HE SCIENCE 
 OF HISTORY 
 ANDTHEHOPE 
 OF MANKIND 
 
 BENOY- KUMAR- SARKAR 
 
Qass 
 
 Book >5- 7v 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY AND 
 THE HOPE OF MANKIND 
 
THE 
 
 SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 AND THE 
 
 HOPE OF MANKIND 
 
 BENOY KUMAR SARKAR, M.A. 
 
 Lecturer in Political Science, Bengal National College, Calcutta 
 (National Cowicil of Education, Bengal) 
 
 Author of " The Aids to General Culture Series " in English and 
 
 ' The Science of Education and the Inductive Method of Teaching Series ' 
 
 in Bengali 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND GO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA 
 
 1912 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
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 I 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 THE present work is based on 
 the Lectures on the Science of 
 History which I dehvered to my classes 
 in History at the Bengal National 
 College, Calcutta. My object was to 
 survey, not historically but according to 
 the philosophico-comparative method, 
 the phenomena of civilisation and point 
 out the laws or generalisations that 
 may be deduced out of the facts of 
 universal history. 
 
 Human civilisation, like physical 
 facts and phenomena, requires to be 
 studied in such a way as to lead to 
 the detection of uniformities in the 
 
PREFACE 
 
 sequences and co-existences of social 
 events and movements. History has 
 to be put on the same level with 
 physics and other natural sciences, so 
 that predictions may be possible in the 
 social world as in the physical. 
 
 My best thanks are due to Pro- 
 fessor Radhakumud Mukerji, M.A., of 
 the National Council of Education, 
 Bengal, for kindly looking over the 
 proofs. 
 
 B. K. SAKKAE. 
 
 Calcutta, 
 
 June, 1911. 
 
 VI 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SECTION PAGE 
 
 I. PEOBLEMS OF HISTORY . - . .1 
 
 II. THE SCOPE AND FUNCTION OF HISTORY 8 
 
 III. THE SCIENCE OF LIFE . . .13 
 
 IV. THE WOELD-FOECES IN ANCIENT AND 
 
 MEDIEVAL HISTORY . . . 24 
 
 V. INTEENATIONAL POLITICS AND NA- 
 TIONAL ADVANCEMENTS IN MODEEN 
 TIMES 33 
 
 VI. INTEENATIONAL RELATIONS AND THE 
 FOEMS OP GOVEENMENTAL MACHI- 
 NEEY 50 
 
 VII. EELATIVITY OF EELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 AND OF OTHEE ASPECTS OF HUMAN 
 LIFE TO THE CONJUNCTUEE OF 
 CIRCUMSTANCES . . . .57 
 
 VIII. EECAPITULATION . . . .66 
 
 IX. THE WOELD'S GEEATEST MEN . . 68 
 
 X. THE OUTLOOK 75 
 
 vii 
 
SECTION I 
 
 PROBLEMS OF HISTORY 
 
 MANY strange things have hap- 
 pened in the history of the 
 world. There have been cases in 
 which the efforts of individuals or 
 societies have been directed towards 
 the spread of a new religion, but the 
 result has been the creation of a 
 new state or the making of a power- 
 ful military community. Sometimes 
 the ruling classes or the subjects have 
 endeavoured to raise the status of 
 their country by developing its secular 
 and political interests, but a new re- 
 ligious system with its peculiar dog- 
 mas and doctrines has displaced the 
 old mythology and renovated the spiri- 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 tual life of the people. Many instances 
 are recorded of conflicts between states 
 which ensue through certain bones of 
 contention, but which have been con- 
 cluded by treaties settling quite diffe- 
 rent problems. The succession ques- 
 tion owing to vacancy of the throne 
 in one state has often been the occasion 
 of a world-wide struggle and led to 
 the alteration of the political bound- 
 aries of several states. There is a 
 dynastic and political rivalry between 
 two princes, but altogether new and 
 unheard-of peoples slowly and silently 
 acquire a place in the polity of nations. 
 While, again, philosophers and 
 theorists have been engaged in the 
 diffusion of a new thought or the de- 
 vising of measures for the cultivation 
 of the arts and sciences, the advance- 
 ment of learning and the spread of 
 2 
 
PROBLEMS OF HISTORY 
 
 education, the people have been blessed 
 with the acquisition of the privileges of 
 self-government, democracy, and free 
 constitutional life. Or, perhaps, the 
 politicians and statesmen have been 
 actively agitating for introducing re- 
 forms into the Legislative Assemblies 
 and National Councils, the whole- 
 hearted devotion of some of the ablest 
 men of the country has been applied 
 to the discussion of the best systems 
 of election and representation, the 
 study of the proper relations between 
 the rulers and the ruled, or the deter- 
 mination of the duties of the governors 
 and the rights and privileges of the 
 governed, but in the meanwhile there 
 has emerged a new consciousness 
 among the people, the sign of a new 
 life, through honest intellectual curi- 
 osity and scepticism, a taste for inde- 
 3 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 pendent thought and discussion, and 
 the rise of a new Literature and 
 Science. 
 / In fact, traces of the beginnings 
 / of movements are seldom to be met 
 with at the close. There have been 
 many movements which were started 
 under the impulse of a hope of indus- 
 trial improvement and commercial 
 success, but which have ended in a new 
 arrangement of social forces giving 
 rise to modifications in the character 
 and extent of the State. Pohtical re- 
 . generation has often been the objective, 
 but the result has been the develop- 
 ment of national wealth. Or, again, 
 the establishment of uniformity in 
 religious life and thought has been the 
 spring of an individual's action, but 
 the annihilation of a whole people's in- 
 dustry and commerce has been the con- 
 4 
 
PROBLEMS OF HISTORY 
 
 sequence. While sometimes patriots 
 have confined their ambition solely to 
 the mere establishment of a constitu- 
 tional form of government by limit- 
 ing the rights of the sovereign and 
 extending the privileges of the sub- 
 jects, they have been startled by 
 more momentous results than were 
 within their ken, viz., the declaration 
 of an absolute autonomy and national 
 independence. In one state the sove- 
 reign commits a political or a strategic 
 blunder, but in another kingdom a 
 political revolution is effected and a 
 limited monarchy takes the place of 
 the old regime of royal absolutism. 
 Two states are measuring their 
 strength against each other, but a 
 third and an altogether independent 
 state comes into the whirlpool of their 
 politics and undergoes the fate of 
 5 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 double or triple partitions among the 
 neighbours. 
 
 Observers of such freaks of Nature 
 in the phenomena of the human world 
 are naturally expected to doubt if there 
 be any law or definite principle govern- 
 ing man's progress and decay. If 
 the affairs of man are very strange 
 and have no natural and necessary 
 connection between one another, if 
 the rise and fall of nations, the pro- 
 pagation of religions or the extinction 
 of industries, the loss of liberty or 
 the foundation of a constitution are 
 really the results of accidents and 
 cannot be foreseen, what can possibly 
 be the aims and ideals of human life, 
 what the sources of inspiration that may 
 encourage man in his struggle for exis- 
 tence ? How would a nation that has 
 been for some time a contributor to 
 6 
 
PROBLEMS OF HISTORY 
 
 the world's culture and civilisation try 
 to maintain its dignity and prestige? 
 What are the means by which an 
 infant or a degenerate community 
 can hope to rise to the standing of 
 advanced nations ? Is there any good 
 in the efforts and energies of agitators, 
 martyrs, and missionaries ? What is 
 the value of the work and perseverance 
 of religious preachers, and social re- 
 formers, patriots, and philanthropists ? 
 
