initial commit of ebook 44494HEADmain

1 files changed, 25582 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/44494-0.txt b/44494-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..026f0cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44494-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,25582 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44494 ***
+
+                                HISTORY
+                                   OF
+                        CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+                                   BY
+                          HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.
+
+
+                           IN THREE VOLUMES.
+                                VOL. II.
+
+
+                             _NEW EDITION._
+
+
+                                TORONTO:
+                    ROSE-BELFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                            60 YORK STREET.
+                                 1878.
+
+
+
+
+                     ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+  OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH INTELLECT FROM THE MIDDLE OF
+  THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE ACCESSION TO POWER OF LOUIS XIV.
+
+                                                                     PAGE
+
+  Importance of the question, as to whether the historian should
+  begin with studying the normal or the abnormal condition of
+  society                                                             1-3
+
+  Greater power of the church in France than in England                 4
+
+  Hence in France during the sixteenth century everything was more
+  theological than in England                                         6-8
+
+  Hence, too, toleration was impossible in France                    9-11
+
+  But at the end of the sixteenth century scepticism appeared in
+  France, and with it toleration began, as was seen in the Edict
+  of Nantes                                                         11-15
+
+  The first sceptic was not Rabelais, but Montaigne                 15-18
+
+  Continuation of the movement by Charron                           18-21
+
+  Henry IV. encouraged the Protestants                              23-24
+
+  And they were tolerated even by the queen-regent during the
+  minority of Louis XIII.                                           24-26
+
+  The most remarkable steps in favour of toleration were,
+  however, taken by Richelieu, who effectually humbled the
+  church                                                            27-34
+
+  He supported the new secular scheme of government against the
+  old ecclesiastical scheme                                         34-42
+
+  His liberal treatment of the Protestants                          42-46
+
+  They are deserted by their temporal leaders, and the management
+  of the party falls into the hands of the clergy                   46-51
+
+  Hence the French Protestants, being headed by the clergy,
+  become more intolerant than the French Catholics, who are
+  headed by statesmen                                               51-55
+
+  Evidence of the illiberality of the French Protestants            55-72
+
+  They raise a civil war, which was a struggle of classes rather
+  than of creeds                                                       73
+
+  Richelieu put down the rebellion, but still abstained from
+  persecuting the Protestants                                       73-76
+
+  This liberal policy on the part of the government was only part
+  of a much larger movement                                         76-77
+
+  Illustration of this from the philosophy of Descartes             77-92
+
+  Analogy between Descartes and Richelieu                           92-93
+
+  The same anti-ecclesiastical spirit was exhibited by their
+  contemporaries                                                    93-95
+
+  And by Mazarin                                                    96-98
+
+  It was also seen in the wars of the Fronde                       99-102
+
+  But notwithstanding all this, there was a great difference
+  between France and England; and the prevalence of the
+  protective spirit prevented the French from becoming free       102-107
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+  HISTORY OF THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT, AND COMPARISON OF IT IN FRANCE AND
+  ENGLAND.
+
+  About the eleventh century the spirit of inquiry began to
+  weaken the church                                               108-110
+
+  Coinciding with this, the feudal system and an hereditary
+  aristocracy appeared                                            110-112
+
+  The nobles displace the clergy, and celibacy is opposed by the
+  principle of hereditary rank                                        112
+
+  In England the nobles were less powerful than in France         113-116
+
+  And were glad to ally themselves with the people against the
+  crown                                                           116-118
+
+  Hence a spirit of popular independence unknown in France, where
+  the nobles were too powerful to need the help of the people     118-119
+
+  Effects of this difference between the two countries in the
+  fourteenth century                                              119-122
+
+  Centralization was in France the natural successor of feudality 122-126
+
+  This state contrasted with that of England                      126-127
+
+  Power of the French nobles                                      128-131
+
+  Illustration from the history of chivalry                       131-135
+
+  Another illustration from the vanity of the French and pride of
+  the English                                                     135-137
+
+  Also from the practice of duelling                                  137
+
+  The pride of Englishmen encouraged the Reformation                  138
+
+  Analogy between the Reformation and the revolutions of the
+  seventeenth century                                             138-139
+
+  Both were opposed by the clergy and nobles. Natural alliance
+  between these two classes                                       139-142
+
+  In the reign of Elizabeth both classes were weakened            143-146
+
+  James I. and Charles I. vainly attempted to restore their power     147
+
+
+                              Chapter III.
+
+  THE ENERGY OF THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT IN FRANCE EXPLAINS THE FAILURE OF
+  THE FRONDE. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FRONDE AND THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH
+  REBELLION.
+
+  Difference between the Fronde and the great English rebellion   148-150
+
+  The English rebellion was a war of classes                      150-159
+
+  But in France the energy of the protective spirit and the power
+  of the nobles made a war of classes impossible                  160-162
+
+  Vanity and imbecility of the French nobles                      162-170
+
+  As such men were the leaders of the Fronde, the rebellion
+  naturally failed                                                167-173
+
+  But the English rebellion succeeded because it was a democratic
+  movement headed by popular leaders                              174-175
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT CARRIED BY LOUIS XIV. INTO LITERATURE. EXAMINATION
+  OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE INTELLECTUAL CLASSES
+  AND THE GOVERNING CLASSES.
+
+  The protective spirit in France, having produced these
+  political evils, was carried into literature under Louis XIV.,
+  and caused an alliance between literature and government        176-177
+
+  Servility in the reign of Louis XIV.                            177-181
+
+  Men of letters grateful to Louis XIV.                               182
+
+  But his system of protecting literature is injurious            183-188
+
+  Its first effect was to stop the progress of science            188-192
+
+  Even in mechanical arts nothing was effected                    192-194
+
+  Decline in physiology, in surgery, and in medicine              194-197
+
+  Also in zoology and in chemistry                                    197
+
+  Nor was anything done in botany                                 198-202
+
+  Intellectual decay under Louis XIV. was seen in every
+  department of thought, and was the natural consequence of
+  patronage                                                       202-205
+
+  Illustrations from the history of French art                    205-208
+
+  And from every branch of literature                             208-210
+
+  Universal decline of France during the latter part of the reign
+  of Louis XIV.                                                   210-212
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+  DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. REACTION AGAINST THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT, AND
+  PREPARATIONS FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+  English literature unknown in France in the reign of Louis XIV. 213-214
+
+  But began to be studied after his death, when the most eminent
+  Frenchmen visited England. This caused a junction of French and
+  English intellects                                              215-227
+
+  Admiration of England expressed by Frenchmen                    228-229
+
+  Hence liberal opinions in France, which the government
+  attempted to stifle                                                 229
+
+  Consequent persecution of literary men by the French government 230-242
+
+  Violence of the government                                      242-246
+
+  In France literature was the last resource of liberty           246-247
+
+  Reasons why literary men at first attacked the church and not
+  the government                                                  247-253
+
+  Hence they were led to assail Christianity                      254-258
+
+  But until the middle of the reign of Louis XV. the political
+  institutions of France might have been saved; after that period
+  all was over                                                    258-259
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+  STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE IN FRANCE FROM THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH
+  TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  Historical literature in France before the end of the sixteenth
+  century                                                         261-265
+
+  Improvement in the method of writing history late in the
+  sixteenth century                                               266-267
+
+  Still further progress early in the seventeenth century         268-270
+
+  Which became more marked in Mezeray's history in 1643           271-272
+
+  Retrograde movement under Louis XIV.                            273-279
+
+  Illustration of this from the work of Audigier                  279-282
+
+  And from that of Bossuet                                        282-291
+
+  Immense improvements introduced by Voltaire                     292-313
+
+  His History of Charles XII.                                     292-295
+
+  His Age of Louis XIV.                                           296-297
+
+  His Morals, Manners, and Character of Nations                   297-298
+
+  His views adopted by Mallet, Mably, Velly, Villaret, Duclos,
+  and Hénault                                                     299-300
+
+  His habit of looking at epochs                                      301
+
+  A remark of his adopted by Constant                                 302
+
+  He advocated free trade                                             304
+
+  His anticipation of Malthus                                     304-305
+
+  His attack on the Middle Ages                                   305-306
+
+  And on the pedantic admirers of antiquity                       306-308
+
+  He weakened the authority of mere scholars and theologians      308-309
+
+  Who had repeated the most childish absurdities respecting the
+  early history of Rome                                           309-310
+
+  In attacking which Voltaire anticipated Niebuhr                 310-313
+
+  Ignorant prejudice against him in England                           313
+
+  His vast labours were aided by Montesquieu                          314
+
+  The works of Montesquieu, and value of his method               314-319
+
+  The discourses of Turgot, and their influence                   320-321
+
+  All this hastened the advance of the French Revolution          321-322
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+  PROXIMATE CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AFTER THE MIDDLE OF THE
+  EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  Recapitulation of preceding views                                   323
+
+  Difference between certainty and precision                      324-326
+
+  The intellect of France began to attack the state about 1750    326-327
+
+  Rise of the political economists                                327-330
+
+  Influence of Rousseau                                           330-331
+
+  Just at the same time the government began to attack the church 332-334
+
+  And to favour religious toleration                              334-336
+
+  Abolition of the Jesuits                                        336-346
+
+  Calvinism is democratic; Arminianism is aristocratic            339-342
+
+  Jansenism being allied to Calvinism, its revival in France
+  aided the democratic movement, and secured the overthrow of
+  the Jesuits, whose doctrines are Arminian                       343-345
+
+  After the fall of the Jesuits the ruin of the French clergy was
+  inevitable                                                      347-348
+
+  But was averted for a time by the most eminent Frenchmen
+  directing their hostility against the state rather than against
+  the church                                                      349-351
+
+  Connexion between this movement and the rise of atheism         351-353
+
+  Same tendency exhibited in Helvétius                            353-357
+
+  And in Condillac                                                357-360
+
+  The ablest Frenchmen concentrate their attention on the
+  external world                                                  360-361
+
+  Effects of this on the sciences of heat, light, and electricit  361-363
+
+  Also on chemistry and geology                                   364-373
+
+  In England during the same period there was a dearth of great
+  thinkers                                                        374-375
+
+  But in France immense impetus was given to zoology by Cuvier
+  and Bichat                                                      375-376
+
+  Bichat's views respecting the tissues                           377-421
+
+  Connexion between these views and subsequent discoveries        383-386
+
+  Relation between inventions, discoveries, and method; and
+  immense importance of Bichat's method                           386-389
+
+  Bichat's work on life                                           390-395
+
+  Great and successful efforts made by the French in Botany       395-399
+
+  And in mineralogy by De Lisle and Haüy                          399-403
+
+  Analogy between this and Pinel's work on insanity               403-404
+
+  All these vast results were part of the causes of the French
+  Revolution                                                          405
+
+  Physical science is essentially democratic                      406-410
+
+  The same democratic tendency was observable in changes of dress 410-412
+
+  And in the establishment of clubs                               412-415
+
+  Influence of the American Rebellion                             415-418
+
+  Summary of the causes of the French Revolution                  418-420
+
+  General reflections                                             420-424
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF THE SPANISH INTELLECT FROM THE FIFTH TO THE
+  MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  In the preceding Chapters four propositions have been
+  established                                                     425-426
+
+  The truth of which may be further verified by studying the
+  history of Spain                                                    426
+
+  In Spain, superstition is encouraged by physical phenomena      426-434
+
+  It was also encouraged by the great Arian war with France       434-439
+
+  And, subsequently, by the war with the Mohammedans              439-444
+
+  These three causes influenced the policy of Ferdinand and
+  Isabella                                                        444-446
+
+  Continuation of the same policy by Charles V. and by Philip II. 446-453
+
+  Philip II., notwithstanding his repulsive qualities, was loved
+  by the nation                                                   453-455
+
+  Their affection for him was the result of general causes,
+  which, during several centuries, have made the Spaniards the
+  most loyal people in Europe                                         455
+
+  Origin of Spanish loyalty, and evidence of it                   455-461
+
+  Loyalty became united with superstition, and each strengthened
+  the other                                                       461-462
+
+  In consequence of this union, great foreign conquests were
+  made, and a great military spirit was developed                 461-465
+
+  But this sort of progress, depending too much upon individuals,
+  is necessarily unstable                                         465-466
+
+  The progress of England, on the other hand, depends upon the
+  ability of the nation, and therefore, continues, whether
+  individual rulers are skilful, or whether they are unskilful    466-467
+
+  In Spain, the ruling classes were supreme; the people counted
+  for nothing; and hence the grandeur of the country, which was
+  raised up by the able princes of the sixteenth century, was as
+  quickly pulled down by the weak princes of the seventeenth      467-472
+
+  The decay of Spain, in the seventeenth century, was connected
+  with the increasing influence of the clergy                     472-483
+
+  The first use which the clergy made of their power was to expel
+  all the Moors                                                   483-496
+
+  Effect of this expulsion in impoverishing Spain                 497-499
+
+  Decline of manufactures, and of population, and increase of
+  poverty                                                         499-511
+
+  In 1700, when affairs were at their worst, the Austrian dynasty
+  was succeeded by the Bourbon                                    513-514
+
+  Spain was now ruled by foreigners                               514-520
+
+  Who endeavoured to improve the country by weakening the church  521-525
+
+  But the authority of the church had so enfeebled the national
+  intellect, that the people, immersed in ignorance, remained
+  inert                                                           525-543
+
+  Government attempted to remedy this ignorance by calling in
+  foreign aid                                                     534-545
+
+  The influence of foreigners in Spain was displayed in the
+  expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1767                               545-546
+
+  And in the attacks made on the Inquisition                      547-548
+
+  It was also displayed in the foreign policy of Spain            548-550
+
+  All this was promoted by the authority and high character of
+  Charles III.                                                    552-554
+
+  But it was of no avail; because politicians can do nothing,
+  when the spirit of the country is against them                  534-555
+
+  Still, Charles III. effected great improvements, from which, on
+  a superficial view, permanent benefit might have been expected  555-568
+
+  Summary of what was accomplished for Spain, by the government,
+  between the years 1700 and 1788                                 568-570
+
+  Inasmuch, however, as these ameliorations were opposed to the
+  habits of the national character, a reaction was inevitable     570-571
+
+  In 1788, Charles III. was succeeded by Charles IV., and the new
+  king, being a true Spaniard, the reaction began                 571-573
+
+  In the nineteenth century, political reformers again
+  endeavoured to improve Spain                                        574
+
+  For the reasons already stated, their efforts were fruitless,
+  notwithstanding the early establishment in that country of
+  municipal privileges, and of popular representation             575-576
+
+  In this way, general causes always triumph over particular
+  actions                                                         577-578
+
+  Those general causes predetermined the country to superstition,
+  and it was impossible for individuals to make head against them 578-583
+
+  Nothing can weaken superstition but knowledge                       583
+
+  Such failures are the more observable, because Spain enjoys
+  immense natural advantages                                      583-585
+
+  And has possessed great patriots and great legislators              585
+
+  The Spaniards have, moreover, long been celebrated for honour,
+  courage, temperance, humanity, and religious sincerity          585-588
+
+  So far, however, as national progress is concerned, these noble
+  qualities are useless, while ignorance is so gross and so
+  general                                                         588-592
+
+  This it is, which, isolating Spain from the rest of the
+  civilized world, keeps alive that spirit of superstition, that
+  reverence for antiquity, and that blind and servile loyalty,
+  which, as long as they last, will render improvement
+  impossible; and which must last until ignorance is removed      592-597
+
+
+
+
+                   HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+  OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH INTELLECT FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE
+        SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE ACCESSION TO POWER OF LOUIS XIV.
+
+
+The consideration of these great changes in the English mind, has led me
+into a digression, which, so far from being foreign to the design of
+this Introduction, is absolutely necessary for a right understanding of
+it. In this, as in many other respects, there is a marked analogy
+between investigations concerning the structure of society and
+investigations concerning the human body. Thus, it has been found, that
+the best way of arriving at a theory of disease is by beginning with the
+theory of health; and that the foundation of all sound pathology must be
+first sought in an observation, not of the abnormal, but of the normal
+functions of life. Just in the same way, it will, I believe, be found,
+that the best method of arriving at great social truths, is by first
+investigating those cases in which society has developed itself
+according to its own laws, and in which the governing powers have least
+opposed themselves to the spirit of their times.[1] It is on this
+account that, in order to understand the position of France, I have
+begun by examining the position of England. In order to understand the
+way in which the diseases of the first country were aggravated by the
+quackery of ignorant rulers, it was necessary to understand the way in
+which the health of the second country was preserved by being subjected
+to smaller interference, and allowed with greater liberty to continue
+its natural march. With the light, therefore, which we have acquired by
+a study of the normal condition of the English mind, we can, with the
+greater ease, now apply our principles to that abnormal condition of
+French society, by the operations of which, at the close of the
+eighteenth century, some of the dearest interests of civilization were
+imperilled.
+
+  [1] The question as to whether the study of normal phenomena should or
+      should not precede the study of abnormal ones, is of the greatest
+      importance; and a neglect of it has introduced confusion into every
+      work I have seen on general or comparative history. For this
+      preliminary being unsettled, there has been no recognized principle
+      of arrangement; and historians, instead of following a scientific
+      method suited to the actual exigencies of our knowledge, have
+      adopted an empirical method suited to their own exigencies; and
+      have given priority to different countries, sometimes according to
+      their size, sometimes according to their antiquity, sometimes
+      according to their geographical position, sometimes according to
+      their wealth, sometimes according to their religion, sometimes
+      according to the brilliancy of their literature, and sometimes
+      according to the facilities which the historian himself possessed
+      for collecting materials. All these are factitious considerations;
+      and, in a philosophic view, it is evident that precedence should be
+      given to countries by the historian solely in reference to the ease
+      with which their history can be generalized; following in this
+      respect the scientific plan of proceeding from the simple to the
+      complex. This leads us to the conclusion that, in the study of Man,
+      as in the study of Nature, the question of priority resolves itself
+      into a question of aberration; and that the more aberrant any
+      people have been, that is to say, the more they have been
+      interfered with, the lower they must be placed in an arrangement of
+      the history of various countries. Coleridge (_Lit. Remains_, vol.
+      i. p. 326, and elsewhere in his works) seems to suppose that the
+      order should be the reverse of what I have stated, and that the
+      laws both of mind and body can be generalized from pathological
+      data. Without wishing to express myself too positively in
+      opposition to so profound a thinker as Coleridge, I cannot help
+      saying that this is contradicted by an immense amount of evidence,
+      and, so far as I am aware, is supported by none. It is contradicted
+      by the fact, that those branches of inquiry which deal with
+      phenomena little affected by foreign causes, have been raised to
+      sciences sooner than those which deal with phenomena greatly
+      affected by foreign causes. The organic world, for example, is more
+      perturbed by the inorganic world, than the inorganic world is
+      perturbed by it. Hence we find that the inorganic sciences have
+      always been cultivated before the organic ones, and at the present
+      moment are far more advanced than they. In the same way, human
+      physiology is older than human pathology; and while the physiology
+      of the vegetable kingdom has been successfully prosecuted since the
+      latter half of the seventeenth century, the pathology of the
+      vegetable kingdom can scarcely be said to exist, since none of its
+      laws have been generalized, and no systematic researches, on a
+      large scale, have yet been made into the morbid anatomy of plants.
+      It appears, therefore, that different ages and different sciences
+      bear unconscious testimony to the uselessness of paying much
+      attention to the abnormal, until considerable progress has been
+      made in the study of the normal; and this conclusion might be
+      confirmed by innumerable authorities, who, differing from
+      Coleridge, hold that physiology is the basis of pathology, and that
+      the laws of disease are to be raised, not from the phenomena
+      presented in disease, but from those presented in health; in other
+      words, that pathology should be investigated deductively rather
+      than inductively, and that morbid anatomy and clinical observations
+      may verify the conclusions of science, but can never supply the
+      means of creating the science itself. On this extremely interesting
+      question, compare _Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_, _Hist. des Anomalies de
+      l'Organisation_, vol. ii. pp. 9, 10, 127; _Bowman's Surgery_, in
+      _Encyclop. of the Medical Sciences_, p. 824; _Bichat_, _Anatomie
+      Générale_, vol. i. p. 20; _Cullen's Works_, vol. i. p. 424;
+      _Comte_, _Philos. Positive_, vol. iii. pp. 334, 335; _Robin et
+      Verdeil_, _Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i. p. 68; _Esquirol_, _Maladies
+      Mentales_, vol. i. p. 111; _Georget_, _de la Folie_, pp. 2, 391,
+      392; _Brodie's Pathology and Surgery_, p. 3; _Blainville_,
+      _Physiologie comparée_, vol. i. p. 20; _Feuchtersleben's Medical
+      Psychology_, p. 200; _Lawrence's Lectures on Man_, 1844, p. 45;
+      _Simon's Pathology_, p. 5.
+
+      Another confirmation of the accuracy of this view is, that
+      pathological investigations of the nervous system, numerous as they
+      have been, have effected scarcely anything; the reason evidently
+      being, that the preliminary knowledge of the normal state is not
+      sufficiently advanced. See _Noble on the Brain_, pp. 76-92, 337,
+      338; _Henry on the Nervous System_, in _Third Report of Brit.
+      Assoc._ p. 78; _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 608; _Jones and
+      Sieveking's Patholog. Anat._ p. 211.
+
+In France, a long train of events, which I shall hereafter relate, had,
+from an early period, given to the clergy a share of power larger than
+that which they possessed in England. The results of this were for a
+time decidedly beneficial, inasmuch as the church restrained the
+lawlessness of a barbarous age, and secured a refuge for the weak and
+oppressed. But as the French advanced in knowledge, the spiritual
+authority, which had done so much to curb their passions, began to press
+heavily upon their genius, and impede its movements. That same
+ecclesiastical power, which to an ignorant age is an unmixed benefit, is
+to a more enlightened age a serious evil. The proof of this was soon
+apparent. For when the Reformation broke out, the church had in England
+been so weakened, that it fell almost at the first assault; its revenues
+were seized by the crown,[2] and its offices, after being greatly
+diminished both in authority and in wealth, were bestowed upon new men,
+who, from the uncertainty of their tenure, and the novelty of their
+doctrines, lacked that long-established prescription by which the claims
+of the profession are mainly supported. This, as we have already seen,
+was the beginning of an uninterrupted progress, in which, at every
+successive step, the ecclesiastical spirit lost some of its influence.
+In France, on the other hand, the clergy were so powerful, that they
+were able to withstand the Reformation, and thus preserve for themselves
+those exclusive privileges which their English brethren vainly attempted
+to retain.
+
+  [2] A circumstance which Harris relates with evident delight, and goes
+      out of his way to mention it. _Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. iii. p.
+      300. On the amount of loss the church thus sustained, see
+      _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_, vol. i. pp. 181-184, and
+      _Eccleston's English Antiquities_, p. 228.
+
+This was the beginning of that second marked divergence between French
+and English civilization,[3] which had its origin, indeed, at a much
+earlier period, but which now first produced conspicuous results. Both
+countries had, in their infancy, been greatly benefited by the church,
+which always showed itself ready to protect the people against the
+oppressions of the crown and the nobles.[4] But in both countries, as
+society advanced, there arose a capacity for self-protection; and early
+in the sixteenth, or probably even in the fifteenth century, it became
+urgently necessary to diminish that spiritual authority, which, by
+prejudging the opinions of men, has impeded the march of their
+knowledge.[5] It is on this account that Protestantism, so far from
+being, as its enemies have called it, an aberration arising from
+accidental causes, was essentially a normal movement, and was the
+legitimate expression of the wants of the European intellect. Indeed,
+the Reformation owed its success, not to a desire of purifying the
+church, but to a desire of lightening its pressure; and it may be
+broadly stated, that it was adopted in every civilized country, except
+in those where preceding events had increased the influence of the
+ecclesiastical order, either among the people or among their rulers.
+This was, unhappily, the case with France, where the clergy not only
+triumphed over the Protestants, but appeared, for a time, to have gained
+fresh authority by the defeat of such dangerous enemies.[6]
+
+  [3] The first divergence arose from the influence of the protective
+      spirit, as I shall endeavour to explain in the next chapter.
+
+  [4] On the obligations Europe is under to the Catholic clergy, see some
+      liberal and very just remarks in _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol.
+      ii. pp. 374, 375; and in _Guizot's Civilisation en France_. See
+      also _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. iii. pp. 199-206,
+      255-257, vol. v. p. 138, vol. vi. pp. 406, 407; _Palgrave's
+      Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth_, vol. i. p. 655; _Lingard's Hist. of
+      England_, vol. ii. p. 44; _Klimrath_, _Travaux sur l'Hist. du
+      droit_, vol. i. p. 394; _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of
+      England_, vol. i. p. 157.
+
+  [5] The way in which this acted is concisely stated by Tennemann: 'Wenn
+      sich nun auch ein freierer Geist der Forschung regte, so fand er
+      sich gleich durch zwei Grundsätze, welche aus jenem Supremat der
+      Theologie flossen, beengt und gehemmt. Der erste war: die
+      menschliche Vernunft kann nicht über die Offenbarung
+      hinausgehen.... Der zweite: die Vernunft kann nichts als wahr
+      erkennen, was dem Inhalte der Offenbarung widerspricht, und nichts
+      für falsch erkennen, was derselben angemessen ist,--folgte aus dem
+      ersten.' _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. viii. part i. p. 8.
+
+  [6] As to the influence of the Reformation generally, in increasing the
+      power of the Catholic clergy, see M. Ranke's important work on the
+      _History of the Popes_; and as to the result in France, see
+      _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. v. pp. 233-235. Corero,
+      who was ambassador in France in 1569, writes, 'Il papa può dire a
+      mio giudizio, d'aver in questi romori piuttosto guadagnato che
+      perduto, perciochè tanta era la licenza del vivere, secondo che ho
+      inteso, prima che quel regno si dividesse in due parti, era tanta
+      poca la devozione che avevano in Roma e in quei che vi abitavano,
+      che il papa era più considerato come principe grande in Italia, che
+      come capo della chiesa e pastore universale. Ma scoperti che si
+      furono gli ugonotti, cominciarono i cattolici a riverire il suo
+      nome, e riconoscerlo per vero vicario di Cristo, confirmandosi
+      tanto più in opinione di doverlo tener per tale, quanto più lo
+      sentivano sprezzare e negare da essi ugonotti.' _Relations des
+      Ambassadeurs Vénitiens_, vol. ii. p. 162. This interesting passage
+      is one of many proofs that the immediate advantages derived from
+      the Reformation have been overrated; though the remote advantages
+      were undoubtedly immense.
+
+The consequence of all this was, that in France, every thing assumed a
+more theological aspect than in England. In our country, the
+ecclesiastical spirit had, by the middle of the sixteenth century,
+become so feeble, that even intelligent foreigners were struck by the
+peculiarity.[7] The same nation, which, during the Crusades, had
+sacrificed innumerable lives in the hope of planting the Christian
+standard in the heart of Asia,[8] was now almost indifferent to the
+religion even of its own sovereign. Henry VIII., by his sole will,
+regulated the national creed, and fixed the formularies of the church,
+which, if the people had been in earnest, he could not possibly have
+done; for he had no means of compelling submission; he had no standing
+army; and even his personal guards were so scanty, that at any moment
+they could have been destroyed by a rising of the warlike apprentices of
+London.[9] After his death, there came Edward, who, as a Protestant
+king, undid the work of his father; and, a few years later, there came
+Mary, who, as a Popish queen, undid the work of her brother; while she,
+in her turn, was succeeded by Elizabeth, under whom another great
+alteration was effected in the established faith.[10] Such was the
+indifference of the people, that these vast changes were accompanied
+without any serious risk.[11] In France, on the other hand, at the mere
+name of religion, thousands of men were ready for the field. In England,
+our civil wars have all been secular; they have been waged, either for a
+change of dynasty, or for an increase of liberty. But those far more
+horrible wars, by which, in the sixteenth century, France was desolated,
+were conducted in the name of Christianity, and even the political
+struggles of the great families were merged in a deadly contest between
+Catholics and Protestants.[12]
+
+  [7] The indifference of the English to theological disputes, and the
+      facility with which they changed their religion, caused many
+      foreigners to censure their fickleness. See, for instance, _Essais
+      de Montaigne_, livre ii. chap. xii. p. 365. Perlin, who travelled
+      in England in the middle of the sixteenth century, says, 'The
+      people are reprobates, and thorough enemies to good manners and
+      letters; for they don't know whether they belong to God or the
+      devil, which St. Paul has reprehended in many people, saying, Be
+      not transported with divers sorts of winds, but be constant and
+      steady to your belief.' _Antiquarian Repertory_, vol. iv. p. 511,
+      4to, 1809. See also the remarks of Michele in 1557, and of Crespet
+      in 1590; _Ellis's Original Letters_, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 239;
+      _Hallam's Constitutional History_, vol. i. p. 102; _Southey's
+      Commonplace Book_, 3rd series, p. 408.
+
+  [8] An historian of the thirteenth century strikingly expresses the
+      theological feelings of the English crusaders, and the complete
+      subordination of the political ones: 'Indignum quippe judicabant
+      animarum suarum salutem omittere, et obsequium c[oe]lestis Regis,
+      clientelæ regis alicujus terreni postponere; constituerunt igitur
+      terminum, videlicet festum nativitatis beati Johannis Baptistæ.'
+      _Matthæi Paris Historia Major_, p. 671. It is said, that the first
+      tax ever imposed in England on personal property was in 1166, and
+      was for the purpose of crusading. _Sinclair's Hist. of the
+      Revenue_, vol. i. p. 88: 'It would not probably have been easily
+      submitted to, had it not been appropriated for so popular a
+      purpose.'
+
+  [9] Henry VIII. had, at one time, fifty horse-guards, but they being
+      expensive, were soon given up; and his only protection consisted of
+      'the yeomen of the guard, fifty in number, and the common servants
+      of the king's household.' _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 46.
+      These 'yeomen of the guard were raised by Henry VII. in 1485.'
+      _Grose's Military Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 167. Compare _Turner's
+      Hist. of England_, vol. vii. p. 54; and _Lingard's Hist. of
+      England_, vol. iii. p. 298.
+
+  [10] Locke, in his first Letter on Toleration, has made some pungent,
+       and, I should suppose, very offensive, observations on these rapid
+       changes. _Locke's Works_, vol. v. p. 27.
+
+  [11] But, although Mary easily effected a change of religion, the
+       anti-ecclesiastical spirit was far too strong to allow her to
+       restore to the church its property. 'In Mary's reign, accordingly,
+       her parliament, so obsequious in all matters of religion, adhered
+       with a firm grasp to the possession of church-lands.' _Hallam's
+       Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 77. See also _Short's Hist. of the Church
+       of England_, p. 213; _Lingard's Hist. of England_, vol. iv. pp.
+       339, 340; _Butler's Mem. of the Catholics_, vol. i. p. 253; and
+       _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. i. p. 346.
+
+  [12] 'Quand éclata la guerre des opinions religieuses, les antiques
+       rivalités des barons se transformèrent en haîne du prêche ou de la
+       messe.' _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme et de la Ligue_, vol.
+       iv. p. 32. Compare _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mém. et Correspond._, vol.
+       ii. pp. 422, 563; and _Boullier_, _Maison Militaire des Rois de
+       France_, p. 25, 'des querelles d'autant plus vives, qu'elles
+       avoient la religion pour base.'
+
+The effect this difference produced on the intellect of the two
+countries is very obvious. The English, concentrating their abilities
+upon great secular matters, had, by the close of the sixteenth century,
+produced a literature which never can perish. But the French, down to
+that period, had not put forth a single work, the destruction of which
+would now be a loss to Europe. What makes this contrast the more
+remarkable is, that in France the civilization, such as it was, had a
+longer standing; the material resources of the country had been earlier
+developed; its geographical position made it the centre of European
+thought;[13] and it had possessed a literature at a time when our
+ancestors were a mere tribe of wild and ignorant barbarians.
+
+  [13] The intellectual advantages of France, arising from its position
+       between Italy, Germany, and England, are very fairly stated by M.
+       Lerminier (_Philosophie du Droit_, vol. i. p. 9).
+
+The simple fact is, that this is one of those innumerable instances
+which teach us that no country can rise to eminence so long as the
+ecclesiastical power possesses much authority. For, the predominance of
+the spiritual classes is necessarily accompanied by a corresponding
+predominance of the topics in which those classes delight. Whenever the
+ecclesiastical profession is very influential, ecclesiastical literature
+will be very abundant, and what is called profane literature will be
+very scanty. Hence it occurred, that the minds of the French, being
+almost entirely occupied with religious disputes, had no leisure for
+those great inquiries into which we in England were beginning to
+enter;[14] and there was, as we shall presently see, an interval of a
+whole generation between the progress of the French and English
+intellects, simply because there was about the same interval between the
+progress of their scepticism. The theological literature, indeed,
+rapidly increased;[15] but it was not until the seventeenth century that
+France produced that great secular literature, the counterpart of which
+was to be found in England before the sixteenth century had come to a
+close.
+
+  [14] Just in the same way, the religious disputes in Alexandria injured
+       the interests of knowledge. See the instructive remarks of M.
+       Matter (_Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. p. 131).
+
+  [15] _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. vi. p. 136. Indeed, the
+       theological spirit seized the theatre, and the different
+       sectarians ridiculed each other's principles on the stage. See a
+       curious passage at p. 182 of the same learned work.
+
+Such was, in France, the natural consequence of the power of the church
+being prolonged beyond the period which the exigencies of society
+required. But while this was the intellectual result, the moral and
+physical results were still more serious. While the minds of men were
+thus heated by religious strife, it would have been idle to expect any
+of those maxims of charity to which theological faction is always a
+stranger. While the Protestants were murdering the Catholics,[16] and
+the Catholics murdering the Protestants, it was hardly likely that
+either sect should feel tolerance for the opinions of its enemy.[17]
+During the sixteenth century, treaties were occasionally made between
+the two parties; but they were only made to be immediately broken;[18]
+and, with the single exception of l'Hôpital, the bare idea of toleration
+does not seem to have entered the head of any statesman of the age. It
+was recommended by him;[19] but neither his splendid abilities, nor his
+unblemished integrity, could make head against the prevailing
+prejudices, and he eventually retired into private life without
+effecting any of his noble schemes.[20]
+
+  [16] The crimes of the French Protestants, though hardly noticed in
+       _Felice's History of the Protestants of France_, pp. 138-143, were
+       as revolting as those of the Catholics, and quite as numerous
+       relatively to the numbers and power of the two parties. Compare
+       _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xviii. pp. 516, 517, with
+       _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. ii. p. 173, vol. vi. p.
+       54; and _Smedley_, _Hist. of the Reformed Religion in France_,
+       vol. i. pp. 199, 200, 237.
+
+  [17] In 1569 Corero writes: 'Ritrovai quel regno, certo, posto in
+       grandissima confusione; perchè, stante quella divisione di
+       religione (convertita quasi in due fazioni e inimicizie
+       particolari), era causa ch' ognuno, senza che amicizia o parentela
+       potesse aver luoco, stava con l'orecchie attente; e pieno
+       disospetto ascoltava da che parte nasceva qualche romore,' _Relat.
+       des Ambassad. Vénitiens_, vol. ii. p. 106. He emphatically adds,
+       'Temevano gl' ugonotti, temevano li cattolici, tenieva il
+       prencipe, temevano li sudditi.' See also, on this horrible state
+       of opinions, _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xviii. pp. 21,
+       22, 118-120, 296, 430. On both sides, the grossest calumnies were
+       propagated and believed; and one of the charges brought against
+       Catherine de Medici was, that she caused the Cesarean operation to
+       be performed on the wives of Protestants, in order that no new
+       heretics might be born. _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol.
+       vii. p. 294.
+
+  [18] _Mably_, _Observations sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. iii. p. 149. In
+       the reign of Charles IX. alone, there were no less than five of
+       these religious wars, each of which was concluded by a treaty. See
+       _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie Française_, vol. ii. p. 69.
+
+  [19] For which l'Hôpital was accused of atheism: 'Homo doctus, sed verus
+       atheus.' _Dict. Philos._ article _Athéisme_, in _[OE]uvres de
+       Voltaire_, vol. xxxvii. pp. 181, 182.
+
+  [20] I have not been able to meet with any good life of this great man:
+       that by Charles Butler is very superficial, and so is that by
+       Bernardi, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv. pp. 412-424. My own
+       information respecting l'Hôpital is from _Sismondi_, _Hist. des
+       Français_, vol. xviii. pp. 431-436; _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la
+       Réforme_, vol. ii. pp. 135-137, 168-170; _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._
+       vol. iii. pp. 519-523, vol. iv. pp. 2-8, 152-159, vol. v. pp.
+       180-182, 520, 521, 535, vol. vi. pp. 703, 704; _Sully_,
+       _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. i. p. 234. Duvernet (_Hist. de la
+       Sorbonne_, vol. i. pp. 215-218) is unsatisfactory, though fully
+       recognizing his merit.
+
+Indeed, in the leading events of this period of French history, the
+predominance of the theological spirit was painfully shown. It was shown
+in the universal determination to subordinate political acts to
+religious opinions.[21] It was shown in the conspiracy of Amboise, and
+in the conference of Poissy; and still more was it shown in those
+revolting crimes so natural to superstition, the massacres of Vassy and
+of St. Bartholomew, the murder of Guise by Poltrot, and of Henry III. by
+Clement. These were the legitimate results of the spirit of religious
+bigotry. They were the results of that accursed spirit, which, whenever
+it has had the power, has punished even to the death those who dared to
+differ from it; and which, now that the power has passed away, still
+continues to dogmatize on the most mysterious subjects, tamper with the
+most sacred principles of the human heart, and darken with its miserable
+superstitions those sublime questions that no one should rudely touch,
+because they are for each according to the measure of his own soul,
+because they lie in that unknown tract which separates the Finite from
+the Infinite, and because they are as a secret and individual covenant
+between Man and his God.
+
+  [21] 'Ce fut alors que la nation ne prit conseil que de son fanatisme.
+       Les esprits, de jour en jour plus échauffés, ne virent plus
+       d'autre objet que celui de la religion, et par piété se firent les
+       injures les plus atroces.' _Mably_, _Observations sur l'Hist. de
+       France_, vol. iii. p. 145.
+
+How long these sad days[22] would, in the ordinary course of affairs,
+have been prolonged in France, is a question which we now perhaps have
+no means of answering; though there is no doubt that the progress even
+of empirical knowledge must, according to the process already pointed
+out, have eventually sufficed to rescue so great a country from her
+degraded position. Fortunately, however, there now took place what we
+must be content to call an accident, but which was the beginning of a
+most important change. In the year 1589, Henry IV. ascended the throne
+of France. This great prince, who was far superior to any of the French
+sovereigns of the sixteenth century,[23] made small account of those
+theological disputes which his predecessors had thought to be of
+paramount importance. Before him, the kings of France, animated by the
+piety natural to the guardians of the church, had exerted all their
+authority to uphold the interests of the sacred profession. Francis I.
+said, that if his right hand were a heretic, he would cut it off.[24]
+Henry II., whose zeal was still greater,[25] ordered the judges to
+proceed against the Protestants, and publicly declared that he would
+'make the extirpation of the heretics his principal business.'[26]
+Charles IX., on the celebrated day of St. Bartholomew, attempted to
+relieve the church by destroying them at a single blow. Henry III.
+promised to 'oppose heresy even at the risk of his life;' for he said,
+'he could not find a prouder grave than amidst the ruins of heresy.'[27]
+
+  [22] The 19th and 20th volumes of _Sismondi's Histoire des Français_
+       contain painful evidence of the internal condition of France
+       before the accession of Henry IV. Indeed, as Sismondi says (vol.
+       xx. pp. 11-16), it seemed at one time as if the only prospect was
+       a relapse into feudalism. See also _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers
+       Etats_, vol. v. pp. 242-249: 'plus de trois cent mille maisons
+       détruites.' De Thou, in the memoirs of his own life, says, 'Les
+       loix furent méprisées, et l'honneur de la France fut presque
+       anéanti ... et sous le voile de la religion, on ne respiroit que
+       la haîne, la vengeance, le massacre et l'incendie,' _Mém. de la
+       Vie_, in _Histoire Univ._ vol. i. p. 120; and the same writer, in
+       his great history, gives almost innumerable instances of the
+       crimes and persecutions constantly occurring. See, for some of the
+       most striking cases, vol. ii. p. 383, vol. iv. pp. 378, 380, 387,
+       495, 496, 539, vol. v. pp. 189, 518, 561, 647, vol. vi. pp. 421,
+       422, 424, 426, 427, 430, 469. Compare _Duplessis_, _Mém. et
+       Correspond._ vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, 322, 335, 611, 612, vol. iii.
+       pp. 344, 445, vol. iv. pp. 112-114; _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+       Nantes_, vol. i. pp. 307, 308; _Duvernet_, _Hist. de la Sorbonne_,
+       vol. i. p. 217.
+
+  [23] This, indeed, is not saying much; and far higher praise might be
+       justly bestowed. As to his domestic policy, there can be only one
+       opinion; and M. Flassan speaks in the most favourable terms of his
+       management of foreign affairs. _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie
+       Franç._ vol. ii. pp. 191, 192, 294-297, vol. iii. p. 243. And see,
+       to the same effect, the testimony of M. Capefigue, an unfriendly
+       judge. _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. vii. p. xiv. vol. viii. p. 156.
+       Fontenay Mareuil, who was a contemporary of Henry IV., though he
+       wrote many years after the king was murdered, says, 'Ce grand roy,
+       qui estoit en plus de considération dans le monde que pas un de
+       ses prédécesseurs n'avoit esté depuis Charlesmagne.' _Mém. de
+       Fontenay_, vol. i. p. 46. Duplessis Mornay calls him 'le plus
+       grand roy que la chrestienté ait porté depuis cinq cens ans;' and
+       Sully pronounces him to be 'le plus grand de nos rois.' _Duplessis
+       Mornay_, _Mém. et Correspond._ vol. xi. pp. 30, 77, 131; _Sully_,
+       _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. vii. p. 15. Compare vol. vi. pp. 397,
+       398, vol. ix. pp. 35, 242, with some sensible remarks in _Mém. de
+       Genlis_, Paris, 1825, vol. ix. p. 299.
+
+  [24] So it is generally related: but there is a slightly different
+       version of this orthodox declaration in _Smedley's Hist. of the
+       Reformation in France_, vol. i. p. 30. Compare _Maclaine's note_
+       in _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 24, with _Sismondi_,
+       _Hist. des Français_, vol. xvi. pp. 453, 454, and _Relat. des
+       Ambassad. Vénitiens_, vol. i. p. 50, vol. ii. p. 48. It was also
+       Francis I. who advised Charles V. to expel all the Mohammedans
+       from Spain, _Llorente_, _Hist. de l'Inquisition_, vol. i. p. 429.
+
+  [25] The historian of the French Protestants says, in 1548, 'le nouveau
+       roi Henry II. fut encore plus rigoureux que son père.' _Benoist_,
+       _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. i. p. 12.
+
+  [26] M. Ranke (_Civil Wars in France_, vol. i. pp. 240, 241) says, that
+       he issued a circular 'addressed to the parliaments and to the
+       judicial tribunals, in which they were urged to proceed against
+       the Lutherans with the greatest severity, and the judges informed
+       that they would be held responsible, should they neglect these
+       orders; and in which he declared plainly, that as soon as the
+       peace with Spain was concluded, he was determined to make the
+       extirpation of the heretics his principal business.' See also, on
+       Henry II., in connexion with the Protestants, _Mably_, _Observ.
+       sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. iii. pp. 133, 134; _De Thou_, _Hist.
+       Univ._ vol. i. pp. 334, 335, 387, vol. ii. p. 640, vol. iii. pp.
+       365, 366; _Felice's Hist. of the French Protestants_, p. 58.
+
+  [27] He said this to the Estates of Blois in 1588. _Ranke's Civil Wars
+       in France_, vol. ii. p. 202. Compare his edict, in 1585, in
+       _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. iv. pp. 244, 245, and his
+       speech in vol. v. p. 122; and see _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+       Nantes_, vol. i. p. 328; _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mém. et Corresp._
+       vol. i. p. 110; _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. i. p. 250, vol.
+       viii. p. 651, vol. x, pp. 294, 589, 674, 675.
+
+These were the opinions expressed, in the sixteenth century, by the
+heads of the oldest monarchy in Europe.[28] But with such feelings, the
+powerful intellect of Henry IV. had not the slightest sympathy. To suit
+the shifting politics of his age, he had already changed his religion
+twice; and he did not hesitate to change it a third time,[29] when he
+found that by doing so he could ensure tranquillity to his country. As
+he had displayed such indifference about his own creed, he could not
+with decency show much bigotry about the creed of his subjects.[30] We
+find, accordingly, that he was the author of the first public act of
+toleration which any government promulgated in France since Christianity
+had been the religion of the country. Only five years after he had
+solemnly abjured Protestantism, he published the celebrated Edict of
+Nantes,[31] by which, for the first time, a Catholic government granted
+to heretics a fair share of civil and religious rights. This was,
+unquestionably, the most important event that had yet occurred in the
+history of French civilization.[32] If it is considered by itself, it is
+merely an evidence of the enlightened principles of the king; but when
+we look at its general success, and at the cessation of religious war
+which followed it, we cannot fail to perceive that it was part of a vast
+movement, in which the people themselves participated. Those who
+recognize the truth of the principles I have laboured to establish, will
+expect that this great step towards religious liberty was accompanied by
+that spirit of scepticism, in the absence of which toleration has
+always been unknown. And that this was actually the case, may be easily
+proved by an examination of the transitionary state which France began
+to enter towards the end of the sixteenth century.
+
+  [28] With what zeal these opinions were enforced, appears, besides many
+       other authorities, from Marino Cavalli, who writes in 1546, 'Li
+       maestri di Sorbona hanno autorità estrema di castigare li eretici,
+       il che fanno con il fuoco, brustolandoli vivi a poco a poco.'
+       _Relat. des Ambassad. Vénitiens_, vol. i. 262; and see vol. ii.
+       p. 24.
+
+  [29] Indeed, Clement VIII. was afterwards apprehensive of a fourth
+       apostasy: 'Er meinte noch immer, Heinrich IV. werde zuletzt
+       vielleicht wieder zum Protestantismus zurückkehren, wie er es
+       schon einmal gethan.' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. ii. p. 246. M.
+       Ranke, from his great knowledge of Italian manuscripts, has thrown
+       more light on these transactions than the French historians have
+       been able to do.
+
+  [30] On his conversion, the character of which was as obvious then as it
+       is now, compare _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mém. et Correspond._ vol. i.
+       p. 257, with _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. ii. p. 126. See
+       also _Howell's Letters_, book i. p. 42; and a letter from Sir H.
+       Wotton in 1593, printed in _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, p. 711. See also
+       _Ranke_, _Civil Wars in France_, vol. ii. pp. 257, 355;
+       _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. vi. pp. 305, 358.
+
+  [31] The edict of Nantes was in 1598; the abjuration in 1593.
+       _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxi. pp. 202, 486. But in
+       1590 it was intimated to the pope as probable, if not certain,
+       that Henry would 'in den Schooss der katholischen Kirche
+       zurückkehren.' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. ii. p. 210.
+
+  [32] Of this edict, Sismondi says, 'Aucune époque dans l'histoire de
+       France ne marque mieux peut-être la fin d'un monde ancien, le
+       commencement d'un monde nouveau.' _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxi.
+       p. 489.
+
+The writings of Rabelais are often considered to afford the first
+instance of religious scepticism in the French language.[33] But, after
+a tolerably intimate acquaintance with the works of this remarkable man,
+I have found nothing to justify such an opinion. He certainly treats the
+clergy with great disrespect, and takes every opportunity of covering
+them with ridicule.[34] His attacks, however, are always made upon their
+personal vices, and not upon that narrow and intolerant spirit to which
+those vices were chiefly to be ascribed. In not a single instance does
+he show any thing like consistent scepticism;[35] nor does he appear to
+be aware that the disgraceful lives of the French clergy were but the
+inevitable consequence of a system, which, corrupt as it was, still
+possessed every appearance of strength and vitality. Indeed, the immense
+popularity which he enjoyed is, almost of itself, a decisive
+consideration; since no one, who is well informed as to the condition of
+the French early in the sixteenth century, will believe it possible that
+a people, so sunk in superstition, should delight in a writer by whom
+superstition is constantly attacked.
+
+But the extension of experience, and the consequent increase of
+knowledge, were preparing the way for a great change in the French
+intellect. The process, which had just taken place in England, was now
+beginning to take place in France; and in both countries the order of
+events was precisely the same. The spirit of doubt, hitherto confined to
+an occasional solitary thinker, gradually assumed a bolder form: first
+it found a vent in the national literature, and then it influenced the
+conduct of practical statesmen. That there was, in France, an intimate
+connexion between scepticism and toleration, is proved, not only by
+those general arguments which make us infer that such connexion must
+always exist, but also by the circumstance, that only a few years before
+the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes, there appeared the first
+systematic sceptic who wrote in the French language. The Essays of
+Montaigne were published in 1588,[36] and form an epoch, not only in the
+literature, but also in the civilization, of France. Putting aside
+personal peculiarities, which have less weight than is commonly
+supposed, it will be found that the difference between Rabelais and
+Montaigne is a measure of the difference between 1545[37] and 1588, and
+that it, in some degree, corresponds with the relation I have indicated
+between Jewel and Hooker, and between Hooker and Chillingworth. For, the
+law which governs all these relations is the law of a progressive
+scepticism. What Rabelais was to the supporters of theology, that was
+Montaigne to the theology itself. The writings of Rabelais were only
+directed against the clergy; but the writings of Montaigne were directed
+against the system of which the clergy were the offspring.[38] Under the
+guise of a mere man of the world, expressing natural thoughts in common
+language, Montaigne concealed a spirit of lofty and audacious
+inquiry.[39] Although he lacked that comprehensiveness which is the
+highest form of genius, he possessed other qualities essential to a
+great mind. He was very cautious, and yet he was very bold. He was
+cautious, since he would not believe strange things because they had
+been handed down by his forefathers; and he was bold, since he was
+undaunted by the reproaches with which the ignorant, who love to
+dogmatize, always cover those whose knowledge makes them ready to
+doubt.[40] These peculiarities would, in any age, have made Montaigne a
+useful man: in the sixteenth century they made him an important one. At
+the same time, his easy and amusing style[41] increased the circulation
+of his works, and thus contributed to popularize those opinions which he
+ventured to recommend for general adoption.
+
+  [33] On Rabelais, as the supposed founder of French scepticism, compare
+       _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. ii. p. 306; _Stephen's
+       Lectures on the History of France_, vol. ii. p. 242; _Sismondi_,
+       _Hist. des Français_, vol. xvi. p. 376.
+
+  [34] Particularly the monks. See, among numerous other instances, vol.
+       i. pp. 278, 282, vol. ii. pp. 284, 285, of _[OE]uvres de
+       Rabelais_, edit. Amsterdam, 1725. However, the high dignitaries of
+       the church are not spared; for he says that Gargantua 'se morvoit
+       en archidiacre,' vol. i. p. 132; and on two occasions (vol. iii.
+       p. 65, vol. iv. pp. 199, 200) he makes a very indecent allusion to
+       the pope. In vol. i. pp. 260, 261, he satirically notices the way
+       in which the services of the church were performed: 'Dont luy dist
+       le moyne: Je ne dors jamais à mon aise, sinon quand je suis au
+       sermon, ou quand je prie Dieu.'
+
+  [35] His joke on the strength of Samson (_[OE]uvres de Rabelais_, vol.
+       ii. pp. 29, 30), and his ridicule of one of the Mosaic laws (vol.
+       iii. p. 34), are so unconnected with other parts of his work, as
+       to have no appearance of belonging to a general scheme. The
+       commentators, who find a hidden meaning in every author they
+       annotate, have represented Rabelais as aiming at the highest
+       objects, and seeking to effect the most extensive social and
+       religious reforms. This I greatly doubt, at all events I have seen
+       no proof of it; and I cannot help thinking that Rabelais owes a
+       large share of his reputation to the obscurity of his language. On
+       the other side of the question, and in favour of his
+       comprehensiveness, see a bold passage in _Coleridge's Lit.
+       Remains_, vol. i. pp. 138, 139.
+
+  [36] The two first books in 1580; the third in 1588, with additions to
+       the first two. See _Niceron_, _Mém. pour servir à l'Hist. des
+       Hommes illustres_, vol. xvi. p. 210, Paris, 1731.
+
+  [37] The first impression of the Pantagruel of Rabelais has no date on
+       the title-page; but it is known that the third book was printed in
+       1545, and the fourth book in 1546. See _Brunet_, _Manuel du
+       Libraire_, vol. iv. pp. 4-6, Paris, 1843. The statement in _Biog.
+       Univ._ vol. xxxvi. pp. 482, 483, is rather confused.
+
+  [38] Mr. Hallam (_Lit. of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 29) says, that his
+       scepticism 'is not displayed in religion.' But if we use the word
+       'religion' in its ordinary sense, as connected with dogma, it is
+       evident, from Montaigne's language, that he was a sceptic, and an
+       unflinching one too. Indeed, he goes so far as to say that all
+       religious opinions are the result of custom: 'Comme de vray nous
+       n'avons aultre mire de la vérité et de la raison, que l'exemple et
+       idée des opinions et usances du païs où nous sommes: _là est
+       tousiours la parfaicte religion_, la parfaicte police, parfaict et
+       accomply usage de toutes choses.' _Essais de Montaigne_, p. 121,
+       livre i. chap. xxx. As a natural consequence, he lays down that
+       religious error is not criminal, p. 53; compare p. 28. See also
+       how he notices the usurpations of the theological spirit, pp. 116,
+       508, 528. The fact seems to be, that Montaigne, while recognizing
+       abstractedly the existence of religious truths, doubted our
+       capacity for knowing them; that is to say, he doubted if, out of
+       the immense number of religious opinions, there were any means of
+       ascertaining which were accurate. His observations on miracles
+       (pp. 541, 653, 654, 675) illustrate the character of his mind; and
+       what he says on prophetic visions is quoted and confirmed by
+       Pinel, in his profound work _Aliénation Mentale_, p. 256. Compare
+       _Maury_, _Légendes Pieuses_, p. 268 note.
+
+  [39] His friend, the celebrated De Thou, calls him 'homme franc, ennemi
+       de toute contrainte.' _Mémoires_, in _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol.
+       i. p. 59: see also vol. xi. p. 590. And M. Lamartine classes him
+       with Montesquieu, as 'ces deux grands républicains de la pensée
+       française.' _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. i. p. 174.
+
+  [40] He says (_Essais_, p. 97), 'Ce n'est pas à l'adventure sans raison
+       que nous attribuons à simplesse et ignorance la facilité de croire
+       et de se laisser persuader.' Compare two striking passages, pp.
+       199 and 685. Nothing of this sort had ever appeared before in the
+       French language.
+
+  [41] Dugald Stewart, whose turn of mind was very different from that of
+       Montaigne, calls him 'this most amusing author.' _Stewart's
+       Philos. of the Mind_, vol. i. p. 468. But Rousseau, in every
+       respect a more competent judge, enthusiastically praises 'la
+       naïveté, la grâce et l'énergie de son style inimitable.' _Musset
+       Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_, vol. i. p. 185. Compare _Lettres de
+       Sévigné_, vol. iii. p. 491, edit. Paris, 1843, and _Lettres de
+       Dudeffand à Walpole_, vol. i. p. 94.
+
+This, then, is the first open declaration of that scepticism, which,
+towards the end of the sixteenth century, publicly appeared in
+France.[42] During nearly three generations, it continued its course
+with a constantly increasing activity, and developed itself in a manner
+similar to that which took place in England. It will not be necessary to
+follow all the steps of this great process; but I will endeavour to
+trace those which, by their prominence, seem to be the most important.
+
+  [42] 'Mais celui qui a répandu et popularisé en France le scepticisme,
+       c'est Montaigne.' _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._, II. série, vol.
+       ii. pp. 288, 289. 'Die erste Regung des skeptischen Geistes finden
+       wir in den Versuchen des Michael von Montaigne.' _Tennemann_,
+       _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. ix. p. 443. On the immense influence of
+       Montaigne, compare _Tennemann_, vol. ix. p. 458; _Monteil_,
+       _Divers Etats_, vol. v. pp. 263-265; _Sorel_, _Bibliothèque
+       Françoise_, pp. 80-91; _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque Historique_,
+       vol. iv. p. 527.
+
+A few years after the appearance of the Essays of Montaigne, there was
+published in France a work, which though now little read, possessed in
+the seventeenth century a reputation of the highest order. This was the
+celebrated _Treatise on Wisdom_, by Charron, in which we find, for the
+first time, an attempt made in a modern language to construct a system
+of morals without the aid of theology.[43] What rendered this book, in
+some respects, even more formidable than Montaigne's, was the air of
+gravity with which it was written. Charron was evidently deeply
+impressed with the importance of the task he had undertaken, and he is
+honourably distinguished from his contemporaries, by a remarkable purity
+both of language and of sentiment. His work is almost the only one of
+that age in which nothing can be found to offend the chastest ears.
+Although he borrowed from Montaigne innumerable illustrations,[44] he
+has carefully omitted those indecencies into which that otherwise
+charming writer was often betrayed. Besides this, there is about the
+work of Charron a systematic completeness which never fails to attract
+attention. In originality, he was, in some respects, inferior to
+Montaigne; but he had the advantage of coming after him, and there can
+be no doubt that he rose to an elevation which, to Montaigne, would
+have been inaccessible. Taking his stand, as it were, on the summit of
+knowledge, he boldly attempts to enumerate the elements of wisdom, and
+the conditions under which those elements will work. In the scheme which
+he thus constructs, he entirely omits theological dogmas;[45] and he
+treats with undissembled scorn many of those conclusions which the
+people had hitherto universally received. He reminds his countrymen that
+their religion is the accidental result of their birth and education,
+and that if they had been born in a Mohammedan country, they would have
+been as firm believers in Mohammedanism as they then were in
+Christianity.[46] From this consideration, he insists on the absurdity
+of their troubling themselves about the variety of creeds, seeing that
+such variety is the result of circumstances over which they have no
+control. Also it is to be observed, that each of these different
+religions declares itself to be the true one;[47] and all of them are
+equally based upon supernatural pretensions, such as mysteries,
+miracles, prophets, and the like.[48] It is because men forget these
+things, that they are the slaves of that confidence which is the great
+obstacle to all real knowledge, and which can only be removed by taking
+such a large and comprehensive view, as will show us how all nations
+cling with equal zeal to the tenets in which they have been
+educated.[49] And, says Charron, if we look a little deeper, we shall
+see that each of the great religions is built upon that which preceded
+it. Thus, the religion of the Jews is founded upon that of the
+Egyptians; Christianity is the result of Judaism; and, from these two
+last, there has naturally sprung Mohammedanism.[50] We, therefore, adds
+this great writer, should rise above the pretensions of hostile sects,
+and, without being terrified by the fear of future punishment, or
+allured by the hope of future happiness, we should be content with such
+practical religion as consists in performing the duties of life; and,
+uncontrolled by the dogmas of any particular creed, we should strive to
+make the soul retire inward upon itself, and by the efforts of its own
+contemplation, admire the ineffable grandeur of the Being of beings, the
+supreme cause of all created things.[51]
+
+  [43] Compare the remarks on Charron in _Tennemann_, _Geschichte der
+       Philosophie_, vol. ix. p. 527, with two insidious passages in
+       _Charron_, _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. pp. 4, 366.
+
+  [44] The obligations of Charron to Montaigne were very considerable, but
+       are stated too strongly by many writers. _Sorel_, _Bibliothèque
+       Françoise_, p. 93; and _Hallam's Literature of Europe_, vol. ii.
+       pp. 362, 509. On the most important subjects, Charron was a bolder
+       and deeper thinker than Montaigne; though he is now so little
+       read, that the only tolerably complete account I have seen of his
+       system is in _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philosophie_, vol. ix. pp.
+       458-487. Buhle (_Geschichte der neuern Philosophie_, vol. ii. pp.
+       918-925) and Cousin (_Hist. de la Philos._ II. série, vol. ii. p.
+       289) are short and unsatisfactory. Even Dr. Parr, who was
+       extensively read in this sort of literature, appears only to have
+       known Charron through Bayle (see notes on the Spital Sermon, in
+       _Parr's Works_, vol. ii. pp. 520, 521); while Dugald Stewart, with
+       suspicious tautology, quotes, in three different places, the same
+       passage from Charron. _Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind_, vol. ii.
+       p. 233, vol. iii. pp. 365, 393. Singularly enough, Talleyrand was
+       a great admirer of _De la Sagesse_, and presented his favourite
+       copy of it to Madame de Genlis! See her own account, in _Mém. de
+       Genlis_, vol. iv. pp. 352, 353.
+
+  [45] See his definition, or rather description, of wisdom, in Charron,
+       _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. p. 295, vol. ii. pp. 113, 115.
+
+  [46] _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. pp. 63, 351.
+
+  [47] 'Chacune se préfère aux autres, et se confie d'être la meilleure et
+       plus vraie que les autres, et s'entre-reprochent aussi les unes
+       aux autres quelque chose, et par-là s'entre-condamnent et
+       rejettent.' _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. p. 348; see also vol. i. pp.
+       144, 304, 305, 306, vol. ii. p. 116. Expressions almost identical
+       are used by M. Charles Compte, _Traité de Législation_, vol. i.
+       p. 233.
+
+  [48] 'Toutes trouvent et fournissent miracles, prodiges, oracles,
+       mystères sacrés, saints prophètes, fêtes, certains articles de foy
+       et créance nécessaires au salut.' _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. p. 346.
+
+  [49] Hence he opposes proselytism, and takes up the philosophic ground,
+       that religious opinions, being governed by undeviating laws, owe
+       their variations to variations in their antecedents, and are
+       always, if left to themselves, suited to the existing state of
+       things: 'Et de ces conclusions, nous apprendrons à n'épouser rien,
+       ne jurer à rien, n'admirer rien, ne se troubler de rien, mais quoi
+       qu'il advienne, que l'on crie, tempête, se resoudre à ce point,
+       que c'est le cours du monde, _c'est nature qui fait des siennes_.'
+       _Dela Sagesse_, vol. i. p. 311.
+
+  [50] 'Mais comme elles naissent l'une après l'autre, la plus jeune bâtit
+       toujours sur son aînée et prochaine précédente, laquelle elle
+       n'improuve, ni ne condamne de fond en comble, autrement elle ne
+       seroit pas ouïe, et ne pourroit prendre pied; mais seulement
+       l'accuse ou d'imperfection, ou de son terme fini, et qu'à cette
+       occasion elle vient pour lui succéder et la parfaire, et ainsi la
+       ruine peu-à-peu, et s'enrichit de ses dépouilles, comme la
+       Judaïque a fait à la Gentille et Egyptienne, la Chrétienne à la
+       Judaïque, la Mahometane à la Judaïque et Chrétienne ensemble: mais
+       les vieilles condamnent bien tout-à-fait et entièrement les
+       jeunes, et les tiennent pour ennemies capables.' _De la Sagesse_,
+       vol. i. p. 349. This, I believe, is the first instance in any
+       modern language of the doctrine of religious development; a
+       doctrine which, since Charron, has been steadily advancing,
+       particularly among men whose knowledge is extensive enough to
+       enable them to compare the different religions which have
+       prevailed at different times. In this, as in other subjects, they
+       who are unable to compare, suppose that everything is isolated,
+       simply because to them the continuity is invisible. As to the
+       Alexandrian doctrine of development, found particularly in Clement
+       and Origen, see _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. ii. pp.
+       234-257; and in particular pp. 241, 246.
+
+  [51] _De la Sagesse_, vol. i. pp. 356, 365; two magnificent passages.
+       But the whole chapter ought to be read, livre ii. chap. v. In it
+       there is an occasional ambiguity. Tennemann, however, in the most
+       important point, understands Charron as I do in regard to the
+       doctrine of future punishments. _Geschichte der Philosophie_,
+       vol. ix. p. 473.
+
+Such were the sentiments which, in the year 1601, were for the first
+time laid before the French people in their own mother-tongue.[52] The
+sceptical and secular spirit, of which they were the representatives,
+continued to increase; and, as the seventeenth century advanced, the
+decline of fanaticism, so far from being confined to a few isolated
+thinkers, gradually became common, even among ordinary politicians.[53]
+The clergy, sensible of the danger, wished the government to check the
+progress of inquiry;[54] and the pope himself, in a formal remonstrance
+with Henry, urged him to remedy the evil, by prosecuting the heretics,
+from whom he thought all the mischief had originally proceeded.[55] But
+this the king steadily refused. He saw the immense advantages that would
+arise, if he could weaken the ecclesiastical power by balancing the two
+sects against each other;[56] and therefore, though he was a Catholic,
+his policy rather leaned in favour of the Protestants, as being the
+weaker party.[57] He granted sums of money towards the support of their
+ministers and the repair of their churches;[58] he banished the Jesuits,
+who were their most dangerous enemies;[59] and he always had with him
+two representatives of the reformed church, whose business it was to
+inform him of any infraction of those edicts which he had issued in
+favour of their religion.[60]
+
+  [52] The first edition of _La Sagesse_ was published at Bourdeaux in
+       1601. _Niceron_, _Hommes illustres_, vol. xvi. p. 224; _Hallam's
+       Lit. of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 509; _Biog. Univ._ vol. viii. p. 250.
+       Two editions were susequently published in Paris, in 1604 and
+       1607. _Brunet_, _Manuel du Libraire_, vol. i. p. 639.
+
+  [53] Sismondi (_Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 86) and Lavallée
+       (_Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 84) have noticed the
+       diminution of religious zeal early in the seventeenth century; and
+       some curious evidence will also be found in the correspondence of
+       Duplessis Mornay. See, for instance, a letter he wrote to Diodati,
+       in 1609: 'A beaucoup aujourd'hui il fault commencer par là, qu'il
+       y a une religion, premier que de leur dire quelle.' _Duplessis_,
+       _Mém. et Corresp._ vol. x. p. 415. This middle, or secular party,
+       received the name of 'Politiques,' and began to be powerful in
+       1592 or 1593. Benoist (_Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. i. p.
+       113), under the year 1593, contemptuously says: 'Il s'éleva une
+       foule de conciliateurs de religion;' see also pp. 201, 273. In
+       1590, and in 1594, the 'Politiques' are noticed by De Thou (_Hist.
+       Univ._ vol. xi. p. 171, vol. xii. p. 134); and on the increase, in
+       1593, of 'le tiers parti politique et négociateur,' see
+       _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. vi. p. 235. See also,
+       respecting 'les politiques,' a letter from the Spanish ambassador
+       to his own court, in 1615, in _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p.
+       93; and for the rise in Paris, in 1592, of a 'politisch und
+       kirchlich gemässigte Gesinnung,' see _Ranke_, _die Päpste_,
+       vol. ii. p. 243.
+
+  [54] The Sorbonne went so far as to condemn Charron's great work, but
+       could not succeed in having it prohibited. Compare _Duvernet_,
+       _Hist. de la Sorbonne_, vol. ii. p. 139, with _Bayle_, article
+       Charron, note F.
+
+  [55] In the appendix to Ranke (_Die Römischen Päpste_, vol. iii. pp.
+       141, 142), there will be found the instructions which were given
+       to the nuncio, in 1603, when he was sent to the French court; and
+       which should be compared with a letter, written in 1604, in
+       _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. v. p. 122, edit. 1820.
+
+  [56] 'Sein Sinn war im Allgemeinen, ohne Zweifel, das Gleichgewicht
+       zwischen ihnen zu erhalten.' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. ii. pp.
+       430, 431. 'Henri IV, l'expression de l'indifférentisme religieux,
+       se posa comme une transaction entre ces deux systèmes.'
+       _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. vi. p. 358. 'Henry IV.
+       endeavoured to adjust the balance evenly,' _Smedley's Hist. of the
+       Reformed Religion in France_, vol. iii. p. 19. See also _Benoist_,
+       _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. i. p. 136. Hence, of course,
+       neither party was quite satisfied. _Mably's Observations_, vol.
+       iii. p. 220; _Mezeray_, _Histoire de France_, vol. iii. p. 959.
+
+  [57] Compare _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. viii. p. 61, with
+       _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. pp. 32, 33. See also, on
+       his inclination towards the Protestants, _Mém. de Fontenay
+       Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 91. Fontenay, p. 94, mentions, as a singular
+       instance, that 'il se vist de son temps des huguenots avoir des
+       abbayes.'
+
+  [58] _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. iv. p. 134, vol. vi. p. 233;
+       _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mém. et Corresp._ vol. xi. p. 242; _Benoist_,
+       _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 68, 205. These grants
+       were annual, and were apportioned by the Protestants themselves.
+       See their own account, in _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, vol. i.
+       pp. 198, 222, 246, 247, 249, 275-277.
+
+  [59] Henry IV. banished the Jesuits in 1594; but they were allowed,
+       later in his reign, to make fresh settlements in France.
+       _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie_, vol. vi. p. 485; _Bazin_,
+       _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. p. 106; _Monteil_, _Divers Etats_,
+       vol. v. p. 192 note; _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. xiv. p. 298.
+       Compare the notices of them in _Sully_, _[OE]conomies_, vol. ii.
+       p. 234, vol. iv. pp. 200, 235, 245. But there can be little doubt
+       that they owed their recall to the dread entertained of their
+       intrigues (_Grégoire_, _Hist. des Confesseurs_, p. 316); and Henry
+       evidently disliked as well as feared them. See two letters from
+       him in _Duplessis_, _Mém. et Corresp._ vol. vi. pp. 129, 151. It
+       would appear, from the _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. v. p. 350, Paris,
+       1823, that the king never restored to them their former authority
+       in regard to education.
+
+  [60] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. pp. 142, 143; _Le Vassor_,
+       vol. i. p. 156; _Sismondi_, vol. xxii. p. 116; _Duplessis Mornay_,
+       vol. i. p. 389; _Sully_, _[OE]conomies_, vol. vii. pp. 105, 432,
+       442.
+
+Thus it was, that in France, as well as in England, toleration was
+preceded by scepticism; and thus it was, that out of this scepticism
+there arose the humane and enlightened measures of Henry IV. The great
+prince, by whom these things were effected, unhappily fell a victim to
+that fanatical spirit which he had done much to curb;[61] but the
+circumstances which occurred after his death, showed how great an
+impetus had been given to the age.
+
+  [61] When Ravaillac was examined, he said, 'qu'il y avait été excité par
+       l'intérêt de la religion, et par une impulsion irrésistible.'
+       _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. p. 38. This work contains
+       the fullest account I have met with of Ravaillac; of whom there
+       is, moreover, a description in _Les Historiettes de Tallemant des
+       Réaux_, vol. i. p. 85, Paris, 1840, a very curious book.
+
+On the murder of Henry IV., in 1610, the government fell into the hands
+of the queen, who administered it during the minority of her son, Louis
+XIII. And it is a remarkable evidence of the direction which the mind
+was now taking, that she, though a weak and bigoted woman,[62] refrained
+from those persecutions which, only one generation before, had been
+considered a necessary proof of religious sincerity. That, indeed, must
+have been a movement of no common energy, which could force toleration,
+early in the seventeenth century, upon a princess of the house of
+Medici, an ignorant and superstitious Catholic, who had been educated
+in the midst of her priests, and had been accustomed to look for their
+applause as the highest object of earthly ambition.
+
+  [62] Le Vassor (_Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. p. 279) calls her
+       'superstitieuse au dernier point;' and, in vol. v. p. 481, 'femme
+       crédule et superstitieuse.' See also vol. iii. p. 250, vol. vi. p.
+       628; and _Grégoire_, _Hist. des Confesseurs_, p. 65.
+
+Yet this was what actually occurred. The queen continued the ministers
+of Henry IV., and announced, that in every thing she would follow his
+example.[63] Her first public act was, a declaration, that the Edict of
+Nantes should be inviolably preserved; for, she says, 'experience has
+taught our predecessors, that violence, so far from inducing men to
+return to the Catholic church, prevents them from doing so.'[64] Indeed,
+so anxious was she upon this point, that when Louis, in 1614, attained
+his nominal majority, the first act of his government was another
+confirmation of the Edict of Nantes.[65] And, in 1615, she caused the
+king, who still remained under her tutelage,[66] to issue a
+declaration, by which all preceding measures in favour of the
+Protestants were publicly confirmed.[67] In the same spirit, she, in
+1611, wished to raise to the presidency of parliament the celebrated De
+Thou; and it was only by making a formal announcement of his heresy,
+that the pope succeeded in frustrating what he considered an impious
+design.[68]
+
+  [63] 'Elle annonça qu'elle vouloit suivre en tout l'exemple du feu
+       roi.... Le ministère de Henri IV, que la reine continuoit.'
+       _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. pp. 206, 210; and see
+       two letters from her, in _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mém. et Corresp._
+       vol. xi. p. 282, vol. xii. p. 428. Sully had feared that the death
+       of Henry IV. would cause a change of policy: 'que l'on s'alloit
+       jeter dans des desseins tous contraires aux règles, ordres et
+       maximes du feu roy.' _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. viii. p. 401.
+
+  [64] See the declaration in Bazin, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. pp.
+       74, 75; and notices of it in _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 58;
+       _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 27; _Benoist_, _Hist. de
+       l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 7; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis
+       XIII_, vol. i. p. 58. But none of these writers, nor Sismondi
+       (vol. xxii. p. 221), appear to be aware that the issuing of this
+       declaration was determined on, in council, as early as the 17th of
+       May; that is, only three days after the death of Henry IV. This is
+       mentioned by Pontchartrain, who was then one of the ministers. See
+       _Mém. de Pontchartrain_, edit. Petitot, 1822, vol. i. p. 409; a
+       book little known, but well worthy of being read.
+
+  [65] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. p. 262; _Benoist_, _Hist.
+       de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 140; _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_,
+       vol. i. p. 257; _Le Vassor_, vol. i. p. 604.
+
+  [66] 'Laissant néanmoins l'administration du royaume à la reine sa
+       mère.' _Mém. de Bassompierre_, vol. ii. p. 52. Compare _Sully_,
+       _[OE]conomies_, vol. ix. p. 177. She possessed complete authority
+       over the king till 1617. See _Mémoires de Montglat_, vol. i. p.
+       24: 'avoit été tenu fort bas par la reine sa mère.' See also _Le
+       Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. pp. 640, 677, 716, 764.
+
+  [67] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. pp. 381, 382.
+
+  [68] In 1611, 'le pape le rejeta formellement comme hérétique.' _Bazin_,
+       vol. i. p. 174. This is glossed over by Pontchartrain (_Mémoires_,
+       vol. i. p. 450); but the statement of M. Bazin is confirmed in the
+       preface to _De Thou_, _Histoire Universelle_, vol. i. p. xvi.
+
+The turn which things were now taking, caused no little alarm to the
+friends of the hierarchy. The most zealous churchmen loudly censured the
+policy of the queen; and a great historian has observed that when,
+during the reign of Louis XIII., such alarm was caused in Europe by the
+active encroachments of the ecclesiastical power, France was the first
+country that ventured to oppose them.[69] The nuncio openly complained
+to the queen of her conduct in favouring heretics; and he anxiously
+desired that those Protestant works should be suppressed, by which the
+consciences of true believers were greatly scandalized.[70] But these,
+and similar representations, were no longer listened to with the respect
+they would formerly have received; and the affairs of the country
+continued to be administered with those purely temporal views, on which
+the measures of Henry IV. had been avowedly based.[71]
+
+  [69] 'Der erste Einhalt den die kirchliche Restauration erfuhr, geschah
+       in Frankreich,' _Ranke_, _die Römischen Päpste_, vol. iii. p. 160.
+
+  [70] This desire was expressed several times, but in vain: 'Gern hätten
+       die Nuntien Werke wie von Thou und Richer verboten, aber es war
+       ihnen nicht möglich,' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. iii. p. 181,
+       Anhang. Compare _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 68; _Mém. de
+       Pontchartrain_, vol. i. p. 428.
+
+  [71] This decline of the ecclesiastical power is noticed by many writers
+       of the time; but it is sufficient to refer to the very curious
+       remonstrance of the French clergy, in 1605, in _De Thou_, _Hist.
+       Univ._ vol. xiv. pp. 446, 447.
+
+Such was now the policy of the government of France; a government
+which, not many years before, had considered it the great duty of a
+sovereign to punish heretics and extirpate heresy. That this continued
+improvement was merely the result of the general intellectual
+development, is evident, not only from its success, but also from the
+character of the queen-regent and the king. No one who has read the
+contemporary memoirs, can deny that Mary de Medici and Louis XIII. were
+as superstitious as any of their predecessors; and it is, therefore,
+evident, that this disregard of theological prejudices was due, not to
+their own personal merits, but to the advancing knowledge of the
+country, and to the pressure of an age which, in the rapidity of its
+progress, hurried along those who believed themselves to be its rulers.
+
+But these considerations, weighty as they are, will only slightly
+diminish the merit of that remarkable man, who now appeared on the stage
+of public affairs. During the last eighteen years of the reign of Louis
+XIII., France was entirely governed by Richelieu,[72] one of that
+extremely small class of statesmen to whom it is given to impress their
+own character on the destiny of their country. This great ruler has, in
+his knowledge of the political art, probably never been surpassed,
+except by that prodigy of genius who, in our time, troubled the fortunes
+of Europe. But, in one important view, Richelieu was superior to
+Napoleon. The life of Napoleon was a constant effort to oppress the
+liberties of mankind; and his unrivalled capacity exhausted its
+resources in struggling against the tendencies of a great age.
+Richelieu, too, was a despot; but his despotism took a nobler turn. He
+displayed, what Napoleon never possessed, a just appreciation of the
+spirit of his own time. In one great point, indeed, he failed. His
+attempts to destroy the power of the French nobility were altogether
+futile;[73] for, owing to a long course of events, the authority of that
+insolent class was so deeply rooted in the popular mind, that the
+labours of another century were required to efface its ancient
+influence. But, though Richelieu could not diminish the social and moral
+weight of the French nobles, he curtailed their political privileges;
+and he chastised their crimes with a severity which, for a time at
+least, repressed their former license.[74] So little, however, can even
+the ablest statesman effect, unless he is seconded by the general temper
+of the age in which he lives, that these checks, rude as they were,
+produced no permanent result. After his death, the French nobles, as we
+shall presently see, quickly rallied; and, in the wars of the Fronde,
+debased that great struggle into a mere contest of rival families. Nor
+was it until the close of the eighteenth century, that France was
+finally relieved from the overweening influence of that powerful class,
+whose selfishness had long retarded the progress of civilization, by
+retaining the people in a thraldom, from the remote effects of which
+they have not yet fully recovered.
+
+  [72] As M. Monteil says (_Hist. des Français des divers Etats_, vol.
+       vii. p. 114), 'Richelieu tint le sceptre; Louis XIII. porta la
+       couronne.' And Campion (_Mémoires_, p. 37) calls him 'plutôt le
+       maître que le ministre;' and adds, pp. 218, 219, that he 'avoit
+       gouverné dix-huit ans la France avec un pouvoir absolu et une
+       gloire sans pareille.' Compare _Mém. du Cardinal de Retz_, vol. i
+       p. 63.
+
+  [73] The common opinion, put forth in _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol.
+       i. pp. 101-104, and in many other books, is that Richelieu did
+       destroy their influence; but this error arises from confusing
+       political influence with social influence. What is termed the
+       political power of a class, is merely the symptom and
+       manifestation of its real power; and it is no use to attack the
+       first, unless you can also weaken the second. The real power of
+       the nobles was social, and that neither Richelieu nor Louis XIV.
+       could impair; and it remained intact until the middle of the
+       eighteenth century, when the intellect of France rebelled against
+       it, overthrew it, and finally effected the French Revolution.
+
+  [74] Richelieu appears to have formed the design of humbling the nobles,
+       at least as early as 1624. See a characteristic passage in his
+       _Mémoires_, vol. ii. p. 340. In _Swinburne's Courts of Europe_,
+       vol. ii. pp. 63-65, there is a curious traditional anecdote,
+       which, though probably false, shows, at all events, the fear and
+       hatred with which the French nobles regarded the memory of
+       Richelieu more than a century after his death.
+
+Although in this respect Richelieu failed in achieving his designs, he
+in other matters met with signal success. This was owing to the fact,
+that his large and comprehensive views harmonized with that sceptical
+tendency, of which I have just given some account. For this remarkable
+man, though he was a bishop and a cardinal, never for a moment allowed
+the claims of his profession to make him forego the superior claims of
+his country. He knew, what is too often forgotten, that the governor of
+a people should measure affairs solely by a political standard, and
+should pay no regard to the pretensions of any sect, or the propagation
+of any opinions, except in reference to the present and practical
+welfare of men. The consequence was, that, during his administration,
+there was seen the marvellous spectacle of supreme authority wielded by
+a priest, who took no pains to increase the power of the spiritual
+classes. Indeed, so far from this, he often treated them with what was
+then considered unexampled rigour. The royal confessors, on account of
+the importance of their functions, had always been regarded with a
+certain veneration; they were supposed to be men of unspotted piety;
+they had hitherto possessed immense influence, and even the most
+powerful statesmen had thought it advisable to show them the deference
+due to their exalted position.[75] Richelieu, however, was too familiar
+with the arts of his profession, to feel much respect for these keepers
+of the consciences of kings. Caussin, the confessor of Louis XIII., had,
+it seems, followed the example of his predecessors, and endeavoured to
+instill his own views of policy into the mind of the royal penitent.[76]
+But Richelieu, so soon as he heard of this, dismissed him from office,
+and sent him into exile; for, he contemptuously says, 'the little father
+Caussin' should not interfere in matters of government, since he is one
+of those 'who have always been brought up in the innocence of a
+religious life.'[77] Caussin was succeeded by the celebrated Sirmond; but
+Richelieu would not allow the new confessor to begin his duties, until
+he had solemnly promised never to interfere in state affairs.[78]
+
+  [75] On their influence, see _Grégoire_, _Histoire des Confesseurs_; and
+       compare the remarks of Mr. Grote, a great writer, whose mind is
+       always ready with historical analogies. _Grote's Hist. of Greece_,
+       vol. vi. p. 393, 2nd edit. 1851. Many of the French kings had a
+       strong natural affection for monks; but the most singular instance
+       I have found of this sort of love is mentioned by no less a man
+       than De Thou, respecting Henry III. De Thou (_Hist. Univ._ vol. x.
+       pp. 666, 667) says of that prince: 'Soit tempérament, soit
+       éducation, la présence d'un moine faisait toujours plaisir à
+       Henri; et je lui ai moi-même souvent entendu dire, que leur vue
+       produisoit le même effet sur son âme, que le chatouillement le
+       plus délicat sur le corps.'
+
+  [76] One of his suggestions was, 'sur les dangers que couroit le
+       catholicisme en Allemagne, par ses liaisons avec les puissances
+       protestantes.' _Grégoire_, _Histoire des Confesseurs_, p. 342. The
+       fullest account of Caussin is in _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis
+       XIII_, vol. ix. pp. 287-299; to which, however, Grégoire never
+       refers. As I shall have frequent occasion to quote Le Vassor, I
+       may observe, that he is far more accurate than is generally
+       supposed, and that he has been very unfairly treated by the
+       majority of French writers, among whom he is unpopular, on account
+       of his constant attacks on Louis XIV. Sismondi (_Hist. des
+       Français_, vol. xxii. pp. 188, 189) speaks highly of his _Hist. of
+       Louis XIII_; and so far as my own reading extends, I can confirm
+       his favourable opinion.
+
+  [77] 'Le petit père Caussin.' _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. x. p. 206; and
+       at p. 217, he is classed among the 'personnes qui avoient toujours
+       été nourries dans l'innocence d'une vie religieuse;' see also p.
+       215, on his 'simplicité et ignorance.' Respecting Richelieu's
+       treatment of Caussin, see _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. pp. 173-175;
+       _Lettres de Patin_, vol. i. p. 49; _Des Réaux, Historiettes_, vol.
+       ii. p. 182.
+
+  [78] _Sismondi, Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 332; _Tallemant des
+       Réaux, Historiettes_, vol. iii. p. 78 note. Le Vassor (_Hist. de
+       Louis XIII_, vol. x. part ii. p. 761) says, that Sirmond 'se
+       soutint à la cour sous le ministère de Richelieu, parce qu'il ne
+       se mêloit point des affaires d'état.' According to the same writer
+       (vol. viii. p. 156), Richelieu thought at one time of depriving
+       the Jesuits of their post of confessor to the king.
+
+On another occasion of much more importance, Richelieu displayed a
+similar spirit. The French clergy were then possessed of enormous
+wealth; and, as they enjoyed the privilege of taxing themselves, they
+were careful not to make what they considered unnecessary contributions
+towards defraying the expenses of the state. They had cheerfully
+advanced money to carry on war against the Protestants, because they
+believed it to be their duty to assist in the extirpation of
+heresy.[79] But they saw no reason why their revenues should be wasted
+in effecting mere temporal benefits; they considered themselves as the
+guardians of funds set apart for spiritual purposes, and they thought it
+impious that wealth consecrated by the piety of their ancestors should
+fall into the profane hands of secular statesmen. Richelieu, who looked
+on these scruples as the artifices of interested men, had taken a very
+different view of the relation which the clergy bore to the country.[80]
+So far from thinking that the interests of the church were superior to
+those of the state, he laid it down as a maxim of policy, that 'the
+reputation of the state was the first consideration.'[81] With such
+fearlessness did he carry out this principle, that having convoked at
+Nantes a great assembly of the clergy, he compelled them to aid the
+government by an extraordinary supply of 6,000,000 francs; and finding
+that some of the highest dignitaries had expressed their discontent at
+so unusual a step, he laid hands on them also, and to the amazement of
+the church, sent into exile not only four of the bishops, but likewise
+the two archbishops of Toulouse and of Sens.[82]
+
+  [79] _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 87; _Le Vassor_,
+       _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iv. p. 208; _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis
+       XIII_, vol. ii. p. 144; _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_,
+       vol. ii. pp. 337, 338. Benoist says: 'Le clergé de France,
+       ignorant et corrompu, croyoit tout son devoir compris dans
+       l'extirpation des hérétiques; et même il offroit de grandes
+       sommes, à condition qu'on les employât à cette guerre.'
+
+  [80] In which he is fully borne out by the high authority of Vattel,
+       whose words I shall quote, for the sake of those politicians who
+       still cleave to the superannuated theory of the sacredness of
+       church-property: 'Loin que l'exemption appartienne aux biens
+       d'église parce qu'ils sont consacrés à Dieu, c'est au contraire
+       par cette raison même, qu'ils doivent être pris les premiers pour
+       le salut de l'état; car il n'y a rien de plus agréable au Père
+       commun des hommes, que de garantir une nation de sa ruine. Dieu
+       n'ayant besoin de rien, lui consacrer des biens, c'est les
+       destiner à des usages qui lui soient agréables. De plus, les biens
+       de l'église, de l'aveu du clergé lui-même, sont en grande partie
+       destinés aux pauvres. Quand l'état est dans le besoin, il est sans
+       doute le premier pauvre, et le plus digne de secours.' _Vattel_,
+       _le Droit des Gens_, vol. i. pp. 176, 177.
+
+  [81] 'Que la réputation de l'état est préférable à toutes choses.' _Mém.
+       de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 482. This was in 1625, and by way of
+       refuting the legate.
+
+  [82] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. pp. 477, 478;
+       _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iv. pp. 325, 326. The
+       Cardinal de Retz, who knew Richelieu personally, says: 'M. le
+       cardinal de Richelieu avoit donné une atteinte cruelle à la
+       dignité et à la liberté du clergé dans l'assemblée de Mante, et il
+       avoit exilé, avec des circonstances atroces, six de ses prélats
+       les plus considérables.' _Mém. de Retz_, vol. i. p. 50.
+
+If these things had been done fifty years earlier, they would most
+assuredly have proved fatal to the minister who dared to attempt them.
+But Richelieu, in these and similar measures, was aided by the spirit of
+an age which was beginning to despise its ancient masters. For this
+general tendency was now becoming apparent, not only in literature and
+in politics, but even in the proceedings of the ordinary tribunals. The
+nuncio indignantly complained of the hostility displayed against
+ecclesiastics by the French judges; and he said that, among other
+shameful things, some clergymen had been hung, without being first
+deprived of their spiritual character.[83] On other occasions, the
+increasing contempt showed itself in a way well suited to the coarseness
+of the prevailing manners. Sourdis, the archbishop of Bourdeaux, was
+twice ignominiously beaten; once by the Duke d'Epernon, and afterwards
+by the Maréchal de Vitry.[84] Nor did Richelieu, who usually treated the
+nobles with such severity, seem anxious to punish this gross outrage.
+Indeed, the archbishop not only received no sympathy, but, a few years
+later, was peremptorily ordered by Richelieu to retire to his own
+diocese; such, however, was his alarm at the state of affairs, that he
+fled to Carpentras, and put himself under the protection of the
+pope.[85] This happened in 1641 and nine years earlier, the church had
+incurred a still greater scandal. For in 1632, serious disturbances
+having arisen in Languedoc, Richelieu did not fear to meet the
+difficulty by depriving some of the bishops, and seizing the
+temporalities of the others.[86]
+
+  [83] 'Die Nuntien finden kein Ende der Beschwerden die sie machen zu
+       müssen glauben, vorzüglich über die Beschränkungen welche die
+       geistliche Jurisdiction erfahre.... Zuweilen werde ein Geistlicher
+       hingerichtet ohne erst degradirt zu seyn.' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_,
+       vol. iii. p. 157: a summary, in 1641, of the complaints of the
+       then nuncio, and of those of his predecessors. Le Vassor (_Hist.
+       de Louis XIII_, vol. v. pp. 51 seq.) has given some curious
+       details respecting the animosity between the clergy and the
+       secular tribunals of France in 1624.
+
+  [84] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 301; _Mém. de
+       Bassompierre_, vol. iii. pp. 302, 353. Bazin, who notices this
+       disgraceful affair, simply says (_Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iii.
+       p. 453): 'Le maréchal de Vitry, suivant l'exemple qui lui en avoit
+       donné le duc d'Epernon, s'emporta jusqu'à le frapper de son
+       bâton.' In regard to Epernon, the best account is in _Mém. de
+       Richelieu_, where it is stated (vol. viii. p. 194) that the duke,
+       just before flogging the archbishop, 'disoit au peuple,
+       "Rangez-vous, vous verrez comme j'étrillerai votre archevêque."'
+       This was stated by a witness, who heard the duke utter the words.
+       Compare, for further information, _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis
+       XIII_, vol. x. part ii. p. 97, with _Tallemant des Réaux_,
+       _Historiettes_, vol. iii. p. 116. Des Réaux, who, in his own way,
+       was somewhat of a philosopher, contentedly says: 'Cet archevêque
+       se pouvoit vanter d'être le prélat du monde qui avoit été le plus
+       battu.' His brother was Cardinal Sourdis; a man of some little
+       reputation in his own time, and concerning whom a curious anecdote
+       is related in _Mém. de Conrart_, pp. 231-234.
+
+  [85] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 470. Le Vassor
+       (_Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. x. part ii. p. 149) says: 'Il
+       s'enfuit donc honteusement à Carpentras sous la protection du
+       pape.'
+
+  [86] 'Les évêques furent punis par la saisie de leur temporel; Alby,
+       Nimes, Uzés, furent privées de leurs prélats.' _Capefigue's
+       Richelieu_, Paris, 1844, vol. ii. p. 24. The Protestants were
+       greatly delighted at the punishment of the bishops of Alby and
+       Nimes, which 'les ministres regardoient comme une vengeance
+       divine.' _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 528,
+       529.
+
+The indignation of the clergy may be easily imagined. Such repeated
+injuries, even if they had proceeded from a layman, would have been hard
+to endure; but they were rendered doubly bitter by being the work of one
+of themselves--one who had been nurtured in the profession against which
+he turned. This it was which aggravated the offence, because it seemed
+to be adding treachery to insult. It was not a war from without, but it
+was a treason from within. It was a bishop who humbled the episcopacy,
+and a cardinal who affronted the church.[87] Such, however, was the
+general temper of men, that the clergy did not venture to strike an
+open blow; but, by means of their partisans, they scattered the most
+odious libels against the great minister. They said that he was
+unchaste, that he was guilty of open debauchery, and that he held
+incestuous commerce with his own niece.[88] They declared that he had no
+religion; that he was only a Catholic in name; that he was the pontiff
+of the Huguenots; that he was the patriarch of atheists;[89] and what
+was worse than all, they even accused him of wishing to establish a
+schism in the French church.[90] Happily the time was now passing away
+in which the national mind could be moved by such artifices as these.
+Still the charges are worth recording, because they illustrate the
+tendency of public affairs, and the bitterness with which the spiritual
+classes saw the reins of power falling from their hands. Indeed, all
+this was so manifest, that in the last civil war raised against
+Richelieu, only two years before his death, the insurgents stated in
+their proclamation, that one of their objects was to revive the respect
+with which the clergy and nobles had formerly been treated.[91]
+
+  [87] In a short account of Richelieu, which was published immediately
+       after his death, the writer indignantly says, that 'being a
+       cardinal, he afflicted the church.' _Somers Tracts_. vol. v. p.
+       540. Compare _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iv. p. 322.
+
+  [88] This scandalous charge in regard to his niece was a favourite one
+       with the clergy; and among many other instances, the accusation
+       was brought by the Cardinal de Valençay in the grossest manner.
+       See _Tallemant des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. iii. p. 201.
+
+  [89] 'De là ces petits écrits qui le dénonçaient comme le "pontife des
+       huguenots" ou "le patriarche des athées."' _Capefigue's
+       Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 312.
+
+  [90] Compare _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. ii. p. 233, with _Le
+       Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. viii. part ii. pp. 177, 178,
+       vol. ix. p. 277.
+
+  [91] See the manifesto in _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii.
+       pp. 452, 453.
+
+The more we study the career of Richelieu, the more prominent does this
+antagonism become. Every thing proves that he was conscious of a great
+struggle going on between the old ecclesiastical scheme of government
+and the new secular scheme; and that he was determined to put down the
+old plan, and uphold the new one. For, not only in his domestic
+administration, but also in his foreign policy, do we find the same
+unprecedented disregard of theological interests. The House of Austria,
+particularly its Spanish branch, had long been respected by all pious
+men as the faithful ally of the church; it was looked upon as the
+scourge of heresy; and its proceedings against the heretics had won for
+it a great name in ecclesiastical history.[92] When, therefore, the
+French government, in the reign of Charles IX., made a deliberate
+attempt to destroy the Protestants, France naturally established an
+intimate connexion with Spain as well as with Rome;[93] and these three
+great powers were firmly united, not by a community of temporal
+interests, but by the force of a religious compact. This theological
+confederacy was afterwards broken up by the personal character of Henry
+IV.,[94] and by the growing indifference of the age; but during the
+minority of Louis XIII., the queen-regent had in some degree renewed it,
+and had attempted to revive the superstitious prejudices upon which it
+was based.[95] In all her feelings, she was a zealous Catholic; she was
+warmly attached to Spain; and she succeeded in marrying her son, the
+young king, to a Spanish princess, and her daughter to a Spanish
+prince.[96]
+
+  [92] Late in the sixteenth century, 'fils aîné de l'Eglise' was the
+       recognized and well-merited title of the kings of Spain. _De
+       Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. xi. p. 280. Compare _Duplessis Mornay_,
+       _Mém. et Correspond._ vol. xi. p. 21. And on the opinions which
+       the Catholics, early in the seventeenth century, generally held
+       respecting Spain, see _Mém. de Fontenay_, _Mareuil_, vol. i. p.
+       189; _Mém. de Bassompierre_, vol. i. p. 424.
+
+  [93] As to the connexion between this foreign policy and the massacre of
+       Saint Bartholomew, see _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_,
+       vol. iii. pp. 253, 268, 269.
+
+  [94] On the policy, and still more on the feelings, of Henry IV. towards
+       the House of Austria, see _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol.
+       ii. p. 291, vol. iii. pp. 162, 166, vol. iv. pp. 289, 290, 321,
+       343, 344, 364, vol. v. p. 123, vol. vi. p. 293, vol. vii. p. 303,
+       vol. viii. pp. 195, 202, 348.
+
+  [95] _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. pp. 26, 369; _Mém. de Montglat_,
+       vol. i. pp. 16, 17; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol i. p.
+       268, vol. vi. p. 349; _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii.
+       p. 227. Her husband, Henry IV., said that she had 'the soul of a
+       Spaniard.' _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. viii. p. 150.
+
+  [96] This was, in her opinion, a master-stroke of policy: 'Entêtée du
+       double mariage avec l'Espagne qu'elle avoit ménagé avec tant
+       d'application, et qu'elle regardoit comme le plus ferme appui de
+       son autorité.' _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. pp.
+       453, 454.
+
+It might have been expected that when Richelieu, a great dignitary of
+the Romish church, was placed at the head of affairs, he would have
+reëstablished a connexion so eagerly desired by the profession to which
+he belonged.[97] But his conduct was not regulated by such views as
+these. His object was, not to favour the opinions of a sect, but to
+promote the interests of a nation. His treaties, his diplomacy, and the
+schemes of his foreign alliances, were all directed, not against the
+enemies of the church, but against the enemies of France. By erecting
+this new standard of action, Richelieu took a great step towards
+secularizing the whole system of European politics. For he thus made the
+theoretical interests of men subordinate to their practical interests.
+Before his time, the rulers of France, in order to punish their
+Protestant subjects, had not hesitated to demand the aid of the Catholic
+troops of Spain; and in so doing, they merely acted upon the old
+opinion, that it was the chief duty of a government to suppress heresy.
+This pernicious doctrine was first openly repudiated by Richelieu. As
+early as 1617, and before he had established his power, he, in an
+instruction to one of the foreign ministers which is still extant, laid
+it down as a principle, that, in matters of state, no Catholic ought to
+prefer a Spaniard to a French Protestant.[98] To us, indeed, in the
+progress of society, such preference of the claims of our country to
+those of our creed, has become a matter of course; but in those days it
+was a startling novelty.[99] Richelieu, however, did not fear to push
+the paradox even to its remotest consequences. The Catholic church
+justly considered that its interests were bound up with those of the
+House of Austria;[100] but Richelieu, directly he was called to the
+council, determined to humble that house in both its branches.[101] To
+effect this, he openly supported the bitterest enemies of his own
+religion. He aided the Lutherans against the Emperor of Germany; he
+aided the Calvinists against the king of Spain. During the eighteen
+years he was supreme, he steadily pursued the same undeviating
+policy.[102] When Philip attempted to repress the Dutch Protestants,
+Richelieu made common cause with them; at first, advancing them large
+sums of money, and afterwards inducing the French king to sign a treaty
+of intimate alliance with those who, in the opinion of the church, he
+ought rather to have chastized as rebellious heretics.[103] In the same
+way, when that great war broke out, in which the emperor attempted to
+subjugate to the true faith the consciences of German Protestants,
+Richelieu stood forward as their protector; he endeavoured from the
+beginning to save their leader the Palatine;[104] and, failing in that,
+he concluded in their favour an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus,[105]
+the ablest military commander the Reformers had then produced. Nor did
+he stop there. After the death of Gustavus, he, seeing that the
+Protestants were thus deprived of their great leader, made still more
+vigorous efforts in their favour.[106] He intrigued for them in foreign
+courts; he opened negotiations in their behalf; and eventually he
+organized for their protection a public confederacy, in which all
+ecclesiastical considerations were set at defiance. This league, which
+formed an important precedent in the international polity of Europe, was
+not only contracted by Richelieu with the two most powerful enemies of
+his own church, but it was, from its tenor, what Sismondi emphatically
+calls a 'Protestant confederation'--a Protestant confederation, he says,
+between France, England, and Holland.[107]
+
+  [97] So late as 1656, the French clergy wished 'to hasten a peace with
+       Spain, and to curb the heretics in France,' _Letter from Pell to
+       Thurloe_, written in 1656, and printed in _Vaughan's Protectorate
+       of Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 436, 8vo, 1839. During the minority of
+       Louis XIII. we hear of 'les zéléz catholiques, et ceux qui
+       désiroient, à quelque prix que ce fut, l'union des deux roys, et
+       des deux couronnes de France et d'Espagne, comme le seul moyen
+       propre, selon leur advis, pour l'extirpation des hérésies dans la
+       chrestienté.' _Sully_, _[OE]con. Royales_, vol. ix. p. 181:
+       compare vol. vii. p. 248, on 'les zéléz catholiques espagnolisez
+       de France.'
+
+  [98] See _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. pp. 387-389, where
+       the importance of this document is noticed, and it is said that
+       Richelieu had drawn it up 'avec beaucoup de soin.' The language of
+       it is very peremptory: 'Que nul catholique n'est si aveugle
+       d'estimer en matière d'état un Espagnol meilleur qu'un Français
+       huguenot.'
+
+  [99] Even in the reign of Henry IV. the French Protestants were not
+       considered to be Frenchmen: 'The intolerant dogmas of Roman
+       Catholicism did not recognize them as Frenchmen. They were looked
+       upon as foreigners, or rather as enemies; and were treated as
+       such.' _Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 216.
+
+  [100] Sismondi says, under the year 1610, 'Toute l'église catholique
+        croyoit son sort lié à celui de la maison d'Autriche,' _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. xxii. p. 180.
+
+  [101] 'Sa vue dominante fut l'abaissement de la maison d'Autriche.'
+        _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie Française_, vol. iii. p. 81.
+        And, on the early formation of this scheme, see _Mém. de la
+        Rochefoucauld_, vol. i. p. 350. De Retz says, that before
+        Richelieu, no one had even thought of such a step: 'Celui
+        d'attaquer la formidable maison d'Autriche n'avoit été imaginé de
+        personne.' _Mém. de Retz_, vol. i. p. 45. This is rather too
+        strongly expressed; but the whole paragraph is curious, as
+        written by a man who possessed great ability, which De Retz
+        undoubtedly did, and who, though hating Richelieu, could not
+        refrain from bearing testimony to his immense services.
+
+  [102] 'Obwohl Cardinal der römischen Kirche, trug Richelieu kein
+        Bedenken, mit den Protestanten selbst unverhohlen in Bund zu
+        treten,' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. ii. p. 510. Compare, in
+        _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. ii. pp. 28, 29, the reproach
+        which the nuncio Spada addressed to Richelieu for treating with
+        the Protestants, 'de la paix qui se traitoit avec les huguenots.'
+        See also _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. v. pp. 236,
+        354-356, 567; and a good passage in _Lavallée_, _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. iii. p. 90,--an able little work, and perhaps the
+        best small history ever published of a great country.
+
+  [103] De Retz mentions a curious illustration of the feelings of the
+        ecclesiastical party respecting this treaty. He says, that the
+        Bishop of Beauvais, who, the year after the death of Richelieu,
+        was for a moment at the head of affairs, began his administration
+        by giving to the Dutch their choice, either to abandon their
+        religion, or else forfeit their alliance with France: 'Et il
+        demanda dès le premier jour aux Hollandois qu'ils se
+        convertissent à la religion catholique, s'ils vouloient demeurer
+        dans l'alliance de France.' _Mém. du Cardinal de Retz_, vol. i.
+        p. 39. This, I suppose, is the original authority for the
+        statement in the _Biog. Univ._ vol. xiv. p. 440; though, as is
+        too often the case in that otherwise valuable work, the writer
+        has omitted to indicate the source of his information.
+
+  [104] In 1626, he attempted to form a league 'en faveur du Palatin,'
+        _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 576. Sismondi
+        seems not quite certain as to the sincerity of his proposal; but
+        as to this there can, I think, be little doubt; for it appears
+        from his own memoirs, that even in 1624 he had in view the
+        recovery of the Palatinate. _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 405;
+        and again in 1625, p. 468.
+
+  [105] _Sismondi_, vol. xxiii. p. 173; _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i.
+        p. 415; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. vi. pp. 12, 600;
+        and at p. 489: 'Le roi de Suède qui comptoit uniquement sur le
+        cardinal.'
+
+  [106] Compare _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. pp. 74, 75, vol. ii. pp. 92,
+        93, with _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. ii. p. 198; and
+        _Howell's Letters_, p. 247. The different views which occurred to
+        his fertile mind in consequence of the death of Gustavus, are
+        strikingly summed up in _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. vii. pp.
+        272-277. On his subsequent pecuniary advances, see vol. ix.
+        p. 395.
+
+  [107] In 1633, 'les ambassadeurs de France, d'Angleterre et de Hollande
+        mirent à profit le repos de l'hiver pour resserrer la
+        confédération protestante,' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. xxiii. p. 221. Compare, in _Whitelocke's Swedish Embassy_,
+        vol. i. p. 275, the remark made twenty years later by Christina,
+        daughter of Gustavus, on the union with 'papists.'
+
+These things alone would have made the administration of Richelieu a
+great epoch in the history of European civilization. For his government
+affords the first example of an eminent Catholic statesman
+systematically disregarding ecclesiastical interests, and showing that
+disregard in the whole scheme of his foreign, as well as of his
+domestic, policy. Some instances, indeed, approaching to this, may be
+found, at an earlier period, among the petty rulers of Italian states;
+but, even there, such attempts have never been successful; they had
+never been continued for any length of time, nor had they been carried
+out on a scale large enough to raise them to the dignity of
+international precedents. The peculiar glory of Richelieu is, that his
+foreign policy was, not occasionally, but invariably, governed by
+temporal considerations; nor do I believe that, during the long tenure
+of his power, there is to be found the least proof of his regard for
+those theological interests, the promotion of which had long been looked
+upon as a matter of paramount importance. By thus steadily subordinating
+the church to the state; by enforcing the principle of this
+subordination, on a large scale, with great ability, and with unvarying
+success, he laid the foundation of that purely secular polity, the
+consolidation of which has, since his death, been the aim of all the
+best European diplomatists. The result was a most salutary change, which
+had been for some time preparing, but which, under him, was first
+completed. For, by the introduction of this system, an end was put to
+religious wars; and the chances of peace were increased, by thus
+removing one of the causes to which the interruption of peace had often
+been owing.[108] At the same time, there was prepared the way for that
+final separation of theology from politics, which it will be the
+business of future generations fully to achieve. How great a step had
+been taken in this direction, appears from the facility with which the
+operations of Richelieu were continued by men every way his inferiors.
+Less than two years after his death, there was assembled the Congress of
+Westphalia;[109] the members of which concluded that celebrated peace,
+which is remarkable, as being the first comprehensive attempt to adjust
+the conflicting interests of the leading European countries.[110] In
+this important treaty, ecclesiastical interests were altogether
+disregarded;[111] and the contracting parties, instead of, as
+heretofore, depriving each other of their possessions, took the bolder
+course of indemnifying themselves at the expense of the church, and did
+not hesitate to seize her revenues, and secularize several of her
+bishoprics.[112] From this grievous insult, which became a precedent in
+the public law of Europe, the spiritual power has never recovered; and
+it is remarked by a very competent authority that, since that period,
+diplomatists have, in their official acts, neglected religious
+interests, and have preferred the advocacy of matters relating to the
+commerce and colonies of their respective countries.[113] The truth of
+this observation is confirmed by the interesting fact, that the Thirty
+Years' War, to which this same treaty put an end, is the last great
+religious war which has ever been waged;[114] no civilized people,
+during two centuries, having thought it worth while to peril their own
+safety in order to disturb the belief of their neighbours. This, indeed,
+is but a part of that vast secular movement, by which superstition has
+been weakened, and the civilization of Europe secured. Without, however,
+discussing that subject, I will now endeavour to show how the policy of
+Richelieu, in regard to the French Protestant church, corresponded with
+his policy in regard to the French Catholic church; so, that, in both
+departments, this great statesman, aided by that progress of knowledge
+for which his age was remarkable, was able to struggle with prejudices
+from which men, slowly and with infinite difficulty, were attempting to
+emerge.
+
+  [108] This change may be illustrated by comparing the work of Grotius
+        with that of Vattel. These two eminent men are still respected as
+        the most authoritative expounders of international law; but there
+        is this important difference between them, that Vattel wrote more
+        than a century after Grotius, and when the secular principles
+        enforced by Richelieu had penetrated the minds even of common
+        politicians. Therefore, Vattel says (_Le Droit des Gens_, vol. i.
+        pp. 379, 380): 'On demande s'il est permis de faire alliance avec
+        une nation qui ne professe pas la même religion? Si les traités
+        faits avec les ennemis de la foi sont valides? Grotius a traité
+        la question assez au long. Cette discussion pouvait être
+        nécessaire dans un temps où la fureur des partis obscurcissait
+        encore des principes qu'elle avait long-temps fait oublier, osons
+        croire qu'elle serait superflue dans notre siècle. La loi
+        naturelle seule régit les traités des nations; la différence de
+        religion y est absolument étrangère.' See also p. 318, and vol.
+        ii. p. 151. On the other hand, Grotius opposes alliances between
+        nations of different religion, and says, that nothing can justify
+        them except 'une extrême nécessité.... Car il faut chercher
+        premièrement le règne céleste, c'est à dire penser avant toutes
+        choses à la propagation de l'évangile.' And he further recommends
+        that princes should follow the advice given on this subject by
+        Foulques, Archbishop of Rheims! _Grotius_, _le Droit de la Guerre
+        et de la Paix_, livre ii. chap. xv. sec. xi. vol. i. pp. 485, 486,
+        edit. Barbeyrac, Amsterdam, 1724, 4to; a passage the more
+        instructive, because Grotius was a man of great genius and great
+        humanity. On religious wars, as naturally recognized in barbarous
+        times, see the curious and important work, _Institutes of
+        Timour_, pp. 141, 333, 335.
+
+  [109] 'Le Congrès de Westphalie s'ouvrit le 10 avril 1643.' _Lavallée_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 156. Its two great divisions
+        at Munster and Osnabruck were formed in March 1644. _Flassan_,
+        _Hist. de la Diplomatie_, vol. iii. p. 110. Richelieu died in
+        December, 1642. _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxviii. p. 28.
+
+  [110] 'Les règnes de Charles-Quint et de Henri IV font époque pour
+        certaines parties du droit international; mais le point de départ
+        le plus saillant, c'est la paix de Westphalie.' _Eschbach_,
+        _Introduc. à l'Etude du Droit_, Paris, 1846, p. 92. Compare the
+        remarks on Mably, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 7, and
+        _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiv. p. 179: 'base au
+        droit public de l'Europe.'
+
+  [111] Compare the indignation of the pope at this treaty (_Vattel_, _le
+        Droit des Gens_, vol. ii. p. 28), with _Ranke's Päpste_, vol. ii.
+        p. 576: 'Das religiöse Element ist zurückgetreten; die
+        politischen Rücksichten beherrschen die Welt:' a summary of the
+        general state of affairs.
+
+  [112] 'La France obtint par ce traité, en indemnité, la souveraineté des
+        trois évêchés, Metz, Toul et Verdun, ainsi que celle d'Alsace. La
+        satisfaction ou indemnité des autres parties intéressées fut
+        convenue, en grande partie, aux dépens de l'église, et moyennant
+        la sécularisation de plusieurs évêchés et bénéfices
+        ecclésiastiques.' _Koch_, _Tableau des Révolutions_, vol. i. p.
+        328.
+
+  [113] Dr. Vaughan (_Protectorate of Cromwell_, vol. i. p. civ.) says:
+        'It is a leading fact, also, in the history of modern Europe,
+        that, from the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, religion, as the
+        great object of negotiation, began everywhere to give place to
+        questions relating to colonies and commerce.' Charles Butler
+        observed, that this treaty 'considerably lessened the influence
+        of religion on politics.' _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p.
+        181.
+
+  [114] The fact of the Thirty Years' War being a religious contest,
+        formed the basis of one of the charges which the church party
+        brought against Richelieu: and an author, who wrote in 1634,
+        'montroit bien au long que l'alliance du roy de France avec les
+        protestantes étoit contraire aux intérêts de la religion
+        catholique; parce que la guerre des Provinces Unies, et celle
+        d'Allemagne étoient des guerres de religion.' _Benoist_, _Hist.
+        de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 536.
+
+The treatment of the French Protestants by Richelieu is, undoubtedly,
+one of the most honourable parts of his system; and in it, as in other
+liberal measures, he was assisted by the course of preceding events. His
+administration, taken in connexion with that of Henry IV. and the
+queen-regent, presents the noble spectacle of a toleration far more
+complete than any which had then been seen in Catholic Europe. While in
+other Christian countries, men were being incessantly persecuted,
+simply because they held opinions different from those professed by the
+established clergy, France refused to follow the general example, and
+protected those heretics whom the church was eager to punish. Indeed,
+not only were they protected, but, when they possessed abilities, they
+were openly rewarded. In addition to their appointments to civil
+offices, many of them were advanced to high military posts; and Europe
+beheld, with astonishment, the armies of the king of France led by
+heretical generals. Rohan, Lesdiguières, Chatillon, La Force, Bernard de
+Weimar, were among the most celebrated of the military leaders employed
+by Louis XIII.; and all of them were Protestants, as also were some
+younger, but distinguished officers, such as Gassion, Rantzau,
+Schomberg, and Turenne. For now, nothing was beyond the reach of men
+who, half a century earlier, would, on account of their heresies, have
+been persecuted to the death. Shortly before the accession of Louis
+XIII., Lesdiguières, the ablest general among the French Protestants,
+was made marshal of France.[115] Fourteen years later, the same high
+dignity was conferred upon two other Protestants, Chatillon and La
+Force; the former of whom is said to have been the most influential of
+the schismatics.[116] Both these appointments were in 1622;[117] and, in
+1634, still greater scandal was caused by the elevation of Sully, who,
+notwithstanding his notorious heresy, also received the staff of marshal
+of France.[118] This was the work of Richelieu, and it gave serious
+offence to the friends of the church; but the great statesman paid so
+little attention to their clamour, that, after the civil war was
+concluded, he took another step equally obnoxious. The Duke de Rohan was
+the most active of all the enemies of the established church, and was
+looked up to by the Protestants as the main support of their party. He
+had taken up arms in their favour, and, declining to abandon his
+religion, had, by the fate of war, been driven from France. But
+Richelieu, who was acquainted with his ability, cared little about his
+opinions. He, therefore, recalled him from exile, employed him in a
+negotiation with Switzerland, and sent him on foreign service, as
+commander of one of the armies of the king of France.[119]
+
+  [115] According to a contemporary, he received this appointment without
+        having asked for it: 'sans être à la cour ni l'avoir demandé.'
+        _Mém. de Fontenay_, _Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 70. In 1622, even the
+        lieutenants of Lesdiguières were Protestants: 'ses lieutenants,
+        qui estant tous huguenots.' _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 538. These memoirs
+        are very valuable in regard to political and military matters;
+        their author having played a conspicuous part in the transactions
+        which he describes.
+
+  [116] 'Il n'y avoit personne dans le parti huguenot si considérable que
+        lui.' _Tallemant des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. v. p. 204.
+
+  [117] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xv. p. 247; _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+        Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 400.
+
+        [118] Additions to _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. viii. p.
+        496; _Smedley's Hist. of the Reformed Religion in France_,
+        vol. iii. p. 204.
+
+  [119] _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 57; _Mém. de Rohan_, vol. i.
+        pp. 66, 69; _Mém. de Bassompierre_, vol. iii. pp. 324, 348; _Mém.
+        de Montglat_, vol. i. p. 86; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_,
+        vol. vii. p. 157, vol. viii. p. 284. This great rise in the
+        fortunes of Rohan took place at different times between 1632 and
+        1635.
+
+Such were the tendencies which characterized this new state of things.
+It is hardly necessary to observe how beneficial this great change must
+have been; since by it men were encouraged to look to their country as
+the first consideration, and, discarding their old disputes, Catholic
+soldiers were taught to obey heretical generals, and follow their
+standards to victory. In addition to this, the mere social amalgamation,
+arising from the professors of different creeds mixing in the same camp,
+and fighting under the same banner, must have still further aided to
+disarm the mind, partly by merging theological feuds in a common, and
+yet a temporal, object, and partly by showing to each sect, that their
+religious opponents were not entirely bereft of human virtue; that they
+still retained some of the qualities of men; and that it was even
+possible to combine the errors of heresy with all the capabilities of a
+good and competent citizen.[120]
+
+  [120] Late in the sixteenth century, Duplessis Mornay had to state what
+        was then considered by the majority of men an incredible paradox,
+        'que ce n'estoit pas chose incompatible d'estre bon huguenot et
+        bon Françoys tout ensemble.' _Duplessis_, _Mém. et Correspond._
+        vol. i. p. 146. Compare p. 213, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46, 77, 677,
+        vol. vii. p. 294, vol. xi. pp. 31, 68; interesting passages for
+        the history of opinions in France.
+
+But, while the hateful animosities by which France had long been
+distracted, were, under the policy of Richelieu, gradually subsiding, it
+is singular to observe that, though the prejudices of the Catholics
+obviously diminished, those of the Protestants seemed, for a time, to
+retain all their activity. It is, indeed, a striking proof of the
+perversity and pertinacity of such feelings, that it was precisely in
+the country, and at the period, when the Protestants were best treated,
+that they displayed most turbulence. And in this, as in all such cases,
+the cause principally at work was the influence of that class to which
+circumstances, I will now explain, had secured a temporary ascendency.
+
+For, the diminution of the theological spirit had effected in the
+Protestants a remarkable but a very natural result. The increasing
+toleration of the French government had laid open to their leaders
+prizes which before they could never have obtained. As long as all
+offices were refused to the Protestant nobles, it was natural that they
+should cling with the greater zeal to their own party, by whom alone
+their virtues were acknowledged. But, when the principle was once
+recognised, that the state would reward men for their abilities, without
+regard to their religion, there was introduced into every sect a new
+element of discord. The leaders of the Reformers could not fail to feel
+some gratitude, or, at all events, some interest for the government
+which employed them; and the influence of temporal considerations being
+thus strengthened, the influence of religious ties must have been
+weakened. It is impossible that opposite feelings should be paramount,
+at the same moment, in the same mind. The further men extend their view,
+the less they care for each of the details of which the view is
+composed. Patriotism is a corrective of superstition; and the more we
+feel for our country, the less we feel for our sect. Thus it is, that
+in the progress of civilization, the scope of the intellect is widened;
+its horizon is enlarged; its sympathies are multiplied; and, as the
+range of its excursions is increased, the tenacity of its grasp is
+slackened, until, at length, it begins to perceive that the infinite
+variety of circumstances necessarily causes an infinite variety of
+opinions; that a creed, which is good and natural for one man, may be
+bad and unnatural for another; and that, so far from interfering with
+the march of religious convictions, we should be content to look into
+ourselves, search our own hearts, purge our own souls, soften the evil
+of our own passions, and extirpate that insolent and intolerant spirit,
+which is at once the cause and the effect of all theological
+controversy.
+
+It was in this direction, that a prodigious step was taken by the French
+in the first half of the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, however,
+the advantages which arose were accompanied by serious drawbacks. From
+the introduction of temporal considerations among the Protestant
+leaders, there occurred two results of considerable importance. The
+first result was, that many of the Protestants changed their religion.
+Before the Edict of Nantes, they had been constantly persecuted, and
+had, as constantly, increased.[121] But, under the tolerant policy of
+Henry IV. and Louis XIII., they continued to diminish.[122] Indeed, this
+was the natural consequence of the growth of that secular spirit which,
+in every country, has assuaged religious animosities. For, by the action
+of that spirit, the influence of social and political views began to
+outweigh those theological views to which the minds of men had long been
+confined. As these temporal ties increased in strength, there was, of
+course, generated among the rival factions an increased tendency to
+assimilate; while, as the Catholics were not only much more numerous,
+but in every respect, more influential, than their opponents, they
+reaped the benefit of this movement, and gradually drew over to their
+side many of their former enemies. That this absorption of the smaller
+sect into the larger, is due to the cause I have mentioned, is rendered
+still more evident by the interesting fact, that the change began among
+the heads of the party; and that it was not the inferior Protestants who
+first abandoned their leaders, but it was rather the leaders who
+deserted their followers. This was because the leaders, being more
+educated than the great body of the people, were more susceptible to the
+sceptical movement, and therefore set the example of an indifference to
+disputes which still engrossed the popular mind. As soon as this
+indifference had reached a certain point, the attractions offered by the
+conciliating policy of Louis XIII. became irresistible; and the
+Protestant nobles, in particular, being most exposed to political
+temptations, began to alienate themselves from their own party, in order
+to form an alliance with a court which showed itself ready to reward
+their merits.
+
+  [121] See _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. i. pp. 10, 14,
+        18; _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. iii. pp. 181, 242, 357, 358,
+        543, 558, vol. iv. p. 155; _Relat. des Ambassadeurs Vénitiens_,
+        vol. i. pp. 412, 536, vol. ii. pp. 66, 74; _Ranke's Civil Wars in
+        France_, vol. i. pp. 279, 280, vol. ii. p. 94.
+
+  [122] Compare _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 173, with _Ranke_, _die
+        Römischen Päpste_, vol. ii. pp. 477-479. In spite of the increase
+        of population, the Protestants diminished absolutely, as well as
+        relatively, to the Catholics. In 1598 they had 760 churches; in
+        1619 only 700. _Smedley's Hist. of the Reformed Religion in
+        France_, vol. iii. pp. 46, 145. De Thou, in the preface to his
+        History (vol. i. p. 320), observes, that the Protestants had
+        increased during the wars carried on against them, but
+        'diminuoient en nombre et en crédit pendant la paix.'
+
+It is, of course, impossible to fix the exact period at which this
+important change took place.[123] But we may say with certainty, that
+very early in the reign of Louis XIII. many of the Protestant nobles
+cared nothing for their religion, while the remainder of them ceased to
+feel that interest in it which they had formerly expressed. Indeed, some
+of the most eminent of them openly abandoned their creed, and joined
+that very church which they had been taught to abhor as the man of sin,
+and the whore of Babylon. The Duke de Lesdiguières, the greatest of all
+the Protestant generals,[124] became a Catholic, and, as a reward for
+his conversion, was made constable of France.[125] The Duke de la
+Tremouille adopted the same course;[126] as also did the Duke de la
+Meilleraye,[127] the Duke de Bouillon,[128] and a few years later the
+Marquis de Montausier.[129] These illustrious nobles were among the most
+powerful of the members of the Reformed communion; but they quitted it
+without compunction, sacrificing their old associations in favour of
+the opinions professed by the state. Among the other men of high rank,
+who still remained nominally connected with the French Protestants, we
+find a similar spirit. We find them lukewarm respecting matters, for
+which, if they had been born fifty years earlier, they would have laid
+down their lives. The Maréchal de Bouillon, who professed himself to be
+a Protestant, was unwilling to change his religion; but he so comported
+himself as to show that he considered its interests as subordinate to
+political considerations.[130] A similar remark has been made by the
+French historians concerning the Duke de Sully and the Marquis de
+Chatillon, both of whom, though they were members of the Reformed
+church, displayed a marked indifference to those theological interests
+which had formerly been objects of supreme importance.[131] The result
+was, that when, in 1621, the Protestants began their civil war against
+the government, it was found that of all their great leaders, two only,
+Rohan and his brother Soubise, were prepared to risk their lives in
+support of their religion.[132]
+
+  [123] M. Ranke has noticed how the French Protestant nobles fell off
+        from their party; but he does not seem aware of the remote causes
+        of what he deems a sudden apostasy: 'In dem nämlichen Momente
+        trat nun auch die grosse Wendung der Dinge in Frankreich ein.
+        Fragen wir, woher im Jahr 1621 die Verluste des Protestantismus
+        hauptsächlich kamen, so war es die Entzweiung derselben, der
+        Abfall des Adels.' _Ranke_, _die Päpste_, vol. ii. p. 476.
+        Compare a curious passage in _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+        Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 33, from which it appears that in 1611 the
+        French Protestants were breaking into three parties, one of which
+        consisted of 'les seigneurs d'éminente qualité.'
+
+  [124] 'Le plus illustre guerrier du parti protestant.' _Sismondi_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 505. In the contemporary
+        despatches of the Spanish ambassador, he is called 'l'un des
+        huguenots les plus marquans, homme d'un grand poids, et d'un
+        grand crédit.' _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 60. His
+        principal influence was in Dauphiné. _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit
+        de Nantes_, vol. i. p. 236.
+
+  [125] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv. p. 293; and a dry remark on his
+        'conversion' in _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 215, which may
+        be compared with _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xviii. p. 132, and
+        _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. pp. 195-197. Rohan
+        (_Mém._ vol. i. p. 228) plainly says, 'le duc de Lesdiguières,
+        ayant hardé sa religion pour la charge de connétable de France.'
+        See also p. 91, and _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. p. 37.
+
+  [126] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 67; _Le Vassor_,
+        _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. v. pp. 809, 810, 865.
+
+  [127] _Tallemant des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. iii. p. 43. La
+        Meilleraye was also a duke; and what is far more in his favour,
+        he was a friend of Descartes. _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxviii. pp. 152,
+        153.
+
+  [128] Sismondi (_Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 27) says, 'il
+        abjura en 1637;' but according to Benoist (_Hist. de l'Edit de
+        Nantes_, vol. ii. p. 550) it was in 1635.
+
+  [129] _Tallemant des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. iii. p. 245. Des
+        Réaux, who saw these changes constantly happening, simply
+        observes, 'notre marquis, voyant que sa religion étoit un
+        obstacle à son dessein, en change.'
+
+  [130] 'Mettoit la politique avant la religion.' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. xxii. p. 264. This was Henry Bouillon, whom some
+        writers have confused with Frederick Bouillon. Both of them were
+        dukes; but Henry, who was the father, and who did not actually
+        change his religion, was the marshal. The following notices of
+        him will more than confirm the remark made by Sismondi; _Mém. de
+        Bassompierre_, vol. i. p. 455; _Smedley's Reformed Religion in
+        France_, vol. iii. p. 99; _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p.
+        107; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. pp. 420, 467,
+        664, vol. iv. p. 519; _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 104, vol.
+        ii. p. 259; _Mém. de Duplessis Mornay_, vol. xi. p. 450, vol.
+        xii. pp. 79, 182, 263, 287, 345, 361, 412, 505.
+
+  [131] _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. i. pp. 121, 298,
+        vol. ii. pp. 5, 180, 267, 341; _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i.
+        p. 267; _Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 206.
+        Sully advised Henry IV., on mere political considerations, to
+        become a Catholic; and there were strong, but I believe unfounded
+        rumours, that he himself intended taking the same course. See
+        _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. ii. p. 81, vol. vii. pp.
+        362, 363.
+
+  [132] 'There were, among all the leaders, but the Duke de Rohan and his
+        brother the Duke de Soubise, who showed themselves disposed to
+        throw their whole fortunes into the new wars of religion.'
+        _Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 241. For this,
+        M. Felice, as usual, quotes no authority; but Rohan himself says:
+        'C'est ce qui s'est passé en cette seconde guerre (1626), où
+        Rohan et Soubise ont eu pour contraires tous les grands de la
+        religion de France.' _Mém. de Rohan_, vol. i. p. 278. Rohan
+        claims great merit for his religious sincerity; though, from a
+        passage in _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 418, and
+        another in _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p.
+        173, one may be allowed to doubt if he were so single-minded as
+        is commonly supposed.
+
+Thus it was, that the first great consequence of the tolerating policy
+of the French government was to deprive the Protestants of the support
+of their former leaders, and, in several instances, even to turn their
+sympathies on the side of the Catholic church. But the other
+consequence, to which I have alluded, was one of far greater moment. The
+growing indifference of the higher classes of Protestants threw the
+management of their party into the hands of the clergy. The post, which
+was deserted by the secular leaders, was naturally seized by the
+spiritual leaders. And as, in every sect, the clergy, as a body, have
+always been remarkable for their intolerance of opinions different to
+their own, it followed, that this change infused into the now mutilated
+ranks of the Protestants an acrimony not inferior to that of the worst
+times of the sixteenth century.[133] Hence it was, that by a singular,
+but perfectly natural combination, the Protestants, who professed to
+take their stand on the right of private judgment, became, early in the
+seventeenth century, more intolerant than the Catholics, who based their
+religion on the dictates of an infallible church.
+
+  [133] Sismondi notices this remarkable change; though he places it a few
+        years earlier than the contemporary writers do: 'Depuis que les
+        grands seigneurs s'étoient éloignés deg églises, c'étoient les
+        ministres qui étoient devenus les chefs, les représentans et les
+        démagogues des huguenots; et ils apportoient dans leurs
+        délibérations cette âpreté et cette inflexibilité théologiques
+        qui semblent caractériser les prêtres de toutes les religions, et
+        qui donnent à leurs haines une amertume plus offensante.'
+        _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 87. Compare p.
+        478. In 1621, 'Rohan lui-même voyait continuellement ses
+        opérations contrariées par le conseil-général des églises.'
+        _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 88. In the same
+        year, M. Capefigue (_Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 271) says, 'Le parti
+        modéré cessa d'avoir action sur le prêche; la direction des
+        forces huguenotes, était passée dans les mains des ardents,
+        conduits par les ministres.'
+
+This is one of the many instances which show how superficial is the
+opinion of those speculative writers, who believe that the Protestant
+religion is necessarily more liberal than the Catholic. If those who
+adopt this view had taken the pains to study the history of Europe in
+its original sources, they would have learned, that the liberality of
+every sect depends, not at all on its avowed tenets, but on the
+circumstances in which it is placed, and on the amount of authority
+possessed by its priesthood. The Protestant religion is, for the most
+part, more tolerant than the Catholic, simply because the events which
+have given rise to Protestantism have at the same time increased the
+play of the intellect, and therefore lessened the power of the clergy.
+But whoever has read the works of the great Calvinist divines, and above
+all, whoever has studied their history, must know, that in the sixteenth
+and seventeenth centuries, the desire of persecuting their opponents
+burnt as hotly among them, as it did among any of the Catholics even in
+the worst days of the papal dominion. This is a mere matter of fact, of
+which any one may satisfy himself, by consulting the original documents
+of those times. And even now, there is more superstition, more bigotry,
+and less of the charity of real religion, among the lower order of
+Scotch Protestants, than there is among the lower order of French
+Catholics. Yet for one intolerant passage in Protestant theology, it
+would be easy to point out twenty in Catholic theology. The truth,
+however, is, that the actions of men are governed, not by dogmas, and
+text-books, and rubrics, but by the opinions and habits of their
+contemporaries, by the general spirit of their age, and by the character
+of those classes who are in the ascendant. This seems to be the origin
+of that difference between religious theory and religious practice, of
+which theologians greatly complain as a stumbling-block and an evil.
+For, religious theories being preserved in books, in a doctrinal and
+dogmatic form, remain a perpetual witness, and, therefore cannot be
+changed without incurring the obvious charge of inconsistency, or of
+heresy. But the practical part of every religion, its moral, political,
+and social workings, embrace such an immense variety of interests, and
+have to do with such complicated and shifting agencies, that it is
+hopeless to fix them by formularies: they, even in the most rigid
+systems, are left, in a great measure, to private discretion; and, being
+almost entirely unwritten, they lack those precautions by which the
+permanence of dogmas is effectually secured.[134] Hence it is, that
+while the religious doctrines professed by a people in their national
+creed are no criterion of their civilization, their religious practice
+is, on the other hand, so pliant and so capable of adaptation to social
+wants, that it forms one of the best standards by which the spirit of
+any age can be measured.
+
+  [134] The church of Rome has always seen this, and on that account has
+        been, and still is, very pliant in regard to morals, and very
+        inflexible in regard to dogmas; a striking proof of the great
+        sagacity with which her affairs are administered. In _Blanco
+        White's Evidence against Catholicism_, p. 48, and in _Parr's
+        Works_, vol. vii. pp. 454, 455, there is an unfavourable and,
+        indeed, an unjust notice of this peculiarity, which, though
+        strongly marked in the Romish church, is by no means confined to
+        it, but is found in every religious sect which is regularly
+        organized. Locke, in his _Letters on Toleration_, observes, that
+        the clergy are naturally more eager against error than against
+        vice (_Works_, vol. v. pp. 6, 7, 241); and their preference of
+        dogmas to moral truths is also mentioned by M. C. Comte, _Traité
+        de Législat._ vol. i. p. 245; and is alluded to by Kant in his
+        comparison of 'ein moralischer Katechismus' with a
+        'Religionskatechismus.' _Die Metaphysik der Sitten_ (_Ethische
+        Methodenlehre_), in _Kant's Werke_, vol. v. p. 321. Compare
+        _Temple's Observations upon the United Provinces_, in _Works of
+        Sir W. Temple_, vol. i. p. 154, with the strict adhesion to
+        formularies noticed in _Ward's Ideal Church_, p. 358; and
+        analogous cases in _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. i. pp. 399, 400,
+        and in _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 87; also
+        _Combe's Notes on the United States_, vol. iii. pp. 256, 257.
