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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/754-h.zip b/754-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e997d8e --- /dev/null +++ b/754-h.zip diff --git a/754-h/754-h.htm b/754-h/754-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..522a663 --- /dev/null +++ b/754-h/754-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14786 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Van Loon, Ph.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: The Story of Mankind + +Author: Hendrik van Loon + +Release Date: November 27, 2009 [EBook #754] +Last Updated: January 25, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF MANKIND *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE STORY OF MANKIND + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Hendrik Van Loon, Ph.D. + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + Professor of the Social Sciences in Antioch College. Author of The Fall + of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, The Golden Book of + the Dutch Navigators, A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + To JIMMIE "What is the use of a book without pictures?" said Alice. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FORE" id="link2H_FORE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + FOREWORD + </h2> + <h3> + For Hansje and Willem: + </h3> + <p> + WHEN I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle of mine who gave me my + love for books and pictures promised to take me upon a memorable + expedition. I was to go with him to the top of the tower of Old Saint + Lawrence in Rotterdam. + </p> + <p> + And so, one fine day, a sexton with a key as large as that of Saint Peter + opened a mysterious door. "Ring the bell," he said, "when you come back + and want to get out," and with a great grinding of rusty old hinges he + separated us from the noise of the busy street and locked us into a world + of new and strange experiences. + </p> + <p> + For the first time in my life I was confronted by the phenomenon of + audible silence. When we had climbed the first flight of stairs, I added + another discovery to my limited knowledge of natural phenomena—that + of tangible darkness. A match showed us where the upward road continued. + We went to the next floor and then to the next and the next until I had + lost count and then there came still another floor, and suddenly we had + plenty of light. This floor was on an even height with the roof of the + church, and it was used as a storeroom. Covered with many inches of dust, + there lay the abandoned symbols of a venerable faith which had been + discarded by the good people of the city many years ago. That which had + meant life and death to our ancestors was here reduced to junk and + rubbish. The industrious rat had built his nest among the carved images + and the ever watchful spider had opened up shop between the outspread arms + of a kindly saint. + </p> + <p> + The next floor showed us from where we had derived our light. Enormous + open windows with heavy iron bars made the high and barren room the + roosting place of hundreds of pigeons. The wind blew through the iron bars + and the air was filled with a weird and pleasing music. It was the noise + of the town below us, but a noise which had been purified and cleansed by + the distance. The rumbling of heavy carts and the clinking of horses' + hoofs, the winding of cranes and pulleys, the hissing sound of the patient + steam which had been set to do the work of man in a thousand different + ways—they had all been blended into a softly rustling whisper which + provided a beautiful background for the trembling cooing of the pigeons. + </p> + <p> + Here the stairs came to an end and the ladders began. And after the first + ladder (a slippery old thing which made one feel his way with a cautious + foot) there was a new and even greater wonder, the town-clock. I saw the + heart of time. I could hear the heavy pulsebeats of the rapid seconds—one—two—three—up + to sixty. Then a sudden quivering noise when all the wheels seemed to stop + and another minute had been chopped off eternity. Without pause it began + again—one—two—three—until at last after a warning + rumble and the scraping of many wheels a thunderous voice, high above us, + told the world that it was the hour of noon. + </p> + <p> + On the next floor were the bells. The nice little bells and their terrible + sisters. In the centre the big bell, which made me turn stiff with fright + when I heard it in the middle of the night telling a story of fire or + flood. In solitary grandeur it seemed to reflect upon those six hundred + years during which it had shared the joys and the sorrows of the good + people of Rotterdam. Around it, neatly arranged like the blue jars in an + old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows, who twice each + week played a merry tune for the benefit of the country-folk who had come + to market to buy and sell and hear what the big world had been doing. But + in a corner—all alone and shunned by the others—a big black + bell, silent and stern, the bell of death. + </p> + <p> + Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and even more dangerous + than those we had climbed before, and suddenly the fresh air of the wide + heavens. We had reached the highest gallery. Above us the sky. Below us + the city—a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily crawling + hither and thither, each one intent upon his or her particular business, + and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the open country. + </p> + <p> + It was my first glimpse of the big world. + </p> + <p> + Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have gone to the top of + the tower and enjoyed myself. It was hard work, but it repaid in full the + mere physical exertion of climbing a few stairs. + </p> + <p> + Besides, I knew what my reward would be. I would see the land and the sky, + and I would listen to the stories of my kind friend the watchman, who + lived in a small shack, built in a sheltered corner of the gallery. He + looked after the clock and was a father to the bells, and he warned of + fires, but he enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and + thought his own peaceful thoughts. He had gone to school almost fifty + years before and he had rarely read a book, but he had lived on the top of + his tower for so many years that he had absorbed the wisdom of that wide + world which surrounded him on all sides. + </p> + <p> + History he knew well, for it was a living thing with him. "There," he + would say, pointing to a bend of the river, "there, my boy, do you see + those trees? That is where the Prince of Orange cut the dikes to drown the + land and save Leyden." Or he would tell me the tale of the old Meuse, + until the broad river ceased to be a convenient harbour and became a + wonderful highroad, carrying the ships of De Ruyter and Tromp upon that + famous last voyage, when they gave their lives that the sea might be free + to all. + </p> + <p> + Then there were the little villages, clustering around the protecting + church which once, many years ago, had been the home of their Patron + Saints. In the distance we could see the leaning tower of Delft. Within + sight of its high arches, William the Silent had been murdered and there + Grotius had learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still + further away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home of + the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of many an emperor, + the charity-boy whom the world came to know as Erasmus. + </p> + <p> + Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast, immediately + below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys and houses and gardens and + hospitals and schools and railways, which we called our home. But the + tower showed us the old home in a new light. The confused commotion of the + streets and the market-place, of the factories and the workshop, became + the well-ordered expression of human energy and purpose. Best of all, the + wide view of the glorious past, which surrounded us on all sides, gave us + new courage to face the problems of the future when we had gone back to + our daily tasks. + </p> + <p> + History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the + endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this + ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no + elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done. + </p> + <p> + Here I give you the key that will open the door. + </p> + <p> + When you return, you too will understand the reason for my enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_FORE"> FOREWORD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> <b>THE STORY OF MANKIND</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> THE SETTING OF THE STAGE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> PREHISTORIC MAN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> HIEROGLYPHICS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> THE NILE VALLEY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> THE STORY OF EGYPT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> MESOPOTAMIA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> THE SUMERIANS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> MOSES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> THE PHOENICIANS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> THE INDO-EUROPEANS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> THE AEGEAN SEA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> THE GREEKS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> THE GREEK CITIES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> GREEK LIFE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> THE GREEK THEATRE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> THE PERSIAN WARS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> ATHENS vs. SPARTA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> ALEXANDER THE GREAT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> ROME AND CARTHAGE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> THE RISE OF ROME </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> THE ROMAN EMPIRE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> JOSHUA OF NAZARETH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> THE FALL OF ROME </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> RISE OF THE CHURCH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> MOHAMMED </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> CHARLEMAGNE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> THE NORSEMEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> FEUDALISM </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> CHIVALRY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> POPE vs. EMPEROR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> THE CRUSADES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> THE MEDIAEVAL CITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> MEDIAEVAL SELF-GOVERNMENT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> MEDIAEVAL TRADE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> THE RENAISSANCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> THE AGE OF EXPRESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> THE GREAT DISCOVERIES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> THE REFORMATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> RELIGIOUS WARFARE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> THE BALANCE OF POWER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> THE RISE OF RUSSIA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> RUSSIA vs. SWEDEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> THE RISE OF PRUSSIA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> THE FRENCH REVOLUTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> NAPOLEON </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> THE HOLY ALLIANCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> THE GREAT REACTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> THE AGE OF THE ENGINE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0061"> EMANCIPATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> THE AGE OF SCIENCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> ART </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0065"> A NEW WORLD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> AS IT EVER SHALL BE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> CONCERNING THE PICTURES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0068"> AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE STORY OF MANKIND + </h1> + <p> + HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It + is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand + years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. + </p> + <p> + When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will + have gone by. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE SETTING OF THE STAGE + </h2> + <p> + WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark. + </p> + <p> + Who are we? + </p> + <p> + Where do we come from? + </p> + <p> + Whither are we bound? + </p> + <p> + Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this question + mark further and further towards that distant line, beyond the horizon, + where we hope to find our answer. + </p> + <p> + We have not gone very far. + </p> + <p> + We still know very little but we have reached the point where (with a fair + degree of accuracy) we can guess at many things. + </p> + <p> + In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best belief) the + stage was set for the first appearance of man. + </p> + <p> + If we represent the time during which it has been possible for animal life + to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, then the tiny line just + below indicates the age during which man (or a creature more or less + resembling man) has lived upon this earth. + </p> + <p> + Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for the purpose of + conquering the forces of nature. That is the reason why we are going to + study him, rather than cats or dogs or horses or any of the other animals, + who, all in their own way, have a very interesting historical development + behind them. + </p> + <p> + In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far as we now + know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of smoke in the endless + ocean of space. Gradually, in the course of millions of years, the surface + burned itself out, and was covered with a thin layer of rocks. Upon these + lifeless rocks the rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the + hard granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between + the high cliffs of the steaming earth. + </p> + <p> + Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the clouds and saw how + this little planet was covered with a few small puddles which were to + develop into the mighty oceans of the eastern and western hemispheres. + </p> + <p> + Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been dead, gave birth to + life. + </p> + <p> + The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea. + </p> + <p> + For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. But during + all that time it was developing certain habits that it might survive more + easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some of these cells were happiest in + the dark depths of the lakes and the pools. They took root in the slimy + sediments which had been carried down from the tops of the hills and they + became plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew strange + jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along the bottom of the + sea amidst the plants and the pale green things that looked like + jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales) depended upon a swimming + motion to go from place to place in their search for food, and gradually + they populated the ocean with myriads of fishes. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had to search for + new dwelling places. There was no more room for them at the bottom of the + sea. Reluctantly they left the water and made a new home in the marshes + and on the mud-banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day + the tides of the ocean covered them with their brine. For the rest of the + time, the plants made the best of their uncomfortable situation and tried + to survive in the thin air which surrounded the surface of the planet. + After centuries of training, they learned how to live as comfortably in + the air as they had done in the water. They increased in size and became + shrubs and trees and at last they learned how to grow lovely flowers which + attracted the attention of the busy big bumble-bees and the birds who + carried the seeds far and wide until the whole earth had become covered + with green pastures, or lay dark under the shadow of the big trees. But + some of the fishes too had begun to leave the sea, and they had learned + how to breathe with lungs as well as with gills. We call such creatures + amphibious, which means that they are able to live with equal ease on the + land and in the water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you + all about the pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian. + </p> + <p> + Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted themselves more + and more to life on land. Some became reptiles (creatures who crawl like + lizards) and they shared the silence of the forests with the insects. That + they might move faster through the soft soil, they improved upon their + legs and their size increased until the world was populated with gigantic + forms (which the hand-books of biology list under the names of + Ichthyosaurus and Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus) who grew to be thirty to + forty feet long and who could have played with elephants as a full grown + cat plays with her kittens. + </p> + <p> + Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in the tops of + the trees, which were then often more than a hundred feet high. They no + longer needed their legs for the purpose of walking, but it was necessary + for them to move quickly from branch to branch. And so they changed a part + of their skin into a sort of parachute, which stretched between the sides + of their bodies and the small toes of their fore-feet, and gradually they + covered this skinny parachute with feathers and made their tails into a + steering gear and flew from tree to tree and developed into true birds. + </p> + <p> + Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles died within a + short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps it was due to a sudden + change in climate. Perhaps they had grown so large that they could neither + swim nor walk nor crawl, and they starved to death within sight but not + within reach of the big ferns and trees. Whatever the cause, the million + year old world-empire of the big reptiles was over. + </p> + <p> + The world now began to be occupied by very different creatures. They were + the descendants of the reptiles but they were quite unlike these because + they fed their young from the "mammae" or the breasts of the mother. + Wherefore modern science calls these animals "mammals." They had shed the + scales of the fish. They did not adopt the feathers of the bird, but they + covered their bodies with hair. The mammals however developed other habits + which gave their race a great advantage over the other animals. The female + of the species carried the eggs of the young inside her body until they + were hatched and while all other living beings, up to that time, had left + their children exposed to the dangers of cold and heat, and the attacks of + wild beasts, the mammals kept their young with them for a long time and + sheltered them while they were still too weak to fight their enemies. In + this way the young mammals were given a much better chance to survive, + because they learned many things from their mothers, as you will know if + you have ever watched a cat teaching her kittens to take care of + themselves and how to wash their faces and how to catch mice. + </p> + <p> + But of these mammals I need not tell you much for you know them well. They + surround you on all sides. They are your daily companions in the streets + and in your home, and you can see your less familiar cousins behind the + bars of the zoological garden. + </p> + <p> + And now we come to the parting of the ways when man suddenly leaves the + endless procession of dumbly living and dying creatures and begins to use + his reason to shape the destiny of his race. + </p> + <p> + One mammal in particular seemed to surpass all others in its ability to + find food and shelter. It had learned to use its fore-feet for the purpose + of holding its prey, and by dint of practice it had developed a hand-like + claw. After innumerable attempts it had learned how to balance the whole + of the body upon the hind legs. (This is a difficult act, which every + child has to learn anew although the human race has been doing it for over + a million years.) + </p> + <p> + This creature, half ape and half monkey but superior to both, became the + most successful hunter and could make a living in every clime. For greater + safety, it usually moved about in groups. It learned how to make strange + grunts to warn its young of approaching danger and after many hundreds of + thousands of years it began to use these throaty noises for the purpose of + talking. + </p> + <p> + This creature, though you may hardly believe it, was your first "man-like" + ancestor. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS + </h2> + <p> + WE know very little about the first "true" men. We have never seen their + pictures. In the deepest layer of clay of an ancient soil we have + sometimes found pieces of their bones. These lay buried amidst the broken + skeletons of other animals that have long since disappeared from the face + of the earth. Anthropologists (learned scientists who devote their lives + to the study of man as a member of the animal kingdom) have taken these + bones and they have been able to reconstruct our earliest ancestors with a + fair degree of accuracy. + </p> + <p> + The great-great-grandfather of the human race was a very ugly and + unattractive mammal. He was quite small, much smaller than the people of + today. The heat of the sun and the biting wind of the cold winter had + coloured his skin a dark brown. His head and most of his body, his arms + and legs too, were covered with long, coarse hair. He had very thin but + strong fingers which made his hands look like those of a monkey. His + forehead was low and his jaw was like the jaw of a wild animal which uses + its teeth both as fork and knife. He wore no clothes. He had seen no fire + except the flames of the rumbling volcanoes which filled the earth with + their smoke and their lava. + </p> + <p> + He lived in the damp blackness of vast forests, as the pygmies of Africa + do to this very day. When he felt the pangs of hunger he ate raw leaves + and the roots of plants or he took the eggs away from an angry bird and + fed them to his own young. Once in a while, after a long and patient + chase, he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a rabbit. + These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted better + when it was cooked. + </p> + <p> + During the hours of day, this primitive human being prowled about looking + for things to eat. + </p> + <p> + When night descended upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children in a + hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, for he was surrounded on all + sides by ferocious animals and when it was dark these animals began to + prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and their own + young, and they liked the taste of human beings. It was a world where you + must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy because it was full + of fear and misery. + </p> + <p> + In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and during + the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When such a + creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their + bones or spraining their ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he + must die a horrible death. + </p> + <p> + Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises, early + man liked to jabber. That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same + unintelligible gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his + voice. In due time he learned that he could use this guttural noise to + warn his fellow beings whenever danger threatened and he gave certain + little shrieks which came to mean "there is a tiger!" or "here come five + elephants." Then the others grunted something back at him and their growl + meant, "I see them," or "let us run away and hide." And this was probably + the origin of all language. + </p> + <p> + But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little. + Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and died + and left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a few + pieces of his skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago the + world was inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different from all + the other animals—who had probably developed from another unknown + ape-like animal which had learned to walk on its hind-legs and use its + fore-paws as hands—and who were most probably connected with the + creatures who happen to be our own immediate ancestors. + </p> + <p> + It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREHISTORIC MAN + </h2> + <h3> + PREHISTORIC MAN BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS FOR HIMSELF. + </h3> + <p> + EARLY man did not know what time meant. He kept no records of birthdays or + wedding anniversaries or the hour of death. He had no idea of days or + weeks or even years. But in a general way he kept track of the seasons for + he had noticed that the cold winter was invariably followed by the mild + spring—that spring grew into the hot summer when fruits ripened and + the wild ears of corn were ready to be eaten and that summer ended when + sudden gusts of wind swept the leaves from the trees and a number of + animals were getting ready for the long hibernal sleep. + </p> + <p> + But now, something unusual and rather frightening had happened. Something + was the matter with the weather. The warm days of summer had come very + late. The fruits had not ripened. The tops of the mountains which used to + be covered with grass now lay deeply hidden underneath a heavy burden of + snow. + </p> + <p> + Then, one morning, a number of wild people, different from the other + creatures who lived in that neighbourhood, came wandering down from the + region of the high peaks. They looked lean and appeared to be starving. + They uttered sounds which no one could understand. They seemed to say that + they were hungry. There was not food enough for both the old inhabitants + and the newcomers. When they tried to stay more than a few days there was + a terrible battle with claw-like hands and feet and whole families were + killed. The others fled back to their mountain slopes and died in the next + blizzard. + </p> + <p> + But the people in the forest were greatly frightened. All the time the + days grew shorter and the nights grew colder than they ought to have been. + </p> + <p> + Finally, in a gap between two high hills, there appeared a tiny speck of + greenish ice. Rapidly it increased in size. A gigantic glacier came + sliding downhill. Huge stones were being pushed into the valley. With the + noise of a dozen thunderstorms torrents of ice and mud and blocks of + granite suddenly tumbled among the people of the forest and killed them + while they slept. Century old trees were crushed into kindling wood. And + then it began to snow. + </p> + <p> + It snowed for months and months. All the plants died and the animals fled + in search of the southern sun. Man hoisted his young upon his back and + followed them. But he could not travel as fast as the wilder creatures and + he was forced to choose between quick thinking or quick dying. He seems to + have preferred the former for he has managed to survive the terrible + glacial periods which upon four different occasions threatened to kill + every human being on the face of the earth. + </p> + <p> + In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself lest he freeze + to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover them with branches and + leaves and in these traps he caught bears and hyenas, which he then killed + with heavy stones and whose skins he used as coats for himself and his + family. + </p> + <p> + Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many animals were in the + habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now followed their example, drove the + animals out of their warm homes and claimed them for his own. + </p> + <p> + Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and the old and the + young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius bethought himself of the use + of fire. Once, while out hunting, he had been caught in a forest-fire. He + remembered that he had been almost roasted to death by the flames. Thus + far fire had been an enemy. Now it became a friend. A dead tree was + dragged into the cave and lighted by means of smouldering branches from a + burning wood. This turned the cave into a cozy little room. + </p> + <p> + And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It was not rescued + until it had been well roasted. Man discovered that meat tasted better + when cooked and he then and there discarded one of the old habits which he + had shared with the other animals and began to prepare his food. + </p> + <p> + In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people with the cleverest + brains survived. They had to struggle day and night against cold and + hunger. They were forced to invent tools. They learned how to sharpen + stones into axes and how to make hammers. They were obliged to put up + large stores of food for the endless days of the winter and they found + that clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the rays of + the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened to destroy the + human race, became its greatest teacher because it forced man to use his + brain. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + HIEROGLYPHICS + </h2> + <h3> + THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD OF HISTORY BEGINS + </h3> + <p> + THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great European + wilderness were rapidly learning many new things. It is safe to say that + in due course of time they would have given up the ways of savages and + would have developed a civilisation of their own. But suddenly there came + an end to their isolation. They were discovered. + </p> + <p> + A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to cross the sea and + the high mountain passes had found his way to the wild people of the + European continent. He came from Africa. His home was in Egypt. + </p> + <p> + The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation + thousands of years before the people of the west had dreamed of the + possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house. And we shall therefore + leave our great-great-grandfathers in their caves, while we visit the + southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest + school of the human race. + </p> + <p> + The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were excellent farmers. + They knew all about irrigation. They built temples which were afterwards + copied by the Greeks and which served as the earliest models for the + churches in which we worship nowadays. They had invented a calendar which + proved such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time that it + has survived with a few changes until today. But most important of all, + the Egyptians had learned how to preserve speech for the benefit of future + generations. They had invented the art of writing. + </p> + <p> + We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines that we take it + for granted that the world has always been able to read and write. As a + matter of fact, writing, the most important of all inventions, is quite + new. Without written documents we would be like cats and dogs, who can + only teach their kittens and their puppies a few simple things and who, + because they cannot write, possess no way in which they can make use of + the experience of those generations of cats and dogs that have gone + before. + </p> + <p> + In the first century before our era, when the Romans came to Egypt, they + found the valley full of strange little pictures which seemed to have + something to do with the history of the country. But the Romans were not + interested in "anything foreign" and did not inquire into the origin of + these queer figures which covered the walls of the temples and the walls + of the palaces and endless reams of flat sheets made out of the papyrus + reed. The last of the Egyptian priests who had understood the holy art of + making such pictures had died several years before. Egypt deprived of its + independence had become a store-house filled with important historical + documents which no one could decipher and which were of no earthly use to + either man or beast. + </p> + <p> + Seventeen centuries went by and Egypt remained a land of mystery. But in + the year 1798 a French general by the name of Bonaparte happened to visit + eastern Africa to prepare for an attack upon the British Indian Colonies. + He did not get beyond the Nile, and his campaign was a failure. But, quite + accidentally, the famous French expedition solved the problem of the + ancient Egyptian picture-language. + </p> + <p> + One day a young French officer, much bored by the dreary life of his + little fortress on the Rosetta river (a mouth of the Nile) decided to + spend a few idle hours rummaging among the ruins of the Nile Delta. And + behold! he found a stone which greatly puzzled him. Like everything else + in Egypt it was covered with little figures. But this particular slab of + black basalt was different from anything that had ever been discovered. It + carried three inscriptions. One of these was in Greek. The Greek language + was known. "All that is necessary," so he reasoned, "is to compare the + Greek text with the Egyptian figures, and they will at once tell their + secrets." + </p> + <p> + The plan sounded simple enough but it took more than twenty years to solve + the riddle. In the year 1802 a French professor by the name of Champollion + began to compare the Greek and the Egyptian texts of the famous Rosetta + stone. In the year 1823 he announced that he had discovered the meaning of + fourteen little figures. A short time later he died from overwork, but the + main principles of Egyptian writing had become known. Today the story of + the valley of the Nile is better known to us than the story of the + Mississippi River. We possess a written record which covers four thousand + years of chronicled history. + </p> + <p> + As the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (the word means "sacred writing") + have played such a very great role in history, (a few of them in modified + form have even found their way into our own alphabet,) you ought to know + something about the ingenious system which was used fifty centuries ago to + preserve the spoken word for the benefit of the coming generations. + </p> + <p> + Of course, you know what a sign language is. Every Indian story of our + western plains has a chapter devoted to strange messages writter{sic} in + the form of little pictures which tell how many buffaloes were killed and + how many hunters there were in a certain party. As a rule it is not + difficult to understand the meaning of such messages. + </p> + <p> + Ancient Egyptian, however, was not a sign language. The clever people of + the Nile had passed beyond that stage long before. Their pictures meant a + great deal more than the object which they represented, as I shall try to + explain to you now. + </p> + <p> + Suppose that you were Champollion, and that you were examining a stack of + papyrus sheets, all covered with hieroglyphics. Suddenly you came across a + picture of a man with a saw. "Very well," you would say, "that means of + course that a farmer went out to cut down a tree." Then you take another + papyrus. It tells the story of a queen who had died at the age of + eighty-two. In the midst of a sentence appears the picture of the man with + the saw. Queens of eighty-two do not handle saws. The picture therefore + must mean something else. But what? + </p> + <p> + That is the riddle which the Frenchman finally solved. He discovered that + the Egyptians were the first to use what we now call "phonetic writing"—a + system of characters which reproduce the "sound" (or phone) of the spoken + word and which make it possible for us to translate all our spoken words + into a written form, with the help of only a few dots and dashes and + pothooks. + </p> + <p> + Let us return for a moment to the little fellow with the saw. The word + "saw" either means a certain tool which you will find in a carpenter's + shop, or it means the past tense of the verb "to see." + </p> + <p> + This is what had happened to the word during the course of centuries. + First of all it had meant only the particular tool which it represented. + Then that meaning had been lost and it had become the past participle of a + verb. After several hundred years, the Egyptians lost sight of both these + meanings and the picture {illust.} came to stand for a single letter, the + letter S. A short sentence will show you what I mean. Here is a modern + English sentence as it would have been written in hieroglyphics. {illust.} + </p> + <p> + The {illust.} either means one of these two round objects in your head, + which allow you to see or it means "I," the person who is talking. + </p> + <p> + A {illust.} is either an insect which gathers honey, or it represents the + verb "to be" which means to exist. Again, it may be the first part of a + verb like "be-come" or "be-have." In this particular instance it is + followed by {illust.} which means a "leaf" or "leave" or "lieve" (the + sound of all three words is the same). + </p> + <p> + The "eye" you know all about. + </p> + <p> + Finally you get the picture of a {illust.}. It is a giraffe It is part of + the old sign-language out of which the hieroglyphics developed. + </p> + <p> + You can now read that sentence without much difficulty. + </p> + <p> + "I believe I saw a giraffe." + </p> + <p> + Having invented this system the Egyptians developed it during thousands of + years until they could write anything they wanted, and they used these + "canned words" to send messages to friends, to keep business accounts and + to keep a record of the history of their country, that future generations + might benefit by the mistakes of the past. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE NILE VALLEY + </h2> + <h3> + THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE + </h3> + <p> + THE history of man is the record of a hungry creature in search of food. + Wherever food was plentiful, thither man has travelled to make his home. + </p> + <p> + The fame of the Valley of the Nile must have spread at an early date. From + the interior of Africa and from the desert of Arabia and from the western + part of Asia people had flocked to Egypt to claim their share of the rich + farms. Together these invaders had formed a new race which called itself + "Remi" or "the Men" just as we sometimes call America "God's own country." + They had good reason to be grateful to a Fate which had carried them to + this narrow strip of land. In the summer of each year the Nile turned the + valley into a shallow lake and when the waters receded all the grainfields + and the pastures were covered with several inches of the most fertile + clay. + </p> + <p> + In Egypt a kindly river did the work of a million men and made it possible + to feed the teeming population of the first large cities of which we have + any record. It is true that all the arable land was not in the valley. But + a complicated system of small canals and well-sweeps carried water from + the river-level to the top of the highest banks and an even more intricate + system of irrigation trenches spread it throughout the land. + </p> + <p> + While man of the prehistoric age had been obliged to spend sixteen hours + out of every twenty-four gathering food for himself and the members of his + tribe, the Egyptian peasant or the inhabitant of the Egyptian city found + himself possessed of a certain leisure. He used this spare time to make + himself many things that were merely ornamental and not in the least bit + useful. + </p> + <p> + More than that. One day he discovered that his brain was capable of + thinking all kinds of thoughts which had nothing to do with the problems + of eating and sleeping and finding a home for the children. The Egyptian + began to speculate upon many strange problems that confronted him. Where + did the stars come from? Who made the noise of the thunder which + frightened him so terribly? Who made the River Nile rise with such + regularity that it was possible to base the calendar upon the appearance + and the disappearance of the annual floods? Who was he, himself, a strange + little creature surrounded on all sides by death and sickness and yet + happy and full of laughter? + </p> + <p> + He asked these many questions and certain people obligingly stepped + forward to answer these inquiries to the best of their ability. The + Egyptians called them "priests" and they became the guardians of his + thoughts and gained great respect in the community. They were highly + learned men who were entrusted with the sacred task of keeping the written + records. They understood that it is not good for man to think only of his + immediate advantage in this world and they drew his attention to the days + of the future when his soul would dwell beyond the mountains of the west + and must give an account of his deeds to Osiris, the mighty God who was + the Ruler of the Living and the Dead and who judged the acts of men + according to their merits. Indeed, the priests made so much of that future + day in the realm of Isis and Osiris that the Egyptians began to regard + life merely as a short preparation for the Hereafter and turned the + teeming valley of the Nile into a land devoted to the Dead. + </p> + <p> + In a strange way, the Egyptians had come to believe that no soul could + enter the realm of Osiris without the possession of the body which had + been its place of residence in this world. Therefore as soon as a man was + dead his relatives took his corpse and had it embalmed. For weeks it was + soaked in a solution of natron and then it was filled with pitch. The + Persian word for pitch was "Mumiai" and the embalmed body was called a + "Mummy." It was wrapped in yards and yards of specially prepared linen and + it was placed in a specially prepared coffin ready to be removed to its + final home. But an Egyptian grave was a real home where the body was + surrounded by pieces of furniture and musical instruments (to while away + the dreary hours of waiting) and by little statues of cooks and bakers and + barbers (that the occupant of this dark home might be decently provided + with food and need not go about unshaven). + </p> + <p> + Originally these graves had been dug into the rocks of the western + mountains but as the Egyptians moved northward they were obliged to build + their cemeteries in the desert. The desert however is full of wild animals + and equally wild robbers and they broke into the graves and disturbed the + mummy or stole the jewelry that had been buried with the body. To prevent + such unholy desecration the Egyptians used to build small mounds of stones + on top of the graves. These little mounds gradually grew in size, because + the rich people built higher mounds than the poor and there was a good + deal of competition to see who could make the highest hill of stones. The + record was made by King Khufu, whom the Greeks called Cheops and who lived + thirty centuries before our era. His mound, which the Greeks called a + pyramid (because the Egyptian word for high was pir-em-us) was over five + hundred feet high. + </p> + <p> + It covered more than thirteen acres of desert which is three times as much + space as that occupied by the church of St. Peter, the largest edifice of + the Christian world. + </p> + <p> + During twenty years, over a hundred thousand men were busy carrying the + necessary stones from the other side of the river—ferrying them + across the Nile (how they ever managed to do this, we do not understand), + dragging them in many instances a long distance across the desert and + finally hoisting them into their correct position. But so well did the + King's architects and engineers perform their task that the narrow + passage-way which leads to the royal tomb in the heart of the stone monster + has never yet been pushed out of shape by the weight of those thousands of + tons of stone which press upon it from all sides. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE STORY OF EGYPT + </h2> + <h3> + THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT + </h3> + <p> + THE river Nile was a kind friend but occasionally it was a hard + taskmaster. It taught the people who lived along its banks the noble art + of "team-work." They depended upon each other to build their irrigation + trenches and keep their dikes in repair. In this way they learned how to + get along with their neighbours and their mutual-benefit-association quite + easily developed into an organised state. + </p> + <p> + Then one man grew more powerful than most of his neighbours and he became + the leader of the community and their commander-in-chief when the envious + neighbours of western Asia invaded the prosperous valley. In due course of + time he became their King and ruled all the land from the Mediterranean to + the mountains of the west. + </p> + <p> + But these political adventures of the old Pharaohs (the word meant "the + Man who lived in the Big House") rarely interested the patient and toiling + peasant of the grain fields. Provided he was not obliged to pay more taxes + to his King than he thought just, he accepted the rule of Pharaoh as he + accepted the rule of Mighty Osiris. + </p> + <p> + It was different however when a foreign invader came and robbed him of his + possessions. After twenty centuries of independent life, a savage Arab + tribe of shepherds, called the Hyksos, attacked Egypt and for five hundred + years they were the masters of the valley of the Nile. They were highly + un-popular and great hate was also felt for the Hebrews who came to the + land of Goshen to find a shelter after their long wandering through the + desert and who helped the foreign usurper by acting as his tax-gatherers + and his civil servants. + </p> + <p> + But shortly after the year 1700 B.C. the people of Thebes began a + revolution and after a long struggle the Hyksos were driven out of the + country and Egypt was free once more. + </p> + <p> + A thousand years later, when Assyria conquered all of western Asia, Egypt + became part of the empire of Sardanapalus. In the seventh century B.C. it + became once more an independent state which obeyed the rule of a king who + lived in the city of Sais in the Delta of the Nile. But in the year 525 + B.C., Cambyses, the king of the Persians, took possession of Egypt and in + the fourth century B.C., when Persia was conquered by Alexander the Great, + Egypt too became a Macedonian province. It regained a semblance of + independence when one of Alexander's generals set himself up as king of a + new Egyptian state and founded the dynasty of the Ptolemies, who resided + in the newly built city of Alexandria. + </p> + <p> + Finally, in the year 89 B.C., the Romans came. The last Egyptian queen, + Cleopatra, tried her best to save the country. Her beauty and charm were + more dangerous to the Roman generals than half a dozen Egyptian army + corps. Twice she was successful in her attacks upon the hearts of her + Roman conquerors. But in the year 30 B.C., Augustus, the nephew and heir + of Caesar, landed in Alexandria. He did not share his late uncle's + admiration for the lovely princess. He destroyed her armies, but spared + her life that he might make her march in his triumph as part of the spoils + of war. When Cleopatra heard of this plan, she killed herself by taking + poison. And Egypt became a Roman province. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESOPOTAMIA + </h2> + <h3> + MESOPOTAMIA—THE SECOND CENTRE OF EASTERN CIVILISATION + </h3> + <p> + I AM going to take you to the top of the highest pyramid and I am going to + ask that you imagine yourself possessed of the eyes of a hawk. Way, way + off, in the distance, far beyond the yellow sands of the desert, you will + see something green and shimmering. It is a valley situated between two + rivers. It is the Paradise of the Old Testament. It is the land of mystery + and wonder which the Greeks called Mesopotamia—the "country between + the rivers." + </p> + <p> + The names of the two rivers are the Euphrates (which the Babylonians + called the Purattu) and the Tigris (which was known as the Diklat). They + begin their course amidst the snows of the mountains of Armenia where + Noah's Ark found a resting place and slowly they flow through the southern + plain until they reach the muddy banks of the Persian gulf. They perform a + very useful service. They turn the arid regions of western Asia into a + fertile garden. + </p> + <p> + The valley of the Nile had attracted people because it had offered them + food upon fairly easy terms. The "land between the rivers" was popular for + the same reason. It was a country full of promise and both the inhabitants + of the northern mountains and the tribes which roamed through the southern + deserts tried to claim this territory as their own and most exclusive + possession. The constant rivalry between the mountaineers and the + desert-nomads led to endless warfare. Only the strongest and the bravest + could hope to survive and that will explain why Mesopotamia became the + home of a very strong race of men who were capable of creating a + civilisation which was in every respect as important as that of Egypt. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE SUMERIANS + </h2> + <p> + THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US THE STORY OF ASSYRIA + AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC MELTING-POT + </p> + <p> + THE fifteenth century was an age of great discoveries. Columbus tried to + find a way to the island of Kathay and stumbled upon a new and unsuspected + continent. An Austrian bishop equipped an expedition which was to travel + eastward and find the home of the Grand Duke of Muscovy, a voyage which + led to complete failure, for Moscow was not visited by western men until a + generation later. Meanwhile a certain Venetian by the name of Barbero had + explored the ruins of western Asia and had brought back reports of a most + curious language which he had found carved in the rocks of the temples of + Shiraz and engraved upon endless pieces of baked clay. + </p> + <p> + But Europe was busy with many other things and it was not until the end of + the eighteenth century that the first "cuneiform inscriptions" (so-called + because the letters were wedge-shaped and wedge is called "Cuneus" in + Latin) were brought to Europe by a Danish surveyor, named Niebuhr. Then it + took thirty years before a patient German school-master by the name of + Grotefend had deciphered the first four letters, the D, the A, the R and + the SH, the name of the Persian King Darius. And another twenty years had + to go by until a British officer, Henry Rawlinson, who found the famous + inscription of Behistun, gave us a workable key to the nail-writing of + western Asia. + </p> + <p> + Compared to the problem of deciphering these nail-writings, the job of + Champollion had been an easy one. The Egyptians used pictures. But the + Sumerians, the earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia, who had hit upon the + idea of scratching their words in tablets of clay, had discarded pictures + entirely and had evolved a system of V-shaped figures which showed little + connection with the pictures out of which they had been developed. A few + examples will show you what I mean. In the beginning a star, when drawn + with a nail into a brick looked as follows: {illust.} This sign however + was too cumbersome and after a short while when the meaning of "heaven" + was added to that of star the picture was simplified in this way {illust.} + which made it even more of a puzzle. In the same way an ox changed from + {illust} into {illust.} and a fish changed from {illust.} into {illust.} + The sun was originally a plain circle {illust.} and became {illust.} If we + were using the Sumerian script today we would make an {illust.} look like + {illust.}. This system of writing down our ideas looks rather complicated + but for more than thirty centuries it was used by the Sumerians and the + Babylonians and the Assyrians and the Persians and all the different races + which forced their way into the fertile valley. + </p> + <p> + The story of Mesopotamia is one of endless warfare and conquest. First the + Sumerians came from the North. They were a white People who had lived in + the mountains. They had been accustomed to worship their Gods on the tops + of hills. After they had entered the plain they constructed artificial + little hills on top of which they built their altars. They did not know + how to build stairs and they therefore surrounded their towers with + sloping galleries. Our engineers have borrowed this idea, as you may see + in our big railroad stations where ascending galleries lead from one floor + to another. We may have borrowed other ideas from the Sumerians but we do + not know it. The Sumerians were entirely ab-sorbed by those races that + entered the fertile valley at a later date. Their towers however still + stand amidst the ruins of Mesopotamia. The Jews saw them when they went + into exile in the land of Babylon and they called them towers of Babillli, + or towers of Babel. + </p> + <p> + In the fortieth century before our era, the Sumerians had entered + Mesopotamia. They were soon afterwards over-powered by the Akkadians, one + of the many tribes from the desert of Arabia who speak a common dialect + and who are known as the "Semites," because in the olden days people + believed them to be the direct descendants of Shem, one of the three sons + of Noah. A thousand years later, the Akkadians were forced to submit to + the rule of the Amorites, another Semitic desert tribe whose great King + Hammurabi built himself a magnificent palace in the holy city of Babylon + and who gave his people a set of laws which made the Babylonian state the + best administered empire of the ancient world. Next the Hittites, whom you + will also meet in the Old Testament, over-ran the Fertile Valley and + destroyed whatever they could not carry away. They in turn were vanquished + by the followers of the great desert God, Ashur, who called themselves + Assyrians and who made the city of Nineveh the center of a vast and + terrible empire which conquered all of western Asia and Egypt and gathered + taxes from countless subject races until the end of the seventh century + before the birth of Christ when the Chaldeans, also a Semitic tribe, + re-established Babylon and made that city the most important capital of + that day. Nebuchadnezzar, the best known of their Kings, encouraged the + study of science, and our modern knowledge of astronomy and mathematics is + all based upon certain first principles which were discovered by the + Chaldeans. In the year 538 B.C. a crude tribe of Persian shepherds invaded + this old land and overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. Two hundred years + later, they in turn were overthrown by Alexander the Great, who turned the + Fertile Valley, the old melting-pot of so many Semitic races, into a Greek + province. Next came the Romans and after the Romans, the Turks, and + Mesopotamia, the second centre of the world's civilisation, became a vast + wilderness where huge mounds of earth told a story of ancient glory. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MOSES + </h2> + <h3> + THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE + </h3> + <p> + SOME time during the twentieth century before our era, a small and + unimportant tribe of Semitic shepherds had left its old home, which was + situated in the land of Ur on the mouth of the Euphrates, and had tried to + find new pastures within the domain of the Kings of Babylonia. They had + been driven away by the royal soldiers and they had moved westward looking + for a little piece of unoccupied territory where they might set up their + tents. + </p> + <p> + This tribe of shepherds was known as the Hebrews or, as we call them, the + Jews. They had wandered far and wide, and after many years of dreary + peregrinations they had been given shelter in Egypt. For more than five + centuries they had dwelt among the Egyptians and when their adopted + country had been overrun by the Hyksos marauders (as I told you in the + story of Egypt) they had managed to make themselves useful to the foreign + invader and had been left in the undisturbed possession of their grazing + fields. But after a long war of independence the Egyptians had driven the + Hyksos out of the valley of the Nile and then the Jews had come upon evil + times for they had been degraded to the rank of common slaves and they had + been forced to work on the royal roads and on the Pyramids. And as the + frontiers were guarded by the Egyptian soldiers it had been impossible for + the Jews to escape. + </p> + <p> + After many years of suffering they were saved from their miserable fate by + a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long time had dwelt in the desert and + there had learned to appreciate the simple virtues of his earliest + ancestors, who had kept away from cities and city-life and had refused to + let themselves be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a foreign + civilisation. + </p> + <p> + Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways of the + patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian troops that were sent + after him and led his fellow tribesmen into the heart of the plain at the + foot of Mount Sinai. During his long and lonely life in the desert, he had + learned to revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder and the + Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds depended for + life and light and breath. This God, one of the many divinities who were + widely worshipped in western Asia, was called Jehovah, and through the + teaching of Moses, he became the sole Master of the Hebrew race. + </p> + <p> + One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. It was whispered + that he had gone away carrying two tablets of rough-hewn stone. That + afternoon, the top of the mountain was lost to sight. The darkness of a + terrible storm hid it from the eye of man. But when Moses returned, + behold! there stood engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah had + spoken unto the people of Israel amidst the crash of his thunder and the + blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, Jehovah was + recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master of their Fate, the only + True God, who had taught them how to live holy lives when he bade them to + follow the wise lessons of his Ten Commandments. + </p> + <p> + They followed Moses when he bade them continue their journey through the + desert. They obeyed him when he told them what to eat and drink and what + to avoid that they might keep well in the hot climate. And finally after + many years of wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and + prosperous. It was called Palestine, which means the country of the + "Pilistu" the Philistines, a small tribe of Cretans who had settled along + the coast after they had been driven away from their own island. + Unfortunately, the mainland, Palestine, was already inhabited by another + Semitic race, called the Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into + the valleys and built themselves cities and constructed a mighty temple in + a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace. As for Moses, he was + no longer the leader of his people. He had been allowed to see the + mountain ridges of Palestine from afar. Then he had closed his tired eyes + for all time. He had worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. Not + only had he guided his brethren out of foreign slavery into the free and + independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews the first of + all nations to worship a single God. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PHOENICIANS + </h2> + <h3> + THE PHOENICIANS WHO GAVE US OUR ALPHABET + </h3> + <p> + THE Phoenicians, who were the neighbours of the Jews, were a Semitic tribe + which at a very early age had settled along the shores of the + Mediterranean. They had built themselves two well-fortified towns, Tyre + and Sidon, and within a short time they had gained a monopoly of the trade + of the western seas. Their ships went regularly to Greece and Italy and + Spain and they even ventured beyond the straits of Gibraltar to visit the + Scilly islands where they could buy tin. Wherever they went, they built + themselves small trading stations, which they called colonies. Many of + these were the origin of modern cities, such as Cadiz and Marseilles. + </p> + <p> + They bought and sold whatever promised to bring them a good profit. They + were not troubled by a conscience. If we are to believe all their + neighbours they did not know what the words honesty or integrity meant. + They regarded a well-filled treasure chest the highest ideal of all good + citizens. Indeed they were very unpleasant people and did not have a + single friend. Nevertheless they have rendered all coming generations one + service of the greatest possible value. They gave us our alphabet. + </p> + <p> + The Phoenicians had been familiar with the art of writing, invented by the + Sumerians. But they regarded these pothooks as a clumsy waste of time. + They were practical business men and could not spend hours engraving two + or three letters. They set to work and invented a new system of writing + which was greatly superior to the old one. They borrowed a few pictures + from the Egyptians and they simplified a number of the wedge-shaped + figures of the Sumerians. They sacrificed the pretty looks of the older + system for the advantage of speed and they reduced the thousands of + different images to a short and handy alphabet of twenty-two letters. + </p> + <p> + In due course of time, this alphabet travelled across the AEgean Sea and + entered Greece. The Greeks added a few letters of their own and carried + the improved system to Italy. The Romans modified the figures somewhat and + in turn taught them to the wild barbarians of western Europe. Those wild + barbarians were our own ancestors, and that is the reason why this book is + written in characters that are of Phoenician origin and not in the + hieroglyphics of the Egyptians or in the nail-script of the Sumerians. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE INDO-EUROPEANS + </h2> + <h3> + THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER THE SEMITIC AND THE EGYPTIAN WORLD + </h3> + <p> + THE world of Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and Phoenicia had existed + almost thirty centuries and the venerable races of the Fertile Valley were + getting old and tired. Their doom was sealed when a new and more energetic + race appeared upon the horizon. We call this race the Indo-European race, + because it conquered not only Europe but also made itself the ruling class + in the country which is now known as British India. + </p> + <p> + These Indo-Europeans were white men like the Semites but they spoke a + different language which is regarded as the common ancestor of all + European tongues with the exception of Hungarian and Finnish and the + Basque dialects of Northern Spain. + </p> + <p> + When we first hear of them, they had been living along the shores of the + Caspian Sea for many centuries. But one day they had packed their tents + and they had wandered forth in search of a new home. Some of them had + moved into the mountains of Central Asia and for many centuries they had + lived among the peaks which surround the plateau of Iran and that is why + we call them Aryans. Others had followed the setting sun and they had + taken possession of the plains of Europe as I shall tell you when I give + you the story of Greece and Rome. + </p> + <p> + For the moment we must follow the Aryans. Under the leadership of + Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) who was their great teacher many of them had + left their mountain homes to follow the swiftly flowing Indus river on its + way to the sea. + </p> + <p> + Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western Asia and there + they had founded the half-independent communities of the Medes and the + Persians, two peoples whose names we have copied from the old Greek + history-books. In the seventh century before the birth of Christ, the + Medes had established a kingdom of their own called Media, but this + perished when Cyrus, the chief of a clan known as the Anshan, made himself + king of all the Persian tribes and started upon a career of conquest which + soon made him and his children the undisputed masters of the whole of + western Asia and of Egypt. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, with such energy did these Indo-European Persians push their + triumphant campaigns in the west that they soon found themselves in + serious difficulties with certain other Indo-European tribes which + centuries before had moved into Europe and had taken possession of the + Greek peninsula and the islands of the AEgean Sea. + </p> + <p> + These difficulties led to the three famous wars between Greece and Persia + during which King Darius and King Xerxes of Persia invaded the northern + part of the peninsula. They ravaged the lands of the Greeks and tried very + hard to get a foothold upon the European continent. + </p> + <p> + But in this they did not succeed. The navy of Athens proved unconquerable. + By cutting off the lines of supplies of the Persian armies, the Greek + sailors invariably forced the Asiatic rulers to return to their base. + </p> + <p> + It was the first encounter between Asia, the ancient teacher, and Europe, + the young and eager pupil. A great many of the other chapters of this book + will tell you how the struggle between east and west has continued until + this very day. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE AEGEAN SEA + </h2> + <p> + THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED THE CIVILISATION OF OLD ASIA INTO THE + WILDERNESS OF EUROPE + </p> + <p> + WHEN Heinrich Schliemann was a little boy his father told him the story of + Troy. He liked that story better than anything else he had ever heard and + he made up his mind, that as soon as he was big enough to leave home, he + would travel to Greece and "find Troy." That he was the son of a poor + country parson in a Mecklenburg village did not bother him. He knew that + he would need money but he decided to gather a fortune first and do the + digging afterwards. As a matter of fact, he managed to get a large fortune + within a very short time, and as soon as he had enough money to equip an + expedition, he went to the northwest corner of Asia Minor, where he + supposed that Troy had been situated. + </p> + <p> + In that particular nook of old Asia Minor, stood a high mound covered with + grainfields. According to tradition it had been the home of Priamus the + king of Troy. Schliemann, whose enthusiasm was somewhat greater than his + knowledge, wasted no time in preliminary explorations. At once he began to + dig. And he dug with such zeal and such speed that his trench went + straight through the heart of the city for which he was looking and + carried him to the ruins of another buried town which was at least a + thousand years older than the Troy of which Homer had written. Then + something very interesting occurred. If Schliemann had found a few + polished stone hammers and perhaps a few pieces of crude pottery, no one + would have been surprised. Instead of discovering such objects, which + people had generally associated with the prehistoric men who had lived in + these regions before the coming of the Greeks, Schliemann found beautiful + statuettes and very costly jewelry and ornamented vases of a pattern that + was unknown to the Greeks. He ventured the suggestion that fully ten + centuries before the great Trojan war, the coast of the AEgean had been + inhabited by a mysterious race of men who in many ways had been the + superiors of the wild Greek tribes who had invaded their country and had + destroyed their civilisation or absorbed it until it had lost all trace of + originality. And this proved to be the case. In the late seventies of the + last century, Schliemann visited the ruins of Mycenae, ruins which were so + old that Roman guide-books marvelled at their antiquity. There again, + beneath the flat slabs of stone of a small round enclosure, Schliemann + stumbled upon a wonderful treasure-trove, which had been left behind by + those mysterious people who had covered the Greek coast with their cities + and who had built walls, so big and so heavy and so strong, that the + Greeks called them the work of the Titans, those god-like giants who in + very olden days had used to play ball with mountain peaks. + </p> + <p> + A very careful study of these many relics has done away with some of the + romantic features of the story. The makers of these early works of art and + the builders of these strong fortresses were no sorcerers, but simple + sailors and traders. They had lived in Crete, and on the many small + islands of the AEgean Sea. They had been hardy mariners and they had + turned the AEgean into a center of commerce for the exchange of goods + between the highly civilised east and the slowly developing wilderness of + the European mainland. + </p> + <p> + For more than a thousand years they had maintained an island empire which + had developed a very high form of art. Indeed their most important city, + Cnossus, on the northern coast of Crete, had been entirely modern in its + insistence upon hygiene and comfort. The palace had been properly drained + and the houses had been provided with stoves and the Cnossians had been + the first people to make a daily use of the hitherto unknown bathtub. The + palace of their King had been famous for its winding staircases and its + large banqueting hall. The cellars underneath this palace, where the wine + and the grain and the olive-oil were stored, had been so vast and had so + greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that they had given rise to + the story of the "labyrinth," the name which we give to a structure with + so many complicated passages that it is almost impossible to find our way + out, once the front door has closed upon our frightened selves. + </p> + <p> + But what finally became of this great AEgean Empire and what caused its + sudden downfall, that I can not tell. + </p> + <p> + The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no one has yet been + able to decipher their inscriptions. Their history therefore is unknown to + us. We have to reconstruct the record of their adventures from the ruins + which the AEgeans have left behind. These ruins make it clear that the + AEgean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilised race which had + recently come from the plains of northern Europe. Unless we are very much + mistaken, the savages who were responsible for the destruction of the + Cretan and the AEgean civilisation were none other than certain tribes of + wandering shepherds who had just taken possession of the rocky peninsula + between the Adriatic and the AEgean seas and who are known to us as + Greeks. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE GREEKS + </h2> + <p> + MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE OF THE HELLENES WAS TAKING POSSESSION OF + GREECE + </p> + <p> + THE Pyramids were a thousand years old and were beginning to show the + first signs of decay, and Hammurabi, the wise king of Babylon, had been + dead and buried several centuries, when a small tribe of shepherds left + their homes along the banks of the River Danube and wandered southward in + search of fresh pastures. They called themselves Hellenes, after Hellen, + the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. According to the old myths these were the + only two human beings who had escaped the great flood, which countless + years before had destroyed all the people of the world, when they had + grown so wicked that they disgusted Zeus, the mighty God, who lived on + Mount Olympus. + </p> + <p> + Of these early Hellenes we know nothing. Thucydides, the historian of the + fall of Athens, describing his earliest ancestors, said that they "did not + amount to very much," and this was probably true. They were very + ill-mannered. They lived like pigs and threw the bodies of their enemies + to the wild dogs who guarded their sheep. They had very little respect for + other people's rights, and they killed the natives of the Greek peninsula + (who were called the Pelasgians) and stole their farms and took their + cattle and made their wives and daughters slaves and wrote endless songs + praising the courage of the clan of the Achaeans, who had led the Hellenic + advance-guard into the mountains of Thessaly and the Peloponnesus. + </p> + <p> + But here and there, on the tops of high rocks, they saw the castles of the + AEgeans and those they did not attack for they feared the metal swords and + the spears of the AEgean soldiers and knew that they could not hope to + defeat them with their clumsy stone axes. + </p> + <p> + For many centuries they continued to wander from valley to valley and from + mountain side to mountain side Then the whole of the land had been + occupied and the migration had come to an end. + </p> + <p> + That moment was the beginning of Greek civilisation. The Greek farmer, + living within sight of the AEgean colonies, was finally driven by + curiosity to visit his haughty neighbours. He discovered that he could + learn many useful things from the men who dwelt behind the high stone + walls of Mycenae, and Tiryns. + </p> + <p> + He was a clever pupil. Within a short time he mastered the art of handling + those strange iron weapons which the AEgeans had brought from Babylon and + from Thebes. He came to understand the mysteries of navigation. He began + to build little boats for his own use. + </p> + <p> + And when he had learned everything the AEgeans could teach him he turned + upon his teachers and drove them back to their islands. Soon afterwards he + ventured forth upon the sea and conquered all the cities of the AEgean. + Finally in the fifteenth century before our era he plundered and ravaged + Cnossus and ten centuries after their first appearance upon the scene the + Hellenes were the undisputed rulers of Greece, of the AEgean and of the + coastal regions of Asia Minor. Troy, the last great commercial stronghold + of the older civilisation, was destroyed in the eleventh century B.C. + European history was to begin in all seriousness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE GREEK CITIES + </h2> + <h3> + THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES + </h3> + <p> + WE modern people love the sound of the word "big." We pride ourselves upon + the fact that we belong to the "biggest" country in the world and possess + the "biggest" navy and grow the "biggest" oranges and potatoes, and we + love to live in cities of "millions" of inhabitants and when we are dead + we are buried in the "biggest cemetery of the whole state." + </p> + <p> + A citizen of ancient Greece, could he have heard us talk, would not have + known what we meant. "Moderation in all things" was the ideal of his life + and mere bulk did not impress him at all. And this love of moderation was + not merely a hollow phrase used upon special occasions: it influenced the + life of the Greeks from the day of their birth to the hour of their death. + It was part of their literature and it made them build small but perfect + temples. It found expression in the clothes which the men wore and in the + rings and the bracelets of their wives. It followed the crowds that went + to the theatre and made them hoot down any playwright who dared to sin + against the iron law of good taste or good sense. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks even insisted upon this quality in their politicians and in + their most popular athletes. When a powerful runner came to Sparta and + boasted that he could stand longer on one foot than any other man in + Hellas the people drove him from the city because he prided himself upon + an accomplishment at which he could be beaten by any common goose. "That + is all very well," you will say, "and no doubt it is a great virtue to + care so much for moderation and perfection, but why should the Greeks have + been the only people to develop this quality in olden times?" For an + answer I shall point to the way in which the Greeks lived. + </p> + <p> + The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the "subjects" of a mysterious + Supreme Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace and who was + rarely seen by the masses of the population. The Greeks on the other hand, + were "free citizens" of a hundred independent little "cities" the largest + of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large modern village. When a + peasant who lived in Ur said that he was a Babylonian he meant that he was + one of millions of other people who paid tribute to the king who at that + particular moment happened to be master of western Asia. But when a Greek + said proudly that he was an Athenian or a Theban he spoke of a small town, + which was both his home and his country and which recognised no master but + the will of the people in the market-place. + </p> + <p> + To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was born; where he had + spent his earliest years playing hide and seek amidst the forbidden rocks + of the Acropolis; where he had grown into manhood with a thousand other + boys and girls, whose nicknames were as familiar to him as those of your + own schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his father and + mother lay buried. It was the small house within the high city-walls where + his wife and children lived in safety. It was a complete world which + covered no more than four or five acres of rocky land. Don't you see how + these surroundings must have influenced a man in everything he did and + said and thought? The people of Babylon and Assyria and Egypt had been + part of a vast mob. They had been lost in the multitude. The Greek on the + other hand had never lost touch with his immediate surroundings. He never + ceased to be part of a little town where everybody knew every one else. He + felt that his intelligent neighbours were watching him. Whatever he did, + whether he wrote plays or made statues out of marble or composed songs, he + remembered that his efforts were going to be judged by all the free-born + citizens of his home-town who knew about such things. This knowledge + forced him to strive after perfection, and perfection, as he had been + taught from childhood, was not possible without moderation. + </p> + <p> + In this hard school, the Greeks learned to excel in many things. They + created new forms of government and new forms of literature and new ideals + in art which we have never been able to surpass. They performed these + miracles in little villages that covered less ground than four or five + modern city blocks. + </p> + <p> + And look, what finally happened! + </p> + <p> + In the fourth century before our era, Alexander of Macedonia conquered the + world. As soon as he had done with fighting, Alexander decided that he + must bestow the benefits of the true Greek genius upon all mankind. He + took it away from the little cities and the little villages and tried to + make it blossom and bear fruit amidst the vast royal residences of his + newly acquired Empire. But the Greeks, removed from the familiar sight of + their own temples, removed from the well-known sounds and smells of their + own crooked streets, at once lost the cheerful joy and the marvellous + sense of moderation which had inspired the work of their hands and brains + while they laboured for the glory of their old city-states. They became + cheap artisans, content with second-rate work. The day the little + city-states of old Hellas lost their independence and were forced to + become part of a big nation, the old Greek spirit died. And it has been + dead ever since. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT + </h2> + <p> + THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT EXPERIMENT OF + SELF-GOVERNMENT + </p> + <p> + IN the beginning, all the Greeks had been equally rich and equally poor. + Every man had owned a certain number of cows and sheep. His mud-hut had + been his castle. He had been free to come and go as he wished. Whenever it + was necessary to discuss matters of public importance, all the citizens + had gathered in the market-place. One of the older men of the village was + elected chairman and it was his duty to see that everybody had a chance to + express his views. In case of war, a particularly energetic and + self-confident villager was chosen commander-in-chief, but the same people + who had voluntarily given this man the right to be their leader, claimed + an equal right to deprive him of his job, once the danger had been + averted. + </p> + <p> + But gradually the village had grown into a city. Some people had worked + hard and others had been lazy. A few had been unlucky and still others had + been just plain dishonest in dealing with their neighbours and had + gathered wealth. As a result, the city no longer consisted of a number of + men who were equally well-off. On the contrary it was inhabited by a small + class of very rich people and a large class of very poor ones. + </p> + <p> + There had been another change. The old commander-in-chief who had been + willingly recognised as "headman" or "King" because he knew how to lead + his men to victory, had disappeared from the scene. His place had been + taken by the nobles—a class of rich people who during the course of + time had got hold of an undue share of the farms and estates. + </p> + <p> + These nobles enjoyed many advantages over the common crowd of freemen. + They were able to buy the best weapons which were to be found on the + market of the eastern Mediterranean. They had much spare time in which + they could practise the art of fighting. They lived in strongly built + houses and they could hire soldiers to fight for them. They were + constantly quarrelling among each other to decide who should rule the + city. The victorious nobleman then assumed a sort of Kingship over all his + neighbours and governed the town until he in turn was killed or driven + away by still another ambitious nobleman. + </p> + <p> + Such a King, by the grace of his soldiers, was called a "Tyrant" and + during the seventh and sixth centuries before our era every Greek city was + for a time ruled by such Tyrants, many of whom, by the way, happened to be + exceedingly capa-ble men. But in the long run, this state of affairs + became unbearable. Then attempts were made to bring about reforms and out + of these reforms grew the first democratic government of which the world + has a record. + </p> + <p> + It was early in the seventh century that the people of Athens decided to + do some housecleaning and give the large number of freemen once more a + voice in the government as they were supposed to have had in the days of + their Achaean ancestors. They asked a man by the name of Draco to provide + them with a set of laws that would protect the poor against the + aggressions of the rich. Draco set to work. Unfortunately he was a + professional lawyer and very much out of touch with ordinary life. In his + eyes a crime was a crime and when he had finished his code, the people of + Athens discovered that these Draconian laws were so severe that they could + not possibly be put into effect. There would not have been rope enough to + hang all the criminals under their new system of jurisprudence which made + the stealing of an apple a capital offence. + </p> + <p> + The Athenians looked about for a more humane reformer. At last they found + some one who could do that sort of thing better than anybody else. His + name was Solon. He belonged to a noble family and he had travelled all + over the world and had studied the forms of government of many other + countries. After a careful study of the subject, Solon gave Athens a set + of laws which bore testimony to that wonderful principle of moderation + which was part of the Greek character. He tried to improve the condition + of the peasant without however destroying the prosperity of the nobles who + were (or rather who could be) of such great service to the state as + soldiers. To protect the poorer classes against abuse on the part of the + judges (who were always elected from the class of the nobles because they + received no salary) Solon made a provision whereby a citizen with a + grievance had the right to state his case before a jury of thirty of his + fellow Athenians. + </p> + <p> + Most important of all, Solon forced the average freeman to take a direct + and personal interest in the affairs of the city. No longer could he stay + at home and say "oh, I am too busy today" or "it is raining and I had + better stay indoors." He was expected to do his share; to be at the + meeting of the town council; and carry part of the responsibility for the + safety and the prosperity of the state. + </p> + <p> + This government by the "demos," the people, was often far from successful. + There was too much idle talk. There were too many hateful and spiteful + scenes between rivals for official honor. But it taught the Greek people + to be independent and to rely upon themselves for their salvation and that + was a very good thing. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + GREEK LIFE + </h2> + <h3> + HOW THE GREEKS LIVED + </h3> + <p> + BUT how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time to look after + their families and their business if they were forever running to the + market-place to discuss affairs of state? In this chapter I shall tell + you. + </p> + <p> + In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised only one + class of citizens—the freemen. Every Greek city was composed of a + small number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a + sprinkling of foreigners. + </p> + <p> + At rare intervals (usually during a war, when men were needed for the + army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to confer the rights of + citizenship upon the "barbarians" as they called the foreigners. But this + was an exception. Citizenship was a matter of birth. You were an Athenian + because your father and your grandfather had been Athenians before you. + But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if you were born + of non-Athenian parents, you remained a "foreigner" until the end of time. + </p> + <p> + The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a king or a + tyrant, was run by and for the freemen, and this would not have been + possible without a large army of slaves who outnumbered the free citizens + at the rate of six or five to one and who performed those tasks to which + we modern people must devote most of our time and energy if we wish to + provide for our families and pay the rent of our apartments. The slaves + did all the cooking and baking and candlestick making of the entire city. + They were the tailors and the carpenters and the jewelers and the + school-teachers and the bookkeepers and they tended the store and looked + after the factory while the master went to the public meeting to discuss + questions of war and peace or visited the theatre to see the latest play + of AEschylus or hear a discussion of the revolutionary ideas of Euripides, + who had dared to express certain doubts upon the omnipotence of the great + god Zeus. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, ancient Athens resembled a modern club. All the freeborn citizens + were hereditary members and all the slaves were hereditary servants, and + waited upon the needs of their masters, and it was very pleasant to be a + member of the organisation. + </p> + <p> + But when we talk about slaves, we do not mean the sort of people about + whom you have read in the pages of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It is true that + the position of those slaves who tilled the fields was a very unpleasant + one, but the average freeman who had come down in the world and who had + been obliged to hire himself out as a farm hand led just as miserable a + life. In the cities, furthermore, many of the slaves were more prosperous + than the poorer classes of the freemen. For the Greeks, who loved + moderation in all things, did not like to treat their slaves after the + fashion which afterward was so common in Rome, where a slave had as few + rights as an engine in a modern factory and could be thrown to the wild + animals upon the smallest pretext. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, without which no + city could possibly become the home of a truly civilised people. + </p> + <p> + The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are performed by + the business men and the professional men. As for those household duties + which take up so much of the time of your mother and which worry your + father when he comes home from his office, the Greeks, who understood the + value of leisure, had reduced such duties to the smallest possible minimum + by living amidst surroundings of extreme simplicity. + </p> + <p> + To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich nobles spent + their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked all the comforts which a + modern workman expects as his natural right. A Greek home consisted of + four walls and a roof. There was a door which led into the street but + there were no windows. The kitchen, the living rooms and the sleeping + quarters were built around an open courtyard in which there was a small + fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it look bright. Within this + courtyard the family lived when it did not rain or when it was not too + cold. In one corner of the yard the cook (who was a slave) prepared the + meal and in another corner, the teacher (who was also a slave) taught the + children the alpha beta gamma and the tables of multiplication and in + still another corner the lady of the house, who rarely left her domain + (since it was not considered good form for a married woman to be seen on + the street too often) was repairing her husband's coat with her + seamstresses (who were slaves,) and in the little office, right off the + door, the master was inspecting the accounts which the overseer of his + farm (who was a slave) had just brought to him. + </p> + <p> + When dinner was ready the family came together but the meal was a very + simple one and did not take much time. The Greeks seem to have regarded + eating as an unavoidable evil and not a pastime, which kills many dreary + hours and eventually kills many dreary people. They lived on bread and on + wine, with a little meat and some green vegetables. They drank water only + when nothing else was available because they did not think it very + healthy. They loved to call on each other for dinner, but our idea of a + festive meal, where everybody is supposed to eat much more than is good + for him, would have disgusted them. They came together at the table for + the purpose of a good talk and a good glass of wine and water, but as they + were moderate people they despised those who drank too much. + </p> + <p> + The same simplicity which prevailed in the dining room also dominated + their choice of clothes. They liked to be clean and well groomed, to have + their hair and beards neatly cut, to feel their bodies strong with the + exercise and the swimming of the gymnasium, but they never followed the + Asiatic fashion which prescribed loud colours and strange patterns. They + wore a long white coat and they managed to look as smart as a modern + Italian officer in his long blue cape. + </p> + <p> + They loved to see their wives wear ornaments but they thought it very + vulgar to display their wealth (or their wives) in public and whenever the + women left their home they were as inconspicuous as possible. + </p> + <p> + In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation but + also of simplicity. "Things," chairs and tables and books and houses and + carriages, are apt to take up a great deal of their owner's time. In the + end they invariably make him their slave and his hours are spent looking + after their wants, keeping them polished and brushed and painted. The + Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be "free," both in mind and in + body. That they might maintain their liberty, and be truly free in spirit, + they reduced their daily needs to the lowest possible point. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE GREEK THEATRE + </h2> + <h3> + THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT + </h3> + <p> + AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun to collect the + poems, which had been written in honor of their brave ancestors who had + driven the Pelasgians out of Hellas and had destroyed the power of Troy. + These poems were recited in public and everybody came to listen to them. + But the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost a + necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these recited heroic + tales. It had such a curious origin that I must tell you something about + it in a separate chapter + </p> + <p> + The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every year they held solemn + processions in honor of Dionysos the God of the wine. As everybody in + Greece drank wine (the Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose of + swimming and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a God of + the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land. + </p> + <p> + And because the Wine-God was supposed to live in the vineyards, amidst a + merry mob of Satyrs (strange creatures who were half man and half goat), + the crowd that joined the procession used to wear goat-skins and to + hee-haw like real billy-goats. The Greek word for goat is "tragos" and the + Greek word for singer is "oidos." The singer who meh-mehed like a goat + therefore was called a "tragos-oidos" or goat singer, and it is this + strange name which developed into the modern word "Tragedy," which means + in the theatrical sense a piece with an unhappy ending, just as Comedy + (which really means the singing of something "comos" or gay) is the name + given to a play which ends happily. + </p> + <p> + But how, you will ask, did this noisy chorus of masqueraders, stamping + around like wild goats, ever develop into the noble tragedies which have + filled the theatres of the world for almost two thousand years? + </p> + <p> + The connecting link between the goat-singer and Hamlet is really very + simple as I shall show you in a moment. + </p> + <p> + The singing chorus was very amusing in the beginning and attracted large + crowds of spectators who stood along the side of the road and laughed. But + soon this business of tree-hawing grew tiresome and the Greeks thought + dullness an evil only comparable to ugliness or sickness. They asked for + something more entertaining. Then an inventive young poet from the village + of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved a tremendous success. + He made one of the members of the goat-chorus step forward and engage in + conversation with the leader of the musicians who marched at the head of + the parade playing upon their pipes of Pan. This individual was allowed to + step out of line. He waved his arms and gesticulated while he spoke (that + is to say he "acted" while the others merely stood by and sang) and he + asked a lot of questions, which the bandmaster answered according to the + roll of papyrus upon which the poet had written down these answers before + the show began. + </p> + <p> + This rough and ready conversation—the dialogue—which told the + story of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with + the crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an "acted scene" and + very soon the "acting" was considered more important than the procession + and the meh-mehing. + </p> + <p> + AEschylus, the most successful of all "tragedians" who wrote no less than + eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a bold step + forward when he introduced two "actors" instead of one. A generation later + Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When Euripides began to + write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the fifth century, B.C., he + was allowed as many actors as he liked and when Aristophanes wrote those + famous comedies in which he poked fun at everybody and everything, + including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the chorus had been reduced to the + role of mere bystanders who were lined up behind the principal performers + and who sang "this is a terrible world" while the hero in the foreground + committed a crime against the will of the Gods. + </p> + <p> + This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a proper setting, and + soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut out of the rock of a nearby + hill. The spectators sat upon wooden benches and faced a wide circle (our + present orchestra where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for a + seat). Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the + chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where they made up + with large clay masks which hid their faces and which showed the + spectators whether the actors were supposed to be happy and smiling or + unhappy and weeping. The Greek word for tent is "skene" and that is the + reason why we talk of the "scenery" of the stage. + </p> + <p> + When once the tragedy had become part of Greek life, the people took it + very seriously and never went to the theatre to give their minds a + vacation. A new play became as important an event as an election and a + successful playwright was received with greater honors than those bestowed + upon a general who had just returned from a famous victory. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PERSIAN WARS + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE AGAINST ASIATIC INVASION AND DROVE THE + PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN SEA + </p> + <p> + THE Greeks had learned the art of trading from the AEgeans who had been + the pupils of the Phoenicians. They had founded colonies after the + Phoenician pattern. They had even improved upon the Phoenician methods by + a more general use of money in dealing with foreign customers. In the + sixth century before our era they had established themselves firmly along + the coast of Asia Minor and they were taking away trade from the + Phoenicians at a fast rate. This the Phoenicians of course did not like + but they were not strong enough to risk a war with their Greek + competitors. They sat and waited nor did they wait in vain. + </p> + <p> + In a former chapter, I have told you how a humble tribe of Persian + shepherds had suddenly gone upon the warpath and had conquered the greater + part of western Asia. The Persians were too civilised to plunder their new + subjects. They contented themselves with a yearly tribute. When they + reached the coast of Asia Minor they insisted that the Greek colonies of + Lydia recognize the Persian Kings as their over-Lords and pay them a + stipulated tax. The Greek colonies objected. The Persians insisted. Then + the Greek colonies appealed to the home-country and the stage was set for + a quarrel. + </p> + <p> + For if the truth be told, the Persian Kings regarded the Greek city-states + as very dangerous political institutions and bad examples for all other + people who were supposed to be the patient slaves of the mighty Persian + Kings. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the Greeks enjoyed a certain degree of safety because their + country lay hidden beyond the deep waters of the AEgean. But here their + old enemies, the Phoenicians, stepped forward with offers of help and + advice to the Persians. If the Persian King would provide the soldiers, + the Phoenicians would guarantee to deliver the necessary ships to carry + them to Europe. It was the year 492 before the birth of Christ, and Asia + made ready to destroy the rising power of Europe. + </p> + <p> + As a final warning the King of Persia sent messengers to the Greeks asking + for "earth and water" as a token of their submission. The Greeks promptly + threw the messengers into the nearest well where they would find both + "earth and water" in large abundance and thereafter of course peace was + impossible. + </p> + <p> + But the Gods of High Olympus watched over their children and when the + Phoenician fleet carrying the Persian troops was near Mount Athos, the + Storm-God blew his cheeks until he almost burst the veins of his brow, and + the fleet was destroyed by a terrible hurricane and the Persians were all + drowned. + </p> + <p> + Two years later they returned. This time they sailed straight across the + AEgean Sea and landed near the village of Marathon. As soon as the + Athenians heard this they sent their army of ten thousand men to guard the + hills that surrounded the Marathonian plain. At the same time they + despatched a fast runner to Sparta to ask for help. But Sparta was envious + of the fame of Athens and refused to come to her assistance. The other + Greek cities followed her example with the exception of tiny Plataea which + sent a thousand men. On the twelfth of September of the year 490, + Miltiades, the Athenian commander, threw this little army against the + hordes of the Persians. The Greeks broke through the Persian barrage of + arrows and their spears caused terrible havoc among the disorganised + Asiatic troops who had never been called upon to resist such an enemy. + </p> + <p> + That night the people of Athens watched the sky grow red with the flames + of burning ships. Anxiously they waited for news. At last a little cloud + of dust appeared upon the road that led to the North. It was Pheidippides, + the runner. He stumbled and gasped for his end was near. Only a few days + before had he returned from his errand to Sparta. He had hastened to join + Miltiades. That morning he had taken part in the attack and later he had + volunteered to carry the news of victory to his beloved city. The people + saw him fall and they rushed forward to support him. "We have won," he + whispered and then he died, a glorious death which made him envied of all + men. + </p> + <p> + As for the Persians, they tried, after this defeat, to land near Athens + but they found the coast guarded and disappeared, and once more the land + of Hellas was at peace. + </p> + <p> + Eight years they waited and during this time the Greeks were not idle. + They knew that a final attack was to be expected but they did not agree + upon the best way to avert the danger. Some people wanted to increase the + army. Others said that a strong fleet was necessary for success. The two + parties led by Aristides (for the army) and Themistocles (the leader of + the bigger-navy men) fought each other bitterly and nothing was done until + Aristides was exiled. Then Themistocles had his chance and he built all + the ships he could and turned the Piraeus into a strong naval base. + </p> + <p> + In the year 481 B.C. a tremendous Persian army appeared in Thessaly, a + province of northern Greece. In this hour of danger, Sparta, the great + military city of Greece, was elected commander-in-chief. But the Spartans + cared little what happened to northern Greece provided their own country + was not invaded, They neglected to fortify the passes that led into + Greece. + </p> + <p> + A small detachment of Spartans under Leonidas had been told to guard the + narrow road between the high mountains and the sea which connected + Thessaly with the southern provinces. Leonidas obeyed his orders. He + fought and held the pass with unequalled bravery. But a traitor by the + name of Ephialtes who knew the little byways of Malis guided a regiment of + Persians through the hills and made it possible for them to attack + Leonidas in the rear. Near the Warm Wells—the Thermopylae—a + terrible battle was fought. + </p> + <p> + When night came Leonidas and his faithful soldiers lay dead under the + corpses of their enemies. + </p> + <p> + But the pass had been lost and the greater part of Greece fell into the + hands of the Persians. They marched upon Athens, threw the garrison from + the rocks of the Acropolis and burned the city. The people fled to the + Island of Salamis. All seemed lost. But on the 20th of September of the + year 480 Themistocles forced the Persian fleet to give battle within the + narrow straits which separated the Island of Salamis from the mainland and + within a few hours he destroyed three quarters of the Persian ships. + </p> + <p> + In this way the victory of Thermopylae came to naught. Xerxes was forced + to retire. The next year, so he decreed, would bring a final decision. He + took his troops to Thessaly and there he waited for spring. + </p> + <p> + But this time the Spartans understood the seriousness of the hour. They + left the safe shelter of the wall which they had built across the isthmus + of Corinth and under the leadership of Pausanias they marched against + Mardonius the Persian general. The united Greeks (some one hundred + thousand men from a dozen different cities) attacked the three hundred + thou-sand men of the enemy near Plataea. Once more the heavy Greek + infantry broke through the Persian barrage of arrows. The Persians were + defeated, as they had been at Marathon, and this time they left for good. + By a strange coincidence, the same day that the Greek armies won their + victory near Plataea, the Athenian ships destroyed the enemy's fleet near + Cape Mycale in Asia Minor. + </p> + <p> + Thus did the first encounter between Asia and Europe end. Athens had + covered herself with glory and Sparta had fought bravely and well. If + these two cities had been able to come to an agreement, if they had been + willing to forget their little jealousies, they might have become the + leaders of a strong and united Hellas. + </p> + <p> + But alas, they allowed the hour of victory and enthusiasm to slip by, and + the same opportunity never returned. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ATHENS vs. SPARTA + </h2> + <p> + HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR FOR THE LEADERSHIP + OF GREECE + </p> + <p> + ATHENS and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people spoke a common + language. In every other respect they were different. Athens rose high + from the plain. It was a city exposed to the fresh breezes from the sea, + willing to look at the world with the eyes of a happy child. Sparta, on + the other hand, was built at the bottom of a deep valley, and used the + surrounding mountains as a barrier against foreign thought. Athens was a + city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp where people were soldiers + for the sake of being soldiers. The people of Athens loved to sit in the + sun and discuss poetry or listen to the wise words of a philosopher. The + Spartans, on the other hand, never wrote a single line that was considered + literature, but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight, and they + sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military preparedness. + </p> + <p> + No wonder that these sombre Spartans viewed the success of Athens with + malicious hate. The energy which the defence of the common home had + developed in Athens was now used for purposes of a more peaceful nature. + The Acropolis was rebuilt and was made into a marble shrine to the Goddess + Athena. Pericles, the leader of the Athenian democracy, sent far and wide + to find famous sculptors and painters and scientists to make the city more + beautiful and the young Athenians more worthy of their home. At the same + time he kept a watchful eye on Sparta and built high walls which connected + Athens with the sea and made her the strongest fortress of that day. + </p> + <p> + An insignificant quarrel between two little Greek cities led to the final + conflict. For thirty years the war between Athens and Sparta continued. It + ended in a terrible disaster for Athens. + </p> + <p> + During the third year of the war the plague had entered the city. More + than half of the people and Pericles, the great leader, had been killed. + The plague was followed by a period of bad and untrustworthy leadership. A + brilliant young fellow by the name of Alcibiades had gained the favor of + the popular assembly. He suggested a raid upon the Spartan colony of + Syracuse in Sicily. An expedition was equipped and everything was ready. + But Alcibiades got mixed up in a street brawl and was forced to flee. The + general who succeeded him was a bungler. First he lost his ships and then + he lost his army, and the few surviving Athenians were thrown into the + stone-quarries of Syracuse, where they died from hunger and thirst. + </p> + <p> + The expedition had killed all the young men of Athens. The city was + doomed. After a long siege the town surrendered in April of the year 404. + The high walls were demolished. The navy was taken away by the Spartans. + Athens ceased to exist as the center of the great colonial empire which it + had conquered during the days of its prosperity. But that wonderful desire + to learn and to know and to investigate which had distinguished her free + citizens during the days of greatness and prosperity did not perish with + the walls and the ships. It continued to live. It became even more + brilliant. + </p> + <p> + Athens no longer shaped the destinies of the land of Greece. But now, as + the home of the first great university the city began to influence the + minds of intelligent people far beyond the narrow frontiers of Hellas. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ALEXANDER THE GREAT + </h2> + <p> + ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES A GREEK WORLD-EMPIRE, AND WHAT BECAME + OF THIS HIGH AMBITION + </p> + <p> + WHEN the Achaeans had left their homes along the banks of the Danube to + look for pastures new, they had spent some time among the mountains of + Macedonia. Ever since, the Greeks had maintained certain more or less + formal relations with the people of this northern country. The Macedonians + from their side had kept themselves well informed about conditions in + Greece. + </p> + <p> + Now it happened, just when Sparta and Athens had finished their disastrous + war for the leadership of Hellas, that Macedonia was ruled by an + extraordinarily clever man by the name of Philip. He admired the Greek + spirit in letters and art but he despised the Greek lack of self-control + in political affairs. It irritated him to see a perfectly good people + waste its men and money upon fruitless quarrels. So he settled the + difficulty by making himself the master of all Greece and then he asked + his new subjects to join him on a voyage which he meant to pay to Persia + in return for the visit which Xerxes had paid the Greeks one hundred and + fifty years before. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately Philip was murdered before he could start upon this + well-prepared expedition. The task of avenging the destruction of Athens + was left to Philip's son Alexander, the beloved pupil of Aristotle, wisest + of all Greek teachers. + </p> + <p> + Alexander bade farewell to Europe in the spring of the year 334 B.C. Seven + years later he reached India. In the meantime he had destroyed Phoenicia, + the old rival of the Greek merchants. He had conquered Egypt and had been + worshipped by the people of the Nile valley as the son and heir of the + Pharaohs. He had defeated the last Persian king—he had overthrown + the Persian empire he had given orders to rebuild Babylon—he had led + his troops into the heart of the Himalayan mountains and had made the + entire world a Macedonian province and dependency. Then he stopped and + announced even more ambitious plans. + </p> + <p> + The newly formed Empire must be brought under the influence of the Greek + mind. The people must be taught the Greek language—they must live in + cities built after a Greek model. The Alexandrian soldier now turned + school-master. The military camps of yesterday became the peaceful centres + of the newly imported Greek civilisation. Higher and higher did the flood + of Greek manners and Greek customs rise, when suddenly Alexander was + stricken with a fever and died in the old palace of King Hammurabi of + Babylon in the year 323. + </p> + <p> + Then the waters receded. But they left behind the fertile clay of a higher + civilisation and Alexander, with all his childish ambitions and his silly + vanities, had performed a most valuable service. His Empire did not long + survive him. A number of ambitious generals divided the territory among + themselves. But they too remained faithful to the dream of a great world + brotherhood of Greek and Asiatic ideas and knowledge. + </p> + <p> + They maintained their independence until the Romans added western Asia and + Egypt to their other domains. The strange inheritance of this Hellenistic + civilisation (part Greek, part Persian, part Egyptian and Babylonian) fell + to the Roman conquerors. During the following centuries, it got such a + firm hold upon the Roman world, that we feel its influence in our own + lives this very day. + </p> + <p> + A SUMMARY + </p> + <p> + A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 to 20 + </p> + <p> + THUS far, from the top of our high tower we have been looking eastward. + But from this time on, the history of Egypt and Mesopotamia is going to + grow less interesting and I must take you to study the western landscape. + </p> + <p> + Before we do this, let us stop a moment and make clear to ourselves what + we have seen. + </p> + <p> + First of all I showed you prehistoric man—a creature very simple in + his habits and very unattractive in his manners. I told you how he was the + most defenceless of the many animals that roamed through the early + wilderness of the five continents, but being possessed of a larger and + better brain, he managed to hold his own. + </p> + <p> + Then came the glaciers and the many centuries of cold weather, and life on + this planet became so difficult that man was obliged to think three times + as hard as ever before if he wished to survive. Since, however, that "wish + to survive" was (and is) the mainspring which keeps every living being + going full tilt to the last gasp of its breath, the brain of glacial man + was set to work in all earnestness. Not only did these hardy people manage + to exist through the long cold spells which killed many ferocious animals, + but when the earth became warm and comfortable once more, prehistoric man + had learned a number of things which gave him such great advantages over + his less intelligent neighbors that the danger of extinction (a very + serious one during the first half million years of man's residence upon + this planet) became a very remote one. + </p> + <p> + I told you how these earliest ancestors of ours were slowly plodding along + when suddenly (and for reasons that are not well understood) the people + who lived in the valley of the Nile rushed ahead and almost over night, + created the first centre of civilisation. + </p> + <p> + Then I showed you Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," which was + the second great school of the human race. And I made you a map of the + little island bridges of the AEgean Sea, which carried the knowledge and + the science of the old east to the young west, where lived the Greeks. + </p> + <p> + Next I told you of an Indo-European tribe, called the Hellenes, who + thousands of years before had left the heart of Asia and who had in the + eleventh century before our era pushed their way into the rocky peninsula + of Greece and who, since then, have been known to us as the Greeks. And I + told you the story of the little Greek cities that were really states, + where the civilisation of old Egypt and Asia was transfigured (that is a + big word, but you can "figure out" what it means) into something quite + new, something that was much nobler and finer than anything that had gone + before. + </p> + <p> + When you look at the map you will see how by this time civilisation has + described a semi-circle. It begins in Egypt, and by way of Mesopotamia and + the AEgean Islands it moves westward until it reaches the European + continent. The first four thousand years, Egyptians and Babylonians and + Phoenicians and a large number of Semitic tribes (please remember that the + Jews were but one of a large number of Semitic peoples) have carried the + torch that was to illuminate the world. They now hand it over to the + Indo-European Greeks, who become the teachers of another Indo-European + tribe, called the Romans. But meanwhile the Semites have pushed westward + along the northern coast of Africa and have made themselves the rulers of + the western half of the Mediterranean just when the eastern half has + become a Greek (or Indo-European) possession. + </p> + <p> + This, as you shall see in a moment, leads to a terrible conflict between + the two rival races, and out of their struggle arises the victorious Roman + Empire, which is to take this Egyptian-Mesopotamian-Greek civilisation to + the furthermost corners of the European continent, where it serves as the + foundation upon which our modern society is based. + </p> + <p> + I know all this sounds very complicated, but if you get hold of these few + principles, the rest of our history will become a great deal simpler. The + maps will make clear what the words fail to tell. And after this short + intermission, we go back to our story and give you an account of the + famous war between Carthage and Rome. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ROME AND CARTHAGE + </h2> + <p> + THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF AFRICA AND THE + INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE WEST COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH OTHER + FOR THE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE WAS DESTROYED + </p> + <p> + THE little Phoenician trading post of Kart-hadshat stood on a low hill + which overlooked the African Sea, a stretch of water ninety miles wide + which separates Africa from Europe. It was an ideal spot for a commercial + centre. Almost too ideal. It grew too fast and became too rich. When in + the sixth century before our era, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed + Tyre, Carthage broke off all further relations with the Mother Country and + became an independent state—the great western advance-post of the + Semitic races. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the city had inherited many of the traits which for a + thousand years had been characteristic of the Phoenicians. It was a vast + business-house, protected by a strong navy, indifferent to most of the + finer aspects of life. The city and the surrounding country and the + distant colonies were all ruled by a small but exceedingly powerful group + of rich men, The Greek word for rich is "ploutos" and the Greeks called + such a government by "rich men" a "Plutocracy." Carthage was a plutocracy + and the real power of the state lay in the hands of a dozen big + ship-owners and mine-owners and merchants who met in the back room of an + office and regarded their common Fatherland as a business enterprise which + ought to yield them a decent profit. They were however wide awake and full + of energy and worked very hard. + </p> + <p> + As the years went by the influence of Carthage upon her neighbours + increased until the greater part of the African coast, Spain and certain + regions of France were Carthaginian possessions, and paid tribute, taxes + and dividends to the mighty city on the African Sea. + </p> + <p> + Of course, such a "plutocracy" was forever at the mercy of the crowd. As + long as there was plenty of work and wages were high, the majority of the + citizens were quite contented, allowed their "betters" to rule them and + asked no embarrassing questions. But when no ships left the harbor, when + no ore was brought to the smelting-ovens, when dockworkers and stevedores + were thrown out of employment, then there were grumblings and there was a + demand that the popular assembly be called together as in the olden days + when Carthage had been a self-governing republic. + </p> + <p> + To prevent such an occurrence the plutocracy was obliged to keep the + business of the town going at full speed. They had managed to do this very + successfully for almost five hun-dred years when they were greatly + disturbed by certain rumors which reached them from the western coast of + Italy. It was said that a little village on the banks of the Tiber had + suddenly risen to great power and was making itself the acknowledged + leader of all the Latin tribes who inhabited central Italy. It was also + said that this village, which by the way was called Rome, intended to + build ships and go after the commerce of Sicily and the southern coast of + France. + </p> + <p> + Carthage could not possibly tolerate such competition. The young rival + must be destroyed lest the Carthaginian rulers lose their prestige as the + absolute rulers of the western Mediterranean. The rumors were duly + investigated and in a general way these were the facts that came to light. + </p> + <p> + The west coast of Italy had long been neglected by civilisation. Whereas + in Greece all the good harbours faced eastward and enjoyed a full view of + the busy islands of the AEgean, the west coast of Italy contemplated + nothing more exciting than the desolate waves of the Mediterranean. The + country was poor. It was therefore rarely visited by foreign merchants and + the natives were allowed to live in undisturbed possession of their hills + and their marshy plains. + </p> + <p> + The first serious invasion of this land came from the north. At an unknown + date certain Indo-European tribes had managed to find their way through + the passes of the Alps and had pushed southward until they had filled the + heel and the toe of the famous Italian boot with their villages and their + flocks. Of these early conquerors we know nothing. No Homer sang their + glory. Their own accounts of the foundation of Rome (written eight hundred + years later when the little city had become the centre of an Empire) are + fairy stories and do not belong in a history. Romulus and Remus jumping + across each other's walls (I always forget who jumped across whose wall) + make entertaining reading, but the foundation of the City of Rome was a + much more prosaic affair. Rome began as a thousand American cities have + done, by being a convenient place for barter and horse-trading. It lay in + the heart of the plains of central Italy The Tiber provided direct access + to the sea. The land-road from north to south found here a convenient ford + which could be used all the year around. And seven little hills along the + banks of the river offered the inhabitants a safe shelter against their + enemies who lived in the mountains and those who lived beyond the horizon + of the nearby sea. + </p> + <p> + The mountaineers were called the Sabines. They were a rough crowd with an + unholy desire for easy plunder. But they were very backward. They used + stone axes and wooden shields and were no match for the Romans with their + steel swords. The sea-people on the other hand were dangerous foes. They + were called the Etruscans and they were (and still are) one of the great + mysteries of history. Nobody knew (or knows) whence they came; who they + were; what had driven them away from their original homes. We have found + the remains of their cities and their cemeteries and their waterworks all + along the Italian coast. We are familiar with their inscriptions. But as + no one has ever been able to decipher the Etruscan alphabet, these written + messages are, so far, merely annoying and not at all useful. + </p> + <p> + Our best guess is that the Etruscans came originally from Asia Minor and + that a great war or a pestilence in that country had forced them to go + away and seek a new home elsewhere. Whatever the reason for their coming, + the Etruscans played a great role in history. They carried the pollen of + the ancient civilisation from the east to the west and they taught the + Romans who, as we know, came from the north, the first principles of + architecture and street-building and fighting and art and cookery and + medicine and astronomy. + </p> + <p> + But just as the Greeks had not loved their AEgean teachers, in this same + way did the Romans hate their Etruscan masters. They got rid of them as + soon as they could and the opportunity offered itself when Greek merchants + discovered the commercial possibilities of Italy and when the first Greek + vessels reached Rome. The Greeks came to trade, but they stayed to + instruct. They found the tribes who inhabited the Roman country-side (and + who were called the Latins) quite willing to learn such things as might be + of practical use. At once they understood the great benefit that could be + derived from a written alphabet and they copied that of the Greeks. They + also understood the commercial advantages of a well-regulated system of + coins and measures and weights. Eventually the Romans swallowed Greek + civilisation hook, line and sinker. + </p> + <p> + They even welcomed the Gods of the Greeks to their country. Zeus was taken + to Rome where he became known as Jupiter and the other divinities followed + him. The Roman Gods however never were quite like their cheerful cousins + who had accompanied the Greeks on their road through life and through + history. The Roman Gods were State Functionaries. Each one managed his own + department with great prudence and a deep sense of justice, but in turn he + was exact in demanding the obedience of his worshippers. This obedience + the Romans rendered with scrupulous care. But they never established the + cordial personal relations and that charming friendship which had existed + between the old Hellenes and the mighty residents of the high Olympian + peak. + </p> + <p> + The Romans did not imitate the Greek form of government, but being of the + same Indo-European stock as the people of Hellas, the early history of + Rome resembles that of Athens and the other Greek cities. They did not + find it difficult to get rid of their kings, the descendants of the + ancient tribal chieftains. But once the kings had been driven from the + city, the Romans were forced to bridle the power of the nobles, and it + took many centuries before they managed to establish a system which gave + every free citizen of Rome a chance to take a personal interest in the + affairs of his town. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter the Romans enjoyed one great advantage over the Greeks. They + managed the affairs of their country without making too many speeches. + They were less imaginative than the Greeks and they preferred an ounce of + action to a pound of words. They understood the tendency of the multitude + (the "plebe," as the assemblage of free citizens was called) only too well + to waste valuable time upon mere talk. They therefore placed the actual + business of running the city into the hands of two "consuls" who were + assisted by a council of Elders, called the Senate (because the word + "senex" means an old man). As a matter of custom and practical advantage + the senators were elected from the nobility. But their power had been + strictly defined. + </p> + <p> + Rome at one time had passed through the same sort of struggle between the + poor and the rich which had forced Athens to adopt the laws of Draco and + Solon. In Rome this conflict had occurred in the fifth century B. C. As a + result the freemen had obtained a written code of laws which protected + them against the despotism of the aristocratic judges by the institution + of the "Tribune." These Tribunes were city-magistrates, elected by the + freemen. They had the right to protect any citizen against those actions + of the government officials which were thought to be unjust. A consul had + the right to condemn a man to death, but if the case had not been + absolutely proved the Tribune could interfere and save the poor fellow's + life. + </p> + <p> + But when I use the word Rome, I seem to refer to a little city of a few + thousand inhabitants. And the real strength of Rome lay in the country + districts outside her walls. And it was in the government of these + outlying provinces that Rome at an early age showed her wonderful gift as + a colonising power. + </p> + <p> + In very early times Rome had been the only strongly fortified city in + central Italy, but it had always offered a hospitable refuge to other + Latin tribes who happened to be in danger of attack. The Latin neighbours + had recognised the advantages of a close union with such a powerful friend + and they had tried to find a basis for some sort of defensive and + offensive alliance. Other nations, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, + even Greeks, would have insisted upon a treaty of submission on the part + of the "barbarians," The Romans did nothing of the sort. They gave the + "outsider" a chance to become partners in a common "res publica"—or + common-wealth. + </p> + <p> + "You want to join us," they said. "Very well, go ahead and join. We shall + treat you as if you were full-fledged citizens of Rome. In return for this + privilege we expect you to fight for our city, the mother of us all, + whenever it shall be necessary." + </p> + <p> + The "outsider" appreciated this generosity and he showed his gratitude by + his unswerving loyalty. + </p> + <p> + Whenever a Greek city had been attacked, the foreign residents had moved + out as quickly as they could. Why defend something which meant nothing to + them but a temporary boarding house in which they were tolerated as long + as they paid their bills? But when the enemy was before the gates of Rome, + all the Latins rushed to her defence. It was their Mother who was in + danger. It was their true "home" even if they lived a hundred miles away + and had never seen the walls of the sacred Hills. + </p> + <p> + No defeat and no disaster could change this sentiment. In the beginning of + the fourth century B.C. the wild Gauls forced their way into Italy. They + had defeated the Roman army near the River Allia and had marched upon the + city. They had taken Rome and then they expected that the people would + come and sue for peace. They waited, but nothing happened. After a short + time the Gauls found themselves surrounded by a hostile population which + made it impossible for them to obtain supplies. After seven months, hunger + forced them to withdraw. The policy of Rome to treat the "foreigner" on + equal terms had proved a great success and Rome stood stronger than ever + before. + </p> + <p> + This short account of the early history of Rome shows you the enormous + difference between the Roman ideal of a healthy state, and that of the + ancient world which was embodied in the town of Carthage. The Romans + counted upon the cheerful and hearty co-operation between a number of + "equal citizens." The Carthaginians, following the example of Egypt and + western Asia, insisted upon the unreasoning (and therefore unwilling) + obedience of "Subjects" and when these failed they hired professional + soldiers to do their fighting for them. + </p> + <p> + You will now understand why Carthage was bound to fear such a clever and + powerful enemy and why the plutocracy of Carthage was only too willing to + pick a quarrel that they might destroy the dangerous rival before it was + too late. + </p> + <p> + But the Carthaginians, being good business men, knew that it never pays to + rush matters. They proposed to the Romans that their respective cities + draw two circles on the map and that each town claim one of these circles + as her own "sphere of influence" and promise to keep out of the other + fellow's circle. The agreement was promptly made and was broken just as + promptly when both sides thought it wise to send their armies to Sicily + where a rich soil and a bad government invited foreign interference. + </p> + <p> + The war which followed (the so-called first Punic War) lasted twenty-four + years. It was fought out on the high seas and in the beginning it seemed + that the experienced Carthaginian navy would defeat the newly created + Roman fleet. Following their ancient tactics, the Carthaginian ships would + either ram the enemy vessels or by a bold attack from the side they would + break their oars and would then kill the sailors of the helpless vessel + with their arrows and with fire balls. But Roman engineers invented a new + craft which carried a boarding bridge across which the Roman infantrymen + stormed the hostile ship. Then there was a sudden end to Carthaginian + victories. At the battle of Mylae their fleet was badly defeated. Carthage + was obliged to sue for peace, and Sicily became part of the Roman domains. + </p> + <p> + Twenty-three years later new trouble arose. Rome (in quest of copper) had + taken the island of Sardinia. Carthage (in quest of silver) thereupon + occupied all of southern Spain. This made Carthage a direct neighbour of + the Romans. The latter did not like this at all and they ordered their + troops to cross the Pyrenees and watch the Carthaginian army of + occupation. + </p> + <p> + The stage was set for the second outbreak between the two rivals. Once + more a Greek colony was the pretext for a war. The Carthaginians were + besieging Saguntum on the east coast of Spain. The Saguntians appealed to + Rome and Rome, as usual, was willing to help. The Senate promised the help + of the Latin armies, but the preparation for this expedition took some + time, and meanwhile Saguntum had been taken and had been destroyed. This + had been done in direct opposition to the will of Rome. The Senate decided + upon war. One Roman army was to cross the African sea and make a landing + on Carthaginian soil. A second division was to keep the Carthaginian + armies occupied in Spain to prevent them from rushing to the aid of the + home town. It was an excellent plan and everybody expected a great + victory. But the Gods had decided otherwise. + </p> + <p> + It was the fall of the year 218 before the birth of Christ and the Roman + army which was to attack the Carthaginians in Spain had left Italy. People + were eagerly waiting for news of an easy and complete victory when a + terrible rumour began to spread through the plain of the Po. Wild + mountaineers, their lips trembling with fear, told of hundreds of + thousands of brown men accompanied by strange beasts "each one as big as a + house," who had suddenly emerged from the clouds of snow which surrounded + the old Graian pass through which Hercules, thousands of years before, had + driven the oxen of Geryon on his way from Spain to Greece. Soon an endless + stream of bedraggled refugees appeared before the gates of Rome, with more + complete details. Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, with fifty thousand + soldiers, nine thousand horsemen and thirty-seven fighting elephants, had + crossed the Pyrenees. He had defeated the Roman army of Scipio on the + banks of the Rhone and he had guided his army safely across the mountain + passes of the Alps although it was October and the roads were thickly + covered with snow and ice. Then he had joined forces with the Gauls and + together they had defeated a second Roman army just before they crossed + the Trebia and laid siege to Placentia, the northern terminus of the road + which connected Rome with the province of the Alpine districts. + </p> + <p> + The Senate, surprised but calm and energetic as usual, hushed up the news + of these many defeats and sent two fresh armies to stop the invader. + Hannibal managed to surprise these troops on a narrow road along the + shores of the Trasimene Lake and there he killed all the Roman officers + and most of their men. This time there was a panic among the people of + Rome, but the Senate kept its nerve. A third army was organised and the + command was given to Quintus Fabius Maximus with full power to act "as was + necessary to save the state." + </p> + <p> + Fabius knew that he must be very careful lest all be lost. His raw and + untrained men, the last available soldiers, were no match for Hannibal's + veterans. He refused to accept battle but forever he followed Hannibal, + destroyed everything eatable, destroyed the roads, attacked small + detachments and generally weakened the morale of the Carthaginian troops + by a most distressing and annoying form of guerilla warfare. + </p> + <p> + Such methods however did not satisfy the fearsome crowds who had found + safety behind the walls of Rome. They wanted "action." Something must be + done and must be done quickly. A popular hero by the name of Varro, the + sort of man who went about the city telling everybody how much better he + could do things than slow old Fabius, the "Delayer," was made + commander-in-chief by popular acclamation. At the battle of Cannae (216) + he suffered the most terrible defeat of Roman history. More than seventy + thousand men were killed. Hannibal was master of all Italy. + </p> + <p> + He marched from one end of the peninsula to the other, proclaiming himself + the "deliverer from the yoke of Rome" and asking the different provinces + to join him in warfare upon the mother city. Then once more the wisdom of + Rome bore noble fruit. With the exceptions of Capua and Syracuse, all + Roman cities remained loyal. Hannibal, the deliverer, found himself + opposed by the people whose friend he pretended to be. He was far away + from home and did not like the situation. He sent messengers to Carthage + to ask for fresh supplies and new men. Alas, Carthage could not send him + either. + </p> + <p> + The Romans with their boarding-bridges, were the masters of the sea. + Hannibal must help himself as best he could. He continued to defeat the + Roman armies that were sent out against him, but his own numbers were + decreasing rapidly and the Italian peasants held aloof from this + self-appointed "deliverer." + </p> + <p> + After many years of uninterrupted victories, Hannibal found himself + besieged in the country which he had just conquered. For a moment, the + luck seemed to turn. Hasdrubal, his brother, had defeated the Roman armies + in Spain. He had crossed the Alps to come to Hannibal's assistance. He + sent messengers to the south to tell of his arrival and ask the other army + to meet him in the plain of the Tiber. Unfortunately the messengers fell + into the hands of the Romans and Hannibal waited in vain for further news + until his brother's head, neatly packed in a basket, came rolling into his + camp and told him of the fate of the last of the Carthaginian troops. + </p> + <p> + With Hasdrubal out of the way, young Publius Scipio easily reconquered + Spain and four years later the Romans were ready for a final attack upon + Carthage. Hannibal was called back. He crossed the African Sea and tried + to organise the defences of his home-city. In the year 202 at the battle + of Zama, the Carthaginians were defeated. Hannibal fled to Tyre. From + there he went to Asia Minor to stir up the Syrians and the Macedonians + against Rome. He accomplished very little but his activities among these + Asiatic powers gave the Romans an excuse to carry their warfare into the + territory of the east and annex the greater part of the AEgean world. + </p> + <p> + Driven from one city to another, a fugitive without a home, Hannibal at + last knew that the end of his ambitious dream had come. His beloved city + of Carthage had been ruined by the war. She had been forced to sign a + terrible peace. Her navy had been sunk. She had been forbidden to make war + without Roman permission. She had been condemned to pay the Romans + millions of dollars for endless years to come. Life offered no hope of a + better future. In the year 190 B.C. Hannibal took poison and killed + himself. + </p> + <p> + Forty years later, the Romans forced their last war upon Carthage. Three + long years the inhabitants of the old Phoenician colony held out against + the power of the new republic. Hunger forced them to surrender. The few + men and women who had survived the siege were sold as slaves. The city was + set on fire. For two whole weeks the store-houses and the pal-aces and the + great arsenal burned. Then a terrible curse was pronounced upon the + blackened ruins and the Roman legions returned to Italy to enjoy their + victory. + </p> + <p> + For the next thousand years, the Mediterranean remained a European sea. + But as soon as the Roman Empire had been destroyed, Asia made another + attempt to dominate this great inland sea, as you will learn when I tell + you about Mohammed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE RISE OF ROME + </h2> + <h3> + HOW ROME HAPPENED + </h3> + <p> + THE Roman Empire was an accident. No one planned it. It "happened." No + famous general or statesman or cut-throat ever got up and said "Friends, + Romans, Citizens, we must found an Empire. Follow me and together we shall + conquer all the land from the Gates of Hercules to Mount Taurus." + </p> + <p> + Rome produced famous generals and equally distinguished statesmen and + cut-throats, and Roman armies fought all over the world. But the Roman + empire-making was done without a preconceived plan. The average Roman was + a very matter-of-fact citizen. He disliked theories about government. When + someone began to recite "eastward the course of Roman Empire, etc., etc.," + he hastily left the forum. He just continued to take more and more land + because circumstances forced him to do so. He was not driven by ambition + or by greed. Both by nature and inclination he was a farmer and wanted to + stay at home. But when he was attacked he was obliged to defend himself + and when the enemy happened to cross the sea to ask for aid in a distant + country then the patient Roman marched many dreary miles to defeat this + dangerous foe and when this had been accomplished, he stayed behind to + adminster{sic} his newly conquered provinces lest they fall into the hands + of wandering Barbarians and become themselves a menace to Roman safety. It + sounds rather complicated and yet to the contemporaries it was so very + simple, as you shall see in a moment. + </p> + <p> + In the year 203 B.C. Scipio had crossed the African Sea and had carried + the war into Africa. Carthage had called Hannibal back. Badly supported by + his mercenaries, Hannibal had been defeated near Zama. The Romans had + asked for his surrender and Hannibal had fled to get aid from the kings of + Macedonia and Syria, as I told you in my last chapter. + </p> + <p> + The rulers of these two countries (remnants of the Empire of Alexander the + Great) just then were contemplating an expedition against Egypt. They + hoped to divide the rich Nile valley between themselves. The king of Egypt + had heard of this and he had asked Rome to come to his support. The stage + was set for a number of highly interesting plots and counter-plots. But + the Romans, with their lack of imagination, rang the curtain down before + the play had been fairly started. Their legions completely defeated the + heavy Greek phalanx which was still used by the Macedonians as their + battle formation. That happened in the year 197 B.C. at the battle in the + plains of Cynoscephalae, or "Dogs' Heads," in central Thessaly. + </p> + <p> + The Romans then marched southward to Attica and informed the Greeks that + they had come to "deliver the Hellenes from the Macedonian yoke." The + Greeks, having learned nothing in their years of semi-slavery, used their + new freedom in a most unfortunate way. All the little city-states once + more began to quarrel with each other as they had done in the good old + days. The Romans, who had little understanding and less love for these + silly bickerings of a race which they rather despised, showed great + forebearance. But tiring of these endless dissensions they lost patience, + invaded Greece, burned down Corinth (to "encourage the other Greeks") and + sent a Roman governor to Athens to rule this turbulent province. In this + way, Macedonia and Greece became buffer states which protected Rome's + eastern frontier. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile right across the Hellespont lay the Kingdom of Syria, and + Antiochus III, who ruled that vast land, had shown great eagerness when + his distinguished guest, General Hannibal, explained to him how easy it + would be to invade Italy and sack the city of Rome. + </p> + <p> + Lucius Scipio, a brother of Scipio the African fighter who had defeated + Hannibal and his Carthaginians at Zama, was sent to Asia Minor. He + destroyed the armies of the Syrian king near Magnesia (in the year 190 + B.C.) Shortly afterwards, Antiochus was lynched by his own people. Asia + Minor became a Roman protectorate and the small City-Republic of Rome was + mistress of most of the lands which bordered upon the Mediterranean. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE ROMAN EMPIRE + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME AFTER CENTURIES OF UNREST AND REVOLUTION BECAME + AN EMPIRE + </p> + <p> + WHEN the Roman armies returned from these many victorious campaigns, they + were received with great jubilation. Alas and alack! this sudden glory did + not make the country any happier. On the contrary. The endless campaigns + had ruined the farmers who had been obliged to do the hard work of Empire + making. It had placed too much power in the hands of the successful + generals (and their private friends) who had used the war as an excuse for + wholesale robbery. + </p> + <p> + The old Roman Republic had been proud of the simplicity which had + characterised the lives of her famous men. The new Republic felt ashamed + of the shabby coats and the high principles which had been fashionable in + the days of its grandfathers. It became a land of rich people ruled by + rich people for the benefit of rich people. As such it was doomed to + disastrous failure, as I shall now tell you. + </p> + <p> + Within less than a century and a half. Rome had become the mistress of + practically all the land around the Mediterranean. In those early days of + history a prisoner of war lost his freedom and became a slave. The Roman + regarded war as a very serious business and he showed no mercy to a + conquered foe. After the fall of Carthage, the Carthaginian women and + children were sold into bondage together with their own slaves. And a like + fate awaited the obstinate inhabitants of Greece and Macedonia and Spain + and Syria when they dared to revolt against the Roman power. + </p> + <p> + Two thousand years ago a slave was merely a piece of machinery. Nowadays a + rich man invests his money in factories. The rich people of Rome + (senators, generals and war-profiteers) invested theirs in land and in + slaves. The land they bought or took in the newly-acquired provinces. The + slaves they bought in open market wherever they happened to be cheapest. + During most of the third and second centuries before Christ there was a + plentiful supply, and as a result the landowners worked their slaves until + they dropped dead in their tracks, when they bought new ones at the + nearest bargain-counter of Corinthian or Carthaginian captives. + </p> + <p> + And now behold the fate of the freeborn farmer! + </p> + <p> + He had done his duty toward Rome and he had fought her battles without + complaint. But when he came home after ten, fifteen or twenty years, his + lands were covered with weeds and his family had been ruined. But he was a + strong man and willing to begin life anew. He sowed and planted and waited + for the harvest. He carried his grain to the market together with his + cattle and his poultry, to find that the large landowners who worked their + estates with slaves could underbid him all along the line. For a couple of + years he tried to hold his own. Then he gave up in despair. He left the + country and he went to the nearest city. In the city he was as hungry as + he had been before on the land. But he shared his misery with thousands of + other disinherited beings. They crouched together in filthy hovels in the + suburbs of the large cities. They were apt to get sick and die from + terrible epidemics. They were all profoundly discontented. They had fought + for their country and this was their reward. They were always willing to + listen to those plausible spell-binders who gather around a public + grievance like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a grave + menace to the safety of the state. + </p> + <p> + But the class of the newly-rich shrugged its shoulders. "We have our army + and our policemen," they argued, "they will keep the mob in order." And + they hid themselves behind the high walls of their pleasant villas and + cultivated their gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which a + Greek slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters. + </p> + <p> + In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish service to the + Commonwealth continued. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, had + been married to a Roman by the name of Gracchus. She had two sons, + Tiberius and Gaius. When the boys grew up they entered politics and tried + to bring about certain much-needed reforms. A census had shown that most + of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by two thousand noble + families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been elected a Tribune, tried to help + the freemen. He revived two ancient laws which restricted the number of + acres which a single owner might possess. In this way he hoped to revive + the valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. The + newly-rich called him a robber and an enemy of the state. There were + street riots. A party of thugs was hired to kill the popular Tribune. + Tiberius Gracchus was attacked when he entered the assembly and was beaten + to death. Ten years later his brother Gaius tried the experiment of + reforming a nation against the expressed wishes of a strong privileged + class. He passed a "poor law" which was meant to help the destitute + farmers. Eventually it made the greater part of the Roman citizens into + professional beggars. + </p> + <p> + He established colonies of destitute people in distant parts of the + empire, but these settlements failed to attract the right sort of people. + Before Gaius Gracchus could do more harm he too was murdered and his + followers were either killed or exiled. The first two reformers had been + gentlemen. The two who came after were of a very different stamp. They + were professional soldiers. One was called Marius. The name of the other + was Sulla. Both enjoyed a large personal following. + </p> + <p> + Sulla was the leader of the landowners. Marius, the victor in a great + battle at the foot of the Alps when the Teutons and the Cimbri had been + annihilated, was the popular hero of the disinherited freemen. + </p> + <p> + Now it happened in the year 88 B.C. that the Senate of Rome was greatly + disturbed by rumours that came from Asia. Mithridates, king of a country + along the shores of the Black Sea, and a Greek on his mother's side, had + seen the possibility of establishing a second Alexandrian Empire. He began + his campaign for world-domination with the murder of all Roman citizens + who happened to be in Asia Minor, men, women and children. Such an act, of + course, meant war. The Senate equipped an army to march against the King + of Pontus and punish him for his crime. But who was to be + commander-in-chief? "Sulla," said the Senate, "because he is Consul." + "Marius," said the mob, "because he has been Consul five times and because + he is the champion of our rights." + </p> + <p> + Possession is nine points of the law. Sulla happened to be in actual + command of the army. He went west to defeat Mithridates and Marius fled to + Africa. There he waited until he heard that Sulla had crossed into Asia. + He then returned to Italy, gathered a motley crew of malcontents, marched + on Rome and entered the city with his professional highwaymen, spent five + days and five nights, slaughtering the enemies of the Senatorial party, + got himself elected Consul and promptly died from the excitement of the + last fortnight. + </p> + <p> + There followed four years of disorder. Then Sulla, having defeated + Mithridates, announced that he was ready to return to Rome and settle a + few old scores of his own. He was as good as his word. For weeks his + soldiers were busy executing those of their fellow citizens who were + suspected of democratic sympathies. One day they got hold of a young + fellow who had been often seen in the company of Marius. They were going + to hang him when some one interfered. "The boy is too young," he said, and + they let him go. His name was Julius Caesar. You shall meet him again on + the next page. + </p> + <p> + As for Sulla, he became "Dictator," which meant sole and supreme ruler of + all the Roman possessions. He ruled Rome for four years, and he died + quietly in his bed, having spent the last year of his life tenderly + raising his cabbages, as was the custom of so many Romans who had spent a + lifetime killing their fellow-men. + </p> + <p> + But conditions did not grow better. On the contrary, they grew worse. + Another general, Gnaeus Pompeius, or Pompey, a close friend of Sulla, went + east to renew the war against the ever troublesome Mithridates. He drove + that energetic potentate into the mountains where Mithridates took poison + and killed himself, well knowing what fate awaited him as a Roman captive. + Next he re-established the authority of Rome over Syria, destroyed + Jerusalem, roamed through western Asia, trying to revive the myth of + Alexander the Great, and at last (in the year 62) returned to Rome with a + dozen ship-loads of defeated Kings and Princes and Generals, all of whom + were forced to march in the triumphal procession of this enormously + popular Roman who presented his city with the sum of forty million dollars + in plunder. + </p> + <p> + It was necessary that the government of Rome be placed in the hands of a + strong man. Only a few months before, the town had almost fallen into the + hands of a good-for-nothing young aristocrat by the name of Catiline, who + had gambled away his money and hoped to reimburse himself for his losses + by a little plundering. Cicero, a public-spirited lawyer, had discovered + the plot, had warned the Senate, and had forced Catiline to flee. But + there were other young men with similar ambitions and it was no time for + idle talk. + </p> + <p> + Pompey organised a triumvirate which was to take charge of affairs. He + became the leader of this Vigilante Committee. Gaius Julius Caesar, who + had made a reputation for himself as governor of Spain, was the second in + command. The third was an indifferent sort of person by the name of + Crassus. He had been elected because he was incredibly rich, having been a + successful contractor of war supplies. He soon went upon an expedition + against the Parthians and was killed. + </p> + <p> + As for Caesar, who was by far the ablest of the three, he decided that he + needed a little more military glory to become a popular hero. He crossed + the Alps and conquered that part of the world which is now called France. + Then he hammered a solid wooden bridge across the Rhine and invaded the + land of the wild Teutons. Finally he took ship and visited England. Heaven + knows where he might have ended if he had not been forced to return to + Italy. Pompey, so he was informed, had been appointed dictator for life. + This of course meant that Caesar was to be placed on the list of the + "retired officers," and the idea did not appeal to him. He remembered that + he had begun life as a follower of Marius. He decided to teach the + Senators and their "dictator" another lesson. He crossed the Rubicon River + which separated the province of Cis-alpine Gaul from Italy. Everywhere he + was received as the "friend of the people." Without difficulty Caesar + entered Rome and Pompey fled to Greece Caesar followed him and defeated + his followers near Pharsalus. Pompey sailed across the Mediterranean and + escaped to Egypt. When he landed he was murdered by order of young king + Ptolemy. A few days later Caesar arrived. He found himself caught in a + trap. Both the Egyptians and the Roman garrison which had remained + faithful to Pompey, attacked his camp. + </p> + <p> + Fortune was with Caesar. He succeeded in setting fire to the Egyptian + fleet. Incidentally the sparks of the burning vessels fell on the roof of + the famous library of Alexandria (which was just off the water front,) and + destroyed it. Next he attacked the Egyptian army, drove the soldiers into + the Nile, drowned Ptolemy, and established a new government under + Cleopatra, the sister of the late king. Just then word reached him that + Pharnaces, the son and heir of Mithridates, had gone on the war-path. + Caesar marched northward, defeated Pharnaces in a war which lasted five + days, sent word of his victory to Rome in the famous sentence "veni, vidi, + vici," which is Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered," and returned to + Egypt where he fell desperately in love with Cleopatra, who followed him + to Rome when he returned to take charge of the government, in the year 46. + He marched at the head of not less than four different victory-parades, + having won four different campaigns. + </p> + <p> + Then Caesar appeared in the Senate to report upon his adventures, and the + grateful Senate made him "dictator" for ten years. It was a fatal step. + </p> + <p> + The new dictator made serious attempts to reform the Roman state. He made + it possible for freemen to become members of the Senate. He conferred the + rights of citizenship upon distant communities as had been done in the + early days of Roman history. He permitted "foreigners" to exercise + influence upon the government. He reformed the administration of the + distant provinces which certain aristocratic families had come to regard + as their private possessions. In short he did many things for the good of + the majority of the people but which made him thoroughly unpopular with + the most powerful men in the state. Half a hundred young aristocrats + formed a plot "to save the Republic." On the Ides of March (the fifteenth + of March according to that new calendar which Caesar had brought with him + from Egypt) Caesar was murdered when he entered the Senate. Once more Rome + was without a master. + </p> + <p> + There were two men who tried to continue the tradition of Caesar's glory. + One was Antony, his former secretary. The other was Octavian, Caesar's + grand-nephew and heir to his estate. Octavian remained in Rome, but Antony + went to Egypt to be near Cleopatra with whom he too had fallen in love, as + seems to have been the habit of Roman generals. + </p> + <p> + A war broke out between the two. In the battle of Actium, Octavian + defeated Antony. Antony killed himself and Cleopatra was left alone to + face the enemy. She tried very hard to make Octavian her third Roman + conquest. When she saw that she could make no impression upon this very + proud aristocrat, she killed herself, and Egypt became a Roman province. + </p> + <p> + As for Octavian, he was a very wise young man and he did not repeat the + mistake of his famous uncle. He knew how people will shy at words. He was + very modest in his demands when he returned to Rome. He did not want to be + a "dictator." He would be entirely satisfied with the title of "the + Honourable." But when the Senate, a few years later, addressed him as + Augustus—the Illustrious—he did not object and a few years + later the man in the street called him Caesar, or Kaiser, while the + soldiers, accustomed to regard Octavian as their Commander-in-chief + referred to him as the Chief, the Imperator or Emperor. The Republic had + become an Empire, but the average Roman was hardly aware of the fact. + </p> + <p> + In 14 A.D. his position as the Absolute Ruler of the Roman people had + become so well established that he was made an object of that divine + worship which hitherto had been reserved for the Gods. And his successors + were true "Emperors"—the absolute rulers of the greatest empire the + world had ever seen. + </p> + <p> + If the truth be told, the average citizen was sick and tired of anarchy + and disorder. He did not care who ruled him provided the new master gave + him a chance to live quietly and without the noise of eternal street + riots. Octavian assured his subjects forty years of peace. He had no + desire to extend the frontiers of his domains, In the year 9 A.D. he had + contem-plated an invasion of the northwestern wilderness which was + inhabited by the Teutons. But Varrus, his general, had been killed with + all his men in the Teutoburg Woods, and after that the Romans made no + further attempts to civilise these wild people. + </p> + <p> + They concentrated their efforts upon the gigantic problem of internal + reform. But it was too late to do much good. Two centuries of revolution + and foreign war had repeatedly killed the best men among the younger + generations. It had ruined the class of the free farmers. It had + introduced slave labor, against which no freeman could hope to compete. It + had turned the cities into beehives inhabited by pauperized and unhealthy + mobs of runaway peasants. It had created a large bureaucracy—petty + officials who were underpaid and who were forced to take graft in order to + buy bread and clothing for their families. Worst of all, it had accustomed + people to violence, to blood-shed, to a barbarous pleasure in the pain and + suffering of others. + </p> + <p> + Outwardly, the Roman state during the first century of our era was a + magnificent political structure, so large that Alexander's empire became + one of its minor provinces. Underneath this glory there lived millions + upon millions of poor and tired human beings, toiling like ants who have + built a nest underneath a heavy stone. They worked for the benefit of some + one else. They shared their food with the animals of the fields. They + lived in stables. They died without hope. + </p> + <p> + It was the seven hundred and fifty-third year since the founding of Rome. + Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus was living in the palace of the + Palatine Hill, busily engaged upon the task of ruling his empire. + </p> + <p> + In a little village of distant Syria, Mary, the wife of Joseph the + Carpenter, was tending her little boy, born in a stable of Bethlehem. + </p> + <p> + This is a strange world. + </p> + <p> + Before long, the palace and the stable were to meet in open combat. + </p> + <p> + And the stable was to emerge victorious. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOSHUA OF NAZARETH + </h2> + <h3> + THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM THE GREEKS CALLED JESUS + </h3> + <p> + IN the autumn of the year of the city 783 (which would be 62 A.D., in our + way of counting time) AEsculapius Cultellus, a Roman physician, wrote to + his nephew who was with the army in Syria as follows: + </p> + <p> + My dear Nephew, + </p> + <p> + A few days ago I was called in to prescribe for a sick man named Paul. He + appeared to be a Roman citizen of Jewish parentage, well educated and of + agreeable manners. I had been told that he was here in connection with a + law-suit, an appeal from one of our provincial courts, Caesarea or some + such place in the eastern Mediterranean. He had been described to me as a + "wild and violent" fellow who had been making speeches against the People + and against the Law. I found him very intelligent and of great honesty. + </p> + <p> + A friend of mine who used to be with the army in Asia Minor tells me that + he heard something about him in Ephesus where he was preaching sermons + about a strange new God. I asked my patient if this were true and whether + he had told the people to rebel against the will of our beloved Emperor. + Paul answered me that the Kingdom of which he had spoken was not of this + world and he added many strange utterances which I did not understand, but + which were probably due to his fever. + </p> + <p> + His personality made a great impression upon me and I was sorry to hear + that he was killed on the Ostian Road a few days ago. Therefore I am + writing this letter to you. When next you visit Jerusalem, I want you to + find out something about my friend Paul and the strange Jewish prophet, + who seems to have been his teacher. Our slaves are getting much excited + about this so-called Messiah, and a few of them, who openly talked of the + new kingdom (whatever that means) have been crucified. I would like to + know the truth about all these rumours and I am + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Your devoted Uncle, + AESCULAPIUS CULTELLUS. +</pre> + <p> + Six weeks later, Gladius Ensa, the nephew, a captain of the VII Gallic + Infantry, answered as follows: + </p> + <p> + My dear Uncle, + </p> + <p> + I received your letter and I have obeyed your instructions. + </p> + <p> + Two weeks ago our brigade was sent to Jerusalem. There have been several + revolutions during the last century and there is not much left of the old + city. We have been here now for a month and to-morrow we shall continue + our march to Petra, where there has been trouble with some of the Arab + tribes. I shall use this evening to answer your questions, but pray do not + expect a detailed report. + </p> + <p> + I have talked with most of the older men in this city but few have been + able to give me any definite information. A few days ago a pedler came to + the camp. I bought some of his olives and I asked him whether he had ever + heard of the famous Messiah who was killed when he was young. He said that + he remembered it very clearly, because his father had taken him to + Golgotha (a hill just outside the city) to see the execution, and to show + him what became of the enemies of the laws of the people of Judaea. He + gave me the address of one Joseph, who had been a personal friend of the + Messiah and told me that I had better go and see him if I wanted to know + more. + </p> + <p> + This morning I went to call on Joseph. He was quite an old man. He had + been a fisherman on one of the fresh-water lakes. His memory was clear, + and from him at last I got a fairly definite account of what had happened + during the troublesome days before I was born. + </p> + <p> + Tiberius, our great and glorious emperor, was on the throne, and an + officer of the name of Pontius Pilatus was governor of Judaea and Samaria. + Joseph knew little about this Pilatus. He seemed to have been an honest + enough official who left a decent reputation as procurator of the + province. In the year 755 or 756 (Joseph had forgotten when) Pilatus was + called to Jerusalem on account of a riot. A certain young man (the son of + a carpenter of Nazareth) was said to be planning a revolution against the + Roman government. Strangely enough our own intelligence officers, who are + usually well informed, appear to have heard nothing about it, and when + they investigated the matter they reported that the carpenter was an + excellent citizen and that there was no reason to proceed against him. But + the old-fashioned leaders of the Jewish faith, according to Joseph, were + much upset. They greatly disliked his popularity with the masses of the + poorer Hebrews. The "Nazarene" (so they told Pilatus) had publicly claimed + that a Greek or a Roman or even a Philistine, who tried to live a decent + and honourable life, was quite as good as a Jew who spent his days + studying the ancient laws of Moses. Pilatus does not seem to have been + impressed by this argument, but when the crowds around the temple + threatened to lynch Jesus, and kill all his followers, he decided to take + the carpenter into custody to save his life. + </p> + <p> + He does not appear to have understood the real nature of the quarrel. + Whenever he asked the Jewish priests to explain their grievances, they + shouted "heresy" and "treason" and got terribly excited. Finally, so + Joseph told me, Pilatus sent for Joshua (that was the name of the + Nazarene, but the Greeks who live in this part of the world always refer + to him as Jesus) to examine him personally. He talked to him for several + hours. He asked him about the "dangerous doctrines" which he was said to + have preached on the shores of the sea of Galilee. But Jesus answered that + he never referred to politics. He was not so much interested in the bodies + of men as in Man's soul. He wanted all people to regard their neighbours + as their brothers and to love one single God, who was the father of all + living beings. + </p> + <p> + Pilatus, who seems to have been well versed in the doctrines of the Stoics + and the other Greek philosophers, does not appear to have discovered + anything seditious in the talk of Jesus. According to my informant he made + another attempt to save the life of the kindly prophet. He kept putting + the execution off. Meanwhile the Jewish people, lashed into fury by their + priests, got frantic with rage. There had been many riots in Jerusalem + before this and there were only a few Roman soldiers within calling + distance. Reports were being sent to the Roman authorities in Caesarea + that Pilatus had "fallen a victim to the teachings of the Nazarene." + Petitions were being circulated all through the city to have Pilatus + recalled, because he was an enemy of the Emperor. You know that our + governors have strict instructions to avoid an open break with their + foreign subjects. To save the country from civil war, Pilatus finally + sacrificed his prisoner, Joshua, who behaved with great dignity and who + forgave all those who hated him. He was crucified amidst the howls and the + laughter of the Jerusalem mob. + </p> + <p> + That is what Joseph told me, with tears running down his old cheeks. I + gave him a gold piece when I left him, but he refused it and asked me to + hand it to one poorer than himself. I also asked him a few questions about + your friend Paul. He had known him slightly. He seems to have been a tent + maker who gave up his profession that he might preach the words of a + loving and forgiving God, who was so very different from that Jehovah of + whom the Jewish priests are telling us all the time. Afterwards, Paul + appears to have travelled much in Asia Minor and in Greece, telling the + slaves that they were all children of one loving Father and that happiness + awaits all, both rich and poor, who have tried to live honest lives and + have done good to those who were suffering and miserable. + </p> + <p> + I hope that I have answered your questions to your satisfaction. The whole + story seems very harmless to me as far as the safety of the state is + concerned. But then, we Romans never have been able to understand the + people of this province. I am sorry that they have killed your friend + Paul. I wish that I were at home again, and I am, as ever, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Your dutiful nephew, + GLADIUS ENSA. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE FALL OF ROME + </h2> + <h3> + THE TWILIGHT OF ROME + </h3> + <p> + THE text-books of ancient History give the date 476 as the year in which + Rome fell, because in that year the last emperor was driven off his + throne. But Rome, which was not built in a day, took a long time falling. + The process was so slow and so gradual that most Romans did not realise + how their old world was coming to an end. They complained about the unrest + of the times—they grumbled about the high prices of food and about + the low wages of the workmen—they cursed the profiteers who had a + monopoly of the grain and the wool and the gold coin. Occasionally they + rebelled against an unusually rapacious governor. But the majority of the + people during the first four centuries of our era ate and drank (whatever + their purse allowed them to buy) and hated or loved (according to their + nature) and went to the theatre (whenever there was a free show of + fighting gladiators) or starved in the slums of the big cities, utterly + ignorant of the fact that their empire had outlived its usefulness and was + doomed to perish. + </p> + <p> + How could they realise the threatened danger? Rome made a fine showing of + outward glory. Well-paved roads connected the different provinces, the + imperial police were active and showed little tenderness for highwaymen. + The frontier was closely guarded against the savage tribes who seemed to + be occupying the waste lands of northern Europe. The whole world was + paying tribute to the mighty city of Rome, and a score of able men were + working day and night to undo the mistakes of the past and bring about a + return to the happier conditions of the early Republic. + </p> + <p> + But the underlying causes of the decay of the State, of which I have told + you in a former chapter, had not been removed and reform therefore was + impossible. + </p> + <p> + Rome was, first and last and all the time, a city-state as Athens and + Corinth had been city-states in ancient Hellas. It had been able to + dominate the Italian peninsula. But Rome as the ruler of the entire + civilised world was a political impossibility and could not endure. Her + young men were killed in her endless wars. Her farmers were ruined by long + military service and by taxation. They either became professional beggars + or hired themselves out to rich landowners who gave them board and lodging + in exchange for their services and made them "serfs," those unfortunate + human beings who are neither slaves nor freemen, but who have become part + of the soil upon which they work, like so many cows, and the trees. + </p> + <p> + The Empire, the State, had become everything. The common citizen had + dwindled down to less than nothing. As for the slaves, they had heard the + words that were spoken by Paul. They had accepted the message of the + humble carpenter of Nazareth. They did not rebel against their masters. On + the contrary, they had been taught to be meek and they obeyed their + superiors. But they had lost all interest in the affairs of this world + which had proved such a miserable place of abode. They were willing to + fight the good fight that they might enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But + they were not willing to engage in warfare for the benefit of an ambitious + emperor who aspired to glory by way of a foreign campaign in the land of + the Parthians or the Numidians or the Scots. + </p> + <p> + And so conditions grew worse as the centuries went by. The first Emperors + had continued the tradition of "leadership" which had given the old tribal + chieftains such a hold upon their subjects. But the Emperors of the second + and third centuries were Barrack-Emperors, professional soldiers, who + existed by the grace of their body-guards, the so-called Praetorians. They + succeeded each other with terrifying rapidity, murdering their way into + the palace and being murdered out of it as soon as their successors had + become rich enough to bribe the guards into a new rebellion. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the barbarians were hammering at the gates of the northern + frontier. As there were no longer any native Roman armies to stop their + progress, foreign mercenaries had to be hired to fight the invader. As the + foreign soldier happened to be of the same blood as his supposed enemy, he + was apt to be quite lenient when he engaged in battle. Finally, by way of + experiment, a few tribes were allowed to settle within the confines of the + Empire. Others followed. Soon these tribes complained bitterly of the + greedy Roman tax-gatherers, who took away their last penny. When they got + no redress they marched to Rome and loudly demanded that they be heard. + </p> + <p> + This made Rome very uncomfortable as an Imperial residence. Constantine + (who ruled from 323 to 337) looked for a new capital. He chose Byzantium, + the gate-way for the commerce between Europe and Asia. The city was + renamed Constantinople, and the court moved eastward. When Constantine + died, his two sons, for the sake of a more efficient administration, + divided the Empire between them. The elder lived in Rome and ruled in the + west. The younger stayed in Constantinople and was master of the east. + </p> + <p> + Then came the fourth century and the terrible visitation of the Huns, + those mysterious Asiatic horsemen who for more than two centuries + maintained themselves in Northern Europe and continued their career of + bloodshed until they were defeated near Chalons-sur-Marne in France in the + year 451. As soon as the Huns had reached the Danube they had begun to + press hard upon the Goths. The Goths, in order to save themselves, were + thereupon obliged to invade Rome. The Emperor Valens tried to stop them, + but was killed near Adrianople in the year 378. Twenty-two years later, + under their king, Alaric, these same West Goths marched westward and + attacked Rome. They did not plunder, and destroyed only a few palaces. + Next came the Vandals, and showed less respect for the venerable + traditions of the city. Then the Burgundians. Then the East Goths. Then + the Alemanni. Then the Franks. There was no end to the invasions. Rome at + last was at the mercy of every ambitious highway robber who could gather a + few followers. + </p> + <p> + In the year 402 the Emperor fled to Ravenna, which was a sea-port and + strongly fortified, and there, in the year 475, Odoacer, commander of a + regiment of the German mercenaries, who wanted the farms of Italy to be + divided among themselves, gently but effectively pushed Romulus + Augustulus, the last of the emperors who ruled the western division, from + his throne, and proclaimed himself Patriarch or ruler of Rome. The eastern + Emperor, who was very busy with his own affairs, recognised him, and for + ten years Odoacer ruled what was left of the western provinces. + </p> + <p> + A few years later, Theodoric, King of the East Goths, invaded the newly + formed Patriciat, took Ravenna, murdered Odoacer at his own dinner table, + and established a Gothic Kingdom amidst the ruins of the western part of + the Empire. This Patriciate state did not last long. In the sixth century + a motley crowd of Longobards and Saxons and Slavs and Avars invaded Italy, + destroyed the Gothic kingdom, and established a new state of which Pavia + became the capital. + </p> + <p> + Then at last the imperial city sank into a state of utter neglect and + despair. The ancient palaces had been plundered time and again. The + schools had been burned down. The teachers had been starved to death. The + rich people had been thrown out of their villas which were now inhabited + by evil-smelling and hairy barbarians. The roads had fallen into decay. + The old bridges were gone and commerce had come to a standstill. + Civilisation—the product of thousands of years of patient labor on + the part of Egyptians and Babylonians and Greeks and Romans, which had + lifted man high above the most daring dreams of his earliest ancestors, + threatened to perish from the western continent. + </p> + <p> + It is true that in the far east, Constantinople continued to be the centre + of an Empire for another thousand years. But it hardly counted as a part + of the European continent. Its interests lay in the east. It began to + forget its western origin. Gradually the Roman language was given up for + the Greek. The Roman alphabet was discarded and Roman law was written in + Greek characters and explained by Greek judges. The Emperor became an + Asiatic despot, worshipped as the god-like kings of Thebes had been + worshipped in the valley of the Nile, three thousand years before. When + missionaries of the Byzantine church looked for fresh fields of activity, + they went eastward and carried the civilisation of Byzantium into the vast + wilderness of Russia. + </p> + <p> + As for the west, it was left to the mercies of the Barbarians. For twelve + generations, murder, war, arson, plundering were the order of the day. One + thing—and one thing alone—saved Europe from complete + destruction, from a return to the days of cave-men and the hyena. + </p> + <p> + This was the church—the flock of humble men and women who for many + centuries had confessed themselves the followers of Jesus, the carpenter + of Nazareth, who had been killed that the mighty Roman Empire might be + saved the trouble of a street-riot in a little city somewhere along the + Syrian frontier. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RISE OF THE CHURCH + </h2> + <h3> + HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD + </h3> + <p> + THE average intelligent Roman who lived under the Empire had taken very + little interest in the gods of his fathers. A few times a year he went to + the temple, but merely as a matter of custom. He looked on patiently when + the people celebrated a religious festival with a solemn procession. But + he regarded the worship of Jupiter and Minerva and Neptune as something + rather childish, a survival from the crude days of the early republic and + not a fit subject of study for a man who had mastered the works of the + Stoics and the Epicureans and the other great philosophers of Athens. + </p> + <p> + This attitude made the Roman a very tolerant man. The government insisted + that all people, Romans, foreigners, Greeks, Babylonians, Jews, should pay + a certain outward respect to the image of the Emperor which was supposed + to stand in every temple, just as a picture of the President of the United + States is apt to hang in an American Post Office. But this was a formality + without any deeper meaning. Generally speaking everybody could honour, + revere and adore whatever gods he pleased, and as a result, Rome was + filled with all sorts of queer little temples and synagogues, dedicated to + the worship of Egyptian and African and Asiatic divinities. + </p> + <p> + When the first disciples of Jesus reached Rome and began to preach their + new doctrine of a universal brotherhood of man, nobody objected. The man + in the street stopped and listened Rome, the capital of the world, had + always been full of wandering preachers, each proclaiming his own + "mystery." Most of the self-appointed priests appealed to the senses—promised + golden rewards and endless pleasure to the followers of their own + particular god. Soon the crowd in the street noticed that the so-called + Christians (the followers of the Christ or "anointed") spoke a very + different language. They did not appear to be impressed by great riches or + a noble position. They extolled the beauties of poverty and humility and + meekness. These were not exactly the virtues which had made Rome the + mistress of the world. It was rather interesting to listen to a "mystery" + which told people in the hey-day of their glory that their worldly success + could not possibly bring them lasting happiness. + </p> + <p> + Besides, the preachers of the Christian mystery told dreadful stories of + the fate that awaited those who refused to listen to the words of the true + God. It was never wise to take chances. Of course the old Roman gods still + existed, but were they strong enough to protect their friends against the + powers of this new deity who had been brought to Europe from distant Asia? + People began to have doubts. They returned to listen to further + explanations of the new creed. After a while they began to meet the men + and women who preached the words of Jesus. They found them very different + from the average Roman priests. They were all dreadfully poor. They were + kind to slaves and to animals. They did not try to gain riches, but gave + away whatever they had. The example of their unselfish lives forced many + Romans to forsake the old religion. They joined the small communities of + Christians who met in the back rooms of private houses or somewhere in an + open field, and the temples were deserted. + </p> + <p> + This went on year after year and the number of Christians continued to + increase. Presbyters or priests (the original Greek meant "elder") were + elected to guard the interests of the small churches. A bishop was made + the head of all the communities within a single province. Peter, who had + fol-lowed Paul to Rome, was the first Bishop of Rome. In due time his + successors (who were addressed as Father or Papa) came to be known as + Popes. + </p> + <p> + The church became a powerful institution within the Empire. The Christian + doctrines appealed to those who despaired of this world. They also + attracted many strong men who found it impossible to make a career under + the Imperial government, but who could exercise their gifts of leadership + among the humble followers of the Nazarene teacher. At last the state was + obliged to take notice. The Roman Empire (I have said this before) was + tolerant through indifference. It allowed everybody to seek salvation + after his or her own fashion. But it insisted that the different sects + keep the peace among themselves and obey the wise rule of "live and let + live." + </p> + <p> + The Christian communities however, refused to practice any sort of + tolerance. They publicly declared that their God, and their God alone, was + the true ruler of Heaven and Earth, and that all other gods were + imposters. This seemed unfair to the other sects and the police + discouraged such utterances. The Christians persisted. + </p> + <p> + Soon there were further difficulties. The Christians refused to go through + the formalities of paying homage to the emperor. They refused to appear + when they were called upon to join the army. The Roman magistrates + threatened to punish them. The Christians answered that this miserable + world was only the ante-room to a very pleasant Heaven and that they were + more than willing to suffer death for their principles. The Romans, + puzzled by such conduct, sometimes killed the offenders, but more often + they did not. There was a certain amount of lynching during the earliest + years of the church, but this was the work of that part of the mob which + accused their meek Christian neighbours of every conceivable crime, (such + as slaughtering and eating babies, bringing about sickness and pestilence, + betraying the country in times of danger) because it was a harmless sport + and devoid of danger, as the Christians refused to fight back. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, Rome continued to be invaded by the Barbarians and when her + armies failed, Christian missionaries went forth to preach their gospel of + peace to the wild Teutons. They were strong men without fear of death. + They spoke a language which left no doubt as to the future of unrepentant + sinners. The Teutons were deeply impressed. They still had a deep respect + for the wisdom of the ancient city of Rome. Those men were Romans. They + probably spoke the truth. Soon the Christian missionary became a power in + the savage regions of the Teutons and the Franks. Half a dozen + missionaries were as valuable as a whole regiment of soldiers. The + Emperors began to understand that the Christian might be of great use to + them. In some of the provinces they were given equal rights with those who + remained faithful to the old gods. The great change however came during + the last half of the fourth century. + </p> + <p> + Constantine, sometimes (Heaven knows why) called Constantine the Great, + was emperor. He was a terrible ruffian, but people of tender qualities + could hardly hope to survive in that hard-fighting age. During a long and + checkered career, Constantine had experienced many ups and downs. Once, + when almost defeated by his enemies, he thought that he would try the + power of this new Asiatic deity of whom everybody was talking. He promised + that he too would become a Christian if he were successful in the coming + battle. He won the victory and thereafter he was convinced of the power of + the Christian God and allowed himself to be baptised. + </p> + <p> + From that moment on, the Christian church was officially recognised and + this greatly strengthened the position of the new faith. + </p> + <p> + But the Christians still formed a very small minority of all the people, + (not more than five or six percent,) and in order to win, they were forced + to refuse all compromise. The old gods must be destroyed. For a short + spell the emperor Julian, a lover of Greek wisdom, managed to save the + pagan Gods from further destruction. But Julian died of his wounds during + a campaign in Persia and his successor Jovian re-established the church in + all its glory. One after the other the doors of the ancient temples were + then closed. Then came the emperor Justinian (who built the church of + Saint Sophia in Constantinople), who discontinued the school of philosophy + at Athens which had been founded by Plato. + </p> + <p> + That was the end of the old Greek world, in which man had been allowed to + think his own thoughts and dream his own dreams according to his desires. + The somewhat vague rules of conduct of the philosophers had proved a poor + compass by which to steer the ship of life after a deluge of savagery and + ignorance had swept away the established order of things. There was need + of something more positive and more definite. This the Church provided. + </p> + <p> + During an age when nothing was certain, the church stood like a rock and + never receded from those principles which it held to be true and sacred. + This steadfast courage gained the admiration of the multitudes and carried + the church of Rome safely through the difficulties which destroyed the + Roman state. + </p> + <p> + There was however, a certain element of luck in the final success of the + Christian faith. After the disappearance of Theodoric's Roman-Gothic + kingdom, in the fifth century, Italy was comparatively free from foreign + invasion. The Lombards and Saxons and Slavs who succeeded the Goths were + weak and backward tribes. Under those circumstances it was possible for + the bishops of Rome to maintain the independence of their city. Soon the + remnants of the empire, scattered throughout the peninsula, recognised the + Dukes of Rome (or bishops) as their political and spiritual rulers. + </p> + <p> + The stage was set for the appearance of a strong man. He came in the year + 590 and his name was Gregory. He belonged to the ruling classes of ancient + Rome, and he had been "prefect" or mayor of the city. Then he had become a + monk and a bishop and finally, and much against his will, (for he wanted + to be a missionary and preach Christianity to the heathen of England,) he + had been dragged to the Church of Saint Peter to be made Pope. He ruled + only fourteen years but when he died the Christian world of western Europe + had officially recognised the bishops of Rome, the Popes, as the head of + the entire church. + </p> + <p> + This power, however, did not extend to the east. In Constantinople the + Emperors continued the old custom which had recognised the successors of + Augustus and Tiberius both as head of the government and as High Priest of + the Established Religion. In the year 1453 the eastern Roman Empire was + conquered by the Turks. Constantinople was taken, and Constantine + Paleologue, the last Roman Emperor, was killed on the steps of the Church + of the Holy Sophia. + </p> + <p> + A few years before, Zoe, the daughter of his brother Thomas, had married + Ivan III of Russia. In this way did the grand-dukes of Moscow fall heir to + the traditions of Constantinople. The double-eagle of old Byzantium + (reminiscent of the days when Rome had been divided into an eastern and a + western part) became the coat of arms of modern Russia. The Tsar who had + been merely the first of the Russian nobles, assumed the aloofness and the + dignity of a Roman emperor before whom all subjects, both high and low, + were inconsiderable slaves. + </p> + <p> + The court was refashioned after the oriental pattern which the eastern + Emperors had imported from Asia and from Egypt and which (so they + flattered themselves) resembled the court of Alexander the Great. This + strange inheritance which the dying Byzantine Empire bequeathed to an + unsuspecting world continued to live with great vigour for six more + centuries, amidst the vast plains of Russia. The last man to wear the + crown with the double eagle of Constantinople, Tsar Nicholas, was murdered + only the other day, so to speak. His body was thrown into a well. His son + and his daughters were all killed. All his ancient rights and prerogatives + were abolished, and the church was reduced to the position which it had + held in Rome before the days of Constantine. + </p> + <p> + The eastern church however fared very differently, as we shall see in the + next chapter when the whole Christian world is going to be threatened with + destruction by the rival creed of an Arab camel-driver. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MOHAMMED + </h2> + <p> + AHMED, THE CAMEL-DRIVER, WHO BECAME THE PROPHET OF THE ARABIAN DESERT AND + WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST CONQUERED THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE GREATER + GLORY OF ALLAH, THE ONLY TRUE GOD + </p> + <p> + SINCE the days of Carthage and Hannibal we have said nothing of the + Semitic people. You will remember how they filled all the chapters devoted + to the story of the Ancient World. The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the + Phoenicians, the Jews, the Arameans, the Chaldeans, all of them Semites, + had been the rulers of western Asia for thirty or forty centuries. They + had been conquered by the Indo-European Persians who had come from the + east and by the Indo-European Greeks who had come from the west. A hundred + years after the death of Alexander the Great, Carthage, a colony of + Semitic Phoenicians, had fought the Indo-European Romans for the mastery + of the Mediterranean. Carthage had been defeated and destroyed and for + eight hundred years the Romans had been masters of the world. In the + seventh century, however, another Semitic tribe appeared upon the scene + and challenged the power of the west. They were the Arabs, peaceful + shepherds who had roamed through the desert since the beginning of time + without showing any signs of imperial ambitions. + </p> + <p> + Then they listened to Mohammed, mounted their horses and in less than a + century they had pushed to the heart of Europe and proclaimed the glories + of Allah, "the only God," and Mohammed, "the prophet of the only God," to + the frightened peasants of France. + </p> + <p> + The story of Ahmed, the son of Abdallah and Aminah (usually known as + Mohammed, or "he who will be praised,"); reads like a chapter in the + "Thousand and One Nights." He was a camel-driver, born in Mecca. He seems + to have been an epileptic and he suffered from spells of unconsciousness + when he dreamed strange dreams and heard the voice of the angel Gabriel, + whose words were afterwards written down in a book called the Koran. His + work as a caravan leader carried him all over Arabia and he was constantly + falling in with Jewish merchants and with Christian traders, and he came + to see that the worship of a single God was a very excellent thing. His + own people, the Arabs, still revered queer stones and trunks of trees as + their ancestors had done, tens of thousands of years before. In Mecca, + their holy city, stood a little square building, the Kaaba, full of idols + and strange odds and ends of Hoo-doo worship. + </p> + <p> + Mohammed decided to be the Moses of the Arab people. He could not well be + a prophet and a camel-driver at the same time. So he made himself + independent by marrying his employer, the rich widow Chadija. Then he told + his neighbours in Mecca that he was the long-expected prophet sent by + Allah to save the world. The neighbours laughed most heartily and when + Mohammed continued to annoy them with his speeches they decided to kill + him. They regarded him as a lunatic and a public bore who deserved no + mercy. Mohammed heard of the plot and in the dark of night he fled to + Medina together with Abu Bekr, his trusted pupil. This happened in the + year 622. It is the most important date in Mohammedan history and is known + as the Hegira—the year of the Great Flight. + </p> + <p> + In Medina, Mohammed, who was a stranger, found it easier to proclaim + himself a prophet than in his home city, where every one had known him as + a simple camel-driver. Soon he was surrounded by an increasing number of + followers, or Moslems, who accepted the Islam, "the submission to the will + of God," which Mohammed praised as the highest of all virtues. For seven + years he preached to the people of Medina. Then he believed himself strong + enough to begin a campaign against his former neighbours who had dared to + sneer at him and his Holy Mission in his old camel-driving days. At the + head of an army of Medinese he marched across the desert. His followers + took Mecca without great difficulty, and having slaughtered a number of + the inhabitants, they found it quite easy to convince the others that + Mohammed was really a great prophet. + </p> + <p> + From that time on until the year of his death, Mohammed was fortunate in + everything he undertook. + </p> + <p> + There are two reasons for the success of Islam. In the first place, the + creed which Mohammed taught to his followers was very simple. The + disciples were told that they must love Allah, the Ruler of the World, the + Merciful and Compassionate. They must honour and obey their parents. They + were warned against dishonesty in dealing with their neighbours and were + admonished to be humble and charitable, to the poor and to the sick. + Finally they were ordered to abstain from strong drink and to be very + frugal in what they ate. That was all. There were no priests, who acted as + shepherds of their flocks and asked that they be supported at the common + expense. The Mohammedan churches or mosques were merely large stone halls + without benches or pictures, where the faithful could gather (if they felt + so inclined) to read and discuss chapters from the Koran, the Holy Book. + But the average Mohammedan carried his religion with him and never felt + himself hemmed in by the restrictions and regulations of an established + church. Five times a day he turned his face towards Mecca, the Holy City, + and said a simple prayer. For the rest of the time he let Allah rule the + world as he saw fit and accepted whatever fate brought him with patient + resignation. + </p> + <p> + Of course such an attitude towards life did not encourage the Faithful to + go forth and invent electrical machinery or bother about railroads and + steamship lines. But it gave every Mohammedan a certain amount of + contentment. It bade him be at peace with himself and with the world in + which he lived and that was a very good thing. + </p> + <p> + The second reason which explains the success of the Moslems in their + warfare upon the Christians, had to do with the conduct of those + Mohammedan soldiers who went forth to do battle for the true faith. The + Prophet promised that those who fell, facing the enemy, would go directly + to Heaven. This made sudden death in the field preferable to a long but + dreary existence upon this earth. It gave the Mohammedans an enormous + advantage over the Crusaders who were in constant dread of a dark + hereafter, and who stuck to the good things of this world as long as they + possibly could. Incidentally it explains why even to-day Moslem soldiers + will charge into the fire of European machine guns quite indifferent to + the fate that awaits them and why they are such dangerous and persistent + enemies. + </p> + <p> + Having put his religious house in order, Mohammed now began to enjoy his + power as the undisputed ruler of a large number of Arab tribes. But + success has been the undoing of a large number of men who were great in + the days of adversity. He tried to gain the good will of the rich people + by a number of regulations which could appeal to those of wealth. He + allowed the Faithful to have four wives. As one wife was a costly + investment in those olden days when brides were bought directly from the + parents, four wives became a positive luxury except to those who possessed + camels and dromedaries and date orchards beyond the dreams of avarice. A + religion which at first had been meant for the hardy hunters of the high + skied desert was gradually transformed to suit the needs of the smug + merchants who lived in the bazaars of the cities. It was a regrettable + change from the original program and it did very little good to the cause + of Mohammedanism. As for the prophet himself, he went on preaching the + truth of Allah and proclaiming new rules of conduct until he died, quite + suddenly, of a fever on June the seventh of the year 632. + </p> + <p> + His successor as Caliph (or leader) of the Moslems was his father-in-law, + Abu-Bekr, who had shared the early dangers of the prophet's life. Two + years later, Abu-Bekr died and Omar ibn Al-Khattab followed him. In less + than ten years he conquered Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine + and made Damascus the capital of the first Mohammedan world empire. + </p> + <p> + Omar was succeeded by Ali, the husband of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima, but + a quarrel broke out upon a point of Moslem doctrine and Ali was murdered. + After his death, the caliphate was made hereditary and the leaders of the + faithful who had begun their career as the spiritual head of a religious + sect became the rulers of a vast empire. They built a new city on the + shores of the Euphrates, near the ruins of Babylon and called it Bagdad, + and organising the Arab horsemen into regiments of cavalry, they set forth + to bring the happiness of their Moslem faith to all unbelievers. In the + year 700 A.D. a Mohammedan general by the name of Tarik crossed the old + gates of Hercules and reached the high rock on the European side which he + called the Gibel-al-tarik, the Hill of Tarik or Gibraltar. + </p> + <p> + Eleven years later in the battle of Xeres de la Frontera, he defeated the + king of the Visigoths and then the Moslem army moved northward and + following the route of Hannibal, they crossed the passes of the Pyrenees. + They defeated the Duke of Aquitania, who tried to halt them near Bordeaux, + and marched upon Paris. But in the year 732 (one hundred years after the + death of the prophet,) they were beaten in a battle between Tours and + Poitiers. On that day, Charles Martel (Charles with the Hammer) the + Frankish chieftain, saved Europe from a Mohammedan con-quest. He drove the + Moslems out of France, but they maintained themselves in Spain where + Abd-ar-Rahman founded the Caliphate of Cordova, which became the greatest + centre of science and art of mediaeval Europe. + </p> + <p> + This Moorish kingdom, so-called because the people came from Mauretania in + Morocco, lasted seven centuries. It was only after the capture of Granada, + the last Moslem stronghold, in the year 1492, that Columbus received the + royal grant which allowed him to go upon a voyage of discovery. The + Mohammedans soon regained their strength in the new conquests which they + made in Asia and Africa and to-day there are as many followers of Mohammed + as there are of Christ. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHARLEMAGNE + </h2> + <p> + HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE FRANKS, CAME TO BEAR THE TITLE OF EMPEROR + AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD IDEAL OF WORLD-EMPIRE + </p> + <p> + THE battle of Poitiers had saved Europe from the Mohammedans. But the + enemy within—the hopeless disorder which had followed the + disappearance of the Roman police officer—that enemy remained. It is + true that the new converts of the Christian faith in Northern Europe felt + a deep respect for the mighty Bishop of Rome. But that poor bishop did not + feel any too safe when he looked toward the distant mountains. Heaven knew + what fresh hordes of barbarians were ready to cross the Alps and begin a + new attack on Rome. It was necessary—very necessary—for the + spiritual head of the world to find an ally with a strong sword and a + powerful fist who was willing to defend His Holiness in case of danger. + </p> + <p> + And so the Popes, who were not only very holy but also very practical, + cast about for a friend, and presently they made overtures to the most + promising of the Germanic tribes who had occupied north-western Europe + after the fall of Rome. They were called the Franks. One of their earliest + kings, called Merovech, had helped the Romans in the battle of the + Catalaunian fields in the year 451 when they defeated the Huns. His + descendants, the Merovingians, had continued to take little bits of + imperial territory until the year 486 when king Clovis (the old French + word for "Louis") felt himself strong enough to beat the Romans in the + open. But his descendants were weak men who left the affairs of state to + their Prime minister, the "Major Domus" or Master of the Palace. + </p> + <p> + Pepin the Short, the son of the famous Charles Martel, who succeeded his + father as Master of the Palace, hardly knew how to handle the situation. + His royal master was a devout theologian, without any interest in + politics. Pepin asked the Pope for advice. The Pope who was a practical + person answered that the "power in the state belonged to him who was + actually possessed of it." Pepin took the hint. He persuaded Childeric, + the last of the Merovingians to become a monk and then made himself king + with the approval of the other Germanic chieftains. But this did not + satisfy the shrewd Pepin. He wanted to be something more than a barbarian + chieftain. He staged an elaborate ceremony at which Boniface, the great + missionary of the European northwest, anointed him and made him a "King by + the grace of God." It was easy to slip those words, "Del gratia," into the + coronation service. It took almost fifteen hundred years to get them out + again. + </p> + <p> + Pepin was sincerely grateful for this kindness on the part of the church. + He made two expeditions to Italy to defend the Pope against his enemies. + He took Ravenna and several other cities away from the Longobards and + presented them to His Holiness, who incorporated these new domains into + the so-called Papal State, which remained an independent country until + half a century ago. + </p> + <p> + After Pepin's death, the relations between Rome and Aix-la-Chapelle or + Nymwegen or Ingelheim, (the Frankish Kings did not have one official + residence, but travelled from place to place with all their ministers and + court officers,) became more and more cordial. Finally the Pope and the + King took a step which was to influence the history of Europe in a most + profound way. + </p> + <p> + Charles, commonly known as Carolus Magnus or Charlemagne, succeeded Pepin + in the year 768. He had conquered the land of the Saxons in eastern + Germany and had built towns and monasteries all over the greater part of + northern Europe. At the request of certain enemies of Abd-ar-Rahman, he + had invaded Spain to fight the Moors. But in the Pyrenees he had been + attacked by the wild Basques and had been forced to retire. It was upon + this occasion that Roland, the great Margrave of Breton, showed what a + Frankish chieftain of those early days meant when he promised to be + faithful to his King, and gave his life and that of his trusted followers + to safeguard the retreat of the royal army. + </p> + <p> + During the last ten years of the eighth century, however, Charles was + obliged to devote himself exclusively to affairs of the South. The Pope, + Leo III, had been attacked by a band of Roman rowdies and had been left + for dead in the street. Some kind people had bandaged his wounds and had + helped him to escape to the camp of Charles, where he asked for help. An + army of Franks soon restored quiet and carried Leo back to the Lateran + Palace which ever since the days of Constantine, had been the home of the + Pope. That was in December of the year 799. On Christmas day of the next + year, Charlemagne, who was staying in Rome, attended the service in the + ancient church of St. Peter. When he arose from prayer, the Pope placed a + crown upon his head, called him Emperor of the Romans and hailed him once + more with the title of "Augustus" which had not been heard for hundreds of + years. + </p> + <p> + Once more Northern Europe was part of a Roman Empire, but the dignity was + held by a German chieftain who could read just a little and never learned + to write. But he could fight and for a short while there was order and + even the rival emperor in Constantinople sent a letter of approval to his + "dear Brother." + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately this splendid old man died in the year 814. His sons and his + grandsons at once began to fight for the largest share of the imperial + inheritance. Twice the Carolingian lands were divided, by the treaties of + Verdun in the year 843 and by the treaty of Mersen-on-the-Meuse in the + year 870. The latter treaty divided the entire Frankish Kingdom into two + parts. Charles the Bold received the western half. It contained the old + Roman province called Gaul where the language of the people had become + thoroughly romanized. The Franks soon learned to speak this language and + this accounts for the strange fact that a purely Germanic land like France + should speak a Latin tongue. + </p> + <p> + The other grandson got the eastern part, the land which the Romans had + called Germania. Those inhospitable regions had never been part of the old + Empire. Augustus had tried to conquer this "far east," but his legions had + been annihilated in the Teutoburg Wood in the year 9 and the people had + never been influenced by the higher Roman civilisation. They spoke the + popular Germanic tongue. The Teuton word for "people" was "thiot." The + Christian missionaries therefore called the German language the "lingua + theotisca" or the "lingua teutisca," the "popular dialect" and this word + "teutisca" was changed into "Deutsch" which accounts for the name + "Deutschland." + </p> + <p> + As for the famous Imperial Crown, it very soon slipped off the heads of + the Carolingian successors and rolled back onto the Italian plain, where + it became a sort of plaything of a number of little potentates who stole + the crown from each other amidst much bloodshed and wore it (with or + without the permission of the Pope) until it was the turn of some more + ambitious neighbour. The Pope, once more sorely beset by his enemies, sent + north for help. He did not appeal to the ruler of the west-Frankish + kingdom, this time. His messengers crossed the Alps and addressed + themselves to Otto, a Saxon Prince who was recognised as the greatest + chieftain of the different Germanic tribes. + </p> + <p> + Otto, who shared his people's affection for the blue skies and the gay and + beautiful people of the Italian peninsula, hastened to the rescue. In + return for his services, the Pope, Leo VIII, made Otto "Emperor," and the + eastern half of Charles' old kingdom was henceforth known as the "Holy + Roman Empire of the German Nation." + </p> + <p> + This strange political creation managed to live to the ripe old age of + eight hundred and thirty-nine years. In the year 1801, (during the + presidency of Thomas Jefferson,) it was most unceremoniously relegated to + the historical scrapheap. The brutal fellow who destroyed the old Germanic + Empire was the son of a Corsican notary-public who had made a brilliant + career in the service of the French Republic. He was ruler of Europe by + the grace of his famous Guard Regiments, but he desired to be something + more. He sent to Rome for the Pope and the Pope came and stood by while + General Napoleon placed the imperial crown upon his own head and + proclaimed himself heir to the tradition of Charlemagne. For history is + like life. The more things change, the more they remain the same. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE NORSEMEN + </h2> + <p> + WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY PRAYED THE LORD TO PROTECT THEM FROM + THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN + </p> + <p> + IN the third and fourth centuries, the Germanic tribes of central Europe + had broken through the defences of the Empire that they might plunder Rome + and live on the fat of the land. In the eighth century it became the turn + of the Germans to be the "plundered-ones." They did not like this at all, + even if their enemies were their first cousins, the Norsemen, who lived in + Denmark and Sweden and Norway. + </p> + <p> + What forced these hardy sailors to turn pirate we do not know, but once + they had discovered the advantages and pleasures of a buccaneering career + there was no one who could stop them. They would suddenly descend upon a + peaceful Frankish or Frisian village, situated on the mouth of a river. + They would kill all the men and steal all the women. Then they would sail + away in their fast-sailing ships and when the soldiers of the king or + emperor arrived upon the scene, the robbers were gone and nothing remained + but a few smouldering ruins. + </p> + <p> + During the days of disorder which followed the death of Charlemagne, the + Northmen developed great activity. Their fleets made raids upon every + country and their sailors established small independent kingdoms along the + coast of Holland and France and England and Germany, and they even found + their way into Italy. The Northmen were very intelligent They soon learned + to speak the language of their subjects and gave up the uncivilised ways + of the early Vikings (or Sea-Kings) who had been very picturesque but also + very unwashed and terribly cruel. + </p> + <p> + Early in the tenth century a Viking by the name of Rollo had repeatedly + attacked the coast of France. The king of France, too weak to resist these + northern robbers, tried to bribe them into "being good." He offered them + the province of Normandy, if they would promise to stop bothering the rest + of his domains. Rollo accepted this bargain and became "Duke of Normandy." + </p> + <p> + But the passion of conquest was strong in the blood of his children. + Across the channel, only a few hours away from the European mainland, they + could see the white cliffs and the green fields of England. Poor England + had passed through difficult days. For two hundred years it had been a + Roman colony. After the Romans left, it had been conquered by the Angles + and the Saxons, two German tribes from Schleswig. Next the Danes had taken + the greater part of the country and had established the kingdom of Cnut. + The Danes had been driven away and now (it was early in the eleventh + century) another Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, was on the throne. But + Edward was not expected to live long and he had no children. The + circumstances favoured the ambitious dukes of Normandy. + </p> + <p> + In 1066 Edward died. Immediately William of Normandy crossed the channel, + defeated and killed Harold of Wessex (who had taken the crown) at the + battle of Hastings, and proclaimed himself king of England. + </p> + <p> + In another chapter I have told you how in the year 800 a German chieftain + had become a Roman Emperor. Now in the year 1066 the grandson of a Norse + pirate was recognised as King of England. + </p> + <p> + Why should we ever read fairy stories, when the truth of history is so + much more interesting and entertaining? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FEUDALISM + </h2> + <p> + HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM THREE SIDES, BECAME AN ARMED CAMP AND + WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS AND + ADMINISTRATORS WHO WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM + </p> + <p> + THE following, then, is the state of Europe in the year one thousand, when + most people were so unhappy that they welcomed the prophecy foretelling + the approaching end of the world and rushed to the monasteries, that the + Day of Judgement might find them engaged upon devout duties. + </p> + <p> + At an unknown date, the Germanic tribes had left their old home in Asia + and had moved westward into Europe. By sheer pressure of numbers they had + forced their way into the Roman Empire. They had destroyed the great + western empire, but the eastern part, being off the main route of the + great migrations, had managed to survive and feebly continued the + traditions of Rome's ancient glory. + </p> + <p> + During the days of disorder which had followed, (the true "dark ages" of + history, the sixth and seventh centuries of our era,) the German tribes + had been persuaded to accept the Christian religion and had recognised the + Bishop of Rome as the Pope or spiritual head of the world. In the ninth + century, the organising genius of Charlemagne had revived the Roman Empire + and had united the greater part of western Europe into a single state. + During the tenth century this empire had gone to pieces. The western part + had become a separate kingdom, France. The eastern half was known as the + Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and the rulers of this federation + of states then pretended that they were the direct heirs of Caesar and + Augustus. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the power of the kings of France did not stretch beyond the + moat of their royal residence, while the Holy Roman Emperor was openly + defied by his powerful subjects whenever it suited their fancy or their + profit. + </p> + <p> + To increase the misery of the masses of the people, the triangle of + western Europe (look at page 128, please) was for ever exposed to attacks + from three sides. On the south lived the ever dangerous Mohammedans. The + western coast was ravaged by the Northmen. The eastern frontier + (defenceless except for the short stretch of the Carpathian mountains) was + at the mercy of hordes of Huns, Hungarians, Slavs and Tartars. + </p> + <p> + The peace of Rome was a thing of the remote past, a dream of the "Good Old + Days" that were gone for ever. It was a question of "fight or die," and + quite naturally people preferred to fight. Forced by circumstances, Europe + became an armed camp and there was a demand for strong leadership. Both + King and Emperor were far away. The frontiersmen (and most of Europe in + the year 1000 was "frontier") must help themselves. They willingly + submitted to the representatives of the king who were sent to administer + the outlying districts, PROVIDED THEY COULD PROTECT THEM AGAINST THEIR + ENEMIES. + </p> + <p> + Soon central Europe was dotted with small principalities, each one ruled + by a duke or a count or a baron or a bishop, as the case might be, and + organised as a fighting unit. These dukes and counts and barons had sworn + to be faithful to the king who had given them their "feudum" (hence our + word "feudal,") in return for their loyal services and a certain amount of + taxes. But travel in those days was slow and the means of communication + were exceedingly poor. The royal or imperial administrators therefore + enjoyed great independence, and within the boundaries of their own + province they assumed most of the rights which in truth belonged to the + king. + </p> + <p> + But you would make a mistake if you supposed that the people of the + eleventh century objected to this form of government. They supported + Feudalism because it was a very practical and necessary institution. Their + Lord and Master usually lived in a big stone house erected on the top of a + steep rock or built between deep moats, but within sight of his subjects. + In case of danger the subjects found shelter behind the walls of the + baronial stronghold. That is why they tried to live as near the castle as + possible and it accounts for the many European cities which began their + career around a feudal fortress. + </p> + <p> + But the knight of the early middle ages was much more than a professional + soldier. He was the civil servant of that day. He was the judge of his + community and he was the chief of police. He caught the highwaymen and + protected the wandering pedlars who were the merchants of the eleventh + century. He looked after the dikes so that the countryside should not be + flooded (just as the first noblemen had done in the valley of the Nile + four thousand years before). He encouraged the Troubadours who wandered + from place to place telling the stories of the ancient heroes who had + fought in the great wars of the migrations. Besides, he protected the + churches and the monasteries within his territory, and although he could + neither read nor write, (it was considered unmanly to know such things,) + he employed a number of priests who kept his accounts and who registered + the marriages and the births and the deaths which occurred within the + baronial or ducal domains. + </p> + <p> + In the fifteenth century the kings once more became strong enough to + exercise those powers which belonged to them because they were "anointed + of God." Then the feudal knights lost their former independence. Reduced + to the rank of country squires, they no longer filled a need and soon they + became a nuisance. But Europe would have perished without the "feudal + system" of the dark ages. There were many bad knights as there are many + bad people to-day. But generally speaking, the rough-fisted barons of the + twelfth and thirteenth century were hard-working administrators who + rendered a most useful service to the cause of progress. During that era + the noble torch of learning and art which had illuminated the world of the + Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans was burning very low. Without the + knights and their good friends, the monks, civilisation would have been + extinguished entirely, and the human race would have been forced to begin + once more where the cave-man had left off. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHIVALRY + </h2> + <h3> + CHIVALRY + </h3> + <p> + IT was quite natural that the professional fighting-men of the Middle Ages + should try to establish some sort of organisation for their mutual benefit + and protection. Out of this need for close organisation, Knighthood or + Chivalry was born. + </p> + <p> + We know very little about the origins of Knighthood. But as the system + developed, it gave the world something which it needed very badly—a + definite rule of conduct which softened the barbarous customs of that day + and made life more livable than it had been during the five hundred years + of the Dark Ages. It was not an easy task to civilise the rough + frontiersmen who had spent most of their time fighting Mohammedans and + Huns and Norsemen. Often they were guilty of backsliding, and having vowed + all sorts of oaths about mercy and charity in the morning, they would + murder all their prisoners before evening. But progress is ever the result + of slow and ceaseless labour, and finally the most unscrupulous of knights + was forced to obey the rules of his "class" or suffer the consequences. + </p> + <p> + These rules were different in the various parts of Europe, but they all + made much of "service" and "loyalty to duty." The Middle Ages regarded + service as something very noble and beautiful. It was no disgrace to be a + servant, provided you were a good servant and did not slacken on the job. + As for loyalty, at a time when life depended upon the faithful + per-formance of many unpleasant duties, it was the chief virtue of the + fighting man. + </p> + <p> + A young knight therefore was asked to swear that he would be faithful as a + servant to God and as a servant to his King. Furthermore, he promised to + be generous to those whose need was greater than his own. He pledged his + word that he would be humble in his personal behaviour and would never + boast of his own accomplishments and that he would be a friend of all + those who suffered, (with the exception of the Mohammedans, whom he was + expected to kill on sight). + </p> + <p> + Around these vows, which were merely the Ten Commandments expressed in + terms which the people of the Middle Ages could understand, there + developed a complicated system of manners and outward behaviour. The + knights tried to model their own lives after the example of those heroes + of Arthur's Round Table and Charlemagne's court of whom the Troubadours + had told them and of whom you may read in many delightful books which are + enumerated at the end of this volume. They hoped that they might prove as + brave as Lancelot and as faithful as Roland. They carried themselves with + dignity and they spoke careful and gracious words that they might be known + as True Knights, however humble the cut of their coat or the size of their + purse. + </p> + <p> + In this way the order of Knighthood became a school of those good manners + which are the oil of the social machinery. Chivalry came to mean courtesy + and the feudal castle showed the rest of the world what clothes to wear, + how to eat, how to ask a lady for a dance and the thousand and one little + things of every-day behaviour which help to make life interesting and + agreeable. + </p> + <p> + Like all human institutions, Knighthood was doomed to perish as soon as it + had outlived its usefulness. + </p> + <p> + The crusades, about which one of the next chapters tells, were followed by + a great revival of trade. Cities grew overnight. The townspeople became + rich, hired good school teachers and soon were the equals of the knights. + The invention of gun-powder deprived the heavily armed "Chevalier" of his + former advantage and the use of mercenaries made it impossible to conduct + a battle with the delicate niceties of a chess tournament. The knight + became superfluous. Soon he became a ridiculous figure, with his devotion + to ideals that had no longer any practical value. It was said that the + noble Don Quixote de la Mancha had been the last of the true knights. + After his death, his trusted sword and his armour were sold to pay his + debts. + </p> + <p> + But somehow or other that sword seems to have fallen into the hands of a + number of men. Washington carried it during the hopeless days of Valley + Forge. It was the only defence of Gordon, when he had refused to desert + the people who had been entrusted to his care, and stayed to meet his + death in the besieged fortress of Khartoum. + </p> + <p> + And I am not quite sure but that it proved of invaluable strength in + winning the Great War. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + POPE vs. EMPEROR + </h2> + <p> + THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND HOW IT LED + TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS + </p> + <p> + IT is very difficult to understand the people of by-gone ages. Your own + grandfather, whom you see every day, is a mysterious being who lives in a + different world of ideas and clothes and manners. I am now telling you the + story of some of your grandfathers who are twenty-five generations + removed, and I do not expect you to catch the meaning of what I write + without re-reading this chapter a number of times. + </p> + <p> + The average man of the Middle Ages lived a very simple and uneventful + life. Even if he was a free citizen, able to come and go at will, he + rarely left his own neighbourhood. There were no printed books and only a + few manuscripts. Here and there, a small band of industrious monks taught + reading and writing and some arithmetic. But science and history and + geography lay buried beneath the ruins of Greece and Rome. + </p> + <p> + Whatever people knew about the past they had learned by listening to + stories and legends. Such information, which goes from father to son, is + often slightly incorrect in details, but it will preserve the main facts + of history with astonishing accuracy. After more than two thousand years, + the mothers of India still frighten their naughty children by telling them + that "Iskander will get them," and Iskander is none other than Alexander + the Great, who visited India in the year 330 before the birth of Christ, + but whose story has lived through all these ages. + </p> + <p> + The people of the early Middle Ages never saw a textbook of Roman history. + They were ignorant of many things which every school-boy to-day knows + before he has entered the third grade. But the Roman Empire, which is + merely a name to you, was to them something very much alive. They felt it. + They willingly recognised the Pope as their spiritual leader because he + lived in Rome and represented the idea of the Roman super-power. And they + were profoundly grateful when Charlemagne, and afterwards Otto the Great, + revived the idea of a world-empire and created the Holy Roman Empire, that + the world might again be as it always had been. + </p> + <p> + But the fact that there were two different heirs to the Roman tradition + placed the faithful burghers of the Middle Ages in a difficult position. + The theory behind the mediaeval political system was both sound and + simple. While the worldly master (the emperor) looked after the physical + well-being of his subjects, the spiritual master (the Pope) guarded their + souls. + </p> + <p> + In practice, however, the system worked very badly. The Emperor invariably + tried to interfere with the affairs of the church and the Pope retaliated + and told the Emperor how he should rule his domains. Then they told each + other to mind their own business in very unceremonious language and the + inevitable end was war. + </p> + <p> + Under those circumstances, what were the people to do, A good Christian + obeyed both the Pope and his King. But the Pope and the Emperor were + enemies. Which side should a dutiful subject and an equally dutiful + Christian take? + </p> + <p> + It was never easy to give the correct answer. When the Emperor happened to + be a man of energy and was sufficiently well provided with money to + organise an army, he was very apt to cross the Alps and march on Rome, + besiege the Pope in his own palace if need be, and force His Holiness to + obey the imperial instructions or suffer the consequences. + </p> + <p> + But more frequently the Pope was the stronger. Then the Emperor or the + King together with all his subjects was excommunicated. This meant that + all churches were closed, that no one could be baptised, that no dying man + could be given absolution—in short, that half of the functions of + mediaeval government came to an end. + </p> + <p> + More than that, the people were absolved from their oath of loyalty to + their sovereign and were urged to rebel against their master. But if they + followed this advice of the distant Pope and were caught, they were hanged + by their near-by Lege Lord and that too was very unpleasant. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, the poor fellows were in a difficult position and none fared worse + than those who lived during the latter half of the eleventh century, when + the Emperor Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory VII fought a two-round + battle which decided nothing and upset the peace of Europe for almost + fifty years. + </p> + <p> + In the middle of the eleventh century there had been a strong movement for + reform in the church. The election of the Popes, thus far, had been a most + irregular affair. It was to the advantage of the Holy Roman Emperors to + have a well-disposed priest elected to the Holy See. They frequently came + to Rome at the time of election and used their influence for the benefit + of one of their friends. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1059 this had been changed. By a decree of Pope Nicholas II + the principal priests and deacons of the churches in and around Rome were + organised into the so-called College of Cardinals, and this gathering of + prominent churchmen (the word "Cardinal" meant principal) was given the + exclusive power of electing the future Popes. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1073 the College of Cardinals elected a priest by the name of + Hildebrand, the son of very simple parents in Tuscany, as Pope, and he + took the name of Gregory VII. His energy was unbounded. His belief in the + supreme powers of his Holy Office was built upon a granite rock of + conviction and courage. In the mind of Gregory, the Pope was not only the + absolute head of the Christian church, but also the highest Court of + Appeal in all worldly matters. The Pope who had elevated simple German + princes to the dignity of Emperor could depose them at will. He could veto + any law passed by duke or king or emperor, but whosoever should question a + papal decree, let him beware, for the punishment would be swift and + merciless. + </p> + <p> + Gregory sent ambassadors to all the European courts to inform the + potentates of Europe of his new laws and asked them to take due notice of + their contents. William the Conqueror promised to be good, but Henry IV, + who since the age of six had been fighting with his subjects, had no + intention of submitting to the Papal will. He called together a college of + German bishops, accused Gregory of every crime under the sun and then had + him deposed by the council of Worms. + </p> + <p> + The Pope answered with excommunication and a demand that the German + princes rid themselves of their unworthy ruler. The German princes, only + too happy to be rid of Henry, asked the Pope to come to Augsburg and help + them elect a new Emperor. + </p> + <p> + Gregory left Rome and travelled northward. Henry, who was no fool, + appreciated the danger of his position. At all costs he must make peace + with the Pope, and he must do it at once. In the midst of winter he + crossed the Alps and hastened to Canossa where the Pope had stopped for a + short rest. Three long days, from the 25th to the 28th of January of the + year 1077, Henry, dressed as a penitent pilgrim (but with a warm sweater + underneath his monkish garb), waited outside the gates of the castle of + Canossa. Then he was allowed to enter and was pardoned for his sins. But + the repentance did not last long. As soon as Henry had returned to + Germany, he behaved exactly as before. Again he was excommunicated. For + the second time a council of German bishops deposed Gregory, but this + time, when Henry crossed the Alps he was at the head of a large army, + besieged Rome and forced Gregory to retire to Salerno, where he died in + exile. This first violent outbreak decided nothing. As soon as Henry was + back in Germany, the struggle between Pope and Emperor was continued. + </p> + <p> + The Hohenstaufen family which got hold of the Imperial German Throne + shortly afterwards, were even more independent than their predecessors. + Gregory had claimed that the Popes were superior to all kings because they + (the Popes) at the Day of Judgement would be responsible for the behaviour + of all the sheep of their flock, and in the eyes of God, a king was one of + that faithful herd. + </p> + <p> + Frederick of Hohenstaufen, commonly known as Barbarossa or Red Beard, set + up the counter-claim that the Empire had been bestowed upon his + predecessor "by God himself" and as the Empire included Italy and Rome, he + began a campaign which was to add these "lost provinces" to the northern + country. Barbarossa was accidentally drowned in Asia Minor during the + second Crusade, but his son Frederick II, a brilliant young man who in his + youth had been exposed to the civilisation of the Mohammedans of Sicily, + continued the war. The Popes accused him of heresy. It is true that + Frederick seems to have felt a deep and serious contempt for the rough + Christian world of the North, for the boorish German Knights and the + intriguing Italian priests. But he held his tongue, went on a Crusade and + took Jerusalem from the infidel and was duly crowned as King of the Holy + City. Even this act did not placate the Popes. They deposed Frederick and + gave his Italian possessions to Charles of Anjou, the brother of that King + Louis of France who became famous as Saint Louis. This led to more + warfare. Conrad V, the son of Conrad IV, and the last of the + Hohenstaufens, tried to regain the kingdom, and was defeated and + decapitated at Naples. But twenty years later, the French who had made + themselves thoroughly unpopular in Sicily were all murdered during the + so-called Sicilian Vespers, and so it went. + </p> + <p> + The quarrel between the Popes and the Emperors was never settled, but + after a while the two enemies learned to leave each other alone. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1278, Rudolph of Hapsburg was elected Emperor. He did not take + the trouble to go to Rome to be crowned. The Popes did not object and in + turn they kept away from Germany. This meant peace but two entire + centuries which might have been used for the purpose of internal + organisation had been wasted in useless warfare. + </p> + <p> + It is an ill wind however that bloweth no good to some one. The little + cities of Italy, by a process of careful balancing, had managed to + increase their power and their independence at the expense of both + Emperors and Popes. When the rush for the Holy Land began, they were able + to handle the transportation problem of the thousands of eager pilgrims + who were clamoring for passage, and at the end of the Crusades they had + built themselves such strong defences of brick and of gold that they could + defy Pope and Emperor with equal indifference. + </p> + <p> + Church and State fought each other and a third party—the mediaeval + city—ran away with the spoils. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE CRUSADES + </h2> + <p> + BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS TOOK THE + HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE + TRADE FROM EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING + </p> + <p> + DURING three centuries there had been peace between Christians and Moslems + except in Spain and in the eastern Roman Empire, the two states defending + the gateways of Europe. The Mohammedans having conquered Syria in the + seventh century were in possession of the Holy Land. But they regarded + Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great as Mohammed), and they + did not interfere with the pilgrims who wished to pray in the church which + Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, had built on the spot + of the Holy Grave. But early in the eleventh century, a Tartar tribe from + the wilds of Asia, called the Seljuks or Turks, became masters of the + Mohammedan state in western Asia and then the period of tolerance came to + an end. The Turks took all of Asia Minor away from the eastern Roman + Emperors and they made an end to the trade between east and west. + </p> + <p> + Alexis, the Emperor, who rarely saw anything of his Christian neighbours + of the west, appealed for help and pointed to the danger which threatened + Europe should the Turks take Constantinople. + </p> + <p> + The Italian cities which had established colonies along the coast of Asia + Minor and Palestine, in fear for their possessions, reported terrible + stories of Turkish atrocities and Christian suffering. All Europe got + excited. + </p> + <p> + Pope Urban II, a Frenchman from Reims, who had been educated at the same + famous cloister of Cluny which had trained Gregory VII, thought that the + time had come for action. The general state of Europe was far from + satisfactory. The primitive agricultural methods of that day (unchanged + since Roman times) caused a constant scarcity of food. There was + unemployment and hunger and these are apt to lead to discontent and riots. + Western Asia in older days had fed millions. It was an excellent field for + the purpose of immigration. + </p> + <p> + Therefore at the council of Clermont in France in the year 1095 the Pope + arose, described the terrible horrors which the infidels had inflicted + upon the Holy Land, gave a glowing description of this country which ever + since the days of Moses had been overflowing with milk and honey, and + exhorted the knights of France and the people of Europe in general to + leave wife and child and deliver Palestine from the Turks. + </p> + <p> + A wave of religious hysteria swept across the continent. All reason + stopped. Men would drop their hammer and saw, walk out of their shop and + take the nearest road to the east to go and kill Turks. Children would + leave their homes to "go to Palestine" and bring the terrible Turks to + their knees by the mere appeal of their youthful zeal and Christian piety. + Fully ninety percent of those enthusiasts never got within sight of the + Holy Land. They had no money. They were forced to beg or steal to keep + alive. They became a danger to the safety of the highroads and they were + killed by the angry country people. + </p> + <p> + The first Crusade, a wild mob of honest Christians, defaulting bankrupts, + penniless noblemen and fugitives from justice, following the lead of + half-crazy Peter the Hermit and Walter-without-a-Cent, began their + campaign against the Infidels by murdering all the Jews whom they met by + the way. They got as far as Hungary and then they were all killed. + </p> + <p> + This experience taught the Church a lesson. Enthusiasm alone would not set + the Holy Land free. Organisation was as necessary as good-will and + courage. A year was spent in training and equipping an army of 200,000 + men. They were placed under command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert, duke + of Normandy, Robert, count of Flanders, and a number of other noblemen, + all experienced in the art of war. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1096 this second crusade started upon its long voyage. At + Constantinople the knights did homage to the Emperor. (For as I have told + you, traditions die hard, and a Roman Emperor, however poor and powerless, + was still held in great respect). Then they crossed into Asia, killed all + the Moslems who fell into their hands, stormed Jerusalem, massacred the + Mohammedan population, and marched to the Holy Sepulchre to give praise + and thanks amidst tears of piety and gratitude. But soon the Turks were + strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops. Then they retook Jerusalem + and in turn killed the faithful followers of the Cross. + </p> + <p> + During the next two centuries, seven other crusades took place. Gradually + the Crusaders learned the technique of the trip. The land voyage was too + tedious and too dangerous. They preferred to cross the Alps and go to + Genoa or Venice where they took ship for the east. The Genoese and the + Venetians made this trans-Mediterranean passenger service a very + profitable business. They charged exorbitant rates, and when the Crusaders + (most of whom had very little money) could not pay the price, these + Italian "profiteers" kindly allowed them to "work their way across." In + return for a fare from Venice to Acre, the Crusader undertook to do a + stated amount of fighting for the owners of his vessel. In this way Venice + greatly increased her territory along the coast of the Adriatic and in + Greece, where Athens became a Venetian colony, and in the islands of + Cyprus and Crete and Rhodes. + </p> + <p> + All this, however, helped little in settling the question of the Holy + Land. After the first enthusiasm had worn off, a short crusading trip + became part of the liberal education of every well-bred young man, and + there never was any lack of candidates for service in Palestine. But the + old zeal was gone. The Crusaders, who had begun their warfare with deep + hatred for the Mohammedans and great love for the Christian people of the + eastern Roman Empire and Armenia, suffered a complete change of heart. + They came to despise the Greeks of Byzantium, who cheated them and + frequently betrayed the cause of the Cross, and the Armenians and all the + other Levantine races, and they began to appreciate the virtues of their + enemies who proved to be generous and fair opponents. + </p> + <p> + Of course, it would never do to say this openly. But when the Crusader + returned home, he was likely to imitate the manners which he had learned + from his heathenish foe, compared to whom the average western knight was + still a good deal of a country bumpkin. He also brought with him several + new food-stuffs, such as peaches and spinach which he planted in his + garden and grew for his own benefit. He gave up the barbarous custom of + wearing a load of heavy armour and appeared in the flowing robes of silk + or cotton which were the traditional habit of the followers of the Prophet + and were originally worn by the Turks. Indeed the Crusades, which had + begun as a punitive expedition against the Heathen, became a course of + general instruction in civilisation for millions of young Europeans. + </p> + <p> + From a military and political point of view the Crusades were a failure. + Jerusalem and a number of cities were taken and lost. A dozen little + kingdoms were established in Syria and Palestine and Asia Minor, but they + were re-conquered by the Turks and after the year 1244 (when Jerusalem + became definitely Turkish) the status of the Holy Land was the same as it + had been before 1095. + </p> + <p> + But Europe had undergone a great change. The people of the west had been + allowed a glimpse of the light and the sunshine and the beauty of the + east. Their dreary castles no longer satisfied them. They wanted a broader + life. Neither Church nor State could give this to them. + </p> + <p> + They found it in the cities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE MEDIAEVAL CITY + </h2> + <h3> + WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SAID THAT "CITY AIR IS FREE AIR" + </h3> + <p> + THE early part of the Middle Ages had been an era of pioneering and of + settlement. A new people, who thus far had lived outside the wild range of + forest, mountains and marshes which protected the north-eastern frontier + of the Roman Empire, had forced its way into the plains of western Europe + and had taken possession of most of the land. They were restless, as all + pioneers have been since the beginning of time. They liked to be "on the + go." They cut down the forests and they cut each other's throats with + equal energy. Few of them wanted to live in cities. They insisted upon + being "free," they loved to feel the fresh air of the hillsides fill their + lungs while they drove their herds across the wind-swept pastures. When + they no longer liked their old homes, they pulled up stakes and went away + in search of fresh adventures. + </p> + <p> + The weaker ones died. The hardy fighters and the courageous women who had + followed their men into the wilderness survived. In this way they + developed a strong race of men. They cared little for the graces of life. + They were too busy to play the fiddle or write pieces of poetry. They had + little love for discussions. The priest, "the learned man" of the village + (and before the middle of the thirteenth century, a layman who could read + and write was regarded as a "sissy") was supposed to settle all questions + which had no direct practical value. Meanwhile the German chieftain, the + Frankish Baron, the Northman Duke (or whatever their names and titles) + occupied their share of the territory which once had been part of the + great Roman Empire and among the ruins of past glory, they built a world + of their own which pleased them mightily and which they considered quite + perfect. + </p> + <p> + They managed the affairs of their castle and the surrounding country to + the best of their ability. They were as faithful to the commandments of + the Church as any weak mortal could hope to be. They were sufficiently + loyal to their king or emperor to keep on good terms with those distant + but always dangerous potentates. In short, they tried to do right and to + be fair to their neighbours without being exactly unfair to their own + interests. + </p> + <p> + It was not an ideal world in which they found themselves. The greater part + of the people were serfs or "villains," farm-hands who were as much a part + of the soil upon which they lived as the cows and sheep whose stables they + shared. Their fate was not particularly happy nor was it particularly + unhappy. But what was one to do? The good Lord who ruled the world of the + Middle Ages had undoubtedly ordered everything for the best. If He, in his + wisdom, had decided that there must be both knights and serfs, it was not + the duty of these faithful sons of the church to question the arrangement. + The serfs therefore did not complain but when they were too hard driven, + they would die off like cattle which are not fed and stabled in the right + way, and then something would be hastily done to better their condition. + But if the progress of the world had been left to the serf and his feudal + master, we would still be living after the fashion of the twelfth century, + saying "abracadabra" when we tried to stop a tooth-ache, and feeling a + deep contempt and hatred for the dentist who offered to help us with his + "science," which most likely was of Mohammedan or heathenish origin and + therefore both wicked and useless. + </p> + <p> + When you grow up you will discover that many people do not believe in + "progress" and they will prove to you by the terrible deeds of some of our + own contemporaries that "the world does not change." But I hope that you + will not pay much attention to such talk. You see, it took our ancestors + almost a million years to learn how to walk on their hind legs. Other + centuries had to go by before their animal-like grunts developed into an + understandable language. Writing—the art of preserving our ideas for + the benefit of future generations, without which no progress is possible + was invented only four thousand years ago. The idea of turning the forces + of nature into the obedient servants of man was quite new in the days of + your own grandfather. It seems to me, therefore, that we are making + progress at an unheard-of rate of speed. Perhaps we have paid a little too + much attention to the mere physical comforts of life. That will change in + due course of time and we shall then attack the problems which are not + related to health and to wages and plumbing and machinery in general. + </p> + <p> + But please do not be too sentimental about the "good old days." Many + people who only see the beautiful churches and the great works of art + which the Middle Ages have left behind grow quite eloquent when they + compare our own ugly civilisation with its hurry and its noise and the + evil smells of backfiring motor trucks with the cities of a thousand years + ago. But these mediaeval churches were invariably surrounded by miserable + hovels compared to which a modern tenement house stands forth as a + luxurious palace. It is true that the noble Lancelot and the equally noble + Parsifal, the pure young hero who went in search of the Holy Grail, were + not bothered by the odor of gasoline. But there were other smells of the + barnyard variety—odors of decaying refuse which had been thrown into + the street—of pig-sties surrounding the Bishop's palace—of + unwashed people who had inherited their coats and hats from their + grandfathers and who had never learned the blessing of soap. I do not want + to paint too unpleasant a picture. But when you read in the ancient + chronicles that the King of France, looking out of the windows of his + palace, fainted at the stench caused by the pigs rooting in the streets of + Paris, when an ancient manuscript recounts a few details of an epidemic of + the plague or of small-pox, then you begin to under-stand that "progress" + is something more than a catchword used by modern advertising men. + </p> + <p> + No, the progress of the last six hundred years would not have been + possible without the existence of cities. I shall, therefore, have to make + this chapter a little longer than many of the others. It is too important + to be reduced to three or four pages, devoted to mere political events. + </p> + <p> + The ancient world of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria had been a world of + cities. Greece had been a country of City-States. The history of Phoenicia + was the history of two cities called Sidon and Tyre. The Roman Empire was + the "hinterland" of a single town. Writing, art, science, astronomy, + architecture, literature, the theatre—the list is endless—have + all been products of the city. + </p> + <p> + For almost four thousand years the wooden bee-hive which we call a town + had been the workshop of the world. Then came the great migrations. The + Roman Empire was destroyed. The cities were burned down and Europe once + more became a land of pastures and little agricultural villages. During + the Dark Ages the fields of civilisation had lain fallow. + </p> + <p> + The Crusades had prepared the soil for a new crop. It was time for the + harvest, but the fruit was plucked by the burghers of the free cities. + </p> + <p> + I have told you the story of the castles and the monasteries, with their + heavy stone enclosures—the homes of the knights and the monks, who + guarded men's bodies and their souls. You have seen how a few artisans + (butchers and bakers and an occasional candle-stick maker) came to live + near the castle to tend to the wants of their masters and to find + protection in case of danger. Sometimes the feudal lord allowed these + people to surround their houses with a stockade. But they were dependent + for their living upon the good-will of the mighty Seigneur of the castle. + When he went about they knelt before him and kissed his hand. + </p> + <p> + Then came the Crusades and many things changed. The migrations had driven + people from the north-east to the west. The Crusades made millions of + people travel from the west to the highly civilised regions of the + south-east. They discovered that the world was not bounded by the four + walls of their little settlement. They came to appreciate better clothes, + more comfortable houses, new dishes, products of the mysterious Orient. + After their return to their old homes, they insisted that they be supplied + with those articles. The peddler with his pack upon his back—the + only merchant of the Dark Ages—added these goods to his old + merchandise, bought a cart, hired a few ex-crusaders to protect him + against the crime wave which followed this great international war, and + went forth to do business upon a more modern and larger scale. His career + was not an easy one. Every time he entered the domains of another Lord he + had to pay tolls and taxes. But the business was profitable all the same + and the peddler continued to make his rounds. + </p> + <p> + Soon certain energetic merchants discovered that the goods which they had + always imported from afar could be made at home. They turned part of their + homes into a workgshop.{sic} They ceased to be merchants and became + manufacturers. They sold their products not only to the lord of the castle + and to the abbot in his monastery, but they exported them to nearby towns. + The lord and the abbot paid them with products of their farms, eggs and + wines, and with honey, which in those early days was used as sugar. But + the citizens of distant towns were obliged to pay in cash and the + manufacturer and the merchant began to own little pieces of gold, which + entirely changed their position in the society of the early Middle Ages. + </p> + <p> + It is difficult for you to imagine a world without money. In a modern city + one cannot possible live without money. All day long you carry a pocket + full of small discs of metal to "pay your way." You need a nickel for the + street-car, a dollar for a dinner, three cents for an evening paper. But + many people of the early Middle Ages never saw a piece of coined money + from the time they were born to the day of their death. The gold and + silver of Greece and Rome lay buried beneath the ruins of their cities. + The world of the migrations, which had succeeded the Empire, was an + agricultural world. Every farmer raised enough grain and enough sheep and + enough cows for his own use. + </p> + <p> + The mediaeval knight was a country squire and was rarely forced to pay for + materials in money. His estates produced everything that he and his family + ate and drank and wore on their backs. The bricks for his house were made + along the banks of the nearest river. Wood for the rafters of the hall was + cut from the baronial forest. The few articles that had to come from + abroad were paid for in goods—in honey—in eggs—in + fagots. + </p> + <p> + But the Crusades upset the routine of the old agricultural life in a very + drastic fashion. Suppose that the Duke of Hildesheim was going to the Holy + Land. He must travel thousands of miles and he must pay his passage and + his hotel-bills. At home he could pay with products of his farm. But he + could not well take a hundred dozen eggs and a cart-load of hams with him + to satisfy the greed of the shipping agent of Venice or the inn-keeper of + the Brenner Pass. These gentlemen insisted upon cash. His Lordship + therefore was obliged to take a small quantity of gold with him upon his + voyage. Where could he find this gold? He could borrow it from the + Lombards, the descendants of the old Longobards, who had turned + professional money-lenders, who seated behind their exchange-table + (commonly known as "banco" or bank) were glad to let his Grace have a few + hundred gold pieces in exchange for a mortgage upon his estates, that they + might be repaid in case His Lordship should die at the hands of the Turks. + </p> + <p> + That was dangerous business for the borrower. In the end, the Lombards + invariably owned the estates and the Knight became a bankrupt, who hired + himself out as a fighting man to a more powerful and more careful + neighbour. + </p> + <p> + His Grace could also go to that part of the town where the Jews were + forced to live. There he could borrow money at a rate of fifty or sixty + percent. interest. That, too, was bad business. But was there a way out? + Some of the people of the little city which surrounded the castle were + said to have money. They had known the young lord all his life. His father + and their fathers had been good friends. They would not be unreasonable in + their demands. Very well. His Lordship's clerk, a monk who could write and + keep accounts, sent a note to the best known merchants and asked for a + small loan. The townspeople met in the work-room of the jeweller who made + chalices for the nearby churches and discussed this demand. They could not + well refuse. It would serve no purpose to ask for "interest." In the first + place, it was against the religious principles of most people to take + interest and in the second place, it would never be paid except in + agricultural products and of these the people had enough and to spare. + </p> + <p> + "But," suggested the tailor who spent his days quietly sitting upon his + table and who was somewhat of a philosopher, "suppose that we ask some + favour in return for our money. We are all fond of fishing. But his + Lordship won't let us fish in his brook. Suppose that we let him have a + hundred ducats and that he give us in return a written guarantee allowing + us to fish all we want in all of his rivers. Then he gets the hundred + which he needs, but we get the fish and it will be good business all + around." + </p> + <p> + The day his Lordship accepted this proposition (it seemed such an easy way + of getting a hundred gold pieces) he signed the death-warrant of his own + power. His clerk drew up the agreement. His Lordship made his mark (for he + could not sign his name) and departed for the East. Two years later he + came back, dead broke. The townspeople were fishing in the castle pond. + The sight of this silent row of anglers annoyed his Lordship. He told his + equerry to go and chase the crowd away. They went, but that night a + delegation of merchants visited the castle. They were very polite. They + congratulated his Lordship upon his safe return. They were sorry his + Lordship had been annoyed by the fishermen, but as his Lordship might + perhaps remember he had given them permission to do so himself, and the + tailor produced the Charter which had been kept in the safe of the + jeweller ever since the master had gone to the Holy Land. + </p> + <p> + His Lordship was much annoyed. But once more he was in dire need of some + money. In Italy he had signed his name to certain documents which were now + in the possession of Salvestro dei Medici, the well-known banker. These + documents were "promissory notes" and they were due two months from date. + Their total amount came to three hundred and forty pounds, Flemish gold. + Under these circumstances, the noble knight could not well show the rage + which filled his heart and his proud soul. Instead, he suggested another + little loan. The merchants retired to discuss the matter. + </p> + <p> + After three days they came back and said "yes." They were only too happy + to be able to help their master in his difficulties, but in return for the + 345 golden pounds would he give them another written promise (another + charter) that they, the townspeople, might establish a council of their + own to be elected by all the merchants and free citizens of the city, said + council to manage civic affairs without interference from the side of the + castle? + </p> + <p> + His Lordship was confoundedly angry. But again, he needed the money. He + said yes, and signed the charter. Next week, he repented. He called his + soldiers and went to the house of the jeweller and asked for the documents + which his crafty subjects had cajoled out of him under the pressure of + circumstances. He took them away and burned them. The townspeople stood by + and said nothing. But when next his Lordship needed money to pay for the + dowry of his daughter, he was unable to get a single penny. After that + little affair at the jeweller's his credit was not considered good. He was + forced to eat humble-pie and offer to make certain reparations. Before his + Lordship got the first installment of the stipulated sum, the townspeople + were once more in possession of all their old charters and a brand new one + which permitted them to build a "city-hall" and a strong tower where all + the charters might be kept protected against fire and theft, which really + meant protected against future violence on the part of the Lord and his + armed followers. + </p> + <p> + This, in a very general way, is what happened during the centuries which + followed the Crusades. It was a slow process, this gradual shifting of + power from the castle to the city. There was some fighting. A few tailors + and jewellers were killed and a few castles went up in smoke. But such + occurrences were not common. Almost imperceptibly the towns grew richer + and the feudal lords grew poorer. To maintain themselves they were for + ever forced to exchange charters of civic liberty in return for ready + cash. The cities grew. They offered an asylum to run-away serfs who gained + their liberty after they had lived a number of years behind the city + walls. They came to be the home of the more energetic elements of the + surrounding country districts. They were proud of their new importance and + expressed their power in the churches and public buildings which they + erected around the old market place, where centuries before the barter of + eggs and sheep and honey and salt had taken place. They wanted their + children to have a better chance in life than they had enjoyed themselves. + They hired monks to come to their city and be school teachers. When they + heard of a man who could paint pictures upon boards of wood, they offered + him a pension if he would come and cover the walls of their chapels and + their town hall with scenes from the Holy Scriptures. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile his Lordship, in the dreary and drafty halls of his castle, saw + all this up-start splendour and regretted the day when first he had signed + away a single one of his sovereign rights and prerogatives. But he was + helpless. The townspeople with their well-filled strong-boxes snapped + their fingers at him. They were free men, fully prepared to hold what they + had gained by the sweat of their brow and after a struggle which had + lasted for more than ten generations. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEDIAEVAL SELF-GOVERNMENT + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED THEIR RIGHT TO BE HEARD IN THE ROYAL + COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY + </p> + <p> + As long as people were "nomads," wandering tribes of shepherds, all men + had been equal and had been responsible for the welfare and safety of the + entire community. + </p> + <p> + But after they had settled down and some had become rich and others had + grown poor, the government was apt to fall into the hands of those who + were not obliged to work for their living and who could devote themselves + to politics. + </p> + <p> + I have told you how this had happened in Egypt and in Mesopotamia and in + Greece and in Rome. It occurred among the Germanic population of western + Europe as soon as order had been restored. The western European world was + ruled in the first place by an emperor who was elected by the seven or + eight most important kings of the vast Roman Empire of the German nation + and who enjoyed a great deal of imaginary and very little actual power. It + was ruled by a number of kings who sat upon shaky thrones. The every-day + government was in the hands of thousands of feudal princelets. Their + subjects were peasants or serfs. There were few cities. There was hardly + any middle class. But during the thirteenth century (after an absence of + almost a thousand years) the middle class—the merchant class—once + more appeared upon the historical stage and its rise in power, as we saw + in the last chapter, had meant a decrease in the influence of the castle + folk. + </p> + <p> + Thus far, the king, in ruling his domains, had only paid attention to the + wishes of his noblemen and his bishops. But the new world of trade and + commerce which grew out of the Crusades forced him to recognise the middle + class or suffer from an ever-increasing emptiness of his exchequer. Their + majesties (if they had followed their hidden wishes) would have as lief + consulted their cows and their pigs as the good burghers of their cities. + But they could not help themselves. They swallowed the bitter pill because + it was gilded, but not without a struggle. + </p> + <p> + In England, during the absence of Richard the Lion Hearted (who had gone + to the Holy Land, but who was spending the greater part of his crusading + voyage in an Austrian jail) the government of the country had been placed + in the hands of John, a brother of Richard, who was his inferior in the + art of war, but his equal as a bad administrator. John had begun his + career as a regent by losing Normandy and the greater part of the French + possessions. Next, he had managed to get into a quarrel with Pope Innocent + III, the famous enemy of the Hohenstaufens. The Pope had excommunicated + John (as Gregory VII had excommunicated the Emperor Henry IV two centuries + before). In the year 1213 John had been obliged to make an ignominious + peace just as Henry IV had been obliged to do in the year 1077. + </p> + <p> + Undismayed by his lack of success, John continued to abuse his royal power + until his disgruntled vassals made a prisoner of their anointed ruler and + forced him to promise that he would be good and would never again + interfere with the ancient rights of his subjects. All this happened on a + little island in the Thames, near the village of Runnymede, on the 15th of + June of the year 1215. The document to which John signed his name was + called the Big Charter—the Magna Carta. It contained very little + that was new. It re-stated in short and direct sentences the ancient + duties of the king and enumerated the privileges of his vassals. It paid + little attention to the rights (if any) of the vast majority of the + people, the peasants, but it offered certain securities to the rising + class of the merchants. It was a charter of great importance because it + defined the powers of the king with more precision than had ever been done + before. But it was still a purely mediaeval document. It did not refer to + common human beings, unless they happened to be the property of the + vassal, which must be safe-guarded against royal tyranny just as the + Baronial woods and cows were protected against an excess of zeal on the + part of the royal foresters. + </p> + <p> + A few years later, however, we begin to hear a very different note in the + councils of His Majesty. + </p> + <p> + John, who was bad, both by birth and inclination, solemnly had promised to + obey the great charter and then had broken every one of its many + stipulations. Fortunately, he soon died and was succeeded by his son Henry + III, who was forced to recognise the charter anew. Meanwhile, Uncle + Richard, the Crusader, had cost the country a great deal of money and the + king was obliged to ask for a few loans that he might pay his obligations + to the Jewish money-lenders. The large land-owners and the bishops who + acted as councillors to the king could not provide him with the necessary + gold and silver. The king then gave orders that a few representatives of + the cities be called upon to attend the sessions of his Great Council. + They made their first appearance in the year 1265. They were supposed to + act only as financial experts who were not supposed to take a part in the + general discussion of matters of state, but to give advice exclusively + upon the question of taxation. + </p> + <p> + Gradually, however, these representatives of the "commons" were consulted + upon many of the problems and the meeting of noblemen, bishops and city + delegates developed into a regular Parliament, a place "ou l'on parfait," + which means in English where people talked, before important affairs of + state were decided upon. + </p> + <p> + But the institution of such a general advisory-board with certain + executive powers was not an English invention, as seems to ke the general + belief, and government by a "king and his parliament" was by no means + restricted to the British Isles. You will find it in every part of Europe. + In some countries, like France, the rapid increase of the Royal power + after the Middle Ages reduced the influence of the "parliament" to + nothing. In the year 1302 representatives of the cities had been admitted + to the meeting of the French Parliament, but five centuries had to pass + before this "Parliament" was strong enough to assert the rights of the + middle class, the so-called Third Estate, and break the power of the king. + Then they made up for lost time and during the French Revolution, + abolished the king, the clergy and the nobles and made the representatives + of the common people the rulers of the land. In Spain the "cortex" (the + king's council) had been opened to the commoners as early as the first + half of the twelfth century. In the Germain Empire, a number of important + cities had obtained the rank of "imperial cities" whose representatives + must be heard in the imperial diet. + </p> + <p> + In Sweden, representatives of the people attended the sessions of the + Riksdag at the first meeting of the year 1359. In Denmark the Daneholf, + the ancient national assembly, was re-established in 1314, and, although + the nobles often regained control of the country at the expense of the + king and the people, the representatives of the cities were never + completely deprived of their power. + </p> + <p> + In the Scandinavian country, the story of representative government is + particularly interesting. In Iceland, the "Althing," the assembly of all + free landowners, who managed the affairs of the island, began to hold + regular meetings in the ninth century and continued to do so for more than + a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + In Switzerland, the freemen of the different cantons defended their + assemblies against the attempts of a number of feudal neighbours with + great success. + </p> + <p> + Finally, in the Low Countries, in Holland, the councils of the different + duchies and counties were attended by representatives of the third estate + as early as the thirteenth century. + </p> + <p> + In the sixteenth century a number of these small provinces rebelled + against their king, abjured his majesty in a solemn meeting of the + "Estates General," removed the clergy from the discussions, broke the + power of the nobles and assumed full executive authority over the + newly-established Republic of the United Seven Netherlands. For two + centuries, the representatives of the town-councils ruled the country + without a king, without bishops and without noblemen. The city had become + supreme and the good burghers had become the rulers of the land. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD + </h2> + <p> + WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES THOUGHT OF THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY + HAPPENED TO LIVE + </p> + <p> + DATES are a very useful invention. We could not do without them but unless + we are very careful, they will play tricks with us. They are apt to make + history too precise. For example, when I talk of the point-of-view of + mediaeval man, I do not mean that on the 31st of December of the year 476, + suddenly all the people of Europe said, "Ah, now the Roman Empire has come + to an end and we are living in the Middle Ages. How interesting!" + </p> + <p> + You could have found men at the Frankish court of Charlemagne who were + Romans in their habits, in their manners, in their out-look upon life. On + the other hand, when you grow up you will discover that some of the people + in this world have never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man. All + times and all ages overlap, and the ideas of succeeding generations play + tag with each other. But it is possible to study the minds of a good many + true representatives of the Middle Ages and then give you an idea of the + average man's attitude toward life and the many difficult problems of + living. + </p> + <p> + First of all, remember that the people of the Middle Ages never thought of + themselves as free-born citizens, who could come and go at will and shape + their fate according to their ability or energy or luck. On the contrary, + they all considered themselves part of the general scheme of things, which + included emperors and serfs, popes and heretics, heroes and swashbucklers, + rich men, poor men, beggar men and thieves. They accepted this divine + ordinance and asked no questions. In this, of course, they differed + radically from modern people who accept nothing and who are forever trying + to improve their own financial and political situation. + </p> + <p> + To the man and woman of the thirteenth century, the world hereafter—a + Heaven of wonderful delights and a Hell of brimstone and suffering—meant + something more than empty words or vague theological phrases. It was an + actual fact and the mediaeval burghers and knights spent the greater part + of their time preparing for it. We modern people regard a noble death + after a well-spent life with the quiet calm of the ancient Greeks and + Romans. After three score years of work and effort, we go to sleep with + the feeling that all will be well. + </p> + <p> + But during the Middle Ages, the King of Terrors with his grinning skull + and his rattling bones was man's steady companion. He woke his victims up + with terrible tunes on his scratchy fiddle he sat down with them at dinner—he + smiled at them from behind trees and shrubs when they took a girl out for + a walk. If you had heard nothing but hair-raising yarns about cemeteries + and coffins and fearful diseases when you were very young, instead of + listening to the fairy stories of Anderson and Grimm, you, too, would have + lived all your days in a dread of the final hour and the gruesome day of + Judgment. That is exactly what happened to the children of the Middle + Ages. They moved in a world of devils and spooks and only a few occasional + angels. Sometimes, their fear of the future filled their souls with + humility and piety, but often it influenced them the other way and made + them cruel and sentimental. They would first of all murder all the women + and children of a captured city and then they would devoutly march to a + holy spot and with their hands gory with the blood of innocent victims, + they would pray that a merciful heaven forgive them their sins. Yea, they + would do more than pray, they would weep bitter tears and would confess + themselves the most wicked of sinners. But the next day, they would once + more butcher a camp of Saracen enemies without a spark of mercy in their + hearts. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the Crusaders were Knights and obeyed a somewhat different code + of manners from the common men. But in such respects the common man was + just the same as his master. He, too, resembled a shy horse, easily + frightened by a shadow or a silly piece of paper, capable of excellent and + faithful service but liable to run away and do terrible damage when his + feverish imagination saw a ghost. + </p> + <p> + In judging these good people, however, it is wise to remember the terrible + disadvantages under which they lived. They were really barbarians who + posed as civilised people. Charlemagne and Otto the Great were called + "Roman Emperors," but they had as little resemblance to a real Roman + Emperor (say Augustus or Marcus Aurelius) as "King" Wumba Wumba of the + upper Congo has to the highly educated rulers of Sweden or Denmark. They + were savages who lived amidst glorious ruins but who did not share the + benefits of the civilisation which their fathers and grandfathers had + destroyed. They knew nothing. They were ignorant of almost every fact + which a boy of twelve knows to-day. They were obliged to go to one single + book for all their information. That was the Bible. But those parts of the + Bible which have influenced the history of the human race for the better + are those chapters of the New Testament which teach us the great moral + lessons of love, charity and forgiveness. As a handbook of astronomy, + zoology, botany, geometry and all the other sciences, the venerable book + is not entirely reliable. In the twelfth century, a second book was added + to the mediaeval library, the great encyclopaedia of useful knowledge, + compiled by Aristotle, the Greek philosopher of the fourth century before + Christ. Why the Christian church should have been willing to accord such + high honors to the teacher of Alexander the Great, whereas they condemned + all other Greek philosophers on account of their heathenish doctrines, I + really do not know. But next to the Bible, Aristotle was recognized as the + only reliable teacher whose works could be safely placed into the hands of + true Christians. + </p> + <p> + His works had reached Europe in a somewhat roundabout way. They had gone + from Greece to Alexandria. They had then been translated from the Greek + into the Arabic language by the Mohammedans who conquered Egypt in the + seventh century. They had followed the Moslem armies into Spain and the + philosophy of the great Stagirite (Aristotle was a native of Stagira in + Macedonia) was taught in the Moorish universities of Cordova. The Arabic + text was then translated into Latin by the Christian students who had + crossed the Pyrenees to get a liberal education and this much travelled + version of the famous books was at last taught at the different schools of + northwestern Europe. It was not very clear, but that made it all the more + interesting. + </p> + <p> + With the help of the Bible and Aristotle, the most brilliant men of the + Middle Ages now set to work to explain all things between Heaven and Earth + in their relation to the expressed will of God. These brilliant men, the + so-called Scholasts or Schoolmen, were really very intelligent, but they + had obtained their information exclusively from books, and never from + actual observation. If they wanted to lecture on the sturgeon or on + caterpillars, they read the Old and New Testaments and Aristotle, and told + their students everything these good books had to say upon the subject of + caterpillars and sturgeons. They did not go out to the nearest river to + catch a sturgeon. They did not leave their libraries and repair to the + backyard to catch a few caterpillars and look at these animals and study + them in their native haunts. Even such famous scholars as Albertus Magnus + and Thomas Aquinas did not inquire whether the sturgeons in the land of + Palestine and the caterpillars of Macedonia might not have been different + from the sturgeons and the caterpillars of western Europe. + </p> + <p> + When occasionally an exceptionally curious person like Roger Bacon + appeared in the council of the learned and began to experiment with + magnifying glasses and funny little telescopes and actually dragged the + sturgen and the caterpillar into the lecturing room and proved that they + were different from the creatures described by the Old Testament and by + Aristotle, the Schoolmen shook their dignified heads. Bacon was going too + far. When he dared to suggest that an hour of actual observation was worth + more than ten years with Aristotle and that the works of that famous Greek + might as well have remained untranslated for all the good they had ever + done, the scholasts went to the police and said, "This man is a danger to + the safety of the state. He wants us to study Greek that we may read + Aristotle in the original. Why should he not be contented with our + Latin-Arabic translation which has satisfied our faithful people for so + many hundred years? Why is he so curious about the insides of fishes and + the insides of insects? He is probably a wicked magician trying to upset + the established order of things by his Black Magic." And so well did they + plead their cause that the frightened guardians of the peace forbade Bacon + to write a single word for more than ten years. When he resumed his + studies he had learned a lesson. He wrote his books in a queer cipher + which made it impossible for his contemporaries to read them, a trick + which became common as the Church became more desperate in its attempts to + prevent people from asking questions which would lead to doubts and + infidelity. + </p> + <p> + This, however, was not done out of any wicked desire to keep people + ignorant. The feeling which prompted the heretic hunters of that day was + really a very kindly one. They firmly believed—nay, they knew—that + this life was but the preparation for our real existence in the next + world. They felt convinced that too much knowledge made people + uncomfortable, filled their minds with dangerous opinions and led to doubt + and hence to perdition. A mediaeval Schoolman who saw one of his pupils + stray away from the revealed authority of the Bible and Aristotle, that he + might study things for himself, felt as uncomfortable as a loving mother + who sees her young child approach a hot stove. She knows that he will burn + his little fingers if he is allowed to touch it and she tries to keep him + back, if necessary she will use force. But she really loves the child and + if he will only obey her, she will be as good to him as she possibly can + be. In the same way the mediaeval guardians of people's souls, while they + were strict in all matters pertaining to the Faith, slaved day and night + to render the greatest possible service to the members of their flock. + They held out a helping hand whenever they could and the society of that + day shows the influence of thousands of good men and pious women who tried + to make the fate of the average mortal as bearable as possible. + </p> + <p> + A serf was a serf and his position would never change. But the Good Lord + of the Middle Ages who allowed the serf to remain a slave all his life had + bestowed an immortal soul upon this humble creature and therefore he must + be protected in his rights, that he might live and die as a good + Christian. When he grew too old or too weak to work he must be taken care + of by the feudal master for whom he had worked. The serf, therefore, who + led a monotonous and dreary life, was never haunted by fear of to-morrow. + He knew that he was "safe"—that he could not be thrown out of + employment, that he would always have a roof over his head (a leaky roof, + perhaps, but roof all the same), and that he would always have something + to eat. + </p> + <p> + This feeling of "stability" and of "safety" was found in all classes of + society. In the towns the merchants and the artisans established guilds + which assured every member of a steady income. It did not encourage the + ambitious to do better than their neighbours. Too often the guilds gave + protection to the "slacker" who managed to "get by." But they established + a general feeling of content and assurance among the labouring classes + which no longer exists in our day of general competition. The Middle Ages + were familiar with the dangers of what we modern people call "corners," + when a single rich man gets hold of all the available grain or soap or + pickled herring, and then forces the world to buy from him at his own + price. The authorities, therefore, discouraged wholesale trading and + regulated the price at which merchants were allowed to sell their goods. + </p> + <p> + The Middle Ages disliked competition. Why compete and fill the world with + hurry and rivalry and a multitude of pushing men, when the Day of + Judgement was near at hand, when riches would count for nothing and when + the good serf would enter the golden gates of Heaven while the bad knight + was sent to do penance in the deepest pit of Inferno? + </p> + <p> + In short, the people of the Middle Ages were asked to surrender part of + their liberty of thought and action, that they might enjoy greater safety + from poverty of the body and poverty of the soul. + </p> + <p> + And with a very few exceptions, they did not object. They firmly believed + that they were mere visitors upon this planet—that they were here to + be prepared for a greater and more important life. Deliberately they + turned their backs upon a world which was filled with suffering and + wickedness and injustice. They pulled down the blinds that the rays of the + sun might not distract their attention from that chapter in the Apocalypse + which told them of that heavenly light which was to illumine their + happiness in all eternity. They tried to close their eyes to most of the + joys of the world in which they lived that they might enjoy those which + awaited them in the near future. They accepted life as a necessary evil + and welcomed death as the beginning of a glorious day. