SOCIAL EXPANSION 367 



tion, is also too weak to compete with the expanding force of the 

 superior races whose progress is expressed in Western civilisation. 

 The profound words which Goethe puts into the mouth of Faust 

 remain eternally true : 



" Nur der verdient sioh Freiheit wie das Leben, 

 Der taglich sie erobern muss." 



It is always conflict that decides the fate of races, as of indi- 

 viduals ; and the race which does not possess the force of expan- 

 sion necessary to enter on the path of social evolution must 

 necessarily remain perpetually inferior to the race whose force 

 of expansion has created the greatest triumphs of social evolu- 

 tion. The labouring masses have attained a degree of power 

 which is adequate to their power of expansion ; they are admitted 

 to the rights of a consultative body in all matters concerning the 

 welfare of Western nations. But the executive power must, 

 for the present, at any rate, remain in the hands of those better 

 adapted for wielding it. The dark races of mankind, on the 

 other hand, have shown the inadequacy of their expansive 

 power to attain anything durable. Under the present con- 

 ditions of existence, the law of social evolution must needs be 

 that the societies which possess the greatest capacity for ex- 

 pansion will prevail in the struggle for power. And it is precisely 

 those societies whose expansive power is greatest whose social 

 evolution is also most greatly developed. For, as Bagehot has 

 pointed out, the most difficult and momentous step in the history 

 of human development has been taken by those peoples who, 

 having, in spite of incredible difficulties, acquired a social polity, 

 nevertheless possessed sufficient strength not to allow themselves 

 to be subsequently retarded by this polity, necessary as it was 

 in primitive times ; and who, breaking through the barriers set 

 up by this polity, entered resolutely upon the path of further 

 progress and development. Races thus capable of breaking 

 with the past, of severing themselves from an iron polity often 

 centuries old, must undoubtedly have been races of undeniable 