SECTION II 
 
 THE SCOPE AND FUNCTION OF 
 HISTORY 
 
 ANSWERS to such queries regard- 
 ing the hopes and the future 
 of mankind are to be expected of the 
 historian. But of late the cultivation of 
 learning has been considerably guided 
 by the principle of the Division of 
 Labour. The tendency has been 
 towards a breaking up of the province 
 of knowledge into several depart- 
 ments and the relegation of each to a 
 separate treatment, with the result that 
 the sciences have become specialised 
 and their scope greatly narrowed. 
 
 Historical studies, also, have been 
 attacked by this principle of isolation 
 and specialisation, and have had their 
 8 
 
ITS SCOPE AND FUNCTION 
 
 boundaries confined exclusively to the 
 facts and phenomena of the statal life 
 of a people. Workers in the field 
 of history consider their sole responsi- 
 bility to be the study of only the 
 political affairs of a community, e.g., 
 administration of the state, interna- 
 tional diplomacy, wars and treaties, 
 expansion and secession of territories, 
 growth or decay of the sense of 
 nationality or political unity. Only 
 such facts or principles as are directly 
 or indirectly connected with the 
 political aspects of human life receive 
 their whole attention and absorb 
 their total activity. The tendency 
 of historians nowadays is to neglect 
 completely the study of the influences 
 on State of Man's domestic, social, 
 industrial, religious, and intellectual 
 life, and of the diverse effects on 
 9 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 human life and institutions of the 
 working of the poHtical machinery. 
 For this is considered to be the func- 
 tion of special classes of scholars, e.g,^ 
 sociologists, economists, and peda- 
 gogists. 
 
 The introduction of the principle 
 of Division of Labour in the culti- 
 vation of science has no doubt led 
 to rapid growth and development of 
 the several sciences, and by differen- 
 tiating and rigidly demarcating their 
 scope and function has helped forward 
 the speedy realisation of the end of 
 each. But this differentiation and 
 limitation of the range of study has 
 been attended with the necessary evils 
 and imperfections of the consequent 
 diversity and multiplicity. For the 
 absence of uniformity and of synthetic 
 comprehensive treatment is unfavour- 
 10 
 
ITS SCOPE AND FUNCTION 
 
 able to the discovery and formulation 
 of universal principles and fundamental 
 laws that may be generalised out of the 
 facts and phenomena of the world. 
 History has, thus, on the one hand, 
 been able to supply out of its general 
 stock special facts and materials for an 
 altogether new branch of learning, viz.. 
 Political Science, and has thus contri- 
 buted to the richness and variety of 
 human knowledge. But these spe- 
 cialised activities have, on the other 
 hand, withdrawn the attention of 
 scholars from the study of the hopes 
 and aspirations of man, the progress 
 and decay of civilisations, and the ulti- 
 mate gains and losses of humanity. 
 
 Man is not wholly a political animal, 
 
 and therefore the state alone is not the 
 
 sole indicator and standard in regard to 
 
 human happiness and misery. No 
 
 11 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 knowledge about man can be complete 
 until and unless it is based on a study 
 of all human passions and tendencies, 
 institutions and activities. And so 
 history must necessarily be incomplete 
 and quite unable to guess the future 
 destiny of mankind or to suggest the 
 lines of advance suitable to any stage, 
 so long as it does not concern itself 
 with the whole of human life and its 
 thousand and one manifestations. The 
 historian, therefore, will have to use 
 at every step the laws of life and living 
 organisms. Biology is thus the true 
 basis of Sociology and the science of 
 History. Founded on the science of 
 Life, History will be competent to 
 formulate clear and definite principles 
 about the course of human progress, 
 the development of society and the 
 evolution of civilisation. 
 12 
 
SECTION III 
 
 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 THE development of all living 
 organisms is effected through 
 certain energies and substances that 
 are conducive to the growth and 
 manifestation of life. It is the envi- 
 ronment and physical surroundings 
 that supply these life-sustaining factors 
 to the organisms. And this physical 
 universe is not only the feeder and 
 sustainer of living beings, it is also the 
 field of their activity as well as the 
 abode in which they grow and re- 
 produce themselves. Hence the action 
 and reaction between the living organ- 
 ism and the environment regulate all 
 the conditions of its life-history. 
 13 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 Now, all those forces and materials 
 that constitute the en\dronment, e,g,^ 
 light, heat, air, water, soils, food sub- 
 stances, etc., are not equally necessary 
 to the life and development of every 
 organism; in fact, some are positively 
 harmful and injurious to its interests. 
 Besides, among the living beings them- 
 selves there are relations of mutual 
 alliance and rivalry. It is the interac- 
 tion and resultant of all the forces of 
 Nature, both favourable and unfavour- 
 able to life, that determine the develop- 
 ment and growth of every individual 
 organism. And so the form and char- 
 acteristics of every living being depend 
 on the nature and strength of these 
 contending forces. 
 
 Thus, in the vegetable and animal 
 worlds the varieties of form and colour, 
 structural and external characteristics, 
 14 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 the habits of Hfe and habitats, move- 
 ments of limbs and other organs, as 
 well as the methods of reproduction 
 and rearing, are all influenced by and 
 adapted to the varying conditions of 
 the environment. The plants and 
 animals of land as well as water have 
 different modes of life and forms of 
 body adapted to their different abodes 
 and surroundings. Terrestrial plants 
 and animals, again, display diversity of 
 structure and characteristics owing to 
 the variety of sets of favourable and 
 unfavourable circumstances amidst 
 which they are placed. 
 
 The maintenance of life as well as 
 the propagation of the species, also, do 
 not depend solely on the individual 
 life of the organism. In fact, every 
 aspect of its life is influenced by the 
 whole environment surrounding it. 
 15 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 The operation of the manifold forces 
 of nature, the attempts of each organ- 
 ism to utihse the environment accord- 
 ing to its own needs, and the modi- 
 fication of its organs through the 
 assimilation of the surrounding sub- 
 stances — all contribute their quota to 
 its special growth and development. 
 The life and individuality of each 
 single organism are controlled and 
 influenced by the sum-total of all those 
 processes and products of Nature that 
 arise out of the needs of every other 
 organism for growth and development. 
 And the modifications in the living 
 world owing to the mutual alliance and 
 rivalry of the organisms as well as 
 the new forces that are being per- 
 petually created by the eternal struggle 
 for existence in the universe have their 
 part to play in moulding the life-history 
 16 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 of every organism. No organism can 
 realise its individual perfection abso- 
 lutely independent of all other organ- 
 isms. All the world-forces are jointly 
 responsible for every manifestation of 
 the Hfe of an organism, so that the de- 
 velopment, liberty, and degeneracy of 
 one are inextricably bound up with 
 the development, liberty, and de- 
 generacy of all other organisms. This 
 is the fundamental truth about the 
 sphere of human beings. 
 ) Human life is also in this way in- 
 fluenced and controlled by the forces 
 and substances in the universe. The 
 growth, development, and liberty of 
 Man depend on the resultant of all the 
 mutual relations between the various 
 agencies of the social and physical 
 environments. It is the interaction of 
 all friendly and inimical world-forces 
 17 c 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 that gives to each human being its 
 pecuUar external characteristics and 
 endows it with its proper mental and 
 moral outfit. 
 
