THE PRINCIPLES OF WORLD-EMPIRE. 



25 



"Those who make the laws are the weak and the many : they 

 therefore make laws with a view to themselves and their own 

 interests, and with the same purpose they bestow praise and impute 

 blame; and to terrify such men as are stronger than themselves 

 and are able to acquire more . . . they say it is base and 

 unjust to obtain a superiority . . . But Nature herself, I 

 think, convinces us on the contrary that it is right that the better 

 man should have more than the worse, and the more powerful than 

 the weaker . . . This it is that is seemly and just according 

 to nature . . . that a man who lives rightly should permit his 

 desires to be as great as possible, and should not restrain 

 them . . . for to those whom it has befallen from the first 

 either to be the sons of kings, or who are able, by nature, to procure 

 for themselves a government, a tyranny or dynasty, what can be 

 more disgraceful and base than temperance 1 Who when it is in 

 their power to enjoj^ the good things of this life, and no one hinders 

 them, impose a master on themselves — the law, discourse and 

 censure of the multitude . . . Luxury, intemperance and 

 liberty . . . these are virtue and happiness, but all those other 

 fine things, those compacts contrary to nature, are extravagances 

 of men, and are of no value."* 



Briefly summarized, the position of Callicles in this dis- 

 cussion with Socrates was : " There is no law for the man who 

 is strong enough to break the law. Self-restraint, self-control, 

 not from external compulsion, but from ethical principle, is folly ; 

 indeed a sin against the law of strength." This principle 

 inculcated by Nietzsche as holding for the individual, Germany 

 has applied to herself as a nation amongst nations, and is 

 putting it to the supreme test to-day. Yet after all it is 

 but the test of the " ghastly priest." If Germany should 

 succeed, it will only succeed as a murderer, and sooner or later 

 must suffer murder in its turn. 



Immaterial Forces in World-Empire. 



Empire, enduring Empire, must be based on something less 

 tangible and therefore less transitory than violence. Military 

 courage and skill did indeed contribute to the building of the 

 greatest and most enduring Empire of history, but Borne would 

 never have reached empirehood if it had possessed no higher 

 qualities than these. In its origin, and for long centuries of 

 its history, Rome was only a small self-contained city state, 

 with no advantages of geographical position. Its growth was 



* Callicles in the Gorgias of Plato, 85-103. 