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks and the Romans had never bothered about the future but had + tried to establish their Paradise right here upon this earth. They had + succeeded in making life extremely pleasant for those of their fellow men + who did not happen to be slaves. Then came the other extreme of the Middle + Ages, when man built himself a Paradise beyond the highest clouds and + turned this world into a vale of tears for high and low, for rich and + poor, for the intelligent and the dumb. It was time for the pendulum to + swing back in the other direction, as I shall tell you in my next chapter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEDIAEVAL TRADE + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE MEDITERRANEAN A BUSY CENTRE OF TRADE + AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE ITALIAN PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT DISTRIBUTING + CENTRE FOR THE COMMERCE WITH ASIA AND AFRICA + </p> + <p> + THERE were three good reasons why the Italian cities should have been the + first to regain a position of great importance during the late Middle + Ages. The Italian peninsula had been settled by Rome at a very early date. + There had been more roads and more towns and more schools than anywhere + else in Europe. + </p> + <p> + The barbarians had burned as lustily in Italy as elsewhere, but there had + been so much to destroy that more had been able to survive. In the second + place, the Pope lived in Italy and as the head of a vast political + machine, which owned land and serfs and buildings and forests and rivers + and conducted courts of law, he was in constant receipt of a great deal of + money. The Papal authorities had to be paid in gold and silver as did the + merchants and ship-owners of Venice and Genoa. The cows and the eggs and + the horses and all the other agricultural products of the north and the + west must be changed into actual cash before the debt could be paid in the + distant city of Rome. + </p> + <p> + This made Italy the one country where there was a comparative abundance of + gold and silver. Finally, during the Crusades, the Italian cities had + become the point of embarkation for the Crusaders and had profiteered to + an almost unbelievable extent. + </p> + <p> + And after the Crusades had come to an end, these same Italian cities + remained the distributing centres for those Oriental goods upon which the + people of Europe had come to depend during the time they had spent in the + near east. + </p> + <p> + Of these towns, few were as famous as Venice. Venice was a republic built + upon a mud bank. Thither people from the mainland had fled during the + invasions of the barbarians in the fourth century. Surrounded on all sides + by the sea they had engaged in the business of salt-making. Salt had been + very scarce during the Middle Ages, and the price had been high. For + hundreds of years Venice had enjoyed a monopoly of this indispensable + table commodity (I say indispensable, because people, like sheep, fall ill + unless they get a certain amount of salt in their food). The people had + used this monopoly to increase the power of their city. At times they had + even dared to defy the power of the Popes. The town had grown rich and had + begun to build ships, which engaged in trade with the Orient. During the + Crusades, these ships were used to carry passengers to the Holy Land, and + when the passengers could not pay for their tickets in cash, they were + obliged to help the Venetians who were for ever increasing their colonies + in the AEgean Sea, in Asia Minor and in Egypt. + </p> + <p> + By the end of the fourteenth century, the population had grown to two + hundred thousand, which made Venice the biggest city of the Middle Ages. + The people were without influence upon the government which was the + private affair of a small number of rich merchant families. They elected a + senate and a Doge (or Duke), but the actual rulers of the city were the + members of the famous Council of Ten,—who maintained themselves with + the help of a highly organised system of secret service men and + professional murderers, who kept watch upon all citizens and quietly + removed those who might be dangerous to the safety of their high-handed + and unscrupulous Committee of Public Safety. + </p> + <p> + The other extreme of government, a democracy of very turbulent habits, was + to be found in Florence. This city controlled the main road from northern + Europe to Rome and used the money which it had derived from this fortunate + economic position to engage in manufacturing. The Florentines tried to + follow the example of Athens. Noblemen, priests and members of the guilds + all took part in the discussions of civic affairs. This led to great civic + upheaval. People were forever being divided into political parties and + these parties fought each other with intense bitterness and exiled their + enemies and confiscated their possessions as soon as they had gained a + victory in the council. After several centuries of this rule by organised + mobs, the inevitable happened. A powerful family made itself master of the + city and governed the town and the surrounding country after the fashion + of the old Greek "tyrants." They were called the Medici. The earliest + Medici had been physicians (medicus is Latin for physician, hence their + name), but later they had turned banker. Their banks and their pawnshops + were to be found in all the more important centres of trade. Even today + our American pawn-shops display the three golden balls which were part of + the coat of arms of the mighty house of the Medici, who became rulers of + Florence and married their daughters to the kings of France and were + buried in graves worthy of a Roman Caesar. + </p> + <p> + Then there was Genoa, the great rival of Venice, where the merchants + specialised in trade with Tunis in Africa and the grain depots of the + Black Sea. Then there were more than two hundred other cities, some large + and some small, each a perfect commercial unit, all of them fighting their + neighbours and rivals with the undying hatred of neighbours who are + depriving each other of their profits. + </p> + <p> + Once the products of the Orient and Africa had been brought to these + distributing centres, they must be prepared for the voyage to the west and + the north. + </p> + <p> + Genoa carried her goods by water to Marseilles, from where they were + reshipped to the cities along the Rhone, which in turn served as the + market places of northern and western France. + </p> + <p> + Venice used the land route to northern Europe. This ancient road led + across the Brenner pass, the old gateway for the barbarians who had + invaded Italy. Past Innsbruck, the merchandise was carried to Basel. From + there it drifted down the Rhine to the North Sea and England, or it was + taken to Augsburg where the Fugger family (who were both bankers and + manufacturers and who prospered greatly by "shaving" the coins with which + they paid their workmen), looked after the further distribution to + Nuremberg and Leipzig and the cities of the Baltic and to Wisby (on the + Island of Gotland) which looked after the needs of the Northern Baltic and + dealt directly with the Republic of Novgorod, the old commercial centre of + Russia which was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the + sixteenth century. + </p> + <p> + The little cities on the coast of north-western Europe had an interesting + story of their own. The mediaeval world ate a great deal of fish. There + were many fast days and then people were not permitted to eat meat. For + those who lived away from the coast and from the rivers, this meant a diet + of eggs or nothing at all. But early in the thirteenth century a Dutch + fisherman had discovered a way of curing herring, so that it could be + transported to distant points. The herring fisheries of the North Sea then + became of great importance. But some time during the thirteenth century, + this useful little fish (for reasons of its own) moved from the North Sea + to the Baltic and the cities of that inland sea began to make money. All + the world now sailed to the Baltic to catch herring and as that fish could + only be caught during a few months each year (the rest of the time it + spends in deep water, raising large families of little herrings) the ships + would have been idle during the rest of the time unless they had found + another occupation. They were then used to carry the wheat of northern and + central Russia to southern and western Europe. On the return voyage they + brought spices and silks and carpets and Oriental rugs from Venice and + Genoa to Bruges and Hamburg and Bremen. + </p> + <p> + Out of such simple beginnings there developed an important system of + international trade which reached from the manufacturing cities of Bruges + and Ghent (where the almighty guilds fought pitched battles with the kings + of France and England and established a labour tyranny which completely + ruined both the employers and the workmen) to the Republic of Novgorod in + northern Russia, which was a mighty city until Tsar Ivan, who distrusted + all merchants, took the town and killed sixty thousand people in less than + a month's time and reduced the survivors to beggary. + </p> + <p> + That they might protect themselves against pirates and excessive tolls and + annoying legislation, the merchants of the north founded a protective + league which was called the "Hansa." The Hansa, which had its headquarters + in Lubeck, was a voluntary association of more than one hundred cities. + The association maintained a navy of its own which patrolled the seas and + fought and defeated the Kings of England and Denmark when they dared to + interfere with the rights and the privileges of the mighty Hanseatic + merchants. + </p> + <p> + I wish that I had more space to tell you some of the wonderful stories of + this strange commerce which was carried on across the high mountains and + across the deep seas amidst such dangers that every voyage became a + glorious adventure. But it would take several volumes and it cannot be + done here. + </p> + <p> + Besides, I hope that I have told you enough about the Middle Ages to make + you curious to read more in the excellent books of which I shall give you + a list at the end of this volume. + </p> + <p> + The Middle Ages, as I have tried to show you, had been a period of very + slow progress. The people who were in power believed that "progress" was a + very undesirable invention of the Evil One and ought to be discouraged, + and as they hap-pened to occupy the seats of the mighty, it was easy to + enforce their will upon the patient serfs and the illiterate knights. Here + and there a few brave souls sometimes ventured forth into the forbidden + region of science, but they fared badly and were considered lucky when + they escaped with their lives and a jail sentence of twenty years. + </p> + <p> + In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the flood of international + commerce swept over western Europe as the Nile had swept across the valley + of ancient Egypt. It left behind a fertile sediment of prosperity. + Prosperity meant leisure hours and these leisure hours gave both men and + women a chance to buy manuscripts and take an interest in literature and + art and music. + </p> + <p> + Then once more was the world filled with that divine curiosity which has + elevated man from the ranks of those other mammals who are his distant + cousins but who have remained dumb, and the cities, of whose growth and + development I have told you in my last chapter, offered a safe shelter to + these brave pioneers who dared to leave the very narrow domain of the + established order of things. + </p> + <p> + They set to work. They opened the windows of their cloistered and studious + cells. A flood of sunlight entered the dusty rooms and showed them the + cobwebs which had gathered during the long period of semi-darkness. + </p> + <p> + They began to clean house. Next they cleaned their gardens. + </p> + <p> + Then they went out into the open fields, outside the crumbling town walls, + and said, "This is a good world. We are glad that we live in it." + </p> + <p> + At that moment, the Middle Ages came to an end and a new world began. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE RENAISSANCE + </h2> + <p> + PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE ALIVE. THEY + TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION OF + ROME AND GREECE AND THEY WERE SO PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS THAT THEY + SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE OR RE-BIRTH OF CIVILISATION + </p> + <p> + THE Renaissance was not a political or religious movement. It was a state + of mind. + </p> + <p> + The men of the Renaissance continued to be the obedient sons of the mother + church. They were subjects of kings and emperors and dukes and murmured + not. + </p> + <p> + But their outlook upon life was changed. They began to wear different + clothes—to speak a different language—to live different lives + in different houses. + </p> + <p> + They no longer concentrated all their thoughts and their efforts upon the + blessed existence that awaited them in Heaven. They tried to establish + their Paradise upon this planet, and, truth to tell, they succeeded in a + remarkable degree. + </p> + <p> + I have quite often warned you against the danger that lies in historical + dates. People take them too literally. They think of the Middle Ages as a + period of darkness and ignorance. "Click," says the clock, and the + Renaissance begins and cities and palaces are flooded with the bright + sunlight of an eager intellectual curiosity. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, it is quite impossible to draw such sharp lines. The + thirteenth century belonged most decidedly to the Middle Ages. All + historians agree upon that. But was it a time of darkness and stagnation + merely? By no means. People were tremendously alive. Great states were + being founded. Large centres of commerce were being developed. High above + the turretted towers of the castle and the peaked roof of the town-hall, + rose the slender spire of the newly built Gothic cathedral. Everywhere the + world was in motion. The high and mighty gentlemen of the city-hall, who + had just become conscious of their own strength (by way of their recently + acquired riches) were struggling for more power with their feudal masters. + The members of the guilds who had just become aware of the important fact + that "numbers count" were fighting the high and mighty gentlemen of the + city-hall. The king and his shrewd advisers went fishing in these troubled + waters and caught many a shining bass of profit which they proceeded to + cook and eat before the noses of the surprised and disappointed + councillors and guild brethren. + </p> + <p> + To enliven the scenery during the long hours of evening when the badly + lighted streets did not invite further political and economic dispute, the + Troubadours and Minnesingers told their stories and sang their songs of + romance and adventure and heroism and loyalty to all fair women. Meanwhile + youth, impatient of the slowness of progress, flocked to the universities, + and thereby hangs a story. + </p> + <p> + The Middle Ages were "internationally minded." That sounds difficult, but + wait until I explain it to you. We modern people are "nationally minded." + We are Americans or Englishmen or Frenchmen or Italians and speak English + or French or Italian and go to English and French and Italian + universities, unless we want to specialise in some particular branch of + learning which is only taught elsewhere, and then we learn another + language and go to Munich or Madrid or Moscow. But the people of the + thirteenth or fourteenth century rarely talked of themselves as Englishmen + or Frenchmen or Italians. They said, "I am a citizen of Sheffield or + Bordeaux or Genoa." Because they all belonged to one and the same church + they felt a certain bond of brotherhood. And as all educated men could + speak Latin, they possessed an international language which removed the + stupid language barriers which have grown up in modern Europe and which + place the small nations at such an enormous disadvantage. Just as an + example, take the case of Erasmus, the great preacher of tolerance and + laughter, who wrote his books in the sixteenth century. He was the native + of a small Dutch village. He wrote in Latin and all the world was his + audience. If he were alive to-day, he would write in Dutch. Then only five + or six million people would be able to read him. To be understood by the + rest of Europe and America, his publishers would be obliged to translate + his books into twenty different languages. That would cost a lot of money + and most likely the publishers would never take the trouble or the risk. + </p> + <p> + Six hundred years ago that could not happen. The greater part of the + people were still very ignorant and could not read or write at all. But + those who had mastered the difficult art of handling the goose-quill + belonged to an international republic of letters which spread across the + entire continent and which knew of no boundaries and respected no + limitations of language or nationality. The universities were the + strongholds of this republic. Unlike modern fortifications, they did not + follow the frontier. They were to be found wherever a teacher and a few + pupils happened to find themselves together. There again the Middle Ages + and the Renaissance differed from our own time. Nowadays, when a new + university is built, the process (almost invariably) is as follows: Some + rich man wants to do something for the community in which he lives or a + particular religious sect wants to build a school to keep its faithful + children under decent supervision, or a state needs doc-tors and lawyers + and teachers. The university begins as a large sum of money which is + deposited in a bank. This money is then used to construct buildings and + laboratories and dormitories. Finally professional teachers are hired, + entrance examinations are held and the university is on the way. + </p> + <p> + But in the Middle Ages things were done differently. A wise man said to + himself, "I have discovered a great truth. I must impart my knowledge to + others." And he began to preach his wisdom wherever and whenever he could + get a few people to listen to him, like a modern soap-box orator. If he + was an interesting speaker, the crowd came and stayed. If he was dull, + they shrugged their shoulders and continued their way. + </p> + <p> + By and by certain young men began to come regularly to hear the words of + wisdom of this great teacher. They brought copybooks with them and a + little bottle of ink and a goose quill and wrote down what seemed to be + important. One day it rained. The teacher and his pupils retired to an + empty basement or the room of the "Professor." The learned man sat in his + chair and the boys sat on the floor. That was the beginning of the + University, the "universitas," a corporation of professors and students + during the Middle Ages, when the "teacher" counted for everything and the + building in which he taught counted for very little. + </p> + <p> + As an example, let me tell you of something that happened in the ninth + century. In the town of Salerno near Naples there were a number of + excellent physicians. They attracted people desirous of learning the + medical profession and for almost a thousand years (until 1817) there was + a university of Salerno which taught the wisdom of Hippocrates, the great + Greek doctor who had practiced his art in ancient Hellas in the fifth + century before the birth of Christ. + </p> + <p> + Then there was Abelard, the young priest from Brittany, who early in the + twelfth century began to lecture on theology and logic in Paris. Thousands + of eager young men flocked to the French city to hear him. Other priests + who disagreed with him stepped forward to explain their point of view. + Paris was soon filled with a clamouring multitude of Englishmen and + Germans and Italians and students from Sweden and Hungary and around the + old cathedral which stood on a little island in the Seine there grew the + famous University of Paris. In Bologna in Italy, a monk by the name of + Gratian had compiled a text-book for those whose business it was to know + the laws of the church. Young priests and many laymen then came from all + over Europe to hear Gratian explain his ideas. To protect themselves + against the landlords and the innkeepers and the boarding-house ladies of + the city, they formed a corporation (or University) and behold the + beginning of the university of Bologna. + </p> + <p> + Next there was a quarrel in the University of Paris. We do not know what + caused it, but a number of disgruntled teachers together with their pupils + crossed the channel and found a hospitable home in a little village on the + Thames called Oxford, and in this way the famous University of Oxford came + into being. In the same way, in the year 1222, there had been a split in + the University of Bologna. The discontented teachers (again followed by + their pupils) had moved to Padua and their proud city thenceforward + boasted of a university of its own. And so it went from Valladolid in + Spain to Cracow in distant Poland and from Poitiers in France to Rostock + in Germany. + </p> + <p> + It is quite true that much of the teaching done by these early professors + would sound absurd to our ears, trained to listen to logarithms and + geometrical theorems. The point however, which I want to make is this—the + Middle Ages and especially the thirteenth century were not a time when the + world stood entirely still. Among the younger generation, there was life, + there was enthusiasm, and there was a restless if somewhat bashful asking + of questions. And out of this turmoil grew the Renaissance. + </p> + <p> + But just before the curtain went down upon the last scene of the Mediaeval + world, a solitary figure crossed the stage, of whom you ought to know more + than his mere name. This man was called Dante. He was the son of a + Florentine lawyer who belonged to the Alighieri family and he saw the + light of day in the year 1265. He grew up in the city of his ancestors + while Giotto was painting his stories of the life of St. Francis of Assisi + upon the walls of the Church of the Holy Cross, but often when he went to + school, his frightened eyes would see the puddles of blood which told of + the terrible and endless warfare that raged forever between the Guelphs + and the Ghibellines, the followers of the Pope and the adherents of the + Emperors. + </p> + <p> + When he grew up, he became a Guelph, because his father had been one + before him, just as an American boy might become a Democrat or a + Republican, simply because his father had happened to be a Democrat or a + Republican. But after a few years, Dante saw that Italy, unless united + under a single head, threatened to perish as a victim of the disordered + jealousies of a thousand little cities. Then he became a Ghilbeiline. + </p> + <p> + He looked for help beyond the Alps. He hoped that a mighty emperor might + come and re-establish unity and order. Alas! he hoped in vain. The + Ghibellines were driven out of Florence in the year 1802. From that time + on until the day of his death amidst the dreary ruins of Ravenna, in the + year 1321, Dante was a homeless wanderer, eating the bread of charity at + the table of rich patrons whose names would have sunk into the deepest pit + of oblivion but for this single fact, that they had been kind to a poet in + his misery. During the many years of exile, Dante felt compelled to + justify himself and his actions when he had been a political leader in his + home-town, and when he had spent his days walking along the banks of the + Arno that he might catch a glimpse of the lovely Beatrice Portinari, who + died the wife of another man, a dozen years before the Ghibelline + disaster. + </p> + <p> + He had failed in the ambitions of his career. He had faithfully served the + town of is birth and before a corrupt court he had been accused of + stealing the public funds and had been condemned to be burned alive should + he venture back within the realm of the city of Florence. To clear himself + before his own conscience and before his contemporaries, Dante then + created an Imaginary World and with great detail he described the + circumstances which had led to his defeat and depicted the hopeless + condition of greed and lust and hatred which had turned his fair and + beloved Italy into a battlefield for the pitiless mercenaries of wicked + and selfish tyrants. + </p> + <p> + He tells us how on the Thursday before Easter of the year 1300 he had lost + his way in a dense forest and how he found his path barred by a leopard + and a lion and a wolf. He gave himself up for lost when a white figure + appeared amidst the trees. It was Virgil, the Roman poet and philosopher, + sent upon his errand of mercy by the Blessed Virgin and by Beatrice, who + from high Heaven watched over the fate of her true lover. Virgil then + takes Dante through Purgatory and through Hell. Deeper and deeper the path + leads them until they reach the lowest pit where Lucifer himself stands + frozen into the eternal ice surrounded by the most terrible of sinners, + traitors and liars and those who have achieved fame and success by lies + and by deceit. But before the two wanderers have reached this terrible + spot, Dante has met all those who in some way or other have played a role + in the history of his beloved city. Emperors and Popes, dashing knights + and whining usurers, they are all there, doomed to eternal punishment or + awaiting the day of deliverance, when they shall leave Purgatory for + Heaven. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious story. It is a handbook of everything the people of the + thirteenth century did and felt and feared and prayed for. Through it all + moves the figure of the lonely Florentine exile, forever followed by the + shadow of his own despair. + </p> + <p> + And behold! when the gates of death were closing upon the sad poet of the + Middle Ages, the portals of life swung open to the child who was to be the + first of the men of the Renaissance. That was Francesco Petrarca, the son + of the notary public of the little town of Arezzo. + </p> + <p> + Francesco's father had belonged to the same political party as Dante. He + too had been exiled and thus it happened that Petrarca (or Petrarch, as we + call him) was born away from Florence. At the age of fifteen he was sent + to Montpellier in France that he might become a lawyer like his father. + But the boy did not want to be a jurist. He hated the law. He wanted to be + a scholar and a poet—and because he wanted to be a scholar and a + poet beyond everything else, he became one, as people of a strong will are + apt to do. He made long voyages, copying manuscripts in Flanders and in + the cloisters along the Rhine and in Paris and Liege and finally in Rome. + Then he went to live in a lonely valley of the wild mountains of Vaucluse, + and there he studied and wrote and soon he had become so famous for his + verse and for his learning that both the University of Paris and the king + of Naples invited him to come and teach their students and subjects. On + the way to his new job, he was obliged to pass through Rome. The people + had heard of his fame as an editor of half-forgotten Roman authors. They + decided to honour him and in the ancient forum of the Imperial City, + Petrarch was crowned with the laurel wreath of the Poet. + </p> + <p> + From that moment on, his life was an endless career of honour and + appreciation. He wrote the things which people wanted most to hear. They + were tired of theological disputations. Poor Dante could wander through + hell as much as he wanted. But Petrarch wrote of love and of nature and + the sun and never mentioned those gloomy things which seemed to have been + the stock in trade of the last generation. And when Petrarch came to a + city, all the people flocked out to meet him and he was received like a + conquering hero. If he happened to bring his young friend Boccaccio, the + story teller, with him, so much the better. They were both men of their + time, full of curiosity, willing to read everything once, digging in + forgotten and musty libraries that they might find still another + manuscript of Virgil or Ovid or Lucrece or any of the other old Latin + poets. They were good Christians. Of course they were! Everyone was. But + no need of going around with a long face and wearing a dirty coat just + because some day or other you were going to die. Life was good. People + were meant to be happy. You desired proof of this? Very well. Take a spade + and dig into the soil. What did you find? Beautiful old statues. Beautiful + old vases. Ruins of ancient buildings. All these things were made by the + people of the greatest empire that ever existed. They ruled all the world + for a thousand years. They were strong and rich and handsome (just look at + that bust of the Emperor Augustus!). Of course, they were not Christians + and they would never be able to enter Heaven. At best they would spend + their days in purgatory, where Dante had just paid them a visit. + </p> + <p> + But who cared? To have lived in a world like that of ancient Rome was + heaven enough for any mortal being. And anyway, we live but once. Let us + be happy and cheerful for the mere joy of existence. + </p> + <p> + Such, in short, was the spirit that had begun to fill the narrow and + crooked streets of the many little Italian cities. + </p> + <p> + You know what we mean by the "bicycle craze" or the "automobile craze." + Some one invents a bicycle. People who for hundreds of thousands of years + have moved slowly and painfully from one place to another go "crazy" over + the prospect of rolling rapidly and easily over hill and dale. Then a + clever mechanic makes the first automobile. No longer is it necessary to + pedal and pedal and pedal. You just sit and let little drops of gasoline + do the work for you. Then everybody wants an automobile. Everybody talks + about Rolls-Royces and Flivvers and carburetors and mileage and oil. + Explorers penetrate into the hearts of unknown countries that they may + find new supplies of gas. Forests arise in Sumatra and in the Congo to + supply us with rubber. Rubber and oil become so valuable that people fight + wars for their possession. The whole world is "automobile mad" and little + children can say "car" before they learn to whisper "papa" and "mamma." + </p> + <p> + In the fourteenth century, the Italian people went crazy about the newly + discovered beauties of the buried world of Rome. Soon their enthusiasm was + shared by all the people of western Europe. The finding of an unknown + manuscript became the excuse for a civic holiday. The man who wrote a + grammar became as popular as the fellow who nowadays invents a new + spark-plug. The humanist, the scholar who devoted his time and his + energies to a study of "homo" or mankind (instead of wasting his hours + upon fruitless theological investigations), that man was regarded with + greater honour and a deeper respect than was ever bestowed upon a hero who + had just conquered all the Cannibal Islands. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of this intellectual upheaval, an event occurred which + greatly favoured the study of the ancient philosophers and authors. The + Turks were renewing their attacks upon Europe. Constantinople, capital of + the last remnant of the original Roman Empire, was hard pressed. In the + year 1393 the Emperor, Manuel Paleologue, sent Emmanuel Chrysoloras to + western Europe to explain the desperate state of old Byzantium and to ask + for aid. This aid never came. The Roman Catholic world was more than + willing to see the Greek Catholic world go to the punishment that awaited + such wicked heretics. But however indifferent western Europe might be to + the fate of the Byzantines, they were greatly interested in the ancient + Greeks whose colonists had founded the city on the Bosphorus ten centuries + after the Trojan war. They wanted to learn Greek that they might read + Aristotle and Homer and Plato. They wanted to learn it very badly, but + they had no books and no grammars and no teachers. The magistrates of + Florence heard of the visit of Chrysoloras. The people of their city were + "crazy to learn Greek." Would he please come and teach them? He would, and + behold! the first professor of Greek teaching alpha, beta, gamma to + hundreds of eager young men, begging their way to the city of the Arno, + living in stables and in dingy attics that they night learn how to decline + the verb [gr paidenw paideneis paidenei] and enter into the companionship + of Sophocles and Homer. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile in the universities, the old schoolmen, teaching their ancient + theology and their antiquated logic; explaining the hidden mysteries of + the old Testament and discussing the strange science of their + Greek-Arabic-Spanish-Latin edition of Aristotle, looked on in dismay and + horror. Next, they turned angry. This thing was going too far. The young + men were deserting the lecture halls of the established universities to go + and listen to some wild-eyed "humanist" with his newfangled notions about + a "reborn civilization." + </p> + <p> + They went to the authorities. They complained. But one cannot force an + unwilling horse to drink and one cannot make unwilling ears listen to + something which does not really interest them. The schoolmen were losing + ground rapidly. Here and there they scored a short victory. They combined + forces with those fanatics who hated to see other people enjoy a happiness + which was foreign to their own souls. In Florence, the centre of the Great + Rebirth, a terrible fight was fought between the old order and the new. A + Dominican monk, sour of face and bitter in his hatred of beauty, was the + leader of the mediaeval rear-guard. He fought a valiant battle. Day after + day he thundered his warnings of God's holy wrath through the wide halls + of Santa Maria del Fiore. "Repent," he cried, "repent of your godlessness, + of your joy in things that are not holy!" He began to hear voices and to + see flaming swords that flashed through the sky. He preached to the little + children that they might not fall into the errors of these ways which were + leading their fathers to perdition. He organised companies of boy-scouts, + devoted to the service of the great God whose prophet he claimed to be. In + a sudden moment of frenzy, the frightened people promised to do penance + for their wicked love of beauty and pleasure. They carried their books and + their statues and their paintings to the market place and celebrated a + wild "carnival of the vanities" with holy singing and most unholy dancing, + while Savonarola applied his torch to the accumulated treasures. + </p> + <p> + But when the ashes cooled down, the people began to realise what they had + lost. This terrible fanatic had made them destroy that which they had come + to love above all things. They turned against him, Savonarola was thrown + into jail. He was tortured. But he refused to repent for anything he had + done. He was an honest man. He had tried to live a holy life. He had + willingly destroyed those who deliberately refused to share his own point + of view. It had been his duty to eradicate evil wherever he found it. A + love of heathenish books and heathenish beauty in the eyes of this + faithful son of the Church, had been an evil. But he stood alone. He had + fought the battle of a time that was dead and gone. The Pope in Rome never + moved a finger to save him. On the contrary, he approved of his "faithful + Florentines" when they dragged Savonarola to the gallows, hanged him and + burned his body amidst the cheerful howling and yelling of the mob. + </p> + <p> + It was a sad ending, but quite inevitable. Savonarola would have been a + great man in the eleventh century. In the fifteenth century he was merely + the leader of a lost cause. For better or worse, the Middle Ages had come + to an end when the Pope had turned humanist and when the Vatican became + the most important museum of Roman and Greek antiquities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE AGE OF EXPRESSION + </h2> + <p> + THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF GIVING EXPRESSION TO THEIR NEWLY + DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED THEIR HAPPINESS IN POETRY AND IN + SCULPTURE AND IN ARCHITECTURE AND IN PAINTING AND IN THE BOOKS THEY + PRINTED + </p> + <p> + IN the year 1471 there died a pious old man who had spent seventy-two of + his ninety-one years behind the sheltering walls of the cloister of Mount + St. Agnes near the good town of Zwolle, the old Dutch Hanseatic city on + the river Ysel. He was known as Brother Thomas and because he had been + born in the village of Kempen, he was called Thomas a Kempis. At the age + of twelve he had been sent to Deventer, where Gerhard Groot, a brilliant + graduate of the universities of Paris, Cologne and Prague, and famous as a + wandering preacher, had founded the Society of the Brothers of the Common + Life. The good brothers were humble laymen who tried to live the simple + life of the early Apostles of Christ while working at their regular jobs + as carpenters and house-painters and stone masons. They maintained an + excellent school, that deserving boys of poor parents might be taught the + wisdom of the Fathers of the church. At this school, little Thomas had + learned how to conjugate Latin verbs and how to copy manuscripts. Then he + had taken his vows, had put his little bundle of books upon his back, had + wandered to Zwolle and with a sigh of relief he had closed the door upon a + turbulent world which did not attract him. + </p> + <p> + Thomas lived in an age of turmoil, pestilence and sudden death. In central + Europe, in Bohemia, the devoted disciples of Johannus Huss, the friend and + follower of John Wycliffe, the English reformer, were avenging with a + terrible warfare the death of their beloved leader who had been burned at + the stake by order of that same Council of Constance, which had promised + him a safe-conduct if he would come to Switzerland and explain his + doctrines to the Pope, the Emperor, twenty-three cardinals, thirty-three + archbishops and bishops, one hundred and fifty abbots and more than a + hundred princes and dukes who had gathered together to reform their + church. + </p> + <p> + In the west, France had been fighting for a hundred years that she might + drive the English from her territories and just then was saved from utter + defeat by the fortunate appearance of Joan of Arc. And no sooner had this + struggle come to an end than France and Burgundy were at each other's + throats, engaged upon a struggle of life and death for the supremacy of + western Europe. + </p> + <p> + In the south, a Pope at Rome was calling the curses of Heaven down upon a + second Pope who resided at Avignon, in southern France, and who retaliated + in kind. In the far east the Turks were destroying the last remnants of + the Roman Empire and the Russians had started upon a final crusade to + crush the power of their Tartar masters. + </p> + <p> + But of all this, Brother Thomas in his quiet cell never heard. He had his + manuscripts and his own thoughts and he was contented. He poured his love + of God into a little volume. He called it the Imitation of Christ. It has + since been translated into more languages than any other book save the + Bible. It has been read by quite as many people as ever studied the Holy + Scriptures. It has influenced the lives of countless millions. And it was + the work of a man whose highest ideal of existence was expressed in the + simple wish that "he might quietly spend his days sitting in a little + corner with a little book." + </p> + <p> + Good Brother Thomas represented the purest ideals of the Middle Ages. + Surrounded on all sides by the forces of the victorious Renaissance, with + the humanists loudly proclaiming the coming of modern times, the Middle + Ages gathered strength for a last sally. Monasteries were reformed. Monks + gave up the habits of riches and vice. Simple, straightforward and honest + men, by the example of their blameless and devout lives, tried to bring + the people back to the ways of righteousness and humble resignation to the + will of God. But all to no avail. The new world rushed past these good + people. The days of quiet meditation were gone. The great era of + "expression" had begun. + </p> + <p> + Here and now let me say that I am sorry that I must use so many "big + words." I wish that I could write this history in words of one syllable. + But it cannot be done. You cannot write a text-book of geometry without + reference to a hypotenuse and triangles and a rectangular parallelopiped. + You simply have to learn what those words mean or do without mathematics. + In history (and in all life) you will eventually be obliged to learn the + meaning of many strange words of Latin and Greek origin. Why not do it + now? + </p> + <p> + When I say that the Renaissance was an era of expression, I mean this: + People were no longer contented to be the audience and sit still while the + emperor and the pope told them what to do and what to think. They wanted + to be actors upon the stage of life. They insisted upon giving + "expression" to their own individual ideas. If a man happened to be + interested in statesmanship like the Florentine historian, Niccolo + Macchiavelli, then he "expressed" himself in his books which revealed his + own idea of a successful state and an efficient ruler. If on the other + hand he had a liking for painting, he "expressed" his love for beautiful + lines and lovely colours in the pictures which have made the names of + Giotto, Fra Angelico, Rafael and a thousand others household words + wherever people have learned to care for those things which express a true + and lasting beauty. + </p> + <p> + If this love for colour and line happened to be combined with an interest + in mechanics and hydraulics, the result was a Leonardo da Vinci, who + painted his pictures, experimented with his balloons and flying machines, + drained the marshes of the Lombardian plains and "expressed" his joy and + interest in all things between Heaven and Earth in prose, in painting, in + sculpture and in curiously conceived engines. When a man of gigantic + strength, like Michael Angelo, found the brush and the palette too soft + for his strong hands, he turned to sculpture and to architecture, and + hacked the most terrific creatures out of heavy blocks of marble and drew + the plans for the church of St. Peter, the most concrete "expression" of + the glories of the triumphant church. And so it went. + </p> + <p> + All Italy (and very soon all of Europe) was filled with men and women who + lived that they might add their mite to the sum total of our accumulated + treasures of knowledge and beauty and wisdom. In Germany, in the city of + Mainz, Johann zum Gansefleisch, commonly known as Johann Gutenberg, had + just invented a new method of copying books. He had studied the old + woodcuts and had perfected a system by which individual letters of soft + lead could be placed in such a way that they formed words and whole pages. + It is true, he soon lost all his money in a law-suit which had to do with + the original invention of the press. He died in poverty, but the + "expression" of his particular inventive genius lived after him. + </p> + <p> + Soon Aldus in Venice and Etienne in Paris and Plantin in Antwerp and + Froben in Basel were flooding the world with carefully edited editions of + the classics printed in the Gothic letters of the Gutenberg Bible, or + printed in the Italian type which we use in this book, or printed in Greek + letters, or in Hebrew. + </p> + <p> + Then the whole world became the eager audience of those who had something + to say. The day when learning had been a monopoly of a privileged few came + to an end. And the last excuse for ignorance was removed from this world, + when Elzevier of Haarlem began to print his cheap and popular editions. + Then Aristotle and Plato, Virgil and Horace and Pliny, all the goodly + company of the ancient authors and philosophers and scientists, offered to + become man's faithful friend in exchange for a few paltry pennies. + Humanism had made all men free and equal before the printed word. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE GREAT DISCOVERIES + </h2> + <p> + BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THE BONDS OF THEIR NARROW MEDIAEVAL + LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO HAVE MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. THE EUROPEAN + WORLD HAD GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. IT WAS THE TIME OF THE + GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY + </p> + <p> + THE Crusades had been a lesson in the liberal art of travelling. But very + few people had ever ventured beyond the well-known beaten track which led + from Venice to Jaffe. In the thirteenth century the Polo brothers, + merchants of Venice, had wandered across the great Mongolian desert and + after climbing mountains as high as the moon, they had found their way to + the court of the great Khan of Cathay, the mighty emperor of China. The + son of one of the Polos, by the name of Marco, had written a book about + their adventures, which covered a period of more than twenty years. The + astonished world had gaped at his descriptions of the golden towers of the + strange island of Zipangu, which was his Italian way of spelling Japan. + Many people had wanted to go east, that they might find this gold-land and + grow rich. But the trip was too far and too dangerous and so they stayed + at home. + </p> + <p> + Of course, there was always the possibility of making the voyage by sea. + But the sea was very unpopular in the Middle Ages and for many very good + reasons. In the first place, ships were very small. The vessels on which + Magellan made his famous trip around the world, which lasted many years, + were not as large as a modern ferryboat. They carried from twenty to fifty + men, who lived in dingy quarters (too low to allow any of them to stand up + straight) and the sailors were obliged to eat poorly cooked food as the + kitchen arrangements were very bad and no fire could be made whenever the + weather was the least bit rough. The mediaeval world knew how to pickle + herring and how to dry fish. But there were no canned goods and fresh + vegetables were never seen on the bill of fare as soon as the coast had + been left behind. Water was carried in small barrels. It soon became stale + and then tasted of rotten wood and iron rust and was full of slimy growing + things. As the people of the Middle Ages knew nothing about microbes + (Roger Bacon, the learned monk of the thirteenth century seems to have + suspected their existence, but he wisely kept his discovery to himself) + they often drank unclean water and sometimes the whole crew died of + typhoid fever. Indeed the mortality on board the ships of the earliest + navigators was terrible. Of the two hundred sailors who in the year 1519 + left Seville to accompany Magellan on his famous voyage around the world, + only eighteen returned. As late as the seventeenth century when there was + a brisk trade between western Europe and the Indies, a mortality of 40 + percent was nothing unusual for a trip from Amsterdam to Batavia and back. + The greater part of these victims died of scurvy, a disease which is + caused by lack of fresh vegetables and which affects the gums and poisons + the blood until the patient dies of sheer exhaustion. + </p> + <p> + Under those circumstances you will understand that the sea did not attract + the best elements of the population. Famous discoverers like Magellan and + Columbus and Vasco da Gama travelled at the head of crews that were almost + entirely composed of ex-jailbirds, future murderers and pickpockets out of + a Job. + </p> + <p> + These navigators certainly deserve our admiration for the courage and the + pluck with which they accomplished their hopeless tasks in the face of + difficulties of which the people of our own comfortable world can have no + conception. Their ships were leaky. The rigging was clumsy. Since the + middle of the thirteenth century they had possessed some sort of a compass + (which had come to Europe from China by way of Arabia and the Crusades) + but they had very bad and incorrect maps. They set their course by God and + by guess. If luck was with them they returned after one or two or three + years. In the other case, their bleeched bones remained behind on some + lonely beach. But they were true pioneers. They gambled with luck. Life to + them was a glorious adventure. And all the suffering, the thirst and the + hunger and the pain were forgotten when their eyes beheld the dim outlines + of a new coast or the placid waters of an ocean that had lain forgotten + since the beginning of time. + </p> + <p> + Again I wish that I could make this book a thousand pages long. The + subject of the early discoveries is so fascinating. But history, to give + you a true idea of past times, should be like those etchings which + Rembrandt used to make. It should cast a vivid light on certain important + causes, on those which are best and greatest. All the rest should be left + in the shadow or should be indicated by a few lines. And in this chapter I + can only give you a short list of the most important discoveries. + </p> + <p> + Keep in mind that all during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the + navigators were trying to accomplish just ONE THING—they wanted to + find a comfortable and safe road to the empire of Cathay (China), to the + island of Zipangu (Japan) and to those mysterious islands, where grew the + spices which the mediaeval world had come to like since the days of the + Crusades, and which people needed in those days before the introduction of + cold storage, when meat and fish spoiled very quickly and could only be + eaten after a liberal sprinkling of pepper or nutmeg. + </p> + <p> + The Venetians and the Genoese had been the great navigators of the + Mediterranean, but the honour for exploring the coast of the Atlantic goes + to the Portuguese. Spain and Portugal were full of that patriotic energy + which their age-old struggle against the Moorish invaders had developed. + Such energy, once it exists, can easily be forced into new channels. In + the thirteenth century, King Alphonso III had conquered the kingdom of + Algarve in the southwestern corner of the Spanish peninsula and had added + it to his dominions. In the next century, the Portuguese had turned the + tables on the Mohammedans, had crossed the straits of Gibraltar and had + taken possession of Ceuta, opposite the Arabic city of Ta'Rifa (a word + which in Arabic means "inventory" and which by way of the Spanish language + has come down to us as "tariff,") and Tangiers, which became the capital + of an African addition to Algarve. + </p> + <p> + They were ready to begin their career as explorers. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1415, Prince Henry, known as Henry the Navigator, the son of + John I of Portugal and Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt (about whom + you can read in Richard II, a play by William Shakespeare) began to make + preparations for the systematic exploration of northwestern Africa. Before + this, that hot and sandy coast had been visited by the Phoenicians and by + the Norsemen, who remembered it as the home of the hairy "wild man" whom + we have come to know as the gorilla. One after another, Prince Henry and + his captains discovered the Canary Islands—re-discovered the island + of Madeira which a century before had been visited by a Genoese ship, + carefully charted the Azores which had been vaguely known to both the + Portuguese and the Spaniards, and caught a glimpse of the mouth of the + Senegal River on the west coast of Africa, which they supposed to be the + western mouth of the Nile. At last, by the middle of the Fifteenth + Century, they saw Cape Verde, or the Green Cape, and the Cape Verde + Islands, which lie almost halfway between the coast of Africa and Brazil. + </p> + <p> + But Henry did not restrict himself in his investigations to the waters of + the Ocean. He was Grand Master of the Order of Christ. This was a + Portuguese continuation of the crusading order of the Templars which had + been abolished by Pope Clement V in the year 1312 at the request of King + Philip the Fair of France, who had improved the occasion by burning his + own Templars at the stake and stealing all their possessions. Prince Henry + used the revenues of the domains of his religious order to equip several + expeditions which explored the hinterland of the Sahara and of the coast + of Guinea. + </p> + <p> + But he was still very much a son of the Middle Ages and spent a great deal + of time and wasted a lot of money upon a search for the mysterious + "Presser John," the mythical Christian Priest who was said to be the + Emperor of a vast empire "situated somewhere in the east." The story of + this strange potentate had first been told in Europe in the middle of the + twelfth century. For three hundred years people had tried to find "Presser + John" and his descendants Henry took part in the search. Thirty years + after his death, the riddle was solved. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, trying to find the land of Prester John + by sea, had reached the southernmost point of Africa. At first he called + it the Storm Cape, on account of the strong winds which had prevented him + from continuing his voyage toward the east, but the Lisbon pilots who + understood the importance of this discovery in their quest for the India + water route, changed the name into that of the Cape of Good Hope. + </p> + <p> + One year later, Pedro de Covilham, provided with letters of credit on the + house of Medici, started upon a similar mission by land. He crossed the + Mediterranean and after leaving Egypt, he travelled southward. He reached + Aden, and from there, travelling through the waters of the Persian Gulf + which few white men had seen since the days of Alexander the Great, + eighteen centuries before, he visited Goa and Calicut on the coast of + India where he got a great deal of news about the island of the Moon + (Madagascar) which was supposed to lie halfway between Africa and India. + Then he returned, paid a secret visit to Mecca and to Medina, crossed the + Red Sea once more and in the year 1490 he discovered the realm of Prester + John, who was no one less than the Black Negus (or King) of Abyssinia, + whose ancestors had adopted Christianity in the fourth century, seven + hundred years before the Christian missionaries had found their way to + Scandinavia. + </p> + <p> + These many voyages had convinced the Portuguese geographers and + cartographers that while the voyage to the Indies by an eastern sea-route + was possible, it was by no means easy. Then there arose a great debate. + Some people wanted to continue the explorations east of the Cape of Good + Hope. Others said, "No, we must sail west across the Atlantic and then we + shall reach Cathay." + </p> + <p> + Let us state right here that most intelligent people of that day were + firmly convinced that the earth was not as flat as a pancake but was + round. The Ptolemean system of the universe, invented and duly described + by Claudius Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, who had lived in the + second century of our era, which had served the simple needs of the men of + the Middle Ages, had long been discarded by the scientists of the + Renaissance. They had accepted the doctrine of the Polish mathematician, + Nicolaus Copernicus, whose studies had convinced him that the earth was + one of a number of round planets which turned around the sun, a discovery + which he did not venture to publish for thirty-six years (it was printed + in 1548, the year of his death) from fear of the Holy Inquisition, a Papal + court which had been established in the thirteenth century when the + heresies of the Albigenses and the Waldenses in France and in Italy (very + mild heresies of devoutly pious people who did not believe in private + property and preferred to live in Christ-like poverty) had for a moment + threatened the absolute power of the bishops of Rome. But the belief in + the roundness of the earth was common among the nautical experts and, as I + said, they were now debating the respective advantages of the eastern and + the western routes. + </p> + <p> + Among the advocates of the western route was a Genoese mariner by the name + of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the son of a wool merchant. He seems to have + been a student at the University of Pavia where he specialised in + mathematics and geometry. Then he took up his father's trade but soon we + find him in Chios in the eastern Mediterranean travelling on business. + Thereafter we hear of voyages to England but whether he went north in + search of wool or as the captain of a ship we do not know. In February of + the year 1477, Colombo (if we are to believe his own words) visited + Iceland, but very likely he only got as far as the Faroe Islands which are + cold enough in February to be mistaken for Iceland by any one. Here + Colombo met the descendants of those brave Norsemen who in the tenth + century had settled in Greenland and who had visited America in the + eleventh century, when Leif's vessel had been blown to the coast of + Vineland, or Labrador. + </p> + <p> + What had become of those far western colonies no one knew. The American + colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the husband of the widow of Leif's brother + Thorstein, founded in the year 1003, had been discontinued three years + later on account of the hostility of the Esquimaux. As for Greenland, not + a word had been heard from the settlers since the year 1440. Very likely + the Greenlanders had all died of the Black Death, which had just killed + half the people of Norway. However that might be, the tradition of a "vast + land in the distant west" still survived among the people of the Faroe and + Iceland, and Colombo must have heard of it. He gathered further + information among the fishermen of the northern Scottish islands and then + went to Portugal where he married the daughter of one of the captains who + had served under Prince Henry the Navigator. + </p> + <p> + From that moment on (the year 1478) he devoted himself to the quest of the + western route to the Indies. He sent his plans for such a voyage to the + courts of Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese, who felt certain that they + possessed a monopoly of the eastern route, would not listen to his plans. + In Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose marriage in + 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were busy driving the Moors + from their last stronghold, Granada. They had no money for risky + expeditions. They needed every peseta for their soldiers. + </p> + <p> + Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for their ideas as + this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo (or Colon or Columbus, as we + call him,) is too well known to bear repeating. The Moors surrendered + Granada on the second of January of the year 1492. In the month of April + of the same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and Queen of + Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos with three little ships + and a crew of 88 men, many of whom were criminals who had been offered + indemnity of punishment if they joined the expedition. At two o'clock in + the morning of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus discovered land. On + the fourth of January of the year 1493, Columbus waved farewell to the 44 + men of the little fortress of La Navidad (none of whom was ever again seen + alive) and returned homeward. By the middle of February he reached the + Azores where the Portuguese threatened to throw him into gaol. On the + fifteenth of March, 1493, the admiral reached Palos and together with his + Indians (for he was convinced that he had discovered some outlying islands + of the Indies and called the natives red Indians) he hastened to Barcelona + to tell his faithful patrons that he had been successful and that the road + to the gold and the silver of Cathay and Zipangu was at the disposal of + their most Catholic Majesties. + </p> + <p> + Alas, Columbus never knew the truth. Towards the end of his life, on his + fourth voyage, when he had touched the mainland of South America, he may + have suspected that all was not well with his discovery. But he died in + the firm belief that there was no solid continent between Europe and Asia + and that he had found the direct route to China. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the Portuguese, sticking to their eastern route, had been more + fortunate. In the year 1498, Vasco da Gama had been able to reach the + coast of Malabar and return safely to Lisbon with a cargo of spice. In the + year 1502 he had repeated the visit. But along the western route, the work + of exploration had been most disappointing. In 1497 and 1498 John and + Sebastian Cabot had tried to find a passage to Japan but they had seen + nothing but the snowbound coasts and the rocks of Newfoundland, which had + first been sighted by the Northmen, five centuries before. Amerigo + Vespucci, a Florentine who became the Pilot Major of Spain, and who gave + his name to our continent, had explored the coast of Brazil, but had found + not a trace of the Indies. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1513, seven years after the death of Columbus, the truth at + last began to dawn upon the geographers of Europe. Vasco Nunez de Balboa + had crossed the Isthmus of Panama, had climbed the famous peak in Darien, + and had looked down upon a vast expanse of water which seemed to suggest + the existence of another ocean. + </p> + <p> + Finally in the year 1519 a fleet of five small Spanish ships under command + of the Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand de Magellan, sailed westward (and + not eastward since that route, was absolutely in the hands of the + Portuguese who allowed no competition) in search of the Spice Islands. + Magellan crossed the Atlantic between Africa and Brazil and sailed + southward. He reached a narrow channel between the southernmost point of + Patagonia, the "land of the people with the big feet," and the Fire Island + (so named on account of a fire, the only sign of the existence of natives, + which the sailors watched one night). For almost five weeks the ships of + Magellan were at the mercy of the terrible storms and blizzards which + swept through the straits. A mutiny broke out among the sailors. Magellan + suppressed it with terrible severity and sent two of his men on shore + where they were left to repent of their sins at leisure. At last the + storms quieted down, the channel broadened, and Magellan entered a new + ocean. Its waves were quiet and placid. He called it the Peaceful Sea, the + Mare Pacifico. Then he continued in a western direction. He sailed for + ninety-eight days without seeing land. His people almost perished from + hunger and thirst and ate the rats that infested the ships, and when these + were all gone they chewed pieces of sail to still their gnawing hunger. + </p> + <p> + In March of the year 1521 they saw land. Magellan called it the land of + the Ladrones (which means robbers) because the natives stole everything + they could lay hands on. Then further westward to the Spice Islands! + </p> + <p> + Again land was sighted. A group of lonely islands. Magellan called them + the Philippines, after Philip, the son of his master Charles V, the Philip + II of unpleasant historical memory. At first Magellan was well received, + but when he used the guns of his ships to make Christian converts he was + killed by the aborigines, together with a number of his captains and + sailors. The survivors burned one of the three remaining ships and + continued their voyage. They found the Moluccas, the famous Spice Islands; + they sighted Borneo and reached Tidor. There, one of the two ships, too + leaky to be of further use, remained behind with her crew. The "Vittoria," + under Sebastian del Cano, crossed the Indian Ocean, missed seeing the + northern coast of Australia (which was not discovered until the first half + of the seventeenth century when ships of the Dutch East India Company + explored this flat and inhospitable land), and after great hardships + reached Spain. + </p> + <p> + This was the most notable of all voyages. It had taken three years. It had + been accomplished at a great cost both of men and money. But it had + established the fact that the earth was round and that the new lands + discovered by Columbus were not a part of the Indies but a separate + continent. From that time on, Spain and Portugal devoted all their + energies to the development of their Indian and American trade. To prevent + an armed conflict between the rivals, Pope Alexander VI (the only avowed + heathen who was ever elected to this most holy office) had obligingly + divided the world into two equal parts by a line of demarcation which + followed the 50th degree of longitude west of Greenwich, the so-called + division of Tordesillas of 1494. The Portuguese were to establish their + colonies to the east of this line, the Spaniards were to have theirs to + the west. This accounts for the fact that the entire American continent + with the exception of Brazil became Spanish and that all of the Indies and + most of Africa became Portuguese until the English and the Dutch colonists + (who had no respect for Papal decisions) took these possessions away in + the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + </p> + <p> + When news of the discovery of Columbus reached the Rialto of Venice, the + Wall street of the Middle Ages, there was a terrible panic. Stocks and + bonds went down 40 and 50 percent. After a short while, when it appeared + that Columbus had failed to find the road to Cathay, the Venetian + merchants recovered from their fright. But the voyages of da Gama and + Magellan proved the practical possibilities of an eastern water-route to + the Indies. Then the rulers of Genoa and Venice, the two great commercial + centres of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, began to be sorry that + they had refused to listen to Columbus. But it was too late. Their + Mediterranean became an inland sea. The overland trade to the Indies and + China dwindled to insignificant proportions. The old days of Italian glory + were gone. The Atlantic became the new centre of commerce and therefore + the centre of civilisation. It has remained so ever since. + </p> + <p> + See how strangely civilisation has progressed since those early days, + fifty centuries before, when the inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile + began to keep a written record of history, From the river Nile, it went to + Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers. Then came the turn of Crete and + Greece and Rome. An inland sea became the centre of trade and the cities + along the Mediterranean were the home of art and science and philosophy + and learning. In the sixteenth century it moved westward once more and + made the countries that border upon the Atlantic become the masters of the + earth. + </p> + <p> + There are those who say that the world war and the suicide of the great + European nations has greatly diminished the importance of the Atlantic + Ocean. They expect to see civilisation cross the American continent and + find a new home in the Pacific. But I doubt this. + </p> + <p> + The westward trip was accompanied by a steady increase in the size of + ships and a broadening of the knowledge of the navigators. The + flat-bottomed vessels of the Nile and the Euphrates were replaced by the + sailing vessels of the Phoenicians, the AEgeans, the Greeks, the + Carthaginians and the Romans. These in turn were discarded for the square + rigged vessels of the Portuguese and the Spaniards. And the latter were + driven from the ocean by the full-rigged craft of the English and the + Dutch. + </p> + <p> + At present, however, civilisation no longer depends upon ships. Aircraft + has taken and will continue to take the place of the sailing vessel and + the steamer. The next centre of civilisation will depend upon the + development of aircraft and water power. And the sea once more shall be + the undisturbed home of the little fishes, who once upon a time shared + their deep residence with the earliest ancestors of the human race. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + </h2> + <h3> + CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + </h3> + <p> + THE discoveries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards had brought the + Christians of western Europe into close contact with the people of India + and of China. They knew of course that Christianity was not the only + religion on this earth. There were the Mohammedans and the heathenish + tribes of northern Africa who worshipped sticks and stones and dead trees. + But in India and in China the Christian conquerors found new millions who + had never heard of Christ and who did not want to hear of Him, because + they thought their own religion, which was thousands of years old, much + better than that of the West. As this is a story of mankind and not an + exclusive history of the people of Europe and our western hemisphere, you + ought to know something of two men whose teaching and whose example + continue to influence the actions and the thoughts of the majority of our + fellow-travellers on this earth. + </p> + <p> + In India, Buddha was recognised as the great religious teacher. His + history is an interesting one. He was born in the Sixth Century before the + birth of Christ, within sight of the mighty Himalaya Mountains, where four + hundred years before Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), the first of the great + leaders of the Aryan race (the name which the Eastern branch of the + Indo-European race had given to itself), had taught his people to regard + life as a continuous struggle between Ahriman, and Ormuzd, the Gods of + Evil and Good. Buddha's father was Suddhodana, a mighty chief among the + tribe of the Sakiyas. His mother, Maha Maya, was the daughter of a + neighbouring king. She had been married when she was a very young girl. + But many moons had passed beyond the distant ridge of hills and still her + husband was without an heir who should rule his lands after him. At last, + when she was fifty years old, her day came and she went forth that she + might be among her own people when her baby should come into this world. + </p> + <p> + It was a long trip to the land of the Koliyans, where Maha Maya had spent + her earliest years. One night she was resting among the cool trees of the + garden of Lumbini. There her son was born. He was given the name of + Siddhartha, but we know him as Buddha, which means the Enlightened One. + </p> + <p> + In due time, Siddhartha grew up to be a handsome young prince and when he + was nineteen years old, he was married to his cousin Yasodhara. During the + next ten years he lived far away from all pain and all suffering, behind + the protecting walls of the royal palace, awaiting the day when he should + succeed his father as King of the Sakiyas. + </p> + <p> + But it happened that when he was thirty years old, he drove outside of the + palace gates and saw a man who was old and worn out with labour and whose + weak limbs could hardly carry the burden of life. Siddhartha pointed him + out to his coachman, Channa, but Channa answered that there were lots of + poor people in this world and that one more or less did not matter. The + young prince was very sad but he did not say anything and went back to + live with his wife and his father and his mother and tried to be happy. A + little while later he left the palace a second time. His carriage met a + man who suffered from a terrible disease. Siddhartha asked Channa what had + been the cause of this man's suffering, but the coachman answered that + there were many sick people in this world and that such things could not + be helped and did not matter very much. The young prince was very sad when + he heard this but again he returned to his people. + </p> + <p> + A few weeks passed. One evening Siddhartha ordered his carriage in order + to go to the river and bathe. Suddenly his horses were frightened by the + sight of a dead man whose rotting body lay sprawling in the ditch beside + the road. The young prince, who had never been allowed to see such things, + was frightened, but Channa told him not to mind such trifles. The world + was full of dead people. It was the rule of life that all things must come + to an end. Nothing was eternal. The grave awaited us all and there was no + escape. + </p> + <p> + That evening, when Siddhartha returned to his home, he was received with + music. While he was away his wife had given birth to a son. The people + were delighted because now they knew that there was an heir to the throne + and they celebrated the event by the beating of many drums. Siddhartha, + however, did not share their joy. The curtain of life had been lifted and + he had learned the horror of man's existence. The sight of death and + suffering followed him like a terrible dream. + </p> + <p> + That night the moon was shining brightly. Siddhartha woke up and began to + think of many things. Never again could he be happy until he should have + found a solution to the riddle of existence. He decided to find it far + away from all those whom he loved. Softly he went into the room where + Yasodhara was sleeping with her baby. Then he called for his faithful + Channa and told him to follow. + </p> + <p> + Together the two men went into the darkness of the night, one to find rest + for his soul, the other to be a faithful servant unto a beloved master. + </p> + <p> + The people of India among whom Siddhartha wandered for many years were + just then in a state of change. Their ancestors, the native Indians, had + been conquered without great difficulty by the war-like Aryans (our + distant cousins) and thereafter the Aryans had been the rulers and masters + of tens of millions of docile little brown men. To maintain themselves in + the seat of the mighty, they had divided the population into different + classes and gradually a system of "caste" of the most rigid sort had been + enforced upon the natives. The descendants of the Indo-European conquerors + belonged to the highest "caste," the class of warriors and nobles. Next + came the caste of the priests. Below these followed the peasants and the + business men. The ancient natives, however, who were called Pariahs, + formed a class of despised and miserable slaves and never could hope to be + anything else. + </p> + <p> + Even the religion of the people was a matter of caste. The old + Indo-Europeans, during their thousands of years of wandering, had met with + many strange adventures. These had been collected in a book called the + Veda. The language of this book was called Sanskrit, and it was closely + related to the different languages of the European continent, to Greek and + Latin and Russian and German and two-score others. The three highest + castes were allowed to read these holy scriptures. The Pariah, however, + the despised member of the lowest caste, was not permitted to know its + contents. Woe to the man of noble or priestly caste who should teach a + Pariah to study the sacred volume! + </p> + <p> + The majority of the Indian people, therefore, lived in misery. Since this + planet offered them very little joy, salvation from suffering must be + found elsewhere. They tried to derive a little consolation from meditation + upon the bliss of their future existence. + </p> + <p> + Brahma, the all-creator who was regarded by the Indian people as the + supreme ruler of life and death, was worshipped as the highest ideal of + perfection. To become like Brahma, to lose all desires for riches and + power, was recognised as the most exalted purpose of existence. Holy + thoughts were regarded as more important than holy deeds, and many people + went into the desert and lived upon the leaves of trees and starved their + bodies that they might feed their souls with the glorious contemplation of + the splendours of Brahma, the Wise, the Good and the Merciful. + </p> + <p> + Siddhartha, who had often observed these solitary wanderers who were + seeking the truth far away from the turmoil of the cities and the + villages, decided to follow their example. He cut his hair. He took his + pearls and his rubies and sent them back to his family with a message of + farewell, which the ever faithful Channa carried. Without a single + follower, the young prince then moved into the wilderness. + </p> + <p> + Soon the fame of his holy conduct spread among the mountains. Five young + men came to him and asked that they might be allowed to listen to his + words of wisdom. He agreed to be their master if they would follow him. + They consented, and he took them into the hills and for six years he + taught them all he knew amidst the lonely peaks of the Vindhya Mountains. + But at the end of this period of study, he felt that he was still far from + perfection. The world that he had left continued to tempt him. He now + asked that his pupils leave him and then he fasted for forty-nine days and + nights, sitting upon the roots of an old tree. At last he received his + reward. In the dusk of the fiftieth evening, Brahma revealed himself to + his faithful servant. From that moment on, Siddhartha was called Buddha + and he was revered as the Enlightened One who had come to save men from + their unhappy mortal fate. + </p> + <p> + The last forty-five years of his life, Buddha spent within the valley of + the Ganges River, teaching his simple lesson of submission and meekness + unto all men. In the year 488 before our era, he died, full of years and + beloved by millions of people. He had not preached his doctrines for the + benefit of a single class. Even the lowest Pariah might call himself his + disciple. + </p> + <p> + This, however, did not please the nobles and the priests and the merchants + who did their best to destroy a creed which recognised the equality of all + living creatures and offered men the hope of a second life (a + reincarnation) under happier circumstances. As soon as they could, they + encouraged the people of India to return to the ancient doctrines of the + Brahmin creed with its fasting and its tortures of the sinful body. But + Buddhism could not be destroyed. Slowly the disciples of the Enlightened + One wandered across the valleys of the Himalayas, and moved into China. + They crossed the Yellow Sea and preached the wisdom of their master unto + the people of Japan, and they faithfully obeyed the will of their great + master, who had forbidden them to use force. To-day more people recognise + Buddha as their teacher than ever before and their number surpasses that + of the combined followers of Christ and Mohammed. + </p> + <p> + As for Confucius, the wise old man of the Chinese, his story is a simple + one. He was born in the year 550 B.C. He led a quiet, dignified and + uneventful life at a time when China was without a strong central + government and when the Chinese people were at the mercy of bandits and + robber-barons who went from city to city, pillaging and stealing and + murdering and turning the busy plains of northern and central China into a + wilderness of starving people. + </p> + <p> + Confucius, who loved his people, tried to save them. He did not have much + faith in the use of violence. He was a very peaceful person. He did not + think that he could make people over by giving them a lot of new laws. He + knew that the only possible salvation would come from a change of heart, + and he set out upon the seemingly hopeless task of changing the character + of his millions of fellow men who inhabited the wide plains of eastern + Asia. The Chinese had never been much interested in religion as we + understand that word. They believed in devils and spooks as most primitive + people do. But they had no prophets and recognised no "revealed truth." + Confucius is almost the only one among the great moral leaders who did not + see visions, who did not proclaim himself as the messenger of a divine + power; who did not, at some time or another, claim that he was inspired by + voices from above. + </p> + <p> + He was just a very sensible and kindly man, rather given to lonely + wanderings and melancholy tunes upon his faithful flute. He asked for no + recognition. He did not demand that any one should follow him or worship + him. He reminds us of the ancient Greek philosophers, especially those of + the Stoic School, men who believed in right living and righteous thinking + without the hope of a reward but simply for the peace of the soul that + comes with a good conscience. + </p> + <p> + Confucius was a very tolerant man. He went out of his way to visit + Lao-Tse, the other great Chinese leader and the founder of a philosophic + system called "Taoism," which was merely an early Chinese version of the + Golden Rule. + </p> + <p> + Confucius bore no hatred to any one. He taught the virtue of supreme + self-possession. A person of real worth, according to the teaching of + Confucius, did not allow himself to be ruffled by anger and suffered + whatever fate brought him with the resignation of those sages who + understand that everything which happens, in one way or another, is meant + for the best. + </p> + <p> + At first he had only a few students. Gradually the number increased. + Before his death, in the year 478 B.C., several of the kings and the + princes of China confessed themselves his disciples. When Christ was born + in Bethlehem, the philosophy of Confucius had already become a part of the + mental make-up of most Chinamen. It has continued to influence their lives + ever since. Not however in its pure, original form. Most religions change + as time goes on. Christ preached humility and meekness and absence from + worldly ambitions, but fifteen centuries after Golgotha, the head of the + Christian church was spending millions upon the erection of a building + that bore little relation to the lonely stable of Bethlehem. + </p> + <p> + Lao-Tse taught the Golden Rule, and in less than three centuries the + ignorant masses had made him into a real and very cruel God and had buried + his wise commandments under a rubbish-heap of superstition which made the + lives of the average Chinese one long series of frights and fears and + horrors. + </p> + <p> + Confucius had shown his students the beauties of honouring their Father + and their Mother. They soon began to be more interested in the memory of + their departed parents than in the happiness of their children and their + grandchildren. Deliberately they turned their backs upon the future and + tried to peer into the vast darkness of the past. The worship of the + ancestors became a positive religious system. Rather than disturb a + cemetery situated upon the sunny and fertile side of a mountain, they + would plant their rice and wheat upon the barren rocks of the other slope + where nothing could possibly grow. And they preferred hunger and famine to + the desecration of the ancestral grave. + </p> + <p> + At the same time the wise words of Confucius never quite lost their hold + upon the increasing millions of eastern Asia. Confucianism, with its + profound sayings and shrewd observations, added a touch of common-sense + philosophy to the soul of every Chinaman and influenced his entire life, + whether he was a simple laundry man in a steaming basement or the ruler of + vast provinces who dwelt behind the high walls of a secluded palace. + </p> + <p> + In the sixteenth century the enthusiastic but rather uncivilised + Christians of the western world came face to face with the older creeds of + the East. The early Spaniards and Portuguese looked upon the peaceful + statues of Buddha and contemplated the venerable pictures of Confucius and + did not in the least know what to make of those worthy prophets with their + far-away smile. They came to the easy conclusion that these strange + divinities were just plain devils who represented something idolatrous and + heretical and did not deserve the respect of the true sons of the Church. + Whenever the spirit of Buddha or Confucius seemed to interfere with the + trade in spices and silks, the Europeans attacked the "evil influence" + with bullets and grape-shot. That system had certain very definite + disadvantages. It has left us an unpleasant heritage of ill-will which + promises little good for the immediate future. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE REFORMATION + </h2> + <p> + THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST COMPARED TO A GIGANTIC PENDULUM + WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE AND + THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE WERE FOLLOWED BY + THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM OF THE + REFORMATION + </p> + <p> + OF course you have heard of the Reformation. You think of a small but + courageous group of pilgrims who crossed the ocean to have "freedom of + religious worship." Vaguely in the course of time (and more especially in + our Protestant countries) the Reformation has come to stand for the idea + of "liberty of thought." Martin Luther is represented as the leader of the + vanguard of progress. But when history is something more than a series of + flattering speeches addressed to our own glorious ancestors, when to use + the words of the German historian Ranke, we try to discover what "actually + happened," then much of the past is seen in a very different light. + </p> + <p> + Few things in human life are either entirely good or entirely bad. Few + things are either black or white. It is the duty of the honest chronicler + to give a true account of all the good and bad sides of every historical + event. It is very difficult to do this because we all have our personal + likes and dislikes. But we ought to try and be as fair as we can be, and + must not allow our prejudices to influence us too much. + </p> + <p> + Take my own case as an example. I grew up in the very Protestant centre of + a very Protestant country. I never saw any Catholics until I was about + twelve years old. Then I felt very uncomfortable when I met them. I was a + little bit afraid. I knew the story of the many thousand people who had + been burned and hanged and quartered by the Spanish Inquisition when the + Duke of Alba tried to cure the Dutch people of their Lutheran and + Calvinistic heresies. All that was very real to me. It seemed to have + happened only the day before. It might occur again. There might be another + Saint Bartholomew's night, and poor little me would be slaughtered in my + nightie and my body would be thrown out of the window, as had happened to + the noble Admiral de Coligny. + </p> + <p> + Much later I went to live for a number of years in a Catholic country. I + found the people much pleasanter and much more tolerant and quite as + intelligent as my former countrymen. To my great surprise, I began to + discover that there was a Catholic side to the Reformation, quite as much + as a Protestant. + </p> + <p> + Of course the good people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who + actually lived through the Reformation, did not see things that way. They + were always right and their enemy was always wrong. It was a question of + hang or be hanged, and both sides preferred to do the hanging. Which was + no more than human and for which they deserve no blame. + </p> + <p> + When we look at the world as it appeared in the year 1500, an easy date to + remember, and the year in which the Emperor Charles V was born, this is + what we see. The feudal disorder of the Middle Ages has given way before + the order of a number of highly centralised kingdoms. The most powerful of + all sovereigns is the great Charles, then a baby in a cradle. He is the + grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Maximilian of Habsburg, the last + of the mediaeval knights, and of his wife Mary, the daughter of Charles + the Bold, the ambitious Burgundian duke who had made successful war upon + France but had been killed by the independent Swiss peasants. The child + Charles, therefore, has fallen heir to the greater part of the map, to all + the lands of his parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins and aunts in + Germany, in Austria, in Holland, in Belgium, in Italy, and in Spain, + together with all their colonies in Asia, Africa and America. By a strange + irony of fate, he has been born in Ghent, in that same castle of the + counts of Flanders, which the Germans used as a prison during their recent + occupation of Belgium, and although a Spanish king and a German emperor, + he receives the training of a Fleming. + </p> + <p> + As his father is dead (poisoned, so people say, but this is never proved), + and his mother has lost her mind (she is travelling through her domains + with the coffin containing the body of her departed husband), the child is + left to the strict discipline of his Aunt Margaret. Forced to rule Germans + and Italians and Spaniards and a hundred strange races, Charles grows up a + Fleming, a faithful son of the Catholic Church, but quite averse to + religious intolerance. He is rather lazy, both as a boy and as a man. But + fate condemns him to rule the world when the world is in a turmoil of + religious fervour. Forever he is speeding from Madrid to Innsbruck and + from Bruges to Vienna. He loves peace and quiet and he is always at war. + At the age of fifty-five, we see him turn his back upon the human race in + utter disgust at so much hate and so much stupidity. Three years later he + dies, a very tired and disappointed man. + </p> + <p> + So much for Charles the Emperor. How about the Church, the second great + power in the world? The Church has changed greatly since the early days of + the Middle Ages, when it started out to conquer the heathen and show them + the advantages of a pious and righteous life. In the first place, the + Church has grown too rich. The Pope is no longer the shepherd of a flock + of humble Christians. He lives in a vast palace and surrounds himself with + artists and musicians and famous literary men. His churches and chapels + are covered with new pictures in which the saints look more like Greek + Gods than is strictly necessary. He divides his time unevenly between + affairs of state and art. The affairs of state take ten percent of his + time. The other ninety percent goes to an active interest in Roman + statues, recently discovered Greek vases, plans for a new summer home, the + rehearsal of a new play. The Archbishops and the Cardinals follow the + example of their Pope. The Bishops try to imitate the Archbishops. The + village priests, however, have remained faithful to their duties. They + keep themselves aloof from the wicked world and the heathenish love of + beauty and pleasure. They stay away from the monasteries where the monks + seem to have forgotten their ancient vows of simplicity and poverty and + live as happily as they dare without causing too much of a public scandal. + </p> + <p> + Finally, there are the common people. They are much better off than they + have ever been before. They are more prosperous, they live in better + houses, their children go to better schools, their cities are more + beautiful than before, their firearms have made them the equal of their + old enemies, the robber-barons, who for centuries have levied such heavy + taxes upon their trade. So much for the chief actors in the Reformation. + </p> + <p> + Now let us see what the Renaissance has done to Europe, and then you will + understand how the revival of learning and art was bound to be followed by + a revival of religious interests. The Renaissance began in Italy. From + there it spread to France. It was not quite successful in Spain, where + five hundred years of warfare with the Moors had made the people very + narrow minded and very fanatical in all religious matters. The circle had + grown wider and wider, but once the Alps had been crossed, the Renaissance + had suffered a change. + </p> + <p> + The people of northern Europe, living in a very different climate, had an + outlook upon life which contrasted strangely with that of their southern + neighbours. The Italians lived out in the open, under a sunny sky. It was + easy for them to laugh and to sing and to be happy. The Germans, the + Dutch, the English, the Swedes, spent most of their time indoors, + listening to the rain beating on the closed windows of their comfortable + little houses. They did not laugh quite so much. They took everything more + seriously. They were forever conscious of their immortal souls and they + did not like to be funny about matters which they considered holy and + sacred. The "humanistic" part of the Renaissance, the books, the studies + of ancient authors, the grammar and the text-books, interested them + greatly. But the general return to the old pagan civilisation of Greece + and Rome, which was one of the chief results of the Renaissance in Italy, + filled their hearts with horror. + </p> + <p> + But the Papacy and the College of Cardinals was almost entirely composed + of Italians and they had turned the Church into a pleasant club where + people discussed art and music and the theatre, but rarely mentioned + religion. Hence the split between the serious north and the more civilised + but easy-going and indifferent south was growing wider and wider all the + time and nobody seemed to be aware of the danger that threatened the + Church. + </p> + <p> + There were a few minor reasons which will explain why the Reformation took + place in Germany rather than in Sweden or England. The Germans bore an + ancient grudge against Rome. The endless quarrels between Emperor and Pope + had caused much mutual bitterness. In the other European countries where + the government rested in the hands of a strong king, the ruler had often + been able to protect his subjects against the greed of the priests. In + Germany, where a shadowy emperor ruled a turbulent crowd of little + princelings, the good burghers were more directly at the mercy of their + bishops and prelates. These dignitaries were trying to collect large sums + of money for the benefit of those enormous churches which were a hobby of + the Popes of the Renaissance. The Germans felt that they were being + mulcted and quite naturally they did not like it. + </p> + <p> + And then there is the rarely mentioned fact that Germany was the home of + the printing press. In northern Europe books were cheap and the Bible was + no longer a mysterious manu-script owned and explained by the priest. It + was a household book of many families where Latin was understood by the + father and by the children. Whole families began to read it, which was + against the law of the Church. They discovered that the priests were + telling them many things which, according to the original text of the Holy + Scriptures, were somewhat different. This caused doubt. People began to + ask questions. And questions, when they cannot be answered, often cause a + great deal of trouble. + </p> + <p> + The attack began when the humanists of the North opened fire upon the + monks. In their heart of hearts they still had too much respect and + reverence for the Pope to direct their sallies against his Most Holy + Person. But the lazy, ignorant monks, living behind the sheltering walls + of their rich monasteries, offered rare sport. + </p> + <p> + The leader in this warfare, curiously enough, was a very faithful son of + the church Gerard Gerardzoon, or Desiderius Erasmus, as he is usually + called, was a poor boy, born in Rotterdam in Holland, and educated at the + same Latin school of Deventer from which Thomas a Kempis had graduated. He + had become a priest and for a time he had lived in a monastery. He had + travelled a great deal and knew whereof he wrote, When he began his career + as a public pamphleteer (he would have been called an editorial writer in + our day) the world was greatly amused at an anonymous series of letters + which had just appeared under the title of "Letters of Obscure Men." In + these letters, the general stupidity and arrogance of the monks of the + late Middle Ages was exposed in a strange German-Latin doggerel which + reminds one of our modern limericks. Erasmus himself was a very learned + and serious scholar, who knew both Latin and Greek and gave us the first + reliable version of the New Testament, which he translated into Latin + together with a corrected edition of the original Greek text. But he + believed with Sallust, the Roman poet, that nothing prevents us from + "stating the truth with a smile upon our lips." + </p> + <p> + In the year 1500, while visiting Sir Thomas More in Eng-land, he took a + few weeks off and wrote a funny little book, called the "Praise of Folly," + in which he attacked the monks and their credulous followers with that + most dangerous of all weapons, humor. The booklet was the best seller of + the sixteenth century. It was translated into almost every language and it + made people pay attention to those other books of Erasmus in which he + advocated reform of the many abuses of the church and appealed to his + fellow humanists to help him in his task of bringing about a great rebirth + of the Christian faith. + </p> + <p> + But nothing came of these excellent plans. Erasmus was too reasonable and + too tolerant to please most of the enemies of the church. They were + waiting for a leader of a more robust nature. + </p> + <p> + He came, and his name was Martin Luther. + </p> + <p> + Luther was a North-German peasant with a first-class brain and possessed + of great personal courage. He was a university man, a master of arts of + the University of Erfurt; afterwards he joined a Dominican monastery. Then + he became a college professor at the theological school of Wittenberg and + began to explain the scriptures to the indifferent ploughboys of his Saxon + home. He had a lot of spare time and this he used to study the original + texts of the Old and New Testaments. Soon he began to see the great + difference which existed between the words of Christ and those that were + preached by the Popes and the Bishops. In the year 1511, he visited Rome + on official business. Alexander VI, of the family of Borgia, who had + enriched himself for the benefit of his son and daughter, was dead. But + his successor, Julius II, a man of irreproachable personal character, was + spending most of his time fighting and building and did not impress this + serious minded German theologian with his piety. Luther returned to + Wittenberg a much disappointed man. But worse was to follow. + </p> + <p> + The gigantic church of St. Peter which Pope Julius had wished upon his + innocent successors, although only half begun, was already in need of + repair. Alexander VI had spent every penny of the Papal treasury. Leo X, + who succeeded Julius in the year 1513, was on the verge of bankruptcy. He + reverted to an old method of raising ready cash. He began to sell + "indulgences." An indulgence was a piece of parchment which in return for + a certain sum of money, promised a sinner a decrease of the time which he + would have to spend in purgatory. It was a perfectly correct thing + according to the creed of the late Middle Ages. Since the church had the + power to forgive the sins of those who truly repented before they died, + the church also had the right to shorten, through its intercession with + the Saints, the time during which the soul must be purified in the shadowy + realms of Purgatory. + </p> + <p> + It was unfortunate that these Indulgences must be sold for money. But they + offered an easy form of revenue and besides, those who were too poor to + pay, received theirs for nothing. + </p> + <p> + Now it happened in the year 1517 that the exclusive territory for the sale + of indulgences in Saxony was given to a Dominican monk by the name of + Johan Tetzel. Brother Johan was a hustling salesman. To tell the truth he + was a little too eager. His business methods outraged the pious people of + the little duchy. And Luther, who was an honest fellow, got so angry that + he did a rash thing. On the 31st of October of the year 1517, he went to + the court church and upon the doors thereof he posted a sheet of paper + with ninety-five statements (or theses), attacking the sale of + indulgences. These statements had been written in Latin. Luther had no + intention of starting a riot. He was not a revolutionist. He objected to + the institution of the Indulgences and he wanted his fellow professors to + know what he thought about them. But this was still a private affair of + the clerical and professorial world and there was no appeal to the + prejudices of the community of laymen. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, at that moment when the whole world had begun to take an + interest in the religious affairs of the day it was utterly impossible to + discuss anything, without at once creating a serious mental disturbance. + In less than two months, all Europe was discussing the ninety-five theses + of the Saxon monk. Every one must take sides. Every obscure little + theologian must print his own opinion. The papal authorities began to be + alarmed. They ordered the Wittenberg professor to proceed to Rome and give + an account of his action. Luther wisely remembered what had happened to + Huss. He stayed in Germany and he was punished with excommunication. + Luther burned the papal bull in the presence of an admiring multitude and + from that moment, peace between himself and the Pope was no longer + possible. + </p> + <p> + Without any desire on his part, Luther had become the leader of a vast + army of discontented Christians. German patriots like Ulrich von Hutten, + rushed to his defence. The students of Wittenberg and Erfurt and Leipzig + offered to defend him should the authorities try to imprison him. The + Elector of Saxony reassured the eager young men. No harm would befall + Luther as long as he stayed on Saxon ground. + </p> + <p> + All this happened in the year 1520. Charles V was twenty years old and as + the ruler of half the world, was forced to remain on pleasant terms with + the Pope. He sent out calls for a Diet or general assembly in the good + city of Worms on the Rhine and commanded Luther to be present and give an + account of his extraordinary behaviour. Luther, who now was the national + hero of the Germans, went. He refused to take back a single word of what + he had ever written or said. His conscience was controlled only by the + word of God. He would live and die for his conscience + </p> + <p> + The Diet of Worms, after due deliberation, declared Luther an outlaw + before God and man, and forbade all Germans to give him shelter or food or + drink, or to read a single word of the books which the dastardly heretic + had written. But the great reformer was in no danger. By the majority of + the Germans of the north the edict was denounced as a most unjust and + outrageous document. For greater safety, Luther was hidden in the + Wartburg, a castle belonging to the Elector of Saxony, and there he defied + all papal authority by translating the entire Bible into the German + language, that all the people might read and know the word of God for + themselves. + </p> + <p> + By this time, the Reformation was no longer a spiritual and religious + affair. Those who hated the beauty of the modern church building used this + period of unrest to attack and destroy what they did not like because they + did not understand it. Impoverished knights tried to make up for past + losses by grabbing the territory which belonged to the monasteries. + Discontented princes made use of the absence of the Emperor to increase + their own power. The starving peasants, following the leadership of + half-crazy agitators, made the best of the opportunity and attacked the + castles of their masters and plundered and murdered and burned with the + zeal of the old Crusaders. + </p> + <p> + A veritable reign of disorder broke loose throughout the Empire. Some + princes became Protestants (as the "protesting" adherents of Luther were + called) and persecuted their Catholic subjects. Others remained Catholic + and hanged their Protestant subjects. The Diet of Speyer of the year 1526 + tried to settle this difficult question of allegiance by ordering that + "the subjects should all be of the same religious denomination as their + princes." This turned Germany into a checkerboard of a thousand hostile + little duchies and principalities and created a situation which prevented + the normal political growth for hundreds of years. + </p> + <p> + In February of the year 1546 Luther died and was put to rest in the same + church where twenty-nine years before he had proclaimed his famous + objections to the sale of Indulgences. In less than thirty years, the + indifferent, joking and laughing world of the Renaissance had been + transformed into the arguing, quarrelling, back-biting, debating-society + of the Reformation. The universal spiritual empire of the Popes came to a + sudden end and the whole Western Europe was turned into a battle-field, + where Protestants and Catholics killed each other for the greater glory of + certain theological doctrines which are as incomprehensible to the present + generation as the mysterious inscriptions of the ancient Etruscans. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RELIGIOUS WARFARE + </h2> + <h3> + THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES + </h3> + <p> + THE sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the age of religious + controversy. + </p> + <p> + If you will notice you will find that almost everybody around you is + forever "talking economics" and discussing wages and hours of labor and + strikes in their relation to the life of the community, for that is the + main topic of interest of our own time. + </p> + <p> + The poor little children of the year 1600 or 1650 fared worse. They never + heard anything but "religion." Their heads were filled with + "predestination," "transubstantition," "free will," and a hundred other + queer words, expressing obscure points of "the true faith," whether + Catholic or Protestant. According to the desire of their parents they were + baptised Catholics or Lutherans or Calvinists or Zwinglians or + Anabaptists. They learned their theology from the Augsburg catechism, + composed by Luther, or from the "institutes of Christianity," written by + Calvin, or they mumbled the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith which were + printed in the English Book of Common Prayer, and they were told that + these alone represented the "True Faith." + </p> + <p> + They heard of the wholesale theft of church property perpetrated by King + Henry VIII, the much-married monarch of England, who made himself the + supreme head of the English church, and assumed the old papal rights of + appointing bishops and priests. They had a nightmare whenever some one + mentioned the Holy Inquisition, with its dungeons and its many torture + chambers, and they were treated to equally horrible stories of how a mob + of outraged Dutch Protestants had got hold of a dozen defenceless old + priests and hanged them for the sheer pleasure of killing those who + professed a different faith. It was unfortunate that the two contending + parties were so equally matched. Otherwise the struggle would have come to + a quick solution. Now it dragged on for eight generations, and it grew so + complicated that I can only tell you the most important details, and must + ask you to get the rest from one of the many histories of the Reformation. + </p> + <p> + The great reform movement of the Protestants had been followed by a + thoroughgoing reform within the bosom of the Church. Those popes who had + been merely amateur humanists and dealers in Roman and Greek antiquities, + disappeared from the scene and their place was taken by serious men who + spent twenty hours a day administering those holy duties which had been + placed in their hands. + </p> + <p> + The long and rather disgraceful happiness of the monasteries came to an + end. Monks and nuns were forced to be up at sunrise, to study the Church + Fathers, to tend the sick and console the dying. The Holy Inquisition + watched day and night that no dangerous doctrines should be spread by way + of the printing press. Here it is customary to mention poor Galileo, who + was locked up because he had been a little too indiscreet in explaining + the heavens with his funny little telescope and had muttered certain + opinions about the behaviour of the planets which were entirely opposed to + the official views of the church. But in all fairness to the Pope, the + clergy and the Inquisition, it ought to be stated that the Protestants + were quite as much the enemies of science and medicine as the Catholics + and with equal manifestations of ignorance and intolerance regarded the + men who investigated things for themselves as the most dangerous enemies + of mankind. + </p> + <p> + And Calvin, the great French reformer and the tyrant (both political and + spiritual) of Geneva, not only assisted the French authorities when they + tried to hang Michael Servetus (the Spanish theologian and physician who + had become famous as the assistant of Vesalius, the first great + anatomist), but when Servetus had managed to escape from his French jail + and had fled to Geneva, Calvin threw this brilliant man into prison and + after a prolonged trial, allowed him to be burned at the stake on account + of his heresies, totally indifferent to his fame as a scientist. + </p> + <p> + And so it went. We have few reliable statistics upon the subject, but on + the whole, the Protestants tired of this game long before the Catholics, + and the greater part of honest men and women who were burned and hanged + and decapitated on account of their religious beliefs fell as victims of + the very energetic but also very drastic church of Rome. + </p> + <p> + For tolerance (and please remember this when you grow older), is of very + recent origin and even the people of our own so-called "modern world" are + apt to be tolerant only upon such matters as do not interest them very + much. They are tolerant towards a native of Africa, and do not care whether + he becomes a Buddhist or a Mohammedan, because neither Buddhism nor + Mohammedanism means anything to them. But when they hear that their + neighbour who was a Republican and believed in a high protective tariff, + has joined the Socialist party and now wants to repeal all tariff laws, + their tolerance ceases and they use almost the same words as those + employed by a kindly Catholic (or Protestant) of the seventeenth century, + who was informed that his best friend whom he had always respected and + loved had fallen a victim to the terrible heresies of the Protestant (or + Catholic) church. + </p> + <p> + "Heresy" until a very short time ago was regarded as a disease. Nowadays + when we see a man neglecting the personal cleanliness of his body and his + home and exposing himself and his children to the dangers of typhoid fever + or another preventable disease, we send for the board-of-health and the + health officer calls upon the police to aid him in removing this person + who is a danger to the safety of the entire community. In the sixteenth + and seventeenth centuries, a heretic, a man or a woman who openly doubted + the fundamental principles upon which his Protestant or Catholic religion + had been founded, was considered a more terrible menace than a typhoid + carrier. Typhoid fever might (very likely would) destroy the body. But + heresy, according to them, would positively destroy the immortal soul. It + was therefore the duty of all good and logical citizens to warn the police + against the enemies of the established order of things and those who + failed to do so were as culpable as a modern man who does not telephone to + the nearest doctor when he discovers that his fellow-tenants are suffering + from cholera or small-pox. + </p> + <p> + In the years to come you will hear a great deal about preventive medicine. + Preventive medicine simply means that our doctors do not wait until their + patients are sick, then step forward and cure them. On the contrary, they + study the patient and the conditions under which he lives when he (the + patient) is perfectly well and they remove every possible cause of illness + by cleaning up rubbish, by teaching him what to eat and what to avoid, and + by giving him a few simple ideas of personal hygiene. They go even further + than that, and these good doctors enter the schools and teach the children + how to use tooth-brushes and how to avoid catching colds. + </p> + <p> + The sixteenth century which regarded (as I have tried to show you) bodily + illness as much less important than sickness which threatened the soul, + organised a system of spiritual preventive medicine. As soon as a child + was old enough to spell his first words, he was educated in the true (and + the "only true") principles of the Faith. Indirectly this proved to be a + good thing for the general progress of the people of Europe. The + Protestant lands were soon dotted with schools. They used a great deal of + very valuable time to explain the Catechism, but they gave instruction in + other things besides theology. They encouraged reading and they were + responsible for the great prosperity of the printing trade. + </p> + <p> + But the Catholics did not lag behind. They too devoted much time and + thought to education. The Church, in this matter, found an invaluable + friend and ally in the newly-founded order of the Society of Jesus. The + founder of this remarkable organisation was a Spanish soldier who after a + life of unholy adventures had been converted and thereupon felt himself + bound to serve the church just as many former sinners, who have been shown + the errors of their way by the Salvation Army, devote the remaining years + of their lives to the task of aiding and consoling those who are less + fortunate. + </p> + <p> + The name of this Spaniard was Ignatius de Loyola. He was born in the year + before the discovery of America. He had been wounded and lamed for life + and while he was in the hospital he had seen a vision of the Holy Virgin + and her Son, who bade him give up the wickedness of his former life. He + decided to go to the Holy Land and finish the task of the Crusades. But a + visit to Jerusalem had shown him the impossibility of the task and he + returned west to help in the warfare upon the heresies of the Lutherans. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1534 he was studying in Paris at the Sorbonne. Together with + seven other students he founded a fraternity. The eight men promised each + other that they would lead holy lives, that they would not strive after + riches but after righteousness, and would devote themselves, body and + soul, to the service of the Church. A few years later this small + fraternity had grown into a regular organisation and was recognised by + Pope Paul III as the Society of Jesus. + </p> + <p> + Loyola had been a military man. He believed in discipline, and absolute + obedience to the orders of the superior dignitaries became one of the main + causes for the enormous success of the Jesuits. They specialised in + education. They gave their teachers a most thorough-going education before + they allowed them to talk to a single pupil. They lived with their + students and they entered into their games. They watched them with tender + care. And as a result they raised a new generation of faithful Catholics + who took their religious duties as seriously as the people of the early + Middle Ages. + </p> + <p> + The shrewd Jesuits, however, did not waste all their efforts upon the + education of the poor. They entered the palaces of the mighty and became + the private tutors of future emperors and kings. And what this meant you + will see for yourself when I tell you about the Thirty Years War. But + before this terrible and final outbreak of religious fanaticism, a great + many other things had happened. + </p> + <p> + Charles V was dead. Germany and Austria had been left to his brother + Ferdinand. All his other possessions, Spain and the Netherlands and the + Indies and America had gone to his son Philip. Philip was the son of + Charles and a Portuguese princess who had been first cousin to her own + husband. The children that are born of such a union are apt to be rather + queer. The son of Philip, the unfortunate Don Carlos, (murdered afterwards + with his own father's consent,) was crazy. Philip was not quite crazy, but + his zeal for the Church bordered closely upon religious insanity. He + believed that Heaven had appointed him as one of the saviours of mankind. + Therefore, whosoever was obstinate and refused to share his Majesty's + views, proclaimed himself an enemy of the human race and must be + exterminated lest his example corrupt the souls of his pious neighbours. + </p> + <p> + Spain, of course, was a very rich country. All the gold and silver of the + new world flowed into the Castilian and Aragonian treasuries. But Spain + suffered from a curious economic disease. Her peasants were hard working + men and even harder working women. But the better classes maintained a + supreme contempt for any form of labour, outside of employment in the army + or navy or the civil service. As for the Moors, who had been very + industrious artisans, they had been driven out of the country long before. + As a result, Spain, the treasure chest of the world, remained a poor + country because all her money had to be sent abroad in exchange for the + wheat and the other necessities of life which the Spaniards neglected to + raise for themselves. + </p> + <p> + Philip, ruler of the most powerful nation of the sixteenth century, + depended for his revenue upon the taxes which were gathered in the busy + commercial bee-hive of the Netherlands. But these Flemings and Dutchmen + were devoted followers of the doctrines of Luther and Calvin and they had + cleansed their churches of all images and holy paintings and they had + informed the Pope that they no longer regarded him as their shepherd but + intended to follow the dictates of their consciences and the commands of + their newly translated Bible. + </p> + <p> + This placed the king in a very difficult position. He could not possibly + tolerate the heresies of his Dutch subjects, but he needed their money. If + he allowed them to be Protestants and took no measures to save their souls + he was deficient in his duty toward God. If he sent the Inquisition to the + Netherlands and burned his subjects at the stake, he would lose the + greater part of his income. + </p> + <p> + Being a man of uncertain will-power he hesitated a long time. He tried + kindness and sternness and promises and threats. The Hollanders remained + obstinate, and continued to sing psalms and listen to the sermons of their + Lutheran and Calvinist preachers. Philip in his despair sent his "man of + iron," the Duke of Alba, to bring these hardened sinners to terms. Alba + began by decapitating those leaders who had not wisely left the country + before his arrival. In the year 1572 (the same year that the French + Protestant leaders were all killed during the terrible night of Saint + Bartholomew), he attacked a number of Dutch cities and massacred the + inhabitants as an example for the others. The next year he laid siege to + the town of Leyden, the manufacturing center of Holland. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the seven small provinces of the northern Netherlands had + formed a defensive union, the so-called union of Utrecht, and had + recognised William of Orange, a German prince who had been the private + secretary of the Emperor Charles V, as the leader of their army and as + commander of their freebooting sailors, who were known as the Beggars of + the Sea. William, to save Leyden, cut the dykes, created a shallow inland + sea, and delivered the town with the help of a strangely equipped navy + consisting of scows and flat-bottomed barges which were rowed and pushed + and pulled through the mud until they reached the city walls. + </p> + <p> + It was the first time that an army of the invincible Spanish king had + suffered such a humiliating defeat. It surprised the world just as the + Japanese victory of Mukden, in the Russian-Japanese war, surprised our own + generation. The Protestant powers took fresh courage and Philip devised + new means for the purpose of conquering his rebellious subjects. He hired + a poor half-witted fanatic to go and murder William of Orange. But the + sight of their dead leader did not bring the Seven Provinces to their + knees. On the contrary it made them furiously angry. In the year 1581, the + Estates General (the meeting of the representatives of the Seven + Provinces) came together at the Hague and most solemnly abjured their + "wicked king Philip" and themselves assumed the burden of sovereignty + which thus far had been invested in their "King by the Grace of God." + </p> + <p> + This is a very important event in the history of the great struggle for + political liberty. It was a step which reached much further than the + uprising of the nobles which ended with the signing of the Magna Carta. + These good burghers said "Between a king and his subjects there is a + silent understanding that both sides shall perform certain services and + shall recognise certain definite duties. If either party fails to live up + to this contract, the other has the right to consider it terminated." The + American subjects of King George III in the year 1776 came to a similar + conclusion. But they had three thousand miles of ocean between themselves + and their ruler and the Estates General took their decision (which meant a + slow death in case of defeat) within hearing of the Spanish guns and + although in constant fear of an avenging Spanish fleet. + </p> + <p> + The stories about a mysterious Spanish fleet that was to conquer both + Holland and England, when Protestant Queen Elizabeth had succeeded + Catholic "Bloody Mary" was an old one. For years the sailors of the + waterfront had talked about it. In the eighties of the sixteenth century, + the rumour took a definite shape. According to pilots who had been in + Lisbon, all the Spanish and Portuguese wharves were building ships. And in + the southern Netherlands (in Belgium) the Duke of Parma was collecting a + large expeditionary force to be carried from Ostend to London and + Amsterdam as soon as the fleet should arrive. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1586 the Great Armada set sail for the north. But the harbours + of the Flemish coast were blockaded by a Dutch fleet and the Channel was + guarded by the English, and the Spaniards, accustomed to the quieter seas + of the south, did not know how to navigate in this squally and bleak + northern climate. What happened to the Armada once it was attacked by + ships and by storms I need not tell you. A few ships, by sailing around + Ireland, escaped to tell the terrible story of defeat. The others perished + and lie at the bottom of the North Sea. + </p> + <p> + Turn about is fair play. The British nod the Dutch Protestants now carried + the war into the territory of the enemy. Before the end of the century, + Houtman, with the help of a booklet written by Linschoten (a Hollander who + had been in the Portuguese service), had at last discovered the route to + the Indies. As a result the great Dutch East India Company was founded and + a systematic war upon the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Asia and + Africa was begun in all seriousness. + </p> + <p> + It was during this early era of colonial conquest that a curious lawsuit + was fought out in the Dutch courts. Early in the seventeenth century a + Dutch Captain by the name of van Heemskerk, a man who had made himself + famous as the head of an expedition which had tried to discover the North + Eastern Passage to the Indies and who had spent a winter on the frozen + shores of the island of Nova Zembla, had captured a Portuguese ship in the + straits of Malacca. You will remember that the Pope had divided the world + into two equal shares, one of which had been given to the Spaniards and + the other to the Portuguese. The Portuguese quite naturally regarded the + water which surrounded their Indian islands as part of their own property + and since, for the moment, they were not at war with the United Seven + Netherlands, they claimed that the captain of a private Dutch trading + company had no right to enter their private domain and steal their ships. + And they brought suit. The directors of the Dutch East India Company hired + a bright young lawyer, by the name of De Groot or Grotius, to defend their + case. He made the astonishing plea that the ocean is free to all comers. + Once outside the distance which a cannon ball fired from the land can + reach, the sea is or (according to Grotius) ought to be, a free and open + highway to all the ships of all nations. It was the first time that this + startling doctrine had been publicly pronounced in a court of law. It was + opposed by all the other seafaring people. To counteract the effect of + Grotius' famous plea for the "Mare Liberum," or "Open Sea," John Selden, + the Englishman, wrote his famous treatise upon the "Mare Clausum" or + "Closed Sea" which treated of the natural right of a sovereign to regard + the seas which surrounded his country as belonging to his territory. I + mention this here because the question had not yet been decided and during + the last war caused all sorts of difficulties and complications. + </p> + <p> + To return to the warfare between Spaniard and Hollander and Englishman, + before twenty years were over the most valuable colonies of the Indies and + the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon and those along the coast of China and + even Japan were in Protestant hands. In 1621 a West Indian Company was + founded which conquered Brazil and in North America built a fortress + called Nieuw Amsterdam at the mouth of the river which Henry Hudson had + discovered in the year 1609 + </p> + <p> + These new colonies enriched both England and the Dutch Republic to such an + extent that they could hire foreign soldiers to do their fighting on land + while they devoted themselves to commerce and trade. To them the + Protestant revolt meant independence and prosperity. But in many other + parts of Europe it meant a succession of horrors compared to which the + last war was a mild excursion of kindly Sunday-school boys. + </p> + <p> + The Thirty Years War which broke out in the year 1618 and which ended with + the famous treaty of Westphalia in 1648 was the perfectly natural result + of a century of ever increasing religious hatred. It was, as I have said, + a terrible war. Everybody fought everybody else and the struggle ended + only when all parties had been thoroughly exhausted and could fight no + longer. + </p> + <p> + In less than a generation it turned many parts of central Europe into a + wilderness, where the hungry peasants fought for the carcass of a dead + horse with the even hungrier wolf. Five-sixths of all the German towns and + villages were destroyed. The Palatinate, in western Germany, was plundered + twenty-eight times. And a population of eighteen million people was + reduced to four million. + </p> + <p> + The hostilities began almost as soon as Ferdinand II of the House of + Habsburg had been elected Emperor. He was the product of a most careful + Jesuit training and was a most obedient and devout son of the Church. The + vow which he had made as a young man, that he would eradicate all sects + and all heresies from his domains, Ferdinand kept to the best of his + ability. Two days before his election, his chief opponent, Frederick, the + Protestant Elector of the Palatinate and a son-in-law of James I of + England, had been made King of Bohemia, in direct violation of Ferdinand's + wishes. + </p> + <p> + At once the Habsburg armies marched into Bohemia. The young king looked in + vain for assistance against this formidable enemy. The Dutch Republic was + willing to help, but, engaged in a desperate war of its own with the + Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, it could do little. The Stuarts in + England were more interested in strengthening their own absolute power at + home than spending money and men upon a forlorn adventure in far away + Bohemia. After a struggle of a few months, the Elector of the Palatinate + was driven away and his domains were given to the Catholic house of + Bavaria. This was the beginning of the great war. + </p> + <p> + Then the Habsburg armies, under Tilly and Wallenstein, fought their way + through the Protestant part of Germany until they had reached the shores + of the Baltic. A Catholic neighbour meant serious danger to the Protestant + king of Denmark. Christian IV tried to defend himself by attacking his + enemies before they had become too strong for him. The Danish armies + marched into Germany but were defeated. Wallenstein followed up his + victory with such energy and violence that Denmark was forced to sue for + peace. Only one town of the Baltic then remained in the hands of the + Protestants. That was Stralsund. + </p> + <p> + There, in the early summer of the year 1630, landed King Gustavus Adolphus + of the house of Vasa, king of Sweden, and famous as the man who had + defended his country against the Russians. A Protestant prince of + unlimited ambition, desirous of making Sweden the centre of a great + Northern Empire, Gustavus Adolphus was welcomed by the Protestant princes + of Europe as the saviour of the Lutheran cause. He defeated Tilly, who had + just successfully butchered the Protestant inhabitants of Magdeburg. Then + his troops began their great march through the heart of Germany in an + attempt to reach the Habsburg possessions in Italy. Threatened in the rear + by the Catholics, Gustavus suddenly veered around and defeated the main + Habsburg army in the battle of Lutzen. Unfortunately the Swedish king was + killed when he strayed away from his troops. But the Habsburg power had + been broken. + </p> + <p> + Ferdinand, who was a suspicious sort of person, at once began to distrust + his own servants. Wallenstein, his commander-in-chief, was murdered at his + instigation. When the Catholic Bourbons, who ruled France and hated their + Habsburg rivals, heard of this, they joined the Protestant Swedes. The + armies of Louis XIII invaded the eastern part of Germany, and Turenne and + Conde added their fame to that of Baner and Weimar, the Swedish generals, + by murdering, pillaging and burning Habsburg property. This brought great + fame and riches to the Swedes and caused the Danes to become envious. The + Protestant Danes thereupon declared war upon the Protestant Swedes who + were the allies of the Catholic French, whose political leader, the + Cardinal de Richelieu, had just deprived the Huguenots (or French + Protestants) of those rights of public worship which the Edict of Nantes + of the year 1598 had guaranteed them. + </p> + <p> + The war, after the habit of such encounters, did not decide anything, when + it came to an end with the treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The Catholic + powers remained Catholic and the Protestant powers stayed faithful to the + doctrines of Luther and Calvin and Zwingli. The Swiss and Dutch + Protestants were recognised as independent republics. France kept the + cities of Metz and Toul and Verdun and a part of the Alsace. The Holy + Roman Empire continued to exist as a sort of scare-crow state, without + men, without money, without hope and without courage. + </p> + <p> + The only good the Thirty Years War accomplished was a negative one. It + discouraged both Catholics and Protestants from ever trying it again. + Henceforth they left each other in peace. This however did not mean that + religious feeling and theological hatred had been removed from this earth. + On the contrary. The quarrels between Catholic and Protestant came to an + end, but the disputes between the different Protestant sects continued as + bitterly as ever before. In Holland a difference of opinion as to the true + nature of predestination (a very obscure point of theology, but + exceedingly important the eyes of your great-grandfather) caused a quarrel + which ended with the decapitation of John of Oldenbarneveldt, the Dutch + statesman, who had been responsible for the success of the Republic during + the first twenty years of its independence, and who was the great + organising genius of her Indian trading company. In England, the feud led + to civil war. + </p> + <p> + But before I tell you of this outbreak which led to the first execution by + process-of-law of a European king, I ought to say something about the + previous history of England. In this book I am trying to give you only + those events of the past which can throw a light upon the conditions of + the present world. If I do not mention certain countries, the cause is not + to be found in any secret dislike on my part. I wish that I could tell you + what happened to Norway and Switzerland and Serbia and China. But these + lands exercised no great influence upon the development of Europe in the + sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I therefore pass them by with a + polite and very respectful bow. England however is in a different + position. What the people of that small island have done during the last + five hundred years has shaped the course of history in every corner of the + world. Without a proper knowledge of the background of English history, + you cannot understand what you read in the newspapers. And it is therefore + necessary that you know how England happened to develop a parliamentary + form of government while the rest of the European continent was still + ruled by absolute monarchs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE "DIVINE RIGHT" OF KINGS AND THE LESS DIVINE + BUT MORE REASONABLE "RIGHT OF PARLIAMENT" ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR KING + CHARLES II + </p> + <p> + CAESAR, the earliest explorer of north-western Europe, had crossed the + Channel in the year 55 B.C. and had conquered England. During four + centuries the country then remained a Roman province. But when the + Barbarians began to threaten Rome, the garrisons were called back from the + frontier that they might defend the home country and Britannia was left + without a government and without protection. + </p> + <p> + As soon as this became known among the hungry Saxon tribes of northern + Germany, they sailed across the North Sea and made themselves at home in + the prosperous island. They founded a number of independent Anglo-Saxon + kingdoms (so called after the original Angles or English and the Saxon + invaders) but these small states were for ever quarrelling with each other + and no King was strong enough to establish himself as the head of a united + country. For more than five hundred years, Mercia and Northumbria and + Wessex and Sussex and Kent and East Anglia, or whatever their names, were + exposed to attacks from various Scandinavian pirates. Finally in the + eleventh century, England, together with Norway and northern Germany + became part of the large Danish Empire of Canute the Great and the last + vestiges of independence disappeared. + </p> + <p> + The Danes, in the course of time, were driven away but no sooner was + England free, than it was conquered for the fourth time. The new enemies + were the descendants of another tribe of Norsemen who early in the tenth + century had invaded France and had founded the Duchy of Normandy. William, + Duke of Normandy, who for a long time had looked across the water with an + envious eye, crossed the Channel in October of the year 1066. At the + battle of Hastings, on October the fourteenth of that year, he destroyed + the weak forces of Harold of Wessex, the last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings and + established himself as King of England. But neither William nor his + successors of the House of Anjou and Plantagenet regarded England as their + true home. To them the island was merely a part of their great inheritance + on the continent—a sort of colony inhabited by rather backward + people upon whom they forced their own language and civilisation. + Gradually however the "colony" of England gained upon the "Mother country" + of Normandy. At the same time the Kings of France were trying desperately + to get rid of the powerful Norman-English neighbours who were in truth no + more than disobedient servants of the French crown. After a century of war + fare the French people, under the leadership of a young girl by the name + of Joan of Arc, drove the "foreigners" from their soil. Joan herself, + taken a prisoner at the battle of Compiegne in the year 1430 and sold by + her Burgundian captors to the English soldiers, was burned as a witch. But + the English never gained foothold upon the continent and their Kings were + at last able to devote all their time to their British possessions. As the + feudal nobility of the island had been engaged in one of those strange + feuds which were as common in the middle ages as measles and small-pox, + and as the greater part of the old landed proprietors had been killed + during these so-called Wars of the Roses, it was quite easy for the Kings + to increase their royal power. And by the end of the fifteenth century, + England was a strongly centralised country, ruled by Henry VII of the + House of Tudor, whose famous Court of Justice, the "Star Chamber" of + terrible memory, suppressed all attempts on the part of the surviving + nobles to regain their old influence upon the government of the country + with the utmost severity. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1509 Henry VII was succeeded by his son Henry VIII, and from + that moment on the history of England gained a new importance for the + country ceased to be a mediaeval island and became a modern state. + </p> + <p> + Henry had no deep interest in religion. He gladly used a private + disagreement with the Pope about one of his many divorces to declare + himself independent of Rome and make the church of England the first of + those "nationalistic churches" in which the worldly ruler also acts as the + spiritual head of his subjects. This peaceful reformation of 1034 not only + gave the house of Tudor the support of the English clergy, who for a long + time had been exposed to the violent attacks of many Lutheran + propagandists, but it also increased the Royal power through the + confiscation of the former possessions of the monasteries. At the same + time it made Henry popular with the merchants and tradespeople, who as the + proud and prosperous inhabitants of an island which was separated from the + rest of Europe by a wide and deep channel, had a great dislike for + everything "foreign" and did not want an Italian bishop to rule their + honest British souls. + </p> + <p> + In 1517 Henry died. He left the throne to his small son, aged ten. The + guardians of the child, favoring the modern Lutheran doctrines, did their + best to help the cause of Protestantism. But the boy died before he was + sixteen, and was succeeded by his sister Mary, the wife of Philip II of + Spain, who burned the bishops of the new "national church" and in other + ways followed the example of her royal Spanish husband + </p> + <p> + Fortunately she died, in the year 1558, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, + the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the second of his six wives, + whom he had decapitated when she no longer pleased him. Elizabeth, who had + spent some time in prison, and who had been released only at the request + of the Holy Roman Emperor, was a most cordial enemy of everything Catholic + and Spanish. She shared her father's indifference in the matter of + religion but she inherited his ability as a very shrewd judge of + character, and spent the forty-five years of her reign in strengthening + the power of the dynasty and in increasing the revenue and possessions of + her merry islands. In this she was most ably assisted by a number of men + who gathered around her throne and made the Elizabethan age a period of + such importance that you ought to study it in detail in one of the special + books of which I shall tell you in the bibliography at the end of this + volume. + </p> + <p> + Elizabeth, however, did not feel entirely safe upon her throne. She had a + rival and a very dangerous one. Mary, of the house of Stuart, daughter of + a French duchess and a Scottish father, widow of king Francis II of France + and daughter-in-law of Catherine of Medici (who had organised the murders + of Saint Bartholomew's night), was the mother of a little boy who was + afterwards to become the first Stuart king of England. She was an ardent + Catholic and a willing friend to those who were the enemies of Elizabeth. + Her own lack of political ability and the violent methods which she + employed to punish her Calvinistic subjects, caused a revolution in + Scotland and forced Mary to take refuge on English territory. For eighteen + years she remained in England, plotting forever and a day against the + woman who had given her shelter and who was at last obliged to follow the + advice of her trusted councilors "to cutte off the Scottish Queen's + heade." + </p> + <p> + The head was duly "cutte off" in the year 1587 and caused a war with + Spain. But the combined navies of England and Holland defeated Philip's + Invincible Armada, as we have already seen, and the blow which had been + meant to destroy the power of the two great anti-Catholic leaders was + turned into a profitable business adventure. + </p> + <p> + For now at last, after many years of hesitation, the English as well as + the Dutch thought it their good right to invade the Indies and America and + avenge the ills which their Protestant brethren had suffered at the hands + of the Spaniards. The English had been among the earliest successors of + Columbus. British ships, commanded by the Venetian pilot Giovanni Caboto + (or Cabot), had been the first to discover and explore the northern + American continent in 1496. Labrador and Newfoundland were of little + importance as a possible colony. But the banks of Newfoundland offered a + rich reward to the English fishing fleet. A year later, in 1497, the same + Cabot had explored the coast of Florida. + </p> + <p> + Then had come the busy years of Henry VII and Henry VIII when there had + been no money for foreign explorations. But under Elizabeth, with the + country at peace and Mary Stuart in prison, the sailors could leave their + harbour without fear for the fate of those whom they left behind. While + Elizabeth was still a child, Willoughby had ventured to sail past the + North Cape and one of his captains, Richard Chancellor, pushing further + eastward in his quest of a possible road to the Indies, had reached + Archangel, Russia, where he had established diplomatic and commercial + relations with the mysterious rulers of this distant Muscovite Empire. + During the first years of Elizabeth's rule this voyage had been followed + up by many others. Merchant adventurers, working for the benefit of a + "joint stock Company" had laid the foundations of trading companies which + in later centuries were to become colonies. Half pirate, half diplomat, + willing to stake everything on a single lucky voyage, smugglers of + everything that could be loaded into the hold of a vessel, dealers in men + and merchandise with equal indifference to everything except their profit, + the sailors of Elizabeth had carried the English flag and the fame of + their Virgin Queen to the four corners of the Seven Seas. Meanwhile + William Shakespeare kept her Majesty amused at home, and the best brains + and the best wit of England co-operated with the queen in her attempt to + change the feudal inheritance of Henry VIII into a modern national state. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1603 the old lady died at the age of seventy. Her cousin, the + great-grandson of her own grandfather Henry VII and son of Mary Stuart, + her rival and enemy, succeeded her as James I. By the Grace of God, he + found himself the ruler of a country which had escaped the fate of its + continental rivals. While the European Protestants and Catholics were + killing each other in a hopeless attempt to break the power of their + adversaries and establish the exclusive rule of their own particular + creed, England was at peace and "reformed" at leisure without going to the + extremes of either Luther or Loyola. It gave the island kingdom an + enormous advantage in the coming struggle for colonial possessions. It + assured England a leadership in international affairs which that country + has maintained until the present day. Not even the disastrous adventure + with the Stuarts was able to stop this normal development. + </p> + <p> + The Stuarts, who succeeded the Tudors, were "foreigners" in England. They + do not seem to have appreciated or understood this fact. The native house + of Tudor could steal a horse, but the "foreign" Stuarts were not allowed + to look at the bridle without causing great popular disapproval. Old Queen + Bess had ruled her domains very much as she pleased. In general however, + she had always followed a policy which meant money in the pocket of the + honest (and otherwise) British merchants. Hence the Queen had been always + assured of the wholehearted support of her grateful people. And small + liberties taken with some of the rights and prerogatives of Parliament + were gladly overlooked for the ulterior benefits which were derived from + her Majesty's strong and successful foreign policies. + </p> + <p> + Outwardly King James continued the same policy. But he lacked that + personal enthusiasm which had been so very typical of his great + predecessor. Foreign commerce continued to be encouraged. The Catholics + were not granted any liberties. But when Spain smiled pleasantly upon + England in an effort to establish peaceful relations, James was seen to + smile back. The majority of the English people did not like this, but + James was their King and they kept quiet. + </p> + <p> + Soon there were other causes of friction. King James and his son, Charles + I, who succeeded him in the year 1625 both firmly believed in the + principle of their "divine right" to administer their realm as they + thought fit without consulting the wishes of their subjects. The idea was + not new. The Popes, who in more than one way had been the successors of + the Roman Emperors (or rather of the Roman Imperial ideal of a single and + undivided state covering the entire known world), had always regarded + themselves and had been publicly recognised as the "Vice-Regents of Christ + upon Earth." No one questioned the right of God to rule the world as He + saw fit. As a natural result, few ventured to doubt the right of the + divine "Vice-Regent" to do the same thing and to demand the obedience of + the masses because he was the direct representative of the Absolute Ruler + of the Universe and responsible only to Almighty God. + </p> + <p> + When the Lutheran Reformation proved successful, those rights which + formerly had been invested in the Papacy were taken over by the many + European sovereigns who became Protestants. As head of their own national + or dynastic churches they insisted upon being "Christ's Vice-Regents" + within the limit of their own territory. The people did not question the + right of their rulers to take such a step. They accepted it, just as we in + our own day accept the idea of a representative system which to us seems + the only reasonable and just form of government. It is unfair therefore to + state that either Lutheranism or Calvinism caused the particular feeling + of irritation which greeted King-James's oft and loudly repeated assertion + of his "Divine Right." There must have been other grounds for the genuine + English disbelief in the Divine Right of Kings. + </p> + <p> + The first positive denial of the "Divine Right" of sovereigns had been + heard in the Netherlands when the Estates General abjured their lawful + sovereign King Philip II of Spain, in the year 1581. "The King," so they + said, "has broken his contract and the King therefore is dismissed like + any other unfaithful servant." Since then, this particular idea of a + king's responsibilities towards his subjects had spread among many of the + nations who inhabited the shores of the North Sea. They were in a very + favourable position. They were rich. The poor people in the heart of + central Europe, at the mercy of their Ruler's body-guard, could not afford + to discuss a problem which would at once land them in the deepest dungeon + of the nearest castle. But the merchants of Holland and England who + possessed the capital necessary for the maintenance of great armies and + navies, who knew how to handle the almighty weapon called "credit," had no + such fear. They were willing to pit the "Divine Right" of their own good + money against the "Divine Right" of any Habsburg or Bourbon or Stuart. + They knew that their guilders and shillings could beat the clumsy feudal + armies which were the only weapons of the King. They dared to act, where + others were condemned to suffer in silence or run the risk of the + scaffold. + </p> + <p> + When the Stuarts began to annoy the people of England with their claim + that they had a right to do what they pleased and never mind the + responsibility, the English middle classes used the House of Commons as + their first line of defence against this abuse of the Royal Power. The + Crown refused to give in and the King sent Parliament about its own + business. Eleven long years, Charles I ruled alone. He levied taxes which + most people regarded as illegal and he managed his British kingdom as if + it had been his own country estate. He had capable assistants and we must + say that he had the courage of his convictions. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, instead of assuring himself of the support of his faithful + Scottish subjects, Charles became involved in a quarrel with the Scotch + Presbyterians. Much against his will, but forced by his need for ready + cash, Charles was at last obliged to call Parliament together once more. + It met in April of 1640 and showed an ugly temper. It was dissolved a few + weeks later. A new Parliament convened in November. This one was even less + pliable than the first one. The members understood that the question of + "Government by Divine Right" or "Government by Parliament" must be fought + out for good and all. They attacked the King in his chief councillors and + executed half a dozen of them. They announced that they would not allow + themselves to be dissolved without their own approval. Finally on December + 1, 1641, they presented to the King a "Grand Remonstrance" which gave a + detailed account of the many grievances of the people against their Ruler. + </p> + <p> + Charles, hoping to derive some support for his own policy in the country + districts, left London in January of 1642. Each side organised an army and + prepared for open warfare between the absolute power of the crown and the + absolute power of Parliament. During this struggle, the most powerful + religious element of England, called the Puritans, (they were Anglicans + who had tried to purify their doctrines to the most absolute limits), came + quickly to the front. The regiments of "Godly men," commanded by Oliver + Cromwell, with their iron discipline and their profound confidence in the + holiness of their aims, soon became the model for the entire army of the + opposition. Twice Charles was defeated. After the battle of Naseby, in + 1645, he fled to Scotland. The Scotch sold him to the English. + </p> + <p> + There followed a period of intrigue and an uprising of the Scotch + Presbyterians against the English Puritan. In August of the year 1648 + after the three-days' battle of Preston Pans, Cromwell made an end to this + second civil war, and took Edinburgh. Meanwhile his soldiers, tired of + further talk and wasted hours of religious debate, had decided to act on + their own initiative. They removed from Parliament all those who did not + agree with their own Puritan views. Thereupon the "Rump," which was what + was left of the old Parliament, accused the King of high treason. The + House of Lords refused to sit as a tribunal. A special tribunal was + appointed and it condemned the King to death. On the 30th of January of + the year 1649, King Charles walked quietly out of a window of White Hall + onto the scaffold. That day, the Sovereign People, acting through their + chosen representatives, for the first time executed a ruler who had failed + to understand his own position in the modern state. + </p> + <p> + The period which followed the death of Charles is usually called after + Oliver Cromwell. At first the unofficial Dictator of England, he was + officially made Lord Protector in the year 1653. He ruled five years. He + used this period to continue the policies of Elizabeth. Spain once more + became the arch enemy of England and war upon the Spaniard was made a + national and sacred issue. + </p> + <p> + The commerce of England and the interests of the traders were placed + before everything else, and the Protestant creed of the strictest nature + was rigourously maintained. In maintaining England's position abroad, + Cromwell was successful. As a social reformer, however, he failed very + badly. The world is made up of a number of people and they rarely think + alike. In the long run, this seems a very wise provision. A government of + and by and for one single part of the entire community cannot possibly + survive. The Puritans had been a great force for good when they tried to + correct the abuse of the royal power. As the absolute Rulers of England + they became intolerable. + </p> + <p> + When Cromwell died in 1658, it was an easy matter for the Stuarts to + return to their old kingdom. Indeed, they were welcomed as "deliverers" by + the people who had found the yoke of the meek Puritans quite as hard to + bear as that of autocratic King Charles. Provided the Stuarts were willing + to forget about the Divine Right of their late and lamented father and + were willing to recognise the superiority of Parliament, the people + promised that they would be loyal and faithful subjects. + </p> + <p> + Two generations tried to make a success of this new arrangement. But the + Stuarts apparently had not learned their lesson and were unable to drop + their bad habits. Charles II, who came back in the year 1660, was an + amiable but worthless person. His indolence and his constitutional + insistence upon following the easiest course, together with his + conspicuous success as a liar, prevented an open outbreak between himself + and his people. By the act of Uniformity in 1662 he broke the power of the + Puritan clergy by banishing all dissenting clergymen from their parishes. + By the so-called Conventicle Act of 1664 he tried to prevent the + Dissenters from attending religious meetings by a threat of deportation to + the West Indies. This looked too much like the good old days of Divine + Right. People began to show the old and well-known signs of impatience, + and Parliament suddenly experienced difficulty in providing the King with + funds. + </p> + <p> + Since he could not get money from an unwilling Parliament, Charles + borrowed it secretly from his neighbour and cousin King Louis of France. + He betrayed his Protestant allies in return for 200,000 pounds per year, + and laughed at the poor simpletons of Parliament. + </p> + <p> + Economic independence suddenly gave the King great faith in his own + strength. He had spent many years of exile among his Catholic relations + and he had a secret liking for their religion. Perhaps he could bring + England back to Rome! He passed a Declaration of Indulgence which + suspended the old laws against the Catholics and Dissenters. This happened + just when Charles' younger brother James was said to have become a + Catholic. All this looked suspicious to the man in the street People began + to fear some terrible Popish plot. A new spirit of unrest entered the + land. Most of the people wanted to prevent another outbreak of civil war. + To them Royal Oppression and a Catholic King—yea, even Divine Right,—were + preferable to a new struggle between members of the same race. Others + however were less lenient. They were the much-feared Dissenters, who + invariably had the courage of their convictions. They were led by several + great noblemen who did not want to see a return of the old days of + absolute royal power. + </p> + <p> + For almost ten years, these two great parties, the Whigs (the middle class + element, called by this derisive name be-cause in the year 1640 a lot of + Scottish Whiggamores or horse-drovers headed by the Presbyterian clergy, + had marched to Edinburgh to oppose the King) and the Tories (an epithet + originally used against the Royalist Irish adherents but now applied to + the supporters of the King) opposed each other, but neither wished to + bring about a crisis. They allowed Charles to die peacefully in his bed + and permitted the Catholic James II to succeed his brother in 1685. But + when James, after threatening the country with the terrible foreign + invention of a "standing army" (which was to be commanded by Catholic + Frenchmen), issued a second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, and ordered + it to be read in all Anglican churches, he went just a trifle beyond that + line of sensible demarcation which can only be transgressed by the most + popular of rulers under very exceptional circumstances. Seven bishops + refused to comply with the Royal Command. They were accused of "seditious + libel." They were brought before a court. The jury which pronounced the + verdict of "not guilty" reaped a rich harvest of popular approval. + </p> + <p> + At this unfortunate moment, James (who in a second marriage had taken to + wife Maria of the Catholic house of Modena-Este) became the father of a + son. This meant that the throne was to go to a Catholic boy rather than to + his older sisters, Mary and Anne, who were Protestants. The man in the + street again grew suspicious. Maria of Modena was too old to have + children! It was all part of a plot! A strange baby had been brought into + the palace by some Jesuit priest that England might have a Catholic + monarch. And so on. It looked as if another civil war would break out. + Then seven well-known men, both Whigs and Tories, wrote a letter asking + the husband of James's oldest daughter Mary, William III the Stadtholder + or head of the Dutch Republic, to come to England and deliver the country + from its lawful but entirely undesirable sovereign. + </p> + <p> + On the fifth of November of the year 1688, William landed at Torbay. As he + did not wish to make a martyr out of his father-in-law, he helped him to + escape safely to France. On the 22nd of January of 1689 he summoned + Parliament. On the 13th of February of the same year he and his wife Mary + were proclaimed joint sovereigns of England and the country was saved for + the Protestant cause. + </p> + <p> + Parliament, having undertaken to be something more than a mere advisory + body to the King, made the best of its opportunities. The old Petition of + Rights of the year 1628 was fished out of a forgotten nook of the + archives. A second and more drastic Bill of Rights demanded that the + sovereign of England should belong to the Anglican church. Furthermore it + stated that the king had no right to suspend the laws or permit certain + privileged citizens to disobey certain laws. It stipulated that "without + consent of Parliament no taxes could be levied and no army could be + maintained." Thus in the year 1689 did England acquire an amount of + liberty unknown in any other country of Europe. + </p> + <p> + But it is not only on account of this great liberal measure that the rule + of William in England is still remembered. During his lifetime, government + by a "responsible" ministry first developed. No king of course can rule + alone. He needs a few trusted advisors. The Tudors had their Great Council + which was composed of Nobles and Clergy. This body grew too large. It was + restricted to the small "Privy Council." In the course of time it became + the custom of these councillors to meet the king in a cabinet in the + palace. Hence they were called the "Cabinet Council." After a short while + they were known as the "Cabinet." + </p> + <p> + William, like most English sovereigns before him, had chosen his advisors + from among all parties. But with the increased strength of Parliament, he + had found it impossible to direct the politics of the country with the + help of the Tories while the Whigs had a majority in the house of Commons. + Therefore the Tories had been dismissed and the Cabinet Council had been + composed entirely of Whigs. A few years later when the Whigs lost their + power in the House of Commons, the king, for the sake of convenience, was + obliged to look for his support among the leading Tories. Until his death + in 1702, William was too busy fighting Louis of France to bother much + about the government of England. Practically all important affairs had + been left to his Cabinet Council. When William's sister-in-law, Anne, + succeeded him in 1702 this condition of affairs continued. When she died + in 1714 (and unfortunately not a single one of her seventeen children + survived her) the throne went to George I of the House of Hanover, the son + of Sophie, grand-daughter of James I. + </p> + <p> + This somewhat rustic monarch, who never learned a word of English, was + entirely lost in the complicated mazes of England's political + arrangements. He left everything to his Cabinet Council and kept away from + their meetings, which bored him as he did not understand a single + sentence. In this way the Cabinet got into the habit of ruling England and + Scotland (whose Parliament had been joined to that of England in 1707) + without bothering the King, who was apt to spend a great deal of his time + on the continent. + </p> + <p> + During the reign of George I and George II, a succession of great Whigs + (of whom one, Sir Robert Walpole, held office for twenty-one years) formed + the Cabinet Council of the King. Their leader was finally recognised as + the official leader not only of the actual Cabinet but also of the + majority party in power in Parliament. The attempts of George III to take + matters into his own hands and not to leave the actual business of + government to his Cabinet were so disastrous that they were never + repeated. And from the earliest years of the eighteenth century on, + England enjoyed representative government, with a responsible ministry + which conducted the affairs of the land. + </p> + <p> + To be quite true, this government did not represent all classes of + society. Less than one man in a dozen had the right to vote. But it was + the foundation for the modern representative form of government. In a + quiet and orderly fashion it took the power away from the King and placed + it in the hands of an ever increasing number of popular representatives. + It did not bring the millenium to England, but it saved that country from + most of the revolutionary outbreaks which proved so disastrous to the + European continent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE BALANCE OF POWER + </h2> + <p> + IN FRANCE ON THE OTHER HAND THE "DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS" CONTINUED WITH + GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOUR THAN EVER BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF THE RULER + WAS ONLY TEMPERED BY THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE "BALANCE OF POWER" + </p> + <p> + As a contrast to the previous chapter, let me tell you what happened in + France during the years when the English people were fighting for their + liberty. The happy combination of the right man in the right country at + the right moment is very rare in History. Louis XIV was a realisation of + this ideal, as far as France was concerned, but the rest of Europe would + have been happier without him. + </p> + <p> + The country over which the young king was called to rule was the most + populous and the most brilliant nation of that day. Louis came to the + throne when Mazarin and Richelieu, the two great Cardinals, had just + hammered the ancient French Kingdom into the most strongly centralised + state of the seventeenth century. He was himself a man of extraordinary + ability. We, the people of the twentieth century, are still surrounded by + the memories of the glorious age of the Sun King. Our social life is based + upon the perfection of manners and the elegance of expression attained at + the court of Louis. In international and diplomatic relations, French is + still the official language of diplomacy and international gatherings + because two centuries ago it reached a polished elegance and a purity of + expression which no other tongue had as yet been able to equal. The + theatre of King Louis still teaches us lessons which we are only too slow + in learning. During his reign the French Academy (an invention of + Richelieu) came to occupy a position in the world of letters which other + countries have flattered by their imitation. We might continue this list + for many pages. It is no matter of mere chance that our modern + bill-of-fare is printed in French. The very difficult art of decent + cooking, one of the highest expressions of civilisation, was first + practiced for the benefit of the great Monarch. The age of Louis XIV was a + time of splendour and grace which can still teach us a lot. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately this brilliant picture has another side which was far less + encouraging. Glory abroad too often means misery at home, and France was + no exception to this rule Louis XIV succeeded his father in the year 1643. + He died in the year 1715. That means that the government of France was in + the hands of one single man for seventy-two years, almost two whole + generations. + </p> + <p> + It will be well to get a firm grasp of this idea, "one single man." Louis + was the first of a long list of monarchs who in many countries established + that particular form of highly efficient autocracy which we call + "enlightened despotism." He did not like kings who merely played at being + rulers and turned official affairs into a pleasant picnic. The Kings of + that enlightened age worked harder than any of their subjects. They got up + earlier and went to bed later than anybody else, and felt their "divine + responsibility" quite as strongly as their "divine right" which allowed + them to rule without consulting their subjects. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the king could not attend to everything in person. He was + obliged to surround himself with a few helpers and councillors. One or two + generals, some experts upon foreign politics, a few clever financiers and + economists would do for this purpose. But these dignitaries could act only + through their Sovereign. They had no individual existence. To the mass of + the people, the Sovereign actually represented in his own sacred person + the government of their country. The glory of the common fatherland became + the glory of a single dynasty. It meant the exact opposite of our own + American ideal. France was ruled of and by and for the House of Bourbon. + </p> + <p> + The disadvantages of such a system are clear. The King grew to be + everything. Everybody else grew to be nothing at all. The old and useful + nobility was gradually forced to give up its former shares in the + government of the provinces. A little Royal bureaucrat, his fingers + splashed with ink, sitting behind the greenish windows of a government + building in faraway Paris, now performed the task which a hundred years + before had been the duty of the feudal Lord. The feudal Lord, deprived of + all work, moved to Paris to amuse himself as best he could at the court. + Soon his estates began to suffer from that very dangerous economic + sickness, known as "Absentee Landlordism." Within a single generation, the + industrious and useful feudal administrators had become the well-mannered + but quite useless loafers of the court of Versailles. + </p> + <p> + Louis was ten years old when the peace of Westphalia was concluded and the + House of Habsburg, as a result of the Thirty Years War, lost its + predominant position in Europe. It was inevitable that a man with his + ambition should use so favourable a moment to gain for his own dynasty the + honours which had formerly been held by the Habsburgs. In the year 1660 + Louis had married Maria Theresa, daughter of the King of Spain. Soon + afterward, his father-in-law, Philip IV, one of the half-witted Spanish + Habsburgs, died. At once Louis claimed the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) + as part of his wife's dowry. Such an acquisition would have been + disastrous to the peace of Europe, and would have threatened the safety of + the Protestant states. Under the leadership of Jan de Witt, + Raadpensionaris or Foreign Minister of the United Seven Netherlands, the + first great international alliance, the Triple Alliance of Sweden, England + and Holland, of the year 1661, was concluded. It did not last long. With + money and fair promises Louis bought up both King Charles and the Swedish + Estates. Holland was betrayed by her allies and was left to her own fate. + In the year 1672 the French invaded the low countries. They marched to the + heart of the country. For a second time the dikes were opened and the + Royal Sun of France set amidst the mud of the Dutch marshes. The peace of + Nimwegen which was concluded in 1678 settled nothing but merely + anticipated another war. + </p> + <p> + A second war of aggression from 1689 to 1697, ending with the Peace of + Ryswick, also failed to give Louis that position in the affairs of Europe + to which he aspired. His old enemy, Jan de Witt, had been murdered by the + Dutch rabble, but his successor, William III (whom you met in the last + chapter), had checkmated all efforts of Louis to make France the ruler of + Europe. + </p> + <p> + The great war for the Spanish succession, begun in the year 1701, + immediately after the death of Charles II, the last of the Spanish + Habsburgs, and ended in 1713 by the Peace of Utrecht, remained equally + undecided, but it had ruined the treasury of Louis. On land the French + king had been victorious, but the navies of England and Holland had + spoiled all hope for an ultimate French victory; besides the long struggle + had given birth to a new and fundamental principle of international + politics, which thereafter made it impossible for one single nation to + rule the whole of Europe or the whole of the world for any length of time. + </p> + <p> + That was the so-called "balance of power." It was not a written law but + for three centuries it has been obeyed as closely as are the laws of + nature. The people who originated the idea maintained that Europe, in its + nationalistic stage of development, could only survive when there should + be an absolute balance of the many conflicting interests of the entire + continent. No single power or single dynasty must ever be allowed to + dominate the others. During the Thirty Years War, the Habsburgs had been + the victims of the application of this law. They, however, had been + unconscious victims. The issues during that struggle were so clouded in a + haze of religious strife that we do not get a very clear view of the main + tendencies of that great conflict. But from that time on, we begin to see + how cold, economic considerations and calculations prevail in all matters + of international importance. We discover the development of a new type of + statesman, the statesman with the personal feelings of the slide-rule and + the cash-register. Jan de Witt was the first successful exponent of this + new school of politics. William III was the first great pupil. And Louis + XIV with all his fame and glory, was the first conscious victim. There + have been many others since. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE RISE OF RUSSIA + </h2> + <p> + THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MOSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY BURST UPON THE + GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE + </p> + <p> + IN the year 1492, as you know, Columbus discovered America. Early in the + year, a Tyrolese by the name of Schnups, travelling as the head of a + scientific expedition for the Archbishop of Tyrol, and provided with the + best letters of introduction and excellent credit tried to reach the + mythical town of Moscow. He did not succeed. When he reached the frontiers + of this vast Moscovite state which was vaguely supposed to exist in the + extreme Eastern part of Europe, he was firmly turned back. No foreigners + were wanted. And Schnups went to visit the heathen Turk in Constantinople, + in order that he might have something to report to his clerical master + when he came back from his explorations. + </p> + <p> + Sixty-one years later, Richard Chancellor, trying to discover the + North-eastern passage to the Indies, and blown by an ill wind into the + White Sea, reached the mouth of the Dwina and found the Moscovite village + of Kholmogory, a few hours from the spot where in 1584 the town of + Archangel was founded. This time the foreign visitors were requested to + come to Moscow and show themselves to the Grand Duke. They went and + returned to England with the first commercial treaty ever concluded + between Russia and the western world. Other nations soon followed and + something became known of this mysterious land. + </p> + <p> + Geographically, Russia is a vast plain. The Ural mountains are low and + form no barrier against invaders. The rivers are broad but often shallow. + It was an ideal territory for nomads. + </p> + <p> + While the Roman Empire was founded, grew in power and disappeared again, + Slavic tribes, who had long since left their homes in Central Asia, + wandered aimlessly through the forests and plains of the region between + the Dniester and Dnieper rivers. The Greeks had sometimes met these Slavs + and a few travellers of the third and fourth centuries mention them. + Otherwise they were as little known as were the Nevada Indians in the year + 1800. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately for the peace of these primitive peoples, a very convenient + trade-route ran through their country. This was the main road from + northern Europe to Constantinople. It followed the coast of the Baltic + until the Neva was reached. Then it crossed Lake Ladoga and went southward + along the Volkhov river. Then through Lake Ilmen and up the small Lovat + river. Then there was a short portage until the Dnieper was reached. Then + down the Dnieper into the Black Sea. + </p> + <p> + The Norsemen knew of this road at a very early date. In the ninth century + they began to settle in northern Russia, just as other Norsemen were + laying the foundation for independent states in Germany and France. But in + the year 862, three Norsemen, brothers, crossed the Baltic and founded + three small dynasties. Of the three brothers, only one, Rurik, lived for a + number of years. He took possession of the territory of his brothers, and + twenty years after the arrival of this first Norseman, a Slavic state had + been established with Kiev as its capital. + </p> + <p> + From Kiev to the Black Sea is a short distance. Soon the existence of an + organised Slavic State became known in Constantinople. This meant a new + field for the zealous missionaries of the Christian faith. Byzantine monks + followed the Dnieper on their way northward and soon reached the heart of + Russia. They found the people worshipping strange gods who were supposed + to dwell in woods and rivers and in mountain caves. They taught them the + story of Jesus. There was no competition from the side of Roman + missionaries. These good men were too busy educating the heathen Teutons + to bother about the distant Slavs. Hence Russia received its religion and + its alphabet and its first ideas of art and architecture from the + Byzantine monks and as the Byzantine empire (a relic of the eastern Roman + empire) had become very oriental and had lost many of its European traits, + the Russians suffered in consequence. + </p> + <p> + Politically speaking these new states of the great Russian plains did not + fare well. It was the Norse habit to divide every inheritance equally + among all the sons. No sooner had a small state been founded but it was + broken up among eight or nine heirs who in turn left their territory to an + ever increasing number of descendants. It was inevitable that these small + competing states should quarrel among themselves. Anarchy was the order of + the day. And when the red glow of the eastern horizon told the people of + the threatened invasion of a savage Asiatic tribe, the little states were + too weak and too divided to render any sort of defence against this + terrible enemy. + </p> + <p> + It was in the year 1224 that the first great Tartar invasion took place + and that the hordes of Jenghiz Khan, the conqueror of China, Bokhara, + Tashkent and Turkestan made their first appearance in the west. The Slavic + armies were beaten near the Kalka river and Russia was at the mercy of the + Mongolians. Just as suddenly as they had come they disappeared. Thirteen + years later, in 1237, however, they returned. In less than five years they + conquered every part of the vast Russian plains. Until the year 1380 when + Dmitry Donskoi, Grand Duke of Moscow, beat them on the plains of Kulikovo, + the Tartars were the masters of the Russian people. + </p> + <p> + All in all, it took the Russians two centuries to deliver themselves from + this yoke. For a yoke it was and a most offensive and objectionable one. + It turned the Slavic peasants into miserable slaves. No Russian could hope + to survive un-less he was willing to creep before a dirty little yellow + man who sat in a tent somewhere in the heart of the steppes of southern + Russia and spat at him. It deprived the mass of the people of all feeling + of honour and independence. It made hunger and misery and maltreatment and + personal abuse the normal state of human existence. Until at last the + average Russian, were he peasant or nobleman, went about his business like + a neglected dog who has been beaten so often that his spirit has been + broken and he dare not wag his tail without permission. + </p> + <p> + There was no escape. The horsemen of the Tartar Khan were fast and + merciless. The endless prairie did not give a man a chance to cross into + the safe territory of his neighbour. He must keep quiet and bear what his + yellow master decided to inflict upon him or run the risk of death. Of + course, Europe might have interfered. But Europe was engaged upon business + of its own, fighting the quarrels between the Pope and the emperor or + suppressing this or that or the other heresy. And so Europe left the Slav + to his fate, and forced him to work out his own salvation. + </p> + <p> + The final saviour of Russia was one of the many small states, founded by + the early Norse rulers. It was situated in the heart of the Russian plain. + Its capital, Moscow, was upon a steep hill on the banks of the Moskwa + river. This little principality, by dint of pleasing the Tartar (when it + was necessary to please), and opposing him (when it was safe to do so), + had, during the middle of the fourteenth century made itself the leader of + a new national life. It must be remembered that the Tartars were wholly + deficient in constructive political ability. They could only destroy. + Their chief aim in conquering new territories was to obtain revenue. To + get this revenue in the form of taxes, it was necessary to allow certain + remnants of the old political organization to continue. Hence there were + many little towns, surviving by the grace of the Great Khan, that they + might act as tax-gatherers and rob their neighbours for the benefit of the + Tartar treasury. + </p> + <p> + The state of Moscow, growing fat at the expense of the surrounding + territory, finally became strong enough to risk open rebellion against its + masters, the Tartars. It was successful and its fame as the leader in the + cause of Russian independence made Moscow the natural centre for all those + who still believed in a better future for the Slavic race. In the year + 1458, Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Ten years later, under the + rule of Ivan III, Moscow informed the western world that the Slavic state + laid claim to the worldly and spiritual inheritance of the lost Byzantine + Empire, and such traditions of the Roman empire as had survived in + Constantinople. A generation afterwards, under Ivan the Terrible, the + grand dukes of Moscow were strong enough to adopt the title of Caesar, or + Tsar, and to demand recognition by the western powers of Europe. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1598, with Feodor the First, the old Muscovite dynasty, + descendants of the original Norseman Rurik, came to an end. For the next + seven years, a Tartar half-breed, by the name of Boris Godunow, reigned as + Tsar. It was during this period that the future destiny of the large + masses of the Russian people was decided. This Empire was rich in land but + very poor in money. There was no trade and there were no factories. Its + few cities were dirty villages. It was composed of a strong central + government and a vast number of illiterate peasants. This government, a + mixture of Slavic, Norse, Byzantine and Tartar influences, recognised + nothing beyond the interest of the state. To defend this state, it needed + an army. To gather the taxes, which were necessary to pay the soldiers, it + needed civil servants. To pay these many officials it needed land. In the + vast wilderness on the east and west there was a sufficient supply of this + commodity. But land without a few labourers to till the fields and tend + the cattle, has no value. Therefore the old nomadic peasants were robbed + of one privilege after the other, until finally, during the first year of + the sixteenth century, they were formally made a part of the soil upon + which they lived. The Russian peasants ceased to be free men. They became + serfs or slaves and they remained serfs until the year 1861, when their + fate had become so terrible that they were beginning to die out. + </p> + <p> + In the seventeenth century, this new state with its growing territory + which was spreading quickly into Siberia, had become a force with which + the rest of Europe was obliged to reckon. In 1618, after the death of + Boris Godunow, the Russian nobles had elected one of their own number to + be Tsar. He was Michael, the son of Feodor, of the Moscow family of + Romanow who lived in a little house just outside the Kremlin. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1672 his great-grandson, Peter, the son of another Feodor, was + born. When the child was ten years old, his step-sister Sophia took + possession of the Russian throne. The little boy was allowed to spend his + days in the suburbs of the national capital, where the foreigners lived. + Surrounded by Scotch barkeepers, Dutch traders, Swiss apothecaries, + Italian barbers, French dancing teachers and German school-masters, the + young prince obtained a first but rather extraordinary impression of that + far-away and mysterious Europe where things were done differently. + </p> + <p> + When he was seventeen years old, he suddenly pushed Sister Sophia from the + throne. Peter himself became the ruler of Russia. He was not contented + with being the Tsar of a semi-barbarous and half-Asiatic people. He must + be the sovereign head of a civilised nation. To change Russia overnight + from a Byzantine-Tartar state into a European empire was no small + undertaking. It needed strong hands and a capable head. Peter possessed + both. In the year 1698, the great operation of grafting Modern Europe upon + Ancient Russia was performed. The patient did not die. But he never got + over the shock, as the events of the last five years have shown very + plainly. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RUSSIA vs. SWEDEN + </h2> + <p> + RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FIGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO SHALL BE THE LEADING POWER + OF NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE + </p> + <p> + IN the year 1698, Tsar Peter set forth upon his first voyage to western + Europe. He travelled by way of Berlin and went to Holland and to England. + As a child he had almost been drowned sailing a homemade boat in the duck + pond of his father's country home. This passion for water remained with + him to the end of his life. In a practical way it showed itself in his + wish to give his land-locked domains access to the open sea. + </p> + <p> + While the unpopular and harsh young ruler was away from home, the friends + of the old Russian ways in Moscow set to work to undo all his reforms. A + sudden rebellion among his life-guards, the Streltsi regiment, forced + Peter to hasten home by the fast mail. He appointed himself + executioner-in-chief and the Streltsi were hanged and quartered and killed + to the last man. Sister Sophia, who had been the head of the rebellion, + was locked up in a cloister and the rule of Peter be-gan in earnest. This + scene was repeated in the year 1716 when Peter had gone on his second + western trip. That time the reactionaries followed the leadership of + Peter's half-witted son, Alexis. Again the Tsar returned in great haste. + Alexis was beaten to death in his prison cell and the friends of the old + fashioned Byzantine ways marched thousands of dreary miles to their final + destination in the Siberian lead mines. After that, no further outbreaks + of popular discontent took place. Until the time of his death, Peter could + reform in peace. + </p> + <p> + It is not easy to give you a list of his reforms in chronological order. + The Tsar worked with furious haste. He followed no system. He issued his + decrees with such rapidity that it is difficult to keep count. Peter + seemed to feel that everything that had ever happened before was entirely + wrong. The whole of Russia therefore must be changed within the shortest + possible time. When he died he left behind a well-trained army of 200,000 + men and a navy of fifty ships. The old system of government had been + abolished over night. The Duma, or convention of Nobles, had been + dismissed and in its stead, the Tsar had surrounded himself with an + advisory board of state officials, called the Senate. + </p> + <p> + Russia was divided into eight large "governments" or provinces. Roads were + constructed. Towns were built. Industries were created wherever it pleased + the Tsar, without any regard for the presence of raw material. Canals were + dug and mines were opened in the mountains of the east. In this land of + illiterates, schools were founded and establishments of higher learning, + together with Universities and hospitals and professional schools. Dutch + naval engineers and tradesmen and artisans from all over the world were + encouraged to move to Russia. Printing shops were established, but all + books must be first read by the imperial censors. The duties of each class + of society were carefully written down in a new law and the entire system + of civil and criminal laws was gathered into a series of printed volumes. + The old Russian costumes were abolished by Imperial decree, and policemen, + armed with scissors, watching all the country roads, changed the + long-haired Russian mou-jiks suddenly into a pleasing imitation of + smooth-shaven west. Europeans. + </p> + <p> + In religious matters, the Tsar tolerated no division of power. There must + be no chance of a rivalry between an Emperor and a Pope as had happened in + Europe. In the year 1721, Peter made himself head of the Russian Church. + The Patriarchate of Moscow was abolished and the Holy Synod made its + appearance as the highest source of authority in all matters of the + Established Church. + </p> + <p> + Since, however, these many reforms could not be success-ful while the old + Russian elements had a rallying point in the town of Moscow, Peter decided + to move his government to a new capital. Amidst the unhealthy marshes of + the Baltic Sea the Tsar built this new city. He began to reclaim the land + in the year 1703. Forty thousand peasants worked for years to lay the + foundations for this Imperial city. The Swedes attacked Peter and tried to + destroy his town and illness and misery killed tens of thousands of the + peasants. But the work was continued, winter and summer, and the + ready-made town soon began to grow. In the year 1712, it was officially + de-clared to be the "Imperial Residence." A dozen years later it had + 75,000 inhabitants. Twice a year the whole city was flooded by the Neva. + But the terrific will-power of the Tsar created dykes and canals and the + floods ceased to do harm. When Peter died in 1725 he was the owner of the + largest city in northern Europe. + </p> + <p> + Of course, this sudden growth of so dangerous a rival had been a source of + great worry to all the neighbours. From his side, Peter had watched with + interest the many adventures of his Baltic rival, the kingdom of Sweden. + In the year 1654, Christina, the only daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the + hero of the Thirty Years War, had renounced the throne and had gone to + Rome to end her days as a devout Catholic. A Protestant nephew of Gustavus + Adolphus had succeeded the last Queen of the House of Vasa. Under Charles + X and Charles XI, the new dynasty had brought Sweden to its highest point + of development. But in 1697, Charles XI died suddenly and was succeeded by + a boy of fifteen, Charles XII. + </p> + <p> + This was the moment for which many of the northern states had waited. + During the great religious wars of the seventeenth century, Sweden had + grown at the expense of her neighbours. The time had come, so the owners + thought, to balance the account. At once war broke out between Russia, + Poland, Denmark and Saxony on the one side, and Sweden on the other. The + raw and untrained armies of Peter were disastrously beaten by Charles in + the famous battle of Narva in November of the year 1700. Then Charles, one + of the most interesting military geniuses of that century, turned against + his other enemies and for nine years he hacked and burned his way through + the villages and cities of Poland, Saxony, Denmark and the Baltic + provinces, while Peter drilled and trained his soldiers in distant Russia. + </p> + <p> + As a result, in the year 1709, in the battle of Poltawa, the Moscovites + destroyed the exhausted armies of Sweden. Charles continued to be a highly + picturesque figure, a wonderful hero of romance, but in his vain attempt + to have his revenge, he ruined his own country. In the year 1718, he was + accidentally killed or assassinated (we do not know which) and when peace + was made in 1721, in the town of Nystadt, Sweden had lost all of her + former Baltic possessions except Finland. The new Russian state, created + by Peter, had become the leading power of northern Europe. But already a + new rival was on the way. The Prussian state was taking shape. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE RISE OF PRUSSIA + </h2> + <p> + THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY PART OF NORTHERN + GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA + </p> + <p> + THE history of Prussia is the history of a frontier district. In the ninth + century, Charlemagne had transferred the old centre of civilisation from + the Mediterranean to the wild regions of northwestern Europe. His Frankish + soldiers had pushed the frontier of Europe further and further towards the + east. They had conquered many lands from the heathenish Slavs and + Lithuanians who were living in the plain between the Baltic Sea and the + Carpathian Mountains, and the Franks administered those outlying districts + just as the United States used to administer her territories before they + achieved the dignity of statehood. + </p> + <p> + The frontier state of Brandenburg had been originally founded by + Charlemagne to defend his eastern possessions against raids of the wild + Saxon tribes. The Wends, a Slavic tribe which inhabited that region, were + subjugated during the tenth century and their market-place, by the name of + Brennabor, became the centre of and gave its name to the new province of + Brandenburg. + </p> + <p> + During the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a + succession of noble families exercised the functions of imperial governor + in this frontier state. Finally in the fifteenth century, the House of + Hohenzollern made its appear-ance, and as Electors of Brandenburg, + commenced to change a sandy and forlorn frontier territory into one of the + most efficient empires of the modern world. + </p> + <p> + These Hohenzollerns, who have just been removed from the historical stage + by the combined forces of Europe and America, came originally from + southern Germany. They were of very humble origin. In the twelfth century + a certain Frederick of Hohenzollern had made a lucky marriage and had been + appointed keeper of the castle of Nuremberg. His descendants had used + every chance and every opportunity to improve their power and after + several centuries of watchful grabbing, they had been appointed to the + dignity of Elector, the name given to those sovereign princes who were + supposed to elect the Emperors of the old German Empire. During the + Reformation, they had taken the side of the Protestants and the early + seventeenth century found them among the most powerful of the north German + princes. + </p> + <p> + During the Thirty Years War, both Protestants and Catholics had plundered + Brandenburg and Prussia with equal zeal. But under Frederick William, the + Great Elector, the damage was quickly repaired and by a wise and careful + use of all the economic and intellectual forces of the country, a state + was founded in which there was practically no waste. + </p> + <p> + Modern Prussia, a state in which the individual and his wishes and + aspirations have been entirely absorbed by the interests of the community + as a whole this Prussia dates back to the father of Frederick the Great. + Frederick William I was a hard working, parsimonious Prussian sergeant, + with a great love for bar-room stories and strong Dutch tobacco, an + intense dislike of all frills and feathers, (especially if they were of + French origin,) and possessed of but one idea. That idea was Duty. Severe + with himself, he tolerated no weakness in his subjects, whether they be + generals or common soldiers. The relation between himself and his son + Frederick was never cordial, to say the least. The boorish manners of the + father offended the finer spirit of the son. The son's love for French + manners, literature, philosophy and music was rejected by the father as a + manifestation of sissy-ness. There followed a terrible outbreak between + these two strange temperaments. Frederick tried to escape to England. He + was caught and court-martialed and forced to witness the decapitation of + his best friend who had tried to help him. Thereupon as part of his + punishment, the young prince was sent to a little fortress somewhere in + the provinces to be taught the details of his future business of being a + king. It proved a blessing in disguise. When Frederick came to the throne + in 1740, he knew how his country was managed from the birth certificate of + a pauper's son to the minutest detail of a complicated annual Budget. + </p> + <p> + As an author, especially in his book called the "Anti-Macchiavelli," + Frederick had expressed his contempt for the political creed of the + ancient Florentine historian, who had advised his princely pupils to lie + and cheat whenever it was necessary to do so for the benefit of their + country. The ideal ruler in Frederick's volume was the first servant of + his people, the enlightened despot after the example of Louis XIV. In + practice, however, Frederick, while working for his people twenty hours a + day, tolerated no one to be near him as a counsellor. His ministers were + superior clerks. Prussia was his private possession, to be treated + according to his own wishes. And nothing was allowed to interfere with the + interest of the state. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1740 the Emperor Charles VI, of Austria, died. He had tried to + make the position of his only daughter, Maria Theresa, secure through a + solemn treaty, written black on white, upon a large piece of parchment. + But no sooner had the old emperor been deposited in the ancestral crypt of + the Habsburg family, than the armies of Frederick were marching towards + the Austrian frontier to occupy that part of Silesia for which (together + with almost everything else in central Europe) Prussia clamored, on + account of some ancient and very doubtful rights of claim. In a number of + wars, Frederick conquered all of Silesia, and although he was often very + near defeat, he maintained himself in his newly acquired territories + against all Austrian counter-attacks. + </p> + <p> + Europe took due notice of this sudden appearance of a very powerful new + state. In the eighteenth century, the Germans were a people who had been + ruined by the great religious wars and who were not held in high esteem by + any one. Frederick, by an effort as sudden and quite as terrific as that + of Peter of Russia, changed this attitude of contempt into one of fear. + The internal affairs of Prussia were arranged so skillfully that the + subjects had less reason for complaint than elsewhere. The treasury showed + an annual surplus instead of a deficit. Torture was abolished. The + judiciary system was improved. Good roads and good schools and good + universities, together with a scrupulously honest administration, made the + people feel that whatever services were demanded of them, they (to speak + the vernacular) got their money's worth. + </p> + <p> + After having been for several centuries the battle field of the French and + the Austrians and the Swedes and the Danes and the Poles, Germany, + encouraged by the example of Prussia, began to regain self-confidence. And + this was the work of the little old man, with his hook-nose and his old + uniforms covered with snuff, who said very funny but very unpleasant + things about his neighbours, and who played the scandalous game of + eighteenth century diplomacy without any regard for the truth, provided he + could gain something by his lies. This in spite of his book, + "Anti-Macchiavelli." In the year 1786 the end came. His friends were all + gone. Children he had never had. He died alone, tended by a single servant + and his faithful dogs, whom he loved better than human beings because, as + he said, they were never ungrateful and remained true to their friends. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + </h2> + <p> + HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF EUROPE TRIED TO MAKE + THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + </p> + <p> + WE have seen how, during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, the + states of our modern world began to take shape. Their origins were + different in almost every case. Some had been the result of the deliberate + effort of a single king. Others had happened by chance. Still others had + been the result of favourable natural geographic boundaries. But once they + had been founded, they had all of them tried to strengthen their internal + administration and to exert the greatest possible influence upon foreign + affairs. All this of course had cost a great deal of money. The mediaeval + state with its lack of centralised power did not depend upon a rich + treasury. The king got his revenues from the crown domains and his civil + service paid for itself. The modern centralised state was a more + complicated affair. The old knights disappeared and hired government + officials or bureaucrats took their place. Army, navy, and internal + administration demanded millions. The question then became where was this + money to be found? + </p> + <p> + Gold and silver had been a rare commodity in the middle ages. The average + man, as I have told you, never saw a gold piece as long as he lived. Only + the inhabitants of the large cities were familiar with silver coin. The + discovery of America and the exploitation of the Peruvian mines changed + all this. The centre of trade was transferred from the Mediterranean to + the Atlantic seaboard. The old "commercial cities" of Italy lost their + financial importance. New "commercial nations" took their place and gold + and silver were no longer a curiosity. + </p> + <p> + Through Spain and Portugal and Holland and England, precious metals began + to find their way to Europe The sixteenth century had its own writers on + the subject of political economy and they evolved a theory of national + wealth which seemed to them entirely sound and of the greatest possible + benefit to their respective countries. They reasoned that both gold and + silver were actual wealth. Therefore they believed that the country with + the largest supply of actual cash in the vaults of its treasury and its + banks was at the same time the richest country. And since money meant + armies, it followed that the richest country was also the most powerful + and could rule the rest of the world. + </p> + <p> + We call this system the "mercantile system," and it was accepted with the + same unquestioning faith with which the early Christians believed in + Miracles and many of the present-day American business men believe in the + Tariff. In practice, the Mercantile system worked out as follows: To get + the largest surplus of precious metals a country must have a favourable + balance of export trade. If you can export more to your neighbour than he + exports to your own country, he will owe you money and will be obliged to + send you some of his gold. Hence you gain and he loses. As a result of + this creed, the economic program of almost every seventeenth century state + was as follows: + </p> + <p> + 1. Try to get possession of as many precious metals as you can. + </p> + <p> + 2. Encourage foreign trade in preference to domestic trade. + </p> + <p> + 3. Encourage those industries which change raw materials into exportable + finished products. + </p> + <p> + 4. Encourage a large population, for you will need workmen for your + factories and an agricultural community does not raise enough workmen. + </p> + <p> + 5. Let the State watch this process and interfere whenever it is necessary + to do so. + </p> + <p> + Instead of regarding International Trade as something akin to a force of + nature which would always obey certain natural laws regardless of man's + interference, the people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tried + to regulate their commerce by the help of official decrees and royal laws + and financial help on the part of the government. + </p> + <p> + In the sixteenth century Charles V adopted this Mercantile System (which + was then something entirely new) and introduced it into his many + possessions. Elizabeth of England flattered him by her imitation. The + Bourbons, especially King Louis XIV, were fanatical adherents of this + doctrine and Colbert, his great minister of finance, became the prophet of + Mercantilism to whom all Europe looked for guidance. + </p> + <p> + The entire foreign policy of Cromwell was a practical application of the + Mercantile System. It was invariably directed against the rich rival + Republic of Holland. For the Dutch shippers, as the common-carriers of the + merchandise of Europe, had certain leanings towards free-trade and + therefore had to be destroyed at all cost. + </p> + <p> + It will be easily understood how such a system must affect the colonies. A + colony under the Mercantile System became merely a reservoir of gold and + silver and spices, which was to be tapped for the benefit of the home + country. The Asiatic, American and African supply of precious metals and + the raw materials of these tropical countries became a monopoly of the + state which happened to own that particular colony. No outsider was ever + allowed within the precincts and no native was permitted to trade with a + merchant whose ship flew a foreign flag. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly the Mercantile System encouraged the development of young + industries in certain countries where there never had been any + manufacturing before. It built roads and dug canals and made for better + means of transportation. It demanded greater skill among the workmen and + gave the merchant a better social position, while it weakened the power of + the landed aristocracy. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, it caused very great misery. It made the natives in the + colonies the victims of a most shameless exploitation. It exposed the + citizens of the home country to an even more terrible fate. It helped in a + great measure to turn every land into an armed camp and divided the world + into little bits of territory, each working for its own direct benefit, + while striving at all times to destroy the power of its neighbours and get + hold of their treasures. It laid so much stress upon the importance of + owning wealth that "being rich" came to be regarded as the sole virtue of + the average citizen. Economic systems come and go like the fashions in + surgery and in the clothes of women, and during the nineteenth century the + Mercantile System was discarded in favor of a system of free and open + competition. At least, so I have been told. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + </h2> + <p> + AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD STRANGE REPORTS OF + SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN THE WILDERNESS; OF THE NORTH AMERICAN + CONTINENT. THE DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING CHARLES FOR + HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS "DIVINE RIGHTS" ADDED A NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD + STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT + </p> + <p> + FOR the sake of convenience, we ought to go back a few centuries and + repeat the early history of the great struggle for colonial possessions. + </p> + <p> + As soon as a number of European nations had been created upon the new + basis of national or dynastic interests, that is to say, during and + immediately after the Thirty Years War, their rulers, backed up by the + capital of their merchants and the ships of their trading companies, + continued the fight for more territory in Asia, Africa and America. + </p> + <p> + The Spaniards and the Portuguese had been exploring the Indian Sea and the + Pacific Ocean for more than a century ere Holland and England appeared + upon the stage. This proved an advantage to the latter. The first rough + work had already been done. What is more, the earliest navigators had so + often made themselves unpopular with the Asiatic and American and African + natives that both the English and the Dutch were welcomed as friends and + deliverers. We cannot claim any superior virtues for either of these two + races. But they were merchants before everything else. They never allowed + religious considerations to interfere with their practical common sense. + During their first relations with weaker races, all European nations have + behaved with shocking brutality. The English and the Dutch, however, knew + better where to draw the dine. Provided they got their spices and their + gold and silver and their taxes, they were willing to let the native live + as it best pleased him. + </p> + <p> + It was not very difficult for them therefore to establish themselves in + the richest parts of the world. But as soon as this had been accomplished, + they began to fight each other for still further possessions. Strangely + enough, the colonial wars were never settled in the colonies themselves. + They were decided three thousand miles away by the navies of the + contending countries. It is one of the most interesting principles of + ancient and modern warfare (one of the few reliable laws of history) that + "the nation which commands the sea is also the nation which commands the + land." So far this law has never failed to work, but the modern airplane + may have changed it. In the eighteenth century, however, there were no + flying machines and it was the British navy which gained for England her + vast American and Indian and African colonies. + </p> + <p> + The series of naval wars between England and Holland in the seventeenth + century does not interest us here. It ended as all such encounters between + hopelessly ill-matched powers will end. But the warfare between England + and France (her other rival) is of greater importance to us, for while the + superior British fleet in the end defeated the French navy, a great deal + of the preliminary fighting was done on our own American continent. In + this vast country, both France and England claimed everything which had + been discovered and a lot more which the eye of no white man had ever + seen. In 1497 Cabot had landed in the northern part of America and + twenty-seven years later, Giovanni Verrazano had visited these coasts. + Cabot had flown the English flag. Verrazano had sailed under the French + flag. Hence both England and France proclaimed themselves the owners of + the entire continent. + </p> + <p> + During the seventeenth century, some ten small English colonies had been + founded between Maine and the Carolinas. They were usually a haven of + refuge for some particular sect of English dissenters, such as the + Puritans, who in the year 1620 went to New England, or the Quakers, who + settled in Pennsylvania in 1681. They were small frontier communities, + nestling close to the shores of the ocean, where people had gathered to + make a new home and begin life among happier surroundings, far away from + royal supervision and interference. + </p> + <p> + The French colonies, on the other hand, always remained a possession of + the crown. No Huguenots or Protestants were allowed in these colonies for + fear that they might contaminate the Indians with their dangerous + Protestant doctrines and would perhaps interfere with the missionary work + of the Jesuit fathers. The English colonies, therefore, had been founded + upon a much healthier basis than their French neighbours and rivals. They + were an expression of the commercial energy of the English middle classes, + while the French settlements were inhabited by people who had crossed the + ocean as servants of the king and who expected to return to Paris at the + first possible chance. + </p> + <p> + Politically, however, the position of the English colonies was far from + satisfactory. The French had discovered the mouth of the Saint Lawrence in + the sixteenth century. From the region of the Great Lakes they had worked + their way southward, had descended the Mississippi and had built several + fortifications along the Gulf of Mexico. After a century of exploration, a + line of sixty French forts cut off the English settlements along the + Atlantic seaboard from the interior. + </p> + <p> + The English land grants, made to the different colonial companies had + given them "all land from sea to sea." This sounded well on paper, but in + practice, British territory ended where the line of French fortifications + began. To break through this barrier was possible but it took both men and + money and caused a series of horrible border wars in which both sides + murdered their white neighbours, with the help of the Indian tribes. + </p> + <p> + As long as the Stuarts had ruled England there had been no danger of war + with France. The Stuarts needed the Bourbons in their attempt to establish + an autocratic form of government and to break the power of Parliament. But + in 1689 the last of the Stuarts had disappeared from British soil and + Dutch William, the great enemy of Louis XIV succeeded him. From that time + on, until the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France and England fought for the + possession of India and North America. + </p> + <p> + During these wars, as I have said before, the English navies invariably + beat the French. Cut off from her colonies, France lost most of her + possessions, and when peace was declared, the entire North American + continent had fallen into British hands and the great work of exploration + of Cartier, Champlain, La Salle, Marquette and a score of others was lost + to France. + </p> + <p> + Only a very small part of this vast domain was inhabited. From + Massachusetts in the north, where the Pilgrims (a sect of Puritans who + were very intolerant and who therefore had found no happiness either in + Anglican England or Calvinist Holland) had landed in the year 1620, to the + Carolinas and Virginia (the tobacco-raising provinces which had been + founded entirely for the sake of profit), stretched a thin line of + sparsely populated territory. But the men who lived in this new land of + fresh air and high skies were very different from their brethren of the + mother country. In the wilderness they had learned independence and + self-reliance. They were the sons of hardy and energetic ancestors. Lazy + and timourous people did not cross the ocean in those days. The American + colonists hated the restraint and the lack of breathing space which had + made their lives in the old country so very unhappy. They meant to be + their own masters. This the ruling classes of England did not seem to + understand. The government annoyed the colonists and the colonists, who + hated to be bothered in this way, began to annoy the British government. + </p> + <p> + Bad feeling caused more bad feeling. It is not necessary to repeat here in + detail what actually happened and what might have been avoided if the + British king had been more intelligent than George III or less given to + drowsiness and indifference than his minister, Lord North. The British + colonists, when they understood that peaceful arguments would not settle + the difficulties, took to arms. From being loyal subjects, they turned + rebels, who exposed themselves to the punishment of death when they were + captured by the German soldiers, whom George hired to do his fighting + after the pleasant custom of that day, when Teutonic princes sold whole + regiments to the highest bidder. + </p> + <p> + The war between England and her American colonies lasted seven years. + During most of that time, the final success of the rebels seemed very + doubtful. A great number of the people, especially in the cities, had + remained loyal to their king. They were in favour of a compromise, and + would have been willing to sue for peace. But the great figure of + Washington stood guard over the cause of the colonists. + </p> + <p> + Ably assisted by a handful of brave men, he used his steadfast but badly + equipped armies to weaken the forces of the king. Time and again when + defeat seemed unavoidable, his strategy turned the tide of battle. Often + his men were ill-fed. During the winter they lacked shoes and coats and + were forced to live in unhealthy dug-outs. But their trust in their great + leader was absolute and they stuck it out until the final hour of victory. + </p> + <p> + But more interesting than the campaigns of Washington or the diplomatic + triumphs of Benjamin Franklin who was in Europe getting money from the + French government and the Amsterdam bankers, was an event which occurred + early in the revolution. The representatives of the different colonies had + gathered in Philadelphia to discuss matters of common importance. It was + the first year of the Revolution. Most of the big towns of the sea coast + were still in the hands of the British. Reinforcements from England were + arriving by the ship load. Only men who were deeply convinced of the + righteousness of their cause would have found the courage to take the + momentous decision of the months of June and July of the year 1776. + </p> + <p> + In June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a motion to the + Continental Congress that "these united colonies are, and of right ought + to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all + allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between + them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be, totally + dissolved." + </p> + <p> + The motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. It was carried on + July the second and on July fourth, it was followed by an official + Declaration of Independence, which was the work of Thomas Jefferson, a + serious and exceedingly capable student of both politics and government + and destined to be one of the most famous of out American presidents. + </p> + <p> + When news of this event reached Europe, and was followed by the final + victory of the colonists and the adoption of the famous Constitution of + the year 1787 (the first of all written constitutions) it caused great + interest. The dynastic system of the highly centralised states which had + been developed after the great religious wars of the seventeenth century + had reached the height of its power. Everywhere the palace of the king had + grown to enormous proportions, while the cities of the royal realm were + being surrounded by rapidly growing acres of slums. The inhabitants of + those slums were showing signs of restlessness. They were quite helpless. + But the higher classes, the nobles and the professional men, they too were + beginning to have certain doubts about the economic and political + conditions under which they lived. The success of the American colonists + showed them that many things were possible which had been held impossible + only a short time before. + </p> + <p> + According to the poet, the shot which opened the battle of Lexington was + "heard around the world." That was a bit of an exaggeration. The Chinese + and the Japanese and the Russians (not to speak of the Australians, who + had just been re-discovered by Captain Cook, whom they killed for his + trouble,) never heard of it at all. But it carried across the Atlantic + Ocean. It landed in the powder house of European discontent and in France + it caused an explosion which rocked the entire continent from Petrograd to + Madrid and buried the representatives of the old statecraft and the old + diplomacy under several tons of democratic bricks. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + </h2> + <p> + THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY, + FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH + </p> + <p> + BEFORE we talk about a revolution it is just as well that we explain just + what this word means. In the terms of a great Russian writer (and Russians + ought to know what they are talking about in this field) a revolution is + "a swift overthrow, in a few years, of institutions which have taken + centuries to root in the soil, and seem so fixed and immovable that even + the most ardent reformers hardly dare to attack them in their writings. It + is the fall, the crumbling away in a brief period, of all that up to that + time has composed the essence of social, religious, political and economic + life in a nation." + </p> + <p> + Such a revolution took place in France in the eighteenth century when the + old civilisation of the country had grown stale. The king in the days of + Louis XIV had become EVERYTHING and was the state. The Nobility, formerly + the civil servant of the federal state, found itself without any duties + and became a social ornament of the royal court. + </p> + <p> + This French state of the eighteenth century, however, cost incredible sums + of money. This money had to be produced in the form of taxes. + Unfortunately the kings of France had not been strong enough to force the + nobility and the clergy to pay their share of these taxes. Hence the taxes + were paid entirely by the agricultural population. But the peasants living + in dreary hovels, no longer in intimate contact with their former + landlords, but victims of cruel and incompetent land agents, were going + from bad to worse. Why should they work and exert themselves? Increased + returns upon their land merely meant more taxes and nothing for themselves + and therefore they neglected their fields as much as they dared. + </p> + <p> + Hence we have a king who wanders in empty splendour through the vast halls + of his palaces, habitually followed by hungry office seekers, all of whom + live upon the revenue obtained from peasants who are no better than the + beasts of the fields. It is not a pleasant picture, but it is not + exaggerated. There was, however, another side to the so-called "Ancien + Regime" which we must keep in mind. + </p> + <p> + A wealthy middle class, closely connected with the nobility (by the usual + process of the rich banker's daughter marrying the poor baron's son) and a + court composed of all the most entertaining people of France, had brought + the polite art of graceful living to its highest development. As the best + brains of the country were not allowed to occupy themselves with questions + of political economics, they spent their idle hours upon the discussion of + abstract ideas. + </p> + <p> + As fashions in modes of thought and personal behaviour are quite as likely + to run to extremes as fashion in dress, it was natural that the most + artificial society of that day should take a tremendous interest in what + they considered "the simple life." The king and the queen, the absolute + and unquestioned proprietors of this country galled France, together with + all its colonies and dependencies, went to live in funny little country + houses all dressed up as milk-maids and stable-boys and played at being + shepherds in a happy vale of ancient Hellas. Around them, their courtiers + danced attendance, their court-musicians composed lovely minuets, their + court barbers devised more and more elaborate and costly headgear, until + from sheer boredom and lack of real jobs, this whole artificial world of + Versailles (the great show place which Louis XIV had built far away from + his noisy and restless city) talked of nothing but those subjects which + were furthest removed from their own lives, just as a man who is starving + will talk of nothing except food. + </p> + <p> + When Voltaire, the courageous old philosopher, playwright, historian and + novelist, and the great enemy of all religious and political tyranny, + began to throw his bombs of criticism at everything connected with the + Established Order of Things, the whole French world applauded him and his + theatrical pieces played to standing room only. When Jean Jacques Rousseau + waxed sentimental about primitive man and gave his contemporaries + delightful descriptions of the happiness of the original inhabitants of + this planet, (about whom he knew as little as he did about the children, + upon whose education he was the recognised authority,) all France read his + "Social Contract" and this society in which the king and the state were + one, wept bitter tears when they heard Rousseau's appeal for a return to + the blessed days when the real sovereignty had lain in the hands of the + people and when the king had been merely the servant of his people. + </p> + <p> + When Montesquieu published his "Persian Letters" in which two + distinguished Persian travellers turn the whole existing society of France + topsy-turvy and poke fun at everything from the king down to the lowest of + his six hundred pastry cooks, the book immediately went through four + editions and assured the writer thousands of readers for his famous + discussion of the "Spirit of the Laws" in which the noble Baron compared + the excellent English system with the backward system of France and + advocated instead of an absolute monarchy the establishment of a state in + which the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial powers should be in + separate hands and should work independently of each other. When Lebreton, + the Parisian book-seller, announced that Messieurs Diderot, d'Alembert, + Turgot and a score of other distinguished writers were going to publish an + Encyclopaedia which was to contain "all the new ideas and the new science + and the new knowledge," the response from the side of the public was most + satisfactory, and when after twenty-two years the last of the twenty-eight + volumes had been finished, the somewhat belated interference of the police + could not repress the enthusiasm with which French society received this + most important but very dangerous contribution to the discussions of the + day. + </p> + <p> + Here, let me give you a little warning. When you read a novel about the + French revolution or see a play or a movie, you will easily get the + impression that the Revolution was the work of the rabble from the Paris + slums. It was nothing of the kind. The mob appears often upon the + revolutionary stage, but invariably at the instigation and under the + leadership of those middle-class professional men who used the hungry + multitude as an efficient ally in their warfare upon the king and his + court. But the fundamental ideas which caused the revolution were invented + by a few brilliant minds, and they were at first introduced into the + charming drawing-rooms of the "Ancien Regime" to provide amiable diversion + for the much-bored ladies and gentlemen of his Majesty's court. These + pleasant but careless people played with the dangerous fireworks of social + criticism until the sparks fell through the cracks of the floor, which was + old and rotten just like the rest of the building. Those sparks + unfortunately landed in the basement where age-old rubbish lay in great + confusion. Then there was a cry of fire. But the owner of the house who + was interested in everything except the management of his property, did + not know how to put the small blaze out. The flame spread rapidly and the + entire edifice was consumed by the conflagration, which we call the Great + French Revolution. + </p> + <p> + For the sake of convenience, we can divide the French Revolution into two + parts. From 1789 to 1791 there was a more or less orderly attempt to + introduce a constitutional monarchy. This failed, partly through lack of + good faith and stupidity on the part of the monarch himself, partly + through circumstances over which nobody had any control. + </p> + <p> + From 1792 to 1799 there was a Republic and a first effort to establish a + democratic form of government. But the actual outbreak of violence had + been preceded by many years of unrest and many sincere but ineffectual + attempts at reform. + </p> + <p> + When France had a debt of 4000 million francs and the treasury was always + empty and there was not a single thing upon which new taxes could be + levied, even good King Louis (who was an expert locksmith and a great + hunter but a very poor statesman) felt vaguely that something ought to be + done. Therefore he called for Turgot, to be his Minister of Finance. Anne + Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne, a man in the early sixties, a + splendid representative of the fast disappearing class of landed gentry, + had been a successful governor of a province and was an amateur political + economist of great ability. He did his best. Unfortunately, he could not + perform miracles. As it was impossible to squeeze more taxes out of the + ragged peasants, it was necessary to get the necessary funds from the + nobility and clergy who had never paid a centime. This made Turgot the + best hated man at the court of Versailles. Furthermore he was obliged to + face the enmity of Marie Antoinette, the queen, who was against everybody + who dared to mention the word "economy" within her hearing. Soon Turgot + was called an "unpractical visionary" and a "theoretical-professor" and + then of course his position became untenable. In the year 1776 he was + forced to resign. + </p> + <p> + After the "professor" there came a man of Practical Business Sense. He was + an industrious Swiss by the name of Necker who had made himself rich as a + grain speculator and the partner in an international banking house. His + ambitious wife had pushed him into the government service that she might + establish a position for her daughter who afterwards as the wife of the + Swedish minister in Paris, Baron de Stael, became a famous literary figure + of the early nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + Necker set to work with a fine display of zeal just as Turgot had done. In + 1781 he published a careful review of the French finances. The king + understood nothing of this "Compte Rendu." He had just sent troops to + America to help the colonists against their common enemies, the English. + This expedition proved to be unexpectedly expensive and Necker was asked + to find the necessary funds. When instead of producing revenue, he + published more figures and made statistics and began to use the dreary + warning about "necessary economies" his days were numbered. In the year + 1781 he was dismissed as an incompetent servant. + </p> + <p> + After the Professor and the Practical Business Man came the delightful + type of financier who will guarantee everybody 100 per cent. per month on + their money if only they will trust his own infallible system. + </p> + <p> + He was Charles Alexandre de Calonne, a pushing official, who had made his + career both by his industry and his complete lack of honesty and scruples. + He found the country heavily indebted, but he was a clever man, willing to + oblige everybody, and he invented a quick remedy. He paid the old debts by + contracting new ones. This method is not new. The result since time + immemorial has been disastrous. In less than three years more than + 800,000,000 francs had been added to the French debt by this charming + Minister of Finance who never worried and smilingly signed his name to + every demand that was made by His Majesty and by his lovely Queen, who had + learned the habit of spending during the days of her youth in Vienna. + </p> + <p> + At last even the Parliament of Paris (a high court of justice and not a + legislative body) although by no means lacking in loyalty to their + sovereign, decided that something must be done. Calonne wanted to borrow + another 80,000,000 francs. It had been a bad year for the crops and the + misery and hunger in the country districts were terrible. Unless something + sensible were done, France would go bankrupt. The King as always was + unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Would it not be a good idea + to consult the representatives of the people? Since 1614 no Estates + General had been called together. In view of the threatening panic there + was a demand that the Estates be convened. Louis XVI however, who never + could take a decision, refused to go as far as that. + </p> + <p> + To pacify the popular clamour he called together a meeting of the Notables + in the year 1787. This merely meant a gathering of the best families who + discussed what could and should be done, without touching their feudal and + clerical privilege of tax-exemption. It is unreasonable to expect that a + certain class of society shall commit political and economic suicide for + the benefit of another group of fellow-citizens. The 127 Notables + obstinately refused to surrender a single one of their ancient rights. The + crowd in the street, being now exceedingly hungry, demanded that Necker, + in whom they had confidence, be reappointed. The Notables said "No." The + crowd in the street began to smash windows and do other unseemly things. + The Notables fled. Calonne was dismissed. + </p> + <p> + A new colourless Minister of Finance, the Cardinal Lomenie de Brienne, was + appointed and Louis, driven by the violent threats of his starving + subjects, agreed to call together the old Estates General as "soon as + practicable." This vague promise of course satisfied no one. + </p> + <p> + No such severe winter had been experienced for almost a century. The crops + had been either destroyed by floods or had been frozen to death in the + fields. All the olive trees of the Provence had been killed. Private + charity tried to do some-thing but could accomplish little for eighteen + million starving people. Everywhere bread riots occurred. A generation + before these would have been put down by the army. But the work of the new + philosophical school had begun to bear fruit. People began to understand + that a shotgun is no effective remedy for a hungry stomach and even the + soldiers (who came from among the people) were no longer to be depended + upon. It was absolutely necessary that the king should do something + definite to regain the popular goodwill, but again he hesitated. + </p> + <p> + Here and there in the provinces, little independent Republics were + established by followers of the new school. The cry of "no taxation + without representation" (the slogan of the American rebels a quarter of a + century before) was heard among the faithful middle classes. France was + threatened with general anarchy. To appease the people and to increase the + royal popularity, the government unexpectedly suspended the former very + strict form of censorship of books. At once a flood of ink descended upon + France. Everybody, high or low, criticised and was criticised. More than + 2000 pamphlets were published. Lomenie de Brienne was swept away by a + storm of abuse. Necker was hastily called back to placate, as best he + could, the nation-wide unrest. Immediately the stock market went up thirty + per cent. And by common consent, people suspended judgment for a little + while longer. In May of 1789 the Estates General were to assemble and then + the wisdom of the entire nation would speedily solve the difficult problem + of recreating the kingdom of France into a healthy and happy state. + </p> + <p> + This prevailing idea, that the combined wisdom of the people would be able + to solve all difficulties, proved disastrous. It lamed all personal effort + during many important months. Instead of keeping the government in his own + hands at this critical moment, Necker allowed everything to drift. Hence + there was a new outbreak of the acrimonious debate upon the best ways to + reform the old kingdom. Everywhere the power of the police weakened. The + people of the Paris suburbs, under the leadership of professional + agitators, gradually began to discover their strength, and commenced to + play the role which was to be theirs all through the years of the great + unrest, when they acted as the brute force which was used by the actual + leaders of the Revolution to secure those things which could not be + obtained in a legitimate fashion. + </p> + <p> + As a sop to the peasants and the middle class, Necker de-cided that they + should be allowed a double representation in the Estates General. Upon + this subject, the Abbe Sieyes then wrote a famous pamphlet, "To what does + the Third Estate Amount?" in which he came to the conclusion that the + Third Estate (a name given to the middle class) ought to amount to + everything, that it had not amounted to anything in the past, and that it + now desired to amount to something. He expressed the sentiment of the + great majority of the people who had the best interests of the country at + heart. + </p> + <p> + Finally the elections took place under the worst conditions imaginable. + When they were over, 308 clergymen, 285 noblemen and 621 representatives + of the Third Estate packed their trunks to go to Versailles. The Third + Estate was obliged to carry additional luggage. This consisted of + voluminous reports called "cahiers" in which the many complaints and + grievances of their constituents had been written down. The stage was set + for the great final act that was to save France. + </p> + <p> + The Estates General came together on May 5th, 1789. The king was in a bad + humour. The Clergy and the Nobility let it be known that they were + unwilling to give up a single one of their privileges. The king ordered + the three groups of representatives to meet in different rooms and discuss + their grievances separately. The Third Estate refused to obey the royal + command. They took a solemn oath to that effect in a squash court (hastily + put in order for the purpose of this illegal meeting) on the 20th of June, + 1789. They insisted that all three Estates, Nobility, Clergy and Third + Estate, should meet together and so informed His Majesty. The king gave + in. + </p> + <p> + As the "National Assembly," the Estates General began to discuss the state + of the French kingdom. The King got angry. Then again he hesitated. He + said that he would never surrender his absolute power. Then he went + hunting, forgot all about the cares of the state and when he returned from + the chase he gave in. For it was the royal habit to do the right thing at + the wrong time in the wrong way. When the people clamoured for A, the king + scolded them and gave them nothing. Then, when the Palace was surrounded + by a howling multitude of poor people, the king surrendered and gave his + subjects what they had asked for. By this time, however, the people wanted + A plus B. The comedy was repeated. When the king signed his name to the + Royal Decree which granted his beloved subjects A and B they were + threatening to kill the entire royal family unless they received A plus B + plus C. And so on, through the whole alphabet and up to the scaffold. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the king was always just one letter behind. He never + understood this. Even when he laid his head under the guillotine, he felt + that he was a much-abused man who had received a most unwarrantable + treatment at the hands of people whom he had loved to the best of his + limited ability. + </p> + <p> + Historical "ifs," as I have often warned you, are never of any value. It + is very easy for us to say that the monarchy might have been saved "if" + Louis had been a man of greater energy and less kindness of heart. But the + king was not alone. Even "if" he had possessed the ruthless strength of + Napoleon, his career during these difficult days might have been easily + ruined by his wife who was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and + who possessed all the characteristic virtues and vices of a young girl who + had been brought up at the most autocratic and mediaeval court of that + age. + </p> + <p> + She decided that some action must be taken and planned a + counter-revolution. Necker was suddenly dismissed and loyal troops were + called to Paris. The people, when they heard of this, stormed the fortress + of the Bastille prison, and on the fourteenth of July of the year 1789, + they destroyed this familiar but much-hated symbol of Autocratic Power + which had long since ceased to be a political prison and was now used as + the city lock-up for pickpockets and second-story men. Many of the nobles + took the hint and left the country. But the king as usual did nothing. He + had been hunting on the day of the fall of the Bastille and he had shot + several deer and felt very much pleased. + </p> + <p> + The National Assembly now set to work and on the 4th of August, with the + noise of the Parisian multitude in their ears, they abolished all + privileges. This was followed on the 27th of August by the "Declaration of + the Rights of Man," the famous preamble to the first French constitution. + So far so good, but the court had apparently not yet learned its lesson. + There was a wide-spread suspicion that the king was again trying to + interfere with these reforms and as a result, on the 5th of October, there + was a second riot in Paris. It spread to Versailles and the people were + not pacified until they had brought the king back to his palace in Paris. + They did not trust him in Versailles. They liked to have him where they + could watch him and control his correspondence with his relatives in + Vienna and Madrid and the other courts of Europe. + </p> + <p> + In the Assembly meanwhile, Mirabeau, a nobleman who had become leader of + the Third Estate, was beginning to put order into chaos. But before he + could save the position of the king he died, on the 2nd of April of the + year 1791. The king, who now began to fear for his own life, tried to + escape on the 21st of June. He was recognised from his picture on a coin, + was stopped near the village of Varennes by members of the National Guard, + and was brought back to Paris. + </p> + <p> + In September of 1791, the first constitution of France was accepted, and + the members of the National Assembly went home. On the first of October of + 1791, the legislative assembly came together to continue the work of the + National Assembly. In this new gathering of popular representatives there + were many extremely revolutionary elements. The boldest among these were + known as the Jacobins, after the old Jacobin cloister in which they held + their political meetings. These young men (most of them belonging to the + professional classes) made very violent speeches and when the newspapers + carried these orations to Berlin and Vienna, the King of Prussia and the + Emperor decided that they must do something to save their good brother and + sister. They were very busy just then dividing the kingdom of Poland, + where rival political factions had caused such a state of disorder that + the country was at the mercy of anybody who wanted to take a couple of + provinces. But they managed to send an army to invade France and deliver + the king. + </p> + <p> + Then a terrible panic of fear swept throughout the land of France. All the + pent-up hatred of years of hunger and suffering came to a horrible climax. + The mob of Paris stormed the palace of the Tuilleries. The faithful Swiss + bodyguards tried to defend their master, but Louis, unable to make up his + mind, gave order to "cease firing" just when the crowd was retiring. The + people, drunk with blood and noise and cheap wine, murdered the Swiss to + the last man, then invaded the palace, and went after Louis who had + escaped into the meeting hall of the Assembly, where he was immediately + suspended of his office, and from where he was taken as a prisoner to the + old castle of the Temple. + </p> + <p> + But the armies of Austria and Prussia continued their advance and the + panic changed into hysteria and turned men and women into wild beasts. In + the first week of September of the year 1792, the crowd broke into the + jails and murdered all the prisoners. The government did not interfere. + The Jacobins, headed by Danton, knew that this crisis meant either the + success or the failure of the revolution, and that only the most brutal + audacity could save them. The Legislative Assembly was closed and on the + 21st of September of the year 1792, a new National Convention came + together. It was a body composed almost entirely of extreme + revolutionists. The king was formally accused of high treason and was + brought before the Convention. He was found guilty and by a vote of 361 to + 360 (the extra vote being that of his cousin the Duke of Orleans) he was + condemned to death. On the 21st of January of the year 1793, he quietly + and with much dignity suffered himself to be taken to the scaffold. He had + never understood what all the shooting and the fuss had been about. And he + had been too proud to ask questions. + </p> + <p> + Then the Jacobins turned against the more moderate element in the + convention, the Girondists, called after their southern district, the + Gironde. A special revolutionary tribunal was instituted and twenty-one of + the leading Girondists were condemned to death. The others committed + suicide. They were capable and honest men but too philosophical and too + moderate to survive during these frightful years. + </p> + <p> + In October of the year 1793 the Constitution was suspended by the Jacobins + "until peace should have been declared." All power was placed in the hands + of a small committee of Public Safety, with Danton and Robespierre as its + leaders. The Christian religion and the old chronology were abolished. The + "Age of Reason" (of which Thomas Paine had written so eloquently during + the American Revolution) had come and with it the "Terror" which for more + than a year killed good and bad and indifferent people at the rate of + seventy or eighty a day. + </p> + <p> + The autocratic rule of the King had been destroyed. It was succeeded by + the tyranny of a few people who had such a passionate love for democratic + virtue that they felt compelled to kill all those who disagreed with them. + France was turned into a slaughter house. Everybody suspected everybody + else. No one felt safe. Out of sheer fear, a few members of the old + Convention, who knew that they were the next candidates for the scaffold, + finally turned against Robespierre, who had already decapitated most of + his former colleagues. Robespierre, "the only true and pure Democrat," + tried to kill himself but failed His shattered jaw was hastily bandaged + and he was dragged to the guillotine. On the 27th of July, of the year + 1794 (the 9th Thermidor of the year II, according to the strange + chronology of the revolution), the reign of Terror came to an end, and all + Paris danced with joy. + </p> + <p> + The dangerous position of France, however, made it necessary that the + government remain in the hands of a few strong men, until the many enemies + of the revolution should have been driven from the soil of the French + fatherland. While the half-clad and half-starved revolutionary armies + fought their desperate battles of the Rhine and Italy and Belgium and + Egypt, and defeated every one of the enemies of the Great Revolution, five + Directors were appointed, and they ruled France for four years. Then the + power was vested in the hands of a successful general by the name of + Napoleon Bonaparte, who became "First Consul" of France in the year 1799. + And during the next fifteen years, the old European continent became the + laboratory of a number of political experiments, the like of which the + world had never seen before. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NAPOLEON + </h2> + <h3> + NAPOLEON + </h3> + <p> + NAPOLEON was born in the year 1769, the third son of Carlo Maria + Buonaparte, an honest notary public of the city of Ajaccio in the island + of Corsica, and his good wife, Letizia Ramolino. He therefore was not a + Frenchman, but an Italian whose native island (an old Greek, Carthaginian + and Roman colony in the Mediterranean Sea) had for years been struggling + to regain its independence, first of all from the Genoese, and after the + middle of the eighteenth century from the French, who had kindly offered + to help the Corsicans in their struggle for freedom and had then occupied + the island for their own benefit. + </p> + <p> + During the first twenty years of his life, young Napoleon was a + professional Corsican patriot—a Corsican Sinn Feiner, who hoped to + deliver his beloved country from the yoke of the bitterly hated French + enemy. But the French revolution had unexpectedly recognised the claims of + the Corsicans and gradually Napoleon, who had received a good training at + the military school of Brienne, drifted into the service of his adopted + country. Although he never learned to spell French correctly or to speak + it without a broad Italian accent, he became a Frenchman. In due time he + came to stand as the highest expression of all French virtues. At present + he is regarded as the symbol of the Gallic genius. + </p> + <p> + Napoleon was what is called a fast worker. His career does not cover more + than twenty years. In that short span of time he fought more wars and + gained more victories and marched more miles and conquered more square + kilometers and killed more people and brought about more reforms and + generally upset Europe to a greater extent than anybody (including + Alexander the Great and Jenghis Khan) had ever managed to do. + </p> + <p> + He was a little fellow and during the first years of his life his health + was not very good. He never impressed anybody by his good looks and he + remained to the end of his days very clumsy whenever he was obliged to + appear at a social function. He did not enjoy a single advantage of + breeding or birth or riches. For the greater part of his youth he was + desperately poor and often he had to go without a meal or was obliged to + make a few extra pennies in curious ways. + </p> + <p> + He gave little promise as a literary genius. When he competed for a prize + offered by the Academy of Lyons, his essay was found to be next to the + last and he was number 15 out of 16 candidates. But he overcame all these + difficulties through his absolute and unshakable belief in his own + destiny, and in his own glorious future. Ambition was the main-spring of + his life. The thought of self, the worship of that capital letter "N" with + which he signed all his letters, and which recurred forever in the + ornaments of his hastily constructed palaces, the absolute will to make + the name Napoleon the most important thing in the world next to the name + of God, these desires carried Napoleon to a pinnacle of fame which no + other man has ever reached. + </p> + <p> + When he was a half-pay lieutenant, young Bonaparte was very fond of the + "Lives of Famous Men" which Plutarch, the Roman historian, had written. + But he never tried to live up to the high standard of character set by + these heroes of the older days. Napoleon seems to have been devoid of all + those considerate and thoughtful sentiments which make men different from + the animals. It will be very difficult to decide with any degree of + accuracy whether he ever loved anyone besides himself. He kept a civil + tongue to his mother, but Letizia had the air and manners of a great lady + and after the fashion of Italian mothers, she knew how to rule her brood + of children and command their respect. For a few years he was fond of + Josephine, his pretty Creole wife, who was the daughter of a French + officer of Martinique and the widow of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, who had + been executed by Robespierre when he lost a battle against the Prussians. + But the Emperor divorced her when she failed to give him a son and heir + and married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, because it seemed good + policy. + </p> + <p> + During the siege of Toulon, where he gained great fame as commander of a + battery, Napoleon studied Macchiavelli with industrious care. He followed + the advice of the Florentine statesman and never kept his word when it was + to his advantage to break it. The word "gratitude" did not occur in his + personal dictionary. Neither, to be quite fair, did he expect it from + others. He was totally indifferent to human suffering. He executed + prisoners of war (in Egypt in 1798) who had been promised their lives, and + he quietly allowed his wounded in Syria to be chloroformed when he found + it impossible to transport them to his ships. He ordered the Duke of + Enghien to be condemned to death by a prejudiced court-martial and to be + shot contrary to all law on the sole ground that the "Bourbons needed a + warning." He decreed that those German officers who were made prisoner + while fighting for their country's independence should be shot against the + nearest wall, and when Andreas Hofer, the Tyrolese hero, fell into his + hands after a most heroic resistance, he was executed like a common + traitor. + </p> + <p> + In short, when we study the character of the Emperor, we begin to + understand those anxious British mothers who used to drive their children + to bed with the threat that "Bonaparte, who ate little boys and girls for + breakfast, would come and get them if they were not very good." And yet, + having said these many unpleasant things about this strange tyrant, who + looked after every other department of his army with the utmost care, but + neglected the medical service, and who ruined his uniforms with Eau de + Cologne because he could not stand the smell of his poor sweating + soldiers; having said all these unpleasant things and being fully prepared + to add many more, I must confess to a certain lurking feeling of doubt. + </p> + <p> + Here I am sitting at a comfortable table loaded heavily with books, with + one eye on my typewriter and the other on Licorice the cat, who has a + great fondness for carbon paper, and I am telling you that the Emperor + Napoleon was a most contemptible person. But should I happen to look out + of the window, down upon Seventh Avenue, and should the endless procession + of trucks and carts come to a sudden halt, and should I hear the sound of + the heavy drums and see the little man on his white horse in his old and + much-worn green uniform, then I don't know, but I am afraid that I would + leave my books and the kitten and my home and everything else to follow + him wherever he cared to lead. My own grandfather did this and Heaven + knows he was not born to be a hero. Millions of other people's + grandfathers did it. They received no reward, but they expected none. They + cheerfully gave legs and arms and lives to serve this foreigner, who took + them a thousand miles away from their homes and marched them into a + barrage of Russian or English or Spanish or Italian or Austrian cannon and + stared quietly into space while they were rolling in the agony of death. + </p> + <p> + If you ask me for an explanation, I must answer that I have none. I can + only guess at one of the reasons. Napoleon was the greatest of actors and + the whole European continent was his stage. At all times and under all + circumstances he knew the precise attitude that would impress the + spectators most and he understood what words would make the deepest + impression. Whether he spoke in the Egyptian desert, before the backdrop + of the Sphinx and the pyramids, or addressed his shivering men on the + dew-soaked plains of Italy, made no difference. At all times he was master + of the situation. Even at the end, an exile on a little rock in the middle + of the Atlantic, a sick man at the mercy of a dull and intolerable British + governor, he held the centre of the stage. + </p> + <p> + After the defeat of Waterloo, no one outside of a few trusted friends ever + saw the great Emperor. The people of Europe knew that he was living on the + island of St. Helena—they knew that a British garrison guarded him + day and night—they knew that the British fleet guarded the garrison + which guarded the Emperor on his farm at Longwood. But he was never out of + the mind of either friend or enemy. When illness and despair had at last + taken him away, his silent eyes continued to haunt the world. Even to-day + he is as much of a force in the life of France as a hundred years ago when + people fainted at the mere sight of this sallow-faced man who stabled his + horses in the holiest temples of the Russian Kremlin, and who treated the + Pope and the mighty ones of this earth as if they were his lackeys. + </p> + <p> + To give you a mere outline of his life would demand couple of volumes. To + tell you of his great political reform of the French state, of his new + codes of laws which were adopted in most European countries, of his + activities in every field of public activity, would take thousands of + pages. But I can explain in a few words why he was so successful during + the first part of his career and why he failed during the last ten years. + From the year 1789 until the year 1804, Napoleon was the great leader of + the French revolution. He was not merely fighting for the glory of his own + name. He defeated Austria and Italy and England and Russia because he, + himself, and his soldiers were the apostles of the new creed of "Liberty, + Fraternity and Equality" and were the enemies of the courts while they + were the friends of the people. + </p> + <p> + But in the year 1804, Napoleon made himself Hereditary Emperor of the + French and sent for Pope Pius VII to come and crown him, even as Leo III, + in the year 800 had crowned that other great King of the Franks, + Charlemagne, whose example was constantly before Napoleon's eyes. + </p> + <p> + Once upon the throne, the old revolutionary chieftain became an + unsuccessful imitation of a Habsburg monarch. He forgot his spiritual + Mother, the Political Club of the Jacobins. He ceased to be the defender + of the oppressed. He became the chief of all the oppressors and kept his + shooting squads ready to execute those who dared to oppose his imperial + will. No one had shed a tear when in the year 1806 the sad remains of the + Holy Roman Empire were carted to the historical dustbin and when the last + relic of ancient Roman glory was destroyed by the grandson of an Italian + peasant. But when the Napoleonic armies had invaded Spain, had forced the + Spaniards to recognise a king whom they detested, had massacred the poor + Madrilenes who remained faithful to their old rulers, then public opinion + turned against the former hero of Marengo and Austerlitz and a hundred + other revolutionary battles. Then and only then, when Napoleon was no + longer the hero of the revolution but the personification of all the bad + traits of the Old Regime, was it possible for England to give direction to + the fast-spreading sentiment of hatred which was turning all honest men + into enemies of the French Emperor. + </p> + <p> + The English people from the very beginning had felt deeply disgusted when + their newspapers told them the gruesome details of the Terror. They had + staged their own great revolution (during the reign of Charles I) a + century before. It had been a very simple affair compared to the upheaval + of Paris. In the eyes of the average Englishman a Jacobin was a monster to + be shot at sight and Napoleon was the Chief Devil. The British fleet had + blockaded France ever since the year 1798. It had spoiled Napoleon's plan + to invade India by way of Egypt and had forced him to beat an ignominious + retreat, after his victories along the banks of the Nile. And finally, in + the year 1805, England got the chance it had waited for so long. + </p> + <p> + Near Cape Trafalgar on the southwestern coast of Spain, Nelson annihilated + the Napoleonic fleet, beyond a possible chance of recovery. From that + moment on, the Emperor was landlocked. Even so, he would have been able to + maintain himself as the recognised ruler of the continent had he + understood the signs of the times and accepted the honourable peace which + the powers offered him. But Napoleon had been blinded by the blaze of his + own glory. He would recognise no equals. He could tolerate no rivals. And + his hatred turned against Russia, the mysterious land of the endless + plains with its inexhaustible supply of cannon-fodder. + </p> + <p> + As long as Russia was ruled by Paul I, the half-witted son of Catherine + the Great, Napoleon had known how to deal with the situation. But Paul + grew more and more irresponsible until his exasperated subjects were + obliged to murder him (lest they all be sent to the Siberian lead-mines) + and the son of Paul, the Emperor Alexander, did not share his father's + affection for the usurper whom he regarded as the enemy of mankind, the + eternal disturber of the peace. He was a pious man who believed that he + had been chosen by God to deliver the world from the Corsican curse. He + joined Prussia and England and Austria and he was defeated. He tried five + times and five times he failed. In the year 1812 he once more taunted + Napoleon until the French Emperor, in a blind rage, vowed that he would + dictate peace in Moscow. Then, from far and wide, from Spain and Germany + and Holland and Italy and Portugal, unwilling regiments were driven + northward, that the wounded pride of the great Emperor might be duly + avenged. The rest of the story is common knowledge. After a march of two + months, Napoleon reached the Russian capital and established his + headquarters in the holy Kremlin. On the night of September 15 of the year + 1812, Moscow caught fire. The town burned four days. When the evening of + the fifth day came, Napoleon gave the order for the retreat. Two weeks + later it began to snow. The army trudged through mud and sleet until + November the 26th when the river Berezina was reached. Then the Russian + attacks began in all seriousness. The Cossacks swarmed around the "Grande + Armee" which was no longer an army but a mob. In the middle of December + the first of the survivors began to be seen in the German cities of the + East. + </p> + <p> + Then there were many rumours of an impending revolt. "The time has come," + the people of Europe said, "to free ourselves from this insufferable + yoke." And they began to look for old shotguns which had escaped the eye + of the ever-present French spies. But ere they knew what had happened, + Napoleon was back with a new army. He had left his defeated soldiers and + in his little sleigh had rushed ahead to Paris, making a final appeal for + more troops that he might defend the sacred soil of France against foreign + invasion. + </p> + <p> + Children of sixteen and seventeen followed him when he moved eastward to + meet the allied powers. On October 16, 18, and 19 of the year 1813, the + terrible battle of Leipzig took place where for three days boys in green + and boys in blue fought each other until the Elbe ran red with blood. On + the afternoon of the 17th of October, the massed reserves of Russian + infantry broke through the French lines and Napoleon fled. + </p> + <p> + Back to Paris he went. He abdicated in favour of his small son, but the + allied powers insisted that Louis XVIII, the brother of the late king + Louis XVI, should occupy the French throne, and surrounded by Cossacks and + Uhlans, the dull-eyed Bourbon prince made his triumphal entry into Paris. + </p> + <p> + As for Napoleon he was made the sovereign ruler of the little island of + Elba in the Mediterranean where he organised his stable boys into a + miniature army and fought battles on a chess board. + </p> + <p> + But no sooner had he left France than the people began to realise what + they had lost. The last twenty years, however costly, had been a period of + great glory. Paris had been the capital of the world. The fat Bourbon king + who had learned nothing and had forgotten nothing during the days of his + exile disgusted everybody by his indolence. + </p> + <p> + On the first of March of the year 1815, when the representatives of the + allies were ready to begin the work of unscrambling the map of Europe, + Napoleon suddenly landed near Cannes. In less than a week the French army + had deserted the Bourbons and had rushed southward to offer their swords + and bayonets to the "little Corporal." Napoleon marched straight to Paris + where he arrived on the twentieth of March. This time he was more + cautious. He offered peace, but the allies insisted upon war. The whole of + Europe arose against the "perfidious Corsican." Rapidly the Emperor + marched northward that he might crush his enemies before they should be + able to unite their forces. But Napoleon was no longer his old self. He + felt sick. He got tired easily. He slept when he ought to have been up + directing the attack of his advance-guard. Besides, he missed many of his + faithful old generals. They were dead. + </p> + <p> + Early in June his armies entered Belgium. On the 16th of that month he + defeated the Prussians under Blucher. But a subordinate commander failed + to destroy the retreating army as he had been ordered to do. + </p> + <p> + Two days later, Napoleon met Wellington near Waterloo. It was the 18th of + June, a Sunday. At two o'clock of the afternoon, the battle seemed won for + the French. At three a speck of dust appeared upon the eastern horizon. + Napoleon believed that this meant the approach of his own cavalry who + would now turn the English defeat into a rout. At four o'clock he knew + better. Cursing and swearing, old Blucher drove his deathly tired troops + into the heart of the fray. The shock broke the ranks of the guards. + Napoleon had no further reserves. He told his men to save themselves as + best they could, and he fled. + </p> + <p> + For a second time, he abdicated in favor of his son. Just one hundred days + after his escape from Elba, he was making for the coast. He intended to go + to America. In the year 1803, for a mere song, he had sold the French + colony of Louisiana (which was in great danger of being captured by the + English) to the young American Republic. "The Americans," so he said, + "will be grateful and will give me a little bit of land and a house where + I may spend the last days of my life in peace and quiet." But the English + fleet was watching all French harbours. Caught between the armies of the + Allies and the ships of the British, Napoleon had no choice. The Prussians + intended to shoot him. The English might be more generous. At Rochefort he + waited in the hope that something might turn up. One month after Waterloo, + he received orders from the new French government to leave French soil + inside of twenty-four hours. Always the tragedian, he wrote a letter to + the Prince Regent of England (George IV, the king, was in an insane + asylum) informing His Royal Highness of his intention to "throw himself + upon the mercy of his enemies and like Themistocles, to look for a welcome + at the fireside of his foes..." + </p> + <p> + On the 15th of July he went on board the "Bellerophon," and surrendered + his sword to Admiral Hotham. At Plymouth he was transferred to the + "Northumberland" which carried him to St. Helena. There he spent the last + seven years of his life. He tried to write his memoirs, he quarrelled with + his keepers and he dreamed of past times. Curiously enough he returned (at + least in his imagination) to his original point of departure. He + remembered the days when he had fought the battles of the Revolution. He + tried to convince himself that he had always been the true friend of those + great principles of "Liberty, Fraternity and Equality" which the ragged + soldiers of the convention had carried to the ends of the earth. He liked + to dwell upon his career as Commander-in-Chief and Consul. He rarely spoke + of the Empire. Sometimes he thought of his son, the Duke of Reichstadt, + the little eagle, who lived in Vienna, where he was treated as a "poor + relation" by his young Habsburg cousins, whose fathers had trembled at the + very mention of the name of Him. When the end came, he was leading his + troops to victory. He ordered Ney to attack with the guards. Then he died. + </p> + <p> + But if you want an explanation of this strange career, if you really wish + to know how one man could possibly rule so many people for so many years + by the sheer force of his will, do not read the books that have been + written about him. Their authors either hated the Emperor or loved him. + You will learn many facts, but it is more important to "feel history" than + to know it. Don't read, but wait until you have a chance to hear a good + artist sing the song called "The Two Grenadiers." The words were written + by Heine, the great German poet who lived through the Napoleonic era. The + music was composed by Schumann, a German who saw the Emperor, the enemy of + his country, whenever he came to visit his imperial father-in-law. The + song therefore is the work of two men who had every reason to hate the + tyrant. + </p> + <p> + Go and hear it. Then you will understand what a thousand volumes could not + possibly tell you. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE HOLY ALLIANCE + </h2> + <p> + AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA THE RULERS WHO SO OFTEN + HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED "CORSICAN" MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED TO UNDO + THE MANY CHANGES THAT HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + </p> + <p> + THE Imperial Highnesses, the Royal Highnesses, their Graces the Dukes, the + Ministers Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, together with the plain + Excellencies and their army of secretaries, servants and hangers-on, whose + labours had been so rudely interrupted by the sudden return of the + terrible Corsican (now sweltering under the hot sun of St. Helena) went + back to their jobs. The victory was duly celebrated with dinners, garden + parties and balls at which the new and very shocking "waltz" was danced to + the great scandal of the ladies and gentlemen who remembered the minuet of + the old Regime. + </p> + <p> + For almost a generation they had lived in retirement. At last the danger + was over. They were very eloquent upon the subject of the terrible + hardships which they had suffered. And they expected to be recompensed for + every penny they had lost at the hands of the unspeakable Jacobins who had + dared to kill their anointed king, who had abolished wigs and who had + discarded the short trousers of the court of Versailles for the ragged + pantaloons of the Parisian slums. + </p> + <p> + You may think it absurd that I should mention such a detail. But, if you + please, the Congress of Vienna was one long succession of such absurdities + and for many months the question of "short trousers vs. long trousers" + interested the delegates more than the future settlement of the Saxon or + Spanish problems. His Majesty the King of Prussia went so far as to order + a pair of short ones, that he might give public evidence of his contempt + for everything revolutionary. + </p> + <p> + Another German potentate, not to be outdone in this noble hatred for the + revolution, decreed that all taxes which his subjects had paid to the + French usurper should be paid a second time to the legitimate ruler who + had loved his people from afar while they were at the mercy of the + Corsican ogre. And so on. From one blunder to another, until one gasps and + exclaims "but why in the name of High Heaven did not the people object?" + Why not indeed? Because the people were utterly exhausted, were desperate, + did not care what happened or how or where or by whom they were ruled, + provided there was peace. They were sick and tired of war and revolution + and reform. + </p> + <p> + In the eighties of the previous century they had all danced around the + tree of liberty. Princes had embraced their cooks and Duchesses had danced + the Carmagnole with their lackeys in the honest belief that the Millennium + of Equality and Fraternity had at last dawned upon this wicked world. + Instead of the Millennium they had been visited by the Revolutionary + commissary who had lodged a dozen dirty soldiers in their parlor and had + stolen the family plate when he returned to Paris to report to his + government upon the enthusiasm with which the "liberated country" had + received the Constitution, which the French people had presented to their + good neighbours. + </p> + <p> + When they had heard how the last outbreak of revolutionary disorder in + Paris had been suppressed by a young officer, called Bonaparte, or + Buonaparte, who had turned his guns upon the mob, they gave a sigh of + relief. A little less liberty, fraternity and equality seemed a very + desirable thing. But ere long, the young officer called Buonaparte or + Bonaparte became one of the three consuls of the French Republic, then + sole consul and finally Emperor. As he was much more efficient than any + ruler that had ever been seen before, his hand pressed heavily upon his + poor subjects. He showed them no mercy. He impressed their sons into his + armies, he married their daughters to his generals and he took their + pictures and their statues to enrich his own museums. He turned the whole + of Europe into an armed camp and killed almost an entire generation of + men. + </p> + <p> + Now he was gone, and the people (except a few professional military men) + had but one wish. They wanted to be let alone. For awhile they had been + allowed to rule themselves, to vote for mayors and aldermen and judges. + The system had been a terrible failure. The new rulers had been + inexperienced and extravagant. From sheer despair the people turned to the + representative men of the old Regime. "You rule us," they said, "as you + used to do. Tell us what we owe you for taxes and leave us alone. We are + busy repairing the damage of the age of liberty." + </p> + <p> + The men who stage-managed the famous congress certainly did their best to + satisfy this longing for rest and quiet. The Holy Alliance, the main + result of the Congress, made the policeman the most important dignitary of + the State and held out the most terrible punishment to those who dared + criticise a single official act. + </p> + <p> + Europe had peace, but it was the peace of the cemetery. + </p> + <p> + The three most important men at Vienna were the Emperor Alexander of + Russia, Metternich, who represented the interests of the Austrian house of + Habsburg, and Talleyrand, the erstwhile bishop of Autun, who had managed + to live through the different changes in the French government by the + sheer force of his cunning and his intelligence and who now travelled to + the Austrian capital to save for his country whatever could be saved from + the Napoleonic ruin. Like the gay young man of the limerick, who never + knew when he was slighted, this unbidden guest came to the party and ate + just as heartily as if he had been really invited. Indeed, before long, he + was sitting at the head of the table entertaining everybody with his + amusing stories and gaining the company's good will by the charm of his + manner. + </p> + <p> + Before he had been in Vienna twenty-four hours he knew that the allies + were divided into two hostile camps. On the one side were Russia, who + wanted to take Poland, and Prussia, who wanted to annex Saxony; and on the + other side were Austria and England, who were trying to prevent this grab + because it was against their own interest that either Prussia or Russia + should be able to dominate Europe. Talleyrand played the two sides against + each other with great skill and it was due to his efforts that the French + people were not made to suffer for the ten years of oppression which + Europe had endured at the hands of the Imperial officials. He argued that + the French people had been given no choice in the matter. Napoleon had + forced them to act at his bidding. But Napoleon was gone and Louis XVIII + was on the throne. "Give him a chance," Talleyrand pleaded. And the + Allies, glad to see a legitimate king upon the throne of a revolutionary + country, obligingly yielded and the Bourbons were given their chance, of + which they made such use that they were driven out after fifteen years. + </p> + <p> + The second man of the triumvirate of Vienna was Metternich, the Austrian + prime minister, the leader of the foreign policy of the house of Habsburg. + Wenzel Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg, was exactly what the name + suggests. He was a Grand Seigneur, a very handsome gentleman with very + fine manners, immensely rich, and very able, but the product of a society + which lived a thousand miles away from the sweating multitudes who worked + and slaved in the cities and on the farms. As a young man, Metternich had + been studying at the University of Strassburg when the French Revolution + broke out. Strassburg, the city which gave birth to the Marseillaise, had + been a centre of Jacobin activities. Metternich remembered that his + pleasant social life had been sadly interrupted, that a lot of incompetent + citizens had suddenly been called forth to perform tasks for which they + were not fit, that the mob had celebrated the dawn of the new liberty by + the murder of perfectly innocent persons. He had failed to see the honest + enthusiasm of the masses, the ray of hope in the eyes of women and + children who carried bread and water to the ragged troops of the + Convention, marching through the city on their way to the front and a + glorious death for the French Fatherland. + </p> + <p> + The whole thing had filled the young Austrian with disgust. It was + uncivilised. If there were any fighting to be done it must be done by + dashing young men in lovely uniforms, charging across the green fields on + well-groomed horses. But to turn an entire country into an evil-smelling + armed camp where tramps were overnight promoted to be generals, that was + both wicked and senseless. "See what came of all your fine ideas," he + would say to the French diplomats whom he met at a quiet little dinner + given by one of the innumerable Austrian grand-dukes. "You wanted liberty, + equality and fraternity and you got Napoleon. How much better it would + have been if you had been contented with the existing order of things." + And he would explain his system of "stability." He would advocate a return + to the normalcy of the good old days before the war, when everybody was + happy and nobody talked nonsense about "everybody being as good as + everybody else." In this attitude he was entirely sincere and as he was an + able man of great strength of will and a tremendous power of persuasion, + he was one of the most dangerous enemies of the Revolutionary ideas. He + did not die until the year 1859, and he therefore lived long enough to see + the complete failure of all his policies when they were swept aside by the + revolution of the year 1848. He then found himself the most hated man of + Europe and more than once ran the risk of being lynched by angry crowds of + outraged citizens. But until the very last, he remained steadfast in his + belief that he had done the right thing. + </p> + <p> + He had always been convinced that people preferred peace to liberty and he + had tried to give them what was best for them. And in all fairness, it + ought to be said that his efforts to establish universal peace were fairly + successful. The great powers did not fly at each other's throat for almost + forty years, indeed not until the Crimean war between Russia and England, + France and Italy and Turkey, in the year 1854. That means a record for the + European continent. + </p> + <p> + The third hero of this waltzing congress was the Emperor Alexander. He had + been brought up at the court of his grand-mother, the famous Catherine the + Great. Between the lessons of this shrewd old woman, who taught him to + regard the glory of Russia as the most important thing in life, and those + of his private tutor, a Swiss admirer of Voltaire and Rousseau, who filled + his mind with a general love of humanity, the boy grew up to be a strange + mixture of a selfish tyrant and a sentimental revolutionist. He had + suffered great indignities during the life of his crazy father, Paul I. He + had been obliged to wit-ness the wholesale slaughter of the Napoleonic + battle-fields. Then the tide had turned. His armies had won the day for + the Allies. Russia had become the saviour of Europe and the Tsar of this + mighty people was acclaimed as a half-god who would cure the world of its + many ills. + </p> + <p> + But Alexander was not very clever. He did not know men and women as + Talleyrand and Metternich knew them. He did not understand the strange + game of diplomacy. He was vain (who would not be under the circumstances?) + and loved to hear the applause of the multitude and soon he had become the + main "attraction" of the Congress while Metternich and Talleyrand and + Castlereagh (the very able British representative) sat around a table and + drank a bottle of Tokay and decided what was actually going to be done. + They needed Russia and therefore they were very polite to Alexander, but + the less he had personally to do with the actual work of the Congress, the + better they were pleased. They even encouraged his plans for a Holy + Alliance that he might be fully occupied while they were engaged upon the + work at hand. + </p> + <p> + Alexander was a sociable person who liked to go to parties and meet + people. Upon such occasions he was happy and gay but there was a very + different element in his character. He tried to forget something which he + could not forget. On the night of the 23rd of March of the year 1801 he + had been sitting in a room of the St. Michael Palace in Petersburg, + waiting for the news of his father's abdication. But Paul had refused to + sign the document which the drunken officers had placed before him on the + table, and in their rage they had put a scarf around his neck and had + strangled him to death. Then they had gone downstairs to tell Alexander + that he was Emperor of all the Russian lands. + </p> + <p> + The memory of this terrible night stayed with the Tsar who was a very + sensitive person. He had been educated in the school of the great French + philosophers who did not believe in God but in Human Reason. But Reason + alone could not satisfy the Emperor in his predicament. He began to hear + voices and see things. He tried to find a way by which he could square + himself with his conscience. He became very pious and began to take an + interest in mysticism, that strange love of the mysterious and the unknown + which is as old as the temples of Thebes and Babylon. + </p> + <p> + The tremendous emotion of the great revolutionary era had influenced the + character of the people of that day in a strange way. Men and women who + had lived through twenty years of anxiety and fear were no longer quite + normal. They jumped whenever the door-bell rang. It might mean the news of + the "death on the field of honour" of an only son. The phrases about + "brotherly love" and "liberty" of the Revolution were hollow words in the + ears of sorely stricken peasants. They clung to anything that might give + them a new hold on the terrible problems of life. In their grief and + misery they were easily imposed upon by a large number of imposters who + posed as prophets and preached a strange new doctrine which they dug out + of the more obscure passages of the Book of Revelations. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1814, Alexander, who had already consulted a large number of + wonder-doctors, heard of a new seeress who was foretelling the coming doom + of the world and was exhorting people to repent ere it be too late. The + Baroness von Krudener, the lady in question, was a Russian woman of + uncertain age and similar reputation who had been the wife of a Russian + diplomat in the days of the Emperor Paul. She had squandered her husband's + money and had disgraced him by her strange love affairs. She had lived a + very dissolute life until her nerves had given way and for a while she was + not in her right mind. Then she had been converted by the sight of the + sudden death of a friend. Thereafter she despised all gaiety. She + confessed her former sins to her shoemaker, a pious Moravian brother, a + follower of the old reformer John Huss, who had been burned for his + heresies by the Council of Constance in the year 1415. + </p> + <p> + The next ten years the Baroness spent in Germany making a specialty of the + "conversion" of kings and princes. To convince Alexander, the Saviour of + Europe, of the error of his ways was the greatest ambition of her life. + And as Alexander, in his misery, was willing to listen to anybody who + brought him a ray of hope, the interview was easily arranged. On the + evening of the fourth of June of the year 1815, she was admitted to the + tent of the Emperor. She found him reading his Bible. We do not know what + she said to Alexander, but when she left him three hours later, he was + bathed in tears, and vowed that "at last his soul had found peace." From + that day on the Baroness was his faithful companion and his spiritual + adviser. She followed him to Paris and then to Vienna and the time which + Alexander did not spend dancing he spent at the Krudener prayer-meetings. + </p> + <p> + You may ask why I tell you this story in such great detail? Are not the + social changes of the nineteenth century of greater importance than the + career of an ill-balanced woman who had better be forgotten? Of course + they are, but there exist any number of books which will tell you of these + other things with great accuracy and in great detail. I want you to learn + something more from this history than a mere succession of facts. I want + you to approach all historical events in a frame of mind that will take + nothing for granted. Don't be satisfied with the mere statement that "such + and such a thing happened then and there." Try to discover the hidden + motives behind every action and then you will understand the world around + you much better and you will have a greater chance to help others, which + (when all is said and done) is the only truly satisfactory way of living. + </p> + <p> + I do not want you to think of the Holy Alliance as a piece of paper which + was signed in the year 1815 and lies dead and forgotten somewhere in the + archives of state. It may be forgotten but it is by no means dead. The + Holy Alliance was directly responsible for the promulgation of the Monroe + Doctrine, and the Monroe Doctrine of America for the Americans has a very + distinct bearing upon your own life. That is the reason why I want you to + know exactly how this document happened to come into existence and what + the real motives were underlying this outward manifestation of piety and + Christian devotion to duty. + </p> + <p> + The Holy Alliance was the joint labour of an unfortunate man who had + suffered a terrible mental shock and who was trying to pacify his + much-disturbed soul, and of an ambitious woman who after a wasted life had + lost her beauty and her attraction and who satisfied her vanity and her + desire for notoriety by assuming the role of self-appointed Messiah of a + new and strange creed. I am not giving away any secrets when I tell you + these details. Such sober minded people as Castlereagh, Metternich and + Talleyrand fully understood the limited abilities of the sentimental + Baroness. It would have been easy for Metternich to send her back to her + German estates. A few lines to the almighty commander of the imperial + police and the thing was done. + </p> + <p> + But France and England and Austria depended upon the good-will of Russia. + They could not afford to offend Alexander. And they tolerated the silly + old Baroness because they had to. And while they regarded the Holy + Alliance as utter rubbish and not worth the paper upon which it was + written, they listened patiently to the Tsar when he read them the first + rough draft of this attempt to create the Brotherhood of Men upon a basis + of the Holy Scriptures. For this is what the Holy Alliance tried to do, + and the signers of the document solemnly declared that they would "in the + administration of their respective states and in their political relations + with every other government take for their sole guide the precepts of that + Holy Religion, namely the precepts of Justice, Christian Charity and + Peace, which far from being applicable only to private concerns must have + an immediate influence on the councils of princes, and must guide all + their steps as being the only means of consolidating human institutions + and remedying their imperfections." They then proceeded to promise each + other that they would remain united "by the bonds of a true and + indissoluble fraternity, and considering each other as fellow-countrymen, + they would on all occasions and in all places lend each other aid and + assistance." And more words to the same effect. + </p> + <p> + Eventually the Holy Alliance was signed by the Emperor of Austria, who did + not understand a word of it. It was signed by the Bourbons who needed the + friendship of Napoleon's old enemies. It was signed by the King of + Prussia, who hoped to gain Alexander for his plans for a "greater + Prussia," and by all the little nations of Europe who were at the mercy of + Russia. England never signed, because Castlereagh thought the whole thing + buncombe. The Pope did not sign because he resented this interference in + his business by a Greek-Orthodox and a Protestant. And the Sultan did not + sign because he never heard of it. + </p> + <p> + The general mass of the European people, however, soon were forced to take + notice. Behind the hollow phrases of the Holy Alliance stood the armies of + the Quintuple Alliance which Metternich had created among the great + powers. These armies meant business. They let it be known that the peace + of Europe must not be disturbed by the so-called liberals who were in + reality nothing but disguised Jacobins, and hoped for a return of the + revolutionary days. The enthusiasm for the great wars of liberation of the + years 1812, 1818, 1814 and 1815 had begun to wear off. It had been + followed by a sincere belief in the coming of a happier day. The soldiers + who had borne the brunt of the battle wanted peace and they said so. + </p> + <p> + But they did not want the sort of peace which the Holy Alliance and the + Council of the European powers had now bestowed upon them. They cried that + they had been betrayed. But they were careful lest they be heard by a + secret-police spy. The reaction was victorious. It was a reaction caused + by men who sincerely believed that their methods were necessary for the + good of humanity. But it was just as hard to bear as if their intentions + had been less kind. And it caused a great deal of unnecessary suffering + and greatly retarded the orderly progress of political development. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE GREAT REACTION + </h2> + <p> + THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED PEACE BY SUPPRESSING + ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY IN THE + STATE AND SOON THE PRISONS OF ALL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH THOSE WHO + CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO GOVERN THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT + </p> + <p> + To undo the damage done by the great Napoleonic flood was almost + impossible. Age-old fences had been washed away. The palaces of two score + dynasties had been damaged to such an extent that they had to be condemned + as uninhabitable. Other royal residences had been greatly enlarged at the + expense of less fortunate neighbours. Strange odds and ends of + revolutionary doctrine had been left behind by the receding waters and + could not be dislodged without danger to the entire community. But the + political engineers of the Congress did the best they could and this is + what they accomplished. + </p> + <p> + France had disturbed the peace of the world for so many years that people + had come to fear that country almost instinctively. The Bourbons, through + the mouth of Talleyrand, had promised to be good, but the Hundred Days had + taught Europe what to expect should Napoleon manage to escape for a second + time. The Dutch Republic, therefore, was changed into a Kingdom, and + Belgium (which had not joined the Dutch struggle for independence in the + sixteenth century and since then had been part of the Habsburg domains, + firs t under Spanish rule and thereafter under Austrian rule) was made + part of this new kingdom of the Netherlands. Nobody wanted this union + either in the Protestant North or in the Catholic South, but no questions + were asked. It seemed good for the peace of Europe and that was the main + consideration. + </p> + <p> + Poland had hoped for great things because a Pole, Prince Adam Czartoryski, + was one of the most intimate friends of Tsar Alexander and had been his + constant advisor during the war and at the Congress of Vienna. But Poland + was made a semi-independent part of Russia with Alexander as her king. + This solution pleased no one and caused much bitter feeling and three + revolutions. + </p> + <p> + Denmark, which had remained a faithful ally of Napoleon until the end, was + severely punished. Seven years before, an English fleet had sailed down + the Kattegat and without a declaration of war or any warning had bombarded + Copenhagen and had taken away the Danish fleet, lest it be of value to + Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna went one step further. It took Norway + (which since the union of Calmar of the year 1397 had been united with + Denmark) away from Denmark and gave it to Charles XIV of Sweden as a + reward for his betrayal of Napoleon, who had set him up in the king + business. This Swedish king, curiously enough, was a former French general + by the name of Bernadotte, who had come to Sweden as one of + Napolean's{sic} adjutants, and had been invited to the throne of that good + country when the last of the rulers of the house of Hollstein-Gottorp had + died without leaving either son or daughter. From 1815 until 1844 he ruled + his adopted country (the language of which he never learned) width great + ability. He was a clever man and enjoyed the respect of both his Swedish + and his Norwegian subjects, but he did not succeed in joining two + countries which nature and history had put asunder. The dual Scandinavian + state was never a success and in 1905, Norway, in a most peaceful and + orderly manner, set up as an independent kingdom and the Swedes bade her + "good speed" and very wisely let her go her own way. + </p> + <p> + The Italians, who since the days of the Renaissance had been at the mercy + of a long series of invaders, also had put great hopes in General + Bonaparte. The Emperor Napoleon, however, had grievously disappointed + them. Instead of the United Italy which the people wanted, they had been + divided into a number of little principalities, duchies, republics and the + Papal State, which (next to Naples) was the worst governed and most + miserable region of the entire peninsula. The Congress of Vienna abolished + a few of the Napoleonic republics and in their place resurrected several + old principalities which were given to deserving members, both male and + female, of the Habsburg family. + </p> + <p> + The poor Spaniards, who had started the great nationalistic revolt against + Napoleon, and who had sacrificed the best blood of the country for their + king, were punished severely when the Congress allowed His Majesty to + return to his domains. This vicious creature, known as Ferdinand VII, had + spent the last four years of his life as a prisoner of Napoleon. He had + improved his days by knitting garments for the statues of his favourite + patron saints. He celebrated his return by re-introducing the Inquisition + and the torture-chamber, both of which had been abolished by the + Revolution. He was a disgusting person, despised as much by his subjects + as by his four wives, but the Holy Alliance maintained him upon his + legitimate throne and all efforts of the decent Spaniards to get rid of + this curse and make Spain a constitutional kingdom ended in bloodshed and + executions. + </p> + <p> + Portugal had been without a king since the year 1807 when the royal family + had fled to the colonies in Brazil. The country had been used as a base of + supply for the armies of Wellington during the Peninsula war, which lasted + from 1808 until 1814. After 1815 Portugal continued to be a sort of + British province until the house of Braganza returned to the throne, + leaving one of its members behind in Rio de Janeiro as Emperor of Brazil, + the only American Empire which lasted for more than a few years, and which + came to an end in 1889 when the country became a republic. + </p> + <p> + In the east, nothing was done to improve the terrible conditions of both + the Slavs and the Greeks who were still subjects of the Sultan. In the + year 1804 Black George, a Servian swineherd, (the founder of the + Karageorgevich dynasty) had started a revolt against the Turks, but he had + been defeated by his enemies and had been murdered by one of his supposed + friends, the rival Servian leader, called Milosh Obrenovich, (who became + the founder of the Obrenovich dynasty) and the Turks had continued to be + the undisputed masters of the Balkans. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks, who since the loss of their independence, two thousand years + before, had been subjects of the Macedonians, the Romans, the Venetians + and the Turks, had hoped that their countryman, Capo d'Istria, a native of + Corfu and together with Czartoryski, the most intimate personal friends of + Alexander, would do something for them. But the Congress of Vienna was not + interested in Greeks, but was very much interested in keeping all + "legitimate" monarchs, Christian, Moslem and otherwise, upon their + respective thrones. Therefore nothing was done. + </p> + <p> + The last, but perhaps the greatest blunder of the Congress was the + treatment of Germany. The Reformation and the Thirty Years War had not + only destroyed the prosperity of the country, but had turned it into a + hopeless political rubbish heap, consisting of a couple of kingdoms, a few + grand-duchies, a large number of duchies and hundreds of margravates, + principalities, baronies, electorates, free cities and free villages, + ruled by the strangest assortment of potentates that was ever seen off the + comic opera stage. Frederick the Great had changed this when he created a + strong Prussia, but this state had not survived him by many years. + </p> + <p> + Napoleon had blue-penciled the demand for independence of most of these + little countries, and only fifty-two out of a total of more than three + hundred had survived the year 1806. During the years of the great struggle + for independence, many a young soldier had dreamed of a new Fatherland + that should be strong and united. But there can be no union without a + strong leadership, and who was to be this leader? + </p> + <p> + There were five kingdoms in the German speaking lands. The rulers of two + of these, Austria and Prussia, were kings by the Grace of God. The rulers + of three others, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurtemberg, were kings by the Grace + of Napoleon, and as they had been the faithful henchmen of the Emperor, + their patriotic credit with the other Germans was therefore not very good. + </p> + <p> + The Congress had established a new German Confederation, a league of + thirty-eight sovereign states, under the chairmanship of the King of + Austria, who was now known as the Emperor of Austria. It was the sort of + make-shift arrangement which satisfied no one. It is true that a German + Diet, which met in the old coronation city of Frankfort, had been created + to discuss matters of "common policy and importance." But in this Diet, + thirty-eight delegates represented thirty-eight different interests and as + no decision could be taken without a unanimous vote (a parliamentary rule + which had in previous centuries ruined the mighty kingdom of Poland), the + famous German Confederation became very soon the laughing stock of Europe + and the politics of the old Empire began to resemble those of our Central + American neighbours in the forties and the fifties of the last century. + </p> + <p> + It was terribly humiliating to the people who had sacrificed everything + for a national ideal. But the Congress was not interested in the private + feelings of "subjects," and the debate was closed. + </p> + <p> + Did anybody object? Most assuredly. As soon as the first feeling of hatred + against Napoleon had quieted down—as soon as the enthusiasm of the + great war had subsided—as soon as the people came to a full + realisation of the crime that had been committed in the name of "peace and + stability" they began to murmur. They even made threats of open revolt. + But what could they do? They were powerless. They were at the mercy of the + most pitiless and efficient police system the world had ever seen. + </p> + <p> + The members of the Congress of Vienna honestly and sincerely believed that + "the Revolutionary Principle had led to the criminal usurpation of the + throne by the former emperor Napoleon." They felt that they were called + upon to eradicate the adherents of the so-called "French ideas" just as + Philip II had only followed the voice of his conscience when he burned + Protestants or hanged Moors. In the beginning of the sixteenth century a + man who did not believe in the divine right of the Pope to rule his + subjects as he saw fit was a "heretic" and it was the duty of all loyal + citizens to kill him. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, on the + continent of Europe, a man who did not believe in the divine right of his + king to rule him as he or his Prime Minister saw fit, was a "heretic," and + it was the duty of all loyal citizens to denounce him to the nearest + policeman and see that he got punished. + </p> + <p> + But the rulers of the year 1815 had learned efficiency in the school of + Napoleon and they performed their task much better than it had been done + in the year 1517. The period between the year 1815 and the year 1860 was + the great era of the political spy. Spies were everywhere. They lived in + palaces and they were to be found in the lowest gin-shops. They peeped + through the key-holes of the ministerial cabinet and they listened to the + conversations of the people who were taking the air on the benches of the + Municipal Park. They guarded the frontier so that no one might leave + without a duly viseed passport and they inspected all packages, that no + books with dangerous "French ideas" should enter the realm of their Royal + masters. They sat among the students in the lecture hall and woe to the + Professor who uttered a word against the existing order of things. They + followed the little boys and girls on their way to church lest they play + hookey. + </p> + <p> + In many of these tasks they were assisted by the clergy. The church had + suffered greatly during the days of the revolution. The church property + had been confiscated. Several priests had been killed and the generation + that had learned its cathechism from Voltaire and Rousseau and the other + French philosophers had danced around the Altar of Reason when the + Committee of Public Safety had abolished the worship of God in October of + the year 1793. The priests had followed the "emigres" into their long + exile. Now they returned in the wake of the allied armies and they set to + work with a vengeance. + </p> + <p> + Even the Jesuits came back in 1814 and resumed their former labours of + educating the young. Their order had been a little too successful in its + fight against the enemies of the church. It had established "provinces" in + every part of the world, to teach the natives the blessings of + Christianity, but soon it had developed into a regular trading company + which was for ever interfering with the civil authorities. During the + reign of the Marquis de Pombal, the great reforming minister of Portugal, + they had been driven out of the Portuguese lands and in the year 1773 at + the request of most of the Catholic powers of Europe, the order had been + suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. Now they were back on the job, and + preached the principles of "obedience" and "love for the legitimate + dynasty" to children whose parents had hired shopwindows that they might + laugh at Marie Antoinette driving to the scaffold which was to end her + misery. + </p> + <p> + But in the Protestant countries like Prussia, things were not a whit + better. The great patriotic leaders of the year 1812, the poets and the + writers who had preached a holy war upon the usurper, were now branded as + dangerous "demagogues." Their houses were searched. Their letters were + read. They were obliged to report to the police at regular intervals and + give an account of themselves. The Prussian drill master was let loose in + all his fury upon the younger generation. When a party of students + celebrated the tercentenary of the Reformation with noisy but harmless + festivities on the old Wartburg, the Prussian bureaucrats had visions of + an imminent revolution. When a theological student, more honest than + intelligent, killed a Russian government spy who was operating in Germany, + the universities were placed under police-supervision and professors were + jailed or dismissed without any form of trial. + </p> + <p> + Russia, of course, was even more absurd in these anti-revolutionary + activities. Alexander had recovered from his attack of piety. He was + gradually drifting toward melancholia. He well knew his own limited + abilities and understood how at Vienna he had been the victim both of + Metternich and the Krudener woman. More and more he turned his back upon + the west and became a truly Russian ruler whose interests lay in + Constantinople, the old holy city that had been the first teacher of the + Slavs. The older he grew, the harder he worked and the less he was able to + accomplish. And while he sat in his study, his ministers turned the whole + of Russia into a land of military barracks. + </p> + <p> + It is not a pretty picture. Perhaps I might have shortened this + description of the Great Reaction. But it is just as well that you should + have a thorough knowledge of this era. It was not the first time that an + attempt had been made to set the clock of history back. The result was the + usual one. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE + </h2> + <p> + THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER WAS TOO STRONG TO BE DESTROYED + IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE + REACTIONARY MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, GREECE AND BELGIUM AND + SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT + FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH THE RUMOUR OF + MANY WARS OF INDEPENDENCE + </p> + <p> + IT will serve no good purpose to say "if only the Congress of Vienna had + done such and such a thing instead of taking such and such a course, the + history of Europe in the nineteenth century would have been different." + The Congress of Vienna was a gathering of men who had just passed through + a great revolution and through twenty years of terrible and almost + continuous warfare. They came together for the purpose of giving Europe + that "peace and stability" which they thought that the people needed and + wanted. They were what we call reactionaries. They sincerely believed in + the inability of the mass of the people to rule themselves. They + re-arranged the map of Europe in such a way as seemed to promise the + greatest possibility of a lasting success. They failed, but not through + any premeditated wickedness on their part. They were, for the greater + part, men of the old school who remembered the happier days of their quiet + youth and ardently wished a return of that blessed period. They failed to + recognise the strong hold which many of the revolutionary principles had + gained upon the people of the European continent. That was a misfortune + but hardly a sin. But one of the things which the French Revolution had + taught not only Europe but America as well, was the right of people to + their own "nationality." + </p> + <p> + Napoleon, who respected nothing and nobody, was utterly ruthless in his + dealing with national and patriotic aspirations. But the early + revolutionary generals had proclaimed the new doctrine that "nationality + was not a matter of political frontiers or round skulls and broad noses, + but a matter of the heart and soul." While they were teaching the French + children the greatness of the French nation, they encouraged Spaniards and + Hollanders and Italians to do the same thing. Soon these people, who all + shared Rousseau's belief in the superior virtues of Original Man, began to + dig into their past and found, buried beneath the ruins of the feudal + system, the bones of the mighty races of which they supposed themselves + the feeble descendants. + </p> + <p> + The first half of the nineteenth century was the era of the great + historical discoveries. Everywhere historians were busy publishing + mediaeval charters and early mediaeval chronicles and in every country the + result was a new pride in the old fatherland. A great deal of this + sentiment was based upon the wrong interpretation of historical facts. But + in practical politics, it does not matter what is true, but everything + depends upon what the people believe to be true. And in most countries + both the kings and their subjects firmly believed in the glory and fame of + their ancestors. + </p> + <p> + The Congress of Vienna was not inclined to be sentimental. Their + Excellencies divided the map of Europe according to the best interests of + half a dozen dynasties and put "national aspirations" upon the Index, or + list of forbidden books, together with all other dangerous "French + doctrines." + </p> + <p> + But history is no respecter of Congresses. For some reason or other (it + may be an historical law, which thus far has escaped the attention of the + scholars) "nations" seemed to be necessary for the orderly development of + human society and the attempt to stem this tide was quite as unsuccessful + as the Metternichian effort to prevent people from thinking. + </p> + <p> + Curiously enough the first trouble began in a very distant part of the + world, in South America. The Spanish colonies of that continent had been + enjoying a period of relative independence during the many years of the + great Napoleonic wars. They had even remained faithful to their king when + he was taken prisoner by the French Emperor and they had refused to + recognise Joseph Bonaparte, who had in the year 1808 been made King of + Spain by order of his brother. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, the only part of America to get very much upset by the Revolution + was the island of Haiti, the Espagnola of Columbus' first trip. Here in + the year 1791 the French Convention, in a sudden outburst of love and + human brotherhood, had bestowed upon their black brethren all the + privileges hitherto enjoyed by their white masters. Just as suddenly they + had repented of this step, but the attempt to undo the original promise + led to many years of terrible warfare between General Leclerc, the + brother-in-law of Napoleon, and Toussaint l'Ouverture, the negro + chieftain. In the year 1801, Toussaint was asked to visit Leclerc and + discuss terms of peace. He received the solemn promise that he would not + be molested. He trusted his white adversaries, was put on board a ship and + shortly afterwards died in a French prison. But the negroes gained their + independence all the same and founded a Republic. Incidentally they were + of great help to the first great South American patriot in his efforts to + deliver his native country from the Spanish yoke. + </p> + <p> + Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas in Venezuela, born in the year 1783, + had been educated in Spain, had visited Paris where he had seen the + Revolutionary government at work, had lived for a while in the United + States and had returned to his native land where the widespread discontent + against Spain, the mother country, was beginning to take a definite form. + In the year 1811, Venezuela declared its independence and Bolivar became + one of the revolutionary generals. Within two months, the rebels were + defeated and Bolivar fled. + </p> + <p> + For the next five years he was the leader of an apparently lost cause. He + sacrificed all his wealth and he would not have been able to begin his + final and successful expedition without the support of the President of + Haiti. Thereafter the revolt spread all over South America and soon it + appeared that Spain was not able to suppress the rebellion unaided. She + asked for the support of the Holy Alliance. + </p> + <p> + This step greatly worried England. The British shippers had succeeded the + Dutch as the Common Carriers of the world and they expected to reap heavy + profits from a declaration of independence on the part of all South + America. They had hopes that the United States of America would interfere + but the Senate had no such plans and in the House, too, there were many + voices which declared that Spain ought to be given a free hand. + </p> + <p> + Just then, there was a change of ministers in England. The Whigs went out + and the Tories came in. George Canning became secretary of State. He + dropped a hint that England would gladly back up the American government + with all the might of her fleet, if said government would declare its + disapproval of the plans of the Holy Alliance in regard to the rebellious + colonies of the southern continent. President Monroe thereupon, on the 2nd + of December of the year 1823, addressed Congress and stated that: "America + would consider any attempt on the part of the allied powers to extend + their system to any portion of this western hemisphere as dangerous to our + peace and safety," and gave warning that "the American government would + consider such action on the part of the Holy Alliance as a manifestation + of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." Four weeks later, + the text of the "Monroe Doctrine" was printed in the English newspapers + and the members of the Holy Alliance were forced to make their choice. + </p> + <p> + Metternich hesitated. Personally he would have been willing to risk the + displeasure of the United States (which had allowed both its army and navy + to fall into neglect since the end of the Anglo-American war of the year + 1812.) But Canning's threatening attitude and trouble on the continent + forced him to be careful. The expedition never took place and South + America and Mexico gained their independence. + </p> + <p> + As for the troubles on the continent of Europe, they were coming fast and + furious. The Holy Alliance had sent French troops to Spain to act as + guardians of the peace in the year 1820. Austrian troops had been used for + a similar purpose in Italy when the "Carbonari" (the secret society of the + Charcoal Burners) were making propaganda for a united Italy and had caused + a rebellion against the unspeakable Ferdinand of Naples. + </p> + <p> + Bad news also came from Russia where the death of Alexander had been the + sign for a revolutionary outbreak in St. Petersburg, a short but bloody + upheaval, the so-called Dekaberist revolt (because it took place in + December,) which ended with the hanging of a large number of good patriots + who had been disgusted by the reaction of Alexander's last years and had + tried to give Russia a constitutional form of government. + </p> + <p> + But worse was to follow. Metternich had tried to assure himself of the + continued support of the European courts by a series of conferences at + Aix-la-Chapelle at Troppau at Laibach and finally at Verona. The delegates + from the different powers duly travelled to these agreeable watering + places where the Austrian prime minister used to spend his summers. They + always promised to do their best to suppress revolt but they were none too + certain of their success. The spirit of the people was beginning to be + ugly and especially in France the position of the king was by no means + satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + The real trouble however began in the Balkans, the gateway to western + Europe through which the invaders of that continent had passed since the + beginning of time. The first outbreak was in Moldavia, the ancient Roman + province of Dacia which had been cut off from the Empire in the third + century. Since then, it had been a lost land, a sort of Atlantis, where + the people had continued to speak the old Roman tongue and still called + themselves Romans and their country Roumania. Here in the year 1821, a + young Greek, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, began a revolt against the Turks. + He told his followers that they could count upon the support of Russia. + But Metternich's fast couriers were soon on their way to St Petersburg and + the Tsar, entirely persuaded by the Austrian arguments in favor of "peace + and stability," refused to help. Ypsilanti was forced to flee to Austria + where he spent the next seven years in prison. + </p> + <p> + In the same year, 1821, trouble began in Greece. Since 1815 a secret + society of Greek patriots had been preparing the way for a revolt. + Suddenly they hoisted the flag of independence in the Morea (the ancient + Peloponnesus) and drove the Turkish garrisons away. The Turks answered in + the usual fashion. They took the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, who + was regarded as their Pope both by the Greeks and by many Russians, and + they hanged him on Easter Sunday of the year 1821, together with a number + of his bishops. The Greeks came back with a massacre of all the + Mohammedans in Tripolitsa, the capital of the Morea and the Turks + retaliated by an attack upon the island of Chios, where they murdered + 25,000 Christians and sold 45,000 others as slaves into Asia and Egypt. + </p> + <p> + Then the Greeks appealed to the European courts, but Metternich told them + in so many words that they could "stew in their own grease," (I am not + trying to make a pun, but I am quoting His Serene Highness who informed + the Tsar that this "fire of revolt ought to burn itself out beyond the + pale of civilisation" and the frontiers were closed to those volunteers + who wished to go to the rescue of the patriotic Hellenes. Their cause + seemed lost. At the request of Turkey, an Egyptian army was landed in the + Morea and soon the Turkish flag was again flying from the Acropolis, the + ancient stronghold of Athens. The Egyptian army then pacified the country + "a la Turque," and Metternich followed the proceedings with quiet + interest, awaiting the day when this "attempt against the peace of Europe" + should be a thing of the past. + </p> + <p> + Once more it was England which upset his plans. The greatest glory of + England does not lie in her vast colonial possessions, in her wealth or + her navy, but in the quiet heroism and independence of her average + citizen. The Englishman obeys the law because he knows that respect for + the rights of others marks the difference between a dog-kennel and + civilised society. But he does not recognize the right of others to + interfere with his freedom of thought. If his country does something which + he believes to be wrong, he gets up and says so and the government which + he attacks will respect him and will give him full protection against the + mob which to-day, as in the time of Socrates, often loves to destroy those + who surpass it in courage or intelligence. There never has been a good + cause, however unpopular or however distant, which has not counted a + number of Englishmen among its staunchest adherents. The mass of the + English people are not different from those in other lands. They stick to + the business at hand and have no time for unpractical "sporting ventures." + But they rather admire their eccentric neighbour who drops everything to + go and fight for some obscure people in Asia or Africa and when he has + been killed they give him a fine public funeral and hold him up to their + children as an example of valor and chivalry. + </p> + <p> + Even the police spies of the Holy Alliance were powerless against this + national characteristic. In the year 1824, Lord Byron, a rich young + Englishman who wrote the poetry over which all Europe wept, hoisted the + sails of his yacht and started south to help the Greeks. Three months + later the news spread through Europe that their hero lay dead in + Missolonghi, the last of the Greek strongholds. His lonely death caught + the imagination of the people. In all countries, societies were formed to + help the Greeks. Lafayette, the grand old man of the American revolution, + pleaded their cause in France. The king of Bavaria sent hundreds of his + officers. Money and supplies poured in upon the starving men of + Missolonghi. + </p> + <p> + In England, George Canning, who had defeated the plans of the Holy + Alliance in South America, was now prime minis-ter. He saw his chance to + checkmate Metternich for a second time. The English and Russian fleets + were already in the Mediterranean. They were sent by governments which + dared no longer suppress the popular enthusiasm for the cause of the Greek + patriots. The French navy appeared because France, since the end of the + Crusades, had assumed the role of the defender of the Christian faith in + Mohammedan lands. On October 20 of the year 1827, the ships of the three + nations attacked the Turkish fleet in the bay of Navarino and destroyed + it. Rarely has the news of a battle been received with such general + rejoicing. The people of western Europe and Russia who enjoyed no freedom + at home consoled themselves by fighting an imaginary war of liberty on + behalf of the oppressed Greeks. In the year 1829 they had their reward. + Greece became an independent nation and the policy of reaction and + stability suffered its second great defeat. + </p> + <p> + It would be absurd were I to try, in this short volume, to give you a + detailed account of the struggle for national independence in all other + countries. There are a large number of excellent books devoted to such + subjects. I have described the struggle for the independence of Greece + because it was the first successful attack upon the bulwark of reaction + which the Congress of Vienna had erected to "maintain the stability of + Europe." That mighty fortress of suppression still held out and Metternich + continued to be in command. But the end was near. + </p> + <p> + In France the Bourbons had established an almost unbearable rule of police + officials who were trying to undo the work of the French revolution, with + an absolute disregard of the regulations and laws of civilised warfare. + When Louis XVIII died in the year 1824, the people had enjoyed nine years + of "peace" which had proved even more unhappy than the ten years of war of + the Empire. Louis was succeeded by his brother, Charles X. + </p> + <p> + Louis had belonged to that famous Bourbon family which, although it never + learned anything, never forgot anything. The recollection of that morning + in the town of Hamm, when news had reached him of the decapitation of his + brother, remained a constant warning of what might happen to those kings + who did not read the signs of the times aright. Charles, on the other + hand, who had managed to run up private debts of fifty million francs + before he was twenty years of age, knew nothing, remembered nothing and + firmly intended to learn nothing. As soon as he had succeeded his brother, + he established a government "by priests, through priests and for priests," + and while the Duke of Wellington, who made this remark, cannot be called a + violent liberal, Charles ruled in such a way that he disgusted even that + trusted friend of law and order. When he tried to suppress the newspapers + which dared to criticise his government, and dismissed the Parliament + because it supported the Press, his days were numbered. + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 27th of July of the year 1830, a revolution took place + in Paris. On the 30th of the same month, the king fled to the coast and + set sail for England. In this way the "famous farce of fifteen years" came + to an end and the Bourbons were at last removed from the throne of France. + They were too hopelessly incompetent. France then might have returned to a + Republican form of government, but such a step would not have been + tolerated by Metternich. + </p> + <p> + The situation was dangerous enough. The spark of rebellion had leaped + beyond the French frontier and had set fire to another powder house filled + with national grievances. The new kingdom of the Netherlands had not been + a success. The Belgian and the Dutch people had nothing in common and + their king, William of Orange (the descendant of an uncle of William the + Silent), while a hard worker and a good business man, was too much lacking + in tact and pliability to keep the peace among his uncongenial subjects. + Besides, the horde of priests which had descended upon France, had at once + found its way into Belgium and whatever Protestant William tried to do was + howled down by large crowds of excited citizens as a fresh attempt upon + the "freedom of the Catholic church." On the 25th of August there was a + popular outbreak against the Dutch authorities in Brussels. Two months + later, the Belgians declared themselves independent and elected Leopold of + Coburg, the uncle of Queen Victoria of England, to the throne. That was an + excellent solution of the difficulty. The two countries, which never ought + to have been united, parted their ways and thereafter lived in peace and + harmony and behaved like decent neighbours. + </p> + <p> + News in those days when there were only a few short railroads, travelled + slowly, but when the success of the French and the Belgian revolutionists + became known in Poland there was an immediate clash between the Poles and + their Russian rulers which led to a year of terrible warfare and ended + with a complete victory for the Russians who "established order along the + banks of the Vistula" in the well-known Russian fashion Nicholas the + first, who had succeeded his brother Alexander in 1825, firmly believed in + the Divine Right of his own family, and the thousands of Polish refugees + who had found shelter in western Europe bore witness to the fact that the + principles of the Holy Alliance were still more than a hollow phrase in + Holy Russia. + </p> + <p> + In Italy too there was a moment of unrest. Marie Louise Duchess of Parma + and wife of the former Emperor Napoleon, whom she had deserted after the + defeat of Waterloo, was driven away from her country, and in the Papal + state the exasperated people tried to establish an independent Republic. + But the armies of Austria marched to Rome and soon every thing was as of + old. Metternich continued to reside at the Ball Platz, the home of the + foreign minister of the Habsburg dynasty, the police spies returned to + their job, and peace reigned supreme. Eighteen more years were to pass + before a second and more successful attempt could be made to deliver + Europe from the terrible inheritance of the Vienna Congress. + </p> + <p> + Again it was France, the revolutionary weather-cock of Europe, which gave + the signal of revolt. Charles X had been succeeded by Louis Philippe, the + son of that famous Duke of Orleans who had turned Jacobin, had voted for + the death of his cousin the king, and had played a role during the early + days of the revolution under the name of "Philippe Egalite" or "Equality + Philip." Eventually he had been killed when Robespierre tried to purge the + nation of all "traitors," (by which name he indicated those people who did + not share his own views) and his son had been forced to run away from the + revolutionary army. Young Louis Philippe thereupon had wandered far and + wide. He had taught school in Switzerland and had spent a couple of years + exploring the unknown "far west" of America. After the fall of Napoleon he + had returned to Paris. He was much more intelligent than his Bourbon + cousins. He was a simple man who went about in the public parks with a red + cotton umbrella under his arm, followed by a brood of children like any + good housefather. But France had outgrown the king business and Louis did + not know this until the morning of the 24th of February, of the year 1848, + when a crowd stormed the Tuilleries and drove his Majesty away and + proclaimed the Republic. + </p> + <p> + When the news of this event reached Vienna, Metternich expressed the + casual opinion that this was only a repetition of the year 1793 and that + the Allies would once more be obliged to march upon Paris and make an end + to this very unseemly democratic row. But two weeks later his own Austrian + capital was in open revolt. Metternich escaped from the mob through the + back door of his palace, and the Emperor Ferdinand was forced to give his + subjects a constitution which embodied most of the revolutionary + principles which his Prime Minister had tried to suppress for the last + thirty-three years. + </p> + <p> + This time all Europe felt the shock. Hungary declared itself independent, + and commenced a war against the Habsburgs under the leadership of Louis + Kossuth. The unequal struggle lasted more than a year. It was finally + suppressed by the armies of Tsar Nicholas who marched across the + Carpathian mountains and made Hungary once more safe for autocracy. The + Habsburgs thereupon established extraordinary court-martials and hanged + the greater part of the Hungarian patriots whom they had not been able to + defeat in open battle. + </p> + <p> + As for Italy, the island of Sicily declared itself independent from Naples + and drove its Bourbon king away. In the Papal states the prime minister, + Rossi, was murdered and the Pope was forced to flee. He returned the next + year at the head of a French army which remained in Rome to protect His + Holiness against his subjects until the year 1870. Then it was called back + to defend France against the Prussians, and Rome became the capital of + Italy. In the north, Milan and Venice rose against their Austrian masters. + They were supported by king Albert of Sardinia, but a strong Austrian army + under old Radetzky marched into the valley of the Po, defeated the + Sardinians near Custozza and Novara and forced Albert to abdicate in + favour of his son, Victor Emanuel, who a few years later was to be the + first king of a united Italy. + </p> + <p> + In Germany the unrest of the year 1848 took the form of a great national + demonstration in favour of political unity and a representative form of + government. In Bavaria, the king who had wasted his time and money upon an + Irish lady who posed as a Spanish dancer—(she was called Lola Montez + and lies buried in New York's Potter's Field)—was driven away by the + enraged students of the university. In Prussia, the king was forced to + stand with uncovered head before the coffins of those who had been killed + during the street fighting and to promise a constitutional form of + government. And in March of the year 1849, a German parliament, consisting + of 550 delegates from all parts of the country came together in Frankfort + and proposed that king Frederick William of Prussia should be the Emperor + of a United Germany. + </p> + <p> + Then, however, the tide began to turn. Incompetent Ferdinand had abdicated + in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. The well-drilled Austrian army had + remained faithful to their war-lord. The hangman was given plenty of work + and the Habsburgs, after the nature of that strangely cat-like family, + once more landed upon their feet and rapidly strengthened their position + as the masters of eastern and western Europe. They played the game of + politics very adroitly and used the jealousies of the other German states + to prevent the elevation of the Prussian king to the Imperial dignity. + Their long train-ing in the art of suffering defeat had taught them the + value of patience. They knew how to wait. They bided their time and while + the liberals, utterly untrained in practical politics, talked and talked + and talked and got intoxicated by their own fine speeches, the Austrians + quietly gathered their forces, dismissed the Parliament of Frankfort and + re-established the old and impossible German confederation which the + Congress of Vienna had wished upon an unsuspecting world. + </p> + <p> + But among the men who had attended this strange Parliament of unpractical + enthusiasts, there was a Prussian country squire by the name of Bismarck, + who had made good use of his eyes and ears. He had a deep contempt for + oratory. He knew (what every man of action has always known) that nothing + is ever accomplished by talk. In his own way he was a sincere patriot. He + had been trained in the old school of diplomacy and he could outlie his + opponents just as he could outwalk them and outdrink them and outride + them. + </p> + <p> + Bismarck felt convinced that the loose confederation of little states must + be changed into a strong united country if it would hold its own against + the other European powers. Brought up amidst feudal ideas of loyalty, he + decided that the house of Hohenzollern, of which he was the most faithful + servant, should rule the new state, rather than the incompetent Habsburgs. + For this purpose he must first get rid of the Austrian influence, and he + began to make the necessary preparations for this painful operation. + </p> + <p> + Italy in the meantime had solved her own problem, and had rid herself of + her hated Austrian master. The unity of Italy was the work of three men, + Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi. Of these three, Cavour, the civil-engineer + with the short-sighted eyes and the steel-rimmed glasses, played the part + of the careful political pilot. Mazzini, who had spent most of his days in + different European garrets, hiding from the Austrian police, was the + public agitator, while Garibaldi, with his band of red-shirted + rough-riders, appealed to the popular imagination. + </p> + <p> + Mazzini and Garibaldi were both believers in the Republican form of + government. Cavour, however, was a monarchist, and the others who + recognised his superior ability in such matters of practical statecraft, + accepted his decision and sacrificed their own ambitions for the greater + good of their beloved Fatherland. + </p> + <p> + Cavour felt towards the House of Sardinia as Bismarck did towards the + Hohenzollern family. With infinite care and great shrewdness he set to + work to jockey the Sardinian King into a position from which His Majesty + would be able to assume the leadership of the entire Italian people. The + unsettled political conditions in the rest of Europe greatly helped him in + his plans and no country contributed more to the independence of Italy + than her old and trusted (and often distrusted) neighbour, France. + </p> + <p> + In that turbulent country, in November of the year 1852, the Republic had + come to a sudden but not unexpected end. Napoleon III the son of Louis + Bonaparte the former King of Holland, and the small nephew of a great + uncle, had re-established an Empire and had made himself Emperor "by the + Grace of God and the Will of the People." + </p> + <p> + This young man, who had been educated in Germany and who mixed his French + with harsh Teutonic gutturals (just as the first Napoleon had always + spoken the language of his adopted country with a strong Italian accent) + was trying very hard to use the Napoleonic tradition for his own benefit. + But he had many enemies and did not feel very certain of his hold upon his + ready-made throne. He had gained the friendship of Queen Victoria but this + had not been a difficult task, as the good Queen was not particularly + brilliant and was very susceptible to flattery. As for the other European + sovereigns, they treated the French Emperor with insulting haughtiness and + sat up nights devising new ways in which they could show their upstart + "Good Brother" how sincerely they despised him. + </p> + <p> + Napoleon was obliged to find a way in which he could break this + opposition, either through love or through fear. He well knew the + fascination which the word "glory" still held for his subjects. Since he + was forced to gamble for his throne he decided to play the game of Empire + for high stakes. He used an attack of Russia upon Turkey as an excuse for + bringing about the Crimean war in which England and France combined + against the Tsar on behalf of the Sultan. It was a very costly and + exceedingly unprofitable enterprise. Neither France nor England nor Russia + reaped much glory. + </p> + <p> + But the Crimean war did one good thing. It gave Sardinia a chance to + volunteer on the winning side and when peace was declared it gave Cavour + the opportunity to lay claim to the gratitude of both England and France. + </p> + <p> + Having made use of the international situation to get Sardinia recognised + as one of the more important powers of Europe, the clever Italian then + provoked a war between Sardinia and Austria in June of the year 1859. He + assured himself of the support of Napoleon in exchange for the provinces + of Savoy and the city of Nice, which was really an Italian town. The + Franco-Italian armies defeated the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino, and + the former Austrian provinces and duchies were united into a single + Italian kingdom. Florence became the capital of this new Italy until the + year 1870 when the French recalled their troops from Home to defend France + against the Germans. As soon as they were gone, the Italian troops entered + the eternal city and the House of Sardinia took up its residence in the + old Palace of the Quirinal which an ancient Pope had built on the ruins of + the baths of the Emperor Constantine. + </p> + <p> + The Pope, however, moved across the river Tiber and hid behind the walls + of the Vatican, which had been the home of many of his predecessors since + their return from the exile of Avignon in the year 1377. He protested + loudly against this high-handed theft of his domains and addressed letters + of appeal to those faithful Catholics who were inclined to sympathise with + him in his loss. Their number, however, was small, and it has been + steadily decreasing. For, once delivered from the cares of state, the Pope + was able to devote all his time to questions of a spiritual nature. + Standing high above the petty quarrels of the European politicians, the + Papacy assumed a new dignity which proved of great benefit to the church + and made it an international power for social and religious progress which + has shown a much more intelligent appreciation of modern economic problems + than most Protestant sects. + </p> + <p> + In this way, the attempt of the Congress of Vienna to settle the Italian + question by making the peninsula an Austrian province was at last undone. + </p> + <p> + The German problem however remained as yet unsolved. It proved the most + difficult of all. The failure of the revolution of the year 1848 had led + to the wholesale migration of the more energetic and liberal elements + among the German people. These young fellows had moved to the United + States of America, to Brazil, to the new colonies in Asia and America. + Their work was continued in Germany but by a different sort of men. + </p> + <p> + In the new Diet which met at Frankfort, after the collapse of the German + Parliament and the failure of the Liberals to establish a united country, + the Kingdom of Prussia was represented by that same Otto von Bismarck from + whom we parted a few pages ago. Bismarck by now had managed to gain the + complete confidence of the king of Prussia. That was all he asked for. The + opinion of the Prussian parliament or of the Prussian people interested + him not at all. With his own eyes he had seen the defeat of the Liberals. + He knew that he would not be able to get rid of Austria without a war and + he began by strengthening the Prussian army. The Landtag, exasperated at + his high-handed methods, refused to give him the necessary credits. + Bismarck did not even bother to discuss the matter. He went ahead and + increased his army with the help of funds which the Prussian house of + Peers and the king placed at his disposal. Then he looked for a national + cause which could be used for the purpose of creating a great wave of + patriotism among all the German people. + </p> + <p> + In the north of Germany there were the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein + which ever since the middle ages had been a source of trouble. Both + countries were inhabited by a certain number of Danes and a certain number + of Germans, but although they were governed by the King of Denmark, they + were not an integral part of the Danish State and this led to endless + difficulties. Heaven forbid that I should revive this forgotten question + which now seems settled by the acts of the recent Congress of Versailles. + But the Germans in Holstein were very loud in their abuse of the Danes and + the Danes in Schleswig made a great ado of their Danishness, and all + Europe was discussing the problem and German Mannerchors and Turnvereins + listened to sentimental speeches about the "lost brethren" and the + different chancelleries were trying to discover what it was all about, + when Prussia mobilised her armies to "save the lost provinces." As + Austria, the official head of the German Confederation, could not allow + Prussia to act alone in such an important matter, the Habsburg troops were + mobilised too and the combined armies of the two great powers crossed the + Danish frontiers and after a very brave resistance on the part of the + Danes, occupied the two duchies. The Danes appealed to Europe, but Europe + was otherwise engaged and the poor Danes were left to their fate. + </p> + <p> + Bismarck then prepared the scene for the second number upon his Imperial + programme. He used the division of the spoils to pick a quarrel with + Austria. The Habsburgs fell into the trap. The new Prussian army, the + creation of Bismarck and his faithful generals, invaded Bohemia and in + less than six weeks, the last of the Austrian troops had been destroyed at + Koniggratz and Sadowa and the road to Vienna lay open. But Bismarck did + not want to go too far. He knew that he would need a few friends in + Europe. He offered the defeated Habsburgs very decent terms of peace, + provided they would resign their chairmanship of the Confederation. He was + less merciful to many of the smaller German states who had taken the side + of the Austrians, and annexed them to Prussia. The greater part of the + northern states then formed a new organisation, the so-called North German + Confederacy, and victorious Prussia assumed the unofficial leadership of + the German people. + </p> + <p> + Europe stood aghast at the rapidity with which the work of consolidation + had been done. England was quite indifferent but France showed signs of + disapproval. Napoleon's hold upon the French people was steadily + diminishing. The Crimean war had been costly and had accomplished nothing. + </p> + <p> + A second adventure in the year 1863, when a French army had tried to force + an Austrian Grand-Duke by the name of Maximilian upon the Mexican people + as their Emperor, had come to a disastrous end as soon as the American + Civil War had been won by the North. For the Government at Washington had + forced the French to withdraw their troops and this had given the Mexicans + a chance to clear their country of the enemy and shoot the unwelcome + Emperor. + </p> + <p> + It was necessary to give the Napoleonic throne a new coat of glory-paint. + Within a few years the North German Confederation would be a serious rival + of France. Napoleon decided that a war with Germany would be a good thing + for his dynasty. He looked for an excuse and Spain, the poor victim of + endless revolutions, gave him one. + </p> + <p> + Just then the Spanish throne happened to be vacant. It had been offered to + the Catholic branch of the house of Hohenzollern. The French government + had objected and the Hohenzollerns had politely refused to accept the + crown. But Napoleon, who was showing signs of illness, was very much under + the influence of his beautiful wife, Eugenie de Montijo, the daughter of a + Spanish gentleman and the grand-daughter of William Kirkpatrick, an + American consul at Malaga, where the grapes come from. Eugenie, although + shrewd enough, was as badly educated as most Spanish women of that day. + She was at the mercy of her spiritual advisers and these worthy gentlemen + felt no love for the Protestant King of Prussia. "Be bold," was the advice + of the Empress to her husband, but she omitted to add the second half of + that famous Persian proverb which admonishes the hero to "be bold but not + too bold." Napoleon, convinced of the strength of his army, addressed + himself to the king of Prussia and insisted that the king give him + assurances that "he would never permit another candidature of a + Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish crown." As the Hohenzollerns had just + declined the honour, the demand was superfluous, and Bismarck so informed + the French government. But Napoleon was not satisfied. + </p> + <p> + It was the year 1870 and King William was taking the waters at Ems. There + one day he was approached by the French minister who tried to re-open the + discussion. The king answered very pleasantly that it was a fine day and + that the Spanish question was now closed and that nothing more remained to + be said upon the subject. As a matter of routine, a report of this + interview was telegraphed to Bismarck, who handled all foreign affairs. + Bismarck edited the dispatch for the benefit of the Prussian and French + press. Many people have called him names for doing this. Bismarck however + could plead the excuse that the doctoring of official news, since time + immemorial, had been one of the privileges of all civilised governments. + When the "edited" telegram was printed, the good people in Berlin felt + that their old and venerable king with his nice white whiskers had been + insulted by an arrogant little Frenchman and the equally good people of + Paris flew into a rage because their perfectly courteous minister had been + shown the door by a Royal Prussian flunkey. + </p> + <p> + And so they both went to war and in less than two months, Napoleon and the + greater part of his army were prisoners of the Germans. The Second Empire + had come to an end and the Third Republic was making ready to defend Paris + against the German invaders. Paris held out for five long months. Ten days + before the surrender of the city, in the nearby palace of Versailles, + built by that same King Louis XIV who had been such a dangerous enemy to + the Germans, the King of Prussia was publicly proclaimed German Emperor + and a loud booming of guns told the hungry Parisians that a new German + Empire had taken the place of the old harmless Confederation of Teutonic + states and stateless. + </p> + <p> + In this rough way, the German question was finally settled. By the end of + the year 1871, fifty-six years after the memorable gathering at Vienna, + the work of the Congress had been entirely undone. Metternich and + Alexander and Talleyrand had tried to give the people of Europe a lasting + peace. The methods they had employed had caused endless wars and + revolutions and the feeling of a common brotherhood of the eighteenth + century was followed by an era of exaggerated nationalism which has not + yet come to an end. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE AGE OF THE ENGINE + </h2> + <p> + BUT WHILE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR NATIONAL + INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVED HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED BY A + SERIES OF INVENTIONS, WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM ENGINE OF THE + 18TH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT SLAVE OF MAN + </p> + <p> + THE greatest benefactor of the human race died more than half a million + years ago. He was a hairy creature with a low brow and sunken eyes, a + heavy jaw and strong tiger-like teeth. He would not have looked well in a + gathering of modern scientists, but they would have honoured him as their + master. For he had used a stone to break a nut and a stick to lift up a + heavy boulder. He was the inventor of the hammer and the lever, our first + tools, and he did more than any human being who came after him to give man + his enormous advantage over the other animals with whom he shares this + planet. + </p> + <p> + Ever since, man has tried to make his life easier by the use of a greater + number of tools. The first wheel (a round disc made out of an old tree) + created as much stir in the communities of 100,000 B.C. as the flying + machine did only a few years ago. + </p> + <p> + In Washington, the story is told of a director of the Patent Office who in + the early thirties of the last century suggested that the Patent Office be + abolished, because "everything that possibly could be invented had been + invented." A similar feeling must have spread through the prehistoric + world when the first sail was hoisted on a raft and the people were able + to move from place to place without rowing or punting or pulling from the + shore. + </p> + <p> + Indeed one of the most interesting chapters of history is the effort of + man to let some one else or something else do his work for him, while he + enjoyed his leisure, sitting in the sun or painting pictures on rocks, or + training young wolves and little tigers to behave like peaceful domestic + animals. + </p> + <p> + Of course in the very olden days; it was always possible to enslave a + weaker neighbour and force him to do the unpleasant tasks of life. One of + the reasons why the Greeks and Romans, who were quite as intelligent as we + are, failed to devise more interesting machinery, was to be found in the + wide-spread existence of slavery. Why should a great mathematician waste + his time upon wires and pulleys and cogs and fill the air with noise and + smoke when he could go to the marketplace and buy all the slaves he needed + at a very small expense? + </p> + <p> + And during the middle-ages, although slavery had been abolished and only a + mild form of serfdom survived, the guilds discouraged the idea of using + machinery because they thought this would throw a large number of their + brethren out of work. Besides, the Middle-Ages were not at all interested + in producing large quantities of goods. Their tailors and butchers and + carpenters worked for the immediate needs of the small community in which + they lived and had no desire to compete with their neighbours, or to + produce more than was strictly necessary. + </p> + <p> + During the Renaissance, when the prejudices of the Church against + scientific investigations could no longer be enforced as rigidly as + before, a large number of men began to devote their lives to mathematics + and astronomy and physics and chemistry. Two years before the beginning of + the Thirty Years War, John Napier, a Scotchman, had published his little + book which described the new invention of logarithms. During the war + it-self, Gottfried Leibnitz of Leipzig had perfected the system of + infinitesimal calculus. Eight years before the peace of Westphalia, + Newton, the great English natural philosopher, was born, and in that same + year Galileo, the Italian astronomer, died. Meanwhile the Thirty Years War + had destroyed the prosperity of central Europe and there was a sudden but + very general interest in "alchemy," the strange pseudo-science of the + middle-ages by which people hoped to turn base metals into gold. This + proved to be impossible but the alchemists in their laboratories stumbled + upon many new ideas and greatly helped the work of the chemists who were + their successors. + </p> + <p> + The work of all these men provided the world with a solid scientific + foundation upon which it was possible to build even the most complicated + of engines, and a number of practical men made good use of it. The + Middle-Ages had used wood for the few bits of necessary machinery. But + wood wore out easily. Iron was a much better material but iron was scarce + except in England. In England therefore most of the smelting was done. To + smelt iron, huge fires were needed. In the beginning, these fires had been + made of wood, but gradually the forests had been used up. Then "stone + coal" (the petrified trees of prehistoric times) was used. But coal as you + know has to be dug out of the ground and it has to be transported to the + smelting ovens and the mines have to be kept dry from the ever invading + waters. + </p> + <p> + These were two problems which had to be solved at once. For the time + being, horses could still be used to haul the coal-wagons, but the pumping + question demanded the application of special machinery. Several inventors + were busy trying to solve the difficulty. They all knew that steam would + have to be used in their new engine. The idea of the steam engine was very + old. Hero of Alexandria, who lived in the first century before Christ, has + described to us several bits of machinery which were driven by steam. The + people of the Renaissance had played with the notion of steam-driven war + chariots. The Marquis of Worcester, a contemporary of Newton, in his book + of inventions, tells of a steam engine. A little later, in the year 1698, + Thomas Savery of London applied for a patent for a pumping engine. At the + same time, a Hollander, Christian Huygens, was trying to perfect an engine + in which gun-powder was used to cause regular explosions in much the same + way as we use gasoline in our motors. + </p> + <p> + All over Europe, people were busy with the idea. Denis Papin, a Frenchman, + friend and assistant of Huygens, was making experiments with steam engines + in several countries. He invented a little wagon that was driven by steam, + and a paddle-wheel boat. But when he tried to take a trip in his vessel, + it was confiscated by the authorities on a complaint of the boatmen's + union, who feared that such a craft would deprive them of their + livelihood. Papin finally died in London in great poverty, having wasted + all his money on his inventions. But at the time of his death, another + mechanical enthusiast, Thomas Newcomen, was working on the problem of a + new steam-pump. Fifty years later his engine was improved upon by James + Watt, a Glasgow instrument maker. In the year 1777, he gave the world the + first steam engine that proved of real practical value. + </p> + <p> + But during the centuries of experiments with a "heat-engine," the + political world had greatly changed. The British people had succeeded the + Dutch as the common-carriers of the world's trade. They had opened up new + colonies. They took the raw materials which the colonies produced to + England, and there they turned them into finished products, and then they + exported the finished goods to the four corners of the world. During the + seventeenth century, the people of Georgia and the Carolinas had begun to + grow a new shrub which gave a strange sort of woolly substance, the + so-called "cotton wool." After this had been plucked, it was sent to + England and there the people of Lancastershire wove it into cloth. This + weaving was done by hand and in the homes of the workmen. Very soon a + number of improvements were made in the process of weaving. In the year + 1730, John Kay invented the "fly shuttle." In 1770, James Hargreaves got a + patent on his "spinning jenny." Eli Whitney, an American, invented the + cotton-gin, which separated the cotton from its seeds, a job which had + previously been done by hand at the rate of only a pound a day. Finally + Richard Arkwright and the Reverend Edmund Cartwright invented large + weaving machines, which were driven by water power. And then, in the + eighties of the eighteenth century, just when the Estates General of + France had begun those famous meetings which were to revolutionise the + political system of Europe, the engines of Watt were arranged in such a + way that they could drive the weaving machines of Arkwright, and this + created an economic and social revolution which has changed human + relationship in almost every part of the world. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the stationary engine had proved a success, the inventors + turned their attention to the problem of propelling boats and carts with + the help of a mechanical contrivance. Watt himself designed plans for a + "steam locomotive," but ere he had perfected his ideas, in the year 1804, + a locomotive made by Richard Trevithick carried a load of twenty tons at + Pen-y-darran in the Wales mining district. + </p> + <p> + At the same time an American jeweller and portrait-painter by the name of + Robert Fulton was in Paris, trying to convince Napoleon that with the use + of his submarine boat, the "Nautilus," and his "steam-boat," the French + might be able to destroy the naval supremacy of England. + </p> + <p> + Fulton's idea of a steamboat was not original. He had undoubtedly copied + it from John Fitch, a mechanical genius of Connecticut whose cleverly + constructed steamer had first navigated the Delaware river as early as the + year 1787. But Napoleon and his scientific advisers did not believe in the + practical possibility of a self-propelled boat, and although the + Scotch-built engine of the little craft puffed merrily on the Seine, the + great Emperor neglected to avail himself of this formidable weapon which + might have given him his revenge for Trafalgar. + </p> + <p> + As for Fulton, he returned to the United States and, being a practical man + of business, he organised a successful steamboat company together with + Robert R. Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was + American Minister to France when Fulton was in Paris, trying to sell his + invention. The first steamer of this new company, the "Clermont," which + was given a monopoly of all the waters of New York State, equipped with an + engine built by Boulton and Watt of Birmingham in England, began a regular + service between New York and Albany in the year 1807. + </p> + <p> + As for poor John Fitch, the man who long before any one else had used the + "steam-boat" for commercial purposes, he came to a sad death. Broken in + health and empty of purse, he had come to the end of his resources when + his fifth boat, which was propelled by means of a screw-propeller, had + been destroyed. His neighbours jeered at him as they were to laugh a + hundred years later when Professor Langley constructed his funny flying + machines. Fitch had hoped to give his country an easy access to the broad + rivers of the west and his countrymen preferred to travel in flat-boats or + go on foot. In the year 1798, in utter despair and misery, Fitch killed + himself by taking poison. + </p> + <p> + But twenty years later, the "Savannah," a steamer of 1850 tons and making + six knots an hour, (the Mauretania goes just four times as fast,) crossed + the ocean from Savannah to Liverpool in the record time of twenty-five + days. Then there was an end to the derision of the multitude and in their + enthusiasm the people gave the credit for the invention to the wrong man. + </p> + <p> + Six years later, George Stephenson, a Scotchman, who had been building + locomotives for the purpose of hauling coal from the mine-pit to smelting + ovens and cotton factories, built his famous "travelling engine" which + reduced the price of coal by almost seventy per cent and which made it + possible to establish the first regular passenger service between + Manchester and Liverpool, when people were whisked from city to city at + the unheard-of speed of fifteen miles per hour. A dozen years later, this + speed had been increased to twenty miles per hour. At the present time, + any well-behaved flivver (the direct descendant of the puny little + motor-driven machines of Daimler and Levassor of the eighties of the last + century) can do better than these early "Puffing Billies." + </p> + <p> + But while these practically-minded engineers were improving upon their + rattling "heat engines," a group of "pure" scientists (men who devote + fourteen hours of each day to the study of those "theoretical" scientific + phenomena without which no mechanical progress would be possible) were + following a new scent which promised to lead them into the most secret and + hidden domains of Nature. + </p> + <p> + Two thousand years ago, a number of Greek and Roman philosophers (notably + Thales of Miletus and Pliny who was killed while trying to study the + eruption of Vesuvius of the year 79 when Pompeii and Herculaneum were + buried beneath the ashes) had noticed the strange antics of bits of straw + and of feather which were held near a piece of amber which was being + rubbed with a bit of wool. The schoolmen of the Middle Ages had not been + interested in this mysterious "electric" power. But immediately after the + Renaissance, William Gilbert, the private physician of Queen Elizabeth, + wrote his famous treatise on the character and behaviour of Magnets. + During the Thirty Years War Otto von Guericke, the burgomaster of + Magdeburg and the inventor of the air-pump, constructed the first + electrical machine. During the next century a large number of scientists + devoted themselves to the study of electricity. Not less than three + professors invented the famous Leyden Jar in the year 1795. At the same + time, Benjamin Franklin, the most universal genius of America next to + Benjamin Thomson (who after his flight from New Hampshire on account of + his pro-British sympathies became known as Count Rumford) was devoting his + attention to this subject. He discovered that lightning and the electric + spark were manifestations of the same electric power and continued his + electric studies until the end of his busy and useful life. Then came + Volta with his famous "electric pile" and Galvani and Day and the Danish + professor Hans Christian Oersted and Ampere and Arago and Faraday, all of + them diligent searchers after the true nature of the electric forces. + </p> + <p> + They freely gave their discoveries to the world and Samuel Morse (who like + Fulton began his career as an artist) thought that he could use this new + electric current to transmit messages from one city to another. He + intended to use copper wire and a little machine which he had invented. + People laughed at him. Morse therefore was obliged to finance his own + experiments and soon he had spent all his money and then he was very poor + and people laughed even louder. He then asked Congress to help him and a + special Committee on Commerce promised him their support. But the members + of Congress were not at all interested and Morse had to wait twelve years + before he was given a small congressional appropriation. He then built a + "telegraph" between Baltimore and Washington. In the year 1887 he had + shown his first successful "telegraph" in one of the lecture halls of New + York University. Finally, on the 24th of May of the year 1844 the first + long-distance message was sent from Washington to Baltimore and to-day the + whole world is covered with telegraph wires and we can send news from + Europe to Asia in a few seconds. Twenty-three years later Alexander Graham + Bell used the electric current for his telephone. And half a century + afterwards Marconi improved upon these ideas by inventing a system of + sending messages which did away entirely with the old-fashioned wires. + </p> + <p> + While Morse, the New Englander, was working on his "telegraph," Michael + Faraday, the Yorkshire-man, had constructed the first "dynamo." This tiny + little machine was completed in the year 1881 when Europe was still + trembling as a result of the great July revolutions which had so severely + upset the plans of the Congress of Vienna. The first dynamo grew and grew + and grew and to-day it provides us with heat and with light (you know the + little incandescent bulbs which Edison, building upon French and English + experiments of the forties and fifties, first made in 1878) and with power + for all sorts of machines. If I am not mistaken the electric-engine will + soon entirely drive out the "heat engine" just as in the olden days the + more highly-organised prehistoric animals drove out their less efficient + neighbours. + </p> + <p> + Personally (but I know nothing about machinery) this will make me very + happy. For the electric engine which can be run by waterpower is a clean + and companionable servant of mankind but the "heat-engine," the marvel of + the eighteenth century, is a noisy and dirty creature for ever filling the + world with ridiculous smoke-stacks and with dust and soot and asking that + it be fed with coal which has to be dug out of mines at great + inconvenience and risk to thousands of people. + </p> + <p> + And if I were a novelist and not a historian, who must stick to facts and + may not use his imagination, I would describe the happy day when the last + steam locomotive shall be taken to the Museum of Natural History to be + placed next to the skeleton of the Dynosaur and the Pteredactyl and the + other extinct creatures of a by-gone age. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION + </h2> + <p> + BUT THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE OF WEALTH COULD + AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER IN + HIS LITTLE WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO THE OWNERS OF THE + BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND WHILE HE MADE MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST + HIS FORMER INDEPENDENCE AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT + </p> + <p> + IN the olden days the work of the world had been done by independent + workmen who sat in their own little workshops in the front of their + houses, who owned their tools, who boxed the ears of their own apprentices + and who, within the limits prescribed by their guilds, conducted their + business as it pleased them. They lived simple lives, and were obliged to + work very long hours, but they were their own masters. If they got up and + saw that it was a fine day to go fishing, they went fishing and there was + no one to say "no." + </p> + <p> + But the introduction of machinery changed this. A machine is really + nothing but a greatly enlarged tool. A railroad train which carries you at + the speed of a mile a minute is in reality a pair of very fast legs, and a + steam hammer which flattens heavy plates of iron is just a terrible big + fist, made of steel. + </p> + <p> + But whereas we can all afford a pair of good legs and a good strong fist, + a railroad train and a steam hammer and a cotton factory are very + expensive pieces of machinery and they are not owned by a single man, but + usually by a company of people who all contribute a certain sum and then + divide the profits of their railroad or cotton mill according to the + amount of money which they have invested. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, when machines had been improved until they were really + practicable and profitable, the builders of those large tools, the machine + manufacturers, began to look for customers who could afford to pay for + them in cash. + </p> + <p> + During the early middle ages, when land had been almost the only form of + wealth, the nobility were the only people who were considered wealthy. But + as I have told you in a previous chapter, the gold and silver which they + possessed was quite insignificant and they used the old system of barter, + exchanging cows for horses and eggs for honey. During the crusades, the + burghers of the cities had been able to gather riches from the reviving + trade between the east and the west, and they had been serious rivals of + the lords and the knights. + </p> + <p> + The French revolution had entirely destroyed the wealth of the nobility + and had enormously increased that of the middle class or "bourgeoisie." + The years of unrest which followed the Great Revolution had offered many + middle-class people a chance to get more than their share of this world's + goods. The estates of the church had been confiscated by the French + Convention and had been sold at auction. There had been a terrific amount + of graft. Land speculators had stolen thousands of square miles of + valuable land, and during the Napoleonic wars, they had used their capital + to "profiteer" in grain and gun-powder, and now they possessed more wealth + than they needed for the actual expenses of their households, and they + could afford to build themselves factories and to hire men and women to + work the machines. + </p> + <p> + This caused a very abrupt change in the lives of hundreds of thousands of + people. Within a few years, many cities doubled the number of their + inhabitants and the old civic centre which had been the real "home" of the + citizens was surrounded with ugly and cheaply built suburbs where the + workmen slept after their eleven or twelve hours, or thirteen hours, spent + in the factories and from where they returned to the factory as soon as + the whistle blew. + </p> + <p> + Far and wide through the countryside there was talk of the fabulous sums + of money that could be made in the towns. The peasant boy, accustomed to a + life in the open, went to the city. He rapidly lost his old health amidst + the smoke and dust and dirt of those early and badly ventilated workshops, + and the end, very often, was death in the poor-house or in the hospital. + </p> + <p> + Of course the change from the farm to the factory on the part of so many + people was not accomplished without a certain amount of opposition. Since + one engine could do as much work as a hundred men, the ninety-nine others + who were thrown out of employment did not like it. Frequently they + attacked the factory-buildings and set fire to the machines, but Insurance + Companies had been organised as early as the 17th century and as a rule + the owners were well protected against loss. + </p> + <p> + Soon, newer and better machines were installed, the factory was surrounded + with a high wall and then there was an end to the rioting. The ancient + guilds could not possibly survive in this new world of steam and iron. + They went out of existence and then the workmen tried to organise regular + labour unions. But the factory-owners, who through their wealth could + exercise great influence upon the politicians of the different countries, + went to the Legislature and had laws passed which forbade the forming of + such trade unions because they interfered with the "liberty of action" of + the working man. + </p> + <p> + Please do not think that the good members of Parliament who passed these + laws were wicked tyrants. They were the true sons of the revolutionary + period when everybody talked of "liberty" and when people often killed + their neighbours because they were not quite as liberty-loving as they + ought to have been. Since "liberty" was the foremost virtue of man, it was + not right that labour-unions should dictate to their members the hours + during which they could work and the wages which they must demand. The + workman must at all times, be "free to sell his services in the open + market," and the employer must be equally "free" to conduct his business + as he saw fit. The days of the Mercantile System, when the state had + regulated the industrial life of the entire community, were coming to an + end. The new idea of "freedom" insisted that the state stand entirely + aside and let commerce take its course. + </p> + <p> + The last half of the 18th century had not merely been a time of + intellectual and political doubt, but the old economic ideas, too, had + been replaced by new ones which better suited the need of the hour. + Several years before the French revolution, Turgot, who had been one of + the unsuccessful ministers of finance of Louis XVI, had preached the novel + doctrine of "economic liberty." Turgot lived in a country which had + suffered from too much red-tape, too many regulations, too many officials + trying to enforce too many laws. "Remove this official supervision," he + wrote, "let the people do as they please, and everything will be all + right." Soon his famous advice of "laissez faire" became the battle-cry + around which the economists of that period rallied. + </p> + <p> + At the same time in England, Adam Smith was working on his mighty volumes + on the "Wealth of Nations," which made another plea for "liberty" and the + "natural rights of trade." Thirty years later, after the fall of Napoleon, + when the reactionary powers of Europe had gained their victory at Vienna, + that same freedom which was denied to the people in their political + relations was forced upon them in their industrial life. + </p> + <p> + The general use of machinery, as I have said at the beginning of this + chapter, proved to be of great advantage to the state. Wealth increased + rapidly. The machine made it possible for a single country, like England, + to carry all the burdens of the great Napoleonic wars. The capitalists + (the people who provided the money with which machines were bought) reaped + enormous profits. They became ambitious and began to take an interest in + politics. They tried to compete with the landed aristocracy which still + exercised great influence upon the government of most European countries. + </p> + <p> + In England, where the members of Parliament were still elected according + to a Royal Decree of the year 1265, and where a large number of recently + created industrial centres were without representation, they brought about + the passing of the Reform Bill of the year 1882, which changed the + electoral system and gave the class of the factory-owners more influence + upon the legislative body. This however caused great discontent among the + millions of factory workers, who were left without any voice in the + government. They too began an agitation for the right to vote. They put + their demands down in a document which came to be known as the "People's + Charter." The debates about this charter grew more and more violent. They + had not yet come to an end when the revolutions of the year 1848 broke + out. Frightened by the threat of a new outbreak or Jacobinism and + violence, the English government placed the Duke of Wellington, who was + now in his eightieth year, at the head of the army, and called for + Volunteers. London was placed in a state of siege and preparations were + made to suppress the coming revolution. + </p> + <p> + But the Chartist movement killed itself through bad leadership and no acts + of violence took place. The new class of wealthy factory owners, (I + dislike the word "bourgeoisie" which has been used to death by the + apostles of a new social order,) slowly increased its hold upon the + government, and the conditions of industrial life in the large cities + continued to transform vast acres of pasture and wheat-land into dreary + slums, which guard the approach of every modern European town. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EMANCIPATION + </h2> + <p> + THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING ABOUT THE ERA OF + HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION WHICH + SAW THE STAGE COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES WERE + SUGGESTED BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE PROBLEM + </p> + <p> + IN the year 1831, just before the passing of the first Reform Bill Jeremy + Bentham, the great English student of legislative methods and the most + practical political reformer of that day, wrote to a friend: "The way to + be comfortable is to make others comfortable. The way to make others + comfortable is to appear to love them. The way to appear to love them is + to love them in reality." Jeremy was an honest man. He said what he + believed to be true. His opinions were shared by thousands of his + countrymen. They felt responsible for the happiness of their less + fortunate neighbours and they tried their very best to help them. And + Heaven knows it was time that something be done! + </p> + <p> + The ideal of "economic freedom" (the "laissez faire" of Turgot) had been + necessary in the old society where mediaeval restrictions lamed all + industrial effort. But this "liberty of action" which had been the highest + law of the land had led to a terrible, yea, a frightful condition. The + hours in the fac-tory were limited only by the physical strength of the + workers. As long as a woman could sit before her loom, without fainting + from fatigue, she was supposed to work. Children of five and six were + taken to the cotton mills, to save them from the dangers of the street and + a life of idleness. A law had been passed which forced the children of + paupers to go to work or be punished by being chained to their machines. + In return for their services they got enough bad food to keep them alive + and a sort of pigsty in which they could rest at night. Often they were so + tired that they fell asleep at their job. To keep them awake a foreman + with a whip made the rounds and beat them on the knuckles when it was + necessary to bring them back to their duties. Of course, under these + circumstances thousands of little children died. This was regrettable and + the employers, who after all were human beings and not without a heart, + sincerely wished that they could abolish "child labour." But since man was + "free" it followed that children were "free" too. Besides, if Mr. Jones + had tried to work his factory without the use of children of five and six, + his rival, Mr. Stone, would have hired an extra supply of little boys and + Jones would have been forced into bankruptcy. It was therefore impossible + for Jones to do without child labour until such time as an act of + Parliament should forbid it for all employers. + </p> + <p> + But as Parliament was no longer dominated by the old landed aristocracy + (which had despised the upstart factory-owners with their money bags and + had treated them with open contempt), but was under control of the + representatives from the industrial centres, and as long as the law did + not allow workmen to combine in labour-unions, very little was + accomplished. Of course the intelligent and decent people of that time + were not blind to these terrible conditions. They were just helpless. + Machinery had conquered the world by surprise and it took a great many + years and the efforts of thousands of noble men and women to make the + machine what it ought to be, man's servant, and not his master. + </p> + <p> + Curiously enough, the first attack upon the outrageous system of + employment which was then common in all parts of the world, was made on + behalf of the black slaves of Africa and America. Slavery had been + introduced into the American continent by the Spaniards. They had tried to + use the Indians as labourers in the fields and in the mines, but the + Indians, when taken away from a life in the open, had lain down and died + and to save them from extinction a kind-hearted priest had suggested that + negroes be brought from Africa to do the work. The negroes were strong and + could stand rough treatment. Besides, association with the white man would + give them a chance to learn Christianity and in this way, they would be + able to save their souls, and so from every possible point of view, it + would be an excellent arrangement both for the kindly white man and for + his ignorant black brother. But with the introduction of machinery there + had been a greater demand for cotton and the negroes were forced to work + harder than ever before, and they too, like the Indians, began to die + under the treatment which they received at the hands of the overseers. + </p> + <p> + Stories of incredible cruelty constantly found their way to Europe and in + all countries men and women began to agitate for the abolition of slavery. + In England, William Wilberforce and Zachary Macaulay, (the father of the + great historian whose history of England you must read if you want to know + how wonderfully interesting a history-book can be,) organised a society + for the suppression of slavery. First of all they got a law passed which + made "slave trading" illegal. And after the year 1840 there was not a + single slave in any of the British colonies. The revolution of 1848 put an + end to slavery in the French possessions. The Portuguese passed a law in + the year 1858 which promised all slaves their liberty in twenty years from + date. The Dutch abolished slavery in 1863 and in the same year Tsar + Alexander II returned to his serfs that liberty which had been taken away + from them more than two centuries before. + </p> + <p> + In the United States of America the question led to grave difficulties and + a prolonged war. Although the Declaration of Independence had laid down + the principle that "all men were created free and equal," an exception had + been made for those men and women whose skins were dark and who worked on + the plantations of the southern states. As time went on, the dislike of + the people of the North for the institution of slavery increased and they + made no secret of their feelings. The southerners however claimed that + they could not grow their cotton without slave-labour, and for almost + fifty years a mighty debate raged in both the Congress and the Senate. + </p> + <p> + The North remained obdurate and the South would not give in. When it + appeared impossible to reach a compromise, the southern states threatened + to leave the Union. It was a most dangerous point in the history of the + Union. Many things "might" have happened. That they did not happen was the + work of a very great and very good man. + </p> + <p> + On the sixth of November of the year 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois + lawyer, and a man who had made his own intellectual fortune, had been + elected president by the Republicans who were very strong in the + anti-slavery states. He knew the evils of human bondage at first hand and + his shrewd common-sense told him that there was no room on the northern + continent for two rival nations. When a number of southern states seceded + and formed the "Confederate States of America," Lincoln accepted the + challenge. The Northern states were called upon for volunteers. Hundreds + of thousands of young men responded with eager enthusiasm and there + followed four years of bitter civil war. The South, better prepared and + following the brilliant leadership of Lee and Jackson, repeatedly defeated + the armies of the North. Then the economic strength of New England and the + West began to tell. An unknown officer by the name of Grant arose from + obscurity and became the Charles Martel of the great slave war. Without + interruption he hammered his mighty blows upon the crumbling defences of + the South. Early in the year 1863, President Lincoln issued his + "Emancipation Proclamation" which set all slaves free. In April of the + year 1865 Lee surrendered the last of his brave armies at Appomattox. A + few days later, President Lincoln was murdered by a lunatic. But his work + was done. With the exception of Cuba which was still under Spanish + domination, slavery had come to an end in every part of the civilised + world. + </p> + <p> + But while the black man was enjoying an increasing amount of liberty, the + "free" workmen of Europe did not fare quite so well. Indeed, it is a + matter of surprise to many contemporary writers and observers that the + masses of workmen (the so-called proletariat) did not die out from sheer + misery. They lived in dirty houses situated in miserable parts of the + slums. They ate bad food. They received just enough schooling to fit them + for their tasks. In case of death or an accident, their families were not + provided for. But the brewery and distillery interests, (who could + exercise great influence upon the Legislature,) encouraged them to forget + their woes by offering them unlimited quantities of whisky and gin at very + cheap rates. + </p> + <p> + The enormous improvement which has taken place since the thirties and the + forties of the last century is not due to the efforts of a single man. The + best brains of two generations devoted themselves to the task of saving + the world from the disastrous results of the all-too-sudden introduction + of machinery. They did not try to destroy the capitalistic system. This + would have been very foolish, for the accumulated wealth of other people, + when intelligently used, may be of very great benefit to all mankind. But + they tried to combat the notion that true equality can exist between the + man who has wealth and owns the factories and can close their doors at + will without the risk of going hungry, and the labourer who must take + whatever job is offered, at whatever wage he can get, or face the risk of + starvation for himself, his wife and his children. + </p> + <p> + They endeavoured to introduce a number of laws which regulated the + relations between the factory owners and the factory workers. In this, the + reformers have been increasingly successful in all countries. To-day, the + majority of the labourers are well protected; their hours are being + reduced to the excellent average of eight, and their children are sent to + the schools instead of to the mine pit and to the carding-room of the + cotton mills. + </p> + <p> + But there were other men who also contemplated the sight of all the + belching smoke-stacks, who heard the rattle of the railroad trains, who + saw the store-houses filled with a surplus of all sorts of materials, and + who wondered to what ultimate goal this tremendous activity would lead in + the years to come. They remembered that the human race had lived for + hundreds of thousands of years without commercial and industrial + competition. Could they change the existing order of things and do away + with a system of rivalry which so often sacrificed human happiness to + profits? + </p> + <p> + This idea—this vague hope for a better day—was not restricted + to a single country. In England, Robert Owen, the owner of many cotton + mills, established a so-called "socialistic community" which was a + success. But when he died, the prosperity of New Lanark came to an end and + an attempt of Louis Blanc, a French journalist, to establish "social + workshops" all over France fared no better. Indeed, the increasing number + of socialistic writers soon began to see that little individual + communities which remained outside of the regular industrial life, would + never be able to accomplish anything at all. It was necessary to study the + fundamental principles underlying the whole industrial and capitalistic + society before useful remedies could be suggested. + </p> + <p> + The practical socialists like Robert Owen and Louis Blanc and Francois + Fournier were succeeded by theoretical students of socialism like Karl + Marx and Friedrich Engels. Of these two, Marx is the best known. He was a + very brilliant Jew whose family had for a long time lived in Germany. He + had heard of the experiments of Owen and Blanc and he began to interest + himself in questions of labour and wages and unemployment. But his liberal + views made him very unpopular with the police authorities of Germany, and + he was forced to flee to Brussels and then to London, where he lived a + poor and shabby life as the correspondent of the New York Tribune. + </p> + <p> + No one, thus far, had paid much attention to his books on economic + subjects. But in the year 1864 he organised the first international + association of working men and three years later in 1867, he published the + first volume of his well-known treatise called "Capital." Marx believed + that all history was a long struggle between those who "have" and those + who "don't have." The introduction and general use of machinery had + created a new class in society, that of the capitalists who used their + surplus wealth to buy the tools which were then used by the labourers to + produce still more wealth, which was again used to build more factories + and so on, until the end of time. Meanwhile, according to Marx, the third + estate (the bourgeoisie) was growing richer and richer and the fourth + estate (the proletariat) was growing poorer and poorer, and he predicted + that in the end, one man would possess all the wealth of the world while + the others would be his employees and dependent upon his good will. + </p> + <p> + To prevent such a state of affairs, Marx advised working men of all + countries to unite and to fight for a number of political and economic + measures which he had enumerated in a Manifesto in the year 1848, the year + of the last great European revolution. + </p> + <p> + These views of course were very unpopular with the governments of Europe, + many countries, especially Prussia, passed severe laws against the + Socialists and policemen were ordered to break up the Socialist meetings + and to arrest the speakers. But that sort of persecution never does any + good. Martyrs are the best possible advertisements for an unpopular cause. + In Europe the number of socialists steadily increased and it was soon + clear that the Socialists did not contemplate a violent revolution but + were using their increasing power in the different Parliaments to promote + the interests of the labouring classes. Socialists were even called upon + to act as Cabinet Ministers, and they co-operated with progressive + Catholics and Protestants to undo the damage that had been caused by the + Industrial Revolution and to bring about a fairer division of the many + benefits which had followed the introduction of machinery and the + increased production of wealth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE AGE OF SCIENCE + </h2> + <p> + BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS OF GREATER IMPORTANCE + THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. AFTER GENERATIONS + OF OPPRESSION AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT LAST GAINED LIBERTY OF + ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN + THE UNIVERSE + </p> + <p> + THE Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks and the Romans, + had all contributed something to the first vague notions of science and + scientific investigation. But the great migrations of the fourth century + had destroyed the classical world of the Mediterranean, and the Christian + Church, which was more interested in the life of the soul than in the life + of the body, had regarded science as a manifestation of that human + arrogance which wanted to pry into divine affairs which belonged to the + realm of Almighty God, and which therefore was closely related to the + seven deadly sins. + </p> + <p> + The Renaissance to a certain but limited extent had broken through this + wall of Mediaeval prejudices. The Reformation, however, which had + overtaken the Renaissance in the early 16th century, had been hostile to + the ideals of the "new civilisation," and once more the men of science + were threatened with severe punishment, should they try to pass beyond the + narrow limits of knowledge which had been laid down in Holy Writ. + </p> + <p> + Our world is filled with the statues of great generals, atop of prancing + horses, leading their cheering soldiers to glorious victory. Here and + there, a modest slab of marble announces that a man of science has found + his final resting place. A thousand years from now we shall probably do + these things differently, and the children of that happy generation shall + know of the splendid courage and the almost inconceivable devotion to duty + of the men who were the pioneers of that abstract knowledge, which alone + has made our modern world a practical possibility. + </p> + <p> + Many of these scientific pioneers suffered poverty and contempt and + humiliation. They lived in garrets and died in dungeons. They dared not + print their names on the title-pages of their books and they dared not + print their conclusions in the land of their birth, but smuggled the + manuscripts to some secret printing shop in Amsterdam or Haarlem. They + were exposed to the bitter enmity of the Church, both Protestant and + Catholic, and were the subjects of endless sermons, inciting the + parishioners to violence against the "heretics." + </p> + <p> + Here and there they found an asylum. In Holland, where the spirit of + tolerance was strongest, the authorities, while regarding these scientific + investigations with little favour, yet refused to interfere with people's + freedom of thought. It became a little asylum for intellectual liberty + where French and English and German philosophers and mathematicians and + physicians could go to enjoy a short spell of rest and get a breath of + free air. + </p> + <p> + In another chapter I have told you how Roger Bacon, the great genius of + the thirteenth century, was prevented for years from writing a single + word, lest he get into new troubles with the authorities of the church. + And five hundred years later, the contributors to the great philosophic + "Encyclopaedia" were under the constant supervision of the French + gendarmerie. Half a century afterwards, Darwin, who dared to question the + story of the creation of man, as revealed in the Bible, was denounced from + every pulpit as an enemy of the human race. + </p> + <p> + Even to-day, the persecution of those who venture into the unknown realm + of science has not entirely come to an end. And while I am writing this + Mr. Bryan is addressing a vast multitude on the "Menace of Darwinism," + warning his hearers against the errors of the great English naturalist. + </p> + <p> + All this, however, is a mere detail. The work that has to be done + invariably gets done, and the ultimate profit of the discoveries and the + inventions goes to the mass of those same people who have always decried + the man of vision as an unpractical idealist. + </p> + <p> + The seventeenth century had still preferred to investigate the far off + heavens and to study the position of our planet in relation to the solar + system. Even so, the Church had disapproved of this unseemly curiosity, + and Copernicus who first of all had proved that the sun was the centre of + the universe, did not publish his work until the day of his death. Galileo + spent the greater part of his life under the supervision of the clerical + authorities, but he continued to use his telescope and provided Isaac + Newton with a mass of practical observations, which greatly helped the + English mathematician when he dis-covered the existence of that + interesting habit of falling objects which came to be known as the Law of + Gravitation. + </p> + <p> + That, for the moment at least, exhausted the interest in the Heavens, and + man began to study the earth. The invention of a workable microscope, (a + strange and clumsy little thing,) by Anthony van Leeuwenhoek during the + last half of the 17th century, gave man a chance to study the + "microscopic" creatures who are responsible for so many of his ailments. + It laid the foundations of the science of "bacteriology" which in the last + forty years has delivered the world from a great number of diseases by + discovering the tiny organisms which cause the complaint. It also allowed + the geologists to make a more careful study of different rocks and of the + fossils (the petrified prehistoric plants) which they found deep below the + surface of the earth. These investigations convinced them that the earth + must be a great deal older than was stated in the book of Genesis and in + the year 1830, Sir Charles Lyell published his "Principles of Geology" + which denied the story of creation as related in the Bible and gave a far + more wonderful description of slow growth and gradual development. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, the Marquis de Laplace was working on a new theory of + creation, which made the earth a little blotch in the nebulous sea out of + which the planetary system had been formed and Bunsen and Kirchhoff, by + the use of the spectroscope, were investigating the chemical composition + of the stars and of our good neighbour, the sun, whose curious spots had + first been noticed by Galileo. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile after a most bitter and relentless warfare with the clerical + authorities of Catholic and Protestant lands, the anatomists and + physiologists had at last obtained permission to dissect bodies and to + substitute a positive knowledge of our organs and their habits for the + guesswork of the mediaeval quack. + </p> + <p> + Within a single generation (between 1810 and 1840) more progress was made + in every branch of science than in all the hundreds of thousands of years + that had passed since man first looked at the stars and wondered why they + were there. It must have been a very sad age for the people who had been + educated under the old system. And we can understand their feeling of + hatred for such men as Lamarck and Darwin, who did not exactly tell them + that they were "descended from monkeys," (an accusation which our + grandfathers seemed to regard as a personal insult,) but who suggested + that the proud human race had evolved from a long series of ancestors who + could trace the family-tree back to the little jelly-fishes who were the + first inhabitants of our planet. + </p> + <p> + The dignified world of the well-to-do middle class, which dominated the + nineteenth century, was willing to make use of the gas or the electric + light, of all the many practical applications of the great scientific + discoveries, but the mere investigator, the man of the "scientific theory" + without whom no progress would be possible, continued to be distrusted + until very recently. Then, at last, his services were recognised. Today + the rich people who in past ages donated their wealth for the building of + a cathedral, construct vast laboratories where silent men do battle upon + the hidden enemies of mankind and often sacrifice their lives that coming + generations may enjoy greater happiness and health. + </p> + <p> + Indeed it has come to pass that many of the ills of this world, which our + ancestors regarded as inevitable "acts of God," have been exposed as + manifestations of our own ignorance and neglect. Every child nowadays + knows that he can keep from getting typhoid fever by a little care in the + choice of his drinking water. But it took years and years of hard work + before the doctors could convince the people of this fact. Few of us now + fear the dentist chair. A study of the microbes that live in our mouth has + made it possible to keep our teeth from decay. Must perchance a tooth be + pulled, then we take a sniff of gas, and go our way rejoicing. When the + newspapers of the year 1846 brought the story of the "painless operation" + which had been performed in America with the help of ether, the good + people of Europe shook their heads. To them it seemed against the will of + God that man should escape the pain which was the share of all mortals, + and it took a long time before the practice of taking ether and chloroform + for operations became general. + </p> + <p> + But the battle of progress had been won. The breach in the old walls of + prejudice was growing larger and larger, and as time went by, the ancient + stones of ignorance came crumbling down. The eager crusaders of a new and + happier social order rushed forward. Suddenly they found themselves facing + a new obstacle. Out of the ruins of a long-gone past, another citadel of + reaction had been erected, and millions of men had to give their lives + before this last bulwark was destroyed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ART + </h2> + <h3> + A CHAPTER OF ART + </h3> + <p> + WHEN a baby is perfectly healthy and has had enough to eat and has slept + all it wants, then it hums a little tune to show how happy it is. To + grown-ups this humming means nothing. It sounds like "goo-zum, goo-zum, + goo-o-o-o-o," but to the baby it is perfect music. It is his first + contribution to art. + </p> + <p> + As soon as he (or she) gets a little older and is able to sit up, the + period of mud-pie making begins. These mud-pies do not interest the + outside world. There are too many million babies, making too many million + mud-pies at the same time. But to the small infant they represent another + expedition into the pleasant realm of art. The baby is now a sculptor. + </p> + <p> + At the age of three or four, when the hands begin to obey the brain, the + child becomes a painter. His fond mother gives him a box of coloured + chalks and every loose bit of paper is rapidly covered with strange + pothooks and scrawls which represent houses and horses and terrible naval + battles. + </p> + <p> + Soon however this happiness of just "making things" comes to an end. + School begins and the greater part of the day is filled up with work. The + business of living, or rather the business of "making a living," becomes + the most important event in the life of every boy and girl. There is + little time left for "art" between learning the tables of multiplication + and the past participles of the irregular French verbs. And unless the + desire for making certain things for the mere pleasure of creating them + without any hope of a practical return be very strong, the child grows + into manhood and forgets that the first five years of his life were mainly + devoted to art. + </p> + <p> + Nations are not different from children. As soon as the cave-man had + escaped the threatening dangers of the long and shivering ice-period, and + had put his house in order, he began to make certain things which he + thought beautiful, although they were of no earthly use to him in his + fight with the wild animals of the jungle. He covered the walls of his + grotto with pictures of the elephants and the deer which he hunted, and + out of a piece of stone, he hacked the rough figures of those women he + thought most attractive. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the Persians and all the + other people of the east had founded their little countries along the Nile + and the Euphrates, they began to build magnificent palaces for their + kings, invented bright pieces of jewellery for their women and planted + gardens which sang happy songs of colour with their many bright flowers. + </p> + <p> + Our own ancestors, the wandering nomads from the distant Asiatic prairies, + enjoying a free and easy existence as fighters and hunters, composed songs + which celebrated the mighty deeds of their great leaders and invented a + form of poetry which has survived until our own day. A thousand years + later, when they had established themselves on the Greek mainland, and had + built their "city-states," they expressed their joy (and their sorrows) in + magnificent temples, in statues, in comedies and in tragedies, and in + every conceivable form of art. + </p> + <p> + The Romans, like their Carthaginian rivals, were too busy administering + other people and making money to have much love for "useless and + unprofitable" adventures of the spirit. They conquered the world and built + roads and bridges but they borrowed their art wholesale from the Greeks. + They invented certain practical forms of architecture which answered the + demands of their day and age. But their statues and their histories and + their mosaics and their poems were mere Latin imitations of Greek + originals. Without that vague and hard-to-define something which the world + calls "personality," there can be no art and the Roman world distrusted + that particular sort of personality. The Empire needed efficient soldiers + and tradesmen. The business of writing poetry or making pictures was left + to foreigners. + </p> + <p> + Then came the Dark Ages. The barbarian was the proverbial bull in the + china-shop of western Europe. He had no use for what he did not + understand. Speaking in terms of the year 1921, he liked the magazine + covers of pretty ladies, but threw the Rembrandt etchings which he had + inherited into the ash-can. Soon he came to learn better. Then he tried to + undo the damage which he had created a few years before. But the ash-cans + were gone and so were the pictures. + </p> + <p> + But by this time, his own art, which he had brought with him from the + east, had developed into something very beautiful and he made up for his + past neglect and indifference by the so-called "art of the Middle Ages" + which as far as northern Europe is concerned was a product of the Germanic + mind and had borrowed but little from the Greeks and the Latins and + nothing at all from the older forms of art of Egypt and Assyria, not to + speak of India and China, which simply did not exist, as far as the people + of that time were concerned. Indeed, so little had the northern races been + influenced by their southern neighbours that their own architectural + products were completely misunderstood by the people of Italy and were + treated by them with downright and unmitigated contempt. + </p> + <p> + You have all heard the word Gothic. You probably associate it with the + picture of a lovely old cathedral, lifting its slender spires towards high + heaven. But what does the word really mean? + </p> + <p> + It means something "uncouth" and "barbaric"—something which one + might expect from an "uncivilised Goth," a rough backwoods-man who had no + respect for the established rules of classical art and who built his + "modern horrors" to please his own low tastes without a decent regard for + the examples of the Forum and the Acropolis. + </p> + <p> + And yet for several centuries this form of Gothic architecture was the + highest expression of the sincere feeling for art which inspired the whole + northern continent. From a previous chapter, you will remember how the + people of the late Middle Ages lived. Unless they were peasants and dwelt + in villages, they were citizens of a "city" or "civitas," the old Latin + name for a tribe. And indeed, behind their high walls and their deep + moats, these good burghers were true tribesmen who shared the common + dangers and enjoyed the common safety and prosperity which they derived + from their system of mutual protection. + </p> + <p> + In the old Greek and Roman cities the market-place, where the temple + stood, had been the centre of civic life. During the Middle Ages, the + Church, the House of God, became such a centre. We modern Protestant + people, who go to our church only once a week, and then for a few hours + only, hardly know what a mediaeval church meant to the community. Then, + before you were a week old, you were taken to the Church to be baptised. + As a child, you visited the Church to learn the holy stories of the + Scriptures. Later on you became a member of the congregation, and if you + were rich enough you built yourself a separate little chapel sacred to the + memory of the Patron Saint of your own family. As for the sacred edifice, + it was open at all hours of the day and many of the night. In a certain + sense it resembled a modern club, dedicated to all the inhabitants of the + town. In the church you very likely caught a first glimpse of the girl who + was to become your bride at a great ceremony before the High Altar. And + finally, when the end of the journey had come, you were buried beneath the + stones of this familiar building, that all your children and their + grandchildren might pass over your grave until the Day of Judgement. + </p> + <p> + Because the Church was not only the House of God but also the true centre + of all common life, the building had to be different from anything that + had ever been constructed by the hands of man. The temples of the + Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans had been merely the shrine of a + local divinity. As no sermons were preached before the images of Osiris or + Zeus or Jupiter, it was not necessary that the interior offer space for a + great multitude. All the religious processions of the old Mediterranean + peoples took place in the open. But in the north, where the weather was + usually bad, most functions were held under the roof of the church. + </p> + <p> + During many centuries the architects struggled with this problem of + constructing a building that was large enough. The Roman tradition taught + them how to build heavy stone walls with very small windows lest the walls + lose their strength. On the top of this they then placed a heavy stone + roof. But in the twelfth century, after the beginning of the Crusades, + when the architects had seen the pointed arches of the Mohammedan + builders, the western builders discovered a new style which gave them + their first chance to make the sort of building which those days of an + intense religious life demanded. And then they developed this strange + style upon which the Italians bestowed the contemptuous name of "Gothic" + or barbaric. They achieved their purpose by inventing a vaulted roof which + was supported by "ribs." But such a roof, if it became too heavy, was apt + to break the walls, just as a man of three hundred pounds sitting down + upon a child's chair will force it to collapse. To overcome this + difficulty, certain French architects then began to re-enforce the walls + with "buttresses" which were merely heavy masses of stone against which + the walls could lean while they supported the roof. And to assure the + further safety of the roof they supported the ribs of the roof by + so-called "flying buttresses," a very simple method of construction which + you will understand at once when you look at our picture. + </p> + <p> + This new method of construction allowed the introduction of enormous + windows. In the twelfth century, glass was still an expensive curiosity, + and very few private buildings possessed glass windows. Even the castles + of the nobles were without protection and this accounts for the eternal + drafts and explains why people of that day wore furs in-doors as well as + out. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, the art of making coloured glass, with which the ancient + people of the Mediterranean had been familiar, had not been entirely lost. + There was a revival of stained glass-making and soon the windows of the + Gothic churches told the stories of the Holy Book in little bits of + brilliantly coloured window-pane, which were caught in a long framework of + lead. + </p> + <p> + Behold, therefore, the new and glorious house of God, filled with an eager + multitude, "living" its religion as no people have ever done either before + or since! Nothing is considered too good or too costly or too wondrous for + this House of God and Home of Man. The sculptors, who since the + destruction of the Roman Empire have been out of employment, haltingly + return to their noble art. Portals and pillars and buttresses and cornices + are all covered with carven images of Our Lord and the blessed Saints. The + embroiderers too are set to work to make tapestries for the walls. The + jewellers offer their highest art that the shrine of the altar may be + worthy of complete adoration. Even the painter does his best. Poor man, he + is greatly handicapped by lack of a suitable medium. + </p> + <p> + And thereby hangs a story. + </p> + <p> + The Romans of the early Christian period had covered the floors and the + walls of their temples and houses with mosaics; pictures made of coloured + bits of glass. But this art had been exceedingly difficult. It gave the + painter no chance to express all he wanted to say, as all children know + who have ever tried to make figures out of coloured blocks of wood. The + art of mosaic painting therefore died out during the late Middle Ages + except in Russia, where the Byzantine mosaic painters had found a refuge + after the fall of Constantinople and continued to ornament the walls of + the orthodox churches until the day of the Bolsheviki, when there was an + end to the building of churches. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the mediaeval painter could mix his colours with the water of + the wet plaster which was put upon the walls of the churches. This method + of painting upon "fresh plaster" (which was generally called "fresco" or + "fresh" painting) was very popular for many centuries. To-day, it is as + rare as the art of painting miniatures in manuscripts and among the + hundreds of artists of our modern cities there is perhaps one who can + handle this medium successfully. But during the Middle Ages there was no + other way and the artists were "fresco" workers for lack of something + better. The method however had certain great disadvantages. Very often the + plaster came off the walls after only a few years, or dampness spoiled the + pictures, just as dampness will spoil the pattern of our wall paper. + People tried every imaginable expedient to get away from this plaster + background. They tried to mix their colours with wine and vinegar and with + honey and with the sticky white of egg, but none of these methods were + satisfactory. For more than a thousand years these experiments continued. + In painting pictures upon the parchment leaves of manuscripts the + mediaeval artists were very successful. But when it came to covering large + spaces of wood or stone with paint which would stick, they did not succeed + very well. + </p> + <p> + At last, during the first half of the fifteenth century, the problem was + solved in the southern Netherlands by Jan and Hubert van Eyck. The famous + Flemish brothers mixed their paint with specially prepared oils and this + allowed them to use wood and canvas or stone or anything else as a + background for their pictures. + </p> + <p> + But by this time the religious ardour of the early Middle Ages was a thing + of the past. The rich burghers of the cities were succeeding the bishops + as patrons of the arts. And as art invariably follows the full + dinner-pail, the artists now began to work for these worldly employers and + painted pictures for kings, for grand-dukes and for rich bankers. Within a + very short time, the new method of painting with oil spread through Europe + and in every country there developed a school of special painting which + showed the characteristic tastes of the people for whom these portraits + and landscapes were made. + </p> + <p> + In Spain, for example, Velasquez painted court-dwarfs and the weavers of + the royal tapestry-factories, and all sorts of persons and subjects + connected with the king and his court. But in Holland, Rembrandt and Frans + Hals and Vermeer painted the barnyard of the merchant's house, and they + painted his rather dowdy wife and his healthy but bumptious children and + the ships which had brought him his wealth. In Italy on the other hand, + where the Pope remained the largest patron of the arts, Michelangelo and + Correggio continued to paint Madonnas and Saints, while in England, where + the aristocracy was very rich and powerful and in France where the kings + had become uppermost in the state, the artists painted distinguished + gentlemen who were members of the government, and very lovely ladies who + were friends of His Majesty. + </p> + <p> + The great change in painting, which came about with the neglect of the old + church and the rise of a new class in society, was reflected in all other + forms of art. The invention of printing had made it possible for authors + to win fame and reputation by writing books for the multitudes. In this + way arose the profession of the novelist and the illustrator. But the + people who had money enough to buy the new books were not the sort who + liked to sit at home of nights, looking at the ceiling or just sitting. They + wanted to be amused. The few minstrels of the Middle Ages were not + sufficient to cover the demand for entertainment. For the first time since + the early Greek city-states of two thousand years before, the professional + playwright had a chance to ply his trade. The Middle Ages had known the + theatre merely as part of certain church celebrations. The tragedies of + the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had told the story of the + suffering of our Lord. But during the sixteenth century the worldly + theatre made its reappearance. It is true that, at first, the position of + the professional playwright and actor was not a very high one. William + Shakespeare was regarded as a sort of circus-fellow who amused his + neighbours with his tragedies and comedies. But when he died in the year + 1616 he had begun to enjoy the respect of his neighbours and actors were + no longer subjects of police supervision. + </p> + <p> + William's contemporary, Lope de Vega, the incredible Spaniard who wrote no + less than 1800 worldly and 400 religious plays, was a person of rank who + received the papal approval upon his work. A century later, Moliere, the + Frenchman, was deemed worthy of the companionship of none less than King + Louis XIV. + </p> + <p> + Since then, the theatre has enjoyed an ever increasing affection on the + part of the people. To-day a "theatre" is part of every well-regulated + city, and the "silent drama" of the movies has penetrated to the tiniest + of our prairie hamlets. + </p> + <p> + Another art, however, was to become the most popular of all. That was + music. Most of the old art-forms demanded a great deal of technical skill. + It takes years and years of practice before our clumsy hand is able to + follow the commands of the brain and reproduce our vision upon canvas or + in marble. It takes a life-time to learn how to act or how to write a good + novel. And it takes a great deal of training on the part of the public to + appreciate the best in painting and writing and sculpture. But almost any + one, not entirely tone-deaf, can follow a tune and almost everybody can + get enjoyment out of some sort of music. The Middle Ages had heard a + little music but it had been entirely the music of the church. The holy + chants were subject to very severe laws of rhythm and harmony and soon + these became monotonous. Besides, they could not well be sung in the + street or in the market-place. + </p> + <p> + The Renaissance changed this. Music once more came into its own as the + best friend of man, both in his happiness and in his sorrows. + </p> + <p> + The Egyptians and the Babylonians and the ancient Jews had all been great + lovers of music. They had even combined different instruments into regular + orchestras. But the Greeks had frowned upon this barbaric foreign noise. + They liked to hear a man recite the stately poetry of Homer and Pindar. + They allowed him to accompany himself upon the lyre (the poorest of all + stringed instruments). That was as far as any one could go without + incurring the risk of popular disapproval. The Romans on the other hand + had loved orchestral music at their dinners and parties and they had + invented most of the instruments which (in VERY modified form) we use + to-day. The early church had despised this music which smacked too much of + the wicked pagan world which had just been destroyed. A few songs rendered + by the entire congregation were all the bishops of the third and fourth + centuries would tolerate. As the congregation was apt to sing dreadfully + out of key without the guidance of an instrument, the church had + afterwards allowed the use of an organ, an invention of the second century + of our era which consisted of a combination of the old pipes of Pan and a + pair of bellows. + </p> + <p> + Then came the great migrations. The last of the Roman musicians were + either killed or became tramp-fiddlers going from city to city and playing + in the street, and begging for pennies like the harpist on a modern + ferry-boat. + </p> + <p> + But the revival of a more worldly civilisation in the cities of the late + Middle Ages had created a new demand for musicians. Instruments like the + horn, which had been used only as signal-instruments for hunting and + fighting, were remodelled until they could reproduce sounds which were + agreeable in the dance-hall and in the banqueting room. A bow strung with + horse-hair was used to play the old-fashioned guitar and before the end of + the Middle Ages this six-stringed instrument (the most ancient of all + string-instruments which dates back to Egypt and Assyria) had grown into + our modern four-stringed fiddle which Stradivarius and the other Italian + violin-makers of the eighteenth century brought to the height of + perfection. + </p> + <p> + And finally the modern piano was invented, the most wide-spread of all + musical instruments, which has followed man into the wilderness of the + jungle and the ice-fields of Greenland. The organ had been the first of + all keyed instruments but the performer always depended upon the + co-operation of some one who worked the bellows, a job which nowadays is + done by electricity. The musicians therefore looked for a handier and less + circumstantial instrument to assist them in training the pupils of the + many church choirs. During the great eleventh century, Guido, a + Benedictine monk of the town of Arezzo (the birthplace of the poet + Petrarch) gave us our modern system of musical annotation. Some time + during that century, when there was a great deal of popular interest in + music, the first instrument with both keys and strings was built. It must + have sounded as tinkly as one of those tiny children's pianos which you + can buy at every toy-shop. In the city of Vienna, the town where the + strolling musicians of the Middle Ages (who had been classed with jugglers + and card sharps) had formed the first separate Guild of Musicians in the + year 1288, the little monochord was developed into something which we can + recognise as the direct ancestor of our modern Steinway. From Austria the + "clavichord" as it was usually called in those days (because it had + "craves" or keys) went to Italy. There it was perfected into the "spinet" + which was so called after the inventor, Giovanni Spinetti of Venice. At + last during the eighteenth century, some time between 1709 and 1720, + Bartolomeo Cristofori made a "clavier" which allowed the performer to play + both loudly and softly or as it was said in Italian, "piano" and "forte." + This instrument with certain changes became our "pianoforte" or piano. + </p> + <p> + Then for the first time the world possessed an easy and convenient + instrument which could be mastered in a couple of years and did not need + the eternal tuning of harps and fiddles and was much pleasanter to the + ears than the mediaeval tubas, clarinets, trombones and oboes. Just as the + phonograph has given millions of modern people their first love of music + so did the early "pianoforte" carry the knowledge of music into much wider + circles. Music became part of the education of every well-bred man and + woman. Princes and rich merchants maintained private orchestras. The + musician ceased to be a wandering "jongleur" and became a highly valued + member of the community. Music was added to the dramatic performances of + the theatre and out of this practice, grew our modern Opera. Originally + only a few very rich princes could afford the expenses of an "opera + troupe." But as the taste for this sort of entertainment grew, many cities + built their own theatres where Italian and afterwards German operas were + given to the unlimited joy of the whole community with the exception of a + few sects of very strict Christians who still regarded music with deep + suspicion as something which was too lovely to be entirely good for the + soul. + </p> + <p> + By the middle of the eighteenth century the musical life of Europe was in + full swing. Then there came forward a man who was greater than all others, + a simple organist of the Thomas Church of Leipzig, by the name of Johann + Sebastian Bach. In his compositions for every known instrument, from comic + songs and popular dances to the most stately of sacred hymns and + oratorios, he laid the foundation for all our modern music. When he died + in the year 1750 he was succeeded by Mozart, who created musical fabrics + of sheer loveliness which remind us of lace that has been woven out of + harmony and rhythm. Then came Ludwig van Beethoven, the most tragic of + men, who gave us our modern orchestra, yet heard none of his greatest + compositions because he was deaf, as the result of a cold contracted + during his years of poverty. + </p> + <p> + Beethoven lived through the period of the great French Revolution. Full of + hope for a new and glorious day, he had dedicated one of his symphonies to + Napoleon. But he lived to regret the hour. When he died in the year 1827, + Napoleon was gone and the French Revolution was gone, but the steam engine + had come and was filling the world with a sound that had nothing in common + with the dreams of the Third Symphony. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, the new order of steam and iron and coal and large factories had + little use for art, for painting and sculpture and poetry and music. The + old protectors of the arts, the Church and the princes and the merchants + of the Middle Ages and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no longer + existed. The leaders of the new industrial world were too busy and had too + little education to bother about etchings and sonatas and bits of carved + ivory, not to speak of the men who created those things, and who were of + no practical use to the community in which they lived. And the workmen in + the factories listened to the drone of their engines until they too had + lost all taste for the melody of the flute or fiddle of their peasant + ancestry. The arts became the step-children of the new industrial era. Art + and Life became entirely separated. Whatever paintings had been left, were + dying a slow death in the museums. And music became a monopoly of a few + "virtuosi" who took the music away from the home and carried it to the + concert-hall. + </p> + <p> + But steadily, although slowly, the arts are coming back into their own. + People begin to understand that Rembrandt and Beethoven and Rodin are the + true prophets and leaders of their race and that a world without art and + happiness resembles a nursery without laughter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WAR + </h2> + <p> + A CHAPTER WHICH OUGHT TO GIVE YOU A GREAT DEAL OF POLITICAL INFORMATION + ABOUT THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, BUT WHICH REALLY CONTAINS SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS + AND A FEW APOLOGIES + </p> + <p> + IF I had known how difficult it was to write a History of the World, I + should never have undertaken the task. Of course, any one possessed of + enough industry to lose himself for half a dozen years in the musty stacks + of a library, can compile a ponderous tome which gives an account of the + events in every land during every century. But that was not the purpose of + the present book. The publishers wanted to print a history that should + have rhythm—a story which galloped rather than walked. And now that + I have almost finished I discover that certain chapters gallop, that + others wade slowly through the dreary sands of long forgotten ages—that + a few parts do not make any progress at all, while still others indulge in + a veritable jazz of action and romance. I did not like this and I + suggested that we destroy the whole manuscript and begin once more from + the beginning. This, however, the publishers would not allow. + </p> + <p> + As the next best solution of my difficulties, I took the type-written + pages to a number of charitable friends and asked them to read what I had + said, and give me the benefit of their advice. The experience was rather + disheartening. Each and every man had his own prejudices and his own + hobbies and preferences. They all wanted to know why, where and how I + dared to omit their pet nation, their pet statesman, or even their most + beloved criminal. With some of them, Napoleon and Jenghiz Khan were + candidates for high honours. I explained that I had tried very hard to be + fair to Napoleon, but that in my estimation he was greatly inferior to + such men as George Washington, Gustavus Wasa, Augustus, Hammurabi or + Lincoln, and a score of others all of whom were obliged to content + themselves with a few paragraphs, from sheer lack of space. As for Jenghiz + Khan, I only recognise his superior ability in the field of wholesale + murder and I did not intend to give him any more publicity than I could + help. + </p> + <p> + "This is very well as far as it goes," said the next critic, "but how + about the Puritans? We are celebrating the tercentenary of their arrival + at Plymouth. They ought to have more space." My answer was that if I were + writing a history of America, the Puritans would get fully one half of the + first twelve chapters; that however this was a history of mankind and that + the event on Plymouth rock was not a matter of far-reaching international + importance until many centuries later; that the United States had been + founded by thirteen colonies and not by a single one; that the most + prominent leaders of the first twenty years of our history had been from + Virginia, from Pennsylvania, and from the island of Nevis, rather than + from Massachusetts; and that therefore the Puritans ought to content + themselves with a page of print and a special map. + </p> + <p> + Next came the prehistoric specialist. Why in the name of the great + Tyrannosaur had I not devoted more space to the wonderful race of + Cro-Magnon men, who had developed such a high stage of civilisation 10,000 + years ago? + </p> + <p> + Indeed, and why not? The reason is simple. I do not take as much stock in + the perfection of these early races as some of our most noted + anthropologists seem to do. Rousseau and the philosophers of the + eighteenth century created the "noble savage" who was supposed to have + dwelt in a state of perfect happiness during the beginning of time. Our + modern scientists have discarded the "noble savage," so dearly beloved by + our grandfathers, and they have replaced him by the "splendid savage" of + the French Valleys who 35,000 years ago made an end to the universal rule + of the low-browed and low-living brutes of the Neanderthal and other + Germanic neighbourhoods. They have shown us the elephants the Cro-Magnon + painted and the statues he carved and they have surrounded him with much + glory. + </p> + <p> + I do not mean to say that they are wrong. But I hold that we know by far + too little of this entire period to re-construct that early west-European + society with any degree (however humble) of accuracy. And I would rather + not state certain things than run the risk of stating certain things that + were not so. + </p> + <p> + Then there were other critics, who accused me of direct unfairness. Why + did I leave out such countries as Ireland and Bulgaria and Siam while I + dragged in such other countries as Holland and Iceland and Switzerland? My + answer was that I did not drag in any countries. They pushed themselves in + by main force of circumstances, and I simply could not keep them out. And + in order that my point may be understood, let me state the basis upon + which active membership to this book of history was considered. + </p> + <p> + There was but one rule. "Did the country or the person in question produce + a new idea or perform an original act without which the history of the + entire human race would have been different?" It was not a question of + personal taste. It was a matter of cool, almost mathematical judgment. No + race ever played a more picturesque role in history than the Mongolians, + and no race, from the point of view of achievement or intelligent + progress, was of less value to the rest of mankind. + </p> + <p> + The career of Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian, is full of dramatic episodes. + But as far as we are concerned, he might just as well never have existed + at all. In the same way, the history of the Dutch Republic is not + interesting because once upon a time the sailors of de Ruyter went fishing + in the river Thames, but rather because of the fact that this small + mud-bank along the shores of the North Sea offered a hospitable asylum to + all sorts of strange people who had all sorts of queer ideas upon all + sorts of very unpopular subjects. + </p> + <p> + It is quite true that Athens or Florence, during the hey-day of their + glory, had only one tenth of the population of Kansas City. But our + present civilisation would be very different had neither of these two + little cities of the Mediterranean basin existed. And the same (with due + apologies to the good people of Wyandotte County) can hardly be said of + this busy metropolis on the Missouri River. + </p> + <p> + And since I am being very personal, allow me to state one other fact. + </p> + <p> + When we visit a doctor, we find out before hand whether he is a surgeon or + a diagnostician or a homeopath or a faith healer, for we want to know from + what angle he will look at our complaint. We ought to be as careful in the + choice of our historians as we are in the selection of our physicians. We + think, "Oh well, history is history," and let it go at that. But the + writer who was educated in a strictly Presbyterian household somewhere in + the backwoods of Scotland will look differently upon every question of + human relationships from his neighbour who as a child, was dragged to + listen to the brilliant exhortations of Robert Ingersoll, the enemy of all + revealed Devils. In due course of time, both men may forget their early + training and never again visit either church or lecture hall. But the + influence of these impressionable years stays with them and they cannot + escape showing it in whatever they write or say or do. + </p> + <p> + In the preface to this book, I told you that I should not be an infallible + guide and now that we have almost reached the end, I repeat the warning. I + was born and educated in an atmosphere of the old-fashioned liberalism + which had followed the discoveries of Darwin and the other pioneers of the + nineteenth century. As a child, I happened to spend most of my waking + hours with an uncle who was a great collector of the books written by + Montaigne, the great French essayist of the sixteenth century. Because I + was born in Rotterdam and educated in the city of Gouda, I ran continually + across Erasmus and for some unknown reason this great exponent of + tolerance took hold of my intolerant self. Later I discovered Anatole + France and my first experience with the English language came about + through an accidental encounter with Thackeray's "Henry Esmond," a story + which made more impression upon me than any other book in the English + language. + </p> + <p> + If I had been born in a pleasant middle western city I probably should + have a certain affection for the hymns which I had heard in my childhood. + But my earliest recollection of music goes back to the afternoon when my + Mother took me to hear nothing less than a Bach fugue. And the + mathematical perfection of the great Protestant master influenced me to + such an extent that I cannot hear the usual hymns of our prayer-meetings + without a feeling of intense agony and direct pain. + </p> + <p> + Again, if I had been born in Italy and had been warmed by the sunshine of + the happy valley of the Arno, I might love many colourful and sunny + pictures which now leave me indifferent because I got my first artistic + impressions in a country where the rare sun beats down upon the + rain-soaked land with almost cruel brutality and throws everything into + violent contrasts of dark and light. + </p> + <p> + I state these few facts deliberately that you may know the personal bias + of the man who wrote this history and may understand his point-of-view. + The bibliography at the end of this book, which represents all sorts of + opinions and views, will allow you to compare my ideas with those of other + people. And in this way, you will be able to reach your own final + conclusions with a greater degree of fairness than would otherwise be + possible. + </p> + <p> + After this short but necessary excursion, we return to the history of the + last fifty years. Many things happened during this period but very little + occurred which at the time seemed to be of paramount importance. The + majority of the greater powers ceased to be mere political agencies and + became large business enterprises. They built railroads. They founded and + subsidized steam-ship lines to all parts of the world. They connected + their different possessions with telegraph wires. And they steadily + increased their holdings in other continents. Every available bit of + African or Asiatic territory was claimed by one of the rival powers. + France became a colonial nation with interests in Algiers and Madagascar + and Annam and Tonkin (in eastern Asia). Germany claimed parts of southwest + and east Africa, built settlements in Kameroon on the west coast of Africa + and in New Guinea and many of the islands of the Pacific, and used the + murder of a few missionaries as a welcome excuse to take the harbour of + Kisochau on the Yellow Sea in China. Italy tried her luck in Abyssinia, + was disastrously defeated by the soldiers of the Negus, and consoled + herself by occupying the Turkish possessions in Tripoli in northern + Africa. Russia, having occupied all of Siberia, took Port Arthur away from + China. Japan, having defeated China in the war of 1895, occupied the + island of Formosa and in the year 1905 began to lay claim to the entire + empire of Corea. In the year 1883 England, the largest colonial empire the + world has ever seen, undertook to "protect" Egypt. She performed this task + most efficiently and to the great material benefit of that much neglected + country, which ever since the opening of the Suez canal in 1868 had been + threatened with a foreign invasion. During the next thirty years she + fought a number of colonial wars in different parts of the world and in + 1902 (after three years of bitter fighting) she conquered the independent + Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Meanwhile she + had encouraged Cecil Rhodes to lay the foundations for a great African + state, which reached from the Cape almost to the mouth of the Nile, and + had faithfully picked up such islands or provinces as had been left + without a European owner. + </p> + <p> + The shrewd king of Belgium, by name Leopold, used the discoveries of Henry + Stanley to found the Congo Free State in the year 1885. Originally this + gigantic tropical empire was an "absolute monarchy." But after many years + of scandalous mismanagement, it was annexed by the Belgian people who made + it a colony (in the year 1908) and abolished the terrible abuses which had + been tolerated by this very unscrupulous Majesty, who cared nothing for + the fate of the natives as long as he got his ivory and rubber. + </p> + <p> + As for the United States, they had so much land that they desired no + further territory. But the terrible misrule of Cuba, one of the last of + the Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere, practically forced the + Washington government to take action. After a short and rather uneventful + war, the Spaniards were driven out of Cuba and Puerto Rico and the + Philippines, and the two latter became colonies of the United States. + </p> + <p> + This economic development of the world was perfectly natural. The + increasing number of factories in England and France and Germany needed an + ever increasing amount of raw materials and the equally increasing number + of European workers needed an ever increasing amount of food. Everywhere + the cry was for more and for richer markets, for more easily accessible + coal mines and iron mines and rubber plantations and oil-wells, for + greater supplies of wheat and grain. + </p> + <p> + The purely political events of the European continent dwindled to mere + insignificance in the eyes of men who were making plans for steamboat + lines on Victoria Nyanza or for railroads through the interior of + Shantung. They knew that many European questions still remained to be + settled, but they did not bother, and through sheer indifference and + carelessness they bestowed upon their descendants a terrible inheritance + of hate and misery. For untold centuries the south-eastern corner of + Europe had been the scene of rebellion and bloodshed. During the seventies + of the last century the people of Serbia and Bulgaria and Montenegro and + Roumania were once more trying to gain their freedom and the Turks (with + the support of many of the western powers), were trying to prevent this. + </p> + <p> + After a period of particularly atrocious massacres in Bulgaria in the year + 1876, the Russian people lost all patience. The Government was forced to + intervene just as President McKinley was obliged to go to Cuba and stop + the shooting-squads of General Weyler in Havana. In April of the year 1877 + the Russian armies crossed the Danube, stormed the Shipka pass, and after + the capture of Plevna, marched southward until they reached the gates of + Constantinople. Turkey appealed for help to England. There were many + English people who denounced their government when it took the side of the + Sultan. But Disraeli (who had just made Queen Victoria Empress of India + and who loved the picturesque Turks while he hated the Russians who were + brutally cruel to the Jewish people within their frontiers) decided to + interfere. Russia was forced to conclude the peace of San Stefano (1878) + and the question of the Balkans was left to a Congress which convened at + Berlin in June and July of the same year. + </p> + <p> + This famous conference was entirely dominated by the personality of + Disraeli. Even Bismarck feared the clever old man with his well-oiled + curly hair and his supreme arrogance, tempered by a cynical sense of humor + and a marvellous gift for flattery. At Berlin the British prime-minister + carefully watched over the fate of his friends the Turks. Montenegro, + Serbia and Roumania were recognised as independent kingdoms. The + principality of Bulgaria was given a semi-independent status under Prince + Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of Tsar Alexander II. But none of those + countries were given the chance to develop their powers and their + resources as they would have been able to do, had England been less + anxious about the fate of the Sultan, whose domains were necessary to the + safety of the British Empire as a bulwark against further Russian + aggression. + </p> + <p> + To make matters worse, the congress allowed Austria to take Bosnia and + Herzegovina away from the Turks to be "administered" as part of the + Habsburg domains. It is true that Austria made an excellent job of it. The + neglected provinces were as well managed as the best of the British + colonies, and that is saying a great deal. But they were inhabited by many + Serbians. In older days they had been part of the great Serbian empire of + Stephan Dushan, who early in the fourteenth century had defended western + Europe against the invasions of the Turks and whose capital of Uskub had + been a centre of civilisation one hundred and fifty years before Columbus + discovered the new lands of the west. The Serbians remembered their + ancient glory as who would not? They resented the presence of the + Austrians in two provinces, which, so they felt, were theirs by every + right of tradition. + </p> + <p> + And it was in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, that the archduke + Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was murdered on June 28 of the + year 1914. The assassin was a Serbian student who had acted from purely + patriotic motives. + </p> + <p> + But the blame for this terrible catastrophe which was the immediate, + though not the only cause of the Great World War did not lie with the + half-crazy Serbian boy or his Austrian victim. It must be traced back to + the days of the famous Berlin Conference when Europe was too busy building + a material civilisation to care about the aspirations and the dreams of a + forgotten race in a dreary corner of the old Balkan peninsula. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A NEW WORLD + </h2> + <h3> + THE GREAT WAR WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW AND BETTER WORLD + </h3> + <p> + THE Marquis de Condorcet was one of the noblest characters among the small + group of honest enthusiasts who were responsible for the outbreak of the + great French Revolution. He had devoted his life to the cause of the poor + and the unfortunate. He had been one of the assistants of d'Alembert and + Diderot when they wrote their famous Encyclopedie. During the first years + of the Revolution he had been the leader of the Moderate wing of the + Convention. + </p> + <p> + His tolerance, his kindliness, his stout common sense, had made him an + object of suspicion when the treason of the king and the court clique had + given the extreme radicals their chance to get hold of the government and + kill their opponents. Condorcet was declared "hors de loi," or outlawed, + an outcast who was henceforth at the mercy of every true patriot. His + friends offered to hide him at their own peril. Condorcet refused to + accept their sacrifice. He escaped and tried to reach his home, where he + might be safe. After three nights in the open, torn and bleeding, he + entered an inn and asked for some food. The suspicious yokels searched him + and in his pockets they found a copy of Horace, the Latin poet. This + showed that their prisoner was a man of gentle breeding and had no + business upon the highroads at a time when every educated person was + regarded as an enemy of the Revolutionary state. They took Condorcet and + they bound him and they gagged him and they threw him into the village + lock-up, but in the morning when the soldiers came to drag him back to + Paris and cut his head off, behold! he was dead. + </p> + <p> + This man who had given all and had received nothing had good reason to + despair of the human race. But he has written a few sentences which ring + as true to-day as they did one hundred and thirty years ago. I repeat them + here for your benefit. + </p> + <p> + "Nature has set no limits to our hopes," he wrote, "and the picture of the + human race, now freed from its chains and marching with a firm tread on + the road of truth and virtue and happiness, offers to the philosopher a + spectacle which consoles him for the errors, for the crimes and the + injustices which still pollute and afflict this earth." + </p> + <p> + The world has just passed through an agony of pain compared to which the + French Revolution was a mere incident. The shock has been so great that it + has killed the last spark of hope in the breasts of millions of men. They + were chanting a hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter followed + their prayers for peace. "Is it worth while," so they ask, "to work and + slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed beyond the + stage of the earliest cave men?" + </p> + <p> + There is but one answer. + </p> + <p> + That answer is "Yes!" + </p> + <p> + The World War was a terrible calamity. But it did not mean the end of + things. On the contrary it brought about the coming of a new day. + </p> + <p> + It is easy to write a history of Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages. The + actors who played their parts upon that long-forgotten stage are all dead. + We can criticize them with a cool head. The audience that applauded their + efforts has dispersed. Our remarks cannot possibly hurt their feelings. + </p> + <p> + But it is very difficult to give a true account of contemporary events. + The problems that fill the minds of the people with whom we pass through + life, are our own problems, and they hurt us too much or they please us + too well to be described with that fairness which is necessary when we are + writing history and not blowing the trumpet of propaganda. All the same I + shall endeavour to tell you why I agree with poor Condorcet when he + expressed his firm faith in a better future. + </p> + <p> + Often before have I warned you against the false impression which is + created by the use of our so-called historical epochs which divide the + story of man into four parts, the ancient world, the Middle Ages, the + Renaissance and the Reformation, and Modern Time. The last of these terms + is the most dangerous. The word "modern" implies that we, the people of + the twentieth century, are at the top of human achievement. Fifty years + ago the liberals of England who followed the leadership of Gladstone felt + that the problem of a truly representative and democratic form of + government had been solved forever by the second great Reform Bill, which + gave workmen an equal share in the government with their employers. When + Disraeli and his conservative friends talked of a dangerous "leap in the + dark" they answered "No." They felt certain of their cause and trusted + that henceforth all classes of society would co-operate to make the + government of their common country a success. Since then many things have + happened, and the few liberals who are still alive begin to understand + that they were mistaken. + </p> + <p> + There is no definite answer to any historical problem. + </p> + <p> + Every generation must fight the good fight anew or perish as those + sluggish animals of the prehistoric world have perished. + </p> + <p> + If you once get hold of this great truth you will get a new and much + broader view of life. Then, go one step further and try to imagine + yourself in the position of your own great-great-grandchildren who will + take your place in the year 10,000. They too will learn history. But what + will they think of those short four thousand years during which we have + kept a written record of our actions and of our thoughts? They will think + of Napoleon as a contemporary of Tiglath Pileser, the Assyrian conqueror. + Perhaps they will confuse him with Jenghiz Khan or Alexander the + Macedonian. The great war which has just come to an end will appear in the + light of that long commercial conflict which settled the supremacy of the + Mediterranean when Rome and Carthage fought during one hundred and + twenty-eight years for the mastery of the sea. The Balkan troubles of the + 19th century (the struggle for freedom of Serbia and Greece and Bulgaria + and Montenegro) to them will seem a continuation of the disordered + conditions caused by the Great Migrations. They will look at pictures of + the Rheims cathedral which only yesterday was destroyed by German guns as + we look upon a photograph of the Acropolis ruined two hundred and fifty + years ago during a war between the Turks and the Venetians. They will + regard the fear of death, which is still common among many people, as a + childish superstition which was perhaps natural in a race of men who had + burned witches as late as the year 1692. Even our hospitals and our + laboratories and our operating rooms of which we are so proud will look + like slightly improved workshops of alchemists and mediaeval surgeons. + </p> + <p> + And the reason for all this is simple. We modern men and women are not + "modern" at all. On the contrary we still belong to the last generations + of the cave-dwellers. The foundation for a new era was laid but yesterday. + The human race was given its first chance to become truly civilised when + it took courage to question all things and made "knowledge and + understanding" the foundation upon which to create a more reasonable and + sensible society of human beings. The Great War was the "growing-pain" of + this new world. + </p> + <p> + For a long time to come people will write mighty books to prove that this + or that or the other person brought about the war. The Socialists will + publish volumes in which they will accuse the "capitalists" of having + brought about the war for "commercial gain." The capitalists will answer + that they lost infinitely more through the war than they made—that + their children were among the first to go and fight and be killed—and + they will show how in every country the bankers tried their very best to + avert the outbreak of hostilities. French historians will go through the + register of German sins from the days of Charlemagne until the days of + William of Hohenzollern and German historians will return the compliment + and will go through the list of French horrors from the days of + Charlemagne until the days of President Poincare. And then they will + establish to their own satisfaction that the other fellow was guilty of + "causing the war." Statesmen, dead and not yet dead, in all countries will + take to their typewriters and they will explain how they tried to avert + hostilities and how their wicked opponents forced them into it. + </p> + <p> + The historian, a hundred years hence, will not bother about these + apologies and vindications. He will understand the real nature of the + underlying causes and he will know that personal ambitions and personal + wickedness and personal greed had very little to do with the final + outburst. The original mistake, which was responsible for all this misery, + was committed when our scientists began to create a new world of steel and + iron and chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human mind is + slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known sloth, + and marches from one hundred to three hundred years behind the small group + of courageous leaders. + </p> + <p> + A Zulu in a frock coat is still a Zulu. A dog trained to ride a bicycle + and smoke a pipe is still a dog. And a human being with the mind of a + sixteenth century tradesman driving a 1921 Rolls-Royce is still a human + being with the mind of a sixteenth century tradesman. + </p> + <p> + If you do not understand this at first, read it again. It will become + clearer to you in a moment and it will explain many things that have + happened these last six years. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps I may give you another, more familiar, example, to show you what I + mean. In the movie theatres, jokes and funny remarks are often thrown upon + the screen. Watch the audience the next time you have a chance. A few + people seem almost to inhale the words. It takes them but a second to read + the lines. Others are a bit slower. Still others take from twenty to + thirty seconds. Finally those men and women who do not read any more than + they can help, get the point when the brighter ones among the audience + have already begun to decipher the next cut-in. It is not different in + human life, as I shall now show you. + </p> + <p> + In a former chapter I have told you how the idea of the Roman Empire + continued to live for a thousand years after the death of the last Roman + Emperor. It caused the establishment of a large number of "imitation + empires." It gave the Bishops of Rome a chance to make themselves the head + of the entire church, because they represented the idea of Roman + world-supremacy. It drove a number of perfectly harmless barbarian + chieftains into a career of crime and endless warfare because they were + for ever under the spell of this magic word "Rome." All these people, + Popes, Emperors and plain fighting men were not very different from you or + me. But they lived in a world where the Roman tradition was a vital issue + something living—something which was remembered clearly both by the + father and the son and the grandson. And so they struggled and sacrificed + themselves for a cause which to-day would not find a dozen recruits. + </p> + <p> + In still another chapter I have told you how the great religious wars took + place more than a century after the first open act of the Reformation and + if you will compare the chapter on the Thirty Years War with that on + Inventions, you will see that this ghastly butchery took place at a time + when the first clumsy steam engines were already puffing in the + laboratories of a number of French and German and English scientists. But + the world at large took no interest in these strange contraptions, and + went on with a grand theological discussion which to-day causes yawns, but + no anger. + </p> + <p> + And so it goes. A thousand years from now, the historian will use the same + words about Europe of the out-going nineteenth century, and he will see + how men were engaged upon terrific nationalistic struggles while the + laboratories all around them were filled with serious folk who cared not + one whit for politics as long as they could force nature to surrender a + few more of her million secrets. + </p> + <p> + You will gradually begin to understand what I am driving at. The engineer + and the scientist and the chemist, within a single generation, filled + Europe and America and Asia with their vast machines, with their + telegraphs, their flying machines, their coal-tar products. They created a + new world in which time and space were reduced to complete insignificance. + They invented new products and they made these so cheap that almost every + one could buy them. I have told you all this before but it certainly will + bear repeating. + </p> + <p> + To keep the ever increasing number of factories going, the owners, who had + also become the rulers of the land, needed raw materials and coal. + Especially coal. Meanwhile the mass of the people were still thinking in + terms of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and clinging to the old + notions of the state as a dynastic or political organisation. This clumsy + mediaeval institution was then suddenly called upon to handle the highly + modern problems of a mechanical and industrial world. It did its best, + according to the rules of the game which had been laid down centuries + before. The different states created enormous armies and gigantic navies + which were used for the purpose of acquiring new possessions in distant + lands. Whereever{sic} there was a tiny bit of land left, there arose an + English or a French or a German or a Russian colony. If the natives + objected, they were killed. In most cases they did not object, and were + allowed to live peacefully, provided they did not interfere with the + diamond mines or the coal mines or the oil mines or the gold mines or the + rubber plantations, and they derived many benefits from the foreign + occupation. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes it happened that two states in search of raw materials wanted + the same piece of land at the same time. Then there was a war. This + occurred fifteen years ago when Russia and Japan fought for the possession + of certain terri-tories which belonged to the Chinese people. Such + conflicts, however, were the exception. No one really desired to fight. + Indeed, the idea of fighting with armies and battleships and submarines + began to seem absurd to the men of the early 20th century. They associated + the idea of violence with the long-ago age of unlimited monarchies and + intriguing dynasties. Every day they read in their papers of still further + inventions, of groups of English and American and German scientists who + were working together in perfect friendship for the purpose of an advance + in medicine or in astronomy. They lived in a busy world of trade and of + commerce and factories. But only a few noticed that the development of the + state, (of the gigantic community of people who recognise certain common + ideals,) was lagging several hundred years behind. They tried to warn the + others. But the others were occupied with their own affairs. + </p> + <p> + I have used so many similes that I must apologise for bringing in one + more. The Ship of State (that old and trusted expression which is ever new + and always picturesque,) of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans + and the Venetians and the merchant adventurers of the seventeenth century + had been a sturdy craft, constructed of well-seasoned wood, and commanded + by officers who knew both their crew and their vessel and who understood + the limitations of the art of navigating which had been handed down to + them by their ancestors. + </p> + <p> + Then came the new age of iron and steel and machinery. First one part, + then another of the old ship of state was changed. Her dimensions were + increased. The sails were discarded for steam. Better living quarters were + established, but more people were forced to go down into the stoke-hole, + and while the work was safe and fairly remunerative, they did not like it + as well as their old and more dangerous job in the rigging. Finally, and + almost imperceptibly, the old wooden square-rigger had been transformed + into a modern ocean liner. But the captain and the mates remained the + same. They were appointed or elected in the same way as a hundred years + before. They were taught the same system of navigation which had served + the mariners of the fifteenth century. In their cabins hung the same + charts and signal flags which had done service in the days of Louis XIV + and Frederick the Great. In short, they were (through no fault of their + own) completely incompetent. + </p> + <p> + The sea of international politics is not very broad. When those Imperial + and Colonial liners began to try and outrun each other, accidents were + bound to happen. They did happen. You can still see the wreckage if you + venture to pass through that part of the ocean. + </p> + <p> + And the moral of the story is a simple one. The world is in dreadful need + of men who will assume the new leadership—who will have the courage + of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at + the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of + seamanship. + </p> + <p> + They will have to serve for years as mere apprentices. They will have to + fight their way to the top against every possible form of opposition. When + they reach the bridge, mutiny of an envious crew may cause their death. + But some day, a man will arise who will bring the vessel safely to port, + and he shall be the hero of the ages. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AS IT EVER SHALL BE + </h2> + <p> + "The more I think of the problems of our lives, the more I am persuaded + that we ought to choose Irony and Pity for our "assessors and judges" as + the ancient Egyptians called upon "the Goddess Isis and the Goddess + Nephtys" on behalf of their dead. "Irony and Pity" are both of good + counsel; the first with her "smiles" makes life agreeable; the other + sanctifies it with her tears." "The Irony which I invoke is no cruel + Deity. She mocks neither love nor beauty. She is gentle and kindly + disposed. Her mirth disarms and it is she who teaches us to laugh at + rogues and fools, whom but for her we might be so weak as to despise and + hate." + </p> + <p> + And with these wise words of a very great Frenchman I bid you farewell. 8 + Barrow Street, New York. Saturday, June 26, xxi. + </p> + <p> + AN ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY, 500,000 B.C.—A.D. 1922 THE END <a + name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONCERNING THE PICTURES + </h2> + <p> + CONCERNING THE PICTURES OF THIS BOOK AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE + BIBLIOGRAPHY. + </p> + <p> + The day of the historical textbook without illustrations has gone. + Pictures and photographs of famous personages and equally famous + occurrences cover the pages of Breasted and Robinson and Beard. In this + volume the photographs have been omitted to make room for a series of + home-made drawings which represent ideas rather than events. + </p> + <p> + While the author lays no claim to great artistic excellence (being + possessed of a decided leaning towards drawing as a child, he was taught + to play the violin as a matter of discipline,) he prefers to make his own + maps and sketches because he knows exactly what he wants to say and cannot + possibly explain this meaning to his more proficient brethren in the field + of art. Besides, the pictures were all drawn for children and their ideas + of art are very different from those of their parents. + </p> + <p> + To all teachers the author would give this advice—let your boys and + girls draw their history after their own desire just as often as you have + a chance. You can show a class a photograph of a Greek temple or a + mediaeval castle and the class will dutifully say, "Yes, Ma'am," and + proceed to forget all about it. But make the Greek temple or the Roman + castle the centre of an event, tell the boys to make their own picture of + "the building of a temple," or "the storming of the castle," and they will + stay after school-hours to finish the job. Most children, before they are + taught how to draw from plaster casts, can draw after a fashion, and often + they can draw remarkably well. The product of their pencil may look a bit + prehistoric. It may even resemble the work of certain native tribes from + the upper Congo. But the child is quite frequently prehistoric or + upper-Congoish in his or her own tastes, and expresses these primitive + instincts with a most astonishing accuracy. + </p> + <p> + The main thing in teaching history, is that the pupil shall remember + certain events "in their proper sequence." The experiments of many years + in the Children's School of New York has convinced the author that few + children will ever forget what they have drawn, while very few will ever + remember what they have merely read. + </p> + <p> + It is the same with the maps. Give the child an ordinary conventional map + with dots and lines and green seas and tell him to revaluate that + geographic scene in his or her own terms. The mountains will be a bit out + of gear and the cities will look astonishingly mediaeval. The outlines + will be often very imperfect, but the general effect will be quite as + truthful as that of our conventional maps, which ever since the days of + good Gerardus Mercator have told a strangely erroneous story. Most + important of all, it will give the child a feeling of intimacy with + historical and geographic facts which cannot be obtained in any other way. + </p> + <p> + Neither the publishers nor the author claim that "The Story of Mankind" is + the last word to be said upon the subject of history for children. It is + an appetizer. The book tries to present the subject in such a fashion that + the average child shall get a taste for History and shall ask for more. + </p> + <p> + To facilitate the work of both parents and teachers, the publishers have + asked Miss Leonore St. John Power (who knows more upon this particular + subject than any one else they could discover) to compile a list of + readable and instructive books. + </p> + <p> + The list was made and was duly printed. + </p> + <p> + The parents who live near our big cities will experience no difficulty in + ordering these volumes from their booksellers. Those who for the sake of + fresh air and quiet, dwell in more remote spots, may not find it + convenient to go to a book-store. In that case, Boni and Liveright will be + happy to act as middle-man and obtain the books that are desired. They + want it to be distinctly understood that they have not gone into the + retail book business, but they are quite willing to do their share towards + a better and more general historical education, and all orders will + receive their immediate attention. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN + </h2> + <p> + "Don't stop (I say) to explain that Hebe was (for once) the legitimate + daughter of Zeus and, as such, had the privilege to draw wine for the + Gods. Don't even stop, just yet, to explain who the Gods were. Don't + discourse on amber, otherwise ambergris; don't explain that 'gris' in this + connection doesn't mean 'grease'; don't trace it through the Arabic into + Noah's Ark; don't prove its electrical properties by tearing up paper into + little bits and attracting them with the mouth-piece of your pipe rubbed + on your sleeve. Don't insist philologically that when every shepherd + 'tells his tale' he is not relating an anecdote but simply keeping 'tally' + of his flock. Just go on reading, as well as you can, and be sure that + when the children get the thrill of the story, for which you wait, they + will be asking more questions, and pertinent ones, than you are able to + answer."—("On the Art of Reading for Children," by Sir Arthur + Quiller-Couch.) + </p> + <p> + The Days Before History + </p> + <p> + "How the Present Came From the Past," by Margaret E. Wells, Volume I. + </p> + <p> + How earliest man learned to make tools and build homes, and the stories he + told about the fire-makers, the sun and the frost. A simple, illustrated + account of these things for children. "The Story of Ab," by Stanley + Waterloo. + </p> + <p> + A romantic tale of the time of the cave-man. (A much simplified edition of + this for little children is "Ab, the Cave Man" adapted by William Lewis + Nida.) "Industrial and Social History Series," by Katharine E. Dopp. + </p> + <p> + "The Tree Dwellers—The Age of Fear" + </p> + <p> + "The Early Cave-Men—The Age of Combat" + </p> + <p> + "The Later Cave-Men—The Age of the Chase" + </p> + <p> + "The Early Sea People—First Steps in the Conquest of the Waters" + </p> + <p> + "The Tent-Dwellers—The Early Fishing Men" + </p> + <p> + Very simple stories of the way in which man learned how to make pottery, + how to weave and spin, and how to conquer land and sea. + </p> + <p> + "Ancient Man," written and drawn and done into colour by Hendrik Willem + van Loon. + </p> + <p> + The beginning of civilisations pictured and written in a new and + fascinating fashion, with story maps showing exactly what happened in all + parts of the world. A book for children of all ages. + </p> + <p> + The Dawn of History + </p> + <p> + "The Civilisation of the Ancient Egyptians," by A. Bothwell Gosse. + </p> + <p> + "No country possesses so many wonders, and has such a number of works + which defy description." An excellent, profusely illustrated account of + the domestic life, amusements, art, religion and occupations of these + wonderful people. "How the Present Came From the Past," by Margaret E. + Wells, Volume II. + </p> + <p> + What the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and the Persians + contributed to civilisation. This is brief and simple and may be used as a + first book on the subject. + </p> + <p> + "Stories of Egyptian Gods and Heroes," by F. H. Brooksbank. + </p> + <p> + The beliefs of the Egyptians, the legend of Isis and Osiris, the builders + of the Pyramids and the Temples, the Riddle of the Sphinx, all add to the + fascination of this romantic picture of Egypt. + </p> + <p> + "Wonder Tales of the Ancient World," by Rev. James Baikie. + </p> + <p> + Tales of the Wizards, Tales of Travel and Adventure, and Legends of the + Gods all gathered from ancient Egyptian literature. + </p> + <p> + "Ancient Assyria," by Rev. James Baikie. + </p> + <p> + Which tells of a city 2800 years ago with a street lined with beautiful + enamelled reliefs, and with libraries of clay. + </p> + <p> + "The Bible for Young People," arranged from the King James version, with + twenty-four full page illustrations from old masters. + </p> + <p> + "Old, Old Tales From the Old, Old Book," by Nora Archibald Smith. + </p> + <p> + "Written in the East these characters live forever in the West—they + pervade the world." A good rendering of the Old Testament. "The Jewish + Fairy Book," translated and adapted by Gerald Friedlander. + </p> + <p> + Stories of great nobility and beauty from the Talmud and the old Jewish + chap-books. "Eastern Stories and Legends," by Marie L. Shedlock. + </p> + <p> + "The soldiers of Alexander who had settled in the East, wandering + merchants of many nations and climes, crusading knights and hermits + brought these Buddha Stories from the East to the West." + </p> + <p> + Stories of Greece and Rome "The Story of the Golden Age," by James + Baldwin. + </p> + <p> + Some of the most beautiful of the old Greek myths woven into the story of + the Odyssey make this book a good introduction to the glories of the + Golden Age. "A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, + with pictures by Maxfield Parrish. + </p> + <p> + "The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy," by Padraic Colum, + presented by Willy Pogany. + </p> + <p> + An attractive, poetically rendered account of "the world's greatest + story." + </p> + <p> + "The Story of Rome," by Mary Macgregor, with twenty plates in colour. + </p> + <p> + Attractively illustrated and simply presented story of Rome from the + earliest times to the death of Augustus. + </p> + <p> + "Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls," retold by W. H. Weston. "The Lays + of Ancient Rome," by Lord Macaulay. + </p> + <p> + "The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything else + in Latin Literature." + </p> + <p> + "Children of the Dawn," by Elsie Finnemore Buckley. + </p> + <p> + Old Greek tales of love, adventure, heroism, skill, achievement, or defeat + exceptionally well told. Especially recommended for girls. + </p> + <p> + "The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children," by Charles Kingsley. + </p> + <p> + "The Story of Greece," by Mary Macgregor, with nineteen plates in colour + by Walter Crane. + </p> + <p> + Attractively illustrated and simply presented—a good book to begin + on. + </p> + <p> + Christianity + </p> + <p> + "The Story of Jesus," pictures from paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, + Duccio, Ghirlandais, and Barnja-da-Siena. Descriptive text from the New + Testament, selected and arranged by Ethel Natalie Dana. + </p> + <p> + A beautiful book and a beautiful way to present the Christ Story. "A + Child's Book of Saints," by William Canton. + </p> + <p> + Sympathetically told and charmingly written stories of men and women whose + faith brought about strange miracles, and whose goodness to man and beast + set the world wondering. "The Seven Champions of Christendom," edited by + F. J. H. Darton. + </p> + <p> + How the knights of old—St. George of England, St. Denis of France, + St. James of Spain, and others—fought with enchanters and evil + spirits to preserve the Kingdom of God. Fine old romances interestingly + told for children. "Stories From the Christian East," by Stephen Gaselee. + </p> + <p> + Unusual stories which have been translated from the Coptic, the Greek, the + Latin and the Ethiopic. "Jerusalem and the Crusades," by Estelle Blyth, + with eight plates in colour. + </p> + <p> + Historical stories telling how children and priests, hermits and knights + all strove to keep the Cross in the East. + </p> + <p> + Stories of Legend and Chivalry + </p> + <p> + "Stories of Norse Heroes From the Eddas and Sagas," retold by E. M. + Wilmot-Buxton. + </p> + <p> + These are tales which the Northmen tell concerning the wisdom of + All-Father Odin, and how all things began and how they ended. A good book + for all children, and for story-tellers. "The Story of Siegfried," by + James Baldwin. + </p> + <p> + A good introduction to this Northern hero whose strange and daring deeds + fill the pages of the old sagas. "The Story of King Arthur and His + Knights," written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. + </p> + <p> + This, and the companion volumes, "The Story of the Champions of the Round + Table," "The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions," "The Story of the + Grail and the Passing of Arthur," form an incomparable collection for + children. "The Boy's King Arthur," edited by Sidney Lanier, illustrated by + N. C. Wyeth. + </p> + <p> + A very good rendering of Malory's King Arthur, made especially attractive + by the coloured illustrations. "Irish Fairy Tales," by James Stephens, + illustrated by Arthur Rackham. + </p> + <p> + Beautifully pictured and poetically told legends of Ireland's epic hero + Fionn. A book for the boy or girl who loves the old romances, and a book + for story-telling or reading aloud. "Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve + Peers of France," by A. J. Church. + </p> + <p> + Stories from the old French and English chronicles showing the romantic + glamour surrounding the great Charlemagne and his crusading knights. "The + Merry Adventures of Robin Hood," written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. + </p> + <p> + Both in picture and in story this book holds first place in the hearts of + children. "A Book of Ballad Stories," by Mary Macleod. + </p> + <p> + Good prose versions of some of the famous old ballads sung by the + minstrels of England and Scotland. "The Story of Roland," by James + Baldwin. + </p> + <p> + "There is, in short, no country in Europe, and no language, in which the + exploits of Charlemagne and Roland have not at some time been recounted + and sung." This book will serve as a good introduction to a fine heroic + character. "The Boy's Froissart," being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of + Adventure, Battle, and Custom in England, France, Spain. + </p> + <p> + "Froissart sets the boy's mind upon manhood and the man's mind upon + boyhood." An invaluable background for the future study of history. "The + Boy's Percy," being old ballads of War, Adventure and Love from Percy's + Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, edited by Sidney Lanier. + </p> + <p> + "He who walks in the way these following ballads point, will be manful in + necessary fight, loyal in love, generous to the poor, tender in the + household, prudent in living, merry upon occasion, and honest in all + things." "Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims," retold from Chaucer and + others by E. J H. Darton. + </p> + <p> + "Sometimes a pilgrimage seemed nothing but an excuse for a lively and + pleasant holiday, and the travellers often made themselves very merry on + the road, with their jests and songs, and their flutes and fiddles and + bagpipes." A good prose version much enjoyed by boys and girls. "Joan of + Arc," written and illustrated by M. Boutet de Monvel. + </p> + <p> + A very fine interpretation of the life of this great heroine. A book to be + owned by every boy and girl. "When Knights Were Bold," by Eva March + Tappan. + </p> + <p> + Telling of the training of a knight, of the daily life in a castle, of + pilgrimages and crusades, of merchant guilds, of schools and literature, + in short, a full picture of life in the days of chivalry. A good book to + supplement the romantic stories of the time. + </p> + <p> + Adventurers in New Worlds + </p> + <p> + "A Book of Discovery," by M. B. Synge, fully illustrated from authentic + sources and with maps. + </p> + <p> + A thoroughly fascinating book about the world's exploration from the + earliest times to the discovery of the South Pole. A book to be owned by + older boys and girls who like true tales of adventure. "A Short History of + Discovery From the Earliest Times to the Founding of the Colonies on the + American Continent," written and done into colour by Hendrik Willem van + Loon. + </p> + <p> + "Dear Children: History is the most fascinating and entertaining and + instructive of arts." A book to delight children of all ages. "The Story + of Marco Polo," by Noah Brooks. "Olaf the Glorious," by Robert Leighton. + </p> + <p> + An historical story of the Viking age. "The Conquerors of Mexico," retold + from Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," by Henry Gilbert. "The Conquerors of + Peru," retold from Prescott's "Conquest of Peru," by Henry Gilbert. + "Vikings of the Pacific," by A. C. Laut. + </p> + <p> + Adventures of Bering the Dane; the outlaw hunters of Russia; Benyowsky, + the Polish pirate; Cook and Vancouver; Drake, and other soldiers of + fortune on the West Coast of America. "The Argonauts of Faith," by Basil + Mathews. + </p> + <p> + The Adventures of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. "Pathfinders of the West," by + A. C. Laut. + </p> + <p> + The thrilling story of the adventures of the men who discovered the great + Northwest. + </p> + <p> + "Beyond the Old Frontier," by George Bird Grinnell. + </p> + <p> + Adventures of Indian Fighters, Hunters, and Fur-Traders on the Pacific + Coast. "A History of Travel in America," by Seymour Dunbar, illustrated + from old woodcuts and engravings. 4 volumes. + </p> + <p> + An interesting book for children who wish to understand the problems and + difficulties their grandfathers had in the conquest of the West. This is a + standard book upon the subject of early travel, but is so readable as to + be of interest to older children. + </p> + <p> + "The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators," by Hendrik Willem van Loon. + Fully illustrated from old prints. + </p> + <p> + The World's Progress in Invention—Art—Music. + </p> + <p> + "Gabriel and the Hour Book," by Evaleen Stein. + </p> + <p> + How a boy learned from the monks how to grind and mix the colours for + illuminating the beautiful hand-printed books of the time and how he + himself made books that are now treasured in the museums of France and + England. "Historic Inventions," by Rupert S. Holland. + </p> + <p> + Stories of the invention of printing, the steam-engine, the + spinning-jenny, the safety-lamp, the sewing machine, electric light, and + other wonders of mechanism. "A History of Everyday Things in England," + written and illustrated by Marjorie and C. V. B. Quennell. 2 Volumes. + </p> + <p> + A most fascinating book, profusely illustrated in black and white and in + colour, giving a vivid picture of life in England from 1066-1799. It tells + of wars and of home-life, of amusements and occupations, of art and + literature, of science and invention. A book to be owned by every boy and + girl. "First Steps in the Enjoyment of Pictures," by Maude I. G. Oliver. + </p> + <p> + A book designed to help children in their appreciation of art by giving + them technical knowledge of the media, the draughtsmanship, the + composition and the technique of well-known American pictures. "Knights of + Art," by Amy Steedman. + </p> + <p> + Stories of Italian Painters. Attractively illustrated in colour from old + masters. "Masters of Music," by Anna Alice Chapin. "Story Lives of Men of + Science," by F. J. Rowbotham. "All About Treasures of the Earth," by + Frederick A. Talbot. + </p> + <p> + A book that tells many interesting things about coal, salt, iron, rare + metals and precious stones. "The Boys' Book of New Inventions," by Harry + E. Maule. + </p> + <p> + An account of the machines and mechancial{sic} processes that are making + the history of our time more dramatic than that of any other age since the + world began. "Masters of Space," by Walter Kellogg Towers. + </p> + <p> + Stories of the wonders of telegraphing through the air and beneath the sea + with signals, and of speaking across continents. "All About Railways," by + F. S. Hartnell. "The Man-of-War, What She Has Done and What She Is Doing," + by Commander E. Hamilton Currey. + </p> + <p> + True stories about galleys and pirate ships, about the Spanish Main and + famous frigates, and about slave-hunting expeditions in the days of old. + </p> + <p> + The Democracy of To-Day. + </p> + <p> + "The Land of Fair Play," by Geoffrey Parsons. + </p> + <p> + "This book aims to make clear the great, unseen services that America + renders each of us, and the active devotion each of us must yield in + return for America to endure." An excellent book on our government for + boys and girls. "The American Idea as Expounded by American Statesmen," + compiled by Joseph B. Gilder. + </p> + <p> + A good collection, including The Declaration of Independence, The + Constitution of the United States, the Monroe Doctrine, and the famous + speeches of Washington, Lincoln, Webster and Roosevelt. "The Making of an + American," by Jacob A. Riis. + </p> + <p> + The true story of a Danish boy who became one of America's finest + citizens. "The Promised Land," by Mary Antin. + </p> + <p> + A true story about a little immigrant. "Before we came, the New World knew + not the Old; but since we have begun to come, the Young World has taken + the Old by the hand, and the two are learning to march side by side, + seeking a common destiny." + </p> + <p> + Illustrated Histories in French. + </p> + <p> + (The colourful and graphic pictures make these histories beloved by all + children whether they read the text or not.) "Voyages et Glorieuses + Decouvertes des Grands Navigateurs et Explorateurs Francais, illustre par + Edy Segrand." "Collection d'Albums Historiques." Louis XI, texte de + Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de Job. Francois I, texte de G. Gustave + Toudouze, aquarelles de Job. Henri IV, texte de Georges Montorgueil, + aquarelles de H. Yogel. Richelieu, texte de Th. Cahu, aquarelles de + Maurice Leloir. Le Roy Soleil, texte de Gustave Toudouze, aquarelles de + Mauriae Leloir. Bonaparte, texte de Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de + Job. "Fabliaux et Contes du Moyen-Age"; illustrations de A. Robida + </p> + <p> + INDEX {Not included} + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF MANKIND *** + +***** This file should be named 754-h.htm or 754-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/5/754/ + +Produced by Charles Keller, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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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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 + + +Title: The Story of Mankind + +Author: Hendrik van Loon + +Release Date: December, 1996 [Etext #754] +Posting Date: November 27, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF MANKIND *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller + + + + + +THE STORY OF MANKIND + +By Hendrik Van Loon, Ph.D. + +Professor of the Social Sciences in Antioch College. Author of The Fall +of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, The Golden Book of +the Dutch Navigators, A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man. + + + + + +Frontispiece caption= THE SCENE OF OUR HISTORY IS LAID UPON A LITTLE +PLANET, LOST IN THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. + + +To JIMMIE "What is the use of a book without pictures?" said Alice. + + + + +FOREWORD + +For Hansje and Willem: + + +WHEN I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle of mine who gave me +my love for books and pictures promised to take me upon a memorable +expedition. I was to go with him to the top of the tower of Old Saint +Lawrence in Rotterdam. + +And so, one fine day, a sexton with a key as large as that of Saint +Peter opened a mysterious door. "Ring the bell," he said, "when you come +back and want to get out," and with a great grinding of rusty old hinges +he separated us from the noise of the busy street and locked us into a +world of new and strange experiences. + +For the first time in my life I was confronted by the phenomenon of +audible silence. When we had climbed the first flight of stairs, I added +another discovery to my limited knowledge of natural phenomena--that of +tangible darkness. A match showed us where the upward road continued. +We went to the next floor and then to the next and the next until I had +lost count and then there came still another floor, and suddenly we had +plenty of light. This floor was on an even height with the roof of the +church, and it was used as a storeroom. Covered with many inches of +dust, there lay the abandoned symbols of a venerable faith which had +been discarded by the good people of the city many years ago. That which +had meant life and death to our ancestors was here reduced to junk and +rubbish. The industrious rat had built his nest among the carved images +and the ever watchful spider had opened up shop between the outspread +arms of a kindly saint. + +The next floor showed us from where we had derived our light. Enormous +open windows with heavy iron bars made the high and barren room the +roosting place of hundreds of pigeons. The wind blew through the iron +bars and the air was filled with a weird and pleasing music. It was +the noise of the town below us, but a noise which had been purified and +cleansed by the distance. The rumbling of heavy carts and the clinking +of horses' hoofs, the winding of cranes and pulleys, the hissing sound +of the patient steam which had been set to do the work of man in +a thousand different ways--they had all been blended into a softly +rustling whisper which provided a beautiful background for the trembling +cooing of the pigeons. + +Here the stairs came to an end and the ladders began. And after the +first ladder (a slippery old thing which made one feel his way with a +cautious foot) there was a new and even greater wonder, the town-clock. +I saw the heart of time. I could hear the heavy pulsebeats of the rapid +seconds--one--two--three--up to sixty. Then a sudden quivering noise +when all the wheels seemed to stop and another minute had been chopped +off eternity. Without pause it began again--one--two--three--until at +last after a warning rumble and the scraping of many wheels a thunderous +voice, high above us, told the world that it was the hour of noon. + +On the next floor were the bells. The nice little bells and their +terrible sisters. In the centre the big bell, which made me turn stiff +with fright when I heard it in the middle of the night telling a story +of fire or flood. In solitary grandeur it seemed to reflect upon those +six hundred years during which it had shared the joys and the sorrows of +the good people of Rotterdam. Around it, neatly arranged like the blue +jars in an old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows, who +twice each week played a merry tune for the benefit of the country-folk +who had come to market to buy and sell and hear what the big world had +been doing. But in a corner--all alone and shunned by the others--a big +black bell, silent and stern, the bell of death. + +Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and even more +dangerous than those we had climbed before, and suddenly the fresh air +of the wide heavens. We had reached the highest gallery. Above us the +sky. Below us the city--a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily +crawling hither and thither, each one intent upon his or her particular +business, and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the +open country. + +It was my first glimpse of the big world. + +Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have gone to the top +of the tower and enjoyed myself. It was hard work, but it repaid in full +the mere physical exertion of climbing a few stairs. + +Besides, I knew what my reward would be. I would see the land and the +sky, and I would listen to the stories of my kind friend the watchman, +who lived in a small shack, built in a sheltered corner of the gallery. +He looked after the clock and was a father to the bells, and he warned +of fires, but he enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and +thought his own peaceful thoughts. He had gone to school almost fifty +years before and he had rarely read a book, but he had lived on the top +of his tower for so many years that he had absorbed the wisdom of that +wide world which surrounded him on all sides. + +History he knew well, for it was a living thing with him. "There," he +would say, pointing to a bend of the river, "there, my boy, do you see +those trees? That is where the Prince of Orange cut the dikes to drown +the land and save Leyden." Or he would tell me the tale of the old +Meuse, until the broad river ceased to be a convenient harbour and +became a wonderful highroad, carrying the ships of De Ruyter and Tromp +upon that famous last voyage, when they gave their lives that the sea +might be free to all. + +Then there were the little villages, clustering around the protecting +church which once, many years ago, had been the home of their Patron +Saints. In the distance we could see the leaning tower of Delft. Within +sight of its high arches, William the Silent had been murdered and there +Grotius had learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still +further away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home +of the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of many an +emperor, the charity-boy whom the world came to know as Erasmus. + +Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast, +immediately below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys and houses +and gardens and hospitals and schools and railways, which we called our +home. But the tower showed us the old home in a new light. The confused +commotion of the streets and the market-place, of the factories and +the workshop, became the well-ordered expression of human energy +and purpose. Best of all, the wide view of the glorious past, which +surrounded us on all sides, gave us new courage to face the problems of +the future when we had gone back to our daily tasks. + +History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst +the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top +of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is +no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done. + +Here I give you the key that will open the door. + +When you return, you too will understand the reason for my enthusiasm. + +HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON. + + + +CONTENTS + + + 1. THE SETTING OF THE STAGE + 2. OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS + 3. PREHISTORIC MAX BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS FOR HIMSELF + 4. THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD + OF HISTORY BEGINS + 5. THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE + 6. THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT + 7. MESOPOTAMIA, THE SECOND CENTRE OF EASTERN CIVILISATION + 8. THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US + THE STORY OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC + MELTING-POT + 9. THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE + 10. THE PHOENICIANS, WHO GAVE US OUR ALPHABET + 11. THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER THE SEMITIC AND THE + EGYPTIAN WORLD + 12. THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED THE CIVILISATION + OF OLD ASIA INTO THE WILDERNESS OF EUROPE + 13. MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE OF THE HELLENES WAS + TAKING POSSESSION OF GREECE + 14. THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES + 15. THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT + EXPERIMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT + 16. HOW THE GREEKS LIVED + 17. THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC + AMUSEMENT + 18. HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE AGAINST AN ASIATIC INVASION AND + DROVE THE PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN SEA + 19. HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR + FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF GREECE + 20. ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES A GREEK WORLD + EMPIRE, AND WHAT BECAME OF THIS HIGH AMBITION + 21. A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 TO 20 + 22. THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF + AFRICA AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE WEST + COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH OTHER FOR THE POSSESSION OF + THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE WAS DESTROYED + 23. HOW ROME HAPPENED + 24. HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME, AFTER CENTURIES OF UNREST AND + REVOLUTION, BECAME AN EMPIRE + 25. THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM THE GREEKS CALLED + JESUS + 26. THE TWILIGHT OF ROME + 27. HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD + 28. AHMED, THE CAMEL DRIVER, WHO BECAME THE PROPHET OF THE + ARABIAN DESERT, AND WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST CONQUERED + THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF + ALLAH, THE "ONLY TRUE GOD" + 29. HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE RANKS, CAME TO BEAR + THE TITLE OF EMPEROR AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD IDEAL + OF WORLD-EMPIRE + 30. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY PRAYED THE LORD + TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN + 31. HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM THREE SIDES, BECAME + AN ARMED CAMP AND WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED + WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS AND ADMINISTRATORS + WHO WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM + 32. CHIVALRY + 33. THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE + AGES, AND HOW IT LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE + POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS + 34. BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN + THE TURKS TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY + PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE TRADE FROM + EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING + 35. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SAID THAT CITY AIR + IS FREE AIR + 36. HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED THEIR RIGHT + TO BE HEARD IN THE ROYAL COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY + 37. WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES THOUGHT OF THE + WORLD IN WHICH THEY HAPPENED TO LIVE + 38. HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE MEDITERRANEAN A + BUSY CENTRE OF TRADE AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE ITALIAN + PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE + COMMERCE WITH ASIA AND AFRICA + 39. PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY JUST BECAUSE THEY + WERE ALIVE. THEY TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE + OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION OF ROME AND + GREECE AND THEY WERE 80 PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS + THAT THEY SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE OR RE-BIRTH OF + CIVILISATION + 40. THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF GIVING EXPRESSION + TO THEIR NEWLY DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED + THEIR HAPPINESS IN POETRY AND IN SCULPTURE AND + IN ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING, AND IN THE BOOKS THEY + PRINTED + 41. BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THE BONDS OF + THEIR NARROW MEDIEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO HAVE + MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. THE EUROPEAN WORLD + HAD GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. IT WAS THE + TIME OF THE GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY + 42. CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + 43. THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST COMPARED TO A + GIGANTIC PENDULUM WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND + BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE AND THE ARTISTIC + AND LITERARY ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE WERE FOLLOWED + BY THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE + RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM OF THE REFORMATION + 44. THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES + 45. HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS + AND THE LESS DIVINE BUT MORE REASONABLE RIGHT OF + PARLIAMENT ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR KING CHARLES II + 46. IN FRANCE, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS + CONTINUED WITH GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOR THAN EVER + BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF THE RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED + BY THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE BALANCE OF POWER + 47. THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MUSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY + BURST UPON THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE + 48. RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FOUGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO + SHALL BE THE LEADING POWER OF NORTHEASTERN EUROPE + 49. THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY PART + OF NORTHERN GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA + 50. HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF + EUROPE TRIED TO MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS + MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + 51. AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD + STRANGE REPORTS OF SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN + THE WILDERNESS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. THE + DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING CHARLES + FOR HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS DIVINE RIGHTS ADDED A + NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT + 62. THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES + OF LIBERTY, FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO All THE PEOPLE + OF THE EARTH + 53. NAPOLEON + 54. AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA, THE + RULERS WHO SO OFTEN HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED + CORSICAN MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED TO UNDO THE MANY + CHANCES WHICH HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH + REVOLUTION + 55. THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED + PEACE BY SUPPRESSING ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE + POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY IN THE STATE AND + SOON THE PRISONS OF ALL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH + THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO + GOVERN THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT + 56. THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER, WAS TOO + STRONG TO BE DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS + WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE REACTIONARY + MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. GREECE AND BELGIUM + AND SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES + OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE + NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH THE RUMOR OF MANY + WARS OF INDEPENDENCE + 57. BUT WHITE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR + NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVED + HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED BY A SERIES OF INVENTIONS, + WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM-ENGINE OF THE + EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT + STAVE OF MAN + 58. THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE + OF WEALTH COULD AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR + SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER IN HIS LITTLE + WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO THE OWNERS + OF THE BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND WHITE HE MADE + MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST HIS FORMER INDEPENDENCE + AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT + 59. THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING + ABOUT THE ERA OF HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD + BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION WHICH SAW THE STAGE + COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES + WERE SUGGESTED, BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE + PROBLEM + 60. BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS + OF GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR THE + INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. AFTER GENERATIONS OF OPPRESSION + AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT LAST GAINED + LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER + THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE + 61. A CHAPTER OF ART + 62. THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS + AND A FEW APOLOGIES + 63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A + NEW AND BETTER WORLD + 64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY + 65.CONCERNING THE PICTURES + + 66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN + + 67.INDEX + + + + +THE STORY OF MANKIND + + +HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. +It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand +years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. + +When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity +will have gone by. + + + + +THE SETTING OF THE STAGE + + +WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark. + +Who are we? + +Where do we come from? + +Whither are we bound? + +Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this question +mark further and further towards that distant line, beyond the horizon, +where we hope to find our answer. + +We have not gone very far. + +We still know very little but we have reached the point where (with a +fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many things. + +In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best belief) the +stage was set for the first appearance of man. + +If we represent the time during which it has been possible for animal +life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, then the tiny +line just below indicates the age during which man (or a creature more +or less resembling man) has lived upon this earth. + +Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for the purpose +of conquering the forces of nature. That is the reason why we are going +to study him, rather than cats or dogs or horses or any of the other +animals, who, all in their own way, have a very interesting historical +development behind them. + +In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far as we now +know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of smoke in the +endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course of millions of years, +the surface burned itself out, and was covered with a thin layer of +rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the rain descended in endless torrents, +wearing out the hard granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that +lay hidden between the high cliffs of the steaming earth. + +Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the clouds and saw how +this little planet was covered with a few small puddles which were to +develop into the mighty oceans of the eastern and western hemispheres. + +Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been dead, gave birth +to life. + +The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea. + +For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. But during +all that time it was developing certain habits that it might survive +more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some of these cells were +happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and the pools. They took root +in the slimy sediments which had been carried down from the tops of the +hills and they became plants. Others preferred to move about and they +grew strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along +the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things that +looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales) depended +upon a swimming motion to go from place to place in their search for +food, and gradually they populated the ocean with myriads of fishes. + +Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had to search for +new dwelling places. There was no more room for them at the bottom of +the sea. Reluctantly they left the water and made a new home in the +marshes and on the mud-banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. +Twice a day the tides of the ocean covered them with their brine. For +the rest of the time, the plants made the best of their uncomfortable +situation and tried to survive in the thin air which surrounded the +surface of the planet. After centuries of training, they learned how +to live as comfortably in the air as they had done in the water. They +increased in size and became shrubs and trees and at last they learned +how to grow lovely flowers which attracted the attention of the busy big +bumble-bees and the birds who carried the seeds far and wide until the +whole earth had become covered with green pastures, or lay dark under +the shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too had begun to +leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe with lungs as well as +with gills. We call such creatures amphibious, which means that they +are able to live with equal ease on the land and in the water. The first +frog who crosses your path can tell you all about the pleasures of the +double existence of the amphibian. + +Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted themselves +more and more to life on land. Some became reptiles (creatures who +crawl like lizards) and they shared the silence of the forests with +the insects. That they might move faster through the soft soil, they +improved upon their legs and their size increased until the world was +populated with gigantic forms (which the hand-books of biology list +under the names of Ichthyosaurus and Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus) +who grew to be thirty to forty feet long and who could have played with +elephants as a full grown cat plays with her kittens. + +Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in the tops +of the trees, which were then often more than a hundred feet high. +They no longer needed their legs for the purpose of walking, but it was +necessary for them to move quickly from branch to branch. And so they +changed a part of their skin into a sort of parachute, which stretched +between the sides of their bodies and the small toes of their fore-feet, +and gradually they covered this skinny parachute with feathers and +made their tails into a steering gear and flew from tree to tree and +developed into true birds. + +Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles died within a +short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps it was due to a sudden +change in climate. Perhaps they had grown so large that they could +neither swim nor walk nor crawl, and they starved to death within sight +but not within reach of the big ferns and trees. Whatever the cause, the +million year old world-empire of the big reptiles was over. + +The world now began to be occupied by very different creatures. They +were the descendants of the reptiles but they were quite unlike these +because they fed their young from the "mammae" or the breasts of the +mother. Wherefore modern science calls these animals "mammals." They +had shed the scales of the fish. They did not adopt the feathers of +the bird, but they covered their bodies with hair. The mammals however +developed other habits which gave their race a great advantage over the +other animals. The female of the species carried the eggs of the young +inside her body until they were hatched and while all other living +beings, up to that time, had left their children exposed to the dangers +of cold and heat, and the attacks of wild beasts, the mammals kept their +young with them for a long time and sheltered them while they were still +too weak to fight their enemies. In this way the young mammals were +given a much better chance to survive, because they learned many things +from their mothers, as you will know if you have ever watched a cat +teaching her kittens to take care of themselves and how to wash their +faces and how to catch mice. + +But of these mammals I need not tell you much for you know them well. +They surround you on all sides. They are your daily companions in the +streets and in your home, and you can see your less familiar cousins +behind the bars of the zoological garden. + +And now we come to the parting of the ways when man suddenly leaves the +endless procession of dumbly living and dying creatures and begins to +use his reason to shape the destiny of his race. + +One mammal in particular seemed to surpass all others in its ability +to find food and shelter. It had learned to use its fore-feet for the +purpose of holding its prey, and by dint of practice it had developed a +hand-like claw. After innumerable attempts it had learned how to balance +the whole of the body upon the hind legs. (This is a difficult act, +which every child has to learn anew although the human race has been +doing it for over a million years.) + +This creature, half ape and half monkey but superior to both, became +the most successful hunter and could make a living in every clime. For +greater safety, it usually moved about in groups. It learned how to make +strange grunts to warn its young of approaching danger and after many +hundreds of thousands of years it began to use these throaty noises for +the purpose of talking. + +This creature, though you may hardly believe it, was your first +"man-like" ancestor. + + + + +OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS + + +WE know very little about the first "true" men. We have never seen +their pictures. In the deepest layer of clay of an ancient soil we +have sometimes found pieces of their bones. These lay buried amidst the +broken skeletons of other animals that have long since disappeared from +the face of the earth. Anthropologists (learned scientists who devote +their lives to the study of man as a member of the animal kingdom) have +taken these bones and they have been able to reconstruct our earliest +ancestors with a fair degree of accuracy. + +The great-great-grandfather of the human race was a very ugly and +unattractive mammal. He was quite small, much smaller than the people +of today. The heat of the sun and the biting wind of the cold winter had +coloured his skin a dark brown. His head and most of his body, his arms +and legs too, were covered with long, coarse hair. He had very thin but +strong fingers which made his hands look like those of a monkey. His +forehead was low and his jaw was like the jaw of a wild animal which +uses its teeth both as fork and knife. He wore no clothes. He had seen +no fire except the flames of the rumbling volcanoes which filled the +earth with their smoke and their lava. + +He lived in the damp blackness of vast forests, as the pygmies of Africa +do to this very day. When he felt the pangs of hunger he ate raw leaves +and the roots of plants or he took the eggs away from an angry bird and +fed them to his own young. Once in a while, after a long and patient +chase, he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a rabbit. +These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted +better when it was cooked. + +During the hours of day, this primitive human being prowled about +looking for things to eat. + +When night descended upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children +in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, for he was surrounded on +all sides by ferocious animals and when it was dark these animals began +to prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and their +own young, and they liked the taste of human beings. It was a world +where you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy because +it was full of fear and misery. + +In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and during +the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When such a +creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their +bones or spraining their ankles) he had no one to take care of him and +he must die a horrible death. + +Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises, +early man liked to jabber. That is to say, he endlessly repeated the +same unintelligible gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound +of his voice. In due time he learned that he could use this guttural +noise to warn his fellow beings whenever danger threatened and he gave +certain little shrieks which came to mean "there is a tiger!" or "here +come five elephants." Then the others grunted something back at him and +their growl meant, "I see them," or "let us run away and hide." And this +was probably the origin of all language. + +But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little. +Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and died +and left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a few +pieces of his skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago the +world was inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different from +all the other animals--who had probably developed from another unknown +ape-like animal which had learned to walk on its hind-legs and use +its fore-paws as hands--and who were most probably connected with the +creatures who happen to be our own immediate ancestors. + +It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness. + + + + +PREHISTORIC MAN + +PREHISTORIC MAN BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS FOR HIMSELF. + + +EARLY man did not know what time meant. He kept no records of birthdays +or wedding anniversaries or the hour of death. He had no idea of days or +weeks or even years. But in a general way he kept track of the seasons +for he had noticed that the cold winter was invariably followed by the +mild spring--that spring grew into the hot summer when fruits ripened +and the wild ears of corn were ready to be eaten and that summer ended +when sudden gusts of wind swept the leaves from the trees and a number +of animals were getting ready for the long hibernal sleep. + +But now, something unusual and rather frightening had happened. +Something was the matter with the weather. The warm days of summer had +come very late. The fruits had not ripened. The tops of the mountains +which used to be covered with grass now lay deeply hidden underneath a +heavy burden of snow. + +Then, one morning, a number of wild people, different from the other +creatures who lived in that neighbourhood, came wandering down from the +region of the high peaks. They looked lean and appeared to be starving. +They uttered sounds which no one could understand. They seemed to +say that they were hungry. There was not food enough for both the old +inhabitants and the newcomers. When they tried to stay more than a few +days there was a terrible battle with claw-like hands and feet and whole +families were killed. The others fled back to their mountain slopes and +died in the next blizzard. + +But the people in the forest were greatly frightened. All the time the +days grew shorter and the nights grew colder than they ought to have +been. + +Finally, in a gap between two high hills, there appeared a tiny speck +of greenish ice. Rapidly it increased in size. A gigantic glacier came +sliding downhill. Huge stones were being pushed into the valley. With +the noise of a dozen thunderstorms torrents of ice and mud and blocks of +granite suddenly tumbled among the people of the forest and killed them +while they slept. Century old trees were crushed into kindling wood. And +then it began to snow. + +It snowed for months and months. All the plants died and the animals +fled in search of the southern sun. Man hoisted his young upon his +back and followed them. But he could not travel as fast as the wilder +creatures and he was forced to choose between quick thinking or quick +dying. He seems to have preferred the former for he has managed to +survive the terrible glacial periods which upon four different occasions +threatened to kill every human being on the face of the earth. + +In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself lest +he freeze to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover them with +branches and leaves and in these traps he caught bears and hyenas, which +he then killed with heavy stones and whose skins he used as coats for +himself and his family. + +Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many animals were in the +habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now followed their example, drove +the animals out of their warm homes and claimed them for his own. + +Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and the old and the +young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius bethought himself of +the use of fire. Once, while out hunting, he had been caught in a +forest-fire. He remembered that he had been almost roasted to death by +the flames. Thus far fire had been an enemy. Now it became a friend. A +dead tree was dragged into the cave and lighted by means of smouldering +branches from a burning wood. This turned the cave into a cozy little +room. + +And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It was not +rescued until it had been well roasted. Man discovered that meat tasted +better when cooked and he then and there discarded one of the old habits +which he had shared with the other animals and began to prepare his +food. + +In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people with the +cleverest brains survived. They had to struggle day and night against +cold and hunger. They were forced to invent tools. They learned how to +sharpen stones into axes and how to make hammers. They were obliged to +put up large stores of food for the endless days of the winter and they +found that clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the +rays of the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened to +destroy the human race, became its greatest teacher because it forced +man to use his brain. + + + + +HIEROGLYPHICS + +THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD OF HISTORY BEGINS + + +THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great European +wilderness were rapidly learning many new things. It is safe to say that +in due course of time they would have given up the ways of savages and +would have developed a civilisation of their own. But suddenly there +came an end to their isolation. They were discovered. + +A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to cross the sea +and the high mountain passes had found his way to the wild people of the +European continent. He came from Africa. His home was in Egypt. + +The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation +thousands of years before the people of the west had dreamed of the +possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house. And we shall therefore +leave our great-great-grandfathers in their caves, while we visit +the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, where stood the +earliest school of the human race. + +The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were excellent farmers. +They knew all about irrigation. They built temples which were afterwards +copied by the Greeks and which served as the earliest models for the +churches in which we worship nowadays. They had invented a calendar +which proved such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time +that it has survived with a few changes until today. But most important +of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve speech for the benefit +of future generations. They had invented the art of writing. + +We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines that we take +it for granted that the world has always been able to read and write. +As a matter of fact, writing, the most important of all inventions, is +quite new. Without written documents we would be like cats and dogs, who +can only teach their kittens and their puppies a few simple things and +who, because they cannot write, possess no way in which they can make +use of the experience of those generations of cats and dogs that have +gone before. + +In the first century before our era, when the Romans came to Egypt, they +found the valley full of strange little pictures which seemed to have +something to do with the history of the country. But the Romans were not +interested in "anything foreign" and did not inquire into the origin of +these queer figures which covered the walls of the temples and the walls +of the palaces and endless reams of flat sheets made out of the papyrus +reed. The last of the Egyptian priests who had understood the holy art +of making such pictures had died several years before. Egypt deprived +of its independence had become a store-house filled with important +historical documents which no one could decipher and which were of no +earthly use to either man or beast. + +Seventeen centuries went by and Egypt remained a land of mystery. But +in the year 1798 a French general by the name of Bonaparte happened to +visit eastern Africa to prepare for an attack upon the British Indian +Colonies. He did not get beyond the Nile, and his campaign was a +failure. But, quite accidentally, the famous French expedition solved +the problem of the ancient Egyptian picture-language. + +One day a young French officer, much bored by the dreary life of his +little fortress on the Rosetta river (a mouth of the Nile) decided to +spend a few idle hours rummaging among the ruins of the Nile Delta. And +behold! he found a stone which greatly puzzled him. Like everything else +in Egypt it was covered with little figures. But this particular slab of +black basalt was different from anything that had ever been discovered. +It carried three inscriptions. One of these was in Greek. The Greek +language was known. "All that is necessary," so he reasoned, "is to +compare the Greek text with the Egyptian figures, and they will at once +tell their secrets." + +The plan sounded simple enough but it took more than twenty years to +solve the riddle. In the year 1802 a French professor by the name of +Champollion began to compare the Greek and the Egyptian texts of +the famous Rosetta stone. In the year 1823 he announced that he had +discovered the meaning of fourteen little figures. A short time later +he died from overwork, but the main principles of Egyptian writing had +become known. Today the story of the valley of the Nile is better known +to us than the story of the Mississippi River. We possess a written +record which covers four thousand years of chronicled history. + +As the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (the word means "sacred writing") +have played such a very great role in history, (a few of them in +modified form have even found their way into our own alphabet,) you +ought to know something about the ingenious system which was used fifty +centuries ago to preserve the spoken word for the benefit of the coming +generations. + +Of course, you know what a sign language is. Every Indian story of our +western plains has a chapter devoted to strange messages writter{sic} +in the form of little pictures which tell how many buffaloes were killed +and how many hunters there were in a certain party. As a rule it is not +difficult to understand the meaning of such messages. + +Ancient Egyptian, however, was not a sign language. The clever people of +the Nile had passed beyond that stage long before. Their pictures meant +a great deal more than the object which they represented, as I shall try +to explain to you now. + +Suppose that you were Champollion, and that you were examining a stack +of papyrus sheets, all covered with hieroglyphics. Suddenly you came +across a picture of a man with a saw. "Very well," you would say, "that +means of course that a farmer went out to cut down a tree." Then you +take another papyrus. It tells the story of a queen who had died at the +age of eighty-two. In the midst of a sentence appears the picture of the +man with the saw. Queens of eighty-two do not handle saws. The picture +therefore must mean something else. But what? + +That is the riddle which the Frenchman finally solved. He discovered +that the Egyptians were the first to use what we now call "phonetic +writing"--a system of characters which reproduce the "sound" (or phone) +of the spoken word and which make it possible for us to translate all +our spoken words into a written form, with the help of only a few dots +and dashes and pothooks. + +Let us return for a moment to the little fellow with the saw. The word +"saw" either means a certain tool which you will find in a carpenter's +shop, or it means the past tense of the verb "to see." + +This is what had happened to the word during the course of centuries. +First of all it had meant only the particular tool which it represented. +Then that meaning had been lost and it had become the past participle +of a verb. After several hundred years, the Egyptians lost sight of +both these meanings and the picture {illust.} came to stand for a single +letter, the letter S. A short sentence will show you what I mean. +Here is a modern English sentence as it would have been written in +hieroglyphics. {illust.} + +The {illust.} either means one of these two round objects in your head, +which allow you to see or it means "I," the person who is talking. + +A {illust.} is either an insect which gathers honey, or it represents +the verb "to be" which means to exist. Again, it may be the first part +of a verb like "be-come" or "be-have." In this particular instance it +is followed by {illust.} which means a "leaf" or "leave" or "lieve" (the +sound of all three words is the same). + +The "eye" you know all about. + +Finally you get the picture of a {illust.}. It is a giraffe It is part +of the old sign-language out of which the hieroglyphics developed. + +You can now read that sentence without much difficulty. + +"I believe I saw a giraffe." + +Having invented this system the Egyptians developed it during thousands +of years until they could write anything they wanted, and they used +these "canned words" to send messages to friends, to keep business +accounts and to keep a record of the history of their country, that +future generations might benefit by the mistakes of the past. + + + + +THE NILE VALLEY + +THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE + + +THE history of man is the record of a hungry creature in search of food. +Wherever food was plentiful, thither man has travelled to make his home. + +The fame of the Valley of the Nile must have spread at an early date. +From the interior of Africa and from the desert of Arabia and from the +western part of Asia people had flocked to Egypt to claim their share +of the rich farms. Together these invaders had formed a new race which +called itself "Remi" or "the Men" just as we sometimes call America +"God's own country." They had good reason to be grateful to a Fate which +had carried them to this narrow strip of land. In the summer of each +year the Nile turned the valley into a shallow lake and when the waters +receded all the grainfields and the pastures were covered with several +inches of the most fertile clay. + +In Egypt a kindly river did the work of a million men and made it +possible to feed the teeming population of the first large cities of +which we have any record. It is true that all the arable land was not +in the valley. But a complicated system of small canals and well-sweeps +carried water from the river-level to the top of the highest banks +and an even more intricate system of irrigation trenches spread it +throughout the land. + +While man of the prehistoric age had been obliged to spend sixteen hours +out of every twenty-four gathering food for himself and the members of +his tribe, the Egyptian peasant or the inhabitant of the Egyptian city +found himself possessed of a certain leisure. He used this spare time +to make himself many things that were merely ornamental and not in the +least bit useful. + +More than that. One day he discovered that his brain was capable of +thinking all kinds of thoughts which had nothing to do with the problems +of eating and sleeping and finding a home for the children. The Egyptian +began to speculate upon many strange problems that confronted him. +Where did the stars come from? Who made the noise of the thunder which +frightened him so terribly? Who made the River Nile rise with such +regularity that it was possible to base the calendar upon the appearance +and the disappearance of the annual floods? Who was he, himself, a +strange little creature surrounded on all sides by death and sickness +and yet happy and full of laughter? + +He asked these many questions and certain people obligingly stepped +forward to answer these inquiries to the best of their ability. The +Egyptians called them "priests" and they became the guardians of his +thoughts and gained great respect in the community. They were highly +learned men who were entrusted with the sacred task of keeping the +written records. They understood that it is not good for man to +think only of his immediate advantage in this world and they drew his +attention to the days of the future when his soul would dwell beyond the +mountains of the west and must give an account of his deeds to Osiris, +the mighty God who was the Ruler of the Living and the Dead and who +judged the acts of men according to their merits. Indeed, the priests +made so much of that future day in the realm of Isis and Osiris that +the Egyptians began to regard life merely as a short preparation for the +Hereafter and turned the teeming valley of the Nile into a land devoted +to the Dead. + +In a strange way, the Egyptians had come to believe that no soul could +enter the realm of Osiris without the possession of the body which had +been its place of residence in this world. Therefore as soon as a man +was dead his relatives took his corpse and had it embalmed. For weeks +it was soaked in a solution of natron and then it was filled with pitch. +The Persian word for pitch was "Mumiai" and the embalmed body was called +a "Mummy." It was wrapped in yards and yards of specially prepared linen +and it was placed in a specially prepared coffin ready to be removed to +its final home. But an Egyptian grave was a real home where the body was +surrounded by pieces of furniture and musical instruments (to while away +the dreary hours of waiting) and by little statues of cooks and bakers +and barbers (that the occupant of this dark home might be decently +provided with food and need not go about unshaven). + +Originally these graves had been dug into the rocks of the western +mountains but as the Egyptians moved northward they were obliged to +build their cemeteries in the desert. The desert however is full of +wild animals and equally wild robbers and they broke into the graves and +disturbed the mummy or stole the jewelry that had been buried with the +body. To prevent such unholy desecration the Egyptians used to build +small mounds of stones on top of the graves. These little mounds +gradually grew in size, because the rich people built higher mounds than +the poor and there was a good deal of competition to see who could make +the highest hill of stones. The record was made by King Khufu, whom the +Greeks called Cheops and who lived thirty centuries before our era. His +mound, which the Greeks called a pyramid (because the Egyptian word for +high was pir-em-us) was over five hundred feet high. + +It covered more than thirteen acres of desert which is three times as +much space as that occupied by the church of St. Peter, the largest +edifice of the Christian world. + +During twenty years, over a hundred thousand men were busy carrying the +necessary stones from the other side of the river--ferrying them across +the Nile (how they ever managed to do this, we do not understand), +dragging them in many instances a long distance across the desert and +finally hoisting them into their correct position. But so well did +the King's architects and engineers perform their task that the narrow +passage-way which leads to the royal tomb in the heart of the stone +monster has never yet been pushed out of shape by the weight of those +thousands of tons of stone which press upon it from all sides. + + + + +THE STORY OF EGYPT + +THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT + + +THE river Nile was a kind friend but occasionally it was a hard +taskmaster. It taught the people who lived along its banks the noble art +of "team-work." They depended upon each other to build their irrigation +trenches and keep their dikes in repair. In this way they learned how +to get along with their neighbours and their mutual-benefit-association +quite easily developed into an organised state. + +Then one man grew more powerful than most of his neighbours and he +became the leader of the community and their commander-in-chief when the +envious neighbours of western Asia invaded the prosperous valley. In +due course of time he became their King and ruled all the land from the +Mediterranean to the mountains of the west. + +But these political adventures of the old Pharaohs (the word meant +"the Man who lived in the Big House") rarely interested the patient and +toiling peasant of the grain fields. Provided he was not obliged to pay +more taxes to his King than he thought just, he accepted the rule of +Pharaoh as he accepted the rule of Mighty Osiris. + +It was different however when a foreign invader came and robbed him of +his possessions. After twenty centuries of independent life, a savage +Arab tribe of shepherds, called the Hyksos, attacked Egypt and for five +hundred years they were the masters of the valley of the Nile. They were +highly un-popular and great hate was also felt for the Hebrews who +came to the land of Goshen to find a shelter after their long wandering +through the desert and who helped the foreign usurper by acting as his +tax-gatherers and his civil servants. + +But shortly after the year 1700 B.C. the people of Thebes began a +revolution and after a long struggle the Hyksos were driven out of the +country and Egypt was free once more. + +A thousand years later, when Assyria conquered all of western Asia, +Egypt became part of the empire of Sardanapalus. In the seventh century +B.C. it became once more an independent state which obeyed the rule of a +king who lived in the city of Sais in the Delta of the Nile. But in the +year 525 B.C., Cambyses, the king of the Persians, took possession +of Egypt and in the fourth century B.C., when Persia was conquered by +Alexander the Great, Egypt too became a Macedonian province. It regained +a semblance of independence when one of Alexander's generals set himself +up as king of a new Egyptian state and founded the dynasty of the +Ptolemies, who resided in the newly built city of Alexandria. + +Finally, in the year 89 B.C., the Romans came. The last Egyptian queen, +Cleopatra, tried her best to save the country. Her beauty and charm were +more dangerous to the Roman generals than half a dozen Egyptian army +corps. Twice she was successful in her attacks upon the hearts of her +Roman conquerors. But in the year 30 B.C., Augustus, the nephew and +heir of Caesar, landed in Alexandria. He did not share his late uncle's +admiration for the lovely princess. He destroyed her armies, but spared +her life that he might make her march in his triumph as part of the +spoils of war. When Cleopatra heard of this plan, she killed herself by +taking poison. And Egypt became a Roman province. + + + + +MESOPOTAMIA + +MESOPOTAMIA--THE SECOND CENTRE OF EASTERN CIVILISATION + + +I AM going to take you to the top of the highest pyramid and I am going +to ask that you imagine yourself possessed of the eyes of a hawk. Way, +way off, in the distance, far beyond the yellow sands of the desert, you +will see something green and shimmering. It is a valley situated between +two rivers. It is the Paradise of the Old Testament. It is the land of +mystery and wonder which the Greeks called Mesopotamia--the "country +between the rivers." + +The names of the two rivers are the Euphrates (which the Babylonians +called the Purattu) and the Tigris (which was known as the Diklat). They +begin their course amidst the snows of the mountains of Armenia where +Noah's Ark found a resting place and slowly they flow through the +southern plain until they reach the muddy banks of the Persian gulf. +They perform a very useful service. They turn the arid regions of +western Asia into a fertile garden. + +The valley of the Nile had attracted people because it had offered them +food upon fairly easy terms. The "land between the rivers" was popular +for the same reason. It was a country full of promise and both the +inhabitants of the northern mountains and the tribes which roamed +through the southern deserts tried to claim this territory as their +own and most exclusive possession. The constant rivalry between the +mountaineers and the desert-nomads led to endless warfare. Only the +strongest and the bravest could hope to survive and that will explain +why Mesopotamia became the home of a very strong race of men who +were capable of creating a civilisation which was in every respect as +important as that of Egypt. + + + + +THE SUMERIANS + +THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US THE STORY OF +ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC MELTING-POT + + +THE fifteenth century was an age of great discoveries. Columbus tried +to find a way to the island of Kathay and stumbled upon a new and +unsuspected continent. An Austrian bishop equipped an expedition which +was to travel eastward and find the home of the Grand Duke of Muscovy, +a voyage which led to complete failure, for Moscow was not visited by +western men until a generation later. Meanwhile a certain Venetian +by the name of Barbero had explored the ruins of western Asia and had +brought back reports of a most curious language which he had found +carved in the rocks of the temples of Shiraz and engraved upon endless +pieces of baked clay. + +But Europe was busy with many other things and it was not until the +end of the eighteenth century that the first "cuneiform inscriptions" +(so-called because the letters were wedge-shaped and wedge is called +"Cuneus" in Latin) were brought to Europe by a Danish surveyor, named +Niebuhr. Then it took thirty years before a patient German school-master +by the name of Grotefend had deciphered the first four letters, the +D, the A, the R and the SH, the name of the Persian King Darius. +And another twenty years had to go by until a British officer, Henry +Rawlinson, who found the famous inscription of Behistun, gave us a +workable key to the nail-writing of western Asia. + +Compared to the problem of deciphering these nail-writings, the job of +Champollion had been an easy one. The Egyptians used pictures. But the +Sumerians, the earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia, who had hit upon +the idea of scratching their words in tablets of clay, had discarded +pictures entirely and had evolved a system of V-shaped figures which +showed little connection with the pictures out of which they had been +developed. A few examples will show you what I mean. In the beginning a +star, when drawn with a nail into a brick looked as follows: {illust.} +This sign however was too cumbersome and after a short while when the +meaning of "heaven" was added to that of star the picture was simplified +in this way {illust.} which made it even more of a puzzle. In the same +way an ox changed from {illust} into {illust.} and a fish changed from +{illust.} into {illust.} The sun was originally a plain circle {illust.} +and became {illust.} If we were using the Sumerian script today we would +make an {illust.} look like {illust.}. This system of writing down our +ideas looks rather complicated but for more than thirty centuries it +was used by the Sumerians and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and the +Persians and all the different races which forced their way into the +fertile valley. + +The story of Mesopotamia is one of endless warfare and conquest. First +the Sumerians came from the North. They were a white People who had +lived in the mountains. They had been accustomed to worship their Gods +on the tops of hills. After they had entered the plain they constructed +artificial little hills on top of which they built their altars. They +did not know how to build stairs and they therefore surrounded their +towers with sloping galleries. Our engineers have borrowed this idea, as +you may see in our big railroad stations where ascending galleries lead +from one floor to another. We may have borrowed other ideas from the +Sumerians but we do not know it. The Sumerians were entirely ab-sorbed +by those races that entered the fertile valley at a later date. Their +towers however still stand amidst the ruins of Mesopotamia. The Jews saw +them when they went into exile in the land of Babylon and they called +them towers of Babillli, or towers of Babel. + +In the fortieth century before our era, the Sumerians had entered +Mesopotamia. They were soon afterwards over-powered by the Akkadians, +one of the many tribes from the desert of Arabia who speak a common +dialect and who are known as the "Semites," because in the olden days +people believed them to be the direct descendants of Shem, one of the +three sons of Noah. A thousand years later, the Akkadians were forced to +submit to the rule of the Amorites, another Semitic desert tribe whose +great King Hammurabi built himself a magnificent palace in the holy +city of Babylon and who gave his people a set of laws which made the +Babylonian state the best administered empire of the ancient world. Next +the Hittites, whom you will also meet in the Old Testament, over-ran the +Fertile Valley and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. They +in turn were vanquished by the followers of the great desert God, Ashur, +who called themselves Assyrians and who made the city of Nineveh the +center of a vast and terrible empire which conquered all of western Asia +and Egypt and gathered taxes from countless subject races until the end +of the seventh century before the birth of Christ when the Chaldeans, +also a Semitic tribe, re-established Babylon and made that city the most +important capital of that day. Nebuchadnezzar, the best known of their +Kings, encouraged the study of science, and our modern knowledge of +astronomy and mathematics is all based upon certain first principles +which were discovered by the Chaldeans. In the year 538 B.C. a crude +tribe of Persian shepherds invaded this old land and overthrew the +empire of the Chaldeans. Two hundred years later, they in turn were +overthrown by Alexander the Great, who turned the Fertile Valley, the +old melting-pot of so many Semitic races, into a Greek province. Next +came the Romans and after the Romans, the Turks, and Mesopotamia, the +second centre of the world's civilisation, became a vast wilderness +where huge mounds of earth told a story of ancient glory. + + + + +MOSES + +THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE + + +SOME time during the twentieth century before our era, a small and +unimportant tribe of Semitic shepherds had left its old home, which was +situated in the land of Ur on the mouth of the Euphrates, and had tried +to find new pastures within the domain of the Kings of Babylonia. They +had been driven away by the royal soldiers and they had moved westward +looking for a little piece of unoccupied territory where they might set +up their tents. + +This tribe of shepherds was known as the Hebrews or, as we call them, +the Jews. They had wandered far and wide, and after many years of dreary +peregrinations they had been given shelter in Egypt. For more than five +centuries they had dwelt among the Egyptians and when their adopted +country had been overrun by the Hyksos marauders (as I told you in +the story of Egypt) they had managed to make themselves useful to the +foreign invader and had been left in the undisturbed possession of their +grazing fields. But after a long war of independence the Egyptians had +driven the Hyksos out of the valley of the Nile and then the Jews had +come upon evil times for they had been degraded to the rank of common +slaves and they had been forced to work on the royal roads and on the +Pyramids. And as the frontiers were guarded by the Egyptian soldiers it +had been impossible for the Jews to escape. + +After many years of suffering they were saved from their miserable +fate by a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long time had dwelt in the +desert and there had learned to appreciate the simple virtues of his +earliest ancestors, who had kept away from cities and city-life and had +refused to let themselves be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a +foreign civilisation. + +Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways of the +patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian troops that were sent +after him and led his fellow tribesmen into the heart of the plain at +the foot of Mount Sinai. During his long and lonely life in the desert, +he had learned to revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder +and the Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds +depended for life and light and breath. This God, one of the many +divinities who were widely worshipped in western Asia, was called +Jehovah, and through the teaching of Moses, he became the sole Master of +the Hebrew race. + +One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. It was whispered +that he had gone away carrying two tablets of rough-hewn stone. That +afternoon, the top of the mountain was lost to sight. The darkness of +a terrible storm hid it from the eye of man. But when Moses returned, +behold! there stood engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah +had spoken unto the people of Israel amidst the crash of his thunder and +the blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, Jehovah was +recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master of their Fate, the only +True God, who had taught them how to live holy lives when he bade them +to follow the wise lessons of his Ten Commandments. + +They followed Moses when he bade them continue their journey through the +desert. They obeyed him when he told them what to eat and drink and what +to avoid that they might keep well in the hot climate. And finally after +many years of wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and +prosperous. It was called Palestine, which means the country of the +"Pilistu" the Philistines, a small tribe of Cretans who had settled +along the coast after they had been driven away from their own island. +Unfortunately, the mainland, Palestine, was already inhabited by another +Semitic race, called the Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into +the valleys and built themselves cities and constructed a mighty temple +in a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace. As for Moses, +he was no longer the leader of his people. He had been allowed to see +the mountain ridges of Palestine from afar. Then he had closed his tired +eyes for all time. He had worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. +Not only had he guided his brethren out of foreign slavery into the free +and independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews the +first of all nations to worship a single God. + + + + +THE PHOENICIANS + +THE PHOENICIANS WHO GAVE US OUR ALPHABET + + +THE Phoenicians, who were the neighbours of the Jews, were a Semitic +tribe which at a very early age had settled along the shores of the +Mediterranean. They had built themselves two well-fortified towns, Tyre +and Sidon, and within a short time they had gained a monopoly of the +trade of the western seas. Their ships went regularly to Greece and +Italy and Spain and they even ventured beyond the straits of Gibraltar +to visit the Scilly islands where they could buy tin. Wherever they +went, they built themselves small trading stations, which they called +colonies. Many of these were the origin of modern cities, such as Cadiz +and Marseilles. + +They bought and sold whatever promised to bring them a good profit. +They were not troubled by a conscience. If we are to believe all their +neighbours they did not know what the words honesty or integrity meant. +They regarded a well-filled treasure chest the highest ideal of all good +citizens. Indeed they were very unpleasant people and did not have a +single friend. Nevertheless they have rendered all coming generations +one service of the greatest possible value. They gave us our alphabet. + +The Phoenicians had been familiar with the art of writing, invented by +the Sumerians. But they regarded these pothooks as a clumsy waste +of time. They were practical business men and could not spend hours +engraving two or three letters. They set to work and invented a new +system of writing which was greatly superior to the old one. They +borrowed a few pictures from the Egyptians and they simplified a number +of the wedge-shaped figures of the Sumerians. They sacrificed the pretty +looks of the older system for the advantage of speed and they reduced +the thousands of different images to a short and handy alphabet of +twenty-two letters. + +In due course of time, this alphabet travelled across the AEgean Sea and +entered Greece. The Greeks added a few letters of their own and carried +the improved system to Italy. The Romans modified the figures somewhat +and in turn taught them to the wild barbarians of western Europe. Those +wild barbarians were our own ancestors, and that is the reason why this +book is written in characters that are of Phoenician origin and not +in the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians or in the nail-script of the +Sumerians. + + + + +THE INDO-EUROPEANS + +THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER THE SEMITIC AND THE EGYPTIAN WORLD + + +THE world of Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and Phoenicia had existed +almost thirty centuries and the venerable races of the Fertile Valley +were getting old and tired. Their doom was sealed when a new and +more energetic race appeared upon the horizon. We call this race the +Indo-European race, because it conquered not only Europe but also made +itself the ruling class in the country which is now known as British +India. + +These Indo-Europeans were white men like the Semites but they spoke +a different language which is regarded as the common ancestor of all +European tongues with the exception of Hungarian and Finnish and the +Basque dialects of Northern Spain. + +When we first hear of them, they had been living along the shores of the +Caspian Sea for many centuries. But one day they had packed their tents +and they had wandered forth in search of a new home. Some of them had +moved into the mountains of Central Asia and for many centuries they had +lived among the peaks which surround the plateau of Iran and that is why +we call them Aryans. Others had followed the setting sun and they had +taken possession of the plains of Europe as I shall tell you when I give +you the story of Greece and Rome. + +For the moment we must follow the Aryans. Under the leadership of +Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) who was their great teacher many of them had +left their mountain homes to follow the swiftly flowing Indus river on +its way to the sea. + +Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western Asia and there +they had founded the half-independent communities of the Medes and the +Persians, two peoples whose names we have copied from the old Greek +history-books. In the seventh century before the birth of Christ, the +Medes had established a kingdom of their own called Media, but this +perished when Cyrus, the chief of a clan known as the Anshan, made +himself king of all the Persian tribes and started upon a career of +conquest which soon made him and his children the undisputed masters of +the whole of western Asia and of Egypt. + +Indeed, with such energy did these Indo-European Persians push their +triumphant campaigns in the west that they soon found themselves in +serious difficulties with certain other Indo-European tribes which +centuries before had moved into Europe and had taken possession of the +Greek peninsula and the islands of the AEgean Sea. + +These difficulties led to the three famous wars between Greece and +Persia during which King Darius and King Xerxes of Persia invaded the +northern part of the peninsula. They ravaged the lands of the Greeks and +tried very hard to get a foothold upon the European continent. + +But in this they did not succeed. The navy of Athens proved +unconquerable. By cutting off the lines of supplies of the Persian +armies, the Greek sailors invariably forced the Asiatic rulers to return +to their base. + +It was the first encounter between Asia, the ancient teacher, and +Europe, the young and eager pupil. A great many of the other chapters +of this book will tell you how the struggle between east and west has +continued until this very day. + + + + +THE AEGEAN SEA + +THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED THE CIVILISATION OF OLD ASIA INTO +THE WILDERNESS OF EUROPE + + +WHEN Heinrich Schliemann was a little boy his father told him the story +of Troy. He liked that story better than anything else he had ever heard +and he made up his mind, that as soon as he was big enough to leave +home, he would travel to Greece and "find Troy." That he was the son of +a poor country parson in a Mecklenburg village did not bother him. He +knew that he would need money but he decided to gather a fortune first +and do the digging afterwards. As a matter of fact, he managed to get +a large fortune within a very short time, and as soon as he had enough +money to equip an expedition, he went to the northwest corner of Asia +Minor, where he supposed that Troy had been situated. + +In that particular nook of old Asia Minor, stood a high mound covered +with grainfields. According to tradition it had been the home of Priamus +the king of Troy. Schliemann, whose enthusiasm was somewhat greater than +his knowledge, wasted no time in preliminary explorations. At once he +began to dig. And he dug with such zeal and such speed that his trench +went straight through the heart of the city for which he was looking +and carried him to the ruins of another buried town which was at least +a thousand years older than the Troy of which Homer had written. Then +something very interesting occurred. If Schliemann had found a few +polished stone hammers and perhaps a few pieces of crude pottery, no one +would have been surprised. Instead of discovering such objects, which +people had generally associated with the prehistoric men who had lived +in these regions before the coming of the Greeks, Schliemann found +beautiful statuettes and very costly jewelry and ornamented vases of a +pattern that was unknown to the Greeks. He ventured the suggestion that +fully ten centuries before the great Trojan war, the coast of the AEgean +had been inhabited by a mysterious race of men who in many ways had been +the superiors of the wild Greek tribes who had invaded their country and +had destroyed their civilisation or absorbed it until it had lost +all trace of originality. And this proved to be the case. In the late +seventies of the last century, Schliemann visited the ruins of Mycenae, +ruins which were so old that Roman guide-books marvelled at their +antiquity. There again, beneath the flat slabs of stone of a small round +enclosure, Schliemann stumbled upon a wonderful treasure-trove, which +had been left behind by those mysterious people who had covered the +Greek coast with their cities and who had built walls, so big and so +heavy and so strong, that the Greeks called them the work of the Titans, +those god-like giants who in very olden days had used to play ball with +mountain peaks. + +A very careful study of these many relics has done away with some of the +romantic features of the story. The makers of these early works of +art and the builders of these strong fortresses were no sorcerers, but +simple sailors and traders. They had lived in Crete, and on the many +small islands of the AEgean Sea. They had been hardy mariners and they +had turned the AEgean into a center of commerce for the exchange of +goods between the highly civilised east and the slowly developing +wilderness of the European mainland. + +For more than a thousand years they had maintained an island empire +which had developed a very high form of art. Indeed their most important +city, Cnossus, on the northern coast of Crete, had been entirely modern +in its insistence upon hygiene and comfort. The palace had been properly +drained and the houses had been provided with stoves and the Cnossians +had been the first people to make a daily use of the hitherto unknown +bathtub. The palace of their King had been famous for its winding +staircases and its large banqueting hall. The cellars underneath this +palace, where the wine and the grain and the olive-oil were stored, had +been so vast and had so greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that +they had given rise to the story of the "labyrinth," the name which we +give to a structure with so many complicated passages that it is almost +impossible to find our way out, once the front door has closed upon our +frightened selves. + +But what finally became of this great AEgean Empire and what caused its +sudden downfall, that I can not tell. + +The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no one has yet +been able to decipher their inscriptions. Their history therefore is +unknown to us. We have to reconstruct the record of their adventures +from the ruins which the AEgeans have left behind. These ruins make it +clear that the AEgean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilised +race which had recently come from the plains of northern Europe. Unless +we are very much mistaken, the savages who were responsible for the +destruction of the Cretan and the AEgean civilisation were none other +than certain tribes of wandering shepherds who had just taken possession +of the rocky peninsula between the Adriatic and the AEgean seas and who +are known to us as Greeks. + + + + +THE GREEKS + +MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE OF THE HELLENES WAS TAKING POSSESSION +OF GREECE + + +THE Pyramids were a thousand years old and were beginning to show the +first signs of decay, and Hammurabi, the wise king of Babylon, had been +dead and buried several centuries, when a small tribe of shepherds left +their homes along the banks of the River Danube and wandered southward +in search of fresh pastures. They called themselves Hellenes, after +Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. According to the old myths +these were the only two human beings who had escaped the great flood, +which countless years before had destroyed all the people of the world, +when they had grown so wicked that they disgusted Zeus, the mighty God, +who lived on Mount Olympus. + +Of these early Hellenes we know nothing. Thucydides, the historian of +the fall of Athens, describing his earliest ancestors, said that they +"did not amount to very much," and this was probably true. They were +very ill-mannered. They lived like pigs and threw the bodies of their +enemies to the wild dogs who guarded their sheep. They had very little +respect for other people's rights, and they killed the natives of the +Greek peninsula (who were called the Pelasgians) and stole their farms +and took their cattle and made their wives and daughters slaves and +wrote endless songs praising the courage of the clan of the Achaeans, +who had led the Hellenic advance-guard into the mountains of Thessaly +and the Peloponnesus. + +But here and there, on the tops of high rocks, they saw the castles +of the AEgeans and those they did not attack for they feared the metal +swords and the spears of the AEgean soldiers and knew that they could +not hope to defeat them with their clumsy stone axes. + +For many centuries they continued to wander from valley to valley and +from mountain side to mountain side Then the whole of the land had been +occupied and the migration had come to an end. + +That moment was the beginning of Greek civilisation. The Greek farmer, +living within sight of the AEgean colonies, was finally driven by +curiosity to visit his haughty neighbours. He discovered that he could +learn many useful things from the men who dwelt behind the high stone +walls of Mycenae, and Tiryns. + +He was a clever pupil. Within a short time he mastered the art of +handling those strange iron weapons which the AEgeans had brought +from Babylon and from Thebes. He came to understand the mysteries of +navigation. He began to build little boats for his own use. + +And when he had learned everything the AEgeans could teach him he turned +upon his teachers and drove them back to their islands. Soon afterwards +he ventured forth upon the sea and conquered all the cities of the +AEgean. Finally in the fifteenth century before our era he plundered and +ravaged Cnossus and ten centuries after their first appearance upon the +scene the Hellenes were the undisputed rulers of Greece, of the +AEgean and of the coastal regions of Asia Minor. Troy, the last great +commercial stronghold of the older civilisation, was destroyed in the +eleventh century B.C. European history was to begin in all seriousness. + + + + +THE GREEK CITIES + +THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES + + +WE modern people love the sound of the word "big." We pride ourselves +upon the fact that we belong to the "biggest" country in the world and +possess the "biggest" navy and grow the "biggest" oranges and potatoes, +and we love to live in cities of "millions" of inhabitants and when we +are dead we are buried in the "biggest cemetery of the whole state." + +A citizen of ancient Greece, could he have heard us talk, would not have +known what we meant. "Moderation in all things" was the ideal of +his life and mere bulk did not impress him at all. And this love of +moderation was not merely a hollow phrase used upon special occasions: +it influenced the life of the Greeks from the day of their birth to the +hour of their death. It was part of their literature and it made them +build small but perfect temples. It found expression in the clothes +which the men wore and in the rings and the bracelets of their wives. It +followed the crowds that went to the theatre and made them hoot down any +playwright who dared to sin against the iron law of good taste or good +sense. + +The Greeks even insisted upon this quality in their politicians and in +their most popular athletes. When a powerful runner came to Sparta and +boasted that he could stand longer on one foot than any other man in +Hellas the people drove him from the city because he prided himself +upon an accomplishment at which he could be beaten by any common goose. +"That is all very well," you will say, "and no doubt it is a great +virtue to care so much for moderation and perfection, but why should +the Greeks have been the only people to develop this quality in olden +times?" For an answer I shall point to the way in which the Greeks +lived. + +The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the "subjects" of a +mysterious Supreme Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace +and who was rarely seen by the masses of the population. The Greeks on +the other hand, were "free citizens" of a hundred independent little +"cities" the largest of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large +modern village. When a peasant who lived in Ur said that he was a +Babylonian he meant that he was one of millions of other people who paid +tribute to the king who at that particular moment happened to be master +of western Asia. But when a Greek said proudly that he was an Athenian +or a Theban he spoke of a small town, which was both his home and his +country and which recognised no master but the will of the people in the +market-place. + +To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was born; where he +had spent his earliest years playing hide and seek amidst the forbidden +rocks of the Acropolis; where he had grown into manhood with a thousand +other boys and girls, whose nicknames were as familiar to him as those +of your own schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his +father and mother lay buried. It was the small house within the high +city-walls where his wife and children lived in safety. It was a +complete world which covered no more than four or five acres of rocky +land. Don't you see how these surroundings must have influenced a man +in everything he did and said and thought? The people of Babylon and +Assyria and Egypt had been part of a vast mob. They had been lost in +the multitude. The Greek on the other hand had never lost touch with +his immediate surroundings. He never ceased to be part of a little +town where everybody knew every one else. He felt that his intelligent +neighbours were watching him. Whatever he did, whether he wrote plays +or made statues out of marble or composed songs, he remembered that his +efforts were going to be judged by all the free-born citizens of his +home-town who knew about such things. This knowledge forced him to +strive after perfection, and perfection, as he had been taught from +childhood, was not possible without moderation. + +In this hard school, the Greeks learned to excel in many things. They +created new forms of government and new forms of literature and new +ideals in art which we have never been able to surpass. They performed +these miracles in little villages that covered less ground than four or +five modern city blocks. + +And look, what finally happened! + +In the fourth century before our era, Alexander of Macedonia conquered +the world. As soon as he had done with fighting, Alexander decided that +he must bestow the benefits of the true Greek genius upon all mankind. +He took it away from the little cities and the little villages and tried +to make it blossom and bear fruit amidst the vast royal residences of +his newly acquired Empire. But the Greeks, removed from the familiar +sight of their own temples, removed from the well-known sounds and +smells of their own crooked streets, at once lost the cheerful joy and +the marvellous sense of moderation which had inspired the work of +their hands and brains while they laboured for the glory of their old +city-states. They became cheap artisans, content with second-rate work. +The day the little city-states of old Hellas lost their independence and +were forced to become part of a big nation, the old Greek spirit died. +And it has been dead ever since. + + + + +GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT + +THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT EXPERIMENT OF +SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +IN the beginning, all the Greeks had been equally rich and equally poor. +Every man had owned a certain number of cows and sheep. His mud-hut had +been his castle. He had been free to come and go as he wished. Whenever +it was necessary to discuss matters of public importance, all the +citizens had gathered in the market-place. One of the older men of the +village was elected chairman and it was his duty to see that everybody +had a chance to express his views. In case of war, a particularly +energetic and self-confident villager was chosen commander-in-chief, but +the same people who had voluntarily given this man the right to be +their leader, claimed an equal right to deprive him of his job, once the +danger had been averted. + +But gradually the village had grown into a city. Some people had worked +hard and others had been lazy. A few had been unlucky and still others +had been just plain dishonest in dealing with their neighbours and had +gathered wealth. As a result, the city no longer consisted of a number +of men who were equally well-off. On the contrary it was inhabited by a +small class of very rich people and a large class of very poor ones. + +There had been another change. The old commander-in-chief who had been +willingly recognised as "headman" or "King" because he knew how to lead +his men to victory, had disappeared from the scene. His place had been +taken by the nobles--a class of rich people who during the course of +time had got hold of an undue share of the farms and estates. + +These nobles enjoyed many advantages over the common crowd of freemen. +They were able to buy the best weapons which were to be found on the +market of the eastern Mediterranean. They had much spare time in which +they could practise the art of fighting. They lived in strongly +built houses and they could hire soldiers to fight for them. They were +constantly quarrelling among each other to decide who should rule the +city. The victorious nobleman then assumed a sort of Kingship over all +his neighbours and governed the town until he in turn was killed or +driven away by still another ambitious nobleman. + +Such a King, by the grace of his soldiers, was called a "Tyrant" and +during the seventh and sixth centuries before our era every Greek city +was for a time ruled by such Tyrants, many of whom, by the way, happened +to be exceedingly capa-ble men. But in the long run, this state of +affairs became unbearable. Then attempts were made to bring about +reforms and out of these reforms grew the first democratic government of +which the world has a record. + +It was early in the seventh century that the people of Athens decided to +do some housecleaning and give the large number of freemen once more a +voice in the government as they were supposed to have had in the days +of their Achaean ancestors. They asked a man by the name of Draco to +provide them with a set of laws that would protect the poor against +the aggressions of the rich. Draco set to work. Unfortunately he was a +professional lawyer and very much out of touch with ordinary life. In +his eyes a crime was a crime and when he had finished his code, the +people of Athens discovered that these Draconian laws were so severe +that they could not possibly be put into effect. There would not have +been rope enough to hang all the criminals under their new system of +jurisprudence which made the stealing of an apple a capital offence. + +The Athenians looked about for a more humane reformer. At last they +found some one who could do that sort of thing better than anybody else. +His name was Solon. He belonged to a noble family and he had travelled +all over the world and had studied the forms of government of many other +countries. After a careful study of the subject, Solon gave Athens a set +of laws which bore testimony to that wonderful principle of moderation +which was part of the Greek character. He tried to improve the condition +of the peasant without however destroying the prosperity of the nobles +who were (or rather who could be) of such great service to the state as +soldiers. To protect the poorer classes against abuse on the part of +the judges (who were always elected from the class of the nobles because +they received no salary) Solon made a provision whereby a citizen with a +grievance had the right to state his case before a jury of thirty of his +fellow Athenians. + +Most important of all, Solon forced the average freeman to take a direct +and personal interest in the affairs of the city. No longer could he +stay at home and say "oh, I am too busy today" or "it is raining and I +had better stay indoors." He was expected to do his share; to be at the +meeting of the town council; and carry part of the responsibility for +the safety and the prosperity of the state. + +This government by the "demos," the people, was often far from +successful. There was too much idle talk. There were too many hateful +and spiteful scenes between rivals for official honor. But it taught +the Greek people to be independent and to rely upon themselves for their +salvation and that was a very good thing. + + + + +GREEK LIFE + +HOW THE GREEKS LIVED + + +BUT how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time to look after +their families and their business if they were forever running to the +market-place to discuss affairs of state? In this chapter I shall tell +you. + +In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised only one +class of citizens--the freemen. Every Greek city was composed of a small +number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a sprinkling +of foreigners. + +At rare intervals (usually during a war, when men were needed for the +army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to confer the rights of +citizenship upon the "barbarians" as they called the foreigners. But +this was an exception. Citizenship was a matter of birth. You were an +Athenian because your father and your grandfather had been Athenians +before you. But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if +you were born of non-Athenian parents, you remained a "foreigner" until +the end of time. + +The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a king or a +tyrant, was run by and for the freemen, and this would not have been +possible without a large army of slaves who outnumbered the free +citizens at the rate of six or five to one and who performed those tasks +to which we modern people must devote most of our time and energy if we +wish to provide for our families and pay the rent of our apartments. +The slaves did all the cooking and baking and candlestick making of the +entire city. They were the tailors and the carpenters and the jewelers +and the school-teachers and the bookkeepers and they tended the store +and looked after the factory while the master went to the public meeting +to discuss questions of war and peace or visited the theatre to see the +latest play of AEschylus or hear a discussion of the revolutionary +ideas of Euripides, who had dared to express certain doubts upon the +omnipotence of the great god Zeus. + +Indeed, ancient Athens resembled a modern club. All the freeborn citizens +were hereditary members and all the slaves were hereditary servants, and +waited upon the needs of their masters, and it was very pleasant to be a +member of the organisation. + +But when we talk about slaves, we do not mean the sort of people about +whom you have read in the pages of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It is true that +the position of those slaves who tilled the fields was a very unpleasant +one, but the average freeman who had come down in the world and who had +been obliged to hire himself out as a farm hand led just as miserable +a life. In the cities, furthermore, many of the slaves were more +prosperous than the poorer classes of the freemen. For the Greeks, who +loved moderation in all things, did not like to treat their slaves after +the fashion which afterward was so common in Rome, where a slave had as +few rights as an engine in a modern factory and could be thrown to the +wild animals upon the smallest pretext. + +The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, without which no +city could possibly become the home of a truly civilised people. + +The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are performed by +the business men and the professional men. As for those household duties +which take up so much of the time of your mother and which worry your +father when he comes home from his office, the Greeks, who understood +the value of leisure, had reduced such duties to the smallest possible +minimum by living amidst surroundings of extreme simplicity. + +To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich nobles spent +their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked all the comforts which +a modern workman expects as his natural right. A Greek home consisted +of four walls and a roof. There was a door which led into the street but +there were no windows. The kitchen, the living rooms and the sleeping +quarters were built around an open courtyard in which there was a small +fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it look bright. Within +this courtyard the family lived when it did not rain or when it was not +too cold. In one corner of the yard the cook (who was a slave) prepared +the meal and in another corner, the teacher (who was also a +slave) taught the children the alpha beta gamma and the tables of +multiplication and in still another corner the lady of the house, who +rarely left her domain (since it was not considered good form for a +married woman to be seen on the street too often) was repairing her +husband's coat with her seamstresses (who were slaves,) and in the +little office, right off the door, the master was inspecting the +accounts which the overseer of his farm (who was a slave) had just +brought to him. + +When dinner was ready the family came together but the meal was a very +simple one and did not take much time. The Greeks seem to have regarded +eating as an unavoidable evil and not a pastime, which kills many dreary +hours and eventually kills many dreary people. They lived on bread and +on wine, with a little meat and some green vegetables. They drank water +only when nothing else was available because they did not think it very +healthy. They loved to call on each other for dinner, but our idea of a +festive meal, where everybody is supposed to eat much more than is good +for him, would have disgusted them. They came together at the table for +the purpose of a good talk and a good glass of wine and water, but as +they were moderate people they despised those who drank too much. + +The same simplicity which prevailed in the dining room also dominated +their choice of clothes. They liked to be clean and well groomed, to +have their hair and beards neatly cut, to feel their bodies strong with +the exercise and the swimming of the gymnasium, but they never followed +the Asiatic fashion which prescribed loud colours and strange patterns. +They wore a long white coat and they managed to look as smart as a +modern Italian officer in his long blue cape. + +They loved to see their wives wear ornaments but they thought it very +vulgar to display their wealth (or their wives) in public and whenever +the women left their home they were as inconspicuous as possible. + +In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation but +also of simplicity. "Things," chairs and tables and books and houses and +carriages, are apt to take up a great deal of their owner's time. In the +end they invariably make him their slave and his hours are spent looking +after their wants, keeping them polished and brushed and painted. The +Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be "free," both in mind and +in body. That they might maintain their liberty, and be truly free in +spirit, they reduced their daily needs to the lowest possible point. + + + + +THE GREEK THEATRE + +THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT + + +AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun to collect +the poems, which had been written in honor of their brave ancestors who +had driven the Pelasgians out of Hellas and had destroyed the power of +Troy. These poems were recited in public and everybody came to listen to +them. But the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost +a necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these recited +heroic tales. It had such a curious origin that I must tell you +something about it in a separate chapter + +The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every year they held solemn +processions in honor of Dionysos the God of the wine. As everybody in +Greece drank wine (the Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose +of swimming and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a +God of the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land. + +And because the Wine-God was supposed to live in the vineyards, amidst a +merry mob of Satyrs (strange creatures who were half man and half goat), +the crowd that joined the procession used to wear goat-skins and to +hee-haw like real billy-goats. The Greek word for goat is "tragos" and +the Greek word for singer is "oidos." The singer who meh-mehed like a +goat therefore was called a "tragos-oidos" or goat singer, and it is +this strange name which developed into the modern word "Tragedy," which +means in the theatrical sense a piece with an unhappy ending, just as +Comedy (which really means the singing of something "comos" or gay) is +the name given to a play which ends happily. + +But how, you will ask, did this noisy chorus of masqueraders, stamping +around like wild goats, ever develop into the noble tragedies which have +filled the theatres of the world for almost two thousand years? + +The connecting link between the goat-singer and Hamlet is really very +simple as I shall show you in a moment. + +The singing chorus was very amusing in the beginning and attracted large +crowds of spectators who stood along the side of the road and laughed. +But soon this business of tree-hawing grew tiresome and the Greeks +thought dullness an evil only comparable to ugliness or sickness. They +asked for something more entertaining. Then an inventive young poet +from the village of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved a +tremendous success. He made one of the members of the goat-chorus step +forward and engage in conversation with the leader of the musicians who +marched at the head of the parade playing upon their pipes of Pan. +This individual was allowed to step out of line. He waved his arms and +gesticulated while he spoke (that is to say he "acted" while the others +merely stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the +bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon which the poet +had written down these answers before the show began. + +This rough and ready conversation--the dialogue--which told the story +of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with the +crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an "acted scene" and +very soon the "acting" was considered more important than the procession +and the meh-mehing. + +AEschylus, the most successful of all "tragedians" who wrote no less +than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a +bold step forward when he introduced two "actors" instead of one. A +generation later Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When +Euripides began to write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the +fifth century, B.C., he was allowed as many actors as he liked and +when Aristophanes wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun +at everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the +chorus had been reduced to the role of mere bystanders who were lined up +behind the principal performers and who sang "this is a terrible world" +while the hero in the foreground committed a crime against the will of +the Gods. + +This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a proper setting, and +soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut out of the rock of a nearby +hill. The spectators sat upon wooden benches and faced a wide circle +(our present orchestra where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for +a seat). Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the +chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where they made +up with large clay masks which hid their faces and which showed the +spectators whether the actors were supposed to be happy and smiling or +unhappy and weeping. The Greek word for tent is "skene" and that is the +reason why we talk of the "scenery" of the stage. + +When once the tragedy had become part of Greek life, the people took +it very seriously and never went to the theatre to give their minds a +vacation. A new play became as important an event as an election and +a successful playwright was received with greater honors than those +bestowed upon a general who had just returned from a famous victory. + + + + +THE PERSIAN WARS + +HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE AGAINST ASIATIC INVASION AND DROVE THE +PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN SEA + + +THE Greeks had learned the art of trading from the AEgeans who had +been the pupils of the Phoenicians. They had founded colonies after the +Phoenician pattern. They had even improved upon the Phoenician methods +by a more general use of money in dealing with foreign customers. In +the sixth century before our era they had established themselves firmly +along the coast of Asia Minor and they were taking away trade from the +Phoenicians at a fast rate. This the Phoenicians of course did not +like but they were not strong enough to risk a war with their Greek +competitors. They sat and waited nor did they wait in vain. + +In a former chapter, I have told you how a humble tribe of Persian +shepherds had suddenly gone upon the warpath and had conquered the +greater part of western Asia. The Persians were too civilised to plunder +their new subjects. They contented themselves with a yearly tribute. +When they reached the coast of Asia Minor they insisted that the Greek +colonies of Lydia recognize the Persian Kings as their over-Lords and +pay them a stipulated tax. The Greek colonies objected. The Persians +insisted. Then the Greek colonies appealed to the home-country and the +stage was set for a quarrel. + +For if the truth be told, the Persian Kings regarded the Greek +city-states as very dangerous political institutions and bad examples +for all other people who were supposed to be the patient slaves of the +mighty Persian Kings. + +Of course, the Greeks enjoyed a certain degree of safety because their +country lay hidden beyond the deep waters of the AEgean. But here their +old enemies, the Phoenicians, stepped forward with offers of help and +advice to the Persians. If the Persian King would provide the soldiers, +the Phoenicians would guarantee to deliver the necessary ships to carry +them to Europe. It was the year 492 before the birth of Christ, and Asia +made ready to destroy the rising power of Europe. + +As a final warning the King of Persia sent messengers to the Greeks +asking for "earth and water" as a token of their submission. The Greeks +promptly threw the messengers into the nearest well where they would +find both "earth and water" in large abundance and thereafter of course +peace was impossible. + +But the Gods of High Olympus watched over their children and when the +Phoenician fleet carrying the Persian troops was near Mount Athos, the +Storm-God blew his cheeks until he almost burst the veins of his brow, +and the fleet was destroyed by a terrible hurricane and the Persians +were all drowned. + +Two years later they returned. This time they sailed straight across +the AEgean Sea and landed near the village of Marathon. As soon as the +Athenians heard this they sent their army of ten thousand men to guard +the hills that surrounded the Marathonian plain. At the same time they +despatched a fast runner to Sparta to ask for help. But Sparta was +envious of the fame of Athens and refused to come to her assistance. +The other Greek cities followed her example with the exception of tiny +Plataea which sent a thousand men. On the twelfth of September of the +year 490, Miltiades, the Athenian commander, threw this little army +against the hordes of the Persians. The Greeks broke through the Persian +barrage of arrows and their spears caused terrible havoc among the +disorganised Asiatic troops who had never been called upon to resist +such an enemy. + +That night the people of Athens watched the sky grow red with the flames +of burning ships. Anxiously they waited for news. At last a little +cloud of dust appeared upon the road that led to the North. It was +Pheidippides, the runner. He stumbled and gasped for his end was near. +Only a few days before had he returned from his errand to Sparta. He had +hastened to join Miltiades. That morning he had taken part in the attack +and later he had volunteered to carry the news of victory to his beloved +city. The people saw him fall and they rushed forward to support him. +"We have won," he whispered and then he died, a glorious death which +made him envied of all men. + +As for the Persians, they tried, after this defeat, to land near Athens +but they found the coast guarded and disappeared, and once more the land +of Hellas was at peace. + +Eight years they waited and during this time the Greeks were not idle. +They knew that a final attack was to be expected but they did not agree +upon the best way to avert the danger. Some people wanted to increase +the army. Others said that a strong fleet was necessary for success. The +two parties led by Aristides (for the army) and Themistocles (the leader +of the bigger-navy men) fought each other bitterly and nothing was done +until Aristides was exiled. Then Themistocles had his chance and he +built all the ships he could and turned the Piraeus into a strong naval +base. + +In the year 481 B.C. a tremendous Persian army appeared in Thessaly, a +province of northern Greece. In this hour of danger, Sparta, the +great military city of Greece, was elected commander-in-chief. But the +Spartans cared little what happened to northern Greece provided their +own country was not invaded, They neglected to fortify the passes that +led into Greece. + +A small detachment of Spartans under Leonidas had been told to guard +the narrow road between the high mountains and the sea which connected +Thessaly with the southern provinces. Leonidas obeyed his orders. He +fought and held the pass with unequalled bravery. But a traitor by the +name of Ephialtes who knew the little byways of Malis guided a regiment +of Persians through the hills and made it possible for them to attack +Leonidas in the rear. Near the Warm Wells--the Thermopylae--a terrible +battle was fought. + +When night came Leonidas and his faithful soldiers lay dead under the +corpses of their enemies. + +But the pass had been lost and the greater part of Greece fell into the +hands of the Persians. They marched upon Athens, threw the garrison from +the rocks of the Acropolis and burned the city. The people fled to the +Island of Salamis. All seemed lost. But on the 20th of September of the +year 480 Themistocles forced the Persian fleet to give battle within the +narrow straits which separated the Island of Salamis from the mainland +and within a few hours he destroyed three quarters of the Persian ships. + +In this way the victory of Thermopylae came to naught. Xerxes was forced +to retire. The next year, so he decreed, would bring a final decision. +He took his troops to Thessaly and there he waited for spring. + +But this time the Spartans understood the seriousness of the hour. +They left the safe shelter of the wall which they had built across the +isthmus of Corinth and under the leadership of Pausanias they marched +against Mardonius the Persian general. The united Greeks (some one +hundred thousand men from a dozen different cities) attacked the three +hundred thou-sand men of the enemy near Plataea. Once more the heavy +Greek infantry broke through the Persian barrage of arrows. The Persians +were defeated, as they had been at Marathon, and this time they left for +good. By a strange coincidence, the same day that the Greek armies won +their victory near Plataea, the Athenian ships destroyed the enemy's +fleet near Cape Mycale in Asia Minor. + +Thus did the first encounter between Asia and Europe end. Athens had +covered herself with glory and Sparta had fought bravely and well. If +these two cities had been able to come to an agreement, if they had been +willing to forget their little jealousies, they might have become the +leaders of a strong and united Hellas. + +But alas, they allowed the hour of victory and enthusiasm to slip by, +and the same opportunity never returned. + + + + +ATHENS vs. SPARTA + +HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR FOR THE +LEADERSHIP OF GREECE + + +ATHENS and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people spoke a common +language. In every other respect they were different. Athens rose high +from the plain. It was a city exposed to the fresh breezes from the sea, +willing to look at the world with the eyes of a happy child. Sparta, on +the other hand, was built at the bottom of a deep valley, and used the +surrounding mountains as a barrier against foreign thought. Athens was a +city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp where people were soldiers +for the sake of being soldiers. The people of Athens loved to sit in the +sun and discuss poetry or listen to the wise words of a philosopher. +The Spartans, on the other hand, never wrote a single line that was +considered literature, but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight, +and they sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military +preparedness. + +No wonder that these sombre Spartans viewed the success of Athens with +malicious hate. The energy which the defence of the common home had +developed in Athens was now used for purposes of a more peaceful nature. +The Acropolis was rebuilt and was made into a marble shrine to the +Goddess Athena. Pericles, the leader of the Athenian democracy, sent far +and wide to find famous sculptors and painters and scientists to make +the city more beautiful and the young Athenians more worthy of their +home. At the same time he kept a watchful eye on Sparta and built high +walls which connected Athens with the sea and made her the strongest +fortress of that day. + +An insignificant quarrel between two little Greek cities led to the +final conflict. For thirty years the war between Athens and Sparta +continued. It ended in a terrible disaster for Athens. + +During the third year of the war the plague had entered the city. More +than half of the people and Pericles, the great leader, had been killed. +The plague was followed by a period of bad and untrustworthy leadership. +A brilliant young fellow by the name of Alcibiades had gained the favor +of the popular assembly. He suggested a raid upon the Spartan colony of +Syracuse in Sicily. An expedition was equipped and everything was ready. +But Alcibiades got mixed up in a street brawl and was forced to flee. +The general who succeeded him was a bungler. First he lost his ships and +then he lost his army, and the few surviving Athenians were thrown into +the stone-quarries of Syracuse, where they died from hunger and thirst. + +The expedition had killed all the young men of Athens. The city was +doomed. After a long siege the town surrendered in April of the year +404. The high walls were demolished. The navy was taken away by the +Spartans. Athens ceased to exist as the center of the great colonial +empire which it had conquered during the days of its prosperity. But +that wonderful desire to learn and to know and to investigate which +had distinguished her free citizens during the days of greatness and +prosperity did not perish with the walls and the ships. It continued to +live. It became even more brilliant. + +Athens no longer shaped the destinies of the land of Greece. But now, as +the home of the first great university the city began to influence the +minds of intelligent people far beyond the narrow frontiers of Hellas. + + + + +ALEXANDER THE GREAT + +ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES A GREEK WORLD-EMPIRE, AND WHAT +BECAME OF THIS HIGH AMBITION + + +WHEN the Achaeans had left their homes along the banks of the Danube to +look for pastures new, they had spent some time among the mountains of +Macedonia. Ever since, the Greeks had maintained certain more or +less formal relations with the people of this northern country. The +Macedonians from their side had kept themselves well informed about +conditions in Greece. + +Now it happened, just when Sparta and Athens had finished their +disastrous war for the leadership of Hellas, that Macedonia was ruled +by an extraordinarily clever man by the name of Philip. He admired +the Greek spirit in letters and art but he despised the Greek lack of +self-control in political affairs. It irritated him to see a perfectly +good people waste its men and money upon fruitless quarrels. So he +settled the difficulty by making himself the master of all Greece and +then he asked his new subjects to join him on a voyage which he meant to +pay to Persia in return for the visit which Xerxes had paid the Greeks +one hundred and fifty years before. + +Unfortunately Philip was murdered before he could start upon this +well-prepared expedition. The task of avenging the destruction of Athens +was left to Philip's son Alexander, the beloved pupil of Aristotle, +wisest of all Greek teachers. + +Alexander bade farewell to Europe in the spring of the year 334 B.C. +Seven years later he reached India. In the meantime he had destroyed +Phoenicia, the old rival of the Greek merchants. He had conquered Egypt +and had been worshipped by the people of the Nile valley as the son +and heir of the Pharaohs. He had defeated the last Persian king--he had +overthrown the Persian empire he had given orders to rebuild Babylon--he +had led his troops into the heart of the Himalayan mountains and had +made the entire world a Macedonian province and dependency. Then he +stopped and announced even more ambitious plans. + +The newly formed Empire must be brought under the influence of the Greek +mind. The people must be taught the Greek language--they must live in +cities built after a Greek model. The Alexandrian soldier now turned +school-master. The military camps of yesterday became the peaceful +centres of the newly imported Greek civilisation. Higher and higher +did the flood of Greek manners and Greek customs rise, when suddenly +Alexander was stricken with a fever and died in the old palace of King +Hammurabi of Babylon in the year 323. + +Then the waters receded. But they left behind the fertile clay of a +higher civilisation and Alexander, with all his childish ambitions and +his silly vanities, had performed a most valuable service. His Empire +did not long survive him. A number of ambitious generals divided the +territory among themselves. But they too remained faithful to the dream +of a great world brotherhood of Greek and Asiatic ideas and knowledge. + +They maintained their independence until the Romans added western +Asia and Egypt to their other domains. The strange inheritance of this +Hellenistic civilisation (part Greek, part Persian, part Egyptian +and Babylonian) fell to the Roman conquerors. During the following +centuries, it got such a firm hold upon the Roman world, that we feel +its influence in our own lives this very day. + + +A SUMMARY + +A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 to 20 + + +THUS far, from the top of our high tower we have been looking eastward. +But from this time on, the history of Egypt and Mesopotamia is going +to grow less interesting and I must take you to study the western +landscape. + +Before we do this, let us stop a moment and make clear to ourselves what +we have seen. + +First of all I showed you prehistoric man--a creature very simple in his +habits and very unattractive in his manners. I told you how he was +the most defenceless of the many animals that roamed through the early +wilderness of the five continents, but being possessed of a larger and +better brain, he managed to hold his own. + +Then came the glaciers and the many centuries of cold weather, and life +on this planet became so difficult that man was obliged to think three +times as hard as ever before if he wished to survive. Since, however, +that "wish to survive" was (and is) the mainspring which keeps every +living being going full tilt to the last gasp of its breath, the brain +of glacial man was set to work in all earnestness. Not only did these +hardy people manage to exist through the long cold spells which killed +many ferocious animals, but when the earth became warm and comfortable +once more, prehistoric man had learned a number of things which gave +him such great advantages over his less intelligent neighbors that the +danger of extinction (a very serious one during the first half million +years of man's residence upon this planet) became a very remote one. + +I told you how these earliest ancestors of ours were slowly plodding +along when suddenly (and for reasons that are not well understood) the +people who lived in the valley of the Nile rushed ahead and almost over +night, created the first centre of civilisation. + +Then I showed you Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," which was +the second great school of the human race. And I made you a map of the +little island bridges of the AEgean Sea, which carried the knowledge and +the science of the old east to the young west, where lived the Greeks. + +Next I told you of an Indo-European tribe, called the Hellenes, who +thousands of years before had left the heart of Asia and who had in +the eleventh century before our era pushed their way into the rocky +peninsula of Greece and who, since then, have been known to us as the +Greeks. And I told you the story of the little Greek cities that +were really states, where the civilisation of old Egypt and Asia was +transfigured (that is a big word, but you can "figure out" what it +means) into something quite new, something that was much nobler and +finer than anything that had gone before. + +When you look at the map you will see how by this time civilisation has +described a semi-circle. It begins in Egypt, and by way of Mesopotamia +and the AEgean Islands it moves westward until it reaches the European +continent. The first four thousand years, Egyptians and Babylonians and +Phoenicians and a large number of Semitic tribes (please remember that +the Jews were but one of a large number of Semitic peoples) have carried +the torch that was to illuminate the world. They now hand it over to the +Indo-European Greeks, who become the teachers of another Indo-European +tribe, called the Romans. But meanwhile the Semites have pushed westward +along the northern coast of Africa and have made themselves the rulers +of the western half of the Mediterranean just when the eastern half has +become a Greek (or Indo-European) possession. + +This, as you shall see in a moment, leads to a terrible conflict between +the two rival races, and out of their struggle arises the victorious +Roman Empire, which is to take this Egyptian-Mesopotamian-Greek +civilisation to the furthermost corners of the European continent, where +it serves as the foundation upon which our modern society is based. + +I know all this sounds very complicated, but if you get hold of these +few principles, the rest of our history will become a great deal +simpler. The maps will make clear what the words fail to tell. And after +this short intermission, we go back to our story and give you an account +of the famous war between Carthage and Rome. + + + + +ROME AND CARTHAGE + +THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF AFRICA AND THE +INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE WEST COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH +OTHER FOR THE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE WAS +DESTROYED + + +THE little Phoenician trading post of Kart-hadshat stood on a low hill +which overlooked the African Sea, a stretch of water ninety miles +wide which separates Africa from Europe. It was an ideal spot for a +commercial centre. Almost too ideal. It grew too fast and became too +rich. When in the sixth century before our era, Nebuchadnezzar of +Babylon destroyed Tyre, Carthage broke off all further relations with +the Mother Country and became an independent state--the great western +advance-post of the Semitic races. + +Unfortunately the city had inherited many of the traits which for a +thousand years had been characteristic of the Phoenicians. It was a vast +business-house, protected by a strong navy, indifferent to most of the +finer aspects of life. The city and the surrounding country and the +distant colonies were all ruled by a small but exceedingly powerful +group of rich men, The Greek word for rich is "ploutos" and the Greeks +called such a government by "rich men" a "Plutocracy." Carthage was a +plutocracy and the real power of the state lay in the hands of a dozen +big ship-owners and mine-owners and merchants who met in the back +room of an office and regarded their common Fatherland as a business +enterprise which ought to yield them a decent profit. They were however +wide awake and full of energy and worked very hard. + +As the years went by the influence of Carthage upon her neighbours +increased until the greater part of the African coast, Spain and certain +regions of France were Carthaginian possessions, and paid tribute, taxes +and dividends to the mighty city on the African Sea. + +Of course, such a "plutocracy" was forever at the mercy of the crowd. +As long as there was plenty of work and wages were high, the majority of +the citizens were quite contented, allowed their "betters" to rule them +and asked no embarrassing questions. But when no ships left the harbor, +when no ore was brought to the smelting-ovens, when dockworkers and +stevedores were thrown out of employment, then there were grumblings and +there was a demand that the popular assembly be called together as in +the olden days when Carthage had been a self-governing republic. + +To prevent such an occurrence the plutocracy was obliged to keep the +business of the town going at full speed. They had managed to do this +very successfully for almost five hun-dred years when they were greatly +disturbed by certain rumors which reached them from the western coast of +Italy. It was said that a little village on the banks of the Tiber had +suddenly risen to great power and was making itself the acknowledged +leader of all the Latin tribes who inhabited central Italy. It was also +said that this village, which by the way was called Rome, intended to +build ships and go after the commerce of Sicily and the southern coast +of France. + +Carthage could not possibly tolerate such competition. The young rival +must be destroyed lest the Carthaginian rulers lose their prestige as +the absolute rulers of the western Mediterranean. The rumors were duly +investigated and in a general way these were the facts that came to +light. + +The west coast of Italy had long been neglected by civilisation. Whereas +in Greece all the good harbours faced eastward and enjoyed a full view +of the busy islands of the AEgean, the west coast of Italy contemplated +nothing more exciting than the desolate waves of the Mediterranean. The +country was poor. It was therefore rarely visited by foreign merchants +and the natives were allowed to live in undisturbed possession of their +hills and their marshy plains. + +The first serious invasion of this land came from the north. At an +unknown date certain Indo-European tribes had managed to find their way +through the passes of the Alps and had pushed southward until they +had filled the heel and the toe of the famous Italian boot with their +villages and their flocks. Of these early conquerors we know nothing. +No Homer sang their glory. Their own accounts of the foundation of Rome +(written eight hundred years later when the little city had become the +centre of an Empire) are fairy stories and do not belong in a history. +Romulus and Remus jumping across each other's walls (I always forget who +jumped across whose wall) make entertaining reading, but the foundation +of the City of Rome was a much more prosaic affair. Rome began as a +thousand American cities have done, by being a convenient place for +barter and horse-trading. It lay in the heart of the plains of central +Italy The Tiber provided direct access to the sea. The land-road from +north to south found here a convenient ford which could be used all the +year around. And seven little hills along the banks of the river offered +the inhabitants a safe shelter against their enemies who lived in the +mountains and those who lived beyond the horizon of the nearby sea. + +The mountaineers were called the Sabines. They were a rough crowd with +an unholy desire for easy plunder. But they were very backward. They +used stone axes and wooden shields and were no match for the Romans +with their steel swords. The sea-people on the other hand were dangerous +foes. They were called the Etruscans and they were (and still are) one +of the great mysteries of history. Nobody knew (or knows) whence they +came; who they were; what had driven them away from their original +homes. We have found the remains of their cities and their cemeteries +and their waterworks all along the Italian coast. We are familiar with +their inscriptions. But as no one has ever been able to decipher the +Etruscan alphabet, these written messages are, so far, merely annoying +and not at all useful. + +Our best guess is that the Etruscans came originally from Asia Minor and +that a great war or a pestilence in that country had forced them to +go away and seek a new home elsewhere. Whatever the reason for their +coming, the Etruscans played a great role in history. They carried the +pollen of the ancient civilisation from the east to the west and they +taught the Romans who, as we know, came from the north, the first +principles of architecture and street-building and fighting and art and +cookery and medicine and astronomy. + +But just as the Greeks had not loved their AEgean teachers, in this same +way did the Romans hate their Etruscan masters. They got rid of them +as soon as they could and the opportunity offered itself when Greek +merchants discovered the commercial possibilities of Italy and when the +first Greek vessels reached Rome. The Greeks came to trade, but they +stayed to instruct. They found the tribes who inhabited the Roman +country-side (and who were called the Latins) quite willing to learn +such things as might be of practical use. At once they understood the +great benefit that could be derived from a written alphabet and +they copied that of the Greeks. They also understood the commercial +advantages of a well-regulated system of coins and measures and weights. +Eventually the Romans swallowed Greek civilisation hook, line and +sinker. + +They even welcomed the Gods of the Greeks to their country. Zeus was +taken to Rome where he became known as Jupiter and the other divinities +followed him. The Roman Gods however never were quite like their +cheerful cousins who had accompanied the Greeks on their road through +life and through history. The Roman Gods were State Functionaries. Each +one managed his own department with great prudence and a deep sense +of justice, but in turn he was exact in demanding the obedience of his +worshippers. This obedience the Romans rendered with scrupulous care. +But they never established the cordial personal relations and that +charming friendship which had existed between the old Hellenes and the +mighty residents of the high Olympian peak. + +The Romans did not imitate the Greek form of government, but being of +the same Indo-European stock as the people of Hellas, the early history +of Rome resembles that of Athens and the other Greek cities. They did +not find it difficult to get rid of their kings, the descendants of the +ancient tribal chieftains. But once the kings had been driven from the +city, the Romans were forced to bridle the power of the nobles, and it +took many centuries before they managed to establish a system which gave +every free citizen of Rome a chance to take a personal interest in the +affairs of his town. + +Thereafter the Romans enjoyed one great advantage over the Greeks. They +managed the affairs of their country without making too many speeches. +They were less imaginative than the Greeks and they preferred an ounce +of action to a pound of words. They understood the tendency of the +multitude (the "plebe," as the assemblage of free citizens was called) +only too well to waste valuable time upon mere talk. They therefore +placed the actual business of running the city into the hands of two +"consuls" who were assisted by a council of Elders, called the Senate +(because the word "senex" means an old man). As a matter of custom and +practical advantage the senators were elected from the nobility. But +their power had been strictly defined. + +Rome at one time had passed through the same sort of struggle between +the poor and the rich which had forced Athens to adopt the laws of Draco +and Solon. In Rome this conflict had occurred in the fifth century B. +C. As a result the freemen had obtained a written code of laws which +protected them against the despotism of the aristocratic judges by the +institution of the "Tribune." These Tribunes were city-magistrates, +elected by the freemen. They had the right to protect any citizen +against those actions of the government officials which were thought to +be unjust. A consul had the right to condemn a man to death, but if the +case had not been absolutely proved the Tribune could interfere and save +the poor fellow's life. + +But when I use the word Rome, I seem to refer to a little city of a few +thousand inhabitants. And the real strength of Rome lay in the country +districts outside her walls. And it was in the government of these +outlying provinces that Rome at an early age showed her wonderful gift +as a colonising power. + +In very early times Rome had been the only strongly fortified city in +central Italy, but it had always offered a hospitable refuge to +other Latin tribes who happened to be in danger of attack. The Latin +neighbours had recognised the advantages of a close union with such +a powerful friend and they had tried to find a basis for some sort of +defensive and offensive alliance. Other nations, Egyptians, Babylonians, +Phoenicians, even Greeks, would have insisted upon a treaty of +submission on the part of the "barbarians," The Romans did nothing of +the sort. They gave the "outsider" a chance to become partners in a +common "res publica"--or common-wealth. + +"You want to join us," they said. "Very well, go ahead and join. We +shall treat you as if you were full-fledged citizens of Rome. In return +for this privilege we expect you to fight for our city, the mother of us +all, whenever it shall be necessary." + +The "outsider" appreciated this generosity and he showed his gratitude +by his unswerving loyalty. + +Whenever a Greek city had been attacked, the foreign residents had moved +out as quickly as they could. Why defend something which meant nothing +to them but a temporary boarding house in which they were tolerated as +long as they paid their bills? But when the enemy was before the gates +of Rome, all the Latins rushed to her defence. It was their Mother who +was in danger. It was their true "home" even if they lived a hundred +miles away and had never seen the walls of the sacred Hills. + +No defeat and no disaster could change this sentiment. In the beginning +of the fourth century B.C. the wild Gauls forced their way into Italy. +They had defeated the Roman army near the River Allia and had marched +upon the city. They had taken Rome and then they expected that the +people would come and sue for peace. They waited, but nothing happened. +After a short time the Gauls found themselves surrounded by a hostile +population which made it impossible for them to obtain supplies. After +seven months, hunger forced them to withdraw. The policy of Rome to +treat the "foreigner" on equal terms had proved a great success and Rome +stood stronger than ever before. + +This short account of the early history of Rome shows you the enormous +difference between the Roman ideal of a healthy state, and that of the +ancient world which was embodied in the town of Carthage. The Romans +counted upon the cheerful and hearty co-operation between a number of +"equal citizens." The Carthaginians, following the example of Egypt and +western Asia, insisted upon the unreasoning (and therefore unwilling) +obedience of "Subjects" and when these failed they hired professional +soldiers to do their fighting for them. + +You will now understand why Carthage was bound to fear such a clever and +powerful enemy and why the plutocracy of Carthage was only too willing +to pick a quarrel that they might destroy the dangerous rival before it +was too late. + +But the Carthaginians, being good business men, knew that it never +pays to rush matters. They proposed to the Romans that their respective +cities draw two circles on the map and that each town claim one of these +circles as her own "sphere of influence" and promise to keep out of the +other fellow's circle. The agreement was promptly made and was broken +just as promptly when both sides thought it wise to send their armies +to Sicily where a rich soil and a bad government invited foreign +interference. + +The war which followed (the so-called first Punic War) lasted +twenty-four years. It was fought out on the high seas and in the +beginning it seemed that the experienced Carthaginian navy would defeat +the newly created Roman fleet. Following their ancient tactics, the +Carthaginian ships would either ram the enemy vessels or by a bold +attack from the side they would break their oars and would then kill the +sailors of the helpless vessel with their arrows and with fire balls. +But Roman engineers invented a new craft which carried a boarding bridge +across which the Roman infantrymen stormed the hostile ship. Then there +was a sudden end to Carthaginian victories. At the battle of Mylae their +fleet was badly defeated. Carthage was obliged to sue for peace, and +Sicily became part of the Roman domains. + +Twenty-three years later new trouble arose. Rome (in quest of copper) +had taken the island of Sardinia. Carthage (in quest of silver) +thereupon occupied all of southern Spain. This made Carthage a direct +neighbour of the Romans. The latter did not like this at all and they +ordered their troops to cross the Pyrenees and watch the Carthaginian +army of occupation. + +The stage was set for the second outbreak between the two rivals. Once +more a Greek colony was the pretext for a war. The Carthaginians were +besieging Saguntum on the east coast of Spain. The Saguntians appealed +to Rome and Rome, as usual, was willing to help. The Senate promised the +help of the Latin armies, but the preparation for this expedition took +some time, and meanwhile Saguntum had been taken and had been destroyed. +This had been done in direct opposition to the will of Rome. The Senate +decided upon war. One Roman army was to cross the African sea and make +a landing on Carthaginian soil. A second division was to keep the +Carthaginian armies occupied in Spain to prevent them from rushing +to the aid of the home town. It was an excellent plan and everybody +expected a great victory. But the Gods had decided otherwise. + +It was the fall of the year 218 before the birth of Christ and the Roman +army which was to attack the Carthaginians in Spain had left Italy. +People were eagerly waiting for news of an easy and complete victory +when a terrible rumour began to spread through the plain of the Po. +Wild mountaineers, their lips trembling with fear, told of hundreds of +thousands of brown men accompanied by strange beasts "each one as big +as a house," who had suddenly emerged from the clouds of snow which +surrounded the old Graian pass through which Hercules, thousands of +years before, had driven the oxen of Geryon on his way from Spain to +Greece. Soon an endless stream of bedraggled refugees appeared before +the gates of Rome, with more complete details. Hannibal, the son of +Hamilcar, with fifty thousand soldiers, nine thousand horsemen and +thirty-seven fighting elephants, had crossed the Pyrenees. He had +defeated the Roman army of Scipio on the banks of the Rhone and he had +guided his army safely across the mountain passes of the Alps although +it was October and the roads were thickly covered with snow and ice. +Then he had joined forces with the Gauls and together they had defeated +a second Roman army just before they crossed the Trebia and laid siege +to Placentia, the northern terminus of the road which connected Rome +with the province of the Alpine districts. + +The Senate, surprised but calm and energetic as usual, hushed up +the news of these many defeats and sent two fresh armies to stop the +invader. Hannibal managed to surprise these troops on a narrow road +along the shores of the Trasimene Lake and there he killed all the Roman +officers and most of their men. This time there was a panic among +the people of Rome, but the Senate kept its nerve. A third army was +organised and the command was given to Quintus Fabius Maximus with full +power to act "as was necessary to save the state." + +Fabius knew that he must be very careful lest all be lost. His raw and +untrained men, the last available soldiers, were no match for Hannibal's +veterans. He refused to accept battle but forever he followed Hannibal, +destroyed everything eatable, destroyed the roads, attacked small +detachments and generally weakened the morale of the Carthaginian troops +by a most distressing and annoying form of guerilla warfare. + +Such methods however did not satisfy the fearsome crowds who had found +safety behind the walls of Rome. They wanted "action." Something must be +done and must be done quickly. A popular hero by the name of Varro, the +sort of man who went about the city telling everybody how much better +he could do things than slow old Fabius, the "Delayer," was made +commander-in-chief by popular acclamation. At the battle of Cannae (216) +he suffered the most terrible defeat of Roman history. More than seventy +thousand men were killed. Hannibal was master of all Italy. + +He marched from one end of the peninsula to the other, proclaiming +himself the "deliverer from the yoke of Rome" and asking the different +provinces to join him in warfare upon the mother city. Then once more +the wisdom of Rome bore noble fruit. With the exceptions of Capua and +Syracuse, all Roman cities remained loyal. Hannibal, the deliverer, +found himself opposed by the people whose friend he pretended to be. +He was far away from home and did not like the situation. He sent +messengers to Carthage to ask for fresh supplies and new men. Alas, +Carthage could not send him either. + +The Romans with their boarding-bridges, were the masters of the sea. +Hannibal must help himself as best he could. He continued to defeat the +Roman armies that were sent out against him, but his own numbers +were decreasing rapidly and the Italian peasants held aloof from this +self-appointed "deliverer." + +After many years of uninterrupted victories, Hannibal found himself +besieged in the country which he had just conquered. For a moment, the +luck seemed to turn. Hasdrubal, his brother, had defeated the Roman +armies in Spain. He had crossed the Alps to come to Hannibal's +assistance. He sent messengers to the south to tell of his arrival and +ask the other army to meet him in the plain of the Tiber. Unfortunately +the messengers fell into the hands of the Romans and Hannibal waited +in vain for further news until his brother's head, neatly packed in a +basket, came rolling into his camp and told him of the fate of the last +of the Carthaginian troops. + +With Hasdrubal out of the way, young Publius Scipio easily reconquered +Spain and four years later the Romans were ready for a final attack upon +Carthage. Hannibal was called back. He crossed the African Sea and tried +to organise the defences of his home-city. In the year 202 at the battle +of Zama, the Carthaginians were defeated. Hannibal fled to Tyre. From +there he went to Asia Minor to stir up the Syrians and the Macedonians +against Rome. He accomplished very little but his activities among these +Asiatic powers gave the Romans an excuse to carry their warfare into the +territory of the east and annex the greater part of the AEgean world. + +Driven from one city to another, a fugitive without a home, Hannibal at +last knew that the end of his ambitious dream had come. His beloved city +of Carthage had been ruined by the war. She had been forced to sign a +terrible peace. Her navy had been sunk. She had been forbidden to make +war without Roman permission. She had been condemned to pay the Romans +millions of dollars for endless years to come. Life offered no hope of +a better future. In the year 190 B.C. Hannibal took poison and killed +himself. + +Forty years later, the Romans forced their last war upon Carthage. Three +long years the inhabitants of the old Phoenician colony held out against +the power of the new republic. Hunger forced them to surrender. The few +men and women who had survived the siege were sold as slaves. The city +was set on fire. For two whole weeks the store-houses and the pal-aces +and the great arsenal burned. Then a terrible curse was pronounced upon +the blackened ruins and the Roman legions returned to Italy to enjoy +their victory. + +For the next thousand years, the Mediterranean remained a European sea. +But as soon as the Roman Empire had been destroyed, Asia made another +attempt to dominate this great inland sea, as you will learn when I tell +you about Mohammed. + + + + +THE RISE OF ROME + +HOW ROME HAPPENED + + +THE Roman Empire was an accident. No one planned it. It "happened." No +famous general or statesman or cut-throat ever got up and said "Friends, +Romans, Citizens, we must found an Empire. Follow me and together we +shall conquer all the land from the Gates of Hercules to Mount Taurus." + +Rome produced famous generals and equally distinguished statesmen and +cut-throats, and Roman armies fought all over the world. But the Roman +empire-making was done without a preconceived plan. The average +Roman was a very matter-of-fact citizen. He disliked theories about +government. When someone began to recite "eastward the course of Roman +Empire, etc., etc.," he hastily left the forum. He just continued to +take more and more land because circumstances forced him to do so. He +was not driven by ambition or by greed. Both by nature and inclination +he was a farmer and wanted to stay at home. But when he was attacked he +was obliged to defend himself and when the enemy happened to cross the +sea to ask for aid in a distant country then the patient Roman marched +many dreary miles to defeat this dangerous foe and when this had been +accomplished, he stayed behind to adminster{sic} his newly conquered +provinces lest they fall into the hands of wandering Barbarians and +become themselves a menace to Roman safety. It sounds rather complicated +and yet to the contemporaries it was so very simple, as you shall see in +a moment. + +In the year 203 B.C. Scipio had crossed the African Sea and had carried +the war into Africa. Carthage had called Hannibal back. Badly supported +by his mercenaries, Hannibal had been defeated near Zama. The Romans had +asked for his surrender and Hannibal had fled to get aid from the kings +of Macedonia and Syria, as I told you in my last chapter. + +The rulers of these two countries (remnants of the Empire of Alexander +the Great) just then were contemplating an expedition against Egypt. +They hoped to divide the rich Nile valley between themselves. The king +of Egypt had heard of this and he had asked Rome to come to his +support. The stage was set for a number of highly interesting plots and +counter-plots. But the Romans, with their lack of imagination, rang +the curtain down before the play had been fairly started. Their legions +completely defeated the heavy Greek phalanx which was still used by the +Macedonians as their battle formation. That happened in the year 197 +B.C. at the battle in the plains of Cynoscephalae, or "Dogs' Heads," in +central Thessaly. + +The Romans then marched southward to Attica and informed the Greeks that +they had come to "deliver the Hellenes from the Macedonian yoke." The +Greeks, having learned nothing in their years of semi-slavery, used +their new freedom in a most unfortunate way. All the little city-states +once more began to quarrel with each other as they had done in the good +old days. The Romans, who had little understanding and less love for +these silly bickerings of a race which they rather despised, showed +great forebearance. But tiring of these endless dissensions they lost +patience, invaded Greece, burned down Corinth (to "encourage the other +Greeks") and sent a Roman governor to Athens to rule this turbulent +province. In this way, Macedonia and Greece became buffer states which +protected Rome's eastern frontier. + +Meanwhile right across the Hellespont lay the Kingdom of Syria, and +Antiochus III, who ruled that vast land, had shown great eagerness when +his distinguished guest, General Hannibal, explained to him how easy it +would be to invade Italy and sack the city of Rome. + +Lucius Scipio, a brother of Scipio the African fighter who had defeated +Hannibal and his Carthaginians at Zama, was sent to Asia Minor. He +destroyed the armies of the Syrian king near Magnesia (in the year 190 +B.C.) Shortly afterwards, Antiochus was lynched by his own people. Asia +Minor became a Roman protectorate and the small City-Republic of Rome +was mistress of most of the lands which bordered upon the Mediterranean. + + + + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME AFTER CENTURIES OF UNREST AND REVOLUTION BECAME +AN EMPIRE + + +WHEN the Roman armies returned from these many victorious campaigns, +they were received with great jubilation. Alas and alack! this sudden +glory did not make the country any happier. On the contrary. The endless +campaigns had ruined the farmers who had been obliged to do the hard +work of Empire making. It had placed too much power in the hands of the +successful generals (and their private friends) who had used the war as +an excuse for wholesale robbery. + +The old Roman Republic had been proud of the simplicity which had +characterised the lives of her famous men. The new Republic felt ashamed +of the shabby coats and the high principles which had been fashionable +in the days of its grandfathers. It became a land of rich people ruled +by rich people for the benefit of rich people. As such it was doomed to +disastrous failure, as I shall now tell you. + +Within less than a century and a half. Rome had become the mistress of +practically all the land around the Mediterranean. In those early days +of history a prisoner of war lost his freedom and became a slave. The +Roman regarded war as a very serious business and he showed no mercy to +a conquered foe. After the fall of Carthage, the Carthaginian women and +children were sold into bondage together with their own slaves. And a +like fate awaited the obstinate inhabitants of Greece and Macedonia and +Spain and Syria when they dared to revolt against the Roman power. + +Two thousand years ago a slave was merely a piece of machinery. Nowadays +a rich man invests his money in factories. The rich people of Rome +(senators, generals and war-profiteers) invested theirs in land and in +slaves. The land they bought or took in the newly-acquired provinces. +The slaves they bought in open market wherever they happened to be +cheapest. During most of the third and second centuries before Christ +there was a plentiful supply, and as a result the landowners worked +their slaves until they dropped dead in their tracks, when they bought +new ones at the nearest bargain-counter of Corinthian or Carthaginian +captives. + +And now behold the fate of the freeborn farmer! + +He had done his duty toward Rome and he had fought her battles without +complaint. But when he came home after ten, fifteen or twenty years, his +lands were covered with weeds and his family had been ruined. But he was +a strong man and willing to begin life anew. He sowed and planted and +waited for the harvest. He carried his grain to the market together with +his cattle and his poultry, to find that the large landowners who worked +their estates with slaves could underbid him all along the line. For a +couple of years he tried to hold his own. Then he gave up in despair. He +left the country and he went to the nearest city. In the city he was as +hungry as he had been before on the land. But he shared his misery with +thousands of other disinherited beings. They crouched together in filthy +hovels in the suburbs of the large cities. They were apt to get sick and +die from terrible epidemics. They were all profoundly discontented. They +had fought for their country and this was their reward. They were always +willing to listen to those plausible spell-binders who gather around a +public grievance like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a +grave menace to the safety of the state. + +But the class of the newly-rich shrugged its shoulders. "We have our +army and our policemen," they argued, "they will keep the mob in order." +And they hid themselves behind the high walls of their pleasant villas +and cultivated their gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which +a Greek slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters. + +In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish service to the +Commonwealth continued. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, +had been married to a Roman by the name of Gracchus. She had two sons, +Tiberius and Gaius. When the boys grew up they entered politics and +tried to bring about certain much-needed reforms. A census had shown +that most of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by two thousand +noble families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been elected a Tribune, tried +to help the freemen. He revived two ancient laws which restricted the +number of acres which a single owner might possess. In this way he hoped +to revive the valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. +The newly-rich called him a robber and an enemy of the state. There were +street riots. A party of thugs was hired to kill the popular Tribune. +Tiberius Gracchus was attacked when he entered the assembly and was +beaten to death. Ten years later his brother Gaius tried the experiment +of reforming a nation against the expressed wishes of a strong +privileged class. He passed a "poor law" which was meant to help the +destitute farmers. Eventually it made the greater part of the Roman +citizens into professional beggars. + +He established colonies of destitute people in distant parts of the +empire, but these settlements failed to attract the right sort of +people. Before Gaius Gracchus could do more harm he too was murdered and +his followers were either killed or exiled. The first two reformers had +been gentlemen. The two who came after were of a very different stamp. +They were professional soldiers. One was called Marius. The name of the +other was Sulla. Both enjoyed a large personal following. + +Sulla was the leader of the landowners. Marius, the victor in a great +battle at the foot of the Alps when the Teutons and the Cimbri had been +annihilated, was the popular hero of the disinherited freemen. + +Now it happened in the year 88 B.C. that the Senate of Rome was greatly +disturbed by rumours that came from Asia. Mithridates, king of a country +along the shores of the Black Sea, and a Greek on his mother's side, +had seen the possibility of establishing a second Alexandrian Empire. +He began his campaign for world-domination with the murder of all Roman +citizens who happened to be in Asia Minor, men, women and children. +Such an act, of course, meant war. The Senate equipped an army to march +against the King of Pontus and punish him for his crime. But who was to +be commander-in-chief? "Sulla," said the Senate, "because he is Consul." +"Marius," said the mob, "because he has been Consul five times and +because he is the champion of our rights." + +Possession is nine points of the law. Sulla happened to be in actual +command of the army. He went west to defeat Mithridates and Marius fled +to Africa. There he waited until he heard that Sulla had crossed into +Asia. He then returned to Italy, gathered a motley crew of malcontents, +marched on Rome and entered the city with his professional highwaymen, +spent five days and five nights, slaughtering the enemies of the +Senatorial party, got himself elected Consul and promptly died from the +excitement of the last fortnight. + +There followed four years of disorder. Then Sulla, having defeated +Mithridates, announced that he was ready to return to Rome and settle +a few old scores of his own. He was as good as his word. For weeks his +soldiers were busy executing those of their fellow citizens who were +suspected of democratic sympathies. One day they got hold of a young +fellow who had been often seen in the company of Marius. They were going +to hang him when some one interfered. "The boy is too young," he said, +and they let him go. His name was Julius Caesar. You shall meet him +again on the next page. + +As for Sulla, he became "Dictator," which meant sole and supreme ruler +of all the Roman possessions. He ruled Rome for four years, and he died +quietly in his bed, having spent the last year of his life tenderly +raising his cabbages, as was the custom of so many Romans who had spent +a lifetime killing their fellow-men. + +But conditions did not grow better. On the contrary, they grew worse. +Another general, Gnaeus Pompeius, or Pompey, a close friend of Sulla, +went east to renew the war against the ever troublesome Mithridates. He +drove that energetic potentate into the mountains where Mithridates took +poison and killed himself, well knowing what fate awaited him as a +Roman captive. Next he re-established the authority of Rome over Syria, +destroyed Jerusalem, roamed through western Asia, trying to revive the +myth of Alexander the Great, and at last (in the year 62) returned to +Rome with a dozen ship-loads of defeated Kings and Princes and Generals, +all of whom were forced to march in the triumphal procession of this +enormously popular Roman who presented his city with the sum of forty +million dollars in plunder. + +It was necessary that the government of Rome be placed in the hands of +a strong man. Only a few months before, the town had almost fallen +into the hands of a good-for-nothing young aristocrat by the name of +Catiline, who had gambled away his money and hoped to reimburse himself +for his losses by a little plundering. Cicero, a public-spirited lawyer, +had discovered the plot, had warned the Senate, and had forced Catiline +to flee. But there were other young men with similar ambitions and it +was no time for idle talk. + +Pompey organised a triumvirate which was to take charge of affairs. He +became the leader of this Vigilante Committee. Gaius Julius Caesar, who +had made a reputation for himself as governor of Spain, was the second +in command. The third was an indifferent sort of person by the name of +Crassus. He had been elected because he was incredibly rich, having been +a successful contractor of war supplies. He soon went upon an expedition +against the Parthians and was killed. + +As for Caesar, who was by far the ablest of the three, he decided that +he needed a little more military glory to become a popular hero. He +crossed the Alps and conquered that part of the world which is now +called France. Then he hammered a solid wooden bridge across the Rhine +and invaded the land of the wild Teutons. Finally he took ship and +visited England. Heaven knows where he might have ended if he had not +been forced to return to Italy. Pompey, so he was informed, had been +appointed dictator for life. This of course meant that Caesar was to +be placed on the list of the "retired officers," and the idea did not +appeal to him. He remembered that he had begun life as a follower of +Marius. He decided to teach the Senators and their "dictator" another +lesson. He crossed the Rubicon River which separated the province of +Cis-alpine Gaul from Italy. Everywhere he was received as the "friend of +the people." Without difficulty Caesar entered Rome and Pompey fled to +Greece Caesar followed him and defeated his followers near Pharsalus. +Pompey sailed across the Mediterranean and escaped to Egypt. When he +landed he was murdered by order of young king Ptolemy. A few days later +Caesar arrived. He found himself caught in a trap. Both the Egyptians +and the Roman garrison which had remained faithful to Pompey, attacked +his camp. + +Fortune was with Caesar. He succeeded in setting fire to the Egyptian +fleet. Incidentally the sparks of the burning vessels fell on the +roof of the famous library of Alexandria (which was just off the water +front,) and destroyed it. Next he attacked the Egyptian army, drove +the soldiers into the Nile, drowned Ptolemy, and established a new +government under Cleopatra, the sister of the late king. Just then word +reached him that Pharnaces, the son and heir of Mithridates, had gone +on the war-path. Caesar marched northward, defeated Pharnaces in a war +which lasted five days, sent word of his victory to Rome in the famous +sentence "veni, vidi, vici," which is Latin for "I came, I saw, I +conquered," and returned to Egypt where he fell desperately in love with +Cleopatra, who followed him to Rome when he returned to take charge of +the government, in the year 46. He marched at the head of not less than +four different victory-parades, having won four different campaigns. + +Then Caesar appeared in the Senate to report upon his adventures, and +the grateful Senate made him "dictator" for ten years. It was a fatal +step. + +The new dictator made serious attempts to reform the Roman state. +He made it possible for freemen to become members of the Senate. He +conferred the rights of citizenship upon distant communities as had been +done in the early days of Roman history. He permitted "foreigners" to +exercise influence upon the government. He reformed the administration +of the distant provinces which certain aristocratic families had come to +regard as their private possessions. In short he did many things for +the good of the majority of the people but which made him thoroughly +unpopular with the most powerful men in the state. Half a hundred young +aristocrats formed a plot "to save the Republic." On the Ides of March +(the fifteenth of March according to that new calendar which Caesar had +brought with him from Egypt) Caesar was murdered when he entered the +Senate. Once more Rome was without a master. + +There were two men who tried to continue the tradition of Caesar's +glory. One was Antony, his former secretary. The other was Octavian, +Caesar's grand-nephew and heir to his estate. Octavian remained in +Rome, but Antony went to Egypt to be near Cleopatra with whom he too had +fallen in love, as seems to have been the habit of Roman generals. + +A war broke out between the two. In the battle of Actium, Octavian +defeated Antony. Antony killed himself and Cleopatra was left alone to +face the enemy. She tried very hard to make Octavian her third Roman +conquest. When she saw that she could make no impression upon this very +proud aristocrat, she killed herself, and Egypt became a Roman province. + +As for Octavian, he was a very wise young man and he did not repeat the +mistake of his famous uncle. He knew how people will shy at words. He +was very modest in his demands when he returned to Rome. He did not want +to be a "dictator." He would be entirely satisfied with the title of +"the Honourable." But when the Senate, a few years later, addressed him +as Augustus--the Illustrious--he did not object and a few years later +the man in the street called him Caesar, or Kaiser, while the soldiers, +accustomed to regard Octavian as their Commander-in-chief referred to +him as the Chief, the Imperator or Emperor. The Republic had become an +Empire, but the average Roman was hardly aware of the fact. + +In 14 A.D. his position as the Absolute Ruler of the Roman people had +become so well established that he was made an object of that divine +worship which hitherto had been reserved for the Gods. And his +successors were true "Emperors"--the absolute rulers of the greatest +empire the world had ever seen. + +If the truth be told, the average citizen was sick and tired of anarchy +and disorder. He did not care who ruled him provided the new master gave +him a chance to live quietly and without the noise of eternal street +riots. Octavian assured his subjects forty years of peace. He had no +desire to extend the frontiers of his domains, In the year 9 A.D. he +had contem-plated an invasion of the northwestern wilderness which was +inhabited by the Teutons. But Varrus, his general, had been killed with +all his men in the Teutoburg Woods, and after that the Romans made no +further attempts to civilise these wild people. + +They concentrated their efforts upon the gigantic problem of internal +reform. But it was too late to do much good. Two centuries of revolution +and foreign war had repeatedly killed the best men among the younger +generations. It had ruined the class of the free farmers. It had +introduced slave labor, against which no freeman could hope to compete. +It had turned the cities into beehives inhabited by pauperized +and unhealthy mobs of runaway peasants. It had created a large +bureaucracy--petty officials who were underpaid and who were forced to +take graft in order to buy bread and clothing for their families. +Worst of all, it had accustomed people to violence, to blood-shed, to a +barbarous pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. + +Outwardly, the Roman state during the first century of our era was a +magnificent political structure, so large that Alexander's empire became +one of its minor provinces. Underneath this glory there lived millions +upon millions of poor and tired human beings, toiling like ants who have +built a nest underneath a heavy stone. They worked for the benefit of +some one else. They shared their food with the animals of the fields. +They lived in stables. They died without hope. + +It was the seven hundred and fifty-third year since the founding of +Rome. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus was living in the palace +of the Palatine Hill, busily engaged upon the task of ruling his empire. + +In a little village of distant Syria, Mary, the wife of Joseph the +Carpenter, was tending her little boy, born in a stable of Bethlehem. + +This is a strange world. + +Before long, the palace and the stable were to meet in open combat. + +And the stable was to emerge victorious. + + + + +JOSHUA OF NAZARETH + +THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM THE GREEKS CALLED JESUS + + +IN the autumn of the year of the city 783 (which would be 62 A.D., in +our way of counting time) AEsculapius Cultellus, a Roman physician, +wrote to his nephew who was with the army in Syria as follows: + + +My dear Nephew, + +A few days ago I was called in to prescribe for a sick man named Paul. +He appeared to be a Roman citizen of Jewish parentage, well educated +and of agreeable manners. I had been told that he was here in connection +with a law-suit, an appeal from one of our provincial courts, Caesarea +or some such place in the eastern Mediterranean. He had been described +to me as a "wild and violent" fellow who had been making speeches +against the People and against the Law. I found him very intelligent and +of great honesty. + +A friend of mine who used to be with the army in Asia Minor tells me +that he heard something about him in Ephesus where he was preaching +sermons about a strange new God. I asked my patient if this were true +and whether he had told the people to rebel against the will of our +beloved Emperor. Paul answered me that the Kingdom of which he had +spoken was not of this world and he added many strange utterances which +I did not understand, but which were probably due to his fever. + +His personality made a great impression upon me and I was sorry to hear +that he was killed on the Ostian Road a few days ago. Therefore I am +writing this letter to you. When next you visit Jerusalem, I want you to +find out something about my friend Paul and the strange Jewish prophet, +who seems to have been his teacher. Our slaves are getting much excited +about this so-called Messiah, and a few of them, who openly talked of +the new kingdom (whatever that means) have been crucified. I would like +to know the truth about all these rumours and I am + + Your devoted Uncle, + AESCULAPIUS CULTELLUS. + + +Six weeks later, Gladius Ensa, the nephew, a captain of the VII Gallic +Infantry, answered as follows: + + +My dear Uncle, + +I received your letter and I have obeyed your instructions. + +Two weeks ago our brigade was sent to Jerusalem. There have been several +revolutions during the last century and there is not much left of the +old city. We have been here now for a month and to-morrow we shall +continue our march to Petra, where there has been trouble with some of +the Arab tribes. I shall use this evening to answer your questions, but +pray do not expect a detailed report. + +I have talked with most of the older men in this city but few have been +able to give me any definite information. A few days ago a pedler came +to the camp. I bought some of his olives and I asked him whether he had +ever heard of the famous Messiah who was killed when he was young. He +said that he remembered it very clearly, because his father had taken +him to Golgotha (a hill just outside the city) to see the execution, +and to show him what became of the enemies of the laws of the people of +Judaea. He gave me the address of one Joseph, who had been a personal +friend of the Messiah and told me that I had better go and see him if I +wanted to know more. + +This morning I went to call on Joseph. He was quite an old man. He had +been a fisherman on one of the fresh-water lakes. His memory was +clear, and from him at last I got a fairly definite account of what had +happened during the troublesome days before I was born. + +Tiberius, our great and glorious emperor, was on the throne, and an +officer of the name of Pontius Pilatus was governor of Judaea and +Samaria. Joseph knew little about this Pilatus. He seemed to have been +an honest enough official who left a decent reputation as procurator of +the province. In the year 755 or 756 (Joseph had forgotten when) Pilatus +was called to Jerusalem on account of a riot. A certain young man (the +son of a carpenter of Nazareth) was said to be planning a revolution +against the Roman government. Strangely enough our own intelligence +officers, who are usually well informed, appear to have heard nothing +about it, and when they investigated the matter they reported that +the carpenter was an excellent citizen and that there was no reason to +proceed against him. But the old-fashioned leaders of the Jewish +faith, according to Joseph, were much upset. They greatly disliked his +popularity with the masses of the poorer Hebrews. The "Nazarene" (so +they told Pilatus) had publicly claimed that a Greek or a Roman or even +a Philistine, who tried to live a decent and honourable life, was quite +as good as a Jew who spent his days studying the ancient laws of Moses. +Pilatus does not seem to have been impressed by this argument, but when +the crowds around the temple threatened to lynch Jesus, and kill all +his followers, he decided to take the carpenter into custody to save his +life. + +He does not appear to have understood the real nature of the quarrel. +Whenever he asked the Jewish priests to explain their grievances, they +shouted "heresy" and "treason" and got terribly excited. Finally, +so Joseph told me, Pilatus sent for Joshua (that was the name of the +Nazarene, but the Greeks who live in this part of the world always refer +to him as Jesus) to examine him personally. He talked to him for several +hours. He asked him about the "dangerous doctrines" which he was said +to have preached on the shores of the sea of Galilee. But Jesus answered +that he never referred to politics. He was not so much interested in +the bodies of men as in Man's soul. He wanted all people to regard their +neighbours as their brothers and to love one single God, who was the +father of all living beings. + +Pilatus, who seems to have been well versed in the doctrines of the +Stoics and the other Greek philosophers, does not appear to have +discovered anything seditious in the talk of Jesus. According to +my informant he made another attempt to save the life of the kindly +prophet. He kept putting the execution off. Meanwhile the Jewish people, +lashed into fury by their priests, got frantic with rage. There had +been many riots in Jerusalem before this and there were only a few Roman +soldiers within calling distance. Reports were being sent to the +Roman authorities in Caesarea that Pilatus had "fallen a victim to the +teachings of the Nazarene." Petitions were being circulated all through +the city to have Pilatus recalled, because he was an enemy of the +Emperor. You know that our governors have strict instructions to avoid +an open break with their foreign subjects. To save the country from +civil war, Pilatus finally sacrificed his prisoner, Joshua, who behaved +with great dignity and who forgave all those who hated him. He was +crucified amidst the howls and the laughter of the Jerusalem mob. + +That is what Joseph told me, with tears running down his old cheeks. I +gave him a gold piece when I left him, but he refused it and asked me +to hand it to one poorer than himself. I also asked him a few questions +about your friend Paul. He had known him slightly. He seems to have been +a tent maker who gave up his profession that he might preach the words +of a loving and forgiving God, who was so very different from that +Jehovah of whom the Jewish priests are telling us all the time. +Afterwards, Paul appears to have travelled much in Asia Minor and in +Greece, telling the slaves that they were all children of one loving +Father and that happiness awaits all, both rich and poor, who have tried +to live honest lives and have done good to those who were suffering and +miserable. + +I hope that I have answered your questions to your satisfaction. The +whole story seems very harmless to me as far as the safety of the state +is concerned. But then, we Romans never have been able to understand the +people of this province. I am sorry that they have killed your friend +Paul. I wish that I were at home again, and I am, as ever, + + Your dutiful nephew, + GLADIUS ENSA. + + + + +THE FALL OF ROME + +THE TWILIGHT OF ROME + + +THE text-books of ancient History give the date 476 as the year in which +Rome fell, because in that year the last emperor was driven off his +throne. But Rome, which was not built in a day, took a long time +falling. The process was so slow and so gradual that most Romans did not +realise how their old world was coming to an end. They complained about +the unrest of the times--they grumbled about the high prices of food and +about the low wages of the workmen--they cursed the profiteers who had a +monopoly of the grain and the wool and the gold coin. Occasionally they +rebelled against an unusually rapacious governor. But the majority of +the people during the first four centuries of our era ate and drank +(whatever their purse allowed them to buy) and hated or loved (according +to their nature) and went to the theatre (whenever there was a free +show of fighting gladiators) or starved in the slums of the big +cities, utterly ignorant of the fact that their empire had outlived its +usefulness and was doomed to perish. + +How could they realise the threatened danger? Rome made a fine showing +of outward glory. Well-paved roads connected the different provinces, +the imperial police were active and showed little tenderness for +highwaymen. The frontier was closely guarded against the savage tribes +who seemed to be occupying the waste lands of northern Europe. The whole +world was paying tribute to the mighty city of Rome, and a score of +able men were working day and night to undo the mistakes of the past and +bring about a return to the happier conditions of the early Republic. + +But the underlying causes of the decay of the State, of which I have +told you in a former chapter, had not been removed and reform therefore +was impossible. + +Rome was, first and last and all the time, a city-state as Athens and +Corinth had been city-states in ancient Hellas. It had been able to +dominate the Italian peninsula. But Rome as the ruler of the entire +civilised world was a political impossibility and could not endure. Her +young men were killed in her endless wars. Her farmers were ruined by +long military service and by taxation. They either became professional +beggars or hired themselves out to rich landowners who gave them board +and lodging in exchange for their services and made them "serfs," those +unfortunate human beings who are neither slaves nor freemen, but who +have become part of the soil upon which they work, like so many cows, +and the trees. + +The Empire, the State, had become everything. The common citizen had +dwindled down to less than nothing. As for the slaves, they had heard +the words that were spoken by Paul. They had accepted the message of the +humble carpenter of Nazareth. They did not rebel against their masters. +On the contrary, they had been taught to be meek and they obeyed their +superiors. But they had lost all interest in the affairs of this world +which had proved such a miserable place of abode. They were willing to +fight the good fight that they might enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. +But they were not willing to engage in warfare for the benefit of an +ambitious emperor who aspired to glory by way of a foreign campaign in +the land of the Parthians or the Numidians or the Scots. + +And so conditions grew worse as the centuries went by. The first +Emperors had continued the tradition of "leadership" which had given the +old tribal chieftains such a hold upon their subjects. But the Emperors +of the second and third centuries were Barrack-Emperors, professional +soldiers, who existed by the grace of their body-guards, the so-called +Praetorians. They succeeded each other with terrifying rapidity, +murdering their way into the palace and being murdered out of it as soon +as their successors had become rich enough to bribe the guards into a +new rebellion. + +Meanwhile the barbarians were hammering at the gates of the northern +frontier. As there were no longer any native Roman armies to stop their +progress, foreign mercenaries had to be hired to fight the invader. As +the foreign soldier happened to be of the same blood as his supposed +enemy, he was apt to be quite lenient when he engaged in battle. +Finally, by way of experiment, a few tribes were allowed to settle +within the confines of the Empire. Others followed. Soon these tribes +complained bitterly of the greedy Roman tax-gatherers, who took away +their last penny. When they got no redress they marched to Rome and +loudly demanded that they be heard. + +This made Rome very uncomfortable as an Imperial residence. Constantine +(who ruled from 323 to 337) looked for a new capital. He chose +Byzantium, the gate-way for the commerce between Europe and Asia. The +city was renamed Constantinople, and the court moved eastward. When +Constantine died, his two sons, for the sake of a more efficient +administration, divided the Empire between them. The elder lived in +Rome and ruled in the west. The younger stayed in Constantinople and was +master of the east. + +Then came the fourth century and the terrible visitation of the Huns, +those mysterious Asiatic horsemen who for more than two centuries +maintained themselves in Northern Europe and continued their career of +bloodshed until they were defeated near Chalons-sur-Marne in France in +the year 451. As soon as the Huns had reached the Danube they had begun +to press hard upon the Goths. The Goths, in order to save themselves, +were thereupon obliged to invade Rome. The Emperor Valens tried to stop +them, but was killed near Adrianople in the year 378. Twenty-two years +later, under their king, Alaric, these same West Goths marched westward +and attacked Rome. They did not plunder, and destroyed only a few +palaces. Next came the Vandals, and showed less respect for the +venerable traditions of the city. Then the Burgundians. Then the East +Goths. Then the Alemanni. Then the Franks. There was no end to the +invasions. Rome at last was at the mercy of every ambitious highway +robber who could gather a few followers. + +In the year 402 the Emperor fled to Ravenna, which was a sea-port and +strongly fortified, and there, in the year 475, Odoacer, commander of a +regiment of the German mercenaries, who wanted the farms of Italy to +be divided among themselves, gently but effectively pushed Romulus +Augustulus, the last of the emperors who ruled the western division, +from his throne, and proclaimed himself Patriarch or ruler of Rome. The +eastern Emperor, who was very busy with his own affairs, recognised him, +and for ten years Odoacer ruled what was left of the western provinces. + +A few years later, Theodoric, King of the East Goths, invaded the newly +formed Patriciat, took Ravenna, murdered Odoacer at his own dinner +table, and established a Gothic Kingdom amidst the ruins of the western +part of the Empire. This Patriciate state did not last long. In the +sixth century a motley crowd of Longobards and Saxons and Slavs and +Avars invaded Italy, destroyed the Gothic kingdom, and established a new +state of which Pavia became the capital. + +Then at last the imperial city sank into a state of utter neglect and +despair. The ancient palaces had been plundered time and again. The +schools had been burned down. The teachers had been starved to death. +The rich people had been thrown out of their villas which were now +inhabited by evil-smelling and hairy barbarians. The roads had fallen +into decay. The old bridges were gone and commerce had come to a +standstill. Civilisation--the product of thousands of years of patient +labor on the part of Egyptians and Babylonians and Greeks and Romans, +which had lifted man high above the most daring dreams of his earliest +ancestors, threatened to perish from the western continent. + +It is true that in the far east, Constantinople continued to be the +centre of an Empire for another thousand years. But it hardly counted +as a part of the European continent. Its interests lay in the east. It +began to forget its western origin. Gradually the Roman language was +given up for the Greek. The Roman alphabet was discarded and Roman +law was written in Greek characters and explained by Greek judges. The +Emperor became an Asiatic despot, worshipped as the god-like kings of +Thebes had been worshipped in the valley of the Nile, three thousand +years before. When missionaries of the Byzantine church looked for fresh +fields of activity, they went eastward and carried the civilisation of +Byzantium into the vast wilderness of Russia. + +As for the west, it was left to the mercies of the Barbarians. For +twelve generations, murder, war, arson, plundering were the order of +the day. One thing--and one thing alone--saved Europe from complete +destruction, from a return to the days of cave-men and the hyena. + +This was the church--the flock of humble men and women who for many +centuries had confessed themselves the followers of Jesus, the carpenter +of Nazareth, who had been killed that the mighty Roman Empire might be +saved the trouble of a street-riot in a little city somewhere along the +Syrian frontier. + + + + +RISE OF THE CHURCH + +HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD + + +THE average intelligent Roman who lived under the Empire had taken very +little interest in the gods of his fathers. A few times a year he went +to the temple, but merely as a matter of custom. He looked on +patiently when the people celebrated a religious festival with a solemn +procession. But he regarded the worship of Jupiter and Minerva and +Neptune as something rather childish, a survival from the crude days +of the early republic and not a fit subject of study for a man who had +mastered the works of the Stoics and the Epicureans and the other great +philosophers of Athens. + +This attitude made the Roman a very tolerant man. The government +insisted that all people, Romans, foreigners, Greeks, Babylonians, Jews, +should pay a certain outward respect to the image of the Emperor +which was supposed to stand in every temple, just as a picture of +the President of the United States is apt to hang in an American Post +Office. But this was a formality without any deeper meaning. Generally +speaking everybody could honour, revere and adore whatever gods he +pleased, and as a result, Rome was filled with all sorts of queer little +temples and synagogues, dedicated to the worship of Egyptian and African +and Asiatic divinities. + +When the first disciples of Jesus reached Rome and began to preach their +new doctrine of a universal brotherhood of man, nobody objected. The man +in the street stopped and listened Rome, the capital of the world, +had always been full of wandering preachers, each proclaiming his +own "mystery." Most of the self-appointed priests appealed to the +senses--promised golden rewards and endless pleasure to the followers of +their own particular god. Soon the crowd in the street noticed that the +so-called Christians (the followers of the Christ or "anointed") spoke +a very different language. They did not appear to be impressed by great +riches or a noble position. They extolled the beauties of poverty and +humility and meekness. These were not exactly the virtues which had made +Rome the mistress of the world. It was rather interesting to listen to +a "mystery" which told people in the hey-day of their glory that their +worldly success could not possibly bring them lasting happiness. + +Besides, the preachers of the Christian mystery told dreadful stories +of the fate that awaited those who refused to listen to the words of +the true God. It was never wise to take chances. Of course the old Roman +gods still existed, but were they strong enough to protect their friends +against the powers of this new deity who had been brought to Europe from +distant Asia? People began to have doubts. They returned to listen to +further explanations of the new creed. After a while they began to meet +the men and women who preached the words of Jesus. They found them very +different from the average Roman priests. They were all dreadfully +poor. They were kind to slaves and to animals. They did not try to gain +riches, but gave away whatever they had. The example of their unselfish +lives forced many Romans to forsake the old religion. They joined the +small communities of Christians who met in the back rooms of private +houses or somewhere in an open field, and the temples were deserted. + +This went on year after year and the number of Christians continued to +increase. Presbyters or priests (the original Greek meant "elder") were +elected to guard the interests of the small churches. A bishop was made +the head of all the communities within a single province. Peter, who had +fol-lowed Paul to Rome, was the first Bishop of Rome. In due time his +successors (who were addressed as Father or Papa) came to be known as +Popes. + +The church became a powerful institution within the Empire. The +Christian doctrines appealed to those who despaired of this world. They +also attracted many strong men who found it impossible to make a career +under the Imperial government, but who could exercise their gifts of +leadership among the humble followers of the Nazarene teacher. At last +the state was obliged to take notice. The Roman Empire (I have said this +before) was tolerant through indifference. It allowed everybody to +seek salvation after his or her own fashion. But it insisted that the +different sects keep the peace among themselves and obey the wise rule +of "live and let live." + +The Christian communities however, refused to practice any sort of +tolerance. They publicly declared that their God, and their God alone, +was the true ruler of Heaven and Earth, and that all other gods +were imposters. This seemed unfair to the other sects and the police +discouraged such utterances. The Christians persisted. + +Soon there were further difficulties. The Christians refused to go +through the formalities of paying homage to the emperor. They refused +to appear when they were called upon to join the army. The Roman +magistrates threatened to punish them. The Christians answered that this +miserable world was only the ante-room to a very pleasant Heaven and +that they were more than willing to suffer death for their principles. +The Romans, puzzled by such conduct, sometimes killed the offenders, but +more often they did not. There was a certain amount of lynching during +the earliest years of the church, but this was the work of that part +of the mob which accused their meek Christian neighbours of every +conceivable crime, (such as slaughtering and eating babies, bringing +about sickness and pestilence, betraying the country in times of danger) +because it was a harmless sport and devoid of danger, as the Christians +refused to fight back. + +Meanwhile, Rome continued to be invaded by the Barbarians and when her +armies failed, Christian missionaries went forth to preach their gospel +of peace to the wild Teutons. They were strong men without fear of +death. They spoke a language which left no doubt as to the future of +unrepentant sinners. The Teutons were deeply impressed. They still had a +deep respect for the wisdom of the ancient city of Rome. Those men were +Romans. They probably spoke the truth. Soon the Christian missionary +became a power in the savage regions of the Teutons and the Franks. Half +a dozen missionaries were as valuable as a whole regiment of soldiers. +The Emperors began to understand that the Christian might be of great +use to them. In some of the provinces they were given equal rights with +those who remained faithful to the old gods. The great change however +came during the last half of the fourth century. + +Constantine, sometimes (Heaven knows why) called Constantine the Great, +was emperor. He was a terrible ruffian, but people of tender qualities +could hardly hope to survive in that hard-fighting age. During a long +and checkered career, Constantine had experienced many ups and downs. +Once, when almost defeated by his enemies, he thought that he would try +the power of this new Asiatic deity of whom everybody was talking. He +promised that he too would become a Christian if he were successful in +the coming battle. He won the victory and thereafter he was convinced of +the power of the Christian God and allowed himself to be baptised. + +From that moment on, the Christian church was officially recognised and +this greatly strengthened the position of the new faith. + +But the Christians still formed a very small minority of all the people, +(not more than five or six percent,) and in order to win, they were +forced to refuse all compromise. The old gods must be destroyed. For a +short spell the emperor Julian, a lover of Greek wisdom, managed to save +the pagan Gods from further destruction. But Julian died of his wounds +during a campaign in Persia and his successor Jovian re-established the +church in all its glory. One after the other the doors of the ancient +temples were then closed. Then came the emperor Justinian (who built the +church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople), who discontinued the school +of philosophy at Athens which had been founded by Plato. + +That was the end of the old Greek world, in which man had been allowed +to think his own thoughts and dream his own dreams according to his +desires. The somewhat vague rules of conduct of the philosophers had +proved a poor compass by which to steer the ship of life after a deluge +of savagery and ignorance had swept away the established order of +things. There was need of something more positive and more definite. +This the Church provided. + +During an age when nothing was certain, the church stood like a rock and +never receded from those principles which it held to be true and sacred. +This steadfast courage gained the admiration of the multitudes and +carried the church of Rome safely through the difficulties which +destroyed the Roman state. + +There was however, a certain element of luck in the final success of +the Christian faith. After the disappearance of Theodoric's Roman-Gothic +kingdom, in the fifth century, Italy was comparatively free from foreign +invasion. The Lombards and Saxons and Slavs who succeeded the Goths were +weak and backward tribes. Under those circumstances it was possible for +the bishops of Rome to maintain the independence of their city. Soon the +remnants of the empire, scattered throughout the peninsula, recognised +the Dukes of Rome (or bishops) as their political and spiritual rulers. + +The stage was set for the appearance of a strong man. He came in the +year 590 and his name was Gregory. He belonged to the ruling classes of +ancient Rome, and he had been "prefect" or mayor of the city. Then he +had become a monk and a bishop and finally, and much against his will, +(for he wanted to be a missionary and preach Christianity to the heathen +of England,) he had been dragged to the Church of Saint Peter to be made +Pope. He ruled only fourteen years but when he died the Christian world +of western Europe had officially recognised the bishops of Rome, the +Popes, as the head of the entire church. + +This power, however, did not extend to the east. In Constantinople the +Emperors continued the old custom which had recognised the successors of +Augustus and Tiberius both as head of the government and as High Priest +of the Established Religion. In the year 1453 the eastern Roman Empire +was conquered by the Turks. Constantinople was taken, and Constantine +Paleologue, the last Roman Emperor, was killed on the steps of the +Church of the Holy Sophia. + +A few years before, Zoe, the daughter of his brother Thomas, had married +Ivan III of Russia. In this way did the grand-dukes of Moscow fall heir +to the traditions of Constantinople. The double-eagle of old Byzantium +(reminiscent of the days when Rome had been divided into an eastern and +a western part) became the coat of arms of modern Russia. The Tsar who +had been merely the first of the Russian nobles, assumed the aloofness +and the dignity of a Roman emperor before whom all subjects, both high +and low, were inconsiderable slaves. + +The court was refashioned after the oriental pattern which the eastern +Emperors had imported from Asia and from Egypt and which (so they +flattered themselves) resembled the court of Alexander the Great. This +strange inheritance which the dying Byzantine Empire bequeathed to an +unsuspecting world continued to live with great vigour for six more +centuries, amidst the vast plains of Russia. The last man to wear +the crown with the double eagle of Constantinople, Tsar Nicholas, was +murdered only the other day, so to speak. His body was thrown into a +well. His son and his daughters were all killed. All his ancient rights +and prerogatives were abolished, and the church was reduced to the +position which it had held in Rome before the days of Constantine. + +The eastern church however fared very differently, as we shall see +in the next chapter when the whole Christian world is going to be +threatened with destruction by the rival creed of an Arab camel-driver. + + + + +MOHAMMED + +AHMED, THE CAMEL-DRIVER, WHO BECAME THE PROPHET OF THE ARABIAN DESERT +AND WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST CONQUERED THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE +GREATER GLORY OF ALLAH, THE ONLY TRUE GOD + + +SINCE the days of Carthage and Hannibal we have said nothing of the +Semitic people. You will remember how they filled all the chapters +devoted to the story of the Ancient World. The Babylonians, the +Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Jews, the Arameans, the Chaldeans, all +of them Semites, had been the rulers of western Asia for thirty or forty +centuries. They had been conquered by the Indo-European Persians who had +come from the east and by the Indo-European Greeks who had come from the +west. A hundred years after the death of Alexander the Great, Carthage, +a colony of Semitic Phoenicians, had fought the Indo-European Romans +for the mastery of the Mediterranean. Carthage had been defeated and +destroyed and for eight hundred years the Romans had been masters of the +world. In the seventh century, however, another Semitic tribe appeared +upon the scene and challenged the power of the west. They were the +Arabs, peaceful shepherds who had roamed through the desert since the +beginning of time without showing any signs of imperial ambitions. + +Then they listened to Mohammed, mounted their horses and in less than +a century they had pushed to the heart of Europe and proclaimed the +glories of Allah, "the only God," and Mohammed, "the prophet of the only +God," to the frightened peasants of France. + +The story of Ahmed, the son of Abdallah and Aminah (usually known as +Mohammed, or "he who will be praised,"); reads like a chapter in the +"Thousand and One Nights." He was a camel-driver, born in Mecca. +He seems to have been an epileptic and he suffered from spells of +unconsciousness when he dreamed strange dreams and heard the voice of +the angel Gabriel, whose words were afterwards written down in a book +called the Koran. His work as a caravan leader carried him all over +Arabia and he was constantly falling in with Jewish merchants and with +Christian traders, and he came to see that the worship of a single God +was a very excellent thing. His own people, the Arabs, still revered +queer stones and trunks of trees as their ancestors had done, tens of +thousands of years before. In Mecca, their holy city, stood a little +square building, the Kaaba, full of idols and strange odds and ends of +Hoo-doo worship. + +Mohammed decided to be the Moses of the Arab people. He could not well +be a prophet and a camel-driver at the same time. So he made himself +independent by marrying his employer, the rich widow Chadija. Then he +told his neighbours in Mecca that he was the long-expected prophet sent +by Allah to save the world. The neighbours laughed most heartily and +when Mohammed continued to annoy them with his speeches they decided to +kill him. They regarded him as a lunatic and a public bore who deserved +no mercy. Mohammed heard of the plot and in the dark of night he fled to +Medina together with Abu Bekr, his trusted pupil. This happened in the +year 622. It is the most important date in Mohammedan history and is +known as the Hegira--the year of the Great Flight. + +In Medina, Mohammed, who was a stranger, found it easier to proclaim +himself a prophet than in his home city, where every one had known him +as a simple camel-driver. Soon he was surrounded by an increasing number +of followers, or Moslems, who accepted the Islam, "the submission to the +will of God," which Mohammed praised as the highest of all virtues. +For seven years he preached to the people of Medina. Then he believed +himself strong enough to begin a campaign against his former neighbours +who had dared to sneer at him and his Holy Mission in his old +camel-driving days. At the head of an army of Medinese he marched across +the desert. His followers took Mecca without great difficulty, and +having slaughtered a number of the inhabitants, they found it quite easy +to convince the others that Mohammed was really a great prophet. + +From that time on until the year of his death, Mohammed was fortunate in +everything he undertook. + +There are two reasons for the success of Islam. In the first place, +the creed which Mohammed taught to his followers was very simple. The +disciples were told that they must love Allah, the Ruler of the World, +the Merciful and Compassionate. They must honour and obey their parents. +They were warned against dishonesty in dealing with their neighbours +and were admonished to be humble and charitable, to the poor and to the +sick. Finally they were ordered to abstain from strong drink and to be +very frugal in what they ate. That was all. There were no priests, who +acted as shepherds of their flocks and asked that they be supported at +the common expense. The Mohammedan churches or mosques were merely large +stone halls without benches or pictures, where the faithful could gather +(if they felt so inclined) to read and discuss chapters from the Koran, +the Holy Book. But the average Mohammedan carried his religion with him +and never felt himself hemmed in by the restrictions and regulations +of an established church. Five times a day he turned his face towards +Mecca, the Holy City, and said a simple prayer. For the rest of the time +he let Allah rule the world as he saw fit and accepted whatever fate +brought him with patient resignation. + +Of course such an attitude towards life did not encourage the Faithful +to go forth and invent electrical machinery or bother about railroads +and steamship lines. But it gave every Mohammedan a certain amount of +contentment. It bade him be at peace with himself and with the world in +which he lived and that was a very good thing. + +The second reason which explains the success of the Moslems in their +warfare upon the Christians, had to do with the conduct of those +Mohammedan soldiers who went forth to do battle for the true faith. +The Prophet promised that those who fell, facing the enemy, would go +directly to Heaven. This made sudden death in the field preferable to +a long but dreary existence upon this earth. It gave the Mohammedans an +enormous advantage over the Crusaders who were in constant dread of a +dark hereafter, and who stuck to the good things of this world as long +as they possibly could. Incidentally it explains why even to-day Moslem +soldiers will charge into the fire of European machine guns quite +indifferent to the fate that awaits them and why they are such dangerous +and persistent enemies. + +Having put his religious house in order, Mohammed now began to enjoy +his power as the undisputed ruler of a large number of Arab tribes. But +success has been the undoing of a large number of men who were great in +the days of adversity. He tried to gain the good will of the rich people +by a number of regulations which could appeal to those of wealth. +He allowed the Faithful to have four wives. As one wife was a costly +investment in those olden days when brides were bought directly from +the parents, four wives became a positive luxury except to those who +possessed camels and dromedaries and date orchards beyond the dreams of +avarice. A religion which at first had been meant for the hardy hunters +of the high skied desert was gradually transformed to suit the needs +of the smug merchants who lived in the bazaars of the cities. It was a +regrettable change from the original program and it did very little good +to the cause of Mohammedanism. As for the prophet himself, he went on +preaching the truth of Allah and proclaiming new rules of conduct until +he died, quite suddenly, of a fever on June the seventh of the year 632. + +His successor as Caliph (or leader) of the Moslems was his +father-in-law, Abu-Bekr, who had shared the early dangers of the +prophet's life. Two years later, Abu-Bekr died and Omar ibn Al-Khattab +followed him. In less than ten years he conquered Egypt, Persia, +Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine and made Damascus the capital of the +first Mohammedan world empire. + +Omar was succeeded by Ali, the husband of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima, +but a quarrel broke out upon a point of Moslem doctrine and Ali was +murdered. After his death, the caliphate was made hereditary and the +leaders of the faithful who had begun their career as the spiritual head +of a religious sect became the rulers of a vast empire. They built a +new city on the shores of the Euphrates, near the ruins of Babylon and +called it Bagdad, and organising the Arab horsemen into regiments of +cavalry, they set forth to bring the happiness of their Moslem faith to +all unbelievers. In the year 700 A.D. a Mohammedan general by the name +of Tarik crossed the old gates of Hercules and reached the high rock on +the European side which he called the Gibel-al-tarik, the Hill of Tarik +or Gibraltar. + +Eleven years later in the battle of Xeres de la Frontera, he defeated +the king of the Visigoths and then the Moslem army moved northward +and following the route of Hannibal, they crossed the passes of the +Pyrenees. They defeated the Duke of Aquitania, who tried to halt them +near Bordeaux, and marched upon Paris. But in the year 732 (one hundred +years after the death of the prophet,) they were beaten in a battle +between Tours and Poitiers. On that day, Charles Martel (Charles with +the Hammer) the Frankish chieftain, saved Europe from a Mohammedan +con-quest. He drove the Moslems out of France, but they maintained +themselves in Spain where Abd-ar-Rahman founded the Caliphate of +Cordova, which became the greatest centre of science and art of +mediaeval Europe. + +This Moorish kingdom, so-called because the people came from Mauretania +in Morocco, lasted seven centuries. It was only after the capture of +Granada, the last Moslem stronghold, in the year 1492, that Columbus +received the royal grant which allowed him to go upon a voyage of +discovery. The Mohammedans soon regained their strength in the new +conquests which they made in Asia and Africa and to-day there are as +many followers of Mohammed as there are of Christ. + + + + +CHARLEMAGNE + +HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE FRANKS, CAME TO BEAR THE TITLE OF +EMPEROR AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD IDEAL OF WORLD-EMPIRE + + +THE battle of Poitiers had saved Europe from the Mohammedans. But the +enemy within--the hopeless disorder which had followed the disappearance +of the Roman police officer--that enemy remained. It is true that the +new converts of the Christian faith in Northern Europe felt a deep +respect for the mighty Bishop of Rome. But that poor bishop did not feel +any too safe when he looked toward the distant mountains. Heaven knew +what fresh hordes of barbarians were ready to cross the Alps and begin a +new attack on Rome. It was necessary--very necessary--for the spiritual +head of the world to find an ally with a strong sword and a powerful +fist who was willing to defend His Holiness in case of danger. + +And so the Popes, who were not only very holy but also very practical, +cast about for a friend, and presently they made overtures to the most +promising of the Germanic tribes who had occupied north-western Europe +after the fall of Rome. They were called the Franks. One of their +earliest kings, called Merovech, had helped the Romans in the battle of +the Catalaunian fields in the year 451 when they defeated the Huns. +His descendants, the Merovingians, had continued to take little bits of +imperial territory until the year 486 when king Clovis (the old French +word for "Louis") felt himself strong enough to beat the Romans in the +open. But his descendants were weak men who left the affairs of state to +their Prime minister, the "Major Domus" or Master of the Palace. + +Pepin the Short, the son of the famous Charles Martel, who succeeded his +father as Master of the Palace, hardly knew how to handle the situation. +His royal master was a devout theologian, without any interest in +politics. Pepin asked the Pope for advice. The Pope who was a practical +person answered that the "power in the state belonged to him who was +actually possessed of it." Pepin took the hint. He persuaded Childeric, +the last of the Merovingians to become a monk and then made himself king +with the approval of the other Germanic chieftains. But this did +not satisfy the shrewd Pepin. He wanted to be something more than a +barbarian chieftain. He staged an elaborate ceremony at which Boniface, +the great missionary of the European northwest, anointed him and made +him a "King by the grace of God." It was easy to slip those words, "Del +gratia," into the coronation service. It took almost fifteen hundred +years to get them out again. + +Pepin was sincerely grateful for this kindness on the part of the +church. He made two expeditions to Italy to defend the Pope against +his enemies. He took Ravenna and several other cities away from the +Longobards and presented them to His Holiness, who incorporated +these new domains into the so-called Papal State, which remained an +independent country until half a century ago. + +After Pepin's death, the relations between Rome and Aix-la-Chapelle or +Nymwegen or Ingelheim, (the Frankish Kings did not have one official +residence, but travelled from place to place with all their ministers +and court officers,) became more and more cordial. Finally the Pope and +the King took a step which was to influence the history of Europe in a +most profound way. + +Charles, commonly known as Carolus Magnus or Charlemagne, succeeded +Pepin in the year 768. He had conquered the land of the Saxons in +eastern Germany and had built towns and monasteries all over the +greater part of northern Europe. At the request of certain enemies +of Abd-ar-Rahman, he had invaded Spain to fight the Moors. But in the +Pyrenees he had been attacked by the wild Basques and had been forced +to retire. It was upon this occasion that Roland, the great Margrave of +Breton, showed what a Frankish chieftain of those early days meant when +he promised to be faithful to his King, and gave his life and that of +his trusted followers to safeguard the retreat of the royal army. + +During the last ten years of the eighth century, however, Charles was +obliged to devote himself exclusively to affairs of the South. The Pope, +Leo III, had been attacked by a band of Roman rowdies and had been left +for dead in the street. Some kind people had bandaged his wounds and had +helped him to escape to the camp of Charles, where he asked for help. An +army of Franks soon restored quiet and carried Leo back to the Lateran +Palace which ever since the days of Constantine, had been the home of +the Pope. That was in December of the year 799. On Christmas day of the +next year, Charlemagne, who was staying in Rome, attended the service +in the ancient church of St. Peter. When he arose from prayer, the +Pope placed a crown upon his head, called him Emperor of the Romans and +hailed him once more with the title of "Augustus" which had not been +heard for hundreds of years. + +Once more Northern Europe was part of a Roman Empire, but the dignity +was held by a German chieftain who could read just a little and never +learned to write. But he could fight and for a short while there was +order and even the rival emperor in Constantinople sent a letter of +approval to his "dear Brother." + +Unfortunately this splendid old man died in the year 814. His sons +and his grandsons at once began to fight for the largest share of the +imperial inheritance. Twice the Carolingian lands were divided, by +the treaties of Verdun in the year 843 and by the treaty of +Mersen-on-the-Meuse in the year 870. The latter treaty divided the +entire Frankish Kingdom into two parts. Charles the Bold received the +western half. It contained the old Roman province called Gaul where the +language of the people had become thoroughly romanized. The Franks soon +learned to speak this language and this accounts for the strange fact +that a purely Germanic land like France should speak a Latin tongue. + +The other grandson got the eastern part, the land which the Romans had +called Germania. Those inhospitable regions had never been part of +the old Empire. Augustus had tried to conquer this "far east," but his +legions had been annihilated in the Teutoburg Wood in the year 9 and the +people had never been influenced by the higher Roman civilisation. They +spoke the popular Germanic tongue. The Teuton word for "people" was +"thiot." The Christian missionaries therefore called the German language +the "lingua theotisca" or the "lingua teutisca," the "popular dialect" +and this word "teutisca" was changed into "Deutsch" which accounts for +the name "Deutschland." + +As for the famous Imperial Crown, it very soon slipped off the heads of +the Carolingian successors and rolled back onto the Italian plain, where +it became a sort of plaything of a number of little potentates who stole +the crown from each other amidst much bloodshed and wore it (with or +without the permission of the Pope) until it was the turn of some more +ambitious neighbour. The Pope, once more sorely beset by his enemies, +sent north for help. He did not appeal to the ruler of the west-Frankish +kingdom, this time. His messengers crossed the Alps and addressed +themselves to Otto, a Saxon Prince who was recognised as the greatest +chieftain of the different Germanic tribes. + +Otto, who shared his people's affection for the blue skies and the gay +and beautiful people of the Italian peninsula, hastened to the rescue. +In return for his services, the Pope, Leo VIII, made Otto "Emperor," +and the eastern half of Charles' old kingdom was henceforth known as the +"Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation." + +This strange political creation managed to live to the ripe old age +of eight hundred and thirty-nine years. In the year 1801, (during the +presidency of Thomas Jefferson,) it was most unceremoniously relegated +to the historical scrapheap. The brutal fellow who destroyed the old +Germanic Empire was the son of a Corsican notary-public who had made a +brilliant career in the service of the French Republic. He was ruler of +Europe by the grace of his famous Guard Regiments, but he desired to be +something more. He sent to Rome for the Pope and the Pope came and stood +by while General Napoleon placed the imperial crown upon his own head +and proclaimed himself heir to the tradition of Charlemagne. For history +is like life. The more things change, the more they remain the same. + + + + +THE NORSEMEN + +WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY PRAYED THE LORD TO PROTECT THEM FROM +THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN + + +IN the third and fourth centuries, the Germanic tribes of central Europe +had broken through the defences of the Empire that they might plunder +Rome and live on the fat of the land. In the eighth century it became +the turn of the Germans to be the "plundered-ones." They did not +like this at all, even if their enemies were their first cousins, the +Norsemen, who lived in Denmark and Sweden and Norway. + +What forced these hardy sailors to turn pirate we do not know, but +once they had discovered the advantages and pleasures of a buccaneering +career there was no one who could stop them. They would suddenly descend +upon a peaceful Frankish or Frisian village, situated on the mouth of +a river. They would kill all the men and steal all the women. Then they +would sail away in their fast-sailing ships and when the soldiers of +the king or emperor arrived upon the scene, the robbers were gone and +nothing remained but a few smouldering ruins. + +During the days of disorder which followed the death of Charlemagne, the +Northmen developed great activity. Their fleets made raids upon every +country and their sailors established small independent kingdoms along +the coast of Holland and France and England and Germany, and they even +found their way into Italy. The Northmen were very intelligent They +soon learned to speak the language of their subjects and gave up the +uncivilised ways of the early Vikings (or Sea-Kings) who had been very +picturesque but also very unwashed and terribly cruel. + +Early in the tenth century a Viking by the name of Rollo had repeatedly +attacked the coast of France. The king of France, too weak to resist +these northern robbers, tried to bribe them into "being good." He +offered them the province of Normandy, if they would promise to stop +bothering the rest of his domains. Rollo accepted this bargain and +became "Duke of Normandy." + +But the passion of conquest was strong in the blood of his children. +Across the channel, only a few hours away from the European mainland, +they could see the white cliffs and the green fields of England. Poor +England had passed through difficult days. For two hundred years it had +been a Roman colony. After the Romans left, it had been conquered by the +Angles and the Saxons, two German tribes from Schleswig. Next the +Danes had taken the greater part of the country and had established the +kingdom of Cnut. The Danes had been driven away and now (it was early in +the eleventh century) another Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, was +on the throne. But Edward was not expected to live long and he had no +children. The circumstances favoured the ambitious dukes of Normandy. + +In 1066 Edward died. Immediately William of Normandy crossed the +channel, defeated and killed Harold of Wessex (who had taken the crown) +at the battle of Hastings, and proclaimed himself king of England. + +In another chapter I have told you how in the year 800 a German +chieftain had become a Roman Emperor. Now in the year 1066 the grandson +of a Norse pirate was recognised as King of England. + +Why should we ever read fairy stories, when the truth of history is so +much more interesting and entertaining? + + + + +FEUDALISM + +HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM THREE SIDES, BECAME AN ARMED CAMP AND +WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS AND +ADMINISTRATORS WHO WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM + + +THE following, then, is the state of Europe in the year one thousand, +when most people were so unhappy that they welcomed the prophecy +foretelling the approaching end of the world and rushed to the +monasteries, that the Day of Judgement might find them engaged upon +devout duties. + +At an unknown date, the Germanic tribes had left their old home in Asia +and had moved westward into Europe. By sheer pressure of numbers they +had forced their way into the Roman Empire. They had destroyed the great +western empire, but the eastern part, being off the main route of +the great migrations, had managed to survive and feebly continued the +traditions of Rome's ancient glory. + +During the days of disorder which had followed, (the true "dark ages" of +history, the sixth and seventh centuries of our era,) the German tribes +had been persuaded to accept the Christian religion and had recognised +the Bishop of Rome as the Pope or spiritual head of the world. In the +ninth century, the organising genius of Charlemagne had revived the +Roman Empire and had united the greater part of western Europe into a +single state. During the tenth century this empire had gone to pieces. +The western part had become a separate kingdom, France. The eastern half +was known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and the rulers +of this federation of states then pretended that they were the direct +heirs of Caesar and Augustus. + +Unfortunately the power of the kings of France did not stretch beyond +the moat of their royal residence, while the Holy Roman Emperor was +openly defied by his powerful subjects whenever it suited their fancy or +their profit. + +To increase the misery of the masses of the people, the triangle of +western Europe (look at page 128, please) was for ever exposed to +attacks from three sides. On the south lived the ever dangerous +Mohammedans. The western coast was ravaged by the Northmen. The eastern +frontier (defenceless except for the short stretch of the Carpathian +mountains) was at the mercy of hordes of Huns, Hungarians, Slavs and +Tartars. + +The peace of Rome was a thing of the remote past, a dream of the "Good +Old Days" that were gone for ever. It was a question of "fight or die," +and quite naturally people preferred to fight. Forced by circumstances, +Europe became an armed camp and there was a demand for strong +leadership. Both King and Emperor were far away. The frontiersmen (and +most of Europe in the year 1000 was "frontier") must help themselves. +They willingly submitted to the representatives of the king who were +sent to administer the outlying districts, PROVIDED THEY COULD PROTECT +THEM AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES. + +Soon central Europe was dotted with small principalities, each one ruled +by a duke or a count or a baron or a bishop, as the case might be, and +organised as a fighting unit. These dukes and counts and barons had +sworn to be faithful to the king who had given them their "feudum" +(hence our word "feudal,") in return for their loyal services and a +certain amount of taxes. But travel in those days was slow and the +means of communication were exceedingly poor. The royal or imperial +administrators therefore enjoyed great independence, and within the +boundaries of their own province they assumed most of the rights which +in truth belonged to the king. + +But you would make a mistake if you supposed that the people of the +eleventh century objected to this form of government. They supported +Feudalism because it was a very practical and necessary institution. +Their Lord and Master usually lived in a big stone house erected on the +top of a steep rock or built between deep moats, but within sight of his +subjects. In case of danger the subjects found shelter behind the walls +of the baronial stronghold. That is why they tried to live as near the +castle as possible and it accounts for the many European cities which +began their career around a feudal fortress. + +But the knight of the early middle ages was much more than a +professional soldier. He was the civil servant of that day. He was the +judge of his community and he was the chief of police. He caught the +highwaymen and protected the wandering pedlars who were the merchants of +the eleventh century. He looked after the dikes so that the countryside +should not be flooded (just as the first noblemen had done in the valley +of the Nile four thousand years before). He encouraged the Troubadours +who wandered from place to place telling the stories of the ancient +heroes who had fought in the great wars of the migrations. Besides, he +protected the churches and the monasteries within his territory, and +although he could neither read nor write, (it was considered unmanly to +know such things,) he employed a number of priests who kept his accounts +and who registered the marriages and the births and the deaths which +occurred within the baronial or ducal domains. + +In the fifteenth century the kings once more became strong enough to +exercise those powers which belonged to them because they were "anointed +of God." Then the feudal knights lost their former independence. Reduced +to the rank of country squires, they no longer filled a need and soon +they became a nuisance. But Europe would have perished without the +"feudal system" of the dark ages. There were many bad knights as there +are many bad people to-day. But generally speaking, the rough-fisted +barons of the twelfth and thirteenth century were hard-working +administrators who rendered a most useful service to the cause of +progress. During that era the noble torch of learning and art which had +illuminated the world of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans was +burning very low. Without the knights and their good friends, the monks, +civilisation would have been extinguished entirely, and the human race +would have been forced to begin once more where the cave-man had left +off. + + + + +CHIVALRY + +CHIVALRY + + +IT was quite natural that the professional fighting-men of the Middle +Ages should try to establish some sort of organisation for their +mutual benefit and protection. Out of this need for close organisation, +Knighthood or Chivalry was born. + +We know very little about the origins of Knighthood. But as the system +developed, it gave the world something which it needed very badly--a +definite rule of conduct which softened the barbarous customs of that +day and made life more livable than it had been during the five hundred +years of the Dark Ages. It was not an easy task to civilise the rough +frontiersmen who had spent most of their time fighting Mohammedans and +Huns and Norsemen. Often they were guilty of backsliding, and having +vowed all sorts of oaths about mercy and charity in the morning, they +would murder all their prisoners before evening. But progress is +ever the result of slow and ceaseless labour, and finally the most +unscrupulous of knights was forced to obey the rules of his "class" or +suffer the consequences. + +These rules were different in the various parts of Europe, but they all +made much of "service" and "loyalty to duty." The Middle Ages regarded +service as something very noble and beautiful. It was no disgrace to be +a servant, provided you were a good servant and did not slacken on the +job. As for loyalty, at a time when life depended upon the faithful +per-formance of many unpleasant duties, it was the chief virtue of the +fighting man. + +A young knight therefore was asked to swear that he would be faithful as +a servant to God and as a servant to his King. Furthermore, he promised +to be generous to those whose need was greater than his own. He pledged +his word that he would be humble in his personal behaviour and would +never boast of his own accomplishments and that he would be a friend of +all those who suffered, (with the exception of the Mohammedans, whom he +was expected to kill on sight). + +Around these vows, which were merely the Ten Commandments expressed +in terms which the people of the Middle Ages could understand, there +developed a complicated system of manners and outward behaviour. The +knights tried to model their own lives after the example of those heroes +of Arthur's Round Table and Charlemagne's court of whom the Troubadours +had told them and of whom you may read in many delightful books which +are enumerated at the end of this volume. They hoped that they might +prove as brave as Lancelot and as faithful as Roland. They carried +themselves with dignity and they spoke careful and gracious words that +they might be known as True Knights, however humble the cut of their +coat or the size of their purse. + +In this way the order of Knighthood became a school of those good +manners which are the oil of the social machinery. Chivalry came to mean +courtesy and the feudal castle showed the rest of the world what clothes +to wear, how to eat, how to ask a lady for a dance and the thousand +and one little things of every-day behaviour which help to make life +interesting and agreeable. + +Like all human institutions, Knighthood was doomed to perish as soon as +it had outlived its usefulness. + +The crusades, about which one of the next chapters tells, were followed +by a great revival of trade. Cities grew overnight. The townspeople +became rich, hired good school teachers and soon were the equals of +the knights. The invention of gun-powder deprived the heavily armed +"Chevalier" of his former advantage and the use of mercenaries made it +impossible to conduct a battle with the delicate niceties of a chess +tournament. The knight became superfluous. Soon he became a ridiculous +figure, with his devotion to ideals that had no longer any practical +value. It was said that the noble Don Quixote de la Mancha had been the +last of the true knights. After his death, his trusted sword and his +armour were sold to pay his debts. + +But somehow or other that sword seems to have fallen into the hands of a +number of men. Washington carried it during the hopeless days of Valley +Forge. It was the only defence of Gordon, when he had refused to desert +the people who had been entrusted to his care, and stayed to meet his +death in the besieged fortress of Khartoum. + +And I am not quite sure but that it proved of invaluable strength in +winning the Great War. + + + + +POPE vs. EMPEROR + +THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND HOW IT +LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS + + +IT is very difficult to understand the people of by-gone ages. Your own +grandfather, whom you see every day, is a mysterious being who lives in +a different world of ideas and clothes and manners. I am now telling you +the story of some of your grandfathers who are twenty-five generations +removed, and I do not expect you to catch the meaning of what I write +without re-reading this chapter a number of times. + +The average man of the Middle Ages lived a very simple and uneventful +life. Even if he was a free citizen, able to come and go at will, he +rarely left his own neighbourhood. There were no printed books and only +a few manuscripts. Here and there, a small band of industrious monks +taught reading and writing and some arithmetic. But science and history +and geography lay buried beneath the ruins of Greece and Rome. + +Whatever people knew about the past they had learned by listening to +stories and legends. Such information, which goes from father to son, is +often slightly incorrect in details, but it will preserve the main +facts of history with astonishing accuracy. After more than two thousand +years, the mothers of India still frighten their naughty children by +telling them that "Iskander will get them," and Iskander is none other +than Alexander the Great, who visited India in the year 330 before the +birth of Christ, but whose story has lived through all these ages. + +The people of the early Middle Ages never saw a textbook of Roman +history. They were ignorant of many things which every school-boy to-day +knows before he has entered the third grade. But the Roman Empire, which +is merely a name to you, was to them something very much alive. They +felt it. They willingly recognised the Pope as their spiritual +leader because he lived in Rome and represented the idea of the Roman +super-power. And they were profoundly grateful when Charlemagne, and +afterwards Otto the Great, revived the idea of a world-empire and +created the Holy Roman Empire, that the world might again be as it +always had been. + +But the fact that there were two different heirs to the Roman tradition +placed the faithful burghers of the Middle Ages in a difficult position. +The theory behind the mediaeval political system was both sound and +simple. While the worldly master (the emperor) looked after the physical +well-being of his subjects, the spiritual master (the Pope) guarded +their souls. + +In practice, however, the system worked very badly. The Emperor +invariably tried to interfere with the affairs of the church and the +Pope retaliated and told the Emperor how he should rule his domains. +Then they told each other to mind their own business in very +unceremonious language and the inevitable end was war. + +Under those circumstances, what were the people to do, A good Christian +obeyed both the Pope and his King. But the Pope and the Emperor were +enemies. Which side should a dutiful subject and an equally dutiful +Christian take? + +It was never easy to give the correct answer. When the Emperor happened +to be a man of energy and was sufficiently well provided with money to +organise an army, he was very apt to cross the Alps and march on Rome, +besiege the Pope in his own palace if need be, and force His Holiness to +obey the imperial instructions or suffer the consequences. + +But more frequently the Pope was the stronger. Then the Emperor or the +King together with all his subjects was excommunicated. This meant that +all churches were closed, that no one could be baptised, that no dying +man could be given absolution--in short, that half of the functions of +mediaeval government came to an end. + +More than that, the people were absolved from their oath of loyalty to +their sovereign and were urged to rebel against their master. But if +they followed this advice of the distant Pope and were caught, they were +hanged by their near-by Lege Lord and that too was very unpleasant. + +Indeed, the poor fellows were in a difficult position and none fared +worse than those who lived during the latter half of the eleventh +century, when the Emperor Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory VII +fought a two-round battle which decided nothing and upset the peace of +Europe for almost fifty years. + +In the middle of the eleventh century there had been a strong movement +for reform in the church. The election of the Popes, thus far, had +been a most irregular affair. It was to the advantage of the Holy Roman +Emperors to have a well-disposed priest elected to the Holy See. They +frequently came to Rome at the time of election and used their influence +for the benefit of one of their friends. + +In the year 1059 this had been changed. By a decree of Pope Nicholas +II the principal priests and deacons of the churches in and around +Rome were organised into the so-called College of Cardinals, and this +gathering of prominent churchmen (the word "Cardinal" meant principal) +was given the exclusive power of electing the future Popes. + +In the year 1073 the College of Cardinals elected a priest by the name +of Hildebrand, the son of very simple parents in Tuscany, as Pope, and +he took the name of Gregory VII. His energy was unbounded. His belief in +the supreme powers of his Holy Office was built upon a granite rock of +conviction and courage. In the mind of Gregory, the Pope was not only +the absolute head of the Christian church, but also the highest Court of +Appeal in all worldly matters. The Pope who had elevated simple German +princes to the dignity of Emperor could depose them at will. He could +veto any law passed by duke or king or emperor, but whosoever should +question a papal decree, let him beware, for the punishment would be +swift and merciless. + +Gregory sent ambassadors to all the European courts to inform the +potentates of Europe of his new laws and asked them to take due notice +of their contents. William the Conqueror promised to be good, but Henry +IV, who since the age of six had been fighting with his subjects, had no +intention of submitting to the Papal will. He called together a college +of German bishops, accused Gregory of every crime under the sun and then +had him deposed by the council of Worms. + +The Pope answered with excommunication and a demand that the German +princes rid themselves of their unworthy ruler. The German princes, only +too happy to be rid of Henry, asked the Pope to come to Augsburg and +help them elect a new Emperor. + +Gregory left Rome and travelled northward. Henry, who was no fool, +appreciated the danger of his position. At all costs he must make peace +with the Pope, and he must do it at once. In the midst of winter he +crossed the Alps and hastened to Canossa where the Pope had stopped for +a short rest. Three long days, from the 25th to the 28th of January of +the year 1077, Henry, dressed as a penitent pilgrim (but with a warm +sweater underneath his monkish garb), waited outside the gates of the +castle of Canossa. Then he was allowed to enter and was pardoned for +his sins. But the repentance did not last long. As soon as Henry +had returned to Germany, he behaved exactly as before. Again he was +excommunicated. For the second time a council of German bishops deposed +Gregory, but this time, when Henry crossed the Alps he was at the head +of a large army, besieged Rome and forced Gregory to retire to Salerno, +where he died in exile. This first violent outbreak decided nothing. As +soon as Henry was back in Germany, the struggle between Pope and Emperor +was continued. + +The Hohenstaufen family which got hold of the Imperial German Throne +shortly afterwards, were even more independent than their predecessors. +Gregory had claimed that the Popes were superior to all kings because +they (the Popes) at the Day of Judgement would be responsible for the +behaviour of all the sheep of their flock, and in the eyes of God, a +king was one of that faithful herd. + +Frederick of Hohenstaufen, commonly known as Barbarossa or Red Beard, +set up the counter-claim that the Empire had been bestowed upon his +predecessor "by God himself" and as the Empire included Italy and Rome, +he began a campaign which was to add these "lost provinces" to the +northern country. Barbarossa was accidentally drowned in Asia Minor +during the second Crusade, but his son Frederick II, a brilliant +young man who in his youth had been exposed to the civilisation of +the Mohammedans of Sicily, continued the war. The Popes accused him of +heresy. It is true that Frederick seems to have felt a deep and serious +contempt for the rough Christian world of the North, for the boorish +German Knights and the intriguing Italian priests. But he held his +tongue, went on a Crusade and took Jerusalem from the infidel and was +duly crowned as King of the Holy City. Even this act did not placate +the Popes. They deposed Frederick and gave his Italian possessions to +Charles of Anjou, the brother of that King Louis of France who became +famous as Saint Louis. This led to more warfare. Conrad V, the son +of Conrad IV, and the last of the Hohenstaufens, tried to regain the +kingdom, and was defeated and decapitated at Naples. But twenty years +later, the French who had made themselves thoroughly unpopular in Sicily +were all murdered during the so-called Sicilian Vespers, and so it went. + +The quarrel between the Popes and the Emperors was never settled, but +after a while the two enemies learned to leave each other alone. + +In the year 1278, Rudolph of Hapsburg was elected Emperor. He did not +take the trouble to go to Rome to be crowned. The Popes did not object +and in turn they kept away from Germany. This meant peace but two +entire centuries which might have been used for the purpose of internal +organisation had been wasted in useless warfare. + +It is an ill wind however that bloweth no good to some one. The little +cities of Italy, by a process of careful balancing, had managed to +increase their power and their independence at the expense of both +Emperors and Popes. When the rush for the Holy Land began, they were +able to handle the transportation problem of the thousands of eager +pilgrims who were clamoring for passage, and at the end of the Crusades +they had built themselves such strong defences of brick and of gold that +they could defy Pope and Emperor with equal indifference. + +Church and State fought each other and a third party--the mediaeval +city--ran away with the spoils. + + + + +THE CRUSADES + +BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS TOOK THE +HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE +TRADE FROM EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING + + +DURING three centuries there had been peace between Christians and +Moslems except in Spain and in the eastern Roman Empire, the two states +defending the gateways of Europe. The Mohammedans having conquered Syria +in the seventh century were in possession of the Holy Land. But +they regarded Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great as +Mohammed), and they did not interfere with the pilgrims who wished +to pray in the church which Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor +Constantine, had built on the spot of the Holy Grave. But early in the +eleventh century, a Tartar tribe from the wilds of Asia, called the +Seljuks or Turks, became masters of the Mohammedan state in western Asia +and then the period of tolerance came to an end. The Turks took all of +Asia Minor away from the eastern Roman Emperors and they made an end to +the trade between east and west. + +Alexis, the Emperor, who rarely saw anything of his Christian neighbours +of the west, appealed for help and pointed to the danger which +threatened Europe should the Turks take Constantinople. + +The Italian cities which had established colonies along the coast +of Asia Minor and Palestine, in fear for their possessions, reported +terrible stories of Turkish atrocities and Christian suffering. All +Europe got excited. + +Pope Urban II, a Frenchman from Reims, who had been educated at the same +famous cloister of Cluny which had trained Gregory VII, thought that +the time had come for action. The general state of Europe was far from +satisfactory. The primitive agricultural methods of that day (unchanged +since Roman times) caused a constant scarcity of food. There was +unemployment and hunger and these are apt to lead to discontent and +riots. Western Asia in older days had fed millions. It was an excellent +field for the purpose of immigration. + +Therefore at the council of Clermont in France in the year 1095 the Pope +arose, described the terrible horrors which the infidels had inflicted +upon the Holy Land, gave a glowing description of this country which +ever since the days of Moses had been overflowing with milk and honey, +and exhorted the knights of France and the people of Europe in general +to leave wife and child and deliver Palestine from the Turks. + +A wave of religious hysteria swept across the continent. All reason +stopped. Men would drop their hammer and saw, walk out of their shop and +take the nearest road to the east to go and kill Turks. Children would +leave their homes to "go to Palestine" and bring the terrible Turks +to their knees by the mere appeal of their youthful zeal and Christian +piety. Fully ninety percent of those enthusiasts never got within sight +of the Holy Land. They had no money. They were forced to beg or steal to +keep alive. They became a danger to the safety of the highroads and they +were killed by the angry country people. + +The first Crusade, a wild mob of honest Christians, defaulting +bankrupts, penniless noblemen and fugitives from justice, following the +lead of half-crazy Peter the Hermit and Walter-without-a-Cent, began +their campaign against the Infidels by murdering all the Jews whom +they met by the way. They got as far as Hungary and then they were all +killed. + +This experience taught the Church a lesson. Enthusiasm alone would not +set the Holy Land free. Organisation was as necessary as good-will and +courage. A year was spent in training and equipping an army of 200,000 +men. They were placed under command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert, duke +of Normandy, Robert, count of Flanders, and a number of other noblemen, +all experienced in the art of war. + +In the year 1096 this second crusade started upon its long voyage. At +Constantinople the knights did homage to the Emperor. (For as I have +told you, traditions die hard, and a Roman Emperor, however poor and +powerless, was still held in great respect). Then they crossed into +Asia, killed all the Moslems who fell into their hands, stormed +Jerusalem, massacred the Mohammedan population, and marched to the Holy +Sepulchre to give praise and thanks amidst tears of piety and gratitude. +But soon the Turks were strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops. +Then they retook Jerusalem and in turn killed the faithful followers of +the Cross. + +During the next two centuries, seven other crusades took place. +Gradually the Crusaders learned the technique of the trip. The land +voyage was too tedious and too dangerous. They preferred to cross the +Alps and go to Genoa or Venice where they took ship for the east. +The Genoese and the Venetians made this trans-Mediterranean passenger +service a very profitable business. They charged exorbitant rates, and +when the Crusaders (most of whom had very little money) could not pay +the price, these Italian "profiteers" kindly allowed them to "work their +way across." In return for a fare from Venice to Acre, the Crusader +undertook to do a stated amount of fighting for the owners of his +vessel. In this way Venice greatly increased her territory along the +coast of the Adriatic and in Greece, where Athens became a Venetian +colony, and in the islands of Cyprus and Crete and Rhodes. + +All this, however, helped little in settling the question of the Holy +Land. After the first enthusiasm had worn off, a short crusading trip +became part of the liberal education of every well-bred young man, and +there never was any lack of candidates for service in Palestine. But the +old zeal was gone. The Crusaders, who had begun their warfare with deep +hatred for the Mohammedans and great love for the Christian people of +the eastern Roman Empire and Armenia, suffered a complete change of +heart. They came to despise the Greeks of Byzantium, who cheated them +and frequently betrayed the cause of the Cross, and the Armenians and +all the other Levantine races, and they began to appreciate the virtues +of their enemies who proved to be generous and fair opponents. + +Of course, it would never do to say this openly. But when the Crusader +returned home, he was likely to imitate the manners which he had learned +from his heathenish foe, compared to whom the average western knight was +still a good deal of a country bumpkin. He also brought with him several +new food-stuffs, such as peaches and spinach which he planted in his +garden and grew for his own benefit. He gave up the barbarous custom of +wearing a load of heavy armour and appeared in the flowing robes of +silk or cotton which were the traditional habit of the followers of +the Prophet and were originally worn by the Turks. Indeed the Crusades, +which had begun as a punitive expedition against the Heathen, became +a course of general instruction in civilisation for millions of young +Europeans. + +From a military and political point of view the Crusades were a failure. +Jerusalem and a number of cities were taken and lost. A dozen little +kingdoms were established in Syria and Palestine and Asia Minor, but +they were re-conquered by the Turks and after the year 1244 (when +Jerusalem became definitely Turkish) the status of the Holy Land was the +same as it had been before 1095. + +But Europe had undergone a great change. The people of the west had been +allowed a glimpse of the light and the sunshine and the beauty of the +east. Their dreary castles no longer satisfied them. They wanted a +broader life. Neither Church nor State could give this to them. + +They found it in the cities. + + + + +THE MEDIAEVAL CITY + +WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SAID THAT "CITY AIR IS FREE AIR" + + +THE early part of the Middle Ages had been an era of pioneering and of +settlement. A new people, who thus far had lived outside the wild range +of forest, mountains and marshes which protected the north-eastern +frontier of the Roman Empire, had forced its way into the plains of +western Europe and had taken possession of most of the land. They were +restless, as all pioneers have been since the beginning of time. They +liked to be "on the go." They cut down the forests and they cut each +other's throats with equal energy. Few of them wanted to live in cities. +They insisted upon being "free," they loved to feel the fresh air of +the hillsides fill their lungs while they drove their herds across the +wind-swept pastures. When they no longer liked their old homes, they +pulled up stakes and went away in search of fresh adventures. + +The weaker ones died. The hardy fighters and the courageous women who +had followed their men into the wilderness survived. In this way they +developed a strong race of men. They cared little for the graces of +life. They were too busy to play the fiddle or write pieces of poetry. +They had little love for discussions. The priest, "the learned man" of +the village (and before the middle of the thirteenth century, a layman +who could read and write was regarded as a "sissy") was supposed to +settle all questions which had no direct practical value. Meanwhile the +German chieftain, the Frankish Baron, the Northman Duke (or whatever +their names and titles) occupied their share of the territory which +once had been part of the great Roman Empire and among the ruins of past +glory, they built a world of their own which pleased them mightily and +which they considered quite perfect. + +They managed the affairs of their castle and the surrounding country to +the best of their ability. They were as faithful to the commandments of +the Church as any weak mortal could hope to be. They were sufficiently +loyal to their king or emperor to keep on good terms with those distant +but always dangerous potentates. In short, they tried to do right and +to be fair to their neighbours without being exactly unfair to their own +interests. + +It was not an ideal world in which they found themselves. The greater +part of the people were serfs or "villains," farm-hands who were as much +a part of the soil upon which they lived as the cows and sheep whose +stables they shared. Their fate was not particularly happy nor was it +particularly unhappy. But what was one to do? The good Lord who ruled +the world of the Middle Ages had undoubtedly ordered everything for the +best. If He, in his wisdom, had decided that there must be both knights +and serfs, it was not the duty of these faithful sons of the church to +question the arrangement. The serfs therefore did not complain but when +they were too hard driven, they would die off like cattle which are not +fed and stabled in the right way, and then something would be hastily +done to better their condition. But if the progress of the world had +been left to the serf and his feudal master, we would still be living +after the fashion of the twelfth century, saying "abracadabra" when we +tried to stop a tooth-ache, and feeling a deep contempt and hatred for +the dentist who offered to help us with his "science," which most likely +was of Mohammedan or heathenish origin and therefore both wicked and +useless. + +When you grow up you will discover that many people do not believe in +"progress" and they will prove to you by the terrible deeds of some of +our own contemporaries that "the world does not change." But I hope +that you will not pay much attention to such talk. You see, it took +our ancestors almost a million years to learn how to walk on their +hind legs. Other centuries had to go by before their animal-like +grunts developed into an understandable language. Writing--the art of +preserving our ideas for the benefit of future generations, without +which no progress is possible was invented only four thousand years ago. +The idea of turning the forces of nature into the obedient servants of +man was quite new in the days of your own grandfather. It seems to me, +therefore, that we are making progress at an unheard-of rate of speed. +Perhaps we have paid a little too much attention to the mere physical +comforts of life. That will change in due course of time and we shall +then attack the problems which are not related to health and to wages +and plumbing and machinery in general. + +But please do not be too sentimental about the "good old days." Many +people who only see the beautiful churches and the great works of art +which the Middle Ages have left behind grow quite eloquent when they +compare our own ugly civilisation with its hurry and its noise and the +evil smells of backfiring motor trucks with the cities of a thousand +years ago. But these mediaeval churches were invariably surrounded by +miserable hovels compared to which a modern tenement house stands +forth as a luxurious palace. It is true that the noble Lancelot and the +equally noble Parsifal, the pure young hero who went in search of the +Holy Grail, were not bothered by the odor of gasoline. But there were +other smells of the barnyard variety--odors of decaying refuse which +had been thrown into the street--of pig-sties surrounding the Bishop's +palace--of unwashed people who had inherited their coats and hats from +their grandfathers and who had never learned the blessing of soap. I +do not want to paint too unpleasant a picture. But when you read in the +ancient chronicles that the King of France, looking out of the windows +of his palace, fainted at the stench caused by the pigs rooting in the +streets of Paris, when an ancient manuscript recounts a few details of +an epidemic of the plague or of small-pox, then you begin to under-stand +that "progress" is something more than a catchword used by modern +advertising men. + +No, the progress of the last six hundred years would not have been +possible without the existence of cities. I shall, therefore, have to +make this chapter a little longer than many of the others. It is +too important to be reduced to three or four pages, devoted to mere +political events. + +The ancient world of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria had been a world +of cities. Greece had been a country of City-States. The history of +Phoenicia was the history of two cities called Sidon and Tyre. The Roman +Empire was the "hinterland" of a single town. Writing, art, science, +astronomy, architecture, literature, the theatre--the list is +endless--have all been products of the city. + +For almost four thousand years the wooden bee-hive which we call a town +had been the workshop of the world. Then came the great migrations. The +Roman Empire was destroyed. The cities were burned down and Europe once +more became a land of pastures and little agricultural villages. During +the Dark Ages the fields of civilisation had lain fallow. + +The Crusades had prepared the soil for a new crop. It was time for the +harvest, but the fruit was plucked by the burghers of the free cities. + +I have told you the story of the castles and the monasteries, with their +heavy stone enclosures--the homes of the knights and the monks, who +guarded men's bodies and their souls. You have seen how a few artisans +(butchers and bakers and an occasional candle-stick maker) came to +live near the castle to tend to the wants of their masters and to find +protection in case of danger. Sometimes the feudal lord allowed these +people to surround their houses with a stockade. But they were dependent +for their living upon the good-will of the mighty Seigneur of the +castle. When he went about they knelt before him and kissed his hand. + +Then came the Crusades and many things changed. The migrations had +driven people from the north-east to the west. The Crusades made +millions of people travel from the west to the highly civilised regions +of the south-east. They discovered that the world was not bounded by the +four walls of their little settlement. They came to appreciate better +clothes, more comfortable houses, new dishes, products of the mysterious +Orient. After their return to their old homes, they insisted that they +be supplied with those articles. The peddler with his pack upon his +back--the only merchant of the Dark Ages--added these goods to his old +merchandise, bought a cart, hired a few ex-crusaders to protect him +against the crime wave which followed this great international war, +and went forth to do business upon a more modern and larger scale. His +career was not an easy one. Every time he entered the domains of another +Lord he had to pay tolls and taxes. But the business was profitable all +the same and the peddler continued to make his rounds. + +Soon certain energetic merchants discovered that the goods which they +had always imported from afar could be made at home. They turned part +of their homes into a workgshop.{sic} They ceased to be merchants and +became manufacturers. They sold their products not only to the lord of +the castle and to the abbot in his monastery, but they exported them to +nearby towns. The lord and the abbot paid them with products of their +farms, eggs and wines, and with honey, which in those early days was +used as sugar. But the citizens of distant towns were obliged to pay in +cash and the manufacturer and the merchant began to own little pieces of +gold, which entirely changed their position in the society of the early +Middle Ages. + +It is difficult for you to imagine a world without money. In a modern +city one cannot possible live without money. All day long you carry a +pocket full of small discs of metal to "pay your way." You need a nickel +for the street-car, a dollar for a dinner, three cents for an evening +paper. But many people of the early Middle Ages never saw a piece of +coined money from the time they were born to the day of their death. The +gold and silver of Greece and Rome lay buried beneath the ruins of their +cities. The world of the migrations, which had succeeded the Empire, was +an agricultural world. Every farmer raised enough grain and enough sheep +and enough cows for his own use. + +The mediaeval knight was a country squire and was rarely forced to pay +for materials in money. His estates produced everything that he and his +family ate and drank and wore on their backs. The bricks for his house +were made along the banks of the nearest river. Wood for the rafters of +the hall was cut from the baronial forest. The few articles that had to +come from abroad were paid for in goods--in honey--in eggs--in fagots. + +But the Crusades upset the routine of the old agricultural life in a +very drastic fashion. Suppose that the Duke of Hildesheim was going to +the Holy Land. He must travel thousands of miles and he must pay his +passage and his hotel-bills. At home he could pay with products of his +farm. But he could not well take a hundred dozen eggs and a cart-load +of hams with him to satisfy the greed of the shipping agent of Venice or +the inn-keeper of the Brenner Pass. These gentlemen insisted upon cash. +His Lordship therefore was obliged to take a small quantity of gold with +him upon his voyage. Where could he find this gold? He could borrow it +from the Lombards, the descendants of the old Longobards, who had turned +professional money-lenders, who seated behind their exchange-table +(commonly known as "banco" or bank) were glad to let his Grace have a +few hundred gold pieces in exchange for a mortgage upon his estates, +that they might be repaid in case His Lordship should die at the hands +of the Turks. + +That was dangerous business for the borrower. In the end, the Lombards +invariably owned the estates and the Knight became a bankrupt, who +hired himself out as a fighting man to a more powerful and more careful +neighbour. + +His Grace could also go to that part of the town where the Jews were +forced to live. There he could borrow money at a rate of fifty or sixty +percent. interest. That, too, was bad business. But was there a way out? +Some of the people of the little city which surrounded the castle were +said to have money. They had known the young lord all his life. His +father and their fathers had been good friends. They would not be +unreasonable in their demands. Very well. His Lordship's clerk, a +monk who could write and keep accounts, sent a note to the best known +merchants and asked for a small loan. The townspeople met in the +work-room of the jeweller who made chalices for the nearby churches and +discussed this demand. They could not well refuse. It would serve no +purpose to ask for "interest." In the first place, it was against the +religious principles of most people to take interest and in the second +place, it would never be paid except in agricultural products and of +these the people had enough and to spare. + +"But," suggested the tailor who spent his days quietly sitting upon his +table and who was somewhat of a philosopher, "suppose that we ask some +favour in return for our money. We are all fond of fishing. But his +Lordship won't let us fish in his brook. Suppose that we let him have +a hundred ducats and that he give us in return a written guarantee +allowing us to fish all we want in all of his rivers. Then he gets the +hundred which he needs, but we get the fish and it will be good business +all around." + +The day his Lordship accepted this proposition (it seemed such an easy +way of getting a hundred gold pieces) he signed the death-warrant of his +own power. His clerk drew up the agreement. His Lordship made his mark +(for he could not sign his name) and departed for the East. Two years +later he came back, dead broke. The townspeople were fishing in the +castle pond. The sight of this silent row of anglers annoyed his +Lordship. He told his equerry to go and chase the crowd away. They went, +but that night a delegation of merchants visited the castle. They were +very polite. They congratulated his Lordship upon his safe return. They +were sorry his Lordship had been annoyed by the fishermen, but as his +Lordship might perhaps remember he had given them permission to do so +himself, and the tailor produced the Charter which had been kept in the +safe of the jeweller ever since the master had gone to the Holy Land. + +His Lordship was much annoyed. But once more he was in dire need of some +money. In Italy he had signed his name to certain documents which were +now in the possession of Salvestro dei Medici, the well-known banker. +These documents were "promissory notes" and they were due two months +from date. Their total amount came to three hundred and forty pounds, +Flemish gold. Under these circumstances, the noble knight could not well +show the rage which filled his heart and his proud soul. Instead, he +suggested another little loan. The merchants retired to discuss the +matter. + +After three days they came back and said "yes." They were only too happy +to be able to help their master in his difficulties, but in return +for the 345 golden pounds would he give them another written promise +(another charter) that they, the townspeople, might establish a council +of their own to be elected by all the merchants and free citizens of the +city, said council to manage civic affairs without interference from the +side of the castle? + +His Lordship was confoundedly angry. But again, he needed the money. He +said yes, and signed the charter. Next week, he repented. He called +his soldiers and went to the house of the jeweller and asked for the +documents which his crafty subjects had cajoled out of him under the +pressure of circumstances. He took them away and burned them. The +townspeople stood by and said nothing. But when next his Lordship needed +money to pay for the dowry of his daughter, he was unable to get a +single penny. After that little affair at the jeweller's his credit was +not considered good. He was forced to eat humble-pie and offer to make +certain reparations. Before his Lordship got the first installment of +the stipulated sum, the townspeople were once more in possession of all +their old charters and a brand new one which permitted them to build +a "city-hall" and a strong tower where all the charters might be kept +protected against fire and theft, which really meant protected against +future violence on the part of the Lord and his armed followers. + +This, in a very general way, is what happened during the centuries which +followed the Crusades. It was a slow process, this gradual shifting +of power from the castle to the city. There was some fighting. A few +tailors and jewellers were killed and a few castles went up in smoke. +But such occurrences were not common. Almost imperceptibly the towns +grew richer and the feudal lords grew poorer. To maintain themselves +they were for ever forced to exchange charters of civic liberty in +return for ready cash. The cities grew. They offered an asylum to +run-away serfs who gained their liberty after they had lived a number +of years behind the city walls. They came to be the home of the more +energetic elements of the surrounding country districts. They were proud +of their new importance and expressed their power in the churches and +public buildings which they erected around the old market place, where +centuries before the barter of eggs and sheep and honey and salt had +taken place. They wanted their children to have a better chance in life +than they had enjoyed themselves. They hired monks to come to their +city and be school teachers. When they heard of a man who could paint +pictures upon boards of wood, they offered him a pension if he would +come and cover the walls of their chapels and their town hall with +scenes from the Holy Scriptures. + +Meanwhile his Lordship, in the dreary and drafty halls of his castle, +saw all this up-start splendour and regretted the day when first he had +signed away a single one of his sovereign rights and prerogatives. But +he was helpless. The townspeople with their well-filled strong-boxes +snapped their fingers at him. They were free men, fully prepared to hold +what they had gained by the sweat of their brow and after a struggle +which had lasted for more than ten generations. + + + + +MEDIAEVAL SELF-GOVERNMENT + +HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED THEIR RIGHT TO BE HEARD IN THE +ROYAL COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY + + +As long as people were "nomads," wandering tribes of shepherds, all men +had been equal and had been responsible for the welfare and safety of +the entire community. + +But after they had settled down and some had become rich and others had +grown poor, the government was apt to fall into the hands of those +who were not obliged to work for their living and who could devote +themselves to politics. + +I have told you how this had happened in Egypt and in Mesopotamia and in +Greece and in Rome. It occurred among the Germanic population of western +Europe as soon as order had been restored. The western European world +was ruled in the first place by an emperor who was elected by the seven +or eight most important kings of the vast Roman Empire of the German +nation and who enjoyed a great deal of imaginary and very little actual +power. It was ruled by a number of kings who sat upon shaky thrones. The +every-day government was in the hands of thousands of feudal princelets. +Their subjects were peasants or serfs. There were few cities. There was +hardly any middle class. But during the thirteenth century (after an +absence of almost a thousand years) the middle class--the merchant +class--once more appeared upon the historical stage and its rise +in power, as we saw in the last chapter, had meant a decrease in the +influence of the castle folk. + +Thus far, the king, in ruling his domains, had only paid attention to +the wishes of his noblemen and his bishops. But the new world of trade +and commerce which grew out of the Crusades forced him to recognise +the middle class or suffer from an ever-increasing emptiness of his +exchequer. Their majesties (if they had followed their hidden wishes) +would have as lief consulted their cows and their pigs as the good +burghers of their cities. But they could not help themselves. They +swallowed the bitter pill because it was gilded, but not without a +struggle. + +In England, during the absence of Richard the Lion Hearted (who had gone +to the Holy Land, but who was spending the greater part of his crusading +voyage in an Austrian jail) the government of the country had been +placed in the hands of John, a brother of Richard, who was his inferior +in the art of war, but his equal as a bad administrator. John had begun +his career as a regent by losing Normandy and the greater part of the +French possessions. Next, he had managed to get into a quarrel with +Pope Innocent III, the famous enemy of the Hohenstaufens. The Pope had +excommunicated John (as Gregory VII had excommunicated the Emperor Henry +IV two centuries before). In the year 1213 John had been obliged to make +an ignominious peace just as Henry IV had been obliged to do in the year +1077. + +Undismayed by his lack of success, John continued to abuse his royal +power until his disgruntled vassals made a prisoner of their anointed +ruler and forced him to promise that he would be good and would never +again interfere with the ancient rights of his subjects. All this +happened on a little island in the Thames, near the village of +Runnymede, on the 15th of June of the year 1215. The document to which +John signed his name was called the Big Charter--the Magna Carta. It +contained very little that was new. It re-stated in short and direct +sentences the ancient duties of the king and enumerated the privileges +of his vassals. It paid little attention to the rights (if any) of +the vast majority of the people, the peasants, but it offered certain +securities to the rising class of the merchants. It was a charter of +great importance because it defined the powers of the king with more +precision than had ever been done before. But it was still a purely +mediaeval document. It did not refer to common human beings, unless they +happened to be the property of the vassal, which must be safe-guarded +against royal tyranny just as the Baronial woods and cows were protected +against an excess of zeal on the part of the royal foresters. + +A few years later, however, we begin to hear a very different note in +the councils of His Majesty. + +John, who was bad, both by birth and inclination, solemnly had promised +to obey the great charter and then had broken every one of its many +stipulations. Fortunately, he soon died and was succeeded by his son +Henry III, who was forced to recognise the charter anew. Meanwhile, +Uncle Richard, the Crusader, had cost the country a great deal of money +and the king was obliged to ask for a few loans that he might pay his +obligations to the Jewish money-lenders. The large land-owners and the +bishops who acted as councillors to the king could not provide him with +the necessary gold and silver. The king then gave orders that a few +representatives of the cities be called upon to attend the sessions of +his Great Council. They made their first appearance in the year 1265. +They were supposed to act only as financial experts who were not +supposed to take a part in the general discussion of matters of state, +but to give advice exclusively upon the question of taxation. + +Gradually, however, these representatives of the "commons" were +consulted upon many of the problems and the meeting of noblemen, bishops +and city delegates developed into a regular Parliament, a place "ou l'on +parfait," which means in English where people talked, before important +affairs of state were decided upon. + +But the institution of such a general advisory-board with certain +executive powers was not an English invention, as seems to ke the +general belief, and government by a "king and his parliament" was by no +means restricted to the British Isles. You will find it in every part of +Europe. In some countries, like France, the rapid increase of the Royal +power after the Middle Ages reduced the influence of the "parliament" +to nothing. In the year 1302 representatives of the cities had been +admitted to the meeting of the French Parliament, but five centuries had +to pass before this "Parliament" was strong enough to assert the rights +of the middle class, the so-called Third Estate, and break the power +of the king. Then they made up for lost time and during the French +Revolution, abolished the king, the clergy and the nobles and made the +representatives of the common people the rulers of the land. In Spain +the "cortex" (the king's council) had been opened to the commoners as +early as the first half of the twelfth century. In the Germain Empire, +a number of important cities had obtained the rank of "imperial cities" +whose representatives must be heard in the imperial diet. + +In Sweden, representatives of the people attended the sessions of the +Riksdag at the first meeting of the year 1359. In Denmark the Daneholf, +the ancient national assembly, was re-established in 1314, and, although +the nobles often regained control of the country at the expense of +the king and the people, the representatives of the cities were never +completely deprived of their power. + +In the Scandinavian country, the story of representative government is +particularly interesting. In Iceland, the "Althing," the assembly of all +free landowners, who managed the affairs of the island, began to hold +regular meetings in the ninth century and continued to do so for more +than a thousand years. + +In Switzerland, the freemen of the different cantons defended their +assemblies against the attempts of a number of feudal neighbours with +great success. + +Finally, in the Low Countries, in Holland, the councils of the different +duchies and counties were attended by representatives of the third +estate as early as the thirteenth century. + +In the sixteenth century a number of these small provinces rebelled +against their king, abjured his majesty in a solemn meeting of the +"Estates General," removed the clergy from the discussions, broke +the power of the nobles and assumed full executive authority over the +newly-established Republic of the United Seven Netherlands. For two +centuries, the representatives of the town-councils ruled the country +without a king, without bishops and without noblemen. The city had +become supreme and the good burghers had become the rulers of the land. + + + + +THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD + +WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES THOUGHT OF THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY +HAPPENED TO LIVE + + +DATES are a very useful invention. We could not do without them but +unless we are very careful, they will play tricks with us. They are +apt to make history too precise. For example, when I talk of the +point-of-view of mediaeval man, I do not mean that on the 31st of +December of the year 476, suddenly all the people of Europe said, "Ah, +now the Roman Empire has come to an end and we are living in the Middle +Ages. How interesting!" + +You could have found men at the Frankish court of Charlemagne who were +Romans in their habits, in their manners, in their out-look upon life. +On the other hand, when you grow up you will discover that some of the +people in this world have never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man. +All times and all ages overlap, and the ideas of succeeding generations +play tag with each other. But it is possible to study the minds of a +good many true representatives of the Middle Ages and then give you an +idea of the average man's attitude toward life and the many difficult +problems of living. + +First of all, remember that the people of the Middle Ages never thought +of themselves as free-born citizens, who could come and go at will and +shape their fate according to their ability or energy or luck. On the +contrary, they all considered themselves part of the general scheme of +things, which included emperors and serfs, popes and heretics, heroes +and swashbucklers, rich men, poor men, beggar men and thieves. They +accepted this divine ordinance and asked no questions. In this, of +course, they differed radically from modern people who accept nothing +and who are forever trying to improve their own financial and political +situation. + +To the man and woman of the thirteenth century, the world +hereafter--a Heaven of wonderful delights and a Hell of brimstone and +suffering--meant something more than empty words or vague theological +phrases. It was an actual fact and the mediaeval burghers and knights +spent the greater part of their time preparing for it. We modern people +regard a noble death after a well-spent life with the quiet calm of the +ancient Greeks and Romans. After three score years of work and effort, +we go to sleep with the feeling that all will be well. + +But during the Middle Ages, the King of Terrors with his grinning skull +and his rattling bones was man's steady companion. He woke his victims +up with terrible tunes on his scratchy fiddle he sat down with them at +dinner--he smiled at them from behind trees and shrubs when they took +a girl out for a walk. If you had heard nothing but hair-raising yarns +about cemeteries and coffins and fearful diseases when you were very +young, instead of listening to the fairy stories of Anderson and Grimm, +you, too, would have lived all your days in a dread of the final hour +and the gruesome day of Judgment. That is exactly what happened to the +children of the Middle Ages. They moved in a world of devils and spooks +and only a few occasional angels. Sometimes, their fear of the future +filled their souls with humility and piety, but often it influenced them +the other way and made them cruel and sentimental. They would first of +all murder all the women and children of a captured city and then they +would devoutly march to a holy spot and with their hands gory with +the blood of innocent victims, they would pray that a merciful heaven +forgive them their sins. Yea, they would do more than pray, they would +weep bitter tears and would confess themselves the most wicked of +sinners. But the next day, they would once more butcher a camp of +Saracen enemies without a spark of mercy in their hearts. + +Of course, the Crusaders were Knights and obeyed a somewhat different +code of manners from the common men. But in such respects the common man +was just the same as his master. He, too, resembled a shy horse, easily +frightened by a shadow or a silly piece of paper, capable of excellent +and faithful service but liable to run away and do terrible damage when +his feverish imagination saw a ghost. + +In judging these good people, however, it is wise to remember the +terrible disadvantages under which they lived. They were really +barbarians who posed as civilised people. Charlemagne and Otto the Great +were called "Roman Emperors," but they had as little resemblance to a +real Roman Emperor (say Augustus or Marcus Aurelius) as "King" Wumba +Wumba of the upper Congo has to the highly educated rulers of Sweden or +Denmark. They were savages who lived amidst glorious ruins but who +did not share the benefits of the civilisation which their fathers and +grandfathers had destroyed. They knew nothing. They were ignorant of +almost every fact which a boy of twelve knows to-day. They were obliged +to go to one single book for all their information. That was the Bible. +But those parts of the Bible which have influenced the history of the +human race for the better are those chapters of the New Testament which +teach us the great moral lessons of love, charity and forgiveness. As +a handbook of astronomy, zoology, botany, geometry and all the other +sciences, the venerable book is not entirely reliable. In the twelfth +century, a second book was added to the mediaeval library, the great +encyclopaedia of useful knowledge, compiled by Aristotle, the Greek +philosopher of the fourth century before Christ. Why the Christian +church should have been willing to accord such high honors to the +teacher of Alexander the Great, whereas they condemned all other Greek +philosophers on account of their heathenish doctrines, I really do +not know. But next to the Bible, Aristotle was recognized as the only +reliable teacher whose works could be safely placed into the hands of +true Christians. + +His works had reached Europe in a somewhat roundabout way. They had gone +from Greece to Alexandria. They had then been translated from the Greek +into the Arabic language by the Mohammedans who conquered Egypt in the +seventh century. They had followed the Moslem armies into Spain and the +philosophy of the great Stagirite (Aristotle was a native of Stagira in +Macedonia) was taught in the Moorish universities of Cordova. The Arabic +text was then translated into Latin by the Christian students who had +crossed the Pyrenees to get a liberal education and this much travelled +version of the famous books was at last taught at the different schools +of northwestern Europe. It was not very clear, but that made it all the +more interesting. + +With the help of the Bible and Aristotle, the most brilliant men of the +Middle Ages now set to work to explain all things between Heaven and +Earth in their relation to the expressed will of God. These brilliant +men, the so-called Scholasts or Schoolmen, were really very intelligent, +but they had obtained their information exclusively from books, and +never from actual observation. If they wanted to lecture on the sturgeon +or on caterpillars, they read the Old and New Testaments and Aristotle, +and told their students everything these good books had to say upon +the subject of caterpillars and sturgeons. They did not go out to the +nearest river to catch a sturgeon. They did not leave their libraries +and repair to the backyard to catch a few caterpillars and look at these +animals and study them in their native haunts. Even such famous scholars +as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas did not inquire whether the +sturgeons in the land of Palestine and the caterpillars of Macedonia +might not have been different from the sturgeons and the caterpillars of +western Europe. + +When occasionally an exceptionally curious person like Roger Bacon +appeared in the council of the learned and began to experiment with +magnifying glasses and funny little telescopes and actually dragged the +sturgen and the caterpillar into the lecturing room and proved that they +were different from the creatures described by the Old Testament and by +Aristotle, the Schoolmen shook their dignified heads. Bacon was going +too far. When he dared to suggest that an hour of actual observation +was worth more than ten years with Aristotle and that the works of that +famous Greek might as well have remained untranslated for all the good +they had ever done, the scholasts went to the police and said, "This man +is a danger to the safety of the state. He wants us to study Greek that +we may read Aristotle in the original. Why should he not be contented +with our Latin-Arabic translation which has satisfied our faithful +people for so many hundred years? Why is he so curious about the insides +of fishes and the insides of insects? He is probably a wicked magician +trying to upset the established order of things by his Black Magic." And +so well did they plead their cause that the frightened guardians of the +peace forbade Bacon to write a single word for more than ten years. When +he resumed his studies he had learned a lesson. He wrote his books in +a queer cipher which made it impossible for his contemporaries to read +them, a trick which became common as the Church became more desperate in +its attempts to prevent people from asking questions which would lead to +doubts and infidelity. + +This, however, was not done out of any wicked desire to keep people +ignorant. The feeling which prompted the heretic hunters of that day +was really a very kindly one. They firmly believed--nay, they knew--that +this life was but the preparation for our real existence in the +next world. They felt convinced that too much knowledge made people +uncomfortable, filled their minds with dangerous opinions and led to +doubt and hence to perdition. A mediaeval Schoolman who saw one of +his pupils stray away from the revealed authority of the Bible and +Aristotle, that he might study things for himself, felt as uncomfortable +as a loving mother who sees her young child approach a hot stove. She +knows that he will burn his little fingers if he is allowed to touch it +and she tries to keep him back, if necessary she will use force. But she +really loves the child and if he will only obey her, she will be as good +to him as she possibly can be. In the same way the mediaeval guardians +of people's souls, while they were strict in all matters pertaining to +the Faith, slaved day and night to render the greatest possible service +to the members of their flock. They held out a helping hand whenever +they could and the society of that day shows the influence of thousands +of good men and pious women who tried to make the fate of the average +mortal as bearable as possible. + +A serf was a serf and his position would never change. But the Good Lord +of the Middle Ages who allowed the serf to remain a slave all his life +had bestowed an immortal soul upon this humble creature and therefore +he must be protected in his rights, that he might live and die as a good +Christian. When he grew too old or too weak to work he must be +taken care of by the feudal master for whom he had worked. The serf, +therefore, who led a monotonous and dreary life, was never haunted by +fear of to-morrow. He knew that he was "safe"--that he could not be +thrown out of employment, that he would always have a roof over his head +(a leaky roof, perhaps, but roof all the same), and that he would always +have something to eat. + +This feeling of "stability" and of "safety" was found in all classes of +society. In the towns the merchants and the artisans established guilds +which assured every member of a steady income. It did not encourage the +ambitious to do better than their neighbours. Too often the guilds +gave protection to the "slacker" who managed to "get by." But they +established a general feeling of content and assurance among the +labouring classes which no longer exists in our day of general +competition. The Middle Ages were familiar with the dangers of what we +modern people call "corners," when a single rich man gets hold of all +the available grain or soap or pickled herring, and then forces the +world to buy from him at his own price. The authorities, therefore, +discouraged wholesale trading and regulated the price at which merchants +were allowed to sell their goods. + +The Middle Ages disliked competition. Why compete and fill the world +with hurry and rivalry and a multitude of pushing men, when the Day of +Judgement was near at hand, when riches would count for nothing and +when the good serf would enter the golden gates of Heaven while the bad +knight was sent to do penance in the deepest pit of Inferno? + +In short, the people of the Middle Ages were asked to surrender part +of their liberty of thought and action, that they might enjoy greater +safety from poverty of the body and poverty of the soul. + +And with a very few exceptions, they did not object. They firmly +believed that they were mere visitors upon this planet--that they were +here to be prepared for a greater and more important life. Deliberately +they turned their backs upon a world which was filled with suffering and +wickedness and injustice. They pulled down the blinds that the rays +of the sun might not distract their attention from that chapter in the +Apocalypse which told them of that heavenly light which was to illumine +their happiness in all eternity. They tried to close their eyes to most +of the joys of the world in which they lived that they might enjoy those +which awaited them in the near future. They accepted life as a necessary +evil and welcomed death as the beginning of a glorious day. + +The Greeks and the Romans had never bothered about the future but had +tried to establish their Paradise right here upon this earth. They had +succeeded in making life extremely pleasant for those of their fellow +men who did not happen to be slaves. Then came the other extreme of the +Middle Ages, when man built himself a Paradise beyond the highest clouds +and turned this world into a vale of tears for high and low, for rich +and poor, for the intelligent and the dumb. It was time for the pendulum +to swing back in the other direction, as I shall tell you in my next +chapter. + + + + +MEDIAEVAL TRADE + +HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE MEDITERRANEAN A BUSY CENTRE OF +TRADE AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE ITALIAN PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT +DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE COMMERCE WITH ASIA AND AFRICA + + +THERE were three good reasons why the Italian cities should have been +the first to regain a position of great importance during the late +Middle Ages. The Italian peninsula had been settled by Rome at a very +early date. There had been more roads and more towns and more schools +than anywhere else in Europe. + +The barbarians had burned as lustily in Italy as elsewhere, but there +had been so much to destroy that more had been able to survive. In +the second place, the Pope lived in Italy and as the head of a vast +political machine, which owned land and serfs and buildings and forests +and rivers and conducted courts of law, he was in constant receipt of +a great deal of money. The Papal authorities had to be paid in gold and +silver as did the merchants and ship-owners of Venice and Genoa. The +cows and the eggs and the horses and all the other agricultural products +of the north and the west must be changed into actual cash before the +debt could be paid in the distant city of Rome. + +This made Italy the one country where there was a comparative abundance +of gold and silver. Finally, during the Crusades, the Italian cities had +become the point of embarkation for the Crusaders and had profiteered to +an almost unbelievable extent. + +And after the Crusades had come to an end, these same Italian cities +remained the distributing centres for those Oriental goods upon which +the people of Europe had come to depend during the time they had spent +in the near east. + +Of these towns, few were as famous as Venice. Venice was a republic +built upon a mud bank. Thither people from the mainland had fled during +the invasions of the barbarians in the fourth century. Surrounded on all +sides by the sea they had engaged in the business of salt-making. Salt +had been very scarce during the Middle Ages, and the price had been +high. For hundreds of years Venice had enjoyed a monopoly of this +indispensable table commodity (I say indispensable, because people, like +sheep, fall ill unless they get a certain amount of salt in their food). +The people had used this monopoly to increase the power of their city. +At times they had even dared to defy the power of the Popes. The town +had grown rich and had begun to build ships, which engaged in trade +with the Orient. During the Crusades, these ships were used to carry +passengers to the Holy Land, and when the passengers could not pay for +their tickets in cash, they were obliged to help the Venetians who were +for ever increasing their colonies in the AEgean Sea, in Asia Minor and +in Egypt. + +By the end of the fourteenth century, the population had grown to two +hundred thousand, which made Venice the biggest city of the Middle Ages. +The people were without influence upon the government which was the +private affair of a small number of rich merchant families. They elected +a senate and a Doge (or Duke), but the actual rulers of the city were +the members of the famous Council of Ten,--who maintained themselves +with the help of a highly organised system of secret service men and +professional murderers, who kept watch upon all citizens and quietly +removed those who might be dangerous to the safety of their high-handed +and unscrupulous Committee of Public Safety. + +The other extreme of government, a democracy of very turbulent habits, +was to be found in Florence. This city controlled the main road from +northern Europe to Rome and used the money which it had derived from +this fortunate economic position to engage in manufacturing. The +Florentines tried to follow the example of Athens. Noblemen, priests and +members of the guilds all took part in the discussions of civic affairs. +This led to great civic upheaval. People were forever being divided +into political parties and these parties fought each other with intense +bitterness and exiled their enemies and confiscated their possessions +as soon as they had gained a victory in the council. After several +centuries of this rule by organised mobs, the inevitable happened. A +powerful family made itself master of the city and governed the town and +the surrounding country after the fashion of the old Greek "tyrants." +They were called the Medici. The earliest Medici had been physicians +(medicus is Latin for physician, hence their name), but later they had +turned banker. Their banks and their pawnshops were to be found in all +the more important centres of trade. Even today our American pawn-shops +display the three golden balls which were part of the coat of arms +of the mighty house of the Medici, who became rulers of Florence and +married their daughters to the kings of France and were buried in graves +worthy of a Roman Caesar. + +Then there was Genoa, the great rival of Venice, where the merchants +specialised in trade with Tunis in Africa and the grain depots of the +Black Sea. Then there were more than two hundred other cities, some +large and some small, each a perfect commercial unit, all of them +fighting their neighbours and rivals with the undying hatred of +neighbours who are depriving each other of their profits. + +Once the products of the Orient and Africa had been brought to these +distributing centres, they must be prepared for the voyage to the west +and the north. + +Genoa carried her goods by water to Marseilles, from where they were +reshipped to the cities along the Rhone, which in turn served as the +market places of northern and western France. + +Venice used the land route to northern Europe. This ancient road led +across the Brenner pass, the old gateway for the barbarians who had +invaded Italy. Past Innsbruck, the merchandise was carried to Basel. +From there it drifted down the Rhine to the North Sea and England, or it +was taken to Augsburg where the Fugger family (who were both bankers +and manufacturers and who prospered greatly by "shaving" the coins with +which they paid their workmen), looked after the further distribution to +Nuremberg and Leipzig and the cities of the Baltic and to Wisby (on the +Island of Gotland) which looked after the needs of the Northern Baltic +and dealt directly with the Republic of Novgorod, the old commercial +centre of Russia which was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in the middle +of the sixteenth century. + +The little cities on the coast of north-western Europe had an +interesting story of their own. The mediaeval world ate a great deal of +fish. There were many fast days and then people were not permitted to +eat meat. For those who lived away from the coast and from the rivers, +this meant a diet of eggs or nothing at all. But early in the thirteenth +century a Dutch fisherman had discovered a way of curing herring, so +that it could be transported to distant points. The herring fisheries of +the North Sea then became of great importance. But some time during the +thirteenth century, this useful little fish (for reasons of its own) +moved from the North Sea to the Baltic and the cities of that inland +sea began to make money. All the world now sailed to the Baltic to catch +herring and as that fish could only be caught during a few months +each year (the rest of the time it spends in deep water, raising large +families of little herrings) the ships would have been idle during the +rest of the time unless they had found another occupation. They were +then used to carry the wheat of northern and central Russia to southern +and western Europe. On the return voyage they brought spices and silks +and carpets and Oriental rugs from Venice and Genoa to Bruges and +Hamburg and Bremen. + +Out of such simple beginnings there developed an important system of +international trade which reached from the manufacturing cities of +Bruges and Ghent (where the almighty guilds fought pitched battles with +the kings of France and England and established a labour tyranny which +completely ruined both the employers and the workmen) to the Republic +of Novgorod in northern Russia, which was a mighty city until Tsar Ivan, +who distrusted all merchants, took the town and killed sixty thousand +people in less than a month's time and reduced the survivors to beggary. + +That they might protect themselves against pirates and excessive +tolls and annoying legislation, the merchants of the north founded a +protective league which was called the "Hansa." The Hansa, which had +its headquarters in Lubeck, was a voluntary association of more than +one hundred cities. The association maintained a navy of its own which +patrolled the seas and fought and defeated the Kings of England and +Denmark when they dared to interfere with the rights and the privileges +of the mighty Hanseatic merchants. + +I wish that I had more space to tell you some of the wonderful stories +of this strange commerce which was carried on across the high mountains +and across the deep seas amidst such dangers that every voyage became a +glorious adventure. But it would take several volumes and it cannot be +done here. + +Besides, I hope that I have told you enough about the Middle Ages to +make you curious to read more in the excellent books of which I shall +give you a list at the end of this volume. + +The Middle Ages, as I have tried to show you, had been a period of very +slow progress. The people who were in power believed that "progress" +was a very undesirable invention of the Evil One and ought to be +discouraged, and as they hap-pened to occupy the seats of the mighty, it +was easy to enforce their will upon the patient serfs and the illiterate +knights. Here and there a few brave souls sometimes ventured forth +into the forbidden region of science, but they fared badly and were +considered lucky when they escaped with their lives and a jail sentence +of twenty years. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the flood of international +commerce swept over western Europe as the Nile had swept across +the valley of ancient Egypt. It left behind a fertile sediment of +prosperity. Prosperity meant leisure hours and these leisure hours gave +both men and women a chance to buy manuscripts and take an interest in +literature and art and music. + +Then once more was the world filled with that divine curiosity which has +elevated man from the ranks of those other mammals who are his distant +cousins but who have remained dumb, and the cities, of whose growth and +development I have told you in my last chapter, offered a safe shelter +to these brave pioneers who dared to leave the very narrow domain of the +established order of things. + +They set to work. They opened the windows of their cloistered and +studious cells. A flood of sunlight entered the dusty rooms and +showed them the cobwebs which had gathered during the long period of +semi-darkness. + +They began to clean house. Next they cleaned their gardens. + +Then they went out into the open fields, outside the crumbling town +walls, and said, "This is a good world. We are glad that we live in it." + +At that moment, the Middle Ages came to an end and a new world began. + + + + +THE RENAISSANCE + +PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE ALIVE. THEY +TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION +OF ROME AND GREECE AND THEY WERE SO PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS THAT +THEY SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE OR RE-BIRTH OF CIVILISATION + + +THE Renaissance was not a political or religious movement. It was a +state of mind. + +The men of the Renaissance continued to be the obedient sons of the +mother church. They were subjects of kings and emperors and dukes and +murmured not. + +But their outlook upon life was changed. They began to wear different +clothes--to speak a different language--to live different lives in +different houses. + +They no longer concentrated all their thoughts and their efforts +upon the blessed existence that awaited them in Heaven. They tried to +establish their Paradise upon this planet, and, truth to tell, they +succeeded in a remarkable degree. + +I have quite often warned you against the danger that lies in historical +dates. People take them too literally. They think of the Middle Ages as +a period of darkness and ignorance. "Click," says the clock, and the +Renaissance begins and cities and palaces are flooded with the bright +sunlight of an eager intellectual curiosity. + +As a matter of fact, it is quite impossible to draw such sharp lines. +The thirteenth century belonged most decidedly to the Middle Ages. All +historians agree upon that. But was it a time of darkness and stagnation +merely? By no means. People were tremendously alive. Great states were +being founded. Large centres of commerce were being developed. High +above the turretted towers of the castle and the peaked roof of the +town-hall, rose the slender spire of the newly built Gothic cathedral. +Everywhere the world was in motion. The high and mighty gentlemen of the +city-hall, who had just become conscious of their own strength (by way +of their recently acquired riches) were struggling for more power with +their feudal masters. The members of the guilds who had just become +aware of the important fact that "numbers count" were fighting the high +and mighty gentlemen of the city-hall. The king and his shrewd advisers +went fishing in these troubled waters and caught many a shining bass +of profit which they proceeded to cook and eat before the noses of the +surprised and disappointed councillors and guild brethren. + +To enliven the scenery during the long hours of evening when the badly +lighted streets did not invite further political and economic dispute, +the Troubadours and Minnesingers told their stories and sang their songs +of romance and adventure and heroism and loyalty to all fair women. +Meanwhile youth, impatient of the slowness of progress, flocked to the +universities, and thereby hangs a story. + +The Middle Ages were "internationally minded." That sounds difficult, +but wait until I explain it to you. We modern people are "nationally +minded." We are Americans or Englishmen or Frenchmen or Italians and +speak English or French or Italian and go to English and French and +Italian universities, unless we want to specialise in some particular +branch of learning which is only taught elsewhere, and then we learn +another language and go to Munich or Madrid or Moscow. But the people +of the thirteenth or fourteenth century rarely talked of themselves +as Englishmen or Frenchmen or Italians. They said, "I am a citizen of +Sheffield or Bordeaux or Genoa." Because they all belonged to one and +the same church they felt a certain bond of brotherhood. And as all +educated men could speak Latin, they possessed an international language +which removed the stupid language barriers which have grown up in +modern Europe and which place the small nations at such an enormous +disadvantage. Just as an example, take the case of Erasmus, the great +preacher of tolerance and laughter, who wrote his books in the sixteenth +century. He was the native of a small Dutch village. He wrote in Latin +and all the world was his audience. If he were alive to-day, he would +write in Dutch. Then only five or six million people would be able +to read him. To be understood by the rest of Europe and America, his +publishers would be obliged to translate his books into twenty different +languages. That would cost a lot of money and most likely the publishers +would never take the trouble or the risk. + +Six hundred years ago that could not happen. The greater part of the +people were still very ignorant and could not read or write at all. But +those who had mastered the difficult art of handling the goose-quill +belonged to an international republic of letters which spread across +the entire continent and which knew of no boundaries and respected +no limitations of language or nationality. The universities were the +strongholds of this republic. Unlike modern fortifications, they did not +follow the frontier. They were to be found wherever a teacher and a few +pupils happened to find themselves together. There again the Middle Ages +and the Renaissance differed from our own time. Nowadays, when a new +university is built, the process (almost invariably) is as follows: Some +rich man wants to do something for the community in which he lives or a +particular religious sect wants to build a school to keep its faithful +children under decent supervision, or a state needs doc-tors and lawyers +and teachers. The university begins as a large sum of money which is +deposited in a bank. This money is then used to construct buildings and +laboratories and dormitories. Finally professional teachers are hired, +entrance examinations are held and the university is on the way. + +But in the Middle Ages things were done differently. A wise man said to +himself, "I have discovered a great truth. I must impart my knowledge +to others." And he began to preach his wisdom wherever and whenever he +could get a few people to listen to him, like a modern soap-box orator. +If he was an interesting speaker, the crowd came and stayed. If he was +dull, they shrugged their shoulders and continued their way. + +By and by certain young men began to come regularly to hear the words +of wisdom of this great teacher. They brought copybooks with them and a +little bottle of ink and a goose quill and wrote down what seemed to be +important. One day it rained. The teacher and his pupils retired to an +empty basement or the room of the "Professor." The learned man sat in +his chair and the boys sat on the floor. That was the beginning of the +University, the "universitas," a corporation of professors and students +during the Middle Ages, when the "teacher" counted for everything and +the building in which he taught counted for very little. + +As an example, let me tell you of something that happened in the ninth +century. In the town of Salerno near Naples there were a number of +excellent physicians. They attracted people desirous of learning the +medical profession and for almost a thousand years (until 1817) there +was a university of Salerno which taught the wisdom of Hippocrates, the +great Greek doctor who had practiced his art in ancient Hellas in the +fifth century before the birth of Christ. + +Then there was Abelard, the young priest from Brittany, who early in +the twelfth century began to lecture on theology and logic in Paris. +Thousands of eager young men flocked to the French city to hear him. +Other priests who disagreed with him stepped forward to explain their +point of view. Paris was soon filled with a clamouring multitude of +Englishmen and Germans and Italians and students from Sweden and Hungary +and around the old cathedral which stood on a little island in the Seine +there grew the famous University of Paris. In Bologna in Italy, a monk +by the name of Gratian had compiled a text-book for those whose business +it was to know the laws of the church. Young priests and many laymen +then came from all over Europe to hear Gratian explain his ideas. To +protect themselves against the landlords and the innkeepers and the +boarding-house ladies of the city, they formed a corporation (or +University) and behold the beginning of the university of Bologna. + +Next there was a quarrel in the University of Paris. We do not know +what caused it, but a number of disgruntled teachers together with +their pupils crossed the channel and found a hospitable home in a +little village on the Thames called Oxford, and in this way the famous +University of Oxford came into being. In the same way, in the year 1222, +there had been a split in the University of Bologna. The discontented +teachers (again followed by their pupils) had moved to Padua and their +proud city thenceforward boasted of a university of its own. And so +it went from Valladolid in Spain to Cracow in distant Poland and from +Poitiers in France to Rostock in Germany. + +It is quite true that much of the teaching done by these early +professors would sound absurd to our ears, trained to listen to +logarithms and geometrical theorems. The point however, which I want to +make is this--the Middle Ages and especially the thirteenth century +were not a time when the world stood entirely still. Among the younger +generation, there was life, there was enthusiasm, and there was a +restless if somewhat bashful asking of questions. And out of this +turmoil grew the Renaissance. + +But just before the curtain went down upon the last scene of the +Mediaeval world, a solitary figure crossed the stage, of whom you ought +to know more than his mere name. This man was called Dante. He was the +son of a Florentine lawyer who belonged to the Alighieri family and he +saw the light of day in the year 1265. He grew up in the city of his +ancestors while Giotto was painting his stories of the life of St. +Francis of Assisi upon the walls of the Church of the Holy Cross, but +often when he went to school, his frightened eyes would see the puddles +of blood which told of the terrible and endless warfare that raged +forever between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the followers of the +Pope and the adherents of the Emperors. + +When he grew up, he became a Guelph, because his father had been +one before him, just as an American boy might become a Democrat or a +Republican, simply because his father had happened to be a Democrat or +a Republican. But after a few years, Dante saw that Italy, unless united +under a single head, threatened to perish as a victim of the disordered +jealousies of a thousand little cities. Then he became a Ghilbeiline. + +He looked for help beyond the Alps. He hoped that a mighty emperor +might come and re-establish unity and order. Alas! he hoped in vain. The +Ghibellines were driven out of Florence in the year 1802. From that time +on until the day of his death amidst the dreary ruins of Ravenna, in the +year 1321, Dante was a homeless wanderer, eating the bread of charity at +the table of rich patrons whose names would have sunk into the deepest +pit of oblivion but for this single fact, that they had been kind to a +poet in his misery. During the many years of exile, Dante felt compelled +to justify himself and his actions when he had been a political leader +in his home-town, and when he had spent his days walking along the +banks of the Arno that he might catch a glimpse of the lovely Beatrice +Portinari, who died the wife of another man, a dozen years before the +Ghibelline disaster. + +He had failed in the ambitions of his career. He had faithfully served +the town of is birth and before a corrupt court he had been accused +of stealing the public funds and had been condemned to be burned alive +should he venture back within the realm of the city of Florence. To +clear himself before his own conscience and before his contemporaries, +Dante then created an Imaginary World and with great detail he described +the circumstances which had led to his defeat and depicted the hopeless +condition of greed and lust and hatred which had turned his fair and +beloved Italy into a battlefield for the pitiless mercenaries of wicked +and selfish tyrants. + +He tells us how on the Thursday before Easter of the year 1300 he had +lost his way in a dense forest and how he found his path barred by a +leopard and a lion and a wolf. He gave himself up for lost when a white +figure appeared amidst the trees. It was Virgil, the Roman poet and +philosopher, sent upon his errand of mercy by the Blessed Virgin and by +Beatrice, who from high Heaven watched over the fate of her true lover. +Virgil then takes Dante through Purgatory and through Hell. Deeper and +deeper the path leads them until they reach the lowest pit where Lucifer +himself stands frozen into the eternal ice surrounded by the most +terrible of sinners, traitors and liars and those who have achieved fame +and success by lies and by deceit. But before the two wanderers have +reached this terrible spot, Dante has met all those who in some way or +other have played a role in the history of his beloved city. Emperors +and Popes, dashing knights and whining usurers, they are all there, +doomed to eternal punishment or awaiting the day of deliverance, when +they shall leave Purgatory for Heaven. + +It is a curious story. It is a handbook of everything the people of the +thirteenth century did and felt and feared and prayed for. Through it +all moves the figure of the lonely Florentine exile, forever followed by +the shadow of his own despair. + +And behold! when the gates of death were closing upon the sad poet of +the Middle Ages, the portals of life swung open to the child who was to +be the first of the men of the Renaissance. That was Francesco Petrarca, +the son of the notary public of the little town of Arezzo. + +Francesco's father had belonged to the same political party as Dante. He +too had been exiled and thus it happened that Petrarca (or Petrarch, as +we call him) was born away from Florence. At the age of fifteen he was +sent to Montpellier in France that he might become a lawyer like his +father. But the boy did not want to be a jurist. He hated the law. He +wanted to be a scholar and a poet--and because he wanted to be a scholar +and a poet beyond everything else, he became one, as people of a +strong will are apt to do. He made long voyages, copying manuscripts in +Flanders and in the cloisters along the Rhine and in Paris and Liege +and finally in Rome. Then he went to live in a lonely valley of the wild +mountains of Vaucluse, and there he studied and wrote and soon he +had become so famous for his verse and for his learning that both the +University of Paris and the king of Naples invited him to come and teach +their students and subjects. On the way to his new job, he was obliged +to pass through Rome. The people had heard of his fame as an editor +of half-forgotten Roman authors. They decided to honour him and in the +ancient forum of the Imperial City, Petrarch was crowned with the laurel +wreath of the Poet. + +From that moment on, his life was an endless career of honour and +appreciation. He wrote the things which people wanted most to hear. They +were tired of theological disputations. Poor Dante could wander through +hell as much as he wanted. But Petrarch wrote of love and of nature and +the sun and never mentioned those gloomy things which seemed to have +been the stock in trade of the last generation. And when Petrarch came +to a city, all the people flocked out to meet him and he was received +like a conquering hero. If he happened to bring his young friend +Boccaccio, the story teller, with him, so much the better. They were +both men of their time, full of curiosity, willing to read everything +once, digging in forgotten and musty libraries that they might find +still another manuscript of Virgil or Ovid or Lucrece or any of the +other old Latin poets. They were good Christians. Of course they were! +Everyone was. But no need of going around with a long face and wearing +a dirty coat just because some day or other you were going to die. Life +was good. People were meant to be happy. You desired proof of this? Very +well. Take a spade and dig into the soil. What did you find? Beautiful +old statues. Beautiful old vases. Ruins of ancient buildings. All these +things were made by the people of the greatest empire that ever existed. +They ruled all the world for a thousand years. They were strong and +rich and handsome (just look at that bust of the Emperor Augustus!). Of +course, they were not Christians and they would never be able to enter +Heaven. At best they would spend their days in purgatory, where Dante +had just paid them a visit. + +But who cared? To have lived in a world like that of ancient Rome was +heaven enough for any mortal being. And anyway, we live but once. Let us +be happy and cheerful for the mere joy of existence. + +Such, in short, was the spirit that had begun to fill the narrow and +crooked streets of the many little Italian cities. + +You know what we mean by the "bicycle craze" or the "automobile craze." +Some one invents a bicycle. People who for hundreds of thousands of +years have moved slowly and painfully from one place to another go +"crazy" over the prospect of rolling rapidly and easily over hill and +dale. Then a clever mechanic makes the first automobile. No longer is +it necessary to pedal and pedal and pedal. You just sit and let +little drops of gasoline do the work for you. Then everybody wants +an automobile. Everybody talks about Rolls-Royces and Flivvers and +carburetors and mileage and oil. Explorers penetrate into the hearts of +unknown countries that they may find new supplies of gas. Forests arise +in Sumatra and in the Congo to supply us with rubber. Rubber and oil +become so valuable that people fight wars for their possession. The +whole world is "automobile mad" and little children can say "car" before +they learn to whisper "papa" and "mamma." + +In the fourteenth century, the Italian people went crazy about the newly +discovered beauties of the buried world of Rome. Soon their enthusiasm +was shared by all the people of western Europe. The finding of an +unknown manuscript became the excuse for a civic holiday. The man who +wrote a grammar became as popular as the fellow who nowadays invents a +new spark-plug. The humanist, the scholar who devoted his time and his +energies to a study of "homo" or mankind (instead of wasting his hours +upon fruitless theological investigations), that man was regarded with +greater honour and a deeper respect than was ever bestowed upon a hero +who had just conquered all the Cannibal Islands. + +In the midst of this intellectual upheaval, an event occurred which +greatly favoured the study of the ancient philosophers and authors. The +Turks were renewing their attacks upon Europe. Constantinople, capital +of the last remnant of the original Roman Empire, was hard pressed. In +the year 1393 the Emperor, Manuel Paleologue, sent Emmanuel Chrysoloras +to western Europe to explain the desperate state of old Byzantium and to +ask for aid. This aid never came. The Roman Catholic world was more +than willing to see the Greek Catholic world go to the punishment that +awaited such wicked heretics. But however indifferent western Europe +might be to the fate of the Byzantines, they were greatly interested in +the ancient Greeks whose colonists had founded the city on the Bosphorus +ten centuries after the Trojan war. They wanted to learn Greek that they +might read Aristotle and Homer and Plato. They wanted to learn it +very badly, but they had no books and no grammars and no teachers. The +magistrates of Florence heard of the visit of Chrysoloras. The people of +their city were "crazy to learn Greek." Would he please come and teach +them? He would, and behold! the first professor of Greek teaching alpha, +beta, gamma to hundreds of eager young men, begging their way to the +city of the Arno, living in stables and in dingy attics that they night +learn how to decline the verb [gr paidenw paideneis paidenei] and enter +into the companionship of Sophocles and Homer. + +Meanwhile in the universities, the old schoolmen, teaching their ancient +theology and their antiquated logic; explaining the hidden mysteries +of the old Testament and discussing the strange science of their +Greek-Arabic-Spanish-Latin edition of Aristotle, looked on in dismay and +horror. Next, they turned angry. This thing was going too far. The young +men were deserting the lecture halls of the established universities to +go and listen to some wild-eyed "humanist" with his newfangled notions +about a "reborn civilization." + +They went to the authorities. They complained. But one cannot force an +unwilling horse to drink and one cannot make unwilling ears listen to +something which does not really interest them. The schoolmen were +losing ground rapidly. Here and there they scored a short victory. They +combined forces with those fanatics who hated to see other people enjoy +a happiness which was foreign to their own souls. In Florence, the +centre of the Great Rebirth, a terrible fight was fought between the +old order and the new. A Dominican monk, sour of face and bitter in his +hatred of beauty, was the leader of the mediaeval rear-guard. He fought +a valiant battle. Day after day he thundered his warnings of God's holy +wrath through the wide halls of Santa Maria del Fiore. "Repent," he +cried, "repent of your godlessness, of your joy in things that are not +holy!" He began to hear voices and to see flaming swords that flashed +through the sky. He preached to the little children that they might not +fall into the errors of these ways which were leading their fathers to +perdition. He organised companies of boy-scouts, devoted to the service +of the great God whose prophet he claimed to be. In a sudden moment of +frenzy, the frightened people promised to do penance for their wicked +love of beauty and pleasure. They carried their books and their statues +and their paintings to the market place and celebrated a wild "carnival +of the vanities" with holy singing and most unholy dancing, while +Savonarola applied his torch to the accumulated treasures. + +But when the ashes cooled down, the people began to realise what they +had lost. This terrible fanatic had made them destroy that which they +had come to love above all things. They turned against him, Savonarola +was thrown into jail. He was tortured. But he refused to repent for +anything he had done. He was an honest man. He had tried to live a holy +life. He had willingly destroyed those who deliberately refused to share +his own point of view. It had been his duty to eradicate evil wherever +he found it. A love of heathenish books and heathenish beauty in the +eyes of this faithful son of the Church, had been an evil. But he stood +alone. He had fought the battle of a time that was dead and gone. The +Pope in Rome never moved a finger to save him. On the contrary, he +approved of his "faithful Florentines" when they dragged Savonarola to +the gallows, hanged him and burned his body amidst the cheerful howling +and yelling of the mob. + +It was a sad ending, but quite inevitable. Savonarola would have been +a great man in the eleventh century. In the fifteenth century he was +merely the leader of a lost cause. For better or worse, the Middle +Ages had come to an end when the Pope had turned humanist and when the +Vatican became the most important museum of Roman and Greek antiquities. + + + + +THE AGE OF EXPRESSION + +THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF GIVING EXPRESSION TO THEIR NEWLY +DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED THEIR HAPPINESS IN POETRY AND +IN SCULPTURE AND IN ARCHITECTURE AND IN PAINTING AND IN THE BOOKS THEY +PRINTED + + +IN the year 1471 there died a pious old man who had spent seventy-two +of his ninety-one years behind the sheltering walls of the cloister of +Mount St. Agnes near the good town of Zwolle, the old Dutch Hanseatic +city on the river Ysel. He was known as Brother Thomas and because he +had been born in the village of Kempen, he was called Thomas a Kempis. +At the age of twelve he had been sent to Deventer, where Gerhard Groot, +a brilliant graduate of the universities of Paris, Cologne and Prague, +and famous as a wandering preacher, had founded the Society of the +Brothers of the Common Life. The good brothers were humble laymen who +tried to live the simple life of the early Apostles of Christ while +working at their regular jobs as carpenters and house-painters and stone +masons. They maintained an excellent school, that deserving boys of poor +parents might be taught the wisdom of the Fathers of the church. At this +school, little Thomas had learned how to conjugate Latin verbs and how +to copy manuscripts. Then he had taken his vows, had put his little +bundle of books upon his back, had wandered to Zwolle and with a sigh +of relief he had closed the door upon a turbulent world which did not +attract him. + +Thomas lived in an age of turmoil, pestilence and sudden death. In +central Europe, in Bohemia, the devoted disciples of Johannus Huss, +the friend and follower of John Wycliffe, the English reformer, were +avenging with a terrible warfare the death of their beloved leader who +had been burned at the stake by order of that same Council of Constance, +which had promised him a safe-conduct if he would come to Switzerland +and explain his doctrines to the Pope, the Emperor, twenty-three +cardinals, thirty-three archbishops and bishops, one hundred and fifty +abbots and more than a hundred princes and dukes who had gathered +together to reform their church. + +In the west, France had been fighting for a hundred years that she might +drive the English from her territories and just then was saved from +utter defeat by the fortunate appearance of Joan of Arc. And no sooner +had this struggle come to an end than France and Burgundy were at each +other's throats, engaged upon a struggle of life and death for the +supremacy of western Europe. + +In the south, a Pope at Rome was calling the curses of Heaven down +upon a second Pope who resided at Avignon, in southern France, and who +retaliated in kind. In the far east the Turks were destroying the last +remnants of the Roman Empire and the Russians had started upon a final +crusade to crush the power of their Tartar masters. + +But of all this, Brother Thomas in his quiet cell never heard. He had +his manuscripts and his own thoughts and he was contented. He poured his +love of God into a little volume. He called it the Imitation of Christ. +It has since been translated into more languages than any other book +save the Bible. It has been read by quite as many people as ever studied +the Holy Scriptures. It has influenced the lives of countless millions. +And it was the work of a man whose highest ideal of existence was +expressed in the simple wish that "he might quietly spend his days +sitting in a little corner with a little book." + +Good Brother Thomas represented the purest ideals of the Middle Ages. +Surrounded on all sides by the forces of the victorious Renaissance, +with the humanists loudly proclaiming the coming of modern times, +the Middle Ages gathered strength for a last sally. Monasteries +were reformed. Monks gave up the habits of riches and vice. Simple, +straightforward and honest men, by the example of their blameless +and devout lives, tried to bring the people back to the ways of +righteousness and humble resignation to the will of God. But all to no +avail. The new world rushed past these good people. The days of quiet +meditation were gone. The great era of "expression" had begun. + +Here and now let me say that I am sorry that I must use so many "big +words." I wish that I could write this history in words of one syllable. +But it cannot be done. You cannot write a text-book of geometry +without reference to a hypotenuse and triangles and a rectangular +parallelopiped. You simply have to learn what those words mean or do +without mathematics. In history (and in all life) you will eventually +be obliged to learn the meaning of many strange words of Latin and Greek +origin. Why not do it now? + +When I say that the Renaissance was an era of expression, I mean this: +People were no longer contented to be the audience and sit still while +the emperor and the pope told them what to do and what to think. They +wanted to be actors upon the stage of life. They insisted upon giving +"expression" to their own individual ideas. If a man happened to be +interested in statesmanship like the Florentine historian, Niccolo +Macchiavelli, then he "expressed" himself in his books which revealed +his own idea of a successful state and an efficient ruler. If on the +other hand he had a liking for painting, he "expressed" his love for +beautiful lines and lovely colours in the pictures which have made the +names of Giotto, Fra Angelico, Rafael and a thousand others household +words wherever people have learned to care for those things which +express a true and lasting beauty. + +If this love for colour and line happened to be combined with an +interest in mechanics and hydraulics, the result was a Leonardo da +Vinci, who painted his pictures, experimented with his balloons and +flying machines, drained the marshes of the Lombardian plains and +"expressed" his joy and interest in all things between Heaven and Earth +in prose, in painting, in sculpture and in curiously conceived engines. +When a man of gigantic strength, like Michael Angelo, found the brush +and the palette too soft for his strong hands, he turned to sculpture +and to architecture, and hacked the most terrific creatures out of heavy +blocks of marble and drew the plans for the church of St. Peter, the +most concrete "expression" of the glories of the triumphant church. And +so it went. + +All Italy (and very soon all of Europe) was filled with men and women +who lived that they might add their mite to the sum total of our +accumulated treasures of knowledge and beauty and wisdom. In Germany, +in the city of Mainz, Johann zum Gansefleisch, commonly known as Johann +Gutenberg, had just invented a new method of copying books. He had +studied the old woodcuts and had perfected a system by which individual +letters of soft lead could be placed in such a way that they formed +words and whole pages. It is true, he soon lost all his money in a +law-suit which had to do with the original invention of the press. He +died in poverty, but the "expression" of his particular inventive genius +lived after him. + +Soon Aldus in Venice and Etienne in Paris and Plantin in Antwerp and +Froben in Basel were flooding the world with carefully edited editions +of the classics printed in the Gothic letters of the Gutenberg Bible, +or printed in the Italian type which we use in this book, or printed in +Greek letters, or in Hebrew. + +Then the whole world became the eager audience of those who had +something to say. The day when learning had been a monopoly of a +privileged few came to an end. And the last excuse for ignorance was +removed from this world, when Elzevier of Haarlem began to print his +cheap and popular editions. Then Aristotle and Plato, Virgil and +Horace and Pliny, all the goodly company of the ancient authors and +philosophers and scientists, offered to become man's faithful friend in +exchange for a few paltry pennies. Humanism had made all men free and +equal before the printed word. + + + + +THE GREAT DISCOVERIES + +BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THE BONDS OF THEIR NARROW +MEDIAEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO HAVE MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. +THE EUROPEAN WORLD HAD GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. IT WAS THE +TIME OF THE GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY + + +THE Crusades had been a lesson in the liberal art of travelling. But +very few people had ever ventured beyond the well-known beaten track +which led from Venice to Jaffe. In the thirteenth century the Polo +brothers, merchants of Venice, had wandered across the great Mongolian +desert and after climbing mountains as high as the moon, they had found +their way to the court of the great Khan of Cathay, the mighty emperor +of China. The son of one of the Polos, by the name of Marco, had written +a book about their adventures, which covered a period of more than +twenty years. The astonished world had gaped at his descriptions of the +golden towers of the strange island of Zipangu, which was his Italian +way of spelling Japan. Many people had wanted to go east, that they +might find this gold-land and grow rich. But the trip was too far and +too dangerous and so they stayed at home. + +Of course, there was always the possibility of making the voyage by sea. +But the sea was very unpopular in the Middle Ages and for many very good +reasons. In the first place, ships were very small. The vessels on which +Magellan made his famous trip around the world, which lasted many years, +were not as large as a modern ferryboat. They carried from twenty to +fifty men, who lived in dingy quarters (too low to allow any of them +to stand up straight) and the sailors were obliged to eat poorly cooked +food as the kitchen arrangements were very bad and no fire could be made +whenever the weather was the least bit rough. The mediaeval world knew +how to pickle herring and how to dry fish. But there were no canned +goods and fresh vegetables were never seen on the bill of fare as soon +as the coast had been left behind. Water was carried in small barrels. +It soon became stale and then tasted of rotten wood and iron rust and +was full of slimy growing things. As the people of the Middle Ages knew +nothing about microbes (Roger Bacon, the learned monk of the thirteenth +century seems to have suspected their existence, but he wisely kept his +discovery to himself) they often drank unclean water and sometimes the +whole crew died of typhoid fever. Indeed the mortality on board the +ships of the earliest navigators was terrible. Of the two hundred +sailors who in the year 1519 left Seville to accompany Magellan on his +famous voyage around the world, only eighteen returned. As late as the +seventeenth century when there was a brisk trade between western Europe +and the Indies, a mortality of 40 percent was nothing unusual for a trip +from Amsterdam to Batavia and back. The greater part of these victims +died of scurvy, a disease which is caused by lack of fresh vegetables +and which affects the gums and poisons the blood until the patient dies +of sheer exhaustion. + +Under those circumstances you will understand that the sea did not +attract the best elements of the population. Famous discoverers like +Magellan and Columbus and Vasco da Gama travelled at the head of crews +that were almost entirely composed of ex-jailbirds, future murderers and +pickpockets out of a Job. + +These navigators certainly deserve our admiration for the courage and +the pluck with which they accomplished their hopeless tasks in the face +of difficulties of which the people of our own comfortable world can +have no conception. Their ships were leaky. The rigging was clumsy. +Since the middle of the thirteenth century they had possessed some sort +of a compass (which had come to Europe from China by way of Arabia and +the Crusades) but they had very bad and incorrect maps. They set their +course by God and by guess. If luck was with them they returned after +one or two or three years. In the other case, their bleeched bones +remained behind on some lonely beach. But they were true pioneers. They +gambled with luck. Life to them was a glorious adventure. And all the +suffering, the thirst and the hunger and the pain were forgotten when +their eyes beheld the dim outlines of a new coast or the placid waters +of an ocean that had lain forgotten since the beginning of time. + +Again I wish that I could make this book a thousand pages long. The +subject of the early discoveries is so fascinating. But history, to +give you a true idea of past times, should be like those etchings +which Rembrandt used to make. It should cast a vivid light on certain +important causes, on those which are best and greatest. All the rest +should be left in the shadow or should be indicated by a few lines. And +in this chapter I can only give you a short list of the most important +discoveries. + +Keep in mind that all during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the +navigators were trying to accomplish just ONE THING--they wanted to +find a comfortable and safe road to the empire of Cathay (China), to the +island of Zipangu (Japan) and to those mysterious islands, where grew +the spices which the mediaeval world had come to like since the days +of the Crusades, and which people needed in those days before the +introduction of cold storage, when meat and fish spoiled very quickly +and could only be eaten after a liberal sprinkling of pepper or nutmeg. + +The Venetians and the Genoese had been the great navigators of the +Mediterranean, but the honour for exploring the coast of the Atlantic +goes to the Portuguese. Spain and Portugal were full of that patriotic +energy which their age-old struggle against the Moorish invaders had +developed. Such energy, once it exists, can easily be forced into new +channels. In the thirteenth century, King Alphonso III had conquered the +kingdom of Algarve in the southwestern corner of the Spanish peninsula +and had added it to his dominions. In the next century, the Portuguese +had turned the tables on the Mohammedans, had crossed the straits of +Gibraltar and had taken possession of Ceuta, opposite the Arabic city +of Ta'Rifa (a word which in Arabic means "inventory" and which by way +of the Spanish language has come down to us as "tariff,") and Tangiers, +which became the capital of an African addition to Algarve. + +They were ready to begin their career as explorers. + +In the year 1415, Prince Henry, known as Henry the Navigator, the son +of John I of Portugal and Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt (about +whom you can read in Richard II, a play by William Shakespeare) began to +make preparations for the systematic exploration of northwestern +Africa. Before this, that hot and sandy coast had been visited by the +Phoenicians and by the Norsemen, who remembered it as the home of the +hairy "wild man" whom we have come to know as the gorilla. One +after another, Prince Henry and his captains discovered the Canary +Islands--re-discovered the island of Madeira which a century before had +been visited by a Genoese ship, carefully charted the Azores which had +been vaguely known to both the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and caught +a glimpse of the mouth of the Senegal River on the west coast of Africa, +which they supposed to be the western mouth of the Nile. At last, by the +middle of the Fifteenth Century, they saw Cape Verde, or the Green Cape, +and the Cape Verde Islands, which lie almost halfway between the coast +of Africa and Brazil. + +But Henry did not restrict himself in his investigations to the waters +of the Ocean. He was Grand Master of the Order of Christ. This was a +Portuguese continuation of the crusading order of the Templars which had +been abolished by Pope Clement V in the year 1312 at the request of King +Philip the Fair of France, who had improved the occasion by burning his +own Templars at the stake and stealing all their possessions. Prince +Henry used the revenues of the domains of his religious order to equip +several expeditions which explored the hinterland of the Sahara and of +the coast of Guinea. + +But he was still very much a son of the Middle Ages and spent a great +deal of time and wasted a lot of money upon a search for the mysterious +"Presser John," the mythical Christian Priest who was said to be the +Emperor of a vast empire "situated somewhere in the east." The story of +this strange potentate had first been told in Europe in the middle of +the twelfth century. For three hundred years people had tried to find +"Presser John" and his descendants Henry took part in the search. Thirty +years after his death, the riddle was solved. + +In the year 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, trying to find the land of Prester +John by sea, had reached the southernmost point of Africa. At first +he called it the Storm Cape, on account of the strong winds which had +prevented him from continuing his voyage toward the east, but the Lisbon +pilots who understood the importance of this discovery in their quest +for the India water route, changed the name into that of the Cape of +Good Hope. + +One year later, Pedro de Covilham, provided with letters of credit on +the house of Medici, started upon a similar mission by land. He crossed +the Mediterranean and after leaving Egypt, he travelled southward. +He reached Aden, and from there, travelling through the waters of the +Persian Gulf which few white men had seen since the days of Alexander +the Great, eighteen centuries before, he visited Goa and Calicut on the +coast of India where he got a great deal of news about the island of the +Moon (Madagascar) which was supposed to lie halfway between Africa and +India. Then he returned, paid a secret visit to Mecca and to Medina, +crossed the Red Sea once more and in the year 1490 he discovered the +realm of Prester John, who was no one less than the Black Negus (or +King) of Abyssinia, whose ancestors had adopted Christianity in the +fourth century, seven hundred years before the Christian missionaries +had found their way to Scandinavia. + +These many voyages had convinced the Portuguese geographers and +cartographers that while the voyage to the Indies by an eastern +sea-route was possible, it was by no means easy. Then there arose a +great debate. Some people wanted to continue the explorations east of +the Cape of Good Hope. Others said, "No, we must sail west across the +Atlantic and then we shall reach Cathay." + +Let us state right here that most intelligent people of that day were +firmly convinced that the earth was not as flat as a pancake but was +round. The Ptolemean system of the universe, invented and duly described +by Claudius Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, who had lived in the +second century of our era, which had served the simple needs of the men +of the Middle Ages, had long been discarded by the scientists of the +Renaissance. They had accepted the doctrine of the Polish mathematician, +Nicolaus Copernicus, whose studies had convinced him that the earth +was one of a number of round planets which turned around the sun, a +discovery which he did not venture to publish for thirty-six years +(it was printed in 1548, the year of his death) from fear of the Holy +Inquisition, a Papal court which had been established in the thirteenth +century when the heresies of the Albigenses and the Waldenses in France +and in Italy (very mild heresies of devoutly pious people who did +not believe in private property and preferred to live in Christ-like +poverty) had for a moment threatened the absolute power of the bishops +of Rome. But the belief in the roundness of the earth was common +among the nautical experts and, as I said, they were now debating the +respective advantages of the eastern and the western routes. + +Among the advocates of the western route was a Genoese mariner by the +name of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the son of a wool merchant. He seems +to have been a student at the University of Pavia where he specialised +in mathematics and geometry. Then he took up his father's trade but +soon we find him in Chios in the eastern Mediterranean travelling on +business. Thereafter we hear of voyages to England but whether he went +north in search of wool or as the captain of a ship we do not know. In +February of the year 1477, Colombo (if we are to believe his own words) +visited Iceland, but very likely he only got as far as the Faroe Islands +which are cold enough in February to be mistaken for Iceland by any +one. Here Colombo met the descendants of those brave Norsemen who in the +tenth century had settled in Greenland and who had visited America in +the eleventh century, when Leif's vessel had been blown to the coast of +Vineland, or Labrador. + +What had become of those far western colonies no one knew. The American +colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the husband of the widow of Leif's brother +Thorstein, founded in the year 1003, had been discontinued three years +later on account of the hostility of the Esquimaux. As for Greenland, +not a word had been heard from the settlers since the year 1440. Very +likely the Greenlanders had all died of the Black Death, which had just +killed half the people of Norway. However that might be, the tradition +of a "vast land in the distant west" still survived among the people of +the Faroe and Iceland, and Colombo must have heard of it. He gathered +further information among the fishermen of the northern Scottish islands +and then went to Portugal where he married the daughter of one of the +captains who had served under Prince Henry the Navigator. + +From that moment on (the year 1478) he devoted himself to the quest of +the western route to the Indies. He sent his plans for such a voyage to +the courts of Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese, who felt certain that +they possessed a monopoly of the eastern route, would not listen to +his plans. In Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose +marriage in 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were busy driving +the Moors from their last stronghold, Granada. They had no money for +risky expeditions. They needed every peseta for their soldiers. + +Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for their ideas as +this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo (or Colon or Columbus, as +we call him,) is too well known to bear repeating. The Moors surrendered +Granada on the second of January of the year 1492. In the month of April +of the same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and Queen +of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos with three little +ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom were criminals who had been +offered indemnity of punishment if they joined the expedition. At +two o'clock in the morning of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus +discovered land. On the fourth of January of the year 1493, Columbus +waved farewell to the 44 men of the little fortress of La Navidad (none +of whom was ever again seen alive) and returned homeward. By the middle +of February he reached the Azores where the Portuguese threatened +to throw him into gaol. On the fifteenth of March, 1493, the admiral +reached Palos and together with his Indians (for he was convinced that +he had discovered some outlying islands of the Indies and called the +natives red Indians) he hastened to Barcelona to tell his faithful +patrons that he had been successful and that the road to the gold and +the silver of Cathay and Zipangu was at the disposal of their most +Catholic Majesties. + +Alas, Columbus never knew the truth. Towards the end of his life, on his +fourth voyage, when he had touched the mainland of South America, he may +have suspected that all was not well with his discovery. But he died +in the firm belief that there was no solid continent between Europe and +Asia and that he had found the direct route to China. + +Meanwhile, the Portuguese, sticking to their eastern route, had been +more fortunate. In the year 1498, Vasco da Gama had been able to reach +the coast of Malabar and return safely to Lisbon with a cargo of spice. +In the year 1502 he had repeated the visit. But along the western route, +the work of exploration had been most disappointing. In 1497 and 1498 +John and Sebastian Cabot had tried to find a passage to Japan but they +had seen nothing but the snowbound coasts and the rocks of Newfoundland, +which had first been sighted by the Northmen, five centuries before. +Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine who became the Pilot Major of Spain, and +who gave his name to our continent, had explored the coast of Brazil, +but had found not a trace of the Indies. + +In the year 1513, seven years after the death of Columbus, the truth at +last began to dawn upon the geographers of Europe. Vasco Nunez de +Balboa had crossed the Isthmus of Panama, had climbed the famous peak in +Darien, and had looked down upon a vast expanse of water which seemed to +suggest the existence of another ocean. + +Finally in the year 1519 a fleet of five small Spanish ships under +command of the Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand de Magellan, sailed +westward (and not eastward since that route, was absolutely in the hands +of the Portuguese who allowed no competition) in search of the Spice +Islands. Magellan crossed the Atlantic between Africa and Brazil and +sailed southward. He reached a narrow channel between the southernmost +point of Patagonia, the "land of the people with the big feet," and +the Fire Island (so named on account of a fire, the only sign of the +existence of natives, which the sailors watched one night). For almost +five weeks the ships of Magellan were at the mercy of the terrible +storms and blizzards which swept through the straits. A mutiny broke +out among the sailors. Magellan suppressed it with terrible severity +and sent two of his men on shore where they were left to repent of their +sins at leisure. At last the storms quieted down, the channel broadened, +and Magellan entered a new ocean. Its waves were quiet and placid. He +called it the Peaceful Sea, the Mare Pacifico. Then he continued in a +western direction. He sailed for ninety-eight days without seeing land. +His people almost perished from hunger and thirst and ate the rats that +infested the ships, and when these were all gone they chewed pieces of +sail to still their gnawing hunger. + +In March of the year 1521 they saw land. Magellan called it the land of +the Ladrones (which means robbers) because the natives stole everything +they could lay hands on. Then further westward to the Spice Islands! + +Again land was sighted. A group of lonely islands. Magellan called them +the Philippines, after Philip, the son of his master Charles V, the +Philip II of unpleasant historical memory. At first Magellan was well +received, but when he used the guns of his ships to make Christian +converts he was killed by the aborigines, together with a number of his +captains and sailors. The survivors burned one of the three remaining +ships and continued their voyage. They found the Moluccas, the famous +Spice Islands; they sighted Borneo and reached Tidor. There, one of +the two ships, too leaky to be of further use, remained behind with +her crew. The "Vittoria," under Sebastian del Cano, crossed the Indian +Ocean, missed seeing the northern coast of Australia (which was not +discovered until the first half of the seventeenth century when ships of +the Dutch East India Company explored this flat and inhospitable land), +and after great hardships reached Spain. + +This was the most notable of all voyages. It had taken three years. It +had been accomplished at a great cost both of men and money. But it had +established the fact that the earth was round and that the new lands +discovered by Columbus were not a part of the Indies but a separate +continent. From that time on, Spain and Portugal devoted all their +energies to the development of their Indian and American trade. To +prevent an armed conflict between the rivals, Pope Alexander VI (the +only avowed heathen who was ever elected to this most holy office) +had obligingly divided the world into two equal parts by a line +of demarcation which followed the 50th degree of longitude west of +Greenwich, the so-called division of Tordesillas of 1494. The Portuguese +were to establish their colonies to the east of this line, the Spaniards +were to have theirs to the west. This accounts for the fact that the +entire American continent with the exception of Brazil became Spanish +and that all of the Indies and most of Africa became Portuguese until +the English and the Dutch colonists (who had no respect for Papal +decisions) took these possessions away in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. + +When news of the discovery of Columbus reached the Rialto of Venice, the +Wall street of the Middle Ages, there was a terrible panic. Stocks and +bonds went down 40 and 50 percent. After a short while, when it appeared +that Columbus had failed to find the road to Cathay, the Venetian +merchants recovered from their fright. But the voyages of da Gama and +Magellan proved the practical possibilities of an eastern water-route +to the Indies. Then the rulers of Genoa and Venice, the two great +commercial centres of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, began to be +sorry that they had refused to listen to Columbus. But it was too late. +Their Mediterranean became an inland sea. The overland trade to the +Indies and China dwindled to insignificant proportions. The old days of +Italian glory were gone. The Atlantic became the new centre of commerce +and therefore the centre of civilisation. It has remained so ever since. + +See how strangely civilisation has progressed since those early days, +fifty centuries before, when the inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile +began to keep a written record of history, From the river Nile, it went +to Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers. Then came the turn of Crete +and Greece and Rome. An inland sea became the centre of trade and the +cities along the Mediterranean were the home of art and science and +philosophy and learning. In the sixteenth century it moved westward once +more and made the countries that border upon the Atlantic become the +masters of the earth. + +There are those who say that the world war and the suicide of the great +European nations has greatly diminished the importance of the Atlantic +Ocean. They expect to see civilisation cross the American continent and +find a new home in the Pacific. But I doubt this. + +The westward trip was accompanied by a steady increase in the size +of ships and a broadening of the knowledge of the navigators. The +flat-bottomed vessels of the Nile and the Euphrates were replaced by +the sailing vessels of the Phoenicians, the AEgeans, the Greeks, the +Carthaginians and the Romans. These in turn were discarded for the +square rigged vessels of the Portuguese and the Spaniards. And the +latter were driven from the ocean by the full-rigged craft of the +English and the Dutch. + +At present, however, civilisation no longer depends upon ships. Aircraft +has taken and will continue to take the place of the sailing vessel +and the steamer. The next centre of civilisation will depend upon the +development of aircraft and water power. And the sea once more shall be +the undisturbed home of the little fishes, who once upon a time shared +their deep residence with the earliest ancestors of the human race. + + + + +BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + +CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + + +THE discoveries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards had brought the +Christians of western Europe into close contact with the people of India +and of China. They knew of course that Christianity was not the only +religion on this earth. There were the Mohammedans and the heathenish +tribes of northern Africa who worshipped sticks and stones and dead +trees. But in India and in China the Christian conquerors found new +millions who had never heard of Christ and who did not want to hear of +Him, because they thought their own religion, which was thousands of +years old, much better than that of the West. As this is a story of +mankind and not an exclusive history of the people of Europe and +our western hemisphere, you ought to know something of two men whose +teaching and whose example continue to influence the actions and the +thoughts of the majority of our fellow-travellers on this earth. + +In India, Buddha was recognised as the great religious teacher. His +history is an interesting one. He was born in the Sixth Century before +the birth of Christ, within sight of the mighty Himalaya Mountains, +where four hundred years before Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), the first of +the great leaders of the Aryan race (the name which the Eastern branch +of the Indo-European race had given to itself), had taught his people +to regard life as a continuous struggle between Ahriman, and Ormuzd, the +Gods of Evil and Good. Buddha's father was Suddhodana, a mighty chief +among the tribe of the Sakiyas. His mother, Maha Maya, was the daughter +of a neighbouring king. She had been married when she was a very young +girl. But many moons had passed beyond the distant ridge of hills and +still her husband was without an heir who should rule his lands after +him. At last, when she was fifty years old, her day came and she went +forth that she might be among her own people when her baby should come +into this world. + +It was a long trip to the land of the Koliyans, where Maha Maya had +spent her earliest years. One night she was resting among the cool trees +of the garden of Lumbini. There her son was born. He was given the name +of Siddhartha, but we know him as Buddha, which means the Enlightened +One. + +In due time, Siddhartha grew up to be a handsome young prince and when +he was nineteen years old, he was married to his cousin Yasodhara. +During the next ten years he lived far away from all pain and all +suffering, behind the protecting walls of the royal palace, awaiting the +day when he should succeed his father as King of the Sakiyas. + +But it happened that when he was thirty years old, he drove outside of +the palace gates and saw a man who was old and worn out with labour +and whose weak limbs could hardly carry the burden of life. Siddhartha +pointed him out to his coachman, Channa, but Channa answered that there +were lots of poor people in this world and that one more or less did not +matter. The young prince was very sad but he did not say anything and +went back to live with his wife and his father and his mother and tried +to be happy. A little while later he left the palace a second time. +His carriage met a man who suffered from a terrible disease. Siddhartha +asked Channa what had been the cause of this man's suffering, but the +coachman answered that there were many sick people in this world and +that such things could not be helped and did not matter very much. The +young prince was very sad when he heard this but again he returned to +his people. + +A few weeks passed. One evening Siddhartha ordered his carriage in order +to go to the river and bathe. Suddenly his horses were frightened by the +sight of a dead man whose rotting body lay sprawling in the ditch beside +the road. The young prince, who had never been allowed to see such +things, was frightened, but Channa told him not to mind such trifles. +The world was full of dead people. It was the rule of life that all +things must come to an end. Nothing was eternal. The grave awaited us +all and there was no escape. + +That evening, when Siddhartha returned to his home, he was received with +music. While he was away his wife had given birth to a son. The people +were delighted because now they knew that there was an heir to the +throne and they celebrated the event by the beating of many drums. +Siddhartha, however, did not share their joy. The curtain of life had +been lifted and he had learned the horror of man's existence. The sight +of death and suffering followed him like a terrible dream. + +That night the moon was shining brightly. Siddhartha woke up and began +to think of many things. Never again could he be happy until he should +have found a solution to the riddle of existence. He decided to find +it far away from all those whom he loved. Softly he went into the room +where Yasodhara was sleeping with her baby. Then he called for his +faithful Channa and told him to follow. + +Together the two men went into the darkness of the night, one to find +rest for his soul, the other to be a faithful servant unto a beloved +master. + +The people of India among whom Siddhartha wandered for many years were +just then in a state of change. Their ancestors, the native Indians, +had been conquered without great difficulty by the war-like Aryans +(our distant cousins) and thereafter the Aryans had been the rulers +and masters of tens of millions of docile little brown men. To maintain +themselves in the seat of the mighty, they had divided the population +into different classes and gradually a system of "caste" of the most +rigid sort had been enforced upon the natives. The descendants of the +Indo-European conquerors belonged to the highest "caste," the class of +warriors and nobles. Next came the caste of the priests. Below these +followed the peasants and the business men. The ancient natives, +however, who were called Pariahs, formed a class of despised and +miserable slaves and never could hope to be anything else. + +Even the religion of the people was a matter of caste. The old +Indo-Europeans, during their thousands of years of wandering, had met +with many strange adventures. These had been collected in a book called +the Veda. The language of this book was called Sanskrit, and it was +closely related to the different languages of the European continent, to +Greek and Latin and Russian and German and two-score others. The three +highest castes were allowed to read these holy scriptures. The Pariah, +however, the despised member of the lowest caste, was not permitted to +know its contents. Woe to the man of noble or priestly caste who should +teach a Pariah to study the sacred volume! + +The majority of the Indian people, therefore, lived in misery. Since +this planet offered them very little joy, salvation from suffering +must be found elsewhere. They tried to derive a little consolation from +meditation upon the bliss of their future existence. + +Brahma, the all-creator who was regarded by the Indian people as the +supreme ruler of life and death, was worshipped as the highest ideal of +perfection. To become like Brahma, to lose all desires for riches and +power, was recognised as the most exalted purpose of existence. Holy +thoughts were regarded as more important than holy deeds, and many +people went into the desert and lived upon the leaves of trees and +starved their bodies that they might feed their souls with the glorious +contemplation of the splendours of Brahma, the Wise, the Good and the +Merciful. + +Siddhartha, who had often observed these solitary wanderers who were +seeking the truth far away from the turmoil of the cities and the +villages, decided to follow their example. He cut his hair. He took his +pearls and his rubies and sent them back to his family with a message +of farewell, which the ever faithful Channa carried. Without a single +follower, the young prince then moved into the wilderness. + +Soon the fame of his holy conduct spread among the mountains. Five young +men came to him and asked that they might be allowed to listen to his +words of wisdom. He agreed to be their master if they would follow him. +They consented, and he took them into the hills and for six years +he taught them all he knew amidst the lonely peaks of the Vindhya +Mountains. But at the end of this period of study, he felt that he was +still far from perfection. The world that he had left continued to +tempt him. He now asked that his pupils leave him and then he fasted for +forty-nine days and nights, sitting upon the roots of an old tree. At +last he received his reward. In the dusk of the fiftieth evening, +Brahma revealed himself to his faithful servant. From that moment on, +Siddhartha was called Buddha and he was revered as the Enlightened One +who had come to save men from their unhappy mortal fate. + +The last forty-five years of his life, Buddha spent within the valley of +the Ganges River, teaching his simple lesson of submission and meekness +unto all men. In the year 488 before our era, he died, full of years and +beloved by millions of people. He had not preached his doctrines for the +benefit of a single class. Even the lowest Pariah might call himself his +disciple. + +This, however, did not please the nobles and the priests and the +merchants who did their best to destroy a creed which recognised the +equality of all living creatures and offered men the hope of a second +life (a reincarnation) under happier circumstances. As soon as they +could, they encouraged the people of India to return to the ancient +doctrines of the Brahmin creed with its fasting and its tortures of the +sinful body. But Buddhism could not be destroyed. Slowly the disciples +of the Enlightened One wandered across the valleys of the Himalayas, and +moved into China. They crossed the Yellow Sea and preached the wisdom +of their master unto the people of Japan, and they faithfully obeyed the +will of their great master, who had forbidden them to use force. To-day +more people recognise Buddha as their teacher than ever before and their +number surpasses that of the combined followers of Christ and Mohammed. + +As for Confucius, the wise old man of the Chinese, his story is a simple +one. He was born in the year 550 B.C. He led a quiet, dignified and +uneventful life at a time when China was without a strong central +government and when the Chinese people were at the mercy of bandits and +robber-barons who went from city to city, pillaging and stealing and +murdering and turning the busy plains of northern and central China into +a wilderness of starving people. + +Confucius, who loved his people, tried to save them. He did not have +much faith in the use of violence. He was a very peaceful person. He +did not think that he could make people over by giving them a lot of new +laws. He knew that the only possible salvation would come from a change +of heart, and he set out upon the seemingly hopeless task of changing +the character of his millions of fellow men who inhabited the wide +plains of eastern Asia. The Chinese had never been much interested in +religion as we understand that word. They believed in devils and spooks +as most primitive people do. But they had no prophets and recognised no +"revealed truth." Confucius is almost the only one among the great moral +leaders who did not see visions, who did not proclaim himself as the +messenger of a divine power; who did not, at some time or another, claim +that he was inspired by voices from above. + +He was just a very sensible and kindly man, rather given to lonely +wanderings and melancholy tunes upon his faithful flute. He asked for no +recognition. He did not demand that any one should follow him or worship +him. He reminds us of the ancient Greek philosophers, especially those +of the Stoic School, men who believed in right living and righteous +thinking without the hope of a reward but simply for the peace of the +soul that comes with a good conscience. + +Confucius was a very tolerant man. He went out of his way to visit +Lao-Tse, the other great Chinese leader and the founder of a philosophic +system called "Taoism," which was merely an early Chinese version of the +Golden Rule. + +Confucius bore no hatred to any one. He taught the virtue of supreme +self-possession. A person of real worth, according to the teaching of +Confucius, did not allow himself to be ruffled by anger and suffered +whatever fate brought him with the resignation of those sages who +understand that everything which happens, in one way or another, is +meant for the best. + +At first he had only a few students. Gradually the number increased. +Before his death, in the year 478 B.C., several of the kings and the +princes of China confessed themselves his disciples. When Christ was +born in Bethlehem, the philosophy of Confucius had already become a part +of the mental make-up of most Chinamen. It has continued to influence +their lives ever since. Not however in its pure, original form. Most +religions change as time goes on. Christ preached humility and meekness +and absence from worldly ambitions, but fifteen centuries after +Golgotha, the head of the Christian church was spending millions upon +the erection of a building that bore little relation to the lonely +stable of Bethlehem. + +Lao-Tse taught the Golden Rule, and in less than three centuries the +ignorant masses had made him into a real and very cruel God and had +buried his wise commandments under a rubbish-heap of superstition which +made the lives of the average Chinese one long series of frights and +fears and horrors. + +Confucius had shown his students the beauties of honouring their Father +and their Mother. They soon began to be more interested in the memory of +their departed parents than in the happiness of their children and their +grandchildren. Deliberately they turned their backs upon the future and +tried to peer into the vast darkness of the past. The worship of the +ancestors became a positive religious system. Rather than disturb a +cemetery situated upon the sunny and fertile side of a mountain, they +would plant their rice and wheat upon the barren rocks of the other +slope where nothing could possibly grow. And they preferred hunger and +famine to the desecration of the ancestral grave. + +At the same time the wise words of Confucius never quite lost their hold +upon the increasing millions of eastern Asia. Confucianism, with its +profound sayings and shrewd observations, added a touch of common-sense +philosophy to the soul of every Chinaman and influenced his entire life, +whether he was a simple laundry man in a steaming basement or the ruler +of vast provinces who dwelt behind the high walls of a secluded palace. + +In the sixteenth century the enthusiastic but rather uncivilised +Christians of the western world came face to face with the older creeds +of the East. The early Spaniards and Portuguese looked upon the peaceful +statues of Buddha and contemplated the venerable pictures of Confucius +and did not in the least know what to make of those worthy prophets +with their far-away smile. They came to the easy conclusion that these +strange divinities were just plain devils who represented something +idolatrous and heretical and did not deserve the respect of the true +sons of the Church. Whenever the spirit of Buddha or Confucius seemed to +interfere with the trade in spices and silks, the Europeans attacked the +"evil influence" with bullets and grape-shot. That system had certain +very definite disadvantages. It has left us an unpleasant heritage of +ill-will which promises little good for the immediate future. + + + + +THE REFORMATION + +THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST COMPARED TO A GIGANTIC PENDULUM +WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE +AND THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE WERE +FOLLOWED BY THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE RELIGIOUS +ENTHUSIASM OF THE REFORMATION + + +OF course you have heard of the Reformation. You think of a small but +courageous group of pilgrims who crossed the ocean to have "freedom of +religious worship." Vaguely in the course of time (and more especially +in our Protestant countries) the Reformation has come to stand for the +idea of "liberty of thought." Martin Luther is represented as the leader +of the vanguard of progress. But when history is something more than a +series of flattering speeches addressed to our own glorious ancestors, +when to use the words of the German historian Ranke, we try to discover +what "actually happened," then much of the past is seen in a very +different light. + +Few things in human life are either entirely good or entirely bad. +Few things are either black or white. It is the duty of the honest +chronicler to give a true account of all the good and bad sides of every +historical event. It is very difficult to do this because we all have +our personal likes and dislikes. But we ought to try and be as fair as +we can be, and must not allow our prejudices to influence us too much. + +Take my own case as an example. I grew up in the very Protestant centre +of a very Protestant country. I never saw any Catholics until I was +about twelve years old. Then I felt very uncomfortable when I met them. +I was a little bit afraid. I knew the story of the many thousand people +who had been burned and hanged and quartered by the Spanish Inquisition +when the Duke of Alba