+
+It is on account of these things, that we ought not to be surprised
+that, during many years, the French Protestants, who affected to appeal
+to the right of private judgment, were more intolerant of the exercise
+of that judgment by their adversaries than were the Catholics; although
+the Catholics, by recognising an infallible church, ought, in
+consistency, to be superstitious, and may be said to inherit intolerance
+as their natural birthright.[135] Thus, while the Catholics were
+theoretically more bigoted than the Protestants, the Protestants became
+practically more bigoted than the Catholics. The Protestants continued
+to insist upon that right of private judgment in religion, which the
+Catholics continued to deny. Yet, such was the force of circumstances,
+that each sect, in its practice, contradicted its own dogma, and acted
+as if it had embraced the dogma of its opponents. The cause of this
+change was very simple. Among the French, the theological spirit, as we
+have already seen, was decaying; and the decline of the influence of the
+clergy was, as invariably happens, accompanied by an increase of
+toleration. But, among the French Protestants, this partial diminution
+of the theological spirit had produced different consequences; because
+it had brought about a change of leaders, which threw the command into
+the hands of the clergy, and, by increasing their power, provoked a
+reaction, and revived those very feelings to the decay of which the
+reaction owed its origin. This seems to explain how it is, that a
+religion, which is not protected by the government, usually displays
+greater energy and greater vitality than one which is so protected. In
+the progress of society, the theological spirit first declines among the
+most educated classes; and then it is that the government can step in,
+as it does in England, and, controlling the clergy, make the church a
+creature of the state; thus weakening the ecclesiastical element by
+tempering it with secular considerations. But, when the state refuses to
+do this, the reins of power, as they fall from the hands of the upper
+classes, are seized by the clergy, and there arises a state of things
+of which the French Protestants in the seventeenth century, and the
+Irish Catholics in our own time, form the best illustration. In such
+cases, it will always happen, that the religion which is tolerated by
+the government, though not fully recognised by it, will the longest
+retain its vitality; because its priesthood, neglected by the state,
+must cling closer to the people, in whom alone is the source of their
+power.[136] On the other hand, in a religion which is favoured and
+richly endowed by the state, the union between the priesthood and
+inferior laity will be less intimate; the clergy will look to the
+government as well as to the people; and the interference of political
+views, of considerations of temporal expediency, and, if it may be added
+without irreverence, the hopes of promotion will secularize the
+ecclesiastical spirit,[137] and, according to the process I have already
+traced, will thus hasten the march of toleration.
+
+  [135] Blanco White (_Evidence against Catholicism_, p. vi.) harshly
+        says, '_sincere_ Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously be
+        tolerant.' But he is certainly mistaken; for the question is one,
+        not of sincerity, but of consistency. A sincere Roman Catholic
+        may be, and often is, conscientiously tolerant; a consistent
+        Roman Catholic, never.
+
+  [136] We also see this very clearly in England, where the dissenting
+        clergy have much more influence among their hearers than the
+        clergy of the Establishment have among theirs. This has often
+        been noticed by impartial observers, and we are now possessed of
+        statistical proof that 'the great body of Protestant dissenters
+        are more assiduous' in attending religious worship than churchmen
+        are. See a valuable essay by Mr. Mann _On the Statistical
+        Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales_, in _Journal
+        of Statist. Soc._ vol. xviii. p. 152.
+
+  [137] Respecting the working of this in England, there are some shrewd
+        remarks made by Le Blanc in his _Lettres d'un François_, vol. i.
+        pp. 267, 268; which may be compared with _Lord Holland's Mem. of
+        the Whig Party_, vol. ii. p. 253, where it is suggested, that in
+        the case of complete emancipation of the Catholics, 'eligibility
+        to worldly honours and profits would somewhat abate the fever of
+        religious zeal.' On this, there are observations worth attending
+        to in _Lord Cloncurry's Recollections_, Dublin, 1849, pp. 342,
+        343.
+
+These generalizations, which account for a great part of the present
+superstition of the Irish Catholics, will also account for the former
+superstition of the French Protestants. In both cases, the government
+disdaining the supervision of an heretical religion, allowed supreme
+authority to fall into the hands of the priesthood, who stimulated the
+bigotry of men, and encouraged them in a hatred of their opponents.
+What the results of this are in Ireland, is best known to those of our
+statesmen, who, with unusual candour, have declared Ireland to be their
+greatest difficulty. What the results were in France, we will now
+endeavour to ascertain.
+
+The conciliating spirit of the French government having drawn over to
+its side some of the most eminent of the French Protestants, and having
+disarmed the hostility of others, the leadership of the party fell, as
+we have already seen, into the hands of those inferior men, who
+displayed in their new position the intolerance characteristic of their
+order. Without pretending to write a history of the odious feuds that
+now arose, I will lay before the reader some evidence of their
+increasing bitterness; and I will point out a few of the steps by which
+the angry feelings of religious controversy became so inflamed, that at
+length they kindled a civil war, which nothing but the improved temper
+of the Catholics prevented from being as sanguinary as were the horrible
+struggles of the sixteenth century. For, when the French Protestants
+became governed by men whose professional habits made them consider
+heresy to be the greatest of crimes, there naturally sprung up a
+missionary and proselytizing spirit, which induced them to interfere
+with the religion of the Catholics, and, under the old pretence of
+turning them from the error of their ways, revived those animosities
+which the progress of knowledge tended to appease. And as, under such
+guidance, these feelings quickly increased, the Protestants soon learned
+to despise that great Edict of Nantes, by which their liberties were
+secured; and they embarked in a dangerous contest, in which their object
+was, not to protect their own religion, but to weaken the religion of
+that very party to whom they owed a toleration, which had been
+reluctantly conceded by the prejudices of the age.
+
+It was stipulated, in the Edict of Nantes, that the Protestants should
+enjoy the full exercise of their religion; and this right they continued
+to possess until the reign of Louis XIV. To this there were added
+several other privileges, such as no Catholic Government, except that
+of France, would then have granted to its heretical subjects. But these
+things did not satisfy the desires of the Protestant clergy. They were
+not content to exercise their own religion, unless they could also
+trouble the religion of others. Their first step was, to call upon the
+government to limit the performance of those rites which the French
+Catholics had long revered as emblems of the national faith. For this
+purpose, directly after the death of Henry IV. they held a great
+assembly at Saumur, in which they formally demanded that no Catholic
+processions should be allowed in any town, place, or castle occupied by
+the Protestants.[138] As the government did not seem inclined to
+countenance this monstrous pretension, these intolerant sectaries took
+the law into their own hands. They not only attacked the Catholic
+processions wherever they met them, but they subjected the priests to
+personal insults, and even endeavoured to prevent them from
+administering the sacrament to the sick. If a Catholic clergyman was
+engaged in burying the dead, the Protestants were sure to be present,
+interrupting the funeral, turning the ceremonies into ridicule, and
+attempting, by their clamour, to deaden the voice of the minister, so
+that the service performed in the church should not be heard.[139] Nor
+did they always confine themselves even to such demonstrations as these.
+For, certain towns having been, perhaps imprudently, placed under their
+control, they exercised their authority in them with the most wanton
+insolence. At La Rochelle, which for importance was the second city in
+the kingdom, they would not permit the Catholics to have even a single
+church in which to celebrate what for centuries had been the sole
+religion of France, and was still the religion of an enormous majority
+of Frenchmen.[140] This, however, only formed part of a system, by which
+the Protestant clergy hoped to trample on the rights of their
+fellow-subjects. In 1619, they ordered in their general assembly at
+Loudun, that in none of the Protestant towns should there be a sermon
+preached by a Jesuit, or indeed by any ecclesiastical person
+commissioned by a bishop.[141] In another assembly, they forbade any
+Protestant even to be present at a baptism, or at a marriage, or at a
+funeral, if the ceremony was performed by a Catholic priest.[142] And,
+as if to cut off all hope of reconciliation, they not only vehemently
+opposed those intermarriages between the two parties, by which, in every
+Christian country, religious animosities have been softened, but they
+publicly declared, that they would withhold the sacrament from any
+parents whose children were married into a Catholic family.[143] Not,
+however, to accumulate unnecessary evidence, there is one other
+circumstance worth relating, as a proof of the spirit with which these
+and similar regulations were enforced. When Louis XIII., in 1620,
+visited Pau, he was not only treated with indignity, as being an
+heretical prince, but he found that the Protestants had not left him a
+single church, not one place, in which the king of France, in his own
+territory, could perform those devotions which he believed necessary
+for his future salvation.[144]
+
+  [138] 'Les processions catholiques seraient interdites dans toutes les
+        places, villes et châteaux occupés par ceux de la religion.'
+        _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 39.
+
+  [139] Of these facts we have the most unequivocal proof; for they were
+        not only stated by the Catholics in 1623, but they are recorded,
+        without being denied, by the Protestant historian Benoist: 'On y
+        accusoit les Réformez d'injurier les prêtres, quand ils les
+        voyoient passer; d'empêcher les processions des Catholiques;
+        l'administration des sacremens aux malades; l'enterrement des
+        morts avec les cérémonies accoutumées; ... que les Réformez
+        s'étoient emparez des cloches en quelques lieux, et en d'autres
+        se serroient de celles des Catholiques pour avertir de l'heure du
+        prêche; qu'ils affectoient de faire du bruit autour des églises
+        pendant le service; qu'ils tournoient en dérision les cérémonies
+        de l'église romaine.' _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 433, 434; see also pp. 149, 150.
+
+  [140] 'On pouvait dire que La Rochelle était la capitale, le saint
+        temple du calvinisme; car on ne voyait là aucune église, aucune
+        cérémonie papiste.' _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 342.
+
+  [141] _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 100. For other and similar
+        evidence, see _Duplessis Mornay_, _Mémoires_, vol. xi. p. 244;
+        _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. vii. p. 164; _Benoist_,
+        _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 70, 233, 279.
+
+  [142] _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, vol. ii. p. 196.
+
+  [143] For a striking instance of the actual enforcement of this
+        intolerant regulation, see _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_,
+        vol. ii. p. 344.
+
+  [144] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 124; _Mém. de
+        Richelieu_, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110; _Felice's Hist. of the
+        Protestants of France_, p. 238.
+
+This was the way in which the French Protestants, influenced by their
+new leaders, treated the first Catholic government which abstained from
+persecuting them; the first which not only allowed them the free
+exercise of their religion, but even advanced many of them to offices of
+trust and of honour.[145] All this, however, was only of a piece with
+the rest of their conduct. They, who in numbers and in intellect formed
+a miserable minority of the French nation, claimed a power which the
+majority had abandoned, and refused to concede to others the toleration
+they themselves enjoyed. Several persons, who had joined their party,
+now quitted it, and returned to the Catholic church; but for exercising
+this undoubted right, they were insulted by the Protestant clergy in the
+grossest manner, with every term of opprobrium and abuse.[146] For those
+who resisted their authority, no treatment was considered too severe. In
+1612, Ferrier, a man of some reputation in his own day, having disobeyed
+their injunctions, was ordered to appear before one of their synods. The
+gist of his offence was, that he had spoken contemptuously of
+ecclesiastical assemblies; and to this there were, of course, added
+those accusations against his moral conduct, with which theologians
+often attempt to blacken the character of their opponents.[147] Readers
+of ecclesiastical history are too familiar with such charges to attach
+any importance to them; but as, in this case, the accused was tried by
+men who were at once his prosecutors, his enemies, and his judges, the
+result was easy to anticipate. In 1613 Ferrier was excommunicated, and
+the excommunication was publicly proclaimed in the church of Nîmes. In
+this sentence, which is still extant, he is declared by the clergy to be
+'a scandalous man, a person incorrigible, impenitent and ungovernable.'
+We, therefore, they add, 'in the name and power of our Lord Jesus
+Christ, by the conduct of the Holy Ghost, and with authority from the
+church, have cast, and do now cast and throw him out of the society of
+the faithful, that he may be delivered up unto Satan.'[148]
+
+  [145] In 1625, Howell writes that the Protestants had put up an
+        inscription on the gates of Montauban, 'Roy sans foy, ville sans
+        peur.' _Howell's Letters_, p. 178.
+
+  [146] Sometimes they were called dogs returning to the vomit of popery;
+        sometimes they were swine wallowing in the mire of idolatry.
+        _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, vol. i. pp. 385, 398.
+
+  [147] It is observable, that on the first occasion (_Quick's Synodicon_,
+        vol. i. p. 362) nothing is said of Ferrier's immorality; and on
+        the next occasion (p. 449) the synod complains, among other
+        things, that 'he hath most licentiously inveighed against, and
+        satirically lampooned, the ecclesiastical assemblies.'
+
+  [148] See this frightful and impious document, in _Quick's Synodicon_,
+        vol. i. pp. 448, 450.
+
+That he may be delivered up unto Satan! This was the penalty which a
+handful of clergymen, in a corner of France, thought they could inflict
+on a man who dared to despise their authority. In our time such an
+anathema would only excite derision;[149] but, early in the seventeenth
+century, the open promulgation of it was enough to ruin any private
+person against whom it might be directed. And they whose studies have
+enabled them to take the measure of the ecclesiastical spirit will
+easily believe that, in that age, the threat did not remain a dead
+letter. The people, inflamed by their clergy, rose against Ferrier,
+attacked his family, destroyed his property, sacked and gutted his
+houses, and demanded with loud cries, that the 'traitor Judas' should be
+given up to them. The unhappy man, with the greatest difficulty,
+effected his escape; but though he saved his life by flying in the dead
+of the night, he was obliged to abandon for ever his native town, as he
+dared not return to a place where he had provoked so active and so
+implacable a party.[150]
+
+  [149] The notion of theologians respecting excommunication may be seen
+        in Mr. Palmer's entertaining book, _Treatise on the Church_, vol.
+        i. pp. 64, 67, vol. ii. pp. 299, 300; but the opinions of this
+        engaging writer should be contrasted with the indignant language
+        of Vattel, _Le Droit des Gens_, vol. i. pp. 177, 178. In England,
+        the terrors of excommunication fell into contempt towards the end
+        of the seventeenth century. See _Life of Archbishop Sharpe_,
+        edited by Newcome, vol. i. p. 216: compare p. 363; and see the
+        mournful remarks of Dr. Mosheim, in his _Eccles. Hist._ vol. ii.
+        p. 79; and _Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs_, pp. 175, 176.
+
+  [150] On the treatment of Ferrier, which excited great attention as
+        indicating the extreme lengths to which the Protestants were
+        prepared to go, see _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 177; _Mém. de
+        Pontchartrain_, vol. ii. pp. 5, 6, 12, 29, 32; _Mém. de Duplessis
+        Mornay_, vol. xii. pp. 317, 333, 341, 350, 389, 399, 430;
+        _Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 235; _Biog.
+        Univ._ vol. xiv. p. 440; _Tallemant des Réaux_, _Historiettes_,
+        vol. v. pp. 48-54. Mr. Smedley, who refers to none of these
+        authorities, except two passages in Duplessis, has given a
+        garbled account of this riot. See his _History of the Reformed
+        Religion in France_, vol. iii. pp. 119, 120.
+
+Into other matters, and even into those connected with the ordinary
+functions of government, the Protestants carried the same spirit.
+Although they formed so small a section of the people, they attempted to
+control the administration of the crown, and, by the use of threats,
+turn all its acts to their own favour. They would not allow the state to
+determine what ecclesiastical councils it should recognize; they would
+not even permit the king to choose his own wife. In 1615, without the
+least pretence of complaint, they assembled in large numbers at Grenoble
+and at Nîmes.[151] The deputies of Grenoble insisted that government
+should refuse to acknowledge the Council of Trent;[152] and both
+assemblies ordered that the Protestants should prevent the marriage of
+Louis XIII. with a Spanish princess.[153] They laid similar claims to
+interfere with the disposal of civil and military offices. Shortly after
+the death of Henry IV., they, in an assembly at Saumur, insisted that
+Sully should be restored to some posts from which, in their opinion, he
+had been unjustly removed.[154] In 1619, another of their assemblies at
+London declared, that as one of the Protestant councillors of the
+Parliament of Paris had become a Catholic, he must be dismissed; and
+they demanded that, for the same reason, the government of Lectoure
+should be taken from Fontrailles, he also having adopted the not
+infrequent example of abandoning his sect in order to adopt a creed
+sanctioned by the state.[155]
+
+  [151] _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 123.
+
+  [152] _Capefigue_, vol. i. p. 123; _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_,
+        vol. i. p. 364; _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii.
+        p. 183; _Mém. de Rohan_, vol. i. p. 130.
+
+  [153] _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 124; _Mém. de Pontchartrain_,
+        vol. ii. p. 100; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. pp.
+        333, 334. The consequence was, that the king was obliged to send
+        a powerful escort to protect his bride against his Protestant
+        subjects. _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 274.
+
+  [154] _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 38; _Benoist_, _Hist. de
+        l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 28, 29, 63.
+
+  [155] _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 450; _Mém. de
+        Bassompierre_, vol. ii. p. 161. See a similar instance, in the
+        case of Berger, in _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol.
+        ii. p. 136, whom the Protestants sought to deprive because 'il
+        avoit quitté leur religion.'
+
+By way of aiding all this, and with the view of exasperating still
+further religious animosities, the principal Protestant clergy put forth
+a series of works, which, for bitterness of feeling, have hardly ever
+been equalled, and which it would certainly be impossible to surpass.
+The intense hatred with which they regarded their Catholic countrymen
+can only be fully estimated by those who have looked into the pamphlets
+written by the French Protestants during the first half of the
+seventeenth century, or who have read the laboured and formal treatises
+of such men as Chamier, Drelincourt, Moulin, Thomson, and Vignier.
+Without, however, pausing on these, it will perhaps be thought
+sufficient if, for the sake of brevity, I follow the mere outline of
+political events. Great numbers of the Protestants had joined in the
+rebellion which, in 1615, was raised by Condé;[156] and, although they
+were then easily defeated, they seemed bent on trying the issue of a
+fresh struggle. In Béarn, where they were unusually numerous,[157] they,
+even during the reign of Henry IV., had refused to tolerate the Catholic
+religion; 'their fanatical clergy,' says the historian of France,
+'declaring that it would be a crime to permit the idolatry of the
+mass.'[158] This charitable maxim they for many years actively enforced,
+seizing the property of the Catholic clergy, and employing it in support
+of their own churches;[159] so that, while in one part of the dominions
+of the king of France the Protestants were allowed to exercise their
+religion, they, in another part of his dominions, prevented the
+Catholics from exercising theirs. It was hardly to be expected that any
+government would suffer such an anomaly as this; and, in 1618, it was
+ordered that the Protestants should restore the plunder, and reinstate
+the Catholics in their former possessions. But the reformed clergy,
+alarmed at so sacrilegious a proposal, appointed a public fast, and
+inspiriting the people to resistance, forced the royal commissioner to
+fly from Pau, where he had arrived in the hope of effecting a peaceful
+adjustment of the claims of the rival parties.[160]
+
+  [156] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. i. p. 381. Sismondi (_Hist.
+        des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 349) says that they had no good
+        reason for this; and it is certain that their privileges, so far
+        from being diminished since the Edict of Nantes, had been
+        confirmed and extended.
+
+  [157] M. Felice (_Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 237) says of
+        Lower Navarre and Béarn, in 1617: 'Three-fourths of the
+        population, some say nine-tenths, belonged to the reformed
+        communion.' This is perhaps overestimated; but we know, from De
+        Thou, that they formed a majority in Béarn in 1566: 'Les
+        Protestans y fussent en plus grand nombre que les Catholiques.'
+        _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. v. p. 187.
+
+  [158] 'Les ministres fanatiques déclaroient qu'ils ne pouvaient sans
+        crime souffrir dans ce pays régénéré l'idolâtrie de la messe.'
+        _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 415.
+
+  [159] _Notice sur les Mémoires de Rohan_, vol. i. p. 26. Compare the
+        account given by Pontchartrain, who was one of the ministers of
+        Louis XIII. _Mém. de Pontchartrain_, vol. ii. pp. 248, 264; and
+        see _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 443.
+
+  [160] _Bazin_, _Hist. de France sous Louis XIII_, vol. ii. pp. 62-64.
+        The pith of the question was, that 'l'édit de Nantes ayant donné
+        pouvoir, tant aux catholiques qu'aux huguenots, de rentrer
+        partout dans leurs biens, les ecclésiastiques de Béarn
+        démanderent aussytôt les leurs.' _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol.
+        i. p. 392.
+
+The rebellion thus raised by the zeal of the Protestants, was soon put
+down; but, according to the confession of Rohan, one of the ablest of
+their leaders, it was the beginning of all their misfortunes.[161] The
+sword had now been drawn; and the only question to be decided was,
+whether France should be governed according to the principles of
+toleration recently established, or according to the maxims of a
+despotic sect, which, while professing to advocate the right of private
+judgment, was acting in a way that rendered all private judgment
+impossible.
+
+  [161] 'L'affaire de Béarn, source de tous nos maux.' _Mém. de Rohan_,
+        vol. i. p. 156; see also p. 183. And the Protestant Le Vassor
+        says (_Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iii. p. 634): 'L'affaire du
+        Béarn et l'assemblée qui se convoqua ensuite à la Rochelle, sont
+        la source véritable des malheurs des églises réformées de France
+        sous le règne dont j'écris l'histoire.'
+
+Scarcely was the war in Béarn brought to an end, when the Protestants
+determined on making a great effort in the west of France.[162] The seat
+of this new struggle was Rochelle, which was one of the strongest
+fortresses in Europe, and was entirely in the hands of the
+Protestants,[163] who had grown wealthy, partly by their own industry
+and partly by following the occupation of public pirates.[164] In this
+city, which they believed to be impregnable,[165] they, in December,
+1620, held a Great Assembly, to which their spiritual chiefs flocked
+from all parts of France. It was soon evident that their party was now
+governed by men who were bent on the most violent measures. Their great
+secular leaders were, as we have already seen, gradually falling off;
+and, by this time, there only remained two of much ability, Rohan and
+Mornay, both of whom saw the inexpediency of their proceedings, and
+desired that the assembly should peaceably separate.[166] But the
+authority of the clergy was irresistible; and, by their prayers and
+exhortations, they easily gained over the ordinary citizens, who were
+then a gross and uneducated body.[167] Under their influence, the
+Assembly adopted a course which rendered civil war inevitable. Their
+first act was an edict, by which they at once confiscated all the
+property belonging to Catholic churches.[168] They then caused a great
+seal to be struck; under the authority of which they ordered that the
+people should be armed, and taxes collected from them for the purpose of
+defending their religion.[169] Finally, they drew up the regulations,
+and organized the establishment of what they called the Reformed
+Churches of France and of Béarn; and, with a view to facilitate the
+exercise of their spiritual jurisdiction, they parcelled out France into
+eight circles, to each of which there was allotted a separate general,
+who, however, was to be accompanied by a clergyman, since the
+administration, in all its parts, was held responsible to that
+ecclesiastical assembly which called it into existence.[170]
+
+  [162] On the connexion between the proceedings of Béarn and those of
+        Rochelle, compare _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. p. 33, with _Mém.
+        de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 113, and _Mém. de Rohan_, vol. i. p.
+        446.
+
+  [163] Their first church was established in 1556 (_Ranke's Civil Wars in
+        France_, vol. i. p. 360); but, by the reign of Charles IX. the
+        majority of the inhabitants were Protestants. See _De Thou_,
+        _Hist. Univ._ vol. iv. p. 263, vol. v. p. 379, ad. ann. 1562 and
+        1567.
+
+  [164] Or, as M. Capefigue courteously puts it, 'les Rochelois ne
+        respectaient pas toujours les pavillons amis.' _Capefigue's
+        Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 332. A delicate circumlocution, unknown to
+        Mezeray who says (_Hist. de France_, vol. iii. p. 426) in 1587:
+        'et les Rochelois, qui par le moyen du commerce et de la
+        _piraterie_,' &c.
+
+  [165] 'Ceste place, que les huguenots tenoient quasy pour imprenable.'
+        _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 512. 'Cette orgueilleuse
+        cité, qui se croyoit imprenable.' _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. p.
+        45. Howell, who visited Rochelle in 1620 and 1622, was greatly
+        struck by its strength. _Howell's Letters_, pp. 46, 47, 108. At
+        p. 204, he calls it, in his barbarous style, 'the chiefest
+        propugnacle of the Protestants there.' For a description of the
+        defences of Rochelle, see _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. vi. pp.
+        615-617; and some details worth consulting in _Mezeray_, _Hist.
+        de France_, vol. ii. pp. 977-980.
+
+  [166] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 139; _Sismondi, Hist.
+        des Français_, vol. xxii. pp. 480, 481. Rohan himself says
+        (_Mém._ vol. i. p. 446): 'je m'efforçai de la séparer.' In a
+        remarkable letter, which Mornay wrote ten years before this, he
+        shows his apprehensions of the evil that would result from the
+        increasing violence of his party; and he advises, 'que nostre
+        zèle soit tempéré de prudence.' _Mém. et Correspond._ vol. xi. p.
+        122; and as to the divisions this caused among the Protestants,
+        see pp. 154, 510, vol. xii. pp. 82, 255; and _Sully_,
+        _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. ix. pp. 350, 435.
+
+  [167] 'Les seigneurs du parti, et surtout le sage Duplessis Mornay,
+        firent ce qu'ils purent pour engager les réformés à ne pas
+        provoquer l'autorité royale pour des causes qui ne pouvoient
+        justifier une guerre civile; mais le pouvoir dans le parti avoit
+        passé presque absolument aux bourgeois des villes et aux
+        ministres qui se livroient aveuglement à leur fanatisme, et à
+        leur orgueil, et qui étoient d'autant plus applaudis qu'ils
+        montroient plus de violence.' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. xxii. p. 478.
+
+  [168] 'On confisqua les biens des églises catholiques.' _Lavallée des
+        Français_, vol. iii. p. 85: and see _Capefigue's Richelieu_,
+        vol. i. p. 258.
+
+  [169] 'Ils donnent des commissions d'armer et de faire des impositions
+        sur le peuple, et ce sous leur grand sceau, qui étoit une
+        Religion appuyée sur une croix, ayant en la main un livre de
+        l'évangile, foulant aux pieds un vieux squelette, qu'ils disoient
+        être l'église romaine.' _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. p. 120. M.
+        Capefigue (_Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 259) says that this seal still
+        exists; but it is not even alluded to by a late writer (_Felice_,
+        _Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 240), who systematically
+        suppresses every fact unfavourable to his own party.
+
+  [170] _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iv. p. 157; _Bazin_,
+        _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 145; _Benoist_, _Hist. de
+        l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 353-355; _Capefigue's Richelieu_,
+        vol. i. p. 258.
+
+Such were the forms and pomp of authority assumed by the spiritual
+leaders of the French Protestants; men by nature destined to obscurity,
+and whose abilities were so despicable, that, notwithstanding their
+temporary importance, they have left no name in history. These
+insignificant priests, who, at the best, were only fit to mount the
+pulpit of a country village, now arrogated to themselves the right of
+ordering the affairs of France, imposing taxes upon Frenchmen,
+confiscating property, raising troops, levying war; and all this for the
+sake of propagating a creed, which was scouted by the country at large
+as a foul and mischievous heresy.
+
+In the face of these inordinate pretensions, it was evident that the
+French government had no choice, except to abdicate its functions, or
+else take arms in its own defence.[171] Whatever may be the popular
+notion respecting the necessary intolerance of the Catholics, it is an
+indisputable fact, that, early in the seventeenth century, they
+displayed in France a spirit of forbearance, and a Christian charity, to
+which the Protestants could make no pretence. During the twenty-two
+years which elapsed between the Edict of Nantes and the Assembly of
+Rochelle, the government, notwithstanding repeated provocations, never
+attacked the Protestants;[172] nor did they make any attempt to destroy
+the privileges of a sect, which they were bound to consider heretical,
+and the extirpation of which had been deemed by their fathers to be one
+of the first duties of a Christian statesman.
+
+  [171] Even Mosheim, who, as a Protestant, was naturally prejudiced in
+        favour of the Huguenots, says, that they had established
+        'imperium in imperio;' and he ascribes to the violence of their
+        rulers the war of 1621. _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 237, 238.
+
+  [172] Compare _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. ii. p. 88, with
+        _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie Française_, vol. ii. p. 351.
+
+The war that now broke out lasted seven years, and was uninterrupted,
+except by the short peace, first of Montpelier, and afterwards of
+Rochelle; neither of which, however, was very strictly preserved. But
+the difference in the views and intentions of the two parties
+corresponded to the difference between the classes which governed them.
+The Protestants, being influenced mainly by the clergy, made their
+object religious domination. The Catholics being led by statesmen, aimed
+at temporal advantages. Thus it was, that circumstances had in France so
+completely obliterated the original tendency of these two great sects,
+that, by a singular metamorphosis, the secular principle was now
+represented by the Catholics, and the theological principle by the
+Protestants. The authority of the clergy, and therefore the interests of
+superstition, were upheld by that very party which owed its origin to
+the diminution of both; they were, on the other hand, attacked by a
+party whose success had hitherto depended on the increase of both. If
+the Catholics triumphed, the ecclesiastical power would be weakened; if
+the Protestants triumphed, it would be strengthened. Of this fact, so
+far as the Protestants are concerned, I have just given ample proof,
+collected from their proceedings, and from the language of their own
+synods. And that the opposite, or secular principle, predominated among
+the Catholics, is evident, not only from their undeviating policy in the
+reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIII., but also from another circumstance
+worthy of note. For, their motives were so obvious, and gave such
+scandal to the church, that the pope, as the great protector of
+religion, thought himself bound to reprehend that disregard of
+theological interests which they displayed, and which he considered to
+be a crying and unpardonable offence. In 1622, only one year after the
+struggle between the Protestants and Catholics had begun, he strongly
+remonstrated with the French government upon the notorious indecency of
+which they were guilty, in carrying on war against heretics, not for the
+purpose of suppressing the heresy, but merely with a view of procuring
+for the state those temporal advantages which, in the opinion of all
+pious men, ought to be regarded as of subordinate importance.[173]
+
+  [173] See the paper of instructions from Pope Gregory XV. in the
+        appendix to _Ranke_, _die Röm. Päpste_, vol. iii. pp. 173, 174:
+        'Die Hauptsache aber ist was er dem Könige von Frankreich
+        vorstellen soll: 1, dass er ja nicht den Verdacht auf sich laden
+        werde als verfolge er die Protestanten bloss aus
+        Staatsinteresse.' Bazin (_Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 320)
+        says, that Richelieu attacked the Huguenots 'sans aucune idée de
+        persécution religieuse.' See, to the same effect, _Capefigue's
+        Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 274; and the candid admissions of the
+        Protestant Le Vassor, in his _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. v.
+        p. 11.
+
+If, at this juncture, the Protestants had carried the day, the loss to
+France would have been immense, perhaps irreparable. For no one, who is
+acquainted with the temper and character of the French Calvinists, can
+doubt, that if they had obtained possession of the government, they
+would have revived those religious persecutions which, so far as their
+power extended, they had already attempted to enforce. Not only in their
+writings, but even in the edicts of their assemblies, we find ample
+proof of that meddling and intolerant spirit which, in every age, has
+characterized ecclesiastical legislation. Indeed, such a spirit is the
+legitimate consequence of the fundamental assumption from which
+theological lawgivers usually start. The clergy are taught to consider
+that their paramount duty is to preserve the purity of the faith, and
+guard it against the invasions of heresy. Whenever, therefore, they rise
+to power, it almost invariably happens, that they carry into politics
+the habits they have contracted in their profession; and having long
+been accustomed to consider religious error as criminal, they now
+naturally attempt to make it penal. And as all the European countries
+have, in the period of their ignorance, been once ruled by the clergy,
+just so do we find in the law-books of every land those traces of their
+power which the progress of knowledge is gradually effacing. We find the
+professors of the dominant creed enacting laws against the professors of
+other creeds: laws sometimes to burn them, sometimes to exile them,
+sometimes to take away their civil rights, sometimes only to take away
+their political rights. These are the different gradations through which
+persecution passes; and by observing which, we may measure, in any
+country, the energy of the ecclesiastical spirit. At the same time, the
+theory by which such measures are supported generally gives rise to
+other measures of a somewhat different, though of an analogous
+character. For, by extending the authority of law to opinions as well as
+to acts, the basis of legislation becomes dangerously enlarged; the
+individuality and independence of each man are invaded; and
+encouragement is given to the enactment of intrusive and vexatious
+regulations, which are supposed to perform for morals the service that
+the other class of laws performs for religion. Under pretence of
+favouring the practice of virtue, and maintaining the purity of society,
+men are troubled in their most ordinary pursuits, in the commonest
+occurrences of life, in their amusements, nay, even in the very dress
+they may be inclined to wear. That this is what has actually been done,
+must be known to whoever has looked into the writings of the fathers,
+into the canons of Christian councils, into the different systems of
+ecclesiastical law, or into the sermons of the earlier clergy. Indeed,
+all this is so natural, that regulations, conceived in the same spirit,
+were drawn up for the government of Geneva by the Calvinist clergy, and
+for the government of England by Archbishop Cranmer and his coadjutors;
+while a tendency, precisely identical, may be observed in the
+legislation of the Puritans, and to give a still later instance, in that
+of the Methodists. It is, therefore, not surprising that, in France, the
+Protestant clergy, having great power among their own party, should
+enforce a similar discipline. Thus, to mention only a few examples,
+they forbade any one to go to a theatre, or even to witness the
+performance of private theatricals.[174] They looked upon dancing as an
+ungodly amusement, and, therefore, they not only strictly prohibited it,
+but they ordered that all dancing-masters should be admonished
+by the spiritual power, and desired to abandon so unchristian a
+profession. If, however, the admonition failed in effecting its
+purpose, the dancing-masters, thus remaining obdurate, were to be
+excommunicated.[175] With the same pious care did the clergy superintend
+other matters equally important. In one of their synods, they ordered
+that all persons should abstain from wearing gay apparel, and should
+arrange their hair with becoming modesty.[176] In another synod, they
+forbade women to paint; and they declared that if, after this
+injunction, any woman persisted in painting, she should not be allowed
+to receive the sacrament.[177] To their own clergy, as the instructors
+and shepherds of the flock, there was paid an attention still more
+scrupulous. The ministers of the Word were permitted to teach Hebrew,
+because Hebrew is a sacred dialect, uncontaminated by profane writers.
+But the Greek language, which contains all the philosophy and nearly all
+the wisdom of antiquity, was to be discouraged, its study laid aside,
+its professorship suppressed.[178] And, in order that the mind might not
+be distracted from spiritual things, the study of chemistry was likewise
+forbidden; such a mere earthly pursuit being incompatible with the
+habits of the sacred profession.[179] Lest, however, in spite of these
+precautions, knowledge should still creep in among the Protestants,
+other measures were taken to prevent even its earliest approach. The
+clergy, entirely forgetting that right of private judgment upon which
+their sect was founded, became so anxious to protect the unwary from
+error, that they forbade any person to print or publish a work without
+the sanction of the church; in other words, without the sanction of the
+clergy themselves.[180] When, by these means, they had destroyed the
+possibility of free inquiry, and, so far as they were able, had put a
+stop to the acquisition of all real knowledge, they proceeded to guard
+against another circumstance to which their measures had given rise.
+For, several of the Protestants, seeing that under such a system, it was
+impossible to educate their families with advantage, sent their children
+to some of those celebrated Catholic colleges, where alone a sound
+education could then be obtained. But the clergy, so soon as they heard
+of this practice, put an end to it, by excommunicating the offending
+parents;[181] and to this there was added an order forbidding them to
+admit into their own private houses any tutor who professed the Catholic
+religion.[182] Such was the way in which the French Protestants were
+watched over and protected by their spiritual masters. Even the minutest
+matters were not beneath the notice of these great legislators. They
+ordered that no person should go to a ball or masquerade;[183] nor ought
+any Christian to look at the tricks of conjurors, or at the famous game
+of goblets, or at the puppet-show; neither was he to be present at
+morris-dances; for all such amusements should be suppressed by the
+magistrates, because they excite curiosity, cause expense, waste
+time.[184] Another thing to be attended to, is the names that are
+bestowed in baptism. A child may have two christian names, though one is
+preferable.[185] Great care, however, is to be observed in their
+selection. They ought to be taken from the Bible, but they ought not to
+be Baptist or Angel; neither should any infant receive a name which has
+been formerly used by the Pagans.[186] When the children are grown up,
+there are other regulations to which they must be subject. The clergy
+declared that the faithful must by no means let their hair grow long,
+lest by so doing they indulge in the luxury of 'lascivious curls.'[187]
+They are to make their garments in such a manner as to avoid 'the
+new-fangled fashions of the world:' they are to have no tassels to their
+dress: their gloves must be without silk and ribbons: they are to
+abstain from fardingales: they are to beware of wide sleeves.[188]
+
+  [174] _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, vol. i. p. 62.
+
+  [175] _Ibid._ vol. i. pp. lvii. 17, 131, vol. ii. p. 174.
+
+  [176] 'And both sexes are required to keep modesty in their hair,' &c.
+        _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 119.
+
+  [177] _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. i. p. 165.
+
+  [178] The synod of Alez, in 1620, says, 'A minister may at the same time
+        be professor in divinity and of the Hebrew tongue. But it is not
+        seemly for him to profess the Greek also, because the most of his
+        employment will be taken up in the exposition of Pagan and
+        profane authors, unless he be discharged from the ministry.'
+        _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. ii. p. 57. Three years later, the synod
+        of Charenton suppressed altogether the Greek professorships, 'as
+        being superfluous and of small profit.' _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 115.
+
+  [179] The synod of St. Maixant, in 1609, orders that 'colloquies and
+        synods shall have a watchful eye over those ministers who study
+        chemistry, and grievously reprove and censure them.' _Ibid._ vol.
+        i. p. 314.
+
+  [180] _Ibid._ vol. i. pp. 140, 194, vol. ii. p. 110.
+
+  [181] _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. i. pp. lv. 235, 419, vol. ii. pp. 201,
+        509, 515. Compare _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii.
+        p. 473.
+
+  [182] _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. ii. p. 81.
+
+  [183] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 174.
+
+  [184] 'All Christian magistrates are advised not in the least to suffer
+        them, because it feeds foolish curiosity, puts upon unnecessary
+        expenses, and wastes time,' _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 194.
+
+  [185] This was a very knotty question for the theologians; but it was at
+        length decided in the affirmative by the synod of Saumur: 'On the
+        13th article of the same chapter, the deputies of Poicton
+        demanded, whether two names might be given a child at baptism? To
+        which it was replied: The thing was indifferent; however, parents
+        were advised to observe herein Christian simplicity.' _Ibid._
+        vol. i. p. 178.
+
+  [186] _Ibid._ vol. i. pp. xlvi. 25.
+
+  [187] I quote the language of the synod of Castres, in 1626. _Ibid._
+        vol. ii. p. 174.
+
+  [188] _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. i. p. 165, vol. ii. pp. 7, 174, 574,
+        583. In the same way, the Spanish clergy, early in the present
+        century, attempted to regulate the dress of women. See _Doblado's
+        Letters from Spain_, pp. 202-205: a good illustration of the
+        identity of the ecclesiastical spirit, whether it be Catholic or
+        Protestant.
+
+Those readers who have not studied the history of ecclesiastical
+legislation, will perhaps be surprised to find, that men of gravity, men
+who had reached the years of discretion, and were assembled together in
+solemn council, should evince such a prying and puerile spirit; that
+they should display such miserable and childish imbecility. But, whoever
+will take a wider survey of human affairs, will be inclined to blame,
+not so much the legislators, as the system of which the legislators
+formed a part. For as to the men themselves, they merely acted after
+their kind. They only followed the traditions in which they were bred.
+By virtue of their profession, they had been accustomed to hold certain
+views, and, when they rose to power, it was natural that they should
+carry those views into effect; thus transplanting into the law-book the
+maxims they had already preached in the pulpit. Whenever, therefore, we
+read of meddling, inquisitive, and vexatious regulations imposed by
+ecclesiastical authority, we should remember, that they are but the
+legitimate result of the ecclesiastical spirit; and that the way to
+remedy such grievances, or to prevent their occurrence, is not by vainly
+labouring to change the tendencies of that class from whence they
+proceed, but rather by confining the class within its proper limits, by
+jealously guarding against its earliest encroachments, by taking every
+opportunity of lessening its influence, and finally, when the progress
+of society will justify so great a step, by depriving it of that
+political and legislative power which, though gradually falling from its
+hands, it is, even in the most civilized countries, still allowed in
+some degree to retain.
+
+But, setting aside these general considerations, it will, at all events,
+be admitted, that I have collected sufficient evidence to indicate what
+would have happened to France, if the Protestants had obtained the upper
+hand. After the facts which I have brought forward, no one can possibly
+doubt, that if such a misfortune had occurred, the liberal, and,
+considering the age, the enlightened policy of Henry IV. and Louis XIII.
+would have been destroyed, in order to make way for that gloomy and
+austere system, which, in every age and in every country, has been found
+to be the natural fruit of ecclesiastical power. To put, therefore, the
+question in its proper form, instead of saying that there was a war
+between hostile creeds, we should rather say that there was a war
+between rival classes. It was a contest, not so much between the
+Catholic religion and the Protestant religion, as between Catholic
+laymen and Protestant clergy. It was a struggle between temporal
+interests and theological interests,--between the spirit of the present
+and the spirit of the past. And the point now at issue was, whether
+France should be governed by the civil power or by the spiritual
+power,--whether she should be ruled according to the large views of
+secular statesmen, or according to the narrow notions of a factious and
+intolerant priesthood.
+
+The Protestants having the great advantage of being the aggressive
+party, and being, moreover, inflamed by a religious zeal unknown to
+their opponents, might, under ordinary circumstances, have succeeded in
+their hazardous attempt; or, at all events, they might have protracted
+the struggle for an indefinite period. But, fortunately for France, in
+1624, only three years after the war began, Richelieu assumed the
+direction of the government. He had for some years been the secret
+adviser of the queen-mother, into whose mind he had always inculcated
+the necessity of complete toleration.[189] When placed at the head of
+affairs, he pursued the same policy, and attempted in every way to
+conciliate the Protestants. The clergy of his own party were constantly
+urging him to exterminate the heretics, whose presence they thought
+polluted France.[190] But Richelieu, having only secular objects,
+refused to embitter the contest by turning it into a religious war. He
+was determined to chastise the rebellion, but he would not punish the
+heresy. Even while the war was raging, he would not revoke those edicts
+of toleration by which the full liberty of religious worship was
+granted to the Protestants. And when they, in 1626, showed signs of
+compunction, or at all events of fear, he publicly confirmed the Edict
+of Nantes,[191] and he granted them peace; although, as he says, he knew
+that by doing so he should fall under the suspicion of those 'who so
+greatly affected the name of zealous Catholics.'[192] A few months
+afterwards, war again broke out; and then it was that Richelieu
+determined on that celebrated siege of Rochelle, which, if brought to a
+successful issue, was sure to be a decisive blow against the French
+Protestants. That he was moved to this hazardous undertaking solely by
+secular considerations is evident, not only from the general spirit of
+his preceding policy, but also from his subsequent conduct. With the
+details of this famous siege history is not concerned, as such matters
+have no value except to military readers. It is enough to say that, in
+1628, Rochelle was taken; and the Protestants, who had been induced by
+their clergy[193] to continue to resist long after relief was hopeless,
+and who, in consequence, had suffered the most dreadful hardships, were
+obliged to surrender at discretion.[194] The privileges of the town were
+revoked, and its magistrates removed; but the great minister by whom
+these things were effected, still abstained from that religious
+persecution to which he was urged.[195] He granted to the Protestants
+the toleration which he had offered at an earlier period, and he
+formally conceded the free exercise of their public worship.[196] But,
+such was their infatuation, that because he likewise restored the
+exercise of the Catholic religion, and thus gave to the conquerors the
+same liberty that he had granted to the conquered, the Protestants
+murmured at the indulgence; they could not bear the idea that their eyes
+should be offended by the performance of Popish rites.[197] And their
+indignation waxed so high, that in the next year they, in another part
+of France, again rose in arms. As, however, they were now stripped of
+their principal resources, they were easily defeated; and, their
+existence as a political faction being destroyed, they were, in
+reference to their religion, treated by Richelieu in the same manner as
+before.[198] To the Protestants generally, he confirmed the privilege of
+preaching and of performing the other ceremonies of their creed.[199] To
+their leader, Rohan, he granted an amnesty, and, a few years afterwards,
+employed him in important public services. After this, the hopes of the
+party were destroyed; they never again rose in arms, nor do we find any
+mention of them until a much later period, when they were barbarously
+persecuted by Louis XIV.[200] But from all such intolerance Richelieu
+sedulously abstained; and having now cleared the land from rebellion, he
+embarked in that vast scheme of foreign policy, of which I have already
+given some account, and in which he clearly showed that his proceedings
+against the Protestants had not been caused by hatred of their religious
+tenets. For, the same party which he attacked at home, he supported
+abroad. He put down the French Protestants, because they were a
+turbulent faction that troubled the state, and wished to suppress the
+exercise of all opinions unfavourable to themselves. But so far from
+carrying on a crusade against their religion, he, as I have already
+observed, encouraged it in other countries; and, though a bishop of the
+Catholic church, he did not hesitate, by treaties, by money, and by
+force of arms, to support the Protestants against the House of Austria,
+maintain the Lutherans against the Emperor of Germany, and uphold the
+Calvinists against the King of Spain.
+
+  [189] On his influence over her in and after 1616, see _Le Vassor_,
+        _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 508; _Mém. de Pontchartrain_,
+        vol. ii. p. 240; _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. p. 23; and compare,
+        in _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. ii. pp. 198-200, the curious
+        arguments which he put in her mouth respecting the impolicy of
+        making war on the Protestants.
+
+  [190] In 1625, the Archbishop of Lyons wrote to Richelieu, urging him
+        'assiéger la Rochelle, et châtier ou, pour mieux dire, exterminer
+        les huguenots, toute autre affaire cessante.' _Bazin_, _Hist. de
+        Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 276. See also, on the anxiety of the
+        clergy in the reign of Louis XIII. to destroy the Protestants,
+        _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. pp. 155, 166,
+        232, 245, 338, 378, 379, 427; _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. xxii. p. 485.
+
+  [191] He confirmed it in March 1626; _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie
+        Française_, vol. ii. p. 399; and also in the preceding January.
+        See _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. appendix,
+        pp. 77, 81.
+
+  [192] 'Ceux qui affectent autant le nom de zélés catholiques.' _Mém. de
+        Richelieu_, vol. iii. p. 16; and at p. 2, he, in the same year
+        (1626), says, that he was opposed by those who had 'un trop
+        ardent et précipité désir de ruiner les huguenots.'
+
+  [193] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 66.
+
+  [194] On the sufferings of the inhabitants, see extract from the Dupuis
+        Mss., in _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 351. Fontenay
+        Mareuil, who was an eye-witness, says, that the besieged, in some
+        instances, ate their own children; and that the burial-grounds
+        were guarded, to prevent the corpses from being dug up and turned
+        into food. _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. ii. p. 119.
+
+  [195] And in which he would most assuredly have been supported by Louis
+        XIII.; of whom an intelligent writer says 'Il étoit plein de
+        piété et de zèle pour le service de Dieu et pour la grandeur de
+        l'église; et sa plus sensible joie, en prenant La Rochelle et les
+        autres places qu'il prit, fut de penser qu'il chasseroit de son
+        royaume les hérétiques, et qu'il le purgeroit par cette voie des
+        différentes religions qui gâtent et infectent l'église de Dieu.'
+        _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. i. p. 425, edit. Petitot, 1824.
+
+  [196] _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 423; _Sismondi_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. p. 77; _Capefigue's Richelieu_,
+        vol. i. p. 357; _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. ii. p. 122.
+
+  [197] 'Les huguenots murmuraient de voir le rétablissement de l'église
+        romaine au sein de leur ville.' _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i.
+        p. 359.
+
+  [198] 'Dès qu'il ne s'agit plus d'un parti politique, il concéda, comme
+        à la Rochelle, la liberté de conscience et la faculté de prêche.'
+        _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 381. Compare _Smedley's Hist.
+        of the Reformed Religion in France_, vol. iii. p. 201, with
+        _Mémoires de Richelieu_, vol. iv. p. 484.
+
+  [199] The Edict of Nismes, in 1629, an important document, will be
+        found in _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. i. pp. xcvi.-ciii., and in
+        _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. appendix, pp.
+        92-98; and a commentary on it in _Bazin_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 36-38. M. Bazin, unfortunately for the reputation
+        of this otherwise valuable work, never quotes his authorities.
+
+  [200] In 1633, their own historian says: 'les Réformez ne faisoient plus
+        de party.' _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p.
+        532. Compare Sir Thomas Hanmer's account of France in 1648, in
+        _Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer_, p. 309, Lond. 1838.
+
+I have thus endeavoured to draw a slight, though, I trust, a clear
+outline, of the events which took place in France during the reign of
+Louis XIII., and particularly during that part of it which included the
+administration of Richelieu. But such occurrences, important as they
+are, only formed a single phase of that larger development which was now
+displaying itself in nearly every branch of the national intellect. They
+were the mere political expression of that bold and sceptical spirit
+which cried havoc to the prejudices and superstitions of men. For, the
+government of Richelieu was successful, as well as progressive; and no
+government can unite these two qualities, unless its measures harmonize
+with the feelings and temper of the age. Such an administration, though
+it facilitates progress, is not the cause of it, but is rather its
+measure and symptom. The cause of the progress lies far deeper, and is
+governed by the general tendency of the time. And as the different
+tendencies observable in successive generations depend on the difference
+in their knowledge, it is evident, that we can only understand the
+working of the tendencies, by taking a wide view of the amount and
+character of the knowledge. To comprehend, therefore, the real nature of
+the great advance made during the reign of Louis XIII., it becomes
+necessary that I should lay before the reader some evidence respecting
+those higher and more important facts, which historians are apt to
+neglect, but without which the study of the past is an idle and trivial
+pursuit, and history itself a barren field, which, bearing no fruit, is
+unworthy of the labour that is wasted on the cultivation of so
+ungrateful a soil.
+
+It is, indeed, a very observable fact, that while Richelieu, with such
+extraordinary boldness, was secularizing the whole system of French
+politics, and by his disregard of ancient interests, was setting at
+naught the most ancient traditions, a course precisely similar was being
+pursued, in a still higher department, by a man greater than he; by one,
+who, if I may express my own opinion, is the most profound among the
+many eminent thinkers France has produced. I speak of Réné Descartes, of
+whom the least that can be said is, that he effected a revolution more
+decisive than has ever been brought about by any other single mind. With
+his mere physical discoveries we are not now concerned, because in this
+Introduction I do not pretend to trace the progress of science, except
+in those epochs which indicate a new turn in the habits of national
+thought. But I may remind the reader, that he was the first who
+successfully applied algebra to geometry;[201] that he pointed out the
+important law of the sines;[202] that in an age in which optical
+instruments were extremely imperfect, he discovered the changes to which
+light is subjected in the eye by the crystalline lens;[203] that he
+directed attention to the consequences resulting from the weight of the
+atmosphere;[204] and that he, moreover, detected the causes of the
+rainbow,[205] that singular phenomenon, with which, in the eyes of the
+vulgar, some theological superstitions are still connected.[206] At the
+same time, and as if to combine the most varied forms of excellence, he
+is not only allowed to be the first geometrician of the age,[207] but
+by the clearness and admirable precision of his style, he became one of
+the founders of French prose.[208] And although he was constantly
+engaged in those lofty inquiries into the nature of the human mind,
+which can never be studied without wonder, I had almost said can never
+be read without awe, he combined with them a long course of laborious
+experiment upon the animal frame, which raised him to the highest rank
+among the anatomists of his time.[209] The great discovery made by
+Harvey of the circulation of the blood, was neglected by most of his
+contemporaries;[210] but it was at once recognized by Descartes, who
+made it the basis of the physiological part of his work on Man.[211] He
+likewise adopted the discovery of the lacteals by Aselli,[212] which,
+like every great truth yet laid before the world, was, at its first
+appearance, not only disbelieved, but covered with ridicule.[213]
+
+  [201] Thomas (_Eloge_, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. p. 32) says,
+        'cet instrument, c'est Descartes qui l'a créé; c'est
+        l'application de l'algèbre à la géométrie.' And this, in the
+        highest sense, is strictly true; for although Vieta and two or
+        three others in the sixteenth century had anticipated this step,
+        we owe entirely to Descartes the magnificent discovery of the
+        possibility of applying algebra to the geometry of curves, he
+        being undoubtedly the first who expressed them by algebraic
+        equations. See _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathémat._ vol. i. pp. 704,
+        705, vol. ii. p. 120, vol. iii. p. 64.
+
+  [202] The statements of Huygens and of Isaac Vossius to the effect that
+        Descartes had seen the papers of Snell before publishing his
+        discovery, are unsupported by any direct evidence; at least none
+        of the historians of science, so far as I am aware, have brought
+        forward any. So strong, however, is the disposition of mankind at
+        large to depreciate great men, and so general is the desire to
+        convict them of plagiarism, that this charge, improbable in
+        itself, and only resting on the testimony of two envious rivals,
+        has been not only revived by modern writers, but has been, even
+        in our own time, spoken of as a well-established and notorious
+        fact! The flimsy basis of this accusation is clearly exposed by
+        M. Bordas Demoulin, in his valuable work _Le Cartesianisme_,
+        Paris, 1843, vol. ii. pp. 9-12; while, on the other side of the
+        question, I refer with regret to _Sir D. Brewster on the Progress
+        of Optics, Second Report of British Association_, pp. 309, 310;
+        and to _Whewell's Hist. of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. ii. pp.
+        379, 502, 503.
+
+  [203] See the interesting remarks of Sprengel (_Hist. de la Médecine_,
+        vol. iv. pp. 271, 272), and _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. iv.
+        pp. 371 seq. What makes this the more observable is this: that
+        the study of the crystalline lens was neglected long after the
+        death of Descartes, and no attempt made for more than a hundred
+        years to complete his views by ascertaining its intimate
+        structure. Indeed, it is said (_Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p.
+        512) that the crystalline lens and the two humours were first
+        analyzed in 1802. Compare _Simon's Animal Chemistry_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 419-421; _Henle_, _Traité d'Anatomie_, vol. i. p. 357;
+        _Lepelletier_, _Physiologie Médicale_, vol. iii. p. 160; _Mayo's
+        Human Physiol._, p. 279; _Blainville_, _Physiol. comparée_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 325-328; none of whom refer to any analysis earlier than
+        the nineteenth century. I notice this partly as a contribution to
+        the history of our knowledge, and partly as proving how slow men
+        have been in following Descartes, and in completing his views;
+        for, as M. Blanville justly observes, the chemical laws of the
+        lens must be understood, before we can exhaustively generalize
+        the optical laws of its refraction; so that, in fact, the
+        researches of Berzelius on the eye are complemental to those of
+        Descartes. The theory of the limitation of the crystalline lens
+        according to the descending scale of the animal kingdom, and the
+        connexion between its development and a general increase of
+        sensuous perception, seem to have been little studied; but Dr.
+        Grant (_Comparative Anatomy_, p. 252) thinks that the lens exists
+        in some of the rotifera; while in regard to its origin, I find a
+        curious statement in _Müller's Physiology_, vol. i. p. 450, that
+        after its removal in mammals, it has been reproduced by its
+        matrix, the capsule. (If this can be relied on, it will tell
+        against the suggestion of Schwann, who supposes, in his
+        _Microscopical Researches_, 1847, pp. 87, 88, that its mode of
+        life is vegetable, and that it is not 'a secretion of its
+        capsule'). As to its probable existence in the hydrozoa, see
+        _Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, 1855, p. 96, 'regarded either as
+        a crystalline lens, or an otolithe;' and as to its embryonic
+        development, see _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 435-438.
+
+  [204] Torricelli first weighed the air in 1643. _Brande's Chemistry_,
+        vol. i. p. 360; _Leslie's Natural Philosophy_, p. 419: but there
+        is a letter from Descartes, written as early as 1631, 'où il
+        explique le phénomène de la suspension du mercure dans un tuyau
+        fermé par en haut, en l'attribuant au poids de la colonne d'air
+        élevée jusqu'au delà des nues.' _Bordas Demoulin_, _le
+        Cartésianisme_, vol. i. p. 311. And Montucla (_Hist. des
+        Mathémat._ vol. ii. p. 205) says of Descartes, 'nous avons des
+        preuves que ce philosophe reconnut avant Torricelli la pesanteur
+        de l'air.' Descartes himself says, that he suggested the
+        subsequent experiment of Pascal. _[OE]uvres de Descartes_,
+        vol. x. pp. 344, 351.
+
+  [205] Dr. Whewell, who has treated Descartes with marked injustice, does
+        nevertheless allow that he is 'the genuine author of the
+        explanation of the rainbow.' _Hist. of the Induc. Sciences_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 380, 384. See also _Boyle's Works_, vol. iii. p. 189;
+        _Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society_, p. 364; _Hallam's Lit. of
+        Europe_, vol. iii. p. 205; _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp.
+        47, 48, vol. v. pp. 265-284. On the theory of the rainbow as
+        known in the present century, see _Kaemtz_, _Course of
+        Meteorology_, pp. 440-445; and _Forbes on Meteorology_, pp.
+        125-130, in _Report of British Association_ for 1840. Compare
+        _Leslie's Natural Philosophy_, p. 531; _Pouillet_, _Elémens de
+        Physique_, vol. ii. p. 788.
+
+  [206] The Hebrew notion of the rainbow is well known; and for the ideas
+        of other nations on this subject, see _Prichard's Physical
+        History of Mankind_, vol. v. pp. 154, 176; _Kame's Sketches of
+        the History of Man_, vol. iv. p. 252, Edinb. 1788; and
+        _Burdache's Physiologie_, vol. v. pp. 546, 547, Paris, 1839.
+
+  [207] Thomas calls him 'le plus grand géomètre de son siècle.'
+        _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. p. 89. Sir W. Hamilton
+        (_Discussions on Philosophy_, p. 271) says, 'the greatest
+        mathematician of the age;' and Montucla can find no one but Plato
+        to compare with him: 'On ne sauroit donner une idée plus juste de
+        ce qu'a été l'époque de Descartes dans la géométrie ancienne....
+        De même enfin que Platon prépara par sa découverte celles des
+        Archimède, des Apollonius, &c., on peut dire que Descartes a
+        jetté les fondemens de celles qui illustrent aujourd'hui les
+        Newton, les Leibnitz, &c.' _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathémat._
+        vol. ii. p. 112.
+
+  [208] 'Descartes joint encore à ses autres titres, celui d'avoir été un
+        des créateurs de notre langue.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xi. p. 154.
+        Sir James Mackintosh (_Dissert. on Ethical Philos._ p. 186) has
+        also noticed the influence of Descartes in forming the style of
+        French writers; and I think that M. Cousin has somewhere made a
+        similar remark.
+
+  [209] Thomas says, 'Descartes eut aussi la gloire d'être un des premiers
+        anatomistes de son siècle.' _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. p.
+        55; see also p. 101. In 1639, Descartes writes to Mersenne
+        (_[OE]uvres_, vol. viii. p. 100) that he had been engaged 'depuis
+        onze ans' in studying comparative anatomy by dissection. Compare
+        p. 174, and vol. i. pp. 175-184.
+
+  [210] Dr. Whewell (_Hist. of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. iii. p. 440)
+        says: 'It was for the most part readily accepted by his
+        countrymen; but that abroad it had to encounter considerable
+        opposition.' For this no authority is quoted; and yet one would
+        be glad to know who told Dr. Whewell that the discovery was
+        readily accepted. So far from meeting in England with ready
+        acceptance, it was during many years most universally denied.
+        Aubrey was assured by Harvey that, in consequence of his book on
+        the Circulation of the Blood, he lost much of his practice, was
+        believed to be crackbrained, and was opposed by 'all the
+        physicians.' _Aubrey's Letters and Lives_, vol. ii. p. 383. Dr.
+        Willis (_Life of Harvey_, p. xli., in _Harvey's Works_, edit.
+        Sydenham Society, 1847) says 'Harvey's views were at first
+        rejected almost universally.' Dr. Elliotson (_Human Physiology_,
+        p. 194) says, 'His immediate reward was general ridicule and
+        abuse, and a great diminution of his practice.' Broussais
+        (_Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. i. p. vii.) says, 'Harvey
+        passa pour fou quand il annonça la découverte de la circulation.'
+        Finally, Sir William Temple, who belongs to the generation
+        subsequent to Harvey, and who, indeed, was not born until some
+        years after the discovery was made, mentions it in his works in
+        such a manner as to show that even then it was not universally
+        received by educated men. See two curious passages, which have
+        escaped the notice of the historians of physiology, in _Works of
+        Sir W. Temple_, vol. iii. pp. 293, 469, 8vo., 1814.
+
+  [211] 'Taken by Descartes as the basis of his physiology, in his work on
+        Man.' _Whewell's Hist. of the Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. p. 441.
+        'Réné Descartes se déclara un des premiers en faveur de la
+        doctrine de la circulation.' _Renourd_, _Hist. de la Médecine_,
+        vol. ii. p. 163. See also _Bordas Demoulin_, _le Cartésianisme_,
+        vol. ii. p. 324; and _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 68,
+        179, vol. iv. pp. 42, 449, vol. ix. pp. 159, 332. Compare
+        _Willis's Life of Harvey_, p. xlv., in _Harvey's Works_.
+
+  [212] 'Les veines blanches, dites lactées, qu'Asellius a découvertes
+        depuis peu dans le mésentère.' _De la Formation du F[oe]tus_,
+        sec. 49, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. iv. p. 483.
+
+  [213] Even Harvey denied it to the last. _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Méd._
+        vol. iv. pp. 203, 204. Compare _Harvey's Works_, edit. Sydenham
+        Soc. pp. 605, 614.
+
+These things might have been sufficient to rescue even the physical
+labours of Descartes from the attacks constantly made on them by men who
+either have not studied his works, or else, having studied them, are
+unable to understand their merit. But the glory of Descartes, and the
+influence he exercised over his age, do not depend even on such claims
+as these. Putting them aside, he is the author of what is emphatically
+called Modern Philosophy.[214] He is the originator of that great
+system and method of metaphysics, which, notwithstanding its errors, has
+the undoubted merit of having given a wonderful impulse to the European
+mind, and communicated to it an activity which has been made available
+for other purposes of a different character. Besides this, and superior
+to it, there is another obligation which we are under to the memory of
+Descartes. He deserves the gratitude of posterity, not so much on
+account of what he built up, as on account of what he pulled down. His
+life was one great and successful warfare against the prejudices and
+traditions of men. He was great as a creator, but he was far greater as
+a destroyer. In this respect he was the true successor of Luther, to
+whose labours his own were the fitting supplement. He completed what the
+great German reformer had left undone.[215] He bore to the old systems
+of philosophy precisely the same relation that Luther bore to the old
+systems of religion. He was the great reformer and liberator of the
+European intellect. To prefer, therefore, even the most successful
+discoverers of physical laws to this great innovator and disturber of
+tradition, is just as if we should prefer knowledge to freedom, and
+believe that science is better than liberty. We must, indeed, always be
+grateful to those eminent thinkers, to whose labours we are indebted for
+that vast body of physical truths which we now possess. But, let us
+reserve the full measure of our homage for those far greater men, who
+have not hesitated to attack and destroy the most inveterate prejudices:
+men who, by removing the pressure of tradition, have purified the very
+source and fountain of our knowledge, and secured its future progress,
+by casting off obstacles in the presence of which progress was
+impossible.[216]
+
+  [214] M. Cousin (_Hist. de la Philos._ II. série, vol. i. p. 39) says of
+        Descartes, 'Son premier ouvrage écrit en français est de 1637.
+        C'est donc de 1637 que date la philosophie moderne.' See the same
+        work, I. série, vol. iii. p. 77; and compare _Stewart's Philos.
+        of the Mind_, vol. i. pp. 14, 529, with _Eloge de Parent_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, Paris, 1766, vol. v. p. 444, and vol.
+        vi. p. 318: 'Cartésien, ou, si l'on veut, philosophe moderne.'
+
+  [215] 'Descartes avait établi dans le domaine de la pensée
+        l'indépendance absolue de la raison; il avait déclaré à la
+        scholastique et à la théologie que l'esprit de l'homme ne pouvait
+        plus relever que de l'évidence qu'il aurait obtenue par lui-même.
+        Ce que Luther avait commencé dans la religion, le génie français
+        si actif et si prompt l'importait dans la philosophie, et l'on
+        peut dire à la double gloire de l'Allemagne et de la France que
+        Descartes est le fils aîné de Luther.' _Lerminier_, _Philos. du
+        Droit_, vol. ii. p. 141. See also, on the philosophy of Descartes
+        as a product of the Reformation. _Ward's Ideal of a Christian
+        Church_, p. 498.
+
+  [216] For, as Turgot finely says, 'ce n'est pas l'erreur qui s'oppose
+        aux progrès de la vérité. Ce sont la mollesse, l'entêtement,
+        l'esprit de routine, tout ce qui porte à l'inaction,' _Pensées_
+        in _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ii. p. 343.
+
+It will not be expected, perhaps it will hardly be desired, that I
+should enter into a complete detail of the philosophy of Descartes: a
+philosophy which, in England at least, is rarely studied, and therefore,
+is often attacked. But it will be necessary to give such an account of
+it as will show its analogy with the anti-theological policy of
+Richelieu, and will thus enable us to see the full extent of that vast
+movement which took place in France before the accession of Louis XIV.
+By this means, we shall be able to understand how the daring innovations
+of the great minister were so successful, since they were accompanied
+and reinforced by corresponding innovations in the national intellect;
+thus affording an additional instance of the way in which the political
+history of every country is to be explained by the history of its
+intellectual progress.
+
+In 1637, when Richelieu was at the height of his power, Descartes
+published that great work which he had long been meditating, and which
+was the first open announcement of the new tendencies of the French
+mind. To this work he gave the name of a 'Method;' and, assuredly, the
+method is the most alien to what is commonly called theology that can
+possibly be conceived. Indeed, so far from being theological, it is
+essentially and exclusively psychological. The theological method rests
+on ancient records, on tradition, on the voice of antiquity. The method
+of Descartes rests solely on the consciousness each man has of the
+operations of his own mind, and lest anyone should mistake the meaning
+of this, he, in subsequent works, developed it at great length, and with
+unrivalled clearness. For his main object was to popularize the views
+which he put forward. Therefore, says Descartes, 'I write in French
+rather than in Latin, because I trust that they who only employ their
+simple and native reason will estimate my opinions more fairly than they
+who only believe in ancient books.'[217] So strongly does he insist upon
+this, that, almost at the beginning of his first work, he cautions his
+readers against the common error of looking to antiquity for knowledge;
+and he reminds them that 'when men are too curious to know the practices
+of past ages, they generally remain very ignorant of their own.'[218]
+
+  [217] 'Et si j'écris en français, qui est la langue de mon pays, plutôt
+        qu'en latin, qui est celle de mes précepteurs, c'est à cause que
+        j'espère que ceux qui ne se servent que de leur raison naturelle
+        toute pure, jugeront mieux de mes opinions que ceux qui ne
+        croient qu'aux livres anciens.' _Discours de la Méthode_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 210, 211.
+
+  [218] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 127.
+
+Indeed, so far from following the old plan of searching for truths in
+the records of the past, the great essential of this new philosophy is
+to wean ourselves from all such associations, and, beginning the
+acquisition of knowledge by the work of destruction, first pull down, in
+order that afterwards we may build up.[219] When I, says Descartes, set
+forth in the pursuit of truth, I found that the best way was to reject
+every thing I had hitherto received, and pluck out all my old opinions,
+in order that I might lay the foundation of them afresh: believing that,
+by this means, I should more easily accomplish the great scheme of life,
+than by building on an old basis, and supporting myself by principles
+which I had learned in my youth, without examining if they were really
+true.[220] 'I, therefore, will occupy myself freely and earnestly in
+effecting a general destruction of all my old opinions.'[221] For, if we
+would know all the truths that can be known, we must, in the first
+place, free ourselves from our prejudices, and make a point of
+rejecting those things which we have received, until we have subjected
+them to a new examination.[222] We, therefore, must derive our opinions,
+not from tradition, but from ourselves. We must not pass judgment upon
+any subject which we do not clearly and distinctly understand; for, even
+if such a judgment is correct, it can only be so by accident, not having
+solid ground on which to support itself.[223] But, so far are we from
+this state of indifference, that our memory is full of prejudices:[224]
+we pay attention to words rather than to things;[225] and being thus
+slaves to form, there are too many of us 'who believe themselves
+religious, when, in fact, they are bigoted and superstitious; who think
+themselves perfect because they go much to church, because they often
+repeat prayers, because they wear short hair, because they fast, because
+they give alms. These are the men who imagine themselves such friends of
+God, that nothing they do displeases Him; men who, under pretence of
+zeal, gratify their passions by committing the greatest crimes, such as
+betraying towns, killing princes, exterminating nations: and all this
+they do to those who will not change their opinions.'[226]
+
+  [219] 'Er fing also vom Zweifel an, und ging durch denselben zur
+        Gewissheit über.' _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. x. p.
+        218. Compare _Second Discours en Sorbonne_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Turgot_, vol. ii. p. 89.
+
+  [220] _Disc. de la Méthode_, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i.
+        p. 136.
+
+  [221] 'Je m'appliquerai sérieusement et avec liberté à détruire
+        généralement toutes mes anciennes opinions.' _Méditations_ in
+        _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. p. 236.
+
+  [222] _Principes de la Philosophie_, part i. sec. 75, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Descartes_, vol. iii. pp. 117, 118; and compare vol. ii. p. 417,
+        where he gives a striking illustration of this view.
+
+  [223] _Méditations_, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 303, 304.
+
+  [224] 'Nous avons rempli notre mémoire de beaucoup de préjugés.'
+        _Principes de la Philos._ part i. sec. 47, in _[OE]uvres_,
+        vol. iii. p. 91.
+
+  [225] _[OE]uvres_, vol. iii. p. 117.
+
+  [226] 'Ce qu'on peut particulièrement remarquer en ceux qui, croyant
+        être dévots, sont seulement bigots et superstitieux, c'est à dire
+        qui, sous ombre qu'ils vont souvent à l'église, qu'ils récitent
+        force prières, qu'ils portent les cheveux courts, qu'ils jeûnent,
+        qu'ils donnent l'aumône, pensent être entièrement parfaits, et
+        s'imaginent qu'ils sont si grands amis de Dieu, qu'ils ne
+        sauroient rien faire qui lui déplaise, et que tout ce que leur
+        dicte leur passion est un bon zèle, bien qu'elle leur dicte
+        quelquefois les plus grands crimes qui puissent être commis par
+        des hommes, comme de trahir des villes, de tuer des princes,
+        d'exterminer des peuples entiers, pour cela seul qu'ils ne
+        suivent pas leurs opinions.' _Les Passions de l'Ame_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. iv. pp. 194, 195.
+
+These were the words of wisdom which this great teacher addressed to his
+countrymen only a few years after they had brought to a close the last
+religious war that has ever been waged in France. The similarity of
+those views to those which, about the same time, were put forth by
+Chillingworth, must strike every reader, but ought not to excite
+surprise; for they were but the natural products of a state of society
+in which the right of private judgment, and the independence of the
+human reason, were first solidly established. If we examine this matter
+a little closer, we shall find still further proof of the analogy
+between France and England. So identical are the steps of the progress,
+that the relation which Montaigne bears to Descartes is just the same as
+that which Hooker bears to Chillingworth; the same in reference to the
+difference of time, and also in reference to the difference of opinions.
+The mind of Hooker was essentially sceptical; but his genius was so
+restrained by the prejudices of his age, that, unable to discern the
+supreme authority of private judgment, he hampered it by appeals to
+councils and to the general voice of ecclesiastical antiquity:
+impediments which Chillingworth, thirty years later, effectually
+removed. In precisely the same way, Montaigne, like Hooker, was
+sceptical; but, like him, he lived at a period when the spirit of doubt
+was yet young, and when the mind still trembled before the authority of
+the Church. It is, therefore, no wonder that even Montaigne, who did so
+much for his age, should have hesitated respecting the capacity of men
+to work out for themselves great truths; and that, pausing in the course
+that lay before him, his scepticism should often have assumed the form
+of a distrust of the human faculties.[227] Such shortcomings, and such
+imperfections, are merely an evidence of the slow growth of society, and
+of the impossibility for even the greatest thinkers to outstrip their
+contemporaries beyond a certain point. But, with the advance of
+knowledge, this deficiency was at length supplied; and, as the
+generation after Hooker brought forth Chillingworth, just so did the
+generation after Montaigne bring forth Descartes. Both Chillingworth and
+Descartes were eminently sceptical; but their scepticism was directed,
+not against the human intellect, but against those appeals to authority
+and tradition without which it had hitherto been supposed that the
+intellect could not safely proceed. That this was the case with
+Chillingworth, we have already seen. That it was likewise the case with
+Descartes, is, if possible, still more apparent; for that profound
+thinker believed, not only that the mind, by its own efforts, could root
+out its most ancient opinions, but that it could, without fresh aid,
+build up a new and solid system in place of the one which it had thrown
+down.[228]
+
+  [227] As is particularly evident in his long chapter, headed 'Apologie
+        de Raimond Sebond.' _Essais de Montaigne_, livre ii. chap. xii.
+        Paris, 1843, pp. 270-382, and see _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der
+        Philos._ vol. ix. p. 455.
+
+  [228] He very clearly separates himself from men like Montaigne: 'Non
+        que j'imitasse pour cela les sceptiques, qui ne doutent que pour
+        douter, et affectent d'être toujours irrésolus; car, au
+        contraire, tout mon dessein ne tendoit qu'à m'assurer, et à
+        rejeter la terre mouvante et le sable pour trouver le roc ou
+        l'argile.' _Discours de la Méthode_, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_,
+        vol. i. pp. 153, 154.
+
+It is this extraordinary confidence in the power of the human intellect,
+which eminently characterizes Descartes, and has given to his philosophy
+that peculiar sublimity which distinguishes it from all other systems.
+So far from thinking that a knowledge of the external world is essential
+to the discovery of truth, he laid it down as a fundamental principle,
+that we must begin by ignoring such knowledge;[229] that the first step
+is to separate ourselves from the delusions of nature, and reject the
+evidence presented to our senses.[230] For, says Descartes, nothing is
+certain but thought; nor are there any truths except those which
+necessarily follow from the operation of our own consciousness. We have
+no knowledge of our soul except as a thinking substance:[231] and it
+were easier for us to believe that the soul should cease to exist, than
+that it should cease to think.[232] And, as to man himself, what is he
+but the incarnation of thought? For that which constitutes the man, is
+not his bones, nor his flesh, nor his blood. These are the accidents,
+the incumbrances, the impediments of his nature. But the man himself is
+the thought. The invisible me, the ultimate fact of existence, the
+mystery of life, is this: 'I am a thing that thinks.' This, therefore,
+is the beginning and the basis of our knowledge. The thought of each man
+is the last element to which analysis can carry us; it is the supreme
+judge of every doubt; it is the starting-point for all wisdom.[233]
+
+  [229] According to the view of Descartes, it was to be ignored, not
+        denied. There is no instance to be found in his works of a denial
+        of the existence of the external world; nor does the passage
+        quoted from him by Mr. Jobert (_New System of Philos._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 161, 162, Lond. 1849) at all justify the interpretation of
+        that ingenious writer, who confuses certainty in the ordinary
+        sense of the word with certainty in the Cartesian sense. A
+        similar error is made by those who suppose that his 'Je pense,
+        donc je suis,' is an enthymeme; and having taken this for
+        granted, they turn on the great philosopher, and accuse him of
+        begging the question! Such critics overlook the difference
+        between a logical process and a psychological one; and therefore
+        they do not see that this famous sentence was the description of
+        a mental fact, and not the statement of a mutilated syllogism.
+        The student of the philosophy of Descartes must always
+        distinguish between these two processes, and remember that each
+        process has an order of proof peculiar to itself; or at all
+        events he must remember that such was the opinion of Descartes.
+        Compare, on the Cartesian enthymeme, _Cousin_, _Hist. de la
+        Philos._ I. série, vol. iv. pp. 512, 513, with a note in _Kritik
+        der reinen Vernunft, Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 323, 324.
+
+  [230] _Méditations_, in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 220, 226;
+        and again in the _Objections et Réponses_, _[OE]uvres_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 245, 246.
+
+  [231] 'Au lieu que, lorsque nous tâchons à connoître plus distinctement
+        notre nature, nous pouvons voir que notre âme, en tant qu'elle
+        est une substance distincte du corps, ne nous est connue que par
+        cela seul qu'elle pense.' _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. iv. p.
+        432. Compare vol. iii. p. 96, _Principes de la Philosophie_, part
+        i. sec. 53.
+
+  [232] 'En sorte qu'il me seroit bien plus aisé de croire que l'âme
+        cesseroit d'être quand on dit qu'elle cesse de penser, que non
+        pas de concevoir qu'elle soit sans pensée.' _[OE]uvres de
+        Descartes_, vol. viii. p. 574. That 'the soul always thinks,' is
+        a conclusion also arrived at by Berkeley by a different process.
+        See his subtle argument, _Principles of Human Knowledge_, part i.
+        sec. 98, in _Berkeley's Works_, vol. i. p. 123; and for a curious
+        application of this to the theory of dreaming, see _Burdach_,
+        _Physiologie comme Science d'Observation_, vol. v. pp. 205, 230.
+
+  [233] _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 251, 252, 279, 293, vol. ii.
+        pp. 252, 283.
+
+Taking our stand on this ground, we rise, says Descartes, to the
+perception of the existence of the Deity. For, our belief in His
+existence is an irrefragable proof that He exists. Otherwise, whence
+does the belief arise? Since nothing can come out of nothing, and since
+no effect can be without a cause, it follows that the idea we have of
+God must have an origin; and this origin, whatever name we give it, is
+no other than God.[234] Thus, the ultimate proof of His existence is our
+idea of it. Instead, therefore, of saying that we know ourselves because
+we believe in God, we should rather say that we believe in God because
+we know ourselves.[235] This is the order and precedence of things. The
+thought of each man is sufficient to prove His existence, and it is the
+only proof we can ever possess. Such, therefore, is the dignity and
+supremacy of the human intellect, that even this, the highest of all
+matters, flows from it, as from its sole source.[236] Hence, our
+religion should not be acquired by the teaching of others, but should be
+worked out by ourselves: it is not to be borrowed from antiquity, but it
+is to be discovered by each man's mind; it is not traditional, but
+personal. It is because this great truth has been neglected, that
+impiety has arisen. If each man were to content himself with that idea
+of God which is suggested by his own mind, he would attain to a true
+knowledge of the Divine Nature. But when, instead of confining himself
+to this, he mixes up with it the notions of others, his ideas become
+perplexed; they contradict themselves; and the composition being thus
+confused, he often ends by denying the existence, not, indeed, of God,
+but of such a God as that in whom he has been taught to believe.[237]
+
+  [234] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 419; and at p. 420: 'Or de tout cela on conclut
+        très-manifestement que Dieu existe.' See also pp. 159-162, 280,
+        290, 291. But the simplest statement is in a letter to Mersenne
+        (vol. viii. p. 529): 'J'ai tiré la preuve de l'existence de Dieu
+        de l'idée que je trouve en moi d'un être souverainement parfait.'
+
+  [235] 'Ainsi, quoique, de ce que je suis, je conclue avec certitude que
+        Dieu est, je ne puis réciproquement affirmer, de ce que Dieu est,
+        que j'existe.' _Règles pour la Direction de l'Esprit_, in
+        _[OE]uvres_, vol. xi. p. 274. See also _Principes de la
+        Philosophie_, part i. sec. 7, vol. iii. p. 66.
+
+  [236] On this famous argument, which it is said was also broached by
+        Anselm, see _King's Life of Locke_, vol. ii. p. 133; the
+        Benedictine _Hist. Lit. de la France_, vol. ix. pp. 417, 418;
+        _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. p. 239; and _Cudworth's
+        Intellect. Syst._ vol. iii. p. 383.
+
+ [237] 'Et certes jamais les hommes ne pourroient s'éloigner de la vraie
+        connoissance de cette nature divine, s'ils vouloient seulement
+        porter leur attention sur l'idée qu'ils ont de l'être
+        souverainement parfait. Mais ceux qui mêlent quelques autres
+        idées avec celle-là composent par ce moyen un dieu chimérique, en
+        la nature duquel il y a des choses qui se contrarient; et, après
+        l'avoir ainsi composé, ce n'est pas merveille s'ils nient qu'un
+        tel dieu, qui leur est représenté par une fausse idée, existe.'
+        _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. pp. 423, 424.
+
+The mischief which these principles must have done to the old theology
+is very obvious.[238] Not only were they fatal, in the minds of those
+who received them, to many of the common dogmas--such, for instance, as
+that of transubstantiation,[239]--but they were likewise directly
+opposed to other opinions, equally indefensible, and far more dangerous.
+For Descartes, by founding a philosophy which rejected all authority
+except that of the human reason,[240] was, of course, led to abandon
+the study of final causes,[241]--an old and natural superstition, by
+which, as we shall hereafter see, the German philosophers were long
+impeded, and which still hangs, though somewhat loosely, about the minds
+of men.[242] At the same time, by superseding the geometry of the
+ancients, he aided in weakening that inordinate respect with which
+antiquity was then regarded. In another matter, still more important, he
+displayed the same spirit, and met with the same success. With such
+energy did he attack the influence, or rather the tyranny of Aristotle,
+that although the opinions of that philosopher were intimately
+interwoven with the Christian theology,[243] his authority was entirely
+overthrown by Descartes; and with it there perished those scholastic
+prejudices, for which Aristotle, indeed, was not responsible, but which,
+under the shelter of his mighty name, had, during several centuries,
+perplexed the understandings of men, and retarded the progress of their
+knowledge.[244]
+
+  [238] This is delicately but clearly indicated in an able letter from
+        Arnaud, printed in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. ii. pp. 1-36:
+        see in particular pp. 31, 34. And Duclos bluntly says: 'Si,
+        depuis la révolution que Descartes a commencée, les théologiens
+        se sont éloignés des philosophes, c'est que ceux-ci ont paru ne
+        pas respecter infiniment les théologiens. Une philosophie qui
+        prenoit pour base le doute et l'examen devoit les effaroucher.'
+        _Duclos_, _Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 109.
+
+  [239] On the relation of the Cartesian philosophy to the doctrine of
+        transubstantiation, compare _Palmer's Treatise on the Church_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 169, 170, with _Hallam's Lit. of Europe_, vol. ii.
+        p. 453; and the remark ascribed to Hobbes, in _Aubrey's Letters
+        and Lives_, vol. ii. p. 626. But Hobbes, if he really made this
+        observation, had no right to expect Descartes to become a martyr.
+
+  [240] 'Le caractère de la philosophie du moyen âge est la soumission à
+        une autorité autre que la raison. La philosophie moderne ne
+        reconnaît que l'autorité de la raison. C'est le cartésianisme qui
+        a opéré cette révolution décisive.' _Cousin_, _Hist. de la
+        Philos._ II. série, vol. i. pp. 258, 259.
+
+  [241] 'Nous rejetterons entièrement de notre philosophie la recherche
+        des causes finales.' _Principes de la Philos._, part i. sec. 28,
+        in _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. iii. p. 81. See also part iii.
+        sec. 3, p. 182; and his reply to Gassendi, in _[OE]uvres_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 280, 281. Compare _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_,
+        II. série, vol. ii. p. 71, with _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. v. p. 203.
+
+  [242] Dr. Whewell, for instance, says, that we must reject final causes
+        in the inorganic sciences, but must recognize them in the organic
+        ones; which, in other words, simply means, that we know less of
+        the organic world than of the inorganic, and that because we know
+        less, we are to believe more; for here, as everywhere else, the
+        smaller the science the greater the superstition. _Whewell's
+        Philos. of the Inductive Sciences_, 8vo., 1847, vol. i. pp. 620,
+        627, 628; and his _Hist. of the Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. pp.
+        430, 431. If the question were to be decided by authority, it
+        would be enough to appeal to Bacon and Descartes, the two
+        greatest writers on the philosophy of method in the seventeenth
+        century; and to Auguste Comte, who is admitted by the few persons
+        who have mastered his _Philosophie Positive_, to be the greatest
+        in our own time. These profound and comprehensive thinkers have
+        all rejected the study of final causes, which, as they have
+        clearly seen, is a theological invasion of scientific rights. On
+        the injury which this study has wrought, and on the check it has
+        given to the advance of our knowledge, see _Robin et Verdeil_,
+        _Chimie Anat._ Paris, 1853, vol. i. pp. 489, 493, 494, vol. ii.
+        p. 555; _Renouard_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. i. pp. 232, 237;
+        _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 220; _Geoffroy
+        Saint-Hilaire_, _Hist. des Anomalies de l'Organisation_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 435, 436; _Herder_, _Ideen zur Gesch. der Menschheit_,
+        vol. iii. p. 270; _Lawrence's Lectures on Man_, p. 36; and
+        _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. i. p. 190.
+
+  [243] 'Auf das innigste verbunden mit der Theologie, nicht allein in den
+        katholischen, sondern selbst auch in den protestantischen
+        Ländern.' _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. ix. p. 516.
+        Descartes, in a letter to Mersenne (_[OE]uvres_, vol. vi. p. 73),
+        writes, in 1629, 'La théologie, laquelle on a tellement
+        assujettie à Aristote, qu'il est impossible d'expliquer une autre
+        philosophie qu'il ne semble d'abord qu'elle soit contre la foi.'
+        Compare vol. vii. p. 344, vol. viii. pp. 281, 497.
+
+  [244] Dr. Brown (_Philosophy of the Mind_, Edinburgh, 1838, p. 172)
+        calls Descartes 'that illustrious rebel, who, in overthrowing the
+        authority of Aristotle,' &c. See also _Duvernet_, _Hist. de la
+        Sorbonne_, vol. ii. p. 192; _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part
+        ii. p. 532; and _Locke's Works_, vol. iii. p. 48. This, I need
+        hardly say, refers to the habit of appealing to Aristotle, as if
+        he were infallible, and is very different from that respect which
+        is naturally felt for a man who was probably the greatest of all
+        the ancient thinkers. The difference between the Aristotelian and
+        Cartesian systems is touched on rather hastily in _Cudworth's
+        Intellect. Syst._ vol. i. pp. 170, 171.
+
+These were the principal services rendered to civilization by one of the
+greatest men Europe has ever produced. The analogy between him and
+Richelieu is very striking, and is as complete as their relative
+positions would allow. The same disregard of ancient notions, the same
+contempt for theological interests, the same indifference to tradition,
+the same determination to prefer the present to the past: in a word, the
+same essentially modern spirit, is seen alike in the writings of
+Descartes, and in the actions of Richelieu. What the first was to
+philosophy, that was the other to politics. But, while acknowledging the
+merits of these eminent men, it behoves us to remember that their
+success was the result, not only of their own abilities, but likewise of
+the general temper of their time. The nature of their labours depended
+on themselves; the way in which their labours were received, depended on
+their contemporaries. Had they lived in a more superstitious age, their
+views would have been disregarded, or, if noticed, would have been
+execrated as impious novelties. In the fifteenth, or early in the
+sixteenth century, the genius of Descartes and of Richelieu would have
+lacked the materials necessary to their work; their comprehensive minds
+would, in that state of society, have found no play; they would have
+awakened no sympathies; their bread would have been cast upon those
+waters which return it not again. And it would have been well for them
+if, in such a case, indifference were the only penalty with which they
+would be visited. It would have been well if they had not paid the
+forfeit incurred by many of those illustrious thinkers who have vainly
+attempted to stem the torrent of human credulity. It would have been
+well if the church had not risen in her wrath--if Richelieu had not been
+executed as a traitor, and Descartes burned as a heretic.
+
+Indeed, the mere fact that two such men, occupying so conspicuous a
+place before the public eye, and enforcing views so obnoxious to the
+interests of superstition, should have lived without serious danger, and
+then have died peaceably in their beds--the mere fact that this should
+have happened, is a decisive proof of the progress which, during fifty
+years, had been made by the French nation. With such rapidity were the
+prejudices of that great people dying away, that opinions utterly
+subversive of theological traditions, and fatal to the whole scheme of
+ecclesiastical power, were with impunity advocated by Descartes, and put
+in practice by Richelieu. It was now clearly seen, that the two foremost
+men of their time could, with little or no risk, openly propagate ideas
+which, half a century before, it would have been accounted dangerous
+even for the most obscure man to whisper in the privacy of his own
+chamber.
+
+Nor are the causes of this impunity difficult to understand. They are to
+be found in the diffusion of that sceptical spirit, by which, in France
+as well as in England, toleration was preceded. For, without entering
+into details which would be too long for the limits of this
+Introduction, it is enough to say, that French literature generally was,
+at this period, distinguished by a freedom and a boldness of inquiry,
+of which, England alone excepted, no example had then been seen in
+Europe. The generation which had listened to the teachings of Montaigne
+and of Charron, was now succeeded by another generation, the disciples,
+indeed, of those eminent men, but disciples who far outstripped their
+masters. The result was, that, during the thirty or forty years which
+preceded the power of Louis XIV.,[245] there was not to be found a
+single Frenchman of note who did not share in the general feeling--not
+one who did not attack some ancient dogma, or sap the foundation of some
+old opinion. This fearless temper was the characteristic of the ablest
+writers of that time;[246] but what is still more observable is, that
+the movement spread with such rapidity as to include in its action even
+those parts of society which are invariably the last to be affected by
+it. That spirit of doubt, which is the necessary precursor of all
+inquiry, and therefore of all solid improvement, owes its origin to the
+most thinking and intellectual parts of society, and is naturally
+opposed by the other parts: opposed by the nobles, because it is
+dangerous to their interests; opposed by the uneducated, because it
+attacks their prejudices. This is one of the reasons why neither the
+highest nor the lowest ranks are fit to conduct the government of a
+civilized country; since both of them, notwithstanding individual
+exceptions, are, in the aggregate, averse to those reforms which the
+exigencies of an advancing nation constantly require. But, in France,
+before the middle of the seventeenth century, even these classes began
+to participate in the great progress; so that, not only among thoughtful
+men, but likewise among the ignorant and the frivolous, there was seen
+that inquisitive and incredulous disposition, which, whatever may be
+said against it, has at least this peculiarity, that, in its absence,
+there is no instance to be found of the establishment of those
+principles of toleration and of liberty, which have only been recognized
+with infinite difficulty, and after many a hard-fought battle against
+prejudices whose inveterate tenacity might almost cause them to be
+deemed a part of the original constitution of the human mind.[247]
+
+  [245] That is in 1661, when Louis XIV. first assumed the government.
+
+  [246] M. Barante (_Tableau de la Littérature Française_, pp. 26, 27)
+        notices 'cette indépendance dans les idées, ce jugement audacieux
+        de toutes choses, qu'on remarque dans Corneille, dans Mézéray,
+        dans Balzac, dans Saint-Réal, dans Lamothe-Levayer.' To these may
+        be added Naudé, Patin, and probably Gassendi. Compare _Hallam's
+        Literat. of Europe_, vol. ii. pp. 364, 365, with _Mackintosh's
+        Ethical Philos._ p. 116, and _Lettres de Patin_, vol. i. p. 297,
+        vol. ii. pp. 33, 186, 191, 242, 342, 498, 508, vol. iii. p. 87.
+
+  [247] The increase of incredulity was so remarkable, as to give rise to
+        a ridiculous assertion, 'qu'il y avoit plus de 50,000 athées dans
+        Paris vers l'an 1623.' _Baillet_, _Jugemens des Savans_, Paris,
+        1722, 4to. vol. i. p. 185. Baillet has no difficulty in rejecting
+        this preposterous statement (which is also noticed in
+        _Coleridge's Literary Remains_, vol. i. p. 305; where, however,
+        there is apparently a confusion between two different periods);
+        but the spread of scepticism among the upper ranks and courtiers,
+        during the reign of Louis XIII. and the minority of Louis XIV.,
+        is attested by a great variety of evidence. See _Mém. de Madame
+        de Motteville_, vol. iii. p. 52; _Mém. de Retz_, vol. i. p. 266;
+        _Conrart_, _Mém._ p. 235 note; _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol.
+        vii. p. 143; _Mém. de Brienne_, vol. ii. p. 107 note.
+
+It is no wonder if, under these circumstances, the speculations of
+Descartes and the actions of Richelieu should have met with great
+success. The system of Descartes exercised immense influence, and soon
+pervaded nearly every branch of knowledge.[248] The policy of Richelieu
+was so firmly established, that it was continued without the slightest
+difficulty by his immediate successor: nor was any attempt made to
+reverse it until that forcible and artificial reaction which, under
+Louis XIV., was fatal, for a time, to every sort of civil and religious
+liberty. The history of that reaction, and the way in which, by a
+counter-reaction, the French Revolution was prepared, will be related in
+the subsequent chapters of this volume; at present we will resume the
+thread of those events which took place in France before Louis XIV.
+assumed the government.
+
+  [248] Volumes might be written on the influence of Descartes, which was
+        seen, not only in subjects immediately connected with his
+        philosophy, but even in those apparently remote from it. Compare
+        _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. ii. pp. 55
+        seq.; _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 153; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de
+        la Médecine_, vol. iv. p. 238; _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_,
+        part ii. pp. 327, 332, 352, 363; _Stäudlin_, _Geschichte der
+        theologischen Wissenschaften_, vol. i. p. 263; _Tennemann_,
+        _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. x. pp. 285 seq.; _Huetius de Rebus ad
+        eum pertinentibus_, pp. 35, 295, 296, 385-389; _Mosheim's Eccles.
+        Hist._ vol. ii. p. 258; _Dacier_, _Rapport Historique_, p. 334;
+        _Leslie's Nat. Philos._ p. 121; _Eloges_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Fontenelle_, Paris, 1766, vol. v. pp. 94, 106, 137, 197, 234,
+        392, vol. vi. pp. 157, 318, 449; _Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry_,
+        vol. i. p. 195; _Quérard_, _France Lit._ vol. iii. p. 273.
+
+A few months after the death of Richelieu, Louis XIII. also died, and
+the crown was inherited by Louis XIV., who was then a child, and who for
+many years had no influence in public affairs. During his minority, the
+government was administered, avowedly by his mother, but in reality by
+Mazarin: a man who, though in every point inferior to Richelieu, had
+imbibed something of his spirit, and who, so far as he was able, adopted
+the policy of that great statesman, to whom he owed his promotion.[249]
+He, influenced partly by the example of his predecessor, partly by his
+own character, and partly by the spirit of his age, showed no desire to
+persecute the Protestants, or to disturb them in any of the rights they
+then exercised.[250] His first act was to confirm the Edict of
+Nantes;[251] and, towards the close of his life, he even allowed the
+Protestants again to hold those synods which their own violence had
+been the means of interrupting.[252] Between the death of Richelieu and
+the accession to power of Louis XIV., there elapsed a period of nearly
+twenty years, during which Mazarin, with the exception of a few
+intervals, was at the head of the state; and in the whole of that time,
+I have found no instance of any Frenchman being punished for his
+religion. Indeed, the new government, so far from protecting the church
+by repressing heresy, displayed that indifference to ecclesiastical
+interests which was now becoming a settled maxim of French policy.
+Richelieu, as we have already seen, had taken the bold step of placing
+Protestants at the head of the royal armies; and this he had done upon
+the simple principle, that one of the first duties of a statesman is to
+employ for the benefit of the country the ablest men he can find,
+without regard to their theological opinions, with which, as he well
+knew, no government has any concern. But Louis XIII., whose personal
+feelings were always opposed to the enlightened measures of his great
+minister, was offended by this magnanimous disregard of ancient
+prejudices; his piety was shocked at the idea of Catholic soldiers being
+commanded by heretics; and, as we are assured by a well-informed
+contemporary, he determined to put an end to this scandal to the church,
+and, for the future, allow no Protestant to receive the staff of marshal
+of France.[253] Whether the king, if he had lived, would have carried
+his point, is doubtful;[254] but what is certain is, that, only four
+months after his death, this appointment of marshal was bestowed upon
+Turenne, the most able of all the Protestant generals.[255] And in the
+very next year, Gassion, another Protestant, was raised to the same
+dignity; thus affording the strange spectacle of the highest military
+power in a great Catholic country wielded by two men against whose
+religion the church was never weary of directing her anathemas.[256] In
+a similar spirit, Mazarin, on mere grounds of political expediency,
+concluded an intimate alliance with Cromwell; an usurper who, in the
+opinion of the theologians, was doomed to perdition, since he was soiled
+by the triple crime of rebellion, of heresy, and of regicide.[257]
+Finally, one of the last acts of this pupil of Richelieu's[258] was to
+sign the celebrated treaty of the Pyrenees, by which ecclesiastical
+interests were seriously weakened, and great injury inflicted on him who
+was still considered to be the head of the church.[259]
+
+  [249] On the connexion between Richelieu and Mazarin, see _Sismondi_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiii. pp. 400, 530; and a curious,
+        though perhaps apocryphal anecdote in _Tallemant des Réaux_,
+        _Historiettes_, vol. ii. pp. 231, 232. In 1636 there was noticed
+        'l'étroite union' between Richelieu and Mazarin. _Le Vassor_,
+        _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. viii. part ii. p. 187.
+
+  [250] 'Mazarin n'avoit ni fanatisme ni esprit persécuteur,' _Sismondi_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiv. p. 531. That he did not
+        persecute the Protestants is grudgingly confessed in _Felice's
+        Hist. of the Protestants of France_, p. 292. See also _Smedley's
+        Reformed Religion in France_, vol. iii. p. 222.
+
+  [251] He confirmed it in July, 1643. See _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+        Nantes_, vol. iii. appendix, p. 3; and _Quick's Synodicon in
+        Gallia_, vol. i. p. ciii.
+
+  [252] In 1659, there was assembled the Synod of Loudon, the moderator of
+        which said, 'It is now fifteen years since we had a national
+        synod.' _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, vol. ii. p. 517.
+
+  [253] Brienne records the determination of the king, 'que cette dignité
+        ne seroit plus accordée à des Protestans.' _Sismondi_, _Histoire
+        des Français_, vol. xxiv. p. 65.
+
+  [254] He was so uneasy about the sin he had committed, that before his
+        death he intreated the Protestant marshals to change their creed:
+        'Il ne voulut pas mourir sans avoir exhorté de sa propre bouche
+        les maréchaux de la Force et de Chatillon à se faire
+        Catholiques.' _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. ii. p.
+        612. The same circumstance is mentioned by Le Vassor, _Hist. de
+        Louis XIII_, vol. x. part ii. p. 785.
+
+  [255] Louis XIII. died in May 1643; and Turenne was made marshal in the
+        September following. _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 148, 151.
+
+  [256] Sismondi (_Hist. des Français_, vol. xxiv. p. 65) makes the
+        appointment of Gassion in 1644; according to Montglat
+        (_Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 437) it was at the end of 1643. There are
+        some singular anecdotes of Gassion in _Les Historiettes de
+        Tallemant des Réaux_, vol. v. pp. 167-180; and an account of his
+        death in _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 290, from which it
+        appears that he remained a Protestant to the last.
+
+  [257] The Pope especially was offended by this alliance (_Ranke_, _die
+        Päpste_, vol. iii. p. 158, compared with _Vaughan's Cromwell_,
+        vol. i. p. 343, vol. ii. p. 124); and, judging from the language
+        of Clarendon, the orthodox party in England was irritated by it.
+        _Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion_, pp. 699, 700. Contemporary
+        notices of this union between the cardinal and the regicide, will
+        be found in _Mém. de Retz_, vol. i. p. 349; _Mém. de Montglat_,
+        vol. ii. p. 478, vol. iii. p. 23; _Lettres de Patin_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 183, 302, 426; _Marchand_, _Dict. Historique_, vol. ii. p.
+        56; _Mem. of Sir Philip Warwick_, p. 377; _Harris's Lives of the
+        Stuarts_, vol. iii. p. 393.
+
+  [258] De Retz (_Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 59), who knew Richelieu, calls
+        Mazarin 'son disciple.' And at p. 65 he adds, 'comme il marchoit
+        sur les pas du cardinal de Richelieu, qui avoit achevé de
+        détruire toutes les anciennes maximes de l'état.' Compare _Mém.
+        de Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 18; and _Mém. de la Rochefoucauld_,
+        vol. i. p. 444.
+
+  [259] On the open affront to the Pope by this treaty, see _Ranke_, _die
+        Päpste_, vol. iii. p. 159: 'An dem pyrenäischen Frieden nahm er
+        auch nicht einmal mehr einen scheinbaren Antheil: man vermied es
+        seine Abgeordneten zuzulassen: kaum wurde seiner noch darin
+        gedacht.' The consequences and the meaning of all this are well
+        noticed by M. Ranke.
+
+But, the circumstance for which the administration of Mazarin is most
+remarkable, is the breaking out of that great civil war called the
+Fronde, in which the people attempted to carry into politics the
+insubordinate spirit which had already displayed itself in literature
+and in religion. Here we cannot fail to note the similarity between this
+struggle and that which, at the same time, was taking place in England.
+It would, indeed, be far from accurate to say that the two events were
+the counterpart of each other; but there can be no doubt that the
+analogy between them is very striking. In both countries, the civil war
+was the first popular expression of what had hitherto been rather a
+speculative, and, so to say, a literary scepticism. In both countries,
+incredulity was followed by rebellion, and the abasement of the clergy
+preceded the humiliation of the crown; for Richelieu was to the French
+church what Elizabeth had been to the English church. In both countries
+there now first arose that great product of civilization, a free press,
+which showed its liberty by pouring forth those fearless and innumerable
+works which mark the activity of the age.[260] In both countries, the
+struggle was between retrogression and progress; between those who clung
+to tradition, and those who longed for innovation; while, in both, the
+contest assumed the external form of a war between king and parliament,
+the king being the organ of the past, the parliament the representative
+of the present. And, not to mention inferior similarities, there was one
+other point of vast importance in which these two great events coincide.
+This is, that both of them were eminently secular, and arose from the
+desire, not of propagating religious opinions, but of securing civil
+liberty. The temporal character of the English rebellion I have already
+noticed, and, indeed, it must be obvious to whoever has studied the
+evidence in its original sources. In France, not only do we find the
+same result, but we can even mark the stages of the progress. In the
+middle of the sixteenth century, and immediately after the death of
+Henry III., the French civil wars were caused by religious disputes, and
+were carried on with the fervour of a crusade. Early in the seventeenth
+century, hostilities again broke out; but though the efforts of the
+government were directed against the Protestants, this was not because
+they were heretics, but because they were rebels: the object being, not
+to punish an opinion, but to control a faction. This was the first great
+stage in the history of toleration; and it was accomplished, as we have
+already seen, during the reign of Louis XIII. That generation passing
+away, there arose, in the next age, the wars of the Fronde; and in this,
+which may be called the second stage of the French intellect, the
+alteration was still more remarkable. For, in the mean time, the
+principles of the great sceptical thinkers, from Montaigne to Descartes,
+had produced their natural fruit, and, becoming diffused among the
+educated classes, had influenced, as they always will do, not only those
+by whom they were received, but also those by whom they were rejected.
+Indeed, a mere knowledge of the fact, that the most eminent men have
+thrown doubt on the popular opinions of an age, can never fail, in some
+degree, to disturb the convictions even of those by whom the doubts are
+ridiculed.[261] In such cases, none are entirely safe: the firmest
+belief is apt to become slightly unsettled; those who outwardly preserve
+the appearance of orthodoxy, often unconsciously waver; they cannot
+entirely resist the influence of superior minds, nor can they always
+avoid an unwelcome suspicion, that when ability is on one side, and
+ignorance on the other, it is barely possible that the ability may be
+right, and the ignorance may be wrong.
+
+  [260] 'La presse jouissait d'une entière liberté pendant les troubles de
+        la Fronde, et le public prenait un tel intérêt aux débats
+        politiques, que les pamphlets se débitaient quelquefois au nombre
+        de huit et dix mille exemplaires.' _Sainte-Aulaire_, _Hist. de la
+        Fronde_, vol. i. p. 299. Tallemant des Réaux, who wrote
+        immediately after the Fronde, says (_Historiettes_, vol. iv. p.
+        74), 'Durant la Fronde, qu'on imprimoit tout.' And Omer Talon,
+        with the indignation natural to a magistrate, mentions, that in
+        1649, 'toutes sortes de libelles et de diffamations se publioient
+        hautement par la ville sans permission du magistrat.' _Mém.
+        d'Omer Talon_, vol. ii. p. 466. For further evidence of the great
+        importance of the press in France in the middle of the
+        seventeenth century, see _Mém. de Lenet_, vol. i. p. 162; _Mém.
+        de Motteville_, vol. iii. pp. 288, 289; _Lettres de Patin_, vol.
+        i. p. 432, vol. ii. p. 517; _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_,
+        vol. vii. p. 175.
+
+        In England, the Long Parliament succeeded to the licensing
+        authority of the Star-chamber (_Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol.
+        iv. p. 152); but it is evident from the literature of that time,
+        that for a considerable period the power was in reality in
+        abeyance. Both parties attacked each other freely through the
+        press; and it is said that between the breaking out of the civil
+        war and the restoration, there were published from 30,000 to
+        50,000 pamphlets. _Morgan's Ph[oe]nix Britannicus_, 1731, 4to.
+        pp. iii. 557; _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 4; _Southey's
+        Commonplace Book_, third series, p. 449. See also on this great
+        movement of the press, _Bates's Account of the Late Troubles_,
+        part i. p. 78; _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, p. 4; _Howell's Letters_,
+        p. 354; _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. i. p. 45; _Clarendon's
+        Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 81; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iv.
+        pp. 86, 102.
+
+  [261] Dugald Stewart (_Philos. of the Mind_, vol. i. p. 357) says,
+        'Nothing can be more just than the observation of Fontenelle,
+        that "the number of those who believe in a system already
+        established in the world, does not, in the least, add to its
+        credibility; but that the number of those who doubt of it, has a
+        tendency to diminish it."' Compare with this _Newman on
+        Development_, Lond. 1845, p. 31; and the remark of Hylas in
+        _Berkeley's Works_, edit. 1843, vol. i. pp. 151, 152, first
+        dialogue.
+
+Thus it fell out in France. In that country, as in every other, when
+theological convictions diminished, theological animosities subsided.
+Formerly religion had been the cause of war, and had also been the
+pretext under which it was conducted. Then there came a time when it
+ceased to be the cause: but so slow is the progress of society, that it
+was still found necessary to set it up as the pretext.[262] Finally,
+there came the great days of the Fronde, in which it was neither cause
+nor pretext,[263] and in which there was seen, for the first time in
+France, an arduous struggle by human beings avowedly for human purposes:
+a war waged by men who sought, not to enforce their opinions, but to
+increase their liberty. And, as if to make this change still more
+striking, the most eminent leader of the insurgents was the Cardinal de
+Retz; a man of vast ability, but whose contempt for his profession was
+notorious,[264] and of whom a great historian has said, 'he is the first
+bishop in France who carried on a civil war without making religion the
+pretence.'[265]
+
+  [262] Compare _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol. i. p. 293, with a remarkable
+        passage in _Mém. de Rohan_, vol. i. p. 317; where Rohan contrasts
+        the religious wars he was engaged in during the administration of
+        Richelieu, with those very different wars which had been waged in
+        France a little earlier.
+
+  [263] 'L'esprit religieux ne s'était mêlé en aucune manière aux
+        querelles de la Fronde.' _Capefigue_, vol. ii. p. 434. Lenet, who
+        had great influence with what was called the party of the
+        princes, says that he always avoided any attempt 'à faire aboutir
+        notre parti à une guerre de religion.' _Mém. de Lenet_, vol. i.
+        p. 619. Even the people said that it was unimportant whether or
+        not a man died a Protestant; but that if he were a partizan of
+        Mazarin he was sure to be damned: 'Ils disoient qu'étant mazarin,
+        il falloit qu'il fût damné.' _Lenet_, vol. i. p. 434.
+
+  [264] Indeed he does not conceal this even in his memoirs. He says
+        (_Mém._ vol. i. p. 3), he had 'l'âme peut-être la moins
+        ecclésiastique qui fût dans l'univers.' At p. 13, 'le chagrin que
+        ma profession ne laissoit pas de nourrir toujours dans le fonds
+        de mon âme.' At p. 21, 'je haïssois ma profession plus que
+        jamais.' At p. 48, 'le clergé, qui donne toujours l'exemple de la
+        servitude, la prêchoit aux autres sous le titre d'obéissance.'
+        See also the remark of his great friend Joly (_Mém. de Joly_, p.
+        209, edit. Petitot, 1825); and the account given by Tallemant des
+        Réaux, who knew De Retz well, and had travelled with him,
+        _Historiettes_, vol. vii. pp. 18-30. The same tendency is
+        illustrated, though in a much smaller degree, by a conversation
+        which Charles II., when in exile, held with De Retz, and which is
+        preserved in _Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 806, and is
+        worth consulting merely as an instance of the purely secular view
+        that De Retz always took of political affairs.
+
+  [265] 'Cet homme singulier est le premier évêque en France qui ait fait
+        une guerre civile sans avoir la religion pour prétexte.' _Siècle
+        de Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xix. p. 261.
+
+We have thus seen that, during the seventy years which succeeded the
+accession of Henry IV., the French intellect developed itself in a
+manner remarkably similar to that which took place in England. We have
+seen that, in both countries, the mind, according to the natural
+conditions of its growth, first doubted what it had long believed, and
+then tolerated what it had long hated. That this was by no means an
+accidental or capricious combination, is evident, not only from general
+arguments, and from the analogy of the two countries, but also from
+another circumstance of great interest. This is, that the order of
+events, and as it were their relative proportions, were the same, not
+only in reference to the increase of toleration, but also in reference
+to the increase of literature and science. In both countries, the
+progress of knowledge bore the same ratio to the decline of
+ecclesiastical influence, although they manifested that ratio at
+different periods. We had begun to throw off our superstitions somewhat
+earlier than the French were able to do; and thus, being the first in
+the field, we anticipated that great people in producing a secular
+literature. Whoever will take the pains to compare the growth of the
+French and English minds, will see that, in all the most important
+departments, we were the first, I do not say in merit, but in the order
+of time. In prose, in poetry, and in every branch of intellectual
+excellence, it will be found, on comparison, that we were before the
+French nearly a whole generation; and that, chronologically, the same
+proportion was preserved as that between Bacon and Descartes, Hooker and
+Pascal,[266] Shakespeare and Corneille, Massinger and Racine, Ben Jonson
+and Molière, Harvey and Pecquet. These eminent men were all justly
+celebrated in their respective countries; and it would perhaps be
+invidious to institute a comparison between them. But what we have here
+to observe is, that among those who cultivated the same department, the
+greatest Englishman, in every instance, preceded the greatest Frenchman
+by many years. The difference, running as it does, through all the
+leading topics, is far too regular to be considered accidental. And as
+few Englishmen of the present day will be so presumptuous as to suppose
+that we possess any native and inherent superiority over the French, it
+is evident that there must be some marked peculiarity in which the two
+countries differed, and which has produced this difference, not in their
+knowledge, but in the time at which their knowledge appeared. Nor does
+the discovery of this peculiarity require much penetration. For,
+notwithstanding that the French were more tardy than the English, still,
+when the development had fairly begun, the antecedents of its success
+were among both people precisely the same. It is, therefore, clear,
+according to the commonest principles of inductive reasoning, that the
+lateness of the development must be owing to the lateness of the
+antecedent. It is clear that the French knew less because they believed
+more.[267] It is clear that their progress was checked by the prevalence
+of those feelings which are fatal to all knowledge, because, looking on
+antiquity as the sole receptacle of wisdom, they degrade the present in
+order that they may exaggerate the past: feelings which destroy the
+prospects of man, stifle his hopes, damp his curiosity, chill his
+energies, impair his judgment, and, under pretence of humbling the pride
+of his reason, seek to throw him back into that more than midnight
+darkness from which his reason alone has enabled him to emerge.
+
+  [266] Hooker and Pascal may properly be classed together, as the two
+        most sublime theological writers either country has produced; for
+        Bossuet is as inferior to Pascal as Jeremy Taylor is inferior to
+        Hooker.
+
+  [267] One of the most remarkable men they have ever possessed notices
+        this connexion, which he expresses conversely, but with equal
+        truth: 'moins on sait, moins on doute; moins on a découvert,
+        moins on voit ce qui reste à découvrir.... Quand les hommes sont
+        ignorans, il est aisé de tout savoir.' _Discours en Sorbonne_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ii. pp. 65, 70.
+
+The analogy thus existing between France and England, is, indeed, very
+striking, and, so far as we have yet considered it, seems complete in
+all its parts. To sum up the similarities in a few words, it may be
+said, that both countries followed the same order of development in
+their scepticism, in their knowledge, in their literature, and in their
+toleration. In both countries, there broke out a civil war at the same
+time, for the same object, and, in many respects, under the same
+circumstances. In both, the insurgents, at first triumphant, were
+afterwards defeated; and the rebellion being put down, the governments
+of the two nations were fully restored almost at the same moment: in
+1660 by Charles II.; in 1661, by Louis XIV.[268] But there the
+similarity stopped. At this point there began a marked divergence
+between the two countries;[269] which continued to increase for more
+than a century, until it ended in England by the consolidation of the
+national prosperity, in France by a revolution more sanguinary, more
+complete, and more destructive, than any the world has ever seen. This
+difference between the fortunes of such great and civilized nations is
+so remarkable, that a knowledge of its causes becomes essential to a
+right understanding of European history, and will be found to throw
+considerable light on other events not immediately connected with it.
+Besides this, such an inquiry, independently of its scientific interest,
+will have a high practical value. It will show, what men seem only
+recently to have begun to understand, that, in politics, no certain
+principles having yet been discovered, the first conditions of success
+are compromise, barter, expediency, and concession. It will show the
+utter helplessness even of the ablest rulers, when they try to meet new
+emergencies by old maxims. It will show the intimate connexion between
+knowledge and liberty; between an increasing civilization and an
+advancing democracy. It will show that, for a progressive nation, there
+is required a progressive polity; that within certain limits, innovation
+is the sole ground of security; that no institution can withstand the
+flux and movements of society, unless it not only repairs its structure,
+but also widens its entrance; and that, even in a material point of
+view, no country can long remain either prosperous or safe, in which the
+people are not gradually extending their power, enlarging their
+privileges, and, so to say, incorporating themselves with the functions
+of the state.
+
+  [268] Mazarin, until his death in 1661, exercised complete authority
+        over Louis. See _Siècle de Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xix. pp. 318, 319; and _Lavallée_, _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. iii. p. 195; so that, as Montglat says (_Mém._
+        vol. iii. p. 111), 'On doit appeler ce temps-là le commencement
+        du règne de Louis XIV.' The pompous manner in which, directly
+        after the death of Mazarin, the king assumed the government, is
+        related by Brienne, who was present. _Mém. de Brienne_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 154-158.
+
+  [269] By this I mean, that the divergence now first became clear to
+        every observer; but the origin of the divergence dates from a
+        much earlier period, as we shall see in the next chapter.
+
+The tranquillity of England, and her freedom from civil war, are to be
+ascribed to the recognition of these great truths;[270] while the
+neglect of them has entailed upon other countries the most woful
+calamities. On this account, therefore, if on no other, it becomes
+interesting to ascertain how it was that the two nations we have been
+comparing should, in regard to these truths, have adopted views
+diametrically opposite, although, in other matters, their opinions, as
+we have already seen, were very similar. Or, to state the question in
+other words, we have to inquire how it was that the French, after
+pursuing precisely the same course as the English, in their knowledge,
+in their scepticism, and in their toleration, should have stopped short
+in their politics; how it was that their minds, which had effected such
+great things, should, nevertheless, have been so unprepared for liberty,
+that, in spite of the heroic efforts of the Fronde, they not only fell
+under the despotism of Louis XIV., but never cared to resist it; and, at
+length, becoming slaves in their souls as well as in their bodies, they
+grew proud of a condition which the meanest Englishman would have
+spurned as an intolerable bondage.
+
+  [270] That is to say, their practical recognition; theoretically, they
+        are still denied by innumerable politicians, who, nevertheless,
+        assist in carrying them into effect, fondly hoping that each
+        innovation will be the last, and enticing men into reform under
+        the pretext that by each change they are returning to the spirit
+        of the ancient British constitution.
+
+The cause of this difference is to be sought in the existence of that
+spirit of protection which is so dangerous and yet so plausible, that it
+forms the most serious obstacle with which advancing civilization has to
+contend. This, which may truly be called an evil spirit, has always been
+far stronger in France than in England. Indeed, among the French, it
+continues, even to the present day, to produce the most mischievous
+results. It is, as I shall hereafter point out, intimately connected
+with that love of centralization which appears in the machinery of their
+government, and in the spirit of their literature. It is this which
+induces them to retain restrictions by which their trade has long been
+troubled, and to preserve monopolies which, in our country, a freer
+system has effectually destroyed. It is this which causes them to
+interfere with the natural relation between producers and consumers; to
+force into existence manufactures which otherwise would never arise, and
+which, for that very reason, are not required; to disturb the ordinary
+march of industry, and, under pretence of protecting their native
+labourers, diminish the produce of labour by diverting it from those
+profitable channels into which its own instincts always compel it to
+flow.
+
+When the protective principle is carried into trade, these are its
+inevitable results. When it is carried into politics, there is formed
+what is called a paternal government, in which supreme power is vested
+in the sovereign, or in a few privileged classes. When it is carried
+into theology, it produces a powerful church, and a numerous clergy, who
+are supposed to be the necessary guardians of religion, and every
+opposition to whom is resented as an insult to the public morals. These
+are the marks by which protection may be recognized; and from a very
+early period they have displayed themselves in France much more clearly
+than in England. Without pretending to discover their precise origin, I
+will, in the next chapter, endeavour to trace them back to a time
+sufficiently remote to explain some of the discrepancies which, in this
+respect existed between the two countries.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Note to p. 93._ Descartes died in Sweden on a visit to Christina; so
+that, strictly speaking, there is an error in the text. But this does
+not affect the argument; because the works of Descartes, being eagerly
+read in France, and not being prohibited, we must suppose that his
+person would have been safe, had he remained in his own country. To burn
+a heretic is a more decisive step than to suppress a book; and as the
+French clergy were not strong enough to effect the latter, it is hardly
+likely that they could have accomplished the former.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+  HISTORY OF THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT, AND COMPARISON OF IT IN FRANCE AND
+                                ENGLAND.
+
+
+When, towards the end of the fifth century, the Roman empire was broken
+up, there followed, as is well known, a long period of ignorance and of
+crime, in which even the ablest minds were immersed in the grossest
+superstitions. During these, which are rightly called the Dark Ages, the
+clergy were supreme: they ruled the consciences of the most despotic
+sovereigns, and they were respected as men of vast learning, because
+they alone were able to read and write; because they were the sole
+depositaries of those idle conceits of which European science then
+consisted; and because they preserved the legends of the saints and the
+lives of the fathers, from which, as it was believed, the teachings of
+divine wisdom might easily be gathered.
+
+Such was the degradation of the European intellect for about five
+hundred years, during which the credulity of men reached a height
+unparalleled in the annals of ignorance. But at length the human reason,
+that divine spark which even the most corrupt society is unable to
+extinguish, began to display its power, and disperse the mists by which
+it was surrounded. Various circumstances, which it would be tedious here
+to discuss, caused this dispersion to take place at different times in
+different countries. However, speaking generally, we may say that it
+occurred in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and that by the twelfth
+century there was no nation now called civilized, upon whom the light
+had not begun to dawn.
+
+It is from this point that the first great divergence between the
+European nations took its rise. Before this time their superstition was
+so great and universal, that it would avail little to measure the degree
+of their relative darkness. Indeed, so low had they fallen, that, during
+the earlier period, the authority of the clergy was in many respects an
+advantage, as forming a barrier between the people and their rulers, and
+as supplying the sole instance of a class that even made an approach to
+intellectual pursuits. But when the great movement took place, when the
+human reason began to rebel, the position of the clergy was suddenly
+changed. They had been friendly to reasoning as long as the reasoning
+was on their side.[271] While they were the only guardians of knowledge,
+they were eager to promote its interests. Now, however, it was falling
+from their hands: it was becoming possessed by laymen: it was growing
+dangerous: it must be reduced to its proper dimensions. Then it was that
+there first became general the inquisitions, the imprisonments, the
+torturings, the burnings, and all the other contrivances by which the
+church vainly endeavoured to stem the tide that had turned against
+her.[272] From that moment there has been an unceasing struggle between
+these two great parties,--the advocates of inquiry, and the advocates of
+belief: a struggle which, however it may be disguised, and under
+whatever forms it may appear, is at bottom always the same, and
+represents the opposite interests of reason and faith, of scepticism and
+credulity, of progress and reaction, of those who hope for the future,
+and of those who cling to the past.
+
+  [271] 'Toute influence qu'on accordait à la science ne pouvait, dans les
+        premiers temps, qu'être favorable au clergé.' _Meyer_, _Institut.
+        Judic._ vol. i. p. 498.
+
+  [272] Early in the eleventh century the clergy first began
+        systematically to repress independent inquiries by punishing men
+        who attempted to think for themselves. Compare _Sismondi_, _Hist.
+        des Français_, vol. iv. pp. 145, 146; _Neander's Hist. of the
+        Church_, vol. vi. pp. 365, 366; _Prescott's Hist. of Ferdinand
+        and Isabella_, vol. i. p. 261 note. Before this, such a policy,
+        as Sismondi justly observes, was not required: 'Pendant plusieurs
+        siècles, l'église n'avoit été troublée par aucune hérésie;
+        l'ignorance étoit trop complète la soumission trop servile, la
+        foi trop aveugle, pour que les questions qui avoient si long-temps
+        exercé la subtilité des Grecs fussent seulement comprises par les
+        Latins.' As knowledge advanced, the opposition between inquiry
+        and belief became more marked: the church redoubled her efforts,
+        and at the end of the twelfth century the popes first formally
+        called on the secular power to punish heretics; and the earliest
+        constitution addressed 'inquisitoribus hæreticæ pravitatis' is
+        one by Alexander IV. _Meyer_, _Inst. Jud._ vol. ii. pp. 554, 556.
+        See also on this movement, _Llorente_, _Hist. de l'Inquisition_,
+        vol. i. p. 125, vol. iv. p. 284. In 1222 a synod assembled at
+        Oxford caused an apostate to be burned; and this, says Lingard
+        (_Hist. of England_, vol. ii. p. 148), 'is, I believe, the first
+        instance of capital punishment in England on the ground of
+        religion.' Compare _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. ii. p. 444.
+
+This, then, is the great starting point of modern civilization. From the
+moment that reason began, however faintly, to assert its supremacy, the
+improvement of every people has depended upon their obedience to its
+dictates, and upon the success with which they have reduced to its
+standard the whole of their actions. To understand, therefore, the
+original divergence of France and England, we must seek it in the
+circumstances that took place when this, which may be called the great
+rebellion of the intellect, was first clearly seen.
+
+If now, with a view to such inquiry, we examine the history of Europe,
+we shall find that just at this period there sprung up the feudal
+system: a vast scheme of polity, which, clumsy and imperfect as it was,
+supplied many of the wants of the rude people among whom it arose.[273]
+The connexion between it and the decline of the ecclesiastical spirit
+is very obvious. For the feudal system was the first great secular plan
+that had been seen in Europe since the formation of the civil law: it
+was the first comprehensive attempt which had been made, during more
+than four hundred years, to organize society according to temporal, not
+according to spiritual circumstances, the basis of the whole arrangement
+being merely the possession of land, and the performance of certain
+military and pecuniary services.[274]
+
+  [273] Sir F. Palgrave (_English Commonwealth_, vol. ii. p. ccvi.) says,
+        'it is generally admitted, by the best authorities, that from
+        about the eleventh century benefices acquired the name of fiefs
+        or feuds;' and Robertson (_State of Europe_, note viii. in
+        _Works_, p. 393) supposes that the word _feudum_ does not occur
+        before 1008. But according to M. Guizot (_Civilisation en
+        France_, vol. iii. p. 238), 'il apparaît, pour la première fois,
+        dans une charte de Charles le Gros en 884.' This is a question
+        more curious than important; since whatever the origin of the
+        word may be, it is certain that the thing did not, and could not,
+        exist before the tenth century at the earliest: inasmuch as the
+        extreme disorganisation of society rendered so coercive an
+        institution impossible. M. Guizot, in another work (_Essais sur
+        l'Hist. de France_, p. 239), rightly says, 'Au X^e siècle
+        seulement, les rapports et les pouvoirs sociaux acquirent quelque
+        fixité.' See also his _Civilisation en Europe_, p. 90.
+
+  [274] 'La terre est tout dans ce système.... Le système féodal est comme
+        une religion de la terre.' _Origines du Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 302. 'Le caractère de la féodalité,
+        c'était la prédominance de la _réalité_ sur la _personnalité_, de
+        la terre sur l'homme.' _Eschbach_, _Etude du Droit_, p. 256.
+
+This was, no doubt, a great step in European civilization, because it
+set the first example of a large public polity in which the spiritual
+classes as such had no recognized place;[275] and hence there followed
+that struggle between feudality and the church, which has been observed
+by several writers, but the origin of which has been strangely
+overlooked. What, however, we have now to notice is, that by the
+establishment of the feudal system, the spirit of protection, far from
+being destroyed, was probably not even weakened, but only assumed a new
+form. Instead of being spiritual, it became temporal. Instead of men
+looking up to the church, they looked up to the nobles. For, as a
+necessary consequence of this vast movement, or rather as a part of it,
+the great possessors of land were now being organized into an hereditary
+aristocracy.[276] In the tenth century, we find the first surnames:[277]
+by the eleventh century most of the great offices had become hereditary
+in the leading families:[278] and in the twelfth century armorial
+bearings were invented, as well as other heraldic devices, which long
+nourished the conceit of the nobles, and were valued by their
+descendants as marks of that superiority of birth to which, during many
+ages, all other superiority was considered subordinate.[279]
+
+  [275] According to the social and political arrangements from the fourth
+        to the tenth century, the clergy were so eminently a class apart,
+        that they were freed from 'burdens of the state,' and were not
+        obliged to engage in military services unless they thought proper
+        to do so. See _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. iii. p. 195,
+        vol. v. pp. 133, 140; and _Petrie's Ecclesiast. Archit._ p. 382.
+        But under the feudal system this immunity was lost; and in regard
+        to performing services no separation of classes was admitted.
+        'After the feudal polity became established, we do not find that
+        there was any dispensation for ecclesiastical fiefs.' _Hallam's
+        Supplemental Notes_, p. 120; and for further proof of the loss of
+        the old privileges, compare _Grose's Military Antiquities_, vol.
+        i. pp. 5, 64; _Meyer_, _Instit. Judic._ vol. i. p. 257; _Turner's
+        Hist. of England_, vol. iv. p. 462; and _Mably's Observations_,
+        vol. i. pp. 434, 435: so that, as this writer says, p. 215,
+        'Chaque seigneur laïc avait gagné personnellement à la révolution
+        qui forma le gouvernement féodal; mais les évêques et les abbés,
+        en devenant souverains dans leurs terres, perdirent au contraire
+        beaucoup de leur pouvoir et de leur dignité.'
+
+  [276] The great change of turning life-possessions of land into
+        hereditary possessions, began late in the ninth century, being
+        initiated in France by a capitulary of Charles the Bald, in 877.
+        See _Allen on the Prerogative_, p. 210; _Spence's Origin of the
+        Laws of Europe_, pp. 282, 301; _Meyer_, _Instit. Judiciaires_,
+        vol. i. p. 206.
+
+  [277] That surnames first arose in the tenth century is stated by the
+        most competent authorities. See _Sismondi_, _Hist. de Français_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 452-455; _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 138;
+        _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. iii. p. 268; _Petrie's
+        Ecclesiast. Archit._ pp. 277, 342. Koch (_Tableau des
+        Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 138) erroneously says, 'c'est
+        pareillement aux croisades que l'Europe doit l'usage des surnoms
+        de famille;' a double mistake, both as to the date and the cause,
+        since the introduction of surnames being part of a large social
+        movement, can under no circumstances be ascribed to a single
+        event.
+
+  [278] On this process from the end of the ninth to the twelfth century,
+        compare _Hallam's Supplemental Notes_, pp. 97, 98; _Dalrymple's
+        Hist. of Feudal Property_, p. 21; _Klimrath_, _Hist. du Droit_,
+        vol. i. p. 74.
+
+  [279] As to the origin of armorial bearings, which cannot be traced
+        higher than the twelfth century, see _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol.
+        i. pp. 138, 139; _Ledwich_, _Antiquities of Ireland_, pp. 231,
+        232; _Origines du Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p.
+        382.
+
+Such was the beginning of the European aristocracy, in the sense in
+which that word is commonly used. With the consolidation of its power,
+feudality was made, in reference to the organization of society, the
+successor of the church;[280] and the nobles, becoming hereditary,
+gradually displaced in government, and in the general functions of
+authority, the clergy, among whom the opposite principle of celibacy was
+now firmly established.[281] It is, therefore, evident, that an inquiry
+into the origin of the modern protective spirit does, in a great
+measure, resolve itself into an inquiry into the origin of the
+aristocratic power; since that power was the exponent, and, as it were,
+the cover under which the spirit displayed itself. This, as we shall
+hereafter see, is likewise connected with the great religious rebellion
+of the sixteenth century; the success of which mainly depended on the
+weakness of the protective principle that opposed it. But, reserving
+this for future consideration, I will now endeavour to trace a few of
+the circumstances which gave the aristocracy more power in France than
+in England, and thus accustomed the French to a closer and more constant
+obedience, and infused into them a more reverential spirit than that
+which was usual in our country.
+
+  [280] For, as Lerminia says (_Philos. du Droit_, vol. i. p. 17), 'la loi
+        féodale n'est autre chose que la terre élevée à la souveraineté.'
+        On the decline of the church in consequence of the increased
+        feudal and secular spirit, see _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. iii. p. 440, vol. iv. p. 88. In our own country, one fact
+        may be mentioned illustrative of the earliest encroachments of
+        laymen: namely, that, before the twelfth century, we find no
+        instance in England of the great seal being entrusted 'to the
+        keeping of a layman.' _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. i. p. 61.
+
+  [281] Celibacy, on account of its supposed ascetic tendency, was
+        advocated and in some countries was enforced, at an early period;
+        but the first general and decisive movement in its favour was in
+        the middle of the eleventh century, before which time it was a
+        speculative doctrine, constantly disobeyed. See _Neander's Hist.
+        of the Church_, vol. vi. pp. 52, 61, 62, 72, 93, 94 note, vol.
+        vii. pp. 127-131; _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 248, 249;
+        _Eccleston's English Antiq._ p. 95.
+
+Soon after the middle of the eleventh century, and therefore while the
+aristocracy was in the process of formation, England was conquered by
+the Duke of Normandy, who naturally introduced the polity existing in
+his own country.[282] But, in his hands, it underwent a modification
+suitable to the new circumstances in which he was placed. He, being in a
+foreign country, the general of a successful army composed partly of
+mercenaries,[283] was able to dispense with some of those feudal usages
+which were customary in France. The great Norman lords, thrown as
+strangers into the midst of a hostile population, were glad to accept
+estates from the crown on almost any terms that would guarantee their
+own security. Of this, William naturally availed himself. For, by
+granting baronies on conditions favourable to the crown, he prevented
+the barons[284] from possessing that power which they exercised in
+France, and which, but for this, they would have exercised in England.
+The result was, that the most powerful of our nobles became amenable to
+the law, or, at all events, to the authority of the king.[285] Indeed,
+to such an extent was this carried, that William, shortly before his
+death, obliged all the landowners to render their fealty to him; thus
+entirely neglecting that peculiarity of feudalism, according to which
+each vassal was separately dependent on his own lord.[286]
+
+  [282] Where it was particularly flourishing: 'la féodalité fut organisée
+        en Normandie plus fortement et plus systématiquement que partout
+        ailleurs en France.' _Klimrath_, _Travaux sur l'Hist. du Droit_,
+        vol. i. p. 130. The 'coutume de Normandie' was, at a much later
+        period, only to be found in the old 'grand coutumier.'
+        _Klimrath_, vol. ii. p. 160. On the peculiar tenacity with which
+        the Normans clung to it, see _Lettres d'Aguesseau_, vol. ii. pp.
+        225, 226: 'accoutumés à respecter leur coutume comme l'évangile.'
+
+  [283] _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. p. 387; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. ii. p. 390, vol. iv. p. 76. Mercenary troops were
+        also employed by his immediate successors. _Grose's Military
+        Antiq._ vol. i. p. 55.
+
+  [284] On the different meanings attached to the word 'baron,' compare
+        _Klimrath_, _Hist. du Droit_, vol. ii. p. 40, with _Meyer_,
+        _Instit. Judiciaires_, vol. i. p. 105. But M. Guizot says, what
+        seems most likely, 'il est probable que ce nom fut commun
+        originairement à tous les vassaux immédiats de la couronne, liés
+        au roi _per servitium militare_, par le service de chevalier.'
+        _Essais_, p. 265.
+
+  [285] _Meyer_, _Instit. Judic._ vol. i. p. 242; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iii. p. 220. The same policy of reducing the
+        nobles was followed up by Henry II., who destroyed the baronial
+        castles. _Turner_, vol. iv. p. 223. Compare _Lingard_, vol. i.
+        pp. 315, 371.
+
+  [286] 'Deinde c[oe]pit homagia hominum totius Angliæ, et juramentum
+        fidelitatis cujuscumque essent feodi vel tenementi.' _Matthæi
+        Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, vol. ii. p. 9.
+
+But in France, the course of affairs was very different. In that country
+the great nobles held their lands, not so much by grant, as by
+prescription.[287] A character of antiquity was thus thrown over their
+rights; which, when added to the weakness of the crown, enabled them to
+exercise on their own estates, all the functions of independent
+sovereigns.[288] Even when they received their first great check, under
+Philip Augustus,[289] they, in his reign, and indeed long after, wielded
+a power quite unknown in England. Thus, to give only two instances: the
+right of coining money, which has always been regarded as an attribute
+of sovereignty, was never allowed in England, even to the greatest
+nobles.[290] But in France it was exercised by many persons
+independently of the crown, and was not abrogated until the sixteenth
+century.[291] A similar remark holds good of what was called the right
+of private war; by virtue of which the nobles were allowed to attack
+each other, and disturb the peace of the country with the prosecution of
+their private feuds. In England the aristocracy were never strong enough
+to have this admitted as a right,[292] though they too often exercised
+it as a practice. But in France it became a part of the established law;
+it was incorporated into the text-books of feudalism, and it is
+distinctly recognized by Louis IX. and Philip the Fair,--two kings of
+considerable energy, who did every thing in their power to curtail the
+enormous authority of the nobles.[293]
+
+  [287] See some good remarks on this difference between the French and
+        English nobles, in _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. ii. pp. 99, 100.
