Chapter IX 

 The Ideal State 



" I will not cease from mental strife. 



Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, 

 Till I have built Jerusalem 



In England's green and pleasant land." 



William Blake. 



THE subject of history has never been taught 

 scientifically hitherto. The child is made to 

 acquire the names of kings and queens and the dates of 

 their accession and demise ; and thus finds it to be a 

 weariness to the flesh when the study might have been 

 made of absorbing interest. It is only in recent times 

 that attention has been drawn to its consideration from 

 the evolutionary standpoint, largely due to the genius 

 of Benjamin Kidd, who has shed the light by which 

 we are enabled to observe the slow progress upwards 

 from the " dark abysm of time " to the advanced stage 

 of science and civilisation at the present day. History, 

 in fact, has become a science, and all the observed 

 phenomena in the evolution of humanity are considered 

 in relation to one another. As Mr. Kidd has so ably 

 remarked : " Human history can no longer be regarded 

 as a bewildering exception to the reign of universal law 

 — a kind of solitary and mysterious island in the Cos- 

 mos, given over to strife and forces without clue or 

 meaning. Despite the complexity of the problems 

 encountered in history, we seem to have everywhere 



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