these emperors were emperors of the legions. The soldiers made +them, and some the soldiers destroyed. Gradually the Senate fades out +of Roman-history, and the emperor and his administrative officials +replace it. The boundaries of the empire crept forward now to their +utmost limits. Most of Britain was added to the empire, Transylvania +was brought in as a new province, Dacia; Trajan crossed the Euphrates. +Hadrian had an idea that reminds us at once of what had happened at the +other end of the old world. Like Shi-Hwang-ti he built walls against +the northern barbarians; one across Britain and a palisade between the +Rhine and the Danube. He abandoned some of the acquisitions of Trajan. + +The expansion of the Roman Empire was at an end. + + + + +XXXIV +BETWEEN ROME AND CHINA + + +The second and first centuries B.C. mark a new phase in the history of +mankind. Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean are no longer the +centre of interest. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were still fertile, +populous and fairly prosperous, but they were no longer the dominant +regions of the world. Power had drifted to the west and to the east. +Two great empires now dominated the world, this new Roman Empire and +the renascent Empire of China. Rome extended its power to the +Euphrates, but it was never able to get beyond that boundary. It was +too remote. Beyond the Euphrates the former Persian and Indian +dominions of the Seleucids fell under a number of new masters. China, +now under the Han dynasty, which had replaced the Ts’in dynasty at the +death of Shi-Hwang-ti, had extended its power across Tibet and over the +high mountain passes of the Pamirs into western Turkestan. But there, +too, it reached its extremes. Beyond was too far. + +China at this time was the greatest, best organized and most civilized +political system in the world. It was superior in area and population +to the Roman Empire at its zenith. It was possible then for these two +vast systems to flourish in the same world at the same time in almost +complete ignorance of each other. The means of communication both by +sea and land was not yet sufficiently developed and organized for them +to come to a direct clash. + +Yet they reacted upon each other in a very remarkable way, and their +influence upon the fate of the regions that lay between them, upon +central Asia and India, was profound. A certain amount of trade +trickled through, by camel caravans across Persia, for example, and by +coasting ships by way of India and the Red Sea. In 66 B.C. Roman +troops under Pompey followed in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, +and marched up the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. In 102 A.D. a +Chinese expeditionary force under Pan Chau reached the Caspian, and +sent emissaries to report upon the power of Rome. But many centuries +were still to pass before definite knowledge and direct intercourse +were to link the great parallel worlds of Europe and Eastern Asia. + +To the north of both these great empires were barbaric wildernesses. +What is now Germany was largely forest lands; the forests extended far +into Russia and made a home for the gigantic aurochs, a bull of almost +elephantine size. Then to the north of the great mountain masses of +Asia stretched a band of deserts, steppes and then forests and frozen +lands. In the eastward lap of the elevated part of Asia was the great +triangle of Manchuria. Large parts of these regions, stretching +between South Russia and Turkestan into Manchuria, were and are regions +of exceptional climatic insecurity. Their rainfall has varied greatly +in the course of a few centuries They are lands treacherous to man. +For years they will carry pasture and sustain cultivation, and then +will come an age of decline in humidity and a cycle of killing +droughts. + + +A CHINESE COVERED JAR OF GREEN-GLAZED EARTHENWARE +A CHINESE COVERED JAR OF GREEN-GLAZED EARTHENWARE + +Han Dynasty (contemporary with the late Roman republic and early +Empire) + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +The western part of this barbaric north from the German forests to +South Russia and Turkestan and from Gothland to the Alps was the region +of origin of the Nordic peoples and of the Aryan speech. The eastern +steppes and deserts of Mongolia was the region of origin of the Hunnish +or Mongolian or Tartar or Turkish peoples—for all these several peoples +were akin in language, race, and way of life. And as the Nordic +peoples seem to have been continually overflowing their own borders and +pressing south upon the developing civilizations of Mesopotamia and the +Mediterranean coast, so the Hunnish tribes sent their surplus as +wanderers, raiders and conquerors into the settled regions of China. +Periods of plenty in the north would mean an increase in population +there; a shortage of grass, a spell of cattle disease, would drive the +hungry warlike tribesmen south. + +For a time there were simultaneously two fairly effective Empires in +the world capable of holding back the barbarians and even forcing +forward the frontiers of the imperial peace. The thrust of the Han +empire from north China into Mongolia was strong and continuous. The +Chinese population welled up over the barrier of the Great Wall. +Behind the imperial frontier guards came the Chinese farmer with horse +and plough, ploughing up the grass lands and enclosing the winter +pasture. The Hunnish peoples raided and murdered the settlers, but the +Chinese punitive expeditions were too much for them. The nomads were +faced with the choice of settling down to the plough and becoming +Chinese tax-payers or shifting in search of fresh summer pastures. +Some took the former course and were absorbed. Some drifted +north-eastward and eastward over the mountain passes down into western +Turkestan. + + +VASE OF BRONZE FORM, UNGLAZED STONEWARE +VASE OF BRONZE FORM, UNGLAZED STONEWARE + +Han Dynasty (B.C. 206 - A.D. 220) + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +This westward drive of the Mongolian horsemen was going on from 200 +B.C. onward. It was producing a westward pressure upon the Aryan +tribes, and these again were pressing upon the Roman frontiers ready to +break through directly there was any weakness apparent. The Parthians, +who were apparently a Scythian people with some Mongolian admixture, +came down to the Euphrates by the first century B.C. They fought +against Pompey the Great in his eastern raid. They defeated and killed +Crassus. They replaced the Seleucid monarchy in Persia by a dynasty of +Parthian kings, the Arsacid dynasty. + + +CHINESE VESSEL IN BRONZE, IN FORM OF A GOOSE +CHINESE VESSEL IN BRONZE, IN FORM OF A GOOSE + +Dating from before the time of Shi-Hwang-ti. Such a piece of work +indicates a high level of comfort and humour + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +But for a time the line of least resistance for hungry nomads lay +neither to the west nor the east but through central Asia and then +south-eastward through the Khyber Pass into India. It was India which +received the Mongolian drive in these centuries of Roman and Chinese +strength. A series of raiding conquerors poured down through the +Punjab into the great plains to loot and destroy. The empire of Asoka +was broken up, and for a time the history of India passes into +darkness. A certain Kushan dynasty founded by the “Indo- Scythians”—one +of the raiding peoples—ruled for a time over North India and maintained +a certain order. These invasions went on for several centuries. For a +large part of the fifth century A.D. India was afflicted by the +Ephthalites or White Huns, who levied tribute on the small Indian +princes and held India in terror. Every summer these Ephthalites +pastured in western Turkestan, every autumn they came down through the +passes to terrorize India. + +In the second century A.D. a great misfortune came upon the Roman and +Chinese empires that probably weakened the resistance of both to +barbarian pressure. This was a pestilence of unexampled virulence. It +raged for eleven years in China and disorganized the social framework +profoundly. The Han dynasty fell, and a new age of division and +confusion began from which China did not fairly recover until the +seventh century A.D. with the coming of the great Tang dynasty. + +The infection spread through Asia to Europe. It raged throughout the +Roman Empire from 164 to 180 A.D. It evidently weakened the Roman +imperial fabric very seriously. We begin to hear of depopulation in +the Roman provinces after this, and there was a marked deterioration in +the vigour and efficiency of government. At any rate we presently find +the frontier no longer invulnerable, but giving way first in this place +and then in that. A new Nordic people, the Goths, coming originally +from Gothland in Sweden, had migrated across Russia to the Volga region +and the shores of the Black Sea and taken to the sea and piracy. By +the end of the second century they may have begun to feel the westward +thrust of the Huns. In 247 they crossed the Danube in a great land +raid, and defeated and killed the Emperor Decius in a battle in what is +now Serbia. In 236 another Germanic people, the Franks, had broken +bounds upon the lower Rhine, and the Alemanni had poured into Alsace. +The legions in Gaul beat back their invaders, but the Goths in the +Balkan peninsula raided again and again. The province of Dacia vanished +from Roman history. + +A chill had come to the pride and confidence of Rome. In 270-275 Rome, +which had been an open and secure city for three centuries, was +fortified by the Emperor Aurelian. + + + + +XXXV +THE COMMON MAN’S LIFE UNDER THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE + + +Before we tell of how this Roman empire which was built up in the two +centuries B.C., and which flourished in peace and security from the +days of Augustus Cæsar onward for two centuries, fell into disorder and +was broken up, it may be as well to devote some attention to the life +of the ordinary people throughout this great realm. Our history has +come down now to within 2000 years of our own time; and the life of the +civilized people, both under the Peace of Rome and the Peace of the Han +dynasty, was beginning to resemble more and more clearly the life of +their civilized successors to-day. + +In the western world coined money was now in common use; outside the +priestly world there were many people of independent means who were +neither officials of the government nor priests; people travelled about +more freely than they had ever done before, and there were high roads +and inns for them. Compared with the past, with the time before 500 +B.C., life had become much more loose. Before that date civilized men +had been bound to a district or country, had been bound to a tradition +and lived within a very limited horizon; only the nomads traded and +travelled. + +But neither the Roman Peace nor the Peace of the Han dynasty meant a +uniform civilization over the large areas they controlled. There were +very great local differences and great contrasts and inequalities of +culture between one district and another, just as there are to-day +under the British Peace in India. The Roman garrisons and colonies +were dotted here and there over this great space, worshipping Roman +gods and speaking the Latin language; but where there had been towns +and cities before the coming of the Romans, they went on, subordinated +indeed but managing their own affairs, and, for a time at least, +worshipping their own gods in their own fashion. Over Greece, Asia +Minor, Egypt and the Hellenized East generally, the Latin language +never prevailed. Greek ruled there invincibly. Saul of Tarsus, who +became the apostle Paul, was a Jew and a Roman citizen; but he spoke +and wrote Greek and not Hebrew. Even at the court of the Parthian +dynasty, which had overthrown the Greek Seleucids in Persia, and was +quite outside the Roman imperial boundaries, Greek was the fashionable +language. In some parts of Spain and in North Africa, the Carthaginian +language also held on for a long time in spite of the destruction of +Carthage. Such a town as Seville, which had been a prosperous city +long before the Roman name had been heard of, kept its Semitic goddess +and preserved its Semitic speech for generations, in spite of a colony +of Roman veterans at Italica a few miles away. Septimius Severus, who +was emperor from 193 to 211 A.D., spoke Carthaginian as his mother +speech. He learnt Latin later as a foreign tongue; and it is recorded +that his sister never learnt Latin and conducted her Roman household in +the Punic language. + + +A Gladiator (contemporary representation) + +In such countries as Gaul and Britain and in provinces like Dacia (now +roughly Roumania) and Pannonia (Hungary south of the Danube), where +there were no pre-existing great cities and temples and cultures, the +Roman empire did however “Latinize.” It civilized these countries for +the first time. It created cities and towns where Latin was from the +first the dominant speech, and where Roman gods were served and Roman +customs and fashions followed. The Roumanian, Italian, French and +Spanish languages, all variations and modifications of Latin, remain to +remind us of this extension of Latin speech and customs. North-west +Africa also became at last largely Latin-speaking. Egypt, Greece and +the rest of the empire to the east were never Latinized. They remained +Egyptian and Greek in culture and spirit. And even in Rome, among +educated men, Greek was learnt as the language of a gentleman and Greek +literature and learning were very, properly preferred to Latin. + +In this miscellaneous empire the ways of doing work and business were +naturally also very miscellaneous. The chief industry of the settled +world was still largely agriculture. We have told how in Italy the +sturdy free farmers who were the backbone of the early Roman republic +were replaced by estates worked by slave labour after the Punic wars. +The Greek world had had very various methods of cultivation, from the +Arcadian plan, wherein every free citizen toiled with his own hands, to +Sparta, wherein it was a dishonour to work and where agricultural work +was done by a special slave class, the Helots. But that was ancient +history now, and over most of the Hellenized world the estate system +and slave-gangs had spread. The agricultural slaves were captives who +spoke many different languages so that they could not understand each +other, or they were born slaves; they had no solidarity to resist +oppression, no tradition of rights, no knowledge, for they could not +read nor write. Although they came to form a majority of the country +population they never made a successful insurrection. The insurrection +of Spartacus in the first century B.C. was an insurrection of the +special slaves who were trained for the gladiatorial combats. The +agricultural workers in Italy in the latter days of the Republic and +the early Empire suffered frightful indignities; they would be chained +at night to prevent escape or have half the head shaved to make it +difficult. They had no wives of their own; they could be outraged, +mutilated and killed by their masters. A master could sell his slave +to fight beasts in the arena. If a slave slew his master, all the +slaves in his household and not merely the murderer were crucified. In +some parts of Greece, in Athens notably, the lot of the slave was never +quite so frightful as this, but it was still detestable. To such a +population the barbarian invaders who presently broke through the +defensive line of the legions, came not as enemies but as liberators. + + +POMPEII +POMPEII + +“Note the ruts in roadway worn by chariot wheels.” + + +The slave system had spread to most industries and to every sort of +work that could be done by gangs. Mines and metallurgical operations, +the rowing of galleys, road-making and big building operations were all +largely slave occupations. And almost all domestic service was +performed by slaves. There were poor free-men and there were freed-men +in the cities and upon the country side, working for themselves or even +working for wages. They were artizans, supervisors and so forth, +workers of a new money- paid class working in competition with slave +workers; but we do not know what proportion they made of the general +population. It probably varied widely in different places and at +different periods. And there were also many modifications of slavery, +from the slavery that was chained at night and driven with whips to the +farm or quarry, to the slave whose master found it advantageous to +leave him to cultivate his patch or work his craft and own his wife +like a free-man, provided he paid in a satisfactory quittance to his +owner. + +There were armed slaves. At the opening of the period of the Punic +wars, in 264 B.C., the Etruscan sport of setting slaves to fight for +their lives was revived in Rome. It grew rapidly fashionable; and soon +every great Roman rich man kept a retinue of gladiators, who sometimes +fought in the arena but whose real business it was to act as his +bodyguard of bullies. And also there were learned slaves. The +conquests of the later Republic were among the highly civilized cities +of Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor; and they brought in many highly +educated captives. The tutor of a young Roman of good family was +usually a slave. A rich man would have a Greek slave as librarian, and +slave secretaries and learned men. He would keep his poet as he would +keep a performing dog. In this atmosphere of slavery the traditions of +modern literary criticism were evolved. The slaves still boast and +quarrel in our reviews. There were enterprising people who bought +intelligent boy slaves and had them educated for sale. Slaves were +trained as book copyists, as jewellers, and for endless skilled +callings. + + +THE COLISEUM, ROME +THE COLISEUM, ROME + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + +INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM AT IT APPEARS TO-DAY +INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM AT IT APPEARS TO-DAY + + +But there were very considerable changes in the position of a slave +during the four hundred years between the opening days of conquest +under the republic of rich men and the days of disintegration that +followed the great pestilence. In the second century B.C. war-captives +were abundant, manners gross and brutal; the slave had no rights and +there was scarcely an outrage the reader can imagine that was not +practised upon slaves in those days. But already in the first century +A.D. there was a perceptible improvement in the attitude of the Roman +civilization towards slavery. Captives were not so abundant for one +thing, and slaves were dearer. And slave- owners began to realize that +the profit and comfort they got from their slaves increased with the +self-respect of these unfortunates. But also the moral tone of the +community was rising, and a sense of justice was becoming effective. +The higher mentality of Greece was qualifying the old Roman harshness. +Restrictions upon cruelty were made, a master might no longer sell his +slave to fight beasts, a slave was given property rights in what was +called his _peculium_, slaves were paid wages as an encouragement and +stimulus, a form of slave marriage was recognized. Very many forms of +agriculture do not lend themselves to gang working, or require gang +workers only at certain seasons. In regions where such conditions +prevailed the slave presently became a serf, paying his owner part of +his produce or working for him at certain seasons. + +When we begin to realize how essentially this great Latin and +Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the first two centuries A.D. was a slave +state and how small was the minority who had any pride or freedom in +their lives, we lay our hands on the clues to its decay and collapse. +There was little of what we should call family life, few homes of +temperate living and active thought and study; schools and colleges +were few and far between. The free will and the free mind were nowhere +to be found. The great roads, the ruins of splendid buildings, the +tradition of law and power it left for the astonishment of succeeding +generations must not conceal from us that all its outer splendour was +built upon thwarted wills, stifled intelligence, and crippled and +perverted desires. And even the minority who lorded it over that wide +realm of subjugation and of restraint and forced labour were uneasy and +unhappy in their souls; art and literature, science and philosophy, +which are the fruits of free and happy minds, waned in that atmosphere. + There was much copying and imitation, an abundance of artistic +artificers, much slavish pedantry among the servile men of learning, +but the whole Roman empire in four centuries produced nothing to set +beside the bold and noble intellectual activities of the comparatively +little city of Athens during its one century of greatness. Athens +decayed under the Roman sceptre. The science of Alexandria decayed. +The spirit of man, it seemed, was decaying in those days. + + + + +XXXVI +RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE + + +The soul of man under that Latin and Greek empire of the first two +centuries of the Christian era was a worried and frustrated soul. +Compulsion and cruelty reigned; there were pride and display but little +honour; little serenity or steadfast happiness. The unfortunate were +despised and wretched; the fortunate were insecure and feverishly eager +for gratifications. In a great number of cities life centred on the red +excitement of the arena, where men and beasts fought and were tormented +and slain. Amphitheatres are the most characteristic of Roman ruins. +Life went on in that key. The uneasiness of men’s hearts manifested +itself in profound religious unrest. + +From the days when the Aryan hordes first broke in upon the ancient +civilizations, it was inevitable that the old gods of the temples and +priesthoods should suffer great adaptations or disappear. In the +course of hundreds of generations the agricultural peoples of the +brunette civilizations had shaped their lives and thoughts to the +temple-centred life. Observances and the fear of disturbed routines, +sacrifices and mysteries, dominated their minds. Their gods seem +monstrous and illogical to our modern minds because we belong to an +Aryanized world, but to these older peoples these deities had the +immediate conviction and vividness of things seen in an intense dream. +The conquest of one city state by another in Sumeria or early Egypt +meant a change or a renaming of gods or goddesses, but left the shape +and spirit of the worship intact. There was no change in its general +character. The figures in the dream changed, but the dream went on and +it was the same sort of dream. And the early Semitic conquerors were +sufficiently akin in spirit to the Sumerians to take over the religion +of the Mesopotamian civilization they subjugated without any profound +alteration. Egypt was never indeed subjugated to the extent of a +religious revolution. Under the Ptolemies and under the Cæsars, her +temples and altars and priesthoods remained essentially Egyptian. + +So long as conquests went on between people of similar social and +religious habits it was possible to get over the clash between the god +of this temple and region and the god of that by a process of grouping +or assimilation. If the two gods were alike in character they were +identified. It was really the same god under another name, said the +priests and the people. This fusion of gods is called theocrasia; and +the age of the great conquests of the thousand years B.C. was an age of +theocrasia. Over wide areas the local gods were displaced by, or +rather they were swallowed up in, a general god. So that when at last +Hebrew prophets in Babylon proclaimed one God of Righteousness in all +the earth men’s minds were fully prepared for that idea. + +But often the gods were too dissimilar for such an assimilation, and +then they were grouped together in some plausible relationship. A +female god - and the Ægean world before the coming of the Greek was +much addicted to Mother Gods—would be married to a male god, and an +animal god or a star god would be humanized and the animal or +astronomical aspect, the serpent or the sun or the star, made into an +ornament or a symbol. Or the god of a defeated people would become a +malignant antagonist to the brighter gods. The history of theology is +full of such adaptations, compromises and rationalizations of once +local gods. + +As Egypt developed from city states into one united kingdom there was +much of this theocrasia. The chief god so to speak was Osiris, a +sacrificial harvest god of whom Pharaoh was supposed to be the earthly +incarnation. Osiris was represented as repeatedly dying and rising +again; he was not only the seed and the harvest but also by a natural +extension of thought the means of human immortality. Among his symbols +was the wide-winged scarabeus beetle which buries its eggs to rise +again, and also the effulgent sun which sets to rise. Later on he was +to be identified with Apis, the sacred bull. Associated with him was +the goddess Isis. Isis was also Hathor, a cow-goddess, and the +crescent moon and the Star of the sea. Osiris dies and she bears a +child, Horus, who is also a hawk-god and the dawn, and who grows to +become Osiris again. The effigies of Isis represent her as bearing the +infant Horus in her arms and standing on the crescent moon. These are +not logical relationships, but they were devised by the human mind +before the development of hard and systematic thinking and they have a +dream-like coherence. Beneath this triple group there are other and +darker Egyptian gods, bad gods, the dog-headed Anubis, black night and +the like, devourers, tempters, enemies of god and man. + + +MITHRAS SACRIFICING A BULL, ROMAN +MITHRAS SACRIFICING A BULL, ROMAN + +_(In the British Museum)_ + + +Every religious system does in the course of time fit itself to the +shape of the human soul, and there can be no doubt that out of these +illogical and even uncouth symbols, Egyptian people were able to +fashion for themselves ways of genuine devotion and consolation. The +desire for immortality was very strong in the Egyptian mind, and the +religious life of Egypt turned on that desire. The Egyptian religion +was an immortality religion as no other religion had ever been. As +Egypt went down under foreign conquerors and the Egyptian gods ceased +to have any satisfactory political significance, this craving for a +life of compensations here-after, intensified. + + +ISIS AND HORUS +ISIS AND HORUS + + +After the Greek conquest, the new city of Alexandria became the centre +of Egyptian religious life, and indeed of the religious life of the +whole Hellenic world. A great temple, the Serapeum, was set up by +Ptolemy I at which a sort of trinity of gods was worshipped. These were +Serapis (who was Osiris-Apis rechristened), Isis and Horus. These were +not regarded as separate gods but as three aspects of one god, and +Serapis was identified with the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter and the +Persian sun-god. This worship spread wherever the Hellenic influence +extended, even into North India and Western China. The idea of +immortality, an immortality of compensations and consolation, was +eagerly received by a world in which the common life was hopelessly +wretched. Serapis was called “the saviour of souls.” “After death,” +said the hymns of that time, “we are still in the care of his +providence.” Isis attracted many devotees. Her images stood in her +temples, as Queen of Heaven, bearing the infant Horus in her arms. +Candles were burnt before her, votive offerings were made to her, +shaven priests consecrated to celibacy waited on her altar. + +The rise of the Roman empire opened the western European world to this +growing cult. The temples of Serapis-Isis, the chanting of the priests +and the hope of immortal life, followed the Roman standards to Scotland +and Holland. But there were many rivals to the Serapis-Isis religion. +Prominent among these was Mithraism. This was a religion of Persian +origin, and it centred upon some now forgotten mysteries about Mithras +sacrificing a sacred and benevolent bull. Here we seem to have +something more primordial than the complicated and sophisticated +Serapis-Isis beliefs. We are carried back directly to the blood +sacrifices of the heliolithic stage in human culture. The bull upon +the Mithraic monuments always bleeds copiously from a wound in its +side, and from this blood springs new life. The votary to Mithraism +actually bathed in the blood of the sacrificial bull. At his +initiation he went beneath a scaffolding upon which a bull was killed +so that the blood could actually run down on him. + +Both these religions, and the same is true of many other of the +numerous parallel cults that sought the allegiance of the slaves and +citizens under the earlier Roman emperors, are personal religions. +They aim at personal salvation and personal immortality. The older +religions were not personal like that; they were social. The older +fashion of divinity was god or goddess of the city first or of the +state, and only secondarily of the individual. The sacrifices were a +public and not a private function. They concerned collective practical +needs in this world in which we live. But the Greeks first and now the +Romans had pushed religion out of politics. Guided by the Egyptian +tradition religion had retreated to the other world. + + +BUST OF THE EMPEROR COMMODUS, A.D. 180-192 +BUST OF THE EMPEROR COMMODUS, A.D. 180-192 + +Represented as the God Mithras, Roman, Circa A.D. 190 + +_(In the British Museum)_ + + +These new private immortality religions took all the heart and emotion +out of the old state religions, but they did not actually replace them. + A typical city under the earlier Roman emperors would have a number of +temples to all sorts of gods. There might be a temple to Jupiter of +the Capitol, the great god of Rome, and there would probably be one to +the reigning Cæsar. For the Cæsars had learnt from the Pharaohs the +possibility of being gods. In such temples a cold and stately +political worship went on; one would go and make an offering and burn a +pinch of incense to show one’s loyalty. But it would be to the temple +of Isis, the dear Queen of Heaven, one would go with the burthen of +one’s private troubles for advice and relief. There might be local and +eccentric gods. Seville, for example, long affected the worship of the +old Carthaginian Venus. In a cave or an underground temple there would +certainly be an altar to Mithras, attended by legionaries and slaves. +And probably also there would be a synagogue where the Jews gathered to +read their Bible and uphold their faith in the unseen God of all the +Earth. + +Sometimes there would be trouble with the Jews about the political side +of the state religion. They held that their God was a jealous God +intolerant of idolatry, and they would refuse to take part in the +public sacrifices to Cæsar. They would not even salute the Roman +standards for fear of idolatry. + +In the East long before the time of Buddha there had been ascetics, men +and women who gave up most of the delights of life, who repudiated +marriage and property and sought spiritual powers and an escape from +the stresses and mortifications of the world in abstinence, pain and +solitude. Buddha himself set his face against ascetic extravagances, +but many of his disciples followed a monkish life of great severity. +Obscure Greek cults practised similar disciplines even to the extent of +self-mutilation. Asceticism appeared in the Jewish communities of +Judea and Alexandria also in the first century B.C. Communities of men +abandoned the world and gave themselves to austerities and mystical +contemplation. Such was the sect of the Essenes. Throughout the first +and second centuries A.D. there was an almost world-wide resort to such +repudiations of life, a universal search for “salvation” from the +distresses of the time. The old sense of an established order, the old +confidence in priest and temple and law and custom, had gone. Amidst +the prevailing slavery, cruelty, fear, anxiety, waste, display and +hectic self-indulgence, went this epidemic of self- disgust and mental +insecurity, this agonized search for peace even at the price of +renunciation and voluntary suffering. This it was that filled the +Serapeum with weeping penitents and brought the converts into the gloom +and gore of the Mithraic cave. + + + + +XXXVII +THE TEACHING OF JESUS + + +It was while Augustus Cæsar, the first of the Emperors, was reigning in +Rome that Jesus who is the Christ of Christianity was born in Judea. In +his name a religion was to arise which was destined to become the +official religion of the entire Roman Empire. + +Now it is on the whole more convenient to keep history and theology +apart. A large proportion of the Christian world believes that Jesus +was an incarnation of that God of all the Earth whom the Jews first +recognized. The historian, if he is to remain historian, can neither +accept nor deny that interpretation. Materially Jesus appeared in the +likeness of a man, and it is as a man that the historian must deal with +him. + +He appeared in Judea in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar. He was a prophet. + He preached after the fashion of the preceding Jewish prophets. He +was a man of about thirty, and we are in the profoundest ignorance of +his manner of life before his preaching began. + +Our only direct sources of information about the life and teaching of +Jesus are the four Gospels. All four agree in giving us a picture of a +very definite personality. One is obliged to say, “Here was a man. +This could not have been invented.” + +But just as the personality of Gautama Buddha has been distorted and +obscured by the stiff squatting figure, the gilded idol of later +Buddhism, so one feels that the lean and strenuous personality of Jesus +is much wronged by the unreality and conventionality that a mistaken +reverence has imposed upon his figure in modern Christian art. Jesus +was a penniless teacher, who wandered about the dusty sun-bit country +of Judea, living upon casual gifts of food; yet he is always +represented clean, combed and sleek, in spotless raiment, erect and +with something motionless about him as though he was gliding through +the air. This alone has made him unreal and incredible to many people +who cannot distinguish the core of the story from the ornamental and +unwise additions of the unintelligently devout. + +We are left, if we do strip this record of these difficult accessories, +with the figure of a being, very human, very earnest and passionate, +capable of swift anger, and teaching a new and simple and profound +doctrine—namely, the universal loving Fatherhood of God and the coming +of the Kingdom of Heaven. He was clearly a person—to use a common +phrase—of intense personal magnetism. He attracted followers and +filled them with love and courage. Weak and ailing people were +heartened and healed by his presence. Yet he was probably of a +delicate physique, because of the swiftness with which he died under +the pains of crucifixion. There is a tradition that he fainted when, +according to the custom, he was made to bear his cross to the place of +execution. He went about the country for three years spreading his +doctrine and then he came to Jerusalem and was accused of trying to set +up a strange kingdom in Judea; he was tried upon this charge, and +crucified together with two thieves. Long before these two were dead +his sufferings were over. + +The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of +Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever +stirred and changed human thought. It is small wonder if the world of +that time failed to grasp its full significance, and recoiled in dismay +from even a half apprehension of its tremendous challenges to the +established habits and institutions of mankind. For the doctrine of +the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus seems to have preached it, was no less +than a bold and uncompromising demand for a complete change and +cleansing of the life of our struggling race, an utter cleansing, +without and within. To the gospels the reader must go for all that is +preserved of this tremendous teaching; here we are only concerned with +the jar of its impact upon established ideas. + +The Jews were persuaded that God, the one God of the whole world, was a +righteous god, but they also thought of him as a trading god who had +made a bargain with their Father Abraham about them, a very good +bargain indeed for them, to bring them at last to predominance in the +earth. With dismay and anger they heard Jesus sweeping away their dear +securities. God, he taught, was no bargainer; there were no chosen +people and no favourites in the Kingdom of Heaven. God was the loving +father of all life, as incapable of showing favour as the universal +sun. And all men were brothers—sinners alike and beloved sons alike—of +this divine father. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus cast +scorn upon that natural tendency we all obey, to glorify our own people +and to minimize the righteousness of other creeds and other races. In +the parable of the labourers he thrust aside the obstinate claim of the +Jews to have a special claim upon God. All whom God takes into the +kingdom, he taught, God serves alike; there is no distinction in his +treatment, because there is no measure to his bounty. From all +moreover, as the parable of the buried talent witnesses, and as the +incident of the widow’s mite enforces, he demands the utmost. There are +no privileges, no rebates and no excuses in the Kingdom of Heaven. + + +EARLY IDEAL PORTRAIT, IN GILDED GLASS, OF JESUS CHRIST IN WHICH THE +TRADITIONAL BEARD IS NOT SHOWN +EARLY IDEAL PORTRAIT, IN GILDED GLASS, OF JESUS CHRIST IN WHICH THE +TRADITIONAL BEARD IS NOT SHOWN + + +But it is not only the intense tribal patriotism of the Jews that Jesus +outraged. They were a people of intense family loyalty, and he would +have swept away all the narrow and restrictive family affections in the +great flood of the love of God. The whole kingdom of Heaven was to be +the family of his followers. We are told that, “While he yet talked to +the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring +to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy +brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered +and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my +brethren? And he stretched forth his hands towards his disciples, and +said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the +will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and +sister, and mother.? [1] + + +THE ROAD FROM NAZARETH TO TIBERIAS +THE ROAD FROM NAZARETH TO TIBERIAS + +_Photo: Fannaway_ + + +And not only did Jesus strike at patriotism and the bonds of family +loyalty in the name of God’s universal fatherhood and brotherhood of +all mankind, but it is clear that his teaching condemned all the +gradations of the economic system, all private wealth, and personal +advantages. All men belonged to the kingdom; all their possessions +belonged to the kingdom; the righteous life for all men, the only +righteous life, was the service of God’s will with all that we had, +with all that we were. Again and again he denounced private riches and +the reservation of any private life. + + +DAVID’S TOWER AND WALL OF JERUSALEM +DAVID’S TOWER AND WALL OF JERUSALEM + +_Photo: Fannaway_ + + +“And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and +kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may +inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why callest thou me good? +there is none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the +commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not +bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he +answered and said unto him, Master, all these things have I observed +from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, +One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give +to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up +the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away +grieved; for he had great possessions. + + +A STREET IN JERUSALEM +A STREET IN JERUSALEM + +Along such a thoroughfare Christ carried his cross to the place of +execution + +_Photo: Fannaway_ + + +“And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly +shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God! And the +disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and +saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches +to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go +through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the +Kingdom of God.” [2] + +Moreover, in his tremendous prophecy of this kingdom which was to make +all men one together in God, Jesus had small patience for the +bargaining righteousness of formal religion. Another large part of his +recorded utterances is aimed against the meticulous observance of the +rules of the pious career. “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, +Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, +but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, +Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, + +“This people honoureth me with their lips, + +“But their heart is far from me. + +“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, + +“Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. + +“For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, +as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such things ye do. And +he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye +may keep your own tradition.” [3] + +It was not merely a moral and a social revolution that Jesus +proclaimed; it is clear from a score of indications that his teaching +had a political bent of the plainest sort. It is true that he said his +kingdom was not of this world, that it was in the hearts of men and not +upon a throne; but it is equally clear that wherever and in what +measure his kingdom was set up in the hearts of men, the outer world +would be in that measure revolutionized and made new. + +Whatever else the deafness and blindness of his hearers may have missed +in his utterances, it is plain they did not miss his resolve to +revolutionize the world. The whole tenor of the opposition to him and +the circumstances of his trial and execution show clearly that to his +contemporaries he seemed to propose plainly, and did propose plainly, +to change and fuse and enlarge all human life. + +In view of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who were +rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange things, a swimming of +their world at his teaching? He was dragging out all the little +private reservations they had made from social service into the light +of a universal religious life. He was like some terrible moral +huntsman digging mankind out of the snug burrows in which they had +lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to +be no property, no privilege, no pride and precedence; no motive indeed +and no reward but love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and +blinded and cried out against him? Even his disciples cried out when +he would not spare them the light. Is it any wonder that the priests +realized that between this man and themselves there was no choice but +that he or priestcraft should perish? Is it any wonder that the Roman +soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their +comprehension and threatening all their disciplines, should take refuge +in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and +make a mock Cæsar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon +a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts +and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness. . . . + + +[1] Matt. xii, 46-50. + + +[2] Mark x, 17-25. + + +[3] Mark vii, 1-9. + + + + +XXXVIII +THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINAL CHRISTIANITY + + +In the four gospels we find the personality and teachings of Jesus but +very little of the dogmas of the Christian church. It is in the +epistles, a series of writings by the immediate followers of Jesus, +that the broad lines of Christian belief are laid down. + +Chief among the makers of Christian doctrine was St. Paul. He had never +seen Jesus nor heard him preach. Paul’s name was originally Saul, and +he was conspicuous at first as an active persecutor of the little band +of disciples after the crucifixion. Then he was suddenly converted to +Christianity, and he changed his name to Paul. He was a man of great +intellectual vigour and deeply and passionately interested in the +religious movements of the time. He was well versed in Judaism and in +the Mithraism and Alexandrian religion of the day. He carried over +many of their ideas and terms of expression into Christianity. He did +very little to enlarge or develop the original teaching of Jesus, the +teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven. But he taught that Jesus was not +only the promised Christ, the promised leader of the Jews, but also +that his death was a sacrifice, like the deaths of the ancient +sacrificial victims of the primordial civilizations, for the redemption +of mankind. + +When religions flourish side by side they tend to pick up each other’s +ceremonial and other outward peculiarities. Buddhism, for example, in +China has now almost the same sort of temples and priests and uses as +Taoism, which follows in the teachings of Lao Tse. Yet the original +teachings of Buddhism and Taoism were almost flatly opposed. And it +reflects no doubt or discredit upon the essentials of Christian +teaching that it took over not merely such formal things as the shaven +priest, the votive offering, the altars, candles, chanting and images +of the Alexandrian and Mithraic faiths, but adopted even their +devotional phrases and their theological ideas. All these religions +were flourishing side by side with many less prominent cults. Each was +seeking adherents, and there must have been a constant going and coming +of converts between them. Sometimes one or other would be in favour +with the government. But Christianity was regarded with more suspicion +than its rivals because, like the Jews, its adherents would not perform +acts of worship to the God Cæsar. This made it a seditious religion, +quite apart from the revolutionary spirit of the teachings of Jesus +himself. + + +MOSAIC OF SS. PETER AND PAUL POINTING TO A THRONE, ON GOLD BACKGROUND +MOSAIC OF SS. PETER AND PAUL POINTING TO A THRONE, ON GOLD BACKGROUND + +From the Ninth Century original, in the Church of Sta. Prassede, Rome + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +St. Paul familiarized his disciples with the idea that Jesus, like +Osiris, was a god who died to rise again and give men immortality. And +presently the spreading Christian community was greatly torn by +complicated theological disputes about the relationship of this God +Jesus to God the Father of Mankind. The Arians taught that Jesus was +divine, but distant from and inferior to the Father. The Sabellians +taught that Jesus was merely an aspect of the Father, and that God was +Jesus and Father at the same time just as a man may be a father and an +artificer at the same time; and the Trinitarians taught a more subtle +doctrine that God was both one and three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. +For a time it seemed that Arianism would prevail over its rivals, and +then after disputes, violence and wars, the Trinitarian formula became +the accepted formula of all Christendom. It may be found in its +completest expression in the Athanasian Creed. + +We offer no comment on these controversies here. They do not sway +history as the personal teaching of Jesus sways history. The personal +teaching of Jesus does seem to mark a new phase in the moral and +spiritual life of our race. Its insistence upon the universal +Fatherhood of God and the implicit brotherhood of all men, its +insistence upon the sacredness of every human personality as a living +temple of God, was to have the profoundest effect upon all the +subsequent social and political life of mankind. With Christianity, +with the spreading teachings of Jesus, a new respect appears in the +world for man as man. It may be true, as hostile critics of +Christianity have urged, that St.. Paul preached obedience to slaves, +but it is equally true that the whole spirit of the teachings of Jesus +preserved in the gospels was against the subjugation of man by man. +And still more distinctly was Christianity opposed to such outrages +upon human dignity as the gladiatorial combats in the arena. + + +THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST +THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST + +_(Sixth Century Ivory Panel in the British Museum)_ + + +Throughout the first two centuries after Christ, the Christian religion +spread throughout the Roman Empire, weaving together an ever-growing +multitude of converts into a new community of ideas and will. The +attitude of the emperors varied between hostility and toleration. +There were attempts to suppress this new faith in both the second and +third centuries; and finally in 303 and the following years a great +persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. The considerable +accumulations of Church property were seized, all bibles and religious +writings were confiscated and destroyed, Christians were put out of the +protection of the law and many executed. The destruction of the books +is particularly notable. It shows how the power of the written word in +holding together the new faith was appreciated by the authorities. +These “book religions,” Christianity and Judaism, were religions that +educated. Their continued existence depended very largely on people +being able to read and understand their doctrinal ideas. The older +religions had made no such appeal to the personal intelligence. In the +ages of barbaric confusion that were now at hand in western Europe it +was the Christian church that was mainly instrumental in preserving the +tradition of learning. + +The persecution of Diocletian failed completely to suppress the growing +Christian community. In many provinces it was ineffective because the +bulk of the population and many of the officials were Christian. In +317 an edict of toleration was issued by the associated Emperor +Galerius, and in 324 Constantine the Great, a friend and on his +deathbed a baptized convert to Christianity, became sole ruler of the +Roman world. He abandoned all divine pretensions and put Christian +symbols on the shields and banners of his troops. + +In a few years Christianity was securely established as the official +religion of the empire. The competing religions disappeared or were +absorbed with extraordinary celerity, and in 300 Theodosius the Great +caused the great statue of Jupiter Serapis at Alexandria to be +destroyed. From the outset of the fifth century onward the only +priests or temples in the Roman Empire were Christian priests and +temples. + + + + +XXXIX +THE BARBARIANS BREAK THE EMPIRE INTO EAST AND WEST + + +Throughout the third century the Roman Empire, decaying socially and +disintegrating morally, faced the barbarians. The emperors of this +period were fighting military autocrats, and the capital of the empire +shifted with the necessities of their military policy. Now the imperial +headquarters would be at Milan in north Italy, now in what is now +Serbia at Sirmium or Nish, now in Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Rome halfway +down Italy was too far from the centre of interest to be a convenient +imperial seat. It was a declining city. Over most of the empire peace +still prevailed and men went about without arms. The armies continued +to be the sole repositories of power; the emperors, dependent on their +legions, became more and more autocratic to the rest of the empire and +their state more and more like that of the Persian and other oriental +monarchs. Diocletian assumed a royal diadem and oriental robes. + +All along the imperial frontier, which ran roughly along the Rhine and +Danube, enemies were now pressing. The Franks and other German tribes +had come up to the Rhine. In north Hungary were the Vandals; in what +was once Dacia and is now Roumania, the Visigoths or West Goths. +Behind these in south Russia were the East Goths or Ostrogoths, and +beyond these again in the Volga region the Alans. But now Mongolian +peoples were forcing their way towards Europe. The Huns were already +exacting tribute from the Alans and Ostrogoths and pushing them to the +west. + +In Asia the Roman frontiers were crumpling back under the push of a +renascent Persia. This new Persia, the Persia of the Sassenid kings, +was to be a vigorous and on the whole a successful rival of the Roman +Empire in Asia for the next three centuries. + +A glance at the map of Europe will show the reader the peculiar +weakness of the empire. The river Danube comes down to within a couple +of hundred miles of the Adriatic Sea in the region of what is now +Bosnia and Serbia. It makes a square re-entrant angle there. The +Romans never kept their sea communications in good order, and this two +hundred mile strip of land was their line of communication between the +western Latin-speaking part of the empire and the eastern +Greek-speaking portion. Against this square angle of the Danube the +barbarian pressure was greatest. When they broke through there it was +inevitable that the empire should fall into two parts. + + +Map: The Empire and the Barbarians + +A more vigorous empire might have thrust forward and reconquered Dacia, +but the Roman Empire lacked any such vigour. Constantine the Great was +certainly a monarch of great devotion and intelligence. He beat back a +raid of the Goths from just these vital Balkan regions, but he had no +force to carry the frontier across the Danube. He was too pre-occupied +with the internal weaknesses of the empire. He brought the solidarity +and moral force of Christianity to revive the spirit of the declining +empire, and he decided to create a new permanent capital at Byzantium +upon the Hellespont. This new-made Byzantium, which was re-christened +Constantinople in his honour, was still building when he died. Towards +the end of his reign occurred a remarkable transaction. The Vandals, +being pressed by the Goths, asked to be received into the Roman Empire. + They were assigned lands in Pannonia, which is now that part of +Hungary west of the Danube, and their fighting men became nominally +legionaries. But these new legionaries remained under their own +chiefs. Rome failed to digest them. + +Constantine died working to reorganize his great realm, and soon the +frontiers were ruptured again and the Visigoths came almost to +Constantinople. They defeated the Emperor Valens at Adrianople and made +a settlement in what is now Bulgaria, similar to the settlement of the +Vandals in Pannonia. Nominally they were subjects of the emperor, +practically they were conquerors. + + +CONSTANTINE’S PILLAR, CONSTANTINOPLE +CONSTANTINE’S PILLAR, CONSTANTINOPLE + +_Photo: Sebah & Foaillier_ + + +From 379 to 395 A.D. reigned the Emperor Theodosius the Great, and +while he reigned the empire was still formally intact. Over the armies +of Italy and Pannonia presided Stilicho, a Vandal, over the armies in +the Balkan peninsula, Alaric, a Goth. When Theodosius died at the +close of the fourth century he left two sons. Alaric supported one of +these, Arcadius, in