tried to cure the Dutch people of their Lutheran +and Calvinistic heresies. All that was very real to me. It seemed to +have happened only the day before. It might occur again. There might +be another Saint Bartholomew's night, and poor little me would be +slaughtered in my nightie and my body would be thrown out of the window, +as had happened to the noble Admiral de Coligny. + +Much later I went to live for a number of years in a Catholic country. +I found the people much pleasanter and much more tolerant and quite as +intelligent as my former countrymen. To my great surprise, I began to +discover that there was a Catholic side to the Reformation, quite as +much as a Protestant. + +Of course the good people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +who actually lived through the Reformation, did not see things that +way. They were always right and their enemy was always wrong. It was +a question of hang or be hanged, and both sides preferred to do the +hanging. Which was no more than human and for which they deserve no +blame. + +When we look at the world as it appeared in the year 1500, an easy date +to remember, and the year in which the Emperor Charles V was born, this +is what we see. The feudal disorder of the Middle Ages has given way +before the order of a number of highly centralised kingdoms. The most +powerful of all sovereigns is the great Charles, then a baby in a +cradle. He is the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Maximilian +of Habsburg, the last of the mediaeval knights, and of his wife Mary, +the daughter of Charles the Bold, the ambitious Burgundian duke who had +made successful war upon France but had been killed by the independent +Swiss peasants. The child Charles, therefore, has fallen heir to the +greater part of the map, to all the lands of his parents, grandparents, +uncles, cousins and aunts in Germany, in Austria, in Holland, in +Belgium, in Italy, and in Spain, together with all their colonies in +Asia, Africa and America. By a strange irony of fate, he has been born +in Ghent, in that same castle of the counts of Flanders, which the +Germans used as a prison during their recent occupation of Belgium, and +although a Spanish king and a German emperor, he receives the training +of a Fleming. + +As his father is dead (poisoned, so people say, but this is never +proved), and his mother has lost her mind (she is travelling through her +domains with the coffin containing the body of her departed husband), +the child is left to the strict discipline of his Aunt Margaret. Forced +to rule Germans and Italians and Spaniards and a hundred strange races, +Charles grows up a Fleming, a faithful son of the Catholic Church, but +quite averse to religious intolerance. He is rather lazy, both as a boy +and as a man. But fate condemns him to rule the world when the world is +in a turmoil of religious fervour. Forever he is speeding from Madrid to +Innsbruck and from Bruges to Vienna. He loves peace and quiet and he is +always at war. At the age of fifty-five, we see him turn his back upon +the human race in utter disgust at so much hate and so much stupidity. +Three years later he dies, a very tired and disappointed man. + +So much for Charles the Emperor. How about the Church, the second great +power in the world? The Church has changed greatly since the early days +of the Middle Ages, when it started out to conquer the heathen and show +them the advantages of a pious and righteous life. In the first place, +the Church has grown too rich. The Pope is no longer the shepherd of +a flock of humble Christians. He lives in a vast palace and surrounds +himself with artists and musicians and famous literary men. His churches +and chapels are covered with new pictures in which the saints look more +like Greek Gods than is strictly necessary. He divides his time unevenly +between affairs of state and art. The affairs of state take ten percent +of his time. The other ninety percent goes to an active interest in +Roman statues, recently discovered Greek vases, plans for a new summer +home, the rehearsal of a new play. The Archbishops and the Cardinals +follow the example of their Pope. The Bishops try to imitate the +Archbishops. The village priests, however, have remained faithful to +their duties. They keep themselves aloof from the wicked world and +the heathenish love of beauty and pleasure. They stay away from the +monasteries where the monks seem to have forgotten their ancient vows of +simplicity and poverty and live as happily as they dare without causing +too much of a public scandal. + +Finally, there are the common people. They are much better off than they +have ever been before. They are more prosperous, they live in better +houses, their children go to better schools, their cities are more +beautiful than before, their firearms have made them the equal of their +old enemies, the robber-barons, who for centuries have levied such heavy +taxes upon their trade. So much for the chief actors in the Reformation. + +Now let us see what the Renaissance has done to Europe, and then you +will understand how the revival of learning and art was bound to be +followed by a revival of religious interests. The Renaissance began in +Italy. From there it spread to France. It was not quite successful in +Spain, where five hundred years of warfare with the Moors had made the +people very narrow minded and very fanatical in all religious matters. +The circle had grown wider and wider, but once the Alps had been +crossed, the Renaissance had suffered a change. + +The people of northern Europe, living in a very different climate, +had an outlook upon life which contrasted strangely with that of their +southern neighbours. The Italians lived out in the open, under a sunny +sky. It was easy for them to laugh and to sing and to be happy. The +Germans, the Dutch, the English, the Swedes, spent most of their time +indoors, listening to the rain beating on the closed windows of their +comfortable little houses. They did not laugh quite so much. They took +everything more seriously. They were forever conscious of their immortal +souls and they did not like to be funny about matters which they +considered holy and sacred. The "humanistic" part of the Renaissance, +the books, the studies of ancient authors, the grammar and the +text-books, interested them greatly. But the general return to the +old pagan civilisation of Greece and Rome, which was one of the chief +results of the Renaissance in Italy, filled their hearts with horror. + +But the Papacy and the College of Cardinals was almost entirely composed +of Italians and they had turned the Church into a pleasant club where +people discussed art and music and the theatre, but rarely mentioned +religion. Hence the split between the serious north and the more +civilised but easy-going and indifferent south was growing wider and +wider all the time and nobody seemed to be aware of the danger that +threatened the Church. + +There were a few minor reasons which will explain why the Reformation +took place in Germany rather than in Sweden or England. The Germans bore +an ancient grudge against Rome. The endless quarrels between Emperor and +Pope had caused much mutual bitterness. In the other European countries +where the government rested in the hands of a strong king, the ruler +had often been able to protect his subjects against the greed of the +priests. In Germany, where a shadowy emperor ruled a turbulent crowd of +little princelings, the good burghers were more directly at the mercy +of their bishops and prelates. These dignitaries were trying to collect +large sums of money for the benefit of those enormous churches which +were a hobby of the Popes of the Renaissance. The Germans felt that they +were being mulcted and quite naturally they did not like it. + +And then there is the rarely mentioned fact that Germany was the home +of the printing press. In northern Europe books were cheap and the +Bible was no longer a mysterious manu-script owned and explained by +the priest. It was a household book of many families where Latin was +understood by the father and by the children. Whole families began to +read it, which was against the law of the Church. They discovered +that the priests were telling them many things which, according to the +original text of the Holy Scriptures, were somewhat different. This +caused doubt. People began to ask questions. And questions, when they +cannot be answered, often cause a great deal of trouble. + +The attack began when the humanists of the North opened fire upon the +monks. In their heart of hearts they still had too much respect and +reverence for the Pope to direct their sallies against his Most Holy +Person. But the lazy, ignorant monks, living behind the sheltering walls +of their rich monasteries, offered rare sport. + +The leader in this warfare, curiously enough, was a very faithful son +of the church Gerard Gerardzoon, or Desiderius Erasmus, as he is usually +called, was a poor boy, born in Rotterdam in Holland, and educated +at the same Latin school of Deventer from which Thomas a Kempis had +graduated. He had become a priest and for a time he had lived in a +monastery. He had travelled a great deal and knew whereof he wrote, When +he began his career as a public pamphleteer (he would have been called +an editorial writer in our day) the world was greatly amused at an +anonymous series of letters which had just appeared under the title of +"Letters of Obscure Men." In these letters, the general stupidity and +arrogance of the monks of the late Middle Ages was exposed in a strange +German-Latin doggerel which reminds one of our modern limericks. Erasmus +himself was a very learned and serious scholar, who knew both Latin and +Greek and gave us the first reliable version of the New Testament, +which he translated into Latin together with a corrected edition of the +original Greek text. But he believed with Sallust, the Roman poet, that +nothing prevents us from "stating the truth with a smile upon our lips." + +In the year 1500, while visiting Sir Thomas More in Eng-land, he took +a few weeks off and wrote a funny little book, called the "Praise of +Folly," in which he attacked the monks and their credulous followers +with that most dangerous of all weapons, humor. The booklet was the best +seller of the sixteenth century. It was translated into almost every +language and it made people pay attention to those other books of +Erasmus in which he advocated reform of the many abuses of the church +and appealed to his fellow humanists to help him in his task of bringing +about a great rebirth of the Christian faith. + +But nothing came of these excellent plans. Erasmus was too reasonable +and too tolerant to please most of the enemies of the church. They were +waiting for a leader of a more robust nature. + +He came, and his name was Martin Luther. + +Luther was a North-German peasant with a first-class brain and possessed +of great personal courage. He was a university man, a master of arts of +the University of Erfurt; afterwards he joined a Dominican monastery. +Then he became a college professor at the theological school of +Wittenberg and began to explain the scriptures to the indifferent +ploughboys of his Saxon home. He had a lot of spare time and this he +used to study the original texts of the Old and New Testaments. Soon +he began to see the great difference which existed between the words of +Christ and those that were preached by the Popes and the Bishops. In the +year 1511, he visited Rome on official business. Alexander VI, of the +family of Borgia, who had enriched himself for the benefit of his +son and daughter, was dead. But his successor, Julius II, a man of +irreproachable personal character, was spending most of his time +fighting and building and did not impress this serious minded German +theologian with his piety. Luther returned to Wittenberg a much +disappointed man. But worse was to follow. + +The gigantic church of St. Peter which Pope Julius had wished upon his +innocent successors, although only half begun, was already in need of +repair. Alexander VI had spent every penny of the Papal treasury. Leo X, +who succeeded Julius in the year 1513, was on the verge of bankruptcy. +He reverted to an old method of raising ready cash. He began to sell +"indulgences." An indulgence was a piece of parchment which in return +for a certain sum of money, promised a sinner a decrease of the time +which he would have to spend in purgatory. It was a perfectly correct +thing according to the creed of the late Middle Ages. Since the church +had the power to forgive the sins of those who truly repented before +they died, the church also had the right to shorten, through its +intercession with the Saints, the time during which the soul must be +purified in the shadowy realms of Purgatory. + +It was unfortunate that these Indulgences must be sold for money. But +they offered an easy form of revenue and besides, those who were too +poor to pay, received theirs for nothing. + +Now it happened in the year 1517 that the exclusive territory for the +sale of indulgences in Saxony was given to a Dominican monk by the name +of Johan Tetzel. Brother Johan was a hustling salesman. To tell the +truth he was a little too eager. His business methods outraged the pious +people of the little duchy. And Luther, who was an honest fellow, got so +angry that he did a rash thing. On the 31st of October of the year 1517, +he went to the court church and upon the doors thereof he posted a sheet +of paper with ninety-five statements (or theses), attacking the sale of +indulgences. These statements had been written in Latin. Luther had no +intention of starting a riot. He was not a revolutionist. He objected to +the institution of the Indulgences and he wanted his fellow professors +to know what he thought about them. But this was still a private affair +of the clerical and professorial world and there was no appeal to the +prejudices of the community of laymen. + +Unfortunately, at that moment when the whole world had begun to take an +interest in the religious affairs of the day it was utterly impossible +to discuss anything, without at once creating a serious mental +disturbance. In less than two months, all Europe was discussing the +ninety-five theses of the Saxon monk. Every one must take sides. +Every obscure little theologian must print his own opinion. The papal +authorities began to be alarmed. They ordered the Wittenberg professor +to proceed to Rome and give an account of his action. Luther wisely +remembered what had happened to Huss. He stayed in Germany and he was +punished with excommunication. Luther burned the papal bull in the +presence of an admiring multitude and from that moment, peace between +himself and the Pope was no longer possible. + +Without any desire on his part, Luther had become the leader of a vast +army of discontented Christians. German patriots like Ulrich von Hutten, +rushed to his defence. The students of Wittenberg and Erfurt and Leipzig +offered to defend him should the authorities try to imprison him. The +Elector of Saxony reassured the eager young men. No harm would befall +Luther as long as he stayed on Saxon ground. + +All this happened in the year 1520. Charles V was twenty years old and +as the ruler of half the world, was forced to remain on pleasant terms +with the Pope. He sent out calls for a Diet or general assembly in the +good city of Worms on the Rhine and commanded Luther to be present and +give an account of his extraordinary behaviour. Luther, who now was the +national hero of the Germans, went. He refused to take back a single +word of what he had ever written or said. His conscience was controlled +only by the word of God. He would live and die for his conscience + +The Diet of Worms, after due deliberation, declared Luther an outlaw +before God and man, and forbade all Germans to give him shelter or food +or drink, or to read a single word of the books which the dastardly +heretic had written. But the great reformer was in no danger. By the +majority of the Germans of the north the edict was denounced as a most +unjust and outrageous document. For greater safety, Luther was hidden in +the Wartburg, a castle belonging to the Elector of Saxony, and there +he defied all papal authority by translating the entire Bible into the +German language, that all the people might read and know the word of God +for themselves. + +By this time, the Reformation was no longer a spiritual and religious +affair. Those who hated the beauty of the modern church building used +this period of unrest to attack and destroy what they did not like +because they did not understand it. Impoverished knights tried to make +up for past losses by grabbing the territory which belonged to the +monasteries. Discontented princes made use of the absence of the Emperor +to increase their own power. The starving peasants, following the +leadership of half-crazy agitators, made the best of the opportunity +and attacked the castles of their masters and plundered and murdered and +burned with the zeal of the old Crusaders. + +A veritable reign of disorder broke loose throughout the Empire. Some +princes became Protestants (as the "protesting" adherents of Luther were +called) and persecuted their Catholic subjects. Others remained Catholic +and hanged their Protestant subjects. The Diet of Speyer of the year +1526 tried to settle this difficult question of allegiance by ordering +that "the subjects should all be of the same religious denomination as +their princes." This turned Germany into a checkerboard of a thousand +hostile little duchies and principalities and created a situation which +prevented the normal political growth for hundreds of years. + +In February of the year 1546 Luther died and was put to rest in the +same church where twenty-nine years before he had proclaimed his famous +objections to the sale of Indulgences. In less than thirty years, the +indifferent, joking and laughing world of the Renaissance had been +transformed into the arguing, quarrelling, back-biting, debating-society +of the Reformation. The universal spiritual empire of the Popes came +to a sudden end and the whole Western Europe was turned into a +battle-field, where Protestants and Catholics killed each other for +the greater glory of certain theological doctrines which are +as incomprehensible to the present generation as the mysterious +inscriptions of the ancient Etruscans. + + + + +RELIGIOUS WARFARE + +THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES + + +THE sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the age of religious +controversy. + +If you will notice you will find that almost everybody around you is +forever "talking economics" and discussing wages and hours of labor and +strikes in their relation to the life of the community, for that is the +main topic of interest of our own time. + +The poor little children of the year 1600 or 1650 fared worse. They +never heard anything but "religion." Their heads were filled with +"predestination," "transubstantition," "free will," and a hundred other +queer words, expressing obscure points of "the true faith," whether +Catholic or Protestant. According to the desire of their parents they +were baptised Catholics or Lutherans or Calvinists or Zwinglians or +Anabaptists. They learned their theology from the Augsburg catechism, +composed by Luther, or from the "institutes of Christianity," written +by Calvin, or they mumbled the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith which were +printed in the English Book of Common Prayer, and they were told that +these alone represented the "True Faith." + +They heard of the wholesale theft of church property perpetrated by King +Henry VIII, the much-married monarch of England, who made himself the +supreme head of the English church, and assumed the old papal rights of +appointing bishops and priests. They had a nightmare whenever some one +mentioned the Holy Inquisition, with its dungeons and its many torture +chambers, and they were treated to equally horrible stories of how a mob +of outraged Dutch Protestants had got hold of a dozen defenceless old +priests and hanged them for the sheer pleasure of killing those who +professed a different faith. It was unfortunate that the two contending +parties were so equally matched. Otherwise the struggle would have come +to a quick solution. Now it dragged on for eight generations, and it +grew so complicated that I can only tell you the most important details, +and must ask you to get the rest from one of the many histories of the +Reformation. + +The great reform movement of the Protestants had been followed by a +thoroughgoing reform within the bosom of the Church. Those popes who +had been merely amateur humanists and dealers in Roman and Greek +antiquities, disappeared from the scene and their place was taken by +serious men who spent twenty hours a day administering those holy duties +which had been placed in their hands. + +The long and rather disgraceful happiness of the monasteries came to an +end. Monks and nuns were forced to be up at sunrise, to study the Church +Fathers, to tend the sick and console the dying. The Holy Inquisition +watched day and night that no dangerous doctrines should be spread by +way of the printing press. Here it is customary to mention poor Galileo, +who was locked up because he had been a little too indiscreet in +explaining the heavens with his funny little telescope and had muttered +certain opinions about the behaviour of the planets which were entirely +opposed to the official views of the church. But in all fairness to the +Pope, the clergy and the Inquisition, it ought to be stated that the +Protestants were quite as much the enemies of science and medicine as +the Catholics and with equal manifestations of ignorance and intolerance +regarded the men who investigated things for themselves as the most +dangerous enemies of mankind. + +And Calvin, the great French reformer and the tyrant (both political and +spiritual) of Geneva, not only assisted the French authorities when they +tried to hang Michael Servetus (the Spanish theologian and physician +who had become famous as the assistant of Vesalius, the first great +anatomist), but when Servetus had managed to escape from his French jail +and had fled to Geneva, Calvin threw this brilliant man into prison +and after a prolonged trial, allowed him to be burned at the stake on +account of his heresies, totally indifferent to his fame as a scientist. + +And so it went. We have few reliable statistics upon the subject, but on +the whole, the Protestants tired of this game long before the Catholics, +and the greater part of honest men and women who were burned and hanged +and decapitated on account of their religious beliefs fell as victims of +the very energetic but also very drastic church of Rome. + +For tolerance (and please remember this when you grow older), is of very +recent origin and even the people of our own so-called "modern world" +are apt to be tolerant only upon such matters as do not interest them +very much. They are tolerant towards a native of Africa, and do not care +whether he becomes a Buddhist or a Mohammedan, because neither Buddhism +nor Mohammedanism means anything to them. But when they hear that their +neighbour who was a Republican and believed in a high protective tariff, +has joined the Socialist party and now wants to repeal all tariff laws, +their tolerance ceases and they use almost the same words as those +employed by a kindly Catholic (or Protestant) of the seventeenth +century, who was informed that his best friend whom he had always +respected and loved had fallen a victim to the terrible heresies of the +Protestant (or Catholic) church. + +"Heresy" until a very short time ago was regarded as a disease. Nowadays +when we see a man neglecting the personal cleanliness of his body and +his home and exposing himself and his children to the dangers of typhoid +fever or another preventable disease, we send for the board-of-health +and the health officer calls upon the police to aid him in removing this +person who is a danger to the safety of the entire community. In the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a heretic, a man or a woman who +openly doubted the fundamental principles upon which his Protestant +or Catholic religion had been founded, was considered a more terrible +menace than a typhoid carrier. Typhoid fever might (very likely would) +destroy the body. But heresy, according to them, would positively +destroy the immortal soul. It was therefore the duty of all good +and logical citizens to warn the police against the enemies of the +established order of things and those who failed to do so were as +culpable as a modern man who does not telephone to the nearest doctor +when he discovers that his fellow-tenants are suffering from cholera or +small-pox. + +In the years to come you will hear a great deal about preventive +medicine. Preventive medicine simply means that our doctors do not wait +until their patients are sick, then step forward and cure them. On the +contrary, they study the patient and the conditions under which he lives +when he (the patient) is perfectly well and they remove every possible +cause of illness by cleaning up rubbish, by teaching him what to eat and +what to avoid, and by giving him a few simple ideas of personal hygiene. +They go even further than that, and these good doctors enter the +schools and teach the children how to use tooth-brushes and how to avoid +catching colds. + +The sixteenth century which regarded (as I have tried to show you) +bodily illness as much less important than sickness which threatened the +soul, organised a system of spiritual preventive medicine. As soon as +a child was old enough to spell his first words, he was educated in +the true (and the "only true") principles of the Faith. Indirectly this +proved to be a good thing for the general progress of the people of +Europe. The Protestant lands were soon dotted with schools. They used a +great deal of very valuable time to explain the Catechism, but they gave +instruction in other things besides theology. They encouraged reading +and they were responsible for the great prosperity of the printing +trade. + +But the Catholics did not lag behind. They too devoted much time and +thought to education. The Church, in this matter, found an invaluable +friend and ally in the newly-founded order of the Society of Jesus. The +founder of this remarkable organisation was a Spanish soldier who +after a life of unholy adventures had been converted and thereupon felt +himself bound to serve the church just as many former sinners, who have +been shown the errors of their way by the Salvation Army, devote the +remaining years of their lives to the task of aiding and consoling those +who are less fortunate. + +The name of this Spaniard was Ignatius de Loyola. He was born in the +year before the discovery of America. He had been wounded and lamed for +life and while he was in the hospital he had seen a vision of the Holy +Virgin and her Son, who bade him give up the wickedness of his former +life. He decided to go to the Holy Land and finish the task of the +Crusades. But a visit to Jerusalem had shown him the impossibility of +the task and he returned west to help in the warfare upon the heresies +of the Lutherans. + +In the year 1534 he was studying in Paris at the Sorbonne. Together with +seven other students he founded a fraternity. The eight men promised +each other that they would lead holy lives, that they would not strive +after riches but after righteousness, and would devote themselves, body +and soul, to the service of the Church. A few years later this small +fraternity had grown into a regular organisation and was recognised by +Pope Paul III as the Society of Jesus. + +Loyola had been a military man. He believed in discipline, and absolute +obedience to the orders of the superior dignitaries became one of the +main causes for the enormous success of the Jesuits. They specialised +in education. They gave their teachers a most thorough-going education +before they allowed them to talk to a single pupil. They lived with +their students and they entered into their games. They watched them with +tender care. And as a result they raised a new generation of faithful +Catholics who took their religious duties as seriously as the people of +the early Middle Ages. + +The shrewd Jesuits, however, did not waste all their efforts upon the +education of the poor. They entered the palaces of the mighty and became +the private tutors of future emperors and kings. And what this meant you +will see for yourself when I tell you about the Thirty Years War. But +before this terrible and final outbreak of religious fanaticism, a great +many other things had happened. + +Charles V was dead. Germany and Austria had been left to his brother +Ferdinand. All his other possessions, Spain and the Netherlands and the +Indies and America had gone to his son Philip. Philip was the son of +Charles and a Portuguese princess who had been first cousin to her own +husband. The children that are born of such a union are apt to be +rather queer. The son of Philip, the unfortunate Don Carlos, (murdered +afterwards with his own father's consent,) was crazy. Philip was not +quite crazy, but his zeal for the Church bordered closely upon religious +insanity. He believed that Heaven had appointed him as one of the +saviours of mankind. Therefore, whosoever was obstinate and refused to +share his Majesty's views, proclaimed himself an enemy of the human race +and must be exterminated lest his example corrupt the souls of his pious +neighbours. + +Spain, of course, was a very rich country. All the gold and silver of +the new world flowed into the Castilian and Aragonian treasuries. But +Spain suffered from a curious economic disease. Her peasants were +hard working men and even harder working women. But the better classes +maintained a supreme contempt for any form of labour, outside of +employment in the army or navy or the civil service. As for the Moors, +who had been very industrious artisans, they had been driven out of +the country long before. As a result, Spain, the treasure chest of the +world, remained a poor country because all her money had to be sent +abroad in exchange for the wheat and the other necessities of life which +the Spaniards neglected to raise for themselves. + +Philip, ruler of the most powerful nation of the sixteenth century, +depended for his revenue upon the taxes which were gathered in the busy +commercial bee-hive of the Netherlands. But these Flemings and Dutchmen +were devoted followers of the doctrines of Luther and Calvin and they +had cleansed their churches of all images and holy paintings and they +had informed the Pope that they no longer regarded him as their shepherd +but intended to follow the dictates of their consciences and the +commands of their newly translated Bible. + +This placed the king in a very difficult position. He could not possibly +tolerate the heresies of his Dutch subjects, but he needed their money. +If he allowed them to be Protestants and took no measures to save +their souls he was deficient in his duty toward God. If he sent the +Inquisition to the Netherlands and burned his subjects at the stake, he +would lose the greater part of his income. + +Being a man of uncertain will-power he hesitated a long time. He tried +kindness and sternness and promises and threats. The Hollanders remained +obstinate, and continued to sing psalms and listen to the sermons of +their Lutheran and Calvinist preachers. Philip in his despair sent his +"man of iron," the Duke of Alba, to bring these hardened sinners to +terms. Alba began by decapitating those leaders who had not wisely left +the country before his arrival. In the year 1572 (the same year that the +French Protestant leaders were all killed during the terrible night of +Saint Bartholomew), he attacked a number of Dutch cities and massacred +the inhabitants as an example for the others. The next year he laid +siege to the town of Leyden, the manufacturing center of Holland. + +Meanwhile, the seven small provinces of the northern Netherlands had +formed a defensive union, the so-called union of Utrecht, and had +recognised William of Orange, a German prince who had been the private +secretary of the Emperor Charles V, as the leader of their army and as +commander of their freebooting sailors, who were known as the Beggars +of the Sea. William, to save Leyden, cut the dykes, created a shallow +inland sea, and delivered the town with the help of a strangely equipped +navy consisting of scows and flat-bottomed barges which were rowed and +pushed and pulled through the mud until they reached the city walls. + +It was the first time that an army of the invincible Spanish king had +suffered such a humiliating defeat. It surprised the world just as the +Japanese victory of Mukden, in the Russian-Japanese war, surprised our +own generation. The Protestant powers took fresh courage and Philip +devised new means for the purpose of conquering his rebellious subjects. +He hired a poor half-witted fanatic to go and murder William of Orange. +But the sight of their dead leader did not bring the Seven Provinces to +their knees. On the contrary it made them furiously angry. In the year +1581, the Estates General (the meeting of the representatives of the +Seven Provinces) came together at the Hague and most solemnly abjured +their "wicked king Philip" and themselves assumed the burden of +sovereignty which thus far had been invested in their "King by the Grace +of God." + +This is a very important event in the history of the great struggle for +political liberty. It was a step which reached much further than the +uprising of the nobles which ended with the signing of the Magna Carta. +These good burghers said "Between a king and his subjects there is a +silent understanding that both sides shall perform certain services and +shall recognise certain definite duties. If either party fails to +live up to this contract, the other has the right to consider it +terminated." The American subjects of King George III in the year 1776 +came to a similar conclusion. But they had three thousand miles of ocean +between themselves and their ruler and the Estates General took their +decision (which meant a slow death in case of defeat) within hearing of +the Spanish guns and although in constant fear of an avenging Spanish +fleet. + +The stories about a mysterious Spanish fleet that was to conquer both +Holland and England, when Protestant Queen Elizabeth had succeeded +Catholic "Bloody Mary" was an old one. For years the sailors of the +waterfront had talked about it. In the eighties of the sixteenth +century, the rumour took a definite shape. According to pilots who had +been in Lisbon, all the Spanish and Portuguese wharves were building +ships. And in the southern Netherlands (in Belgium) the Duke of Parma +was collecting a large expeditionary force to be carried from Ostend to +London and Amsterdam as soon as the fleet should arrive. + +In the year 1586 the Great Armada set sail for the north. But the +harbours of the Flemish coast were blockaded by a Dutch fleet and the +Channel was guarded by the English, and the Spaniards, accustomed to the +quieter seas of the south, did not know how to navigate in this squally +and bleak northern climate. What happened to the Armada once it was +attacked by ships and by storms I need not tell you. A few ships, by +sailing around Ireland, escaped to tell the terrible story of defeat. +The others perished and lie at the bottom of the North Sea. + +Turn about is fair play. The British nod the Dutch Protestants now +carried the war into the territory of the enemy. Before the end of the +century, Houtman, with the help of a booklet written by Linschoten +(a Hollander who had been in the Portuguese service), had at last +discovered the route to the Indies. As a result the great Dutch East +India Company was founded and a systematic war upon the Portuguese and +Spanish colonies in Asia and Africa was begun in all seriousness. + +It was during this early era of colonial conquest that a curious lawsuit +was fought out in the Dutch courts. Early in the seventeenth century a +Dutch Captain by the name of van Heemskerk, a man who had made himself +famous as the head of an expedition which had tried to discover the +North Eastern Passage to the Indies and who had spent a winter on the +frozen shores of the island of Nova Zembla, had captured a Portuguese +ship in the straits of Malacca. You will remember that the Pope had +divided the world into two equal shares, one of which had been given +to the Spaniards and the other to the Portuguese. The Portuguese quite +naturally regarded the water which surrounded their Indian islands as +part of their own property and since, for the moment, they were not at +war with the United Seven Netherlands, they claimed that the captain +of a private Dutch trading company had no right to enter their private +domain and steal their ships. And they brought suit. The directors of +the Dutch East India Company hired a bright young lawyer, by the name of +De Groot or Grotius, to defend their case. He made the astonishing plea +that the ocean is free to all comers. Once outside the distance which a +cannon ball fired from the land can reach, the sea is or (according to +Grotius) ought to be, a free and open highway to all the ships of all +nations. It was the first time that this startling doctrine had been +publicly pronounced in a court of law. It was opposed by all the other +seafaring people. To counteract the effect of Grotius' famous plea for +the "Mare Liberum," or "Open Sea," John Selden, the Englishman, wrote +his famous treatise upon the "Mare Clausum" or "Closed Sea" which +treated of the natural right of a sovereign to regard the seas which +surrounded his country as belonging to his territory. I mention this +here because the question had not yet been decided and during the last +war caused all sorts of difficulties and complications. + +To return to the warfare between Spaniard and Hollander and Englishman, +before twenty years were over the most valuable colonies of the Indies +and the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon and those along the coast of China +and even Japan were in Protestant hands. In 1621 a West Indian Company +was founded which conquered Brazil and in North America built a fortress +called Nieuw Amsterdam at the mouth of the river which Henry Hudson had +discovered in the year 1609 + +These new colonies enriched both England and the Dutch Republic to such +an extent that they could hire foreign soldiers to do their fighting on +land while they devoted themselves to commerce and trade. To them the +Protestant revolt meant independence and prosperity. But in many other +parts of Europe it meant a succession of horrors compared to which the +last war was a mild excursion of kindly Sunday-school boys. + +The Thirty Years War which broke out in the year 1618 and which ended +with the famous treaty of Westphalia in 1648 was the perfectly natural +result of a century of ever increasing religious hatred. It was, as +I have said, a terrible war. Everybody fought everybody else and the +struggle ended only when all parties had been thoroughly exhausted and +could fight no longer. + +In less than a generation it turned many parts of central Europe into a +wilderness, where the hungry peasants fought for the carcass of a dead +horse with the even hungrier wolf. Five-sixths of all the German towns +and villages were destroyed. The Palatinate, in western Germany, was +plundered twenty-eight times. And a population of eighteen million +people was reduced to four million. + +The hostilities began almost as soon as Ferdinand II of the House of +Habsburg had been elected Emperor. He was the product of a most careful +Jesuit training and was a most obedient and devout son of the Church. +The vow which he had made as a young man, that he would eradicate all +sects and all heresies from his domains, Ferdinand kept to the best +of his ability. Two days before his election, his chief opponent, +Frederick, the Protestant Elector of the Palatinate and a son-in-law of +James I of England, had been made King of Bohemia, in direct violation +of Ferdinand's wishes. + +At once the Habsburg armies marched into Bohemia. The young king looked +in vain for assistance against this formidable enemy. The Dutch Republic +was willing to help, but, engaged in a desperate war of its own with +the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, it could do little. The Stuarts in +England were more interested in strengthening their own absolute power +at home than spending money and men upon a forlorn adventure in far away +Bohemia. After a struggle of a few months, the Elector of the Palatinate +was driven away and his domains were given to the Catholic house of +Bavaria. This was the beginning of the great war. + +Then the Habsburg armies, under Tilly and Wallenstein, fought their way +through the Protestant part of Germany until they had reached the +shores of the Baltic. A Catholic neighbour meant serious danger to the +Protestant king of Denmark. Christian IV tried to defend himself by +attacking his enemies before they had become too strong for him. The +Danish armies marched into Germany but were defeated. Wallenstein +followed up his victory with such energy and violence that Denmark was +forced to sue for peace. Only one town of the Baltic then remained in +the hands of the Protestants. That was Stralsund. + +There, in the early summer of the year 1630, landed King Gustavus +Adolphus of the house of Vasa, king of Sweden, and famous as the man who +had defended his country against the Russians. A Protestant prince of +unlimited ambition, desirous of making Sweden the centre of a great +Northern Empire, Gustavus Adolphus was welcomed by the Protestant +princes of Europe as the saviour of the Lutheran cause. He defeated +Tilly, who had just successfully butchered the Protestant inhabitants of +Magdeburg. Then his troops began their great march through the heart +of Germany in an attempt to reach the Habsburg possessions in Italy. +Threatened in the rear by the Catholics, Gustavus suddenly veered +around and defeated the main Habsburg army in the battle of Lutzen. +Unfortunately the Swedish king was killed when he strayed away from his +troops. But the Habsburg power had been broken. + +Ferdinand, who was a suspicious sort of person, at once began to +distrust his own servants. Wallenstein, his commander-in-chief, was +murdered at his instigation. When the Catholic Bourbons, who ruled +France and hated their Habsburg rivals, heard of this, they joined the +Protestant Swedes. The armies of Louis XIII invaded the eastern part +of Germany, and Turenne and Conde added their fame to that of Baner +and Weimar, the Swedish generals, by murdering, pillaging and burning +Habsburg property. This brought great fame and riches to the Swedes +and caused the Danes to become envious. The Protestant Danes thereupon +declared war upon the Protestant Swedes who were the allies of the +Catholic French, whose political leader, the Cardinal de Richelieu, had +just deprived the Huguenots (or French Protestants) of those rights of +public worship which the Edict of Nantes of the year 1598 had guaranteed +them. + +The war, after the habit of such encounters, did not decide anything, +when it came to an end with the treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The +Catholic powers remained Catholic and the Protestant powers stayed +faithful to the doctrines of Luther and Calvin and Zwingli. The Swiss +and Dutch Protestants were recognised as independent republics. France +kept the cities of Metz and Toul and Verdun and a part of the Alsace. +The Holy Roman Empire continued to exist as a sort of scare-crow state, +without men, without money, without hope and without courage. + +The only good the Thirty Years War accomplished was a negative one. It +discouraged both Catholics and Protestants from ever trying it again. +Henceforth they left each other in peace. This however did not mean +that religious feeling and theological hatred had been removed from this +earth. On the contrary. The quarrels between Catholic and Protestant +came to an end, but the disputes between the different Protestant sects +continued as bitterly as ever before. In Holland a difference of +opinion as to the true nature of predestination (a very obscure point of +theology, but exceedingly important the eyes of your great-grandfather) +caused a quarrel which ended with the decapitation of John of +Oldenbarneveldt, the Dutch statesman, who had been responsible for +the success of the Republic during the first twenty years of its +independence, and who was the great organising genius of her Indian +trading company. In England, the feud led to civil war. + +But before I tell you of this outbreak which led to the first execution +by process-of-law of a European king, I ought to say something about the +previous history of England. In this book I am trying to give you only +those events of the past which can throw a light upon the conditions of +the present world. If I do not mention certain countries, the cause is +not to be found in any secret dislike on my part. I wish that I could +tell you what happened to Norway and Switzerland and Serbia and China. +But these lands exercised no great influence upon the development of +Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I therefore pass +them by with a polite and very respectful bow. England however is in +a different position. What the people of that small island have done +during the last five hundred years has shaped the course of history in +every corner of the world. Without a proper knowledge of the background +of English history, you cannot understand what you read in the +newspapers. And it is therefore necessary that you know how England +happened to develop a parliamentary form of government while the rest of +the European continent was still ruled by absolute monarchs. + + + + +THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION + +HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE "DIVINE RIGHT" OF KINGS AND THE LESS DIVINE +BUT MORE REASONABLE "RIGHT OF PARLIAMENT" ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR KING +CHARLES II + + +CAESAR, the earliest explorer of north-western Europe, had crossed +the Channel in the year 55 B.C. and had conquered England. During four +centuries the country then remained a Roman province. But when the +Barbarians began to threaten Rome, the garrisons were called back from +the frontier that they might defend the home country and Britannia was +left without a government and without protection. + +As soon as this became known among the hungry Saxon tribes of northern +Germany, they sailed across the North Sea and made themselves at home in +the prosperous island. They founded a number of independent Anglo-Saxon +kingdoms (so called after the original Angles or English and the Saxon +invaders) but these small states were for ever quarrelling with each +other and no King was strong enough to establish himself as the head +of a united country. For more than five hundred years, Mercia and +Northumbria and Wessex and Sussex and Kent and East Anglia, or whatever +their names, were exposed to attacks from various Scandinavian pirates. +Finally in the eleventh century, England, together with Norway and +northern Germany became part of the large Danish Empire of Canute the +Great and the last vestiges of independence disappeared. + +The Danes, in the course of time, were driven away but no sooner was +England free, than it was conquered for the fourth time. The new enemies +were the descendants of another tribe of Norsemen who early in the +tenth century had invaded France and had founded the Duchy of Normandy. +William, Duke of Normandy, who for a long time had looked across the +water with an envious eye, crossed the Channel in October of the year +1066. At the battle of Hastings, on October the fourteenth of that +year, he destroyed the weak forces of Harold of Wessex, the last of +the Anglo-Saxon Kings and established himself as King of England. But +neither William nor his successors of the House of Anjou and Plantagenet +regarded England as their true home. To them the island was merely +a part of their great inheritance on the continent--a sort of colony +inhabited by rather backward people upon whom they forced their own +language and civilisation. Gradually however the "colony" of England +gained upon the "Mother country" of Normandy. At the same time the +Kings of France were trying desperately to get rid of the powerful +Norman-English neighbours who were in truth no more than disobedient +servants of the French crown. After a century of war fare the French +people, under the leadership of a young girl by the name of Joan of Arc, +drove the "foreigners" from their soil. Joan herself, taken a prisoner +at the battle of Compiegne in the year 1430 and sold by her Burgundian +captors to the English soldiers, was burned as a witch. But the English +never gained foothold upon the continent and their Kings were at last +able to devote all their time to their British possessions. As the +feudal nobility of the island had been engaged in one of those strange +feuds which were as common in the middle ages as measles and small-pox, +and as the greater part of the old landed proprietors had been killed +during these so-called Wars of the Roses, it was quite easy for the +Kings to increase their royal power. And by the end of the fifteenth +century, England was a strongly centralised country, ruled by Henry VII +of the House of Tudor, whose famous Court of Justice, the "Star Chamber" +of terrible memory, suppressed all attempts on the part of the surviving +nobles to regain their old influence upon the government of the country +with the utmost severity. + +In the year 1509 Henry VII was succeeded by his son Henry VIII, and from +that moment on the history of England gained a new importance for the +country ceased to be a mediaeval island and became a modern state. + +Henry had no deep interest in religion. He gladly used a private +disagreement with the Pope about one of his many divorces to declare +himself independent of Rome and make the church of England the first of +those "nationalistic churches" in which the worldly ruler also acts as +the spiritual head of his subjects. This peaceful reformation of 1034 +not only gave the house of Tudor the support of the English clergy, who +for a long time had been exposed to the violent attacks of many Lutheran +propagandists, but it also increased the Royal power through the +confiscation of the former possessions of the monasteries. At the same +time it made Henry popular with the merchants and tradespeople, who as +the proud and prosperous inhabitants of an island which was separated +from the rest of Europe by a wide and deep channel, had a great dislike +for everything "foreign" and did not want an Italian bishop to rule +their honest British souls. + +In 1517 Henry died. He left the throne to his small son, aged ten. The +guardians of the child, favoring the modern Lutheran doctrines, did +their best to help the cause of Protestantism. But the boy died before +he was sixteen, and was succeeded by his sister Mary, the wife of Philip +II of Spain, who burned the bishops of the new "national church" and in +other ways followed the example of her royal Spanish husband + +Fortunately she died, in the year 1558, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, +the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the second of his six wives, +whom he had decapitated when she no longer pleased him. Elizabeth, who +had spent some time in prison, and who had been released only at +the request of the Holy Roman Emperor, was a most cordial enemy of +everything Catholic and Spanish. She shared her father's indifference +in the matter of religion but she inherited his ability as a very shrewd +judge of character, and spent the forty-five years of her reign in +strengthening the power of the dynasty and in increasing the revenue and +possessions of her merry islands. In this she was most ably assisted by +a number of men who gathered around her throne and made the Elizabethan +age a period of such importance that you ought to study it in detail in +one of the special books of which I shall tell you in the bibliography +at the end of this volume. + +Elizabeth, however, did not feel entirely safe upon her throne. She had +a rival and a very dangerous one. Mary, of the house of Stuart, daughter +of a French duchess and a Scottish father, widow of king Francis II of +France and daughter-in-law of Catherine of Medici (who had organised the +murders of Saint Bartholomew's night), was the mother of a little boy +who was afterwards to become the first Stuart king of England. She was +an ardent Catholic and a willing friend to those who were the enemies +of Elizabeth. Her own lack of political ability and the violent +methods which she employed to punish her Calvinistic subjects, caused +a revolution in Scotland and forced Mary to take refuge on English +territory. For eighteen years she remained in England, plotting forever +and a day against the woman who had given her shelter and who was at +last obliged to follow the advice of her trusted councilors "to cutte +off the Scottish Queen's heade." + +The head was duly "cutte off" in the year 1587 and caused a war with +Spain. But the combined navies of England and Holland defeated Philip's +Invincible Armada, as we have already seen, and the blow which had been +meant to destroy the power of the two great anti-Catholic leaders was +turned into a profitable business adventure. + +For now at last, after many years of hesitation, the English as well as +the Dutch thought it their good right to invade the Indies and America +and avenge the ills which their Protestant brethren had suffered at +the hands of the Spaniards. The English had been among the earliest +successors of Columbus. British ships, commanded by the Venetian pilot +Giovanni Caboto (or Cabot), had been the first to discover and explore +the northern American continent in 1496. Labrador and Newfoundland were +of little importance as a possible colony. But the banks of Newfoundland +offered a rich reward to the English fishing fleet. A year later, in +1497, the same Cabot had explored the coast of Florida. + +Then had come the busy years of Henry VII and Henry VIII when there had +been no money for foreign explorations. But under Elizabeth, with the +country at peace and Mary Stuart in prison, the sailors could leave +their harbour without fear for the fate of those whom they left behind. +While Elizabeth was still a child, Willoughby had ventured to sail past +the North Cape and one of his captains, Richard Chancellor, pushing +further eastward in his quest of a possible road to the Indies, had +reached Archangel, Russia, where he had established diplomatic and +commercial relations with the mysterious rulers of this distant +Muscovite Empire. During the first years of Elizabeth's rule this voyage +had been followed up by many others. Merchant adventurers, working +for the benefit of a "joint stock Company" had laid the foundations of +trading companies which in later centuries were to become colonies. Half +pirate, half diplomat, willing to stake everything on a single lucky +voyage, smugglers of everything that could be loaded into the hold of +a vessel, dealers in men and merchandise with equal indifference to +everything except their profit, the sailors of Elizabeth had carried the +English flag and the fame of their Virgin Queen to the four corners of +the Seven Seas. Meanwhile William Shakespeare kept her Majesty amused at +home, and the best brains and the best wit of England co-operated with +the queen in her attempt to change the feudal inheritance of Henry VIII +into a modern national state. + +In the year 1603 the old lady died at the age of seventy. Her cousin, +the great-grandson of her own grandfather Henry VII and son of Mary +Stuart, her rival and enemy, succeeded her as James I. By the Grace of +God, he found himself the ruler of a country which had escaped the fate +of its continental rivals. While the European Protestants and Catholics +were killing each other in a hopeless attempt to break the power +of their adversaries and establish the exclusive rule of their own +particular creed, England was at peace and "reformed" at leisure without +going to the extremes of either Luther or Loyola. It gave the island +kingdom an enormous advantage in the coming struggle for colonial +possessions. It assured England a leadership in international affairs +which that country has maintained until the present day. Not even the +disastrous adventure with the Stuarts was able to stop this normal +development. + +The Stuarts, who succeeded the Tudors, were "foreigners" in England. +They do not seem to have appreciated or understood this fact. The native +house of Tudor could steal a horse, but the "foreign" Stuarts were not +allowed to look at the bridle without causing great popular disapproval. +Old Queen Bess had ruled her domains very much as she pleased. In +general however, she had always followed a policy which meant money in +the pocket of the honest (and otherwise) British merchants. Hence +the Queen had been always assured of the wholehearted support of her +grateful people. And small liberties taken with some of the rights +and prerogatives of Parliament were gladly overlooked for the ulterior +benefits which were derived from her Majesty's strong and successful +foreign policies. + +Outwardly King James continued the same policy. But he lacked that +personal enthusiasm which had been so very typical of his great +predecessor. Foreign commerce continued to be encouraged. The Catholics +were not granted any liberties. But when Spain smiled pleasantly upon +England in an effort to establish peaceful relations, James was seen to +smile back. The majority of the English people did not like this, but +James was their King and they kept quiet. + +Soon there were other causes of friction. King James and his son, +Charles I, who succeeded him in the year 1625 both firmly believed in +the principle of their "divine right" to administer their realm as they +thought fit without consulting the wishes of their subjects. The idea +was not new. The Popes, who in more than one way had been the successors +of the Roman Emperors (or rather of the Roman Imperial ideal of a +single and undivided state covering the entire known world), had +always regarded themselves and had been publicly recognised as the +"Vice-Regents of Christ upon Earth." No one questioned the right of God +to rule the world as He saw fit. As a natural result, few ventured to +doubt the right of the divine "Vice-Regent" to do the same thing and +to demand the obedience of the masses because he was the direct +representative of the Absolute Ruler of the Universe and responsible +only to Almighty God. + +When the Lutheran Reformation proved successful, those rights which +formerly had been invested in the Papacy were taken over by the many +European sovereigns who became Protestants. As head of their own +national or dynastic churches they insisted upon being "Christ's +Vice-Regents" within the limit of their own territory. The people +did not question the right of their rulers to take such a step. +They accepted it, just as we in our own day accept the idea of a +representative system which to us seems the only reasonable and +just form of government. It is unfair therefore to state that either +Lutheranism or Calvinism caused the particular feeling of irritation +which greeted King-James's oft and loudly repeated assertion of his +"Divine Right." There must have been other grounds for the genuine +English disbelief in the Divine Right of Kings. + +The first positive denial of the "Divine Right" of sovereigns had been +heard in the Netherlands when the Estates General abjured their lawful +sovereign King Philip II of Spain, in the year 1581. "The King," so they +said, "has broken his contract and the King therefore is dismissed like +any other unfaithful servant." Since then, this particular idea of a +king's responsibilities towards his subjects had spread among many of +the nations who inhabited the shores of the North Sea. They were in a +very favourable position. They were rich. The poor people in the heart +of central Europe, at the mercy of their Ruler's body-guard, could not +afford to discuss a problem which would at once land them in the deepest +dungeon of the nearest castle. But the merchants of Holland and England +who possessed the capital necessary for the maintenance of great armies +and navies, who knew how to handle the almighty weapon called "credit," +had no such fear. They were willing to pit the "Divine Right" of their +own good money against the "Divine Right" of any Habsburg or Bourbon +or Stuart. They knew that their guilders and shillings could beat the +clumsy feudal armies which were the only weapons of the King. They dared +to act, where others were condemned to suffer in silence or run the risk +of the scaffold. + +When the Stuarts began to annoy the people of England with their +claim that they had a right to do what they pleased and never mind the +responsibility, the English middle classes used the House of Commons as +their first line of defence against this abuse of the Royal Power. The +Crown refused to give in and the King sent Parliament about its own +business. Eleven long years, Charles I ruled alone. He levied taxes +which most people regarded as illegal and he managed his British kingdom +as if it had been his own country estate. He had capable assistants and +we must say that he had the courage of his convictions. + +Unfortunately, instead of assuring himself of the support of his +faithful Scottish subjects, Charles became involved in a quarrel with +the Scotch Presbyterians. Much against his will, but forced by his need +for ready cash, Charles was at last obliged to call Parliament together +once more. It met in April of 1640 and showed an ugly temper. It was +dissolved a few weeks later. A new Parliament convened in November. This +one was even less pliable than the first one. The members understood +that the question of "Government by Divine Right" or "Government by +Parliament" must be fought out for good and all. They attacked the +King in his chief councillors and executed half a dozen of them. They +announced that they would not allow themselves to be dissolved without +their own approval. Finally on December 1, 1641, they presented to the +King a "Grand Remonstrance" which gave a detailed account of the many +grievances of the people against their Ruler. + +Charles, hoping to derive some support for his own policy in the country +districts, left London in January of 1642. Each side organised an army +and prepared for open warfare between the absolute power of the crown +and the absolute power of Parliament. During this struggle, the most +powerful religious element of England, called the Puritans, (they were +Anglicans who had tried to purify their doctrines to the most absolute +limits), came quickly to the front. The regiments of "Godly men," +commanded by Oliver Cromwell, with their iron discipline and their +profound confidence in the holiness of their aims, soon became the model +for the entire army of the opposition. Twice Charles was defeated. After +the battle of Naseby, in 1645, he fled to Scotland. The Scotch sold him +to the English. + +There followed a period of intrigue and an uprising of the Scotch +Presbyterians against the English Puritan. In August of the year 1648 +after the three-days' battle of Preston Pans, Cromwell made an end to +this second civil war, and took Edinburgh. Meanwhile his soldiers, tired +of further talk and wasted hours of religious debate, had decided to act +on their own initiative. They removed from Parliament all those who did +not agree with their own Puritan views. Thereupon the "Rump," which was +what was left of the old Parliament, accused the King of high treason. +The House of Lords refused to sit as a tribunal. A special tribunal was +appointed and it condemned the King to death. On the 30th of January of +the year 1649, King Charles walked quietly out of a window of White Hall +onto the scaffold. That day, the Sovereign People, acting through their +chosen representatives, for the first time executed a ruler who had +failed to understand his own position in the modern state. + +The period which followed the death of Charles is usually called after +Oliver Cromwell. At first the unofficial Dictator of England, he was +officially made Lord Protector in the year 1653. He ruled five years. He +used this period to continue the policies of Elizabeth. Spain once more +became the arch enemy of England and war upon the Spaniard was made a +national and sacred issue. + +The commerce of England and the interests of the traders were placed +before everything else, and the Protestant creed of the strictest nature +was rigourously maintained. In maintaining England's position abroad, +Cromwell was successful. As a social reformer, however, he failed very +badly. The world is made up of a number of people and they rarely think +alike. In the long run, this seems a very wise provision. A government +of and by and for one single part of the entire community cannot +possibly survive. The Puritans had been a great force for good when they +tried to correct the abuse of the royal power. As the absolute Rulers of +England they became intolerable. + +When Cromwell died in 1658, it was an easy matter for the Stuarts to +return to their old kingdom. Indeed, they were welcomed as "deliverers" +by the people who had found the yoke of the meek Puritans quite as hard +to bear as that of autocratic King Charles. Provided the Stuarts were +willing to forget about the Divine Right of their late and lamented +father and were willing to recognise the superiority of Parliament, the +people promised that they would be loyal and faithful subjects. + +Two generations tried to make a success of this new arrangement. But the +Stuarts apparently had not learned their lesson and were unable to drop +their bad habits. Charles II, who came back in the year 1660, was an +amiable but worthless person. His indolence and his constitutional +insistence upon following the easiest course, together with his +conspicuous success as a liar, prevented an open outbreak between +himself and his people. By the act of Uniformity in 1662 he broke the +power of the Puritan clergy by banishing all dissenting clergymen from +their parishes. By the so-called Conventicle Act of 1664 he tried to +prevent the Dissenters from attending religious meetings by a threat of +deportation to the West Indies. This looked too much like the good old +days of Divine Right. People began to show the old and well-known +signs of impatience, and Parliament suddenly experienced difficulty in +providing the King with funds. + +Since he could not get money from an unwilling Parliament, Charles +borrowed it secretly from his neighbour and cousin King Louis of France. +He betrayed his Protestant allies in return for 200,000 pounds per year, +and laughed at the poor simpletons of Parliament. + +Economic independence suddenly gave the King great faith in his own +strength. He had spent many years of exile among his Catholic relations +and he had a secret liking for their religion. Perhaps he could bring +England back to Rome! He passed a Declaration of Indulgence which +suspended the old laws against the Catholics and Dissenters. This +happened just when Charles' younger brother James was said to have +become a Catholic. All this looked suspicious to the man in the street +People began to fear some terrible Popish plot. A new spirit of unrest +entered the land. Most of the people wanted to prevent another outbreak +of civil war. To them Royal Oppression and a Catholic King--yea, even +Divine Right,--were preferable to a new struggle between members of the +same race. Others however were less lenient. They were the much-feared +Dissenters, who invariably had the courage of their convictions. They +were led by several great noblemen who did not want to see a return of +the old days of absolute royal power. + +For almost ten years, these two great parties, the Whigs (the middle +class element, called by this derisive name be-cause in the year 1640 a +lot of Scottish Whiggamores or horse-drovers headed by the Presbyterian +clergy, had marched to Edinburgh to oppose the King) and the Tories (an +epithet originally used against the Royalist Irish adherents but now +applied to the supporters of the King) opposed each other, but neither +wished to bring about a crisis. They allowed Charles to die peacefully +in his bed and permitted the Catholic James II to succeed his brother +in 1685. But when James, after threatening the country with the terrible +foreign invention of a "standing army" (which was to be commanded by +Catholic Frenchmen), issued a second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, +and ordered it to be read in all Anglican churches, he went just a +trifle beyond that line of sensible demarcation which can only be +transgressed by the most popular of rulers under very exceptional +circumstances. Seven bishops refused to comply with the Royal Command. +They were accused of "seditious libel." They were brought before a +court. The jury which pronounced the verdict of "not guilty" reaped a +rich harvest of popular approval. + +At this unfortunate moment, James (who in a second marriage had taken to +wife Maria of the Catholic house of Modena-Este) became the father of a +son. This meant that the throne was to go to a Catholic boy rather than +to his older sisters, Mary and Anne, who were Protestants. The man in +the street again grew suspicious. Maria of Modena was too old to have +children! It was all part of a plot! A strange baby had been brought +into the palace by some Jesuit priest that England might have a Catholic +monarch. And so on. It looked as if another civil war would break out. +Then seven well-known men, both Whigs and Tories, wrote a letter asking +the husband of James's oldest daughter Mary, William III the Stadtholder +or head of the Dutch Republic, to come to England and deliver the +country from its lawful but entirely undesirable sovereign. + +On the fifth of November of the year 1688, William landed at Torbay. As +he did not wish to make a martyr out of his father-in-law, he helped him +to escape safely to France. On the 22nd of January of 1689 he summoned +Parliament. On the 13th of February of the same year he and his wife +Mary were proclaimed joint sovereigns of England and the country was +saved for the Protestant cause. + +Parliament, having undertaken to be something more than a mere advisory +body to the King, made the best of its opportunities. The old Petition +of Rights of the year 1628 was fished out of a forgotten nook of the +archives. A second and more drastic Bill of Rights demanded that the +sovereign of England should belong to the Anglican church. Furthermore +it stated that the king had no right to suspend the laws or permit +certain privileged citizens to disobey certain laws. It stipulated that +"without consent of Parliament no taxes could be levied and no army +could be maintained." Thus in the year 1689 did England acquire an +amount of liberty unknown in any other country of Europe. + +But it is not only on account of this great liberal measure that the +rule of William in England is still remembered. During his lifetime, +government by a "responsible" ministry first developed. No king of +course can rule alone. He needs a few trusted advisors. The Tudors had +their Great Council which was composed of Nobles and Clergy. This body +grew too large. It was restricted to the small "Privy Council." In the +course of time it became the custom of these councillors to meet the +king in a cabinet in the palace. Hence they were called the "Cabinet +Council." After a short while they were known as the "Cabinet." + +William, like most English sovereigns before him, had chosen his +advisors from among all parties. But with the increased strength of +Parliament, he had found it impossible to direct the politics of the +country with the help of the Tories while the Whigs had a majority in +the house of Commons. Therefore the Tories had been dismissed and the +Cabinet Council had been composed entirely of Whigs. A few years later +when the Whigs lost their power in the House of Commons, the king, for +the sake of convenience, was obliged to look for his support among the +leading Tories. Until his death in 1702, William was too busy fighting +Louis of France to bother much about the government of England. +Practically all important affairs had been left to his Cabinet Council. +When William's sister-in-law, Anne, succeeded him in 1702 this condition +of affairs continued. When she died in 1714 (and unfortunately not a +single one of her seventeen children survived her) the throne went to +George I of the House of Hanover, the son of Sophie, grand-daughter of +James I. + +This somewhat rustic monarch, who never learned a word of English, +was entirely lost in the complicated mazes of England's political +arrangements. He left everything to his Cabinet Council and kept away +from their meetings, which bored him as he did not understand a single +sentence. In this way the Cabinet got into the habit of ruling England +and Scotland (whose Parliament had been joined to that of England in +1707) without bothering the King, who was apt to spend a great deal of +his time on the continent. + +During the reign of George I and George II, a succession of great Whigs +(of whom one, Sir Robert Walpole, held office for twenty-one years) +formed the Cabinet Council of the King. Their leader was finally +recognised as the official leader not only of the actual Cabinet but +also of the majority party in power in Parliament. The attempts of +George III to take matters into his own hands and not to leave the +actual business of government to his Cabinet were so disastrous that +they were never repeated. And from the earliest years of the eighteenth +century on, England enjoyed representative government, with a +responsible ministry which conducted the affairs of the land. + +To be quite true, this government did not represent all classes of +society. Less than one man in a dozen had the right to vote. But it was +the foundation for the modern representative form of government. In +a quiet and orderly fashion it took the power away from the King +and placed it in the hands of an ever increasing number of popular +representatives. It did not bring the millenium to England, but it saved +that country from most of the revolutionary outbreaks which proved so +disastrous to the European continent in the eighteenth and nineteenth +centuries. + + + + +THE BALANCE OF POWER + +IN FRANCE ON THE OTHER HAND THE "DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS" CONTINUED WITH +GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOUR THAN EVER BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF THE +RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED BY THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE "BALANCE OF +POWER" + + +As a contrast to the previous chapter, let me tell you what happened in +France during the years when the English people were fighting for their +liberty. The happy combination of the right man in the right country at +the right moment is very rare in History. Louis XIV was a realisation of +this ideal, as far as France was concerned, but the rest of Europe would +have been happier without him. + +The country over which the young king was called to rule was the most +populous and the most brilliant nation of that day. Louis came to the +throne when Mazarin and Richelieu, the two great Cardinals, had just +hammered the ancient French Kingdom into the most strongly centralised +state of the seventeenth century. He was himself a man of extraordinary +ability. We, the people of the twentieth century, are still surrounded +by the memories of the glorious age of the Sun King. Our social life +is based upon the perfection of manners and the elegance of expression +attained at the court of Louis. In international and diplomatic +relations, French is still the official language of diplomacy and +international gatherings because two centuries ago it reached a polished +elegance and a purity of expression which no other tongue had as yet +been able to equal. The theatre of King Louis still teaches us lessons +which we are only too slow in learning. During his reign the French +Academy (an invention of Richelieu) came to occupy a position in +the world of letters which other countries have flattered by their +imitation. We might continue this list for many pages. It is no matter +of mere chance that our modern bill-of-fare is printed in French. The +very difficult art of decent cooking, one of the highest expressions of +civilisation, was first practiced for the benefit of the great Monarch. +The age of Louis XIV was a time of splendour and grace which can still +teach us a lot. + +Unfortunately this brilliant picture has another side which was far less +encouraging. Glory abroad too often means misery at home, and France +was no exception to this rule Louis XIV succeeded his father in the year +1643. He died in the year 1715. That means that the government of France +was in the hands of one single man for seventy-two years, almost two +whole generations. + +It will be well to get a firm grasp of this idea, "one single man." +Louis was the first of a long list of monarchs who in many countries +established that particular form of highly efficient autocracy which we +call "enlightened despotism." He did not like kings who merely played +at being rulers and turned official affairs into a pleasant picnic. The +Kings of that enlightened age worked harder than any of their subjects. +They got up earlier and went to bed later than anybody else, and felt +their "divine responsibility" quite as strongly as their "divine right" +which allowed them to rule without consulting their subjects. + +Of course, the king could not attend to everything in person. He was +obliged to surround himself with a few helpers and councillors. One +or two generals, some experts upon foreign politics, a few clever +financiers and economists would do for this purpose. But these +dignitaries could act only through their Sovereign. They had no +individual existence. To the mass of the people, the Sovereign actually +represented in his own sacred person the government of their country. +The glory of the common fatherland became the glory of a single dynasty. +It meant the exact opposite of our own American ideal. France was ruled +of and by and for the House of Bourbon. + +The disadvantages of such a system are clear. The King grew to be +everything. Everybody else grew to be nothing at all. The old and +useful nobility was gradually forced to give up its former shares in +the government of the provinces. A little Royal bureaucrat, his fingers +splashed with ink, sitting behind the greenish windows of a government +building in faraway Paris, now performed the task which a hundred years +before had been the duty of the feudal Lord. The feudal Lord, deprived +of all work, moved to Paris to amuse himself as best he could at +the court. Soon his estates began to suffer from that very dangerous +economic sickness, known as "Absentee Landlordism." Within a single +generation, the industrious and useful feudal administrators had become +the well-mannered but quite useless loafers of the court of Versailles. + +Louis was ten years old when the peace of Westphalia was concluded and +the House of Habsburg, as a result of the Thirty Years War, lost its +predominant position in Europe. It was inevitable that a man with his +ambition should use so favourable a moment to gain for his own dynasty +the honours which had formerly been held by the Habsburgs. In the year +1660 Louis had married Maria Theresa, daughter of the King of Spain. +Soon afterward, his father-in-law, Philip IV, one of the half-witted +Spanish Habsburgs, died. At once Louis claimed the Spanish Netherlands +(Belgium) as part of his wife's dowry. Such an acquisition would have +been disastrous to the peace of Europe, and would have threatened the +safety of the Protestant states. Under the leadership of Jan de Witt, +Raadpensionaris or Foreign Minister of the United Seven Netherlands, +the first great international alliance, the Triple Alliance of Sweden, +England and Holland, of the year 1661, was concluded. It did not last +long. With money and fair promises Louis bought up both King Charles and +the Swedish Estates. Holland was betrayed by her allies and was left +to her own fate. In the year 1672 the French invaded the low countries. +They marched to the heart of the country. For a second time the dikes +were opened and the Royal Sun of France set amidst the mud of the Dutch +marshes. The peace of Nimwegen which was concluded in 1678 settled +nothing but merely anticipated another war. + +A second war of aggression from 1689 to 1697, ending with the Peace +of Ryswick, also failed to give Louis that position in the affairs +of Europe to which he aspired. His old enemy, Jan de Witt, had been +murdered by the Dutch rabble, but his successor, William III (whom you +met in the last chapter), had checkmated all efforts of Louis to make +France the ruler of Europe. + +The great war for the Spanish succession, begun in the year 1701, +immediately after the death of Charles II, the last of the Spanish +Habsburgs, and ended in 1713 by the Peace of Utrecht, remained equally +undecided, but it had ruined the treasury of Louis. On land the French +king had been victorious, but the navies of England and Holland had +spoiled all hope for an ultimate French victory; besides the long +struggle had given birth to a new and fundamental principle of +international politics, which thereafter made it impossible for one +single nation to rule the whole of Europe or the whole of the world for +any length of time. + +That was the so-called "balance of power." It was not a written law but +for three centuries it has been obeyed as closely as are the laws of +nature. The people who originated the idea maintained that Europe, in +its nationalistic stage of development, could only survive when there +should be an absolute balance of the many conflicting interests of the +entire continent. No single power or single dynasty must ever be allowed +to dominate the others. During the Thirty Years War, the Habsburgs had +been the victims of the application of this law. They, however, had been +unconscious victims. The issues during that struggle were so clouded in +a haze of religious strife that we do not get a very clear view of the +main tendencies of that great conflict. But from that time on, we begin +to see how cold, economic considerations and calculations prevail in all +matters of international importance. We discover the development of a +new type of statesman, the statesman with the personal feelings of the +slide-rule and the cash-register. Jan de Witt was the first successful +exponent of this new school of politics. William III was the first +great pupil. And Louis XIV with all his fame and glory, was the first +conscious victim. There have been many others since. + + + + +THE RISE OF RUSSIA + +THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MOSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY BURST UPON +THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE + + +IN the year 1492, as you know, Columbus discovered America. Early in +the year, a Tyrolese by the name of Schnups, travelling as the head of a +scientific expedition for the Archbishop of Tyrol, and provided with +the best letters of introduction and excellent credit tried to reach +the mythical town of Moscow. He did not succeed. When he reached the +frontiers of this vast Moscovite state which was vaguely supposed to +exist in the extreme Eastern part of Europe, he was firmly turned back. +No foreigners were wanted. And Schnups went to visit the heathen Turk in +Constantinople, in order that he might have something to report to his +clerical master when he came back from his explorations. + +Sixty-one years later, Richard Chancellor, trying to discover the +North-eastern passage to the Indies, and blown by an ill wind into +the White Sea, reached the mouth of the Dwina and found the Moscovite +village of Kholmogory, a few hours from the spot where in 1584 the town +of Archangel was founded. This time the foreign visitors were requested +to come to Moscow and show themselves to the Grand Duke. They went and +returned to England with the first commercial treaty ever concluded +between Russia and the western world. Other nations soon followed and +something became known of this mysterious land. + +Geographically, Russia is a vast plain. The Ural mountains are low +and form no barrier against invaders. The rivers are broad but often +shallow. It was an ideal territory for nomads. + +While the Roman Empire was founded, grew in power and disappeared again, +Slavic tribes, who had long since left their homes in Central Asia, +wandered aimlessly through the forests and plains of the region between +the Dniester and Dnieper rivers. The Greeks had sometimes met these +Slavs and a few travellers of the third and fourth centuries mention +them. Otherwise they were as little known as were the Nevada Indians in +the year 1800. + +Unfortunately for the peace of these primitive peoples, a very +convenient trade-route ran through their country. This was the main road +from northern Europe to Constantinople. It followed the coast of the +Baltic until the Neva was reached. Then it crossed Lake Ladoga and went +southward along the Volkhov river. Then through Lake Ilmen and up the +small Lovat river. Then there was a short portage until the Dnieper was +reached. Then down the Dnieper into the Black Sea. + +The Norsemen knew of this road at a very early date. In the ninth +century they began to settle in northern Russia, just as other Norsemen +were laying the foundation for independent states in Germany and France. +But in the year 862, three Norsemen, brothers, crossed the Baltic and +founded three small dynasties. Of the three brothers, only one, Rurik, +lived for a number of years. He took possession of the territory of his +brothers, and twenty years after the arrival of this first Norseman, a +Slavic state had been established with Kiev as its capital. + +From Kiev to the Black Sea is a short distance. Soon the existence of an +organised Slavic State became known in Constantinople. This meant a new +field for the zealous missionaries of the Christian faith. Byzantine +monks followed the Dnieper on their way northward and soon reached the +heart of Russia. They found the people worshipping strange gods who were +supposed to dwell in woods and rivers and in mountain caves. They taught +them the story of Jesus. There was no competition from the side of Roman +missionaries. These good men were too busy educating the heathen Teutons +to bother about the distant Slavs. Hence Russia received its religion +and its alphabet and its first ideas of art and architecture from the +Byzantine monks and as the Byzantine empire (a relic of the eastern +Roman empire) had become very oriental and had lost many of its European +traits, the Russians suffered in consequence. + +Politically speaking these new states of the great Russian plains +did not fare well. It was the Norse habit to divide every inheritance +equally among all the sons. No sooner had a small state been founded +but it was broken up among eight or nine heirs who in turn left their +territory to an ever increasing number of descendants. It was inevitable +that these small competing states should quarrel among themselves. +Anarchy was the order of the day. And when the red glow of the eastern +horizon told the people of the threatened invasion of a savage Asiatic +tribe, the little states were too weak and too divided to render any +sort of defence against this terrible enemy. + +It was in the year 1224 that the first great Tartar invasion took place +and that the hordes of Jenghiz Khan, the conqueror of China, Bokhara, +Tashkent and Turkestan made their first appearance in the west. The +Slavic armies were beaten near the Kalka river and Russia was at +the mercy of the Mongolians. Just as suddenly as they had come they +disappeared. Thirteen years later, in 1237, however, they returned. +In less than five years they conquered every part of the vast Russian +plains. Until the year 1380 when Dmitry Donskoi, Grand Duke of Moscow, +beat them on the plains of Kulikovo, the Tartars were the masters of the +Russian people. + +All in all, it took the Russians two centuries to deliver themselves +from this yoke. For a yoke it was and a most offensive and objectionable +one. It turned the Slavic peasants into miserable slaves. No Russian +could hope to survive un-less he was willing to creep before a dirty +little yellow man who sat in a tent somewhere in the heart of the +steppes of southern Russia and spat at him. It deprived the mass of the +people of all feeling of honour and independence. It made hunger and +misery and maltreatment and personal abuse the normal state of human +existence. Until at last the average Russian, were he peasant or +nobleman, went about his business like a neglected dog who has been +beaten so often that his spirit has been broken and he dare not wag his +tail without permission. + +There was no escape. The horsemen of the Tartar Khan were fast and +merciless. The endless prairie did not give a man a chance to cross into +the safe territory of his neighbour. He must keep quiet and bear what +his yellow master decided to inflict upon him or run the risk of death. +Of course, Europe might have interfered. But Europe was engaged upon +business of its own, fighting the quarrels between the Pope and the +emperor or suppressing this or that or the other heresy. And so Europe +left the Slav to his fate, and forced him to work out his own salvation. + +The final saviour of Russia was one of the many small states, founded +by the early Norse rulers. It was situated in the heart of the Russian +plain. Its capital, Moscow, was upon a steep hill on the banks of the +Moskwa river. This little principality, by dint of pleasing the Tartar +(when it was necessary to please), and opposing him (when it was safe to +do so), had, during the middle of the fourteenth century made itself the +leader of a new national life. It must be remembered that the Tartars +were wholly deficient in constructive political ability. They could only +destroy. Their chief aim in conquering new territories was to obtain +revenue. To get this revenue in the form of taxes, it was necessary to +allow certain remnants of the old political organization to continue. +Hence there were many little towns, surviving by the grace of the Great +Khan, that they might act as tax-gatherers and rob their neighbours for +the benefit of the Tartar treasury. + +The state of Moscow, growing fat at the expense of the surrounding +territory, finally became strong enough to risk open rebellion against +its masters, the Tartars. It was successful and its fame as the leader +in the cause of Russian independence made Moscow the natural centre for +all those who still believed in a better future for the Slavic race. In +the year 1458, Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Ten years later, +under the rule of Ivan III, Moscow informed the western world that the +Slavic state laid claim to the worldly and spiritual inheritance of the +lost Byzantine Empire, and such traditions of the Roman empire as had +survived in Constantinople. A generation afterwards, under Ivan the +Terrible, the grand dukes of Moscow were strong enough to adopt the +title of Caesar, or Tsar, and to demand recognition by the western +powers of Europe. + +In the year 1598, with Feodor the First, the old Muscovite dynasty, +descendants of the original Norseman Rurik, came to an end. For the next +seven years, a Tartar half-breed, by the name of Boris Godunow, reigned +as Tsar. It was during this period that the future destiny of the large +masses of the Russian people was decided. This Empire was rich in land +but very poor in money. There was no trade and there were no factories. +Its few cities were dirty villages. It was composed of a strong central +government and a vast number of illiterate peasants. This government, +a mixture of Slavic, Norse, Byzantine and Tartar influences, recognised +nothing beyond the interest of the state. To defend this state, it +needed an army. To gather the taxes, which were necessary to pay the +soldiers, it needed civil servants. To pay these many officials it +needed land. In the vast wilderness on the east and west there was a +sufficient supply of this commodity. But land without a few labourers +to till the fields and tend the cattle, has no value. Therefore the old +nomadic peasants were robbed of one privilege after the other, until +finally, during the first year of the sixteenth century, they were +formally made a part of the soil upon which they lived. The Russian +peasants ceased to be free men. They became serfs or slaves and they +remained serfs until the year 1861, when their fate had become so +terrible that they were beginning to die out. + +In the seventeenth century, this new state with its growing territory +which was spreading quickly into Siberia, had become a force with which +the rest of Europe was obliged to reckon. In 1618, after the death of +Boris Godunow, the Russian nobles had elected one of their own number +to be Tsar. He was Michael, the son of Feodor, of the Moscow family of +Romanow who lived in a little house just outside the Kremlin. + +In the year 1672 his great-grandson, Peter, the son of another Feodor, +was born. When the child was ten years old, his step-sister Sophia took +possession of the Russian throne. The little boy was allowed to spend +his days in the suburbs of the national capital, where the foreigners +lived. Surrounded by Scotch barkeepers, Dutch traders, Swiss +apothecaries, Italian barbers, French dancing teachers and German +school-masters, the young prince obtained a first but rather +extraordinary impression of that far-away and mysterious Europe where +things were done differently. + +When he was seventeen years old, he suddenly pushed Sister Sophia +from the throne. Peter himself became the ruler of Russia. He was not +contented with being the Tsar of a semi-barbarous and half-Asiatic +people. He must be the sovereign head of a civilised nation. To change +Russia overnight from a Byzantine-Tartar state into a European empire +was no small undertaking. It needed strong hands and a capable head. +Peter possessed both. In the year 1698, the great operation of grafting +Modern Europe upon Ancient Russia was performed. The patient did not +die. But he never got over the shock, as the events of the last five +years have shown very plainly. + + + + +RUSSIA vs. SWEDEN + +RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FIGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO SHALL BE THE LEADING +POWER OF NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE + + +IN the year 1698, Tsar Peter set forth upon his first voyage to western +Europe. He travelled by way of Berlin and went to Holland and to +England. As a child he had almost been drowned sailing a homemade boat +in the duck pond of his father's country home. This passion for water +remained with him to the end of his life. In a practical way it showed +itself in his wish to give his land-locked domains access to the open +sea. + +While the unpopular and harsh young ruler was away from home, the +friends of the old Russian ways in Moscow set to work to undo all +his reforms. A sudden rebellion among his life-guards, the Streltsi +regiment, forced Peter to hasten home by the fast mail. He appointed +himself executioner-in-chief and the Streltsi were hanged and quartered +and killed to the last man. Sister Sophia, who had been the head of the +rebellion, was locked up in a cloister and the rule of Peter be-gan in +earnest. This scene was repeated in the year 1716 when Peter had gone +on his second western trip. That time the reactionaries followed the +leadership of Peter's half-witted son, Alexis. Again the Tsar returned +in great haste. Alexis was beaten to death in his prison cell and the +friends of the old fashioned Byzantine ways marched thousands of dreary +miles to their final destination in the Siberian lead mines. After that, +no further outbreaks of popular discontent took place. Until the time of +his death, Peter could reform in peace. + +It is not easy to give you a list of his reforms in chronological order. +The Tsar worked with furious haste. He followed no system. He issued +his decrees with such rapidity that it is difficult to keep count. +Peter seemed to feel that everything that had ever happened before was +entirely wrong. The whole of Russia therefore must be changed within the +shortest possible time. When he died he left behind a well-trained army +of 200,000 men and a navy of fifty ships. The old system of government +had been abolished over night. The Duma, or convention of Nobles, had +been dismissed and in its stead, the Tsar had surrounded himself with an +advisory board of state officials, called the Senate. + +Russia was divided into eight large "governments" or provinces. Roads +were constructed. Towns were built. Industries were created wherever it +pleased the Tsar, without any regard for the presence of raw material. +Canals were dug and mines were opened in the mountains of the east. In +this land of illiterates, schools were founded and establishments +of higher learning, together with Universities and hospitals and +professional schools. Dutch naval engineers and tradesmen and artisans +from all over the world were encouraged to move to Russia. Printing +shops were established, but all books must be first read by the imperial +censors. The duties of each class of society were carefully written +down in a new law and the entire system of civil and criminal laws was +gathered into a series of printed volumes. The old Russian costumes +were abolished by Imperial decree, and policemen, armed with scissors, +watching all the country roads, changed the long-haired Russian mou-jiks +suddenly into a pleasing imitation of smooth-shaven west. Europeans. + +In religious matters, the Tsar tolerated no division of power. There +must be no chance of a rivalry between an Emperor and a Pope as had +happened in Europe. In the year 1721, Peter made himself head of the +Russian Church. The Patriarchate of Moscow was abolished and the Holy +Synod made its appearance as the highest source of authority in all +matters of the Established Church. + +Since, however, these many reforms could not be success-ful while the +old Russian elements had a rallying point in the town of Moscow, Peter +decided to move his government to a new capital. Amidst the unhealthy +marshes of the Baltic Sea the Tsar built this new city. He began to +reclaim the land in the year 1703. Forty thousand peasants worked for +years to lay the foundations for this Imperial city. The Swedes attacked +Peter and tried to destroy his town and illness and misery killed tens +of thousands of the peasants. But the work was continued, winter and +summer, and the ready-made town soon began to grow. In the year 1712, it +was officially de-clared to be the "Imperial Residence." A dozen years +later it had 75,000 inhabitants. Twice a year the whole city was flooded +by the Neva. But the terrific will-power of the Tsar created dykes and +canals and the floods ceased to do harm. When Peter died in 1725 he was +the owner of the largest city in northern Europe. + +Of course, this sudden growth of so dangerous a rival had been a source +of great worry to all the neighbours. From his side, Peter had watched +with interest the many adventures of his Baltic rival, the kingdom +of Sweden. In the year 1654, Christina, the only daughter of Gustavus +Adolphus, the hero of the Thirty Years War, had renounced the throne +and had gone to Rome to end her days as a devout Catholic. A Protestant +nephew of Gustavus Adolphus had succeeded the last Queen of the House of +Vasa. Under Charles X and Charles XI, the new dynasty had brought +Sweden to its highest point of development. But in 1697, Charles XI died +suddenly and was succeeded by a boy of fifteen, Charles XII. + +This was the moment for which many of the northern states had waited. +During the great religious wars of the seventeenth century, Sweden had +grown at the expense of her neighbours. The time had come, so the owners +thought, to balance the account. At once war broke out between Russia, +Poland, Denmark and Saxony on the one side, and Sweden on the other. The +raw and untrained armies of Peter were disastrously beaten by Charles in +the famous battle of Narva in November of the year 1700. Then Charles, +one of the most interesting military geniuses of that century, turned +against his other enemies and for nine years he hacked and burned his +way through the villages and cities of Poland, Saxony, Denmark and +the Baltic provinces, while Peter drilled and trained his soldiers in +distant Russia. + +As a result, in the year 1709, in the battle of Poltawa, the Moscovites +destroyed the exhausted armies of Sweden. Charles continued to be a +highly picturesque figure, a wonderful hero of romance, but in his vain +attempt to have his revenge, he ruined his own country. In the year +1718, he was accidentally killed or assassinated (we do not know which) +and when peace was made in 1721, in the town of Nystadt, Sweden had lost +all of her former Baltic possessions except Finland. The new Russian +state, created by Peter, had become the leading power of northern +Europe. But already a new rival was on the way. The Prussian state was +taking shape. + + + + +THE RISE OF PRUSSIA + +THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY PART OF NORTHERN +GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA + + +THE history of Prussia is the history of a frontier district. In +the ninth century, Charlemagne had transferred the old centre of +civilisation from the Mediterranean to the wild regions of northwestern +Europe. His Frankish soldiers had pushed the frontier of Europe further +and further towards the east. They had conquered many lands from the +heathenish Slavs and Lithuanians who were living in the plain between +the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian Mountains, and the Franks administered +those outlying districts just as the United States used to administer +her territories before they achieved the dignity of statehood. + +The frontier state of Brandenburg had been originally founded by +Charlemagne to defend his eastern possessions against raids of the wild +Saxon tribes. The Wends, a Slavic tribe which inhabited that region, +were subjugated during the tenth century and their market-place, by the +name of Brennabor, became the centre of and gave its name to the new +province of Brandenburg. + +During the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +a succession of noble families exercised the functions of imperial +governor in this frontier state. Finally in the fifteenth century, +the House of Hohenzollern made its appear-ance, and as Electors of +Brandenburg, commenced to change a sandy and forlorn frontier territory +into one of the most efficient empires of the modern world. + +These Hohenzollerns, who have just been removed from the historical +stage by the combined forces of Europe and America, came originally +from southern Germany. They were of very humble origin. In the twelfth +century a certain Frederick of Hohenzollern had made a lucky marriage +and had been appointed keeper of the castle of Nuremberg. His +descendants had used every chance and every opportunity to improve their +power and after several centuries of watchful grabbing, they had been +appointed to the dignity of Elector, the name given to those sovereign +princes who were supposed to elect the Emperors of the old German +Empire. During the Reformation, they had taken the side of the +Protestants and the early seventeenth century found them among the most +powerful of the north German princes. + +During the Thirty Years War, both Protestants and Catholics had +plundered Brandenburg and Prussia with equal zeal. But under Frederick +William, the Great Elector, the damage was quickly repaired and by a +wise and careful use of all the economic and intellectual forces of the +country, a state was founded in which there was practically no waste. + +Modern Prussia, a state in which the individual and his wishes and +aspirations have been entirely absorbed by the interests of the +community as a whole this Prussia dates back to the father of Frederick +the Great. Frederick William I was a hard working, parsimonious Prussian +sergeant, with a great love for bar-room stories and strong Dutch +tobacco, an intense dislike of all frills and feathers, (especially if +they were of French origin,) and possessed of but one idea. That idea +was Duty. Severe with himself, he tolerated no weakness in his subjects, +whether they be generals or common soldiers. The relation between +himself and his son Frederick was never cordial, to say the least. The +boorish manners of the father offended the finer spirit of the son. +The son's love for French manners, literature, philosophy and music was +rejected by the father as a manifestation of sissy-ness. There followed +a terrible outbreak between these two strange temperaments. Frederick +tried to escape to England. He was caught and court-martialed and forced +to witness the decapitation of his best friend who had tried to help +him. Thereupon as part of his punishment, the young prince was sent to +a little fortress somewhere in the provinces to be taught the details of +his future business of being a king. It proved a blessing in disguise. +When Frederick came to the throne in 1740, he knew how his country was +managed from the birth certificate of a pauper's son to the minutest +detail of a complicated annual Budget. + +As an author, especially in his book called the "Anti-Macchiavelli," +Frederick had expressed his contempt for the political creed of the +ancient Florentine historian, who had advised his princely pupils to lie +and cheat whenever it was necessary to do so for the benefit of their +country. The ideal ruler in Frederick's volume was the first servant of +his people, the enlightened despot after the example of Louis XIV. In +practice, however, Frederick, while working for his people twenty hours +a day, tolerated no one to be near him as a counsellor. His ministers +were superior clerks. Prussia was his private possession, to be treated +according to his own wishes. And nothing was allowed to interfere with +the interest of the state. + +In the year 1740 the Emperor Charles VI, of Austria, died. He had tried +to make the position of his only daughter, Maria Theresa, secure +through a solemn treaty, written black on white, upon a large piece +of parchment. But no sooner had the old emperor been deposited in the +ancestral crypt of the Habsburg family, than the armies of Frederick +were marching towards the Austrian frontier to occupy that part of +Silesia for which (together with almost everything else in central +Europe) Prussia clamored, on account of some ancient and very doubtful +rights of claim. In a number of wars, Frederick conquered all of +Silesia, and although he was often very near defeat, he maintained +himself in his newly acquired territories against all Austrian +counter-attacks. + +Europe took due notice of this sudden appearance of a very powerful new +state. In the eighteenth century, the Germans were a people who had been +ruined by the great religious wars and who were not held in high esteem +by any one. Frederick, by an effort as sudden and quite as terrific as +that of Peter of Russia, changed this attitude of contempt into one of +fear. The internal affairs of Prussia were arranged so skillfully that +the subjects had less reason for complaint than elsewhere. The treasury +showed an annual surplus instead of a deficit. Torture was abolished. +The judiciary system was improved. Good roads and good schools and good +universities, together with a scrupulously honest administration, made +the people feel that whatever services were demanded of them, they (to +speak the vernacular) got their money's worth. + +After having been for several centuries the battle field of the French +and the Austrians and the Swedes and the Danes and the Poles, Germany, +encouraged by the example of Prussia, began to regain self-confidence. +And this was the work of the little old man, with his hook-nose and his +old uniforms covered with snuff, who said very funny but very unpleasant +things about his neighbours, and who played the scandalous game of +eighteenth century diplomacy without any regard for the truth, provided +he could gain something by his lies. This in spite of his book, +"Anti-Macchiavelli." In the year 1786 the end came. His friends were +all gone. Children he had never had. He died alone, tended by a single +servant and his faithful dogs, whom he loved better than human beings +because, as he said, they were never ungrateful and remained true to +their friends. + + + + +THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + +HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF EUROPE TRIED TO +MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + + +WE have seen how, during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, +the states of our modern world began to take shape. Their origins +were different in almost every case. Some had been the result of the +deliberate effort of a single king. Others had happened by chance. Still +others had been the result of favourable natural geographic boundaries. +But once they had been founded, they had all of them tried to strengthen +their internal administration and to exert the greatest possible +influence upon foreign affairs. All this of course had cost a great deal +of money. The mediaeval state with its lack of centralised power did not +depend upon a rich treasury. The king got his revenues from the crown +domains and his civil service paid for itself. The modern centralised +state was a more complicated affair. The old knights disappeared and +hired government officials or bureaucrats took their place. Army, navy, +and internal administration demanded millions. The question then became +where was this money to be found? + +Gold and silver had been a rare commodity in the middle ages. The +average man, as I have told you, never saw a gold piece as long as +he lived. Only the inhabitants of the large cities were familiar with +silver coin. The discovery of America and the exploitation of the +Peruvian mines changed all this. The centre of trade was transferred +from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic seaboard. The old "commercial +cities" of Italy lost their financial importance. New "commercial +nations" took their place and gold and silver were no longer a +curiosity. + +Through Spain and Portugal and Holland and England, precious metals +began to find their way to Europe The sixteenth century had its own +writers on the subject of political economy and they evolved a theory of +national wealth which seemed to them entirely sound and of the greatest +possible benefit to their respective countries. They reasoned that both +gold and silver were actual wealth. Therefore they believed that the +country with the largest supply of actual cash in the vaults of its +treasury and its banks was at the same time the richest country. And +since money meant armies, it followed that the richest country was also +the most powerful and could rule the rest of the world. + +We call this system the "mercantile system," and it was accepted with +the same unquestioning faith with which the early Christians believed +in Miracles and many of the present-day American business men believe in +the Tariff. In practice, the Mercantile system worked out as follows: +To get the largest surplus of precious metals a country must have a +favourable balance of export trade. If you can export more to your +neighbour than he exports to your own country, he will owe you money +and will be obliged to send you some of his gold. Hence you gain and he +loses. As a result of this creed, the economic program of almost every +seventeenth century state was as follows: + +1. Try to get possession of as many precious metals as you can. + +2. Encourage foreign trade in preference to domestic trade. + +3. Encourage those industries which change raw materials into exportable +finished products. + +4. Encourage a large population, for you will need workmen for your +factories and an agricultural community does not raise enough workmen. + +5. Let the State watch this process and interfere whenever it is +necessary to do so. + + +Instead of regarding International Trade as something akin to a force of +nature which would always obey certain natural laws regardless of man's +interference, the people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries +tried to regulate their commerce by the help of official decrees and +royal laws and financial help on the part of the government. + +In the sixteenth century Charles V adopted this Mercantile System +(which was then something entirely new) and introduced it into his many +possessions. Elizabeth of England flattered him by her imitation. The +Bourbons, especially King Louis XIV, were fanatical adherents of this +doctrine and Colbert, his great minister of finance, became the prophet +of Mercantilism to whom all Europe looked for guidance. + +The entire foreign policy of Cromwell was a practical application of +the Mercantile System. It was invariably directed against the rich rival +Republic of Holland. For the Dutch shippers, as the common-carriers of +the merchandise of Europe, had certain leanings towards free-trade and +therefore had to be destroyed at all cost. + +It will be easily understood how such a system must affect the colonies. +A colony under the Mercantile System became merely a reservoir of gold +and silver and spices, which was to be tapped for the benefit of the +home country. The Asiatic, American and African supply of precious +metals and the raw materials of these tropical countries became a +monopoly of the state which happened to own that particular colony. +No outsider was ever allowed within the precincts and no native was +permitted to trade with a merchant whose ship flew a foreign flag. + +Undoubtedly the Mercantile System encouraged the development of +young industries in certain countries where there never had been any +manufacturing before. It built roads and dug canals and made for better +means of transportation. It demanded greater skill among the workmen and +gave the merchant a better social position, while it weakened the power +of the landed aristocracy. + +On the other hand, it caused very great misery. It made the natives in +the colonies the victims of a most shameless exploitation. It exposed +the citizens of the home country to an even more terrible fate. It +helped in a great measure to turn every land into an armed camp and +divided the world into little bits of territory, each working for its +own direct benefit, while striving at all times to destroy the power of +its neighbours and get hold of their treasures. It laid so much stress +upon the importance of owning wealth that "being rich" came to be +regarded as the sole virtue of the average citizen. Economic systems +come and go like the fashions in surgery and in the clothes of women, +and during the nineteenth century the Mercantile System was discarded in +favor of a system of free and open competition. At least, so I have been +told. + + + + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD STRANGE REPORTS OF +SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN THE WILDERNESS; OF THE NORTH AMERICAN +CONTINENT. THE DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING CHARLES FOR +HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS "DIVINE RIGHTS" ADDED A NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD +STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +FOR the sake of convenience, we ought to go back a few centuries and +repeat the early history of the great struggle for colonial possessions. + +As soon as a number of European nations had been created upon the new +basis of national or dynastic interests, that is to say, during and +immediately after the Thirty Years War, their rulers, backed up by the +capital of their merchants and the ships of their trading companies, +continued the fight for more territory in Asia, Africa and America. + +The Spaniards and the Portuguese had been exploring the Indian Sea +and the Pacific Ocean for more than a century ere Holland and England +appeared upon the stage. This proved an advantage to the latter. The +first rough work had already been done. What is more, the earliest +navigators had so often made themselves unpopular with the Asiatic and +American and African natives that both the English and the Dutch were +welcomed as friends and deliverers. We cannot claim any superior virtues +for either of these two races. But they were merchants before everything +else. They never allowed religious considerations to interfere with +their practical common sense. During their first relations with weaker +races, all European nations have behaved with shocking brutality. The +English and the Dutch, however, knew better where to draw the dine. +Provided they got their spices and their gold and silver and their +taxes, they were willing to let the native live as it best pleased him. + +It was not very difficult for them therefore to establish themselves +in the richest parts of the world. But as soon as this had been +accomplished, they began to fight each other for still further +possessions. Strangely enough, the colonial wars were never settled in +the colonies themselves. They were decided three thousand miles away +by the navies of the contending countries. It is one of the most +interesting principles of ancient and modern warfare (one of the few +reliable laws of history) that "the nation which commands the sea is +also the nation which commands the land." So far this law has never +failed to work, but the modern airplane may have changed it. In the +eighteenth century, however, there were no flying machines and it was +the British navy which gained for England her vast American and Indian +and African colonies. + +The series of naval wars between England and Holland in the seventeenth +century does not interest us here. It ended as all such encounters +between hopelessly ill-matched powers will end. But the warfare between +England and France (her other rival) is of greater importance to us, for +while the superior British fleet in the end defeated the French navy, +a great deal of the preliminary fighting was done on our own American +continent. In this vast country, both France and England claimed +everything which had been discovered and a lot more which the eye of no +white man had ever seen. In 1497 Cabot had landed in the northern part +of America and twenty-seven years later, Giovanni Verrazano had visited +these coasts. Cabot had flown the English flag. Verrazano had sailed +under the French flag. Hence both England and France proclaimed +themselves the owners of the entire continent. + +During the seventeenth century, some ten small English colonies had been +founded between Maine and the Carolinas. They were usually a haven +of refuge for some particular sect of English dissenters, such as the +Puritans, who in the year 1620 went to New England, or the Quakers, who +settled in Pennsylvania in 1681. They were small frontier communities, +nestling close to the shores of the ocean, where people had gathered to +make a new home and begin life among happier surroundings, far away from +royal supervision and interference. + +The French colonies, on the other hand, always remained a possession of +the crown. No Huguenots or Protestants were allowed in these colonies +for fear that they might contaminate the Indians with their dangerous +Protestant doctrines and would perhaps interfere with the missionary +work of the Jesuit fathers. The English colonies, therefore, had been +founded upon a much healthier basis than their French neighbours and +rivals. They were an expression of the commercial energy of the English +middle classes, while the French settlements were inhabited by people +who had crossed the ocean as servants of the king and who expected to +return to Paris at the first possible chance. + +Politically, however, the position of the English colonies was far from +satisfactory. The French had discovered the mouth of the Saint Lawrence +in the sixteenth century. From the region of the Great Lakes they had +worked their way southward, had descended the Mississippi and had built +several fortifications along the Gulf of Mexico. After a century +of exploration, a line of sixty French forts cut off the English +settlements along the Atlantic seaboard from the interior. + +The English land grants, made to the different colonial companies had +given them "all land from sea to sea." This sounded well on paper, +but in practice, British territory ended where the line of French +fortifications began. To break through this barrier was possible but it +took both men and money and caused a series of horrible border wars in +which both sides murdered their white neighbours, with the help of the +Indian tribes. + +As long as the Stuarts had ruled England there had been no danger of +war with France. The Stuarts needed the Bourbons in their attempt to +establish an autocratic form of government and to break the power of +Parliament. But in 1689 the last of the Stuarts had disappeared from +British soil and Dutch William, the great enemy of Louis XIV succeeded +him. From that time on, until the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France and +England fought for the possession of India and North America. + +During these wars, as I have said before, the English navies invariably +beat the French. Cut off from her colonies, France lost most of her +possessions, and when peace was declared, the entire North American +continent had fallen into British hands and the great work of +exploration of Cartier, Champlain, La Salle, Marquette and a score of +others was lost to France. + +Only a very small part of this vast domain was inhabited. From +Massachusetts in the north, where the Pilgrims (a sect of Puritans who +were very intolerant and who therefore had found no happiness either in +Anglican England or Calvinist Holland) had landed in the year 1620, to +the Carolinas and Virginia (the tobacco-raising provinces which had +been founded entirely for the sake of profit), stretched a thin line of +sparsely populated territory. But the men who lived in this new land of +fresh air and high skies were very different from their brethren of +the mother country. In the wilderness they had learned independence and +self-reliance. They were the sons of hardy and energetic ancestors. Lazy +and timourous people did not cross the ocean in those days. The American +colonists hated the restraint and the lack of breathing space which had +made their lives in the old country so very unhappy. They meant to be +their own masters. This the ruling classes of England did not seem to +understand. The government annoyed the colonists and the colonists, who +hated to be bothered in this way, began to annoy the British government. + +Bad feeling caused more bad feeling. It is not necessary to repeat here +in detail what actually happened and what might have been avoided if the +British king had been more intelligent than George III or less given to +drowsiness and indifference than his minister, Lord North. The British +colonists, when they understood that peaceful arguments would not settle +the difficulties, took to arms. From being loyal subjects, they turned +rebels, who exposed themselves to the punishment of death when they were +captured by the German soldiers, whom George hired to do his fighting +after the pleasant custom of that day, when Teutonic princes sold whole +regiments to the highest bidder. + +The war between England and her American colonies lasted seven years. +During most of that time, the final success of the rebels seemed very +doubtful. A great number of the people, especially in the cities, had +remained loyal to their king. They were in favour of a compromise, +and would have been willing to sue for peace. But the great figure of +Washington stood guard over the cause of the colonists. + +Ably assisted by a handful of brave men, he used his steadfast but badly +equipped armies to weaken the forces of the king. Time and again when +defeat seemed unavoidable, his strategy turned the tide of battle. Often +his men were ill-fed. During the winter they lacked shoes and coats +and were forced to live in unhealthy dug-outs. But their trust in their +great leader was absolute and they stuck it out until the final hour of +victory. + +But more interesting than the campaigns of Washington or the diplomatic +triumphs of Benjamin Franklin who was in Europe getting money from the +French government and the Amsterdam bankers, was an event which occurred +early in the revolution. The representatives of the different colonies +had gathered in Philadelphia to discuss matters of common importance. It +was the first year of the Revolution. Most of the big towns of the +sea coast were still in the hands of the British. Reinforcements +from England were arriving by the ship load. Only men who were deeply +convinced of the righteousness of their cause would have found the +courage to take the momentous decision of the months of June and July of +the year 1776. + +In June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a motion to the +Continental Congress that "these united colonies are, and of right ought +to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all +allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection +between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be, totally +dissolved." + +The motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. It was carried +on July the second and on July fourth, it was followed by an official +Declaration of Independence, which was the work of Thomas Jefferson, a +serious and exceedingly capable student of both politics and government +and destined to be one of the most famous of out American presidents. + +When news of this event reached Europe, and was followed by the final +victory of the colonists and the adoption of the famous Constitution of +the year 1787 (the first of all written constitutions) it caused great +interest. The dynastic system of the highly centralised states which had +been developed after the great religious wars of the seventeenth century +had reached the height of its power. Everywhere the palace of the king +had grown to enormous proportions, while the cities of the royal realm +were being surrounded by rapidly growing acres of slums. The inhabitants +of those slums were showing signs of restlessness. They were quite +helpless. But the higher classes, the nobles and the professional men, +they too were beginning to have certain doubts about the economic and +political conditions under which they lived. The success of the American +colonists showed them that many things were possible which had been held +impossible only a short time before. + +According to the poet, the shot which opened the battle of Lexington was +"heard around the world." That was a bit of an exaggeration. The Chinese +and the Japanese and the Russians (not to speak of the Australians, who +had just been re-discovered by Captain Cook, whom they killed for his +trouble,) never heard of it at all. But it carried across the Atlantic +Ocean. It landed in the powder house of European discontent and in +France it caused an explosion which rocked the entire continent from +Petrograd to Madrid and buried the representatives of the old statecraft +and the old diplomacy under several tons of democratic bricks. + + + + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + +THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY, +FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH + + +BEFORE we talk about a revolution it is just as well that we explain +just what this word means. In the terms of a great Russian writer (and +Russians ought to know what they are talking about in this field) a +revolution is "a swift overthrow, in a few years, of institutions +which have taken centuries to root in the soil, and seem so fixed and +immovable that even the most ardent reformers hardly dare to attack them +in their writings. It is the fall, the crumbling away in a brief +period, of all that up to that time has composed the essence of social, +religious, political and economic life in a nation." + +Such a revolution took place in France in the eighteenth century when +the old civilisation of the country had grown stale. The king in the +days of Louis XIV had become EVERYTHING and was the state. The Nobility, +formerly the civil servant of the federal state, found itself without +any duties and became a social ornament of the royal court. + +This French state of the eighteenth century, however, cost incredible +sums of money. This money had to be produced in the form of taxes. +Unfortunately the kings of France had not been strong enough to force +the nobility and the clergy to pay their share of these taxes. Hence +the taxes were paid entirely by the agricultural population. But the +peasants living in dreary hovels, no longer in intimate contact with +their former landlords, but victims of cruel and incompetent land +agents, were going from bad to worse. Why should they work and exert +themselves? Increased returns upon their land merely meant more taxes +and nothing for themselves and therefore they neglected their fields as +much as they dared. + +Hence we have a king who wanders in empty splendour through the vast +halls of his palaces, habitually followed by hungry office seekers, all +of whom live upon the revenue obtained from peasants who are no better +than the beasts of the fields. It is not a pleasant picture, but it +is not exaggerated. There was, however, another side to the so-called +"Ancien Regime" which we must keep in mind. + +A wealthy middle class, closely connected with the nobility (by the +usual process of the rich banker's daughter marrying the poor baron's +son) and a court composed of all the most entertaining people of +France, had brought the polite art of graceful living to its highest +development. As the best brains of the country were not allowed to +occupy themselves with questions of political economics, they spent +their idle hours upon the discussion of abstract ideas. + +As fashions in modes of thought and personal behaviour are quite as +likely to run to extremes as fashion in dress, it was natural that the +most artificial society of that day should take a tremendous interest +in what they considered "the simple life." The king and the queen, the +absolute and unquestioned proprietors of this country galled France, +together with all its colonies and dependencies, went to live in funny +little country houses all dressed up as milk-maids and stable-boys and +played at being shepherds in a happy vale of ancient Hellas. Around +them, their courtiers danced attendance, their court-musicians composed +lovely minuets, their court barbers devised more and more elaborate and +costly headgear, until from sheer boredom and lack of real jobs, this +whole artificial world of Versailles (the great show place which Louis +XIV had built far away from his noisy and restless city) talked of +nothing but those subjects which were furthest removed from their own +lives, just as a man who is starving will talk of nothing except food. + +When Voltaire, the courageous old philosopher, playwright, historian and +novelist, and the great enemy of all religious and political tyranny, +began to throw his bombs of criticism at everything connected with the +Established Order of Things, the whole French world applauded him and +his theatrical pieces played to standing room only. When Jean +Jacques Rousseau waxed sentimental about primitive man and gave his +contemporaries delightful descriptions of the happiness of the original +inhabitants of this planet, (about whom he knew as little as he +did about the children, upon whose education he was the recognised +authority,) all France read his "Social Contract" and this society in +which the king and the state were one, wept bitter tears when they +heard Rousseau's appeal for a return to the blessed days when the real +sovereignty had lain in the hands of the people and when the king had +been merely the servant of his people. + +When Montesquieu published his "Persian Letters" in which two +distinguished Persian travellers turn the whole existing society of +France topsy-turvy and poke fun at everything from the king down to +the lowest of his six hundred pastry cooks, the book immediately went +through four editions and assured the writer thousands of readers for +his famous discussion of the "Spirit of the Laws" in which the noble +Baron compared the excellent English system with the backward system of +France and advocated instead of an absolute monarchy the establishment +of a state in which the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial +powers should be in separate hands and should work independently of each +other. When Lebreton, the Parisian book-seller, announced that Messieurs +Diderot, d'Alembert, Turgot and a score of other distinguished writers +were going to publish an Encyclopaedia which was to contain "all the new +ideas and the new science and the new knowledge," the response from +the side of the public was most satisfactory, and when after twenty-two +years the last of the twenty-eight volumes had been finished, the +somewhat belated interference of the police could not repress the +enthusiasm with which French society received this most important but +very dangerous contribution to the discussions of the day. + +Here, let me give you a little warning. When you read a novel about +the French revolution or see a play or a movie, you will easily get the +impression that the Revolution was the work of the rabble from the +Paris slums. It was nothing of the kind. The mob appears often upon the +revolutionary stage, but invariably at the instigation and under the +leadership of those middle-class professional men who used the hungry +multitude as an efficient ally in their warfare upon the king and +his court. But the fundamental ideas which caused the revolution were +invented by a few brilliant minds, and they were at first introduced +into the charming drawing-rooms of the "Ancien Regime" to provide +amiable diversion for the much-bored ladies and gentlemen of his +Majesty's court. These pleasant but careless people played with the +dangerous fireworks of social criticism until the sparks fell through +the cracks of the floor, which was old and rotten just like the rest of +the building. Those sparks unfortunately landed in the basement where +age-old rubbish lay in great confusion. Then there was a cry of fire. +But the owner of the house who was interested in everything except the +management of his property, did not know how to put the small blaze +out. The flame spread rapidly and the entire edifice was consumed by the +conflagration, which we call the Great French Revolution. + +For the sake of convenience, we can divide the French Revolution into +two parts. From 1789 to 1791 there was a more or less orderly attempt to +introduce a constitutional monarchy. This failed, partly through lack +of good faith and stupidity on the part of the monarch himself, partly +through circumstances over which nobody had any control. + +From 1792 to 1799 there was a Republic and a first effort to establish +a democratic form of government. But the actual outbreak of violence had +been preceded by many years of unrest and many sincere but ineffectual +attempts at reform. + +When France had a debt of 4000 million francs and the treasury was +always empty and there was not a single thing upon which new taxes could +be levied, even good King Louis (who was an expert locksmith and a great +hunter but a very poor statesman) felt vaguely that something ought to +be done. Therefore he called for Turgot, to be his Minister of Finance. +Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne, a man in the early +sixties, a splendid representative of the fast disappearing class of +landed gentry, had been a successful governor of a province and was +an amateur political economist of great ability. He did his best. +Unfortunately, he could not perform miracles. As it was impossible to +squeeze more taxes out of the ragged peasants, it was necessary to get +the necessary funds from the nobility and clergy who had never paid a +centime. This made Turgot the best hated man at the court of Versailles. +Furthermore he was obliged to face the enmity of Marie Antoinette, the +queen, who was against everybody who dared to mention the word "economy" +within her hearing. Soon Turgot was called an "unpractical visionary" +and a "theoretical-professor" and then of course his position became +untenable. In the year 1776 he was forced to resign. + +After the "professor" there came a man of Practical Business Sense. He +was an industrious Swiss by the name of Necker who had made himself rich +as a grain speculator and the partner in an international banking house. +His ambitious wife had pushed him into the government service that she +might establish a position for her daughter who afterwards as the +wife of the Swedish minister in Paris, Baron de Stael, became a famous +literary figure of the early nineteenth century. + +Necker set to work with a fine display of zeal just as Turgot had done. +In 1781 he published a careful review of the French finances. The king +understood nothing of this "Compte Rendu." He had just sent troops to +America to help the colonists against their common enemies, the English. +This expedition proved to be unexpectedly expensive and Necker was +asked to find the necessary funds. When instead of producing revenue, he +published more figures and made statistics and began to use the dreary +warning about "necessary economies" his days were numbered. In the year +1781 he was dismissed as an incompetent servant. + +After the Professor and the Practical Business Man came the delightful +type of financier who will guarantee everybody 100 per cent. per month +on their money if only they will trust his own infallible system. + +He was Charles Alexandre de Calonne, a pushing official, who had made +his career both by his industry and his complete lack of honesty and +scruples. He found the country heavily indebted, but he was a clever +man, willing to oblige everybody, and he invented a quick remedy. He +paid the old debts by contracting new ones. This method is not new. The +result since time immemorial has been disastrous. In less than three +years more than 800,000,000 francs had been added to the French debt by +this charming Minister of Finance who never worried and smilingly signed +his name to every demand that was made by His Majesty and by his lovely +Queen, who had learned the habit of spending during the days of her +youth in Vienna. + +At last even the Parliament of Paris (a high court of justice and not +a legislative body) although by no means lacking in loyalty to their +sovereign, decided that something must be done. Calonne wanted to borrow +another 80,000,000 francs. It had been a bad year for the crops and +the misery and hunger in the country districts were terrible. Unless +something sensible were done, France would go bankrupt. The King as +always was unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Would it not be +a good idea to consult the representatives of the people? Since 1614 +no Estates General had been called together. In view of the threatening +panic there was a demand that the Estates be convened. Louis XVI +however, who never could take a decision, refused to go as far as that. + +To pacify the popular clamour he called together a meeting of the +Notables in the year 1787. This merely meant a gathering of the best +families who discussed what could and should be done, without touching +their feudal and clerical privilege of tax-exemption. It is unreasonable +to expect that a certain class of society shall commit political and +economic suicide for the benefit of another group of fellow-citizens. +The 127 Notables obstinately refused to surrender a single one of their +ancient rights. The crowd in the street, being now exceedingly hungry, +demanded that Necker, in whom they had confidence, be reappointed. The +Notables said "No." The crowd in the street began to smash windows and +do other unseemly things. The Notables fled. Calonne was dismissed. + +A new colourless Minister of Finance, the Cardinal Lomenie de Brienne, +was appointed and Louis, driven by the violent threats of his starving +subjects, agreed to call together the old Estates General as "soon as +practicable." This vague promise of course satisfied no one. + +No such severe winter had been experienced for almost a century. The +crops had been either destroyed by floods or had been frozen to death in +the fields. All the olive trees of the Provence had been killed. Private +charity tried to do some-thing but could accomplish little for eighteen +million starving people. Everywhere bread riots occurred. A generation +before these would have been put down by the army. But the work of +the new philosophical school had begun to bear fruit. People began to +understand that a shotgun is no effective remedy for a hungry stomach +and even the soldiers (who came from among the people) were no longer +to be depended upon. It was absolutely necessary that the king should +do something definite to regain the popular goodwill, but again he +hesitated. + +Here and there in the provinces, little independent Republics were +established by followers of the new school. The cry of "no taxation +without representation" (the slogan of the American rebels a quarter of +a century before) was heard among the faithful middle classes. France +was threatened with general anarchy. To appease the people and to +increase the royal popularity, the government unexpectedly suspended the +former very strict form of censorship of books. At once a flood of +ink descended upon France. Everybody, high or low, criticised and was +criticised. More than 2000 pamphlets were published. Lomenie de Brienne +was swept away by a storm of abuse. Necker was hastily called back to +placate, as best he could, the nation-wide unrest. Immediately the stock +market went up thirty per cent. And by common consent, people suspended +judgment for a little while longer. In May of 1789 the Estates General +were to assemble and then the wisdom of the entire nation would speedily +solve the difficult problem of recreating the kingdom of France into a +healthy and happy state. + +This prevailing idea, that the combined wisdom of the people would be +able to solve all difficulties, proved disastrous. It lamed all personal +effort during many important months. Instead of keeping the government +in his own hands at this critical moment, Necker allowed everything to +drift. Hence there was a new outbreak of the acrimonious debate upon the +best ways to reform the old kingdom. Everywhere the power of the police +weakened. The people of the Paris suburbs, under the leadership of +professional agitators, gradually began to discover their strength, and +commenced to play the role which was to be theirs all through the years +of the great unrest, when they acted as the brute force which was used +by the actual leaders of the Revolution to secure those things which +could not be obtained in a legitimate fashion. + +As a sop to the peasants and the middle class, Necker de-cided that they +should be allowed a double representation in the Estates General. Upon +this subject, the Abbe Sieyes then wrote a famous pamphlet, "To what +does the Third Estate Amount?" in which he came to the conclusion that +the Third Estate (a name given to the middle class) ought to amount to +everything, that it had not amounted to anything in the past, and that +it now desired to amount to something. He expressed the sentiment of the +great majority of the people who had the best interests of the country +at heart. + +Finally the elections took place under the worst conditions imaginable. +When they were over, 308 clergymen, 285 noblemen and 621 representatives +of the Third Estate packed their trunks to go to Versailles. The Third +Estate was obliged to carry additional luggage. This consisted of +voluminous reports called "cahiers" in which the many complaints and +grievances of their constituents had been written down. The stage was +set for the great final act that was to save France. + +The Estates General came together on May 5th, 1789. The king was in a +bad humour. The Clergy and the Nobility let it be known that they were +unwilling to give up a single one of their privileges. The king ordered +the three groups of representatives to meet in different rooms and +discuss their grievances separately. The Third Estate refused to obey +the royal command. They took a solemn oath to that effect in a squash +court (hastily put in order for the purpose of this illegal meeting) on +the 20th of June, 1789. They insisted that all three Estates, Nobility, +Clergy and Third Estate, should meet together and so informed His +Majesty. The king gave in. + +As the "National Assembly," the Estates General began to discuss +the state of the French kingdom. The King got angry. Then again he +hesitated. He said that he would never surrender his absolute power. +Then he went hunting, forgot all about the cares of the state and when +he returned from the chase he gave in. For it was the royal habit to +do the right thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. When the people +clamoured for A, the king scolded them and gave them nothing. Then, when +the Palace was surrounded by a howling multitude of poor people, the +king surrendered and gave his subjects what they had asked for. By this +time, however, the people wanted A plus B. The comedy was repeated. When +the king signed his name to the Royal Decree which granted his beloved +subjects A and B they were threatening to kill the entire royal family +unless they received A plus B plus C. And so on, through the whole +alphabet and up to the scaffold. + +Unfortunately the king was always just one letter behind. He never +understood this. Even when he laid his head under the guillotine, he +felt that he was a much-abused man who had received a most unwarrantable +treatment at the hands of people whom he had loved to the best of his +limited ability. + +Historical "ifs," as I have often warned you, are never of any value. It +is very easy for us to say that the monarchy might have been saved "if" +Louis had been a man of greater energy and less kindness of heart. But +the king was not alone. Even "if" he had possessed the ruthless strength +of Napoleon, his career during these difficult days might have been +easily ruined by his wife who was the daughter of Maria Theresa of +Austria and who possessed all the characteristic virtues and vices of a +young girl who had been brought up at the most autocratic and mediaeval +court of that age. + +She decided that some action must be taken and planned a +counter-revolution. Necker was suddenly dismissed and loyal troops +were called to Paris. The people, when they heard of this, stormed the +fortress of the Bastille prison, and on the fourteenth of July of +the year 1789, they destroyed this familiar but much-hated symbol of +Autocratic Power which had long since ceased to be a political prison +and was now used as the city lock-up for pickpockets and second-story +men. Many of the nobles took the hint and left the country. But the king +as usual did nothing. He had been hunting on the day of the fall of the +Bastille and he had shot several deer and felt very much pleased. + +The National Assembly now set to work and on the 4th of August, with +the noise of the Parisian multitude in their ears, they abolished all +privileges. This was followed on the 27th of August by the "Declaration +of the Rights of Man," the famous preamble to the first French +constitution. So far so good, but the court had apparently not yet +learned its lesson. There was a wide-spread suspicion that the king was +again trying to interfere with these reforms and as a result, on the 5th +of October, there was a second riot in Paris. It spread to Versailles +and the people were not pacified until they had brought the king back to +his palace in Paris. They did not trust him in Versailles. They liked to +have him where they could watch him and control his correspondence with +his relatives in Vienna and Madrid and the other courts of Europe. + +In the Assembly meanwhile, Mirabeau, a nobleman who had become leader of +the Third Estate, was beginning to put order into chaos. But before he +could save the position of the king he died, on the 2nd of April of the +year 1791. The king, who now began to fear for his own life, tried to +escape on the 21st of June. He was recognised from his picture on +a coin, was stopped near the village of Varennes by members of the +National Guard, and was brought back to Paris. + +In September of 1791, the first constitution of France was accepted, and +the members of the National Assembly went home. On the first of October +of 1791, the legislative assembly came together to continue the work of +the National Assembly. In this new gathering of popular representatives +there were many extremely revolutionary elements. The boldest among +these were known as the Jacobins, after the old Jacobin cloister in +which they held their political meetings. These young men (most of them +belonging to the professional classes) made very violent speeches and +when the newspapers carried these orations to Berlin and Vienna, the +King of Prussia and the Emperor decided that they must do something +to save their good brother and sister. They were very busy just then +dividing the kingdom of Poland, where rival political factions had +caused such a state of disorder that the country was at the mercy of +anybody who wanted to take a couple of provinces. But they managed to +send an army to invade France and deliver the king. + +Then a terrible panic of fear swept throughout the land of France. All +the pent-up hatred of years of hunger and suffering came to a horrible +climax. The mob of Paris stormed the palace of the Tuilleries. The +faithful Swiss bodyguards tried to defend their master, but Louis, +unable to make up his mind, gave order to "cease firing" just when the +crowd was retiring. The people, drunk with blood and noise and cheap +wine, murdered the Swiss to the last man, then invaded the palace, and +went after Louis who had escaped into the meeting hall of the Assembly, +where he was immediately suspended of his office, and from where he was +taken as a prisoner to the old castle of the Temple. + +But the armies of Austria and Prussia continued their advance and the +panic changed into hysteria and turned men and women into wild beasts. +In the first week of September of the year 1792, the crowd broke +into the jails and murdered all the prisoners. The government did not +interfere. The Jacobins, headed by Danton, knew that this crisis meant +either the success or the failure of the revolution, and that only +the most brutal audacity could save them. The Legislative Assembly was +closed and on the 21st of September of the year 1792, a new National +Convention came together. It was a body composed almost entirely of +extreme revolutionists. The king was formally accused of high treason +and was brought before the Convention. He was found guilty and by a +vote of 361 to 360 (the extra vote being that of his cousin the Duke of +Orleans) he was condemned to death. On the 21st of January of the year +1793, he quietly and with much dignity suffered himself to be taken to +the scaffold. He had never understood what all the shooting and the fuss +had been about. And he had been too proud to ask questions. + +Then the Jacobins turned against the more moderate element in the +convention, the Girondists, called after their southern district, the +Gironde. A special revolutionary tribunal was instituted and twenty-one +of the leading Girondists were condemned to death. The others committed +suicide. They were capable and honest men but too philosophical and too +moderate to survive during these frightful years. + +In October of the year 1793 the Constitution was suspended by the +Jacobins "until peace should have been declared." All power was placed +in the hands of a small committee of Public Safety, with Danton +and Robespierre as its leaders. The Christian religion and the old +chronology were abolished. The "Age of Reason" (of which Thomas Paine +had written so eloquently during the American Revolution) had come and +with it the "Terror" which for more than a year killed good and bad and +indifferent people at the rate of seventy or eighty a day. + +The autocratic rule of the King had been destroyed. It was succeeded +by the tyranny of a few people who had such a passionate love for +democratic virtue that they felt compelled to kill all those who +disagreed with them. France was turned into a slaughter house. Everybody +suspected everybody else. No one felt safe. Out of sheer fear, a +few members of the old Convention, who knew that they were the next +candidates for the scaffold, finally turned against Robespierre, who +had already decapitated most of his former colleagues. Robespierre, +"the only true and pure Democrat," tried to kill himself but failed His +shattered jaw was hastily bandaged and he was dragged to the guillotine. +On the 27th of July, of the year 1794 (the 9th Thermidor of the year +II, according to the strange chronology of the revolution), the reign of +Terror came to an end, and all Paris danced with joy. + +The dangerous position of France, however, made it necessary that the +government remain in the hands of a few strong men, until the many +enemies of the revolution should have been driven from the soil of the +French fatherland. While the half-clad and half-starved revolutionary +armies fought their desperate battles of the Rhine and Italy and +Belgium and Egypt, and defeated every one of the enemies of the Great +Revolution, five Directors were appointed, and they ruled France for +four years. Then the power was vested in the hands of a successful +general by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, who became "First Consul" +of France in the year 1799. And during the next fifteen years, the +old European continent became the laboratory of a number of political +experiments, the like of which the world had never seen before. + + + + +NAPOLEON + +NAPOLEON + + +NAPOLEON was born in the year 1769, the third son of Carlo Maria +Buonaparte, an honest notary public of the city of Ajaccio in the island +of Corsica, and his good wife, Letizia Ramolino. He therefore was not +a Frenchman, but an Italian whose native island (an old Greek, +Carthaginian and Roman colony in the Mediterranean Sea) had for years +been struggling to regain its independence, first of all from the +Genoese, and after the middle of the eighteenth century from the French, +who had kindly offered to help the Corsicans in their struggle for +freedom and had then occupied the island for their own benefit. + +During the first twenty years of his life, young Napoleon was a +professional Corsican patriot--a Corsican Sinn Feiner, who hoped to +deliver his beloved country from the yoke of the bitterly hated French +enemy. But the French revolution had unexpectedly recognised the +claims of the Corsicans and gradually Napoleon, who had received a good +training at the military school of Brienne, drifted into the service of +his adopted country. Although he never learned to spell French correctly +or to speak it without a broad Italian accent, he became a Frenchman. +In due time he came to stand as the highest expression of all French +virtues. At present he is regarded as the symbol of the Gallic genius. + +Napoleon was what is called a fast worker. His career does not cover +more than twenty years. In that short span of time he fought more wars +and gained more victories and marched more miles and conquered more +square kilometers and killed more people and brought about more reforms +and generally upset Europe to a greater extent than anybody (including +Alexander the Great and Jenghis Khan) had ever managed to do. + +He was a little fellow and during the first years of his life his health +was not very good. He never impressed anybody by his good looks and he +remained to the end of his days very clumsy whenever he was obliged +to appear at a social function. He did not enjoy a single advantage of +breeding or birth or riches. For the greater part of his youth he was +desperately poor and often he had to go without a meal or was obliged to +make a few extra pennies in curious ways. + +He gave little promise as a literary genius. When he competed for a +prize offered by the Academy of Lyons, his essay was found to be next to +the last and he was number 15 out of 16 candidates. But he overcame all +these difficulties through his absolute and unshakable belief in his own +destiny, and in his own glorious future. Ambition was the main-spring +of his life. The thought of self, the worship of that capital letter "N" +with which he signed all his letters, and which recurred forever in the +ornaments of his hastily constructed palaces, the absolute will to make +the name Napoleon the most important thing in the world next to the name +of God, these desires carried Napoleon to a pinnacle of fame which no +other man has ever reached. + +When he was a half-pay lieutenant, young Bonaparte was very fond of the +"Lives of Famous Men" which Plutarch, the Roman historian, had written. +But he never tried to live up to the high standard of character set by +these heroes of the older days. Napoleon seems to have been devoid of +all those considerate and thoughtful sentiments which make men different +from the animals. It will be very difficult to decide with any degree of +accuracy whether he ever loved anyone besides himself. He kept a civil +tongue to his mother, but Letizia had the air and manners of a great +lady and after the fashion of Italian mothers, she knew how to rule her +brood of children and command their respect. For a few years he was fond +of Josephine, his pretty Creole wife, who was the daughter of a French +officer of Martinique and the widow of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, +who had been executed by Robespierre when he lost a battle against the +Prussians. But the Emperor divorced her when she failed to give him a +son and heir and married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, because +it seemed good policy. + +During the siege of Toulon, where he gained great fame as commander of +a battery, Napoleon studied Macchiavelli with industrious care. He +followed the advice of the Florentine statesman and never kept his word +when it was to his advantage to break it. The word "gratitude" did not +occur in his personal dictionary. Neither, to be quite fair, did he +expect it from others. He was totally indifferent to human suffering. He +executed prisoners of war (in Egypt in 1798) who had been promised their +lives, and he quietly allowed his wounded in Syria to be chloroformed +when he found it impossible to transport them to his ships. He +ordered the Duke of Enghien to be condemned to death by a prejudiced +court-martial and to be shot contrary to all law on the sole ground that +the "Bourbons needed a warning." He decreed that those German officers +who were made prisoner while fighting for their country's independence +should be shot against the nearest wall, and when Andreas Hofer, the +Tyrolese hero, fell into his hands after a most heroic resistance, he +was executed like a common traitor. + +In short, when we study the character of the Emperor, we begin to +understand those anxious British mothers who used to drive their +children to bed with the threat that "Bonaparte, who ate little boys +and girls for breakfast, would come and get them if they were not very +good." And yet, having said these many unpleasant things about this +strange tyrant, who looked after every other department of his army with +the utmost care, but neglected the medical service, and who ruined his +uniforms with Eau de Cologne because he could not stand the smell of +his poor sweating soldiers; having said all these unpleasant things +and being fully prepared to add many more, I must confess to a certain +lurking feeling of doubt. + +Here I am sitting at a comfortable table loaded heavily with books, with +one eye on my typewriter and the other on Licorice the cat, who has a +great fondness for carbon paper, and I am telling you that the Emperor +Napoleon was a most contemptible person. But should I happen to look +out of the window, down upon Seventh Avenue, and should the endless +procession of trucks and carts come to a sudden halt, and should I hear +the sound of the heavy drums and see the little man on his white horse +in his old and much-worn green uniform, then I don't know, but I am +afraid that I would leave my books and the kitten and my home and +everything else to follow him wherever he cared to lead. My own +grandfather did this and Heaven knows he was not born to be a hero. +Millions of other people's grandfathers did it. They received no reward, +but they expected none. They cheerfully gave legs and arms and lives +to serve this foreigner, who took them a thousand miles away from their +homes and marched them into a barrage of Russian or English or Spanish +or Italian or Austrian cannon and stared quietly into space while they +were rolling in the agony of death. + +If you ask me for an explanation, I must answer that I have none. I can +only guess at one of the reasons. Napoleon was the greatest of actors +and the whole European continent was his stage. At all times and under +all circumstances he knew the precise attitude that would impress the +spectators most and he understood what words would make the deepest +impression. Whether he spoke in the Egyptian desert, before the backdrop +of the Sphinx and the pyramids, or addressed his shivering men on the +dew-soaked plains of Italy, made no difference. At all times he was +master of the situation. Even at the end, an exile on a little rock +in the middle of the Atlantic, a sick man at the mercy of a dull and +intolerable British governor, he held the centre of the stage. + +After the defeat of Waterloo, no one outside of a few trusted friends +ever saw the great Emperor. The people of Europe knew that he was living +on the island of St. Helena--they knew that a British garrison guarded +him day and night--they knew that the British fleet guarded the garrison +which guarded the Emperor on his farm at Longwood. But he was never out +of the mind of either friend or enemy. When illness and despair had at +last taken him away, his silent eyes continued to haunt the world. Even +to-day he is as much of a force in the life of France as a hundred years +ago when people fainted at the mere sight of this sallow-faced man who +stabled his horses in the holiest temples of the Russian Kremlin, and +who treated the Pope and the mighty ones of this earth as if they were +his lackeys. + +To give you a mere outline of his life would demand couple of volumes. +To tell you of his great political reform of the French state, of his +new codes of laws which were adopted in most European countries, of his +activities in every field of public activity, would take thousands of +pages. But I can explain in a few words why he was so successful during +the first part of his career and why he failed during the last ten +years. From the year 1789 until the year 1804, Napoleon was the great +leader of the French revolution. He was not merely fighting for the +glory of his own name. He defeated Austria and Italy and England and +Russia because he, himself, and his soldiers were the apostles of the +new creed of "Liberty, Fraternity and Equality" and were the enemies of +the courts while they were the friends of the people. + +But in the year 1804, Napoleon made himself Hereditary Emperor of the +French and sent for Pope Pius VII to come and crown him, even as Leo +III, in the year 800 had crowned that other great King of the Franks, +Charlemagne, whose example was constantly before Napoleon's eyes. + +Once upon the throne, the old revolutionary chieftain became an +unsuccessful imitation of a Habsburg monarch. He forgot his spiritual +Mother, the Political Club of the Jacobins. He ceased to be the defender +of the oppressed. He became the chief of all the oppressors and kept his +shooting squads ready to execute those who dared to oppose his imperial +will. No one had shed a tear when in the year 1806 the sad remains of +the Holy Roman Empire were carted to the historical dustbin and when the +last relic of ancient Roman glory was destroyed by the grandson of an +Italian peasant. But when the Napoleonic armies had invaded Spain, +had forced the Spaniards to recognise a king whom they detested, had +massacred the poor Madrilenes who remained faithful to their old rulers, +then public opinion turned against the former hero of Marengo and +Austerlitz and a hundred other revolutionary battles. Then and only +then, when Napoleon was no longer the hero of the revolution but the +personification of all the bad traits of the Old Regime, was it possible +for England to give direction to the fast-spreading sentiment of hatred +which was turning all honest men into enemies of the French Emperor. + +The English people from the very beginning had felt deeply disgusted +when their newspapers told them the gruesome details of the Terror. They +had staged their own great revolution (during the reign of Charles I) +a century before. It had been a very simple affair compared to the +upheaval of Paris. In the eyes of the average Englishman a Jacobin was +a monster to be shot at sight and Napoleon was the Chief Devil. The +British fleet had blockaded France ever since the year 1798. It had +spoiled Napoleon's plan to invade India by way of Egypt and had forced +him to beat an ignominious retreat, after his victories along the banks +of the Nile. And finally, in the year 1805, England got the chance it +had waited for so long. + +Near Cape Trafalgar on the southwestern coast of Spain, Nelson +annihilated the Napoleonic fleet, beyond a possible chance of recovery. +From that moment on, the Emperor was landlocked. Even so, he would have +been able to maintain himself as the recognised ruler of the continent +had he understood the signs of the times and accepted the honourable +peace which the powers offered him. But Napoleon had been blinded by the +blaze of his own glory. He would recognise no equals. He could tolerate +no rivals. And his hatred turned against Russia, the mysterious land of +the endless plains with its inexhaustible supply of cannon-fodder. + +As long as Russia was ruled by Paul I, the half-witted son of Catherine +the Great, Napoleon had known how to deal with the situation. But Paul +grew more and more irresponsible until his exasperated subjects were +obliged to murder him (lest they all be sent to the Siberian lead-mines) +and the son of Paul, the Emperor Alexander, did not share his father's +affection for the usurper whom he regarded as the enemy of mankind, the +eternal disturber of the peace. He was a pious man who believed that he +had been chosen by God to deliver the world from the Corsican curse. +He joined Prussia and England and Austria and he was defeated. He tried +five times and five times he failed. In the year 1812 he once more +taunted Napoleon until the French Emperor, in a blind rage, vowed that +he would dictate peace in Moscow. Then, from far and wide, from Spain +and Germany and Holland and Italy and Portugal, unwilling regiments were +driven northward, that the wounded pride of the great Emperor might be +duly avenged. The rest of the story is common knowledge. After a march +of two months, Napoleon reached the Russian capital and established his +headquarters in the holy Kremlin. On the night of September 15 of the +year 1812, Moscow caught fire. The town burned four days. When the +evening of the fifth day came, Napoleon gave the order for the retreat. +Two weeks later it began to snow. The army trudged through mud and sleet +until November the 26th when the river Berezina was reached. Then the +Russian attacks began in all seriousness. The Cossacks swarmed around +the "Grande Armee" which was no longer an army but a mob. In the middle +of December the first of the survivors began to be seen in the German +cities of the East. + +Then there were many rumours of an impending revolt. "The time +has come," the people of Europe said, "to free ourselves from this +insufferable yoke." And they began to look for old shotguns which had +escaped the eye of the ever-present French spies. But ere they knew +what had happened, Napoleon was back with a new army. He had left his +defeated soldiers and in his little sleigh had rushed ahead to Paris, +making a final appeal for more troops that he might defend the sacred +soil of France against foreign invasion. + +Children of sixteen and seventeen followed him when he moved eastward to +meet the allied powers. On October 16, 18, and 19 of the year 1813, the +terrible battle of Leipzig took place where for three days boys in green +and boys in blue fought each other until the Elbe ran red with blood. +On the afternoon of the 17th of October, the massed reserves of Russian +infantry broke through the French lines and Napoleon fled. + +Back to Paris he went. He abdicated in favour of his small son, but the +allied powers insisted that Louis XVIII, the brother of the late king +Louis XVI, should occupy the French throne, and surrounded by Cossacks +and Uhlans, the dull-eyed Bourbon prince made his triumphal entry into +Paris. + +As for Napoleon he was made the sovereign ruler of the little island +of Elba in the Mediterranean where he organised his stable boys into a +miniature army and fought battles on a chess board. + +But no sooner had he left France than the people began to realise what +they had lost. The last twenty years, however costly, had been a period +of great glory. Paris had been the capital of the world. The fat Bourbon +king who had learned nothing and had forgotten nothing during the days +of his exile disgusted everybody by his indolence. + +On the first of March of the year 1815, when the representatives of the +allies were ready to begin the work of unscrambling the map of Europe, +Napoleon suddenly landed near Cannes. In less than a week the French +army had deserted the Bourbons and had rushed southward to offer their +swords and bayonets to the "little Corporal." Napoleon marched straight +to Paris where he arrived on the twentieth of March. This time he was +more cautious. He offered peace, but the allies insisted upon war. The +whole of Europe arose against the "perfidious Corsican." Rapidly the +Emperor marched northward that he might crush his enemies before they +should be able to unite their forces. But Napoleon was no longer his old +self. He felt sick. He got tired easily. He slept when he ought to have +been up directing the attack of his advance-guard. Besides, he missed +many of his faithful old generals. They were dead. + +Early in June his armies entered Belgium. On the 16th of that month he +defeated the Prussians under Blucher. But a subordinate commander failed +to destroy the retreating army as he had been ordered to do. + +Two days later, Napoleon met Wellington near Waterloo. It was the 18th +of June, a Sunday. At two o'clock of the afternoon, the battle seemed +won for the French. At three a speck of dust appeared upon the eastern +horizon. Napoleon believed that this meant the approach of his own +cavalry who would now turn the English defeat into a rout. At four +o'clock he knew better. Cursing and swearing, old Blucher drove his +deathly tired troops into the heart of the fray. The shock broke the +ranks of the guards. Napoleon had no further reserves. He told his men +to save themselves as best they could, and he fled. + +For a second time, he abdicated in favor of his son. Just one hundred +days after his escape from Elba, he was making for the coast. He +intended to go to America. In the year 1803, for a mere song, he had +sold the French colony of Louisiana (which was in great danger of +being captured by the English) to the young American Republic. "The +Americans," so he said, "will be grateful and will give me a little bit +of land and a house where I may spend the last days of my life in peace +and quiet." But the English fleet was watching all French harbours. +Caught between the armies of the Allies and the ships of the British, +Napoleon had no choice. The Prussians intended to shoot him. The +English might be more generous. At Rochefort he waited in the hope that +something might turn up. One month after Waterloo, he received +orders from the new French government to leave French soil inside of +twenty-four hours. Always the tragedian, he wrote a letter to the +Prince Regent of England (George IV, the king, was in an insane asylum) +informing His Royal Highness of his intention to "throw himself upon the +mercy of his enemies and like Themistocles, to look for a welcome at the +fireside of his foes..." + +On the 15th of July he went on board the "Bellerophon," and surrendered +his sword to Admiral Hotham. At Plymouth he was transferred to the +"Northumberland" which carried him to St. Helena. There he spent +the last seven years of his life. He tried to write his memoirs, he +quarrelled with his keepers and he dreamed of past times. Curiously +enough he returned (at least in his imagination) to his original point +of departure. He remembered the days when he had fought the battles of +the Revolution. He tried to convince himself that he had always been +the true friend of those great principles of "Liberty, Fraternity and +Equality" which the ragged soldiers of the convention had carried to +the ends of the earth. He liked to dwell upon his career as +Commander-in-Chief and Consul. He rarely spoke of the Empire. Sometimes +he thought of his son, the Duke of Reichstadt, the little eagle, who +lived in Vienna, where he was treated as a "poor relation" by his young +Habsburg cousins, whose fathers had trembled at the very mention of the +name of Him. When the end came, he was leading his troops to victory. He +ordered Ney to attack with the guards. Then he died. + +But if you want an explanation of this strange career, if you really +wish to know how one man could possibly rule so many people for so many +years by the sheer force of his will, do not read the books that have +been written about him. Their authors either hated the Emperor or +loved him. You will learn many facts, but it is more important to "feel +history" than to know it. Don't read, but wait until you have a chance +to hear a good artist sing the song called "The Two Grenadiers." The +words were written by Heine, the great German poet who lived through the +Napoleonic era. The music was composed by Schumann, a German who saw +the Emperor, the enemy of his country, whenever he came to visit his +imperial father-in-law. The song therefore is the work of two men who +had every reason to hate the tyrant. + +Go and hear it. Then you will understand what a thousand volumes could +not possibly tell you. + + + + +THE HOLY ALLIANCE + +AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA THE RULERS WHO SO OFTEN +HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED "CORSICAN" MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED +TO UNDO THE MANY CHANGES THAT HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH +REVOLUTION + + +THE Imperial Highnesses, the Royal Highnesses, their Graces the Dukes, +the Ministers Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, together with the plain +Excellencies and their army of secretaries, servants and hangers-on, +whose labours had been so rudely interrupted by the sudden return of the +terrible Corsican (now sweltering under the hot sun of St. Helena) went +back to their jobs. The victory was duly celebrated with dinners, garden +parties and balls at which the new and very shocking "waltz" was danced +to the great scandal of the ladies and gentlemen who remembered the +minuet of the old Regime. + +For almost a generation they had lived in retirement. At last the danger +was over. They were very eloquent upon the subject of the terrible +hardships which they had suffered. And they expected to be recompensed +for every penny they had lost at the hands of the unspeakable Jacobins +who had dared to kill their anointed king, who had abolished wigs and +who had discarded the short trousers of the court of Versailles for the +ragged pantaloons of the Parisian slums. + +You may think it absurd that I should mention such a detail. But, if +you please, the Congress of Vienna was one long succession of such +absurdities and for many months the question of "short trousers vs. long +trousers" interested the delegates more than the future settlement of +the Saxon or Spanish problems. His Majesty the King of Prussia went so +far as to order a pair of short ones, that he might give public evidence +of his contempt for everything revolutionary. + +Another German potentate, not to be outdone in this noble hatred for the +revolution, decreed that all taxes which his subjects had paid to the +French usurper should be paid a second time to the legitimate ruler +who had loved his people from afar while they were at the mercy of the +Corsican ogre. And so on. From one blunder to another, until one gasps +and exclaims "but why in the name of High Heaven did not the people +object?" Why not indeed? Because the people were utterly exhausted, were +desperate, did not care what happened or how or where or by whom they +were ruled, provided there was peace. They were sick and tired of war +and revolution and reform. + +In the eighties of the previous century they had all danced around the +tree of liberty. Princes had embraced their cooks and Duchesses had +danced the Carmagnole with their lackeys in the honest belief that +the Millennium of Equality and Fraternity had at last dawned upon this +wicked world. Instead of the Millennium they had been visited by the +Revolutionary commissary who had lodged a dozen dirty soldiers in their +parlor and had stolen the family plate when he returned to Paris to +report to his government upon the enthusiasm with which the "liberated +country" had received the Constitution, which the French people had +presented to their good neighbours. + +When they had heard how the last outbreak of revolutionary disorder +in Paris had been suppressed by a young officer, called Bonaparte, or +Buonaparte, who had turned his guns upon the mob, they gave a sigh of +relief. A little less liberty, fraternity and equality seemed a very +desirable thing. But ere long, the young officer called Buonaparte or +Bonaparte became one of the three consuls of the French Republic, then +sole consul and finally Emperor. As he was much more efficient than any +ruler that had ever been seen before, his hand pressed heavily upon his +poor subjects. He showed them no mercy. He impressed their sons into +his armies, he married their daughters to his generals and he took their +pictures and their statues to enrich his own museums. He turned +the whole of Europe into an armed camp and killed almost an entire +generation of men. + +Now he was gone, and the people (except a few professional military men) +had but one wish. They wanted to be let alone. For awhile they had been +allowed to rule themselves, to vote for mayors and aldermen and +judges. The system had been a terrible failure. The new rulers had been +inexperienced and extravagant. From sheer despair the people turned to +the representative men of the old Regime. "You rule us," they said, "as +you used to do. Tell us what we owe you for taxes and leave us alone. We +are busy repairing the damage of the age of liberty." + +The men who stage-managed the famous congress certainly did their best +to satisfy this longing for rest and quiet. The Holy Alliance, the main +result of the Congress, made the policeman the most important dignitary +of the State and held out the most terrible punishment to those who +dared criticise a single official act. + +Europe had peace, but it was the peace of the cemetery. + +The three most important men at Vienna were the Emperor Alexander of +Russia, Metternich, who represented the interests of the Austrian house +of Habsburg, and Talleyrand, the erstwhile bishop of Autun, who had +managed to live through the different changes in the French government +by the sheer force of his cunning and his intelligence and who now +travelled to the Austrian capital to save for his country whatever +could be saved from the Napoleonic ruin. Like the gay young man of the +limerick, who never knew when he was slighted, this unbidden guest came +to the party and ate just as heartily as if he had been really +invited. Indeed, before long, he was sitting at the head of the +table entertaining everybody with his amusing stories and gaining the +company's good will by the charm of his manner. + +Before he had been in Vienna twenty-four hours he knew that the allies +were divided into two hostile camps. On the one side were Russia, who +wanted to take Poland, and Prussia, who wanted to annex Saxony; and on +the other side were Austria and England, who were trying to prevent this +grab because it was against their own interest that either Prussia or +Russia should be able to dominate Europe. Talleyrand played the two +sides against each other with great skill and it was due to his efforts +that the French people were not made to suffer for the ten years +of oppression which Europe had endured at the hands of the Imperial +officials. He argued that the French people had been given no choice in +the matter. Napoleon had forced them to act at his bidding. But Napoleon +was gone and Louis XVIII was on the throne. "Give him a chance," +Talleyrand pleaded. And the Allies, glad to see a legitimate king +upon the throne of a revolutionary country, obligingly yielded and the +Bourbons were given their chance, of which they made such use that they +were driven out after fifteen years. + +The second man of the triumvirate of Vienna was Metternich, the Austrian +prime minister, the leader of the foreign policy of the house of +Habsburg. Wenzel Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg, was exactly +what the name suggests. He was a Grand Seigneur, a very handsome +gentleman with very fine manners, immensely rich, and very able, but the +product of a society which lived a thousand miles away from the sweating +multitudes who worked and slaved in the cities and on the farms. As a +young man, Metternich had been studying at the University of Strassburg +when the French Revolution broke out. Strassburg, the city which gave +birth to the Marseillaise, had been a centre of Jacobin activities. +Metternich remembered that his pleasant social life had been sadly +interrupted, that a lot of incompetent citizens had suddenly been called +forth to perform tasks for which they were not fit, that the mob had +celebrated the dawn of the new liberty by the murder of perfectly +innocent persons. He had failed to see the honest enthusiasm of the +masses, the ray of hope in the eyes of women and children who carried +bread and water to the ragged troops of the Convention, marching through +the city on their way to the front and a glorious death for the French +Fatherland. + +The whole thing had filled the young Austrian with disgust. It was +uncivilised. If there were any fighting to be done it must be done by +dashing young men in lovely uniforms, charging across the green +fields on well-groomed horses. But to turn an entire country into an +evil-smelling armed camp where tramps were overnight promoted to be +generals, that was both wicked and senseless. "See what came of all your +fine ideas," he would say to the French diplomats whom he met at a quiet +little dinner given by one of the innumerable Austrian grand-dukes. "You +wanted liberty, equality and fraternity and you got Napoleon. How much +better it would have been if you had been contented with the existing +order of things." And he would explain his system of "stability." He +would advocate a return to the normalcy of the good old days before +the war, when everybody was happy and nobody talked nonsense about +"everybody being as good as everybody else." In this attitude he was +entirely sincere and as he was an able man of great strength of will +and a tremendous power of persuasion, he was one of the most dangerous +enemies of the Revolutionary ideas. He did not die until the year 1859, +and he therefore lived long enough to see the complete failure of all +his policies when they were swept aside by the revolution of the year +1848. He then found himself the most hated man of Europe and more than +once ran the risk of being lynched by angry crowds of outraged citizens. +But until the very last, he remained steadfast in his belief that he had +done the right thing. + +He had always been convinced that people preferred peace to liberty and +he had tried to give them what was best for them. And in all fairness, +it ought to be said that his efforts to establish universal peace were +fairly successful. The great powers did not fly at each other's throat +for almost forty years, indeed not until the Crimean war between Russia +and England, France and Italy and Turkey, in the year 1854. That means a +record for the European continent. + +The third hero of this waltzing congress was the Emperor Alexander. +He had been brought up at the court of his grand-mother, the famous +Catherine the Great. Between the lessons of this shrewd old woman, who +taught him to regard the glory of Russia as the most important thing in +life, and those of his private tutor, a Swiss admirer of Voltaire and +Rousseau, who filled his mind with a general love of humanity, the boy +grew up to be a strange mixture of a selfish tyrant and a sentimental +revolutionist. He had suffered great indignities during the life of +his crazy father, Paul I. He had been obliged to wit-ness the wholesale +slaughter of the Napoleonic battle-fields. Then the tide had turned. His +armies had won the day for the Allies. Russia had become the saviour of +Europe and the Tsar of this mighty people was acclaimed as a half-god +who would cure the world of its many ills. + +But Alexander was not very clever. He did not know men and women as +Talleyrand and Metternich knew them. He did not understand the +strange game of diplomacy. He was vain (who would not be under the +circumstances?) and loved to hear the applause of the multitude and soon +he had become the main "attraction" of the Congress while Metternich and +Talleyrand and Castlereagh (the very able British representative) sat +around a table and drank a bottle of Tokay and decided what was actually +going to be done. They needed Russia and therefore they were very polite +to Alexander, but the less he had personally to do with the actual work +of the Congress, the better they were pleased. They even encouraged his +plans for a Holy Alliance that he might be fully occupied while they +were engaged upon the work at hand. + +Alexander was a sociable person who liked to go to parties and meet +people. Upon such occasions he was happy and gay but there was a very +different element in his character. He tried to forget something which +he could not forget. On the night of the 23rd of March of the year 1801 +he had been sitting in a room of the St. Michael Palace in Petersburg, +waiting for the news of his father's abdication. But Paul had refused +to sign the document which the drunken officers had placed before him +on the table, and in their rage they had put a scarf around his neck +and had strangled him to death. Then they had gone downstairs to tell +Alexander that he was Emperor of all the Russian lands. + +The memory of this terrible night stayed with the Tsar who was a very +sensitive person. He had been educated in the school of the great French +philosophers who did not believe in God but in Human Reason. But Reason +alone could not satisfy the Emperor in his predicament. He began to hear +voices and see things. He tried to find a way by which he could square +himself with his conscience. He became very pious and began to take +an interest in mysticism, that strange love of the mysterious and the +unknown which is as old as the temples of Thebes and Babylon. + +The tremendous emotion of the great revolutionary era had influenced the +character of the people of that day in a strange way. Men and women who +had lived through twenty years of anxiety and fear were no longer quite +normal. They jumped whenever the door-bell rang. It might mean the news +of the "death on the field of honour" of an only son. The phrases about +"brotherly love" and "liberty" of the Revolution were hollow words in +the ears of sorely stricken peasants. They clung to anything that might +give them a new hold on the terrible problems of life. In their grief +and misery they were easily imposed upon by a large number of imposters +who posed as prophets and preached a strange new doctrine which they dug +out of the more obscure passages of the Book of Revelations. + +In the year 1814, Alexander, who had already consulted a large number +of wonder-doctors, heard of a new seeress who was foretelling the coming +doom of the world and was exhorting people to repent ere it be too late. +The Baroness von Krudener, the lady in question, was a Russian woman of +uncertain age and similar reputation who had been the wife of a Russian +diplomat in the days of the Emperor Paul. She had squandered her +husband's money and had disgraced him by her strange love affairs. She +had lived a very dissolute life until her nerves had given way and for a +while she was not in her right mind. Then she had been converted by +the sight of the sudden death of a friend. Thereafter she despised all +gaiety. She confessed her former sins to her shoemaker, a pious Moravian +brother, a follower of the old reformer John Huss, who had been burned +for his heresies by the Council of Constance in the year 1415. + +The next ten years the Baroness spent in Germany making a specialty +of the "conversion" of kings and princes. To convince Alexander, the +Saviour of Europe, of the error of his ways was the greatest ambition +of her life. And as Alexander, in his misery, was willing to listen +to anybody who brought him a ray of hope, the interview was easily +arranged. On the evening of the fourth of June of the year 1815, she was +admitted to the tent of the Emperor. She found him reading his Bible. +We do not know what she said to Alexander, but when she left him three +hours later, he was bathed in tears, and vowed that "at last his +soul had found peace." From that day on the Baroness was his faithful +companion and his spiritual adviser. She followed him to Paris and then +to Vienna and the time which Alexander did not spend dancing he spent at +the Krudener prayer-meetings. + +You may ask why I tell you this story in such great detail? Are not the +social changes of the nineteenth century of greater importance than the +career of an ill-balanced woman who had better be forgotten? Of course +they are, but there exist any number of books which will tell you of +these other things with great accuracy and in great detail. I want you +to learn something more from this history than a mere succession of +facts. I want you to approach all historical events in a frame of mind +that will take nothing for granted. Don't be satisfied with the mere +statement that "such and such a thing happened then and there." Try +to discover the hidden motives behind every action and then you will +understand the world around you much better and you will have a greater +chance to help others, which (when all is said and done) is the only +truly satisfactory way of living. + +I do not want you to think of the Holy Alliance as a piece of paper +which was signed in the year 1815 and lies dead and forgotten somewhere +in the archives of state. It may be forgotten but it is by no means +dead. The Holy Alliance was directly responsible for the promulgation +of the Monroe Doctrine, and the Monroe Doctrine of America for the +Americans has a very distinct bearing upon your own life. That is the +reason why I want you to know exactly how this document happened to come +into existence and what the real motives were underlying this outward +manifestation of piety and Christian devotion to duty. + +The Holy Alliance was the joint labour of an unfortunate man who had +suffered a terrible mental shock and who was trying to pacify his +much-disturbed soul, and of an ambitious woman who after a wasted life +had lost her beauty and her attraction and who satisfied her vanity and +her desire for notoriety by assuming the role of self-appointed Messiah +of a new and strange creed. I am not giving away any secrets when I tell +you these details. Such sober minded people as Castlereagh, Metternich +and Talleyrand fully understood the limited abilities of the sentimental +Baroness. It would have been easy for Metternich to send her back to her +German estates. A few lines to the almighty commander of the imperial +police and the thing was done. + +But France and England and Austria depended upon the good-will of +Russia. They could not afford to offend Alexander. And they tolerated +the silly old Baroness because they had to. And while they regarded the +Holy Alliance as utter rubbish and not worth the paper upon which it was +written, they listened patiently to the Tsar when he read them the first +rough draft of this attempt to create the Brotherhood of Men upon a +basis of the Holy Scriptures. For this is what the Holy Alliance tried +to do, and the signers of the document solemnly declared that they would +"in the administration of their respective states and in their political +relations with every other government take for their sole guide +the precepts of that Holy Religion, namely the precepts of Justice, +Christian Charity and Peace, which far from being applicable only to +private concerns must have an immediate influence on the councils of +princes, and must guide all their steps as being the only means of +consolidating human institutions and remedying their imperfections." +They then proceeded to promise each other that they would remain united +"by the bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity, and considering +each other as fellow-countrymen, they would on all occasions and in all +places lend each other aid and assistance." And more words to the same +effect. + +Eventually the Holy Alliance was signed by the Emperor of Austria, +who did not understand a word of it. It was signed by the Bourbons who +needed the friendship of Napoleon's old enemies. It was signed by +the King of Prussia, who hoped to gain Alexander for his plans for a +"greater Prussia," and by all the little nations of Europe who were at +the mercy of Russia. England never signed, because Castlereagh thought +the whole thing buncombe. The Pope did not sign because he resented this +interference in his business by a Greek-Orthodox and a Protestant. And +the Sultan did not sign because he never heard of it. + +The general mass of the European people, however, soon were forced to +take notice. Behind the hollow phrases of the Holy Alliance stood the +armies of the Quintuple Alliance which Metternich had created among the +great powers. These armies meant business. They let it be known that the +peace of Europe must not be disturbed by the so-called liberals who were +in reality nothing but disguised Jacobins, and hoped for a return of the +revolutionary days. The enthusiasm for the great wars of liberation of +the years 1812, 1818, 1814 and 1815 had begun to wear off. It had +been followed by a sincere belief in the coming of a happier day. The +soldiers who had borne the brunt of the battle wanted peace and they +said so. + +But they did not want the sort of peace which the Holy Alliance and the +Council of the European powers had now bestowed upon them. They cried +that they had been betrayed. But they were careful lest they be heard +by a secret-police spy. The reaction was victorious. It was a reaction +caused by men who sincerely believed that their methods were necessary +for the good of humanity. But it was just as hard to bear as if their +intentions had been less kind. And it caused a great deal of unnecessary +suffering and greatly retarded the orderly progress of political +development. + + + + +THE GREAT REACTION + +THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED PEACE BY +SUPPRESSING ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST +FUNCTIONARY IN THE STATE AND SOON THE PRISONS OF ALL COUNTRIES WERE +FILLED WITH THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO GOVERN +THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT + + +To undo the damage done by the great Napoleonic flood was almost +impossible. Age-old fences had been washed away. The palaces of two +score dynasties had been damaged to such an extent that they had to +be condemned as uninhabitable. Other royal residences had been greatly +enlarged at the expense of less fortunate neighbours. Strange odds and +ends of revolutionary doctrine had been left behind by the receding +waters and could not be dislodged without danger to the entire +community. But the political engineers of the Congress did the best they +could and this is what they accomplished. + +France had disturbed the peace of the world for so many years that +people had come to fear that country almost instinctively. The Bourbons, +through the mouth of Talleyrand, had promised to be good, but the +Hundred Days had taught Europe what to expect should Napoleon manage +to escape for a second time. The Dutch Republic, therefore, was changed +into a Kingdom, and Belgium (which had not joined the Dutch struggle for +independence in the sixteenth century and since then had been part of +the Habsburg domains, firs t under Spanish rule and thereafter under +Austrian rule) was made part of this new kingdom of the Netherlands. +Nobody wanted this union either in the Protestant North or in the +Catholic South, but no questions were asked. It seemed good for the +peace of Europe and that was the main consideration. + +Poland had hoped for great things because a Pole, Prince Adam +Czartoryski, was one of the most intimate friends of Tsar Alexander +and had been his constant advisor during the war and at the Congress +of Vienna. But Poland was made a semi-independent part of Russia with +Alexander as her king. This solution pleased no one and caused much +bitter feeling and three revolutions. + +Denmark, which had remained a faithful ally of Napoleon until the end, +was severely punished. Seven years before, an English fleet had sailed +down the Kattegat and without a declaration of war or any warning had +bombarded Copenhagen and had taken away the Danish fleet, lest it be of +value to Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna went one step further. It took +Norway (which since the union of Calmar of the year 1397 had been united +with Denmark) away from Denmark and gave it to Charles XIV of Sweden as +a reward for his betrayal of Napoleon, who had set him up in the king +business. This Swedish king, curiously enough, was a former French +general by the name of Bernadotte, who had come to Sweden as one of +Napolean's{sic} adjutants, and had been invited to the throne of +that good country when the last of the rulers of the house of +Hollstein-Gottorp had died without leaving either son or daughter. From +1815 until 1844 he ruled his adopted country (the language of which he +never learned) width great ability. He was a clever man and enjoyed the +respect of both his Swedish and his Norwegian subjects, but he did +not succeed in joining two countries which nature and history had put +asunder. The dual Scandinavian state was never a success and in 1905, +Norway, in a most peaceful and orderly manner, set up as an independent +kingdom and the Swedes bade her "good speed" and very wisely let her go +her own way. + +The Italians, who since the days of the Renaissance had been at the +mercy of a long series of invaders, also had put great hopes in General +Bonaparte. The Emperor Napoleon, however, had grievously disappointed +them. Instead of the United Italy which the people wanted, they had been +divided into a number of little principalities, duchies, republics and +the Papal State, which (next to Naples) was the worst governed and +most miserable region of the entire peninsula. The Congress of +Vienna abolished a few of the Napoleonic republics and in their place +resurrected several old principalities which were given to deserving +members, both male and female, of the Habsburg family. + +The poor Spaniards, who had started the great nationalistic revolt +against Napoleon, and who had sacrificed the best blood of the country +for their king, were punished severely when the Congress allowed His +Majesty to return to his domains. This vicious creature, known as +Ferdinand VII, had spent the last four years of his life as a prisoner +of Napoleon. He had improved his days by knitting garments for the +statues of his favourite patron saints. He celebrated his return by +re-introducing the Inquisition and the torture-chamber, both of which +had been abolished by the Revolution. He was a disgusting person, +despised as much by his subjects as by his four wives, but the Holy +Alliance maintained him upon his legitimate throne and all efforts +of the decent Spaniards to get rid of this curse and make Spain a +constitutional kingdom ended in bloodshed and executions. + +Portugal had been without a king since the year 1807 when the royal +family had fled to the colonies in Brazil. The country had been used as +a base of supply for the armies of Wellington during the Peninsula war, +which lasted from 1808 until 1814. After 1815 Portugal continued to be +a sort of British province until the house of Braganza returned to the +throne, leaving one of its members behind in Rio de Janeiro as Emperor +of Brazil, the only American Empire which lasted for more than a few +years, and which came to an end in 1889 when the country became a +republic. + +In the east, nothing was done to improve the terrible conditions of both +the Slavs and the Greeks who were still subjects of the Sultan. In +the year 1804 Black George, a Servian swineherd, (the founder of the +Karageorgevich dynasty) had started a revolt against the Turks, but he +had been defeated by his enemies and had been murdered by one of his +supposed friends, the rival Servian leader, called Milosh Obrenovich, +(who became the founder of the Obrenovich dynasty) and the Turks had +continued to be the undisputed masters of the Balkans. + +The Greeks, who since the loss of their independence, two thousand years +before, had been subjects of the Macedonians, the Romans, the Venetians +and the Turks, had hoped that their countryman, Capo d'Istria, a native +of Corfu and together with Czartoryski, the most intimate personal +friends of Alexander, would do something for them. But the Congress of +Vienna was not interested in Greeks, but was very much interested in +keeping all "legitimate" monarchs, Christian, Moslem and otherwise, upon +their respective thrones. Therefore nothing was done. + +The last, but perhaps the greatest blunder of the Congress was the +treatment of Germany. The Reformation and the Thirty Years War had not +only destroyed the prosperity of the country, but had turned it into a +hopeless political rubbish heap, consisting of a couple of kingdoms, +a few grand-duchies, a large number of duchies and hundreds of +margravates, principalities, baronies, electorates, free cities and free +villages, ruled by the strangest assortment of potentates that was ever +seen off the comic opera stage. Frederick the Great had changed this +when he created a strong Prussia, but this state had not survived him by +many years. + +Napoleon had blue-penciled the demand for independence of most of these +little countries, and only fifty-two out of a total of more than three +hundred had survived the year 1806. During the years of the great +struggle for independence, many a young soldier had dreamed of a new +Fatherland that should be strong and united. But there can be no union +without a strong leadership, and who was to be this leader? + +There were five kingdoms in the German speaking lands. The rulers of +two of these, Austria and Prussia, were kings by the Grace of God. The +rulers of three others, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurtemberg, were kings by +the Grace of Napoleon, and as they had been the faithful henchmen of the +Emperor, their patriotic credit with the other Germans was therefore not +very good. + +The Congress had established a new German Confederation, a league of +thirty-eight sovereign states, under the chairmanship of the King of +Austria, who was now known as the Emperor of Austria. It was the sort of +make-shift arrangement which satisfied no one. It is true that a German +Diet, which met in the old coronation city of Frankfort, had been +created to discuss matters of "common policy and importance." But in +this Diet, thirty-eight delegates represented thirty-eight different +interests and as no decision could be taken without a unanimous vote +(a parliamentary rule which had in previous centuries ruined the mighty +kingdom of Poland), the famous German Confederation became very soon +the laughing stock of Europe and the politics of the old Empire began to +resemble those of our Central American neighbours in the forties and the +fifties of the last century. + +It was terribly humiliating to the people who had sacrificed everything +for a national ideal. But the Congress was not interested in the private +feelings of "subjects," and the debate was closed. + +Did anybody object? Most assuredly. As soon as the first feeling of +hatred against Napoleon had quieted down--as soon as the enthusiasm +of the great war had subsided--as soon as the people came to a full +realisation of the crime that had been committed in the name of "peace +and stability" they began to murmur. They even made threats of open +revolt. But what could they do? They were powerless. They were at the +mercy of the most pitiless and efficient police system the world had +ever seen. + +The members of the Congress of Vienna honestly and sincerely believed +that "the Revolutionary Principle had led to the criminal usurpation +of the throne by the former emperor Napoleon." They felt that they were +called upon to eradicate the adherents of the so-called "French ideas" +just as Philip II had only followed the voice of his conscience when he +burned Protestants or hanged Moors. In the beginning of the sixteenth +century a man who did not believe in the divine right of the Pope to +rule his subjects as he saw fit was a "heretic" and it was the duty +of all loyal citizens to kill him. In the beginning of the nineteenth +century, on the continent of Europe, a man who did not believe in the +divine right of his king to rule him as he or his Prime Minister saw +fit, was a "heretic," and it was the duty of all loyal citizens to +denounce him to the nearest policeman and see that he got punished. + +But the rulers of the year 1815 had learned efficiency in the school of +Napoleon and they performed their task much better than it had been done +in the year 1517. The period between the year 1815 and the year 1860 was +the great era of the political spy. Spies were everywhere. They lived in +palaces and they were to be found in the lowest gin-shops. They peeped +through the key-holes of the ministerial cabinet and they listened to +the conversations of the people who were taking the air on the benches +of the Municipal Park. They guarded the frontier so that no one might +leave without a duly viseed passport and they inspected all packages, +that no books with dangerous "French ideas" should enter the realm of +their Royal masters. They sat among the students in the lecture hall and +woe to the Professor who uttered a word against the existing order of +things. They followed the little boys and girls on their way to church +lest they play hookey. + +In many of these tasks they were assisted by the clergy. The church had +suffered greatly during the days of the revolution. The church property +had been confiscated. Several priests had been killed and the generation +that had learned its cathechism from Voltaire and Rousseau and the +other French philosophers had danced around the Altar of Reason when the +Committee of Public Safety had abolished the worship of God in October +of the year 1793. The priests had followed the "emigres" into their long +exile. Now they returned in the wake of the allied armies and they set +to work with a vengeance. + +Even the Jesuits came back in 1814 and resumed their former labours of +educating the young. Their order had been a little too successful in its +fight against the enemies of the church. It had established "provinces" +in every part of the world, to teach the natives the blessings of +Christianity, but soon it had developed into a regular trading company +which was for ever interfering with the civil authorities. During +the reign of the Marquis de Pombal, the great reforming minister of +Portugal, they had been driven out of the Portuguese lands and in the +year 1773 at the request of most of the Catholic powers of Europe, the +order had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. Now they were back on +the job, and preached the principles of "obedience" and "love for the +legitimate dynasty" to children whose parents had hired shopwindows that +they might laugh at Marie Antoinette driving to the scaffold which was +to end her misery. + +But in the Protestant countries like Prussia, things were not a whit +better. The great patriotic leaders of the year 1812, the poets and the +writers who had preached a holy war upon the usurper, were now branded +as dangerous "demagogues." Their houses were searched. Their letters +were read. They were obliged to report to the police at regular +intervals and give an account of themselves. The Prussian drill master +was let loose in all his fury upon the younger generation. When a party +of students celebrated the tercentenary of the Reformation with noisy +but harmless festivities on the old Wartburg, the Prussian bureaucrats +had visions of an imminent revolution. When a theological student, +more honest than intelligent, killed a Russian government spy who +was operating in Germany, the universities were placed under +police-supervision and professors were jailed or dismissed without any +form of trial. + +Russia, of course, was even more absurd in these anti-revolutionary +activities. Alexander had recovered from his attack of piety. He was +gradually drifting toward melancholia. He well knew his own limited +abilities and understood how at Vienna he had been the victim both of +Metternich and the Krudener woman. More and more he turned his back +upon the west and became a truly Russian ruler whose interests lay in +Constantinople, the old holy city that had been the first teacher of the +Slavs. The older he grew, the harder he worked and the less he was able +to accomplish. And while he sat in his study, his ministers turned the +whole of Russia into a land of military barracks. + +It is not a pretty picture. Perhaps I might have shortened this +description of the Great Reaction. But it is just as well that you +should have a thorough knowledge of this era. It was not the first time +that an attempt had been made to set the clock of history back. The +result was the usual one. + + + + +NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE + +THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER WAS TOO STRONG TO BE +DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL +AGAINST THE REACTIONARY MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, GREECE AND +BELGIUM AND SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN +CONTINENT FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH THE +RUMOUR OF MANY WARS OF INDEPENDENCE + + +IT will serve no good purpose to say "if only the Congress of Vienna had +done such and such a thing instead of taking such and such a course, the +history of Europe in the nineteenth century would have been different." +The Congress of Vienna was a gathering of men who had just passed +through a great revolution and through twenty years of terrible and +almost continuous warfare. They came together for the purpose of giving +Europe that "peace and stability" which they thought that the people +needed and wanted. They were what we call reactionaries. They sincerely +believed in the inability of the mass of the people to rule themselves. +They re-arranged the map of Europe in such a way as seemed to promise +the greatest possibility of a lasting success. They failed, but not +through any premeditated wickedness on their part. They were, for the +greater part, men of the old school who remembered the happier days of +their quiet youth and ardently wished a return of that blessed period. +They failed to recognise the strong hold which many of the revolutionary +principles had gained upon the people of the European continent. That +was a misfortune but hardly a sin. But one of the things which the +French Revolution had taught not only Europe but America as well, was +the right of people to their own "nationality." + +Napoleon, who respected nothing and nobody, was utterly ruthless in +his dealing with national and patriotic aspirations. But the early +revolutionary generals had proclaimed the new doctrine that "nationality +was not a matter of political frontiers or round skulls and broad noses, +but a matter of the heart and soul." While they were teaching the French +children the greatness of the French nation, they encouraged Spaniards +and Hollanders and Italians to do the same thing. Soon these people, who +all shared Rousseau's belief in the superior virtues of Original Man, +began to dig into their past and found, buried beneath the ruins of +the feudal system, the bones of the mighty races of which they supposed +themselves the feeble descendants. + +The first half of the nineteenth century was the era of the great +historical discoveries. Everywhere historians were busy publishing +mediaeval charters and early mediaeval chronicles and in every country +the result was a new pride in the old fatherland. A great deal of this +sentiment was based upon the wrong interpretation of historical +facts. But in practical politics, it does not matter what is true, but +everything depends upon what the people believe to be true. And in most +countries both the kings and their subjects firmly believed in the glory +and fame of their ancestors. + +The Congress of Vienna was not inclined to be sentimental. Their +Excellencies divided the map of Europe according to the best interests +of half a dozen dynasties and put "national aspirations" upon the Index, +or list of forbidden books, together with all other dangerous "French +doctrines." + +But history is no respecter of Congresses. For some reason or other (it +may be an historical law, which thus far has escaped the attention +of the scholars) "nations" seemed to be necessary for the orderly +development of human society and the attempt to stem this tide was +quite as unsuccessful as the Metternichian effort to prevent people from +thinking. + +Curiously enough the first trouble began in a very distant part of the +world, in South America. The Spanish colonies of that continent had been +enjoying a period of relative independence during the many years of the +great Napoleonic wars. They had even remained faithful to their king +when he was taken prisoner by the French Emperor and they had refused to +recognise Joseph Bonaparte, who had in the year 1808 been made King of +Spain by order of his brother. + +Indeed, the only part of America to get very much upset by the +Revolution was the island of Haiti, the Espagnola of Columbus' first +trip. Here in the year 1791 the French Convention, in a sudden outburst +of love and human brotherhood, had bestowed upon their black brethren +all the privileges hitherto enjoyed by their white masters. Just as +suddenly they had repented of this step, but the attempt to undo the +original promise led to many years of terrible warfare between General +Leclerc, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, and Toussaint l'Ouverture, the +negro chieftain. In the year 1801, Toussaint was asked to visit Leclerc +and discuss terms of peace. He received the solemn promise that he would +not be molested. He trusted his white adversaries, was put on board a +ship and shortly afterwards died in a French prison. But the negroes +gained their independence all the same and founded a Republic. +Incidentally they were of great help to the first great South American +patriot in his efforts to deliver his native country from the Spanish +yoke. + +Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas in Venezuela, born in the year 1783, +had been educated in Spain, had visited Paris where he had seen the +Revolutionary government at work, had lived for a while in the United +States and had returned to his native land where the widespread +discontent against Spain, the mother country, was beginning to take a +definite form. In the year 1811, Venezuela declared its independence and +Bolivar became one of the revolutionary generals. Within two months, the +rebels were defeated and Bolivar fled. + +For the next five years he was the leader of an apparently lost cause. +He sacrificed all his wealth and he would not have been able to begin +his final and successful expedition without the support of the President +of Haiti. Thereafter the revolt spread all over South America and soon +it appeared that Spain was not able to suppress the rebellion unaided. +She asked for the support of the Holy Alliance. + +This step greatly worried England. The British shippers had succeeded +the Dutch as the Common Carriers of the world and they expected to reap +heavy profits from a declaration of independence on the part of all +South America. They had hopes that the United States of America would +interfere but the Senate had no such plans and in the House, too, there +were many voices which declared that Spain ought to be given a free +hand. + +Just then, there was a change of ministers in England. The Whigs went +out and the Tories came in. George Canning became secretary of State. He +dropped a hint that England would gladly back up the American government +with all the might of her fleet, if said government would declare +its disapproval of the plans of the Holy Alliance in regard to the +rebellious colonies of the southern continent. President Monroe +thereupon, on the 2nd of December of the year 1823, addressed Congress +and stated that: "America would consider any attempt on the part of +the allied powers to extend their system to any portion of this western +hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," and gave warning that +"the American government would consider such action on the part of the +Holy Alliance as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the +United States." Four weeks later, the text of the "Monroe Doctrine" was +printed in the English newspapers and the members of the Holy Alliance +were forced to make their choice. + +Metternich hesitated. Personally he would have been willing to risk the +displeasure of the United States (which had allowed both its army and +navy to fall into neglect since the end of the Anglo-American war of +the year 1812.) But Canning's threatening attitude and trouble on the +continent forced him to be careful. The expedition never took place and +South America and Mexico gained their independence. + +As for the troubles on the continent of Europe, they were coming fast +and furious. The Holy Alliance had sent French troops to Spain to act as +guardians of the peace in the year 1820. Austrian troops had been used +for a similar purpose in Italy when the "Carbonari" (the secret society +of the Charcoal Burners) were making propaganda for a united Italy and +had caused a rebellion against the unspeakable Ferdinand of Naples. + +Bad news also came from Russia where the death of Alexander had been the +sign for a revolutionary outbreak in St. Petersburg, a short but bloody +upheaval, the so-called Dekaberist revolt (because it took place in +December,) which ended with the hanging of a large number of good +patriots who had been disgusted by the reaction of Alexander's last +years and had tried to give Russia a constitutional form of government. + +But worse was to follow. Metternich had tried to assure himself of the +continued support of the European courts by a series of conferences +at Aix-la-Chapelle at Troppau at Laibach and finally at Verona. The +delegates from the different powers duly travelled to these agreeable +watering places where the Austrian prime minister used to spend his +summers. They always promised to do their best to suppress revolt but +they were none too certain of their success. The spirit of the people +was beginning to be ugly and especially in France the position of the +king was by no means satisfactory. + +The real trouble however began in the Balkans, the gateway to western +Europe through which the invaders of that continent had passed since the +beginning of time. The first outbreak was in Moldavia, the ancient Roman +province of Dacia which had been cut off from the Empire in the third +century. Since then, it had been a lost land, a sort of Atlantis, where +the people had continued to speak the old Roman tongue and still called +themselves Romans and their country Roumania. Here in the year 1821, +a young Greek, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, began a revolt against the +Turks. He told his followers that they could count upon the support +of Russia. But Metternich's fast couriers were soon on their way to St +Petersburg and the Tsar, entirely persuaded by the Austrian arguments in +favor of "peace and stability," refused to help. Ypsilanti was forced to +flee to Austria where he spent the next seven years in prison. + +In the same year, 1821, trouble began in Greece. Since 1815 a secret +society of Greek patriots had been preparing the way for a revolt. +Suddenly they hoisted the flag of independence in the Morea (the ancient +Peloponnesus) and drove the Turkish garrisons away. The Turks answered +in the usual fashion. They took the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, +who was regarded as their Pope both by the Greeks and by many Russians, +and they hanged him on Easter Sunday of the year 1821, together with a +number of his bishops. The Greeks came back with a massacre of all +the Mohammedans in Tripolitsa, the capital of the Morea and the Turks +retaliated by an attack upon the island of Chios, where they murdered +25,000 Christians and sold 45,000 others as slaves into Asia and Egypt. + +Then the Greeks appealed to the European courts, but Metternich told +them in so many words that they could "stew in their own grease," (I +am not trying to make a pun, but I am quoting His Serene Highness who +informed the Tsar that this "fire of revolt ought to burn itself out +beyond the pale of civilisation" and the frontiers were closed to those +volunteers who wished to go to the rescue of the patriotic Hellenes. +Their cause seemed lost. At the request of Turkey, an Egyptian army was +landed in the Morea and soon the Turkish flag was again flying from +the Acropolis, the ancient stronghold of Athens. The Egyptian army +then pacified the country "a la Turque," and Metternich followed the +proceedings with quiet interest, awaiting the day when this "attempt +against the peace of Europe" should be a thing of the past. + +Once more it was England which upset his plans. The greatest glory of +England does not lie in her vast colonial possessions, in her wealth +or her navy, but in the quiet heroism and independence of her average +citizen. The Englishman obeys the law because he knows that respect +for the rights of others marks the difference between a dog-kennel and +civilised society. But he does not recognize the right of others to +interfere with his freedom of thought. If his country does something +which he believes to be wrong, he gets up and says so and the government +which he attacks will respect him and will give him full protection +against the mob which to-day, as in the time of Socrates, often loves to +destroy those who surpass it in courage or intelligence. There never has +been a good cause, however unpopular or however distant, which has not +counted a number of Englishmen among its staunchest adherents. The mass +of the English people are not different from those in other lands. They +stick to the business at hand and have no time for unpractical "sporting +ventures." But they rather admire their eccentric neighbour who drops +everything to go and fight for some obscure people in Asia or Africa and +when he has been killed they give him a fine public funeral and hold him +up to their children as an example of valor and chivalry. + +Even the police spies of the Holy Alliance were powerless against this +national characteristic. In the year 1824, Lord Byron, a rich young +Englishman who wrote the poetry over which all Europe wept, hoisted the +sails of his yacht and started south to help the Greeks. Three months +later the news spread through Europe that their hero lay dead in +Missolonghi, the last of the Greek strongholds. His lonely death caught +the imagination of the people. In all countries, societies were formed +to help the Greeks. Lafayette, the grand old man of the American +revolution, pleaded their cause in France. The king of Bavaria sent +hundreds of his officers. Money and supplies poured in upon the starving +men of Missolonghi. + +In England, George Canning, who had defeated the plans of the Holy +Alliance in South America, was now prime minis-ter. He saw his chance to +checkmate Metternich for a second time. The English and Russian fleets +were already in the Mediterranean. They were sent by governments which +dared no longer suppress the popular enthusiasm for the cause of the +Greek patriots. The French navy appeared because France, since the end +of the Crusades, had assumed the role of the defender of the Christian +faith in Mohammedan lands. On October 20 of the year 1827, the ships of +the three nations attacked the Turkish fleet in the bay of Navarino and +destroyed it. Rarely has the news of a battle been received with such +general rejoicing. The people of western Europe and Russia who enjoyed +no freedom at home consoled themselves by fighting an imaginary war of +liberty on behalf of the oppressed Greeks. In the year 1829 they had +their reward. Greece became an independent nation and the policy of +reaction and stability suffered its second great defeat. + +It would be absurd were I to try, in this short volume, to give you a +detailed account of the struggle for national independence in all other +countries. There are a large number of excellent books devoted to such +subjects. I have described the struggle for the independence of Greece +because it was the first successful attack upon the bulwark of reaction +which the Congress of Vienna had erected to "maintain the stability +of Europe." That mighty fortress of suppression still held out and +Metternich continued to be in command. But the end was near. + +In France the Bourbons had established an almost unbearable rule +of police officials who were trying to undo the work of the French +revolution, with an absolute disregard of the regulations and laws of +civilised warfare. When Louis XVIII died in the year 1824, the people +had enjoyed nine years of "peace" which had proved even more unhappy +than the ten years of war of the Empire. Louis was succeeded by his +brother, Charles X. + +Louis had belonged to that famous Bourbon family which, although it +never learned anything, never forgot anything. The recollection of +that morning in the town of Hamm, when news had reached him of the +decapitation of his brother, remained a constant warning of what might +happen to those kings who did not read the signs of the times aright. +Charles, on the other hand, who had managed to run up private debts of +fifty million francs before he was twenty years of age, knew nothing, +remembered nothing and firmly intended to learn nothing. As soon as +he had succeeded his brother, he established a government "by priests, +through priests and for priests," and while the Duke of Wellington, who +made this remark, cannot be called a violent liberal, Charles ruled in +such a way that he disgusted even that trusted friend of law and order. +When he tried to suppress the newspapers which dared to criticise his +government, and dismissed the Parliament because it supported the Press, +his days were numbered. + +On the night of the 27th of July of the year 1830, a revolution took +place in Paris. On the 30th of the same month, the king fled to the +coast and set sail for England. In this way the "famous farce of fifteen +years" came to an end and the Bourbons were at last removed from the +throne of France. They were too hopelessly incompetent. France then +might have returned to a Republican form of government, but such a step +would not have been tolerated by Metternich. + +The situation was dangerous enough. The spark of rebellion had leaped +beyond the French frontier and had set fire to another powder house +filled with national grievances. The new kingdom of the Netherlands +had not been a success. The Belgian and the Dutch people had nothing in +common and their king, William of Orange (the descendant of an uncle of +William the Silent), while a hard worker and a good business man, was +too much lacking in tact and pliability to keep the peace among his +uncongenial subjects. Besides, the horde of priests which had descended +upon France, had at once found its way into Belgium and whatever +Protestant William tried to do was howled down by large crowds of +excited citizens as a fresh attempt upon the "freedom of the Catholic +church." On the 25th of August there was a popular outbreak against the +Dutch authorities in Brussels. Two months later, the Belgians declared +themselves independent and elected Leopold of Coburg, the uncle of Queen +Victoria of England, to the throne. That was an excellent solution +of the difficulty. The two countries, which never ought to have been +united, parted their ways and thereafter lived in peace and harmony and +behaved like decent neighbours. + +News in those days when there were only a few short railroads, +travelled slowly, but when the success of the French and the Belgian +revolutionists became known in Poland there was an immediate clash +between the Poles and their Russian rulers which led to a year of +terrible warfare and ended with a complete victory for the Russians who +"established order along the banks of the Vistula" in the well-known +Russian fashion Nicholas the first, who had succeeded his brother +Alexander in 1825, firmly believed in the Divine Right of his own +family, and the thousands of Polish refugees who had found shelter in +western Europe bore witness to the fact that the principles of the Holy +Alliance were still more than a hollow phrase in Holy Russia. + +In Italy too there was a moment of unrest. Marie Louise Duchess of Parma +and wife of the former Emperor Napoleon, whom she had deserted after the +defeat of Waterloo, was driven away from her country, and in the Papal +state the exasperated people tried to establish an independent Republic. +But the armies of Austria marched to Rome and soon every thing was as of +old. Metternich continued to reside at the Ball Platz, the home of the +foreign minister of the Habsburg dynasty, the police spies returned to +their job, and peace reigned supreme. Eighteen more years were to pass +before a second and more successful attempt could be made to deliver +Europe from the terrible inheritance of the Vienna Congress. + +Again it was France, the revolutionary weather-cock of Europe, which +gave the signal of revolt. Charles X had been succeeded by Louis +Philippe, the son of that famous Duke of Orleans who had turned Jacobin, +had voted for the death of his cousin the king, and had played a role +during the early days of the revolution under the name of "Philippe +Egalite" or "Equality Philip." Eventually he had been killed when +Robespierre tried to purge the nation of all "traitors," (by which name +he indicated those people who did not share his own views) and his son +had been forced to run away from the revolutionary army. Young Louis +Philippe thereupon had wandered far and wide. He had taught school in +Switzerland and had spent a couple of years exploring the unknown "far +west" of America. After the fall of Napoleon he had returned to Paris. +He was much more intelligent than his Bourbon cousins. He was a simple +man who went about in the public parks with a red cotton umbrella under +his arm, followed by a brood of children like any good housefather. But +France had outgrown the king business and Louis did not know this until +the morning of the 24th of February, of the year 1848, when a crowd +stormed the Tuilleries and drove his Majesty away and proclaimed the +Republic. + +When the news of this event reached Vienna, Metternich expressed the +casual opinion that this was only a repetition of the year 1793 and that +the Allies would once more be obliged to march upon Paris and make an +end to this very unseemly democratic row. But two weeks later his own +Austrian capital was in open revolt. Metternich escaped from the mob +through the back door of his palace, and the Emperor Ferdinand was +forced to give his subjects a constitution which embodied most of the +revolutionary principles which his Prime Minister had tried to suppress +for the last thirty-three years. + +This time all Europe felt the shock. Hungary declared itself +independent, and commenced a war against the Habsburgs under the +leadership of Louis Kossuth. The unequal struggle lasted more than +a year. It was finally suppressed by the armies of Tsar Nicholas who +marched across the Carpathian mountains and made Hungary once more +safe for autocracy. The Habsburgs thereupon established extraordinary +court-martials and hanged the greater part of the Hungarian patriots +whom they had not been able to defeat in open battle. + +As for Italy, the island of Sicily declared itself independent from +Naples and drove its Bourbon king away. In the Papal states the prime +minister, Rossi, was murdered and the Pope was forced to flee. He +returned the next year at the head of a French army which remained in +Rome to protect His Holiness against his subjects until the year 1870. +Then it was called back to defend France against the Prussians, and Rome +became the capital of Italy. In the north, Milan and Venice rose against +their Austrian masters. They were supported by king Albert of Sardinia, +but a strong Austrian army under old Radetzky marched into the valley +of the Po, defeated the Sardinians near Custozza and Novara and forced +Albert to abdicate in favour of his son, Victor Emanuel, who a few years +later was to be the first king of a united Italy. + +In Germany the unrest of the year 1848 took the form of a great national +demonstration in favour of political unity and a representative form of +government. In Bavaria, the king who had wasted his time and money upon +an Irish lady who posed as a Spanish dancer--(she was called Lola Montez +and lies buried in New York's Potter's Field)--was driven away by the +enraged students of the university. In Prussia, the king was forced +to stand with uncovered head before the coffins of those who had been +killed during the street fighting and to promise a constitutional form +of government. And in March of the year 1849, a German parliament, +consisting of 550 delegates from all parts of the country came together +in Frankfort and proposed that king Frederick William of Prussia should +be the Emperor of a United Germany. + +Then, however, the tide began to turn. Incompetent Ferdinand had +abdicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. The well-drilled +Austrian army had remained faithful to their war-lord. The hangman +was given plenty of work and the Habsburgs, after the nature of that +strangely cat-like family, once more landed upon their feet and rapidly +strengthened their position as the masters of eastern and western +Europe. They played the game of politics very adroitly and used the +jealousies of the other German states to prevent the elevation of the +Prussian king to the Imperial dignity. Their long train-ing in the art +of suffering defeat had taught them the value of patience. They knew how +to wait. They bided their time and while the liberals, utterly untrained +in practical politics, talked and talked and talked and got intoxicated +by their own fine speeches, the Austrians quietly gathered their forces, +dismissed the Parliament of Frankfort and re-established the old and +impossible German confederation which the Congress of Vienna had wished +upon an unsuspecting world. + +But among the men who had attended this strange Parliament of +unpractical enthusiasts, there was a Prussian country squire by the name +of Bismarck, who had made good use of his eyes and ears. He had a deep +contempt for oratory. He knew (what every man of action has always +known) that nothing is ever accomplished by talk. In his own way he was +a sincere patriot. He had been trained in the old school of diplomacy +and he could outlie his opponents just as he could outwalk them and +outdrink them and outride them. + +Bismarck felt convinced that the loose confederation of little states +must be changed into a strong united country if it would hold its own +against the other European powers. Brought up amidst feudal ideas of +loyalty, he decided that the house of Hohenzollern, of which he was +the most faithful servant, should rule the new state, rather than the +incompetent Habsburgs. For this purpose he must first get rid of the +Austrian influence, and he began to make the necessary preparations for +this painful operation. + +Italy in the meantime had solved her own problem, and had rid herself of +her hated Austrian master. The unity of Italy was the work of three +men, Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi. Of these three, Cavour, the +civil-engineer with the short-sighted eyes and the steel-rimmed glasses, +played the part of the careful political pilot. Mazzini, who had spent +most of his days in different European garrets, hiding from the Austrian +police, was the public agitator, while Garibaldi, with his band of +red-shirted rough-riders, appealed to the popular imagination. + +Mazzini and Garibaldi were both believers in the Republican form of +government. Cavour, however, was a monarchist, and the others who +recognised his superior ability in such matters of practical statecraft, +accepted his decision and sacrificed their own ambitions for the greater +good of their beloved Fatherland. + +Cavour felt towards the House of Sardinia as Bismarck did towards the +Hohenzollern family. With infinite care and great shrewdness he set to +work to jockey the Sardinian King into a position from which His Majesty +would be able to assume the leadership of the entire Italian people. The +unsettled political conditions in the rest of Europe greatly helped +him in his plans and no country contributed more to the independence of +Italy than her old and trusted (and often distrusted) neighbour, France. + +In that turbulent country, in November of the year 1852, the Republic +had come to a sudden but not unexpected end. Napoleon III the son of +Louis Bonaparte the former King of Holland, and the small nephew of a +great uncle, had re-established an Empire and had made himself Emperor +"by the Grace of God and the Will of the People." + +This young man, who had been educated in Germany and who mixed his +French with harsh Teutonic gutturals (just as the first Napoleon had +always spoken the language of his adopted country with a strong Italian +accent) was trying very hard to use the Napoleonic tradition for his own +benefit. But he had many enemies and did not feel very certain of his +hold upon his ready-made throne. He had gained the friendship of Queen +Victoria but this had not been a difficult task, as the good Queen was +not particularly brilliant and was very susceptible to flattery. As +for the other European sovereigns, they treated the French Emperor with +insulting haughtiness and sat up nights devising new ways in which they +could show their upstart "Good Brother" how sincerely they despised him. + +Napoleon was obliged to find a way in which he could break this +opposition, either through love or through fear. He well knew the +fascination which the word "glory" still held for his subjects. Since +he was forced to gamble for his throne he decided to play the game of +Empire for high stakes. He used an attack of Russia upon Turkey as an +excuse for bringing about the Crimean war in which England and France +combined against the Tsar on behalf of the Sultan. It was a very costly +and exceedingly unprofitable enterprise. Neither France nor England nor +Russia reaped much glory. + +But the Crimean war did one good thing. It gave Sardinia a chance to +volunteer on the winning side and when peace was declared it gave +Cavour the opportunity to lay claim to the gratitude of both England and +France. + +Having made use of the international situation to get Sardinia +recognised as one of the more important powers of Europe, the clever +Italian then provoked a war between Sardinia and Austria in June of the +year 1859. He assured himself of the support of Napoleon in exchange for +the provinces of Savoy and the city of Nice, which was really an Italian +town. The Franco-Italian armies defeated the Austrians at Magenta and +Solferino, and the former Austrian provinces and duchies were united +into a single Italian kingdom. Florence became the capital of this new +Italy until the year 1870 when the French recalled their troops from +Home to defend France against the Germans. As soon as they were gone, +the Italian troops entered the eternal city and the House of Sardinia +took up its residence in the old Palace of the Quirinal which an ancient +Pope had built on the ruins of the baths of the Emperor Constantine. + +The Pope, however, moved across the river Tiber and hid behind the walls +of the Vatican, which had been the home of many of his predecessors +since their return from the exile of Avignon in the year 1377. He +protested loudly against this high-handed theft of his domains and +addressed letters of appeal to those faithful Catholics who were +inclined to sympathise with him in his loss. Their number, however, was +small, and it has been steadily decreasing. For, once delivered from the +cares of state, the Pope was able to devote all his time to questions +of a spiritual nature. Standing high above the petty quarrels of the +European politicians, the Papacy assumed a new dignity which proved +of great benefit to the church and made it an international power for +social and religious progress which has shown a much more intelligent +appreciation of modern economic problems than most Protestant sects. + +In this way, the attempt of the Congress of Vienna to settle the Italian +question by making the peninsula an Austrian province was at last +undone. + +The German problem however remained as yet unsolved. It proved the most +difficult of all. The failure of the revolution of the year 1848 had led +to the wholesale migration of the more energetic and liberal elements +among the German people. These young fellows had moved to the United +States of America, to Brazil, to the new colonies in Asia and America. +Their work was continued in Germany but by a different sort of men. + +In the new Diet which met at Frankfort, after the collapse of the +German Parliament and the failure of the Liberals to establish a united +country, the Kingdom of Prussia was represented by that same Otto +von Bismarck from whom we parted a few pages ago. Bismarck by now had +managed to gain the complete confidence of the king of Prussia. That +was all he asked for. The opinion of the Prussian parliament or of the +Prussian people interested him not at all. With his own eyes he had seen +the defeat of the Liberals. He knew that he would not be able to get +rid of Austria without a war and he began by strengthening the Prussian +army. The Landtag, exasperated at his high-handed methods, refused to +give him the necessary credits. Bismarck did not even bother to discuss +the matter. He went ahead and increased his army with the help of funds +which the Prussian house of Peers and the king placed at his disposal. +Then he looked for a national cause which could be used for the purpose +of creating a great wave of patriotism among all the German people. + +In the north of Germany there were the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein +which ever since the middle ages had been a source of trouble. Both +countries were inhabited by a certain number of Danes and a certain +number of Germans, but although they were governed by the King of +Denmark, they were not an integral part of the Danish State and this +led to endless difficulties. Heaven forbid that I should revive this +forgotten question which now seems settled by the acts of the recent +Congress of Versailles. But the Germans in Holstein were very loud in +their abuse of the Danes and the Danes in Schleswig made a great ado of +their Danishness, and all Europe was discussing the problem and German +Mannerchors and Turnvereins listened to sentimental speeches about the +"lost brethren" and the different chancelleries were trying to discover +what it was all about, when Prussia mobilised her armies to "save +the lost provinces." As Austria, the official head of the German +Confederation, could not allow Prussia to act alone in such an important +matter, the Habsburg troops were mobilised too and the combined armies +of the two great powers crossed the Danish frontiers and after a very +brave resistance on the part of the Danes, occupied the two duchies. The +Danes appealed to Europe, but Europe was otherwise engaged and the poor +Danes were left to their fate. + +Bismarck then prepared the scene for the second number upon his Imperial +programme. He used the division of the spoils to pick a quarrel with +Austria. The Habsburgs fell into the trap. The new Prussian army, the +creation of Bismarck and his faithful generals, invaded Bohemia and in +less than six weeks, the last of the Austrian troops had been destroyed +at Koniggratz and Sadowa and the road to Vienna lay open. But Bismarck +did not want to go too far. He knew that he would need a few friends in +Europe. He offered the defeated Habsburgs very decent terms of peace, +provided they would resign their chairmanship of the Confederation. He +was less merciful to many of the smaller German states who had taken the +side of the Austrians, and annexed them to Prussia. The greater part of +the northern states then formed a new organisation, the so-called +North German Confederacy, and victorious Prussia assumed the unofficial +leadership of the German people. + +Europe stood aghast at the rapidity with which the work of consolidation +had been done. England was quite indifferent but France showed signs +of disapproval. Napoleon's hold upon the French people was steadily +diminishing. The Crimean war had been costly and had accomplished +nothing. + +A second adventure in the year 1863, when a French army had tried to +force an Austrian Grand-Duke by the name of Maximilian upon the Mexican +people as their Emperor, had come to a disastrous end as soon as the +American Civil War had been won by the North. For the Government at +Washington had forced the French to withdraw their troops and this had +given the Mexicans a chance to clear their country of the enemy and +shoot the unwelcome Emperor. + +It was necessary to give the Napoleonic throne a new coat of +glory-paint. Within a few years the North German Confederation would +be a serious rival of France. Napoleon decided that a war with Germany +would be a good thing for his dynasty. He looked for an excuse and +Spain, the poor victim of endless revolutions, gave him one. + +Just then the Spanish throne happened to be vacant. It had been +offered to the Catholic branch of the house of Hohenzollern. The French +government had objected and the Hohenzollerns had politely refused to +accept the crown. But Napoleon, who was showing signs of illness, was +very much under the influence of his beautiful wife, Eugenie de Montijo, +the daughter of a Spanish gentleman and the grand-daughter of William +Kirkpatrick, an American consul at Malaga, where the grapes come from. +Eugenie, although shrewd enough, was as badly educated as most Spanish +women of that day. She was at the mercy of her spiritual advisers and +these worthy gentlemen felt no love for the Protestant King of Prussia. +"Be bold," was the advice of the Empress to her husband, but she omitted +to add the second half of that famous Persian proverb which admonishes +the hero to "be bold but not too bold." Napoleon, convinced of the +strength of his army, addressed himself to the king of Prussia and +insisted that the king give him assurances that "he would never permit +another candidature of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish crown." +As the Hohenzollerns had just declined the honour, the demand was +superfluous, and Bismarck so informed the French government. But +Napoleon was not satisfied. + +It was the year 1870 and King William was taking the waters at Ems. +There one day he was approached by the French minister who tried to +re-open the discussion. The king answered very pleasantly that it was a +fine day and that the Spanish question was now closed and that nothing +more remained to be said upon the subject. As a matter of routine, a +report of this interview was telegraphed to Bismarck, who handled all +foreign affairs. Bismarck edited the dispatch for the benefit of the +Prussian and French press. Many people have called him names for doing +this. Bismarck however could plead the excuse that the doctoring of +official news, since time immemorial, had been one of the privileges of +all civilised governments. When the "edited" telegram was printed, the +good people in Berlin felt that their old and venerable king with his +nice white whiskers had been insulted by an arrogant little Frenchman +and the equally good people of Paris flew into a rage because their +perfectly courteous minister had been shown the door by a Royal Prussian +flunkey. + +And so they both went to war and in less than two months, Napoleon and +the greater part of his army were prisoners of the Germans. The Second +Empire had come to an end and the Third Republic was making ready to +defend Paris against the German invaders. Paris held out for five long +months. Ten days before the surrender of the city, in the nearby palace +of Versailles, built by that same King Louis XIV who had been such +a dangerous enemy to the Germans, the King of Prussia was publicly +proclaimed German Emperor and a loud booming of guns told the hungry +Parisians that a new German Empire had taken the place of the old +harmless Confederation of Teutonic states and stateless. + +In this rough way, the German question was finally settled. By the +end of the year 1871, fifty-six years after the memorable gathering at +Vienna, the work of the Congress had been entirely undone. Metternich +and Alexander and Talleyrand had tried to give the people of Europe a +lasting peace. The methods they had employed had caused endless wars and +revolutions and the feeling of a common brotherhood of the eighteenth +century was followed by an era of exaggerated nationalism which has not +yet come to an end. + + + + +THE AGE OF THE ENGINE + +BUT WHILE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR NATIONAL +INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVED HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED +BY A SERIES OF INVENTIONS, WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM ENGINE OF +THE 18TH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT SLAVE OF MAN + + +THE greatest benefactor of the human race died more than half a million +years ago. He was a hairy creature with a low brow and sunken eyes, a +heavy jaw and strong tiger-like teeth. He would not have looked well in +a gathering of modern scientists, but they would have honoured him as +their master. For he had used a stone to break a nut and a stick to lift +up a heavy boulder. He was the inventor of the hammer and the lever, our +first tools, and he did more than any human being who came after him +to give man his enormous advantage over the other animals with whom he +shares this planet. + +Ever since, man has tried to make his life easier by the use of a +greater number of tools. The first wheel (a round disc made out of an +old tree) created as much stir in the communities of 100,000 B.C. as the +flying machine did only a few years ago. + +In Washington, the story is told of a director of the Patent Office +who in the early thirties of the last century suggested that the Patent +Office be abolished, because "everything that possibly could be invented +had been invented." A similar feeling must have spread through the +prehistoric world when the first sail was hoisted on a raft and the +people were able to move from place to place without rowing or punting +or pulling from the shore. + +Indeed one of the most interesting chapters of history is the effort of +man to let some one else or something else do his work for him, while he +enjoyed his leisure, sitting in the sun or painting pictures on rocks, +or training young wolves and little tigers to behave like peaceful +domestic animals. + +Of course in the very olden days; it was always possible to enslave a +weaker neighbour and force him to do the unpleasant tasks of life. One +of the reasons why the Greeks and Romans, who were quite as intelligent +as we are, failed to devise more interesting machinery, was to be +found in the wide-spread existence of slavery. Why should a great +mathematician waste his time upon wires and pulleys and cogs and fill +the air with noise and smoke when he could go to the marketplace and buy +all the slaves he needed at a very small expense? + +And during the middle-ages, although slavery had been abolished and +only a mild form of serfdom survived, the guilds discouraged the idea of +using machinery because they thought this would throw a large number +of their brethren out of work. Besides, the Middle-Ages were not at all +interested in producing large quantities of goods. Their tailors and +butchers and carpenters worked for the immediate needs of the small +community in which they lived and had no desire to compete with their +neighbours, or to produce more than was strictly necessary. + +During the Renaissance, when the prejudices of the Church against +scientific investigations could no longer be enforced as rigidly as +before, a large number of men began to devote their lives to mathematics +and astronomy and physics and chemistry. Two years before the beginning +of the Thirty Years War, John Napier, a Scotchman, had published his +little book which described the new invention of logarithms. During the +war it-self, Gottfried Leibnitz of Leipzig had perfected the system +of infinitesimal calculus. Eight years before the peace of Westphalia, +Newton, the great English natural philosopher, was born, and in that +same year Galileo, the Italian astronomer, died. Meanwhile the Thirty +Years War had destroyed the prosperity of central Europe and there was +a sudden but very general interest in "alchemy," the strange +pseudo-science of the middle-ages by which people hoped to turn base +metals into gold. This proved to be impossible but the alchemists in +their laboratories stumbled upon many new ideas and greatly helped the +work of the chemists who were their successors. + +The work of all these men provided the world with a solid scientific +foundation upon which it was possible to build even the most complicated +of engines, and a number of practical men made good use of it. The +Middle-Ages had used wood for the few bits of necessary machinery. +But wood wore out easily. Iron was a much better material but iron was +scarce except in England. In England therefore most of the smelting was +done. To smelt iron, huge fires were needed. In the beginning, these +fires had been made of wood, but gradually the forests had been used up. +Then "stone coal" (the petrified trees of prehistoric times) was used. +But coal as you know has to be dug out of the ground and it has to be +transported to the smelting ovens and the mines have to be kept dry from +the ever invading waters. + +These were two problems which had to be solved at once. For the time +being, horses could still be used to haul the coal-wagons, but the +pumping question demanded the application of special machinery. Several +inventors were busy trying to solve the difficulty. They all knew that +steam would have to be used in their new engine. The idea of the steam +engine was very old. Hero of Alexandria, who lived in the first century +before Christ, has described to us several bits of machinery which +were driven by steam. The people of the Renaissance had played with +the notion of steam-driven war chariots. The Marquis of Worcester, a +contemporary of Newton, in his book of inventions, tells of a steam +engine. A little later, in the year 1698, Thomas Savery of London +applied for a patent for a pumping engine. At the same time, a +Hollander, Christian Huygens, was trying to perfect an engine in which +gun-powder was used to cause regular explosions in much the same way as +we use gasoline in our motors. + +All over Europe, people were busy with the idea. Denis Papin, a +Frenchman, friend and assistant of Huygens, was making experiments with +steam engines in several countries. He invented a little wagon that was +driven by steam, and a paddle-wheel boat. But when he tried to take a +trip in his vessel, it was confiscated by the authorities on a complaint +of the boatmen's union, who feared that such a craft would deprive them +of their livelihood. Papin finally died in London in great poverty, +having wasted all his money on his inventions. But at the time of his +death, another mechanical enthusiast, Thomas Newcomen, was working +on the problem of a new steam-pump. Fifty years later his engine was +improved upon by James Watt, a Glasgow instrument maker. In the year +1777, he gave the world the first steam engine that proved of real +practical value. + +But during the centuries of experiments with a "heat-engine," the +political world had greatly changed. The British people had succeeded +the Dutch as the common-carriers of the world's trade. They had opened +up new colonies. They took the raw materials which the colonies produced +to England, and there they turned them into finished products, and +then they exported the finished goods to the four corners of the world. +During the seventeenth century, the people of Georgia and the Carolinas +had begun to grow a new shrub which gave a strange sort of woolly +substance, the so-called "cotton wool." After this had been plucked, it +was sent to England and there the people of Lancastershire wove it into +cloth. This weaving was done by hand and in the homes of the workmen. +Very soon a number of improvements were made in the process of weaving. +In the year 1730, John Kay invented the "fly shuttle." In 1770, James +Hargreaves got a patent on his "spinning jenny." Eli Whitney, an +American, invented the cotton-gin, which separated the cotton from its +seeds, a job which had previously been done by hand at the rate of +only a pound a day. Finally Richard Arkwright and the Reverend Edmund +Cartwright invented large weaving machines, which were driven by water +power. And then, in the eighties of the eighteenth century, just when +the Estates General of France had begun those famous meetings which were +to revolutionise the political system of Europe, the engines of Watt +were arranged in such a way that they could drive the weaving machines +of Arkwright, and this created an economic and social revolution which +has changed human relationship in almost every part of the world. + +As soon as the stationary engine had proved a success, the inventors +turned their attention to the problem of propelling boats and carts with +the help of a mechanical contrivance. Watt himself designed plans for +a "steam locomotive," but ere he had perfected his ideas, in the year +1804, a locomotive made by Richard Trevithick carried a load of twenty +tons at Pen-y-darran in the Wales mining district. + +At the same time an American jeweller and portrait-painter by the name +of Robert Fulton was in Paris, trying to convince Napoleon that with +the use of his submarine boat, the "Nautilus," and his "steam-boat," the +French might be able to destroy the naval supremacy of England. + +Fulton's idea of a steamboat was not original. He had undoubtedly copied +it from John Fitch, a mechanical genius of Connecticut whose cleverly +constructed steamer had first navigated the Delaware river as early as +the year 1787. But Napoleon and his scientific advisers did not believe +in the practical possibility of a self-propelled boat, and although the +Scotch-built engine of the little craft puffed merrily on the Seine, the +great Emperor neglected to avail himself of this formidable weapon which +might have given him his revenge for Trafalgar. + +As for Fulton, he returned to the United States and, being a practical +man of business, he organised a successful steamboat company together +with Robert R. Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, +who was American Minister to France when Fulton was in Paris, trying +to sell his invention. The first steamer of this new company, the +"Clermont," which was given a monopoly of all the waters of New York +State, equipped with an engine built by Boulton and Watt of Birmingham +in England, began a regular service between New York and Albany in the +year 1807. + +As for poor John Fitch, the man who long before any one else had used +the "steam-boat" for commercial purposes, he came to a sad death. Broken +in health and empty of purse, he had come to the end of his resources +when his fifth boat, which was propelled by means of a screw-propeller, +had been destroyed. His neighbours jeered at him as they were to laugh a +hundred years later when Professor Langley constructed his funny flying +machines. Fitch had hoped to give his country an easy access to the +broad rivers of the west and his countrymen preferred to travel in +flat-boats or go on foot. In the year 1798, in utter despair and misery, +Fitch killed himself by taking poison. + +But twenty years later, the "Savannah," a steamer of 1850 tons and +making six knots an hour, (the Mauretania goes just four times as fast,) +crossed the ocean from Savannah to Liverpool in the record time of +twenty-five days. Then there was an end to the derision of the multitude +and in their enthusiasm the people gave the credit for the invention to +the wrong man. + +Six years later, George Stephenson, a Scotchman, who had been building +locomotives for the purpose of hauling coal from the mine-pit to +smelting ovens and cotton factories, built his famous "travelling +engine" which reduced the price of coal by almost seventy per cent and +which made it possible to establish the first regular passenger service +between Manchester and Liverpool, when people were whisked from city to +city at the unheard-of speed of fifteen miles per hour. A dozen years +later, this speed had been increased to twenty miles per hour. At the +present time, any well-behaved flivver (the direct descendant of +the puny little motor-driven machines of Daimler and Levassor of the +eighties of the last century) can do better than these early "Puffing +Billies." + +But while these practically-minded engineers were improving upon their +rattling "heat engines," a group of "pure" scientists (men who +devote fourteen hours of each day to the study of those "theoretical" +scientific phenomena without which no mechanical progress would be +possible) were following a new scent which promised to lead them into +the most secret and hidden domains of Nature. + +Two thousand years ago, a number of Greek and Roman philosophers +(notably Thales of Miletus and Pliny who was killed while trying +to study the eruption of Vesuvius of the year 79 when Pompeii and +Herculaneum were buried beneath the ashes) had noticed the strange +antics of bits of straw and of feather which were held near a piece of +amber which was being rubbed with a bit of wool. The schoolmen of the +Middle Ages had not been interested in this mysterious "electric" power. +But immediately after the Renaissance, William Gilbert, the private +physician of Queen Elizabeth, wrote his famous treatise on the character +and behaviour of Magnets. During the Thirty Years War Otto von +Guericke, the burgomaster of Magdeburg and the inventor of the air-pump, +constructed the first electrical machine. During the next century +a large number of scientists devoted themselves to the study of +electricity. Not less than three professors invented the famous Leyden +Jar in the year 1795. At the same time, Benjamin Franklin, the most +universal genius of America next to Benjamin Thomson (who after his +flight from New Hampshire on account of his pro-British sympathies +became known as Count Rumford) was devoting his attention to this +subject. He discovered that lightning and the electric spark were +manifestations of the same electric power and continued his electric +studies until the end of his busy and useful life. Then came Volta with +his famous "electric pile" and Galvani and Day and the Danish professor +Hans Christian Oersted and Ampere and Arago and Faraday, all of them +diligent searchers after the true nature of the electric forces. + +They freely gave their discoveries to the world and Samuel Morse (who +like Fulton began his career as an artist) thought that he could use +this new electric current to transmit messages from one city to another. +He intended to use copper wire and a little machine which he had +invented. People laughed at him. Morse therefore was obliged to finance +his own experiments and soon he had spent all his money and then he was +very poor and people laughed even louder. He then asked Congress to help +him and a special Committee on Commerce promised him their support. But +the members of Congress were not at all interested and Morse had to wait +twelve years before he was given a small congressional appropriation. He +then built a "telegraph" between Baltimore and Washington. In the year +1887 he had shown his first successful "telegraph" in one of the lecture +halls of New York University. Finally, on the 24th of May of the +year 1844 the first long-distance message was sent from Washington to +Baltimore and to-day the whole world is covered with telegraph wires +and we can send news from Europe to Asia in a few seconds. Twenty-three +years later Alexander Graham Bell used the electric current for his +telephone. And half a century afterwards Marconi improved upon these +ideas by inventing a system of sending messages which did away entirely +with the old-fashioned wires. + +While Morse, the New Englander, was working on his "telegraph," Michael +Faraday, the Yorkshire-man, had constructed the first "dynamo." This +tiny little machine was completed in the year 1881 when Europe was +still trembling as a result of the great July revolutions which had so +severely upset the plans of the Congress of Vienna. The first dynamo +grew and grew and grew and to-day it provides us with heat and with +light (you know the little incandescent bulbs which Edison, building +upon French and English experiments of the forties and fifties, first +made in 1878) and with power for all sorts of machines. If I am not +mistaken the electric-engine will soon entirely drive out the "heat +engine" just as in the olden days the more highly-organised prehistoric +animals drove out their less efficient neighbours. + +Personally (but I know nothing about machinery) this will make me very +happy. For the electric engine which can be run by waterpower is a clean +and companionable servant of mankind but the "heat-engine," the marvel +of the eighteenth century, is a noisy and dirty creature for ever +filling the world with ridiculous smoke-stacks and with dust and soot +and asking that it be fed with coal which has to be dug out of mines at +great inconvenience and risk to thousands of people. + +And if I were a novelist and not a historian, who must stick to facts +and may not use his imagination, I would describe the happy day when the +last steam locomotive shall be taken to the Museum of Natural History to +be placed next to the skeleton of the Dynosaur and the Pteredactyl and +the other extinct creatures of a by-gone age. + + + + +THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION + +BUT THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE OF WEALTH COULD +AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER +IN HIS LITTLE WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO THE OWNERS OF +THE BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND WHILE HE MADE MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE +LOST HIS FORMER INDEPENDENCE AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT + + +IN the olden days the work of the world had been done by independent +workmen who sat in their own little workshops in the front of their +houses, who owned their tools, who boxed the ears of their own +apprentices and who, within the limits prescribed by their guilds, +conducted their business as it pleased them. They lived simple lives, +and were obliged to work very long hours, but they were their own +masters. If they got up and saw that it was a fine day to go fishing, +they went fishing and there was no one to say "no." + +But the introduction of machinery changed this. A machine is really +nothing but a greatly enlarged tool. A railroad train which carries you +at the speed of a mile a minute is in reality a pair of very fast +legs, and a steam hammer which flattens heavy plates of iron is just a +terrible big fist, made of steel. + +But whereas we can all afford a pair of good legs and a good strong +fist, a railroad train and a steam hammer and a cotton factory are very +expensive pieces of machinery and they are not owned by a single man, +but usually by a company of people who all contribute a certain sum and +then divide the profits of their railroad or cotton mill according to +the amount of money which they have invested. + +Therefore, when machines had been improved until they were really +practicable and profitable, the builders of those large tools, the +machine manufacturers, began to look for customers who could afford to +pay for them in cash. + +During the early middle ages, when land had been almost the only form of +wealth, the nobility were the only people who were considered wealthy. +But as I have told you in a previous chapter, the gold and silver which +they possessed was quite insignificant and they used the old system +of barter, exchanging cows for horses and eggs for honey. During the +crusades, the burghers of the cities had been able to gather riches +from the reviving trade between the east and the west, and they had been +serious rivals of the lords and the knights. + +The French revolution had entirely destroyed the wealth of the nobility +and had enormously increased that of the middle class or "bourgeoisie." +The years of unrest which followed the Great Revolution had offered +many middle-class people a chance to get more than their share of this +world's goods. The estates of the church had been confiscated by +the French Convention and had been sold at auction. There had been +a terrific amount of graft. Land speculators had stolen thousands of +square miles of valuable land, and during the Napoleonic wars, they had +used their capital to "profiteer" in grain and gun-powder, and now they +possessed more wealth than they needed for the actual expenses of their +households, and they could afford to build themselves factories and to +hire men and women to work the machines. + +This caused a very abrupt change in the lives of hundreds of thousands +of people. Within a few years, many cities doubled the number of their +inhabitants and the old civic centre which had been the real "home" of +the citizens was surrounded with ugly and cheaply built suburbs where +the workmen slept after their eleven or twelve hours, or thirteen hours, +spent in the factories and from where they returned to the factory as +soon as the whistle blew. + +Far and wide through the countryside there was talk of the fabulous sums +of money that could be made in the towns. The peasant boy, accustomed +to a life in the open, went to the city. He rapidly lost his old health +amidst the smoke and dust and dirt of those early and badly ventilated +workshops, and the end, very often, was death in the poor-house or in +the hospital. + +Of course the change from the farm to the factory on the part of so +many people was not accomplished without a certain amount of opposition. +Since one engine could do as much work as a hundred men, the ninety-nine +others who were thrown out of employment did not like it. Frequently +they attacked the factory-buildings and set fire to the machines, but +Insurance Companies had been organised as early as the 17th century and +as a rule the owners were well protected against loss. + +Soon, newer and better machines were installed, the factory was +surrounded with a high wall and then there was an end to the rioting. +The ancient guilds could not possibly survive in this new world of +steam and iron. They went out of existence and then the workmen tried +to organise regular labour unions. But the factory-owners, who through +their wealth could exercise great influence upon the politicians of the +different countries, went to the Legislature and had laws passed which +forbade the forming of such trade unions because they interfered with +the "liberty of action" of the working man. + +Please do not think that the good members of Parliament who passed these +laws were wicked tyrants. They were the true sons of the revolutionary +period when everybody talked of "liberty" and when people often killed +their neighbours because they were not quite as liberty-loving as they +ought to have been. Since "liberty" was the foremost virtue of man, it +was not right that labour-unions should dictate to their members the +hours during which they could work and the wages which they must demand. +The workman must at all times, be "free to sell his services in the open +market," and the employer must be equally "free" to conduct his business +as he saw fit. The days of the Mercantile System, when the state had +regulated the industrial life of the entire community, were coming to +an end. The new idea of "freedom" insisted that the state stand entirely +aside and let commerce take its course. + +The last half of the 18th century had not merely been a time of +intellectual and political doubt, but the old economic ideas, too, had +been replaced by new ones which better suited the need of the hour. +Several years before the French revolution, Turgot, who had been one +of the unsuccessful ministers of finance of Louis XVI, had preached the +novel doctrine of "economic liberty." Turgot lived in a country which +had suffered from too much red-tape, too many regulations, too many +officials trying to enforce too many laws. "Remove this official +supervision," he wrote, "let the people do as they please, and +everything will be all right." Soon his famous advice of "laissez +faire" became the battle-cry around which the economists of that period +rallied. + +At the same time in England, Adam Smith was working on his mighty +volumes on the "Wealth of Nations," which made another plea for +"liberty" and the "natural rights of trade." Thirty years later, after +the fall of Napoleon, when the reactionary powers of Europe had gained +their victory at Vienna, that same freedom which was denied to the +people in their political relations was forced upon them in their +industrial life. + +The general use of machinery, as I have said at the beginning of this +chapter, proved to be of great advantage to the state. Wealth increased +rapidly. The machine made it possible for a single country, like +England, to carry all the burdens of the great Napoleonic wars. The +capitalists (the people who provided the money with which machines were +bought) reaped enormous profits. They became ambitious and began to +take an interest in politics. They tried to compete with the landed +aristocracy which still exercised great influence upon the government of +most European countries. + +In England, where the members of Parliament were still elected according +to a Royal Decree of the year 1265, and where a large number of recently +created industrial centres were without representation, they brought +about the passing of the Reform Bill of the year 1882, which changed the +electoral system and gave the class of the factory-owners more influence +upon the legislative body. This however caused great discontent among +the millions of factory workers, who were left without any voice in the +government. They too began an agitation for the right to vote. They put +their demands down in a document which came to be known as the "People's +Charter." The debates about this charter grew more and more violent. +They had not yet come to an end when the revolutions of the year 1848 +broke out. Frightened by the threat of a new outbreak or Jacobinism and +violence, the English government placed the Duke of Wellington, who +was now in his eightieth year, at the head of the army, and called for +Volunteers. London was placed in a state of siege and preparations were +made to suppress the coming revolution. + +But the Chartist movement killed itself through bad leadership and no +acts of violence took place. The new class of wealthy factory owners, +(I dislike the word "bourgeoisie" which has been used to death by the +apostles of a new social order,) slowly increased its hold upon the +government, and the conditions of industrial life in the large cities +continued to transform vast acres of pasture and wheat-land into dreary +slums, which guard the approach of every modern European town. + + + + +EMANCIPATION + +THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING ABOUT THE ERA OF +HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION +WHICH SAW THE STAGE COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES +WERE SUGGESTED BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE PROBLEM + + +IN the year 1831, just before the passing of the first Reform Bill +Jeremy Bentham, the great English student of legislative methods and the +most practical political reformer of that day, wrote to a friend: "The +way to be comfortable is to make others comfortable. The way to make +others comfortable is to appear to love them. The way to appear to love +them is to love them in reality." Jeremy was an honest man. He said what +he believed to be true. His opinions were shared by thousands of his +countrymen. They felt responsible for the happiness of their less +fortunate neighbours and they tried their very best to help them. And +Heaven knows it was time that something be done! + +The ideal of "economic freedom" (the "laissez faire" of Turgot) had +been necessary in the old society where mediaeval restrictions lamed +all industrial effort. But this "liberty of action" which had been +the highest law of the land had led to a terrible, yea, a frightful +condition. The hours in the fac-tory were limited only by the physical +strength of the workers. As long as a woman could sit before her loom, +without fainting from fatigue, she was supposed to work. Children of +five and six were taken to the cotton mills, to save them from the +dangers of the street and a life of idleness. A law had been passed +which forced the children of paupers to go to work or be punished by +being chained to their machines. In return for their services they got +enough bad food to keep them alive and a sort of pigsty in which they +could rest at night. Often they were so tired that they fell asleep at +their job. To keep them awake a foreman with a whip made the rounds and +beat them on the knuckles when it was necessary to bring them back to +their duties. Of course, under these circumstances thousands of little +children died. This was regrettable and the employers, who after all +were human beings and not without a heart, sincerely wished that they +could abolish "child labour." But since man was "free" it followed that +children were "free" too. Besides, if Mr. Jones had tried to work his +factory without the use of children of five and six, his rival, Mr. +Stone, would have hired an extra supply of little boys and Jones would +have been forced into bankruptcy. It was therefore impossible for Jones +to do without child labour until such time as an act of Parliament +should forbid it for all employers. + +But as Parliament was no longer dominated by the old landed aristocracy +(which had despised the upstart factory-owners with their money bags +and had treated them with open contempt), but was under control of the +representatives from the industrial centres, and as long as the law +did not allow workmen to combine in labour-unions, very little was +accomplished. Of course the intelligent and decent people of that time +were not blind to these terrible conditions. They were just helpless. +Machinery had conquered the world by surprise and it took a great many +years and the efforts of thousands of noble men and women to make the +machine what it ought to be, man's servant, and not his master. + +Curiously enough, the first attack upon the outrageous system of +employment which was then common in all parts of the world, was made +on behalf of the black slaves of Africa and America. Slavery had been +introduced into the American continent by the Spaniards. They had tried +to use the Indians as labourers in the fields and in the mines, but the +Indians, when taken away from a life in the open, had lain down and died +and to save them from extinction a kind-hearted priest had suggested +that negroes be brought from Africa to do the work. The negroes were +strong and could stand rough treatment. Besides, association with the +white man would give them a chance to learn Christianity and in this +way, they would be able to save their souls, and so from every possible +point of view, it would be an excellent arrangement both for the kindly +white man and for his ignorant black brother. But with the introduction +of machinery there had been a greater demand for cotton and the negroes +were forced to work harder than ever before, and they too, like the +Indians, began to die under the treatment which they received at the +hands of the overseers. + +Stories of incredible cruelty constantly found their way to Europe and +in all countries men and women began to agitate for the abolition of +slavery. In England, William Wilberforce and Zachary Macaulay, (the +father of the great historian whose history of England you must read +if you want to know how wonderfully interesting a history-book can be,) +organised a society for the suppression of slavery. First of all they +got a law passed which made "slave trading" illegal. And after the year +1840 there was not a single slave in any of the British colonies. The +revolution of 1848 put an end to slavery in the French possessions. The +Portuguese passed a law in the year 1858 which promised all slaves their +liberty in twenty years from date. The Dutch abolished slavery in +1863 and in the same year Tsar Alexander II returned to his serfs that +liberty which had been taken away from them more than two centuries +before. + +In the United States of America the question led to grave difficulties +and a prolonged war. Although the Declaration of Independence had +laid down the principle that "all men were created free and equal," an +exception had been made for those men and women whose skins were dark +and who worked on the plantations of the southern states. As time +went on, the dislike of the people of the North for the institution +of slavery increased and they made no secret of their feelings. The +southerners however claimed that they could not grow their cotton +without slave-labour, and for almost fifty years a mighty debate raged +in both the Congress and the Senate. + +The North remained obdurate and the South would not give in. When +it appeared impossible to reach a compromise, the southern states +threatened to leave the Union. It was a most dangerous point in the +history of the Union. Many things "might" have happened. That they did +not happen was the work of a very great and very good man. + +On the sixth of November of the year 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois +lawyer, and a man who had made his own intellectual fortune, had +been elected president by the Republicans who were very strong in the +anti-slavery states. He knew the evils of human bondage at first hand +and his shrewd common-sense told him that there was no room on the +northern continent for two rival nations. When a number of southern +states seceded and formed the "Confederate States of America," Lincoln +accepted the challenge. The Northern states were called upon for +volunteers. Hundreds of thousands of young men responded with eager +enthusiasm and there followed four years of bitter civil war. The +South, better prepared and following the brilliant leadership of Lee and +Jackson, repeatedly defeated the armies of the North. Then the economic +strength of New England and the West began to tell. An unknown officer +by the name of Grant arose from obscurity and became the Charles Martel +of the great slave war. Without interruption he hammered his mighty +blows upon the crumbling defences of the South. Early in the year 1863, +President Lincoln issued his "Emancipation Proclamation" which set all +slaves free. In April of the year 1865 Lee surrendered the last of his +brave armies at Appomattox. A few days later, President Lincoln was +murdered by a lunatic. But his work was done. With the exception of Cuba +which was still under Spanish domination, slavery had come to an end in +every part of the civilised world. + +But while the black man was enjoying an increasing amount of liberty, +the "free" workmen of Europe did not fare quite so well. Indeed, it is +a matter of surprise to many contemporary writers and observers that the +masses of workmen (the so-called proletariat) did not die out from sheer +misery. They lived in dirty houses situated in miserable parts of the +slums. They ate bad food. They received just enough schooling to fit +them for their tasks. In case of death or an accident, their families +were not provided for. But the brewery and distillery interests, (who +could exercise great influence upon the Legislature,) encouraged them +to forget their woes by offering them unlimited quantities of whisky and +gin at very cheap rates. + +The enormous improvement which has taken place since the thirties and +the forties of the last century is not due to the efforts of a single +man. The best brains of two generations devoted themselves to the task +of saving the world from the disastrous results of the all-too-sudden +introduction of machinery. They did not try to destroy the capitalistic +system. This would have been very foolish, for the accumulated wealth of +other people, when intelligently used, may be of very great benefit to +all mankind. But they tried to combat the notion that true equality +can exist between the man who has wealth and owns the factories and +can close their doors at will without the risk of going hungry, and the +labourer who must take whatever job is offered, at whatever wage he +can get, or face the risk of starvation for himself, his wife and his +children. + +They endeavoured to introduce a number of laws which regulated the +relations between the factory owners and the factory workers. In this, +the reformers have been increasingly successful in all countries. +To-day, the majority of the labourers are well protected; their hours +are being reduced to the excellent average of eight, and their +children are sent to the schools instead of to the mine pit and to the +carding-room of the cotton mills. + +But there were other men who also contemplated the sight of all the +belching smoke-stacks, who heard the rattle of the railroad trains, who +saw the store-houses filled with a surplus of all sorts of materials, +and who wondered to what ultimate goal this tremendous activity would +lead in the years to come. They remembered that the human race had lived +for hundreds of thousands of years without commercial and industrial +competition. Could they change the existing order of things and do away +with a system of rivalry which so often sacrificed human happiness to +profits? + +This idea--this vague hope for a better day--was not restricted to a +single country. In England, Robert Owen, the owner of many cotton mills, +established a so-called "socialistic community" which was a success. But +when he died, the prosperity of New Lanark came to an end and an attempt +of Louis Blanc, a French journalist, to establish "social workshops" +all over France fared no better. Indeed, the increasing number of +socialistic writers soon began to see that little individual communities +which remained outside of the regular industrial life, would never +be able to accomplish anything at all. It was necessary to study the +fundamental principles underlying the whole industrial and capitalistic +society before useful remedies could be suggested. + +The practical socialists like Robert Owen and Louis Blanc and Francois +Fournier were succeeded by theoretical students of socialism like Karl +Marx and Friedrich Engels. Of these two, Marx is the best known. He was +a very brilliant Jew whose family had for a long time lived in Germany. +He had heard of the experiments of Owen and Blanc and he began to +interest himself in questions of labour and wages and unemployment. But +his liberal views made him very unpopular with the police authorities of +Germany, and he was forced to flee to Brussels and then to London, where +he lived a poor and shabby life as the correspondent of the New York +Tribune. + +No one, thus far, had paid much attention to his books on economic +subjects. But in the year 1864 he organised the first international +association of working men and three years later in 1867, he published +the first volume of his well-known treatise called "Capital." Marx +believed that all history was a long struggle between those who +"have" and those who "don't have." The introduction and general use of +machinery had created a new class in society, that of the capitalists +who used their surplus wealth to buy the tools which were then used +by the labourers to produce still more wealth, which was again used +to build more factories and so on, until the end of time. Meanwhile, +according to Marx, the third estate (the bourgeoisie) was growing richer +and richer and the fourth estate (the proletariat) was growing poorer +and poorer, and he predicted that in the end, one man would possess +all the wealth of the world while the others would be his employees and +dependent upon his good will. + +To prevent such a state of affairs, Marx advised working men of all +countries to unite and to fight for a number of political and economic +measures which he had enumerated in a Manifesto in the year 1848, the +year of the last great European revolution. + +These views of course were very unpopular with the governments of +Europe, many countries, especially Prussia, passed severe laws against +the Socialists and policemen were ordered to break up the Socialist +meetings and to arrest the speakers. But that sort of persecution never +does any good. Martyrs are the best possible advertisements for an +unpopular cause. In Europe the number of socialists steadily increased +and it was soon clear that the Socialists did not contemplate a violent +revolution but were using their increasing power in the different +Parliaments to promote the interests of the labouring classes. +Socialists were even called upon to act as Cabinet Ministers, and they +co-operated with progressive Catholics and Protestants to undo the +damage that had been caused by the Industrial Revolution and to bring +about a fairer division of the many benefits which had followed the +introduction of machinery and the increased production of wealth. + + + + +THE AGE OF SCIENCE + +BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS OF GREATER +IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. +AFTER GENERATIONS OF OPPRESSION AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT +LAST GAINED LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER THE +FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE + + +THE Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks and the +Romans, had all contributed something to the first vague notions of +science and scientific investigation. But the great migrations of the +fourth century had destroyed the classical world of the Mediterranean, +and the Christian Church, which was more interested in the life of +the soul than in the life of the body, had regarded science as a +manifestation of that human arrogance which wanted to pry into divine +affairs which belonged to the realm of Almighty God, and which therefore +was closely related to the seven deadly sins. + +The Renaissance to a certain but limited extent had broken through +this wall of Mediaeval prejudices. The Reformation, however, which had +overtaken the Renaissance in the early 16th century, had been hostile to +the ideals of the "new civilisation," and once more the men of science +were threatened with severe punishment, should they try to pass beyond +the narrow limits of knowledge which had been laid down in Holy Writ. + +Our world is filled with the statues of great generals, atop of prancing +horses, leading their cheering soldiers to glorious victory. Here and +there, a modest slab of marble announces that a man of science has found +his final resting place. A thousand years from now we shall probably +do these things differently, and the children of that happy generation +shall know of the splendid courage and the almost inconceivable devotion +to duty of the men who were the pioneers of that abstract knowledge, +which alone has made our modern world a practical possibility. + +Many of these scientific pioneers suffered poverty and contempt and +humiliation. They lived in garrets and died in dungeons. They dared not +print their names on the title-pages of their books and they dared not +print their conclusions in the land of their birth, but smuggled the +manuscripts to some secret printing shop in Amsterdam or Haarlem. They +were exposed to the bitter enmity of the Church, both Protestant +and Catholic, and were the subjects of endless sermons, inciting the +parishioners to violence against the "heretics." + +Here and there they found an asylum. In Holland, where the spirit +of tolerance was strongest, the authorities, while regarding these +scientific investigations with little favour, yet refused to interfere +with people's freedom of thought. It became a little asylum for +intellectual liberty where French and English and German philosophers +and mathematicians and physicians could go to enjoy a short spell of +rest and get a breath of free air. + +In another chapter I have told you how Roger Bacon, the great genius of +the thirteenth century, was prevented for years from writing a single +word, lest he get into new troubles with the authorities of the church. +And five hundred years later, the contributors to the great philosophic +"Encyclopaedia" were under the constant supervision of the French +gendarmerie. Half a century afterwards, Darwin, who dared to question +the story of the creation of man, as revealed in the Bible, was +denounced from every pulpit as an enemy of the human race. + +Even to-day, the persecution of those who venture into the unknown realm +of science has not entirely come to an end. And while I am writing this +Mr. Bryan is addressing a vast multitude on the "Menace of Darwinism," +warning his hearers against the errors of the great English naturalist. + +All this, however, is a mere detail. The work that has to be done +invariably gets done, and the ultimate profit of the discoveries and the +inventions goes to the mass of those same people who have always decried +the man of vision as an unpractical idealist. + +The seventeenth century had still preferred to investigate the far off +heavens and to study the position of our planet in relation to the solar +system. Even so, the Church had disapproved of this unseemly curiosity, +and Copernicus who first of all had proved that the sun was the centre +of the universe, did not publish his work until the day of his death. +Galileo spent the greater part of his life under the supervision of the +clerical authorities, but he continued to use his telescope and provided +Isaac Newton with a mass of practical observations, which greatly helped +the English mathematician when he dis-covered the existence of that +interesting habit of falling objects which came to be known as the Law +of Gravitation. + +That, for the moment at least, exhausted the interest in the Heavens, +and man began to study the earth. The invention of a workable +microscope, (a strange and clumsy little thing,) by Anthony van +Leeuwenhoek during the last half of the 17th century, gave man a chance +to study the "microscopic" creatures who are responsible for so many of +his ailments. It laid the foundations of the science of "bacteriology" +which in the last forty years has delivered the world from a great +number of diseases by discovering the tiny organisms which cause the +complaint. It also allowed the geologists to make a more careful study +of different rocks and of the fossils (the petrified prehistoric +plants) which they found deep below the surface of the earth. These +investigations convinced them that the earth must be a great deal older +than was stated in the book of Genesis and in the year 1830, Sir Charles +Lyell published his "Principles of Geology" which denied the story +of creation as related in the Bible and gave a far more wonderful +description of slow growth and gradual development. + +At the same time, the Marquis de Laplace was working on a new theory of +creation, which made the earth a little blotch in the nebulous sea out +of which the planetary system had been formed and Bunsen and Kirchhoff, +by the use of the spectroscope, were investigating the chemical +composition of the stars and of our good neighbour, the sun, whose +curious spots had first been noticed by Galileo. + +Meanwhile after a most bitter and relentless warfare with the clerical +authorities of Catholic and Protestant lands, the anatomists and +physiologists had at last obtained permission to dissect bodies and to +substitute a positive knowledge of our organs and their habits for the +guesswork of the mediaeval quack. + +Within a single generation (between 1810 and 1840) more progress was +made in every branch of science than in all the hundreds of thousands of +years that had passed since man first looked at the stars and wondered +why they were there. It must have been a very sad age for the people +who had been educated under the old system. And we can understand +their feeling of hatred for such men as Lamarck and Darwin, who did +not exactly tell them that they were "descended from monkeys," (an +accusation which our grandfathers seemed to regard as a personal +insult,) but who suggested that the proud human race had evolved from +a long series of ancestors who could trace the family-tree back to the +little jelly-fishes who were the first inhabitants of our planet. + +The dignified world of the well-to-do middle class, which dominated the +nineteenth century, was willing to make use of the gas or the electric +light, of all the many practical applications of the great scientific +discoveries, but the mere investigator, the man of the "scientific +theory" without whom no progress would be possible, continued to +be distrusted until very recently. Then, at last, his services were +recognised. Today the rich people who in past ages donated their wealth +for the building of a cathedral, construct vast laboratories where +silent men do battle upon the hidden enemies of mankind and often +sacrifice their lives that coming generations may enjoy greater +happiness and health. + +Indeed it has come to pass that many of the ills of this world, which +our ancestors regarded as inevitable "acts of God," have been exposed +as manifestations of our own ignorance and neglect. Every child nowadays +knows that he can keep from getting typhoid fever by a little care in +the choice of his drinking water. But it took years and years of hard +work before the doctors could convince the people of this fact. Few of +us now fear the dentist chair. A study of the microbes that live in our +mouth has made it possible to keep our teeth from decay. Must perchance +a tooth be pulled, then we take a sniff of gas, and go our way +rejoicing. When the newspapers of the year 1846 brought the story of the +"painless operation" which had been performed in America with the help +of ether, the good people of Europe shook their heads. To them it seemed +against the will of God that man should escape the pain which was the +share of all mortals, and it took a long time before the practice of +taking ether and chloroform for operations became general. + +But the battle of progress had been won. The breach in the old walls +of prejudice was growing larger and larger, and as time went by, the +ancient stones of ignorance came crumbling down. The eager crusaders +of a new and happier social order rushed forward. Suddenly they found +themselves facing a new obstacle. Out of the ruins of a long-gone past, +another citadel of reaction had been erected, and millions of men had to +give their lives before this last bulwark was destroyed. + + + + +ART + +A CHAPTER OF ART + + +WHEN a baby is perfectly healthy and has had enough to eat and has slept +all it wants, then it hums a little tune to show how happy it is. To +grown-ups this humming means nothing. It sounds like "goo-zum, goo-zum, +goo-o-o-o-o," but to the baby it is perfect music. It is his first +contribution to art. + +As soon as he (or she) gets a little older and is able to sit up, the +period of mud-pie making begins. These mud-pies do not interest the +outside world. There are too many million babies, making too many +million mud-pies at the same time. But to the small infant they +represent another expedition into the pleasant realm of art. The baby is +now a sculptor. + +At the age of three or four, when the hands begin to obey the brain, +the child becomes a painter. His fond mother gives him a box of coloured +chalks and every loose bit of paper is rapidly covered with strange +pothooks and scrawls which represent houses and horses and terrible +naval battles. + +Soon however this happiness of just "making things" comes to an end. +School begins and the greater part of the day is filled up with work. +The business of living, or rather the business of "making a living," +becomes the most important event in the life of every boy and girl. +There is little time left for "art" between learning the tables of +multiplication and the past participles of the irregular French verbs. +And unless the desire for making certain things for the mere pleasure of +creating them without any hope of a practical return be very strong, the +child grows into manhood and forgets that the first five years of his +life were mainly devoted to art. + +Nations are not different from children. As soon as the cave-man had +escaped the threatening dangers of the long and shivering ice-period, +and had put his house in order, he began to make certain things which +he thought beautiful, although they were of no earthly use to him in his +fight with the wild animals of the jungle. He covered the walls of his +grotto with pictures of the elephants and the deer which he hunted, and +out of a piece of stone, he hacked the rough figures of those women he +thought most attractive. + +As soon as the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the Persians and all +the other people of the east had founded their little countries along +the Nile and the Euphrates, they began to build magnificent palaces for +their kings, invented bright pieces of jewellery for their women and +planted gardens which sang happy songs of colour with their many bright +flowers. + +Our own ancestors, the wandering nomads from the distant Asiatic +prairies, enjoying a free and easy existence as fighters and hunters, +composed songs which celebrated the mighty deeds of their great leaders +and invented a form of poetry which has survived until our own day. A +thousand years later, when they had established themselves on the Greek +mainland, and had built their "city-states," they expressed their joy +(and their sorrows) in magnificent temples, in statues, in comedies and +in tragedies, and in every conceivable form of art. + +The Romans, like their Carthaginian rivals, were too busy administering +other people and making money to have much love for "useless and +unprofitable" adventures of the spirit. They conquered the world and +built roads and bridges but they borrowed their art wholesale from the +Greeks. They invented certain practical forms of architecture which +answered the demands of their day and age. But their statues and their +histories and their mosaics and their poems were mere Latin imitations +of Greek originals. Without that vague and hard-to-define something +which the world calls "personality," there can be no art and the Roman +world distrusted that particular sort of personality. The Empire needed +efficient soldiers and tradesmen. The business of writing poetry or +making pictures was left to foreigners. + +Then came the Dark Ages. The barbarian was the proverbial bull in +the china-shop of western Europe. He had no use for what he did not +understand. Speaking in terms of the year 1921, he liked the magazine +covers of pretty ladies, but threw the Rembrandt etchings which he had +inherited into the ash-can. Soon he came to learn better. Then he tried +to undo the damage which he had created a few years before. But the +ash-cans were gone and so were the pictures. + +But by this time, his own art, which he had brought with him from the +east, had developed into something very beautiful and he made up for his +past neglect and indifference by the so-called "art of the Middle +Ages" which as far as northern Europe is concerned was a product of the +Germanic mind and had borrowed but little from the Greeks and the Latins +and nothing at all from the older forms of art of Egypt and Assyria, not +to speak of India and China, which simply did not exist, as far as the +people of that time were concerned. Indeed, so little had the northern +races been influenced by their southern neighbours that their own +architectural products were completely misunderstood by the people of +Italy and were treated by them with downright and unmitigated contempt. + +You have all heard the word Gothic. You probably associate it with the +picture of a lovely old cathedral, lifting its slender spires towards +high heaven. But what does the word really mean? + +It means something "uncouth" and "barbaric"--something which one might +expect from an "uncivilised Goth," a rough backwoods-man who had no +respect for the established rules of classical art and who built his +"modern horrors" to please his own low tastes without a decent regard +for the examples of the Forum and the Acropolis. + +And yet for several centuries this form of Gothic architecture was the +highest expression of the sincere feeling for art which inspired the +whole northern continent. From a previous chapter, you will remember how +the people of the late Middle Ages lived. Unless they were peasants and +dwelt in villages, they were citizens of a "city" or "civitas," the old +Latin name for a tribe. And indeed, behind their high walls and their +deep moats, these good burghers were true tribesmen who shared the +common dangers and enjoyed the common safety and prosperity which they +derived from their system of mutual protection. + +In the old Greek and Roman cities the market-place, where the temple +stood, had been the centre of civic life. During the Middle Ages, the +Church, the House of God, became such a centre. We modern Protestant +people, who go to our church only once a week, and then for a few hours +only, hardly know what a mediaeval church meant to the community. Then, +before you were a week old, you were taken to the Church to be baptised. +As a child, you visited the Church to learn the holy stories of the +Scriptures. Later on you became a member of the congregation, and if you +were rich enough you built yourself a separate little chapel sacred to +the memory of the Patron Saint of your own family. As for the sacred +edifice, it was open at all hours of the day and many of the night. In +a certain sense it resembled a modern club, dedicated to all the +inhabitants of the town. In the church you very likely caught a first +glimpse of the girl who was to become your bride at a great ceremony +before the High Altar. And finally, when the end of the journey had +come, you were buried beneath the stones of this familiar building, that +all your children and their grandchildren might pass over your grave +until the Day of Judgement. + +Because the Church was not only the House of God but also the true +centre of all common life, the building had to be different from +anything that had ever been constructed by the hands of man. The temples +of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans had been merely the +shrine of a local divinity. As no sermons were preached before the +images of Osiris or Zeus or Jupiter, it was not necessary that +the interior offer space for a great multitude. All the religious +processions of the old Mediterranean peoples took place in the open. +But in the north, where the weather was usually bad, most functions were +held under the roof of the church. + +During many centuries the architects struggled with this problem of +constructing a building that was large enough. The Roman tradition +taught them how to build heavy stone walls with very small windows lest +the walls lose their strength. On the top of this they then placed a +heavy stone roof. But in the twelfth century, after the beginning of +the Crusades, when the architects had seen the pointed arches of the +Mohammedan builders, the western builders discovered a new style which +gave them their first chance to make the sort of building which those +days of an intense religious life demanded. And then they developed this +strange style upon which the Italians bestowed the contemptuous name of +"Gothic" or barbaric. They achieved their purpose by inventing a vaulted +roof which was supported by "ribs." But such a roof, if it became too +heavy, was apt to break the walls, just as a man of three hundred pounds +sitting down upon a child's chair will force it to collapse. To overcome +this difficulty, certain French architects then began to re-enforce the +walls with "buttresses" which were merely heavy masses of stone against +which the walls could lean while they supported the roof. And to assure +the further safety of the roof they supported the ribs of the roof by +so-called "flying buttresses," a very simple method of construction +which you will understand at once when you look at our picture. + +This new method of construction allowed the introduction of enormous +windows. In the twelfth century, glass was still an expensive curiosity, +and very few private buildings possessed glass windows. Even the castles +of the nobles were without protection and this accounts for the eternal +drafts and explains why people of that day wore furs in-doors as well as +out. + +Fortunately, the art of making coloured glass, with which the ancient +people of the Mediterranean had been familiar, had not been entirely +lost. There was a revival of stained glass-making and soon the windows +of the Gothic churches told the stories of the Holy Book in little +bits of brilliantly coloured window-pane, which were caught in a long +framework of lead. + +Behold, therefore, the new and glorious house of God, filled with an +eager multitude, "living" its religion as no people have ever done +either before or since! Nothing is considered too good or too costly or +too wondrous for this House of God and Home of Man. The sculptors, who +since the destruction of the Roman Empire have been out of employment, +haltingly return to their noble art. Portals and pillars and buttresses +and cornices are all covered with carven images of Our Lord and the +blessed Saints. The embroiderers too are set to work to make tapestries +for the walls. The jewellers offer their highest art that the shrine of +the altar may be worthy of complete adoration. Even the painter does his +best. Poor man, he is greatly handicapped by lack of a suitable medium. + +And thereby hangs a story. + +The Romans of the early Christian period had covered the floors and +the walls of their temples and houses with mosaics; pictures made of +coloured bits of glass. But this art had been exceedingly difficult. +It gave the painter no chance to express all he wanted to say, as all +children know who have ever tried to make figures out of coloured blocks +of wood. The art of mosaic painting therefore died out during the late +Middle Ages except in Russia, where the Byzantine mosaic painters +had found a refuge after the fall of Constantinople and continued +to ornament the walls of the orthodox churches until the day of the +Bolsheviki, when there was an end to the building of churches. + +Of course, the mediaeval painter could mix his colours with the water +of the wet plaster which was put upon the walls of the churches. This +method of painting upon "fresh plaster" (which was generally called +"fresco" or "fresh" painting) was very popular for many centuries. +To-day, it is as rare as the art of painting miniatures in manuscripts +and among the hundreds of artists of our modern cities there is perhaps +one who can handle this medium successfully. But during the Middle Ages +there was no other way and the artists were "fresco" workers for lack +of something better. The method however had certain great disadvantages. +Very often the plaster came off the walls after only a few years, or +dampness spoiled the pictures, just as dampness will spoil the pattern +of our wall paper. People tried every imaginable expedient to get away +from this plaster background. They tried to mix their colours with wine +and vinegar and with honey and with the sticky white of egg, but none +of these methods were satisfactory. For more than a thousand years these +experiments continued. In painting pictures upon the parchment leaves of +manuscripts the mediaeval artists were very successful. But when it came +to covering large spaces of wood or stone with paint which would stick, +they did not succeed very well. + +At last, during the first half of the fifteenth century, the problem +was solved in the southern Netherlands by Jan and Hubert van Eyck. The +famous Flemish brothers mixed their paint with specially prepared oils +and this allowed them to use wood and canvas or stone or anything else +as a background for their pictures. + +But by this time the religious ardour of the early Middle Ages was a +thing of the past. The rich burghers of the cities were succeeding the +bishops as patrons of the arts. And as art invariably follows the full +dinner-pail, the artists now began to work for these worldly employers +and painted pictures for kings, for grand-dukes and for rich bankers. +Within a very short time, the new method of painting with oil spread +through Europe and in every country there developed a school of special +painting which showed the characteristic tastes of the people for whom +these portraits and landscapes were made. + +In Spain, for example, Velasquez painted court-dwarfs and the weavers +of the royal tapestry-factories, and all sorts of persons and subjects +connected with the king and his court. But in Holland, Rembrandt and +Frans Hals and Vermeer painted the barnyard of the merchant's house, +and they painted his rather dowdy wife and his healthy but bumptious +children and the ships which had brought him his wealth. In Italy on +the other hand, where the Pope remained the largest patron of the arts, +Michelangelo and Correggio continued to paint Madonnas and Saints, while +in England, where the aristocracy was very rich and powerful and in +France where the kings had become uppermost in the state, the artists +painted distinguished gentlemen who were members of the government, and +very lovely ladies who were friends of His Majesty. + +The great change in painting, which came about with the neglect of the +old church and the rise of a new class in society, was reflected in all +other forms of art. The invention of printing had made it possible for +authors to win fame and reputation by writing books for the multitudes. +In this way arose the profession of the novelist and the illustrator. +But the people who had money enough to buy the new books were not the +sort who liked to sit at home of nights, looking at the ceiling or just +sitting. They wanted to be amused. The few minstrels of the Middle Ages +were not sufficient to cover the demand for entertainment. For the first +time since the early Greek city-states of two thousand years before, the +professional playwright had a chance to ply his trade. The Middle Ages +had known the theatre merely as part of certain church celebrations. The +tragedies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had told the story +of the suffering of our Lord. But during the sixteenth century the +worldly theatre made its reappearance. It is true that, at first, the +position of the professional playwright and actor was not a very high +one. William Shakespeare was regarded as a sort of circus-fellow who +amused his neighbours with his tragedies and comedies. But when he died +in the year 1616 he had begun to enjoy the respect of his neighbours and +actors were no longer subjects of police supervision. + +William's contemporary, Lope de Vega, the incredible Spaniard who wrote +no less than 1800 worldly and 400 religious plays, was a person of rank +who received the papal approval upon his work. A century later, Moliere, +the Frenchman, was deemed worthy of the companionship of none less than +King Louis XIV. + +Since then, the theatre has enjoyed an ever increasing affection on the +part of the people. To-day a "theatre" is part of every well-regulated +city, and the "silent drama" of the movies has penetrated to the tiniest +of our prairie hamlets. + +Another art, however, was to become the most popular of all. That was +music. Most of the old art-forms demanded a great deal of technical +skill. It takes years and years of practice before our clumsy hand is +able to follow the commands of the brain and reproduce our vision upon +canvas or in marble. It takes a life-time to learn how to act or how to +write a good novel. And it takes a great deal of training on the part of +the public to appreciate the best in painting and writing and sculpture. +But almost any one, not entirely tone-deaf, can follow a tune and almost +everybody can get enjoyment out of some sort of music. The Middle Ages +had heard a little music but it had been entirely the music of the +church. The holy chants were subject to very severe laws of rhythm and +harmony and soon these became monotonous. Besides, they could not well +be sung in the street or in the market-place. + +The Renaissance changed this. Music once more came into its own as the +best friend of man, both in his happiness and in his sorrows. + +The Egyptians and the Babylonians and the ancient Jews had all been +great lovers of music. They had even combined different instruments +into regular orchestras. But the Greeks had frowned upon this barbaric +foreign noise. They liked to hear a man recite the stately poetry of +Homer and Pindar. They allowed him to accompany himself upon the lyre +(the poorest of all stringed instruments). That was as far as any one +could go without incurring the risk of popular disapproval. The Romans +on the other hand had loved orchestral music at their dinners and +parties and they had invented most of the instruments which (in VERY +modified form) we use to-day. The early church had despised this music +which smacked too much of the wicked pagan world which had just been +destroyed. A few songs rendered by the entire congregation were all +the bishops of the third and fourth centuries would tolerate. As the +congregation was apt to sing dreadfully out of key without the guidance +of an instrument, the church had afterwards allowed the use of an organ, +an invention of the second century of our era which consisted of a +combination of the old pipes of Pan and a pair of bellows. + +Then came the great migrations. The last of the Roman musicians were +either killed or became tramp-fiddlers going from city to city and +playing in the street, and begging for pennies like the harpist on a +modern ferry-boat. + +But the revival of a more worldly civilisation in the cities of the late +Middle Ages had created a new demand for musicians. Instruments like +the horn, which had been used only as signal-instruments for hunting and +fighting, were remodelled until they could reproduce sounds which were +agreeable in the dance-hall and in the banqueting room. A bow strung +with horse-hair was used to play the old-fashioned guitar and before the +end of the Middle Ages this six-stringed instrument (the most ancient of +all string-instruments which dates back to Egypt and Assyria) had grown +into our modern four-stringed fiddle which Stradivarius and the other +Italian violin-makers of the eighteenth century brought to the height of +perfection. + +And finally the modern piano was invented, the most wide-spread of all +musical instruments, which has followed man into the wilderness of the +jungle and the ice-fields of Greenland. The organ had been the first +of all keyed instruments but the performer always depended upon the +co-operation of some one who worked the bellows, a job which nowadays +is done by electricity. The musicians therefore looked for a handier and +less circumstantial instrument to assist them in training the pupils +of the many church choirs. During the great eleventh century, Guido, +a Benedictine monk of the town of Arezzo (the birthplace of the poet +Petrarch) gave us our modern system of musical annotation. Some time +during that century, when there was a great deal of popular interest +in music, the first instrument with both keys and strings was built. It +must have sounded as tinkly as one of those tiny children's pianos which +you can buy at every toy-shop. In the city of Vienna, the town where +the strolling musicians of the Middle Ages (who had been classed +with jugglers and card sharps) had formed the first separate Guild of +Musicians in the year 1288, the little monochord was developed into +something which we can recognise as the direct ancestor of our modern +Steinway. From Austria the "clavichord" as it was usually called in +those days (because it had "craves" or keys) went to Italy. There it +was perfected into the "spinet" which was so called after the inventor, +Giovanni Spinetti of Venice. At last during the eighteenth century, some +time between 1709 and 1720, Bartolomeo Cristofori made a "clavier" which +allowed the performer to play both loudly and softly or as it was said +in Italian, "piano" and "forte." This instrument with certain changes +became our "pianoforte" or piano. + +Then for the first time the world possessed an easy and convenient +instrument which could be mastered in a couple of years and did not need +the eternal tuning of harps and fiddles and was much pleasanter to the +ears than the mediaeval tubas, clarinets, trombones and oboes. Just as +the phonograph has given millions of modern people their first love of +music so did the early "pianoforte" carry the knowledge of music +into much wider circles. Music became part of the education of every +well-bred man and woman. Princes and rich merchants maintained private +orchestras. The musician ceased to be a wandering "jongleur" and became +a highly valued member of the community. Music was added to the dramatic +performances of the theatre and out of this practice, grew our modern +Opera. Originally only a few very rich princes could afford the expenses +of an "opera troupe." But as the taste for this sort of entertainment +grew, many cities built their own theatres where Italian and afterwards +German operas were given to the unlimited joy of the whole community +with the exception of a few sects of very strict Christians who still +regarded music with deep suspicion as something which was too lovely to +be entirely good for the soul. + +By the middle of the eighteenth century the musical life of Europe was +in full swing. Then there came forward a man who was greater than all +others, a simple organist of the Thomas Church of Leipzig, by the +name of Johann Sebastian Bach. In his compositions for every known +instrument, from comic songs and popular dances to the most stately of +sacred hymns and oratorios, he laid the foundation for all our modern +music. When he died in the year 1750 he was succeeded by Mozart, who +created musical fabrics of sheer loveliness which remind us of lace +that has been woven out of harmony and rhythm. Then came Ludwig van +Beethoven, the most tragic of men, who gave us our modern orchestra, +yet heard none of his greatest compositions because he was deaf, as the +result of a cold contracted during his years of poverty. + +Beethoven lived through the period of the great French Revolution. +Full of hope for a new and glorious day, he had dedicated one of his +symphonies to Napoleon. But he lived to regret the hour. When he died in +the year 1827, Napoleon was gone and the French Revolution was gone, but +the steam engine had come and was filling the world with a sound that +had nothing in common with the dreams of the Third Symphony. + +Indeed, the new order of steam and iron and coal and large factories had +little use for art, for painting and sculpture and poetry and music. The +old protectors of the arts, the Church and the princes and the merchants +of the Middle Ages and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no +longer existed. The leaders of the new industrial world were too busy +and had too little education to bother about etchings and sonatas and +bits of carved ivory, not to speak of the men who created those things, +and who were of no practical use to the community in which they lived. +And the workmen in the factories listened to the drone of their engines +until they too had lost all taste for the melody of the flute or fiddle +of their peasant ancestry. The arts became the step-children of the +new industrial era. Art and Life became entirely separated. Whatever +paintings had been left, were dying a slow death in the museums. And +music became a monopoly of a few "virtuosi" who took the music away from +the home and carried it to the concert-hall. + +But steadily, although slowly, the arts are coming back into their own. +People begin to understand that Rembrandt and Beethoven and Rodin are +the true prophets and leaders of their race and that a world without art +and happiness resembles a nursery without laughter. + + + + +COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WAR + +A CHAPTER WHICH OUGHT TO GIVE YOU A GREAT DEAL OF POLITICAL INFORMATION +ABOUT THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, BUT WHICH REALLY CONTAINS SEVERAL +EXPLANATIONS AND A FEW APOLOGIES + + +IF I had known how difficult it was to write a History of the World, I +should never have undertaken the task. Of course, any one possessed +of enough industry to lose himself for half a dozen years in the musty +stacks of a library, can compile a ponderous tome which gives an account +of the events in every land during every century. But that was not the +purpose of the present book. The publishers wanted to print a history +that should have rhythm--a story which galloped rather than walked. And +now that I have almost finished I discover that certain chapters gallop, +that others wade slowly through the dreary sands of long forgotten +ages--that a few parts do not make any progress at all, while still +others indulge in a veritable jazz of action and romance. I did not like +this and I suggested that we destroy the whole manuscript and begin once +more from the beginning. This, however, the publishers would not allow. + +As the next best solution of my difficulties, I took the type-written +pages to a number of charitable friends and asked them to read what I +had said, and give me the benefit of their advice. The experience was +rather disheartening. Each and every man had his own prejudices and his +own hobbies and preferences. They all wanted to know why, where and how +I dared to omit their pet nation, their pet statesman, or even their +most beloved criminal. With some of them, Napoleon and Jenghiz Khan were +candidates for high honours. I explained that I had tried very hard to +be fair to Napoleon, but that in my estimation he was greatly inferior +to such men as George Washington, Gustavus Wasa, Augustus, Hammurabi +or Lincoln, and a score of others all of whom were obliged to content +themselves with a few paragraphs, from sheer lack of space. As for +Jenghiz Khan, I only recognise his superior ability in the field of +wholesale murder and I did not intend to give him any more publicity +than I could help. + +"This is very well as far as it goes," said the next critic, "but how +about the Puritans? We are celebrating the tercentenary of their arrival +at Plymouth. They ought to have more space." My answer was that if I +were writing a history of America, the Puritans would get fully one half +of the first twelve chapters; that however this was a history of mankind +and that the event on Plymouth rock was not a matter of far-reaching +international importance until many centuries later; that the United +States had been founded by thirteen colonies and not by a single one; +that the most prominent leaders of the first twenty years of our history +had been from Virginia, from Pennsylvania, and from the island of Nevis, +rather than from Massachusetts; and that therefore the Puritans ought to +content themselves with a page of print and a special map. + +Next came the prehistoric specialist. Why in the name of the great +Tyrannosaur had I not devoted more space to the wonderful race of +Cro-Magnon men, who had developed such a high stage of civilisation +10,000 years ago? + +Indeed, and why not? The reason is simple. I do not take as much +stock in the perfection of these early races as some of our most +noted anthropologists seem to do. Rousseau and the philosophers of the +eighteenth century created the "noble savage" who was supposed to have +dwelt in a state of perfect happiness during the beginning of time. Our +modern scientists have discarded the "noble savage," so dearly beloved +by our grandfathers, and they have replaced him by the "splendid savage" +of the French Valleys who 35,000 years ago made an end to the universal +rule of the low-browed and low-living brutes of the Neanderthal and +other Germanic neighbourhoods. They have shown us the elephants the +Cro-Magnon painted and the statues he carved and they have surrounded +him with much glory. + +I do not mean to say that they are wrong. But I hold that we know by +far too little of this entire period to re-construct that early +west-European society with any degree (however humble) of accuracy. And +I would rather not state certain things than run the risk of stating +certain things that were not so. + +Then there were other critics, who accused me of direct unfairness. Why +did I leave out such countries as Ireland and Bulgaria and Siam while I +dragged in such other countries as Holland and Iceland and Switzerland? +My answer was that I did not drag in any countries. They pushed +themselves in by main force of circumstances, and I simply could not +keep them out. And in order that my point may be understood, let me +state the basis upon which active membership to this book of history was +considered. + +There was but one rule. "Did the country or the person in question +produce a new idea or perform an original act without which the history +of the entire human race would have been different?" It was not a +question of personal taste. It was a matter of cool, almost mathematical +judgment. No race ever played a more picturesque role in history than +the Mongolians, and no race, from the point of view of achievement or +intelligent progress, was of less value to the rest of mankind. + +The career of Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian, is full of dramatic +episodes. But as far as we are concerned, he might just as well never +have existed at all. In the same way, the history of the Dutch Republic +is not interesting because once upon a time the sailors of de Ruyter +went fishing in the river Thames, but rather because of the fact +that this small mud-bank along the shores of the North Sea offered a +hospitable asylum to all sorts of strange people who had all sorts of +queer ideas upon all sorts of very unpopular subjects. + +It is quite true that Athens or Florence, during the hey-day of their +glory, had only one tenth of the population of Kansas City. But our +present civilisation would be very different had neither of these two +little cities of the Mediterranean basin existed. And the same (with due +apologies to the good people of Wyandotte County) can hardly be said of +this busy metropolis on the Missouri River. + +And since I am being very personal, allow me to state one other fact. + +When we visit a doctor, we find out before hand whether he is a surgeon +or a diagnostician or a homeopath or a faith healer, for we want to know +from what angle he will look at our complaint. We ought to be as careful +in the choice of our historians as we are in the selection of our +physicians. We think, "Oh well, history is history," and let it go +at that. But the writer who was educated in a strictly Presbyterian +household somewhere in the backwoods of Scotland will look differently +upon every question of human relationships from his neighbour who as +a child, was dragged to listen to the brilliant exhortations of Robert +Ingersoll, the enemy of all revealed Devils. In due course of time, both +men may forget their early training and never again visit either church +or lecture hall. But the influence of these impressionable years stays +with them and they cannot escape showing it in whatever they write or +say or do. + +In the preface to this book, I told you that I should not be an +infallible guide and now that we have almost reached the end, I +repeat the warning. I was born and educated in an atmosphere of the +old-fashioned liberalism which had followed the discoveries of Darwin +and the other pioneers of the nineteenth century. As a child, I happened +to spend most of my waking hours with an uncle who was a great collector +of the books written by Montaigne, the great French essayist of the +sixteenth century. Because I was born in Rotterdam and educated in the +city of Gouda, I ran continually across Erasmus and for some unknown +reason this great exponent of tolerance took hold of my intolerant +self. Later I discovered Anatole France and my first experience with +the English language came about through an accidental encounter with +Thackeray's "Henry Esmond," a story which made more impression upon me +than any other book in the English language. + +If I had been born in a pleasant middle western city I probably +should have a certain affection for the hymns which I had heard in +my childhood. But my earliest recollection of music goes back to the +afternoon when my Mother took me to hear nothing less than a Bach +fugue. And the mathematical perfection of the great Protestant master +influenced me to such an extent that I cannot hear the usual hymns of +our prayer-meetings without a feeling of intense agony and direct pain. + +Again, if I had been born in Italy and had been warmed by the sunshine +of the happy valley of the Arno, I might love many colourful and sunny +pictures which now leave me indifferent because I got my first artistic +impressions in a country where the rare sun beats down upon the +rain-soaked land with almost cruel brutality and throws everything into +violent contrasts of dark and light. + +I state these few facts deliberately that you may know the personal bias +of the man who wrote this history and may understand his point-of-view. +The bibliography at the end of this book, which represents all sorts +of opinions and views, will allow you to compare my ideas with those of +other people. And in this way, you will be able to reach your own final +conclusions with a greater degree of fairness than would otherwise be +possible. + +After this short but necessary excursion, we return to the history of +the last fifty years. Many things happened during this period but very +little occurred which at the time seemed to be of paramount importance. +The majority of the greater powers ceased to be mere political agencies +and became large business enterprises. They built railroads. They +founded and subsidized steam-ship lines to all parts of the world. They +connected their different possessions with telegraph wires. And they +steadily increased their holdings in other continents. Every available +bit of African or Asiatic territory was claimed by one of the rival +powers. France became a colonial nation with interests in Algiers and +Madagascar and Annam and Tonkin (in eastern Asia). Germany claimed parts +of southwest and east Africa, built settlements in Kameroon on the +west coast of Africa and in New Guinea and many of the islands of the +Pacific, and used the murder of a few missionaries as a welcome excuse +to take the harbour of Kisochau on the Yellow Sea in China. Italy tried +her luck in Abyssinia, was disastrously defeated by the soldiers of +the Negus, and consoled herself by occupying the Turkish possessions in +Tripoli in northern Africa. Russia, having occupied all of Siberia, took +Port Arthur away from China. Japan, having defeated China in the war of +1895, occupied the island of Formosa and in the year 1905 began to +lay claim to the entire empire of Corea. In the year 1883 England, the +largest colonial empire the world has ever seen, undertook to "protect" +Egypt. She performed this task most efficiently and to the great +material benefit of that much neglected country, which ever since the +opening of the Suez canal in 1868 had been threatened with a foreign +invasion. During the next thirty years she fought a number of colonial +wars in different parts of the world and in 1902 (after three years of +bitter fighting) she conquered the independent Boer republics of the +Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Meanwhile she had encouraged Cecil +Rhodes to lay the foundations for a great African state, which reached +from the Cape almost to the mouth of the Nile, and had faithfully picked +up such islands or provinces as had been left without a European owner. + +The shrewd king of Belgium, by name Leopold, used the discoveries of +Henry Stanley to found the Congo Free State in the year 1885. Originally +this gigantic tropical empire was an "absolute monarchy." But after many +years of scandalous mismanagement, it was annexed by the Belgian people +who made it a colony (in the year 1908) and abolished the terrible +abuses which had been tolerated by this very unscrupulous Majesty, who +cared nothing for the fate of the natives as long as he got his ivory +and rubber. + +As for the United States, they had so much land that they desired no +further territory. But the terrible misrule of Cuba, one of the last of +the Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere, practically forced +the Washington government to take action. After a short and rather +uneventful war, the Spaniards were driven out of Cuba and Puerto Rico +and the Philippines, and the two latter became colonies of the United +States. + +This economic development of the world was perfectly natural. The +increasing number of factories in England and France and Germany needed +an ever increasing amount of raw materials and the equally increasing +number of European workers needed an ever increasing amount of food. +Everywhere the cry was for more and for richer markets, for more +easily accessible coal mines and iron mines and rubber plantations and +oil-wells, for greater supplies of wheat and grain. + +The purely political events of the European continent dwindled to mere +insignificance in the eyes of men who were making plans for steamboat +lines on Victoria Nyanza or for railroads through the interior of +Shantung. They knew that many European questions still remained to be +settled, but they did not bother, and through sheer indifference and +carelessness they bestowed upon their descendants a terrible inheritance +of hate and misery. For untold centuries the south-eastern corner +of Europe had been the scene of rebellion and bloodshed. During the +seventies of the last century the people of Serbia and Bulgaria and +Montenegro and Roumania were once more trying to gain their freedom and +the Turks (with the support of many of the western powers), were trying +to prevent this. + +After a period of particularly atrocious massacres in Bulgaria in the +year 1876, the Russian people lost all patience. The Government was +forced to intervene just as President McKinley was obliged to go to Cuba +and stop the shooting-squads of General Weyler in Havana. In April of +the year 1877 the Russian armies crossed the Danube, stormed the Shipka +pass, and after the capture of Plevna, marched southward until they +reached the gates of Constantinople. Turkey appealed for help to +England. There were many English people who denounced their government +when it took the side of the Sultan. But Disraeli (who had just made +Queen Victoria Empress of India and who loved the picturesque Turks +while he hated the Russians who were brutally cruel to the Jewish people +within their frontiers) decided to interfere. Russia was forced to +conclude the peace of San Stefano (1878) and the question of the Balkans +was left to a Congress which convened at Berlin in June and July of the +same year. + +This famous conference was entirely dominated by the personality of +Disraeli. Even Bismarck feared the clever old man with his well-oiled +curly hair and his supreme arrogance, tempered by a cynical sense +of humor and a marvellous gift for flattery. At Berlin the British +prime-minister carefully watched over the fate of his friends the Turks. +Montenegro, Serbia and Roumania were recognised as independent kingdoms. +The principality of Bulgaria was given a semi-independent status under +Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of Tsar Alexander II. But none +of those countries were given the chance to develop their powers and +their resources as they would have been able to do, had England been +less anxious about the fate of the Sultan, whose domains were necessary +to the safety of the British Empire as a bulwark against further Russian +aggression. + +To make matters worse, the congress allowed Austria to take Bosnia and +Herzegovina away from the Turks to be "administered" as part of the +Habsburg domains. It is true that Austria made an excellent job of it. +The neglected provinces were as well managed as the best of the British +colonies, and that is saying a great deal. But they were inhabited by +many Serbians. In older days they had been part of the great Serbian +empire of Stephan Dushan, who early in the fourteenth century had +defended western Europe against the invasions of the Turks and whose +capital of Uskub had been a centre of civilisation one hundred and fifty +years before Columbus discovered the new lands of the west. The Serbians +remembered their ancient glory as who would not? They resented the +presence of the Austrians in two provinces, which, so they felt, were +theirs by every right of tradition. + +And it was in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, that the archduke +Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was murdered on June 28 of the +year 1914. The assassin was a Serbian student who had acted from purely +patriotic motives. + +But the blame for this terrible catastrophe which was the immediate, +though not the only cause of the Great World War did not lie with the +half-crazy Serbian boy or his Austrian victim. It must be traced back +to the days of the famous Berlin Conference when Europe was too busy +building a material civilisation to care about the aspirations and +the dreams of a forgotten race in a dreary corner of the old Balkan +peninsula. + + + + +A NEW WORLD + +THE GREAT WAR WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW AND BETTER WORLD + + +THE Marquis de Condorcet was one of the noblest characters among the +small group of honest enthusiasts who were responsible for the outbreak +of the great French Revolution. He had devoted his life to the cause +of the poor and the unfortunate. He had been one of the assistants of +d'Alembert and Diderot when they wrote their famous Encyclopedie. During +the first years of the Revolution he had been the leader of the Moderate +wing of the Convention. + +His tolerance, his kindliness, his stout common sense, had made him an +object of suspicion when the treason of the king and the court +clique had given the extreme radicals their chance to get hold of the +government and kill their opponents. Condorcet was declared "hors de +loi," or outlawed, an outcast who was henceforth at the mercy of every +true patriot. His friends offered to hide him at their own peril. +Condorcet refused to accept their sacrifice. He escaped and tried to +reach his home, where he might be safe. After three nights in the +open, torn and bleeding, he entered an inn and asked for some food. The +suspicious yokels searched him and in his pockets they found a copy of +Horace, the Latin poet. This showed that their prisoner was a man of +gentle breeding and had no business upon the highroads at a time when +every educated person was regarded as an enemy of the Revolutionary +state. They took Condorcet and they bound him and they gagged him and +they threw him into the village lock-up, but in the morning when the +soldiers came to drag him back to Paris and cut his head off, behold! he +was dead. + +This man who had given all and had received nothing had good reason to +despair of the human race. But he has written a few sentences which ring +as true to-day as they did one hundred and thirty years ago. I repeat +them here for your benefit. + +"Nature has set no limits to our hopes," he wrote, "and the picture of +the human race, now freed from its chains and marching with a firm tread +on the road of truth and virtue and happiness, offers to the philosopher +a spectacle which consoles him for the errors, for the crimes and the +injustices which still pollute and afflict this earth." + +The world has just passed through an agony of pain compared to which the +French Revolution was a mere incident. The shock has been so great that +it has killed the last spark of hope in the breasts of millions of +men. They were chanting a hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter +followed their prayers for peace. "Is it worth while," so they ask, +"to work and slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed +beyond the stage of the earliest cave men?" + +There is but one answer. + +That answer is "Yes!" + +The World War was a terrible calamity. But it did not mean the end of +things. On the contrary it brought about the coming of a new day. + +It is easy to write a history of Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages. +The actors who played their parts upon that long-forgotten stage are +all dead. We can criticize them with a cool head. The audience that +applauded their efforts has dispersed. Our remarks cannot possibly hurt +their feelings. + +But it is very difficult to give a true account of contemporary events. +The problems that fill the minds of the people with whom we pass through +life, are our own problems, and they hurt us too much or they please us +too well to be described with that fairness which is necessary when we +are writing history and not blowing the trumpet of propaganda. All the +same I shall endeavour to tell you why I agree with poor Condorcet when +he expressed his firm faith in a better future. + +Often before have I warned you against the false impression which is +created by the use of our so-called historical epochs which divide the +story of man into four parts, the ancient world, the Middle Ages, the +Renaissance and the Reformation, and Modern Time. The last of these +terms is the most dangerous. The word "modern" implies that we, the +people of the twentieth century, are at the top of human achievement. +Fifty years ago the liberals of England who followed the leadership of +Gladstone felt that the problem of a truly representative and democratic +form of government had been solved forever by the second great Reform +Bill, which gave workmen an equal share in the government with their +employers. When Disraeli and his conservative friends talked of a +dangerous "leap in the dark" they answered "No." They felt certain of +their cause and trusted that henceforth all classes of society would +co-operate to make the government of their common country a success. +Since then many things have happened, and the few liberals who are still +alive begin to understand that they were mistaken. + +There is no definite answer to any historical problem. + +Every generation must fight the good fight anew or perish as those +sluggish animals of the prehistoric world have perished. + +If you once get hold of this great truth you will get a new and much +broader view of life. Then, go one step further and try to imagine +yourself in the position of your own great-great-grandchildren who will +take your place in the year 10,000. They too will learn history. But +what will they think of those short four thousand years during which we +have kept a written record of our actions and of our thoughts? They will +think of Napoleon as a contemporary of Tiglath Pileser, the Assyrian +conqueror. Perhaps they will confuse him with Jenghiz Khan or Alexander +the Macedonian. The great war which has just come to an end will +appear in the light of that long commercial conflict which settled the +supremacy of the Mediterranean when Rome and Carthage fought during one +hundred and twenty-eight years for the mastery of the sea. The Balkan +troubles of the 19th century (the struggle for freedom of Serbia and +Greece and Bulgaria and Montenegro) to them will seem a continuation of +the disordered conditions caused by the Great Migrations. They will look +at pictures of the Rheims cathedral which only yesterday was destroyed +by German guns as we look upon a photograph of the Acropolis ruined +two hundred and fifty years ago during a war between the Turks and the +Venetians. They will regard the fear of death, which is still common +among many people, as a childish superstition which was perhaps natural +in a race of men who had burned witches as late as the year 1692. Even +our hospitals and our laboratories and our operating rooms of which we +are so proud will look like slightly improved workshops of alchemists +and mediaeval surgeons. + +And the reason for all this is simple. We modern men and women are not +"modern" at all. On the contrary we still belong to the last generations +of the cave-dwellers. The foundation for a new era was laid but +yesterday. The human race was given its first chance to become +truly civilised when it took courage to question all things and made +"knowledge and understanding" the foundation upon which to create a more +reasonable and sensible society of human beings. The Great War was the +"growing-pain" of this new world. + +For a long time to come people will write mighty books to prove that +this or that or the other person brought about the war. The Socialists +will publish volumes in which they will accuse the "capitalists" of +having brought about the war for "commercial gain." The capitalists +will answer that they lost infinitely more through the war than they +made--that their children were among the first to go and fight and be +killed--and they will show how in every country the bankers tried their +very best to avert the outbreak of hostilities. French historians will +go through the register of German sins from the days of Charlemagne +until the days of William of Hohenzollern and German historians will +return the compliment and will go through the list of French horrors +from the days of Charlemagne until the days of President Poincare. And +then they will establish to their own satisfaction that the other fellow +was guilty of "causing the war." Statesmen, dead and not yet dead, in +all countries will take to their typewriters and they will explain how +they tried to avert hostilities and how their wicked opponents forced +them into it. + +The historian, a hundred years hence, will not bother about these +apologies and vindications. He will understand the real nature of the +underlying causes and he will know that personal ambitions and personal +wickedness and personal greed had very little to do with the final +outburst. The original mistake, which was responsible for all this +misery, was committed when our scientists began to create a new world of +steel and iron and chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human +mind is slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known +sloth, and marches from one hundred to three hundred years behind the +small group of courageous leaders. + +A Zulu in a frock coat is still a Zulu. A dog trained to ride a bicycle +and smoke a pipe is still a dog. And a human being with the mind of a +sixteenth century tradesman driving a 1921 Rolls-Royce is still a human +being with the mind of a sixteenth century tradesman. + +If you do not understand this at first, read it again. It will become +clearer to you in a moment and it will explain many things that have +happened these last six years. + +Perhaps I may give you another, more familiar, example, to show you what +I mean. In the movie theatres, jokes and funny remarks are often thrown +upon the screen. Watch the audience the next time you have a chance. A +few people seem almost to inhale the words. It takes them but a second +to read the lines. Others are a bit slower. Still others take from +twenty to thirty seconds. Finally those men and women who do not read +any more than they can help, get the point when the brighter ones among +the audience have already begun to decipher the next cut-in. It is not +different in human life, as I shall now show you. + +In a former chapter I have told you how the idea of the Roman Empire +continued to live for a thousand years after the death of the last Roman +Emperor. It caused the establishment of a large number of "imitation +empires." It gave the Bishops of Rome a chance to make themselves the +head of the entire church, because they represented the idea of Roman +world-supremacy. It drove a number of perfectly harmless barbarian +chieftains into a career of crime and endless warfare because they were +for ever under the spell of this magic word "Rome." All these people, +Popes, Emperors and plain fighting men were not very different from you +or me. But they lived in a world where the Roman tradition was a vital +issue something living--something which was remembered clearly both +by the father and the son and the grandson. And so they struggled and +sacrificed themselves for a cause which to-day would not find a dozen +recruits. + +In still another chapter I have told you how the great religious +wars took place more than a century after the first open act of the +Reformation and if you will compare the chapter on the Thirty Years War +with that on Inventions, you will see that this ghastly butchery took +place at a time when the first clumsy steam engines were already +puffing in the laboratories of a number of French and German and English +scientists. But the world at large took no interest in these strange +contraptions, and went on with a grand theological discussion which +to-day causes yawns, but no anger. + +And so it goes. A thousand years from now, the historian will use the +same words about Europe of the out-going nineteenth century, and he +will see how men were engaged upon terrific nationalistic struggles +while the laboratories all around them were filled with serious folk who +cared not one whit for politics as long as they could force nature to +surrender a few more of her million secrets. + +You will gradually begin to understand what I am driving at. The +engineer and the scientist and the chemist, within a single generation, +filled Europe and America and Asia with their vast machines, with their +telegraphs, their flying machines, their coal-tar products. They +created a new world in which time and space were reduced to complete +insignificance. They invented new products and they made these so cheap +that almost every one could buy them. I have told you all this before +but it certainly will bear repeating. + +To keep the ever increasing number of factories going, the owners, who +had also become the rulers of the land, needed raw materials and coal. +Especially coal. Meanwhile the mass of the people were still thinking in +terms of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and clinging to the +old notions of the state as a dynastic or political organisation. This +clumsy mediaeval institution was then suddenly called upon to handle the +highly modern problems of a mechanical and industrial world. It did +its best, according to the rules of the game which had been laid down +centuries before. The different states created enormous armies and +gigantic navies which were used for the purpose of acquiring new +possessions in distant lands. Whereever{sic} there was a tiny bit of +land left, there arose an English or a French or a German or a Russian +colony. If the natives objected, they were killed. In most cases they +did not object, and were allowed to live peacefully, provided they did +not interfere with the diamond mines or the coal mines or the oil mines +or the gold mines or the rubber plantations, and they derived many +benefits from the foreign occupation. + +Sometimes it happened that two states in search of raw materials wanted +the same piece of land at the same time. Then there was a war. This +occurred fifteen years ago when Russia and Japan fought for the +possession of certain terri-tories which belonged to the Chinese people. +Such conflicts, however, were the exception. No one really desired to +fight. Indeed, the idea of fighting with armies and battleships and +submarines began to seem absurd to the men of the early 20th century. +They associated the idea of violence with the long-ago age of unlimited +monarchies and intriguing dynasties. Every day they read in their papers +of still further inventions, of groups of English and American and +German scientists who were working together in perfect friendship for +the purpose of an advance in medicine or in astronomy. They lived in +a busy world of trade and of commerce and factories. But only a few +noticed that the development of the state, (of the gigantic community of +people who recognise certain common ideals,) was lagging several +hundred years behind. They tried to warn the others. But the others were +occupied with their own affairs. + +I have used so many similes that I must apologise for bringing in one +more. The Ship of State (that old and trusted expression which is ever +new and always picturesque,) of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the +Romans and the Venetians and the merchant adventurers of the seventeenth +century had been a sturdy craft, constructed of well-seasoned wood, and +commanded by officers who knew both their crew and their vessel and +who understood the limitations of the art of navigating which had been +handed down to them by their ancestors. + +Then came the new age of iron and steel and machinery. First one part, +then another of the old ship of state was changed. Her dimensions were +increased. The sails were discarded for steam. Better living quarters +were established, but more people were forced to go down into the +stoke-hole, and while the work was safe and fairly remunerative, they +did not like it as well as their old and more dangerous job in the +rigging. Finally, and almost imperceptibly, the old wooden square-rigger +had been transformed into a modern ocean liner. But the captain and the +mates remained the same. They were appointed or elected in the same +way as a hundred years before. They were taught the same system of +navigation which had served the mariners of the fifteenth century. +In their cabins hung the same charts and signal flags which had done +service in the days of Louis XIV and Frederick the Great. In short, they +were (through no fault of their own) completely incompetent. + +The sea of international politics is not very broad. When those Imperial +and Colonial liners began to try and outrun each other, accidents were +bound to happen. They did happen. You can still see the wreckage if you +venture to pass through that part of the ocean. + +And the moral of the story is a simple one. The world is in dreadful +need of men who will assume the new leadership--who will have the +courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are +only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new +system of seamanship. + +They will have to serve for years as mere apprentices. They will have +to fight their way to the top against every possible form of opposition. +When they reach the bridge, mutiny of an envious crew may cause their +death. But some day, a man will arise who will bring the vessel safely +to port, and he shall be the hero of the ages. + + + + +AS IT EVER SHALL BE + +"The more I think of the problems of our lives, the more I am persuaded +that we ought to choose Irony and Pity for our "assessors and judges" +as the ancient Egyptians called upon "the Goddess Isis and the Goddess +Nephtys" on behalf of their dead. "Irony and Pity" are both of good +counsel; the first with her "smiles" makes life agreeable; the other +sanctifies it with her tears." "The Irony which I invoke is no cruel +Deity. She mocks neither love nor beauty. She is gentle and kindly +disposed. Her mirth disarms and it is she who teaches us to laugh at +rogues and fools, whom but for her we might be so weak as to despise +and hate." + +And with these wise words of a very great Frenchman I bid you farewell. +8 Barrow Street, New York. Saturday, June 26, xxi. + + +AN ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY, 500,000 B.C.--A.D. 1922 + + +THE END + + + + +CONCERNING THE PICTURES + +CONCERNING THE PICTURES OF THIS BOOK AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +The day of the historical textbook without illustrations has gone. +Pictures and photographs of famous personages and equally famous +occurrences cover the pages of Breasted and Robinson and Beard. In this +volume the photographs have been omitted to make room for a series of +home-made drawings which represent ideas rather than events. + +While the author lays no claim to great artistic excellence (being +possessed of a decided leaning towards drawing as a child, he was taught +to play the violin as a matter of discipline,) he prefers to make his +own maps and sketches because he knows exactly what he wants to say and +cannot possibly explain this meaning to his more proficient brethren in +the field of art. Besides, the pictures were all drawn for children and +their ideas of art are very different from those of their parents. + +To all teachers the author would give this advice--let your boys and +girls draw their history after their own desire just as often as you +have a chance. You can show a class a photograph of a Greek temple or +a mediaeval castle and the class will dutifully say, "Yes, Ma'am," and +proceed to forget all about it. But make the Greek temple or the Roman +castle the centre of an event, tell the boys to make their own picture +of "the building of a temple," or "the storming of the castle," and they +will stay after school-hours to finish the job. Most children, before +they are taught how to draw from plaster casts, can draw after a +fashion, and often they can draw remarkably well. The product of their +pencil may look a bit prehistoric. It may even resemble the work of +certain native tribes from the upper Congo. But the child is quite +frequently prehistoric or upper-Congoish in his or her own tastes, and +expresses these primitive instincts with a most astonishing accuracy. + +The main thing in teaching history, is that the pupil shall remember +certain events "in their proper sequence." The experiments of many years +in the Children's School of New York has convinced the author that few +children will ever forget what they have drawn, while very few will ever +remember what they have merely read. + +It is the same with the maps. Give the child an ordinary conventional +map with dots and lines and green seas and tell him to revaluate that +geographic scene in his or her own terms. The mountains will be a +bit out of gear and the cities will look astonishingly mediaeval. The +outlines will be often very imperfect, but the general effect will be +quite as truthful as that of our conventional maps, which ever since the +days of good Gerardus Mercator have told a strangely erroneous story. +Most important of all, it will give the child a feeling of intimacy with +historical and geographic facts which cannot be obtained in any other +way. + +Neither the publishers nor the author claim that "The Story of Mankind" +is the last word to be said upon the subject of history for children. It +is an appetizer. The book tries to present the subject in such a fashion +that the average child shall get a taste for History and shall ask for +more. + +To facilitate the work of both parents and teachers, the publishers have +asked Miss Leonore St. John Power (who knows more upon this particular +subject than any one else they could discover) to compile a list of +readable and instructive books. + +The list was made and was duly printed. + +The parents who live near our big cities will experience no difficulty +in ordering these volumes from their booksellers. Those who for the +sake of fresh air and quiet, dwell in more remote spots, may not find it +convenient to go to a book-store. In that case, Boni and Liveright will +be happy to act as middle-man and obtain the books that are desired. +They want it to be distinctly understood that they have not gone into +the retail book business, but they are quite willing to do their share +towards a better and more general historical education, and all orders +will receive their immediate attention. + + + + +AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN + + +"Don't stop (I say) to explain that Hebe was (for once) the legitimate +daughter of Zeus and, as such, had the privilege to draw wine for the +Gods. Don't even stop, just yet, to explain who the Gods were. Don't +discourse on amber, otherwise ambergris; don't explain that 'gris' +in this connection doesn't mean 'grease'; don't trace it through +the Arabic into Noah's Ark; don't prove its electrical properties +by tearing up paper into little bits and attracting them with +the mouth-piece of your pipe rubbed on your sleeve. Don't insist +philologically that when every shepherd 'tells his tale' he is not +relating an anecdote but simply keeping 'tally' of his flock. Just go +on reading, as well as you can, and be sure that when the children get +the thrill of the story, for which you wait, they will be asking more +questions, and pertinent ones, than you are able to answer."--("On the +Art of Reading for Children," by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.) + + +The Days Before History + + +"How the Present Came From the Past," by Margaret E. Wells, Volume I. + +How earliest man learned to make tools and build homes, and the +stories he told about the fire-makers, the sun and the frost. A simple, +illustrated account of these things for children. "The Story of Ab," by +Stanley Waterloo. + +A romantic tale of the time of the cave-man. (A much simplified edition +of this for little children is "Ab, the Cave Man" adapted by William +Lewis Nida.) "Industrial and Social History Series," by Katharine E. +Dopp. + +"The Tree Dwellers--The Age of Fear" + +"The Early Cave-Men--The Age of Combat" + +"The Later Cave-Men--The Age of the Chase" + +"The Early Sea People--First Steps in the Conquest of the Waters" + +"The Tent-Dwellers--The Early Fishing Men" + +Very simple stories of the way in which man learned how to make pottery, +how to weave and spin, and how to conquer land and sea. + +"Ancient Man," written and drawn and done into colour by Hendrik +Willem van Loon. + +The beginning of civilisations pictured and written in a new and +fascinating fashion, with story maps showing exactly what happened in +all parts of the world. A book for children of all ages. + + +The Dawn of History + +"The Civilisation of the Ancient Egyptians," by A. Bothwell Gosse. + +"No country possesses so many wonders, and has such a number of works +which defy description." An excellent, profusely illustrated account of +the domestic life, amusements, art, religion and occupations of these +wonderful people. "How the Present Came From the Past," by Margaret E. +Wells, Volume II. + +What the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and the Persians +contributed to civilisation. This is brief and simple and may be used as +a first book on the subject. + +"Stories of Egyptian Gods and Heroes," by F. H. Brooksbank. + +The beliefs of the Egyptians, the legend of Isis and Osiris, the +builders of the Pyramids and the Temples, the Riddle of the Sphinx, all +add to the fascination of this romantic picture of Egypt. + +"Wonder Tales of the Ancient World," by Rev. James Baikie. + +Tales of the Wizards, Tales of Travel and Adventure, and Legends of the +Gods all gathered from ancient Egyptian literature. + +"Ancient Assyria," by Rev. James Baikie. + +Which tells of a city 2800 years ago with a street lined with beautiful +enamelled reliefs, and with libraries of clay. + +"The Bible for Young People," arranged from the King James version, with +twenty-four full page illustrations from old masters. + +"Old, Old Tales From the Old, Old Book," by Nora Archibald Smith. + +"Written in the East these characters live forever in the West--they +pervade the world." A good rendering of the Old Testament. "The Jewish +Fairy Book," translated and adapted by Gerald Friedlander. + +Stories of great nobility and beauty from the Talmud and the old Jewish +chap-books. "Eastern Stories and Legends," by Marie L. Shedlock. + +"The soldiers of Alexander who had settled in the East, wandering +merchants of many nations and climes, crusading knights and hermits +brought these Buddha Stories from the East to the West." + + +Stories of Greece and Rome "The Story of the Golden Age," by James +Baldwin. + +Some of the most beautiful of the old Greek myths woven into the story +of the Odyssey make this book a good introduction to the glories of +the Golden Age. "A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales," by Nathaniel +Hawthorne, with pictures by Maxfield Parrish. + +"The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy," by Padraic Colum, +presented by Willy Pogany. + +An attractive, poetically rendered account of "the world's greatest +story." + +"The Story of Rome," by Mary Macgregor, with twenty plates in colour. + +Attractively illustrated and simply presented story of Rome from the +earliest times to the death of Augustus. + +"Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls," retold by W. H. Weston. "The Lays +of Ancient Rome," by Lord Macaulay. + +"The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything +else in Latin Literature." + +"Children of the Dawn," by Elsie Finnemore Buckley. + +Old Greek tales of love, adventure, heroism, skill, achievement, or +defeat exceptionally well told. Especially recommended for girls. + +"The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children," by Charles +Kingsley. + +"The Story of Greece," by Mary Macgregor, with nineteen plates in colour +by Walter Crane. + +Attractively illustrated and simply presented--a good book to begin on. + + +Christianity + +"The Story of Jesus," pictures from paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, +Duccio, Ghirlandais, and Barnja-da-Siena. Descriptive text from the New +Testament, selected and arranged by Ethel Natalie Dana. + +A beautiful book and a beautiful way to present the Christ Story. "A +Child's Book of Saints," by William Canton. + +Sympathetically told and charmingly written stories of men and women +whose faith brought about strange miracles, and whose goodness to man +and beast set the world wondering. "The Seven Champions of Christendom," +edited by F. J. H. Darton. + +How the knights of old--St. George of England, St. Denis of France, St. +James of Spain, and others--fought with enchanters and evil spirits to +preserve the Kingdom of God. Fine old romances interestingly told for +children. "Stories From the Christian East," by Stephen Gaselee. + +Unusual stories which have been translated from the Coptic, the Greek, +the Latin and the Ethiopic. "Jerusalem and the Crusades," by Estelle +Blyth, with eight plates in colour. + +Historical stories telling how children and priests, hermits and knights +all strove to keep the Cross in the East. + + +Stories of Legend and Chivalry + +"Stories of Norse Heroes From the Eddas and Sagas," retold by E. M. +Wilmot-Buxton. + +These are tales which the Northmen tell concerning the wisdom of +All-Father Odin, and how all things began and how they ended. A good +book for all children, and for story-tellers. "The Story of Siegfried," +by James Baldwin. + +A good introduction to this Northern hero whose strange and daring +deeds fill the pages of the old sagas. "The Story of King Arthur and His +Knights," written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. + +This, and the companion volumes, "The Story of the Champions of the +Round Table," "The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions," "The +Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur," form an incomparable +collection for children. "The Boy's King Arthur," edited by Sidney +Lanier, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth. + +A very good rendering of Malory's King Arthur, made especially +attractive by the coloured illustrations. "Irish Fairy Tales," by James +Stephens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. + +Beautifully pictured and poetically told legends of Ireland's epic hero +Fionn. A book for the boy or girl who loves the old romances, and a +book for story-telling or reading aloud. "Stories of Charlemagne and the +Twelve Peers of France," by A. J. Church. + +Stories from the old French and English chronicles showing the romantic +glamour surrounding the great Charlemagne and his crusading knights. +"The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood," written and illustrated by Howard +Pyle. + +Both in picture and in story this book holds first place in the hearts +of children. "A Book of Ballad Stories," by Mary Macleod. + +Good prose versions of some of the famous old ballads sung by the +minstrels of England and Scotland. "The Story of Roland," by James +Baldwin. + +"There is, in short, no country in Europe, and no language, in which the +exploits of Charlemagne and Roland have not at some time been recounted +and sung." This book will serve as a good introduction to a fine heroic +character. "The Boy's Froissart," being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles +of Adventure, Battle, and Custom in England, France, Spain. + +"Froissart sets the boy's mind upon manhood and the man's mind upon +boyhood." An invaluable background for the future study of history. "The +Boy's Percy," being old ballads of War, Adventure and Love from Percy's +Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, edited by Sidney Lanier. + +"He who walks in the way these following ballads point, will be manful +in necessary fight, loyal in love, generous to the poor, tender in the +household, prudent in living, merry upon occasion, and honest in all +things." "Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims," retold from Chaucer and +others by E. J H. Darton. + +"Sometimes a pilgrimage seemed nothing but an excuse for a lively and +pleasant holiday, and the travellers often made themselves very merry on +the road, with their jests and songs, and their flutes and fiddles and +bagpipes." A good prose version much enjoyed by boys and girls. "Joan of +Arc," written and illustrated by M. Boutet de Monvel. + +A very fine interpretation of the life of this great heroine. A book to +be owned by every boy and girl. "When Knights Were Bold," by Eva March +Tappan. + +Telling of the training of a knight, of the daily life in a castle, of +pilgrimages and crusades, of merchant guilds, of schools and literature, +in short, a full picture of life in the days of chivalry. A good book to +supplement the romantic stories of the time. + + +Adventurers in New Worlds + +"A Book of Discovery," by M. B. Synge, fully illustrated from authentic +sources and with maps. + +A thoroughly fascinating book about the world's exploration from the +earliest times to the discovery of the South Pole. A book to be owned by +older boys and girls who like true tales of adventure. "A Short History +of Discovery From the Earliest Times to the Founding of the Colonies on +the American Continent," written and done into colour by Hendrik Willem +van Loon. + +"Dear Children: History is the most fascinating and entertaining and +instructive of arts." A book to delight children of all ages. "The Story +of Marco Polo," by Noah Brooks. "Olaf the Glorious," by Robert Leighton. + +An historical story of the Viking age. "The Conquerors of Mexico," +retold from Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," by Henry Gilbert. "The +Conquerors of Peru," retold from Prescott's "Conquest of Peru," by Henry +Gilbert. "Vikings of the Pacific," by A. C. Laut. + +Adventures of Bering the Dane; the outlaw hunters of Russia; Benyowsky, +the Polish pirate; Cook and Vancouver; Drake, and other soldiers of +fortune on the West Coast of America. "The Argonauts of Faith," by Basil +Mathews. + +The Adventures of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. "Pathfinders of the West," +by A. C. Laut. + +The thrilling story of the adventures of the men who discovered the +great Northwest. + +"Beyond the Old Frontier," by George Bird Grinnell. + +Adventures of Indian Fighters, Hunters, and Fur-Traders on the Pacific +Coast. "A History of Travel in America," by Seymour Dunbar, illustrated +from old woodcuts and engravings. 4 volumes. + +An interesting book for children who wish to understand the problems and +difficulties their grandfathers had in the conquest of the West. This is +a standard book upon the subject of early travel, but is so readable as +to be of interest to older children. + +"The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators," by Hendrik Willem van Loon. +Fully illustrated from old prints. + + +The World's Progress in Invention--Art--Music. + +"Gabriel and the Hour Book," by Evaleen Stein. + +How a boy learned from the monks how to grind and mix the colours for +illuminating the beautiful hand-printed books of the time and how he +himself made books that are now treasured in the museums of France and +England. "Historic Inventions," by Rupert S. Holland. + +Stories of the invention of printing, the steam-engine, the +spinning-jenny, the safety-lamp, the sewing machine, electric light, and +other wonders of mechanism. "A History of Everyday Things in England," +written and illustrated by Marjorie and C. V. B. Quennell. 2 Volumes. + +A most fascinating book, profusely illustrated in black and white and +in colour, giving a vivid picture of life in England from 1066-1799. It +tells of wars and of home-life, of amusements and occupations, of art +and literature, of science and invention. A book to be owned by every +boy and girl. "First Steps in the Enjoyment of Pictures," by Maude I. G. +Oliver. + +A book designed to help children in their appreciation of art by +giving them technical knowledge of the media, the draughtsmanship, the +composition and the technique of well-known American pictures. "Knights +of Art," by Amy Steedman. + +Stories of Italian Painters. Attractively illustrated in colour from old +masters. "Masters of Music," by Anna Alice Chapin. "Story Lives of Men +of Science," by F. J. Rowbotham. "All About Treasures of the Earth," by +Frederick A. Talbot. + +A book that tells many interesting things about coal, salt, iron, rare +metals and precious stones. "The Boys' Book of New Inventions," by Harry +E. Maule. + +An account of the machines and mechancial{sic} processes that are making +the history of our time more dramatic than that of any other age since +the world began. "Masters of Space," by Walter Kellogg Towers. + +Stories of the wonders of telegraphing through the air and beneath +the sea with signals, and of speaking across continents. "All About +Railways," by F. S. Hartnell. "The Man-of-War, What She Has Done and +What She Is Doing," by Commander E. Hamilton Currey. + +True stories about galleys and pirate ships, about the Spanish Main and +famous frigates, and about slave-hunting expeditions in the days of old. + + +The Democracy of To-Day. + +"The Land of Fair Play," by Geoffrey Parsons. + +"This book aims to make clear the great, unseen services that America +renders each of us, and the active devotion each of us must yield in +return for America to endure." An excellent book on our government for +boys and girls. "The American Idea as Expounded by American Statesmen," +compiled by Joseph B. Gilder. + +A good collection, including The Declaration of Independence, The +Constitution of the United States, the Monroe Doctrine, and the famous +speeches of Washington, Lincoln, Webster and Roosevelt. "The Making of +an American," by Jacob A. Riis. + +The true story of a Danish boy who became one of America's finest +citizens. "The Promised Land," by Mary Antin. + +A true story about a little immigrant. "Before we came, the New World +knew not the Old; but since we have begun to come, the Young World has +taken the Old by the hand, and the two are learning to march side by +side, seeking a common destiny." + + +Illustrated Histories in French. + +(The colourful and graphic pictures make these histories beloved by +all children whether they read the text or not.) "Voyages et Glorieuses +Decouvertes des Grands Navigateurs et Explorateurs Francais, illustre +par Edy Segrand." "Collection d'Albums Historiques." Louis XI, texte de +Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de Job. Francois I, texte de G. Gustave +Toudouze, aquarelles de Job. Henri IV, texte de Georges Montorgueil, +aquarelles de H. Yogel. Richelieu, texte de Th. Cahu, aquarelles de +Maurice Leloir. Le Roy Soleil, texte de Gustave Toudouze, aquarelles de +Mauriae Leloir. Bonaparte, texte de Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de +Job. "Fabliaux et Contes du Moyen-Age"; illustrations de A. Robida + +INDEX {Not included} + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF MANKIND *** + +***** This file should be named 754.txt or 754.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/5/754/ + +Produced by Charles Keller + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned by Charles Keller with +OmniPage Professional OCR software +purchased from Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + + + +THE STORY OF MANKIND +BY HENDRIK VAN LOON, PH.D. +Professor of the Social Sciences in Antioch College. +Author of The Fall of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the Dutch +Kingdom, The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators, +A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man. + + + + + +Frontispiece caption = +THE SCENE OF OUR HISTORY IS LAID UPON A LITTLE PLANET, +LOST IN THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. + + + + +THE STORY OF MANKIND +BY HENDRIK VAN LOON + + + +To JIMMIE +``What is the use of a book without pictures?'' said Alice. + + + + +FOREWORD + +For Hansje and Willem: + + +WHEN I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle of +mine who gave me my love for books and pictures promised +to take me upon a memorable expedition. I was to go with +him to the top of the tower of Old Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam. + +And so, one fine day, a sexton with a key as large as that +of Saint Peter opened a mysterious door. ``Ring the bell,'' +he said, ``when you come back and want to get out,'' and with +a great grinding of rusty old hinges he separated us from the +noise of the busy street and locked us into a world of new and +strange experiences. + +For the first time in my life I was confronted by the phenomenon +of audible silence. When we had climbed the first +flight of stairs, I added another discovery to my limited +knowledge of natural phenomena--that of tangible darkness. A +match showed us where the upward road continued. We went +to the next floor and then to the next and the next until I had +lost count and then there came still another floor, and suddenly +we had plenty of light. This floor was on an even height with +the roof of the church, and it was used as a storeroom. Covered +with many inches of dust, there lay the abandoned symbols +of a venerable faith which had been discarded by the good +people of the city many years ago. That which had meant life +and death to our ancestors was here reduced to junk and rub- +bish. The industrious rat had built his nest among the carved +images and the ever watchful spider had opened up shop between +the outspread arms of a kindly saint. + +The next floor showed us from where we had derived our +light. Enormous open windows with heavy iron bars made +the high and barren room the roosting place of hundreds of +pigeons. The wind blew through the iron bars and the air was +filled with a weird and pleasing music. It was the noise of the +town below us, but a noise which had been purified and cleansed +by the distance. The rumbling of heavy carts and the clinking +of horses' hoofs, the winding of cranes and pulleys, the hissing +sound of the patient steam which had been set to do the work +of man in a thousand different ways--they had all been +blended into a softly rustling whisper which provided a beautiful +background for the trembling cooing of the pigeons. + +Here the stairs came to an end and the ladders began. And +after the first ladder (a slippery old thing which made one feel +his way with a cautious foot) there was a new and even greater +wonder, the town-clock. I saw the heart of time. I could hear +the heavy pulsebeats of the rapid seconds--one--two--three-- +up to sixty. Then a sudden quivering noise when all the wheels +seemed to stop and another minute had been chopped off eternity. +Without pause it began again--one--two--three--until +at last after a warning rumble and the scraping of many wheels +a thunderous voice, high above us, told the world that it was +the hour of noon. + +On the next floor were the bells. The nice little bells and +their terrible sisters. In the centre the big bell, which made +me turn stiff with fright when I heard it in the middle of the +night telling a story of fire or flood. In solitary grandeur it +seemed to reflect upon those six hundred years during which +it had shared the joys and the sorrows of the good people of +Rotterdam. Around it, neatly arranged like the blue jars in +an old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows, who +twice each week played a merry tune for the benefit of the +country-folk who had come to market to buy and sell and hear +what the big world had been doing. But in a corner--all alone +and shunned by the others--a big black bell, silent and stern, +the bell of death. + +Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and +even more dangerous than those we had climbed before, and +suddenly the fresh air of the wide heavens. We had reached +the highest gallery. Above us the sky. Below us the city-- +a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily crawling hither +and thither, each one intent upon his or her particular business, +and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the +open country. + +It was my first glimpse of the big world. + +Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have +gone to the top of the tower and enjoyed myself. It was hard +work, but it repaid in full the mere physical exertion of climbing +a few stairs. + +Besides, I knew what my reward would be. I would see the +land and the sky, and I would listen to the stories of my kind +friend the watchman, who lived in a small shack, built in a +sheltered corner of the gallery. He looked after the clock +and was a father to the bells, and he warned of fires, but he +enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and +thought his own peaceful thoughts. He had gone to school almost +fifty years before and he had rarely read a book, but he +had lived on the top of his tower for so many years that he had +absorbed the wisdom of that wide world which surrounded him +on all sides. + +History he knew well, for it was a living thing with him. +``There,'' he would say, pointing to a bend of the river, ``there, +my boy, do you see those trees? That is where the Prince of +Orange cut the dikes to drown the land and save Leyden.'' +Or he would tell me the tale of the old Meuse, until the broad +river ceased to be a convenient harbour and became a wonderful +highroad, carrying the ships of De Ruyter and Tromp upon +that famous last voyage, when they gave their lives that the +sea might be free to all. + +Then there were the little villages, clustering around the +protecting church which once, many years ago, had been the +home of their Patron Saints. In the distance we could see the +leaning tower of Delft. Within sight of its high arches, +William the Silent had been murdered and there Grotius had +learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still further +away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home +of the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of +many an emperor, the charity-boy whom the world came to +know as Erasmus. + +Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast, +immediately below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys +and houses and gardens and hospitals and schools and railways, +which we called our home. But the tower showed us +the old home in a new light. The confused commotion of the +streets and the market-place, of the factories and the workshop, +became the well-ordered expression of human energy +and purpose. Best of all, the wide view of the glorious past, +which surrounded us on all sides, gave us new courage to face +the problems of the future when we had gone back to our daily +tasks. + +History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time +has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy +task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit +of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are +strong and it can be done. + +Here I give you the key that will open the door. + +When you return, you too will understand the reason for +my enthusiasm. + HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON. + + + +CONTENTS + + +1. THE SETTING OF THE STAGE +2. OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS +3. PREHISTORIC MAX BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS FOR HIMSELF +4. THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD + OF HISTORY BEGINS +5. THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE +6. THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT +7. MESOPOTAMIA, THE SECOND CENTRE OF EASTERN CIVILISATION +8. THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US + THE STORY OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC + MELTING-POT +9. THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE +10. THE PHOENICIANS, WHO GAVE US OUR ALPHABET +11. THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER THE SEMITIC AND THE + EGYPTIAN WORLD +12. THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED THE CIVILISATION + OF OLD ASIA INTO THE WILDERNESS OF EUROPE +13. MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE OF THE HELLENES WAS + TAKING POSSESSION OF GREECE +14. THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES +15. THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT + EXPERIMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT +16. HOW THE GREEKS LIVED +17. THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC + AMUSEMENT +18. HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE AGAINST AN ASIATIC INVASION AND +DROVE THE PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN SEA +19. HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR + FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF GREECE +20. ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES A GREEK WORLD +EMPIRE, AND WHAT BECAME OF THIS HIGH AMBITION +21. A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 TO 20 +22. THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF + AFRICA AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE WEST + COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH OTHER FOR THE POSSESSION OF + THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE WAS DESTROYED +23. HOW ROME HAPPENED +24. HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME, AFTER CENTURIES OF UNREST AND + REVOLUTION, BECAME AN EMPIRE +25. THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM THE GREEKS CALLED + JESUS +26. THE TWILIGHT OF ROME +27. HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD +28. AHMED, THE CAMEL DRIVER, WHO BECAME THE PROPHET OF THE + ARABIAN DESERT, AND WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST CONQUERED + THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF + ALLAH, THE ``ONLY TRUE GOD'' +29. HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE ~ RANKS, CAME TO BEAR + THE TITLE OF EMPEROR AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD IDEAL + OF WORLD-EMPIRE +30. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY PRAYED THE LORD + TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN +31. HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM THREE SIDES, BECAME + AN ARMED CAMP AND WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED + WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS AND ADMINISTRATORS + WHO WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM +32. CHIVALRY +33. THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE + AGES, AND HOW IT LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE + POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS +34. BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN + THE TURKS TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY + PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE TRADE FROM + EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING +35. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SAID THAT CITY AIR + IS FREE AIR +36. HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED THEIR RIGHT + TO BE HEARD IN THE ROYAL COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY +37. WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES THOUGHT OF THE + WORLD IN WHICH THEY HAPPENED TO LIVE +38. HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE MEDITERRANEAN A + BUSY CENTRE OF TBADE AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE ITALIAN + PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE + COMMERCE WITH ASIA AND AFRICA +39. PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY JUST BECAUSE THEY + WERE ALIVE. THEY TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE + OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION OF ROME AND + GREECE AND THEY WERE 80 PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS + THAT THEY SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE OR RE-BIRTH OF + CIVILISATION +40. THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF GIVING EXPRESSION + TO THEIR NEWLY DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED + THEIR HAPPINES9 IN POETRY AND IN SCULPTURE AND + IN ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING, AND IN THE BOOKS THEY + PRINTED +41. BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THE BONDS OF + THEIR NARROW ~IEDIIEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO HAVE + MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. THE EUROPEAN WORLD + HAD GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. IT WAS THE + TIME OF THE GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY +42. CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS +43. THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST COMPARED TO A + GIGANTIC PENDULUM WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND + BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE AND THE ARTISTIC + AND LITERARY ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE WERE FOLLOWED + BY THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE + RELIGIOITS ENTHUSIASM OF THE REFORMATION +44. THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES +45. HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS + AND THE LESS DIVINE BUT MORE REASONABLE RIGHT OF + PARLIAMENT ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR KING CHARLES II +46. IN FRANCE, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS + CONTINUED WITH GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOR THAN EVER + BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF THE RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED + BY THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE BALANCE OF POWER +47. THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MUSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY + BURST UPON THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE +48. RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FOUGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO + SHALL BE THE LEADING POWER OF NORTHEASTERN EUROPE +49. THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY PART + OF NORTHERN GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA +50. HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF + EUROPE TRIED TO MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS + MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM +51. AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD + STRANGE REPORTS OF SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN + THE WILDERNESS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. THE + DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING CHARLES + FOR HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS DIVINE RIGHTS ADDED A + NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF- + GOVERNMENT +62. THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES + OF LIBERTY, FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO All THE PEOPLE + OF THE EARTH +53. NAPOLEON +54. AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA, THE + RULERS WHO SO OFTEN HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED + CORSICAN MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED TO UNDO THE MANY + CHANCES WHICH HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH + REVOLUTION +55. THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED + PEACE BY SUPPRESSING ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE + POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY IN THE STATE AND + SOON THE PRISONS OF AIL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH + THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO + GOVERN THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT +56. THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER, WAS TOO + STRONG TO BE DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS + WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE REACTIONARY + MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. GREECE AND BELGIUM + AND SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES + OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE + NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH THE RUMOR OF MANY + WARS OF INDEPENDENCE +57. BUT WHITE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR + NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVED + HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED BY A SERIES OF INVENTIONS, + WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM-ENGINE OF THE + EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT + STAVE OF MAN +58. THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE + OF WEALTH COULD AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR + SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER IN HIS LITTLE + WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO THE OWNERS + OF THE BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND WHITE HE MADE + MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST HIS FORMER INDEPENDENCE + AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT +59. THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING + ABOUT THE ERA OF HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD + BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION WHICH SAW THE STAGE + COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES + WERE SUGGESTED, BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE + PROBLEM +60. BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS + OF GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR THE + INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. AFTER GENERATIONS OF OPPRESSION + AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT LAST GAINED + LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER + THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE +61. A CHAPTER OF ART +62. THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS +AND A FEW APOLOGIES +63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A + NEW AND BETTER WORLD +64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY +65.CONCERNING THE PICTURES + +66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN + +67.INDEX + + + + + + +THE STORY OF MANKIND + + +HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there +stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles +wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this +rock to sharpen its beak. + +When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day +of eternity will have gone by. + + + +THE SETTING OF THE STAGE + + +WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark. + +Who are we? + +Where do we come from? + +Whither are we bound? + +Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing +this question mark further and further towards that distant +line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer. + +We have not gone very far. + +We still know very little but we have reached the point +where (with a fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many +things. + +In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best +belief) the stage was set for the first appearance of man. + +If we represent the time during which it has been possible for +animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, +then the tiny line just below indicates the age during which +man (or a creature more or less resembling man) has lived +upon this earth. + +Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for +the purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the +reason why we are going to study him, rather than cats or +dogs or horses or any of the other animals, who, all in their +own way, have a very interesting historical development behind +them. + +In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far +as we now know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of +smoke in the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course +of millions of years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered +with a thin layer of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the +rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the hard +granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between +the high cliffs of the steaming earth. + +Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the +clouds and saw how this little planet was covered with a few +small puddles which were to develop into the mighty oceans of +the eastern and western hemispheres. + +Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been +dead, gave birth to life. + +The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea. + +For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. +But during all that time it was developing certain habits that +it might survive more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some +of these cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and +the pools. They took root in the slimy sediments which had +been carried down from the tops of the hills and they became +plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew +strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along +the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things +that looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales) +depended upon a swimming motion to go from place to place +in their search for food, and gradually they populated the ocean +with myriads of fishes. + +Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had +to search for new dwelling places. There was no more room +for them at the bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the +water and made a new home in the marshes and on the mud- +banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day the +tides of the ocean covered them with their brine. For the rest +of the time, the plants made the best of their uncomfortable +situation and tried to survive in the thin air which surrounded +the surface of the planet. After centuries of training, they +learned how to live as comfortably in the air as they had done in +the water. They increased in size and became shrubs and trees +and at last they learned how to grow lovely flowers which +attracted the attention of the busy big bumble-bees and the +birds who carried the seeds far and wide until the whole earth +had become covered with green pastures, or lay dark under the +shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too +had begun to leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe +with lungs as well as with gills. We call such creatures amphibious, +which means that they are able to live with equal ease on the land +and in the water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you +all about the pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian. + +Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted +themselves more and more to life on land. Some became reptiles +(creatures who crawl like lizards) and they shared the +silence of the forests with the insects. That they might move +faster through the soft soil, they improved upon their legs +and their size increased until the world was populated with +gigantic forms (which the hand-books of biology list under +the names of Ichthyosaurus and Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus) +who grew to be thirty to forty feet long and who could have +played with elephants as a full grown cat plays with her kittens. + +Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in +the tops of the trees, which were then often more than a hundred +feet high. They no longer needed their legs for the purpose +of walking, but it was necessary for them to move quickly from +branch to branch. And so they changed a part of their skin +into a sort of parachute, which stretched between the sides of +their bodies and the small toes of their fore-feet, and gradually +they covered this skinny parachute with feathers and made +their tails into a steering gear and flew from tree to tree and +developed into true birds. + +Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles +died within a short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps +it was due to a sudden change in climate. Perhaps they +had grown so large that they could neither swim nor walk nor +crawl, and they starved to death within sight but not within +reach of the big ferns and trees. Whatever the cause, the +million year old world-empire of the big reptiles was over. + +The world now began to be occupied by very different +creatures. They were the descendants of the reptiles but they +were quite unlike these because they fed their young from the +``mammae'' or the breasts of the mother. Wherefore modern +science calls these animals ``mammals.'' They had shed the +scales of the fish. They did not adopt the feathers of the bird, +but they covered their bodies with hair. The mammals however +developed other habits which gave their race a great advantage +over the other animals. The female of the species +carried the eggs of the young inside her body until they were +hatched and while all other living beings, up to that time, had +left their children exposed to the dangers of cold and heat, +and the attacks of wild beasts, the mammals kept their young +with them for a long time and sheltered them while they were +still too weak to fight their enemies. In this way the young +mammals were given a much better chance to survive, because +they learned many things from their mothers, as you will know +if you have ever watched a cat teaching her kittens to take +care of themselves and how to wash their faces and how to +catch mice. + +But of these mammals I need not tell you much for you +know them well. They surround you on all sides. They are +your daily companions in the streets and in your home, and you +can see your less familiar cousins behind the bars of the zoological +garden. + +And now we come to the parting of the ways when man +suddenly leaves the endless procession of dumbly living and +dying creatures and begins to use his reason to shape the +destiny of his race. + +One mammal in particular seemed to surpass all others in +its ability to find food and shelter. It had learned to use its +fore-feet for the purpose of holding its prey, and by dint of +practice it had developed a hand-like claw. After innumerable +attempts it had learned how to balance the whole of the +body upon the hind legs. (This is a difficult act, which every +child has to learn anew although the human race has been +doing it for over a million years.) + +This creature, half ape and half monkey but superior to +both, became the most successful hunter and could make a +living in every clime. For greater safety, it usually moved +about in groups. It learned how to make strange grunts to +warn its young of approaching danger and after many hundreds +of thousands of years it began to use these throaty noises +for the purpose of talking. + +This creature, though you may hardly believe it, was your +first ``man-like'' ancestor. + + + +OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS + + +WE know very little about the first ``true'' men. We have +never seen their pictures. In the deepest layer of clay of an +ancient soil we have sometimes found pieces of their bones. +These lay buried amidst the broken skeletons of other animals +that have long since disappeared from the face of the earth. +Anthropologists (learned scientists who devote their lives to +the study of man as a member of the animal kingdom) have +taken these bones and they have been able to reconstruct our +earliest ancestors with a fair degree of accuracy. + +The great-great-grandfather of the human race was a very +ugly and unattractive mammal. He was quite small, much +smaller than the people of today. The heat of the sun and the +biting wind of the cold winter had coloured his skin a dark +brown. His head and most of his body, his arms and legs too, +were covered with long, coarse hair. He had very thin but +strong fingers which made his hands look like those of a monkey. +His forehead was low and his jaw was like the jaw of a +wild animal which uses its teeth both as fork and knife. He +wore no clothes. He had seen no fire except the flames of the +rumbling volcanoes which filled the earth with their smoke +and their lava. + +He lived in the damp blackness of vast forests, as the +pygmies of Africa do to this very day. When he felt the +pangs of hunger he ate raw leaves and the roots of plants or +he took the eggs away from an angry bird and fed them to his +own young. Once in a while, after a long and patient chase, +he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a +rabbit. These he would eat raw for he had never discovered +that food tasted better when it was cooked. + +During the hours of day, this primitive human being +prowled about looking for things to eat. + +When night descended upon the earth, he hid his wife and +his children in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, +for he was surrounded on all sides by ferocious animals and +when it was dark these animals began to prowl about, looking +for something to eat for their mates and their own young, and +they liked the taste of human beings. It was a world where +you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy +because it was full of fear and misery. + +In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the +sun, and during the winter his children would freeze to death +in his arms. When such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting +animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining their +ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he must die a +horrible death. + +Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their +strange noises, early man liked to jabber. That is to say, he +endlessly repeated the same unintelligible gibberish because it +pleased him to hear the sound of his voice. In due time he +learned that he could use this guttural noise to warn his fellow +beings whenever danger threatened and he gave certain little +shrieks which came to mean ``there is a tiger!'' or ``here come +five elephants.'' Then the others grunted something back at +him and their growl meant, ``I see them,'' or ``let us run away +and hide.'' And this was probably the origin of all language. + +But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know +so very little. Early man had no tools and he built himself +no houses. He lived and died and left no trace of his existence +except a few collar-bones and a few pieces of his skull. +These tell us that many thousands of years ago the world was +inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different from +all the other animals--who had probably developed from another +unknown ape-like animal which had learned to walk on +its hind-legs and use its fore-paws as hands--and who were +most probably connected with the creatures who happen to be +our own immediate ancestors. + +It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness. + + + +PREHISTORIC MAN + +PREHISTORIC MAN BEGINS TO MAKE +THINGS FOR HIMSELF. + + +EARLY man did not know what time meant. He kept +no records of birthdays or wedding anniversaries or the hour +of death. He had no idea of days or weeks or even years. +But in a general way he kept track of the seasons for he had +noticed that the cold winter was invariably followed by the mild +spring--that spring grew into the hot summer when fruits +ripened and the wild ears of corn were ready to be eaten and +that summer ended when sudden gusts of wind swept the leaves +from the trees and a number of animals were getting ready +for the long hibernal sleep. + +But now, something unusual and rather frightening had +happened. Something was the matter with the weather. The +warm days of summer had come very late. The fruits had +not ripened. The tops of the mountains which used to be covered +with grass now lay deeply hidden underneath a heavy +burden of snow. + +Then, one morning, a number of wild people, different +from the other creatures who lived in that neighbourhood, came +wandering down from the region of the high peaks. They +looked lean and appeared to be starving. They uttered sounds +which no one could understand. They seemed to say that +they were hungry. There was not food enough for both the +old inhabitants and the newcomers. When they tried to stay +more than a few days there was a terrible battle with claw-like +hands and feet and whole families were killed. The others fled +back to their mountain slopes and died in the next blizzard. + +But the people in the forest were greatly frightened. All +the time the days grew shorter and the nights grew colder than +they ought to have been. + +Finally, in a gap between two high hills, there appeared a +tiny speck of greenish ice. Rapidly it increased in size. A +gigantic glacier came sliding downhill. Huge stones were +being pushed into the valley. With the noise of a dozen thunderstorms +torrents of ice and mud and blocks of granite suddenly +tumbled among the people of the forest and killed them +while they slept. Century old trees were crushed into kindling +wood. And then it began to snow. + +It snowed for months and months. All the plants died and +the animals fled in search of the southern sun. Man hoisted +his young upon his back and followed them. But he could not +travel as fast as the wilder creatures and he was forced to +choose between quick thinking or quick dying. He seems to +have preferred the former for he has managed to survive the +terrible glacial periods which upon four different occasions +threatened to kill every human being on the face of the earth. + +In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself +lest he freeze to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover +them with branches and leaves and in these traps he caught +bears and hyenas, which he then killed with heavy stones and +whose skins he used as coats for himself and his family. + +Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many +animals were in the habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now +followed their example, drove the animals out of their warm +homes and claimed them for his own. + +Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and +the old and the young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius +bethought himself of the use of fire. Once, while out hunting, +he had been caught in a forest-fire. He remembered that he +had been almost roasted to death by the flames. Thus far fire +had been an enemy. Now it became a friend. A dead tree +was dragged into the cave and lighted by means of smouldering +branches from a burning wood. This turned the cave into +a cozy little room. + +And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It +was not rescued until it had been well roasted. Man discovered +that meat tasted better when cooked and he then and there +discarded one of the old habits which he had shared with the +other animals and began to prepare his food. + +In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people +with the cleverest brains survived. They had to struggle day +and night against cold and hunger. They were forced to invent +tools. They learned how to sharpen stones into axes and how +to make hammers. They were obliged to put up large stores +of food for the endless days of the winter and they found that +clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the +rays of the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened +to destroy the human race, became its greatest teacher +because it forced man to use his brain. + + + +HIEROGLYPHICS + +THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF +WRITING AND THE RECORD OF +HISTORY BEGINS + + +THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great +European wilderness were rapidly learning many new things. +It is safe to say that in due course of time they would have +given up the ways of savages and would have developed a +civilisation of their own. But suddenly there came an end to +their isolation. They were discovered. + +A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to +cross the sea and the high mountain passes had found his way +to the wild people of the European continent. He came from +Africa. His home was in Egypt. + +The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation +thousands of years before the people of the west had +dreamed of the possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house. +And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in +their caves, while we visit the southern and eastern shores of +the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the +human race. + +The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were +excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation. They built +temples which were afterwards copied by the Greeks and which +served as the earliest models for the churches in which we worship +nowadays. They had invented a calendar which proved +such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time +that it has survived with a few changes until today. But most +important of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve +speech for the benefit of future generations. They had invented +the art of writing. + +We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines +that we take it for granted that the world has always been +able to read and write. As a matter of fact, writing, the most +important of all inventions, is quite new. Without written +documents we would be like cats and dogs, who can only teach +their kittens and their puppies a few simple things and who, +because they cannot write, possess no way in which they can +make use of the experience of those generations of cats and +dogs that have gone before. + +In the first century before our era, when the Romans came +to Egypt, they found the valley full of strange little pictures +which seemed to have something to do with the history +of the country. But the Romans were not interested in ``anything +foreign'' and did not inquire into the origin of these queer +figures which covered the walls of the temples and the walls of +the palaces and endless reams of flat sheets made out of the +papyrus reed. The last of the Egyptian priests who had +understood the holy art of making such pictures had died several +years before. Egypt deprived of its independence had +become a store-house filled with important historical documents +which no one could decipher and which were of no earthly use +to either man or beast. + +Seventeen centuries went by and Egypt remained a land +of mystery. But in the year 1798 a French general by the +name of Bonaparte happened to visit eastern Africa to prepare +for an attack upon the British Indian Colonies. He did +not get beyond the Nile, and his campaign was a failure. But, +quite accidentally, the famous French expedition solved the +problem of the ancient Egyptian picture-language. + +One day a young French officer, much bored by the dreary +life of his little fortress on the Rosetta river (a mouth of the +Nile) decided to spend a few idle hours rummaging among +the ruins of the Nile Delta. And behold! he found a stone +which greatly puzzled him. Like everything else in Egypt +it was covered with little figures. But this particular slab of +black basalt was different from anything that had ever been +discovered. It carried three inscriptions. One of these was +in Greek. The Greek language was known. ``All that is +necessary,'' so he reasoned, ``is to compare the Greek text with +the Egyptian figures, and they will at once tell their secrets.'' + +The plan sounded simple enough but it took more than +twenty years to solve the riddle. In the year 1802 a French +professor by the name of Champollion began to compare the +Greek and the Egyptian texts of the famous Rosetta stone. In +the year 1823 he announced that he had discovered the meaning +of fourteen little figures. A short time later he died from +overwork, but the main principles of Egyptian writing had +become known. Today the story of the valley of the Nile is +better known to us than the story of the Mississippi River. +We possess a written record which covers four thousand years +of chronicled history. + +As the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (the word means +``sacred writing'') have played such a very great role in +history, (a few of them in modified form have even found their +way into our own alphabet,) you ought to know something +about the ingenious system which was used fifty centuries ago +to preserve the spoken word for the benefit of the coming +generations. + +Of course, you know what a sign language is. Every +Indian story of our western plains has a chapter devoted to +strange messages writter{sic} in the form of little pictures which +tell how many buffaloes were killed and how many hunters +there were in a certain party. As a rule it is not difficult to +understand the meaning of such messages. + +Ancient Egyptian, however, was not a sign language. The +clever people of the Nile had passed beyond that stage long +before. Their pictures meant a great deal more than the object +which they represented, as I shall try to explain to you now. + +Suppose that you were Champollion, and that you were +examining a stack of papyrus sheets, all covered with hieroglyphics. +Suddenly you came across a picture of a man with +a saw. ``Very well,'' you would say, ``that means of course that +a farmer went out to cut down a tree.'' Then you take another +papyrus. It tells the story of a queen who had died at the age +of eighty-two. In the midst of a sentence appears the picture +of the man with the saw. Queens of eighty-two do not handle +saws. The picture therefore must mean something else. But +what? + +That is the riddle which the Frenchman finally solved. +He discovered that the Egyptians were the first to use what +we now call ``phonetic writing''--a system of characters which +reproduce the ``sound'' (or phone) of the spoken word and +which make it possible for us to translate all our spoken words +into a written form, with the help of only a few dots and dashes +and pothooks. + +Let us return for a moment to the little fellow with the saw. +The word ``saw'' either means a certain tool which you will find +in a carpenter's shop, or it means the past tense of the verb +``to see.'' + +This is what had happened to the word during the course +of centuries. First of all it had meant only the particular tool +which it represented. Then that meaning had been lost and it +had become the past participle of a verb. After several hundred +years, the Egyptians lost sight of both these meanings and +the picture {illust.} came to stand for a single letter, the +letter S. A short sentence will show you what I mean. Here +is a modern English sentence as it would have been written in +hieroglyphics. {illust.} + +The {illust.} either means one of these two round objects +in your head, which allow you to see or it means ``I,'' the person +who is talking. + +A {illust.} is either an insect which gathers honey, or it +represents the verb ``to be'' which means to exist. Again, it +may be the first part of a verb like ``be-come'' or ``be-have.'' +In this particular instance it is followed by {illust.} which +means a ``leaf'' or ``leave'' or ``lieve'' (the sound of all three +words is the same). + +The ``eye'' you know all about. + +Finally you get the picture of a {illust.}. It is a giraffe +It is part of the old sign-language out of which the hieroglyphics +developed. + +You can now read that sentence without much difficulty. + +``I believe I saw a giraffe.'' + +Having invented this system the Egyptians developed it +during thousands of years until they could write anything they +wanted, and they used these ``canned words'' to send messages +to friends, to keep business accounts and to keep a record of the +history of their country, that future generations might benefit +by the mistakes of the past. + + + +THE NILE VALLEY + +THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE +VALLEY OF THE NILE + + +THE history of man is the record of a hungry creature in +search of food. Wherever food was plentiful, thither man has +travelled to make his home. + +The fame of the Valley of the Nile must have spread at +an early date. From the interior of Africa and from the desert +of Arabia and from the western part of Asia people had +flocked to Egypt to claim their share of the rich farms. +Together these invaders had formed a new race which called +itself ``Remi'' or ``the Men'' just as we sometimes call America +``God's own country.'' They had good reason to be grateful +to a Fate which had carried them to this narrow strip of land. +In the summer of each year the Nile turned the valley into a +shallow lake and when the waters receded all the grainfields +and the pastures were covered with several inches of the most +fertile clay. + +In Egypt a kindly river did the work of a million men and +made it possible to feed the teeming population of the first +large cities of which we have any record. It is true that all +the arable land was not in the valley. But a complicated +system of small canals and well-sweeps carried water from +the river-level to the top of the highest banks and an even +more intricate system of irrigation trenches spread it throughout +the land. + +While man of the prehistoric age had been obliged to spend +sixteen hours out of every twenty-four gathering food for himself +and the members of his tribe, the Egyptian peasant or the +inhabitant of the Egyptian city found himself possessed of a +certain leisure. He used this spare time to make himself many +things that were merely ornamental and not in the least bit +useful. + +More than that. One day he discovered that his brain was +capable of thinking all kinds of thoughts which had nothing +to do with the problems of eating and sleeping and finding a +home for the children. The Egyptian began to speculate upon +many strange problems that confronted him. Where did the +stars come from? Who made the noise of the thunder which +frightened him so terribly? Who made the River Nile rise +with such regularity that it was possible to base the calendar +upon the appearance and the disappearance of the annual +floods? Who was he, himself, a strange little creature surrounded +on all sides by death and sickness and yet happy and +full of laughter? + +He asked these many questions and certain people obligingly +stepped forward to answer these inquiries to the best of +their ability. The Egyptians called them ``priests'' and they +became the guardians of his thoughts and gained great respect +in the community. They were highly learned men who were +entrusted with the sacred task of keeping the written records. +They understood that it is not good for man to think only of +his immediate advantage in this world and they drew his attention +to the days of the future when his soul would dwell +beyond the mountains of the west and must give an account +of his deeds to Osiris, the mighty God who was the Ruler of +the Living and the Dead and who judged the acts of men +according to their merits. Indeed, the priests made so much +of that future day in the realm of Isis and Osiris that the +Egyptians began to regard life merely as a short preparation +for the Hereafter and turned the teeming valley of the Nile +into a land devoted to the Dead. + +In a strange way, the Egyptians had come to believe that +no soul could enter the realm of Osiris without the possession +of the body which had been its place of residence in this world. +Therefore as soon as a man was dead his relatives took his +corpse and had it embalmed. For weeks it was soaked in a +solution of natron and then it was filled with pitch. The +Persian word for pitch was ``Mumiai'' and the embalmed body +was called a ``Mummy.'' It was wrapped in yards and yards +of specially prepared linen and it was placed in a specially +prepared coffin ready to be removed to its final home. But +an Egyptian grave was a real home where the body was surrounded +by pieces of furniture and musical instruments (to +while away the dreary hours of waiting) and by little statues +of cooks and bakers and barbers (that the occupant of this +dark home might be decently provided with food and need not +go about unshaven). + +Originally these graves had been dug into the rocks of the +western mountains but as the Egyptians moved northward +they were obliged to build their cemeteries in the desert. The +desert however is full of wild animals and equally wild robbers +and they broke into the graves and disturbed the mummy or +stole the jewelry that had been buried with the body. To prevent +such unholy desecration the Egyptians used to build small +mounds of stones on top of the graves. These little mounds +gradually grew in size, because the rich people built higher +mounds than the poor and there was a good deal of competition +to see who could make the highest hill of stones. The +record was made by King Khufu, whom the Greeks called +Cheops and who lived thirty centuries before our era. His +mound, which the Greeks called a pyramid (because the +Egyptian word for high was pir-em-us) was over five hundred +feet high. + +It covered more than thirteen acres of desert which is three +times as much space as that occupied by the church of St. +Peter, the largest edifice of the Christian world. + +During twenty years, over a hundred thousand men were +busy carrying the necessary stones from the other side of the +river--ferrying them across the Nile (how they ever managed +to do this, we do not understand), dragging them in many instances +a long distance across the desert and finally hoisting +them into their correct position. But so well did the King's +architects and engineers perform their task that the narrow +passage-way which leads to the royal tomb in the heart of the +stone monster has never yet been pushed out of shape by the +weight of those thousands of tons of stone which press upon +it from all sides. + + + +THE STORY OF EGYPT + +THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT + + +THE river Nile was a kind friend but occasionally it was +a hard taskmaster. It taught the people who lived along its +banks the noble art of ``team-work.'' They depended upon +each other to build their irrigation trenches and keep their +dikes in repair. In this way they learned how to get along +with their neighbours and their mutual-benefit-association quite +easily developed into an organised state. + +Then one man grew more powerful than most of his neighbours +and he became the leader of the community and their +commander-in-chief when the envious neighbours of western +Asia invaded the prosperous valley. In due course of time +he became their King and ruled all the land from the Mediterranean +to the mountains of the west. + +But these political adventures of the old Pharaohs (the +word meant ``the Man who lived in the Big House'') rarely +interested the patient and toiling peasant of the grain fields. +Provided he was not obliged to pay more taxes to his King +than he thought just, he accepted the rule of Pharaoh as he +accepted the rule of Mighty Osiris. + +It was different however when a foreign invader came +and robbed him of his possessions. After twenty centuries of +independent life, a savage Arab tribe of shepherds, called the +Hyksos, attacked Egypt and for five hundred years they were +the masters of the valley of the Nile. They were highly un- +popular and great hate was also felt for the Hebrews who +came to the land of Goshen to find a shelter after their long +wandering through the desert and who helped the foreign +usurper by acting as his tax-gatherers and his civil servants. + +But shortly after the year 1700 B.C. the people of Thebes +began a revolution and after a long struggle the Hyksos were +driven out of the country and Egypt was free once more. + +A thousand years later, when Assyria conquered all of +western Asia, Egypt became part of the empire of Sardanapalus. +In the seventh century B.C. it became once more an +independent state which obeyed the rule of a king who lived in +the city of Sais in the Delta of the Nile. But in the year 525 +B.C., Cambyses, the king of the Persians, took possession of +Egypt and in the fourth century B.C., when Persia was conquered +by Alexander the Great, Egypt too became a Macedonian +province. It regained a semblance of independence +when one of Alexander's generals set himself up as king of a +new Egyptian state and founded the dynasty of the Ptolemies, +who resided in the newly built city of Alexandria. + +Finally, in the year 89 B.C., the Romans came. The last +Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, tried her best to save the country. +Her beauty and charm were more dangerous to the Roman +generals than half a dozen Egyptian army corps. Twice she +was successful in her attacks upon the hearts of her Roman +conquerors. But in the year 30 B.C., Augustus, the nephew +and heir of Caesar, landed in Alexandria. He did not share +his late uncle's admiration for the lovely princess. He destroyed +her armies, but spared her life that he might make her +march in his triumph as part of the spoils of war. When +Cleopatra heard of this plan, she killed herself by taking poison. +And Egypt became a Roman province. + + + +MESOPOTAMIA + +MESOPOTAMIA--THE SECOND CENTRE OF +EASTERN CIVILISATION + + +I AM going to take you to the top of the highest pyramid +and I am going to ask that you imagine yourself possessed +of the eyes of a hawk. Way, way off, in the distance, far +beyond the yellow sands of the desert, you will see something +green and shimmering. It is a valley situated between two +rivers. It is the Paradise of the Old Testament. It is the +land of mystery and wonder which the Greeks called Mesopotamia-- +the ``country between the rivers.'' + +The names of the two rivers are the Euphrates (which the +Babylonians called the Purattu) and the Tigris (which was +known as the Diklat). They begin their course amidst the +snows of the mountains of Armenia where Noah's Ark found +a resting place and slowly they flow through the southern +plain until they reach the muddy banks of the Persian gulf. +They perform a very useful service. They turn the arid +regions of western Asia into a fertile garden. + +The valley of the Nile had attracted people because it had +offered them food upon fairly easy terms. The ``land between +the rivers'' was popular for the same reason. It was a +country full of promise and both the inhabitants of the northern +mountains and the tribes which roamed through the +southern deserts tried to claim this territory as their own and +most exclusive possession. The constant rivalry between the +mountaineers and the desert-nomads led to endless warfare. +Only the strongest and the bravest could hope to survive and +that will explain why Mesopotamia became the home of a very +strong race of men who were capable of creating a civilisation +which was in every respect as important as that of Egypt. + + + +THE SUMERIANS + +THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY +TABLETS TELL US THE STORY OF ASSYRIA +AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC +MELTING-POT + + +THE fifteenth century was an age of great discoveries. +Columbus tried to find a way to the island of Kathay and +stumbled upon a new and unsuspected continent. An Austrian +bishop equipped an expedition which was to travel eastward +and find the home of the Grand Duke of Muscovy, a +voyage which led to complete failure, for Moscow was not +visited by western men until a generation later. Meanwhile +a certain Venetian by the name of Barbero had explored the +ruins of western Asia and had brought back reports of a most +curious language which he had found carved in the rocks of +the temples of Shiraz and engraved upon endless pieces of +baked clay. + +But Europe was busy with many other things and it was +not until the end of the eighteenth century that the first +``cuneiform inscriptions'' (so-called because the letters were +wedge-shaped and wedge is called ``Cuneus'' in Latin) were +brought to Europe by a Danish surveyor, named Niebuhr. +Then it took thirty years before a patient German school- +master by the name of Grotefend had deciphered the first four +letters, the D, the A, the R and the SH, the name of the Persian +King Darius. And another twenty years had to go by +until a British officer, Henry Rawlinson, who found the famous +inscription of Behistun, gave us a workable key to the nail- +writing of western Asia. + +Compared to the problem of deciphering these nail-writings, +the job of Champollion had been an easy one. The +Egyptians used pictures. But the Sumerians, the earliest +inhabitants of Mesopotamia, who had hit upon the idea of +scratching their words in tablets of clay, had discarded pictures +entirely and had evolved a system of V-shaped figures which +showed little connection with the pictures out of which they +had been developed. A few examples will show you what I +mean. In the beginning a star, when drawn with a nail into +a brick looked as follows: {illust.} This sign however was too +cumbersome and after a short while when the meaning of +``heaven'' was added to that of star the picture was simplified +in this way {illust.} which made it even more of a puzzle. +In the same way an ox changed from {illust} into {illust.} +and a fish changed from {illust.} into {illust.} The sun +was originally a plain circle {illust.} and became {illust.} +If we were using the Sumerian script today we would make an +{illust.} look like {illust.}. This system of writing down our +ideas looks rather complicated but for more than thirty centuries +it was used by the Sumerians and the Babylonians and +the Assyrians and the Persians and all the different races +which forced their way into the fertile valley. + +The story of Mesopotamia is one of endless warfare and +conquest. First the Sumerians came from the North. They +were a white People who had lived in the mountains. They +had been accustomed to worship their Gods on the tops of +hills. After they had entered the plain they constructed artificial +little hills on top of which they built their altars. They +did not know how to build stairs and they therefore surrounded +their towers with sloping galleries. Our engineers +have borrowed this idea, as you may see in our big railroad +stations where ascending galleries lead from one floor to another. +We may have borrowed other ideas from the Sumerians +but we do not know it. The Sumerians were entirely ab- +sorbed by those races that entered the fertile valley at a later +date. Their towers however still stand amidst the ruins of +Mesopotamia. The Jews saw them when they went into exile +in the land of Babylon and they called them towers of BabIlli, +or towers of Babel. + +In the fortieth century before our era, the Sumerians had +entered Mesopotamia. They were soon afterwards over- +powered by the Akkadians, one of the many tribes from the +desert of Arabia who speak a common dialect and who are +known as the ``Semites,'' because in the olden days people believed +them to be the direct descendants of Shem, one of the +three sons of Noah. A thousand years later, the Akkadians +were forced to submit to the rule of the Amorites, another +Semitic desert tribe whose great King Hammurabi built himself +a magnificent palace in the holy city of Babylon and who +gave his people a set of laws which made the Babylonian state +the best administered empire of the ancient world. Next the +Hittites, whom you will also meet in the Old Testament, over- +ran the Fertile Valley and destroyed whatever they could not +carry away. They in turn were vanquished by the followers +of the great desert God, Ashur, who called themselves Assyrians +and who made the city of Nineveh the center of a vast +and terrible empire which conquered all of western Asia and +Egypt and gathered taxes from countless subject races until +the end of the seventh century before the birth of Christ when +the Chaldeans, also a Semitic tribe, re-established Babylon and +made that city the most important capital of that day. +Nebuchadnezzar, the best known of their Kings, encouraged +the study of science, and our modern knowledge of astronomy +and mathematics is all based upon certain first principles which +were discovered by the Chaldeans. In the year 538 B.C. a +crude tribe of Persian shepherds invaded this old land and +overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. Two hundred years +later, they in turn were overthrown by Alexander the Great, +who turned the Fertile Valley, the old melting-pot of so many +Semitic races, into a Greek province. Next came the Romans +and after the Romans, the Turks, and Mesopotamia, the second +centre of the world's civilisation, became a vast wilderness +where huge mounds of earth told a story of ancient glory. + + + +MOSES + +THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE +JEWISH PEOPLE + + +SOME time during the twentieth century before our era, +a small and unimportant tribe of Semitic shepherds had left +its old home, which was situated in the land of Ur on the mouth +of the Euphrates, and had tried to find new pastures within +the domain of the Kings of Babylonia. They had been driven +away by the royal soldiers and they had moved westward +looking for a little piece of unoccupied territory where they +might set up their tents. + +This tribe of shepherds was known as the Hebrews or, as +we call them, the Jews. They had wandered far and wide, +and after many years of dreary peregrinations they had been +given shelter in Egypt. For more than five centuries they +had dwelt among the Egyptians and when their adopted country +had been overrun by the Hyksos marauders (as I told +you in the story of Egypt) they had managed to make themselves +useful to the foreign invader and had been left in the +undisturbed possession of their grazing fields. But after a +long war of independence the Egyptians had driven the +Hyksos out of the valley of the Nile and then the Jews had +come upon evil times for they had been degraded to the rank +of common slaves and they had been forced to work on the +royal roads and on the Pyramids. And as the frontiers were +guarded by the Egyptian soldiers it had been impossible for +the Jews to escape. + +After many years of suffering they were saved from their +miserable fate by a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long +time had dwelt in the desert and there had learned to appreciate +the simple virtues of his earliest ancestors, who had kept +away from cities and city-life and had refused to let themselves +be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a foreign +civilisation. + +Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways +of the patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian +troops that were sent after him and led his fellow tribesmen +into the heart of the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai. During +his long and lonely life in the desert, he had learned to +revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder and the +Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds +depended for life and light and breath. This God, one +of the many divinities who were widely worshipped in western +Asia, was called Jehovah, and through the teaching of Moses, +he became the sole Master of the Hebrew race. + +One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. +It was whispered that he had gone away carrying two tablets +of rough-hewn stone. That afternoon, the top of the mountain +was lost to sight. The darkness of a terrible storm hid it from +the eye of man. But when Moses returned, behold! there stood +engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah had spoken +unto the people of Israel amidst the crash of his thunder and +the blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, +Jehovah was recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master +of their Fate, the only True God, who had taught them how +to live holy lives when he bade them to follow the wise lessons +of his Ten Commandments. + +They followed Moses when he bade them continue their +journey through the desert. They obeyed him when he told +them what to eat and drink and what to avoid that they might +keep well in the hot climate. And finally after many years of +wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and +prosperous. It was called Palestine, which means the country +of the ``Pilistu'' the Philistines, a small tribe of Cretans who +had settled along the coast after they had been driven away +from their own island. Unfortunately, the mainland, Palestine, +was already inhabited by another Semitic race, called the +Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into the valleys +and built themselves cities and constructed a mighty temple +in a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace. +As for Moses, he was no longer the leader of his people. He +had been allowed to see the mountain ridges of Palestine from +afar. Then he had closed his tired eyes for all time. He had +worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. Not only had +he guided his brethren out of foreign slavery into the free and +independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews +the first of all nations to worship a single God. + + + +THE PHOENICIANS + +THE PHOENICIANS WHO GAVE US OUR +ALPHABET + + +THE Phoenicians, who were the neighbours of the Jews, +were a Semitic tribe which at a very early age had settled along +the shores of the Mediterranean. They had built themselves +two well-fortified towns, Tyre and Sidon, and within a short +time they had gained a monopoly of the trade of the western +seas. Their ships went regularly to Greece and Italy and +Spain and they even ventured beyond the straits of Gibraltar +to visit the Scilly islands where they could buy tin. Wherever +they went, they built themselves small trading stations, which +they called colonies. Many of these were the origin of modern +cities, such as Cadiz and Marseilles. + +They bought and sold whatever promised to bring them a +good profit. They were not troubled by a conscience. If we +are to believe all their neighbours they did not know what the +words honesty or integrity meant. They regarded a well-filled +treasure chest the highest ideal of all good citizens. Indeed +they were very unpleasant people and did not have a single +friend. Nevertheless they have rendered all coming generations +one service of the greatest possible value. They gave +us our alphabet. + +The Phoenicians had been familiar with the art of writing, +invented by the Sumerians. But they regarded these pothooks +as a clumsy waste of time. They were practical business men +and could not spend hours engraving two or three letters. +They set to work and invented a new system of writing which +was greatly superior to the old one. They borrowed a few +pictures from the Egyptians and they simplified a number of +the wedge-shaped figures of the Sumerians. They sacrificed +the pretty looks of the older system for the advantage of speed +and they reduced the thousands of different images to a short +and handy alphabet of twenty-two letters. + +In due course of time, this alphabet travelled across the +AEgean Sea and entered Greece. The Greeks added a few +letters of their own and carried the improved system to Italy. +The Romans modified the figures somewhat and in turn taught +them to the wild barbarians of western Europe. Those wild +barbarians were our own ancestors, and that is the reason why +this book is written in characters that are of Phoenician origin +and not in the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians or in the nail- +script of the Sumerians. + + + +THE INDO-EUROPEANS + +THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER +THE SEMITIC AND THE EGYPTIAN +WORLD + + +THE world of Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and Phoenicia +had existed almost thirty centuries and the venerable +races of the Fertile Valley were getting old and tired. Their +doom was sealed when a new and more energetic race appeared +upon the horizon. We call this race the Indo-European race, +because it conquered not only Europe but also made itself the +ruling class in the country which is now known as British India. + +These Indo-Europeans were white men like the Semites +but they spoke a different language which is regarded as the +common ancestor of all European tongues with the exception +of Hungarian and Finnish and the Basque dialects of Northern +Spain. + +When we first hear of them, they had been living along the +shores of the Caspian Sea for many centuries. But one day +they had packed their tents and they had wandered forth in +search of a new home. Some of them had moved into the +mountains of Central Asia and for many centuries they had +lived among the peaks which surround the plateau of Iran and +that is why we call them Aryans. Others had followed the +setting sun and they had taken possession of the plains of +Europe as I shall tell you when I give you the story of Greece +and Rome. + +For the moment we must follow the Aryans. Under the +leadership of Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) who was their great +teacher many of them had left their mountain homes to follow +the swiftly flowing Indus river on its way to the sea. + +Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western +Asia and there they had founded the half-independent communities +of the Medes and the Persians, two peoples whose +names we have copied from the old Greek history-books. In +the seventh century before the birth of Christ, the Medes had +established a kingdom of their own called Media, but this +perished when Cyrus, the chief of a clan known as the Anshan, +made himself king of all the Persian tribes and started upon +a career of conquest which soon made him and his children the +undisputed masters of the whole of western Asia and of Egypt. + +Indeed, with such energy did these Indo-European Persians +push their triumphant campaigns in the west that they soon +found themselves in serious difficulties with certain other Indo- +European tribes which centuries before had moved into Europe +and had taken possession of the Greek peninsula and the islands +of the AEgean Sea. + +These difficulties led to the three famous wars between +Greece and Persia during which King Darius and King +Xerxes of Persia invaded the northern part of the peninsula. +They ravaged the lands of the Greeks and tried very hard to +get a foothold upon the European continent. + +But in this they did not succeed. The navy of Athens +proved unconquerable. By cutting off the lines of supplies +of the Persian armies, the Greek sailors invariably forced the +Asiatic rulers to return to their base. + +It was the first encounter between Asia, the ancient +teacher, and Europe, the young and eager pupil. A great +many of the other chapters of this book will tell you how the +struggle between east and west has continued until this very +day. + + + +THE AEGEAN SEA + +THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED +THE CIVILISATION OF OLD ASIA INTO +THE WILDERNESS OF EUROPE + + +WHEN Heinrich Schliemann was a little boy his +father told him the story of Troy. He liked that story +better than anything else he had ever heard and he made +up his mind, that as soon as he was big enough to leave home, +he would travel to Greece and ``find Troy.'' That he was the +son of a poor country parson in a Mecklenburg village did +not bother him. He knew that he would need money but +he decided to gather a fortune first and do the digging afterwards. +As a matter of fact, he managed to get a large fortune +within a very short time, and as soon as he had enough money to +equip an expedition, he went to the northwest corner of Asia +Minor, where he supposed that Troy had been situated. + +In that particular nook of old Asia Minor, stood a high +mound covered with grainfields. According to tradition it had +been the home of Priamus the king of Troy. Schliemann, +whose enthusiasm was somewhat greater than his knowledge, +wasted no time in preliminary explorations. At once he began +to dig. And he dug with such zeal and such speed that his +trench went straight through the heart of the city for which he +was looking and carried him to the ruins of another buried +town which was at least a thousand years older than the Troy +of which Homer had written. Then something very interesting +occurred. If Schliemann had found a few polished stone +hammers and perhaps a few pieces of crude pottery, no one +would have been surprised. Instead of discovering such objects, +which people had generally associated with the prehistoric +men who had lived in these regions before the coming of +the Greeks, Schliemann found beautiful statuettes and very +costly jewelry and ornamented vases of a pattern that was +unknown to the Greeks. He ventured the suggestion that +fully ten centuries before the great Trojan war, the coast of +the AEgean had been inhabited by a mysterious race of men +who in many ways had been the superiors of the wild Greek +tribes who had invaded their country and had destroyed their +civilisation or absorbed it until it had lost all trace of originality. +And this proved to be the case. In the late seventies of +the last century, Schliemann visited the ruins of Mycenae, ruins +which were so old that Roman guide-books marvelled at their +antiquity. There again, beneath the flat slabs of stone of a +small round enclosure, Schliemann stumbled upon a wonderful +treasure-trove, which had been left behind by those mysterious +people who had covered the Greek coast with their cities and +who had built walls, so big and so heavy and so strong, that +the Greeks called them the work of the Titans, those god-like +giants who in very olden days had used to play ball with +mountain peaks. + +A very careful study of these many relics has done away +with some of the romantic features of the story. The makers +of these early works of art and the builders of these strong +fortresses were no sorcerers, but simple sailors and traders. +They had lived in Crete, and on the many small islands of the +AEgean Sea. They had been hardy mariners and they had +turned the AEgean into a center of commerce for the exchange +of goods between the highly civilised east and the slowly +developing wilderness of the European mainland. + +For more than a thousand years they had maintained an +island empire which had developed a very high form of art. +Indeed their most important city, Cnossus, on the northern +coast of Crete, had been entirely modern in its insistence upon +hygiene and comfort. The palace had been properly drained +and the houses had been provided with stoves and the Cnossians +had been the first people to make a daily use of the hitherto +unknown bathtub. The palace of their King had been famous +for its winding staircases and its large banqueting hall. The +cellars underneath this palace, where the wine and the grain +and the olive-oil were stored, had been so vast and had so +greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that they had given +rise to the story of the ``labyrinth,'' the name which we give +to a structure with so many complicated passages that it is +almost impossible to find our way out, once the front door has +closed upon our frightened selves. + +But what finally became of this great AEgean Empire and +what caused its sudden downfall, that I can not tell. + +The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no +one has yet been able to decipher their inscriptions. Their +history therefore is unknown to us. We have to reconstruct +the record of their adventures from the ruins which the +AEgeans have left behind. These ruins make it clear that the +AEgean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilised race +which had recently come from the plains of northern Europe. +Unless we are very much mistaken, the savages who were +responsible for the destruction of the Cretan and the AEgean +civilisation were none other than certain tribes of wandering +shepherds who had just taken possession of the rocky peninsula +between the Adriatic and the AEgean seas and who are +known to us as Greeks. + + + +THE GREEKS + +MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE +OF THE HELLENES WAS TAKING +POSSESSION OF GREECE + + +THE Pyramids were a thousand years old and were beginning +to show the first signs of decay, and Hammurabi, the +wise king of Babylon, had been dead and buried several centuries, +when a small tribe of shepherds left their homes along +the banks of the River Danube and wandered southward in +search of fresh pastures. They called themselves Hellenes, +after Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. According +to the old myths these were the only two human beings who +had escaped the great flood, which countless years before had +destroyed all the people of the world, when they had grown +so wicked that they disgusted Zeus, the mighty God, who lived +on Mount Olympus. + +Of these early Hellenes we know nothing. Thucydides, +the historian of the fall of Athens, describing his earliest +ancestors, said that they ``did not amount to very much,'' and +this was probably true. They were very ill-mannered. They +lived like pigs and threw the bodies of their enemies to the wild +dogs who guarded their sheep. They had very little respect +for other people's rights, and they killed the natives of the +Greek peninsula (who were called the Pelasgians) and stole +their farms and took their cattle and made their wives and +daughters slaves and wrote endless songs praising the courage +of the clan of the Achaeans, who had led the Hellenic advance- +guard into the mountains of Thessaly and the Peloponnesus. + +But here and there, on the tops of high rocks, they saw +the castles of the AEgeans and those they did not attack for +they feared the metal swords and the spears of the AEgean +soldiers and knew that they could not hope to defeat them with +their clumsy stone axes. + +For many centuries they continued to wander from valley +to valley and from mountain side to mountain side Then the +whole of the land had been occupied and the migration had +come to an end. + +That moment was the beginning of Greek civilisation. The +Greek farmer, living within sight of the AEgean colonies, +was finally driven by curiosity to visit his haughty neighbours. +He discovered that he could learn many useful things from +the men who dwelt behind the high stone walls of Mycenae, and +Tiryns. + +He was a clever pupil. Within a short time he mastered +the art of handling those strange iron weapons which the +AEgeans had brought from Babylon and from Thebes. He +came to understand the mysteries of navigation. He began +to build little boats for his own use. + +And when he had learned everything the AEgeans could +teach him he turned upon his teachers and drove them back +to their islands. Soon afterwards he ventured forth upon the +sea and conquered all the cities of the AEgean. Finally in the +fifteenth century before our era he plundered and ravaged +Cnossus and ten centuries after their first appearance upon +the scene the Hellenes were the undisputed rulers of Greece, +of the AEgean and of the coastal regions of Asia Minor. Troy, +the last great commercial stronghold of the older civilisation, +was destroyed in the eleventh century B.C. European history +was to begin in all seriousness. + + + +THE GREEK CITIES + +THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY +STATES + + +WE modern people love the sound of the word ``big.'' We +pride ourselves upon the fact that we belong to the ``biggest'' +country in the world and possess the ``biggest'' navy and grow +the ``biggest'' oranges and potatoes, and we love to live in +cities of ``millions'' of inhabitants and when we are dead we +are buried in the ``biggest cemetery of the whole state.'' + +A citizen of ancient Greece, could he have heard us talk, +would not have known what we meant. ``Moderation in all +things'' was the ideal of his life and mere bulk did not impress +him at all. And this love of moderation was not merely a +hollow phrase used upon special occasions: it influenced the +life of the Greeks from the day of their birth to the hour of +their death. It was part of their literature and it made them +build small but perfect temples. It found expression in the +clothes which the men wore and in the rings and the bracelets +of their wives. It followed the crowds that went to the theatre +and made them hoot down any playwright who dared to +sin against the iron law of good taste or good sense. + +The Greeks even insisted upon this quality in their politicians +and in their most popular athletes. When a powerful +runner came to Sparta and boasted that he could stand longer +on one foot than any other man in Hellas the people drove him +from the city because he prided himself upon an accomplish- +ment at which he could be beaten by any common goose. +``That is all very well,'' you will say, ``and no doubt it is a +great virtue to care so much for moderation and perfection, +but why should the Greeks have been the only people to develop +this quality in olden times?'' For an answer I shall +point to the way in which the Greeks lived. + +The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the ``subjects'' +of a mysterious Supreme Ruler who lived miles and +miles away in a dark palace and who was rarely seen by the +masses of the population. The Greeks on the other hand, +were ``free citizens'' of a hundred independent little ``cities'' +the largest of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large +modern village. When a peasant who lived in Ur said that he +was a Babylonian he meant that he was one of millions of +other people who paid tribute to the king who at that particular +moment happened to be master of western Asia. But when +a Greek said proudly that he was an Athenian or a Theban +he spoke of a small town, which was both his home and his +country and which recognised no master but the will of the +people in the market-place. + +To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was +born; where he had spent his earliest years playing hide and +seek amidst the forbidden rocks of the Acropolis; where he had +grown into manhood with a thousand other boys and girls, +whose nicknames were as familiar to him as those of your own +schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his father +and mother lay buried. It was the small house within the high +city-walls where his wife and children lived in safety. It was +a complete world which covered no more than four or five +acres of rocky land. Don't you see how these surroundings +must have influenced a man in everything he did and said and +thought? The people of Babylon and Assyria and Egypt +had been part of a vast mob. They had been lost in the multitude. +The Greek on the other hand had never lost touch with +his immediate surroundings. He never ceased to be part of a +little town where everybody knew every one else. He felt +that his intelligent neighbours were watching him. Whatever +he did, whether he wrote plays or made statues out of marble +or composed songs, he remembered that his efforts were going +to be judged by all the free-born citizens of his home-town who +knew about such things. This knowledge forced him to strive +after perfection, and perfection, as he had been taught from +childhood, was not possible without moderation. + +In this hard school, the Greeks learned to excel in many +things. They created new forms of government and new forms +of literature and new ideals in art which we have never been +able to surpass. They performed these miracles in little villages +that covered less ground than four or five modern city +blocks. + +And look, what finally happened! + +In the fourth century before our era, Alexander of Macedonia +conquered the world. As soon as he had done with +fighting, Alexander decided that he must bestow the benefits +of the true Greek genius upon all mankind. He took it away +from the little cities and the little villages and tried to make +it blossom and bear fruit amidst the vast royal residences of +his newly acquired Empire. But the Greeks, removed from +the familiar sight of their own temples, removed from the well- +known sounds and smells of their own crooked streets, at once +lost the cheerful joy and the marvellous sense of moderation +which had inspired the work of their hands and brains while +they laboured for the glory of their old city-states. They became +cheap artisans, content with second-rate work. The day +the little city-states of old Hellas lost their independence and +were forced to become part of a big nation, the old Greek spirit +died. And it has been dead ever since. + + + +GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT + +THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO +TRY THE DIFFICULT EXPERIMENT OF +SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +IN the beginning, all the Greeks had been equally rich and +equally poor. Every man had owned a certain number of +cows and sheep. His mud-hut had been his castle. He had +been free to come and go as he wished. Whenever it was necessary +to discuss matters of public importance, all the citizens +had gathered in the market-place. One of the older men of the +village was elected chairman and it was his duty to see that +everybody had a chance to express his views. In case of war, +a particularly energetic and self-confident villager was chosen +commander-in-chief, but the same people who had voluntarily +given this man the right to be their leader, claimed an equal +right to deprive him of his job, once the danger had been +averted. + +But gradually the village had grown into a city. Some +people had worked hard and others had been lazy. A few +had been unlucky and still others had been just plain dishonest +in dealing with their neighbours and had gathered wealth. +As a result, the city no longer consisted of a number of men +who were equally well-off. On the contrary it was inhabited +by a small class of very rich people and a large class of very +poor ones. + +There had been another change. The old commander-in- +chief who had been willingly recognised as ``headman'' or +``King'' because he knew how to lead his men to victory, had +disappeared from the scene. His place had been taken by the +nobles--a class of rich people who during the course of time +had got hold of an undue share of the farms and estates. + +These nobles enjoyed many advantages over the common +crowd of freemen. They were able to buy the best weapons +which were to be found on the market of the eastern Mediterranean. +They had much spare time in which they could prac- +tise the art of fighting. They lived in strongly built houses +and they could hire soldiers to fight for them. They were +constantly quarrelling among each other to decide who should +rule the city. The victorious nobleman then assumed a sort of +Kingship over all his neighbours and governed the town until +he in turn was killed or driven away by still another ambitious +nobleman. + +Such a King, by the grace of his soldiers, was called a +``Tyrant'' and during the seventh and sixth centuries before +our era every Greek city was for a time ruled by such Tyrants, +many of whom, by the way, happened to be exceedingly capa- +ble men. But in the long run, this state of affairs became +unbearable. Then attempts were made to bring about reforms +and out of these reforms grew the first democratic government +of which the world has a record. + +It was early in the seventh century that the people of +Athens decided to do some housecleaning and give the large +number of freemen once more a voice in the government as +they were supposed to have had in the days of their Achaean +ancestors. They asked a man by the name of Draco to provide +them with a set of laws that would protect the poor against +the aggressions of the rich. Draco set to work. Unfortunately +he was a professional lawyer and very much out of touch +with ordinary life. In his eyes a crime was a crime and when +he had finished his code, the people of Athens discovered that +these Draconian laws were so severe that they could not +possibly be put into effect. There would not have been rope +enough to hang all the criminals under their new system of +jurisprudence which made the stealing of an apple a capital +offence. + +The Athenians looked about for a more humane reformer. +At last they found some one who could do that sort of thing +better than anybody else. His name was Solon. He belonged +to a noble family and he had travelled all over the world and +had studied the forms of government of many other countries. +After a careful study of the subject, Solon gave Athens a set +of laws which bore testimony to that wonderful principle of +moderation which was part of the Greek character. He tried +to improve the condition of the peasant without however destroying +the prosperity of the nobles who were (or rather who +could be) of such great service to the state as soldiers. To protect +the poorer classes against abuse on the part of the judges +(who were always elected from the class of the nobles because +they received no salary) Solon made a provision whereby a +citizen with a grievance had the right to state his case before +a jury of thirty of his fellow Athenians. + +Most important of all, Solon forced the average freeman +to take a direct and personal interest in the affairs of the city. +No longer could he stay at home and say ``oh, I am too busy +today'' or ``it is raining and I had better stay indoors.'' He +was expected to do his share; to be at the meeting of the town +council; and carry part of the responsibility for the safety and +the prosperity of the state. + +This government by the ``demos,'' the people, was often far +from successful. There was too much idle talk. There were +too many hateful and spiteful scenes between rivals for official +honor. But it taught the Greek people to be independent and +to rely upon themselves for their salvation and that was a very +good thing. + + + +GREEK LIFE + +HOW THE GREEKS LIVED + + +BUT how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time +to look after their families and their business if they were +forever running to the market-place to discuss affairs of state? +In this chapter I shall tell you. + +In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised +only one class of citizens--the freemen. Every Greek +city was composed of a small number of free born citizens, a +large number of slaves and a sprinkling of foreigners. + +At rare intervals (usually during a war, when men were +needed for the army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to +confer the rights of citizenship upon the ``barbarians'' as they +called the foreigners. But this was an exception. Citizenship +was a matter of birth. You were an Athenian because your +father and your grandfather had been Athenians before you. +But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if you +were born of non-Athenian parents, you remained a ``foreigner'' +until the end of time. + +The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a +king or a tyrant, was run by and for the freemen, and this +would not have been possible without a large army of slaves +who outnumbered the free citizens at the rate of six or five +to one and who performed those tasks to which we modern +people must devote most of our time and energy if we wish to +provide for our families and pay the rent of our apartments. +The slaves did all the cooking and baking and candlestick +making of the entire city. They were the tailors and the carpenters +and the jewelers and the school-teachers and the bookkeepers +and they tended the store and looked after the factory +while the master went to the public meeting to discuss questions +of war and peace or visited the theatre to see the latest +play of AEschylus or hear a discussion of the revolutionary ideas +of Euripides, who had dared to express certain doubts upon +the omnipotence of the great god Zeus. + +Indeed, ancient Athens resembled a modem club. All the +freeborn citizens were hereditary members and all the slaves +were hereditary servants, and waited upon the needs of their +masters, and it was very pleasant to be a member of the +organisation. + +But when we talk about slaves. we do not mean the sort of +people about whom you have read in the pages of ``Uncle +Tom's Cabin.'' It is true that the position of those slaves who +tilled the fields was a very unpleasant one, but the average +freeman who had come down in the world and who had been +obliged to hire himself out as a farm hand led just as miserable +a life. In the cities, furthermore, many of the slaves were +more prosperous than the poorer classes of the freemen. For +the Greeks, who loved moderation in all things, did not like to +treat their slaves after the fashion which afterward was so +common in Rome, where a slave had as few rights as an engine +in a modern factory and could be thrown to the wild animals +upon the smallest pretext. + +The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, +without which no city could possibly become the home of a truly +civilised people. + +The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are +performed by the business men and the professional men. As +for those household duties which take up so much of the time +of your mother and which worry your father when he comes +home from his office, the Greeks, who understood the value of +leisure, had reduced such duties to the smallest possible minimum +by living amidst surroundings of extreme simplicity. + +To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich +nobles spent their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked +all the comforts which a modern workman expects as his natural +right. A Greek home consisted of four walls and a roof. +There was a door which led into the street but there were no +windows. The kitchen, the living rooms and the sleeping quarters +were built around an open courtyard in which there was a +small fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it look +bright. Within this courtyard the family lived when it did not +rain or when it was not too cold. In one corner of the yard the +cook (who was a slave) prepared the meal and in another +corner, the teacher (who was also a slave) taught the children +the alpha beta gamma and the tables of multiplication and in +still another corner the lady of the house, who rarely left her +domain (since it was not considered good form for a married +woman to be seen on the street too often) was repairing her +husband's coat with her seamstresses (who were slaves,) and +in the little office, right off the door, the master was inspecting +the accounts which the overseer of his farm (who was a slave) +had just brought to him. + +When dinner was ready the family came together but the +meal was a very simple one and did not take much time. The +Greeks seem to have regarded eating as an unavoidable evil +and not a pastime, which kills many dreary hours and eventually +kills many dreary people. They lived on bread and on +wine, with a little meat and some green vegetables. They +drank water only when nothing else was available because +they did not think it very healthy. They loved to call on each +other for dinner, but our idea of a festive meal, where everybody +is supposed to eat much more than is good for him, would +have disgusted them. They came together at the table for +the purpose of a good talk and a good glass of wine and water, +but as they were moderate people they despised those who +drank too much. + +The same simplicity which prevailed in the dining room +also dominated their choice of clothes. They liked to be clean +and well groomed, to have their hair and beards neatly cut, +to feel their bodies strong with the exercise and the swimming +of the gymnasium, but they never followed the Asiatic fashion +which prescribed loud colours and strange patterns. They +wore a long white coat and they managed to look as smart as +a modern Italian officer in his long blue cape. + +They loved to see their wives wear ornaments but they +thought it very vulgar to display their wealth (or their wives) +in public and whenever the women left their home they were as +inconspicuous as possible. + +In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation +but also of simplicity. ``Things,'' chairs and tables and +books and houses and carriages, are apt to take up a great +deal of their owner's time. In the end they invariably make +him their slave and his hours are spent looking after their +wants, keeping them polished and brushed and painted. The +Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be ``free,'' both in +mind and in body. That they might maintain their liberty, and +be truly free in spirit, they reduced their daily needs to the +lowest possible point. + + + +THE GREEK THEATRE + +THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST +FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT + + +AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun +to collect the poems, which had been written in honor of +their brave ancestors who had driven the Pelasgians out of +Hellas and had destroyed the power of Troy. These poems were +recited in public and everybody came to listen to them. But +the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost +a necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these +recited heroic tales. It had such a curious origin that I must +tell you something about it in a separate chapter + +The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every +year they held solemn processions in honor of Dionysos the +God of the wine. As everybody in Greece drank wine (the +Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose of swimming +and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a God +of the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land. + +And because the Wine-God was supposed to live in the +vineyards, amidst a merry mob of Satyrs (strange creatures +who were half man and half goat), the crowd that joined the +procession used to wear goat-skins and to hee-haw like real +billy-goats. The Greek word for goat is ``tragos'' and the +Greek word for singer is ``oidos.'' The singer who meh-mehed +like a goat therefore was called a ``tragos-oidos'' or goat singer, +and it is this strange name which developed into the modern +word ``Tragedy,'' which means in the theatrical sense a piece +with an unhappy ending, just as Comedy (which really means +the singing of something ``comos'' or gay) is the name given +to a play which ends happily. + +But how, you will ask, did this noisy chorus of masqueraders, +stamping around like wild goats, ever develop into the +noble tragedies which have filled the theatres of the world for +almost two thousand years? + +The connecting link between the goat-singer and Hamlet is +really very simple as I shall show you in a moment. + +The singing chorus was very amusing in the beginning and +attracted large crowds of spectators who stood along the side +of the road and laughed. But soon this business of tree-hawing +grew tiresome and the Greeks thought dullness an evil only +comparable to ugliness or sickness. They asked for something +more entertaining. Then an inventive young poet from +the village of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved +a tremendous success. He made one of the members of the +goat-chorus step forward and engage in conversation with the +leader of the musicians who marched at the head of the parade +playing upon their pipes of Pan. This individual was allowed +to step out of line. He waved his arms and gesticulated +while he spoke (that is to say he ``acted'' while the others merely +stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the +bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon +which the poet had written down these answers before the +show began. + +This rough and ready conversation--the dialogue--which +told the story of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became +at once popular with the crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian +procession had an ``acted scene'' and very soon the ``acting'' +was considered more important than the procession and the +meh-mehing. + +AEschylus, the most successful of all ``tragedians'' who wrote +no less than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) +made a bold step forward when he introduced two ``actors'' +instead of one. A generation later Sophocles increased the +number of actors to three. When Euripides began to write +his terrible tragedies in the middle of the fifth century, B.C., +he was allowed as many actors as he liked and when Aristophanes +wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun at +everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, +the chorus had been reduced to the role of mere bystanders +who were lined up behind the principal performers +and who sang ``this is a terrible world'' while the hero in the +foreground committed a crime against the will of the Gods. + +This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a +proper setting, and soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut +out of the rock of a nearby hill. The spectators sat upon +wooden benches and faced a wide circle (our present orchestra +where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for a seat). +Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the +chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where +they made up with large clay masks which hid their faces and +which showed the spectators whether the actors were supposed +to be happy and smiling or unhappy and weeping. The Greek +word for tent is ``skene'' and that is the reason why we talk +of the ``scenery'' of the stage. + +When once the tragedy had become part of Greek life, the +people took it very seriously and never went to the theatre to +give their minds a vacation. A new play became as important +an event as an election and a successful playwright was +received with greater honors than those bestowed upon a general +who had just returned from a famous victory. + + + +THE PERSIAN WARS + +HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE +AGAINST ASIATIC INVASION AND DROVE +THE PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN +SEA + + +THE Greeks had learned the art of trading from the +AEgeans who had been the pupils of the Phoenicians. They +had founded colonies after the Phoenician pattern. They had +even improved upon the Phoenician methods by a more general +use of money in dealing with foreign customers. In the sixth +century before our era they had established themselves firmly +along the coast of Asia Minor and they were taking away +trade from the Phoenicians at a fast rate. This the Phoenicians +of course did not like but they were not strong enough to +risk a war with their Greek competitors. They sat and waited +nor did they wait in vain. + +In a former chapter, I have told you how a humble tribe +of Persian shepherds had suddenly gone upon the warpath and +had conquered the greater part of western Asia. The Persians +were too civilised to plunder their new subjects. They +contented themselves with a yearly tribute. When they +reached the coast of Asia Minor they insisted that the Greek +colonies of Lydia recognize the Persian Kings as their over- +Lords and pay them a stipulated tax. The Greek colonies +objected. The Persians insisted. Then the Greek colonies +appealed to the home-country and the stage was set for a +quarrel. + +For if the truth be told, the Persian Kings regarded the +Greek city-states as very dangerous political institutions and +bad examples for all other people who were supposed to be the +patient slaves of the mighty Persian Kings. + +Of course, the Greeks enjoyed a certain degree of safety because +their country lay hidden beyond the deep waters of the +AEgean. But here their old enemies, the Phoenicians, stepped +forward with offers of help and advice to the Persians. If the +Persian King would provide the soldiers, the Phoenicians would +guarantee to deliver the necessary ships to carry them to +Europe. It was the year 492 before the birth of Christ, and +Asia made ready to destroy the rising power of Europe. + +As a final warning the King of Persia sent messengers +to the Greeks asking for ``earth and water'' as a token of their +submission. The Greeks promptly threw the messengers into +the nearest well where they would find both ``earth and water'' +in large abundance and thereafter of course peace was impossible. + +But the Gods of High Olympus watched over their children +and when the Phoenician fleet carrying the Persian troops +was near Mount Athos, the Storm-God blew his cheeks until +he almost burst the veins of his brow, and the fleet was destroyed +by a terrible hurricane and the Persians were all +drowned. + +Two years later they returned. This time they sailed +straight across the AEgean Sea and landed near the village of +Marathon. As soon as the Athenians heard this they sent +their army of ten thousand men to guard the hills that +surrounded the Marathonian plain. At the same time they +despatched a fast runner to Sparta to ask for help. But Sparta +was envious of the fame of Athens and refused to come to her +assistance. The other Greek cities followed her example with +the exception of tiny Plataea which sent a thousand men. On +the twelfth of September of the year 490, Miltiades, the Athenian +commander, threw this little army against the hordes of the +Persians. The Greeks broke through the Persian barrage of +arrows and their spears caused terrible havoc among the disorganised +Asiatic troops who had never been called upon to resist +such an enemy. + +That night the people of Athens watched the sky grow +red with the flames of burning ships. Anxiously they waited +for news. At last a little cloud of dust appeared upon the +road that led to the North. It was Pheidippides, the runner. +He stumbled and gasped for his end was near. Only a few +days before had he returned from his errand to Sparta. He +had hastened to join Miltiades. That morning he had taken +part in the attack and later he had volunteered to carry the +news of victory to his beloved city. The people saw him fall +and they rushed forward to support him. ``We have won,'' +he whispered and then he died, a glorious death which made him +envied of all men. + +As for the Persians, they tried, after this defeat, to land +near Athens but they found the coast guarded and disappeared, +and once more the land of Hellas was at peace. + +Eight years they waited and during this time the Greeks +were not idle. They knew that a final attack was to be expected +but they did not agree upon the best way to avert the danger. +Some people wanted to increase the army. Others said that +a strong fleet was necessary for success. The two parties led by +Aristides (for the army) and Themistocles (the leader of the +bigger-navy men) fought each other bitterly and nothing was +done until Aristides was exiled. Then Themistocles had his +chance and he built all the ships he could and turned the Piraeus +into a strong naval base. + +In the year 481 B.C. a tremendous Persian army appeared +in Thessaly, a province of northern Greece. In this hour of +danger, Sparta, the great military city of Greece, was elected +commander-in-chief. But the Spartans cared little what happened +to northern Greece provided their own country was not +invaded, They neglected to fortify the passes that led into +Greece. + +A small detachment of Spartans under Leonidas had been +told to guard the narrow road between the high mountains and +the sea which connected Thessaly with the southern provinces. +Leonidas obeyed his orders. He fought and held the pass with +unequalled bravery. But a traitor by the name of Ephialtes +who knew the little byways of Malis guided a regiment of Persians +through the hills and made it possible for them to attack +Leonidas in the rear. Near the Warm Wells--the Thermopylae +--a terrible battle was fought. + +When night came Leonidas and his faithful soldiers lay dead +under the corpses of their enemies. + +But the pass had been lost and the greater part of Greece +fell into the hands of the Persians. They marched upon +Athens, threw the garrison from the rocks of the Acropolis and +burned the city. The people fled to the Island of Salamis. All +seemed lost. But on the 20th of September of the year 480 +Themistocles forced the Persian fleet to give battle within the +narrow straits which separated the Island of Salamis from the +mainland and within a few hours he destroyed three quarters +of the Persian ships. + +In this way the victory of Thermopylae came to naught. +Xerxes was forced to retire. The next year, so he decreed, +would bring a final decision. He took his troops to Thessaly +and there he waited for spring. + +But this time the Spartans understood the seriousness of +the hour. They left the safe shelter of the wall which they had +built across the isthmus of Corinth and under the leadership +of Pausanias they marched against Mardonius the Persian +general. The united Greeks (some one hundred thousand men +from a dozen different cities) attacked the three hundred thou- +sand men of the enemy near Plataea. Once more the heavy +Greek infantry broke through the Persian barrage of arrows. +The Persians were defeated, as they had been at Marathon, and +this time they left for good. By a strange coincidence, the +same day that the Greek armies won their victory near Plataea, +the Athenian ships destroyed the enemy's fleet near Cape Mycale +in Asia Minor. + +Thus did the first encounter between Asia and Europe end. +Athens had covered herself with glory and Sparta had fought +bravely and well. If these two cities had been able to come to +an agreement, if they had been willing to forget their little +jealousies, they might have become the leaders of a strong and +united Hellas. + +But alas, they allowed the hour of victory and enthusiasm +to slip by, and the same opportunity never returned. + + + +ATHENS vs. SPARTA + +HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG +AND DISASTROUS WAR FOR THE LEADERSHIP +OF GREECE + + +ATHENS and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people +spoke a common language. In every other respect they were +different. Athens rose high from the plain. It was a city +exposed to the fresh breezes from the sea, willing to look at +the world with the eyes of a happy child. Sparta, on the other +hand, was built at the bottom of a deep valley, and used the +surrounding mountains as a barrier against foreign thought. +Athens was a city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp +where people were soldiers for the sake of being soldiers. The +people of Athens loved to sit in the sun and discuss poetry or +listen to the wise words of a philosopher. The Spartans, on the +other hand, never wrote a single line that was considered literature, +but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight, and they +sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military preparedness. + +No wonder that these sombre Spartans viewed the success +of Athens with malicious hate. The energy which the defence of +the common home had developed in Athens was now used for +purposes of a more peaceful nature. The Acropolis was rebuilt +and was made into a marble shrine to the Goddess Athena. +Pericles, the leader of the Athenian democracy, sent far and +wide to find famous sculptors and painters and scientists to +make the city more beautiful and the young Athenians more +worthy of their home. At the same time he kept a watchful +eye on Sparta and built high walls which connected Athens +with the sea and made her the strongest fortress of that day. + +An insignificant quarrel between two little Greek cities led +to the final conflict. For thirty years the war between Athens +and Sparta continued. It ended in a terrible disaster for +Athens. + +During the third year of the war the plague had entered +the city. More than half of the people and Pericles, the great +leader, had been killed. The plague was followed by a period +of bad and untrustworthy leadership. A brilliant young fellow +by the name of Alcibiades had gained the favor of the +popular assembly. He suggested a raid upon the Spartan +colony of Syracuse in Sicily. An expedition was equipped and +everything was ready. But Alcibiades got mixed up in a street +brawl and was forced to flee. The general who succeeded him +was a bungler. First he lost his ships and then he lost his +army, and the few surviving Athenians were thrown into the +stone-quarries of Syracuse, where they died from hunger and +thirst. + +The expedition had killed all the young men of Athens. +The city was doomed. After a long siege the town surrendered +in April of the year 404. The high walls were demolished. +The navy was taken away by the Spartans. Athens ceased to +exist as the center of the great colonial empire which it had +conquered during the days of its prosperity. But that wonderful +desire to learn and to know and to investigate which +had distinguished her free citizens during the days of greatness +and prosperity did not perish with the walls and the +ships. It continued to live. It became even more brilliant. + +Athens no longer shaped the destinies of the land of Greece. +But now, as the home of the first great university the city began +to influence the minds of intelligent people far beyond +the narrow frontiers of Hellas. + + + +ALEXANDER THE GREAT + +ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES +A GREEK WORLD-EMPIRE, AND +WHAT BECAME OF THIS HIGH AMBITION + + +WHEN the Achaeans had left their homes along the banks of +the Danube to look for pastures new, they had spent some +time among the mountains of Macedonia. Ever since, the +Greeks had maintained certain more or less formal relations +with the people of this northern country. The Macedonians +from their side had kept themselves well informed about conditions +in Greece. + +Now it happened, just when Sparta and Athens had finished +their disastrous war for the leadership of Hellas, that +Macedonia was ruled by an extraordinarily clever man by +the name of Philip. He admired the Greek spirit in letters and +art but he despised the Greek lack of self-control in political +affairs. It irritated him to see a perfectly good people waste its +men and money upon fruitless quarrels. So he settled the +difficulty by making himself the master of all Greece and then +he asked his new subjects to join him on a voyage which he +meant to pay to Persia in return for the visit which Xerxes +had paid the Greeks one hundred and fifty years before. + +Unfortunately Philip was murdered before he could start +upon this well-prepared expedition. The task of avenging the +destruction of Athens was left to Philip's son Alexander, the +beloved pupil of Aristotle, wisest of all Greek teachers. + +Alexander bade farewell to Europe in the spring of the +year 334 B.C. Seven years later he reached India. In the +meantime he had destroyed Phoenicia, the old rival of the Greek +merchants. He had conquered Egypt and had been worshipped +by the people of the Nile valley as the son and heir of the +Pharaohs. He had defeated the last Persian king--he had +overthrown the Persian empire he had given orders to rebuild +Babylon--he had led his troops into the heart of the +Himalayan mountains and had made the entire world a Macedonian +province and dependency. Then he stopped and announced +even more ambitious plans. + +The newly formed Empire must be brought under the influence +of the Greek mind. The people must be taught the Greek +language--they must live in cities built after a Greek model. +The Alexandrian soldier now turned school-master. The military +camps of yesterday became the peaceful centres of the +newly imported Greek civilisation. Higher and higher did the +flood of Greek manners and Greek customs rise, when suddenly +Alexander was stricken with a fever and died in the old +palace of King Hammurabi of Babylon in the year 323. + +Then the waters receded. But they left behind the fertile clay +of a higher civilisation and Alexander, with all his childish +ambitions and his silly vanities, had performed a most valuable +service. His Empire did not long survive him. A number of +ambitious generals divided the territory among themselves. +But they too remained faithful to the dream of a great world +brotherhood of Greek and Asiatic ideas and knowledge. + +They maintained their independence until the Romans +added western Asia and Egypt to their other domains. The +strange inheritance of this Hellenistic civilisation (part Greek, +part Persian, part Egyptian and Babylonian) fell to the +Roman conquerors. During the following centuries, it got +such a firm hold upon the Roman world, that we feel its influence +in our own lives this very day. + + +A SUMMARY + +A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 to 20 + + +THUS far, from the top of our high tower we have been +looking eastward. But from this time on, the history of Egypt +and Mesopotamia is going to grow less interesting and I must +take you to study the western landscape. + +Before we do this, let us stop a moment and make clear to +ourselves what we have seen. + +First of all I showed you prehistoric man--a creature very +simple in his habits and very unattractive in his manners. I +told you how he was the most defenceless of the many animals +that roamed through the early wilderness of the five continents, +but being possessed of a larger and better brain, he managed to +hold his own. + +Then came the glaciers and the many centuries of cold +weather, and life on this planet became so difficult that man was +obliged to think three times as hard as ever before if he wished +to survive. Since, however, that ``wish to survive'' was (and is) +the mainspring which keeps every living being going full tilt to +the last gasp of its breath, the brain of glacial man was set to +work in all earnestness. Not only did these hardy people manage +to exist through the long cold spells which killed many +ferocious animals, but when the earth became warm and comfortable +once more, prehistoric man had learned a number of +things which gave him such great advantages over his less intelligent +neighbors that the danger of extinction (a very serious +one during the first half million years of man's residence upon +this planet) became a very remote one. + +I told you how these earliest ancestors of ours were slowly +plodding along when suddenly (and for reasons that are not +well understood) the people who lived in the valley of the Nile +rushed ahead and almost over night, created the first centre of +civilisation. + +Then I showed you Mesopotamia, ``the land between the +rivers,'' which was the second great school of the human race. +And I made you a map of the little island bridges of the AEgean +Sea, which carried the knowledge and the science of the old +east to the young west, where lived the Greeks. + +Next I told you of an Indo-European tribe, called the Hellenes, +who thousands of years before had left the heart of +Asia and who had in the eleventh century before our era pushed +their way into the rocky peninsula of Greece and who, since +then, have been known to us as the Greeks. And I told +you the story of the little Greek cities that were really states, +where the civilisation of old Egypt and Asia was transfigured +(that is a big word, but you can ``figure out'' what it means) +into something quite new, something that was much nobler and +finer than anything that had gone before. + +When you look at the map you will see how by this time +civilisation has described a semi-circle. It begins in Egypt, +and by way of Mesopotamia and the AEgean Islands it moves +westward until it reaches the European continent. The first +four thousand years, Egyptians and Babylonians and Phoenicians +and a large number of Semitic tribes (please remember +that the Jews were but one of a large number of Semitic peoples) +have carried the torch that was to illuminate the world. +They now hand it over to the Indo-European Greeks, who become +the teachers of another Indo-European tribe, called the +Romans. But meanwhile the Semites have pushed westward +along the northern coast of Africa and have made themselves +the rulers of the western half of the Mediterranean just when +the eastern half has become a Greek (or Indo-European) possession. + +This, as you shall see in a moment, leads to a terrible conflict +between the two rival races, and out of their struggle arises +the victorious Roman Empire, which is to take this Egyptian- +Mesopotamian-Greek civilisation to the furthermost corners of +the European continent, where it serves as the foundation upon +which our modern society is based. + +I know all this sounds very complicated, but if you get hold +of these few principles, the rest of our history will become a +great deal simpler. The maps will make clear what the words +fail to tell. And after this short intermission, we go back to +our story and give you an account of the famous war between +Carthage and Rome. + + + +ROME AND CARTHAGE + +THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE +NORTHERN COAST OF AFRICA AND THE +INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE +WEST COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH +OTHER FOR THE POSSESSION OF THE +WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE +WAS DESTROYED + + +THE little Phoenician trading post of Kart-hadshat stood +on a low hill which overlooked the African Sea, a stretch of +water ninety miles wide which separates Africa from Europe. +It was an ideal spot for a commercial centre. Almost too ideal. +It grew too fast and became too rich. When in the sixth century +before our era, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed +Tyre, Carthage broke off all further relations with the Mother +Country and became an independent state--the great western +advance-post of the Semitic races. + +Unfortunately the city had inherited many of the traits +which for a thousand years had been characteristic of the +Phoenicians. It was a vast business-house, protected by a +strong navy, indifferent to most of the finer aspects of life. +The city and the surrounding country and the distant colonies +were all ruled by a small but exceedingly powerful group of +rich men, The Greek word for rich is ``ploutos'' and the Greeks +called such a government by ``rich men'' a ``Plutocracy.'' Carthage +was a plutocracy and the real power of the state lay in +the hands of a dozen big ship-owners and mine-owners and +merchants who met in the back room of an office and regarded +their common Fatherland as a business enterprise which ought +to yield them a decent profit. They were however wide awake +and full of energy and worked very hard. + +As the years went by the influence of Carthage upon her +neighbours increased until the greater part of the African +coast, Spain and certain regions of France were Carthaginian +possessions, and paid tribute, taxes and dividends to the mighty +city on the African Sea. + +Of course, such a ``plutocracy'' was forever at the mercy of +the crowd. As long as there was plenty of work and wages +were high, the majority of the citizens were quite contented, +allowed their ``betters'' to rule them and asked no embarrassing +questions. But when no ships left the harbor, when no ore +was brought to the smelting-ovens, when dockworkers and +stevedores were thrown out of employment, then there were +grumblings and there was a demand that the popular assembly +be called together as in the olden days when Carthage had +been a self-governing republic. + +To prevent such an occurrence the plutocracy was obliged +to keep the business of the town going at full speed. They +had managed to do this very successfully for almost five hun- +dred years when they were greatly disturbed by certain rumors +which reached them from the western coast of Italy. It was +said that a little village on the banks of the Tiber had suddenly +risen to great power and was making itself the acknowledged +leader of all the Latin tribes who inhabited central Italy. +It was also said that this village, which by the way was called +Rome, intended to build ships and go after the commerce of +Sicily and the southern coast of France. + +Carthage could not possibly tolerate such competition. The +young rival must be destroyed lest the Carthaginian rulers +lose their prestige as the absolute rulers of the western +Mediterranean. The rumors were duly investigated and in a +general way these were the facts that came to light. + +The west coast of Italy had long been neglected by civilisation. +Whereas in Greece all the good harbours faced eastward +and enjoyed a full view of the busy islands of the AEgean, +the west coast of Italy contemplated nothing more exciting +than the desolate waves of the Mediterranean. The country +was poor. It was therefore rarely visited by foreign merchants +and the natives were allowed to live in undisturbed possession +of their hills and their marshy plains. + +The first serious invasion of this land came from the north. +At an unknown date certain Indo-European tribes had managed +to find their way through the passes of the Alps and had +pushed southward until they had filled the heel and the toe of +the famous Italian boot with their villages and their flocks. +Of these early conquerors we know nothing. No Homer sang +their glory. Their own accounts of the foundation of Rome +(written eight hundred years later when the little city had become +the centre of an Empire) are fairy stories and do not belong +in a history. Romulus and Remus jumping across each +other's walls (I always forget who jumped across whose wall) +make entertaining reading, but the foundation of the City of +Rome was a much more prosaic affair. Rome began as a thousand +American cities have done, by being a convenient place +for barter and horse-trading. It lay in the heart of the plains +of central Italy The Tiber provided direct access to the sea. +The land-road from north to south found here a convenient +ford which could be used all the year around. And seven little +hills along the banks of the river offered the inhabitants a safe +shelter against their enemies who lived in the mountains and +those who lived beyond the horizon of the nearby sea. + +The mountaineers were called the Sabines. They were a +rough crowd with an unholy desire for easy plunder. But they +were very backward. They used stone axes and wooden +shields and were no match for the Romans with their steel +swords. The sea-people on the other hand were dangerous +foes. They were called the Etruscans and they were (and +still are) one of the great mysteries of history. Nobody knew +(or knows) whence they came; who they were; what had driven +them away from their original homes. We have found the remains +of their cities and their cemeteries and their waterworks +all along the Italian coast. We are familiar with their inscriptions. +But as no one has ever been able to decipher the Etruscan +alphabet, these written messages are, so far, merely annoying +and not at all useful. + +Our best guess is that the Etruscans came originally from +Asia Minor and that a great war or a pestilence in that country +had forced them to go away and seek a new home elsewhere. +Whatever the reason for their coming, the Etruscans played a +great role in history. They carried the pollen of the ancient +civilisation from the east to the west and they taught the +Romans who, as we know, came from the north, the first principles +of architecture and street-building and fighting and art +and cookery and medicine and astronomy. + +But just as the Greeks had not loved their AEgean teachers, +in this same way did the Romans hate their Etruscan masters. +They got rid of them as soon as they could and the opportunity +offered itself when Greek merchants discovered the +commercial possibilities of Italy and when the first Greek +vessels reached Rome. The Greeks came to trade, but they +stayed to instruct. They found the tribes who inhabited the +Roman country-side (and who were called the Latins) quite +willing to learn such things as might be of practical use. At +once they understood the great benefit that could be derived +from a written alphabet and they copied that of the Greeks. +They also understood the commercial advantages of a well- +regulated system of coins and measures and weights. Eventually +the Romans swallowed Greek civilisation hook, line and +sinker. + +They even welcomed the Gods of the Greeks to their +country. Zeus was taken to Rome where he became known as +Jupiter and the other divinities followed him. The Roman Gods +however never were quite like their cheerful cousins who had +accompanied the Greeks on their road through life and through +history. The Roman Gods were State Functionaries. Each +one managed his own department with great prudence and a +deep sense of justice, but in turn he was exact in demanding the +obedience of his worshippers. This obedience the Romans rendered +with scrupulous care. But they never established the +cordial personal relations and that charming friendship which +had existed between the old Hellenes and the mighty residents +of the high Olympian peak. + +The Romans did not imitate the Greek form of government, +but being of the same Indo-European stock as the people +of Hellas, the early history of Rome resembles that of +Athens and the other Greek cities. They did not find it difficult +to get rid of their kings, the descendants of the ancient +tribal chieftains. But once the kings had been driven from +the city, the Romans were forced to bridle the power of the +nobles, and it took many centuries before they managed to +establish a system which gave every free citizen of Rome a +chance to take a personal interest in the affairs of his town. + +Thereafter the Romans enjoyed one great advantage over +the Greeks. They managed the affairs of their country without +making too many speeches. They were less imaginative +than the Greeks and they preferred an ounce of action to a +pound of words. They understood the tendency of the multi- +tude (the ``plebe,'' as the assemblage of free citizens was called) +only too well to waste valuable time upon mere talk. They +therefore placed the actual business of running the city into +the hands of two ``consuls'' who were assisted by a council of +Elders, called the Senate (because the word ``senex'' means an +old man). As a matter of custom and practical advantage the +senators were elected from the nobility. But their power had +been strictly defined. + +Rome at one time had passed through the same sort of +struggle between the poor and the rich which had forced +Athens to adopt the laws of Draco and Solon. In Rome this +conflict had occurred in the fifth century B. C. As a result the +freemen had obtained a written code of laws which protected +them against the despotism of the aristocratic judges by the +institution of the ``Tribune.'' These Tribunes were city- +magistrates, elected by the freemen. They had the right to protect +any citizen against those actions of the government officials +which were thought to be unjust. A consul had the right to +condemn a man to death, but if the case had not been absolutely +proved the Tribune could interfere and save the poor +fellow's life. + +But when I use the word Rome, I seem to refer to a little +city of a few thousand inhabitants. And the real strength of +Rome lay in the country districts outside her walls. And it +was in the government of these outlying provinces that Rome +at an early age showed her wonderful gift as a colonising +power. + +In very early times Rome had been the only strongly fortified +city in central Italy, but it had always offered a hospitable +refuge to other Latin tribes who happened to be in danger of +attack. The Latin neighbours had recognised the advantages +of a close union with such a powerful friend and they had tried +to find a basis for some sort of defensive and offensive alliance. +Other nations, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, +even Greeks, would have insisted upon a treaty of submission +on the part of the ``barbarians,'' The Romans did nothing of +the sort. They gave the ``outsider'' a chance to become partners +in a common ``res publica''--or common-wealth. + +``You want to join us,'' they said. ``Very well, go ahead +and join. We shall treat you as if you were full-fledged citizens +of Rome. In return for this privilege we expect you to +fight for our city, the mother of us all, whenever it shall be +necessary.'' + +The ``outsider'' appreciated this generosity and he showed +his gratitude by his unswerving loyalty. + +Whenever a Greek city had been attacked, the foreign +residents had moved out as quickly as they could. Why defend +something which meant nothing to them but a temporary +boarding house in which they were tolerated as long as they +paid their bills? But when the enemy was before the gates +of Rome, all the Latins rushed to her defence. It was their +Mother who was in danger. It was their true ``home'' even if +they lived a hundred miles away and had never seen the walls +of the sacred Hills. + +No defeat and no disaster could change this sentiment. In +the beginning of the fourth century B.C. the wild Gauls forced +their way into Italy. They had defeated the Roman army near +the River Allia and had marched upon the city. They had +taken Rome and then they expected that the people would +come and sue for peace. They waited, but nothing happened. +After a short time the Gauls found themselves surrounded by +a hostile population which made it impossible for them to obtain +supplies. After seven months, hunger forced them to withdraw. +The policy of Rome to treat the ``foreigner'' on equal +terms had proved a great success and Rome stood stronger than +ever before. + +This short account of the early history of Rome shows you +the enormous difference between the Roman ideal of a healthy +state, and that of the ancient world which was embodied in the +town of Carthage. The Romans counted upon the cheerful +and hearty co-operation between a number of ``equal citizens.'' +The Carthaginians, following the example of Egypt +and western Asia, insisted upon the unreasoning (and therefore +unwilling) obedience of ``Subjects'' and when these failed +they hired professional soldiers to do their fighting for them. + +You will now understand why Carthage was bound to fear +such a clever and powerful enemy and why the plutocracy of +Carthage was only too willing to pick a quarrel that they might +destroy the dangerous rival before it was too late. + +But the Carthaginians, being good business men, knew that +it never pays to rush matters. They proposed to the Romans +that their respective cities draw two circles on the map and +that each town claim one of these circles as her own ``sphere +of influence'' and promise to keep out of the other fellow's +circle. The agreement was promptly made and was broken just +as promptly when both sides thought it wise to send their +armies to Sicily where a rich soil and a bad government invited +foreign interference. + +The war which followed (the so-called first Punic War) +lasted twenty-four years. It was fought out on the high seas +and in the beginning it seemed that the experienced Car- +thaginian navy would defeat the newly created Roman fleet. +Following their ancient tactics, the Carthaginian ships would +either ram the enemy vessels or by a bold attack from the side +they would break their oars and would then kill the sailors of +the helpless vessel with their arrows and with fire balls. But +Roman engineers invented a new craft which carried a boarding +bridge across which the Roman infantrymen stormed the +hostile ship. Then there was a sudden end to Carthaginian +victories. At the battle of Mylae their fleet was badly defeated. +Carthage was obliged to sue for peace, and Sicily became part +of the Roman domains. + +Twenty-three years later new trouble arose. Rome (in +quest of copper) had taken the island of Sardinia. Carthage +(in quest of silver) thereupon occupied all of southern Spain. +This made Carthage a direct neighbour of the Romans. The +latter did not like this at all and they ordered their troops to +cross the Pyrenees and watch the Carthaginian army of occupation. + +The stage was set for the second outbreak between the two +rivals. Once more a Greek colony was the pretext for a war. +The Carthaginians were besieging Saguntum on the east coast +of Spain. The Saguntians appealed to Rome and Rome, as +usual, was willing to help. The Senate promised the help of +the Latin armies, but the preparation for this expedition took +some time, and meanwhile Saguntum had been taken and had +been destroyed. This had been done in direct opposition to +the will of Rome. The Senate decided upon war. One Roman +army was to cross the African sea and make a landing on Carthaginian +soil. A second division was to keep the Carthaginian +armies occupied in Spain to prevent them from rushing to the +aid of the home town. It was an excellent plan and everybody +expected a great victory. But the Gods had decided +otherwise. + +It was the fall of the year 218 before the birth of Christ +and the Roman army which was to attack the Carthaginians in +Spain had left Italy. People were eagerly waiting for news of +an easy and complete victory when a terrible rumour began to +spread through the plain of the Po. Wild mountaineers, their +lips trembling with fear, told of hundreds of thousands of +brown men accompanied by strange beasts ``each one as big as +a house,'' who had suddenly emerged from the clouds of snow +which surrounded the old Graian pass through which Hercules, +thousands of years before, had driven the oxen of Geryon on +his way from Spain to Greece. Soon an endless stream of +bedraggled refugees appeared before the gates of Rome, with +more complete details. Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, with +fifty thousand soldiers, nine thousand horsemen and thirty- +seven fighting elephants, had crossed the Pyrenees. He had +defeated the Roman army of Scipio on the banks of the Rhone +and he had guided his army safely across the mountain passes +of the Alps although it was October and the roads were thickly +covered with snow and ice. Then he had joined forces with +the Gauls and together they had defeated a second Roman +army just before they crossed the Trebia and laid siege to +Placentia, the northern terminus of the road which connected +Rome with the province of the Alpine districts. + +The Senate, surprised but calm and energetic as usual, +hushed up the news of these many defeats and sent two fresh +armies to stop the invader. Hannibal managed to surprise +these troops on a narrow road along the shores of the Trasimene +Lake and there he killed all the Roman officers and most +of their men. This time there was a panic among the people +of Rome, but the Senate kept its nerve. A third army was +organised and the command was given to Quintus Fabius Maximus +with full power to act ``as was necessary to save the state.'' + +Fabius knew that he must be very careful lest all be lost. +His raw and untrained men, the last available soldiers, were +no match for Hannibal's veterans. He refused to accept battle +but forever he followed Hannibal, destroyed everything eatable, +destroyed the roads, attacked small detachments and generally +weakened the morale of the Carthaginian troops by a +most distressing and annoying form of guerilla warfare. + +Such methods however did not satisfy the fearsome crowds +who had found safety behind the walls of Rome. They wanted +``action.'' Something must be done and must be done quickly. +A popular hero by the name of Varro, the sort of man who +went about the city telling everybody how much better he could +do things than slow old Fabius, the ``Delayer,'' was made +commander-in-chief by popular acclamation. At the battle of +Cannae (216) he suffered the most terrible defeat of Roman +history. More than seventy thousand men were killed. Hannibal +was master of all Italy. + +He marched from one end of the peninsula to the other, +proclaiming himself the ``deliverer from the yoke of Rome'' +and asking the different provinces to join him in warfare upon +the mother city. Then once more the wisdom of Rome bore +noble fruit. With the exceptions of Capua and Syracuse, all +Roman cities remained loyal. Hannibal, the deliverer, +found himself opposed by the people whose friend he pretended +to be. He was far away from home and did not like +the situation. He sent messengers to Carthage to ask for fresh +supplies and new men. Alas, Carthage could not send him +either. + +The Romans with their boarding-bridges, were the masters +of the sea. Hannibal must help himself as best he could. +He continued to defeat the Roman armies that were sent out +against him, but his own numbers were decreasing rapidly and +the Italian peasants held aloof from this self-appointed +``deliverer.'' + +After many years of uninterrupted victories, Hannibal +found himself besieged in the country which he had just +conquered. For a moment, the luck seemed to turn. Hasdrubal, +his brother, had defeated the Roman armies in Spain. He had +crossed the Alps to come to Hannibal's assistance. He sent +messengers to the south to tell of his arrival and ask the other +army to meet him in the plain of the Tiber. Unfortunately the +messengers fell into the hands of the Romans and Hannibal +waited in vain for further news until his brother's head, neatly +packed in a basket, came rolling into his camp and told him +of the fate of the last of the Carthaginian troops. + +With Hasdrubal out of the way, young Publius Scipio +easily reconquered Spain and four years later the Romans +were ready for a final attack upon Carthage. Hannibal was +called back. He crossed the African Sea and tried to organise +the defences of his home-city. In the year 202 at the battle +of Zama, the Carthaginians were defeated. Hannibal fled to +Tyre. From there he went to Asia Minor to stir up the Syrians +and the Macedonians against Rome. He accomplished very +little but his activities among these Asiatic powers gave the +Romans an excuse to carry their warfare into the territory of +the east and annex the greater part of the AEgean world. + +Driven from one city to another, a fugitive without a home, +Hannibal at last knew that the end of his ambitious dream had +come. His beloved city of Carthage had been ruined by the +war. She had been forced to sign a terrible peace. Her navy +had been sunk. She had been forbidden to make war without +Roman permission. She had been condemned to pay the Romans +millions of dollars for endless years to come. Life offered +no hope of a better future. In the year 190 B.C. Hannibal took +poison and killed himself. + +Forty years later, the Romans forced their last war upon +Carthage. Three long years the inhabitants of the old Phoenician +colony held out against the power of the new republic. +Hunger forced them to surrender. The few men and women +who had survived the siege were sold as slaves. The city was +set on fire. For two whole weeks the store-houses and the pal- +aces and the great arsenal burned. Then a terrible curse was +pronounced upon the blackened ruins and the Roman legions +returned to Italy to enjoy their victory. + +For the next thousand years, the Mediterranean remained +a European sea. But as soon as the Roman Empire had been +destroyed, Asia made another attempt to dominate this great +inland sea, as you will learn when I tell you about Mohammed. + + + +THE RISE OF ROME + +HOW ROME HAPPENED + + +THE Roman Empire was an accident. No one planned it. +It ``happened.'' No famous general or statesman or cut- +throat ever got up and said ``Friends, Romans, Citizens, we +must found an Empire. Follow me and together we shall conquer +all the land from the Gates of Hercules to Mount Taurus.'' + +Rome produced famous generals and equally distinguished +statesmen and cut-throats, and Roman armies fought all over +the world. But the Roman empire-making was done without +a preconceived plan. The average Roman was a very matter- +of-fact citizen. He disliked theories about government. When +someone began to recite ``eastward the course of Roman Empire, +etc., etc.,'' he hastily left the forum. He just continued +to take more and more land because circumstances forced him +to do so. He was not driven by ambition or by greed. Both +by nature and inclination he was a farmer and wanted to stay +at home. But when he was attacked he was obliged to defend +himself and when the enemy happened to cross the sea to ask +for aid in a distant country then the patient Roman marched +many dreary miles to defeat this dangerous foe and when this +had been accomplished, he stayed behind to adminster{sic} his +newly conquered provinces lest they fall into the hands of +wandering Barbarians and become themselves a menace to +Roman safety. It sounds rather complicated and yet to the +contemporaries it was so very simple, as you shall see in a moment. + +In the year 203 B.C. Scipio had crossed the African Sea +and had carried the war into Africa. Carthage had called Hannibal +back. Badly supported by his mercenaries, Hannibal +had been defeated near Zama. The Romans had asked for his +surrender and Hannibal had fled to get aid from the kings of +Macedonia and Syria, as I told you in my last chapter. + +The rulers of these two countries (remnants of the Empire +of Alexander the Great) just then were contemplating an +expedition against Egypt. They hoped to divide the rich Nile +valley between themselves. The king of Egypt had heard of +this and he had asked Rome to come to his support. The stage +was set for a number of highly interesting plots and counter- +plots. But the Romans, with their lack of imagination, rang +the curtain down before the play had been fairly started. +Their legions completely defeated the heavy Greek phalanx +which was still used by the Macedonians as their battle formation. +That happened in the year 197 B.C. at the battle in the +plains of Cynoscephalae, or ``Dogs' Heads,'' in central Thessaly. + +The Romans then marched southward to Attica and informed +the Greeks that they had come to ``deliver the Hellenes +from the Macedonian yoke.'' The Greeks, having learned +nothing in their years of semi-slavery, used their new freedom +in a most unfortunate way. All the little city-states once more +began to quarrel with each other as they had done in the good +old days. The Romans, who had little understanding and less +love for these silly bickerings of a race which they rather despised, +showed great forebearance. But tiring of these endless +dissensions they lost patience, invaded Greece, burned down +Corinth (to ``encourage the other Greeks'') and sent a Roman +governor to Athens to rule this turbulent province. In this +way, Macedonia and Greece became buffer states which protected +Rome's eastern frontier. + +Meanwhile right across the Hellespont lay the Kingdom of +Syria, and Antiochus III, who ruled that vast land, had shown +great eagerness when his distinguished guest, General Han- +nibal, explained to him how easy it would be to invade Italy +and sack the city of Rome. + +Lucius Scipio, a brother of Scipio the African fighter who +had defeated Hannibal and his Carthaginians at Zama, was +sent to Asia Minor. He destroyed the armies of the Syrian +king near Magnesia (in the year 190 B.C.) Shortly afterwards, +Antiochus was lynched by his own people. Asia Minor +became a Roman protectorate and the small City-Republic of +Rome was mistress of most of the lands which bordered upon +the Mediterranean. + + + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME AFTER CENTURIES +OF UNREST AND REVOLUTION BECAME +AN EMPIRE + + +WHEN the Roman armies returned from these many victorious +campaigns, they were received with great jubilation. +Alas and alack! this sudden glory did not make the country any +happier. On the contrary. The endless campaigns had ruined +the farmers who had been obliged to do the hard work of Empire +making. It had placed too much power in the hands of the +successful generals (and their private friends) who had used +the war as an excuse for wholesale robbery. + +The old Roman Republic had been proud of the simplicity +which had characterised the lives of her famous men. The +new Republic felt ashamed of the shabby coats and the high +principles which had been fashionable in the days of its grandfathers. +It became a land of rich people ruled by rich people +for the benefit of rich people. As such it was doomed to +disastrous failure, as I shall now tell you. + +Within less than a century and a half. Rome had become +the mistress of practically all the land around the Mediterranean. +In those early days of history a prisoner of war lost +his freedom and became a slave. The Roman regarded war as +a very serious business and he showed no mercy to a conquered +foe. After the fall of Carthage, the Carthaginian women and +children were sold into bondage together with their own slaves. +And a like fate awaited the obstinate inhabitants of Greece and +Macedonia and Spain and Syria when they dared to revolt +against the Roman power. + +Two thousand years ago a slave was merely a piece of +machinery. Nowadays a rich man invests his money in factories. +The rich people of Rome (senators, generals and war- +profiteers) invested theirs in land and in slaves. The land +they bought or took in the newly-acquired provinces. The +slaves they bought in open market wherever they happened to +be cheapest. During most of the third and second centuries +before Christ there was a plentiful supply, and as a result the +landowners worked their slaves until they dropped dead in their +tracks, when they bought new ones at the nearest bargain-counter +of Corinthian or Carthaginian captives. + +And now behold the fate of the freeborn farmer! + +He had done his duty toward Rome and he had fought her +battles without complaint. But when he came home after ten, +fifteen or twenty years, his lands were covered with weeds and +his family had been ruined. But he was a strong man and +willing to begin life anew. He sowed and planted and waited +for the harvest. He carried his grain to the market together +with his cattle and his poultry, to find that the large landowners +who worked their estates with slaves could underbid him all +along the line. For a couple of years he tried to hold his own. +Then he gave up in despair. He left the country and he went +to the nearest city. In the city he was as hungry as he had been +before on the land. But he shared his misery with thousands +of other disinherited beings. They crouched together in filthy +hovels in the suburbs of the large cities. They were apt +to get sick and die from terrible epidemics. They were all +profoundly discontented. They had fought for their country and +this was their reward. They were always willing to listen to +those plausible spell-binders who gather around a public +grievance like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a +grave menace to the safety of the state. + +But the class of the newly-rich shrugged its shoulders. +``We have our army and our policemen,'' they argued, ``they +will keep the mob in order.'' And they hid themselves behind +the high walls of their pleasant villas and cultivated their +gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which a Greek +slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters. + +In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish +service to the Commonwealth continued. Cornelia, the daughter +of Scipio Africanus, had been married to a Roman by the +name of Gracchus. She had two sons, Tiberius and Gaius. +When the boys grew up they entered politics and tried to bring +about certain much-needed reforms. A census had shown +that most of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by +two thousand noble families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been +elected a Tribune, tried to help the freemen. He revived two +ancient laws which restricted the number of acres which a single +owner might possess. In this way he hoped to revive the +valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. The +newly-rich called him a robber and an enemy of the state. +There were street riots. A party of thugs was hired to kill the +popular Tribune. Tiberius Gracchus was attacked when he +entered the assembly and was beaten to death. Ten years later +his brother Gaius tried the experiment of reforming a nation +against the expressed wishes of a strong privileged class. He +passed a ``poor law'' which was meant to help the destitute +farmers. Eventually it made the greater part of the Roman +citizens into professional beggars. + +He established colonies of destitute people in distant parts +of the empire, but these settlements failed to attract the right +sort of people. Before Gaius Gracchus could do more harm he +too was murdered and his followers were either killed or exiled. +The first two reformers had been gentlemen. The two who +came after were of a very different stamp. They were +professional soldiers. One was called Marius. The name of the +other was Sulla. Both enjoyed a large personal following. + +Sulla was the leader of the landowners. Marius, the victor +in a great battle at the foot of the Alps when the Teutons +and the Cimbri had been annihilated, was the popular hero +of the disinherited freemen. + +Now it happened in the year 88 B.C. that the Senate of +Rome was greatly disturbed by rumours that came from Asia. +Mithridates, king of a country along the shores of the Black +Sea, and a Greek on his mother's side, had seen the possibility +of establishing a second Alexandrian Empire. He began his +campaign for world-domination with the murder of all Roman +citizens who happened to be in Asia Minor, men, women and +children. Such an act, of course, meant war. The Senate +equipped an army to march against the King of Pontus and +punish him for his crime. But who was to be commander-in- +chief? ``Sulla,'' said the Senate, ``because he is Consul.'' +``Marius,'' said the mob, ``because he has been Consul five times +and because he is the champion of our rights.'' + +Possession is nine points of the law. Sulla happened to be +in actual command of the army. He went west to defeat +Mithridates and Marius fled to Africa. There he waited +until he heard that Sulla had crossed into Asia. He then +returned to Italy, gathered a motley crew of malcontents, +marched on Rome and entered the city with his professional +highwaymen, spent five days and five nights, slaughtering the +enemies of the Senatorial party, got himself elected Consul and +promptly died from the excitement of the last fortnight. + +There followed four years of disorder. Then Sulla, having +defeated Mithridates, announced that he was ready to return +to Rome and settle a few old scores of his own. He was as +good as his word. For weeks his soldiers were busy executing +those of their fellow citizens who were suspected of democratic +sympathies. One day they got hold of a young fellow who +had been often seen in the company of Marius. They were +going to hang him when some one interfered. ``The boy is too +young,'' he said, and they let him go. His name was Julius +Caesar. You shall meet him again on the next page. + +As for Sulla, he became ``Dictator,'' which meant sole and +supreme ruler of all the Roman possessions. He ruled Rome +for four years, and he died quietly in his bed, having spent the +last year of his life tenderly raising his cabbages, as was the +custom of so many Romans who had spent a lifetime killing +their fellow-men. + +But conditions did not grow better. On the contrary, they +grew worse. Another general, Gnaeus Pompeius, or Pompey, +a close friend of Sulla, went east to renew the war against the +ever troublesome Mithridates. He drove that energetic potentate +into the mountains where Mithridates took poison and +killed himself, well knowing what fate awaited him as a Roman +captive. Next he re-established the authority of Rome over +Syria, destroyed Jerusalem, roamed through western Asia, +trying to revive the myth of Alexander the Great, and at last +(in the year 62) returned to Rome with a dozen ship-loads of +defeated Kings and Princes and Generals, all of whom were +forced to march in the triumphal procession of this enormously +popular Roman who presented his city with the sum of forty +million dollars in plunder. + +It was necessary that the government of Rome be placed +in the hands of a strong man. Only a few months before, the +town had almost fallen into the hands of a good-for-nothing +young aristocrat by the name of Catiline, who had gambled +away his money and hoped to reimburse himself for his losses by +a little plundering. Cicero, a public-spirited lawyer, had discovered +the plot, had warned the Senate, and had forced Catiline +to flee. But there were other young men with similar ambitions +and it was no time for idle talk. + +Pompey organised a triumvirate which was to take charge +of affairs. He became the leader of this Vigilante Committee. +Gaius Julius Caesar, who had made a reputation for himself +as governor of Spain, was the second in command. The +third was an indifferent sort of person by the name of Crassus. +He had been elected because he was incredibly rich, having been +a successful contractor of war supplies. He soon went upon +an expedition against the Parthians and was killed. + +As for Caesar, who was by far the ablest of the three, he +decided that he needed a little more military glory to become +a popular hero. He crossed the Alps and conquered that part +of the world which is now called France. Then he hammered +a solid wooden bridge across the Rhine and invaded the land +of the wild Teutons. Finally he took ship and visited England. +Heaven knows where he might have ended if he had not been +forced to return to Italy. Pompey, so he was informed, had +been appointed dictator for life. This of course meant that +Caesar was to be placed on the list of the ``retired officers,'' and +the idea did not appeal to him. He remembered that he had +begun life as a follower of Marius. He decided to teach the +Senators and their ``dictator'' another lesson. He crossed the +Rubicon River which separated the province of Cis-alpine Gaul +from Italy. Everywhere he was received as the ``friend of the +people.'' Without difficulty Caesar entered Rome and Pompey +fled to Greece Caesar followed him and defeated his followers +near Pharsalus. Pompey sailed across the Mediterranean and +escaped to Egypt. When he landed he was murdered by order +of young king Ptolemy. A few days later Caesar arrived. +He found himself caught in a trap. Both the Egyptians and +the Roman garrison which had remained faithful to Pompey, +attacked his camp. + +Fortune was with Caesar. He succeeded in setting fire to +the Egyptian fleet. Incidentally the sparks of the burning +vessels fell on the roof of the famous library of Alexandria +(which was just off the water front,) and destroyed it. Next +he attacked the Egyptian army, drove the soldiers into the +Nile, drowned Ptolemy, and established a new government +under Cleopatra, the sister of the late king. Just then word +reached him that Pharnaces, the son and heir of Mithridates, +had gone on the war-path. Caesar marched northward, defeated +Pharnaces in a war which lasted five days, sent word of +his victory to Rome in the famous sentence ``veni, vidi, vici,'' +which is Latin for ``I came, I saw, I conquered,'' and returned +to Egypt where he fell desperately in love with Cleopatra, who +followed him to Rome when he returned to take charge of the +government, in the year 46. He marched at the head of not +less than four different victory-parades, having won four +different campaigns. + +Then Caesar appeared in the Senate to report upon his +adventures, and the grateful Senate made him ``dictator'' for +ten years. It was a fatal step. + +The new dictator made serious attempts to reform the +Roman state. He made it possible for freemen to become +members of the Senate. He conferred the rights of citizenship +upon distant communities as had been done in the early days +of Roman history. He permitted ``foreigners'' to exercise +influence upon the government. He reformed the administration +of the distant provinces which certain aristocratic families +had come to regard as their private possessions. In short he +did many things for the good of the majority of the people but +which made him thoroughly unpopular with the most powerful +men in the state. Half a hundred young aristocrats formed a +plot ``to save the Republic.'' On the Ides of March (the fifteenth +of March according to that new calendar which Caesar +had brought with him from Egypt) Caesar was murdered when +he entered the Senate. Once more Rome was without a master. + +There were two men who tried to continue the tradition of +Caesar's glory. One was Antony, his former secretary. The +other was Octavian, Caesar's grand-nephew and heir to his +estate. Octavian remained in Rome, but Antony went to Egypt +to be near Cleopatra with whom he too had fallen in love, as +seems to have been the habit of Roman generals. + +A war broke out between the two. In the battle of Actium, +Octavian defeated Antony. Antony killed himself and +Cleopatra was left alone to face the enemy. She tried very +hard to make Octavian her third Roman conquest. When she +saw that she could make no impression upon this very proud +aristocrat, she killed herself, and Egypt became a Roman province. + +As for Octavian, he was a very wise young man and he did +not repeat the mistake of his famous uncle. He knew how +people will shy at words. He was very modest in his demands +when he returned to Rome. He did not want to be a ``dictator.'' +He would be entirely satisfied with the title of ``the Honourable.'' +But when the Senate, a few years later, addressed +him as Augustus--the Illustrious--he did not object and a few +years later the man in the street called him Caesar, or Kaiser, +while the soldiers, accustomed to regard Octavian as their +Commander-in-chief referred to him as the Chief, the Imperator or +Emperor. The Republic had become an Empire, but the average +Roman was hardly aware of the fact. + +In 14 A.D. his position as the Absolute Ruler of the +Roman people had become so well established that he was made +an object of that divine worship which hitherto had been reserved +for the Gods. And his successors were true ``Emperors''--the +absolute rulers of the greatest empire the world had +ever seen. + +If the truth be told, the average citizen was sick and tired +of anarchy and disorder. He did not care who ruled him provided +the new master gave him a chance to live quietly and +without the noise of eternal street riots. Octavian assured his +subjects forty years of peace. He had no desire to extend the +frontiers of his domains, In the year 9 A.D. he had contem- +plated an invasion of the northwestern wilderness which was +inhabited by the Teutons. But Varrus, his general, had been +killed with all his men in the Teutoburg Woods, and after that +the Romans made no further attempts to civilise these wild +people. + +They concentrated their efforts upon the gigantic problem +of internal reform. But it was too late to do much good. Two +centuries of revolution and foreign war had repeatedly killed +the best men among the younger generations. It had ruined +the class of the free farmers. It had introduced slave labor, +against which no freeman could hope to compete. It had +turned the cities into beehives inhabited by pauperized and +unhealthy mobs of runaway peasants. It had created a large +bureaucracy--petty officials who were underpaid and who were +forced to take graft in order to buy bread and clothing for +their families. Worst of all, it had accustomed people to violence, +to blood-shed, to a barbarous pleasure in the pain and +suffering of others. + +Outwardly, the Roman state during the first century of our +era was a magnificent political structure, so large that Alexander's +empire became one of its minor provinces. Underneath +this glory there lived millions upon millions of poor and tired +human beings, toiling like ants who have built a nest underneath +a heavy stone. They worked for the benefit of some one +else. They shared their food with the animals of the fields. +They lived in stables. They died without hope. + +It was the seven hundred and fifty-third year since the +founding of Rome. