Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE UNITY OF MANKIND.

UNITY AMID DIVERSITY.—The path of human progress has led in the direction of unity as the ultimate goal. It is, however, a unity in variety toward which the course of history has moved. The development and growth of distinct nations, each after its own type, and, not less, the freedom of the individual to realize the destiny intended for him by nature, are necessary to the full development of mankind,—necessary to the perfection of the race. The final unity that is sought is to be reached, not by stifling the capacities of human nature, but by the complete unfolding of them in all their diversity. The modern era has made an approach toward this higher unity that is to coexist with a rich and manifold development. An enlightened man, Prince Albert of England, remarked in a public address (1850): "Nobody who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of our present era will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end to which, indeed, all history points, the realization of the unity of mankind! Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but rather a unity, the result and product of those very national varieties and antagonistic qualities."

In concluding this volume, it is proper to advert to some of the signs and means of this unification of mankind, which belong to the recent era.

1. INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS.—The words quoted above from Prince Albert were spoken in anticipation of the Great International Exhibition in London, in 1854. The industrial exhibitions, in which the products of many nations are collected, and to which visitors are drawn from different parts of the earth, are one indication of the effect of manufactures and commerce in drawing mankind together. The first displays of this kind were for French manufactures alone, and were held in Paris in 1798, and, under the consulate of Napoleon, in 1801 and 1802. The first international exposition was in Paris in 1844; and it was followed by the "World's Fair" in London (1850), for which the vast edifice called "the Crystal Palace," made of iron and of glass, was constructed. Similar exhibitions were held in New York (1853), in Paris in 1855 and again in 1867, in Constantinople, Amsterdam, Vienna, (1873), in Philadelphia on the hundredth anniversary of American independence (1876), in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900. In these fairs, the products of the industry of the far East were shown by the side of the products of European and American manufacture.

2. ECONOMICAL ENLIGHTENMENT.—In connection with the wide extension of commerce, the better methods and ideas which have come into vogue in respect to commercial relations deserve notice. The system of credit, facilitating trade and forming a bond of confidence and of union between different nations, although it began in the Middle Ages, was not fairly established until the organization of the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609. This system, if it is "one of the most powerful engines of warfare," is likewise "one of the great pledges of peace." The stimulus given to manufactures by mechanical inventions has been an effective promoter of commercial intercourse. The teaching of Adam Smith, and of the political economists since his time, by which it is seen that the gain of one nation is not the loss of another, and that nations are mutually benefited by the interchange of the products of their labor, which is the true source of wealth, has operated as an antidote to discord. The ruin of a neighbor, or non-intercourse with him, has been discovered to be as contrary to the demands of a prudent self-interest as of a disinterested benevolence.

3. COMMUNITY IN SCIENCE AND LETTERS.—The community of literature and science has been growing more cosmopolitan. The barriers created by differences of language are overcome. The custom of learning foreign languages has become more diffused. The most important writings, in whatever country they appear, circulate through translations in all other civilized lands. All well-stored libraries are polyglot.

4. WIDENED POLITICAL SYSTEM.—In the political relations of countries, it is found necessary to comprehend all parts of the globe in the political system, in the right adjustment of which each country has a stake, and over which stretches an acknowledged code of international law. The establishment of an international tribunal of arbitration at The Hague is a long step toward making such a code effective and toward preventing war.

5. INTERNATION PHILANTHROPY.—The growth of humane feeling, of the interest felt in man as man, engendered a spirit of universal philanthropy. For example, the hostility to the slave-trade led to the treatment of it as piracy by the municipal laws and by the treaties of several nations, while it is prohibited and punished by nearly all of the countries of Europe. This is the direct result of a heightened respect for man and for the rights of human nature, however poor or degraded man may be. Instances have occurred in which help has been generously given to sufferers by fire or famine, by strangers in remote lands. A famine in Persia called out liberal contributions from America. Examples of the exercise of justice and kindness toward distant nations may remind the reader of opposite examples of wrong and cruelty. We are pointing out, however, only the drift of sentiment; and it must be remembered that the facts which have been referred to as illustrative of the growth of philanthropy, are such as never occurred in former ages.

6. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.—The spread of the Christian religion by missionary efforts is one of the means of unifying mankind. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the two great achievements of the Church were the conversion of the Roman Empire, and then of the barbarian nations by whom it was subverted. But, in the Middle Ages, there was also missionary labor, here and there among the Saracens and in the lands of the East. Since the thirteenth century, missions in the Roman Catholic Church have been chiefly prosecuted by the monastic orders. In this work, the Jesuits, from the first establishment of their order, were conspicuously active in all quarters of the globe. Of their missionaries, none have been more eminent and zealous than Francis Xavier (1506?1552), who died just as he was about to undertake the conversion of China. Protestants, in the period after the Reformation, were too busy in the struggles going forward in their own lands, to undertake foreign missions on an extended scale. Yet they were not indifferent to the importance of the work. Under the protectorate of Cromwell, an ordinance established a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (1649). In 1701 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was established in England. Later, the Moravians from the beginning evinced great interest in foreign missions, and planted missionary stations in several countries. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Congregation of the Propaganda was founded in 1622, for the general superintendence of missionary operations. Colleges for their training were established, the chief of which was the "Urban College" at Rome, where students from all nations have been educated for missionary service.

The nineteenth century was marked by an extraordinary outburst of missionary activity. In this sort of exertion the Roman Catholic body has kept up an unflagging zeal. Within the various Protestant denominations, a remarkable increase of fervor and of success in this department of Christian labor has been witnessed. In the room of seven societies for this purpose at the end of the eighteenth century, there were in 1880, in Europe and America, seventy organizations. At this last date, there were not less than twenty-four hundred ordained Europeans and Americans employed in this service, besides a great number of assistants, both foreign and native. The native converts numbered not less than 1,650,000. The yearly contributions for the support of the missions increased proportionately. In 1882 British contributions alone amounted to £1,090,000. It is not an exaggeration to say that the globe is now "covered with a network of Christian outposts."