122 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



history is synonymous with universal homicide. 

 And as the scales fall from our eyes we see our econ- 

 omic systems driven by the same inherent heredity, 

 not indeed clothed in the euphemisms with which 

 our textbooks have sought to robe them, but naked, 

 and rather, as Treitschke described them, the per- 

 manent types of this business of war in which men 

 stand continuously facing each other. 



Civilization, in short, has not arrived. The 

 characteristic power of civilization which renders 

 it irresistible has never been brought into action. 

 The stupendous potentiality of civilization as dis- 

 tinct from barbarism consists in its cultural or 

 collective heredity imposed on the rising generation 

 under suitable conditions. The most important 

 element in this, namely, the idealisms of mind and 

 spirit conveyed to the young of each generation 

 under the influence of the social passion, is absolutely 

 limitless in its effect. The power which is repre- 

 sented thereby is capable of creating a new world 

 in the lifetime of a generation. It is capable of 

 sweeping away in a single generation any existing 

 order of the world. But it has never been seen actu- 

 ally in being, directed and controlled by civilization. 



The recent fitful example of the reach of this 

 power in the astounding history of modern Germany 

 is the greatest event in modern history. But it is 



