and the bracing conflicts in defence of privilege against aggressive powers; then the development of doctrines of human rights in the course of the conflicts, and the practical necessity of association in defence of those rights. Finally, the extension of the doctrines over the whole area of civic life.
The German spirit was intensely individualistic, domestic, aristocratic, sentimental; and when it passed under the discipline of Christianity, it received a truly amazing exaltation, which has left its mark on the politics, literature, and art of modern Europe, and perhaps most remarkably on the conceptions of family life which now prevail among us. Moreover, while Imperial society had been pre-eminently urban, German life was preeminently rural. The town is the natural enemy of the home; the country is the natural sphere of the family. Thus the habits and the circumstances of the conquerors of the Roman empire co-operated with the other forces of