 Thus the formation of society as 
 well as the creation of state, organisa- 
 tion of education as well as the culti- 
 vation of letters, the institution of 
 religious practices as well as the 
 foundation of institutions, in fact, all 
 aspects of human life, are influenced 
 and modified by the social and 
 physical atmosphere in which man 
 is placed, and vary with the vary- 
 ing circumstances that diversify it. 
 Just as plants and other lower organ- 
 isms display diversity of structure and 
 characteristics in order to adapt them- 
 selves to the play of diverse agencies 
 in the universe, so man also manifests 
 various aspects of life and character 
 18 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 under various sets of influences, takes 
 recourse to various modes of living, and 
 preserves his continuity and indivi- 
 duality under various forms adapted 
 to the varying conditions of the social 
 and physical world. The state, rehgion, 
 literature, and other manifestations of 
 human life assume in this way different 
 characteristics of form and spirit under 
 different circumstances. 
 
 The motive of man in having re- 
 course to social and physical changes 
 of his organism is to adapt these mani- 
 festations and weapons of life to the 
 varying needs and conditions of the 
 struggle for existence. Political move- 
 ments as well as religious propagan- 
 dism, planting of colonies as well as 
 the development of industries, are thus 
 regulated by the play of a thousand 
 and one forces to which human life is 
 19 
 
^HiE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 subject in this universe. The growth 
 in prosperity and freedom of a com- 
 munity or the decay of its life and 
 liberty does not depend solely on its 
 own needs of advancement and pro- 
 gress, and is not effected solely by 
 the working of its own resources. 
 
 No man can ever exist by ignoring 
 any one of the forces and materials 
 that make up the world he Hves in ; 
 he has to reckon the agencies that 
 are perpetually influencing himself as 
 well as other men. A study of the 
 conditions of other men is thus the 
 means to a proper understanding of his 
 own situation in the struggle for exist- 
 ence. And, similarly, in the case 
 of a community or a people, the 
 first problem in the struggle is to 
 discover the friends and foes — the 
 favourable and unfavourable circum- 
 20 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 stances that may co-operate with or 
 miUtate against its growth and develop- 
 ment ; for all its arrangements and 
 organisations will have to be adjusted 
 to the requirements thereby suggested. 
 f The progress and degeneration of 
 /any of the races of men are thus the 
 I indirect effects and subsidiary results 
 ■ of the development of mankind as a 
 whole. What an individual nation 
 regards as the principal factor of its 
 own progress, as the chief and indis 
 pensable element of its own glory, is 
 nothing but a mere by-product of 
 the general process of the whole of 
 human affairs. Thus considered, na- 
 tional achievements and self-realisations 
 at any one epoch are only some of 
 the symptoms of the total world-culture 
 of the age ; — and though ends in them- 
 selves from the standpoint of race- 
 Si 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 consciousness, are mere means to, or 
 unlooked-for consequences of, the situ- 
 ation of the human race at the time. 
 The growth or decay of a Hterature 
 and the acquisition or loss of Uberty 
 are, no doubt, of momentous con- 
 sequence to the life and fortunes of a 
 nation ; but in respect of the grand con- 
 summation of human ci\dlisation these 
 are temporary and accidental pheno- 
 mena, intimately connected with the 
 multitudinous ups and downs of a 
 thousand other communities. 
 
 The prosperity and adversity, growth 
 and decay, as well as freedom and 
 subjection of each individual com- 
 munity at any one time, in one word, 
 the destiny of each nation acts and 
 is acted upon by the conjuncture of 
 all the forces of the Universe. And 
 this is created by the international 
 22 
 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 
 
 relations of the epoch and indicated 
 by the position of the political and 
 social centre of gravity of the world 
 brought about by them. Hence, for 
 a proper understanding of any of the 
 conditions of a single people, it is abso- 
 lutely necessary to realise the whole 
 situation of the human world at the 
 time, and minutely study the array of 
 world-forces that has been the result 
 of mutual intercourse between the 
 several peoples in social, economic, 
 intellectual, and political matters. 
 
 23 
 
SECTIOIS^ IV 
 
 THE WORLD-FORCES IN ANCIENT 
 AND MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 
 
 THE chief centres of ancient civi- 
 lisation were India, Persia, 
 China, Egypt, Babylon, and Greece. 
 The contribution of each of these to 
 the culture of humanity was greatly 
 influenced and modified by its inter- 
 course with the civilised and bar- 
 barous peoples of the other parts of 
 the world. Besides being controlled 
 by these sociological factors, the 
 freedom and subjugation of countries, 
 as well as the opulence and adversity 
 of peoples in the ancient world, de- 
 pended also on the climatological and 
 agricultural conditions of the several 
 24 
 
THE WORLD-FORCES IN HISTORY 
 
 habitable tracts, as well as the physical 
 and natural means of defence from 
 foreign inroads. These social and 
 physical conditions of the surrounding 
 universe are responsible for the wars 
 and alliances, inter-mixtures and inter- 
 marriages, religious rapprochements 
 and territorial expansions, industrial 
 developments and ethnical assimila- 
 tions that make up the Drama of 
 Ancient History. 
 
 Such inter-racial connections and 
 mutual intercourse between peoples 
 of various origins have left their stamp 
 on the culture and civilisation of the 
 Egyptians and Babylonians. So also 
 Hellenic civilisation was not an isolated 
 growth, but was the product of the 
 world-influences of the classic age. 
 The little city-states of Greece de- 
 veloped their peculiar type of life 
 26 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 and thought under the conditions sup- 
 plied by the states of antiquity as well 
 as the contemporary "barbarians." 
 Their colonial and military systems, 
 their commercial poUcies, their 
 political unions and confederations, 
 were the direct outcome of Phoenician, 
 Egyptian, and Persian influences. The 
 various stages in the history of the 
 Roman Republic were likewise in- 
 fluenced both in form and spirit by 
 contact with the life and thought of 
 the innumerable peoples who came 
 under the sway of the Romans. 
 
 The manners and customs, religious 
 institutions and social practices, as well 
 as the art and literature of India, owe 
 their special characteristics to the 
 social, economic, political, and rehgious 
 intercourse of India with the peoples 
 of Tibet, China, and the diverse neo- 
 26 
 
THE WORLD-FORCES IN HISTORY 
 
 Greek states, as well as the influence of 
 multifarious aboriginal and non- Aryan 
 rites and ceremonies. In like manner 
 the literature and life of the kingdoms 
 of the Hellenistic world that came 
 into being under the movement for 
 the expansion of Greece begun by 
 Alexander were the outcome, in vary- 
 ing degrees, of the contact between the 
 East and the AVest ; and in politics as 
 in philosophy, industrial as well as 
 social life, represented the processes 
 and products of the assimilation that 
 was consciously at work under the 
 altered conditions of the world. 
 
