Page:The Science of History and the Hope of Mankind.djvu/81



"what is not," to extend an empire over the physical and elemental forces of the world, to transcend the limitations of time and space, and regulate them so as to make them conform to his own needs, and by elevating the status of society to bring about a millennium in religion and philosophy. The history of civilisation is the record of man's will-power that has achieved unexpected and almost impossible results, by transforming unfit and inefficient peoples into some of the strongest nations of the world. Idealists and men of strong will-power like Alfred the Great, Lorenzo de Medici, the preachers and prophets of new ideas, the Roman Catholic Jesuits, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Peter the Great and Catherine of Russia have succeeded in infusing a new spirit