+        Mably (_Observations_, vol. i. p. 60) says: 'en effet, on
+        négligea, sur la fin de la première race, de conserver les titres
+        primordiaux de ses possessions.' As to the old customary French
+        law of prescription, see _Giraud_, _Précis de l'Ancien Droit_,
+        pp. 79, 80.
+
+  [288] _Mably_, _Observations sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. i. pp. 70,
+        162, 178.
+
+  [289] On the policy of Philip Augustus in regard to the nobles, see
+        _Mably_, _Observations_, vol. i. p. 246; _Lerminier_, _Philos. du
+        Droit_, vol. i. p. 265; _Boulainvilliers_, _Hist. de l'Ancien
+        Gouvernement_, vol. iii. pp. 147-150; _Guizot_, _Civilisation en
+        France_, vol. iv. pp. 134, 135; _Courson_, _Hist. des Peuples
+        Brétons_, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 350.
+
+  [290] 'No subjects ever enjoyed the right of coining silver in England
+        without the royal stamp and superintendence; a remarkable proof
+        of the restraint in which the feudal aristocracy was always held
+        in this country.' _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 154.
+
+  [291] _Brougham's Polit. Philos._ 1849, vol. i. p. 446. In addition to
+        the evidence there given on the right of coinage, see _Mably's
+        Observations_, vol. i. p. 424, vol. ii. pp. 296, 297; and
+        _Turner's Normandy_, vol. ii. p. 261.
+
+  [292] _Hallam's Supplemental Notes_, pp. 304, 305.
+
+  [293] 'Saint-Louis consacra le droit de guerre.... Philippe le Bel, qui
+        voulut l'abolir, finit par le rétablir.' _Montlosier_, _Monarchie
+        Française_, vol. i. pp. 127, 202: see also pp. 434, 435, and vol.
+        ii. pp. 435, 436. Mably (_Observations_, vol. ii. p. 338)
+        mentions 'lettres-patentes de Philippe-de-Valois du 8 février
+        1330, pour permettre dans le duché d'Aquitaine les guerres
+        privées,' &c.; and he adds, 'le 9 avril 1353 le roi Jean
+        renouvelle l'ordonnance de S. Louis, nommée la quarantaine du
+        roi, touchant les guerres privées.'
+
+Out of this difference between the aristocratic power of France and
+England, there followed many consequences of great importance. In our
+country the nobles, being too feeble to contend with the crown, were
+compelled, in self-defence, to ally themselves with the people.[294]
+About a hundred years after the Conquest, the Normans and Saxons
+amalgamated; and both parties united against the king in order to uphold
+their common rights.[295] The Magna Charta, which John was forced to
+yield contained concessions to the aristocracy; but its most important
+stipulations were those in favour of 'all classes of freemen.'[296]
+Within half a century, fresh contests broke out; the barons were again
+associated with the people, and again there followed the same
+results,--the extension of popular privileges being each time the
+condition and the consequence of this singular alliance. In the same
+way, when the Earl of Leicester raised a rebellion against Henry III.,
+he found his own party too weak to make head against the crown. He,
+therefore, applied to the people:[297] and it is to him that our House
+of Commons owes its origin; since he, in 1264, set the first example of
+issuing writs to cities and boroughs; thus calling upon citizens and
+burgesses to take their place in what had hitherto been a parliament
+composed entirely of priests and nobles.[298]
+
+  [294] Sir Francis Palgrave (in his _Rise and Progress of the English
+        Commonwealth_, vol. i. pp. 51-55) has attempted to estimate the
+        results produced by the Norman Conquest; but he omits to notice
+        this, which was the most important consequence of all.
+
+  [295] On this political union between Norman barons and Saxon citizens,
+        of which the first clear indication is at the end of the twelfth
+        century, compare _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. i. p. 113, with
+        _Brougham's Polit. Philos._ vol. i. p. 339, vol. iii. p. 222.
+
+In regard to the general question of the amalgamation of races, we have
+three distinct kinds of evidence:
+
+1st. Towards the end of the twelfth century, a new language began to be
+formed by blending Norman with Saxon; and English literature, properly
+so called, dates from the commencement of the thirteenth century.
+Compare _Madden's Preface to Layamon_, 1847, vol. i. pp. xx. xxi., with
+_Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. viii. pp. 214, 217, 436, 437.
+
+2nd. We have the specific statement of a writer in the reign of Henry
+II., that 'sic permixtæ sunt nationes ut vix discerni possit hodie, de
+liberis loquor, quis Anglicus, quis Normannus sit genere.' _Note in
+Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. ii. p. 106.
+
+3rd. Before the thirteenth century had passed away, the difference of
+dress, which in that state of society would survive many other
+differences, was no longer observed, and the distinctive peculiarities
+of Norman and Saxon attire had disappeared. See _Strutt's View of the
+Dress and Habits of the People of England_, vol. ii. p. 67, edit.
+Planché, 1842, 4to.
+
+  [296] 'An equal distribution of civil rights to all classes of freemen
+        forms the peculiar beauty of the charter.' _Hallam's Middle
+        Ages_, vol. ii. p. 108. This is very finely noticed in one of
+        Lord Chatham's great speeches. _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvi. p. 662.
+
+  [297] Compare _Meyer_, _Instit. Judic._ vol. ii. p. 39, with _Lingard's
+        England_, vol. ii. p. 127, and _Somers Tracts_, vol. vi. p. 92.
+
+  [298] 'He is to be honoured as the founder of a representative system of
+        government in this country.' _Campbell's Chief-Justices_, vol. i.
+        p. 61. Some writers (see, for instance, _Dalrymple's Hist. of
+        Feudal Property_, p. 332) suppose that burgesses were summoned
+        before the reign of Henry III.: but this assertion is not only
+        unsupported by evidence, but is in itself improbable; because at
+        an early period the citizens, though rapidly increasing in power,
+        were hardly important enough to warrant such a step being taken.
+        The best authorities are now agreed to refer the origin of the
+        House of Commons to the period mentioned in the text. See
+        _Hallam's Supplement_, _Notes_, pp. 335-339; _Spence's Origin of
+        the Laws of Europe_, p. 512; _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. i. p.
+        155; _Lingard's England_, vol. ii. p. 138; _Guizot's Essais_, p.
+        319. The notion of tracing this to the wittenagemot is as absurd
+        as finding the origin of juries in the system of compurgators;
+        both of which were favourite errors in the seventeenth, and even
+        in the eighteenth century. In regard to the wittenagemot, this
+        idea still lingers among antiquaries: but, in regard to
+        compurgators, even they have abandoned their old ground, and it
+        is now well understood that trial by jury did not exist till long
+        after the Conquest. Compare _Palgrave's English Commonwealth_,
+        part i. pp. 243 seq., with _Meyer_, _Instit. Judic._ vol. ii. pp.
+        152-173. There are few things in our history so irrational as the
+        admiration expressed by a certain class of writers for the
+        institutions of our barbarous Anglo-Saxon ancestors.
+
+The English aristocracy being thus forced, by their own weakness, to
+rely on the people,[299] it naturally followed, that the people imbibed
+that tone of independence, and that lofty bearing, of which our civil
+and political institutions are the consequence, rather than the cause.
+It is to this, and not to any fanciful peculiarity of race, that we owe
+the sturdy and enterprising spirit for which the inhabitants of this
+island have long been remarkable. It is this which has enabled us to
+baffle all the arts of oppression, and to maintain for centuries
+liberties which no other nation has ever possessed. And it is this which
+has fostered and upheld those great municipal privileges, which,
+whatever be their faults, have, at least, the invaluable merit of
+accustoming free men to the exercise of power, giving to citizens the
+management of their own city, and perpetuating the idea of independence,
+by preserving it in a living type, and by enlisting in its support the
+interests and affections of individual men.
+
+  [299] Montlosier, with the fine spirit of a French noble, taunts the
+        English aristocracy with this: 'En France la noblesse, attaquée
+        sans cesse, s'est défendue sans cesse. Elle a subi l'oppression;
+        elle ne l'a point acceptée. En Angleterre, elle a couru dès la
+        première commotion, se réfugier dans les rangs des bourgeois, et
+        sous leur protection. Elle a abdiqué ainsi son existence.'
+        _Montlosier_, _Monarchie Française_, vol. iii. p. 162. Compare an
+        instructive passage in _De Staël_, _Consid. sur la Révolution_,
+        vol. i. p. 421.
+
+But the habits of self-government which, under these circumstances, were
+cultivated in England, were, under opposite circumstances, neglected in
+France. The great French lords being too powerful to need the people,
+were unwilling to seek their alliance.[300] The result was, that, amid a
+great variety of forms and names, society was, in reality, only divided
+into two classes--the upper and the lower, the protectors and the
+protected. And, looking at the ferocity of the prevailing manners, it
+is not too much to say, that in France, under the feudal system, every
+man was either a tyrant or a slave. Indeed, in most instances, the two
+characters were combined in the same person. For, the practice of
+subinfeudation, which in our country was actively checked, became in
+France almost universal.[301] By this, the great lords having granted
+lands on condition of fealty and other services to certain persons,
+these last subgranted them; that is, made them over on similar
+conditions to other persons, who had likewise the power of bestowing
+them on a fourth party, and so on in an endless series;[302] thus
+forming a long chain of dependence, and, as it were, organizing
+submission into a system.[303] In England, on the other hand, such
+arrangements were so unsuited to the general state of affairs, that it
+is doubtful if they were ever carried on to any extent; and, at all
+events, it is certain that, in the reign of Edward I., they were finally
+stopped by the statute known to lawyers as _Quia emptores_.[304]
+
+  [300] See some good remarks in _Mably_, _Observations sur l'Hist. de
+        France_, vol. iii. pp. 114, 115.
+
+  [301] _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 111.
+
+  [302] 'Originally there was no limit to subinfeudation.' _Brougham's
+        Polit. Philos._ vol. i. p. 279.
+
+  [303] A living French historian boasts that, in his own country, 'toute
+        la société féodale formait ainsi une échelle de clientelle et de
+        patronage.' _Cassagnac_, _Révolution Française_, vol. i. p. 459.
+
+  [304] This is 18 Edw. I. c. 1; respecting which, see _Blackstone's
+        Comment._ vol. ii. p. 91, vol. iv. p. 425; _Reeve's Hist. of
+        English Law_, vol. ii. p. 223; _Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal
+        Property_, pp. 102, 243, 340.
+
+Thus early was there a great social divergence between France and
+England. The consequences of this were still more obvious when, in the
+fourteenth century, the feudal system rapidly decayed in both countries.
+For in England, the principle of protection being feeble, men were in
+some degree accustomed to self-government; and they were able to hold
+fast by those great institutions which would have been ill adapted to
+the more obedient habits of the French people. Our municipal privileges,
+the rights of our yeomanry, and the security of our copyholders, were,
+from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, the three most
+important guarantees for the liberties of England.[305] In France such
+guarantees were impossible. The real division being between those who
+were noble, and those who were not noble, no room was left for the
+establishment of intervening classes; but all were compelled to fall
+into one of these two great ranks.[306] The French have never had any
+thing answering to our yeomanry; nor were copyholders recognized by
+their laws. And, although they attempted to introduce into their
+country municipal institutions, all such efforts were futile; for, while
+they copied the forms of liberty, they lacked that bold and sturdy
+spirit by which alone liberty can be secured. They had, indeed, its
+image and superscription; but they wanted the sacred fire that warms the
+image into life. Every thing else they possessed. The show and
+appliances of freedom were there. Charters were granted to their towns,
+and privileges conceded to their magistrates. All, however, was useless.
+For it is not by the wax and parchment of lawyers that the independence
+of men can be preserved. Such things are the mere externals; they set
+off liberty to advantage; they are as its dress and paraphernalia, its
+holiday-suit in times of peace and quiet. But, when the evil days set
+in, when the invasions of despotism have begun, liberty will be
+retained, not by those who can show the oldest deeds and the largest
+charters, but by those who have been most inured to habits of
+independence, most accustomed to think and act for themselves, and most
+regardless of that insidious protection which the upper classes have
+always been so ready to bestow, that, in many countries, they have now
+left nothing worth the trouble to protect.
+
+  [305] The history of the decay of that once most important class, the
+        English yeomanry, is an interesting subject, and one for which I
+        have collected considerable materials; at present, I will only
+        say, that its decline was first distinctly perceptible in the
+        latter half of the seventeenth century, and was consummated by
+        the rapidly-increasing power of the commercial and manufacturing
+        classes early in the eighteenth century. After losing their
+        influence, their numbers naturally diminished, and they made way
+        for other bodies of men, whose habits of mind were less
+        prejudiced, and therefore better suited to that new state which
+        society assumed in the last age. I mention this, because some
+        writers regret the almost total destruction of the yeoman
+        freeholders; overlooking the fact, that they are disappearing,
+        not in consequence of any violent revolution or stretch of
+        arbitrary power, but simply by the general march of affairs;
+        society doing away with what it no longer requires. Compare
+        _Kay's Social Condition of the People_, vol. i. pp. 43, 602, with
+        a letter from Wordsworth in _Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer_,
+        p. 440; a note in _Mill's Polit. Econ._ vol. i. pp. 311, 312;
+        another in _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. v. p. 323; and _Sinclair's
+        Correspond._ vol. i. p. 229.
+
+  [306] This is stated as an admitted fact by French writers living in
+        different periods and holding different opinions; but all agreed
+        as to there being only two divisions: 'comme en France on est
+        toujours ou noble, ou roturier, et qu'il n'y a pas de milieu.'
+        _Mém. de Rivarol_, p. 7. 'La grande distinction des nobles et des
+        roturiers.' _Giraud_, _Précis de l'Ancien Droit_, p. 10. Indeed,
+        according to the Coutumes, the nobles and roturiers attained
+        their majority at different ages. _Klimrath_, _Hist. du Droit_,
+        vol. ii. p. 249 (erroneously stated in _Story's Conflict of
+        Laws_, pp. 56, 79, 114). See further respecting this capital
+        distinction, _Mém. de Duplessis Mornay_, vol. ii. p. 230
+        ('agréable à la noblesse et au peuple'); _[OE]uvres de Turgot_,
+        vol. viii. pp. 222, 232, 237; _Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer_,
+        p. 256; _Mably_, _Observations_, vol. iii. p. 263; and _Mercier
+        sur Rousseau_, vol. i. p. 38: 'On étoit roturier, vilain, homme
+        de néant, canaille, dès qu'on ne s'appelloit plus marquis, baron,
+        comte, chevalier, etc.'
+
+And so it was in France. The towns, with few exceptions, fell at the
+first shock; and the citizens lost those municipal privileges which, not
+being grafted on the national character, it was found impossible to
+preserve. In the same way, in our country, power naturally, and by the
+mere force of the democratic movement, fell into the hands of the House
+of Commons; whose authority has ever since, notwithstanding occasional
+checks, continued to increase at the expense of the more aristocratic
+parts of the legislature. The only institution answering to this in
+France was the States-General; which, however, had so little influence,
+that, in the opinion of native historians, it was hardly to be called an
+institution at all.[307] Indeed, the French were, by this time, so
+accustomed to the idea of protection, and to the subordination which
+that idea involves, that they were little inclined to uphold an
+establishment which, in their constitution, was the sole representative
+of the popular element. The result was, that, by the fourteenth century,
+the liberties of Englishmen were secured;[308] and, since then, their
+only concern has been to increase what they have already obtained. But
+in that same century, in France, the protective spirit assumed a new
+form; the power of the aristocracy was, in a great measure, succeeded by
+the power of the crown; and there began that tendency to centralization
+which, having been pushed still further, first under Louis XIV., and
+afterwards under Napoleon, has become the bane of the French
+people.[309] For by it the feudal ideas of superiority and submission
+have long survived that barbarous age to which alone they were suited.
+Indeed, by their transmigration, they seemed to have gained fresh
+strength. In France, every thing is referred to one common centre, in
+which all civil functions are absorbed. All improvements of any
+importance, all schemes for bettering even the material condition of the
+people must receive the sanction of government; the local authorities
+not being considered equal to such arduous tasks. In order that inferior
+magistrates may not abuse their power, no power is conferred upon them.
+The exercise of independent jurisdiction is almost unknown. Every thing
+that is done must be done at head quarters.[310] The government is
+believed to see every thing, know every thing, and provide for every
+thing. To enforce this monstrous monopoly there has been contrived a
+machinery well worthy of the design. The entire country is covered by an
+immense array of officials;[311] who, in the regularity of their
+hierarchy, and in the order of their descending series, form an
+admirable emblem of that feudal principle, which ceasing to be
+territorial, has now become personal. In fact, the whole business of the
+state is conducted on the supposition that no man either knows his own
+interest, or is fit to take care of himself. So paternal are the
+feelings of government, so eager for the welfare of its subjects, that
+it has drawn within its jurisdiction the most rare, as well as the most
+ordinary, actions of life. In order that the French may not make
+imprudent wills, it has limited the right of bequest; and, for fear that
+they should bequeath their property wrongly, it prevents them from
+bequeathing the greater part of it at all. In order that society may be
+protected by its police, it has directed that no one shall travel
+without a passport. And when men are actually travelling, they are met
+at every turn by the same interfering spirit, which, under pretence of
+protecting their persons, shackles their liberty. Into another matter,
+far more serious, the French have carried the same principle. Such is
+their anxiety to protect society against criminals, that, when an
+offender is placed at the bar of one of their courts, there is exhibited
+a spectacle which is no idle boast to say we, in England, could not
+tolerate for a single hour. There is seen a great public magistrate, by
+whom the prisoner is about to be tried, examining him in order to
+ascertain his supposed guilt, re-examining him, cross-examining him,
+performing the duties, not of a judge, but of a prosecutor, and bringing
+to bear against the unhappy man all the authority of his judicial
+position, all his professional subtlety, all his experience, all the
+dexterity of his practised understanding. This is, perhaps, the most
+alarming of the many instances in which the tendencies of the French
+intellect are shown; because it supplies a machinery ready for the
+purposes of absolute power; because it brings the administration of
+justice into disrepute, by associating with it an idea of unfairness;
+and because it injures that calm and equable temper, which it is
+impossible fully to maintain under a system that makes a magistrate an
+advocate, and turns the judge into a partizan. But this, mischievous as
+it is, only forms part of a far larger scheme. For, to the method by
+which criminals are discovered, there is added an analogous method, by
+which crime is prevented. With this view, the people, even in their
+ordinary amusements, are watched and carefully superintended. Lest they
+should harm each other by some sudden indiscretion, precautions are
+taken similar to those with which a father might surround his children.
+In their fairs, at their theatres, their concerts, and their other
+places of public resort, there are always present soldiers, who are sent
+to see that no mischief is done, that there is no unnecessary crowding,
+that no one uses harsh language, that no one quarrels with his
+neighbour. Nor does the vigilance of the government stop there. Even the
+education of children is brought under the control of the state, instead
+of being regulated by the judgment of masters or parents.[312] And the
+whole plan is executed with such energy, that, as the French while men
+are never let alone, just so while children they are never left
+alone.[313] At the same time, it being reasonably supposed that the
+adults thus kept in pupilage cannot be proper judges of their own food,
+the government has provided for this also. Its prying eye follows the
+butcher to the shambles, and the baker to the oven. By its paternal
+hand, meat is examined lest it should be bad, and bread is weighed lest
+it should be light. In short, without multiplying instances, with which
+most readers must be familiar, it is enough to say that in France, as in
+every country where the protective principle is active, the government
+has established a monopoly of the worst kind; a monopoly which comes
+home to the business and bosoms of men, follows them in their daily
+avocations, troubles them with its petty, meddling spirit, and, what is
+worse than all, diminishes their responsibility to themselves; thus
+depriving them of what is the only real education that most minds
+receive,--the constant necessity of providing for future contingencies,
+and the habit of grappling with the difficulties of life.
+
+  [307] 'Les états-généraux sont portés dans la liste de nos institutions.
+        Je ne sais cependant s'il est permis de donner ce nom à des
+        rassemblemens aussi irréguliers.' _Montlosier_, _Monarchie
+        Française_, vol. i. p. 266. 'En France, les états-généraux, au
+        moment même de leur plus grand éclat, c'est à dire dans le cours
+        du xiv^e siècle, n'ont guère été que des accidents, un pouvoir
+        national et souvent invoqué, mais non un établissement
+        constitutionnel.' _Guizot_, _Essais_, p. 253. See also _Mably_,
+        _Observations_, vol. iii. p. 147; and _Sismondi_, _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. xiv. p. 642.
+
+  [308] This is frankly admitted by one of the most candid and enlightened
+        of all the foreign writers on our history, _Guizot_, _Essais_, p.
+        297: 'En 1307, les droits qui devaient enfanter en Angleterre un
+        gouvernement libre étaient définitivement reconnus.'
+
+  [309] See an account of the policy of Philip the Fair, in _Mably_,
+        _Observations_, vol. ii. pp. 25-44; in _Boulainvilliers_, _Ancien
+        Gouvernement_, vol. i. pp. 292, 314, vol. ii. pp. 37, 38; and in
+        _Guizot_, _Civilisation en France_, vol. iv. pp. 170-192. M.
+        Guizot says, perhaps too strongly, that his reign was 'la
+        métamorphose de la royauté en despotisme,' On the connexion of
+        this with the centralizing movement, see _Tocqueville's
+        Démocratie_, vol. i. p. 307: 'Le goût de la centralisation et la
+        manie réglementaire remontent, en France, à l'époque où les
+        légistes sont entrés dans le gouvernement; ce qui nous reporte au
+        temps de Philippe le Bel.' Tennemann also notices, that in his
+        reign the 'Rechtstheorie' began to exercise influence; but this
+        learned writer takes a purely metaphysical view, and has
+        therefore misunderstood the more general social tendency. _Gesch.
+        der Philos._ vol. viii. p. 823.
+
+  [310] As several writers on law notice this system with a lenient eye
+        _Origines du Droit Français_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii.
+        p. 321; and _Eschbach_, _Etude du Droit_, p. 129: 'le système
+        énergique de la centralisation', it may be well to state how it
+        actually works.
+
+        Mr. Bulwer, writing twenty years ago, says: 'Not only cannot a
+        commune determine its own expenses without the consent of the
+        minister or one of his deputed functionaries, it cannot even
+        erect a building, the cost of which shall have been sanctioned,
+        without the plan being adopted by a board of public works
+        attached to the central authority, and having the supervision and
+        direction of every public building throughout the Kingdom.'
+        _Bulwer's Monarchy of the Middle Classes_, 1836, vol. ii. p. 262.
+
+        M. Tocqueville, writing in the present year (1856), says, 'Sous
+        l'ancien régime, _comme de nos jours_, il n'y avait ville, bourg,
+        village, ni si petit hameau en France, hôpital, fabrique, couvent
+        ni collège, qui pût avoir une volonté indépendante dans ses
+        affaires particulières, ni administrer à sa volonté ses propres
+        biens. Alors, _comme aujourd'hui_, l'administration tenait donc
+        tous les Français en tutelle, et si l'insolence du mot ne s'était
+        pas encore produite, on avait du moins déjà la chose.'
+        _Tocqueville_, _l'Ancien Régime_, 1856, pp. 79, 80.
+
+  [311] The number of civil functionaries in France, who are paid by the
+        government to trouble the people, passes all belief, being
+        estimated, at different periods during the present century, at
+        from 138,000 to upwards of 800,000. _Tocqueville_, _de la
+        Démocratie_, vol. i. p. 220; _Alison's Europe_, vol. xiv. pp. 127,
+        140; _Kay's Condition of the People_, vol. i. p. 272; _Laing's
+        Notes_, 2d series, p. 185. Mr. Laing, writing in 1850, says: 'In
+        France, at the expulsion of Louis Philippe, the civil
+        functionaries were stated to amount to 807,030 individuals.'
+
+  [312] 'The government in France possesses control over all the education
+        of the country, with the exception of the colleges for the
+        education of the clergy, which are termed seminaries, and their
+        subordinate institutions.' _Report on the State of Superior
+        Education in France in_ 1843, in _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol.
+        vi. p. 304. On the steps taken during the power of Napoleon, see
+        _Alison's Europe_, vol. viii. p. 203: 'Nearly the whole education
+        of the empire was brought effectually under the direction and
+        appointment of government.'
+
+  [313] Much attention is paid to the _surveillance_ of pupils; it being a
+        fundamental principle of French education, that children should
+        never be left alone. _Report on General Education in France in_
+        1842, in _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. v. p. 20.
+
+The consequence of all this has been, that the French, though a great
+and splendid people,--a people full of mettle, high-spirited, abounding
+in knowledge, and perhaps less oppressed by superstition than any other
+in Europe,--have always been found unfit to exercise political power.
+Even when they have possessed it, they have never been able to combine
+permanence with liberty. One of these two elements has always been
+wanting. They have had free governments, which have not been stable.
+They have had stable governments, which have not been free. Owing to
+their fearless temper, they have rebelled, and no doubt will continue to
+rebel, against so evil a condition.[314] But it does not need the tongue
+of a prophet to tell that, for at least some generations, all such
+efforts must be unsuccessful. For men can never be free, unless they are
+educated to freedom. And this is not the education which is to be found
+in schools, or gained from books; but it is that which consists in
+self-discipline, in self-reliance, and in self-government. These, in
+England, are matters of hereditary descent--traditional habits, which we
+imbibe in our youth, and which regulate us in the conduct of life. The
+old associations of the French all point in another direction. At the
+slightest difficulty, they call on the government for support. What with
+us is competition, with them is monopoly. That which we effect by
+private companies, they effect by public boards. They cannot cut a
+canal, or lay down a railroad, without appealing to the government for
+aid. With them, the people look to the rulers; with us, the rulers look
+to the people. With them, the executive is the centre from which society
+radiates;[315] with us, society is the instigator, and the executive the
+organ. The difference in the result has corresponded with the difference
+in the process. We have been made fit for political power, by the long
+exercise of civil rights; they, neglecting the exercise, think they can
+at once begin with the power. We have always shown a determination to
+uphold our liberties, and, when the times are fitting, to increase them;
+and this we have done with a decency and a gravity natural to men to
+whom such subjects have long been familiar. But the French, always
+treated as children, are, in political matters, children still. And as
+they have handled the most weighty concerns in that gay and volatile
+spirit which adorns their lighter literature, it is no wonder that they
+have failed in matters where the first condition of success is, that men
+should have been long accustomed to rely upon their own energies, and
+that before they try their skill in a political struggle, their
+resources should have been sharpened by that preliminary discipline,
+which a contest with the difficulties of civil life can never fail to
+impart.
+
+  [314] A distinguished French author says: 'La France souffre du mal du
+        siècle; elle en est plus malade qu'aucun autre pays; ce mal c'est
+        la haine de l'autorité.' _Custine_, _Russie_, vol. ii. p. 136.
+        Compare, _Rey_, _Science Sociale_, vol. ii. p. 86 note.
+
+  [315] It is to the activity of this protective and centralizing spirit
+        that we must ascribe, what a very great authority noticed thirty
+        years ago, as 'le défaut de spontanéité, qui caractérise les
+        institutions de la France moderne.' _Meyer_, _Instit. Judic._
+        vol. iv. p. 536. It is also this which, in literature and in
+        science, makes them favour the establishment of academies; and it
+        is probably to the same principle that their jurists owe their
+        love of codification. All these are manifestations of an
+        unwillingness to rely on the general march of affairs, and show
+        an undue contempt for the unaided conclusions of private men.
+
+These are among the considerations by which we must be guided, in
+estimating the probable destinies of the great countries of Europe. But
+what we are now rather concerned with is, to notice how the opposite
+tendencies of France and England long continued to be displayed in the
+condition and treatment of their aristocracy; and how from this there
+naturally followed some striking differences between the war conducted
+by the Fronde, and that waged by the Long Parliament.
+
+When, in the fourteenth century, the authority of the French kings began
+rapidly to increase, the political influence of the nobility was, of
+course, correspondingly diminished. What, however, proves the extent to
+which their power had taken root, is the undoubted fact, that,
+notwithstanding this to them unfavourable circumstance, the people were
+never able to emancipate themselves from their control.[316] The
+relation the nobles bore to the throne became entirely changed; that
+which they bore to the people remained almost the same. In England,
+slavery, or villenage, as it is mildly termed, quickly diminished, and
+was extinct by the end of the sixteenth century.[317] In France, it
+lingered on two hundred years later, and was only destroyed in that
+great Revolution by which the possessors of ill-gotten power were called
+to so sharp an account.[318] Thus, too, until the last seventy years,
+the nobles were in France exempt from those onerous taxes which
+oppressed the people. The taille and corvée were heavy and grievous
+exactions, but they fell solely on men of ignoble birth;[319] for the
+French aristocracy, being a high and chivalrous race, would have deemed
+it an insult to their illustrious descent, if they had been taxed to the
+same amount as those whom they despised as their inferiors.[320]
+Indeed, every thing tended to nurture this general contempt. Every
+thing was contrived to humble one class, and exalt the other. For the
+nobles there were reserved the best appointments in the church, and also
+the most important military posts.[321] The privilege of entering the
+army as officers was confined to them;[322] and they alone possessed a
+prescriptive right to belong to the cavalry.[323] At the same time, and
+to avoid the least chance of confusion, an equal vigilance was displayed
+in the most trifling matters, and care was taken to prevent any
+similarity, even in the amusements of the two classes. To such a pitch
+was this brought, that, in many parts of France, the right of having an
+aviary or a dovecote depended entirely on a man's rank; and no
+Frenchman, whatever his wealth might be, could keep pigeons, unless he
+were a noble; it being considered that these recreations were too
+elevated for persons of plebeian origin.[324]
+
+  [316] Mably (_Observations_, vol. iii. pp. 154, 155, 352-362) has
+        collected some striking evidence of the tyranny of the French
+        nobles in the sixteenth century; and as to the wanton cruelty
+        with which they exercised their power in the seventeenth century,
+        see _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. vii. p. 155, vol. viii. p.
+        79, vol. ix. pp. 40, 61, 62, vol. x. pp. 255-257. In the
+        eighteenth century, matters were somewhat better; but still the
+        subordination was excessive, and the people were poor,
+        ill-treated, and miserable. Compare _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol.
+        iv. p. 139; _Letter from the Earl of Cork_, dated Lyons, 1754, in
+        _Burton's Diary_, vol. iv. p. 80; the statement of Fox, in _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxxi. p. 406; _Jefferson's Correspond._ vol. ii. p.
+        45; and _Smith's Tour on the Continent_, edit. 1793, vol. iii.
+        pp. 201, 202.
+
+  [317] Mr. Eccleston (_English Antiq._ p. 138) says, that in 1450
+        'villenage had almost passed away;' and according to Mr. Thornton
+        (_Over-Population_, p. 182), 'Sir Thomas Smith, who wrote about
+        the year 1550, declares that he had never met with any personal
+        or domestic slaves; and that the villains, or predial slaves,
+        still to be found, were so few, as to be scarcely worth
+        mentioning.' Mr. Hallam can find no 'unequivocal testimony to the
+        existence of villenage' later than 1574. _Middle Ages_, vol. ii.
+        p. 312; see, to the same effect, _Barrington on the Statutes_,
+        pp. 308, 309. If, however, my memory does not deceive me, I have
+        met with evidence of it in the reign of James I., but I cannot
+        recall the passage.
+
+  [318] M. Cassagnac (_Causes de la Révolution_, vol. iii. p. 11) says:
+        'Chose surprenante, il y avait encore, au 4 août 1789, _un
+        million cinq cent mille serfs de corps_;' and M. Giraud (_Précis
+        de l'Ancien Droit_, Paris, 1852, p. 3), 'jusqu'à la révolution
+        une division fondamentale partageait les personnes en personnes
+        libres et personnes sujettes à condition servile.' A few years
+        before the Revolution, this shameful distinction was abolished by
+        Louis XVI. in his own domains. Compare _Eschbach_, _Etude du
+        Droit_, pp. 271, 272, with _Du Mesnil_, _Mém. sur le Prince le
+        Brun_, p. 94. I notice this particularly, because M. Monteil, a
+        learned and generally accurate writer, supposes that the
+        abolition took place earlier than it really did. _Hist. des
+        divers Etats_, vol. vi. p. 101.
+
+  [319] _Cassagnac_, _de la Révolution_, vol. i. pp. 122, 173; _Giraud_,
+        _Ancien Droit_, p. 11; _Soulavie_, _Mém. de Louis XVI_, vol. vi.
+        p. 156; _Mém. au Roi sur les Municipalités_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Turgot_, vol. vii. p. 423; _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. i. p. 200.
+
+        Further information respecting the amount and nature of these
+        vexatious impositions will be found in _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._
+        vol. xiii. p. 24, vol. xiv. p. 118; _Sainte-Aulaire_, _Hist. de
+        la Fronde_, vol. i. p. 125; _Tocqueville_, _Ancien Régime_, pp.
+        135, 191, 420, 440; _Sully_, _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. ii. p.
+        412, vol. iii. p. 226, vol. iv. p. 199, vol. v. pp. 339, 410,
+        vol. vi. p. 94; _Relat. des Ambassad. Vénit._ vol. i. p. 96;
+        _Mably_, _Observations_, vol. iii. pp. 355, 356;
+        _Boulainvilliers_, _Ancien Gouvernement_, vol. iii. p. 109; _Le
+        Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. ii. p. 29; _Mém. d'Omer
+        Talon_, vol. ii. pp. 103, 369; _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. i. p. 82;
+        _Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. i. pp. 87, 332;
+        _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. i. p. 372, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59, 74,
+        75, 242, 278, vol. v. pp. 226, 242, vol. vi. p. 144, vol. viii.
+        pp. 152, 280.
+
+  [320] So deeply rooted were these feelings, that, even in 1789, the very
+        year the Revolution broke out, it was deemed a great concession
+        that the nobles 'will consent, indeed, to equal taxation.' See a
+        letter from Jefferson to Jay, dated Paris, May 9th, 1789, in
+        _Jefferson's Corresp._ vol. ii. pp. 462, 463. Compare _Mercier
+        sur Rousseau_, vol. i. p. 136.
+
+  [321] 'Les nobles, qui avaient le privilége exclusif des grandes
+        dignités et des gros bénéfices.' _Mém. de Rivarol_, p. 97: see
+        also _Mém. de Bouillé_, vol. i. p. 56; _Lemontey_,
+        _Etablissement Monarchique_, p. 337; _Daniel_, _Hist. de la
+        Milice Françoise_, vol. ii. p. 556; _Campan_, _Mém. sur
+        Marie-Antoinette_, vol. i. pp. 238, 239.
+
+  [322] 'L'ancien régime n'avait admis que des nobles pour officiers.'
+        _Mém. de Roland_, vol. i. p. 398. Ségur mentions that, early in
+        the reign of Louis XVI., 'les nobles seuls avaient le droit
+        d'entrer au service comme sous-lieutenans.' _Mém. de Ségur_, vol.
+        i. p. 65. Compare pp. 117, 265-271, with _Mém. de Genlis_,
+        vol. iii. p. 74, and _De Staël_, _Consid. sur la Rév._ vol. i.
+        p. 123.
+
+  [323] Thus, De Thou says of Henry III., 'il remet sous l'ancien pied la
+        cavalerie ordinaire, qui n'étoit composée que de la noblesse.'
+        _Hist. Univ._ vol. ix. pp. 202, 203; and see vol. x. pp. 504,
+        505, vol. xiii. p. 22; and an imperfect statement of the same
+        fact in _Boullier_, _Hist. des divers Corps de la Maison
+        Militaire des Rois de France_, Paris, 1818, p. 58, a superficial
+        work on an uninteresting subject.
+
+  [324] M. Tocqueville (_L'Ancien Régime_, p. 448) mentions, among other
+        regulations still in force late in the eighteenth century, that
+        'en Dauphiné, en Bretagne, en Normandie, il est prohibé à tout
+        roturier d'avoir des colombiers, fuies et volière; il n'y a que
+        les nobles qui puissent avoir des pigeons.'
+
+Circumstances like these are valuable, as evidence of the state of
+society to which they belong; and their importance will become
+peculiarly obvious, when we compare them with the opposite condition of
+England.
+
+For in England, neither these nor any similar distinctions have ever
+been known. The spirit of which our yeomanry, copyholders, and free
+burgesses were the representatives, proved far too strong for those
+protective and monopolizing principles of which the aristocracy are the
+guardians in politics, and the clergy in religion. And it is to the
+successful opposition made by these feelings of individual independence
+that we owe our two greatest national acts--our Reformation in the
+sixteenth, and our Rebellion in the seventeenth century. Before,
+however, tracing the steps taken in these matters, there is one other
+point of view to which I wish to call attention, as a further
+illustration of the early and radical difference between France and
+England.
+
+In the eleventh century there arose the celebrated institution of
+chivalry,[325] which was to manners what feudalism was to politics. This
+connexion is clear, not only from the testimony of contemporaries, but
+also from two general considerations. In the first place, chivalry was
+so highly aristocratic, that no one could even receive knighthood unless
+he were of noble birth;[326] and the preliminary education which was
+held to be necessary was carried on either in schools appointed by the
+nobles, or else in their own baronial castles.[327] In the second place,
+it was essentially a protective, and not at all a reforming institution.
+It was contrived with a view to remedy certain oppressions as they
+successively arose; opposed in this respect to the reforming spirit,
+which, being remedial rather than palliative, strikes at the root of an
+evil by humbling the class from which the evil proceeds, passing over
+individual cases in order to direct its attention to general causes. But
+chivalry, so far from doing this, was in fact a fusion of the
+aristocratic and the ecclesiastical forms of the protective spirit.[328]
+For, by introducing among the nobles the principle of knighthood, which,
+being personal, could never be bequeathed, it presented a point at which
+the ecclesiastical doctrine of celibacy could coalesce with the
+aristocratic doctrine of hereditary descent.[329] Out of this coalition
+sprung results of great moment. It is to this that Europe owes those
+orders, half aristocratic half religious,[330] the Knights Templars,
+the Knights of St. James, the Knights of St. John, the Knights of St.
+Michael: establishments which inflicted the greatest evils on society;
+and whose members, combining analogous vices, enlivened the superstition
+of monks with the debauchery of soldiers. As a natural consequence, an
+immense number of noble knights were solemnly pledged to 'defend the
+church;' an ominous expression, the meaning of which is too well known
+to the readers of ecclesiastical history.[331] Thus it was that
+chivalry, uniting the hostile principles of celibacy and noble birth,
+became the incarnation of the spirit of the two classes to which those
+principles belonged. Whatever benefit, therefore, this institution may
+have conferred upon manners,[332] there can be no doubt that it actively
+contributed to keep men in a state of pupilage, and stopped the march
+of society by prolonging the term of its infancy.[333]
+
+  [325] 'Dès la fin du onzième siècle, à l'époque même où commencèrent les
+        croisades, on trouve la chevalerie établie.' _Koch_, _Tab. des
+        Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 143; see also _Sainte-Palaye_, _Mém. sur
+        la Chevalerie_, vol. i. pp. 42, 68. M. Guizot (_Civilis. en
+        France_, vol. iii. pp. 349-354) has attempted to trace it back to
+        an earlier period; but he appears to have failed, though of
+        course its germs may be easily found. According to some writers
+        it originated in northern Europe; according to others in Arabia!
+        _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, p. 202; _Journal of Asiat. Soc._
+        vol. ii. p. 11.
+
+  [326] 'L'ordre de chevalerie n'étoit accordé qu'aux hommes d'un sang
+        noble.' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iv. p. 204.
+        Compare _Daniel_, _Hist. de la Milice_, vol. i. p. 97, and
+        _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. p. 20.
+
+  [327] 'In some places there were schools appointed by the nobles of the
+        country, but most frequently their own castles served.' _Mills'
+        Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. p. 31; and see _Sainte-Palaye_, _Mém.
+        sur l'Anc. Chevalerie_, vol. i. pp. 30, 56, 57, on this
+        education.
+
+  [328] This combination of knighthood and religious rites is often
+        ascribed to the crusades; but there is good evidence that it took
+        place a little earlier, and must be referred to the latter half
+        of the eleventh century. Compare _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol.
+        i. pp. 10, 11; _Daniel_, _Hist. de la Milice_, vol. i. pp. 101,
+        102, 108; _Boulainvilliers_, _Ancien Gouv._ vol. i. p. 326.
+        Sainte-Palaye (_Mém. sur la Chevalerie_, vol. i. pp. 119-123),
+        who has collected some illustrations of the relation between
+        chivalry and the church, says, p. 119, 'enfin la chevalerie étoit
+        regardée comme une ordination, un sacerdoce.' The superior clergy
+        possessed the right of conferring knighthood, and William Rufus
+        was actually knighted by Archbishop Lanfranc: 'Archiepiscopus
+        Lanfrancus, eo quòd eum nutrierat, et militem fecerat.' _Will.
+        Malmes._ lib. iv., in _Scriptores post Bedam_, p. 67. Compare
+        _Fosbroke's British Monachism_, 1843, p. 101, on knighting by
+        abbots.
+
+  [329] The influence of this on the nobles is rather exaggerated by Mr.
+        Mills; who, on the other hand, has not noticed how the
+        unhereditary element was favourable to the ecclesiastical spirit.
+        _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. pp. 15, 389, vol. ii. p. 169;
+        a work interesting as an assemblage of facts, but almost useless
+        as a philosophic estimate.
+
+  [330] 'In their origin all the military orders, and most of the
+        religious ones, were entirely aristocratic.' _Mills' Hist. of
+        Chivalry_, vol. i. p. 336.
+
+  [331] _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. pp. 148, 338. About the year
+        1127, St. Bernard wrote a discourse in favour of the Knights
+        Templars, in which 'he extols this order as a combination of
+        monasticism and knighthood.... He describes the design of it as
+        being to give the military order and knighthood a serious
+        Christian direction, and to convert war into something that God
+        might approve.' _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. vii. p.
+        358. To this may be added, that, early in the thirteenth century,
+        a chivalric association was formed, and afterwards merged in the
+        Dominican order, called the Militia of Christ: 'un nouvel ordre
+        de chevalerie destiné à poursuivre les hérétiques, sur le modèle
+        de celui des Templiers, et sous le nom de Milice de Christ.'
+        _Llorente_, _Hist. de l'Inquisition_, vol. i. pp. 52, 133, 203.
+
+  [332] Several writers ascribe to chivalry the merit of softening
+        manners, and of increasing the influence of women.
+        _Sainte-Palaye_, _Mém. sur la Chevalerie_, vol. i. pp. 220-223,
+        282, 284, vol. iii. pp. vi. vii. 159-161; _Helvétius de
+        l'Esprit_, vol. ii. pp. 50, 51; _Schlegel's Lectures_, vol. i. p.
+        209. That there was such a tendency is, I think, indisputable;
+        but it has been greatly exaggerated; and an author of
+        considerable reading on these subjects says, 'The rigid treatment
+        shown to prisoners of war in ancient times strongly marks the
+        ferocity and uncultivated manners of our ancestors, and that even
+        to ladies of high rank; notwithstanding the homage said to have
+        been paid to the fair sex in those days of chivalry.' _Grose's
+        Military Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 114. Compare _Manning on the
+        Law of Nations_, 1839, pp. 145, 146.
+
+  [333] Mr. Hallam (_Middle Ages_, vol. ii. p. 464) says, 'A third
+        reproach may be made to the character of knighthood, that it
+        widened the separation between the different classes of society,
+        and confirmed that aristocratical spirit of high birth, by which
+        the large mass of mankind were kept in unjust degradation.'
+
+On this account, it is evident that, whether we look at the immediate or
+at the remote tendency of chivalry, its strength and duration become a
+measure of the predominance of the protective spirit. If, with this
+view, we compare France and England, we shall find fresh proof of the
+early divergence of those countries. Tournaments, the first open
+expression of chivalry, are of French origin.[334] The greatest and,
+indeed, the only two great describers of chivalry are Joinville and
+Froissart, both of whom were Frenchmen. Bayard, that famous chevalier,
+who is always considered as the last representative of chivalry, was a
+Frenchman, and was killed when fighting for Francis I. Nor was it until
+nearly forty years after his death that tournaments were finally
+abolished in France, the last one having been held in 1560.[335]
+
+  [334] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iv. pp. 370, 371, 377;
+        _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. iv. p. 478; _Foncemagne_, _De
+        l'Origine des Armoiries_, in _Mém. de l'Académie des
+        Inscriptions_, vol. xx. p. 580. Koch also says (_Tableau des
+        Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 139), 'c'est de la France que l'usage
+        des tournois se répandit chez les autres nations de l'Europe.'
+        They were first introduced into England in the reign of Stephen.
+        _Lingard's England_, vol. ii. p. 27.
+
+  [335] Mr. Hallam (_Middle Ages_, vol. ii. p. 470) says they were
+        'entirely discontinued in France' in consequence of the death of
+        Henry II.; but according to _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. ii.
+        p. 226, they lasted the next year; when another fatal accident
+        occurred, and 'tournaments ceased for ever.' Compare
+        _Sainte-Palaye sur la Chevalerie_, vol. ii. pp. 39, 40.
+
+But in England, the protective spirit being much less active than in
+France, we should expect to find that chivalry, as its offspring, had
+less influence. And such was really the case. The honours that were paid
+to knights, and the social distinctions by which they were separated
+from the other classes, were never so great in our country as in
+France.[336] As men became more free, the little respect they had for
+such matters still further diminished. In the thirteenth century, and
+indeed in the very reign in which burgesses were first returned to
+parliament, the leading symbol of chivalry fell into such disrepute,
+that a law was passed obliging certain persons to accept that rank of
+knighthood which in other nations was one of the highest objects of
+ambition.[337] In the fourteenth century, this was followed by another
+blow, which deprived knighthood of its exclusively military character;
+the custom having grown up in the reign of Edward III. of conferring it
+on the judges in the courts of law, thus turning a warlike title into a
+civil honour.[338] Finally, before the end of the fifteenth century, the
+spirit of chivalry, in France still at its height, was in our country
+extinct, and this mischievous institution had become a subject for
+ridicule even among the people themselves.[339] To these circumstances
+we may add two others, which seem worthy of observation. The first is,
+that the French, notwithstanding their many admirable qualities, have
+always been more remarkable for personal vanity than the English;[340] a
+peculiarity partly referable to those chivalric traditions which even
+their occasional republics have been unable to destroy, and which makes
+them attach undue importance to external distinctions, by which I mean,
+not only dress and manners, but also medals, ribbons, stars, crosses,
+and the like, which we, a prouder people, have never held in such high
+estimation. The other circumstance is, that duelling has from the
+beginning been more popular in France than in England; and as this is a
+custom which we owe to chivalry, the difference in this respect between
+the two countries supplies another link in that long chain of evidence
+by which we must estimate their national tendencies.[341]
+
+  [336] Mr. Hallam (_Middle Ages_, vol. ii. p. 467) observes, that the
+        knight, as compared with other classes, 'was addressed by titles
+        of more respect. _There was not, however, so much distinction in
+        England as in France._' The great honour paid to knights in
+        France is noticed by Daniel (_Milice Française_, vol. i. pp. 128,
+        129) and Herder (Ideen zur Geschichte, vol. iv. pp. 226, 267)
+        says, that in France chivalry flourished more than in any other
+        country. The same remark is made by Sismondi (_Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. iv. p. 198).
+
+  [337] The _Statutum de Militibus_, in 1307, was perhaps the first
+        recognition of this. Compare _Blackstone's Comment._ vol. ii. p.
+        69; _Barrington on the Statutes_, pp. 192, 193. But we have
+        positive evidence that compulsory knighthood existed in the reign
+        of Henry III.; or at least that those who refused it were obliged
+        to pay a fine. See _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 421, and
+        _Lyttleton's Hist. of Henry II._ vol. ii. pp. 238, 239, 2nd edit.
+        4to. 1767. Lord Lyttleton, evidently puzzled, says, 'Indeed it
+        seems a deviation from the original principle of this
+        institution. For one cannot but think it a very great
+        inconsistency, that a dignity, which was deemed an accession of
+        honour to kings themselves, should be forced upon any.'
+
+  [338] In _Mills' Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. ii. p. 154, it is said, that
+        'the judges of the courts of law' were first knighted in the
+        reign of Edward III.
+
+  [339] Mr. Mills (_Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. ii. pp. 99, 100) has printed
+        a curious extract from a lamentation over the destruction of
+        chivalry, written in the reign of Edward IV.; but he has
+        overlooked a still more singular instance. This is a popular
+        ballad, written in the middle of the fifteenth century, and
+        called the Turnament of Tottenham, in which the follies of
+        chivalry are admirably ridiculed. See _Warton's Hist. of English
+        Poetry_, edit. 1840, vol. iii. pp. 98-101; and _Percy's Reliques
+        of Ancient Poetry_, edit. 1845, pp. 92-95. According to Turner
+        (_Hist. of England_, vol. vi. p. 363), 'the ancient books of
+        chivalry were laid aside' about the reign of Henry VI.
+
+  [340] This is not a mere popular opinion, but rests upon a large amount
+        of evidence, supplied by competent and impartial observers.
+        Addison, who was a lenient as well as an able judge, and who had
+        lived much among the French, calls them 'the vainest nation in
+        the world.' _Letter to Bishop Hough_, in _Aikin's Life of
+        Addison_, vol. i. p. 90. Napoleon says, 'vanity is the ruling
+        principle of the French.' _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. vi. p.
+        25. Dumont (_Souvenirs sur Mirabeau_, p. 111) declares, that 'le
+        trait le plus dominant dans le caractère français, c'est l'amour
+        propre;' and Ségur (_Souvenirs_, vol. i. pp. 73, 74), 'car en
+        France l'amour propre, ou, si on le veut, la vanité, est de
+        toutes les passions la plus irritable.' It is moreover stated,
+        that phrenological observations prove that the French are vainer
+        than the English. _Combe's Elements of Phrenology_, 6th edit.
+        Edinb. 1845, p. 90; and a partial recognition of the same fact in
+        _Broussais_, _Cours de Phrénologie_, p. 297. For other instances
+        of writers who have noticed the vanity of the French, see
+        _Tocqueville_, _l'Ancien Régime_, p. 148; _Barante_, _Lit. Franç.
+        au XVIII^e. Siècle_, p. 80; _Mém. de Brissot_, vol. i. p. 272;
+        _Mézéray_, _Hist. de France_, vol. ii. p. 933; _Lemontey_,
+        _Etablissement Monarchique_, p. 418; _Voltaire_, _Lettres
+        inédites_, vol. ii. p. 282; _Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_,
+        vol. ii. p. 358; _De Staël sur la Révolution_, vol. i. p. 260,
+        vol. ii. p. 258.
+
+  [341] The relation between chivalry and duelling has been noticed by
+        several writers; and in France, where the chivalric spirit was
+        not completely destroyed until the Revolution, we find occasional
+        traces of this connexion even in the reign of Louis XVI. See, for
+        instance, in _Mém. de Lafayette_, vol. i. p. 86, a curious letter
+        in regard to chivalry and duelling in 1778. In England there is,
+        I believe, no evidence of even a single private duel being fought
+        earlier than the sixteenth century, and there were not many till
+        the latter half of Elizabeth's reign; but in France the custom
+        arose early in the fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth it
+        became usual for the seconds to fight as well as the principals.
+        Compare _Montlosier_, _Monarc. Franç._ vol. ii. p. 436, with
+        _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. vi. p. 48. From that
+        time the love of the French for duelling became quite a passion
+        until the end of the eighteenth century, when the Revolution, or
+        rather the circumstances which led to the Revolution, caused its
+        comparative cessation. Some idea may be formed of the enormous
+        extent of this practice formerly in France, by comparing the
+        following passages, which I have the more pleasure in bringing
+        together, as no one has written even a tolerable history of
+        duelling, notwithstanding the great part it once played in
+        European society. _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. ix. pp. 592, 593,
+        vol. xv. p. 57; _Daniel_, _Milice Française_, vol. ii. p. 582;
+        _Sully_, _[OE]conomies_, vol. i. p. 301, vol. iii. p. 406, vol.
+        vi. p. 122, vol. viii. p. 41, vol. ix. p. 408; _Carew's State of
+        France under Henry IV._, in _Birch's Historical Negotiations_, p.
+        467; _Ben Jonson's Works_, edit. Gifford, vol. vi. p. 69;
+        _Dulaure_, _Hist. de Paris_ (1825 3rd edit.), vol. iv. p. 567,
+        vol. v. pp. 300, 301; _Le Clerc_, _Bibliothèque Univ._ vol. xx.
+        p. 242; _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 536; _Capefigue_, _Hist.
+        de la Réforme_, vol. viii. p. 98; _Capefigue's Richelieu_, vol.
+        i. p. 63; _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. x. p. 13; _Mém. de
+        Genlis_, vol. ii. p. 191, vol. vii. p. 215, vol. ix. p. 351;
+        _Mem. of the Baroness d'Oberkirch_, vol. i. p. 71, edit. Lond.
+        1852; _Lettres inédites d'Aguesseau_, vol. i. p. 211; _Lettres de
+        Dudeffand à Walpole_, vol. iii. p. 249, vol. iv. pp. 27, 28, 152;
+        _Boullier_, _Maison Militaire des Rois de France_, pp. 87, 88;
+        _Biog. Univ._ vol. v. pp. 402, 403, vol. xxiii. p. 411, vol.
+        xliv. pp. 127, 401, vol. xlviii. p. 522, vol. xlix. p. 130.
+
+The old associations, of which these facts are but the external
+expression, now continued to act with increasing vigour. In France, the
+protective spirit, carried into religion, was strong enough to resist
+the Reformation, and preserve to the clergy the forms, at least, of
+their ancient supremacy. In England, the pride of men, and their habits
+of self-reliance, enabled them to mature into a system what is called
+the right of private judgment, by which some of the most cherished
+traditions were eradicated; and this, as we have already seen, being
+quickly succeeded, first by scepticism, and then by toleration, prepared
+the way for that subordination of the church to the state, for which we
+are pre-eminent, and without a rival, among the nations of Europe. The
+very same tendency, acting in politics, displayed analogous results. Our
+ancestors found no difficulty in humbling the nobles, and reducing them
+to comparative insignificance. The wars of the Roses, by breaking up the
+leading families into two hostile factions, aided this movement;[342]
+and, after the reign of Edward IV., there is no instance of any
+Englishman, even of the highest rank, venturing to carry on those
+private wars, by which, in other countries, the great lords still
+disturbed the peace of society.[343] When the civil contests subsided,
+the same spirit displayed itself in the policy of Henry VII. and Henry
+VIII. For, those princes, despots as they were, mainly oppressed the
+highest classes; and even Henry VIII., notwithstanding his barbarous
+cruelties, was loved by the people, to whom his reign was, on the whole,
+decidedly beneficial. Then there came the Reformation; which, being an
+uprising of the human mind, was essentially a rebellious movement, and
+thus increasing the insubordination of men, sowed, in the sixteenth
+century, the seeds of those great political revolutions which, in the
+seventeenth century, broke out in nearly every part of Europe. The
+connexion between these two revolutionary epochs is a subject full of
+interest; but, for the purpose of the present chapter, it will be
+sufficient to notice such events, during the latter half of the
+sixteenth century, as explain the sympathy between the ecclesiastical
+and aristocratic classes, and prove how the same circumstances that were
+fatal to the one, also prepared the way for the downfall of the other.
+
+  [342] On the effect of the wars of the Roses upon the nobles, compare
+        _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 10; _Lingard's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iii. p. 340; _Eccleston's English Antiq._ pp. 224,
+        320: and on their immense pecuniary, or rather territorial,
+        losses, _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_, vol. i. p. 155.
+
+  [343] 'The last instance of a pitched battle between two powerful
+        noblemen in England occurs in the reign of Edward IV.' _Allen on
+        the Prerogative_, p. 123.
+
+When Elizabeth ascended the throne of England, a large majority of the
+nobility were opposed to the Protestant religion. This we know from the
+most decisive evidence; and, even if we had no such evidence, a general
+acquaintance with human nature would induce us to suspect that such was
+the case. For, the aristocracy, by the very conditions of their
+existence, must, as a body, always be averse to innovation. And this,
+not only because by a change they have much to lose and little to gain,
+but because some of their most pleasurable emotions are connected with
+the past rather than with the present. In the collision of actual life,
+their vanity is sometimes offended by the assumptions of inferior men;
+it is frequently wounded by the successful competition of able men.
+These are mortifications to which, in the progress of society, their
+liability is constantly increasing. But the moment they turn to the
+past, they see in those good old times which are now gone by, many
+sources of consolation. There they find a period in which their glory is
+without a rival. When they look at their pedigrees, their quarterings,
+their escutcheons; when they think of the purity of their blood, and the
+antiquity of their ancestors--they experience a comfort which ought
+amply to atone for any present inconvenience. The tendency of this is
+very obvious, and has shown itself in the history of every aristocracy
+the world has yet seen. Men who have worked themselves to so extravagant
+a pitch as to believe that it is an honour to have had one ancestor who
+came over with the Normans, and another ancestor who was present at the
+first invasion of Ireland--men who have reached this ecstacy of the
+fancy are not disposed to stop there, but, by a process with which most
+minds are familiar, they generalize their view; and, even on matters not
+immediately connected with their fame, they acquire a habit of
+associating grandeur with antiquity, and of measuring value by age;
+thus transferring to the past an admiration which otherwise they might
+reserve for the present.
+
+The connexion between these feelings and those which animate the clergy
+is very evident. What the nobles are to politics, that are the priests
+to religion. Both classes, constantly appealing to the voice of
+antiquity, rely much on tradition, and make great account of upholding
+established customs. Both take for granted that what is old is better
+than what is new; and that in former times there were means of
+discovering truths respecting government and theology which we, in these
+degenerate ages, no longer possess. And it may be added, that the
+similarity of their functions follows from the similarity of their
+principles. Both are eminently protective, stationary, or, as they are
+sometimes called, conservative. It is believed that the aristocracy
+guard the state against revolution, and that the clergy keep the church
+from error. The first are the enemies of reformers; the others are the
+scourge of heretics.
+
+It does not enter into the province of this Introduction to examine how
+far these principles are reasonable, or to inquire into the propriety of
+notions which suppose that, on certain subjects of immense importance,
+men are to remain stationary, while on all other subjects they are
+constantly advancing. But what I now rather wish to point out, is the
+manner in which, in the reign of Elizabeth, the two great conservative
+and protective classes were weakened by that vast movement, the
+Reformation, which, though completed in the sixteenth century, had been
+prepared by a long chain of intellectual antecedents.
+
+Whatever the prejudices of some may suggest, it will be admitted, by all
+unbiassed judges, that the Protestant Reformation was neither more nor
+less than an open rebellion. Indeed, the mere mention of private
+judgment, on which it was avowedly based, is enough to substantiate this
+fact. To establish the right of private judgment, was to appeal from the
+church to individuals; it was to increase the play of each man's
+intellect; it was to test the opinions of the priesthood by the
+opinions of laymen; it was, in fact, a rising of the scholars against
+their teachers, of the ruled against their rulers. And although the
+reformed clergy, as soon as they had organised themselves into a
+hierarchy, did undoubtedly abandon the great principle with which they
+started, and attempt to impose articles and canons of their own
+contrivance, still, this ought not to blind us to the merits of the
+Reformation itself. The tyranny of the Church of England, during the
+reign of Elizabeth, and still more during the reigns of her two
+successors, was but the natural consequence of that corruption which
+power always begets in those who wield it, and does not lessen the
+importance of the movement by which the power was originally obtained.
+For men could not forget that, tried by the old theological theory, the
+church of England was a schismatic establishment, and could only defend
+itself from the charge of heresy by appealing to that private judgment,
+to the exercise of which it owed its existence, but of the rights of
+which its own proceedings were a constant infraction. It was evident
+that if, in religious matters, private judgment were supreme, it became
+a high spiritual crime to issue any articles, or to take any measure, by
+which that judgment could be tied up; while, on the other hand, if the
+right of private judgment were not supreme, the church of England was
+guilty of apostacy, inasmuch as its founders did, by virtue of the
+interpretation which their own private judgment made of the Bible,
+abandon tenets which they had hitherto held, stigmatize those tenets as
+idolatrous, and openly renounce their allegiance to what had for
+centuries been venerated as the catholic and apostolic church.
+
+This was a simple alternative; which might, indeed, be kept out of
+sight, but could not be refined away, and most assuredly has never been
+forgotten. The memory of the great truth it conveys was preserved by the
+writings and teachings of the Puritans, and by those habits of thought
+natural to an inquisitive age. And when the fulness of time had come, it
+did not fail to bear its fruit. It continued slowly to fructify; and
+before the middle of the seventeenth century, its seed had quickened
+into a life, the energy of which nothing could withstand. That same
+right of private judgment which the early Reformers had loudly
+proclaimed, was now pushed to an extent fatal to those who opposed it.
+This it was which, carried into politics, overturned the government,
+and, carried into religion, upset the church.[344] For, rebellion and
+heresy are but different forms of the same disregard of tradition, the
+same bold and independent spirit. Both are of the nature of a protest
+made by modern ideas against old associations. They are as a struggle
+between the feelings of the present and the memory of the past. Without
+the exercise of private judgment, such a contest could never take place;
+the mere conception of it could not enter the minds of men, nor would
+they even dream of controlling, by their individual energy, those abuses
+to which all great societies are liable. It is, therefore, in the
+highest degree natural that the exercise of this judgment should be
+opposed by those two powerful classes who, from their position, their
+interests, and the habits of their mind, are more prone than any other
+to cherish antiquity, cleave to superannuated customs, and uphold
+institutions which, to use their favourite language, have been
+consecrated by the wisdom of their fathers.
+
+  [344] Clarendon (_Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 80), in a very angry
+        spirit, but with perfect truth, notices (under the year 1640) the
+        connexion between 'a proud and venomous dislike against the
+        discipline of the church of England, and so by degrees (as the
+        progress is very natural) an equal irreverence to the government
+        of the state too.' The Spanish government, perhaps more than any
+        other in Europe, has understood this relation; and even so late
+        as 1789, an edict of Charles IV. declared, 'qu'il y a crime
+        d'hérésie dans tout ce qui tend, ou contribue, à propager les
+        idées révolutionnaires.' _Llorente_, _Hist. de l'Inquisition_,
+        vol. ii. p. 130.
+
+From this point of view we are able to see with great clearness the
+intimate connexion which, at the accession of Elizabeth, existed between
+the English nobles and the Catholic clergy. Notwithstanding many
+exceptions, an immense majority of both classes opposed the Reformation,
+because it was based on that right of private judgment of which they,
+as the protectors of old opinions, were the natural antagonists. All
+this can excite no surprise; it was in the order of things, and strictly
+accordant with the spirit of those two great sections of society.
+Fortunately, however, for our country, the throne was now occupied by a
+sovereign who was equal to the emergency, and who, instead of yielding
+to the two classes, availed herself of the temper of the age to humble
+them. The manner in which this was effected by Elizabeth, in respect,
+first to the Catholic clergy, and afterwards to the Protestant
+clergy,[345] forms one of the most interesting parts of our history; and
+in an account of the reign of the great queen, I hope to examine it at
+considerable length. At present, it will be sufficient to glance at her
+policy towards the nobles--that other class with which the priesthood,
+by their interests, opinions, and associations, have always much in
+common.
+
+  [345] The general character of her policy towards the Protestant English
+        bishops is summed up very fairly by Collier; though he, as a
+        professional writer, is naturally displeased with her disregard
+        for the heads of the church. _Collier's Eccles. Hist. of Great
+        Britain_, vol. vii. pp. 257, 258, edit. Barham, 1840.
+
+Elizabeth, at her accession to the throne, finding that the ancient
+families adhered to the ancient religion, naturally called to her
+councils advisers who were more likely to uphold the novelties on which
+the age was bent. She selected men who, being little burdened by past
+associations, were more inclined to favour present interests. The two
+Bacons, the two Cecils, Knollys, Sadler, Smith, Throgmorton, Walsingham,
+were the most eminent statesmen and diplomatists in her reign; but all
+of them were commoners; only one did she raise to the peerage; and they
+were certainly nowise remarkable, either for the rank of their immediate
+connexions, or for the celebrity of their remote ancestors. They,
+however, were recommended to Elizabeth by their great abilities, and by
+their determination to uphold a religion which the ancient aristocracy
+naturally opposed. And it is observable that, among the accusations
+which the Catholics brought against the queen, they taunted her, not
+only with forsaking the old religion, but also with neglecting the old
+nobility.[346]
+
+  [346] One of the charges which, in 1588, Sixtus V. publicly brought
+        against Elizabeth, was, that 'she hath rejected and excluded the
+        ancient nobility, and promoted to honour obscure people.'
+        _Butler's Mem. of the Catholics_, vol. ii. p. 4. Persons also
+        reproaches her with her low-born ministers, and says that she was
+        influenced 'by five persons in particular--all of them sprung
+        from the earth--Bacon, Cecil, Dudley, Hatton, and Walsingham.'
+        _Butler_, vol. ii. p. 31. Cardinal Allen taunted her with
+        'disgracing the ancient nobility, erecting base and unworthy
+        persons to all the civil and ecclesiastical dignities.' _Dodd's
+        Church History_, edit. Tierney, 1840, vol. iii. appendix no. xii.
+        p. xlvi. The same influential writer, in his _Admonition_, said
+        that she had injured England, 'by great contempt and abasing of
+        the ancient nobility, repelling them from due government,
+        offices, and places of honour.' _Allen's Admonition to the
+        Nobility and People of England and Ireland_, 1588 (reprinted
+        London, 1842), p. xv. Compare the account of the Bull of 1588, in
+        _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. x. p. 175: 'On accusoit Elisabeth
+        d'avoir au préjudice de la noblesse angloise élevé aux dignités,
+        tant civiles qu'ecclésiastiques, des hommes nouveaux, sans
+        naissance, et indignes de les posséder.'
+
+Nor does it require much acquaintance with the history of the time to
+see the justice of this charge. Whatever explanation we may choose to
+give of the fact, it cannot be denied that, during the reign of
+Elizabeth, there was an open and constant opposition between the nobles
+and the executive government. The rebellion of 1569 was essentially an
+aristocratic movement; it was a rising of the great families of the
+north against what they considered the upstart and plebeian
+administration of the queen.[347] The bitterest enemy of Elizabeth was
+certainly Mary of Scotland; and the interests of Mary were publicly
+defended by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of
+Westmoreland, and the Earl of Arundel; while there is reason to believe
+that her cause was secretly favoured by the Marquis of Northampton, the
+Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Cumberland, the Earl of
+Shrewsbury, and the Earl of Sussex.[348]
+
+  [347] To the philosophic historian this rebellion, though not
+        sufficiently appreciated by ordinary writers, is a very important
+        study, because it is the last attempt ever made by the great
+        English families to establish their authority by force of arms.
+        Mr. Wright says, that probably all those who took a leading part
+        in it 'were allied by blood or intermarriage with the two
+        families of the Percies and Neviles.' _Wright's Elizabeth_, 1838,
+        vol. i. p. xxxiv.; a valuable work. See also, in _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. i. p. 730, a list of some of those who, in 1571, were
+        attainted on account of this rebellion, and who are said to be
+        'all of the best families in the north of England.'
+
+        But the most complete evidence we have respecting this struggle,
+        consists of the collection of original documents published in
+        1840 by Sir C. Sharpe, under the title of _Memorials of the
+        Rebellion of 1569_. They show very clearly the real nature of the
+        outbreak. On 17th November 1569, Sir George Bowes writes, that
+        the complaint of the insurgents was that 'there was certaine
+        counsellors cropen' (_i.e._ crept) 'in aboute the prince, which
+        had excluded the nobility from the prince,' &c., _Memorials_, p.
+        42; and the editor's note says that this is one of the charges
+        made in all the proclamations by the earls. Perhaps the most
+        curious proof of how notorious the policy of Elizabeth had
+        become, is contained in a friendly letter from Sussex to Cecil,
+        dated 5th January 1569 (_Memorials_, p. 137), one paragraph of
+        which begins, 'Of late years few young noblemen have been
+        employed in service.'
+
+  [348] _Hallam_, i. p. 130; _Lingard_, v. pp. 97, 102; _Turner_, xii.
+        pp. 245, 247.
+
+The existence of this antagonism of interests could not escape the
+sagacity of the English government. Cecil, who was the most powerful of
+the ministers of Elizabeth, and who was at the head of affairs for forty
+years, made it part of his business to study the genealogies and
+material resources of the great families; and this he did, not out of
+idle curiosity, but in order to increase his control over them, or, as a
+great historian says, to let them know 'that his eye was upon
+them.'[349] The queen herself, though too fond of power, was by no means
+of a cruel disposition; but she seemed to delight in humbling the
+nobles. On them her hand fell heavily; and there is hardly to be found a
+single instance of her pardoning their offences, while she punished
+several of them for acts which would now be considered no offences at
+all. She was always unwilling to admit them to authority; and it is
+unquestionably true that, taking them as a class, they were, during her
+long and prosperous reign, treated with unusual disrespect. Indeed, so
+clearly marked was her policy, that when the ducal order became extinct,
+she refused to renew it; and a whole generation passed away to whom the
+name of duke was a mere matter of history, a point to be mooted by
+antiquaries, but with which the business of practical life had no
+concern.[350] Whatever may be her other faults, she was on this subject
+always consistent. Although she evinced the greatest anxiety to surround
+the throne with men of ability, she cared little for those conventional
+distinctions by which the minds of ordinary sovereigns are greatly
+moved. She made no account of dignity of rank; she did not even care for
+purity of blood. She valued men neither for the splendour of their
+ancestry, nor for the length of their pedigrees, nor for the grandeur of
+their titles. Such questions she left for her degenerate successors, to
+the size of whose understandings they were admirably fitted. Our great
+queen regulated her conduct by another standard. Her large and powerful
+intellect, cultivated to its highest point by reflection and study,
+taught her the true measure of affairs, and enabled her to see, that to
+make a government flourish, its councillors must be men of ability and
+of virtue; but that if these two conditions are fulfilled, the nobles
+may be left to repose in the enjoyment of their leisure, unoppressed by
+those cares of the state for which, with a few brilliant exceptions,
+they are naturally disqualified by the number of their prejudices and by
+the frivolity of their pursuits.
+
+  [349] _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 241; an interesting passage.
+        Turner (_Hist. of England_, vol. xii. p. 237) says, that Cecil
+        'knew the tendency of the great lords to combine against the
+        crown, that they might reinstate the peerage in the power from
+        which the house of Tudor had depressed it.'
+
+  [350] In 1572 the order of dukes became extinct; and was not revived
+        till fifty years afterwards, when James I. made the miserable
+        Villiers, duke of Buckingham. _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol.
+        i. p. 397. This evidently attracted attention; for Ben Jonson, in
+        one of his comedies in 1616, mentions 'the received heresy that
+        England bears no dukes.' _Jonson's Works_, edit. Gifford, 1816,
+        vol. v. p. 47, where Gifford, not being aware of the extinction
+        in 1572, has made an unsatisfactory note.
+
+After the death of Elizabeth, an attempt was made, first by James, and
+then by Charles, to revive the power of the two great protective
+classes, the nobles and the clergy. But so admirably had the policy of
+Elizabeth been supported by the general temper of the age, that it was
+found impossible for the Stuarts to execute their mischievous plans. The
+exercise of private judgment, both in religion and in politics, had
+become so habitual, that these princes were unable to subjugate it to
+their will. And as Charles I., with inconceivable blindness, and with an
+obstinacy even greater than that of his father, persisted in adopting in
+their worst forms the superannuated theories of protection, and
+attempted to enforce a scheme of government which men from their
+increasing independence were determined to reject, there inevitably
+arose that memorable collision which is well termed The Great Rebellion
+of England.[351] The analogy between this and the Protestant
+Reformation, I have already noticed; but what we have now to consider,
+and what, in the next chapter, I will endeavour to trace, is the nature
+of the difference between our Rebellion, and those contemporary wars of
+the Fronde, to which it was in some respects very similar.
+
+  [351] Clarendon (_Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 216) truly calls it 'the
+        most prodigious and the boldest rebellion, that any age or
+        country ever brought forth.' See also some striking remarks in
+        _Warwick's Memoirs_, p. 207.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE ENERGY OF THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT IN FRANCE EXPLAINS THE FAILURE OF
+  THE FRONDE. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FRONDE AND THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH
+                               REBELLION.
+
+
+The object of the last chapter was to enquire into the origin of the
+protective spirit. From the evidence there collected, it appears that
+this spirit was first organized into a distinct secular form at the
+close of the dark ages; but that, owing to circumstances which then
+arose, it was, from the beginning, much less powerful in England than in
+France. It has likewise appeared that, in our country, it continued to
+lose ground; while in France, it early in the fourteenth century assumed
+a new shape, and gave rise to a centralizing movement, manifested not
+only in the civil and political institutions, but also in the social and
+literary habits of the French nation. Thus far we seem to have cleared
+the way for a proper understanding of the history of the two countries;
+and I now purpose to follow this up a little further, and point out how
+this difference explains the discrepancy between the civil wars of
+England, and those which at the same time broke out in France.
+
+Among the obvious circumstances connected with the Great English
+Rebellion, the most remarkable is, that it was a war of classes as well
+as of factions. From the beginning of the contest, the yeomanry and
+traders adhered to the parliament;[352] the nobles and the clergy
+rallied round the throne.[353] And the name given to the two parties, of
+Roundheads[354] and Cavaliers,[355] proves that the true nature of this
+opposition was generally known. It proves that men were aware that a
+question was at issue, upon which England was divided, not so much by
+the particular interests of individuals, as by the general interests of
+the classes to which those individuals belonged.
+
+  [352] 'From the beginning it may be said that the yeomanry and trading
+        classes of towns were generally hostile to the king's side, even
+        in those counties which were in his military occupation; except
+        in a few, such as Cornwall, Worcester, Salop, and most of Wales,
+        where the prevailing sentiment was chiefly royalist.' _Hallam's
+        Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 578. See also _Lingard's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. vi. p. 304; and _Alison's Hist. of Europe_,
+        vol. i. p. 49.
+
+  [353] On this division of classes, which, notwithstanding a few
+        exceptions, is undoubtedly true as a general fact, compare
+        _Memoirs of Sir P. Warwick_, p. 217; _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol.
+        iii. p. 347; _Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion_, pp. 294, 297,
+        345, 346, 401, 476; _May's Hist. of the Long Parliament_, book i.
+        pp. 22, 64, book ii. p. 63, book iii. p. 78; _Hutchinson's
+        Memoirs_, p. 100; _Ludlow's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 104, vol. iii.
+        p. 258; _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, p. 86.
+
+  [354] Lord Clarendon says, in his grand style, 'the rabble contemned and
+        despised under the name of roundheads.' _Hist. of the Rebellion_,
+        p. 136. This was in 1641, when the title appears to have been
+        first bestowed. See _Fairfax Corresp._ vol. ii. pp. 185, 320.
+
+  [355] Just before the battle of Edgehill, in 1642, Charles said to his
+        troops, 'You are called cavaliers in a reproachful
+        signification.' See the king's speech, in _Somers Tracts_, vol.
+        iv. p. 478. Directly after the battle, he accused his opponents
+        of 'rendering all persons of honour odious to the common people,
+        under the style of cavaliers.' _May's Hist. of the Long
+        Parliament_, book iii. p. 25.
+
+But in the history of the French rebellion, there is no trace of so
+large a division. The objects of the war were in both countries
+precisely the same: the machinery by which those objects were attained
+was very different. The Fronde was like our Rebellion, insomuch that it
+was a struggle of the parliament against the crown; an attempt to secure
+liberty, and raise up a barrier against the despotism of
+government.[356] So far, and so long, as we merely take a view of
+political objects, the parallel is complete. But the social and
+intellectual antecedents of the French being very different from those
+of the English, it necessarily followed that the shape which the
+rebellion took should likewise be different, even though the motives
+were the same. If we examine this divergence a little nearer, we shall
+find that it is connected with the circumstance I have already
+noticed--namely, that in England a war for liberty was accompanied by a
+war of classes, while in France there was no war of classes at all. From
+this it resulted, that in France the rebellion, being merely political,
+and not, as with us, also social, took less hold of the public mind: it
+was unaccompanied by those feelings of insubordination, in the absence
+of which freedom has always been impossible; and, striking no root into
+the national character, it could not save the country from that servile
+state into which, a few years later, it, under the government of Louis
+XIV. rapidly fell.
+
+  [356] M. Saint-Aulaire (_Hist. de la Fronde_, vol. i. p. v.) says, that
+        the object of the Frondeurs was, 'limiter l'autorité royale,
+        consacrer les principes de la liberté civile et en confier la
+        garde aux compagnies souveraines;' and at p. vi. he calls the
+        declaration of 1648, 'une véritable charte constitutionnelle.'
+        See also, at vol. i. p. 128, the concluding paragraph of the
+        speech of Omer Talon. Joly, who was much displeased at this
+        tendency, complains that in 1648, 'le peuple tomboit
+        imperceptiblement dans le sentiment dangereux, qu'il est naturel
+        et permis de se défendre et de s'armer contre la violence des
+        supérieurs.' _Mém. de Joly_, p. 15. Of the immediate objects
+        proposed by the Fronde, one was to diminish the taille, and
+        another was to obtain a law that no one should be kept in prison
+        more than twenty-four hours, 'sans être remis entre les mains du
+        parlement pour lui faire son procès s'il se trouvoit criminel ou
+        l'élargir s'il étoit innocent.' _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. ii. p.
+        135; _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 398; _Mém. de Retz_, vol.
+        i. p. 265; _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. ii. pp. 224, 225, 240, 328.
+
+That our Great Rebellion was, in its external form, a war of classes, is
+one of those palpable facts which lie on the surface of history. At
+first, the parliament[357] did indeed attempt to draw over to their side
+some of the nobles; and in this they for a time succeeded. But as the
+struggle advanced, the futility of this policy became evident. In the
+natural order of the great movement, the nobles grew more loyal;[358]
+the parliament grew more democratic.[359] And when it was clearly seen
+that both parties were determined either to conquer or to die, this
+antagonism of classes was too clearly marked to be misunderstood; the
+perception which each had of its own interests being sharpened by the
+magnitude of the stake for which they contended.
+
+  [357] I use the word 'parliament' in the sense given to it by writers of
+        that time, and not in the legal sense.
+
+  [358] In May 1642, there remained at Westminster forty-two peers,
+        _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 559; but they gradually
+        abandoned the popular cause; and, according to _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        iii. p. 1282, so dwindled, that eventually 'seldom more than five
+        or six' were present.
+
+  [359] These increasing democratic tendencies are most clearly indicated
+        in Walker's curious work, _The History of Independency_. See
+        among other passages, book i. p. 59. And Clarendon, under the
+        year 1644, says (_Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 514): 'That violent
+        party, which had at first cozened the rest into the war, and
+        afterwards obstructed all the approaches towards peace, found now
+        that they had finished as much of their work as the tools which
+        they had wrought with could be applied to, and what remained to
+        be done must be despatched by new workmen.' What these new
+        workmen were, he afterwards explains, p. 641, to be 'the most
+        inferior people preferred to all places of trust and profit.'
+        Book xi. under the year 1648. Compare some good remarks by Mr.
+        Bell, in _Fairfax Correspond._ vol. iii. pp. 115, 116.
+
+For, without burdening this Introduction with what may be read in our
+common histories, it will be sufficient to remind the reader of a few of
+the conspicuous events of that time. Just before the war began, the Earl
+of Essex was appointed general of the parliamentary forces, with the
+Earl of Bedford as his lieutenant. A commission to raise troops was
+likewise given to the Earl of Manchester,[360] the only man of high rank
+against whom Charles had displayed open enmity.[361] Notwithstanding
+these marks of confidence, the nobles, in whom parliament was at first
+disposed to trust, could not avoid showing the old leaven of their
+order.[362] The Earl of Essex so conducted himself, as to inspire the
+popular party with the greatest apprehensions of his treachery;[363] and
+when the defence of London was intrusted to Waller, he so obstinately
+refused to enter the name of that able officer in the commission, that
+the Commons were obliged to insert it by virtue of their own authority,
+and in spite of their own general.[364] The Earl of Bedford, though he
+had received a military command, did not hesitate to abandon those who
+conferred it. This apostate noble fled from Westminster to Oxford: but
+finding that the king, who never forgave his enemies, did not receive
+him with the favour he expected, he returned to London; where, though he
+was allowed to remain in safety, it could not be supposed that he should
+again experience the confidence of parliament.[365]
+
+  [360] This was after the appointments of Essex and Bedford, and was in
+        1643. _Ludlow's Mem._ vol. i. p. 58; _Carlyle's Cromwell_,
+        vol. i. p. 189.
+
+  [361] 'When the king attempted to arrest the five members, Manchester,
+        at that time Lord Kymbolton, was the only peer whom he impeached.
+        This circumstance endeared Kymbolton to the party; his own safety
+        bound him more closely to its interests.' _Lingard's England_,
+        vol. vi. p. 337. Compare _Clarendon_, p. 375; _Ludlow_, vol. i.
+        p. 20. It is also said that Lord Essex joined the popular party
+        from personal pique against the king. _Fairfax Corresp._
+        vol. iii. p. 37.
+
+  [362] Mr. Carlyle has made some very characteristic, but very just,
+        observations on the 'high Essexes and Manchesters of limited
+        notions and large estates.' _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 215.
+
+  [363] _Ludlow's Memoirs_, vol. iii. p. 110; _Hutchinson's Memoirs_,
+        pp. 230, 231; _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. iii. p. 106;
+        _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, pp. 112, 113, 119; _Clarendon's
+        Rebellion_, pp. 486, 514; or, as Lord North puts it, 'for General
+        Essex began now to appear to the private cabalists somewhat
+        wresty.' _North's Narrative of Passages relating to the Long
+        Parliament_, published in 1670, in _Somers Tracts_, vol. vi. p.
+        578. At p. 584, the same elegant writer says of Essex, 'being the
+        first person and last of the nobility employed by the parliament
+        in military affairs, which soon brought him to the period of his
+        life. And may he be an example to all future ages, to deter all
+        persons of like dignity from being instrumental in setting up a
+        democratical power, whose interest it is to keep down all persons
+        of his condition.' The 'Letter of Admonition' addressed to him by
+        parliament in 1644, is printed in _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. p. 274.
+
+  [364] _Lingard's Hist. of England_, vol. vi. p. 318. See also, on the
+        hostility between Essex and Waller, _Walker's Hist. of
+        Independency_, part i. pp. 28, 29; and _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. p.
+        177. Sir Philip Warwick (_Memoirs_, p. 254) contemptuously calls
+        Waller 'favourite-general of the city of London.'
+
+  [365] Compare _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 569, 570, with
+        _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, p. 96, and Lord Bedford's letter, in
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. pp. 189, 190. This shuffling letter
+        confirms the unfavourable account of the writer, which is given
+        in _Clarendon's Rebellion_, p. 422.
+
+Such examples as these were not likely to lessen the distrust which both
+parties felt for each other. It soon became evident that a war of
+classes was unavoidable, and that the rebellion of the parliament
+against the king must be reinforced by a rebellion of the people against
+the nobles.[366] To this the popular party, whatever may have been their
+first intention, now willingly agreed. In 1645 they enacted a law, by
+which not only the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester lost their
+command, but all members of either house were made incapable of military
+service.[367] And, only a week after the execution of the king, they
+formally took away the legislative power of the peers; putting at the
+same time on record their memorable opinion, that the House of Lords is
+'useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished.'[368]
+
+  [366] Dr. Bates, who had been physician to Cromwell, intimates that this
+        was foreseen from the beginning. He says, that the popular party
+        offered command to some of the nobles, 'not that they had any
+        respect for the lords, whom shortly they intended to turn out and
+        to level with the commoners, but that they might poison them with
+        their own venom, and rise to greater authority by drawing more
+        over to their side.' _Bates's Account of the late Troubles in
+        England_, part i. p. 76. Lord North too supposes, that almost
+        immediately after the war began, it was determined to dissolve
+        the House of Lords. See _Somers Tracts_, vol. vi. p. 582. Beyond
+        this, I am not aware of any direct early evidence; except that,
+        in 1644, Cromwell is alleged to have stated that 'there would
+        never be a good time in England till we had done with lords.'
+        _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 217; and, what is evidently the
+        same circumstance, in _Holles's Memoirs_, p. 18.
+
+  [367] This was the 'Self-denying Ordinance,' which was introduced in
+        December, 1644; but, owing to the resistance of the peers, was
+        not carried until the subsequent April. _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii.
+        pp. 326-337, 340-343, 354, 355. See also _Mem. of Lord Holles_,
+        p. 30; _Mem. of Sir P. Warwick_, p. 283.
+
+  [368] On this great Epoch in the history of England, see _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. iii. p. 1284; _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 643;
+        _Campbell's Chief-Justices_, vol. i. p. 424; _Ludlow's Mem._ vol.
+        i. p. 246; _Warwick's Mem._ pp. 182, 336, 352.
+
+But we may find proofs still more convincing of the true character of
+the English rebellion, if we consider who those were by whom it was
+accomplished. This will show us the democratic nature of a movement
+which lawyers and antiquaries have vainly attempted to shelter under the
+form of constitutional precedent. Our great rebellion was the work, not
+of men who looked behind, but of men who looked before. To attempt to
+trace it to personal and temporary causes; to ascribe this unparalleled
+outbreak to a dispute respecting ship-money, or to a quarrel about the
+privileges of parliament, can only suit the habits of those historians
+who see no further than the preamble of a statute, or the decision of a
+judge. Such writers forget that the trial of Hampden, and the
+impeachment of the five members, could have produced no effect on the
+country, unless the people had already been prepared, and unless the
+spirit of inquiry and insubordination had so increased the discontents
+of men, as to put them in a state, where, the train being laid, the
+slightest spark sufficed to kindle a conflagration.
+
+The truth is, that the rebellion was an outbreak of the democratic
+spirit. It was the political form of a movement, of which the
+Reformation was the religious form. As the Reformation was aided, not by
+men in high ecclesiastical offices, not by great cardinals or wealthy
+bishops, but by men filling the lowest and most subordinate posts, just
+so was the English rebellion a movement from below, an uprising from the
+foundations, or as some will have it, the dregs of society. The few
+persons of high rank who adhered to the popular cause were quickly
+discarded, and the ease and rapidity with which they fell off was a
+clear indication of the turn that things were taking. Directly the army
+was freed from its noble leaders, and supplied with officers drawn from
+the lower classes, the fortune of war changed, the royalists were every
+where defeated, and the king made prisoner by his own subjects. Between
+his capture and execution, the two most important political events were
+his abduction by Joyce, and the forcible expulsion from the House of
+Commons of those members who were thought likely to interfere in his
+favour. Both these decisive steps were taken, and indeed only could have
+been taken, by men of great personal influence, and of a bold and
+resolute spirit. Joyce, who carried off the king, and who was highly
+respected in the army, had, however, been recently a common working
+tailor;[369] while Colonel Pride, whose name is preserved in history as
+having purged the House of Commons of the malignants, was about on a
+level with Joyce, since his original occupation was that of a
+drayman.[370] The tailor and the drayman were, in that age, strong
+enough to direct the course of public affairs, and to win for themselves
+a conspicuous position in the state. After the execution of Charles, the
+same tendency was displayed, the old monarchy being destroyed, that
+small but active party known as the fifth-monarchy men increased in
+importance, and for a time exercised considerable influence. Their three
+principal and most distinguished members were Venner, Tuffnel, and Okey.
+Venner, who was the leader, was a wine-cooper;[371] Tuffnel, who was
+second in command, was a carpenter;[372] and Okey, though he became a
+colonel, had filled the menial office of stoker in an Islington
+brewery.[373]
+
+  [369] 'Cornet Joyce, who was one of the agitators in the army, a tailor,
+        a fellow who had two or three years before served in a very
+        inferior employment in Mr. Hollis's house.' _Clarendon's
+        Rebellion_, p. 612. 'A shrewd tailor-man.' _D'Israeli's
+        Commentaries on the Reign of Charles I._, 1851, vol. ii. p. 466.
+
+  [370] Ludlow (_Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 139); Noble (_Memoirs of the House
+        of Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 470); and Winstanley (_Loyal
+        Martyrology_, edit. 1665, p. 108), mention that Pride had been a
+        drayman. It is said that Cromwell, in ridicule of the old
+        distinctions, conferred knighthood on him 'with a faggot.'
+        _Orme's Life of Owen_, p. 164; _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_,
+        vol. iii. p. 478.
+
+  [371] 'The fifth-monarchy, headed mainly by one Venner, a wine-cooper.'
+        _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. iii. p. 282. 'Venner, a wine-cooper.'
+        _Lister's Life and Corresp. of Clarendon_, vol. ii. p. 62.
+
+  [372] 'The second to Venner was one Tuffnel a carpenter living in Gray's
+        Inn Lane.' _Winstanley's Martyrology_, p. 163.
+
+  [373] 'He was stoaker in a brewhouse at Islington, and next a most poor
+        chandler near Lion-Key, in Thames Street.' _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        iii. p. 1605. See also _Winstanley's Martyrology_, p. 122.
+
+Nor are these to be regarded as exceptional cases. In that period,
+promotion depended solely on merit; and if a man had ability he was sure
+to rise, no matter what his birth or former avocations might have been.
+Cromwell himself was a brewer;[374] and Colonel Jones, his
+brother-in-law, had been servant to a private gentleman.[375] Deane was
+the servant of a tradesman; but he became an admiral, and was made one
+of the commissioners of the navy.[376] Colonel Goffe had been apprentice
+to a drysalter;[377] Major-general Whalley had been apprentice to a
+draper.[378] Skippon, a common soldier who had received no
+education,[379] was appointed commander of the London militia; he was
+raised to the office of sergeant-major-general of the army; he was
+declared commander-in-chief in Ireland; and he became one of the
+fourteen members of Cromwell's council.[380] Two of the lieutenants of
+the Tower were Berkstead and Tichborne. Berkstead was a pedlar, or at
+all events a hawker of small wares;[381] and Tichborne, who was a
+linendraper, not only received the lieutenancy of the Tower, but became
+a colonel, and a member of the committee of state in 1655, and of the
+council of state in 1659.[382] Other trades were equally successful; the
+highest prizes being open to all men, provided they displayed the
+requisite capacity. Colonel Harvey was a silk-mercer;[383] so was
+Colonel Rowe;[384] so also was Colonel Venn.[385] Salway had been
+apprentice to a grocer, but, being an able man, he rose to the rank of
+major in the army; he received the king's remembrancer's office; and in
+1659 he was appointed by parliament a member of the council of
+state.[386] Around that council-board were also gathered Bond the
+draper,[387] and Cawley the brewer;[388] while by their side we find
+John Berners, who is said to have been a private servant,[389] and
+Cornelius Holland, who is known to have been a servant, and who was,
+indeed, formerly a link-boy.[390] Among others who were now favoured and
+promoted to offices of trust, were Packe the woollen-draper,[391] Pury
+the weaver,[392] and Pemble the tailor.[393] The parliament which was
+summoned in 1653 is still remembered as Barebone's parliament, being so
+called after one of its most active members, whose name was Barebone,
+and who was a leather-seller in Fleet Street.[394] Thus too, Downing,
+though a poor charity-boy,[395] became teller of the exchequer, and
+representative of England at the Hague.[396] To these we may add, that
+Colonel Horton had been a gentleman's servant;[397] Colonel Berry had
+been a woodmonger;[398] Colonel Cooper a haberdasher;[399] Major Rolfe
+a shoemaker;[400] Colonel Fox a tinker;[401] and Colonel Hewson a
+cobbler.[402]
+
+  [374] Some of the clumsy eulogists of Cromwell wish to suppress the fact
+        of his being a brewer; but that he really practised that useful
+        trade is attested by a variety of evidence, and is distinctly
+        stated by his own physician, Dr. Bates. _Bates's Troubles in
+        England_, vol. ii. p. 238. See also _Walker's History of
+        Independency_, part i. p. 32, part ii. p. 25, part iii. p. 37;
+        _Noble's House of Cromwell_, vol. i. pp. 328-331. Other passages,
+        which I cannot now call to mind, will occur to those who have
+        studied the literature of the time.
+
+  [375] 'John Jones, at first a serving-man, then a colonel of the Long
+        Parliament, ... married the Protector's sister.' _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. iii. p. 1600. 'A serving-man; ... in process of time married
+        one of Cromwell's sisters.' _Winstanley's Martyrology_, p. 125.
+
+  [376] 'Richard Deane, Esq., is said to have been a servant to one
+        Button, a toyman in Ipswich, and to have himself been the son of
+        a person in the same employment; ... was appointed one of the
+        commissioners of the navy with Popham and Blake, and in April
+        (1649) he became an admiral and general at sea.' _Noble's Lives
+        of the Regicides_, vol. i. pp. 172, 173. Winstanley (_Martyrol._
+        p. 121) also says that Deane was 'servant in Ipswich.'
+
+  [377] 'Apprentice to one Vaughan a dry-salter.' _Noble's House of
+        Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 507: and see his _Regicides_, vol. i.
+        p. 255.
+
+  [378] 'Bound apprentice to a woollen-draper.' _Winstanley's Martyr._
+        p. 108. He afterwards set up in the same trade for himself; but
+        with little success, for Dr. Bates (_Troubles in England_, vol.
+        ii. p. 222) calls him 'a broken clothier.'
+
+  [379] 'Altogether illiterate.' _Clarendon's Rebellion_, p. 152. Two
+        extraordinary speeches by him are preserved in _Burton's Diary_,
+        vol. i. pp. 24, 25, 48-50.
+
+  [380] _Holles's Mem._ p. 82; _Ludlow's Mem._ vol. ii. p. 39; and a
+        letter from Fairfax in _Cary's Memorials of the Civil War_, 1842,
+        vol. i. p. 413.
+
+  [381] 'Berkstead, who heretofore sold needles, bodkins, and thimbles,
+        and would have run on an errand any where for a little money; but
+        who now by Cromwell was preferred to the honourable charge of
+        lieutenant of the Tower of London.' _Bates's Account of the
+        Troubles_, part ii. p. 222.
+
+  [382] _Noble's Regicides_, vol. ii. pp. 272, 273. Lord Holles
+        (_Memoirs_, p. 174) also mentions that he was 'a linen-draper.'
+
+  [383] 'Edward Harvy, late a poor silk-man, now colonel, and hath got the
+        Bishop of London's house and manor of Fulham.' _Walker's
+        Independency_, part i. p. 170. 'One Harvey, a decayed silk-man,'
+        _Clarendon's Rebellion_, p. 418.
+
+  [384] Owen Rowe, 'put to the trade of a silk-mercer, ... went into the
+        parliament army, and became a colonel.' _Noble's Regicides_,
+        vol. ii. p. 150.
+
+  [385] 'A silkman in London; ... went into the army, and rose to the rank
+        of colonel.' _Noble's Regicides_, vol. ii. p. 283. 'A broken
+        silk-man in Cheapside.' _Winstanley's Martyrol._ p. 130.
+
+  [386] _Walker's Independency_, part i. p. 143; _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii.
+        p. 1608; _Ludlow's Mem._ vol. ii. pp. 241, 259; _Noble's
+        Regicides_, vol. ii. pp. 158, 162.
+
+  [387] He was 'a woollen-draper at Dorchester,' and was 'one of the
+        council of state in 1649 and 1651.' _Noble's Regicides_, vol. i.
+        p. 99: see also _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. p. 1594.
+
+  [388] 'A brewer in Chichester; ... in 1650-1 he was appointed one of the
+        council of state.' _Noble's Regicides_, vol. i. p. 136. 'William
+        Cawley, a brewer of Chichester.' _Winstanley's Martyrol._ p. 138.
+
+  [389] John Berners, 'supposed to have been originally a serving-man,'
+        was 'one of the council of state in 1659,' _Noble's Regicides_,
+        vol. i. p. 90.
+
+  [390] 'Holland the link-boy,' _Walker's Independency_, part iii. p. 37.
+        'He was originally nothing more than a servant to Sir Henry Vane;
+        ... upon the establishment of the Commonwealth, he was made one
+        of the council of state in 1649, and again in 1650.' _Noble's
+        Regicides_, vol. i. pp. 357, 358.
+
+  [391] _Noble's Mem. of Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 502.
+
+  [392] _Walker's Hist. of Independency_, part i. p. 167.
+
+  [393] _Ellis's Original Letters illustrative of English History_, third
+        series, vol. iv. p. 219, Lond. 1846.
+
+  [394] _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. p. 1407; _Rose's Biog. Dict._ vol. iii.
+        p. 172; _Clarendon's Rebellion_, p. 794.
+
+  [395] 'A poor child bred upon charity.' _Harris's Stuarts_, vol. v. p.
+        281. 'A man of an obscure birth, and more obscure education.'
+        _Clarendon's Life of Himself_, p. 1116.
+
+  [396] See _Vaughan's Cromwell_, vol. i. pp. 227, 228, vol. ii. pp. 299,
+        302, 433; _Lister's Life and Corresp. of Clarendon_, vol. ii. p.
+        231, vol. iii. p. 134. The common opinion is, that he was the son
+        of a clergyman at Hackney; but if so, he was probably
+        illegitimate, considering the way he was brought up. However, his
+        Hackney origin is very doubtful, and no one appears to know who
+        his father was. See _Notes and Queries_, vol. iii. pp. 69, 213.
+
+  [397] _Noble's Regicides_, vol. i. p. 362. Cromwell had a great regard
+        for this remarkable man, who not only distinguished himself as a
+        soldier, but, judging from a letter of his recently published,
+        appears to have repaired the deficiencies of his early education.
+        See _Fairfax Correspond._ vol. iv. pp. 22-25, 108. There never
+        has been a period in the history of England in which so many men
+        of natural ability were employed in the public service as during
+        the Commonwealth.
+
+  [398] _Noble's House of Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 507.
+
+  [399] _Noble's Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 518; _Bates's Troubles_, vol. ii.
+        p. 222.
+
+  [400] _Bates's Late Troubles_, vol. i. p. 87; _Ludlow's Mem._ vol. i.
+        p. 220.
+
+  [401] _Walker's Hist. of Independency_, part ii. p. 87.
+
+  [402] Ludlow who was well acquainted with Colonel Hewson, says that he
+        'had been a shoemaker.' _Ludlow's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 139. But
+        this is the amiable partiality of a friend; and there is no doubt
+        that the gallant colonel was neither more nor less than a
+        cobbler. See _Walker's Independency_, part ii. p. 39;
+        _Winstanley's Martyrol._ p. 123; _Bates's Late Troubles_, vol.
+        ii. p. 222; _Noble's Cromwell_, vol. ii. pp. 251, 345, 470.
+
+Such were the leaders of the English rebellion, or to speak more
+properly, such were the instruments by which the rebellion was
+consummated.[403] If we now turn to France, we shall clearly see the
+difference between the feelings and temper of the two nations. In that
+country, the old protective spirit still retained its activity; and the
+people, being kept in a state of pupilage, had not acquired those habits
+of self-command and self-reliance, by which alone great things can be
+effected. They had been so long accustomed to look with timid reverence
+to the upper classes, that, even when they rose in arms, they could not
+throw off the ideas of submission which were quickly discarded by our
+ancestors. The influence of the higher ranks was, in England,
+constantly diminishing; in France, it was scarcely impaired. Hence it
+happened that, although the English and French rebellions were
+contemporary, and, in their origin, aimed at precisely the same objects,
+they were distinguished by one most important difference. This was, that
+the English rebels were headed by popular leaders; the French rebels by
+noble leaders. The bold and sturdy habits which had long been cultivated
+in England, enabled the middle and lower classes to supply their own
+chiefs out of their own ranks. In France such chiefs were not to be
+found; simply because, owing to the protective spirit, such habits had
+not been cultivated. While, therefore, in our island, the functions of
+civil government, and of war, were conducted with conspicuous ability,
+and complete success, by butchers, by bakers, by brewers, by cobblers,
+and by tinkers, the struggle which, at the same moment, was going on in
+France, presented an appearance totally different. In that country, the
+rebellion was headed by men of a far higher standing; men, indeed, of
+the longest and most illustrious lineage. There, to be sure, was a
+display of unexampled splendour; a galaxy of rank, a noble assemblage of
+aristocratic insurgents and titled demagogues. There was the Prince de
+Condé, the Prince de Conti, the Prince de Marsillac, the Duke de
+Bouillon, the Duke de Beaufort, the Duke de Longueville, the Duke de
+Chevreuse, the Duke de Nemours, the Duke de Luynes, the Duke de Brissac,
+the Duke d'Elb[oe]uf, the Duke de Candale, the Duke de la Tremouille,
+the Marquis de la Boulaye, the Marquis de Laigues, the Marquis de
+Noirmoutier, the Marquis de Vitry, the Marquis de Fosseuse, the Marquis
+de Sillery, the Marquis d'Estissac, the Marquis d'Hocquincourt, the
+Count de Rantzau, the Count de Montresor.
+
+  [403] Walker, who relates what he himself witnessed, says, that, about
+        1649, the army was commanded by 'colonels and superior officers,
+        who lord it in their gilt coaches, rich apparel, costly
+        feastings; though some of them led dray-horses, wore
+        leather-pelts, and were never able to name their own fathers or
+        mothers.' _Hist. of Independ._ part ii. p. 244. The _Mercurius
+        Rusticus_, 1647, says, 'Chelmsford was governed by a tinker, two
+        cobblers, two tailors, two pedlars.' _Southey's Commonplace
+        Book_, third series, 1850, p. 430. And, at p. 434, another work,
+        in 1647, makes a similar statement in regard to Cambridge; while
+        Lord Holles assures us, that 'most of the colonels and officers
+        (were) mean tradesmen, brewers, taylors, goldsmiths, shoe-makers,
+        and the like.' _Holles's Memoirs_, p. 149. When Whitelocke was in
+        Sweden in 1653, the prætor of one of the towns abused the
+        parliament, saying, 'that they killed their king, and were a
+        company of taylors and cobblers.' _Whitelocke's Swedish Embassy_,
+        vol. i. p. 205. See also note in _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church
+        of England_, vol. ii. p. 156.
+
+These were the leaders of the Fronde;[404] and the mere announcement of
+their names indicate the difference between the French and English
+rebellions. And, in consequence of this difference, there followed some
+results, which are well worth the attention of those writers who, in
+their ignorance of the progress of human affairs, seek to uphold that
+aristocratic power, which, fortunately for the interests of mankind, has
+long been waning; and which, during the last seventy years has, in the
+most civilized countries, received such severe and repeated shocks, that
+its ultimate fate is hardly a matter respecting which much doubt can now
+be entertained.
+
+  [404] Even De Retz, who vainly attempted to organise a popular party,
+        found that it was impossible to take any step without the nobles;
+        and, notwithstanding his democratic tendencies, he, in 1648,
+        thought it advisable 'tâcher d'engager dans les intérêts publics
+        les personnes de qualité.' _Mém. de Joly_, p. 31.
+
+The English rebellion was headed by men, whose tastes, habits, and
+associations, being altogether popular, formed a bond of sympathy
+between them and the people, and preserved the union of the whole party.
+In France the sympathy was very weak, and therefore, the union was very
+precarious. What sort of sympathy could there be between the mechanic
+and the peasant, toiling for their daily bread, and the rich and
+dissolute noble, whose life was passed in those idle and frivolous
+pursuits which debased his mind, and made his order a byword and a
+reproach among the nations? To talk of sympathy existing between the two
+classes is a manifest absurdity, and most assuredly would have been
+deemed an insult by those high-born men, who treated their inferiors
+with habitual and insolent contempt. It is true, that, from causes which
+have been already stated, the people did, unhappily for themselves, look
+up to those above them with the greatest veneration;[405] but every page
+of French history proves how unworthily this feeling was reciprocated,
+and in how complete a thraldom the lower classes were kept. While,
+therefore, the French, from their long-established habits of dependence,
+were become incapable of conducting their own rebellion, and, on that
+account, were obliged to place themselves under the command of their
+nobles, this very necessity confirmed the servility which caused it; and
+thus stunting the growth of freedom, prevented the nation from
+effecting, by their civil wars, those great things which we, in England,
+were able to bring about by ours.
+
+  [405] Mably (_Observations sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. i. p. 357)
+        frankly says, 'L'exemple d'un grand a toujours été plus
+        contagieux chez les Français que partout ailleurs.' See also vol.
+        ii. p. 267: 'Jamais l'exemple des grands n'a été aussi contagieux
+        ailleurs qu'en France; on dirait qu'ils ont le malheureux
+        privilège de tout justifier.' Rivarol, though his opinions on
+        other points were entirely opposed to those of Mably, says, that,
+        in France, 'la noblesse est aux yeux du peuple une espèce de
+        religion, dont les gentilshommes sont les prêtres.' _Mém. de
+        Rivarol_, p. 94. Happily, the French Revolution, or rather the
+        circumstances which caused the French Revolution, have utterly
+        destroyed this ignominious homage.
+
+Indeed, it is only necessary to read the French literature of the
+seventeenth century, to see the incompatibility of the two classes, and
+the utter hopelessness of fusing into one party the popular and
+aristocratic spirit. While the object of the people was to free
+themselves from the yoke, the object of the nobles was merely to find
+new sources of excitement,[406] and minister to that personal vanity for
+which, as a body, they have always been notorious. As this is a
+department of history that has been little studied, it will be
+interesting to collect a few instances, which will illustrate the temper
+of the French aristocracy, and will show what sort of honours, and what
+manner of distinctions, those were which this powerful class was most
+anxious to obtain.
+
+  [406] The Duke de la Rochefoucauld candidly admits that, in 1649, the
+        nobles raised a civil war, 'avec d'autant plus de haleur que
+        c'était une nouveauté.' _Mém. de Rochefoucauld_, vol. i. p. 406.
+        Thus too Lemontey (_Etablissement de Louis XIV_, p. 368): 'La
+        vieille noblesse, qui ne savait que combattre, faisait la guerre
+        par goût, par besoin, par vanité, par ennui.' Compare, in _Mém.
+        d'Omer Talon_, vol. ii. pp. 467, 468, a summary of the reasons
+        which, in 1649, induced the nobles to go to war; and on the way
+        in which their frivolity debased the Fronde, see _Lavallée_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. pp. 169, 170.
+
+That the objects chiefly coveted were of a very trifling description,
+will be anticipated by whoever has studied the effect which, in an
+immense majority of minds, hereditary distinctions produce upon personal
+character. How pernicious such distinctions are, may be clearly seen in
+the history of all the European aristocracies; and in the notorious
+fact, that none of them have preserved even a mediocrity of talent,
+except in countries where they are frequently invigorated by the
+infusion of plebeian blood, and their order strengthened by the
+accession of those masculine energies which are natural to men who make
+their own position, but cannot be looked for in men whose position is
+made for them. For, when the notion is once firmly implanted in the
+mind, that the source of honour is from without, rather than from
+within, it must invariably happen that the possession of external
+distinction will be preferred to the sense of internal power. In such
+cases, the majesty of the human intellect, and the dignity of human
+knowledge, are considered subordinate to those mock and spurious
+gradations by which weak men measure the degrees of their own
+littleness. Hence it is, that the real precedence of things becomes
+altogether reversed; that which is trifling is valued more than that
+which is great; and the mind is enervated by conforming to a false
+standard of merit, which its own prejudices have raised. On this
+account, they are evidently in the wrong who reproach the nobles with
+their pride, as if it were a characteristic of their order. The truth
+is, that if pride were once established among them, their extinction
+would rapidly follow. To talk of the pride of hereditary rank, is a
+contradiction in terms. Pride depends on the consciousness of
+self-applause; vanity is fed by the applause of others. Pride is a
+reserved and lofty passion, which disdains those external distinctions
+that vanity eagerly grasps. The proud man sees in his own mind, the
+source of his own dignity; which, as he well knows, can be neither
+increased or diminished by any acts except those which proceed solely
+from himself. The vain man, restless, insatiable, and always craving
+after the admiration of his contemporaries, must naturally make great
+account of those external marks, those visible tokens, which, whether
+they be decorations or titles, strike directly on the senses, and thus
+captivate the vulgar, to whose understandings they are immediately
+obvious. This, therefore, being the great distinction, that pride looks
+within, while vanity looks without, it is clear that when a man values
+himself for a rank which he inherited by chance, without exertion, and
+without merit, it is a proof, not of pride, but of vanity, and of vanity
+of the most despicable kind. It is a proof that such a man has no sense
+of real dignity, no idea of what that is in which alone all greatness
+consists. What marvel if, to minds of this sort, the most insignificant
+trifles should swell into matters of the highest importance? What marvel
+if such empty understandings should be busied with ribbons, and stars,
+and crosses; if this noble should yearn after the Garter, and that noble
+pine for the Golden Fleece; if one man should long to carry a wand in
+the precincts of the court, and another man to fill an office in the
+royal household; while the ambition of a third is to make his daughter a
+maid-of-honour, or to raise his wife to be mistress of the robes?
+
+We, seeing these things, ought not to be surprised that the French
+nobles, in the seventeenth century, displayed, in their intrigues and
+disputes, a frivolity, which, though redeemed by occasional exceptions,
+is the natural characteristic of every hereditary aristocracy. A few
+examples of this will suffice to give the reader some idea of the tastes
+and temper of that powerful class which, during several centuries,
+retarded the progress of French civilization.
+
+Of all the questions on which the French nobles were divided, the most
+important was that touching the right of sitting in the royal presence.
+This was considered to be a matter of such gravity, that, in comparison
+with it, a mere struggle for liberty faded into insignificance. And what
+made it still more exciting to the minds of the nobles was, the extreme
+difficulty with which this great social problem was beset. According to
+the ancient etiquette of the French court, if a man were a duke, his
+wife might sit in the presence of the queen; but if his rank were
+inferior, even if he were a marquis, no such liberty could be
+allowed.[407] So far, the rule was very simple, and, to the duchesses
+themselves, highly agreeable. But the marquises, the counts, and the
+other illustrious nobles, were uneasy at this invidious distinction, and
+exerted all their energies to procure for their own wives the same
+honour. This the dukes strenuously resisted; but, owing to circumstances
+which unfortunately are not fully understood, an innovation was made in
+the reign of Louis XIII., and the privilege of sitting in the same room
+with the queen was conceded to the female members of the Bouillon
+family.[408] In consequence of this evil precedent, the question became
+seriously complicated, since other members of the aristocracy considered
+that the purity of their descent gave them claims nowise inferior to
+those of the house of Bouillon, whose antiquity, they said, had been
+grossly exaggerated. The contest which ensued, had the effect of
+breaking up the nobles into two hostile parties, one of which sought to
+preserve that exclusive privilege in which the other wished to
+participate. To reconcile these rival pretensions, various expedients
+were suggested; but all were in vain, and the court, during the
+administration of Mazarin, being pressed by the fear of a rebellion,
+showed symptoms of giving way, and of yielding to the inferior nobles
+the point they so ardently desired. In 1648 and 1649, the queen-regent,
+acting under the advice of her council, formally conceded the right of
+sitting in the royal presence to the three most distinguished members of
+the lower aristocracy, namely, the Countess de Fleix, Madame de Pons,
+and the Princess de Marsillac.[409] Scarcely had this decision been
+promulgated, when the princes of the blood and the peers of the realm
+were thrown into the greatest agitation.[410] They immediately summoned
+to the capital those members of their own order who were interested in
+repelling this daring aggression, and, forming themselves into an
+assembly, they at once adopted measures to vindicate their ancient
+rights.[411] On the other hand, the inferior nobles, flushed by their
+recent success, insisted that the concession just made should be raised
+into a precedent; and that, as the honour of being seated in the
+presence of majesty had been conceded to the house of Foix, in the
+person of the Countess de Fleix, it should likewise be granted to all
+those who could prove that their ancestry was equally illustrious.[412]
+The greatest confusion now arose; and both sides urgently insisting on
+their own claims, there was, for many months, imminent danger lest the
+question should be decided by an appeal to the sword.[413] But as the
+higher nobles, though less numerous than their opponents, were more
+powerful, the dispute was finally settled in their favour. The queen
+sent to their assembly a formal message, which was conveyed by four of
+the marshals of France, and in which she promised to revoke those
+privileges, the concession of which had given such offence to the most
+illustrious members of the French aristocracy. At the same time, the
+marshals not only pledged themselves as responsible for the promise of
+the queen, but undertook to sign an agreement that they would personally
+superintend its execution.[414] The nobles, however, who felt that they
+had been aggrieved in their most tender point, were not yet satisfied,
+and, to appease them, it was necessary that the atonement should be as
+public as the injury. It was found necessary, before they would
+peaceably disperse, that government should issue a document, signed by
+the queen-regent, and by the four secretaries of state,[415] in which
+the favours granted to the unprivileged nobility were withdrawn, and the
+much-cherished honour of sitting in the royal presence was taken away
+from the Princess de Marsillac, from Madame de Pons, and from the
+Countess de Fleix.[416]
+
+  [407] Hence the duchesses were called 'femmes assises;' those of lower
+        rank 'non assises.' _Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil_, vol. i. p. 111.
+        The Count de Ségur tells us that 'les duchesses jouissaient de la
+        prérogative d'être assises sur un tabouret chez la reine.' _Mém.
+        de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 79. The importance attached to this is
+        amusingly illustrated in _Mém. de Saint-Simon_, vol. iii. pp.
+        215-218, Paris, 1842; which should be compared with _De
+        Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. ii. p. 116, and _Mém. de
+        Genlis_, vol. x. p. 383.
+
+  [408] 'Survint incontinent une autre difficulté à la cour sur le sujet
+        des tabourets, que doivent avoir les dames dans la chambre de la
+        reine; car encore que cela ne s'accorde régulièrement qu'aux
+        duchesses, néanmoins le feu roi Louis XIII l'avoit accordé aux
+        filles de la maison de Bouillon,' &c. _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol.
+        iii. p. 5. See also, on this encroachment on the rights of the
+        duchesses under Louis XIII., the case of Séguier, in _Duclos_,
+        _Mémoires Secrets_, vol. i. pp. 360, 361. The consequences of the
+        innovation were very serious; and Tallemant des Réaux
+        (_Historiettes_, vol. iii. pp. 223, 224) mentions a distinguished
+        lady, of whom he says, 'Pour satisfaire son ambition, il lui
+        falloit un tabouret: elle cabale pour épouser le vieux Bouillon
+        La Marck veuf pour la seconde fois.' In this she failed; but,
+        determined not to be baffled, 'elle ne se rebute point, et
+        voulant à toute force avoir un tabouret, elle épouse le fils aîné
+        du duc de Villars: c'est un ridicule de corps et d'esprit, car il
+        est bossu et quasi imbécile, et gueux par-dessus cela.' This
+        melancholy event happened in 1649.
+
+  [409] As to the Countess de Fleix and Madame de Pons, see _Mém. de
+        Motteville_, vol. iii. pp. 116, 369. According to the same high
+        authority (vol. iii. p. 367), the inferiority of the Princess de
+        Marsillac consisted in the painful fact, that her husband was
+        merely the son of a duke, and the duke himself was still alive
+        'il n'étoit que gentilhomme, et son père le duc de la
+        Rochefoucauld n'étoit pas mort.'
+
+  [410] The long account of these proceedings in _Mém. de Motteville_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 367-393, shows the importance attached to them by
+        contemporary opinion.
+
+  [411] In October 1649, 'la noblesse s'assembla à Paris sur le fait des
+        tabourets,' _Mém. de Lenet_, vol. i. p. 184.
+
+  [412] 'Tous ceux donc qui par leurs aïeux avoient dans leurs maisons de
+        la grandeur, par des alliances des femmes descendues de ceux qui
+        étoient autrefois maîtres et souverains des provinces de France,
+        demandèrent la même prérogative que celle qui venoit d'être
+        accordée au sang de Foix.' _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. iii. p.
+        117. Another contemporary says: 'Cette prétention émut toutes les
+        maisons de la cour sur cette différence et inégalité.' _Mém.
+        d'Omer Talon_, vol. iii. p. 6; and vol. ii. p. 437: 'le marquis
+        de Noirmoutier et celui de Vitry demandoient le tabouret pour
+        leurs femmes.'
+
+  [413] Indeed, at one moment, it was determined that a
+        counter-demonstration should be made on the part of the inferior
+        nobles; a proceeding which, if adopted, must have caused civil
+        war: 'Nous résolûmes une contre-assemblée de noblesse pour
+        soutenir le tabouret de la maison de Rohan.' _De Retz_,
+        _Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 284.
+
+  [414] _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. iii. p. 389.
+
+  [415] 'Signé d'elle et des quatre secrétaires d'état.' _Ibid._ vol. iii.
+        p. 391.
+
+  [416] The best accounts of this great struggle will be found in the
+        _Memoirs of Madame de Motteville_, and in those of Omer Talon;
+        two writers of very different minds, but both of them deeply
+        impressed with the magnitude of the contest.
+
+These were the subjects which occupied the minds and wasted the
+energies, of the French nobles, while their country was distracted by
+civil war, and while questions were at issue of the greatest
+importance--questions concerning the liberty of the nation, and the
+reconstruction of the government.[417] It is hardly necessary to point
+out how unfit such men must have been to head the people in their
+arduous struggle, and how immense was the difference between them and
+the leaders of the great English Rebellion. The causes of the failure of
+the Fronde are, indeed, obvious, when we consider that its chiefs were
+drawn from that very class respecting whose tastes and feelings some
+evidence has just been given.[418] How that evidence might be almost
+indefinitely extended, is well known to readers of the French memoirs of
+the seventeenth century--a class of works which, being mostly written
+either by the nobles or their adherents, supplies the best materials
+from which an opinion may be formed. In looking into these authorities,
+where such matters are related with a becoming sense of their
+importance, we find the greatest difficulties and disputes arising as to
+who was to have an arm-chair at court;[419] who was to be invited to
+the royal dinners, and who was to be excluded from them;[420] who was to
+be kissed by the queen, and who was not to be kissed by her;[421] who
+should have the first seat in church;[422] what the proper proportion
+was between the rank of different persons, and the length of the cloth
+on which they were allowed to stand;[423] what was the dignity a noble
+must have attained, in order to justify his entering the Louvre in a
+coach;[424] who was to have precedence at coronations;[425] whether all
+dukes were equal, or whether, as some thought, the Duke de Bouillon,
+having once possessed the sovereignty of Sedan, was superior to the Duke
+de la Rochefoucauld, who had never possessed any sovereignty at
+all;[426] whether the Duke de Beaufort ought or ought not to enter the
+council-chamber before the Duke de Nemours, and whether, being there, he
+ought to sit above him.[427] These were the great questions of the day:
+while, as if to exhaust every form of absurdity, the most serious
+misunderstandings arose as to who should have the honour of giving the
+king his napkin as he ate his meals[428] and who was to enjoy the
+inestimable privilege of helping on the queen with her shift.[429]
+
+  [417] Saint-Aulaire (_Hist. de la Fronde_, vol. i. p. 317) says, that in
+        this same year (1649), 'l'esprit de discussion fermentait dans
+        toutes les têtes, et chacun à cette époque soumettait les actes
+        de l'autorité à un examen raisonné.' Thus, too, in _Mém. de
+        Montglat_, under 1649, 'on ne parlait publiquement dans Paris que
+        de république et de liberté,' vol. ii. p. 186. In 1648, 'effusa
+        est contemptio super principes.' _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. ii.
+        p. 271.
+
+  [418] That the failure of the Fronde is not to be ascribed to the
+        inconstancy of the people, is admitted by De Retz, by far the
+        ablest observer of his time: 'Vous vous étonnerez peut-être de ce
+        que je dis plus sûr, à cause de l'instabilité du peuple: mais il
+        faut avouer que celui de Paris se fixe plus aisément qu'aucun
+        autre; et M. de Villeroi, qui a été le plus habile homme de son
+        siècle, et qui en a parfaitement connu le naturel dans tout le
+        cours de la ligue, où il le gouverna sous M. du Maine, a été de
+        ce sentiment. Ce que j'en éprouvois moi-même me le persuadoit.'
+        _Mém. de Retz_, vol. i. p. 348; a remarkable passage, and forming
+        a striking contrast to the declamation of those ignorant writers
+        who are always reproaching the people with their fickleness.
+
+  [419] This knotty point was decided in favour of the Duke of York, to
+        whom, in 1649, 'la reine fit de grands honneurs, et lui donna une
+        chaise à bras.' _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. iii. p. 275. In the
+        chamber of the king, the matter seems to have been differently
+        arranged; for Omer Talon (_Mém._ vol. ii. p. 332) tells us that
+        'le duc d'Orléans n'avoit point de fauteuil, mais un simple siège
+        pliant, à cause que nous étions dans la chambre du roi.' In the
+        subsequent year, the scene not being in the king's room, the same
+        writer describes 'M. le duc d'Orléans assis dans un fauteuil.'
+        _Ibid._ vol. iii. p. 95. Compare _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis
+        XIII_, vol. viii. p. 310. Voltaire (_Dict. Philos._ art.
+        _Cérémonies_) says: 'Le fauteuil à bras, la chaise à dos, le
+        tabouret, la main droite et la main gauche, ont été pendant
+        plusieurs siècles d'importants objets de politique, et
+        d'illustres sujets de querelles.' _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol.
+        xxxvii. p. 486. The etiquette of the 'fauteuil' and 'chaise' is
+        explained in _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. x. p. 287.
+
+  [420] See _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. iii. pp. 309, 310.
+
+  [421] See a list of those it was proper for the queen to kiss, in _Mém.
+        de Motteville_, vol. iii. p. 318.
+
+  [422] _Mém. de Omer Talon_, vol. i. pp. 217-219. The Prince de Condé
+        hotly asserted, that at a _Te Deum_ 'il ne pouvait être assis en
+        autre place que dans la première chaire.' This was in 1642.
+
+  [423] For a quarrel respecting the 'drap de pied,' see _Mém. de
+        Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 249.
+
+  [424] A very serious dispute was caused by the claim of the Prince de
+        Marsillac, for 'permission d'entrer dans le Louvre en carrosse.'
+        _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. iii. pp. 367-389.
+
+  [425] _Mém. de Pontchartrain_, vol. i. pp. 422, 423, at the coronation
+        of Louis XIII. Other instances of difficulties caused by
+        questions of precedence, will be found in _Mém. d'Omer Talon_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 23, 24, 437; and even in the grave work of Sully,
+        _[OE]conomies Royales_, vol. vii. p. 126, vol. viii. p. 395;
+        which should be compared with _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. ix.
+        pp. 86, 87.
+
+  [426] _Mém. de Lenet_, vol. i. pp. 378, 379. Lenet, who was a great
+        admirer of the nobles, relates all this without the faintest
+        perception of its absurdity. I ought not to omit a terrible
+        dispute, in 1652, respecting the recognition of the claims of the
+        Duke de Rohan (_Mém. de Conrart_, pp. 151, 152); nor another
+        dispute, in the reign of Henry IV., as to whether a duke ought to
+        sign his name before a marshal, or whether a marshal should sign
+        first. _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. xi. p. 11.
+
+  [427] This difficulty, in 1652, caused a violent quarrel between the two
+        dukes, and ended in a duel in which the Duke de Nemours was
+        killed, as is mentioned by most of the contemporary writers. See
+        _Mém. de Montglat_, vol. ii. p. 357; _Mém. de la Rochefoucauld_,
+        vol. ii. p. 172; _Mém. de Conrart_, pp. 172-175; _Mém. de Retz_,
+        vol. ii. p. 203; _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. iii. p. 437.
+
+  [428] Pontchartrain, one of the ministers of state, writes, under the
+        year 1620: 'En ce même temps s'étoit mû un très-grand différend
+        entre M. le prince de Condé et M. le comte de Soissons, sur le
+        sujet de la serviette que chacun d'eux prétendoit devoir
+        présenter au roi quand ils se rencontreroient tous deux près sa
+        majesté.' _Mém. de Pontchartrain_, vol. ii. p. 295. Le Vassor,
+        who gives a fuller account (_Règne de Louis XIII_, vol. iii. pp.
+        536, 537), says, 'Chacun des deux princes du sang, fort échauffez
+        à qui feroit une fonction de maître d'hôtel, tiroit la serviette
+        de son côté, et la contestation augmentoit d'une manière dont les
+        suites pouvoient devenir fâcheuses.' But the king interposing,
+        'ils furent donc obligez de céder: mais ce ne fut pas sans se
+        dire l'un à l'autre des paroles hautes et menaçantes.'
+
+  [429] According to some authorities, a man ought to be a duke before his
+        wife could be allowed to meddle with the queen's shift; according
+        to other authorities, the lady-in-waiting, whoever she might be,
+        had the right, unless a princess happened to be present. On these
+        alternatives, and on the difficulties caused by them, compare
+        _Mém. de Saint-Simon_, 1842, vol. vii. p. 125, with _Mém. de
+        Motteville_, vol. ii. pp. 28, 276, 277.
+
+It may, perhaps, be thought that I owe some apology to the reader for
+obtruding upon his notice these miserable disputes respecting matters
+which, however despicable they now appear, were once valued by men not
+wholly devoid of understanding. But, it should be remembered that their
+occurrence, and above all, the importance formerly attached to them, is
+part of the history of the French mind; and they are therefore to be
+estimated, not according to their intrinsic dignity, but according to
+the information they supply respecting a state of things which has now
+passed away. Events of this sort, though neglected by ordinary
+historians, are among the staff and staple of history. Not only do they
+assist in bringing before our minds the age to which they refer, but in
+a philosophic point of view they are highly important. They are part of
+the materials from which we may generalize the laws of that great
+protective spirit, which in different periods assumes different shapes;
+but which, whatever its form may be, always owes its power to the
+feeling of veneration as opposed to the feeling of independence. How
+natural this power is, in certain stages of society, becomes evident if
+we examine the basis on which veneration is itself supported. The origin
+of veneration is wonder and fear. These two passions, either alone or
+combined, are the ordinary source of veneration; and the way in which
+they arise is obvious. We wonder because we are ignorant, and we fear
+because we are weak. It is therefore natural, that in former times, when
+men were more ignorant and more weak than they now are, they should
+likewise have been more given to veneration, more inclined to those
+habits of reverence, which if carried into religion, cause superstition,
+and if carried into politics, cause despotism. In the ordinary march of
+society, those evils are remedied by that progress of knowledge, which
+at once lessens our ignorance and increases our resources: in other
+words, which diminishes our proneness to wonder and to fear, and thus
+weakening our feelings of veneration, strengthens, in the same
+proportion, our feelings of independence. But in France, this natural
+tendency was, as we have already seen, counteracted by an opposite
+tendency; so that while, on the one hand, the protective spirit was
+enfeebled by the advance of knowledge, it was, on the other hand,
+invigorated by those social and political circumstances which I have
+attempted to trace; and by virtue of which, each class exercising great
+power over the one below it, the subordination and subserviency of the
+whole were completely maintained. Hence the mind became accustomed to
+look upwards, and to rely, not on its own resources, but on the
+resources of others. Hence that pliant and submissive disposition, for
+which the French, until the eighteenth century, were always remarkable.
+Hence, too, that inordinate respect for the opinions of others, on which
+vanity, as one of their national characteristics, is founded.[430] For,
+the feelings of vanity and of veneration have evidently this in common,
+that they induce each man to measure his actions by a standard external
+to himself; while the opposite feelings of pride and of independence
+would make him prefer that internal standard which his own mind alone
+can supply. The result of all this was, that when, in the middle of the
+seventeenth century, the intellectual movement stimulated the French to
+rebellion, its effect was neutralized by that social tendency which,
+even in the midst of the struggle, kept alive the habits of their old
+subservience. Thus it was that, while the war went on, there still
+remained a constant inclination on the part of the people to look up to
+the nobles, on the part of the nobles to look up to the crown. Both
+classes relied upon what they saw immediately above them. The people
+believed that without the nobles there was no safety; the nobles
+believed that without the crown there was no honour. In the case of the
+nobles, this opinion can hardly be blamed; for as their distinctions
+proceed from the crown, they have a direct interest in upholding the
+ancient notion that the sovereign is the fountain of honour. They have a
+direct interest in that preposterous doctrine, according to which, the
+true source of honour being overlooked, our attention is directed to an
+imaginary source, by whose operation it is believed, that in a moment,
+and at the mere will of a prince, the highest honours may be conferred
+upon the meanest men. This, indeed, is but part of the old scheme to
+create distinctions for which nature has given no warrant; to substitute
+a superiority which is conventional for that which is real; and thus try
+to raise little minds above the level of great ones. The utter failure,
+and, as society advances, the eventual cessation of all such attempts,
+is certain; but it is evident, that as long as the attempts are made,
+they who profit by them must be inclined to value those from whom they
+proceed. Unless counteracting circumstances interpose, there must be
+between the two parties that sympathy which is caused by the memory of
+past favours, and the hope of future ones. In France, this natural
+feeling being strengthened by that protective spirit which induced men
+to cling to those above them, it is not strange that the nobles, even in
+the midst of their turbulence, should seek the slightest favours of the
+crown with an eagerness of which some examples have just been given.
+They had been so long accustomed to look up to the sovereign as the
+source of their own dignity, that they believed there was some hidden
+dignity even in his commonest actions; so that, to their minds, it was a
+matter of the greatest importance which of them should hand him his
+napkin, which of them should hold his basin, and which of them should
+put on his shirt.[431] It is not, however, for the sake of casting
+ridicule upon these idle and frivolous men, that I have collected
+evidence respecting the disputes with which they were engrossed. So far
+from this, they are rather to be pitied than blamed: they acted
+according to their instincts; they even exerted such slender abilities
+as nature had given to them. But we may well feel for that great country
+whose interests depended on their care. And it is solely in reference to
+the fate of the French people that the historian need trouble himself
+with the history of the French nobles. At the same time, evidence of
+this sort, by disclosing the tendencies of the old nobility, displays in
+one of its most active forms that protective and aristocratic spirit, of
+which they know little who only know it in its present reduced and
+waning condition. Such facts are to be regarded as the symptoms of a
+cruel disease, by which Europe is indeed still afflicted, but which we
+now see only in a very mitigated form, and of whose native virulence no
+one can have an idea, unless he has studied it in those early stages,
+when, raging uncontrolled, it obtained such a mastery as to check the
+growth of liberty, stop the progress of nations, and dwarf the energies
+of the human mind.
+
+  [430] Also connected with the institution of chivalry, both being
+        cognate symptoms of the same spirit.
+
+  [431] Even just before the French Revolution, these feelings still
+        existed. See, for instance the extraordinary details in _Campan_,
+        _Mém. sur Marie-Antoinette_, vol. i. pp. 98, 99; which should be
+        compared with an extract from _Prudhomme's Mirror de Paris_, in
+        _Southey's Commonplace Book_, third series, 1850, p. 251,
+        no. 165.
+
+It is hardly necessary to trace at greater length the way in which
+France and England diverged from each other, or to point out what I hope
+will henceforth be considered the obvious difference between the civil
+wars in the two countries. It is evident that the low-born and plebeian
+leaders of our rebellion could have no sympathy with those matters which
+perplexed the understanding of the great French nobles. Men like
+Cromwell and his co-adjutors were not much versed in the mysteries of
+genealogy, or in the subtleties of heraldic lore. They had paid small
+attention to the etiquette of courts; they had not even studied the
+rules of precedence. All this was foreign to their design. On the other
+hand, what they did was done thoroughly. They knew that they had a great
+work to perform; and they performed it well.[432] They had risen in arms
+against a corrupt and despotic government, and they would not stay
+their hands until they had pulled down those who were in high places;
+until they had not only removed the evil, but had likewise chastised
+those bad men by whom the evil was committed. And although in this,
+their glorious undertaking, they did undoubtedly display some of the
+infirmities to which even the highest minds are subject; we, at least,
+ought never to speak of them but with that unfeigned respect which is
+due to those who taught the first great lesson to the kings of Europe,
+and who, in language not to be mistaken, proclaimed to them that the
+impunity which they had long enjoyed was now come to an end, and that
+against their transgressions the people possessed a remedy, sharper, and
+more decisive, than any they had hitherto ventured to use.
+
+  [432] Ludlow thus expresses the sentiments which induced him to make war
+        upon the crown: 'The question in dispute between the king's party
+        and us being, as I apprehend, whether the king should govern as a
+        god by his will, and the nation be governed by force like beasts?
+        or whether the people should be governed by laws made by
+        themselves, and live under a government derived from their own
+        consent? being fully persuaded, that an accommodation with the
+        king was unsafe to the people of England, and unjust and wicked
+        in the nature of it.' _Ludlow's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 230. Compare
+        Whitelocke's spirited speech to Christina, in _Journal of the
+        Swedish Embassy_, vol. i. p. 238; and see pp. 390, 391.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT CARRIED BY LOUIS XIV. INTO LITERATURE. EXAMINATION
+   OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE INTELLECTUAL CLASSES
+                       AND THE GOVERNING CLASSES.