 In this way the individuality and 
 peculiar type of social and literary 
 life of each of the ancient nations of 
 the world were developed simulta- 
 neously with, and even as the results 
 of, the individuality and nationality 
 27 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 of the other peoples. AU the types 
 of ancient culture evolved their special 
 structural characteristics and differen- 
 tiated themselves into separate socio- 
 pohtical crystals by influencing and 
 modifying one another, and hence may 
 be looked upon as more or less the 
 joint-products of certain systems of 
 world-forces. 
 
 The kaleidoscopic changes that 
 marked the state - systems of the 
 Middle Ages were likewise due to the 
 stir and turmoil produced by social 
 and political intercourse of peoples 
 with one another. Those very 
 barbaric races who had during the 
 preceding epochs excited the military 
 ambition of the established powers, 
 whose very existence had, in fact, taxed 
 the strategic abihty of the rulers of the 
 border-lands and frontier - provinces, 
 28 
 
THE WORLD-FORCES IN HISTORY 
 
 were under the new conditions no 
 longer despised as being outside the 
 zone of civilisation, but had to be 
 received by the civihsed nations as 
 members of the same system of life 
 and thought. 
 
 The same influence that had led to 
 the migration of the Aryans in primi- 
 tive times were now at work in making 
 the Teutonic tribes leave their original 
 homes and seek new settlements 
 and careers in unknown and untried 
 lands. While the process of " barbaris- 
 ing" was going on in one quarter of the 
 globe, a camel-driver of the Arabian 
 deserts promulgated a new faith, and 
 under its impulse innumerable tribes 
 and sub-tribes started on a career of 
 religious fanaticism. The result was 
 that the old centres of civilisation in 
 Europe and Asia became Teutonised 
 29 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 and Islamised and began to be the 
 seedbeds of new thought and culture. 
 The poHtical boundaries of the states 
 of Mediasval Asia and Europe had 
 to undergo rapid changes. The decHne 
 and fall of the Roman Empire, forma- 
 tion of new independent states, the 
 gradual establishment of autonomy 
 in Britain, Gaul, and the Iberian 
 peninsula, wars of religion and 
 expansion of theocracies, rise and 
 development of Saracenic kingdoms, 
 fall of ancient states and creation of 
 new state-systems in India, revolts and 
 secessions throughout the length and 
 breadth of the known world, destruc- 
 tion of Hberties and loss of autonomies, 
 origin of new principles of unity and 
 association — in fact, all those ceaseless 
 transformations that characterise the 
 stirring times — received their peculiar 
 30 
 
THE WOELD-FORCES IN HISTORY 
 
 stamp and trend by being thrown 
 into the midst of one another, each 
 having left its mark on the others. 
 The explanation of each of these is to 
 be sought in the same sets of forces 
 that were engendered by the grand 
 whirlpool of human affairs ; and, so, 
 all are to be regarded as members of 
 one and the same system of world 
 influences. Conquests and subjuga- 
 tions were the order of the day; and 
 the Teutonic victories in the Roman- 
 ised world as well as the Saracenic 
 conquests in Roman and non-Roman 
 Europe and the various parts of 
 Asia were the outcome of the same 
 socio-political environment. The sub- 
 jugation of Britain by foreigners is the 
 European counterpart of the same 
 movement that led to the overthrow 
 of the Hindus in certain parts of India 
 31 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 by the followers of Islam. Subjection 
 and independence, progress and degene- 
 ration, national achievement and decay 
 were not the fruit of the activities 
 of individual peoples, and cannot be 
 explained solely by the. heroism or 
 degeneracy of the nations themselves. 
 These were not the results of isolated 
 movements, but were the joint-pro- 
 ducts of the whole process of human 
 affairs. 
 
 32 
 
SECTION V 
 
 INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND 
 NATIONAL ADVANCEMENTS IN 
 MODERN TIMES 
 
 IT is also a fact that the fortunes of 
 all those peoples who in modern 
 times have contributed to the glory 
 and wealth of human civilisation by 
 winning their independence and auto- 
 nomy from the grasp of foreign rulers, 
 or by limiting the rights and powers 
 of the sovereigns, were not made by 
 their own efforts alone, but were mainly 
 directed by the conjuncture of circum- 
 stances and the environment of forces 
 and opportunities that were created 
 by the mutual alliance and rivalry of 
 the other nations. 
 
 33 p 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 Take, for example, the declaration 
 of Dutch Independence, which towards 
 the close of the sixteenth century- 
 threw a new power into European 
 politics. 
 
 The power and prestige of the 
 Spanish Habsburgs, the rulers of the 
 Netherlands, had for a long time been 
 on the wane. The monarchs of France, 
 having consolidated their kingdom, 
 were extending their arms of conquest 
 and expansion, and so came into 
 natural conflict with the Spanish 
 Emperor, over whose dominions the 
 sun never set. The Holy Roman 
 Emperor was a Habsburg, and hence 
 his relative, but had no sympathy with 
 the proselytising Catholicism of the 
 Spanish autocrat. The diplomatic 
 Elizabeth of England also pursued a 
 religious policy which ran directly 
 34 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 counter to the Catholic Emperor's 
 . system of persecution. 
 
 In the meantime the Inquisition, 
 set up by Phihp II. to estabhsh 
 rehgious uniformity and centrahse 
 both poUtics and rehgion, had the 
 baneful effect of crushing the national 
 industries, by compelling the Pro- 
 testant and Moorish artisans to seek 
 refuge in the hospitable anti- Catholic 
 countries. Economic resources having 
 been thus hollowed out by the 
 expulsion of the skilled labourers and 
 organisers, the finances of the Empire 
 presented a miserable condition. Thus 
 just at the time when the people of the 
 Netherlands, unable to bear the political 
 and religious tyranny, were organised 
 for war under the most patriotic and 
 desperate leaders, the despot's sinews of 
 war had become effete and inefficient. 
 35 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 Add to this the division of energy 
 that was necessitated by the simulta- 
 neous conflict with England and the 
 possibility of a breach with France, 
 and we get an idea of the manner in 
 which the decay of Spain, and the 
 political ascendancy of France, indus- 
 trial and commercial developments of 
 Protestant countries, and the political 
 and reUgious independence of the 
 Dutch Republic, came about as the 
 joint products of the same system of 
 European politics. We cannot explain 
 the rise of one people without refer- 
 ence to the fall of another, or the 
 economic prosperity of one if we neg- 
 lect the political triumph of another. 
 
 Just as the interests of the whole 
 of Europe were involved in the con- 
 tinental affairs that ultimately led to 
 the absolute autonomy of the Nether- 
 36 
 
INTE^RNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 lands and the decadence of the Spanish 
 Habsburgs, so also the Revolution of 
 1688 which led to the dethronement 
 of James II. and the establishment of 
 constitutional monarchy in England 
 was only one of the indirect and 
 accidental consequences of those series 
 of European movements which were 
 organised against the absolute Caesaro- 
 papism of Louis XIV., le grand 
 monarque of France, through the in- 
 strumentality of his personal rival, 
 William Prince of Orange. 
 
