This description reveals at once the complex and parti-colored character of the Ottoman Empire at the period when its power and prestige were greatest, when its armies were feared from the shore of the German Ocean to the borders of India and its fleets from Gibraltar to Bombay, and when its favor and goodwill were sought by powers great and small in Asia, Africa, and Europe. For the state as for the individual, the penalty of greatness is increase of responsibility and care. In any conquering nation the growth of governmental institutions must keep pace with increase of territory and population, or advance will be stifled by confusion. The growth may, however, be too rapid to be intelligently directed. Most great institutions, in fact, tend to develop a separate life of their own which may become too vast and powerful for human comprehension and control; for political, religious, economic, and social forces proceed out of and act upon them in numerous and unexpected ways. In the case of the Ottoman Empire the situation was rendered more difficult by the presence in its territory of stable and vigorous institutions centuries older than its own. These were profoundly hostile to its inner spirit, far too powerful and individual to be destroyed or absorbed by it, and therefore an eternal obstacle to unity. In addition, the Ottoman institutions themselves grew more and more apart into two unified groups, which were in striking contrast in many ways; dwelling together, they acted upon each other continually; and unfortunately they were so constituted that their reciprocal influence was to the injury of both. A fuller explanation will make the complicated situation clearer. THE LIMITATIONS ON DESPOTISM