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus +was living in the palace of the Palatine Hill, busily engaged +upon the task of ruling his empire. + +In a little village of distant Syria, Mary, the wife of Joseph +the Carpenter, was tending her little boy, born in a stable of +Bethlehem. + +This is a strange world. + +Before long, the palace and the stable were to meet in open +combat. + +And the stable was to emerge victorious. + + + +JOSHUA OF NAZARETH + +THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM +THE GREEKS CALLED JESUS + + +IN the autumn of the year of the city 783 (which would be +62 A.D., in our way of counting time) AEsculapius Cultellus, a +Roman physician, wrote to his nephew who was with the army +in Syria as follows: + + +My dear Nephew, + +A few days ago I was called in to prescribe for a sick man +named Paul. He appeared to be a Roman citizen of Jewish +parentage, well educated and of agreeable manners. I had +been told that he was here in connection with a law-suit, an appeal +from one of our provincial courts, Caesarea or some such +place in the eastern Mediterranean. He had been described to +me as a ``wild and violent'' fellow who had been making +speeches against the People and against the Law. I found him +very intelligent and of great honesty. + +A friend of mine who used to be with the army in Asia +Minor tells me that he heard something about him in Ephesus +where he was preaching sermons about a strange new God. I +asked my patient if this were true and whether he had told the +people to rebel against the will of our beloved Emperor. Paul +answered me that the Kingdom of which he had spoken was +not of this world and he added many strange utterances which +I did not understand, but which were probably due to his +fever. + +His personality made a great impression upon me and I +was sorry to hear that he was killed on the Ostian Road a few +days ago. Therefore I am writing this letter to you. When +next you visit Jerusalem, I want you to find out something +about my friend Paul and the strange Jewish prophet, who +seems to have been his teacher. Our slaves are getting much +excited about this so-called Messiah, and a few of them, who +openly talked of the new kingdom (whatever that means) have +been crucified. I would like to know the truth about all these +rumours and I am + Your devoted Uncle, + AESCULAPIUS CULTELLUS. + + +Six weeks later, Gladius Ensa, the nephew, a captain of the +VII Gallic Infantry, answered as follows: + + +My dear Uncle, + +I received your letter and I have obeyed your instructions. + +Two weeks ago our brigade was sent to Jerusalem. There +have been several revolutions during the last century and there +is not much left of the old city. We have been here now for a +month and to-morrow we shall continue our march to Petra, +where there has been trouble with some of the Arab tribes. I +shall use this evening to answer your questions, but pray do +not expect a detailed report. + +I have talked with most of the older men in this city but +few have been able to give me any definite information. A +few days ago a pedler came to the camp. I bought some of +his olives and I asked him whether he had ever heard of the +famous Messiah who was killed when he was young. He said +that he remembered it very clearly, because his father had +taken him to Golgotha (a hill just outside the city) to see +the execution, and to show him what became of the enemies of +the laws of the people of Judaea. He gave me the address of +one Joseph, who had been a personal friend of the Messiah +and told me that I had better go and see him if I wanted to +know more. + +This morning I went to call on Joseph. He was quite an +old man. He had been a fisherman on one of the fresh-water +lakes. His memory was clear, and from him at last I got a +fairly definite account of what had happened during the +troublesome days before I was born. + +Tiberius, our great and glorious emperor, was on the throne, +and an officer of the name of Pontius Pilatus was governor of +Judaea and Samaria. Joseph knew little about this Pilatus. +He seemed to have been an honest enough official who left a +decent reputation as procurator of the province. In the year +755 or 756 (Joseph had forgotten when) Pilatus was called to +Jerusalem on account of a riot. A certain young man (the +son of a carpenter of Nazareth) was said to be planning a +revolution against the Roman government. Strangely enough +our own intelligence officers, who are usually well informed, +appear to have heard nothing about it, and when they investigated +the matter they reported that the carpenter was an +excellent citizen and that there was no reason to proceed against +him. But the old-fashioned leaders of the Jewish faith, according +to Joseph, were much upset. They greatly disliked his +popularity with the masses of the poorer Hebrews. The +``Nazarene'' (so they told Pilatus) had publicly claimed that a +Greek or a Roman or even a Philistine, who tried to live a decent +and honourable life, was quite as good as a Jew who spent +his days studying the ancient laws of Moses. Pilatus does not +seem to have been impressed by this argument, but when the +crowds around the temple threatened to lynch Jesus, and kill +all his followers, he decided to take the carpenter into custody +to save his life. + +He does not appear to have understood the real nature of +the quarrel. Whenever he asked the Jewish priests to explain +their grievances, they shouted ``heresy'' and ``treason'' and got +terribly excited. Finally, so Joseph told me, Pilatus sent for +Joshua (that was the name of the Nazarene, but the Greeks +who live in this part of the world always refer to him as Jesus) +to examine him personally. He talked to him for several +hours. He asked him about the ``dangerous doctrines'' which +he was said to have preached on the shores of the sea of Galilee. +But Jesus answered that he never referred to politics. He was +not so much interested in the bodies of men as in Man's soul. +He wanted all people to regard their neighbours as their +brothers and to love one single God, who was the father of all +living beings. + +Pilatus, who seems to have been well versed in the doctrines +of the Stoics and the other Greek philosophers, does not appear +to have discovered anything seditious in the talk of Jesus. +According to my informant he made another attempt to save +the life of the kindly prophet. He kept putting the execution +off. Meanwhile the Jewish people, lashed into fury by their +priests, got frantic with rage. There had been many riots in +Jerusalem before this and there were only a few Roman soldiers +within calling distance. Reports were being sent to the +Roman authorities in Caesarea that Pilatus had ``fallen a victim +to the teachings of the Nazarene.'' Petitions were being +circulated all through the city to have Pilatus recalled, because +he was an enemy of the Emperor. You know that our governors +have strict instructions to avoid an open break with +their foreign subjects. To save the country from civil war, +Pilatus finally sacrificed his prisoner, Joshua, who behaved +with great dignity and who forgave all those who hated him. +He was crucified amidst the howls and the laughter of the +Jerusalem mob. + +That is what Joseph told me, with tears running down his +old cheeks. I gave him a gold piece when I left him, but he +refused it and asked me to hand it to one poorer than himself. +I also asked him a few questions about your friend Paul. He +had known him slightly. He seems to have been a tent maker +who gave up his profession that he might preach the words of +a loving and forgiving God, who was so very different from +that Jehovah of whom the Jewish priests are telling us all +the time. Afterwards, Paul appears to have travelled much +in Asia Minor and in Greece, telling the slaves that they were +all children of one loving Father and that happiness awaits all, +both rich and poor, who have tried to live honest lives and have +done good to those who were suffering and miserable. + +I hope that I have answered your questions to your satisfaction. +The whole story seems very harmless to me as far as +the safety of the state is concerned. But then, we Romans +never have been able to understand the people of this province. +I am sorry that they have killed your friend Paul. I wish that +I were at home again, and I am, as ever, + Your dutiful nephew, + GLADIUS ENSA. + + + +THE FALL OF ROME + +THE TWILIGHT OF ROME + + +THE text-books of ancient History give the date 476 as the +year in which Rome fell, because in that year the last emperor +was driven off his throne. But Rome, which was not built in +a day, took a long time falling. The process was so slow and +so gradual that most Romans did not realise how their old +world was coming to an end. They complained about the unrest +of the times--they grumbled about the high prices of food +and about the low wages of the workmen--they cursed the +profiteers who had a monopoly of the grain and the wool and +the gold coin. Occasionally they rebelled against an unusually +rapacious governor. But the majority of the people during the +first four centuries of our era ate and drank (whatever their +purse allowed them to buy) and hated or loved (according to +their nature) and went to the theatre (whenever there was a +free show of fighting gladiators) or starved in the slums of the +big cities, utterly ignorant of the fact that their empire had +outlived its usefulness and was doomed to perish. + +How could they realise the threatened danger? Rome +made a fine showing of outward glory. Well-paved roads connected +the different provinces, the imperial police were active +and showed little tenderness for highwaymen. The frontier +was closely guarded against the savage tribes who seemed to +be occupying the waste lands of northern Europe. The whole +world was paying tribute to the mighty city of Rome, and a +score of able men were working day and night to undo the +mistakes of the past and bring about a return to the happier +conditions of the early Republic. + +But the underlying causes of the decay of the State, of +which I have told you in a former chapter, had not been +removed and reform therefore was impossible. + +Rome was, first and last and all the time, a city-state as +Athens and Corinth had been city-states in ancient Hellas. It +had been able to dominate the Italian peninsula. But Rome +as the ruler of the entire civilised world was a political +impossibility and could not endure. Her young men were killed in +her endless wars. Her farmers were ruined by long military +service and by taxation. They either became professional +beggars or hired themselves out to rich landowners who gave +them board and lodging in exchange for their services and +made them ``serfs,'' those unfortunate human beings who are +neither slaves nor freemen, but who have become part of the +soil upon which they work, like so many cows, and the trees. + +The Empire, the State, had become everything. The common +citizen had dwindled down to less than nothing. As for +the slaves, they had heard the words that were spoken by Paul. +They had accepted the message of the humble carpenter of +Nazareth. They did not rebel against their masters. On the +contrary, they had been taught to be meek and they obeyed +their superiors. But they had lost all interest in the affairs +of this world which had proved such a miserable place of abode. +They were willing to fight the good fight that they might enter +into the Kingdom of Heaven. But they were not willing to +engage in warfare for the benefit of an ambitious emperor who +aspired to glory by way of a foreign campaign in the land of +the Parthians or the Numidians or the Scots. + +And so conditions grew worse as the centuries went by. +The first Emperors had continued the tradition of ``leadership'' +which had given the old tribal chieftains such a hold upon +their subjects. But the Emperors of the second and third +centuries were Barrack-Emperors, professional soldiers, who +existed by the grace of their body-guards, the so-called Prae- +torians. They succeeded each other with terrifying rapidity, +murdering their way into the palace and being murdered out +of it as soon as their successors had become rich enough to bribe +the guards into a new rebellion. + +Meanwhile the barbarians were hammering at the gates of +the northern frontier. As there were no longer any native +Roman armies to stop their progress, foreign mercenaries had +to be hired to fight the invader. As the foreign soldier happened +to be of the same blood as his supposed enemy, he was +apt to be quite lenient when he engaged in battle. Finally, +by way of experiment, a few tribes were allowed to settle +within the confines of the Empire. Others followed. Soon +these tribes complained bitterly of the greedy Roman tax- +gatherers, who took away their last penny. When they got +no redress they marched to Rome and loudly demanded that +they be heard. + +This made Rome very uncomfortable as an Imperial residence. +Constantine (who ruled from 323 to 337) looked for +a new capital. He chose Byzantium, the gate-way for the +commerce between Europe and Asia. The city was renamed +Constantinople, and the court moved eastward. When Constantine +died, his two sons, for the sake of a more efficient +administration, divided the Empire between them. The elder +lived in Rome and ruled in the west. The younger stayed in +Constantinople and was master of the east. + +Then came the fourth century and the terrible visitation +of the Huns, those mysterious Asiatic horsemen who for more +than two centuries maintained themselves in Northern Europe +and continued their career of bloodshed until they were defeated +near Chalons-sur-Marne in France in the year 451. +As soon as the Huns had reached the Danube they had begun +to press hard upon the Goths. The Goths, in order to save +themselves, were thereupon obliged to invade Rome. The +Emperor Valens tried to stop them, but was killed near +Adrianople in the year 378. Twenty-two years later, under +their king, Alaric, these same West Goths marched westward +and attacked Rome. They did not plunder, and destroyed +only a few palaces. Next came the Vandals, and showed less +respect for the venerable traditions of the city. Then the +Burgundians. Then the East Goths. Then the Alemanni. +Then the Franks. There was no end to the invasions. Rome +at last was at the mercy of every ambitious highway robber +who could gather a few followers. + +In the year 402 the Emperor fled to Ravenna, which was +a sea-port and strongly fortified, and there, in the year 475, +Odoacer, commander of a regiment of the German mercenaries, +who wanted the farms of Italy to be divided among themselves, +gently but effectively pushed Romulus Augustulus, the +last of the emperors who ruled the western division, from his +throne, and proclaimed himself Patriarch or ruler of Rome. +The eastern Emperor, who was very busy with his own affairs, +recognised him, and for ten years Odoacer ruled what was +left of the western provinces. + +A few years later, Theodoric, King of the East Goths, +invaded the newly formed Patriciat, took Ravenna, murdered +Odoacer at his own dinner table, and established a Gothic +Kingdom amidst the ruins of the western part of the Empire. +This Patriciate state did not last long. In the sixth century a +motley crowd of Longobards and Saxons and Slavs and Avars +invaded Italy, destroyed the Gothic kingdom, and established +a new state of which Pavia became the capital. + +Then at last the imperial city sank into a state of utter +neglect and despair. The ancient palaces had been plundered +time and again. The schools had been burned down. The +teachers had been starved to death. The rich people had been +thrown out of their villas which were now inhabited by evil- +smelling and hairy barbarians. The roads had fallen into +decay. The old bridges were gone and commerce had come +to a standstill. Civilisation--the product of thousands of years +of patient labor on the part of Egyptians and Babylonians and +Greeks and Romans, which had lifted man high above the +most daring dreams of his earliest ancestors, threatened to +perish from the western continent. + +It is true that in the far east, Constantinople continued to +be the centre of an Empire for another thousand years. But +it hardly counted as a part of the European continent. Its +interests lay in the east. It began to forget its western origin. +Gradually the Roman language was given up for the Greek. +The Roman alphabet was discarded and Roman law was written +in Greek characters and explained by Greek judges. The +Emperor became an Asiatic despot, worshipped as the god-like +kings of Thebes had been worshipped in the valley of the +Nile, three thousand years before. When missionaries of the +Byzantine church looked for fresh fields of activity, they went +eastward and carried the civilisation of Byzantium into the +vast wilderness of Russia. + +As for the west, it was left to the mercies of the Barbarians. +For twelve generations, murder, war, arson, plundering were +the order of the day. One thing--and one thing alone--saved +Europe from complete destruction, from a return to the days +of cave-men and the hyena. + +This was the church--the flock of humble men and women +who for many centuries had confessed themselves the followers +of Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, who had been +killed that the mighty Roman Empire might be saved the +trouble of a street-riot in a little city somewhere along the +Syrian frontier. + + + +RISE OF THE CHURCH + +HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE +CHRISTIAN WORLD + + +THE average intelligent Roman who lived under the Empire +had taken very little interest in the gods of his fathers. +A few times a year he went to the temple, but merely as a +matter of custom. He looked on patiently when the people +celebrated a religious festival with a solemn procession. But he +regarded the worship of Jupiter and Minerva and Neptune as +something rather childish, a survival from the crude days of +the early republic and not a fit subject of study for a man +who had mastered the works of the Stoics and the Epicureans +and the other great philosophers of Athens. + +This attitude made the Roman a very tolerant man. The +government insisted that all people, Romans, foreigners, +Greeks, Babylonians, Jews, should pay a certain outward respect +to the image of the Emperor which was supposed to stand +in every temple, just as a picture of the President of the +United States is apt to hang in an American Post Office. But +this was a formality without any deeper meaning. Generally +speaking everybody could honour, revere and adore whatever +gods he pleased, and as a result, Rome was filled with all +sorts of queer little temples and synagogues, dedicated to the +worship of Egyptian and African and Asiatic divinities. + +When the first disciples of Jesus reached Rome and began +to preach their new doctrine of a universal brotherhood of man, +nobody objected. The man in the street stopped and listened +Rome, the capital of the world, had always been full of wandering +preachers, each proclaiming his own ``mystery.'' Most of +the self-appointed priests appealed to the senses--promised +golden rewards and endless pleasure to the followers of their +own particular god. Soon the crowd in the street noticed +that the so-called Christians (the followers of the Christ or +``anointed'') spoke a very different language. They did not +appear to be impressed by great riches or a noble position. +They extolled the beauties of poverty and humility and meekness. +These were not exactly the virtues which had made +Rome the mistress of the world. It was rather interesting to +listen to a ``mystery'' which told people in the hey-day of their +glory that their worldly success could not possibly bring them +lasting happiness. + +Besides, the preachers of the Christian mystery told dreadful +stories of the fate that awaited those who refused to listen to +the words of the true God. It was never wise to take chances. +Of course the old Roman gods still existed, but were they +strong enough to protect their friends against the powers of +this new deity who had been brought to Europe from distant +Asia? People began to have doubts. They returned to listen +to further explanations of the new creed. After a while they +began to meet the men and women who preached the words of +Jesus. They found them very different from the average +Roman priests. They were all dreadfully poor. They were +kind to slaves and to animals. They did not try to gain riches, +but gave away whatever they had. The example of their unselfish +lives forced many Romans to forsake the old religion. +They joined the small communities of Christians who met in +the back rooms of private houses or somewhere in an open field, +and the temples were deserted. + +This went on year after year and the number of Christians +continued to increase. Presbyters or priests (the original +Greek meant ``elder'') were elected to guard the interests of +the small churches. A bishop was made the head of all the +communities within a single province. Peter, who had fol- +lowed Paul to Rome, was the first Bishop of Rome. In due +time his successors (who were addressed as Father or Papa) +came to be known as Popes. + +The church became a powerful institution within the Empire. +The Christian doctrines appealed to those who despaired +of this world. They also attracted many strong men who +found it impossible to make a career under the Imperial gov- +ernment, but who could exercise their gifts of leadership among +the humble followers of the Nazarene teacher. At last the +state was obliged to take notice. The Roman Empire (I have +said this before) was tolerant through indifference. It allowed +everybody to seek salvation after his or her own fashion. But +it insisted that the different sects keep the peace among themselves +and obey the wise rule of ``live and let live.'' + +The Christian communities however, refused to practice any +sort of tolerance. They publicly declared that their God, and +their God alone, was the true ruler of Heaven and Earth, +and that all other gods were imposters. This seemed unfair +to the other sects and the police discouraged such utterances. +The Christians persisted. + +Soon there were further difficulties. The Christians refused +to go through the formalities of paying homage to the emperor. +They refused to appear when they were called upon +to join the army. The Roman magistrates threatened to +punish them. The Christians answered that this miserable +world was only the ante-room to a very pleasant Heaven and +that they were more than willing to suffer death for their +principles. The Romans, puzzled by such conduct, sometimes +killed the offenders, but more often they did not. There was +a certain amount of lynching during the earliest years of the +church, but this was the work of that part of the mob which +accused their meek Christian neighbours of every conceivable +crime, (such as slaughtering and eating babies, bringing about +sickness and pestilence, betraying the country in times of danger) +because it was a harmless sport and devoid of danger, as +the Christians refused to fight back. + +Meanwhile, Rome continued to be invaded by the Barbarians +and when her armies failed, Christian missionaries went +forth to preach their gospel of peace to the wild Teutons. +They were strong men without fear of death. They spoke a +language which left no doubt as to the future of unrepentant +sinners. The Teutons were deeply impressed. They still +had a deep respect for the wisdom of the ancient city of Rome. +Those men were Romans. They probably spoke the truth. +Soon the Christian missionary became a power in the savage +regions of the Teutons and the Franks. Half a dozen missionaries +were as valuable as a whole regiment of soldiers. +The Emperors began to understand that the Christian might +be of great use to them. In some of the provinces they were +given equal rights with those who remained faithful to the old +gods. The great change however came during the last half +of the fourth century. + +Constantine, sometimes (Heaven knows why) called Constantine +the Great, was emperor. He was a terrible ruffian, +but people of tender qualities could hardly hope to survive +in that hard-fighting age. During a long and checkered career, +Constantine had experienced many ups and downs. Once, +when almost defeated by his enemies, he thought that he would +try the power of this new Asiatic deity of whom everybody was +talking. He promised that he too would become a Christian +if he were successful in the coming battle. He won the victory +and thereafter he was convinced of the power of the Christian +God and allowed himself to be baptised. + +From that moment on, the Christian church was officially +recognised and this greatly strengthened the position of the +new faith. + +But the Christians still formed a very small minority of +all the people, (not more than five or six percent,) and in order +to win, they were forced to refuse all compromise. The old +gods must be destroyed. For a short spell the emperor Julian, +a lover of Greek wisdom, managed to save the pagan Gods +from further destruction. But Julian died of his wounds during +a campaign in Persia and his successor Jovian re-established +the church in all its glory. One after the other the doors of the +ancient temples were then closed. Then came the emperor +Justinian (who built the church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople), +who discontinued the school of philosophy at Athens +which had been founded by Plato. + +That was the end of the old Greek world, in which man +had been allowed to think his own thoughts and dream his own +dreams according to his desires. The somewhat vague rules +of conduct of the philosophers had proved a poor compass +by which to steer the ship of life after a deluge of savagery +and ignorance had swept away the established order of things. +There was need of something more positive and more definite. +This the Church provided. + +During an age when nothing was certain, the church stood +like a rock and never receded from those principles which it +held to be true and sacred. This steadfast courage gained the +admiration of the multitudes and carried the church of Rome +safely through the difficulties which destroyed the Roman state. + +There was however, a certain element of luck in the final +success of the Christian faith. After the disappearance of +Theodoric's Roman-Gothic kingdom, in the fifth century, +Italy was comparatively free from foreign invasion. The +Lombards and Saxons and Slavs who succeeded the Goths were +weak and backward tribes. Under those circumstances it was +possible for the bishops of Rome to maintain the independence +of their city. Soon the remnants of the empire, scattered +throughout the peninsula, recognised the Dukes of Rome (or +bishops) as their political and spiritual rulers. + +The stage was set for the appearance of a strong man. +He came in the year 590 and his name was Gregory. He belonged +to the ruling classes of ancient Rome, and he had +been ``prefect'' or mayor of the city. Then he had become +a monk and a bishop and finally, and much against his will, +(for he wanted to be a missionary and preach Christianity to +the heathen of England,) he had been dragged to the Church +of Saint Peter to be made Pope. He ruled only fourteen +years but when he died the Christian world of western Europe +had officially recognised the bishops of Rome, the Popes, as +the head of the entire church. + +This power, however, did not extend to the east. In +Constantinople the Emperors continued the old custom which had +recognised the successors of Augustus and Tiberius both as +head of the government and as High Priest of the Established +Religion. In the year 1453 the eastern Roman Empire was +conquered by the Turks. Constantinople was taken, and Constantine +Paleologue, the last Roman Emperor, was killed on +the steps of the Church of the Holy Sophia. + +A few years before, Zoe, the daughter of his brother +Thomas, had married Ivan III of Russia. In this way did the +grand-dukes of Moscow fall heir to the traditions of Constantinople. +The double-eagle of old Byzantium (reminiscent of +the days when Rome had been divided into an eastern and a +western part) became the coat of arms of modern Russia. +The Tsar who had been merely the first of the Russian nobles, +assumed the aloofness and the dignity of a Roman emperor +before whom all subjects, both high and low, were inconsiderable +slaves. + +The court was refashioned after the oriental pattern which +the eastern Emperors had imported from Asia and from Egypt +and which (so they flattered themselves) resembled the court +of Alexander the Great. This strange inheritance which the +dying Byzantine Empire bequeathed to an unsuspecting world +continued to live with great vigour for six more centuries, +amidst the vast plains of Russia. The last man to wear the +crown with the double eagle of Constantinople, Tsar Nicholas, +was murdered only the other day, so to speak. His body was +thrown into a well. His son and his daughters were all killed. +All his ancient rights and prerogatives were abolished, and the +church was reduced to the position which it had held in Rome +before the days of Constantine. + +The eastern church however fared very differently, as we +shall see in the next chapter when the whole Christian world is +going to be threatened with destruction by the rival creed of +an Arab camel-driver. + + + +MOHAMMED + +AHMED, THE CAMEL-DRIVER, WHO BECAME +THE PROPHET OF THE ARABIAN DESERT +AND WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST +CONQUERED THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD +FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF ALLAH, THE +ONLY TRUE GOD + + +SINCE the days of Carthage and Hannibal we have said +nothing of the Semitic people. You will remember how they +filled all the chapters devoted to the story of the Ancient World. +The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Jews, +the Arameans, the Chaldeans, all of them Semites, had been +the rulers of western Asia for thirty or forty centuries. They +had been conquered by the Indo-European Persians who had +come from the east and by the Indo-European Greeks who +had come from the west. A hundred years after the death of +Alexander the Great, Carthage, a colony of Semitic Phoenicians, +had fought the Indo-European Romans for the mastery +of the Mediterranean. Carthage had been defeated and destroyed +and for eight hundred years the Romans had been masters +of the world. In the seventh century, however, another +Semitic tribe appeared upon the scene and challenged the +power of the west. They were the Arabs, peaceful shepherds +who had roamed through the desert since the beginning of time +without showing any signs of imperial ambitions. + +Then they listened to Mohammed, mounted their horses and +in less than a century they had pushed to the heart of Europe +and proclaimed the glories of Allah, ``the only God,'' and +Mohammed, ``the prophet of the only God,'' to the frightened +peasants of France. + +The story of Ahmed, the son of Abdallah and Aminah +(usually known as Mohammed, or ``he who will be praised,''; +reads like a chapter in the ``Thousand and One Nights.'' He +was a camel-driver, born in Mecca. He seems to have been an +epileptic and he suffered from spells of unconsciousness when +he dreamed strange dreams and heard the voice of the angel +Gabriel, whose words were afterwards written down in a book +called the Koran. His work as a caravan leader carried him +all over Arabia and he was constantly falling in with Jewish +merchants and with Christian traders, and he came to see that +the worship of a single God was a very excellent thing. His +own people, the Arabs, still revered queer stones and trunks +of trees as their ancestors had done, tens of thousands of +years before. In Mecca, their holy city, stood a little square +building, the Kaaba, full of idols and strange odds and ends +of Hoo-doo worship. + +Mohammed decided to be the Moses of the Arab people. He +could not well be a prophet and a camel-driver at the same time. +So he made himself independent by marrying his employer, the +rich widow Chadija. Then he told his neighbours in Mecca +that he was the long-expected prophet sent by Allah to save the +world. The neighbours laughed most heartily and when Mohammed +continued to annoy them with his speeches they decided to kill him. +They regarded him as a lunatic and a public bore who deserved no mercy. +Mohammed heard of the plot and in the dark of night he fled to Medina +together with Abu Bekr, his trusted pupil. This happened +in the year 622. It is the most important date in Mohammedan +history and is known as the Hegira--the year of the Great Flight. + +In Medina, Mohammed, who was a stranger, found it easier +to proclaim himself a prophet than in his home city, where +every one had known him as a simple camel-driver. Soon he +was surrounded by an increasing number of followers, or +Moslems, who accepted the Islam, ``the submission to the will +of God,'' which Mohammed praised as the highest of all virtues. +For seven years he preached to the people of Medina. Then +he believed himself strong enough to begin a campaign against +his former neighbours who had dared to sneer at him and his +Holy Mission in his old camel-driving days. At the head of +an army of Medinese he marched across the desert. His followers +took Mecca without great difficulty, and having slaughtered +a number of the inhabitants, they found it quite easy to +convince the others that Mohammed was really a great prophet. + +From that time on until the year of his death, Mohammed +was fortunate in everything he undertook. + +There are two reasons for the success of Islam. In the +first place, the creed which Mohammed taught to his followers +was very simple. The disciples were told that they must love +Allah, the Ruler of the World, the Merciful and Compassionate. +They must honour and obey their parents. They +were warned against dishonesty in dealing with their neighbours +and were admonished to be humble and charitable, to the +poor and to the sick. Finally they were ordered to abstain +from strong drink and to be very frugal in what they ate. That +was all. There were no priests, who acted as shepherds of +their flocks and asked that they be supported at the common +expense. The Mohammedan churches or mosques were merely +large stone halls without benches or pictures, where the faithful +could gather (if they felt so inclined) to read and discuss +chapters from the Koran, the Holy Book. But the average +Mohammedan carried his religion with him and never felt +himself hemmed in by the restrictions and regulations of an +established church. Five times a day he turned his face towards +Mecca, the Holy City, and said a simple prayer. For the +rest of the time he let Allah rule the world as he saw fit and +accepted whatever fate brought him with patient resignation. + +Of course such an attitude towards life did not encourage +the Faithful to go forth and invent electrical machinery or +bother about railroads and steamship lines. But it gave every +Mohammedan a certain amount of contentment. It bade +him be at peace with himself and with the world in which he +lived and that was a very good thing. + +The second reason which explains the success of the Moslems +in their warfare upon the Christians, had to do with the +conduct of those Mohammedan soldiers who went forth to do +battle for the true faith. The Prophet promised that those +who fell, facing the enemy, would go directly to Heaven. +This made sudden death in the field preferable to a long but +dreary existence upon this earth. It gave the Mohammedans +an enormous advantage over the Crusaders who were in constant +dread of a dark hereafter, and who stuck to the good +things of this world as long as they possibly could. Incidentally +it explains why even to-day Moslem soldiers will charge +into the fire of European machine guns quite indifferent to +the fate that awaits them and why they are such dangerous +and persistent enemies. + +Having put his religious house in order, Mohammed now +began to enjoy his power as the undisputed ruler of a large +number of Arab tribes. But success has been the undoing of +a large number of men who were great in the days of adversity. +He tried to gain the good will of the rich people by a number +of regulations which could appeal to those of wealth. +He allowed the Faithful to have four wives. As one wife +was a costly investment in those olden days when brides were +bought directly from the parents, four wives became a positive +luxury except to those who possessed camels and dromedaries +and date orchards beyond the dreams of avarice. A religion +which at first had been meant for the hardy hunters of the +high skied desert was gradually transformed to suit the needs +of the smug merchants who lived in the bazaars of the cities. +It was a regrettable change from the original program and it +did very little good to the cause of Mohammedanism. As for +the prophet himself, he went on preaching the truth of Allah +and proclaiming new rules of conduct until he died, quite +suddenly, of a fever on June the seventh of the year 632. + +His successor as Caliph (or leader) of the Moslems was +his father-in-law, Abu-Bekr, who had shared the early dangers +of the prophet's life. Two years later, Abu-Bekr died and +Omar ibn Al-Khattab followed him. In less than ten years +he conquered Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine +and made Damascus the capital of the first Mohammedan world +empire. + +Omar was succeeded by Ali, the husband of Mohammed's +daughter, Fatima, but a quarrel broke out upon a point of +Moslem doctrine and Ali was murdered. After his death, +the caliphate was made hereditary and the leaders of the faithful +who had begun their career as the spiritual head of a religious +sect became the rulers of a vast empire. They built +a new city on the shores of the Euphrates, near the ruins of +Babylon and called it Bagdad, and organising the Arab horsemen +into regiments of cavalry, they set forth to bring the +happiness of their Moslem faith to all unbelievers. In the +year 700 A.D. a Mohammedan general by the name of Tarik +crossed the old gates of Hercules and reached the high rock +on the European side which he called the Gibel-al-tarik, the +Hill of Tarik or Gibraltar. + +Eleven years later in the battle of Xeres de la Frontera, +he defeated the king of the Visigoths and then the Moslem +army moved northward and following the route of Hannibal, +they crossed the passes of the Pyrenees. They defeated the +Duke of Aquitania, who tried to halt them near Bordeaux, +and marched upon Paris. But in the year 732 (one +hundred years after the death of the prophet,) they were +beaten in a battle between Tours and Poitiers. On that +day, Charles Martel (Charles with the Hammer) the Frankish +chieftain, saved Europe from a Mohammedan con- +quest. He drove the Moslems out of France, but they maintained +themselves in Spain where Abd-ar-Rahman founded the +Caliphate of Cordova, which became the greatest centre of +science and art of mediaeval Europe. + +This Moorish kingdom, so-called because the people came +from Mauretania in Morocco, lasted seven centuries. It was +only after the capture of Granada, the last Moslem stronghold, +in the year 1492, that Columbus received the royal grant which +allowed him to go upon a voyage of discovery. The Mohammedans +soon regained their strength in the new conquests +which they made in Asia and Africa and to-day there are as +many followers of Mohammed as there are of Christ. + + + +CHARLEMAGNE + +HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE +FRANKS, CAME TO BEAR THE TITLE OF +EMPEROR AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD +IDEAL OF WORLD-EMPIRE + + +THE battle of Poitiers had saved Europe from the +Mohammedans. But the enemy within--the hopeless disorder +which had followed the disappearance of the Roman police +officer--that enemy remained. It is true that the new converts +of the Christian faith in Northern Europe felt a deep respect +for the mighty Bishop of Rome. But that poor bishop did +not feel any too safe when he looked toward the distant +mountains. Heaven knew what fresh hordes of barbarians were +ready to cross the Alps and begin a new attack on Rome. It +was necessary--very necessary--for the spiritual head of the +world to find an ally with a strong sword and a powerful +fist who was willing to defend His Holiness in case of danger. + +And so the Popes, who were not only very holy but +also very practical, cast about for a friend, and presently +they made overtures to the most promising of the Germanic +tribes who had occupied north-western Europe after the fall +of Rome. They were called the Franks. One of their earliest +kings, called Merovech, had helped the Romans in the battle of +the Catalaunian fields in the year 451 when they defeated the +Huns. His descendants, the Merovingians, had continued to +take little bits of imperial territory until the year 486 when +king Clovis (the old French word for ``Louis'') felt himself +strong enough to beat the Romans in the open. But his +descendants were weak men who left the affairs of state to +their Prime minister, the ``Major Domus'' or Master of the +Palace. + +Pepin the Short, the son of the famous Charles Martel, +who succeeded his father as Master of the Palace, hardly +knew how to handle the situation. His royal master was a +devout theologian, without any interest in politics. Pepin +asked the Pope for advice. The Pope who was a practical +person answered that the ``power in the state belonged to him +who was actually possessed of it.'' Pepin took the hint. He +persuaded Childeric, the last of the Merovingians to become +a monk and then made himself king with the approval of the +other Germanic chieftains. But this did not satisfy the shrewd +Pepin. He wanted to be something more than a barbarian +chieftain. He staged an elaborate ceremony at which Boniface, +the great missionary of the European northwest, anointed +him and made him a ``King by the grace of God.'' It was +easy to slip those words, ``Del gratia,'' into the coronation +service. It took almost fifteen hundred years to get them out +again. + +Pepin was sincerely grateful for this kindness on the part +of the church. He made two expeditions to Italy to defend +the Pope against his enemies. He took Ravenna and several +other cities away from the Longobards and presented them +to His Holiness, who incorporated these new domains into +the so-called Papal State, which remained an independent +country until half a century ago. + +After Pepin's death, the relations between Rome and Aix- +la-Chapelle or Nymwegen or Ingelheim, (the Frankish Kings +did not have one official residence, but travelled from place to +place with all their ministers and court officers,) became more +and more cordial. Finally the Pope and the King took a step +which was to influence the history of Europe in a most profound +way. + +Charles, commonly known as Carolus Magnus or Char- +lemagne, succeeded Pepin in the year 768. He had conquered +the land of the Saxons in eastern Germany and had +built towns and monasteries all over the greater part of northern +Europe. At the request of certain enemies of Abd-ar- +Rahman, he had invaded Spain to fight the Moors. But in +the Pyrenees he had been attacked by the wild Basques and +had been forced to retire. It was upon this occasion that Roland, +the great Margrave of Breton, showed what a Frankish +chieftain of those early days meant when he promised to be +faithful to his King, and gave his life and that of his trusted +followers to safeguard the retreat of the royal army. + +During the last ten years of the eighth century, however, +Charles was obliged to devote himself exclusively to affairs of +the South. The Pope, Leo III, had been attacked by a band +of Roman rowdies and had been left for dead in the street. +Some kind people had bandaged his wounds and had helped +him to escape to the camp of Charles, where he asked for +help. An army of Franks soon restored quiet and carried Leo +back to the Lateran Palace which ever since the days of Constantine, +had been the home of the Pope. That was in December +of the year 799. On Christmas day of the next year, +Charlemagne, who was staying in Rome, attended the service +in the ancient church of St. Peter. When he arose from prayer, +the Pope placed a crown upon his head, called him Emperor of +the Romans and hailed him once more with the title of ``Augustus'' +which had not been heard for hundreds of years. + +Once more Northern Europe was part of a Roman Empire, +but the dignity was held by a German chieftain who could +read just a little and never learned to write. But he could +fight and for a short while there was order and even the rival +emperor in Constantinople sent a letter of approval to his +``dear Brother.'' + +Unfortunately this splendid old man died in the year 814. +His sons and his grandsons at once began to fight for the +largest share of the imperial inheritance. Twice the Carolingian +lands were divided, by the treaties of Verdun in the +year 843 and by the treaty of Mersen-on-the-Meuse in the +year 870. The latter treaty divided the entire Frankish Kingdom +into two parts. Charles the Bold received the western +half. It contained the old Roman province called Gaul where +the language of the people had become thoroughly romanized. +The Franks soon learned to speak this language and this +accounts for the strange fact that a purely Germanic land +like France should speak a Latin tongue. + +The other grandson got the eastern part, the land which +the Romans had called Germania. Those inhospitable regions +had never been part of the old Empire. Augustus had +tried to conquer this ``far east,'' but his legions had been +annihilated in the Teutoburg Wood in the year 9 and the people had +never been influenced by the higher Roman civilisation. They +spoke the popular Germanic tongue. The Teuton word for +``people'' was ``thiot.'' The Christian missionaries therefore +called the German language the ``lingua theotisca'' or the +``lingua teutisca,'' the ``popular dialect'' and this word +``teutisca'' was changed into ``Deutsch'' which accounts for the name +``Deutschland.'' + +As for the famous Imperial Crown, it very soon slipped +off the heads of the Carolingian successors and rolled back onto +the Italian plain, where it became a sort of plaything of a +number of little potentates who stole the crown from each other +amidst much bloodshed and wore it (with or without the permission +of the Pope) until it was the turn of some more ambitious +neighbour. The Pope, once more sorely beset by his +enemies, sent north for help. He did not appeal to the ruler +of the west-Frankish kingdom, this time. His messengers +crossed the Alps and addressed themselves to Otto, a Saxon +Prince who was recognised as the greatest chieftain of the +different Germanic tribes. + +Otto, who shared his people's affection for the blue skies +and the gay and beautiful people of the Italian peninsula, +hastened to the rescue. In return for his services, the Pope, +Leo VIII, made Otto ``Emperor,'' and the eastern half of +Charles' old kingdom was henceforth known as the ``Holy +Roman Empire of the German Nation.'' + +This strange political creation managed to live to the ripe +old age of eight hundred and thirty-nine years. In the year +1801, (during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson,) it was +most unceremoniously relegated to the historical scrapheap. +The brutal fellow who destroyed the old Germanic Empire was +the son of a Corsican notary-public who had made a brilliant +career in the service of the French Republic. He was ruler +of Europe by the grace of his famous Guard Regiments, but +he desired to be something more. He sent to Rome for the +Pope and the Pope came and stood by while General Napoleon +placed the imperial crown upon his own head and proclaimed +himself heir to the tradition of Charlemagne. For history is +like life. The more things change, the more they remain +the same. + + + +THE NORSEMEN + +WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY +PRAYED THE LORD TO PROTECT THEM +FROM THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN + + +IN the third and fourth centuries, the Germanic tribes of +central Europe had broken through the defences of the Empire +that they might plunder Rome and live on the fat of the +land. In the eighth century it became the turn of the Germans +to be the ``plundered-ones.'' They did not like this at all, even +if their enemies were their first cousins, the Norsemen, who +lived in Denmark and Sweden and Norway. + +What forced these hardy sailors to turn pirate we do not +know, but once they had discovered the advantages and pleasures +of a buccaneering career there was no one who could stop +them. They would suddenly descend upon a peaceful Frankish +or Frisian village, situated on the mouth of a river. They +would kill all the men and steal all the women. Then they +would sail away in their fast-sailing ships and when the soldiers +of the king or emperor arrived upon the scene, the robbers +were gone and nothing remained but a few smouldering +ruins. + +During the days of disorder which followed the death of +Charlemagne, the Northmen developed great activity. Their +fleets made raids upon every country and their sailors established +small independent kingdoms along the coast of Holland +and France and England and Germany, and they even found +their way into Italy. The Northmen were very intelligent +They soon learned to speak the language of their subjects and +gave up the uncivilised ways of the early Vikings (or Sea- +Kings who had been very picturesque but also very unwashed +and terribly cruel. + +Early in the tenth century a Viking by the name of Rollo +had repeatedly attacked the coast of France. The king of +France, too weak to resist these northern robbers, tried to +bribe them into ``being good.'' He offered them the province +of Normandy, if they would promise to stop bothering the rest +of his domains. Rollo accepted this bargain and became ``Duke +of Normandy.'' + +But the passion of conquest was strong in the blood of his +children. Across the channel, only a few hours away from the +European mainland, they could see the white cliffs and the +green fields of England. Poor England had passed through +difficult days. For two hundred years it had been a Roman +colony. After the Romans left, it had been conquered by the +Angles and the Saxons, two German tribes from Schleswig. +Next the Danes had taken the greater part of the country +and had established the kingdom of Cnut. The Danes had +been driven away and now (it was early in the eleventh century) +another Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, was on the +throne. But Edward was not expected to live long and he +had no children. The circumstances favoured the ambitious +dukes of Normandy. + +In 1066 Edward died. Immediately William of Normandy +crossed the channel, defeated and killed Harold of +Wessex (who had taken the crown) at the battle of Hastings, +and proclaimed himself king of England. + +In another chapter I have told you how in the year 800 a +German chieftain had become a Roman Emperor. Now in +the year 1066 the grandson of a Norse pirate was recognised +as King of England. + +Why should we ever read fairy stories, when the truth +of history is so much more interesting and entertaining? + + + +FEUDALISM + +HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM +THREE SIDES, BECAME AN ARMED CAMP +AND WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED +WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL +SOLDIERS AND ADMINISTRATORS WHO +WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM + + +THE following, then, is the state of Europe in the year one +thousand, when most people were so unhappy that they welcomed +the prophecy foretelling the approaching end of the +world and rushed to the monasteries, that the Day of Judgement +might find them engaged upon devout duties. + +At an unknown date, the Germanic tribes had left their old +home in Asia and had moved westward into Europe. By +sheer pressure of numbers they had forced their way into the +Roman Empire. They had destroyed the great western empire, +but the eastern part, being off the main route of the +great migrations, had managed to survive and feebly continued +the traditions of Rome's ancient glory. + +During the days of disorder which had followed, (the true +``dark ages'' of history, the sixth and seventh centuries of our +era,) the German tribes had been persuaded to accept the +Christian religion and had recognised the Bishop of Rome +as the Pope or spiritual head of the world. In the ninth century, +the organising genius of Charlemagne had revived the +Roman Empire and had united the greater part of western +Europe into a single state. During the tenth century this +empire had gone to pieces. The western part had become a +separate kingdom, France. The eastern half was known as the +Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and the rulers of +this federation of states then pretended that they were the +direct heirs of Caesar and Augustus. + +Unfortunately the power of the kings of France did not +stretch beyond the moat of their royal residence, while the +Holy Roman Emperor was openly defied by his powerful +subjects whenever it suited their fancy or their profit. + +To increase the misery of the masses of the people, the +triangle of western Europe (look at page 128, please) was for ever +exposed to attacks from three sides. On the south lived the +ever dangerous Mohammedans. The western coast was ravaged +by the Northmen. The eastern frontier (defenceless except +for the short stretch of the Carpathian mountains) was at +the mercy of hordes of Huns, Hungarians, Slavs and Tartars. + +The peace of Rome was a thing of the remote past, a dream +of the ``Good Old Days'' that were gone for ever. It was a +question of ``fight or die,'' and quite naturally people preferred +to fight. Forced by circumstances, Europe became an armed +camp and there was a demand for strong leadership. Both +King and Emperor were far away. The frontiersmen (and +most of Europe in the year 1000 was ``frontier'') must help +themselves. They willingly submitted to the representatives +of the king who were sent to administer the outlying districts, +PROVIDED THEY COULD PROTECT THEM AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES. + +Soon central Europe was dotted with small principalities, +each one ruled by a duke or a count or a baron or a bishop, as +the case might be, and organised as a fighting unit. These +dukes and counts and barons had sworn to be faithful to the +king who had given them their ``feudum'' (hence our word +``feudal,'') in return for their loyal services and a certain +amount of taxes. But travel in those days was slow and the +means of communication were exceedingly poor. The royal +or imperial administrators therefore enjoyed great independence, +and within the boundaries of their own province they +assumed most of the rights which in truth belonged to the king. + +But you would make a mistake if you supposed that the +people of the eleventh century objected to this form of +government. They supported Feudalism because it was a very +practical and necessary institution. Their Lord and Master +usually lived in a big stone house erected on the top of a steep +rock or built between deep moats, but within sight of his +subjects. In case of danger the subjects found shelter behind +the walls of the baronial stronghold. That is why they tried +to live as near the castle as possible and it accounts for the +many European cities which began their career around a feudal +fortress. + +But the knight of the early middle ages was much more +than a professional soldier. He was the civil servant of that +day. He was the judge of his community and he was the +chief of police. He caught the highwaymen and protected +the wandering pedlars who were the merchants of the eleventh +century. He looked after the dikes so that the countryside +should not be flooded (just as the first noblemen had done +in the valley of the Nile four thousand years before). He +encouraged the Troubadours who wandered from place to place +telling the stories of the ancient heroes who had fought in the +great wars of the migrations. Besides, he protected the churches +and the monasteries within his territory, and although he could +neither read nor write, (it was considered unmanly to know +such things,) he employed a number of priests who kept his +accounts and who registered the marriages and the births and +the deaths which occurred within the baronial or ducal domains. + +In the fifteenth century the kings once more became strong +enough to exercise those powers which belonged to them because +they were ``anointed of God.'' Then the feudal knights lost +their former independence. Reduced to the rank of country +squires, they no longer filled a need and soon they became a +nuisance. But Europe would have perished without the ``feudal +system'' of the dark ages. There were many bad knights +as there are many bad people to-day. But generally speaking, +the rough-fisted barons of the twelfth and thirteenth century +were hard-working administrators who rendered a most useful +service to the cause of progress. During that era the noble +torch of learning and art which had illuminated the world of +the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans was burning +very low. Without the knights and their good friends, the +monks, civilisation would have been extinguished entirely, and +the human race would have been forced to begin once more +where the cave-man had left off. + + + +CHIVALRY + +CHIVALRY + + +IT was quite natural that the professional fighting-men of +the Middle Ages should try to establish some sort of organisation +for their mutual benefit and protection. Out of this need +for close organisation, Knighthood or Chivalry was born. + +We know very little about the origins of Knighthood. But +as the system developed, it gave the world something which it +needed very badly--a definite rule of conduct which softened +the barbarous customs of that day and made life more livable +than it had been during the five hundred years of the Dark +Ages. It was not an easy task to civilise the rough frontiersmen +who had spent most of their time fighting Mohammedans +and Huns and Norsemen. Often they were guilty of backsliding, +and having vowed all sorts of oaths about mercy and +charity in the morning, they would murder all their prisoners +before evening. But progress is ever the result of slow and +ceaseless labour, and finally the most unscrupulous of knights +was forced to obey the rules of his ``class'' or suffer the consequences. + +These rules were different in the various parts of Europe, +but they all made much of ``service'' and ``loyalty to duty.'' The +Middle Ages regarded service as something very noble and +beautiful. It was no disgrace to be a servant, provided you +were a good servant and did not slacken on the job. As for +loyalty, at a time when life depended upon the faithful per- +formance of many unpleasant duties, it was the chief virtue +of the fighting man. + +A young knight therefore was asked to swear that he would +be faithful as a servant to God and as a servant to his King. +Furthermore, he promised to be generous to those whose need +was greater than his own. He pledged his word that he would +be humble in his personal behaviour and would never boast of +his own accomplishments and that he would be a friend of all +those who suffered, (with the exception of the Mohammedans, +whom he was expected to kill on sight). + +Around these vows, which were merely the Ten Commandments +expressed in terms which the people of the Middle Ages +could understand, there developed a complicated system of +manners and outward behaviour. The knights tried to model +their own lives after the example of those heroes of Arthur's +Round Table and Charlemagne's court of whom the Troubadours +had told them and of whom you may read in many delightful +books which are enumerated at the end of this volume. +They hoped that they might prove as brave as Lancelot and +as faithful as Roland. They carried themselves with dignity +and they spoke careful and gracious words that they might be +known as True Knights, however humble the cut of their coat +or the size of their purse. + +In this way the order of Knighthood became a school of those +good manners which are the oil of the social machinery. Chivalry +came to mean courtesy and the feudal castle showed the +rest of the world what clothes to wear, how to eat, how to ask +a lady for a dance and the thousand and one little things of +every-day behaviour which help to make life interesting and +agreeable. + +Like all human institutions, Knighthood was doomed to +perish as soon as it had outlived its usefulness. + +The crusades, about which one of the next chapters tells, +were followed by a great revival of trade. Cities grew overnight. +The townspeople became rich, hired good school teachers +and soon were the equals of the knights. The invention +of gun-powder deprived the heavily armed ``Chevalier'' of his +former advantage and the use of mercenaries made it impossible +to conduct a battle with the delicate niceties of a chess +tournament. The knight became superfluous. Soon he became +a ridiculous figure, with his devotion to ideals that had no +longer any practical value. It was said that the noble Don +Quixote de la Mancha had been the last of the true knights. +After his death, his trusted sword and his armour were sold +to pay his debts. + +But somehow or other that sword seems to have fallen into +the hands of a number of men. Washington carried it during +the hopeless days of Valley Forge. It was the only defence +of Gordon, when he had refused to desert the people who had +been entrusted to his care, and stayed to meet his death in the +besieged fortress of Khartoum. + +And I am not quite sure but that it proved of invaluable +strength in winning the Great War. + + + +POPE vs. EMPEROR + +THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE +PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND HOW +IT LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN +THE POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS + + +IT is very difficult to understand the people of by-gone +ages. Your own grandfather, whom you see every day, is a +mysterious being who lives in a different world of ideas and +clothes and manners. I am now telling you the story of some +of your grandfathers who are twenty-five generations removed, +and I do not expect you to catch the meaning of what I write +without re-reading this chapter a number of times. + +The average man of the Middle Ages lived a very simple +and uneventful life. Even if he was a free citizen, able to +come and go at will, he rarely left his own neighbourhood. +There were no printed books and only a few manuscripts. +Here and there, a small band of industrious monks taught +reading and writing and some arithmetic. But science and history +and geography lay buried beneath the ruins of Greece and +Rome. + +Whatever people knew about the past they had learned by +listening to stories and legends. Such information, which goes +from father to son, is often slightly incorrect in details, but +it will preserve the main facts of history with astonishing +accuracy. After more than two thousand years, the mothers of +India still frighten their naughty children by telling them that +``Iskander will get them,'' and Iskander is none other than +Alexander the Great, who visited India in the year 330 before +the birth of Christ, but whose story has lived through all these +ages. + +The people of the early Middle Ages never saw a textbook +of Roman history. They were ignorant of many things +which every school-boy to-day knows before he has entered +the third grade. But the Roman Empire, which is merely a +name to you, was to them something very much alive. They +felt it. They willingly recognised the Pope as their spiritual +leader because he lived in Rome and represented the idea of +the Roman super-power. And they were profoundly grateful +when Charlemagne, and afterwards Otto the Great, revived +the idea of a world-empire and created the Holy Roman +Empire, that the world might again be as it always had been. + +But the fact that there were two different heirs to the +Roman tradition placed the faithful burghers of the Middle +Ages in a difficult position. The theory behind the mediaeval +political system was both sound and simple. While the worldly +master (the emperor) looked after the physical well-being of +his subjects, the spiritual master (the Pope) guarded their +souls. + +In practice, however, the system worked very badly. The +Emperor invariably tried to interfere with the affairs of the +church and the Pope retaliated and told the Emperor how +he should rule his domains. Then they told each other to mind +their own business in very unceremonious language and the +inevitable end was war. + +Under those circumstances, what were the people to do, +A good Christian obeyed both the Pope and his King. But +the Pope and the Emperor were enemies. Which side should +a dutiful subject and an equally dutiful Christian take? + +It was never easy to give the correct answer. When the +Emperor happened to be a man of energy and was sufficiently +well provided with money to organise an army, he was very +apt to cross the Alps and march on Rome, besiege the Pope +in his own palace if need be, and force His Holiness to obey +the imperial instructions or suffer the consequences. + +But more frequently the Pope was the stronger. Then the +Emperor or the King together with all his subjects was +excommunicated. This meant that all churches were closed, that no +one could be baptised, that no dying man could be given absolution-- +in short, that half of the functions of mediaeval government +came to an end. + +More than that, the people were absolved from their oath of +loyalty to their sovereign and were urged to rebel against their +master. But if they followed this advice of the distant Pope +and were caught, they were hanged by their near-by Lege +Lord and that too was very unpleasant. + +Indeed, the poor fellows were in a difficult position and +none fared worse than those who lived during the latter half of +the eleventh century, when the Emperor Henry IV of Germany +and Pope Gregory VII fought a two-round battle which +decided nothing and upset the peace of Europe for almost fifty +years. + +In the middle of the eleventh century there had been a +strong movement for reform in the church. The election of the +Popes, thus far, had been a most irregular affair. It was to the +advantage of the Holy Roman Emperors to have a well-disposed +priest elected to the Holy See. They frequently came +to Rome at the time of election and used their influence for +the benefit of one of their friends. + +In the year 1059 this had been changed. By a decree of +Pope Nicholas II the principal priests and deacons of the +churches in and around Rome were organised into the so- +called College of Cardinals, and this gathering of prominent +churchmen (the word ``Cardinal'' meant principal) was given +the exclusive power of electing the future Popes. + +In the year 1073 the College of Cardinals elected a priest +by the name of Hildebrand, the son of very simple parents in +Tuscany, as Pope, and he took the name of Gregory VII. +His energy was unbounded. His belief in the supreme powers +of his Holy Office was built upon a granite rock of conviction +and courage. In the mind of Gregory, the Pope was not only +the absolute head of the Christian church, but also the highest +Court of Appeal in all worldly matters. The Pope who had +elevated simple German princes to the dignity of Emperor +could depose them at will. He could veto any law passed by +duke or king or emperor, but whosoever should question a +papal decree, let him beware, for the punishment would be +swift and merciless. + +Gregory sent ambassadors to all the European courts to +inform the potentates of Europe of his new laws and asked +them to take due notice of their contents. William the Conqueror +promised to be good, but Henry IV, who since the age +of six had been fighting with his subjects, had no intention of +submitting to the Papal will. He called together a college of +German bishops, accused Gregory of every crime under the +sun and then had him deposed by the council of Worms. + +The Pope answered with excommunication and a demand +that the German princes rid themselves of their unworthy ruler. +The German princes, only too happy to be rid of Henry, asked +the Pope to come to Augsburg and help them elect a new Emperor. + +Gregory left Rome and travelled northward. Henry, +who was no fool, appreciated the danger of his position. At +all costs he must make peace with the Pope, and he must do +it at once. In the midst of winter he crossed the Alps and +hastened to Canossa where the Pope had stopped for a short +rest. Three long days, from the 25th to the 28th of January +of the year 1077, Henry, dressed as a penitent pilgrim +(but with a warm sweater underneath his monkish garb), +waited outside the gates of the castle of Canossa. +Then he was allowed to enter and was pardoned for +his sins. But the repentance did not last long. +As soon as Henry had returned to Germany, he behaved +exactly as before. Again he was excommunicated. For the +second time a council of German bishops deposed Gregory, +but this time, when Henry crossed the Alps he was at +the head of a large army, besieged Rome and forced Gregory +to retire to Salerno, where he died in exile. This first violent +outbreak decided nothing. As soon as Henry was back in +Germany, the struggle between Pope and Emperor was continued. + +The Hohenstaufen family which got hold of the Imperial +German Throne shortly afterwards, were even more independent +than their predecessors. Gregory had claimed that the +Popes were superior to all kings because they (the Popes) at +the Day of Judgement would be responsible for the behaviour +of all the sheep of their flock, and in the eyes of God, a king +was one of that faithful herd. + +Frederick of Hohenstaufen, commonly known as Barbarossa +or Red Beard, set up the counter-claim that the Empire +had been bestowed upon his predecessor ``by God himself'' +and as the Empire included Italy and Rome, he began a campaign +which was to add these ``lost provinces'' to the northern +country. Barbarossa was accidentally drowned in Asia Minor +during the second Crusade, but his son Frederick II, a brilliant +young man who in his youth had been exposed to the civilisation +of the Mohammedans of Sicily, continued the war. The +Popes accused him of heresy. It is true that Frederick seems +to have felt a deep and serious contempt for the rough Christian +world of the North, for the boorish German Knights and +the intriguing Italian priests. But he held his tongue, went +on a Crusade and took Jerusalem from the infidel and was +duly crowned as King of the Holy City. Even this act did not +placate the Popes. They deposed Frederick and gave his +Italian possessions to Charles of Anjou, the brother of that +King Louis of France who became famous as Saint Louis. +This led to more warfare. Conrad V, the son of Conrad IV, +and the last of the Hohenstaufens, tried to regain the kingdom, +and was defeated and decapitated at Naples. But twenty years +later, the French who had made themselves thoroughly unpopular +in Sicily were all murdered during the so-called Sicilian +Vespers, and so it went. + +The quarrel between the Popes and the Emperors was +never settled, but after a while the two enemies learned to +leave each other alone. + +In the year 1278, Rudolph of Hapsburg was elected Emperor. +He did not take the trouble to go to Rome to be +crowned. The Popes did not object and in turn they kept +away from Germany. This meant peace but two entire centuries +which might have been used for the purpose of internal +organisation had been wasted in useless warfare. + +It is an ill wind however that bloweth no good to some one. +The little cities of Italy, by a process of careful balancing, +had managed to increase their power and their independence +at the expense of both Emperors and Popes. When the rush +for the Holy Land began, they were able to handle the transportation +problem of the thousands of eager pilgrims who were +clamoring for passage, and at the end of the Crusades they +had built themselves such strong defences of brick and of gold +that they could defy Pope and Emperor with equal indifference. + +Church and State fought each other and a third party--the +mediaeval city--ran away with the spoils. + + + +THE CRUSADES + +BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS +WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS +TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE +HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY +WITH THE TRADE FROM EAST TO +WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING + + +DURING three centuries there had been peace between Christians +and Moslems except in Spain and in the eastern Roman +Empire, the two states defending the gateways of Europe. +The Mohammedans having conquered Syria in the seventh +century were in possession of the Holy Land. But they regarded +Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great +as Mohammed), and they did not interfere with the pilgrims +who wished to pray in the church which Saint Helena, the +mother of the Emperor Constantine, had built on the spot of +the Holy Grave. But early in the eleventh century, a Tartar +tribe from the wilds of Asia, called the Seljuks or Turks, +became masters of the Mohammedan state in western Asia and +then the period of tolerance came to an end. The Turks took +all of Asia Minor away from the eastern Roman Emperors +and they made an end to the trade between east and west. + +Alexis, the Emperor, who rarely saw anything of his Christian +neighbours of the west, appealed for help and pointed to +the danger which threatened Europe should the Turks take +Constantinople. + +The Italian cities which had established colonies along the +coast of Asia Minor and Palestine, in fear for their possessions, +reported terrible stories of Turkish atrocities and Christian +suffering. All Europe got excited. + +Pope Urban II, a Frenchman from Reims, who had been +educated at the same famous cloister of Cluny which had +trained Gregory VII, thought that the time had come for +action. The general state of Europe was far from satisfactory. +The primitive agricultural methods of that day (unchanged +since Roman times) caused a constant scarcity of food. There +was unemployment and hunger and these are apt to lead to +discontent and riots. Western Asia in older days had fed millions. +It was an excellent field for the purpose of immigration. + +Therefore at the council of Clermont in France in the year +1095 the Pope arose, described the terrible horrors which the +infidels had inflicted upon the Holy Land, gave a glowing +description of this country which ever since the days of Moses +had been overflowing with milk and honey, and exhorted the +knights of France and the people of Europe in general to +leave wife and child and deliver Palestine from the Turks. + +A wave of religious hysteria swept across the continent. +All reason stopped. Men would drop their hammer and saw, +walk out of their shop and take the nearest road to the east +to go and kill Turks. Children would leave their homes to ``go +to Palestine'' and bring the terrible Turks to their knees by +the mere appeal of their youthful zeal and Christian piety. +Fully ninety percent of those enthusiasts never got within +sight of the Holy Land. They had no money. They were +forced to beg or steal to keep alive. They became a danger +to the safety of the highroads and they were killed by the +angry country people. + +The first Crusade, a wild mob of honest Christians, defaulting +bankrupts, penniless noblemen and fugitives from justice, +following the lead of half-crazy Peter the Hermit and Walter- +without-a-Cent, began their campaign against the Infidels by +murdering all the Jews whom they met by the way. They +got as far as Hungary and then they were all killed. + +This experience taught the Church a lesson. Enthusiasm +alone would not set the Holy Land free. Organisation was +as necessary as good-will and courage. A year was spent in +training and equipping an army of 200,000 men. They were +placed under command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert, duke +of Normandy, Robert, count of Flanders, and a number of +other noblemen, all experienced in the art of war. + +In the year 1096 this second crusade started upon its long +voyage. At Constantinople the knights did homage to the +Emperor. (For as I have told you, traditions die hard, and +a Roman Emperor, however poor and powerless, was still held +in great respect). Then they crossed into Asia, killed all the +Moslems who fell into their hands, stormed Jerusalem, massacred +the Mohammedan population, and marched to the Holy +Sepulchre to give praise and thanks amidst tears of piety and +gratitude. But soon the Turks were strengthened by the arrival +of fresh troops. Then they retook Jerusalem and in turn +killed the faithful followers of the Cross. + +During the next two centuries, seven other crusades took +place. Gradually the Crusaders learned the technique of the +trip. The land voyage was too tedious and too dangerous. +They preferred to cross the Alps and go to Genoa or Venice +where they took ship for the east. The Genoese and the Venetians +made this trans-Mediterranean passenger service a very +profitable business. They charged exorbitant rates, and when +the Crusaders (most of whom had very little money) could not +pay the price, these Italian ``profiteers'' kindly allowed them +to ``work their way across.'' In return for a fare from Venice +to Acre, the Crusader undertook to do a stated amount of +fighting for the owners of his vessel. In this way Venice greatly +increased her territory along the coast of the Adriatic and in +Greece, where Athens became a Venetian colony, and in the +islands of Cyprus and Crete and Rhodes. + +All this, however, helped little in settling the question +of the Holy Land. After the first enthusiasm had +worn off, a short crusading trip became part of the liberal +education of every well-bred young man, and there +never was any lack of candidates for service in Palestine. +But the old zeal was gone. The Crusaders, who +had begun their warfare with deep hatred for the +Mohammedans and great love for the Christian people +of the eastern Roman Empire and Armenia, suffered +a complete change of heart. They came to despise the +Greeks of Byzantium, who cheated them and frequently betrayed +the cause of the Cross, and the Armenians and all the +other Levantine races, and they began to appreciate the vir- +tues of their enemies who proved to be generous and fair +opponents. + +Of course, it would never do to say this openly. But when +the Crusader returned home, he was likely to imitate the manners +which he had learned from his heathenish foe, compared +to whom the average western knight was still a good deal of a +country bumpkin. He also brought with him several new +food-stuffs, such as peaches and spinach which he planted in his +garden and grew for his own benefit. He gave up the barbarous +custom of wearing a load of heavy armour and appeared +in the flowing robes of silk or cotton which were the traditional +habit of the followers of the Prophet and were originally worn +by the Turks. Indeed the Crusades, which had begun as a +punitive expedition against the Heathen, became a course of +general instruction in civilisation for millions of young Europeans. + +From a military and political point of view the Crusades +were a failure. Jerusalem and a number of cities were taken +and lost. A dozen little kingdoms were established in Syria +and Palestine and Asia Minor, but they were re-conquered by +the Turks and after the year 1244 (when Jerusalem became +definitely Turkish) the status of the Holy Land was the same +as it had been before 1095. + +But Europe had undergone a great change. The people of +the west had been allowed a glimpse of the light and the sunshine +and the beauty of the east. Their dreary castles no +longer satisfied them. They wanted a broader life. Neither +Church nor State could give this to them. + +They found it in the cities. + + + +THE MEDIAEVAL CITY + +WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES +SAID THAT ``CITY AIR IS FREE AIR'' + + +THE early part of the Middle Ages had been an era of +pioneering and of settlement. A new people, who thus far +had lived outside the wild range of forest, mountains and +marshes which protected the north-eastern frontier of the Roman +Empire, had forced its way into the plains of western +Europe and had taken possession of most of the land. They +were restless, as all pioneers have been since the beginning of +time. They liked to be ``on the go.'' They cut down the +forests and they cut each other's throats with equal energy. +Few of them wanted to live in cities. They insisted upon being +``free,'' they loved to feel the fresh air of the hillsides fill their +lungs while they drove their herds across the wind-swept pastures. +When they no longer liked their old homes, they pulled +up stakes and went away in search of fresh adventures. + +The weaker ones died. The hardy fighters and the courageous +women who had followed their men into the wilderness +survived. In this way they developed a strong race of +men. They cared little for the graces of life. They were too +busy to play the fiddle or write pieces of poetry. They had +little love for discussions. The priest, ``the learned man'' of the +village (and before the middle of the thirteenth century, a layman +who could read and write was regarded as a ``sissy'') was +supposed to settle all questions which had no direct practical +value. Meanwhile the German chieftain, the Frankish Baron, +the Northman Duke (or whatever their names and titles) occupied +their share of the territory which once had been part of +the great Roman Empire and among the ruins of past glory, +they built a world of their own which pleased them mightily +and which they considered quite perfect. + +They managed the affairs of their castle and the surrounding +country to the best of their ability. They were as faithful +to the commandments of the Church as any weak mortal could +hope to be. They were sufficiently loyal to their king or emperor +to keep on good terms with those distant but always dangerous +potentates. In short, they tried to do right and to be +fair to their neighbours without being exactly unfair to their +own interests. + +It was not an ideal world in which they found themselves. +The greater part of the people were serfs or ``villains,'' farm- +hands who were as much a part of the soil upon which they +lived as the cows and sheep whose stables they shared. Their +fate was not particularly happy nor was it particularly +unhappy. But what was one to do? The good Lord who ruled +the world of the Middle Ages had undoubtedly ordered everything +for the best. If He, in his wisdom, had decided that +there must be both knights and serfs, it was not the duty of +these faithful sons of the church to question the arrangement. +The serfs therefore did not complain but when they were too +hard driven, they would die off like cattle which are not fed +and stabled in the right way, and then something would be hastily +done to better their condition. But if the progress of the +world had been left to the serf and his feudal master, we would +still be living after the fashion of the twelfth century, saying +``abracadabra'' when we tried to stop a tooth-ache, and feeling +a deep contempt and hatred for the dentist who offered to help +us with his ``science,'' which most likely was of Mohammedan +or heathenish origin and therefore both wicked and useless. + +When you grow up you will discover that many people do +not believe in ``progress'' and they will prove to you by the +terrible deeds of some of our own contemporaries that ``the +world does not change.'' But I hope that you will not pay +much attention to such talk. You see, it took our ancestors +almost a million years to learn how to walk on their hind legs. +Other centuries had to go by before their animal-like grunts +developed into an understandable language. Writing--the art +of preserving our ideas for the benefit of future generations, +without which no progress is possible was invented only four +thousand years ago. The idea of turning the forces of nature +into the obedient servants of man was quite new in the days of +your own grandfather. It seems to me, therefore, that we are +making progress at an unheard-of rate of speed. Perhaps we +have paid a little too much attention to the mere physical comforts +of life. That will change in due course of time and we +shall then attack the problems which are not related to health +and to wages and plumbing and machinery in general. + +But please do not be too sentimental about the ``good old +days.'' Many people who only see the beautiful churches and +the great works of art which the Middle Ages have left behind +grow quite eloquent when they compare our own ugly civilisation +with its hurry and its noise and the evil smells of backfiring +motor trucks with the cities of a thousand years ago. +But these mediaeval churches were invariably surrounded by +miserable hovels compared to which a modern tenement house +stands forth as a luxurious palace. It is true that the noble +Lancelot and the equally noble Parsifal, the pure young hero +who went in search of the Holy Grail, were not bothered by +the odor of gasoline. But there were other smells of the barnyard +variety--odors of decaying refuse which had been thrown +into the street--of pig-sties surrounding the Bishop's palace-- +of unwashed people who had inherited their coats and hats +from their grandfathers and who had never learned the blessing +of soap. I do not want to paint too unpleasant a picture. +But when you read in the ancient chronicles that the King of +France, looking out of the windows of his palace, fainted at +the stench caused by the pigs rooting in the streets of Paris, +when an ancient manuscript recounts a few details of an epidemic +of the plague or of small-pox, then you begin to under- +stand that ``progress'' is something more than a catchword used +by modern advertising men. + +No, the progress of the last six hundred years would not +have been possible without the existence of cities. I shall, +therefore, have to make this chapter a little longer than many +of the others. It is too important to be reduced to three or +four pages, devoted to mere political events. + +The ancient world of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria +had been a world of cities. Greece had been a country of City- +States. The history of Phoenicia was the history of two cities +called Sidon and Tyre. The Roman Empire was the ``hinterland'' +of a single town. Writing, art, science, astronomy, architecture, +literature, the theatre--the list is endless--have all +been products of the city. + +For almost four thousand years the wooden bee-hive which +we call a town had been the workshop of the world. Then came +the great migrations. The Roman Empire was destroyed. +The cities were burned down and Europe once more became a +land of pastures and little agricultural villages. During the +Dark Ages the fields of civilisation had lain fallow. + +The Crusades had prepared the soil for a new crop. It +was time for the harvest, but the fruit was plucked by the +burghers of the free cities. + +I have told you the story of the castles and the monasteries, +with their heavy stone enclosures--the homes of the knights +and the monks, who guarded men's bodies and their souls. +You have seen how a few artisans (butchers and bakers and an +occasional candle-stick maker) came to live near the castle +to tend to the wants of their masters and to find protection +in case of danger. Sometimes the feudal lord allowed these +people to surround their houses with a stockade. But they +were dependent for their living upon the good-will of the +mighty Seigneur of the castle. When he went about they knelt +before him and kissed his hand. + +Then came the Crusades and many things changed. The +migrations had driven people from the north-east to the west. +The Crusades made millions of people travel from the west to +the highly civilised regions of the south-east. They discovered +that the world was not bounded by the four walls of their little +settlement. They came to appreciate better clothes, more +comfortable houses, new dishes, products of the mysterious Orient. +After their return to their old homes, they insisted that they +be supplied with those articles. The peddler with his pack +upon his back--the only merchant of the Dark Ages--added +these goods to his old merchandise, bought a cart, hired a few +ex-crusaders to protect him against the crime wave which +followed this great international war, and went forth to do +business upon a more modern and larger scale. His career was +not an easy one. Every time he entered the domains of another +Lord he had to pay tolls and taxes. But the business +was profitable all the same and the peddler continued to make +his rounds. + +Soon certain energetic merchants discovered that the goods +which they had always imported from afar could be made at +home. They turned part of their homes into a workgshop.{sic} +They ceased to be merchants and became manufacturers. They +sold their products not only to the lord of the castle and to the +abbot in his monastery, but they exported them to nearby towns. +The lord and the abbot paid them with products of their farms, +eggs and wines, and with honey, which in those early days was +used as sugar. But the citizens of distant towns were obliged +to pay in cash and the manufacturer and the merchant began to +own little pieces of gold, which entirely changed their position +in the society of the early Middle Ages. + +It is difficult for you to imagine a world without money. +In a modern city one cannot possible live without money. All +day long you carry a pocket full of small discs of metal to +``pay your way.'' You need a nickel for the street-car, a dollar +for a dinner, three cents for an evening paper. But many +people of the early Middle Ages never saw a piece of coined +money from the time they were born to the day of their death. +The gold and silver of Greece and Rome lay buried beneath +the ruins of their cities. The world of the migrations, which +had succeeded the Empire, was an agricultural world. Every +farmer raised enough grain and enough sheep and enough +cows for his own use. + +The mediaeval knight was a country squire and was rarely +forced to pay for materials in money. His estates produced +everything that he and his family ate and drank and wore on +their backs. The bricks for his house were made along the +banks of the nearest river. Wood for the rafters of the hall +was cut from the baronial forest. The few articles that had to +come from abroad were paid for in goods--in honey--in eggs +--in fagots. + +But the Crusades upset the routine of the old agricultural +life in a very drastic fashion. Suppose that the Duke of Hildesheim +was going to the Holy Land. He must travel thousands +of miles and he must pay his passage and his hotel-bills. +At home he could pay with products of his farm. But he +could not well take a hundred dozen eggs and a cart-load of +hams with him to satisfy the greed of the shipping agent of +Venice or the inn-keeper of the Brenner Pass. These gentlemen +insisted upon cash. His Lordship therefore was obliged +to take a small quantity of gold with him upon his voyage. +Where could he find this gold? He could borrow it from the +Lombards, the descendants of the old Longobards, who had +turned professional money-lenders, who seated behind their +exchange-table (commonly known as ``banco'' or bank) were +glad to let his Grace have a few hundred gold pieces in exchange +for a mortgage upon his estates, that they might be repaid +in case His Lordship should die at the hands of the Turks. + +That was dangerous business for the borrower. In the end, +the Lombards invariably owned the estates and the Knight +became a bankrupt, who hired himself out as a fighting man to +a more powerful and more careful neighbour. + +His Grace could also go to that part of the town where the +Jews were forced to live. There he could borrow money at a +rate of fifty or sixty percent. interest. That, too, was bad +business. But was there a way out? Some of the people of the +little city which surrounded the castle were said to have money. +They had known the young lord all his life. His father and +their fathers had been good friends. They would not be +unreasonable in their demands. Very well. His Lordship's +clerk, a monk who could write and keep accounts, sent a note +to the best known merchants and asked for a small loan. The +townspeople met in the work-room of the jeweller who made +chalices for the nearby churches and discussed this demand. +They could not well refuse. It would serve no purpose to +ask for ``interest.'' In the first place, it was against the +religious principles of most people to take interest and in the +second place, it would never be paid except in agricultural +products and of these the people had enough and to spare. + +``But,'' suggested the tailor who spent his days quietly sitting +upon his table and who was somewhat of a philosopher, +``suppose that we ask some favour in return for our money. +We are all fond of fishing. But his Lordship won't let us +fish in his brook. Suppose that we let him have a hundred +ducats and that he give us in return a written guarantee allowing +us to fish all we want in all of his rivers. Then he gets +the hundred which he needs, but we get the fish and it will be +good business all around.'' + +The day his Lordship accepted this proposition (it seemed +such an easy way of getting a hundred gold pieces) he signed +the death-warrant of his own power. His clerk drew up the +agreement. His Lordship made his mark (for he could not +sign his name) and departed for the East. Two years later +he came back, dead broke. The townspeople were fishing in +the castle pond. The sight of this silent row of anglers annoyed +his Lordship. He told his equerry to go and chase the crowd +away. They went, but that night a delegation of merchants +visited the castle. They were very polite. They congratulated +his Lordship upon his safe return. They were sorry his +Lordship had been annoyed by the fishermen, but as his Lordship +might perhaps remember he had given them permission +to do so himself, and the tailor produced the Charter which +had been kept in the safe of the jeweller ever since the master +had gone to the Holy Land. + +His Lordship was much annoyed. But once more he was +in dire need of some money. In Italy he had signed his name +to certain documents which were now in the possession of Salvestro +dei Medici, the well-known banker. These documents +were ``promissory notes'' and they were due two months from +date. Their total amount came to three hundred and forty +pounds, Flemish gold. Under these circumstances, the noble +knight could not well show the rage which filled his heart and +his proud soul. Instead, he suggested another little loan. The +merchants retired to discuss the matter. + +After three days they came back and said ``yes.'' They +were only too happy to be able to help their master in his +difficulties, but in return for the 345 golden pounds would he give +them another written promise (another charter) that they, +the townspeople, might establish a council of their own to be +elected by all the merchants and free citizens of the city, said +council to manage civic affairs without interference from the +side of the castle? + +His Lordship was confoundedly angry. But again, +he needed the money. He said yes, and signed the charter. +Next week, he repented. He called his soldiers and went to +the house of the jeweller and asked for the documents which +his crafty subjects had cajoled out of him under the pressure +of circumstances. He took them away and burned them. +The townspeople stood by and said nothing. But when next +his Lordship needed money to pay for the dowry of his daughter. +he was unable to get a single penny. After that little +affair at the jeweller's his credit was not considered good. +He was forced to eat humble-pie and offer to make certain reparations. +Before his Lordship got the first installment of the stipulated sum, +the townspeople were once more in possession of all their old charters +and a brand new one which permitted them to build a ``city-hall'' +and a strong tower where all the charters might be kept protected +against fire and theft, which really meant protected against +future violence on the part of the Lord and his armed followers. + +This, in a very general way, is what happened during the +centuries which followed the Crusades. It was a slow process, +this gradual shifting of power from the castle to the city. There +was some fighting. A few tailors and jewellers were killed and +a few castles went up in smoke. But such occurrences were +not common. Almost imperceptibly the towns grew richer +and the feudal lords grew poorer. To maintain themselves +they were for ever forced to exchange charters of civic liberty +in return for ready cash. The cities grew. They offered an +asylum to run-away serfs who gained their liberty after they +had lived a number of years behind the city walls. They came +to be the home of the more energetic elements of the +surrounding country districts. They were proud of +their new importance and expressed their power in the +churches and public buildings which they erected +around the old market place, where centuries before +the barter of eggs and sheep and honey and salt +had taken place. They wanted their children to +have a better chance in life than they had enjoyed +themselves. They hired monks to come to their city and +be school teachers. When they heard of a man who could +paint pictures upon boards of wood, they offered him a pension +if he would come and cover the walls of their chapels and their +town hall with scenes from the Holy Scriptures. + +Meanwhile his Lordship, in the dreary and drafty halls of +his castle, saw all this up-start splendour and regretted the +day when first he had signed away a single one of his sovereign +rights and prerogatives. But he was helpless. The townspeople +with their well-filled strong-boxes snapped their fingers +at him. They were free men, fully prepared to hold what they +had gained by the sweat of their brow and after a struggle +which had lasted for more than ten generations. + + + +MEDIAEVAL SELF-GOVERNMENT + +HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED +THEIR RIGHT TO BE HEARD IN THE +ROYAL COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY + + +As long as people were ``nomads,'' wandering tribes of shepherds, +all men had been equal and had been responsible for the +welfare and safety of the entire community. + +But after they had settled down and some had become rich +and others had grown poor, the government was apt to fall into +the hands of those who were not obliged to work for their living +and who could devote themselves to politics. + +I have told you how this had happened in Egypt and in +Mesopotamia and in Greece and in Rome. It occurred among +the Germanic population of western Europe as soon as order +had been restored. The western European world was ruled +in the first place by an emperor who was elected by the seven +or eight most important kings of the vast Roman Empire of +the German nation and who enjoyed a great deal of imaginary +and very little actual power. It was ruled by a number of +kings who sat upon shaky thrones. The every-day government +was in the hands of thousands of feudal princelets. Their +subjects were peasants or serfs. There were few cities. There +was hardly any middle class. But during the thirteenth century +(after an absence of almost a thousand years) the middle +class--the merchant class--once more appeared upon the his- +torical stage and its rise in power, as we saw in the last chapter, +had meant a decrease in the influence of the castle folk. + +Thus far, the king, in ruling his domains, had only paid +attention to the wishes of his noblemen and his bishops. But the +new world of trade and commerce which grew out of the +Crusades forced him to recognise the middle class or suffer +from an ever-increasing emptiness of his exchequer. Their +majesties (if they had followed their hidden wishes) would +have as lief consulted their cows and their pigs as the good +burghers of their cities. But they could not help themselves. +They swallowed the bitter pill because it was gilded, but not +without a struggle. + +In England, during the absence of Richard the Lion +Hearted (who had gone to the Holy Land, but who was spending +the greater part of his crusading voyage in an Austrian +jail) the government of the country had been placed in the +hands of John, a brother of Richard, who was his inferior in +the art of war, but his equal as a bad administrator. John had +begun his career as a regent by losing Normandy and the +greater part of the French possessions. Next, he had managed +to get into a quarrel with Pope Innocent III, the famous +enemy of the Hohenstaufens. The Pope had excommunicated +John (as Gregory VII had excommunicated the Emperor +Henry IV two centuries before). In the year 1213 John had +been obliged to make an ignominious peace just as Henry IV +had been obliged to do in the year 1077. + +Undismayed by his lack of success, John continued to abuse +his royal power until his disgruntled vassals made a prisoner +of their anointed ruler and forced him to promise that he +would be good and would never again interfere with the ancient +rights of his subjects. All this happened on a little island in +the Thames, near the village of Runnymede, on the 15th of +June of the year 1215. The document to which John signed +his name was called the Big Charter--the Magna Carta. It +contained very little that was new. It re-stated in short and +direct sentences the ancient duties of the king and enumerated +the privileges of his vassals. It paid little attention to the +rights (if any) of the vast majority of the people, the peasants, +but it offered certain securities to the rising class of the +merchants. It was a charter of great importance because it defined +the powers of the king with more precision than had ever been +done before. But it was still a purely mediaeval document. It +did not refer to common human beings, unless they happened to +be the property of the vassal, which must be safe-guarded +against royal tyranny just as the Baronial woods and cows +were protected against an excess of zeal on the part of the +royal foresters. + +A few years later, however, we begin to hear a very different +note in the councils of His Majesty. + +John, who was bad, both by birth and inclination, solemnly +had promised to obey the great charter and then had broken +every one of its many stipulations. Fortunately, he soon died +and was succeeded by his son Henry III, who was forced to +recognise the charter anew. Meanwhile, Uncle Richard, the +Crusader, had cost the country a great deal of money and the +king was obliged to ask for a few loans that he might pay his +obligations to the Jewish money-lenders. The large land-owners +and the bishops who acted as councillors to the king could +not provide him with the necessary gold and silver. The king +then gave orders that a few representatives of the cities be +called upon to attend the sessions of his Great Council. They +made their first appearance in the year 1265. They were supposed +to act only as financial experts who were not supposed +to take a part in the general discussion of matters of state, but +to give advice exclusively upon the question of taxation. + +Gradually, however, these representatives of the ``commons'' +were consulted upon many of the problems and the meeting +of noblemen, bishops and city delegates developed into a regular +Parliament, a place ``ou l'on parfait,'' which means in English +where people talked, before important affairs of state were +decided upon. + +But the institution of such a general advisory-board with +certain executive powers was not an English invention, as +seems to ke the general belief, and government by a ``king and +his parliament'' was by no means restricted to the British Isles. +You will find it in every part of Europe. In some countries, +like France, the rapid increase of the Royal power after the +Middle Ages reduced the influence of the ``parliament'' to nothing. +In the year 1302 representatives of the cities had been +admitted to the meeting of the French Parliament, but five +centuries had to pass before this ``Parliament'' was strong +enough to assert the rights of the middle class, the so-called +Third Estate, and break the power of the king. Then they +made up for lost time and during the French Revolution, abolished +the king, the clergy and the nobles and made the representatives +of the common people the rulers of the land. In +Spain the ``cortex'' (the king's council) had been opened to the +commoners as early as the first half of the twelfth century. +In the Germain Empire, a number of important cities had obtained +the rank of ``imperial cities'' whose representatives must +be heard in the imperial diet. + +In Sweden, representatives of the people attended the sessions +of the Riksdag at the first meeting of the year 1359. In +Denmark the Daneholf, the ancient national assembly, was re- +established in 1314, and, although the nobles often regained control +of the country at the expense of the king and the people, +the representatives of the cities were never completely deprived +of their power. + +In the Scandinavian country, the story of representative +government is particularly interesting. In Iceland, the ``Althing,'' +the assembly of all free landowners, who managed the +affairs of the island, began to hold regular meetings in the ninth +century and continued to do so for more than a thousand +years. + +In Switzerland, the freemen of the different cantons defended +their assemblies against the attempts of a number of +feudal neighbours with great success. + +Finally, in the Low Countries, in Holland, the councils of +the different duchies and counties were attended by representatives +of the third estate as early as the thirteenth century. + +In the sixteenth century a number of these small provinces +rebelled against their king, abjured his majesty in a solemn +meeting of the ``Estates General,'' removed the clergy from +the discussions, broke the power of the nobles and assumed full +executive authority over the newly-established Republic of the +United Seven Netherlands. For two centuries, the representatives +of the town-councils ruled the country without a king, +without bishops and without noblemen. The city had become +supreme and the good burghers had become the rulers of the +land. + + + +THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD + +WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES +THOUGHT OF THE WORLD IN WHICH +THEY HAPPENED TO LIVE + + +DATES are a very useful invention. We could not do without +them but unless we are very careful, they will play tricks +with us. They are apt to make history too precise. For example, +when I talk of the point-of-view of mediaeval man, I +do not mean that on the 31st of December of the year 476, +suddenly all the people of Europe said, ``Ah, now the Roman +Empire has come to an end and we are living in the Middle +Ages. How interesting!'' + +You could have found men at the Frankish court of Charlemagne +who were Romans in their habits, in their manners, in +their out-look upon life. On the other hand, when you grow +up you will discover that some of the people in this world have +never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man. All times +and all ages overlap, and the ideas of succeeding generations +play tag with each other. But it is possible to study the minds +of a good many true representatives of the Middle Ages and +then give you an idea of the average man's attitude toward +life and the many difficult problems of living. + +First of all, remember that the people of the Middle Ages +never thought of themselves as free-born citizens, who could +come and go at will and shape their fate according to their +ability or energy or luck. On the contrary, they all considered +themselves part of the general scheme of things, which included +emperors and serfs, popes and heretics, heroes and swashbucklers, +rich men, poor men, beggar men and thieves. They accepted +this divine ordinance and asked no questions. In this, +of course, they differed radically from modern people who accept +nothing and who are forever trying to improve their own +financial and political situation. + +To the man and woman of the thirteenth century, the world +hereafter--a Heaven of wonderful delights and a Hell of brimstone +and suffering--meant something more than empty words +or vague theological phrases. It was an actual fact and the +mediaeval burghers and knights spent the greater part of their +time preparing for it. We modern people regard a noble +death after a well-spent life with the quiet calm of the ancient +Greeks and Romans. After three score years of work and effort, +we go to sleep with the feeling that all will be well. + +But during the Middle Ages, the King of Terrors with +his grinning skull and his rattling bones was man's steady +companion. He woke his victims up with terrible tunes on his +scratchy fiddle he sat down with them at dinner--he smiled +at them from behind trees and shrubs when they took a girl +out for a walk. If you had heard nothing but hair-raising +yarns about cemeteries and coffins and fearful diseases when +you were very young, instead of listening to the fairy stories +of Anderson and Grimm, you, too, would have lived all your +days in a dread of the final hour and the gruesome day of +Judgment. That is exactly what happened to the children of +the Middle Ages. They moved in a world of devils and spooks +and only a few occasional angels. Sometimes, their fear of +the future filled their souls with humility and piety, but often +it influenced them the other way and made them cruel and +sentimental. They would first of all murder all the women +and children of a captured city and then they would devoutly +march to a holy spot and with their hands gory with the blood +of innocent victims, they would pray that a merciful heaven forgive +them their sins. Yea, they would do more than pray, they +would weep bitter tears and would confess themselves the most +wicked of sinners. But the next day, they would once more +butcher a camp of Saracen enemies without a spark of mercy +in their hearts. + +Of course, the Crusaders were Knights and obeyed a somewhat +different code of manners from the common men. But in +such respects the common man was just the same as his master. +He, too, resembled a shy horse, easily frightened by a +shadow or a silly piece of paper, capable of excellent and faithful +service but liable to run away and do terrible damage when +his feverish imagination saw a ghost. + +In judging these good people, however, it is wise to remember +the terrible disadvantages under which they lived. +They were really barbarians who posed as civilised people. +Charlemagne and Otto the Great were called ``Roman Emperors,'' +but they had as little resemblance to a real Roman Emperor +(say Augustus or Marcus Aurelius) as ``King'' Wumba +Wumba of the upper Congo has to the highly educated rulers +of Sweden or Denmark. They were savages who lived amidst +glorious ruins but who did not share the benefits of the +civilisation which their fathers and grandfathers had destroyed. +They knew nothing. They were ignorant of almost every fact +which a boy of twelve knows to-day. They were obliged to go +to one single book for all their information. That was the +Bible. But those parts of the Bible which have influenced the +history of the human race for the better are those chapters of +the New Testament which teach us the great moral lessons of +love, charity and forgiveness. As a handbook of astronomy, +zoology, botany, geometry and all the other sciences, the venerable +book is not entirely reliable. In the twelfth century, a +second book was added to the mediaeval library, the great +encyclopaedia of useful knowledge, compiled by Aristotle, the +Greek philosopher of the fourth century before Christ. Why +the Christian church should have been willing to accord such +high honors to the teacher of Alexander the Great, whereas +they condemned all other Greek philosophers on account of +their heathenish doctrines, I really do not know. But next to +the Bible, Aristotle was recognized as the only reliable teacher +whose works could be safely placed into the hands of true +Christians. + +His works had reached Europe in a somewhat roundabout +way. They had gone from Greece to Alexandria. They had +then been translated from the Greek into the Arabic language +by the Mohammedans who conquered Egypt in the seventh +century. They had followed the Moslem armies into Spain and +the philosophy of the great Stagirite (Aristotle was a native of +Stagira in Macedonia) was taught in the Moorish universities +of Cordova. The Arabic text was then translated into Latin +by the Christian students who had crossed the Pyrenees to get +a liberal education and this much travelled version of the famous +books was at last taught at the different schools of northwestern +Europe. It was not very clear, but that made it all +the more interesting. + +With the help of the Bible and Aristotle, the most brilliant +men of the Middle Ages now set to work to explain all things +between Heaven and Earth in their relation to the expressed +will of God. These brilliant men, the so-called Scholasts or +Schoolmen, were really very intelligent, but they had obtained +their information exclusively from books, and never from actual +observation. If they wanted to lecture on the sturgeon +or on caterpillars, they read the Old and New Testaments and +Aristotle, and told their students everything these good books +had to say upon the subject of caterpillars and sturgeons. +They did not go out to the nearest river to catch a sturgeon. +They did not leave their libraries and repair to the backyard +to catch a few caterpillars and look at these animals and study +them in their native haunts. Even such famous scholars as +Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas did not inquire whether +the sturgeons in the land of Palestine and the caterpillars of +Macedonia might not have been different from the sturgeons +and the caterpillars of western Europe. + +When occasionally an exceptionally curious person like +Roger Bacon appeared in the council of the learned and began +to experiment with magnifying glasses and funny little telescopes +and actually dragged the sturgen and the caterpillar +into the lecturing room and proved that they were different +from the creatures described by the Old Testament and by +Aristotle, the Schoolmen shook their dignified heads. Bacon +was going too far. When he dared to suggest that an hour +of actual observation was worth more than ten years with +Aristotle and that the works of that famous Greek might as +well have remained untranslated for all the good they had ever +done, the scholasts went to the police and said, ``This man is +a danger to the safety of the state. He wants us to study +Greek that we may read Aristotle in the original. Why should +he not be contented with our Latin-Arabic translation which +has satisfied our faithful people for so many hundred years? +Why is he so curious about the insides of fishes and the insides +of insects? He is probably a wicked magician trying to upset +the established order of things by his Black Magic.'' And so +well did they plead their cause that the frightened guardians +of the peace forbade Bacon to write a single word for more +than ten years. When he resumed his studies he had learned +a lesson. He wrote his books in a queer cipher which made it +impossible for his contemporaries to read them, a trick which +became common as the Church became more desperate in its +attempts to prevent people from asking questions which would +lead to doubts and infidelity. + +This, however, was not done out of any wicked desire to +keep people ignorant. The feeling which prompted the heretic +hunters of that day was really a very kindly one. They firmly +believed--nay, they knew--that this life was but the preparation +for our real existence in the next world. They felt convinced +that too much knowledge made people uncomfortable, +filled their minds with dangerous opinions and led to doubt +and hence to perdition. A mediaeval Schoolman who saw one +of his pupils stray away from the revealed authority of the +Bible and Aristotle, that he might study things for himself, felt +as uncomfortable as a loving mother who sees her young child +approach a hot stove. She knows that he will burn his little +fingers if he is allowed to touch it and she tries to keep him +back, if necessary she will use force. But she really loves +the child and if he will only obey her, she will be as good to him +as she possibly can be. In the same way the mediaeval guardians +of people's souls, while they were strict in all matters +pertaining to the Faith, slaved day and night to render the +greatest possible service to the members of their flock. They +held out a helping hand whenever they could and the society +of that day shows the influence of thousands of good men and +pious women who tried to make the fate of the average mortal +as bearable as possible. + +A serf was a serf and his position would never change. But +the Good Lord of the Middle Ages who allowed the serf to +remain a slave all his life had bestowed an immortal soul upon +this humble creature and therefore he must be protected in his +rights, that he might live and die as a good Christian. When +he grew too old or too weak to work he must be taken care +of by the feudal master for whom he had worked. The serf, +therefore, who led a monotonous and dreary life, was never +haunted by fear of to-morrow. He knew that he was ``safe''-- +that he could not be thrown out of employment, that he would +always have a roof over his head (a leaky roof, perhaps, but +roof all the same), and that he would always have something +to eat. + +This feeling of ``stability'' and of ``safety'' was found in all +classes of society. In the towns the merchants and the artisans +established guilds which assured every member of a steady income. +It did not encourage the ambitious to do better than +their neighbours. Too often the guilds gave protection to +the ``slacker'' who managed to ``get by.'' But they established +a general feeling of content and assurance among the +labouring classes which no longer exists in our day of general +competition. The Middle Ages were familiar with the dangers +of what we modern people call ``corners,'' when a single rich +man gets hold of all the available grain or soap or pickled +herring, and then forces the world to buy from him at his own +price. The authorities, therefore, discouraged wholesale trading +and regulated the price at which merchants were allowed +to sell their goods. + +The Middle Ages disliked competition. Why compete and +fill the world with hurry and rivalry and a multitude of pushing +men, when the Day of Judgement was near at hand, when +riches would count for nothing and when the good serf would +enter the golden gates of Heaven while the bad knight was +sent to do penance in the deepest pit of Inferno? + +In short, the people of the Middle Ages were asked to surrender +part of their liberty of thought and action, that they +might enjoy greater safety from poverty of the body and poverty +of the soul. + +And with a very few exceptions, they did not object. They +firmly believed that they were mere visitors upon this planet-- +that they were here to be prepared for a greater and more +important life. Deliberately they turned their backs upon a +world which was filled with suffering and wickedness and +injustice. They pulled down the blinds that the rays of the +sun might not distract their attention from that chapter in the +Apocalypse which told them of that heavenly light which was +to illumine their happiness in all eternity. They tried to close +their eyes to most of the joys of the world in which they lived +that they might enjoy those which awaited them in the near +future. They accepted life as a necessary evil and welcomed +death as the beginning of a glorious day. + +The Greeks and the Romans had never bothered about the +future but had tried to establish their Paradise right here upon +this earth. They had succeeded in making life extremely pleasant +for those of their fellow men who did not happen to be +slaves. Then came the other extreme of the Middle Ages, +when man built himself a Paradise beyond the highest clouds +and turned this world into a vale of tears for high and low, +for rich and poor, for the intelligent and the dumb. It was +time for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction, as +I shall tell you in my next chapter. + + + +MEDIAEVAL TRADE + +HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE +MEDITERRANEAN A BUSY CENTRE OF +TRADE AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE +ITALIAN PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT +DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE COMMERCE +WITH ASIA AND AFRICA + + +THERE were three good reasons why the Italian cities should +have been the first to regain a position of great importance +during the late Middle Ages. The Italian peninsula had been +settled by Rome at a very early date. There had been more +roads and more towns and more schools than anywhere else +in Europe. + +The barbarians had burned as lustily in Italy as elsewhere, +but there had been so much to destroy that more had been able +to survive. In the second place, the Pope lived in Italy and +as the head of a vast political machine, which owned land and +serfs and buildings and forests and rivers and conducted courts +of law, he was in constant receipt of a great deal of money. +The Papal authorities had to be paid in gold and silver as did +the merchants and ship-owners of Venice and Genoa. The +cows and the eggs and the horses and all the other agricultural +products of the north and the west must be changed into actual +cash before the debt could be paid in the distant city of Rome. + +This made Italy the one country where there was a comparative +abundance of gold and silver. Finally, during the Crusades, +the Italian cities had become the point of embarkation +for the Crusaders and had profiteered to an almost unbelievable +extent. + +And after the Crusades had come to an end, these same +Italian cities remained the distributing centres for those Oriental +goods upon which the people of Europe had come to depend +during the time they had spent in the near east. + +Of these towns, few were as famous as Venice. Venice was +a republic built upon a mud bank. Thither people from the +mainland had fled during the invasions of the barbarians in the +fourth century. Surrounded on all sides by the sea they had +engaged in the business of salt-making. Salt had been very +scarce during the Middle Ages, and the price had been high. +For hundreds of years Venice had enjoyed a monopoly of +this indispensable table commodity (I say indispensable, because +people, like sheep, fall ill unless they get a certain amount +of salt in their food). The people had used this monopoly to +increase the power of their city. At times they had even dared +to defy the power of the Popes. The town had grown rich and +had begun to build ships, which engaged in trade with the +Orient. During the Crusades, these ships were used to carry +passengers to the Holy Land, and when the passengers could +not pay for their tickets in cash, they were obliged to help the +Venetians who were for ever increasing their colonies in the +AEgean Sea, in Asia Minor and in Egypt. + +By the end of the fourteenth century, the population had +grown to two hundred thousand, which made Venice the biggest +city of the Middle Ages. The people were without influence +upon the government which was the private affair of a +small number of rich merchant families. They elected a senate +and a Doge (or Duke), but the actual rulers of the city were +the members of the famous Council of Ten,--who maintained +themselves with the help of a highly organised system of secret +service men and professional murderers, who kept watch upon +all citizens and quietly removed those who might be dangerous +to the safety of their high-handed and unscrupulous Committee +of Public Safety. + +The other extreme of government, a democracy of very +turbulent habits, was to be found in Florence. This city +controlled the main road from northern Europe to Rome and used +the money which it had derived from this fortunate economic +position to engage in manufacturing. The Florentines tried to +follow the example of Athens. Noblemen, priests and members +of the guilds all took part in the discussions of civic affairs. +This led to great civic upheaval. People were forever being divided +into political parties and these parties fought each other +with intense bitterness and exiled their enemies and confiscated +their possessions as soon as they had gained a victory in the +council. After several centuries of this rule by organised mobs, +the inevitable happened. A powerful family made itself master +of the city and governed the town and the surrounding country +after the fashion of the old Greek ``tyrants.'' They were called +the Medici. The earliest Medici had been physicians (medicus +is Latin for physician, hence their name), but later they had +turned banker. Their banks and their pawnshops were to be +found in all the more important centres of trade. Even today +our American pawn-shops display the three golden balls +which were part of the coat of arms of the mighty house of +the Medici, who became rulers of Florence and married their +daughters to the kings of France and were buried in graves +worthy of a Roman Caesar. + +Then there was Genoa, the great rival of Venice, where +the merchants specialised in trade with Tunis in Africa and +the grain depots of the Black Sea. Then there were more than +two hundred other cities, some large and some small, each a perfect +commercial unit, all of them fighting their neighbours and +rivals with the undying hatred of neighbours who are depriving +each other of their profits. + +Once the products of the Orient and Africa had been +brought to these distributing centres, they must be prepared +for the voyage to the west and the north. + +Genoa carried her goods by water to Marseilles, from where +they were reshipped to the cities along the Rhone, which in +turn served as the market places of northern and western +France. + +Venice used the land route to northern Europe. This ancient +road led across the Brenner pass, the old gateway for +the barbarians who had invaded Italy. Past Innsbruck, the +merchandise was carried to Basel. From there it drifted down +the Rhine to the North Sea and England, or it was taken to +Augsburg where the Fugger family (who were both bankers +and manufacturers and who prospered greatly by ``shaving'' +the coins with which they paid their workmen), looked after +the further distribution to Nuremberg and Leipzig and the +cities of the Baltic and to Wisby (on the Island of Gotland) +which looked after the needs of the Northern Baltic and dealt +directly with the Republic of Novgorod, the old commercial +centre of Russia which was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in +the middle of the sixteenth century. + +The little cities on the coast of north-western Europe had +an interesting story of their own. The mediaeval world ate a +great deal of fish. There were many fast days and then people +were not permitted to eat meat. For those who lived away +from the coast and from the rivers, this meant a diet of eggs +or nothing at all. But early in the thirteenth century a Dutch +fisherman had discovered a way of curing herring, so that it +could be transported to distant points. The herring fisheries +of the North Sea then became of great importance. But some +time during the thirteenth century, this useful little fish (for +reasons of its own) moved from the North Sea to the Baltic and +the cities of that inland sea began to make money. All the +world now sailed to the Baltic to catch herring and as that fish +could only be caught during a few months each year (the rest +of the time it spends in deep water, raising large families of +little herrings) the ships would have been idle during the rest +of the time unless they had found another occupation. They +were then used to carry the wheat of northern and central Russia +to southern and western Europe. On the return voyage +they brought spices and silks and carpets and Oriental rugs +from Venice and Genoa to Bruges and Hamburg and Bremen. + +Out of such simple beginnings there developed an important +system of international trade which reached from the +manufacturing cities of Bruges and Ghent (where the almighty +guilds fought pitched battles with the kings of France and +England and established a labour tyranny which completely +ruined both the employers and the workmen) to the Republic +of Novgorod in northern Russia, which was a mighty city until +Tsar Ivan, who distrusted all merchants, took the town and +killed sixty thousand people in less than a month's time and +reduced the survivors to beggary. + +That they might protect themselves against pirates and +excessive tolls and annoying legislation, the merchants of the +north founded a protective league which was called the +``Hansa.'' The Hansa, which had its headquarters in Lubeck, +was a voluntary association of more than one hundred cities. +The association maintained a navy of its own which patrolled +the seas and fought and defeated the Kings of England and +Denmark when they dared to interfere with the rights and the +privileges of the mighty Hanseatic merchants. + +I wish that I had more space to tell you some of the wonderful +stories of this strange commerce which was carried on +across the high mountains and across the deep seas amidst +such dangers that every voyage became a glorious adventure. +But it would take several volumes and it cannot be done here. + +Besides, I hope that I have told you enough about the Middle +Ages to make you curious to read more in the excellent books +of which I shall give you a list at the end of this volume. + +The Middle Ages, as I have tried to show you, had been a +period of very slow progress. The people who were in power +believed that ``progress'' was a very undesirable invention of +the Evil One and ought to be discouraged, and as they hap- +pened to occupy the seats of the mighty, it was easy to enforce +their will upon the patient serfs and the illiterate knights. +Here and there a few brave souls sometimes ventured forth into +the forbidden region of science, but they fared badly and were +considered lucky when they escaped with their lives and a jail +sentence of twenty years. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the flood of +international commerce swept over western Europe as the Nile +had swept across the valley of ancient Egypt. It left behind +a fertile sediment of prosperity. Prosperity meant leisure +hours and these leisure hours gave both men and women a +chance to buy manuscripts and take an interest in literature +and art and music. + +Then once more was the world filled with that divine curiosity +which has elevated man from the ranks of those other +mammals who are his distant cousins but who have remained +dumb, and the cities, of whose growth and development I have +told you in my last chapter, offered a safe shelter to these +brave pioneers who dared to leave the very narrow domain +of the established order of things. + +They set to work. They opened the windows of their +cloistered and studious cells. A flood of sunlight entered the +dusty rooms and showed them the cobwebs which had gathered +during the long period of semi-darkness. + +They began to clean house. Next they cleaned their gardens. + +Then they went out into the open fields, outside the crumbling +town walls, and said, ``This is a good world. We are +glad that we live in it.'' + +At that moment, the Middle Ages came to an end and a new +world began. + + + +THE RENAISSANCE + +PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY +JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE ALIVE. THEY +TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE +OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION +OF ROME AND GREECE AND THEY +WERE SO PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS +THAT THEY SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE +OR RE-BIRTH OF CIVILISATION + + +THE Renaissance was not a political or religious movement. +It was a state of mind. + +The men of the Renaissance continued to be the obedient +sons of the mother church. They were subjects of kings and +emperors and dukes and murmured not. + +But their outlook upon life was changed. They began to +wear different clothes--to speak a different language--to live +different lives in different houses. + +They no longer concentrated all their thoughts and their +efforts upon the blessed existence that awaited them in Heaven. +They tried to establish their Paradise upon this planet, and, +truth to tell, they succeeded in a remarkable degree. + +I have quite often warned you against the danger that +lies in historical dates. People take them too literally. They +think of the Middle Ages as a period of darkness and ignor- +ance. ``Click,'' says the clock, and the Renaissance begins and +cities and palaces are flooded with the bright sunlight of an +eager intellectual curiosity. + +As a matter of fact, it is quite impossible to draw such +sharp lines. The thirteenth century belonged most decidedly +to the Middle Ages. All historians agree upon that. But was +it a time of darkness and stagnation merely? By no means. +People were tremendously alive. Great states were being +founded. Large centres of commerce were being developed. +High above the turretted towers of the castle and the peaked +roof of the town-hall, rose the slender spire of the newly built +Gothic cathedral. Everywhere the world was in motion. The +high and mighty gentlemen of the city-hall, who had just become +conscious of their own strength (by way of their recently +acquired riches) were struggling for more power with their +feudal masters. The members of the guilds who had just become +aware of the important fact that ``numbers count'' were +fighting the high and mighty gentlemen of the city-hall. The +king and his shrewd advisers went fishing in these troubled +waters and caught many a shining bass of profit which they +proceeded to cook and eat before the noses of the surprised and +disappointed councillors and guild brethren. + +To enliven the scenery during the long hours of evening +when the badly lighted streets did not invite further political +and economic dispute, the Troubadours and Minnesingers told +their stories and sang their songs of romance and adventure +and heroism and loyalty to all fair women. Meanwhile youth, +impatient of the slowness of progress, flocked to the universities, +and thereby hangs a story. + +The Middle Ages were ``internationally minded.'' That +sounds difficult, but wait until I explain it to you. We modern +people are ``nationally minded.'' We are Americans or Englishmen +or Frenchmen or Italians and speak English or French +or Italian and go to English and French and Italian universities, +unless we want to specialise in some particular branch +of learning which is only taught elsewhere, and then we learn +another language and go to Munich or Madrid or Moscow. +But the people of the thirteenth or fourteenth century rarely +talked of themselves as Englishmen or Frenchmen or Italians. +They said, ``I am a citizen of Sheffield or Bordeaux or Genoa.'' +Because they all belonged to one and the same church they felt +a certain bond of brotherhood. And as all educated men could +speak Latin, they possessed an international language which +removed the stupid language barriers which have grown up +in modern Europe and which place the small nations at such +an enormous disadvantage. Just as an example, take the case +of Erasmus, the great preacher of tolerance and laughter, who +wrote his books in the sixteenth century. He was the native +of a small Dutch village. He wrote in Latin and all the world +was his audience. If he were alive to-day, he would write in +Dutch. Then only five or six million people would be able to +read him. To be understood by the rest of Europe and America, +his publishers would be obliged to translate his books into +twenty different languages. That would cost a lot of money +and most likely the publishers would never take the trouble +or the risk. + +Six hundred years ago that could not happen. The greater +part of the people were still very ignorant and could not read +or write at all. But those who had mastered the difficult art +of handling the goose-quill belonged to an international republic +of letters which spread across the entire continent and which +knew of no boundaries and respected no limitations of language +or nationality. The universities were the strongholds of +this republic. Unlike modern fortifications, they did not follow +the frontier. They were to be found wherever a teacher +and a few pupils happened to find themselves together. There +again the Middle Ages and the Renaissance differed from our +own time. Nowadays, when a new university is built, the +process (almost invariably) is as follows: Some rich man +wants to do something for the community in which he lives or +a particular religious sect wants to build a school to keep its +faithful children under decent supervision, or a state needs doc- +tors and lawyers and teachers. The university begins as a +large sum of money which is deposited in a bank. This money +is then used to construct buildings and laboratories and dormitories. +Finally professional teachers are hired, entrance examinations +are held and the university is on the way. + +But in the Middle Ages things were done differently. A wise man +said to himself, ``I have discovered a great truth. I must impart my +knowledge to others.'' And he began to preach his wisdom +wherever and whenever he could get a few people to listen to him, +like a modern soap-box orator. If he was an interesting speaker, the +crowd came and stayed. If he was dull, they shrugged their shoulders +and continued their way. + +By and by certain young men began to come regularly to hear +the words of wisdom of this great teacher. They brought copybooks +with them and a little bottle of ink and a goose quill and +wrote down what seemed to be important. One day it rained. +The teacher and his pupils retired to an empty basement or +the room of the ``Professor.'' The learned man sat in his chair +and the boys sat on the floor. That was the beginning of the +University, the ``universitas,'' a corporation of professors and +students during the Middle Ages, when the ``teacher'' counted +for everything and the building in which he taught counted for +very little. + +As an example, let me tell you of something that happened +in the ninth century. In the town of Salerno near Naples there +were a number of excellent physicians. They attracted people +desirous of learning the medical profession and for almost a +thousand years (until 1817) there was a university of Salerno +which taught the wisdom of Hippocrates, the great Greek doctor +who had practiced his art in ancient Hellas in the fifth +century before the birth of Christ. + +Then there was Abelard, the young priest from Brittany, +who early in the twelfth century began to lecture on theology +and logic in Paris. Thousands of eager young men flocked +to the French city to hear him. Other priests who disagreed +with him stepped forward to explain their point of view. Paris +was soon filled with a clamouring multitude of Englishmen and +Germans and Italians and students from Sweden and Hungary +and around the old cathedral which stood on a little island in +the Seine there grew the famous University of Paris. +In Bologna in Italy, a monk by the name of Gratian had +compiled a text-book for those whose business it was to know +the laws of the church. Young priests and many laymen then +came from all over Europe to hear Gratian explain his ideas. +To protect themselves against the landlords and the innkeepers +and the boarding-house ladies of the city, they formed a corporation +(or University) and behold the beginning of the university +of Bologna. + +Next there was a quarrel in the University of Paris. We do +not know what caused it, but a number of disgruntled teachers +together with their pupils crossed the channel and found a +hospitable home in n little village on the Thames called Oxford, +and in this way the famous University of Oxford came into +being. In the same way, in the year 1222, there had been a split +in the University of Bologna. The discontented teachers (again +followed by their pupils) had moved to Padua and their proud city +thenceforward boasted of a university of its own. And so it went +from Valladolid in Spain to Cracow in distant Poland and from +Poitiers in France to Rostock in Germany. + +It is quite true that much of the teaching done by these +early professors would sound absurd to our ears, trained to +listen to logarithms and geometrical theorems. The point +however, which I want to make is this--the Middle Ages and +especially the thirteenth century were not a time when the +world stood entirely still. Among the younger generation, +there was life, there was enthusiasm, and there was a restless +if somewhat bashful asking of questions. And out of this +turmoil grew the Renaissance. + +But just before the curtain went down upon the last scene +of the Mediaeval world, a solitary figure crossed the stage, of +whom you ought to know more than his mere name. This +man was called Dante. He was the son of a Florentine lawyer +who belonged to the Alighieri family and he saw the light of +day in the year 1265. He grew up in the city of his ancestors +while Giotto was painting his stories of the life of St. Francis +of Assisi upon the walls of the Church of the Holy Cross, but +often when he went to school, his frightened eyes would see the +puddles of blood which told of the terrible and endless warfare +that raged forever between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, +the followers of the Pope and the adherents of the Emperors. + +When he grew up, he became a Guelph, because his father +had been one before him, just as an American boy might become +a Democrat or a Republican, simply because his father +had happened to be a Democrat or a Republican. But after a +few years, Dante saw that Italy, unless united under a single +head, threatened to perish as a victim of the disordered jealousies +of a thousand little cities. Then he became a Ghilbeiline. + +He looked for help beyond the Alps. He hoped that a +mighty emperor might come and re-establish unity and order. +Alas! he hoped in vain. The Ghibellines were driven out of +Florence in the year 1802. From that time on until the day +of his death amidst the dreary ruins of Ravenna, in the year +1321, Dante was a homeless wanderer, eating the bread of +charity at the table of rich patrons whose names would have +sunk into the deepest pit of oblivion but for this single fact, +that they had been kind to a poet in his misery. During the +many years of exile, Dante felt compelled to justify himself +and his actions when he had been a political leader in his +home-town, and when he had spent his days walking along +the banks of the Arno that he might catch a glimpse of the +lovely Beatrice Portinari, who died the wife of another man, a +dozen years before the Ghibelline disaster. + +He had failed in the ambitions of his career. He had +faithfully served the town of is birth and before a corrupt +court he had been accused of stealing the public funds and +had been condemned to be burned alive should he venture +back within the realm of the city of Florence. To clear +himself before his own conscience and before his contemporaries, +Dante then created an Imaginary World and with great +detail he described the circumstances which had led to +his defeat and depicted the hopeless condition of greed and lust +and hatred which had turned his fair and beloved Italy into a +battlefield for the pitiless mercenaries of wicked and selfish +tyrants. + +He tells us how on the Thursday before Easter of the year +1300 he had lost his way in a dense forest and how he found +his path barred by a leopard and a lion and a wolf. He gave +himself up for lost when a white figure appeared amidst the +trees. It was Virgil, the Roman poet and philosopher, sent +upon his errand of mercy by the Blessed Virgin and by Beatrice, +who from high Heaven watched over the fate of her +true lover. Virgil then takes Dante through Purgatory and +through Hell. Deeper and deeper the path leads them until +they reach the lowest pit where Lucifer himself stands frozen +into the eternal ice surrounded by the most terrible of sinners, +traitors and liars and those who have achieved fame and +success by lies and by deceit. But before the two wanderers +have reached this terrible spot, Dante has met all those who +in some way or other have played a role in the history of his +beloved city. Emperors and Popes, dashing knights and +whining usurers, they are all there, doomed to eternal punishment +or awaiting the day of deliverance, when they shall +leave Purgatory for Heaven. + +It is a curious story. It is a handbook of everything the +people of the thirteenth century did and felt and feared and +prayed for. Through it all moves the figure of the lonely +Florentine exile, forever followed by the shadow of his own +despair. + +And behold! when the gates of death were closing upon +the sad poet of the Middle Ages, the portals of life swung +open to the child who was to be the first of the men of the +Renaissance. That was Francesco Petrarca, the son of the +notary public of the little town of Arezzo. + +Francesco's father had belonged to the same political party +as Dante. He too had been exiled and thus it happened that +Petrarca (or Petrarch, as we call him) was born away from +Florence. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Montpellier +in France that he might become a lawyer like his father. But +the boy did not want to be a jurist. He hated the law. He +wanted to be a scholar and a poet--and because he wanted to +be a scholar and a poet beyond everything else, he became one, +as people of a strong will are apt to do. He made long +voyages, copying manuscripts in Flanders and in the cloisters +along the Rhine and in Paris and Liege and finally in Rome. +Then he went to live in a lonely valley of the wild mountains +of Vaucluse, and there he studied and wrote and soon he had +become so famous for his verse and for his learning that both +the University of Paris and the king of Naples invited him +to come and teach their students and subjects. On the way +to his new job, he was obliged to pass through Rome. The +people had heard of his fame as an editor of half-forgotten +Roman authors. They decided to honour him and in the +ancient forum of the Imperial City, Petrarch was crowned with +the laurel wreath of the Poet. + +From that moment on, his life was an endless career of +honour and appreciation. He wrote the things which people +wanted most to hear. They were tired of theological +disputations. Poor Dante could wander through hell as much as +he wanted. But Petrarch wrote of love and of nature and the +sun and never mentioned those gloomy things which seemed +to have been the stock in trade of the last generation. And +when Petrarch came to a city, all the people flocked out to +meet him and he was received like a conquering hero. If he +happened to bring his young friend Boccaccio, the story teller, +with him, so much the better. They were both men of their +time, full of curiosity, willing to read everything once, digging +in forgotten and musty libraries that they might find still another +manuscript of Virgil or Ovid or Lucrece or any of the +other old Latin poets. They were good Christians. Of course +they were! Everyone was. But no need of going around with +a long face and wearing a dirty coat just because some day +or other you were going to die. Life was good. People were +meant to be happy. You desired proof of this? Very well. +Take a spade and dig into the soil. What did you find? +Beautiful old statues. Beautiful old vases. Ruins of ancient +buildings. All these things were made by the people of the +greatest empire that ever existed. They ruled all the world +for a thousand years. They were strong and rich and handsome +(just look at that bust of the Emperor Augustus!). Of +course, they were not Christians and they would never be +able to enter Heaven. At best they would spend their days +in purgatory, where Dante had just paid them a visit. + +But who cared? To have lived in a world like that of +ancient Rome was heaven enough for any mortal being. And +anyway, we live but once. Let us be happy and cheerful for +the mere joy of existence. + +Such, in short, was the spirit that had begun to fill the +narrow and crooked streets of the many little Italian cities. + +You know what we mean by the ``bicycle craze'' or the +``automobile craze.'' Some one invents a bicycle. People who +for hundreds of thousands of years have moved slowly and +painfully from one place to another go ``crazy'' over the prospect +of rolling rapidly and easily over hill and dale. Then +a clever mechanic makes the first automobile. No longer is it +necessary to pedal and pedal and pedal. You just sit and +let little drops of gasoline do the work for you. Then everybody +wants an automobile. Everybody talks about Rolls- +Royces and Flivvers and carburetors and mileage and oil. Explorers +penetrate into the hearts of unknown countries that +they may find new supplies of gas. Forests arise in Sumatra +and in the Congo to supply us with rubber. Rubber and oil +become so valuable that people fight wars for their possession. +The whole world is ``automobile mad'' and little children can +say ``car'' before they learn to whisper ``papa'' and ``mamma.'' + +In the fourteenth century, the Italian people went crazy +about the newly discovered beauties of the buried world of +Rome. Soon their enthusiasm was shared by all the people of +western Europe. The finding of an unknown manuscript became +the excuse for a civic holiday. The man who wrote a +grammar became as popular as the fellow who nowadays invents +a new spark-plug. The humanist, the scholar who devoted his +time and his energies to a study of ``homo'' or mankind (instead +of wasting his hours upon fruitless theological investigations), +that man was regarded with greater honour and a deeper respect +than was ever bestowed upon a hero who had just conquered +all the Cannibal Islands. + +In the midst of this intellectual upheaval, an event occurred +which greatly favoured the study of the ancient philosophers +and authors. The Turks were renewing their attacks upon +Europe. Constantinople, capital of the last remnant of the +original Roman Empire, was hard pressed. In the year 1393 +the Emperor, Manuel Paleologue, sent Emmanuel Chrysoloras +to western Europe to explain the desperate state of old Byzantium +and to ask for aid. This aid never came. The Roman +Catholic world was more than willing to see the Greek Catholic +world go to the punishment that awaited such wicked heretics. +But however indifferent western Europe might be to the fate +of the Byzantines, they were greatly interested in the ancient +Greeks whose colonists had founded the city on the Bosphorus +ten centuries after the Trojan war. They wanted to learn +Greek that they might read Aristotle and Homer and Plato. +They wanted to learn it very badly, but they had no books and +no grammars and no teachers. The magistrates of Florence +heard of the visit of Chrysoloras. The people of their city +were ``crazy to learn Greek.'' Would he please come and +teach them? He would, and behold! the first professor of +Greek teaching alpha, beta, gamma to hundreds of eager young +men, begging their way to the city of the Arno, living in stables +and in dingy attics that they night learn how to decline the verb +<gr paidenw paideneis paidenei> and enter into the companionship of +Sophocles and Homer. + +Meanwhile in the universities, the old schoolmen, teaching +their ancient theology and their antiquated logic; explaining +the hidden mysteries of the old Testament and discussing the +strange science of their Greek-Arabic-Spanish-Latin edition of +Aristotle, looked on in dismay and horror. Next, they turned +angry. This thing was going too far. The young men were +deserting the lecture halls of the established universities to +go and listen to some wild-eyed ``humanist'' with his newfangled +notions about a ``reborn civilization.'' + +They went to the authorities. They complained. But one +cannot force an unwilling horse to drink and one cannot +make unwilling ears listen to something which does not really +interest them. The schoolmen were losing ground rapidly. Here +and there they scored a short victory. They combined forces +with those fanatics who hated to see other people enjoy a +happiness which was foreign to their own souls. In Florence, +the centre of the Great Rebirth, a terrible fight was fought +between the old order and the new. A Dominican monk, sour +of face and bitter in his hatred of beauty, was the leader of +the mediaeval rear-guard. He fought a valiant battle. Day +after day he thundered his warnings of God's holy wrath +through the wide halls of Santa Maria del Fiore. ``Repent,'' +he cried, ``repent of your godlessness, of your joy in things +that are not holy!'' He began to hear voices and to see flaming +swords that flashed through the sky. He preached to the +little children that they might not fall into the errors of these +ways which were leading their fathers to perdition. He organised +companies of boy-scouts, devoted to the service of the +great God whose prophet he claimed to be. In a sudden moment +of frenzy, the frightened people promised to do penance +for their wicked love of beauty and pleasure. They carried +their books and their statues and their paintings to the market +place and celebrated a wild ``carnival of the vanities'' with holy +singing and most unholy dancing, while Savonarola applied his +torch to the accumulated treasures. + +But when the ashes cooled down, the people began to realise +what they had lost. This terrible fanatic had made them destroy +that which they had come to love above all things. They +turned against him, Savonarola was thrown into jail. He was +tortured. But he refused to repent for anything he had done. +He was an honest man. He had tried to live a holy life. He +had willingly destroyed those who deliberately refused to +share his own point of view. It had been his duty to eradicate +evil wherever he found it. A love of heathenish books and +heathenish beauty in the eyes of this faithful son of the Church, +had been an evil. But he stood alone. He had fought the +battle of a time that was dead and gone. The Pope in Rome +never moved a finger to save him. On the contrary, he approved +of his ``faithful Florentines'' when they dragged Savonarola +to the gallows, hanged him and burned his body amidst +the cheerful howling and yelling of the mob. + +It was a sad ending, but quite inevitable. Savonarola +would have been a great man in the eleventh century. In the +fifteenth century he was merely the leader of a lost cause. +For better or worse, the Middle Ages had come to an end when +the Pope had turned humanist and when the Vatican became +the most important museum of Roman and Greek antiquities. + + + +THE AGE OF EXPRESSION + +THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF +GIVING EXPRESSION TO THEIR NEWLY +DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED +THEIR HAPPINESS IN POETRY +AND IN SCULPTURE AND IN ARCHITECTURE +AND IN PAINTING AND IN THE +BOOKS THEY PRINTED + + +IN the year 1471 there died a pious old man who had spent +seventy-two of his ninety-one years behind the sheltering walls +of the cloister of Mount St. Agnes near the good town of +Zwolle, the old Dutch Hanseatic city on the river Ysel. He +was known as Brother Thomas and because he had been born +in the village of Kempen, he was called Thomas a Kempis. +At the age of twelve he had been sent to Deventer, where +Gerhard Groot, a brilliant graduate of the universities of +Paris, Cologne and Prague, and famous as a wandering +preacher, had founded the Society of the Brothers of the +Common Life. The good brothers were humble laymen who +tried to live the simple life of the early Apostles of Christ +while working at their regular jobs as carpenters and house- +painters and stone masons. They maintained an excellent +school, that deserving boys of poor parents might be taught +the wisdom of the Fathers of the church. At this school, +little Thomas had learned how to conjugate Latin verbs and +how to copy manuscripts. Then he had taken his vows, had +put his little bundle of books upon his back, had wandered to +Zwolle and with a sigh of relief he had closed the door upon a +turbulent world which did not attract him. + +Thomas lived in an age of turmoil, pestilence and sudden +death. In central Europe, in Bohemia, the devoted disciples of +Johannus Huss, the friend and follower of John Wycliffe, the +English reformer, were avenging with a terrible warfare the death +of their beloved leader who had been burned at the stake by order of +that same Council of Constance, which had promised him a safe-conduct +if he would come to Switzerland and explain his doctrines to the Pope, +the Emperor, twenty-three cardinals, thirty-three archbishops and bishops, +one hundred and fifty abbots and more than a hundred princes and +dukes who had gathered together to reform their church. + +In the west, France had been fighting for a hundred years that +she might drive the English from her territories and just then was +saved from utter defeat by the fortunate appearance of Joan of Arc. +And no sooner had this struggle come to an end than France and Burgundy +were at each other's throats, engaged upon a struggle of life and death +for the supremacy of western Europe. + +In the south, a Pope at Rome was calling the curses of +Heaven down upon a second Pope who resided at Avignon, +in southern France, and who retaliated in kind. In the +far east the Turks were destroying the last remnants of the +Roman Empire and the Russians had started upon a final +crusade to crush the power of their Tartar masters. + +But of all this, Brother Thomas in his quiet cell never +heard. He had his manuscripts and his own thoughts and +he was contented. He poured his love of God into a little +volume. He called it the Imitation of Christ. It has since +been translated into more languages than any other book +save the Bible. It has been read by quite as many people +as ever studied the Holy Scriptures. It has influenced the +lives of countless millions. And it was the work of a man +whose highest ideal of existence was expressed in the simple +wish that ``he might quietly spend his days sitting in a little +corner with a little book.'' + +Good Brother Thomas represented the purest ideals of the +Middle Ages. Surrounded on all sides by the forces of the +victorious Renaissance, with the humanists loudly proclaiming +the coming of modern times, the Middle Ages gathered +strength for a last sally. Monasteries were reformed. Monks +gave up the habits of riches and vice. Simple, straightforward +and honest men, by the example of their blameless +and devout lives, tried to bring the people back to the ways of +righteousness and humble resignation to the will of God. But +all to no avail. The new world rushed past these good people. +The days of quiet meditation were gone. The great era of +``expression'' had begun. + +Here and now let me say that I am sorry that I must use +so many ``big words.'' I wish that I could write this history in +words of one syllable. But it cannot be done. You cannot +write a text-book of geometry without reference to a hypotenuse +and triangles and a rectangular parallelopiped. You +simply have to learn what those words mean or do without +mathematics. In history (and in all life) you will eventually +be obliged to learn the meaning of many strange words of +Latin and Greek origin. Why not do it now? + +When I say that the Renaissance was an era of expression, +I mean this: People were no longer contented to be the +audience and sit still while the emperor and the pope told +them what to do and what to think. They wanted to be actors +upon the stage of life. They insisted upon giving ``expression'' +to their own individual ideas. If a man happened to be interested +in statesmanship like the Florentine historian, Niccolo +Macchiavelli, then he ``expressed'' himself in his books which +revealed his own idea of a successful state and an efficient +ruler. If on the other hand he had a liking for painting, he +``expressed'' his love for beautiful lines and lovely colours in +the pictures which have made the names of Giotto, Fra Angelico, +Rafael and a thousand others household words wherever +people have learned to care for those things which express +a true and lasting beauty. + +If this love for colour and line happened to be combined with +an interest in mechanics and hydraulics, the result was a Leonardo +da Vinci, who painted his pictures, experimented with +his balloons and flying machines, drained the marshes of the +Lombardian plains and ``expressed'' his joy and interest in all +things between Heaven and Earth in prose, in painting, in +sculpture and in curiously conceived engines. When a man of +gigantic strength, like Michael Angelo, found the brush and +the palette too soft for his strong hands, he turned to sculpture +and to architecture, and hacked the most terrific creatures out +of heavy blocks of marble and drew the plans for the church +of St. Peter, the most concrete ``expression'' of the glories +of the triumphant church. And so it went. + +All Italy (and very soon all of Europe) was filled with +men and women who lived that they might add their mite to +the sum total of our accumulated treasures of knowledge and +beauty and wisdom. In Germany, in the city of Mainz, Johann +zum Gansefleisch, commonly known as Johann Gutenberg, had +just invented a new method of copying books. He had studied +the old woodcuts and had perfected a system by which individual +letters of soft lead could be placed in such a way that +they formed words and whole pages. It is true, he soon lost +all his money in a law-suit which had to do with the original +invention of the press. He died in poverty, but the ``expression'' +of his particular inventive genius lived after him. + +Soon Aldus in Venice and Etienne in Paris and Plantin in +Antwerp and Froben in Basel were flooding the world with +carefully edited editions of the classics printed in the Gothic +letters of the Gutenberg Bible, or printed in the Italian type +which we use in this book, or printed in Greek letters, or in +Hebrew. + +Then the whole world became the eager audience of those +who had something to say. The day when learning had been +a monopoly of a privileged few came to an end. And the +last excuse for ignorance was removed from this world, when +Elzevier of Haarlem began to print his cheap and popular +editions. Then Aristotle and Plato, Virgil and Horace and +Pliny, all the goodly company of the ancient authors and +philosophers and scientists, offered to become man's faithful +friend in exchange for a few paltry pennies. Humanism had +made all men free and equal before the printed word. + + + +THE GREAT DISCOVERIES + +BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN +THROUGH THE BONDS OF THEIR NARROW +MEDIAEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO +HAVE MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. +THE EUROPEAN WORLD HAD +GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. +IT WAS THE TIME OF THE GREAT +VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY + + +THE Crusades had been a lesson in the liberal art of travelling. +But very few people had ever ventured beyond the well- +known beaten track which led from Venice to Jaffe. In the +thirteenth century the Polo brothers, merchants of Venice, +had wandered across the great Mongolian desert and after +climbing mountains as high as the moon, they had found their +way to the court of the great Khan of Cathay, the mighty +emperor of China. The son of one of the Polos, by the name +of Marco, had written a book about their adventures, which +covered a period of more than twenty years. The astonished +world had gaped at his descriptions of the golden towers of +the strange island of Zipangu, which was his Italian way of +spelling Japan. Many people had wanted to go east, that +they might find this gold-land and grow rich. But the trip was +too far and too dangerous and so they stayed at home. + +Of course, there was always the possibility of making the +voyage by sea. But the sea was very unpopular in the Middle +Ages and for many very good reasons. In the first place, ships +were very small. The vessels on which Magellan made his +famous trip around the world, which lasted many years, were +not as large as a modern ferryboat. They carried from twenty +to fifty men, who lived in dingy quarters (too low to allow any +of them to stand up straight) and the sailors were obliged to +eat poorly cooked food as the kitchen arrangements were very +bad and no fire could be made whenever the weather was the +least bit rough. The mediaeval world knew how to pickle herring +and how to dry fish. But there were no canned goods +and fresh vegetables were never seen on the bill of fare as +soon as the coast had been left behind. Water was carried in +small barrels. It soon became stale and then tasted of rotten +wood and iron rust and was full of slimy growing things. As +the people of the Middle Ages knew nothing about microbes +(Roger Bacon, the learned monk of the thirteenth century +seems to have suspected their existence, but he wisely kept +his discovery to himself) they often drank unclean water and +sometimes the whole crew died of typhoid fever. Indeed the +mortality on board the ships of the earliest navigators was +terrible. Of the two hundred sailors who in the year 1519 left +Seville to accompany Magellan on his famous voyage around +the world, only eighteen returned. As late as the seventeenth +century when there was a brisk trade between western Europe +and the Indies, a mortality of 40 percent was nothing unusual +for a trip from Amsterdam to Batavia and back. The greater +part of these victims died of scurvy, a disease which is caused +by lack of fresh vegetables and which affects the gums and +poisons the blood until the patient dies of sheer exhaustion. + +Under those circumstances you will understand that the sea +did not attract the best elements of the population. Famous +discoverers like Magellan and Columbus and Vasco da Gama +travelled at the head of crews that were almost entirely composed +of ex-jailbirds, future murderers and pickpockets out +of a Job. + +These navigators certainly deserve our admiration for the +courage and the pluck with which they accomplished their +hopeless tasks in the face of difficulties of which the people of +our own comfortable world can have no conception. Their +ships were leaky. The rigging was clumsy. Since the middle +of the thirteenth century they had possessed some sort of a +compass (which had come to Europe from China by way of +Arabia and the Crusades) but they had very bad and incorrect +maps. They set their course by God and by guess. If luck +was with them they returned after one or two or three years. +In the other case, their bleeched bones remained behind on +some lonely beach. But they were true pioneers. They gambled +with luck. Life to them was a glorious adventure. And +all the suffering, the thirst and the hunger and the pain were +forgotten when their eyes beheld the dim outlines of a new coast +or the placid waters of an ocean that had lain forgotten since +the beginning of time. + +Again I wish that I could make this book a thousand pages +long. The subject of the early discoveries is so fascinating. +But history, to give you a true idea of past times, should be +like those etchings which Rembrandt used to make. It should +cast a vivid light on certain important causes, on those which +are best and greatest. All the rest should be left in the shadow +or should be indicated by a few lines. And in this chapter I +can only give you a short list of the most important discoveries. + +Keep in mind that all during the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries the navigators were trying to accomplish just ONE +THING--they wanted to find a comfortable and safe road to the +empire of Cathay (China), to the island of Zipangu (Japan) +and to those mysterious islands, where grew the spices which +the mediaeval world had come to like since the days of the +Crusades, and which people needed in those days before the +introduction of cold storage, when meat and fish spoiled very +quickly and could only be eaten after a liberal sprinkling of +pepper or nutmeg. + +The Venetians and the Genoese had been the great navigators +of the Mediterranean, but the honour for exploring the +coast of the Atlantic goes to the Portuguese. Spain and Portugal +were full of that patriotic energy which their age-old +struggle against the Moorish invaders had developed. Such +energy, once it exists, can easily be forced into new channels. +In the thirteenth century, King Alphonso III had conquered +the kingdom of Algarve in the southwestern corner of the +Spanish peninsula and had added it to his dominions. In the +next century, the Portuguese had turned the tables on the +Mohammedans, had crossed the straits of Gibraltar and had +taken possession of Ceuta, opposite the Arabic city of Ta'Rifa +(a word which in Arabic means ``inventory'' and which by way +of the Spanish language has come down to us as ``tariff,'') and +Tangiers, which became the capital of an African addition to +Algarve. + +They were ready to begin their career as explorers. + +In the year 1415, Prince Henry, known as Henry the +Navigator, the son of John I of Portugal and Philippa, the +daughter of John of Gaunt (about whom you can read in +Richard II, a play by William Shakespeare) began to make +preparations for the systematic exploration of northwestern +Africa. Before this, that hot and sandy coast had been visited +by the Phoenicians and by the Norsemen, who remembered it +as the home of the hairy ``wild man'' whom we have come to +know as the gorilla. One after another, Prince Henry +and his captains discovered the Canary Islands--re-discovered +the island of Madeira which a century before had been visited +by a Genoese ship, carefully charted the Azores which had +been vaguely known to both the Portuguese and the Spaniards, +and caught a glimpse of the mouth of the Senegal River on +the west coast of Africa, which they supposed to be the western +mouth of the Nile. At last, by the middle of the Fifteenth +Century, they saw Cape Verde, or the Green Cape, and the +Cape Verde Islands, which lie almost halfway between the +coast of Africa and Brazil. + +But Henry did not restrict himself in his investigations to +the waters of the Ocean. He was Grand Master of the Order +of Christ. This was a Portuguese continuation of the crusading +order of the Templars which had been abolished by +Pope Clement V in the year 1312 at the request of King +Philip the Fair of France, who had improved the occasion by +burning his own Templars at the stake and stealing all their +possessions. Prince Henry used the revenues of the domains +of his religious order to equip several expeditions which explored +the hinterland of the Sahara and of the coast of Guinea. + +But he was still very much a son of the Middle Ages and +spent a great deal of time and wasted a lot of money upon a +search for the mysterious ``Presser John,'' the mythical Christian +Priest who was said to be the Emperor of a vast empire +``situated somewhere in the east.'' The story of this strange +potentate had first been told in Europe in the middle of the +twelfth century. For three hundred years people had tried +to find ``Presser John'' and his descendants Henry took part +in the search. Thirty years after his death, the riddle was +solved. + +In the year 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, trying to find the land +of Prester John by sea, had reached the southernmost point +of Africa. At first he called it the Storm Cape, on account of +the strong winds which had prevented him from continuing his +voyage toward the east, but the Lisbon pilots who understood +the importance of this discovery in their quest for the India +water route, changed the name into that of the Cape of Good +Hope. + +One year later, Pedro de Covilham, provided with letters +of credit on the house of Medici, started upon a similar mission +by land. He crossed the Mediterranean and after leaving +Egypt, he travelled southward. He reached Aden, and from +there, travelling through the waters of the Persian Gulf which +few white men had seen since the days of Alexander the Great, +eighteen centuries before, he visited Goa and Calicut on the +coast of India where he got a great deal of news about the +island of the Moon (Madagascar) which was supposed to lie +halfway between Africa and India. Then he returned, paid +a secret visit to Mecca and to Medina, crossed the Red Sea +once more and in the year 1490 he discovered the realm of +Prester John, who was no one less than the Black Negus (or +King) of Abyssinia, whose ancestors had adopted Christianity +in the fourth century, seven hundred years before the Christian +missionaries had found their way to Scandinavia. + +These many voyages had convinced the Portuguese geographers +and cartographers that while the voyage to the Indies +by an eastern sea-route was possible, it was by no means easy. +Then there arose a great debate. Some people wanted to continue +the explorations east of the Cape of Good Hope. Others +said, ``No, we must sail west across the Atlantic and then we +shall reach Cathay.'' + +Let us state right here that most intelligent people of that +day were firmly convinced that the earth was not as flat as a +pancake but was round. The Ptolemean system of the universe, +invented and duly described by Claudius Ptolemy, the great +Egyptian geographer, who had lived in the second century of +our era, which had served the simple needs of the men of the +Middle Ages, had long been discarded by the scientists of the +Renaissance. They had accepted the doctrine of the Polish +mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus, whose studies had con- +vinced him that the earth was one of a number of round planets +which turned around the sun, a discovery which he did not venture +to publish for thirty-six years (it was printed in 1548, +the year of his death) from fear of the Holy Inquisition, a +Papal court which had been established in the thirteenth century +when the heresies of the Albigenses and the Waldenses +in France and in Italy (very mild heresies of devoutly pious +people who did not believe in private property and preferred +to live in Christ-like poverty) had for a moment threatened the +absolute power of the bishops of Rome. But the belief in the +roundness of the earth was common among the nautical experts +and, as I said, they were now debating the respective +advantages of the eastern and the western routes. + +Among the advocates of the western route was a Genoese +mariner by the name of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the son +of a wool merchant. He seems to have been a student at the +University of Pavia where he specialised in mathematics and +geometry. Then he took up his father's trade but soon we find +him in Chios in the eastern Mediterranean travelling on business. +Thereafter we hear of voyages to England but whether +he went north in search of wool or as the captain of a ship we +do not know. In February of the year 1477, Colombo (if we +are to believe his own words) visited Iceland, but very likely +he only got as far as the Faroe Islands which are cold enough +in February to be mistaken for Iceland by any one. Here +Colombo met the descendants of those brave Norsemen who +in the tenth century had settled in Greenland and who had +visited America in the eleventh century, when Leif's vessel +had been blown to the coast of Vineland, or Labrador. + +What had become of those far western colonies no one +knew. The American colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the husband +of the widow of Leif's brother Thorstein, founded in the +year 1003, had been discontinued three years later on account +of the hostility of the Esquimaux. As for Greenland, not a +word had been heard from the settlers since the year 1440. +Very likely the Greenlanders had all died of the Black Death. +which had just killed half the people of Norway. However +that might be, the tradition of a ``vast land in the distant west'' +still survived among the people of the Faroe and Iceland, and +Colombo must have heard of it. He gathered further information +among the fishermen of the northern Scottish islands and +then went to Portugal where he married the daughter of one +of the captains who had served under Prince Henry the +Navigator. + +From that moment on (the year 1478) he devoted himself +to the quest of the western route to the Indies. He sent his +plans for such a voyage to the courts of Portugal and Spain. +The Portuguese, who felt certain that they possessed a monop- +oly of the eastern route, would not listen to his plans. In +Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose +marriage in 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were +busy driving the Moors from their last stronghold, Granada. +They had no money for risky expeditions. They needed every +peseta for their soldiers. + +Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for +their ideas as this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo +(or Colon or Columbus, as we call him,) is too well known to +bear repeating. The Moors surrendered Granada on the second +of January of the year 1492. In the month of April of the +same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and +Queen of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos +with three little ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom +were criminals who had been offered indemnity of punishment +if they joined the expedition. At two o'clock in the morning +of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus discovered land. On +the fourth of January of the year 1493, Columbus waved farewell +to the 44 men of the little fortress of La Navidad (none +of whom was ever again seen alive) and returned homeward. +By the middle of February he reached the Azores where the +Portuguese threatened to throw him into gaol. On the fifteenth +of March, 1493, the admiral reached Palos and together with +his Indians (for he was convinced that he had discovered some +outlying islands of the Indies and called the natives red +Indians) he hastened to Barcelona to tell his faithful patrons +that he had been successful and that the road to the gold and +the silver of Cathay and Zipangu was at the disposal of their +most Catholic Majesties. + +Alas, Columbus never knew the truth. Towards the end +of his life, on his fourth voyage, when he had touched the mainland +of South America, he may have suspected that all was +not well with his discovery. But he died in the firm belief +that there was no solid continent between Europe and Asia +and that he had found the direct route to China. + +Meanwhile, the Portuguese, sticking to their eastern route, +had been more fortunate. In the year 1498, Vasco da Gama +had been able to reach the coast of Malabar and return safely +to Lisbon with a cargo of spice. In the year 1502 he had +repeated the visit. But along the western route, the work of +exploration had been most disappointing. In 1497 and 1498 +John and Sebastian Cabot had tried to find a passage to Japan +but they had seen nothing but the snowbound coasts and the +rocks of Newfoundland, which had first been sighted by the +Northmen, five centuries before. Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine +who became the Pilot Major of Spain, and who gave his +name to our continent, had explored the coast of Brazil, but +had found not a trace of the Indies. + +In the year 1513, seven years after the death of Columbus, +the truth at last began to dawn upon the geographers of +Europe. Vasco Nunez de Balboa had crossed the Isthmus of +Panama, had climbed the famous peak in Darien, and had +looked down upon a vast expanse of water which seemed to +suggest the existence of another ocean. + +Finally in the year 1519 a fleet of five small Spanish ships +under command of the Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand de +Magellan, sailed westward (and not eastward since that route, +was absolutely in the hands of the Portuguese who allowed no +competition) in search of the Spice Islands. Magellan crossed +the Atlantic between Africa and Brazil and sailed southward. +He reached a narrow channel between the southernmost point +of Patagonia, the ``land of the people with the big feet,'' and +the Fire Island (so named on account of a fire, the only sign of +the existence of natives, which the sailors watched one night). +For almost five weeks the ships of Magellan were at the mercy +of the terrible storms and blizzards which swept through the +straits. A mutiny broke out among the sailors. Magellan +suppressed it with terrible severity and sent two of his men +on shore where they were left to repent of their sins at leisure. +At last the storms quieted down, the channel broadened, and +Magellan entered a new ocean. Its waves were quiet and +placid. He called it the Peaceful Sea, the Mare Pacifico. +Then he continued in a western direction. He sailed for +ninety-eight days without seeing land. His people almost +perished from hunger and thirst and ate the rats that infested +the ships, and when these were all gone they chewed pieces of +sail to still their gnawing hunger. + +In March of the year 1521 they saw land. Magellan called +it the land of the Ladrones (which means robbers) because the +natives stole everything they could lay hands on. Then further +westward to the Spice Islands! + +Again land was sighted. A group of lonely islands. Magellan +called them the Philippines, after Philip, the son of his +master Charles V, the Philip II of unpleasant historical memory. +At first Magellan was well received, but when he used +the guns of his ships to make Christian converts he was killed +by the aborigines, together with a number of his captains and +sailors. The survivors burned one of the three remaining ships +and continued their voyage. They found the Moluccas, the +famous Spice Islands; they sighted Borneo and reached Tidor. +There, one of the two ships, too leaky to be of further use, +remained behind with her crew. The ``Vittoria,'' under Sebastian +del Cano, crossed the Indian Ocean, missed seeing the +northern coast of Australia (which was not discovered until +the first half of the seventeenth century when ships of the +Dutch East India Company explored this flat and inhospitable +land), and after great hardships reached Spain. + +This was the most notable of all voyages. It had taken +three years. It had been accomplished at a great cost both of +men and money. But it had established the fact that the earth +was round and that the new lands discovered by Columbus were +not a part of the Indies but a separate continent. From that +time on, Spain and Portugal devoted all their energies to the +development of their Indian and American trade. To prevent +an armed conflict between the rivals, Pope Alexander VI (the +only avowed heathen who was ever elected to this most holy +office) had obligingly divided the world into two equal parts +by a line of demarcation which followed the 50th degree of +longitude west of Greenwich, the so-called division of Tordesillas +of 1494. The Portuguese were to establish their colonies +to the east of this line, the Spaniards were to have theirs +to the west. This accounts for the fact that the entire American +continent with the exception of Brazil became Spanish and +that all of the Indies and most of Africa became Portuguese +until the English and the Dutch colonists (who had no respect +for Papal decisions) took these possessions away in the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries. + +When news of the discovery of Columbus reached the +Rialto of Venice, the Wall street of the Middle Ages, there +was a terrible panic. Stocks and bonds went down 40 and 50 +percent. After a short while, when it appeared that Columbus +had failed to find the road to Cathay, the Venetian merchants +recovered from their fright. But the voyages of da Gama and +Magellan proved the practical possibilities of an eastern water- +route to the Indies. Then the rulers of Genoa and Venice, +the two great commercial centres of the Middle Ages and the +Renaissance, began to be sorry that they had refused to listen +to Columbus. But it was too late. Their Mediterranean became +an inland sea. The overland trade to the Indies and +China dwindled to insignificant proportions. The old days +of Italian glory were gone. The Atlantic became the new +centre of commerce and therefore the centre of civilisation. +It has remained so ever since. + +See how strangely civilisation has progressed since those +early days, fifty centuries before, when the inhabitants of the +Valley of the Nile began to keep a written record of history, +From the river Nile, it went to Mesopotamia, the land between +the rivers. Then came the turn of Crete and Greece and +Rome. An inland sea became the centre of trade and the cities +along the Mediterranean were the home of art and science and +philosophy and learning. In the sixteenth century it moved +westward once more and made the countries that border upon +the Atlantic become the masters of the earth. + +There are those who say that the world war and the suicide +of the great European nations has greatly diminished the +importance of the Atlantic Ocean. They expect to see civilisation +cross the American continent and find a new home in the +Pacific. But I doubt this. + +The westward trip was accompanied by a steady increase in +the size of ships and a broadening of the knowledge of the navigators. +The flat-bottomed vessels of the Nile and the Euphrates +were replaced by the sailing vessels of the Phoenicians, the +AEgeans, the Greeks, the Carthaginians and the Romans. +These in turn were discarded for the square rigged vessels of +the Portuguese and the Spaniards. And the latter were driven +from the ocean by the full-rigged craft of the English and the +Dutch. + +At present, however, civilisation no longer depends upon +ships. Aircraft has taken and will continue to take the place +of the sailing vessel and the steamer. The next centre of +civilisation will depend upon the development of aircraft and +water power. And the sea once more shall be the undisturbed +home of the little fishes, who once upon a time shared their deep +residence with the earliest ancestors of the human race. + + + +BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + +CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS + + +THE discoveries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards had +brought the Christians of western Europe into close contact +with the people of India and of China. They knew of course +that Christianity was not the only religion on this earth. There +were the Mohammedans and the heathenish tribes of northern +Africa who worshipped sticks and stones and dead trees. But +in India and in China the Christian conquerors found new +millions who had never heard of Christ and who did not want +to hear of Him, because they thought their own religion, which +was thousands of years old, much better than that of the West. +As this is a story of mankind and not an exclusive history of +the people of Europe and our western hemisphere, you ought +to know something of two men whose teaching and whose +example continue to influence the actions and the thoughts +of the majority of our fellow-travellers on this earth. + +In India, Buddha was recognised as the great religious +teacher. His history is an interesting one. He was born in +the Sixth Century before the birth of Christ, within sight of the +mighty Himalaya Mountains, where four hundred years before +Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), the first of the great leaders of +the Aryan race (the name which the Eastern branch of the +Indo-European race had given to itself), had taught his people +to regard life as a continuous struggle between Ahriman, +and Ormuzd, the Gods of Evil and Good. Buddha's +father was Suddhodana, a mighty chief among the tribe of the +Sakiyas. His mother, Maha Maya, was the daughter of a +neighbouring king. She had been married when she was a very +young girl. But many moons had passed beyond the distant +ridge of hills and still her husband was without an heir who +should rule his lands after him. At last, when she was fifty +years old, her day came and she went forth that she might be +among her own people when her baby should come into this +world. + +It was a long trip to the land of the Koliyans, where Maha +Maya had spent her earliest years. One night she was resting +among the cool trees of the garden of Lumbini. There her son +was born. He was given the name of Siddhartha, but we know +him as Buddha, which means the Enlightened One. + +In due time, Siddhartha grew up to be a handsome young +prince and when he was nineteen years old, he was married to +his cousin Yasodhara. During the next ten years he lived +far away from all pain and all suffering, behind the protecting +walls of the royal palace, awaiting the day when he should +succeed his father as King of the Sakiyas. + +But it happened that when he was thirty years old, he drove +outside of the palace gates and saw a man who was old and +worn out with labour and whose weak limbs could hardly carry +the burden of life. Siddhartha pointed him out to his coachman, +Channa, but Channa answered that there were lots of +poor people in this world and that one more or less did not +matter. The young prince was very sad but he did not say +anything and went back to live with his wife and his father +and his mother and tried to be happy. A little while later he +left the palace a second time. His carriage met a man who +suffered from a terrible disease. Siddhartha asked Channa +what had been the cause of this man's suffering, but the coachman +answered that there were many sick people in this world +and that such things could not be helped and did not matter +very much. The young prince was very sad when he heard this +but again he returned to his people. + +A few weeks passed. One evening Siddhartha ordered his +carriage in order to go to the river and bathe. Suddenly his +horses were frightened by the sight of a dead man whose rotting +body lay sprawling in the ditch beside the road. The young +prince, who had never been allowed to see such things, was +frightened, but Channa told him not to mind such trifles. The +world was full of dead people. It was the rule of life that all +things must come to an end. Nothing was eternal. The grave +awaited us all and there was no escape. + +That evening, when Siddhartha returned to his home, he +was received with music. While he was away his wife had +given birth to a son. The people were delighted because now +they knew that there was an heir to the throne and they +celebrated the event by the beating of many drums. Siddhartha, +however, did not share their joy. The curtain of life had been +lifted and he had learned the horror of man's existence. The +sight of death and suffering followed him like a terrible dream. + +That night the moon was shining brightly. Siddhartha +woke up and began to think of many things. Never again +could he be happy until he should have found a solution to the +riddle of existence. He decided to find it far away from all +those whom he loved. Softly he went into the room where +Yasodhara was sleeping with her baby. Then he called for +his faithful Channa and told him to follow. + +Together the two men went into the darkness of the night, +one to find rest for his soul, the other to be a faithful servant +unto a beloved master. + +The people of India among whom Siddhartha wandered for +many years were just then in a state of change. Their ancestors, +the native Indians, had been conquered without great difficulty +by the war-like Aryans (our distant cousins) and thereafter +the Aryans had been the rulers and masters of tens of +millions of docile little brown men. To maintain themselves in +the seat of the mighty, they had divided the population into +different classes and gradually a system of ``caste'' of the most +rigid sort had been enforced upon the natives. The descendants +of the Indo-European conquerors belonged to the highest +``caste,'' the class of warriors and nobles. Next came the caste +of the priests. Below these followed the peasants and the +business men. The ancient natives, however, who were called +Pariahs, formed a class of despised and miserable slaves and +never could hope to be anything else. + +Even the religion of the people was a matter of caste. The +old Indo-Europeans, during their thousands of years of +wandering, had met with many strange adventures. These had +been collected in a book called the Veda. The language of +this book was called Sanskrit, and it was closely related to the +different languages of the European continent, to Greek and +Latin and Russian and German and two-score others. The +three highest castes were allowed to read these holy scriptures. +The Pariah, however, the despised member of the lowest caste, +was not permitted to know its contents. Woe to the man of +noble or priestly caste who should teach a Pariah to study the +sacred volume! + +The majority of the Indian people, therefore, lived in +misery. Since this planet offered them very little joy, salvation +from suffering must be found elsewhere. They tried to +derive a little consolation from meditation upon the bliss of +their future existence. + +Brahma, the all-creator who was regarded by the Indian +people as the supreme ruler of life and death, was worshipped +as the highest ideal of perfection. To become like Brahma, to +lose all desires for riches and power, was recognised as the most +exalted purpose of existence. Holy thoughts were regarded +as more important than holy deeds, and many people went +into the desert and lived upon the leaves of trees and starved +their bodies that they might feed their souls with the glorious +contemplation of the splendours of Brahma, the Wise, the +Good and the Merciful. + +Siddhartha, who had often observed these solitary wanderers +who were seeking the truth far away from the turmoil +of the cities and the villages, decided to follow their example. +He cut his hair. He took his pearls and his rubies and sent +them back to his family with a message of farewell, which the +ever faithful Channa carried. Without a single follower, the +young prince then moved into the wilderness. + +Soon the fame of his holy conduct spread among the mountains. +Five young men came to him and asked that they might +be allowed to listen to his words of wisdom. He agreed to be +their master if they would follow him. They consented, and +he took them into the hills and for six years he taught them +all he knew amidst the lonely peaks of the Vindhya Mountains. +But at the end of this period of study, he felt that he was still +far from perfection. The world that he had left continued to +tempt him. He now asked that his pupils leave him and then +he fasted for forty-nine days and nights, sitting upon the roots +of an old tree. At last he received his reward. In the dusk of +the fiftieth evening, Brahma revealed himself to his faithful +servant. From that moment on, Siddhartha was called Buddha +and he was revered as the Enlightened One who had come to +save men from their unhappy mortal fate. + +The last forty-five years of his life, Buddha spent within +the valley of the Ganges River, teaching his simple lesson of +submission and meekness unto all men. In the year 488 before +our era, he died, full of years and beloved by millions of people. +He had not preached his doctrines for the benefit of a single +class. Even the lowest Pariah might call himself his disciple. + +This, however, did not please the nobles and the priests and +the merchants who did their best to destroy a creed which recognised +the equality of all living creatures and offered men the +hope of a second life (a reincarnation) under happier circumstances. +As soon as they could, they encouraged the people of +India to return to the ancient doctrines of the Brahmin creed +with its fasting and its tortures of the sinful body. But +Buddhism could not be destroyed. Slowly the disciples of the +Enlightened One wandered across the valleys of the Himalayas, +and moved into China. They crossed the Yellow Sea +and preached the wisdom of their master unto the people of +Japan, and they faithfully obeyed the will of their great master, +who had forbidden them to use force. To-day more people +recognise Buddha as their teacher than ever before and their +number surpasses that of the combined followers of Christ and Mohammed. + +As for Confucius, the wise old man of the Chinese, his +story is a simple one. He was born in the year 550 B.C. He +led a quiet, dignified and uneventful life at a time when China +was without a strong central government and when the Chinese +people were at the mercy of bandits and robber-barons who +went from city to city, pillaging and stealing and murdering +and turning the busy plains of northern and central China into +a wilderness of starving people. + +Confucius, who loved his people, tried to save them. He +did not have much faith in the use of violence. He was a very +peaceful person. He did not think that he could make people +over by giving them a lot of new laws. He knew that the only +possible salvation would come from a change of heart, and he +set out upon the seemingly hopeless task of changing the character +of his millions of fellow men who inhabited the wide plains +of eastern Asia. The Chinese had never been much interested +in religion as we understand that word. They believed in +devils and spooks as most primitive people do. But they had +no prophets and recognised no ``revealed truth.'' Confucius +is almost the only one among the great moral leaders who did +not see visions, who did not proclaim himself as the messenger +of a divine power; who did not, at some time or another, claim +that he was inspired by voices from above. + +He was just a very sensible and kindly man, rather given +to lonely wanderings and melancholy tunes upon his faithful +flute. He asked for no recognition. He did not demand that +any one should follow him or worship him. He reminds us +of the ancient Greek philosophers, especially those of the Stoic +School, men who believed in right living and righteous thinking +without the hope of a reward but simply for the peace of +the soul that comes with a good conscience. + +Confucius was a very tolerant man. He went out of his +way to visit Lao-Tse, the other great Chinese leader and the +founder of a philosophic system called ``Taoism,'' which was +merely an early Chinese version of the Golden Rule. + +Confucius bore no hatred to any one. He taught the virtue +of supreme self-possession. A person of real worth, according +to the teaching of Confucius, did not allow himself to be +ruffled by anger and suffered whatever fate brought him with +the resignation of those sages who understand that everything +which happens, in one way or another, is meant for the best. + +At first he had only a few students. Gradually the number +increased. Before his death, in the year 478 B.C., several of the +kings and the princes of China confessed themselves his disciples. +When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the philosophy of +Confucius had already become a part of the mental make-up +of most Chinamen. It has continued to influence their lives +ever since. Not however in its pure, original form. Most religions +change as time goes on. Christ preached humility and +meekness and absence from worldly ambitions, but fifteen +centuries after Golgotha, the head of the Christian church was +spending millions upon the erection of a building that bore +little relation to the lonely stable of Bethlehem. + +Lao-Tse taught the Golden Rule, and in less than three +centuries the ignorant masses had made him into a real and +very cruel God and had buried his wise commandments under +a rubbish-heap of superstition which made the lives of the average +Chinese one long series of frights and fears and horrors. + +Confucius had shown his students the beauties of honouring +their Father and their Mother. They soon began to be more +interested in the memory of their departed parents than in the +happiness of their children and their grandchildren. Deliberately +they turned their backs upon the future and tried to +peer into the vast darkness of the past. The worship of the +ancestors became a positive religious system. Rather than +disturb a cemetery situated upon the sunny and fertile side of +a mountain, they would plant their rice and wheat upon the +barren rocks of the other slope where nothing could possibly +grow. And they preferred hunger and famine to the desecration +of the ancestral grave. + +At the same time the wise words of Confucius never quite +lost their hold upon the increasing millions of eastern Asia. +Confucianism, with its profound sayings and shrewd observations, +added a touch of common-sense philosophy to the soul of +every Chinaman and influenced his entire life, whether he was +a simple laundry man in a steaming basement or the ruler of vast +provinces who dwelt behind the high walls of a secluded palace. + +In the sixteenth century the enthusiastic but rather uncivilised +Christians of the western world came face to face with +the older creeds of the East. The early Spaniards and Portuguese +looked upon the peaceful statues of Buddha and contemplated +the venerable pictures of Confucius and did not in +the least know what to make of those worthy prophets with +their far-away smile. They came to the easy conclusion that +these strange divinities were just plain devils who represented +something idolatrous and heretical and did not deserve the +respect of the true sons of the Church. Whenever the spirit +of Buddha or Confucius seemed to interfere with the trade in +spices and silks, the Europeans attacked the ``evil influence'' +with bullets and grape-shot. That system had certain very +definite disadvantages. It has left us an unpleasant heritage +of ill-will which promises little good for the immediate future. + + + +THE REFORMATION + +THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST +COMPARED TO A GIGANTIC PENDULUM +WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND +BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE +AND THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY +ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE +WERE FOLLOWED BY THE ARTISTIC AND +LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE RELIGIOUS +ENTHUSIASM OF THE REFORMATION + + +OF course you have heard of the Reformation. You think +of a small but courageous group of pilgrims who crossed the +ocean to have ``freedom of religious worship.'' Vaguely in the +course of time (and more especially in our Protestant countries) +the Reformation has come to stand for the idea of +``liberty of thought.'' Martin Luther is represented as the +leader of the vanguard of progress. But when history is +something more than a series of flattering speeches addressed +to our own glorious ancestors, when to use the words of the +German historian Ranke, we try to discover what ``actually +happened,'' then much of the past is seen in a very different +light. + +Few things in human life are either entirely good or entirely +bad. Few things are either black or white. It is the duty of +the honest chronicler to give a true account of all the good and +bad sides of every historical event. It is very difficult to do +this because we all have our personal likes and dislikes. But +we ought to try and be as fair as we can be, and must not allow +our prejudices to influence us too much. + +Take my own case as an example. I grew up in the very +Protestant centre of a very Protestant country. I never saw +any Catholics until I was about twelve years old. Then I felt +very uncomfortable when I met them. I was a little bit afraid. +I knew the story of the many thousand people who had been +burned and hanged and quartered by the Spanish Inquisition +when the Duke of Alba tried to cure the Dutch people of their +Lutheran and Calvinistic heresies. All that was very real +to me. It seemed to have happened only the day before. It +might occur again. There might be another Saint Bartholomew's +night, and poor little me would be slaughtered in my +nightie and my body would be thrown out of the window, as +had happened to the noble Admiral de Coligny. + +Much later I went to live for a number of years in a Catholic +country. I found the people much pleasanter and much +more tolerant and quite as intelligent as my former countrymen. +To my great surprise, I began to discover that there +was a Catholic side to the Reformation, quite as much as a +Protestant. + +Of course the good people of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, who actually lived through the Reformation, did +not see things that way. They were always right and their +enemy was always wrong. It was a question of hang or be +hanged, and both sides preferred to do the hanging. Which +was no more than human and for which they deserve no blame. + +When we look at the world as it appeared in the year 1500, +an easy date to remember, and the year in which the Emperor +Charles V was born, this is what we see. The feudal disorder +of the Middle Ages has given way before the order of a number +of highly centralised kingdoms. The most powerful of +all sovereigns is the great Charles, then a baby in a cradle. +He is the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Maxi- +milian of Habsburg, the last of the mediaeval knights, and of +his wife Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, the ambitious +Burgundian duke who had made successful war upon France +but had been killed by the independent Swiss peasants. The +child Charles, therefore, has fallen heir to the greater part of +the map, to all the lands of his parents, grandparents, uncles, +cousins and aunts in Germany, in Austria, in Holland, in +Belgium, in Italy, and in Spain, together with all their colonies +in Asia, Africa and America. By a strange irony of fate, he +has been born in Ghent, in that same castle of the counts of +Flanders, which the Germans used as a prison during their +recent occupation of Belgium, and although a Spanish king +and a German emperor, he receives the training of a Fleming. + +As his father is dead (poisoned, so people say, but this is +never proved), and his mother has lost her mind (she is travelling +through her domains with the coffin containing the body +of her departed husband), the child is left to the strict +discipline of his Aunt Margaret. Forced to rule Germans and +Italians and Spaniards and a hundred strange races, Charles +grows up a Fleming, a faithful son of the Catholic Church, +but quite averse to religious intolerance. He is rather lazy, +both as a boy and as a man. But fate condemns him to rule +the world when the world is in a turmoil of religious fervour. +Forever he is speeding from Madrid to Innsbruck and from +Bruges to Vienna. He loves peace and quiet and he is always +at war. At the age of fifty-five, we see him turn his back upon +the human race in utter disgust at so much hate and so much +stupidity. Three years later he dies, a very tired and disappointed +man. + +So much for Charles the Emperor. How about the Church, +the second great power in the world? The Church has changed +greatly since the early days of the Middle Ages, when it started +out to conquer the heathen and show them the advantages of +a pious and righteous life. In the first place, the Church has +grown too rich. The Pope is no longer the shepherd of a flock +of humble Christians. He lives in a vast palace and surrounds +himself with artists and musicians and famous literary men. +His churches and chapels are covered with new pictures in +which the saints look more like Greek Gods than is strictly +necessary. He divides his time unevenly between affairs of +state and art. The affairs of state take ten percent of his time. +The other ninety percent goes to an active interest in Roman +statues, recently discovered Greek vases, plans for a new summer +home, the rehearsal of a new play. The Archbishops and +the Cardinals follow the example of their Pope. The Bishops +try to imitate the Archbishops. The village priests, however, +have remained faithful to their duties. They keep themselves +aloof from the wicked world and the heathenish love of beauty +and pleasure. They stay away from the monasteries where +the monks seem to have forgotten their ancient vows of simplicity +and poverty and live as happily as they dare without +causing too much of a public scandal. + +Finally, there are the common people. They are much +better off than they have ever been before. They are more +prosperous, they live in better houses, their children go to better +schools, their cities are more beautiful than before, their +firearms have made them the equal of their old enemies, the +robber-barons, who for centuries have levied such heavy taxes +upon their trade. So much for the chief actors in the +Reformation. + +Now let us see what the Renaissance has done to Europe, +and then you will understand how the revival of learning and +art was bound to be followed by a revival of religious interests. +The Renaissance began in Italy. From there it spread +to France. It was not quite successful in Spain, where +five hundred years of warfare with the Moors had made the +people very narrow minded and very fanatical in all religious +matters. The circle had grown wider and wider, but once the +Alps had been crossed, the Renaissance had suffered a change. + +The people of northern Europe, living in a very different +climate, had an outlook upon life which contrasted strangely +with that of their southern neighbours. The Italians lived out +in the open, under a sunny sky. It was easy for them to laugh +and to sing and to be happy. The Germans, the Dutch, the +English, the Swedes, spent most of their time indoors, listening +to the rain beating on the closed windows of their comfortable +little houses. They did not laugh quite so much. They +took everything more seriously. They were forever conscious +of their immortal souls and they did not like to be funny about +matters which they considered holy and sacred. The ``humanistic'' +part of the Renaissance, the books, the studies of ancient +authors, the grammar and the text-books, interested them +greatly. But the general return to the old pagan civilisation +of Greece and Rome, which was one of the chief results of the +Renaissance in Italy, filled their hearts with horror. + +But the Papacy and the College of Cardinals was almost +entirely composed of Italians and they had turned the Church +into a pleasant club where people discussed art and music and +the theatre, but rarely mentioned religion. Hence the split +between the serious north and the more civilised but easy-going +and indifferent south was growing wider and wider all the +time and nobody seemed to be aware of the danger that threatened +the Church. + +There were a few minor reasons which will explain why the +Reformation took place in Germany rather than in Sweden +or England. The Germans bore an ancient grudge against +Rome. The endless quarrels between Emperor and Pope had +caused much mutual bitterness. In the other European countries +where the government rested in the hands of a strong +king, the ruler had often been able to protect his subjects +against the greed of the priests. In Germany, where a shadowy +emperor ruled a turbulent crowd of little princelings, the good +burghers were more directly at the mercy of their bishops and +prelates. These dignitaries were trying to collect large sums +of money for the benefit of those enormous churches which +were a hobby of the Popes of the Renaissance. The Germans +felt that they were being mulcted and quite naturally they did +not like it. + +And then there is the rarely mentioned fact that Germany +was the home of the printing press. In northern Europe books +were cheap and the Bible was no longer a mysterious manu- +script owned and explained by the priest. It was a household +book of many families where Latin was understood by the +father and by the children. Whole families began to read it, +which was against the law of the Church. They discovered that +the priests were telling them many things which, according to +the original text of the Holy Scriptures, were somewhat different. +This caused doubt. People began to ask questions. And +questions, when they cannot be answered, often cause a great +deal of trouble. + +The attack began when the humanists of the North opened +fire upon the monks. In their heart of hearts they still had +too much respect and reverence for the Pope to direct their +sallies against his Most Holy Person. But the lazy, ignorant +monks, living behind the sheltering walls of their rich monasteries, +offered rare sport. + +The leader in this warfare, curiously enough, was a very +faithful son of the church Gerard Gerardzoon, or Desiderius +Erasmus, as he is usually called, was a poor boy, born in +Rotterdam in Holland, and educated at the same Latin school +of Deventer from which Thomas a Kempis had graduated. +He had become a priest and for a time he had lived in a monastery. +He had travelled a great deal and knew whereof he wrote, +When he began his career as a public pamphleteer (he would +have been called an editorial writer in our day) the world was +greatly amused at an anonymous series of letters which had +just appeared under the title of ``Letters of Obscure Men.'' +In these letters, the general stupidity and arrogance of the +monks of the late Middle Ages was exposed in a strange +German-Latin doggerel which reminds one of our modern +limericks. Erasmus himself was a very learned and serious +scholar, who knew both Latin and Greek and gave us the first +reliable version of the New Testament, which he translated +into Latin together with a corrected edition of the original +Greek text. But he believed with Sallust, the Roman poet, +that nothing prevents us from ``stating the truth with a smile +upon our lips.'' + +In the year 1500, while visiting Sir Thomas More in Eng- +land, he took a few weeks off and wrote a funny little book, +called the ``Praise of Folly,'' in which he attacked the monks +and their credulous followers with that most dangerous of all +weapons, humor. The booklet was the best seller of the sixteenth +century. It was translated into almost every language +and it made people pay attention to those other books of +Erasmus in which he advocated reform of the many abuses of +the church and appealed to his fellow humanists to help him +in his task of bringing about a great rebirth of the Christian +faith. + +But nothing came of these excellent plans. Erasmus was +too reasonable and too tolerant to please most of the enemies +of the church. They were waiting for a leader of a more +robust nature. + +He came, and his name was Martin Luther. + +Luther was a North-German peasant with a first-class +brain and possessed of great personal courage. He was a +university man, a master of arts of the University of Erfurt; +afterwards he joined a Dominican monastery. Then he became +a college professor at the theological school of Wittenberg +and began to explain the scriptures to the indifferent ploughboys +of his Saxon home. He had a lot of spare time and this he used +to study the original texts of the Old and New Testaments. +Soon he began to see the great difference which existed between +the words of Christ and those that were preached by the Popes and the Bishops. +In the year 1511, he visited Rome on official business. +Alexander VI, of the family of Borgia, who had enriched himself +for the benefit of his son and daughter, was dead. But his +successor, Julius II, a man of irreproachable personal character, +was spending most of his time fighting and building and +did not impress this serious minded German theologian with +his piety. Luther returned to Wittenberg a much disappointed +man. But worse was to follow. + +The gigantic church of St. Peter which Pope Julius had +wished upon his innocent successors, although only half begun, +was already in need of repair. Alexander VI had spent every +penny of the Papal treasury. Leo X, who succeeded Julius +in the year 1513, was on the verge of bankruptcy. He reverted +to an old method of raising ready cash. He began to sell +``indulgences.'' An indulgence was a piece of parchment which +in return for a certain sum of money, promised a sinner a decrease +of the time which he would have to spend in purgatory. +It was a perfectly correct thing according to the creed of the +late Middle Ages. Since the church had the power to forgive +the sins of those who truly repented before they died, the +church also had the right to shorten, through its intercession +with the Saints, the time during which the soul must be punfied +in the shadowy realms of Purgatory. + +It was unfortunate that these Indulgences must be sold for +money. But they offered an easy form of revenue and besides, +those who were too poor to pay, received theirs for nothing. + +Now it happened in the year 1517 that the exclusive territory +for the sale of indulgences in Saxony was given to a +Dominican monk by the name of Johan Tetzel. Brother +Johan was a hustling salesman. To tell the truth he was a +little too eager. His business methods outraged the pious +people of the little duchy. And Luther, who was an honest +fellow, got so angry that he did a rash thing. On the 31st of +October of the year 1517, he went to the court church and upon +the doors thereof he posted a sheet of paper with ninety-five +statements (or theses), attacking the sale of indulgences. +These statements had been written in Latin. Luther had no +intention of starting a riot. He was not a revolutionist. He +objected to the institution of the Indulgences and he wanted his +fellow professors to know what he thought about them. But +this was still a private affair of the clerical and professorial +world and there was no appeal to the prejudices of the community +of laymen. + +Unfortunately, at that moment when the whole world had +begun to take an interest in the religious affairs of the day +it was utterly impossible to discuss anything, without at once +creating a serious mental disturbance. In less than two +months, all Europe was discussing the ninety-five theses of +the Saxon monk. Every one must take sides. Every obscure +little theologian must print his own opinion. The papal +authorities began to be alarmed. They ordered the Wittenberg +professor to proceed to Rome and give an account of his action. +Luther wisely remembered what had happened to Huss. He +stayed in Germany and he was punished with excommunication. +Luther burned the papal bull in the presence of an +admiring multitude and from that moment, peace between himself +and the Pope was no longer possible. + +Without any desire on his part, Luther had become the +leader of a vast army of discontented Christians. German +patriots like Ulrich von Hutten, rushed to his defence. The +students of Wittenberg and Erfurt and Leipzig offered to +defend him should the authorities try to imprison him. The +Elector of Saxony reassured the eager young men. No harm +would befall Luther as long as he stayed on Saxon ground. + +All this happened in the year 1520. Charles V was twenty +years old and as the ruler of half the world, was forced to +remain on pleasant terms with the Pope. He sent out calls +for a Diet or general assembly in the good city of Worms on +the Rhine and commanded Luther to be present and give an +account of his extraordinary behaviour. Luther, who now +was the national hero of the Germans, went. He refused to +take back a single word of what he had ever written or said. +His conscience was controlled only by the word of God. He +would live and die for his conscience + +The Diet of Worms, after due deliberation, declared +Luther an outlaw before God and man, and forbade all Germans +to give him shelter or food or drink, or to read a single +word of the books which the dastardly heretic had written. +But the great reformer was in no danger. By the majority +of the Germans of the north the edict was denounced as a most +unjust and outrageous document. For greater safety, Luther +was hidden in the Wartburg, a castle belonging to the Elector +of Saxony, and there he defied all papal authority by translating +the entire Bible into the German language, that all the +people might read and know the word of God for themselves. + +By this time, the Reformation was no longer a spiritual +and religious affair. Those who hated the beauty of the modern +church building used this period of unrest to attack and +destroy what they did not like because they did not understand +it. Impoverished knights tried to make up for past losses by +grabbing the territory which belonged to the monasteries. +Discontented princes made use of the absence of the Emperor +to increase their own power. The starving peasants, following +the leadership of half-crazy agitators, made the best of +the opportunity and attacked the castles of their masters and +plundered and murdered and burned with the zeal of the old +Crusaders. + +A veritable reign of disorder broke loose throughout the +Empire. Some princes became Protestants (as the ``protesting'' +adherents of Luther were called) and persecuted their +Catholic subjects. Others remained Catholic and hanged their +Protestant subjects. The Diet of Speyer of the year 1526 +tried to settle this difficult question of allegiance by ordering +that ``the subjects should all be of the same religious denomination +as their princes.'' This turned Germany into a checkerboard +of a thousand hostile little duchies and principalities and +created a situation which prevented the normal political +growth for hundreds of years. + +In February of the year 1546 Luther died and was put +to rest in the same church where twenty-nine years before he +had proclaimed his famous objections to the sale of Indulgences. +In less than thirty years, the indifferent, joking and +laughing world of the Renaissance had been transformed into +the arguing, quarrelling, back-biting, debating-society of the +Reformation. The universal spiritual empire of the Popes +came to a sudden end and the whole Western Europe was +turned into a battle-field, where Protestants and Catholics +killed each other for the greater glory of certain theological +doctrines which are as incomprehensible to the present generation +as the mysterious inscriptions of the ancient Etruscans. + + + +RELIGIOUS WARFARE + +THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS +CONTROVERSIES + + +THE sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the age of +religious controversy. + +If you will notice you will find that almost everybody +around you is forever ``talking economics'' and discussing +wages and hours of labor and strikes in their relation to the +life of the community, for that is the main topic of interest +of our own time. + +The poor little children of the year 1600 or 1650 fared +worse. They never heard anything but ``religion.'' Their +heads were filled with ``predestination,'' ``transubstantition,'' +``free will,'' and a hundred other queer words, expressing +obscure points of ``the true faith,'' whether Catholic or +Protestant. According to the desire of their parents they were +baptised Catholics or Lutherans or Calvinists or Zwinglians +or Anabaptists. They learned their theology from the Augsburg +catechism, composed by Luther, or from the ``institutes +of Christianity,'' written by Calvin, or they mumbled the +Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith which were printed in the English +Book of Common Prayer, and they were told that these +alone represented the ``True Faith.'' + +They heard of the wholesale theft of church property +perpetrated by King Henry VIII, the much-married monarch of +England, who made himself the supreme head of the English +church, and assumed the old papal rights of appointing bishops +and priests. They had a nightmare whenever some one +mentioned the Holy Inquisition, with its dungeons and its +many torture chambers, and they were treated to equally horrible +stories of how a mob of outraged Dutch Protestants had +got hold of a dozen defenceless old priests and hanged them +for the sheer pleasure of killing those who professed +a different faith. It was unfortunate that the two +contending parties were so equally matched. Otherwise +the struggle would have come to a quick solution. +Now it dragged on for eight generations, and +it grew so complicated that I can only tell you the most +important details, and must ask you to get the +rest from one of the many histories of the Reformation. + +The great reform movement of the Protestants +had been followed by a thoroughgoing reform +within the bosom of the Church. Those popes who +had been merely amateur humanists and dealers in Roman +and Greek antiquities, disappeared from the scene and +their place was taken by serious men who spent twenty hours +a day administering those holy duties which had been placed +in their hands. + +The long and rather disgraceful happiness of the monasteries +came to an end. Monks and nuns were forced to be up +at sunrise, to study the Church Fathers, to tend the sick and +console the dying. The Holy Inquisition watched day and +night that no dangerous doctrines should be spread by way of +the printing press. Here it is customary to mention poor +Galileo, who was locked up because he had been a little too +indiscreet in explaining the heavens with his funny little +telescope and had muttered certain opinions about the behaviour +of the planets which were entirely opposed to the official views +of the church. But in all fairness to the Pope, the clergy and +the Inquisition, it ought to be stated that the Protestants were +quite as much the enemies of science and medicine as the Catholics +and with equal manifestations of ignorance and intolerance +regarded the men who investigated things for themselves +as the most dangerous enemies of mankind. + +And Calvin, the great French reformer and the tyrant +(both political and spiritual) of Geneva, not only assisted the +French authorities when they tried to hang Michael Servetus +(the Spanish theologian and physician who had become famous +as the assistant of Vesalius, the first great anatomist), but +when Servetus had managed to escape from his French jail and +had fled to Geneva, Calvin threw this brilliant man into prison +and after a prolonged trial, allowed him to be burned at the +stake on account of his heresies, totally indifferent to his fame +as a scientist. + +And so it went. We have few reliable statistics upon the +subject, but on the whole, the Protestants tired of this game +long before the Catholics, and the greater part of honest men +and women who were burned and hanged and decapitated on +account of their religious beliefs fell as victims of the very +energetic but also very drastic church of Rome. + +For tolerance (and please remember this when you grow +older), is of very recent origin and even the people of our own +so-called ``modern world'' are apt to be tolerant only upon such +matters as do not interest them very much. They are tolerant +towards a native of Africa, and do not care whether he becomes +a Buddhist or a Mohammedan, because neither Buddhism nor +Mohammedanism means anything to them. But when they +hear that their neighbour who was a Republican and believed +in a high protective tariff, has joined the Socialist party and +now wants to repeal all tariff laws, their tolerance ceases and +they use almost the same words as those employed by a kindly +Catholic (or Protestant) of the seventeenth century, who was +informed that his best friend whom he had always respected +and loved had fallen a victim to the terrible heresies of the +Protestant (or Catholic) church. + +``Heresy'' until a very short time ago was regarded as a +disease. Nowadays when we see a man neglecting the personal +cleanliness of his body and his home and exposing himself +and his children to the dangers of typhoid fever or another +preventable disease, we send for the board-of-health and the +health officer calls upon the police to aid him in removing this +person who is a danger to the safety of the entire community. +In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a heretic, a man +or a woman who openly doubted the fundamental principles +upon which his Protestant or Catholic religion had been +founded, was considered a more terrible menace than a typhoid +carrier. Typhoid fever might (very likely would) destroy the +body. But heresy, according to them, would positively destroy +the immortal soul. It was therefore the duty of all good and +logical citizens to warn the police against the enemies of the +established order of things and those who failed to do so were +as culpable as a modern man who does not telephone to the +nearest doctor when he discovers that his fellow-tenants are +suffering from cholera or small-pox. + +In the years to come you will hear a great deal about +preventive medicine. Preventive medicine simply means that our +doctors do not wait until their patients are sick, then step +forward and cure them. On the contrary, they study the patient +and the conditions under which he lives when he (the patient) +is perfectly well and they remove every possible cause of illness +by cleaning up rubbish, by teaching him what to eat and what +to avoid, and by giving him a few simple ideas of personal +hygiene. They go even further than that, and these good +doctors enter the schools and teach the children how to use +tooth-brushes and how to avoid catching colds. + +The sixteenth century which regarded (as I have tried to +show you) bodily illness as much less important than sickness +which threatened the soul, organised a system of spiritual +preventive medicine. As soon as a child was old enough to spell +his first words, he was educated in the true (and the ``only +true'') principles of the Faith. Indirectly this proved to be a +good thing for the general progress of the people of Europe. +The Protestant lands were soon dotted with schools. They +used a great deal of very valuable time to explain the Catechism, +but they gave instruction in other things besides theology. +They encouraged reading and they were responsible +for the great prosperity of the printing trade. + +But the Catholics did not lag behind. They too devoted +much time and thought to education. The Church, in this matter, +found an invaluable friend and ally in the newly-founded +order of the Society of Jesus. The founder of this remarkable +organisation was a Spanish soldier who after a life of unholy +adventures had been converted and thereupon felt himself +bound to serve the church just as many former sinners, who +have been shown the errors of their way by the Salvation Army, +devote the remaining years of their lives to the task of aiding +and consoling those who are less fortunate. + +The name of this Spaniard was Ignatius de Loyola. He +was born in the year before the discovery of America. He had +been wounded and lamed for life and while he was in the hospital +he had seen a vision of the Holy Virgin and her Son, who +bade him give up the wickedness of his former life. He decided +to go to the Holy Land and finish the task of the Crusades. +But a visit to Jerusalem had shown him the impossibility +of the task and he returned west to help in the warfare +upon the heresies of the Lutherans. + +In the year 1534 he was studying in Paris at the Sorbonne. +Together with seven other students he founded a fraternity. +The eight men promised each other that they would lead holy +lives, that they would not strive after riches but after righteousness, +and would devote themselves, body and soul, to the service +of the Church. A few years later this small fraternity +had grown into a regular organisation and was recognised by +Pope Paul III as the Society of Jesus. + +Loyola had been a military man. He believed in discipline, +and absolute obedience to the orders of the superior dignitaries +became one of the main causes for the enormous success of the +Jesuits. They specialised in education. They gave their +teachers a most thorough-going education before they allowed +them to talk to a single pupil. They lived with their students +and they entered into their games. They watched them with +tender care. And as a result they raised a new generation of +faithful Catholics who took their religious duties as seriously +as the people of the early Middle Ages. + +The shrewd Jesuits, however, did not waste all their efforts +upon the education of the poor. They entered the palaces +of the mighty and became the private tutors of future emperors +and kings. And what this meant you will see for yourself +when I tell you about the Thirty Years War. But before +this terrible and final outbreak of religious fanaticism, a great +many other things had happened. + +Charles V was dead. Germany and Austria had been left +to his brother Ferdinand. All his other possessions, Spain and +the Netherlands and the Indies and America had gone to his +son Philip. Philip was the son of Charles and a Portuguese +princess who had been first cousin to her own husband. The +children that are born of such a union are apt to be rather +queer. The son of Philip, the unfortunate Don Carlos, (murdered +afterwards with his own father's consent,) was crazy. +Philip was not quite crazy, but his zeal for the Church bordered +closely upon religious insanity. He believed that Heaven had +appointed him as one of the saviours of mankind. Therefore, +whosoever was obstinate and refused to share his Majesty's +views, proclaimed himself an enemy of the human race and +must be exterminated lest his example corrupt the souls of +his pious neighbours. + +Spain, of course, was a very rich country. All the gold and +silver of the new world flowed into the Castilian and Aragonian +treasuries. But Spain suffered from a curious eco- +nomic disease. Her peasants were hard working men and +even harder working women. But the better classes maintained +a supreme contempt for any form of labour, outside of +employment in the army or navy or the civil service. As for +the Moors, who had been very industrious artisans, they had +been driven out of the country long before. As a result, Spain, +the treasure chest of the world, remained a poor country because +all her money had to be sent abroad in exchange for the +wheat and the other necessities of life which the Spaniards +neglected to raise for themselves. + +Philip, ruler of the most powerful nation of the +sixteenth century, depended for his revenue upon the taxes +which were gathered in the busy commercial bee-hive of +the Netherlands. But these Flemings and Dutchmen were +devoted followers of the doctrines of Luther and Calvin +and they had cleansed their churches of all images and holy +paintings and they had informed the Pope that they no +longer regarded him as their shepherd but intended to follow +the dictates of their consciences and the commands of their +newly translated Bible. + +This placed the king in a very difficult position. He could +not possibly tolerate the heresies of his Dutch subjects, but +he needed their money. If he allowed them to be Protestants +and took no measures to save their souls he was deficient in +his duty toward God. If he sent the Inquisition to the Netherlands +and burned his subjects at the stake, he would lose the +greater part of his income. + +Being a man of uncertain will-power he hesitated a long +time. He tried kindness and sternness and promises and +threats. The Hollanders remained obstinate, and continued to +sing psalms and listen to the sermons of their Lutheran and +Calvinist preachers. Philip in his despair sent his ``man of +iron,'' the Duke of Alba, to bring these hardened sinners to +terms. Alba began by decapitating those leaders who had not +wisely left the country before his arrival. In the year 1572 +(the same year that the French Protestant leaders were all +killed during the terrible night of Saint Bartholomew), he +attacked a number of Dutch cities and massacred the inhabitants +as an example for the others. The next year he laid siege +to the town of Leyden, the manufacturing center of Holland. + +Meanwhile, the seven small provinces of the northern +Netherlands had formed a defensive union, the so-called union +of Utrecht, and had recognised William of Orange, a German +prince who had been the private secretary of the Emperor +Charles V, as the leader of their army and as commander of +their freebooting sailors, who were known as the Beggars of +the Sea. William, to save Leyden, cut the dykes, created a +shallow inland sea, and delivered the town with the help of a +strangely equipped navy consisting of scows and flat-bottomed +barges which were rowed and pushed and pulled through the +mud until they reached the city walls. + +It was the first time that an army of the invincible Spanish +king had suffered such a humiliating defeat. It surprised the +world just as the Japanese victory of Mukden, in the Russian- +Japanese war, surprised our own generation. The Protestant +powers took fresh courage and Philip devised new means for +the purpose of conquering his rebellious subjects. He hired +a poor half-witted fanatic to go and murder William of +Orange. But the sight of their dead leader did not bring the +Seven Provinces to their knees. On the contrary it made them +furiously angry. In the year 1581, the Estates General (the +meeting of the representatives of the Seven Provinces) came +together at the Hague and most solemnly abjured their +``wicked king Philip'' and themselves assumed the burden +of sovereignty which thus far had been invested in their +``King by the Grace of God.'' + +This is a very important event in the history of the great +struggle for political liberty. It was a step which reached +much further than the uprising of the nobles which ended with +the signing of the Magna Carta. These good burghers said +``Between a king and his subjects there is a silent understanding +that both sides shall perform certain services and shall +recognise certain definite duties. If either party fails to live +up to this contract, the other has the right to consider it ter- +minated.'' The American subjects of King George III in +the year 1776 came to a similar conclusion. But they had three +thousand miles of ocean between themselves and their ruler +and the Estates General took their decision (which meant a +slow death in case of defeat) within hearing of the Spanish +guns and although in constant fear of an avenging Spanish +fleet. + +The stories about a mysterious Spanish fleet that was to conquer +both Holland and England, when Protestant Queen +Elizabeth had succeeded Catholic ``Bloody Mary'' was an old +one. For years the sailors of the waterfront had talked +about it. In the eighties of the sixteenth century, the +rumour took a definite shape. According to pilots who had +been in Lisbon, all the Spanish and Portuguese wharves were +building ships. And in the southern Netherlands (in Belgium) +the Duke of Parma was collecting a large expeditionary +force to be carried from Ostend to London and Amsterdam +as soon as the fleet should arrive. + +In the year 1586 the Great Armada set sail for the north. +But the harbours of the Flemish coast were blockaded by a +Dutch fleet and the Channel was guarded by the English, and +the Spaniards, accustomed to the quieter seas of the south, did +not know how to navigate in this squally and bleak northern +climate. What happened to the Armada once it was attacked +by ships and by storms I need not tell you. A few ships, by +sailing around Ireland, escaped to tell the terrible story of +defeat. The others perished and lie at the bottom of the North +Sea. + +Turn about is fair play. The British nod the Dutch Prot- +estants now carried the war into the territory of the enemy. +Before the end of the century, Houtman, with the help of a +booklet written by Linschoten (a Hollander who had been in +the Portuguese service), had at last discovered the route to +the Indies. As a result the great Dutch East India Company +was founded and a systematic war upon the Portuguese and +Spanish colonies in Asia and Africa was begun in all seriousness. + +It was during this early era of colonial conquest that a +curious lawsuit was fought out in the Dutch courts. Early in +the seventeenth century a Dutch Captain by the name of van +Heemskerk, a man who had made himself famous as the head +of an expedition which had tried to discover the North Eastern +Passage to the Indies and who had spent a winter on the frozen +shores of the island of Nova Zembla, had captured a Portuguese +ship in the straits of Malacca. You will remember that +the Pope had divided the world into two equal shares, one of +which had been given to the Spaniards and the other to the +Portuguese. The Portuguese quite naturally regarded the +water which surrounded their Indian islands as part of their +own property and since, for the moment, they were not at war +with the United Seven Netherlands, they claimed that the +captain of a private Dutch trading company had no right to +enter their private domain and steal their ships. And they +brought suit. The directors of the Dutch East India Company +hired a bright young lawyer, by the name of De Groot or +Grotius, to defend their case. He made the astonishing plea +that the ocean is free to all comers. Once outside the distance +which a cannon ball fired from the land can reach, the sea is +or (according to Grotius) ought to be, a free and open highway +to all the ships of all nations. It was the first time that this +startling doctrine had been publicly pronounced in a court +of law. It was opposed by all the other seafaring people. To +counteract the effect of Grotius' famous plea for the ``Mare +Liberum,'' or ``Open Sea,'' John Selden, the Englishman, +wrote his famous treatise upon the ``Mare Clausum'' or ``Closed +Sea'' which treated of the natural right of a sovereign to regard +the seas which surrounded his country as belonging to his territory. +I mention this here because the question had not yet +been decided and during the last war caused all sorts of +difficulties and complications. + +To return to the warfare between Spaniard and Hollander +and Englishman, before twenty years were over the most +valuable colonies of the Indies and the Cape of Good Hope and +Ceylon and those along the coast of China and even Japan were +in Protestant hands. In 1621 a West Indian Company was +founded which conquered Brazil and in North America built +a fortress called Nieuw Amsterdam at the mouth of the river +which Henry Hudson had discovered in the year 1609 + +These new colonies enriched both England and the Dutch +Republic to such an extent that they could hire foreign soldiers +to do their fighting on land while they devoted themselves +to commerce and trade. To them the Protestant revolt meant +independence and prosperity. But in many other parts of +Europe it meant a succession of horrors compared to which the +last war was a mild excursion of kindly Sunday-school boys. + +The Thirty Years War which broke out in the year 1618 +and which ended with the famous treaty of Westphalia in 1648 +was the perfectly natural result of a century of ever increasing +religious hatred. It was, as I have said, a terrible war. Everybody +fought everybody else and the struggle ended only when +all parties had been thoroughly exhausted and could fight no +longer. + +In less than a generation it turned many parts of central +Europe into a wilderness, where the hungry peasants fought +for the carcass of a dead horse with the even hungrier wolf. +Five-sixths of all the German towns and villages were destroyed. +The Palatinate, in western Germany, was plundered +twenty-eight times. And a population of eighteen million +people was reduced to four million. + +The hostilities began almost as soon as Ferdinand II of +the House of Habsburg had been elected Emperor. He was +the product of a most careful Jesuit training and was a most +obedient and devout son of the Church. The vow which he had +made as a young man, that he would eradicate all sects and +all heresies from his domains, Ferdinand kept to the best of +his ability. Two days before his election, his chief opponent, +Frederick, the Protestant Elector of the Palatinate and a +son-in-law of James I of England, had been made King of +Bohemia, in direct violation of Ferdinand's wishes. + +At once the Habsburg armies marched into Bohemia. The +young king looked in vain for assistance against this formidable +enemy. The Dutch Republic was willing to help, but, +engaged in a desperate war of its own with the Spanish branch +of the Habsburgs, it could do little. The Stuarts in England +were more interested in strengthening their own absolute power +at home than spending money and men upon a forlorn adventure +in far away Bohemia. After a struggle of a few months, +the Elector of the Palatinate was driven away and his domains +were given to the Catholic house of Bavaria. This was the beginning +of the great war. + +Then the Habsburg armies, under Tilly and Wallenstein, +fought their way through the Protestant part of Germany +until they had reached the shores of the Baltic. A Catholic +neighbour meant serious danger to the Protestant king of +Denmark. Christian IV tried to defend himself by attacking +his enemies before they had become too strong for him. The +Danish armies marched into Germany but were defeated. +Wallenstein followed up his victory with such energy and violence +that Denmark was forced to sue for peace. Only one +town of the Baltic then remained in the hands of the Protestants. +That was Stralsund. + +There, in the early summer of the year 1630, landed King +Gustavus Adolphus of the house of Vasa, king of Sweden, +and famous as the man who had defended his country against +the Russians. A Protestant prince of unlimited ambition, +desirous of making Sweden the centre of a great Northern +Empire, Gustavus Adolphus was welcomed by the Protestant +princes of Europe as the saviour of the Lutheran cause. He +defeated Tilly, who had just successfully butchered the Protestant +inhabitants of Magdeburg. Then his troops began their +great march through the heart of Germany in an attempt to +reach the Habsburg possessions in Italy. Threatened in the +rear by the Catholics, Gustavus suddenly veered around and +defeated the main Habsburg army in the battle of Lutzen. +Unfortunately the Swedish king was killed when he strayed +away from his troops. But the Habsburg power had been +broken. + +Ferdinand, who was a suspicious sort of person, at once +began to distrust his own servants. Wallenstein, his commander- +in-chief, was murdered at his instigation. When the +Catholic Bourbons, who ruled France and hated their Habsburg +rivals, heard of this, they joined the Protestant Swedes. +The armies of Louis XIII invaded the eastern part of Germany, +and Turenne and Conde added their fame to that of +Baner and Weimar, the Swedish generals, by murdering, pillaging +and burning Habsburg property. This brought great +fame and riches to the Swedes and caused the Danes to become +envious. The Protestant Danes thereupon declared war upon +the Protestant Swedes who were the allies of the Catholic +French, whose political leader, the Cardinal de Richelieu, had +just deprived the Huguenots (or French Protestants) of those +rights of public worship which the Edict of Nantes of the year +1598 had guaranteed them. + +The war, after the habit of such encounters, did not decide +anything, when it came to an end with the treaty of Westphalia +in 1648. The Catholic powers remained Catholic and +the Protestant powers stayed faithful to the doctrines of +Luther and Calvin and Zwingli. The Swiss and Dutch Protestants +were recognised as independent republics. France +kept the cities of Metz and Toul and Verdun and a part of the +Alsace. The Holy Roman Empire continued to exist as a sort +of scare-crow state, without men, without money, without hope +and without courage. + +The only good the Thirty Years War accomplished was a +negative one. It discouraged both Catholics and Protestants +from ever trying it again. Henceforth they left each other in +peace. This however did not mean that religious feeling and +theological hatred had been removed from this earth. On the +contrary. The quarrels between Catholic and Protestant +came to an end, but the disputes between the different Protestant +sects continued as bitterly as ever before. In Holland +a difference of opinion as to the true nature of predestination +(a very obscure point of theology, but exceedingly important +the eyes of your great-grandfather) caused a quarrel which +ended with the decapitation of John of Oldenbarneveldt, the +Dutch statesman, who had been responsible for the success of +the Republic during the first twenty years of its independence, +and who was the great organising genius of her Indian trading +company. In England, the feud led to civil war. + +But before I tell you of this outbreak which led to the first +execution by process-of-law of a European king, I ought to +say something about the previous history of England. In this +book I am trying to give you only those events of the past +which can throw a light upon the conditions of the present +world. If I do not mention certain countries, the cause is not +to be found in any secret dislike on my part. I wish that I +could tell you what happened to Norway and Switzerland and +Serbia and China. But these lands exercised no great influence +upon the development of Europe in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. I therefore pass them by with a polite +and very respectful bow. England however is in a different +position. What the people of that small island have done during +the last five hundred years has shaped the course of history +in every corner of the world. Without a proper knowledge of +the background of English history, you cannot understand +what you read in the newspapers. And it is therefore necessary +that you know how England happened to develop a parliamentary +form of government while the rest of the European continent +was still ruled by absolute monarchs. + + + +THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION + +HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE ``DIVINE +RIGHT'' OF KINGS AND THE LESS DIVINE +BUT MORE REASONABLE ``RIGHT OF +PARLIAMENT'' ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR +KING CHARLES II + + +CAESAR, the earliest explorer of north-western Europe, had +crossed the Channel in the year 55 B.C. and had conquered +England. During four centuries the country then remained +a Roman province. But when the Barbarians began to +threaten Rome, the garrisons were called back from the frontier +that they might defend the home country and Britannia +was left without a government and without protection. + +As soon as this became known among the hungry Saxon +tribes of northern Germany, they sailed across the North Sea +and made themselves at home in the prosperous island. They +founded a number of independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms +(so called after the original Angles or English and the Saxon +invaders) but these small states were for ever quarrelling with +each other and no King was strong enough to establish himself +as the head of a united country. For more than five hundred +years, Mercia and Northumbria and Wessex and Sussex +and Kent and East Anglia, or whatever their names, were +exposed to attacks from various Scandinavian pirates. Finally +in the eleventh century, England, together with Norway and +northern Germany became part of the large Danish Empire +of Canute the Great and the last vestiges of independence +disappeared. + +The Danes, in the course of time, were driven away but no +sooner was England free, than it was conquered for the fourth +time. The new enemies were the descendants of another tribe +of Norsemen who early in the tenth century had invaded +France and had founded the Duchy of Normandy. William, +Duke of Normandy, who for a long time had looked across the +water with an envious eye, crossed the Channel in October +of the year 1066. At the battle of Hastings, on October the +fourteenth of that year, he destroyed the weak forces of Harold +of Wessex, the last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings and established +himself as King of England. But neither William nor his +successors of the House of Anjou and Plantagenet regarded +England as their true home. To them the island was merely a +part of their great inheritance on the continent--a sort of +colony inhabited by rather backward people upon whom they +forced their own language and civilisation. Gradually however +the ``colony'' of England gained upon the ``Mother +country'' of Normandy. At the same time the Kings of +France were trying desperately to get rid of the powerful Norman- +English neighbours who were in truth no more than disobedient +servants of the French crown. After a century of war +fare the French people, under the leadership of a young girl by +the name of Joan of Arc, drove the ``foreigners'' from their +soil. Joan herself, taken a prisoner at the battle of Compiegne +in the year 1430 and sold by her Burgundian captors to the +English soldiers, was burned as a witch. But the English +never gained foothold upon the continent and their Kings were +at last able to devote all their time to their British possessions. +As the feudal nobility of the island had been engaged in one of +those strange feuds which were as common in the middle ages +as measles and small-pox, and as the greater part of the old +landed proprietors had been killed during these so-called Wars +of the Roses, it was quite easy for the Kings to increase their +royal power. And by the end of the fifteenth century, England +was a strongly centralised country, ruled by Henry VII +of the House of Tudor, whose famous Court of Justice, the +``Star Chamber'' of terrible memory, suppressed all attempts +on the part of the surviving nobles to regain their old influence +upon the government of the country with the utmost severity. + +In the year 1509 Henry VII was succeeded by his son +Henry VIII, and from that moment on the history of England +gained a new importance for the country ceased to be a +mediaeval island and became a modern state. + +Henry had no deep interest in religion. He gladly used a +private disagreement with the Pope about one of his many +divorces to declare himself independent of Rome and make +the church of England the first of those ``nationalistic churches'' +in which the worldly ruler also acts as the spiritual head of his +subjects. This peaceful reformation of 1034 not only gave +the house of Tudor the support of the English clergy, who +for a long time had been exposed to the violent attacks of many +Lutheran propagandists, but it also increased the Royal power +through the confiscation of the former possessions of the +monasteries. At the same time it made Henry popular with the +merchants and tradespeople, who as the proud and prosperous +inhabitants of an island which was separated from the rest of +Europe by a wide and deep channel, had a great dislike for +everything ``foreign'' and did not want an Italian bishop to rule +their honest British souls. + +In 1517 Henry died. He left the throne to his small son, +aged ten. The guardians of the child, favoring the modern +Lutheran doctrines, did their best to help the cause of Protestantism. +But the boy died before he was sixteen, and was succeeded +by his sister Mary, the wife of Philip II of Spain, who +burned the bishops of the new ``national church'' and in other +ways followed the example of her royal Spanish husband + +Fortunately she died, in the year 1558, and was succeeded +by Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, +the second of his six wives, whom he had decapitated when she +no longer pleased him. Elizabeth, who had spent some time in +prison, and who had been released only at the request of the +Holy Roman Emperor, was a most cordial enemy of everything +Catholic and Spanish. She shared her father's indifference +in the matter of religion but she inherited his ability as a +very shrewd judge of character, and spent the forty-five years +of her reign in strengthening the power of the dynasty and in +increasing the revenue and possessions of her merry islands. +In this she was most ably assisted by a number of men who +gathered around her throne and made the Elizabethan age a +period of such importance that you ought to study it in detail +in one of the special books of which I shall tell you in the +bibliography at the end of this volume. + +Elizabeth, however, did not feel entirely safe upon her +throne. She had a rival and a very dangerous one. Mary, +of the house of Stuart, daughter of a French duchess and a +Scottish father, widow of king Francis II of France and +daughter-in-law of Catherine of Medici (who had organised +the murders of Saint Bartholomew's night), was the mother of +a little boy who was afterwards to become the first Stuart king +of England. She was an ardent Catholic and a willing friend +to those who were the enemies of Elizabeth. Her own lack +of political ability and the violent methods which she employed +to punish her Calvinistic subjects, caused a revolution in Scotland +and forced Mary to take refuge on English territory. For +eighteen years she remained in England, plotting forever and +a day against the woman who had given her shelter and who +was at last obliged to follow the advice of her trusted councilors +``to cutte off the Scottish Queen's heade.'' + +The head was duly ``cutte off'' in the year 1587 and caused +a war with Spain. But the combined navies of England and +Holland defeated Philip's Invincible Armada, as we have already +seen, and the blow which had been meant to destroy the +power of the two great anti-Catholic leaders was turned into a +profitable business adventure. + +For now at last, after many years of hesitation, the English +as well as the Dutch thought it their good right to invade +the Indies and America and avenge the ills which their Protes- +tent brethren had suffered at the hands of the Spaniards. The +English had been among the earliest successors of Columbus. +British ships, commanded by the Venetian pilot Giovanni Caboto +(or Cabot), had been the first to discover and explore the +northern American continent in 1496. Labrador and Newfoundland +were of little importance as a possible colony. But +the banks of Newfoundland offered a rich reward to the +English fishing fleet. A year later, in 1497, the same Cabot +had explored the coast of Florida. + +Then had come the busy years of Henry VII and Henry +VIII when there had been no money for foreign explorations. +But under Elizabeth, with the country at peace and Mary +Stuart in prison, the sailors could leave their harbour without +fear for the fate of those whom they left behind. While Elizabeth +was still a child, Willoughby had ventured to sail past the +North Cape and one of his captains, Richard Chancellor, pushing +further eastward in his quest of a possible road to the Indies, +had reached Archangel, Russia, where he had established +diplomatic and commercial relations with the mysterious rulers +of this distant Muscovite Empire. During the first years of +Elizabeth's rule this voyage had been followed up by many +others. Merchant adventurers, working for the benefit of a +``joint stock Company'' had laid the foundations of trading +companies which in later centuries were to become colonies. +Half pirate, half diplomat, willing to stake everything on a +single lucky voyage, smugglers of everything that could be +loaded into the hold of a vessel, dealers in men and merchandise +with equal indifference to everything except their profit, the +sailors of Elizabeth had carried the English flag and the fame +of their Virgin Queen to the four corners of the Seven Seas. +Meanwhile William Shakespeare kept her Majesty amused at +home, and the best brains and the best wit of England co-operated +with the queen in her attempt to change the feudal inheritance +of Henry VIII into a modern national state. + +In the year 1603 the old lady died at the age of seventy. +Her cousin, the great-grandson of her own grandfather Henry +VII and son of Mary Stuart, her rival and enemy, succeeded +her as James I. By the Grace of God, he found himself the +ruler of a country which had escaped the fate of its continental +rivals. While the European Protestants and Catholics were +killing each other in a hopeless attempt to break the power of +their adversaries and establish the exclusive rule of their own +particular creed, England was at peace and ``reformed'' at +leisure without going to the extremes of either Luther or +Loyola. It gave the island kingdom an enormous advantage in +the coming struggle for colonial possessions. It assured England +a leadership in international affairs which that country +has maintained until the present day. Not even the disastrous +adventure with the Stuarts was able to stop this normal development. + +The Stuarts, who succeeded the Tudors, were ``foreigners'' +in England. They do not seem to have appreciated or understood +this fact. The native house of Tudor could steal a horse, +but the ``foreign'' Stuarts were not allowed to look at the +bridle without causing great popular disapproval. Old Queen +Bess had ruled her domains very much as she pleased. In +general however, she had always followed a policy which meant +money in the pocket of the honest (and otherwise) British +merchants. Hence the Queen had been always assured of the +wholehearted support of her grateful people. And small liberties +taken with some of the rights and prerogatives of Parliament +were gladly overlooked for the ulterior benefits which +were derived from her Majesty's strong and successful foreign +policies. + +Outwardly King James continued the same policy. But he +lacked that personal enthusiasm which had been so very typical +of his great predecessor. Foreign commerce continued to be +encouraged. The Catholics were not granted any liberties. +But when Spain smiled pleasantly upon England in an effort +to establish peaceful relations, James was seen to smile back. +The majority of the English people did not like this, but +James was their King and they kept quiet. + +Soon there were other causes of friction. King James and +his son, Charles I, who succeeded him in the year 1625 both +firmly believed in the principle of their ``divine right'' to +administer their realm as they thought fit without consulting the +wishes of their subjects. The idea was not new. The Popes, +who in more than one way had been the successors of the +Roman Emperors (or rather of the Roman Imperial ideal of +a single and undivided state covering the entire known world), +had always regarded themselves and had been publicly recognised +as the ``Vice-Regents of Christ upon Earth.'' No one +questioned the right of God to rule the world as He saw fit. +As a natural result, few ventured to doubt the right of the +divine ``Vice-Regent'' to do the same thing and to demand the +obedience of the masses because he was the direct representative +of the Absolute Ruler of the Universe and responsible +only to Almighty God. + +When the Lutheran Reformation proved successful, those +rights which formerly had been invested in the Papacy were +taken over by the many European sovereigns who became +Protestants. As head of their own national or dynastic +churches they insisted upon being ``Christ's Vice-Regents'' +within the limit of their own territory. The people did not question +the right of their rulers to take such a step. They accepted +it, just as we in our own day accept the idea of a representative +system which to us seems the only reasonable and just +form of government. It is unfair therefore to state that either +Lutheranism or Calvinism caused the particular feeling of +irritation which greeted King-James's oft and loudly repeated +assertion of his ``Divine Right.'' There must have been other +grounds for the genuine English disbelief in the Divine Right +of Kings. + +The first positive denial of the ``Divine Right'' of sovereigns +had been heard in the Netherlands when the Estates General +abjured their lawful sovereign King Philip II of Spain, in the +year 1581. ``The King,'' so they said, ``has broken his contract +and the King therefore is dismissed like any other unfaithful +servant.'' Since then, this particular idea of a king's +responsibilities towards his subjects had spread among many of the +nations who inhabited the shores of the North Sea. They were +in a very favourable position. They were rich. The poor people +in the heart of central Europe, at the mercy of their +Ruler's body-guard, could not afford to discuss a problem +which would at once land them in the deepest dungeon of the +nearest castle. But the merchants of Holland and England +who possessed the capital necessary for the maintenance of +great armies and navies, who knew how to handle the almighty +weapon called ``credit,'' had no such fear. They were willing +to pit the ``Divine Right'' of their own good money against +the ``Divine Right'' of any Habsburg or Bourbon or Stuart. +They knew that their guilders and shillings could beat the +clumsy feudal armies which were the only weapons of the King. +They dared to act, where others were condemned to suffer +in silence or run the risk of the scaffold. + +When the Stuarts began to annoy the people of England +with their claim that they had a right to do what they pleased +and never mind the responsibility, the English middle classes +used the House of Commons as their first line of defence +against this abuse of the Royal Power. The Crown refused to +give in and the King sent Parliament about its own business. +Eleven long years, Charles I ruled alone. He levied taxes +which most people regarded as illegal and he managed his +British kingdom as if it had been his own country estate. He +had capable assistants and we must say that he had the courage +of his convictions. + +Unfortunately, instead of assuring himself of the support +of his faithful Scottish subjects, Charles became involved in +a quarrel with the Scotch Presbyterians. Much against his +will, but forced by his need for ready cash, Charles was at +last obliged to call Parliament together once more. It met in +April of 1640 and showed an ugly temper. It was dissolved +a few weeks later. A new Parliament convened in November. +This one was even less pliable than the first one. The members +understood that the question of ``Government by Divine +Right'' or ``Government by Parliament'' must be fought out +for good and all. They attacked the King in his chief councillors +and executed half a dozen of them. They announced that +they would not allow themselves to be dissolved without their +own approval. Finally on December 1, 1641, they presented +to the King a ``Grand Remonstrance'' which gave a detailed +account of the many grievances of the people against their Ruler. + +Charles, hoping to derive some support for his own policy +in the country districts, left London in January of 1642. Each +side organised an army and prepared for open warfare between +the absolute power of the crown and the absolute power +of Parliament. During this struggle, the most powerful religious +element of England, called the Puritans, (they were +Anglicans who had tried to purify their doctrines to the most +absolute limits), came quickly to the front. The regiments of +``Godly men,'' commanded by Oliver Cromwell, with their +iron discipline and their profound confidence in the holiness of +their aims, soon became the model for the entire army of the +opposition. Twice Charles was defeated. After the battle +of Naseby, in 1645, he fled to Scotland. The Scotch sold him +to the English. + +There followed a period of intrigue and an uprising +of the Scotch Presbyterians against the English Puritan. +In August of the year 1648 after the three-days' battle of +Preston Pans, Cromwell made an end to this second civil war, +and took Edinburgh. Meanwhile his soldiers, tired of further +talk and wasted hours of religious debate, had decided to act +on their own initiative. They removed from Parliament all +those who did not agree with their own Puritan views. Thereupon +the ``Rump,'' which was what was left of the old Parliament, +accused the King of high treason. The House of Lords +refused to sit as a tribunal. A special tribunal was appointed +and it condemned the King to death. On the 30th of January +of the year 1649, King Charles walked quietly out of a window +of White Hall onto the scaffold. That day, the Sovereign +People, acting through their chosen representatives, for the +first time executed a ruler who had failed to understand his own +position in the modern state. + +The period which followed the death of Charles is usually +called after Oliver Cromwell. At first the unofficial Dictator +of England, he was officially made Lord Protector in the year +1653. He ruled five years. He used this period to continue +the policies of Elizabeth. Spain once more became the arch +enemy of England and war upon the Spaniard was made a national +and sacred issue. + +The commerce of England and the interests of the traders +were placed before everything else, and the Protestant creed of +the strictest nature was rigourously maintained. In maintaining +England's position abroad, Cromwell was successful. As a +social reformer, however, he failed very badly. The world is +made up of a number of people and they rarely think alike. +In the long run, this seems a very wise provision. A government +of and by and for one single part of the entire community +cannot possibly survive. The Puritans had been a great +force for good when they tried to correct the abuse of the +royal power. As the absolute Rulers of England they became +intolerable. + +When Cromwell died in 1658, it was an easy matter for the +Stuarts to return to their old kingdom. Indeed, they were +welcomed as ``deliverers'' by the people who had found the +yoke of the meek Puritans quite as hard to bear as that of autocratic +King Charles. Provided the Stuarts were willing to forget +about the Divine Right of their late and lamented father +and were willing to recognise the superiority of Parliament, the +people promised that they would be loyal and faithful subjects. + +Two generations tried to make a success of this new arrangement. +But the Stuarts apparently had not learned their +lesson and were unable to drop their bad habits. Charles II, +who came back in the year 1660, was an amiable but worthless +person. His indolence and his constitutional insistence upon +following the easiest course, together with his conspicuous success +as a liar, prevented an open outbreak between himself and +his people. By the act of Uniformity in 1662 he broke the +power of the Puritan clergy by banishing all dissenting clergymen +from their parishes. By the so-called Conventicle Act of +1664 he tried to prevent the Dissenters from attending religious +meetings by a threat of deportation to the West Indies. This +looked too much like the good old days of Divine Right. People +began to show the old and well-known signs of impatience, +and Parliament suddenly experienced difficulty in providing +the King with funds. + +Since he could not get money from an unwilling Parliament, +Charles borrowed it secretly from his neighbour and cousin +King Louis of France. He betrayed his Protestant allies in +return for 200,000 pounds per year, and laughed at the poor +simpletons of Parliament. + +Economic independence suddenly gave the King great faith +in his own strength. He had spent many years of exile among +his Catholic relations and he had a secret liking for their +religion. Perhaps he could bring England back to Rome! He +passed a Declaration of Indulgence which suspended the old +laws against the Catholics and Dissenters. This happened just +when Charles' younger brother James was said to have become +a Catholic. All this looked suspicious to the man in the street +People began to fear some terrible Popish plot. A new spirit +of unrest entered the land. Most of the people wanted to prevent +another outbreak of civil war. To them Royal Oppression +and a Catholic King--yea, even Divine Right,--were +preferable to a new struggle between members of the same +race. Others however were less lenient. They were the much- +feared Dissenters, who invariably had the courage of their +convictions. They were led by several great noblemen who did +not want to see a return of the old days of absolute royal +power. + +For almost ten years, these two great parties, the Whigs +(the middle class element, called by this derisive name be- +cause in the year 1640 a lot of Scottish Whiggamores or horse- +drovers headed by the Presbyterian clergy, had marched to +Edinburgh to oppose the King) and the Tories (an epithet +originally used against the Royalist Irish adherents but now +applied to the supporters of the King) opposed each other, but +neither wished to bring about a crisis. They allowed Charles to +die peacefully in his bed and permitted the Catholic James II +to succeed his brother in 1685. But when James, after threatening +the country with the terrible foreign invention of a ``standing +army'' (which was to be commanded by Catholic Frenchmen), +issued a second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, and +ordered it to be read in all Anglican churches, he went just a +trifle beyond that line of sensible demarcation which can only be +transgressed by the most popular of rulers under very +exceptional circumstances. Seven bishops refused to comply +with the Royal Command. They were accused of ``seditious +libel.'' They were brought before a court. The jury which +pronounced the verdict of ``not guilty'' reaped a rich harvest +of popular approval. + +At this unfortunate moment, James (who in a second marriage +had taken to wife Maria of the Catholic house of Modena- +Este) became the father of a son. This meant that the throne +was to go to a Catholic boy rather than to his older sisters, +Mary and Anne, who were Protestants. The man in the street +again grew suspicious. Maria of Modena was too old to have +children! It was all part of a plot! A strange baby had been +brought into the palace by some Jesuit priest that England +might have a Catholic monarch. And so on. It looked as if +another civil war would break out. Then seven well-known +men, both Whigs and Tories, wrote a letter asking the husband +of James's oldest daughter Mary, William III the Stadtholder +or head of the Dutch Republic, to come to England and +deliver the country from its lawful but entirely undesirable +sovereign. + +On the fifth of November of the year 1688, William landed +at Torbay. As he did not wish to make a martyr out of his +father-in-law, he helped him to escape safely to France. On +the 22nd of January of 1689 he summoned Parliament. On +the 13th of February of the same year he and his wife Mary +were proclaimed joint sovereigns of England and the country +was saved for the Protestant cause. + +Parliament, having undertaken to be something more than +a mere advisory body to the King, made the best of its +opportunities. The old Petition of Rights of the year 1628 was +fished out of a forgotten nook of the archives. A second and +more drastic Bill of Rights demanded that the sovereign of +England should belong to the Anglican church. Furthermore +it stated that the king had no right to suspend the laws or +permit certain privileged citizens to disobey certain laws. It +stipulated that ``without consent of Parliament no taxes could +be levied and no army could be maintained.'' Thus in the year +1689 did England acquire an amount of liberty unknown in +any other country of Europe. + +But it is not only on account of this great liberal measure +that the rule of William in England is still remembered. During +his lifetime, government by a ``responsible'' ministry first +developed. No king of course can rule alone. He needs a few +trusted advisors. The Tudors had their Great Council which +was composed of Nobles and Clergy. This body grew too +large. It was restricted to the small ``Privy Council.'' In the +course of time it became the custom of these councillors to meet +the king in a cabinet in the palace. Hence they were called +the ``Cabinet Council.'' After a short while they were known +as the ``Cabinet.'' + +William, like most English sovereigns before him, had +chosen his advisors from among all parties. But with the increased +strength of Parliament, he had found it impossible to +direct the politics of the country with the help of the Tories +while the Whigs had a majority in the house of Commons. +Therefore the Tories had been dismissed and the Cabinet Council +had been composed entirely of Whigs. A few years later +when the Whigs lost their power in the House of Commons, the +king, for the sake of convenience, was obliged to look for his +support among the leading Tories. Until his death in 1702, +William was too busy fighting Louis of France to bother much +about the government of England. Practically all important +affairs had been left to his Cabinet Council. When William's +sister-in-law, Anne, succeeded him in 1702 this condition of +affairs continued. When she died in 1714 (and unfortunately +not a single one of her seventeen children survived her) the +throne went to George I of the House of Hanover, the son of +Sophie, grand-daughter of James I. + +This somewhat rustic monarch, who never learned a word +of English, was entirely lost in the complicated mazes of England's +political arrangements. He left everything to his Cabinet +Council and kept away from their meetings, which bored +him as he did not understand a single sentence. In this way +the Cabinet got into the habit of ruling England and Scotland +(whose Parliament had been joined to that of England +in 1707) without bothering the King, who was apt to spend +a great deal of his time on the continent. + +During the reign of George I and George II, a succession of +great Whigs (of whom one, Sir Robert Walpole, held office for +twenty-one years) formed the Cabinet Council of the King. +Their leader was finally recognised as the official leader not +only of the actual Cabinet but also of the majority party in +power in Parliament. The attempts of George III to take +matters into his own hands and not to leave the actual business +of government to his Cabinet were so disastrous that +they were never repeated. And from the earliest years of the +eighteenth century on, England enjoyed representative government, +with a responsible ministry which conducted the affairs +of the land. + +To be quite true, this government did not represent all +classes of society. Less than one man in a dozen had the right +to vote. But it was the foundation for the modern representative +form of government. In a quiet and orderly fashion it +took the power away from the King and placed it in the hands +of an ever increasing number of popular representatives. It did +not bring the millenium to England, but it saved that country +from most of the revolutionary outbreaks which proved so +disastrous to the European continent in the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries. + + + +THE BALANCE OF POWER + +IN FRANCE ON THE OTHER HAND THE ``DIVINE +RIGHT OF KINGS'' CONTINUED WITH +GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOUR THAN +EVER BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF +THE RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED BY +THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE +``BALANCE OF POWER'' + + +As a contrast to the previous chapter, let me tell you what +happened in France during the years when the English people +were fighting for their liberty. The happy combination +of the right man in the right country at the right moment is very +rare in History. Louis XIV was a realisation of this ideal, as +far as France was concerned, but the rest of Europe would +have been happier without him. + +The country over which the young king was called to rule +was the most populous and the most brilliant nation of that +day. Louis came to the throne when Mazarin and Richelieu, +the two great Cardinals, had just hammered the ancient French +Kingdom into the most strongly centralised state of the seventeenth +century. He was himself a man of extraordinary ability. +We, the people of the twentieth century, are still +surrounded by the memories of the glorious age of the Sun King. +Our social life is based upon the perfection of manners and the +elegance of expression attained at the court of Louis. In +international and diplomatic relations, French is still the official +language of diplomacy and international gatherings because +two centuries ago it reached a polished elegance and a purity +of expression which no other tongue had as yet been able to +equal. The theatre of King Louis still teaches us lessons +which we are only too slow in learning. During his reign the +French Academy (an invention of Richelieu) came to occupy +a position in the world of letters which other countries have +flattered by their imitation. We might continue this list for +many pages. It is no matter of mere chance that our modern +bill-of-fare is printed in French. The very difficult art of +decent cooking, one of the highest expressions of civilisation, +was first practiced for the benefit of the great Monarch. The +age of Louis XIV was a time of splendour and grace which can +still teach us a lot. + +Unfortunately this brilliant picture has another side which +was far less encouraging. Glory abroad too often means +misery at home, and France was no exception to this rule +Louis XIV succeeded his father in the year 1643. He died in +the year 1715. That means that the government of France +was in the hands of one single man for seventy-two years, +almost two whole generations. + +It will be well to get a firm grasp of this idea, ``one single +man.'' Louis was the first of a long list of monarchs who in +many countries established that particular form of highly efficient +autocracy which we call ``enlightened despotism.'' He +did not like kings who merely played at being rulers and +turned official affairs into a pleasant picnic. The Kings of +that enlightened age worked harder than any of their subjects. +They got up earlier and went to bed later than anybody else, +and felt their ``divine responsibility'' quite as strongly as their +``divine right'' which allowed them to rule without consulting +their subjects. + +Of course, the king could not attend to everything in person. +He was obliged to surround himself with a few helpers +and councillors. One or two generals, some experts upon foreign +politics, a few clever financiers and economists would do +for this purpose. But these dignitaries could act only through +their Sovereign. They had no individual existence. To the +mass of the people, the Sovereign actually represented in his +own sacred person the government of their country. The +glory of the common fatherland became the glory of a single +dynasty. It meant the exact opposite of our own American +ideal. France was ruled of and by and for the House of Bourbon. + +The disadvantages of such a system are clear. The King +grew to be everything. Everybody else grew to be nothing at +all. The old and useful nobility was gradually forced to give +up its former shares in the government of the provinces. A little +Royal bureaucrat, his fingers splashed with ink, sitting behind +the greenish windows of a government building in faraway +Paris, now performed the task which a hundred years +before had been the duty of the feudal Lord. The feudal Lord, +deprived of all work, moved to Paris to amuse himself as best +he could at the court. Soon his estates began to suffer from +that very dangerous economic sickness, known as ``Absentee +Landlordism.'' Within a single generation, the industrious +and useful feudal administrators had become the well-mannered +but quite useless loafers of the court of Versailles. + +Louis was ten years old when the peace of Westphalia was +concluded and the House of Habsburg, as a result of the +Thirty Years War, lost its predominant position in Europe. +It was inevitable that a man with his ambition should use so +favourable a moment to gain for his own dynasty the honours +which had formerly been held by the Habsburgs. In the year +1660 Louis had married Maria Theresa, daughter of the King +of Spain. Soon afterward, his father-in-law, Philip IV, one +of the half-witted Spanish Habsburgs, died. At once Louis +claimed the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) as part of his +wife's dowry. Such an acquisition would have been disastrous +to the peace of Europe, and would have threatened the safety +of the Protestant states. Under the leadership of Jan de Witt, +Raadpensionaris or Foreign Minister of the United Seven +Netherlands, the first great international alliance, the Triple +Alliance of Sweden, England and Holland, of the year 1661, +was concluded. It did not last long. With money and fair +promises Louis bought up both King Charles and the Swedish +Estates. Holland was betrayed by her allies and was left to +her own fate. In the year 1672 the French invaded the low +countries. They marched to the heart of the country. For a +second time the dikes were opened and the Royal Sun of +France set amidst the mud of the Dutch marshes. The peace +of Nimwegen which was concluded in 1678 settled nothing but +merely anticipated another war. + +A second war of aggression from 1689 to 1697, ending with +the Peace of Ryswick, also failed to give Louis that position in +the affairs of Europe to which he aspired. His old enemy, +Jan de Witt, had been murdered by the Dutch rabble, but his +successor, William III (whom you met in the last chapter), +had checkmated all efforts of Louis to make France the ruler of +Europe. + +The great war for the Spanish succession, begun in the +year 1701, immediately after the death of Charles II, the last +of the Spanish Habsburgs, and ended in 1713 by the Peace +of Utrecht, remained equally undecided, but it had ruined the +treasury of Louis. On land the French king had been victorious, +but the navies of England and Holland had spoiled all +hope for an ultimate French victory; besides the long struggle +had given birth to a new and fundamental principle of international +politics, which thereafter made it impossible for one +single nation to rule the whole of Europe or the whole of the +world for any length of time. + +That was the so-called ``balance of power.'' It was not a +written law but for three centuries it has been obeyed as closely +as are the laws of nature. The people who originated the idea +maintained that Europe, in its nationalistic stage of development, +could only survive when there should be an absolute balance +of the many conflicting interests of the entire continent. +No single power or single dynasty must ever be allowed to +dominate the others. During the Thirty Years War, the +Habsburgs had been the victims of the application of this law. +They, however, had been unconscious victims. The issues during +that struggle were so clouded in a haze of religious strife +that we do not get a very clear view of the main tendencies +of that great conflict. But from that time on, we begin to see +how cold, economic considerations and calculations prevail in +all matters of international importance. We discover the +development of a new type of statesman, the statesman with the +personal feelings of the slide-rule and the cash-register. Jan +de Witt was the first successful exponent of this new school +of politics. William III was the first great pupil. And Louis +XIV with all his fame and glory, was the first conscious victim. +There have been many others since. + + + +THE RISE OF RUSSIA + +THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MOSCOVITE +EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY BURST UPON +THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE + + +IN the year 1492, as you know, Columbus discovered America. +Early in the year, a Tyrolese by the name of Schnups, +travelling as the head of a scientific expedition for the +Archbishop of Tyrol, and provided with the best letters +of introduction and excellent credit tried to reach the mythical +town of Moscow. He did not succeed. When he reached the +frontiers of this vast Moscovite state which was vaguely supposed +to exist in the extreme Eastern part of Europe, he was +firmly turned back. No foreigners were wanted. And +Schnups went to visit the heathen Turk in Constantinople, in +order that he might have something to report to his clerical +master when he came back from his explorations. + +Sixty-one years later, Richard Chancellor, trying to discover +the North-eastern passage to the Indies, and blown by +an ill wind into the White Sea, reached the mouth of the Dwina +and found the Moscovite village of Kholmogory, a few hours +from the spot where in 1584 the town of Archangel was founded. +This time the foreign visitors were requested to come +to Moscow and show themselves to the Grand Duke. They +went and returned to England with the first commercial treaty +ever concluded between Russia and the western world. Other +nations soon followed and something became known of this +mysterious land. + +Geographically, Russia is a vast plain. The Ural mountains +are low and form no barrier against invaders. The +rivers are broad but often shallow. It was an ideal territory for +nomads. + +While the Roman Empire was founded, grew in power and +disappeared again, Slavic tribes, who had long since left their +homes in Central Asia, wandered aimlessly through the forests +and plains of the region between the Dniester and Dnieper +rivers. The Greeks had sometimes met these Slavs and a few +travellers of the third and fourth centuries mention them. +Otherwise they were as little known as were the Nevada Indians +in the year 1800. + +Unfortunately for the peace of these primitive peoples, a +very convenient trade-route ran through their country. This +was the main road from northern Europe to Constantinople. +It followed the coast of the Baltic until the Neva was reached. +Then it crossed Lake Ladoga and went southward along the +Volkhov river. Then through Lake Ilmen and up the small +Lovat river. Then there was a short portage until the Dnieper +was reached. Then down the Dnieper into the Black Sea. + +The Norsemen knew of this road at a very early date. In +the ninth century they began to settle in northern Russia, just +as other Norsemen were laying the foundation for independent +states in Germany and France. But in the year 862, three +Norsemen, brothers, crossed the Baltic and founded three small +dynasties. Of the three brothers, only one, Rurik, lived for a +number of years. He took possession of the territory of his +brothers, and twenty years after the arrival of this first +Norseman, a Slavic state had been established with Kiev as its +capital. + +From Kiev to the Black Sea is a short distance. Soon the +existence of an organised Slavic State became known in +Constantinople. This meant a new field for the zealous +missionaries of the Christian faith. Byzantine monks followed the +Dnieper on their way northward and soon reached the heart of +Russia. They found the people worshipping strange gods +who were supposed to dwell in woods and rivers and in mountain +caves. They taught them the story of Jesus. There was +no competition from the side of Roman missionaries. These +good men were too busy educating the heathen Teutons to +bother about the distant Slavs. Hence Russia received its religion +and its alphabet and its first ideas of art and architecture +from the Byzantine monks and as the Byzantine empire (a +relic of the eastern Roman empire) had become very oriental +and had lost many of its European traits, the Russians suffered +in consequence. + +Politically speaking these new states of the great Russian +plains did not fare well. It was the Norse habit to divide +every inheritance equally among all the sons. No sooner had +a small state been founded but it was broken up among eight +or nine heirs who in turn left their territory to an ever increasing +number of descendants. It was inevitable that these small +competing states should quarrel among themselves. Anarchy +was the order of the day. And when the red glow of the eastern +horizon told the people of the threatened invasion of a savage +Asiatic tribe, the little states were too weak and too divided +to render any sort of defence against this terrible enemy. + +It was in the year 1224 that the first great Tartar invasion +took place and that the hordes of Jenghiz Khan, the conqueror +of China, Bokhara, Tashkent and Turkestan made their first +appearance in the west. The Slavic armies were beaten near +the Kalka river and Russia was at the mercy of the Mongolians. +Just as suddenly as they had come they disappeared. +Thirteen years later, in 1237, however, they returned. In less +than five years they conquered every part of the vast Russian +plains. Until the year 1380 when Dmitry Donskoi, Grand +Duke of Moscow, beat them on the plains of Kulikovo, the +Tartars were the masters of the Russian people. + +All in all, it took the Russians two centuries to deliver +themselves from this yoke. For a yoke it was and a most +offensive and objectionable one. It turned the Slavic peasants +into miserable slaves. No Russian could hope to survive un- +less he was willing to creep before a dirty little yellow man who +sat in a tent somewhere in the heart of the steppes of southern +Russia and spat at him. It deprived the mass of the people of +all feeling of honour and independence. It made hunger and +misery and maltreatment and personal abuse the normal state +of human existence. Until at last the average Russian, were he +peasant or nobleman, went about his business like a neglected +dog who has been beaten so often that his spirit has been broken +and he dare not wag his tail without permission. + +There was no escape. The horsemen of the Tartar Khan +were fast and merciless. The endless prairie did not give a +man a chance to cross into the safe territory of his neighbour. +He must keep quiet and bear what his yellow master decided +to inflict upon him or run the risk of death. Of course, Europe +might have interfered. But Europe was engaged upon business +of its own, fighting the quarrels between the Pope and +the emperor or suppressing this or that or the other heresy. +And so Europe left the Slav to his fate, and forced him to +work out his own salvation. + +The final saviour of Russia was one of the many small states, +founded by the early Norse rulers. It was situated in the heart +of the Russian plain. Its capital, Moscow, was upon a steep +hill on the banks of the Moskwa river. This little principality, +by dint of pleasing the Tartar (when it was necessary to +please), and opposing him (when it was safe to do so), had, +during the middle of the fourteenth century made itself the +leader of a new national life. It must be remembered that the +Tartars were wholly deficient in constructive political ability. +They could only destroy. Their chief aim in conquering new +territories was to obtain revenue. To get this revenue in the +form of taxes, it was necessary to allow certain remnants of +the old political organization to continue. Hence there were +many little towns, surviving by the grace of the Great Khan, +that they might act as tax-gatherers and rob their neighbours +for the benefit of the Tartar treasury. + +The state of Moscow, growing fat at the expense of the +surrounding territory, finally became strong enough to risk +open rebellion against its masters, the Tartars. It was successful +and its fame as the leader in the cause of Russian independence +made Moscow the natural centre for all those who +still believed in a better future for the Slavic race. In the year +1458, Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Ten years +later, under the rule of Ivan III, Moscow informed the +western world that the Slavic state laid claim to the worldly +and spiritual inheritance of the lost Byzantine Empire, and +such traditions of the Roman empire as had survived in +Constantinople. A generation afterwards, under Ivan the Terrible, +the grand dukes of Moscow were strong enough to adopt the +title of Caesar, or Tsar, and to demand recognition by the western +powers of Europe. + +In the year 1598, with Feodor the First, the old Muscovite +dynasty, descendants of the original Norseman Rurik, came to +an end. For the next seven years, a Tartar half-breed, by the +name of Boris Godunow, reigned as Tsar. It was during +this period that the future destiny of the large masses of the +Russian people was decided. This Empire was rich in land +but very poor in money. There was no trade and there were +no factories. Its few cities were dirty villages. It was composed +of a strong central government and a vast number of +illiterate peasants. This government, a mixture of Slavic, +Norse, Byzantine and Tartar influences, recognised nothing +beyond the interest of the state. To defend this state, it +needed an army. To gather the taxes, which were necessary +to pay the soldiers, it needed civil servants. To pay these many +officials it needed land. In the vast wilderness on the east +and west there was a sufficient supply of this commodity. But +land without a few labourers to till the fields and tend the +cattle, has no value. Therefore the old nomadic peasants +were robbed of one privilege after the other, until finally, during +the first year of the sixteenth century, they were formally +made a part of the soil upon which they lived. The Russian +peasants ceased to be free men. They became serfs or slaves +and they remained serfs until the year 1861, when their fate +had become so terrible that they were beginning to die out. + +In the seventeenth century, this new state with its growing +territory which was spreading quickly into Siberia, had become +a force with which the rest of Europe was obliged to +reckon. In 1618, after the death of Boris Godunow, the +Russian nobles had elected one of their own number to be +Tsar. He was Michael, the son of Feodor, of the Moscow family +of Romanow who lived in a little house just outside the +Kremlin. + +In the year 1672 his great-grandson, Peter, the son of another +Feodor, was born. When the child was ten years old, +his step-sister Sophia took possession of the Russian throne. +The little boy was allowed to spend his days in the suburbs of +the national capital, where the foreigners lived. Surrounded +by Scotch barkeepers, Dutch traders, Swiss apothecaries, Italian +barbers, French dancing teachers and German school-masters, +the young prince obtained a first but rather extraordinary +impression of that far-away and mysterious Europe where +things were done differently. + +When he was seventeen years old, he suddenly pushed +Sister Sophia from the throne. Peter himself became the ruler +of Russia. He was not contented with being the Tsar of a +semi-barbarous and half-Asiatic people. He must be the sovereign +head of a civilised nation. To change Russia overnight +from a Byzantine-Tartar state into a European empire was no +small undertaking. It needed strong hands and a capable +head. Peter possessed both. In the year 1698, the great +operation of grafting Modern Europe upon Ancient Russia was +performed. The patient did not die. But he never got over +the shock, as the events of the last five years have shown very +plainly. + + + +RUSSIA vs. SWEDEN + +RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FIGHT MANY WARS TO +DECIDE WHO SHALL BE THE LEADING +POWER OF NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE + + +IN the year 1698, Tsar Peter set forth upon his first +voyage to western Europe. He travelled by way of Berlin and +went to Holland and to England. As a child he had almost +been drowned sailing a homemade boat in the duck pond of +his father's country home. This passion for water remained +with him to the end of his life. In a practical way it showed +itself in his wish to give his land-locked domains access to +the open sea. + +While the unpopular and harsh young ruler was away +from home, the friends of the old Russian ways in Moscow set +to work to undo all his reforms. A sudden rebellion among +his life-guards, the Streltsi regiment, forced Peter to hasten +home by the fast mail. He appointed himself executioner-in- +chief and the Streltsi were hanged and quartered and killed to +the last man. Sister Sophia, who had been the head of the +rebellion, was locked up in a cloister and the rule of Peter be- +gan in earnest. This scene was repeated in the year 1716 when +Peter had gone on his second western trip. That time the +reactionaries followed the leadership of Peter's half-witted +son, Alexis. Again the Tsar returned in great haste. Alexis +was beaten to death in his prison cell and the friends of the +old fashioned Byzantine ways marched thousands of dreary +miles to their final destination in the Siberian lead mines. +After that, no further outbreaks of popular discontent took +place. Until the time of his death, Peter could reform in peace. + +It is not easy to give you a list of his reforms in chronological +order. The Tsar worked with furious haste. He followed +no system. He issued his decrees with such rapidity that it is +difficult to keep count. Peter seemed to feel that everything +that had ever happened before was entirely wrong. The whole +of Russia therefore must be changed within the shortest possible +time. When he died he left behind a well-trained army of +200,000 men and a navy of fifty ships. The old system of government +had been abolished over night. The Duma, or convention +of Nobles, had been dismissed and in its stead, the Tsar +had surrounded himself with an advisory board of state officials, +called the Senate. + +Russia was divided into eight large ``governments'' or provinces. +Roads were constructed. Towns were built. Industries +were created wherever it pleased the Tsar, without any regard +for the presence of raw material. Canals were dug and mines +were opened in the mountains of the east. In this land of illiterates, +schools were founded and establishments of higher learning, +together with Universities and hospitals and professional +schools. Dutch naval engineers and tradesmen and artisans +from all over the world were encouraged to move to Russia. +Printing shops were established, but all books must be first read +by the imperial censors. The duties of each class of society +were carefully written down in a new law and the entire system +of civil and criminal laws was gathered into a series of printed +volumes. The old Russian costumes were abolished by Imperial +decree, and policemen, armed with scissors, watching +all the country roads, changed the long-haired Russian mou- +jiks suddenly into a pleasing imitation of smooth-shaven west. +Europeans. + +In religious matters, the Tsar tolerated no division of +power. There must be no chance of a rivalry between an +Emperor and a Pope as had happened in Europe. In the year +1721, Peter made himself head of the Russian Church. The +Patriarchate of Moscow was abolished and the Holy Synod +made its appearance as the highest source of authority in all +matters of the Established Church. + +Since, however, these many reforms could not be success- +ful while the old Russian elements had a rallying point in the +town of Moscow, Peter decided to move his government to a +new capital. Amidst the unhealthy marshes of the Baltic Sea +the Tsar built this new city. He began to reclaim the land in +the year 1703. Forty thousand peasants worked for years +to lay the foundations for this Imperial city. The Swedes +attacked Peter and tried to destroy his town and illness and +misery killed tens of thousands of the peasants. But the work +was continued, winter and summer, and the ready-made town +soon began to grow. In the year 1712, it was officially de- +clared to be the ``Imperial Residence.'' A dozen years later +it had 75,000 inhabitants. Twice a year the whole city was +flooded by the Neva. But the terrific will-power of the Tsar +created dykes and canals and the floods ceased to do harm. +When Peter died in 1725 he was the owner of the largest city +in northern Europe. + +Of course, this sudden growth of so dangerous a rival had +been a source of great worry to all the neighbours. From his +side, Peter had watched with interest the many adventures of +his Baltic rival, the kingdom of Sweden. In the year 1654, +Christina, the only daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero +of the Thirty Years War, had renounced the throne and had +gone to Rome to end her days as a devout Catholic. A Protestant +nephew of Gustavus Adolphus had succeeded the last +Queen of the House of Vasa. Under Charles X and Charles +XI, the new dynasty had brought Sweden to its highest point +of development. But in 1697, Charles XI died suddenly and +was succeeded by a boy of fifteen, Charles XII. + +This was the moment for which many of the northern states +had waited. During the great religious wars of the seventeenth +century, Sweden had grown at the expense of her neighbours. +The time had come, so the owners thought, to balance the account. +At once war broke out between Russia, Poland, Denmark +and Saxony on the one side, and Sweden on the other. +The raw and untrained armies of Peter were disastrously beaten +by Charles in the famous battle of Narva in November of +the year 1700. Then Charles, one of the most interesting military +geniuses of that century, turned against his other enemies +and for nine years he hacked and burned his way through the +villages and cities of Poland, Saxony, Denmark and the Baltic +provinces, while Peter drilled and trained his soldiers in distant +Russia. + +As a result, in the year 1709, in