Constantinople, and Stilicho the other, Honorius, +in Italy. In other words Alaric and Stilicho fought for the empire +with the princes as puppets. In the course of their struggle Alaric +marched into Italy and after a short siege took Rome (410 A.D.). + +The opening half of the fifth century saw the whole of the Roman Empire +in Europe the prey of robber armies of barbarians. It is difficult to +visualize the state of affairs in the world at that time. Over France, +Spain, Italy and the Balkan peninsula, the great cities that had +flourished under the early empire still stood, impoverished, partly +depopulated and falling into decay. Life in them must have been +shallow, mean and full of uncertainty. Local officials asserted their +authority and went on with their work with such conscience as they had, +no doubt in the name of a now remote and inaccessible emperor. The +churches went on, but usually with illiterate priests. There was +little reading and much superstition and fear. But everywhere except +where looters had destroyed them, books and pictures and statuary and +such-like works of art were still to be found. + +The life of the countryside had also degenerated. Everywhere this +Roman world was much more weedy and untidy than it had been. In some +regions war and pestilence had brought the land down to the level of a +waste. Roads and forests were infested with robbers. Into such +regions the barbarians marched, with little or no opposition, and set +up their chiefs as rulers, often with Roman official titles. If they +were half civilized barbarians they would give the conquered districts +tolerable terms, they would take possession of the towns, associate and +intermarry, and acquire (with an accent) the Latin speech; but the +Jutes, the Angles and Saxons who submerged the Roman province of +Britain were agriculturalists and had no use for towns, they seem to +have swept south Britain clear of the Romanized population and they +replaced the language by their own Teutonic dialects, which became at +last English. + + +BASE OF THE “OBELISK OF THEODOSIUS,” CONSTANTINOPLE +BASE OF THE “OBELISK OF THEODOSIUS,” CONSTANTINOPLE + +The obelisk of Thothmes, taken from Egypt to Constantinople by +Theodosius and placed upon the pedestal her shown; an interesting +example of early Byzantine art. The complete obelisk is seen on page +239. + +_Photo: Sebah & Foaillier_ + + +It is impossible in the space at our disposal to trace the movements of +all the various German and Slavonic tribes as they went to and fro in +the disorganized empire in search of plunder and a pleasant home. But +let the Vandals serve as an example. They came into history in east +Germany. They settled as we have told in Pannonia. Thence they moved +somewhen about 425 A.D. through the intervening provinces to Spain. +There they found Visigoths from South Russia and other German tribes +setting up dukes and kings. From Spain the Vandals under Genseric +sailed for North Africa (429), captured Carthage (439), and built a +fleet. They secured the mastery of the sea and captured and pillaged +Rome (455), which had recovered very imperfectly from her capture and +looting by Alaric half a century earlier. Then the Vandals made +themselves masters of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and most of the other +islands of the western Mediterranean. They made, in fact, a sea empire +very similar in its extent to the sea empire of Carthage seven hundred +odd years before. They were at the climax of their power about 477. +They were a mere handful of conquerors holding all this country. In +the next century almost all their territory had been reconquered for +the empire of Constantinople during a transitory blaze of energy under +Justinian I. + +The story of the Vandals is but one sample of a host of similar +adventures. But now there was coming into the European world the least +kindred and most redoubtable of all these devastators, the Mongolian +Huns or Tartars, a yellow people active and able, such as the western +world had never before encountered. + + + + +XL +THE HUNS AND THE END OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE + + +This appearance of a conquering Mongolian people in Europe may be taken +to mark a new stage in human history. Until the last century or so +before the Christian era, the Mongol and the Nordic peoples had not +been in close touch. Far away in the frozen lands beyond the northern +forests the Lapps, a Mongolian people, had drifted westward as far as +Lapland, but they played no part in the main current of history. For +thousands of years the western world carried on the dramatic interplay +of the Aryan, Semitic and fundamental brunette peoples with very little +interference (except for an Ethiopian invasion of Egypt or so) either +from the black peoples to the south or from the Mongolian world in the +far East. + +It is probable that there were two chief causes for the new westward +drift of the nomadic Mongolians. One was the consolidation of the +great empire of China, its extension northward and the increase of its +population during the prosperous period of the Han dynasty. The other +was some process of climatic change; a lesser rainfall that abolished +swamps and forests perhaps, or a greater rainfall that extended grazing +over desert steppes, or even perhaps both these processes going on in +different regions but which anyhow facilitated a westward migration. A +third contributary cause was the economic wretchedness, internal decay +and falling population of the Roman Empire. The rich men of the later +Roman Republic, and then the tax-gatherers of the military emperors had +utterly consumed its vitality. So we have the factors of thrust, means +and opportunity. There was pressure from the east, rot in the west and +an open road. + +The Hun had reached the eastern boundaries of European Russia by the +first century A.D., but it was not until the fourth and fifth centuries +A.D. that these horsemen rose to predominance upon the steppes. The +fifth century was the Hun’s century. The first Huns to come into Italy +were mercenary bands in the pay of Stilicho the Vandal, the master of +Honorius. Presently they were in possession of Pannonia, the empty nest +of the Vandals. + +By the second quarter of the fifth century a great war chief had arisen +among the Huns, Attila. We have only vague and tantalizing glimpses of +his power. He ruled not only over the Huns but over a conglomerate of +tributary Germanic tribes; his empire extended from the Rhine cross the +plains into Central Asia. He exchanged ambassadors with China. His +head camp was in the plain of Hungary east of the Danube. There he was +visited by an envoy from Constantinople, Priscus, who has left us an +account of his state. The way of living of these Mongols was very like +the way of living of the primitive Aryans they had replaced. The +common folk were in huts and tents; the chiefs lived in great stockaded +timber halls. There were feasts and drinking and singing by the bards. + The Homeric heroes and even the Macedonian companions of Alexander +would probably have felt more at home in the camp-capital of Attila +than they would have done in the cultivated and decadent court of +Theodosius II, the son of Arcadius, who was then reigning in +Constantinople. + +For a time it seemed as though the nomads under the leadership of the +Huns and Attila would play the same part towards the Græco-Roman +civilization of the Mediterranean countries that the barbaric Greeks +had played long ago to the Ægean civilization. It looked like history +repeating itself upon a larger stage. But the Huns were much more +wedded to the nomadic life than the early Greeks, who were rather +migratory cattle farmers than true nomads. The Huns raided and +plundered but did not settle. + +For some years Attila bullied Theodosius as he chose. His armies +devastated and looted right down to the walls of Constantinople, Gibbon +says that he totally destroyed no less than seventy cities in the +Balkan peninsula, and Theodosius bought him off by payments of tribute +and tried to get rid of him for good by sending secret agents to +assassinate him. In 451 Attila turned his attention to the remains of +the Latin- speaking half of the empire and invaded Gaul. Nearly every +town in northern Gaul was sacked. Franks, Visigoths and the imperial +forces united against him and he was defeated at Troyes in a vast +dispersed battle in which a multitude of men, variously estimated as +between 150,000 and 300,000, were killed. This checked him in Gaul, but +it did not exhaust his enormous military resources. Next year he came +into Italy by way of Venetia, burnt Aquileia and Padua and looted +Milan. + + +HEAD OF BARBARIAN CHIEF +HEAD OF BARBARIAN CHIEF + +_(In the British Museum)_ + + +Numbers of fugitives from these north Italian towns and particularly +from Padua fled to islands in the lagoons at the head of the Adriatic +and laid there the foundations of the city state of Venice, which was +to become one of the greatest or the trading centres in the middle +ages. + +In 453 Attila died suddenly after a great feast to celebrate his +marriage to a young woman, and at his death this plunder confederation +of his fell to pieces. The actual Huns disappear from history, mixed +into the surrounding more numerous Aryan-speaking populations. But +these great Hun raids practically consummated the end of the Latin +Roman Empire. After his death ten different emperors ruled in Rome in +twenty years, set up by Vandal and other mercenary troops. The Vandals +from Carthage took and sacked Rome in 455. Finally in 476 Odoacer, the +chief of the barbarian troops, suppressed a Pannonian who was figuring +as emperor under the impressive name of Romulus Augustulus, and +informed the Court of Constantinople that there was no longer an +emperor in the west. So ingloriously the Latin Roman Empire came to an +end. In 493 Theodoric the Goth became King of Rome. + +All over western and central Europe now barbarian chiefs were reigning +as kings, dukes and the like, practically independent but for the most +part professing some sort of shadowy allegiance to the emperor. There +were hundreds and perhaps thousands of such practically independent +brigand rulers. In Gaul, Spain and Italy and in Dacia the Latin speech +still prevailed in locally distorted forms, but in Britain and east of +the Rhine languages of the German group (or in Bohemia a Slavonic +language, Czech) were the common speech. The superior clergy and a +small remnant of other educated men read and wrote Latin. Everywhere +life was insecure and property was held by the strong arm. Castles +multiplied and roads fell into decay. The dawn of the sixth century +was an age of division and of intellectual darkness throughout the +western world. Had it not been for the monks and Christian +missionaries Latin learning might have perished altogether. + +Why had the Roman Empire grown and why had it so completely decayed? +It grew because at first the idea of citizenship held it together. +Throughout the days of the expanding republic, and even into the days +of the early empire there remained a great number of men conscious of +Roman citizenship, feeling it a privilege and an obligation to be a +Roman citizen, confident of their rights under the Roman law and +willing to make sacrifices in the name of Rome. The prestige of Rome +as of something just and great and law- upholding spread far beyond the +Roman boundaries. But even as early as the Punic wars the sense of +citizenship was being undermined by the growth of wealth and slavery. +Citizenship spread indeed but not the idea of citizenship. + +The Roman Empire was after all a very primitive organization; it did +not educate, did not explain itself to its increasing multitudes of +citizens, did not invite their co-operation in its decisions. There +was no network of schools to ensure a common understanding, no +distribution of news to sustain collective activity. The adventurers +who struggled for power from the days of Marius and Sulla onward had no +idea of creating and calling in public opinion upon the imperial +affairs. The spirit of citizenship died of starvation and no one +observed it die. All empires, all states, all organizations of human +society are, in the ultimate, things of understanding and will. There +remained no will for the Roman Empire in the World and so it came to an +end. + +But though the Latin-speaking Roman Empire died in the fifth century, +something else had been born within it that was to avail itself +enormously of its prestige and tradition, and that was the +Latin-speaking half of the Catholic Church. This lived while the empire +died because it appealed to the minds and wills of men, because it had +books and a great system of teachers and missionaries to hold it +together, things stronger than any law or legions. Throughout the +fourth and fifth centuries A.D. while the empire was decaying, +Christianity was spreading to a universal dominion in Europe. It +conquered its conquerors, the barbarians. When Attila seemed disposed +to march on Rome, the patriarch of Rome intercepted him and did what no +armies could do, turning him back by sheer moral force. + +The Patriarch or Pope of Rome claimed to be the head of the entire +Christian church. Now that there were no more emperors, he began to +annex imperial titles and claims. He took the title of _pontifex +maximus_, head sacrificial priest of the Roman dominion, the most +ancient of all the titles that the emperors had enjoyed. + + + + +XLI +THE BYZANTINE AND SASSANID EMPIRES + + +The Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire showed much more +political tenacity than the western half. It weathered the disasters of +the fifth century A.D., which saw a complete and final breaking up of +the original Latin Roman power. Attila bullied the Emperor Theodosius +II and sacked and raided almost to the walls of Constantinople, but +that city remained intact. The Nubians came down the Nile and looted +Upper Egypt, but Lower Egypt and Alexandria were left still fairly +prosperous. Most of Asia Minor was held against the Sassanid Persians. + +The sixth century, which was an age of complete darkness for the West, +saw indeed a considerable revival of the Greek power. Justinian I +(527-565) was a ruler of very great ambition and energy, and he was +married to the Empress Theodora, a woman of quite equal capacity who +had begun life as an actress. Justinian reconquered North Africa from +the Vandals and most of Italy from the Goths. He even regained the +south of Spain. He did not limit his energies to naval and military +enterprises. He founded a university, built the great church of Sta. +Sophia in Constantinople and codified the Roman law. But in order to +destroy a rival to his university foundation he closed the schools of +philosophy in Athens, which had been going on in unbroken continuity +from the days of Plato, that is to say for nearly a thousand years. + +From the third century onwards the Persian Empire had been the +steadfast rival of the Byzantine. The two empires kept Asia Minor, +Syria and Egypt in a state of perpetual unrest and waste. In the first +century A.D., these lands were still at a high level of civilization, +wealthy and with an abundant population, but the continual coming and +going of armies, massacres, looting and war taxation wore them down +steadily until only shattered and ruinous cities remained upon a +countryside of scattered peasants. In this melancholy process of +impoverishment and disorder lower Egypt fared perhaps less badly than +the rest of the world. Alexandria, like Constantinople, continued a +dwindling trade between the east and the west. + + +THE CHURCH (NOW A MOSQUE) OF S. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE +THE CHURCH (NOW A MOSQUE) OF S. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE + +The obelisk of Theodosius in in the foreground statue on left + +_Photo: Sebah & Foaillier_ + + +Science and political philosophy seemed dead now in both these warring +and decaying empires. The last philosophers of Athens, until their +suppression, preserved the texts of the great literature of the past +with an infinite reverence and want of understanding. But there +remained no class of men in the world, no free gentlemen with bold and +independent habits of thought, to carry on the tradition of frank +statement and enquiry embodied in these writings. The social and +political chaos accounts largely for the disappearance of this class, +but there was also another reason why the human intelligence was +sterile and feverish during this age. In both Persia and Byzantium it +was all age of intolerance. Both empires were religious empires in a +new way, in a way that greatly hampered the free activities of the +human mind. + + +THE MAGNIFICENT ROOF-WORK IN S. SOPHIA +THE MAGNIFICENT ROOF-WORK IN S. SOPHIA + +_Photo: Sebah & Foaillier_ + + +Of course the oldest empires in the world were religious empires, +centring upon the worship of a god or of a god-king. Alexander was +treated as a divinity and the Cæsars were gods in so much as they had +altars and temples devoted to them and the offering of incense was made +a test of loyalty to the Roman state. But these older religions were +essentially religions of act and fact. They did not invade the mind. +If a man offered his sacrifice and bowed to the god, he was left not +only to think but to say practically whatever he liked about the +affair. But the new sort of religions that had come into the world, +and particularly Christianity, turned inward. These new faiths +demanded not simply conformity but understanding belief. Naturally +fierce controversy ensued upon the exact meaning of the things +believed. These new religions were creed religions. The world was +confronted with a new word, Orthodoxy, and with a stern resolve to keep +not only acts but speech and private thought within the limits of a set +teaching. For to hold a wrong opinion, much more to convey it to other +people, was no longer regarded as an intellectual defect but a moral +fault that might condemn a soul to everlasting destruction. + + +THE RAVENNA PANEL, DEPICTING JUSTINIAN AND HIS COURT +THE RAVENNA PANEL, DEPICTING JUSTINIAN AND HIS COURT + +_Photo: Alinari_ + +THE ROCK HEWN TEMPLE AT PETRA +THE ROCK HEWN TEMPLE AT PETRA + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + +Both Ardashir I who founded the Sassanid dynasty in the third century +A.D., and Constantine the Great who reconstructed the Roman Empire in +the fourth, turned to religious organizations for help, because in +these organizations they saw a new means of using and controlling the +wills of men. And already before the end of the fourth century both +empires were persecuting free talk and religious innovation. In Persia +Ardashir found the ancient Persian religion of Zoroaster (or +Zarathushtra) with its priests and temples and a sacred fire that burnt +upon its altars, ready for his purpose as a state religion. Before the +end of the third century Zoroastrianism was persecuting Christianity, +and in 277 A.D. Mani, the founder of a new faith, the Manichæans, was +crucified and his body flayed. Constantinople, on its side, was busy +hunting out Christian heresies. Manichæan ideas infected Christianity +and had to be fought with the fiercest methods; in return ideas from +Christianity affected the purity of the Zoroastrian doctrine. All ideas +became suspect. Science, which demands before all things the free +action of an untroubled mind, suffered a complete eclipse throughout +this phase of intolerance. + +War, the bitterest theology, and the usual vices of mankind constituted +Byzantine life of those days. It was picturesque, it was romantic; it +had little sweetness or light. When Byzantium and Persia were not +fighting the barbarians from the north, they wasted Asia Minor and +Syria in dreary and destructive hostilities. Even in close alliance +these two empires would have found it a hard task to turn back the +barbarians and recover their prosperity. The Turks or Tartars first +come into history as the allies first of one power and then of another. + In the sixth century the two chief antagonists were Justinian and +Chosroes I; in the opening of the seventh the Emperor Heraclius was +pitted against Chosroes II (580). + +At first and until after Heraclius had become Emperor (610) Chosroes II +carried all before him. He took Antioch, Damascus and Jerusalem and +his armies reached Chalcedon, which is in Asia Minor over against +Constantinople. In 619 he conquered Egypt. Then Heraclius pressed a +counter attack home and routed a Persian army at Nineveh (627), +although at that time there were still Persian troops at Chalcedon. In +628 Chosroes II was deposed and murdered by his son, Kavadh, and an +inconclusive peace was made between the two exhausted empires. + +Byzantium and Persia had fought their last war. But few people as yet +dreamt of the storm that was even then gathering in the deserts to put +an end for ever to this aimless, chronic struggle. + +While Heraclius was restoring order in Syria a message reached him. It +had been brought in to the imperial outpost at Bostra south of +Damascus; it was in Arabic, an obscure Semitic desert language, and it +was read to the Emperor, if it reached him at all, by an interpreter. +It was from someone who called himself “Muhammad the Prophet of God.” +It called upon the Emperor to acknowledge the One True God and to serve +him. What the Emperor said is not recorded. + +A similar message came to Kavadh at Ctesiphon. He was annoyed, tore up +the letter, and bade the messenger begone. + +This Muhammad, it appeared, was a Bedouin leader whose headquarters +were in the mean little desert town of Medina. He was preaching a new +religion of faith in the One True God. + +“Even so, O Lord!” he said; “rend thou his Kingdom from Kavadh.” + + + + +XLII +THE DYNASTIES OF SUY AND TANG IN CHINA + + +Throughout the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, there was a +steady drift of Mongolian peoples westward. The Huns of Attila were +merely precursors of this advance, which led at last to the +establishment of Mongolian peoples in Finland, Esthonia, Hungary and +Bulgaria, where their descendants, speaking languages akin to Turkish, +survive to this day. The Mongolian nomads were, in fact, playing a role +towards the Aryanized civilizations of Europe and Persia and India that +the Aryans had played to the Ægean and Semitic civilizations ten or +fifteen centuries before. + +In Central Asia the Turkish peoples had taken root in what is now +Western Turkestan, and Persia already employed many Turkish officials +and Turkish mercenaries. The Parthians had gone out of history, +absorbed into the general population of Persia. There were no more +Aryan nomads in the history of Central Asia; Mongolian people had +replaced them. The Turks became masters of Asia from China to the +Caspian. + +The same great pestilence at the end of the second century A.D. that +had shattered the Roman Empire had overthrown the Han dynasty in China. + Then came a period of division and of Hunnish conquests from which +China arose refreshed, more rapidly and more completely than Europe was +destined to do. Before the end of the sixth century China was reunited +under the Suy dynasty, and this by the time of Heraclius gave place to +the Tang dynasty, whose reign marks another great period of prosperity +for China. + + +CHINESE EARTHENWARE ART OF THE TANG DYNASTY, 616-906 +CHINESE EARTHENWARE ART OF THE TANG DYNASTY, 616-906 + +Specimens in glazed earthenware, in brown, green and buff, discovered +in tombs in China + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +Throughout the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries China was the most +secure and civilized country in the world. The Han dynasty had +extended her boundaries in the north; the Suy and Tang dynasties now +spread her civilization to the south, and China began to assume the +proportions she has to-day. In Central Asia indeed she reached much +further, extending at last, through tributary Turkish tribes, to Persia +and the Caspian Sea. + +The new China that had arisen was a very different land from the old +China of the Hans. A new and more vigorous literary school appeared, +there was a great poetic revival; Buddhism had revolutionized +philosophical and religious thought. There were great advances in +artistic work, in technical skill and in all the amenities of life. +Tea was first used, paper manufactured and wood-block printing began. +Millions of people indeed were leading orderly, graceful and kindly +lives in China during these centuries when the attenuated populations +of Europe and Western Asia were living either in hovels, small walled +cities or grim robber fortresses. While the mind of the west was black +with theological obsessions, the mind of China was open and tolerant +and enquiring. + +One of the earliest monarchs of the Tang dynasty was Tai- tsung, who +began to reign in 627, the year of the victory of Heraclius at Nineveh. + He received an embassy from Heraclius, who was probably seeking an +ally in the rear of Persia. From Persia itself came a party of +Christian missionaries (635). They were allowed to explain their creed +to Tai-tsung and he examined a Chinese translation of their Scriptures. + He pronounced this strange religion acceptable, and gave permission +for the foundation of a church and monastery. + +To this monarch also (in 628) came messengers from Muhammad. They came +to Canton on a trading ship. They had sailed the whole way from Arabia +along the Indian coasts. Unlike Heraclius and Kavadh, Tai-Tsung gave +these envoys a courteous hearing. He expressed his interest in their +theological ideas and assisted them to build a mosque in Canton, a +mosque which survives, it is said, to this day, the oldest mosque in +the world. + + + + +XLIII +MUHAMMAD AND ISLAM + + +A prophetic amateur of history surveying the world in the opening of +the seventh century might have concluded very reasonably that it was +only a question of a few centuries before the whole of Europe and Asia +fell under Mongolian domination. There were no signs of order or union +in Western Europe, and the Byzantine and Persian Empires were +manifestly bent upon a mutual destruction. India also was divided and +wasted. On the other hand China was a steadily expanding empire which +probably at that time exceeded all Europe in population, and the +Turkish people who were growing to power in Central Asia were disposed +to work in accord with China. And such a prophecy would not have been +an altogether vain one. A time was to come in the thirteenth century +when a Mongolian overlord would rule from the Danube to the Pacific, +and Turkish dynasties were destined to reign over the entire Byzantine +and Persian Empires, over Egypt and most of India. + +Where our prophet would have been most likely to have erred would have +been in under-estimating the recuperative power of the Latin end of +Europe and in ignoring the latent forces of the Arabian desert. Arabia +would have seemed what it had been for times immemorial, the refuge of +small and bickering nomadic tribes. No Semitic people had founded an +empire now for more than a thousand years. + +Then suddenly the Bedouin flared out for a brief century of splendour. +They spread their rule and language from Spain to the boundaries of +China. They gave the world a new culture. They created a religion that +is still to this day one of the most vital forces in the world. + +The man who fired this Arab flame appears first in history as the young +husband of the widow of a rich merchant of the town of Mecca, named +Muhammad. Until he was forty he did very little to distinguish himself +in the world. He seems to have taken considerable interest in +religious discussion. Mecca was a pagan city at that time worshipping +in particular a black stone, the Kaaba, of great repute throughout all +Arabia and a centre of pilgrimages; but there were great numbers of +Jews in the country—indeed all the southern portion of Arabia professed +the Jewish faith—and there were Christian churches in Syria. + +About forty Muhammad began to develop prophetic characteristics like +those of the Hebrew prophets twelve hundred years before him. He +talked first to his wife of the One True God, and of the rewards and +punishments of virtue and wickedness. There can be no doubt that his +thoughts were very strongly influenced by Jewish and Christian ideas. +He gathered about him a small circle of believers and presently began +to preach in the town against the prevalent idolatry. This made him +extremely unpopular with his fellow townsmen because the pilgrimages to +the Kaaba were the chief source of such prosperity as Mecca enjoyed. +He became bolder and more definite in his teaching, declaring himself +to be the last chosen prophet of God entrusted with a mission to +perfect religion. Abraham, he declared, and Jesus Christ were his +forerunners. He had been chosen to complete and perfect the revelation +of God’s will. + +He produced verses which he said had been communicated to him by an +angel, and he had a strange vision in which he was taken up through the +Heavens to God and instructed in his mission. + + +AT PRAYER IN THE DESERT +AT PRAYER IN THE DESERT + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +As his teaching increased in force the hostility of his fellow townsmen +increased also. At last a plot was made to kill him; but he escaped +with his faithful friend and disciple, Abu Bekr, to the friendly town +of Medina which adopted his doctrine. Hostilities followed between +Mecca and Medina which ended at last in a treaty. Mecca was to adopt +the worship of the One True God and accept Muhammad as his prophet, +_but the adherents of the new faith were still to make the pilgrimage +to Mecca_ just as they had done when they were pagans. So Muhammad +established the One True God in Mecca without injuring its pilgrim +traffic. In 629 Muhammad returned to Mecca as its master, a year after +he had sent out these envoys of his to Heraclius, Tai-tsung, Kavadh and +all the rulers of the earth. + + +LOOKING ACROSS THE SEA OF SAND +LOOKING ACROSS THE SEA OF SAND + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +Then for four years more until his death in 632, Muhammad spread his +power over the rest of Arabia. He married a number of wives in his +declining years, and his life on the whole was by modern standards +unedifying. He seems to have been a man compounded of very +considerable vanity, greed, cunning, self-deception and quite sincere +religious passion. He dictated a book of injunctions and expositions, +the Koran, which he declared was communicated to him from God. +Regarded as literature or philosophy the Koran is certainly unworthy of +its alleged Divine authorship. + +Yet when the manifest defects of Muhammad’s life and writings have been +allowed for, there remains in Islam, this faith he imposed upon the +Arabs, much power and inspiration. One is its uncompromising +monotheism; its simple enthusiastic faith in the rule and fatherhood of +God and its freedom from theological complications. Another is its +complete detachment from the sacrificial priest and the temple. It is +an entirely prophetic religion, proof against any possibility of +relapse towards blood sacrifices. In the Koran the limited and +ceremonial nature of the pilgrimage to Mecca is stated beyond the +possibility of dispute, and every precaution was taken by Muhammad to +prevent the deification of himself after his death. And a third +element of strength lay in the insistence of Islam upon the perfect +brotherhood and equality before God of all believers, whatever their +colour, origin or status. + +These are the things that made Islam a power in human affairs. It has +been said that the true founder of the Empire of Islam was not so much +Muhammad as his friend and helper, Abu Bekr. If Muhammad, with his +shifty character, was the mind and imagination of primitive Islam, Abu +Bekr was its conscience and its will. Whenever Muhammad wavered Abu +Bekr sustained him. And when Muhammad died, Abu Bekr became Caliph (= +successor), and with that faith that moves mountains, he set himself +simply and sanely to organize the subjugation of the whole world to +Allah—with little armies of 3,000 or 4,000 Arabs—according to those +letters the prophet had written from Medina in 628 to all the monarchs +of the world. + + + + +XLIV +THE GREAT DAYS OF THE ARABS + + +There follows the most amazing story of conquest in the whole history +of our race. The Byzantine army was smashed at the battle of the Yarmuk +(a tributary of the Jordan) in 634; and the Emperor Heraclius, his +energy sapped by dropsy and his resources exhausted by the Persian war, +saw his new conquests in Syria, Damascus, Palmyra, Antioch, Jerusalem +and the rest fall almost without resistance to the Moslim. Large +elements in the population went over to Islam. Then the Moslim turned +east. The Persians had found an able general in Rustam; they had a +great host with a force of elephants; and for three days they fought +the Arabs at Kadessia (637) and broke at last in headlong rout. + +The conquest of all Persia followed, and the Moslem Empire pushed far +into Western Turkestan and eastward until it met the Chinese. Egypt +fell almost without resistance to the new conquerors, who full of a +fanatical belief in the sufficiency of the Koran, wiped out the +vestiges of the book-copying industry of the Alexandria Library. The +tide of conquest poured along the north coast of Africa to the Straits +of Gibraltar and Spain. Spain was invaded in 710 and the Pyrenees +Mountains were reached in 720. In 732 the Arab advance had reached the +centre of France, but here it was stopped for good at the battle of +Poitiers and thrust back as far as the Pyrenees again. The conquest of +Egypt had given the Moslim a fleet, and for a time it looked as though +they would take Constantinople. They made repeated sea attacks between +672 and 718 but the great city held out against them. + + +Map: The Growth of the Moslem Power in 25 Years + + +Map: The Moslem Empire, 750 A.D. + +The Arabs had little political aptitude and no political experience, +and this great empire with its capital now at Damascus, which stretched +from Spain to China, was destined to break up very speedily. From the +very beginning doctrinal differences undermined its unity. But our +interest here lies not with the story of its political disintegration +but with its effect upon the human mind and upon the general destinies +of our race. The Arab intelligence had been flung across the world +even more swiftly and dramatically than had the Greek a thousand years +before. The intellectual stimulation of the whole world west of China, +the break-up of old ideas and development of new ones, was enormous. + +In Persia this fresh excited Arabic mind came into contact not only +with Manichæan, Zoroastrian and Christian doctrine, but with the +scientific Greek literature, preserved not only in Greek but in Syrian +translations. It found Greek learning in Egypt also. Every-where, and +particularly in Spain, it discovered an active Jewish tradition of +speculation and discussion. In Central Asia it met Buddhism and the +material achievements of Chinese civilization. It learnt the +manufacture of paper—which made printed books possible—from the +Chinese. And finally it came into touch with Indian mathematics and +philosophy. + + +JERUSALEM, SHOWING THE MOSQUE OF OMAR +JERUSALEM, SHOWING THE MOSQUE OF OMAR + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +Very speedily the intolerant self-sufficiency of the early days of +faith, which made the Koran seem the only possible book, was dropped. +Learning sprang up everywhere in the footsteps of the Arab conquerors. +By the eighth century there was an educational organization throughout +the whole “Arabized” world. In the ninth learned men in the schools of +Cordoba in Spain were corresponding with learned men in Cairo, Bagdad, +Bokhara and Samarkand. The Jewish mind assimilated very readily with +the Arab, and for a time the two Semitic races worked together through +the medium of Arabic. Long after the political break-up and +enfeeblement of the Arabs, this intellectual community of the +Arab-speaking world endured. It was still producing very considerable +results in the thirteenth century. + + +VIEW OF CAIRO MOSQUES +VIEW OF CAIRO MOSQUES + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +So it was that the systematic accumulation and criticism of facts which +was first begun by the Greeks was resumed in this astonishing +renascence of the Semitic world. The seed of Aristotle and the museum +of Alexandria that had lain so long inactive and neglected now +germinated and began to grow towards fruition. Very great advances +were made in mathematical, medical and physical science. The clumsy +Roman numerals were ousted by the Arabic figures we use to this day and +the zero sign was first employed. The very name algebra is Arabic. So +is the word chemistry. The names of such stars as Algol, Aldebaran and +Boötes preserve the traces of Arab conquests in the sky. Their +philosophy was destined to reanimate the medieval philosophy of France +and Italy and the whole Christian world. + +The Arab experimental chemists were called alchemists, and they were +still sufficiently barbaric in spirit to keep their methods and results +secret as far as possible. They realized from the very beginning what +enormous advantages their possible discoveries might give them, and +what far-reaching consequences they might have on human life. They +came upon many metallurgical and technical devices of the utmost value, +alloys and dyes, distilling, tinctures and essences, optical glass; but +the two chief ends they sought, they sought in vain. One was “the +philosopher’s stone”—a means of changing the metallic elements one into +another and so getting a control of artificial gold, and the other was +the _elixir vitœ_, a stimulant that would revivify age and prolong life +indefinitely. The crabbed patient experimenting of these Arab +alchemists spread into the Christian world. The fascination of their +enquiries spread. Very gradually the activities of these alchemists +became more social and co-operative. They found it profitable to +exchange and compare ideas. By insensible gradations the last of the +alchemists became the first of the experimental philosophers. + +The old alchemists sought the philosopher’s stone which was to +transmute base metals to gold, and an elixir of immortality; they found +the methods of modern experimental science which promise in the end to +give man illimitable power over the world and over his own destiny. + + + + +XLV +THE DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN CHRISTENDOM + + +It is worth while to note the extremely shrunken dimensions of the +share of the world remaining under Aryan control in the seventh and +eighth centuries. A thousand years before, the Aryan-speaking races +were triumphant over all the civilized world west of China. Now the +Mongol had thrust as far as Hungary, nothing of Asia remained under +Aryan rule except the Byzantine dominions in Asia Minor, and all Africa +was lost and nearly all Spain. The great Hellenic world had shrunken to +a few possessions round the nucleus of the trading city of +Constantinople, and the memory of the Roman world was kept alive by the +Latin of the western Christian priests. In vivid contrast to this tale +of retrogression, the Semitic tradition had risen again from +subjugation and obscurity after a thousand years of darkness. + +Yet the vitality of the Nordic peoples was not exhausted. Confined now +to Central and North-Western Europe and terribly muddled in their +social and political ideas, they were nevertheless building up +gradually and steadily a new social order and preparing unconsciously +for the recovery of a power even more extensive than that they had +previously enjoyed. + +We have told how at the beginning of the sixth century there remained +no central government in Western Europe at all. That world was divided +up among numbers of local rulers holding their own as they could. This +was too insecure a state of affairs to last; a system of co-operation +and association grew up in this disorder, the feudal system, which has +left its traces upon European life up to the present time. This feudal +system was a sort of crystallization of society about power. +Everywhere the lone man felt insecure and was prepared to barter a +certain amount of his liberty for help and protection. He sought a +stronger man as his lord and protector; he gave him military services +and paid him dues, and in return he was confirmed in his possession of +what was his. His lord again found safety in vassalage to a still +greater lord. Cities also found it convenient to have feudal +protectors, and monasteries and church estates bound themselves by +similar ties. No doubt in many cases allegiance was claimed before it +was offered; the system grew downward as well as upward. So a sort of +pyramidal system grew up, varying widely in different localities, +permitting at first a considerable play of violence and private warfare +but making steadily for order and a new reign of law. The pyramids +grew up until some became recognizable as kingdoms. Already by the +early sixth century a Frankish kingdom existed under its founder Clovis +in what is now France and the Netherlands, and presently Visigothic and +Lombard and Gothic kingdoms were in existence. + +The Moslim when they crossed the Pyrenees in 720 found this Frankish +kingdom under the practical rule of Charles Martel, the Mayor of the +Palace of a degenerate descendant of Clovis, and experienced the +decisive defeat of Poitiers (732) at his hands. This Charles Martel +was practically overlord of Europe north of the Alps from the Pyrenees +to Hungary. He ruled over a multitude of subordinate lords speaking +French- Latin, and High and Low German languages. His son Pepin +extinguished the last descendants of Clovis and took the kingly state +and title. His grandson Charlemagne, who began to reign in 768, found +himself lord of a realm so large that he could think of reviving the +title of Latin Emperor. He conquered North Italy and made himself +master of Rome. + + +Map: Area more or less under Frankish dominion in the time of Charles +Martel + +Approaching the story of Europe as we do from the wider horizons of a +world history we can see much more distinctly than the mere nationalist +historian how cramping and disastrous this tradition of the Latin Roman +Empire was. A narrow intense struggle for this phantom predominance +was to consume European energy for more than a thousand years. Through +all that period it is possible to trace certain unquenchable +antagonisms; they run through the wits of Europe like the obsessions of +a demented mind. One driving force was this ambition of successful +rulers, which Charlemagne (Charles the Great) embodied, to become +Cæsar. The realm of Charlemagne consisted of a complex of feudal +German states at various stages of barbarism. West of the Rhine, most +of these German peoples had learnt to speak various Latinized dialects +which fused at last to form French. East of the Rhine, the racially +similar German peoples did not lose their German speech. On account of +this, communication was difficult between these two groups of barbarian +conquerors and a split easily brought about. The split was made the +more easy by the fact that the Frankish usage made it seem natural to +divide the empire of Charlemagne among his sons at his death. So one +aspect of the history of Europe from the days of Charlemagne onwards is +a history of first this monarch and his family and then that, +struggling to a precarious headship of the kings, princes, dukes, +bishops and cities of Europe, while a steadily deepening antagonism +between the French and German speaking elements develops in the medley. + There was a formality of election for each emperor; and the climax of +his ambition was to struggle to the possession of that worn-out, +misplaced capital Rome and to a coronation there. + +The next factor in the European political disorder was the resolve of +the Church at Rome to make no temporal prince but the Pope of Rome +himself emperor in effect. He was already pontifex maximus; for all +practical purposes he held the decaying city; if he had no armies he +had at least a vast propaganda organization in his priests throughout +the whole Latin world; if he had little power over men’s bodies he held +the keys of heaven and hell in their imaginations and could exercise +much influence upon their souls. So throughout the middle ages while +one prince manœuvred against another first for equality, then for +ascendancy, and at last for the supreme prize, the Pope of Rome, +sometimes boldly, sometimes craftily, sometimes feebly—for the Popes +were a succession of oldish men and the average reign of a Pope was not +more than two years—manœuvred for the submission of all the princes to +himself as the ultimate overlord of Christendom. + +But these antagonisms of prince against prince and of Emperor against +Pope do not by any means exhaust the factors of the European confusion. + There was still an Emperor in Constantinople speaking Greek and +claiming the allegiance of all Europe. When Charlemagne sought to +revive the empire, it was merely the Latin end of the empire he +revived. It was natural that a sense of rivalry between Latin Empire +and Greek Empire should develop very readily. And still more readily +did the rivalry of Greek-speaking Christianity and the newer +Latin-speaking version develop. The Pope of Rome claimed to be the +successor of St. Peter, the chief of the apostles of Christ, and the +head of the Christian community everywhere. Neither the emperor nor +the patriarch in Constantinople were disposed to acknowledge this +claim. A dispute about a fine point in the doctrine of the Holy +Trinity consummated a long series of dissensions in a final rupture in +1054. The Latin Church and the Greek Church became and remained +thereafter distinct and frankly antagonistic. This antagonism must be +added to the others in our estimate of the conflicts that wasted Latin +Christendom in the middle ages. + + +STATUE OF CHARLEMAGNE IN FRONT OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS +STATUE OF CHARLEMAGNE IN FRONT OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS +The figure is entirely imaginary and romantic. There is no +contemporary portrait of Charlemagne + +_Photo: Rischgitz_ + + +Upon this divided world of Christendom rained the blows of three sets +of antagonists. About the Baltic and North Seas remained a series of +Nordic tribes who were only very slowly and reluctantly Christianized; +these were the Northmen. They had taken to the sea and piracy, and +were raiding all the Christian coasts down to Spain. They had pushed +up the Russian rivers to the desolate central lands and brought their +shipping over into the south-flowing rivers. They had come out upon +the Caspian and Black Seas as pirates also. They set up principalities +in Russia; they were the first people to be called Russians. These +Northmen Russians came near to taking Constantinople. England in the +early ninth century was a Christianized Low German country under a +king, Egbert, a protégé and pupil of Charlemagne. The Northmen wrested +half the kingdom from his successor Alfred the Great (886), and finally +under Canute (1016) made themselves masters of the whole land. Under +Rolph the Ganger (912) another band of Northmen conquered the north of +France, which became Normandy. + +Canute ruled not only over England but over Norway and Denmark, but his +brief empire fell to pieces at his death through that political +weakness of the barbaric peoples—division among a ruler’s sons. It is +interesting to speculate what might have happened if this temporary +union of the Northmen had endured. They were a race of astonishing +boldness and energy. They sailed in their galleys even to Iceland and +Greenland. They were the first Europeans to land on American soil. +Later on Norman adventurers were to recover Sicily from the Saracens +and sack Rome. It is a fascinating thing to imagine what a great +northern sea-faring power might have grown out of Canute’s kingdom, +reaching from America to Russia. + +To the east of the Germans and Latinized Europeans was a medley of Slav +tribes and Turkish peoples. Prominent among these were the Magyars or +Hungarians who were coming westward throughout the eighth and ninth +centuries. Charlemagne held them for a time, but after his death they +established themselves in what is now Hungary; and after the fashion of +their kindred predecessors, the Huns, raided every summer into the +settled parts of Europe. In 938 they went through Germany into France, +crossed the Alps into North Italy, and so came home, burning, robbing +and destroying. + +Finally pounding away from the south at the vestiges of the Roman +Empire were the Saracens. They had made themselves largely masters of +the sea; their only formidable adversaries upon the water were the +Northmen, the Russian Northmen out of the Black Sea and the Northmen of +the west. + + +Map: Europe at the death of Charlemagne—814 + +Hemmed in by these more vigorous and aggressive peoples, amidst forces +they did not understand and dangers they could not estimate, +Charlemagne and after him a series of other ambitious spirits took up +the futile drama of restoring the Western Empire under the name of the +Holy Roman Empire. From the time of Charlemagne onward this idea +obsessed the political life of Western Europe, while in the East the +Greek half of the Roman power decayed and dwindled until at last +nothing remained of it at all but the corrupt trading city of +Constantinople and a few miles of territory about it. Politically the +continent of Europe remained traditional and uncreative from the time +of Charlemagne onward for a thousand years. + +The name of Charlemagne looms large in European history but his +personality is but indistinctly seen. He could not read nor write, but +he had a considerable respect for learning; he liked to be read aloud +to at meals and he had a weakness for theological discussion. At his +winter quarters at Aix-la- Chapelle or Mayence he gathered about him a +number of learned men and picked up much from their conversation. In +the summer he made war, against the Spanish Saracens, against the Slavs +and Magyars, against the Saxons, and other still heathen German tribes. + It is doubtful whether the idea of becoming Cæsar in succession to +Romulus Augustulus occurred to him before his acquisition of North +Italy, or whether it was suggested to him by Pope Leo III, who was +anxious to make the Latin Church independent of Constantinople. + +There were the most extraordinary manœuvres at Rome between the Pope +and the prospective emperor in order to make it appear or not appear as +if the Pope gave him the imperial crown. The Pope succeeded in +crowning his visitor and conqueror by surprise in St. Peter’s on +Christmas Day 800 A.D. He produced a crown, put it on the head of +Charlemagne and hailed him Cæsar and Augustus. There was great +applause among the people. Charlemagne was by no means pleased at the +way in which the thing was done, it rankled in his mind as a defeat; +and he left the most careful instructions to his son that he was not to +let the Pope crown him emperor; he was to seize the crown into his own +hands and put it on his own head himself. So at the very outset of +this imperial revival we see beginning the age-long dispute of Pope and +Emperor for priority. But Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, +disregarded his father’s instructions and was entirely submissive to +the Pope. + +The empire of Charlemagne fell apart at the death of Louis the Pious +and the split between the French-speaking Franks and the +German-speaking Franks widened. The next emperor to arise was Otto, +the son of a certain Henry the Fowler, a Saxon, who had been elected +King of Germany by an assembly of German princes and prelates in 919. +Otto descended upon Rome and was crowned emperor there in 962. This +Saxon line came to an end early in the eleventh century and gave place +to other German rulers. The feudal princes and nobles to the west who +spoke various French dialects did not fall under the sway of these +German emperors after the Carlovingian line, the line that is descended +from Charlemagne, had come to an end, and no part of Britain ever came +into the Holy Roman Empire. The Duke of Normandy, the King of France +and a number of lesser feudal rulers remained outside. In 987 the +Kingdom of France passed out of the possession of the Carlovingian line +into the hands of Hugh Capet, whose descendants were still reigning in +the eighteenth century. At the time of Hugh Capet the King of France +ruled only a comparatively small territory round Paris. + +In 1066 England was attacked almost simultaneously by an invasion of +the Norwegian Northmen under King Harold Hardrada and by the Latinized +Northmen under the Duke of Normandy. Harold King of England defeated +the former at the battle of Stamford Bridge, and was defeated by the +latter at Hastings. England was conquered by the Normans, and so cut +off from Scandinavian, Teutonic and Russian affairs, and brought into +the most intimate relations and conflicts with the French. For the next +four centuries the English were entangled in the conflicts of the +French feudal princes and wasted upon the fields of France. + + + + +XLVI +THE CRUSADES AND THE AGE OF PAPAL DOMINION + + +It is interesting to note that Charlemagne corresponded with the Caliph +Haroun-al-Raschid, the Haroun-al-Raschid of the _Arabian Nights_. It is +recorded that Haroun-al-Raschid sent ambassadors from Bagdad—which had +now replaced Damascus as the Moslem capital—with a splendid tent, a +water clock, an elephant and the keys of the Holy Sepulchre. This +latter present was admirably calculated to set the Byzantine Empire and +this new Holy Roman Empire by the ears as to which was the proper +protector of the Christians in Jerusalem. + +These presents remind us that while Europe in the ninth century was +still a weltering disorder of war and pillage, there flourished a great +Arab Empire in Egypt and Mesopotamia, far more civilized than anything +Europe could show. Here literature and science still lived; the arts +flourished, and the mind of man could move without fear or +superstition. And even in Spain and North Africa where the Saracenic +dominions were falling into political confusion there was a vigorous +intellectual life. Aristotle was read and discussed by these Jews and +Arabs during these centuries of European darkness. They guarded the +neglected seeds of science and philosophy. + +North-east of the Caliph’s dominions was a number of Turkish tribes. +They had been converted to Islam, and they held the faith much more +simply and fiercely than the actively intellectual Arabs and Persians +to the south. In the tenth century the Turks were growing strong and +vigorous while the Arab power was divided and decaying. The relations +of the Turks to the Empire of the Caliphate became very similar to the +relations of the Medes to the last Babylonian Empire fourteen centuries +before. In the eleventh century a group of Turkish tribes, the Seljuk +Turks, came down into Mesopotamia and made the Caliph their nominal +ruler but really their captive and tool. They conquered Armenia. Then +they struck at the remnants of the Byzantine power in Asia Minor. In +1071 the Byzantine army was utterly smashed at the battle of Melasgird, +and the Turks swept forward until not a trace of Byzantine rule +remained in Asia. They took the fortress of