 This " glorious Revolution " was not 
 effected in England in the interest 
 of herself and through the heroism of 
 Englishmen alone, but was simply a 
 means to the ends of a foreign hero. 
 The European situation had come to 
 such a pass that even the Pope of 
 Rome had to accept liberal tendencies 
 37 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 and sympathise with the Protestant 
 movements. Louis' poKcy of rehgious 
 centrahsation had been rapidly robbing 
 the Pope of his secular and political 
 influence, and so the head of the 
 Roman Catholic Church found it ex- 
 pedient to side with the Calvinistic 
 William, as the champion of European 
 liberties, and even oppose James II., 
 the most extreme of all the advocates 
 of Catholicism. 
 
 As the German Emperor had for a 
 long time been involved in Turkish 
 politics, and Spain had become para- 
 lysed, the hope of Europe for deliver- 
 ance from the all-seizing ambition of 
 the Grand Monarch rested on the 
 national resources of England and the 
 heroism and organising ability of the 
 Prince of Orange. But England could 
 not be made to take part in the 
 38 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 general European conflict until the 
 constitutional struggle between the 
 King and the people was brought to 
 a satisfactory close, and the miserable 
 policy of the later Stuart kings of 
 seeking subsidy and help from the 
 French monarch was abolished and 
 replaced by the practice of receiving 
 grants from the Parliament by timely 
 concessions. 
 
 One of the first tasks of William's 
 life-work was, therefore, the accom- 
 plishment of the English Revolution. 
 It was thus only a stepping-stone to 
 the grand European mission of his 
 life ; at once a concomitant and a 
 means to the general continental move- 
 ments of the time. 
 
 Martin Luther started his scheme of 
 religious reformation in the sixteenth 
 century ; it took about a century and a 
 39 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 half to bring the religious disputes of 
 Europe to an end. But the wars of 
 Religion were not solely the outcome 
 of the spiritual needs of humanity. 
 These contests were inspired and 
 directed by the needs of political and 
 economic advancement which the 
 various princes and peoples of Europe 
 wanted to secure from the secular 
 ambitions of the head of the Roman 
 Church. 
 
 Thus the arrangement of the several 
 powers into neutrals, allies, and belli- 
 gerents was dictated not simply by 
 religious considerations but by their 
 financial, industrial, and political 
 interests. The Reformation was, in 
 fact, a political necessity, and national 
 churches were the inevitable counter- 
 parts of nation-states. Consequently 
 lovers of economic independence and 
 40 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 national unity began to range them- 
 selves on the side of religious toler- 
 ation and freedom of conscience; 
 and so not only theologians and 
 religious leaders, but statesmen and 
 politicians, educationists and literary 
 men as well, regulated the movements 
 of the times. And so the Peace of 
 Westphalia settled not only the 
 religious disputes, but solved also 
 some of the political problems of the 
 age and determined the boundaries 
 of Spain, France, Prussia, Sweden, 
 and Holland. 
 
 The ascendancy of Sweden during 
 the Thirty Years' War, and her gradual 
 decadence in later times, as well as 
 the development of Russia and Prussia 
 as independent powers in the state- 
 system of modern Europe, were due 
 to circumstances created by the inter- 
 41 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 national relations of all states. The 
 rivalry of the French monarchs with 
 the Austro- Spanish Habsburgs, the 
 predominance of France as the power 
 in Europe and dictator in European 
 politics, and the conflicts of the Ger- 
 man Emperors with the Turks, gave 
 the Markgrafs of the borderlands of the 
 Empire and the Slavs of the outlying 
 regions opportunities to acquire an 
 independent status in international 
 diplomacy. The rising into importance 
 of these puisne states necessarily limited 
 the range of the ambition of the older 
 peoples and circumscribed the field 
 of their activity. In this way the 
 decay of Sweden, Austria, and Turkey, 
 the humiliation of the Emperor, wars 
 of the Reformation, and the rise and 
 development of new powers were due 
 to the mutual influences upon one 
 42 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 another, and hence the combined 
 results of the same set of conditions. 
 
 So also the recent liberation of 
 Greece from the suzerainty of Turkey, 
 and the revolutions that have led 
 to the establishment of the modern 
 German Empire as well as the unifi- 
 cation of Italy into one nation, are 
 not at all due to the unassisted and 
 unhindered enterprise of the peoples 
 concerned, but were the consequences 
 of the numerous favourable and un- 
 favourable circumstances produced by 
 the complexities of European politics. 
 
 The peculiar international diplo- 
 macy of England, Russia, France, and 
 Turkey, by which each was pur- 
 suing its own interests according to 
 opportunities, gave rise to such an 
 arrangement of the political forces, 
 and such a distribution of the powers 
 43 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 of Europe into foes, friends, and 
 neutrals, as led inevitably to the 
 freedom of Greece and revolutions 
 in France, Germany, and Italy. 
 
 The gradual acquisition of privileges 
 by the Hungarians from the German 
 Emperors, and their ultimate achieve- 
 ment of national autonomy and self- 
 rule, cannot be explained solely by 
 the patriotism and martyrdom of 
 heroes like Tokoli and his successors. 
 Hungarian independence was, in later 
 times, the result of the same forces 
 and processes that had previously led 
 to the formation and recognition of 
 Prussian monarchy as an independent 
 power in German history and general 
 European politics. The eternal con- 
 flict of the German Empire with 
 Turkey, and subsequently with Russia, 
 as well as the secession of Prussia 
 44 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 from its jurisdiction, and the conse- 
 quent weakening of the Holy Roman 
 Emperors, are the causes of that shift- 
 ing of the centre of gravity in the 
 oldest empire of the world, which is 
 responsible for the new species of 
 European polity, viz., the Dual 
 Monarchy of Austro-Hungary. The 
 expulsion of Austria from the German 
 political system, and its co-ordination 
 with Hungary, one of its foremost 
 dependencies, are thus inextricably 
 bound up with Prussian and Turkish 
 politics. 
 
 The fact that Turkey, though in- 
 fidel, is still an independent unit in 
 modern European politics is not to be 
 explained by the innate strength of 
 the Moslem national character. It is 
 rather due to the change in the view- 
 point of European politics that dreads 
 45 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 Slavonian ambition more than the 
 pagan's intolerance. The conflict be- 
 tween the East and the West, the 
 hatred of the European towards the 
 Asiatic, the spirit of crusade against 
 the Oriental religion, which were the 
 mediaeval reproductions of the classical 
 anti-Persian enthusiasm, have in recent 
 times given place to the desire for 
 security and protection of the national 
 autonomies of European powers against 
 the encroachments of modern Russia, 
 and the recognition of the safety of 
 Turkey as the concern of combined 
 Europe. 
 
 In fact, most of the non- Christian 
 and Asiatic states that have been 
 still preserving their independence 
 in modern times are to be regarded 
 as buffer-states ; and the expediency 
 of extending helping hands to the 
 46 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 pagan nations, or of maintaining 
 studied neutrality against Russian 
 politics, is paralleled by the policy 
 of the Pope, who in pursuance of his 
 secular and political interests never 
 scrupled to ally himself with Protestant 
 princes and peoples, even against the 
 greatest champions of his own religious 
 system. 
 
