Page:The Science of History and the Hope of Mankind.djvu/13

 SECTION I PROBLEMS OF HISTORY ANY strange things have happened 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 powerful 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 religious system with its peculiar dogmas and doctrines has displaced the old mythology and renovated the 1