Principles of western civilisation

Igo WESTERN CIVILISATION CHAP.

standards of public law and order. But we see that there is an altogether deeper explanation than this. In a condition of civilisation in which life was not simply of less account, but in which the lives of children and of slaves were at the absolute disposal, even to death, of the parent or master ; in which the absolute rights of the head of the family were such as were included in the Roman patria potestas, and those of the husband such as the Roman manus involved ; in which the exposure of children and infanticide were usual practices which called for no condemnation ;—we are in the presence of principles which mark not simply a difference of degree, but one of kind, from the standards of the civilisation of our era. What has to be noted is the complete absence of that assumption, deep, potent, and all-pervading in its effects, which underlies all the outward standards of the civilisation of our time—the assumption that, in the last resort, the life of the individual is related to ends and principles which entirely transcend the objects for which the political organisation around us itself exists. The same difference in principle underlies all forms and institutions which, because of common names or outward resemblances, are often compared with those in the civilisation of our era. In the hard fought struggle for liberty in all its aspects, which has projected itself through the history of our later civilisation, liberty is often spoken of as if it were merely related to the principles which governed the State when the State, as in the ancient civilisations, still embraced the whole life of the individual. But there was completely absent in the ancient State that distinctive principle which has