CHAPTER III
THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLAND
Meanwhile, a light haze had gathered over the towers and turrets and temples of London, that a while ago had stood out so clear-cut in the afternoon. Next, thought itself, by sympathy or by reaction, became clouded too, as if a breath of scepticism had mounted up from the vapours yonder to confuse the worth of freedom and of industrialism, the past work of England.
In fact, was it true that this was indeed the achievement which had constituted our greatness? And, if so, was it not now insufficient to meet the future?
To look for a moment at history, assuredly England has not been the prima donna of freedom. For there have been three great stages in the history of liberty, and she has taken a leading part only at the last stage of the three.
The first of these epochs coincided with antiquity, and was initiated by Athens.
In antiquity the commonwealth was Church and State in one. Montesquieu said, inaccurately, that antiquity subordinated religion to the State. More correctly, religion was identified with the
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