POWER IN CIVILIZATION 109 



their interests. It was a change so profoundly 

 and dynamically affecting the entire German nation 

 in its attitude to the world that it has already 

 influenced to an incalculable degree the history of 

 civilization. 



All this, it must be remembered, was accomplished 

 by a ruling class in Germany almost exclusively 

 in pursuit of those ideals of war described in the 

 previous chapter. But, quite apart from the nature 

 of the ideals involved hi the change, it is the fact 

 of the change itself, its thoroughness, its com- 

 pleteness, its universality, and its suddenness, 

 which are to be noted here as a phenomenon of an 

 importance of the very first order. 



A revolution of a different character which has 

 taken place under similar circumstances in the 

 psychology of another nation in almost as brief a 

 period is even more remarkable. In the Japanese 

 people the West has beheld an Eastern nation 

 within the space of less than two generations pass 

 through the whole interval which separates feudalism 

 from modern conditions. In this space of time, a 

 change in general habits, in social and mental 

 outlook, and in national consciousness, was accom- 

 plished as by the wand of a conjurer. The new 

 social inheritance thus almost suddenly acquired 

 has been so transforming in its effects and has so 



