Principles of western civilisation

68 WESTERN CIVILISATION CHAP.

of social philosophy from which those theories proceed, that we begin to realise something of the nature of the interval which is likely to separate the epoch in the history of Western thought through which we have lived from the period of change upon which we are entering.

As we proceed to spread before us, one after another, the maps of the systems of social and political theory constructed by most of the current schools of thought, it may be observed that they present a study of extraordinary interest. As we regard these systems attentively and notice the points of convergence and difference, and the ultimate relation of each to that central problem which they all discuss, we may observe, after a time, how that through nearly all of them there runs one leading idea. In whatever these systems of theory may differ, they nearly all resemble each other in one fact. They are engaged, we may distinguish, in stating the relations to each other of what is always the group of individuals comprised within the limits of political consciousness. Everywhere we encounter the same feature, namely, the theory of States and peoples, on the one hand, and of the classes, parties, and individuals comprising them, on the other, considered in all that pertains to the evolution of society, as moved and governed by one motive, namely, to serve their own ends according to their lights in the present time.

If we confine our attention at the outset to that modern movement of thought in which the endeavour has been made to formulate the principles behind the phenomena of Western democracy, we have this feature presented in a striking light.