+
+
+The reader will now be able to understand how it was that the protective
+system, and the notions of subordination connected with it, gained in
+France a strength unknown in England, and caused an essential divergence
+between the two countries. To complete the comparison, it seems
+necessary to examine how this same spirit influenced the purely
+intellectual history of France as well as its social and political
+history. For the ideas of dependence upon which the protective scheme is
+based, encouraged a belief that the subordination which existed in
+politics and in society ought also to exist in literature; and that the
+paternal, inquisitive, and centralizing system which regulated the
+material interests of the country, should likewise regulate the
+interests of its knowledge. When, therefore, the Fronde was finally
+overthrown, everything was prepared for that singular intellectual
+polity which, during fifty years characterised the reign of Louis XIV.,
+and which was to French literature what feudalism was to French
+politics. In both cases, homage was paid by one party, and protection
+and favour accorded by the other. Every man of letters became a vassal
+of the French crown. Every book was written with a view to the royal
+favour; and to obtain the patronage of the king was considered the most
+decisive proof of intellectual eminence. The effects produced by this
+system will be examined in the present chapter. The apparent cause of
+the system was the personal character of Louis XIV.; but the real and
+overruling causes were those circumstances which I have already pointed
+out, and which established in the French mind associations that remained
+undisturbed until the eighteenth century. To invigorate those
+associations, and to carry them into every department of life, was the
+great aim of Louis XIV.; and in that he was completely successful. It is
+on this account that the history of his reign becomes highly
+instructive, because we see in it the most remarkable instance of
+despotism which has ever occurred; a despotism of the largest and most
+comprehensive kind; a despotism of fifty years over one of the most
+civilized people in Europe, who not only bore the yoke without repining,
+but submitted with cheerfulness, and even with gratitude, to him by whom
+it was imposed.[433]
+
+  [433] On the disgraceful subserviency of the most eminent men of
+        letters, see _Capefigue's Louis XIV._, vol. i. pp. 41, 42, 116;
+        and on the feeling of the people, Le Vassor, who wrote late in
+        the reign of Louis XIV., bitterly says, 'mais les Français,
+        accoutumés à l'esclavage, ne sentent plus la pesanteur de leurs
+        chaînes.' _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. vi. p. 670.
+        Foreigners were equally amazed at the general, and still more, at
+        the willing servility. Lord Shaftesbury, in a letter dated
+        February 1704-5, passes a glowing eulogy upon liberty; but he
+        adds, that in France 'you will hardly find this argument
+        understood; for whatever flashes may now and then appear, I never
+        yet knew one single Frenchman a free man.' _Forster's Original
+        Letters of Locke, Sidney, and Shaftesbury_, 1830, p. 205. In the
+        same year, De Foe makes a similar remark in regard to the French
+        nobles, _Wilson's Life of De Foe_, vol. ii. p. 209; and, in 1699,
+        Addison writes from Blois a letter which strikingly illustrates
+        the degradation of the French. _Aikin's Life of Addison_, vol. i.
+        p. 80. Compare _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iv. p. 365, on 'the
+        gross excess of flattery to which the French have run, beyond the
+        examples of former ages, in honour of their king.'
+
+What makes this the more strange is, that the reign of Louis XIV. must
+be utterly condemned if it is tried even by the lowest standard of
+morals, of honour, or of interest. A coarse and unbridled profligacy,
+followed by the meanest and most grovelling superstition, characterized
+his private life, while in his public career he displayed an arrogance
+and a systematic perfidy which eventually roused the anger of all
+Europe, and brought upon France sharp and signal retribution. As to his
+domestic policy, he formed a strict alliance with the church; and
+although he resisted the authority of the Pope, he willingly left his
+subjects to be oppressed by the tyranny of the clergy.[434] To them he
+abandoned everything except the exercise of his own prerogative.[435]
+Led on by them, he, from the moment he assumed the Government, began to
+encroach upon those religious liberties of which Henry IV. had laid the
+foundation, and which down to this period had been preserved
+intact.[436] It was at the instigation of the clergy that he revoked the
+Edict of Nantes, by which the principle of toleration had for nearly a
+century been incorporated with the law of the land.[437] It was at their
+instigation that, just before this outrage upon the most sacred rights
+of his subjects, he, in order to terrify the Protestants into
+conversion, suddenly let loose upon them whole troops of dissolute
+soldiers, who were allowed to practise the most revolting cruelties. The
+frightful barbarities which followed are related by authentic
+writers;[438] and of the effect produced on the material interests of
+the nation, some idea may be formed from the fact, that these religious
+persecutions cost France half a million of her most industrious
+inhabitants, who fled to different parts, taking with them those habits
+of labour, and that knowledge and experience in their respective trades,
+which had hitherto been employed in enriching their own country.[439]
+These things are notorious, they are incontestable, and they lie on the
+surface of history. Yet, in the face of them there are still found men
+who hold up for admiration the age of Louis XIV. Although it is well
+known that in his reign every vestige of liberty was destroyed; that the
+people were weighed down by an insufferable taxation; that their
+children were torn from them by tens of thousands to swell the royal
+armies; that the resources of the country were squandered to an
+unprecedented extent; that a despotism of the worst kind was firmly
+established;--although all this is universally admitted, yet there are
+writers, even in our own day, who are so infatuated with the glories of
+literature, as to balance them against the most enormous crimes, and who
+will forgive every injury inflicted by a prince during whose life there
+were produced the Letters of Pascal, the orations of Bossuet, the
+Comedies of Molière, and the Tragedies of Racine.
+
+  [434] The terms of this compact between the crown and the church are
+        fairly stated by M. Ranke: 'Wir sehen, die beiden Gewalten
+        unterstützten einander. Der König ward von den Einwirkungen der
+        weltlichen, der Clerus von der unbedingten Autorität der
+        geistlichen Gewalt des Papstthums freigesprochen.' _Die Päpste_,
+        vol. iii. p. 168.
+
+  [435] This part of his character is skilfully drawn by Sismondi, _Hist.
+        des Français_, vol. xxv. p. 43.
+
+  [436] Flasson supposes that the first persecuting laws were in 1679:
+        'Des l'année 1679 les concessions faites aux protestans avaient
+        été graduellement restreintes.' _Diplomatie Française_, vol. iv.
+        p. 92. But the fact is, that these laws began in 1662, the year
+        after the death of Mazarin. See _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. xxv. p. 167; _Benoist_, _Edit. de Nantes_, vol. iii. pp.
+        460-462, 481. In 1667, a letter from Thynne to Lord Clarendon
+        (_Lister's Life of Clarendon_, vol. iii. p. 446) mentions 'the
+        horrid persecutions the reformed religion undergoes in France;'
+        and Locke, who travelled in France in 1675 and 1676, states in
+        his Journal (_King's Life of Locke_, vol. i. p. 110) that the
+        Protestants were losing 'every day some privilege or other.'
+
+  [437] An account of the revocation will be found in all the French
+        historians; but I do not remember that any of them have noticed
+        that there was a rumour of it in Paris twenty years before it
+        occurred. In March 1665 Patin writes, 'On dit que, pour miner les
+        huguenots, le roi veut supprimer les chambres de l'édit, et
+        abolir l'édit de Nantes.' _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 516.
+
+  [438] Compare _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iii. pp. 73-76, with _Siècle de
+        Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xx. pp. 377, 378.
+        Voltaire says that the Protestants who persisted in their
+        religion 'étaient livrés aux soldats, qui eurent toute licence,
+        excepté celle de tuer. Il y eut pourtant plusieurs personnes si
+        cruellement maltraitées qu'elles en moururent.' And Burnet, who
+        was in France in 1685, says, 'all men set their thoughts on work
+        to invent new methods of cruelty.' What some of those methods
+        were, I shall now relate; because the evidence, however painful
+        it may be, is necessary to enable us to understand the reign of
+        Louis XIV. It is necessary that the veil should be rent; and that
+        the squeamish delicacy which would hide such facts, should give
+        way before the obligation which the historian is under of holding
+        up to public opprobrium, and branding with public infamy, the
+        church by which the measures were instigated, the sovereign by
+        whom they were enforced, and the age in which they were
+        permitted.
+
+        The two original sources for our knowledge of these events are,
+        _Quick's Synodicon in Gallia_, 1692, folio; and _Benoist_,
+        _Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes_, 1695, 4to. From these works I
+        extract the following accounts of what happened in France in
+        1685. 'Afterwards they fall upon the persons of the Protestants;
+        and there was no wickedness, though never so horrid, which they
+        did not put in practice, that they might enforce them to change
+        their religion.... They bound them as criminals are when they be
+        put to the rack; and in that posture, putting a funnel into their
+        mouths, they poured wine down their throats till its fumes had
+        deprived them of their reason, and they had in that condition
+        made them consent to become Catholics. Some they stripped stark
+        naked, and after they had offered them a thousand indignities,
+        they stuck them with pins from head to foot; they cut them with
+        pen-knives, tear them by the noses with red-hot pincers, and
+        dragged them about the rooms till they promised to become Roman
+        Catholics, or that the doleful outcries of these poor tormented
+        creatures, calling upon God for mercy, constrained them to let
+        them go.... In some places they tied fathers and husbands to the
+        bed-posts, and ravished their wives and daughters before their
+        eyes.... From others they pluck off the nails of their hands and
+        toes, which must needs cause an intolerable pain. They burnt the
+        feet of others. They blew up men and women with bellows, till
+        they were ready to burst in pieces. If these horrid usages could
+        not prevail upon them to violate their consciences, and abandon
+        their religion, they did then imprison them in close and noisome
+        dungeons, in which they exercised all kinds of inhumanities upon
+        them.' _Quick's Synodicon_, vol. i. pp. cxxx. cxxxi. 'Cependant
+        les troupes exerçoient partout de cruautez inouies. Tout leur
+        étoit permis, pourveu qu'ils ne fissent pas mourir. Ils faisoient
+        danser quelquefois leurs hôtes, jusqu'à ce qu'ils tombassent en
+        défaillance. Ils bernoient les autres jusqu'à ce qu'ils n'en
+        pouvoient plus.... Il y en eut quelques-uns à qui on versa de
+        l'eau bouillante dans la bouche.... Il y en eut plusieurs à qui
+        on donna des coups de bâton sous les pieds, pour éprouver si ce
+        supplice est aussi cruel que les relations le publient. On
+        arrachoit à d'autres le poil de la barbe.... D'autres brûloient à
+        la chandelle le poil des bras et des jambes de leurs hôtes.
+        D'autres faisoient brûler de la poudre, si près du visage de ceux
+        qui leur resistoient, qu'elle leur grilloit toute la peau. Ils
+        mettoient à d'autres des charbons allumez dans les mains, et les
+        contraignoient de les tenir fermées, jusqu'à ce que les charbons
+        fussent éteints.... On brûla les pieds à plusieurs, tenant les
+        uns long-tems devant un grand feu; appliquant aux autres une
+        pelle ardente sous les pieds; liant les pieds des autres dans des
+        bottines pleines de graisse, qu'on faisoit fondre et chauffer peu
+        à peu devant un brasier ardent.' _Benoist_, _Hist. de l'Edit de
+        Nantes_, vol. v. pp. 887-889. One of the Protestants, named Ryau,
+        they 'lièrent fort étroitement; lui sevrèrent les doigts des
+        mains; lui fichèrent des épingles sous les ongles; lui firent
+        brûler de la poudre dans les oreilles; lui percèrent les cuisses
+        en plusieurs lieux, et versèrent du vinaigre et du sel dans ses
+        blessures. _Par ce tourment ils épuisèrent sa patience en deux
+        jours; et le forcèrent à changer de religion_,' p. 890. 'Ses
+        dragons étoient les mêmes en tous lieux. Ils battoient, ils
+        étourdissoient, ils brûloient en Bourgogne comme en Poitou, en
+        Champagne comme en Guyenne, en Normandie comme en Languedoc. Mais
+        ils n'avoient pour les femmes ni plus de respect, ni plus de
+        pitié que pour les hommes. Au contraire, ils abusoient de la
+        tendre pudeur qui est une des propriétez de leur sexe; et ils
+        s'en prevaloient pour leur faire de plus sensibles outrages. On
+        leur levoit quelquefois leurs juppes par dessus la tête, et on
+        leur jetoit des seaux d'eau sur le corps. Il y en eut plusieurs
+        que les soldats mirent en chemise, et qu'ils forcèrent de danser
+        avec eux dans cet état.... Deux filles de Calais, nommées le
+        Noble, furent mises toutes nuës sur le pavé, et furent ainsi
+        exposées à la mocquerie et aux outrages des passans.... Des
+        dragons ayant lié la dame de Vezençai à la quenouille de son lit,
+        lui crachoient dans la bouche quand elle l'ouvroit pour parler ou
+        pour soupirer.' pp. 891, 892. At p. 917 are other details, far
+        more horrible, respecting the treatment of women, and which
+        indignation rather than shame prevents me from transcribing.
+        Indeed, the shame can only light on the church and the government
+        under whose united authority such scandalous outrages could be
+        openly perpetrated, merely for the sake of compelling men to
+        change their religious opinions.
+
+  [439] M. Blanqui (_Hist. de l'Economie Politique_, vol. ii. p. 10) says,
+        that the revocation of the Edict of Nantes cost France 'cinq cent
+        mille de ses enfants les plus industrieux,' who carried into
+        other countries 'les habitudes d'ordre et de travail dont ils
+        étaient imbus.' See also _Siècle de Louis XIV_, chap. xxxvi., in
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xx. pp. 380, 381. Several of them
+        emigrated to North America. Compare _Godwin on Population_, pp.
+        388, 389, with _Benoist_, _l'Edit de Nantes_, vol. v. pp. 973,
+        974, and _Lyell's Second Visit to the United States_, edit. 1849,
+        vol. ii. p. 159. See also, on the effects of the Revocation,
+        _Lettres inédites de Voltaire_, vol. ii. p. 473.
+
+This method of estimating the merits of a sovereign is, indeed, so
+rapidly dying away, that I shall not spend any words in refuting it.
+But it is connected with a more widely diffused error respecting the
+influence of royal patronage upon national literature. This is a
+delusion which men of letters have themselves been the first to
+propagate. From the language too many of them are in the habit of
+employing, we might be led to believe that there is some magical power
+in the smiles of a king which stimulates the intellect of the fortunate
+individual whose heart they are permitted to gladden. Nor must this be
+despised as one of those harmless prejudices that still linger round the
+person of the sovereign. It is not only founded on a misconception of
+the nature of things, but it is in its practical consequences very
+injurious. It is injurious to the independent spirit which literature
+should always possess; and it is injurious to princes themselves,
+because it strengthens that vanity of which they generally have too
+large a share. Indeed, if we consider the position they now occupy in
+the most civilized countries, we shall at once see the absurdity of an
+opinion which, in the present state of knowledge, is unfit to be held by
+educated men.
+
+From the moment that there was finally abandoned the theological fiction
+of the divine right of kings, it necessarily followed that the respect
+felt for them should suffer a corresponding diminution.[440] The
+superstitious reverence with which they were formerly regarded is
+extinct, and at the present day we are no longer awed by that divinity
+with which their persons were once supposed to be hedged.[441] The
+standard, therefore, by which we should measure them is obvious. We
+should applaud their conduct in proportion as they contribute towards
+the happiness of the nation over which they are intrusted with power;
+but we ought to remember that, from the manner in which they are
+educated, and from the childish homage always paid to them, their
+information must be very inaccurate, and their prejudices very
+numerous.[442] On this account, so far from expecting that they should
+be judicious patrons of literature, or should in any way head their age,
+we ought to be satisfied if they do not obstinately oppose the spirit of
+their time, and if they do not attempt to stop the march of society.
+For, unless the sovereign, in spite of the intellectual disadvantages of
+his position, is a man of very enlarged mind, it must usually happen
+that he will reward, not those who are most able, but those who are most
+compliant; and that while he refuses his patronage to a profound and
+independent thinker, he will grant it to an author who cherishes ancient
+prejudices and defends ancient abuses. In this way, the practice of
+conferring on men of letters either honorary or pecuniary rewards, is
+agreeable, no doubt, to those who receive them; but has a manifest
+tendency to weaken the boldness and energy of their sentiments, and
+therefore to impair the value of their works. This might be made evident
+by publishing a list of those literary pensions which have been granted
+by European princes. If this were done, the mischief produced by these
+and similar rewards would be clearly seen. After a careful study of the
+history of literature, I think myself authorised to say, that for one
+instance in which a sovereign has recompensed a man who is before his
+age, there are at least twenty instances of his recompensing one who is
+behind his age. The result is, that in every country where royal
+patronage has been long and generally bestowed, the spirit of
+literature, instead of being progressive, has become reactionary. An
+alliance has been struck up between those who give and those who
+receive. By a system of bounties, there has been artificially engendered
+a greedy and necessitous class; who, eager for pensions, and offices,
+and titles, have made the pursuit of truth subordinate to the desire of
+gain, and have infused into their writings the prejudices of the court
+to which they cling. Hence it is, that the marks of favour have become
+the badge of servitude. Hence it is, that the acquisition of knowledge,
+by far the noblest of all occupations, an occupation which of all others
+raises the dignity of man, has been debased to the level of a common
+profession, where the chances of success are measured by the number of
+rewards, and where the highest honours are in the gift of whoever
+happens to be the minister or sovereign of the day.
+
+  [440] On the diminished respect for kings, caused by the abandonment of
+        divine right, see _Spencer's Social Statics_, pp. 423, 424; and
+        on the influence of the clergy in propagating the old doctrine,
+        see Allen's learned work on the _Royal Prerogative_, edit. 1849,
+        p. 156. See also some striking remarks by Locke, in _King's Life
+        of Locke_, vol ii. p. 90.
+
+  [441] 'Qu'est devenu, en effet, le droit divin, cette pensée, autrefois
+        acceptée par les masses, que les rois étaient les représentants
+        de Dieu sur la terre, que la racine de leur pouvoir était dans le
+        ciel? Elle s'est évanouie devant cette autre pensée, qu'aucun
+        nuage, aucun mysticisme n'obscurcit; devant cette pensée si
+        naturelle et brillant d'une clarté si nette et si vive, que la
+        souveraine puissance, sur la terre, appartient au peuple entier,
+        et non à une fraction, et moins encore à un seul homme.' _Rey_,
+        _Science Sociale_, vol. iii. p. 308. Compare _Manning on the Law
+        of Nations_, p. 101; _Laing's Sweden_, p. 408; _Laing's Denmark_,
+        p. 196; _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 391.
+
+  [442] In this, as in all instances, the language of respect long
+        survives the feeling to which the language owed its origin. Lord
+        Brougham (_Political Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 42, Lond. 1849)
+        observes, that 'all their titles are derived from a divine
+        original--all refer to them as representing the Deity on earth.
+        They are called "_Grace_," "_Majesty_." They are termed "_The
+        Lord's anointed_," "_The Vicegerent of God upon earth_;" with
+        many other names which are either nonsensical or blasphemous, but
+        which are outdone in absurdity by the kings of the East.' True
+        enough: but if Lord Brougham had written thus three centuries
+        ago, he would have had his ears cut off for his pains.
+
+This tendency forms of itself a decisive objection to the views of those
+who wish to entrust the executive government with the means of rewarding
+literary men. But there is also another objection, in some respects
+still more serious. Every nation which is allowed to pursue its course
+uncontrolled, will easily satisfy the wants of its own intellect, and
+will produce such a literature as is best suited to its actual
+condition. And it is evidently for the interest of all classes that the
+production shall not be greater than the want; that the supply shall not
+exceed the demand. It is, moreover, necessary to the well-being of
+society that a healthy proportion should be kept up between the
+intellectual classes and the practical classes. It is necessary that
+there should be a certain ratio between those who are most inclined to
+think, and those who are most inclined to act. If we were all authors,
+our material interests would suffer; if we were all men of business, our
+mental pleasures would be abridged. In the first case, we should be
+famished philosophers; in the other case, we should be wealthy fools.
+Now, it is obvious that, according to the commonest principles of human
+action the relative numbers of these two classes will be adjusted,
+without effort, by the natural, or, as we call it, the spontaneous
+movement of society. But if a government takes upon itself to pension
+literary men, it disturbs this movement; it troubles the harmony of
+things. This is the unavoidable result of that spirit of interference,
+or, as it is termed, protection, by which every country has been greatly
+injured. If, for instance, a fund were set apart by the state for
+rewarding butchers and tailors, it is certain that the number of those
+useful men would be needlessly augmented. If another fund is
+appropriated for the literary classes, it is as certain that men of
+letters will increase more rapidly than the exigencies of the country
+require. In both cases, an artificial stimulus will produce an unhealthy
+action. Surely, food and clothes are as necessary for the body as
+literature is for the mind. Why, then, should we call upon government to
+encourage those who write our books, any more than to encourage those
+who kill our mutton and mend our garments? The truth is, that the
+intellectual march of society is, in this respect, exactly analogous to
+its physical march. In some instances a forced supply may, indeed,
+create an unnatural want. But this is an artificial state of things,
+which indicates a diseased action. In a healthy condition, it is not the
+supply which causes the want, but it is the want which gives rise to the
+supply. To suppose, therefore, that an increase of authors would
+necessarily be followed by a diffusion of knowledge, is as if we were to
+suppose that an increase of butchers must be followed by a diffusion of
+food. This is not the way in which things are ordered. Men must have
+appetite before they will eat; they must have money before they can buy;
+they must be inquisitive before they will read. The two great principles
+which move the world are, the love of wealth and the love of knowledge.
+These two principles respectively represent and govern the two most
+important classes into which every civilized country is divided. What a
+government gives to one of these classes, it must take from the other.
+What it gives to literature, it must take from wealth. This can never be
+done to any great extent, without entailing the most ruinous
+consequences. For, the natural proportions of society being destroyed,
+society itself will be thrown into confusion. While men of letters are
+protected, men of industry will be depressed. The lower classes can
+count for little in the eyes of those to whom literature is the first
+consideration. The idea of the liberty of the people will be
+discouraged; their persons will be oppressed; their labour will be
+taxed. The arts necessary to life will be despised, in order that those
+which embellish life may be favoured. The many will be ruined, that the
+few may be pleased. While every thing is splendid above, all will be
+rotten below. Fine pictures, noble palaces, touching dramas--these may
+for a time be produced in profusion, but it will be at the cost of the
+heart and strength of the nation. Even the class for whom the sacrifice
+has been made, will soon decay. Poets may continue to sing the praises
+of the prince who has bought them with his gold. It is, however, certain
+that men who begin by losing their independence, will end by losing
+their energy. Their intellect must be robust indeed, if it does not
+wither in the sickly atmosphere of a court. Their attention being
+concentrated on their master, they insensibly contract those habits of
+servility which are suited to their position; and, as the range of their
+sympathies is diminished, the use and action of their genius become
+impaired. To them submission is a custom, and servitude a pleasure. In
+their hands, literature soon loses its boldness, tradition is appealed
+to as the ground of truth, and the spirit of inquiry is extinguished.
+Then it is, that there comes one of those sad moments in which, no
+outlet being left for public opinion, the minds of men are unable to
+find a vent; their discontents, having no voice, slowly rankle into a
+deadly hatred; their passions accumulate in silence, until at length,
+losing all patience, they are goaded into one of those terrible
+revolutions, by which they humble the pride of their rulers, and carry
+retribution even into the heart of the palace.
+
+The truth of this picture is well known to those who have studied the
+history of Louis XIV., and the connection between it and the French
+Revolution. That prince adopted, during his long reign, the mischievous
+practice of rewarding literary men with large sums of money, and of
+conferring on them numerous marks of personal favour. As this was done
+for more than half a century; and as the wealth which he thus
+unscrupulously employed was of course taken from his other subjects, we
+can find no better illustration of the results which such patronage is
+likely to produce. He, indeed, has the merit of organizing into a system
+that protection of literature which some are so anxious to restore. What
+the effect of this was upon the general interests of knowledge, we shall
+presently see. But its effect upon authors themselves should be
+particularly attended to by those men of letters who, with little regard
+to their own dignity, are constantly reproaching the English government
+for neglecting the profession of which they themselves are members. In
+no age have literary men been awarded with such profuseness as in the
+reign of Louis XIV.; and in no age have they been so mean-spirited, so
+servile, so utterly unfit to fulfil their great vocation as the apostles
+of knowledge and the missionaries of truth. The history of the most
+celebrated authors of that time proves that, notwithstanding their
+acquirements, and the power of their minds, they were unable to resist
+the surrounding corruption. To gain the favour of the king, they
+sacrificed that independent spirit which should have been dearer to them
+than life. They gave away the inheritance of genius; they sold their
+birthright for a mess of pottage. What happened then, would under the
+same circumstances happen now. A few eminent thinkers may be able for a
+certain time to resist the pressure of their age. But, looking at
+mankind generally, society can have no hold on any class except through
+the medium of their interests. It behoves, therefore, every people to
+take heed, that the interests of literary men are on their side rather
+than on the side of their rulers. For, literature is the representative
+of intellect, which is progressive; government is the representative of
+order, which is stationary. As long as these two great powers are
+separate, they will correct and react upon each other, and the people
+may hold the balance. If, however, these powers coalesce, if the
+government can corrupt the intellect, and if the intellect will yield to
+the government, the inevitable result must be, despotism in politics,
+and servility in literature. This was the history of France under Louis
+XIV.: and this, we may rest assured, will be the history of every
+country that shall be tempted to follow so attractive but so fatal an
+example.
+
+The reputation of Louis XIV. originated in the gratitude of men of
+letters; but it is now supported by a popular notion that the celebrated
+literature of his age is mainly to be ascribed to his fostering care.
+If, however, we examine this opinion, we shall find that, like many of
+the traditions of which history is full, it is entirely devoid of truth.
+We shall find two leading circumstances, which will prove that the
+literary splendour of his reign was not the result of his efforts, but
+was the work of that great generation which preceded him; and that the
+intellect of France, so far from being benefited by his munificence, was
+hampered by his protection.
+
+I. The first circumstance is, that the immense impulse which, during the
+administrations of Richelieu and of Mazarin, had been given to the
+highest branches of knowledge, was suddenly stopped. In 1661 Louis XIV.
+assumed the government;[443] and from that moment until his death, in
+1715, the history of France, so far as great discoveries are concerned,
+is a blank in the annals of Europe. If, putting aside all preconceived
+notions respecting the supposed glory of that age, we examine the matter
+fairly, it will be seen that in every department there was a manifest
+dearth of original thinkers. There was much that was elegant, much that
+was attractive. The senses of men were soothed and flattered by the
+creations of art, by paintings, by palaces, by poems; but scarcely any
+thing of moment was added to the sum of human knowledge. If we take the
+mathematics, and those mixed sciences to which they are applicable, it
+will be universally admitted that their most successful cultivators in
+France during the seventeenth century were Descartes, Pascal, Fermat,
+Gassendi, and Mersenne. But, so far from Louis XIV. having any share in
+the honour due to them, these eminent men were engaged in their
+investigations while the king was still in his cradle, and completed
+them before he assumed the government, and therefore before his system
+of protection came into play. Descartes died in 1650,[444] when the king
+was twelve years old. Pascal, whose name, like that of Descartes, is
+commonly associated with the age of Louis XIV., had gained an European
+reputation while Louis, occupied in the nursery with his toys, was not
+aware that any such man existed. His treatise on conic sections was
+written in 1639;[445] his decisive experiments on the weight of air were
+made in 1648;[446] and his researches on the cycloid, the last great
+inquiry he ever undertook, were in 1658,[447] when Louis, still under
+the tutelage of Mazarin, had no sort of authority. Fermat was one of the
+most profound thinkers of the seventeenth century, particularly as a
+geometrician, in which respect he was second only to Descartes.[448] The
+most important steps he took are those concerning the geometry of
+infinites, applied to the ordinates and tangents of curves; which,
+however, he completed in or before 1636.[449] As to Gassendi and
+Mersenne, it is enough to say that Gassendi died in 1655,[450] six years
+before Louis was at the head of affairs; while Mersenne died in
+1648,[451] when the great king was ten years old.
+
+  [443] 'La première période du gouvernement de Louis XIV commence donc en
+        1661.' _Capefigue's Louis XIV._, vol. i. p. 4.
+
+  [444] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xi. p. 157.
+
+  [445] In _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxiii. p. 50, he is said to have composed
+        it 'à l'âge de seize ans;' and at p. 46, to have been born
+        in 1623.
+
+  [446] _Leslie's Natural Philosophy_, p. 201; _Bordas Demoulin_, _Le
+        Cartésianisme_, vol. i. p. 310. Sir John Herschel (_Disc. on Nat.
+        Philos._ pp. 229, 230) calls this 'one of the first, if not the
+        very first,' crucial instance recorded in physics; and he thinks
+        that it 'tended, more powerfully than any thing which had
+        previously been done in science, to confirm in the minds of men
+        that disposition to experimental verification which had scarcely
+        yet taken full and secure root.' In this point of view, the
+        addition it actually made to knowledge is the smallest part of
+        its merit.
+
+  [447] Montucla (_Hist. des Mathématiques_, vol. ii. p. 61) says, 'vers
+        1658;' and at p. 65, 'il se mit, vers le commencement de 1658, à
+        considérer plus profondément les propriétés de cette courbe.'
+
+  [448] Montucla (_Hist. des Mathémat._ vol. ii. p. 136) enthusiastically
+        declares that 'si Descartes eût manqué à l'esprit humain, Fermat
+        l'eût remplacé en géométrie.' Simson, the celebrated restorer of
+        Greek geometry, said that Fermat was the only modern who
+        understood porisms. See _Trail's Account of Simson_, 1812, 4to.
+        pp. 18, 41. On the connexion between his views and the subsequent
+        discovery of the differential calculus, see _Brewster's Life of
+        Newton_, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8; and compare _Comte_, _Philosophie
+        Positive_, vol. i. pp. 228, 229, 726, 727.
+
+  [449] See extracts from two letters written by Fermat to Roberval, in
+        1636, in _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathématiques_, vol. ii. pp. 136,
+        137; respecting which there is no notice in the meagre article on
+        Fermat, in _Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary_, vol. i. p. 510,
+        4to. 1815. It is a disgrace to English mathematicians that this
+        unsatisfactory work of Hutton's should still remain the best they
+        have produced on the history of their own science. The same
+        disregard of dates is shown in the hasty remarks on Fermat by
+        Playfair. See _Playfair's Dissertation on the Progress of
+        Mathematical Science_, _Encyclop. Brit._ vol. i. p. 440, 7th
+        edition.
+
+  [450] _Hutton's Mathemat. Dict._ vol. i. p. 572.
+
+  [451] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 46.
+
+These were the men who flourished in France just before the system of
+Louis XIV. came into operation. Shortly after their death the patronage
+of the king began to tell upon the national intellect; and during the
+next fifty years no addition of importance was made to either branch of
+the mathematics, or, with the single exception of acoustics,[452] to any
+of the sciences to which the mathematics are applied.[453] The further
+the seventeenth century advanced, the more evident did the decline
+become, and the more clearly can we trace the connexion between the
+waning powers of the French, and that protective spirit which enfeebled
+the energies it wished to strengthen. Louis had heard that astronomy is
+a noble study; he was therefore anxious, by encouraging its cultivation
+in France, to add to the glories of his own name.[454] With this view,
+he rewarded its professors with unexampled profusion; he built the
+splendid Observatory of Paris; he invited to his court the most eminent
+foreign astronomers, Cassini from Italy, Römer from Denmark, Huygens
+from Holland. But, as to native ability, France did not produce a single
+man who made even one of those various discoveries which mark the epochs
+of astronomical science. In other countries vast progress was made; and
+Newton in particular, by his immense generalizations, reformed nearly
+every branch of physics, and remodelled astronomy by carrying the laws
+of gravitation to the extremity of the solar system. On the other hand,
+France had fallen into such a torpor, that these wonderful discoveries,
+which changed the face of knowledge, were entirely neglected, there
+being no instance of any French astronomer adopting them until 1732,
+that is, forty-five years after they had been published by their
+immortal author.[455] Even in matters of detail, the most valuable
+improvement made by French astronomers during the power of Louis XIV.
+was not original. They laid claim to the invention of the micrometer; an
+admirable resource, which, as they supposed, was first contrived by
+Picard and Auzout.[456] The truth, however, is, that here again they
+were anticipated by the activity of a freer and less protected people;
+since the micrometer was invented by Gascoigne in or just before 1639,
+when the English monarch, so far from having leisure to patronize
+science, was about to embark in that struggle which, ten years later,
+cost him his crown and his life.[457]
+
+  [452] Of which Sauveur may be considered the creator. Compare _Eloge de
+        Sauveur_, in _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, Paris, 1766, vol. v. p.
+        435, with _Whewell's Hist. of the Induc. Sciences_, vol. ii. p.
+        334; _Comte_, _Philos. Pos._ vol. ii. pp. 627, 628.
+
+  [453] In the report presented to Napoleon by the French Institute, it is
+        said of the reign of Louis XIV., 'les sciences exactes et les
+        sciences physiques peu cultivées en France dans un siècle qui
+        paroissoit ne trouver de charmes que dans la littérature.'
+        _Dacier_, _Rapport Historique_, p. 24. Or, as Lacretelle
+        expresses it (_Dix-huitième Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 10), 'La France,
+        après avoir fourni Descartes et Pascal, eut pendant quelque temps
+        à envier aux nations étrangères la gloire de produire des génies
+        créateurs dans les sciences.'
+
+  [454] A writer late in the seventeenth century says, with some
+        simplicity, 'the present king of France is reputed an encourager
+        of choice and able men, in all faculties, who can attribute to
+        his greatness.' _Aubrey's Letters_, vol. ii. p. 624.
+
+  [455] The _Principia_ of Newton appeared in 1687; and Maupertuis, in
+        1732, 'was the first astronomer of France who undertook a
+        critical defence of the theory of gravitation.' _Grant's Hist. of
+        Physical Astronomy_, pp. 31, 43. In 1738, Voltaire writes, 'La
+        France est jusqu'à présent le seul pays où les théories de Newton
+        en physique, et de Boerhaave en médecine, soient combattues. Nous
+        n'avons pas encore de bons éléments de physique; nous avons pour
+        toute astronomie le livre de Bion, qui n'est qu'un ramas informe
+        de quelques mémoires de l'académie.' _Correspond._ in _[OE]uvres
+        de Voltaire_, vol. xlvii. p. 340. On the tardy reception of
+        Newton's discoveries in France, compare _Eloge de Lacaille_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Bailly_, Paris, 1790, vol. i. pp. 175, 176. All
+        this is the more remarkable, because several of the conclusions
+        at which Newton had arrived were divulged before they were
+        embodied in the _Principia_; and it appears from _Brewster's Life
+        of Newton_ (vol. i. pp. 25, 26, 290), that his speculations
+        concerning gravity began in 1666, or perhaps in the autumn of
+        1665.
+
+  [456] 'L'abbé Picard fut en société avec Auzout, l'inventeur du
+        micromètre.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxiv. p. 253. See also _Préface
+        de l'Hist. de l'Acad. des Sciences_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Fontenelle_, Paris, 1766, vol. x. p. 20.
+
+  [457] The best account I have seen of the invention of the micrometer,
+        is in Mr. Grant's recent work, _History of Physical Astronomy_,
+        pp. 428, 450-453, where it is proved that Gascoigne invented it
+        in 1639, or possibly a year or two earlier. Compare _Humboldt's
+        Cosmos_, vol. iii. p. 52; who also ascribes it to Gascoigne, but
+        erroneously dates it in 1640. Montucla (_Hist. des Mathémat._
+        vol. ii. pp. 570, 571) admits the priority of Gascoigne; but
+        underrates his merit, being apparently unacquainted with the
+        evidence which Mr. Grant subsequently adduced.
+
+The absence in France, during this period, not only of great
+discoveries, but also of mere practical ingenuity, is certainly very
+striking. In investigations requiring minute accuracy, the necessary
+tools, if at all complicated, were made by foreigners, the native
+workmen being too unskilled to construct them; and Dr. Lister, who was a
+very competent judge,[458] and who was in Paris at the end of the
+seventeenth century, supplies evidence that the best mathematical
+instruments sold in that city were made, not by a Frenchman, but by
+Butterfield, an Englishman residing there.[459] Nor did they succeed
+better in matters of immediate and obvious utility. The improvements
+effected in manufactures were few and insignificant, and were
+calculated, not for the comfort of the people, but for the luxury of the
+idle classes.[460] What was really valuable was neglected; no great
+invention was made; and by the end of the reign of Louis XIV. scarcely
+anything had been done in machinery, or in those other contrivances
+which, by economising national labour, increase national wealth.[461]
+
+  [458] For a short account of this able man, see _Lankester's Mem. of
+        Ray_, p. 17.
+
+  [459] Notwithstanding the strong prejudice then existing against
+        Englishmen, Butterfield was employed by 'the king and all the
+        princes.' _Lister's Account of Paris at the close of the
+        Seventeenth Century, edited by Dr. Henning_, p. 85. Fontenelle
+        mentions 'M. Hubin,' as one of the most celebrated makers in
+        Paris in 1687 (_Eloge d'Amoltons_, in _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_,
+        Paris, 1766, vol. v. p. 113); but has forgotten to state that he
+        too was an Englishman. 'Lutetiæ sedem posuerat ante aliquod
+        tempus _Anglus quidam nomine Hubinus_, vir ingeniosus, atque
+        hujusmodi machinationum peritus opifex et industrius. Hominem
+        adii,' &c. _Huetii Commentarius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus_,
+        p. 346. Thus, again, in regard to time-keepers, the vast
+        superiority of the English makers, late in the reign of Louis
+        XIV., was equally incontestable. Compare _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv.
+        pp. 242, 243, with _Brewster's Life of Newton_, vol. ii. p. 262;
+        and as to the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., see _Eloge de
+        Sebastien_, in _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, vol. vi. pp. 332, 333.
+
+  [460] 'Les manufactures étaient plutôt dirigées vers le brillant que
+        vers l'utile. On s'efforça, par un arrêt du mois de mars 1700,
+        d'extirper, ou du moins de réduire beaucoup les fabriques de bas
+        au métier. Malgré cette fausse direction, les objets d'un luxe
+        très-recherché faisaient des progrès bien lents. En 1687, après
+        la mort de Colbert, la cour soldait encore l'industrie des
+        barbares, et faisait fabriquer et broder ses plus beaux habits à
+        Constantinople.' _Lemontey_, _Etablissement de Louis XIV_, p.
+        364. Lacretelle (_Dix-huitième Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 5) says, that
+        during the last thirty years of the reign of Louis XIV. 'les
+        manufactures tombaient.'
+
+  [461] Cuvier (_Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxvii. p. 199) thus describes the
+        condition of France only seven years after the death of Louis
+        XIV.: 'Nos forges étaient alors presque dans l'enfance; et nous
+        ne faisions point d'acier: tout celui qu'exigeaient les
+        différents métiers nous venait de l'étranger.... Nous ne
+        faisions point non plus alors de fer-blanc, et il ne nous venait
+        que de l'Allemagne.'
+
+While such was the state, not only of mathematical and astronomical
+science, but also of mechanical and inventive arts, corresponding
+symptoms of declining power were seen in other departments. In
+physiology, in anatomy and in medicine, we look in vain for any men
+equal to those by whom France had once been honoured. The greatest
+discovery of this kind ever made by a Frenchman, was that of the
+receptacle of the chyle; a discovery which, in the opinion of a high
+authority, is not inferior to that of the circulation of the blood by
+Harvey.[462] This important step in our knowledge is constantly assigned
+to the age of Louis XIV., as if it were one of the results of his
+gracious bounty; but it would be difficult to tell what Louis had to do
+with it, since the discovery was made by Pecquet in 1647,[463] when the
+great king was nine years old. After Pecquet, the most eminent of the
+French anatomists in the seventeenth century was Riolan; and his name we
+also find among the illustrious men who adorned the reign of Louis XIV.
+But the principal works of Riolan were written before Louis XIV. was
+born; his last work was published in 1652; and he himself died in
+1657.[464] Then there came a pause, and, during three generations, the
+French did nothing for these great subjects: they wrote no work upon
+them which is now read, they made no discoveries, and they seemed to
+have lost all heart, until that revival of knowledge, which, as we shall
+presently see, took place in France about the middle of the eighteenth
+century. In the practical parts of medicine, in its speculative parts,
+and in the arts connected with surgery, the same law prevails. The
+French, in these, as in other matters, had formerly produced men of
+great eminence, who had won for themselves an European reputation, and
+whose works are still remembered. Thus, only to mention two or three
+instances, they had a long line of illustrious physicians, among whom
+Fernel and Joubert were the earliest;[465] they had, in surgery,
+Ambroise Paré, who not only introduced important practical
+improvements,[466] but who has the still rarer merit of being one of the
+founders of comparative osteology;[467] and they had Baillou, who late
+in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century, advanced
+pathology, by connecting it with the study of morbid anatomy.[468] Under
+Louis XIV. all this was changed. Under him, surgery was neglected,
+though in other countries its progress was rapid.[469] The English, by
+the middle of the seventeenth century, had taken considerable steps in
+medicine: its therapeutical branch being reformed chiefly by Sydenham,
+its physiological branch by Glisson.[470] But the age of Louis XIV.
+cannot boast of a single medical writer who can be compared to these;
+not even one whose name is now known as having made any specific
+addition to our knowledge. In Paris, the practice of medicine was
+notoriously inferior to that in the capitals of Germany, Italy, and
+England; while in the French provinces, the ignorance, even of the best
+physicians, was scandalous.[471] Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say
+that, during the whole of this long period, the French in these matters
+effected comparatively nothing; they made no contributions to clinical
+literature,[472] and scarcely any to therapeutics, to pathology, to
+physiology, or to anatomy.[473]
+
+  [462] 'Certainement la découverte de Pecquet ne brille pas moins dans
+        l'histoire de notre art que la vérité démontrée pour la première
+        fois par Harvey.' _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iv. p.
+        208.
+
+  [463] Henle (_Anatomie Générale_, vol. ii. p. 106) says, that the
+        discovery was made in 1649; but the historians of medicine assign
+        it to 1647. _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iv. pp. 207,
+        405; _Renouard_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 173.
+
+  [464] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxviii. pp. 123, 124.
+
+  [465] Some of the great steps taken by Joubert are concisely stated in
+        _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. i. pp. 293,
+        294, vol. iii. p. 361. Compare _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 210. Fernel, though enthusiastically
+        praised by Patin, was probably hardly equal to Joubert. _Lettres
+        de Patin_, vol. iii. pp. 59, 199, 648. At p. 106, Patin calls
+        Fernel 'le premier médecin de son temps, et peut-être le plus
+        grand qui sera jamais.'
+
+  [466] See a summary of them in _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 405, 406, vol. vii. pp. 14, 15. Sir Benjamin Brodie
+        (_Lectures on Surgery_, p. 21) says, 'Few greater benefits have
+        been conferred on mankind than that for which we are indebted to
+        Ambrose Parey--the application of a ligature to a bleeding
+        artery.'
+
+  [467] 'C'était là une vue très-ingénieuse et très-juste qu'Ambroise Paré
+        donnait pour la première fois. C'était un commencement
+        d'ostéologie comparée.' _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part. ii.
+        p. 42. To this I may add, that he is the first French writer on
+        medical jurisprudence. See _Paris and Fonblanque's Medical
+        Jurisprudence_, 1823, vol. i. p. xviii.
+
+  [468] 'L'un des premiers auteurs à qui l'on doit des observations
+        cadavériques sur les maladies, est le fameux Baillou.'
+        _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. ii. p. 218.
+        See also vol. iii. p. 362; and _Renouard_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 89. The value of his services is
+        recognized in a recent able work, _Phillips on Scrofula_, 1846,
+        p. 16.
+
+  [469] 'The most celebrated surgeon of the sixteenth century was Ambroise
+        Paré.... From the time of Paré until the commencement of the
+        eighteenth century, surgery was but little cultivated in France.
+        Mauriceau, Saviard, and Belloste, were the only French surgeons
+        of note who could be contrasted with so many eminent men of other
+        nations. During the eighteenth century, France produced two
+        surgeons of extraordinary genius; these are Petit and Desault.'
+        _Bowman's Surgery_, in _Encyclop. of Medical Sciences_, 1847,
+        4to. pp. 829, 830.
+
+  [470] It is unnecessary to adduce evidence respecting the services
+        rendered by Sydenham, as they are universally admitted; but what,
+        perhaps, is less generally known, is, that Glisson anticipated
+        those important views concerning irritability, which were
+        afterwards developed by Haller and Gorter. Compare _Renouard_,
+        _Hist. de le Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 192; _Elliotson's Human
+        Physiol_. p. 471; _Bordas Demoulin_, _Cartésianisme_, vol. i. p.
+        170; In _Wagner's Physiol._ 1841, p. 655, the theory is too
+        exclusively ascribed to Haller.
+
+  [471] Of this we have numerous complaints from foreigners who visited
+        France. I will quote the testimony of one celebrated man. In
+        1699, Addison writes from Blois: 'I made use of one of the
+        physicians of this place, who are as cheap as our English
+        farriers, and generally as ignorant.' _Aikin's Life of Addison_,
+        vol. i. p. 74.
+
+  [472] Indeed, France was the last great country in Europe in which a
+        chair of clinical medicine was established. See _Renouard_,
+        _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 312; and _Bouillaud_,
+        _Philos. Médicale_, p. 114.
+
+  [473] M. Bouillaud, in his account of the state of medicine in the
+        seventeenth century, does not mention a single Frenchman during
+        this period. See _Bouillaud_, _Philosophie Médicale_, pp. 13 seq.
+        During many years of the power of Louis XIV., the French Academy
+        only possessed one anatomist; and of him, few students of
+        physiology have ever heard: 'M. du Verney fut assez long-temps le
+        seul anatomiste de l'académie, et ce ne fut qu'en 1684 qu'on lui
+        joignit M. Mery.' _Eloge de Du Verney_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Fontenelle_, vol. vi. p. 392.
+
+In what are called the natural sciences, we also find the French now
+brought to a stand. In zoology, they had formerly possessed remarkable
+men, among whom Belon and Rondelet were the most conspicuous:[474] but,
+under Louis XIV., they did not produce one original observer in this
+great field of inquiry.[475] In chemistry, again, Rey had, in the reign
+of Louis XIII., struck out views of such vast importance, that he
+anticipated some of those generalizations which formed the glory of the
+French intellect in the eighteenth century.[476] During the corrupt and
+frivolous age of Louis XIV., all this was forgotten; the labours of Rey
+were neglected; and so complete was the indifference, that even the
+celebrated experiments of Boyle remained unknown in France for more than
+forty years after they were published.[477]
+
+  [474] _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. pp. 64-73, 76-80.
+
+  [475] After Belon, nothing was done in France for the natural history of
+        animals until 1734, when there appeared the first volume of
+        Reaumur's great work. See _Swainson on the Study of Nat. Hist._
+        pp. 24, 43.
+
+  [476] On this remarkable man, who was the first philosophic chemist
+        Europe produced, and who, so early as 1630, anticipated some of
+        the generalizations made a hundred and fifty years later by
+        Lavoisier, see _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, pp. 46, 47;
+        _Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 95, 96; _Humboldt's
+        Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 729; _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_,
+        vol. i. p. 30.
+
+  [477] Cuvier (_Progrès des Sciences_, vol. i. p. 30) says of Rey, 'son
+        écrit était tombé dans l'oubli le plus profond;' and, in another
+        work, the same great authority writes (_Hist. des Sciences_, part
+        ii. p. 333): 'Il y avait plus de quarante ans que Becker avait
+        présenté sa nouvelle théorie, développée par Stahl; il y avait
+        encore plus long-temps que les expériences de Boyle sur la chimie
+        pneumatique avaient été publiées, et cependant, rien de tout cela
+        n'entrait encore dans l'enseignement général de la chimie, du
+        moins en France.'
+
+Connected with zoology, and, to a philosophic mind, inseparable from it,
+is botany: which, occupying a middle place between the animal and
+mineral world, indicates their relation to each other, and at different
+points touches the confines of both. It also throws great light on the
+functions of nutrition,[478] and on the laws of development; while, from
+the marked analogy between animals and vegetables, we have every reason
+to hope that its further progress, assisted by that of electricity, will
+prepare the way for a comprehensive theory of life, to which the
+resources of our knowledge are still unequal, but towards which the
+movements of modern science are manifestly tending. On these grounds,
+far more than for the sake of practical advantages, botany will always
+attract the attention of thinking men; who, neglecting views of
+immediate utility, look to large and ultimate results, and only value
+particular facts in so far as they facilitate the discovery of general
+truths. The first step in this noble study was taken towards the middle
+of the sixteenth century, when authors, instead of copying what previous
+writers had said, began to observe nature for themselves.[479] The next
+step was, to add experiment to observation: but it required another
+hundred years before this could be done with accuracy; because the
+microscope, which is essential to such inquiries, was only invented
+about 1620, and the labour of a whole generation was needed to make it
+available for minute investigations.[480] So soon, however, as this
+resource was sufficiently matured to be applied to plants, the march of
+botany became rapid, at least as far as details are concerned; for it
+was not until the eighteenth century that the facts were actually
+generalized. But, in the preliminary work of accumulating the facts,
+great energy was shown; and, for reasons stated in an earlier part of
+the Introduction, this, like other studies relating to the external
+world, advanced with peculiar speed during the reign of Charles II. The
+tracheæ of plants were discovered by Henshaw in 1661;[481] and their
+cellular tissue by Hooke in 1667.[482] These were considerable
+approaches towards establishing the analogy between plants and animals;
+and, within a few years, Grew effected still more of the same kind. He
+made such minute and extensive dissections, as to raise the anatomy of
+vegetables to a separate study, and prove that their organization is
+scarcely less complicated than that possessed by animals.[483] His first
+work was written in 1670;[484] and, in 1676, another Englishman,
+Millington, ascertained the existence of a distinction of sexes;[485]
+thus supplying further evidence of the harmony between the animal and
+vegetable kingdoms, and of the unity of idea which regulates their
+composition.
+
+  [478] The highest present generalizations of the laws of nutrition are
+        those by M. Chevreul; which are thus summed up by MM. Robin et
+        Verdeil, in their admirable work, _Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i. p.
+        203, Paris, 1853: 'En passant des plantes aux animaux, nous
+        voyons que plus l'organisation de ces derniers est compliquée,
+        plus les aliments dont ils se nourrissent sont complexes et
+        analogues par leurs principes immédiats aux principes des organes
+        qu'ils doivent entretenir.
+
+        'En définitive, on voit que les végétaux se nourrissent d'eau,
+        d'acide carbonique, d'autres gaz et de matières organiques à
+        l'état d'engrais, ou en d'autres termes altérées, c'est-à-dire
+        ramenées à l'état de principes plus simples, plus solubles. Au
+        contraire, les animaux plus élevés dans l'échelle organique ont
+        besoin de matières bien plus complexes quant aux principes
+        immédiats qui les composent, et plus variées dans leurs
+        propriétés.'
+
+  [479] Brunfels in 1530, and Fuchs in 1542, were the two first writers
+        who observed the vegetable kingdom for themselves, instead of
+        copying what the ancients had said. Compare _Whewell's Hist. of
+        the Sciences_, vol. iii. pp. 305, 306, with _Pulteney's Hist. of
+        Botany_, vol. i. p. 38.
+
+  [480] The microscope was exhibited in London, by Drebbel, about 1620;
+        and this appears to be the earliest unquestionable notice of its
+        use, though some writers assert that it was invented at the
+        beginning of the seventeenth century, or even in 1590. Compare
+        the different statements, in _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_,
+        vol. ii. p. 357; _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. pp. 699, 700;
+        _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iv. p. 337; _Winckler_,
+        _Gesch. der Botanik_, p. 136; _Quekett's Treatise on the
+        Microscope_, 1848, p. 2; _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii.
+        p. 470; _Hallam's Lit. of Europe_, vol. iii. p. 202; _Leslie's
+        Nat. Philos._ p. 52. On the subsequent improvement of the
+        microscope during the seventeenth century, see _Brewster's Life
+        of Newton_, vol. i. pp. 29, 242, 243.
+
+  [481] See _Balfour's Botany_, p. 15. In Pulteney's _Progress of Botany
+        in England_, this beautiful discovery is, if I rightly remember,
+        not even alluded to; but it appears, from a letter written in
+        1672, that it was then becoming generally known, and had been
+        confirmed by Grew and Malpighi. _Ray's Correspond._ edit. 1848,
+        p. 98. Compare _Richard_, _Eléments de Botanique_, p. 46; where,
+        however, M. Richard erroneously supposes that Grew did not know
+        of the tracheæ till 1682.
+
+  [482] Compare _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. p. 471, with
+        _Thomson's Vegetable Chemistry_, p. 950.
+
+  [483] Dr. Thomson (_Vegetable Chemistry_, p. 950) says: 'But the person
+        to whom we are indebted for the first attempt to ascertain the
+        structure of plants by dissection and microscopical observations,
+        was Dr. Nathaniel Grew.' The character of Grew's inquiries, as
+        'viewing the internal, as well as external parts of plants,' is
+        also noticed in _Ray's Correspond._ p. 188; and M. Winckler
+        (_Gesch. der Botanik_, p. 382) ascribes to him and Malpighi the
+        'neuen Aufschwung' taken by vegetable physiology late in the
+        seventeenth century. See also, on Grew, _Lindley's Botany_, vol.
+        i. p. 93; and _Third Report of Brit. Assoc._ p. 27.
+
+  [484] The first book of his Anatomy of Plants was laid before the Royal
+        Society in 1670, and printed in 1671. _Hallam's Lit. of Europe_,
+        vol. iii. p. 580; and _Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society_, p.
+        44.
+
+  [485] 'The presence of sexual organs in plants was first shown in 1676,
+        by Sir Thomas Millington; and it was afterwards confirmed by
+        Grew, Malpighi, and Ray.' _Balfour's Botany_, p. 236. See also
+        _Pulteney's Progress of Botany_, vol. i. pp. 336, 337; and
+        _Lindley's Botany_, vol. ii. p. 217: and, as to Ray, who was
+        rather slow in admitting the discovery, see _Lankester's Mem. of
+        Ray_, p. 100. Before this, the sexual system of vegetables had
+        been empirically known to several of the ancients, but never
+        raised to a scientific truth. Compare _Richard_, _Eléments de
+        Botanique_, pp. 353, 427, 428, with _Matter_, _Hist. de l'Ecole
+        d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. p. 9.
+
+This is what was effected in England during the reign of Charles II.;
+and we now ask what was done in France, during the same period, under
+the munificent patronage of Louis XIV. The answer is, nothing; no
+discovery, no idea, which forms an epoch in this important department of
+natural science. The son of the celebrated Sir Thomas Brown visited
+Paris in the hope of making some additions to his knowledge of botany,
+which he thought he could not fail to do in a country where science was
+held in such honour, its professors so caressed by the court, and its
+researches so bountifully encouraged. To his surprise, he, in 1665,
+found in that great city no one capable of teaching his favourite
+pursuit, and even the public lectures on it miserably meagre and
+unsatisfactory.[486] Neither then, nor at a much later period, did the
+French possess a good popular treatise on botany: still less did they
+make any improvement in it. Indeed, so completely was the philosophy of
+the subject misunderstood, that Tournefort, the only French botanist of
+repute in the reign of Louis, actually rejected that discovery of the
+sexes of plants, which had been made before he began to write, and which
+afterwards became the corner-stone of the Linnæan system.[487] This
+showed his incapacity for those large views respecting the unity of the
+organic world, which alone give to botany a scientific value; and we
+find, accordingly, that he did nothing for the physiology of plants, and
+that his only merit was as a collector and classifier of them.[488] And
+even in his classification he was guided, not by a comprehensive
+comparison of their various parts, but by considerations drawn from the
+mere appearance of the flower:[489] thus depriving botany of its real
+grandeur, degrading it into an arrangement of beautiful objects, and
+supplying another instance of the way in which the Frenchmen of that
+generation impoverished what they sought to enrich, and dwarfed every
+topic, until they suited the intellect and pleased the eye of that
+ignorant and luxurious court, to whose favour they looked for reward,
+and whose applause it was the business of their life to gain.
+
+  [486] In July 1665 he writes from Paris to his father, 'The lecture of
+        plants here is only the naming of them, their degrees in heat and
+        cold, and sometimes their use in physick; scarce a word more than
+        may be seen in every herball.' _Browne's Works_, vol. i. p. 108.
+
+  [487] Cuvier mentioning the inferiority of Tournefort's views to those
+        of his predecessors, gives as an instance, 'puisqu'il a rejeté
+        les sexes des plantes.' _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. p. 496.
+        Hence he held that the farina was ex-crementitious. _Pulteney's
+        Progress of Botany_, vol. i. p. 340.
+
+  [488] This is admitted even by his eulogist Duvau. _Biog. Univ._
+        vol. xlvi. p. 363.
+
+  [489] On the method of Tournefort, which was that of a corrollist,
+        compare _Richard_, _Eléments de Botanique_, p. 547; _Jussieu's
+        Botany_, edit. Wilson, 1849, p. 516; _Ray's Correspond._ pp. 381,
+        382; _Lankester's Mem. of Ray_, p. 49; _Winckler_, _Gesch. der
+        Botanik_, p. 142. Cuvier (_Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. p. 496),
+        with quiet irony, says of it, 'vous voyez, messieurs, que cette
+        méthode a le mérite d'une grande clarté; qu'elle est fondée sur
+        la forme de la fleur, et par conséquent sur des considérations
+        agréables à saisir.... Ce qui en fit le succès, c'est que
+        Tournefort joignit à son ouvrage une figure de fleur et de fruit
+        appartenant à chacun de ses genres.' Even in this, he appears to
+        have been careless, and is said to have described 'a great many
+        plants he never examined nor saw.' _Letter from Dr. Sherard_, in
+        _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. i.
+        p. 356.
+
+The truth is, that in these, as in all matters of real importance, in
+questions requiring independent thought, and in questions of practical
+utility, the age of Louis XIV. was an age of decay: it was an age of
+misery, of intolerance, and oppression; it was an age of bondage, of
+ignominy, of incompetence. This would long since have been universally
+admitted, if those who have written the history of that period had taken
+the trouble to study subjects without which no history can be
+understood; or, I should rather say, without which no history can exist.
+If this had been done, the reputation of Louis XIV. would at once have
+shrunk to its natural size. Even at the risk of exposing myself to the
+charge of unduly estimating my own labours, I cannot avoid saying, that
+the facts which I have just pointed out have never before been
+collected, but have remained isolated in the text-books and repertories
+of the sciences to which they belong. Yet without them it is impossible
+to study the age of Louis XIV. It is impossible to estimate the
+character of any period except by tracing its development; in other
+words, by measuring the extent of its knowledge. Therefore it is, that
+to write the history of a country without regard to its intellectual
+progress, is as if an astronomer should compose a planetary system
+without regard to the sun, by whose light alone the planets can be seen,
+and by whose attraction they are held in their course, and compelled to
+run in the path of their appointed orbits. For the great luminary, even
+as it shines in the heaven, is not a more noble or a more powerful
+object than is the intellect of man in this nether world. It is to the
+human intellect, and to that alone, that every country owes its
+knowledge. And what is it but the progress and diffusion of knowledge
+which has given us our arts, our sciences, our manufactures, our laws,
+our opinions, our manners, our comforts, our luxuries, our civilization;
+in short, everything that raises us above the savages, who by their
+ignorance are degraded to the level of the brutes with which they herd?
+Surely, then, the time has now arrived when they who undertake to write
+the history of a great nation should occupy themselves with those
+matters by which alone the destiny of men is regulated, and should
+abandon the petty and insignificant details by which we have too long
+been wearied; details respecting the lives of kings, the intrigues of
+ministers, the vices and the gossip of courts.
+
+It is precisely these higher considerations which furnish the key to the
+history of the reign of Louis XIV. In that time, as in all others, the
+misery of the people and the degradation of the country followed the
+decline of the national intellect; while this last was, in its turn, the
+result of the protective spirit--that mischievous spirit which weakens
+whatever it touches. If in the long course and compass of history there
+is one thing more clear than another, it is, that whenever a government
+undertakes to protect intellectual pursuits, it will almost always
+protect them in the wrong place, and reward the wrong men. Nor is it
+surprising that this should be the case. What can kings and ministers
+know about those immense branches of knowledge, to cultivate which with
+success is often the business of an entire life? How can they,
+constantly occupied with their lofty pursuits, have leisure for such
+inferior matters? Is it to be supposed that such acquirements will be
+found among statesmen, who are always engaged in the most weighty
+concerns; sometimes writing despatches, sometimes making speeches,
+sometimes organising a party in the parliament, sometimes baffling an
+intrigue in the privy-chamber? Or if the sovereign should graciously
+bestow his patronage according to his own judgment, are we to expect
+that mere philosophy and science should be familiar to high and mighty
+princes, who have their own peculiar and arduous studies, and who have
+to learn the mysteries of heraldry, the nature and dignities of rank,
+the comparative value of the different orders, decorations, and titles,
+the laws of precedence, the prerogatives of noble birth, the names and
+powers of ribbons, stars, and garters, the various modes of conferring
+an honour or installing into an office, the adjustment of ceremonies,
+the subtleties of etiquette, and all those other courtly accomplishments
+necessary to the exalted functions which they perform?
+
+The mere statement of such questions proves the absurdity of the
+principle which they involve. For, unless we believe that kings are
+omniscient as well as immaculate, it is evident that in the bestowal of
+rewards they must be guided either by personal caprice or by the
+testimony of competent judges. And since no one is a competent judge of
+scientific excellence unless he is himself scientific, we are driven to
+this monstrous alternative, that the rewards of intellectual labour must
+be conferred injudiciously, or else that they must be given according to
+the verdict of that very class by whom they are received. In the first
+case, the reward will be ridiculous; in the latter case, it will be
+disgraceful. In the former case, weak men will be benefited by wealth
+which is taken from industry to be lavished on idleness. But in the
+latter case, those men of real genius, those great and illustrious
+thinkers, who are the masters and teachers of the human race, are to be
+tricked out with trumpery titles; and after scrambling in miserable
+rivalry for the sordid favours of a court, they are then to be turned
+into beggars of the state, who not only clamour for their share of the
+spoil, but even regulate the proportions into which the shares are to be
+divided.
+
+Under such a system, the natural results are, first, the impoverishment
+and servility of genius: then the decay of knowledge; then the decline
+of the country. Three times in the history of the world has this
+experiment been tried. In the ages of Augustus, of Leo X., and of Louis
+XIV., the same method was adopted, and the same result ensued. In each
+of these ages, there was much apparent splendour, immediately succeeded
+by sudden ruin. In each instance, the brilliancy survived the
+independence; and in each instance, the national spirit sank under that
+pernicious alliance between government and literature, by virtue of
+which the political classes become very powerful, and the intellectual
+classes very weak, simply because they who dispense the patronage will,
+of course, receive the homage; and if, on the one hand, government is
+always ready to reward literature, so on the other hand, will literature
+be always ready to succumb to government.
+
+Of these three ages, that of Louis XIV. was incomparably the worst; and
+nothing but the amazing energy of the French people could have enabled
+them to rally, as they afterwards did, from the effects of so enfeebling
+a system. But though they rallied, the effort cost them dear. The
+struggle, as we shall presently see, lasted two generations, and was
+only ended by that frightful Revolution which formed its natural climax.
+What the real history of that struggle was, I shall endeavour to
+ascertain towards the conclusion of this volume. Without, however,
+anticipating the course of affairs, we will now proceed to what I have
+already mentioned as the second great characteristic of the reign of
+Louis XIV.
+
+II. The second intellectual characteristic of the reign of Louis XIV.
+is, in importance, hardly inferior to the first. We have already seen
+that the national intellect, stunted by the protection of the court, was
+so diverted from the noblest branches of knowledge, that in none of them
+did it produce anything worthy of being recorded. As a natural
+consequence, the minds of men, driven from the higher departments, took
+refuge in the lower, and concentrated themselves upon those inferior
+subjects, where the discovery of truth is not the main object, but where
+beauty of form and expression are the things chiefly pursued. Thus, the
+first consequence of the patronage of Louis XIV. was, to diminish the
+field for genius, and to sacrifice science to art. The second
+consequence was, that, even in art itself, there was soon seen a marked
+decay. For a short time, the stimulus produced its effect; but was
+followed by that collapse which is its natural result. So essentially
+vicious is the whole system of patronage and reward, that after the
+death of those writers and artists, whose works form the only redeeming
+point in the reign of Louis, there was found no one capable of even
+imitating their excellences. The poets, dramatists, painters, musicians,
+sculptors, architects, were, with hardly an exception, not only born,
+but educated under that freer policy, which existed before his time.
+When they began their labours, they benefited by a munificence which
+encouraged the activity of their genius. But in a few years, that
+generation having died off, the hollowness of the whole system was
+clearly exposed. More than a quarter of a century before the death of
+Louis XIV., most of these eminent men had ceased to live; and then it
+was seen to how miserable a plight the country was reduced under the
+boasted patronage of the great king. At the moment when Louis XIV. died,
+there was scarcely a writer or an artist in France who enjoyed an
+European reputation. This is a circumstance well worth our notice. If we
+compare the different classes of literature, we shall find that sacred
+oratory, being the least influenced by the king, was able the longest to
+bear up against his system. Massillon belongs partly to the subsequent
+reign; but even of the other great divines, Bossuet and Bourdaloue both
+lived to 1704,[490] Mascaron to 1703,[491] and Flechier to 1710.[492]
+As, however, the king, particularly in his latter years, was very
+fearful of meddling with the church, it is in profane matters that we
+can best trace the workings of his policy, because it is there that his
+interference was most active. With a view to this, the simplest plan
+will be, to look, in the first place, into the history of the fine arts;
+and after ascertaining who the greatest artists were, observe the year
+in which they died, remembering that the government of Louis XIV. began
+in 1661, and ended in 1715.
+
+  [490] _Biog. Univ._ vol. v. pp. 236, 358.
+
+  [491] _Ibid._ xxvii. p. 351.
+
+  [492] _Ibid._ xv. p. 35.
+
+If, now, we examine this period of fifty-four years, we shall be struck
+by the remarkable fact, that everything which is celebrated was effected
+in the first half of it; while more than twenty years before its close,
+the most eminent masters all died without leaving any successors. The
+six greatest painters in the reign of Louis XIV. were Poussin, Lesueur,
+Claude Lorraine, Le Brun, and the two Mignards. Of these, Le Brun died
+in 1690;[493] the elder Mignard in 1668;[494] the younger in 1695;[495]
+Claude Lorraine in 1682;[496] Lesueur in 1655;[497] and Poussin, perhaps
+the most distinguished of all the French school, died in 1665.[498] The
+two greatest architects were, Claude Perrault and Francis Mansart; but
+Perrault died in 1688;[499] Mansart in 1666;[500] and Blondel, the next
+in fame, died in 1686.[501] The greatest of all the sculptors was Puget,
+who died in 1694.[502] Lulli, the founder of French music, died in
+1687.[503] Quinault, the greatest poet of French music, died in
+1688.[504] Under these eminent men, the fine arts, in the reign of
+Louis XIV., reached their zenith; and during the last thirty years of
+his life, their decline was portentously rapid. This was the case, not
+only in architecture and music, but even in painting, which, being more
+subservient than they are to personal vanity, is more likely to flourish
+under a rich and despotic government. The genius, however, of painters
+fell so low, that long before the death of Louis XIV., France ceased to
+possess one of any merit; and when his successor came to the throne,
+this beautiful art was, in that great country, almost extinct.[505]
+
+  [493] _Ibid._ xxiii. p. 496.
+
+  [494] _Ibid._ xxix. p. 17.
+
+  [495] _Ibid._ xxix. p. 19.
+
+  [496] 'His best pictures were painted from about 1640 to 1660; he died
+        in 1682.' _Wornum's Epochs of Painting_, Lond. 1847. p. 399.
+        Voltaire (_Siècle de Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xix. p.
+        205) says that he died in 1678.
+
+  [497] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv. p. 327; _Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 454, 455.
+
+  [498] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxv. p. 579. Poussin was Barry's 'favourite'
+        painter. _Letter from Barry_, in _Burke's Correspond._ vol. i. p.
+        88. Compare _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. ii. p. 55. Sir Joshua
+        Reynolds (_Works_, vol. i. pp. 97, 351, 376) appears to have
+        preferred him to any of the French school; and in the report
+        presented to Napoleon by the Institute, he is the only French
+        painter mentioned by the side of the Greek and Italian artists.
+        _Dacier_, _Rapport Historique_, p. 23.
+
+  [499] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxiii. p. 411; _Siècle de Louis XIV_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xix. p. 158.
+
+  [500] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 503.
+
+  [501] _Ibid._ vol. iv. p. 593.
+
+  [502] _Ibid._ vol. xxxvi. p. 300. Respecting him, see _Lady Morgan's
+        France_, vol. ii. pp. 30, 31.
+
+  [503] M. Capefigue (_Louis XIV_, vol. ii. p. 79) says, 'Lulli mourut en
+        1689;' but 1687 is the date assigned in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxv.
+        p. 425; in _Chalmer's Biog. Dict._ vol. xx. p. 483; in _Rose's
+        Biog. Dict._ vol. ix. p. 350; and in _Monteil_, _Divers Etats_,
+        vol. vii p. 63. In _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xix. p. 200, he
+        is called 'le père de la vraie musique en France.' He was admired
+        by Louis XIV. _Lettres de Sévigné_, vol. ii. pp. 162, 163.
+
+  [504] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxvi. p. 42. Voltaire (_[OE]uvres_, vol. xix.
+        p. 162) says, 'personne n'a jamais égalé Quinault;' and Mr.
+        Hallam (_Lit. of Europe_, vol. iii. p. 507), 'the unrivalled poet
+        of French music.' See also _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, vol.
+        ii. p. 432.
+
+  [505] When Louis XV. ascended the throne, painting in France was in the
+        lowest state of degradation. _Lady Morgan's France_, vol. ii. p.
+        31. Lacretelle (_Dix-huitième Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 11) says 'Les
+        beaux arts dégénérèrent plus sensiblement que les lettres pendant
+        la seconde partie du siècle de Louis XIV.... Il est certain que
+        les vingt-cinq dernières années du règne de Louis XIV n'offrirent
+        que des productions très-inférieures,' &c. Thus too Barrington
+        (_Observations on the Statutes_, p. 377), 'It is very remarkable
+        that the French school hath not produced any very capital
+        painters since the expensive establishment by Louis XIV. of the
+        academies at Rome and Paris.'
+
+These are startling facts; not matters of opinion, which may be
+disputed, but stubborn dates, supported by irrefragable testimony. And
+if we examine in the same manner the literature of the age of Louis
+XIV., we shall arrive at similar conclusions. If we ascertain the dates
+of those masterpieces which adorn his reign, we shall find that during
+the last five-and-twenty years of his life, when his patronage had been
+the longest in operation, it was entirely barren of results; in other
+words, that when the French had been most habituated to his protection,
+they were least able to effect great things. Louis XIV. died in 1715.
+Racine produced _Phedre_ in 1677; _Andromaque_ in 1667; _Athelie_ in
+1691.[506] Molière published the _Misanthrope_ in 1666; _Tartuffe_ in
+1667; the _Avare_ in 1668.[507] The _Lutrin_ of Boileau was written in
+1674; his best Satires in 1666.[508] The last Fables of La Fontaine
+appeared in 1678, and his last Tales in 1671.[509] The _Inquiry
+respecting Truth_, by Malebranche, was published in 1674;[510] the
+_Caractères_ of La Bruyère in 1687;[511] the Maximes of Rochefoucauld in
+1665.[512] The _Provincial Letters_ of Pascal were written 1656, and he
+himself died in 1662.[513] As to Corneille, his great Tragedies were
+composed, some while Louis was still a boy, and the others before the
+king was born.[514] Such were the dates of the masterpieces of the age
+of Louis XIV. The authors of these immortal works all ceased to write,
+and nearly all ceased to live, before the close of the seventeenth
+century; and we may fairly ask the admirers of Louis XIV. who those men
+were that succeeded them. Where have their names been registered? Where
+are their works to be found? Who is there that now reads the books of
+those obscure hirelings, who for so many years thronged the court of the
+great king? Who has heard anything of Campistron, La Chapelle, Genest,
+Ducerceau, Dancourt, Danchet, Vergier, Catrou, Chaulieu, Legendre,
+Valincour, Lamotte, and the other ignoble compilers, who long remained
+the brightest ornaments of France? Was this, then, the consequence of
+the royal bounty? Was this the fruit of the royal patronage? If the
+system of reward and protection is really advantageous to literature and
+to art, how is it that it should have produced the meanest results when
+it had been the longest in operation? If the favour of kings is, as
+their flatterers tell us, of such importance, how comes it that the more
+the favour was displayed, the more the effects were contemptible?
+
+  [506] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxvi. pp. 499, 502; _Hallam's Lit._ vol. iii.
+        p. 493.
+
+  [507] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxix. pp. 306, 308.
+
+  [508] _Rose's Biog. Dict._ vol. iv. p. 376; and _Biog. Univ._ vol. v.
+        pp. 7, 8, where it is said that 'ses meilleures satires' were
+        those published in 1666.
+
+  [509] _Ibid._ vol. xxiii. p. 127.
+
+  [510] _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. x. p. 322.
+
+  [511] _Biog. Univ._ vol. vi. p. 175.
+
+  [512] _Brunet_, _Manuel du Libraire_, vol. iv. p. 105, Paris 1843; and
+        note in _Lettres de Patin_, vol. i. p. 421.
+
+  [513] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxiii. pp. 64, 71; _Palissot_, _Mém. pour
+        l'Hist. de Lit._ vol. ii. pp. 239, 241.
+
+  [514] _Polyeucte_, which is probably his greatest work, appeared in
+        1640; _Médée_ in 1635; _The Cid_ in 1636; _Horace and Cinna_ both
+        in 1639. _Biog. Univ._ vol. ix. pp. 609-613.
+
+Nor was this almost inconceivable penury compensated by superiority in
+any other department. The simple fact is that Louis XIV. survived the
+entire intellect of the French nation, except that small part of it
+which grew up in opposition to his principles, and afterwards shook the
+throne of his successor.[515] Several years before his death, and when
+his protective system had been in full force for nearly half a century,
+there was not to be found in the whole of France a statesman who could
+develop the resources of the country, or a general who could defend it
+against its enemies. Both in the civil service and in the military
+service, every thing had fallen into disorder. At home there was nothing
+but confusion; abroad there was nothing but disaster. The spirit of
+France succumbed, and was laid prostrate. The men of letters, pensioned
+and decorated by the court, had degenerated into a fawning and
+hypocritical race, who, to meet the wishes of their masters, opposed all
+improvement, and exerted themselves in support of every old abuse. The
+end of all this was, a corruption, a servility, and a loss of power more
+complete than has ever been witnessed in any of the great countries of
+Europe. There was no popular liberty; there were no great men; there was
+no science; there was no literature; there were no arts. Within, there
+was a discontented people, a rapacious government, and a beggared
+exchequer. Without, there were foreign armies, which pressed upon all
+the frontiers, and which nothing but their mutual jealousies, and a
+change in the English cabinet, prevented from dismembering the monarchy
+of France.[516]
+
+  [515] Voltaire (_Siècle de Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xx. pp.
+        319-322) reluctantly confesses the decline of the French
+        intellect in the latter part of the reign of Louis; and Flassan
+        (_Diplomat. Franç._ vol. iv. p. 400) calls it 'remarquable.' See
+        also _Barante_, _Littérature Française_, p. 28; _Sismondi_,
+        _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxvi. p. 217.
+
+  [516] Oppressed by defeats abroad, and by famine and misery at home,
+        Louis was laid at the mercy of his enemies; and 'was only saved by
+        a party revolution in the English ministry.' _Arnold's Lectures
+        on Modern History_, p. 137. Compare _Fragments sur l'Histoire_,
+        article xxiii. in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxvii. p. 345,
+        with _De Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. i. p. 86.
+
+Such was the forlorn position of that noble country towards the close of
+the reign of Louis XIV.[517] The misfortunes which embittered the
+declining years of the king were, indeed, so serious, that they could
+not fail to excite our sympathy, if we did not know that they were the
+result of his own turbulent ambition, of his insufferable arrogance,
+but, above all, of a grasping and restless vanity, which, making him
+eager to concentrate on his single person all the glory of France, gave
+rise to that insidious policy, which, with gifts, with honours, and with
+honied words, began by gaining the admiration of the intellectual
+classes, then made them courtly and time-serving, and ended by
+destroying all their boldness, stifling every effort of original
+thought, and thus postponing for an indefinite period the progress of
+national civilization.
+
+  [517] For evidence of the depression and, indeed, utter exhaustion of
+        France during the latter years of Louis XIV., compare _Duclos_,
+        _Mémoires_, vol. i. pp. 11-18, with _Marmontel_, _Hist. de la
+        Régence_, Paris, 1826, pp. 79-97. The _Lettres inédites de Madame
+        de Maintenon_ (vol. i. pp. 263, 284, 358, 389, 393, 408, 414,
+        422, 426, 447, 457, 463, vol. ii. pp. 19, 23, 33, 46, 56, and
+        numerous other passages) fully confirm this, and, moreover, prove
+        that in Paris, early in the eighteenth century, the resources,
+        even of the wealthy classes, were beginning to fail; while both
+        public and private credit were so shaken, that it was hardly
+        possible to obtain money on any terms. In 1710, she, the wife of
+        Louis XIV., complains of her inability to borrow 500 livres:
+        'Tout mon crédit échoue souvent auprès de M. Desmaretz pour une
+        somme de cinq cents livres.' _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 33. In 1709, she
+        writes (vol. i. p. 447): 'Le jeu devient insipide, parce qu'il
+        n'y a presque plus d'argent.' See also vol. ii. p. 112; and in
+        February 1711 (p. 151): 'Ce n'est pas l'abondance mais l'avarice
+        qui fait jouer nos courtisans; on met le tout pour le tout pour
+        avoir quelque argent, et les tables de lansquenet ont plus l'air
+        d'un triste commerce que d'un divertissement.'
+
+        In regard to the people generally, the French writers supply us
+        with little information, because in that age they were too much
+        occupied with their great king and their showy literature, to pay
+        attention to mere popular interests. But I have collected from
+        other sources some information which I will now put together, and
+        which I recommend to the notice of the next French author who
+        undertakes to compose a history of Louis XIV.
+
+        Locke, who was travelling in France in 1676 and 1677, writes in
+        his journal, 'The rent of land in France fallen one-half in these
+        few years, by reason of the poverty of the people.' _King's Life
+        of Locke_, vol. i. p. 139. About the same time, Sir William
+        Temple says (_Works_, vol. ii. p. 268), 'The French peasantry are
+        wholly dispirited by labour and want.' In 1691, another observer,
+        proceeding from Calais, writes, 'From hence, travelling to Paris,
+        there was opportunity enough to observe what a prodigious state
+        of poverty the ambition and absoluteness of a tyrant can reduce
+        an opulent and fertile country to. There were visible all the
+        marks and signs of a growing misfortune; all the dismal
+        indications of an overwhelming calamity. The fields were
+        uncultivated, the villages unpeopled, the houses dropping to
+        decay.' _Burton's Diary_, note by Rutt, vol. iv. p. 79. In a
+        tract published in 1689, the author says (_Somers Tracts_, vol.
+        x. p. 264), 'I have known in France poor people sell their beds,
+        and lie upon straw; sell their pots, kettles, and all their
+        necessary household goods, to content the unmerciful collectors
+        of the king's taxes.' Dr. Lister, who visited Paris in 1698,
+        says, 'Such is the vast multitude of poor wretches in all parts
+        of this city, that whether a person is in a carriage or on foot,
+        in the street, or even in a shop, he is alike unable to transact
+        business, on account of the importunities of mendicants.'
+        _Lister's Account of Paris_, p. 46. Compare a _Letter from
+        Prior_, in _Ellis's Letters of Literary Men_, p. 213. In 1708,
+        Addison, who, from personal observation, was well acquainted with
+        France, writes: 'We think here as you do in the country, that
+        France is on her last legs.' _Aikin's Life of Addison_, vol. i.
+        p. 233. Finally, in 1718--that is, three years after the death of
+        Louis--Lady Mary Montagu gives the following account of the
+        result of his reign, in a letter to Lady Rich, dated Paris, 10th
+        October, 1718: 'I think nothing so terrible as objects of misery,
+        except one had the god-like attribute of being able to redress
+        them; and all the country villages of France show nothing else.
+        While the post-horses are changed, the whole town comes out to
+        beg, with such miserable starved faces, and thin, tattered
+        clothes, they need no other eloquence to persuade one of the
+        wretchedness of their condition.' _Works of Lady Mary Wortley
+        Montague_, vol. iii. p. 74, edit. 1803.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+     DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. REACTION AGAINST THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT, AND
+                 PREPARATIONS FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+
+At length Louis XIV. died. When it was positively known that the old
+king had ceased to breathe, the people went almost mad with joy.[518]
+The tyranny which had weighed them down was removed; and there at once
+followed a reaction which, for sudden violence, has no parallel in
+modern history.[519] The great majority indemnified themselves for their
+forced hypocrisy by indulging in the grossest licentiousness. But among
+the generation then forming, there were some high-spirited youths, who
+had far higher views, and whose notions of liberty were not confined to
+the license of the gaming-house and the brothel. Devoted to the great
+idea of restoring to France that freedom of utterance which it had lost,
+they naturally turned their eyes towards the only country where the
+freedom was practised. Their determination to search for liberty in the
+place where alone it could be found, gave rise to that junction of the
+French and English intellects, which, looking at the immense chain of
+its effects, is by far the most important fact in the history of the
+eighteenth century.
+
+  [518] 'L'annonce de la mort du grand roi ne produisit chez le peuple
+        français qu'une explosion de joie.' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. xxvii. p. 220. 'Le jour des obsèques de Louis
+        XIV, on établit des guinguettes sur le chemin de Saint-Denis.
+        Voltaire, que la curiosité avoit mené aux funérailles du
+        souverain, vit dans ces guinguettes le peuple ivre de vin et de
+        joie de la mort de Louis XIV.' _Duvernet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p.
+        29: see also _Condorcet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p. 118; _De
+        Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. i. p. 18; _Duclos_,
+        _Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 221; _Lemontey_, _Etablissement de Louis
+        XIV_, pp. 311, 388.
+
+  [519] 'Kaum hatte er aber die Augen geschlossen, als alles umschlug. Der
+        reprimirte Geist warf sich in eine zügellose Bewegung.' _Ranke_,
+        _die Päpste_, vol. iii. p. 192.
+
+During the reign of Louis XIV., the French, puffed up by national
+vanity, despised the barbarism of a people who were so uncivilized as to
+be always turning on their rulers, and who, within the space of forty
+years, had executed one king, and deposed another.[520] They could not
+believe that such a restless horde possessed anything worthy the
+attention of enlightened men. Our laws, our literature, and our manners,
+were perfectly unknown to them; and I doubt if at the end of the
+seventeenth century there were, either in literature or in science, five
+persons in France acquainted with the English language.[521] But a long
+experience of the reign of Louis XIV. induced the French to reconsider
+many of their opinions. It induced them to suspect that despotism may
+have its disadvantages, and that a government composed of princes and
+bishops is not necessarily the best for a civilized country. They began
+to look, first with complacency, and then with respect, upon that
+strange and outlandish people, who, though only separated from
+themselves by a narrow sea, appeared to be of an altogether different
+kind; and who, having punished their oppressors, had carried their
+liberties and their prosperity to a height of which the world had seen
+no example. These feelings, which before the Revolution broke out, were
+entertained by the whole of the educated classes in France, were in the
+beginning, confined to those men whose intellects placed them at the
+head of their age. During the two generations which elapsed between the
+death of Louis XIV. and the outbreak of the Revolution, there was hardly
+a Frenchman of eminence who did not either visit England or learn
+English; while many of them did both. Buffon, Brissot, Broussonnet,
+Condamine, Delisle, Elie de Beaumont, Gournay, Helvétius, Jussieu,
+Lalande, Lafayette, Larcher, L'Héritier, Montesquieu, Maupertuis,
+Morellet, Mirabeau, Nollet, Raynal, the celebrated Roland, and his still
+more celebrated wife, Rousseau, Ségur, Suard, Voltaire--all these
+remarkable persons flocked to London, as also did others of inferior
+ability, but of considerable influence, such as Brequiny, Bordes,
+Calonne, Coyer, Cormatin, Dufay, Dumarest, Dezallier, Favier, Girod,
+Grosley, Godin, D'Hancarville, Hunauld, Jars, Le Blanc, Ledru,
+Lescallier, Linguet, Lesuire, Lemonnier, Levesque de Pouilly,
+Montgolfier, Morand, Patu, Poissonier, Reveillon, Septchènes,
+Silhouette, Siret, Soulavie, Soulès, and Valmont de Brienne.
+
+  [520] The shock which these events gave to the delicacy of the French
+        mind was very serious. The learned Saumaise declared that the
+        English are 'more savage than their own mastiffs.' _Carlyle's
+        Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 444. Another writer said that we were
+        'barbares révoltés;' and 'les barbares sujets du roi.' _Mém. de
+        Motteville_, vol. ii. pp. 105, 362. Patin likened us to the
+        Turks; and said, that having executed one king, we should
+        probably hang the next. _Lettres de Patin_, vol. i. p. 261, vol.
+        ii. p. 518, vol. iii. p. 148. Compare _Mém. de Campion_, p. 213.
+        After we had sent away James II., the indignation of the French
+        rose still higher, and even the amiable Madame Sévigné, having
+        occasion to mention Mary the wife of William III., could find no
+        better name for her than Tullia: 'la joie est universelle de la
+        déroute de ce prince, dont la femme est une Tullie.' _Lettres de
+        Sévigné_, vol. v. p. 179. Another influential French lady
+        mentions 'la férocité des anglais.' _Lettres inédites de
+        Maintenon_, vol. i. p. 303; and elsewhere (p. 109), 'je hais les
+        anglais comme le peuple.... Véritablement je ne les puis
+        souffrir.'
+
+        I will only give two more illustrations of the wide diffusion of
+        such feelings. In 1679, an attempt was made to bring bark into
+        discredit as a 'remède anglais' (_Sprengel_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. v. p. 430): and at the end of the seventeenth
+        century, one of the arguments in Paris against coffee was that
+        the English liked it. _Monteil_, _Divers Etats_, vol. vii.
+        p. 216.
+
+  [521] 'Au temps de Boileau, personne en France n'apprenait l'anglais.'
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxxviii. p. 337, and see vol. xix.
+        p. 159. 'Parmi nos grands écrivains du xvii^e siècle, il n'en est
+        aucun, je crois, ou l'on puisse reconnaître un souvenir, une
+        impression de l'esprit anglais.' _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e
+        Siècle_, vol. iii. p. 324. Compare _Barante_, _XVIII^e Siècle_,
+        p. 47, _Grimm_, and _Correspond._ vol. v. p. 135, vol. xvii.
+        p. 2.
+
+        The French, during the reign of Louis XIV., principally knew us
+        from the accounts given by two of their countrymen, Monconys and
+        Sorbière; both of whom published their travels in England, but
+        neither of whom were acquainted with the English language. For
+        proof of this, see _Monconys_, _Voyages_, vol. iii. pp. 34, 69,
+        70, 96; and _Sorbière_, _Voyage_, pp. 45, 70.
+
+        When Prior arrived at the court of Louis XIV. as plenipotentiary,
+        no one in Paris was aware that he had written poetry (_Lettres
+        sur les Anglais_, in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxvi. p. 130);
+        and when Addison, being in Paris, presented Boileau with a copy
+        of the _Musæ Anglicanæ_, the Frenchman learnt for the first time
+        that we had any good poets: 'first conceived an opinion of the
+        English genius for poetry.' Tickell's statement, in _Aikin's Life
+        of Addison_, vol. i. p. 65. Finally, it is said that Milton's
+        _Paradise Lost_ was not even by report in France until after the
+        death of Louis XIV., though the poem was published in 1667, and
+        the king died in 1715; 'Nous n'avions jamais entendu parler de ce
+        poëme en France, avant que l'auteur de la Henriade nous en eût
+        donné une idée dans le neuvième chapitre de son Essai sur la
+        poésie épique. _Dict. Philos._ article _Epopée_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xxxix. p. 175; see also vol. lxvi. p. 249.
+
+Nearly all of these carefully studied our language, and most of them
+seized the spirit of our literature. Voltaire, in particular, devoted
+himself with his usual ardour to the new pursuit, and acquired in
+England a knowledge of those doctrines, the promulgation of which,
+afterwards won for him so great a reputation.[522] He was the first who
+popularized in France the philosophy of Newton, where it rapidly
+superseded that of Descartes.[523] He recommended to his countrymen the
+writings of Locke;[524] which soon gained immense popularity, and which
+supplied materials to Condillac for his system of metaphysics,[525] and
+to Rousseau for his theory of education.[526] Besides this, Voltaire was
+the first Frenchman who studied Shakespeare; to whose works he was
+greatly indebted, though he afterwards wished to lessen what he
+considered the exorbitant respect paid to them in France.[527] Indeed,
+so intimate was his knowledge of the English language,[528] that we can
+trace his obligations to Butler,[529] one of the most difficult of our
+poets, and to Tillotson,[530] one of the dullest of our theologians. He
+was acquainted with the speculations of Berkeley,[531] the most subtle
+metaphysician who has ever written in English; and he had read the
+works, not only of Shaftesbury,[532] but even of Chubb,[533]
+Garth,[534] Mandeville,[535] and Woolston.[536] Montesquieu imbibed in
+our country many of his principles; he studied our language; and he
+always expressed admiration for England, not only in his writings, but
+also in his private conversation.[537] Buffon learnt English, and his
+first appearance as an author was as the translator of Newton and of
+Hales.[538] Diderot, following in the same course, was an enthusiastic
+admirer of the novels of Richardson;[539] he took the idea of several of
+his plays from the English dramatists, particularly from Lillo; he
+borrowed many of his arguments from Shaftesbury and Collins, and his
+earliest publication was a translation of Stanyan's _History of
+Greece_.[540] Helvétius, who visited London, was never weary of praising
+the people; many of the views in his great work on the Mind are drawn
+from Mandeville; and he constantly refers to the authority of Locke,
+whose principles hardly any Frenchman would at an earlier period have
+dared to recommend.[541] The works of Bacon, previously little known,
+were now translated into French; and his classification of the human
+faculties was made the basis of that celebrated Encyclopædia, which is
+justly regarded as one of the greatest productions of the eighteenth
+century.[542] The _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, by Adam Smith, was
+during thirty-four years translated three different times, by three
+different French authors.[543] And such was the general eagerness, that
+directly the _Wealth of Nations_, by the same great writer, appeared,
+Morellet, who was then high in reputation, began to turn it into French;
+and was only prevented from printing his translation by the
+circumstance, that before it could be completed, another version of it
+was published in a French periodical.[544] Coyer, who is still
+remembered for his _Life of Sobieski_, visited England; and after
+returning to his own country, showed the direction of his studies by
+rendering into French the Commentaries of Blackstone.[545] Le Blanc
+travelled in England, wrote a work expressly upon the English, and
+translated into French the Political Discourses of Hume.[546] Holbach
+was certainly one of the most active leaders of the liberal party in
+Paris; but a large part of his very numerous writings consists solely in
+translations of English authors.[547] Indeed, it may be broadly stated,
+that while, at the end of the seventeenth century, it would have been
+difficult to find, even among the most educated Frenchmen, a single
+person acquainted with English, it would, in the eighteenth century,
+have been nearly as difficult to find in the same class one who was
+ignorant of it. Men of all tastes, and of the most opposite pursuits,
+were on this point united as by a common bond. Poets, geometricians,
+historians, naturalists, all seemed to agree as to the necessity of
+studying a literature on which no one before had wasted a thought. In
+the course of general reading, I have met with proofs that the English
+language was known, not only to those eminent Frenchmen whom I have
+already mentioned, but also to mathematicians, as D'Alembert,[548]
+Darquier,[549] Du Val le Roy,[550] Jurain,[551] Lachapelle,[552]
+Lalande,[553] Le Cozic,[554] Montucla,[555] Pezenas,[556] Prony,[557]
+Romme,[558] and Roger Martin;[559] to anatomists, physiologists, and
+writers on medicine, as Barthèz,[560] Bichat,[561] Bordeu,[562] Barbeu
+Dubourg,[563] Bosquillon,[564] Bourru,[565] Begue de Presle,[566]
+Cabanis,[567] Demours,[568] Duplanil,[569] Fouquet,[570] Goulin,[571]
+Lavirotte,[572] Lassus,[573] Petit Radel,[574] Pinel,[575] Roux,[576]
+Sauvages,[577] and Sue;[578] to naturalists, as Alyon,[579]
+Brémond,[580] Brisson,[581] Broussonnet,[582] Dalibard,[583] Haüy,[584]
+Latapie,[585] Richard,[586] Rigaud,[587] and Romé de Lisle;[588] to
+historians, philologists, and antiquaries, as Barthélemy,[589] Butel
+Dumont,[590] De Brosses,[591] Foucher,[592] Freret,[593] Larcher,[594]
+Le Coc de Villeray,[595] Millot,[596] Targe,[597] Velly,[598]
+Volney,[599] and Wailly;[600] to poets and dramatists, as Chéron,[601]
+Colardeau,[602] Delille,[603] Desforges,[604] Ducis,[605] Florian,[606]
+Laborde,[607] Lefèvre de Beauvray,[608] Mercier,[609] Patu,[610]
+Pompignan,[611] Quétant,[612] Roucher,[613] and Saint Ange;[614] to
+miscellaneous writers, as Bassinet,[615] Baudeau,[616] Beaulaton,[617]
+Benoist,[618] Bergier,[619] Blavet,[620] Bouchaud,[621]
+Bougainville,[622] Bruté,[623] Castera,[624] Chantreau,[625]
+Charpentier,[626] Chastellux,[627] Contant d'Orville,[628] De
+Bissy,[629] Demeunier,[630] Desfontaines,[631] Devienne,[632]
+Dubocage,[633] Dupré,[634] Duresnel,[635] Eidous,[636] Estienne,[637]
+Favier,[638] Flavigny,[639] Fontanelle,[640] Fontenay,[641]
+Framery,[642] Fresnais,[643] Fréville,[644] Frossard,[645] Galtier,[646]
+Garsault,[647] Goddard,[648] Goudar,[649] Guénée,[650] Guillemard,[651]
+Guyard,[652] Jault,[653] Imbert,[654] Joncourt,[655] Kéralio,[656]
+Laboreau,[657] Lacombe,[658] Lafargue,[659] La Montagne,[660]
+Lanjuinais,[661] Lasalle,[662] Lasteyrie,[663] Le Breton,[664]
+Lécuy,[665] Léonard des Malpeines,[666] Letourneur,[667] Linguet,[668]
+Lottin,[669] Luneau,[670] Maillet Duclairon,[671] Mandrillon,[672]
+Marsy,[673] Moet,[674] Monod,[675] Mosneron,[676] Nagot,[677]
+Peyron,[678] Prévost,[679] Puisieux,[680] Rivoire,[681] Robinet,[682]
+Roger,[683] Roubaud,[684] Salaville,[685] Sauseuil,[686] Secondat,[687]
+Septchènes,[688] Simon,[689] Soulès,[690] Suard,[691] Tannevot,[692]
+Thurot,[693] Toussaint,[694] Tressan,[695] Trochereau,[696] Turpin,[697]
+Ussieux,[698] Vaugeois,[699] Verlac,[700] and Virloys.[701] Indeed, Le
+Blanc, who wrote shortly before the middle of the eighteenth century,
+says: 'We have placed English in the rank of the learned languages; our
+women study it, and have abandoned Italian in order to study the
+language of this philosophic people; nor is there to be found among us
+any one who does not desire to learn it.'[702]
+
+  [522] 'Le vrai roi du xviii^e siècle, c'est Voltaire; mais Voltaire à
+        son tour est un écolier de l'Angleterre. Avant que Voltaire eût
+        connu l'Angleterre, soit par ses voyages, soit part ses amitiés,
+        il n'était pas Voltaire, et le xviii^e siècle se cherchait
+        encore.' _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._ I^{re} série, vol. iii.
+        pp. 38, 39. Compare _Damiron_, _Hist. de la Philos. en France_,
+        Paris, 1828, vol. i. p. 34.
+
+  [523] 'J'avais été le premier qui eût osé développer à ma nation les
+        découvertes de Newton, en langage intelligible.' _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. i. p. 315; see also vol. xix. p. 87, vol. xxvi.
+        p. 71; _Whewell's Hist. of Induc. Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 206;
+        _Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society_, vol. i. p. 441. After this,
+        the Cartesian physics lost ground every day; and in _Grimm's
+        Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 148, there is a letter, dated Paris,
+        1757, which says, 'Il n'y a guère plus ici de partisans de
+        Descartes que M. de Mairan.' Compare _Observations et Pensées_,
+        in _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. iii. p. 298.
+
+  [524] Which he was never weary of praising; so that, as M. Cousin says
+        (_Hist. de la Philos._ II. série, vol. ii. pp. 311, 312), 'Locke
+        est le vrai maître de Voltaire.' Locke was one of the authors he
+        put into the hands of Madame du Châtelet. _Condorcet_, _Vie de
+        Voltaire_, p. 296.
+
+  [525] _Morell's Hist. of Philos._ 1846, vol. i. p. 134; _Hamilton's
+        Discuss._ p. 3.
+
+  [526] 'Rousseau tira des ouvrages de Locke une grande partie de ses
+        idées sur la politique et l'éducation; Condillac toute sa
+        philosophie.' _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. i. p.
+        83. See also, on the obligations of Rousseau to Locke, _Grimm_,
+        _Correspond._ vol. v. p. 97; _Musset Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_,
+        vol. i. p. 38, vol. ii. p. 394; _Mém. de Morellet_, vol. i. p.
+        113; _Romilly's Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 211, 212.
+
+  [527] In 1768, Voltaire (_[OE]uvres_, vol. lxvi. p. 249) writes to
+        Horace Walpole, 'Je suie le premier qui ait fait connaître
+        Shakespeare aux français.' See also his _Lettres inédites_, vol.
+        ii. p. 500; _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. iii. p.
+        325; and _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. xii. pp. 124, 125, 133.
+
+  [528] There are extant many English letters written by Voltaire, which,
+        though of course containing several errors, also contain abundant
+        evidence of the spirit with which he seized our idiomatic
+        expressions. In addition to his _Lettres inédites_, published at
+        Paris in the present year (1856), see _Chatham Correspond._ vol.
+        ii. pp. 131-133; and _Phillimore's Mém. of Lyttelton_, vol. i.
+        pp. 323-325, vol. ii. pp. 555, 556, 558.
+
+  [529] _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. i. p. 332; _Voltaire_, _Lettres
+        inédites_, vol. ii. p. 258; and the account of Hudibras, with
+        translations from it, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxvi. pp. 132-137;
+        also a conversation between Voltaire and Townley, in _Nichols's
+        Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii. p. 722.
+
+  [530] Compare _Mackintosh's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 341, with _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xxxix. p. 259, vol. xlvii. p. 85.
+
+  [531] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxxviii. pp. 216-218, vol. xlvi.
+        p. 282, vol. xlvii. p. 439, vol. lvii. p. 178.
+
+  [532] _Ibid._ vol. xxxvii. p. 353, vol. lvii. p. 66; _Correspond.
+        inédite de Dudeffand_, vol. ii. p. 230.
+
+  [533] _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxxiv. p. 294, vol. lvii. p. 121.
+
+  [534] _Ibid._ vol. xxxvii. pp. 407, 441.
+
+  [535] _Ibid._ vol. xxxvi. p. 46.
+
+  [536] _Ibid._ vol. xxxiv. p. 288, vol. xli. pp. 212-217; _Biog. Univ._
+        vol. li. pp. 199, 200.
+
+  [537] _Lerminier_, _Philos. du Droit_, vol. i. p. 221; _Klimrath_,
+        _Hist. du Droit_, vol. ii. p. 502; _Harris's Life of Hardwicke_,
+        vol. ii. p. 398, vol. iii. pp. 432-434; _Mém. de Diderot_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 193, 194; _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 24.
+
+  [538] _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 182; _Biog.
+        Univ._ vol. vi. p. 235; _Le Blanc_, _Lettres_, vol. i. p. 93,
+        vol. ii. pp. 159, 160.
+
+  [539] 'Admirateur passionné du romancier anglais.' _Biog. Univ._
+        vol. xxxvii. p. 581. Compare _Diderot_, _Corresp._ vol. i. p.
+        352, vol. ii. pp. 44, 52, 53; _Mercier sur Rousseau_, vol. i.
+        p. 44.
+
+  [540] _Villemain_, _Lit._ vol. ii. p. 115; _Schlosser's Eighteenth
+        Century_, vol. i. pp. 34, 42; _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._
+        vol. xi. p. 314; _Biog. Univ._ vol. xi. p. 314; _Grimm_,
+        _Correspond._ vol. xv. p. 81. Stanyan's _History of Greece_ was
+        once famous, and even so late as 1804, I find Dr. Parr
+        recommending it. Parr's _Works_, vol. viii. p. 422. Diderot told
+        Sir Samuel Romilly that he had collected materials for a history
+        of the trial of Charles I. _Life of Romilly_, vol. i. p. 46.
+
+  [541] _Diderot_, _Mém._ vol. ii. p. 286; _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._
+        II^e série, vol. ii. p. 331; _Helvétius de l'Esprit_, vol. i. pp.
+        31, 38, 46, 65, 114, 169, 193, 266, 268, vol. ii. pp. 144, 163,
+        165, 195, 212; _Letters addressed to Hume_, Edinb. 1849, pp. 9,
+        10.
+
+  [542] This is the arrangement of our knowledge under the heads of
+        Memory, Reason, and Imagination, which D'Alembert took from
+        Bacon. Compare _Whewell's Philos. of the Sciences_, vol. ii. p.
+        306; _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. p. 276; _Georgel_,
+        _Mém._ vol. ii. p. 241; _Bordas Demoulin_, _Cartésianisme_,
+        vol. i. p. 18.
+
+  [543] _Quérard_, _France Lit._ ix. 193.
+
+  [544] _Mém de. Morellet_, i. 236, 237.
+
+  [545] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, lxv. 161, 190, 212; _Biog. Univ._ x. 158,
+        159.
+
+  [546] _Burton's Life of Hume_, vol. i. pp. 365, 366, 406.
+
+  [547] See the list, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xx. pp. 463-466; and compare
+        _Mém. de Diderot_, vol. iii. p. 49, from which it seems that
+        Holbach was indebted to Toland, though Diderot speaks rather
+        doubtingly. In _Almon's Mem. of Wilkes_ 1805, vol. iv. pp. 176,
+        177, there is an English letter, tolerably well written, from
+        Holbach to Wilkes.
+
+  [548] _Musset Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_, ii. 10, 175; _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, liv. 207.
+
+  [549] _Biog. Univ._ x. 556.
+
+  [550] _Ibid._ xii. 418.
+
+  [551] _Quérard_, _France Lit._ iv. 34, 272.
+
+  [552] _Ibid._ iv. 361.
+
+  [553] _Biog. Univ._ xxiii. 226.
+
+  [554] _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathém._ ii. 170.
+
+  [555] _Montucla_, ii. 120, iv. 662, 665, 670.
+
+  [556] _Biog. Univ._ iii. 253, xxxiii. 564.
+
+  [557] _Quérard_, _France Lit._ vii. 353.
+
+  [558] _Biog. Univ._ xxxviii. 530.
+
+  [559] _Ibid._ xxxviii. 411.
+
+  [560] _Ibid._ iii. 450.
+
+  [561] _Bichat sur la Vie_, 244.
+
+  [562] _Quérard_, i. 416.
+
+  [563] _Biog. Univ._ iii. 345.
+
+  [564] _Quérard_, i. 260, 425, ii. 354.
+
+  [565] _Ibid._ i. 476.
+
+  [566] _Biog. Univ._ iv. 55, 56.
+
+  [567] _Notice sur Cabanis_, p. viii. in his _Physique et Moral._
+
+  [568] _Biog. Univ._ xi. 65, 66.
+
+  [569] _Ibid._ xii. 276.
+
+  [570] _Ibid._ xv. 359.
+
+  [571] _Ibid._ xviii. 187.
+
+  [572] _Quérard_, iv. 641, vi. 9, 398.
+
+  [573] _Cuvier_, _Eloges_, i. 354.
+
+  [574] _Quérard_, vii. 95.
+
+  [575] _Cuvier_, _Eloges_, iii. 382.
+
+  [576] _Biog. Univ._ xxxix. 174.
+
+  [577] _Le Blanc_, _Lettres_, i. 93.
+
+  [578] _Quérard_, ix. 286.
+
+  [579] _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chim. Anat._ ii. 416.
+
+  [580] _Biog. Univ._ v. 530, 531.
+
+  [581] _Cuvier_, _Eloges_, i. 196.
+
+  [582] _Biog. Univ._ vi. 47.
+
+  [583] _Quérard_, ii. 372.
+
+  [584] _Haüy_, _Minéralogie_, ii. 247, 267, 295, 327, 529, 609, iii. 75,
+        293, 307, 447, 575, iv. 45, 280, 292, 362.
+
+  [585] _Quérard_, iv. 598.
+
+  [586] _Ibid._ viii. 22.
+
+  [587] _Swainson_, _Disc. on Nat. Hist._ 52; _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_,
+        iii. 415.
+
+  [588] _De Lisle_, _Cristallographie_, 1772, xviii. xx. xxiii. xxv.
+        xxvii. 78, 206, 254.
+
+  [589] _Albemarle's Rockingham_, ii. 156; _Campbell's Chancellors_,
+        v. 365.
+
+  [590] _Biog. Univ._ vi. 386.
+
+  [591] _Letters to Hume_, Edin. 1849, 276, 278.
+
+  [592] _Biog. Univ._ xv. 332.
+
+  [593] _Brewster's Life of Newton_, ii. 302.
+
+  [594] _Palissot_, _Mém._ ii. 56.
+
+  [595] _Biog. Univ._ ix. 549.
+
+  [596] _Ibid._ xxix. 51, 53.
+
+  [597] _Ibid._ xliv. 534.
+
+  [598] _Ibid._ xlviii. 93.
+
+  [599] _Volney_, _Syrie et Egypte_, ii. 100, 157; _Quérard_, x. 271, 273.
+
+  [600] _Biog. Univ._ i. 42.
+
+  [601] _Ibid._ viii. 340, 341.
+
+  [602] _Mém. de Genlis_, i. 276.
+
+  [603] _Palissot_, _Mém._ i. 243.
+
+  [604] _Biog. Univ._ xi. 281, xi. 172, 173.
+
+  [605] _Quérard_, ii. 626, 627.
+
+  [606] _Ibid._ iii. 141.
+
+  [607] _Quérard_, iv. 342.
+
+  [608] _Ibid._ v. 83.
+
+  [609] _Ibid._ vi. 62.
+
+  [610] _Garrick Correspond._ 4to, 1832, ii. 385, 395, 416.
+
+  [611] _Biog. Univ._ xxxv. 314.
+
+  [612] _Quérard_, vii. 399.
+
+  [613] _Biog. Univ._ xxxix. 93.
+
+  [614] _Ibid._ xxxix. 530.
+
+  [615] _Quérard_, i. 209.
+
+  [616] _Biog. Univ._ iii. 533.
+
+  [617] _Ibid._ iii. 631.
+
+  [618] _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_, iii. 334.
+
+  [619] _Quérard_, i. 284, vii. 287.
+
+  [620] _Mém. de Morellet_, i. 237.
+
+  [621] _Biog. Univ._ v. 264.
+
+  [622] _Dutens_, _Mém._ iii. 32.
+
+  [623] _Biog. Univ._ vi. 165.
+
+  [624] _Murray's Life of Bruce_, 121; _Biog. Univ._ vi. 79.
+
+  [625] _Ibid._ viii. 46.
+
+  [626] _Ibid._ viii. 246.
+
+  [627] _Ibid._ viii. 266.
+
+  [628] _Ibid._ ix. 497.
+
+  [629] _Ibid._ xlv. 394.
+
+  [630] _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, iii. 184.
+
+  [631] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire._ lvi. 527.
+
+  [632] _Biog. Univ._ xi. 264.
+
+  [633] _Quérard_, ii. 598.
+
+  [634] _Biog. Univ._ xii. 313, 314.
+
+  [635] _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ ii. 154; _Palissot_, _Mém._ ii. 311.
+
+  [636] _Biog. Univ._ iv. 547, xii. 595.
+
+  [637] _Ibid._ xiii. 399.
+
+  [638] _Quérard_, iii. 79.
+
+  [639] _Biog. Univ._ xv. 29.
+
+  [640] _Ibid._ xv. 203.
+
+  [641] _Ibid._ 218.
+
+  [642] _Quérard_, i. 525.
+
+  [643] _Biog. Univ._ xvi. 48.
+
+  [644] _Ibid._ li. 508.
+
+  [645] _Smith's Tour on the Continent in 1786_, i. 143.
+
+  [646] _Biog. Univ._ xvi. 388.
+
+  [647] _Ibid._ xvi. 502.
+
+  [648] _Sinclair's Correspond._ i. 157.
+
+  [649] _Quérard_, iii. 418.
+
+  [650] _Biog. Univ._ xix. 13.
+
+  [651] _Quérard_, i. 10, iii. 536.
+
+  [652] _Ibid._ iii. 469.
+
+  [653] _Biog. Univ._ xxi. 419.
+
+  [654] _Ibid._ xxi. 200.
+
+  [655] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, xxxviii. 244.
+
+  [656] _Palissot_, _Mém._ i. 425.
+
+  [657] _Biog. Univ._ xxiii. 34.
+
+  [658] _Ibid._ xxiii. 56.
+
+  [659] _Ibid._ xxiii. 111.
+
+  [660] _Quérard_, iv. 503.
+
+  [661] _Biog. Univ._ xxiii. 373.
+
+  [662] _Quérard_, iv. 579.
+
+  [663] _Sinclair's Correspond._ ii. 139.
+
+  [664] _Mem. and Correspond. of Sir. J. E. Smith_, i. 163.
+
+  [665] _Biog. des Hommes Vivants_, iv. 164.
+
+  [666] _Quérard_, v. 177.
+
+  [667] _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ iv. 583; _Longchamp et Wagnière_, _Mém._
+        i. 395.
+
+  [668] _Quérard_, v. 316.
+
+  [669] _Biog. Univ._ xxv. 87.
+
+  [670] _Ibid._ xxv. 432.
+
+  [671] _Ibid._ xxvi. 244.
+
+  [672] _Ibid._ xxvi. 468.
+
+  [673] _Ibid._ xxvii. 269.
+
+  [674] _Ibid._ xxix. 208.
+
+  [675] _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, i. 222.
+
+  [676] _Quérard_, vi. 330.
+
+  [677] _Biog. Univ._ xxx. 539.
+
+  [678] _Ibid._ xxxiii. 553.
+
+  [679] _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, i. 22, iii. 307, iv. 207.
+
+  [680] _Biog. Univ._ xxxvi. 305, 306.
+
+  [681] _Ibid._ xxxviii. 174.
+
+  [682] _Peignot_, _Dict. des Livres_, ii. 233.
+
+  [683] _Quérard_, viii. 111.
+
+  [684] _Biog. Univ._ xxxix. 84.
+
+  [685] _Biog. des Hommes Vivants_, v. 294.
+
+  [686] _Quérard_, viii. 474.
+
+  [687] _Biog. Univ._ xli. 426.
+
+  [688] _Ibid._ xlii. 45, 46.
+
+  [689] _Ibid._ xlii. 389.
+
+  [690] _Ibid._ xliii. 181.
+
+  [691] _Garrick Correspond._ ii. 604; _Mém. de Genlis_, vi. 205.
+
+  [692] _Biog. Univ._ xliv. 512.
+
+  [693] _Life of Roscoe_, _by his Son_, i. 200.
+
+  [694] _Biog. Univ._ xlvi. 398, 399.
+
+  [695] _Ibid._ xlvi. 497.
+
+  [696] _Quérard_, iv. 45, ix. 558.
+
+  [697] _Biog. Univ._ xlvii. 98.
+
+  [698] _Ibid._ xlvii. 232.
+
+  [699] _Mém. de Brissot_, i. 78.
+
+  [700] _Biog. Univ._ xlviii. 217, 218.
+
+  [701] _Ibid._ xlix. 223.
+
+  [702] 'Nous avons mis depuis peu leur langue au rang des langues
+        savantes; les femmes même l'apprennent, et ont renoncé à
+        l'italien pour étudier celle de ce peuple philosophe. Il n'est
+        point dans la province d'Armande et de Belise qui ne veuille
+        savoir l'anglois.' _Le Blanc_, _Lettres_, vol. ii. p. 465.
+        Compare _Grimm_, _Corresp._ vol. xiv. p. 484; and _Nichols's Lit.
+        Anec._ vol. iii. pp. 460, 461.
+
+Such was the eagerness with which the French imbibed the literature of a
+people whom but a few years before they had heartily despised. The truth
+is, that in this new state of things they had no alternative. For where
+but in England was a literature to be found that could satisfy those
+bold and inquisitive thinkers who arose in France after the death of
+Louis XIV.? In their own country there had no doubt been great displays
+of eloquence, of fine dramas, and of poetry, which, though never
+reaching the highest point of excellence, is of finished and admirable
+beauty. But it is an unquestionable fact, and one melancholy to
+contemplate, that during the sixty years which succeeded the death of
+Descartes, France had not possessed a single man who dared to think for
+himself. Metaphysicians, moralists, historians, all had become tainted
+by the servility of that bad age. During two generations, no Frenchman
+had been allowed to discuss with freedom any question, either of
+politics or of religion. The consequence was, that the largest
+intellects, excluded from their legitimate field, lost their energy; the
+national spirit died away; the very materials and nutriment of thought
+seemed to be wanting. No wonder then, if the great Frenchmen of the
+eighteenth century sought that aliment abroad which they were unable to
+find at home. No wonder if they turned from their own land, and gazed
+with admiration at the only people who, pushing their inquiries into the
+highest departments, had shown the same fearlessness in politics as in
+religion; a people who, having punished their kings and controlled their
+clergy, were storing the treasures of their experience in that noble
+literature which never can perish, and of which it may be said in sober
+truth, that it has stimulated the intellect of the most distant races,
+and that, planted in America and in India, it has already fertilized the
+two extremities of the world.
+
+There are, in fact, few things in history so instructive as the extent
+to which France was influenced by this new pursuit. Even those who took
+part in actually consummating the Revolution, were moved by the
+prevailing spirit. The English language was familiar to Carra,[703]
+Dumouriez,[704] Lafayette,[705] and Lanthénas.[706] Camille Desmoulins
+had cultivated his mind from the same source.[707] Marat travelled in
+Scotland as well as in England, and was so profoundly versed in our
+language that he wrote two works in it; one of which, called _The Chains
+of Slavery_, was afterwards translated into French.[708] Mirabeau is
+declared by a high authority to have owed part of his power to a careful
+study of the English constitution;[709] he translated not only Watson's
+_History of Philip II._, but also some parts of Milton;[710] and it is
+said that when he was in the National Assembly, he delivered, as his
+own, passages from the speeches of Burke.[711] Mounier was well
+acquainted with our language, and with our political institutions both
+in theory and in practice;[712] and in a work, which exercised
+considerable influence, he proposed for his own country the
+establishment of two chambers, to form that balance of power of which
+England supplied the example.[713] The same idea, derived from the same
+source, was advocated by Le Brun, who was a friend of Mounier's, and
+who, like him, had paid attention to the literature and government of
+the English people.[714] Brissot knew English; he had studied in London
+the working of the English institutions, and he himself mentions that,
+in his treatise on criminal law, he was mainly guided by the course of
+English legislation.[715] Condorcet also proposed as a model our system
+of criminal jurisprudence,[716] which, bad as it was, certainly
+surpassed that possessed by France. Madame Roland, whose position, as
+well as ability, made her one of the leaders of the democratic party,
+was an ardent student of the language and literature of the English
+people.[717] She too, moved by the universal curiosity, came to our
+country; and, as if to show that persons of every shade and of every
+rank were actuated by the same spirit, the Duke of Orleans likewise
+visited England; nor did his visit fail to produce its natural results.
+'It was,' says a celebrated writer, 'in the society of London that he
+acquired a taste for liberty; and it was on his return from there that
+he brought into France a love of popular agitation, a contempt for his
+own rank, and a familiarity with those beneath him.'[718]
+
+  [703] _Williams's Letters from France_, vol. iii. p. 68, 2nd edit. 1796;
+        _Biog. Univ._ vol. vii. p. 192.
+
+  [704] _Adolphus's Biog. Mem._ 1799, vol. i. p. 352.
+
+  [705] _Lady Morgan's France_, vol. ii. p. 304; _Mém. de Lafayette_,
+        vol. i. pp. 41, 49, 70, vol. ii. pp. 26, 74, 83, 89.
+
+  [706] _Quérard_, _France Littéraire_, vol. iv. p. 540.
+
+  [707] The last authors he read, shortly before his execution, were Young
+        and Hervey. _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. viii. p. 45.
+        In 1769 Madame Riccoboni writes from Paris, that Young's _Night
+        Thoughts_ had become very popular there; and she justly adds,
+        'c'est une preuve sans réplique du changement de l'esprit
+        français.' _Garrick Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 566, 4to. 1832.
+
+  [708] _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. iv. p. 119; _Mém. de
+        Brissot_, vol. i. pp. 336, 337, vol. ii. p. 3.
+
+  [709] 'Une des supériorités secondaires, une des supériorités d'étude
+        qui appartenaient à Mirabeau, c'était la profonde connaissance,
+        la vive intelligence de la constitution anglaise, de ses ressorts
+        publics et de ses ressorts cachés.' _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e
+        Siècle_, vol. iv. p. 153.
+
+  [710] Particularly the democratic passages, 'un corps de doctrine de
+        tous ses écrits républicains.' _Dumont_, _Souvenirs sur
+        Mirabeau_, p. 119. As to his translation of Watson, see _Alison's
+        Europe_, vol. i. p. 452. He also intended to translate Sinclair's
+        History of the Revenue. _Correspond. of Sir J. Sinclair_,
+        vol. ii. p. 119.
+
+  [711] _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 546, 3rd edit. 1839.
+
+  [712] 'Il étudiait leur langue, la théorie et plus encore la pratique de
+        leurs institutions.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxx. p. 310.
+
+  [713] _Continuation de Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxx.
+        p. 434. Montlosier (_Monarchie Française_, vol. ii. p. 340) says
+        that this idea was borrowed from England; but he does not mention
+        who suggested it.
+
+  [714] _Du Mesnil_, _Mém. sur Le Brun_, pp. 10, 14, 29, 82, 180, 182.
+
+  [715] _Mém. de Brissot_, vol. i. pp. 63, 64, vol. ii. pp. 25, 40, 188,
+        206, 260, 313.
+
+  [716] Dupont de Nemours (_Mém. sur Turgot_, p. 117) says of criminal
+        jurisprudence, 'M. de Condorcet proposait en modèle celle des
+        Anglais.'
+
+  [717] _Mém. de Roland_, vol. i. pp. 27, 55, 89, 136, vol. ii. pp. 99,
+        135, 253.
+
+  [718] 'Le duc d'Orléans puisa ainsi le goût de la liberté dans la vie de
+        Londres. Il en rapporta en France les habitudes d'insolence
+        contre la cour, l'appétit des agitations populaires, le mépris
+        pour son propre rang, la familiarité avec la foule,' &c.
+        _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. ii. p. 102.
+
+This language, strong as it is, will not appear exaggerated to any one
+who has carefully studied the history of the eighteenth century. It is
+no doubt certain, that the French Revolution was essentially a reaction
+against that protective and interfering spirit which reached its zenith
+under Louis XIV., but which, centuries before his reign, had exercised a
+most injurious influence over the national prosperity. While, however,
+this must be fully conceded, it is equally certain that the impetus to
+which the reaction owed its strength, proceeded from England; and that
+it was English literature which taught the lessons of political liberty,
+first to France, and through France to the rest of Europe.[719] On this
+account, and not at all from mere literary curiosity, I have traced with
+some minuteness that union between the French and English minds, which,
+though often noticed, has never been examined with the care its
+importance deserves. The circumstances which reinforced this vast
+movement will be related towards the end of the volume; at present I
+will confine myself to its first great consequence, namely, the
+establishment of a complete schism between the literary men of France,
+and the classes who exclusively governed the country.
+
+  [719] M. Lerminier (_Philos. du Droit_, vol. i. p. 19) says of England,
+        'cette île célèbre donne à l'Europe l'enseignement de la liberté
+        politique; elle en fut l'école au dix-huitième siècle pour tout
+        ce que l'Europe eut de penseurs.' See also _Soulavie_, _Règne de
+        Louis XVI_, vol. iii. p. 161; _Mém. de Marmontel_, vol. iv. pp.
+        38, 39; _Stäudlin_, _Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften_,
+        vol. ii. p. 291.
+
+Those eminent Frenchmen who now turned their attention to England, found
+in its literature, in the structure of its society, and in its
+government, many peculiarities of which their own country furnished no
+example. They heard political and religious questions of the greatest
+moment debated with a boldness unknown in any other part of Europe. They
+heard dissenters and churchmen, whigs and tories, handling the most
+dangerous topics, and treating them with unlimited freedom. They heard
+public disputes respecting matters which no one in France dared to
+discuss; mysteries of state and mysteries of creed unfolded and rudely
+exposed to the popular gaze. And, what to Frenchmen of that age must
+have been equally amazing, they not only found a public press possessing
+some degree of freedom, but they found that within the very walls of
+parliament the administration of the crown was assailed with complete
+impunity, the character of its chosen servants constantly aspersed, and,
+strange to say, even the management of its revenues effectually
+controlled.[720]
+
+  [720] Hume, who was acquainted with several eminent Frenchmen who
+        visited England, says (_Philosophical Works_, vol. iii. p. 8),
+        'nothing is more apt to surprise a foreigner than the extreme
+        liberty which we enjoy in this country, of communicating whatever
+        we please to the public, and of openly censuring every measure
+        entered into by the king or his ministers.'
+
+The successors of the age of Louis XIV., seeing these things, and
+seeing, moreover, that the civilization of the country increased as the
+authority of the upper classes and of the crown diminished, were unable
+to restrain their wonder at so novel and exciting a spectacle. 'The
+English nation,' says Voltaire, 'is the only one on the earth, which, by
+resisting its kings, has succeeded in lessening their power.[721] How I
+love the boldness of the English! how I love men who say what they
+think!'[722] The English, says Le Blanc, are willing to have a king,
+provided they are not obliged to obey him.[723] The immediate object of
+their government, says Montesquieu, is political liberty;[724] they
+possess more freedom than any republic;[725] and their system is in fact
+a republic disguised as a monarchy.[726] Grosley, struck with amazement,
+exclaims, 'Property is in England a thing sacred, which the laws protect
+from all encroachment, not only from engineers, inspectors, and other
+people of that stamp, but even from the king himself.'[727] Mably, in the
+most celebrated of all his works, says, 'The Hanoverians are only able
+to reign in England because the people are free, and believe they have a
+right to dispose of the crown. But if the kings were to claim the same
+powers as the Stuarts, if they were to believe that the crown belonged
+to them by divine right, they would be condemning themselves and
+confessing that they were occupying a place which is not their
+own.'[728] In England, says Helvétius, the people are respected; every
+citizen can take some part in the management of affairs; and authors are
+allowed to enlighten the public respecting its own interests.[729] And
+Brissot, who had made these matters his especial study, cries out,
+'Admirable constitution! which can only be disparaged either by men who
+know it not, or else by those whose tongues are bridled by
+slavery.'[730]
+
+  [721] 'La nation anglaise est la seule de la terre qui soit parvenue à
+        régler le pouvoir des rois en leur résistant.' _Lettre VIII sur
+        les Anglais_, in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxvi. p. 37.
+
+  [722] 'Que j'aime la hardiesse anglaise! que j'aime les gens qui disent
+        ce qu'ils pensent!' _Letter from Voltaire_, in _Correspond. de
+        Dudeffand_, vol. ii. p. 263. For other instances of his
+        admiration of England, see _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xl. pp.
+        105-109; vol. li. pp. 137, 390; vol. liv. pp. 298, 392; vol. lvi.
+        pp. 162, 163, 195, 196, 270; vol. lvii. p. 500; vol. lviii. pp.
+        128, 267; vol. lix. pp. 265, 361; vol. lx. p. 501; vol. lxi. pp.
+        43, 73, 129, 140, 474, 475; vol. lxii. pp. 343, 379, 392; vol.
+        lxiii. pp. 128, 146, 190, 196, 226, 237, 415; vol. lxiv. pp. 36,
+        96, 269; vol. lxvi. pp. 93, 159; vol. lxvii. pp. 353, 484.
+
+  [723] 'Ils veulent un roi, aux conditions, pour ainsi dire, de ne lui
+        point obéir.' _Le Blanc_, _Lettres d'un François_, vol. i.
+        p. 210.
+
+  [724] 'Il y a aussi une nation dans le monde qui a pour objet direct de
+        sa constitution la liberté politique.' _Esprit des Lois_, livre
+        xi. chap. v. in _[OE]uvres de Montesquieu_, p. 264. Conversely De
+        Staël (_Consid. sur la Rév._ vol. iii. p. 261), 'la liberté
+        politique est le moyen suprême.'
+
+  [725] 'L'Angleterre est à présent le plus libre pays qui soit au monde,
+        je n'en excepte aucune république.' _Notes sur l'Angleterre_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Montesquieu_, p. 632.
+
+  [726] 'Une nation où la république se cache sous la forme de la
+        monarchie.' _Esprit des Lois_, livre v. chap. xix. in _[OE]uvres
+        de Montesquieu_, page 225; also quoted in _Bancroft's American
+        Revolution_, vol. ii. p. 36.
+
+  [727] _Grosley's Tour to London_, vol. i. pp. 16, 17.
+
+  [728] _Mably_, _Observ. sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. ii. p. 185.
+
+  [729] _Helvétius de l'Esprit._ vol. i. pp. 102, 199: 'un pays où le
+        peuple est respecté comme en Angleterre; ... un pays où chaque
+        citoyen a part au maniement des affaires générales, où tout homme
+        d'esprit peut éclairer le public sur ses véritables intérêts.'
+
+  [730] _Mém. de Brissot_, vol. ii. p. 25.
+
+Such were the opinions of some of the most celebrated Frenchmen of that
+time; and it would be easy to fill a volume with similar extracts. But,
+what I now rather wish to do, is, to point out the first great
+consequence of this new and sudden admiration for a country which, in
+the preceding age, had been held in profound contempt. The events which
+followed are, indeed, of an importance impossible to exaggerate; since
+they brought about that rupture between the intellectual and governing
+classes, of which the revolution itself was but a temporary episode.
+
+The great Frenchmen of the eighteenth century being stimulated by the
+example of England into a love of progress, naturally came into
+collision with the governing classes, among whom the old stationary
+spirit still prevailed. This opposition was a wholesome reaction against
+that disgraceful servility for which, in the reign of Louis XIV.,
+literary men had been remarkable; and if the contest which ensued had
+been conducted with anything approaching to moderation, the ultimate
+result would have been highly beneficial; since it would have secured
+that divergence between the speculative and practical classes which, as
+we have already seen, is essential to maintain the balance of
+civilization, and to prevent either side from acquiring a dangerous
+predominance. But, unfortunately, the nobles and clergy had been so long
+accustomed to power, that they could not brook the slightest
+contradiction from those great writers, whom they ignorantly despised as
+their inferiors. Hence it was, that when the most illustrious Frenchmen
+of the eighteenth century attempted to infuse into the literature of
+their country a spirit of inquiry similar to that which existed in
+England, the ruling classes became roused into a hatred and jealousy
+which broke all bounds, and gave rise to that crusade against knowledge
+which forms the second principal precursor of the French Revolution.
+
+The extent of that cruel persecution to which literature was now
+exposed, can only be fully appreciated by those who have minutely
+studied the history of France in the eighteenth century. For it was not
+a stray case of oppression, which occurred here and there; but it was a
+prolonged and systematic attempt to stifle all inquiry, and punish all
+inquirers. If a list were drawn up of all the literary men who wrote
+during the seventy years succeeding the death of Louis XIV., it would be
+found, that at least nine out of every ten had suffered from the
+government some grievous injury; and that a majority of them had been
+actually thrown into prison. Indeed, in saying thus much, I am
+understating the real facts of the case; for I question if one literary
+man out of fifty escaped with entire impunity. Certainly, my own
+knowledge of those times, though carefully collected, is not so complete
+as I could have wished; but, among those authors who were punished, I
+find the name of nearly every Frenchman whose writings have survived the
+age in which they were produced. Among those who suffered either
+confiscation, or imprisonment, or exile, or fines, or the suppression of
+their works, or the ignominy of being forced to recant what they had
+written, I find, besides a host of inferior writers, the names of
+Beaumarchais, Berruyer, Bougeant, Buffon, D'Alembert, Diderot, Duclos,
+Freret, Helvétius, La Harpe, Linguet, Mably, Marmontel, Montesquieu,
+Mercier, Morellet, Raynal, Rousseau, Suard, Thomas, and Voltaire.
+
+The mere recital of this list is pregnant with instruction. To suppose
+that all these eminent men deserved the treatment they received, would,
+even in the absence of direct evidence, be a manifest absurdity; since
+it would involve the supposition, that a schism having taken place
+between two classes, the weaker class was altogether wrong, and the
+stronger altogether right. Fortunately, however, there is no necessity
+for resorting to any merely speculative argument respecting the probable
+merits of the two parties. The accusations brought against these great
+men are before the world; the penalties inflicted are equally well
+known; and, by putting these together, we may form some idea of the
+state of society, in which such things could be openly practised.
+
+Voltaire, almost immediately after the death of Louis XIV., was falsely
+charged with having composed a libel on that prince; and, for this
+imaginary offence, he, without the pretence of a trial, and without even
+the shadow of a proof, was thrown into the Bastille, where he was
+confined more than twelve months.[731] Shortly after he was released,
+there was put upon him a still more grievous insult; the occurrence,
+and, above all, the impunity of which, supply striking evidence as to
+the state of society in which such things were permitted. Voltaire, at
+the table of the Duke de Sully, was deliberately insulted by the
+Chevalier de Rohan Chabot, one of those impudent and dissolute nobles
+who then abounded in Paris. The duke, though the outrage was committed
+in his own house, in his own presence, and upon his own guest, would not
+interfere; but seemed to consider that a poor poet was honoured by being
+in any way noticed by a man of rank. But, as Voltaire, in the heat of
+the moment, let fall one of those stinging retorts which were the terror
+of his enemies, the chevalier determined to visit him with further
+punishment. The course he adopted was characteristic of the man, and of
+the class to which he belonged. He caused Voltaire to be seized in the
+streets of Paris, and in his presence ignominiously beaten, he himself
+regulating the number of blows of which the chastisement was to consist.
+Voltaire, smarting under the insult, demanded that satisfaction which it
+was customary to give. This, however, did not enter into the plan of his
+noble assailer, who not only refused to meet him in the field, but
+actually obtained an order, by which he was confined in the Bastille for
+six months, and at the end of that time was directed to quit the
+country.[732]
+
+  [731] _Condorcet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, pp. 118, 119; _Duvernet_, _Vie de
+        Voltaire_, pp. 30, 32; _Longchamp et Wagnière_, _Mém. sur
+        Voltaire_, vol. i. p. 22.
+
+  [732] _Duvernet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, pp. 46-48; _Condorcet_, _Vie de
+        Voltaire_, pp. 125, 126. Compare vol. lvi. p. 162; _Lepan_, _Vie
+        de Voltaire_, 1837, pp. 70, 71; and _Biog. Univ._ vol. xlix. p.
+        468. Duvernet, who, writing from materials supplied by Voltaire,
+        had the best means of information, gives a specimen of the fine
+        feeling of a French duke in the eighteenth century. He says,
+        that, directly after Rohan had inflicted this public
+        chastisement, 'Voltaire rentre dans l'hôtel, demande au duc de
+        Sully de regarder cet outrage fait à l'un de ses convives, comme
+        fait à lui-même: il le sollicite de se joindre à lui pour en
+        poursuivre la vengeance, et de venir chez un commissaire en
+        certifier la déposition. _Le duc de Sully se refuse à tout._'
+
+Thus it was that Voltaire, having first been imprisoned for a libel
+which he never wrote, and having then been publicly beaten because he
+retorted an insult wantonly put upon him, was now sentenced to another
+imprisonment, through the influence of the very man by whom he had been
+attacked. The exile which followed the imprisonment seems to have been
+soon remitted; as, shortly after these events, we find Voltaire again in
+France, preparing for publication his first historical work, a life of
+Charles XII. In this, there are none of those attacks on Christianity
+which gave offence in his subsequent writings; nor does it contain the
+least reflection upon the arbitrary government under which he had
+suffered. The French authorities at first granted that permission,
+without which no book could then be published; but as soon as it was
+actually printed, the license was withdrawn, and the history forbidden
+to be circulated.[733] The next attempt of Voltaire was one of much
+greater value: it was therefore repulsed still more sharply. During his
+residence in England, his inquisitive mind had been deeply interested by
+a state of things so different from any he had hitherto seen; and he now
+published an account of that remarkable people, from whose literature he
+had learned many important truths. His work, which he called
+_Philosophic Letters_, was received with general applause; but,
+unfortunately for himself, he adopted in it the arguments of Locke
+against innate ideas. The rulers of France, though not likely to know
+much about innate ideas, had a suspicion that the doctrine of Locke was
+in some way dangerous; and, as they were told that it was a novelty,
+they felt themselves bound to prevent its promulgation. Their remedy was
+very simple. They ordered that Voltaire should be again arrested and
+that his work should be burned by the common hangman.[734]
+
+  [733] 'L'Histoire de Charles XII, dont on avait arrêté une première
+        édition après l'avoir autorisée.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xlix. p.
+        470. Comp. _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. i. p. 388.
+
+  [734] _Duvernet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, pp. 63-65; _Condorcet_, _Vie de
+        Voltaire_, pp. 138-140; _Lepan_,_ Vie de Voltaire_, pp. 93, 381.
