are hastening to
satisfy their instinctive tendency. The special form in which they will
embody their intentions must, of course, depend to a great degree on the
political forms under which they have passed their lives, modified by
that approach to homogeneousness which arises from increased
intercommunication. The canal system, so wonderfully developed in China,
exerted no little influence in that respect--an influence, however, not
to be compared with that which must be the result of the railway system
of Europe.

[Sidenote: Its hopefulness compared with that of China.] In an
all-important particular the prospect of Europe is bright. China is
passing through the last stage of civil life in the cheerlessness of
Buddhism; Europe approaches it through Christianity. Universal
benevolence cannot fail to yield a better fruit than unsocial pride.
There is a fairer hope for nations animated by a sincere religious
sentiment, who, whatever their political history may have been, have
always agreed in this, that they were devout, than for a people who
dedicate themselves to a selfish pursuit of material advantages, who
have lost all belief in a future, and are living without any God.

* * * * *

I have now come to the end of a work which has occupied me for many
years, and which I submit, with many misgivings as to its execution, to
the indulgent consideration of the public. These pages will not have
been written in vain if the facts they present impress the reader, as
they have impressed the author, with a conviction that the civilization
of Europe has not taken place fortuitously, but in a definite mariner,
and under the control of natural law; that the procession of nations
does not move forward like a dream, without reason or order, but that
there is a predetermined, a solemn march, in which all must join, ever
moving, ever resistlessly advancing, encountering and enduring an
inevitable succession of events; that individual life and its
advancement through successive stages is the model of social life and
its secular variations.

I have asserted the control of natural law in the shaping of human
affairs--a control not inconsistent with free-will any more than the
unavoidable passage of an individual as he advances to maturity and
declines in old age is inconsistent with his voluntary actions; that
higher law limits our movements to a certain direction, and guides them
in a certain way. As t