t in the
twelfth century. There followed the epoch of the great mediaeval
systems, the rediscovery of Aristotle and the attempt to fuse the
Christian faith with the Aristotelian system. The later Middle Age was
the period at which Western civilization was most distinctly a cultural
unit, the scene of a great attempt to unify all the aspects of life, the
religious, the philosophic, the political, on the basis of a religious
faith made articulate and systematic with the aid of Greek philosophy,
speaking the Latin tongue as the common possession of all educated men.

The paradox of thought is that while unity is its ideal, freedom is its
necessary condition, and endless divergence the inevitable consequence.
There could not be much thinking about matters of faith without heresy,
nor about matters of politics without disaffection, rebellions and new
political grouping. Heresy and schism broke up the mediaeval unity and
reinforced the political tendencies making towards the modern state
system. The rise of modern literature displaced the classics from their
unique position as literary models. After the seventeenth century the
habit of writing in the vernacular tended more and more to oust
Latinity, and culture in each country began to assume more of a
distinctively national character. Specific national characteristics
began to appear in science and philosophy as well as in literature and
education, and a large part of the history of modern thought depends on
the partial independence on the one hand and the frequent interactions
on the other of these centres.

* * * * *

SECTION III.--UNITY OF INTERCONNEXION

This brings us to the third sense in which unity can be predicated of a
cultural group. The unity that depends on the interconnexion of distinct
parts implies some differences of character. Western civilization has
lost something of the unity of character which it owed to its common
origin, though it still retains enough of it to figure as a single
whole in contrast to the rest of the world. We may be sure that the
differences between German, French, and English seem much less marked to
the intelligent Chinese than they are to Germans, Frenchmen, and English
themselves. We ourselves habitually think of China and Japan together as
denizens of the Far East, and it is only personal acquaintance which
makes us begin to mark the differences between them. Few Europeans, I
imagine, get as far