A FOREWORD. Politics, which is the science and art of government, plays a most important part in human affairs, national and international, yet the study of its principles is all but neglected by the masses. It was with the idea of introducing to the man and the woman who have little leisure for much reading, some of the great thinkers who have helped to make the political thought of the world, that the substance of the following chapters was delivered in a set of five lectures to the Summer School for Adult Co-operators in Orleton College, Scarborough, in August, 1924. The short studies proved so acceptable and suggestive that it was thought worth while to give them to a larger audience by publishing them in their present form. A brief survey of the main springs of political thought in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, leading to the developments of Modern Times, has been attempted, and nothing more; and in this spirit the work should be regarded. 627770 C. E. T. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. POLITICAL PIONEERS.-Religion as the Basis PAGE 7 CHAPTER II.-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHERS (Ancient).-Ethics Allied with Politics-Founder of Democracy -The Divine Philosopher's Republic-When Politics became a Science-Our Debt to the Romans-Beginnings of Political Oratory... 20 CHAPTER III.-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHERS (Modern). The Materialistic Outlook-Imperialism and Nationalism of the Middle Ages-Politics without Conscience-The First of the Internationalists-French Revolutionary School--Utilitarianism and Individualism... CHAPTER IV.-POLITICAL 33 PAMPHLETEERS.-Publicity and CHAPTER V.-POLITICAL POETS, I.-The Call of the Ideal— Elizabethan and Commonwealth England-The Laureates of Democracy-With the Revolutionaries... 64 CHAPTER VI.-POLITICAL POETS, II.-The Call to ActionThe American Democrats-An Ambassador of the People-The Prophet of the Western Republic-Inspiration for the Future-“ All for Each and Each for All" 76 The Making of Political THE RELIGION AS THE BASIS OF POLITICS. HE story of man's origin is hidden in clouds of mystery. Digging and delving have brought to light a wealth of evidence that Man has been on the earth through many great ages. Bones and stones from mountain caves tell us of primitive folk, little removed from the brute; and sandy deserts have disclosed temples and palaces showing the existence of great civilisations many centuries ago. However, from out the gropings of science and the tales told to us in wonderful, legendary lore, it is clear that, as Edward Clodd so simply tells us, "from being a roving, wild, long-haired savage, gnawing roots, or crouching behind rock or tree to pounce upon his prey, uncertain each morning whether night would not set in before he could get enough to eat, man had become a shepherd or tiller of the soil." Shepherds or herdsmen moved from place to place for pasturage, and so became wandering tribes; others, as farmers or tillers of the earth, lived in a more settled state. And then came the birth of Politics. It began with the co-operative idea-men coming together for mutual help and protection against their enemies. Quarrels would break out as to who had the right to certain land. The tillers of the soil would be more likely to be peaceful and prosperous, than the followers of flocks who would often seek to gain by force what they coveted. Fights would follow, and bloodshed. The strongest men and the bravest would become leaders and defenders. The stronger would master the weaker, seize upon their land and possessions, and make slaves of their prisoners. And thus war came into the world, and with it the only law it knows :— That they shall take who have the power, And they shall keep who can. It is contrary to human nature to live alone; and in the course of time it was found that it was really better for men to live in peace with one another. A farmer, producing more food than he needed, would barter corn with the herdsman for meat. Friendship would be necessary for the exchange of the necessities of life. And to foster and maintain these good relations, rules and regulations were made the beginning of Law. The Twilight of the Nations. The family life would be the element out of which grew a tribe, the tribe would become a people, and out of the people would arise a nation. All records and discoveries seem to point to man having lived at first somewhere near the middle of Asia, whence those who came after him spread out on all sides, following the direction of the great rivers. Some settled on the lands watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates-whence arose the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians, the Medes and the Persians; some wandered away to the banks of the Jordan, and became the forefathers of the great Jewish people; some went and made their abiding-place on the fertile plains by the river Nile, and founded the wonderful Egyptian civilisation; some, indeed, pressed on by other streams of humanity, penetrated into far-off lands, to the vast plain that lay between the waters of the Ganges and the Indus, and so founded the marvellous Indian Empire with its teeming millions-some to the great Yellow River of China, whence sprang the vast hordes in the mysterious Far East. |