Principles of western civilisation

I THE CLOSE OF AN ERA 19

which the genius of the English-speaking peoples has been identified during the modern period in history.

As, however, we watch the great movement of modern progress approaching our time, and follow the gradual development of the theory of society which accompanies it, we become conscious that we have in sight a phenomenon of altogether exceptional interest in the history of thought. We observe this characteristic principle in Western Liberalism, the ultimate effect of which was to project the controlling meaning of the evolutionary process beyond the control of all mere theories of the State, gradually sinking out of sight; until in the form in which the theory of social progress reaches us at last it has practically disappeared beneath the surface~of modern thought. It is the theory of the State alone which remains in view. The prevailing conception of modern progress has become, that is to say, no more than a conception of the adjustment of forces within the State—a mere theory, therefore, of the organisation of interests included within the limits of political consciousness. That characteristic principle which, as we now begin to dimly understand, must divide by a clear line of demarcation the meaning of our civilisation from that of the ancient world has disappeared. In the current theories of our social development it is as if we had been carried back twentythree centuries of history, and occupied once more the stand-point of the world in the Poktics of Aristotle.

As we look now at the problem which we see taking shape in our civilisation, the extraordinary