BOOKS.

THE, RUIN OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION AND 111E TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.* • The Ruin of Ancient Civilisation and the Triumph of Christianity. By Cluglielma Ferrero. Translated by the lion. Lady Whitehead. London and New York : Putnam. [12s. 13d. net.] FRANKLY, we are disappointed with Signor Ferrero's book. His gifts to the modern world in the matter of later Roman History have been signal and the interest that his writings awaken is great. When, however, instead of describing what has taken place he enters the dangerous but fascinating realm of prophecy, he is not nearly so successful or so convincing. We can well believe .

him when he tells us that up till the time of Constantine Roman civilisation was unimpaired and that Rome perished, not from barbarism or from any weakening of the moral fibre of her people, but because she took a wrong turning in the course of constitutional development. The Empire did not obey the, law of her being, which was to be a Western State, inspired by Western ideals, but became Orientalized. The Roman Empire ceased to be that strange cross between a kingdom and a republic, a monarchy. Rome perished because her later Emperors led her down the flowery path of an abject absolutism it -hick there was nothing between the autocrat and the vast democratic plain at his feet. Rightly did the Greeks create the verb " to Medize," and make the practice a penal offence. But if it was a crime to suffer an Oriental degeneration in your own person, how infinitely worse to suffer it in the State ! That in the last resort was what led to the tragedy of Berenice and Titus, the tragedy which Rapine bas made living for us in immortal verse. Invitam invites dimisit ; he unwillingly dismissed her equally unwilling, because a marriage would have meant a derogation from that essential Westernism on which the Roman.

Imperium was founded.

It is this fact that falsifies the analogy between the destruction of the Roman civilisation and the possible destruction of our -own. We are by no means saying that our civilisation will not perish. We believe, indeed, that it will unless we realize that there is a real danger of its perishing and so avoid it. But if we do perish, it will be from an entirely different, even if apparently analogous, poison. Like a true member of the Latin race, what Signor Ferrero is frightened at is the weakening of the principle of authority. He is as alarmed on this point as Shakespeare depicts Ulysses to have been in " Troilus and Cressida " in the matter of degree and appetite. The passage is worth recalling to the memory of our readers " The heavens themselves, the planets, and this (Mare, ,

Observe degree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,

Office, and custom, in all line of order ;

And therefore is the glorious planet,. Sol, In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd.

. . . But when the planets, • In evil mixture, to disorder wander, What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny, What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture ! Oh ! when degree is ehak'd, Which is the ladder to all high designs, The enterprise is sick. How could communities, Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenitive and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place ? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark I what discord follows ! Each thing meets In mere oppugnancy : the bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, And make a sop of all this solid globe : Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father dead : Force should be right ; or, rather, right and wrong (Between whose endless jar justice resides) Should lose their names, and so should justice, too ; Then everything includes itself in power, Power into will, will into appetite ; And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,. This chaos, when degree is suffocate, Follows the choking.

And this neglection of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, in a purpose It hath to climb. The general's disdain 'd By him one step below ; he, by the next ; That next, by him beneath : so, every step, Exampled by the first pace that is sick Of his superior, grows to an envious fever Of pale and bloodless emulation."

Of course, there is danger in the overthrow of authority, but we venture to think that Signor Ferrero does not do justice to the An lo-Saxon substitute for unlimited authority in the social fabric and also in the region of thought. Authority, pure and simple, is inimical to the Anglo-Saxon. He will not tolerate it either in Church or in State. It does not quiet or inspire the Englishman, but irritates and annoys him. That was why we could never tolerate pure Roman Catholicism and never did tolerate it. Even when Ultramontanism was nominally in full swing here in the Middle Ages there were no English Ultra- montanes. " Hands off " as a principle is, in truth, treason to the Papacy, but that did not trouble English laymen, and very often not English ecclesiastics. Nolunrus legal Angliae mutari was said in no unfriendly spirit, but it meant quite clearly " so that's that."

That also is why we could not endure the government of Cromwell, well intentioned as his government was and sincerely framed so as not to tyrannize. But though we never have endured, and we trust never shall endure, the authority before which men bow, not because it is a convenience, but because it is something holy, we have a working equivalent which, though it is difficult to describe, is not difficult to feel. The prime advan- tage of that substitute is its toughness. It is not rigid, but for that reason breaks far less easily than the hard, splintery and really brittle fabric which is congenial to the Latin nature. It is this toughness which we hope and believe, we had almost said feel sure, is going to save Civilisation in the United States, in Britain and throughout the English-speaking world.

