We shall see the import of this when we come to consider the intellectual movement in which the idea of Progress was afterwards to emerge.

In the third place, he had a conception of the common interest of all the peoples of the earth, a conception which corresponded to the old ecumenical idea of the Greeks and Romans, [Footnote: See above, p.

23.] but had now a new significance through the discoveries of modern navigators.

He speaks repeatedly of the world as a universal state, and suggests that the various races, by their peculiar aptitudes and qualities, contribute to the common good of the whole.
This idea of the "solidarity" of peoples was to be an important element in the growth of the doctrine of Progress.

[Footnote: Republique, Book v.cap.1 (p.