 The fact is that just as it is impossible 
 for man to preserve his existence solely 
 on the strength of his own psycho- 
 physical system, but he has every 
 moment to depend on the non-self for 
 the forces and materials that supply 
 food to his mind and body, and hence 
 he can maintain his life and individu- 
 ality so long as he is fit enough to 
 utilise the environment in his own 
 way; so also nations can maintain 
 their existence and peculiar national 
 47 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 character only so long as they are fit 
 enough to profit by the thousand and 
 one physical and social influences that 
 constitute the environment of nations 
 in the world. It is impossible that a 
 people should develop its life and 
 liberty by ignoring or neglecting the 
 mutual alliances and enmities between 
 the several peoples of the human 
 society. It is impossible that a nation 
 should be able to acquire or preserve 
 freedom and prestige solely on the 
 strength of its own resources in national 
 wealth and character. Every people 
 has to settle its pohcy and course of 
 action by a careful study of the 
 disposition of the world-forces, and 
 the situation of the political centre of 
 gravity at the time. 
 
 It is this development of nations 
 through international relations, and 
 48 
 
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 
 
 the dependence of national destiny 
 on the character of the surroundings, 
 that explain why so many things in 
 the history of the world seem to be 
 accidental, strange, and sudden. In 
 reality, these accidents in the pheno- 
 mena of national rise and fall, as well 
 as the variations of national character, 
 are regulated by laws and are inter- 
 connected as causes and effects, 
 whether remote or direct, both in space 
 and time. 
 
 49 
 
SECTION VI 
 
 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND 
 THE FORMS OF GOVERNMENTAL 
 MACHINERY 
 
 WE shall see that not only states, 
 but administrative systems and 
 forms and methods of government also 
 are influenced and modified by the sur- 
 rounding conditions of the world. As 
 the State has its origin in the further- 
 ance of the interests of a people, it 
 grows and develops through the action 
 and inter-action of the diverse antago- 
 nistic and parallel forces of social life ; 
 and consequently it has to adapt its 
 organisation and governmental machi- 
 nery to the varying circumstances of 
 the environment. 
 
 The insular position and natural 
 50 
 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
 
 boundaries of Great Britain and 
 the United States of America pre- 
 serve them from foreign aggressions, 
 and this explains why the principle 
 of protection of the people from the 
 Government operates in these countries 
 more powerfully than that of pro- 
 tection by the Government. And 
 the centralised despotism of Louis 
 XIV., which has been formulated 
 into the memorable dictum, "I am 
 the state," is due to quite contrary 
 physical and social conditions of 
 France in the seventeenth century, viz., 
 the danger of the safety of the state 
 owing to weak barriers. The strong 
 military rule and Csesarism of the 
 founders of the Prussian monarchy 
 was an absolute necessity when the 
 small nucleus of political life was sur- 
 rounded by enemies on all sides. 
 51 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 Religious intolerance and persecution 
 in European history and the enforce- 
 ment of a rigid system of uniformity 
 in religious theory and practice were 
 inevitable when the peoples of Europe 
 were emerging from the conditions 
 of feudalistic disintegration to the 
 new national and unified socio-political 
 existence. A strong monarchy exer- 
 cising sway over all the spheres of 
 human hfe was the only means of 
 removing the decentralisation due to 
 diversity and multiplicity of indepen- 
 dent states, cities, and principalities. 
 This need of national unity and homo- 
 geneous compacture is responsible for 
 the suppression of independence in 
 thought, speech, and action, and 
 accounts for the remarkable preponder- 
 ance of the states in Spain, France, 
 England, and in more recent times 
 in Prussia and Hussia. 
 52 
 
INTEENATIONAL RELATIONS 
 
 But freedom of thought and action, 
 and toleration of diversities and dis- 
 unions were encouraged in India, and 
 the almost absolute independence and 
 autonomy of the ancient village re- 
 publics were preserved here up to the 
 modern age, owing to the vastness and 
 physical immensity of this " epitome 
 of the world," which presented un- 
 surmountable obstacles to the employ- 
 ment of the principles of Imperialism 
 and consolidation, and necessarily gave 
 ample scope for the application of 
 laissez-faire and let-alone in religion, 
 society, politics, and industry. 
 
 Besides the external conditions, 
 internal circumstances also regulate 
 the form and spirit of the administra- 
 tive machinery of a state. Lycurgus' 
 military-pedagogic state was the direct 
 and conscious result of the existence 
 53 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 of innumerable Helots and other 
 original settlers who were enslaved 
 by the Dorians in the land of their 
 adoption. The unruly and fanatical 
 character of subjects has to be met 
 by a tyrannical and inquisitorial form 
 of government. " Kings have to be 
 tyrants from policy when the subjects 
 are rebels from principle." The exist- 
 ence of diversities in religion, tribe, and 
 language also necessitates the adoption 
 by rulers of a policy of absolutism in 
 the interests of peace and security 
 of the whole territory under their 
 sway. 
 
 The "rights of man" and the prin- 
 ciples of liberty, fraternity, and equality 
 created opportunities for the rise of 
 Napoleon ; but he began his career 
 by restoring the ancien regime which 
 it had been the first work of the 
 54 
 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
 
 Revolutionists to overthrow. Napo- 
 leonism becomes a political necessity 
 when revolutions and disorders are 
 imminent ; and not sympathy of the 
 people but their terror is the object 
 aimed at by the rulers. So also 
 " Special Tribunals " and " Councils 
 of Disorder," martial laws, and a 
 thousand other engines of repression 
 have always to be resorted to by suc- 
 cessful revolutionists in order to crush 
 the old order of sovereigns. The 
 history of the French Revolution is a 
 record of coercions and counter- 
 coercions, by the successively rising 
 governments, of the parties just 
 overthrown. Even religious orders, 
 societies for the promotion of economic 
 good, and philanthropic organisations 
 have to adopt a powerful repressive 
 policy in order to concentrate their 
 55 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 own strength and assert their own 
 position in the society against the 
 despotism of estabHshed customs and 
 vested interests. Enforcement of strict 
 discipHne and principles of mihtary 
 organisation is the sole means of bind- 
 ing together the members of a new- 
 organisation for the furtherance of 
 national interests. The rigorous peda- 
 gogic morality among the Calvinists 
 and the repression of aU individuality 
 among the Jesuitical orders were the 
 inevitable consequences of their posi- 
 tion and responsibility as the pioneers 
 and organisers of new movements. 
 
 56 
 
SECTION VII 
 
 RELATIVITY OF RELIGIOUS MOVE- 
 MENTS AND OF OTHER ASPECTS 
 OF HUMAN LIFE TO THE CON- 
 JUNCTURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES 
 
 WE have thus seen that the 
 social and physical surround- 
 ings of man leave their stamp on the 
 character and extent of the state as 
 well as the spirit and form of 
 government. The same influence 
 of the environment is to be noticed 
 on the other manifestations and as- 
 pects of human life as well. Just as 
 the lower organisms assume different 
 shapes and characteristics under the 
 varying conditions of the physical 
 world and preserve their identity 
 57 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 and continuity under different forms 
 adapted to these conditions, so also 
 human hfe undergoes a variety of 
 transformations according to the 
 divergence of the influences and 
 circumstances in the physical and 
 social worlds. 
 
