These  aspirations  have  moulded  philosophies


i24        THE  INTERPRETERS

and  religions  as  with  Plato  and  Plotinus,
who  conceived  of  Deity  as  beauty  in  its  very
essence. There  were  Indian  sages  who
taught  that  the  will  when  concentrated  had
a  mastery  which  extended  from  the  atomic
to  the  infinite,  and,  in  union  with  the  divine
will,  gave  man  almost  an  omnipotence  of
power. Other  religions  again  led  the  soul
to  the  fount  of  being  and  said  to  it,  '  Thou
art  That.'  I  think  these  desires  express
themselves  no  less  in  the  symbolism  of
politics,  so  that  when  one  or  another  quality
is  predominant  in  men  or  races  their  polity
tends  to  create  that  world  order  in  which
the  predominant  spiritual  quality  will  have
freest  play."

The  historian  was  interrupted  by  Rian,
who  said :  "  But  the  spiritual  bases  of  four
political  theories  have  been  discussed  by  us,
and  your  trinity  of  qualities  omits  to  find
an  ancestry  for  one  of  these. Is  it  Leroy's
anarchic  ideas  that  have  no  spiritual  founda-
tion ?  "

To  this  Brehon  replied :  "  If  we  can
imagine  this  trinity  exalted  above  itself  and
existing  in  a  unity,  so  also  can  we  imagine
natures  so  balanced  that  they  may  be  said
to  be  more  complete  symbols  of  the  Self-


xiv          THE  INTERPRETERS

existent  or  Solitary  of  the  Heavens  in  whom
all  qualities  inhere. Such  men  tend  to  be
self-sufficing  and  to  assert  absolute  kingship
over  their  own  being. They  exist  in  in-
creasing numbers  ;  and  the  philosophy  of
anarchy  which  they  profess,  from  being  the
most  despised  of  political  theories  has  in
three  hundred  years  become  one  of  the  most
powerful. That  has  come  not  only  because
the  right  or  justice  of  the  individual,  which
appeals  to  the  highly  evolved  soul,  is
asserted,  but  also,  I  think,  because  the
creation  of  great  individuals  is  the  intent  of
Nature,  which  it  has  been  said  exists  for  the
purposes  of  soul. The  external  law  imposed
by  the  greatest  of  states  must  finally  give
way  before  the  instinct  for  self-rule  which
alone  is  consonant  with  the  dignity  and
divinity  of  man. 