truggles and intrigues within the
various states, and political struggles and intrigues and wars between
the nations. It was a period of the expression of national selfishness
which sought enlarged territory and the control of commerce and trade.
Taken as a whole, there is little that is inspiring in the movement of
nations in this period. Indeed, it is highly disappointing when we
consider the materials at their hand for political advancement.

The political game at home played by cliques and factions and
politicians struggling for power frequently led to disgraces abroad,
such as the war against the American colonies and the extension of
power and domination in India. There is scarcely a war, if any, in
this whole period that should not have been settled without difficulty,
provided nations were honest with each other and could exercise, if not
reason, common sense. The early great movements, such as the revival
of learning and progress centring in Italy and extending to other
nations, the religious revolution which brought freedom of belief, the
revolution of England and the Commonwealth, the French Revolution with
its projections of new ideals of liberty on the horizon of political
life, promised better things. Also, during this period the development
of literature and the arts and sciences should have been an enlightened
aid to political liberty.

Nevertheless, the higher ideals of life and liberty which were set
forth during these lucid intervals of the warring nations of the world
were never lost. The seeds of liberty, once having been sown, were to
spring up in future years and develop through a normal growth.

_The Progress of Popular Government Found Outside of the Great
Nations_.--The rise of democracy in Switzerland and the Netherlands and
its development in America, although {415} moving indirectly and by
reaction, had a lasting influence on the powerful nations like Germany,
England, France, and Austria. In these smaller countries the warfare
against tyranny, despotism, and ignorance was waged with success.
Great gain was made in the overthrow of the accumulated power of
traditional usage and the political monopoly of groups of people who
had seized and held the power. Through trial and error, success and
failure, these people, not noted for their brilliant warfare but for
their love of peace, succeeded in establishing within their boundaries
a clear definition of human rights and recognizing the