 A new religion was preached by 
 Mahomet in the seventh century. The 
 world at the time of his advent was 
 divided into innumerable principal- 
 ities, the Roman and the Persian 
 Empires being mere bundles or 
 confederacies of independent Consul- 
 ships and Vizierships. But the unity 
 of godhead preached by the Arabian 
 prophet became a cementing bond 
 to the diverse tribes and nationalities, 
 and forthwith began the process of the 
 overthrow of old and the rise of new 
 kingdoms. In this way the formative 
 58 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 principle of one of the most powerful 
 Empires of the world was supplied 
 by the birth of a religion. 
 
 So also the teachings of Christ, 
 which were at first practised and de- 
 veloped by a small coterie of religious- 
 minded men, acquired, under the 
 conditions of the world, such secular 
 and political influence, that about the 
 time of the decline and fall of the 
 Roman Empire, the Church organi- 
 sations of the Christian society alone 
 were the real political authorities, 
 and discharged all the important 
 functions of the secular states. The 
 new Teuton conquerors of the old 
 Roman provinces had to place them- 
 selves under the tutelage and guard- 
 ianship of the Church dignitaries in 
 all matters, secular as well as 
 theological, educational as well as 
 59 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 economic. The Frankish Empire of 
 Charlemagne and the Holy Roman 
 Empire of Otto the Great were the 
 handiworks of such " theological politi- 
 cians " and " political theologians." 
 And gradually a time came when the 
 Popes were the dictators of European 
 politics, and controlled not only the 
 religious but the political and 
 financial affairs of the Empire and 
 the kingdoms. Such secular presump- 
 tions and political aggrandisement of 
 the religious Empire are the root- 
 causes of the interminable inter- 
 national conflicts and civil wars of 
 the Middle Ages, and intensified the 
 disruptive forces of the feudal 
 regime. 
 
 Christianity and Islam thus pros- 
 pered, not solely because of the needs 
 of moral regeneration and spiritual 
 
 ao 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 advancement ; but the real cause 
 of their rapid progress and develop- 
 ment is to be sought in that unify- 
 ing force of religion as a principle 
 of association which, under the 
 existing conditions of the world, 
 supplied some of the real needs of 
 humanity. It is the absence or de- 
 generation of all other institutions 
 and organisations for the furtherance 
 of the social, political, educational, and 
 industrial interests of man, that neces- 
 sitated the transformation of these 
 religious associations into secular and 
 military states. The origin of such 
 a theocratic state out of a merely 
 spiritual community has been exem- 
 plified in Indian history in the case 
 of the Sikhs, who, rising as a peaceful 
 sect for the discovery of the means 
 of spiritual emancipation and tran- 
 61 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 scendental freedom from bondage, 
 were compelled by the force of cir- 
 cumstances to seek deliverance from 
 temporal thraldom and organise 
 independent secular kingdoms and 
 military states like Misls and K/ialsas. 
 I Manifestations of life change ac- 
 I cording to variations in the environ- 
 ment, and the state and religion 
 alone are not the sole aspects of man. 
 Human life consequently manifests 
 itself sometimes in arts and literature, 
 at other times in political conflicts 
 and religious movements. It is this 
 need of adaptation to circumstances, 
 again, that explains the varieties in 
 the type of philosophical and social 
 systems of the different ages, and 
 accounts for the divergences between 
 Manu, Aristotle, and Bacon as teachers 
 of humanity and pioneers of progress. 
 62 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 Movements and revolutions as well 
 as the truths established by them 
 assume different shapes according to 
 the different factors of human society. 
 
 It is because of this diversity of 
 manifestations of the vital principle 
 that national life is not necessarily 
 extinguished with the mere decay and 
 extinction of political existence. The 
 life of a people may under the force 
 of circumstances have to cease to 
 express itself in the field of economic 
 activity and reveal itself in religious 
 propagandism, or ceasing to seek reali- 
 sation and development in industrial 
 movements, may manifest itself in 
 literature and art, or at times display 
 its fulness and strength in martial 
 or educational enthusiasm. 
 
 This influence of the pressure of 
 circumstances on the form of life's 
 63 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 activity is to be seen also in the 
 various aspects that the same ideal 
 assumes in different departments of 
 human enterprise. Thus what is ex- 
 tremism in general thought and philo- 
 sophy is idealism in art and literature ; 
 is transcendentalism and mysticism 
 in religion ; assumes the form of 
 Socialism, a desire for equality and 
 creation of opportunities for the fullest 
 development of all in socio-economic 
 matters ; and lastly, becomes in politics 
 the principle of democratic recognition 
 of the rights of every individual. Thus 
 the Rights of the Individual, estab- 
 lished by the French Revolution in the 
 field of political action, have led to 
 the declaration of the pri^dleges of the 
 proletariat and the lower classes of 
 society, have made literature and art 
 spiritual and romantic, have established 
 64 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 religion on the solid ground of social 
 service and philanthropy, and by giving 
 an impetus to bold, independent think- 
 ing have succeeded in revolutionising 
 the Sciences. 
 
 65 
 
SECTION VIII 
 
 RECAPITULATION 
 
 RECAPITULATING, then, the 
 lessons of the Science of 
 History founded on Biology, we find 
 that neither literary movements nor 
 political agitations, neither the acqui- 
 sition of Hberty nor expansion of 
 territories — in fact, none of the various 
 aspects of national life are absolutely 
 dependent on the particular people 
 concerned, all are the products and 
 resultants of the mutual influences of 
 all nations and national activities on 
 one another ; so that types of national 
 character are moulded through constant 
 interactions and intercourses of life and 
 thought. In the second place, these 
 66 
 
RECAPITULATION 
 
 international actions and reactions 
 assume different aspects in different 
 times and thus give rise to different 
 nationalities of the human race and 
 different types of national character- 
 istics. In the third place, the mani- 
 festations of life that give rise to various 
 national types and different national 
 characteristics are always varying 
 both in form and spirit according to 
 the varying conditions of the world; 
 so that so long as man will be able to 
 adapt his movements to the varying 
 circumstances of the environment, 
 there is no need of despair for the 
 progress of humanity. 
 
 67 
 
SECTION IX 
 
 THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEN 
 
 BUT there is a fundamental differ- 
 ence between man and the lower 
 organisms as regards the relations with 
 the environment. Though, no doubt, 
 it is the conditions in the surrounding 
 world that mould and modify the life 
 and form of every living organism, it is 
 man alone of all created beings that can 
 make his own environment and create 
 the opportunities, or, at any rate, re- 
 arrange the forces of the world, accord- 
 ing to needs of his own development. 
 Even unfavourable circumstances may 
 be converted into useful instruments of 
 his proper growth and progress. 
 