+
+These repeated injuries might well have moved a more patient spirit than
+that of Voltaire.[735] Certainly, those who reproach this illustrious
+man, as if he were the instigator of unprovoked attacks upon the
+existing state of things, must know very little of the age in which it
+was his misfortune to live. Even on what has been always considered the
+neutral ground of physical science, there was displayed the same
+despotic and persecuting spirit. Voltaire, among other schemes for
+benefiting France, wished to make known to his countrymen the wonderful
+discoveries of Newton, of which they were completely ignorant. With this
+view, he drew up an account of the labours of that extraordinary
+thinker; but here again the authorities interposed, and forbade the work
+to be printed.[736] Indeed, the rulers of France, as if sensible that
+their only security was the ignorance of the people, obstinately set
+their face against every description of knowledge. Several eminent
+authors had undertaken to execute, on a magnificent scale, an
+Encyclopædia, which should contain a summary of all the branches of
+science and of art. This, undoubtedly the most splendid enterprise ever
+started by a body of literary men, was at first discouraged by the
+government, and afterwards entirely prohibited.[737] On other occasions,
+the same tendency was shown in matters so trifling that nothing but the
+gravity of their ultimate results prevents them from being ridiculous.
+In 1770, Imbert translated Clarke's _Letters on Spain_: one of the best
+works then existing on that country. This book, however, was suppressed
+as soon as it appeared; and the only reason assigned for such a stretch
+of power is, that it contained some remarks respecting the passion of
+Charles III. for hunting, which were considered disrespectful to the
+French crown, because Louis XV. was himself a great hunter.[738] Several
+years before this, La Bletterie, who was favourably known in France by
+his works, was elected a member of the French Academy. But he, it seems,
+was a Jansenist, and had, moreover, ventured to assert that the Emperor
+Julian, notwithstanding his apostacy, was not entirely devoid of good
+qualities. Such offences could not be overlooked in so pure an age; and
+the king obliged the Academy to exclude La Bletterie from their
+society.[739] That the punishment extended no further, was an instance
+of remarkable leniency; for Fréret, an eminent critic and scholar,[740]
+was confined in the Bastille, because he stated in one of his memoirs,
+that the earliest Frankish chiefs had received their titles from the
+Romans.[741] The same penalty was inflicted four different times upon
+Lenglet du Fresnoy.[742] In the case of this amiable and accomplished
+man, there seems to have been hardly the shadow of a pretext for the
+cruelty with which he was treated; though, on one occasion, the alleged
+offence was, that he had published a supplement to the History of De
+Thou.[743]
+
+  [735] The indignation of Voltaire appears in many of his letters; and he
+        often announced to his friends his intention of quitting for ever
+        a country where he was liable to such treatment. See _[OE]uvres
+        de Voltaire_, vol. liv. pp. 58, 335, 336, vol. lv. p. 229, vol.
+        lvi. pp. 162, 163, 358, 447, 464, 465, vol. lvii. pp. 144, 145,
+        155, 156, vol. lviii. pp. 36, 222, 223, 516, 517, 519, 520, 525,
+        526, 563, vol. lix. pp. 107, 116, 188, 208.
+
+  [736] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. i. pp. 147, 315, vol. lvii. pp. 211,
+        215, 219, 247, 295; _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e Siècle_,
+        vol. i. p. 14; _Brougham's Men of Letters_, vol. i. pp. 53, 60.
+
+  [737] _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. i. pp. 90-95, vol. ii. p. 399; _Biog.
+        Univ._ vol. xi. p. 316; _Brougham's Men of Letters_, vol. ii.
+        p. 439.
+
+  [738] _Boucher de la Richarderie_, _Bibliothèque des Voyages_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 390-393, Paris, 1808: 'La distribution en France de la
+        traduction de ce voyage fut arrêtée pendant quelque temps par des
+        ordres supérieurs du gouvernement.... Il y a tout lieu de croire
+        que les ministres de France crurent, ou feignirent de croire, que
+        le passage en question pouvoit donner lieu à des applications sur
+        le goût effréné de Louis XV pour la chasse, et inspirèrent
+        aisément cette prévention à un prince très-sensible, comme on
+        sait, aux censures les plus indirectes de sa passion pour ce
+        genre d'amusement.' See also the account of Imbert, the
+        translator, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxi. p. 200.
+
+  [739] _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. vi. pp. 161, 162; the crime being,
+        'qu'un janséniste avait osé imprimer que Julien, apostat
+        exécrable aux yeux d'un bon chrétien, n'était pourtant pas un
+        homme sans quelques bonnes qualités à en juger mondainement.'
+
+  [740] M. Bunsen (_Egypt_, vol. i. p. 14) refers to Fréret's 'acute
+        treatise on the Babylonian year;' and Turgot, in his
+        _Etymologie_, says (_[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. iii. p. 83),
+        'l'illustre Fréret, un des savans qui ont su le mieux appliquer
+        la philosophie à l'érudition.'
+
+  [741] This was at the very outset of his career: 'En 1715, l'homme qui
+        devait illustrer l'érudition française au xviii^e siècle, Fréret,
+        était mis à la Bastille pour avoir avancé, dans un mémoire sur
+        l'origine des Français, que les Francs ne formaient pas une
+        nation à part, et que leurs premiers chefs avaient reçu de
+        l'empire romain le titre de _patrices_.' _Villemain_, _Lit. au
+        XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 30: see also _Nichols's Lit. Anec._
+        vol. ii. p. 510.
+
+  [742] He was imprisoned in the Bastille, for the first time, in 1725;
+        then in 1743, in 1750, and finally in 1751. _Biographie
+        Universelle_, vol. xxiv. p. 85.
+
+  [743] In 1743, Voltaire writes: 'On vient de mettre à la Bastille l'abbé
+        Lenglet, pour avoir publié des mémoires déjà très-connus, qui
+        servent de supplément à l'histoire de notre célèbre De Thou.
+        L'infatigable et malheureux Lenglet rendait un signalé service
+        aux bons citoyens, et aux amateurs des recherches historiques. Il
+        méritait des récompenses; on l'emprisonne cruellement à l'âge de
+        soixante-huit ans.' _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. i. pp. 400,
+        401, vol. lviii. pp. 207, 208.
+
+Indeed, we have only to open the biographies and correspondence of that
+time, to find instances crowding upon us from all quarters. Rousseau was
+threatened with imprisonment, was driven from France, and his works were
+publicly burned.[744] The celebrated treatise of Helvétius on the mind
+was suppressed by an order from the royal council: it was burned by the
+common hangman, and the author was compelled to write two letters,
+retracting his opinions.[745] Some of the geological views of Buffon
+having offended the clergy, that illustrious naturalist was obliged to
+publish a formal recantation of doctrines which are now known to be
+perfectly accurate.[746] The learned Observations on the History of
+France, by Mably, were suppressed as soon as they appeared;[747] for
+what reason it would be hard to say, since M. Guizot, certainly no
+friend either to anarchy or to irreligion, has thought it worth while to
+republish them, and thus stamp them with the authority of his own great
+name. The History of the Indies, by Raynal, was condemned to the flames,
+and the author ordered to be arrested.[748] Lanjuinais, in his
+well-known work on Joseph II., advocated not only religious toleration,
+but even the abolition of slavery; his book, therefore, was declared to
+be 'seditious;' it was pronounced 'destructive of all subordination,'
+and was sentenced to be burned.[749] The Analysis of Bayle, by Marsy,
+was suppressed, and the author was imprisoned.[750] The History of the
+Jesuits, by Linguet, was delivered to the flames; eight years later his
+_Journal_ was suppressed; and, three years after that, as he still
+persisted in writing, his Political Annals were suppressed, and he
+himself was thrown into the Bastille.[751] Delisle de Sales was
+sentenced to perpetual exile, and confiscation of all his property, on
+account of his work on the Philosophy of Nature.[752] The treatise by
+Mey, on French Law, was suppressed;[753] that by Boncerf, on Feudal Law,
+was burned.[754] The Memoirs of Beaumarchais were likewise burned;[755]
+the Eloge on Fénelon by La Harpe was merely suppressed.[756] Duvernet
+having written a History of the Sorbonne, which was still unpublished,
+was seized and thrown into the Bastille, while the manuscript was yet in
+his own possession.[757] The celebrated work of De Lolme on the English
+constitution was suppressed by edict directly it appeared.[758] The fate
+of being suppressed, or prohibited, also awaited the Letters of
+Gervaise, in 1724;[759] the Dissertations of Courayer, in 1727;[760] the
+Letters of Montgon, in 1732;[761] the History of Tamerlane, by Margat,
+also in 1732;[762] the Essay on Taste, by Cartaud, in 1736;[763] the
+Life of Domat, by Prévost de la Jannès, in 1742;[764] the History of
+Louis XI., by Duclos, in 1745;[765] the Letters of Bargeton, in
+1750;[766] the Memoirs on Troyes, by Grosley, in the same year;[767] the
+History of Clement XI., by Reboulet, in 1752;[768] the School of Man, by
+Génard, also in 1752;[769] the Therapeutics of Garlon, in 1756;[770] the
+celebrated thesis of Louis, on Generation, in 1754;[771] the Treatise on
+Presidial Jurisdiction, by Jousse, in 1755;[772] the Ericie of
+Fontanelle, in 1768;[773] the Thoughts of Jamin, in 1769;[774] the
+History of Siam, by Turpin, and the Eloge of Marcus Aurelius, by Thomas,
+both in 1770;[775] the works on Finance by Darigrand in 1764; and by Le
+Trosne, in 1779;[776] the Essay on Military Tactics, by Guibert, in
+1772; the Letters of Boucquet, in the same year;[777] and the Memoirs of
+Terrai, by Coquereau, in 1776.[778] Such wanton destruction of property
+was, however, mercy itself, compared to the treatment experienced by
+other literary men in France. Desforges, for example, having written
+against the arrest of the Pretender to the English throne, was, solely
+on that account, buried in a dungeon eight feet square, and confined
+there for three years.[779] This happened in 1749; and in 1770, Audra,
+professor at the college of Toulouse, and a man of some reputation,
+published the first volume of his Abridgment of General History. Beyond
+this, the work never proceeded; it was at once condemned by the
+archbishop of the diocese, and the author was deprived of his office.
+Audra, held up to public opprobrium, the whole of his labours rendered
+useless, and the prospects of his life suddenly blighted, was unable to
+survive the shock. He was struck with apoplexy, and within twenty-four
+hours was lying a corpse in his own house.[780]
+
+  [744] _Musset Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_, vol. i. pp. 68, 99, 296, 377,
+        vol. ii. pp. 111, 385, 390; _Mercier sur Rousseau_, vol. i. p.
+        14, vol. ii. pp. 179, 314.
+
+  [745] _Grimm_, _Corresp._ vol. ii. p. 349; _Walpole's Letters_, 1840,
+        vol. iii. p. 418.
+
+  [746] _Lyell's Principles of Geology_, pp. 39, 40; _Mém. of Mallet du
+        Pan_, vol. i. p. 125.
+
+  [747] _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. ii. p. 214; _Williams's
+        Letters from France_, vol. ii. p. 86, 3rd edit. 1796.
+
+  [748] _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 253; _Mém. de Lafayette_, vol. ii.
+        p. 34 note; _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, vol. ii. p. 365. On
+        Raynal's flight, compare a letter from Marseilles, written in
+        1786, and printed in _Mem. and Correspond. of Sir J. E. Smith_,
+        vol. i. p. 194.
+
+  [749] See the proceedings of the avocat-général, in _Peignot_, _Livres
+        condamnés_, vol. i. pp. 230, 231; and in _Soulavie_, _Règne de
+        Louis XVI_, vol. iii. pp. 93-97.
+
+  [750] _Quérard_, _France Lit._ vol. v. p. 565.
+
+  [751] _Peignot_, _Livres condamnés_, vol. i. pp. 241, 242.
+
+  [752] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv. p. 561; _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. lxix. pp. 374, 375; _Lettres inédites de Voltaire_, vol. ii.
+        p. 528; _Duvernet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, pp. 202, 203. According to
+        some of these authorities, parliament afterwards revoked this
+        sentence; but there is no doubt that the sentence was passed, and
+        De Sales imprisoned, if not banished.
+
+  [753] _Peignot_, _Livres condamnés_, vol. i. pp. 314, 316.
+
+  [754] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. lxix. p. 204;_ Lettres de Dudeffand
+        à Walpole_, vol. iii. p. 260.
+
+  [755] 'Quatre mémoires ... condamnés à être lacérés et brûlés par la
+        main du bourreau.' _Peignot_, vol. i. p. 24.
+
+  [756] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiii. p. 187.
+
+  [757] _Duvernet_, _Hist. de la Sorbonne_, vol. i. p. vi.
+
+  [758] 'Supprimée par arrêt du conseil' in 1771, which was the year of
+        its publication. Compare _Cassagnac's Révolution_, vol. i. p. 33;
+        _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxiv. p. 634.
+
+  [759] _Quérard_, _France Lit._ vol. iii. p. 337.
+
+  [760] _Biog. Univ._ vol. x. p. 97.
+
+  [761] _Peignot_, vol. i. p. 328.
+
+  [762] _ibid._ vol. i. p. 289.
+
+  [763] _Biog. Univ._ vol. vii. p. 227.
+
+  [764] _Lettres d'Aguesseau_, vol. ii. pp. 320, 321.
+
+  [765] _Cassagnac_, _Causes de la Rév._ vol. i. p. 32.
+
+  [766] _Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 375.
+
+  [767] _Quérard_, vol. iii. p. 489.
+
+  [768] _Ibid._ vol. vii. pp. 483, 484.
+
+  [769] _Ibid._ vol. iii. p. 302.
+
+  [770] _Ibid._ vol. iii. p. 261.
+
+  [771] On the importance of this remarkable thesis, and on its
+        prohibition, see _Saint-Hilaire_, _Anomalies de l'Organisation_,
+        vol. i. p. 355.
+
+  [772] _Quérard_, vol. iv. p. 255.
+
+  [773] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xv. p. 203.
+
+  [774] _Ibid._ vol. xxi. p. 391.
+
+  [775] _Ibid._ vol. xlv. p. 462, vol. xlvii. p. 98.
+
+  [776] _Peignot_, vol. i. pp. 90, 91, vol. ii. p. 164.
+
+  [777] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 170, vol. ii. p. 57.
+
+  [778] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 214.
+
+  [779] 'Il resta trois ans dans la cage; c'est un caveau creusé dans le
+        roc, de huit pieds en carré, où le prisonnier ne reçoit le jour
+        que par les crevasses des marches de l'église.' _Biog. Univ._
+        vol. xi. p. 171.
+
+  [780] _Peignot_, _Livres condamnés_, vol. i. pp. 14, 15.
+
+It will probably be allowed that I have collected sufficient evidence to
+substantiate my assertion respecting the persecutions directed against
+every description of literature; but the carelessness with which the
+antecedents of the French Revolution have been studied, has given rise
+to such erroneous opinions on this subject, that I am anxious to add a
+few more instances, so as to put beyond the possibility of doubt the
+nature of the provocations habitually received by the most eminent
+Frenchmen of the eighteenth century.
+
+Among the many celebrated authors who, though, inferior to Voltaire,
+Montesquieu, Buffon, and Rousseau, were second only to them, three of
+the most remarkable were Diderot, Marmontel, and Morellet. The first two
+are known to every reader; while Morellet, though comparatively
+forgotten, had in his own time considerable influence, and had,
+moreover, the distinguished merit of being the first who popularized in
+France those great truths which had been recently discovered in
+political economy by Adam Smith, and in jurisprudence by Beccaria.
+
+A certain M. Cury wrote a satire upon the Duke d'Aumont, which he showed
+to his friend Marmontel, who, struck by its power, repeated it to a
+small circle of his acquaintance. The duke, hearing of this, was full of
+indignation, and insisted upon the name of the author being given up.
+This, of course, was impossible without a gross breach of confidence;
+but Marmontel, to do everything in his power, wrote to the duke,
+stating, what was really the fact, that the lines in question had not
+been printed, that there was no intention of making them public, and
+that they had only been communicated to a few of his own particular
+friends. It might have been supposed that this would have satisfied even
+a French noble; but Marmontel, still doubting the result, sought an
+audience of the minister, in the hope of procuring the protection of the
+crown. All, however, was in vain. It will hardly be believed, that
+Marmontel, who was then at the height of his reputation, was seized in
+the middle of Paris, and because he refused to betray his friend, was
+thrown into the Bastille. Nay, so implacable were his persecutors, that
+after his liberation from prison they, in the hope of reducing him to
+beggary, deprived him of the right of publishing the _Mercure_, upon
+which nearly the whole of his income depended.[781]
+
+  [781] _Mémoires de Marmontel_, vol. ii. pp. 143-176; and see vol. iii.
+        pp. 30-46, 95, for the treatment he afterwards received from the
+        Sorbonne, because he advocated religious toleration. See also
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. liv. p. 258; and _Letters of
+        Eminent Persons addressed to Hume_, pp. 207, 212, 213.
+
+To the Abbé Morellet a somewhat similar circumstance occurred. A
+miserable scribbler, named Palissot, had written a comedy ridiculing
+some of the ablest Frenchmen then living. To this Morellet replied by a
+pleasant little satire, in which he made a very harmless allusion to the
+Princess de Robeck, one of Palissot's patrons. She, amazed at such
+presumption, complained to the minister, who immediately ordered the
+abbé to be confined in the Bastille, where he remained for some months,
+although he had not only been guilty of no scandal, but had not even
+mentioned the name of the princess.[782]
+
+  [782] _Mém. de Morellet_, vol. i. pp. 86-89; _Mélanges par Morellet_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 3-12; _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. liv. pp. 106,
+        111, 114, 122, 183.
+
+The treatment of Diderot was still more severe. This remarkable man owed
+his influence chiefly to his immense correspondence, and to the
+brilliancy of a conversation for which, even in Paris, he was
+unrivalled, and which he used to display with considerable effect at
+those celebrated dinners where, during a quarter of a century, Holbach
+assembled the most illustrious thinkers in France.[783] Besides this, he
+is the author of several works of interest, most of which are well
+known to the students of French literature.[784] His independent spirit,
+and the reputation he obtained, earned for him a share in the general
+persecution. The first work he wrote was ordered to be publicly burned
+by the common hangman.[785] This, indeed, was the fate of nearly all the
+best literary productions of that time; and Diderot might esteem himself
+fortunate in merely losing his property, provided he saved himself from
+imprisonment. But, a few years later, he wrote another work, in which he
+said that people who are born blind have some ideas different from those
+who are possessed of their eyesight. This assertion is by no means
+improbable,[786] and it contains nothing by which any one need be
+startled. The men, however, who then governed France discovered in it
+some hidden danger. Whether they suspected that the mention of blindness
+was an allusion to themselves, or whether they were merely instigated by
+the perversity of their temper, is uncertain; at all events, the
+unfortunate Diderot, for having hazarded this opinion, was arrested, and
+without even the form of a trial, was confined in the dungeon of
+Vincennes.[787] The natural results followed. The works of Diderot rose
+in popularity;[788] and he, burning with hatred against his persecutors,
+redoubled his efforts to overthrow those institutions, under shelter of
+which such monstrous tyranny could be safely practised.
+
+  [783] Marmontel (_Mém._ vol. ii. p. 313) says, 'qui n'a connu Diderot
+        que dans ses écrits ne l'a point connu:' meaning that his works
+        were inferior to his talk. His conversational powers are noticed
+        by Ségur, who disliked him, and by Georgel, who hated him.
+        _Ségur_, _Souvenirs_, vol. iii. p. 34; _Georgel_, _Mém._ vol. ii.
+        p. 246. Compare _Forster's Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i. p. 69;
+        _Musset Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_, vol. i. p. 95, vol. ii. p.
+        227; _Mémoires d'Epinay_, vol. ii. pp. 73, 74, 88; _Grimm_,
+        _Corresp._ vol. xv. pp. 79-90; _Morellet_, _Mém._ vol. i. p. 28;
+        _Villemain_, _Lit. au XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. i. p. 82.
+
+        As to Holbach's dinners, on which Madame de Genlis wrote a
+        well-known libel, see _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. i.
+        p. 166; _Biog. Univ._ vol. xx. p. 462; _Jesse's Selwyn_, vol. ii.
+        p. 9; _Walpole's Letters to Mann_, vol. iv. p. 283; _Gibbon's
+        Miscellaneous Works_, p. 73.
+
+  [784] It is also stated by the editor of his correspondence, that he
+        wrote a great deal for authors, which they published under their
+        name. _Mém. et Corresp. de Diderot_, vol. iii. p. 102.
+
+  [785] This was the _Pensées Philosophiques_, in 1746, his first original
+        work; the previous ones being translations from English. _Biog.
+        Univ._ xi. p. 314. Duvernet (_Vie de Voltaire_, p. 240) says,
+        that he was imprisoned for writing it, but this I believe is a
+        mistake; at least I do not remember to have met with the
+        statement elsewhere, and Duvernet is frequently careless.
+
+  [786] Dugald Stewart, who has collected some important evidence on this
+        subject, has confirmed several of the views put forward by
+        Diderot. _Philos. of the Mind_, vol. iii. pp. 401 seq.; comp. pp.
+        57, 407, 435. Since then still greater attention has been paid to
+        the education of the blind, and it has been remarked that 'it is
+        an exceedingly difficult task to teach them to think accurately.'
+        _M. Alister's Essay on the Blind_, in _Jour. of Stat. Soc._ vol.
+        i. p. 378: see also Dr. Fowler, in _Report of Brit. Assoc._ for
+        1847; _Transac. of Sec._ pp. 92, 93, and for 1848, p. 88. These
+        passages unconsciously testify to the sagacity of Diderot; and
+        they also testify to the stupid ignorance of a government, which
+        sought to put an end to such inquiries by punishing their author.
+
+  [787] _Mém. et Corresp. de Diderot_, vol. i. pp. 26-29; _Musset Pathay_,
+        _Vie de Rousseu_, vol. i. p. 47, vol. ii. p. 276; _Letter to
+        d'Argental_ in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. lviii. p. 454;
+        _Lacretelle_, _Dix-huitième Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 54.
+
+  [788] A happy arrangement, by which curiosity baffles despotism. In
+        1767, an acute observer wrote, 'Il n'y a plus de livres qu'on
+        imprime plusieurs fois, que les livres condamnés. Il faut
+        aujourd'hui qu'un libraire prie les magistrate de brûler son
+        livre pour le faire vendre.' _Grimm_, _Corresp._ vol. v. p. 498.
+        To the same effect, _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. pp. 15, 16; _Mém. de
+        Georgel_, vol. ii. p. 256.
+
+It seems hardly necessary to say more respecting the incredible folly
+with which the rulers of France, by turning every able man into a
+personal enemy,[789] at length arrayed against the government all the
+intellect of the country, and made the Revolution a matter not of choice
+but of necessity. I will, however, as a fitting sequel to the preceding
+facts, give one instance of the way in which, to gratify the caprice of
+the higher classes, even the most private affections of domestic life,
+could be publicly outraged. In the middle of the eighteenth century,
+there was an actress on the French stage of the name of Chantilly. She,
+though beloved by Maurice de Saxe, preferred a more honourable
+attachment, and married Favart, the well-known writer of songs and of
+comic operas. Maurice, amazed at her boldness, applied for aid to the
+French crown. That he should have made such an application is
+sufficiently strange; but the result of it is hardly to be paralleled
+except in some Eastern despotism. The government of France, on hearing
+the circumstance, had the inconceivable baseness to issue an order
+directing Favart to abandon his wife, and intrust her to the charge of
+Maurice, to whose embraces she was compelled to submit.[790]
+
+  [789] 'Quel est aujourd'hui parmi nous l'homme de lettres de quelque
+        mérite qui n'ait éprouvé plus ou moins les fureurs de la calomnie
+        et de la persécution?' etc. _Grimm_, _Corresp._ vol. v. p. 451.
+        This was written in 1767, and during more than forty years
+        previously we find similar expressions; the earliest I have met
+        with being in a letter to Thiriot, in 1723, in which Voltaire
+        says _([OE]uvres_, vol. lvi. p. 94), 'la sévérité devient plus
+        grande de jour en jour dans l'inquisition de la librairie.' For
+        other instances, see his letter to De Formont, pp. 423-425, also
+        vol. lvii. pp. 144, 351, vol. lviii. p. 222; his _Lettres
+        inédites_, vol. i. p. 547; _Mém. de Diderot_, vol. ii. p. 215;
+        _Letters of Eminent Persons to Hume_, pp. 14, 15.
+
+  [790] Part of this is related, rather inaccurately, in _Schlosser's
+        Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii. p. 483. The fullest account is in
+        _Grimm_, _Corresp. Lit._ vol. viii. pp. 231-233: 'Le grand
+        Maurice, irrité d'une résistance qu'il n'avait jamais éprouvée
+        nulle part, eut la faiblesse de demander une lettre de cachet
+        pour enlever à un mari sa femme, et pour la contraindre d'être sa
+        concubine; et, chose remarquable, cette lettre de cachet fut
+        accordée et exécutée. Les deux époux plièrent sous le joug de la
+        nécessité, et la petite Chantilly fut à la fois femme de Favart
+        et maîtresse de Maurice de Saxe.'
+
+These are among the insufferable provocations, by which the blood of men
+is made to boil in their veins. Who can wonder that the greatest and
+noblest minds in France were filled with loathing at the government by
+whom such things were done? If we, notwithstanding the distance of time
+and country, are moved to indignation by the mere mention of them, what
+must have been felt by those before whose eyes they actually occurred?
+And when, to the horror they naturally inspired, there was added that
+apprehension of being the next victim which every one might personally
+feel; when, moreover, we remember that the authors of these persecutions
+had none of the abilities by which even vice itself is sometimes
+ennobled;--when we thus contrast the poverty of their understandings
+with the greatness of their crimes, we, instead of being astonished that
+there was a revolution, by which all the machinery of the state was
+swept away, should rather be amazed at that unexampled patience by which
+alone the revolution was so long deferred.
+
+To me, indeed, it has always appeared, that the delay of the Revolution
+is one of the most striking proofs history affords of the force of
+established habits, and of the tenacity with which the human mind clings
+to old associations. For, if ever there existed a government inherently
+and radically bad, it was the government of France in the eighteenth
+century. If ever there existed a state of society likely, by its crying
+and accumulated evils, to madden men to desperation, France was in that
+state. The people, despised and enslaved, were sunk in abject poverty,
+and were curbed by laws of stringent cruelty, enforced with merciless
+barbarism. A supreme and irresponsible control was exercised over the
+whole country by the clergy, the nobles, and the crown. The intellect of
+France was placed under the ban of a ruthless proscription, its
+literature prohibited and burned, its authors plundered and imprisoned.
+Nor was there the least symptom that these evils were likely to be
+remedied. The upper classes, whose arrogance was increased by the long
+tenure of their power, only thought of present enjoyment: they took no
+heed of the future: they saw not that day of reckoning, the bitterness
+of which they were soon to experience. The people remained in slavery
+until the Revolution actually occurred; while as to the literature,
+nearly every year witnessed some new effort to deprive it of that share
+of liberty which it still retained. Having, in 1764, issued a decree
+forbidding any work to be published in which questions of government
+were discussed;[791] having, in 1767, made it a capital offence to
+write a book likely to excite the public mind;[792] and having,
+moreover, denounced the same penalty of death against any one who
+attacked religion,[793] as also against any one who spoke of matters of
+finance;[794]--having taken these steps, the rulers of France, very
+shortly before their final fall, contemplated another measure still more
+comprehensive. It is, indeed, a singular fact, that only nine years
+before the Revolution, and when no power on earth could have saved the
+institutions of the country, the government was so ignorant of the real
+state of affairs, and so confident that it could quell the spirit which
+its own despotism had raised, that a proposal was made by an officer of
+the crown to do away with all the publishers, and not allow any books to
+be printed except those which were issued from a press paid, appointed,
+and controlled by the executive magistrate.[795] This monstrous
+proposition, if carried into effect, would of course have invested the
+king with all the influence which literature can command; it would have
+been as fatal to the national intellect as the other measures were to
+national liberty; and it would have consummated the ruin of France,
+either by reducing its greatest men to complete silence, or else by
+degrading them into mere advocates of those opinions which the
+government might wish to propagate.
+
+  [791] 'L'Averdy was no sooner named controller of finance than he
+        published a decree, in 1764 (_arrêt du conseil_),--which,
+        according to the state of the then existing constitution, had the
+        force of a law,--by which every man was forbidden to print, or
+        cause to be printed, anything whatever upon administrative
+        affairs, or government regulations in general, under the penalty
+        of a breach of the police laws; by which the man was liable to be
+        punished without defence, and not as was the case before the law
+        courts, where he might defend himself, and could only be judged
+        according to law.' _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p.
+        166: see also _Mém. de Morellet_, vol. i. p. 141, vol. ii. p. 75,
+        'un arrêt du conseil, qui défendait d'imprimer sur les matières
+        d'administration.'
+
+  [792] 'L'ordonnance de 1767, rendue sous le ministère du chancelier
+        Maupeou, portait la peine de mort contre tout auteur d'écrits
+        tendant à émouvoir les esprits.' _Cassagnac_, _Causes de la
+        Révolution_, vol. i. p. 313.
+
+  [793] In April 1757, D'Alembert writes from Paris, 'on vient de publier
+        une déclaration qui inflige la peine de mort à tous ceux qui
+        auront publié des écrits tendants à attaquer la religion.'
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. liv. p. 34. This, I suppose, is the
+        same edict as that mentioned by M. Amédée Renée, in his
+        continuation of _Sismondi_, _Histoire des Français_, vol. xxx. p.
+        247.
+
+  [794] 'Il avait été défendu, sous peine de mort, aux écrivains de parler
+        de finances.' _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 490.
+
+  [795] This was the suggestion of the avocat-général in 1780. See the
+        proposal, in his own words, in _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. xi.
+        pp. 143, 144. On the important functions of the avocats-généraux
+        in the eighteenth century, see a note in _Lettres d'Aguesseau_,
+        vol. i. p. 264.
+
+For these are by no means to be considered as trifling matters, merely
+interesting to men of letters. In France, in the eighteenth century,
+literature was the last resource of liberty. In England, if our great
+authors should prostitute their abilities by inculcating servile
+opinions, the danger would no doubt be considerable, because other parts
+of society might find it difficult to escape the contagion. Still,
+before the corruption had spread, there would be time to stop its
+course, so long as we possessed those free political institutions, by
+the mere mention of which the generous imagination of a bold people is
+easily fired. And although such institutions are the consequence, not
+the cause, of liberty, they do unquestionably react upon it, and from
+the force of habit they could for a while survive that from which they
+originally sprung. So long as a country retains its political freedom,
+there will always remain associations by which, even in the midst of
+mental degradation, and out of the depths of the lowest superstition,
+the minds of men may be recalled to better things. But in France such
+associations had no existence. In France everything was for the
+governors and nothing for the governed. There was neither free press,
+nor free parliament, nor free debates. There were no public meetings;
+there was no popular suffrage; there was no discussion on the hustings;
+there was no habeas-corpus act; there was no trial by jury. The voice of
+liberty, thus silenced in every department of the state, could only be
+heard in the appeals of those great men, who, by their writings,
+inspirited the people to resistance. This is the point of view from
+which we ought to estimate the character of those who are often accused
+of having wantonly disturbed the ancient fabric.[796] They, as well as
+the people at large, were cruelly oppressed by the crown, the nobles,
+and the church; and they used their abilities to retaliate the injury.
+There can be no doubt that this was the best course open to them. There
+can be no doubt that rebellion is the last remedy against tyranny, and
+that a despotic system should be encountered by a revolutionary
+literature. The upper classes were to blame, because they struck the
+first blow; but we must by no means censure those great men, who, having
+defended themselves from aggression, eventually succeeded in smiting the
+government by whom the aggression was originally made.
+
+  [796] And we should also remember what the circumstances were under
+        which the accusation was first heard in France. 'Les reproches
+        d'avoir tout détruit, adressés aux philosophes du dix-huitième
+        siècle, ont commencé le jour où il s'est trouvé en France un
+        gouvernement qui a voulu rétablir les abus dont les écrivains de
+        cette époque avaient accéléré la destruction.' _Comte_, _Traité
+        de Législation_, vol. i. p. 72.
+
+Without, however, stopping to vindicate their conduct, we have now to
+consider what is much more important, namely, the origin of that crusade
+against Christianity, in which, unhappily for France, they were
+compelled to embark, and the occurrence of which forms the third great
+antecedent of the French Revolution. A knowledge of the causes of this
+hostility against Christianity is essential to a right understanding of
+the philosophy of the eighteenth century, and it will throw some light
+on the general theory of ecclesiastical power.
+
+It is a circumstance well worthy of remark, that the revolutionary
+literature which eventually overturned all the institutions of France,
+was at first directed against those which were religious, rather than
+against those which were political. The great writers who rose into
+notice soon after the death of Louis XIV., exerted themselves against
+spiritual despotism; while the overthrow of secular despotism was left
+to their immediate successors.[797] This is not the course which would
+be pursued in a healthy state of society; and there is no doubt, that
+to this peculiarity the crimes and the lawless violence of the French
+Revolution are in no small degree to be ascribed. It is evident, that in
+the legitimate progress of a nation, political innovations should keep
+pace with religious innovations, so that the people may increase their
+liberty while they diminish their superstition. In France, on the
+contrary, during nearly forty years, the church was attacked, and the
+government was spared. The consequence was, that the order and balance
+of the country were destroyed; the minds of men became habituated to the
+most daring speculations, while their acts were controlled by the most
+oppressive despotism; and they felt themselves possessed of capacities
+which their rulers would not allow them to employ. When, therefore, the
+French Revolution broke out, it was not a mere rising of ignorant slaves
+against educated masters, but it was a rising of men in whom the despair
+caused by slavery was quickened by the resources of advancing knowledge;
+men who were in that frightful condition when the progress of intellect
+outstrips the progress of liberty, and when a desire is felt, not only
+to remove a tyranny, but also to avenge an insult.
+
+  [797] The nature of this change, and the circumstances under which it
+        happened, will be examined in the last chapter of the present
+        volume; but that the revolutionary movement, while headed by
+        Voltaire and his coadjutors, was directed against the church, and
+        not against the state, is noticed by many writers; some of whom
+        have also observed, that soon after the middle of the reign of
+        Louis XV. the ground began to be shifted, and a disposition was
+        first shown to attack political abuses. On this remarkable fact,
+        indicated by several authors, but explained by none, compare
+        _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 305; _Barruel_, _Mém.
+        pour l'Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. i. p. xviii., vol. ii. p. 113;
+        _Tocqueville_, _L'Ancien Régime_, p. 241; _Alison's Europe_, vol.
+        i. p. 165, vol. xiv. p. 286; _Mém. de Rivarol_, p. 35;
+        _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. iv. p. 397; _Lamartine_,
+        _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. i. p. 183; _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. lx. p. 307, vol. lxvi. p. 34.
+
+There can be no doubt that to this we must ascribe some of the most
+hideous peculiarities of the French Revolution. It, therefore, becomes a
+matter of great interest to inquire how it was, that while in England
+political freedom and religious sceptism have accompanied and aided each
+other, there should, on the other hand, have taken place in France a
+vast movement, in which, during nearly forty years, the ablest men
+neglected the freedom, while they encouraged the scepticism, and
+diminished the power of the church, without increasing the liberties of
+the people.
+
+The first reason of this appears to be, the nature of those ideas out
+of which the French had long constructed the traditions of their glory.
+A train of circumstances which, when treating of the protective spirit,
+I attempted to indicate, had secured to the French kings an authority
+which, by making all classes subordinate to the crown, flattered the
+popular vanity.[798] Hence it was, that in France the feelings of
+loyalty worked into the national mind deeper than in any other country
+of Europe, Spain alone excepted.[799] The difference between this spirit
+and that observable in England has been already noticed, and may be
+still further illustrated by the different ways in which the two nations
+have dealt with the posthumous reputation of their sovereigns. With the
+exception of Alfred, who is sometimes called the Great,[800] we in
+England have not sufficiently loved any of our princes to bestow upon
+them titles expressive of personal admiration. But the French have
+decorated their kings with every variety of panegyric. Thus, to take
+only a single name, one king is Louis the Mild, another is Louis the
+Saint, another is Louis the Just, another is Louis the Great, and the
+most hopelessly vicious of all was called Louis the Beloved.
+
+  [798] See some striking remarks in M. Tocqueville's great work, _De la
+        Démocratie_, vol. i. p. 5; which should be compared with the
+        observation of Horace Walpole, who was well acquainted with
+        French society, and who says, happily enough, that the French
+        'love themselves in their kings.' _Walpole's Mem. of George III_,
+        vol. ii. p. 240.
+
+  [799] Not only the political history of Spain, but also its literature,
+        contains melancholy evidence of the extraordinary loyalty of the
+        Spaniards, and of the injurious results produced by it. See, on
+        this, some useful reflections in _Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish
+        Literature_, vol. i. pp. 95, 96, 133, vol. iii. pp. 191-193.
+
+  [800] Our admiration of Alfred is greatly increased by the fact, that we
+        know very little about him. The principal authority referred to
+        for his reign is Asser, whose work, there is reason to believe,
+        is not genuine. See the arguments in _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._
+        vol. i. pp. 408-412. It moreover appears, that some of the
+        institutions popularly ascribed to him, existed before his time.
+        _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol. i. pp. 247, 248.
+
+These are facts which, insignificant as they seem, form most important
+materials for real history, since they are unequivocal symptoms of the
+state of the country in which they exist.[801] Their relation to the
+subject before us is obvious. For, by them, and by the circumstances
+from which they sprung, an intimate and hereditary association was
+engendered in the minds of Frenchmen, between the glory of their nation
+and the personal reputation of their sovereign. The consequence was,
+that the political conduct of the rulers of France was protected against
+censure by a fence far more impassable than any that could be erected by
+the most stringent laws. It was protected by those prejudices which each
+generation bequeathed to its successor. It was protected by that halo
+which time had thrown round the oldest monarchy in Europe.[802] And
+above all, it was protected by that miserable national vanity, which
+made men submit to taxation and to slavery, in order that foreign
+princes might be dazzled by the splendour of their sovereign, and
+foreign countries intimidated by the greatness of his victories.
+
+  [801] The French writers, under the old régime, constantly boast that
+        loyalty was the characteristic of their nation, and taunt the
+        English with their opposite and insubordinate spirit. 'Il n'est
+        pas ici question des François, qui se sont toujours distingués
+        des autres nations par leur amour pour leurs rois.' _Le Blanc_,
+        _Lettres d'un François_, vol. iii. p. 523. 'The English do not
+        love their sovereigns as much as could be desired.' _Sorbière's
+        Voyage to England_, p. 58. 'Le respect de la majesté royale,
+        caractère distinctif des Français.' _Mém. de Montbarey_, vol. ii.
+        p. 54. 'L'amour et la fidélité que les Français ont naturellement
+        pour leurs princes.' _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 3. 'Les
+        Français, qui aiment leurs princes.' _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._
+        vol. iii. p. 381; and see vol. xi. p. 729. For further evidence,
+        see _Sully_, _[OE]conomies_, vol. iv. p. 346; _Monteil_, _Divers
+        Etats_, vol. vii. p. 105; _Ségur_, _Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 32;
+        _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. iv. p. 58.
+
+        Now, contrast with all this the sentiments contained in one of
+        the most celebrated histories in the English language: 'There is
+        not any one thing more certain and more evident, than that
+        princes are made for the people, and not the people for them; and
+        perhaps there is no nation under heaven that is more entirely
+        possessed with this notion of princes than the English nation is
+        in this age; so that they will soon be uneasy to a prince who
+        does not govern himself by this maxim, and in time grow very
+        unkind to him.' _Burnet's History of his Own Time_, vol. vi. p.
+        223. This manly and wholesome passage was written while the
+        French were licking the dust from the feet of Louis XIV.
+
+  [802] 'La race des rois la plus ancienne.' _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. ix.
+        p. 281. 'Nos rois, issus de la plus grande race du monde, et
+        devant qui les Césars, et la plus grande partie des princes qui
+        jadis ont commandé tant de nations, ne sont que des roturiers.'
+        _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. ii. p. 417. And a Venetian ambassador,
+        in the sixteenth century, says, that France is 'il regno più
+        antico d'ogn' altro che sia in essere al presente.' _Relat. des
+        Ambassad._ vol. i. p. 470. Compare _Boullier_, _Maison Militaire
+        des Rois de France_, p. 360.
+
+The upshot of all this was, that when, early in the eighteenth century,
+the intellect of France began to be roused into action, the idea of
+attacking the abuses of the monarchy never occurred even to the boldest
+thinker. But, under the protection of the crown, there had grown up
+another institution, about which less delicacy was felt. The clergy, who
+for so long a period had been allowed to oppress the consciences of men,
+were not sheltered by those national associations which surrounded the
+person of the sovereign; nor had any of them, with the single exception
+of Bossuet, done much to increase the general reputation of France.
+Indeed, the French church, though during the reign of Louis XIV. it
+possessed immense authority, had always exercised it in subordination to
+the crown, at whose bidding it had not feared to oppose even the pope
+himself.[803] It was, therefore, natural, that in France the
+ecclesiastical power should be attacked before the temporal power;
+because, while it was as despotic, it was less influential, and because
+it was unprotected by those popular traditions which form the principal
+support of every ancient institution.
+
+  [803] _Capefigue's Louis XIV_, vol. i. pp. 204, 301; _Koch_, _Tableau
+        des Révolutions_, vol. ii. p. 16. M. Ranke (_Die Päpste_, vol.
+        ii. p. 257) ascribes this to the circumstances attending the
+        apostasy of Henry IV.; but the cause lies much deeper, being
+        connected with that triumph of the secular interests over the
+        spiritual, of which the policy of Henry IV. was itself a
+        consequence.
+
+These considerations are sufficient to explain why it was that, in this
+respect, the French and English intellects adopted courses so entirely
+different. In England, the minds of men, being less hampered with the
+prejudices of an indiscriminate loyalty, have been able at each
+successive step in the great progress to direct their doubts and
+inquiries on politics as well as on religion; and thus establishing
+their freedom as they diminished their superstition, they have
+maintained the balance of the national intellect, without allowing to
+either of its divisions an excessive preponderance. But in France the
+admiration for royalty had become so great, that this balance was
+disturbed; the inquiries of men not daring to settle on politics, were
+fixed on religion, and gave rise to the singular phenomenon of a rich
+and powerful literature, in which unanimous hostility to the church was
+unaccompanied by a single voice against the enormous abuses of the
+state.
+
+There was likewise another circumstance which increased this peculiar
+tendency. During the reign of Louis XIV. the personal character of the
+hierarchy had done much to secure their dominion. All the leaders of the
+church were men of virtue, and many were men of ability. Their conduct,
+tyrannical as it was, seems to have been conscientious; and the evils
+which it produced are merely to be ascribed to the gross impolicy of
+entrusting ecclesiastics with power. But after the death of Louis XIV. a
+great change took place. The Clergy, from causes which it would be
+tedious to investigate, became extremely dissolute, and often very
+ignorant. This made their tyranny more oppressive, because to submit to
+it was more disgraceful. The great abilities and unblemished morals of
+men like Bossuet, Fénélon, Bourdaloue, Fléchier, and Mascaron,
+diminished in some degree the ignominy which is always connected with
+blind obedience. But when they were succeeded by such bishops and
+cardinals as Dubois, Lafiteau, Tencin, and others who flourished under
+the regency, it became difficult to respect the heads of the church,
+tainted as they were with open and notorious depravity.[804] At the same
+time that there occurred this unfavourable change among the
+ecclesiastical rulers, there also occurred that immense reaction of
+which I have endeavoured to trace the early workings. It was therefore,
+at the very moment when the spirit of inquiry became stronger that the
+character of the Clergy became more contemptible.[805] The great writers
+who were now rising in France, were moved to indignation when they saw
+that those who usurped unlimited power over consciences had themselves
+no consciences at all. It is evident, that every argument which they
+borrowed from England against ecclesiastical power, would gain
+additional force when directed against men whose personal unfitness was
+universally acknowledged.[806]
+
+  [804] _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 408; _Flassan_,
+        _Hist. de la Diplomatie_, vol. v. p. 3; _Tocqueville_, _Règne de
+        Louis XV_, vol. i. pp. 35, 347; _Duclos_, _Mémoires_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 42, 43, 154, 155, 223, 224. What was, if possible, still more
+        scandalous, was, that in 1723 the assembly of the clergy elected
+        as their president, unanimously ('d'une voix unanime'), the
+        infamous Dubois, the most notoriously immoral man of his time.
+        _Duclos_, _Mém._ vol. ii. p. 262.
+
+  [805] On this decline of the French clergy, see _Villemain_, _XVIII^e
+        Siècle_, vol. iii. pp. 178, 179; _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._
+        II^e série, vol. i. p. 301. _Tocqueville_ (_Règne de Louis XV_,
+        vol. i. pp. 35-38, 365) says, 'le clergé prêchait une morale
+        qu'il compromettait par sa conduite;' a noticeable remark, when
+        made by an opponent of the sceptical philosophy, like the elder
+        M. Tocqueville. Among this profligate crew, Massillon stood
+        alone; he being the last French bishop who was remarkable for
+        virtue as well as for ability.
+
+  [806] Voltaire says of the English, 'quand ils apprennent qu'en France
+        de jeunes gens connus par leurs débauches, et élevés à la
+        prélature par des intrigues de femmes, font publiquement l'amour,
+        s'égaient à composer des chansons tendres, donnent tous les jours
+        des soupers délicats et longs, et de là vont implorer les
+        lumières du Saint-Esprit, et se nomment hardiment les
+        successeures des apôtres ils remercient Dieu d'être protestants.'
+        _Lettres sur les Anglais_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxvi. p. 29.
+
+Such was the position of the rival parties, when, almost immediately
+after the death of Louis XIV., there began that great struggle between
+authority and reason, which is still unfinished, although in the present
+state of knowledge its result is no longer doubtful. On the one side
+there was a compact and numerous priesthood, supported by the
+prescription of centuries and by the authority of the crown. On the
+other side there was a small body of men, without rank, without wealth,
+and as yet without reputation, but animated by a love of liberty, and by
+a just confidence in their own abilities. Unfortunately, they at the
+very outset committed a serious error. In attacking the clergy, they
+lost their respect for religion. In their determination to weaken
+ecclesiastical power, they attempted to undermine the foundations of
+Christianity. This is deeply to be regretted for their own sake, as well
+as for its ultimate effects in France; but it must not be imputed to
+them as a crime, since it was forced on them by the exigencies of their
+position. They saw the frightful evils which their country was suffering
+from the institution of priesthood as it then existed; and yet they were
+told that the preservation of that institution in its actual form was
+essential to the very being of Christianity. They had always been taught
+that the interests of the clergy were identical with the interests of
+religion; how then could they avoid including both clergy and religion
+in the same hostility? The alternative was cruel; but it was one from
+which, in common honesty, they had no escape. We, judging these things
+by another standard, possess a measure which they could not possibly
+have. We should not now commit such an error, because we know that there
+is no connexion between any one particular form of priesthood and the
+interests of Christianity. We know that the clergy are made for the
+people, and not the people for the clergy. We know that all questions of
+church government are matters, not of religion, but of policy, and
+should be settled, not according to traditional dogmas, but according to
+large views of general expediency. It is because these propositions are
+now admitted by all enlightened men, that in our country the truths of
+religion are rarely attacked except by superficial thinkers. If, for
+instance, we were to find that the existence of our bishops, with their
+privileges and their wealth, is unfavourable to the progress of society,
+we should not on that account feel enmity against Christianity; because
+we should remember that episcopacy is its accident, and not its
+essential, and that we could do away with the institution and yet retain
+the religion. In the same way, if we should ever find, what was formerly
+found in France, that the clergy were tyrannical, this would excite in
+us an opposition, not to Christianity, but merely to the external form
+which Christianity assumed. So long as our clergy confine themselves to
+the beneficent duties of their calling, to the alleviation of pain and
+distress, either bodily or mental, so long will we respect them as the
+ministers of peace and of charity. But if they should ever again
+entrench on the rights of the laity,--if they should ever again
+interfere with an authoritative voice in the government of the
+state,--it will then be for the people to inquire, whether the time has
+not come to effect a revision of the ecclesiastical constitution of the
+country. This, therefore, is the manner in which we now view these
+things. What we think of the clergy will depend upon themselves; but
+will have no connection with what we think of Christianity. We look on
+the clergy as a body of men who, notwithstanding their disposition to
+intolerance, and notwithstanding a certain narrowness incidental to
+their profession, do undoubtedly form part of a vast and noble
+institution, by which the manners of men have been softened, their
+sufferings assuaged, their distresses relieved. As long as this
+institution performs its functions, we are well content to let it stand.
+If, however, it should be out of repair, or if it should be found
+inadequate to the shifting circumstances of an advancing society, we
+retain both the power and the right of remedying its faults; we may, if
+need be, remove some of its parts; but we would not, we dare not, tamper
+with those great religious truths which are altogether independent of
+it; truths which comfort the mind of man, raise him above the instincts
+of the hour, and infuse into him those lofty aspirations which,
+revealing to him his own immortality, are the measure and the symptom of
+a future life.
+
+Unfortunately, this was not the way in which these matters were
+considered in France. The government of that country, by investing the
+clergy with great immunities, by treating them as if there were
+something sacred about their persons, and by punishing as heresy the
+attacks which were made on them, had established in the national mind an
+indissoluble connexion between their interests and the interests of
+Christianity. The consequence was, that when the struggle began, the
+ministers of religion, and religion itself, were both assailed with
+equal zeal. The ridicule, and even the abuse, heaped on the clergy, will
+surprise no one who is acquainted with the provocation that had been
+received. And although, in the indiscriminate onslaught which soon
+followed, Christianity was, for a time, subjected to a fate which ought
+to have been reserved for those who called themselves her ministers;
+this, while it moves us to regret, ought by no means to excite our
+astonishment. The destruction of Christianity in France was the
+necessary result of those opinions which bound up the destiny of the
+national priesthood with the destiny of the national religion. If both
+were connected by the same origin, both should fall in the same ruin. If
+that which is the tree of life, were, in reality, so corrupt that it
+could only bear poisonous fruits, then it availed little to lop off the
+boughs and cut down the branches; but it were better, by one mighty
+effort, to root it up from the ground, and secure the health of society
+by stopping the very source of the contagion.
+
+These are reflections which must make us pause before we censure the
+deistical writers of the eighteenth century. So perverted, however, are
+the reasonings to which some minds are accustomed, that those who judge
+them most uncharitably are precisely those whose conduct forms their
+best excuse. Such are the men who, by putting forth the most extravagant
+claims in favour of the clergy, are seeking to establish the principle,
+by the operation of which the clergy were destroyed. Their scheme for
+restoring the old system of ecclesiastical authority depends on the
+supposition of its divine origin: a supposition which, if inseparable
+from Christianity, will at once justify the infidelity which they hotly
+attack. The increase of the power of the clergy is incompatible with the
+interests of civilization. If, therefore, any religion adopts as its
+creed the necessity of such an increase, it becomes the bounden duty of
+every friend to humanity to do his utmost, either to destroy the creed,
+or failing in that, to overturn the religion. If pretensions of this
+sort are an essential part of Christianity, it behoves us at once to
+make our choice; since the only option can be, between abjuring our
+faith or sacrificing our liberty. Fortunately, we are not driven to so
+hard a strait; and we know that these claims are as false in theory, as
+they would be pernicious in practice. It is, indeed, certain, that if
+they were put into execution, the clergy, though they might enjoy a
+momentary triumph, would have consummated their own ruin, by preparing
+the way among us for scenes as disastrous as those which occurred in
+France.
+
+The truth is, that what is most blamed in the great French writers, was
+the natural consequence of the development of their age. Never was there
+a more striking illustration of the social law already noticed, that, if
+government will allow religious scepticism to run its course, it will
+issue in great things, and will hasten the march of civilization; but
+that, if an attempt is made to put it down with a strong hand, it may,
+no doubt, be repressed for a time, but eventually will rise with such
+force as to endanger the foundation of society. In England, we adopted
+the first of these courses; in France, they adopted the second. In
+England, men were allowed to exercise their own judgment on the most
+sacred subjects; and, as soon as the diminution of their credulity had
+made them set bounds to the power of the clergy, toleration immediately
+followed, and the national prosperity has never been disturbed. In
+France, the authority of the clergy was increased by a superstitious
+king; faith usurped the place of reason, not a whisper of doubt was
+allowed to be heard, and the spirit of inquiry was stifled, until the
+country fell to the brink of ruin. If Louis XIV. had not interfered with
+the natural progress, France, like England, would have continued to
+advance. After his death, it was, indeed, too late to save the clergy,
+against whom all the intellect of the nation was soon arrayed. But the
+force of the storm might still have been broken, if the government of
+Louis XV. had conciliated what it was impossible to resist; and,
+instead of madly attempting to restrain opinions by laws, had altered
+the laws to suit the opinions. If the rulers of France, instead of
+exerting themselves to silence the national literature, had yielded to
+its suggestions, and had receded before the pressure of advancing
+knowledge, the fatal collision would have been avoided; because the
+passions which caused the collision would have been appeased. In such
+case, the church would have fallen somewhat earlier; but the state
+itself would have been saved. In such case, France would, in all
+probability, have secured her liberties, without increasing her crimes;
+and that great country, which, from her position and resources, ought to
+be the pattern of European civilization, might have escaped the ordeal
+of those terrible atrocities, through which she was compelled to pass,
+and from the effects of which she has not yet recovered.
+
+It must, I think, be admitted that, during, at all events, the first
+half of the reign of Louis XV., it was possible, by timely concessions,
+still to preserve the political institutions of France. Reforms there
+must have been; and reforms too of a large and uncompromising character.
+So far, however, as I am able to understand the real history of that
+period, I make no doubt that, if these had been granted in a frank and
+ungrudging spirit, everything could have been retained necessary for the
+only two objects at which government ought to aim, namely, the
+preservation of order, and the prevention of crime. But, by the middle
+of the reign of Louis XV., or, at all events, immediately afterwards,
+the state of affairs began to alter; and, in the course of a few years,
+the spirit of France became so democratic, that it was impossible even
+to delay a revolution, which, in the preceding generation, might have
+been altogether averted. This remarkable change is connected with that
+other change already noticed, by virtue of which, the French intellect
+began, about the same period, to direct its hostility against the state,
+rather than, as heretofore, against the church. As soon as this, which
+may be called the second epoch of the eighteenth century, had been
+fairly entered, the movement became irresistible. Event after event
+followed each other in rapid succession; each one linked to its
+antecedent, and the whole forming a tendency impossible to withstand. It
+was in vain that the government, yielding some points of real
+importance, adopted measures by which the church was controlled, the
+power of the clergy diminished, and even the order of the jesuits
+suppressed. It was in vain that the crown now called to its councils,
+for the first time, men imbued with the spirit of reform; men, like
+Turgot and Necker, whose wise and liberal proposals would, in calmer
+days, have stilled the agitation of the popular mind. It was in vain
+that promises were made to equalize the taxes, to redress some of the
+most crying grievances, to repeal some of the most obnoxious laws. It
+was even in vain that the states-general were summoned; and that thus,
+after the lapse of a hundred and seventy years, the people were again
+admitted to take part in the management of their own affairs. All these
+things were in vain; because the time for treaty had gone by, and the
+time for battle had come. The most liberal concessions that could
+possibly have been devised would have failed to avert that deadly
+struggle, which the course of preceding events made inevitable. For the
+measure of that age was now full. The upper classes, intoxicated by the
+long possession of power, had provoked the crisis; and it was needful
+that they should abide the issue. There was no time for mercy; there was
+no pause, no compassion, no sympathy. The only question that remained
+was, to see whether they who had raised the storm could ride the
+whirlwind; or, whether it was not rather likely that they should be the
+first victims of that frightful hurricane, in which, for a moment, laws,
+religion, morals, all perished, the lowest vestiges of humanity were
+effaced, and the civilization of France not only submerged, but, as it
+then appeared, irretrievably ruined.
+
+To ascertain the successive changes of this, the second epoch of the
+eighteenth century, is an undertaking full of difficulty; not only on
+account of the rapidity with which the events occurred, but also on
+account of their extreme complication, and of the way in which they
+acted and reacted upon each other. The materials, however, for such an
+inquiry are very numerous; and, as they consist of evidence supplied by
+all classes and all interests, it has appeared to me possible to
+reconstruct the history of that time, according to the only manner in
+which history deserves to be studied; that is to say, according to the
+order of its social and intellectual development. In the seventh chapter
+of the present volume, I shall, therefore, attempt to trace the
+antecedents of the French Revolution during that remarkable period, in
+which the hostility of men, slackening in regard to the abuses of the
+church, was, for the first time, turned against the abuses of the state.
+But, before entering into this, which may be distinguished as the
+political epoch of the eighteenth century, it will be necessary,
+according to the plan which I have sketched, to examine the changes that
+occurred in the method of writing history, and to indicate the way in
+which those changes were affected by the tendencies of the earlier, or,
+as it may be termed, the ecclesiastical epoch. In this manner, we shall
+the more easily understand the activity of that prodigious movement
+which led to the French Revolution; because we shall see that it not
+only affected the opinions of men in regard to what was passing under
+their eyes, but that it also biased their speculative views in regard to
+the events of preceding ages; and thus gave rise to that new school of
+historical literature, the formation of which is by no means the least
+of the many benefits which we owe to the great thinkers of the
+eighteenth century.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+  STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE IN FRANCE FROM THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH
+                  TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+It may be easily supposed, that those vast movements in the intellect of
+France, which I have just traced, could not fail to produce a great
+change in the method of writing history. That bold spirit with which men
+were beginning to estimate the transactions of their own time, was sure
+to influence their opinions respecting those of a former age. In this,
+as in every branch of knowledge, the first innovation consisted in
+recognizing the necessity of doubting what had hitherto been believed;
+and this feeling, when once established, went on increasing, destroying
+at each step some of those monstrous absurdities by which, as we have
+seen, even the best histories were disfigured. The germs of the reform
+may be discerned in the fourteenth century, though the reform itself did
+not begin until late in the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth
+century, it advanced somewhat slowly; but in the eighteenth century it
+received a sudden accession of strength, and, in France in particular,
+it was hastened by that fearless and inquisitive spirit which
+characterized the age, and which, purging history of innumerable
+follies, raised its standard, and conferred on it a dignity hitherto
+unknown. The rise of historical scepticism, and the extent to which it
+spread, do indeed form such curious features in the annals of the
+European intellect, as to make it surprising that no one should have
+attempted to examine a movement to which a great department of modern
+literature owes its most valuable peculiarities. In the present chapter,
+I hope to supply this deficiency so far as France is concerned; and I
+shall endeavour to mark the different steps by which the progress was
+effected, in order that, by knowing the circumstances most favourable to
+the study of history, we may with the greater ease inquire into the
+probability of its future improvement.
+
+There is, in reference to this subject, a preliminary consideration well
+worthy of notice. This is, that men seem always to have begun to doubt
+in matters of religion, before they ventured to do so in matters of
+history. It might have been expected that the reproaches, and, in a
+superstitious age, the dangers, to which heresy is exposed, would have
+intimidated inquirers, and would have induced them to prefer the safer
+path of directing their scepticism upon questions of literary
+speculation. Such, however, is by no means the course which the human
+mind has adopted. In an early stage of society, when the clergy had
+universal influence, a belief in the unpardonable criminality of
+religious error is so deeply rooted, that it engrosses the attention of
+all; it forces every one who thinks, to concentrate upon theology his
+reflections and his doubts, and it leaves no leisure for topics which
+are conceived to be of inferior importance.[807] Hence, during many
+centuries, the subtlest intellects of Europe exhausted their strength on
+the rights and dogmas of Christianity; and while upon these matters they
+often showed the greatest ability, they, upon other subjects, and
+especially upon history, displayed that infantine credulity, of which I
+have already given several examples.
+
+  [807] See some very just remarks in _Whewell's Philos. of the Induc.
+        Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 143. In _Neander's Hist. of the Church_,
+        vol. iv. pp. 41, 128, there are two curious illustrations of the
+        universal interest which theological discussions once inspired in
+        Europe; and on the former subservience of philosophy to theology,
+        compare _Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy_, p. 197. But no
+        one has treated this subject so ably as M. Auguste Comte, in his
+        great work, _Philosophie Positive_. The service which the
+        metaphysicians rendered to the church by their development of the
+        doctrine of transubstantiation (_Blánco White's Evidence against
+        Catholicism_, pp. 256-258) is a striking instance of this
+        subordination of the intellect to ecclesiastical dogmas.
+
+But when, in the progress of society, its theological element begins to
+decay, the ardour with which religious disputes were once conducted
+becomes sensibly weakened. The most advanced intellects are the first to
+feel the growing indifference, and, therefore, they are also the first
+to scrutinize real events with that inquisitive eye which their
+predecessors had reserved for religious speculations. This is a great
+turning-point in the history of every civilized nation. From this moment
+theological heresies become less frequent,[808] and literary heresies
+become more common. From this moment the spirit of inquiry and of doubt
+fastens itself upon every department of knowledge, and begins that great
+career of conquest, in which by every succeeding discovery the power and
+dignity of man are increased, while at the same time most of his
+opinions are disturbed, and many of them are destroyed: until, in the
+march of this vast but noiseless revolution, the stream of tradition is,
+as it were, interrupted, the influence of ancient authority is
+subverted, and the human mind, waxing in strength, learns to rely upon
+its own resources, and to throw off incumbrances by which the freedom of
+its movements had long been impaired.
+
+  [808] M. Tocqueville says, what I am inclined to think is true, that an
+        increasing spirit of equality lessens the disposition to form new
+        religious creeds. _Démocratie en Amérique_, vol. iv. pp. 16, 17.
+        At all events, it is certain that increasing knowledge has this
+        effect; for those great men whose turn of mind would formerly
+        have made them heretics, are now content to confine their
+        innovations to other fields of thought. If St. Augustin had lived
+        in the seventeenth century, he would have reformed or created the
+        physical sciences. If Sir Isaac Newton had lived in the fourth
+        century, he would have organized a new sect, and have troubled
+        the church with his originality.
+
+The application of these remarks to the history of France, will enable
+us to explain some interesting phenomena in the literature of that
+country. During the whole of the Middle Ages, and I may say till the end
+of the sixteenth century, France, though fertile in annalists and
+chroniclers, had not produced a single historian, because she had not
+produced a single man who presumed to doubt what was generally believed.
+Indeed, until the publication of Du Haillan's history of the kings of
+France, no one had even attempted a critical digest of the materials
+which were known to be extant. This work appeared in 1576;[809] and the
+author, at the conclusion of his labours, could not disguise the pride
+which he felt at having accomplished so great an undertaking. In his
+dedication to the king he says, 'I am, sire, the first of all the French
+who have written the history of France, and, in a polite language, shown
+the grandeur and dignity of our kings; for before there was nothing but
+the old rubbish of chronicles which spoke of them.' He adds in the
+preface: 'Only I will say, without presumption and boasting, that I have
+done a thing which had not been done before, or seen by any of our
+nation, and have given to the history of France a dress it never
+appeared in before.'[810] Nor were these the idle boasts of an obscure
+man. His work went through numerous editions; was translated into Latin,
+and was reprinted in foreign countries. He himself was looked upon as
+one of the glories of the French nation, and was rewarded by the favour
+of the king, who conferred on him the office of secretary of
+finance.[811] From his work, we may, therefore, gain some notion of what
+was then the received standard of historical literature; and with this
+view, it is natural to inquire what the materials were which he chiefly
+employed. About sixty years earlier, an Italian named Paulus Emilius had
+published a gossiping compilation on the 'Actions of the French.'[812]
+This book, which is full of extravagant fables, was taken by Du Haillan
+as the basis of his famous history of the kings of France; and from it
+he unhesitatingly copies those idle stories which Emilius loved to
+relate. This will give us some idea of the credulity of a writer, who
+was reckoned by his contemporaries to be, beyond all comparison, the
+greatest historian France had produced. But this is not all. Du Haillan,
+not content with borrowing from his predecessor everything that was most
+incredible, gratifies his passion for the marvellous by some
+circumstances of his own invention. He begins his history with a long
+account of a council which, he says, was held by the celebrated
+Pharamond, in order to determine whether the French should be governed
+by a monarchy or by an aristocracy. It is, indeed, doubtful if any such
+person as Pharamond ever existed; and it is certain that, if he did
+exist, all the materials had long perished from which an opinion could
+be formed respecting him.[813] But Du Haillan, regardless of these
+little difficulties, gives us the fullest information touching the great
+chieftain; and, as if determined to tax to the utmost the credulity of
+his readers, mentions, as members of the council of Pharamond, two
+persons, Charamond and Quadrek, whose very names are invented by the
+historian.[814]
+
+  [809] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xix. pp. 315, 316; where it is said, 'l'ouvrage
+        de Du Haillan est remarquable en ce que c'est le premier corps
+        d'histoire de France qui ait paru dans notre langue.' See also
+        _Dacier_, _Rapport sur les Progrès de l'Histoire_, p. 170; and
+        _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. x. p. 185.
+
+  [810] _Bayle_, article _Haillan_, note L.
+
+  [811] _Mercure François_, in _Bayle_, article _Haillan_, note D.
+
+  [812] _De Rebus gestis Francorum_, which appeared about 1516. _Biog.
+        Univ._ vol. xiii. p. 119. Compare, respecting the author,
+        _Mézéray_, _Hist. de France_, vol. ii. p. 363, with _Audigier_,
+        _l'Origine des François_, vol. ii. p. 118, who complains of his
+        opinion about Clovis, 'quoy qu'il fasse profession de relever la
+        gloire des François.' Even the superficial Boulainvilliers
+        (_Hist. de l'Ancien Gouvernement_, vol. ii. p. 166)
+        contemptuously notices 'les rétoriciens postérieurs, tels que
+        Paul Emile.'
+
+  [813] Compare _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. i. pp. 176, 177,
+        with _Montlosier_, _Monarchie Française_, vol. i. pp. 43, 44.
+        Philippe de Comines, though superior to Sismondi and Montlosier
+        in point of ability, lived in the middle ages, and therefore had
+        no idea of doubting, but simply says, 'Pharamond fut esleu roy,
+        l'an 420, et régna dix ans,' _Mém. de Comines_, livre viii. chap.
+        xxvii. vol. iii. p. 232. But De Thou, coming a hundred years
+        after Comines, evidently suspected that it was not all quite
+        right, and therefore puts it on the authority of others.
+        'Pharamond, qui _selon nos historiens_ a porté le premier la
+        couronne des François.' _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. x. p. 530.
+        See a singular passage on Pharamond in _Mém. de Duplessis
+        Mornay_, vol. ii. p. 405.
+
+  [814] Sorel (_La Bibliothèque Françoise_, Paris, 1667, p. 373) says of
+        Du Haillan, 'On lui peut reprocher d'avoir donné un commencement
+        fabuleux à son histoire, qui est entièrement de son invention,
+        ayant fait tenir un conseil entre Pharamond et ses plus fidelles
+        conseillers, pour sçavoir si ayant la puissance en main il deuoit
+        réduire les François au gouvernement aristocratique ou
+        monarchique, et faisant faire une harangue à chacun d'eux pour
+        soustenir son opinion. On y voit les noms de Charamond et de
+        Quadrek, personnages imaginaires.' Sorel, who had a glimmering
+        notion that this was not exactly the way to write history, adds,
+        'C'est une chose fort surprenante. On est fort peu asseuré si
+        Pharamond fut jamais au monde, et quoy qu'on sçache qu'il y ait
+        esté, c'est une terrible hardiesse d'en raconter des choses qui
+        n'ont aucun appuy.'
+
+Such was the state of historical literature in France early in the reign
+of Henry III. A great change was, however, at hand. The remarkable
+intellectual progress made by the French towards the close of the
+sixteenth century was, as I have shown, preceded by that scepticism
+which appears to be its necessary precursor. The spirit of doubt, which
+had begun with religion, was communicated to literature. The impulse was
+immediately felt in every department of knowledge, and now it was that
+history first emerged from a debasement in which it had for centuries
+been sunk. On this subject a mere statement of dates may be of service
+to those persons who, from a dislike to general reasoning, would
+otherwise deny the connexion which I wish to establish. In 1588 was
+published the first sceptical book ever written in the French
+language.[815] In 1598, the French government, for the first time,
+ventured upon a great public act of religious toleration. In 1604, De
+Thou published that celebrated work, which is allowed by all critics to
+be the first great history composed by a Frenchman.[816] And at the very
+moment when these things were passing, another eminent Frenchman, the
+illustrious Sully,[817] was collecting the materials for his historical
+work, which, though hardly equal to that of De Thou, comes immediately
+after it in ability, in importance, and in reputation. Nor can we fail
+to remark, that both these great historians, who left all their
+predecessors immeasurably behind them, were the confidential ministers
+and intimate friends of Henry IV., the first king of France whose memory
+is stained by the imputation of heresy, and the first who dared to
+change his religion, not in consequence of any theological arguments,
+but on the broad and notorious ground of political expediency.[818]
+
+  [815] 'Die erste Regung des skeptischen Geistes finden wir in den
+        Versuchen des Michael von Montaigne.' _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der
+        Philos._ vol. ix. p. 443.
+
+  [816] The first volume appeared in 1604. See _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque
+        Historique de la France_, vol. ii. p. 375; and preface to _De
+        Thou_, _Hist. Univ._ vol. i. p. iv.
+
+  [817] Sismondi has scarcely done justice to Sully; but the reader will
+        find a fuller account of him in _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la
+        Réforme_, vol. viii. pp. 101-117; and a still better one in
+        _Blanqui_, _Histoire de l'Economie Politique_, vol. i. pp.
+        347-361.
+
+  [818] According to D'Aubigné, the king, on his conversion, said, 'Je
+        ferai voir à tout le monde que je n'ai esté persuadé par autre
+        théologie que la nécessité de l'estat.' _Smedley's Reformed
+        Religion in France_, vol. ii. p. 362. That Henry felt this is
+        certain; and that he expressed it to his friends is probable; but
+        he had a difficult game to play with the Catholic church; and in
+        one of his edicts we find 'une grande joye de son retour à
+        l'église, dont il attribuoit la cause à la grâce du
+        Tout-Puissant, et aux prières de ses fidèles sujets.' _De Thou_,
+        _Hist. Univ._ vol. xii. pp. 105, 106. Compare, at pp. 468, 469,
+        the message he sent to the pope.
+
+But it was not merely over such eminent historians as these that the
+sceptical spirit displayed its influence. The movement was now becoming
+sufficiently active to leave its marks in the writings of far inferior
+men. There were two particulars in which the credulity of the earlier
+historians was very striking. These consisted in the uncritical manner
+in which, by blindly copying their predecessors, they confused the dates
+of different events; and in the readiness with which they believed the
+most improbable statements, upon imperfect evidence, and often upon no
+evidence at all. It is surely a singular proof of that intellectual
+progress which I am endeavouring to trace, that, within a very few
+years, both these sources of error were removed. In 1597, Serres was
+appointed historiographer of France; and, in the same year, he published
+his history of that country.[819] In this work, he insists upon the
+necessity of carefully recording the date of each event; and the
+example, which he first set, has, since his time, been generally
+followed.[820] The importance of this change will be willingly
+acknowledged by those who are aware of the confusion into which history
+has been thrown by the earlier writers having neglected, what now seems,
+so obvious a precaution. Scarcely had this innovation been established,
+when it was followed, in the same country, by another of still greater
+moment. This was the appearance, in 1621, of a history of France, by
+Scipio Dupleix; in which, for the first time, the evidence for
+historical facts was published with the facts themselves.[821] It is
+needless to insist upon the utility of a step which, more than any
+other, has taught historians to be industrious in collecting their
+authorities, and careful in scrutinizing them.[822] To this may be
+added, that Dupleix was also the first Frenchman who ventured to
+publish a system of philosophy in his own language.[823] It is true,
+that the system itself is intrinsically of little value;[824] but, at
+the time it appeared, it was an unprecedented, and, on that account, a
+profane attempt, to unfold the mysteries of philosophy in the vulgar
+speech; and, in this point of view, supplies evidence of the increasing
+diffusion of a spirit bolder and more inquisitive than any formerly
+known. It is not, therefore, surprising, that, almost at the same
+moment, there should be made, in the same country, the first systematic
+attempt at historical scepticism. The system of philosophy by Dupleix
+appeared in 1602; and in 1599, La Popelinière published at Paris what he
+calls the _History of Histories_, in which he criticizes historians
+themselves, and examines their works with that sceptical spirit, to
+which his own age was deeply indebted.[825] This able man was also the
+author of a _Sketch of the New History of the French_; containing a
+formal refutation of that fable, so dear to the early historians,
+according to which the monarchy of France was founded by Francus, who
+arrived in Gaul after the conclusion of the siege of Troy.[826]
+
+  [819] _Marchand_, _Dictionnaire Historique_, vol. ii. pp. 205, 209, La
+        Haye, 1758, folio. This curious and learned work, which is much
+        less read than it deserves, contains the only good account of
+        Serres I have been able to meet with; vol. ii. pp. 197-213.
+
+  [820] 'On ne prenoit presque aucun soin de marquer les dates des
+        événemens dans les ouvrages historiques.... De Serres reconnut ce
+        défaut; et pour y remédier, il rechercha avec beaucoup de soin
+        les dates des événemens qu'il avoit à employer, et les marqua
+        dans son histoire le plus exactement qu'il lui fut possible. Cet
+        exemple a été imité depuis par la plupart de ceux qui l'ont
+        suivi; et c'est à lui qu'on est redevable de l'avantage qu'on
+        tire d'une pratique si nécessaire et si utile.' _Marchand_,
+        _Dict. Historique_, vol. ii. p. 206.
+
+  [821] 'Il est le premier historien qui ait cité en marge ses autorités;
+        précaution absolument nécessaire quand on n'écrit pas l'histoire
+        de son temps, à moins qu'on ne s'en tienne aux faits connus.'
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xix. p. 95. And the _Biog. Univ._
+        vol. xii. p. 277, says, 'On doit lui faire honneur d'avoir cité
+        en marge les auteurs dont il s'est servi; précaution
+        indispensable, que l'on connaissait peu avant lui, et que les
+        historiens modernes négligent trop aujourd'hui.' Bassompierre,
+        who had a quarrel with Dupleix, has given some curious details
+        respecting him and his History; but they are, of course, not to
+        be relied on. _Mém. de Bassompierre_, vol. iii. pp. 356, 357.
+        Patin speaks favourably of his history of Henry IV. _Lettres de
+        Patin_, vol. i. p. 17: but compare _Sully_, _[OE]conomies
+        Royales_, vol. ix. pp. 121, 249.
+
+  [822] The ancients, as is well known, rarely took this trouble. _Mure's
+        Hist. of Greek Literature_, vol. iv. pp. 197, 306, 307. But what
+        is much more curious is, that, even in scientific works, there
+        was an equal looseness; and Cuvier says, that, in the sixteenth
+        century, 'on se bornait à dire, d'une manière générale, Aristote
+        a dit telle chose, sans indiquer ni le passage ni le livre dans
+        lequel la citation se trouvait.' _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_,
+        part ii. p. 63; and at p. 88, 'suivant l'usage de son temps,
+        Gessner n'indique pas avec précision les endroits d'où il a tiré
+        ses citations:' see also p. 214.
+
+  [823] 'Le premier ouvrage de philosophie publié dans cette langue.'
+        _Biog. Univ._ vol. xii. p. 277.
+
+  [824] So it seemed to me, when I turned over its leaves a few years ago.
+        However, Patin says, 'sa philosophie françoise n'est pas
+        mauvaise.' _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 357. On the dialectic
+        powers of Dupleix, see a favourable judgment in _Hamilton's
+        Discuss. on Philos._ p. 119.
+
+  [825] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxv. p. 402. Sorel (_Bibliothèque Françoise_,
+        p. 165), who is evidently displeased at the unprecedented
+        boldness of La Popelinière, says, 'il dit ses sentimens en bref
+        des historiens de toutes les nations, et de plusieurs langues, et
+        particulièrement des historiens françois, dont il parle avec
+        beaucoup d'asseurance.'
+
+  [826] 'Il réfute l'opinion, alors fort accréditée, de l'arrivée dans les
+        Gaules de Francus et des Troyens.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxxv. p.
+        402. Compare _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque Historique de la France_,
+        vol. ii. p. 39. Patin says that De Thou was much indebted to him:
+        'M. de Thou a pris hardiment de la Popelinière.' _Lettres de
+        Patin_, vol. i. p. 222. There is a notice of Popelinière, in
+        connexion with Richer, in _Mém. de Richelieu_, vol. v. p. 349.
+
+It would be useless to collect all the instances in which this advancing
+spirit of scepticism now began to purge history of its falsehoods. I
+will only mention two or three more of those which have occurred in my
+reading. In 1614, De Rubis published at Lyons a work on the European
+monarchies; in which he not only attacks the long-established belief
+respecting the descent from Francus, but boldly asserts, that the Franks
+owe their name to their ancient liberties.[827] In 1620, Gomberville, in
+a dissertation on history, refutes many of those idle stories respecting
+the antiquity of the French, which had been universally received until
+his time.[828] And, in 1630, Berthault published at Paris the 'French
+Floras,' in which he completely upsets the old method; since he lays it
+down as a fundamental principle, that the origin of the French must only
+be sought for in those countries where they were found by the
+Romans.[829]
+
+  [827] 'Il réfute les fables qu'on avançoit sur l'origine des François,
+        appuyées sur le témoignage au faux Bérose. Il dit que leur nom
+        vient de leur ancienne franchise.' _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque
+        Historique_, vol. ii. p. 750.
+
+  [828] Compare _Sorel_, _Bibliothèque Françoise_, p. 298, with _Du
+        Fresnoy_, _Méthode pour étudier l'Histoire_, vol. x. p. 4, Parie,
+        1772. There is an account of Gomberville in _Les Historiettes de
+        Tallemant des Réaux_, vol. viii. pp. 15-19; a singularly curious
+        book, which is, for the seventeenth century, what Brantome is for
+        the sixteenth. I ought to have mentioned earlier the inimitable
+        ridicule with which Rabelais treats the habit historians had of
+        tracing the genealogies of their heroes back to Noah. _[OE]uvres
+        de Rabelais_, vol. i. pp. 1-3, and vol. ii. pp. 10-17: see also,
+        at vol. v. pp. 171, 172, his defence of the antiquity of Chinon.
+
+  [829] 'L'auteur croit qu'il ne faut pas la chercher ailleurs que dans le
+        pays où ils out été connus des Romains, c'est-à-dire entre l'Elbe
+        et le Rhin,' _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque Historique_, vol. ii. p.
+        56. This work of Berthault's was, for many years, a text-book in
+        the French colleges. _Biog. Univ._ vol. iv. p. 347.
+
+All these, and similar productions, were, however, entirely eclipsed by
+Mezeray's History of France; the first volume of which was published in
+1643, and the last in 1651.[830] It is, perhaps, hardly fair to his
+predecessors, to call him the first general historian of France;[831]
+but there can be no doubt that his work is greatly superior to any that
+had yet been seen. The style of Mezeray is admirably clear and vigorous,
+rising, at times, to considerable eloquence. Besides this, he has two
+other merits much more important. These are, an indisposition to believe
+strange things, merely because they have hitherto been believed; and an
+inclination to take the side of the people, rather than that of their
+rulers.[832] Of these principles, the first was too common among the
+ablest Frenchmen of that time to excite much attention.[833] But the
+other principle enabled Mezeray to advance an important step before all
+his contemporaries. He was the first Frenchman who, in a great
+historical work, threw off that superstitious reverence for royalty
+which had long troubled the minds of his countrymen, and which, indeed,
+continued to haunt them for another century. As a necessary consequence,
+he was also the first who saw that a history, to be of real value, must
+be a history, not only of kings, but of nations. A steady perception of
+this principle led him to incorporate into his book matters which,
+before his time, no one cared to study. He communicates all the
+information he could collect respecting the taxes which the people had
+paid; the sufferings they had undergone from the gripping hands of their
+governors; their manners, their comforts, even the state of the towns
+which they inhabited; in a word, what affected the interests of the
+French people, as well as what affected the interests of the French
+monarchy.[834] These were the subjects which Mezeray preferred to
+insignificant details respecting the pomp of courts and the lives of
+kings. These were the large and comprehensive matters on which he loved
+to dwell, and on which he expatiated; not, indeed, with so much fulness
+as we could desire, but still with a spirit and an accuracy which
+entitles him to the honour of being the greatest historian France
+produced before the eighteenth century.
+
+  [830] The first volume in 1643; the second in 1646; and the last in
+        1651. _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxviii. p. 510.
+
+  [831] 'The French have now their first general historian, Mezeray.'
+        _Hallam's Literature of Europe_, vol. iii. p. 228; and see
+        _Stephen's Lectures on the History of France_, 1851, vol. i. p.
+        10.
+
+  [832] Bayle says, that Mezeray is, 'de tous les historiens celui qui
+        favorise le plus les peuples contre la cour.' _Le Long_,
+        _Bibliothèque Historique_, vol. iii. p. lxxxvi.
+
+  [833] Though it did not prevent him from believing that sudden tempests,
+        and unusual appearances in the heavens, were aberrations, due to
+        supernatural interference, and, as such, were the prognosticators
+        of political change. _Mézéray_, _Hist. de France_, vol. i. pp.
+        202, 228, 238, 241, 317, 792, vol. ii. pp. 485, 573, 1120, vol.
+        iii. pp. 31, 167, 894; instructive passages, as proving that,
+        even in powerful minds, the scientific and secular method was
+        still feeble.
+
+  [834] What he did on these subjects is most remarkable, considering that
+        some of the best materials were unknown, and in manuscript, and
+        that even De Thou gives scarcely any information respecting them;
+        so that Mezeray had no model. See, among other passages which
+        have struck me in the first volume, pp. 145-147, 204, 353, 356,
+        362-365, 530, 531, 581, 812, 946, 1039. Compare his indignant
+        expressions at vol. ii. p. 721.
+
+This was, in many respects, the most important change which had yet been
+effected in the manner of writing history. If the plan begun by Mezeray
+had been completed by his successors, we should possess materials, the
+absence of which no modern researches can possibly compensate. Some
+things, indeed, we should, in that case, have lost. We should know less
+than we now know of courts and of camps. We should have heard less of
+the peerless beauty of French queens, and of the dignified presence of
+French kings. We might even have missed some of the links of that
+evidence by which the genealogies of princes and nobles are ascertained,
+and the study of which delights the curiosity of antiquaries and
+heralds. But, on the other hand, we should have been able to examine the
+state of the French people during the latter half of the seventeenth
+century; while, as things now stand, our knowledge of them, in that most
+important period, is inferior in accuracy and in extent to the knowledge
+we possess of some of the most barbarous tribes of the earth.[835] If
+the example of Mezeray had been followed, with such additional resources
+as the progress of affairs would have supplied, we should not only have
+the means of minutely tracing the growth of a great and civilised
+nation, but we should have materials that would suggest or verify those
+original principles, the discovery of which constitutes the real use of
+history.
+
+  [835] Those who have studied the French memoirs of the seventeenth
+        century, know how little can be found in them respecting the
+        condition of the people; while the fullest private
+        correspondence, such as the letters of Sévigné and De Maintenon,
+        are equally unsatisfactory. The greater part of the evidence now
+        extant has been collected by M. Monteil, in his valuable work,
+        _Histoire des divers Etats_: but whoever will put all this
+        together must admit, that we are better informed as to the
+        condition of many savage tribes than we are concerning the lower
+        classes of France during the reign of Louis XIV.
+
+But this was not to be. Unhappily for the interests of knowledge, the
+march of French civilization was, at this period, suddenly checked. Soon
+after the middle of the seventeenth century, that lamentable change took
+place in France, which gave a new turn to the destinies of the nation.
+The reaction which the spirit of inquiry underwent, and the social and
+intellectual circumstances which, by bringing the Fronde to a premature
+close, prepared the way for Louis XIV., have been described in a former
+part of this volume, where I have attempted to indicate the general
+effects of the disastrous movement. It now remains for me to point out
+how this retrogressive tendency opposed obstacles to the improvement of
+historical literature, and prevented authors, not only from relating
+with honesty what was passing around them, but also from understanding
+events which had occurred before their time.
+
+The most superficial students of French literature must be struck by the
+dearth of historians during that long period in which Louis XIV. held
+the reins of government.[836] To this, the personal peculiarities of the
+king greatly contributed. His education had been shamefully neglected;
+and as he never had the energy to repair its deficiencies, he all his
+life remained ignorant of many things with which even princes are
+usually familiar.[837] Of the course of past events he knew literally
+nothing, and he took no interest in any history except the history of
+his own exploits. Among a free people, this indifference on the part of
+the sovereign could never have produced injurious results; indeed, as we
+have already seen, the absence of royal patronage is, in a highly
+civilized country, the most favourable condition of literature. But at
+the accession of Louis XIV. the liberties of the French were still too
+young, and the habits of independent thought too recent, to enable them
+to bear up against that combination of the crown and the church, which
+was directed against them. The French, becoming every day more servile,
+at length sunk so low, that, by the end of the seventeenth century, they
+seemed to have lost even the wish of resistance. The king, meeting no
+opposition, endeavoured to exercise over the intellect of the country an
+authority equal to that with which he conducted its government.[838] In
+all the great questions of religion and of politics, the spirit of
+inquiry was stifled, and no man was allowed to express an opinion
+unfavourable to the existing state of things. As the king was willing to
+endow literature, he naturally thought that he had a right to its
+services. Authors, who were fed by his hand, were not to raise their
+voices against his policy. They received his wages, and they were bound
+to do the bidding of him who paid them. When Louis assumed the
+government, Mezeray was still living; though I need hardly say that his
+great work was published before this system of protection and patronage
+came into play. The treatment to which he, the great historian of
+France, was now subjected, was a specimen of the new arrangement. He
+received from the crown a pension of four thousand francs; but when he,
+in 1668, published an abridgment of his History,[839] it was intimated
+to him that some remarks upon the tendency of taxation were likely to
+cause offence in high quarters. As, however, it was soon found that
+Mezeray was too honest and too fearless to retract what he had written,
+it was determined to have recourse to intimidation, and half of his
+pension was taken from him.[840] But as this did not produce a proper
+effect, another order was issued, which deprived him of the remaining
+half; and thus early, in this bad reign, there was set an example of
+punishing a man for writing with honesty upon a subject in which, of all
+others, honesty is the first essential.[841]
+
+  [836] This is noticed in _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxvii.
+        pp. 181, 182; also in _Villemain_, _Littérature Française_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 29, 30. Compare _D'Argenson_, _Réflexions sur les
+        Historiens François_, in _Mémoires de l'Académie des
+        Inscriptions_, vol. xxviii. p. 627, with _Boulainvilliers_,
+        _Ancien Gouvernement de la France_, vol. i. p. 174.
+
+  [837] 'Le jeune Louis XIV n'avait reçu aucune éducation intellectuelle.'
+        _Capefigue's Richelieu, Mazarin et la Fronde_, vol. ii. p. 245.
+        On the education of Louis XIV., which was as shamefully neglected
+        as that of our George III., see _Lettres inédites de Maintenon_,
+        vol. ii. p. 369; _Duclos_, _Mém. Secrets_, vol. i. pp. 167, 168;
+        _Mém. de Brienne_, vol. i. pp. 391-393.
+
+  [838] On his political maxims, see _Lemontey_, _Etablissement de
+        Louis XIV_, pp. 325-327, 407, 408. The eloquent remarks made by
+        M. Ranke upon an Italian despotism, are admirably applicable to
+        his whole system: 'Sonderbare Gestalt menschlichen Dinge! Die
+        Kräfte des Landes bringen den Hof hervor, der Mittelpunkt des
+        Hofes ist der Fürst, das letzte Product des gesammten Lebens ist
+        zuletzt das Selbstgefühl des Fürsten.' _Die Päpste_, vol. ii. p.
+        266.
+
+  [839] His _Abrégé Chronologique_ was published in 1668, in three volumes
+        quarto. _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxviii. p. 510. Le Long (_Bibliothèque
+        Historique_, vol. iii. p. lxxxv.) says, that it was only allowed
+        to be published in consequence of a 'privilège' which Mezeray had
+        formerly obtained. But there seems to have been some difficulty,
+        of which these writers are not aware: for Patin, in a letter
+        dated Paris, 23 December 1664, speaks of it as being then in the
+        press: 'on imprime ici en _grand-in-quarto_ un Abrégé de
+        l'Histoire de France, par M. Mezeray.' _Lettres de Patin_, vol.
+        iii. p. 503: compare p. 665. It long remained an established
+        school-book: see D'Argenson's Essay, in _Mém. de l'Académie_,
+        vol. xxviii. p. 635; and _Works of Sir William Temple_, vol. iii.
+        p. 70.
+
+  [840] _Barrière_, _Essai sur les M[oe]urs du Dix-septième Siècle_,
+        prefixed to _Mém. de Brienne_, vol. i. pp. 129, 130, where
+        reference is made to his original correspondence with Colbert.
+        This treatment of Mezeray is noticed, but imperfectly, in
+        _Boulainvilliers_, _Hist. de l'Ancien Gouvernement_, vol. i. p.
+        196; in _Lemontey_, _Etablissement de Louis XIV_, p. 331; and in
+        _Palissot_, _Mém. pour l'Hist. de Lit._ vol. ii. p. 161.
+
+  [841] In 1685 was published at Paris what was called an improved edition
+        of Mezeray's History; that is, an edition from which the honest
+        remarks were expunged. See _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque Historique_,
+        vol. ii. p. 53, vol. iv. p. 381; and _Brunet_, _Manuel du
+        Libraire_, vol. iii. p. 383, Paris, 1843. Hampden, who knew
+        Mezeray, has recorded an interesting interview he had with him in
+        Paris, when the great historian lamented the loss of the
+        liberties of France. See _Calamy's Life of Himself_, vol. i. pp.
+        392, 393.
+
+Such conduct as this showed what historians were to expect from the
+government of Louis XIV. Several years later, the king took another
+opportunity of displaying the same spirit. Fénelon had been appointed
+preceptor to the grandson of Louis, whose early vices his firmness and
+judgment did much to repress.[842] But a single circumstance was thought
+sufficient to outweigh the immense service which Fénelon thus rendered
+to the royal family, and, if his pupil had come to the throne, would
+have rendered prospectively to the whole of France. His celebrated
+romance, _Telemachus_, was published in 1699, as it appears, without his
+consent.[843] The king suspected that, under the guise of a fiction,
+Fénelon intended to reflect on the conduct of government. It was in vain
+that the author denied so dangerous an imputation. The indignation of
+the king was not to be appeased. He banished Fénelon from the court; and
+would never again admit to his presence a man whom he suspected of even
+insinuating a criticism upon the measures adopted by the administration
+of the country.[844]
+
+  [842] _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. xxvi. pp. 240, 241.
+
+  [843] 'Par l'infidélité d'un domestique chargé de transcrire le
+        manuscrit.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xiv. p. 289; and see _Peignot_,
+        _Dict. des Livres condamnés_, vol. i. pp. 134, 135. It was
+        suppressed in France, and appeared in Holland in the same year,
+        1699. _Lettres de Sévigné_, vol. vi. pp. 434, 435 note.
+
+  [844] 'Louis XIV prit le Télémaque pour une personnalité.... Comme il
+        (Fénelon) avait déplu au roi, il mourut dans l'exil.'
+        _Lerminier_, _Philos. du Droit_, vol. ii. pp. 219, 220; and see
+        _Siècle de Louis XIV_, chap. xxxii., in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. xx. p. 307.
+
+If the king could, on mere suspicion, thus treat a great writer, who had
+the rank of an archbishop and the reputation of a saint, it was not
+likely that he would deal more tenderly with inferior men. In 1681, the
+Abbé Primi, an Italian, then residing at Paris, was induced to write a
+history of Louis XIV. The king, delighted with the idea of perpetuating
+his own fame, conferred several rewards upon the author: and
+arrangements were made that the work should be composed in Italian, and
+immediately translated into French. But when the history appeared, there
+were found in it some circumstances which it was thought ought not to
+have been disclosed. On this account, Louis caused the book to be
+suppressed, the papers of the author to be seized, and the author
+himself to be thrown into the Bastille.[845]
+
+  [845] These circumstances are related in a letter from Lord Preston,
+        dated Paris, 22 July 1682, and printed in _Dalrymple's Memoirs_,
+        pp. 141, 142, appendix to vol. i. The account given by M. Peignot
+        (_Livres condamnés_, vol. ii. pp. 52, 53) is incomplete, he being
+        evidently ignorant of the existence of Lord Preston's letter.
+
+Those, indeed, were dangerous times for independent men; times when no
+writer on politics or religion was safe, unless he followed the fashion
+of the day, and defended the opinions of the court and the church. The
+king, who had an insatiable thirst for what he called glory,[846]
+laboured to degrade contemporary historians into mere chroniclers of his
+own achievements. He ordered Racine and Boileau to write an account of
+his reign; he settled a pension upon them, and he promised to supply
+them with the necessary materials.[847] But even Racine and Boileau,
+poets though they were, knew that they would fail in satisfying his
+morbid vanity; they, therefore, received the pension, but omitted to
+compose the work for which the pension was conferred. So notorious was
+the unwillingness of able men to meddle with history, that it was
+thought advisable to beat up literary recruits from foreign countries.
+The case of the Abbé Primi has just been mentioned; he was an Italian,
+and only one year later a similar offer was made to an Englishman. In
+1683, Burnet visited France, and was given to understand that he might
+receive a pension, and that he might even enjoy the honour of conversing
+with Louis himself, provided he would write a history of the royal
+affairs; such history, it was carefully added, being on the 'side' of
+the French king.[848]
+
+  [846] An able writer has well called him 'glorieux plutôt
+        qu'appréciateur de la vraie gloire.' _Flassan_, _Histoire de la
+        Diplomatie Française_, vol. iv. p. 399.
+
+  [847] In 1677, Madame de Sévigné writes from Paris respecting the king:
+        'Vous savez bien qu'il a donné deux mille écus de pension à
+        Racine et à Despréaux, en leur commandant de travailler à son
+        histoire, dont il aura soin de donner des Mémoires.' _Lettres de
+        Sévigné_, vol. iii. p. 362. Compare _Eloge de Valincourt_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, vol. vi. p. 383; and _Hughes's
+        Letters_, edit. 1773, vol. ii. pp. 74, 75.
+
+  [848] Burnet relates this with delightful simplicity: 'Others more
+        probably thought that the king, hearing I was a writer of
+        history, had a mind to engage me to write on his side. I was told
+        a pension would be offered me. But I made no steps towards it;
+        for though I was offered an audience of the king, I excused it,
+        since I could not have the honour to be presented to that king by
+        the minister of England.' _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. ii. p. 385.
+
+Under such circumstances as these, it is no wonder that history, so far
+as its great essentials are concerned, should have rapidly declined
+during the power of Louis XIV. It became, as some think, more elegant;
+but it certainly became more feeble. The language in which it was
+composed was worked with great care, the periods neatly arranged, the
+epithets soft and harmonious. For that was a polite and obsequious age,
+full of reverence, of duty, and of admiration. In history, as it was
+then written, every king was a hero, and every bishop was a saint. All
+unpleasant truths were suppressed; nothing harsh or unkind was to be
+told. These docile and submissive sentiments being expressed in an easy
+and flowing style, gave to history that air of refinement, that gentle,
+unobtrusive gait, which made it popular with the classes that it
+flattered. But even so, while its form was polished, its life was
+extinct. All its independence was gone, all its honesty, all its
+boldness. The noblest and the most difficult department of knowledge,
+the study of the movements of the human race, was abandoned to every
+timid and creeping intellect that cared to cultivate it. There was
+Boulainvilliers, and Daniel, and Maimburg, and Varillas, and Vertot, and
+numerous others, who in the reign of Louis XIV. were believed to be
+historians; but whose histories have scarcely any merit, except that of
+enabling us to appreciate the period in which such productions were
+admired, and the system of which they were the representatives.
+
+To give a complete view of the decline of historical literature in
+France, from the time of Mezeray until early in the eighteenth century,
+would require a summary of every history which was written; for all of
+them were pervaded by the same spirit. But, as this would occupy much
+too large a space, it will probably be thought sufficient if I confine
+myself to such illustrations as will bring the tendency of the age most
+clearly before the reader; and for this purpose, I will notice the works
+of two historians I have not yet mentioned; one of whom was celebrated
+as an antiquary, the other as a theologian. Both possessed considerable
+learning, and one was a man of undoubted genius; their works are,
+therefore, worth attention, as symptoms of the state of the French
+intellect late in the seventeenth century. The name of the antiquary was
+Audigier; the name of the theologian was Bossuet: and from them we may
+learn something respecting the way in which, during the reign of Louis
+XIV., it was usual to contemplate the transactions of past ages.
+
+The celebrated work of Audigier, on the Origin of the French, was
+published at Paris in 1676.[849] It would be unjust to deny that the
+author was a man of great and careful reading. But his credulity, his
+prejudices, his reverence for antiquity, and his dutiful admiration for
+everything established by the church and the court, warped his judgment
+to an extent which, in our time, seems incredible; and, as there are
+probably few persons in England who have read his once famous book, I
+will give an outline of its leading views.
+
+  [849] During many years it enjoyed great reputation; and there is no
+        history written in that period respecting which Le Long gives so
+        many details. See his _Bibliothèque Historique de la France_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 13, 14. Compare _La Bibliothèque de Leber_, vol. ii.
+        p. 110, Paris, 1839.
+
+In this great history we are told, that 3464 years after the creation of
+the world, and 590 years before the birth of Christ, was the exact
+period at which Sigovese, nephew to the king of the Celts, was first
+sent into Germany.[850] Those who accompanied him were necessarily
+travellers; and as, in the German language, _wandeln_ means _to go_, we
+have here the origin of the Vandals.[851] But the antiquity of the
+Vandals is far surpassed by that of the French. Jupiter, Pluto, and
+Neptune, who are sometimes supposed to be gods, were in reality kings of
+Gaul.[852] And, if we look back a little further, it becomes certain
+that Gallus, the founder of Gaul, was no other than Noah himself; for in
+those days the same man frequently had two names.[853] As to the
+subsequent history of the French, it was fully equal to the dignity of
+their origin. Alexander the Great, even in all the pride of his
+victories, never dared to attack the Scythians, who were a colony sent
+from France.[854] It is from these great occupiers of France that there
+have proceeded all the gods of Europe, all the fine arts, and all the
+sciences.[855] The English themselves are merely a colony of the French,
+as must be evident to whoever considers the similarity of the words
+Angles and Anjou;[856] and to this fortunate descent the natives of the
+British islands are indebted for such bravery and politeness as they
+still possess.[857] Several other points are cleared up by this great
+critic with equal faculty. The Salian Franks were so called from the
+rapidity of their flight;[858] the Bretons were evidently Saxons;[859]
+and even the Scotch, about whose independence so much has been said,
+were vassals to the kings of France.[860] Indeed, it is impossible to
+exaggerate the dignity of the crown of France; it is difficult even to
+conceive its splendour. Some have supposed that the emperors are
+superior to the kings of France, but this is the mistake of ignorant
+men; for an emperor means a mere military ruler, while the title of king
+includes all the functions of supreme power.[861] To put the question,
+therefore, on its real footing, the great king Louis XIV. is an emperor,
+as have been all his predecessors, the illustrious rulers of France, for
+fifteen centuries.[862] And it is an undoubted fact, that Antichrist,
+about whom so much anxiety is felt, will never be allowed to appear in
+the world until the French empire has been destroyed. This, says
+Audigier, it would be idle to deny; for it is asserted by many of the
+saints, and it is distinctly foreshadowed by St. Paul, in his second
+epistle to the Thessalonians.[863]
+
+  [850] _Audigier_, _L'Origine des François_, Paris, 1676, vol. i. p. 5.
+        See also p. 45, where he congratulates himself on being the first
+        to clear up the history of Sigovese.
+
+  [851] _Audigier_, vol. i. p. 7. Other antiquaries have adopted the same
+        preposterous etymology. See a note in _Kemble's Saxons in
+        England_, vol. i. p. 41.
+
+  [852] 'Or le plus ancien Jupiter, le plus ancien Neptune, et le plus
+        ancien Pluton, sont ceux de Gaule; ils la divisèrent les premiers
+        en Celtique, Aquitaine et Belgique, et obtinrent chacun une de
+        ces parties en partage. Jupiter, qu'on fait régner au ciel, eut
+        la Celtique.... Neptune, qu'on fait régner sur les eaux, et sur
+        les mers, eut l'Aquitaine, qui n'est appelée de la sorte qu'à
+        cause de l'abondance de ses eaux, et de la situation sur
+        l'océan.' _Audigier_, _L'Origine des François_, vol. i. pp. 223,
+        224.
+
+  [853] See his argument, vol. i. pp. 216, 217, beginning, 'le nom de Noé,
+        que portèrent les Galates, est Gallus;' and compare vol. ii. p.
+        109, where he expresses surprise that so little should have been
+        done by previous writers towards establishing this obvious origin
+        of the French.
+
+  [854] _Audigier_, vol. i. pp. 196, 197, 255, 256.
+
+  [855] 'Voilà donc les anciennes divinitez d'Europe, originaires de
+        Gaule, aussi bien que les beaux arts et les hautes sciences.'
+        _Audigier_, vol. i. p. 234.
+
+  [856] _Ibid._ vol. i. pp. 73, 74. He sums up, 'c'en est assez pour
+        relever l'Anjou, à qui cette gloire appartient légitimement.'
+
+  [857] Vol. i. pp. 265, 266.
+
+  [858] Vol. i. p. 149.
+
+  [859] Vol. ii. pp. 179, 180.
+
+  [860] Vol. ii. p. 269.
+
+  [861] Vol. ii. p. 124.
+
+  [862] Vol. ii. pp. 451-454.
+
+  [863] 'A quoy nous pourrions joindre un autre monument fort authentique,
+        c'est le résultat de certains pères, et de certains docteurs de
+        l'église, qui tiennent que l'Ante-christ ne viendra point au
+        monde qu'après la dissection, c'est-à-dire après la dissipation
+        de nostre empire. Leur fondement est dans la seconde épistre de
+        saint Paul aux Thessaloniciens.' _Audigier_, vol. ii. p. 462.
+
+Strange as all this appears, there was nothing in it to revolt the
+enlightened age of Louis XIV. Indeed, the French, dazzled by the
+brilliancy of their prince, must have felt great interest in learning
+how superior he was to all other potentates, and how he had not only
+been preceded by a long line of emperors, but was in fact an emperor
+himself. They must have been struck with awe at the information
+communicated by Audigier respecting the arrival of Antichrist, and the
+connexion between that important event and the fate of the French
+monarchy. They must have listened with pious wonder to the illustration
+of these matters from the writings of the fathers, and from the epistle
+to the Thessalonians. All this they would easily receive; because to
+worship the king, and venerate the church, were the two cardinal maxims
+of that age. To obey, and to believe, were the fundamental ideas of a
+period, in which the fine arts did for a time flourish,--in which the
+perception of beauty, though too fastidious, was undoubtedly keen,--in
+which taste and the imagination, in its lower departments, were
+zealously cultivated,--but in which, on the other hand, originality and
+independence of thought were extinguished, the greatest and the largest
+topics were forbidden to be discussed, the sciences were almost
+deserted, reforms and innovations were hated, new opinions were
+despised, and their authors punished, until at length, the exuberance of
+genius being tamed into sterility, the national intellect was reduced to
+that dull and monotonous level which characterizes the last twenty years
+of the reign of Louis XIV.
+
+In no instance can we find a better example of this reactionary
+movement, than in the case of Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. The success, and
+indeed the mere existence, of his work on Universal History, becomes,
+from this point of view, highly instructive. Considered by itself, the
+book is a painful exhibition of a great genius cramped by a
+superstitious age. But considered in reference to the time in which it
+appeared, it is invaluable as a symptom of the French intellect; since
+it proves, that towards the end of the seventeenth century, one of the
+most eminent men, in one of the first countries of Europe, could
+willingly submit to a prostration of judgment, and could display a blind
+credulity, of which, in our day, even the feeblest minds would be
+ashamed; and that this, so far from causing scandal, or bringing a
+rebuke on the head of the author, was received with universal and
+unqualified applause. Bossuet was a great orator, a consummate
+dialectician, and an accomplished master of those vague sublimities by
+which most men are easily affected. All these qualities he, a few years
+later, employed in the production of what is probably the most
+formidable work ever directed against Protestantism.[864] But when he,
+leaving these matters, entered the vast field of history, he could
+think of no better way of treating his new subject, than by following
+the arbitrary rules peculiar to his own profession.[865] His work is an
+audacious attempt to degrade history to a mere handmaid of
+theology.[866] As if, on such matters, doubt were synonymous with crime,
+he, without the slightest hesitation, takes everything for granted which
+the church had been accustomed to believe. This enables him to speak
+with perfect confidence respecting events which are lost in the remotest
+antiquity. He knows the exact number of years which have elapsed since
+the moment when Cain murdered his brother; when the deluge overwhelmed
+the world; and when Abraham was summoned to his mission.[867] The dates
+of these, and similar occurrences, he fixes with a precision, which
+might almost make us believe that they had taken place in his own time,
+if not under his own eyes.[868] It is true, that the Hebrew books on
+which he willingly relied, supply no evidence of the slightest value
+concerning the chronology even of their own people; while the
+information they contain respecting other countries is notoriously
+meagre and unsatisfactory.[869] But so narrow were the views of Bossuet
+upon history, that with all this he, in his own opinion, had no concern.
+The text of the Vulgate declared, that these things had happened at a
+particular time; and a number of holy men, calling themselves the
+council of the church, had, in the middle of the sixteenth century,
+pronounced the Vulgate to be authentic, and had taken upon themselves to
+place it above all other versions.[870] This theological opinion was
+accepted by Bossuet as an historical law; and thus the decision of a
+handful of cardinals and bishops, in a superstitious and uncritical age,
+is the sole authority for that early chronology, the precision of which
+is, to an uninformed reader, a matter of great admiration.[871]
+
+  [864] This is the opinion of Mr. Hallam respecting Bossuet's History of
+        the Variations of Protestant Churches. _Const. Hist._ vol. i. p.
+        486: compare _Lerminier_, _Philos. du Droit_, vol. ii. p. 86.
+        Attempts have been made by Protestant theologians to retort
+        against the Catholics the arguments of Bossuet, on the ground
+        that religious variations are a necessary consequence of the
+        honest pursuit of religious truth. See _Blanco White's Evidence
+        against Catholicism_, pp. 109-112; and his _Letters from Spain_,
+        _by Doblado_, p. 127. With this I fully agree; but it would be
+        easy to show that the argument is fatal to all ecclesiastical
+        systems with strictly defined creeds, and, therefore, strikes as
+        heavily against the Protestant churches as against the Catholic.
+        Beausobre, in his acute and learned work on Manichæism, seems to
+        have felt this; and he makes the dangerous admission, 'que si
+        l'argument de M. de Meaux vaut quelque chose contre la
+        Réformation, il a la même force contre le Christianisme.' _Hist.
+        de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 526. On Bossuet as a controversialist,
+        see _Stäudlin_, _Geschichte der theologischen Wissenschaften_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 43-45; and for a contemporary opinion of his great
+        work, see a characteristic passage in _Lettres de Sévigné_,
+        vol. v. p. 409.
+
+  [865] His method is fairly stated by _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_,
+        vol. xxv. p. 427.
+
+  [866] See, on this attempt of Bossuet's, some good remarks in
+        _Stäudlin_, _Geschichte der theologischen Wissenschaften_, vol.
+        ii. p. 198: 'Kirche und Christenthum sind für diesen Bischoff der
+        Mittelpunct der ganzen Geschichte. Aus diesem Gesichtspuncte
+        betrachtet er nicht nur die Patriarchen und Propheten, das
+        Judenthum und die alten Weissagungen, sondern auch die Reiche der
+        Welt.'
+
+  [867] _Bossuet_, _Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle_, pp. 10, 11, 16,
+        17; see also, at p. 90, a curious specimen of his chronological
+        calculations.
+
+  [868] He says, that if the ordinarily received dates of the Pentateuch
+        and the Prophets are not true, then the miracles must fall, and
+        the writings themselves are not inspired. _Hist. Univ._ p. 360.
+        It would be hard to find, even in the works of Bossuet a more
+        rash assertion than this.
+
+        [869] Indeed the Jews have no consecutive chronology before
+        Solomon. See _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. pp. viii. xxv. 170, 178,
+        185, vol. ii. p. 399.
+
+  [870] Doing this, as they did everything else, on account, not of
+        reason, but of dogma; for, as a learned writer says, 'l'Église a
+        bien distingué certains livres en apocryphes et en orthodoxes;
+        elle s'est prononcée d'une manière formelle sur le choix des
+        ouvrages canoniques; néanmoins sa critique n'a jamais été fondée
+        sur un examen raisonné, mais seulement sur la question de savoir
+        si tel ou tel écrit était d'accord avec les dogmes qu'elle
+        enseignait.' _Maury_, _Légendes Pieuses_, p. 224.
+
+  [871] Theologians have always been remarkable for the exactness of their
+        knowledge on subjects respecting which nothing is known; but none
+        of them have surpassed the learned Dr. Stukeley. In 1730, this
+        eminent divine writes: 'But according to the calculations I have
+        made of this matter, I find God Almighty ordered Noah to get the
+        creatures into the ark on Sunday the 12th of October, the very
+        day of the autumnal equinox that year; and on this present day,
+        on the Sunday se'nnight following (the 19th of October), that
+        terrible catastrophe began, the moon being past her third
+        quarter.' _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_,
+        vol. ii. p. 792.
+
+In the same way, because Bossuet had been taught that the Jews are the
+chosen people of God, he, under the title of Universal History, almost
+confines his attention to them, and treats this obstinate and ignorant
+race as if they formed the pivot upon which the affairs of the universe
+had been made to turn.[872] His idea of an universal history excludes
+those nations who were the first to reach civilization, and to some of
+whom the Hebrews owed the scanty knowledge which they subsequently
+acquired.[873] He says little of the Persians, and less of the
+Egyptians; nor does he even mention that far greater people between the
+Indus and the Ganges, whose philosophy formed one of the elements of the
+school of Alexandria, whose subtle speculations anticipated all the
+efforts of European metaphysics, and whose sublime inquiries, conducted
+in their own exquisite language, date from a period when the Jews,
+stained with every variety of crime, were a plundering and vagabond
+tribe, wandering on the face of the earth, raising their hand against
+every man and every man raising his hand against them.
+
+  [872] 'Premièrement, ces empires ont pour la plupart une liaison
+        nécessaire avec l'histoire du peuple de Dieu. Dieu s'est servi
+        des Assyriens et des Babyloniens pour châtier ce peuple; des
+        Perses pour le rétablir; d'Alexandre et de ses premiers
+        successeurs pour le protéger; d'Antiochus l'Illustre et de ses
+        successeurs pour l'exercer; des Romains pour soutenir sa liberté
+        contre les rois de Syrie, que ne songeaient qu'à le détruire.'
+        _Bossuet_, _Hist. Univ._ p. 382. Well may M. Lerminier say
+        (_Philos. du Droit_, vol. ii. p. 87), that Bossuet 'a sacrifié
+        toutes les nations au peuple juif.'
+
+  [873] On the extraordinary and prolonged ignorance of the Jews, even to
+        the time of the Apostles, see _Mackay's Progress of the
+        Intellect_, vol. i. pp. 13 seq.; a work of profound learning.
+
+When he enters the more modern period, he allows himself to be governed
+by the same theological prejudices. So contracted is his view, that he
+considers the whole history of the church as the history of providential
+interference; and he takes no notice of the manner in which, contrary to
+the original scheme, it has been affected by foreign events.[874] Thus,
+for example, the most important fact relating to the early changes in
+Christianity, is the extent to which its doctrines have been influenced
+by the African form of the Platonic philosophy.[875] But this, Bossuet
+never mentions; nor does he even hint that any such thing had occurred.
+It suited his views to look upon the church as a perpetual miracle, and
+he therefore omits the most important event in its early history.[876]
+To descend a little later: every one acquainted with the progress of
+civilization will allow, that no small share of it is due to those
+gleams of light, which, in the midst of surrounding darkness, shot from
+the great centres of Cordova and Bagdad. These, however, were the work
+of Mohammedanism; and as Bossuet had been taught that Mohammedanism is a
+pestilential heresy, he could not bring himself to believe that
+Christian nations had derived anything from so corrupt a source. The
+consequence is, that he says nothing of that great religion, the noise
+of which has filled the world;[877] and having occasion to mention its
+founder, he treats him with scorn, as an impudent impostor, whose
+pretensions it is hardly fitting to notice.[878] The great apostle, who
+diffused among millions of idolaters the sublime verity of one God, is
+spoken of by Bossuet with supreme contempt; because Bossuet, with the
+true spirit of his profession, could see nothing to admire in those
+whose opinions differed from his own.[879] But when he has occasion to
+mention some obscure member of that class to which he himself belonged,
+then it is that he scatters his praises with boundless profusion. In his
+scheme of universal history, Mohammed is not worthy to play a part. He
+is passed by; but the truly great man, the man to whom the human race is
+really indebted, is--Martin, bishop of Tours. He it is, says Bossuet,
+whose unrivalled actions filled the universe with his fame, both during
+his lifetime and after his death.[880] It is true, that not one educated
+man in fifty has ever heard the name of Martin, bishop of Tours. But
+Martin performed miracles, and the church had made him a saint; his
+claims, therefore, to the attention of historians must be far superior
+to the claims of one who, like Mohammed, was without these advantages.
+Thus it is that, in the opinion of the only eminent writer on history
+during the power of Louis XIV., the greatest man Asia has ever produced,
+and one of the greatest the world has ever seen, is considered in every
+way inferior to a mean and ignorant monk, whose most important
+achievement was the erection of a monastery, and who spent the best part
+of his life in useless solitude, trembling before the superstitious
+fancies of his weak and ignoble nature.[881]
+
+  [874] The original scheme of Christianity, as stated by its Great Author
+        (_Matthew_ x. 6, and xv. 24), was merely to convert the Jews; and
+        if the doctrines of Christ had never extended beyond that
+        ignorant people, they could not have received those modifications
+        which philosophy imposed upon them. The whole of this subject is
+        admirably discussed in _Mackay's Progress of the Intellect in
+        Religious Development_, vol. ii. pp. 382 seq.; and on the
+        'universalism,' first clearly announced 'by the Hellenist
+        Stephen,' see p. 484. Neander makes a noticeable attempt to evade
+        the difficulty caused by the changes in Christianity from
+        'various outward causes:' see his _History of the Church_,
+        vol. iii. p. 125.
+
+  [875] Neander (_Hist. of the Church_, vol. ii. p. 42) even thinks that
+        Cerinthus whose views are remarkable as being the point where
+        Gnosticism and Judaism touch each other, borrowed his system from
+        Alexandria. But this, though not unlikely, seems only to rest on
+        the authority of Theodoret. On the influence of the Platonism of
+        Alexandria in developing the idea of the Logos, see _Neander_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 304, 306-314. Compare _Sharpe's Hist. of Egypt_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 152 seq.
+
+  [876] And having to mention Clemens Alexandrinus, who was more deeply
+        versed in the philosophy of Alexandria than were any of the other
+        fathers, Bossuet merely says, p. 98, 'à peu près dans le même
+        temps, le saint prêtre Clément Alexandrin déterra les antiquités
+        du paganisme pour le confondre.'
+
+  [877] About the time that Bossuet wrote, a very learned writer
+        calculated that the area of the countries which professed
+        Mohammedanism, exceeded, by one fifth, those where Christianity
+        was believed. See _Brerewood's Inquiries touching the Diversity
+        of Languages and Religions_, Lond. 1674, pp. 144, 145. The
+        estimate of Southey (_Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_, London, 1826,
+        p. 48), is very vague; but it is much easier to judge of the
+        extent of Mohammedan countries than of the extent of their
+        population. On this latter point we have the most conflicting
+        statements. In the nineteenth century, there are, according to
+        Sharon Turner (_Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 485, edit. 1839),
+        eighty million Mohammedans; according to Dr. Elliotson (_Human
+        Physiology_, p. 1055, edit. 1840), more than a hundred and
+        twenty-two million; while, according to Mr. Wilkin (note in _Sir
+        Thomas Browne's Works_, vol. ii. p. 37, edit. 1835), there are a
+        hundred and eighty-eight million.
+
+  [878] 'Le faux prophète donna ses victoires pour toute marque de sa
+        mission.' _Bossuet_, p. 125.
+
+  [879] The greatest Mohammedan writers have always expressed ideas
+        regarding the Deity more lofty than those possessed by the
+        majority of Christians. The Koran contains noble passages on the
+        oneness of God; and for the views of their ordinary theologians,
+        I may refer to an interesting Mohammedan sermon, in _Transactions
+        of the Bombay Society_, vol. i. pp. 146-158. See also, in vol.
+        iii. pp. 398-448, an Essay by Vans Kennedy; and compare a
+        remarkable passage, considering the quarter from which it comes,
+        in _Autobiography of the Emperor Jehangueir_, p. 44. Those who
+        are so thoughtless as to believe that Mohammed was a hypocrite,
+        had better study the admirable remarks of M. Comte (_Philos.
+        Pos._ vol. v. pp. 76, 77), who truly says, 'qu'un homme vraiment
+        supérieur n'a jamais pu exercer aucune grande action sur ses
+        semblables sans être d'abord lui-même intimement convaincu.'
+
+  [880] 'Saint Martin fut fait évêque de Tours, et remplit tout l'univers
+        du bruit de sa sainteté et de ses miracles, durant sa vie, et
+        après sa mort.' _Bossuet_, _Hist. Univ._ p. 111.
+
+  [881] The Benedictines have written the life of Martin in their _Hist.
+        Lit. de la France_, vol. i. part ii. pp. 413-417, Paris, 1733,
+        4to. They say that he erected the first monastery in Gaul:
+        'Martin, toujours passionné pour la solitude, érigea un monastère
+        qui fut le premier que l'on eût encore vû dans les Gaules,' p.
+        414. At p. 415, they make the unnecessary admission, that the
+        saint 'n'avoit point étudié les sciences profanes.' I may add,
+        that the miracles of Martin are related by Fleury, who evidently
+        believes that they were really performed. _Fleury_, _Hist.
+        Ecclésiastique_, livre xvi. no. 31, vol. iv. pp. 215-217, Paris,
+        1758, 12mo. Neander, having the advantage of living a hundred
+        years later than Fleury, is content to say, 'the veneration of
+        his period denominated him a worker of miracles.' _Hist. of the
+        Church_, vol. iv. p. 494. There is a characteristic anecdote of
+        him, from Sulpitius Severus, in _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. i.
+        p. 123.
+
+Such was the narrow spirit with which the great facts of history were
+contemplated by a writer, who, when he was confined to his own
+department, displayed the most towering genius. This contracted view was
+the inevitable consequence of his attempt to explain the complicated
+movements of the human race by principles which he had generalized from
+his own inferior studies.[882] Nor need any one be offended, that, from
+a scientific point of view, I assign to the pursuits of Bossuet a rank
+lower than that in which they are sometimes placed. It is certain that
+religious dogmas do, in many cases, influence the affairs of men. But it
+is equally certain, that as civilization advances, such influence
+decreases, and that even when the power of those dogmas was at its
+height, there were many other motives by which the actions of mankind
+were also governed. And since the study of history is the study of the
+aggregate of these motives, it is evident that history must be superior
+to theology; just as the whole is superior to a part. A neglect of this
+simple consideration has, with a few eminent exceptions, led all
+ecclesiastical authors into serious errors. It has induced in them a
+disposition to disregard the immense variety of external events, and to
+suppose that the course of affairs is regulated by some principles which
+theology alone can detect. This, indeed, is only the result of a general
+law of the mind, by which those who have any favourite profession, are
+apt to exaggerate its capacity; to explain events by its maxims, and as
+it were, to refract through its medium the occurrences of life.[883]
+Among theologians, however, such prejudices are more dangerous than in
+any other profession, because among them alone are they fortified by
+that bold assumption of supernatural authority on which many of the
+clergy willingly rely.
+
+  [882] At pp. 479, 480, Bossuet gives a sort of summary of his historical
+        principles; and if they are true, history is evidently impossible
+        to be written. On this account, though fully recognizing the
+        genius of Bossuet, I cannot agree with the remarks made upon him
+        by M. Comte, _Philos. Pos._ vol. iv. p. 280, vol. vi. pp. 316,
+        317.
+
+  [883] And then, as M. Charles Comte well says, they call this prejudice
+        their moral sense, or their moral instinct. _Comte_, _Traité de
+        Législation_, vol. i. p. 116.
+
+These professional prejudices, when supported by theological dogmas, in
+a reign like that of Louis XIV.,[884] are sufficient to account for the
+peculiarities which mark the historical work of Bossuet. Besides this,
+in his case, the general tendency was aggravated by personal
+characteristics. His mind was remarkable for a haughtiness, which we
+find constantly breaking out into a general contempt for mankind.[885]
+At the same time his amazing eloquence, and the effects which it never
+failed to produce, seemed to justify the overweening confidence that he
+felt in his own powers. There is, indeed, in some of his greatest
+efforts, so much of the fire and majesty of genius, that we are reminded
+of those lofty and burning words with which the prophets of antiquity
+thrilled their hearers. Bossuet, thus standing, as he supposed, on an
+eminence which raised him above the ordinary weaknesses of men, loved to
+taunt them with their follies, and to deride every aspiration of their
+genius. Every thing like intellectual boldness seemed to gall his own
+superiority.[886] It was this boundless arrogance with which he was
+filled, which gives to his works some of their most marked
+peculiarities. It was this, that made him strain every nerve to abase
+and vilify those prodigious resources of the human understanding, which
+are often despised by men who are ignorant of them; but which in reality
+are so great, that no one has yet arisen able to scan them in the whole
+of their gigantic dimensions. It was this same contempt for the human
+intellect, that made him deny its capacity to work out for itself the
+epochs through which it has passed; and, consequently, made him recur to
+the dogma of supernatural interference. It was this, again, that, in
+those magnificent orations which are among the greatest wonders of
+modern art, caused him to exhaust the language of eulogy, not upon
+intellectual eminence, but upon mere military achievements, upon great
+conquerors, those pests and destroyers of men, who pass their lives in
+discovering new ways of slaying their enemies, and in devising new means
+of aggravating the miseries of the world. And, to descend still lower,
+it was this same contempt for the dearest interests of mankind, which
+made him look with reverence upon a king, who considered all those
+interests as nothing; but who had the merit of enslaving the mind of
+France, and of increasing the power of that body of men, among whom
+Bossuet himself was the most distinguished.
+
+  [884] The connection between the opinions of Bossuet and the despotism
+        of Louis XIV. is touched on by Montlosier, who, however, has
+        probably laid too much stress on the influence which the civil
+        law exercised over both. _Montlosier_, _Monarchie Française_,
+        vol. ii. p. 90.
+
+  [885] He belonged to a class of historians, described by a celebrated
+        writer in a single sentence: 'dans leurs écrits l'auteur paraît
+        souvent grand, mais l'humanité est toujours petite.'
+        _Tocqueville_, _Démocratie_, vol. iv. p. 139.
+
+  [886] Hardly any one acquainted with the writings and the history of
+        Bossuet will require evidence of his singular arrogance. But the
+        reader may consult _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Franç._ vol. xxvi. p.
+        247; and on his treatment of Fénelon, which was the most shameful
+        transaction of his life, compare _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iv. p.
+        384, with _Capefigue's Louis XIV_, vol. ii. p. 58; where there is
+        printed one of the many epigrams to which the conduct of Bossuet
+        gave rise.
+
+In the absence of sufficient evidence respecting the general state of
+the French at the end of the seventeenth century, it is impossible to
+ascertain to what extent such notions as these had penetrated the
+popular mind. But, looking at the manner in which government had broken
+the spirit of the country, I should be inclined to suppose that the
+opinions of Bossuet were very acceptable to his own generation. This,
+however, is a question rather of curiosity than of importance; for only
+a few years later there appeared the first symptoms of that
+unprecedented movement, which not merely destroyed the political
+institutions of France, but effected a greater and more permanent
+revolution in every department of the national intellect. At the death
+of Louis XIV., in literature, as well as in politics, in religion, and
+in morals, everything was ripe for reaction. The materials still
+existing are so ample, that it would be possible to trace with
+considerable minuteness the steps of this great process; but it will, I
+think, be more agreeable to the general scheme of this Introduction, if
+I pass over some of the intermediate links, and confine myself to those
+salient instances in which the spirit of the age is most strikingly
+portrayed.
+
+There is, indeed, something extraordinary in the change which, in
+France, one generation was able to effect in the method of writing
+history. The best way, perhaps, to form an idea of this, will be to
+compare the works of Voltaire with those of Bossuet; because these
+great authors were probably the most able, and were certainly the most
+influential, Frenchmen during the period they respectively represented.
+The first great improvement which we find in Voltaire, as compared with
+Bossuet, is an increased perception of the dignity of the human
+intellect. In addition to the circumstances already noticed, we must
+remember that the reading of Bossuet lay in a direction which prevented
+him from feeling this. He had not studied those branches of knowledge
+where great things have been achieved; but he was very conversant with
+the writings of the saints and fathers, whose speculations are by no
+means calculated to give us a high opinion of the resources of their own
+understanding. Thus accustomed to contemplate the workings of the mind
+in what is, on the whole, the most puerile literature Europe has ever
+produced, the contempt which Bossuet felt for mankind went on
+increasing; until it reached that inordinate degree which, in his later
+works, is painfully conspicuous. But Voltaire, who paid no attention to
+such things as these, passed his long life in the constant accumulation
+of real and available knowledge. His mind was essentially modern.
+Despising unsupported authority, and heedless of tradition, he devoted
+himself to subjects in which the triumph of the human reason is too
+apparent to be mistaken. The more his knowledge advanced, the more he
+admired those vast powers by which the knowledge had been created. Hence
+his admiration for the intellect of man, so far from diminishing, grew
+with his growth; and, just in the same proportion, there was
+strengthened his love of humanity, and his dislike to the prejudices
+which had long obscured its history. That this, in the march of his
+mind, was the course it actually followed, will be evident to any one
+who considers the different spirit of his works, in reference to the
+different periods of life in which they were produced.
+
+The first historical work of Voltaire was a life of Charles XII., in
+1728.[887] At this time his knowledge was still scanty, and he was
+still influenced by the servile traditions of the preceding generation.
+It is not, therefore, wonderful, that he should express the greatest
+respect for Charles, who, among the admirers of military fame, will
+always preserve a certain reputation; though his only merits are, that
+he ravaged many countries and killed many men. But we find little
+sympathy with his unfortunate subjects, the accumulations of whose
+industry supported the royal armies;[888] nor is there much pity for
+those nations who were oppressed by this great robber in the immense
+line of his conquests from Sweden to Turkey. Indeed, the admiration of
+Voltaire for Charles is unbounded. He calls him the most extraordinary
+man the world had ever seen;[889] he declares him to be a prince full of
+honour;[890] and while he scarcely blames his infamous murder of
+Patkul,[891] he relates with evident emotion how the royal lunatic, at
+the head of forty servants, resisted an entire army.[892] In the same
+way, he says, that after the battle of Narva, all the attempts of
+Charles were unable to prevent medals from being struck at Stockholm in
+celebration of that event;[893] although Voltaire well knew that a man
+of such extravagant vanity must have been pleased by so durable a
+homage, and although it is quite certain that if he had not been
+pleased, the medals would never have been struck: for who would venture,
+without an object, to offend, in his own capital, one of the most
+arbitrary and revengeful of princes?
+
+  [887] He says that he wrote it in 1728. _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. xxii. p. 5, but, according to M. Lepan (_Vie de Voltaire_,
+        p. 382), 'il parut en 1731.' Both statements may be accurate, as
+        Voltaire frequently kept his works for some time in manuscript.
+
+  [888] Sir A. Alison, who certainly cannot be accused of want of respect
+        for military conquerors, says of Sweden, 'the attempt which
+        Charles XII. made to engage her in long and arduous wars, so
+        completely drained the resources of the country, that they did
+        not recover the loss for half a century.' _Hist. of Europe_, vol.
+        x. p. 504. See also, on the effects produced by the conscriptions
+        of Charles XII., _Laing's Sweden_, p. 59; _Koch_, _Tableau des
+        Révolutions_, vol. ii. p. 63; and above all, a curious passage in
+        _Duclos_, _Mém. Secrets_, vol. i. p. 448. Several of the soldiers
+        of Charles XII. who were taken prisoners, were sent into Siberia,
+        where Bell fell in with them early in the eighteenth century.
+        _Bell's Travels in Asia_, edit. Edinb. 1788, vol. i. pp. 223-224.
+
+  [889] 'Charles XII, l'homme le plus extraordinaire peut-être qui ait
+        jamais été sur la terre, qui a réuni en lui toutes les grandes
+        qualités de ses aïeux, et qui n'a eu d'autre défaut ni d'autre
+        malheur que de les avoir toutes outrées.' _Hist. de Charles XII_,
+        livre i., in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxii. p. 30.
+
+  [890] 'Plein d'honneur.' _Ibid._ in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxii. p. 63.
+
+  [891] Which Burke, not without justice, compares to the murder of
+        Monaldeschi by Christina. _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 412. See
+        some remarks on the murder of Patkul, in _Vattel_, _Droit des
+        Gens_, vol. i. p. 230; and an account of it, from Swedish
+        authorities, in _Somers Tracts_, vol. xiii. pp. 879-881. For
+        Voltaire's version see his _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxii. pp. 136, 137;
+        which may be contrasted with _Crichton and Wheaton's History of
+        Scandinavia_, Edinb. 1838, vol. ii. p. 127.
+
+  [892] _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxii. pp. 250-260. It may interest
+        some persons to hear, that the litter in which this madman 'was
+        borne from the battle of Pultava' is still preserved at Moscow.
+        _Kohl's Russia_, p. 220. It was also seen by M. Custine.
+        _Custine's Russia_, vol. iii. p. 263.
+
+  [893] 'Sa modestie ne put empêcher qu'on ne frappât à Stockholm
+        plusieurs médailles pour perpétuer la mémoire de ces événements.'
+        _Charles XII_, livre ii., in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxii. p. 70.
+
+So far, it might appear that little had been gained in the method of
+writing history.[894] But, even thus early, we find one vast
+improvement. In Voltaire's Life of Charles XII., faulty as it is, there
+are none of those assumptions of supernatural interference in which
+Bossuet delighted, and which were natural to the reign of Louis XIV. The
+absence of this marks the first great stage in the French school of
+history in the eighteenth century; and we find the same peculiarity in
+all the subsequent historians, none of whom recurred to a method, which,
+though suitable for the purposes of theologians, is fatal to all
+independent inquiries, since it not only prescribes the course the
+inquirer is bound to take, but actually sets up a limit beyond which he
+is forbidden to proceed.
+
+  [894] Even some of its geographical details are said to be inaccurate.
+        Compare _Villemain_, _Littérature au XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p.
+        33, with _Kohl's Russia_, p. 505. However, as M. Villemain says,
+        this must always be the case, when writers, who only know a
+        country from maps, attempt to enter into details respecting
+        military geography. In regard to style, it cannot be too highly
+        praised; and a well-known critic, Lacratelle, calls it 'le modèle
+        le plus accompli de narration qui existe dans notre langue.'
+        _Lacretelle_, _Dix-huitième Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 42. In 1843 it
+        was still used as a text book in the French royal colleges. See
+        _Report on Education in France_, in _Journal of Stat. Soc._ vol.
+        vi. p. 308. Further information respecting this work may be found
+        in _Longchamp et Wagnière_, _Mém. sur Voltaire_, vol. ii. p. 494;
+        and in _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. viii. p. 224, vol. x. p. 304.
+
+That Voltaire should have infringed upon this ancient method only
+thirteen years after the death of Louis XIV., and that he should have
+done this in a popular work, abounding with such dangerous adventures as
+are always found to tempt the mind to an opposite course, is a step of
+no common merit, and becomes still more worthy of remark, if taken in
+connexion with another fact of considerable interest. This is, that the
+life of Charles XII. represents the first epoch, not only in the
+eighteenth century, but also in the intellect of Voltaire himself.[895]
+After it was published, this great man turned awhile from history, and
+directed his attention to some of the noblest subjects: to mathematics,
+to physics, to jurisprudence, to the discoveries of Newton, and to the
+speculations of Locke. In these things he perceived those capabilities
+of the human mind, which his own country had formerly witnessed, but of
+which during the authority of Louis XIV. the memory had been almost
+lost. Then it was that, with extended knowledge and sharpened intellect,
+he returned to the great field of history.[896] The manner in which he
+now treated his old subject, showed the change that had come over him.
+In 1752, appeared his celebrated work on Louis XIV.,[897] the very title
+of which is suggestive of the process through which his mind had passed.
