es of tradition and religious superstition. Connected with
this, also, is the struggle for freedom from despotism in government.
It has been observed how the ancient civilizations were characterized
by the despotism of priests and kings. It was the early privilege of
European life to gradually break away from this form of human
degradation and establish individual rights and individual development.
Kings and princes, indeed, ruled in the Western world, but they learned
to do so with a fuller recognition of the rights of the governed.
There came to be recognized, also, free discussion as the right of
people in the processes of government. It is admitted that the
despotic governments of the Old World existed for the few and neglected
the many. While despotism was not wanting in European civilization,
the struggle to be free from it was the ruling spirit of the age. The
history of Europe centres around this struggle to be free from
despotism and traditional learning, and to develop freedom of thought
and action.

Among Oriental people the idea of progress was wanting in their
philosophy. True, they had some notion of changes that take place in
the conditions of political and social life, and in individual
accomplishments, yet there was nothing hopeful in their presentation of
the theory of life or in their practices {206} of religion; and the few
philosophers who recognized changes that were taking place saw not in
them a persistent progress and growth. Their eyes were turned toward
the past. Their thoughts centred on traditions and things that were
fixed. Life was reduced to a dull, monotonous round by the great
masses of the people. If at any time a ray of light penetrated the
gloom, it was turned to illuminate the accumulated philosophies of the
past. On the other hand, in European civilization we find the idea of
progress becoming more and more predominant. The early Greeks and
Romans were bound to a certain extent by the authority of tradition on
one side and the fixity of purpose on the other. At times there was
little that was hopeful in their philosophy, for they, too, recognized
the decline in the affairs of men. But through trial and error, new
discoveries of truth were made which persisted until the revival of
learning in the Middle Ages, at the time of the formation of new
nations, when the ideas of progress became fully recognized in the
minds of the thoughtful, and subsequently in the full trium