 It is possible for man to realise 
 68 
 
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEN 
 
 " what is not," to extend an empire 
 over the physical and elemental forces 
 of the world, to transcend the limita- 
 tions of time and space, and regulate 
 them so as to make them conform to 
 his own needs, and by elevating the 
 status of society to bring about a 
 millennium in religion and philosophy. 
 The history of civilisation is the record 
 of man's will-power that has achieved 
 unexpected and almost impossible 
 results, by transforming unfit and 
 inefficient peoples into some of the 
 strongest nations of the world. 
 Idealists and men of strong will-power 
 like Alfred the Great, Lorenzo de 
 Medici, the preachers and prophets of 
 new ideas, the Roman Catholic Jesuits, 
 Frederick the Great of Prussia, and 
 Peter the Great and Catherine of Russia 
 have succeeded in infusing a new spirit 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 into the minds of their generations, and 
 enabled them to rise in the scale of 
 nations by adapting themselves to the 
 circumstances of the times. Religion, 
 industry, state, education, and literature 
 have been consciously transformed by 
 the heroic efforts of such great men 
 of the world, and these conscious and 
 artificial transformations of the several 
 aspects of social life have been the con- 
 stituents of a new environment and 
 thus the seeds of Renaissance. 
 
 Thus it is not the forces and 
 conditions of the existing world alone 
 that govern human affairs and 
 control the fortunes of movements, 
 for these forces and conditions them- 
 selves may be modified, re-arranged, 
 and regulated by man so as to give 
 rise to new circumstances and situa- 
 tions. The causes of revolutions lie 
 70 
 
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEN 
 
 mostly in the power of transforming 
 the surrounding conditions, e.g., that 
 by which man can alter the relation of 
 the world-forces with one another and 
 bring about new international arrange- 
 ments. It is such creations of 
 circumstances and new conditions in 
 the environment that are really respon- 
 sible for the diversity of national 
 fortunes during the same age, e.g., 
 industrial revolution in one country 
 but political decadence in another, 
 or religious propagandism among one 
 people and literary enthusiasm among 
 another; as well as for the diversity 
 of movements and agitations among 
 the same people in different ages. 
 This creation of new circumstances 
 and transformation of the existing 
 conditions, again, explain the diversity 
 of revolutions and the types of 
 71 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 revolutionists in the history of the 
 world, and account for the facts that 
 the centre of gravity of civilisation 
 has been at one time placed in India, 
 at other times in China, Egypt, Greece, 
 and so forth, and that Hindus, Musal- 
 mans, and Christians have been in 
 diverse times the "chosen races" of 
 God. The fact that modern Europe 
 has witnessed successively the hege- 
 mony of Spain, France, and England, 
 and is at present the theatre of inter- 
 national diplomacy and armed neutrality 
 between Germany, Russia, and En- 
 gland, is to be explained by the diver- 
 sities in world-politics that have been 
 created by the series of facts of far- 
 reaching consequence, such as the 
 royal marriages of the Habsburgs, 
 bigotry and intolerance of Philip II., 
 protection and toleration of Elizabeth, 
 72 
 
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEN 
 
 conquests and expansion of the French 
 monarchy, commercial rivalry between 
 the East India Companies, births of 
 great men and rise of new ideas in 
 Europe, desire for national self-asser- 
 tion and idealistic self-sacrifice, progress 
 of " enlightenment " and rationalism, 
 as well as the sense of responsibility 
 of pioneers that make up the several 
 scenes of this complex drama. 
 
 This possibility of the transformation 
 of the environment, again, can explain 
 the revolution in ideas, manners, and 
 sentiments that may take place in 
 human society under the forms of 
 Theism, Scepticism, Christianity, Islam, 
 Imperialism, Commercialism, De- 
 mocracy, and Socialism. This, again, \ 
 is responsible for the failures of many 
 political revolutions, and accounts for 
 the fact that national regeneration and 
 73 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 political advancement have in all places 
 had a long and chequered course. 
 
 Ideals and phenomena of civilisation, 
 then, are what man makes them to be, 
 and not the chance-creations of fortui- 
 tous conjuncture of circumstances. 
 They are the products of environ- 
 ments, in the making and regulation 
 of which human will and intelli- 
 gence, political rivalry and commercial 
 jealousy, desire of self-assertion and 
 amehoration of national condition, play 
 a considerable part. Man is always 
 utilising the forces and materials sup- 
 plied by the physical and social environ- 
 ment, re-arranging the particles of the 
 universe, creating new situations out 
 of old, giving rise to new environments 
 for new problems, and thus helping I 
 forward the opening up of new chapters/ 
 of universal history. 
 74 
 
SECTION X 
 
 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 THE interests of modern mankind 
 are hanging on the activities of 
 the " barbarians " of the present-day 
 world, who, by altering the disposition 
 of the forces of the universe, are silently 
 helping in the shifting of its centre of 
 gravity to a new position ; and on the 
 transcendental heroism of those great 
 men who are equipping themselves for 
 the magnificent career to be built up 
 by utilising the conditions thus created. 
 The pioneers of the future progress 
 and advancement of humanity are 
 those heroes who will be able to 
 make the most of the inevitable 
 changes that constitute the life-history 
 75 
 
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 
 
 of the world, and create new situa- 
 tions by timely and skilful readjustment 
 of world influences. And so long as 
 there is one man in this universe 
 capable of opening up new fields 
 and discovering new opportunities 
 by making the necessary modifica- 
 tions and re-arrangements, so long 
 humanity's cause will continue to be 
 broadening from " precedent to pre- 
 cedent," and the interests of mankind 
 widening through revolutions and 
 transformations to " one increasing 
 purpose" with "the process of the 
 suns." 
 
 76 
 
Works fty Prof, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, M.A. 
 
 I. IN THE PRESS :- 
 
 1. SUKRANITI— Sukracharya's System of Morals (Social, 
 Economic, and Political) in Sanskrit — rendered into 
 English with Introduction and Notes for the Sacred 
 Books of the Hindus Series published by the Panini 
 Office, Allahabad. 
 
 2. RAJA TARANGINI— The Annals of Kashmir in 
 Sanskrit by the poet-historian Kalhan, rendered into 
 Bengali. 
 
 3. Lessons on Sanskrit in English (4 parts). 
 
 II. IN BENGALI : - 
 
 1. Sadhana — Miscellaneous Essays (in the Press). 
 
 2. Problems in Education (in the Press). 
 
 3. Siksha Bijnan or The Science of Education and the 
 Inductive Method of Teaching Series — 10 volumes 
 already published, others in preparation. 
 
 Sahitya Sevi. 
 
 III. IN ENGLISH :- 
 
 The Aids to General Culture Series — 6 volumes already 
 published. 
 
 IV. TRANSLATION OF PROF. SARKAR'S 
 
 WORKS :- 
 
 1. ENGLISH— Introduction to the Science of Education 
 (in the Press in England). 
 
 2. HINDI — (i) National Education in Ancient Greece. 
 (ii) The Man of Letters (Sahitya Sevi). 
 
 (iii) The Study of Language. 
 
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE HINDUS 
 
 Translated by various Sanskrit Scholars. 
 
 Edited by Major B. D. Basu, I.M.S. (Retd.) 
 
 Published in Monthly Parts of 100 pages. 
 
 Annual Subscription inclusive of Postage— 12 Rs. 12 As. 
 
AIDS TO GENERAL CULTURE SERIES 
 
 1. Outline of the History of Ancient and Mediaeval Europe — 
 In two Parts. Part I, Annas 12. Part II, Rs. 2. 
 
 2. Constitutions of Seven Modern States — Re, 1-4. 
 
 3. Analysis of Seeley's Introduction to Political Science — 
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