176 Spiritual Evolution of Society 



temporising defence. The practical consequence is 

 of great significance. It is that the development in 

 which the excluded masses of the people are being 

 brought into the competition of life on a footing of 

 equality of opportunity, is proceeding and will ap- 

 parently continue to proceed in Great Britain, not by 

 the violent stages of Revolution, but a gradual and 

 orderly process of social change. . . . The great pro- 

 cess is proceeding as a natural and orderly develop- 

 ment — we are adapting the old institutions to the new 

 wants. This is the real secret of that political genius 

 which the Anglo-Saxon peoples are now displaying. 

 When we turn to peoples amongst whom the Latin 

 form of Christianity prevails, we find that the situation 

 is not exactly the same. The profound change in 

 social character has not proceeded so far. The deepen- 

 ing of individual character, resulting in a certain 

 inbred sense of integrity, which has rendered the 

 sense of wrong intolerable, and the softening process 

 which has made the Anglo-Saxon peoples so sensitive 

 to the sights of misery or suffering, have not pro- 

 gressed to the same extent. The struggle among the 

 peoples who have not been so deeply affected by the 

 humanitarian movement tends to become more a sel- 

 fish trial of strength in which each party is determinedly 

 and bitterly fighting for its own material interests, 

 and in which the issue swings, according to the relative 

 strength of the opponents, between successful resistance 

 on the one hand and successful revolution on the 

 other." 



We have given this long extract to prove the fallacy 

 in Mr. Machen's statement and also to show the enlight- 

 enment which attends the scientific study of history. 

 Moreover, the passages quoted have a most important 

 bearing upon the social amelioration of the people and 

 the altruistic influences at work as a result of the 



