I. The difference between ancient and modern times in Europe is vital. Human society is never stagnant; development in one direction or another is constant; so that in the course of a few centuries changes, both numerous and noticeable, take place everywhere. Thus the Europe of the middle ages differs very markedly from the Europe of to-day. Yet the one is the direct outcome of the other. On the other hand, the civilizations of Greece and Rome, although we owe them an incalculable debt, are marked off from modern civilization by differences which can only be spoken of as essential. For it is not any single element that has been added externally to ancient life so as to produce modern society; it is rather a subtle spirit, which has modified all thinking, altered the values of things, produced organic changes in government and society, and recreated art and literature. The unexampled development of science and invention, and the extraordinary activity and vigour of European commerce and arms, which are often spoken of as the chief characteristics of modern civilization, are rather to be regarded as indications of unparalleled vitality and efficiency in the social organism than as essential products of its spirit. Science and invention flourished among the Greeks; the Roman empire was as vigorous as any modern state in matters of war. These things prove the healthy vitality of the society of the West; its essential spirit is to be sought elsewhere. A comparison of ancient and modern life reveals differences at once very numerous and greatly significant. The economics of Europe have been revolutionized; for the labour, the manufacture and the commerce of ancient times rested on a basis of slavery.[163] Government has been turned upside down; for the ruling principle of ancient politics was hereditary and exclusive citizenship in a city-state;[164] while modern politics have been created by the great principles of the equality of men irrespective of birth or station and the indefeasible sovereignty of the people.[165] In ancient society human life as such had no value: infanticide was practised openly by all as a right and proper thing necessary for the well-being of the family and the state;[166] prisoners taken in war, if not killed, were made slaves, and as slaves their lives and persons were absolutely at the mercy of their masters;[167] aliens had a place in the state only on sufferance: society stood in no relation to them and had no duties towards them.[168] The social organism of modern times, on the other hand, is a new creation, produced by the conception of the inherent sanctity of human life and the divine dignity of the human personality.[169] Modern education is in form and method Greek; but the results it produces are altogether new; first, because it carries the modern spirit within the ancient forms, and secondly, because modern men regard education as part of the birthright of every human being.