Principles of western civilisation

250 WESTERN CIVILISATION CHAP.

in the present time. No tyranny, therefore, within which the present could cramp the free play of human energies, could ever be so overwhelming as that which appears to present itself as lying latent and involved in the concept that what is defined as spiritual welfare is of more importance than temporal interests.

Nay more, we even see that the more firmly the conviction is held by the human mind, that what is called temporal welfare is inferior to what is called spiritual welfare, the more overwhelming, to all appearance, must the new tyranny become. In the first era of evolution there was at least a rivalry of forms through which the present expressed itself. But now, if it is to be actually believed that temporal welfare is no longer to be compared in importance to what are called spiritual interests ; then it would appear that all the tyrannies of the past must merge themselves in one. In art, in literature, in morals, in the State, in religion itself, when we stand in the presence of the concept that the present is no longer of the first importance, there can, apparently, never be in the present that free conflict of forces out of which the larger future can alone be evolved. A new tyranny, different from any in the past, must apparently absorb all other tyrannies, and must in the end become greater than them all.

Here we have emerged into the presence of the central problem which begins to underlie the unfolding of the human mind in our civilisation. No other of equal interest has hitherto presented itself. To its definition nearly all the leading events of the Middle Ages contribute their meaning. Along what