eloping through the succeeding
generations the liberty of the people under the constitution. This
long, slow process of development, reminding one somewhat of the
struggle of the plebeians of Rome against the patricians, {346} finally
made the lower house of parliament, which represents the people of the
realm, the most prominent factor in the government of the English
people--and at last, without a cataclysm like the French Revolution,
established liberty of speech, popular representation, and religious
liberty.

We find, then, that in England and in other parts of Europe a
liberalizing tendency set in after monarchy had been established and
become predominant, which limited the actions of kings and declared for
the liberties of the people. Imperialism in monarchy was limited by
the constitution of the people. England laid the foundations of
democracy in recognizing the rights of representation of all classes.

SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. What phases of popular government are to be noted in the Italian
cities?

2. What is the relation of "enlightened absolutism" to social progress?

3. The characteristics of mediaeval guilds.

4. Why were the guilds discontinued?

5. The rise and decline of popular assemblies and rural communes of
France.

6. The nature of the government of the Swiss cantons.

7. The transition from feudalism to monarchy.

8. In what ways was the idea of popular government perpetuated in
Europe?

{347}

CHAPTER XXII

THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING OF EUROPE

_Social Evolution Is Dependent Upon Variation_.--The process by which
ideas are born and propagated in human society is strangely analogous
to the methods of biological evolution. The laws of survival, of
adaptation, of variation and mutation prevail, and the evidence of
conspicuous waste is ever present. The grinding and shifting of human
nature under social law is similar to the grinding and shifting of
physical nature under organic law. When we consider the length of time
it takes physical nature to accomplish the ultimate of fixed values,
seventy millions of years or more to produce an oak-tree, millions of
years to produce a horse or a man, we should not be impatient with the
slow processes of human society nor the waste of energy in the process.
For human society arises out of the confusion of ideas and progresses
according to the law of survival.

New ideas must be accepted, diffused, used, and adapt