The Ideal State 225 



its many imperfections, which after all are only those 

 of human nature and are being gradually eliminated, 

 will grow with ever greater power and knowledge, 

 and approach nearer to perfection, so that we have 

 every reason to believe that it will not be long before 

 the world becomes cognisant of the approach of the 

 " Ideal State," which even at this time is looked upon, 

 by people of property and great possessions, as im- 

 possible. It is thus, that the study of history reveals 

 the impress of the Eternal upon human affairs. It 

 proves man to be in the grip of a law which makes for 

 righteousness and self-sacrifice. Humanity finds itself 

 moved on, impelled to action, contrary to the selfish 

 interests of the individual members, and resulting in 

 increasing welfare of the body of the people. Tennyson 

 asks in one of his poems — 



" We are puppets, Man in his pride, and Beauty fair in her 



flower ; 

 Do we move ourselves, or are moved by an unseen hand at 



a game 

 That pushes us off from the board, and others ever succeed ? " 



The lesson of history supplies the answer. The poet 

 is quite right — we are puppets, and do not move our- 

 selves ; we are moved by an unseen hand — " the 

 Eternal, the not-ourselves," the designation by means 

 of which Matthew Arnold put into words the as yet 

 unconscious thought of the time, " who maketh for 

 righteousness " and, through the teaching and ex- 

 ample of Jesus, for love and self-sacrifice. The 

 lesson of history in this manner becomes the revelation 

 of the Eternal, Who moves man as He fists for His own 

 purposes, which are full of love to mankind, and are 

 evolving him spiritually and raising him " ever up- 

 ward and onward " to nobler deeds of self-sacrifice. 

 The Eternal is not only a hope, or even a faith ; the 

 Eternal is now a fact, better and better known from 



