wers, is false to history, false in
political theory, and mischievous in ethics, but it is nowhere more
false than in relation to the world of thought. The essential unity of
Western civilization as an intellectual, moral, and spiritual
commonwealth is indeed illustrated--unfortunately illustrated as it
happens--by this very theory of the State which denies it. For the
theory is of German make. It arose out of the historical conditions of
Prussia in the early years of the nineteenth century, was fostered in
Germany by the peculiar method by which the unity of the nation was
effected, and, setting out from its home, has permeated much of the
thought of the West, effectively combating the Liberal humanitarianism
which was the especial contribution of England to the movement of the
nineteenth century. The reaction of the German idea of the State on the
English conception of liberty is the dominating influence of the last
forty years in English political thought and progress. There can hardly
be a more striking testimony to the reality of that unity which the
theorists who embody it seek to depreciate or deny.

When we speak of unity in this connexion we may mean one of three
things. There is a unity of character or type. There is the unity
involved in continuous unbroken descent from a common origin, and there
is unity of effective interconnexion and mutual dependence. These senses
of the term unity are confused by some writers, but must clearly be
distinguished before any useful inquiry can be made. Unity of character,
for example, is a different thing from continuity of historical
development, for a civilization might radically change its character in
the course of generations. It might lose all the specific features of
its own family and come into closer resemblance with others of quite
distinct parentage. Again unity of character is not the same thing as
the effective interconnexion and co-operation of different centres. On
the contrary, such co-operation is of most value where there is marked
difference of character, where, for instance, a lack of a quality in one
nation is counteracted by a surplus in another. Thus these three forms
of unity are distinct, but if distinct they are not unrelated.
Naturally, where there is a common origin, many traits of the primitive
unity of character are likely to persist, and where there is effective
intercommunication, many differences may be rubbed off. So, where we
start with uni