SUMMARY

THE following summary will comprise an impartial estimate of the historical facts recorded rather than a mere recapitulation. It may be that the general reader will obtain in this way a clearer perception of the purport of this volume, which is chiefly designed to show that, from the Christian era, a single principle, which then first appeared, has by its gradual development shaped the history of the world and the destiny of mankind.

First Civilization.

Asia was the seat of the first civilization, and its salient features were the concentration of all the power, wealth, and knowledge in the hands of the Upper Classes, whilst ignorance, poverty, and slavery were the lot of the Lower Class, which constituted three-fourths of the population. This state of society has been invariably upheld by the Laws and Religions of Asia, and endures to this day essentially the same as it was some three thousand years before the Christian era.

The solution of this phenomenon is to be found in physical causes.

Second Civilization.

Africa was the seat of the second civilization, where similar physical causes produced a state of society in all respects analagous to that in Asia.

A Mystery.

History affords no clue to the civilization found existing in America in the fifteenth century. The features, political and social, were identical with those of Asia and Africa. As the climate of Mexico and Peru resembles that of the Eastern countries mentioned, it is another proof that physical causes alone explain the peculiar condition of all these countries.

Third Civilization.

Europe was the seat of the third civilization, which, intellectually, far surpassed those preceding it; but, in other respects, the organization of society was the same. Power, wealth, and knowledge were still monopolized by the Upper Classes, whilst ignorance, poverty, and slavery, were still the heritage of the Lower Class. The intellectual superiority of the third civilization is attributed to physical conditions different from those of Asia, Africa, and America.

Fourth Civilization.

The fourth civilization followed the advent of the Messiah, and was founded on the doctrines of the New Religion. The most conspicuous among these was the dogma that all men were equal in the sight of God. This principle of Equality was till then unknown in the world, and its religious and moral effect on the masses was so great that it led, first, to the extinction of the Pagan Religion, and, next, to the fall of the Roman Empire-both based on the religious and moral inequality of mankind.

Dark Ages.

The successful invasion of Roman Europe by the barbarous tribes of Germany was due to the New Religion, which indisposed the masses to sustain a religious and political fabric founded on their permanent enslavement. The chaotic condition of the world known as the "Dark Ages was marked by the conflict between Christianity and brute force, in which the former triumphed. The rise of Charlemagne in the eighth century may be regarded as the period when the new ideas predominated. Material order, moral culture, and religious instruction, in harmony with the New Revelation, then began to prevail.

The New Polity.

The confusion and lawlessness which characterized the Dark Ages received their first check under the Empire of Charlemagne. It was only after his

death when Europe, consolidated for a time by his genius, broke up into various Nationalities that the New Polity began to reveal itself. It was at this period, the dawn of the Middle Ages, that the authority of Christianity was strong enough over the greater part of Europe to influence Government. This may, therefore, be called the Inauguration of the New Polity, for from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the rise of Charlemagne in the eighth nothing deserving the name of Government existed in Europe. The political organizations which then successively arose were all Christian, but the doctrines of the New Religion were interpreted to accord with tyrannical instincts, and their beneficent effects on the condition of the masses were destined for long ages to be ignored. Yet it is none the less memorable that with the close of the Dark Ages the old civilizations lost their hold on Europe. It was then the fourth civilization-the New Polity-obtained its ascendency; it was then that moral power derived from the teachings of Christianity began its career; and it was then that mere physical force in the government of men was put on its trial. The doctrine of the inequality of men, which was the corner-stone of the ancient civilizations, was undermined when the New Polities were set up-when Governments under the sway of the Christian religion began their ministration. It can hardly be regarded as less than marvellous that in a period of scarcely four centuries, the fourth or Christian civilization had made such progress that Royal Power, then regarded as of divine origin, should be compelled to acknowledge that the masses had

rights. When King John of England, in 1215, bound himself not to "deny or delay to any man right or justice," it proved that truly a New Polity had appeared in the world, and that the Ancient Polities which taught the hereditary inequality of men, and the permanent subjection of the many to the moral, legal, and political authority of the few, were doomed to decay.

France.

The first permanent organization of society which sprang up in Europe under the fourth civilization is known as the Feudal System. It was totally unlike anything that had appeared before the Christian era. It is true that during its sway power and wealth still remained in the hands of the Upper Class, but they were no longer monopolized. It is true that slavery was still the lot of the Lower Class, but it was no longer regarded as a final condition. It was in France that the Feudal System was first developed, where it was better organized and more vigorously maintained than in other parts of Europe. In spite, however, of its great power, it was steadily invaded by the subtle influence of that irresistible doctrine brought into existence by Christianity, and during the whole of the Middle Ages Equality continued to expand and acquire new strength. Vires acquirit eundo. Various events, as related, combined with this new and restless principle to sap the basis of the Feudal system, and it fell to pieces in the seventeenth century. It was superseded by Absolute Monarchy, which reached its zenith in the reign of Louis XIV. In the eighteenth