Nicæa over against +Constantinople, and prepared to attempt that city. + +The Byzantine emperor, Michael VII, was overcome with terror. He was +already heavily engaged in warfare with a band of Norman adventurers +who had seized Durazzo, and with a fierce Turkish people, the +Petschenegs, who were raiding over the Danube. In his extremity he +sought help where he could, and it is notable that he did not appeal to +the western emperor but to the Pope of Rome as the head of Latin +Christendom. He wrote to Pope Gregory VII, and his successor Alexius +Comnenus wrote still more urgently to Urban II. + + +CRUSADER TOMBS IN EXETER CATHEDRAL +CRUSADER TOMBS IN EXETER CATHEDRAL + +_Photo: Mansell_ + + +This was not a quarter of a century from the rupture of the Latin and +Greek churches. That controversy was still vividly alive in men’s +minds, and this disaster to Byzantium must have presented itself to the +Pope as a supreme opportunity for reasserting the supremacy of the +Latin Church over the dissentient Greeks. Moreover this occasion gave +the Pope a chance to deal with two other matters that troubled western +Christendom very greatly. One was the custom of “private war” which +disordered social life, and the other was the superabundant fighting +energy of the Low Germans and Christianized Northmen and particularly +of the Franks and Normans. A religious war, the Crusade, the War of +the Cross, was preached against the Turkish captors of Jerusalem, and a +truce to all warfare amongst Christians (1095). The declared object of +this war was the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre from the unbelievers. +A man called Peter the Hermit carried on a popular propaganda +throughout France and Germany on broadly democratic lines. He went clad +in a coarse garment, barefooted on an ass, he carried a huge cross and +harangued the crowd in street or market-place or church. He denounced +the cruelties practised upon the Christian pilgrims by the Turks, and +the shame of the Holy Sepulchre being in any but Christian hands. The +fruits of centuries of Christian teaching became apparent in the +response. A great wave of enthusiasm swept the western world, and +popular Christendom discovered itself. + + +VIEW OF CAIRO +VIEW OF CAIRO + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +Such a widespread uprising of the common people in relation to a single +idea as now occurred was a new thing in the history of our race. There +is nothing to parallel it in the previous history of the Roman Empire +or of India or China. On a smaller scale, however, there had been +similar movements among the Jewish people after their liberation from +the Babylonian captivity, and later on Islam was to display a parallel +susceptibility to collective feeling. Such movements were certainly +connected with the new spirit that had come into life with the +development of the missionary- teaching religions. The Hebrew +prophets, Jesus and his disciples, Mani, Muhammad, were all exhorters +of men’s individual souls. They brought the personal conscience face +to face with God. Before that time religion had been much more a +business of fetish, of pseudoscience, than of conscience. The old kind +of religion turned upon temple, initiated priest and mystical +sacrifice, and ruled the common man like a slave by fear. The new kind +of religion made a man of him. + +The preaching of the First Crusade was the first stirring of the common +people in European history. It may be too much to call it the birth of +modern democracy, but certainly at that time modern democracy stirred. +Before very long we shall find it stirring again, and raising the most +disturbing social and religious questions. + +Certainly this first stirring of democracy ended very pitifully and +lamentably. Considerable bodies of common people, crowds rather than +armies, set out eastward from France and the Rhineland and Central +Europe without waiting for leaders or proper equipment to rescue the +Holy Sepulchre. This was the “people’s crusade.” Two great mobs +blundered into Hungary, mistook the recently converted Magyars for +pagans, committed atrocities and were massacred. A third multitude with +a similarly confused mind, after a great pogrom of the Jews in the +Rhineland, marched eastward, and was also destroyed in Hungary. Two +other huge crowds, under the leadership of Peter the Hermit himself, +reached Constantinople, crossed the Bosphorus, and were massacred +rather than defeated by the Seljuk Turks. So began and ended this +first movement of the European people, as people. + +Next year (1097) the real fighting forces crossed the Bosphorus. +Essentially they were Norman in leadership and spirit. They stormed +Nicæa, marched by much the same route as Alexander had followed +fourteen centuries before, to Antioch. The siege of Antioch kept them +a year, and in June 1099 they invested Jerusalem. It was stormed after +a month’s siege. The slaughter was terrible. Men riding on horseback +were splashed by the blood in the streets. At nightfall on July 15th +the Crusaders had fought their way into the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre and overcome all opposition there: blood-stained, weary and +“sobbing from excess of joy” they knelt down in prayer. + + +THE HORSES OF S. MARK, VENICE +THE HORSES OF S. MARK, VENICE +Originally on the arch of Trajan at Constantinople, the Doge Dandalo V +took them after the Fourth Crusade, to Venice, whence Napoleon I +removed them to Paris, but in 1815 they were returned to Venice. +During the Great War of 1914-18 they were hidden away for fear of air +raids. + +_Photo: D. McLeish_ + + +Immediately the hostility of Latin and Greek broke out again. The +Crusaders were the servants of the Latin Church, and the Greek +patriarch of Jerusalem found himself in a far worse case under the +triumphant Latins than under the Turks. The Crusaders discovered +themselves between Byzantine and Turk and fighting both. Much of Asia +Minor was recovered by the Byzantine Empire, and the Latin princes were +left, a buffer between Turk and Greek, with Jerusalem and a few small +principalities, of which Edessa was one of the chief, in Syria. Their +grip even on these possessions was precarious, and in 1144 Edessa fell +to the Moslim, leading to an ineffective Second Crusade, which failed +to recover Edessa but saved Antioch from a similar fate. + +In 1169 the forces of Islam were rallied under a Kurdish adventurer +named Saladin who had made himself master of Egypt. He preached a Holy +War against the Christians, recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, and so +provoked the Third Crusade. This failed to recover Jerusalem. In the +Fourth Crusade (1202-4) the Latin Church turned frankly upon the Greek +Empire, and there was not even a pretence of fighting the Turks. It +started from Venice and in 1204 it stormed Constantinople. The great +rising trading city of Venice was the leader in this adventure, and +most of the coasts and islands of the Byzantine Empire were annexed by +the Venetians. A “Latin” emperor (Baldwin of Flanders) was set up in +Constantinople and the Latin and Greek Church were declared to be +reunited. The Latin emperors ruled in Constantinople from 1204 to 1261 +when the Greek world shook itself free again from Roman predominance. + +The twelfth century then and the opening of the thirteenth was the age +of papal ascendancy just as the eleventh was the age of the ascendancy +of the Seljuk Turks and the tenth the age of the Northmen. A united +Christendom under the rule of the Pope came nearer to being a working +reality than it ever was before or after that time. + + +A COURTYARD IN THE ALHAMBRA +A COURTYARD IN THE ALHAMBRA + +_Photo: Lehnert & Landrock_ + + +In those centuries a simple Christian faith was real and widespread +over great areas of Europe. Rome itself had passed through some dark +and discreditable phases; few writers can be found to excuse the lives +of Popes John XI and John XII in the tenth century; they were +abominable creatures; but the heart and body of Latin Christendom had +remained earnest and simple; the generality of the common priests and +monks and nuns had lived exemplary and faithful lives. Upon the wealth +of confidence such lives created rested the power of the church. Among +the great Popes of the past had been Gregory the Great, Gregory I +(590-604) and Leo III (795-816) who invited Charlemagne to be Cæsar and +crowned him in spite of himself. Towards the close of the eleventh +century there arose a great clerical statesman, Hildebrand, who ended +his life as Pope Gregory VII (1073- 1085). Next but one after him came +Urban II (1087-1099), the Pope of the First Crusade. These two were +the founders of this period of papal greatness during which the Popes +lorded it over the Emperors. From Bulgaria to Ireland and from Norway +to Sicily and Jerusalem the Pope was supreme. Gregory VII obliged the +Emperor Henry IV to come in penitence to him at Canossa and to await +forgiveness for three days and nights in the courtyard of the castle, +clad in sackcloth and barefooted to the snow. In 1176 at Venice the +Emperor Frederick (Frederick Barbarossa), knelt to Pope Alexander III +and swore fealty to him. + +The great power of the church in the beginning of the eleventh century +lay in the wills and consciences of men. It failed to retain the moral +prestige on which its power was based. In the opening decades of the +fourteenth century it was discovered that the power of the Pope had +evaporated. What was it that destroyed the naive confidence of the +common people of Christendom in the church so that they would no longer +rally to its appeal and serve its purposes? + +The first trouble was certainly the accumulation of wealth by the +church. The church never died, and there was a frequent disposition on +the part of dying childless people to leave lands to the church. +Penitent sinners were exhorted to do so. Accordingly in many European +countries as much as a fourth of the land became church property. The +appetite for property grows with what it feeds upon. Already in the +thirteenth century it was being said everywhere that the priests were +not good men, that they were always hunting for money and legacies. + +The kings and princes disliked this alienation of property very +greatly. In the place of feudal lords capable of military support, +they found their land supporting abbeys and monks and nuns. And these +lands were really under foreign dominion. Even before the time of Pope +Gregory VII there had been a struggle between the princes and the +papacy over the question of “investitures,” the question that is of who +should appoint the bishops. If that power rested with the Pope and not +the King, then the latter lost control not only of the consciences of +his subjects but of a considerable part of his dominions. For also the +clergy claimed exemption from taxation. They paid their taxes to Rome. + And not only that, but the church also claimed the right to levy a tax +of one-tenth upon the property of the layman in addition to the taxes +he paid his prince. + +The history of nearly every country in Latin Christendom tells of the +same phase in the eleventh century, a phase of struggle between monarch +and Pope on the issue of investitures and generally it tells of a +victory for the Pope. He claimed to be able to excommunicate the +prince, to absolve his subjects from their allegiance to him, to +recognize a successor. He claimed to be able to put a nation under an +interdict, and then nearly all priestly functions ceased except the +sacraments of baptism, confirmation and penance; the priests could +neither hold the ordinary services, marry people, nor bury the dead. +With these two weapons it was possible for the twelfth century Popes to +curb the most recalcitrant princes and overawe the most restive +peoples. These were enormous powers, and enormous powers are only to +be used on extraordinary occasions. The Popes used them at last with a +frequency that staled their effect. Within thirty years at the end of +the twelfth century we find Scotland, France and England in turn under +an interdict. And also the Popes could not resist the temptation to +preach crusades against offending princes—until the crusading spirit +was extinct. + +It is possible that if the Church of Rome had struggled simply against +the princes and had had a care to keep its hold upon the general mind, +it might have achieved a permanent dominion over all Christendom. But +the high claims of the Pope were reflected as arrogance in the conduct +of the clergy. Before the eleventh century the Roman priests could +marry; they had close ties with the people among whom they lived; they +were indeed a part of the people. Gregory VII made them celibates; he +cut the priests off from too great an intimacy with the laymen in order +to bind them more closely to Rome, but indeed he opened a fissure +between the church and the commonalty. The church had its own law +courts. Cases involving not merely priests but monks, students, +crusaders, widows, orphans and the helpless were reserved for the +clerical courts, and so were all matters relating to wills, marriages +and oaths and all cases of sorcery, heresy and blasphemy. Whenever the +layman found himself in conflict with the priest he had to go to a +clerical court. The obligations of peace and war fell upon his +shoulders alone and left the priest free. It is no great wonder that +jealousy and hatred of the priests grew up in the Christian world. + +Never did Rome seem to realize that its power was in the consciences of +common men. It fought against religious enthusiasm, which should have +been its ally, and it forced doctrinal orthodoxy upon honest doubt and +aberrant opinion. When the church interfered in matters of morality it +had the common man with it, but not when it interfered in matters of +doctrine. When in the south of France Waldo taught a return to the +simplicity of Jesus in faith and life, Innocent III preached a crusade +against the Waldenses, Waldo’s followers, and permitted them to be +suppressed with fire, sword, rape and the most abominable cruelties. +When again St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) taught the imitation of +Christ and a life of poverty and service, his followers, the +Franciscans, were persecuted, scourged, imprisoned and dispersed. In +1318 four of them were burnt alive at Marseilles. On the other hand +the fiercely orthodox order of the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic +(1170-1221) was strongly supported by Innocent III, who with its +assistance set up an organization, the Inquisition, for the hunting of +heresy and the affliction of free thought. + +So it was that the church by excessive claims, by unrighteous +privileges, and by an irrational intolerance destroyed that free faith +of the common man which was the final source of all its power. The +story of its decline tells of no adequate foemen from without but +continually of decay from within. + + + + +XLVII +RECALCITRANT PRINCES AND THE GREAT SCHISM + + +One very great weakness of the Roman Church in its struggle to secure +the headship of all Christendom was the manner in which the Pope was +chosen. + +If indeed the papacy was to achieve its manifest ambition and establish +one rule and one peace throughout Christendom, then it was vitally +necessary that it should have a strong, steady and continuous +direction. In those great days of its opportunity it needed before all +things that the Popes when they took office should be able men in the +prime of life, that each should have his successor-designate with whom +he could discuss the policy of the church, and that the forms and +processes of election should be clear, definite, unalterable and +unassailable. Unhappily none of these things obtained. It was not +even clear who could vote in the election of a Pope, nor whether the +Byzantine or Holy Roman Emperor had a voice in the matter. That very +great papal statesman Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085) did much +to regularize the election. He confined the votes to the Roman +cardinals and he reduced the Emperor’s share to a formula of assent +conceded to him by the church, but he made no provision for a +successor-designate and he left it possible for the disputes of the +cardinals to keep the See vacant, as in some cases it was kept vacant, +for a year or more. + + +MILAN CATHEDRALA COURTYARD IN THE ALHAMBRA +MILAN CATHEDRALA COURTYARD IN THE ALHAMBRA +View showing the exquisite carvings characteristic of the 98 spires of +the edifice + + +The consequences of this want of firm definition are to be seen in the +whole history of the papacy up to the sixteenth century. From quite +early times onward there were disputed elections and two or more men +each claiming to be Pope. The church would then be subjected to the +indignity of going to the Emperor or some other outside arbiter to +settle the dispute. And the career of everyone of the great Popes +ended in a note of interrogation. At his death the church might be +left headless and as ineffective as a decapitated body. Or he might be +replaced by some old rival eager only to discredit and undo his work. +Or some enfeebled old man tottering on the brink of the grave might +succeed him. + +It was inevitable that this peculiar weakness of the papal organization +should attract the interference of the various German princes, the +French King, and the Norman and French Kings who ruled in England; that +they should all try to influence the elections, and have a Pope in +their own interest established in the Lateran Palace at Rome. And the +more powerful and important the Pope became in European affairs, the +more urgent did these interventions become. Under the circumstances it +is no great wonder that many of the Popes were weak and futile. The +astonishing thing is that many of them were able and courageous men. + +One of the most vigorous and interesting of the Popes of this great +period was Innocent III (1198-1216) who was so fortunate as to become +Pope before he was thirty-eight. He and his successors were pitted +against an even more interesting personality, the Emperor Frederick II; +_Stupor mundi_ he was called, the Wonder of the world. The struggle of +this monarch against Rome is a turning place in history. In the end +Rome defeated him and destroyed his dynasty, but he left the prestige +of the church and Pope so badly wounded that its wounds festered and +led to its decay. + +Frederick was the son of the Emperor Henry VI and his mother was the +daughter of Roger I, the Norman King of Sicily. He inherited this +kingdom in 1198 when he was a child of four years. Innocent III had +been made his guardian. Sicily in those days had been but recently +conquered by the Normans; the Court was half oriental and full of +highly educated Arabs; and some of these were associated in the +education of the young king. No doubt they were at some pains to make +their point of view clear to him. He got a Moslem view of Christianity +as well as a Christian view of Islam, and the unhappy result of this +double system of instruction was a view, exceptional in that age of +faith, that all religions were impostures. He talked freely on the +subject; his heresies and blasphemies are on record. + +As the young man grew up he found himself in conflict with his +guardian. Innocent III wanted altogether too much from his ward. When +the opportunity came for Frederick to succeed as Emperor, the Pope +intervened with conditions. Frederick must promise to put down heresy +in Germany with a strong hand. Moreover he must relinquish his crown in +Sicily and South Italy, because otherwise he would be too strong for +the Pope. And the German clergy were to be freed from all taxation. +Frederick agreed but with no intention of keeping his word. The Pope +had already induced the French King to make war upon his own subjects +in France, the cruel and bloody crusade against the Waldenses; he +wanted Frederick to do the same thing in Germany. But Frederick being +far more of a heretic than any of the simple pietists who had incurred +the Pope’s animosity, lacked the crusading impulse. And when Innocent +urged him to crusade against the Moslim and recover Jerusalem he was +equally ready to promise and equally slack in his performance. + + +A TYPICAL CRUSADER: DON RODRIGO DE CARDENAS +A TYPICAL CRUSADER: DON RODRIGO DE CARDENAS +From the Church of S. Pedro at Ocana, Spain + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +Having secured the imperial crown Frederick II stayed in Sicily, which +he greatly preferred to Germany as a residence, and did nothing to +redeem any of his promises to Innocent III, who died baffled in 1216. + +Honorius III, who succeeded Innocent, could do no better with +Frederick, and Gregory IX (1227) came to the papal throne evidently +resolved to settle accounts with this young man at any cost. He +excommunicated him. Frederick II was denied all the comforts of +religion. In the half-Arab Court of Sicily this produced singularly +little discomfort. And also the Pope addressed a public letter to the +Emperor reciting his vices (which were indisputable), his heresies, and +his general misconduct. To this Frederick replied in a document of +diabolical ability. It was addressed to all the princes of Europe, and +it made the first clear statement of the issue between the Pope and the +princes. He made a shattering attack upon the manifest ambition of the +Pope to become the absolute ruler of all Europe. He suggested a union +of princes against this usurpation. He directed the attention of the +princes specifically to the wealth of the church. + +Having fired off this deadly missile Frederick resolved to perform his +twelve-year-old promise and go upon a crusade. This was the Sixth +Crusade (1228). It was as a crusade, farcical. Frederick II went to +Egypt and met and discussed affairs with the Sultan. These two +gentlemen, both of sceptical opinions, exchanged congenial views, made +a commercial convention to their mutual advantage, and agreed to +transfer Jerusalem to Frederick. This indeed was a new sort of +crusade, a crusade by private treaty. Here was no blood splashing the +conqueror, no “weeping with excess of joy.” As this astonishing +crusader was an excommunicated man, he had to be content with a purely +secular coronation as King of Jerusalem, taking the crown from the +altar with his own hand—for all the clergy were bound to shun him. He +then returned to Italy, chased the papal armies which had invaded his +dominions back to their own territories, and obliged the Pope to grant +him absolution from his excommunication. So a prince might treat the +Pope in the thirteenth century, and there was now no storm of popular +indignation to avenge him. Those days were past. + +In 1239 Gregory IX resumed his struggle with Frederick, excommunicated +him for a second time, and renewed that warfare of public abuse in +which the papacy had already suffered severely. The controversy was +revived after Gregory IX was dead, when Innocent IV was Pope; and again +a devastating letter, which men were bound to remember, was written by +Frederick against the church. He denounced the pride and irreligion of +the clergy, and ascribed all the corruptions of the time to their pride +and wealth. He proposed to his fellow princes a general confiscation +of church property—for the good of the church. It was a suggestion +that never afterwards left the imagination of the European princes. + +We will not go on to tell of his last years. The particular events of +his life are far less significant than its general atmosphere. It is +possible to piece together something of his court life in Sicily. He +was luxurious in his way of living, and fond of beautiful things. He +is described as licentious. But it is clear that he was a man of very +effectual curiosity and inquiry. He gathered Jewish and Moslem as well +as Christian philosophers at his court, and he did much to irrigate the +Italian mind with Saracenic influences. Through him the Arabic +numerals and algebra were introduced to Christian students, and among +other philosophers at his court was Michael Scott, who translated +portions of Aristotle and the commentaries thereon of the great Arab +philosopher Averroes (of Cordoba). In 1224 Frederick founded the +University of Naples, and he enlarged and enriched the great medical +school at Salerno University. He also founded a zoological garden. He +left a book on hawking, which shows him to have been an acute observer +of the habits of birds, and he was one of the first Italians to write +Italian verse. Italian poetry was indeed born at his court. He has +been called by an able writer, “the first of the moderns,” and the +phrase expresses aptly the unprejudiced detachment of his intellectual +side. + +A still more striking intimation of the decay of the living and +sustaining forces of the papacy appeared when presently the Popes came +into conflict with the growing power of the French King. During the +lifetime of the Emperor Frederick II, Germany fell into disunion, and +the French King began to play the rôle of guard, supporter and rival to +the Pope that had hitherto fallen to the Hohenstaufen Emperors. A +series of Popes pursued the policy of supporting the French monarchs. +French princes were established in the kingdom of Sicily and Naples, +with the support and approval of Rome, and the French Kings saw before +them the possibility of restoring and ruling the Empire of Charlemagne. + When, however, the German interregnum after the death of Frederick II, +the last of the Hohenstaufens, came to all end and Rudolf of Habsburg +was elected first Habsburg Emperor (1273), the policy of Rome began to +fluctuate between France and Germany, veering about with the sympathies +of each successive Pope. In the East in 1261 the Greeks recaptured +Constantinople from the Latin emperors, and the founder of the new +Greek dynasty, Michael Palæologus, Michael VIII, after some unreal +tentatives of reconciliation with the Pope, broke away from the Roman +communion altogether, and with that, and the fall of the Latin kingdoms +in Asia, the eastward ascendancy of the Popes came to an end. + + +COSTUMES OF THE BURGUNDIAN NOBILITY: FLEMISH WORK OF THE FIFTEENTH +CENTURY +COSTUMES OF THE BURGUNDIAN NOBILITY: FLEMISH WORK OF THE FIFTEENTH +CENTURY + + +In 1294 Boniface VIII became Pope. He was an Italian, hostile to the +French, and full of a sense of the great traditions and mission of +Rome. For a time he carried things with a high hand. In 1300 he held +a jubilee, and a vast multitude of pilgrims assembled in Rome. “So +great was the influx of money into the papal treasury, that two +assistants were kept busy with the rakes collecting the offerings that +were deposited at the tomb of St. Peter.” [1] But this festival was a +delusive triumph. Boniface came into conflict with the French King in +1302, and in 1303, as he was about to pronounce sentence of +excommunication against that monarch, he was surprised and arrested in +his own ancestral palace at Anagni, by Guillaume de Nogaret. This +agent from the French King forced an entrance into the palace, made his +way into the bedroom of the frightened Pope—he was lying in bed with a +cross in his hands—and heaped threats and insults upon him. The Pope +was liberated a day or so later by the townspeople, and returned to +Rome; but there he was seized upon and again made prisoner by the +Orsini family, and in a few weeks’ time the shocked and disillusioned +old man died a prisoner in their hands. + + +COSTUMES OF THE BURGUNDIAN NOBILITY: FLEMISH WORK OF THE FIFTEENTH +CENTURY +COSTUMES OF THE BURGUNDIAN NOBILITY: FLEMISH WORK OF THE FIFTEENTH +CENTURY +This series is from casts in the Victoria and Albert Museum of the +original brass statuettes in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam + + +The people of Anagni did resent the first outrage, and rose against +Nogaret to liberate Boniface, but then Anagni was the Pope’s native +town. The important point to note is that the French King in this +rough treatment of the head of Christendom was acting with the full +approval of his people; he had summoned a council of the Three Estates +of France (lords, church and commons) and gained their consent before +proceeding to extremities. Neither in Italy, Germany nor England was +there the slightest general manifestation of disapproval at this free +handling of the sovereign pontiff. The idea of Christendom had decayed +until its power over the minds of men had gone. + +Throughout the fourteenth century the papacy did nothing to recover its +moral sway. The next Pope elected, Clement V, was a Frenchman, the +choice of King Philip of France. He never came to Rome. He set up his +court in the town of Avignon, which then belonged not to France but to +the papal See, though embedded in French territory, and there his +successors remained until 1377, when Pope Gregory XI returned to the +Vatican palace in Rome. But Gregory XI did not take the sympathies of +the whole church with him. Many of the cardinals were of French origin +and their habits and associations were rooted deep at Avignon. When in +1378 Gregory XI died, and an Italian, Urban VI, was elected, these +dissentient cardinals declared the election invalid, and elected +another Pope, the anti-Pope, Clement VII. This split is called the +Great Schism. The Popes remained in Rome, and all the anti-French +powers, the Emperor, the King of England, Hungary, Poland and the North +of Europe were loyal to them. The anti-Popes, on the other hand, +continued in Avignon, and were supported by the King of France, his +ally the King of Scotland, Spain, Portugal and various German princes. +Each Pope excommunicated and cursed the adherents of his rival +(1378-1417). + +Is it any wonder that presently all over Europe people began to think +for themselves in matters of religion? + +The beginnings of the Franciscans and the Dominicans, which we have +noted in the preceding chapters, were but two among many of the new +forces that were arising in Christendom, either to hold or shatter the +church as its own wisdom might decide. Those two orders the church did +assimilate and use, though with a little violence in the case of the +former. But other forces were more frankly disobedient and critical. +A century and a half later came Wycliffe (1320-1384). He was a learned +Doctor at Oxford. Quite late in his life he began a series of +outspoken criticisms of the corruption of the clergy and the unwisdom +of the church. He organized a number of poor priests, the Wycliffites, +to spread his ideas throughout England; and in order that people should +judge between the church and himself, he translated the Bible into +English. He was a more learned and far abler man than either St. +Francis or St. Dominic. He had supporters in high places and a great +following among the people; and though Rome raged against him, and +ordered his imprisonment, he died a free man. But the black and +ancient spirit that was leading the Catholic Church to its destruction +would not let his bones rest in the grave. By a decree of the Council +of Constance in 1415, his remains were ordered to be dug up and burnt, +an order which was carried out at the command of Pope Martin V by +Bishop Fleming in 1428. This desecration was not the act of some +isolated fanatic; it was the official act of the church. + + +[1] J. H. Robinson. + + + + +XLVIII +THE MONGOL CONQUESTS + + +But in the thirteenth century, while this strange and finally +ineffectual struggle to unify Christendom under the rule of the Pope +was going on in Europe, far more momentous events were afoot upon the +larger stage of Asia. A Turkish people from the country to the north of +China rose suddenly to prominence in the world’s affairs, and achieved +such a series of conquests as has no parallel in history. These were +the Mongols. At the opening of the thirteenth century they were a horde +of nomadic horsemen, living very much as their predecessors, the Huns, +had done, subsisting chiefly upon meat and mare’s milk and living in +tents of skin. They had shaken themselves free from Chinese dominion, +and brought a number of other Turkish tribes into a military +confederacy. Their central camp was at Karakorum in Mongolia. + +At this time China was in a state of division. The great dynasty of +Tang had passed into decay by the tenth century, and after a phase of +division into warring states, three main empires, that of Kin in the +north with Pekin as its capital and that of Sung in the south with a +capital at Nankin, and Hsia in the centre, remain. In 1214 Jengis +Khan, the leader of the Mongol confederates, made war on the Kin Empire +and captured Pekin (1214). He then turned westward and conquered +Western Turkestan, Persia, Armenia, India down to Lahore, and South +Russia as far as Kieff. He died master of a vast empire that reached +from the Pacific to the Dnieper. + +His successor, Ogdai Khan, continued this astonishing career of +conquest. His armies were organized to a very high level of +efficiency; and they had with them a new Chinese invention, gunpowder, +which they used in small field guns. He completed the conquest of the +Kin Empire and then swept his hosts right across Asia to Russia (1235), +an altogether amazing march. Kieff was destroyed in 1240, and nearly +all Russia became tributary to the Mongols. Poland was ravaged, and a +mixed army of Poles and Germans was annihilated at the battle of +Liegnitz in Lower Silesia in 1241. The Emperor Frederick II does not +seem to have made any great efforts to stay the advancing tide. + + +Map: The Ottoman Empire before 1453 + +“It is only recently,” says Bury in his notes to Gibbon’s _Decline and +Fall of the Roman Empire_, “that European history has begun to +understand that the successes of the Mongol army which overran Poland +and occupied Hungary in the spring of A.D. 1241 were won by consummate +strategy and were not due to a mere overwhelming superiority of +numbers. But this fact has not yet become a matter of common +knowledge; the vulgar opinion which represents the Tartars as a wild +horde carrying all before them solely by their multitude, and galloping +through Eastern Europe without a strategic plan, rushing at all +obstacles and overcoming them by mere weight, still prevails. . . . + +“It was wonderful how punctually and effectually the arrangements were +carried out in operations extending from the Lower Vistula to +Transylvania. Such a campaign was quite beyond the power of any +European army of the time, and it was beyond the vision of any European +commander. There was no general in Europe, from Frederick II downward, +who was not a tyro in strategy compared to Subutai. It should also be +noticed that the Mongols embarked upon the enterprise with full +knowledge of the political situation of Hungary and the condition of +Poland—they had taken care to inform themselves by a well-organized +system of spies; on the other hand, the Hungarians and the Christian +powers, like childish barbarians, knew hardly anything about their +enemies.” + + +Map: The Empire of Jengis Khan at his death (1227) + +But though the Mongols were victorious at Liegnitz, they did not +continue their drive westward. They were getting into woodlands and +hilly country, which did not suit their tactics; and so they turned +southward and prepared to settle in Hungary, massacring or assimilating +the kindred Magyar, even as these had previously massacred and +assimilated the mixed Scythians and Avars and Huns before them. From +the Hungarian plain they would probably have made raids west and south +as the Hungarians had done in the ninth century, the Avars in the +seventh and eighth and the Huns in the fifth. But Ogdai died suddenly, +and in 1242 there was trouble about the succession, and recalled by +this, the undefeated hosts of Mongols began to pour back across Hungary +and Roumania towards the east. + +Thereafter the Mongols concentrated their attention upon their Asiatic +conquests. By the middle of the thirteenth century they had conquered +the Sung Empire. Mangu Khan succeeded Ogdai Khan as Great Khan in +1251, and made his brother Kublai Khan governor of China. In 1280 +Kublai Khan had been formally recognized Emperor of China, and so +founded the Yuan dynasty which lasted until 1368. While the last ruins +of the Sung rule were going down in China, another brother of Mangu, +Hulagu, was conquering Persia and Syria. The Mongols displayed a bitter +animosity to Islam at this time, and not only massacred the population +of Bagdad when they captured that city, but set to work to destroy the +immemorial irrigation system which had kept Mesopotamia incessantly +prosperous and populous from the early days of Sumeria. From that time +until our own Mesopotamia has been a desert of ruins, sustaining only a +scanty population. Into Egypt the Mongols never penetrated; the Sultan +of Egypt completely defeated an army of Hulagu’s in Palestine in 1260. + +After that disaster the tide of Mongol victory ebbed. The dominions of +the Great Khan fell into a number of separate states. The eastern +Mongols became Buddhists, like the Chinese; the western became Moslim. +The Chinese threw off the rule of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, and set up +the native Ming dynasty which flourished from 1368 to 1644. The +Russians remained tributary to the Tartar hordes upon the south-east +steppes until 1480, when the Grand Duke of Moscow repudiated his +allegiance and laid the foundation of modern Russia. + + +TARTAR HORSEMEN +TARTAR HORSEMEN +_(From a Chinese Print in the British Museum) _ + + +In the fourteenth century there was a brief revival of Mongol vigour +under Timurlane, a descendant of Jengis Khan. He established himself +in Western Turkestan, assumed the title of Grand Khan in 1369, and +conquered from Syria to Delhi. He was the most savage and destructive +of all the Mongol conquerors. He established an empire of desolation +that did not survive his death. In 1505, however, a descendant of this +Timur, an adventurer named Baber, got together an army with guns and +swept down upon the plains of India. His grandson Akbar (1556-1605) +completed his conquests, and this Mongol (or “Mogul” as the Arabs +called it) dynasty ruled in Delhi over the greater part of India until +the eighteenth century. + + +Map: The Ottoman Empire at the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1566 +A.D. + +One of the consequences of the first great sweep of Mongol conquest in +the thirteenth century was to drive a certain tribe of Turks, the +Ottoman Turks, out of Turkestan into Asia Minor. They extended and +consolidated their power in Asia Minor, crossed the Dardanelles and +conquered Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria, until at last Constantinople +remained like an island amongst the Ottoman dominions. In 1453 the +Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad II, took Constantinople, attacking it from the +European side with a great number of guns. This event caused intense +excitement in Europe and there was talk of a crusade, but the day of +the crusades was past. + +In the course of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Sultans conquered +Bagdad, Hungary, Egypt and most of North Africa, and their fleet made +them masters of the Mediterranean. They very nearly took Vienna, and +they exacted it tribute from the Emperor. There were but two items to +offset the general ebb of Christian dominion in the fifteenth century. +One was the restoration of the independence of Moscow (1480); the other +was the gradual reconquest of Spain by the Christians. In 1492, +Granada, the last Moslem state in the peninsula, fell to King Ferdinand +of Aragon and his Queen Isabella of Castile. + +But it was not until as late as 1571 that the naval battle of Lepanto +broke the prick of the Ottomans, and restored the Mediterranean waters +to Christian ascendancy. + + + + +XLIX +THE INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL OF THE EUROPEANS + + +Throughout the twelfth century there were many signs that the European +intelligence was recovering courage and leisure, and preparing to take +up again the intellectual enterprises of the first Greek scientific +enquiries and such speculations as those of the Italian Lucretius. The +causes of this revival were many and complex. The suppression of +private war, the higher standards of comfort and security that followed +the crusades, and the stimulation of men’s minds by the experiences of +these expeditions were no doubt necessary preliminary conditions. Trade +was reviving; cities were recovering ease and safety; the standard of +education was arising in the church and spreading among laymen. The +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of growing, +independent or quasi-independent cities; Venice, Florence, Genoa, +Lisbon, Paris, Bruges, London, Antwerp, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Novgorod, +Wisby and Bergen for example. They were all trading cities with many +travellers, and where men trade and travel they talk and think. The +polemics of the Popes and princes, the conspicuous savagery and +wickedness of the persecution of heretics, were exciting men to doubt +the authority of the church and question and discuss fundamental +things. + +We have seen how the Arabs were the means of restoring Aristotle to +Europe, and how such a prince as Frederick II acted as a channel +through which Arabic philosophy and science played upon the renascent +European mind. Still more influential in the stirring up of men’s +ideas were the Jews. Their very existence was a note of interrogation +to the claims of the church. And finally the secret, fascinating +enquiries of the alchemists were spreading far and wide and setting men +to the petty, furtive and yet fruitful resumption of experimental +science. + +And the stir in men’s minds was by no means confined now to the +independent and well educated. The mind of the common man was awake in +the world as it had never been before in all the experience of mankind. + In spite of priest and persecution, Christianity does seem to have +carried a mental ferment wherever its teaching reached. It established +a direct relation between the conscience of the individual man and the +God of Righteousness, so that now if need arose he had the courage to +form his own judgment upon prince or prelate or creed. + +As early as the eleventh century philosophical discussion had begun +again in Europe, and there were great and growing universities at +Paris, Oxford, Bologna and other centres. There medieval “schoolmen” +took up again and thrashed out a series of questions upon the value and +meaning of words that were a necessary preliminary to clear thinking in +the scientific age that was to follow. And standing by himself because +of his distinctive genius was Roger Bacon (circa 1210 to circa 1293), a +Franciscan of Oxford, the father of modern experimental science. His +name deserves a prominence in our history second only to that of +Aristotle. + +His writings are one long tirade against ignorance. He told his age it +was ignorant, an incredibly bold thing to do. Nowadays a man may tell +the world it is as silly as it is solemn, that all its methods are +still infantile and clumsy and its dogmas childish assumptions, without +much physical danger; but these peoples of the middle ages when they +were not actually being massacred or starving or dying of pestilence, +were passionately convinced of the wisdom, the completeness and +finality of their beliefs, and disposed to resent any reflections upon +them very bitterly. Roger Bacon’s writings were like a flash of light +in a profound darkness. He combined his attack upon the ignorance of +his times with a wealth of suggestion for the increase of knowledge. +In his passionate insistence upon the need of experiment and of +collecting knowledge, the spirit of Aristotle lives again in him. +“Experiment, experiment,” that is the burthen of Roger Bacon. + +Yet of Aristotle himself Roger Bacon fell foul. He fell foul of him +because men, instead of facing facts boldly, sat in rooms and pored +over the bad Latin translations which were then all that was available +of the master. “If I had my way,” he wrote, in his intemperate fashion, +“I should burn all the books of Aristotle, for the study of them can +only lead to a loss of time, produce error, and increase ignorance,” a +sentiment that Aristotle would probably have echoed could he have +returned to a world in which his works were not so much read as +worshipped—and that, as Roger Bacon showed, in these most abominable +translations. + + +AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS +AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS +_(From an old print) _ + + +Throughout his books, a little disguised by the necessity of seeming to +square it all with orthodoxy for fear of the prison and worse, Roger +Bacon shouted to mankind, “Cease to be ruled by dogmas and authorities; +_look at the world!_” Four chief sources of ignorance he denounced; +respect for authority, custom, the sense of the ignorant crowd, and the +vain, proud unteachableness of our dispositions. Overcome but these, +and a world of power would open to men: — + +“Machines for navigating are possible without rowers, so that great +ships suited to river or ocean, guided by one man, may be borne with +greater speed than if they were full of men. Likewise cars may be made +so that without a draught animal they may be moved _cum impetu +inœstimable_, as we deem the scythed chariots to have been from which +antiquity fought. And flying machines are possible, so that a man may +sit in the middle turning some device by which artificial wings may +beat the air in the manner of a flying bird.” + +So Roger Bacon wrote, but three more centuries were to elapse before +men began any systematic attempts to explore the hidden stores of power +and interest he realized so clearly existed beneath the dull surface of +human affairs. + +But the Saracenic world not only gave Christendom the stimulus of its +philosophers and alchemists; it also gave it paper. It is scarcely too +much to say that paper made the intellectual revival of Europe +possible. Paper originated in China, where its use probably goes back +to the second century B.C. In 751 the Chinese made an attack upon the +Arab Moslems in Samarkand; they were repulsed, and among the prisoners +taken from them were some skilled papermakers, from whom the art was +learnt. Arabic paper manuscripts from the ninth century onward still +exist. The manufacture entered Christendom either through Greece or by +the capture of Moorish paper-mills during the Christian reconquest of +Spain. But under the Christian Spanish the product deteriorated sadly. + Good paper was not made in Christian Europe until the end of the +thirteenth century, and then it was Italy which led the world. Only by +the fourteenth century did the manufacture reach Germany, and not until +the end of that century was it abundant and cheap enough for the +printing of books to be a practicable business proposition. Thereupon +printing followed naturally and necessarily, for printing is the most +obvious of inventions, and the intellectual life of the world entered +upon a new and far more vigorous phase. It ceased to be a little +trickle from mind to mind; it became a broad flood, in which thousands +and presently scores and hundreds of thousands of minds participated. + +One immediate result of this achievement of printing was the appearance +of an abundance of Bibles in the world. Another was a cheapening of +school-books. The knowledge of reading spread swiftly. There was not +only a great increase of books in the world, but the books that were +now made were plainer to read and so easier to understand. Instead of +toiling at a crabbed text arid then thinking over its significance, +readers now could think unimpeded as they read. With this increase in +the facility of reading, the reading public grew. The book ceased to be +a highly decorated toy or a scholar’s mystery. People began to write +books to be read as well as looked at by ordinary people. They wrote +in the ordinary language and not in Latin. With the fourteenth century +the real history of the European literature begins. + +So far we have been dealing only with the Saracenic share in the +European revival. Let us turn now to the influence of the Mongol +conquests. They stimulated the geographical imagination of Europe +enormously. For a time under the Great Khan, all Asia and Western +Europe enjoyed an open intercourse; all the roads were temporarily +open, and representatives of every nation appeared at the court of +Karakorum. The barriers between Europe and Asia set up by the +religious feud of Christianity and Islam were lowered. Great hopes were +entertained by the papacy for the conversion of the Mongols to +Christianity. Their only religion so far had been Shumanism, a +primitive paganism. Envoys of the Pope, Buddhist priests from India, +Parisian and Italian and Chinese artificers, Byzantine and Armenian +merchants, mingled with Arab officials and Persian and Indian +astronomers and mathematicians at the Mongol court. We hear too much +in history of the campaigns and massacres of the Mongols, and not +enough of their curiosity and desire for learning. Not perhaps as an +originative people, but as transmitters of knowledge and method their +influence upon the world’s history has been very great. And everything +one can learn of the vague and romantic personalities of Jengis or +Kublai tends to confirm the impression that these men were at least as +understanding and creative monarchs as either that flamboyant but +egotistical figure Alexander the Great or that raiser of political +ghosts, that energetic but illiterate theologian Charlemagne. + +One of the most interesting of these visitors to the Mongol Court was a +certain Venetian, Marco Polo, who afterwards set down his story in a +book. He went to China about 1272 with his father and uncle, who had +already once made the journey. The Great Khan had been deeply impressed +by the elder Polos; they were the first men of the “Latin” peoples he +had seen; and he sent them back with enquiries for teachers and learned +men who could explain Christianity to him, and for various other +European things that had aroused his curiosity. Their visit with Marco +was their second visit. + + +ANCIENT BRONZE FIGURE FROM BENIN, W. AFRICA +ANCIENT BRONZE FIGURE FROM BENIN, W. AFRICA +Note evidence in attire of knowledge of early European explorers + +_(In the British Museum) _ + + +The three Polos started by way of Palestine and not by the Crimea, as +in their previous expedition. They had with them a gold tablet and +other indications from the Great Khan that must have greatly +facilitated their journey. The Great Khan had asked for some oil from +the lamp that burns in the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; and so thither +they first went, and then by way of Cilicia into Armenia. They went +thus far north because the Sultan of Egypt was raiding the Mongol +domains at this time. Thence they came by way of Mesopotamia to Ormuz +on the Persian Gulf, as if they contemplated a sea voyage. At Ormuz +they met merchants from India. For some reason they did not take ship, +but instead turned northward through the Persian deserts, and so by way +of Balkh over the Pamir to Kashgar, and by way of Kotan and the Lob Nor +into the Hwang-ho valley and on to Pekin. At Pekin was the Great Khan, +and they were hospitably entertained. + + +ANOTHER ANCIENT NEGRO BRONZE OF A EUROPEAN +ANOTHER ANCIENT NEGRO BRONZE OF A EUROPEAN + +_(In the British Museum) _ + + +Marco particularly pleased Kublai; he was young and clever, and it is +clear he had mastered the Tartar language very thoroughly. He was +given an official position and sent on several missions, chiefly in +south-west China. The tale he had to tell of vast stretches of smiling +and prosperous country, “all the way excellent hostelries for +travellers,” and “fine vineyards, fields, and gardens,” of “many +abbeys” of Buddhist monks, of manufactures of “cloth of silk and gold +and many fine taffetas,” a “constant succession of cities and +boroughs,” and so on, first roused the incredulity and then fired the +imagination of all Europe. He told of Burmah, and of its great armies +with hundreds of elephants, and how these animals were defeated by the +Mongol bowmen, and also of the Mongol conquest of Pegu. He told of +Japan, and greatly exaggerated the amount of gold in that country. For +three years Marco ruled the city of Yang-chow as governor, and he +probably impressed the Chinese inhabitants as being little more of a +foreigner than any Tartar would have been. He may also have been sent +on a mission to India. Chinese records mention a certain Polo attached +to the imperial council in 1277, a very valuable confirmation of the +general truth of the Polo story. + +The publication of Marco Polo’s travels produced a profound effect upon +the European imagination. The European literature, and especially the +European romance of the fifteenth century, echoes with the names in +Marco Polo’s story, with Cathay (North China) and Cambulac (Pekin) and +the like. + + +EARLY ITALIAN ENGRAVING OF A SAILING SHIP +EARLY ITALIAN ENGRAVING OF A SAILING SHIP + +_(In the British Museum) _ + + +Two centuries later, among the readers of the Travels of Marco Polo was +a certain Genoese mariner, Christopher Columbus, who conceived the +brilliant idea of sailing westward round the world to China. In +Seville there is a copy of the Travels with marginal notes by Columbus. +There were many reasons why the thought of a Genoese should be turned +in this direction. Until its capture by the Turks in 1453 +Constantinople had been an impartial trading mart between the Western +world and the East, and the Genoese had traded there freely. But the +“Latin” Venetians, the bitter rivals of the Genoese, had been the +allies and helpers of the Turks against the Greeks, and with the coming +of the Turks Constantinople turned an unfriendly face upon Genoese +trade. The long forgotten discovery that the world was round had +gradually resumed its sway over men’s minds. The idea of going +westward to China was therefore a fairly obvious one. It was +encouraged by two things. The mariner’s compass had now been invented +and men were no longer left to the mercy of a fine night and the stars +to determine the direction in which they were sailing, and the Normans, +Catalonians and Genoese and Portuguese had already pushed out into the +Atlantic as far as the Canary Isles, Madeira and the Azores. + +Yet Columbus found many difficulties before he could get ships to put +his idea to the test. He went from one European Court to another. +Finally at Granada, just won from the Moors, he secured the patronage +of Ferdinand and Isabella, and was able to set out across the unknown +ocean in three small ships. After a voyage of two months and nine days +he came to a land which he believed to be India, but which was really a +new continent, whose distinct existence the old world had never +hitherto suspected. He returned to Spain with gold, cotton, strange +beasts and birds, and two wild- eyed painted Indians to be baptized. +They were called Indians because, to the end of his days, he believed +that this land he had found was India. Only in the course of several +years did men begin to realize that the whole new continent of America +was added to the world’s resources. + +The success of Columbus stimulated overseas enterprise enormously. In +1497 the Portuguese sailed round Africa to India, and in 1515 there +were Portuguese ships in Java. In 1519 Magellan, a Portuguese sailor +in Spanish employment, sailed out of Seville westward with five ships, +of which one, the _Vittoria_, came back up the river