+His former history was an account of a king; this is an account of an
+age. To the production of his youth he gave the title of a _History of
+Charles XII._; this he called the _Age of Louis XIV._ Before, he had
+detailed the peculiarities of a prince; now, he considered the movements
+of a people. Indeed, in the introduction to the work, he announces his
+intention to describe, 'not the actions of a single man, but the
+character of men.'[898] Nor, in this point of view, is the execution
+inferior to the design. While he is contented with giving a summary of
+military achievements, on which Bossuet hung with delight, he enters at
+great length into those really important matters which, before his time,
+found no place in the history of France. He has one chapter on commerce
+and internal government;[899] another chapter on finances;[900] another
+on the history of science;[901] and three chapters on the progress of
+the fine arts.[902] And though Voltaire did not attach much value to
+theological disputes, still he knew that they have often played a great
+part in the affairs of men; he therefore gives several distinct
+chapters to a relation of ecclesiastical matters during the reign of
+Louis.[903] It is hardly necessary to observe the immense superiority
+which a scheme like this possessed, not only over the narrow views of
+Bossuet, but even over his own earlier history. Still it cannot be
+denied, that we find in it prejudices from which it was difficult for a
+Frenchman, educated in the reign of Louis XIV., to be entirely free. Not
+only does Voltaire dwell at needless length upon those amusements and
+debaucheries of Louis, with which history can have little concern, but
+he displays an evident disposition to favour the king himself, and to
+protect his name from the infamy with which it ought to be covered.[904]
+
+  [895] It is evident, from Voltaire's correspondence, that he afterwards
+        became somewhat ashamed of the praises he had bestowed on Charles
+        XII. In 1735, he writes to De Formont, 'si Charles XII n'avait
+        pas été excessivement grand, malheureux, et fou, je me serais
+        bien donné de garde de parler de lui.' _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. lvi. p. 462. In 1758, advancing still further, he says of
+        Charles, 'voilà, monsieur, ce que les hommes de tous les temps et
+        de tous les pays appellent un héros; mais c'est le vulgaire de
+        tous les temps et de tous les pays qui donne ce nom à la soif du
+        carnage.' _Ibid._ vol. lx. p. 411. In 1759, he writes, that he
+        was then engaged on the history of Peter the Great: 'mais je
+        doute que cela soit aussi amusant que la vie de Charles XII; car
+        ce Pierre n'était qu'un sage extraordinaire, et Charles un fou
+        extraordinaire, qui se battait, comme Don Quichotte, contre des
+        moulins à vent.' Vol. lxi. p. 23: see also p. 350. These passages
+        prove the constant progress Voltaire was making in his conception
+        of what history ought to be, and what its uses were.
+
+  [896] In 1741, he mentions his increasing love of history. _Corresp._ in
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. li. p. 96.
+
+  [897] Lord Brougham, in his life of Voltaire, says that it appeared in
+        1751. _Lives of Men of Letters_, vol. i p. 106. But 1752 is the
+        date given in _Biog. Univ._ xlix. 478; in _Quérard_, _France
+        Lit._ vol. x. p. 355; and in _Lepan_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p. 382.
+
+  [898] 'On veut essayer de peindre à la postérité, non les actions d'un
+        seul homme, mais l'esprit des hommes dans le siècle le plus
+        éclairé qui fut jamais.' _Siècle de Louis XIV_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xix. p. 213. And in his correspondence respecting
+        his work on Louis XIV., he carefully makes the same distinction.
+        See vol. lvi. pp. 453, 488, 489, 500, vol. lvii. pp. 337,
+        342-344, vol. lix. p. 103.
+
+  [899] Chap. xxix., in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xx. pp. 234-267.
+
+  [900] Chap. xxx., in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xx. pp. 267-291. This chapter is
+        praised in _Sinclair's History of the Public Revenue_, vol. iii.
+        appendix, p. 77; an indifferent work, but the best we have on the
+        important subject to which it refers.
+
+  [901] Chap. xxxi., in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xx. pp. 291-299; necessarily a
+        very short chapter, because of the paucity of materials.
+
+  [902] Chapters xxxii. to xxxiv., in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xx. pp. 299-338.
+
+  [903] _[OE]uvres_, vol. xx. pp. 338-464.
+
+  [904] This disposition to favour Louis XIV. is noticed by Condorcet, who
+        says it was the only early prejudice which Voltaire was unable to
+        shake off: 'c'est le seul préjugé de sa jeunesse qu'il ait
+        conservé.' _Condorcet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. i. p. 286. See also, on this defect, _Grimm et
+        Diderot_, _Corresp. Lit._ vol. ii. p. 182; _Lemontey_,
+        _Etablissement Monarchique_, pp. 451, 452; _Mém. de Brissot_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 88, 89. It is interesting to observe, that
+        Voltaire's earlier opinions were still more favourable to Louis
+        XIV. than those which he afterwards expressed in his history. See
+        a letter which he wrote in 1740 to Lord Harvey, printed in
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. lviii. pp. 57-63.
+
+But the next work of Voltaire showed that this was a mere personal
+feeling, and did not affect his general views as to the part which the
+acts of princes ought to occupy in history. Four years after the
+appearance of the _Age of Louis XIV._, he published his important
+treatise on the _Morals, Manners, and Character of Nations_.[905] This
+is not only one of the greatest books which appeared during the
+eighteenth century, but it still remains the best on the subject to
+which it refers. The mere reading it displays is immense;[906] what,
+however, is far more admirable, is the skill with which the author
+connects the various facts, and makes them illustrate each other,
+sometimes by a single remark, sometimes only by the order and position
+in which they are placed. Indeed, considered solely as a work of art, it
+would be difficult to praise it too highly; while, as a symptom of the
+times, it is important to observe, that it contains no traces of that
+adulation of royalty which characterized Voltaire in the period of his
+youth, and which is found in all the best writers during the power of
+Louis XIV. In the whole of this long and important work, the great
+historian takes little notice of the intrigues of courts, or of the
+changes of ministers, or of the fate of kings; but he endeavours to
+discover and develop the different epochs through which Man has
+successively passed. 'I wish,' he says, 'to write a history, not of
+wars, but of society; and to ascertain how men lived in the interior of
+their families, and what were the arts which they commonly
+cultivated.'[907] For, he adds, 'my object is the history of the human
+mind, and not a mere detail of petty facts; nor am I concerned with the
+history of great lords, who made war upon French kings; but I want to
+know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to
+civilization.'[908]
+
+  [905] Mr. Burton, in his interesting work, _Life and Correspondence of
+        Hume_, vol. ii. p. 129, says it was 'first published in 1756;'
+        and the same date is given by Quérard (_France Littéraire_, vol.
+        x. p. 359), who is a very accurate bibliographer; so that
+        Condorcet (_Vie de Voltaire_, p. 199) and Lord Brougham (_Men of
+        Letters_, vol. i. p. 98) are probably in error in assigning it to
+        1757. In regard to its title, I translate 'M[oe]urs' as 'morals
+        and manners;' for M. Tocqueville uses 'm[oe]urs' as equivalent to
+        the Latin word 'mores.' _Tocqueville_, _Démocratie en Amérique_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 50, 84.
+
+  [906] Superficial writers are so much in the habit of calling Voltaire
+        superficial, that it may be well to observe, that his accuracy
+        has been praised, not only by his own countrymen, but by several
+        English authors of admitted learning. For three remarkable
+        instances of this, from men whom no one will accuse of leaning
+        towards his other opinions, see _notes to Charles V._, in
+        _Robertson's Works_, pp. 431, 432; _Barrington's Observations on
+        the Statutes_, p. 293; and _Warton's History of English Poetry_,
+        vol. i. p. xvi. Even Sir W. Jones, in his preface to the _Life of
+        Nader Shah_, says, that Voltaire is 'the best historian' the
+        French have produced. _Works of Sir William Jones_, vol. v. p.
+        542; and compare the preface to his _Persian Grammar_, in
+        _Works_, vol. ii. p. 123.
+
+  [907] 'Je voudrais découvrir quelle était alors la société des hommes,
+        comment on vivait dans l'intérieur des familles, quels arts
+        étaient cultivés, plutôt que de répéter tant de malheurs et tant
+        de combats, funestes objets de l'histoire, et lieux communs de la
+        méchanceté humaine.' _Essai sur les M[oe]urs_, chap. lxxxi., in
+        _[OE]uvres_, vol. xvi. p. 381.
+
+  [908] 'L'objet était l'histoire de l'esprit humain, et non pas le détail
+        des faits presque toujours défigurés; il ne s'agissait pas de
+        rechercher, par exemple, de quelle famille était le seigneur de
+        Puiset, ou le seigneur de Montlheri, qui firent la guerre à des
+        rois de France; mais de voir par quels degrés on est parvenu de
+        la rusticité barbare de ces temps à la politesse du nôtre.'
+        Supplement to _Essai sur les M[oe]urs_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol.
+        xviii. p. 435. Compare _Fragments sur l'Histoire_, vol. xxvii. p.
+        214, with two letters in vol. lx. pp. 153, 154, vol. lxv. p. 370.
+
+It was in this way that Voltaire taught historians to concentrate their
+attention on matters of real importance, and to neglect those idle
+details with which history had formerly been filled. But what proves
+this to be a movement arising as much from the spirit of the age as from
+the individual author, is, that we find precisely the same tendency in
+the works of Montesquieu and Turgot, who were certainly the two most
+eminent of the contemporaries of Voltaire; and both of whom followed a
+method similar to his, in so far as, omitting descriptions of kings,
+courts, and battles, they confined themselves to points which illustrate
+the character of mankind, and the general march of civilization. And
+such was the popularity of this change in the old routine, that its
+influence was felt by other historians of inferior, but still of
+considerable, ability. In 1755, Mallet[909] published his interesting,
+and, at the time it was written, most valuable work, on the history of
+Denmark;[910] in which he professes himself a pupil of the new school.
+'For why,' he says, 'should history be only a recital of battles,
+sieges, intrigues, and negotiations? And why should it contain merely a
+heap of petty facts and dates, rather than a great picture of the
+opinions, customs, and even inclinations of a people?'[911] Thus too, in
+1765, Mably published the first part of his celebrated work on the
+history of France;[912] in the preface to which, he complains that
+historians 'have neglected the origin of laws and customs, in favour of
+sieges and battles.'[913] In the same spirit, Velly and Villaret, in
+their voluminous history of France, express regret that historians
+should usually relate what happens to the sovereign, in preference to
+what happens to the people, and should omit the manners and
+characteristics of a nation, in order to study the acts of a single
+man.[914] Duclos, again, announces that his history is not of war, nor
+of politics, but of men and manners:[915] while, strange to say, even
+the courtly Hénault declares that his object was to describe laws and
+manners, which he calls the soul of history, or rather history
+itself.[916]
+
+  [909] Mallet, though born in Geneva, was a Frenchman in the habits of
+        his mind: he wrote in French, and is classed among French
+        historians, in the report presented to Napoleon by the Institut.
+        _Dacier_, _Rapport sur les Progrès de l'Histoire_, p. 173.
+
+  [910] Göthe, in his Autobiography, mentions his obligations to this
+        work, which, I suspect, exercised considerable influence over the
+        early associations of his mind: 'Ich hatte die Fabeln der Edda
+        schon längst aus der Vorrede zu Mallet's Dänischer Geschichte
+        kennen gelernt, und mich derselben sogleich bemächtigt; sie
+        gehörten unter diejenigen Mährchen, die ich, von einer
+        Gesellschaft aufgefordert, am liebsten erzählte.' _Wahrheit u.
+        Dichtung_, in _Goethe's Werke_, vol. ii. part ii. p. 169. Percy,
+        a very fair judge, thought highly of Mallet's history, part of
+        which, indeed, he translated. See a letter from him, in
+        _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. vii.
+        p. 719.
+
+  [911] _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, edit. Blackell, 1847, p. 78.
+
+  [912] The first two volumes were published in 1765; the other two in
+        1790. _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. pp. 9, 12.
+
+  [913] _Mably_, _Observ. sur l'Hist. de France_, vol. i. p. ii.; and
+        compare vol. iii. p. 289: but this latter passage was written
+        several years later.
+
+  [914] 'Bornés à nous apprendre les victoires ou les défaites du
+        souverain, ils ne nous disent rien ou presque rien des peuples
+        qu'il a rendus heureux ou malheureux. On ne trouve dans leurs
+        écrits que longues descriptions de sièges et de batailles; nulle
+        mention des m[oe]urs et de l'esprit de la nation. Elle y est
+        presque toujours sacrifiée à un seul homme.' _Histoire de France
+        par Velly_, Paris, 1770, 4to, vol. i. p. 6; and see, to the same
+        effect, the _Continuation by Villaret_, vol. v. p. vi.
+
+ [915] 'Si l'histoire que j'écris n'est ni militaire, ni politique, ni
+        économique, du moins dans le sens que je conçois pour ces
+        différentes parties, on me demandera quelle est donc celle que je
+        me propose d'écrire. C'est l'histoire des hommes et des
+        m[oe]urs.' _Duclos_, _Louis XIV et Louis XV_, vol. i. p. xxv.
+
+  [916] 'Je voulois connoître nos loix, nos m[oe]urs, et tout ce qui est
+        l'âme de l'histoire, ou plutôt l'histoire même.' _Hénault_,
+        _Nouvel Abrégé chronologique de l'Histoire de France_, edit.
+        Paris, 1775, vol. i. p. i.
+
+Thus it was, that historians began to shift, as it were, the scene of
+their labours, and to study subjects connected with those popular
+interests, on which the great writers under Louis XIV. disdained to
+waste a thought. I need hardly observe, how agreeable such views were
+to the general spirit of the eighteenth century, and how well they
+harmonized with the temper of men who were striving to lay aside their
+former prejudices, and despise what had once been universally admired.
+All this was but part of that vast movement, which prepared the way for
+the Revolution, by unsettling ancient opinions, by encouraging a certain
+mobility and restlessness of mind, and, above all, by the disrespect it
+showed for those powerful individuals, hitherto regarded as gods rather
+than as men, but who now, for the first time, were neglected by the
+greatest and most popular historians, who passed over even their
+prominent actions, in order to dwell upon the welfare of nations, and
+the interests of the people at large.
+
+To return, however, to what was actually effected by Voltaire, there is
+no doubt that, in his case, this tendency of the time was strengthened
+by a natural comprehensiveness of mind, which predisposed him to large
+views, and made him dissatisfied with that narrow range to which history
+had been hitherto confined.[917] Whatever may be thought of the other
+qualities of Voltaire, it must be allowed that, in his intellect,
+everything was on a great scale.[918] Always prepared for thought, and
+always ready to generalize, he was averse to the study of individual
+actions, unless they could be made available for the establishment of
+some broad and permanent principle. Hence his habit of looking at
+history with a view to the stages through which the country had passed,
+rather than with a view to the character of the men by whom the country
+had been governed. The same tendency appears in his lighter works; and
+it has been well observed,[919] that, even in his dramas, he endeavours
+to portray, not so much the passions of individuals, as the spirit of
+epochs. In _Mahomet_, his subject is a great religion; in _Alzire_, the
+conquest of America; in _Brutus_, the formation of the Roman power; in
+the _Death of Cæsar_, the rise of the empire upon the ruins of that
+power.[920]
+
+  [917] In 1763, he writes to D'Argental: 'il y a environ douze batailles
+        dont je n'ai point parlé, Dieu merci, parceque j'écris l'histoire
+        de l'esprit humain, et non une gazette.' _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. lxiii. p. 51. See also his letter to Tabareau (_Lettres
+        inédites de Voltaire_, vol. ii. p. 585): 'Personne ne lit les
+        détails des combats et des sièges; rien n'est plus ennuyeux que
+        la droite et la gauche, les bastions et la contrescarpe.'
+
+  [918] M. Lamartine characterizes him as 'ce génie non pas le plus haut,
+        mais le plus vaste de la France.' _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. i.
+        p. 180.
+
+  [919] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xlix. p. 493. His _Orphelin de la Chine_ is
+        taken from Chinese sources: see _Davis's China_, vol. ii. p. 258.
+
+  [920] The surprising versatility of Voltaire's mind is shown by the
+        fact, unparalleled in literature, that he was equally great as a
+        dramatic writer and as an historian. Mr. Forster, in his
+        admirable _Life of Goldsmith_, 1854, says (vol. i. p. 119),
+        'Gray's high opinion of Voltaire's tragedies is shared by one of
+        our greatest authorities on such a matter now living, Sir Edward
+        Bulwer Lytton, whom I have often heard maintain the marked
+        superiority of Voltaire over all his countrymen in the knowledge
+        of dramatic art, and the power of producing theatrical effects.'
+        Compare _Correspondence of Gray and Mason_, edit. Mitford, 1855,
+        p. 44.
+
+By this determination to look upon the course of events as a great and
+connected whole, Voltaire was led to several results, which have been
+complacently adopted by many authors, who, even while using them, revile
+him from whom they were taken. He was the first historian who, rejecting
+the ordinary method of investigation, endeavoured, by large general
+views, to explain the origin of feudality; and, by indicating some of
+the causes of its decline in the fourteenth century,[921] he laid the
+foundation for a philosophic estimate of that important
+institution.[922] He was the author of a profound remark, afterwards
+adopted by Constant, to the effect, that licentious religious
+ceremonies have no connexion with licentious national morals.[923]
+Another observation of his, which has been only partly used by writers
+on ecclesiastical history, is pregnant with instruction. He says, that
+one of the reasons why the bishops of Rome acquired an authority so
+superior to that of the eastern patriarchs, was the greater subtlety of
+the Greek mind. Nearly all the heresies proceeded from the east; and,
+with the exception of Honorius I., not a single pope adopted a system
+condemned by the church. This gave to the papal power an unity and
+consolidation, which the patriarchal power was unable to reach; and thus
+the Holy See owes part of its authority to the early dulness of the
+European fancy.[924]
+
+  [921] _Essai sur les M[oe]urs_, chap. lxxxv., in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xvi.
+        p. 412, and elsewhere.
+
+  [922] During the eighteenth century, and, I may say, until the
+        publication in 1818 of Hallam's Middle Ages, there was in the
+        English language no comprehensive account of the feudal system;
+        unless, perhaps, we except that given by Robertson, who in this,
+        as in many other matters of history, was a pupil of Voltaire. Not
+        only Dalrymple, and writers of his kind, but even Blackstone,
+        took so narrow a view of this great institution, that they were
+        unable to connect it with the general state of society to which
+        it belonged. Some of our historians gravely traced it back to
+        Moses, in whose laws they found the origin of allodial lands. See
+        a charming passage in _Barry's History of the Orkney Islands_, p.
+        219. On the spirit of feudality, there are some remarks well
+        worth reading in _Comtés Philos. Posit._ vol. v. pp. 393-413.
+
+  [923] Constant, in his work on Roman polytheism, says, 'des rites
+        indécens peuvent être pratiqués par un peuple religieux avec une
+        grande pureté de c[oe]ur. Mais quand l'incrédulité atteint ces
+        peuples, ces rites sont pour lui la cause et le prétexte de la
+        plus révoltante corruption.' This passage is quoted by Mr.
+        Milman, who calls it 'extremely profound and just.' _Milman's
+        History of Christianity_, 1840, vol. i. p. 28. And so it
+        is--extremely profound and just. But it happens that precisely
+        the same remark was made by Voltaire, just about the time that
+        Constant was born. Speaking of the worship of Priapus, he says
+        (_Essai sur les M[oe]urs_, chap. cxliii. in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xvii. p. 341), 'nos idées de bienséance nous
+        portent à croire qu'un cérémonie qui nous paraît si infâme n'a
+        été inventée que par la débauche; mais il n'est guère croyable
+        que la dépravation des m[oe]urs ait jamais chez aucun peuple
+        établi des cérémonies religieuses. Il est probable, au contraire,
+        que cette coutume fut d'abord introduite dans les temps de
+        simplicité, et qu'on ne pensa d'abord qu'à honorer la Divinité
+        dans le symbole de la vie qu'elle nous a donnée. Une telle
+        cérémonie a dû inspirer la licence à la jeunesse, et paraître
+        ridicule aux esprits sages, dans les temps plus raffinés, plus
+        corrompus, et plus éclairés.' Compare the remarks on the
+        indecency of the Spartan customs, in _Thirlwall's Hist. of
+        Greece_, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.
+
+ [924] _Essai sur les M[oe]urs_, chaps. xiv. and xxxi., in _[OE]uvres_,
+        vol. xv. pp. 391, 514. Neander observes, that in the Greek church
+        there were more heresies than in the Latin church, because the
+        Greeks thought more; but he has failed to perceive how this
+        favoured the authority of the popes. _Neander's History of the
+        Church_, vol. ii. pp. 198, 199, vol. iii. pp. 191, 492, vol. iv.
+        p. 90, vol. vi. p. 293, vol. viii. p. 257.
+
+It would be impossible to relate all the original remarks of Voltaire,
+which, when he made them, were attacked as dangerous paradoxes, and are
+now valued as sober truths. He was the first historian who recommended
+universal freedom of trade; and, although he expresses himself with
+great caution,[925] still the mere announcement of the idea in a popular
+history forms an epoch in the progress of the French mind. He is the
+originator of that important distinction between the increase of
+population and the increase of food, to which political economy has been
+greatly indebted;[926] a principle adopted several years later by
+Townsend, and then used by Malthus as the basis of his celebrated
+work.[927] He has, moreover, the merit of being the first who dispelled
+the childish admiration with which the Middle Ages had been hitherto
+regarded, and which they owed to those dull and learned writers, who, in
+the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were the principal
+investigators of the early history of Europe. These industrious
+compilers had collected extensive materials, which Voltaire turned to
+good account, and by their aid overthrew the conclusions at which the
+authors had themselves arrived. In his works, the Middle Ages are, for
+the first time, represented as what they really were,--a period of
+ignorance, ferocity, and licentiousness; a period when injuries were
+unredressed, crime unpunished, and superstition unrebuked. It may be
+said, with some show of justice, that Voltaire, in the picture he drew,
+fell into the opposite extreme, and did not sufficiently recognize the
+merit of those truly great men, who, at long intervals, stood here and
+there, like solitary beacons, whose light only made the surrounding
+darkness more visible. Still, after every allowance for that
+exaggeration which a reaction of opinions always causes, it is certain
+that his view of the Middle Ages is not only far more accurate than that
+of any preceding writer, but conveys a much juster idea of the time than
+can be found in those subsequent compilations which we owe to the
+industry of modern antiquaries; a simple and plodding race, who admire
+the past because they are ignorant of the present, and who, spending
+their lives amid the dust of forgotten manuscripts, think themselves
+able, with the resources of their little learning, to speculate on the
+affairs of men, to trace the history of different periods, and even to
+assign to each the praise it ought to receive.
+
+  [925] In his account of the trade of Archangel, he says, 'les Anglais
+        obtinrent le privilége d'y commercer sans payer aucun droit; et
+        c'est ainsi que toutes les nations devraient peut-être négocier
+        ensemble.' _Hist. de Russie_, part i. chap. i., in _[OE]uvres_,
+        vol. xxiii. p. 35. Remarkable words to have been written by a
+        Frenchman, born at the end of the seventeenth century; and yet
+        they have, so far as I am aware, escaped the attention of all the
+        historians of political economy. Indeed, on this, as on most
+        matters, sufficient justice has not been done to Voltaire, whose
+        opinions were more accurate than those of Quesnay and his
+        followers. However, Mr. M'Culloch, in noticing one of the
+        economical errors of Voltaire, honestly admits that his 'opinions
+        on such subjects are, for the most part, very correct.'
+        _M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy_, p. 530. For proof
+        of his sympathy with Turgot's efforts to establish free trade,
+        compare _Lettres inédites de Voltaire_, vol. ii. pp. 367, 403,
+        423, with _Longchamp_, _Mém. sur Voltaire_, vol. i. pp. 376, 378.
+
+  [926] 'The idea of the different ratios by which population and food
+        increase, was originally thrown out by Voltaire; and was picked
+        up and expanded into many a goodly volume by our English
+        political economists in the present century.' _Laing's Notes_,
+        second series, p. 42.
+
+  [927] It is often said that Malthus was indebted to Townsend's writings
+        for his views on population; but this obligation has been too
+        strongly stated, as, indeed, is always the case when charges of
+        plagiarism are brought against great works. Still, Townsend is to
+        be considered as the precursor of Malthus; and if the reader is
+        interested in tracing the paternity of ideas, he will find some
+        interesting economical remarks in _Townsend's Journey through
+        Spain_, vol. i. pp. 379, 383, vol. ii. pp. 85, 337, 387-393;
+        which must be compared with _M'Culloch's Literature of Political
+        Economy_, pp. 259, 281-3. Voltaire having preceded these authors,
+        has, of course, fallen into errors which they avoided; but
+        nothing can be better than the way in which he opposes the
+        ignorant belief of his own time, that every thing should be done
+        to increase population. 'Le point principal n'est pas d'avoir du
+        superflu en hommes, mais de rendre ce que nous en avons le moins
+        malheureux qu'il est possible,' is the summing-up of his able
+        remarks, in _Dict. Philos._, article _Population_, sect. 2, in
+        _[OE]uvres_, vol. xli. p. 466. Godwin, in his notice of the
+        history of these opinions, is evidently ignorant of what was done
+        by Voltaire. _Sinclair's Corresp._ vol. i. p. 396.
+
+With such writers as these, Voltaire was always at war; and no one has
+done so much to lessen the influence they once exercised over even the
+highest branches of knowledge. There was also another class of
+dictators, whose authority this great man was equally successful in
+reducing, namely, the old class of classical scholars and commentators,
+who, from the middle of the fourteenth till early in the eighteenth
+century, were the chief dispensers of fame, and were respected as being
+by far the most distinguished men Europe had ever produced. The first
+great assaults made upon them were late in the seventeenth century, when
+two controversies sprung up, of which I shall hereafter give an
+account,--one in France, and one in England,--by both of which their
+power was considerably damaged. But their two most formidable opponents
+were, undoubtedly, Locke and Voltaire. The immense services rendered by
+Locke in lessening the reputation of the old classical school, will be
+examined in another part of this work; at present we are only concerned
+with the steps taken by Voltaire.
+
+The authority wielded by the great classical scholars rested not only on
+their abilities, which are undeniable, but also on the supposed dignity
+of their pursuits. It was generally believed that ancient history
+possessed some inherent superiority over modern history; and this being
+taken for granted, the inference naturally followed, that the
+cultivators of the one were more praiseworthy than the cultivators of
+the other; and that a Frenchman, for instance, who should write the
+history of some Greek republic, displayed a nobler turn of mind than if
+he had written the history of his own country. This singular prejudice
+had for centuries been a traditional notion; which men accepted, because
+they had received it from their fathers, and which it would have been
+almost an impiety to dispute. The result was, that the few really able
+writers on history devoted themselves chiefly to that of the ancients;
+or, if they published an account of modern times, they handled their
+theme, not according to modern ideas, but according to ideas gathered
+from their more favourite pursuit. This confusion of the standard of
+one age with the standard of another, caused a double evil. Historians,
+by adopting this plan, injured the originality of their own minds; and,
+what was far worse, they set a bad example to the literature of their
+country. For every great nation has a mode of expression, and of
+thought, peculiar to itself, and with which its sympathies are
+intimately connected. To introduce any foreign model, however admirable
+it may be, is to violate this connexion, and to impair the value of
+literature by limiting the scope of its action. By such a course, the
+taste may possibly be refined, but the vigour will certainly be
+weakened. Indeed, the refinement of the taste may well be doubted, when
+we see what has taken place in our country, where our great scholars
+have corrupted the English language by a jargon so uncouth, that a plain
+man can hardly discern the real lack of ideas which their barbarous and
+mottled dialect strives to hide.[928] At all events, it is certain, that
+every people worthy of being called a nation, possess in their own
+language ample resources for expressing the highest ideas they are able
+to form; and although, in matters of science, it may be convenient to
+coin such words as are more easily understood in foreign countries, it
+is a grave offence to depart on other subjects from the vernacular
+speech; and it is a still graver one, to introduce notions and
+standards for action, suited perhaps to former times, but which the
+march of society has left far behind, and with which we have no real
+sympathy, though they may excite that sickly and artificial interest
+which the classical prejudices of early education still contrive to
+create.
+
+  [928] With the single exception of Porson, not one of the great English
+        scholars has shown an appreciation of the beauties of his native
+        language; and many of them, such as Parr (in all his works) and
+        Bentley (in his mad edition of Milton), have done every thing in
+        their power to corrupt it. And there can be little doubt, that
+        the principal reason why well-educated women write and converse
+        in a purer style than well-educated men, is because they have not
+        formed their taste according to those ancient classical
+        standards, which, admirable as they are in themselves, should
+        never be introduced into a state of society unfitted for them. To
+        this may be added, that Cobbett, the most racy and idiomatic of
+        all our writers, and Erskine, by far the greatest of our forensic
+        orators, knew little or nothing of any ancient language; and the
+        same observation applies to Shakespeare. On the supposed
+        connexion between the improvement of taste and the study of
+        classical models, there are some remarks worth attending to in
+        _Rey's Théorie et Pratique de la Science Sociale_, vol. i.
+        pp. 98-101.
+
+It was against these evils that Voltaire entered the field. The wit and
+the ridicule with which he attacked the dreaming scholars of his own
+time, can only be appreciated by those who have studied his works. Not,
+as some have supposed, that he used these weapons as a substitute for
+argument, still less that he fell into the error of making ridicule a
+test for truth. No one could reason more closely than Voltaire, when
+reasoning suited his purpose. But he had to deal with men impervious to
+argument; men whose inordinate reverence for antiquity had only left
+them two ideas, namely, that every thing old is right, and that every
+thing new is wrong. To argue against these opinions would be idle
+indeed; the only other resource was, to make them ridiculous, and weaken
+their influence, by holding up their authors to contempt. This was one
+of the tasks Voltaire set himself to perform; and he did it well.[929]
+He, therefore, used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the
+scourge of folly. And with such effect was the punishment administered,
+that not only did the pedants and theologians of his own time wince
+under the lash, but even their successors feel their ears tingle when
+they read his biting words; and they revenge themselves by reviling the
+memory of that great writer, whose works are as a thorn in their side,
+and whose very name they hold in undisguised abhorrence.
+
+  [929] 'We can best judge, from the Jesuitical rage with which he was
+        persecuted, how admirably he had delineated the weaknesses and
+        presumption of the interpreters of the ancients, who shone in the
+        schools and academies, and had acquired great reputation by their
+        various and copiously exhibited learning.' _Schlosser's
+        Eighteenth Century_, vol. i. p. 120. At p. 270, M. Schlosser
+        says, 'And it was only a man of Voltaire's wit and talents, who
+        could throw the light of an entirely new criticism upon the
+        darkness of those grabbing and collecting pedants.'
+
+These two classes have, indeed, reasons enough for the hatred with
+which they still regard the greatest Frenchman of the eighteenth
+century. For, Voltaire did more than any other man to sap the foundation
+of ecclesiastical power, and to destroy the supremacy of classical
+studies. This is not the place for discussing the theological opinions
+which he attacked; but of the state of classical opinions an idea may be
+formed, by considering some of those circumstances which were recorded
+by the ancients respecting their history, and which, until the
+appearance of Voltaire, were implicitly believed by modern scholars, and
+through them by the people at large.
+
+It was believed that, in ancient times, Mars ravished a virgin, and that
+the offspring of the intrigue were no other than Romulus and Remus, both
+of whom it was intended to put to death; but they were fortunately saved
+by the attentions of a she-wolf and a woodpecker; the wolf giving them
+suck, and the woodpecker protecting them from insects. It was, moreover,
+believed that Romulus and Remus, when grown up to man's estate,
+determined to build a city, and that, being joined by the descendants of
+the Trojan warriors, they succeeded in erecting Rome. It was believed
+that both brothers came to an untimely end; Remus being murdered, and
+Romulus being taken up to heaven by his father, who descended for that
+purpose in the midst of a tempest. The great scholars then proceeded to
+relate the succession of several other kings; the most remarkable of
+whom was Numa, whose only communications with his wife were carried on
+in a sacred grove. Another of the sovereigns of Rome was Tullus
+Hostilius, who, having offended the clergy, perished from the effects of
+their anger; his death being caused by lightning, and preceded by
+pestilence. Then again, there was one Servius Tullius, who was also a
+king, and whose greatness was prognosticated by the appearance of flames
+round his head as he was sleeping in his cradle. After this, it was but
+a slight matter that the ordinary laws of mortality should be suspended;
+we were, therefore, assured that those ignorant barbarians, the early
+Romans, passed two hundred and forty-five years under the government of
+only seven kings, all of whom were elected in the prime of life, one of
+whom was expelled the city, and three of whom were put to death.
+
+These are a few of the idle stories in which the great scholars took
+intense delight, and which, during many centuries, were supposed to form
+a necessary part of the annals of the Latin empire. Indeed, so universal
+was the credulity, that, until they were destroyed by Voltaire, there
+were only four writers who had ventured openly to attack them.
+Cluverius, Perizonius, Pouilly, and Beaufort were the names of these
+bold innovators; but by none of them was any impression made on the
+public mind. The works of Cluverius and Perizonius, being composed in
+Latin, were addressed entirely to a class of readers who, infatuated
+with a love of antiquity, would listen to nothing that diminished the
+reputation of its history. Pouilly and Beaufort wrote in French; both of
+them, and especially Beaufort, were men of considerable ability; but
+their powers were not versatile enough to enable them to extirpate
+prejudices which were so strongly protected, and which had been fostered
+by the education of many successive generations.
+
+The service, therefore, rendered by Voltaire in purging history of these
+foolish conceits, is, not that he was the first by whom they were
+attacked, but that he was the first to attack them with success; and
+this because he was also the first who mingled ridicule with argument,
+thus not only assailing the system, but also weakening the authority of
+those by whom the system was supported. His irony, his wit, his pungent
+and telling sarcasms, produced more effect than the gravest arguments
+could have done; and there can be no doubt that he was fully justified
+in using those great resources with which nature had endowed him, since
+by their aid he advanced the interests of truth, and relieved men from
+some of their most inveterate prejudices.
+
+It is not, however, to be supposed that ridicule was the only means
+employed by Voltaire in effecting this important object. So far from
+that, I can say with confidence, after a careful comparison of both
+writers, that the most decisive arguments advanced by Niebuhr against
+the early history of Rome, had all been anticipated by Voltaire; in
+whose works they may be found, by whoever will take the trouble of
+reading what this great man has written, instead of ignorantly railing
+against him. Without entering into needless detail, it is enough to
+mention that, amidst a great variety of very ingenious and very learned
+discussion, Niebuhr has put forward several views with which later
+critics have been dissatisfied; but that there are three, and only
+three, principles which are fundamental to his history, and which it is
+impossible to refute. These are:--I. That, on account of the inevitable
+intermixture of fable essential to a rude people, no nation can possess
+trustworthy details respecting its own origin. II. That even such early
+documents as the Romans might have possessed, had been destroyed before
+they were incorporated into a regular history. III. That ceremonies
+established in honour of certain events alleged to have taken place in
+former times, were a proof, not that the events had happened, but that
+they were believed to have happened. The whole fabric of the early
+history of Rome at once fell to pieces, as soon as these three
+principles were applied to it. What, however, is most remarkable, is,
+that not only are all three laid down by Voltaire, but their bearing
+upon Roman history is distinctly shown. He says that no nation is
+acquainted with its own origin; so that all primitive history is
+necessarily an invention.[930] He remarks, that since even such
+historical works as the Romans once possessed, were all destroyed when
+their city was burned, no confidence can be placed in the accounts
+which, at a much later period, are given by Livy and other
+compilers.[931] And, as innumerable scholars busied themselves in
+collecting evidence respecting ceremonies instituted in celebration of
+certain events, and then appealed to the evidence in order to prove the
+events, Voltaire makes a reflection which now seems very obvious, but
+which these learned men had entirely overlooked. He notices, that their
+labour is bootless, because the date of the evidence is, with extremely
+few exceptions, much later than the date of the event to which it
+refers. In such cases, the existence of a festival, or of a monument,
+proves, indeed, the belief which men entertain, but by no means proves
+the reality of the occurrence concerning which the belief is held.[932]
+This simple, but important maxim, is, even in our own days, constantly
+lost sight of, while before the eighteenth century it was universally
+neglected. Hence it was that historians were able to accumulate fables
+which were believed without examination;[933] it being altogether
+forgotten, that fables, as Voltaire says, begin to be current in one
+generation, are established in the second, become respectable in the
+third, while in the fourth generation temples are raised in honour of
+them.[934]
+
+  [930] 'C'est l'imagination seule qui a écrit les premières histoires.
+        Non seulement chaque peuple inventa son origine, mais il inventa
+        aussi l'origine du monde entier.' _Dict. Philos._ article
+        _Histoire_, sec. 2, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xl. p. 195. See also his
+        article on Chronology, vol. xxxviii. p. 77, for the application
+        of this to the history of Rome, where he says, 'Tite Live n'a
+        garde de dire en quelle année Romulus commença son prétendu
+        règne.' And at vol. xxxvi. p. 86, 'tous les peuples se sont
+        attribués des origines imaginaires; et aucun n'a touché à la
+        véritable.'
+
+  [931] 'Qu'on fasse attention que la république romaine a été cinq cents
+        ans sans historiens; que Tite Live lui-même déplore la perte des
+        autres monuments qui périrent presque tous dans l'incendie de
+        Rome,' &c. _Dict. Philos._ in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xl. p. 202. At p.
+        188, 'ce peuple, si récent en comparaison des nations asiatiques,
+        a été cinq cents années sans historiens. Ainsi, il n'est pas
+        surprenant que Romulus ait été le fils de Mars, qu'une louve ait
+        été sa nourrice, qu'il ait marché avec mille hommes de son
+        village de Rome contre vingt-cinq mille combattants du village
+        des Sabins.'
+
+  [932] 'Par quel excès de démence, par quel opiniâtreté absurde, tant de
+        compilateurs ont-ils voulu prouver dans tant de volumes énormes,
+        qu'une fête publique établie en mémoire d'un événement était une
+        démonstration de la vérité de cet événement?' _Essai sur les
+        M[oe]urs_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xv. p. 109. See also the same
+        remark applied to monuments, in chap. cxcvii., _[OE]uvres_, vol.
+        xviii. pp. 412-414; and again, in vol. xl. pp. 203, 204.
+
+  [933] 'La plupart des histoires out été crues sans examen, et cette
+        créance est un préjugé. Fabius Pictor raconte que, plusieurs
+        siècles avant lui, une vestale de la ville d'Albe, allant puiser
+        de l'eau dans sa cruche, fut violée, qu'elle accoucha de Romulus
+        et de Rémus, qu'ils furent nourris par une louve, etc. Le peuple
+        romain crut cette fable; il n'examina point si dans ce temps-là
+        il y avait des vestales dans le Latium, s'il était vraisemblable
+        que la fille d'un roi sortît de son couvent avec sa cruche, s'il
+        était probable qu'une louve allaitât deux enfants au lieu de les
+        manger; le préjugé s'établit.' _Dict. Philos._ article
+        _Préjugés_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xli. pp. 488, 489.
+
+  [934] 'Les amateurs du merveilleux disaient: Il faut bien que ces faits
+        soient vrais, puisque tant de monuments en sont la preuve. Et
+        nous disions: Il faut bien qu'ils soient faux, puisque le
+        vulgaire les a crus. Une fable a quelque cours dans une
+        génération; elle s'établit dans la seconde; elle devient
+        respectable dans la troisième; la quatrième lui élève des
+        temples.' _Fragments sur l'Histoire_, article i. in _[OE]uvres_,
+        vol. xxvii. pp. 158, 159.
+
+I have been the more particular in stating the immense obligations
+history is under to Voltaire, because in England there exists against
+him a prejudice, which nothing but ignorance, or something worse than
+ignorance, can excuse;[935] and because, taking him on the whole, he is
+probably the greatest historian Europe has yet produced. In reference,
+however, to the mental habits of the eighteenth century, it is important
+to show, that in the same period similar comprehensiveness was being
+displayed by other French historians; so that in this case, as in all
+others, we shall find that a large share of what is effected, even by
+the most eminent men, is due to the character of the age in which they
+live.
+
+  [935] In this case, as in many others, ignorance has been fortified by
+        bigotry; for, as Lord Campbell truly says of Voltaire, 'since the
+        French Revolution, an indiscriminate abuse of this author has
+        been in England the test of orthodoxy and loyalty.' _Campbell's
+        Chief Justices_, vol. ii. p. 335. Indeed, so extensively has the
+        public mind been prejudiced against this great man, that, until a
+        very few years ago, when Lord Brougham published a life of him,
+        there was no book in the English language containing even a
+        tolerable account of one of the most influential writers France
+        has produced. This work of Lord Brougham's, though a middling
+        performance, is at least an honest one, and, as it harmonizes
+        with the general spirit of our time, it has probably had
+        considerable weight. In it he says of Voltaire, 'nor can any one
+        since the days of Luther be named, to whom the spirit of free
+        inquiry, nay, the emancipation of the human mind from spiritual
+        tyranny, owes a more lasting debt of gratitude.' _Brougham's Life
+        of Voltaire_, p. 132. It is certain, that the better the history
+        of the eighteenth century is understood, the more the reputation
+        of Voltaire will increase; as was clearly foreseen by a
+        celebrated writer nearly a generation ago. In 1831, Lerminier
+        wrote these remarkable, and, as the result has proved, prophetic
+        words: 'Il est temps de revenir à des sentimens plus respectueux
+        pour la mémoire de Voltaire.... Voltaire a fait pour la France ce
+        que Leibnitz a fait pour l'Allemagne; pendant trois-quarts de
+        siècle il a représenté son pays, puissant à la manière de Luther
+        et de Napoléon; il est destiné à survivre à bien des gloires, et
+        je plains ceux qui se sont oubliés jusqu'à laisser tomber des
+        paroles dédaigneuses sur le génie de cet homme.' _Lerminier_,
+        _Philosophie du Droit_, vol. i. p. 199. Compare the glowing
+        eulogy in _Longchamp et Wagnière_, _Mémoires sur Voltaire_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 388, 389, with the remarks of Saint-Lambert, in _Mém.
+        d'Epinay_, vol. i. p. 263.
+
+The vast labours of Voltaire towards reforming the old method of writing
+history, were greatly aided by those important works which Montesquieu
+put forward during the same period. In 1734,[936] this remarkable man
+published what may be truly called the first book in which there can be
+found any information concerning the real history of Rome; because it is
+also the first in which the affairs of the ancient world are treated in
+a large and comprehensive spirit.[937] Fourteen years later, there
+appeared, by the same author, the _Spirit of Laws_; a more famous
+production, but, as it seems to me, not a greater one. The immense merit
+of the _Spirit of Laws_ is, indeed, incontestable, and cannot be
+affected by the captious attempts made to diminish it by those minute
+critics, who seem to think that when they detect the occasional errors
+of a great man, they in some degree reduce him to their own level. It is
+not such petty cavilling which can destroy an European reputation; and
+the noble work of Montesquieu will long survive all attacks of this
+kind, because its large and suggestive generalizations would retain
+their value even if the particular facts of which the illustrations
+consist were all unfounded.[938] Still, I am inclined to believe, that
+in point of original thought it is barely equal to his earlier work,
+though it is unquestionably the fruit of much greater reading. Without,
+however, instituting a comparison between them, our present object is
+merely to consider the contributions they jointly contain towards a
+right understanding of history, and the way in which those contributions
+are connected with the general spirit of the eighteenth century.
+
+  [936] _Vie de Montesquieu_, p. xiv., prefixed to his works.
+
+  [937] Before Montesquieu, the only two great thinkers who had really
+        studied Roman history were Macchiavelli and Vico: but
+        Macchiavelli did not attempt any thing approaching the
+        generalizations of Montesquieu, and he suffered, moreover, from
+        the serious deficiency of being too much occupied with the
+        practical utility of his subject. Vico, whose genius was perhaps
+        even more vast than that of Montesquieu, can hardly be considered
+        his rival; for, though his _Scienza Nova_ contains the most
+        profound views on ancient history, they are rather glimpses of
+        truth, than a systematic investigation of any one period.
+
+  [938] Which M. Guizot (_Civilisation en France_, vol. iv. p. 36), in
+        his remarks on the _Esprit des Lois_, does not take sufficiently
+        into consideration. A juster appreciation of Montesquieu will be
+        found in _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, part ii. vol. i. p.
+        182; and in _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iv. pp.
+        243-252, 261. Compare _Charles Comte_, _Traité de Législation_,
+        vol. i. p. 125, with _Meyer_, _Esprit des Institutions
+        Judiciaires_, vol. i. p. lxi., respecting the vast innovations he
+        introduced.
+
+In this point of view, there are, in the works of Montesquieu, two
+leading peculiarities. The first is, the complete rejection of those
+personal anecdotes, and those trivial details respecting individuals,
+which belong to biography, but with which, as Montesquieu clearly saw,
+history has no concern. The other peculiarity is, the very remarkable
+attempt which he first made to effect an union between the history of
+man and those sciences which deal with the external world. As these are
+the two great characteristics of the method adopted by Montesquieu, it
+will be necessary to give some account of them, before we can understand
+the place he really occupies, as one of the founders of the philosophy
+of history.
+
+We have already seen that Voltaire had strongly insisted on the
+necessity of reforming history, by paying more attention to the history
+of the people, and less attention to that of their political and
+military rulers. We have also seen, that this great improvement was so
+agreeable to the spirit of the time, that it was generally and quickly
+adopted, and thus became an indication of those democratic tendencies,
+of which it was in reality a result. It is not, therefore, surprising
+that Montesquieu should have taken the same course, even before the
+movement had been clearly declared; since he, like most great thinkers,
+was a representative of the intellectual condition, and a satisfier of
+the intellectual wants, of the age in which he lived.
+
+But, what constitutes the peculiarity of Montesquieu in this matter, is,
+that with him a contempt for those details respecting courts, ministers,
+and princes, in which ordinary compilers take great delight, was
+accompanied by an equal contempt for other details which are really
+interesting, because they concern the mental habits of the few truly
+eminent men who, from time to time, have appeared on the stage of public
+life. This was because Montesquieu perceived that, though these things
+are very interesting, they are also very unimportant. He knew, what no
+historian before him had even suspected, that in the great march of
+human affairs, individual peculiarities count for nothing; and that,
+therefore, the historian has no business with them, but should leave
+them to the biographer, to whose province they properly belong. The
+consequence is, that not only does he treat the most powerful princes
+with such disregard as to relate the reigns of six emperors in two
+lines,[939] but he constantly enforces the necessity, even in the case
+of eminent men, of subordinating their special influence to the more
+general influence of the surrounding society. Thus, many writers had
+ascribed the ruin of the Roman Republic to the ambition of Cæsar and
+Pompey, and particularly to the deep schemes of Cæsar. This, Montesquieu
+totally denies. According to his view of history, no great alteration
+can be effected, except by virtue of a long train of antecedents, where
+alone we are to seek the cause of what to a superficial eye is the work
+of individuals. The republic, therefore, was overthrown, not by Cæsar
+and Pompey, but by that state of things which made the success of Cæsar
+and Pompey possible.[940] It is thus that the events which ordinary
+historians relate are utterly valueless. Such events, instead of being
+causes, are merely the occasions on which the real causes act.[941] They
+may be called the accidents of history; and they must be treated as
+subservient to those vast and comprehensive conditions, by which alone
+the rise and fall of nations are ultimately governed.[942]
+
+  [939] He says of the emperor Maximin, 'il fut tué avec son fils par ses
+        soldats. Les deux premiers Gordiens périrent en Afrique. Maxime,
+        Balbin, et le troisième Gordien furent massacrés.' _Grandeur et
+        Décadence des Romains_, chap. xvi., in _[OE]uvres de
+        Montesquieu_, p. 167.
+
+  [940] _Ibid._ chap. xi., in _[OE]uvres de Montesquieu_, pp. 149-153.
+        Compare a similar remark, respecting Charles XII., in _Esprit des
+        Lois_, livre x. chap. xiii. _[OE]uvres_, p. 260.
+
+  [941] On the difference between cause and occasion, see _Grandeur et
+        Décad._ chap. i. p. 126.
+
+  [942] 'Il y a des causes générales, soit morales, soit physiques, qui
+        agissent dans chaque monarchie, l'élèvent, la maintiennent, ou la
+        précipitent; tous les accidents sont soumis à ces causes; et si
+        le hasard d'une bataille, c'est-à-dire une cause particulière, a
+        ruiné un état, il y avoit une cause générale qui faisoit que cet
+        état devoit périr par une seule bataille. En un mot, l'allure
+        principale entraîne avec elle tous les accidente particuliers.'
+        _Grand. et Décad. des Romains_, chap. xviii. p. 172.
+
+This, then, was the first great merit of Montesquieu, that he effected a
+complete separation between biography and history, and taught historians
+to study, not the pecularities of individual character, but the general
+aspect of the society in which the peculiarities appeared. If this
+remarkable man had accomplished nothing further, he would have rendered
+an incalculable service to history, by pointing out how one of its most
+fertile sources of error might be safely removed. And although,
+unhappily, we have not yet reaped the full benefit of his example, this
+is because his successors have really had the capacity of rising to so
+high a generalization: it is, however, certain, that since his time, an
+approximation towards such elevated views may be noticed, even among
+those inferior writers who, for want of sufficient grasp, are unable to
+adopt them to their full extent.
+
+In addition to this, Montesquieu made another great advance in the
+method of treating history. He was the first who, in an inquiry into the
+relations between the social conditions of a country and its
+jurisprudence, called in the aid of physical knowledge, in order to
+ascertain how the character of any given civilization is modified by the
+action of the external world. In his work on the _Spirit of Laws_, he
+studies the way in which both the civil and political legislation of a
+people are naturally connected with their climate, soil, and food.[943]
+It is true, that in this vast enterprise he almost entirely failed; but
+this was because meteorology, chemistry, and physiology, were still too
+backward to admit of such an undertaking. This, however, affects the
+value only of his conclusions, not of his method; and here, as
+elsewhere, we see the great thinker tracing the outline of a plan,
+which, in the then state of knowledge, it was impossible to fill up, and
+the completion of which he was obliged to leave to the riper experience
+and more powerful resources of a later age. Thus to anticipate the march
+of the human intellect, and, as it were, forestal its subsequent
+acquisitions, is the peculiar prerogative of minds of the highest order;
+and it is this which gives to the writings of Montesquieu a certain
+fragmentary and provisional appearance, which was the necessary
+consequence of a profoundly speculative genius dealing with materials
+that were intractable, simply because science had not yet reduced them
+to order by generalizing the laws of their phenomena. Hence it is, that
+many of the inferences drawn by Montesquieu are untenable; such, for
+instance, as those regarding the effect of diet in stimulating
+population by increasing the fecundity of women,[944] and the effect of
+climate in altering the proportion between the births of the sexes.[945]
+In other cases, an increased acquaintance with barbarous nations has
+sufficed to correct his conclusions, particularly those concerning the
+effect which he supposed climate to produce on individual character; for
+we have now the most decisive evidence, that he was wrong in
+asserting[946] that hot climates make people unchaste and cowardly,
+while cold climates make them virtuous and brave.
+
+  [943] _De l'Esprit des Lois_, books xiv. to xviii. inclusive; in
+        _[OE]uvres_, pp. 300-336.
+
+  [944] _Ibid._ livre xxiii. chap. xiii. p. 395. Compare _Burdach_,
+        _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ii. p. 116.
+
+  [945] _Ibid._ livre xvi. chap. iv., and livre xxiii. chap. xii.
+        pp. 317, 395.
+
+  [946] _Ibid._ livre xiv. chap. ii., livre xvii. chap. ii., and
+        elsewhere.
+
+These, indeed, are comparatively trifling objections, because, in all
+the highest branches of knowledge, the main difficulty is, not to
+discover facts, but to discover the true method according to which the
+laws of the facts may be ascertained.[947] In this, Montesquieu
+performed a double service, since he not only enriched history, but also
+strengthened its foundation. He enriched history by incorporating with
+it physical inquiries; and he strengthened history by separating it from
+biography, and thus freeing it from details which are always
+unimportant, and often unauthentic. And although he committed the error
+of studying the influence of nature over men considered as
+individuals,[948] rather than over men considered as an aggregate
+society, this arose principally from the fact that, in his time, the
+resources necessary for the more complicated study had not yet been
+created. Those resources, as I have shown, are political economy and
+statistics; political economy supplying the means of connecting the laws
+of physical agents with the laws of the inequality of wealth, and,
+therefore, with a great variety of social disturbances; while statistics
+enable us to verify those laws in their widest extent, and to prove how
+completely the volition of individual men is controlled by their
+antecedents, and by the circumstances in which they are placed. It was,
+therefore, not only natural, but inevitable, that Montesquieu should
+fail in his magnificent attempt to unite the laws of the human mind with
+the laws of external nature. He failed, partly because the sciences of
+external nature were too backward, and partly because those other
+branches of knowledge which connect nature with men were still unformed.
+For, as to political economy, it had no existence as a science until the
+publication of the _Wealth of Nations_ in 1776, twenty-one years after
+the death of Montesquieu. As to statistics, their philosophy is a still
+more recent creation, since it is only during the last thirty years
+that they have been systematically applied to social phenomena; the
+earlier statisticians being merely a body of industrious collectors,
+groping in the dark, bringing together facts of every kind without
+selection or method, and whose labours were consequently unavailable for
+those important purposes to which they have been successfully applied
+during the present generation.
+
+  [947] On the supreme importance of method, see my defence of Bichat in
+        the next chapter.
+
+  [948] How completely futile this was, as regards results, is evident
+        from the fact, that a hundred years after he wrote, we, with all
+        our increased knowledge, can affirm nothing positively respecting
+        the direct action of climate, food, and soil, in modifying
+        individual character; though it has, I trust, appeared in the
+        second chapter of this Introduction, that something can be
+        ascertained respecting their indirect action, that is, their
+        action on individual minds through the medium of social and
+        economical organisation.
+
+Only two years after the publication of the _Spirit of Laws_, Turgot
+delivered those celebrated lectures, of which it has been said, that in
+them he created the philosophy of history.[949] This praise is somewhat
+exaggerated; for in the most important matters relating to the
+philosophy of his subject, he takes the same view as Montesquieu; and
+Montesquieu, besides preceding him in point of time, was his superior
+certainly in learning, perhaps in genius. Still, the merit of Turgot is
+immense; and he belongs to that extremely small class of men who have
+looked at history comprehensively, and have recognized the almost
+boundless knowledge needed for its investigation. In this respect, his
+method is identical with that of Montesquieu, since both of these great
+men excluded from their scheme the personal details which ordinary
+historians accumulate, and concentrated their attention upon those large
+general causes, by the operation of which the destinies of nations are
+permanently affected. Turgot clearly perceived, that, notwithstanding
+the variety of events produced by the play of human passions, there is
+amid this apparent confusion a principle of order, and a regularity of
+march, not to be mistaken by those whose grasp is firm enough to seize
+the history of man as a complete and single whole.[950] It is true that
+Turgot, subsequently engaged in political life, never possessed
+sufficient leisure to fill up the splendid outline of what he so
+successfully sketched: but though in the execution of his plan he fell
+short of Montesquieu, still the analogy between the two men is obvious,
+as also is their relation to the age in which they lived. They, as well
+as Voltaire, were the unconscious advocates of the democratic movement,
+inasmuch as they discountenanced the homage which historians had
+formerly paid to individuals, and rescued history from being a mere
+recital of the deeds of political and ecclesiastical rulers. At the same
+time, Turgot, by the captivating prospects which he held out of future
+progress,[951] and by the picture which he drew of the capacity of
+society to improve itself, increased the impatience which his countrymen
+were beginning to feel against that despotic government, in whose
+presence amelioration seemed to be hopeless. These, and similar
+speculations, which now for the first time appeared in French
+literature, stimulated the activity of the intellectual classes, cheered
+them under the persecutions to which they were exposed, and emboldened
+them to the arduous enterprise of leading on the people to attack the
+institutions of their native land. Thus it was, that in France every
+thing tended to the same result. Every thing indicated the approach of
+some sharp and terrible struggle, in which the spirit of the present
+should war with the spirit of the past; and in which it should be
+finally settled, whether the people of France could free themselves from
+the chains in which they had long been held, or whether, missing their
+aim, they were doomed to sink still lower in that ignominious vassalage,
+which makes even the most splendid periods of their political history a
+warning and a lesson to the civilized world.
+
+  [949] 'Il a créé en 1750 la philosophie de l'histoire dans ses deux
+        discours prononcés en Sorbonne.' _Cousin_, _Hist. de la
+        Philosophie_, I. série, vol. i. p. 147. There is a short notice
+        of these striking productions in _Condorcet_, _Vie de Turgot_,
+        pp. 11-16.
+
+  [950] Nothing can be better than his summary of this vast conception:
+        'Tous les ages sont enchaînés par une suite de causes et d'effets
+        qui lient l'état du monde à tous ceux qui l'ont précédé.' _Second
+        Discours en Sorbonne_, in _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ii. p. 52.
+        Every thing Turgot wrote on history is a development of this
+        pregnant sentence. That he understood the necessity of an
+        historian being acquainted with physical science, and with the
+        laws of the configuration of the earth, climate, soil, and the
+        like, is evident in his fragment, _La Géographie Politique_, in
+        _[OE]uvres_, vol. ii. pp. 166-208. It is no slight proof of his
+        political sagacity, that in 1750 he distinctly foretold the
+        freedom of the American colonies. Compare _[OE]uvres de Turgot_,
+        vol. ii. p. 66, with _Mém. sur Turgot_, vol. i. p. 139.
+
+  [951] A confidence which is apparent in his economical as well as in his
+        historical works. In 1811, Sir James Mackintosh writes, that
+        Turgot 'had more comprehensive views of the progress of society
+        than any man since Bacon:' _Mem. of Mackintosh_, vol. ii. p. 133;
+        and see a similar remark by Dugald Stewart, in his _Philos. of
+        the Mind_, vol. i. p. 246.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+    PROXIMATE CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AFTER THE MIDDLE OF THE
+                           EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+In the last chapter but one, I have attempted to ascertain what those
+circumstances were which, almost immediately after the death of Louis
+XIV., prepared the way for the French Revolution. The result of the
+inquiry has been, that the French intellect was stimulated into activity
+by the examples and teachings of England; and that this stimulus caused,
+or at all events encouraged, a great breach between the government of
+France and its literature;--a breach the more remarkable, because during
+the reign of Louis XIV. the literature, notwithstanding its temporary
+brilliancy, had been invariably submissive, and had intimately allied
+itself with the government, which was always ready to reward its
+services. We have also seen that, this rupture having arisen between the
+governing classes and the intellectual classes, it followed, that the
+former, true to their ancient instincts, began to chastise that spirit
+of inquiry to which they were unaccustomed: hence those persecutions
+which, with hardly a single exception, were directed against every man
+of letters, and hence too those systematic attempts to reduce literature
+to a subserviency similar to that in which it had been held under Louis
+XIV. It has, moreover, appeared, that the great Frenchmen of the
+eighteenth century, though smarting from the injuries constantly
+inflicted on them by the government and the church, abstained from
+attacking the government, but directed all their hostility against the
+church. This apparent anomaly, of the religious institutions being
+assailed, and the political institutions being spared, has been shown to
+be a perfectly natural circumstance, arising out of the antecedents of
+the French nation; and an attempt has been made to explain what those
+antecedents were, and how they acted. In the present chapter, I purpose
+to complete this inquiry by examining the next great stage in the
+history of the French mind. It was needful that, before both church and
+state could fall, men should change the ground of their hostility, and
+should attack political abuses with the zeal they had hitherto reserved
+for religious ones. The question, therefore, now arises, as to the
+circumstances under which this change took place, and the period when it
+actually occurred.
+
+The circumstances which accompanied this great change are, as we shall
+presently see, very complicated; and, as they have never yet been
+studied in connexion with each other, I shall, in the remaining part of
+this volume, examine them at considerable length. On this point it will,
+I think, be practicable to arrive at some precise and well-defined
+results respecting the history of the French Revolution. But the other
+point, namely, the time at which the change took place, is not only much
+more obscure, but by its nature will never admit of complete precision.
+This, however, is a deficiency it possesses in common with every other
+change in the history of man. The circumstances of each change may
+always be known, provided the evidence is ample and authentic. But no
+amount of evidence can enable us to fix the date of the change itself.
+That to which attention is usually drawn by the compilers of history is,
+not the change, but is merely the external result which follows the
+change. The real history of the human race is the history of tendencies
+which are perceived by the mind, and not of events which are discerned
+by the senses. It is on this account that no historical epoch will ever
+admit of that chronological precision familiar to antiquaries and
+genealogists. The death of a prince, the loss of a battle, and the
+change of a dynasty, are matters which fall entirely within the province
+of the senses; and the moment in which they happen can be recorded by
+the most ordinary observers. But those great intellectual revolutions
+upon which all other revolutions are based, cannot be measured by so
+simple a standard. To trace the movements of the human mind, it is
+necessary to contemplate it under several aspects, and then coördinate
+the results of what we have separately studied. By this means we arrive
+at certain general conclusions, which, like the ordinary estimate of
+averages, increase in value in proportion as we increase the number of
+instances from which they are collected. That this is a safe and
+available method, appears not only from the history of physical
+knowledge,[952] but also from the fact, that it is the basis of the
+empirical maxims by which all men of sound understanding are guided in
+those ordinary transactions of life to which the generalizations of
+science have not yet been applied. Indeed such maxims, which are highly
+valuable, and which in their aggregate form what is called common sense,
+are never collected with any thing like the precautions that the
+philosophic historian ought to feel himself bound to employ.
+
+  [952] For a popular but able view of the value of averages in scientific
+        inquiries, see _Herschel's Disc. on Nat. Philos._ pp. 215-219.
+
+The real objection, therefore, to generalizations respecting the
+development of the intellect of a nation is, not that they want
+certainty, but that they lack precision. This is just the point at which
+the historian diverges from the annalist. That the English intellect,
+for example, is gradually becoming more democratic, or, as it is termed,
+more liberal, is as certain as that the crown of this country is worn by
+Queen Victoria. But though both these statements are equally certain,
+the latter statement is more precise. We can tell the very day on which
+the Queen ascended the throne; the moment of her death will be known
+with equal precision; and there can be no doubt that many other
+particulars respecting her will be minutely and accurately preserved. In
+tracing, however, the growth of English liberalism, all such exactness
+deserts us. We can point out the year in which the Reform Bill was
+passed; but who can point out the year in which the Reform Bill first
+became necessary? In the same way, that the Jews will be admitted into
+parliament, is as certain as that the Catholics have been admitted. Both
+these measures are the inevitable result of that increasing indifference
+to theological disputes, which must now be obvious to every man who does
+not wilfully shut his eyes. But while we know the hour in which the bill
+for Catholic emancipation received the assent of the crown, there is no
+one now living who can tell even the year in which similar justice will
+be granted to the Jews. Both events are equally certain, but both events
+are not equally precise.
+
+This distinction between certainty and precision I have stated at some
+length, because it seems to be little understood,[953] and because it is
+intimately connected with the subject now before us. The fact of the
+French intellect having, during the eighteenth century, passed through
+two totally distinct epochs, can be proved by every description of
+evidence; but it is impossible to ascertain the precise time when one
+epoch succeeded the other. All that we can do is, to compare the
+different indications which the history of that age presents, and arrive
+at an approximation which may guide future inquirers. It would perhaps
+be more prudent to avoid making any particular statement; but as the
+employment of dates seems necessary to bring such matters clearly before
+the mind, I will, by way of provisional hypothesis, fix on the year
+1750, as the period when those agitations of society which caused the
+French Revolution entered into their second and political stage.
+
+  [953] As we see in the pretensions set forth by mathematicians, who
+        often suppose that an amount of certainty can be attained in
+        their own pursuits not to be found in any other. This error has
+        probably arisen, as Locke suggests, from confusing clearness with
+        certainty. _Essay on Human Understanding_, book iv. chap. ii.
+        secs. 9 and 10, in _Works_, vol. ii. pp. 73, 74. See also
+        _Comte_, _Philos. Pos._ vol. i. p. 103, where it is justly
+        observed, that all branches of knowledge capable of being
+        generalized into sciences admit of equal certainty, but not of
+        equal precision: 'si d'après l'explication précédente, les
+        diverses sciences doivent nécessairement présenter une précision
+        très-inégale, il n'en est nullement ainsi de leur certitude.'
+        This is handled unsatisfactorily by Montucla (_Hist. des
+        Mathémat._ vol. i. p. 33), who says, that the principal cause of
+        the peculiar certainty reached by the mathematician is, that
+        'd'une idée claire il ne déduit que des conséquences claires et
+        incontestables.' Similarly, Cudworth (_Intellect. System_, vol.
+        iii. p. 377): 'nay the very essence of truth here is this clear
+        perceptibility, or intelligibility.' On the other hand, Kant, a
+        far deeper thinker, avoided this confusion, by making
+        mathematical clearness the mark of a _kind_ of certainty rather
+        than of a _degree_ of it: 'Die mathematische Gewissheit heisst
+        auch Evidenz, weil ein intuitives Erkenntniss klarer ist, als ein
+        discursives. Obgleich also beides, das mathematische und das
+        philosophische Vernunfterkenntniss an sich gleich gewiss ist, so
+        ist doch die Art der Gewissheit in beiden verschieden.' _Logik_,
+        _Einleitung_, sec. 9, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. i. p. 399. On the
+        opinions of the ancients respecting certainty, compare _Matter_,
+        _Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 195, with _Ritter's
+        Hist. of Ancient Philos._ vol. ii. p. 46, vol. iii. pp. 74, 426,
+        427, 484, 614.
+
+That this was about the period when the great movement, hitherto
+directed against the church, began to be turned against the state, is an
+inference which many circumstances seem to warrant. We know on the best
+authority, that towards the year 1750, the French began their celebrated
+inquiries respecting political economy,[954] and that, in their attempt
+to raise it to a science, they were led to perceive the immense injury
+which the interference of government had produced on the material
+interests of the country.[955] Hence a conviction arose that, even in
+regard to the accumulation of wealth, the authority possessed by the
+rulers of France was mischievous, since it enabled them, under the
+notion of protecting commerce, to trouble the freedom of individual
+action, and to prevent trade from running into those profitable channels
+which traders are best able to select for themselves. Scarcely had a
+knowledge of this important truth been diffused, when its consequences
+were quickly seen in the national literature, and in the habits of
+national thought. The sudden increase in France of works relating to
+finance and to other questions of government, is, indeed, one of the
+most remarkable features of that age. With such rapidity did the
+movement spread, that we are told that, soon after 1755, the economists
+effected a schism between the nation and the government;[956] and
+Voltaire, writing in 1759, complains that the charms of lighter
+literature were entirely neglected amidst the general zeal for these new
+studies.[957] It is not necessary to follow the subsequent history of
+this great change; nor need I trace the influence exercised shortly
+before the Revolution by the later economists, and particularly by
+Turgot, the most eminent of their leaders.[958] It is enough to say,
+that within about twenty years after the movement was first clearly
+seen, the taste for economical and financial inquiries became so common,
+that it penetrated those parts of society where habits of thought are
+not very frequent; since we find that, even in fashionable life, the
+conversation no longer turned upon new poems and new plays, but upon
+political questions, and subjects immediately connected with them.[959]
+Indeed, when Necker, in 1781, published his celebrated Report on the
+Finances of France, the eagerness to obtain it was beyond all bounds;
+six thousand copies were sold the first day; and the demand still
+increasing, two presses were kept constantly at work in order to satisfy
+the universal curiosity.[960] And what makes the democratic tendency of
+all this the more obvious is, that Necker was at that time one of the
+servants of the crown; so that his work, looking at its general spirit,
+has been truly called an appeal to the people against the king by one of
+the ministers of the king himself.[961]
+
+  [954] 'Vers 1750, deux hommes de génie, observateurs judicieux et
+        profonds, conduits par une force d'attention très-soutenue à une
+        logique rigoureuse, animés d'un noble amour pour la patrie et
+        pour l'humanité, M. Quesnay et M. de Gournay, s'occupèrent avec
+        suite de savoir si la nature des choses n'indiquerait pas une
+        science de l'économie politique, et quels seraient les principes
+        de cette science.' _Additions aux [OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. iii.
+        p. 310. M. Blanqui (_Hist. de l'Economie Politique_, vol. ii. p.
+        78) also says, 'vers l'année 1750;' and Voltaire (_Dict. Philos._
+        article _Blé_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. xxxvii. p. 384) says, 'vers
+        l'an 1750, la nation, rassasiée de vers, de tragédies, de
+        comédies, d'opéra, de romans, d'histoires romanesques, de
+        réflexions morales plus romanesques encore, et de disputes
+        théologiques sur la grâce et sur les convulsions, se mit enfin a
+        raisonner sur les blés.'
+
+  [955] The revolutionary tendency of this economical movement is noticed
+        in _Alison's Europe_, vol. i. pp. 184, 185; where, however, its
+        commencement is erroneously assigned to 'about the year 1761.'
+        See also, on the hostility this caused against government, _Mém.
+        de Campan_, vol. i. pp. 7, 8; _Mem. of Mallet du Pan_, vol. i. p.
+        32; and _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. i. p. 193,
+        vol. ii. p. 152.
+
+  [956] 'D'ailleurs la nation s'étoit accoutumée à se séparer toujours de
+        plus en plus de son gouvernement, en raison même de ce que ses
+        écrivains avoient commencé à aborder les études politiques.
+        C'étoit l'époque où la secte des économistes se donnoit le plus
+        de mouvement, depuis que le marquis de Mirabeau avoit publié, en
+        1755, son _Ami des Hommes_.' _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Franç._ vol.
+        xxix. p. 269. Compare _Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol.
+        ii. p. 58. In this same year, 1755, Goldsmith was in Paris, and
+        was so struck by the progress of insubordination, that he
+        foretold the freedom of the people; though I need hardly say that
+        he was not a man to understand the movement of the economists.
+        _Prior's Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i. pp. 198, 199; _Forster's
+        Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i. p. 66.
+
+  [957] In February 1759, he writes to Madame du Boccage: 'Il me paraît
+        que les grâces et le bon goût sont bannis de France, et ont cédé
+        la place à la métaphysique embrouillée, à la politique des
+        cerveaux creux, à des discussions énormes sur les finances, sur
+        le commerce, sur la population, qui ne mettront jamais dans
+        l'état ni un écu, ni un homme de plus.' _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_,
+        vol. lx. p. 485. In 1763 (vol. lxiii. p. 204): 'Adieu, nos beaux
+        arts, si les choses continuent comme elles sont. La rage des
+        remontrances et des projets sur les finances a saisi la nation.'
+        Many of the ablest men being thus drawn off from mere literary
+        pursuits, there began, about twenty years before the Revolution,
+        a marked deterioration in style, particularly among prose
+        writers. Compare _Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole_, vol. ii. p.
+        358, vol. iii. pp. 163, 299; _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. ii. p. 374,
+        vol. v. p. 123, vol. viii. pp. 180, 275; _Mercier sur Rousseau_,
+        vol. ii. p. 151.
+
+  [958] Georgel, who hated Turgot, says of him: 'son cabinet et ses
+        bureaux se transformèrent en ateliers où les économistes
+        forgeoient leur système et leurs spéculations.' _Mém. de
+        Georgel_, vol. i. p. 406: see also _Blanqui_, _Hist. de l'Écon.
+        Politique_, vol. ii. pp. 96-112; _Condorcet_, _Vie de Turgot_,
+        pp. 32-35; _Twiss_, _Progress of Political Econ._ pp. 142 seq.
+
+  [959] Sismondi, under the year 1774, notices 'les écrits innombrables
+        que chaque jour voyoit éclore sur la politique, et qui avoient
+        désormais remplacé dans l'intérêt des salons ces nouveautés
+        littéraires, ces vers, ces anecdotes galantes, dont peu d'années
+        auparavant le public étoit uniquement occupé.' _Hist. des
+        Français_, vol. xxix. p. 495; and a similar remark in
+        _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p. 126.
+
+  [960] See the account, written in Feb. 1781, in _Grimm_, _Corr. Lit._
+        vol. xi. 260, where it is said of Necker's _Compte Rendu_, 'La
+        sensation qu'a faite cet ouvrage est, je crois, sans exemple; il
+        s'en est débité plus de six mille exemplaires le jour même qu'il
+        a paru, et depuis, le travail continuel de deux imprimeries n'a
+        pu suffire encore aux demandes multipliées de la capitale, des
+        provinces, et des pays étrangers.' Ségur (_Souvenirs_, vol. i. p.
+        138) mentions, that Necker's work was 'dans la poche de tous les
+        abbés, et sur la toilette de toutes les dames.' The daughter of
+        Necker, Madame de Staël, says of her father's work,
+        _Administration des Finances_, 'on en vendit quatre-vingt mille
+        exemplaires.' _De Staël sur la Révolution_, vol. i. p. 111.
+
+  [961] The expression of the Baron de Montyon: see _Adolphus's History of
+        George III._ vol. iv. p. 290; and on the revolutionary tendency
+        of Necker's financial works, _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_,
+        vol. ii. pp. xxxvii. xxxviii., vol. iv. pp. 18, 143. Necker
+        published a justification of his book, 'malgré la défense du
+        roi.' _Du Mesnil_, _Mém. sur Le Brun_, p. 108.
+
+This evidence of the remarkable change which, in or about 1750, the
+French mind underwent, and which formed what I term the second epoch of
+the eighteenth century, might be easily strengthened by a wider survey
+of the literature of that time. Immediately after the middle of the
+century, Rousseau published those eloquent works, which exercised
+immense influence, and in which the rise of the new epoch is very
+observable; for this most powerful writer abstained from those attacks
+on Christianity,[962] which unhappily had been too frequent, and exerted
+himself almost exclusively against the civil and political abuses of the
+existing society.[963] To trace the effects which this wonderful, but in
+some instances misguided, man produced on the mind of his own and of the
+succeeding generation, would occupy too large a share of this
+Introduction; though the inquiry is full of interest, and is one which
+it were to be wished some competent historian would undertake.[964]
+Inasmuch, however, as the philosophy of Rousseau was itself only a
+single phase of a far larger movement, I shall at present pass over the
+individual, in order to consider the general spirit of an age in which
+he played a vast, but still a subsidiary part.
+
+  [962] So far as I remember, there is not a single instance in any of
+        his works; and those who assail him on this ground should adduce
+        the passages on which they rely, instead of bringing vague
+        general charges. Compare _Life of Rousseau_, in _Brougham's Men
+        of Letters_, vol. i. p. 189; _Stäudlin_, _Gesch. der theolog.
+        Wissenschaften_, vol. ii. p. 442; _Mercier sur Rousseau_, 1791,
+        vol. i. pp. 27-32, vol. ii. pp. 279, 280.
+
+  [963] 'Rousseau, qui déjà en 1753 avoit touché aux bases mêmes de la
+        société humaine, dans son _Discours sur l'origine de l'inégalité
+        parmi les hommes_.' _Sismondi_, vol. xxix. p. 270. Schlosser
+        (_Hist. of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. i. p. 138) notices 'the
+        entirely new system of absolute democracy which was brought
+        forward by J. J. Rousseau;' see also p. 289, and _Soulavie_,
+        _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. v. p. 208.
+
+  [964] Napoleon said to Stanislas Girardin respecting Rousseau, 'sans lui
+        la France n'auroit pas eu de révolution.' _Holland's Foreign
+        Reminiscences_, Lond. 1850, p. 261. This is certainly an
+        exaggeration; but the influence of Rousseau was, during the
+        latter half of the eighteenth century, most extraordinary. In
+        1765, Hume writes from Paris: 'It is impossible to express or
+        imagine the enthusiasm of this nation in his favour; ... no
+        person ever so much engaged their attention as Rousseau. Voltaire
+        and every body else are quite eclipsed by him.' _Burton's Life of
+        Hume_, vol. ii. p. 299. A letter written in 1754 (in _Grimm_,
+        _Correspond._ vol. i. p. 122) says that his Dijon Discourse 'fit
+        une espèce de révolution à Paris.' The circulation of his works
+        was unprecedented; and when _La Nouvelle Héloïse_ appeared, 'les
+        libraires ne pouvaient suffire aux demandes de toutes les
+        classes. On louait l'ouvrage à tant par jour, ou par heure. Quand
+        il parut, on exigeait douze sous par volume, en n'accordant que
+        soixante minutes pour le lire.' _Musset Pathay_, _Vie de
+        Rousseau_, vol. ii. p. 361. For further evidence of the effect
+        produced by his works, see _Lerminier_, _Philos. du Droit_, vol.
+        ii. p. 251; _Mém. de Roland_, vol. i. p. 196, vol. ii. pp. 337,
+        359; _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. v. p. 193, vol. vi. p. 14; _Alison's
+        Europe_, vol. i. p. 170, vol. iii. p. 369, vol. iv. p. 376; _Mém.
+        de Morellet_, vol. i. p. 116; _Longchamp_, _Mém. sur Voltaire_,
+        vol. ii. p. 50; _Life of Romilly_, vol. i. p. 267; _Mem. of
+        Mallet du Pan_, vol. i. p. 127; _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 482;
+        _Cassagnac_, _Causes de la Rév._ vol. iii. p. 549; _Lamartine_,
+        _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. ii. p. 38, vol. iv. p. 93, vol. viii.
+        p. 125; _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, in _Göthe's Werke_, Stuttgart,
+        1837, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 83, 104; _Grimm_, _Correspond. Lit._
+        vol. xii. p. 222; _De Staël_, _Consid. sur la Rév._ vol. ii. p.
+        371.
+
+The formation of a new epoch in France, about the year 1750, may be
+further illustrated by three circumstances of considerable interest, all
+pointing in the same direction. The first circumstance is, that not a
+single great French writer attacked the political institutions of the
+country before the middle of the century; while, after that period, the
+attacks of the ablest men were incessant. The second circumstance is,
+that the only eminent Frenchmen who continued to assail the clergy, and
+yet refused to interfere in politics, were those who, like Voltaire,
+had already reached an advanced age, and had, therefore, drawn their
+ideas from the preceding generation, in which the church had been the
+sole object of hostility. The third circumstance, which is even more
+striking than the other two, is, that almost at the same moment there
+was seen a change in the policy of the government; since, singularly
+enough, the ministers of the crown displayed for the first time an open
+enmity against the church, just as the intellect of the country was
+preparing for its decisive onslaught on the government itself. Of these
+three propositions, the first two will probably be admitted by every
+student of French literature: at all events, if they are false, they are
+so exact and peremptory, that it will be easy to refute them by giving
+examples to the contrary. But the third proposition, being more general,
+is less susceptible of a negative, and will therefore require the
+support of that special evidence which I will now adduce.
+
+The great French writers having by the middle of the eighteenth century
+succeeded in sapping the foundations of the church, it was natural that
+the government should step in and plunder an establishment which the
+course of events had weakened. This, which took place in France under
+Louis XV., was similar to what occurred in England under Henry VIII.;
+for in both cases a remarkable intellectual movement, directed against
+the clergy, preceded and facilitated the attacks made on them by the
+crown. It was in 1749 that the French government took the first decisive
+step against the church. And what proves the hitherto backward state of
+the country in such matters is, that this consisted of an edict against
+mortmain, a simple contrivance for weakening the ecclesiastical power,
+which we in England had adopted long before. Machault, who had recently
+been raised to the office of controller-general, has the glory of being
+the originator of this new policy. In August 1749,[965] he issued that
+celebrated edict which forbade the formation of any religious
+establishment without the consent of the crown, duly expressed in
+letters-patent, and registered in parliament; effective precautions,
+which, says the great historian of France, show that Machault
+'considered not only the increase, but even the existence of these
+ecclesiastical properties, as a mischief to the kingdom.'[966]
+
+  [965] Sismondi (xxix. p. 20), Lacretelle (_XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p.
+        110), and Tocqueville (_Règne de Louis XV_, vol. ii. p. 103),
+        give the date 1749; so that 1747, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi.
+        p. 46, is apparently a misprint.
+
+  [966] 'Laissant voir dans toute cette loi, qui est assez longue, qu'il
+        regardoit non-seulement l'accroissement, mais l'existence de ces
+        propriétés ecclésiastiques, comme un mal pour le royaume.'
+        _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Franç._ vol. xxix. p. 21. This, I suppose,
+        is the edict mentioned by Turgot, who wished to push the
+        principle still further. _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. iii. pp.
+        254, 255; a bold and striking passage.
+
+This was an extraordinary step on the part of the French government; but
+what followed showed that it was only the beginning of a much larger
+design.[967] Machault, so far from being discountenanced, was, the year
+after he had issued this edict, intrusted with the seals in addition to
+the controllership;[968] for, as Lacretelle observes, the court 'thought
+the time had now come to tax the property of the clergy.'[969] During
+the forty years which elapsed between this period and the beginning of
+the Revolution, the same anti-ecclesiastical policy prevailed. Among the
+successors of Machault, the only three of much ability were Choiseul,
+Necker, and Turgot, all of whom were strenuous opponents of that
+spiritual body, which no minister would have assailed in the preceding
+generation. Not only these eminent statesmen, but even such inferior men
+as Calonne, Malesherbes, and Terray, looked on it as a stroke of policy
+to attack privileges which superstition had consecrated, and which the
+clergy had hitherto reserved, partly to extend their own influence, and
+partly to minister to those luxurious and profligate habits, which in
+the eighteenth century were a scandal to the ecclesiastical order.
+
+  [967] Mably mentions the excitement caused by this proceeding of
+        Machault, _Observations sur l'Histoire de France_, vol. ii. p.
+        415: 'On attaqua alors, dans plusieurs écrits, les immunités du
+        clergé.' On the dislike felt by the clergy against the minister,
+        see _Ségur_, _Souvenirs_, vol. i. p. 35; _Soulavie_, _Règne de
+        Louis XVI_, vol. i. pp. 283, 310, vol. ii. p. 146.
+
+  [968] In 1750, 'Machault obtint les sceaux en conservant le
+        contrôle-général.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 46.
+
+  [969] 'Croyait surtout que le temps était venu d'imposer les biens du
+        clergé.' _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 107. Nearly
+        the same words are used in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 46.
+
+While these measures were being adopted against the clergy, another
+important step was taken in precisely the same direction. Now it was
+that the government began to favour that great doctrine of religious
+liberty, the mere defence of which it had hitherto punished as a
+dangerous speculation. The connexion between the attacks on the clergy
+and the subsequent progress of toleration, may be illustrated, not only
+by the rapidity with which one event succeeded the other, but also by
+the fact, that both of them emanated from the same quarter. Machault,
+who was the author of the edict of mortmain, was also the first minister
+who showed a wish to protect the Protestants against the persecutions of
+the Catholic priesthood.[970] In this he only partly succeeded; but the
+impetus thus given soon became irresistible. In 1760, that is only nine
+years later, there was seen a marked change in the administration of the
+laws; and the edicts against heresy, though not yet repealed, were
+enforced with unprecedented mildness.[971] The movement quickly spread
+from the capital to the remoter parts of the kingdom; and we are assured
+that, after the year 1762, the reaction was felt even in those
+provinces, which, from their backward condition, had always been most
+remarkable for religious bigotry.[972] At the same time, as we shall
+presently see, a great schism arose in the church itself, which
+lessened the power of the clergy, by dividing them into two hostile
+parties. Of these factions, one made common cause with the state, still
+further aiding the overthrow of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Indeed,
+the dissensions became so violent, that the last great blow dealt to
+spiritual ascendency by the government of Louis XVI. proceeded not from
+the hands of a layman, but from one of the leaders of the church; a man
+who, from his standing, would, under ordinary circumstances, have
+protected the interests which he now eagerly attacked. In 1787, only two
+years before the Revolution, Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse,[973] who
+was then minister, laid before the parliament of Paris a royal edict, by
+which the discouragement hitherto thrown upon heresy was suddenly
+removed. By this law, the Protestants were invested with all those civil
+rights which the Catholic clergy had long held out as the reward of
+adherence to their own opinions.[974] It was, therefore, natural that
+the more orthodox party should condemn, as an impious innovation,[975] a
+measure which, by placing the two sects, in some degree, on the same
+footing, seemed to sanction the progress of error; and which certainly
+deprived the French church of one of the chief attractions by which men
+had hitherto been induced to join her communion. Now, however, all these
+considerations were set at nought. Such was the prevailing temper, that
+the parliament, though then in a mood very refractory to the royal
+authority, did not hesitate to register the edict of the king; and this
+great measure became law; the dominant party being astonished, we are
+told, how any doubt could be entertained as to the wisdom of the
+principles on which it was based.[976]
+
+  [970] On which account, he still further provoked the indignation of the
+        Catholic clergy. See _Felice_, _Hist. of the Protest. of France_,
+        pp. 401, 402; a letter written in 1751.
+
+  [971] 'The approach of the year 1760 witnessed a sensible relaxation of
+        persecution.... The clergy perceived this with dismay; and, in
+        their general assembly of 1760, they addressed urgent
+        remonstrances to the king against this remission of the laws.'
+        _Felice_, _Protest. of France_, p. 422. Comp. an interesting
+        letter from Nismes in 1776, in _Thicknesse's Journey through
+        France_, London, 1777, vol. i. p. 66.
+
+  [972] Sismondi says of 1762, 'Dès lors, la réaction de l'opinion
+        publique contre l'intolérance pénétra jusque dans les provinces
+        les plus fanatiques.' _Hist. des Franç._ vol. xxix. p. 296. See
+        also a letter to Damilaville, dated 6th of May, 1765, in _Lettres
+        inédites de Voltaire_, vol. i. p. 412; and two other letters in
+        _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. lxiv. p. 225, vol. lxvi. p. 417.
+
+  [973] Of whom Hume, several years before, had formed a very high
+        opinion. See _Burton's Life of Hume_, vol. ii. p. 497; a too
+        favourable judgment, which should be contrasted with the opposite
+        exaggerations, in _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. ix. pp. 360-363, and
+        _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. i. pp. 87, 199.
+
+  [974] _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Franç._ iii. 516; _Biog. Univ._ xxiv.
+        p. 656.
+
+  [975] _Georgel_, _Mémoires_, vol. ii. pp. 293, 294; a violent outbreak
+        against 'l'irréligieux édit ... qui autorise tous les cultes.'
+
+  [976] 'Le parlement de Paris discutait l'édit sur les protestans. Vingt
+        ans plus tôt, combien une telle résolution n'eût-elle pas agité
+        et divisé les esprits? En 1787, on ne s'étonnait que d'une chose:
+        c'était qu'il pût y avoir une discussion sur des principes
+        évidens.' _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. iii. pp. 342, 343.
+        In 1776, Malesherbes, who was then minister, wished to secure
+        nearly the same privileges for the Protestants, but was prevented
+        from doing so. _Dutens_, _Mémoires_, vol. ii. pp. 56-58. Dutens
+        was himself concerned in the negotiation.
+
+These were omens of the coming storm; signs of the time, which those who
+run may read. Nor are there wanting other marks, by which the true
+complexion of that age may be clearly seen. In addition to what has been
+just related, the government, soon after the middle of the eighteenth
+century, inflicted a direct and fatal injury upon the spiritual
+authority. This consisted in the expulsion of the Jesuits; which is an
+event, important not only for its ultimate effects, but also as an
+evidence of the feelings of men, and of what could be peaceably
+accomplished by the government of him who was called 'the most Christian
+king.'[977]
+
+  [977] Henry II. used to refer to this title, by way of justifying his
+        persecution of the Protestants (_Ranke's Civil Wars in France_,
+        vol. i. p. 241); and great account was made of it by that
+        exemplary prince, Louis XV. _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_,
+        vol. i. p. 155. The French antiquaries trace it back to Pepin,
+        the father of Charlemagne. _Barrington's Observations on the
+        Statutes_, p. 168.
+
+The Jesuits, for at least fifty years after their institution, rendered
+immense services to civilization, partly by tempering with a secular
+element the more superstitious views of their great predecessors, the
+Dominicans and Franciscans, and partly by organizing a system of
+education far superior to any yet seen in Europe. In no university could
+there be found a scheme of instruction so comprehensive as theirs; and
+certainly no where was displayed such skill in the management of youth,
+or such insight into the general operations of the human mind. It must,
+in justice, be added, that this illustrious society, notwithstanding
+its eager, and often unprincipled, ambition, was, during a considerable
+period, the steady friend of science, as well as of literature; and that
+it allowed to its members a freedom and a boldness of speculation which
+had never been permitted by any other monastic order.
+
+As, however, civilization advanced, the Jesuits, like every spiritual
+hierarchy the world has yet seen, began to lose ground; and this not so
+much from their own decay, as from a change in the spirit of those who
+surrounded them. An institution admirably adapted to an early form of
+society, was ill suited to the same society in its maturer state. In the
+sixteenth century, the Jesuits were before their age; in the eighteenth
+century, they were behind it. In the sixteenth century, they were the
+great missionaries of knowledge; because they believed that, by its aid,
+they could subjugate the consciences of men. But, in the eighteenth
+century, their materials were more refractory; they had to deal with a
+perverse and stiff-necked generation; they saw in every country the
+ecclesiastical authority rapidly declining; and they clearly perceived
+that their only chance of retaining their old dominion was, by checking
+that knowledge, the progress of which they had formerly done much to
+accelerate.[978]
+
+  [978] The Prince de Montbarey, who was educated by the Jesuits about
+        1740, says, that, in their schools, the greatest attention was
+        paid to pupils intended for the church; while the abilities of
+        those destined for secular professions were neglected. See this
+        statement, which, coming from such a quarter, is very remarkable,
+        in _Mémoires de Montbarey_, vol. i. pp. 12, 13. Montbarey, so far
+        from being prejudiced against the Jesuits, ascribes the
+        Revolution to their overthrow. _Ibid._ vol. iii. p. 94. For other
+        evidence of the exclusive and unsecular character of their
+        education in the eighteenth century, see _Schlosser's Eighteenth
+        Century_, vol. iv. pp. 29, 30, 245.
+
+Under these circumstances, the statesmen of France, almost immediately
+after the middle of the eighteenth century, determined to ruin an order
+which had long ruled the world, and which was still the greatest bulwark
+of the church. In this design they were aided by a curious movement
+which had taken place in the church itself, and which, being connected
+with views of much wider import, deserves the attention even of those
+for whom theological controversies have no interest.
+
+Among the many points on which metaphysicians have wasted their
+strength, that of free-will has provoked the hottest disputes. And what
+has increased the acerbity of their language, is, that this, which is
+eminently a metaphysical question, has been taken up by theologians, who
+have treated it with that warmth for which they are remarkable.[979]
+From the time of Pelagius, if not earlier,[980] Christianity has been
+divided into two great sects, which, though in some respects uniting by
+insensible shades, have always preserved the broad features of their
+original difference. By one sect, the freedom of the will is virtually,
+and often expressly, denied; for it is asserted, not only that we cannot
+of our own will effect anything meritorious, but that whatever good we
+may do will be useless, since the Deity has predestined some men to
+perdition, others to salvation. By the other sect, the freedom of the
+will is as strongly upheld; good works are declared essential to
+salvation; and the opposite party is accused of exaggerating that state
+of grace of which faith is a necessary accompaniment.[981]
+
+  [979] See some singular observations in Parr's first sermon on faith and
+        morals (_Parr's Works_, vol. vi. p. 598), where we are told that,
+        in the management of the feud between Calvinists and Arminians,
+        'the steadiness of defence should be proportionate to the
+        impetuosity of assault;' unnecessary advice, so far as his own
+        profession is concerned. However, the Mohammedan theologians are
+        said to have been even keener than the Christians on the subject.
+        See _Troyer's Discourse on the Dabistan_, vol. i. p. cxxxv.; an
+        important work on the Asiatic religions.
+
+  [980] Neander (_Hist. of the Church_, vol. iv. p. 105) finds the germ of
+        the Pelagian controversy in the dispute between Athanasius and
+        Apollinaris. Compare, respecting its origin, a note in _Milman's
+        Hist. of Christianity_, 1840, vol. iii. pp. 270, 271.
+
+  [981] No writer I have met with, has stated so fairly and clearly the
+        theological boundaries of these doctrines, as Göthe. _Wahrheit
+        und Dichtung_, in _Werke_, vol. ii. part ii. p. 200, Stuttgart,
+        1837.
+
+These opposite principles, when pushed to their logical consequences,
+must lead the first sect into antinomianism,[982] and the second sect
+into the doctrine of supererogatory works.[983] But since on such
+subjects, men feel far more than they reason, it usually happens that
+they prefer following some common and accredited standard, or appealing
+to some ancient name:[984] and they, therefore, generally class
+themselves on the one side under Augustin, Calvin, and Jansenius; on the
+other side under Pelagius, Arminius, and Molina.
+
+  [982] Compare _Butler's Mem. of the Catholics_, vol. iii. p. 224;
+        _Copleston on Necessity and Predestination_, pp. 25, 26;
+        _Mosheim's Eccles. History_, vol. ii. p. 254.
+
+  [983] Hence the theory of indulgences, constructed by the Church of Rome
+        with perfect consistency, and against which most of the
+        Protestant arguments are illogical.
+
+  [984] This seems to be the natural tendency, and has been observed by
+        Neander in his instructive account of the Gnostics, _History of
+        the Church_, vol. ii. p. 121: 'The custom with such sects to
+        attach themselves to some celebrated name or other of antiquity.'
+
+Now, it is an interesting fact, that the doctrines which in England are
+called Calvinistic, have been always connected with a democratic spirit;
+while those of Arminianism have found most favour among the aristocratic
+or protective party. In the republics of Switzerland, of North America,
+and of Holland, Calvinism was always the popular creed.[985] On the
+other hand, in those evil days, immediately after the death of
+Elizabeth, when our liberties were in imminent peril; when the Church of
+England, aided by the crown, attempted to subjugate the consciences of
+men; and when the monstrous claim of the divine right of episcopacy was
+first put forward;[986]--then it was that Arminianism became the
+cherished doctrine of the ablest and most ambitious of the
+ecclesiastical party.[987] And in that sharp retribution which followed,
+the Puritans and Independents, by whom the punishment was inflicted,
+were, with scarcely an exception, Calvinists:[988] nor should we forget,
+that the first open movement against Charles proceeded from Scotland,
+where the principles of Calvin had long been in the ascendant.
+
+  [985] The Dutch church was the first which adopted, as an article of
+        faith, the doctrine of election held at Geneva. _Mosheim's
+        Eccles. History_, vol. ii. p. 112. See also, on this doctrine in
+        the Netherlands, _Sinclair's Corresp._ vol. ii. p. 199;
+        _Coventry's Speech in_ 1672, in _Parl. Hist._ vol. iv. p. 537;
+        and _Stäudlin_, _Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften_, vol. i. p.
+        262: 'In den Niederlanden wurde der Calvinische Lehrbegriff
+        zuerst in eine scholastische Form gebracht.'
+
+        As to the Calvinism of North America, compare _Bancroft's
+        American Revolution_, vol. i. pp. 165, 173, 174, vol. ii. pp.
+        329, 363, vol. iii. p. 213; _Lyell's Second Visit to the United
+        States_, 1849, vol. i. p. 51; and _Combe's Notes on the United
+        States_, vol. i. pp. 35, 99, 223, vol. iii. pp. 88, 118, 210,
+        226.
+
+  [986] It is sometimes said that this was advocated by Bancroft as early
+        as 1588; but this assertion appears to be erroneous, and Mr.
+        Hallam can find no instance before the reign of James I. _Const.
+        Hist._ vol. i. p. 390. The dogma, though new in the Church of
+        England, was of great antiquity. See, on its origin among the
+        early Christians, _Klimrath_, _Hist. du Droit_, vol. i. p. 253.
+
+  [987] The spread of Arminianism was frequently noticed in Parliament
+        during the reign of Charles I. _Parl. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 444,
+        452, 455, 470, 484, 487, 491, 660, 947, 1368. On the decline of
+        Calvinism at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge early in
+        the seventeenth century, see a curious letter from Beale, in
+        _Boyle's Works_, vol. v. p. 483; and on this movement in the
+        church after Elizabeth, compare _Yonge's Diary_, p. 93, edit.
+        Camden Soc. 1848; _Orme's Life of Owen_, p. 32; _Harris's Lives
+        of the Stuarts_, vol. i. pp. 154-156, vol. ii. pp. 208, 213, 214;
+        _Hutchinson's Mem._ pp. 66, 77; _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i.
+        p. 466; _Des Maizeaux's Life of Chillingworth_, p. 112.
+
+  [988] Respecting the Calvinism of the opponents of the king, see
+        _Clarendon's Rebellion_, pp. 36, 37; _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, pp.
+        8, 9; _Burton's Diary_, vol. iii. p. 206; _Carlyle's Cromwell_,
+        vol. i. p. 68; and on its influence in the House of Commons in
+        1628, _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. ii.
+        p. 64.
+
+This different tendency of these two creeds is so clearly marked, that
+an inquiry into its causes becomes a necessary part of general history,
+and as we shall presently see, is intimately connected with the history
+of the French Revolution.
+
+The first circumstance by which we must be struck is, that Calvinism is
+a doctrine for the poor, and Arminianism for the rich. A creed which
+insists upon the necessity of faith, must be less costly than one which
+insists upon the necessity of works. In the former case, the sinner
+seeks salvation by the strength of his belief; in the latter case, he
+seeks it by the fullness of his contributions. And as those
+contributions, wherever the clergy have much power, always flow in the
+same direction, we find that in countries which favour the Arminian
+doctrine of works, the priests are better paid, and the churches more
+richly ornamented, than they are where Calvinism has the upper hand.
+Indeed it is evident to the most vulgar calculation, that a religion
+which concentrates our charity upon ourselves, is less expensive than
+one which directs our charity to others.
+
+This is the first great practical divergence of the two creeds: a
+divergence which may be verified by any one who is acquainted with the
+histories of different Christian nations, or who has even travelled in
+countries where the different tenets are professed. It is also
+observable, that the Church of Rome, whose worship is addressed mainly
+to the senses, and who delights in splendid cathedrals and pompous
+ceremonies, has always displayed against the Calvinists an animosity far
+greater than she has done against any other Protestant sect.[989]
+
+  [989] M Heber (_Life of Jeremy Taylor_, p. cxx.) says, that Calvinism is
+        'a system of all others the least attractive to the feelings of a
+        Roman Catholic.' Philip II., the great Catholic champion,
+        especially hated the Calvinists, and in one of his edicts called
+        their sect 'détestable,' _De Thou_, _Hist._ vol. x. p. 705:
+        compare vol. xi. p. 458. To give an earlier instance; when the
+        Roman inquisition was revived in 1542, it was ordered that
+        heretics, and in particular Calvinists, should not be tolerated:
+        'besonders Calvinisten.' _Ranke_, _Die Päpste_, vol. i. p. 211.
+
+Out of these circumstances, inevitably arose the aristocratic tendency
+of Arminianism, and the democratic tendency of Calvinism. The people
+love pomp and pageantry as much as the nobles do, but they do not love
+to pay for them. Their untutored minds are easily captivated by the
+array of a numerous priesthood, and by the gorgeousness of a
+well-appointed temple. Still, they know full well that these things
+absorb a large part of that wealth which would otherwise flow into their
+own cottages. On the other hand, the aristocracy, by their standing,
+their habits, and the traditions of their education, naturally contract
+a taste for expense, which makes them unite splendour with religion, and
+connect pomp with piety. Besides this, they have an intuitive and
+well-founded belief that their own interests are associated with the
+interests of the priesthood, and that whatever weakens the one will
+hasten the downfall of the other. Hence it is, that every Christian
+democracy has simplified its external worship; every Christian
+aristocracy has embellished it. By a parity of reasoning, the more any
+society tends to equality, the more likely it is that its theological
+opinions will be Calvinistic; while the more a society tends towards
+inequality, the greater the probability of those opinions being
+Arminian.
+
+It would be easy to push this contrast still further, and to show that
+Calvinism is more favourable to the sciences, Arminianism to the
+arts;[990] and that, on the same principle, the first is better suited
+to thinkers, the other to scholars.[991] But without pretending to trace
+the whole of this divergence, it is very important to observe, that the
+professors of the former religion are more likely to acquire habits of
+independent thinking than those of the latter. And this on two distinct
+grounds. In the first place, even the most ordinary of the Calvinistic
+party are, by the very terms of their creed, led, in religious matters,
+to fix their attention on their own minds rather than on the minds of
+others. They, therefore, as a body, are intellectually more narrow than
+their opponents, but less servile; their views, though generalized from
+a smaller field, are more independent; they are less attached to
+antiquity, and more heedless of those traditions to which the Arminian
+scholars attach great importance. In the second place, those who
+associate metaphysics with their religion are led by Calvinism into the
+doctrine of necessity;[992] a theory which, though often misunderstood,
+is pregnant with great truths, and is better calculated than any other
+system to develop the intellect, because it involves that clear
+conception of law, the attainment of which is the highest point the
+human understanding can reach.
+
+  [990] By way of illustrating this, I may mention, that an intelligent
+        observer, who travelled all through Germany, remarked, in 1780,
+        that the Calvinists, though richer than their opponents, had less
+        taste for the arts. _Riesbeck's Travels through Germany_, London,
+        1787, vol. ii. p. 240. An interesting passage; in which, however,
+        the author has shown himself unable to generalize the facts which
+        he indicates.
+
+  [991] The Arminians have had among them many men of great learning,
+        particularly of patristic learning; but the most profound
+        thinkers have been on the other side, as in the instances of
+        Augustin, Pascal, and Jonathan Edwards. To these Calvinistic
+        metaphysicians the Arminian party can oppose no one of equal
+        ability; and it is remarkable, that the Jesuits, by far the most
+        zealous Arminians in the Romish Church, have always been
+        celebrated for their erudition, but have paid so little attention
+        to the study of the mind, that, as Sir James Mackintosh says
+        (_Dissert. on Ethical Philos._ p. 185), Buffier is 'the only
+        Jesuit whose name has a place in the history of abstract
+        philosophy.' And it is interesting to observe, that this
+        superiority of thought on the part of the Calvinists, accompanied
+        by an inferiority of learning, existed from the beginning; for
+        Neander (_History of the Church_, vol. iv. p. 299) remarks, that
+        Pelagius 'was not possessed of the profound speculative spirit
+        which we find in Augustin,' but that 'in learning he was
+        Augustin's superior.'
+
+  [992] 'A philosophical necessity, grounded on the idea of God's
+        foreknowledge, has been supported by theologians of the
+        Calvinistic school, more or less rigidly, throughout the whole of
+        the present century.' _Morell's Speculative Philosophy of
+        Europe_, 1846, vol. i. p. 366. Indeed, this tendency is so
+        natural, that we find the doctrine of necessity, or something
+        extremely like it, laid down by Augustin. See the interesting
+        extracts in _Neander's History of the Church_, vol. vi. pp. 424,
+        425; where, however, a loophole is left to let in the idea of
+        interference, or at all events of superintendence.
+
+These considerations will enable the reader to see the immense
+importance of that revival of Jansenism, which took place in the French
+church during the eighteenth century. For, Jansenism being essentially
+Calvinistic,[993] those tendencies appeared in France by which Calvinism
+is marked. There appeared the inquisitive, democratic, and insubordinate
+spirit, which has always accompanied that creed. A further confirmation
+of the truth of the principles just laid down is, that Jansenism
+originated with a native of the Dutch Republic;[994] that it was
+introduced into France during the glimpse of freedom which preceded the
+power of Louis XIV.;[995] that it was forcibly repressed in his
+arbitrary reign;[996] and that before the middle of the eighteenth
+century, it again arose, as the natural product of a state of society by
+which the French Revolution was brought about.
+
+  [993] 'The five principal tenets of Jansenism, which amount in fact to
+        the doctrine of Calvin.' _Palmer on the Church_, vol. i. p. 320;
+        and see the remarks of Mackintosh in his _Memoirs_, vol. i. p.
+        411. According to the Jesuits, 'Paulus genuit Augustinum,
+        Augustinus Calvinum, Calvinus Jansenium, Jansenius Sancryanum,
+        Sancryanus Arnaldum et fratres ejus.' _Des Réaux_,
+        _Historiettes_, vol. iv. pp. 71, 72. Compare _Huetius de Rebus ad
+        eum pertinentibus_, p. 64: 'Jansenium dogmata sua ex Calvinianis
+        fontibus derivasse.'
+
+  [994] Jansenius was born in a village near Leerdam, and was educated, if
+        I mistake not, in Utrecht.
+
+  [995] The introduction of Jansenism into France is superficially related
+        by Duvernet (_Hist. de la Sorbonne_, vol. ii. pp. 170-175); but
+        the reader will find a contemporary and highly characteristic
+        account in _Mém. de Motteville_, vol. ii. pp. 224-227. The
+        connexion between it and the spirit of insubordination was
+        remarked at the time; and Des Réaux, who wrote in the middle of
+        the seventeenth century, mentions an opinion that the Fronde
+        'étoit venue du Jansénisme.' _Historiettes_, vol. iv. p. 72. Omer
+        Talon too says that, in 1648, 'il se trouvoit que tous ceux qui
+        étoient de cette opinion n'aimoient pas le gouvernement présent
+        de l'état,' _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. ii. pp. 280, 281.
+
+  [996] Brienne, who knew Louis XIV. personally, says, 'Jansénisme,
+        l'horreur du roi.' _Mém. de Brienne_, vol. ii. p. 240. Compare
+        _Duclos_, _Mém. Secrets_, vol. i. p. 112. At the end of his reign
+        he promoted a bishop on the avowed ground of his opposition to
+        the Jansenists; this was in 1713. _Lettres inédites de
+        Maintenon_, vol. ii. pp. 396, 406; and see further vol. i. pp.
+        220, 222.
+
+The connexion between the revival of Jansenism and the destruction of
+the Jesuits, is obvious. After the death of Louis XIV., the Jansenists
+rapidly gained ground, even in the Sorbonne;[997] and by the middle of
+the eighteenth century, they had organized a powerful party in the
+French parliament.[998] About the same period, their influence began to
+show itself in the executive government, and among the officers of the
+crown. Machault, who held the important post of controller-general, was
+known to favour their opinions;[999] and a few years after his
+retirement, Choiseul was called to the head of affairs; a man of
+considerable ability, by whom they were openly protected.[1000] Their
+views were likewise supported by Laverdy, controller-general in 1764,
+and by Terray, controller of finances in 1769.[1001] The
+procureur-general, Gilbert des Voisins, was a Jansenist;[1002] so also
+was one of his successors, Chauvelin;[1003] and so was the
+advocate-general Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau;[1004] and so too was Camus,
+the well-known advocate of the clergy.[1005] Turgot, the greatest
+statesman of the age, is said to have embraced the same opinions;[1006]
+while Necker, who on two different occasions possessed almost supreme
+power, was notoriously a rigid Calvinist. To this may be added, that not
+only Necker, but also Rousseau, to whom a large share in causing the
+Revolution is justly ascribed, were born in Geneva, and drew their
+earliest ideas from that great nursery of the Calvinistic theology.
+
+  [997] 'La Sorbonne, moliniste sous Louis XIV, fut janséniste sous le
+        régent, et toujours divisée.' _Duvernet_, _Hist. de la Sorbonne_,
+        vol. ii. p. 225.
+
+  [998] On the strength of the Jansenists in the parliament of Paris, see
+        _Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. i. p. 352, vol. ii. p.
+        176; _Flassan_, _Diplomatie_, vol. vi. p. 486; _Mém. de Georgel_,
+        vol. ii. p. 262; _Mém. de Bouillé_, vol. i. p. 67; _Palmer's
+        Treatise on the Church_, vol. i. pp. 327, 328.
+
+  [999] _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 439.
+
+  [1000] _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. i. pp. 31, 145.
+
+  [1001] _Tocqueville_, _Règne de Louis XV_, vol. ii. p. 385; _[OE]uvres
+         de Voltaire_, vol. liv. p. 275; _Mém. de Georgel_, vol. i.
+         pp. 49-51.
+
+  [1002] _Duvernet_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p. 90.
+
+  [1003] _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 119; _Lavallée_,
+         vol. iii. p. 477.
+
+  [1004] _Mém. de Georgel_, vol. i. p. 57.
+
+  [1005] _La Fayette_, _Mém._ vol. ii. p. 53; _Dumont_, _Souvenirs_,
+         p. 154; _Georgel_, vol. ii. p. 353, vol. iii. p. 10.
+
+  [1006] _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. iii. p. 137.
+
+In such a state of things as this, it was impossible that a body like
+the Jesuits should hold their ground. They were the last defenders of
+authority and tradition, and it was natural that they should fall in an
+age when statesmen were sceptics, and theologians were Calvinists. Even
+the people had already marked them for destruction; and when Damiens, in
+1757, attempted to assassinate the king, it was generally believed that
+they were the instigators of the act.[1007] This we now know to be
+false; but the existence of such a rumour is evidence of the state of
+the popular mind. At all events, the doom of the Jesuits was fixed. In
+April 1761, parliament ordered their constitutions to be laid before
+them.[1008] In August, they were forbidden to receive novices, their
+colleges were closed, and a number of their most celebrated works were
+publicly burned by the common hangman.[1009] Finally, in 1762, another
+edict appeared, by which the Jesuits were condemned without even being
+heard in their own defence;[1010] their property was directed to be
+sold, and their order secularized; they were declared 'unfit to be
+admitted into a well-governed country,' and their institute and society
+were formally abolished.[1011]
+
+  [1007] 'The Jesuits are charged by the vulgar as promoters of that
+         attempt.' Letter from Stanley, written in 1761, in _Chatham
+         Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 127. Compare _Campan_, _Mém. de Marie
+         Antoinette_, vol. iii. pp. 19, 21; _Sismondi_, _Hist. des
+         Franç._ vol. xxix. pp. 111, 227.
+
+  [1008] _Lavallée_, _Hist. des Français_, vol. iii. p. 476.
+
+  [1009] _Flassan_, _Diplomatie Franç._ vol. vi. p. 491.
+
+  [1010] 'Sans que les accusés eussent été entendus.' _Lavallée_, vol.
+         iii. p. 477. 'Pas un seul n'a été entendu dans leur cause.'
+         _Barruel sur l'Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. ii. p. 264.
+
+  [1011] _Lavallée_, iii. p. 477; _Flassan_, vi. pp. 504, 505; _Sismondi_,
+         xxix. p. 234; and the letters written by Diderot, who, though he
+         was in Paris at the time, gives rather an incomplete account,
+         _Mém. de Diderot_, vol. ii. pp. 127, 130-132.
+
+Such was the way in which this great society, long the terror of the
+world, fell before the pressure of public opinion. What makes its fall
+the more remarkable, is, that the pretext which was alleged to justify
+the examination of its constitutions, was one so slight, that no former
+government would have listened to it for a single moment. This immense
+spiritual corporation was actually tried by a temporal court for ill
+faith in a mercantile transaction, and for refusing to pay a sum of
+money said to be due![1012] The most important body in the Catholic
+church, the spiritual leaders of France, the educators of her youth, and
+the confessors of her kings, were brought to the bar, and sued in their
+collective capacity, for the fraudulent repudiation of a common
+debt![1013] So marked was the predisposition of affairs, that it was
+not found necessary to employ for the destruction of the Jesuits any of
+those arts by which the popular mind is commonly inflamed. The charge
+upon which they were sentenced, was not that they had plotted against
+the state; nor that they had corrupted the public morals; nor that they
+wished to subvert religion. These were the accusations which were
+brought in the seventeenth century, and which suited the genius of that
+age. But in the eighteenth century, all that was required was some
+trifling accident, that might serve as a pretence to justify what the
+nation had already determined. To ascribe, therefore, this great event
+to the bankruptcy of a trader, or the intrigues of a mistress,[1014] is
+to confuse the cause of an act with the pretext under which the act is
+committed. In the eyes of the men of the eighteenth century, the real
+crime of the Jesuits was, that they belonged to the past rather than to
+the present, and that by defending the abuses of ancient establishments,
+they obstructed the progress of mankind. They stood in the way of the
+age, and the age swept them from its path. This was the real cause of
+their abolition: a cause not likely to be perceived by those writers,
+who, under the guise of historians, are only collectors of the prattle
+and gossip of courts; and who believe that the destinies of great
+nations can be settled in the ante-chambers of ministers, and in the
+councils of kings.
+
+  [1012] _Flassan_, _Hist. de la Diplomatie_, vol. vi. pp. 486-488.
+
+  [1013] 'Enfin ils furent mis en cause, et le parlement de Paris eut
+         l'étonnement et la joie de voir les jésuites amenés devant lui
+         comme de vils banqueroutiers.' _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_,
+         vol. ii. p. 252. 'Condemned in France as fraudulent traders.'
+         _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. iv. p. 451.
+
+  [1014] Several writers attribute the destruction of the Jesuits to the
+         exertions of Madame de Pompadour!
+
+After the fall of the Jesuits, there seemed to be nothing remaining
+which could save the French church from immediate destruction.[1015] The
+old theological spirit had been for some time declining, and the clergy
+were suffering from their own decay even more than from the attacks made
+upon them. The advance of knowledge was producing in France the same
+results as those which I have pointed out in England; and the
+increasing attractions of science drew off many illustrious men, who in
+a preceding age would have been active members of the spiritual
+profession. That splendid eloquence, for which the French clergy had
+been remarkable, was now dying away, and there were no longer heard the
+voices of those great orators, at whose bidding the temples had formerly
+been filled.[1016] Massillon was the last of that celebrated race who
+had so enthralled the mind, and the magic of whose fascination it is
+even now hard to withstand. He died in 1742; and after him the French
+clergy possessed no eminent men of any kind, neither thinkers, nor
+orators, nor writers.[1017] Nor did there seem the least possibility of
+their recovering their lost position. While society was advancing they
+were receding. All the sources of their power were dried up. They had no
+active leaders; they had lost the confidence of government; they had
+forfeited the respect of the people; they had become a mark for the
+gibes of the age.[1018]
+
+  [1015] Choiseul is reported to have said of the Jesuits: 'leur éducation
+         détruite, tous les autres corps religieux tomberont
+         d'eux-mêmes.' _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. i. p. 63.
+
+  [1016] In 1771, Horace Walpole writes from Paris that the churches and
+         convents were become so empty, as to 'appear like abandoned
+         theatres destined to destruction;' and this he contrasts with
+         his former experience of a different state of things. _Walpole's
+         Letters_, vol. v. p. 310, edit. 1840.
+
+  [1017] 'So low had the talents of the once illustrious church of France
+         fallen, that in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when
+         Christianity itself was assailed, not one champion of note
+         appeared in its ranks; and when the convocation of the clergy,
+         in 1770, published their famous anathema against the dangers of
+         unbelief, and offered rewards for the best essays in defence of
+         the Christian faith, the productions called forth were so
+         despicable that they sensibly injured the cause of religion.'
+         _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. i. pp. 180, 181.
+
+  [1018] In 1766, the Rev. William Cole writes to Alban Butler: 'I
+         travelled to Paris through Lille and Cambray in their public
+         voitures, and was greatly scandalized and amazed at the open and
+         unreserved disrespect, both of the trading and military people,
+         for their clergy and religious establishment. When I got to
+         Paris, it was much worse.' _Ellis's Original Letters_, second
+         series, vol. iv. p. 485. See also _Walpole's Letters to Lady
+         Ossory_, vol. ii. p. 513, edit. 1848; and the complaint made at
+         Besançon in 1761, in _Lepan_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p. 113.
+
+It does, at first sight, seem strange that, under these circumstances,
+the French clergy should have been able, for nearly thirty years after
+the abolition of the Jesuits, to maintain their standing, so as to
+interfere with impunity in public affairs.[1019] The truth, however, is,
+that this temporary reprieve of the ecclesiastical order was owing to
+that movement which I have already noticed, and by virtue of which the
+French intellect, during the latter half of the eighteenth century,
+changed the ground of its attack, and, directing its energies against
+political abuses, neglected in some degree those spiritual abuses to
+which its attention had been hitherto confined. The result was, that in
+France the government enforced a policy which the great thinkers had
+indeed originated, but respecting which they were becoming less eager.
+The most eminent Frenchmen were beginning their attacks upon the state,
+and in the heat of their new warfare they slackened their opposition to
+the church. But in the mean time, the seeds they had sown germinated in
+the state itself. So rapid was the march of affairs, that those
+anti-ecclesiastical opinions which, a few years earlier, were punished
+as the paradoxes of designing men, were now taken up and put into
+execution by senators and ministers. The rulers of France carried into
+effect principles which had hitherto been simply a matter of theory; and
+thus it happened, as is always the case, that practical statesmen only
+apply and work out ideas which have long before been suggested by more
+advanced thinkers.
+
+  [1019] And also to retain their immense property, which, when the
+         Revolution occurred, was estimated at 80,000,000_l._ English
+         money, bringing in a yearly revenue of 'somewhat under
+         75,000,000 francs.' _Alison's Europe_, vol. i. p. 183, vol. ii.
+         p. 20, vol. xiv. pp. 122, 123.
+
+Hence it followed, that at no period during the eighteenth century did
+the speculative classes and practical classes thoroughly combine against
+the church: since, in the first half of the century, the clergy were
+principally assailed by the literature, and not by the government; in
+the latter half of the century, by the government, and not by the
+literature. Some of the circumstances of this singular transition have
+been already stated, and I hope clearly brought before the mind of the
+reader. I now purpose to complete the generalization, by proving that a
+corresponding change was taking place in all other branches of inquiry;
+and that, while in the first period attention was chiefly directed
+towards mental phenomena, it was in the second period more directed
+towards physical phenomena. From this, the political movement received a
+vast accession of strength. For the French intellect, shifting the scene
+of its labours, diverted the thoughts of men from the internal to the
+external, and concentrating attention upon their material rather than
+upon their spiritual wants, turned against the encroachments of the
+state an hostility formerly reserved for the encroachments of the
+church. Whenever a tendency arises to prefer what comes from without to
+what comes from within, and thus to aggrandize matter at the expense of
+mind, there will also be a tendency to believe that an institution which
+hampers our opinions is less hurtful than one which controls our acts.
+Precisely in the same way, men who reject the fundamental truths of
+religion, will care little for the extent to which those truths are
+perverted. Men who deny the existence of the Deity and the immortality
+of the soul, will take no heed of the way in which a gross and formal
+worship obscures those sublime doctrines. All the idolatry, all the
+ceremonials, all the pomp, all the dogmas, and all the traditions by
+which religion is retarded, will give them no disquietude, because they
+consider the opinions that are checked to be equally false with those
+that are favoured. Why should they, to whom transcendental truths are
+unknown, labour to remove the superstitions which darken the truths?
+Such a generation, so far from attacking ecclesiastical usurpations,
+would rather look on the clergy as convenient tools to ensnare the
+ignorant and control the vulgar. Therefore it is that we rarely hear of
+a sincere atheist being a zealous polemic. But if that should occur,
+which a century ago occurred in France; if it should happen that men of
+great energy, and actuated by the feelings I have described, were to
+find themselves in the presence of a political despotism,--they would
+direct against it the whole of their powers; and they would act with the
+more determined vigour, because, believing that their all was at stake,
+temporal happiness would be to them not only the first, but also the
+sole consideration.
+
+It is from this point of view that the progress of those atheistical
+opinions, which now rose in France, becomes a matter of great though
+painful interest. And the date at which they appeared, fully
+corroborates what I have just said respecting the change that took place
+in the middle of the eighteenth century. The first great work in which
+they were openly promulgated, was the celebrated Encyclopædia, published
+in 1751.[1020] Before that time such degrading opinions, though
+occasionally broached, were not held by any men of ability; nor could
+they in the preceding state of society have made much impression upon
+the age. But during the latter half of the eighteenth century, they
+affected every department of French literature. Between 1758 and 1770,
+atheistical tenets rapidly gained ground;[1021] and in 1770 was
+published the famous work, called the _System of Nature_; the success,
+and, unhappily, the ability of which, makes its appearance an important
+epoch in the history of France. Its popularity was immense;[1022] and
+the views it contains are so clearly and methodically arranged, as to
+have earned for it the name of the code of atheism.[1023] Five years
+later, the Archbishop of Toulouse, in a formal address to the king on
+behalf of the clergy, declared that atheism had now become the
+prevailing opinion.[1024] This, like all similar assertions, must have
+been an exaggeration; but that there was a large amount of truth in it,
+is known to whoever has studied the mental habits of the generation
+immediately preceding the Revolution. Among the inferior class of
+writers, Damilaville, Deleyre, Maréchal, Naigeon, Toussaint, were active
+supporters of that cold and gloomy dogma, which, in order to extinguish
+the hope of a future life, blots out from the mind of man the glorious
+instincts of his own immortality.[1025] And, strange to say, several
+even of the higher intellects were unable to escape the contagion.
+Atheism was openly advocated by Condorcet, by D'Alembert, by Diderot, by
+Helvétius, by Lalande, by Laplace, by Mirabeau, and by Saint
+Lambert.[1026] Indeed, so thoroughly did all this harmonize with the
+general temper, that in society men boasted of what, in other countries,
+and in other days, has been a rare and singular error, an eccentric
+taint, which those affected by it were willing to conceal. In 1764 Hume
+met, at the house of Baron d'Holbach, a party of the most celebrated
+Frenchmen then residing in Paris. The great Scotchman, who was no doubt
+aware of the prevailing opinion, took occasion to raise an argument as
+to the existence of an atheist, properly so called; for his own part, he
+said, he had never chanced to meet with one. 'You have been somewhat
+unfortunate,' replied Holbach; 'but at the present moment you are
+sitting at table with seventeen of them.'[1027]
+
+  [1020] M. Barante (_Littérature Française au XVIII^e Siècle_, p. 94)
+         says, 'On arriva bientôt à tout nier; déjà l'incrédulité avait
+         rejeté les preuves divines de la révélation, et avait abjuré les
+         devoirs et les souvenirs chrétiens; on vit alors l'athéisme
+         lever un front plus hardi, et proclamer que tout sentiment
+         religieux était une rêverie et un désordre de l'esprit humain.
+         C'est de l'époque de l'Encyclopédie que datent les écrits où
+         cette opinion est le plus expressément professée. Ils furent peu
+         imités.' This last sentence is erroneous, I am sorry to say.
+
+  [1021] 'Dans un intervalle de douze années, de 1758 à 1770, la
+         littérature française fut souillée par un grand nombre
+         d'ouvrages où l'athéisme étoit ouvertement professé.'
+         _Lacretelle_, _XVIII^e Siècle_, vol. ii. p. 310.
+
+  [1022] Voltaire, who wrote against it, mentions its diffusion among all
+         classes, and says it was read by 'des savants, des ignorants,
+         des femmes.' _Dict. Philos._ article _Dieu_, section iv., in
+         _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol. xxxviii. p. 366: see also vol.
+         lxvii. p. 260; _Longchamp et Wagnière_, _Mém. sur Voltaire_,
+         vol. i. pp. 13, 334; _Lettres inédites de Voltaire_, vol. ii.
+         pp. 210, 216; and a letter from him in _Correspond. de
+         Dudeffand_, vol. ii. p. 329. Compare _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der
+         Philos._ vol. xi. p. 320: 'mit ungetheiltem Beifalle aufgenommen
+         worden und grossen Einfluss gehabt hat.'
+
+  [1023] 'Le code monstrueux d'athéisme.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxix. p. 88.
+         Morellet, who in such matters was by no means a harsh judge,
+         says, '_Le Système de la Nature_, surtout, est un catéchisme
+         d'athéisme complet.' _Mém. de Morellet_, vol. i. p. 133.
+         Stäudlin (_Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften_, vol. ii. p. 440)
+         calls it 'ein System des entschiedenen Atheismus:' while
+         Tennemann, who has given by far the best account of it I have
+         met with, says, 'Es machte bei seinem Erscheinen gewaltiges
+         Aufsehen, und ist fast immer als das Handbuch des Atheismus
+         betrachtet worden.' _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. xi. p. 349.
+
+  [1024] 'Le monstrueux athéisme est devenu l'opinion dominante.'
+         _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. iii. p. 16: the address
+         of the archbishop with a deputation, 'muni des pouvoirs de
+         l'assemblée générale du clergé,' in September 1775.
+
+  [1025] _Biog. Univ._ vol. x. pp. 471, 669, vol. xxvii. p. 8, vol. xxx.
+         p. 542; _Mém. de Brissot_, vol. i. p. 305; _Tocqueville_, _Règne
+         de Louis XV_, vol. ii. p. 77.
+
+  [1026] _Mem. of Mallet du Pan_, vol. i. p. 50; _Soulavie_, _Règne de
+         Louis XVI_, vol. v. p. 127; _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacobin._, vol.
+         i. pp. 104, 135, 225, vol. ii. p. 23, vol. iii. p. 200; _Life of
+         Romilly_, vol. i. pp. 46, 145; _Stäudlin_, _Theolog.
+         Wissenschaften_, vol. ii. p. 440; _Georgel_, _Mém._ vol. ii. pp.
+         250, 350; _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. xv. p. 87; _Mém. de
+         Morellet_, vol. i. p. 130; _Lepan_, _Vie de Voltaire_, p. 369;
+         _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. xi. p. 350; _Musset
+         Pathay_, _Vie de Rousseau_, vol. ii. pp. 177, 297; _Mém. de
+         Genlis_, vol. v. p. 180; _Hitchcock's Geol._ p. 263; _Mém.
+         d'Epinay_, vol. ii. pp. 63, 66, 76.
+
+  [1027] This was related to Romilly by Diderot. _Life of Romilly_,
+         vol. i. pp. 131, 132: see also _Burton's Life of Hume_, vol. ii.
+         pp. 220. Priestley, who visited France in 1774, says, that 'all
+         the philosophical persons to whom I was introduced at Paris
+         (were) unbelievers in Christianity, and even professed
+         atheists.' _Priestley's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 74. See also a
+         letter by Horace Walpole, written from Paris in 1765 (_Walpole's
+         Letters_, edit. 1840, vol. v. p. 96): 'their avowed doctrine is
+         atheism.'
+
+This, sad as it is, only forms a single aspect of that immense movement,
+by which, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, the French
+intellect was withdrawn from the study of the internal, and concentrated
+upon that of the external world. Of this tendency, we find an
+interesting instance in the celebrated work of Helvétius, unquestionably
+the ablest and most influential treatise on morals which France produced
+at this period. It was published in 1758;[1028] and, although it bears
+the title of an essay on 'the Mind,' it does not contain a single
+passage from which we could infer that the mind, in the sense in which
+the word is commonly used, has any existence. In this work, which,
+during fifty years, was the code of French morals, principles are laid
+down which bear exactly the same relation to ethics that atheism bears
+to theology. Helvétius, at the beginning of his inquiry, assumes, as an
+incontestable fact, that the difference between man and other animals is
+the result of a difference in their external form; and that if, for
+example, our wrists, instead of ending with hands and flexible fingers,
+had merely ended like a horse's foot, we should have always remained
+wanderers on the face of the earth, ignorant of every art, entirely
+defenceless, and having no other concern but to avoid the attacks of
+wild beasts, and find the needful supply of our daily food.[1029] That
+the structure of our bodies is the sole cause of our boasted
+superiority, becomes evident, when we consider that our thoughts are
+simply the product of two faculties, which we have in common with all
+other animals; namely, the faculty of receiving impressions from
+external objects, and the faculty of remembering those impressions after
+they are received.[1030] From this, says Helvétius, it follows, that the
+internal powers of man being the same as those of all other animals, our
+sensibility and our memory would be useless, if it were not for those
+external peculiarities by which we are eminently distinguished, and to
+which we owe every thing that is most valuable.[1031] These positions
+being laid down, it is easy to deduce all the essential principles of
+moral actions. For, memory being merely one of the organs of physical
+sensibility,[1032] and judgment being only a sensation,[1033] all
+notions of duty and of virtue must be tested by their relation to the
+senses; in other words, by the gross amount of physical enjoyment to
+which they give rise. This is the true basis of moral philosophy. To
+take any other view, is to allow ourselves to be deceived by
+conventional expressions, which have no foundation except in the
+prejudices of ignorant men. Our vices and our virtues are solely the
+result of our passions; and our passions are caused by our physical
+sensibility to pain and to pleasure.[1034] It was in this way that the
+sense of justice first arose. To physical sensibility men owe pleasure
+and pain; hence the feeling of their own interests, and hence the desire
+of living together in societies. Being assembled in society, there grew
+up the notion of a general interest, since, without it, society could
+not hold together; and, as actions are only just or unjust in proportion
+as they minister to this general interest, a measure was established, by
+which justice is discriminated from injustice.[1035] With the same
+inflexible spirit, and with great fullness of illustration, Helvétius
+examines the origin of those other feelings which regulate human
+actions. Thus, he says that both ambition and friendship are entirely
+the work of physical sensibility. Men yearn after fame, on account
+either of the pleasure which they expect the mere possession of it will
+give, or else as the means of subsequently procuring other
+pleasures.[1036] As to friendship, the only use of it is to increase our
+pleasures or mitigate our pains; and it is with this object that a man
+longs to hold communion with his friend.[1037] Beyond this, life has
+nothing to offer. To love what is good for the sake of the goodness, is
+as impossible as to love what is bad for the sake of the evil.[1038] The
+mother who weeps for the loss of her child, is solely actuated by
+selfishness; she mourns because a pleasure is taken from her, and
+because she sees a void difficult to fill up.[1039] So it is, that the
+loftiest virtues, as well as the meanest vices, are equally caused by
+the pleasure we find in the exercise of them.[1040] This is the great
+mover and originator of all. Every thing that we have, and every thing
+that we are, we owe to the external world; nor is Man himself aught else
+except what he is made by the objects which surround him.[1041]
+
+  [1028] _Biog. Univ._ vol. xx. p. 29.
+
+  [1029] 'Si la nature, au lieu de mains et de doigts flexibles, eût
+         terminé nos poignets par un pied de cheval; qui doute que les
+         hommes, sans art, sans habitations, sans défense contre les
+         animaux, tout occupés du soin de pourvoir à leur nourriture et
+         d'éviter les bêtes féroces, ne fussent encore errants dans les
+         forêts comme des troupeaux fugitifs?' _Helvétius_, _De
+         l'Esprit_, vol. i. p. 2. Had Helvétius ever read the attack of
+         Aristotle against Anaxagoras for asserting that [Greek: dia to
+         cheiroas echein, phronimôtaton einai tôn zôôn ton anthrôpon]?
+         _Cudworth_, _Intellect. Syst._ vol. iii. p. 311.
+
+  [1030] _De l'Esprit_, vol. i. p. 2.
+
+  [1031] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 4.
+
+  [1032] 'En effet la mémoire ne peut être qu'un des organes de la
+         sensibilité physique.' vol. i. p. 6. Compare what M. Lepelletier
+         says on this, in his _Physiologie Médicale_, vol. iii. p. 272.
+
+  [1033] 'D'où je conclus que tout jugement n'est qu'une sensation.' _De
+         l'Esprit_, vol. i. p. 10; '_juger_, comme je l'ai déjà prouvé,
+         n'est proprement que _sentir_.' p. 41.
+
+  [1034] 'Né sensible à la douleur et au plaisir, c'est à la sensibilité
+         physique que l'homme doit ses passions; et à ses passions, qu'il
+         doit tous ses vices et toutes ses vertus.' _Ibid._ vol. ii. p.
+         53; and see vol. i. p. 239.
+
+  [1035] 'Une fois parvenu à cette vérité, je découvre facilement la
+         source des vertus humaines; je voie que sans la sensibilité à la
+         douleur et au plaisir physique, les hommes, sans désirs, sans
+         passions, également indifférents à tout, n'eussent point connu
+         d'intérêt personnel; que sans intérêt personnel ils ne se
+         fussent point rassemblés en société, n'eussent point fait
+         entr'eux de conventions, qu'il n'y eût point eu d'intérêt
+         général, par conséquent point d'actions justes ou injustes; et
+         qu'ainsi la sensibilité physique et l'intérêt personnel ont été
+         les auteurs de toute justice.' _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 278.
+
+  [1036] _De l'Esprit_, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20, 30, 34, 293, 294, 318.
+         Compare Epicurus, in _Diog. Laert. de Vit. Philos._ lib. x. seg.
+         120, vol. i. p. 654.
+
+  [1037] _De l'Esprit_, vol. ii. p. 45. He sums up: 'il s'ensuit que
+         l'amitié, ainsi que l'avarice, l'orgueil, l'ambition et les
+         autres passions, est l'effet immédiat de la sensibilité
+         physique.'
+
+  [1038] 'Il lui est aussi impossible d'aimer le bien pour le bien, que
+         d'aimer le mal pour le mal.' _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 73.
+
+  [1039] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 249.
+
+  [1040] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 58.
+
+  [1041] 'Nous sommes uniquement ce que nous font les objets qui nous
+         environnent.' _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+The views put forward in this celebrated work I have stated at some
+length; not so much on account of the ability with which they are
+advocated, as on account of the clue they furnish to the movements of a
+most remarkable age. Indeed, so completely did they harmonize with the
+prevailing tendencies, that they not only quickly obtained for their
+author a vast European reputation,[1042] but, during many years, they
+continued to increase in influence, and, in France in particular, they
+exercised great sway.[1043] As that was the country in which they
+arose, so also was it the country to which they were best adapted.
+Madame Dudeffand, who passed her long life in the midst of French
+society, and was one of the keenest observers of her time, has expressed
+this with great happiness. The work of Helvétius, she says, is popular,
+since he is the man who has told to all their own secret.[1044]
+
+  [1042] Saint Surin, a zealous opponent of Helvétius, admits that 'les
+         étrangers les plus éminents par leurs dignités ou par leurs
+         lumières, désiraient d'être introduits chez un philosophe dont
+         le nom retentissait dans toute l'Europe.' _Biog. Univ._ vol. xx.
+         p. 33.
+
+  [1043] Brissot (_Mémoires_, vol. i. p. 339) says, that in 1775, 'le
+         système d'Helvétius avait alors la plus grande vogue.' Turgot,
+         who wrote against it, complains that it was praised 'avec une
+         sorte de fureur' (_[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ix. p. 297); and
+         Georgel (_Mémoires_, vol. ii. p. 256) says, 'ce livre, écrit
+         avec un style plein de chaleur et d'images, se trouvoit sur
+         toutes les toilettes.'
+
+  [1044] 'D'ailleurs le siècle de Louis XV se reconnut dans l'ouvrage
+         d'Helvétius, et on prête à Mme. Dudeffand ce mot fin et profond:
+         "C'est un homme qui a dit le secret de tout le monde."'
+         _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._ I. série, vol. iii. p. 201.
+         Compare _Corresp. de Dudeffand_, vol. i. p. xxii.; and a similar
+         sentiment in _Mém. de Roland_, vol. i. p. 104. The relation of
+         Helvétius's work to the prevailing philosophy is noticed in
+         _Comte's Philos. Pos._ vol. iii. pp. 791, 792. vol. v.
