The Philosophy of History. 15 



his ability to grasp and to carry out an idea. The ideas which 

 have ruled man may be grouped in four classes. 



The most important ideas and the ones which have had most 

 effect on history, belong to the first class, that of religious ideas. 

 The history of ■modern Europe would not have been written at all 

 had it not been for Christianity, which recreated civilization. The 

 great Protestant movement of the sixteenth century has given 

 birth to Anglo Saxon freedom on both sides the Atlantic, and 

 has built up a new German Empire on the ruins of the old. And 

 the events of the past year are opening our eyes to the evil influ- 

 ence of the faith of Islam upon the destinies of the Orient. 



The second class of ideas are the ideas of government. Until 

 of late the history of the world was the history of its governments. 

 Monarchy, aristocracy and democracy have all had their cham- 

 pions and their martyrs. The divine right of kings, the divine 

 right of nobles and the divine right of majorities to rule, have 

 each, at times, controlled the destiny of nations, and have been 

 only less powerful than religious ideas in making history. 



The third class of ideas are those concerning the family ; whether 

 it shall be composed of one man and one woman, with their chil- 

 dren, or of one man and several women and their children, or of 

 one woman with several men and their children ; whether the 

 union shall be for lite, or at the pleasure of one or of both parties 

 to the marriage contract ; what shall be the position of the wife in 

 the household, as a slave or an equal ; what shall be the rule of 

 inheritance for the children ; what shall be the education of the 

 sons, to the father's business or to whatever business they are fit- 

 ted for; and the conceived analogies to the family found in the 

 clan or in the nation. The history of China or of Turkey cannot 

 be written without understanding the Chinese or the Turkish idea 

 of the family. No one can rightly understand the complete social 

 and political change in France since the revolution without study- 

 ing the effect of the Napoleonic law of inheritance. 



The fourth class are social causes, such as the tenure of lard, 

 the condition of the laboring classes, the state of general educa- 

 tion and of the higher education and the opportunities for rising 

 in life. No history of the Eoman republic can explain its speedy 