the battle of Poltawa, the +Moscovites destroyed the exhausted armies of Sweden. Charles +continued to be a highly picturesque figure, a wonderful hero +of romance, but in his vain attempt to have his revenge, he +ruined his own country. In the year 1718, he was accidentally +killed or assassinated (we do not know which) and when peace +was made in 1721, in the town of Nystadt, Sweden had lost all +of her former Baltic possessions except Finland. The new +Russian state, created by Peter, had become the leading power +of northern Europe. But already a new rival was on the +way. The Prussian state was taking shape. + + + +THE RISE OF PRUSSIA + +THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE +STATE IN A DREARY PART OF NORTHERN +GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA + + +THE history of Prussia is the history of a frontier district. +In the ninth century, Charlemagne had transferred the old +centre of civilisation from the Mediterranean to the wild regions +of northwestern Europe. His Frankish soldiers had pushed +the frontier of Europe further and further towards the east. +They had conquered many lands from the heathenish Slavs and +Lithuanians who were living in the plain between the Baltic +Sea and the Carpathian Mountains, and the Franks administered +those outlying districts just as the United States used +to administer her territories before they achieved the dignity +of statehood. + +The frontier state of Brandenburg had been originally +founded by Charlemagne to defend his eastern possessions +against raids of the wild Saxon tribes. The Wends, a Slavic +tribe which inhabited that region, were subjugated during the +tenth century and their market-place, by the name of Brennabor, +became the centre of and gave its name to the new province +of Brandenburg. + +During the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries, a succession of noble families exercised the functions of +imperial governor in this frontier state. Finally in the +fifteenth century, the House of Hohenzollern made its appear- +ance, and as Electors of Brandenburg, commenced to change a +sandy and forlorn frontier territory into one of the most efficient +empires of the modern world. + +These Hohenzollerns, who have just been removed from +the historical stage by the combined forces of Europe and +America, came originally from southern Germany. They were +of very humble origin. In the twelfth century a certain Frederick +of Hohenzollern had made a lucky marriage and had been +appointed keeper of the castle of Nuremberg. His descendants +had used every chance and every opportunity to improve their +power and after several centuries of watchful grabbing, they +had been appointed to the dignity of Elector, the name given to +those sovereign princes who were supposed to elect the Emperors +of the old German Empire. During the Reformation, +they had taken the side of the Protestants and the early +seventeenth century found them among the most powerful of the +north German princes. + +During the Thirty Years War, both Protestants and +Catholics had plundered Brandenburg and Prussia with equal +zeal. But under Frederick William, the Great Elector, the +damage was quickly repaired and by a wise and careful use of +all the economic and intellectual forces of the country, a state +was founded in which there was practically no waste. + +Modern Prussia, a state in which the individual and his +wishes and aspirations have been entirely absorbed by the +interests of the community as a whole this Prussia dates back +to the father of Frederick the Great. Frederick William I was +a hard working, parsimonious Prussian sergeant, with a great +love for bar-room stories and strong Dutch tobacco, an intense +dislike of all frills and feathers, (especially if they were of +French origin,) and possessed of but one idea. That idea was +Duty. Severe with himself, he tolerated no weakness in his +subjects, whether they be generals or common soldiers. The +relation between himself and his son Frederick was never cordial, +to say the least. The boorish manners of the father offended +the finer spirit of the son. The son's love for French +manners, literature, philosophy and music was rejected by the +father as a manifestation of sissy-ness. There followed a terrible +outbreak between these two strange temperaments. Frederick +tried to escape to England. He was caught and court- +martialed and forced to witness the decapitation of his best +friend who had tried to help him. Thereupon as part of his +punishment, the young prince was sent to a little fortress +somewhere in the provinces to be taught the details of his future +business of being a king. It proved a blessing in disguise. +When Frederick came to the throne in 1740, he knew how his +country was managed from the birth certificate of a pauper's +son to the minutest detail of a complicated annual Budget. + +As an author, especially in his book called the ``Anti- +Macchiavelli,'' Frederick had expressed his contempt for the +political creed of the ancient Florentine historian, who had +advised his princely pupils to lie and cheat whenever it was +necessary to do so for the benefit of their country. The ideal +ruler in Frederick's volume was the first servant of his people, +the enlightened despot after the example of Louis XIV. In +practice, however, Frederick, while working for his people +twenty hours a day, tolerated no one to be near him as a +counsellor. His ministers were superior clerks. Prussia was his +private possession, to be treated according to his own wishes. +And nothing was allowed to interfere with the interest of the +state. + +In the year 1740 the Emperor Charles VI, of Austria, +died. He had tried to make the position of his only daughter, +Maria Theresa, secure through a solemn treaty, written black +on white, upon a large piece of parchment. But no sooner had +the old emperor been deposited in the ancestral crypt of the +Habsburg family, than the armies of Frederick were marching +towards the Austrian frontier to occupy that part of Silesia for +which (together with almost everything else in central Europe) +Prussia clamored, on account of some ancient and very +doubtful rights of claim. In a number of wars, Frederick +conquered all of Silesia, and although he was often very near +defeat, he maintained himself in his newly acquired territories +against all Austrian counter-attacks. + +Europe took due notice of this sudden appearance of a +very powerful new state. In the eighteenth century, the Germans +were a people who had been ruined by the great religious +wars and who were not held in high esteem by any one. Frederick, +by an effort as sudden and quite as terrific as that of +Peter of Russia, changed this attitude of contempt into one +of fear. The internal affairs of Prussia were arranged so +skillfully that the subjects had less reason for complaint than +elsewhere. The treasury showed an annual surplus instead of a +deficit. Torture was abolished. The judiciary system was +improved. Good roads and good schools and good universities, +together with a scrupulously honest administration, made the +people feel that whatever services were demanded of them, +they (to speak the vernacular) got their money's worth. + +After having been for several centuries the battle field of +the French and the Austrians and the Swedes and the Danes +and the Poles, Germany, encouraged by the example of Prussia, +began to regain self-confidence. And this was the work of +the little old man, with his hook-nose and his old uniforms covered +with snuff, who said very funny but very unpleasant things +about his neighbours, and who played the scandalous game of +eighteenth century diplomacy without any regard for the truth, +provided he could gain something by his lies. This in spite of +his book, ``Anti-Macchiavelli.'' In the year 1786 the end +came. His friends were all gone. Children he had never had. +He died alone, tended by a single servant and his faithful +dogs, whom he loved better than human beings because, as he +said, they were never ungrateful and remained true to their +friends. + + + +THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + +HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR +DYNASTIC STATES OF EUROPE TRIED TO +MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS +MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM + + +WE have seen how, during the sixteenth and the seventeenth +centuries, the states of our modern world began to take shape. +Their origins were different in almost every case. Some had +been the result of the deliberate effort of a single king. Others +had happened by chance. Still others had been the result of +favourable natural geographic boundaries. But once they had +been founded, they had all of them tried to strengthen their +internal administration and to exert the greatest possible influence +upon foreign affairs. All this of course had cost a great +deal of money. The mediaeval state with its lack of centralised +power did not depend upon a rich treasury. The king got his +revenues from the crown domains and his civil service paid for +itself. The modern centralised state was a more complicated +affair. The old knights disappeared and hired government +officials or bureaucrats took their place. Army, navy, and +internal administration demanded millions. The question then +became where was this money to be found? + +Gold and silver had been a rare commodity in the middle +ages. The average man, as I have told you, never saw a gold +piece as long as he lived. Only the inhabitants of the large +cities were familiar with silver coin. The discovery of America +and the exploitation of the Peruvian mines changed all this. +The centre of trade was transferred from the Mediterranean to +the Atlantic seaboard. The old ``commercial cities'' of Italy lost +their financial importance. New ``commercial nations'' took +their place and gold and silver were no longer a curiosity. + +Through Spain and Portugal and Holland and England, +precious metals began to find their way to Europe The sixteenth +century had its own writers on the subject of political +economy and they evolved a theory of national wealth which +seemed to them entirely sound and of the greatest possible +benefit to their respective countries. They reasoned that both +gold and silver were actual wealth. Therefore they believed +that the country with the largest supply of actual cash in the +vaults of its treasury and its banks was at the same time the +richest country. And since money meant armies, it followed +that the richest country was also the most powerful and could +rule the rest of the world. + +We call this system the ``mercantile system,'' and it was +accepted with the same unquestioning faith with which the +early Christians believed in Miracles and many of the present- +day American business men believe in the Tariff. In practice, +the Mercantile system worked out as follows: To get the +largest surplus of precious metals a country must have a +favourable balance of export trade. If you can export more to +your neighbour than he exports to your own country, he will +owe you money and will be obliged to send you some of his +gold. Hence you gain and he loses. As a result of this creed, +the economic program of almost every seventeenth century +state was as follows: + +1. Try to get possession of as many precious metals +as you can. + +2. Encourage foreign trade in preference to domestic +trade. + +3. Encourage those industries which change raw materials +into exportable finished products. + +4. Encourage a large population, for you will need workmen +for your factories and an agricultural community +does not raise enough workmen. + +5. Let the State watch this process and interfere whenever +it is necessary to do so. + + +Instead of regarding International Trade as something +akin to a force of nature which would always obey certain natural +laws regardless of man's interference, the people of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tried to regulate their +commerce by the help of official decrees and royal laws and financial +help on the part of the government. + +In the sixteenth century Charles V adopted this Mercantile +System (which was then something entirely new) and introduced +it into his many possessions. Elizabeth of England +flattered him by her imitation. The Bourbons, especially King +Louis XIV, were fanatical adherents of this doctrine and Colbert, +his great minister of finance, became the prophet of Mercantilism +to whom all Europe looked for guidance. + +The entire foreign policy of Cromwell was a practical +application of the Mercantile System. It was invariably directed +against the rich rival Republic of Holland. For the Dutch +shippers, as the common-carriers of the merchandise of Europe, +had certain leanings towards free-trade and therefore had +to be destroyed at all cost. + +It will be easily understood how such a system must affect +the colonies. A colony under the Mercantile System became +merely a reservoir of gold and silver and spices, which was +to be tapped for the benefit of the home country. The Asiatic, +American and African supply of precious metals and the raw +materials of these tropical countries became a monopoly of +the state which happened to own that particular colony. No +outsider was ever allowed within the precincts and no native +was permitted to trade with a merchant whose ship flew a +foreign flag. + +Undoubtedly the Mercantile System encouraged the development +of young industries in certain countries where there +never had been any manufacturing before. It built roads +and dug canals and made for better means of transportation. +It demanded greater skill among the workmen and gave the +merchant a better social position, while it weakened the power +of the landed aristocracy. + +On the other hand, it caused very great misery. It made +the natives in the colonies the victims of a most shameless +exploitation. It exposed the citizens of the home country to an +even more terrible fate. It helped in a great measure to turn +every land into an armed camp and divided the world into little +bits of territory, each working for its own direct benefit, +while striving at all times to destroy the power of its neighbours +and get hold of their treasures. It laid so much stress +upon the importance of owning wealth that ``being rich'' came +to be regarded as the sole virtue of the average citizen. Economic +systems come and go like the fashions in surgery and +in the clothes of women, and during the nineteenth century the +Mercantile System was discarded in favor of a system of free +and open competition. At least, so I have been told. + + + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY +EUROPE HEARD STRANGE REPORTS OF +SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN +THE WILDERNESS; OF THE NORTH AMERICAN +CONTINENT. THE DESCENDANTS +OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING +CHARLES FOR HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS +``DIVINE RIGHTS'' ADDED A NEW CHAPTER +TO THE OLD STORY OF THE STRUGGLE +FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +FOR the sake of convenience, we ought to go back a +few centuries and repeat the early history of the great +struggle for colonial possessions. + +As soon as a number of European nations had been +created upon the new basis of national or dynastic interests, +that is to say, during and immediately after the Thirty +Years War, their rulers, backed up by the capital of +their merchants and the ships of their trading companies, +continued the fight for more territory in Asia, Africa and America. + +The Spaniards and the Portuguese had been exploring the +Indian Sea and the Pacific Ocean for more than a century ere +Holland and England appeared upon the stage. This proved +an advantage to the latter. The first rough work had already +been done. What is more, the earliest navigators had so often +made themselves unpopular with the Asiatic and American and +African natives that both the English and the Dutch were +welcomed as friends and deliverers. We cannot claim any +superior virtues for either of these two races. But they were +merchants before everything else. They never allowed religious +considerations to interfere with their practical common sense. +During their first relations with weaker races, all European +nations have behaved with shocking brutality. The English and +the Dutch, however, knew better where to draw the dine. Provided +they got their spices and their gold and silver and their taxes, +they were willing to let the native live as it best pleased him. + +It was not very difficult for them therefore to establish +themselves in the richest parts of the world. But as soon as +this had been accomplished, they began to fight each other for +still further possessions. Strangely enough, the colonial wars +were never settled in the colonies themselves. They were decided +three thousand miles away by the navies of the contending +countries. It is one of the most interesting principles of ancient +and modern warfare (one of the few reliable laws of +history) that ``the nation which commands the sea is also the +nation which commands the land.'' So far this law has never +failed to work, but the modern airplane may have changed it. +In the eighteenth century, however, there were no flying machines +and it was the British navy which gained for England +her vast American and Indian and African colonies. + +The series of naval wars between England and Holland in +the seventeenth century does not interest us here. It ended as +all such encounters between hopelessly ill-matched powers will +end. But the warfare between England and France (her other +rival) is of greater importance to us, for while the superior +British fleet in the end defeated the French navy, a great deal +of the preliminary fighting was done on our own American +continent. In this vast country, both France and England +claimed everything which had been discovered and a lot more +which the eye of no white man had ever seen. In 1497 Cabot +had landed in the northern part of America and twenty-seven +years later, Giovanni Verrazano had visited these coasts. Cabot +had flown the English flag. Verrazano had sailed under the +French flag. Hence both England and France proclaimed +themselves the owners of the entire continent. + +During the seventeenth century, some ten small English +colonies had been founded between Maine and the Carolinas. +They were usually a haven of refuge for some particular sect +of English dissenters, such as the Puritans, who in the year +1620 went to New England, or the Quakers, who settled in +Pennsylvania in 1681. They were small frontier communities, +nestling close to the shores of the ocean, where people had +gathered to make a new home and begin life among happier +surroundings, far away from royal supervision and interference. + +The French colonies, on the other hand, always remained +a possession of the crown. No Huguenots or Protestants were +allowed in these colonies for fear that they might contaminate +the Indians with their dangerous Protestant doctrines and +would perhaps interfere with the missionary work of the Jesuit +fathers. The English colonies, therefore, had been founded +upon a much healthier basis than their French neighbours and +rivals. They were an expression of the commercial energy of +the English middle classes, while the French settlements were +inhabited by people who had crossed the ocean as servants of the +king and who expected to return to Paris at the first possible chance. + +Politically, however, the position of the English colonies +was far from satisfactory. The French had discovered the +mouth of the Saint Lawrence in the sixteenth century. From +the region of the Great Lakes they had worked their way southward, +had descended the Mississippi and had built several fortifications +along the Gulf of Mexico. After a century of exploration, +a line of sixty French forts cut off the English settlements +along the Atlantic seaboard from the interior. + +The English land grants, made to the different colonial +companies had given them ``all land from sea to sea.'' This +sounded well on paper, but in practice, British territory +ended where the line of French fortifications began. To break +through this barrier was possible but it took both men and +money and caused a series of horrible border wars in which +both sides murdered their white neighbours, with the help of the +Indian tribes. + +As long as the Stuarts had ruled England there had been +no danger of war with France. The Stuarts needed the Bourbons +in their attempt to establish an autocratic form of government +and to break the power of Parliament. But in 1689 the +last of the Stuarts had disappeared from British soil and Dutch +William, the great enemy of Louis XIV succeeded him. From +that time on, until the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France and +England fought for the possession of India and North America. + +During these wars, as I have said before, the English navies +invariably beat the French. Cut off from her colonies, France +lost most of her possessions, and when peace was declared, the +entire North American continent had fallen into British hands +and the great work of exploration of Cartier, Champlain, La +Salle, Marquette and a score of others was lost to France. + +Only a very small part of this vast domain was inhabited. +From Massachusetts in the north, where the Pilgrims (a sect +of Puritans who were very intolerant and who therefore had +found no happiness either in Anglican England or Calvinist +Holland) had landed in the year 1620, to the Carolinas and +Virginia (the tobacco-raising provinces which had been founded +entirely for the sake of profit), stretched a thin line of +sparsely populated territory. But the men who lived in this +new land of fresh air and high skies were very different from +their brethren of the mother country. In the wilderness they +had learned independence and self-reliance. They were the +sons of hardy and energetic ancestors. Lazy and timourous +people did not cross the ocean in those days. The American +colonists hated the restraint and the lack of breathing space +which had made their lives in the old country so very unhappy. +They meant to be their own masters. This the ruling classes +of England did not seem to understand. The government annoyed +the colonists and the colonists, who hated to be bothered +in this way, began to annoy the British government. + +Bad feeling caused more bad feeling. It is not necessary +to repeat here in detail what actually happened and what might +have been avoided if the British king had been more intelligent +than George III or less given to drowsiness and indifference +than his minister, Lord North. The British colonists, +when they understood that peaceful arguments would not +settle the difficulties, took to arms. From being loyal subjects, +they turned rebels, who exposed themselves to the punishment +of death when they were captured by the German +soldiers, whom George hired to do his fighting after the pleasant +custom of that day, when Teutonic princes sold whole +regiments to the highest bidder. + +The war between England and her American colonies +lasted seven years. During most of that time, the final success +of the rebels seemed very doubtful. A great number of +the people, especially in the cities, had remained loyal to their +king. They were in favour of a compromise, and would have +been willing to sue for peace. But the great figure of Washington +stood guard over the cause of the colonists. + +Ably assisted by a handful of brave men, he used his steadfast +but badly equipped armies to weaken the forces of the king. +Time and again when defeat seemed unavoidable, his strategy +turned the tide of battle. Often his men were ill-fed. During +the winter they lacked shoes and coats and were forced to live +in unhealthy dug-outs. But their trust in their great leader +was absolute and they stuck it out until the final hour of victory. + +But more interesting than the campaigns of Washington +or the diplomatic triumphs of Benjamin Franklin who was +in Europe getting money from the French government and +the Amsterdam bankers, was an event which occurred early in +the revolution. The representatives of the different colonies +had gathered in Philadelphia to discuss matters of common +importance. It was the first year of the Revolution. Most +of the big towns of the sea coast were still in the hands of the +British. Reinforcements from England were arriving by the +ship load. Only men who were deeply convinced of the righteousness +of their cause would have found the courage to take +the momentous decision of the months of June and July of +the year 1776. + +In June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a motion +to the Continental Congress that ``these united colonies +are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that +they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and +that all political connection between them and the state of +Great Britain is and ought to be, totally dissolved.'' + +The motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. +It was carried on July the second and on July fourth, +it was followed by an official Declaration of Independence, +which was the work of Thomas Jefferson, a serious and exceedingly +capable student of both politics and government and +destined to be one of the most famous of out American presidents. + +When news of this event reached Europe, and was followed +by the final victory of the colonists and the adoption of +the famous Constitution of the year 1787 (the first of all written +constitutions) it caused great interest. The dynastic system +of the highly centralised states which had been developed +after the great religious wars of the seventeenth century had +reached the height of its power. Everywhere the palace of +the king had grown to enormous proportions, while the cities +of the royal realm were being surrounded by rapidly growing +acres of slums. The inhabitants of those slums were showing +signs of restlessness. They were quite helpless. But the +higher classes, the nobles and the professional men, they too +were beginning to have certain doubts about the economic and +political conditions under which they lived. The success of +the American colonists showed them that many things were +possible which had been held impossible only a short time +before. + +According to the poet, the shot which opened the battle +of Lexington was ``heard around the world.'' That was a bit +of an exaggeration. The Chinese and the Japanese and the +Russians (not to speak of the Australians, who had just been +re-discovered by Captain Cook, whom they killed for his +trouble,) never heard of it at all. But it carried across the +Atlantic Ocean. It landed in the powder house of European +discontent and in France it caused an explosion which rocked +the entire continent from Petrograd to Madrid and buried the +representatives of the old statecraft and the old diplomacy +under several tons of democratic bricks. + + + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + +THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS +THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY, +FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO ALL +THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH + + +BEFORE we talk about a revolution it is just as well that +we explain just what this word means. In the terms of a +great Russian writer (and Russians ought to know what they +are talking about in this field) a revolution is ``a swift overthrow, +in a few years, of institutions which have taken centuries +to root in the soil, and seem so fixed and immovable that +even the most ardent reformers hardly dare to attack them in +their writings. It is the fall, the crumbling away in a brief +period, of all that up to that time has composed the essence +of social, religious, political and economic life in a nation.'' + +Such a revolution took place in France in the eighteenth +century when the old civilisation of the country had grown +stale. The king in the days of Louis XIV had become +EVERYTHING and was the state. The Nobility, formerly +the civil servant of the federal state, found itself without any +duties and became a social ornament of the royal court. + +This French state of the eighteenth century, however, cost +incredible sums of money. This money had to be produced +in the form of taxes. Unfortunately the kings of France had +not been strong enough to force the nobility and the clergy +to pay their share of these taxes. Hence the taxes were paid +entirely by the agricultural population. But the peasants +living in dreary hovels, no longer in intimate contact with their +former landlords, but victims of cruel and incompetent land +agents, were going from bad to worse. Why should they +work and exert themselves? Increased returns upon their +land merely meant more taxes and nothing for themselves +and therefore they neglected their fields as much as they dared. + +Hence we have a king who wanders in empty splendour +through the vast halls of his palaces, habitually followed by +hungry office seekers, all of whom live upon the revenue obtained +from peasants who are no better than the beasts of the +fields. It is not a pleasant picture, but it is not exaggerated. +There was, however, another side to the so-called ``Ancien +Regime'' which we must keep in mind. + +A wealthy middle class, closely connected with the nobility +(by the usual process of the rich banker's daughter marrying +the poor baron's son) and a court composed of all the most +entertaining people of France, had brought the polite art of +graceful living to its highest development. As the best brains +of the country were not allowed to occupy themselves with +questions of political economics, they spent their idle hours +upon the discussion of abstract ideas. + +As fashions in modes of thought and personal behaviour +are quite as likely to run to extremes as fashion in dress, it +was natural that the most artificial society of that day should +take a tremendous interest in what they considered ``the simple +life.'' The king and the queen, the absolute and unquestioned +proprietors of this country galled France, together with all its +colonies and dependencies, went to live in funny little country +houses all dressed up as milk-maids and stable-boys and played +at being shepherds in a happy vale of ancient Hellas. Around +them, their courtiers danced attendance, their court-musicians +composed lovely minuets, their court barbers devised more +and more elaborate and costly headgear, until from sheer boredom +and lack of real jobs, this whole artificial world of Versailles +(the great show place which Louis XIV had built far +away from his noisy and restless city) talked of nothing but +those subjects which were furthest removed from their own +lives, just as a man who is starving will talk of nothing except +food. + +When Voltaire, the courageous old philosopher, playwright, +historian and novelist, and the great enemy of all +religious and political tyranny, began to throw his bombs of +criticism at everything connected with the Established Order +of Things, the whole French world applauded him and his +theatrical pieces played to standing room only. When Jean +Jacques Rousseau waxed sentimental about primitive man +and gave his contemporaries delightful descriptions of the +happiness of the original inhabitants of this planet, (about +whom he knew as little as he did about the children, upon whose +education he was the recognised authority,) all France read +his ``Social Contract'' and this society in which the king and +the state were one, wept bitter tears when they heard Rousseau's +appeal for a return to the blessed days when the real +sovereignty had lain in the hands of the people and when the +king had been merely the servant of his people. + +When Montesquieu published his ``Persian Letters'' in +which two distinguished Persian travellers turn the whole existing +society of France topsy-turvy and poke fun at everything +from the king down to the lowest of his six hundred +pastry cooks, the book immediately went through four +editions and assured the writer thousands of readers for his +famous discussion of the ``Spirit of the Laws'' in which the +noble Baron compared the excellent English system with the +backward system of France and advocated instead of an absolute +monarchy the establishment of a state in which the Executive, +the Legislative and the Judicial powers should be in +separate hands and should work independently of each other. +When Lebreton, the Parisian book-seller, announced that +Messieurs Diderot, d'Alembert, Turgot and a score of other +distinguished writers were going to publish an Encyclopaedia +which was to contain ``all the new ideas and the new science +and the new knowledge,'' the response from the side of the +public was most satisfactory, and when after twenty-two years +the last of the twenty-eight volumes had been finished, the +somewhat belated interference of the police could not repress +the enthusiasm with which French society received this most +important but very dangerous contribution to the discussions +of the day. + +Here, let me give you a little warning. When you read a +novel about the French revolution or see a play or a movie, +you will easily get the impression that the Revolution was the +work of the rabble from the Paris slums. It was nothing +of the kind. The mob appears often upon the ``evolutionary +stage, but invariably at the instigation and under the +leadership of those middle-class professional men who used the +hungry multitude as an efficient ally in their warfare upon +the king and his court. But the fundamental ideas which +caused the revolution were invented by a few brilliant minds, +and they were at first introduced into the charming drawing-rooms +of the ``Ancien Regime'' to provide amiable diversion +for the much-bored ladies and gentlemen of his Majesty's court. +These pleasant but careless people played with the dangerous +fireworks of social criticism until the sparks fell through +the cracks of the floor, which was old and rotten just +like the rest of the building. Those sparks unfortunately +landed in the basement where age-old rubbish lay in great +confusion. Then there was a cry of fire. But the owner of +the house who was interested in everything except the management +of his property, did not know how to put the small blaze +out. The flame spread rapidly and the entire edifice was consumed +by the conflagration, which we call the Great French Revolution. + +For the sake of convenience, we can divide the French +Revolution into two parts. From 1789 to 1791 there was a +more or less orderly attempt to introduce a constitutional +monarchy. This failed, partly through lack of good faith and +stupidity on the part of the monarch himself, partly through +circumstances over which nobody had any control. + +From 1792 to 1799 there was a Republic and a first effort +to establish a democratic form of government. But the actual +outbreak of violence had been preceded by many years of +unrest and many sincere but ineffectual attempts at reform. + +When France had a debt of 4000 million francs and the +treasury was always empty and there was not a single thing +upon which new taxes could be levied, even good King Louis +(who was an expert locksmith and a great hunter but a very +poor statesman) felt vaguely that something ought to be done. +Therefore he called for Turgot, to be his Minister of Finance. +Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne, a man in the +early sixties, a splendid representative of the fast disappearing +class of landed gentry, had been a successful governor of a +province and was an amateur political economist of great ability. +He did his best. Unfortunately, he could not perform +miracles. As it was impossible to squeeze more taxes out of +the ragged peasants, it was necessary to get the necessary funds +from the nobility and clergy who had never paid a centime. +This made Turgot the best hated man at the court of Versailles. +Furthermore he was obliged to face the enmity of Marie +Antoinette, the queen, who was against everybody who dared +to mention the word ``economy'' within her hearing. Soon +Turgot was called an ``unpractical visionary'' and a ``theoretical- +professor'' and then of course his position became untenable. +In the year 1776 he was forced to resign. + +After the ``professor'' there came a man of Practical Business +Sense. He was an industrious Swiss by the name of +Necker who had made himself rich as a grain speculator and +the partner in an international banking house. His ambitious +wife had pushed him into the government service that she +might establish a position for her daughter who afterwards as +the wife of the Swedish minister in Paris, Baron de Stael, +became a famous literary figure of the early nineteenth century. + +Necker set to work with a fine display of zeal just as Turgot +had done. In 1781 he published a careful review of the French +finances. The king understood nothing of this ``Compte +Rendu.'' He had just sent troops to America to help the colonists +against their common enemies, the English. This expedition +proved to be unexpectedly expensive and Necker was +asked to find the necessary funds. When instead of producing +revenue, he published more figures and made statistics +and began to use the dreary warning about ``necessary economies'' +his days were numbered. In the year 1781 he was +dismissed as an incompetent servant. + +After the Professor and the Practical Business Man came +the delightful type of financier who will guarantee everybody +100 per cent. per month on their money if only they will +trust his own infallible system. + +He was Charles Alexandre de Calonne, a pushing official, +who had made his career both by his industry and his +complete lack of honesty and scruples. He found the country +heavily indebted, but he was a clever man, willing to oblige +everybody, and he invented a quick remedy. He paid the +old debts by contracting new ones. This method is not new. +The result since time immemorial has been disastrous. In +less than three years more than 800,000,000 francs had been +added to the French debt by this charming Minister of Finance +who never worried and smilingly signed his name to every +demand that was made by His Majesty and by his lovely +Queen, who had learned the habit of spending during the days +of her youth in Vienna. + +At last even the Parliament of Paris (a high court of justice +and not a legislative body) although by no means lacking +in loyalty to their sovereign, decided that something must be +done. Calonne wanted to borrow another 80,000,000 francs. +It had been a bad year for the crops and the misery and hunger +in the country districts were terrible. Unless something sensible +were done, France would go bankrupt. The King as always +was unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Would it not +be a good idea to consult the representatives of the people? +Since 1614 no Estates General had been called together. In +view of the threatening panic there was a demand that the +Estates be convened. Louis XVI however, who never could +take a decision, refused to go as far as that. + +To pacify the popular clamour he called together a meeting +of the Notables in the year 1787. This merely meant a gathering +of the best families who discussed what could and should +be done, without touching their feudal and clerical privilege +of tax-exemption. It is unreasonable to expect that a certain +class of society shall commit political and economic suicide for +the benefit of another group of fellow-citizens. The 127 +Notables obstinately refused to surrender a single one of their +ancient rights. The crowd in the street, being now exceedingly +hungry, demanded that Necker, in whom they had confidence, +be reappointed. The Notables said ``No.'' The crowd +in the street began to smash windows and do other unseemly +things. The Notables fled. Calonne was dismissed. + +A new colourless Minister of Finance, the Cardinal +Lomenie de Brienne, was appointed and Louis, driven by the +violent threats of his starving subjects, agreed to call together +the old Estates General as ``soon as practicable.'' This vague +promise of course satisfied no one. + +No such severe winter had been experienced for almost a +century. The crops had been either destroyed by floods or had +been frozen to death in the fields. All the olive trees of the +Provence had been killed. Private charity tried to do some- +thing but could accomplish little for eighteen million starving +people. Everywhere bread riots occurred. A generation before +these would have been put down by the army. But the +work of the new philosophical school had begun to bear fruit. +People began to understand that a shotgun is no effective +remedy for a hungry stomach and even the soldiers (who came +from among the people) were no longer to be depended upon. +It was absolutely necessary that the king should do something +definite to regain the popular goodwill, but again he hesitated. + +Here and there in the provinces, little independent Republics +were established by followers of the new school. The cry +of ``no taxation without representation'' (the slogan of the +American rebels a quarter of a century before) was heard +among the faithful middle classes. France was threatened with +general anarchy. To appease the people and to increase the +royal popularity, the government unexpectedly suspended the +former very strict form of censorship of books. At once a +flood of ink descended upon France. Everybody, high or +low, criticised and was criticised. More than 2000 +pamphlets were published. Lomenie de Brienne was swept away +by a storm of abuse. Necker was hastily called back to placate, +as best he could, the nation-wide unrest. Immediately the stock +market went up thirty per cent. And by common consent, people +suspended judgment for a little while longer. In May of +1789 the Estates General were to assemble and then the wisdom +of the entire nation would speedily solve the difficult problem +of recreating the kingdom of France into a healthy and happy +state. + +This prevailing idea, that the combined wisdom of the +people would be able to solve all difficulties, proved disastrous. +It lamed all personal effort during many important months. +Instead of keeping the government in his own hands at this +critical moment, Necker allowed everything to drift. Hence +there was a new outbreak of the acrimonious debate upon the +best ways to reform the old kingdom. Everywhere the power +of the police weakened. The people of the Paris suburbs, +under the leadership of professional agitators, gradually began +to discover their strength, and commenced to play the role +which was to be theirs all through the years of the great unrest, +when they acted as the brute force which was used by the actual +leaders of the Revolution to secure those things which could +not be obtained in a legitimate fashion. + +As a sop to the peasants and the middle class, Necker de- +cided that they should be allowed a double representation in +the Estates General. Upon this subject, the Abbe Sieyes then +wrote a famous pamphlet, ``To what does the Third Estate +Amount?'' in which he came to the conclusion that the Third +Estate (a name given to the middle class) ought to amount to +everything, that it had not amounted to anything in the past, +and that it now desired to amount to something. He expressed +the sentiment of the great majority of the people who had the +best interests of the country at heart. + +Finally the elections took place under the worst conditions +imaginable. When they were over, 308 clergymen, 285 noblemen +and 621 representatives of the Third Estate packed their +trunks to go to Versailles. The Third Estate was obliged to +carry additional luggage. This consisted of voluminous reports +called ``cahiers'' in which the many complaints and grievances +of their constituents had been written down. The stage +was set for the great final act that was to save France. + +The Estates General came together on May 5th, 1789. +The king was in a bad humour. The Clergy and the Nobility +let it be known that they were unwilling to give up a single one +of their privileges. The king ordered the three groups of +representatives to meet in different rooms and discuss their +grievances separately. The Third Estate refused to obey the royal +command. They took a solemn oath to that effect in a squash +court (hastily put in order for the purpose of this illegal meeting) +on the 20th of June, 1789. They insisted that all three +Estates, Nobility, Clergy and Third Estate, should meet together +and so informed His Majesty. The king gave in. + +As the ``National Assembly,'' the Estates General began +to discuss the state of the French kingdom. The King got +angry. Then again he hesitated. He said that he would never +surrender his absolute power. Then he went hunting, forgot +all about the cares of the state and when he returned from the +chase he gave in. For it was the royal habit to do the right +thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. When the people +clamoured for A, the king scolded them and gave them nothing. +Then, when the Palace was surrounded by a howling multitude +of poor people, the king surrendered and gave his subjects +what they had asked for. By this time, however, the people +wanted A plus B. The comedy was repeated. When the king +signed his name to the Royal Decree which granted his beloved +subjects A and B they were threatening to kill the entire royal +family unless they received A plus B plus C. And so on, +through the whole alphabet and up to the scaffold. + +Unfortunately the king was always just one letter behind. +He never understood this. Even when he laid his head under +the guillotine, he felt that he was a much-abused man who had +received a most unwarrantable treatment at the hands of people +whom he had loved to the best of his limited ability. + +Historical ``ifs,'' as I have often warned you, are never of +any value. It is very easy for us to say that the monarchy +might have been saved ``if'' Louis had been a man of greater +energy and less kindness of heart. But the king was not alone. +Even ``if'' he had possessed the ruthless strength of Napoleon, +his career during these difficult days might have been easily +ruined by his wife who was the daughter of Maria Theresa of +Austria and who possessed all the characteristic virtues and +vices of a young girl who had been brought up at the most +autocratic and mediaeval court of that age. + +She decided that some action must be taken and planned a +counter-revolution. Necker was suddenly dismissed and loyal +troops were called to Paris. The people, when they heard of +this, stormed the fortress of the Bastille prison, and on the +fourteenth of July of the year 1789, they destroyed this +familiar but much-hated symbol of Autocratic Power +which had long since ceased to be a political prison and +was now used as the city lock-up for pickpockets and second- +story men. Many of the nobles took the hint and left the +country. But the king as usual did nothing. He had been +hunting on the day of the fall of the Bastille and he had shot +several deer and felt very much pleased. + +The National Assembly now set to work and on the 4th of +August, with the noise of the Parisian multitude in their ears, +they abolished all privileges. This was followed on the 27th +of August by the ``Declaration of the Rights of Man,'' the +famous preamble to the first French constitution. So far so +good, but the court had apparently not yet learned its lesson. +There was a wide-spread suspicion that the king was again +trying to interfere with these reforms and as a result, on the +5th of October, there was a second riot in Paris. It spread to +Versailles and the people were not pacified until they had +brought the king back to his palace in Paris. They did not +trust him in Versailles. They liked to have him where they +could watch him and control his correspondence with his relatives +in Vienna and Madrid and the other courts of Europe. + +In the Assembly meanwhile, Mirabeau, a nobleman who +had become leader of the Third Estate, was beginning to put +order into chaos. But before he could save the position of the +king he died, on the 2nd of April of the year 1791. The king, +who now began to fear for his own life, tried to escape on the +21st of June. He was recognised from his picture on a coin, +was stopped near the village of Varennes by members of the +National Guard, and was brought back to Paris, + +In September of 1791, the first constitution of France was +accepted, and the members of the National Assembly went +home. On the first of October of 1791, the legislative assembly +came together to continue the work of the National +Assembly. In this new gathering of popular representatives +there were many extremely revolutionary elements. The +boldest among these were known as the Jacobins, after the old +Jacobin cloister in which they held their political meetings. +These young men (most of them belonging to the professional +classes) made very violent speeches and when the newspapers +carried these orations to Berlin and Vienna, the King of +Prussia and the Emperor decided that they must do something +to save their good brother and sister. They were very busy +just then dividing the kingdom of Poland, where rival political +factions had caused such a state of disorder that the country +was at the mercy of anybody who wanted to take a couple of +provinces. But they managed to send an army to invade +France and deliver the king. + +Then a terrible panic of fear swept throughout the land +of France. All the pent-up hatred of years of hunger and +suffering came to a horrible climax. The mob of Paris stormed +the palace of the Tuilleries. The faithful Swiss bodyguards +tried to defend their master, but Louis, unable to make up his +mind, gave order to ``cease firing'' just when the crowd was +retiring. The people, drunk with blood and noise and cheap +wine, murdered the Swiss to the last man, then invaded the +palace, and went after Louis who had escaped into the meeting +hall of the Assembly, where he was immediately suspended of +his office, and from where he was taken as a prisoner to the +old castle of the Temple. + +But the armies of Austria and Prussia continued their advance +and the panic changed into hysteria and turned men and +women into wild beasts. In the first week of September of +the year 1792, the crowd broke into the jails and murdered all +the prisoners. The government did not interfere. The Jacobins, +headed by Danton, knew that this crisis meant either the +success or the failure of the revolution, and that only the most +brutal audacity could save them. The Legislative Assembly +was closed and on the 21st of September of the year 1792, a +new National Convention came together. It was a body composed +almost entirely of extreme revolutionists. The king was +formally accused of high treason and was brought before the +Convention. He was found guilty and by a vote of 361 to 360 +(the extra vote being that of his cousin the Duke of Orleans) +he was condemned to death. On the 21st of January of the +year 1793, he quietly and with much dignity suffered himself +to be taken to the scaffold. He had never understood what all +the shooting and the fuss had been about. And he had been too +proud to ask questions. + +Then the Jacobins turned against the more moderate element +in the convention, the Girondists, called after their southern +district, the Gironde. A special revolutionary tribunal was +instituted and twenty-one of the leading Girondists were +condemned to death. The others committed suicide. They were +capable and honest men but too philosophical and too moderate +to survive during these frightful years. + +In October of the year 1793 the Constitution was +suspended by the Jacobins ``until peace should have been +declared.'' All power was placed in the hands of a small committee +of Public Safety, with Danton and Robespierre as its +leaders. The Christian religion and the old chronology were +abolished. The ``Age of Reason'' (of which Thomas Paine had +written so eloquently during the American Revolution) had +come and with it the ``Terror'' which for more than a year killed +good and bad and indifferent people at the rate of seventy or +eighty a day. + +The autocratic rule of the King had been destroyed. It +was succeeded by the tyranny of a few people who had such a +passionate love for democratic virtue that they felt compelled +to kill all those who disagreed with them. France was turned +into a slaughter house. Everybody suspected everybody else. +No one felt safe. Out of sheer fear, a few members of the old +Convention, who knew that they were the next candidates for +the scaffold, finally turned against Robespierre, who had +already decapitated most of his former colleagues. Robespierre, +``the only true and pure Democrat,'' tried to kill himself +but failed His shattered jaw was hastily bandaged and +he was dragged to the guillotine. On the 27th of July, of the +year 1794 (the 9th Thermidor of the year II, according to the +strange chronology of the revolution), the reign of Terror came +to an end, and all Paris danced with joy. + +The dangerous position of France, however, made it necessary +that the government remain in the hands of a few strong +men, until the many enemies of the revolution should have been +driven from the soil of the French fatherland. While the +half-clad and half-starved revolutionary armies fought their +desperate battles of the Rhine and Italy and Belgium and +Egypt, and defeated every one of the enemies of the Great +Revolution, five Directors were appointed, and they ruled +France for four years. Then the power was vested in the hands +of a successful general by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, +who became ``First Consul'' of France in the year 1799. And +during the next fifteen years, the old European continent became +the laboratory of a number of political experiments, the +like of which the world had never seen before. + + + +NAPOLEON + +NAPOLEON + + +NAPOLEON was born in the year 1769, the third son +of Carlo Maria Buonaparte, an honest notary public of +the city of Ajaccio in the island of Corsica, and his good +wife, Letizia Ramolino. He therefore was not a Frenchman, +but an Italian whose native island (an old Greek, Carthaginian +and Roman colony in the Mediterranean Sea) had +for years been struggling to regain its independence, +first of all from the Genoese, and after the middle of the +eighteenth century from the French, who had kindly offered +to help the Corsicans in their struggle for freedom and had +then occupied the island for their own benefit. + +During the first twenty years of his life, young Napoleon +was a professional Corsican patriot--a Corsican Sinn Feiner, +who hoped to deliver his beloved country from the yoke of the +bitterly hated French enemy. But the French revolution had +unexpectedly recognised the claims of the Corsicans and gradually +Napoleon, who had received a good training at the military +school of Brienne, drifted into the service of his adopted country. +Although he never learned to spell French correctly or +to speak it without a broad Italian accent, he became a Frenchman. +In due time he came to stand as the highest expression +of all French virtues. At present he is regarded as the symbol +of the Gallic genius. + +Napoleon was what is called a fast worker. His career +does not cover more than twenty years. In that short span +of time he fought more wars and gained more victories and +marched more miles and conquered more square kilometers and +killed more people and brought about more reforms and generally +upset Europe to a greater extent than anybody (including +Alexander the Great and Jenghis Khan) had ever managed +to do. + +He was a little fellow and during the first years of his life +his health was not very good. He never impressed anybody +by his good looks and he remained to the end of his days very +clumsy whenever he was obliged to appear at a social function. +He did not enjoy a single advantage of breeding or birth or +riches. For the greater part of his youth he was desperately +poor and often he had to go without a meal or was obliged +to make a few extra pennies in curious ways. + +He gave little promise as a literary genius. When he competed +for a prize offered by the Academy of Lyons, his essay +was found to be next to the last and he was number 15 out of +16 candidates. But he overcame all these difficulties through +his absolute and unshakable belief in his own destiny, and in +his own glorious future. Ambition was the main-spring of his +life. The thought of self, the worship of that capital letter +``N'' with which he signed all his letters, and which recurred +forever in the ornaments of his hastily constructed palaces, the +absolute will to make the name Napoleon the most important +thing in the world next to the name of God, these desires carried +Napoleon to a pinnacle of fame which no other man has +ever reached. + +When he was a half-pay lieutenant, young Bonaparte was +very fond of the ``Lives of Famous Men'' which Plutarch, the +Roman historian, had written. But he never tried to live up +to the high standard of character set by these heroes of the +older days. Napoleon seems to have been devoid of all those +considerate and thoughtful sentiments which make men +different from the animals. It will be very difficult to decide +with any degree of accuracy whether he ever loved anyone +besides himself. He kept a civil tongue to his mother, but +Letizia had the air and manners of a great lady and after the +fashion of Italian mothers, she knew how to rule her brood of +children and command their respect. For a few years he was +fond of Josephine, his pretty Creole wife, who was the daughter +of a French officer of Martinique and the widow of the +Vicomte de Beauharnais, who had been executed by Robespierre +when he lost a battle against the Prussians. But +the Emperor divorced her when she failed to give him a son +and heir and married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, +because it seemed good policy. + +During the siege of Toulon, where he gained great fame +as commander of a battery, Napoleon studied Macchiavelli +with industrious care. He followed the advice of the Florentine +statesman and never kept his word when it was to his +advantage to break it. The word ``gratitude'' did not occur in +his personal dictionary. Neither, to be quite fair, did he expect +it from others. He was totally indifferent to human suffering. +He executed prisoners of war (in Egypt in 1798) who had +been promised their lives, and he quietly allowed his wounded +in Syria to be chloroformed when he found it impossible to +transport them to his ships. He ordered the Duke of Enghien +to be condemned to death by a prejudiced court-martial and to +be shot contrary to all law on the sole ground that the +``Bourbons needed a warning.'' He decreed that those German +officers who were made prisoner while fighting for their +country's independence should be shot against the nearest wall, +and when Andreas Hofer, the Tyrolese hero, fell into his hands +after a most heroic resistance, he was executed like a common +traitor. + +In short, when we study the character of the Emperor, we +begin to understand those anxious British mothers who used +to drive their children to bed with the threat that ``Bonaparte, +who ate little boys and girls for breakfast, would come and get +them if they were not very good.'' And yet, having said these +many unpleasant things about this strange tyrant, who looked +after every other department of his army with the utmost care, +but neglected the medical service, and who ruined his uniforms +with Eau de Cologne because he could not stand the smell of +his poor sweating soldiers; having said all these unpleasant +things and being fully prepared to add many more, I must +confess to a certain lurking feeling of doubt. + +Here I am sitting at a comfortable table loaded heavily +with books, with one eye on my typewriter and the other on +Licorice the cat, who has a great fondness for carbon paper, +and I am telling you that the Emperor Napoleon was a most +contemptible person. But should I happen to look out of +the window, down upon Seventh Avenue, and should the endless +procession of trucks and carts come to a sudden halt, and +should I hear the sound of the heavy drums and see the little +man on his white horse in his old and much-worn green uniform, +then I don't know, but I am afraid that I would leave +my books and the kitten and my home and everything else to +follow him wherever he cared to lead. My own grandfather +did this and Heaven knows he was not born to be a hero. +Millions of other people's grandfathers did it. They received +no reward, but they expected none. They cheerfully +gave legs and arms and lives to serve this foreigner, who took +them a thousand miles away from their homes and marched +them into a barrage of Russian or English or Spanish or +Italian or Austrian cannon and stared quietly into space while +they were rolling in the agony of death. + +If you ask me for an explanation, I must answer that I +have none. I can only guess at one of the reasons. Napoleon +was the greatest of actors and the whole European continent +was his stage. At all times and under all circumstances +he knew the precise attitude that would impress the spectators +most and he understood what words would make the deepest +impression. Whether he spoke in the Egyptian desert, before +the backdrop of the Sphinx and the pyramids, or addressed +his shivering men on the dew-soaked plains of Italy, made no +difference. At all times he was master of the situation. Even +at the end, an exile on a little rock in the middle of the Atlantic, +a sick man at the mercy of a dull and intolerable British governor, +he held the centre of the stage. + +After the defeat of Waterloo, no one outside of a few +trusted friends ever saw the great Emperor. The people of +Europe knew that he was living on the island of St. Helena-- +they knew that a British garrison guarded him day and night +--they knew that the British fleet guarded the garrison which +guarded the Emperor on his farm at Longwood. But he was +never out of the mind of either friend or enemy. When illness +and despair had at last taken him away, his silent eyes continued +to haunt the world. Even to-day he is as much of a force +in the life of France as a hundred years ago when people +fainted at the mere sight of this sallow-faced man who stabled +his horses in the holiest temples of the Russian Kremlin, and +who treated the Pope and the mighty ones of this earth as if +they were his lackeys. + +To give you a mere outline of his life would demand +couple of volumes. To tell you of his great political reform +of the French state, of his new codes of laws which were +adopted in most European countries, of his activities in every +field of public activity, would take thousands of pages. But +I can explain in a few words why he was so successful during +the first part of his career and why he failed during the last +ten years. From the year 1789 until the year 1804, Napoleon +was the great leader of the French revolution. He was not +merely fighting for the glory of his own name. He defeated +Austria and Italy and England and Russia because he, himself, +and his soldiers were the apostles of the new creed of +``Liberty, Fraternity and Equality'' and were the enemies of +the courts while they were the friends of the people. + +But in the year 1804, Napoleon made himself Hereditary +Emperor of the French and sent for Pope Pius VII to come +and crown him, even as Leo III, in the year 800 had crowned +that other great King of the Franks, Charlemagne, whose example +was constantly before Napoleon's eyes. + +Once upon the throne, the old revolutionary chieftain became +an unsuccessful imitation of a Habsburg monarch. He +forgot his spiritual Mother, the Political Club of the Jacobins. +He ceased to be the defender of the oppressed. He became the +chief of all the oppressors and kept his shooting squads ready +to execute those who dared to oppose his imperial will. No +one had shed a tear when in the year 1806 the sad remains of +the Holy Roman Empire were carted to the historical dustbin +and when the last relic of ancient Roman glory was destroyed +by the grandson of an Italian peasant. But when the Napoleonic +armies had invaded Spain, had forced the Spaniards to +recognise a king whom they detested, had massacred the poor +Madrilenes who remained faithful to their old rulers, then +public opinion turned against the former hero of Marengo and +Austerlitz and a hundred other revolutionary battles. Then +and only then, when Napoleon was no longer the hero of the +revolution but the personification of all the bad traits of the +Old Regime, was it possible for England to give direction to +the fast-spreading sentiment of hatred which was turning all +honest men into enemies of the French Emperor. + +The English people from the very beginning had felt +deeply disgusted when their newspapers told them the gruesome +details of the Terror. They had staged their own great +revolution (during the reign of Charles I) a century before. +It had been a very simple affair compared to the upheaval of +Paris. In the eyes of the average Englishman a Jacobin was +a monster to be shot at sight and Napoleon was the Chief Devil. +The British fleet had blockaded France ever since the year +1798. It had spoiled Napoleon's plan to invade India by way +of Egypt and had forced him to beat an ignominious retreat, +after his victories along the banks of the Nile. And finally, +in the year 1805, England got the chance it had waited for so +long. + +Near Cape Trafalgar on the southwestern coast of Spain, +Nelson annihilated the Napoleonic fleet, beyond a possible +chance of recovery. From that moment on, the Emperor was +landlocked. Even so, he would have been able to maintain +himself as the recognised ruler of the continent had he understood +the signs of the times and accepted the honourable peace +which the powers offered him. But Napoleon had been blinded +by the blaze of his own glory. He would recognise no equals. +He could tolerate no rivals. And his hatred turned against +Russia, the mysterious land of the endless plains with its +inexhaustible supply of cannon-fodder. + +As long as Russia was ruled by Paul I, the half-witted son +of Catherine the Great, Napoleon had known how to deal with +the situation. But Paul grew more and more irresponsible +until his exasperated subjects were obliged to murder him +(lest they all be sent to the Siberian lead-mines) and the son of +Paul, the Emperor Alexander, did not share his father's affection +for the usurper whom he regarded as the enemy of mankind, +the eternal disturber of the peace. He was a pious man +who believed that he had been chosen by God to deliver the +world from the Corsican curse. He joined Prussia and England +and Austria and he was defeated. He tried five times +and five times he failed. In the year 1812 he once more taunted +Napoleon until the French Emperor, in a blind rage, vowed +that he would dictate peace in Moscow. Then, from far and +wide, from Spain and Germany and Holland and Italy and +Portugal, unwilling regiments were driven northward, that the +wounded pride of the great Emperor might be duly avenged. +The rest of the story is common knowledge. After a march +of two months, Napoleon reached the Russian capital and +established his headquarters in the holy Kremlin. On the night +of September 15 of the year 1812, Moscow caught fire. The +town burned four days. When the evening of the fifth day +came, Napoleon gave the order for the retreat. Two weeks +later it began to snow. The army trudged through mud and +sleet until November the 26th when the river Berezina was +reached. Then the Russian attacks began in all seriousness. +The Cossacks swarmed around the ``Grande Armee'' which +was no longer an army but a mob. In the middle of December +the first of the survivors began to be seen in the German cities +of the East. + +Then there were many rumours of an impending revolt. +``The time has come,'' the people of Europe said, ``to free ourselves +from this insufferable yoke.'' And they began to look +for old shotguns which had escaped the eye of the ever-present +French spies. But ere they knew what had happened, Napoleon +was back with a new army. He had left his defeated soldiers +and in his little sleigh had rushed ahead to Paris, making +a final appeal for more troops that he might defend the sacred +soil of France against foreign invasion. + +Children of sixteen and seventeen followed him when he +moved eastward to meet the allied powers. On October 16, +18, and 19 of the year 1813, the terrible battle of Leipzig took +place where for three days boys in green and boys in blue +fought each other until the Elbe ran red with blood. On the +afternoon of the 17th of October, the massed reserves of Russian +infantry broke through the French lines and Napoleon +fled. + +Back to Paris he went. He abdicated in favour of his small +son, but the allied powers insisted that Louis XVIII, the +brother of the late king Louis XVI, should occupy the French +throne, and surrounded by Cossacks and Uhlans, the dull-eyed +Bourbon prince made his triumphal entry into Paris. + +As for Napoleon he was made the sovereign ruler of the +little island of Elba in the Mediterranean where he organised +his stable boys into a miniature army and fought battles on a +chess board. + +But no sooner had he left France than the people began +to realise what they had lost. The last twenty years, however +costly, had been a period of great glory. Paris had been the +capital of the world. The fat Bourbon king who had learned +nothing and had forgotten nothing during the days of his +exile disgusted everybody by his indolence. + +On the first of March of the year 1815, when the representatives +of the allies were ready to begin the work of unscrambling +the map of Europe, Napoleon suddenly landed near +Cannes. In less than a week the French army had deserted +the Bourbons and had rushed southward to offer their swords +and bayonets to the ``little Corporal.'' Napoleon marched +straight to Paris where he arrived on the twentieth of March. +This time he was more cautious. He offered peace, but the +allies insisted upon war. The whole of Europe arose against +the ``perfidious Corsican.'' Rapidly the Emperor marched +northward that he might crush his enemies before they should +be able to unite their forces. But Napoleon was no longer his +old self. He felt sick. He got tired easily. He slept when he +ought to have been up directing the attack of his advance- +guard. Besides, he missed many of his faithful old generals. +They were dead. + +Early in June his armies entered Belgium. On the 16th +of that month he defeated the Prussians under Blucher. But +a subordinate commander failed to destroy the retreating army +as he had been ordered to do. + +Two days later, Napoleon met Wellington near Waterloo. +It was the 18th of June, a Sunday. At two o'clock of the +afternoon, the battle seemed won for the French. At three a +speck of dust appeared upon the eastern horizon. Napoleon +believed that this meant the approach of his own cavalry who +would now turn the English defeat into a rout. At four o'clock +he knew better. Cursing and swearing, old Blucher drove +his deathly tired troops into the heart of the fray. The shock +broke the ranks of the guards. Napoleon had no further reserves. +He told his men to save themselves as best they could, +and he fled. + +For a second time, he abdicated in favor of his son. Just +one hundred days after his escape from Elba, he was making +for the coast. He intended to go to America. In the year +1803, for a mere song, he had sold the French colony of +Louisiana (which was in great danger of being captured by +the English) to the young American Republic. ``The Americans,'' +so he said, ``will be grateful and will give me a little bit +of land and a house where I may spend the last days of my life +in peace and quiet.'' But the English fleet was watching all +French harbours. Caught between the armies of the Allies +and the ships of the British, Napoleon had no choice. The +Prussians intended to shoot him. The English might be more +generous. At Rochefort he waited in the hope that something +might turn up. One month after Waterloo, he received orders +from the new French government to leave French soil inside +of twenty-four hours. Always the tragedian, he wrote a letter +to the Prince Regent of England (George IV, the king, was +in an insane asylum) informing His Royal Highness of his +intention to ``throw himself upon the mercy of his enemies and +like Themistocles, to look for a welcome at the fireside of his +foes . . . + +On the 15th of July he went on board the ``Bellerophon,'' +and surrendered his sword to Admiral Hotham. At Plymouth +he was transferred to the ``Northumberland'' which carried him +to St. Helena. There he spent the last seven years of his +life. He tried to write his memoirs, he quarrelled with his +keepers and he dreamed of past times. Curiously enough he +returned (at least in his imagination) to his original point of +departure. He remembered the days when he had fought the +battles of the Revolution. He tried to convince himself that +he had always been the true friend of those great principles of +``Liberty, Fraternity and Equality'' which the ragged soldiers +of the convention had carried to the ends of the earth. He +liked to dwell upon his career as Commander-in-Chief and +Consul. He rarely spoke of the Empire. Sometimes he +thought of his son, the Duke of Reichstadt, the little eagle, +who lived in Vienna, where he was treated as a ``poor relation'' +by his young Habsburg cousins, whose fathers had trembled at +the very mention of the name of Him. When the end came, +he was leading his troops to victory. He ordered Ney to attack +with the guards. Then he died. + +But if you want an explanation of this strange career, if +you really wish to know how one man could possibly rule so +many people for so many years by the sheer force of his will, +do not read the books that have been written about him. Their +authors either hated the Emperor or loved him. You will +learn many facts, but it is more important to ``feel history'' +than to know it. Don't read, but wait until you have a chance +to hear a good artist sing the song called ``The Two Grenadiers.'' +The words were written by Heine, the great German +poet who lived through the Napoleonic era. The music was +composed by Schumann, a German who saw the Emperor, +the enemy of his country, whenever he came to visit his imperial +father-in-law. The song therefore is the work of two +men who had every reason to hate the tyrant. + +Go and hear it. Then you will understand what a thousand +volumes could not possibly tell you. + + + +THE HOLY ALLIANCE + +AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO +ST. HELENA THE RULERS WHO SO OFTEN +HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED +``CORSICAN'' MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED +TO UNDO THE MANY CHANGES THAT HAD +BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH +REVOLUTION + + +THE Imperial Highnesses, the Royal Highnesses, their +Graces the Dukes, the Ministers Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, +together with the plain Excellencies and their army +of secretaries, servants and hangers-on, whose labours had +been so rudely interrupted by the sudden return of the terrible +Corsican (now sweltering under the hot sun of St. Helena) +went back to their jobs. The victory was duly celebrated with +dinners, garden parties and balls at which the new and very +shocking ``waltz'' was danced to the great scandal of the ladies +and gentlemen who remembered the minuet of the old Regime. + +For almost a generation they had lived in retirement. At +last the danger was over. They were very eloquent upon the +subject of the terrible hardships which they had suffered. +And they expected to be recompensed for every penny they +had lost at the hands of the unspeakable Jacobins who had +dared to kill their anointed king, who had abolished wigs and +who had discarded the short trousers of the court of Versailles +for the ragged pantaloons of the Parisian slums. + +You may think it absurd that I should mention such a +detail. But, if you please, the Congress of Vienna was one +long succession of such absurdities and for many months the +question of ``short trousers vs. long trousers'' interested the +delegates more than the future settlement of the Saxon or +Spanish problems. His Majesty the King of Prussia went so +far as to order a pair of short ones, that he might give public +evidence of his contempt for everything revolutionary. + +Another German potentate, not to be outdone in this noble +hatred for the revolution, decreed that all taxes which his subjects +had paid to the French usurper should be paid a second +time to the legitimate ruler who had loved his people from afar +while they were at the mercy of the Corsican ogre. And so on. +From one blunder to another, until one gasps and exclaims +``but why in the name of High Heaven did not the people +object?'' Why not indeed? Because the people were utterly +exhausted, were desperate, did not care what happened or how +or where or by whom they were ruled, provided there was +peace. They were sick and tired of war and revolution and +reform. + +In the eighties of the previous century they had all danced +around the tree of liberty. Princes had embraced their cooks +and Duchesses had danced the Carmagnole with their lackeys +in the honest belief that the Millennium of Equality and +Fraternity had at last dawned upon this wicked world. Instead of +the Millennium they had been visited by the Revolutionary +commissary who had lodged a dozen dirty soldiers in their parlor +and had stolen the family plate when he returned to Paris to +report to his government upon the enthusiasm with which the +``liberated country'' had received the Constitution, which the +French people had presented to their good neighbours. + +When they had heard how the last outbreak of revolutionary +disorder in Paris had been suppressed by a young officer, called +Bonaparte, or Buonaparte, who had turned his guns upon the +mob, they gave a sigh of relief. A little less liberty, fraternity +and equality seemed a very desirable thing. But ere long, the +young officer called Buonaparte or Bonaparte became one of +the three consuls of the French Republic, then sole consul and +finally Emperor. As he was much more efficient than any +ruler that had ever been seen before, his hand pressed heavily +upon his poor subjects. He showed them no mercy. He impressed +their sons into his armies, he married their daughters +to his generals and he took their pictures and their statues to +enrich his own museums. He turned the whole of Europe +into an armed camp and killed almost an entire generation of +men. + +Now he was gone, and the people (except a few professional +military men) had but one wish. They wanted to be let alone. +For awhile they had been allowed to rule themselves, to vote +for mayors and aldermen and judges. The system had been a +terrible failure. The new rulers had been inexperienced and +extravagant. From sheer despair the people turned to the +representative men of the old Regime. ``You rule us,'' they +said, ``as you used to do. Tell us what we owe you for taxes +and leave us alone. We are busy repairing the damage of the +age of liberty.'' + +The men who stage-managed the famous congress certainly +did their best to satisfy this longing for rest and quiet. +The Holy Alliance, the main result of the Congress, made the +policeman the most important dignitary of the State and held +out the most terrible punishment to those who dared criticise a +single official act. + +Europe had peace, but it was the peace of the cemetery. + +The three most important men at Vienna were the Emperor +Alexander of Russia, Metternich, who represented the +interests of the Austrian house of Habsburg, and Talleyrand, +the erstwhile bishop of Autun, who had managed to live +through the different changes in the French government by +the sheer force of his cunning and his intelligence and who +now travelled to the Austrian capital to save for his country +whatever could be saved from the Napoleonic ruin. Like the +gay young man of the limerick, who never knew when he was +slighted, this unbidden guest came to the party and ate just as +heartily as if he had been really invited. Indeed, before long, +he was sitting at the head of the table entertaining everybody +with his amusing stories and gaining the company's good will +by the charm of his manner. + +Before he had been in Vienna twenty-four hours he knew +that the allies were divided into two hostile camps. On the +one side were Russia, who wanted to take Poland, and Prussia, +who wanted to annex Saxony; and on the other side were +Austria and England, who were trying to prevent this grab +because it was against their own interest that either Prussia or +Russia should be able to dominate Europe. Talleyrand played +the two sides against each other with great skill and it was due +to his efforts that the French people were not made to suffer +for the ten years of oppression which Europe had endured at +the hands of the Imperial officials. He argued that the French +people had been given no choice in the matter. Napoleon had +forced them to act at his bidding. But Napoleon was gone and +Louis XVIII was on the throne. ``Give him a chance,'' Talleyrand +pleaded. And the Allies, glad to see a legitimate king +upon the throne of a revolutionary country, obligingly yielded +and the Bourbons were given their chance, of which they +made such use that they were driven out after fifteen years. + +The second man of the triumvirate of Vienna was Metternich, +the Austrian prime minister, the leader of the foreign +policy of the house of Habsburg. Wenzel Lothar, Prince of +Metternich-Winneburg, was exactly what the name suggests. +He was a Grand Seigneur, a very handsome gentleman with +very fine manners, immensely rich, and very able, but the +product of a society which lived a thousand miles away from +the sweating multitudes who worked and slaved in the cities +and on the farms. As a young man, Metternich had been +studying at the University of Strassburg when the French +Revolution broke out. Strassburg, the city which gave birth +to the Marseillaise, had been a centre of Jacobin activities. +Metternich remembered that his pleasant social life had been +sadly interrupted, that a lot of incompetent citizens had suddenly +been called forth to perform tasks for which they were +not fit, that the mob had celebrated the dawn of the new liberty +by the murder of perfectly innocent persons. He had failed to +see the honest enthusiasm of the masses, the ray of hope in the +eyes of women and children who carried bread and water to +the ragged troops of the Convention, marching through the +city on their way to the front and a glorious death for the +French Fatherland. + +The whole thing had filled the young Austrian with disgust. +It was uncivilised. If there were any fighting to be done it +must be done by dashing young men in lovely uniforms, charging +across the green fields on well-groomed horses. But to +turn an entire country into an evil-smelling armed camp where +tramps were overnight promoted to be generals, that was both +wicked and senseless. ``See what came of all your fine ideas,'' +he would say to the French diplomats whom he met at a quiet +little dinner given by one of the innumerable Austrian grand- +dukes. ``You wanted liberty, equality and fraternity and you +got Napoleon. How much better it would have been if you +had been contented with the existing order of things.'' And +he would explain his system of ``stability.'' He would advocate +a return to the normalcy of the good old days before the +war, when everybody was happy and nobody talked nonsense +about ``everybody being as good as everybody else.'' In this +attitude he was entirely sincere and as he was an able man of +great strength of will and a tremendous power of persuasion, +he was one of the most dangerous enemies of the Revolutionary +ideas. He did not die until the year 1859, and he therefore +lived long enough to see the complete failure of all his policies +when they were swept aside by the revolution of the year 1848. +He then found himself the most hated man of Europe and +more than once ran the risk of being lynched by angry crowds +of outraged citizens. But until the very last, he remained steadfast +in his belief that he had done the right thing. + +He had always been convinced that people preferred peace +to liberty and he had tried to give them what was best for them. +And in all fairness, it ought to be said that his efforts to +establish universal peace were fairly successful. The great powers +did not fly at each other's throat for almost forty years, indeed +not until the Crimean war between Russia and England, +France and Italy and Turkey, in the year 1854. That means +a record for the European continent. + +The third hero of this waltzing congress was the Emperor +Alexander. He had been brought up at the court of his grand- +mother, the famous Catherine the Great. Between the lessons +of this shrewd old woman, who taught him to regard the glory +of Russia as the most important thing in life, and those of his +private tutor, a Swiss admirer of Voltaire and Rousseau, who +filled his mind with a general love of humanity, the boy grew +up to be a strange mixture of a selfish tyrant and a sentimental +revolutionist. He had suffered great indignities during the +life of his crazy father, Paul I. He had been obliged to wit- +ness the wholesale slaughter of the Napoleonic battle-fields. +Then the tide had turned. His armies had won the day for the +Allies. Russia had become the saviour of Europe and the Tsar +of this mighty people was acclaimed as a half-god who would +cure the world of its many ills. + +But Alexander was not very clever. He did not know +men and women as Talleyrand and Metternich knew them. +He did not understand the strange game of diplomacy. He +was vain (who would not be under the circumstances?) and +loved to hear the applause of the multitude and soon he had +become the main ``attraction'' of the Congress while Metternich +and Talleyrand and Castlereagh (the very able British +representative) sat around a table and drank a bottle of Tokay +and decided what was actually going to be done. They needed +Russia and therefore they were very polite to Alexander, but +the less he had personally to do with the actual work of the +Congress, the better they were pleased. They even encouraged +his plans for a Holy Alliance that he might be fully occupied +while they were engaged upon the work at hand. + +Alexander was a sociable person who liked to go to parties +and meet people. Upon such occasions he was happy and gay +but there was a very different element in his character. He +tried to forget something which he could not forget. On the +night of the 23rd of March of the year 1801 he had been sitting +in a room of the St. Michael Palace in Petersburg, waiting for +the news of his father's abdication. But Paul had refused to +sign the document which the drunken officers had placed before +him on the table, and in their rage they had put a scarf +around his neck and had strangled him to death. Then they +had gone downstairs to tell Alexander that he was Emperor of +all the Russian lands. + +The memory of this terrible night stayed with the Tsar +who was a very sensitive person. He had been educated in +the school of the great French philosophers who did not believe +in God but in Human Reason. But Reason alone could +not satisfy the Emperor in his predicament. He began to +hear voices and see things. He tried to find a way by which +he could square himself with his conscience. He became very +pious and began to take an interest in mysticism, that strange +love of the mysterious and the unknown which is as old as the +temples of Thebes and Babylon. + +The tremendous emotion of the great revolutionary era +had influenced the character of the people of that day in a +strange way. Men and women who had lived through twenty +years of anxiety and fear were no longer quite normal. They +jumped whenever the door-bell rang. It might mean the news +of the ``death on the field of honour'' of an only son. The +phrases about ``brotherly love'' and ``liberty'' of the Revolution +were hollow words in the ears of sorely stricken peasants. +They clung to anything that might give them a new hold on +the terrible problems of life. In their grief and misery they +were easily imposed upon by a large number of imposters +who posed as prophets and preached a strange new doctrine +which they dug out of the more obscure passages of the Book +of Revelations. + +In the year 1814, Alexander, who had already consulted a +large number of wonder-doctors, heard of a new seeress who +was foretelling the coming doom of the world and was exhorting +people to repent ere it be too late. The Baroness von +Krudener, the lady in question, was a Russian woman of uncertain +age and similar reputation who had been the wife of a +Russian diplomat in the days of the Emperor Paul. She had +squandered her husband's money and had disgraced him by +her strange love affairs. She had lived a very dissolute life +until her nerves had given way and for a while she was not in +her right mind. Then she had been converted by the sight of +the sudden death of a friend. Thereafter she despised all +gaiety. She confessed her former sins to her shoemaker, a +pious Moravian brother, a follower of the old reformer John +Huss, who had been burned for his heresies by the Council of +Constance in the year 1415. + +The next ten years the Baroness spent in Germany making +a specialty of the ``conversion'' of kings and princes. To convince +Alexander, the Saviour of Europe, of the error of his +ways was the greatest ambition of her life. And as Alexander, +in his misery, was willing to listen to anybody who brought him +a ray of hope, the interview was easily arranged. On the evening +of the fourth of June of the year 1815, she was admitted +to the tent of the Emperor. She found him reading his Bible. +We do not know what she said to Alexander, but when she +left him three hours later, he was bathed in tears, and vowed +that ``at last his soul had found peace.'' From that day on the +Baroness was his faithful companion and his spiritual adviser. +She followed him to Paris and then to Vienna and the time +which Alexander did not spend dancing he spent at the +Krudener prayer-meetings. + +You may ask why I tell you this story in such great detail? +Are not the social changes of the nineteenth century of greater +importance than the career of an ill-balanced woman who had +better be forgotten? Of course they are, but there exist any +number of books which will tell you of these other things with +great accuracy and in great detail. I want you to learn something +more from this history than a mere succession of facts. +I want you to approach all historical events in a frame of mind +that will take nothing for granted. Don't be satisfied with +the mere statement that ``such and such a thing happened then +and there.'' Try to discover the hidden motives behind every +action and then you will understand the world around you +much better and you will have a greater chance to help others, +which (when all is said and done) is the only truly satisfactory +way of living. + +I do not want you to think of the Holy Alliance as a piece +of paper which was signed in the year 1815 and lies dead and +forgotten somewhere in the archives of state. It may be forgotten +but it is by no means dead. The Holy Alliance was +directly responsible for the promulgation of the Monroe +Doctrine, and the Monroe Doctrine of America for the Americans +has a very distinct bearing upon your own life. That is +the reason why I want you to know exactly how this document +happened to come into existence and what the real motives were +underlying this outward manifestation of piety and Christian +devotion to duty. + +The Holy Alliance was the joint labour of an unfortunate +man who had suffered a terrible mental shock and who was +trying to pacify his much-disturbed soul, and of an ambitious +woman who after a wasted life had lost her beauty and her +attraction and who satisfied her vanity and her desire for +notoriety by assuming the role of self-appointed Messiah of a +new and strange creed. I am not giving away any secrets +when I tell you these details. Such sober minded people as +Castlereagh, Metternich and Talleyrand fully understood +the limited abilities of the sentimental Baroness. It would have +been easy for Metternich to send her back to her German +estates. A few lines to the almighty commander of the imperial +police and the thing was done. + +But France and England and Austria depended upon the +good-will of Russia. They could not afford to offend Alexander. +And they tolerated the silly old Baroness because they +had to. And while they regarded the Holy Alliance as utter +rubbish and not worth the paper upon which it was written, +they listened patiently to the Tsar when he read them the first +rough draft of this attempt to create the Brotherhood of Men +upon a basis of the Holy Scriptures. For this is what the +Holy Alliance tried to do, and the signers of the document +solemnly declared that they would ``in the administration of +their respective states and in their political relations with every +other government take for their sole guide the precepts of that +Holy Religion, namely the precepts of Justice, Christian +Charity and Peace, which far from being applicable only to +private concerns must have an immediate influence on the +councils of princes, and must guide all their steps as being the +only means of consolidating human institutions and remedying +their imperfections.'' They then proceeded to promise each +other that they would remain united ``by the bonds of a true +and indissoluble fraternity, and considering each other as +fellow-countrymen, they would on all occasions and in all places +lend each other aid and assistance.'' And more words to the +same effect. + +Eventually the Holy Alliance was signed by the Emperor +of Austria, who did not understand a word of it. It was signed +by the Bourbons who needed the friendship of Napoleon's old +enemies. It was signed by the King of Prussia, who hoped to +gain Alexander for his plans for a ``greater Prussia,'' and by +all the little nations of Europe who were at the mercy of Russia. +England never signed, because Castlereagh thought the +whole thing buncombe. The Pope did not sign because he +resented this interference in his business by a Greek-Orthodox +and a Protestant. And the Sultan did not sign because he +never heard of it. + +The general mass of the European people, however, soon +were forced to take notice. Behind the hollow phrases of the +Holy Alliance stood the armies of the Quintuple Alliance +which Metternich had created among the great powers. These +armies meant business. They let it be known that the peace +of Europe must not be disturbed by the so-called liberals who +were in reality nothing but disguised Jacobins, and hoped for +a return of the revolutionary days. The enthusiasm for the +great wars of liberation of the years 1812, 1818, 1814 and +1815 had begun to wear off. It had been followed by a sincere +belief in the coming of a happier day. The soldiers who had +borne the brunt of the battle wanted peace and they said so. + +But they did not want the sort of peace which the Holy +Alliance and the Council of the European powers had now +bestowed upon them. They cried that they had been betrayed. +But they were careful lest they be heard by a secret-police spy. +The reaction was victorious. It was a reaction caused by men +who sincerely believed that their methods were necessary for +the good of humanity. But it was just as hard to bear as if +their intentions had been less kind. And it caused a great deal +of unnecessary suffering and greatly retarded the orderly +progress of political development. + + + +THE GREAT REACTION + +THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA +OF UNDISTURBED PEACE BY SUPPRESSING +ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE +POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY +IN THE STATE AND SOON THE PRISONS +OF ALL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH +THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE +HAVE THE RIGHT TO GOVERN THEMSELVES +AS THEY SEE FIT + + +To undo the damage done by the great Napoleonic flood +was almost impossible. Age-old fences had been washed away. +The palaces of two score dynasties had been damaged to such +an extent that they had to be condemned as uninhabitable. +Other royal residences had been greatly enlarged at the expense +of less fortunate neighbours. Strange odds and ends +of revolutionary doctrine had been left behind by the receding +waters and could not be dislodged without danger to the entire +community. But the political engineers of the Congress did +the best they could and this is what they accomplished. + +France had disturbed the peace of the world for so many +years that people had come to fear that country almost +instinctively. The Bourbons, through the mouth of Talleyrand, +had promised to be good, but the Hundred Days had taught +Europe what to expect should Napoleon manage to escape for +a second time. The Dutch Republic, therefore, was changed +into a Kingdom, and Belgium (which had not joined the Dutch +struggle for independence in the sixteenth century and since +then had been part of the Habsburg domains, firs t under Spanish +rule and thereafter under Austrian rule) was made part +of this new kingdom of the Netherlands. Nobody wanted this +union either in the Protestant North or in the Catholic South, +but no questions were asked. It seemed good for the peace +of Europe and that was the main consideration. + +Poland had hoped for great things because a Pole, Prince +Adam Czartoryski, was one of the most intimate friends of +Tsar Alexander and had been his constant advisor during the +war and at the Congress of Vienna. But Poland was made a +semi-independent part of Russia with Alexander as her king. +This solution pleased no one and caused much bitter feeling +and three revolutions. + +Denmark, which had remained a faithful ally of Napoleon +until the end, was severely punished. Seven years before, an +English fleet had sailed down the Kattegat and without a +declaration of war or any warning had bombarded Copenhagen +and had taken away the Danish fleet, lest it be of value to +Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna went one step further. +It took Norway (which since the union of Calmar of the year +1397 had been united with Denmark) away from Denmark +and gave it to Charles XIV of Sweden as a reward for his betrayal +of Napoleon, who had set him up in the king business. +This Swedish king, curiously enough, was a former French general +by the name of Bernadotte, who had come to Sweden as one +of Napolean's{sic} adjutants, and had been invited to the throne of +that good country when the last of the rulers of the house of +Hollstein-Gottorp had died without leaving either son or +daughter. From 1815 until 1844 he ruled his adopted country +(the language of which he never learned) width great ability. He +was a clever man and enjoyed the respect of both his Swedish +and his Norwegian subjects, but he did not succeed in joining +two countries which nature and history had put asunder. The +dual Scandinavian state was never a success and in 1905, +Norway, in a most peaceful and orderly manner, set up as an +independent kingdom and the Swedes bade her ``good speed'' +and very wisely let her go her own way. + +The Italians, who since the days of the Renaissance had +been at the mercy of a long series of invaders, also had put +great hopes in General Bonaparte. The Emperor Napoleon, +however, had grievously disappointed them. Instead of the +United Italy which the people wanted, they had been divided +into a number of little principalities, duchies, republics and +the Papal State, which (next to Naples) was the worst governed +and most miserable region of the entire peninsula. The +Congress of Vienna abolished a few of the Napoleonic republics +and in their place resurrected several old principalities +which were given to deserving members, both male and female, +of the Habsburg family. + +The poor Spaniards, who had started the great nationalistic +revolt against Napoleon, and who had sacrificed the best blood +of the country for their king, were punished severely when the +Congress allowed His Majesty to return to his domains. This +vicious creature, known as Ferdinand VII, had spent the last +four years of his life as a prisoner of Napoleon. He had improved +his days by knitting garments for the statues of his +favourite patron saints. He celebrated his return by re-introducing +the Inquisition and the torture-chamber, both of which +had been abolished by the Revolution. He was a disgusting +person, despised as much by his subjects as by his four wives, +but the Holy Alliance maintained him upon his legitimate +throne and all efforts of the decent Spaniards to get rid of this +curse and make Spain a constitutional kingdom ended in +bloodshed and executions. + +Portugal had been without a king since the year 1807 when +the royal family had fled to the colonies in Brazil. The country +had been used as a base of supply for the armies of +Wellington during the Peninsula war, which lasted from 1808 +until 1814. After 1815 Portugal continued to be a sort of +British province until the house of Braganza returned to the +throne, leaving one of its members behind in Rio de Janeiro +as Emperor of Brazil, the only American Empire which lasted +for more than a few years, and which came to an end in 1889 +when the country became a republic. + +In the east, nothing was done to improve the terrible conditions +of both the Slavs and the Greeks who were still subjects +of the Sultan. In the year 1804 Black George, a Servian +swineherd, (the founder of the Karageorgevich dynasty) had +started a revolt against the Turks, but he had been defeated +by his enemies and had been murdered by one of his supposed +friends, the rival Servian leader, called Milosh Obrenovich, +(who became the founder of the Obrenovich dynasty) and the +Turks had continued to be the undisputed masters of the +Balkans. + +The Greeks, who since the loss of their independence, two +thousand years before, had been subjects of the Macedonians, +the Romans, the Venetians and the Turks, had hoped that their +countryman, Capo d'Istria, a native of Corfu and together +with Czartoryski, the most intimate personal friends of +Alexander, would do something for them. But the Congress +of Vienna was not interested in Greeks, but was very much +interested in keeping all ``legitimate'' monarchs, Christian, +Moslem and otherwise, upon their respective thrones. Therefore +nothing was done. + +The last, but perhaps the greatest blunder of the Congress +was the treatment of Germany. The Reformation and the +Thirty Years War had not only destroyed the prosperity of the +country, but had turned it into a hopeless political rubbish +heap, consisting of a couple of kingdoms, a few grand-duchies, +a large number of duchies and hundreds of margravates, principalities, +baronies, electorates, free cities and free villages, +ruled by the strangest assortment of potentates that was ever +seen off the comic opera stage. Frederick the Great had +changed this when he created a strong Prussia, but this state +had not survived him by many years. + +Napoleon had blue-penciled the demand for independence +of most of these little countries, and only fifty-two out of a +total of more than three hundred had survived the year 1806. +During the years of the great struggle for independence, many +a young soldier had dreamed of a new Fatherland that should +be strong and united. But there can be no union without a +strong leadership, and who was to be this leader? + +There were five kingdoms in the German speaking lands. +The rulers of two of these, Austria and Prussia, were kings by +the Grace of God. The rulers of three others, Bavaria, Saxony +and Wurtemberg, were kings by the Grace of Napoleon, and +as they had been the faithful henchmen of the Emperor, their +patriotic credit with the other Germans was therefore not very +good. + +The Congress had established a new German Confederation, +a league of thirty-eight sovereign states, under the chairmanship +of the King of Austria, who was now known as the +Emperor of Austria. It was the sort of make-shift arrangement +which satisfied no one. It is true that a German Diet, +which met in the old coronation city of Frankfort. had been +created to discuss matters of ``common policy and importance.'' +But in this Diet, thirty-eight delegates represented thirty-eight +different interests and as no decision could be taken without a +unanimous vote (a parliamentary rule which had in previous +centuries ruined the mighty kingdom of Poland), the famous +German Confederation became very soon the laughing stock +of Europe and the politics of the old Empire began to resemble +those of our Central American neighbours in the forties and +the fifties of the last century. + +It was terribly humiliating to the people who had sacrificed +everything for a national ideal. But the Congress was not +interested in the private feelings of ``subjects,'' and the debate +was closed. + +Did anybody object? Most assuredly. As soon as the first +feeling of hatred against Napoleon had quieted down--as soon +as the enthusiasm of the great war had subsided--as soon as +the people came to a full realisation of the crime that had been +committed in the name of ``peace and stability'' they began to +murmur. They even made threats of open revolt. But what +could they do? They were powerless. They were at the mercy +of the most pitiless and efficient police system the world had +ever seen. + +The members of the Congress of Vienna honestly and sincerely +believed that ``the Revolutionary Principle had led to +the criminal usurpation of the throne by the former emperor +Napoleon.'' They felt that they were called upon to eradicate +the adherents of the so-called ``French ideas'' just as Philip II +had only followed the voice of his conscience when he burned +Protestants or hanged Moors. In the beginning of the sixteenth +century a man who did not believe in the divine right +of the Pope to rule his subjects as he saw fit was a ``heretic'' +and it was the duty of all loyal citizens to kill him. In the +beginning of the nineteenth century, on the continent of Europe, +a man who did not believe in the divine right of his king to +rule him as he or his Prime Minister saw fit, was a ``heretic,'' and +it was the duty of all loyal citizens to denounce him to the nearest +policeman and see that he got punished. + +But the rulers of the year 1815 had learned efficiency in +the school of Napoleon and they performed their task much +better than it had been done in the year 1517. The period +between the year 1815 and the year 1860 was the great era of +the political spy. Spies were everywhere. They lived in palaces +and they were to be found in the lowest gin-shops. They +peeped through the key-holes of the ministerial cabinet and +they listened to the conversations of the people who were taking +the air on the benches of the Municipal Park. They guarded +the frontier so that no one might leave without a duly viseed +passport and they inspected all packages, that no books with +dangerous ``French ideas'' should enter the realm of their +Royal masters. They sat among the students in the lecture +hall and woe to the Professor who uttered a word against the +existing order of things. They followed the little boys and +girls on their way to church lest they play hookey. + +In many of these tasks they were assisted by the clergy. +The church had suffered greatly during the days of the +revolution. The church property had been confiscated. Several +priests had been killed and the generation that had learned its +cathechism from Voltaire and Rousseau and the other French +philosophers had danced around the Altar of Reason when +the Committee of Public Safety had abolished the worship of +God in October of the year 1793. The priests had followed the +``emigres'' into their long exile. Now they returned in the +wake of the allied armies and they set to work with a vengeance. + +Even the Jesuits came back in 1814 and resumed their +former labours of educating the young. Their order had been +a little too successful in its fight against the enemies of the +church. It had established ``provinces'' in every part of the +world, to teach the natives the blessings of Christianity, but +soon it had developed into a regular trading company which +was for ever interfering with the civil authorities. During the +reign of the Marquis de Pombal, the great reforming minister +of Portugal, they had been driven out of the Portuguese lands +and in the year 1773 at the request of most of the Catholic +powers of Europe, the order had been suppressed by Pope +Clement XIV. Now they were back on the job, and preached +the principles of ``obedience'' and ``love for the legitimate +dynasty'' to children whose parents had hired shopwindows that +they might laugh at Marie Antoinette driving to the scaffold +which was to end her misery. + +But in the Protestant countries like Prussia, things were +not a whit better. The great patriotic leaders of the year 1812, +the poets and the writers who had preached a holy war upon the +usurper, were now branded as dangerous ``demagogues.'' Their +houses were searched. Their letters were read. They were +obliged to report to the police at regular intervals and give an +account of themselves. The Prussian drill master was let loose +in all his fury upon the younger generation. When a party of +students celebrated the tercentenary of the Reformation with +noisy but harmless festivities on the old Wartburg, the Prussian +bureaucrats had visions of an imminent revolution. When +a theological student, more honest than intelligent, killed a +Russian government spy who was operating in Germany, the +universities were placed under police-supervision and professors +were jailed or dismissed without any form of trial. + +Russia, of course, was even more absurd in these anti- +revolutionary activities. Alexander had recovered from his attack +of piety. He was gradually drifting toward melancholia. He +well knew his own limited abilities and understood how at +Vienna he had been the victim both of Metternich and the +Krudener woman. More and more he turned his back upon the +west and became a truly Russian ruler whose interests lay in +Constantinople, the old holy city that had been the first teacher +of the Slavs. The older he grew, the harder he worked and the +less he was able to accomplish. And while he sat in his study, +his ministers turned the whole of Russia into a land of military +barracks. + +It is not a pretty picture. Perhaps I might have shortened +this description of the Great Reaction. But it is just as well +that you should have a thorough knowledge of this era. It was +not the first time that an attempt had been made to set the +clock of history back. The result was the usual one. + + + +NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE + +THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, +HOWEVER WAS TOO STRONG TO BE +DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH +AMERICANS WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL +AGAINST THE REACTIONARY MEASURES +OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, GREECE +AND BELGIUM AND SPAIN AND A LARGE +NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE +EUROPEAN CONTINENT FOLLOWED SUIT +AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS +FILLED WITH THE RUMOUR OF MANY +WARS OF INDEPENDENCE + + +IT will serve no good purpose to say ``if only the Congress +of Vienna had done such and such a thing instead of taking +such and such a course, the history of Europe in the nineteenth +century would have been different.'' The Congress of Vienna +was a gathering of men who had just passed through a great +revolution and through twenty years of terrible and almost +continuous warfare. They came together for the purpose of +giving Europe that ``peace and stability'' which they thought +that the people needed and wanted. They were what we call +reactionaries. They sincerely believed in the inability of the +mass of the people to rule themselves. They re-arranged the +map of Europe in such a way as seemed to promise the greatest +possibility of a lasting success. They failed, but not through +any premeditated wickedness on their part. They were, for the +greater part, men of the old school who remembered the happier +days of their quiet youth and ardently wished a return of that +blessed period. They failed to recognise the strong hold which +many of the revolutionary principles had gained upon the people +of the European continent. That was a misfortune but +hardly a sin. But one of the things which the French Revolution +had taught not only Europe but America as well, was the +right of people to their own ``nationality.'' + +Napoleon, who respected nothing and nobody, was utterly +ruthless in his dealing with national and patriotic aspirations. +But the early revolutionary generals had proclaimed the new +doctrine that ``nationality was not a matter of political +frontiers or round skulls and broad noses, but a matter of the +heart and soul.'' While they were teaching the French children +the greatness of the French nation, they encouraged Spaniards +and Hollanders and Italians to do the same thing. Soon +these people, who all shared Rousseau's belief in the superior +virtues of Original Man, began to dig into their past and found, +buried beneath the ruins of the feudal system, the bones of the +mighty races of which they supposed themselves the feeble +descendants. + +The first half of the nineteenth century was the era of the +great historical discoveries. Everywhere historians were busy +publishing mediaeval charters and early mediaeval chronicles +and in every country the result was a new pride in the old +fatherland. A great deal of this sentiment was based upon the +wrong interpretation of historical facts. But in practical politics, +it does not matter what is true, but everything depends +upon what the people believe to be true. And in most countries +both the kings and their subjects firmly believed in the glory +and fame of their ancestors. + +The Congress of Vienna was not inclined to be sentimental. +Their Excellencies divided the map of Europe according to the +best interests of half a dozen dynasties and put ``national +aspirations'' upon the Index, or list of forbidden books, together +with all other dangerous ``French doctrines.'' + +But history is no respecter of Congresses. For some reason +or other (it may be an historical law, which thus far has +escaped the attention of the scholars) ``nations'' seemed to be +necessary for the orderly development of human society and +the attempt to stem this tide was quite as unsuccessful as the +Metternichian effort to prevent people from thinking. + +Curiously enough the first trouble began in a very distant +part of the world, in South America. The Spanish colonies +of that continent had been enjoying a period of relative independence +during the many years of the great Napoleonic wars. +They had even remained faithful to their king when he was +taken prisoner by the French Emperor and they had refused +to recognise Joseph Bonaparte, who had in the year 1808 been +made King of Spain by order of his brother. + +Indeed, the only part of America to get very much upset +by the Revolution was the island of Haiti, the Espagnola of +Columbus' first trip. Here in the year 1791 the French Convention, +in a sudden outburst of love and human brotherhood, +had bestowed upon their black brethren all the privileges hitherto +enjoyed by their white masters. Just as suddenly they had +repented of this step, but the attempt to undo the original +promise led to many years of terrible warfare between General +Leclerc, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, and Toussaint l'Ouverture, +the negro chieftain. In the year 1801, Toussaint was +asked to visit Leclerc and discuss terms of peace. He received +the solemn promise that he would not be molested. He trusted +his white adversaries, was put on board a ship and shortly +afterwards died in a French prison. But the negroes gained +their independence all the same and founded a Republic. +Incidentally they were of great help to the first great South +American patriot in his efforts to deliver his native country +from the Spanish yoke. + +Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas in Venezuela, born in +the year 1783, had been educated in Spain, had visited Paris +where he had seen the Revolutionary government at work, had +lived for a while in the United States and had returned to his +native land where the widespread discontent against Spain, +the mother country, was beginning to take a definite form. +In the year 1811, Venezuela declared its independence and +Bolivar became one of the revolutionary generals. Within +two months, the rebels were defeated and Bolivar fled. + +For the next five years he was the leader of an apparently +lost cause. He sacrificed all his wealth and he would not have +been able to begin his final and successful expedition without +the support of the President of Haiti. Thereafter the revolt +spread all over South America and soon it appeared that Spain +was not able to suppress the rebellion unaided. She asked for +the support of the Holy Alliance. + +This step greatly worried England. The British shippers +had succeeded the Dutch as the Common Carriers of the world +and they expected to reap heavy profits from a declaration of +independence on the part of all South America. They had +hopes that the United States of America would interfere but +the Senate had no such plans and in the House, too, there were +many voices which declared that Spain ought to be given a +free hand. + +Just then, there was a change of ministers in England. +The Whigs went out and the Tories came in. George Canning +became secretary of State. He dropped a hint that England +would gladly back up the American government with all the +might of her fleet, if said government would declare its +disapproval of the plans of the Holy Alliance in regard to the +rebellious colonies of the southern continent. President Monroe +thereupon, on the 2nd of December of the year 1823, addressed +Congress and stated that: ``America would consider +any attempt on the part of the allied powers to extend their +system to any portion of this western hemisphere as dangerous +to our peace and safety,'' and gave warning that ``the American +government would consider such action on the part of the +Holy Alliance as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition +toward the United States.'' Four weeks later, the text of the +``Monroe Doctrine'' was printed in the English newspapers and +the members of the Holy Alliance were forced to make their +choice. + +Metternich hesitated. Personally he would have been willing +to risk the displeasure of the United States (which had +allowed both its army and navy to fall into neglect since the end +of the Anglo-American war of the year 1812.) But Canning's +threatening attitude and trouble on the continent forced him +to be careful. The expedition never took place and South +America and Mexico gained their independence. + +As for the troubles on the continent of Europe, they were +coming fast and furious. The Holy Alliance had sent French +troops to Spain to act as guardians of the peace in the year +1820. Austrian troops had been used for a similar purpose in +Italy when the ``Carbonari'' (the secret society of the Charcoal +Burners) were making propaganda for a united Italy and had +caused a rebellion against the unspeakable Ferdinand of +Naples. + +Bad news also came from Russia where the death of Alexander +had been the sign for a revolutionary outbreak in St. +Petersburg, a short but bloody upheaval, the so-called Dekaberist +revolt (because it took place in December,) which ended +with the hanging of a large number of good patriots who had +been disgusted by the reaction of Alexander's last years and +had tried to give Russia a constitutional form of government. + +But worse was to follow. Metternich had tried to assure +himself of the continued support of the European courts by a +series of conferences at Aix-la-Chapelle at Troppau at +Laibach and finally at Verona. The delegates from the +different powers duly travelled to these agreeable watering +places where the Austrian prime minister used to spend +his summers. They always promised to do their best +to suppress revolt but they were none too certain of their +success. The spirit of the people was beginning to be ugly and +especially in France the position of the king was by no means +satisfactory. + +The real trouble however began in the Balkans, the gateway +to western Europe through which the invaders of that +continent had passed since the beginning of time. The first +outbreak was in Moldavia, the ancient Roman province of +Dacia which had been cut off from the Empire in the third +century. Since then, it had been a lost land, a sort of Atlantis, +where the people had continued to speak the old Roman tongue +and still called themselves Romans and their country Roumania. +Here in the year 1821, a young Greek, Prince Alexander +Ypsilanti, began a revolt against the Turks. He told his followers +that they could count upon the support of Russia. But +Metternich's fast couriers were soon on their way to St Petersburg +and the Tsar, entirely persuaded by the Austrian arguments +in favor of ``peace and stability,'' refused to help. Ypsilanti +was forced to flee to Austria where he spent the next seven +years in prison. + +In the same year, 1821, trouble began in Greece. Since +1815 a secret society of Greek patriots had been preparing +the way for a revolt. Suddenly they hoisted the flag of +independence in the Morea (the ancient Peloponnesus) and drove +the Turkish garrisons away. The Turks answered in the usual +fashion. They took the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, +who was regarded as their Pope both by the Greeks and by +many Russians, and they hanged him on Easter Sunday of the +year 1821, together with a number of his bishops. The Greeks +came back with a massacre of all the Mohammedans in +Tripolitsa, the capital of the Morea and the Turks retaliated +by an attack upon the island of Chios, where they murdered +25,000 Christians and sold 45,000 others as slaves into Asia and +Egypt. + +Then the Greeks appealed to the European courts, but +Metternich told them in so many words that they could ``stew +in their own grease,'' (I am not trying to make a pun, but I +am quoting His Serene Highness who informed the Tsar that +this ``fire of revolt ought to burn itself out beyond the pale +of civilisation) and the frontiers were closed to those volunteers +who wished to go to the rescue of the patriotic Hellenes. +Their cause seemed lost. At the request of Turkey, an Egyptian +army was landed in the Morea and soon the Turkish flag +was again flying from the Acropolis, the ancient stronghold of +Athens. The Egyptian army then pacified the country ``a la +Turque,'' and Metternich followed the proceedings with quiet +interest, awaiting the day when this ``attempt against the peace +of Europe'' should be a thing of the past. + +Once more it was England which upset his plans. The +greatest glory of England does not lie in her vast colonial +possessions, in her wealth or her navy, but in the quiet heroism +and independence of her average citizen. The Englishman +obeys the law because he knows that respect for the rights of +others marks the difference between a dog-kennel and civilised +society. But he does not recognize the right of others to interfere +with his freedom of thought. If his country does something +which he believes to be wrong, he gets up and says so +and the government which he attacks will respect him and will +give him full protection against the mob which to-day, as in +the time of Socrates, often loves to destroy those who surpass +it in courage or intelligence. There never has been a good +cause, however unpopular or however distant, which has not +counted a number of Englishmen among its staunchest adherents. +The mass of the English people are not different from +those in other lands. They stick to the business at hand and +have no time for unpractical ``sporting ventures.'' But they +rather admire their eccentric neighbour who drops everything +to go and fight for some obscure people in Asia or Africa and +when he has been killed they give him a fine public funeral and +hold him up to their children as an example of valor and chivalry. + +Even the police spies of the Holy Alliance were powerless +against this national characteristic. In the year 1824, Lord +Byron, a rich young Englishman who wrote the poetry over +which all Europe wept, hoisted the sails of his yacht and started +south to help the Greeks. Three months later the news spread +through Europe that their hero lay dead in Missolonghi, +the last of the Greek strongholds. His lonely death +caught the imagination of the people. In all countries, societies +were formed to help the Greeks. Lafayette, the grand old +man of the American revolution, pleaded their cause in France. +The king of Bavaria sent hundreds of his officers. Money and +supplies poured in upon the starving men of Missolonghi. + +In England, George Canning, who had defeated the plans +of the Holy Alliance in South America, was now prime minis- +ter. He saw his chance to checkmate Metternich for a second +time. The English and Russian fleets were already in the +Mediterranean. They were sent by governments which dared +no longer suppress the popular enthusiasm for the cause of the +Greek patriots. The French navy appeared because France, +since the end of the Crusades, had assumed the role of the +defender of the Christian faith in Mohammedan lands. On October +20 of the year 1827, the ships of the three nations attacked +the Turkish fleet in the bay of Navarino and destroyed it. +Rarely has the news of a battle been received with such general +rejoicing. The people of western Europe and Russia who +enjoyed no freedom at home consoled themselves by fighting +an imaginary war of liberty on behalf of the oppressed Greeks. +In the year 1829 they had their reward. Greece became an +independent nation and the policy of reaction and stability +suffered its second great defeat. + +It would be absurd were I to try, in this short volume, to +give you a detailed account of the struggle for national +independence in all other countries. There are a large number of +excellent books devoted to such subjects. I have described the +struggle for the independence of Greece because it was the first +successful attack upon the bulwark of reaction which the Congress +of Vienna had erected to ``maintain the stability of Europe.'' +That mighty fortress of suppression still held out and +Metternich continued to be in command. But the end was +near. + +In France the Bourbons had established an almost unbearable +rule of police officials who were trying to undo the work +of the French revolution, with an absolute disregard of the +regulations and laws of civilised warfare. When Louis +XVIII died in the year 1824, the people had enjoyed nine +years of ``peace'' which had proved even more unhappy than +the ten years of war of the Empire. Louis was succeeded by +his brother, Charles X. + +Louis had belonged to that famous Bourbon family which, +although it never learned anything, never forgot anything. +The recollection of that morning in the town of Hamm, when +news had reached him of the decapitation of his brother, +remained a constant warning of what might happen to those +kings who did not read the signs of the times aright. Charles, +on the other hand, who had managed to run up private debts of +fifty million francs before he was twenty years of age, knew +nothing, remembered nothing and firmly intended to learn +nothing. As soon as he had succeeded his brother, he established +a government ``by priests, through priests and for +priests,'' and while the Duke of Wellington, who made this remark, +cannot be called a violent liberal, Charles ruled in such +a way that he disgusted even that trusted friend of law and +order. When he tried to suppress the newspapers which dared +to criticise his government, and dismissed the Parliament because +it supported the Press, his days were numbered. + +On the night of the 27th of July of the year 1830, a revolution +took place in Paris. On the 30th of the same month, the +king fled to the coast and set sail for England. In this way +the ``famous farce of fifteen years'' came to an end and the +Bourbons were at last removed from the throne of France. +They were too hopelessly incompetent. France then might +have returned to a Republican form of government, but such +a step would not have been tolerated by Metternich. + +The situation was dangerous enough. The spark of rebellion +had leaped beyond the French frontier and had set fire to +another powder house filled with national grievances. The new +kingdom of the Netherlands had not been a success. The Belgian +and the Dutch people had nothing in common and their +king, William of Orange (the descendant of an uncle of William +the Silent), while a hard worker and a good business man, +was too much lacking in tact and pliability to keep the peace +among his uncongenial subjects. Besides, the horde of priests +which had descended upon France, had at once found its way +into Belgium and whatever Protestant William tried to do was +howled down by large crowds of excited citizens as a fresh attempt +upon the ``freedom of the Catholic church.'' On the 25th +of August there was a popular outbreak against the Dutch +authorities in Brussels. Two months later, the Belgians +declared themselves independent and elected Leopold of Coburg, +the uncle of Queen Victoria of England, to the throne. +That was an excellent solution of the difficulty. The two +countries, which never ought to have been united, parted their +ways and thereafter lived in peace and harmony and behaved +like decent neighbours. + +News in those days when there were only a few short railroads, +travelled slowly, but when the success of the French +and the Belgian revolutionists became known in Poland there +was an immediate clash between the Poles and their Russian +rulers which led to a year of terrible warfare and ended with a +complete victory for the Russians who ``established order along +the banks of the Vistula'' in the well-known Russian fashion +Nicholas the first, who had succeeded his brother Alexander in +1825, firmly believed in the Divine Right of his own family, +and the thousands of Polish refugees who had found shelter +in western Europe bore witness to the fact that the principles +of the Holy Alliance were still more than a hollow phrase in +Holy Russia. + +In Italy too there was a moment of unrest. Marie Louise +Duchess of Parma and wife of the former Emperor Napoleon, +whom she had deserted after the defeat of Waterloo, was +driven away from her country, and in the Papal state the +exasperated people tried to establish an independent Republic. +But the armies of Austria marched to Rome and soon every +thing was as of old. Metternich continued to reside at the Ball +Platz, the home of the foreign minister of the Habsburg +dynasty, the police spies returned to their job, and peace +reigned supreme. Eighteen more years were to pass before a +second and more successful attempt could be made to deliver +Europe from the terrible inheritance of the Vienna Congress. + +Again it was France, the revolutionary weather-cock of +Europe, which gave the signal of revolt. Charles X had been +succeeded by Louis Philippe, the son of that famous Duke of +Orleans who had turned Jacobin, had voted for the death of his +cousin the king, and had played a role during the early days +of the revolution under the name of ``Philippe Egalite'' or +``Equality Philip.'' Eventually he had been killed when +Robespierre tried to purge the nation of all ``traitors,'' (by +which name he indicated those people who did not share his own +views) and his son had been forced to run away from the +revolutionary army. Young Louis Philippe thereupon had +wandered far and wide. He had taught school in Switzerland +and had spent a couple of years exploring the unknown ``far +west'' of America. After the fall of Napoleon he had returned +to Paris. He was much more intelligent than his Bourbon +cousins. He was a simple man who went about in the public +parks with a red cotton umbrella under his arm, followed by a +brood of children like any good housefather. But France had +outgrown the king business and Louis did not know this until +the morning of the 24th of February, of the year 1848, when +a crowd stormed the Tuilleries and drove his Majesty away and +proclaimed the Republic. + +When the news of this event reached Vienna, Metternich +expressed the casual opinion that this was only a repetition +of the year 1793 and that the Allies would once more be obliged +to march upon Paris and make an end to this very unseemly +democratic row. But two weeks later his own Austrian capital +was in open revolt. Metternich escaped from the mob through +the back door of his palace, and the Emperor Ferdinand was +forced to give his subjects a constitution which embodied most +of the revolutionary principles which his Prime Minister had +tried to suppress for the last thirty-three years. + +This time all Europe felt the shock. Hungary declared itself +independent, and commenced a war against the Habsburgs +under the leadership of Louis Kossuth. The unequal +struggle lasted more than a year. It was finally suppressed by +the armies of Tsar Nicholas who marched across the Carpathian +mountains and made Hungary once more safe for autocracy. +The Habsburgs thereupon established extraordinary +court-martials and hanged the greater part of the Hungarian +patriots whom they had not been able to defeat in open battle. + +As for Italy, the island of Sicily declared itself independent +from Naples and drove its Bourbon king away. In the Papal +states the prime minister, Rossi, was murdered and the Pope +was forced to flee. He returned the next year at the head of a +French army which remained in Rome to protect His Holiness +against his subjects until the year 1870. Then it was +called back to defend France against the Prussians, and +Rome became the capital of Italy. In the north, Milan and +Venice rose against their Austrian masters. They were supported +by king Albert of Sardinia, but a strong Austrian army +under old Radetzky marched into the valley of the Po, defeated +the Sardinians near Custozza and Novara and forced +Albert to abdicate in favour of his son, Victor Emanuel, who +a few years later was to be the first king of a united Italy. + +In Germany the unrest of the year 1848 took the form of a +great national demonstration in favour of political unity and a +representative form of government. In Bavaria, the king who +had wasted his time and money upon an Irish lady who posed as +a Spanish dancer--(she was called Lola Montez and lies buried +in New York's Potter's Field)--was driven away by the enraged +students of the university. In Prussia, the king was +forced to stand with uncovered head before the coffins of those +who had been killed during the street fighting and to promise a +constitutional form of government. And in March of the year +1849, a German parliament, consisting of 550 delegates from +all parts of the country came together in Frankfort and proposed +that king Frederick William of Prussia should be the +Emperor of a United Germany. + +Then, however, the tide began to turn. Incompetent Ferdinand +had abdicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. +The well-drilled Austrian army had remained faithful to their +war-lord. The hangman was given plenty of work and the +Habsburgs, after the nature of that strangely cat-like family, +once more landed upon their feet and rapidly strengthened +their position as the masters of eastern and western Europe. +They played the game of politics very adroitly and used the +jealousies of the other German states to prevent the elevation +of the Prussian king to the Imperial dignity. Their long train- +ing in the art of suffering defeat had taught them the value of +patience. They knew how to wait. They bided their time +and while the liberals, utterly untrained in practical politics, +talked and talked and talked and got intoxicated by their own +fine speeches, the Austrians quietly gathered their forces, dismissed +the Parliament of Frankfort and re-established the old +and impossible German confederation which the Congress of +Vienna had wished upon an unsuspecting world. + +But among the men who had attended this strange Parliament +of unpractical enthusiasts, there was a Prussian country +squire by the name of Bismarck, who had made good use of his +eyes and ears. He had a deep contempt for oratory. He knew +(what every man of action has always known) that nothing +is ever accomplished by talk. In his own way he was a sincere +patriot. He had been trained in the old school of diplomacy +and he could outlie his opponents just as he could outwalk +them and outdrink them and outride them. + +Bismarck felt convinced that the loose confederation +of little states must be changed into a strong united country +if it would hold its own against the other European powers. +Brought up amidst feudal ideas of loyalty, he decided that +the house of Hohenzollern, of which he was the most faithful +servant, should rule the new state, rather than the incompetent +Habsburgs. For this purpose he must first get rid of the +Austrian influence, and he began to make the necessary +preparations for this painful operation. + +Italy in the meantime had solved her own problem, and had +rid herself of her hated Austrian master. The unity of Italy +was the work of three men, Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi. +Of these three, Cavour, the civil-engineer with the short-sighted +eyes and the steel-rimmed glasses, played the part of the careful +political pilot. Mazzini, who had spent most of his days +in different European garrets, hiding from the Austrian police, +was the public agitator, while Garibaldi, with his band of red- +shirted rough-riders, appealed to the popular imagination. + +Mazzini and Garibaldi were both believers in the Republican +form of government. Cavour, however, was a monarch- +ist, and the others who recognised his superior ability in such +matters of practical statecraft, accepted his decision and sacrificed +their own ambitions for the greater good of their beloved +Fatherland. + +Cavour felt towards the House of Sardinia as Bismarck +did towards the Hohenzollern family. With infinite care and +great shrewdness he set to work to jockey the Sardinian King +into a position from which His Majesty would be able to assume +the leadership of the entire Italian people. The unsettled +political conditions in the rest of Europe greatly helped him in +his plans and no country contributed more to the independence +of Italy than her old and trusted (and often distrusted) +neighbour, France. + +In that turbulent country, in November of the year 1852, +the Republic had come to a sudden but not unexpected end. +Napoleon III the son of Louis Bonaparte the former King of +Holland, and the small nephew of a great uncle, had re- +established an Empire and had made himself Emperor ``by the +Grace of God and the Will of the People.'' + +This young man, who had been educated in Germany and +who mixed his French with harsh Teutonic gutturals (just +as the first Napoleon had always spoken the language of his +adopted country with a strong Italian accent) was trying very +hard to use the Napoleonic tradition for his own benefit. But +he had many enemies and did not feel very certain of his hold +upon his ready-made throne. He had gained the friendship +of Queen Victoria but this had not been a difficult task, as the +good Queen was not particularly brilliant and was very susceptible +to flattery. As for the other European sovereigns, +they treated the French Emperor with insulting haughtiness +and sat up nights devising new ways in which they could show +their upstart ``Good Brother'' how sincerely they despised him. + +Napoleon was obliged to find a way in which he could break +this opposition, either through love or through fear. He well +knew the fascination which the word ``glory'' still held for his +subjects. Since he was forced to gamble for his throne he +decided to play the game of Empire for high stakes. He used +an attack of Russia upon Turkey as an excuse for bringing +about the Crimean war in which England and France combined +against the Tsar on behalf of the Sultan. It was a very +costly and exceedingly unprofitable enterprise. Neither +France nor England nor Russia reaped much glory. + +But the Crimean war did one good thing. It gave Sardinia +a chance to volunteer on the winning side and when peace was +declared it gave Cavour the opportunity to lay claim to the +gratitude of both England and France. + +Having made use of the international situation to get Sardinia +recognised as one of the more important powers of Europe, +the clever Italian then provoked a war between Sardinia +and Austria in June of the year 1859. He assured himself of +the support of Napoleon in exchange for the provinces of +Savoy and the city of Nice, which was really an Italian town. +The Franco-Italian armies defeated the Austrians at Magenta +and Solferino, and the former Austrian provinces and duchies +were united into a single Italian kingdom. Florence became +the capital of this new Italy until the year 1870 when the +French recalled their troops from Home to defend France +against the Germans. As soon as they were gone, the Italian +troops entered the eternal city and the House of Sardinia took +up its residence in the old Palace of the Quirinal which an +ancient Pope had built on the ruins of the baths of the Emperor +Constantine. + +The Pope, however, moved across the river Tiber and hid +behind the walls of the Vatican, which had been the home of +many of his predecessors since their return from the exile of +Avignon in the year 1377. He protested loudly against this +high-handed theft of his domains and addressed letters of appeal +to those faithful Catholics who were inclined to sympathise +with him in his loss. Their number, however, was small, +and it has been steadily decreasing. For, once delivered from +the cares of state, the Pope was able to devote all his time to +questions of a spiritual nature. Standing high above the petty +quarrels of the European politicians, the Papacy assumed a new +dignity which proved of great benefit to the church and made +it an international power for social and religious progress +which has shown a much more intelligent appreciation of modern +economic problems than most Protestant sects. + +In this way, the attempt of the Congress of Vienna to +settle the Italian question by making the peninsula an +Austrian province was at last undone. + +The German problem however remained as yet unsolved. +It proved the most difficult of all. The failure of the revolution +of the year 1848 had led to the wholesale migration of the more +energetic and liberal elements among the German people. +These young fellows had moved to the United States of America, +to Brazil, to the new colonies in Asia and America. Their +work was continued in Germany but by a different sort of men. + +In the new Diet which met at Frankfort, after the collapse +of the German Parliament and the failure of the Liberals to +establish a united country, the Kingdom of Prussia was represented +by that same Otto von Bismarck from whom we parted +a few pages ago. Bismarck by now had managed to gain the +complete confidence of the king of Prussia. That was all he +asked for. The opinion of the Prussian parliament or of the +Prussian people interested him not at all. With his own eyes +he had seen the defeat of the Liberals. He knew that he +would not be able to get rid of Austria without a war and he +began by strengthening the Prussian army. The Landtag, exasperated +at his high-handed methods, refused to give him the +necessary credits. Bismarck did not even bother to discuss +the matter. He went ahead and increased his army with the +help of funds which the Prussian house of Peers and the king +placed at his disposal. Then he looked for a national cause +which could be used for the purpose of creating a great wave +of patriotism among all the German people. + +In the north of Germany there were the Duchies of Schleswig +and Holstein which ever since the middle ages had been a +source of trouble. Both countries were inhabited by a certain +number of Danes and a certain number of Germans, but although +they were governed by the King of Denmark, they +were not an integral part of the Danish State and this led to +endless difficulties. Heaven forbid that I should revive this +forgotten question which now seems settled by the acts of the +recent Congress of Versailles. But the Germans in Holstein +were very loud in their abuse of the Danes and the Danes in +Schleswig made a great ado of their Danishness, and all Europe +was discussing the problem and German Mannerchors +and Turnvereins listened to sentimental speeches about the +``lost brethren'' and the different chancelleries were trying to +discover what it was all about, when Prussia mobilised her +armies to ``save the lost provinces.'' As Austria, the official +head of the German Confederation, could not allow Prussia +to act alone in such an important matter, the Habsburg troops +were mobilised too and the combined armies of the two great +powers crossed the Danish frontiers and after a very brave +resistance on the part of the Danes, occupied the two duchies. +The Danes appealed to Europe, but Europe was otherwise +engaged and the poor Danes were left to their fate. + +Bismarck then prepared the scene for the second number +upon his Imperial programme. He used the division of the +spoils to pick a quarrel with Austria. The Habsburgs fell into +the trap. The new Prussian army, the creation of Bismarck and +his faithful generals, invaded Bohemia and in less than six +weeks, the last of the Austrian troops had been destroyed at +Koniggratz and Sadowa and the road to Vienna lay open. But +Bismarck did not want to go too far. He knew that he would +need a few friends in Europe. He offered the defeated +Habsburgs very decent terms of peace, provided they would +resign their chairmanship of the Confederation. He was less +merciful to many of the smaller German states who had taken +the side of the Austrians, and annexed them to Prussia. The +greater part of the northern states then formed a new organisation, +the so-called North German Confederacy, and victorious +Prussia assumed the unofficial leadership of the German +people. + +Europe stood aghast at the rapidity with which the work of +consolidation had been done. England was quite indifferent +but France showed signs of disapproval. Napoleon's hold +upon the French people was steadily diminishing. The Crimean +war had been costly and had accomplished nothing. + +A second adventure in the year 1863, when a French army +had tried to force an Austrian Grand-Duke by the name of +Maximilian upon the Mexican people as their Emperor, had +come to a disastrous end as soon as the American Civil War had +been won by the North. For the Government at Washington +had forced the French to withdraw their troops and this had +given the Mexicans a chance to clear their country of the enemy +and shoot the unwelcome Emperor. + +It was necessary to give the Napoleonic throne a new +coat of glory-paint. Within a few years the North German +Confederation would be a serious rival of France. Napoleon +decided that a war with Germany would be a good thing for his +dynasty. He looked for an excuse and Spain, the poor victim +of endless revolutions, gave him one. + +Just then the Spanish throne happened to be vacant. It +had been offered to the Catholic branch of the house of Hohenzollern. +The French government had objected and the Hohenzollerns +had politely refused to accept the crown. But +Napoleon, who was showing signs of illness, was very much +under the influence of his beautiful wife, Eugenie de Montijo, +the daughter of a Spanish gentleman and the grand-daughter +of William Kirkpatrick, an American consul at Malaga, where +the grapes come from. Eugenie, although shrewd enough, was +as badly educated as most Spanish women of that day. She +was at the mercy of her spiritual advisers and these worthy +gentlemen felt no love for the Protestant King of Prussia. ``Be +bold,'' was the advice of the Empress to her husband, but she +omitted to add the second half of that famous Persian proverb +which admonishes the hero to ``be bold but not too bold.'' +Napoleon, convinced of the strength of his army, addressed +himself to the king of Prussia and insisted that the king give +him assurances that ``he would never permit another candidature +of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish crown.'' As +the Hohenzollerns had just declined the honour, the demand +was superfluous, and Bismarck so informed the French government. +But Napoleon was not satisfied. + +It was the year 1870 and King William was taking the +waters at Ems. There one day he was approached by the +French minister who tried to re-open the discussion. The king +answered very pleasantly that it was a fine day and that the +Spanish question was now closed and that nothing more +remained to be said upon the subject. As a matter of +routine, a report of this interview was telegraphed to +Bismarck, who handled all foreign affairs. Bismarck edited +the dispatch for the benefit of the Prussian and French +press. Many people have called him names for doing +this. Bismarck however could plead the excuse that the doctoring +of official news, since time immemorial, had been one +of the privileges of all civilised governments. When the ``edited'' +telegram was printed, the good people in Berlin felt that +their old and venerable king with his nice white whiskers had +been insulted by an arrogant little Frenchman and the equally +good people of Paris flew into a rage because their perfectly +courteous minister had been shown the door by a Royal Prussian +flunkey. + +And so they both went to war and in less than two months, +Napoleon and the greater part of his army were prisoners of +the Germans. The Second Empire had come to an end and the +Third Republic was making ready to defend Paris against the +German invaders. Paris held out for five long months. Ten +days before the surrender of the city, in the nearby palace of +Versailles, built by that same King Louis XIV who had been +such a dangerous enemy to the Germans, the King of Prussia +was publicly proclaimed German Emperor and a loud booming +of guns told the hungry Parisians that a new German Empire +had taken the place of the old harmless Confederation of Teutonic +states and stateless. + +In this rough way, the German question was finally settled. +By the end of the year 1871, fifty-six years after the memorable +gathering at Vienna, the work of the Congress had been entirely +undone. Metternich and Alexander and Talleyrand had tried +to give the people of Europe a lasting peace. The methods +they had employed had caused endless wars and revolutions and +the feeling of a common brotherhood of the eighteenth century +was followed by an era of exaggerated nationalism which has +not yet come to an end. + + + +THE AGE OF THE ENGINE + +BUT WHILE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE +FIGHTING FOR THEIR NATIONAL +INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY +LIVED HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED +BY A SERIES OF INVENTIONS, WHICH HAD +MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM ENGINE +OF THE 18TH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL +AND EFFICIENT SLAVE OF MAN + + +THE greatest benefactor of the human race died more than +half a million years ago. He was a hairy creature with a low +brow and sunken eyes, a heavy jaw and strong tiger-like teeth. +He would not have looked well in a gathering of modern scientists, +but they would have honoured him as their master. For +he had used a stone to break a nut and a stick to lift up a heavy +boulder. He was the inventor of the hammer and the lever, our +first tools, and he did more than any human being who came +after him to give man his enormous advantage over the other +animals with whom he shares this planet. + +Ever since, man has tried to make his life easier by the use +of a greater number of tools. The first wheel (a round disc +made out of an old tree) created as much stir in the communities +of 100,000 B.C. as the flying machine did only a few years +ago. + +In Washington, the story is told of a director of the Patent +Office who in the early thirties of the last century suggested +that the Patent Office be abolished, because ``everything that +possibly could be invented had been invented.'' A similar +feeling must have spread through the prehistoric world when +the first sail was hoisted on a raft and the people were able +to move from place to place without rowing or punting or +pulling from the shore. + +Indeed one of the most interesting chapters of history is +the effort of man to let some one else or something else do his +work for him, while he enjoyed his leisure, sitting in the sun +or painting pictures on rocks, or training young wolves and +little tigers to behave like peaceful domestic animals. + +Of course in the very olden days; it was always possible +to enslave a weaker neighbour and force him to do the unpleasant +tasks of life. One of the reasons why the Greeks and +Romans, who were quite as intelligent as we are, failed to +devise more interesting machinery, was to be found in the wide- +spread existence of slavery. Why should a great mathematician +waste his time upon wires and pulleys and cogs and fill +the air with noise and smoke when he could go to the marketplace +and buy all the slaves he needed at a very small expense? + +And during the middle-ages, although slavery had been +abolished and only a mild form of serfdom survived, the guilds +discouraged the idea of using machinery because they thought +this would throw a large number of their brethren out of +work. Besides, the Middle-Ages were not at all interested +in producing large quantities of goods. Their tailors and butchers +and carpenters worked for the immediate needs of the small +community in which they lived and had no desire to compete +with their neighbours, or to produce more than was strictly +necessary. + +During the Renaissance, when the prejudices of the Church +against scientific investigations could no longer be enforced as +rigidly as before, a large number of men began to devote their +lives to mathematics and astronomy and physics and chemistry. +Two years before the beginning of the Thirty Years War, +John Napier, a Scotchman, had published his little book which +described the new invention of logarithms. During the war it- +self, Gottfried Leibnitz of Leipzig had perfected the system of +infinitesimal calculus. Eight years before the peace of Westphalia, +Newton, the great English natural philosopher, was +born, and in that same year Galileo, the Italian astronomer, +died. Meanwhile the Thirty Years War had destroyed the prosperity +of central Europe and there was a sudden but very general +interest in ``alchemy,'' the strange pseudo-science of the +middle-ages by which people hoped to turn base metals into +gold. This proved to be impossible but the alchemists in their +laboratories stumbled upon many new ideas and greatly helped +the work of the chemists who were their successors. + +The work of all these men provided the world with a solid +scientific foundation upon which it was possible to build even +the most complicated of engines, and a number of practical +men made good use of it. The Middle-Ages had used wood for +the few bits of necessary machinery. But wood wore out +easily. Iron was a much better material but iron was scarce +except in England. In England therefore most of the smelting +was done. To smelt iron, huge fires were needed. In the +beginning, these fires had been made of wood, but gradually +the forests had been used up. Then ``stone coal'' (the petrified +trees of prehistoric times) was used. But coal as you +know has to be dug out of the ground and it has to be transported +to the smelting ovens and the mines have to be kept +dry from the ever invading waters. + +These were two problems which had to be solved at once. +For the time being, horses could still be used to haul the coal- +wagons, but the pumping question demanded the application +of special machinery. Several inventors were busy trying to +solve the difficulty. They all knew that steam would have to +be used in their new engine. The idea of the steam engine was +very old. Hero of Alexandria, who lived in the first century +before Christ, has described to us several bits of machinery +which were driven by steam. The people of the Renaissance +had played with the notion of steam-driven war chariots. The +Marquis of Worcester, a contemporary of Newton, in his book +of inventions, tells of a steam engine. A little later, in the year +1698, Thomas Savery of London applied for a patent for a +pumping engine. At the same time, a Hollander, Christian +Huygens, was trying to perfect an engine in which gun-powder +was used to cause regular explosions in much the same way as +we use gasoline in our motors. + +All over Europe, people were busy with the idea. Denis +Papin, a Frenchman, friend and assistant of Huygens, was +making experiments with steam engines in several countries. +He invented a little wagon that was driven by steam, and a +paddle-wheel boat. But when he tried to take a trip in his +vessel, it was confiscated by the authorities on a complaint of +the boatmen's union, who feared that such a craft would deprive +them of their livelihood. Papin finally died in London in +great poverty, having wasted all his money on his inventions. +But at the time of his death, another mechanical enthusiast, +Thomas Newcomen, was working on the problem of a new +steam-pump. Fifty years later his engine was improved upon +by James Watt, a Glasgow instrument maker. In the year +1777, he gave the world the first steam engine that proved of +real practical value. + +But during the centuries of experiments with a ``heat-engine,'' +the political world had greatly changed. The British +people had succeeded the Dutch as the common-carriers of the +world's trade. They had opened up new colonies. They took +the raw materials which the colonies produced to England, +and there they turned them into finished products, and then +they exported the finished goods to the four corners of the +world. During the seventeenth century, the people of Georgia +and the Carolinas had begun to grow a new shrub which gave +a strange sort of woolly substance, the so-called ``cotton wool.'' +After this had been plucked, it was sent to England and there +the people of Lancastershire wove it into cloth. This weaving +was done by hand and in the homes of the workmen. Very soon +a number of improvements were made in the process of weaving. +In the year 1730, John Kay invented the ``fly shuttle.'' +In 1770, James Hargreaves got a patent on his ``spinning +jenny.'' Eli Whitney, an American, invented the cotton-gin, +which separated the cotton from its seeds, a job which had +previously been done by hand at the rate of only a pound a day. +Finally Richard Arkwright and the Reverend Edmund Cartwright +invented large weaving machines, which were driven by +water power. And then, in the eighties of the eighteenth +century, just when the Estates General of France had begun +those famous meetings which were to revolutionise the political +system of Europe, the engines of Watt were arranged in such +a way that they could drive the weaving machines of Arkwright, +and this created an economic and social revolution +which has changed human relationship in almost every part +of the world. + +As soon as the stationary engine had proved a success, the +inventors turned their attention to the problem of propelling +boats and carts with the help of a mechanical contrivance. +Watt himself designed plans for a ``steam locomotive,'' but +ere he had perfected his ideas, in the year 1804, a locomotive +made by Richard Trevithick carried a load of twenty tons at +Pen-y-darran in the Wales mining district. + +At the same time an American jeweller and portrait-painter +by the name of Robert Fulton was in Paris, trying to convince +Napoleon that with the use of his submarine boat, the +``Nautilus,'' and his ``steam-boat,'' the French might be able to +destroy the naval supremacy of England. + +Fulton's idea of a steamboat was not original. He had +undoubtedly copied it from John Fitch, a mechanical genius of +Connecticut whose cleverly constructed steamer had first navigated +the Delaware river as early as the year 1787. But Napoleon +and his scientific advisers did not believe in the practical +possibility of a self-propelled boat, and although the Scotch- +built engine of the little craft puffed merrily on the Seine, the +great Emperor neglected to avail himself of this formidable +weapon which might have given him his revenge for Trafalgar. + +As for Fulton, he returned to the United States and, being +a practical man of business, he organised a successful steamboat +company together with Robert R. Livingston, a signer of +the Declaration of Independence, who was American Minister +to France when Fulton was in Paris, trying to sell his invention. +The first steamer of this new company, the ``Clermont,'' +which was given a monopoly of all the waters of New York +State, equipped with an engine built by Boulton and Watt of +Birmingham in England, began a regular service between New +York and Albany in the year 1807. + +As for poor John Fitch, the man who long before any one +else had used the ``steam-boat'' for commercial purposes, he +came to a sad death. Broken in health and empty of purse, he +had come to the end of his resources when his fifth boat, which +was propelled by means of a screw-propeller, had been destroyed. +His neighbours jeered at him as they were to laugh a +hundred years later when Professor Langley constructed his +funny flying machines. Fitch had hoped to give his country +an easy access to the broad rivers of the west and his countrymen +preferred to travel in flat-boats or go on foot. In the year +1798, in utter despair and misery, Fitch killed himself by taking +poison. + +But twenty years later, the ``Savannah,'' a steamer of 1850 +tons and making six knots an hour, (the Mauretania goes just +four times as fast,) crossed the ocean from Savannah to Liverpool +in the record time of twenty-five days. Then there was +an end to the derision of the multitude and in their enthusiasm +the people gave the credit for the invention to the wrong man. + +Six years later, George Stephenson, a Scotchman, who had +been building locomotives for the purpose of hauling coal from +the mine-pit to smelting ovens and cotton factories, built his +famous ``travelling engine'' which reduced the price of coal by +almost seventy per cent and which made it possible to establish +the first regular passenger service between Manchester and +Liverpool, when people were whisked from city to city at the +unheard-of speed of fifteen miles per hour. A dozen years +later, this speed had been increased to twenty miles per hour. +At the present time, any well-behaved flivver (the direct descendant +of the puny little motor-driven machines of Daimler +and Levassor of the eighties of the last century) can do better +than these early ``Puffing Billies.'' + +But while these practically-minded engineers were improving +upon their rattling ``heat engines,'' a group of ``pure'' +scientists (men who devote fourteen hours of each day to the +study of those ``theoretical'' scientific phenomena without which +no mechanical progress would be possible) were following a +new scent which promised to lead them into the most secret and +hidden domains of Nature. + +Two thousand years ago, a number of Greek and Roman +philosophers (notably Thales of Miletus and Pliny who was +killed while trying to study the eruption of Vesuvius of the +year 79 when Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried beneath +the ashes) had noticed the strange antics of bits of straw and of +feather which were held near a piece of amber which was being +rubbed with a bit of wool. The schoolmen of the Middle Ages +had not been interested in this mysterious ``electric'' power. +But immediately after the Renaissance, William Gilbert, the +private physician of Queen Elizabeth, wrote his famous treatise +on the character and behaviour of Magnets. During the +Thirty Years War Otto von Guericke, the burgomaster of +Magdeburg and the inventor of the air-pump, constructed the +first electrical machine. During the next century a large number +of scientists devoted themselves to the study of electricity. +Not less than three professors invented the famous Leyden +Jar in the year 1795. At the same time, Benjamin Franklin, +the most universal genius of America next to Benjamin Thomson +(who after his flight from New Hampshire on account of +his pro-British sympathies became known as Count Rumford) +was devoting his attention to this subject. He discovered that +lightning and the electric spark were manifestations of the same +electric power and continued his electric studies until the end of +his busy and useful life. Then came Volta with his famous +``electric pile'' and Galvani and Day and the Danish professor +Hans Christian Oersted and Ampere and Arago and Faraday, +all of them diligent searchers after the true nature of the electric +forces. + +They freely gave their discoveries to the world and Samuel +Morse (who like Fulton began his career as an artist) thought +that he could use this new electric current to transmit messages +from one city to another. He intended to use copper +wire and a little machine which he had invented. People +laughed at him. Morse therefore was obliged to finance his +own experiments and soon he had spent all his money and +then he was very poor and people laughed even louder. He +then asked Congress to help him and a special Committee on +Commerce promised him their support. But the members of +Congress were not at all interested and Morse had to wait +twelve years before he was given a small congressional appropriation. +He then built a ``telegraph'' between Baltimore and +Washington. In the year 1887 he had shown his first successful +``telegraph'' in one of the lecture halls of New York +University. Finally, on the 24th of May of the year 1844 the +first long-distance message was sent from Washington to +Baltimore and to-day the whole world is covered with telegraph +wires and we can send news from Europe to Asia in a few +seconds. Twenty-three years later Alexander Graham Bell used +the electric current for his telephone. And half a century +afterwards Marconi improved upon these ideas by inventing a +system of sending messages which did away entirely with the old- +fashioned wires. + +While Morse, the New Englander, was working on his +``telegraph,'' Michael Faraday, the Yorkshire-man, had constructed +the first ``dynamo.'' This tiny little machine was completed +in the year 1881 when Europe was still trembling as a +result of the great July revolutions which had so severely upset +the plans of the Congress of Vienna. The first dynamo grew +and grew and grew and to-day it provides us with heat and +with light (you know the little incandescent bulbs which Edison, +building upon French and English experiments of the forties +and fifties, first made in 1878) and with power for all sorts +of machines. If I am not mistaken the electric-engine will +soon entirely drive out the ``heat engine'' just as in the olden +days the more highly-organised prehistoric animals drove out +their less efficient neighbours. + +Personally (but I know nothing about machinery) this will +make me very happy. For the electric engine which can be run +by waterpower is a clean and companionable servant of mankind +but the ``heat-engine,'' the marvel of the eighteenth century, +is a noisy and dirty creature for ever filling the world with +ridiculous smoke-stacks and with dust and soot and asking +that it be fed with coal which has to be dug out of mines at +great inconvenience and risk to thousands of people. + +And if I were a novelist and not a historian, who must stick +to facts and may not use his imagination, I would describe the +happy day when the last steam locomotive shall be taken to the +Museum of Natural History to be placed next to the skeleton +of the Dynosaur and the Pteredactyl and the other extinct +creatures of a by-gone age. + + + +THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION + +BUT THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY +EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE OF WEALTH +COULD AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER +OR SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS +OWN MASTER IN HIS LITTLE WORKSHOP +WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO +THE OWNERS OF THE BIG MECHANICAL +TOOLS, AND WHILE HE MADE MORE +MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST HIS +FORMER INDEPENDENCE AND HE DID NOT +LIKE THAT + + +IN the olden days the work of the world had been done by +independent workmen who sat in their own little workshops in +the front of their houses, who owned their tools, who boxed the +ears of their own apprentices and who, within the limits prescribed +by their guilds, conducted their business as it pleased +them. They lived simple lives, and were obliged to work very +long hours, but they were their own masters. If they got up +and saw that it was a fine day to go fishing, they went fishing +and there was no one to say ``no.'' + +But the introduction of machinery changed this. A machine +is really nothing but a greatly enlarged tool. A railroad +train which carries you at the speed of a mile a minute is +in reality a pair of very fast legs, and a steam hammer which +flattens heavy plates of iron is just a terrible big fist, made of +steel. + +But whereas we can all afford a pair of good legs and a +good strong fist, a railroad train and a steam hammer and a +cotton factory are very expensive pieces of machinery and they +are not owned by a single man, but usually by a company of +people who all contribute a certain sum and then divide the +profits of their railroad or cotton mill according to the amount +of money which they have invested. + +Therefore, when machines had been improved until they +were really practicable and profitable, the builders of those +large tools, the machine manufacturers, began to look for customers +who could afford to pay for them in cash. + +During the early middle ages, when land had been almost +the only form of wealth, the nobility were the only people +who were considered wealthy. But as I have told you in a +previous chapter, the gold and silver which they possessed +was quite insignificant and they used the old system of barter, +exchanging cows for horses and eggs for honey. During +the crusades, the burghers of the cities had been able to gather +riches from the reviving trade between the east and the west, +and they had been serious rivals of the lords and the knights. + +The French revolution had entirely destroyed the wealth +of the nobility and had enormously increased that of the middle +class or ``bourgeoisie.'' The years of unrest which followed the +Great Revolution had offered many middle-class people a +chance to get more than their share of this world's goods. The +estates of the church had been confiscated by the French Convention +and had been sold at auction. There had been a terrific +amount of graft. Land speculators had stolen thousands +of square miles of valuable land, and during the Napoleonic +wars, they had used their capital to ``profiteer'' in grain and +gun-powder, and now they possessed more wealth than they +needed for the actual expenses of their households, and they +could afford to build themselves factories and to hire men and +women to work the machines. + +This caused a very abrupt change in the lives of hundreds +of thousands of people. Within a few years, many cities +doubled the number of their inhabitants and the old civic centre +which had been the real ``home'' of the citizens was surrounded +with ugly and cheaply built suburbs where the workmen slept +after their eleven or twelve hours, or thirteen hours, spent in the +factories and from where they returned to the factory as soon +as the whistle blew. + +Far and wide through the countryside there was talk of the +fabulous sums of money that could be made in the towns. The +peasant boy, accustomed to a life in the open, went to the city. +He rapidly lost his old health amidst the smoke and dust and +dirt of those early and badly ventilated workshops, and the +end, very often, was death in the poor-house or in the hospital. + +Of course the change from the farm to the factory on the +part of so many people was not accomplished without a certain +amount of opposition. Since one engine could do as much +work as a hundred men, the ninety-nine others who were +thrown out of employment did not like it. Frequently they attacked +the factory-buildings and set fire to the machines, but +Insurance Companies had been organised as early as the 17th +century and as a rule the owners were well protected against loss. + +Soon, newer and better machines were installed, the factory +was surrounded with a high wall and then there was an +end to the rioting. The ancient guilds could not possibly survive +in this new world of steam and iron. They went out of +existence and then the workmen tried to organise regular labour +unions. But the factory-owners, who through their wealth +could exercise great influence upon the politicians of the different +countries, went to the Legislature and had laws passed +which forbade the forming of such trade unions because they +interfered with the ``liberty of action'' of the working man. + +Please do not think that the good members of Parliament +who passed these laws were wicked tyrants. They were +the true sons of the revolutionary period when everybody +talked of ``liberty'' and when people often killed their neighbours +because they were not quite as liberty-loving as they +ought to have been. Since ``liberty'' was the foremost virtue +of man, it was not right that labour-unions should dictate to +their members the hours during which they could work and +the wages which they must demand. The workman must at +all times, be ``free to sell his services in the open market,'' and +the employer must be equally ``free'' to conduct his business +as he saw fit. The days of the Mercantile System, when +the state had regulated the industrial life of the entire +community, were coming to an end. The new idea of ``freedom'' +insisted that the state stand entirely aside and let commerce +take its course. + +The last half of the 18th century had not merely been a +time of intellectual and political doubt, but the old economic +ideas, too, had been replaced by new ones which better suited the +need of the hour. Several years before the French revolution, +Turgot, who had been one of the unsuccessful ministers of +finance of Louis XVI, had preached the novel doctrine of +``economic liberty.'' Turgot lived in a country which had +suffered from too much red-tape, too many regulations, too +many officials trying to enforce too many laws. ``Remove this +official supervision,'' he wrote, ``let the people do as they please, +and everything will be all right.'' Soon his famous advice of +``laissez faire'' became the battle-cry around which the economists +of that period rallied, + +At the same time in England, Adam Smith was working +on his mighty volumes on the ``Wealth of Nations,'' which made +another plea for ``liberty'' and the ``natural rights of trade.'' +Thirty years later, after the fall of Napoleon, when the reactionary +powers of Europe had gained their victory at Vienna, +that same freedom which was denied to the people in their +political relations was forced upon them in their industrial +life. + +The general use of machinery, as I have said at the beginning +of this chapter, proved to be of great advantage to the +state. Wealth increased rapidly. The machine made it possible +for a single country, like England, to carry all the burdens +of the great Napoleonic wars. The capitalists (the people +who provided the money with which machines were bought) +reaped enormous profits. They became ambitious and began +to take an interest in politics. They tried to compete with the +landed aristocracy which still exercised great influence upon +the government of most European countries. + +In England, where the members of Parliament were still +elected according to a Royal Decree of the year 1265, and +where a large number of recently created industrial centres were +without representation, they brought about the passing of the +Reform Bill of the year 1882, which changed the electoral +system and gave the class of the factory-owners more influence +upon the legislative body. This however caused great +discontent among the millions of factory workers, who were +left without any voice in the government. They too began +an agitation for the right to vote. They put their demands +down in a document which came to be known as the ``People's +Charter.'' The debates about this charter grew more and +more violent. They had not yet come to an end when the revolutions +of the year 1848 broke out. Frightened by the threat +of a new outbreak or Jacobinism and violence, the English +government placed the Duke of Wellington, who was now in +his eightieth year, at the head of the army, and called for +Volunteers. London was placed in a state of siege and +preparations were made to suppress the coming revolution. + +But the Chartist movement killed itself through bad leadership +and no acts of violence took place. The new class of +wealthy factory owners, (I dislike the word ``bourgeoisie'' +which has been used to death by the apostles of a new social +order,) slowly increased its hold upon the government, and +the conditions of industrial life in the large cities continued to +transform vast acres of pasture and wheat-land into dreary +slums, which guard the approach of every modern European +town. + + + +EMANCIPATION + +THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY +DID NOT BRING ABOUT THE ERA OF +HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH +HAD BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION +WHICH SAW THE STAGE COACH REPLACED +BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL +REMEDIES WERE SUGGESTED BUT NONE +OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE PROBLEM + + +IN the year 1831, just before the passing of the first Reform +Bill Jeremy Bentham, the great English student of legislative +methods and the most practical political reformer of that +day, wrote to a friend: ``The way to be comfortable is to +make others comfortable. The way to make others comfortable +is to appear to love them. The way to appear to love them +is to love them in reality.'' Jeremy was an honest man. He +said what he believed to be true. His opinions were shared by +thousands of his countrymen. They felt responsible for the +happiness of their less fortunate neighbours and they tried +their very best to help them. And Heaven knows it was time +that something be done! + +The ideal of ``economic freedom'' (the ``laissez faire'' of +Turgot) had been necessary in the old society where mediaeval +restrictions lamed all industrial effort. But this ``liberty of +action'' which had been the highest law of the land had led to +a terrible, yea, a frightful condition. The hours in the fac- +tory were limited only by the physical strength of the workers. +As long as a woman could sit before her loom, without +fainting from fatigue, she was supposed to work. Children of +five and six were taken to the cotton mills, to save them from +the dangers of the street and a life of idleness. A law had +been passed which forced the children of paupers to go to work +or be punished by being chained to their machines. In return +for their services they got enough bad food to keep them alive +and a sort of pigsty in which they could rest at night. Often +they were so tired that they fell asleep at their job. To keep +them awake a foreman with a whip made the rounds and beat +them on the knuckles when it was necessary to bring them back +to their duties. Of course, under these circumstances thousands +of little children died. This was regrettable and the employers, +who after all were human beings and not without a heart, sincerely +wished that they could abolish ``child labour.'' But since +man was ``free'' it followed that children were ``free'' too. +Besides, if Mr. Jones had tried to work his factory without the +use of children of five and six, his rival, Mr. Stone, would have +hired an extra supply of little boys and Jones would have been +forced into bankruptcy. It was therefore impossible for Jones +to do without child labour until such time as an act of Parliament +should forbid it for all employers. + +But as Parliament was no longer dominated by the old +landed aristocracy (which had despised the upstart factory- +owners with their money bags and had treated them with open +contempt), but was under control of the representatives from +the industrial centres, and as long as the law did not allow +workmen to combine in labour-unions, very little was accomplished. +Of course the intelligent and decent people of that +time were not blind to these terrible conditions. They were +just helpless. Machinery had conquered the world by surprise +and it took a great many years and the efforts of thousands +of noble men and women to make the machine what it +ought to be, man's servant, and not his master. + +Curiously enough, the first attack upon the outrageous +system of employment which was then common in all parts of +the world, was made on behalf of the black slaves of Africa +and America. Slavery had been introduced into the American +continent by the Spaniards. They had tried to use the +Indians as labourers in the fields and in the mines, but the +Indians, when taken away from a life in the open, had lain down +and died and to save them from extinction a kind-hearted priest +had suggested that negroes be brought from Africa to do the +work. The negroes were strong and could stand rough treatment. +Besides, association with the white man would give +them a chance to learn Christianity and in this way, they would +be able to save their souls, and so from every possible point of +view, it would be an excellent arrangement both for the kindly +white man and for his ignorant black brother. But with the +introduction of machinery there had been a greater demand for +cotton and the negroes were forced to work harder than ever +before, and they too, like the Indians, began to die under the +treatment which they received at the hands of the overseers. + +Stories of incredible cruelty constantly found their way to +Europe and in all countries men and women began to agitate +for the abolition of slavery. In England, William Wilberforce +and Zachary Macaulay, (the father of the great historian whose +history of England you must read if you want to know how +wonderfully interesting a history-book can be,) organised a +society for the suppression of slavery. First of all they got a +law passed which made ``slave trading'' illegal. And after the +year 1840 there was not a single slave in any of the British +colonies. The revolution of 1848 put an end to slavery in the +French possessions. The Portuguese passed a law in the year +1858 which promised all slaves their liberty in twenty years +from date. The Dutch abolished slavery in 1863 and in the +same year Tsar Alexander II returned to his serfs that liberty +which had been taken away from them more than two centuries +before. + +In the United States of America the question led to grave +difficulties and a prolonged war. Although the Declaration +of Independence had laid down the principle that ``all men +were created free and equal,'' an exception had been made for +those men and women whose skins were dark and who worked +on the plantations of the southern states. As time went on, the +dislike of the people of the North for the institution of slavery +increased and they made no secret of their feelings. The southerners +however claimed that they could not grow their cotton +without slave-labour, and for almost fifty years a mighty debate +raged in both the Congress and the Senate. + +The North remained obdurate and the South would not give +in. When it appeared impossible to reach a compromise, the +southern states threatened to leave the Union. It was a most +dangerous point in the history of the Union. Many things +``might'' have happened. That they did not happen was the +work of a very great and very good man. + +On the sixth of November of the year 1860, Abraham Lincoln, +an Illinois lawyer, and a man who had made his own intellectual +fortune, had been elected president by the Republicans +who were very strong in the anti-slavery states. He +knew the evils of human bondage at first hand and his shrewd +common-sense told him that there was no room on the northern +continent for two rival nations. When a number of southern +states seceded and formed the ``Confederate States of America,'' +Lincoln accepted the challenge. The Northern states +were called upon for volunteers. Hundreds of thousands of +young men responded with eager enthusiasm and there followed +four years of bitter civil war. The South, better prepared +and following the brilliant leadership of Lee and Jackson, +repeatedly defeated the armies of the North. Then the +economic strength of New England and the West began to +tell. An unknown officer by the name of Grant arose from obscurity +and became the Charles Martel of the great slave war. +Without interruption he hammered his mighty blows upon the +crumbling defences of the South. Early in the year 1863, +President Lincoln issued his ``Emancipation Proclamation'' +which set all slaves free. In April of the year 1865 Lee +surrendered the last of his brave armies at Appomattox. A few +days later, President Lincoln was murdered by a lunatic. But +his work was done. With the exception of Cuba which was +still under Spanish domination, slavery had come to an end in +every part of the civilised world. + +But while the black man was enjoying an increasing amount +of liberty, the ``free'' workmen of Europe did not fare quite so +well. Indeed, it is a matter of surprise to many contemporary +writers and observers that the masses of workmen (the so- +called proletariat) did not die out from sheer misery. They +lived in dirty houses situated in miserable parts of the slums. +They ate bad food. They received just enough schooling to +fit them for their tasks. In case of death or an accident, their +families were not provided for. But the brewery and distillery +interests, (who could exercise great influence upon the Legislature,) +encouraged them to forget their woes by offering them +unlimited quantities of whisky and gin at very cheap rates. + +The enormous improvement which has taken place since the +thirties and the forties of the last century is not due to the efforts +of a single man. The best brains of two generations devoted +themselves to the task of saving the world from the disastrous +results of the all-too-sudden introduction of machinery. +They did not try to destroy the capitalistic system. This would +have been very foolish, for the accumulated wealth of other +people, when intelligently used, may be of very great benefit +to all mankind. But they tried to combat the notion that true +equality can exist between the man who has wealth and owns +the factories and can close their doors at will without the risk +of going hungry, and the labourer who must take whatever job +is offered, at whatever wage he can get, or face the risk of +starvation for himself, his wife and his children. + +They endeavoured to introduce a number of laws which regulated +the relations between the factory owners and the factory +workers. In this, the reformers have been increasingly +successful in all countries. To-day, the majority of the labourers +are well protected; their hours are being reduced to the +excellent average of eight, and their children are sent to the +schools instead of to the mine pit and to the carding-room of +the cotton mills. + +But there were other men who also contemplated the sight +of all the belching smoke-stacks, who heard the rattle of the +railroad trains, who saw the store-houses filled with a surplus +of all sorts of materials, and who wondered to what ultimate +goal this tremendous activity would lead in the years to come. +They remembered that the human race had lived for hundreds +of thousands of years without commercial and industrial competition. +Could they change the existing order of things and +do away with a system of rivalry which so often sacrificed human +happiness to profits? + +This idea--this vague hope for a better day--was not restricted +to a single country. In England, Robert Owen, the +owner of many cotton mills, established a so-called ``socialistic +community'' which was a success. But when he died, the prosperity +of New Lanark came to an end and an attempt of Louis +Blanc, a French journalist, to establish ``social workshops'' +all over France fared no better. Indeed, the increasing number +of socialistic writers soon began to see that little individual +communities which remained outside of the regular industrial +life, would never be able to accomplish anything at all. It +was necessary to study the fundamental principles underlying +the whole industrial and capitalistic society before useful remedies +could be suggested. + +The practical socialists like Robert Owen and Louis +Blanc and Francois Fournier were succeeded by theoretical +students of socialism like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Of +these two, Marx is the best known. He was a very brilliant +Jew whose family had for a long time lived in Germany. He +had heard of the experiments of Owen and Blanc and he began +to interest himself in questions of labour and wages and +unemployment. But his liberal views made him very unpopular +with the police authorities of Germany, and he was forced to +flee to Brussels and then to London, where he lived a poor and +shabby life as the correspondent of the New York Tribune. + +No one, thus far, had paid much attention to his books on +economic subjects. But in the year 1864 he organised the first +international association of working men and three years later +in 1867, he published the first volume of his well-known trea- +tise called ``Capital.'' Marx believed that all history was a +long struggle between those who ``have'' and those who ``don't +have.'' The introduction and general use of machinery had +created a new class in society, that of the capitalists who used +their surplus wealth to buy the tools which were then used by +the labourers to produce still more wealth, which was again used +to build more factories and so on, until the end of time. Meanwhile, +according to Marx, the third estate (the bourgeoisie) +was growing richer and richer and the fourth estate (the proletariat) +was growing poorer and poorer, and he predicted that +in the end, one man would possess all the wealth of the world +while the others would be his employees and dependent upon +his good will. + +To prevent such a state of affairs, Marx advised working +men of all countries to unite and to fight for a number of political +and economic measures which he had enumerated in a Manifesto +in the year 1848, the year of the last great European +revolution. + +These views of course were very unpopular with the governments +of Europe, many countries, especially Prussia, passed +severe laws against the Socialists and policemen were ordered +to break up the Socialist meetings and to arrest the speakers. +But that sort of persecution never does any good. Martyrs +are the best possible advertisements for an unpopular cause. +In Europe the number of socialists steadily increased and it +was soon clear that the Socialists did not contemplate a violent +revolution but were using their increasing power in the different +Parliaments to promote the interests of the labouring +classes. Socialists were even called upon to act as Cabinet +Ministers, and they co-operated with progressive Catholics and +Protestants to undo the damage that had been caused by the +Industrial Revolution and to bring about a fairer division of +the many benefits which had followed the introduction of machinery +and the increased production of wealth. + + + +THE AGE OF SCIENCE + +BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER +CHANGE WHICH WAS OF GREATER +IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL +OR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. +AFTER GENERATIONS OF OPPRESSION +AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD +AT LAST GAINED LIBERTY OF ACTION +AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER +THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN +THE UNIVERSE + + +THE Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks +and the Romans, had all contributed something to the first +vague notions of science and scientific investigation. But the +great migrations of the fourth century had destroyed the classical +world of the Mediterranean, and the Christian Church, which +was more interested in the life of the soul than in the life of the +body, had regarded science as a manifestation of that human arrogance +which wanted to pry into divine affairs which belonged +to the realm of Almighty God, and which therefore was closely +related to the seven deadly sins. + +The Renaissance to a certain but limited extent had broken +through this wall of Mediaeval prejudices. The Reformation, +however, which had overtaken the Renaissance in the early 16th +century, had been hostile to the ideals of the ``new civilisation,'' +and once more the men of science were threatened with severe +punishment, should they try to pass beyond the narrow limits +of knowledge which had been laid down in Holy Writ. + +Our world is filled with the statues of great generals, atop +of prancing horses, leading their cheering soldiers to glorious +victory. Here and there, a modest slab of marble announces +that a man of science has found his final resting place. A thousand +years from now we shall probably do these things differently, +and the children of that happy generation shall know +of the splendid courage and the almost inconceivable devotion +to duty of the men who were the pioneers of that abstract +knowledge, which alone has made our modern world a practical +possibility. + +Many of these scientific pioneers suffered poverty and contempt +and humiliation. They lived in garrets and died in dungeons. +They dared not print their names on the title-pages of +their books and they dared not print their conclusions in the +land of their birth, but smuggled the manuscripts to some secret +printing shop in Amsterdam or Haarlem. They were exposed +to the bitter enmity of the Church, both Protestant and Catholic, +and were the subjects of endless sermons, inciting the parishioners +to violence against the ``heretics.'' + +Here and there they found an asylum. In Holland, where +the spirit of tolerance was strongest, the authorities, while +regarding these scientific investigations with little favour, yet +refused to interfere with people's freedom of thought. It became +a little asylum for intellectual liberty where French and +English and German philosophers and mathematicians and +physicians could go to enjoy a short spell of rest and get a +breath of free air. + +In another chapter I have told you how Roger Bacon, the +great genius of the thirteenth century, was prevented for years +from writing a single word, lest he get into new troubles with +the authorities of the church. And five hundred years later, the +contributors to the great philosophic ``Encyclopaedia'' were under +the constant supervision of the French gendarmerie. Half +a century afterwards, Darwin, who dared to question the story +of the creation of man, as revealed in the Bible, was denounced +from every pulpit as an enemy of the human race. + +Even to-day, the persecution of those who venture into the +unknown realm of science has not entirely come to an end. +And while I am writing this Mr. Bryan is addressing a vast +multitude on the ``Menace of Darwinism,'' warning his hearers +against the errors of the great English naturalist. + +All this, however, is a mere detail. The work that has to +be done invariably gets done, and the ultimate profit of the +discoveries and the inventions goes to the mass of those same people +who have always decried the man of vision as an unpractical idealist. + +The seventeenth century had still preferred to investigate +the far off heavens and to study the position of our +planet in relation to the solar system. Even so, the Church had +disapproved of this unseemly curiosity, and Copernicus who +first of all had proved that the sun was the centre of the universe, +did not publish his work until the day of his death. Galileo +spent the greater part of his life under the supervision of the +clerical authorities, but he continued to use his telescope and +provided Isaac Newton with a mass of practical observations, +which greatly helped the English mathematician when he dis- +covered the existence of that interesting habit of falling objects +which came to be known as the Law of Gravitation. + +That, for the moment at least, exhausted the interest in the +Heavens, and man began to study the earth. The invention +of a workable microscope, (a strange and clumsy little thing,) +by Anthony van Leeuwenhoek during the last half of the 17th +century, gave man a chance to study the ``microscopic'' creatures +who are responsible for so many of his ailments. It laid +the foundations of the science of ``bacteriology'' which in the +last forty years has delivered the world from a great number of +diseases by discovering the tiny organisms which cause the +complaint. It also allowed the geologists to make a more +careful study of different rocks and of the fossils (the petrified +prehistoric plants) which they found deep below the surface of +the earth. These investigations convinced them that the earth +must be a great deal older than was stated in the book of +Genesis and in the year 1830, Sir Charles Lyell published his +``Principles of Geology'' which denied the story of creation as +related in the Bible and gave a far more wonderful description +of slow growth and gradual development. + +At the same time, the Marquis de Laplace was working on +a new theory of creation, which made the earth a little blotch +in the nebulous sea out of which the planetary system had +been formed and Bunsen and Kirchhoff, by the use of the +spectroscope, were investigating the chemical composition of the +stars and of our good neighbour, the sun, whose curious spots +had first been noticed by Galileo. + +Meanwhile after a most bitter and relentless warfare with +the clerical authorities of Catholic and Protestant lands, the +anatomists and physiologists had at last obtained permission +to dissect bodies and to substitute a positive knowledge of our +organs and their habits for the guesswork of the mediaeval +quack. + +Within a single generation (between 1810 and 1840) more +progress was made in every branch of science than in all the +hundreds of thousands of years that had passed since man first +looked at the stars and wondered why they were there. It +must have been a very sad age for the people who had been +educated under the old system. And we can understand their +feeling of hatred for such men as Lamarck and Darwin, who +did not exactly tell them that they were ``descended from +monkeys,'' (an accusation which our grandfathers seemed to +regard as a personal insult,) but who suggested that the proud +human race had evolved from a long series of ancestors who +could trace the family-tree back to the little jelly-fishes who +were the first inhabitants of our planet. + +The dignified world of the well-to-do middle class, which +dominated the nineteenth century, was willing to make use +of the gas or the electric light, of all the many practical applications +of the great scientific discoveries, but the mere investigator, +the man of the ``scientific theory'' without whom no +progress would be possible, continued to be distrusted until +very recently. Then, at last, his services were recognised. Today +the rich people who in past ages donated their wealth for +the building of a cathedral, construct vast laboratories where +silent men do battle upon the hidden enemies of mankind and +often sacrifice their lives that coming generations may enjoy +greater happiness and health. + +Indeed it has come to pass that many of the ills of this +world, which our ancestors regarded as inevitable ``acts of +God,'' have been exposed as manifestations of our own ignorance +and neglect. Every child nowadays knows that he can +keep from getting typhoid fever by a little care in the choice of +his drinking water. But it took years and years of hard +work before the doctors could convince the people of this fact. +Few of us now fear the dentist chair. A study of the microbes +that live in our mouth has made it possible to keep our +teeth from decay. Must perchance a tooth be pulled, then we +take a sniff of gas, and go our way rejoicing. When the newspapers +of the year 1846 brought the story of the ``painless +operation'' which had been performed in America with the help +of ether, the good people of Europe shook their heads. To +them it seemed against the will of God that man should escape +the pain which was the share of all mortals, and it took a long +time before the practice of taking ether and chloroform for +operations became general. + +But the battle of progress had been won. The breach in the +old walls of prejudice was growing larger and larger, and as +time went by, the ancient stones of ignorance came crumbling +down. The eager crusaders of a new and happier social order +rushed forward. Suddenly they found themselves facing a new +obstacle. Out of the ruins of a long-gone past, another citadel +of reaction had been erected, and millions of men had to give +their lives before this last bulwark was destroyed. + + + +ART + +A CHAPTER OF ART + + +WHEN a baby is perfectly healthy and has had enough to eat +and has slept all it wants, then it hums a little tune to show how +happy it is. To grown-ups this humming means nothing. It +sounds like ``goo-zum, goo-zum, goo-o-o-o-o,'' but to the baby +it is perfect music. It is his first contribution to art. + +As soon as he (or she) gets a little older and is able to sit +up, the period of mud-pie making begins. These mud-pies do +not interest the outside world. There are too many million +babies, making too many million mud-pies at the same time. +But to the small infant they represent another expedition into +the pleasant realm of art. The baby is now a sculptor. + +At the age of three or four, when the hands begin to obey +the brain, the child becomes a painter. His fond mother gives +him a box of coloured chalks and every loose bit of paper is +rapidly covered with strange pothooks and scrawls which represent +houses and horses and terrible naval battles. + +Soon however this happiness of just ``making things'' +comes to an end. School begins and the greater part of the +day is filled up with work. The business of living, or rather +the business of ``making a living,'' becomes the most important +event in the life of every boy and girl. There is little time left +for ``art'' between learning the tables of multiplication and the +past participles of the irregular French verbs. And unless +the desire for making certain things for the mere pleasure of +creating them without any hope of a practical return be very +strong, the child grows into manhood and forgets that the +first five years of his life were mainly devoted to art. + +Nations are not different from children. As soon as the +cave-man had escaped the threatening dangers of the long and +shivering ice-period, and had put his house in order, he began +to make certain things which he thought beautiful, although +they were of no earthly use to him in his fight with the wild +animals of the jungle. He covered the walls of his grotto with +pictures of the elephants and the deer which he hunted, and +out of a piece of stone, he hacked the rough figures of those +women he thought most attractive. + +As soon as the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the +Persians and all the other people of the east had founded +their little countries along the Nile and the Euphrates, they +began to build magnificent palaces for their kings, invented +bright pieces of jewellery for their women and planted gardens +which sang happy songs of colour with their many bright flowers. + +Our own ancestors, the wandering nomads from the distant +Asiatic prairies, enjoying a free and easy existence as +fighters and hunters, composed songs which celebrated the +mighty deeds of their great leaders and invented a form of +poetry which has survived until our own day. A thousand years +later, when they had established themselves on the Greek mainland, +and had built their ``city-states,'' they expressed their +joy (and their sorrows) in magnificent temples, in statues, in +comedies and in tragedies, and in every conceivable form of +art. + +The Romans, like their Carthaginian rivals, were too busy +administering other people and making money to have much +love for ``useless and unprofitable'' adventures of the spirit. +They conquered the world and built roads and bridges but they +borrowed their art wholesale from the Greeks. They invented +certain practical forms of architecture which answered the +demands of their day and age. But their statues and their histories +and their mosaics and their poems were mere Latin imi- +tations of Greek originals. Without that vague and hard-to- +define something which the world calls ``personality,'' there can +be no art and the Roman world distrusted that particular sort +of personality. The Empire needed efficient soldiers and +tradesmen. The business of writing poetry or making pictures +was left to foreigners. + +Then came the Dark Ages. The barbarian was the proverbial +bull in the china-shop of western Europe. He had no use +for what he did not understand. Speaking in terms of the year +1921, he liked the magazine covers of pretty ladies, but threw +the Rembrandt etchings which he had inherited into the ash- +can. Soon he came to learn better. Then he tried to undo the +damage which he had created a few years before. But the ash- +cans were gone and so were the pictures. + +But by this time, his own art, which he had brought with +him from the east, had developed into something very beautiful +and he made up for his past neglect and indifference by the so- +called ``art of the Middle Ages'' which as far as northern Europe +is concerned was a product of the Germanic mind and had +borrowed but little from the Greeks and the Latins and nothing +at all from the older forms of art of Egypt and Assyria, not +to speak of India and China, which simply did not exist, as far +as the people of that time were concerned. Indeed, so little +had the northern races been influenced by their southern neighbours +that their own architectural products were completely +misunderstood by the people of Italy and were treated by +them with downright and unmitigated contempt. + +You have all heard the word Gothic. You probably associate +it with the picture of a lovely old cathedral, lifting its slender +spires towards high heaven. But what does the word really +mean? + +It means something ``uncouth'' and ``barbaric''--something +which one might expect from an ``uncivilised Goth,'' a rough +backwoods-man who had no respect for the established rules of +classical art and who built his ``modern horrors'' to please his +own low tastes without a decent regard for the examples of +the Forum and the Acropolis. + +And yet for several centuries this form of Gothic architecture +was the highest expression of the sincere feeling for art +which inspired the whole northern continent. From a previous +chapter, you will remember how the people of the late Middle +Ages lived. Unless they were peasants and dwelt in villages, +they were citizens of a ``city'' or ``civitas,'' the old Latin name +for a tribe. And indeed, behind their high walls and their deep +moats, these good burghers were true tribesmen who shared +the common dangers and enjoyed the common safety and prosperity +which they derived from their system of mutual protection. + +In the old Greek and Roman cities the market-place, where +the temple stood, had been the centre of civic life. During +the Middle Ages, the Church, the House of God, became such a +centre. We modern Protestant people, who go to our church +only once a week, and then for a few hours only, hardly know +what a mediaeval church meant to the community. Then, before +you were a week old, you were taken to the Church to be +baptised. As a child, you visited the Church to learn the holy +stories of the Scriptures. Later on you became a member +of the congregation, and if you were rich enough you built +yourself a separate little chapel sacred to the memory of the +Patron Saint of your own family. As for the sacred edifice, +it was open at all hours of the day and many of the night. In +a certain sense it resembled a modern club, dedicated to all the +inhabitants of the town. In the church you very likely caught +a first glimpse of the girl who was to become your bride at a +great ceremony before the High Altar. And finally, when the +end of the journey had come, you were buried beneath the +stones of this familiar building, that all your children and their +grandchildren might pass over your grave until the Day of +Judgement. + +Because the Church was not only the House of God but +also the true centre of all common life, the building had to be +different from anything that had ever been constructed by +the hands of man. The temples of the Egyptians and the +Greeks and the Romans had been merely the shrine of a local +divinity. As no sermons were preached before the images of +Osiris or Zeus or Jupiter, it was not necessary that the interior +offer space for a great multitude. All the religious processions +of the old Mediterranean peoples took place in the open. But +in the north, where the weather was usually bad, +most functions were held under the roof of the church. + +During many centuries the architects struggled with +this problem of constructing a building that was large +enough. The Roman tradition taught them how to build heavy +stone walls with very small windows lest the walls lose +their strength. On the top of this they then placed a +heavy stone roof. But in the twelfth century, after the +beginning of the Crusades, when the architects had seen the +pointed arches of the Mohammedan builders, the western builders +discovered a new style which gave them their first chance to make +the sort of building which those days of an intense religious +life demanded. And then they developed this strange style upon +which the Italians bestowed the contemptuous name of ``Gothic''or barbaric. +They achieved their purpose by inventing a vaulted roof which +was supported by ``ribs.'' But such a roof, if it became +too heavy, was apt to break the walls, just as a man +of three hundred pounds sitting down upon a child's chair +will force it to collapse. To overcome this difficulty, certain +French architects then began to re-enforce the walls with +``buttresses'' which were merely heavy masses of stone against +which the walls could lean while they supported the roof. And +to assure the further safety of the roof they supported the ribs +of the roof by so-called ``flying buttresses,'' a very simple +method of construction which you will understand at once when +you look at our picture. + +This new method of construction allowed the introduction +of enormous windows. In the twelfth century, glass was still +an expensive curiosity, and very few private buildings possessed +glass windows. Even the castles of the nobles were +without protection and this accounts for the eternal drafts +and explains why people of that day wore furs in-doors as +well as out. + +Fortunately, the art of making coloured glass, with which +the ancient people of the Mediterranean had been familiar, +had not been entirely lost. There was a revival of stained +glass-making and soon the windows of the Gothic churches +told the stories of the Holy Book in little bits of brilliantly +coloured window-pane, which were caught in a long framework +of lead. + +Behold, therefore, the new and glorious house of God, +filled with an eager multitude, ``living'' its religion as no people +have ever done either before or since! Nothing is considered +too good or too costly or too wondrous for this House of God +and Home of Man. The sculptors, who since the destruction +of the Roman Empire have been out of employment, haltingly +return to their noble art. Portals and pillars and buttresses +and cornices are all covered with carven images of Our Lord +and the blessed Saints. The embroiderers too are set to work +to make tapestries for the walls. The jewellers offer their +highest art that the shrine of the altar may be worthy of complete +adoration. Even the painter does his best. Poor man, +he is greatly handicapped by lack of a suitable medium. + +And thereby hangs a story. + +The Romans of the early Christian period had covered the +floors and the walls of their temples and houses with mosaics; +pictures made of coloured bits of glass. But this art had been +exceedingly difficult. It gave the painter no chance to express +all he wanted to say, as all children know who have ever tried to +make figures out of coloured blocks of wood. The art of +mosaic painting therefore died out during the late Middle +Ages except in Russia, where the Byzantine mosaic painters +had found a refuge after the fall of Constantinople and continued +to ornament the walls of the orthodox churches until +the day of the Bolsheviki, when there was an end to the building +of churches. + +Of course, the mediaeval painter could mix his colours with +the water of the wet plaster which was put upon the walls of +the churches. This method of painting upon ``fresh plaster'' +(which was generally called ``fresco'' or ``fresh'' painting) +was very popular for many centuries. To-day, it is as rare +as the art of painting miniatures in manuscripts and among +the hundreds of artists of our modern cities there is perhaps +one who can handle this medium successfully. But during the +Middle Ages there was no other way and the artists were +``fresco'' workers for lack of something better. The method +however had certain great disadvantages. Very often the +plaster came off the walls after only a few years, or dampness +spoiled the pictures, just as dampness will spoil the pattern +of our wall paper. People tried every imaginable expedient +to get away from this plaster background. They tried to mix +their colours with wine and vinegar and with honey and with +the sticky white of egg, but none of these methods were satisfactory. +For more than a thousand years these experiments +continued. In painting pictures upon the parchment leaves +of manuscripts the mediaeval artists were very successful. But +when it came to covering large spaces of wood or stone with +paint which would stick, they did not succeed very well. + +At last, during the first half of the fifteenth century, the +problem was solved in the southern Netherlands by Jan and +Hubert van Eyck. The famous Flemish brothers mixed their +paint with specially prepared oils and this allowed them to use +wood and canvas or stone or anything else as a background for +their pictures. + +But by this time the religious ardour of the early Middle +Ages was a thing of the past. The rich burghers of the cities +were succeeding the bishops as patrons of the arts. And as +art invariably follows the full dinner-pail, the artists now began +to work for these worldly employers and painted pictures for +kings, for grand-dukes and for rich bankers. Within a very +short time, the new method of painting with oil spread through +Europe and in every country there developed a school of +special painting which showed the characteristic tastes of the +people for whom these portraits and landscapes were made. + +In Spain, for example, Velasquez painted court-dwarfs +and the weavers of the royal tapestry-factories, and all sorts +of persons and subjects connected with the king and his court. +But in Holland, Rembrandt and Frans Hals and Vermeer +painted the barnyard of the merchant's house, and they painted +his rather dowdy wife and his healthy but bumptious children +and the ships which had brought him his wealth. In Italy on +the other hand, where the Pope remained the largest patron +of the arts, Michelangelo and Correggio continued to paint +Madonnas and Saints, while in England, where the aristocracy +was very rich and powerful and in France where the +kings had become uppermost in the state, the artists painted +distinguished gentlemen who were members of the government, +and very lovely ladies who were friends of His Majesty. + +The great change in painting, which came about with the +neglect of the old church and the rise of a new class in society, +was reflected in all other forms of art. The invention of printing +had made it possible for authors to win fame and reputation +by writing books for the multitudes. In this way arose +the profession of the novelist and the illustrator. But the +people who had money enough to buy the new books were not +the sort who liked to sit at home of nights, looking at the ceiling +or just sitting. They wanted to be amused. The few minstrels +of the Middle Ages were not sufficient to cover the demand for +entertainment. For the first time since the early Greek city- +states of two thousand years before, the professional playwright +had a chance to ply his trade. The Middle Ages had +known the theatre merely as part of certain church celebrations. +The tragedies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries +had told the story of the suffering of our Lord. But +during the sixteenth century the worldly theatre made its +reappearance. It is true that, at first, the position of the +professional playwright and actor was not a very high one. +William Shakespeare was regarded as a sort of circus-fellow +who amused his neighbours with his tragedies and comedies. +But when he died in the year 1616 he had begun to enjoy the +respect of his neighbours and actors were no longer subjects +of police supervision. + +William's contemporary, Lope de Vega, the incredible +Spaniard who wrote no less than 1800 worldly and 400 religious +plays, was a person of rank who received the papal approval +upon his work. A century later, Moliere, the Frenchman, +was deemed worthy of the companionship of none less +than King Louis XIV. + +Since then, the theatre has enjoyed an ever increasing +affection on the part of the people. To-day a ``theatre'' is part +of every well-regulated city, and the ``silent drama'' of the +movies has penetrated to the tiniest of our prairie hamlets. + +Another art, however, was to become the most popular of +all. That was music. Most of the old art-forms demanded a +great deal of technical skill. It takes years and years of practice +before our clumsy hand is able to follow the commands of +the brain and reproduce our vision upon canvas or in marble. +It takes a life-time to learn how to act or how to write a good +novel. And it takes a great deal of training on the part of the +public to appreciate the best in painting and writing and +sculpture. But almost any one, not entirely tone-deaf, can +follow a tune and almost everybody can get enjoyment out of +some sort of music. The Middle Ages had heard a little music +but it had been entirely the music of the church. The holy +chants were subject to very severe laws of rhythm and harmony +and soon these became monotonous. Besides, they could not +well be sung in the street or in the market-place. + +The Renaissance changed this. Music once more came +into its own as the best friend of man, both in his happiness and +in his sorrows. + +The Egyptians and the Babylonians and the ancient Jews +had all been great lovers of music. They had even combined +different instruments into regular orchestras. But the Greeks +had frowned upon this barbaric foreign noise. They liked to +hear a man recite the stately poetry of Homer and Pindar. +They allowed him to accompany himself upon the lyre (the +poorest of all stringed instruments). That was as far as any +one could go without incurring the risk of popular disapproval. +The Romans on the other hand had loved orchestral music at +their dinners and parties and they had invented most of the +instruments which (in VERY modified form) we use to-day. +The early church had despised this music which smacked too +much of the wicked pagan world which had just been destroyed. +A few songs rendered by the entire congregation were +all the bishops of the third and fourth centuries would tolerate. +As the congregation was apt to sing dreadfully out of key without +the guidance of an instrument, the church had afterwards allowed +the use of an organ, an invention of the second century of our era +which consisted of a combination of the old pipes of Pan and +a pair of bellows. + +Then came the great migrations. The last of the Roman +musicians were either killed or became tramp-fiddlers going +from city to city and playing in the street, and begging for +pennies like the harpist on a modern ferry-boat. + +But the revival of a more worldly civilisation in the cities +of the late Middle Ages had created a new demand for musicians. +Instruments like the horn, which had been used only +as signal-instruments for hunting and fighting, were remodelled +until they could reproduce sounds which were agreeable in the +dance-hall and in the banqueting room. A bow strung with +horse-hair was used to play the old-fashioned guitar and before +the end of the Middle Ages this six-stringed instrument +(the most ancient of all string-instruments which dates back +to Egypt and Assyria) had grown into our modern four- +stringed fiddle which Stradivarius and the other Italian violin- +makers of the eighteenth century brought to the height of perfection. + +And finally the modern piano was invented, the most wide- +spread of all musical instruments, which has followed man into +the wilderness of the jungle and the ice-fields of Greenland. +The organ had been the first of all keyed instruments but the +performer always depended upon the co-operation of some one +who worked the bellows, a job which nowadays is done by electricity. +The musicians therefore looked for a handier and less +circumstantial instrument to assist them in training the pupils +of the many church choirs. During the great eleventh century, +Guido, a Benedictine monk of the town of Arezzo (the +birthplace of the poet Petrarch) gave us our modern system +of musical annotation. Some time during that century, when +there was a great deal of popular interest in music, the first +instrument with both keys and strings was built. It must +have sounded as tinkly as one of those tiny children's pianos +which you can buy at every toy-shop. In the city of Vienna, +the town where the strolling musicians of the Middle Ages +(who had been classed with jugglers and card sharps) had +formed the first separate Guild of Musicians in the year 1288, +the little monochord was developed into something which we +can recognise as the direct ancestor of our modern Steinway. +From Austria the ``clavichord'' as it was usually called in those +days (because it had ``craves'' or keys) went to Italy. There +it was perfected into the ``spinet'' which was so called after +the inventor, Giovanni Spinetti of Venice. At last during +the eighteenth century, some time between 1709 and 1720, +Bartolomeo Cristofori made a ``clavier'' which allowed the +performer to play both loudly and softly or as it was said in +Italian, ``piano'' and ``forte.'' This instrument with certain +changes became our ``pianoforte'' or piano. + +Then for the first time the world possessed an easy and convenient +instrument which could be mastered in a couple of years +and did not need the eternal tuning of harps and fiddles and +was much pleasanter to the ears than the mediaeval tubas, clarinets, +trombones and oboes. Just as the phonograph has given +millions of modern people their first love of music so did the +early ``pianoforte'' carry the knowledge of music into much +wider circles. Music became part of the education of every well- +bred man and woman. Princes and rich merchants maintained +private orchestras. The musician ceased to be a wandering +``jongleur'' and became a highly valued member of the community. +Music was added to the dramatic performances of +the theatre and out of this practice, grew our modern Opera. +Originally only a few very rich princes could afford the expenses +of an ``opera troupe.'' But as the taste for this sort of +entertainment grew, many cities built their own theatres where +Italian and afterwards German operas were given to the unlimited +joy of the whole community with the exception of a few +sects of very strict Christians who still regarded music with +deep suspicion as something which was too lovely to be entirely +good for the soul. + +By the middle of the eighteenth century the musical life +of Europe was in full swing. Then there came forward a +man who was greater than all others, a simple organist of the +Thomas Church of Leipzig, by the name of Johann Sebastian +Bach. In his compositions for every known instrument, from +comic songs and popular dances to the most stately of sacred +hymns and oratorios, he laid the foundation for all our modern +music. When he died in the year 1750 he was succeeded by +Mozart, who created musical fabrics of sheer loveliness which +remind us of lace that has been woven out of harmony and +rhythm. Then came Ludwig van Beethoven, the most tragic +of men, who gave us our modern orchestra, yet heard none of +his greatest compositions because he was deaf, as the result of a +cold contracted during his years of poverty. + +Beethoven lived through the period of the great French +Revolution. Full of hope for a new and glorious day, he had +dedicated one of his symphonies to Napoleon. But he lived +to regret the hour. When he died in the year 1827, Napoleon +was gone and the French Revolution was gone, but the steam +engine had come and was filling the world with a sound that +had nothing in common with the dreams of the Third Symphony. + +Indeed, the new order of steam and iron and coal and large +factories had little use for art, for painting and sculpture and +poetry and music. The old protectors of the arts, the Church +and the princes and the merchants of the Middle Ages and the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no longer existed. The +leaders of the new industrial world were too busy and had too +little education to bother about etchings and sonatas and bits +of carved ivory, not to speak of the men who created those +things, and who were of no practical use to the community in +which they lived. And the workmen in the factories listened +to the drone of their engines until they too had lost all taste +for the melody of the flute or fiddle of their peasant ancestry. +The arts became the step-children of the new industrial era. +Art and Life became entirely separated. Whatever paintings +had been left, were dying a slow death in the museums. And +music became a monopoly of a few ``virtuosi'' who took the +music away from the home and carried it to the concert-hall. + +But steadily, although slowly, the arts are coming back into +their own. People begin to understand that Rembrandt and +Beethoven and Rodin are the true prophets and leaders of +their race and that a world without art and happiness resembles +a nursery without laughter. + + + +COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WAR + +A CHAPTER WHICH OUGHT TO GIVE YOU A +GREAT DEAL OF POLITICAL INFORMATION +ABOUT THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, BUT +WHICH REALLY CONTAINS SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS +AND A FEW APOLOGIES + + +IF I had known how difficult it was to write a History of +the World, I should never have undertaken the task. Of course, +any one possessed of enough industry to lose himself for half +a dozen years in the musty stacks of a library, can compile a +ponderous tome which gives an account of the events in every +land during every century. But that was not the purpose of +the present book. The publishers wanted to print a history +that should have rhythm--a story which galloped rather than +walked. And now that I have almost finished I discover that +certain chapters gallop, that others wade slowly through the +dreary sands of long forgotten ages--that a few parts do not +make any progress at all, while still others indulge in a veritable +jazz of action and romance. I did not like this and I suggested +that we destroy the whole manuscript and begin once +more from the beginning. This, however, the publishers would +not allow. + +As the next best solution of my difficulties, I took the type- +written pages to a number of charitable friends and asked them +to read what I had said, and give me the benefit of their advice. +The experience was rather disheartening. Each and every +man had his own prejudices and his own hobbies and preferences. +They all wanted to know why, where and how I dared +to omit their pet nation, their pet statesman, or even their most +beloved criminal. With some of them, Napoleon and Jenghiz +Khan were candidates for high honours. I explained that I +had tried very hard to be fair to Napoleon, but that in my +estimation he was greatly inferior to such men as George +Washington, Gustavus Wasa, Augustus, Hammurabi or +Lincoln, and a score of others all of whom were obliged to +content themselves with a few paragraphs, from sheer lack of +space. As for Jenghiz Khan, I only recognise his superior +ability in the field of wholesale murder and I did not intend to +give him any more publicity than I could help. + +``This is very well as far as it goes,'' said the next critic, +``but how about the Puritans? We are celebrating the tercentenary +of their arrival at Plymouth. They ought to have +more space.'' My answer was that if I were writing a history +of America, the Puritans would get fully one half of the first +twelve chapters; that however this was a history of mankind +and that the event on Plymouth rock was not a matter of far- +reaching international importance until many centuries later; +that the United States had been founded by thirteen colonies +and not by a single one; that the most prominent leaders of the +first twenty years of our history had been from Virginia, from +Pennsylvania, and from the island of Nevis, rather than from +Massachusetts; and that therefore the Puritans ought to content +themselves with a page of print and a special map. + +Next came the prehistoric specialist. Why in the name of +the great Tyrannosaur had I not devoted more space to the +wonderful race of Cro-Magnon men, who had developed such +a high stage of civilisation 10,000 years ago? + +Indeed, and why not? The reason is simple. I do not take +as much stock in the perfection of these early races as some of +our most noted anthropologists seem to do. Rousseau and +the philosophers of the eighteenth century created the ``noble +savage'' who was supposed to have dwelt in a state of perfect +happiness during the beginning of time. Our modern scientists +have discarded the ``noble savage,'' so dearly beloved by +our grandfathers, and they have replaced him by the ``splendid +savage'' of the French Valleys who 35,000 years ago made an +end to the universal rule of the low-browed and low-living +brutes of the Neanderthal and other Germanic neighbourhoods. +They have shown us the elephants the Cro-Magnon painted +and the statues he carved and they have surrounded him with +much glory. + +I do not mean to say that they are wrong. But I hold that +we know by far too little of this entire period to re-construct +that early west-European society with any degree (however +humble) of accuracy. And I would rather not state certain +things than run the risk of stating certain things that were not +so. + +Then there were other critics, who accused me of direct +unfairness. Why did I leave out such countries as Ireland +and Bulgaria and Siam while I dragged in such other countries +as Holland and Iceland and Switzerland? My answer +was that I did not drag in any countries. They pushed themselves +in by main force of circumstances, and I simply could +not keep them out. And in order that my point may be understood, +let me state the basis upon which active membership to +this book of history was considered. + +There was but one rule. ``Did the country or the person +in question produce a new idea or perform an original act +without which the history of the entire human race would have +been different?'' It was not a question of personal taste. It +was a matter of cool, almost mathematical judgment. No race +ever played a more picturesque role in history than the Mongolians, +and no race, from the point of view of achievement or +intelligent progress, was of less value to the rest of mankind. + +The career of Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian, is full of +dramatic episodes. But as far as we are concerned, he might just +as well never have existed at all. In the same way, the history +of the Dutch Republic is not interesting because once upon a +time the sailors of de Ruyter went fishing in the river Thames, +but rather because of the fact that this small mud-bank along +the shores of the North Sea offered a hospitable asylum to all +sorts of strange people who had all sorts of queer ideas upon +all sorts of very unpopular subjects. + +It is quite true that Athens or Florence, during the hey-day +of their glory, had only one tenth of the population of Kansas +City. But our present civilisation would be very different +had neither of these two little cities of the Mediterranean basin +existed. And the same (with due apologies to the good people +of Wyandotte County) can hardly be said of this busy metropolis +on the Missouri River. + +And since I am being very personal, allow me to state one +other fact. + +When we visit a doctor, we find out before hand whether +he is a surgeon or a diagnostician or a homeopath or a faith +healer, for we want to know from what angle he will look at +our complaint. We ought to be as careful in the choice of our +historians as we are in the selection of our physicians. We +think, ``Oh well, history is history,'' and let it go at that. But +the writer who was educated in a strictly Presbyterian household +somewhere in the backwoods of Scotland will look differ- +ently upon every question of human relationships from his +neighbour who as a child, was dragged to listen to the brilliant +exhortations of Robert Ingersoll, the enemy of all revealed +Devils. In due course of time, both men may forget their +early training and never again visit either church or lecture +hall. But the influence of these impressionable years stays +with them and they cannot escape showing it in whatever they +write or say or do. + +In the preface to this book, I told you that I should not be +an infallible guide and now that we have almost reached the +end, I repeat the warning. I was born and educated in an +atmosphere of the old-fashioned liberalism which had followed +the discoveries of Darwin and the other pioneers of the nineteenth +century. As a child, I happened to spend most of my +waking hours with an uncle who was a great collector of the +books written by Montaigne, the great French essayist of the +sixteenth century. Because I was born in Rotterdam and +educated in the city of Gouda, I ran continually across +Erasmus and for some unknown reason this great exponent +of tolerance took hold of my intolerant self. Later I discovered +Anatole France and my first experience with the English +language came about through an accidental encounter with +Thackeray's ``Henry Esmond,'' a story which made more impression +upon me than any other book in the English language. + +If I had been born in a pleasant middle western city I probably +should have a certain affection for the hymns which I had +heard in my childhood. But my earliest recollection of music +goes back to the afternoon when my Mother took me to hear +nothing less than a Bach fugue. And the mathematical perfection +of the great Protestant master influenced me to such +an extent that I cannot hear the usual hymns of our prayer- +meetings without a feeling of intense agony and direct pain. + +Again, if I had been born in Italy and had been warmed +by the sunshine of the happy valley of the Arno, I might love +many colourful and sunny pictures which now leave me indifferent +because I got my first artistic impressions in a country +where the rare sun beats down upon the rain-soaked land with +almost cruel brutality and throws everything into violent contrasts +of dark and light. + +I state these few facts deliberately that you may know +the personal bias of the man who wrote this history and may +understand his point-of-view. The bibliography at the end of +this book, which represents all sorts of opinions and views, will +allow you to compare my ideas with those of other people. +And in this way, you will be able to reach your own final +conclusions with a greater degree of fairness than would +otherwise be possible. + +After this short but necessary excursion, we return to the +history of the last fifty years. Many things happened during +this period but very little occurred which at the time seemed +to be of paramount importance. The majority of the greater +powers ceased to be mere political agencies and became large +business enterprises. They built railroads. They founded and +subsidized steam-ship lines to all parts of the world. They +connected their different possessions with telegraph wires. +And they steadily increased their holdings in other continents. +Every available bit of African or Asiatic territory was claimed +by one of the rival powers. France became a colonial nation +with interests in Algiers and Madagascar and Annam and +Tonkin (in eastern Asia). Germany claimed parts of southwest +and east Africa, built settlements in Kameroon on the +west coast of Africa and in New Guinea and many of the +islands of the Pacific, and used the murder of a few missionaries +as a welcome excuse to take the harbour of Kisochau on the +Yellow Sea in China. Italy tried her luck in Abyssinia, was +disastrously defeated by the soldiers of the Negus, and consoled +herself by occupying the Turkish possessions in Tripoli +in northern Africa. Russia, having occupied all of Siberia, +took Port Arthur away from China. Japan, having defeated +China in the war of 1895, occupied the island of Formosa and +in the year 1905 began to lay claim to the entire empire of +Corea. In the year 1883 England, the largest colonial empire +the world has ever seen, undertook to ``protect'' Egypt. She +performed this task most efficiently and to the great material +benefit of that much neglected country, which ever since the +opening of the Suez canal in 1868 had been threatened with a +foreign invasion. During the next thirty years she fought a +number of colonial wars in different parts of the world and in +1902 (after three years of bitter fighting) she conquered the +independent Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange +Free State. Meanwhile she had encouraged Cecil Rhodes to +lay the foundations for a great African state, which reached +from the Cape almost to the mouth of the Nile, and had faithfully +picked up such islands or provinces as had been left without +a European owner. + +The shrewd king of Belgium, by name Leopold, used +the discoveries of Henry Stanley to found the Congo Free +State in the year 1885. Originally this gigantic tropical empire +was an ``absolute monarchy.'' But after many years of +scandalous mismanagement, it was annexed by the Belgian +people who made it a colony (in the year 1908) and abolished +the terrible abuses which had been tolerated by this very +unscrupulous Majesty, who cared nothing for the fate of the +natives as long as he got his ivory and rubber. + +As for the United States, they had so much land that they +desired no further territory. But the terrible misrule of +Cuba, one of the last of the Spanish possessions in the western +hemisphere, practically forced the Washington government to +take action. After a short and rather uneventful war, the +Spaniards were driven out of Cuba and Puerto Rico and the +Philippines, and the two latter became colonies of the United +States. + +This economic development of the world was perfectly +natural. The increasing number of factories in England and +France and Germany needed an ever increasing amount of raw +materials and the equally increasing number of European +workers needed an ever increasing amount of food. Everywhere +the cry was for more and for richer markets, for more +easily accessible coal mines and iron mines and rubber plantations +and oil-wells, for greater supplies of wheat and grain. + +The purely political events of the European continent +dwindled to mere insignificance in the eyes of men who were +making plans for steamboat lines on Victoria Nyanza or +for railroads through the interior of Shantung. They knew +that many European questions still remained to be settled, but +they did not bother, and through sheer indifference and carelessness +they bestowed upon their descendants a terrible inheritance +of hate and misery. For untold centuries the south-eastern +corner of Europe had been the scene of rebellion and bloodshed. +During the seventies of the last century the people of +Serbia and Bulgaria and Montenegro and Roumania were once +more trying to gain their freedom and the Turks (with the +support of many of the western powers), were trying to prevent +this. + +After a period of particularly atrocious massacres in Bulgaria +in the year 1876, the Russian people lost all patience. +The Government was forced to intervene just as President McKinley +was obliged to go to Cuba and stop the shooting-squads +of General Weyler in Havana. In April of the year 1877 the +Russian armies crossed the Danube, stormed the Shipka pass, +and after the capture of Plevna, marched southward until they +reached the gates of Constantinople. Turkey appealed for +help to England. There were many English people who denounced +their government when it took the side of the Sultan. +But Disraeli (who had just made Queen Victoria Empress of +India and who loved the picturesque Turks while he hated the +Russians who were brutally cruel to the Jewish people within +their frontiers) decided to interfere. Russia was forced to +conclude the peace of San Stefano (1878) and the question of +the Balkans was left to a Congress which convened at Berlin +in June and July of the same year. + +This famous conference was entirely dominated by the personality +of Disraeli. Even Bismarck feared the clever old +man with his well-oiled curly hair and his supreme arrogance, +tempered by a cynical sense of humor and a marvellous gift +for flattery. At Berlin the British prime-minister carefully +watched over the fate of his friends the Turks. Montenegro, +Serbia and Roumania were recognised as independent kingdoms. +The principality of Bulgaria was given a semi-independent +status under Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a +nephew of Tsar Alexander II. But none of those countries +were given the chance to develop their powers and their resources +as they would have been able to do, had England been +less anxious about the fate of the Sultan, whose domains were +necessary to the safety of the British Empire as a bulwark +against further Russian aggression. + +To make matters worse, the congress allowed Austria to +take Bosnia and Herzegovina away from the Turks to be +``administered'' as part of the Habsburg domains. It is true +that Austria made an excellent job of it. The neglected provinces +were as well managed as the best of the British colonies, +and that is saying a great deal. But they were inhabited by +many Serbians. In older days they had been part of the great +Serbian empire of Stephan Dushan, who early in the fourteenth +century had defended western Europe against the invasions +of the Turks and whose capital of Uskub had been a +centre of civilisation one hundred and fifty years before Columbus +discovered the new lands of the west. The Serbians remem- +bered their ancient glory as who would not? They resented +the presence of the Austrians in two provinces, which, so they +felt, were theirs by every right of tradition. + +And it was in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, that the +archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was murdered +on June 28 of the year 1914. The assassin was a Serbian +student who had acted from purely patriotic motives. + +But the blame for this terrible catastrophe which was the +immediate, though not the only cause of the Great World War +did not lie with the half-crazy Serbian boy or his Austrian +victim. It must be traced back to the days of the famous +Berlin Conference when Europe was too busy building a material +civilisation to care about the aspirations and the dreams +of a forgotten race in a dreary corner of the old Balkan +peninsula. + + + +A NEW WORLD + +THE GREAT WAR WHICH WAS REALLY THE +STRUGGLE FOR A NEW AND +BETTER WORLD + + +THE Marquis de Condorcet was one of the noblest characters +among the small group of honest enthusiasts who were +responsible for the outbreak of the great French Revolution. +He had devoted his life to the cause of the poor and the unfortunate. +He had been one of the assistants of d'Alembert and +Diderot when they wrote their famous Encyclopedie. During +the first years of the Revolution he had been the leader of the +Moderate wing of the Convention. + +His tolerance, his kindliness, his stout common sense, had +made him an object of suspicion when the treason of the king +and the court clique had given the extreme radicals their chance +to get hold of the government and kill their opponents. +Condorcet was declared ``hors de loi,'' or outlawed, an outcast +who was henceforth at the mercy of every true patriot. His +friends offered to hide him at their own peril. Condorcet +refused to accept their sacrifice. He escaped and tried to reach +his home, where he might be safe. After three nights in the +open, torn and bleeding, he entered an inn and asked for some +food. The suspicious yokels searched him and in his pockets +they found a copy of Horace, the Latin poet. This showed +that their prisoner was a man of gentle breeding and had no +business upon the highroads at a time when every educated +person was regarded as an enemy of the Revolutionary state. +They took Condorcet and they bound him and they gagged +him and they threw him into the village lock-up, but in the +morning when the soldiers came to drag him back to Paris and +cut his head off, behold! he was dead. + +This man who had given all and had received nothing had +good reason to despair of the human race. But he has written +a few sentences which ring as true to-day as they did one +hundred and thirty years ago. I repeat them here for your +benefit. + +``Nature has set no limits to our hopes,'' he wrote, ``and +the picture of the human race, now freed from its chains and +marching with a firm tread on the road of truth and virtue +and happiness, offers to the philosopher a spectacle which +consoles him for the errors, for the crimes and the injustices +which still pollute and afflict this earth.'' + +The world has just passed through an agony of pain compared +to which the French Revolution was a mere incident. +The shock has been so great that it has killed the last spark of +hope in the breasts of millions of men. They were chanting a +hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter followed their +prayers for peace. ``Is it worth while,'' so they ask, ``to work +and slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed +beyond the stage of the earliest cave men?'' + +There is but one answer. + +That answer is ``Yes!'' + +The World War was a terrible calamity. But it did not +mean the end of things. On the contrary it brought about the +coming of a new day. + +It is easy to write a history of Greece and Rome or the +Middle Ages. The actors who played their parts upon that +long-forgotten stage are all dead. We can criticize them with +a cool head. The audience that applauded their efforts has +dispersed. Our remarks cannot possibly hurt their feelings. + +But it is very difficult to give a true account of contemporary +events. The problems that fill the minds of the people +with whom we pass through life, are our own problems, and +they hurt us too much or they please us too well to be described +with that fairness which is necessary when we are writing +history and not blowing the trumpet of propaganda. All +the same I shall endeavour to tell you why I agree with poor +Condorcet when he expressed his firm faith in a better future. + +Often before have I warned you against the false impression +which is created by the use of our so-called historical +epochs which divide the story of man into four parts, the ancient +world, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation, +and Modern Time. The last of these terms is the most +dangerous. The word ``modern'' implies that we, the people +of the twentieth century, are at the top of human achievement. +Fifty years ago the liberals of England who followed the leadership +of Gladstone felt that the problem of a truly representative +and democratic form of government had been solved forever +by the second great Reform Bill, which gave workmen +an equal share in the government with their employers. When +Disraeli and his conservative friends talked of a dangerous +``leap in the dark'' they answered ``No.'' They felt certain of +their cause and trusted that henceforth all classes of society +would co-operate to make the government of their common +country a success. Since then many things have happened, +and the few liberals who are still alive begin to understand +that they were mistaken. + +There is no definite answer to any historical problem. + +Every generation must fight the good fight anew or perish +as those sluggish animals of the prehistoric world have +perished. + +If you once get hold of this great truth you will get a new +and much broader view of life. Then, go one step further +and try to imagine yourself in the position of your own great- +great-grandchildren who will take your place in the year +10,000. They too will learn history. But what will they +think of those short four thousand years during which we have +kept a written record of our actions and of our thoughts? +They will think of Napoleon as a contemporary of Tiglath +Pileser, the Assyrian conqueror. Perhaps they will confuse +him with Jenghiz Khan or Alexander the Macedonian. The +great war which has just come to an end will appear in the light +of that long commercial conflict which settled the supremacy +of the Mediterranean when Rome and Carthage fought during +one hundred and twenty-eight years for the mastery of the sea. +The Balkan troubles of the 19th century (the struggle for +freedom of Serbia and Greece and Bulgaria and Montenegro) +to them will seem a continuation of the disordered conditions +caused by the Great Migrations. They will look at pictures +of the Rheims cathedral which only yesterday was destroyed +by German guns as we look upon a photograph of the Acropolis +ruined two hundred and fifty years ago during a war +between the Turks and the Venetians. They will regard the +fear of death, which is still common among many people, as a +childish superstition which was perhaps natural in a race of +men who had burned witches as late as the year 1692. Even +our hospitals and our laboratories and our operating rooms +of which we are so proud will look like slightly improved +workshops of alchemists and mediaeval surgeons. + +And the reason for all this is simple. We modern men and +women are not ``modern'' at all. On the contrary we still +belong to the last generations of the cave-dwellers. The foundation +for a new era was laid but yesterday. The human race +was given its first chance to become truly civilised when it took +courage to question all things and made ``knowledge and +understanding'' the foundation upon which to create a more +reasonable and sensible society of human beings. The Great +War was the ``growing-pain'' of this new world. + +For a long time to come people will write mighty books to +prove that this or that or the other person brought about the +war. The Socialists will publish volumes in which they will ac- +cuse the ``capitalists'' of having brought about the war for ``commercial +gain.'' The capitalists will answer that they lost infinitely +more through the war than they made--that their children +were among the first to go and fight and be killed--and +they will show how in every country the bankers tried their +very best to avert the outbreak of hostilities. French historians +will go through the register of German sins from the +days of Charlemagne until the days of William of Hohenzollern +and German historians will return the compliment and +will go through the list of French horrors from the days of +Charlemagne until the days of President Poincare. And +then they will establish to their own satisfaction that the other +fellow was guilty of ``causing the war.'' Statesmen, dead and +not yet dead, in all countries will take to their typewriters and +they will explain how they tried to avert hostilities and how +their wicked opponents forced them into it. + +The historian, a hundred years hence, will not bother about +these apologies and vindications. He will understand the real +nature of the underlying causes and he will know that personal +ambitions and personal wickedness and personal greed had very +little to do with the final outburst. The original mistake, which +was responsible for all this misery, was committed when our +scientists began to create a new world of steel and iron and +chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human mind is +slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known +sloth, and marches from one hundred to three hundred years +behind the small group of courageous leaders. + +A Zulu in a frock coat is still a Zulu. A dog trained to ride +a bicycle and smoke a pipe is still a dog. And a human being +with the mind of a sixteenth century tradesman driving a 1921 +Rolls-Royce is still a human being with the mind of a sixteenth +century tradesman. + +If you do not understand this at first, read it again. It +will become clearer to you in a moment and it will explain +many things that have happened these last six years. + +Perhaps I may give you another, more familiar, example, +to show you what I mean. In the movie theatres, jokes and +funny remarks are often thrown upon the screen. Watch the +audience the next time you have a chance. A few people seem +almost to inhale the words. It takes them but a second to read +the lines. Others are a bit slower. Still others take from +twenty to thirty seconds. Finally those men and women who +do not read any more than they can help, get the point when +the brighter ones among the audience have already begun to +decipher the next cut-in. It is not different in human life, +as I shall now show you. + +In a former chapter I have told you how the idea of the +Roman Empire continued to live for a thousand years after +the death of the last Roman Emperor. It caused the establishment +of a large number of ``imitation empires.'' It gave the +Bishops of Rome a chance to make themselves the head of the +entire church, because they represented the idea of Roman +world-supremacy. It drove a number of perfectly harmless +barbarian chieftains into a career of crime and endless warfare +because they were for ever under the spell of this magic +word ``Rome.'' All these people, Popes, Emperors and plain +fighting men were not very different from you or me. But +they lived in a world where the Roman tradition was a vital +issue something living--something which was remembered +clearly both by the father and the son and the grandson. And +so they struggled and sacrificed themselves for a cause which +to-day would not find a dozen recruits. + +In still another chapter I have told you how the great religious +wars took place more than a century after the first open +act of the Reformation and if you will compare the chapter +on the Thirty Years War with that on Inventions, you will see +that this ghastly butchery took place at a time when the first +clumsy steam engines were already puffing in the laboratories +of a number of French and German and English scientists. +But the world at large took no interest in these strange +contraptions, and went on with a grand theological discussion +which to-day causes yawns, but no anger. + +And so it goes. A thousand years from now, the historian +will use the same words about Europe of the out-going nine- +teenth century, and he will see how men were engaged upon +terrific nationalistic struggles while the laboratories all around +them were filled with serious folk who cared not one whit for +politics as long as they could force nature to surrender a few +more of her million secrets. + +You will gradually begin to understand what I am driving +at. The engineer and the scientist and the chemist, within a +single generation, filled Europe and America and Asia with +their vast machines, with their telegraphs, their flying machines, +their coal-tar products. They created a new world in which +time and space were reduced to complete insignificance. They +invented new products and they made these so cheap that almost +every one could buy them. I have told you all this before +but it certainly will bear repeating. + +To keep the ever increasing number of factories going, the +owners, who had also become the rulers of the land, needed raw +materials and coal. Especially coal. Meanwhile the mass of +the people were still thinking in terms of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries and clinging to the old notions of the +state as a dynastic or political organisation. This clumsy mediaeval +institution was then suddenly called upon to handle the +highly modern problems of a mechanical and industrial world. +It did its best, according to the rules of the game which had +been laid down centuries before. The different states created +enormous armies and gigantic navies which were used for the +purpose of acquiring new possessions in distant lands. Whereever{sic} +there was a tiny bit of land left, there arose an English or +a French or a German or a Russian colony. If the natives +objected, they were killed. In most cases they did not object, +and were allowed to live peacefully, provided they did not +interfere with the diamond mines or the coal mines or the oil +mines or the gold mines or the rubber plantations, and they +derived many benefits from the foreign occupation. + +Sometimes it happened that two states in search of raw +materials wanted the same piece of land at the same time. +Then there was a war. This occurred fifteen years ago when +Russia and Japan fought for the possession of certain terri- +tories which belonged to the Chinese people. Such conflicts, +however, were the exception. No one really desired to fight. +Indeed, the idea of fighting with armies and battleships and +submarines began to seem absurd to the men of the early 20th +century. They associated the idea of violence with the long- +ago age of unlimited monarchies and intriguing dynasties. +Every day they read in their papers of still further inventions, +of groups of English and American and German scientists who +were working together in perfect friendship for the purpose +of an advance in medicine or in astronomy. They lived in a +busy world of trade and of commerce and factories. But only +a few noticed that the development of the state, (of the gigantic +community of people who recognise certain common ideals,) +was lagging several hundred years behind. They tried to warn +the others. But the others were occupied with their own +affairs. + +I have used so many similes that I must apologise for bringing +in one more. The Ship of State (that old and trusted +expression which is ever new and always picturesque,) of the +Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans and the Venetians +and the merchant adventurers of the seventeenth century had +been a sturdy craft, constructed of well-seasoned wood, and +commanded by officers who knew both their crew and their +vessel and who understood the limitations of the art of navigating +which had been handed down to them by their ancestors. + +Then came the new age of iron and steel and machinery. +First one part, then another of the old ship of state was +changed. Her dimensions were increased. The sails were discarded +for steam. Better living quarters were established, but +more people were forced to go down into the stoke-hole, and +while the work was safe and fairly remunerative, they did not +like it as well as their old and more dangerous job in the +rigging. Finally, and almost imperceptibly, the old wooden +square-rigger had been transformed into a modern ocean liner. +But the captain and the mates remained the same. They were +appointed or elected in the same way as a hundred years before. +They were taught the same system of navigation which +had served the mariners of the fifteenth century. In their +cabins hung the same charts and signal flags which had done +service in the days of Louis XIV and Frederick the Great. +In short, they were (through no fault of their own) completely +incompetent. + +The sea of international politics is not very broad. When +those Imperial and Colonial liners began to try and outrun +each other, accidents were bound to happen. They did happen. +You can still see the wreckage if you venture to pass +through that part of the ocean. + +And the moral of the story is a simple one. The world is +in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership-- +who will have the courage of their own visions and who will +recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the +voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of seamanship. + +They will have to serve for years as mere apprentices. +They will have to fight their way to the top against every possible +form of opposition. When they reach the bridge, mutiny +of an envious crew may cause their death. But some day, a +man will arise who will bring the vessel safely to port, and he +shall be the hero of the ages. + + + +AS IT EVER SHALL BE + +``The more I think of the problems of our lives, the more I am +``persuaded that we ought to choose Irony and Pity for our +``assessors and judges as the ancient Egyptians called upon +``the Goddess Isis and the Goddess Nephtys on behalf of their +``dead. +``Irony and Pity are both of good counsel; the first with her +``smiles makes life agreeable; the other sanctifies it with her +``tears. +``The Irony which I invoke is no cruel Deity. She mocks +``neither love nor beauty. She is gentle and kindly disposed. +``Her mirth disarms and it is she who teaches us to laugh at +``rogues and fools, whom but for her we might be so weak as +``to despise and hate.'' + +And with these wise words of a very great Frenchman I +bid you farewell. +8 Barrow Street, New York. +Saturday, June 26, xxi. + + +AN ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY, +500,000 B.C.--A.D. 1922 + + +THE END + + + +CONCERNING THE PICTURES + +CONCERNING THE PICTURES OF THIS BOOK AND A FEW +WORDS ABOUT THE BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +The day of the historical textbook without illustrations has gone. +Pictures and photographs of famous personages and equally famous +occurrences cover the pages of Breasted and Robinson and Beard. In +this volume the photographs have been omitted to make room for a +series of home-made drawings which represent ideas rather than events. + +While the author lays no claim to great artistic excellence (being +possessed of a decided leaning towards drawing as a child, he was +taught to play the violin as a matter of discipline,) he prefers to +make his own maps and sketches because he knows exactly what he +wants to say and cannot possibly explain this meaning to his more +proficient brethren in the field of art. Besides, the pictures were all +drawn for children and their ideas of art are very different from those +of their parents. + +To all teachers the author would give this advice--let your boys and +girls draw their history after their own desire just as often as you have +a chance. You can show a class a photograph of a Greek temple or a +mediaeval castle and the class will dutifully say, ``Yes, Ma'am,'' and +proceed to forget all about it. But make the Greek temple or the +Roman castle the centre of an event, tell the boys to make their own +picture of ``the building of a temple,'' or ``the storming of the castle,'' +and they will stay after school-hours to finish the job. Most children, +before they are taught how to draw from plaster casts, can draw after +a fashion, and often they can draw remarkably well. The product of +their pencil may look a bit prehistoric. It may even resemble the +work of certain native tribes from the upper Congo. But the child is +quite frequently prehistoric or upper-Congoish in his or her own tastes, +and expresses these primitive instincts with a most astonishing accuracy. + +The main thing in teaching history, is that the pupil shall remember +certain events ``in their proper sequence.'' The experiments of +many years in the Children's School of New York has convinced the +author that few children will ever forget what they have drawn, while +very few will ever remember what they have merely read. + +It is the same with the maps. Give the child an ordinary conventional +map with dots and lines and green seas and tell him to revaluate +that geographic scene in his or her own terms. The mountains will be +a bit out of gear and the cities will look astonishingly mediaeval. The +outlines will be often very imperfect, but the general effect will be +quite as truthful as that of our conventional maps, which ever since +the days of good Gerardus Mercator have told a strangely erroneous +story. Most important of all, it will give the child a feeling of intimacy +with historical and geographic facts which cannot be obtained in any +other way. + +Neither the publishers nor the author claim that ``The Story of Mankind'' +is the last word to be said upon the subject of history for children. +It is an appetizer. The book tries to present the subject in such +a fashion that the average child shall get a taste for History and shall +ask for more. + +To facilitate the work of both parents and teachers, the publishers +have asked Miss Leonore St. John Power (who knows more upon this +particular subject than any one else they could discover) to compile a +list of readable and instructive books. + +The list was made and was duly printed. + +The parents who live near our big cities will experience no difficulty +in ordering these volumes from their booksellers. Those who +for the sake of fresh air and quiet, dwell in more remote spots, may +not find it convenient to go to a book-store. In that case, Boni and +Liveright will be happy to act as middle-man and obtain the books +that are desired. They want it to be distinctly understood that +they have not gone into the retail book business, but they are quite +willing to do their share towards a better and more general historical +education, and all orders will receive their immediate attention. + + + +AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN + + +``Don't stop (I say) to explain that Hebe was (for once) the +``legitimate daughter of Zeus and, as such, had the privilege to draw +``wine for the Gods. Don't even stop, just yet, to explain who the +``Gods were. Don't discourse on amber, otherwise ambergris; don't +``explain that `gris' in this connection doesn't mean `grease'; don't +``trace it through the Arabic into Noah's Ark; don't prove its electrical +``properties by tearing up paper into little bits and attracting them +``with the mouth-piece of your pipe rubbed on your sleeve. Don't +``insist philologically that when every shepherd `tells his tale' he is not +``relating an anecdote but simply keeping `tally' of his flock. Just go +``on reading, as well as you can, and be sure that when the children +``get the thrill of the story, for which you wait, they will be asking +``more questions, and pertinent ones, than you are able to answer.-- +(``On the Art of Reading for Children,'' by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.) + + +The Days Before History + + +``How the Present Came From the Past,'' by Margaret E. Wells, +Volume I. + +How earliest man learned to make tools and build homes, and the +stories he told about the fire-makers, the sun and the frost. A simple, +illustrated account of these things for children. +``The Story of Ab, by Stanley Waterloo. + +A romantic tale of the time of the cave-man. (A much simplified +edition of this for little children is ``Ab, the Cave Man'' adapted by +William Lewis Nida.) +``Industrial and Social History Series,'' by Katharine E. Dopp. + +``The Tree Dwellers--The Age of Fear'' + +``The Early Cave-Men--The Age of Combat'' + +``The Later Cave-Men--The Age of the Chase'' + +``The Early Sea People--First Steps in the Conquest of the Waters'' + +``The Tent-Dwellers--The Early Fishing Men'' + +Very simple stories of the way in which man learned how to make +pottery, how to weave and spin, and how to conquer land and sea. + +``Ancient Man,'' written and drawn and done into colour by Hendrik + Willem van Loon. + +The beginning of civilisations pictured and written in a new and +fascinating fashion, with story maps showing exactly what happened in +all parts of the world. A book for children of all ages. + + +The Dawn of History + +``The Civilisation of the Ancient Egyptians,'' by A. Bothwell Gosse. + +``No country possesses so many wonders, and has such a number +of works which defy description.'' An excellent, profusely illustrated +account of the domestic life, amusements, art, religion and occupations +of these wonderful people. +``How the Present Came From the Past,'' by Margaret E. Wells, + Volume II. + +What the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and the +Persians contributed to civilisation. This is brief and simple and may +be used as a first book on the subject. + +``Stories of Egyptian Gods and Heroes,'' by F. H. Brooksbank. + +The beliefs of the Egyptians, the legend of Isis and Osiris, the +builders of the Pyramids and the Temples, the Riddle of the Sphinx, all +add to the fascination of this romantic picture of Egypt. + +``Wonder Tales of the Ancient World,'' by Rev. James Baikie. + +Tales of the Wizards, Tales of Travel and Adventure, and Legends +of the Gods all gathered from ancient Egyptian literature. + +``Ancient Assyria,'' by Rev. James Baikie. + +Which tells of a city 2800 years ago with a street lined with beautiful +enamelled reliefs, and with libraries of clay. + +``The Bible for Young People,'' arranged from the King James version, +with twenty-four full page illustrations from old masters. + +``Old, Old Tales From the Old, Old Book,'' by Nora Archibald Smith. + +``Written in the East these characters live forever in the West-- +they pervade the world.'' A good rendering of the Old Testament. +``The Jewish Fairy Book,'' translated and adapted by Gerald Friedlander. + +Stories of great nobility and beauty from the Talmud and the old +Jewish chap-books. +``Eastern Stories and Legends,'' by Marie L. Shedlock. + +``The soldiers of Alexander who had settled in the East, wandering +merchants of many nations and climes, crusading knights and hermits +brought these Buddha Stories from the East to the West.'' + + +Stories of Greece and Rome +``The Story of the Golden Age,'' by James Baldwin. + +Some of the most beautiful of the old Greek myths woven into the +story of the Odyssey make this book a good introduction to the glories +of the Golden Age. +``A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales,'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, +with pictures by Maxfield Parrish. + +``The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy,'' by Padraic +Colum, presented by Willy Pogany. + +An attractive, poetically rendered account of ``the world's greatest +story.'' + +``The Story of Rome,'' by Mary Macgregor, with twenty plates in +colour. + +Attractively illustrated and simply presented story of Rome from +the earliest times to the death of Augustus. + +``Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls,'' retold by W. H. Weston. +``The Lays of Ancient Rome,'' by Lord Macaulay. + +``The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything +else in Latin Literature.'' + +``Children of the Dawn,'' by Elsie Finnemore Buckley. + +Old Greek tales of love, adventure, heroism, skill, achievement, or +defeat exceptionally well told. Especially recommended for girls. + +``The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children,'' by Charles +Kingsley. + +``The Story of Greece,'' by Mary Macgregor, with nineteen plates in +colour by Walter Crane. + +Attractively illustrated and simply presented--a good book to +begin on. + + +Christianity + +``The Story of Jesus,'' pictures from paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, +Duccio, Ghirlandais, and Barnja-da-Siena. Descriptive text +from the New Testament, selected and arranged by Ethel Natalie +Dana. + +A beautiful book and a beautiful way to present the Christ Story. +``A Child's Book of Saints,'' by William Canton. + +Sympathetically told and charmingly written stories of men and +women whose faith brought about strange miracles, and whose goodness +to man and beast set the world wondering. +``The Seven Champions of Christendom,'' edited by F. J. H. Darton. + +How the knights of old--St. George of England, St. Denis of +France, St. James of Spain, and others--fought with enchanters and +evil spirits to preserve the Kingdom of God. Fine old romances interestingly +told for children. +``Stories From the Christian East,'' by Stephen Gaselee. + +Unusual stories which have been translated from the Coptic, the +Greek, the Latin and the Ethiopic. +``Jerusalem and the Crusades,'' by Estelle Blyth, with eight plates in +colour. + +Historical stories telling how children and priests, hermits and +knights all strove to keep the Cross in the East. + + +Stories of Legend and Chivalry + +``Stories of Norse Heroes From the Eddas and Sagas,'' retold by E. M. +Wilmot-Buxton. + +These are tales which the Northmen tell concerning the wisdom of +All-Father Odin, and how all things began and how they ended. A +good book for all children, and for story-tellers. +``The Story of Siegfried,'' by James Baldwin. + +A good introduction to this Northern hero whose strange and +daring deeds fill the pages of the old sagas. +``The Story of King Arthur and His Knights,'' written and illustrated +by Howard Pyle. + +This, and the companion volumes, ``The Story of the Champions of +the Round Table,'' ``The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions,'' +``The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur,'' form an incomparable +collection for children. +``The Boy's King Arthur,'' edited by Sidney Lanier, illustrated by N. +C. Wyeth. + +A very good rendering of Malory's King Arthur, made especially +attractive by the coloured illustrations. +``Irish Fairy Tales,'' by James Stephens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. + +Beautifully pictured and poetically told legends of Ireland's epic +hero Fionn. A book for the boy or girl who loves the old romances, +and a book for story-telling or reading aloud. +``Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France,'' by A. J. +Church. + +Stories from the old French and English chronicles showing the +romantic glamour surrounding the great Charlemagne and his crusading +knights. +``The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,'' written and illustrated by +Howard Pyle. + +Both in picture and in story this book holds first place in the hearts +of children. +``A Book of Ballad Stories,'' by Mary Macleod. + +Good prose versions of some of the famous old ballads sung by the +minstrels of England and Scotland. +``The Story of Roland,'' by James Baldwin. + +``There is, in short, no country in Europe, and no language, in +which the exploits of Charlemagne and Roland have not at some time +been recounted and sung.'' This book will serve as a good introduction +to a fine heroic character. +``The Boy's Froissart,'' being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of Adventure, +Battle, and Custom in England, France, Spain. + +``Froissart sets the boy's mind upon manhood and the man's mind +upon boyhood.'' An invaluable background for the future study of +history. +``The Boy's Percy,'' being old ballads of War, Adventure and Love +from Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, edited by +Sidney Lanier. + +``He who walks in the way these following ballads point, will be +manful in necessary fight, loyal in love, generous to the poor, tender in +the household, prudent in living, merry upon occasion, and honest in +all things.'' +``Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims,'' retold from Chaucer and others +by E. J H. Darton. + +``Sometimes a pilgrimage seemed nothing but an excuse for a +lively and pleasant holiday, and the travellers often made themselves +very merry on the road, with their jests and songs, and their flutes +and fiddles and bagpipes.'' A good prose version much enjoyed by boys +and girls. +``Joan of Arc,'' written and illustrated by M. Boutet de Monvel. + +A very fine interpretation of the life of this great heroine. A book +to be owned by every boy and girl. +``When Knights Were Bold,'' by Eva March Tappan. + +Telling of the training of a knight, of the daily life in a castle, of +pilgrimages and crusades, of merchant guilds, of schools and literature, +in short, a full picture of life in the days of chivalry. A good +book to supplement the romantic stories of the time. + + +Adventurers in New Worlds + +``A Book of Discovery,'' by M. B. Synge, fully illustrated from authentic +sources and with maps. + +A thoroughly fascinating book about the world's exploration from +the earliest times to the discovery of the South Pole. A book to be +owned by older boys and girls who like true tales of adventure. +``A Short History of Discovery From the Earliest Times to the Founding +of the Colonies on the American Continent,'' written and +done into colour by Hendrik Willem van Loon. + +``Dear Children: History is the most fascinating and entertaining +and instructive of arts.'' A book to delight children of all ages. +``The Story of Marco Polo,'' by Noah Brooks. +``Olaf the Glorious,'' by Robert Leighton. + +An historical story of the Viking age. +``The Conquerors of Mexico,'' retold from Prescott's ``Conquest of +Mexico,'' by Henry Gilbert. +``The Conquerors of Peru,'' retold from Prescott's ``Conquest of Peru,'' +by Henry Gilbert. +``Vikings of the Pacific,'' by A. C. Laut. + +Adventures of Bering the Dane; the outlaw hunters of Russia; +Benyowsky, the Polish pirate; Cook and Vancouver; Drake, and other +soldiers of fortune on the West Coast of America. +``The Argonauts of Faith,'' by Basil Mathews. + +The Adventures of the ``Mayflower'' Pilgrims. +``Pathfinders of the West,'' by A. C. Laut. + +The thrilling story of the adventures of the men who discovered the +great Northwest. + +``Beyond the Old Frontier,'' by George Bird Grinnell. + +Adventures of Indian Fighters, Hunters, and Fur-Traders on the +Pacific Coast. +``A History of Travel in America,'' by Seymour Dunbar, illustrated +from old woodcuts and engravings. 4 volumes. + +An interesting book for children who wish to understand the problems +and difficulties their grandfathers had in the conquest of the West. +This is a standard book upon the subject of early travel, but is so +readable as to be of interest to older children. + +``The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators,'' by Hendrik Willem van +Loon. Fully illustrated from old prints. + + +The World's Progress in Invention--Art--Music. + +``Gabriel and the Hour Book,'' by Evaleen Stein. + +How a boy learned from the monks how to grind and mix the colours +for illuminating the beautiful hand-printed books of the time and how +he himself made books that are now treasured in the museums of France +and England. +``Historic Inventions,'' by Rupert S. Holland. + +Stories of the invention of printing, the steam-engine, the spinning- +jenny, the safety-lamp, the sewing machine, electric light, and other +wonders of mechanism. +``A History of Everyday Things in England,'' written and illustrated +by Marjorie and C. V. B. Quennell. 2 Volumes. + +A most fascinating book, profusely illustrated in black and white +and in colour, giving a vivid picture of life in England from 1066-1799. +It tells of wars and of home-life, of amusements and occupations, of +art and literature, of science and invention. A book to be owned by +every boy and girl. +``First Steps in the Enjoyment of Pictures,'' by Maude I. G. Oliver. + +A book designed to help children in their appreciation of art by giving +them technical knowledge of the media, the draughtsmanship, the +composition and the technique of well-known American pictures. +``Knights of Art,'' by Amy Steedman. + +Stories of Italian Painters. Attractively illustrated in colour from +old masters. +``Masters of Music,'' by Anna Alice Chapin. +``Story Lives of Men of Science,'' by F. J. Rowbotham. +``All About Treasures of the Earth,'' by Frederick A. Talbot. + +A book that tells many interesting things about coal, salt, iron, +rare metals and precious stones. +``The Boys' Book of New Inventions,'' by Harry E. Maule. + +An account of the machines and mechancial{sic} processes that are +making the history of our time more dramatic than that of any other +age since the world began. +``Masters of Space,'' by Walter Kellogg Towers. + +Stories of the wonders of telegraphing through the air and beneath +the sea with signals, and of speaking across continents. +``All About Railways,'' by F. S. Hartnell. +``The Man-of-War, What She Has Done and What She Is Doing,'' +by Commander E. Hamilton Currey. + +True stories about galleys and pirate ships, about the Spanish +Main and famous frigates, and about slave-hunting expeditions in the +days of old. + + +The Democracy of To-Day. + +``The Land of Fair Play,'' by Geoffrey Parsons. + +``This book aims to make clear the great, unseen services that +America renders each of us, and the active devotion each of us must +yield in return for America to endure.'' An excellent book on our +government for boys and girls. +``The American Idea as Expounded by American Statesmen,'' compiled +by Joseph B. Gilder. + +A good collection, including The Declaration of Independence, The +Constitution of the United States, the Monroe Doctrine, and the +famous speeches of Washington, Lincoln, Webster and Roosevelt. +``The Making of an American,'' by Jacob A. Riis. + +The true story of a Danish boy who became one of America's finest +citizens. +``The Promised Land,'' by Mary Antin. + +A true story about a little immigrant. ``Before we came, the New +World knew not the Old; but since we have begun to come, the +Young World has taken the Old by the hand, and the two are learning +to march side by side, seeking a common destiny.'' + + +Illustrated Histories in French. + +(The colourful and graphic pictures make these histories beloved by +all children whether they read the text or not.) +``Voyages et Glorieuses Decouvertes des Grands Navigateurs et Explorateurs +Francais, illustre par Edy Segrand.'' +``Collection d'Albums Historiques.'' +Louis XI, texte de Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de Job. +Francois I, texte de G. Gustave Toudouze, aquarelles de Job. +Henri IV, texte de Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de H. Yogel. +Richelieu, texte de Th. Cahu, aquarelles de Maurice Leloir. +Le Roy Soleil, texte de Gustave Toudouze, aquarelles de Mauriae +Leloir. +Bonaparte, texte de Georges Montorgueil, aquarelles de Job. +`Fabliaux et Contes du Moyen-Age''; illustrations de A. Robida + +INDEX {Not included} + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Story of Mankind + diff --git a/old/hmank10.zip b/old/hmank10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5496bef --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hmank10.zip |