The history of the contest between the East and the West, between Asia and Europe, is a history of reactions.

At one time one of the continents, at another time the other, is in the ascendant.

The time appeared to have come when the Asiatics were once more to recover their own, and to beat back the European aggressor to his proper shores and islands.

The triumphs achieved by the Seljukian Turks between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries would in that case have been anticipated by above a thousand years through the efforts of a kindred, and not dissimilar people.

But it turned out that the effort made was premature.