Humanity, as it passes through phase after phase of the historical movement, may advance indefinitely in excellence; but its advance will be an indefinite approximation to the Christian type.  A divergence from that type, to whatever extent it may take place, will not be progress, but debasement and corruption.  In a moral point of view, in short, the world may abandon Christianity, but can never advance beyond it.  This is not a matter of authority, or even of revelation.  If it is true, it is a matter of reason as much as anything in the world.[23]

[Footnote 1:  Italy and Her Invaders.  Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L.  Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1892.]

[Footnote 2:  Male imperando summum imperium amittitur.—­PUBLIUS SYRUS.]

[Footnote 3:  Decline and Fall, chap. xx.]

[Footnote 4:  Any one who wishes to gain an insight into the fundamental principles which governed those relations cannot do better than read the opening chapters of Sorel’s L’Europe et la Revolution Francaise.]

[Footnote 5:  Ecclesiastes i. 9.]

[Footnote 6:  Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, vol. ii. p. 328.]

[Footnote 7:  Lord Farrer says:  “It is the privilege of honourable trade that, like mercy, it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes; each of its dealings is of necessity a benefit to both parties.  But traders and speculators are not always the most scrupulous of mankind.  Their dealings with savage and half-civilised nations too often betray sharp practice, sometimes violence and wrong.  The persons who carry on our trade on the outskirts of civilisation are not distinguished by a special appreciation of the rights of others, nor are the speculators, who are attracted by the enormous profits to be made by precarious investments in half-civilised countries, people in whose hands we should desire to place the fortunes or reputation of our country.  When a difficulty arises between ourselves and one of the weaker nations, these are the persons whose voice is most loudly raised for acts of violence, of aggression, or of revenge.”—­The State in its Relation to Trade, p. 177.]

[Footnote 8:  It should never be forgotten that, in Oriental countries, whatever good is done to the masses is necessarily purchased at the expense of incurring the resentment of the ruling classes, who abused the power they formerly possessed.  Seeley (Expansion of England, p. 320) says with great truth:  “It would be very rash to assume that any gratitude, which may have been aroused here and there by our administration, can be more than sufficient to counterbalance the discontent which we have excited among those whom we have ousted from authority and influence.”]

[Footnote 9:  Juvenal, xiv. 176-8.]

[Footnote 10:  “La superiorite des Anglo-Saxons!  Si on ne la proclame pas, on la subit et on la redoute; les craintes, les mefiances et parfois les haines que souleve l’Anglais l’attestent assez haut....