Description:CHAPTER I THE SCHOOL OF COBDEN D URING SOlne twenty, or it may be thirty years, a vave of .reaction has spread over the civilised Vorla and invaded one department after another of thought and action. This is no unprecedented occurrence. In the onvard moveluent of luankind history shows us each fOIVard step followed by a pause, and too often by a backsliding in vhich luuch of the ground gained is lost. Of the causes of this almost rhythmical, yet tragic, alternation we know little. Sometilnes it vould SeelTI that the forces gathered together to r81ll0Ve some obstruction which directly blocks advance become themselves a hindrance to further lTIOVement. Sometimes the ideas which fill one generation vith enthusiasm appear as though spent and worn 1...