But it would not be fair to Signor Ferrero merely to comment on him. Ho ought to be allowed to speak for himself:— "The World War has produced many ruins, but the others are trifling in comparison with this destruction of all principles of authority. If Europe possessed governments of unquestioned power and of recognized authority, the work of reconstruction with all the formidable means at the disposal of Western civilisa- tion would be rapid and easy. But ruined as she is, plunged into the deepest misery, at grips with all sorts of political, economic, military and diplomatic difficulties engendered by the War, devoid of governments capable of efficient rule, the greater part of Europe may soon fall into a long anarchy. The history of the third and fourth centuries enables us to realize what would then take place in Europe. The principle of authority is the key to all civilisation ; when the political system becomes disintegrated and falls into anarchy, civilisation in its turn is rapidly broken up. This is the reason why I have brought to the remembrance of my contemporaries this sketch of a tragic period of ancient history. Three countries find them- selves to-day in a comparatively better situation—the United States, England and France. They have won the War, though at a terrible price. They are richer than the others, and they possess governments which amidst the general anarchy are still working. Let them beware of allowing themselves to be seduced by the illusion that they can isolate themselves in the midst of this all-pervading flow of anarchy ! That anarchy would produce general disorganization in two-thirds of Europe, and they would not fail to be engulfed in that immense abyss. Europe will be saved or will perish as a whole. It is for this reason that these countries must make use of their riches, their power, and of the relative state of order which they enjoy, to help the other countries to re-establish their condition and prosperity."

But though he points to the path of salvation, it is evident that Signor Ferrero has little belief that it will be followed. In many ways he thinks we are worse off than were the people of the Dark Ages. A crisis of anarchy would be more dangerous in our time than it was in the third century. At that time two religious beliefs, Paganism and Christianity, still held their own and so were able largely to restrain the onrush of intellectual,

moral and political anarchy.

" Every man had at that time at least a certain number of ideas and principles in- his mind which remained unassailable even if the entire universe crumbled away. If political anarchy which would be let loose with the fall of all principles of authority in Europe were now to supervene, there would be added to it the most complete intellectual anarchy that Europe has eve. known. Each party or group which in the- vagaries of that anarchy might gain possession of power for a day, would consider it had the right to remake the whole world on new principles f What utter disorder in the state, in morals, in culture, in the family, and in property, would result from such attempts, has been demonstrated to us in the case of Russia. It would be wise to consider from this point of view the events that during the last three years have convulsed Russia. These might bring home to a civilisation full of illusions as to its strength and authority what the far-reaching consequences might be of the ruin of a principle of authority in an epoch which has no longer any intellectual discipline. '

All this is profoundly interesting, and we trust that our readers will not think that we are taking up the attitude of the foolish English pore de famille who, warming his back at his coals fire, says :—" Don't tell me that we shall ever have any troubles of this kind in this country. Revolution be d—d ! The British people are far too sensible. We may, no doubt, have local troubles and temporarily a bad time, but, mark my words, we shall always stop at the edge of the precipice. That's our way. When we go by train we run it a bit fine every now and then, but we catch the train all right, even if sometimes we have to drive round like mad and catch it at the junction."

Signor Ferrero holds that we are now without any assured principle of authority. He will not listen to the ordinary demo- cratic argument, " Authority is a human thing. Its source is to be found in the will of those who obey it, and who in conse- quence have the right to control it. The true sovereign is, therefore, the people." We believe, on the contrary, that this is a much firmer basis for the authority which, we all agree, is generally necessary to social salvation than any of the bases which have been suggested. Especially is this true when even the sovereignty of the people, i.e., the Will of the Majority, is tempered by what we are old-fashioned enough to call certain inherent rights of individual freedom. To put it in its ultimate form, even the Will of the People is limited by the sacred right of insurrection—a sacred right, however, which is only to be exercised with rarity and as the last of all resources.

But the Will of the People must be strictly and honestly defined and not be a woolly conception after the heart of the Jacobins and the Bolsheviks. We will obey the sovereign people even in the wrong till we can teach them better, but we will not obey a shadowy abstraction, called the Will of the People, when in truth it is nothing of the kind.