grades between these different types of
influence, but the net outcome of what has occurred during the last
four centuries is that civilization of the European type now exercises
a more or less profound effect over practically the entire world.
There are nooks and corners to which it has not yet penetrated; but
there is at present no large space of territory in which the general
movement of civilized activity does not make itself more or less felt.
This represents something wholly different from what has ever hitherto
been seen. In the greatest days of Roman dominion the influence of
Rome was felt over only a relatively small portion of the world's
surface. Over much the larger part of the world the process of change
and development was absolutely unaffected by anything that occurred in
the Roman Empire; and those communities the play of whose influence
was felt in action and reaction, and in inter-action, among
themselves, were grouped immediately around the Mediterranean. Now,
however, the whole world is bound together as never before; the bonds
are sometimes those of hatred rather than love, but they are bonds
nevertheless.
Frowning or hopeful, every man of leadership in any line of thought or
effort must now look beyond the limits of his own country. The student
of sociology may live in Berlin or St. Petersburg, Rome or London, or
he may live in Melbourne or San Francisco or Buenos Aires; but in
whatever city he lives, he must pay heed to the studies of men who
live in each of the other cities. When in America we study labor
problems and attempt to deal with subjects such as life insurance for
wage-workers, we turn to see what you do here in Germany, and we also
turn to see what the far-off commonwealth of New Zealand is doing.
When a great German scientist is warring against the most dreaded
enemies of mankind, creatures of infinitesimal size which the
microscope reveals in his blood, he may spend his holidays of study in
central Africa or in eastern Asia; and he must know what is
accomplished in the laboratories of Tokyo, just as he must know the
details of that practical application of science which has changed the
Isthmus of Panama from a death-trap into what is almost a health
resort. Every progressive in China is striving to introduce Western
methods of education and administration, and hundreds of European and
American books are now translated into Chinese. The influence of
European governmental principles
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