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Swartbmore ^Lecture.

brought about the stratification of society intoclasses. All economic history was the story of themaster's domination over his servants. Althoughthe medieval Guild organisation, religious in itsfundamentals, endeavoured to realise equalityamong guild-members, yet the whole of the Guildsystem rested on the exploitation of the ruralpopulation. The Russian " Mir," which, we aretold, established such mircales of equality, was theoutcome of the financial policy of Russia's Tartar conquerors, which was continued by the Tsars .Equality "as we understand it " is in fact theresult of that second tide of the Reformation whichoverflowed the world from England and America.It is a claim pursued despite the fact that experi-ence shows men to be utterly different, and evenas civilisation develops, becoming more different.So for instance Englishmen and Germans in theMiddle Ages were more like each other than theyare to-day.

This very modern doctrine of equality has itsroot in the idea of the divine spark which glows inevery human soul. For Jesus there was nodifference between Greeks and Jews , men andwomen, freemen and slaves. All were called aliketo the " glorious liberty of the children of God ."This thought is full of meaning as long as it ismaintained that humanity can trace its descentfrom the eternal father's home to which we are allstriving to return, though to be sure with manydetours and aberrations. The value of man isdetermined by his nearness or distance from God .Compared to eternity all earthly differences, of