to Seville in +1522, the first ship that had ever circumnavigated the world. +Thirty-one men were aboard her, survivors of two-hundred-and- eighty +who had started. Magellan himself had been killed in the Philippine +Isles. + +Printed paper books, a new realization of the round world as a thing +altogether attainable, a new vision of strange lands, strange animals +and plants, strange manners and customs, discoveries overseas and in +the skies and in the ways and materials of life burst upon the European +mind. The Greek classics, buried and forgotten for so long, were +speedily being printed and studied, and were colouring men’s thoughts +with the dreams of Plato and the traditions of an age of republican +freedom and dignity. The Roman dominion had first brought law and +order to Western Europe, and the Latin Church had restored it; but +under both Pagan and Catholic Rome curiosity and innovation were +subordinate to and restrained by organization. The reign of the Latin +mind was now drawing to an end. Between the thirteenth and the +sixteenth century the European Aryans, thanks to the stimulating +influence of Semite and Mongol and the rediscovery of the Greek +classics, broke away from the Latin tradition and rose again to the +intellectual and material leadership of mankind. + + + + +L +THE REFORMATION OF THE LATIN CHURCH + + +The Latin Church itself was enormously affected by this mental rebirth. +It was dismembered; and even the portion that survived was extensively +renewed. + +We have told how nearly the church came to the autocratic leadership of +all Christendom in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and how in the +fourteenth and fifteenth its power over men’s minds and affairs +declined. We have described how popular religious enthusiasm which had +in earlier ages been its support and power was turned against it by its +pride, persecutions and centralization, and how the insidious +scepticism of Frederick II bore fruit in a growing insubordination of +the princes. The Great Schism had reduced its religious and political +prestige to negligible proportions. The forces of insurrection struck +it now from both sides. + +The teachings of the Englishman Wycliffe spread widely throughout +Europe. In 1398 a learned Czech, John Huss, delivered a series of +lectures upon Wycliffe’s teachings in the university of Prague. This +teaching spread rapidly beyond the educated class and aroused great +popular enthusiasm. In 1414-18 a Council of the whole church was held +at Constance to settle the Great Schism. Huss was invited to this +Council under promise of a safe conduct from the emperor, seized, put +on trial for heresy and burnt alive (1415). So far from tranquillizing +the Bohemian people, this led to an insurrection of the Hussites in +that country, the first of a series of religious wars that inaugurated +the break-up of Latin Christendom. Against this insurrection Pope +Martin V, the Pope specially elected at Constance as the head of a +reunited Christendom, preached a Crusade. + +Five Crusades in all were launched upon this sturdy little people and +all of them failed. All the unemployed ruffianism of Europe was turned +upon Bohemia in the fifteenth century, just as in the thirteenth it had +been turned upon the Waldenses. But the Bohemian Czechs, unlike the +Waldenses, believed in armed resistance. The Bohemian Crusade +dissolved and streamed away from the battlefield at the sound of the +Hussites’ waggons and the distant chanting of their troops; it did not +even wait to fight (battle of Domazlice, 1431). In 1436 an agreement +was patched up with the Hussites by a new Council of the church at +Basle in which many of the special objections to Latin practice were +conceded. + + +PORTRAIT OF LUTHER +PORTRAIT OF LUTHER + +_(From an early German engraving in the British Museum) _ + + +In the fifteenth century a great pestilence had produced much social +disorganization throughout Europe. There had been extreme misery and +discontent among the common people, and peasant risings against the +landlords and the wealthy in England and France. After the Hussite +Wars these peasant insurrections increased in gravity in Germany and +took on a religious character. Printing came in as an influence upon +this development. By the middle of the fifteenth century there were +printers at work with movable type in Holland and the Rhineland. The +art spread to Italy and England, where Caxton was printing in +Westminster in 1477. The immediate consequence was a great increase +and distribution of Bibles, and greatly increased facilities for +widespread popular controversies. The European world became a world of +readers, to an extent that had never happened to any community in the +past. And this sudden irrigation of the general mind with clearer +ideas and more accessible information occurred just at a time when the +church was confused and divided and not in a position to defend itself +effectively, and when many princes were looking for means to weaken its +hold upon the vast wealth it claimed in their dominions. + +In Germany the attack upon the church gathered round the personality of +an ex-monk, Martin Luther (1483-1546), who appeared in Wittenberg in +1517 offering disputations against various orthodox doctrines and +practices. At first he disputed in Latin in the fashion of the +Schoolmen. Then he took up the new weapon of the printed word and +scattered his views far and wide in German addressed to the ordinary +people. An attempt was made to suppress him as Huss had been +suppressed, but the printing press had changed conditions and he had +too many open and secret friends among the German princes for this fate +to overtake him. + +For now in this age of multiplying ideas and weakened faith there were +many rulers who saw their advantage in breaking the religious ties +between their people and Rome. They sought to make themselves in +person the heads of a more nationalized religion. England, Scotland, +Sweden, Norway, Denmark, North Germany and Bohemia, one after another, +separated themselves from the Roman Communion. They have remained +separated ever since. + + +A MAJOLICA DISH PAINTED IN COLOURS +A MAJOLICA DISH PAINED IN COLOURS +An allegory of the Church triumphant over heretics and infidels. +Italian (Urbino), dated 1543 + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +The various princes concerned cared very little for the moral and +intellectual freedom of their subjects. They used the religious doubts +and insurgence of their peoples to strengthen them against Rome, but +they tried to keep a grip upon the popular movement as soon as that +rupture was achieved and a national church set up under the control of +the crown. But there has always been a curious vitality in the +teaching of Jesus, a direct appeal to righteousness and a man’s +self-respect over every loyalty and every subordination, lay or +ecclesiastical. None of these princely churches broke off without also +breaking off a number of fragmentary sects that would admit the +intervention of neither prince nor Pope between a man and his God. In +England and Scotland, for example, there was a number of sects who now +held firmly to the Bible as their one guide in life and belief. They +refused the disciplines of a state church. In England these +dissentients were the Non- conformists, who played a very large part in +the polities of that country in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. In England they carried their objection to a princely head +to the church so far as to decapitate King Charles I (1649), and for +eleven prosperous years England was a republic under Non- conformist +rule. + +The breaking away of this large section of Northern Europe from Latin +Christendom is what is generally spoken of as the Reformation. But the +shock and stress of these losses produced changes perhaps as profound +in the Roman Church itself. The church was reorganized and a new +spirit came into its life. One of the dominant figures in this revival +was a young Spanish soldier, Inigo Lopez de Recalde, better known to +the world as St. Ignatius of Loyola. After some romantic beginnings he +became a priest (1538) and was permitted to found the Society of Jesus, +a direct attempt to bring the generous and chivalrous traditions of +military discipline into the service of religion. This Society of +Jesus, the Jesuits, became one of the greatest teaching and missionary +societies the world has ever seen. It carried Christianity to India, +China and America. It arrested the rapid disintegration of the Roman +Church. It raised the standard of education throughout the whole +Catholic world; it raised the level of Catholic intelligence and +quickened the Catholic conscience everywhere; it stimulated Protestant +Europe to competitive educational efforts. The vigorous and aggressive +Roman Catholic Church we know to-day is largely the product of this +Jesuit revival. + + + + +LI +THE EMPEROR CHARLES V + + +The Holy Roman Empire came to a sort of climax in the reign of the +Emperor Charles V. He was one of the most extraordinary monarchs that +Europe has ever seen. For a time he had the air of being the greatest +monarch since Charlemagne. + +His greatness was not of his own making. It was largely the creation +of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian I (1459- 1519). Some +families have fought, others have intrigued their way to world power; +the Habsburgs married their way. Maximilian began his career with +Austria, Styria, part of Alsace and other districts, the original +Habsburg patrimony; he married—the lady’s name scarcely matters to +us—the Netherlands and Burgundy. Most of Burgundy slipped from him +after his first wife’s death, but the Netherlands he held. Then he +tried unsuccessfully to marry Brittany. He became Emperor in +succession to his father, Frederick III, in 1493, and married the duchy +of Milan. Finally he married his son to the weak-minded daughter of +Ferdinand and Isabella, the Ferdinand and Isabella of Columbus, who not +only reigned over a freshly united Spain and over Sardinia and the +kingdom of the two Sicilies, but over all America west of Brazil. So +it was that this Charles V, his grandson, inherited most of the +American continent and between a third and a half of what the Turks had +left of Europe. He succeeded to the Netherlands in 1506. When his +grandfather Ferdinand died in 1516, he became practically king of the +Spanish dominions, his mother being imbecile; and his grandfather +Maximilian dying in 1519, he was in 1520 elected Emperor at the still +comparatively tender age of twenty. + +He was a fair young man with a not very intelligent face, a thick upper +lip and a long clumsy chin. He found himself in a world of young and +vigorous personalities. It was an age of brilliant young monarchs. +Francis I had succeeded to the French throne in 1515 at the age of +twenty-one, Henry VIII had become King of England in 1509 at eighteen. +It was the age of Baber in India (1526-1530) and Suleiman the +Magnificent in Turkey (1520), both exceptionally capable monarchs, and +the Pope Leo X (1513) was also a very distinguished Pope. The Pope and +Francis I attempted to prevent the election of Charles as Emperor +because they dreaded the concentration of so much power in the hands of +one man. Both Francis I and Henry VIII offered themselves to the +imperial electors. But there was now a long established tradition of +Habsburg Emperors (since 1273), and some energetic bribery secured the +election for Charles. + +At first the young man was very much a magnificent puppet in the hands +of his ministers. Then slowly he began to assert himself and take +control. He began to realize something of the threatening complexities +of his exalted position. It was a position as unsound as it was +splendid. + +From the very outset of his reign he was faced by the situation created +by Luther’s agitations in Germany. The Emperor had one reason for +siding with the reformers in the opposition of the Pope to his +election. But he had been brought up in Spain, that most Catholic of +countries, and he decided against Luther. So he came into conflict +with the Protestant princes and particularly the Elector of Saxony. He +found himself in the presence of an opening rift that was to split the +outworn fabric of Christendom into two contending camps. His attempts +to close that rift were strenuous and honest and ineffective. There +was an extensive peasant revolt in Germany which interwove with the +general political and religious disturbance. And these internal +troubles were complicated by attacks upon the Empire from east and west +alike. On the west of Charles was his spirited rival, Francis I; to +the east was the ever advancing Turk, who was now in Hungary, in +alliance with Francis and clamouring for certain arrears of tribute +from the Austrian dominions. Charles had the money and army of Spain +at his disposal, but it was extremely difficult to get any effective +support in money from Germany. His social and political troubles were +complicated by financial distresses. He was forced to ruinous +borrowing. + + +THE CHARLES V PORTRAIT BY TITIAN +THE CHARLES V PORTRAIT BY TITIAN + +_(In the Gallery del Prado, Madrid) + +Photo: Anderson_ + + +On the whole, Charles, in alliance with Henry VIII, was successful +against Francis I and the Turk. Their chief battlefield was North +Italy; the generalship was dull on both sides; their advances and +retreats depended mainly on the arrival of reinforcements. The German +army invaded France, failed to take Marseilles, fell back into Italy, +lost Milan, and was besieged in Pavia. Francis I made a long and +unsuccessful siege of Pavia, was caught by fresh German forces, +defeated, wounded and taken prisoner. But thereupon the Pope and Henry +VIII, still haunted by the fear of his attaining excessive power, +turned against Charles. The German troops in Milan, under the +Constable of Bourbon, being unpaid, forced rather than followed their +commander into a raid upon Rome. They stormed the city and pillaged it +(1527). The Pope took refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo while the +looting and slaughter went on. He bought off the German troops at last +by the payment of four hundred thousand ducats. Ten years of such +confused fighting impoverished all Europe. At last the Emperor found +himself triumphant in Italy. In 1530, he was crowned by the Pope—he +was the last German Emperor to be so crowned—at Bologna. + +Meanwhile the Turks were making great headway in Hungary. They had +defeated and killed the king of Hungary in 1526, they held Buda-Pesth, +and in 1529 Suleiman the Magnificent very nearly took Vienna. The +Emperor was greatly concerned by these advances, and did his utmost to +drive back the Turks, but he found the greatest difficulty in getting +the German princes to unite even with this formidable enemy upon their +very borders. Francis I remained implacable for a time, and there was +a new French war; but in 1538 Charles won his rival over to a more +friendly attitude after ravaging the south of France. Francis and +Charles then formed an alliance against the Turk. But the Protestant +princes, the German princes who were resolved to break away from Rome, +had formed a league, the Schmalkaldic League, against the Emperor, and +in the place of a great campaign to recover Hungary for Christendom +Charles had to turn his mind to the gathering internal struggle in +Germany. Of that struggle he saw only the opening war. It was a +struggle, a sanguinary irrational bickering of princes, for ascendancy, +now flaming into war and destruction, now sinking back to intrigues and +diplomacies; it was a snake’s sack of princely policies that was to go +on writhing incurably right into the nineteenth century and to waste +and desolate Central Europe again and again. + +The Emperor never seems to have grasped the true forces at work in +these gathering troubles. He was for his time and station an +exceptionally worthy man, and he seems to have taken the religious +dissensions that were tearing Europe into warring fragments as genuine +theological differences. He gathered diets and councils in futile +attempts at reconciliation. Formulæ and confessions were tried over. +The student of German history must struggle with the details of the +Religious Peace of Nuremberg, the settlement at the Diet of Ratisbon, +the Interim of Augsburg, and the like. Here we do but mention them as +details in the worried life of this culminating Emperor. As a matter +of fact, hardly one of the multifarious princes and rulers in Europe +seems to have been acting in good faith. The widespread religious +trouble of the world, the desire of the common people for truth and +social righteousness, the spreading knowledge of the time, all those +things were merely counters in the imaginations of princely diplomacy. +Henry VIII of England, who had begun his career with a book against +heresy, and who had been rewarded by the Pope with the title of +“Defender of the Faith,” being anxious to divorce his first wife in +favour of a young lady named Anne Boleyn, and wishing also to loot the +vast wealth of the church in England, joined the company of Protestant +princes in 1530. Sweden, Denmark and Norway had already gone over to +the Protestant side. + +The German religious war began in 1546, a few months after the death of +Martin Luther. We need not trouble about the incidents of the +campaign. The Protestant Saxon army was badly beaten at Lochau. By +something very like a breach of faith Philip of Hesse, the Emperor’s +chief remaining antagonist, was caught and imprisoned, and the Turks +were bought off by the promise of an annual tribute. In 1547, to the +great relief of the Emperor, Francis I died. So by 1547 Charles got to +a kind of settlement, and made his last efforts to effect peace where +there was no peace. In 1552 all Germany was at war again, only a +precipitate flight from Innsbruck saved Charles from capture, and in +1552, with the treaty of Passau, came another unstable equilibrium .... + +Such is the brief outline of the politics of the Empire for thirty-two +years. It is interesting to note how entirely the European mind was +concentrated upon the struggle for European ascendancy. Neither Turks, +French, English nor Germans had yet discovered any political interest +in the great continent of America, nor any significance in the new sea +routes to Asia. Great things were happening in America; Cortez with a +mere handful of men had conquered the great Neolithic empire of Mexico +for Spain, Pizarro had crossed the Isthmus of Panama (1530) and +subjugated another wonder-land, Peru. But as yet these events meant no +more to Europe than a useful and stimulating influx of silver to the +Spanish treasury. + +It was after the treaty of Passau that Charles began to display his +distinctive originality of mind. He was now entirely bored and +disillusioned by his imperial greatness. A sense of the intolerable +futility of these European rivalries came upon him. He had never been +of a very sound constitution, he was naturally indolent and he was +suffering greatly from gout. He abdicated. He made over all his +sovereign rights in Germany to his brother Ferdinand, and Spain and the +Netherlands he resigned to his son Philip. Then in a sort of +magnificent dudgeon he retired to a monastery at Yuste, among the oak +and chestnut forests in the hills to the north of the Tagus valley. +There he died in 1558. + +Much has been written in a sentimental vein of this retirement, this +renunciation of the world by this tired majestic Titan, world-weary, +seeking in an austere solitude his peace with God. But his retreat was +neither solitary nor austere; he had with him nearly a hundred and +fifty attendants: his establishment had all the splendour and +indulgences without the fatigues or a court, and Philip II was a +dutiful son to whom his father’s advice was a command. + + +INTERIOR OF ST. PETER’S, ROME, SHOWING THE HIGH ALTAR +INTERIOR OF ST. PETER’S, ROME, SHOWING THE HIGH ALTAR + +_Photo: Alinari_ + + +And if Charles had lost his living interest in the administration of +European affairs, there were other motives of a more immediate sort to +stir him. Says Prescott: “In the almost daily correspondence between +Quixada, or Gaztelu, and the Secretary of State at Valladolid, there is +scarcely a letter that does not turn more or less on the Emperor’s +eating or his illness. The one seems naturally to follow, like a +running commentary, on the other. It is rare that such topics have +formed the burden of communications with the department of state. It +must have been no easy matter for the secretary to preserve his gravity +in the perusal of despatches in which politics and gastronomy were so +strangely mixed together. The courier from Valladolid to Lisbon was +ordered to make a detour, so as to take Jarandilla in his route, and +bring supplies to the royal table. On Thursdays he was to bring fish +to serve for the jour maigre that was to follow. The trout in the +neighbourhood Charles thought too small, so others of a larger size +were to be sent from Valladolid. Fish of every kind was to his taste, +as, indeed, was anything that in its nature or habits at all approached +to fish. Eels, frogs, oysters, occupied an important place in the +royal bill of fare. Potted fish, especially anchovies, found great +favour with him; and he regretted that he had not brought a better +supply of these from the Low Countries. On an eel-pasty he +particularly doted.” ... [1] + +In 1554 Charles had obtained a bull from Pope Julius III granting him a +dispensation from fasting, and allowing him to break his fast early in +the morning even when he was to take the sacrament. + +Eating and doctoring! it was a return to elemental things. He had never +acquired the habit of reading, but he would be read aloud to at meals +after the fashion of Charlemagne, and would make what one narrator +describes as a “sweet and heavenly commentary.” He also amused himself +with mechanical toys, by listening to music or sermons, and by +attending to the imperial business that still came drifting in to him. +The death of the Empress, to whom he was greatly attached, had turned +his mind towards religion, which in his case took a punctilious and +ceremonial form; every Friday in Lent he scourged himself with the rest +of the monks with such good will as to draw blood. These exercises and +the gout released a bigotry in Charles that had hitherto been +restrained by considerations of policy. The appearance of Protestant +teaching close at hand in Valladolid roused him to fury. “Tell the +grand inquisitor and his council from me to be at their posts, and to +lay the axe at the root of the evil before it spreads further.” . .. He +expressed a doubt whether it would not be well, in so black an affair, +to dispense with the ordinary course of justice, and to show no mercy; +“lest the criminal, if pardoned, should have the opportunity of +repeating his crime.” He recommended, as an example, his own mode or +proceeding in the Netherlands, “where all who remained obstinate in +their errors were burned alive, and those who were admitted to +penitence were beheaded.” + +And almost symbolical of his place and role in history was his +preoccupation with funerals. He seems to have had an intuition that +something great was dead in Europe and sorely needed burial, that there +was a need to write Finis, overdue. He not only attended every actual +funeral that was celebrated at Yuste, but he had services conducted for +the absent dead, he held a funeral service in memory of his wife on the +anniversary of her death, and finally he celebrated his own obsequies. + +“The chapel was hung with black, and the blaze of hundreds of +wax-lights was scarcely sufficient to dispel the darkness. The +brethren in their conventual dress, and all the Emperor’s household +clad in deep mourning, gathered round a huge catafalque, shrouded also +in black, which had been raised in the centre of the chapel. The +service for the burial of the dead was then performed; and, amidst the +dismal wail of the monks, the prayers ascended for the departed spirit, +that it might be received into the mansions of the blessed. The +sorrowful attendants were melted to tears, as the image of their +master’s death was presented to their minds—or they were touched, it +may be, with compassion by this pitiable display of weakness. Charles, +muffled in a dark mantle, and bearing a lighted candle in his hand, +mingled with his household, the spectator of his own obsequies; and the +doleful ceremony was concluded by his placing the taper in the hands of +the priest, in sign of his surrendering up his soul to the Almighty.” + +Within two months of this masquerade he was dead. And the brief +greatness of the Holy Roman Empire died with him. His realm was +already divided between his brother and his son. The Holy Roman Empire +struggled on indeed to the days of Napoleon I but as an invalid and +dying thing. To this day its unburied tradition still poisons the +political air. + + +[1] Prescott’s Appendix to Robertson’s _History of Charles V_. + + + + +LII +THE AGE OF POLITICAL EXPERIMENTS; OF GRAND MONARCHY AND PARLIAMENTS AND +REPUBLICANISM IN EUROPE + + +The Latin Church was broken, the Holy Roman Empire was in extreme +decay; the history of Europe from the opening of the sixteenth century +onward is a story of peoples feeling their way darkly to some new +method of government, better adapted to the new conditions that were +arising. In the Ancient World, over long periods of time, there had +been changes of dynasty and even changes of ruling race and language, +but the form of government through monarch and temple remained fairly +stable, and still more stable was the ordinary way of living. In this +modern Europe since the sixteenth century the dynastic changes are +unimportant, and the interest of history lies in the wide and +increasing variety of experiments in political and social organization. + +The political history of the world from the sixteenth century onward +was, we have said, an effort, a largely unconscious effort, of mankind +to adapt its political and social methods to certain new conditions +that had now arisen. The effort to adapt was complicated by the fad +that the conditions themselves were changing with a steadily increasing +rapidity. The adaptation, mainly unconscious and almost always +unwilling (for man in general hates voluntary change), has lagged more +and more behind the alterations in conditions. From the sixteenth +century onward the history of mankind is a story of political and +social institutions becoming more and more plainly misfits, less +comfortable and more vexatious, and of the slow reluctant realization +of the need for a conscious and deliberate reconstruction of the whole +scheme of human societies in the face of needs and possibilities new to +all the former experiences of life. + +What are these changes in the conditions of human life that have +disorganized that balance of empire, priest, peasant and trader, with +periodic refreshment by barbaric conquest, that has held human affairs +in the Old World in a sort of working rhythm for more than a hundred +centuries? + +They are manifold and various, for human affairs are multitudinously +complex; but the main changes seem all to turn upon one cause, namely +the growth and extension of a knowledge of the nature of things, +beginning first of all in small groups of intelligent people and +spreading at first slowly, and in the last five hundred years very +rapidly, to larger and larger proportions of the general population. + +But there has also been a great change in human conditions due to a +change in the spirit of human life. This change has gone on side by +side with the increase and extension of knowledge, and is subtly +connected with it. There has been an increasing disposition to treat a +life based on the common and more elementary desires and gratifications +as unsatisfactory, and to seek relationship with and service and +participation in a larger life. This is the common characteristic of +all the great religions that have spread throughout the world in the +last twenty odd centuries, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam alike. +They have had to do with the spirit of man in a way that the older +religions did not have to do. They are forces quite different in their +nature and effect from the old fetishistic blood-sacrifice religions of +priest and temple that they have in part modified and in part replaced. + They have gradually evolved a self-respect in the individual and a +sense of participation and responsibility in the common concerns of +mankind that did not exist among the populations of the earlier +civilizations. + +The first considerable change in the conditions of political and social +life was the simplification and extended use of writing in the ancient +civilizations which made larger empires and wider political +understandings practicable and inevitable. The next movement forward +came with the introduction of the horse, and later on of the camel as a +means of transport, the use of wheeled vehicles, the extension of roads +and the increased military efficiency due to the discovery of +terrestrial iron. Then followed the profound economic disturbances due +to the device of coined money and the change in the nature of debt, +proprietorship and trade due to this convenient but dangerous +convention. The empires grew in size and range, and men’s ideas grew +likewise to correspond with these things. Came the disappearance of +local gods, the age of theocrasia, and the teaching of the great world +religions. Came also the beginnings of reasoned and recorded history +and geography, the first realization by man of his profound ignorance, +and the first systematic search for knowledge. + +For a time the scientific process which began so brilliantly in Greece +and Alexandria was interrupted. The raids of the Teutonic barbarians, +the westward drive of the Mongolian peoples, convulsive religious +reconstruction and great pestilences put enormous strains upon +political and social order. When civilization emerged again from this +phase of conflict and confusion, slavery was no longer the basis of +economic life; and the first paper-mills were preparing a new medium +for collective information and co-operation in printed matter. +Gradually at this point and that, the search for knowledge, the +systematic scientific process, was resumed. + +And now from the sixteenth century onward, as an inevitable by-product +of systematic thought, appeared a steadily increasing series of +inventions and devices affecting the intercommunication and interaction +of men with one another. They all tended towards wider range of action, +greater mutual benefits or injuries, and increased co-operation, and +they came faster and faster. Men’s minds had not been prepared for +anything of the sort, and until the great catastrophes at the beginning +of the twentieth century quickened men’s minds, the historian has very +little to tell of any intelligently planned attempts to meet the new +conditions this increasing flow of inventions was creating. The history +of mankind for the last four centuries is rather like that of an +imprisoned sleeper, stirring clumsily and uneasily while the prison +that restrains and shelters him catches fire, not waking but +incorporating the crackling and warmth of the fire with ancient and +incongruous dreams, than like that of a man consciously awake to danger +and opportunity. + +Since history is the story not of individual lives but of communities, +it is inevitable that the inventions that figure most in the historical +record are inventions affecting communications. In the sixteenth +century the chief new things that we have to note are the appearance of +printed paper and the sea-worthy, ocean-going sailing ship using the +new device of the mariner’s compass. The former cheapened, spread, and +revolutionized teaching, public information and discussion, and the +fundamental operations of political activity. The latter made the +round world one. But almost equally important was the increased +utilization and improvement of guns and gunpowder which the Mongols had +first brought westward in the thirteenth century. This destroyed the +practical immunity of barons in their castles and of walled cities. +Guns swept away feudalism. Constantinople fell to guns. Mexico and +Peru fell before the terror of the Spanish guns. + + +CROMWELL DISSOLVES THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND SO BECOMES AUTOCRAT OF THE +ENGLISH REPUBLIC +CROMWELL DISSOLVES THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND SO BECOMES AUTOCRAT OF THE +ENGLISH REPUBLIC + +_(From a contemporary satirical print in the British Museum)_ + + +The seventeenth century saw the development of systematic scientific +publication, a less conspicuous but ultimately far more pregnant +innovation. Conspicuous among the leaders in this great forward step +was Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) afterwards Lord Verulam, Lord +Chancellor of England. He was the pupil and perhaps the mouthpiece of +another Englishman; Dr. Gilbert, the experimental philosopher of +Colchester (1540-1603). This second Bacon, like the first, preached +observation and experiment, and he used the inspiring and fruitful form +of a Utopian story, _The New Atlantis_, to express his dream of a great +service of scientific research. + +Presently arose the Royal Society of London, the Florentine Society, +and later other national bodies for the encouragement of research and +the publication and exchange of knowledge. These European scientific +societies became fountains not only of countless inventions but also of +a destructive criticism of the grotesque theological history of the +world that had dominated and crippled human thought for many centuries. + +Neither the seventeenth nor the eighteenth century witnessed any +innovations so immediately revolutionary in human conditions as printed +paper and the ocean-going ship, but there was a steady accumulation of +knowledge and scientific energy that was to bear its full fruits in the +nineteenth century. The exploration and mapping of the world went on. +Tasmania, Australia, New Zealand appeared on the map. In Great Britain +in the eighteenth century coal coke began to be used for metallurgical +purposes, leading to a considerable cheapening of iron and to the +possibility of casting and using it in larger pieces than had been +possible before, when it had been smelted with wood charcoal. Modern +machinery dawned. + +Like the trees of the celestial city, science bears bud and flower and +fruit at the same time and continuously. With the onset of the +nineteenth century the real fruition of science—which indeed henceforth +may never cease—began. First came steam and steel, the railway, the +great liner, vast bridges and buildings, machinery of almost limitless +power, the possibility of a bountiful satisfaction of every material +human need, and then, still more wonderful, the hidden treasures of +electrical science were opened to men .... + +We have compared the political and social life of man from the +sixteenth century onward to that of a sleeping prisoner who lies and +dreams while his prison burns about him. In the sixteenth century the +European mind was still going on with its Latin Imperial dream, its +dream of a Holy Roman Empire, united under a Catholic Church. But just +as some uncontrollable element in our composition will insist at times +upon introducing into our dreams the most absurd and destructive +comments, so thrust into this dream we find the sleeping face and +craving stomach of the Emperor Charles V, while Henry VIII of England +and Luther tear the unity of Catholicism to shreds. + + +THE COURT AT VERSAILLES +THE COURT AT VERSAILLES + +_(From the print after Watteau in the British Museum)_ + + +In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the dream turned to +personal monarchy. The history of nearly all Europe during this period +tells with variations the story of an attempt to consolidate a +monarchy, to make it absolute and to extend its power over weaker +adjacent regions, and of the steady resistance, first of the landowners +and then with the increase of foreign trade and home industry, of the +growing trading and moneyed class, to the exaction and interference of +the crown. There is no universal victory of either side; here it is +the King who gets the upper hand while there it is the man of private +property who beats the King. In one case we find a King becoming the +sun and centre of his national world, while just over his borders a +sturdy mercantile class maintains a republic. So wide a range of +variation shows how entirely experimental, what local accidents, were +all the various governments of this period. + +A very common figure in these national dramas is the King’s minister, +often in the still Catholic countries a prelate, who stands behind the +King, serves him and dominates him by his indispensable services. + +Here in the limits set to us it is impossible to tell these various +national dramas in detail. The trading folk of Holland went Protestant +and republican, and cast off the rule of Philip II of Spain, the son of +the Emperor Charles V. In England Henry VIII and his minister Wolsey, +Queen Elizabeth and her minister Burleigh, prepared the foundations of +an absolutism that was wrecked by the folly of James I and Charles I. +Charles I was beheaded for treason to his people (1649), a new turn in +the political thought of Europe. For a dozen years (until 1660) +Britain was a republic; and the crown was an unstable power, much +overshadowed by Parliament, until George III (1760-1820) made a +strenuous and partly successful effort to restore its predominance. +The King of France, on the other hand, was the most successful of all +the European Kings in perfecting monarchy. Two great ministers, +Richelieu (1585-1642) and Mazarin (1602-1661), built up the power of +the crown in that country, and the process was aided by the long reign +and very considerable abilities of King Louis XIV, “the Grand Monarque” +(1643-1715). + +Louis XIV was indeed the pattern King of Europe. He was, within his +limitations, an exceptionally capable King; his ambition was stronger +than his baser passions, and he guided his country towards bankruptcy +through the complication of a spirited foreign policy with an elaborate +dignity that still extorts our admiration. His immediate desire was to +consolidate and extend France to the Rhine and Pyrenees, and to absorb +the Spanish Netherlands; his remoter view saw the French Kings as the +possible successors of Charlemagne in a recast Holy Roman Empire. He +made bribery a state method almost more important than warfare. +Charles II of England was in his pay, and so were most of the Polish +nobility, presently to be described. His money, or rather the money of +the tax- paying classes in France, went everywhere. But his prevailing +occupation was splendour. His great palace at Versailles with its +salons, its corridors, its mirrors, its terraces and fountains and +parks and prospects, was the envy and admiration of the world. + + +THE SACK OF A VILLAGE DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION +THE SACK OF A VILLAGE DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + +_(From Callot’s “Miseres de la Guerre”) _ + + +He provoked a universal imitation. Every king and princelet in Europe +was building his own Versailles as much beyond his means as his +subjects and credits would permit. Everywhere the nobility rebuilt or +extended their chateaux to the new pattern. A great industry of +beautiful and elaborate fabrics and furnishings developed. The +luxurious arts flourished everywhere; sculpture in alabaster, faience, +gilt woodwork, metal work, stamped leather, much music, magnificent +painting, beautiful printing and bindings, fine crockery, fine +vintages. Amidst the mirrors and fine furniture went a strange race of +“gentlemen” in tall powdered wigs, silks and laces, poised upon high +red heels, supported by amazing canes; and still more wonderful +“ladies,” under towers of powdered hair and wearing vast expansions of +silk and satin sustained on wire. Through it all postured the great +Louis, the sun of his world, unaware of the meagre and sulky and bitter +faces that watched him from those lower darknesses to which his +sunshine did not penetrate. + + +Map: Central Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648 + +The German people remained politically divided throughout this period +of the monarchies and experimental governments, and a considerable +number of ducal and princely courts aped the splendours of Versailles +on varying scales. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), a devastating +scramble among the Germans, Swedes and Bohemians for fluctuating +political advantages, sapped the energies of Germany for a century. A +map must show the crazy patchwork in which this struggle ended, a map +of Europe according to the peace of Westphalia (1648). One sees a +tangle of principalities, dukedoms, free states and the like, some +partly in and partly out of the Empire. Sweden’s arm, the reader will +note, reached far into Germany; and except for a few islands of +territory within the imperial boundaries France was still far from the +Rhine. Amidst this patchwork the Kingdom of Prussia—it became a +Kingdom in 1701—rose steadily to prominence and sustained a series of +successful wars. Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740-86) had his +Versailles at Potsdam, where his court spoke French, read French +literature and rivalled the culture of the French King. + +In 1714 the Elector of Hanover became King of England, adding one more +to the list of monarchies half in and half out of the empire. + +The Austrian branch of the descendants of Charles V retained the title +of Emperor; the Spanish branch retained Spain. But now there was also +an Emperor of the East again. After the fall of Constantinople (1453), +the grand duke of Moscow, Ivan the Great (1462-1505), claimed to be +heir to the Byzantine throne and adopted the Byzantine double-headed +eagle upon his arms. His grandson, Ivan IV, Ivan the Terrible +(1533-1584), assumed the imperial title of Cæsar (Tsar). But only in +the latter half of the seventeenth century did Russia cease to seem +remote and Asiatic to the European mind. The Tsar Peter the Great +(1682-1725) brought Russia into the arena of Western affairs. He built +a new capital for his empire, Petersburg upon the Neva, that played the +part of a window between Russia and Europe, and he set up his +Versailles at Peterhof eighteen miles away, employing a French +architect who gave him a terrace, fountains, cascades, picture gallery, +park and all the recognized appointments of Grand Monarchy. In Russia +as in Prussia French became the language of the court. + +Unhappily placed between Austria, Prussia and Russia was the Polish +kingdom, an ill-organized state of great landed proprietors too jealous +of their own individual grandeur to permit more than a nominal kingship +to the monarch they elected. Her fate was division among these three +neighbours, in spite of the efforts of France to retain her as an +independent ally. Switzerland at this time was a group of republican +cantons; Venice was a republic; Italy like so much of Germany was +divided among minor dukes and princes. The Pope ruled like a prince in +the papal states, too fearful now of losing the allegiance of the +remaining Catholic princes to interfere between them and their subjects +or to remind the world of the commonweal of Christendom. There remained +indeed no common political idea in Europe at all; Europe was given over +altogether to division and diversity. + +All these sovereign princes and republics carried on schemes of +aggrandizement against each other. Each one of them pursued a “foreign +policy” of aggression against its neighbours and of aggressive +alliances. We Europeans still live to-day in the last phase of this +age of the multifarious sovereign states, and still suffer from the +hatreds, hostilities and suspicions it engendered. The history of this +time becomes more and more manifestly “gossip,” more and more unmeaning +and wearisome to a modern intelligence. You are told of how this war +was caused by this King’s mistress, and how the jealousy of one +minister for another caused that. A tittle-tattle of bribes and +rivalries disgusts the intelligent student. The more permanently +significant fact is that in spite of the obstruction of a score of +frontiers, reading and thought still spread and increased and +inventions multiplied. The eighteenth century saw the appearance of a +literature profoundly sceptical and critical of the courts and policies +of the time. In such a book as Voltaire’s _Candide_ we have the +expression of an infinite weariness with the planless confusion of the +European world. + + + + +LIII +THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS + + +While Central Europe thus remained divided and confused, the Western +Europeans and particularly the Dutch, the Scandinavians, the Spanish, +the Portuguese, the French and the British were extending the area of +their struggles across the seas of all the world. The printing press +had dissolved the political ideas of Europe into a vast and at first +indeterminate fermentation, but that other great innovation, the +ocean-going sailing ship, was inexorably extending the range of +European experience to the furthermost limits of salt water. + +The first overseas settlements of the Dutch and Northern Atlantic +Europeans were not for colonization but for trade and mining. The +Spaniards were first in the field; they claimed dominion over the whole +of this new world of America. Very soon however the Portuguese asked +for a share. The Pope—it was one of the last acts of Rome as mistress +of the world—divided the new continent between these two first-comers, +giving Portugal Brazil and everything else east of a line 370 leagues +west of the Cape Verde islands, and all the rest to Spain (1494). The +Portuguese at this time were also pushing overseas enterprise southward +and eastward. In 1497 Vasco da Gama had sailed from Lisbon round the +Cape to Zanzibar and then to Calicut in India. In 1515 there were +Portuguese ships in Java and the Moluccas, and the Portuguese were +setting up and fortifying trading stations round and about the coasts +of the Indian Ocean. Mozambique, Goa, and two smaller possessions in +India, Macao in China and a part of Timor are to this day Portuguese +possessions. + +The nations excluded from America by the papal settlement paid little +heed to the rights of Spain and Portugal. The English, the Danes and +Swedes, and presently the Dutch, were soon staking out claims in North +America and the West Indies, and his Most Catholic Majesty of France +heeded the papal settlement as little as any Protestant. The wars of +Europe extended themselves to these claims and possessions. + + +Map: Central Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648 + +In the long run the English were the most successful in this scramble +for overseas possessions. The Danes and Swedes were too deeply +entangled in the complicated affairs of Germany to sustain effective +expeditions abroad. Sweden was wasted upon the German battlefields by +a picturesque king, Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant “Lion of the +North.” The Dutch were the heirs of such small settlements as Sweden +made in America, and the Dutch were too near French aggressions to hold +their own against the British. In the far East the chief rivals for +empire were the British, Dutch and French, and in America the British, +French and Spanish. The British had the supreme advantage of a water +frontier, the “silver streak” of the English Channel, against Europe. +The tradition of the Latin Empire entangled them least. + + +EUROPEANS TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA +EUROPEANS TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA + +_(From the engraving of the picture by Zoffany in the British Museum)_ + + +France has always thought too much in terms of Europe. Throughout the +eighteenth century she was wasting her opportunities of expansion in +West and East alike in order to dominate Spain, Italy and the German +confusion. The religious and political dissensions of Britain in the +seventeenth century had driven many of the English to seek a permanent +home in America. They struck root and increased and multiplied, giving +the British a great advantage in the American struggle. In 1756 and +1760 the French lost Canada to the British and their American +colonists, and a few years later the British trading company found +itself completely dominant over French, Dutch and Portuguese in the +peninsula of India. The great Mongol Empire of Baber, Akbar and their +successors had now far gone in decay, and the story of its practical +capture by a London trading company, the British East India Company, is +one of the most extraordinary episodes in the whole history of +conquest. + + +THE LAST EFFORT AND FALL OF TIPPOO SULTAN +THE LAST EFFORT AND FALL OF TIPPOO SULTAN + +_(From the engraving of the picture by Singleton in the British +Museum)_ + + +This East India Company had been originally at the time of its +incorporation under Queen Elizabeth no more than a company of sea +adventurers. Step by step they had been forced to raise troops and arm +their ships. And now this trading company, with its tradition of gain, +found itself dealing not merely in spices and dyes and tea and jewels, +but in the revenues and territories of princes and the destinies of +India. It had come to buy and sell, and it found itself achieving a +tremendous piracy. There was no one to challenge its proceedings. Is +it any wonder that its captains and commanders and officials, nay, even +its clerks and common soldiers, came back to England loaded with +spoils? + +Men under such circumstances, with a great and wealthy land at their +mercy, could not determine what they might or might not do. It was a +strange land to them, with a strange sunlight; its brown people seemed +a different race, outside their range of sympathy; its mysterious +temples sustained fantastic standards of behaviour. Englishmen at home +were perplexed when presently these generals and officials came back to +make dark accusations against each other of extortions and cruelties. +Upon Clive Parliament passed a vote of censure. He committed suicide +in 1774. In 1788 Warren Hastings, a second great Indian administrator, +was impeached and acquitted (1792). It was a strange and unprecedented +situation in the world’s history. The English Parliament found itself +ruling over a London trading company, which in its turn was dominating +an empire far greater and more populous than all the domains of the +British crown. To the bulk of the English people India was a remote, +fantastic, almost inaccessible land, to which adventurous poor young +men went out, to return after many years very rich and very choleric +old gentlemen. It was difficult for the English to conceive what the +life of these countless brown millions in the eastern sunshine could +be. Their imaginations declined the task. India remained romantically +unreal. It was impossible for the English, therefore, to exert any +effective supervision and control over the company’s proceedings. + +And while the Western European powers were thus fighting for these +fantastic overseas empires upon every ocean in the world, two great +land conquests were in progress in Asia. China had thrown off the +Mongol yoke in 1360, and flourished under the great native dynasty of +the Mings until 1644. Then the Manchus, another Mongol people, +reconquered China and remained masters of China until 1912. Meanwhile +Russia was pushing East and growing to greatness in the world’s +affairs. The rise of this great central power of the old world, which +is neither altogether of the East nor altogether of the West, is one of +the utmost importance to our human destiny. Its expansion is very +largely due to the appearance of a Christian steppe people, the +Cossacks, who formed a barrier between the feudal agriculture of Poland +and Hungary to the west and the Tartar to the east. The Cossacks were +the wild east of Europe, and in many ways not unlike the wild west of +the United States in the middle nineteenth century. All who had made +Russia too hot to hold them, criminals as well as the persecuted +innocent, rebellious serfs, religious secretaries, thieves, vagabonds, +murderers, sought asylum in the southern steppes and there made a fresh +start and fought for life and freedom against Pole, Russian and Tartar +alike. Doubtless fugitives from the Tartars to the east also +contributed to the Cossack mixture. Slowly these border folk were +incorporated in the Russian imperial service, much as the highland +clans of Scotland were converted into regiments by the British +government. New lands were offered them in Asia. They became a weapon +against the dwindling power of the Mongolian nomads, first in Turkestan +and then across Siberia as far as the Amur. + +The decay of Mongol energy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries +is very difficult to explain. Within two or three centuries from the +days of Jengis and Timurlane Central Asia had relapsed from a period of +world ascendancy to extreme political impotence. Changes of climate, +unrecorded pestilences, infections of a malarial type, may have played +their part in this recession—which may be only a temporary recession +measured by the scale of universal history—of the Central Asian +peoples. Some authorities think that the spread of Buddhist teaching +from China also had a pacifying influence upon them. At any rate, by +the sixteenth century the Mongol, Tartar and Turkish peoples were no +longer pressing outward, but were being invaded, subjugated and pushed +back both by Christian Russia in the west and by China in the east. + +All through the seventeenth century the Cossacks were spreading +eastward from European Russia, and settling wherever they found +agricultural conditions. Cordons of forts and stations formed a moving +frontier to these settlements to the south, where the Turkomans were +still strong and active; to the north-east, however, Russia had no +frontier until she reached right to the Pacific.... + + + + +LIV +THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE + + +The third quarter of the eighteenth century thus saw the remarkable and +unstable spectacle of a Europe divided against itself, and no longer +with any unifying political or religious idea, yet through the immense +stimulation of men’s imaginations by the printed book, the printed map, +and the opportunity of the new ocean-going shipping, able in a +disorganized and contentious manner to dominate all the coasts of the +world. It was a planless, incoherent ebullition of enterprise due to +temporary and almost accidental advantages over the rest of mankind. By +virtue of these advantages this new and still largely empty continent +of America was peopled mainly from Western European sources, and South +Africa and Australia and New Zealand marked down as prospective homes +for a European population. + +The motive that had sent Columbus to America and Vasco da Gama to India +was the perennial first motive of all sailors since the beginning of +things—trade. But while in the already populous and productive East +the trade motive remained dominant, and the European settlements +remained trading settlements from which the European inhabitants hoped +to return home to spend their money, the Europeans in America, dealing +with communities at a very much lower level of productive activity, +found a new