+         pp. 744, 745.
+
+True it was, that, to the contemporaries of Helvétius, his views,
+notwithstanding their immense popularity, bore the appearance of a
+secret; because the connexion between them and the general march of
+events was, as yet, but dimly perceived. To us, however, who, after this
+interval of time, can examine the question with the resources of a
+larger experience, it is obvious how such a system met the wants of an
+age of which it was the exponent and the mouthpiece. That Helvétius must
+have carried with him the sympathies of his countrymen, is clear, not
+only from the evidence we have of his success, but also from a more
+comprehensive view of the general complexion of those times. Even while
+he was still pursuing his labours, and only four years before he
+published them, a work appeared in France, which, though displaying
+greater ability, and possessing a higher influence than that of
+Helvétius, did, nevertheless, point in exactly the same direction. I
+allude to the great metaphysical treatise by Condillac, in many respects
+one of the most remarkable productions of the eighteenth century; and
+the authority of which, during two generations, was so irresistible,
+that, without some acquaintance with it, we cannot possibly understand
+the nature of those complicated movements by which the French Revolution
+was brought about.
+
+In 1754,[1045] Condillac put forth his celebrated work on the mind; the
+very title of which was a proof of the bias with which it was written.
+Although this profound thinker aimed at nothing less than an exhaustive
+analysis of the human faculties, and although he is pronounced by a very
+able, but hostile critic, to be the only metaphysician France produced
+during the eighteenth century,[1046] still he found it utterly
+impossible to escape from those tendencies towards the external which
+governed his own age. The consequence was, that he called his work a
+'Treatise on Sensations;'[1047] and in it he peremptorily asserts, that
+every thing we know is the result of sensation; by which he means the
+effect produced on us by the action of the external world. Whatever may
+be thought of the accuracy of this opinion, there can be no doubt that
+it is enforced with a closeness and severity of reasoning which deserves
+the highest praise. To examine, however, the arguments by which his view
+is supported, would lead to a discussion foreign to my present object,
+which is, merely to point out the relation between his philosophy and
+the general temper of his contemporaries. Without, therefore, pretending
+to anything like a critical examination of this celebrated book, I will
+simply bring together the essential positions on which it is based, in
+order to illustrate the harmony between it and the intellectual habits
+of the age in which it appeared.[1048]
+
+  [1045] _Biog. Univ._ vol. ix. p. 399.
+
+  [1046] 'Condillac est le métaphysicien français du XVIII^e siècle.'
+         _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philos._ I. série, vol. iii. p. 83.
+
+  [1047] 'Traité des Sensations,' which, as M. Cousin says, is, 'sans
+         comparaison, le chef-d'[oe]uvre de Condillac.' _Hist. de la
+         Philos._ II. série, vol. ii. p. 77.
+
+  [1048] On the immense influence of Condillac, compare _Renouard_, _Hist.
+         de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 355; _Cuvier_, _Eloges_, vol. iii.
+         p. 387; _Broussais_, _Cours de Phrénologie_, pp. 45, 68-71, 829;
+         _Pinel_, _Alién. Mentale_, p. 94; _Brown's Philos. of the Mind_,
+         p. 212.
+
+The materials from which the philosophy of Condillac was originally
+drawn, were contained in the great work published by Locke about sixty
+years before this time. But though much of what was most essential was
+borrowed from the English philosopher, there was one very important
+point in which the disciple differed from his master. And this
+difference is strikingly characteristic of the direction which the
+French intellect was now taking. Locke, with some looseness of
+expression, and possibly with some looseness of thought, had asserted
+the separate existence of a power of reflection, and had maintained that
+by means of that power the products of sensation became available.[1049]
+Condillac, moved by the prevailing temper of his own time, would not
+hear of such a distinction. He, like most of his contemporaries, was
+jealous of any claim which increased the authority of the internal, and
+weakened that of the external. He, therefore, altogether rejects the
+faculty of reflection as a source of our ideas; and this partly because
+it is but the channel through which ideas run from the senses, and
+partly because in its origin it is itself a sensation.[1050] Therefore,
+according to him, the only question is as to the way in which our
+contact with nature supplies us with ideas. For in this scheme, the
+faculties of man are solely caused by the operation of his senses. The
+judgments which we form are, says Condillac, often ascribed to the hand
+of the Deity; a convenient mode of reasoning, which has only arisen from
+the difficulty of analyzing them.[1051] By considering how our judgments
+actually arise, we can alone remove these obscurities. The fact is, that
+the attention we give to an object is nothing but the sensation which
+that object excites;[1052] and what we call abstract ideas are merely
+different ways of being attentive.[1053] Ideas being thus generated, the
+subsequent process is very simple. To attend to two ideas at the same
+time, is to compare them; so that comparison is not a result of
+attention, but is rather the attention itself.[1054] This at once gives
+us the faculty of judging, because directly we institute a comparison,
+we do of necessity form a judgment.[1055] Thus, too, memory is a
+transformed sensation;[1056] while the imagination is nothing but
+memory, which, being carried to its highest possible vivacity, makes
+what is absent appear to be present.[1057] The impressions we receive
+from the external world being, therefore, not the cause of our
+faculties, but being the faculties themselves, the conclusion to which
+we are driven is inevitable. It follows, says Condillac, that in man
+nature is the beginning of all; that to nature we owe the whole of our
+knowledge; that we only instruct ourselves according to her lessons; and
+that the entire art of reasoning consists in continuing the work which
+she has appointed us to perform.[1058]
+
+  [1049] Whether or not Locke held that reflection is an independent as
+         well as a separate faculty, is uncertain; because passages could
+         be quoted from his writings to prove either the affirmative or
+         the negative. Dr. Whewell justly remarks, that Locke uses the
+         word so vaguely as to 'allow his disciples to make of his
+         doctrines what they please.' _History of Moral Philosophy_,
+         1852, p. 71.
+
+  [1050] 'Locke distingue deux sources de nos idées, les sens et la
+         réflexion. Il seroit plus exact de n'en reconnoître qu'une, soit
+         parceque la réflexion n'est dans son principe que la sensation
+         même, soit parce qu'elle est moins la source des idées que le
+         canal par lequel elles découlent des sens.' _Condillac_, _Traité
+         des Sensations_, p. 13: see also, at pp. 19, 216, the way in
+         which sensation becomes reflection; and the summing up, at p.
+         416, 'que toutes nos connoissances viennent des sens, et
+         particulièrement du toucher.'
+
+  [1051] He says of Mallebranche (_Traité des Sensations_, p. 312), 'ne
+         pouvant comprendre comment nous formerions nous-mêmes ces
+         jugemens, il les attribue à Dieu; manière de raisonner fort
+         commode, et presque toujours la ressource des philosophes.'
+
+  [1052] 'Mais à peine j'arrête la vue sur un objet, que les sensations
+         particulières que j'en reçois sont l'attention même que je lui
+         donne.' _Traité des Sensations_, p. 16.
+
+  [1053] 'Ne sont que différentes manières d'être attentif.' p. 122.
+
+  [1054] 'Dès qu'il y a double attention, il y a comparaison; car être
+         attentif à deux idées ou les comparer, c'est la même chose.'
+         p. 17.
+
+  [1055] 'Dès qu'il y a comparaison, il y a jugement.' p. 65.
+
+  [1056] 'La mémoire n'est donc que la sensation transformée.' p. 17.
+         Compare p. 61.
+
+  [1057] 'L'imagination est la mémoire même, parvenue à toute la vivacité
+         dont elle est susceptible.' p. 78. 'Or j'ai appelé imagination
+         cette mémoire vive qui fait paroître présent ce qui est absent.'
+         p. 245.
+
+  [1058] 'Il résulte de cette vérité, que la nature commence tout en nous:
+         aussi ai-je démontré que, dans le principe ou dans le
+         commencement, nos connoissances sont uniquement son ouvrage, que
+         nous ne nous instruisons que d'après ses leçons, et que tout
+         l'art de raisonner consisté à continuer comme elle nous a fait
+         commencer.' p. 178.
+
+It is so impossible to mistake the tendency of these views, that I need
+not attempt to estimate their result otherwise than by measuring the
+extent to which they were adopted. Indeed, the zeal with which they were
+now carried into every department of knowledge, can only surprise those
+who, being led by their habits of mind to study history in its separate
+fragments, have not accustomed themselves to consider it as an united
+whole, and who, therefore, do not perceive that in every great epoch
+there is some one idea at work, which is more powerful than any other,
+and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate
+issue. In France, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, this
+idea was, the inferiority of the internal to the external. It was this
+dangerous but plausible principle which drew the attention of men from
+the church to the state; which was seen in Helvétius the most celebrated
+of the French moralists, and in Condillac the most celebrated of the
+French metaphysicians. It was this same principle which, by increasing,
+if I may so say, the reputation of Nature, induced the ablest thinkers
+to devote themselves to a study of her laws, and to abandon those other
+pursuits which had been popular in the preceding age. In consequence of
+this movement, such wonderful additions were made to every branch of
+physical science, that more new truths concerning the external world
+were discovered in France during the latter half of the eighteenth
+century than during all the previous periods put together. The details
+of these discoveries, so far as they have been subservient to the
+general purposes of civilization, will be related in another place; at
+present I will indicate only the most prominent, in order that the
+reader may understand the course of the subsequent argument, and may see
+the connexion between them and the French Revolution.
+
+Taking a general view of the external world, we may say, that the three
+most important forces by which the operations of nature are effected,
+are heat, light, and electricity; including under this last magnetic and
+galvanic phenomena. On all these subjects, the French, for the first
+time, now exerted themselves with signal success. In regard to heat, not
+only were the materials for subsequent induction collected with
+indefatigable industry, but before that generation passed away, the
+induction was actually made; for while the laws of its radiation were
+worked out by Prevost,[1059] those of its conduction were established by
+Fourier, who, just before the Revolution, employed himself in raising
+thermotics to a science by the deductive application of that celebrated
+mathematical theory which he contrived, and which still bears his
+name.[1060] In regard to electricity, it is enough to notice, during the
+same period, the important experiments of D'Alibard, followed by those
+vast labours of Coulomb, which brought electrical phenomena under the
+jurisdiction of the mathematics, and thus completed what [OE]pinus had
+already prepared.[1061] As to the laws of light, those ideas were now
+accumulating which rendered possible the great steps that, at the close
+of the century, were taken by Malus, and still later by Fresnel.[1062]
+Both of these eminent Frenchmen not only made important additions to
+our knowledge of double refraction, but Malus discovered the
+polarization of light, undoubtedly the most splendid contribution
+received by optical science since the analysis of the solar rays.[1063]
+It was also in consequence of this, that Fresnel began those profound
+researches which placed on a solid basis that great undulatory theory of
+which Hooke, Huygens, and above all Young, are to be deemed the
+founders, and by which the corpuscular theory of Newton was finally
+overthrown.[1064]
+
+  [1059] Compare _Powell on Radiant Heat_, p. 261, in _Second Rep. of
+         Brit. Assoc._; _Whewell's History of Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 526;
+         and his _Philosophy_, vol. i. pp. 339, 340. Prevost was
+         professor at Geneva; but his great views were followed up in
+         France by Dulong and Petit; and the celebrated theory of dew by
+         Dr. Wells is merely an application of them. _Herschel's Nat.
+         Philosophy_, pp. 163, 315, 316. Respecting the further
+         prosecution of these inquiries, and our present knowledge of
+         radiant heat, see _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. i. p. 79,
+         vol. iii. p. 30, vol. iv. p. 45.
+
+  [1060] On Fourier's mathematical theory of conduction, see _Comte_,
+         _Philos. Positive_, vol. i. pp. 142, 175, 345, 346, 351, vol.
+         ii. pp. 453, 551; _Prout's Bridgewater Treatise_, pp. 203, 204;
+         _Kelland on Heat_, p. 6, in _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1841; _Erman's
+         Siberia_, vol. i. p. 243; _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. i. p. 169;
+         _Hitchcock's Geology_, p. 198; _Pouillet_, _Elémens de
+         Physique_, ii. 696, 697.
+
+  [1061] Coulomb's memoirs on electricity and magnetism were published
+         from 1782 to 1789. _Fifth Report of Brit. Assoc._ p. 4. Compare
+         _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. iii. p. 128; and on his
+         relation to [OE]pinus, who wrote in 1759, see _Whewell's Induc.
+         Sciences_, vol. iii. pp. 24-26, 35, 36, and _Haüy_, _Traité de
+         Minéralogie_, vol. iii. p. 44, vol. iv. p. 14. There is a still
+         fuller account of what was effected by Coulomb in M. Pouillet's
+         able work, _Elémens de Physique_, vol. i. part ii. pp. 63-79,
+         130-135.
+
+  [1062] Fresnel belongs to the present century; but M. Biot says that the
+         researches of Malus began before the passage of the Rhine in
+         1797. _Biot's Life of Malus_, in _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p.
+         412.
+
+  [1063] _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 484,
+         514; _Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1832_, p. 314; _Leslie's Nat.
+         Philos._ p. 83; _Whewell's Hist. of Sciences_, vol. ii. pp.
+         408-410; _Philos. of Sciences_, vol. i. p. 350, vol. ii. p. 25;
+         _Herschel's Nat. Philos._ p. 258.
+
+  [1064] The struggle between these rival theories, and the ease with
+         which a man of such immense powers as Young was put down, and,
+         as it were, suppressed, by those ignorant pretenders who
+         presumed to criticize him, will be related in another part of
+         this work, as a valuable illustration of the history and habits
+         of the English mind. At present the controversy is finished, so
+         far as the advocates of emission are concerned; but there are
+         still difficulties on the other side, which should have
+         prevented Dr. Whewell from expressing himself with such extreme
+         positiveness on an unexhausted subject. This able writer says:
+         'The undulatory theory of light; the only discovery which can
+         stand by the side of the theory of universal gravitation, as a
+         doctrine belonging to the same order, for its generality, its
+         fertility, and its certainty.' _Whewell's Hist. of the Induc.
+         Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 425; see also p. 508.
+
+Thus much as to the progress of French knowledge respecting those parts
+of nature which are in themselves invisible, and of which we cannot tell
+whether they have a material existence, or whether they are mere
+conditions and properties of other bodies.[1065] The immense value of
+these discoveries, as increasing the number of known truths, is
+incontestable: but, at the same time, another class of discoveries was
+made, which, dealing more palpably with the visible world, and being
+also more easily understood, produced more immediate results, and, as I
+shall presently show, exercised a remarkable influence in strengthening
+that democratic tendency which accompanied the French Revolution. It is
+impossible, within the limits I have assigned to myself, to give
+anything like an adequate notion of the marvellous activity with which
+the French now pushed their researches into every department of the
+organic and inorganic world; still it is, I think, practicable to
+compress into a few pages such a summary of the more salient points as
+will afford the reader some idea of what was done by that generation of
+great thinkers which flourished in France during the latter half of the
+eighteenth century.
+
+  [1065] As to the supposed impossibility of conceiving the existence of
+         matter without properties which give rise to forces (note in
+         _Paget's Lectures on Pathology_, 1853, vol. i. p. 61), there are
+         two reasons which prevent me from attaching much weight to it.
+         First, a conception which, in one stage of knowledge, is called
+         impossible, becomes, in a later stage, perfectly easy, and so
+         natural as to be often termed necessary. Secondly, however
+         indissoluble the connexion may appear between force and matter,
+         it was not found fatal to the dynamical theory of Leibnitz; it
+         has not prevented other eminent thinkers from holding similar
+         views; and the arguments of Berkeley, though constantly
+         attacked, have never been refuted.
+
+If we confine our view to the globe we inhabit, it must be allowed that
+chemistry and geology are the two sciences which not only offer the
+fairest promise, but already contain the largest generalizations. The
+reason of this will become clear, if we attend to the ideas on which
+these two great subjects are based. The idea of chemistry, is the study
+of composition;[1066] the idea of geology, is the study of position. The
+object of the first is, to learn the laws which govern the properties of
+matter; the object of the second is, to learn the laws which govern its
+locality. In chemistry, we experiment; in geology, we observe. In
+chemistry, we deal with the molecular arrangement of the smallest
+atoms;[1067] in geology, with the cosmological arrangement of the
+largest masses. Hence it is that the chemist by his minuteness, and the
+geologist by his grandeur, touch the two extremes of the material
+universe; and, starting from these opposite points, have, as I could
+easily prove, a constantly increasing tendency to bring under their own
+authority sciences which have at present an independent existence, and
+which, for the sake of a division of labour, it is still convenient to
+study separately; though it must be the business of philosophy, properly
+so called, to integrate them into a complete and effective whole. Indeed
+it is obvious, that if we knew all the laws of the composition of
+matter, and likewise all the laws of its position, we should likewise
+know all the changes of which matter is capable spontaneously, that is,
+when uninterrupted by the mind of man. Every phenomenon which any given
+substance presents must be caused either by something taking place in
+the substance, or else by something taking place out of it, but acting
+upon it; while what occurs within must be explicable by its own
+composition, and what occurs without must be due to its position in
+relation to the objects by which it is affected. This is an exhaustive
+statement of every possible contingency, and to one of these two classes
+of laws every thing must be referrible; even those mysterious forces
+which, whether they be emanations from matter, or whether they be merely
+properties of matter, must in an ultimate analysis depend either on the
+internal arrangement, or else on the external locality of their physical
+antecedents. However convenient, therefore, it may be, in the present
+state of our knowledge, to speak of vital principles, imponderable
+fluids, and elastic æthers, such terms can only be provisional, and are
+to be considered as mere names for that residue of unexplained facts,
+which it will be the business of future ages to bring under
+generalizations wide enough to cover and include the whole.
+
+  [1066] Every chemical decomposition being only a new form of
+         composition. _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i.
+         pp. 455, 456, 498: 'de tout cela il résulte, que la dissolution
+         est un cas particulier des combinaisons.'
+
+  [1067] What is erroneously called the atomic theory, is, properly
+         speaking, an hypothesis, and not a theory: but hypothesis though
+         it be, it is by its aid that we wield the doctrine of definite
+         proportions, the corner stone of chemistry.
+
+These ideas of composition and of position being thus the basis of all
+natural science, it is not surprising that chemistry and geology, which
+are their best, but still their insufficient representatives, should in
+modern times have made more progress than any other of the great
+branches of human knowledge. Although the chemists and geologists have
+not yet risen to the full height of their respective subjects,[1068]
+there are few things more curious than to note the way in which, during
+the last two generations, they have been rapidly expanding their
+views--encroaching on topics with which, at first sight, they appeared
+to have no concern--making other branches of inquiry tributary to their
+own--and collecting from every quarter that intellectual wealth which,
+long hidden in obscure corners, had been wasted in the cultivation of
+special and inferior pursuits. This, as being one of the great
+intellectual characteristics of the present age, I shall hereafter
+examine at considerable length; but what I have now to show is, that in
+these two vast sciences, which, though still very imperfect, must
+eventually be superior to all others, the first important steps were
+made by Frenchmen during the latter half of the eighteenth century.
+
+  [1068] Many of them being still fettered, in geology, by the hypothesis
+         of catastrophes; in chemistry, by the hypothesis of vital
+         forces.
+
+That we owe to France the existence of chemistry as a science, will be
+admitted by everyone who uses the word science in the sense in which
+alone it ought to be understood, namely, as a body of generalizations so
+irrefragably true, that, though they may be subsequently covered by
+higher generalizations, they cannot be overthrown by them; in other
+words, generalizations which may be absorbed, but not refuted. In this
+point of view, there are in the history of chemistry only three great
+stages. The first stage was the destruction of the phlogistic theory,
+and the establishment, upon its ruins, of the doctrines of oxidation,
+combustion, and respiration. The second stage was the establishment of
+the principle of definite proportions, and the application to it of the
+atomic hypothesis. The third stage, above which we have not yet risen,
+consists in the union of chemical and electrical laws, and in the
+progress we are making towards fusing into one generalization their
+separate phenomena. Which of these three stages was in its own age the
+most valuable, is not now the question; but it is certain that the first
+of them was the work of Lavoisier, by far the greatest of the French
+chemists. Before him several important points had been cleared up by the
+English chemists, whose experiments ascertained the existence of bodies
+formerly unknown. The links, however, to connect the facts, were still
+wanting; and until Lavoisier entered the field, there were no
+generalizations wide enough to entitle chemistry to be called a science;
+or, to speak more properly, the only large generalization commonly
+received was that by Stahl, which the great Frenchman proved to be not
+only imperfect, but altogether inaccurate. A notice of the vast
+discoveries of Lavoisier will be found in many well-known books:[1069]
+it is enough to say, that he not only worked out the laws of the
+oxidation of bodies and of their combustion, but that he is the author
+of the true theory of respiration, the purely chemical character of
+which he first demonstrated; thus laying the foundation of those views
+respecting the functions of food, which the German chemists subsequently
+developed, and which, as I have proved in the second chapter of this
+Introduction, may be applied to solve some great problems in the history
+of Man. The merit of this was so obviously due to France, that though
+the system now established was quickly adopted in other countries,[1070]
+it received the name of the French chemistry.[1071] At the same time,
+the old nomenclature being full of old errors, a new one was required,
+and here again France took the initiative; since this great reformation
+was begun by four of her most eminent chemists, who flourished only a
+few years before the Revolution.[1072]
+
+  [1069] See, for instance, _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_, vol. i.
+         pp. 32-34, 40; _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 282;
+         _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 184, 185; _Brande's
+         Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. lxxxv.-lxxxix. 302; _Thomson's Animal
+         Chemistry_, pp. 520, 634, and a great part of the second volume
+         of his _History of Chemistry_; also _Müller's Physiol._ vol. i.
+         pp. 90, 323.
+
+  [1070] According to Mr. Harcourt (_Brit. Assoc. Report for 1839_,
+         p. 10), Cavendish has this merit, so far as England is
+         concerned: 'He, first of all his contemporaries, did justice to
+         the rival theory recently proposed by Lavoisier.'
+
+  [1071] La chimie française. _Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry_, vol. ii.
+         pp. 101, 130. On the excitement caused by Lavoisier's views, see
+         a letter which Jefferson wrote in Paris, in 1789, printed partly
+         in _Tucker's Life of Jefferson_, vol. i. pp. 314, 315; and at
+         length in _Jefferson's Correspond._ vol. ii. pp. 453-455.
+
+  [1072] 'The first attempt to form a systematic chemical nomenclature was
+         made by Lavoisier, Berthollet, G. de Morveau, and Fourcroy, soon
+         after the discovery of oxygen gas.' _Turner's Chemistry_, vol.
+         i. p. 127. Cuvier (_Progrès des Sciences_, vol. i. p. 39) and
+         Robin et Verdeil (_Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i. pp. 602, 603)
+         ascribe the chief merit to De Morveau. Thomson says (_Hist. of
+         Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 133): 'This new nomenclature very soon
+         made its way into every part of Europe, and became the common
+         language of chemists, in spite of the prejudices entertained
+         against it, and the opposition which it every where met with.'
+
+While one division of the French thinkers was reducing to order the
+apparent irregularities of chemical phenomena, another division of them
+was performing precisely the same service for geology. The first step
+towards popularizing this noble study was taken by Buffon, who, in the
+middle of the eighteenth century, broached a geological theory, which,
+though not quite original, excited attention by its eloquence, and by
+the lofty speculations with which he connected it.[1073] This was
+followed by the more special but still important labours of Rouelle,
+Desmarest, Dolomieu, and Montlosier, who, in less than forty years,
+effected a complete revolution in the ideas of Frenchmen, by
+familiarizing them with the strange conception, that the surface of our
+planet, even where it appears perfectly stable, is constantly undergoing
+most extensive changes. It began to be understood, that this perpetual
+flux takes place not only in those parts of nature which are obviously
+feeble and evanescent, but also in those which seem to possess every
+element of strength and permanence, such as the mountains of granite
+which wall the globe, and are the shell and encasement in which it is
+held. As soon as the mind became habituated to this notion of universal
+change, the time was ripe for the appearance of some great thinker, who
+should generalize the scattered observations, and form them into a
+science, by connecting them with some other department of knowledge, of
+which the laws, or, at all events, the empirical uniformities, had been
+already ascertained.
+
+  [1073] The famous central heat of Buffon is often supposed to have been
+         taken from Leibnitz; but, though vaguely taught by the ancients,
+         the real founder of the doctrine appears to have been Descartes.
+         See _Bordas Demoulin_, _Cartésianisme_, Paris, 1843, vol. i. p.
+         312. There is an unsatisfactory note on this in _Prichard's
+         Physical Hist._ vol. i. p. 100. Compare _Experimental Hist. of
+         Cold_, tit. 17, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. ii. p. 308; _Brewster's
+         Life of Newton_, vol. ii. p. 100. On the central heat of the
+         Pythagoreans, see _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. i. p.
+         149; and as to the central fire mentioned in the so-called
+         Oracles of Zoroaster, see _Beausobre_, _Hist. de Manichée_, vol.
+         ii. p. 152. But the complete ignorance of the ancients
+         respecting geology made these views nothing but guesses. Compare
+         some sensible remarks in _Matter's Hist. de l'Ecole
+         d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. p. 282.
+
+It was at this point, and while the inquiries of geologists,
+notwithstanding their value, were still crude and unsettled, that the
+subject was taken up by Cuvier, one of the greatest naturalists Europe
+has ever produced. A few others there are who have surpassed him in
+depth; but in comprehensiveness it would be hard to find his superior;
+and the immense range of his studies gave him a peculiar advantage in
+surveying the operations and dependencies of the external world.[1074]
+This remarkable man is unquestionably the founder of geology as a
+science, since he is not only the first who saw the necessity of
+bringing to bear upon it the generalizations of comparative anatomy, but
+he is also the first who actually, executing this great idea, succeeded
+in coördinating the study of the strata of the earth with the study of
+the fossil animals found in them.[1075] Shortly before his researches
+were published, many valuable facts had indeed been collected respecting
+the separate strata; the primary formations being investigated by the
+Germans, the secondary ones by the English.[1076] But these
+observations, notwithstanding their merit, were isolated; and they
+lacked that vast conception which gave unity and grandeur to the whole,
+by connecting inquiries concerning the inorganic changes of the surface
+of the globe with other inquiries concerning the organic changes of the
+animals the surface contained.
+
+  [1074] This comprehensiveness of Cuvier is justly remarked by M.
+         Flourens as the leading characteristic of his mind. _Flourens_,
+         _Hist. des Travaux de Cuvier_, pp. 76, 142, 306: 'ce qui
+         caractérise partout M. Cuvier, c'est l'esprit vaste.'
+
+  [1075] Hence he is called by Mr. Owen, 'the founder of palæontological
+         science.' _Owen on Fossil Mammalia_, in _Report of Brit. Assoc.
+         for 1843_, p. 208. It was in 1796 that there were thus 'opened
+         to him entirely new views of the theory of the earth.' p. 209.
+         See also _Bakewell's Geology_, p. 368; and _Milne Edwards_,
+         _Zoologie_, part ii. p. 279. The importance of this step is
+         becoming more evident every year; and it has been justly
+         remarked, that without palæontology there would be, properly
+         speaking, no geology. _Balfour's Botany_, 1849, p. 591. Sir R.
+         Murchison (_Siluria_, 1854, p. 366) says, 'it is essentially the
+         study of organic remains which has led to the clear subdivision
+         of the vast mass of older rocks, which were there formerly
+         merged under the unmeaning term "Grauwacke."' In the same able
+         work, p. 465, we are told that, 'in surveying the whole series
+         of formations, the practical geologist is fully impressed with
+         the conviction that there has, at all periods, subsisted a very
+         intimate connexion between the existence, or, at all events, the
+         preservation of animals, and the media in which they have been
+         fossilized.' For an instance of this in the old red sandstone,
+         see p. 329.
+
+  [1076] _Whewell's Hist. of Sciences_, vol. iii. p. 679; _Lyell's Geol._
+         p. 59. Indeed gneiss received its name from the Germans.
+         _Bakewell's Geol._ p. 108.
+
+How completely this immense step is due to France, is evident not only
+from the part played by Cuvier, but also from the admitted fact, that to
+the French we owe our knowledge respecting tertiary strata,[1077] in
+which the organic remains are most numerous, and the general analogy to
+our present state is most intimate.[1078] Another circumstance may
+likewise be added, as pointing to the same conclusion. This is, that
+the first application of the principles of comparative anatomy to the
+study of fossil bones was also the work of a Frenchman, the celebrated
+Daubenton. Hitherto these bones had been the object of stupid wonder;
+some saying that they were rained from heaven, others saying that they
+were the gigantic limbs of the ancient patriarchs, men who were believed
+to be tall because they were known to be old.[1079] Such idle conceits
+were for ever destroyed by Daubenton, in a Memoir he published in
+1762;[1080] with which, however, we are not now concerned, except that
+it is evidence of the state of the French mind, and is worth noting as a
+precursor of the discoveries of Cuvier.
+
+  [1077] Compare _Conybeare's Report on Geology_, p. 371 (_Brit. Assoc.
+         for_ 1832), with _Bakewell's Geol._ pp. 367, 368, 419, and
+         _Lyell's Geol._ p. 59.
+
+  [1078] In the older half of the secondary rocks, mammals are hardly to
+         be found, and they do not become common until the tertiary.
+         _Murchison's Siluria_, pp. 466, 467; and _Strickland on
+         Ornithology_, p. 210 (_Brit. Assoc. for_ 1844). So, too, in the
+         vegetable kingdom, many of the plants in the tertiary strata
+         belong to genera still existing; but this is rarely the case
+         with the secondary strata; while in the primary strata, even the
+         families are different to those now found on the earth.
+         _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 592, 593. Compare Wilson's additions to
+         _Jussieu's Botany_, 1849, p. 746; and for further illustration
+         of this remarkable law of the relation between advancing time
+         and diminished similarity, a law suggesting the most curious
+         speculations, see _Hitchcock's Geology_, p. 21; _Lyell's
+         Geology_, p. 183; and _Owen's Lectures on the Invertebrata_,
+         1855, pp. 38, 576.
+
+  [1079] Mr. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire (_Anomalies de l'Organisation_,
+         vol. i. pp. 121-127) has collected some evidence respecting the
+         opinions formerly held on these subjects. Among other instances,
+         he mentions a learned man named Henrion, an academician, and, I
+         suppose, a theologian, who in 1718 published a work, in which
+         'il assignait à Adam cent vingt-trois pieds neuf pouces;' Noah
+         being twenty feet shorter, and so on. The bones of elephants
+         were sometimes taken for giants: see a pleasant circumstance in
+         _Cuvier_, _Hist. des Sciences_, part ii. p. 43.
+
+  [1080] 'Daubenton a le premier détruit toutes ces idées; il a le premier
+         appliqué l'anatomie comparée à la détermination de ces os.... Le
+         mémoire où Daubenton a tenté, pour la première fois, la solution
+         de ce problème important est de 1762.' _Flourens_, _Travaux de
+         Cuvier_, pp. 36, 37. Agassiz (_Report on Fossil Fishes_, p. 82,
+         _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1842) claims this merit too exclusively for
+         Cuvier, overlooking the earlier researches of Daubenton; and the
+         same mistake is made in _Hitchcock's Geol._ p. 249, and in
+         _Bakewell's Geol._ p. 384.
+
+By this union of geology and anatomy, there was first introduced into
+the study of nature a clear conception of the magnificent doctrine of
+universal change; while at the same time there grew up by its side a
+conception equally steady of the regularity with which the changes are
+accomplished, and of the undeviating laws by which they are governed.
+Similar ideas had no doubt been occasionally held in preceding ages; but
+the great Frenchmen of the eighteenth century were the first who applied
+them to the entire structure of the globe, and who thus prepared the way
+for that still higher view for which their minds were not yet
+ripe,[1081] but to which in our own time the most advanced thinkers are
+rapidly rising. For it is now beginning to be understood, that since
+every addition to knowledge affords fresh proof of the regularity with
+which all the changes of nature are conducted, we are bound to believe
+that the same regularity existed long before our little planet assumed
+its present form, and long before man trod the surface of the earth. We
+have the most abundant evidence that the movements incessantly occurring
+in the material world have a character of uniformity; and this
+uniformity is so clearly marked, that in astronomy, the most perfect of
+all the sciences, we are able to predict events many years before they
+actually happen; nor can any one doubt, that if on other subjects our
+science were equally advanced, our predictions would be equally
+accurate. It is, therefore, clear, that the burden of proof lies not on
+those who assert the eternal regularity of nature, but rather on those
+who deny it; and who set up an imaginary period, to which they assign an
+imaginary catastrophe, during which they say new laws were introduced
+and a new order established. Such gratuitous assumptions, even if they
+eventually turn out to be true, are in the present state of knowledge
+unwarrantable, and ought to be rejected, as the last remains of those
+theological prejudices by which the march of every science has in its
+turn been hindered. These and all analagous notions work a double
+mischief. They are mischievous, because they cripple the human mind by
+imposing limits to its inquiries; and above all they are mischievous,
+because they weaken that vast conception of continuous and uninterrupted
+law, which few indeed are able firmly to seize, but on which the highest
+generalizations of future science must ultimately depend.
+
+  [1081] Even Cuvier held the doctrine of catastrophes; but, as Sir
+         Charles Lyell says (_Principles of Geology_, p. 60), his own
+         discoveries supplied the means of overthrowing it, and of
+         familiarizing us with the idea of continuity. Indeed it was one
+         of the fossil observations of Cuvier which first supplied the
+         link between reptiles, fishes, and cetaceous mammals. See _Owen
+         on Fossil Reptiles_, pp. 60, 198, _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1841; and
+         compare _Carus's Comparative Anatomy_, vol. i. p. 155. To this I
+         may add, that Cuvier unconsciously prepared the way for
+         disturbing the old dogma of fixity of species, though he himself
+         clung to it to the last. See some observations, which are very
+         remarkable, considering the period when they were written, in
+         _Cabanis_, _Rapports du Physique et du Moral_, pp. 427, 428:
+         conclusions drawn from Cuvier, which Cuvier would have himself
+         rejected.
+
+It is this deep conviction, that changing phenomena have unchanging
+laws, and that there are principles of order to which all apparent
+disorder may be referred,--it is this, which, in the seventeenth
+century, guided in a limited field Bacon, Descartes, and Newton; which
+in the eighteenth century was applied to every part of the material
+universe; and which it is the business of the nineteenth century to
+extend to the history of the human intellect. This last department of
+inquiry we owe chiefly to Germany; for, with the single exception of
+Vico, no one even suspected the possibility of arriving at complete
+generalizations respecting the progress of man, until shortly before the
+French Revolution, when the great German thinkers began to cultivate
+this, the highest and most difficult of all studies. But the French
+themselves were too much occupied with physical science to pay attention
+to such matters;[1082] and speaking generally, we may say that, in the
+eighteenth century, each of the three leading nations of Europe had a
+separate part to play. England diffused a love of freedom; France, a
+knowledge of physical science; while Germany, aided in some degree by
+Scotland, revived the study of metaphysics, and created the study of
+philosophic history. To this classification some exceptions may of
+course be made; but that these were the marked characteristics of the
+three countries, is certain. After the death of Locke in 1704, and that
+of Newton in 1727, there was in England a singular dearth of great
+speculative thinkers; and this not because the ability was wanting, but
+because it was turned partly into practical pursuits, partly into
+political contests. I shall hereafter examine the causes of this
+peculiarity, and endeavour to ascertain the extent to which it has
+influenced the fortunes of the country. That the results were, on the
+whole, beneficial, I entertain no doubt; but they were unquestionably
+injurious to the progress of science, because they tended to divert it
+from all new truths, except those likely to produce obvious and
+practical benefit. The consequence was, that though the English made
+several great discoveries, they did not possess, during seventy years, a
+single man who took a really comprehensive view of the phenomena of
+nature; not one who could be compared with those illustrious thinkers
+who in France reformed every branch of physical knowledge. Nor was it
+until more than two generations after the death of Newton, that the
+first symptoms appeared of a remarkable reaction, which quickly
+displayed itself in nearly every department of the national intellect.
+In physics, it is enough to mention Dalton, Davy, and Young, each of
+whom was in his own field the founder of a new epoch; while on other
+subjects I can only just refer, first, to the influence of the Scotch
+school; and, secondly, to that sudden and well-deserved admiration for
+the German literature of which Coleridge was the principal exponent, and
+which infused into the English mind a taste for generalizations higher
+and more fearless than any hitherto known. The history of this vast
+movement, which began early in the nineteenth century, will be traced
+in the future volumes of this work: at present I merely notice it, as
+illustrating the fact, that until the movement began, the English,
+though superior to the French in several matters of extreme importance,
+were for many years inferior to them in those large and philosophic
+views, without which not only is the most patient industry of no avail,
+but even real discoveries lose their proper value, for want of such
+habits of generalization as would trace their connexion with each other,
+and consolidate their severed fragments into one vast system of complete
+and harmonious truth.
+
+  [1082] Neither Montesquieu nor Turgot appear to have believed in the
+         possibility of generalizing the past, so as to predict the
+         future; while as to Voltaire, the weakest point in his otherwise
+         profound view of history was his love of the old saying, that
+         great events spring from little causes; a singular error for so
+         comprehensive a mind, because it depended on confusing causes
+         with conditions. That a man like Voltaire should have committed
+         what now seems so gross a blunder, is a mortifying reflection
+         for those who are able to appreciate his vast and penetrating
+         genius, and it may teach the best of us a wholesome lesson. This
+         fallacy was avoided by Montesquieu and Turgot; and the former
+         writer, in particular, displayed such extraordinary ability,
+         that there can be little doubt, that had he lived at a later
+         period, and thus had the means of employing in their full extent
+         the resources of political economy and physical science, he
+         would have had the honour not only of laying the basis, but also
+         of rearing the structure of the philosophy of the history of
+         Man. As it was, he failed in conceiving what is the final object
+         of every scientific inquiry, namely, the power of foretelling
+         the future: and after his death, in 1755, all the finest
+         intellects in France, Voltaire alone excepted, concentrated
+         their attention upon the study of natural phenomena.
+
+The interest attached to these inquiries has induced me to treat them at
+greater length than I had intended; perhaps at greater length than is
+suitable to the suggestive and preparatory character of this
+Introduction. But the extraordinary success with which the French now
+cultivated physical knowledge is so curious, on account of its connexion
+with the Revolution, that I must mention a few more of its most
+prominent instances: though, for the sake of brevity, I will confine
+myself to those three great divisions which, when put together, form
+what is called Natural History, and in all of which we shall see that
+the most important steps were taken in France during the latter half of
+the eighteenth century.
+
+In the first of these divisions, namely, the department of zoology, we
+owe to the Frenchmen of the eighteenth century those generalizations
+which are still the highest this branch of knowledge has reached. Taking
+zoology in the proper sense of the term, it consists only of two parts,
+the anatomical part, which is its statics, and the physiological part,
+which is its dynamics: the first referring to the structure of animals;
+the other, to their functions.[1083] Both of these were worked out,
+nearly at the same time, by Cuvier and Bichat; and the leading
+conclusions at which they arrived, remain, after the lapse of sixty
+years, undisturbed in their essential points. In 1795, Cuvier laid down
+the great principle, that the study and classification of animals was to
+be, not as heretofore, with a view to external peculiarities, but with a
+view to internal organization; and that, therefore, no real advance
+could be made in our knowledge except by extending the boundaries of
+comparative anatomy.[1084] This step, simple as it now appears, was of
+immense importance, since by it zoology was at once rescued from the
+hands of the observer, and thrown into those of the experimenter: the
+consequence of which has been the attainment of that precision and
+accuracy of detail, which experiment alone can give, and which is every
+way superior to such popular facts as observation supplies. By thus
+indicating to naturalists the true path of inquiry, by accustoming them
+to a close and severe method, and by teaching them to despise those
+vague descriptions in which they had formerly delighted, Cuvier laid the
+foundation of a progress which, during the last sixty years, has
+surpassed the most sanguine expectations. This, then, is the real
+service rendered by Cuvier, that he overthrew the artificial system
+which the genius of Linnæus had raised up,[1085] and substituted in its
+place that far superior scheme which gave the freest scope to future
+inquiry; since, according to it, all systems are to be deemed imperfect
+and provisional so long as any thing remains to be learned respecting
+the comparative anatomy of the animal kingdom. The influence exercised
+by this great view was increased by the extraordinary skill and industry
+with which its proposer followed it out, and proved the practicability
+of his own precepts. His additions to our knowledge of comparative
+anatomy are probably more numerous than those made by any other man; but
+what has gained him most celebrity is, the comprehensive spirit with
+which he used what he acquired. Independently of other generalizations,
+he is the author of that vast classification of the whole animal kingdom
+into vertebrata, mollusca, articulata, and radiata;[1086] a
+classification which keeps its ground, and is one of the most remarkable
+instances of that large and philosophic spirit which France brought to
+bear upon the phenomena of the material world.[1087]
+
+  [1083] The line of demarcation between anatomy as statical, and
+         physiology as dynamical, is clearly drawn by M. Comte (_Philos.
+         Positive_, vol. iii. p. 303) and by MM. Robin et Verdeil
+         (_Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i. pp. 11, 12, 40, 102, 188, 434).
+         What is said by Carus (_Comparative Anatomy_, vol. ii. p. 356)
+         and by Sir Benjamin Brodie (_Lectures on Pathology and Surgery_,
+         p. 6) comes nearly to the same thing, though expressed with less
+         precision. On the other hand, M. Milne Edwards (_Zoologie_, part
+         i. p. 9) calls physiology 'la science de la vie;' which, if
+         true, would simply prove that there is no physiology at all, for
+         there certainly is at present no science of life.
+
+  [1084] In his _Règne Animal_, vol. i. pp. vi. vii., he says that
+         preceding naturalists 'n'avaient guère considéré que les
+         rapports extérieurs de ces espèces, et personne ne s'était
+         occupé de coördonner les classes et les ordres d'après
+         l'ensemble de la structure.... Je dus donc, et cette obligation
+         me prit un temps considérable, je dus faire marcher de front
+         l'anatomie et la zoologie, les dissections et le classement....
+         Les premiers résultats de ce double travail parurent en 1795,
+         dans un mémoire spécial sur une nouvelle division des animaux à
+         sang blanc.'
+
+  [1085] On the opposition between the methods of Linnæus and of Cuvier,
+         see _Jenyns' Report on Zoology_, pp. 144, 145, in _Brit. Assoc.
+         for_ 1834.
+
+  [1086] The foundations of this celebrated arrangement was laid by
+         Cuvier, in a paper read in 1795. _Whewell's History of the
+         Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. p. 494. It appears, however
+         (_Flourens_, _Travaux de Cuvier_, pp. 69, 70), that it was in,
+         or just after, 1791, that the dissection of some mollusca
+         suggested to him the idea of reforming the classification of the
+         whole animal kingdom. Compare _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_, vol. i.
+         pp. 51, 52 note.
+
+  [1087] The only formidable opposition made to Cuvier's arrangement has
+         proceeded from the advocates of the doctrine of circular
+         progression: a remarkable theory, of which Lamarck and Macleay
+         are the real originators, and which is certainly supported by a
+         considerable amount of evidence. Still, among the great majority
+         of competent zoologists, the fourfold division holds its ground,
+         although the constantly-increasing accuracy of microscopical
+         observations has detected a nervous system much lower in the
+         scale than was formerly suspected, and has thereby induced some
+         anatomists to divide the radiata into acrita and nematoneura.
+         _Owen's Invertebrata_, 1855, pp. 14, 15; and _Rymer Jones's
+         Animal Kingdom_, 1855, p. 4. As, however, it seems probable that
+         all animals have a distinct nervous system, this subdivision is
+         only provisional; and it is very likely that when our
+         microscopes are more improved, we shall have to return to
+         Cuvier's arrangement. Some of Cuvier's successors have removed
+         the apodous echinoderms from the radiata; but in this Mr. Rymer
+         Jones (_Animal Kingdom_, p. 211) vindicates the Cuverian
+         classification.
+
+Great, however, as is the name of Cuvier, a greater still remains
+behind. I allude, of course, to Bichat, whose reputation is steadily
+increasing as our knowledge advances, and who, if we compare the
+shortness of his life with the reach and depth of his views, must be
+pronounced the most profound thinker and the most consummate observer by
+whom the organization of the animal frame has yet been studied.[1088] He
+wanted, indeed, that comprehensive knowledge for which Cuvier was
+remarkable; but though, on this account, his generalizations were drawn
+from a smaller surface, they were, on the other hand, less provisional:
+they were, I think, more complete, and certainly they dealt with more
+momentous topics. For the attention of Bichat was preëminently directed
+to the human frame[1089] in the largest sense of the word; his object
+being so to investigate the organization of man, as to rise, if
+possible, to some knowledge concerning the causes and nature of life. In
+this magnificent enterprise, considered as a whole, he failed; but what
+he effected in certain parts of it is so extraordinary, and has given
+such an impetus to some of the highest branches of inquiry, that I will
+briefly indicate his method, in order to compare it with that other
+method which, at the same moment, Cuvier adopted with immense success.
+
+  [1088] We may except Aristotle; but between Aristotle and Bichat I can
+         find no middle man.
+
+  [1089] But not exclusively. Mr. Blainville (_Physiol. comparée_, vol.
+         ii. p. 304) says, 'celui qui, comme Bichat, bornait ses études à
+         l'anatomie humaine;' and at p. 350, 'quand on ne considère que
+         ce qui se passe chez l'homme, ainsi que l'a fait Bichat.' This,
+         however, is much too positively stated. Bichat mentions 'les
+         expériences nombreuses que j'ai faites sur les animaux vivans.'
+         _Bichat_, _Anatomie Générale_, vol. i. p. 332; and for other
+         instances of his experiments on animals below man, see the same
+         work, vol. i. pp. 164, 284, 311, 312, 326, vol. ii. pp. 13, 25,
+         69, 73, 107, 133, 135, 225, 264, 423, vol. iii. pp. 151, 218,
+         242, 262, 363, 364, 400, 478, 501, vol. iv. pp. 27, 28, 34, 46,
+         229, 247, 471: see also _Bichat_, _Recherches sur la Vie_, pp.
+         262, 265, 277, 312, 336, 356, 358, 360, 368, 384, 400, 411, 439,
+         455, 476, 482, 494, 512: and his _Traité des Membranes_, pp. 48,
+         64, 67, 130, 158, 196, 201, 224. These are all experiments on
+         inferior animals, which aided this great physiologist in
+         establishing those vast generalizations, which, though applied
+         to man, were by no means collected merely from human anatomy.
+         The impossibility of understanding physiology without studying
+         comparative anatomy, is well pointed out in Mr. Rymer Jones's
+         work, _Organization of the Animal Kingdom_, 1855, pp. 601, 791.
+
+The important step taken by Cuvier was, that he insisted on the
+necessity of a comprehensive study of the organs of animals, instead of
+following the old plan of merely describing their habits and external
+peculiarities. This was a vast improvement, since, in the place of loose
+and popular observations, he substituted direct experiment, and hence
+introduced into zoology a precision formerly unknown.[1090] But Bichat,
+with a still keener insight, saw that even this was not enough. He saw
+that, each organ being composed of different tissues, it was requisite
+to study the tissues themselves, before we could learn the way in which,
+by their combinations, the organs are produced. This, like all really
+great ideas, was not entirely struck out by a single man; for the
+physiological value of the tissues had been recognized by three or four
+of the immediate predecessors of Bichat, such as Carmichael, Smyth,
+Bonn, Bordeu, and Fallopius. These inquirers, however, notwithstanding
+their industry, had effected nothing of much moment, since, though they
+collected several special facts, there was in their observations that
+want of harmony and that general incompleteness always characteristic of
+the labours of men who do not rise to a commanding view of the subject
+with which they deal.[1091]
+
+  [1090] Mr. Swainson (_Geography and Classification of Animals_, p. 170)
+         complains, strangely enough, that Cuvier 'rejects the more plain
+         and obvious characters which every one can see, and which had
+         been so happily employed by Linnæus, and makes the differences
+         between these groups to depend upon circumstances which no one
+         but an anatomist can understand.' See also p. 173: 'characters
+         which, however good, are not always comprehensible, except to
+         the anatomist.' (Compare _Hodgson on the Ornithology of Nepal_,
+         in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xix. p. 179, Calcutta, 1836.) In
+         other words, this is a complaint that Cuvier attempted to raise
+         zoology to a science, and, therefore, of course, deprived it of
+         some of its popular attractions, in order to invest it with
+         other attractions of a far higher character. The errors
+         introduced into the natural sciences by relying upon observation
+         instead of experiment, have been noticed by many writers; and by
+         none more judiciously than M. Saint Hilaire in his _Anomalies de
+         l'Organisation_, vol. i. p. 98.
+
+  [1091] It is very doubtful if Bichat was acquainted with the works of
+         Smyth, Bonn, or Fallopius, and I do not remember that he any
+         where even mentions their names. He had, however, certainly
+         studied Bordeu; but I suspect that the author by whom he was
+         most influenced was Pinel, whose pathological generalizations
+         were put forward just about the time when Bichat began to write.
+         Compare _Bichat_, _Traité des Membranes_, pp. 3, 4, 107, 191;
+         _Béclard_, _Anat. Gén._ pp. 65, 66; _Bouillaud_, _Philos.
+         Médicale_, p. 26; _Blainville_, _Physiol. comparée_, vol. i. p.
+         284, vol. ii. pp. 19, 252; _Henle_, _Anat. Gén._ vol. i.
+         pp. 119, 120.
+
+It was under these circumstances that Bichat began those researches,
+which, looking at their actual and still more at their prospective
+results, are probably the most valuable contribution ever made to
+physiology by a single mind. In 1801, only a year before his
+death,[1092] he published his great work on anatomy, in which the study
+of the organs is made altogether subservient to the study of the tissues
+composing them. He lays it down, that the body of man consists of
+twenty-one distinct tissues, all of which, though essentially different,
+have in common the two great properties of extensibility and
+contractility.[1093] These tissues he, with indefatigable
+industry,[1094] subjected to every sort of examination; he examined
+them in different ages and diseases, with a view to ascertain the laws
+of their normal and pathological development.[1095] He studied the way
+each tissue is affected by moisture, air, and temperature; also the way
+in which their properties are altered by various chemical
+substances,[1096] and even their effect on the taste.[1097] By these
+means, and by many other experiments tending in the same direction, he
+took so great and sudden a step, that he is to be regarded not merely as
+an innovator on an old science, but rather as the creator of a new
+one.[1098] And although subsequent observers have corrected some of his
+conclusions, this has only been done by following his method; the value
+of which is now so generally recognized, that it is adopted by nearly
+all the best anatomists, who, differing in other points, are agreed as
+to the necessity of basing the future progress of anatomy on a knowledge
+of the tissues, the supreme importance of which Bichat was the first to
+perceive.[1099]
+
+  [1092] _Biog. Univ._ vol. iv. pp. 468, 469.
+
+  [1093] For a list of the tissues, see _Bichat_, _Anat. Gén._ vol. i.
+         p. 49. At p. 50 he says, 'en effet, quel que soit le point de
+         vue sous lequel on considère ces tissus, ils ne se ressemblent
+         nullement: c'est la nature, et non la science, qui a tiré une
+         ligne de démarcation entre eux.' There is, however, now reason
+         to think, that both animal and vegetable tissues are, in all
+         their varieties, referrible to a cellular origin. This great
+         view, which M. Schwann principally worked out, will, if fully
+         established, be the largest generalization we possess respecting
+         the organic world, and it would be difficult to overrate its
+         value. Still there is danger lest, in prematurely reaching at so
+         vast a law, we should neglect the subordinate, but
+         strongly-marked differences between the tissues as they actually
+         exist. Burdach (_Traité de Physiologie_, vol. vi. pp. 195, 196)
+         has made some good remarks on the confusion introduced into the
+         study of tissues, by neglecting those salient characteristics
+         which were indicated by Bichat.
+
+  [1094] Pinel says, 'dans on seul hiver il ouvrit plus de six cents
+         cadavres.' _Notice sur Bichat_, p. xiii., in vol. i of _Anat.
+         Gén._ By such enormous labour, and by working day and night in a
+         necessarily polluted atmosphere, he laid the foundation for that
+         diseased habit which caused a slight accident to prove fatal,
+         and carried him off at the age of thirty-one. 'L'esprit a peine
+         à concevoir que la vie d'un seul homme puisse suffire à tant de
+         travaux, à tant de découvertes, faites ou indiquées: Bichat est
+         mort avant d'avoir accompli sa trente-deuxième année!' _Pinel_,
+         p. xvi.
+
+  [1095] To this sort of comparative anatomy (if it may be so called),
+         which before his time scarcely existed, Bichat attached great
+         importance, and clearly saw that it would eventually become of
+         the utmost value for pathology. _Anat. Gén._ vol. i. pp. 331,
+         332, vol. ii. pp. 234-241, vol. iv. p. 417, &c. Unfortunately
+         these investigations were not properly followed up by his
+         immediate successors; and Müller, writing long after his death,
+         was obliged to refer chiefly to Bichat for 'the true principles
+         of general pathology.' _Müller's Physiology_, 1840, vol. i. p.
+         808. M. Vogel too, in his _Pathological Anatomy_, 1847, pp. 398,
+         413, notices the error committed by the earlier pathologists, in
+         looking at changes in the organs, and neglecting those in the
+         tissues; and the same remark is made in _Robin et Verdeil_,
+         _Chimie Anatomique_, 1853, vol. i. p. 45; and in _Henle_,
+         _Traité d'Anatomie_, vol. i. p. vii., Paris, 1843. That
+         'structural anatomy,' and 'structural development,' are to be
+         made the foundations of pathology, is, moreover, observed in
+         _Simon's Pathology_, 1850, p. 115 (compare _Williams's
+         Principles of Medicine_, 1848, p. 67), who ascribes the chief
+         merit of this 'rational pathology' to Henle and Schwann:
+         omitting to mention that they only executed Bichat's scheme and
+         (be it said with every respect for these eminent men) executed
+         it with a comprehensiveness much inferior to that displayed by
+         their great predecessor. In _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines
+         Médicales_, vol. iv. pp. 106, 107, there are some just and
+         liberal observations on the immense service which Bichat
+         rendered to pathology. See also _Béclard_, _Anatomie_, Paris,
+         1852, p. 184.
+
+  [1096] _Bichat_, _Anat. Gén._ vol. i. pp. 51, 160, 161, 259, 372, vol.
+         ii. pp. 47, 448, 449, vol. iii. pp. 33, 168, 208, 309, 406, 435,
+         vol. iv. pp. 21, 52, 455-461, 517.
+
+  [1097] According to M. Comte (_Philos. Pos._ vol. iii. p. 319), no one
+         had thought of this before Bichat. MM. Robin et Verdeil, in
+         their recent great work, fully admit the necessity of employing
+         this singular resource. _Chimie Anatomique_, 1853, vol. i.
+         pp. 18, 125, 182, 357, 531.
+
+  [1098] 'Dès-lors il créa une science nouvelle, l'anatomie générale.'
+         _Pinel sur Bichat_, p. xii. 'A Bichat appartient véritablement
+         la gloire d'avoir conçu et surtout exécuté, le premier, le plan
+         d'une anatomie nouvelle.' _Bouillaud_, _Philos. Médicale_, p.
+         27. 'Bichat fut le créateur de l'histologie en assignant des
+         caractères précis à chaque classe de tissus.' _Burdach_,
+         _Physiologie_, vol. vii. p. 111. 'Le créateur de l'anatomie
+         générale fut Bichat.' _Henle_, _Anatomie_, vol. i. p. 120.
+         Similar remarks will be found in _Saint-Hilaire_, _Anomalies de
+         l'Organisation_, vol. i. p. 10; and in _Robin et Verdeil_,
+         _Chimie Anat._ vol. i. p. xviii., vol. iii. p. 405.
+
+  [1099] In _Béclard_, _Anat. Gén. 1852_, p. 61, it is said that 'la
+         recherche de ces tissus élémentaires, ou éléments organiques,
+         est devenue la préoccupation presque exclusive des anatomistes
+         de nos jours.' Compare _Blainville_, _Physiol. Gén. et Comp._
+         vol. i. p. 93: 'Aujourd'hui nous allons plus avant, nous
+         pénétrons dans la structure intime, non seulement de ces
+         organes, mais encore des tissus qui concourent à leur
+         composition; nous faisons en un mot de la véritable anatomie, de
+         l'anatomie proprement dite.' And at p. 105: 'c'est un genre de
+         recherches qui a été cultivé avec beaucoup d'activité, et qui a
+         reçu une grande extension depuis la publication du bel ouvrage
+         de Bichat.' See also vol. ii. p. 303.
+
+         In consequence of this movement, there has sprung up, under the
+         name of _Degenerations of Tissues_, an entirely new branch of
+         morbid anatomy, of which, I believe, no instance will be found
+         before the time of Bichat, but the value of which is now
+         recognized by most pathologists. Compare _Paget's Surgical
+         Pathology_, vol. i. pp. 98-112; _Williams's Principles of
+         Medicine_, pp. 369-376; _Burdach's Physiologie_, vol. viii. p.
+         367; _Reports of Brit. Assoc._ vol. vi. p. 147; _Jones's and
+         Sieveking's Pathological Anatomy_, 1854, pp. 154-156, 302-304,
+         555-558. 'They are,' say these last writers, 'of extremely
+         frequent occurrence; but their nature has scarcely been
+         recognized until of late.'
+
+The methods of Bichat and of Cuvier, when put together, exhaust the
+actual resources of zoological science; so that all subsequent
+naturalists have been compelled to follow one of these two schemes; that
+is, either to follow Cuvier in comparing the organs of animals, or else
+to follow Bichat in comparing the tissues which compose the
+organs.[1100] And inasmuch as one comparison is chiefly suggestive of
+function, and the other comparison of structure, it is evident, that to
+raise the study of the animal world to the highest point of which it is
+capable, both these great plans are necessary; but if we ask which of
+the two plans, unaided by the other, is more likely to produce important
+results, the palm must, I think, be yielded to that proposed by Bichat.
+Certainly, if we look at the question as one to be decided by authority,
+a majority of the most eminent anatomists and physiologists now incline
+to the side of Bichat, rather than to that of Cuvier; while, as a matter
+of history, it may be proved that the reputation of Bichat has, with the
+advance of knowledge, increased more rapidly than that of his great
+rival. What, however, appears to me still more decisive, is, that the
+two most important discoveries made in our time respecting the
+classification of animals, are entirely the result of the method which
+Bichat suggested. The first discovery is that made by Agassiz, who, in
+the course of his ichthyological researches, was led to perceive that
+the arrangement by Cuvier according to organs, did not fulfil its
+purpose in regard to fossil fishes, because in the lapse of ages the
+characteristics of their structure were destroyed.[1101] He, therefore,
+adopted the only other remaining plan, and studied the tissues, which,
+being less complex than the organs, are oftener found intact. The result
+was the very remarkable discovery, that the tegumentary membrane of
+fishes is so intimately connected with their organization, that if the
+whole of a fish has perished except this membrane, it is practicable, by
+noting its characteristics, to reconstruct the animal in its most
+essential parts. Of the value of this principle of harmony, some idea
+may be formed from the circumstance, that on it Agassiz has based the
+whole of that celebrated classification, of which he is the sole author,
+and by which fossil ichthyology has for the first time assumed a precise
+and definite shape.[1102]
+
+  [1100] Cuvier completely neglected the study of tissues; and in the very
+         few instances in which he mentions them, his language is
+         extremely vague. Thus, in his _Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 12, he
+         says of living bodies, 'leur tissu est donc composé de réseaux
+         et de mailles, ou de fibres et de lames solides, qui renferment
+         des liquides dans leurs intervalles.'
+
+  [1101] A well-known ornithologist makes the same complaint respecting
+         the classification of birds. _Strickland on Ornithology_, _Brit.
+         Assoc. for_ 1844, pp. 209, 210. Even in regard to living
+         species, Cuvier (_Règne Animal_, vol. ii. p. 126) says: 'La
+         classe des poissons est de toutes celle qui offre le plus de
+         difficultés quand on veut la subdiviser en ordres d'après des
+         caractères fixes et sensibles.'
+
+  [1102] The discoveries of M. Agassiz are embodied in his great work,
+         _Recherches sur les Poissons fossiles_: but the reader who may
+         not have an opportunity of consulting that costly publication,
+         will find two essays by this eminent naturalist, which will give
+         an idea of his treatment of the subject, in _Reports of Brit.
+         Assoc. for 1842_, pp. 80-88, and for 1844, pp. 279-310. How
+         essential this study is to the geologist, appears from the
+         remark of Sir R. Murchison (_Siluria_, 1854, p. 417), that
+         'fossil fishes have everywhere proved the most exact
+         chronometers of the age of rocks.'
+
+The other discovery, of which the application is much more extensive,
+was made in exactly the same way. It consists of the striking fact, that
+the teeth of each animal have a necessary connexion with the entire
+organization of its frame; so that, within certain limits, we can
+predict the organization by examining the tooth. This beautiful instance
+of the regularity of the operations of nature was not known until more
+than thirty years after the death of Bichat, and it is evidently due to
+the prosecution of that method which he sedulously inculcated. For the
+teeth never having been properly examined in regard to their separate
+tissues, it was believed that they were essentially devoid of structure,
+or, as some thought, were simply a fibrous texture.[1103] But by minute
+microscopic investigations, it has been recently ascertained that the
+tissues of the teeth are strictly analogous to those of other parts of
+the body;[1104] and that the ivory, or dentine, as it is now
+called,[1105] is highly organized; that it, as well as the enamel, is
+cellular, and is, in fact, a development of the living pulp. This
+discovery, which, to the philosophic anatomist, is pregnant with
+meaning, was made about 1838; and though the preliminary steps were
+taken by Purkinjé, Retzius, and Schwann, the principal merit is due to
+Nasmyth and Owen,[1106] between whom it is disputed, but whose rival
+claims we are not here called upon to adjust.[1107] What I wish to
+observe is, that the discovery is similar to that which we owe to
+Agassiz; similar in the method by which it was worked out, and also in
+the results which have followed from it. Both are due to a recognition
+of the fundamental maxim of Bichat, that the study of organs must be
+subordinate to the study of tissues, and both have supplied the most
+valuable aid to zoological classification. On this point, the service
+rendered by Owen is incontestable, whatever may be thought of his
+original claims. This eminent naturalist has, with immense industry,
+applied the discovery to all vertebrate animals; and in an elaborate
+work, specially devoted to the subject, he has placed beyond dispute the
+astonishing fact, that the structure of a single tooth is a criterion of
+the nature and organization of the species to which it belongs.[1108]
+
+  [1103] That they were composed of fibres, was the prevailing doctrine,
+         until the discovery of their tubes, in 1835, by Purkinjé. Before
+         Purkinjé, only one observer, Leeuwenh[oe]k, had announced their
+         tubular structure; but no one believed what he said, and
+         Purkinjé was unacquainted with his researches. Compare
+         _Nasmyth's Researches on the Teeth_, 1839, p. 159; _Owen's
+         Odontography_, 1840-1845, vol. i. pp. ix. x.; _Henle_, _Anat.
+         Gén._ vol. ii. p. 457; _Reports of Brit. Assoc._ vol. vii. pp.
+         135, 136 (_Transac. of Sections_).
+
+  [1104] Mr. Nasmyth, in his valuable, but, I regret to add, posthumous
+         work, notices, as the result of these discoveries, 'the close
+         affinity subsisting between the dental and other organized
+         tissues of the animal frame.' _Researches on the Development,
+         &c. of the Teeth_, 1849, p. 198. This is, properly speaking, a
+         continuation of Mr. Nasmyth's former book, which bore the same
+         title, and was published in 1839.
+
+  [1105] This name, which Mr. Owen appears to have first suggested, has
+         been objected to, though, as it seems to me, on insufficient
+         grounds. Compare _Owen's Odontography_, vol. i. p. iii., with
+         _Nasmyth's Researches_, 1849, pp. 3, 4. It is adopted in
+         _Carpenter's Human Physiol._ 1846, p. 154; and in _Jones and
+         Sieveking's Patholog. Anat._ 1854, pp. 483, 486.
+
+  [1106] See the correspondence in _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1841, Sec.,
+         pp. 2-23.
+
+  [1107] In the notice of it in _Whewell's Hist. of Sciences_, vol. iii.
+         p. 678, nothing is said about Mr. Nasmyth; while in that in
+         _Wilson's Human Anatomy_, p. 65, edit. 1851, nothing is said
+         about Mr. Owen. A specimen of the justice with which men treat
+         their contemporaries. Dr. Grant (_Supplement to Hooper's Medical
+         Dict._ 1848, p. 1390) says, 'the researches of Mr. Owen tend to
+         confirm those of Mr. Nasmyth.' Nasmyth, in his last work
+         (_Researches on the Teeth_, 1849, p. 81), only refers to Owen to
+         point out an error; while Owen (_Odontography_, vol. i.
+         pp. xlvi.-lvi.) treats Nasmyth as an impudent plagiarist.
+
+  [1108] Dr. Whewell (_Hist. of Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. p. 678) says,
+         that 'he has carried into every part of the animal kingdom an
+         examination, founded upon this discovery, and has published the
+         results of this in his _Odontography_.' If this able, but rather
+         hasty writer, had read the _Odontography_, he would have found
+         that Mr. Owen, so far from carrying the examination 'into every
+         part of the animal kingdom,' distinctly confines himself to 'one
+         of the primary divisions of the animal kingdom' (I quote his own
+         words from _Odontography_, vol. i. p. lxvii.), and appears to
+         think, that below the vertebrata, the inquiry would furnish
+         little or no aid for the purposes of classification.
+
+Whoever has reflected much on the different stages through which our
+knowledge has successively passed, must, I think, be led to the
+conclusion, that while fully recognizing the great merit of these
+investigators of the animal frame, our highest admiration ought to be
+reserved not for those who make the discoveries, but rather for those
+who point out how the discoveries are to be made.[1109] When the true
+path of inquiry has once been indicated, the rest is comparatively easy.
+The beaten highway is always open; and the difficulty is, not to find
+those who will travel the old road, but those who will make a fresh one.
+Every age produces in abundance men of sagacity and of considerable
+industry, who, while perfectly competent to increase the details of a
+science, are unable to extend its distant boundaries. This is because
+such extension must be accompanied by a new method,[1110] which, to be
+valuable as well as new, supposes on the part of its suggester, not only
+a complete mastery over the resources of his subject, but also the
+possession of originality and comprehensiveness,--the two rarest forms
+of human genius. In this consists the real difficulty of every great
+pursuit. As soon as any department of knowledge has been generalized
+into laws, it contains, either in itself or in its applications, three
+distinct branches; namely, inventions, discoveries, and method. Of
+these, the first corresponds to art; the second to science; and the
+third to philosophy. In this scale, inventions have by far the lowest
+place, and minds of the highest order are rarely occupied by them. Next
+in the series come discoveries; and here the province of intellect
+really begins, since here the first attempt is made to search after
+truth on its own account, and to discard those practical considerations
+to which inventions are of necessity referred. This is science properly
+so called; and how difficult it is to reach this stage, is evident from
+the fact, that all half-civilized nations have made many great
+inventions, but no great discoveries. The highest, however, of all the
+three stages, is the philosophy of method, which bears the same relation
+to science that science bears to art. Of its immense, and indeed supreme
+importance, the annals of knowledge supply abundant evidence; and for
+want of it, some very great men have effected absolutely nothing,
+consuming their lives in fruitless industry, not because their labour
+was slack, but because their method was sterile. The progress of every
+science is affected more by the scheme according to which it is
+cultivated, than by the actual ability of the cultivators themselves. If
+they who travel in an unknown country, spend their force in running on
+the wrong road, they will miss the point at which they aim, and
+perchance may faint and fall by the way. In that long and difficult
+journey after truth, which the human mind has yet to perform, and of
+which we in our generation can only see the distant prospect, it is
+certain that success will depend not on the speed with which men hasten
+in the path of inquiry, but rather on the skill with which that path is
+selected for them by those great and comprehensive thinkers, who are as
+the lawgivers and founders of knowledge; because they supply its
+deficiencies, not by investigating particular difficulties, but by
+establishing some large and sweeping innovation, which opens up a new
+vein of thought, and creates fresh resources, which it is left for their
+posterity to work out and apply.
+
+  [1109] But in comparing the merits of discoverers themselves, we must
+         praise him who proves rather than him who suggests. See some
+         sensible remarks in _Owen's Odontography_, vol. i. p. xlix.;
+         which, however, do not affect my observations on the superiority
+         of method.
+
+  [1110] By a new method of inquiring into a subject, I mean an
+         application to it of generalizations from some other subject, so
+         as to widen the field of thought. To call this a new method, is
+         rather vague; but there is no other word to express the process.
+         Properly speaking, there are only two methods, the inductive and
+         the deductive; which, though essentially different, are so mixed
+         together, as to make it impossible wholly to separate them. The
+         discussion of the real nature of this difference I reserve for
+         my comparison, in the next volume, of the German and American
+         civilizations.
+
+It is from this point of view that we are to rate the value of Bichat,
+whose works, like those of all men of the highest eminence,--like those
+of Aristotle, Bacon, and Descartes,--mark an epoch in the history of the
+human mind; and as such, can only be fairly estimated by connecting them
+with the social and intellectual condition of the age in which they
+appeared. This gives an importance and a meaning to the writings of
+Bichat, of which few indeed are fully aware. The two greatest recent
+discoveries respecting the classification of animals are, as we have
+just seen, the result of his teaching; but his influence has produced
+other effects still more momentous. He, aided by Cabanis, rendered to
+physiology the incalculable service, of preventing it from participating
+in that melancholy reaction to which France was exposed early in the
+nineteenth century. This is too large a subject to discuss at present;
+but I may mention, that when Napoleon, not from feelings of conviction,
+but for selfish purposes of his own, attempted to restore the power of
+ecclesiastical principles, the men of letters, with disgraceful
+subserviency, fell into his view; and there began a marked decline in
+that independent and innovating spirit, with which during fifty years
+the French had cultivated the highest departments of knowledge. Hence
+that metaphysical school arose, which, though professing to hold aloof
+from theology, was intimately allied with it; and whose showy conceits
+form, in their ephemeral splendour, a striking contrast to the severer
+methods followed in the preceding generation.[1111] Against this
+movement, the French physiologists have, as a body, always protested;
+and it may be clearly proved that their opposition, which even the great
+abilities of Cuvier were unable to win over, is partly due to the
+impetus given by Bichat, in enforcing in his own pursuit the necessity
+of rejecting those assumptions by which metaphysicians and theologians
+seek to control every science. As an illustration of this I may mention
+two facts worthy of note. The first is, that in England, where during a
+considerable period the influence of Bichat was scarcely felt, many,
+even of our eminent physiologists, have shown a marked disposition to
+ally themselves with the reactionary party; and have not only opposed
+such novelties as they could not immediately explain, but have degraded
+their own noble science by making it a handmaid to serve the purposes of
+natural theology. The other fact is, that in France the disciples of
+Bichat have, with scarcely an exception, rejected the study of final
+causes, to which the school of Cuvier still adheres: while as a natural
+consequence, the followers of Bichat are associated in geology with the
+doctrine of uniformity; in zoology, with that of the transmutation of
+species; and in astronomy, with the nebular hypothesis: vast and
+magnificent schemes, under whose shelter the human mind seeks an escape
+from that dogma of interference, which the march of knowledge every
+where reduces, and the existence of which is incompatible with those
+conceptions of eternal order, towards which, during the last two
+centuries, we have been constantly tending.
+
+  [1111] In literature and in theology, Chateaubriand and De Maistre were
+         certainly the most eloquent, and were probably the most
+         influential leaders of this reaction. Neither of them liked
+         induction, but preferred reasoning deductively from premises
+         which they assumed, and which they called first principles. De
+         Maistre, however, was a powerful dialectician, and on that
+         account his works are read by many who care nothing for the
+         gorgeous declamation of Chateaubriand. In metaphysics, a
+         precisely similar movement occurred; and Laromiguière, Royer
+         Collard, and Maine de Biran, founded that celebrated school
+         which culminated in M. Cousin, and which is equally
+         characterized by an ignorance of the philosophy of induction,
+         and by a want of sympathy with physical science.
+
+These great phenomena, which the French intellect presents, and of which
+I have only sketched a rapid outline, will be related with suitable
+detail in the latter part of this work, when I shall examine the present
+condition of the European mind, and endeavour to estimate its future
+prospects. To complete, however, our appreciation of Bichat, it will be
+necessary to take notice of what some consider the most valuable of all
+his productions, in which he aimed at nothing less than an exhaustive
+generalization of the functions of life. It appears, indeed, to me, that
+in many important points Bichat here fell short; but the work itself
+still stands alone, and is so striking an instance of the genius of the
+author, that I will give a short account of its fundamental views.
+
+Life considered as a whole has two distinct branches;[1112] one branch
+being characteristic of animals, the other of vegetables. That which is
+confined to animals is called animal life; that which is common both to
+animals and vegetables is called organic life. While, therefore, plants
+have only one life, man has two distinct lives, which are governed by
+entirely different laws, and which, though intimately connected,
+constantly oppose each other. In the organic life, man exists solely for
+himself; in the animal life he comes in contact with others. The
+functions of the first are purely internal, those of the second are
+external. His organic life is limited to the double process of creation
+and destruction: the creative process being that of assimilation, as
+digestion, circulation, and nutrition; the destructive process being
+that of excretion, such as exhalation and the like. This is what man has
+in common with plants; and of this life he, when in a natural state, is
+unconscious. But the characteristic of his animal life is consciousness,
+since by it he is made capable of moving, of feeling, of judging. By
+virtue of the first life he is merely a vegetable; by the addition of
+the second he becomes an animal.
+
+  [1112] _Bichat_, _Recherches sur la Vie et la Mort_, pp. 5-9, 226; and
+         his _Anat. Gén._ vol. i. p. 72.
+
+If now we look at the organs by which in man the functions of these two
+lives are carried on, we shall be struck by the remarkable fact, that
+the organs of his vegetable life are very irregular, those of his animal
+life very symmetrical. His vegetative, or organic, life is conducted by
+the stomach, the intestines, and the glandular system in general, such
+as the liver and the pancreas; all of which are irregular, and admit of
+the greatest variety of form and development, without their functions
+being seriously disturbed. But in his animal life the organs are so
+essentially symmetrical, that a very slight departure from the ordinary
+type impairs their action.[1113] Not only the brain, but also the
+organs of sense, as the eyes, the nose, the ears, are perfectly
+symmetrical; and they as well as the other organs of animal life, as the
+feet and hands, are double, presenting on each side of the body two
+separate parts which correspond with each other, and produce a symmetry
+unknown to our vegetative life, the organs of which are, for the most
+part, merely single, as in the stomach, liver, pancreas, and
+spleen.[1114]
+
+  [1113] 'C'est de là, sans doute, que naît cette autre différence entre
+         les organes des deux vies, savoir, que la nature se livre bien
+         plus rarement à des écarts de conformation dans la vie animale
+         que dans la vie organique.... C'est une remarque qui n'a pu
+         échapper à celui dont les dissections ont été un peu
+         multipliées, que les fréquentes variations de formes, de
+         grandeur, de position, de direction des organes internes, comme
+         la rate, le foie, l'estomac, les reins, les organes salivaires,
+         etc.... Jetons maintenant les yeux sur les organes de la vie
+         animale, sur les sens, les nerfs, le cerveau, les muscles
+         volontaires, le larynx; tout y est exact, précis, rigoureusement
+         déterminé dans la forme, la grandeur et la position. On n'y voit
+         presque jamais de variétés, de conformation; s'il en existe, les
+         fonctions sont troublées, anéanties; tandis qu'elles restent les
+         mêmes dans la vie organique, au milieu des altérations diverses
+         des parties.' _Bichat sur la Vie_, pp. 23-25. Part of this view
+         is corroborated by the evidence collected by Saint Hilaire
+         (_Anomalies de l'Organisation_, vol. i. pp. 248 seq.) of the
+         extraordinary aberrations to which the vegetative organs are
+         liable; and he mentions (vol. ii. p. 8) the case of a man, in
+         whose body, on dissection, 'on reconnut que tous les viscères
+         étaient transposés.' Comparative anatomy supplies another
+         illustration. The bodies of mollusca are less symmetrical than
+         those of articulata; and in the former, the 'vegetal series of
+         organs,' says Mr. Owen, are more developed than the animal
+         series; while in the articulata, 'the advance is most
+         conspicuous in the organs peculiar to animal life.' _Owen's
+         Invertebrata_, p. 470. Compare _Burdach's Physiologie_, vol. i.
+         pp. 153, 189; and a confirmation of the 'unsymmetrical' organs
+         of the gasterpoda, in _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, p. 461.
+         This curious antagonism is still further seen in the
+         circumstance, that idiots, whose functions of nutrition and of
+         excretion are often very active, are at the same time remarkable
+         for a want of symmetry in the organs of sensation. _Esquirol_,
+         _Maladies Mentales_, vol. ii. pp. 331, 332.
+
+         A result, though perhaps an unconscious one, of the application
+         and extension of these ideas, is, that within the last few years
+         there has arisen a pathological theory of what are called
+         'symmetrical diseases,' the leading facts of which have been
+         long known, but are now only beginning to be generalized. See
+         _Paget's Pathology_, vol. i. pp. 18-22, vol. ii. pp. 244, 245;
+         _Simon's Pathology_, pp. 210, 211; _Carpenter's Human Physiol._
+         pp. 607, 608.
+
+  [1114] _Bichat sur la Vie_, pp. 15-21.
+
+From this fundamental difference between the organs of the two lives,
+there have arisen several other differences of great interest. Our
+animal life being double, while our organic life is single, it becomes
+possible for the former life to take rest, that is, stop part of its
+functions for a time, and afterwards renew them. But in organic life, to
+stop is to die. The life, which we have in common with vegetables, never
+sleeps; and if its movements entirely cease only for a single instant,
+they cease for ever. That process by which our bodies receive some
+substances and give out others, admits of no interruption; it is, by its
+nature, incessant, because, being single, it can never receive
+supplementary aid. The other life we may refresh, not only in sleep, but
+even when we are awake. Thus we can exercise the organs of movement
+while we rest the organs of thought; and it is even possible to relieve
+a function while we continue to employ it, because, our animal life
+being double, we are able for a short time, in case of one of its parts
+being fatigued, to avail ourselves of the corresponding part; using, for
+instance, a single eye or a single arm, in order to rest the one which
+circumstances may have exhausted; an expedient which the single nature
+of organic life entirely prevents.[1115]
+
+  [1115] _Ibid._ pp. 21-50.
+
+Our animal life being thus essentially intermittent, and our organic
+life being essentially continuous,[1116] it has necessarily followed
+that the first is capable of an improvement of which the second is
+incapable. There can be no improvement without comparison, since it is
+only by comparing one state with another that we can rectify previous
+errors, and avoid future ones. Now, our organic life does not admit of
+such comparison, because, being uninterrupted, it is not broken into
+stages, but when unchequered by disease, runs on in dull monotony. On
+the other hand, the functions of our animal life, such as thought,
+speech, sight, and motion, cannot be long exercised without rest; and as
+they are constantly suspended, it becomes practicable to compare them,
+and, therefore, to improve them. It is by possessing this resource that
+the first cry of the infant gradually rises into the perfect speech of
+the man, and the unformed habits of early thought are ripened into that
+maturity which nothing can give but a long series of successive
+efforts.[1117] But our organic life, which we have in common with
+vegetables, admits of no interruption, and consequently of no
+improvement. It obeys its own laws; but it derives no benefit from that
+repetition to which animal life is exclusively indebted. Its functions,
+such as nutrition and the like, exist in man several months before he is
+born, and while, his animal life not having yet begun, the faculty of
+comparison, which is the basis of improvement, is impossible.[1118] And
+although, as the human frame increases in size, its vegetative organs
+become larger, it cannot be supposed that their functions really
+improve, since, in ordinary cases, their duties are performed as
+regularly and as completely in childhood as in middle age.[1119]
+
+  [1116] On intermittence as a quality of animal life, see _Holland's
+         Medical Notes_, pp. 313, 314, where Bichat is mentioned as its
+         great expounder. As to the essential continuity of organic life,
+         see _Burdach's Physiologie_, vol. vii. p. 420. M. Comte has made
+         some interesting remarks on Bichat's law of intermittence.
+         _Philos. Positive_, vol. iii. pp. 300, 395, 744, 745, 750, 751.
+
+  [1117] On the development arising from practice, see _Bichat sur la
+         Vie_, pp. 207-225.
+
+  [1118] _Ibid._ pp. 189-203, 225-230. M. Broussais also (in his able
+         work, _Cours de Phrénologie_, p. 487) says, that comparison only
+         begins after birth; but surely this must be very doubtful. Few
+         physiologists will deny that embryological phenomena, though
+         neglected by metaphysicians, play a great part in shaping the
+         future character; and I do not see how any system of psychology
+         can be complete which ignores considerations, probable in
+         themselves, and not refuted by special evidence. So carelessly,
+         however, has this subject been investigated, that we have the
+         most conflicting statements respecting even the _vagitus
+         uterinus_, which, if it exists to the extent alleged by some
+         physiologists, would be a decisive proof that animal life (in
+         the sense of Bichat) does begin during the f[oe]tal period.
+         Compare _Burdach_, _Physiol._ vol. iv. pp. 113, 114, with
+         _Wagner's Physiol._ p. 182.
+
+  [1119] 'Les organes internes qui entrent alors en exercice, ou qui
+         accroissent beaucoup leur action, n'ont besoin d'aucune
+         éducation; ils atteignent tout à coup une perfection à laquelle
+         ceux de la vie animale ne parviennent que par habitude d'agir
+         souvent.' _Bichat sur la Vie_, p. 231.
+
+Thus it is, that although other causes conspire, it may be said that the
+progressiveness of animal life is due to its intermittence; the
+unprogressiveness of organic life to its continuity. It may, moreover,
+be said, that the intermittence of the first life results from the
+symmetry of its organs, while the continuity of the second life results
+from their irregularity. To this wide and striking generalization, many
+objections may be made, some of them apparently insuperable; but that it
+contains the germs of great truths I entertain little doubt, and, at all
+events, it is certain that the method cannot be too highly praised, for
+it unites the study of function and structure with that of embryology,
+of vegetable physiology, of the theory of comparison, and of the
+influence of habit; a vast and magnificent field, which the genius of
+Bichat was able to cover, but of which, since him, neither physiologists
+nor metaphysicians have even attempted a general survey.
+
+This stationary condition, during the present century, of a subject of
+such intense interest, is a decisive proof of the extraordinary genius
+of Bichat; since, notwithstanding the additions made to physiology, and
+to every branch of physics connected with it, nothing has been done at
+all comparable to that theory of life which he, with far inferior
+resources, was able to construct. This stupendous work he left, indeed,
+very imperfect; but even in its deficiencies we see the hand of the
+great master, whom, on his own subject, no one has yet approached. His
+essay on life may well be likened to those broken fragments of ancient
+art, which, imperfect as they are, still bear the impress of the
+inspiration which gave them birth, and present in each separate part
+that unity of conception which to us makes them a complete and living
+whole.
+
+From the preceding summary of the progress of physical knowledge, the
+reader may form some idea of the ability of those eminent men who arose
+in France during the latter half of the eighteenth century. To complete
+the picture, it is only necessary to examine what was done in the two
+remaining branches of natural history, namely, botany and mineralogy, in
+both of which the first great steps towards raising each study to a
+science were taken by Frenchmen a few years before the Revolution.
+
+In botany, although our knowledge of particular facts has, during the
+last hundred years, rapidly increased,[1120] we are only possessed of
+two generalizations wide enough to be called laws of nature. The first
+generalization concerns the structure of plants; the other concerns
+their physiology. That concerning their physiology is the beautiful
+morphological law, according to which the different appearance of the
+various organs arises from arrested development: the stamens, pistils,
+corolla, calyx, and bracts being simple modifications or successive
+stages of the leaf. This is one of many valuable discoveries we owe to
+Germany; it being made by Göthe late in the eighteenth century.[1121]
+With its importance every botanist is familiar; while to the historian
+of the human mind it is peculiarly interesting, as strengthening that
+great doctrine of development, towards which the highest branches of
+knowledge are now hastening, and which, in the present century, has been
+also carried into one of the most difficult departments of animal
+physiology.[1122]
+
+  [1120] Dioscorides and Galen knew from 450 to 600 plants (_Winckler_,
+         _Geschichte der Botanik_, 1854, pp. 34, 40); but, according to
+         Cuvier (_Eloges_, vol. iii. p. 468), Linnæus, in 1778, 'en
+         indiquait environ huit mille espèces;' and Meyen (_Geog. of
+         Plants_, p. 4) says, at the time of Linnæus's death, 'about
+         8,000 species were known.' (Dr. Whewell, in his _Bridgewater
+         Treatise_, p. 247, says, 'about 10,000.') Since then the
+         progress has been uninterrupted; and in _Henslow's Botany_,
+         1837, p. 136, we are told that 'the number of species already
+         known and classified in works of botany amounts to about
+         60,000.' Ten years later, Dr. Lindley (_Vegetable Kingdom_,
+         1847, p. 800) states them at 92,930; and two years afterwards,
+         Mr. Balfour says 'about 100,000.' _Balfour's Botany_, 1849, p.
+         560. Such is the rate at which our knowledge of nature is
+         advancing. To complete this historical note, I ought to have
+         mentioned, that in 1812, Dr. Thomson says 'nearly 30,000 species
+         of plants have been examined and described.' _Thomson's Hist. of
+         the Royal Society_, p. 21.
+
+  [1121] It was published in 1790. _Winckler_, _Gesch. der Botanik_, p.
+         389. But the historians of botany have overlooked a short
+         passage in Göthe's works, which proves that he had glimpses of
+         the discovery in or before 1786. See _Italiänische Reise_, in
+         _Göthe's Werke_, vol. ii. part ii. p. 286, Stuttgart, 1837,
+         where he writes from Padua, in September 1786, 'Hier in dieser
+         neu mir entgegen tretenden Mannigfaltigkeit wird jener Gedanke
+         immer lebendiger: dass man sich alle Pflanzengestalten
+         vielleicht aus Einer entwickeln könne.' There are some
+         interesting remarks on this brilliant generalization in _Owen's
+         Parthenogenesis_, 1849, pp. 53 seq.
+
+  [1122] That is, into the study of animal monstrosities, which, however
+         capricious they may appear, are now understood to be the
+         necessary result of preceding events. Within the last thirty
+         years several of the laws of these unnatural births, as they
+         used to be called, have been discovered; and it has been proved
+         that, so far from being unnatural, they are strictly natural. A
+         fresh science has thus been created, under the name of
+         Teratology, which is destroying the old _lusus naturæ_ in one of
+         its last and favourite strongholds.
+
+But the most comprehensive truth with which we are acquainted respecting
+plants, is that which includes the whole of their general structure; and
+this we learnt from those great Frenchmen who, in the latter half of the
+eighteenth century, began to study the external world. The first steps
+were taken directly after the middle of the century, by Adanson, Duhamel
+de Monceau, and, above all, Desfontaines; three eminent thinkers, who
+proved the practicability of a natural method hitherto unknown, and of
+which even Ray himself had only a faint perception.[1123] This, by
+weakening the influence of the artificial system of Linnæus,[1124]
+prepared the way for an innovation more complete than has been effected
+in any other branch of knowledge. In the very year in which the
+Revolution occurred, Jussieu put forward a series of botanical
+generalizations, of which the most important are all intimately
+connected, and still remain the highest this department of inquiry has
+reached.[1125] Among these, I need only mention the three vast
+propositions which are now admitted to form the basis of vegetable
+anatomy. The first is, that the vegetable kingdom, in its whole extent,
+is composed of plants either with one cotyledon, or with two cotyledons,
+or else with no cotyledon at all. The second proposition is, that this
+classification, so far from being artificial, is strictly natural; since
+it is a law of nature, that plants having one cotyledon are endogenous,
+and grow by additions made to the centre of their stems, while, on the
+other hand, plants having two cotyledons are exogenous, and are
+compelled to grow by additions made, not to the centre of their stems,
+but to the circumference.[1126] The third proposition is, that when
+plants grow at their centre, the arrangement of the fruit and leaves is
+threefold; when, however, they grow at the circumference, it is nearly
+always fivefold.[1127]
+
+  [1123] Dr. Lindley (_Third Report of Brit. Assoc._ p. 33) says, that
+         Desfontaines was the first who demonstrated the opposite modes
+         of increase in dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous stems. See
+         also _Richard_, _Eléments de Botanique_, p. 131; and _Cuvier_,
+         _Eloges_, vol. i. p. 64. In regard to the steps taken by Adanson
+         and De Monceau, see _Winckler_, _Gesch. der Botanik_, pp. 204,
+         205; _Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables_, p. 951; _Lindley's
+         Introduc. to Botany_, vol. ii. p. 132.
+
+  [1124] It is curious to observe how even good botanists clung to the
+         Linnæan system long after the superiority of a natural system
+         was proved. This is the more noticeable, because Linnæus, who
+         was a man of undoubted genius, and who possessed extraordinary
+         powers of combination, always allowed that his own system was
+         merely provisional, and that the great object to be attained was
+         a classification according to natural families. See _Winckler_,
+         _Geschichte der Botanik_, p. 202; and _Richard_, _Eléments de
+         Botanique_, p. 570. Indeed, what could be thought of the
+         permanent value of a scheme which put together the reed and the
+         barberry, because they were both hexandria; and forced sorrel to
+         associate with saffron, because both were trigynia? _Jussieu's
+         Botany_, 1849, p. 524.
+
+  [1125] _The Genera Plantarum_ of Antoine Jussieu was printed at Paris in
+         1789; and, though it is known to have been the result of many
+         years of continued labour, some writers have asserted that the
+         ideas in it were borrowed from his uncle, Bernard Jussieu. But
+         assertions of this kind rarely deserve attention; and as Bernard
+         did not choose to publish anything of his own, his reputation
+         ought to suffer for his uncommunicativeness. Compare _Winckler_,
+         _Gesch. der Botanik_, pp. 261-272, with _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxii.
+         pp. 162-166. I will only add the following remarks from a work
+         of authority, _Richard_, _Eléments de Botanique_, Paris, 1846,
+         p. 572: 'Mais ce ne fut qu'en 1789 que l'on eut véritablement un
+         ouvrage complet sur la méthode des familles naturelles. Le
+         _Genera Plantarum_ d'A. L. de Jussieu présenta la science des
+         végétaux sous un point de vue si nouveau, par la précision et
+         l'élégance qui y règnent, par la profondeur et la justesse des
+         principes généraux qui y sont exposés pour la première fois, que
+         c'est depuis cette époque seulement que la méthode des familles
+         naturelles a été véritablement créée, et que date la nouvelle
+         ère de la science des végétaux.... L'auteur du _Genera
+         Plantarum_ posa le premier les bases de la science, en faisant
+         voir quelle était l'importance relative des différents organes
+         entre eux, et par conséquent leur valeur dans la
+         classification.... Il a fait, selon la remarque de Cuvier, la
+         même révolution dans les sciences d'observation que la chimie de
+         Lavoisier dans les sciences d'expérience. En effet, il a non
+         seulement changé la face de la botanique; mais son influence
+         s'est également exercée sur les autres branches de l'histoire
+         naturelle, et y a introduit cet esprit de recherches, de
+         comparaison, et cette méthode philosophique et naturelle, vers
+         le perfectionnement de laquelle tendent désormais les efforts de
+         tous les naturalistes.'
+
+  [1126] Hence the removal of a great source of error; since it is now
+         understood that in dicotyledons alone can age be known with
+         certainty. _Henslow's Botany_, p. 243: compare _Richard_,
+         _Eléments de Botanique_, p. 159, aphorisme xxiv. On the stems of
+         endogenous plants, which, being mostly tropical, have been less
+         studied than the exogenous, see _Lindley's Botany_, vol. i. pp.
+         221-236; where there is also an account, pp. 229 seq., of the
+         views which Schleiden advanced on this subject in 1839.
+
+  [1127] On the arrangement of the leaves, now called phyllotaxis, see
+         _Balfour's Botany_, p. 92; _Burdach's Physiologie_, vol. v.
+         p. 518.
+
+This is what was effected by the Frenchmen of the eighteenth century for
+the vegetable kingdom:[1128] and if we now turn to the mineral kingdom,
+we shall find that our obligations to them are equally great. The study
+of minerals is the most imperfect of the three branches of natural
+history, because, notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, and the
+immense number of experiments which have been made, the true method of
+investigation has not yet been ascertained; it being doubtful whether
+mineralogy ought to be subordinated to the laws of chemistry, or to
+those of crystallography, or whether both sets of laws will have to be
+considered.[1129] At all events it is certain that, down to the present
+time, chemistry has shown itself unable to reduce mineralogical
+phenomena; nor has any chemist, possessing sufficient powers of
+generalization, attempted the task except Berzelius; and most of his
+conclusions were overthrown by the splendid discovery of isomorphism,
+for which, as is well known, we are indebted to Mitscherlich, one of the
+many great thinkers Germany has produced.[1130]
+
+  [1128] The classification by cotyledons has been so successful, that,
+         'with very few exceptions, however, nearly all plants may be
+         referred by any botanist, at a single glance, and with unerring
+         certainty, to their proper class; and a mere fragment even of
+         the stem, leaf, or some other part, is often quite sufficient to
+         enable him to decide this question.' _Henslow's Botany_, p. 30.
+         In regard to some difficulties still remaining in the way of the
+         threefold cotyledonous division of the whole vegetable world,
+         see _Lindley's Botany_, vol. ii. pp. 61 seq.
+
+  [1129] Mr. Swainson (_Study of Natural History_, p. 356) says
+         'mineralogy, indeed, which forms but a part of chemistry.' This
+         is deciding the question very rapidly; but in the meantime, what
+         becomes of the geometrical laws of minerals? and what are we to
+         do with that relation between their structure and optical
+         phenomena, which Sir David Brewster has worked out with signal
+         ability?
+
+  [1130] The difficulties introduced into the study of minerals by the
+         discovery of isomorphism and polymorphism, are no doubt
+         considerable; but M. Beudant (_Minéralogie_, Paris, 1841, p. 37)
+         seems to me to exaggerate their effect upon 'l'importance des
+         formes crystallines.' They are much more damaging to the purely
+         chemical arrangement, because our implements for measuring the
+         minute angles of crystals are still very imperfect, and the
+         goniometer may fail in detecting differences which really exist;
+         and, therefore, many alleged cases of isomorphism are probably
+         not so in reality. Wollaston's reflecting goniometer has been
+         long considered the best instrument possessed by
+         crystallographers; but I learn from _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_,
+         vol. i. pp. 19, 20, that Frankenheim has recently invented one
+         for measuring the angles of 'microscopic crystals.' On the
+         amount of error in the measurement of angles, see _Phillips's
+         Mineralogy_, 1837, p. viii.
+
+Although the chemical department of mineralogy is in an unformed and
+indeed anarchical condition, its other department, namely,
+crystallography, has made great progress; and here again the earliest
+steps were taken by two Frenchmen, who lived in the latter half of the
+eighteenth century. About 1760, Romé De Lisle[1131] set the first
+example of studying crystals, according to a scheme so large as to
+include all the varieties of their primary forms, and to account for
+their irregularities, and the apparent caprice with which they were
+arranged. In this investigation he was guided by the fundamental
+assumption, that what is called an irregularity, is in truth perfectly
+regular, and that the operations of nature are invariable.[1132]
+Scarcely had this great idea been applied to the almost innumerable
+forms into which minerals crystallize, when it was followed up with
+still larger resources by Haüy, another eminent Frenchman.[1133] This
+remarkable man achieved a complete union between mineralogy and
+geometry; and, bringing the laws of space to bear on the molecular
+arrangements of matter, he was able to penetrate into the intimate
+structure of crystals.[1134] By this means, he succeeded in proving that
+the secondary forms of all crystals are derived from their primary forms
+by a regular process of decrement;[1135] and that, when a substance is
+passing from a liquid to a solid state, its particles are compelled to
+cohere, according to a scheme which provides for every possible change,
+since it includes even those subsequent layers which alter the ordinary
+type of the crystal, by disturbing its natural symmetry.[1136] To
+ascertain that such violations of symmetry are susceptible of
+mathematical calculation, was to make a vast addition to our knowledge;
+but what seems to me still more important is, that it indicates an
+approach to the magnificent idea, that every thing which occurs is
+regulated by law, and that confusion and disorder are impossible.[1137]
+For, by proving that even the most uncouth and singular forms of
+minerals are the natural results of their antecedents, Haüy laid the
+foundation of what may be called the pathology of the inorganic world.
+However paradoxical such a notion may seem, it is certain that symmetry
+is to crystals what health is to animals; so that an irregularity of
+shape in the first, corresponds with an appearance of disease in the
+second.[1138] When, therefore, the minds of men became familiarized with
+the great truth, that in the mineral kingdom there is, properly
+speaking, no irregularity, it became more easy for them to grasp the
+still higher truth, that the same principle holds good of the animal
+kingdom, although, from the superior complexity of the phenomena, it
+will be long before we can arrive at an equal demonstration. But, that
+such a demonstration is possible, is the principle upon which the future
+progress of all organic, and indeed of all mental science, depends. And
+it is very observable, that the same generation which established the
+fact, that the apparent aberrations presented by minerals are strictly
+regular, also took the first steps towards establishing the far higher
+fact, that the aberrations of the human mind are governed by laws as
+unfailing as those which determine the condition of inert matter. The
+examination of this would lead to a digression foreign to my present
+design; but I may mention that, at the end of the century, there was
+written in France the celebrated treatise on insanity, by Pinel; a work
+remarkable in many respects, but chiefly in this, that in it the old
+notions respecting the mysterious and inscrutable character of mental
+disease are altogether discarded:[1139] the disease itself is considered
+as a phenomenon inevitably occurring under certain given conditions, and
+the foundation laid for supplying another link in that vast chain of
+evidence which connects the material with the immaterial, and thus
+uniting mind and matter into a single study, is now preparing the way
+for some generalization, which, being common to both, shall serve as a
+centre round which the disjointed fragments of our knowledge may safely
+rally.
+
+  [1131] He says, 'depuis plus de vingt ans que je m'occupe de cet objet.'
+         _Romé de Lisle_, _Cristallographie, ou Description des Formes
+         propres à tous les Corps du Règne Minéral_, Paris, 1783, vol. i.
+         p. 91.
+
+  [1132] See his _Essai de Cristallographie_, Paris, 1772, p. x.: 'un de
+         ceux qui m'a le plus frappé ce sont les formes régulières et
+         constantes que prennent naturellement certains corps que nous
+         désignons par le nom de cristaux.' In the same work, p. 13: 'il
+         faut nécessairement supposer que les molécules intégrantes des
+         corps ont chacune, suivant qui lui est propre, une figure
+         constante et déterminée.' In his later treatise
+         (_Cristallographie_, 1783, vol. i. p. 70), after giving some
+         instances of the extraordinary complications presented by
+         minerals, he adds: 'Il n'est donc pas étonnant que d'habiles
+         chimistes n'aient rien vu de constant ni de déterminé dans les
+         formes cristallines, tandis qu'il n'en est aucune qu'on ne
+         puisse, avec un peu d'attention rapporter à la figure
+         élémentaire et primordiale dont elle dérive.' Even Buffon,
+         notwithstanding his fine perception of law, had just declared,
+         'qu'en général la forme de cristallisation n'est pas un
+         caractère constant, mais plus équivoque et plus variable
+         qu'aucun autre des caractères par lesquels on doit distinguer
+         les minéraux.' _De Lisle_, vol. i. p. xviii. Compare, on this
+         great achievement of De Lisle's, _Herschel's Nat. Philos._ p.
+         239: 'he first ascertained the important fact of the constancy
+         of the angles at which their faces meet.'
+
+  [1133] The first work of Haüy appeared in 1784 (_Quérard_, _France
+         Littéraire_, vol. iv. p. 41); but he had read two special
+         memoirs in 1781. _Cuvier_, _Eloges_, vol. iii. p. 138. The
+         intellectual relation between his views and those of his
+         predecessor must be obvious to every mineralogist; but Dr.
+         Whewell, who has noticed this judiciously enough, adds (_Hist.
+         of the Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. pp. 229, 230): 'Unfortunately
+         Romé de Lisle and Haüy were not only rivals, but in some measure
+         enemies.... Haüy revenged himself by rarely mentioning Romé in
+         his works, though it was manifest that his obligations to him
+         were immense; and by recording his errors while he corrected
+         them.' The truth, however, is, that so far from rarely
+         mentioning De Lisle, he mentions him incessantly; and I have
+         counted upwards of three hundred instances in Haüy's great work,
+         in which he is named, and his writings are referred to. On one
+         occasion he says of De Lisle, 'En un mot, sa cristallographie
+         est le fruit d'un travail immense par son étendue, presque
+         entièrement neuf par son objet, et très-précieux par son
+         utilité.' _Haüy_, _Traité de Minéralogie_, Paris, 1801, vol. i.
+         p. 17. Elsewhere he calls him, 'cet habile naturaliste; ce
+         savant célèbre,' vol. ii. p. 323; 'ce célèbre naturaliste,' vol.
+         iii. p. 442; see also vol. iv. pp. 51, &c. In a work of so much
+         merit as Dr. Whewell's, it is important that these errors should
+         be indicated, because we have no other book of value on the
+         general history of the sciences; and many authors have deceived
+         themselves and their readers, by implicitly adopting the
+         statements of this able and industrious writer. I would
+         particularly caution the student in regard to the physiological
+         part of Dr. Whewell's History, where, for instance, the
+         antagonism between the methods of Cuvier and Bichat is entirely
+         lost sight of, and while whole pages are devoted to Cuvier,
+         Bichat is disposed of in four lines.
+
+  [1134] 'Haüy est donc le seul véritable auteur de la science
+         mathématique des cristaux.' _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_,
+         vol. i. p. 8; see also p. 317. Dr. Clarke, whose celebrated
+         lectures on mineralogy excited much attention among his hearers,
+         was indebted for some of his principal views to his
+         conversations with Haüy: see _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. ii.
+         p. 192.
+
+  [1135] See an admirable statement of the three forms of decrement, in
+         _Haüy_, _Traité de Minéralogie_, vol. i. pp. 285, 286. Compare
+         _Whewell's Hist. of the Induc. Sciences_, vol. iii. pp. 224,
+         225; who, however, does not mention Haüy's classification of
+         'décroissemens sur les bords,' 'décroissemens sur les angles,'
+         and 'décroissemens intermédiaires.'
+
+  [1136] And, as he clearly saw, the proper method was to study the laws
+         of symmetry, and then apply them deductively to minerals,
+         instead of rising inductively from the aberrations actually
+         presented by minerals. This is interesting to observe, because
+         it is analogous to the method of the best pathologists, who seek
+         the philosophy of their subject in physiological phenomena,
+         rather than in pathological ones; striking downwards from the
+         normal to the abnormal. '_La symétrie des formes_ sous
+         lesquelles se présentent les solides que nous avons considérés
+         jusqu'ici, _nous a fourni des données_ pour exprimer les lois de
+         décroissemens dont ces solides sont susceptibles.' _Haüy_,
+         _Traité de Minéralogie_, vol. i. p. 442; compare vol. ii.
+         p. 192.
+
+  [1137] 'Un coup d'[oe]il peu attentif, jeté sur les cristaux, les fit
+         appeler d'abord de _purs jeux de la nature_, ce qui n'étoit
+         qu'une manière plus élégante de faire l'aveu de son ignorance.
+         Un examen réfléchi nous y découvre des lois d'arrangement, à
+         l'aide desquelles le calcul représente et enchaîne l'un à
+         l'autre les résultats observés; lois si variables et en même
+         temps si précises et si régulières; ordinairement très-simples,
+         sans rien perdre de leur fécondité.' _Haüy_, _Minéralogie_, vol.
+         i. pp. xiii. xiv. Again, vol. ii. p. 57, 'notre but, qui est de
+         prouver que les lois d'où dépend la structure du cristal sont
+         les plus simples possibles dans leur ensemble.'
+
+  [1138] On the remarkable power possessed by crystals, in common with
+         animals, of repairing their own injuries, see _Paget's
+         Pathology_, 1853, vol. i. pp. 152, 153, confirming the
+         experiments of Jordan on this curious subject: 'The ability to
+         repair the damages sustained by injury ... is not an exclusive
+         property of living beings; for even crystals will repair
+         themselves when, after pieces have been broken from them, they
+         are placed in the same conditions in which they were first
+         formed.'
+
+  [1139] 'M. Pinel a imprimé une marche nouvelle à l'étude de la folie....
+         En la rangeant simplement, et sans différences aucunes, au
+         nombre des autres dérangemens de nos organes, en lui assignant
+         une place dans le cadre nosographique, il fit faire un pas
+         immense à son histoire.' _Georget_, _de la Folie_, Paris, 1820,
+         p. 69. In the same work, p. 295, 'M. Pinel, le premier en
+         France, on pourrait dire en Europe, jeta les fondemens d'un
+         traitement vraiment rationnel en rangeant la folie au nombre des
+         autres affections organiques.' M. Esquirol, who expresses the
+         modern and purely scientific view, says in his great work (_Des
+         Maladies Mentaes_, Paris, 1838, vol. i. p. 336), 'L'aliénation
+         mentale, que les anciens peuples regardaient comme une
+         inspiration ou une punition des dieux, qui dans la suite fut
+         prise pour la possession des démons, qui dans d'autres temps
+         passa pour une [oe]uvre de la magie; l'aliénation mentale,
+         dis-je, avec toutes ses espèces et ses variétés innombrables, ne
+         diffère en rien des autres maladies.' The recognition of this he
+         expressly ascribes to his predecessor: 'grâce aux principes
+         exposés par Pinel.' p. 340. Pinel himself clearly saw the
+         connexion between his own opinions and the spirit of the age:
+         see _Pinel_, _Traité Médico-Philosophique sur l'Aliénation
+         Mentale_, p. xxxii.: 'Un ouvrage de médecine, publié en France à
+         la fin du dix-huitième siècle, doit avoir un autre caractère que
+         s'il avoit été écrit à une époque antérieure.'
+
+These were the views which, during the latter half of the eighteenth
+century, began to dawn upon French thinkers. The extraordinary ability
+and success with which these eminent men cultivated their respective
+sciences, I have traced at a length greater that I had intended, but
+still very inadequate to the importance of the subject. Enough, however,
+has been brought forward, to convince the reader of the truth of the
+proposition I wished to prove; namely, that the intellect of France was,
+during the latter half of the eighteenth century, concentrated upon the
+external world with unprecedented zeal, and thus aided that vast
+movement, of which the Revolution itself was merely a single
+consequence. The intimate connexion between scientific progress and
+social rebellion, is evident from the fact, that both are suggested by
+the same yearning after improvement, the same dissatisfaction with what
+has been previously done, the same restless, prying, insubordinate, and
+audacious spirit. But in France this general analogy was strengthened by
+the curious circumstances I have already noticed, by virtue of which,
+the activity of the country was, during the first half of the century,
+directed against the church rather than against the state; so that in
+order to complete the antecedents of the Revolution, it was necessary
+that, in the latter half of the century, the ground of attack should be
+shifted. This is precisely what was done by the wonderful impetus given
+to every branch of natural science. For, the attention of men being thus
+steadily fixed upon the external world, the internal fell into neglect;
+while, as the external corresponds to the state, and the internal to the
+church, it was part of the same intellectual development, that the
+assailers of the existing fabric should turn against political abuses
+the energy which the preceding generation had reserved for religious
+ones.
+
+Thus it was that the French Revolution, like every great revolution the
+world has yet seen, was preceded by a complete change in the habits and
+associations of the national intellect. But besides this, there was also
+taking place, precisely at the same time, a vast social movement, which
+was intimately connected with the intellectual movement, and indeed
+formed part of it, in so far as it was followed by similar results and
+produced by similar causes. The nature of this social revolution I
+shall examine only very briefly, because in a future volume it will be
+necessary to trace its history minutely, in order to illustrate the
+slighter but still remarkable changes which in the same period were
+going on in English society.
+
+In France, before the Revolution, the people, though always very social,
+were also very exclusive. The upper classes, protected by an imaginary
+superiority, looked with scorn upon those whose birth or titles were
+unequal to their own. The class immediately below them copied and
+communicated their example, and every order in society endeavoured to
+find some fanciful distinction which should guard them from the
+contamination of their inferiors. The only three real sources of
+superiority,--the superiority of morals, of intellect, and of
+knowledge,--were entirely overlooked in this absurd scheme; and men
+became accustomed to pride themselves not on any essential difference,
+but on those inferior matters, which, with extremely few exceptions, are
+the result of accident, and therefore no test of merit.[1140]
+
+  [1140] Comp. _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 23, with the Introduction to
+         _Des Réaux_, _Historiettes_, vol. i. p. 34. A good illustration
+         of this is, that the Prince de Montbarey, in his Memoirs, gently
+         censures Louis XV., not for his scandalous profligacy, but
+         because he selected for his mistresses some women who were not
+         of high birth. _Mém. de Montbarey_, vol. i. p. 341, and see
+         vol. iii. p. 117.
+
+The first great blow to this state of things, was the unprecedented
+impulse given to the cultivation of physical science. Those vast
+discoveries which were being made, not only stimulated the intellect of
+thinking men, but even roused the curiosity of the more thoughtless
+parts of society. The lectures of chemists, of geologists, of
+mineralogists, and of physiologists, were attended by those who came to
+wonder, as well as by those who came to learn. In Paris, the scientific
+assemblages were crowded to overflowing.[1141] The halls and
+amphitheatres in which the great truths of nature were expounded, were
+no longer able to hold their audience, and in several instances it was
+found necessary to enlarge them.[1142] The sittings of the Academy,
+instead of being confined to a few solitary scholars, were frequented by
+every one whose rank or influence enabled them to secure a place.[1143]
+Even women of fashion, forgetting their usual frivolity, hastened to
+hear discussions on the composition of a mineral, on the discovery of a
+new salt, on the structure of plants, on the organization of animals, on
+the properties of the electric fluid.[1144] A sudden craving after
+knowledge seemed to have smitten every rank. The largest and the most
+difficult inquiries found favour in the eyes of those whose fathers had
+hardly heard the names of the sciences to which they belonged. The
+brilliant imagination of Buffon made geology suddenly popular; the same
+thing was effected for chemistry by the eloquence of Fourcroy, and for
+electricity by Nollet; while the admirable expositions of Lalande caused
+astronomy itself to be generally cultivated. In a word, it is enough to
+say, that during the thirty years preceding the Revolution, the spread
+of physical science was so rapid, that in its favour the old classical
+studies were despised;[1145] it was considered the essential basis of a
+good education, and some slight acquaintance with it was deemed
+necessary for every class, except those who were obliged to support
+themselves by their daily labour.[1146]
+
+  [1141] And that too even on such a subject as anatomy. In 1768, Antoine
+         Petit began his anatomical lectures in the great amphitheatre of
+         the Jardin du Roi; and the press to hear him was so great, that
+         not only all the seats were occupied, but the very window-ledges
+         were crowded. See the animated description in _Biog. Univ._
+         vol. xxxiii. p. 494.
+
+  [1142] Dr. Thomson (_History of Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 169) says of
+         Fourcroy's lectures on chemistry, which began in 1784: 'Such
+         were the crowds, both of men and women, who flocked to hear him,
+         that it was twice necessary to enlarge the size of the
+         lecture-room.' This circumstance is also mentioned in _Cuvier_,
+         _Eloges_, vol. ii. p. 19.
+
+  [1143] In 1779, it was remarked that 'les séances publiques de
+         l'Académie Française sont devenues une espèce de spectacle fort
+         à la mode:' and as this continued to increase, the throng became
+         at length so great, that in 1785 it was found necessary to
+         diminish the number of tickets of admission, and it was even
+         proposed that ladies should be excluded, in consequence of some
+         uproarious scenes which had happened. _Grimm et Diderot_,
+         _Correspond. Lit._ vol. x. p. 341, vol. xiv. pp. 148, 149, 185,
+         251.
+
+  [1144] Goldsmith, who was in Paris in 1755, says with surprise, 'I have
+         seen as bright a circle of beauty at the chemical lectures of
+         Rouelle, as gracing the court of Versailles.' _Prior's Life of
+         Goldsmith_, vol. i. p. 180; _Forster's Life of Goldsmith_, vol.
+         i. p. 65. In the middle of the century, electricity was very
+         popular among the Parisian ladies; and the interest felt in it
+         was revived several years later by Franklin. Compare _Grimm_,
+         _Correspondance_, vol. vii. p. 122, with _Tucker's Life of
+         Jefferson_, vol. i. pp. 190, 191. Cuvier (_Eloges_, vol. i. p.
+         56) tells us that even the anatomical descriptions which
+         Daubenton wrote for Buffon were to be found 'sur la toilette des
+         femmes.' This change of taste is also noticed, though in a
+         jeering spirit, in _Mém. de Genlis_, vol. vi. p. 32. Compare the
+         account given by Townsend, who visited France in 1786, on his
+         way to Spain: 'A numerous society of gentlemen and ladies of the
+         first fashion meet to hear lectures on the sciences, delivered
+         by men of the highest rank in their profession.... I was much
+         struck with the fluency and elegance of language with which the
+         anatomical professor spoke, and not a little so with the deep
+         attention of his auditors.' _Townsend's Journey through Spain_,
+         vol. i. p. 41: see also _Smith's Tour on the Continent in 1786_,
+         vol. i. p. 117.
+
+  [1145] In a letter written in 1756, it is said, 'Mais c'est peine perdue
+         aujourd'hui que de plaisanter les érudits; il n'y en a plus en
+         France.' _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 15. In 1764, 'Il est
+         honteux et incroyable à quel point l'étude des anciens est
+         négligée.' vol. iv. p. 97. In 1768, 'Une autre raison qui rendra
+         les traductions des auteurs anciens de plus en plus rares en
+         France, c'est que depuis long temps on n'y sait plus le Grec, et
+         qu'on néglige l'étude du Latin tous les jours davantage.' vol.
+         vi. p. 140. Sherlock (_New Letters from an English Traveller_,
+         London, 1781, p. 86) says, 'It is very rare to meet a man in
+         France that understands Greek.' In 1785, Jefferson writes from
+         Paris to Madison, 'Greek and Roman authors are dearer here than,
+         I believe, any where in the world; nobody here reads them,
+         wherefore they are not reprinted.' _Jefferson's Correspond._
+         vol. i. p. 301. See further, on this neglect of the ancients, a
+         significant precursor of the Revolution, _Mém. de Montbarey_,
+         vol. iii. p. 181; _Villemain_, _Littérature au XVIII^e Siècle_,
+         vol. iii. pp. 243-248; _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. i.
+         p. 344.
+
+  [1146] For further evidence of the popularity of physical knowledge, and
+         of its study, even by those who might have been expected to
+         neglect it, see _Mém. de Roland_, vol. i. pp. 115, 268, 324,
+         343; _Mém. de Morellet_, vol. i. p. 16; _Dupont de Nemours_,
+         _Mém. sur Turgot_, pp. 45, 52, 53, 411; _Mém. de Brissot_, vol.
+         i. pp. 62, 151, 319, 336, 338, 357; _Cuvier_, _Progrès des
+         Sciences_, vol. i. p. 89.
+
+The results produced by this remarkable change are very curious, and
+from their energy and rapidity were very decisive. As long as the
+different classes confined themselves to pursuits peculiar to their own
+sphere, they were encouraged to preserve their separate habits; and the
+subordination, or, as it were, the hierarchy, of society was easily
+maintained. But when the members of the various orders met in the same
+place with the same object, they became knit together by a new sympathy.
+The highest and most durable of all pleasures, the pleasure caused by
+the perception of fresh truths, was now a great link, which banded
+together those social elements that were formerly wrapped up in the
+pride of their own isolation. Besides this, there was also given to them
+not only a new pursuit, but also a new standard of merit. In the
+amphitheatre and the lecture-room, the first object of attention is the
+professor and the lecturer. The division is between those who teach and
+those who learn. The subordination of ranks makes way for the
+subordination of knowledge.[1147] The petty and conventional
+distinctions of fashionable life are succeeded by those large and
+genuine distinctions, by which alone man is really separated from man.
+The progress of the intellect supplies a new object of veneration; the
+old worship of rank is rudely disturbed, and its superstitious devotees
+are taught to bow the knee before what to them is the shrine of a
+strange god. The hall of science is the temple of democracy. Those who
+come to learn, confess their own ignorance, abrogate in some degree
+their own superiority, and begin to perceive that the greatness of men
+has no connexion with the splendour of their titles, or the dignity of
+their birth; that it is not concerned with their quarterings, their
+escutcheons, their descents, their dexter-chiefs, their sinister-chiefs,
+their chevrons, their bends, their azures, their gules, and the other
+trumperies of their heraldry; but that it depends upon the largeness of
+their minds, the powers of their intellect, and the fullness of their
+knowledge.
+
+  [1147] A celebrated writer has well said, though in a somewhat different
+         point of view, 'Il ne peut y avoir dans les sciences morales,
+         pas plus que dans les sciences physiques, ni maîtres, ni
+         esclaves, ni rois, ni sujets, ni citoyens, ni étrangers.'
+         _Comte_, _Traité de Législation_, vol. i. p. 43.
+
+These were the views which, in the latter half of the eighteenth
+century, began to influence those classes which had long been the
+undisputed masters of society.[1148] And what shows the strength of this
+great movement is, that it was accompanied by other social changes,
+which, though in themselves apparently trifling, become full of meaning
+when taken in connexion with the general history of the time.
+
+  [1148] The remarks which Thomas made upon Descartes in 1765, in an
+         _éloge_ crowned by the Academy, illustrate the opinions which,
+         in the latter half of the eighteenth century, were becoming
+         rapidly diffused in France. See the passage beginning 'O
+         préjugés! ô ridicule fierté des places et du rang!' &c.
+         _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. i. p. 74. Certainly no one would
+         have used such language, on such an occasion, thirty years
+         earlier. So, too, the Count de Ségur says of the younger nobles
+         before the Revolution, 'nous préférions un mot d'éloges de
+         D'Alembert, de Diderot, à la faveur la plus signalée d'un
+         prince.' _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 142: see also vol. ii. p.
+         46.
+
+While the immense progress of physical knowledge was revolutionizing
+society, by inspiring the different classes with an object common to
+all, and thus raising a new standard of merit, a more trivial, but
+equally democratic tendency was observable even in the conventional
+forms of social life. To describe the whole of these changes would
+occupy a space disproportioned to the other parts of this Introduction;
+but it is certain that, until the changes have been carefully examined,
+it will be impossible for any one to write a history of the French
+Revolution. As a specimen of what I mean, I will notice two of these
+innovations which are very conspicuous, and are also interesting on
+account of their analogy with what has happened in English society.
+
+The first of these changes was an alteration in dress, and a marked
+contempt for those external appearances hitherto valued as one of the
+most important of all matters. During the reign of Louis XIV., and
+indeed during the first half of the reign of Louis XV., not only men of
+frivolous tastes, but even those distinguished for their knowledge,
+displayed in their attire a dainty precision, a nice and studied
+adjustment, a pomp of gold, of silver, and of ruffles, such as in our
+days can nowhere be seen, except in the courts of European princes,
+where a certain barbarian splendour is still retained. So far was this
+carried, that in the seventeenth century the rank of a person might be
+immediately known by his appearance; no one presuming to usurp a garb
+worn by the class immediately above his own.[1149] But in that
+democratic movement which preceded the French Revolution, the minds of
+men became too earnest, too intent upon higher matters, to busy
+themselves with those idle devices which engrossed the attention of
+their fathers. A contemptuous disregard of such distinctions became
+general. In Paris the innovation was seen even in those gay assemblies,
+where a certain amount of personal decoration is still considered
+natural. At dinners, suppers, and balls, it is noticed by contemporary
+observers, that the dress usually worn was becoming so simple as to
+cause a confusion of ranks, until at length every distinction was
+abandoned by both sexes; the men, on such occasions, coming in a common
+frock-coat, the women in their ordinary morning gowns.[1150] Nay, to
+such a pitch was this carried, that we are assured by the Prince de
+Montbarey, who was in Paris at the time, that shortly before the
+Revolution, even those who had stars and orders were careful to hide
+them by buttoning their coats, so that these marks of superiority might
+no longer be seen.[1151]
+
+  [1149] Among many other illustrations which might be given of this
+         distinction of classes by dress, see _Monteil_, _Hist. des
+         divers Etats_, vol. vii. pp. 7-10; and _Tallemant des Réaux_,
+         _Historiettes_, vol. i. p. 36 note.
+
+  [1150] In August 1787, Jefferson writes from Paris (_Correspondence_,
+         vol. ii. p. 224): 'In society, the _habit habillé_ is almost
+         banished, and they begin to go even to great suppers in frock:
+         the court and diplomatic corps, however, must always be
+         excepted. They are too high to be reached by any improvement.
+         They are the last refuge from which etiquette, formality, and
+         folly will be driven. Take away these, and they would be on a
+         level with other people.' Jefferson was a statesman and a
+         diplomatist, and was well acquainted with his profession. The
+         change, however, which he noticed, had been coming on some years
+         earlier. In a letter written in May 1786, it is said: 'Il est
+         rare aujourd'hui de rencontrer dans le monde des personnes qui
+         soient ce qu'on appelle habillées. Lee femmes sont en chemise et
+         en chapeau, les hommes en froc et en gilet.' _Grimm_,
+         _Correspond._ vol. xiv. p. 485; and on the increased simplicity
+         of attire in 1780, see vol. xi. pp. 141, 142. Ségur, who
+         witnessed these changes, and was much displeased by them, says
+         of their advocates, 'ils ne voyaient pas que les frocs,
+         remplaçant les amples et imposans vêtemens de l'ancienne cour,
+         présagaient un penchant général pour l'égalité.' _Mém. de
+         Ségur_, vol. i. p. 131. Soulavie (_Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. vi.
+         p. 38) observes, that 'les grands, vers les approches de la
+         révolution, n'avoient plus que des habits simples et peu
+         coûteux;' and that 'on ne distingua plus une duchesse d'une
+         actrice,' p. 43: see also an extract from Montjoye, in _Alison's
+         History_, vol. i. pp. 352, 353. Compare _Mém. sur
+         Marie-Antoinette_, vol. i. pp. 226, 372, vol. ii. p. 174, and
+         _Mém. de Madame au Hausset_, introduc. p. 17.
+
+  [1151] 'Les personnes du premier rang et même d'un âge mûr, qui avaient
+         travaillé toute leur vie pour obtenir les ordres du roi, preuve
+         de la plus haute faveur, s'habituèrent à en cacher les marques
+         distinctives sous le froc le plus simple, qui leur permettait de
+         courir à pied dans les rues et de se confondre dans la foule.'
+         _Mém. de Montbarey_, vol. iii. pp. 161, 162. Another alteration
+         of the same tendency is worth recording. The Baroness
+         d'Oberkirch, who revisited Paris in 1784, remarked, on her
+         arrival, that 'gentlemen began about this time to go about
+         unarmed, and wore swords only in full dress.... And thus the
+         French nobility laid aside a usage which the example of their
+         fathers had consecrated through centuries.' _D'Oberkirch's
+         Memoirs_, Lond. 1852, vol. ii. p. 211.
+
+The other innovation to which I have referred is equally interesting as
+characteristic of the spirit of the time. This is, that the tendency to
+amalgamate the different orders of society[1152] was shown in the
+institution of clubs; a remarkable contrivance, which to us seems
+perfectly natural because we are accustomed to it, but of which it may
+be truly said, that until the eighteenth century its existence was
+impossible. Before the eighteenth century, each class was so jealous of
+its superiority over the one below it, that to meet together on equal
+terms was impracticable; and although a certain patronizing familiarity
+towards one's inferiors might be safely indulged in, this only marked
+the immense interval of separation, since the great man had no fear of
+his condescension being abused. In those good old times a proper respect
+was paid to rank and birth; and he who could count his twenty ancestors
+was venerated to an extent of which we, in these degenerate days, can
+hardly form an idea. As to any thing like social equality, that was a
+notion too preposterous to be conceived; nor was it possible that any
+institution should exist which placed mere ordinary men on a level with
+those illustrious characters, whose veins were filled with the purest
+blood, and the quarterings of whose arms none could hope to rival.
+
+  [1152] A striking instance of which was, moreover, seen in the number of
+         _mésalliances_, which first became frequent about the middle of
+         the reign of Louis XV. Compare _Mém. de Montbarey_, vol. iii.
+         pp. 116, 156, 157; _Lacretelle_, _Dix-huitième Siècle_,
+         vol. iii. p. 220.
+
+But in the eighteenth century the progress of knowledge became so
+remarkable, that the new principle of intellectual superiority made
+rapid encroachments on the old principle of aristocratic superiority. As
+soon as these encroachments had reached a certain point, they gave rise
+to an institution suited to them; and thus it was that there were first
+established clubs, in which all the educated classes could assemble,
+without regard to those other differences which, in the preceding
+period, kept them separate. The peculiarity of this was, that, for mere
+purposes of social enjoyment, men were brought into contact, who,
+according to the aristocratic scheme, had nothing in common, but who
+were now placed on the same footing in so far as they belonged to the
+same establishment, conformed to the same rules, and reaped the same
+advantages. It was, however, expected that the members, though varying
+in many other respects, were to be all, in some degree, educated; and in
+this way society first distinctly recognized a classification previously
+unknown; the division between noble and ignoble being succeeded by
+another division between educated and uneducated.
+
+The rise and growth of clubs is, therefore, to the philosophic observer,
+a question of immense importance; and it is one which, as I shall
+hereafter prove, played a great part in the history of England during
+the latter half of the eighteenth century. In reference to our present
+subject, it is interesting to observe, that the first clubs, in the
+modern sense of the word, which ever existed in Paris, were formed about
+1782, only seven years before the French Revolution. At the beginning
+they were merely intended to be social assemblages; but they quickly
+assumed a democratic character, conformable to the spirit of the age.
+Their first result, as was noticed by a keen observer of what was then
+passing, was to make the manners of the upper classes more simple than
+they had hitherto been, and to weaken that love of form and ceremony
+suitable to their earlier habits. These clubs likewise effected a
+remarkable separation between the sexes; and it is recorded, that after
+their establishment, women associated more with each other, and were
+oftener seen in public unaccompanied by men.[1153] This had the effect
+of encouraging among men a republican roughness, which the influence of
+the other sex would have tended to keep down. All these things effaced
+the old lines of demarcation between the different ranks, and by
+merging the various classes into one, made the force of their united
+opposition irresistible, and speedily overthrew both the church and the
+state. The exact period at which the clubs became political cannot, of
+course, be ascertained, but the change seems to have taken place about
+1784.[1154] From this moment all was over; and although the government,
+in 1787, issued orders to close the leading club, in which all classes
+discussed political questions, it was found impossible to stem the
+current. The order, therefore, was rescinded; the club re-assembled, and
+no further attempt was made to interrupt that course of affairs which a
+long train of preceding events had rendered inevitable.[1155]
+
+  [1153] 'Nous commençâmes aussi à avoir des clubs: les hommes s'y
+         réunissaient, non encore pour discuter, mais pour dîner, jouer
+         au wisk, et lire tous les ouvrages nouveaux. Ce premier pas,
+         alors presque inaperçu, eut dans la suite de grandes, et
+         momentanément de funestes conséquences. Dans le commencement,
+         son premier résultat fut de séparer les hommes des femmes, et
+         d'apporter ainsi un notable changement dans nos m[oe]urs: elles
+         devinrent moins frivoles, mais moins polies; plus fortes, mais
+         moins aimables: la politique y gagna, la société y perdit.'
+         _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. ii. p. 28. By the spring of 1786, this
+         separation of the sexes had become still more marked; and it was
+         a common complaint, that ladies were obliged to go to the
+         theatre alone, men being at their clubs. See the very curious
+         observations in _Grimm_, _Correspond._ vol. xiv. pp. 486-489,
+         where there is also a notice of 'le prodigieux succès qu'a eu
+         l'établissement des clubs à l'anglaise.' See also, on the
+         diminished attention paid to women, _Williams's Letters from
+         France_, vol. ii. p. 80; 3rd edit. 1796.
+
+  [1154] The remarks of Georgel appear to apply to the political clubs
+         only: 'A Paris les assemblées de nouvellistes, les clubs qui
+         s'étoient formés à l'instar de ceux des Anglais, s'expliquaient
+         hautement et sans retenue sur les droits de l'homme, sur les
+         avantages de la liberté, sur les grands abus de l'inégalité des
+         conditions. Ces clubs, trop accrédités, avoient commencé à se
+         former en 1784.' _Mém. de Georgel_, vol. ii. p. 310.
+
+  [1155] 'Le lieutenant de police fit fermer le club nommé _Club du
+         Salon_; ordre arbitraire et inutile: ce club alors était composé
+         de personnes distinguées de la noblesse ou de la haute
+         bourgeoisie, ainsi que des artistes et des hommes de lettres les
+         plus considérés. Cette réunion offrait, pour la première fois,
+         l'image d'une égalité qui devient bientôt, plus que la liberté
+         même, le v[oe]u le plus ardent de la plus grande partie de la
+         nation. Aussi le mécontentement produit par la clôture de ce
+         club fut si vif, que l'autorité se crut obligée de la rouvrir.'
+         _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. iii. pp. 258, 259. On the increase of
+         these clubs from 1787 to 1789, compare _Du Mesnil_, _Mém. sur Le
+         Brun_, p. 148; _Mém. de Lafayette_, vol. i. pp. 312, 322, 391,
+         434, vol. ii. p. 9; _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacob._ vol. i. p. 40,
+         vol. ii. p. 310, vol. v. pp. 101, 168; _Thiers_, _Hist. de la
+         Révolution_, vol. i. p. 36, Paris, 1834.
+
+While all these things were conspiring to overthrow the old
+institutions, an event suddenly occurred which produced the most
+remarkable effects in France, and is itself strikingly characteristic of
+the spirit of the eighteenth century. On the other side of the Atlantic,
+a great people, provoked by the intolerable injustice of the English
+government, rose in arms, turned on their oppressors, and, after a
+desperate struggle, gloriously obtained their independence. In 1776,
+the Americans laid before Europe that noble Declaration, which ought to
+be hung up in the nursery of every king, and blazoned on the porch of
+every royal palace. In words, the memory of which can never die, they
+declared, that the object of the institution of government is to secure
+the rights of the people; that from the people alone it derives its
+powers; and 'that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
+these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to
+institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles,
+and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
+likely to effect their safety and happiness.'[1156]
+
+  [1156] _Mem. of Franklin_, vol. ii. pp. 14 seq.; and _Mem. of
+         Jefferson_, vol. i. pp. 17-22, where the passages are given
+         which Congress altered.
+
+If this declaration had been made only one generation earlier, the whole
+of France, with the exception of a few advanced thinkers, would have
+rejected it with horror and with scorn. Such, however, was now the
+temper of the public mind, that the doctrines it contained were not
+merely welcomed by a majority of the French nation, but even the
+government itself was unable to withstand the general feeling.[1157] In
+1776, Franklin arrived in France, as envoy from the American people. He
+met with the warmest reception from all classes,[1158] and succeeded in
+inducing the government to sign a treaty, engaging to defend the young
+republic in the rights it had gloriously won.[1159] In Paris, the
+enthusiasm was irresistible.[1160] From every quarter large bodies of
+men came forward, volunteering to cross the Atlantic and to fight for
+the liberties of America. The heroism with which these auxiliaries aided
+the noble struggle, forms a cheering passage in the history of that
+time; but is foreign to my present purpose, which is merely to notice
+its effect in hastening the approach of the French Revolution. And this
+effect was indeed most remarkable. Besides the indirect result produced
+by the example of a successful rebellion, the French were still further
+stimulated by actual contact with their new allies. The French officers
+and soldiers who served in America, introduced into their own country,
+on their return, those democratic opinions which they had imbibed in the
+infant republic.[1161] By this means, fresh strength was given to the
+revolutionary tendencies already prevalent; and it is worthy of remark,
+that Lafayette borrowed from the same source one of his most celebrated
+acts. He drew his sword on behalf of the Americans; and they, in their
+turn, communicated to him that famous doctrine respecting the rights of
+man, which, at his instigation, was formally adopted by the National
+Assembly.[1162] Indeed, there is reason to believe, that the final blow
+the French government received was actually dealt by the hand of an
+American; for it is said that it was in consequence of the advice of
+Jefferson, that the popular part of the legislative body proclaimed
+itself the National Assembly, and thus set the crown at open
+defiance.[1163]
+
+  [1157] Ségur (_Mém._ vol. i. p. 111) says that his father had been
+         frequently told by Maurepas that public opinion forced the
+         government, against its own wishes, to side with America.
+         Compare _Mém. de Georgel_, vol. iv. p. 370; and _Flassan_,
+         _Diplomatie Française_, vol. vii. p. 166.
+
+  [1158] The news of which soon reached England. In January 1777, Burke
+         writes (_Works_, vol. ii. p. 394), 'I hear that Dr. Franklin has
+         had a most extraordinary reception at Paris from all ranks of
+         people.' Soulavie (_Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. ii. p. 50) says,
+         'J'ai vu Francklin devenir un objet de culte.' See also, on his
+         popularity, _Mém. d'Epinay_, vol. iii. p. 419.
+
+  [1159] _Flassan_, _Diplomatie Française_, vol. vii. p. 159; _Life of
+         Franklin_, _by Himself_, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61; _Mahon's Hist. of
+         England_, vol. vii. pp. 197, 198.
+
+  [1160] The sneering letter written from Paris by Lord Stormont, as early
+         as December 1774 (_Adolphus's George III._ vol. ii. p. 316),
+         should be compared with _Lafayette_, _Mémoires_, vol. i. pp. 24,
+         169, 229; _Dutens_, _Mém. d'un Voyageur_, vol. ii. p. 317; _Mém.
