POSITION IN THE WEST 157 



and most prolonged process of military selection in 

 the world. For thousands of years before the dawn 

 of history the West has been the seat of the highest 

 expression of force representing the highest ex- 

 pression of the individual efficient in the fight for 

 his own interests. The consequences of this fact 

 are felt to-day throughout every fibre of Western 

 civilization. It is the qualities of the fight (the 

 qualities, that is to say, dominant in the age of 

 evolution when the universal effort of the efficient 

 individual of the race was for A to endeavour to 

 kill B before B was able to kill A) which survive in 

 overwhelming strength in all Western institutions. 



If we turn now and regard the collective attempts 

 made in the history of the West to employ the 

 emotion of the ideal collectively as a creative and 

 transforming cause in relation to the cultural inherit- 

 ance of civilization, the spectacle which is presented 

 in these conditions has most remarkable features. 



By far the greatest attempt hitherto made by the 

 West to apply the emotion of the ideal to the 

 cultural inheritance of civilization has been made 

 through Christianity. In this religion the social 

 passion transfigures and transcends all other emotions. 

 The sanction for sacrifice is the greatest that can be 

 conceived. Christianity was accepted by the West, 

 and has been for centuries taught by the West 