inducement for persistence in the search for gold and +silver. Particularly did the mines of Spanish America yield silver. +The Europeans had to go to America not simply as armed merchants but as +prospectors, miners, searchers after natural products, and presently as +planters. In the north they sought furs. Mines and plantations +necessitated settlements. They obliged people to set up permanent +overseas homes. Finally in some cases, as when the English Puritans +went to New England in the early seventeenth 336}century to escape +religious persecution, when in the eighteenth Oglethorpe sent people +from the English debtors’ prisons to Georgia, and when in the end of +the eighteenth the Dutch sent orphans to the Cape of Good Hope, the +Europeans frankly crossed the seas to find new homes for good. In the +nineteenth century, and especially after the coming of the steamship, +the stream of European emigration to the new empty lands of America and +Australia rose for some decades to the scale of a great migration. + +So there grew up permanent overseas populations of Europeans, and the +European culture was transplanted to much larger areas than those in +which it had been developed. These new communities bringing a +ready-made civilization with them to these new lands grew up, as it +were, unplanned and unperceived; the statecraft of Europe did not +foresee them, and was unprepared with any ideas about their treatment. +The politicians and ministers of Europe continued to regard them as +essentially expeditionary establishments, sources of revenue, +“possessions” and “dependencies,” long after their peoples had +developed a keen sense of their separate social life. And also they +continued to treat them as helplessly subject to the mother country +long after the population had spread inland out of reach of any +effectual punitive operations from the sea. + +Because until right into the nineteenth century, it must be remembered, +the link of all these overseas empires was the oceangoing sailing ship. + On land the swiftest thing was still the horse, and the cohesion and +unity of political systems on land was still limited by the limitations +of horse communications. + +Now at the end of the third quarter of the eighteenth century the +northern two-thirds of North America was under the British crown. +France had abandoned America. Except for Brazil, which was Portuguese, +and one or two small islands and areas in French, British, Danish and +Dutch hands, Florida, Louisiana, California and all America to the +south was Spanish. It was the British colonies south of Maine and Lake +Ontario that first demonstrated the inadequacy of the sailing ship to +hold overseas populations together in one political system. + +These British colonies were very miscellaneous in their origin and +character. There were French, Swedish and Dutch settlements as well as +British; there were British Catholics in Maryland and British +ultra-Protestants in New England, and while the New Englanders farmed +their own land and denounced slavery, the British in Virginia and the +south were planters employing a swelling multitude of imported negro +slaves. There was no natural common unity in such states. To get from +one to the other might mean a coasting voyage hardly less tedious than +the transatlantic crossing. But the union that diverse origin and +natural conditions denied the British Americans was forced upon them by +the selfishness and stupidity of the British government in London. +They were taxed without any voice in the spending of the taxes; their +trade was sacrificed to British interests; the highly profitable slave +trade was maintained by the British government in spite of the +opposition of the Virginians who—though quite willing to hold and use +slaves—feared to be swamped by an ever-growing barbaric black +population. + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON +GEORGE WASHINGTON + +_(From a painting by Gilbert Stuart)_ + + +Britain at that time was lapsing towards an intenser form of monarchy, +and the obstinate personality of George III (1760- 1820) did much to +force on a struggle between the home and the colonial governments. + +The conflict was precipitated by legislation which favoured the London +East India Company at the expense of the American shipper. Three +cargoes of tea which were imported under the new conditions were thrown +overboard in Boston harbour by a band of men disguised as Indians +(1773). Fighting only began in 1775 when the British government +attempted to arrest two of the American leaders at Lexington near +Boston. The first shots were fired in Lexington by the British; the +first fighting occurred at Concord. + + +THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, NEAR BOSTON +THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, NEAR BOSTON + +_(From the engraving of the picture by John Trumbull in the British +Museum)_ + + +So the American War of Independence began, though for more than a year +the colonists showed themselves extremely unwilling to sever their +links with the mother land. It was not until the middle of 1776 that +the Congress of the insurgent states issued “The Declaration of +Independence.” George Washington, who like many of the leading +colonists of the time had had a military training in the wars against +the French, was made commander-in-chief. In 1777 a British general, +General Burgoyne, in an attempt to reach New York from Canada, was +defeated at Freemans Farm and obliged to surrender at Saratoga. In the +same year the French and Spanish declared war upon Great Britain, +greatly hampering her sea communications. A second British army under +General Cornwallis was caught in the Yorktown peninsula in Virginia and +obliged to capitulate in 1781. In 1783 peace was made in Paris, and +the Thirteen Colonies from Maine to Georgia became a union of +independent sovereign States. So the United States of America came +into existence. Canada remained loyal to the British flag. + + +Map: The United States, showing extent of settlement in 1790 + +For four years these States had only a very feeble central government +under certain Articles of Confederation, and they seemed destined to +break up into separate independent communities. Their immediate +separation was delayed by the hostility of the British and a certain +aggressiveness on the part of the French which brought home to them the +immediate dangers of division. A Constitution was drawn up and +ratified in 1788 establishing a more efficient Federal government with +a President holding very considerable powers, and the weak sense of +national unity was invigorated by a second war with Britain in 1812. +Nevertheless the area covered by the States was so wide and their +interests so diverse at that time, that—given only the means of +communication then available—a disintegration of the Union into +separate states on the European scale of size was merely a question of +time. Attendance at Washington meant a long, tedious and insecure +journey for the senators and congressmen of the remoter districts, and +the mechanical impediments to the diffusion of a common education and a +common literature and intelligence were practically insurmountable. +Forces were at work in the world however that were to arrest the +process of differentiation altogether. Presently came the river +steamboat and then the railway and the telegraph to save the United +States from fragmentation, and weave its dispersed people together +again into the first of great modern nations. + +Twenty-two years later the Spanish colonies in America were to follow +the example of the Thirteen and break their connection with Europe. +But being more dispersed over the continent and separated by great +mountainous chains and deserts and forests and by the Portuguese Empire +of Brazil, they did not achieve a union among themselves. They became +a constellation of republican states, very prone at first to wars among +themselves and to revolutions. + +Brazil followed a rather different line towards the inevitable +separation. In 1807 the French armies under Napoleon had occupied the +mother country of Portugal, and the monarchy had fled to Brazil. From +that time on until they separated, Portugal was rather a dependency of +Brazil than Brazil of Portugal. In 1822 Brazil declared itself a +separate Empire under Pedro I, a son of the Portuguese King. But the +new world has never been very favourable to monarchy. In 1889 the +Emperor of Brazil was shipped off quietly to Europe, and the United +States of Brazil fell into line with the rest of republican America. + + + + +LV +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE RESTORATION OF MONARCHY IN FRANCE + + +Britain had hardly lost the Thirteen Colonies in America before a +profound social and political convulsion at the very heart of Grand +Monarchy was to remind Europe still more vividly of the essentially +temporary nature of the political arrangements of the world. + +We have said that the French monarchy was the most successful of the +personal monarchies in Europe. It was the envy and model of a +multitude of competing and minor courts. But it flourished on a basis +of injustice that led to its dramatic collapse. It was brilliant and +aggressive, but it was wasteful of the life and substance of its common +people. The clergy and nobility were protected from taxation by a +system of exemption that threw the whole burden of the state upon the +middle and lower classes. The peasants were ground down by taxation; +the middle classes were dominated and humiliated by the nobility. + +In 1787 this French monarchy found itself bankrupt and obliged to call +representatives of the different classes of the realm into consultation +upon the perplexities of defective income and excessive expenditure. +In 1789 the States General, a gathering of the nobles, clergy and +commons, roughly equivalent to the earlier form of the British +Parliament, was called together at Versailles. It had not assembled +since 1610. For all that time France had been an absolute monarchy. +Now the people found a means of expressing their long fermenting +discontent. Disputes immediately broke out between the three estates, +due to the resolve of the Third Estate, the Commons, to control the +Assembly. The Commons got the better of these disputes and the States +General became a National Assembly, clearly resolved to keep the crown +in order, as the British Parliament kept the British crown in order. +The king (Louis XVI) prepared for a struggle and brought up troops from +the provinces. Whereupon Paris and France revolted. + +The collapse of the absolute monarchy was very swift. The grim-looking +prison of the Bastille was stormed by the people of Paris, and the +insurrection spread rapidly throughout France. In the east and +north-west provinces many chateaux belonging to the nobility were burnt +by the peasants, their title-deeds carefully destroyed, and the owners +murdered or driven away. In a month the ancient and decayed system of +the aristocratic order had collapsed. Many of the leading princes and +courtiers of the queen’s party fled abroad. A provisional city +government was set up in Paris and in most of the other large cities, +and a new armed force, the National Guard, a force designed primarily +and plainly to resist the forces of the crown, was brought into +existence by these municipal bodies. The National Assembly found +itself called upon to create a new political and social system for a +new age. + +It was a task that tried the powers of that gathering to the utmost. +It made a great sweep of the chief injustices of the absolutist regime; +it abolished tax exemptions, serfdom, aristocratic titles and +privileges and sought to establish a constitutional monarchy in Paris. +The king abandoned Versailles and its splendours and kept a diminished +state in the palace of the Tuileries in Paris. + +For two years it seemed that the National Assembly might struggle +through to an effective modernized government. Much of its work was +sound and still endures, if much was experimental and had to be undone. + Much was ineffective. There was a clearing up of the penal code; +torture, arbitrary imprisonment and persecutions for heresy were +abolished. The ancient provinces of France, Normandy, Burgundy and the +like gave place to eighty departments. Promotion to the highest ranks +in the army was laid open to men of every class. An excellent and +simple system of law courts was set up, but its value was much vitiated +by having the judges appointed by popular election for short periods of +time. This made the crowd a sort of final court of appeal, and the +judges, like the members of the Assembly, were forced to play to the +gallery. And the whole vast property of the church was seized and +administered by the state; religious establishments not engaged in +education or works of charity were broken up, and the salaries of the +clergy made a charge upon the nation. This in itself was not a bad +thing for the lower clergy in France, who were often scandalously +underpaid in comparison with the richer dignitaries. But in addition +the choice of priests and bishops was made elective, which struck at +the very root idea of the Roman Church, which centred everything upon +the Pope, and in which all authority is from above downward. +Practically the National Assembly wanted at one blow to make the church +in France Protestant, in organization if not in doctrine. Everywhere +there were disputes and conflicts between the state priests created by +the National Assembly and the recalcitrant (non-juring) priests who +were loyal to Rome. + +In 1791 the experiment of Constitutional monarchy in France was brought +to an abrupt end by the action of the king and queen, working in +concert with their aristocratic and monarchist friends abroad. Foreign +armies gathered on the Eastern frontier and one night in June the king +and queen and their children slipped away from the Tuileries and fled +to join the foreigners and the aristocratic exiles. They were caught +at Varennes and brought back to Paris, and an France flamed up into a +passion of patriotic republicanism. A Republic was proclaimed, open +war with Austria and Prussia ensued, and the king was tried and +executed (January, 1793) on the model already set by England, for +treason to his people. + +And now followed a strange phase in the history of the French people. +There arose a great flame of enthusiasm for France and the Republic. +There was to be an end to compromise at home and abroad; at home +royalists and every form of disloyalty were to be stamped out; abroad +France was to be the protector and helper of all revolutionaries. All +Europe, all the world, was to become Republican. The youth of France +poured into the Republican armies; a new and wonderful song spread +through the land, a song that still warms the blood like wine, the +Marseillaise. Before that chant and the leaping columns of French +bayonets and their enthusiastically served guns the foreign armies +rolled back; before the end of 1792 the French armies had gone far +beyond the utmost achievements of Louis XIV; everywhere they stood on +foreign soil. They were in Brussels, they had overrun Savoy, they had +raided to Mayence; they had seized the Scheldt from Holland. Then the +French Government did an unwise thing. It had been exasperated by the +expulsion of its representative from England upon the execution of +Louis, and it declared war against England. It was an unwise thing to +do, because the revolution which had given France a new enthusiastic +infantry and a brilliant artillery released from its aristocratic +officers and many cramping conditions had destroyed the discipline of +the navy, and the English were supreme upon the sea. And this +provocation united all England against France, whereas there had been +at first a very considerable liberal movement in Great Britain in +sympathy with the revolution. + + +THE TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI +THE TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI + +_(From a print in the British Museum)_ + + +Of the fight that France made in the next few years against a European +coalition we cannot tell in any detail. She drove the Austrians for +ever out of Belgium, and made Holland a republic. The Dutch fleet, +frozen in the Texel, surrendered to a handful of cavalry without firing +its guns. For some time the French thrust towards Italy was hung up, +and it was only in 1796 that a new general, Napoleon Bonaparte, led the +ragged and hungry republican armies in triumph across Piedmont to +Mantua and Verona. Says C. F. Atkinson, [1] “What astonished the +Allies most of all was the number and the velocity of the Republicans. +These improvised armies had in fact nothing to delay them. Tents were +unprocurable for want of money, untransportable for want of the +enormous number of wagons that would have been required, and also +unnecessary, for the discomfort that would have caused wholesale +desertion in professional armies was cheerfully borne by the men of +1793- 94. Supplies for armies of then unheard-of size could not be +carried in convoys, and the French soon became familiar with ‘living on +the country.’ Thus 1793 saw the birth of the modern system of +war—rapidity of movement, full development of national strength, +bivouacs, requisitions and force as against cautious manœuvring, small +professional armies, tents and full rations, and chicane. The first +represented the decision-compelling spirit, the second the spirit of +risking little to gain a little ... .” + +And while these ragged hosts of enthusiasts were chanting the +Marseillaise and fighting for _la France_, manifestly never quite clear +in their minds whether they were looting or liberating the countries +into which they poured, the republican enthusiasm in Paris was spending +itself in a far less glorious fashion. The revolution was now under +the sway of a fanatical leader, Robespierre. This man is difficult to +judge; he was a man of poor physique, naturally timid, and a prig. But +he had that most necessary gift for power, faith. He set himself to +save the Republic as he conceived it, and he imagined it could be saved +by no other man than he. So that to keep in power was to save the +Republic. The living spirit of the Republic, it seemed, had sprung +from a slaughter of royalists and the execution of the king. There +were insurrections; one in the west, in the district of La Vendée, +where the people rose against the conscription and against the +dispossession of the orthodox clergy, and were led by noblemen and +priests; one in the south, where Lyons and Marseilles had risen and the +royalists of Toulon had admitted an English and Spanish garrison. To +which there seemed no more effectual reply than to go on killing +royalists. + +The Revolutionary Tribunal went to work, and a steady slaughtering +began. The invention of the guillotine was opportune to this mood. +The queen was guillotined, most of Robespierre’s antagonists were +guillotined, atheists who argued that there was no Supreme Being were +guillotined; day by day, week by week, this infernal new machine +chopped off heads and more heads and more. The reign of Robespierre +lived, it seemed, on blood; and needed more and more, as an opium-taker +needs more and more opium. + + +THE EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE, OCTOBER 16, 1793 +THE EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE, OCTOBER 16, 1793 + +_(From a print in the British Museum)_ + + +Finally in the summer of 1794 Robespierre himself was overthrown and +guillotined. He was succeeded by a Directory of five men which carried +on the war of defence abroad and held France together at home for five +years. Their reign formed a curious interlude in this history of +violent changes. They took things as they found them. The +propagandist zeal of the revolution carried the French armies into +Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, south Germany and north Italy. +Everywhere kings were expelled and republics set up. But such +propagandist zeal as animated the Directorate did not prevent the +looting of the treasures of the liberated peoples to relieve the +financial embarrassment of the French Government. Their wars became +less and less the holy wars of freedom, and more and more like the +aggressive wars of the ancient regime. The last feature of Grand +Monarchy that France was disposed to discard was her tradition of +foreign policy. One discovers it still as vigorous under the +Directorate as if there had been no revolution. + +Unhappily for France and the world a man arose who embodied in its +intensest form this national egotism of the French. He gave that +country ten years of glory and the humiliation of a final defeat. This +was that same Napoleon Bonaparte who had led the armies of the +Directory to victory in Italy. + +Throughout the five years of the Directorate he had been scheming and +working for self-advancement. Gradually he clambered to supreme power. + He was a man of severely limited understanding but of ruthless +directness and great energy. He had begun life as an extremist of the +school of Robespierre; he owed his first promotion to that side; but he +had no real grasp of the new forces that were working in Europe. His +utmost political imagination carried him to a belated and tawdry +attempt to restore the Western Empire. He tried to destroy the remains +of the old Holy Roman Empire, intending to replace it by a new one +centring upon Paris. The Emperor in Vienna ceased to be the Holy Roman +Emperor and became simply Emperor of Austria. Napoleon divorced his +French wife in order to marry an Austrian princess. + +He became practically monarch of France as First Consul in 1799, and he +made himself Emperor of France in 1804 in direct imitation of +Charlemagne. He was crowned by the Pope in Paris, taking the crown +from the Pope and putting it upon his own head himself as Charlemagne +had directed. His son was crowned King of Rome. + +For some years Napoleon’s reign was a career of victory. He conquered +most of Italy and Spain, defeated Prussia and Austria, and dominated +all Europe west of Russia. But he never won the command of the sea +from the British and his fleets sustained a conclusive defeat inflicted +by the British Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar (1805). Spain rose against +him in 1808 and a British army under Wellington thrust the French +armies slowly northward out of the peninsula. In 1811 Napoleon came +into conflict with the Tsar Alexander I, and in 1812 he invaded Russia +with a great conglomerate army of 600,000 men, that was defeated and +largely destroyed by the Russians and the Russian winter. Germany rose +against him, Sweden turned against him. The French armies were beaten +back and at Fontainebleau Napoleon abdicated (1814). He was exiled to +Elba, returned to France for one last effort in 1815 and was defeated +by the allied British, Belgians and Prussians at Waterloo. He died a +British prisoner at St. Helena in 1821. + +The forces released by the French revolution were wasted and finished. +A great Congress of the victorious allies met at Vienna to restore as +far as possible the state of affairs that the great storm had rent to +pieces. For nearly forty years a sort of peace, a peace of exhausted +effort, was maintained in Europe. + + +[1] In his article, “French Revolutionary Wars,” in the Encyclopædia +Britannica. + + + + +LVI +THE UNEASY PEACE IN EUROPE THAT FOLLOWED THE FALL OF NAPOLEON + + +Two main causes prevented that period from being a complete social and +international peace, and prepared the way for the cycle of wars between +1854 and 1871. The first of these was the tendency of the royal courts +concerned, towards the restoration of unfair privilege and interference +with freedom of thought and writing and teaching. The second was the +impossible system of boundaries drawn by the diplomatists of Vienna. + +The inherent disposition of monarchy to march back towards past +conditions was first and most particularly manifest in Spain. Here +even the Inquisition was restored. Across the Atlantic the Spanish +colonies had followed the example of the United States and revolted +against the European Great Power System, when Napoleon set his brother +Joseph on the Spanish throne in 1810. The George Washington of South +America was General Bolivar. Spain was unable to suppress this revolt, +it dragged on much as the United States War of Independence had dragged +on, and at last the suggestion was made by Austria, in accordance with +the spirit of the Holy Alliance, that the European monarch should +assist Spain in this struggle. This was opposed by Britain in Europe, +but it was the prompt action of President Monroe of the United States +in 1823 which conclusively warned off this projected monarchist +restoration. He announced that the United States would regard any +extension of the European system in the Western Hemisphere as a hostile +act. Thus arose the Monroe Doctrine, the doctrine that there must be +no extension of extra- American government in America, which has kept +the Great Power system out of America for nearly a hundred years and +permitted the new states of Spanish America to work out their destinies +along their own lines. + +But if Spanish monarchism lost its colonies, it could at least, under +the protection of the Concert of Europe, do what it chose in Europe. A +popular insurrection in Spain was crushed by a French army in 1823, +with a mandate from a European congress, and simultaneously Austria +suppressed a revolution in Naples. + +In 1824 Louis XVIII died, and was succeeded by Charles X. Charles set +himself to destroy the liberty of the press and universities, and to +restore absolute government; the sum of a billion francs was voted to +compensate the nobles for the chateau burnings and sequestrations of +1789. In 1830 Paris rose against this embodiment of the ancient +regime, and replaced him by Louis Philippe, the son of that Philip, +Duke of Orleans, who was executed during the Terror. The other +continental monarchies, in face of the open approval of the revolution +by Great Britain and a strong liberal ferment in Germany and Austria, +did not interfere in this affair. After all, France was still a +monarchy. This man Louis Philippe (1830-48) remained the +constitutional King of France for eighteen years. + +Such were the uneasy swayings of the peace of the Congress of Vienna, +which were provoked by the reactionary proceedings of the monarchists. +The stresses that arose from the unscientific boundaries planned by the +diplomatists at Vienna gathered force more deliberately, but they were +even more dangerous to the peace of mankind. It is extraordinarily +inconvenient to administer together the affairs of peoples speaking +different languages and so reading different literatures and having +different general ideas, especially if those differences are +exacerbated by religious disputes. Only some strong mutual interest, +such as the common defensive needs of the Swiss mountaineers, can +justify a close linking of peoples of dissimilar languages and faiths; +and even in Switzerland there is the utmost local autonomy. When, as in +Macedonia, populations are mixed in a patchwork of villages and +districts, the cantonal system is imperatively needed. But if the +reader will look at the map of Europe as the Congress of Vienna drew +it, he will see that this gathering seems almost as if it had planned +the maximum of local exasperation. + +It destroyed the Dutch Republic, quite needlessly, it lumped together +the Protestant Dutch with the French-speaking Catholics of the old +Spanish (Austrian) Netherlands, and set up a kingdom of the +Netherlands. It handed over not merely the old republic of Venice, but +all of North Italy as far as Milan to the German-speaking Austrians. +French-speaking Savoy it combined with pieces of Italy to restore the +kingdom of Sardinia. Austria and Hungary, already a sufficiently +explosive mixture of discordant nationalities, Germans, Hungarians, +Czecho-Slovaks, Jugo-Slavs, Roumanians, and now Italians, was made +still more impossible by confirming Austria’s Polish acquisitions of +1772 and 1795. The Catholic and republican-spirited Polish people were +chiefly given over to the less civilized rule of the Greek-orthodox +Tsar, but important districts went to Protestant Prussia. The Tsar was +also confirmed in his acquisition of the entirely alien Finns. The +very dissimilar Norwegian and Swedish peoples were bound together under +one king. Germany, the reader will see, was left in a particularly +dangerous state of muddle. Prussia and Austria were both partly in and +partly out of a German confederation, which included a multitude of +minor states. The King of Denmark came into the German confederation +by virtue of certain German-speaking possessions in Holstein. +Luxembourg was included in the German confederation, though its ruler +was also King of the Netherlands, and though many of its peoples talked +French. + +Here was a complete disregard of the fact that the people who talk +German and base their ideas on German literature, the people who talk +Italian and base their ideas on Italian literature, and the people who +talk Polish and base their ideas on Polish literature, will all be far +better off and most helpful and least obnoxious to the rest of mankind +if they conduct their own affairs in their own idiom within the +ring-fence of their own speech. Is it any wonder that one of the most +popular songs in Germany during this period declared that wherever the +German tongue was spoken, there was the German Fatherland! + + +PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON (CORONATION) +PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON (CORONATION) + +_(From a print in the British Museum)_ + + +In 1830 French-speaking Belgium, stirred up by the current revolution +in France, revolted against its Dutch association in the kingdom of the +Netherlands. The powers, terrified at the possibilities of a republic +or of annexation to France, hurried in to pacify this situation, and +gave the Belgians a monarch, Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. There +were also ineffectual revolts in Italy and Germany in 1830, and a much +more serious one in Russian Poland. A republican government held out +in Warsaw for a year against Nicholas I (who succeeded Alexander in +1825), and was then stamped out of existence with great violence and +cruelty. The Polish language was banned, and the Greek Orthodox church +was substituted for the Roman Catholic as the state religion .... + + +Map: Europe after the Congress of Vienna + +In 1821 there was an insurrection of the Greeks against the Turks. For +six years they fought a desperate war, while the governments of Europe +looked on. Liberal opinion protested against this inactivity; +volunteers from every European country joined the insurgents, and at +last Britain, France and Russia took joint action. The Turkish fleet +was destroyed by the French and English at the battle of Navarino +(1827), and the Tsar invaded Turkey. By the treaty of Adrianople +(1829) Greece was declared free, but she was not permitted to resume +her ancient republican traditions. A German king was found for Greece, +one Prince Otto of Bavaria, and Christian governors were set up in the +Danubian provinces (which are now Roumania) and Serbia (a part of the +Jugo-Slav region). Much blood had still to run however before the Turk +was altogether expelled from these lands. + + + + +LVII +THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL KNOWLEDGE + + +Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the opening +years of the nineteenth century, while these conflicts of the powers +and princes were going on in Europe, and the patchwork of the treaty of +Westphalia (1648) was changing kaleidoscopically into the patchwork of +the treaty of Vienna (1815), and while the sailing ship was spreading +European influence throughout the world, a steady growth of knowledge +and a general clearing up of men’s ideas about the world in which they +lived was in progress in the European and Europeanized world. + +It went on disconnected from political life, and producing throughout +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no striking immediate results +in political life. Nor was it affecting popular thought very +profoundly during this period. These reactions were to come later, and +only in their full force in the latter half of the nineteenth century. +It was a process that went on chiefly in a small world of prosperous +and independent-spirited people. Without what the English call the +“private gentleman,” the scientific process could not have begun in +Greece, and could not have been renewed in Europe. The universities +played a part but not a leading part in the philosophical and +scientific thought of this period. Endowed learning is apt to be timid +and conservative learning, lacking in initiative and resistent to +innovation, unless it has the spur of contact with independent minds. + +We have already noted the formation of the Royal Society in 1662 and +its work in realizing the dream of Bacon’s _New Atlantis_. Throughout +the eighteenth century there was much clearing up of general ideas +about matter and motion, much mathematical advance, a systematic +development of the use of optical glass in microscope and telescope, a +renewed energy in classificatory natural history, a great revival of +anatomical science. The science of geology—foreshadowed by Aristotle +and anticipated by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)—began its great task +of interpreting the Record of the Rocks. + + +EARLY ROLLING STOCK ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY IN THE +FIRST DAYS OF THE RAILWAY +EARLY ROLLING STOCK ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY IN THE +FIRST DAYS OF THE RAILWAY + + +The progress of physical science reacted upon metallurgy. Improved +metallurgy, affording the possibility of a larger and bolder handling +of masses of metal and other materials, reacted upon practical +inventions. Machinery on a new scale and in a new abundance appeared +to revolutionize industry. + +In 1804 Trevithick adapted the Watt engine to transport and made the +first locomotive. In 1825 the first railway, between Stockton and +Darlington, was opened, and Stephenson’s “Rocket,” with a thirteen-ton +train, got up to a speed of forty-four miles per hour. From 1830 +onward railways multiplied. By the middle of the century a network of +railways had spread all over Europe. + + +EARLY TRAVELLING ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, 1833 +EARLY TRAVELLING ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, 1833 + + +Here was a sudden change in what had long been a fixed condition of +human life, the maximum rate of land transport. After the Russian +disaster, Napoleon travelled from near Vilna to Paris in 312 hours. +This was a journey of about 1,400 miles. He was travelling with every +conceivable advantage, and he averaged under 5 miles an hour. An +ordinary traveller could not have done this distance in twice the time. + These were about the same maximum rates of travel as held good between +Rome and Gaul in the first century A.D. Then suddenly came this +tremendous change. The railways reduced this journey for any ordinary +traveller to less than forty-eight hours. That is to say, they reduced +the chief European distances to about a tenth of what they had been. +They made it possible to carry out administrative work in areas ten +times as great as any that had hitherto been workable under one +administration. The full significance of that possibility in Europe +still remains to be realized. Europe is still netted in boundaries +drawn in the horse and road era. In America the effects were +immediate. To the United States of America, sprawling westward, it +meant the possibility of a continuous access to Washington, however far +the frontier travelled across the continent. It meant unity, sustained +on a scale that would otherwise have been impossible. + + +THE STEAMBOAT: CLERMONT, 1807, U.S.A. +THE STEAMBOAT: _CLERMONT_, 1807, U.S.A. + + +The steamboat was, if anything, a little ahead of the steam engine in +its earlier phases. There was a steamboat, the _Charlotte Dundas_, on +the Firth of Clyde Canal in 1802, and in 1807 an American named Fulton +had a steamer, the Clermont, with British-built engines, upon the +Hudson River above New York. The first steamship to put to sea was +also an American, the Phœnix, which went from New York (Hoboken) to +Philadelphia. So, too, was the first ship using steam (she also had +sails) to cross the Atlantic, the Savannah (1819). All these were +paddle-wheel boats and paddle-wheel boats are not adapted to work in +heavy seas. The paddles smash too easily, and the boat is then +disabled. The screw steamship followed rather slowly. Many +difficulties had to be surmounted before the screw was a practicable +thing. Not until the middle of the century did the tonnage of +steamships upon the sea begin to overhaul that of sailing ships. After +that the evolution in sea transport was rapid. For the first time men +began to cross the seas and oceans with some certainty as to the date +of their arrival. The transatlantic crossing, which had been an +uncertain adventure of several weeks—which might stretch to months—was +accelerated, until in 1910 it was brought down, in the case of the +fastest boats, to under five days, with a practically notifiable hour +of arrival. + +Concurrently with the development of steam transport upon land and sea +a new and striking addition to the facilities of human intercourse +arose out of the investigations of Volta, Galvani and Faraday into +various electrical phenomena. The electric telegraph came into +existence in 1835. The first underseas cable was laid in 1851 between +France and England. In a few years the telegraph system had spread over +the civilized world, and news which had hitherto travelled slowly from +point to point became practically simultaneous throughout the earth. + +These things, the steam railway and the electric telegraph, were to the +popular imagination of the middle nineteenth century the most striking +and revolutionary of inventions, but they were only the most +conspicuous and clumsy first fruits of a far more extensive process. +Technical knowledge and skill were developing with an extraordinary +rapidity, and to an extraordinary extent measured by the progress of +any previous age. Far less conspicuous at first in everyday life, but +finally far more important, was the extension of man’s power over +various structural materials. Before the middle of the eighteenth +century iron was reduced from its ores by means of wood charcoal, was +handled in small pieces, and hammered and wrought into shape. It was +material for a craftsman. Quality and treatment were enormously +dependent upon the experience and sagacity of the individual +iron-worker. The largest masses of iron that could be dealt with under +those conditions amounted at most (in the sixteenth century) to two or +three tons. (There was a very definite upward limit, therefore, to the +size of cannon.) The blast-furnace rose in the eighteenth century and +developed with the use of coke. Not before the eighteenth century do +we find rolled sheet iron (1728) and rolled rods and bars (1783). +Nasmyth’s steam hammer came as late as 1838. + +The ancient world, because of its metallurgical inferiority, could not +use steam. The steam engine, even the primitive pumping engine, could +not develop before sheet iron was available. The early engines seem to +the modern eye very pitiful and clumsy bits of ironmongery, but they +were the utmost that the metallurgical science of the time could do. As +late as 1856 came the Bessemer process, and presently (1864) the +open-hearth process, in which steel and every sort of iron could be +melted, purified and cast in a manner and upon a scale hitherto unheard +of. To-day in the electric furnace one may see tons of incandescent +steel swirling about like boiling milk in a saucepan. Nothing in the +previous practical advances of mankind is comparable in its +consequences to the complete mastery over enormous masses of steel and +iron and over their texture and quality which man has now achieved. +The railways and early engines of all sorts were the mere first +triumphs of the new metallurgical methods. Presently came ships of +iron and steel, vast bridges, and a new way of building with steel upon +a gigantic scale. Men realized too late that they had planned their +railways with far too timid a gauge, that they could have organized +their travelling with far more steadiness and comfort upon a much +bigger scale. + +Before the nineteenth century there were no ships in the world much +over 2,000 tons burthen; now there is nothing wonderful about a +50,000-ton liner. There are people who sneer at this kind of progress +as being a progress in “mere size,” but that sort of sneering merely +marks the intellectual limitations of those who indulge in it. The +great ship or the steel-frame building is not, as they imagine, a +magnified version of the small ship or building of the past; it is a +thing different in kind, more lightly and strongly built, of finer and +stronger materials; instead of being a thing of precedent and +rule-of-thumb, it is a thing of subtle and intricate calculation. In +the old house or ship, matter was dominant—the material and its needs +had to be slavishly obeyed; in the new, matter had been captured, +changed, coerced. Think of the coal and iron and sand dragged out of +the banks and pits, wrenched, wrought, molten and cast, to be flung at +last, a slender glittering pinnacle of steel and glass, six hundred +feet above the crowded city! + +We have given these particulars of the advance in man’s knowledge of +the metallurgy of steel and its results by way of illustration. A +parallel story could be told of the metallurgy of copper and tin, and +of a multitude of metals, nickel and aluminium to name but two, unknown +before the nineteenth century dawned. It is in this great and growing +mastery over substances, over different sorts of glass, over rocks and +plasters and the like, over colours and textures, that the main +triumphs of the mechanical revolution have thus far been achieved. Yet +we are still in the stage of the first fruits in the matter. We have +the power, but we have still to learn how to use our power. Many of +the first employments of these gifts of science have been vulgar, +tawdry, stupid or horrible. The artist and the adaptor have still +hardly begun to work with the endless variety of substances now at +their disposal. + +Parallel with this extension of mechanical possibilities the new +science of electricity grew up. It was only in the eighties of the +nineteenth century that this body of enquiry began to yield results to +impress the vulgar mind. Then suddenly came electric light and +electric traction, and the transmutation of forces, the possibility of +sending power, that could be changed into mechanical motion or light or +heat as one chose, along a copper wire, as water is sent along a pipe, +began to come through to the ideas of ordinary people.... + +The British and French were at first the leading peoples in this great +proliferation of knowledge; but presently the Germans, who had learnt +humility under Napoleon, showed such zeal and pertinacity in scientific +enquiry as to overhaul these leaders. British science was largely the +creation of Englishmen and Scotchmen working outside the ordinary +centres of erudition. + + +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPINNING WHEEL +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPINNING WHEEL + +_In the Ipswich Museum_ + +MODEL OF ARKWRIGHT’S SPINNING JENNY, 1769 +MODEL OF ARKWRIGHT’S SPINNING JENNY, 1769 + +_From the specifications in the Patent Office_ + + +The universities of Britain were at this time in a state of educational +retrogression, largely given over to a pedantic conning of the Latin +and Greek classics. French education, too, was dominated by the +classical tradition of the Jesuit schools, and consequently it was not +difficult for the Germans to organize a body of investigators, small +indeed in relation to the possibilities of the case, but large in +proportion to the little band of British and French inventors and +experimentalists. And though this work of research and experiment was +making Britain and France the most rich and powerful countries in the +world, it was not making scientific and inventive men rich and +powerful. There is a necessary unworldliness about a sincere +scientific man; he is too preoccupied with his research to plan and +scheme how to make money out of it. The economic exploitation of his +discoveries falls very easily and naturally, therefore, into the hands +of a more acquisitive type; and so we find that the crops of rich men +which every fresh phase of scientific and technical progress has +produced in Great Britain, though they have not displayed quite the +same passionate desire to insult and kill the goose that laid the +national golden eggs as the scholastic and clerical professions, have +been quite content to let that profitable creature starve. Inventors +and discoverers came by nature, they thought, for cleverer people to +profit by. + +In this matter the Germans were a little wiser. The German “learned” +did not display the same vehement hatred of the new learning. They +permitted its development. The German business man and manufacturer +again had not quite the same contempt for the man of science as had his +British competitor. Knowledge, these Germans believed, might be a +cultivated crop, responsive to fertilizers. They did concede, +therefore, a certain amount of opportunity to the scientific mind; +their public expenditure on scientific work was relatively greater, and +this expenditure was abundantly rewarded. By the latter half of the +nineteenth century the German scientific worker had made German a +necessary language for every science student who wished to keep abreast +with the latest work in his department, and in certain branches, and +particularly in chemistry, Germany acquired a very great superiority +over her western neighbours. The scientific effort of the sixties and +seventies in Germany began to tell after the eighties, and the German +gained steadily upon Britain and France in technical and industrial +prosperity. + +A fresh phase in the history of invention opened when in the eighties a +new type of engine came into use, an engine in which the expansive +force of an explosive mixture replaced the expansive force of steam. +The light, highly efficient engines that were thus made possible were +applied to the automobile, and developed at last to reach such a pitch +of lightness and efficiency as to render flight—long known to be +possible—a practical achievement. A successful flying machine—but not +a machine large enough to take up a human body—was made by Professor +Langley of the Smithsonian Institute of Washington as early as 1897. +By 1909 the aeroplane was available for human locomotion. There had +seemed to be a pause in the increase of human speed with the perfection +of railways and automobile road traction, but with the flying machine +came fresh reductions in the effective distance between one point of +the earth’s surface and another. In the eighteenth century the +distance from London to Edinburgh was an eight days’ journey; in 1918 +the British Civil Air Transport Commission reported that the journey +from London to Melbourne, halfway round the earth, would probably in a +few years’ time be accomplished in that same period of eight days. + + +AN EARLY WEAVING MACHINE +AN EARLY WEAVING MACHINE + +_From an engraving by W. Hincks in the British Museum_ + + +Too much stress must not be laid upon these striking reductions in the +time distances of one place from another. They are merely one aspect of +a much profounder and more momentous enlargement of human possibility. +The science of agriculture and agricultural chemistry, for instance, +made quite parallel advances during the nineteenth century. Men learnt +so to fertilize the soil as to produce quadruple and quintuple the +crops got from the same area in the seventeenth century. There was a +still more extraordinary advance in medical science; the average +duration of life rose, the daily efficiency increased, the waste of +life through ill-health diminished. + +Now here altogether we have such a change in human life as to +constitute a fresh phase of history. In a little more than a century +this mechanical revolution has been brought about. In that time man +made a stride in the material conditions of his life vaster than he had +done during the whole long interval between the palæolithic stage and +the age of cultivation, or between the days of Pepi in Egypt and those +of George III. A new gigantic material framework for human affairs has +come into existence. Clearly it demands great readjustments of our +social, economical and political methods. But these readjustments have +necessarily waited upon the development of the mechanical revolution, +and they are still only in their opening stage to-day. + + + + +LVIII +THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION + + +There is a tendency in many histories to confuse together what we have +here called the mechanical revolution, which was an entirely new thing +in human experience arising out of the development of organized +science, a new step like the invention of agriculture or the discovery +of metals, with something else, quite different in its origins, +something for which there was already an historical precedent, the +social and financial development which is called the _industrial +revolution_. The two processes were going on together, they were +constantly reacting upon each other, but they were in root and essence +different. There would have been an industrial revolution of sorts if +there had been no coal, no steam, no machinery; but in that case it +would probably have followed far more closely upon the lines of the +social and financial developments of the later years of the Roman +Republic. It would have repeated the story of dispossessed free +cultivators, gang labour, great estates, great financial fortunes, and +a socially destructive financial process. Even the factory method came +before power and machinery. Factories were the product not of +machinery, but of the “division of labour.” Drilled and sweated workers +were making such things as millinery cardboard boxes and furniture, and +colouring maps and book illustrations and so forth, before even +water-wheels had been used for industrial purposes. There were +factories in Rome in the days of Augustus. New books, for instance, +were dictated to rows of copyists in the factories of the book-sellers. +The attentive student of Defoe and of the political pamphlets of +Fielding will realize that the idea of herding poor people into +establishments to work collectively for their living was already +current in Britain before the close of the seventeenth century. There +are intimations of it even as early as More’s _Utopia_ (1516). It was a +social and not a mechanical development. + +Up to past the middle of the eighteenth century the social and economic +history of western Europe was in fact retreading the path along which +the Roman state had gone in the last three centuries B.C. But the +political disunions of Europe, the political convulsions against +monarchy, the recalcitrance of the common folk and perhaps also the +greater accessibility of the western European intelligence to +mechanical ideas and inventions, turned the process into quite novel +directions. Ideas of human solidarity, thanks to Christianity, were +far more widely diffused in the newer European world, political power +was not so concentrated, and the man of energy anxious to get rich +turned his mind, therefore, very willingly from the ideas of the slave +and of gang labour to the idea of mechanical power and the machine. + +The mechanical revolution, the process of mechanical invention and +discovery, was a new thing in human experience and it went on +regardless of the social, political, economic and industrial +consequences it might produce. The industrial revolution, on the other +hand, like most other human affairs, was and is more and more +profoundly changed and deflected by the constant variation in human +conditions caused by the mechanical revolution. And the essential +difference between the amassing of riches, the extinction of small +farmers and small business men, and the phase of big finance in the +latter centuries of the Roman Republic on the one hand, and the very +similar concentration of capital in the eighteenth and nineteenth +centuries on the other, lies in the profound difference in the +character of labour that the mechanical revolution was bringing about. +The power of the old world was human power; everything depended +ultimately upon the driving power of human muscle, the muscle of +ignorant and subjugated men. A little animal muscle, supplied by draft +oxen, horse traction and the like, contributed. Where a weight had to +be lifted, men lifted it; where a rock had to be quarried, men chipped +it out; where a field had to be ploughed, men and oxen ploughed it; the +Roman equivalent of the steamship was the galley with its bank of +sweating rowers. A vast proportion of mankind in the early +civilizations were employed in purely mechanical drudgery. At its +onset, power-driven machinery did not seem to promise any release from +such unintelligent toil. Great gangs of men were employed in +excavating canals, in making railway cuttings and embankments, and the +like. The number of miners increased enormously. But the extension of +facilities and the output of commodities increased much more. And as +the nineteenth century went on, the plain logic of the new situation +asserted itself more clearly. Human beings were no longer wanted as a +source of mere indiscriminated power. What could be done mechanically +by a human being could be done faster and better by a machine. The +human being was needed now only where choice and intelligence had to be +exercised. Human beings were wanted only as human beings. The drudge, +on whom all the previous civilizations had rested, the creature of mere +obedience, the man whose brains were superfluous, had become +unnecessary to the welfare of mankind. + + +INCIDENT IN THE DAYS OF THE SLAVE TRADE +INCIDENT IN THE DAYS OF THE SLAVE TRADE + +_From a print after Morland in the British Museum_ + + +This was as true of such ancient industries as agriculture and mining +as it was of the newest metallurgical processes. For ploughing, sowing +and harvesting, swift machines came forward to do the work of scores of +men. The Roman civilization was built upon cheap and degraded human +beings; modern civilization is being rebuilt upon cheap mechanical +power. For a hundred years power has been getting cheaper and labour +dearer. If for a generation or so machinery has had to wait its turn +in the mine, it is simply because for a time men were cheaper than +machinery. + + +EARLY FACTORY, IN COLEBROOKDALE +EARLY FACTORY, IN COLEBROOKDALE + +_From a print the British Museum_ + + +Now here was a change-over of quite primary importance in human +affairs. The chief solicitude of the rich and of the ruler in the old +civilization had been to keep up a supply of drudges. As the +nineteenth century went on, it became more and more plain to the +intelligent directive people that the common man had now to be +something better than a drudge. He had to be educated—if only to +secure “industrial efficiency.” He had to understand what he was +about. From the days of the first Christian