Principles of western civilisation

x THE MODERN WORLD-CONFLICT 347

was traced through Western history in the previous chapters has come in its modern form to draw into its influence the entire practical affairs of the world. The conditions of almost every form of human activity have, almost insensibly, passed under the control of a new ruling principle in the evolutionary process. In the first result, they may already be perceived to have become intensified beyond any standard that has ever prevailed in the world before. It matters not from what side we take up the examination, the facts continue to point in the same direction, and the culminating effect on the mind is in the highest degree impressive.

If attention is directed at first to the domain of abstract thought, it may be perceived that the result attained in the conditions which prevail at the present day in the English-speaking world is very remarkable. By the necessary tolerance of each other of many conflicting views; behind all of which there exists the all-pervading influence of the principleof necessity tacitly accepted even by individuals who reject the premises—that, while truth is to be considered, on the one hand, as transcending the content of any welfare comprised within the bounds of political consciousness, it is only to be conceived, on the other, as the net resultant of forces and standards apparently in themselves conflicting; there has been almost imperceptibly developed an entirely new attitude of the human mind towards every system of action, of power, of knowledge, and of opinion, representing itself for the time being as the embodiment of a principle claiming general assent.

The first large outward expression of this attitude, as a working principle in the political life of our