THE WORK OF IDEAS IN HUMAN EVOLUTION 543 



sents to the modern workman one of these magical and synthetic 

 formulas capable of ruling the mind. 



We may discuss the value of an idea from a philosophical 

 point of view ; but from the point of view of its influence such 

 discussion is without interest. The thing to be determined is not 

 its value, but the action it exerts upon minds. In scientific 

 affairs, the idea may have in itself a value independent of the time 

 when it originated, and may preserve it beyond that time. In 

 questions of institutions, creeds, morals, and government, the idea 

 never having any but a relative value, its success depends pri- 

 marily on the enthusiasm it inspires, and secondarily on the race 

 and epoch in which it originated. Christianity could never have 

 propagated itself till a particular epoch and among particular 

 peoples. When the idea represented by the word Csesarism 

 dawned upon the Roman world, it had become necessary, because 

 it survived its creator and every one of the persons who took his 

 place, notwithstanding most of them died violent deaths. Two 

 or three centuries earlier every effort to carry out such an idea 

 would have miscarried. In this age representative governments, 

 which are strongly rooted among some of the peoples of Europe, 

 could not subsist among others. 



The absolute truth of an idea is not, therefore, the thing to be 

 considered. The value of an idea is measured by its success, its 

 utility, or its danger, and these elements depend upon circum- 

 stances, media, and races. Only experience can demonstrate 

 whether an idea is opportune. The notion of national unity, 

 which is fundamental in modern politics, is very old, for Charle- 

 magne tried to put it in operation. It could not be carried into 

 the domain of facts, and the work of the great man perished with 

 him. The idea of absolute religious submission to a representa- 

 tive of divinity, residing in the capital of Christianity, was for a 

 long time an excellent one, but there came a time when, in the 

 face of the advance of knowledge, it was no longer acceptable, 

 and Philip II exhausted the force of his genius and the might of 

 Spain, then predominant, in vain contentions with the spirit of 

 free inquiry, which was then prevailing in Europe under the 

 name of the Reformation. 



The power of ideas, once fixed in the mind, is so great that no 

 person is able to arrest their progress. Their evolutions must 

 then inevitably be carried out, and all their consequences suf- 

 fered. Most frequently, as with the socialists of the present time, 

 their defenders are the ones marked to become their first victims. 

 They are no better than sheep which docilely follow their leader 

 to the slaughterhouse. We have to bow to the power of the 

 idea. When it has reached a certain period of its evolution, no 

 reasoning or demonstration can prevail against it. Centuries or 