propaganda, popular +education had been smouldering in Europe, just as it had smouldered in +Asia wherever Islam has set its foot, because of the necessity of +making the believer understand a little of the belief by which he is +saved, and of enabling him to read a little in the sacred books by +which his belief is conveyed. Christian controversies, with their +competition for adherents, ploughed the ground for the harvest of +popular education. In England, for instance, by the thirties and +forties of the nineteenth century, the disputes of the sects and the +necessity of catching adherents young had produced a series of +competing educational organizations for children, the church “National” +schools, the dissenting “British” schools, and even Roman Catholic +elementary schools. The second half of the nineteenth century was a +period of rapid advance in popular education throughout all the +Westernized world. There was no parallel advance in the education of +the upper classes—some advance, no doubt, but nothing to correspond—and +so the great gulf that had divided that world hitherto into the readers +and the non-reading mass became little more than a slightly perceptible +difference in educational level. At the back of this process was the +mechanical revolution, apparently regardless of social conditions, but +really insisting inexorably upon the complete abolition of a totally +illiterate class throughout the world. + +The economic revolution of the Roman Republic had never been clearly +apprehended by the common people of Rome. The ordinary Roman citizen +never saw the changes through which he lived, clearly and +comprehensively as we see them. But the industrial revolution, as it +went on towards the end of the nineteenth century, was more and more +distinctly _seen_ as one whole process by the common people it was +affecting, because presently they could read and discuss and +communicate, and because they went about and saw things as no +commonalty had ever done before. + + + + +LIX +THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IDEAS + + +The institutions and customs and political ideas of the ancient +civilizations grew up slowly, age by age, no man designing and no man +foreseeing. It was only in that great century of human adolescence, the +sixth century B.C., that men began to think clearly about their +relations to one another, and first to question and first propose to +alter and rearrange the established beliefs and laws and methods of +human government. + +We have told of the glorious intellectual dawn of Greece and +Alexandria, and how presently the collapse of the slave- holding +civilizations and the clouds of religious intolerance and absolutist +government darkened the promise of that beginning. The light of +fearless thinking did not break through the European obscurity again +effectually until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We have tried +to show something of the share of the great winds of Arab curiosity and +Mongol conquest in this gradual clearing of the mental skies of Europe. + And at first it was chiefly material knowledge that increased. The +first fruits of the recovered manhood of the race were material +achievements and material power. The science of human relationship, of +individual and social psychology, of education and of economics, are +not only more subtle and intricate in themselves but also bound up +inextricably with much emotional matter. The advances made in them +have been slower and made against greater opposition. Men will listen +dispassionately to the most diverse suggestions about stars or +molecules, but ideas about our ways of life touch and reflect upon +everyone about us. + +And just as in Greece the bold speculations of Plato came before +Aristotle’s hard search for fact, so in Europe the first political +enquiries of the new phase were put in the form of “Utopian” stories, +directly imitated from Plato’s _Republic_ and his _Laws_. Sir Thomas +More’s _Utopia_ is a curious imitation of Plato that bore fruit in a +new English poor law. The Neapolitan Campanella’s _City of the Sun_ +was more fantastic and less fruitful. + +By the end of the seventeenth century we find a considerable and +growing literature of political and social science was being produced. +Among the pioneers in this discussion was John Locke, the son of an +English republican, an Oxford scholar who first directed his attention +to chemistry and medicine. His treatises on government, toleration and +education show a mind fully awake to the possibilities of social +reconstruction. Parallel with and a little later than John Locke in +England, Montesquieu (1689-1755) in France subjected social, political +and religious institutions to a searching and fundamental analysis. He +stripped the magical prestige from the absolutist monarchy in France. +He shares with Locke the credit for clearing away many of the false +ideas that had hitherto prevented deliberate and conscious attempts to +reconstruct human society. + +The generation that followed him in the middle and later decades of the +eighteenth century was boldly speculative upon the moral and +intellectual clearings he had made. A group of brilliant writers, the +“Encyclopædists,” mostly rebel spirits from the excellent schools of +the Jesuits, set themselves to scheme out a new world (1766). Side by +side with the Encyclopædists were the Economists or Physiocrats, who +were making bold and crude enquiries into the production and +distribution of food and goods. Morelly, the author of the _Code de La +Nature_, denounced the institution of private property and proposed a +communistic organization of society. He was the precursor of that +large and various school of collectivist thinkers in the nineteenth +century who are lumped together as Socialists. + +What is Socialism? There are a hundred definitions of Socialism and a +thousand sects of Socialists. Essentially Socialism is no more and no +less than a criticism of the idea of property in the light of the +public good. We may review the history of that idea through the ages +very briefly. That and the idea of internationalism are the two +cardinal ideas upon which most of our political life is turning. + + +CARL MARX +CARL MARX + +_Photo: Linde & Co._ + + +The idea of property arises out of the combative instincts of the +species. Long before men were men, the ancestral ape was a proprietor. + Primitive property is what a beast will fight for. The dog and his +bone, the tigress and her lair, the roaring stag and his herd, these +are proprietorship blazing. No more nonsensical expression is +conceivable in sociology than the term “primitive communism.” The Old +Man of the family tribe of early palæolithic times insisted upon his +proprietorship in his wives and daughters, in his tools, in his visible +universe. If any other man wandered into his visible universe he +fought him, and if he could he slew him. The tribe grew in the course +of ages, as Atkinson showed convincingly in his _Primal Law_, by the +gradual toleration by the Old Man of the existence of the younger men, +and of their proprietorship in the wives they captured from outside the +tribe, and in the tools and ornaments they made and the game they slew. + Human society grew by a compromise between this one’s property and +that. It was a compromise with instinct which was forced upon men by +the necessity of driving some other tribe out of its visible universe. +If the hills and forests and streams were not _your_ land or _my_ land, +it was because they had to be our land. Each of us would have +preferred to have it _my_ land, but that would not work. In that case +the other fellows would have destroyed us. Society, therefore, is from +its beginning a _mitigation of ownership_. Ownership in the beast and +in the primitive savage was far more intense a thing than it is in the +civilized world to- day. It is rooted more strongly in our instincts +than in our reason. + +In the natural savage and in the untutored man to-day there is no +limitation to the sphere of ownership. Whatever you can fight for, you +can own; women-folk, spared captive, captured beast, forest glade, +stone-pit or what not. As the community grew, a sort of law came to +restrain internecine fighting, men developed rough-and-ready methods of +settling proprietorship. Men could own what they were the first to +make or capture or claim. It seemed natural that a debtor who could +not pay should become the property of his creditor. Equally natural was +it that after claiming a patch of land a man should exact payments from +anyone who wanted to use it. It was only slowly, as the possibilities +of organized life dawned on men, that this unlimited property in +anything whatever began to be recognized as a nuisance. Men found +themselves born into a universe all owned and claimed, nay! they found +themselves born owned and claimed. The social struggles of the earlier +civilization are difficult to trace now, but the history we have told +of the Roman Republic shows a community waking up to the idea that +debts may become a public inconvenience and should then be repudiated, +and that the unlimited ownership of land is also an inconvenience. We +find that later Babylonia severely limited the rights of property in +slaves. Finally, we find in the teaching of that great revolutionist, +Jesus of Nazareth, such an attack upon property as had never been +before. Easier it was, he said, for a camel to go through the eye of a +needle than for the owner of great possessions to enter the kingdom of +heaven. A steady, continuous criticism of the permissible scope of +property seems to have been going on in the world for the last +twenty-five or thirty centuries. Nineteen hundred years after Jesus of +Nazareth we find all the world that has come under the Christian +teaching persuaded that there could be no property in human beings. +And also the idea that a man may “do what he likes with his own” was +very much shaken in relation to other sorts of property. + +But this world of the closing eighteenth century was still only in the +interrogative stage in this matter. It had got nothing clear enough, +much less settled enough, to act upon. One of its primary impulses was +to protect property against the greed and waste of kings and the +exploitation of noble adventurers. It was largely to protect private +property from taxation that the French Revolution began. But the +equalitarian formulæ of the Revolution carried it into a criticism of +the very property it had risen to protect. How can men be free and +equal when numbers of them have no ground to stand upon and nothing to +eat, and the owners will neither feed nor lodge them unless they toil? +Excessively—the poor complained. + +To which riddle the reply of one important political group was to set +about “dividing up.” They wanted to intensify and universalize +property. Aiming at the same end by another route, there were the +primitive socialists—or, to be more exact, communists—who wanted to +“abolish” private property altogether. The state (a democratic state +was of course understood) was to own all property. + +It is paradoxical that different men seeking the same ends of liberty +and happiness should propose on the one hand to make property as +absolute as possible, and on the other to put an end to it altogether. +But so it was. And the clue to this paradox is to be found in the fact +that ownership is not one thing but a multitude of different things. + +It was only as the nineteenth century developed that men began to +realize that property was not one simple thing, but a great complex of +ownerships of different values and consequences, that many things (such +as one’s body, the implements of an artist, clothing, toothbrushes) are +very profoundly and incurably one’s personal property, and that there +is a very great range of things, railways, machinery of various sorts, +homes, cultivated gardens, pleasure boats, for example, which need each +to be considered very particularly to determine how far and under what +limitations it may come under private ownership, and how far it falls +into the public domain and may be administered and let out by the state +in the collective interest. On the practical side these questions pass +into politics, and the problem of making and sustaining efficient state +administration. They open up issues in social psychology, and interact +with the enquiries of educational science. The criticism of property +is still a vast and passionate ferment rather than a science. On the +one hand are the Individualists, who would protect and enlarge our +present freedoms with what we possess, and on the other the Socialists +who would in many directions pool our ownerships and restrain our +proprietory acts. In practice one will find every gradation between +the extreme individualist, who will scarcely tolerate a tax of any sort +to support a government, and the communist who would deny any +possessions at all. The ordinary socialist of to-day is what is called +a collectivist; he would allow a considerable amount of private +property but put such affairs as education, transport, mines, +land-owning, most mass productions of staple articles, and the like, +into the hands of a highly organized state. Nowadays there does seem +to be a gradual convergence of reasonable men towards a moderate +socialism scientifically studied and planned. It is realized more and +more clearly that the untutored man does not co-operate easily and +successfully in large undertakings, and that every step towards a more +complex state and every function that the state takes over from private +enterprise, necessitates a corresponding educational advance and the +organization of a proper criticism and control. Both the press and the +political methods of the contemporary state are far too crude for any +large extension of collective activities. + +But for a time the stresses between employer and employed and +particularly between selfish employers and reluctant workers, led to a +world-wide dissemination of the very harsh and elementary form of +communism which is associated with the name of Marx. Marx based his +theories on a belief that men’s minds are limited by their economic +necessities, and that there is a necessary conflict of interests in our +present civilization between the prosperous and employing classes of +people and the employed mass. With the advance in education +necessitated by the mechanical revolution, this great employed majority +will become more and more class-conscious and more and more solid in +antagonism to the (class- conscious) ruling minority. In some way the +class-conscious workers would seize power, he prophesied, and +inaugurate a new social state. The antagonism, the insurrection, the +possible revolution are understandable enough, but it does not follow +that a new social state or anything but a socially destructive process +will ensue. Put to the test in Russia, Marxism, as we shall note +later, has proved singularly uncreative. + + +SCIENCE IN THE COAL MINE +SCIENCE IN THE COAL MINE + +Portable Electric Loading Conveyor +_Photo: Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, Columbus, Ohio_ + + +Marx sought to replace national antagonism by class antagonisms; +Marxism has produced in succession a First, a Second and a Third +Workers’ International. But from the starting point of modern +individualistic thought it is also possible to reach international +ideas. From the days of that great English economist, Adam Smith, +onward there has been an increasing realization that for world-wide +prosperity free and unencumbered trade about the earth is needed. The +individualist with his hostility to the state is hostile also to +tariffs and boundaries and all the restraints upon free act and +movement that national boundaries seem to justify. It is interesting to +see two lines of thought, so diverse in spirit, so different in +substance as this class-war socialism of the Marxists and the +individualistic free-trading philosophy of the British business men of +the Victorian age heading at last, in spite of these primary +differences, towards the same intimations of a new world-wide treatment +of human affairs outside the boundaries and limitations of any existing +state. The logic of reality triumphs over the logic of theory. We +begin to perceive that from widely divergent starting points +individualist theory and socialist theory are part of a common search, +a search for more spacious social and political ideas and +interpretations, upon which men may contrive to work together, a search +that began again in Europe and has intensified as men’s confidence in +the ideas of the Holy Roman Empire and in Christendom decayed, and as +the age of discovery broadened their horizons from the world of the +Mediterranean to the whole wide world. + +To bring this description of the elaboration and development of social, +economic and political ideas right down to the discussions of the +present day, would be to introduce issues altogether too controversial +for the scope and intentions of this book. But regarding these things, +as we do here, from the vast perspectives of the student of world +history, we are bound to recognize that this reconstruction of these +directive ideas in the human mind is still an unfinished task—we cannot +even estimate yet how unfinished the task may be. Certain common +beliefs do seem to be emerging, and their influence is very perceptible +upon the political events and public acts of to-day; but at present +they are not clear enough nor convincing enough to compel men +definitely and systematically towards their realization. Men’s acts +waver between tradition and the new, and on the whole they rather +gravitate towards the traditional. Yet, compared with the thought of +even a brief lifetime ago, there does seem to be an outline shaping +itself of a new order in human affairs. It is a sketchy outline, +vanishing into vagueness at this point and that, and fluctuating in +detail and formulæ, yet it grows steadfastly clearer, and its main +lines change less and less. + + +CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAIL OF THE FORTH BRIDGE +CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAIL OF THE FORTH BRIDGE + +_Photo: Baker & Hurtzig_ + + +It is becoming plainer and plainer each year that in many respects and +in an increasing range of affairs, mankind is becoming one community, +and that it is more and more necessary that in such matters there +should be a common world-wide control. For example, it is steadily +truer that the whole planet is now one economic community, that the +proper exploitation of its natural resources demands one comprehensive +direction, and that the greater power and range that discovery has +given human effort makes the present fragmentary and contentious +administration of such affairs more and more wasteful and dangerous. +Financial and monetary expedients also become world-wide interests to +be dealt with successfully only on world-wide lines. Infectious +diseases and the increase and migrations of population are also now +plainly seen to be world-wide concerns. The greater power and range of +human activities has also made war disproportionately destructive and +disorganizing, and, even as a clumsy way of settling issues between +government and government and people and people, ineffective. All +these things clamour for controls and authorities of a greater range +and greater comprehensiveness than any government that has hitherto +existed. + +But it does not follow that the solution of these problems lies in some +super-government of all the world arising by conquest or by the +coalescence of existing governments. By analogy with existing +institutions men have thought of the Parliament of Mankind, of a World +Congress, of a President or Emperor of the Earth. Our first natural +reaction is towards some such conclusion, but the discussion and +experiences of half a century of suggestions and attempts has on the +whole discouraged belief in that first obvious idea. Along that line +to world unity the resistances are too great. The drift of thought +seems now to be in the direction of a number of special committees or +organizations, with world-wide power delegated to them by existing +governments in this group of matters or that, bodies concerned with the +waste or development of natural wealth, with the equalization of labour +conditions, with world peace, with currency, population and health, and +so forth. + +The world may discover that all its common interests are being managed +as one concern, while it still fails to realize that a world government +exists. But before even so much human unity is attained, before such +international arrangements can be put above patriotic suspicions and +jealousies, it is necessary that the common mind of the race should be +possessed of that idea of human unity, and that the idea of mankind as +one family should be a matter of universal instruction and +understanding. + +For a score of centuries or more the spirit of the great universal +religions has been struggling to maintain and extend that idea of a +universal human brotherhood, but to this day the spites, angers and +distrusts of tribal, national and racial friction obstruct, and +successfully obstruct, the broader views and more generous impulses +which would make every man the servant of all mankind. The idea of +human brotherhood struggles now to possess the human soul, just as the +idea of Christendom struggled to possess the soul of Europe in the +confusion and disorder of the sixth and seventh centuries of the +Christian era. The dissemination and triumph of such ideas must be the +work of a multitude of devoted and undistinguished missionaries, and no +contemporary writer can presume to guess how far such work has gone or +what harvest it may be preparing. + +Social and economic questions seem to be inseparably mingled with +international ones. The solution in each case lies in an appeal to +that same spirit of service which can enter and inspire the human +heart. The distrust, intractability and egotism of nations reflects +and is reflected by the distrust, intractability and egotism of the +individual owner and worker in the face of the common good. +Exaggerations of possessiveness in the individual are parallel and of a +piece with the clutching greed of nations and emperors. They are +products of the same instinctive tendencies, and the same ignorances +and traditions. Internationalism is the socialism of nations. No one +who has wrestled with these problems can feel that there yet exists a +sufficient depth and strength of psychological science and a +sufficiently planned-out educational method and organization for any +real and final solution of these riddles of human intercourse and +cooperation. We are as incapable of planning a really effective peace +organization of the world to-day as were men in 1820 to plan an +electric railway system, but for all we know the thing is equally +practicable and may be as nearly at hand. + +No man can go beyond his own knowledge, no thought can reach beyond +contemporary thought, and it is impossible for us to guess or foretell +how many generations of humanity may have to live in war and waste and +insecurity and misery before the dawn of the great peace to which all +history seems to be pointing, peace in the heart and peace in the +world, ends our night of wasteful and aimless living. Our proposed +solutions are still vague and crude. Passion and suspicion surround +them. A great task of intellectual reconstruction is going on, it is +still incomplete, and our conceptions grow clearer and more +exact—slowly, rapidly, it is hard to tell which. But as they grow +clearer they will gather power over the minds and imaginations of men. +Their present lack of grip is due to their lack of assurance and exact +rightness. They are misunderstood because they are variously and +confusingly presented. But with precision and certainty the new vision +of the world will gain compelling power. It may presently gain power +very rapidly. And a great work of educational reconstruction will +follow logically and necessarily upon that clearer understanding. + + + + +LX +THE EXPANSION OF THE UNITED STATES + + +The region of the world that displayed the most immediate and striking +results from the new inventions in transport was North America. +Politically the United States embodied, and its constitution +crystallized, the liberal ideas of the middle eighteenth century. It +dispensed with state-church or crown, it would have no titles, it +protected property very jealously as a method of freedom, and—the exact +practice varied at first in the different states—it gave nearly every +adult male citizen a vote. Its method of voting was barbarically crude, +and as a consequence its political life fell very soon under the +control of highly organized party machines, but that did not prevent +the newly emancipated population developing an energy, enterprise and +public spirit far beyond that of any other contemporary population. + +Then came that acceleration of locomotion to which we have already +called attention. It is a curious thing that America, which owes most +to this acceleration in locomotion, has felt it least. The United +States have taken the railway, the river steamboat, the telegraph and +so forth as though they were a natural part of their growth. They were +not. These things happened to come along just in time to save American +unity. The United States of to-day were made first by the river +steamboat, and then by the railway. Without these things, the present +United States, this vast continental nation, would have been altogether +impossible. The westward flow of population would have been far more +sluggish. It might never have crossed the great central plains. It +took nearly two hundred years for effective settlement to reach from +the coast to Missouri, much less than halfway across the continent. +The first state established beyond the river was the steamboat state of +Missouri in 1821. But the rest of the distance to the Pacific was done +in a few decades. + +If we had the resources of the cinema it would be interesting to show a +map of North America year by year from 1600 onward, with little dots to +represent hundreds of people, each dot a hundred, and stars to +represent cities of a hundred thousand people. + +For two hundred years the reader would see that stippling creeping +slowly along the coastal districts and navigable waters, spreading +still more gradually into Indiana, Kentucky and so forth. Then +somewhere about 1810 would come a change. Things would get more lively +along the river courses. The dots would be multiplying and spreading. +That would be the steamboat. The pioneer dots would be spreading soon +over Kansas and Nebraska from a number of jumping-off places along the +great rivers. + +Then from about 1850 onward would come the black lines of the railways, +and after that the little black dots would not simply creep but run. +They would appear now so rapidly, it would be almost as though they +were being put on by some sort of spraying machine. And suddenly here +and then there would appear the first stars to indicate the first great +cities of a hundred thousand people. First one or two and then a +multitude of cities—each like a knot in the growing net of the +railways. + +The growth of the United States is a process that has no precedent in +the world’s history; it is a new kind of occurrence. Such a community +could not have come into existence before, and if it had, without +railways it would certainly have dropped to pieces long before now. +Without railways or telegraph it would be far easier to administer +California from Pekin than from Washington. But this great population +of the United States of America has not only grown outrageously; it has +kept uniform. Nay, it has become more uniform. The man of San +Francisco is more like the man of New York to-day than the man of +Virginia was like the man of New England a century ago. And the +process of assimilation goes on unimpeded. The United States is being +woven by railway, by telegraph, more and more into one vast unity, +speaking, thinking and acting harmoniously with itself. Soon aviation +will be helping in the work. + +This great community of the United States is an altogether new thing in +history. There have been great empires before with populations +exceeding 100 millions, but these were associations of divergent +peoples; there has never been one single people on this scale before. +We want a new term for this new thing. We call the United States a +country just as we call France or Holland a country. But the two +things are as different as an automobile and a one-horse shay. They +are the creations of different periods and different conditions; they +are going to work at a different pace and in an entirely different way. + The United States in scale and possibility is halfway between a +European state and a United States of all the world. + +But on the way to this present greatness and security the American +people passed through one phase of dire conflict. The river steamboats, +the railways, the telegraph, and their associate facilities, did not +come soon enough to avert a deepening conflict of interests and ideas +between the southern and northern states of the Union. The former were +slave-holding states; the latter, states in which all men were free. +The railways and steamboats at first did but bring into sharper +conflict an already established difference between the two sections of +the United States. The increasing unification due to the new means of +transport made the question whether the southern spirit or the northern +should prevail an ever more urgent one. There was little possibility +of compromise. The northern spirit was free and individualistic; the +southern made for great estates and a conscious gentility ruling over a +dusky subject multitude. + +Every new territory that was organized into a state as the tide of +population swept westward, every new incorporation into the fast +growing American system, became a field of conflict between the two +ideas, whether it should become a state of free citizens, or whether +the estate and slavery system should prevail. From 1833 an American +anti-slavery society was not merely resisting the extension of the +institution but agitating the whole country for its complete abolition. + The issue flamed up into open conflict over the admission of Texas to +the Union. Texas had originally been a part of the republic of Mexico, +but it was largely colonized by Americans from the slave-holding +states, and it seceded from Mexico, established its independence in +1835, and was annexed to the United States in 1844. Under the Mexican +law slavery had been forbidden in Texas, but now the South claimed +Texas for slavery and got it. + +Meanwhile the development of ocean navigation was bringing a growing +swarm of immigrants from Europe to swell the spreading population of +the northern states, and the raising of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and +Oregon, all northern farm lands, to state level, gave the anti-slavery +North the possibility of predominance both in the Senate and the House +of Representatives. The cotton- growing South, irritated by the +growing threat of the Abolitionist movement, and fearing this +predominance in Congress, began to talk of secession from the Union. +Southerners began to dream of annexations to the south of them in +Mexico and the West Indies, and of great slave state, detached from the +North and reaching to Panama. + +The return of Abraham Lincoln as an anti-extension President in 1860 +decided the South to split the Union. South Carolina passed an +“ordinance of secession” and prepared for war. Mississippi, Florida, +Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas joined her, and a convention met +at Montgomery in Alabama, elected Jefferson Davis president of the +“Confederated States” of America, and adopted a constitution +specifically upholding “the institution of negro slavery.” + + +ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICAN RIVER STEAMERS +ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICAN RIVER STEAMERS + + +Abraham Lincoln was, it chanced, a man entirely typical of the new +people that had grown up after the War of Independence. His early +years had been spent as a drifting particle in the general westward +flow of the population. He was born in Kentucky (1809), was taken to +Indiana as a boy and later on to Illinois. Life was rough in the +backwoods of Indiana in those days; the house was a mere log cabin in +the wilderness, and his schooling was poor and casual. But his mother +taught him to read early, and he became a voracious reader. At +seventeen he was a big athletic youth, a great wrestler and runner. He +worked for a time as clerk in a store, went into business as a +storekeeper with a drunken partner, and contracted debts that he did +not fully pay off for fifteen years. In 1834, when he was still only +five and twenty, he was elected member of the House of Representatives +for the State of Illinois. In Illinois particularly the question of +slavery flamed because the great leader of the party for the extension +of slavery in the national Congress was Senator Douglas of Illinois. +Douglas was a man of great ability and prestige, and for some years +Lincoln fought against him by speech and pamphlet, rising steadily to +the position of his most formidable and finally victorious antagonist. +Their culminating struggle was the presidential campaign of 1860, and +on the fourth of March, 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated President, with +the southern states already in active secession from the rule of the +federal government at Washington, and committing acts of war. + +This civil war in America was fought by improvised armies that grew +steadily from a few score thousands to hundreds of thousands—until at +last the Federal forces exceeded a million men; it was fought over a +vast area between New Mexico and the eastern sea, Washington and +Richmond were the chief objectives. It is beyond our scope here to +tell of the mounting energy of that epic struggle that rolled to and +fro across the hills and woods of Tennessee and Virginia and down the +Mississippi. There was a terrible waste and killing of men. Thrust +was followed by counter thrust; hope gave way to despondency, and +returned and was again disappointed. Sometimes Washington seemed within +the Confederate grasp; again the Federal armies were driving towards +Richmond. The Confederates, outnumbered and far poorer in resources, +fought under a general of supreme ability, General Lee. The +generalship of the Union was far inferior. Generals were dismissed, +new generals appointed; until at last, under Sherman and Grant, came +victory over the ragged and depleted South. In October, 1864, a +Federal army under Sherman broke through the Confederate left and +marched down from Tennessee through Georgia to the coast, right across +the Confederate country, and then turned up through the Carolinas, +coming in upon the rear of the Confederate armies. Meanwhile Grant +held Lee before Richmond until Sherman closed on him. On April 9th, +1865, Lee and his army surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and +within a month all the remaining secessionist armies had laid down +their arms and the Confederacy was at an end. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + +This four years’ struggle had meant an enormous physical and moral +strain for the people of the United States. The principle of state +autonomy was very dear to many minds, and the North seemed in effect to +be forcing abolition upon the South. In the border states brothers and +cousins, even fathers and sons, would take opposite sides and find +themselves in antagonistic armies. The North felt its cause a +righteous one, but for great numbers of people it was not a full-bodied +and unchallenged righteousness. But for Lincoln there was no doubt. +He was a clear-minded man in the midst of much confusion. He stood for +union; he stood for the wide peace of America. He was opposed to +slavery, but slavery he held to be a secondary issue; his primary +purpose was that the United States should not be torn into two +contrasted and jarring fragments. + +When in the opening stages of the war Congress and the Federal generals +embarked upon a precipitate emancipation, Lincoln opposed and mitigated +their enthusiasm. He was for emancipation by stages and with +compensation. It was only in January, 1865, that the situation had +ripened to a point when Congress could propose to abolish slavery for +ever by a constitutional amendment, and the war was already over before +this amendment was ratified by the states. + +As the war dragged on through 1862 and 1863, the first passions and +enthusiasms waned, and America learnt all the phases of war weariness +and war disgust. The President found himself with defeatists, +traitors, dismissed generals, tortuous party politicians, and a +doubting and fatigued people behind him and uninspired generals and +depressed troops before him; his chief consolation must have been that +Jefferson Davis at Richmond could be in little better case. The English +government misbehaved, and permitted the Confederate agents in England +to launch and man three swift privateer ships—the _Alabama_ is the best +remembered of them—which chased United States shipping from the seas. +The French army in Mexico was trampling the Monroe Doctrine in the +dirt. Came subtle proposals from Richmond to drop the war, leave the +issues of the war for subsequent discussion, and turn, Federal and +Confederate in alliance, upon the French in Mexico. But Lincoln would +not listen to such proposals unless the supremacy of the Union was +maintained. The Americans might do such things as one people but not +as two. + +He held the United States together through long weary months of +reverses and ineffective effort, through black phases of division and +failing courage; and there is no record that he ever faltered from his +purpose. There were times when there was nothing to be done, when he +sat in the White House silent and motionless, a grim monument of +resolve; times when he relaxed his mind by jesting and broad anecdotes. + +He saw the Union triumphant. He entered Richmond the day after its +surrender, and heard of Lee’s capitulation. He returned to Washington, +and on April 11th made his last public address. His theme was +reconciliation and the reconstruction of loyal government in the +defeated states. On the evening of April 14th he went to Ford’s theatre +in Washington, and as he sat looking at the stage, he was shot in the +back of the head and killed by an actor named Booth who had some sort +of grievance against him, and who had crept into the box unobserved. +But Lincoln’s work was done; the Union was saved. + +At the beginning of the war there was no railway to the Pacific coast; +after it the railways spread like a swiftly growing plant until now +they have clutched and held and woven all the vast territory of the +United States into one indissoluble mental and material unity—the +greatest real community—until the common folk of China have learnt to +read—in the world. + + + + +LXI +THE RISE OF GERMANY TO PREDOMINANCE IN EUROPE + + +WE have told how after the convulsion of the French Revolution and the +Napoleonic adventure, Europe settled down again for a time to an +insecure peace and a sort of modernized revival of the political +conditions of fifty years before. Until the middle of the century the +new facilities in the handling of steel and the railway and steamship +produced no marked political consequences. But the social tension due +to the development of urban industrialism grew. France remained a +conspicuously uneasy country. The revolution of 1830 was followed by +another in 1848. Then Napoleon III, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, +became first President, and then (in 1852) Emperor. + +He set about rebuilding Paris, and changed it from a picturesque +seventeenth century insanitary city into the spacious Latinized city of +marble it is to-day. He set about rebuilding France, and made it into +a brilliant-looking modernized imperialism. He displayed a disposition +to revive that competitiveness of the Great Powers which had kept +Europe busy with futile wars during the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. The Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (1825- 1856) was also +becoming aggressive and pressing southward upon the Turkish Empire with +his eyes on Constantinople. + +After the turn of the century Europe broke out into a fresh cycle of +wars. They were chiefly “balance-of- power” and ascendancy wars. +England, France and Sardinia assailed Russia in the Crimean war in +defence of Turkey; Prussia (with Italy as an ally) and Austria fought +for the leadership of Germany, France liberated North Italy from +Austria at the price of Savoy, and Italy gradually unified itself into +one kingdom. Then Napoleon III was so ill advised as to attempt +adventures in Mexico, during the American Civil War; he set up an +Emperor Maximilian there and abandoned him hastily to his fate—he was +shot by the Mexicans—when the victorious Federal Government showed its +teeth. + + +Map of Europe, 1848-1871 + +In 1870 came a long-pending struggle for predominance in Europe between +France and Prussia. Prussia had long foreseen and prepared for this +struggle, and France was rotten with financial corruption. Her defeat +was swift and dramatic. The Germans invaded France in August, one great +French army under the Emperor capitulated at Sedan in September, +another surrendered in October at Metz, and in January 1871, Paris, +after a siege and bombardment, fell into German hands. Peace was +signed at Frankfort surrendering the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine +to the Germans. Germany, excluding Austria, was unified as an empire, +and the King of Prussia was added to the galaxy of European Cæsars, as +the German Emperor. + +For the next forty-three years Germany was the leading power upon the +European continent. There was a Russo-Turkish war in 1877-8, but +thereafter, except for certain readjustments in the Balkans, European +frontiers remained uneasily stable for thirty years. + + + + +LXII +THE NEW OVERSEAS EMPIRES OF STEAMSHIP AND RAILWAY + + +The end of the eighteenth century was a period of disrupting empires +and disillusioned expansionists. The long and tedious journey between +Britain and Spain and their colonies in America prevented any really +free coming and going between the home land and the daughter lands, and +so the colonies separated into new and distinct communities, with +distinctive ideas and interests and even modes of speech. As they grew +they strained more and more at the feeble and uncertain link of +shipping that had joined them. Weak trading-posts in the wilderness, +like those of France in Canada, or trading establishments in great +alien communities, like those of Britain in India, might well cling for +bare existence to the nation which gave them support and a reason for +their existence. That much and no more seemed to many thinkers in the +early part of the nineteenth century to be the limit set to overseas +rule. In 1820 the sketchy great European “empires” outside of Europe +that had figured so bravely in the maps of the middle eighteenth +century, had shrunken to very small dimensions. Only the Russian +sprawled as large as ever across Asia. + +The British Empire in 1815 consisted of the thinly populated coastal +river and lake regions of Canada, and a great hinterland of wilderness +in which the only settlements as yet were the fur-trading stations of +the Hudson Bay Company, about a third of the Indian peninsula, under +the rule of the East India Company, the coast districts of the Cape of +Good Hope inhabited by blacks and rebellious-spirited Dutch settlers; a +few trading stations on the coast of West Africa, the rock of +Gibraltar, the island of Malta, Jamaica, a few minor slave-labour +possessions in the West Indies, British Guiana in South America, and, +on the other side of the world, two dumps for convicts at Botany Bay in +Australia and in Tasmania. Spain retained Cuba and a few settlements +in the Philippine Islands. Portugal had in Africa some vestiges of her +ancient claims. Holland had various islands and possessions in the +East Indies and Dutch Guiana, and Denmark an island or so in the West +Indies. France had one or two West Indian islands and French Guiana. +This seemed to be as much as the European powers needed, or were likely +to acquire of the rest of the world. Only the East India Company +showed any spirit of expansion. + +While Europe was busy with the Napoleonic wars the East India Company, +under a succession of Governors-General, was playing much the same role +in India that had been played before by Turkoman and such-like invaders +from the north. And after the peace of Vienna it went on, levying its +revenues, making wars, sending ambassadors to Asiatic powers, a quasi- +independent state, however, with a marked disposition to send wealth +westward. + +We cannot tell here in any detail how the British Company made its way +to supremacy sometimes as the ally of this power, sometimes as that, +and finally as the conqueror of all. Its power spread to Assam, Sind, +Oudh. The map of India began to take on the outlines familiar to the +English schoolboy of to-day, a patchwork of native states embraced and +held together by the great provinces under direct British rule. . . . + +In 1859, following upon a serious mutiny of the native troops in India, +this empire of the East India Company was annexed to the British Crown. + By an Act entitled _An Act for the Better Government of India_, the +Governor-General became a Viceroy representing the Sovereign, and the +place of the Company was taken by a Secretary of State for India +responsible to the British Parliament. In 1877, Lord Beaconsfield, to +complete the work, caused Queen Victoria to be proclaimed Empress of +India. + +Upon these extraordinary lines India and Britain are linked at the +present time. India is still the empire of the Great Mogul, but the +Great Mogul has been replaced by the “crowned republic” of Great +Britain. India is an autocracy without an autocrat. Its rule combines +the disadvantage of absolute monarchy with the impersonality and +irresponsibility of democratic officialdom. The Indian with a +complaint to make has no visible monarch to go to; his Emperor is a +golden symbol; he must circulate pamphlets in England or inspire a +question in the British House of Commons. The more occupied Parliament +is with British affairs, the less attention India will receive, and the +more she will be at the mercy of her small group of higher officials. + + +RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE GORGE, VICTORIA FALLS, OF THE ZAMBESI, SOUTHERN +RHODESIA +RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE GORGE, VICTORIA FALLS, OF THE ZAMBESI, SOUTHERN +RHODESIA + +_Photo: British South African Co._ + + +Apart from India, there was no great expansion of any European Empire +until the railways and the steamships were in effective action. A +considerable school of political thinkers in Britain was disposed to +regard overseas possessions as a source of weakness to the kingdom. +The Australian settlements developed slowly until in 1842 the discovery +of valuable copper mines, and in 1851 of gold, gave them a new +importance. Improvements in transport were also making Australian wool +an increasingly marketable commodity in Europe. Canada, too, was not +remarkably progressive until 1849; it was troubled by dissensions +between its French and British inhabitants, there were several serious +revolts, and it was only in 1867 that a new constitution creating a +Federal Dominion of Canada relieved its internal strains. It was the +railway that altered the Canadian outlook. It enabled Canada, just as +it enabled the United States, to expand westward, to market its corn +and other produce in Europe, and in spite of its swift and extensive +growth, to remain in language and sympathy and interests one community. + The railway, the steamship and the telegraph cable were indeed +changing all the conditions of colonial development. + +Before 1840, English settlements had already begun in New Zealand, and +a New Zealand Land Company had been formed to exploit the possibilities +of the island. In 1840 New Zealand also was added to the colonial +possessions of the British Crown. + +Canada, as we have noted, was the first of the British possessions to +respond richly to the new economic possibilities that the new methods +of transport were opening. Presently the republics of South America, +and particularly the Argentine Republic, began to feel in their cattle +trade and coffee growing the increased nearness of the European market. + Hitherto the chief commodities that had attracted the European powers +into unsettled and barbaric regions had been gold or other metals, +spices, ivory, or slaves. But in the latter quarter of the nineteenth +century the increase of the European populations was obliging their +governments to look abroad for staple foods; and the growth of +scientific industrialism was creating a demand for new raw materials, +fats and greases of every kind, rubber, and other hitherto disregarded +substances. It was plain that Great Britain and Holland and Portugal +were reaping a great and growing commercial advantage from their very +considerable control of tropical and sub-tropical products. After 1871 +Germany, and presently France and later Italy, began to look for +unannexed raw-material areas, or for Oriental countries capable of +profitable modernization. + +So began a fresh scramble all over the world, except in the American +region where the Monroe Doctrine now barred such adventures, for +politically unprotected lands. + +Close to Europe was the continent of Africa, full of vaguely known +possibilities. In 1850 it was a continent of black mystery; only Egypt +and the coast were known. Here we have no space to tell the amazing +story of the explorers and adventurers who first pierced the African +darkness, and of the political agents, administrators, traders, +settlers and scientific men who followed in their track. Wonderful +races of men like the pygmies, strange beasts like the okapi, +marvellous fruits and flowers and insects, terrible diseases, +astounding scenery of forest and mountain, enormous inland seas and +gigantic rivers and cascades were revealed; a whole new world. Even +remains (at Zimbabwe) of some unrecorded and vanished civilization, the +southward enterprise of an early people, were discovered. Into this new +world came the Europeans, and found the rifle already there in the +hands of the Arab slave-traders, and negro life in disorder. + + +Map: The British Empire in 1815 + +By 1900, in half a century, all Africa was mapped, explored, estimated +and divided between the European powers. Little heed was given to the +welfare of the natives in this scramble. The Arab slaver was indeed +curbed rather than expelled, but the greed for rubber, which was a wild +product collected under compulsion by the natives in the Belgian Congo, +a greed exacerbated by the clash of inexperienced European +administrators with the native population, led to horrible atrocities. +No European power has perfectly clean hands in this matter. + +We cannot tell here in any detail how Great Britain got possession of +Egypt in 1883 and remained there in spite of the fact that Egypt was +technically a part of the Turkish Empire, nor how nearly this scramble +led to war between France and Great Britain in 1898, when a certain +Colonel Marchand, crossing Central Africa from the west coast, tried at +Fashoda to seize the Upper Nile. + +Nor can we tell how the British Government first let the Boers, or +Dutch settlers, of the Orange River district and the Transvaal set up +independent republics in the inland parts of South Africa, and then +repented and annexed the Transvaal Republic in 1877; nor how the +Transvaal Boers fought for freedom and won it after the battle of +Majuba Hill (1881). Majuba Hill was made to rankle in the memory of +the English people by a persistent press campaign. A war with both +republics broke out in 1899, a three years’ war enormously costly to +the British people, which ended at last in the surrender of the two +republics. + +Their period of subjugation was a brief one. In 1907, after the +downfall of the imperialist government which had conquered them, the +Liberals took the South African problem in hand, and these former +republics became free and fairly willing associates with Cape Colony +and Natal in a Confederation of all the states of South Africa as one +self- governing republic under the British Crown. + +In a quarter of a century the partition of Africa was completed. There +remained unannexed three comparatively small countries: Liberia, a +settlement of liberated negro slaves on the west coast; Morocco, under +a Moslem Sultan; and Abyssinia, a barbaric country, with an ancient and +peculiar form of Christianity, which had successfully maintained its +independence against Italy at the battle of Adowa in 1896. + + + + +LXIII +EUROPEAN AGGRESSION IN ASIA AND THE RISE OF JAPAN + + +It is difficult to believe that any large number of people really +accepted this headlong painting of the map of Africa in European +colours as a permanent new settlement of the worlds affairs, but it is +the duty of the historian to record that it was so accepted. There was +but a shallow historical background to the European mind in the +nineteenth century, and no habit of penetrating criticism. The quite +temporary advantages that the mechanical revolution in the west had +given the Europeans over the rest of the old world were regarded by +people, blankly ignorant of such events as the great Mongol conquests, +as evidences of a permanent and assured European leadership of mankind. +They had no sense of the transferability of science and its fruits. +They did not realize that Chinamen and Indians could carry on the work +of research as ably as Frenchmen or Englishmen. They believed that +there was some innate intellectual drive in the west, and some innate +indolence and conservatism in the east, that assured the Europeans a +world predominance for ever. + +The consequence of this infatuation was that the various European +foreign offices set themselves not merely to scramble with the British +for the savage and undeveloped regions of the world’s surface, but also +to carve up the populous and civilized countries of Asia as though +these people also were no more than raw material for exploitation. The +inwardly precarious but outwardly splendid imperialism of the British +ruling class in India, and the extensive and profitable possessions of +the Dutch in the East Indies, filled the rival Great Powers with dreams +of similar glories in Persia, in the disintegrating Ottoman Empire, and +in Further India, China and Japan. + +In 1898 Germany seized Kiau Chau in China. Britain responded by +seizing Wei-hai-wei, and the next year the Russians took possession of +Port Arthur. A flame of hatred for the Europeans swept through China. +There were massacres of Europeans and Christian converts, and in 1900 +an attack upon and siege of the European legations in Pekin. A +combined force of Europeans made a punitive expedition to Pekin, +rescued the legations, and stole an enormous amount of valuable +property. The Russians then seized Manchuria, and in 1904, the British +invaded Tibet.... + +But now a new Power appeared in the struggle of the Great Powers, +Japan. Hitherto Japan has played but a small part in this history; her +secluded civilization has not contributed very largely to the general +shaping of human destinies; she has received much, but she has given +little. The Japanese proper are of the Mongolian race. Their +civilization, their writing and their literary and artistic traditions +are derived from the Chinese. Their history is an interesting and +romantic one; they developed a feudal system and a system of chivalry +in the earlier centuries of the Christian era; their attacks upon Korea +and China are an Eastern equivalent of the English wars in France. +Japan was first brought into contact with Europe in the sixteenth +century; in 1542 some Portuguese reached it in a Chinese junk, and in +1549 a Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, began his teaching there. +For a time Japan welcomed European intercourse, and the Christian +missionaries made a great number of converts. A certain William Adams +became the most trusted European adviser of the Japanese, and showed +them how to build big ships. There were voyages in Japanese-built +ships to India and Peru. Then arose complicated quarrels between the +Spanish Dominicans, the Portuguese Jesuits, and the English and Dutch +Protestants, each warning the Japanese against the political designs of +the others. The Jesuits, in a phase of ascendancy, persecuted and +insulted the Buddhists with great acrimony. In the end the Japanese +came to the conclusion that the Europeans were an intolerable nuisance, +and that Catholic Christianity in particular was a mere cloak for the +political dreams of the Pope and the Spanish monarchy—already in +possession of the Philippine Islands; there was a great persecution of +the Christians, and in 1638 Japan was absolutely closed to Europeans, +and remained closed for over 200 years. During those two centuries the +Japanese were as completely cut off from the rest of the world as +though they lived upon another planet. It was forbidden to build any +ship larger than a mere coasting boat. No Japanese could go abroad, and +no European enter the country. + + +JAPANESE SOLDIER ON THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY +JAPANESE SOLDIER ON THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +_(In the Victoria and Albert Museum)_ + + +For two centuries Japan remained outside the main current of history. +She lived on in a state of picturesque feudalism in which about five +per cent of the population, the _samurai_, or fighting men, and the +nobles and their families, tyrannized without restraint over the rest +of the population. Meanwhile the great world outside went on to wider +visions and new powers. Strange shipping became more frequent, passing +the Japanese headlands; sometimes ships were wrecked and sailors +brought ashore. Through the Dutch settlement in the island of Deshima, +their one link with the outer universe, came warnings that Japan was +not keeping pace with the power of the Western world. In 1837 a ship +sailed into Yedo Bay flying a strange flag of stripes and stars, and +carrying some Japanese sailors she had picked up far adrift in the +Pacific. She was driven off by cannon shot. This flag presently +reappeared on other ships. One in 1849 came to demand the liberation +of eighteen shipwrecked American sailors. Then in 1853 came four +American warships under Commodore Perry, and refused to be driven away. + He lay at anchor in forbidden waters, and sent messages to the two +rulers who at that time shared the control of Japan. In 1854 he +returned with ten ships, amazing ships propelled by steam, and equipped +with big guns, and he made proposals for trade and intercourse that the +Japanese had no power to resist. He landed with a guard of 500 men to +sign the treaty. Incredulous crowds watched this visitation from the +outer world, marching through the streets. + +Russia, Holland and Britain followed in the wake of America. A great +nobleman whose estates commanded the Straits of Shimonoseki saw fit to +fire on foreign vessels, and a bombardment by a fleet of British, +French, Dutch and American warships destroyed his batteries and +scattered his swordsmen. Finally an allied squadron (1865), at anchor +off Kioto, imposed a ratification of the treaties which opened Japan to +the world. + +The humiliation of the Japanese by these events was intense. With +astonishing energy and intelligence they set themselves to bring their +culture and organization to the level of the European Powers. Never in +all the history of mankind did a nation make such a stride as Japan +then did. In 1866 she was a medieval people, a fantastic caricature of +the extremest romantic feudalism; in 1899 hers was a completely +Westernized people, on a level with the most advanced European Powers. +She completely dispelled the persuasion that Asia was in some +irrevocable way hopelessly behind Europe. She made all European +progress seem sluggish by comparison. + +We cannot tell here in any detail of Japan’s war with China in 1894-95. + It demonstrated the extent of her Westernization. She had an +efficient Westernized army and a small but sound fleet. But the +significance of her renascence, though it was appreciated by Britain +and the United States, who were already treating her as if she were a +European state, was not understood by the other Great Powers engaged in +the pursuit of new Indias in Asia. Russia was pushing down through +Manchuria to Korea. France was already established far to the south in +Tonkin and Annam, Germany was prowling hungrily on the look-out for +some settlement. The three Powers combined to prevent Japan reaping +any fruits from the Chinese war. She was exhausted by the struggle, +and they threatened her with war. + + +A STREET IN TOKIO +A STREET IN TOKIO + + +Japan submitted for a time and gathered her forces. Within ten years +she was ready for a struggle with Russia, which marks an epoch in the +history of Asia, the close of the period of European arrogance. The +Russian people were, of course, innocent and ignorant of this trouble +that was being made for them halfway round the world, and the wiser +Russian statesmen were against these foolish thrusts; but a gang of +financial adventurers, including the Grand Dukes, his cousins, +surrounded the Tsar. They had gambled deeply in the prospective +looting of Manchuria and China, and they would suffer no withdrawal. +So there began a transportation of great armies of Japanese soldiers +across the sea to Port Arthur and Korea, and the sending of endless +trainloads of Russian peasants along the Siberian railway to die in +those distant battlefields. + +The Russians, badly led and dishonestly provided, were beaten on sea +and land alike. The Russian Baltic Fleet sailed round Africa to be +utterly destroyed in the Straits of Tshushima. A revolutionary movement +among the common people of Russia, infuriated by this remote and +reasonless slaughter, obliged the Tsar to end the war (1905); he +returned the southern half of Saghalien, which had been seized by +Russia in 1875, evacuated Manchuria, resigned Korea to Japan. The +European invasion of Asia was coming to an end and the retraction of +Europe’s tentacles was beginning. + + + + +LXIV +THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1914 + + +We may note here briefly the varied nature of the constituents of the +British Empire in 1914 which the steamship and railway had brought +together. It was and is a quite unique political combination; nothing +of the sort has ever existed before. + +First and central to the whole system was the “crowned republic” of the +United British Kingdom, including (against the will of a considerable +part of the Irish people) Ireland. The majority of the British +Parliament, made up of the three united parliaments of England and +Wales, Scotland and Ireland, determines the headship, the quality and +policy of the ministry, and determines it largely on considerations +arising out of British domestic politics. It is this ministry which is +the effective supreme government, with powers of peace and war, over +all the rest of the empire. + +Next in order of political importance to the British States were the +“crowned republics” of Australia, Canada, Newfoundland (the oldest +British possession, 1583), New Zealand and South Africa, all +practically independent and self-governing states in alliance with +Great Britain, but each with a representative of the Crown appointed by +the Government in office; + +Next the Indian Empire, an extension of the Empire of the Great Mogul +with its dependent and “protected” states reaching now from Beluchistan +to Burma, and including Aden, in all of which empire the British Crown +and the India Office (under Parliamentary control) played the role of +the original Turkoman dynasty; + +Then the ambiguous possession of Egypt, still nominally a part of the +Turkish Empire and still retaining its own monarch, the Khedive, but +under almost despotic British official rule; + + +Map: OVERSEAS EMPIRES of EUROPEAN POWERS, January 1914 + +Then the still more ambiguous “Anglo-Egyptian” Sudan province, occupied +and administered jointly by the British and by the (British controlled) +Egyptian Government; + +Then a number of partially self-governing communities, some British in +origin and some not, with elected legislatures and an appointed +executive, such as Malta, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Bermuda; + +Then the Crown colonies, in which the rule of the British Home +Government (through the Colonial Office) verged on autocracy, as in +Ceylon, Trinidad and Fiji (where there was an appointed council), and +Gibraltar and St. Helena (where there was a governor); + + +GIBRALTAR +GIBRALTAR + +_Photo: C. Sinclair_ + + +Then great areas of (chiefly) tropical lands, raw-product areas, with +politically weak and under-civilized native communities which were +nominally protectorates, and administered either by a High Commissioner +set over native chiefs (as in Basutoland) or over a chartered company +(as in Rhodesia). In some cases the Foreign Office, in some cases the +Colonial Office, and in some cases the India Office, has been concerned +in acquiring the possessions that fell into this last and least +definite class of all, but for the most part the Colonial Office was +now responsible for them. + +It will be manifest, therefore, that no single office and no single +brain had ever comprehended the British Empire as a whole. It was a +mixture of growths and accumulations entirely different from anything +that has ever been called an empire before. It guaranteed a wide peace +and security; that is why it was endured and sustained by many men of +the “subject” races—in spite of official tyrannies and insufficiencies, +and of much negligence on the part of the “home” public. Like the +Athenian Empire, it was an overseas empire; its ways were sea ways, and +its common link was the British Navy. Like all empires, its cohesion +was dependent physically upon a method of communication; the +development of seamanship, ship-building and steamships between the +sixteenth and nineteenth centuries had made it a possible and +convenient Pax—the “Pax Britannica,” and fresh developments of air or +swift land transport might at any time make it inconvenient. + + +STREET IN HONG KONG +STREET IN HONG KONG + +_Photo: Underwood & Underwood_ + + + + +LXV +THE AGE OF ARMAMENT IN EUROPE, AND THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-18 + + +The progress in material science that created this vast +steamboat-and-railway republic of America and spread this precarious +British steamship empire over the world, produced quite other effects +upon the congested nations upon the continent of Europe. They found +themselves confined within boundaries fixed during the +horse-and-high-road period of human life, and their expansion overseas +had been very largely anticipated by Great Britain. Only Russia had any +freedom to expand eastward; and she drove a great railway across +Siberia until she entangled herself in a conflict with Japan, and +pushed south-eastwardly towards the borders of Persia and India to the +annoyance of Britain. The rest of the European Powers were in a state +of intensifying congestion. In order to realize the full possibilities +of the new apparatus of human life they had to rearrange their affairs +upon a broader basis, either by some sort of voluntary union or by a +union imposed upon them by some predominant power. The tendency of +modern thought was in the direction of the former alternative, but all +the force of political tradition drove Europe towards the latter. + +The downfall of the “empire” of Napoleon III, the establishment of the +new German Empire, pointed men’s hopes and fears towards the idea of a +Europe consolidated under German auspices. For thirty-six years of +uneasy peace the polities of Europe centred upon that possibility. +France, the steadfast rival of Germany for European ascendancy since +the division of the empire of Charlemagne, sought to correct her own +weakness by a close alliance with Russia, and Germany linked herself +closely with the Austrian Empire (it had ceased to be the Holy Roman +Empire in the days of Napoleon I) and less successfully with the new +kingdom of Italy. At first Great Britain stood as usual half in and +half out of continental affairs. But she was gradually forced into a +close association with the Franco-Russian group by the aggressive +development of a great German navy. The grandiose imagination of the +Emperor William II (1888-1918) thrust Germany into premature overseas +enterprise that ultimately brought not only Great Britain but Japan and +the United States into the circle of her enemies. + + +BRITISH TANK IN THE BATTLE OF THE MENIN ROAD +BRITISH TANK IN THE BATTLE OF THE MENIN ROAD +The crew came out for a breath of fresh air during a lull + +_Photo: British Official_ + + +All these nations armed. Year after year the proportion of national +production devoted to the making of guns, equipment, battleships and +the like, increased. Year after year the balance of things seemed +trembling towards war, and then war would be averted. At last it came. +Germany and Austria struck at France and Russia and Serbia; the German +armies marching through Belgium, Britain immediately came into the war +on the side of Belgium, bringing in Japan as her ally, and very soon +Turkey followed on the German side. Italy entered the war against +Austria in 1915, and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in the October +of that year. In 1916 Rumania, and in 1917 the United States and China +were forced into war against Germany. It is not within the scope of +this history to define the exact share of blame for this vast +catastrophe. The more interesting question is not why the Great War +was begun but why the Great War was not anticipated and prevented. It +is a far graver thing for mankind that scores of millions of people +were too “patriotic,” stupid, or apathetic to prevent this disaster by +a movement towards European unity upon frank and generous lines, than +that a small number of people may have been active in bringing it +about. + + +THE RUINS OF YPRES (ONCE A DELIGHTFUL OLD FLEMISH TOWN) +THE RUINS OF YPRES (ONCE A DELIGHTFUL OLD FLEMISH TOWN) +To show the complete destructiveness of modern war + +_Photo: Topical_ + + +THE DEVASTATION OF MODERN WAR +THE DEVASTATION OF MODERN WAR +Wire entanglements in the foreground + +_Photo: Photopress_ + + +It is impossible within the space at our command here to trace the +intricate details of the war. Within a few months it became apparent +that the progress of modern technical science had changed the nature of +warfare very profoundly. Physical science gives power, power over +steel, over distance, over disease; whether that power is used well or +ill depends upon the moral and political intelligence of the world. +The governments of Europe, inspired by antiquated policies of hate and +suspicion, found themselves with unexampled powers both of destruction +and resistance in their hands. The war became a consuming fire round +and about the world, causing losses both to victors and vanquished out +of all proportion to the issues involved. The first phase of the war +was a tremendous rush of the Germans upon Paris and an invasion of East +Prussia by the Russians. Both attacks were held and turned. Then the +power of the defensive developed; there was a rapid elaboration of +trench warfare until for a time the opposing armies lay entrenched in +long lines right across Europe, unable to make any advance without +enormous losses. The armies were millions strong, and behind them +entire populations were organized for the supply of food and munitions +to the front. Then was a cessation of nearly every sort of productive +activity except such as contributed to military operations. All the +able-bodied manhood of Europe was drawn into the armies or navies or +into the improvised factories that served them. There was an enormous +replacement of men by women in industry. Probably more than half the +people in the belligerent countries of Europe changed their employment +altogether during this stupendous struggle. They were socially +uprooted and transplanted. Education and normal scientific work were +restricted or diverted to immediate military ends, and the distribution +of news was crippled and corrupted by military control and “propaganda” +activities. + +The phase of military deadlock passed slowly into one of aggression +upon the combatant populations behind the fronts by the destruction of +food supplies and by attacks through the air. And also there was a +steady improvement in the size and range of the guns employed and of +such ingenious devices as poison-gas shells and the small mobile forts +known as tanks, to break down the resistance of troops in the trenches. + The air offensive was the most revolutionary of all the new methods. +It carried warfare from two dimensions into three. Hitherto in the +history of mankind war had gone on only where the armies marched and +met. Now it went on everywhere. First the Zeppelin and then the +bombing aeroplane carried war over and past the front to an ever- +increasing area of civilian activities beyond. The old distinction +maintained in civilized warfare between the civilian and combatant +population disappeared. Everyone who grew food, or who sewed a +garment, everyone who felled a tree or repaired a house, every railway +station and every warehouse was held to be fair game for destruction. +The air offensive increased in range and terror with every month in the +war. At last great areas of Europe were in a state of siege and +subject to nightly raids. Such exposed cities as London and Paris +passed sleepless night after sleepless night while the bombs burst, the +anti-aircraft guns maintained an intolerable racket, and the fire +engines and ambulances rattled headlong through the darkened and +deserted streets. The effects upon the minds and health of old people +and of young children were particularly distressing and destructive. + +Pestilence, that old follower of warfare, did not arrive until the very +end of the fighting in 1918. For four years medical science staved off +any general epidemic; then came a great outbreak of influenza about the +world which destroyed many millions of people. Famine also was staved +off for some time. By the beginning of 1918 however most of Europe was +in a state of mitigated and regulated famine. The production of food +throughout the world had fallen very greatly through the calling off of +peasant mankind to the fronts, and the distribution of such food as was +produced was impeded by the havoc wrought by the submarine, by the +rupture of customary routes through the closing of frontiers, and by +the disorganization of the transport system of the world. The various +governments took possession of the dwindling food supplies, and, with +more or less success, rationed their populations. By the fourth year +the whole world was suffering from shortages of clothing and housing +and of most of the normal gear of life as well as of food. Business +and economic life were profoundly disorganized. Every-one was worried, +and most people were leading lives of unwonted discomfort. + +The actual warfare ceased in November, 1918. After a supreme effort in +the spring of 1918 that almost carried the Germans to Paris, the +Central Powers collapsed. They had come to an end of their spirit and +resources. + + + + +LXVI +THE REVOLUTION AND FAMINE IN RUSSIA + + +But a good year and more before the collapse of the Central Powers the +half oriental monarchy of Russia, which had professed to be the +continuation of the Byzantine Empire, had collapsed. The Tsardom had +been showing signs of profound rottenness for some years before the +war; the court was under the sway of a fantastic religious impostor, +Rasputin, and the public administration, civil and military, was in a +state of extreme inefficiency and corruption. At the outset of the war +there was a great flare of patriotic enthusiasm in Russia. A vast +conscript army was called up, for which there was neither adequate +military equipment nor a proper supply of competent officers, and this +great host, ill supplied and badly handled, was hurled against the +German and Austrian frontiers. + +There can be no doubt that the early appearance of Russian armies in +East Prussia in September, 1914, diverted the energies and attention of +the Germans from their first victorious drive upon Paris. The +sufferings and deaths of scores of thousands of ill-led Russian +peasants saved France from complete overthrow in that momentous opening +campaign, and made all western Europe the debtors of that great and +tragic people. But the strain of the war upon this sprawling, +ill-organized empire was too heavy for its strength. The Russian +common soldiers were sent into battle without guns to support them, +without even rifle ammunition; they were wasted by their officers and +generals in a delirium of militarist enthusiasm. For a time they +seemed to be suffering mutely as the beasts suffer; but there is a +limit to the endurance even of the most ignorant. A profound disgust +for Tsardom was creeping through these armies of betrayed and wasted +men. From the close of 1915 onward Russia was a source of deepening +anxiety to her Western Allies. Throughout 1916 she remained largely on +the defensive, and there were rumours of a separate peace with Germany. + +On December 29th, 1916, the monk Rasputin was murdered at a dinner +party in Petrograd, and a belated attempt was made to put the Tsardom +in order. By March things were moving rapidly; food riots in Petrograd +developed into a revolutionary insurrection; there was an attempted +suppression of the Duma, the representative body, there were attempted +arrests of liberal leaders, the formation of a provisional government +under Prince Lvoff, and an abdication (March 15th) by the Tsar. For a +time it seemed that a moderate and controlled revolution might be +possible—perhaps under a new Tsar. Then it became evident that the +destruction of popular confidence in Russia had gone too far for any +such adjustments. The Russian people were sick to death of the old +order of things in Europe, of Tsars and wars and of Great Powers; it +wanted relief, and that speedily, from unendurable miseries. The +Allies had no understanding of Russian realities; their diplomatists +were ignorant of Russian, genteel persons with their attention directed +to the Russian Court rather than to Russia, they blundered steadily +with the new situation. There was little goodwill among these +diplomatists for republicanism, and a manifest disposition to embarrass +the new government as much as possible. At the head of the Russian +republican government was an eloquent and picturesque leader, Kerensky, +who found himself assailed by the forces of a profounder revolutionary +movement, the “social revolution,” at home and cold-shouldered by the +Allied governments abroad. His Allies would neither let him give the +Russian peasants the land for which they craved nor peace beyond their +frontiers. The French and the British press pestered their exhausted +ally for a fresh offensive, but when presently the Germans made a +strong attack by sea and land upon Riga, the British Admiralty quailed +before the prospect of a Baltic expedition in relief. The new Russian +Republic had to fight unsupported. In spite of their naval +predominance and the bitter protests of the great English admiral, Lord +Fisher (1841-1920), it is to be noted that the British and their +Allies, except for some submarine attacks, left the Germans the +complete mastery of the Baltic throughout the war. + +The Russian masses, however, were resolute to end the war. At any +cost. There had come into existence in Petrograd a body representing +the workers and common soldiers, the Soviet, and this body clamoured +for an international conference of socialists at Stockholm. Food riots +were occurring in Berlin at this time, war weariness in Austria and +Germany was profound, and there can be little doubt, in the light of +subsequent events, that such a conference would have precipitated a +reasonable peace on democratic lines in 1917 and a German revolution. +Kerensky implored his Western allies to allow this conference to take +place, but, fearful of a worldwide outbreak of socialism and +republicanism, they refused, in spite of the favourable response of a +small majority of the British Labour Party. Without either moral or +physical help from the Allies, the unhappy “moderate” Russian Republic +still fought on and made a last desperate offensive effort in July. It +failed after some preliminary successes, and there came another great +slaughtering of Russians. + +The limit of Russian endurance was reached. Mutinies broke out in the +Russian armies, and particularly upon the northern front, and on +November 7th, 1917, Kerensky’s government was overthrown and power was +seized by the Soviets, dominated by the Bolshevik socialists under +Lenin, and pledged to make peace regardless of the Western powers. On +March 2nd, 1918, a separate peace between Russia and Germany was signed +at Brest-Litovsk. + + +A VIEW IN PETERSBURG UNDER BOLSHEVIK RULE +A VIEW IN PETERSBURG UNDER BOLSHEVIK RULE +A wooden house has been demolished for firewood + +_By courtesy of Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton_ + + +It speedily became evident that these Bolshevik socialists were men of +a very different quality from the rhetorical constitutionalists and +revolutionaries of the Kerensky phase. They were fanatical Marxist +communists. They believed that their accession to power in Russia was +only the opening of a world-wide social revolution, and they set about +changing the social and economic order with the thoroughness of perfect +faith and absolute inexperience. The western European and the American +governments were themselves much too ill-informed and incapable to +guide or help this extraordinary experiment, and the press set itself +to discredit and the ruling classes to wreck these usurpers upon any +terms and at any cost to themselves or to Russia. A propaganda of +abominable and disgusting inventions went on unchecked in the press of +the world; the Bolshevik leaders were represented as incredible +monsters glutted with blood and plunder and living lives of sensuality +before which the realities of the Tsarist court during the Rasputin +regime paled to a white purity. Expeditions were launched at the +exhausted country, insurgents and raiders were encouraged, armed and +subsidized, and no method of attack was too mean or too monstrous for +the frightened enemies of the Bolshevik regime. In 1919, the Russian +Bolsheviks, ruling a country already exhausted and disorganized by five +years of intensive warfare, were fighting a British Expedition at +Archangel, Japanese invaders in Eastern Siberia, Roumanians with French +and Greek contingents in the south, the Russian Admiral Koltchak in +Siberia and General Deniken, supported by the French fleet, in the +Crimea. In July of that year an Esthonian army, under General +Yudenitch, almost got to Petersburg. In 1920 the Poles, incited by the +French, made a new attack on Russia; and a new reactionary raider, +General Wrangel, took over the task of General Deniken in invading and +devastating his own country. In March, 1921, the sailors at Cronstadt +revolted. The Russian Government under its president, Lenin, survived +all these various attacks. It showed an amazing tenacity, and the +common people of Russia sustained it unswervingly under conditions of +extreme hardship. By the end of 1921 both Britain and Italy had made a +sort of recognition of the communist rule. + +But if the Bolshevik Government was successful in its struggle against +foreign intervention and internal revolt, it was far less happy in its +attempts to set up a new social order based upon communist ideas in +Russia. The Russian peasant is a small land-hungry proprietor, as far +from communism in his thoughts and methods as a whale is from flying; +the revolution gave him the land of the great landowners but could not +make him grow food for anything but negotiable money, and the +revolution, among other things, had practically destroyed the value of +money. Agricultural production, already greatly disordered by the +collapse of the railways through war-strain, shrank to a mere +cultivation of food by the peasants for their own consumption. The +towns starved. Hasty and ill-planned attempts to make over industrial +production in accordance with communist ideas were equally +unsuccessful. By 1920 Russia presented the unprecedented spectacle of +a modern civilization in complete collapse. Railways were rusting and +passing out of use, towns were falling into ruin, everywhere there was +an immense mortality. Yet the country still fought with its enemies at +its gates. In 1921 came a drought and a great famine among the peasant +cultivators in the war-devastated south-east provinces. Millions of +people starved. + +But the question of the distresses and the possible recuperation of +Russia brings us too close to current controversies to be discussed +here. + + + + +LXVII +THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WORLD + + +The scheme and scale upon which this History is planned do not permit +us to enter into the complicated and acrimonious disputes that centre +about the treaties, and particularly of the treaty of Versailles, which +concluded the Great War. We are beginning to realize that that +conflict, terrible and enormous as it was, ended nothing, began nothing +and settled nothing. It killed millions of people; it wasted and +impoverished the world. It smashed Russia altogether. It was at best an +acute and frightful reminder that we were living foolishly and +confusedly without much plan or foresight in a dangerous and +unsympathetic universe. The crudely organized egotisms and passions of +national and imperial greed that carried mankind into that tragedy, +emerged from it sufficiently unimpaired to make some other similar +disaster highly probable so soon as the world has a little recovered +from its war exhaustion and fatigue. Wars and revolutions make nothing; +their utmost service to mankind is that, in a very rough and painful +way, they destroy superannuated and obstructive things. The great war +lifted the threat of German imperialism from Europe, and shattered the +imperialism of Russia. It cleared away a number of monarchies. But a +multitude of flags still waves in Europe, the frontiers still +exasperate, great armies accumulate fresh stores of equipment. + +The Peace Conference at Versailles was a gathering very ill adapted to +do more than carry out the conflicts and defeats of the war to their +logical conclusions. The Germans, Austrians, Turks and Bulgarians were +permitted no share in its deliberations; they were only to accept the +decisions it dictated to them. From the point of view of human welfare +the choice of the place of meeting was particularly unfortunate. It +was at Versailles in 1871 that, with every circumstance of triumphant +vulgarity, the new German Empire had been proclaimed. The suggestion +of a melodramatic reversal of that scene, in the same Hall of Mirrors, +was overpowering. + +Whatever generosities had appeared in the opening phases of the Great +War had long been exhausted. The populations of the victorious +countries were acutely aware of their own losses and sufferings, and +entirely regardless of the fact that the defeated had paid in the like +manner. The war had arisen as a natural and inevitable consequence of +the competitive nationalisms of Europe and the absence of any Federal +adjustment of these competitive forces; war is the necessary logical +consummation of independent sovereign nationalities living in too small +an area with too powerful an armament; and if the great war had not +come in the form it did it would have come in some similar form—just as +it will certainly return upon a still more disastrous scale in twenty +or thirty years’ time if no political unification anticipates and +prevents it. States organized for war will make wars as surely as hens +will lay eggs, but the feeling of these distressed and war-worn +countries disregarded this fact, and the whole of the defeated peoples +were treated as morally and materially responsible for all the damage, +as they would no doubt have treated the victor peoples had the issue of +war been different. The French and English thought the Germans were to +blame, the Germans thought the Russians, French and English were to +blame, and only an intelligent minority thought that there was anything +to blame in the fragmentary political constitution of Europe. The +treaty of Versailles was intended to be exemplary and vindictive; it +provided tremendous penalties for the vanquished; it sought to provide +compensations for the wounded and suffering victors by imposing +enormous debts upon nations already bankrupt, and its attempts to +reconstitute international relations by the establishment of a League +of Nations against war were manifestly insincere and inadequate. + + +PASSENGER AEROPLANE FLYING OVER NORTHOLT +PASSENGER AEROPLANE FLYING OVER NORTHOLT + +_(Photo taken by another ’plane by the Central Aerophoto Co.)_ + + +So far as Europe was concerned it is doubtful if there would have been +any attempt whatever to organize international relations for a +permanent peace. The proposal of the League of Nations was brought +into practical politics by the President of the United States of +America, President Wilson. Its chief support was in America. So far +the United States, this new modern state, had developed no distinctive +ideas of international relationship beyond the Monroe Doctrine, which +protected the new world from European interference. Now suddenly it was +called upon for its mental contribution to the vast problem of the +time. It had none. The natural disposition of the American people was +towards a permanent world peace. With this however was linked a strong +traditional distrust of old-world polities and a habit of isolation +from old-world entanglements. The Americans had hardly begun to think +out an American solution of world problems when the submarine campaign +of the Germans dragged them into the war on the side of the anti-German +allies. President Wilson’s scheme of a League of Nations was an attempt +at short notice to create a distinctively American world project. It +was a sketchy, inadequate and dangerous scheme. In Europe however it +was taken as a matured American point of view. The generality of +mankind in 1918-19 was intensely weary of war and anxious at almost any +sacrifice to erect barriers against its recurrence, but there was not a +single government in the old world willing to waive one iota of its +sovereign independence to attain any such end. The public utterances +of President Wilson leading up to the project of a World League of +Nations seemed for a time to appeal right over the heads of the +governments to the peoples of the world; they were taken as expressing +the ripe intentions of America, and the response was enormous. +Unhappily President Wilson had to deal with governments and not with +peoples; he was a man capable of tremendous flashes of vision and yet +when put to the test egotistical and limited, and the great wave of +enthusiasm he evoked passed and was wasted. + +Says Dr. Dillon in his book, _The Peace Conference:_ “Europe, when the +President touched its shores, was as clay ready for the creative +potter. Never before were the nations so eager to follow a Moses who +would take them to the long-promised land where wars are prohibited and +blockades unknown. And to their thinking he was just that great +leader. In France men bowed down before him with awe and affection. +Labour leaders in Paris told me that they shed tears of joy in his +presence, and that their comrades would go through fire and water to +help him to realize his noble schemes. To the working classes in Italy +his name was a heavenly clarion at the sound of which the earth would +be renewed. The Germans regarded him and his doctrine as their +sheet-anchor of safety. The fearless Herr Muehlon said: ‘If President +Wilson were to address the Germans and pronounce a severe sentence upon +them, they would accept it with resignation and without a murmur and +set to work at once.’ In German-Austria his fame was that of a +saviour, and the mere mention of his name brought balm to the suffering +and surcease of sorrow to the afflicted ... .” + +Such were the overpowering expectations that President Wilson raised. +How completely he disappointed them and how weak and futile was the +League of Nations he made is too long and too distressful a story to +tell here. He exaggerated in his person our common human tragedy, he +was so very great in his dreams and so incapable in his performance. +America dissented from the acts of its President and would not join the +League Europe accepted from him. There was a slow realization on the +part of the American people that it had been rushed into something for +which it was totally unprepared. There was a corresponding realization +on the part of Europe that America had nothing ready to give to the old +world in its extremity. Born prematurely and crippled at its birth, +that League has become indeed, with its elaborate and unpractical +constitution and its manifest limitations of power, a serious obstacle +in the way of any effective reorganization of international +relationships. The problem would be a clearer one if the League did not +yet exist. Yet that world-wide blaze of enthusiasm that first welcomed +the project, that readiness of men everywhere round and about the +earth, of men, that is, as distinguished from governments, for a world +control of war, is a thing to be recorded with emphasis in any history. +Behind the short-sighted governments that divide and mismanage human +affairs, a real force for world unity and world order exists and grows. + +From 1918 onward the world entered upon an age of conferences. Of +these the Conference at Washington called by President Harding (1921) +has been the most successful and suggestive. Notable, too, is the +Genoa Conference (1922) for the appearance of German and Russian +delegates at its deliberations. We will not discuss this long +procession of conferences and tentatives in any detail. It becomes +more and more clearly manifest that a huge work of reconstruction has +to be done by mankind if a crescendo of such convulsions and world +massacres as that of the great war is to be averted. No such hasty +improvisation as the League of Nations, no patched-up system of +Conferences between this group of states and that, which change nothing +with an air of settling everything, will meet the complex political +needs of the new age that lies before us. A systematic development and +a systematic application of the sciences of human relationship, of +personal and group psychology, of financial and economic science and of +education, sciences still only in their infancy, is required. Narrow +and obsolete, dead and dying moral and political ideas have to be +replaced by a clearer and a simpler conception of the common origins +and destinies of our kind. + + +A PEACEFUL GARDEN IN ENGLAND +A PEACEFUL GARDEN IN ENGLAND +Given wisdom, all mankind might live in such gardens + + +But if the dangers, confusions and disasters that crowd upon man in +these days are enormous beyond any experience of the past, it is +because science has brought him such powers as he never had before. And +the scientific method of fearless thought, exhaustively lucid +statement, and exhaustively criticized planning, which has given him +these as yet uncontrollable powers, gives him also the hope of +controlling these powers. Man is still only adolescent. His troubles +are not the troubles of senility and exhaustion but of increasing and +still undisciplined strength. When we look at all history as one +process, as we have been doing in this book, when we see the steadfast +upward struggle of life towards vision and control, then we see in +their true proportions the hopes and dangers of the present time. As +yet we are hardly in the earliest dawn of human greatness. But in the +beauty of flower and sunset, in the happy and perfect movement of young +animals and in the delight of ten thousand various landscapes, we have +some intimations of what life can do for us, and in some few works of +plastic and pictorial art, in some great music, in a few noble +buildings and happy gardens, we have an intimation of what the human +will can do with material possibilities. We have dreams; we have at +present undisciplined but ever increasing power. Can we doubt that +presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, +that it will achieve unity and peace, that it will live, the children +of our blood and lives will live, in a world made more splendid and +lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength +to strength in an ever widening circle of adventure and achievement? +What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state, and all +this history we have told, form but the prelude to the things that man +has got to do. + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE + +About the year 1000 B.C. the Aryan peoples were establishing themselves +in the peninsulas of Spain, Italy and the Balkans, and they were +established in North India; Cnossos was already destroyed and the +spacious times of Egypt, of Thothmes III, Amenophis III and Rameses II +were three or four centuries away. Weak monarchs of the XXIst Dynasty +were ruling in the Nile Valley. Israel was united under her early +kings; Saul or David or possibly even Solomon may have been reigning. +Sargon I (2750 B.C.) of the Akkadian Sumerian Empire was a remote +memory in Babylonian history, more remote than is Constantine the Great +from the world of the present day. Hammurabi had been dead a thousand +years. The Assyrians were already dominating the less military +Babylonians. In 1100 B.C. Tiglath Pileser I had taken Babylon. But +there was no permanent conquest; Assyria and Babylonia were still +separate empires. In China the new Chow dynasty was flourishing. +Stonehenge in England was already some hundreds of years old. + +The next two centuries saw a renascence of Egypt under the XXIInd +Dynasty, the splitting up of the brief little Hebrew kingdom of +Solomon, the spreading of the Greeks in the Balkans, South Italy and +Asia Minor, and the days of Etruscan predominance in Central Italy. We +begin our list of ascertainable dates with + +B.C. 800. The building of Carthage. + + 790. The Ethiopian conquest of Egypt (founding the XXVth Dynasty). + + 776. First Olympiad. + + 753. Rome built. + + 745. Tiglath Pileser III conquered Babylonia and founded the New + Assyrian Empire. + + 722. Sargon II armed the Assyrians with iron weapons. + + 721. He deported the Israelites. + + 680. Esarhaddon took Thebes in Egypt (overthrowing the Ethiopian + XXVth Dynasty). + + 664. Psammetichus I restored the freedom of Egypt and founded the + XXVIth Dynasty (to 610). + + 608. Necho of Egypt defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at the battle of + Megiddo. + + 606. Capture of Nineveh by the Chaldeans and Medes. + +Foundation of the Chaldean Empire. + + 604. Necho pushed to the Euphrates and was overthrown by + Nebuchadnezzar II. + + (Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews to Babylon.) + + 550. Cyrus the Persian succeeded Cyaxares the Mede. + +Cyrus conquered Crœsus. + +Buddha lived about this time. + + So also did Confucius and Lao Tse. + + 539. Cyrus took Babylon and founded the Persian Empire. + + 521. Darius I, the son of Hystaspes, ruled from the Hellespont to the + Indus. + +His expedition to Scythia. + + 490. Battle of Marathon. + + 480. Battles of Thermopylï and Salamis. + + 479. The battles of Platea and Mycale completed the repulse of + Persia. + + 474. Etruscan fleet destroyed by the Sicilian Greeks. + + 431. Peloponnesian War began (to 404) + + 401. Retreat of the Ten Thousand. + + 359. Philip became king of Macedonia. + + 338. Battle of Chïronia. + + 336. Macedonian troops crossed into Asia. Philip murdered. + + 334. Battle of the Granicus. + + 333. Battle of Issus. + + 331. Battle of Arbela. + + 330. Darius III killed. + + 323. Death of Alexander the Great. + + 321. Rise of Chandragupta in the Punjab. + +The Romans completely beaten by the Samnites at the battle of the +Caudine Forks. + + 281. Pyrrhus invaded Italy. + + 280. Battle of Heraclea. + + 279. Battle of Ausculum. + + 278. Gauls raided into Asia Minor and settled in Galatia. + + 275. Pyrrhus left Italy. + + 264. First Punic War. (Asoka began to reign in Behar—to 227.) + + 260. Battle of Mylï. + + 256. Battle of Ecnomus. + + 246. Shi-Hwang-ti became King of Ts’in. + + 220. Shi-Hwang-ti became Emperor of China. + + 214. Great Wall of China begun. + + 210. Death of Shi-Hwang-ti. + + 202. Battle of Zama. + + 146. Carthage destroyed. + + 133. Attalus bequeathed Pergamum to Rome. + + 102. Marius drove back Germans. + + 100. Triumph of Marius. (Chinese conquering the Tarim valley.) + + 89. All Italians became Roman citizens. + + 73. The revolt of the slaves under Spartacus. + + 71. Defeat and end of Spartacus. + + 66. Pompey led Roman troops to the Caspian and Euphrates. He + encountered the Alani. + + 48. Julius Cïsar defeated Pompey at Pharsalos. + + 44. Julius Cïsar assassinated. + + 27. Augustus Cïsar princeps (until 14 A.D.). + + 4. True date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth. + + A.D. Christian Era began. + + 14. Augustus died. Tiberius emperor. + + 30. Jesus of Nazareth crucified. + + 41. Claudius (the first emperor of the legions) made emperor by + pretorian guard after murder of Caligula. + + 68. Suicide of Nero. (Galba, Otho, Vitellus, emperors in + succession.) + + 69. Vespasian. + + 102. Pan Chau on the Caspian Sea. + + 117. Hadrian succeeded Trajan. Roman Empire at its greatest + extent. + + 138. (The Indo-Scythians at this time were destroying the last + traces of Hellenic rule in India.) + + 161. Marcus Aurelius succeeded Antoninus Pius. + + 164. Great plague began, and lasted to the death of M. Aurelius + (180). This also devastated all Asia. + +(Nearly a century of war and disorder began in the Roman Empire.) + + 220. End of the Han dynasty. Beginning of four hundred years of + division in China. + + 227. Ardashir I (first Sassanid shah) put an end to Arsacid line in + Persia. + + 242. Mani began his teaching. + + 247. Goths crossed Danube in a great raid. + + 251. Great victory of Goths. Emperor Decius killed. + + 260. Sapor I, the second Sassanid shah, took Antioch, captured the + Emperor Valerian, and was cut up on his return from Asia Minor by + Odenathus of Palmyra. + + 277. Mani crucified in Persia. + + 284. Diocletian became emperor. + + 303. Diocletian persecuted the Christians. + + 311. Galerius abandoned the persecution of the Christians. + + 312. Constantine the Great became emperor. + + 323. Constantine presided over the Council of Nicïa. + + 337. Constantine baptized on his deathbed. + + 361-3. Julian the Apostate attempted to substitute Mithraism for + Christianity. + + 392. Theodosius the Great emperor of east and west. + + 395. Theodosius the Great died. Honorius and Arcadius redivided the + empire with Stilicho and Alaric as their masters and protectors. + + 410. The Visigoths under Alaric captured Rome. + + 425. Vandals settling in south of Spain. Huns in Pannonia, Goths in + Dalmatia. Visigoths and Suevi in Portugal and North Spain. English + invading Britain. + + 439. Vandals took Carthage. + + 451. Attila raided Gaul and was defeated by Franks, Alemanni and + Romans at Troyes. + + 453. Death of Attila. + + 455. Vandals sacked Rome. + + 470. Odoacer, king of a medley of Teutonic tribes, informed + Constantinople that there was no emperor in the West. End of the + Western Empire. + + 493. Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, conquered Italy and became King of + Italy, but was nominally subject to Constantinople. (Gothic kings in + Italy. Goths settled on special confiscated lands as a garrison.) + + 527. Justinian emperor. + + 529. Justinian closed the schools at Athens, which had flourished + nearly a thousand years. Belisarius (Justinian’s general) took + Naples. + + 531. Chosroes I began to reign. + + 543. Great plague in Constantinople. + + 553. Goths expelled from Italy by Justinian. Justinian died. The + Lombards conquered most of North Italy (leaving Ravenna and Rome + Byzantine). + + 570. Muhammad born. + + 579. Chosroes I died. + +(The Lombards dominant in Italy.) + + 590. Plague raged in Rome. Chosroes II began to reign. + + 610. Heraclius began to reign. + + 619. Chosroes II held Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, and armies on + Hellespont. Tang dynasty began in China. + + 622. The Hegira. + + 627. Great Persian defeat at Nineveh by Heraclius. Tai-tsung became + Emperor of China. + + 628. Kavadh II murdered and succeeded his father, Chosroes II. + +Muhammad wrote letters to all the rulers of the earth. + + 629. Muhammad returned to Mecca. + + 632. Muhammad died. Abu Bekr Caliph. + + 634. Battle of the Yarmuk. Moslems took Syria. Omar second Caliph. + + 635. Tai-tsung received Nestorian missionaries. + + 637. Battle of Kadessia. + + 638. Jerusalem surrendered to the Caliph Omar. + + 642. Heraclius died. + + 643. Othman third Caliph. + + 655. Defeat of the Byzantine fleet by the Moslems. + + 668. The Caliph Moawija attacked Constantinople by sea. + + 687. Pepin of Hersthal, mayor of the palace, reunited Austrasia and + Neustria. + + 711. Moslem army invaded Spain from Africa. + + 715. The domains of the Caliph Walid I extended from the Pyrenees to + China. + + 717-18. Suleiman, son and successor of Walid, failed to take + Constantinople. + + 732. Charles Martel defeated the Moslems near Poitiers. + + 751. Pepin crowned King of the French. + + 768. Pepin died. + + 771. Charlemagne sole king. + + 774. Charlemagne conquered Lombardy. + + 786. Haroun-al-Raschid Abbasid Caliph in Bagdad (to 809). + + 795. Leo III became Pope (to 816). + + 800. Leo crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the West. + + 802. Egbert, formerly an English refugee at the court of Charlemagne, + established himself as King of Wessex. + + 810. Krum of Bulgaria defeated and killed the Emperor Nicephorus. + + 814. Charlemagne died. + + 828. Egbert became first King of England. + + 843. Louis the Pious died, and the Carlovingian Empire went to + pieces. Until 962 there was no regular succession of Holy Roman + Emperors, though the title appeared intermittently. + + 850. About this time Rurik (a Northman) became ruler of Novgorod and + Kieff. + + 852. Boris first Christian King of Bulgaria (to 884). + + 865. The fleet of the Russians (Northmen) threatened Constantinople. + + 904. Russian (Northmen) fleet off Constantinople. + + 912. Rolf the Ganger established himself in Normandy. + + 919. Henry the Fowler elected King of Germany. + + 936. Otto I became King of Germany in succession to his father, Henry + the Fowler. + + 941. Russian fleet again threatened Constantinople. + + 962. Otto I, King of Germany, crowned Emperor (first Saxon Emperor) + by John XII. + + 987. Hugh Capet became King of France. End of the Carlovingian line + of French kings. + + 1016. Canute became King of England, Denmark and Norway. + + 1043. Russian fleet threatened Constantinople. + + 1066. Conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy. + + 1071. Revival of Islam under the Seljuk Turks. Battle of Melasgird. + + 1073. Hildebrand became Pope (Gregory VII) to 1085. + + 1084. Robert Guiscard, the Norman, sacked Rome. + + 1087-99. Urban II Pope. + + 1095. Urban II at Clermont summoned the First Crusade. + + 1096. Massacre of the People’s Crusade. + + 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon captured Jerusalem. + + 1147. The Second Crusade. + + 1169. Saladin Sultan of Egypt. + + 1176. Frederick Barbarossa acknowledged supremacy of the Pope + (Alexander III) at Venice. + + 1187. Saladin captured Jerusalem. + + 1189. The Third Crusade. + + 1198. Innocent III Pope (to 1216). Frederick II (aged four), King of + Sicily, became his ward. + + 1202. The Fourth Crusade attacked the Eastern Empire. + + 1204. Capture of Constantinople by the Latins. + + 1214. Jengis Khan took Pekin. + + 1226. St. Francis of Assisi died. (The Franciscans.) + + 1227. Jengis Khan died. Khan from the Caspian to the Pacific, and + was succeeded by Ogdai Khan. + + 1228. Frederick II embarked upon the Sixth Crusade, and acquired + Jerusalem. + + 1240. Mongols destroyed Kieff. Russia tributary to the Mongols. + + 1241. Mongol victory in Liegnitz in Silesia. + + 1250. Frederick II, the last Hohenstaufen Emperor, died. German + interregnum until 1273. + + 1251. Mangu Khan became Great Khan. Kublai Khan governor of China. + + 1258. Hulagu Khan took and destroyed Bagdad. + + 1260. Kublai Khan became Great Khan. + + 1261. The Greeks recaptured Constantinople from the Latins. + + 1273. Rudolf of Habsburg elected Emperor. The Swiss formed their + Everlasting League. + + 1280. Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty in China. + + 1292. Death of Kublai Khan. + + 1293. Roger Bacon, the prophet of experimental science, died. + + 1348. The Great Plague, the Black Death. + + 1360. In China the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty fell, and was succeeded by + the Ming dynasty (to 1644). + + 1377. Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome. + + 1378. The Great Schism. Urban VI in Rome, Clement VII at Avignon. + + 1398. Huss preached Wycliffism at Prague. + + 1414-18. The Council of Constance. + +Huss burnt (1415). + + 1417. The Great Schism ended. + + 1453. Ottoman Turks under Muhammad II took Constantinople. + + 1480. Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, threw off the Mongol + allegiance. + + 1481. Death of the Sultan Muhammad II while preparing for the + conquest of Italy. + + 1486. Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. + + 1492. Columbus crossed the Atlantic to America. + + 1498. Maximilian I became Emperor. + + 1498. Vasco da Gama sailed round the Cape to India. + + 1499. Switzerland became an independent republic. + + 1500. Charles V born. + + 1509. Henry VIII King of England. + + 1513. Leo X Pope. + + 1515. Francis I King of France. + + 1520. Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan (to 1566), who ruled from + Bagdad to Hungary. Charles V Emperor. + + 1525. Baber won the battle of Panipat, captured Delhi, and founded + the Mogul Empire. + + 1527. The German troops in Italy, under the Constable of Bourbon, + took and pillaged Rome. + + 1529. Suleiman besieged Vienna. + + 1530. Charles V crowned by the Pope. + +Henry VIII began his quarrel with the Papacy. + + 1539. The Society of Jesus founded. + + 1546. Martin Luther died. + + 1547. Ivan IV (the Terrible) took the Title of Tsar of Russia. + + 1556. Charles V abdicated. Akbar, Great Mogul (to 1605). Ignatius + of Loyola died. + + 1558. Death of Charles V. + + 1566. Suleiman the Magnificent died. + + 1603. James I King of England and Scotland. + + 1620. _Mayflower_ expedition founded New Plymouth. First negro + slaves landed at Jamestown (Va.). + + 1625. Charles I of England. + + 1626. Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) died. + + 1643. Louis XIV began his reign of seventy-two year’s. + + 1644. The Manchus ended the Ming dynasty. + + 1648. Treaty of Westphalia. There-by Holland and Switzerland were + recognized as free republics and Prussia became important. The + treaty gave a complete victory neither to the Imperial Crown nor to + the Princes. + +War of the Fronde; it ended in the complete victory of the French +crown. + + 1649. Execution of Charles I of England. + + 1658. Aurungzeb Great Mogul. Cromwell died. + + 1660. Charles II of England. + + 1674. Nieuw Amsterdam finally became British by treaty and was + renamed New York. + + 1683. The last Turkish attack on Vienna defeated by John III of + Poland. + + 1689. Peter the Great of Russia. (To 1725.) + + 1701. Frederick I first King of Prussia. + + 1707. Death of Aurungzeb. The empire of the Great Mogul + disintegrated. + + 1713. Frederick the Great of Prussia born. + + 1715. Louis XV of France. + + 1755-63. Britain and France struggled for America and India. France + in alliance with Austria and Russia against Prussia and Britain + (1756-63); the Seven Years’ War. + + 1759. The British general, Wolfe, took Quebec. + + 1760. George III of Britain. + + 1763. Peace of Paris; Canada ceded to Britain. British dominant in + India. + + 1769. Napoleon Bonaparte born. + + 1774. Louis XVI began his reign. + + 1776. Declaration of Independence by the United States of America. + + 1783. Treaty of Peace between Britain and the new United States of + America. + + 1787. The Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia set up the + Federal Government of the United States. France discovered to be + bankrupt. + + 1788. First Federal Congress of the United States at New York. + + 1789. The French States-General assembled. Storming of the Bastille. + + 1791. Flight to Varennes. + + 1792. France declared war on Austria. Prussia declared war on + France. Battle of Valmy. France became a republic. + + 1793. Louis XVI beheaded. + + 1794. Execution of Robespierre and end of the Jacobin republic. + + 1795. The Directory. Bonaparte suppressed a revolt and went to Italy + as commander-in-chief. + + 1798. Bonaparte went to Egypt. Battle of the Nile. + + 1799. Bonaparte returned to France. He became First Consul with + enormous powers. + + 1804. Bonaparte became Emperor. Francis II took the title of Emperor + of Austria in 1805, and in 1806 he dropped the title of Holy Roman + Emperor. So the “Holy Roman Empire” came to an end. + + 1806. Prussia overthrown at Jena. + + 1808. Napoleon made his brother Joseph King of Spain. + + 1810. Spanish America became republican. + + 1812. Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. + + 1814. Abdication of Napoleon. Louis XVIII. + + 1824. Charles X of France. + + 1825. Nicholas I of Russia. First railway, Stockton to Darlington. + + 1827. Battle of Navarino. + + 1829. Greece independent. + + 1830. A year of disturbance. Louis Philippe ousted Charles X. + Belgium broke away from Holland. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became + king of this new country, Belgium. Russian Poland revolted + ineffectually. + + 1835. The word “socialism” first used. + + 1837. Queen Victoria. + + 1840. Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. + + 1852. Napoleon III Emperor of the French. + +1854-56. Crimean War. + + 1856. Alexander II of Russia. + + 1861. Victor Emmanuel First King of Italy. Abraham Lincoln became + President, U. S. A. The American Civil War began. + + 1865. Surrender of Appomattox Court House. Japan opened to the + world. + + 1870. Napoleon III declared war against Prussia. + + 1871. Paris surrendered (January). The King of Prussia became + “German Emperor.” The Peace of Frankfort. + + 1878. The Treaty of Berlin. The Armed Peace of forty-six years began + in western Europe. + + 1888. Frederick II (March), William II (June), German Emperors. + + 1912. China became a republic. + + 1914. The Great War in Europe began. + + 1917. The two Russian revolutions. Establishment of the Bolshevik + regime in Russia. + + 1918. The Armistice. + + 1920. First meeting of the League of Nations, from which Germany, + Austria, Russia and Turkey were excluded and at which the United + States was not represented. + + 1921. The Greeks, in complete disregard of the League of Nations, + make war upon the Turks. + + 1922. Great defeat of the Greeks in Asia Minor by the Turks. + + +INDEX + +A + +Abolitionist movement,384 + +Abraham the Patriarch, 116 + +Abu Bekr", 249, 252, 431 + +Abyssinia, 398 + +Actium, battle of, 195 + +Adam and Eve, 116 + +Adams, William, 400 + +Aden, 405 + +Adowa, battle of, 398 + +Adrianople, 229 + +Adrianople, Treaty of, 353 + +Adriatic Sea, 178, 228 + +Ægatian Isles, 182 + +Ægean peoples, 92, 94, 100, 108, 117, 174 + +Æolic Greeks, 108, 130 + +Aeroplanes, 4, 363, 413 + +Æschylus, 139 + +Afghanistan, 163 + +Africa, 72, 92, 122, 123, 182, 253, 258, 302 + +Africa, Central, 397 + +Africa, North, 65, 94, 180, 192, 232, 292, 394, 397, 431 + +Africa, South, 72, 335, 398, 405 + +Africa, West, 393 + +“Age of Confusion,” the, 168, 173 + +Agriculturalists, primitive, 66, 68 + +Agriculture, 203; slaves in, 203 + +Ahab, 119 + +Air-breathing vertebrata, 23, 24 + +Air-raids, 413 + +Aix-la-Chapelle, 265 + +Akbar, 292, 332, 433 + +Akkadian and Akkadians, 90, 122, 429 + +Alabama, 385 + +_Alabama_, the, 388 + +Alani, 227, 430 + +Alaric, 230, 232, 431 + +Albania, 179 + +Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Prince Consort), 434 + +Alchemists, 257, 294 + +Aldebaran, 257 + +Alemanni, 200, 431 + +Alexander I. Tsar, 348 + +Alexander II of Russia, 435 + +Alexander III, Pope, 274, 432 + +Alexander the Great, 142, 146 _et seq._, 163, 186, 240, 299, 430 + +Alexandretta, 147 + +Alexandria, 147, 151, 209, 222, 239 + +Alexandria, library at, 151 + +Alexandria, museum of, 150, 180 + +Alexius Comnenus, 268 + +Alfred the Great, 26 + +Algæ, 13 + +Algebra, 257, 282 + +Algiers, 185 + +Algol, 257 + +Allah, 252 + +Alligators, 28 + +Alphabets, 79, 127 + +Alps, the, 37, 197 + +Alsace, 200, 309, 391 + +Aluminium, 360 + +Amenophis III, 96, 429 + +Amenophis IV, 96 + +America, 263, 302, 309, 314, 324, 335, 336, 442-23, 434 + +America, North, 12, 330, 336, 382 + +American Civil War, 386, 435 + +American civilizations, primitive, 73 _et seq._ + +American warships in Japanese waters, 402 + +Ammonites, 30, 36 + +Amorites, 90 + +Amos, the prophet, 124 + +Amphibia, 24 + +Amphitheatres, 208 + +Amur, 334 + +Anagni, 284 + +Anatomy, 24, 355 + +Anaxagoras, 138 + +Anaximander of Miletus, 132 + +Andes, 37 + +Angles, 230 + +Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 405 + +Animals, (_See_ Mammalia) + +Annam, 402 + +Anti-aircraft guns, 413 + +Antigonus, 149 + +Antioch, 243, 271, 431 + +Antiochus III, 183 + +Anti-Slavery Society, 384 + +Antoninus Pius, 195, 430 + +Antony, Mark, 194 + +Antwerp, 294 + +Anubis, 210 + +Apes, 43, 44; anthropoid, 45 + +Apis, 209, 211 + +Apollonius, 151 + +Appian Way, 191 + +Appomattox Court House, 338, 435 + +Aquileia, 235 + +Arabia, 77, 88, 91, 122, 123, 248 + +Arabic figures, 257 + +Arabic language, 243 + +Arabs, 253 _et seq._, 294; culture of, 267 + +Arbela, battle of, 147, 431 + +Arcadius, 230, 431 + +Archangel, 419 + +Archimedes, 151 + +Ardashir I, 241, 430 + +Argentine Republic, 396 + +Arians, 224 + +Aristocracy, 130 + +Aristotle, 142, 144, 146, 256, 282, 294, 295, 356, 370 + +Armadillo, 74 + +Armenia, 192, 268, 287, 299 + +Armenians, 100, 108 + +Armistice, the, 435 + +Arno, the, 178 + +Arsacid dynasty, 199, 431 + +Artizans, 152 + +Aryan language, 95, 100, 106 + +Aryans, 95, 104 _et seq._, 122, 128, 151, 174, 176, 185, 197, 198, 233, +303, 429 + +Ascalon, 117 + +Asceticism, 158-60, 213 + +Ashdod, 117 + +Asia, 72, 197, 227, 287, 298, 329 _et seq._, 333, 399 _et seq._, 403 +_et seq._, 430 + +Asia, Central, 108, 122, 134, 148, 185, 245-47, 255, 334 + +Asia Minor, 92, 94, 108, 127, 134, 148, 180, 192-93, 238, 243, 258, +271, 292, 429, 430, 431 + +Asia, Western, 65 + +Asoka, King, 163 _et seq._, 180, 430 + +Assam, 394 + +Asses, 77, 83, 102, 112 + +Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus), 97, 98, 109, 110 + +Assyria, 109, 115, 119, 121, 122, 429 + +Assyrians, 84, 96, 97, 98, 108, 429 + +Astronomy, early, 70, 74 + +Athanasian Creed, 224 + +Athenians, 135 + +Athens, 129, 135-36, 139, 150, 185, 204, 431 + +Athens, schools of philosophy in, 238 + +Atkinson, C. F., 345 + +Atkinson, J. J., 61, 373 + +Atlantic, 122, 302 + +Attalus, 430 + +Attila, 234, 235, 238, 431 + +Augsburg, Interim of, 313 + +Augustus Cæsar, Roman Emperor, 195, 214 + +Aurelian, Emperor, 200 + +Aurochs, 197 + +Aurungzeb, 434 + +Ausculum, battle of, 178, 430 + +Australia, 72, 322, 336, 395, 405 + +Austrasia, 431 + +Austria, 309, 327, 347-48, 349-52, 390, 411, 434 + +Austrian Empire, 409 + +Austrians, 344, 351 + +Automobiles, 362 + +Avars, 289 + +Avebury, 106 + +Averroes, 282 + +Avignon, 285, 433 + +Axis of earth, 1, 2 + +Azilian age, 57, 65 + +Azilian rock pictures, 57, 78 + +Azoic rocks, 11 + +Azores, 302 + +B + +Baber, 290, 310, 332, 433 + +Baboons, 43 + +Babylon, 90, 94, 96, 97, 101, 102, 111, 112, 114, 115- 16, 119, 121, +122, 134, 147, 148, 373, 429 + +Babylonian calendar, 68 + +Babylonian Empire, 90, 91, 109, 110 + +Babylonians, 108 + +Bacon, Roger, 293-97, 433 + +Bacon, Sir Francis, 321, 355, 433 + +Bagdad, 256, 267, 290, 292, 432, 433 + +Bahamas, 407 + +Baldwin of Flanders, 272 + +Balkan peninsula, 108, 200, 230, 392, 429 + +Balkh, 299 + +Balloons, altitude attained by, 4 + +Baltic, 415 + +Baltic Fleet, Russian, 404 + +Baluchistan, 405 + +Barbarians, 227 _et seq._, 230, 320 + +Barbarossa. Frederick, (_See_ Frederick I) + +Bards, 106, 234 + +Barrows, 104 + +Barter, 83, 102 + +Basketwork, 65 + +Basle, Council of, 305 + +Basque race, 92, 107 + +Bastille, 342, 434 + +Basutoland, 407 + +Beaconsfield, Lord, 394 + +Bedouins, 122, 248 + +Beetles, 26 + +Behar, 180, 430 + +Behring Straits, 52, 71, 73 + +Bel Marduk, 109, 111, 112, 114 + +Belgium, 185, 344, 347, 352, 411, 434 + +Belisarius, 421 + +Belshazzar, 112 + +Beluchistan, 149 + +Benares, 156, 160 + +Beneventum, 179 + +Berbers, 71, 92 + +Bergen, 294 + +Berlin, Treaty of, 435 + +Bermuda, 407 + +Bessemer process, 359 + +Beth-shan, 118 + +Bible, 1, 68, 100, 112, 115, 116, 119, 121, 122, 184, 286, 298, 306-07 +(_Cf._ Hebrew Bible) + +Birds, flight of, 4; the earliest , 31; development of , 32 + +Bison, 56 + +Black Death, the, 433 + +Black Sea, 71, 94-95, 108, 129, 200 + +Blood sacrifice, 167, 186, 212 (_See also_ Sacrifice) + +Boats, 91, 136 + +Boer republic, 187 + +Boers, 398 + +Bohemia, 236, 306 + +Bohemians, 304-05, 326 + +Bokhara, 256 + +Boleyn, Anne, 313 + +Bolivar, General, 349 + +Bologna, 295, 312 + +Bolsheviks (and Bolshevism), 417-19, 435 + +Bone carvings, 53 + +Bone implements, 45, 46 + +Boniface VIII, Pope, 283-84 + +“Book religions,” 226 + +Books, 153, 298, 302 + +Boötes, 257 + +Boris, King of Bulgaria, 432 + +Bosnia, 228 + +Bosphorus, 135 + +Boston, 337-38 + +Bostra, 243 + +Botany Bay, 393 + +Bourbon, Constable of, 312, 433 + +Bowmen, 145, 155, 300 + +Brahmins and Brahminism, 165, 166 + +Brain, 42 + +Brazil, 329, 336, 340 + +Breathing, 24 + +Brest-Litovsk, 417 + +Britain, 106, 122, 174, 185, 203, 236, 349, 353, 402, 431, 434, (_See +also_ England, Great Britain) + +British, 329, 331 + +British Civil Air Transport Commission, 363 + +British East Indian Company, (_See_ East India Company) + +British Empire, 407; (in 1815) 393; (in 1914) 405 + +British Guianu. 393 + +British Navy, 408 + +“British schools,” the, 369 + +Brittany, 309 + +Broken Hill, South Africa, 52 + +Bronze, 80, 87, 102, 104 + +Bruges, 294 + +Brussels, 344 + +Brythonic Celts, 107 + +Buda-Pesth, 312 + +Buddha, 133, 156, 172, 213 429; life of 158; his teaching 161-62 + +Buddhism (and Buddhists), 166, 172, 222, 255, 290, 319, 334, 400, (_See +also_ Buddha) + +Bulgaria, 135, 229, 245, 292, 411, 432 + +Bull fights, Cretan, 93 + +Burgoyne, General, 338 + +Burgundy, 309, 342 + +Burial, early, 102, 104 + +Burleigh. Lord, 324 + +Burma, 166, 300, 405 + +Burning the dead, 104 + +Bury, J. B., 288 + +Bushmen, 54 + +Byzantine Army, 253 + +Byzantine Empire, 238, 271-72 + +Byzantine fleet, 431 + +Byzantium, 228, 243, 267, 268, (_See also_ Constantinople) + +C + +Cabul, 148 + +Cæsar, Augustus, 430 + +Cæsar, Julius, 187, 192, 193, 194, 195, 430 + +Cæsar, title, etc., 212, 223, 240, 327 + +Cainozoic period, 37 _et seq._ + +Cairo, 256 + +Calendar, 68 + +Calicut, 329 + +California, 336, 383 + +Caligula, 195, 430 + +Caliphs, 252 + +“Cambulac,” 300 + +Cambyses, 112, 134 + +Camels, 42, 102, 112, 196, 319 + +Campanella, 371 + +Canaan, 116 + +Canada, 332, 396, 405, 434 + +Canary Islands, 302 + +Cannæ, 182 + +Canossa, 274 + +Canton, 247 + +Canute, 263, 432 + +Cape Colony, 398 + +Cape of Good Hope, 336, 393, 433 + +Capet, Hugh, 266, 432 + +Carboniferous age. (_See_ Coal swamps) + +Cardinals, 277 _et seq._ + +Caria, 98 + +Carians, 94 + +Caribou, 73 + +Carlovingian Empire, 432 + +Carnac, 106 + +Carolinas, 388 + +Carrhæ, 194 + +Carthage, 92, 122, 123, 134, 176, 179, 182, 183, 185, 232, 429- 30, 431 + +Carthaginians, 179, 182 + +Caspian Sea, 71, 88, 108, 148, 193, 197, 430 + +Caste, 157, 165 + +Catalonians, 302 + +“Cathay,” 300 + +Catholicism, 237, 337, 351. (_See also_ Papacy, Roman Catholic) + +Cato, 187 + +Cattle, 77, 83 + +Caudine Forks, 430 + +Cavalry, 145, 148, 178 + +Cave drawings, 53, 56, 57 + +Caxton, William, 306 + +Celibacy, 275 + +Celts, 106, 107, 193 + +Centipedes, 23 + +Ceylon, 165, 407 + +Chæronia, battle of, 145, 146, 430 + +Chalcedon, 243 + +Chaldean Empire, 109 + +Chaldeans, 109, 110-11, 115, 429 + +Chandragupta, 163, 430 + +Chariots, 96, 100, 101-02, 112, 119, 145, 148 + +Charlemagne, 259, 261, 264-65, 272, 309, 432 + +Charles I, King of England, 308, 314, 433 + +Charles II, King of England, 324, 434 + +Charles V, Emperor, 309, 310, 314, 316, 433 + +Charles X, King of France, 350, 434 + +Charles the Great, (_See_ Charlemagne) + +_Charlotte Dundas_, steamboat, 357 + +Chelonia, 27 + +Chemists, Arab, 257. (_Cf._ Alchemists) + +Cheops, 83 + +Chephren, 83 + +China, 76, 84, 103, 166, 167 _et seq._, 173, 174, 233, 245 _et seq._, +248, 287, 290, 297, 333, 399- 400, 402-03, 411, 429-31, 432, 433, 435. +(_See also_ Chow, Han, Kin, Ming, Shang, Sung, Suy, Ts’in, and Yuan +dynasties) + +China, culture and civilization in, 247 + +China, Empire of, 196 _et seq._ + +China, Great Wall of, 173, 430 + +China, North, 173 + +Chinese picture writing, 79, 167 + +Chosroes I, 243, 431 + +Chosroes II, 243, 431 + +Chow dynasty, 168, 173, 429 + +Christ. (_See_ Jesus) + +Christian conception of Jesus, 214 + +Christianity (and Christians), 224, 255, 272, 295, 319, 400, 431 + +Christianity, doctrinal, development of, 222 _et seq._ + +Christianity, spirit of, 224 + +Chronicles, book of, 116, 119 + +Chronology, primitive, 68 + +Ch’u, 173 + +Church, the, 68 + +Cicero, 193 + +Cilicia, 299 + +Cimmerians, 100 + +Circumcision, 70 + +Circumnavigation, 302 + +Cities, Sumerian, 78 + +Citizenship, 187 _et seq._, 236, 237 + +City states, Greek, 129 _et seq._, Chinese, 168 + +Civilization, 100 + +Civilization, Hellenic, 139, 150 _et seq._ + +Civilization, Japanese, 400 + +Civilization, pre-historic, 71 + +Civilization, primitive, 76, 167 + +Civilization, Roman, 185 + +Claudius, Emperor, 195, 430 + +Clay documents, 77, 80, 111 + +Clement V, Pope, 285 + +Clement VII, Pope, 285, 433 + +Cleopatra, 194 + +Clermont, 432 + +_Clermont_, steamboat, 358 + +Climate, changes of, 21, 37 + +Clive, 333 + +Clothing, 77 + +Clothing of Cretan women, 93 + +Clouds, 8 + +Clovis, 259 + +Clyde, Firth of, 357 + +Cnossos (Crete), 92, 94, 95, 101, 108, 127, 429 + +Coal, 26 + +Coal swamps, the age of, 21 _et seq._ + +Coinage, 114, 176, 201, 319 + +Coke, 322 + +Collectivists, 375 + +Colonies, 394 _et seq._, 407 + +Columbus, Christopher, 300-01 _et seq._, 335, 433 + +Communism (and Communists), 374-75, 417 + +Comnenus, Alexius. (_See_ Alexius) + +Comparative anatomy, science of, 25, (_Cf._ Anatomy) + +Concord, Mass., 338 + +Confederated States of America, 385 + +Confucius, 133, 168 _et seq._, 173, 429 + +Congo, 397 + +Conifers, 26, 36 + +Constance, Council of, 286, 304, 433 + +Constantine the Great, 187, 226, 228, 229, 241, 429, 431 + +Constantinople, 229, 238, 239, 243, 253, 258, 263- 64, 270 _et seq._, +272, 283, 292, 301, 321, 327, 431, 432, 433. (_See also_ Byzantium) + +Consuls, Roman, 193 + +Copper, 74, 80, 102, 360, 395 + +Cordoba, 256 + +Corinth, 129 + +Cornwallis, General, 338 + +Corsets, 93 + +Corsica, 182, 185, 232 + +Cortez, 314 + +Cossacks, 334 + +Cotton fabrics, 102 + +Couvade, the, 70 + +Crabs, 23 + +Crassus, 192, 194, 199 + +Creation of the world, story of, 1, 116 + +Creed religions, 240 + +Cretan script, 94 + +Crete, 92, 108 + +Crimea, 419 + +Crimean War, 390, 434 + +Crocodiles, 28 + +Crœsus, 111, 429 + +Cro-Magnon race, 51, 54, 65 + +Cromwell, Oliver, 434 + +Cronstadt, 419 + +Crucifixion, 204 + +Crusades, 267 _et seq._, 281, 304-05, 432 + +Crustacea, 13 + +Ctesiphon, 244 + +Cuba, 393 + +Cultivation, the beginnings of, 65 _et seq._ + +Culture, Heliolithic, 69 + +Culture, Japanese, 402 + +Cuneiform, 78 + +Currents, 18 + +Cyaxares, 109-10, 429 + +Cycads, 26, 36 + +Cyrus the Persian, 111, 116, 121, 123, 134, 429 + +Czech language, 236 + +Czecho-Slovaks, 351 + +Czechs, 304 + +D + +Dacia, 195, 200, 203, 227, 236 + +Dædalus, 94 + +Dalmatia, 431 + +Damascus, 243, 253, 431 + +Danes, 329, 330 + +Danube, 135, 200, 227, 430 + +Dardanelles, 136, 147, 292 + +Darius I, 112, 134, 135, 136, 429 + +Darius III, 147, 148, 430 + +Darlington, 356, 434 + +David, King, 118-19, 429 + +Da Vinci, Leonardo, 356 + +Davis, Jefferson, 385, 388 + +Dawn Man. (_See_ Eoanthropus) + +Dead, burning the, 104; burial of (_See_ Burial) + +Debtors’ prisons, 336 + +Deciduous trees, 36 + +Decius, Emperor, 200, 432 + +Declaration of Independence, 334, 434 + +_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (Gibbon’s), 288-89 + +Deer, 42, 56 + +Defender of the Faith, title of, 313 + +Defoe, Daniel, 365 + +Delhi, 292, 433 + +Democracy, 131, 132, 270 + +Deniken, General, 419 + +Denmark, 306, 313, 394, 432 + +Deshima, 401 + +Devonian system, 19 + +Diaz, 433 + +Dictator, Roman, 194 + +Dillon, Dr., 424 + +Dinosaurs, 28, 31, 36 + +Diocletian, Emperor, 224, 226, 227 + +Dionysius, 170 + +Diplodocus Carnegii, measurement of, 28 + +Diseases, infectious, 379 + +Ditchwater, animal and plant life in, 13 + +Dogs, 42 + +Domazlice, battle of, 305 + +Dominic, St., 276 + +Dominician Order, 276, 285, 400 + +Dorian Greeks, 108, 130 + +Douglas, Senator, 386 + +Dover, Straits of, 193 + +Dragon flies, 23 + +Drama, Greek, 139 + +Dravidian civilization, 108 + +Dravidians, 71 + +Duck-billed platypus, 34 + +Duma, the, 416 + +Durazzo, 268 + +Dutch, 329, 331, 332, 399 + +Dutch Guiana, 394 + +Dutch Republic, 350 + +Dyeing, 75 + +E + +Earth, the, shape of, 1; rotation of, 1; distance from the sun, 2; age +and origin of, 5; surface of, 21 + +Earthquakes, 95 + +East India Company, 332, 337, 393, 394 + +East Indies, 394, 399 + +Ebro, 182 + +Ecbatana, 109, 114 + +Echidna, the, 34 + +Eclipses, 8 + +Ecnomus, battle of, 181, 430 + +Economists, French, 371 + +Edessa, 271 + +Education, 294, 361, 368, 369 + +Egbert, King of Wessex, 263, 432 + +Egg-laying mammals, 34 + +Eggs, 24, 26, 31, 102 + +Egypt (and Egyptians), 71, 78, 90, 91, 62, 96, 98, 100- 101, 115, 119, +121, 122, 123, 124, 134, 138, 147, 174, 208, 209, 210, 238, 253, 267, +290, 292, 396, 398, 405, 429, 431, 434 + +Egyptian script, 78, 79 + +Elamites, 88, 90, 174 + +Elba, 348 + +Electric light, 360 + +Electric traction, 360 + +Electricity, 322, 358, 360 + +Elephants, 42, 127, 149, 178, 181, 253, 300 + +Elixir of life, 257 + +Elizabeth, Queen, 324, 332 + +Emigration, 336 + +Emperor, title of, 327 + +Employer and employed, 375 + +“Encyclopædists,” the, 371 + +England (and English), 306, 390, 431 + +England, Norman Conquest of, 266 + +England, overseas possessions, 330 + +English Channel, 331 + +English language, 95 + +Entelodonts, 42 + +Eoanthropus, 47 + +Eoliths, 45 + +Ephesus, 149 + +Ephthalites, 199 + +Epics, 106, 127, 129, 131 + +Epirus, 131, 178, 179 + +Epistles, the, 222 + +Eratosthenes, 151 + +Erech, Sumerian city of, 78 + +Esarhaddon, 429 + +Essenes, 213 + +Esthonia, 245 + +Esthonians, 419 + +Ethiopian dynasty, 429 + +Ethiopians, 96, 233 + +Etruscans, 94, 100, 176, 430 + +Euclid, 151 + +Euphrates, 77, 110, 127, 129, 174, 196, 429, 430 + +Euripides, 139 + +Europe, 200 + +Europe, Central, 329 + +Europe, Concert of, 350 + +Europe, Western, 53, 298 + +European overseas populations, 336 + +Europeans, intellectual revival of, 294 _et seq._ + +Europeans, North Atlantic, 329 + +Europeans, Western, 329 + +Everlasting League, 433 + +Evolution, 16, 42 + +Excommunication, 275, 281, 285 + +Execution. Greek method of, 140 + +Ezekiel, 124 + +F + +Factory system, 365 + +Family groups, 61 + +Famine, 420 + +Faraday, 358 + +Fashoda, 398 + +Fatherhood of God, the, 215, 224, 251 + +Fear, 61 + +Feathers, 32 + +Ferdinand of Aragon, King, 293, 302, 309 + +Ferns, 23, 26 + +Fertilizers, 363 + +Fetishism, 63, 64 + +Feudal system, 258, 400, 401, 402 + +Fielding, Henry, 365 + +Fiji, 407 + +Finance, 134 + +Finland, 245 + +Finns, 351 + +Fish, the age of, 16 _et seq._; the first known vertebrata, 19; +evolution of, 30 + +Fisher, Lord, 416 + +Fishing, 57 + +Fleming, Bishop, 286 + +Flint implements, 44, 47 + +Flood, story of the, 91, 116 + +Florence, 294 + +Florentine Society, 322 + +Florida, 336, 385 + +Flying machines, 94, 363 + +Fontainebleau, 348 + +Food, rationing of, 414 + +Food riots, 417 + +Forests, 56, 197 + +Fossils, 13, 43. (_Cf._ Rocks) + +Fowl, the domestic, 88, 102 + +France, 106, 185, 230, 259, 263, 312, 336, 342, 353, 390, 391, 394, +396, 402, 409, 411, 434 + +Francis I, King of France, 310, 312, 313, 433 + +Francis II, Emperor of Austria, 434 + +Francis of Assisi, St., 276, 432 + +Franciscan Order, 276, 285, 432 + +Frankfort, Peace of, 391, 435 + +Franks, 200, 227, 235, 259, 265, 431 + +Frazer, Sir J. G., 66 + +Frederick I (Barbarossa), 274, 432 + +Frederick I, King of Prussia, 434 + +Frederick II, German Emperor, 279, 280, 288 _et seq._, 289, 294, 304, +435 + +Frederick II, King of Sicily, 432 + +Frederick the Great of Prussia, 437, 434 + +Freeman’s Farm, 338 + +French, 329, 331, 332, 419 + +French Guiana, 394 + +French language, 203, 327, 328, 419 + +French Revolution, 342 _et seq._, 374 + +Frogs, 24 + +Fronde, war of the, 434 + +Fulton, Robert, 358 + +Furnace, blast, 359; electric, 359 + +Furs, 335 + +G + +Galatia, 430 + +Galatians, 193 + +Galba, 430 + +Galerius, Emperor, 226, 431 + +Galleys, 91, 92, 181, 263 + +Galvani, 258 + +Gamma, Vasco da, 329, 335, 433 + +Ganges, 156 + +Gath, 117 + +Gaul, 203, 235, 236, 357, 431 + +Gauls, 154, 178, 179, 180, 182, 193, 430 + +Gautama. (_See_ Buddha) + +Gaza, 117, 147 + +Gaztelu, 314 + +Genoa (and Genoese), 294, 300, 301, 302 + +Genoa Conference, 425 + +Genseric, 232 + +Geology, 11 _et seq._, 356 + +George III, King of England, 324, 337, 434 + +Georgia, 336, 339, 385, 387 + +German Empire, 409 + +German language, 95, 236, 260 + +Germans, 268, 288, 310, 351, 360- 61, 362 + +Germany, 197, 326, 347, 348, 362, 390, 396, 402, 409, 410, 411 + +Germany, North, 306 + +Gibbon, E., 234, 288 + +Gibraltar, 71, 92, 94, 253, 393, 407 + +Gigantosaurus, measurement of, 28 + +Gilbert, Dr., 322 + +Gilboa, Mount, 118 + +Gills, 24 + +Giraffes, 42 + +Gizeh, pyramids at, 83 + +Glacial Ages, 22, 37, 44 + +Gladiators, 205 + +Glass, 102 + +Glyptodon, 74 + +Goa, 329 + +Goats, 77 + +God, idea of one true, 249 + +God of Judaism, 123, 209, 213, 214, 215 + +Godfrey of Bouillon, 432 + +Gods, 111, 123, 129, 165, 184, 186, 201 _et seq._, 208 _et seq._, 240 + +Goidelic Celts, 106 + +Gold, 74, 80, 83, 102, 300, 395 + +_Golden Bough_, Frazer’s, 66 + +Good Hope, Cape of. (_See_ Cape) + +Gospels, the, 214 _et seq._, 222 + +Gothic kingdom, 259 + +Gothland, 197, 200 + +Goths, 181, 200, 227, 228, 430, 431 + +Granada, 293, 301 + +Granicus, battle of the, 146, 430 + +Grant, General, 387, 388 + +Graphite, 15 + +Grass, 37, 51 + +Great Britain, 396, 410 + +Great Mogul, Empire of, 394, 434 + +Great Powers, 399 _et seq._ + +Great Schism. (_See_ Papal schism) + +Great War, the, 411 _et seq. _, 421, 435 + +Greece, 92, 94, 108, 127, 139 _et seq._, 145 _et seq._, 434 + +Greece, war with Persia, 134 _et seq._ + +Greek language, 95, 202, 203 + +Greeks, 92, 100, 101, 108, 122 _et seq._, 135, 150, 174, 186, 271, 272, +301, 353, 419, 429, 430, 433 + +Greenland, 263 + +Gregory I, Pope, 263 + +Gregory VII, Pope (Hildebrand), 268, 272, 274, 275, 278, 432 + +Gregory IX, Pope, 281 + +Gregory XI, Pope, 285, 433 + +Gregory the Great, 272 + +Grimaldi race, 51, 54, 65 + +Guillotine, the, 346 + +Guiscard, Robert, 432 + +Gunpowder, 287, 321 + +Guns, 321, 413 + +Gustavus Adolphus, 331 + +Gymnastic displays, Cretan, 93 + +H + +Habsburgs, 283, 309, 310 + +Hadrian, 174, 430 + +Halicarnassus, 138 + +Hamburg, 294 + +Hamitic people, 71 + +Hammurabi, 90, 92, 104, 429 + +Han dynasty, 196, 200, 245, 430 + +Hannibal, 182 + +Hanover, Elector of, 327 + +Harding, President, 425 + +Harold Hardrada, 266 + +Harold, King of England, 266 + +Haroun-al-Raschid, 267, 432 + +Hastings, battle of, 266 + +Hastings, Warren, 333 + +Hatasu, Queen of Egypt, 96 + +Hathor, 209 + +Heaven, Kingdom of, 216, 217 + +Hebrew Bible, 1, 115, 116. (_Cf._ Bible) + +Hebrew literature, 100 + +Hebrews, 100, 115. (_See also_ Jews) + +Hegira, 431 + +Heidelberg man, 45 + +Heliolithic culture, 69, 71, 167, 174 + +Heliolithic peoples, 107 + +Hellenic tribes, 100. (_See also_ Greeks) + +Hellespont, 430, 431 + +Helots, 130, 203 + +Hen. (_See_ Fowl) + +Henry IV, King, 274 + +Henry VI, Emperor, 279 + +Henry VIII, King of England, 310, 312, 313, 324, 433 + +Henry the Fowler, 265, 432 + +Heraclea, battle of, 178, 430 + +Heraclitus of Ephesus, 132, 156, 161 + +Heraclius, Emperor, 243, 247, 253, 431 + +Herat, 148 + +Herbivorous reptiles, 28 + +Hercules, Pillars of, (_See_ Gibraltar) + +Hero, 151, 152 + +Herodotus, 138, 139 + +Herophilus, 151 + +Hiero, 182 + +Hieroglyphics, 79, 124 + +Hildebrand. (_See_ Gregory VII) + +Himalayas, the, 37 + +Hipparchus, 151 + +Hippopotamus, 43 + +Hiram, King of Sidon, 118, 119, 122 + +_History of Charles V_, 316 + +Hittites, 96, 97, 98, 108 + +Hohenstaufens, 283 + +Holland, 306, 344, 347, 394, 396, 402, 433, 434 + +Holstein, 351 + +Holy Alliance, 349 + +Holy Roman Empire, 264, 309, 317, 323, 347, 377, 409, 432, 434 + +Homer, 129 + +Honorius, 230, 431 + +Honorius III, Pope, 281 + +Horse, 51, 56, 94, 96, 97, 112, 167, 319, 336; evolution of the, 42 + +Horsetails, 23 + +Horus, 209, 210, 211 + +Hottentots, 54 + +Hsia, 287 + +Hudson Bay Company, 393 + +Hudson River, 358 + +Hulagu Khan, 290, 433 + +Human sacrifice, 182, 186. (_Cf._ Blood Sacrifice, Sacrifice) + +Hungarians, 263, 289, 351 + +Hungary, 185, 203, 227, 245, 258, 263, 289, 290, 292, 310, 312, 351 + +Hungary, plain of, 234 + +Huns, 88, 167, 168, 174, 197, 198, 227, 232, 233, 245, 263, 289, 431 + +Hunting, 56 + +Huss, John, 304, 433 + +Hussites, 305 + +Hwang-ho river, 173 + +Hwang-ho valley, 300 + +Hyksos, 90, 96 + +Hyracodons, 42 + +Hystaspes, 430 + +I + +Iberians, 71, 92 + +Ice age, 43. (_Cf._ Glacial ages) + +Iceland, 263 + +Ichthyosaurs, 29, 36 + +Ignatius of Loyola, St., 308, 434 + +_Iliad_, 127 + +Illinois, 386 + +Illyria, 179, 182 + +Immolation of human beings, 102 + +Immortality, idea of, 210, 211, 224 + +Imperialism, 399 + +Implements, 46, 48, 56, 57, 65, 87 + +Implements, use of, by animals, 44, 45 + +India, 71, 84, 104, 108, 122, 149, 156, 163, 164, 196, 199, 287, 302, +335, 394- 95, 399, 409, 433, 434 + +Indian Empire, 405 + +Indian Ocean, 329 + +Indiana, 383, 386 + +Individualists, 375 _et seq._ + +Individuality in reproduction, 16 _et seq._ + +Indo-Scythians, 199, 430 + +Indus, 149, 429 + +Industrial revolution, 365 _et seq._ + +Infantry, 178 + +Influenza, 414 + +Innocent III, Pope, 276, 279, 280, 432 + +Innocent IV, Pope, 281 + +Innsbruck, 313 + +Inquisition, the, 276, 349 + +Insects, 26, 31 + +Interdicts, papal, 275 + +Interglacial period, 44 + +Internationalism, 380 + +Invertebrata, 13 + +Investitures, 275 + +Ionic Greeks, 108, 130 + +Iowa, 385 + +Ireland, 106, 405 + +Iron, 80, 87, 94, 97, 102, 104, 168, 319, 321, 358, 359 + +Irrigation, 290 + +Isabella of Castile, Queen, 293, 302, 309 + +Isaiah, 125, 133, 156 + +Isis, 209, 210, 211, 212 + +Islam, 251, 252, 432 + +Islamism, 267, 319. (_See also_ Moslem, Muhammedanism) + +Isocrates, 145 + +Israel, judges of, 118 + +Israel, kings of, 118, 119, 121 + +Issus, battle of, 147, 430 + +Italian language, 203 + +Italians, 107, 351 + +Italica, 202 + +Italy, 94, 108, 129, 134, 176, 180, 230, 236, 312, 327, 347, 390, 396, +409, 411, 429, 431, 434 + +Italy, Central, 429 + +Italy, North, 263, 312, 351, 390, 429, 431 + +Italy, South, 429 + +Ivan III (the Great), 327, 433 + +Ivan IV (the Terrible), 327, 433 + +J + +Jacobin republic, 434 + +Jamaica, 393, 407 + +James I, King of England and Scotland, 324, 433 + +Jamestown (Va.), 433 + +Japan, 166, 300, 399, 400-01 _et seq._, 409, 410, 435 + +Japanese, 419 + +Jarandilla, 315 + +Java, 302, 329 + +Jaw-bone, Heidelberg, 45-46; Piltdown, 46 + +Jehovah, 125 + +Jena, 434 + +Jengis Khan, 287, 298, 334, 432 + +Jerusalem, 115, 116, 119, 121, 123, 124, 184, 215, 243, 267, 271, 272, +299, 431, 432 + +Jerusalem, Temple of, 119, 184 + +Jesuits, 308, 400, 433 + +Jesus, life and teaching of, 214 _et seq._, 224, 270, 306, 374, 430 + +Jews, 123, 124, 147, 184, 213, 215, 255, 256, 270, 294 + +Jews, early history of, 115 _et seq._ + +Jews, literature of, 115 + +Jewish religion and sacred books, 116 + +John III of Poland, 434 + +John XI, Pope, 272 + +John XII, Pope, 272, 432 + +Joppa, 117 + +Joseph, King of Spain, 349, 434 + +Josiah, King of Judah, 110, 115, 116, 429 + +Judah, 115, 119 + +Judah, kings of, 119 + +Judea, 115, 183, 214 + +Judea, priests and prophets in, 122 _et seq._ + +Judges, book of, 117 + +Judges of Israel, 118 + +Jugo-Slavia, 354 + +Jugo-Slavs, 351 + +Jugurtha, 192 + +Julian the Apostate, 431 + +Julius III, 316 + +Junks, Chinese, 400 + +Jupiter (god), 211, 212 + +Jupiter (planet), 2, 3 + +Jupiter Capitolinus, 184 + +Jupiter Serapis, 226 + +Justinian I, 232, 238, 243, 431 + +Jutes, 230 + +K + +Kaaba, the, 249 + +Kadessia, battle of, 253, 431 + +Kalinga, 163 + +Kansas, 383 + +Karakorum, 287, 298 + +Karnak, 101 + +Kashgar, 300 + +Kashmir, Buddhists in, 165 + +Kavadh, 243, 244, 431 + +Kentucky, 383, 386 + +Kerensky, 416, 417 + +Khans, 287 _et seq._ + +Khyber Pass, 148, 199 + +Kiau Chau, 400 + +Kieff, 287, 432 + +Kin dynasty, 287 + +Kings, book of, 119 + +Kioto, 402 + +Ki-wi, the, 32 + +Koltchak, Admiral, 419 + +Koran, the, 251, 255 + +Korea, 400, 402 + +Kotan, 300 + +Krum of Bulgaria, 432 + +Kublai Khan, 290, 298, 300, 433 + +Kushan dynasty, 199 + +L + +Labyrinth, Cretan, 127 + +Lahore, 287 + +Lake Ontario, 336 + +Land scorpions, 23 + +Langley, Professor, 363 + +Languages of mankind, 94, 95, 100, 106, 107, 108, 134, 145, 156, 176, +201, 202, 203, 230, 236, 243, 245, 259, 325, 328 + +Lao Tse, 133, 170 _et seq._, 222, 429 + +Lapland, 233 + +Latin Emperor, 259 + +Latin language, 201, 202, 203, 236, 259. (_Cf._ also Languages) + +Latins, the, 271, 272, 432 + +Law, 238 + +_Laws_, Plato’s, 142 + +League of Nations, 422, 423, 424, 425, 435 + +Learning, 255 + +Lee, General, 387, 389 + +Legionaries, 229 + +Lemurs, 43 + +Lenin, 417, 419 + +Leo III, Pope, 265, 272, 432 + +Leo X, Pope, 310, 312, 433 + +Leonidas, 136 + +Leopold I, 353 + +Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 434 + +Lepanto, battle of, 293 + +Lepidus, 194 + +Lexington, 338 + +Liberia, 398 + +Libraries, 151, 164, 170 + +Liegnitz, battle of, 288, 289, 433 + +Life, beginnings of, the Record of the Rocks, 11 _et seq._; progressive +nature of, 16; of what it consists, 16; theory of Natural Selection, +18; a teachable type: advent of, 39 + +Lincoln, Abraham, 385, 386, 388, 389, 435; assassination of, 389 + +Linen, 102 + +Lions, 42, 127 + +Lisbon, 294, 315, 329 + +Literary criticism, evolution of, 205 + +Literature, European, 298 + +Literature, pre-historic, 115 + +Lizards, 27, 28 + +Llamas, 42 + +Lob Nor, 300 + +Lochau, battle of, 313 + +Locke, John, 371 + +Logic, science of, 144 + +Lombard kingdom, 259 + +Lombards, 431 + +Lombardy, 431 + +London, 294, 413 + +Lopez de Recalde, Inigo, 308, (_See also_ Ignatius of Loyola) + +Lorraine, 391 + +Louis XIV, 324, 433 + +Louis XV, 434 + +Louis XVI, 342, 343, 434 + +Louis XVIII, 350, 434 + +Louis Philippe, 350, 434 + +Louis the Pious, 265, 432 + +Louisiana, 336, 385 + +Lu, state of, 170 + +Lucretius, 294 + +Lucullus, 192 + +Lunar month, 68 + +Lung, the, 24 + +Luther, Martin, 306, 310, 433 + +Luxembourg, 351 + +Luxor, 101 + +Lvoff, Prince, 416 + +Lyceum, Athens, 142, 144 + +Lydia, 98, 134 + +Lydians, 94 + +Lyons, 345 + +M + +Macao, 329 + +Macaulay, Lord, 187 + +Maccabeans, 184 + +Macedonia and Macedonians, 131, 135, 139, 145, 179, 292, 350 + +Machinery, 322, 356 + +Madeira, 122, 302 + +Madras, 163 + +Magellan, Ferdinand, 302 + +Magic, 172 + +Magna Græcia, 129, 178 + +Magnesia, battle of, 183 + +Magyars, 263, 264, 270, 289 + +Mahaffy, Professor, 151 + +Maine, 336, 339 + +Majuba Hill, battle of, 398 + +Malta, 393, 407 + +Mammals, the earliest, 33; viviparous, 33; egg-laying, 34; the Age of, +37 _et seq. _ + +Mammoth, 43, 49 + +Man, brotherhood of, 216, 224, 380 + +Man, 43; Heidelberg, 45; Eoanthropus, 47; Neanderthal, 47, 48 _et +seq._; earliest known, 53 _et seq._ + +Manchu, 333, 433 + +Manchuria, 197, 400, 402, 403, 404 + +Mangu Khan, 290, 433 + +Mani, 241, 270, 430, 431 + +Manichæans, 243, 255 + +Mankind, racial divisions of, 54, 71 + +Mantua, 345 + +Maoris, 71 + +Marathon, 136 + +Marathon, battle of, 430 + +Marchand, Colonel, 398 + +Marcus Aurelius, 174, 430 + +Marie Antoinette, 343, 346 + +Mariner’s compass, 302, 320 + +Marius, 191, 192, 237, 430 + +“Marriage of East and West,” 149 + +Mars (planet), 2, 3 + +Marseillaise, the, 343, 345 + +Marseilles, 129, 182, 312, 345 + +Martel, Charles, 259, 432 + +Marlin V, Pope, 286, 304 + +Marx, 376 + +Maryland, 337 + +Mas d’Azil cave, 57 + +Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 390, 391 + +Maximilian I, Emperor, 309, 433 + +Maya writing, 74, 75 + +Mayence, 265, 344 + +_Mayflower_ expedition, 433 + +Mazarin, Cardinal, 324 + +Mecca, 248, 249, 251, 431 + +Mechanical revolution, 256 _et seq._, 366, 369 + +Medes, 100, 108, 109, 115, 122, 134, 155, 174, 429 + +Media, rebellion in, 136 + +Median Empire, 109, 110, 112 + +Medicine man, the, 64 + +Medina, 249 + +Mediterranean, 71, 91, 176, 292, 293; valley, 71 + +“Mediterranean” people, pre-Greek, 130 + +Megatherium, 74 + +Megiddo, battle of, 110, 115, 429 + +Melasgird, battle of, 268, 432 + +Mentality, primitive, 60, _et seq._ + +Mercury (planet), 2, 3 + +Mesopotamia, 77, 80, 96, 100, 109, 127, 174, 267, 290, 299 + +Mesozoic period, 27; land life of, 28; sea life of, 30; scarcity of +bird and mammal life in, 32, 34; its difference from Cainozoic period, +38 + +Messina, 179, 180 + +Messina, Straits of, 179 + +Metallurgy, 356, 359, 360 + +Metals, transmutation of, 257 + +Meteoric iron, 80, 94 + +Metz, 391 + +Mexico, 74, 76, 324, 321, 384, 385, 389, 399 + +Michael VII, Emperor, 268 + +Michael VIII. (_See_ Palæologus) + +Microscope, 355 + +Midianites, 117 + +Milan, 227, 235, 309, 312, 351 + +Miletus, 129 + +Millipedes, 23 + +Milton, 129 + +Ming dynasty, 290, 333, 433 + +Mining, 335 + +Minnesota, 385 + +Minos, 92, 95, 127, 131 + +Missionaries, 236, 247, 380, 400, 431 + +Mississippi (state), 385 + +Mississippi River, 386 + +Missouri, 382 + +Mithraism, 211, 212, 213, 222, 431 + +Mithras, 211, 213 + +Mnemonics, Chinese and Peruvian method of, 76 + +Moabites, 117 + +Moawija, Caliph, 431 + +Mogul dynasty, 292, 433 + +Moluccas, 329 + +Monarchy, 323, 341, 347 + +Monasticism, 213, 236 + +Money, 114, 176, 201, 319 + +Mongol conquests, influence of, 298 + +Mongol Court, the, 299 + +Mongol Empire, 332 + +Mongolia, 197 + +Mongolian language, 108 + +Mongolian peoples, 72, 73, 88, 167, 197, 227, 232, 233 _et seq._, 245, +258, 287 _et seq._, 298, 320, 333, 400, 433 + +Mongoloid tribes, 69 + +Monkeys, 43, 45 + +Monotheism, 251. (_See also_ Muhammad) + +Monroe doctrine, 349, 389, 396, 423 + +Monroe, President, 349 + +Montesquieu, 371 + +Montgomery, 385 + +Month, the lunar, 68 + +Moon, the, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 68 + +Moorish paper-mills, 297 + +More, Sir Thomas, 365, 371 + +Morelly, 371 + +Morocco, 185, 398 + +Mortillet, 57 + +Moscow, 293, 434 + +Moscow, Grand Duke of, 290 + +Moses, 116 + +Moslem Empire, 253 + +Moslems, 297, 431, 432 + +Moslim, the, 253, 269, 271, 290 + +Mososaurs, 29 + +Moses, 23 + +Mounds, Neolithic, 70 + +Mountains, 197 + +Mozambique, 329 + +Muehlon, Herr, 424 + +Muhammad, prophet, 243, 247, 248 _et seq._, 270, 431 + +Muhammad II, Sultan, 292, 433 + +Mules, 102 + +Mummies, 70 + +Munitions, 412 + +Musk ox, 43 + +Mycalæ, battle of, 136, 430 + +Mycenæ, 92, 108 + +Mycerinus, 83 + +Mylæ, battle of, 181, 430 + +N + +Nabonidus, 111, 112 + +Nankin, 173 + +Naples, 178, 350, 431 + +Napoleon Bonaparte, 345, 347, 348, 356, 434 + +Napoleon III, 390, 434, 435 + +Nasmyth, 359 + +Natal, 398 + +“National schools,” 369 + +Natural history, father of, 144 + +Natural Selection, theory of, 17 + +Nautilus, the pearly, 39 + +Navarino, battle of, 353, 434 + +Neanderthaler Man, 47, 48 _et seq._ + +Nebraska, 383 + +Nebuchadnezzar II (the Great), 102, 110, 115, 429 + +Nebulæ, 4, 5 + +Necho II, 109, 110, 115, 122, 147, 429 + +Needles, bone, 57 + +Negroid tribes, 72, 88 + +Nelson, Horatio, 348 + +Neolithic age, 59, 65 + +Neolithic civilizations, primitive, 71 _et seq._ + +Neptune (planet), 2, 3 + +Nero, 195, 430 + +Nestorian missionaries, 431. (_Cf._ Missionaries) + +Netherlands, 259, 309, 351 + +Neustria, 431 + +Neva, 327 + +New Assyrian Empire, 97 + +_New Atlantis, The_, 322, 355 + +New England, 335, 337 + +New Mexico, 433 + +New Plymouth, 433 + +Newts, 24 + +New York, 358, 434 + +New Zealand, 322, 396, 405 + +Newfoundland, 405 + +Nicæa, 268, 270 + +Nicæa, Council of, 431 + +Nicephorus, Emperor, 432 + +Nicholas I, Tsar, 351, 390, 434 + +Nicholas II, Tsar, 416 + +Nickel, 360 + +Nicomedia, 227 + +Nieuw Amsterdam, 434. (_Cf._ New York) + +Nile, 83, 100, 129, 398; valley 90, 429 + +Nile, battle of the, 434 + +Nineveh, 94, 97, 101, 109, 114, 243, 429, 431 + +Nippur, 78 + +Nirvana, 161 + +Nish, 227 + +Noah’s Ark, 91 + +Nogaret, Guillaume de, 284 + +Nomadic peoples, primitive, 84 _et seq._, (_Cf._ Nomads) + +Nomads, 122, 155, 167, 168, 174, 198-200, 233-34, 245, 287, 334 + +Nonconformity, 307, 308 + +Nordic race, 72, 88, 104, 108, 134, 154, 155, 174, 178, 185, 197, 200, +233, 258, 261 + +Normandy, 263, 342, 432 + +Normandy, Duke of, 266 + +Normans, 263, 266, 279, 302 + +Northmen, 263, 264, 266, 268, 432 + +Norway, 306, 313, 432 + +Norwegians, 351 + +Novgorod, 294, 432 + +Nubians, 238 + +Numerals, Arabic, 282 + +Numidia, 191 + +Numidians, 182 + +Nuremberg, 294 + +Nuremberg, Peace of, 313 + +O + +Ocean dredgings, deepest, 4 + +Ocean liners, 322, 336 + +Octavian. (_See_ Augustus) + +Odenathus of Palmyra, 431 + +Odoacer, 236, 431 + +_Odyssey_, 127 + +Ogdai Khan, 287, 289, 432 + +Oglethorpe, 336 + +Okapi, 397 + +“Old Man,” 372, 373 + +Old Testament, 115, 116 + +Olympiad, first, 176, 429 + +Olympian games, 131 + +Olympias, Queen, 146 + +Omar, Caliph, 431 + +Open-hearth process, 359 + +Orange River, 398 + +“Ordinance of secession,” 385 + +Oregon, 385 + +Organic Evolution, 16 + +Ormuz, 299 + +Orsini family, 284 + +Orthodoxy, 240 + +Osiris, 200, 210, 211 + +Ostrogoths, 227, 431 + +Othman, 432 + +Otho, 430 + +Otto I, King of Germany, 265, 432 + +Otto of Bavaria, Prince, 354 + +Ottoman Empire, 202. (_See also_ Turkey, Turks) + +Oudh, 394 + +Ownership, 373, 374, 375 + +Oxen, 49, 104, 112 + +Oxford, 295 + +P + +Padua, 235 + +Pæstum, 176 + +Palæologus, Michael (Michael VIII), 283 + +Palæolithic age, 13, 59, 66 (note) + +Palermo, 181 + +Palestine, 290, 299 + +Pamirs, 196, 300 + +Panama, 385 + +Panama, Isthmus of, 314 + +Pan Chau, 197, 430 + +Panipat, battle of, 433 + +Pannonia, 203, 229, 232, 234, 431 + +Papacy (including Popes), 237, 261, 265, 277 _et seq._, 329 _et seq._, +343 + +Papal schism (the Great Schism), 285, 394, 433 + +Paper, 153, 236, 255, 297, 320, 322 + +Papyrus, 78, 153 + +Parables, 216 + +_Paradise Lost_, 129 + +Parchment, 153 + +Paris, 294, 295, 342, 350, 356, 390, 391, 412, 413, 415, 435 + +Paris, Peace of, 338, 434 + +Parthian dynasty, 202 + +Parthians, 155, 192, 194, 198, 199, 245 + +Passau, Treaty of, 314 + +Patricians, Roman, 176, 188 + +Paul, St., 202, 223 + +Pavia, siege of, 312 + +_Peace Conference_, Dr. Dillon’s, 434 + +Peasant revolts, 305, 310 + +Peculium, 206 + +Pedro I, 340 + +Pegu, 300 + +Pekin, 173, 287, 300, 383, 400, 432 + +Peloponnesian War, 139, 145, 430 + +Pentateuch, the, 116 + +“People’s crusade,” the, 270, 432. (_Cf._ Crusades) + +Pepi II, 83 + +Pepin I, 259 + +Pepin of Hersthal, 431 + +Pergamum, 154, 180, 183, 430 + +Pericles, 139, 140 + +Perry, Commodore, 402 + +Persepolis, 114, 148, 155 + +Persia, 77, 134 _et seq._, 165, 185, 192, 227, 243, 253, 255, 287, 399, +409, 430, 431 + +Persian Empire, 112, 134, 238, 429 + +Persian Gulf, 77, 78, 91, 299 + +Persian language, 95 + +Persians, 100, 108, 109, 115, 155, 174, 431 + +Peru, 74, 75, 314, 321 + +Pestilence, 305, 320, 334, 413, 430, 431, 433 + +Peter the Great, 327, 434 + +Peter the Hermit, 269, 270 + +Peterhof, 327 + +Petersburg, 127, 419. (_See also_ Petrograd) + +Petrograd, 416, 417. (_See also_ Petersburg) + +Petschenegs, 268 + +Phalanx, 145, 178 + +Pharaohs, the, 90, 96, 119, 131, 150, 188 + +Pharsalos, 430 + +Philadelphia, 358, 434 + +Philip, Duke of Orleans, 350 + +Philip, King of France, 285 + +Philip II, King of Spain, 314, 324 + +Philip of Hesse, 313 + +Philip of Macedon, 145, 146, 430 + +Philippine Islands, 302, 393, 400 + +Philistines, 100, 117 + +Philosopher’s stone, 257 + +Philosophers and Philosophy, 133, 139, 152, 168, 239, 294, 295 + +Phœnicians, 92, 94, 107, 123, 147 + +_Phœnix_, steamship, 358 + +Phrygians, 100, 108 + +Physiocrats, 371 + +Picture writing, 56, 57, 78, 79, 167 + +Piedmont, 345 + +Pirates and Piracy, 92, 179, 180, 200, 263 + +Pithecanthropus erectus, 45 + +Pizarro, 314 + +Plague, (_See_ Pestilence) + +Planetoids, 2 + +Planets, 2 + +Plant lice, 13 + +Plants, 22, 23, 36 + +Platea, battle of, 136, 430 + +Plato, 140, 142, 144, 170, 370- 71 + +Platypus, duck-billed, 34 + +Plebeians, Roman, 176, 177, 187-88 + +Plesiosaurs, 29, 30, 36 + +Poison-gas, 413 + +Poitiers, 432 + +Poitiers, battle of, 253, 259 + +Poland, 288, 327, 353, 434 + +Poles, 288, 419 + +Political experiment, age of, 318 _et seq._ + +Political ideas, development of, 370 _et seq._ + +Political science, founder of, 144 + +Political worship, 412 + +Polo, Marco, 299-300 + +Polynesian races, 71 + +Pompey the Great, 192, 193, 196, 198, 430 + +Pontifex maximus, 237, 261 + +Popes. (_See_ Papacy) + +Population, 379, 383 + +Port Arthur, 400, 403 + +Portugal, 340, 394, 396, 431 + +Portuguese, 302, 329, 332, 400 + +Porus, King, 149 + +Potato, 76 + +Potsdam, 327 + +Pottery, 75, 87X + +Prague, 433 + +Prescott, 314 + +Priestcraft (including Priests), 64, 68, 69, 74, 75, 77, 83, 111, 114 +_et seq._, 122, 131, 132, 167, 174, 275, 277 + +_Primal Law_, 61 + +Primates, 43. (_Cf._ Mammalia) + +Printing, 80, 153, 247, 255, 298, 302, 305, 306, 320, 322, 329 + +Priscus, 234 + +Property, 274, 372, 374, 375 + +Prophet, Muhammad as, 249 + +Prophets, Jewish, 118, 122 _et seq._ + +Proprietorship, 373 + +Protestantism, 316, 324, 327, 351, 400 + +Proverbs, book of, 116 + +Prussia, 327, 348, 351, 390, 391, 392, 434, 435 + +Prussia, East, 412, 415 + +Psalms, 116 + +Psammetichus I, 109, 429 + +Psycho-analvsis, 69 + +Pterodactyls, 28, 29, 31, 36 + +Ptolemy I, 149, 150, 151, 186, 211 + +Ptolemy II, 151, 186 + +Punic language, 203 + +Punic Wars, 180 _et seq._, 187, 188, 430 + +Punjab, 163, 199 + +Puritans, 335 + +Pygmies, 397 + +Pyramids, 69, 83, 100 + +Pyrenees, 253, 432 + +Pyrrhus, 178, 179, 430 + +Q + +Quebec, 434 + +Quinqueremes, 180 + +Quixada, 314 + +R + +Races of mankind, 71 _et seq._ + +Railways, 322, 350, 357, 382, 383, 384, 389, 395, 396, 409, 434 + +Rain, 9, 10 + +Rameses II, 96, 147, 429 + +Rasputin, 415, 416 + +Ratisbon, Diet of, 313 + +Ravenna, 431 + +Reading, 176 + +Rebus, 79 + +Red deer, 56 + +Red Sea, 91, 118, 122, 196 + +Reformation, the, 308 + +Reindeer, 43, 49, 51, 56, 73 + +Religion, and the creation of the world, 1; and organic evolution, 16; +primitive, 61, 64 + +Religions, 172, 222 _et seq._, 240 _et seq._, 319. (_Cf._ Buddhism, +Christianity, etc.) + +Religious developments under the Roman Empire, 208 _et seq._ + +Religious wars, 270, 304, 313. (_Cf._ Crusades) + +Reptiles, the age of, 26 _et seq._; mental life of, 38 + +Reproduction, 17 _et seq._ + +_Republic_, Plato’s, 142 + +Republic, the Assimilative, 187 + +Republics, 187 _et seq._, 236, 308, 324, 328, 340, 343, 344, 416, 433, +434, 435 + +Republicans, the first, 131 + +Retreat of the Ten Thousand, 150 + +Revolution, 342 _et seq._, 349 _et seq._, 390, 404, 416, 435 + +Rhine, 200, 227 + +Rhine languages, 236 + +Rhineland, 270, 306 + +Rhinoceros, 43, 49 + +Rhodes, 108 + +Rhodesia, 407 + +Rhodesian man, 52 + +Richelieu, Cardinal, 324 + +Richmond, U.S.A., 386, 388, 389 + +Roads, 114, 187 + +Robertson, 316 + +Robespierre, 345, 346, 434 + +Robinson, J. H., 284 + +“Rocket,” Stephenson’s, 356 + +Rock pictures, 57, 78 + +Rocks as record of beginnings of life, 11 _et seq._ + +S + +Sabellians, 224 + +Sabre-toothed tiger, 43 + +Sacrifice, 102, 103, 167, 174, 182, 186, 211, 212. (_Cf._ also Blood +sacrifice, Human sacrifice) + +Sagas, 106 + +Saghalien, 404 + +Sailing ships, 91, 336 + +St. Angelo, castle of, 312 + +St. Helena, 407 + +St. Sophia, church of, 238 + +Saladin, 272, 432 + +Salamis, battle of, 180, 430 + +Salamis, bay of, 136 + +Salerno, 282 + +Samarkand, 256, 297 + +Samnites, 430 + +Samos, 129 + +Samson, 116 + +Samurai, 401 + +San Francisco, 383 + +Sandstones, 26 + +Sanskrit, 95, 107, 156 + +Sapor I, 430 + +Saracens, 264, 265, 297 + +Saratoga, 338 + +Sardanapalus (Assurbanipal), 98, 109, 111 + +Sardinia, 182, 185, 232, 309, 351, 390 + +Sardis, 98 + +Sargon I, 90, 92, 109, 122, 429 + +Sargon II, 97, 109, 429 + +Sarmatians, 100 + +Sassanid dynasty, 227, 241, 430 + +Saturn (planet), 2, 3 + +Saul, King of Israel, 118, 429 + +Saul of Tarsus. (_See_ Paul, St.)" + +_Savannah_, steamship, 258 + +Savoy, 334, 351, 390 + +Saxons, 230, 265 + +Saxony, Elector of, 310 + +Scandinavians, 329 + +Scarabeus beetle, 209 + +Scheldt, 344 + +Schmalkaldic League, 312 + +Science, 144 + +Science and religion, 243 + +Science, exploitation of, 362 + +Science, physical, 412 + +Scientific societies, 322 + +Scipio Africanus, 182, 187 + +Scorpion, sea, 13, 18, 23 + +Scotland, 306, 307 + +Scott, Michael, 282 + +Scythia, 429 + +Scythians, 100, 108, 134, 135 + +Sea trade, 91 + +Sea worms, 13 + +Seasons, the, 68 + +Seaweed, 13 + +Sedan, 391 + +Seed-bearing trees, 26 + +Seleucid dynasty, 183, 186, 196, 199 + +Seleucus I, 149, 163 + +Seljuks, 267, 268, 272, 432 + +Semites and Semitic peoples, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 107, 115 , 122, 134, +174, 233, 256, 258 + +Semitic language, 202, 243 + +Sennacherib, 97 + +Serapeum, 211, 213 + +Serapis, 211, 212 + +Serbia, 179, 200, 227, 228, 292, 354, 411 + +Serfdom, 207 + +Seven Years’ War, 434 + +Severus, Septimius, 202 + +Seville, 202, 213, 302 + +Shang dynasty, 103, 168 + +Sheep, 77 + +Shell necklaces, 56 + +Shellfish, 13 + +Shells, as protection against drying, 18 + +Sherman, General, 387, 388 + +Shi Hwang-ti, 173, 180, 430 + +Shimonoseki, Straits of, 402 + +Shipbuilding, 359, 360, 400 + +Ships, 91, 119, 122, 149, 180, 196, 320, 322, 336 + +Shishak, 119 + +Shrubs, 16 + +Shumanism, 298 + +Siam, 166 + +Siberia, 334 + +Siberia, Eastern, 419 + +Siberian railway, 403, 409 + +Sicilies, Two, 287 + +Sicily, 108, 122, 129, 134, 178, 179, 182, 185, 188, 323, 263, 279, 280 + +Sidon, 92, 122, 123, 134, 147 + +Silurian system, 19 + +Silver, 80, 102, 335 + +Sind, 394 + +Sirmium, 227 + +Skins, use of; for clothing, 56 for writing, 75; inflated as boats, 91 + +Skull, Rhodesian, 52 + +Slavery (and slaves), 94, 102 , 188, 191, 194, 203 _et seq._, 236, 320, +337, 373, 374, 384-86, 388, 430, 433 + +Slavonic language, 236 + +Slavs, 263, 265 + +Smelting, 87, 104, 322 + +Smith, Adam, 377 + +Smith, Eliot, 69 + +Snakes, 27, 28 + +Social reform, 125 + +Socialism, 371, 416, 417, 434 + +Socialists, 375 _et seq._ + +Socialists, primitive, 374 + +Society, primitive, 60 + +Socrates, 140 + +Solomon, King, 119, 122, 127, 429 + +Solomon’s temple, 119 + +Sophists, 140 + +Sophocles, 139 + +South Carolina, 385 + +Soviets, 417 + +Space, the world in, 1 _et seq._ + +Spain, 93, 106, 122, 123, 180, 185, 230, 232, 236, 253, 255, 256, 309, +348, 349, 350, 393, 429, 431; relics of first true man in, 53 + +Spain, North, 431 + +Spanish, 329, 331 + +Spanish language, 203 + +Sparta, 129, 130, 136, 203 + +Spartacus, 191, 192, 203, 430 + +Spartans, 136 + +Species, generation of, 17; new, 36 + +Speech, primitive human, 63 + +Spiders, 23 + +Spiral nebulæ, 5 + +Spores, 24 + +Stagira, 142 + +Stamford Bridge, battle of, 286 + +Stars, 68, 257 + +State, modern idea of a, 375 + +State ownership, 374 + +States General, the, 341, 434 + + +Steamboat, 340, 357 _et seq._, 374, 382, 395, 396 + +Steam engine, 151, 152, 359 + +Steam hammer, 359 + +Steam power, 322 + +Steel, 322, 359-60 + +Stephenson, George, 356 + +Stilicho, 230, 234, 431 + +Stockholm, 417 + +Stockton, 356, 434 + +Stone age, 53, 59 + +Stone implements, 45, 65 + +Stonehenge, 106, 429 + +Story-telling, primitive, 62 + +Styria, 309 + +Submarine campaign, 423 + +Subutai, 289 + +Sudan, the, 405 + +Suevi, 431 + +Suleiman the Magnificent, 310, 312, 432, 433 + +Sulla, 192, 237 + +Sumeria and Sumerians, 77, 78 _et seq._, 87, 88, 90, 91, 122 + +Sumerian Empire, 429 + +Sumerian language and writing, 77, 78, 79 + +Sun, the, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 + +Sun worship, 211 + +Sung dynasty, 290 + +Susa, 114, 135, 148, 149, 155 + +Suy dynasty, 245 + +Swastika, 70 + +Sweden, 306, 313, 348 + +Swedes, 326, 329, 330, 351 + +Swimming bladder, 24 + +Switzerland, 327, 347, 350, 433 + +Syracuse, 151, 154, 170, 178 + +Syria, 88, 91, 115, 119, 122, 138, 238, 243, 249, 290, 431 + +Syrians, 96, 98 + +T + +_Tabus_, the, 61 + +Tadpoles, 26 + +Tagus valley, 314 + +Tai-Tsung, 247, 431 + +Tang dynasty, 200, 245, 247, 287, 431 + +“Tanks,” 413 + +Taoism, 174, 222. (_See also_ Lao Tse) + +Taranto, 178 + +Tarentum, 178 + +Tarim valley, 430 + +Tartars, 167, 197, 232, 243, 288, 290, 334 + +Tasmania, 59, 322, 393 + +Tattooing, 70 + +Taxation, 271, 337 + +Tea, 247, 337 + +Teeth, 19, 20 + +Telamon, battle of, 182 + +Telegraph, electric, 340, 358, 382, 384, 396 + +Telescope, 355 + +Temples, 77, 83, 101, 129, 131, 167, 174, 184, 186, 211, 212, 213, 240 + +Tennessee, 386 + +Testament, Old, 115, 116 + +Teutons, 431 + +Texas, 384, 385 + +Texel, 344 + +Thales, 131, 161 + +Thebes, 101, 102, 129, 136 + +Theocrasia, 209 + +Theodora, Empress, 238 + +Theodoric the Goth, 236, 431 + +Theodosius II, 234, 238 + +Theodosius the Great, 226, 229, 431 + +Thermopylæ, battle of, 136, 430 + +Thessaly, 145, 178 + +Thirty Years’ War, 326 + +Thothmes III, 96, 127, 147, 429 + +Thought and research, 140 + +Thought, primitive, 60 _et seq._ + +Thrace, 135 + +Three Estates, council of the, 285 + +Three Teachings, the, 170 + +Tiberius Cæsar, 195, 214, 430 + +Tibet, 196, 400 + +Tides, 18 + +Tigers, 42, 43 + +Tiglath Pileser I, 97, 429 + +Tiglath Pileser III, 97, 108, 109, 429 + +Tigris, 77, 84 + +Time, 5, 6 + +Timor, 329 + +Timurlane, 290, 334 + +Tin, 360 + +Tiryns, 108 + +Titanotherium, the, 39, 42 + +Tonkin, 402 + +Tortoises, 27, 28 + +Toulon, 345 + +Trade, early, 83, 88 + +Trade, Grecian, 129 + +Trade routes, 119 + +Traders, 132, 335 + +Traders, sea, 92 + +Trafalgar, battle of, 348 + +Trajan, 195, 430 + +Transport, 319, 358, 382 + +Transvaal, 398 + +Transylvania, 195 + +Trasimere, Lake, 182 + +Trench warfare, 412 + +Trevithick, 356 + +Tribal life, 61 + +Trilobites, 13 + +Trinidad, 407 + +Trinil, Java, 45 + +Trinitarians, 224 + +Trinity, doctrine of the, 224, 261 + +Triremes, 180 + +Triumvirates, 194 + +Trojans, 94 + +Troy, 92, 127 + +Troyes, battle of, 235, 431 + +Tsar, title of, 327 + +Tshushima, Straits of, 404 + +Ts’i, 173 + +Ts’in, 173, 431 + +Tuileries, 342, 343 + +Tunis, 185 + +Turkestan, 77, 108, 148, 196, 197, 198, 199, 245, 253, 287, 290, 292, +334 + +Turkey, 390, 411 + +Turkoman dynasty, 405 + +Turkomans, 334 + +Turks, 167, 197, 243, 245, 263, 267, 287, 292, 310, 312, 334, 353, 354, +434 + +Turtles, 27, 28 + +Tushratta, king of Mitanni, 97 + +Twelve tribes, the, 116 + +Tyrannosaurus, 28 + +Tyre, 92, 118, 119, 122, 123, 134, 147 + +U + +Uintatheres, 42 + +Uncleanness, 68 + +United States, 357, 410, 411, 422, 434; Declaration of Independence, +338; treaty with Britain, 339; expansion of, 382 _et seq._ + +Universities, 295, 304, 355, 361 + +Uranus, 2, 3 + +Urban II, Pope, 268, 272, 432 + +Urban VI, Pope, 285, 433 + +Utopias, 140, 142, 144 + +V + +Valens, Emperor, 229 + +Valerian, 430 + +Valladolid, 314, 315, 316 + +Valmy, battle of, 434 + +Vandals, 227, 229, 230, 232, 431 + +Varennes, 343, 434 + +Vassalage, 259 + +Vatican, 265, 266, 272, 285 + +Vedas, 106 + +Vegetation of Mesozoic period, 28 + +Veii, 177, 178 + +Vendée, 345 + +Venetia, 235 + +Venetians, 301 + +Venice, 235, 272, 274, 294, 327, 351, 432 + +Venus (goddess), 213 + +Venus (planet), 2, 3 + +Verona, 345 + +Versailles, 325, 327, 341, 342 + +Versailles, Peace Conference of, 421 + +Versailles, Treaty of, 421, 422 + +Vertebrata, 19; ancestors of, 20 + +Verulam, Lord, (_See_ Bacon, Sir Francis) + +Vespasian, 430 + +Vesuvius, 191 + +Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, 435 + +Victoria, Queen, 394, 434 + +Vienna, 292, 312, 433, 434 + +Vienna, Congress of, 348, 349, 350 + +Vienna, Treaty of, 355 + +Vilna, 356 + +Vindhya Mountains, 159 + +Virginia, 337, 383, 386 + +Visigoths, 227, 229, 232, 235, 259, 431. (_Cf._ Goths) + +Vitellus, 430 + +_Vittoria_, ship, 302 + +Viviparous mammals, 33 + +Vivisection, Herophilus and, 151 + +Volcanoes, 37 + +Volga, 200, 227 + +Volta, 358 + +Voltaire, 328 + +Votes, 382 + +W + +Waldenses, 276, 280, 305 + +Waldo, 276 + +Walid I, 432 + +War and Warfare, 96, 344, 390, 422 + +War of American Independence, 338 _et seq._ + +Warsaw, 353 + +Washington, 340, 357, 383, 386, 389 + +Washington, Conference of, 425 + +Washington, George, 338 + +Waterloo, battle of, 348 + +Watt engine, 356 + +Weapons, 100, 106 + +Weaving, 65, 75 + +Wei-hai-wei, 400 + +Wellington, Duke of, 348 + +West Indies, 330, 385, 393, 394 + +Western Empire, 431 + +Westminster, 306 + +Westphalia, Peace of, 326, 355, 433 + +Wheat, 66, 104 + +White Huns. (_See_ Ephthalites) + +William Duke of Normandy (William I), 432 + +William II, German Emperor, 410, 435 + +Wilson, President, 422, 423, 424 + +Wings, birds’, 32 + +Wisby, 294 + +Wisconsin, 385 + +“Wisdom lovers,” the first, 133 + +Witchcraft, 68 + +Wittenberg, 306 + +Wolfe, General, 434 + +Wolsey, Cardinal, 324 + +Wood blocks for printing, 247 + +Wool, 102, 395 + +Workers’ Internationals, 377 + +World, The, creation of, 1; in time, 5 _et seq._ + +Wrangel, General, 419 + +Writing, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 94, 124, 176; dawn of, 57 + +Wycliffe, John, and his followers, 286, 304, 433 + +X + +Xavier, Francis, 400 + +Xenophon, 150 + +Xerxes, 136, 138, 147, 150 + +Y + +Yang-Chow, 300 + +Yang-tse-Kiang, 173 + +Yangtse valley, 173 + +Yarmuk, battle of, the, 253, 431 + +Yedo Bay, 401 + +Yorktown, 338 + +Yuan dynasty, 290, 433 + +Yucatan, 74 + +Yudenitch, General, 419 + +Yuste, 314, 317 + +Z + +Zama, battle of, 182, 430 + +Zanzibar, 329 + +Zarathustra, 241 + +Zeppelins, 413 + +Zero sign, 257 + +Zeus, 211 + +Zimbabwe, 397 + +Zoophytes, fossilized, 13 + +Zoroaster (and Zoroastrianism), 241, 243, 255 + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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