CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 



one by another, has caused a considerable pro- 

 portion of the ever-accumulating intellectual and 

 industrial acquirements of each nation to be ex- 

 pended (or, as Mr. Bagehot more happily says, 

 " invested ") in an increase of military strength. 

 From the cooperation of these circumstances 

 the aggregate physical strength of civilized so- 

 ciety has increased so enormously that in com- 

 parison with the military events of our time, the 

 military events of antiquity seem like mere 

 child's play, if we look at physical dimensions 

 alone, and not at world - historic significance. 

 Ignoring the latter point of view, Mr. Robert 

 Lowe has maintained that the battle of Mara- 

 thon was an event of less importance than " a 

 good colliery accident," because, forsooth, only 

 192 lives were lost on the side of the Greeks !^ 

 To him, however, who has acquired the habit of 

 looking at European history as one connected 

 whole, it will not seem extravagant to say that 

 contemporary English civilization is indebted to 

 the victory of Marathon in a far higher degree 

 than to the victories of Crecy or Agincourt, 

 or even of Waterloo. The immense relative 

 importance of some of these ancient military 

 events of small dimensions is due to the fact 

 that the military strength was not then concen- 

 trated in the most highly civilized communi- 

 ties, as it is in modern times. In antiquity there 

 ^ See Freeman, Comparative Politics ^ p. 498. 

 II 



