d, caring naught for superior numbers--and saying with
German Alaric when the Romans boasted of their numbers, "The thicker the
hay the easier it is mowed"--struck one brave blow at the huge inflated
wind-bag--as Cyrus and his handful of Persians struck at the Medes; as
Alexander and his handful of Greeks struck afterwards at the Persians--and
behold, it collapsed upon the spot. And then the victors took the place
of the conquered; and became in their turn an aristocracy, and then a
despotism; and in their turn rotted down and perished. And so the
vicious circle repeated itself, age after age, from Egypt and Assyria to
Mexico and Peru.

And therefore, we, free peoples as we are, have need to watch, and
sternly watch, ourselves. Equality of some kind or other is, as I said,
our natural and seemingly inevitable goal. But which equality? For
there are two--a true one and a false; a noble and a base; a healthful
and a ruinous. There is the truly divine equality, and there is the
brute equality of sheep and oxen, and of flies and worms. There is the
equality which is founded on mutual envy. The equality which respects
others, and the equality which asserts itself. The equality which longs
to raise all alike, and the equality which desires to pull down all
alike. The equality which says: Thou art as good as I, and it may be
better too, in the sight of God. And the equality which says: I am as
good as thou, and will therefore see if I cannot master thee.

Side by side, in the heart of every free man, and every free people, are
the two instincts struggling for the mastery, called by the same name,
but bearing the same relation to each other as Marsyas to Apollo, the
Satyr to the God. Marsyas and Apollo, the base and the noble, are, as in
the old Greek legend, contending for the prize. And the prize is no less
a one than all free people of this planet.

In proportion as that nobler idea conquers, and men unite in the equality
of mutual respect and mutual service, they move one step farther towards
realising on earth that Kingdom of God of which it is written: "The
despots of the nations exercise dominion over them, and they that
exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But he that will be
great among you let him be the servant of all."

And in proportion as that base idea conquers, and selfishness, not self-
sacrifice, is the ruling spirit of a State, men move on, one step
forward, towards realising