political
progress. The ideals of '48 are _passe_. Liberty, equality, and
fraternity are exploded bubbles. The imperialism of Bismarck, the foe
of popular government and champion of divine right, rules the hour. To
the fighting type of society the politics of industrial democracy seem
absurd. You cannot set up the hustings in an armed camp of
twenty-eight millions. Kings and nobles, rank and privilege, police,
spies, and censors--all those hoary abuses that roused the men of
'48,--are deemed necessary to a strong military state. They are
hallowed by the new phrase of political fatalism "historical
continuity."

This drift of thought cannot but lead to a despairing view.
Civilization seems to have lost itself in a _cul-de-sac_. Progress has
ended in an aimless discontent. The schools have produced, according
to Bismarck, ten times as many overeducated young men as there are
places to fill. The thirst for culture has produced a great, hungry,
intellectual proletariat. The forces of darkness are still strong, and
it seems sometimes as if the Middle Ages will swallow up everything
won by modern struggles. The Liberal wonders at moments if he be not
really fighting against destiny. Often in his _Culturkampf_ with
Ultramontanism has he proved the truth of Gambetta's saying, "_Le
clericalism, voila l'ennemi!_"

Science, too, has had its share in disturbing men's minds. Science,
during the last twenty years, has been most successful in studying the
past. It has traced the origin of institutions and followed the upward
path of man. It has lifted the veil of mystery. It says, "See, I can
show you how our feelings arose. I will lay bare the root of modesty,
of filial piety, sexual love, patriotism, loyalty, justice, honor,
aesthetic delight, conscience, religion, fear of God. I will explain
the origin of institutions like the household, the church, the state.
I will show the rise of prayer, worship, sacrifice, marriage-customs,
ceremonies social forms, and laws. Nothing is found mysterious,
nothing unique, nothing divine. There is no need of looking for a
stream of tendency, an influx from another source, the descent of a
new power. The notion of a soul from a spiritual world encysted in
customs and feelings developed upon it by nature, is a myth. Man is a
formation. The race has accommodated itself to its environment as a
stream to its bed. The manifold adaptation of Nature to man is really
the adaptation of man to Nature. To