COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



under Trajan than in the time of Polybios ; 

 that the sum of Latin and Teutonic strength in 

 the days of Charles Martel was greater than in 

 the days of Marcus Aurelius ; that the united 

 Europe of Pope Gregory VII. could have van- 

 quished the united Europe of Charles the Great, 

 but would have been no match for the united 

 Europe of Philip, Elizabeth, and Henry ; or 

 that the existing generation of Aryans in Eu- 

 rope and America represents a greater quantity 

 of military power than any previous generation. 

 This result is partly due to the mere increase 

 of the civilized communities in size and indus- 

 trial complexity, and partly to the integration, 

 over wider and wider areas, of communities pre- 

 viously isolated. But while there have been 

 periods of intermittence in the operation of 

 these social and political circumstances, as dur- 

 ing the Teutonic reconstruction of the Roman 

 Empire, the increase in total fighting power ap- 

 pears to have gone on without intermittence, 

 showing that it has been in great degree due 

 to a cause unremitting in its operation. That 

 cause has been natural selection. In the earlier 

 and ruder times it has operated through the 

 actual conquest of the weaker tribes, provinces, 

 or cities, by the stronger. In later and more 

 refined ages, the quieter but equally stringent 

 competition of nation with nation, involving 

 the possible conquest or relative humiliation of 



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