366 THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
shake off the influence of great leading families to the extent to which 
this was done in some parts of Greece. Rome was, however, freer than 
Carthage, and accordingly we find that, while in Carthage there was 
little intellectual activity, apart from trade, in Rome there was some, 
and in Athens a great deal. 
The most interesting part of history is that which throws light 
upon the ideas and influencesfthat have borne sway over the minds 
of men. If we could gain a complete knowledge of these, we should 
easily be able to construct a philosophy of history, for the great move- 
ments of every age are due to these springs. The deed always exists 
in thought before it becomes fact ; and, though it would not be correct 
to say that humanity is conscious of the influences that sway it at 
any particular time, yet it is true that the historical facts of the next 
generation have now an immaterial, but no less real existence, in the 
tendencies of the modes of thinking, feeling, and acting of the pre- 
sent. Buckle has said that Shakspere helped much to make New- 
ton. I think that true, and I think that Newton has in his turn ex- 
ercised an influence on literature. To Newton, had he been born 
earlier, both the antecedent discoveries necessary to enable him to 
perform the work that he did, and the stimulus to do this work, would 
have been alike wanting. There were undoubtedly very many men 
of great ability in the middle ages ; but not one of them in any way 
materially advanced physical science during that period of a thousand 
or more years. 
There was, in fact, other work to be done in those times. Out of 
the disorganization resulting from the break-up of the Western Roman 
Empire, a new polity was to be developed. New common interests 
were to be created to bind together the various races and to override 
the differences which separated them. The history of Western Europe 
has since that time been increasingly one. In every period since then, 
and now more than ever, every important internal change in one of 
the civilized European states is found to affect the rest. In the middle 
ages, indeed, all Western and Central Europe tended, more and more, 
to become, and finally became one community, at the head of which 
was the Pope; and, though his religious headship has long since 
ceased to be recognized by some of the states, and Russia has forced 
her way into the circle, there is still a real oneness of civilization and 
interests. This oneness comes out in a remarkable manner when we 
consider the general movement of events in modern times, and this it 
