The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 43 



of defeat. Nothing is more useful than power. 

 Down with Law! Long live Force ! " 



For many centuries France had been a formi- 

 dable nation, belligerent, proud, and intoxi- 

 cated with success. Twice she had exercised 

 an incontestable dominance in Europe, under 

 Louis XIV. and under Napoleon. France had 

 used and abused force. She could not resign 

 herself to defeat. From this we can trace the 

 rise of a revanche party and the success of ' ' social 

 Darwinism" in France and we can understand 

 also the growing disfavour which befell ' ' Idealism " 

 — that is to say the political philosophy of jus- 

 tice — in the years immediately following 1870. 



The same circumstances explain the dominance 

 of the philosophy of force in Italy as in France. 

 "When at the epoch of the Risorgimento the different 

 states of Italy were finally formed into one na- 

 tion, they suffered, blow after blow, the bitterness 

 of defeat — at first at Custozza (1866) and then 

 at Lissa. In their period of "juvenile efferves- 

 cence," as Novikov calls it, the Italians had an 

 eager desire to make for themselves a place equal 

 to the other powers of Europe. Not being able 

 to obtain this, they were filled with bitter regret, 

 and the possession of force appeared to them also 

 to constitute the apex of human felicity. They 

 felt that a victory would exalt them as much as 

 a defeat had discouraged them. They believed 

 that after one or two brilliant victories they could 

 occupy immediately a position of the first rank 



