Page:The Science of History and the Hope of Mankind.djvu/15



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 reforms into the Legislative Assemblies and National Councils, the wholehearted 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 determination 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 curiosity and scepticism, a taste for