The Ideal State 217 



and the other, that this was operating not only to 

 improve present-day conditions, but to secure " the 

 greatest happiness of the greatest number of the 

 generations yet unborn." Mr. Kidd points out that Sir 

 Henry Maine, in " Ancient Law and Popular Govern- 

 ment," was influenced by the conviction that " the 

 modern philosophy of society had not as yet given us 

 the explanation of the difference between the recently 

 developed and rapidly progressive societies of our 

 Western world, and that almost stationary social state 

 which he perceived to have been normal to the race 

 throughout the greater part of its past. The cause of 

 this difference Maine held to be one of the great secrets 

 which enquiry has yet to penetrate." At last the 

 secret has been fathomed, and to Kidd the credit of its 

 discovery must be accorded. It is entirely due to the 

 altruism of the teachings of Jesus. A new agency has 

 been introduced, and the whole face of history has been 

 thereby changed. This new force has made society 

 more and more stable as time advanced. The members 

 of the State feel the effects of better conditions and of 

 the consideration constantly exerted to ensure their 

 welfare ; the civilisation of which they form a part 

 becomes an object of interest and affection, and its 

 permanence is thus assured. In other words, society 

 becomes more efficient, and in this way the culture of 

 the ages tends more and more to become an environ- 

 ment of the people. It is through the operation of such 

 a process that we are able to explain the great and 

 rapid mechanical evolution which has taken place with- 

 in the last half century in our modern civilisation. 

 Increased social comfort and efficiency has enabled 

 the men of scientific instinct in the mechanical world to 

 acquire a knowledge of all the methods and principles 

 at work in previous epochs and among all peoples, and 

 more particularly the most recent developments in 



