38 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



it is now the practice of all minorities to say that 

 they will concede nothing to the majority and to 

 threaten to carry on every controversy by violent 

 and extra-constitutional means." l 



This is the spirit, the effect of which meets us at 

 every turn in the times in which we are living. We 

 seem to see the male of the West under every form 

 of the activities of civilization enveloped in a kind 

 of monstrous aura of the fight which has become 

 essentially and profoundly atavistic. Speaking of 

 the current life of the West in the year before 

 the outbreak of the great world war, Mr. Harold 

 Begbie asserted : " Look where you will, it is the 

 spirit of I Myself which is paramount. Life exists 

 for Me : all the dim aeons behind have toiled to 

 produce Me : This brief moment in the eternal 

 duration of time is only an opportunity for My 

 pleasure and My ease : I care not a jot for the ages 

 ahead and the sons of men who shall inhabit the 

 earth when I am dust beneath their feet. Give Me 

 My Rights. Stand clear of My way. I want and 

 I will have/' 2 



The questions which leap into view at this point 

 cannot be avoided. What is the meaning of this 

 tremendous process of life which under all these 



1 Westminster Gazette, 30 July 1913. 

 1 The Weakest Link. p. 43. 



