t in
the end be overthrown. This was the grand error of that Roman system
which presided while European civilization was developing. It assumed as
its basis a uniform, a stationary psychological condition in man.
Forgetting that the powers of the mind grow with the possessions of the
mind, it considered those who lived in past generations as being in no
respect mentally inferior to those who are living now, though our
children at sixteen may have a wider range of knowledge than our
ancestors at sixty. That such an imperfect system could exist for so
many ages is a proof of a contemporary condition of undeveloped
intellect, just as we see that the understanding of a child does not
revolt against the moral suasion, often intrinsically feeble, through
which we attempt to influence him. But it would be as unphilosophical to
treat with disdain the ideas that have served for a guide in the earlier
ages of European life, as to look with contempt on the motives that have
guided us in youth. Their feebleness and incompetency are excused by
their suitability to the period of life to which they are applied.

But whoever considers these things will see that there is a term beyond
which the application of such methods cannot be extended. [Sidenote: The
Age of Reason demands intellectual incentives for the individual.] The
head of a family would act unwisely if he attempted to apply to his son
at twenty-one the methods he had successfully used at ten; such methods
could be only rendered effective by a resort to physical compulsion. A
great change in the intervening years has taken place, and ideas once
intrinsically powerful can exert their influence no more. The moral may
have remained unchanged; it may be precisely as it was--no better, no
worse; but that which has changed is the understanding. Reasoning and
inducements of an intellectual kind are now needful. An attempt to
persist in an absolute system by constraint would only meet with
remonstrance and derision.

[Sidenote: And the same holds good for humanity.] If it is thus with the
individual, so it is likewise with humanity. For centuries nations may
live under forms that meet their requirements, forms suitable to a
feeble state; but it is altogether illusory to suppose that such an
adaptedness can continue for ever. A critical eye discerns that the
mental features of a given generation have become different from those
of its ancestors. New ideas and a new manner of action a