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THE UNITY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Essays Arranged and Edited by
F. S. MARVIN
Sometime Senior Scholar of St. John's College, Oxford
Author of _The Living Past_
Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York
Toronto Melbourne Bombay
1915
PREFACE
The following essays are the substance of a course of lectures delivered
at a Summer School at the Woodbrooke Settlement, near Birmingham, in
August 1915. The general purpose of the course will be apparent from the
essays themselves. No forced or mechanical uniformity of view was aimed
at. The writers will be found, very naturally and properly, to differ in
detail and in the stress they lay on different aspects of the case. But
they agree in thinking that while our country's cause and the cause of
our Allies is just and necessary and must be prosecuted with the utmost
vigour, it is not inopportune to reflect on those common and
ineradicable elements in the civilization of the West which tend to form
a real commonwealth of nations and will survive even the most shattering
of conflicts. That we on the Allied side stand fundamentally for this
ideal is one of our most valuable assets.
The fact that the lectures were delivered at a settlement for training
persons for social work in a religious spirit, suggested to more than
one of those who took part in the course, how similar is the task which
now lies before us in international affairs to that which Canon Barnett
initiated thirty years ago for the treatment of the social question at
home. We need in both cases to associate ourselves mentally with others
in order to realize the common elements which underlie the seeming
diversity in the civilization of the West.
The method of the course was primarily historical, though certain essays
have been added of a more idealist type. It is hoped that the point of
view suggested, though prompted by current events, may be found to have
some permanent value. It could obviously be applied to many other
aspects of European life, e.g. morality and politics, to which
conditions of space have only permitted indirect reference to be made in
this volume.
F.S.M.
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTORY: THE GROUNDS OF UNITY
By F. S. MARVIN.
II. UNITY IN PREHISTORIC TIMES
By J. L. MYRES, Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, Oxford.
III. THE CONTRIBUTION OF GREECE AND ROME
By J. A. SMITH, Waynflete Professor of Mental and Moral
Philosophy, Oxford.
IV. UNITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
By ERNEST BARKER, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
V. UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN LAW
By W. M. GELDART, Vinerian Professor of English Law, Oxford.
VI. THE COMMON ELEMENTS IN EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND ART
By the Rev. Dr. A. J. CARLYLE, University College, Oxford.
VII. SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY AS UNIFYING FORCES
By L. T. HOBHOUSE, White Professor of Sociology,
University of London.
VIII. THE UNITY OF WESTERN EDUCATION
By J. W. HEADLAM, late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
IX. COMMERCE AND FINANCE AS INTERNATIONAL FORCES
By HARTLEY WITHERS.
X. INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION
By CONSTANCE SMITH, sometime British Delegate on International
Bureau for Industrial Legislation.
XI. COMMON IDEALS OF SOCIAL REFORM
By C. DELISLE BURNS.
XII. THE POLITICAL BASES OF A WORLD-STATE
By J. A. HOBSON.
XIII. RELIGION AS A UNIFYING INFLUENCE IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
By H. G. WOOD, late Fellow of Jesus College,
Cambridge.
XIV. THE GROWTH OF HUMANITY
By F. S. MARVIN.
ANALYSIS
CHAPTER I. THE GROUNDS OF UNITY
The appeal to history. Previous great schisms in Europe which have been
surmounted give hope for the present. The Reformation. The Napoleonic
Wars.
The two points of view, (1) Man's nature itself tending to unity through
conflict. (2) The stages in the process developed in history.
In pre-history conflict and diversity are predominant, though the
necessities of life prescribe certain uniformities. Consolidation comes
in favoured physical conditions, especially great river-basins like the
Nile and the Euphrates.
The possibility of a world-unity first consciously envisaged in the
Greco-Roman world. Greece gives unity in thought, Rome in practice.
Order with a solid intellectual foundation established with the Roman
Empire. In the mediaeval world a unity mainly spiritual is reached in
the same framework. The position of Germany in this development. The
break-up of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. The enlargement of the
known world and the growth of wealth and knowledge. This crisis still
continues and has been recently accentuated by the birth-throes of
nationalities. The supreme problem for international unity is now the
reconciliation of national units with the interests of the whole.
Underneath the superficial turmoil the great unifying forces of science
and of common sentiments continue to grow and will ultimately prevail.