+         de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 149; and _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_,
+         vol. v. p. 175.
+
+  [1161] _De Staël sur la Révolution_, vol. i. p. 88; _Mém. de Montbarey_,
+         vol. iii. pp. 134, 186; _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. p. 277;
+         _Campan_, _Mém. de Marie Antoinette_, vol. i. p. 233, vol. iii.
+         pp. 96, 116; _Soulavie_, _Règne de Louis XVI_, vol. ii. pp.
+         xxiv. li. iii.; _Dumont_, _Souvenirs sur Mirabeau_, p. 176;
+         _Mém. de Du Hausset_, introduc. p. 40; _Mém. de Genlis_, vol.
+         vi. p. 57; _Jefferson's Mem. and Correspond._ vol. i. p. 59; and
+         Maitland's speech, in _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxx. pp. 198, 199; also
+         the remarks of the Duke of Bedford, vol. xxxi. p. 663.
+
+  [1162] _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. i. p. 46. Dumont
+         (_Souvenirs_, p. 97) calls this 'une idée américaine;' and see
+         to the same effect, _Mém. de Lafayette_, vol. i. pp. 193, 268,
+         269, 416, vol. ii. pp. 139, 140; _Jefferson's Correspond._ vol.
+         i. p. 90; _Barruel_, _Hist. du Jacobinisme_, vol. v. p. 311. The
+         influence which the American Revolution exercised over the mind
+         of Lafayette is noticed by Bouillé, his cousin and his enemy.
+         _Mém. de Bouillé_, vol. i. p. 102, vol. ii. pp. 131, 183.
+
+  [1163] 'The Duke of Dorset, the English ambassador, writing to Mr. Pitt
+         from Paris, July 9th, 1789, said, "Mr. Jefferson, the American
+         minister at this court, has been a great deal consulted by the
+         principal leaders of the _tiers état_; and I have great reason
+         to think that it was owing to his advice that order called
+         itself _L'Assemblée Nationale_."' _Tomline's Life of Pitt_,
+         vol. ii. p. 266.
+
+I have now brought to a close my examination of the causes of the French
+Revolution; but before concluding the present chapter, it appears to me
+that the variety of topics which have been discussed, makes it advisable
+that I should sum up their leading points; and should state, as briefly
+as possible, the steps of that long and complicated argument, by which I
+have attempted to prove, that the Revolution was an event inevitably
+arising out of preceding circumstances. Such a summary, by recalling the
+entire subject before the reader, will remedy any confusion which the
+fullness of detail may have produced, and will simplify an investigation
+which many will consider to have been needlessly protracted; but which
+could not have been abridged without weakening, in some essential part,
+the support of those general principles that I seek to establish.
+
+Looking at the state of France immediately after the death of Louis
+XIV., we have seen that, his policy having reduced the country to the
+brink of ruin, and having destroyed every vestige of free inquiry, a
+reaction became necessary; but that the materials for the reaction could
+not be found among a nation, which for fifty years had been exposed to
+so debilitating a system. This deficiency at home, caused the most
+eminent Frenchmen to turn their attention abroad, and gave rise to a
+sudden admiration for the English literature, and for those habits of
+thought which were then peculiar to the English people. New life being
+thus breathed into the wasted frame of French society, an eager and
+inquisitive spirit was generated, such as had not been seen since the
+time of Descartes. The upper classes, taking offence at this unexpected
+movement, attempted to stifle it, and made strenuous efforts to destroy
+that love of inquiry which was daily gaining ground. To effect their
+object, they persecuted literary men with such bitterness, as to make it
+evident that the intellect of France must either relapse into its former
+servility, or else boldly assume the offensive. Happily for the
+interests of civilization, the latter alternative was adopted; and, in
+or about 1750, a deadly struggle began, in which those principles of
+liberty which France borrowed from England, and which had hitherto been
+supposed only applicable to the church, were for the first time applied
+to the state. Coinciding with this movement, and indeed forming part of
+it, other circumstances occurred of the same character. Now it was that
+the political economists succeeded in proving that the interference of
+the governing classes had inflicted great mischief even upon the
+material interests of the country; and had, by their protective
+measures, injured what they were believed to have benefited. This
+remarkable discovery in favour of general freedom, put a fresh weapon
+into the hands of the democratic party; whose strength was still further
+increased by the unrivalled eloquence with which Rousseau assailed the
+existing fabric. Precisely the same tendency was exhibited in the
+extraordinary impulse given to every branch of physical science, which
+familiarized men with ideas of progress, and brought them into collision
+with the stationary and conservative ideas natural to government. The
+discoveries made respecting the external world, encouraged a
+restlessness and excitement of mind hostile to the spirit of routine,
+and therefore full of danger for institutions only recommended by their
+antiquity. This eagerness for physical knowledge also effected a change
+in education; and the ancient languages being neglected, another link
+was severed which connected the present with the past. The church, the
+legitimate protector of old opinions, was unable to resist the passion
+for novelty, because she was weakened by treason in her own camp. For by
+this time, Calvinism had spread so much among the French clergy, as to
+break them into two hostile parties, and render it impossible to rally
+them against their common foe. The growth of this heresy was also
+important, because Calvinism being essentially democratic, a
+revolutionary spirit appeared even in the ecclesiastical profession, so
+that the feud in the church was accompanied by another feud between the
+government and the church. These were the leading symptoms of that vast
+movement which culminated in the French Revolution; and all of them
+indicated a state of society so anarchical and so thoroughly
+disorganized, as to make it certain that some great catastrophe was
+impending. At length, and when everything was ready for explosion, the
+news of the American Rebellion fell like a spark on the inflammatory
+mass, and ignited a flame which never ceased its ravages until it had
+destroyed all that Frenchmen once held dear, and had left for the
+instruction of mankind an awful lesson of the crimes into which
+continued oppression may hurry a generous and long-suffering people.
+
+Such is a rapid outline of the view which my studies have led me to take
+of the causes of the French Revolution. That I have ascertained all the
+causes, I do not for a moment suppose; but it will, I believe, be found
+that none of importance have been omitted. It is, indeed, true, that
+among the materials of which the evidence consists, many deficiencies
+will be seen; and a more protracted labour would have been rewarded by a
+greater success. Of these shortcomings I am deeply sensible; and I can
+only regret that the necessity of passing on to a still larger field has
+compelled me to leave so much for future inquirers to gather in. At the
+same time, it ought to be remembered, that this is the first attempt
+which has ever been made to study the antecedents of the French
+Revolution according to a scheme wide enough to include the whole of
+their intellectual bearings. In defiance of sound philosophy, and, I
+may say, in defiance of common understanding, historians obstinately
+persist in neglecting those great branches of physical knowledge, in
+which in every civilized country the operations of the human mind may be
+most clearly seen, and therefore the mental habits most easily
+ascertained. The result is, that the French Revolution, unquestionably
+the most important, the most complicated, and the most glorious event in
+history, has been given over to authors, many of whom have displayed
+considerable ability, but all of whom have shown themselves destitute of
+that preliminary scientific education, in the absence of which it is
+impossible to seize the spirit of any period, or to take a comprehensive
+survey of its various parts. Thus, to mention only a single instance: we
+have seen that the extraordinary impulse given to the study of the
+external world was intimately connected with that democratic movement
+which overthrew the institutions of France. But this connexion
+historians have been unable to trace; because they were unacquainted
+with the progress of the various branches of natural philosophy and of
+natural history. Hence it is that they have exhibited their great
+subject maimed and mutilated, shorn of those fair proportions which it
+ought to possess. According to this scheme, the historian sinks into the
+annalist; so that, instead of solving a problem, he merely paints a
+picture. Without, therefore, disparaging the labours of those
+industrious men who have collected materials for a history of the French
+Revolution, we may assuredly say, that the history itself has never been
+written; since they who have attempted the task have not possessed such
+resources as would enable them to consider it as merely a single part of
+that far larger movement which was seen in every department of science,
+of philosophy, of religion, and of politics.
+
+Whether or not I have effected anything of real value towards remedying
+this deficiency, is a question for competent judges to decide. Of this,
+at least, I feel certain, that whatever imperfections may be observed,
+the fault consists, not in the method proposed, but in the extreme
+difficulty of any single man putting into full operation all the parts
+of so vast a scheme. It is on this point, and on this alone, that I feel
+the need of great indulgence. But, as to the plan itself, I have no
+misgivings; because I am deeply convinced that the time is fast
+approaching when the history of Man will be placed on its proper
+footing; when its study will be recognized as the noblest and most
+arduous of all pursuits; and when it will be clearly seen, that, to
+cultivate it with success, there is wanted a wide and comprehensive
+mind, richly furnished with the highest branches of human knowledge.
+When this is fully admitted, history will be written only by those whose
+habits fit them for the task; and it will be rescued from the hands of
+biographers, genealogists, collectors of anecdotes, chroniclers of
+courts, of princes, and of nobles,--those babblers of vain things, who
+lie in wait at every corner, and infest this the public highway of our
+national literature. That such compilers should trespass on a province
+so far above their own, and should think that by these means they can
+throw light on the affairs of men, is one of many proofs of the still
+backward condition of our knowledge, and of the indistinctness with
+which its boundaries have been mapped out. If I have done anything
+towards bringing these intrusions into discredit, and inspiring
+historians themselves with a sense of the dignity of their own calling,
+I shall have rendered in my time some little service, and I shall be
+well content to have it said, that in many cases I have failed in
+executing what I originally proposed. Indeed, that there are in this
+volume several instances of such failure, I willingly allow; and I can
+only plead the immensity of the subject, the shortness of a single life,
+and the imperfection of every single enterprise. I, therefore, wish this
+work to be estimated, not according to the finish of its separate parts,
+but according to the way in which those parts have been fused into a
+complete and symmetrical whole. This, in an undertaking of such novelty
+and magnitude, I have a right to expect. And I would, moreover, add,
+that if the reader has met with opinions adverse to his own, he should
+remember that his views are, perchance, the same as those which I too
+once held, and which I have abandoned, because, after a wider range of
+study, I found them unsupported by solid proof, subversive of the
+interests of Man, and fatal to the progress of his knowledge. To examine
+the notions in which we have been educated, and to turn aside from those
+which will not bear the test, is a task so painful, that they who shrink
+from the suffering should pause before they reproach those by whom the
+suffering is undergone. What I have put forward may, no doubt, be
+erroneous; but it is, at all events, the result of an honest searching
+after truth, of unsparing labour, of patient and anxious reflection.
+Conclusions arrived at in this way, are not to be overturned by stating
+that they endanger some other conclusions; nor can they be even affected
+by allegations against their supposed tendency. The principles which I
+advocate, are based upon distinct arguments, supported by
+well-ascertained facts. The only points, therefore, to be ascertained,
+are, whether the arguments are fair, and whether the facts are certain.
+If these two conditions have been obeyed, the principles follow by an
+inevitable inference. Their demonstration is, in the present volume,
+necessarily incomplete; and the reader must suspend his final judgment
+until the close of this Introduction, when the subject in all its
+bearings will be laid before him. The remaining part of the Introduction
+will be occupied, as I have already intimated, with an investigation of
+the civilizations of Germany, America, Scotland, and Spain; each of
+which presents a different type of intellectual development, and has,
+therefore, followed a different direction in its religious, scientific,
+social, and political history. The causes of these differences I shall
+attempt to ascertain. The next step will be to generalize the causes
+themselves; and having thus referred them to certain principles common
+to all, we shall be possessed of what may be called the fundamental laws
+of European thought; the divergence of the different countries being
+regulated either by the direction those laws take, or else by their
+comparative energy. To discover these fundamental laws will be the
+business of the Introduction; while, in the body of the work, I shall
+apply them to the history of England, and endeavour by their aid to work
+out the epochs through which we have successively passed, fix the basis
+of our present civilization, and indicate the path of our future
+progress.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE SPANISH INTELLECT FROM THE FIFTH TO THE
+                    MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+In the preceding chapters, I have endeavoured to establish four leading
+propositions, which, according to my view, are to be deemed the basis of
+the history of civilization. They are: 1st, That the progress of mankind
+depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are
+investigated, and on the extent to which a knowledge of those laws is
+diffused. 2nd, That before such investigation can begin, a spirit of
+scepticism must arise, which, at first aiding the investigation, is
+afterwards aided by it. 3rd, That the discoveries thus made, increase
+the influence of intellectual truths, and diminish, relatively not
+absolutely, the influence of moral truths; moral truths being more
+stationary than intellectual truths, and receiving fewer additions. 4th,
+That the great enemy of this movement, and therefore the great enemy of
+civilization, is the protective spirit; by which I mean the notion that
+society cannot prosper, unless the affairs of life are watched over and
+protected at nearly every turn by the state and the church; the state
+teaching men what they are to do, and the church teaching them what they
+are to believe. Such are the propositions which I hold to be the most
+essential for a right understanding of history, and which I have
+defended in the only two ways any proposition can be defended; namely,
+inductively and deductively. The inductive defence comprises a
+collection of historical and scientific facts, which suggest and
+authorize the conclusions drawn from them; while the deductive defence
+consists of a verification of those conclusions, by showing how they
+explain the history of different countries and their various fortunes.
+To the former, or inductive method of defence, I am at present unable to
+add anything new; but the deductive defence I hope to strengthen
+considerably, and by the aid of the following chapters, confirm not only
+the four cardinal propositions just stated, but also several minor
+propositions, which, though strictly speaking flowing from them, will
+require separate verification. According to the plan already sketched,
+the remaining part of the introduction will contain an examination of
+the history of Spain, of Scotland, of Germany, and of the United States
+of America, with the object of elucidating principles on which the
+history of England supplies inadequate information. And as Spain is the
+country where what I conceive to be the fundamental conditions of
+national improvement have been most flagrantly violated, so also shall
+we find that it is the country where the penalty paid for the violation
+has been most heavy, and where, therefore, it is most instructive to
+ascertain how the prevalence of certain opinions causes the decay of the
+people among whom they predominate.
+
+We have seen that the old tropical civilizations were accompanied by
+remarkable features which I have termed Aspects of Nature, and which, by
+inflaming the imagination, encouraged superstition, and prevented men
+from daring to analyze such threatening physical phenomena; in other
+words, prevented the creation of the physical sciences. Now, it is an
+interesting fact that, in these respects, no European country is so
+analogous to the tropics as Spain. No other part of Europe is so clearly
+designated by nature as the seat and refuge of superstition. Recurring
+to what has been already proved,[1164] it will be remembered that among
+the most important physical causes of superstition are famines,
+epidemics, earthquakes, and that general unhealthiness of climate,
+which, by shortening the average duration of life, increases the
+frequency and earnestness with which supernatural aid is invoked. These
+peculiarities, taken together, are more prominent in Spain than
+anywhere else in Europe; it will therefore be useful to give such a
+summary of them as will exhibit the mischievous effects they have
+produced in shaping the national character.
+
+  [1164] In the second chapter of the first volume of _Buckle's History
+         of Civilization_.
+
+If we except the northern extremity of Spain, we may say that the two
+principal characteristics of the climate are heat and dryness, both of
+which are favoured by the extreme difficulty which nature has interposed
+in regard to irrigation. For, the rivers which intersect the land, run
+mostly in beds too deep to be made available for watering the soil,
+which consequently is, and always has been, remarkably arid.[1165] Owing
+to this, and to the infrequency of rain, there is no European country as
+richly endowed in other respects, where droughts and therefore famines
+have been so frequent and serious.[1166] At the same time the
+vicissitudes of climate, particularly in the central parts, make Spain
+habitually unhealthy; and this general tendency being strengthened in
+the middle ages by the constant occurrence of famine, caused the ravages
+of pestilence to be unusually fatal.[1167] When we moreover add that in
+the Peninsula, including Portugal, earthquakes have been extremely
+disastrous,[1168] and have excited all those superstitious feelings
+which they naturally provoke, we may form some idea of the insecurity of
+life, and of the ease with which an artful and ambitious priesthood
+could turn such insecurity into an engine for the advancement of their
+own power.[1169]
+
+  [1165] 'The low state of agriculture in Spain may be ascribed partly to
+         physical and partly to moral causes. At the head of the former
+         must be placed the heat of the climate and the aridity of the
+         soil. Most part of the rivers with which the country is
+         intersected run in deep beds, and are but little available
+         except in a few favoured localities, for purposes of
+         irrigation.' _M'Culloch's Geographical and Statistical
+         Dictionary_, London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 708. See also _Laborde's
+         Spain_, London, 1809, vol. iv. p. 284, vol. v. p. 261. The
+         relative aridity of the different parts is stated in _Cook's
+         Spain_, London, 1834, vol. ii. pp. 216-219.
+
+  [1166] On these droughts and famines, see _Mariana_, _Historia de
+         España_, Madrid, 1794, vol. ii. p. 270, vol. iii. p. 225, vol.
+         iv. p. 32. _Conde_, _Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en
+         España_, Paris, 1840, pp. 142, 149, 154, 170. _Davila_,
+         _Historia de la Vida de Felipe Tercero_, Madrid, 1771, folio,
+         lib. ii. p. 114. _Clarke's Letters concerning the Spanish
+         Nation_, London, 1763, 4to. p. 282. _Udal ap Rhys' Tour through
+         Spain_, London, 1760, pp. 292, 293. _Spain by an American_,
+         London, 1831, vol. ii. p. 282. _Hoskins' Spain_, London, 1851,
+         vol. i. pp. 127, 132, 152. 'España es castigada frecuentemente
+         con las sequedades y faltas de lluvias.' _Muriel_, _Gobierno de
+         Carlos III._, Madrid, 1839, p. 193.
+
+  [1167] 'Añádase á todo esto las repetidas pestes, y mortales epidemias
+         que han afligido á las provincias de España, mayormente á las
+         meridionales que han sido las mas sujetas á estas plagas. De
+         estas se hace mencion en los anales é historias muy
+         freqüentemente; y en su confirmacion se puede leer el tratado
+         histórico, ó _epidemiológia_ que sobre ellas ha publicado Don
+         Joachîn de Villalba, donde se verá con dolor y espanto con
+         quanta freqüencia se repetian estos azotes desde mediados del
+         siglo décimoquarto.' ... 'Dos exemplos bien recientes y
+         dolorosos hemos visto, y conservaremos en la memoria, en los
+         formidables estragos que acaban de padecer gran parte del reyno
+         de Sevilla, Cádiz, y sus contornos, Málaga, Cartagena, y
+         Alicante; sin contar la mortandad con que han afligido á la
+         mayor parte de los pueblos de ámbas Castillas las epidemias de
+         calenturas pútridas en el año pasado de 1805.' ... 'Por otra
+         parte la fundacion de tantas capillas y procesiones á San Roque,
+         y á San Sebastian, como abogados contre la peste, que todavía se
+         conservan en la mayor parte de nuestras ciudades de España, son
+         otro testimonio de los grandes y repetidos estragos que habian
+         padecido sus pueblos de este azote. Y el gran número de médicos
+         españoles que publicáron tratados preservativos y curativos de
+         la peste en los reynados de Cárlos V., Felipe II., Felipe III.,
+         y Felipe IV., confirman mas la verdad de los hechos.' _Capmany_,
+         _Qüestiones Criticas_, Madrid, 1807, pp. 51, 52; see also pp.
+         66, 67; and _Janer_, _Condicion Social de los Moriscos de
+         España_, Madrid, 1857, pp. 106, 107; and the notice of Malaga in
+         _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de l'Espagne_, Paris, 1808, vol. iii.
+         p. 242.
+
+  [1168] 'Earthquakes are still often felt at Granada and along the coast
+         of the province of Alicante, where their effects have been very
+         disastrous. Much further in the interior, in the small Sierra
+         del Tremédal, or district of Albarracia, in the province of
+         Terruel, eruptions and shocks have been very frequent since the
+         most remote periods; the black porphyry is there seen traversing
+         the altered strata of the oolitic formation. The old inhabitants
+         of the country speak of sinking of the ground and of the escape
+         of sulphureous gases when they were young; these same phenomena
+         have occurred during four consecutive months of the preceding
+         winter, accompanied by earthquakes, which have caused
+         considerable mischief to the buildings of seven villages
+         situated within a radius of two leagues. They have not, however,
+         been attended with any loss of life, on account of the
+         inhabitants hastening to abandon their dwellings at the first
+         indications of danger.' _Ezquerra on the Geology of Spain_, in
+         the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London_,
+         vol. vi. pp. 412, 413, London, 1850. 'The provinces of Malaga,
+         Murcia, and Granada, and, in Portugal, the country round Lisbon,
+         are recorded at several periods to have been devastated, by
+         great earthquakes.' _Lyell's Principles of Geology_, London,
+         1853, p. 358. 'Los terremotos son tan sensibles y freqüentes en
+         lo alto de las montañas, como en lo llano, pues Sevilla está
+         sujeta á ellos hallándose situada sobre una llanura tan igual y
+         baxa como Holanda.' _Bowles_, _Introduccion à la Historia
+         Natural de España_, Madrid, 1789, 4to, pp. 90, 91. 'The littoral
+         plains, especially about Cartagena and Alicante, are much
+         subject to earthquakes.' _Ford's Spain_, 1847, p. 168. 'This
+         corner of Spain is the chief volcanic district of the Peninsula,
+         which stretches from Cabo de Gata to near Cartagena; the
+         earthquakes are very frequent.' _Ford_, p. 174. 'Spain,
+         including Portugal, in its external configuration, with its vast
+         tableland of the two Castiles, rising nearly 2,000 feet above
+         the sea, is perhaps the most interesting portion of Europe, not
+         only in this respect, but as a region of earthquake disturbance,
+         where the energy and destroying power of this agency have been
+         more than once displayed upon the most tremendous scale.'
+         _Mallet's Earthquake Catalogue of the British Association_,
+         Report for 1858, p. 9, London, 1858.
+
+         I quote these passages at length, partly on account of their
+         interest as physical truths, and partly because the facts stated
+         in them are essential for a right understanding of the history
+         of Spain. Their influence on the Spanish character was pointed
+         out, for I believe the first time, in my _History of
+         Civilization_, vol. i. pp. 123, 124. On that occasion, I adduced
+         no evidence to prove the frequency of earthquakes in the
+         Peninsula, because I supposed that all persons moderately
+         acquainted with the physical history of the earth were aware of
+         the circumstance. But, in April 1858, a criticism of my book
+         appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_, in which the serious
+         blunders which I am said to have committed are unsparingly
+         exposed. In p. 468 of that Review, the critic, after warning his
+         readers against my 'inaccuracies,' observes, 'But Mr. Buckle
+         goes on to state that "earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are
+         more frequent and more destructive in Italy, and in the Spanish
+         and Portuguese peninsula, than in any other of the great
+         countries." Whence he infers, by a singular process of
+         reasoning, that superstition is more rife, and the clergy more
+         powerful; but that the fine arts flourish, poetry is cultivated,
+         and the sciences neglected. Every link in this chain is more or
+         less faulty. There is no volcano in the Spanish peninsula, and
+         the only earthquake known to have occurred there was that of
+         Lisbon.' Now, I have certainly no right to expect that a
+         reviewer, composing a popular article for an immediate purpose,
+         and knowing that when his article is read, it will be thrown
+         aside and forgotten, should, under such unfavourable
+         circumstances, be at the pains of mastering all the details of
+         his subject. To look for this would be the height of injustice.
+         He has no interest in being accurate; his name being concealed,
+         his reputation, if he have any, is not at stake; and the errors
+         into which he falls ought to be regarded with leniency, inasmuch
+         as their vehicle being an ephemeral publication, they are not
+         likely to be remembered, and they are therefore not likely to
+         work much mischief.
+
+         These considerations have always prevented me from offering any
+         reply to anonymous criticisms. But the passage in the _Edinburgh
+         Review_, to which I have called attention, displays such
+         marvellous ignorance, that I wish to rescue it from oblivion,
+         and to put it on record as a literary curiosity. The other
+         charges brought against me could, I need hardly say, be refuted
+         with equal ease. Indeed, no reasonable person can possibly
+         suppose that, after years of arduous and uninterrupted study, I
+         should have committed those childish blunders with which my
+         opponents unscrupulously taunt me. Once for all, I may say that
+         I have made no assertion for the truth of which I do not possess
+         ample and irrefragable evidence. But it is impossible for me to
+         arrange and adduce all the proofs at the same time; and, in so
+         vast an enterprise, I must in some degree rely, not on the
+         generosity of the reader, but on his candour. I do not think
+         that I am asking too much in requesting him, if on any future
+         occasion his judgment should be in suspense between me and my
+         critics, to give me the benefit of the doubt, and to bear in
+         mind that statements embodied in a deliberate and
+         slowly-concocted work, authenticated by the author's name, are,
+         as a mere matter of antecedent probability, more likely to be
+         accurate than statements made in reviews and newspapers, which,
+         besides being written hastily, and often at very short notice,
+         are unsigned, and by which, consequently, their promulgators
+         evade all responsibility, avoid all risk, and can, in their own
+         persons, neither gain fame nor incur obloquy.
+
+         The simple fact is, that in Spain there have been more
+         earthquakes than in all other parts of Europe put together,
+         Italy excepted. If the destruction of property and of life
+         produced by this one cause were summed up, the results would be
+         appalling. When we moreover add those alarming shocks, which,
+         though less destructive, are far more frequent, and of which not
+         scores, nor hundreds, but thousands have occurred, and which by
+         increasing the total amount of fear, have to an incalculable
+         extent promoted the growth of superstition, it is evident that
+         such phenomena must have played an important part in forming the
+         national character of the Spaniards. Whoever will take the
+         trouble of consulting the following passages will find decisive
+         proofs of the frightful ravages committed by earthquakes in
+         Spain alone; Portugal being excluded. They all refer to a period
+         of less than two hundred years; the first being in 1639, and the
+         last in 1829. _Lettres de Madame de Villars, Ambassadrice en
+         Espagne_, Amsterdam, 1759, p. 205. _Laborde's Spain_, London,
+         1809, vol. i. p. 169. _Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain_, Edinburgh,
+         1834, vol. ii. pp. 226, 227. _Boisel_, _Journal du Voyage
+         d'Espagne_, Paris, 1669, 4to, p. 243. _Mallet's Earthquake
+         Catalogue of the British Association_, London, 1858; Report for
+         1853, p. 146; for 1854, pp. 26, 27, 54, 55, 57, 58, 65, 110,
+         140, 173, 196, 202. _Swinburne's Travels through Spain_, London,
+         1787, vol. i. p. 166. _Ford's Spain_, London, 1847, p. 178.
+         _Bacon's Six Years in Biscay_, London, 1838, p. 32, compared
+         with _Inglis' Spain_, London, 1831, vol. i. p. 393, vol. ii. p.
+         289-291.
+
+         These authorities narrate the ravages committed during a hundred
+         and ninety years. From their account it is manifest, that in
+         Spain hardly a generation passed by without castles, villages,
+         and towns being destroyed, and men, women, or children killed by
+         earthquakes. But according to our anonymous instructor, it is
+         doubtful if there ever was an earthquake in Spain; for he says
+         of the whole Peninsula, including Portugal, 'the only earthquake
+         known to have occurred there was that of Lisbon.'
+
+  [1169] On the superstitious fears caused by earthquakes in Spain, see a
+         good passage in _Conde_, _Historia de la Dominacion de los
+         Arabes_, p. 155. 'En el año 267, dia jeuves, 22 de la luna de
+         Xawâl, tembló la tierra con tan espantoso ruido y
+         estremecimiento, que cayeron muchos alcazares y magnificos
+         edificios, y otros quedaron muy quebrantados, se hundieron
+         montes, se abrieron peñascos, y la tierra se hundió y tragó
+         pueblos y alturas, el mar se retrajo y apartó de las costas, y
+         desaparecieron islas y escollos en el mar. Las gentes
+         abandonaban los pueblos y huian á los campos, las aves salian de
+         sus nidos, y las fieras espantadas dejaban sus grutas y
+         madrigueras con general turbacion y trastorno; nunca los hombres
+         vieron ni oyeron cosa semejante; se arruinaron muchos pueblos de
+         la costa meridional y occidental de España. Todas estas cosas
+         influyeron tanto en los animos de los hombres, y en especial en
+         la ignorante multitud, que no pudo Almondhir persuadirles que
+         eran cosas naturales, aunque poco frecüentes, que no tenían
+         influjo ni relacion con las obras de los hombres, ni con sus
+         empresas, sino por su ignorancia y vanos temores, que lo mismo
+         temblaba la tierra para los muslimes que para los cristianos,
+         para las fieras que para las inocentes criaturas.' Compare
+         _Geddes' Tracts concerning Spain_, London, 1730, vol. i. p. 89;
+         and Mariana, who, under the year 1395, says (_Historia de
+         España_, vol. v. p. 27): 'Tembló la tierra en Valencia mediado
+         el mes de Diciembre, con que muchos edificios cayéron por
+         tierra, otros quedaron desplomados; que era maravilla y lástima.
+         El pueblo, _como agorero que es, pensaba eran señales del cielo_
+         y pronosticos de los daños que temian .' The history of Spain
+         abounds with similar instances far too numerous to quote or even
+         to refer to. But the subject is so important and has been so
+         misrepresented, that, even at the risk of wearying the reader, I
+         will give one more illustration of the use of earthquakes in
+         fostering Spanish superstition. In 1504 'an earthquake,
+         accompanied by a tremendous hurricane, such as the oldest men
+         did not remember, had visited Andalusia, and especially Carmona,
+         a place belonging to the Queen, and occasioned frightful
+         desolation there.' The superstitious Spaniards now read in these
+         portents _the prophetic signs by which Heaven announces some
+         great calamity. Prayers were put up in every temple,_ &c. &c.
+         _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_, Paris, 1842,
+         vol. iii. p. 174.
+
+Another feature of this singular country is the prevalence of a pastoral
+life, mainly caused by the difficulty of establishing regular habits of
+agricultural industry. In most parts of Spain, the climate renders it
+impossible for the labourer to work the whole of the day;[1170] and this
+forced interruption encourages among the people an irregularity and
+instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering
+avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of
+agriculture.[1171] And during the long and arduous war which they waged
+against their Mohammedan invaders, they were subject to such incessant
+surprises and forays on the part of the enemy, as to make it advisable
+that their means of subsistence should be easily removed; hence they
+preferred the produce of their flocks to that of their lands, and were
+shepherds instead of agriculturists, simply because by that means they
+would suffer less in case of an unfavourable issue. Even after the
+capture of Toledo, late in the eleventh century, the inhabitants of the
+frontier in Estramadura, La Mancha, and New Castile, were almost
+entirely herdsmen, and their cattle were pastured not in private meadows
+but in the open fields.[1172] All this increased the uncertainty of
+life, and strengthened that love of adventure, and that spirit of
+romance, which, at a later period, gave a tone to the popular
+literature. Under such circumstances, everything grew precarious,
+restless, and unsettled; thought and inquiry were impossible; doubt was
+unknown; and the way was prepared for those superstitious habits, and
+for that deep-rooted and tenacious belief, which have always formed a
+principal feature in the history of the Spanish nation.
+
+  [1170] _Buckle's History of Civilization_, vol. i. p. 43. See also
+         _Laborde's Spain_, vol. iv. p. 42.
+
+  [1171] A writer early in the eighteenth century notices 'el gran numero
+         de pastores que hay.' _Uztariz_, _Theorica y Practica de
+         Comercio_, 3rd ed. Madrid, 1757, folio p. 20. As to the Arabic
+         period, see _Conde_, _Historia de la Dominacion_, p. 244:
+         'Muchos pueblos, siguiendo su natural inclinacion, se entregaron
+         á la ganaderia .' Hence 'the wandering life so congenial to the
+         habits of the Spanish peasantry,' noticed in _Cook's Spain_,
+         vol. i. p. 85, where, however, the connexion between this and
+         the physical constitution of the country is not indicated. The
+         solution is given by Mr. Ticknor with his usual accuracy and
+         penetration: 'The climate and condition of the Peninsula, which
+         from a very remote period had favoured the shepherd's life and
+         his pursuits, facilitated, no doubt, if they did not occasion,
+         the first introduction into Spanish poetry of a pastoral tone,
+         whose echoes are heard far back among the old ballads.' ...
+         'From the Middle Ages the occupations of a shepherd's life had
+         prevailed in Spain and Portugal to a greater extent than
+         elsewhere in Europe; and, probably, in consequence of this
+         circumstance, eclogues and bucolics were early known in the
+         poetry of both countries, and became connected in both with the
+         origin of the popular drama.' _Ticknor's History of Spanish
+         Literature_, London, 1849, vol. iii. pp. 9, 36. On the pastoral
+         literature of Spain, see _Bouterwek's History of Spanish
+         Literature_, London, 1823, vol. i. pp. 123-129; and on the great
+         number of pastoral romances, _Southey's Letters from Spain_,
+         Bristol, 1799, p. 336. But these writers, not seizing the whole
+         question, have failed to observe the relation between the
+         literary, physical, and social phenomena.
+
+  [1172] See the memoir by Jovellanos, in _Laborde's Spain_, vol. iv.
+         p. 127. This was the necessary consequence of those vindictive
+         attacks by which, for several centuries, both Mohammedans and
+         Christians seemed resolved to turn Spain into a desert; ravaging
+         each other's fields, and destroying every crop they could meet
+         with. _Conde_, _Dominacion de los Arabes_, pp. 75, 188, 278,
+         346, 396, 417, 418, 471, 499, 500, 505, 523, 539, 544, 551, 578,
+         645, 651, 658. To quote one of these instances, late in the
+         eleventh century: 'La constancia de Alfonso ben Ferdeland en
+         hacer entradas y talas en tierra de Toledo dos veces cada año,
+         fué tanta que empobreció y apuró los pueblos;' ... 'el tirano
+         Alfonso taló y quemó los campos y los pueblos.' _Conde_, p. 346.
+         As such havoc, which was continued with few interruptions for
+         about seven hundred years, has done much towards forming the
+         national character of the Spaniards, it may be worth while to
+         refer to _Mariana_, _Historia de España_, vol. iii. p. 438, vol.
+         iv. pp. 193, 314, vol. v. pp. 92, 317, 337; and to _Circourt_,
+         _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_, Paris, 1846, vol. i. p. 99.
+
+To what extent these circumstances would, if they stood by themselves,
+have affected the ultimate destiny of Spain, is a question hardly
+possible to answer; but there can be no doubt that their effects must
+always have been important, though, from the paucity of evidence, we are
+unable to measure them with precision. In regard, however, to the actual
+result, this point is of little moment, because a long chain of other
+and still more influential events became interwoven with those just
+mentioned, and, tending in precisely the same direction, produced a
+combination which nothing could resist, and from which we may trace with
+unerring certainty the steps by which the nation subsequently declined.
+The history of the causes of the degradation of Spain will indeed become
+too clear to be mistaken, if studied in reference to those general
+principles which I have enunciated, and which will themselves be
+confirmed by the light they throw on this instructive though melancholy
+subject.
+
+After the subversion of the Roman Empire, the first leading fact in the
+history of Spain is the settlement of the Visigoths, and the
+establishment of their opinions in the Peninsula. They, as well as the
+Suevi, who immediately preceded them, were Arians, and Spain during a
+hundred and fifty years became the rallying point of that famous
+heresy,[1173] to which indeed most of the Gothic tribes then adhered.
+But, at the end of the fifth century, the Franks, on their conversion
+from Paganism, adopted the opposite and orthodox creed, and were
+encouraged by their clergy to make war upon their heretical neighbours.
+Clovis, who was then king of the Franks, was regarded by the church as
+the champion of the faith, in whose behalf he attacked the unbelieving
+Visigoths.[1174] His successors, moved by the same motives, pursued the
+same policy;[1175] and, during nearly a century, there was a war of
+opinions between France and Spain, by which the Visigothic Empire was
+seriously endangered, and was more than once on the verge of
+dissolution. Hence, in Spain, a war for national independence became
+also a war for national religion,[1176] and an intimate alliance was
+formed between the Arian kings and the Arian clergy. The latter class
+were, in those ages of ignorance, sure to gain by such a compact,[1177]
+and they received considerable temporal advantages in return for the
+prayers which they offered up against the enemy, as also for the
+miracles which they occasionally performed. Thus early a foundation was
+laid for the immense influence which the Spanish priesthood have
+possessed ever since, and which was strengthened by subsequent events.
+For, late in the sixth century, the Latin clergy converted their
+Visigothic masters, and the Spanish government, becoming orthodox,
+naturally conferred upon its teachers an authority equal to that wielded
+by the Arian hierarchy.[1178] Indeed, the rulers of Spain, grateful to
+those who had shown them the error of their ways, were willing rather to
+increase the power of the church than to diminish it. The clergy took
+advantage of this disposition; and the result was, that before the
+middle of the seventh century the spiritual classes possessed more
+influence in Spain than in any other part of Europe.[1179] The
+ecclesiastical synods became not only councils of the church, but also
+parliaments of the realm.[1180] At Toledo, which was then the capital of
+Spain, the power of the clergy was immense, and was so ostentatiously
+displayed, that in a council they held there in the year 633, we find
+the king literally prostrating himself on the ground before the
+bishops;[1181] and half a century later, the ecclesiastical historian
+mentions that this humiliating practice was repeated by another king,
+having become, he says, an established custom.[1182] That this was not a
+mere meaningless ceremony, is moreover evident from other and analogous
+facts. Exactly the same tendency is seen in their jurisprudence; since,
+by the Visigothic code, any layman, whether plaintiff or defendant,
+might insist on his cause being tried not by the temporal magistrate,
+but by the bishop of the diocese. Nay, even if both parties to the suit
+were agreed in preferring the civil tribunal, the bishop still retained
+the power of revoking the decision, if in his opinion it was incorrect;
+and it was his especial business to watch over the administration of
+justice, and to instruct the magistrates how to perform their
+duty.[1183] Another, and more painful proof of the ascendency of the
+clergy, is that the laws against heretics were harsher in Spain than in
+any other country; the Jews in particular being persecuted with
+unrelenting rigour.[1184] Indeed, the desire of upholding the faith was
+strong enough to produce a formal declaration that no sovereign should
+be acknowledged, unless he promised to preserve its purity; the judges
+of the purity being of course the bishops themselves, to whose suffrage
+the king owed his throne.[1185]
+
+  [1173] The unsettled chronology of the early history of Spain appears
+         from the different statements of various writers respecting the
+         duration of Arianism, a point of much more importance than the
+         death and accession of kings. Antequera (_Historia de la
+         Legislacion Española_, Madrid, 1849, p. 37) says, 'La secta
+         Arriana, pues, segun las epocas fijadas, permaneció en España
+         125 años;' Fleury (_Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. vii. p. 586,
+         Paris, 1758) says 'environ 180 ans;' and M'Crie, generally well
+         informed, says in his _History of the Reformation in Spain_,
+         Edinburgh, 1829, p. 7, 'Arianism was the prevailing and
+         established creed of the country for nearly two centuries:' for
+         this, he refers to Gregory of Tours. With good reason,
+         therefore, does M. Fauriel term it 'une question qui souffre des
+         difficultés.' See his able work, _Histoire de la Gaule
+         Méridionale_, Paris, 1836, vol. i. p. 10.
+
+  [1174] In 496, the orthodox clergy looked on Clovis as 'un champion
+         qu'il peut opposer aux hérétiques visigoths et burgondes.'
+         _Fauriel_, _Histoire de la Gaule Méridionale_, vol. ii. p. 41.
+         They also likened him to Gideon, p. 66. Compare _Fleury_,
+         _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. vii. pp. 89, 90. Ortiz is so
+         enthusiastic that he forgets his patriotism, and warmly praises
+         the ferocious barbarian who made war, indeed, on his country,
+         but still whose speculative opinions were supposed to be sound.
+         'Mientras Alarico desfogaba su encono contra los Católicos, tuvo
+         la Iglesia Galicana el consuelo de ver Católico á su gran Rey
+         Clodoveo. Era el único Monarca del mundo que á la sazón
+         profesaba la Religion verdadera.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio de la
+         Historia de España_, vol. ii. p. 96, Madrid, 1796.
+
+  [1175] Thus, in 531, Childebert marched against the Visigoths, because
+         they were Arians. _Fauriel_, _Histoire de la Gaule Méridionale_,
+         vol. ii. p. 131; and in 542, Childebert and Clotaire made
+         another attack, and laid siege to Saragossa, p. 142. 'No
+         advertian los Godos lo que su falsa creencia les perjudicaba, y
+         si lo advertian, su obcecacion les hacia no poner remedio. Los
+         reyes francos, que eran católicos, les movian guerras en las
+         Galias por arrianos, y los obispos católicos de la misma Galia
+         gótica deseaban la dominacion de los francos.' _Lafuente_,
+         _Historia de España_, vol. ii. p. 380, Madrid, 1850.
+
+  [1176] 'Los Francos por el amor que tenian á la Religion Cathólica, que
+         poco antes abrazaran, aborrecian á los Visigodos como gente
+         inficionada de la secta Arriana.' _Mariana_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. ii. p. 43. And of one of their great battles he
+         says, p. 46, 'vulgarmente se llamó el campo Arriano por causa de
+         la religion que los Godos seguian.'
+
+  [1177] 'En religion et en croyance, comme en toute chose, les Visigoths
+         se montrèrent plus sérieux, plus profonds, plus tenaces que les
+         Burgondes. J'ai dit ailleurs comment ils étaient devenus presque
+         en même temps chrétiens et ariens. Transplantés en Gaule et en
+         Espagne, non-seulement ils avaient persévéré dans leur hérésie;
+         ils s'y étaient affermis, affectionnés, et dans le peu que
+         l'histoire laisse apercevoir de leur clergé, on s'assure qu'il
+         était austère, zélé, et qu'il exerçait un grand empire sur les
+         chefs comme sur la masse de la nation visigothe.' ... 'Les rois
+         visigoths se croyaient obligés à de grandes démonstrations de
+         respect pour leur clergé arien.' _Fauriel_, _Histoire de la
+         Gaule Méridionale_, vol. i. pp. 577, 578.
+
+  [1178] The abjuration of Recared took place between the years 586 and
+         589. _Dunham's History of Spain and Portugal_, London, 1832,
+         vol. i. pp. 126-128. _Mariana_, _Historia de España_, vol. ii.
+         pp. 99-101. _Ortiz_, _Compendio de la Historia de España_, vol.
+         ii. p. 120. _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. ii. pp.
+         360-363; and says Lafuente, p. 384, 'Recaredo fué el primero que
+         con todo el ardor de un neófito, comenzó en el tercer concilio
+         toledano à dar a estas asambleas conocimiento y decision en
+         negocios pertenecientes al gobierno temporal de los pueblos.'
+         Similarly, Antequera (_Historia de la Legislación_, p. 31) is
+         happy to observe that 'Recaredo abjuró la heregia arriana,
+         abrazó decididamente la religion de Jesu-Cristo, _y concedió à
+         los ministros de la Iglesia una influencia en el gobierno del
+         Estado, que vino à ser en adelante, ilimitada y absoluta_.'
+
+  [1179] 'As for the councils held under the Visigoth kings of Spain
+         during the seventh century, it is not easy to determine whether
+         they are to be considered as ecclesiastical or temporal
+         assemblies. No kingdom was so thoroughly under the bondage of
+         the hierarchy as Spain.' _Hallam's Middle Ages_, edit. 1846,
+         vol. i. p. 511. 'Les prêtres étaient les seuls qui avaient
+         conservé et même augmenté leur influence dans la monarchie
+         goth-espagnole.' _Sempere_, _Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne_,
+         Bordeaux, 1815, p. 19. Compare _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_,
+         vol. ii. p. 368, on 'la influencia y preponderancia del clero,
+         no ya solo en los negocios eclesiásticos, sino tambien en los
+         políticos y de estado.'
+
+  [1180] 'But it is in Spain, after the Visigoths had cast off their
+         Arianism, that the bishops more manifestly influence the whole
+         character of the legislation. The synods of Toledo were not
+         merely national councils, but parliaments of the realm.'
+         _Milman's History of Latin Christianity_, London, 1854, vol. i.
+         p. 380. See also _Antequera_, _Historia de la Legislación
+         Española_, pp. 41, 42.
+
+  [1181] In 633, at a council of Toledo, the king 's'étant prosterné á
+         terre devant les évêques.' _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_,
+         vol. viii. p. 308, Paris, 1758.
+
+  [1182] In 688, at a council of Toledo, 'le roi Egica y étoit en
+         personne; et après s'être prosterné devant les évêques, _suivant
+         la coutume_, il fit lire un mémoire où il leur demandoit
+         conseil,' &c. _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. ix.
+         p. 89, Paris, 1758.
+
+  [1183] See a short but admirable summary of this part of the Visigothic
+         code in _Dunham's History of Spain_, vol. iv. pp. 77, 78;
+         perhaps the best history in the English language of a foreign
+         modern country. 'In Spain, the bishops had a special charge to
+         keep continual watch over the administration of justice, and
+         were summoned on all great occasions to instruct the judges to
+         act with piety and justice.' _Milman's History of Latin
+         Christianity_, 1854, vol. i. p. 386. The council of Toledo, in
+         633, directs bishops to admonish judges. _Fleury_, _Histoire
+         Ecclésiastique_, vol. viii. p. 313; and a learned Spanish
+         lawyer, Sempere, says of the bishops, 'Le code du _Fuero Juzgo_
+         fut leur ouvrage; les juges étaient sujets à leur juridiction;
+         les plaideurs, grevés par la sentence des juges, pouvaient se
+         plaindre aux évêques, et ceux-ci évoquer ainsi leurs arrêts, les
+         réformer, et châtier les magistrats. Les procureurs du roi,
+         comme les juges, étaient obligés de se présenter aux synodes
+         diocésains annuels, pour apprendre des ecclésiastiques
+         l'administration de la justice; enfin le gouvernement des Goths
+         n'était qu'une monarchie théocratique.' _Sempere_, _Monarchie
+         Espagnole_, Paris, 1826, vol. i. p. 6, vol. ii. pp. 212-214.
+
+  [1184] 'The terrible laws against heresy, and the atrocious juridical
+         persecutions of the Jews, already designate Spain as the throne
+         and centre of merciless bigotry.' _Milman's History of Latin
+         Christianity_, vol. i. p. 381. 'Tan luego como la religion
+         católica se halló dominando en el trono y en el pueblo,
+         comenzaron los concilianos toledanos á dictar disposiciones
+         canónicas y á prescribir castigos contra los idolatras, contra
+         los judios, y contra los hereges.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. ix. pp. 199-200. See also p. 214, and vol. ii. pp.
+         406, 407, 451. _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_,
+         vol. i. pp. 235, 236. _Johnston's Institutes of the Civil Law of
+         Spain_, p. 262. _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_,
+         vol. i. pp. 260, 261; and _Southey's Chronicle of the Cid_, p.
+         18. I particularly indicate these passages, on account of the
+         extraordinary assertion of Dr. M'Crie, that 'on a review of
+         criminal proceedings in Spain anterior to the establishment of
+         the court of Inquisition, it appears in general that heretics
+         were more mildly treated there than in other countries.'
+         _M'Crie's_ _History of the Reformation in Spain_, p. 83, the
+         best book on the Spanish Protestants.
+
+  [1185] A council of Toledo in 638 orders, 'qu'à l'avenir aucun roi ne
+         montera sur le trône qu'il ne promette de conserver la foi
+         catholique;' and at another council in 681, 'le roi y présenta
+         un écrit par lequel il prioit les évêques de lui assurer le
+         royaume, qu'il tenoit de leurs suffrages.' _Fleury_, _Histoire
+         Ecclésiastique_, vol. viii. p. 339, vol. ix. p. 70.
+
+Such were the circumstances which, in and before the seventh century,
+secured to the Spanish Church an influence unequalled in any other part
+of Europe.[1186] Early in the eighth century, an event occurred which
+apparently broke up and dispersed the hierarchy, but which in reality
+was extremely favourable to them. In 711 the Mohammedans sailed from
+Africa, landed in the south of Spain, and in the space of three years
+conquered the whole country, except the almost inaccessible regions of
+the north-west. The Spaniards, secure in their native mountains,[1187]
+soon recovered heart, rallied their forces, and began in their turn to
+assail the invaders. A desperate struggle ensued, which lasted nearly
+eight centuries, and in which, a second time in the history of Spain, a
+war for independence was also a war for religion; the contest between
+Arabian Infidels and Spanish Christians, succeeding that formerly
+carried on between the Trinitarians of France and the Arians of Spain.
+Slowly, and with infinite difficulty, the Christians fought their way.
+By the middle of the ninth century, they reached the line of the
+Douro.[1188] Before the close of the eleventh century, they conquered as
+far as the Tagus, and Toledo, their ancient capital, fell into their
+hands in 1085.[1189] Even then much remained to be done. In the south,
+the struggle assumed its deadliest form, and there it was prolonged with
+such obstinacy, that it was not until the capture of Malaga in 1487, and
+of Granada in 1492, that the Christian empire was re-established, and
+the old Spanish monarchy finally restored.[1190]
+
+  [1186] Those happy times have received the warm applause of a modern
+         theologian, because in them the church, 'ha opuesto un muro de
+         bronce al error;' and because there existed 'la mas estrecha
+         concordia entre el imperio y el sacerdocio, por cuyo inestimable
+         beneficio debemos hacer incesantes votos.' _Observaciones sobre
+         El Presente y El Porvenir de la Iglesia en España_, _por Domingo
+         Costa y Borras_, _Obispo de Barcelona_, Barcelona, 1857, pp. 73,
+         75.
+
+  [1187] To which they fled with a speed which caused their great enemy,
+         Muza, to pass upon them a somewhat ambiguous eulogy. 'Dijo, son
+         leones en sus castillos, aguilas en sus caballos, y mugeres en
+         sus escuadrones de á pié; pero si ven la ocasion la saben
+         aprovechar, y cuando quedan vencidos son cabras en escapar á los
+         montes, que no ven la tierra que pisan.' _Conde_, _Historia de
+         la Dominacion de los Arabes_, p. 30.
+
+  [1188] _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. i.
+         pp. xxxviii. 287. Lafuente (_Historia de España_, vol. iii.
+         p. 363) marks the epoch rather indistinctly, 'basta ya el
+         Duero.' Compare _Florez_, _Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas_,
+         Madrid, 4to, 1761, vol. i. p. 68.
+
+  [1189] There is a spirited account of its capture in _Mariana's Historia
+         de España_, vol. ii. pp. 506-513; after which Ortiz (_Compendio
+         de la Historia_, vol. iii. p. 156) and Lafuente (_Historia
+         General_, vol. iv. pp. 236-242) are rather tame. The Mohammedan
+         view of this, the first decisive blow to their cause, will be
+         found in _Conde_, _Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes_, p.
+         347. 'Asi se perdió aquella ínclita ciudad, y acabó el reino de
+         Toledo con grave pérdida del Islam.' The Christian view is that
+         'concedió Dios al Rey la conquista de aquella capital.'
+         _Florez_, _Reynas Catholicas_, vol. i. p. 165.
+
+  [1190] _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes_, vol. i. pp. 313, 349. _Conde_,
+         _Dominacion de los Arabes_, pp. 656, 664. _Ortiz_, _Compendio_,
+         vol. v. pp. 509, 561. _Lafuente_, _Historia_, vol. ix. pp. 341,
+         399.
+
+The effect of all this on the Spanish character was most remarkable.
+During eight successive centuries, the whole country was engaged in a
+religious crusade; and those holy wars which other nations occasionally
+waged, were, in Spain, prolonged and continued for more than twenty
+generations.[1191] The object being not only to regain a territory, but
+also to re-establish a creed, it naturally happened that the expounders
+of that creed assumed a prominent and important position. In the camp,
+and in the council-chamber, the voice of ecclesiastics was heard and
+obeyed; for as the war aimed at the propagation of Christianity, it
+seemed right that her ministers should play a conspicuous part in a
+matter which particularly concerned them.[1192] The danger to which the
+country was exposed being moreover very imminent, those superstitious
+feelings were excited which danger is apt to provoke, and to which, as I
+have elsewhere shown,[1193] the tropical civilizations owed some of
+their leading peculiarities. Scarcely were the Spanish Christians driven
+from their homes and forced to take refuge in the north, when this great
+principle began to operate. In their mountainous retreat, they preserved
+a chest filled with relics of the saints, the possession of which they
+valued as their greatest security.[1194] This was to them a national
+standard, round which they rallied, and by the aid of which they gained
+miraculous victories over their infidel opponents. Looking upon
+themselves as soldiers of the cross, their minds became habituated to
+supernatural considerations to an extent which we can now hardly
+believe, and which distinguished them in this respect from every other
+European nation.[1195] Their young men saw visions, and their old men
+dreamed dreams.[1196] Strange sights were vouchsafed to them from
+heaven; on the eve of a battle mysterious portents appeared; and it was
+observed that whenever the Mohammedans violated the tomb of a Christian
+saint, thunder and lightning were sent to rebuke the misbelievers, and,
+if need be, to punish their audacious invasion.[1197]
+
+  [1191] 'According to the magnificent style of the Spanish historians,
+         eight centuries of almost uninterrupted warfare elapsed, and
+         three thousand seven hundred battles were fought, before the
+         last of the Moorish kingdoms in Spain submitted to the Christian
+         arms.' _Robertson's Charles V._ by Prescott, London, 1857, p.
+         65. 'En nuestra misma España, en Leon y Castilla, en esta nueva
+         Tierra Santa, donde se sostenia una cruzada perpétua y constante
+         contra los infieles, donde se mantenía en todo su fervor el
+         espiritu á la vez religioso y guerrero.' _Lafuente_, _Historia
+         de España_, vol. v. p. 293. 'Era España theatro de una continua
+         guerra contra los enemigos de la Fe.' _Florez_, _Reynas
+         Catholicas_, vol. i. p. 226. 'El glorioso empeño de exterminar á
+         los enemigos de la Fe.' p. 453. 'Esta guerra sagrada.' Vol. ii.
+         p. 800. 'Se armaron nuestros Reyes Cathólicos, con zelo y animo
+         alentado del cielo; y como la causa era de Religion para
+         ensanchar los Dominios de la Fe, sacrificaron todas las fuerzas
+         del Reyno, y sus mismas personas.' p. 801. What was called the
+         Indulgence of the Crusade was granted by the Popes 'aux
+         Espagnols qui combattoient contre les Mores.' _Fleury_,
+         _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. xviii. p. xxi., vol. xix. pp.
+         158, 458, vol. xxi. p. 171.
+
+  [1192] 'En aquellos tiempos [y duró hasta todo el siglo xv. y toma de
+         Granada] eran los obispos los primeros capitanes de los
+         exércitos.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. iii. p. 189. 'Los
+         prelados habían sido siempre los primeros no solo en promover la
+         guerra contra Moros, sino á presentarse en campaña con todo su
+         poder y esfuerzo, animando á los demas con las palabras y el
+         exemplo.' Vol. v. pp. 507, 508.
+
+  [1193] _History of Civilization_, vol. i. pp. 121-130.
+
+  [1194] 'Les chrétiens avoient apporté dans les Asturies une arche ou
+         coffre plein de reliques, qu'ils regardèrent depuis comme la
+         sauve-garde de leur état.' ... 'Elle fut emportée et mise enfin
+         à Oviedo, comme le lieu le plus sûr entre ces montagnes, Père
+         773, l'an 775.' _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. ix. p.
+         190. This 'arca llena de reliquias' was taken to the Asturias in
+         714. _Mariana_, _Historia de España_, vol. ii. p. 227; and,
+         according to Ortiz (_Compendio_, vol. ii. p. 182), it was 'un
+         tesoro inestimable de sagradas reliquias.' See also _Geddes'
+         Tracts concerning Spain_, vol. ii. p. 237, London, 1730; and
+         _Ford's Spain_, 1847, p. 388.
+
+  [1195] 'But no people ever felt themselves to be so absolutely soldiers
+         of the cross as the Spaniards did, from the time of their
+         Moorish wars; no people ever trusted so constantly to the
+         recurrence of miracles in the affairs of their daily life; and
+         therefore no people ever talked of Divine things as of matters
+         in their nature so familiar and common-place. Traces of this
+         state of feeling and character are to be found in Spanish
+         literature on all sides.' _Ticknor's History of Spanish
+         Literature_, vol. ii. p. 333. Compare _Bouterwek's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. i. pp. 105, 106; and the account of
+         the battle of las Navas in _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes
+         d'Espagne_, vol. i. p. 153: 'On voulait trouver partout des
+         miracles.' Some of the most startling of these miracles may be
+         found in _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. v. p. 227; in
+         _Mariana_, _Historia de España_, vol. ii. pp. 378, 395, vol.
+         iii. p. 338; and in _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. iii. p. 248,
+         vol. iv. p. 22.
+
+  [1196] One of the most curious of these prophetic dreams is preserved in
+         _Conde_, _Dominación de los Arabes_, pp. 378, 379, with its
+         interpretation by the theologians. They were for the most part
+         fulfilled. In 844 'El Apóstol Santiago, según que lo prometiera
+         al Rey, fué visto en un caballo blanco, y con una bandera blanca
+         y en medio della una cruz roxa, que capitaneaba nuestra gente.'
+         _Mariana_, _Historia de España_, vol. ii. pp. 310, 311. In 957
+         'El Apóstol Santiago fué visto entre las hacas dar la victoria à
+         los fieles,' p. 382. In 1236 'Publicóse por cierto que San Jorge
+         ayudó á los Christianos, y que se halló en la pelea.' Vol. iii.
+         p. 323. On the dreams which foreshadowed these appearances, see
+         _Mariana_, vol. ii. pp. 309, 446, vol. iii. pp. 15, 108.
+
+  [1197] 'Priests mingle in the council and the camp, and, arrayed in
+         their sacerdotal robes, not unfrequently led the armies to
+         battle. They interpreted the will of Heaven as mysteriously
+         revealed in dreams and visions. Miracles were a familiar
+         occurrence. The violated tombs of the saints sent forth thunders
+         and lightnings to consume the invaders.' _Prescott's History of
+         Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. i. p. 39. In the middle of the
+         ninth century, there happened the following event: 'En lo mas
+         cruel de los tormentos' [to which the Christians were exposed]
+         'subió Abderramen un dia á las azuteas ó galerias de su Palacio.
+         Descubrió desde alli los cuerpos de los Santos martirizados en
+         los patíbulos y atravesados con los palos, mandó los quemasen
+         todos para que no quedase reliquia. Cumplióse luego la órden:
+         pero aquel impio probó bien presto los rigores de la venganza
+         divina que volvía por la sangre derramada de sus Santos.
+         Improvisamente se le pegó la lengua al paladar y fauces;
+         cerrósele la boca, y no pudo pronunciar una palabra, ni dar un
+         gemido. Conduxeronle, sus criados á la cama, murió aquella misma
+         noche, y antes de apagarse las hoguerasen que ardian los santos
+         cuerpos, entró la infeliz alma de Abderramen en los eternos
+         fuegos del infierno.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. iii. p. 52.
+
+Under circumstances like these, the clergy could not fail to extend
+their influence; or, we may rather say, the course of events extended it
+for them. The Spanish Christians, pent up for a considerable time in the
+mountains of Asturias, and deprived of their former resources, quickly
+degenerated, and soon lost the scanty civilization to which they had
+attained. Stripped of all their wealth, and confined to what was
+comparatively a barren region, they relapsed into barbarism, and
+remained, for at least a century, without arts, or commerce, or
+literature.[1198] As their ignorance increased, so also did their
+superstition; while this last, in its turn, strengthened the authority
+of their priests. The order of affairs, therefore, was very natural. The
+Mohammedan invasion made the Christians poor; poverty caused ignorance;
+ignorance caused credulity; and credulity, depriving men both of the
+power and of the desire to investigate for themselves, encouraged a
+reverential spirit, and confirmed those submissive habits, and that
+blind obedience to the Church, which form the leading and most
+unfortunate peculiarity of Spanish history.
+
+  [1198] Circourt (_Histoire des Arabes_, vol. i. p. 5) says, 'Les
+         chrétiens qui ne voulurent pas se soumettre furent rejetés dans
+         les incultes ravins des Pyrénées, où ils purent se maintenir
+         comme les bêtes fauves se maintiennent dans les forêts.' But the
+         most curious account of the state of the Spanish Christians in
+         the last half of the eighth century, and in the first half of
+         the ninth, will be found in _Conde_, _Historia de la
+         Dominacion_, pp. 95, 125. 'Referian de estos pueblos de Galicia
+         que son cristianos, y de los mas bravos de Afranc; pero que
+         viven como fieras, que nunca lavan sus cuerpos ni vestidos, que
+         no se los mudan, y los llevan puestos hasta que se los caen
+         despedazados en andrajos, que entran unos en las casas de otros
+         sin pedir licencia.' ... In A.D. 815, 'no habia guerra sino
+         contra cristianos por mantener frontera, y no con deseo de
+         ampliar y extender los limites del reino, ni por esperanza de
+         sacar grandes riquezas, por ser los cristianos gente pobre de
+         montaña, sin saber nada de comercio ni de buenas artes.'
+
+From this it appears, that there were three ways in which the Mohammedan
+invasion strengthened the devotional feelings of the Spanish people. The
+first way was by promoting a long and obstinate religious war; the
+second was by the presence of constant and imminent dangers; and the
+third way was by the poverty, and therefore the ignorance, which it
+produced among the Christians.
+
+These events being preceded by the great Arian war, and being
+accompanied and perpetually reinforced by those physical phenomena which
+I have indicated as tending in the same direction, worked with such
+combined and accumulative energy, that in Spain the theological element
+became not so much a component of the national character, but rather the
+character itself. The ablest and most ambitious of the Spanish kings
+were compelled to follow in the general wake; and, despots though they
+were, they succumbed to that pressure of opinions which they believed
+they were controlling. The war with Granada, late in the fifteenth
+century, was theological far more than temporal; and Isabella, who made
+the greatest sacrifices in order to conduct it, and who in capacity as
+well as in honesty was superior to Ferdinand, had for her object not so
+much the acquisition of territory as the propagation of the Christian
+faith.[1199] Indeed, any doubts which could be entertained respecting
+the purpose of the contest must have been dissipated by subsequent
+events. For, scarcely was the war brought to a close, when Ferdinand and
+Isabella issued a decree expelling from the country every Jew who
+refused to deny his faith; so that the soil of Spain might be no longer
+polluted by the presence of unbelievers.[1200] To make them Christians,
+or, failing in that, to exterminate them, was the business of the
+Inquisition, which was established in the same reign, and which before
+the end of the fifteenth century was in full operation.[1201] During the
+sixteenth century, the throne was occupied by two princes of eminent
+ability, who pursued a similar course. Charles V., who succeeded
+Ferdinand in 1516, governed Spain for forty years, and the general
+character of his administration was the same as that of his
+predecessors. In regard to his foreign policy, his three principal wars
+were against France, against the German princes, and against Turkey. Of
+these, the first was secular; but the two last were essentially
+religious. In the German war, he defended the church against innovation;
+and at the battle of Muhlberg, he so completely humbled the Protestant
+princes, as to retard for some time the progress of the
+Reformation.[1202] In his other great war, he, as the champion of
+Christianity against Mohammedanism, consummated what his grandfather
+Ferdinand had begun. Charles defeated and dislodged the Mohammedans in
+the east, just as Ferdinand had done in the west; the repulse of the
+Turks before Vienna being to the sixteenth century what the conquest of
+the Arabs of Granada was to the fifteenth.[1203] It was, therefore, with
+reason that Charles, at the close of his career, could boast that he had
+always preferred his creed to his country, and that the first object of
+his ambition had been to maintain the interests of Christianity.[1204]
+The zeal with which he struggled for the faith, also appears in his
+exertions against heresy in the Low Countries. According to contemporary
+and competent authorities, from fifty thousand to a hundred thousand
+persons were put to death in the Netherlands during his reign on account
+of their religious opinions.[1205] Later inquirers have doubted the
+accuracy of this statement,[1206] which is probably exaggerated; but we
+know that, between 1520 and 1550, he published a series of laws, to the
+effect that those who were convicted of heresy should be beheaded, or
+burned alive, or buried alive. The penalties were thus various, to meet
+the circumstances of each case. Capital punishment, however, was always
+to be inflicted on whoever bought an heretical book, or sold it, or even
+copied it for his own use.[1207] His last advice to his son, well
+accorded with these measures. Only a few days before his death, he
+signed a codicil to his will, recommending that no favour should ever be
+shown to heretics; that they should all be put to death; and that care
+should be taken to uphold the Inquisition, as the best means of
+accomplishing so desirable an end.[1208]
+
+  [1199] 'Isabella may be regarded as the soul of this war. She engaged in
+         it with the most exalted views, less to acquire territory than
+         to reëstablish the empire of the Cross over the ancient domain
+         of Christendom.' _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_,
+         vol. i. p. 392. Compare _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_,
+         vol. xxiii. p. 583, 'bannir de toute l'Espagne la secte de
+         Mahomet;' and _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 99, 109, 'pour elle une seule chose avait de
+         l'importance; extirper de ses royaumes le nom et la secte de
+         Mahomet.' ... 'Sa vie fut presque exclusivement consacrée à
+         faire triompher la croix sur le croissant.' Mariana (_Historia
+         de España_, vol. v. p. 344, and vol. vii. pp. 51, 52) has warmly
+         eulogized her character, which indeed, from the Spanish point of
+         view, was perfect. See also _Florez_, _Reynas Catholicas_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 774, 788, 829.
+
+  [1200] 'En España los Reyes Don Fernando y Doña Isabel luego que se
+         viéron desembarazados de la guerra de los Moros, acordáron de
+         echar de todo su reyno á los Judíos.' _Mariana_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. vi. p. 303. A Spanish historian, writing less than
+         seventy years ago, expresses his approbation in the following
+         terms: 'Arrancado de nuestra peninsula el imperio Mahometano,
+         quedaba todavía la secta Judayca, peste acaso mas perniciosa, y
+         sin duda mas peligrosa y extendida, por estar los Judíos
+         establecidos en todos los pueblos de ella. Pero los Catolicos
+         Monarcas, cuyo mayor afan era desarraigar de sus reynos toda
+         planta y raiz infecta y contraria á la fé de Jesu-Cristo, dieron
+         decreto en Granada dia 30 de Marzo del año mismo de 1492,
+         mandando saliesen de sus dominios los Judíos que no se
+         bautizasen dentro de 4 meses.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, Madrid,
+         1798, vol. v. p. 564. The importance of knowing how these and
+         similar events are judged by Spaniards, induces me to give their
+         own words at a length which otherwise would be needlessly
+         prolix. Historians, generally, are too apt to pay more attention
+         to public transactions than to the opinions which those
+         transactions evoke; though, in point of fact, the opinions form
+         the most valuable part of history, since they are the result of
+         more general causes, while political actions are often due to
+         the peculiarities of powerful individuals.
+
+         Of the number of Jews actually expelled, I can find no
+         trustworthy account. They are differently estimated at from
+         160,000 to 800,000. _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and
+         Isabella_, vol. ii. p. 148. _Mariana_, _Historia de España_,
+         vol. vi. p. 304. _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. v. p. 564.
+         _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. ix. pp. 412, 413.
+         _Llorente_, _Histoire de l'Inquisition_, Paris, 1817, vol. i. p.
+         261. _Mata_, _Dos Discursos_, Madrid, 1794, pp. 64, 65.
+         _Castro_, _Decadencia de España_, Cadiz, 1852, p. 19.
+
+  [1201] It had been introduced into Aragon in 1242; but, according to M.
+         Tapia, 'sin embargo la persecucion se limitó entónces á la secta
+         de los albigenses; y como de ellos hubo tan pocos en Castilla,
+         no se consideró sin duda necesario en ella el establecimiento de
+         aquel tribunal.' _Tapia_, _Historia de la Civilizacion
+         Española_, Madrid, 1840, vol. ii. p. 302. Indeed, Llorente says
+         (_Histoire de l'Inquisition d'Espagne_, Paris, 1817, vol. i. p.
+         88), 'Il est incertain si au commencement du 15^e siècle
+         l'Inquisition existait en Castille.' In the recent work by M.
+         Lafuente, 1232 is given as its earliest date; but, 'á fines del
+         siglos xiv. y principios del xv. apenas puede saberse si existia
+         tribunal de Inquisicion en Castilla.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. ix. pp. 204-206, Madrid, 1852. It seems therefore
+         with good reason that Mariana (_Historia_, vol. vi. p. 171)
+         terms the Inquisition of Ferdinand and Isabella 'un _nuevo_ y
+         santo tribunal.' See also _Florez_, _Memorias de las Reynas
+         Catholicas_, vol. ii. p. 799.
+
+  [1202] _Prescott's History of Philip II._, vol. i. p. 23, London, 1857.
+         _Davies' History of Holland_, vol. i. p. 447, London, 1841. On
+         the religious character of his German policy, compare _Mariana_,
+         _Historia de España_, vol. vii. p. 330; _Ortiz_, _Compendio_,
+         vol. vi. pp. 195, 196.
+
+  [1203] _Prescott's Philip II._, vol. i. p. 3; and the continuation of
+         _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. xxvii. p. 280.
+         Robertson, though praising Charles V. for this achievement,
+         seems rather inclined to underrate its magnitude; _History of
+         Charles V._, p. 246.
+
+  [1204] In the speech he made at his abdication, he said that 'he had
+         been ever mindful of the interests of the dear land of his
+         birth, but above all of the great interests of Christianity. His
+         first object had been to maintain these inviolate against the
+         infidel.' _Prescott's Philip II._, vol. i. p. 8. Miñana boasts
+         that 'el César con piadoso y noble ánimo exponia su vida á los
+         peligros para extender los limites del Imperio Christiano.'
+         _Continuación de Mariana_, vol. viii. p. 352. Compare the
+         continuation of _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. xxxi.
+         p. 19.
+
+  [1205] Grotius says, 100,000; Bor, Meteren, and Paul say 50,000.
+         _Watson's History of Philip II._, London, 1839, pp. 45, 51.
+         _Davies' History of Holland_, London, 1841, vol. i. pp. 498,
+         499. _Motley's Dutch Republic_, London, 1858, vol. i. pp. 103,
+         104.
+
+  [1206] It is doubted, if I rightly remember, by Mr. Prescott. But the
+         opinion of that able historian is entitled to less weight from
+         his want of acquaintance with Dutch literature, where the
+         principal evidence must be sought for. On this, as on many other
+         matters, the valuable work of Mr. Motley leaves little to
+         desire.
+
+  [1207] _Prescott's Philip II._, vol. i. pp. 196, 197. In 1523, the first
+         persons were burned. _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. i. p. 69.
+         The mode of burying alive is described in _Davies' History of
+         Holland_, vol. i. p. 383, vol. ii. pp. 311, 312.
+
+  [1208] He died on the 21st September; and on the 9th he signed a
+         codicil, in which he 'enjoined upon his son to follow up and
+         bring to justice every heretic in his dominions, and this
+         without exception, and without favour or mercy to any one. He
+         conjured Philip to cherish the holy inquisition as the best
+         means of accomplishing this good work.' _Prescott's Additions to
+         Robertson's Charles V._, p. 576. See also his instructions to
+         Philip in _Raumer's History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
+         Centuries_, vol. i. p. 91; and on his opinion of the
+         Inquisition, see his conversation with Sir Thomas Wyatt, printed
+         from the State Papers in _Froude's History of England_, vol.
+         iii. p. 456, London, 1858. This may have been mere declamation;
+         but in _Tapia's Civilizacion Española_, Madrid, 1840, vol. iii.
+         pp. 76, 77, will be found a deliberate and official letter, in
+         which Charles does not hesitate to say, 'La santa inquisicion
+         como oficio santo y puesto por los reyes católicos, nuestros
+         señores y abuelos á honra de Dios nuestro señor y de nuestra
+         santa fé católica, tengo firme é entrañablemente asentado y
+         fijado en mi corazon, para la mandar favorecer y honrar, como
+         principe justo y temeroso de Dios es obligado y debe hacer.'
+
+         The codicil to the will of Charles still exists, or did very
+         recently, among the archives at Simancas. _Ford's Spain_, 1847,
+         p. 334. In M. Lafuente's great work, _Historia de España_, vol.
+         xii. pp. 494, 495, Madrid, 1853, it is referred to in language
+         which, in more senses than one, is perfectly Spanish: 'Su
+         testamento y codicilo respiran las ideas cristianas y religiosas
+         en que habia vivido y la piedad que señaló su muerte.' ... 'Es
+         muy de notar en primera cláusula [i.e.] of the codicil por la
+         cual deja muy encarecidamente recomendado al rey Don Felipe que
+         use de todo rigor en el castigo de los hereges luteranos que
+         habian sido presos y se hubieren de prender en España.' ...
+         '"Sin escepcion de persona alguna, ni admitir ruegos, ni tener
+         respeto á persona alguna; porque para el efecto de ello
+         favorezca y mande favorecer al Santo Oficio de la
+         Inquisición,"' &c.
+
+This barbarous policy is to be ascribed, not to the vices, nor to the
+temperament of the individual ruler, but to the operation of large
+general causes, which acted upon the individual, and impelled him to the
+course he pursued. Charles was by no means a vindictive man; his natural
+disposition was to mercy rather than to rigour; his sincerity is
+unquestionable; he performed what he believed to be his duty; and he was
+so kind a friend, that those who knew him best were precisely those who
+loved him most.[1209] Little, however, could all that avail in shaping
+his public conduct. He was obliged to obey the tendencies of the age and
+country in which he lived. And what those tendencies were, appeared
+still more clearly after his death, when the throne of Spain was
+occupied upwards of forty years by a prince who inherited it in the
+prime of life, and whose reign is particularly interesting as a symptom
+and a consequence of the disposition of the people over whom he ruled.
+
+  [1209] Native testimony may perhaps be accused of being partial; but, on
+         the other hand, Raumer, in his valuable _History of the
+         Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, vol. i. p. 22, justly
+         observes, that his character has been misrepresented 'by reason
+         that historians have availed themselves by preference of the
+         inimical narratives of French and Protestant writers.' To steer
+         between these extremes, I will transcribe the summing up of
+         Charles's reign as it is given by a learned and singularly
+         unprejudiced writer. 'Tortuous as was sometimes the policy of
+         the emperor, he never, like Francis, acted with treachery; his
+         mind had too much of native grandeur for such baseness. Sincere
+         in religion and friendship, faithful to his word, clement beyond
+         example, liberal towards his servants, indefatigable in his
+         regal duties, anxious for the welfare of his subjects, and
+         generally blameless in private life, his character will not
+         suffer by a comparison with that of any monarch of his times.'
+         _Dunham's History of Spain_, vol. v. p. 41. 'Clemency was the
+         basis of his character.' p. 30.
+
+Philip II., who succeeded Charles V. in 1555, was indeed eminently a
+creature of the time, and the ablest of his biographers aptly terms him
+the most perfect type of the national character.[1210] His favourite
+maxim, which forms the key to his policy, was, 'That it is better not to
+reign at all than to reign over heretics.'[1211] Armed with supreme
+power, he bent all his energies towards carrying this principle into
+effect. Directly that he heard that the Protestants were making converts
+in Spain, he strained every nerve to stifle the heresy;[1212] and so
+admirably was he seconded by the general temper of the people, that he
+was able without risk to suppress opinions which convulsed every other
+part of Europe. In Spain, the Reformation, after a short struggle, died
+completely away, and in about ten years the last vestige of it
+disappeared.[1213] The Dutch wished to adopt, and in many instances did
+adopt, the reformed doctrine; therefore Philip waged against them a
+cruel war, which lasted thirty years, and which he continued till his
+death, because he was resolved to extirpate the new creed.[1214] He
+ordered that every heretic who refused to recant should be burned. If
+the heretic did recant, some indulgence was granted; but having once
+been tainted, he must die. Instead of being burned, he was therefore to
+be executed.[1215] Of the number of those who actually suffered in the
+Low Countries, we have no precise information;[1216] but Alva
+triumphantly boasted that, in the five or six years of his
+administration, he had put to death in cold blood more than eighteen
+thousand, besides a still greater number whom he had slain on the field
+of battle.[1217] This, even during his short tenure of power, would make
+about forty thousand victims; an estimate probably not far from the
+truth, since we know, from other sources, that in one year more than
+eight thousand were either executed or burned.[1218] Such measures were
+the result of instructions issued by Philip, and formed a necessary part
+of his general scheme.[1219] The desire paramount in his mind, and to
+which he sacrificed all other considerations, was to put down the new
+creed, and to reinstate the old one. To this, even his immense ambition
+and his inordinate love of power were subordinate. He aimed at the
+empire of Europe, because he longed to restore the authority of the
+Church.[1220] All his policy, all his negotiations, all his wars,
+pointed to this one end. Soon after his accession, he concluded an
+ignominious treaty with the Pope, that it might not be said that he bore
+arms against the head of the Christian world.[1221] And his last great
+enterprise, in some respects the most important of all, was to fit out,
+at an incredible cost, that famous Armada with which he hoped to humble
+England, and to nip the heresy of Europe in its bud, by depriving the
+Protestants of their principal support, and of the only asylum where
+they were sure to find safe and honourable refuge.[1222]
+
+  [1210] 'The Spaniards, as he grew in years, beheld, with pride and
+         satisfaction, in their future sovereign, the most perfect type
+         of the national character.' _Prescott's History of Philip II._
+         vol. i. p. 39. So, too, in _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. i. p.
+         128, 'he was entirely a Spaniard;' and in _Lafuente_, _Historia
+         de España_, vol. i. p. 155, 'pero el reinado de Felipe fué todo
+         Español.'
+
+  [1211] _Prescott's Philip II._ vol. i. pp. 68, 210, vol. ii. p. 26.
+         _Watson's Philip II._ p. 55. Compare _Fleury_, _Histoire
+         Ecclésiastique_, vol. xxxiv. p. 273.
+
+  [1212] 'Como era tan zeloso en la extirpación de la heregía, uno de sus
+         primeros cuidados fué el castigo de los Luteranos; y á presencia
+         suya, se executó en Valladolid el dia ocho de Octubre el
+         suplicio de muchos reos de este delito.' _Miñana_, _Continuacion
+         de Mariana_, vol. ix. p. 212.
+
+  [1213] 'The contest with Protestantism in Spain, under such auspices,
+         was short. It began in earnest and in blood about 1559, and was
+         substantially ended in 1570.' _Ticknor's History of Spanish
+         Literature_, vol. i. p. 425. See also _M'Crie's History of the
+         Reformation in Spain_, pp. 336, 346. Thus it was that 'España se
+         preservó del contagio. Hizolo con las armas Carlos V., y con las
+         hogueras los inquisidores. España se aisló del movimiento
+         europeo.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. i. p. 144,
+         Madrid, 1850. M. Lafuente adds, that, in his opinion, all
+         Christendom is about to follow the good example set by Spain of
+         rejecting Protestantism. 'Si no nos equivocamos, en nuestra
+         misma edad se notan sintomas de ir marchando este problema hácia
+         su resolucion. El catolicismo gana prosélitos; los protestantes
+         de hoy no son lo que antes fueron, y creemos que la unidad
+         católica se realizará.'
+
+  [1214] Before the arrival of Alva, 'Philip's commands to Margaret were
+         imperative, to use her utmost efforts to extirpate the
+         heretics.' _Davies' History of Holland_, vol. i. p. 551; and in
+         1563 he wrote, 'The example and calamities of France prove how
+         wholesome it is to punish heretics with rigour.' _Raumer's
+         History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, vol. i. p.
+         171. The Spaniards deemed the Dutch guilty of a double crime;
+         being rebels against God and the king: 'Rebeldes á Dios por la
+         heregía, y á su Principe á quien debian obedecer.' _Mariana_,
+         _Historia de España_, vol. vii. p. 410. 'Tratauan de secreto de
+         quitar la obediencia á Dios y á su Principe.' _Vanderhammen's
+         Don Filipe el Prudente Segundo deste Nombre_, Madrid, 1632, p.
+         44 rev. Or, as Miñana phrases it, Philip 'tenia los mismos
+         enemigos que Dios.' _Continuacion de Mariana_, vol. x. p. 139.
+
+  [1215] _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. i. p. 229. _Watson's Philip II._
+         pp. 51, 52, 177.
+
+  [1216] Mr. Motley, under the year 1566, says, 'The Prince of Orange
+         estimated that up to this period fifty thousand persons in the
+         provinces had been put to death in obedience to the edicts. He
+         was a moderate man, and accustomed to weigh his words.'
+         _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. i. pp. 424, 425.
+
+  [1217] _Watson's Philip II._ pp. 248, 249. Tapia (_Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. iii. p. 95) says, 'quitó la vida á mas de diez y
+         ocho mil protestantes con diversos géneros de suplicios.'
+         Compare _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. ii. p. 423, and _Davies'
+         History of Holland_, vol. i. p. 608.
+
+  [1218] _Davies' History of Holland_, vol. i. p. 567. Vanderhammen (_Don
+         Filipe el Prudente_, Madrid, 1632, p. 52 rev.), with tranquil
+         pleasure, assures us that 'muriessen mil y setecientas personas
+         en pocos dias con fuego, cordel y cuchillo en diuersos lugares.'
+
+  [1219] 'El duque de Alba, obrando en conformidad á las instrucciones de
+         su soberano, y apoyado en la aprobacion que merecian al rey
+         todas sus medidas.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. xiii.
+         p. 221.
+
+  [1220] 'It was to restore the Catholic Church that he desired to obtain
+         the empire of Europe.' _Davies' History of Holland_, vol. ii. p.
+         329. 'El protestó siempre "que sus desinios en la guerra, y sus
+         exercitos no se encaminauan á otra cosa, que el ensalçamiento de
+         la Religion Christiana."' _Vanderhammen's Don Filipe el
+         Prudente_, p. 125. 'El que aspiraba á someter todas las naciones
+         de la tierra á su credo religioso.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xv. p. 203. The bishop of Salamanca in 1563 openly
+         boasted 'que son roi ne s'étoit marié avec la reine d'Angleterre
+         que pour ramener cette isle à l'obéissance de l'église.'
+         _Continuation de Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol.
+         xxxiii. p. 331. Compare _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. vi. p. 204.
+         'Este casamiento no debió de tener otras miras que el de la
+         religion.'
+
+  [1221] On this treaty, the only humiliating one which he ever concluded,
+         see _Prescott's Philip II._ vol. i. p. 104. His dying advice to
+         his son was, 'Siempre estareis en la obediencia de la Santa
+         Iglesia Romana, y del Sumo Pontifice, teniendole por vuestro
+         Padre espiritual.' _Davila_, _Historia de la Vida de Felipe
+         Tercero_, Madrid, 1771, folio, lib. i. p. 29. According to
+         another writer, 'La ultima palabra que le salió con el espiritu,
+         fue: "Yo muero como Catolico Christiano en la Fe y obediencia de
+         la Iglesia Romana, y respeto al Papa, como á quien trae en sus
+         manos las llaues del Cielo, como á Principe de la Iglesia, y
+         Teniente de Dios sobre el imperio de las almas."'
+         _Vanderhammen_, _Don Filipe el Prudente_, p. 124.
+
+  [1222] Elizabeth, uniting the three terrible qualities of heresy, power,
+         and ability, was obnoxious to the Spaniards to an almost
+         incredible degree, and there never was a more thoroughly
+         national enterprise than the fitting out of the Armada against
+         her. One or two passages from a grave historian, will illustrate
+         the feelings with which she was regarded even after her death,
+         and will assist the reader in forming an opinion respecting the
+         state of the Spanish mind. 'Isabel, ó Jezabel, Reyna de
+         Inglaterra, heretica Calvinista, y la mayor perseguidora que ha
+         tenido la sangre de Jesu-Christo y los hijos de la Iglesia.'
+         _Davila_, _Historia de Felipe Tercero_, p. 74. 'Los sucesos de
+         fuera causaron admiracion; y el mayor y muy esperado de toda la
+         Christiandad fue la muerte de Isabela, Reyna de Inglaterra,
+         heretica Calvinista, que hizo su nombre famoso con la infamia de
+         su vida, y perseguir á la Iglesia, derramando la sangre de los
+         Santos, que defendian la verdadera Religion Catolica, dexando
+         registradas sus maldades en las historias públicas del mundo,
+         pasando su alma á coger el desdichado fruto de su obstinada
+         soberbia en las penas del Infierno, donde conoce con el castigo
+         perpetuo el engaño de su vida.' pp. 83, 84.
+
+While Philip, following the course of his predecessors, was wasting the
+blood and treasure of Spain in order to propagate religious
+opinions,[1223] the people, instead of rebelling against so monstrous a
+system, acquiesced in it, and cordially sanctioned it. Indeed, they not
+only sanctioned it, but they almost worshipped the man by whom it was
+enforced. There probably never lived a prince who, during so long a
+period, and amid so many vicissitudes of fortune, was adored by his
+subjects as Philip II. was. In evil report, and in good report, the
+Spaniards clung to him with unshaken loyalty. Their affection was not
+lessened, either by his reverses, or by his forbidding deportment, or by
+his cruelty, or by his grievous exactions. In spite of all, they loved
+him to the last. Such was his absurd arrogance, that he allowed none,
+not even the most powerful nobles, to address him, except on their
+knees, and, in return, he only spoke in half sentences, leaving them to
+guess the rest, and to fulfil his commands as best they might.[1224] And
+ready enough they were to obey his slightest wishes. A contemporary of
+Philip, struck by the universal homage which he received, says that the
+Spanish did 'not merely love, not merely reverence, but absolutely adore
+him, and deem his commands so sacred, that they could not be violated
+without offence to God.'[1225]
+
+  [1223] One of the most eminent of living historians well says, 'It was
+         Philip's enthusiasm to embody the wrath of God against
+         heretics.' _Motley's Dutch Republic_, vol. ii. p. 155. 'Philip
+         lived but to enforce what he chose to consider the will of God.'
+         p. 285.
+
+  [1224] 'Personne vivante ne parloit à lui qu'à genoux, et disoit pour
+         son excuse à cela qu'estant petit de corps, chacun eust paru
+         plus eslevé que lui, outre qu'il sçavoit que les Espagnols
+         estoient d'humeur si altiere et hautaine, qu'il estoit besoin
+         qu'il les traittast de cette façon; et pour ce mesme ne se
+         laissoit voir que peu souvent du peuple, n'y mesme des grands,
+         sinon aux jours solemnels, et action necessaire, en cette façon?
+         il faisoit ses commandemens à demy mot, et falloit que l'on
+         devinast le reste, et que l'on ne manquast à bien accomplir
+         toutes ses intentions; mesmes les gentilshommes de sa chambre,
+         et autres qui approchoient plus près de sa personne, n'eussent
+         osé parler devant luy s'il ne leur eust commandé, se tenant un
+         tout seul à la fois près de la porte du lieu où il estoit, et
+         demeurant nud teste incessamment, et appuyé contra une
+         tapisserie, pour attendre et recevoir ses commandemens.'
+         _Mémoires de Cheverny_, pp. 352, 353, in _Petitot's Collection
+         des Mémoires_, vol. xxxvi. Paris, 1823.
+
+  [1225] These are the words of Contarini, as given in _Ranke's Ottoman
+         and Spanish Empires_, London, 1843, p. 33. Sismondi, though
+         unacquainted with this passage, observes in his _Literature of
+         the South of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 273, London, 1846, that
+         Philip, though 'little entitled to praise, has yet been always
+         regarded with enthusiasm by the Spaniards.' About half a century
+         after his death, Sommerdyck visited Spain, and in his curious
+         account of that country he tells us that Philip was called 'le
+         Salomon de son siècle.' _Aarsens de Sommerdyck_, _Voyage
+         d'Espagne_, Paris, 1665, 4to, pp. 63, 95. See also _Yañez_,
+         _Memorias para la Historia de Felipe III._, Madrid, 1723, p.
+         294. 'El gran Felipe, aquel Sabio Salomon.' Another writer
+         likens him to Numa. 'Hacia grandes progresos la piedad, á la
+         qual se dedicaba tanto el Rey Don Felipe, que parecia su reynado
+         en España lo que en Roma el de Numa, despues de Rómulo.' _Miñana
+         Continuacion de Mariana_, vol. ix. p. 241. When he died,
+         'celebradas sus exêquias entre lágrimas y gemidos.' vol. x. pp.
+         259, 260. We further learn from _Vanderhammen's Filipe Segundo_,
+         Madrid, 1632, p. 120 rev., that the people ascribed to him 'una
+         grandeza adorable, y alguna cosa mas que las ordinarias á los
+         demas hombres.'
+
+That a man like Philip II., who never possessed a friend, and whose
+usual demeanour was of the most repulsive kind, a harsh master, a brutal
+parent, a bloody and remorseless ruler,--that he should be thus
+reverenced by a nation among whom he lived, and who had their eyes
+constantly on his actions; that this should have happened, is surely one
+of the most surprising, and, at first sight, one of the most
+inexplicable facts in modern history. Here we have a king who, though
+afflicted by every quality most calculated to excite terror and disgust,
+is loved far more than he is feared, and is the idol of a very great
+people during a very long reign. This is so remarkable as to deserve our
+serious attention; and in order to clear up the difficulty, it will be
+necessary to inquire into the causes of that spirit of loyalty which,
+during several centuries, has distinguished the Spaniards above every
+other European people.
+
+One of the leading causes was undoubtedly the immense influence
+possessed by the clergy. For the maxims inculcated by that powerful body
+have a natural tendency to make the people reverence their princes more
+than they would otherwise do. And that there is a real and practical
+connexion between loyalty and superstition, appears from the historical
+fact that the two feelings have nearly always flourished together and
+decayed together. Indeed, this is what we should expect on mere
+speculative grounds, seeing that both feelings are the product of those
+habits of veneration which make men submissive in their conduct and
+credulous in their belief.[1226] Experience, therefore, as well as
+reason, points to this as a general law of the mind, which, in its
+operation, may be occasionally disturbed, but which holds good in a
+large majority of cases. Probably the only instance in which the
+principle fails is, when a despotic government so misunderstands its own
+interests as to offend the clergy, and separate itself from them.
+Whenever this is done, a struggle will arise between loyalty and
+superstition; the first being upheld by the political classes, the other
+by the spiritual classes. Such a warfare was exhibited in Scotland; but
+history does not afford many examples of it, and certainly it never took
+place in Spain, where, on the contrary, several circumstances occurred
+to cement the union between the Crown and the Church, and to accustom
+the people to look up to both with almost equal reverence.
+
+  [1226] 'Habits of reverence, which, if carried into religion, cause
+         superstition, and if carried into politics, cause despotism.'
+         _Buckle's Hist. of Civilization_, vol. ii. p. 117.
+
+By far the most important of these circumstances was the great Arab
+invasion, which drove the Christians into a corner of Spain, and reduced
+them to such extremities, that nothing but the strictest discipline, and
+the most unhesitating obedience to their leaders, could have enabled
+them to make head against their enemies. Loyalty to their princes became
+not merely expedient, but necessary; for if the Spaniards had been
+disunited, they would, in the face of the fearful odds against which
+they fought, have had no chance of preserving their national existence.
+The long war which ensued, being both political and religious, caused an
+intimate alliance between the political and religious classes, since the
+kings and the clergy had an equal interest in driving the Mohammedans
+from Spain. During nearly eight centuries, this compact between Church
+and State was a necessity forced upon the Spaniards by the peculiarities
+of their position; and, after the necessity had subsided, it naturally
+happened that the association of ideas survived the original danger, and
+that an impression had been made upon the popular mind which it was
+hardly possible to efface.
+
+Evidence of this impression, and of the unrivalled loyalty it produced,
+crowds upon us at every turn. In no other country are the old ballads so
+numerous and so intimately connected with the national history. It has,
+however, been observed, that their leading characteristic is the zeal
+with which they inculcate obedience and devotion to princes, and that
+from this source, even more than from military achievements, they draw
+their most favourite examples of virtue.[1227] In literature the first
+great manifestation of the Spanish mind was the poem of _The Cid_,
+written at the end of the twelfth century, in which we find fresh proof
+of that extraordinary loyalty which circumstances had forced upon the
+people.[1228] The ecclesiastical councils display a similar tendency;
+for, notwithstanding a few exceptions, no other church has been equally
+eager in upholding the rights of kings.[1229] In civil legislation, we
+see the same principle at work; it being asserted, on high authority,
+that in no system of laws is loyalty carried to such extreme height as
+in the Spanish codes.[1230] Even their dramatic writers were unwilling
+to represent an act of rebellion on the stage, lest they should appear
+to countenance what, in the eyes of every good Spaniard, was one of the
+most heinous of all offences.[1231] Whatever the king came in contact
+with, was in some degree hallowed by his touch. No one might mount a
+horse which he had ridden;[1232] no one might marry a mistress whom he
+had deserted.[1233] Horse and mistress alike were sacred, and it would
+have been impious for any subject to meddle with what had been honoured
+by the Lord's anointed. Nor were such rules confined to the prince
+actually reigning. On the contrary, they survived him, and, working with
+a sort of posthumous force, forbade any woman whom he had taken as a
+wife, to marry, even after he was dead. She had been chosen by the king;
+such choice had already raised her above the rest of mortals; and the
+least she could do was to retire to a convent, and spend her life
+mourning over her irreparable loss. These regulations were enforced by
+custom rather than by law.[1234] They were upheld by the popular will,
+and were the result of the excessive loyalty of the Spanish nation. Of
+that loyalty their writers often boast, and with good reason, since it
+was certainly matchless, and nothing seemed able to shake it. To bad
+kings and to good kings it equally applied. It was in full strength amid
+the glory of Spain in the sixteenth century; it was conspicuous when the
+nation was decaying in the seventeenth century; and it survived the
+shock of civil wars early in the eighteenth.[1235] Indeed, the feeling
+had so worked itself into the traditions of the country, as to become
+not only a national passion, but almost an article of national faith.
+Clarendon, in his History of that great English Rebellion, the like of
+which, as he well knew, could never have happened in Spain, makes on
+this subject a just and pertinent remark. He says that a want of respect
+for kings is regarded by the Spaniards as a 'monstrous crime;'
+'submissive reverence to their princes being a vital part of their
+religion.'[1236]
+
+  [1227] 'More ballads are connected with Spanish history than with any
+         other, and, in general, they are better. The most striking
+         peculiarity of the whole mass is, perhaps, to be found in the
+         degree in which it expresses the national character. Loyalty is
+         constantly prominent. The Lord of Butrago sacrifices his own
+         life to save that of his sovereign,' &c. _Ticknor's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. i. p. 133. 'In the implicit obedience
+         of the old Spanish knight, the order of the king was paramount
+         to every consideration, even in the case of friendship and love.
+         This code of obedience has passed into a proverb--"mas pesa el
+         Rey que la sangre,"' _Ford's Spain_, p. 183. Compare the
+         admirable little work of Mr. Lewes, _The Spanish Drama_, London,
+         1846, p. 120, 'ballads full of war, loyalty, and love.'
+
+  [1228] See some interesting remarks in M. Tapia's _Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. i. He observes that, though cruelly persecuted
+         by Alfonso, the first thing done by the Cid, after gaining a
+         great victory, was to order one of his captains 'para que lleve
+         al rey Alfonso treinta caballos árabes bien ensillados, con
+         sendas espadas pendientes de los arzones en señal de homenage, á
+         _pesar del agravio que habia recibido_.' p. 274. And at p. 280,
+         'comedido y obediente súbdito á un rey que tan mal le habia
+         tratado.' Southey (_Chronicle of the Cid_, p. 268) notices with
+         surprise that the Cid is represented in the old chronicles as
+         'offering to kiss the feet of the king.'
+
+  [1229] 'Le xvi^e Concile de Tolède appelait les rois "vicaires de Dieu
+         et du Christ;" et rien n'est plus fréquent dans les conciles de
+         cette époque que leurs exhortations aux peuples pour
+         l'observation du serment de fidélité á leur roi, et leurs
+         anathêmes contre les séditieux.' _Sempere_, _Monarchie
+         Espagnole_, vol. i. p. 41. 'Aparte de los asuntos de derecho
+         civil y canonico y de otros varios que dicen relacion al
+         gobierno de la iglesia, sobre los cuales se contienen en todos
+         ellos disposiciones muy útiles y acertadas, la mayor parte de
+         las leyes dictadas en estas asambleas tuvieron por objeto dar
+         fuerza y estabilidad al poder real, proclamando su
+         inviolabilidad y estableciendo graves penas contra los
+         infractores; condenar las heregías,' &c. _Antequera_, _Historia
+         de la Legislacion Española_, p. 47.
+
+  [1230] 'Loyalty to a superior is carried to a more atrocious length by
+         the Spanish law than I have seen it elsewhere.' ... 'The
+         _Partidas_ (P. 2, T. 13, L. 1) speaks of an old law whereby any
+         man who openly wished to see the King dead, was condemned to
+         death, and the loss of all that he had. The utmost mercy to be
+         shown him was to spare his life and pluck out his eyes, that he
+         might never see with them what he had desired. To defame the
+         King is declared as great a crime as to kill him, and in like
+         manner to be punished. The utmost mercy that could be allowed
+         was to cut out the offender's tongue. P. 2, T. 13, L. 4.'
+         _Southey's Chronicle of the Cid_, p. 442. Compare _Johnston's
+         Civil Law of Spain_, London, 1825, p. 269, on 'Blasphemers of
+         the King.'
+
+  [1231] Thus, Montalvan, the eminent poet and dramatist, who was born in
+         1602, 'avoided, we are told, representing rebellion on the
+         stage, lest he should seem to encourage it.' _Ticknor's History
+         of Spanish Literature_, vol. ii. p. 283. A similar spirit is
+         exhibited in the plays of Calderon and of Lope de Vega. On the
+         'Castilian loyalty' evinced in one of Calderon's comedies, see
+         _Hallam's Literature of Europe_, 2d edit. London, 1843, vol.
+         iii. p. 63; and as to Lope, see _Lewes on the Spanish Drama_,
+         p. 78.
+
+  [1232] 'His Majesty's horses could never be used by any other person.
+         One day, while Philip IV. was going in procession to the church
+         of Our Lady of Atocha, the Duke of Medina-de-las-Torres offered
+         to present him with a beautiful steed which belonged to him, and
+         which was accounted the finest in Madrid; but the King declined
+         the gift, because he should regret to render so noble an animal
+         ever after useless.' _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 372. Madame
+         d'Aulnoy, who travelled in Spain in 1679, and who, from her
+         position, had access to the best sources of information, was
+         told of this piece of etiquette. 'L'on m'a dit que lors que le
+         Roy s'est servy d'un cheval, personne par respect ne le monte
+         jamais.' _D'Aulnoy_, _Relation du Voyage d'Espagne_, Lyon, 1693,
+         vol. ii. p. 40. In the middle of the eighteenth century, I find
+         another notice of this loyal custom, which, likely enough, is
+         still a tradition in the Spanish stables. 'If the king has once
+         honoured a Pad so much as to cross his back, it is never to be
+         used again by anybody else.' _A Tour through Spain_, _by Udal ap
+         Rhys_, 2d edit. London, 1760, p. 15.
+
+  [1233] Madame d'Aulnoy, who was very inquisitive respecting these
+         matters, says (_Relation du Voyage d'Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 411),
+         'Il y a une autre étiquette, c'est qu'après que le Roi a eu une
+         Maitresse, s'il vient à la quitter, il faut qu'elle se fasse
+         Religieuse, comme je vous l'ai déjà écrit; et l'on m'a conté que
+         le feu Roi s'estant amoureux d'une Dame du Palais, il fut un
+         soir fraper doucement à la porte de sa chambre. Comme elle
+         comprit que c'estoit lui, elle ne voulut pas lui ouvrir, et elle
+         se contenta de lui dire au travers de la porte, _Baya, baya, con
+         Dios, no quiero ser monja_; c'est à dire, "Allez allez, Dieu
+         vous conduise, je n'ai pas envie d'estre Religieuse."' So too
+         Henry IV. of Castile, who came to the throne in the year 1454,
+         made one of his mistresses 'abbess of a convent in Toledo;' in
+         this case to the general scandal, because, says Mr. Prescott, he
+         first expelled 'her predecessor, a lady of noble rank and
+         irreproachable character.' _Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella_,
+         vol. i. p. 68.
+
+  [1234] There is, however, one very remarkable old law, in the form of a
+         canon enacted by the third Council of Saragossa, which orders
+         that the royal widows 'seront obligées à prendre l'habit de
+         religieuses, et à s'enfermer dans un monastère pour le reste de
+         leur vie.' _Fleury_, _Histoire Ecclésiastique_, vol. ix. p. 104.
+         In 1065 Ferdinand I. died; and, says the biographer of the
+         Spanish Queens, 'La Reyna sobrevivió: y parece, que muerto su
+         marido, entró en algun Monasterio; lo que expressamos no tanto
+         por _la costumbre antigua_, quanto por constar en la Memoria
+         referida de la Iglesia de Leon, el dictado de 'Consagrada á
+         Dios,' frasse que denota estado Religioso.' _Florez_, _Memorias
+         de las Reynas Catholicas_, Madrid, 1761, 4to, vol. i. p. 148. In
+         1667 it was a settled principle that 'les reines d'Espagne n'en
+         sortent point. Le couvent de _las Señoras descalças reales_ est
+         fondé afin que les reines veuves s'y enferment.' _Discours du
+         Comte de Castrillo à la Reine d'Espagne_, in _Mignet's
+         Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne_, vol. ii. p.
+         604, Paris, 1835, 4to. This valuable work consists for the most
+         part of documents previously unpublished, many of which are
+         taken from the archives at Simancas. To the critical historian,
+         it would have been more useful if the original Spanish had been
+         given.
+
+  [1235] See some good remarks on San Phelipe, in _Ticknor's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. pp. 213, 214, which might easily
+         be corroborated by other testimony; as, for instance, Lafuente
+         under the year 1710: 'Ni el abandono de la Francia, ni la
+         prolongacion y los azares de la guerra, ni los sacrificios
+         pecuniarios y personales de tantos años, nada bastaba á entibiar
+         el amor de los castellanos á su rey Felipe V.' (_Historia de
+         España_, vol. xviii. p. 258); and Berwick (_Mémoires_, vol. ii.
+         p. 114, edit. Paris, 1778): 'La fidélité inouie des Espagnols;'
+         and, nine years earlier, a letter from Louville to Torcy: 'Le
+         mot révolte, pris dans une acception rigoureuse, n'a pas de sens
+         en Espagne.' _Louville_, _Mémoires sur l'établissement de la
+         Maison de Bourbon en Espagne_, edit. Paris, 1818, vol. i. p.
+         128. See also _Memoirs of Ripperda_, London, 1740, p. 58; and
+         _Mémoires de Gramont_, vol. ii. p. 77, edit. Petitot, Paris,
+         1827. All these passages illustrate Spanish loyalty in the
+         eighteenth century, except the reference to Gramont, which
+         concerns the seventeenth, and which should be compared with the
+         following observations of Madame D'Aulnoy, who writes from
+         Madrid in 1679: 'Quelques richesses qu'ayent les grands
+         Seigneurs, quelque grande que soit leur fierté ou leur
+         présomption, ils obéïssent aux moindres ordres du Roy, avec une
+         exactitude et un respect que l'on ne peut assez loüer. Sur le
+         premier ordre ils partent, ils reviennent, ils vont en prison,
+         ou en exil, sans se plaindre. Il ne se peut trouver une
+         soûmission, et une obéïssance plus parfaite, ni un amour plus
+         sincère, que celui des Espagnols pour leur Roi. Ce nom leur est
+         sacré, et pour réduire le peuple à tout ce que l'on souhaite, il
+         suffit de dire, "Le Roi le veut."' _D'Aulnoy_, _Voyage_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.
+
+  [1236] 'And Olivarez had been heard to censure very severely the duke's
+         (Buckingham's) familiarity and want of respect towards the
+         prince, a crime monstrous to the Spaniard.' ... 'Their
+         submissive reverence to their princes being a vital part of
+         their religion.' _Clarendon's History of the Rebellion_, ed.
+         Oxford, 1843, p. 15. For the religion of loyalty, in an earlier
+         period, see _Florez_, _Reynas Catholicas_, vol. i. p. 421: 'La
+         persona del Rey fue mirada de sus fieles vassallos con respeto
+         tan sagrado,' that resistance was 'una especie de sacrilegio.'
+
+These, then, were the two great elements of which the Spanish character
+was compounded. Loyalty and superstition; reverence for their kings and
+reverence for their clergy were the leading principles which influenced
+the Spanish mind, and governed the march of Spanish history. The
+peculiar and unexampled circumstances under which they arose, have been
+just indicated; and having seen their origin, we will now endeavour to
+trace their consequences. Such an examination of results will be the
+more important, not only because nowhere else in Europe have these
+feelings been so strong, so permanent, and so unmixed, but also because
+Spain, being seated at the further extremity of the Continent, from
+which it is cut off by the Pyrenees, has, from physical causes, as well
+as from moral ones, come little into contact with other nations.[1237]
+The course of affairs being, therefore, undisturbed by foreign habits,
+it becomes easier to discover the pure and natural consequences of
+superstition and loyalty, two of the most powerful and disinterested
+feelings which have ever occupied the human heart, and to whose united
+action we may clearly trace the leading events in the history of Spain.
+
+  [1237] These impediments to intercourse were once deemed almost
+         invincible. Fontenay-Mareuil, who visited Spain in 1612, and was
+         not a little proud of the achievement, says, 'Au reste,
+         parcequ'on ne va pas aussy ordinairement en Espagne qu'en
+         France, en Italie et ailleurs; et qu'estant comme en un coin, et
+         séparée du reste du monde par la mer ou par les Pyrénées, on
+         n'en a, ce me semble, guere de connoissance, j'ay pense que je
+         devois faire icy une petite digression pour dire ce que j'en ay
+         appris dans ce voyage et despuis.' _Mémoires de
+         Fontenay-Mareuil_, in _Collection des Mémoires par Petitot_,
+         vol. i. p. 169, 1^e Série, Paris, 1826. Seventy years later,
+         another writer on Spain says of the Pyrenees, 'Ces montagnes
+         sont à nos voyageurs modernes, ce qu'étoit aux anciens mariniers
+         le _Non plus ultra_ et les colomnes du grand Hercule.' _L'Estat
+         de l'Espagne_, Geneve, 1681 Epistre, p. ii. This work, little
+         known and not much worth knowing, forms the third volume of _Le
+         Prudent Voyageur_.
+
+The results of this combination were, during a considerable period,
+apparently beneficial, and certainly magnificent. For, the church and
+the crown making common cause with each other, and being inspirited by
+the cordial support of the people, threw their whole soul into their
+enterprises, and displayed an ardour which could hardly fail to insure
+success. Gradually advancing from the north of Spain, the Christians,
+fighting their way inch by inch, pressed on till they reached the
+southern extremity, completely subdued the Mohammedans, and brought the
+whole country under one rule and one creed. This great result was
+achieved late in the fifteenth century, and it cast an extraordinary
+lustre on the Spanish name.[1238] Spain, long occupied by her own
+religious wars, had hitherto been little noticed by foreign powers, and
+had possessed little leisure to notice them. Now, however, she formed a
+compact and undivided monarchy, and at once assumed an important
+position in European affairs.[1239] During the next hundred years, her
+power advanced with a speed of which the world had seen no example since
+the days of the Roman Empire. So late as 1478 Spain was still broken up
+into independent and often hostile states; Granada was possessed by the
+Mohammedans; the throne of Castile was occupied by one prince, the
+throne of Aragon by another. Before the year 1590, not only were these
+fragments firmly consolidated into one kingdom, but acquisitions were
+made abroad so rapidly as to endanger the independence of Europe. The
+history of Spain, during this period, is the history of one long and
+uninterrupted success. That country, recently torn by civil wars, and
+distracted by hostile creeds, was able in three generations to annex to
+her territory the whole of Portugal, Navarre, and Roussillon. By
+diplomacy, or by force of arms, she acquired Artois and Franche Comté,
+and the Netherlands; also the Milanese, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, the
+Balearic Islands, and the Canaries. One of her kings was emperor of
+Germany; while his son influenced the councils of England, whose queen
+he married. The Turkish power, then one of the most formidable in the
+world, was broken and beaten back on every side. The French monarchy was
+humbled. French armies were constantly worsted; Paris was once in
+imminent jeopardy; and a king of France, after being defeated on the
+field, was taken captive, and led prisoner to Madrid. Out of Europe, the
+deeds of Spain were equally wonderful. In America, the Spaniards became
+possessed of territories which covered sixty degrees of latitude, and
+included both the tropics. Besides Mexico, Central America, Venezuela,
+New Granada, Peru, and Chili, they conquered Cuba, San Domingo, Jamaica,
+and other islands. In Africa, they obtained Ceuta, Melilla, Oran,
+Bougiah, and Tunis, and overawed the whole coast of Barbary. In Asia,
+they had settlements on each side of the Deccan; they held part of
+Malacca; and they established themselves in the Spice Islands. Finally,
+by the conquest of the noble archipelago of the Philippines, they
+connected their most distant acquisitions, and secured a communication
+between every part of that enormous empire which girdled the world.
+
+  [1238] 'Con razon se miró la conquista de Granada, no como un
+         acontecimiento puramente español, sino como un suceso que
+         interesaba al mundo. Con razon tambien se regocijó toda la
+         cristiandad. Hacia medio siglo que otros mahometanos se habian
+         apoderado de Constantinopla; la caida de la capital y del
+         imperio bizantino en poder de los turcos habia llenado de terror
+         á la Europa; pero la Europa se consoló al saber que en España
+         habia concluido la dominacion de los musulmanes.' _Lafuente_,
+         _Historia de España_, vol. xi. p. 15.
+
+  [1239] 'L'Espagne, long-temps partagée en plusieurs états, et comme
+         étrangère au reste de l'Europe, devint tout-à-coup une puissance
+         redoutable, faisant pencher pour elle la balance de la
+         politique.' _Koch_, _Tableau des Révolutions de l'Europe_,
+         Paris, 1823, vol. i. p. 362. On the relation between this and
+         some changes in literature which corresponded to it, see
+         _Bouterwek's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. i. pp.
+         148-152, where there are some ingenious, though perhaps scarcely
+         tenable, speculations.
+
+In connexion with this, a great military spirit arose, such as no other
+modern nation has ever exhibited. All the intellect of the country which
+was not employed in the service of the Church was devoted to the
+profession of arms. Indeed, the two pursuits were often united; and it
+is said that the custom of ecclesiastics going to war was practised in
+Spain long after it was abandoned in other parts of Europe.[1240] At all
+events, the general tendency is obvious. A mere list of successful
+battles and sieges in the sixteenth and part of the fifteenth century,
+would prove the vast superiority of the Spaniards, in this respect, over
+their contemporaries, and would show how much genius they had expended
+in maturing the arts of destruction. Another illustration, if another
+were required, might be drawn from the singular fact that since the time
+of ancient Greece, no country has produced so many eminent literary men
+who were also soldiers. Calderon, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega risked
+their lives in fighting for their country. The military profession was
+also adopted by many other celebrated authors, among whom may be
+mentioned, Argote de Molina, Acuña, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Boscan,
+Carrillo, Cetina, Ercilla, Espinel, Francisco de Figueroa, Garcilasso de
+la Vega, Guillen de Castro, Hita, Hurtado de Mendoza, Marmol Carvajal,
+Perez de Guzman, Pulgar, Rebolledo, Roxas, and Virues; all of whom bore,
+in this manner, unconscious testimony to the spirit by which Spain was
+universally pervaded.
+
+  [1240] 'The holy war with the infidels' (Mohammedans) 'perpetuated the
+         unbecoming spectacle of militant ecclesiastics among the
+         Spaniards, to a still later period, and long after it had
+         disappeared from the rest of civilized Europe.' _Prescott's
+         History of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. i. p. 162.
+
+Here, then, we have a combination which many readers will still consider
+with favour, and which, at the time it occurred, excited the admiration,
+albeit the terror, of Europe. We have a great people glowing with
+military, patriotic, and religious ardour, whose fiery zeal was
+heightened, rather than softened, by a respectful obedience to their
+clergy, and by a chivalrous devotion to their kings. The energy of
+Spain, being thus both animated and controlled, became wary as well as
+eager; and to this rare union of conflicting qualities we must ascribe
+the great deeds which have just been related. But the unsound part of a
+progress of this sort is, that it depends too much upon individuals, and
+therefore cannot be permanent. Such a movement can only last as long as
+it is headed by able men. When, however, competent leaders are succeeded
+by incompetent ones, the system immediately falls to the ground, simply
+because the people have been accustomed to supply to every undertaking
+the necessary zeal, but have not been accustomed to supply the skill by
+which the zeal is guided. A country in this state, if governed by
+hereditary princes, is sure to decay; inasmuch as, in the ordinary
+course of affairs, incapable rulers must sometimes arise. Directly this
+happens, the deterioration begins; for the people, habituated to
+indiscriminate loyalty, will follow wherever they are led, and will
+yield to foolish counsels the same obedience that they had before paid
+to wise ones. This leads us to perceive the essential difference between
+the civilization of Spain and the civilization of England. We, in
+England, are a critical, dissatisfied, and captious people, constantly
+complaining of our rulers, suspecting their schemes, discussing their
+measures in a hostile spirit, allowing very little power either to the
+Church or to the Crown, managing our own affairs in our own way, and
+ready, on the slightest provocation, to renounce that conventional,
+lip-deep loyalty, which, having never really touched our hearts, is a
+habit lying on the surface, but not a passion rooted in the mind. The
+loyalty of Englishmen is not of that sort which would induce them to
+sacrifice their liberties to please their prince, nor does it ever, for
+a moment, blind them to a keen sense of their own interests. The
+consequence is, that our progress is uninterrupted, whether our kings
+are good or whether they are bad. Under either condition, the great
+movement goes on. Our sovereigns have had their full share of imbecility
+and of crime. Still, even men like Henry III. and Charles II. were
+unable to do us harm. In the same way, during the eighteenth and many
+years of the nineteenth century, when our improvement was very
+conspicuous, our rulers were very incompetent. Anne and the first two
+Georges were grossly ignorant; they were wretchedly educated, and nature
+had made them at once weak and obstinate. Their united reigns lasted
+nearly sixty years; and after they had passed away, we, for another
+period of sixty years, were governed by a prince who was long
+incapacitated by disease, but of whom we must honestly say that, looking
+at his general policy, he was least mischievous when he was most
+incapable. This is not the place to expose the monstrous principles
+advocated by George III., and to which posterity will do that justice
+from which contemporary writers are apt to shrink; but it is certain
+that neither his contracted understanding, nor his despotic temper, nor
+his miserable superstition, nor the incredible baseness of that ignoble
+voluptuary who succeeded him on the throne, could do aught to stop the
+march of English civilization, or to stem the tide of English
+prosperity. We went on our way rejoicing, caring for none of these
+things. We were not to be turned aside from our path by the folly of our
+rulers, because we know full well that we hold our own fate in our own
+hands, and that the English people possess within themselves those
+resources and that fertility of contrivance by which alone men can be
+made great, and happy, and wise.
+
+In Spain, however, directly the government slackened its hold, the
+nation fell to pieces.[1241] During that prosperous career which has
+just been noticed, the Spanish throne was invariably filled by very able
+and intelligent princes. Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V. and Philip
+II., formed a line of sovereigns not to be matched in any other country
+for a period of equal length. By them, the great things were effected,
+and by their care, Spain apparently flourished. But, what followed when
+they were withdrawn from the scene, showed how artificial all this was,
+and how rotten, even to the core, is that system of government which
+must be fostered before it can thrive, and which, being based on the
+loyalty and reverence of the people, depends for success not on the
+ability of the nation, but on the skill of those to whom the interests
+of the nation are entrusted.
+
+  [1241] A learned Spanish lawyer has made some remarks which are worth
+         quoting, and which contain a curious mixture of truth and error:
+         'Comment la monarchie espagnole fut-elle déchue de tant de
+         grandeur et de gloire? Comment perdit-elle les Pays-Bas et le
+         Portugal dans le dix-septième siècle, et s'y trouva-t-elle
+         réduite à n'être qu'un squelette de ce qu'elle avait été
+         auparavant? Comment vit-elle disparaître plus d'une moitié de sa
+         population? Comment, possédant les mines inépuisables du Nouveau
+         Monde, les revenus de l'état n'étaient à peine que de six
+         millions de ducats sous le règne de Philippe III? Comment son
+         agriculture et son industrie furent-elles ruinées? et comment
+         presque tout son commerce passa-t-il dans les mains de ses plus
+         grands ennemis? Ce n'est point ici le lieu d'examiner les
+         véritables causes d'une métamorphose si triste; il suffira
+         d'indiquer _que tous les grands empires contiennent en euxmêmes
+         le germe de leur dissolution_,' &c. 'D'ailleurs les successeurs
+         de ces deux monarques' (Charles V. and Philip II.) 'n'eurent
+         point les mêmes talens, ni les ducs de Lerme et d'Olivarès,
+         leurs ministres, ceux du cardinal Cisneros; et il est difficile
+         de calculer l'influence de la bonne ou de la mauvaise direction
+         des affaires sur la prospérité ou les malheurs des nations. Sous
+         une même forme de gouvernement, quel qu'il puisse être, _elles
+         tombent ou se relèvent suivant la capacité des hommes qui les
+         dirigent_, et d'après les circonstances où ils agissent.'
+         _Sempère_, _Histoire des Cortès_, Bordeaux, 1815, pp. 265-267.
+         Of the two passages which I have marked with italics, the first
+         is a clumsy, though common, attempt to explain complicated
+         phenomena by a metaphor which saves the trouble of generalizing
+         their laws. The other passage, though perfectly true as regards
+         Spain, does not admit of that universal application which M.
+         Sempere supposes; inasmuch as in England, and in the United
+         States of America, national prosperity has steadily advanced,
+         even when the rulers have been very incapable men.
+
+Philip II., the last of the great kings of Spain, died in 1598, and
+after his death the decline was portentously rapid.[1242] From 1598 to
+1700, the throne was occupied by Philip III., Philip IV., and Charles
+II. The contrast between them and their predecessors was most
+striking.[1243] Philip III. and Philip IV. were idle, ignorant, infirm
+of purpose, and passed their lives in the lowest and most sordid
+pleasures. Charles II., the last of that Austrian dynasty which had
+formerly been so distinguished, possessed nearly every defect which can
+make a man ridiculous and contemptible. His mind and his person were
+such as, in any nation less loyal than Spain, would have exposed him to
+universal derision. Although his death took place while he was still in
+the prime of life, he looked like an old and worn-out debauchee. At the
+age of thirty-five, he was completely bald; he had lost his eyebrows; he
+was paralyzed; he was epileptic; and he was notoriously impotent.[1244]
+His general appearance was absolutely revolting, and was that of a
+drivelling idiot. To an enormous mouth, he added a nether jaw protruding
+so hideously that his teeth could never meet, and he was unable to
+masticate his food.[1245] His ignorance would be incredible, if it were
+not substantiated by unimpeachable evidence. He did not know the names
+of the large towns, or even of the provinces, in his dominions; and
+during the war with France he was heard to pity England for losing
+cities which in fact formed part of his own territory.[1246] Finally, he
+was immersed in the most grovelling superstition; he believed himself
+to be constantly tempted by the devil; he allowed himself to be
+exorcised as one possessed by evil spirits; and he would not retire to
+rest, except with his confessor and two friars, who had to lie by his
+side during the night.[1247]
+
+  [1242] 'With Philip II. ends the greatness of the kingdom, which from
+         that period declined with fearful rapidity.' _Dunham's History
+         of Spain_, vol. v. p. 87. And Ortiz (_Compendio_, vol. vii.,
+         Prologo, p. 6) classes together 'la muerte de Felipe II. y
+         principios de nuestra decadencia.' The same judicious historian
+         elsewhere observes (vol. vi. p. 211), that if Philip III. had
+         been equal to his father, Spain would have continued to
+         flourish. Several of the more recent Spanish writers, looking at
+         the heavy expenses caused by the policy of Philip II., and at
+         the debts which he incurred, have supposed that the decline of
+         the country began in the latter years of his reign. But the
+         truth is, that no great nation ever was, or ever will be, ruined
+         by the prodigality of its government. Such extravagance causes
+         general discomfort, and therefore ought not to be tolerated; but
+         if this were the place for so long an argument, I could easily
+         show that its other and more permanent inconveniences are
+         nothing like what they are commonly supposed to be.
+
+  [1243] 'Abstraido Felipe III. en devociones, amante Felipe IV. de
+         regocijos, mortificado Carlos II. por padecimientos, cuidáronse
+         poco ó nada de la gobernacion del Estado, y confiaronla á
+         validos altaneros, codiciosos, incapaces, y de muy funesta
+         memoria.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, Madrid,
+         1856, vol. i. p. 33.
+
+  [1244] 'Sans espérance de postérité.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_,
+         vol. i. p. 419. 'Incapaz de tener hijos.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_,
+         vol. vi. p. 560. See also _Mémoires de Louville_, vol. i. p. 82;
+         and the allusions in _Lettres de Madame de Villars_, edit.
+         Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 53, 120, 164. She was ambassadress in Spain
+         in the reign of Charles II. M. Lafuente, who, if I rightly
+         remember, never quotes these interesting letters, and who
+         indeed, with very few exceptions, has used none but Spanish
+         authorities, ventures nevertheless to observe that 'La
+         circunstancia de no haber tenido sucesion, falta que en general
+         se achabaca mas al rey que á la reina,' &c. _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xvii. pp. 198, 199, Madrid, 1856. According to the
+         biographer of the Spanish Queens, some persons imputed this to
+         sorcery, 'y aun se dijo si intervenia maleficio.' _Florez_,
+         _Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas_, vol. ii. p. 973, Madrid,
+         1761, 4to.
+
+  [1245] In 1696, Stanhope, the English minister at Madrid, writes: 'He
+         has a ravenous stomach, and swallows all he eats whole, for his
+         nether jaw stands so much out that his two rows of teeth cannot
+         meet; to compensate which, he has a prodigious wide throat, so
+         that a gizzard or liver of a hen passes down whole, and his weak
+         stomach not being able to digest it, he voids it in the same
+         manner.' _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._, London, 1840, p. 79;
+         a very valuable collection of original documents, utterly
+         unknown to any Spanish historian I have met with. Some curious
+         notices of the appearance of Charles II. in his childhood may be
+         seen published for the first time in _Mignet's Négociations
+         relatives à la Succession d'Espagne_, Paris, 1835-1842, 4to.
+         vol. i. pp. 294, 295, 310, 396, 404, 410, vol. ii. p. 130, vol.
+         iii. pp. 418, 419, 423. See also vol. iv. p. 636, for an
+         instance of his taciturnity, which was almost the only mark of
+         sense he ever gave, 'Le roi l'écouta, et ne lui répondit rien.'
+
+  [1246] 'Le Roy demeuroit dans une profonde ignorance et de ses affaires
+         et même des Etats de sa couronne; à peine connoissoit-il quelles
+         étoient les places qui lui appartenoient hors du continent
+         d'Espagne.' ... 'La perte de Barcelone lui fut plus sensible
+         qu'aucune autre, parce que cette ville, capitale de la
+         Catalogne, et située dans le continent de l'Espagne, lui étoit
+         plus connue que les villes de Flandre, dont il ignoroit
+         l'importance au point de croire que Mons appartenoit au roi
+         d'Angleterre, et de le plaindre lorsque le Roi fit la conquête
+         de cette province.' _Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy_, vol. i. pp.
+         19, 23, edit. Petitot, Paris, 1828.
+
+  [1247] 'Fancying everything that is said or done to be a temptation of
+         the devil, and never thinking himself safe but with his
+         confessor, and two friars by his side, whom he makes lie in his
+         chamber every night.' _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._, p. 102.
+         On account, no doubt, of this affection for monks, he is
+         declared by a Spanish historian to have possessed a 'corazon pio
+         y religioso.' _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de España_,
+         vol. i. p. 20. The best notice of the exorcism will be found in
+         _Lafuente's Historia de España_, vol. xvii. pp. 294-309, where
+         there is an entire chapter, headed 'Los Hechizos del Rey.'
+
+Now it was that men might clearly see on how sandy a foundation the
+grandeur of Spain was built. When there were able sovereigns, the
+country prospered; when there were weak ones, it declined. Nearly
+everything that had been done by the great princes of the sixteenth
+century, was undone by the little princes of the seventeenth. So rapid
+was the fall of Spain, that in only three reigns after the death of
+Philip II., the most powerful monarchy existing in the world was
+depressed to the lowest point of debasement, was insulted with impunity
+by foreign nations, was reduced more than once to bankruptcy, was
+stripped of her fairest possessions, was held up to public opprobrium,
+was made a theme on which school-boys and moralists loved to declaim
+respecting the uncertainty of human affairs, and, at length, was exposed
+to the bitter humiliation of seeing her territories mapped out and
+divided by a treaty in which she took no share, but the provisions of
+which she was unable to resent.[1248] Then, truly, did she drink to the
+dregs the cup of her own shame. Her glory had departed from her, she was
+smitten down and humbled. Well might a Spaniard of that time who
+compared the present with the past, mourn over his country, the chosen
+abode of chivalry and romance, of valour and of loyalty. The mistress of
+the world, the queen of the ocean, the terror of nations, was gone; her
+power was gone, no more to return. To her might be applied that bitter
+lamentation, which, on a much slighter occasion, the greatest of the
+sons of men has put into the mouth of a dying statesman. Good reason,
+indeed, had the sorrowing patriot to weep, as one who refused to be
+comforted, for the fate of his earth, his realm, his land of dear souls,
+his dear, dear land, long dear for her reputation through the world, but
+now leased out like to a tenement or pelting farm.[1249]
+
+  [1248] 'La foiblesse de l'Espagne ne permettoit pas à son roi de se
+         ressentir du traitement dont il croyoit à propos de se
+         plaindre.' _Mémoires de Torcy_, vol. i. p. 81. Or, as an eminent
+         native writer bitterly says, 'Las naciones estrangeras
+         disponiendo de la monarquia española como de bienes sin dueño.'
+         _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iii. p. 187.
+
+  [1249] 'This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
+         This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
+         This other Eden, demi-paradise;
+         This fortress, built by nature for herself
+         Against infection and the hand of war;
+         This happy breed of men, this little world,
+         This precious stone set in the silver sea,
+         Which serves it in the office of a wall,
+         Or as a moat defensive to a house,
+         Against the envy of less happier lands;
+         This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
+         This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
+         Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
+         Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
+         For Christian service and true chivalry,
+         As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry
+         Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son:
+         This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
+         Dear for her reputation through the world,
+         Is now leas'd out, I die pronouncing it,
+         Like to a tenement or pelting farm.'
+
+It would be a weary and unprofitable task to relate the losses and
+disasters of Spain during the seventeenth century. The immediate cause
+of them was undoubtedly bad government and unskilful rulers; but the
+real and overriding cause, which determined the whole march and tone of
+affairs, was the existence of that loyal and reverential spirit which
+made the people submit to what any other country would have spurned,
+and, by accustoming them to place extreme confidence in individual men
+reduced the nation to that precarious position in which a succession of
+incompetent princes was sure to overthrow the edifice which competent
+ones had built up.[1250]
+
+  [1250] The Spanish theory of government is well stated in the following
+         passage in Davila's Life of Philip III. The remarks apply to
+         Philip II. 'Que solo havia gobernado sin Validos ni Privados,
+         tomando para sí solo, como primera causa de su gobierno, el
+         mandar, prohibir, premiar, castigar, hacer mercedes, conocer
+         sugetos, elegir Ministros, dar oficios, y tener como espiritu
+         que andaba sobre las aguas, ciencia y providencia de todo, para
+         que nada se hiciese sin su saber y querer: no serviendo los
+         Ministros mas que de poner por obra (obedeciendo) lo que su
+         Señor mandaba, velando sobre cada uno, como pastor de sus
+         ovejas, para ver la verdad con que executan sus mandamientos y
+         acuerdos.' _Davila_, _Historia de Felipe Tercero_, lib. i.
+         pp. 22, 23.
+
+The increasing influence of the Spanish Church was the first and most
+conspicuous consequence of the declining energy of the Spanish
+government. For, loyalty and superstition being the main ingredients of
+the national character, and both of them being the result of habits of
+reverence, it was to be expected that, unless the reverence could be
+weakened, what was taken from one ingredient would be given to the
+other. As, therefore, the Spanish government, during the seventeenth
+century, did, owing to its extreme imbecility, undoubtedly lose some
+part of the hold it possessed over the affections of the people, it
+naturally happened that the Church stepped in, and occupying the vacant
+place, received what the crown had forfeited. Besides this, the weakness
+of the executive government encouraged the pretensions of the
+priesthood, and emboldened the clergy to acts of usurpation, which the
+Spanish sovereigns of the sixteenth century, superstitious though they
+were, would not have allowed for a single moment.[1251] Hence the very
+striking fact, that, while in every other great country, Scotland alone
+excepted, the power of the Church diminished during the seventeenth
+century, it, in Spain, actually increased. The results of this are well
+worth the attention, not only of philosophic students of history, but
+also of every one who cares for the welfare of his own country, or feels
+an interest in the practical management of public affairs.
+
+  [1251] Even Philip II. always retained a certain ascendency over the
+         ecclesiastical hierarchy, though he was completely subjugated by
+         ecclesiastical prejudices. 'While Philip was thus willing to
+         exalt the religious order, already far too powerful, he was
+         careful that it should never gain such a height as would enable
+         it to overtop the royal authority.' _Prescott's History of
+         Philip II._, vol. iii. p. 235. 'Pero este monarca tan afecto á
+         la Inquisicion mientras le servia para sus fines, sabia bien
+         tener á raya al Santo Oficio cuando intentaba invadir ó usurpar
+         las preeminencias de la autoridad real, ó arrogarse un poder
+         desmedido.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. xv. p. 114.
+
+For twenty-three years after the death of Philip II., the throne was
+occupied by Philip III., a prince as distinguished by his weakness as
+his predecessors had been by their ability. During more than a century
+the Spaniards had been accustomed to be entirely ruled by their kings,
+who, with indefatigable industry, personally superintended the most
+important transactions, and in other matters exercised the strictest
+supervision over their ministers. But Philip III., whose listlessness
+almost amounted to fatuity, was unequal to such labour, and delegated
+the powers of government to Lerma, who wielded supreme authority for
+twenty years.[1252] Among a people so loyal as the Spaniards, this
+unusual proceeding could not fail to weaken the executive; since, in
+their eyes, the immediate and irresistible interference of the sovereign
+was essential to the management of affairs, and to the well-being of the
+nation. Lerma, well aware of this feeling, and conscious that his own
+position was very precarious, naturally desired to strengthen himself by
+additional support, so that he might not entirely depend on the favour
+of the king. He therefore formed a strict alliance with the clergy, and,
+from the beginning to the end of his long administration did everything
+in his power to increase their authority.[1253] Thus the influence lost
+by the crown was gained by the Church, to whose advice a deference was
+paid even greater than had been accorded by the superstitious princes of
+the sixteenth century. In this arrangement, the interests of the people
+were of course unheeded. Their welfare formed no part of the general
+scheme. On the contrary, the clergy, grateful to a government so
+sensible of their merits, and so religiously disposed, used all their
+influence in its favour; and the yoke of a double despotism was riveted
+more firmly than ever upon the neck of that miserable nation, which was
+now about to reap the bitter fruit of a long and ignominious
+submission.[1254]
+
+  [1252] 'Por cuyo absoluto poderío se executaba todo.' _Yañez_, _Memorias
+         para la Historia de Felipe III._, Prologo, p. 150. 'An
+         absoluteness in power over king and kingdom.' Letter from Sir
+         Charles Cornwallis to the Lords of the Council in England, dated
+         Valladolid, May 31, 1605, in _Winwood's Memorials_, vol. ii. p.
+         73, London, 1725, folio. 'Porque no era fácil imaginar entónces,
+         ni por fortuna se ha repetido el ejemplo después, que hubiera un
+         monarca tan pródigo de autoridad, y al propio tiempo tan
+         indolente, que por no tomarse siquiera el trabajo de firmar los
+         documentos de Estado, quisiera dar á la firma de un vasalla suyo
+         la misma autoridad que á la suya propia, y que advirtiera y
+         ordenára, como ordenó Felipe III. á todos sus consejos,
+         tribunales, y súbditos, que dieran á los despachos firmados por
+         el duque de Lerma el mismo cumplimiento y obediencia, y los
+         ejecutáran y guardáran con el mismo respeto que si fueran
+         firmados por él.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. xv. pp.
+         449, 450. 'El duque de Lerma, su valído, era el que gobernaba el
+         reino solo.' vol. xvii. p. 332. His power lasted from 1598 to
+         1618. _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. vi. pp. 290, 325.
+
+  [1253] Davila (_Historia de Felipe Tercero_, lib. ii. p. 41), after
+         eulogizing the personal qualities of Lerma, adds, 'Y sin estas
+         grandes partes tuvo demostraciones christianas, manifestandolo
+         en los conventos, iglesias, colegiatas, hospitales, ermitas y
+         catedras, que dejó fundadas, en que gastó, como me consta de los
+         libros de su Contaduría, un millon ciento cincuenta y dos mil
+         doscientos ochenta y tres ducados.' After such monstrous
+         prodigality, Watson might well say, in his rather superficial,
+         but, on the whole, well-executed History, that Lerma showed 'the
+         most devoted attachment to the church,' and 'conciliated the
+         favour of ecclesiastics.' _Watson's History of Philip III._,
+         London, 1839, pp. 4, 8, 46, 224.
+
+  [1254] The only energy Philip III. ever displayed, was in seconding the
+         efforts of his minister to extend the influence of the Church;
+         and hence, according to a Spanish historian, he was 'monarque le
+         plus pieux parmi tous ceux qui out occupé le trône d'Espagne
+         depuis saint Ferdinand.' _Sempère_, _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol.
+         i. p. 245. 'El principal cuidado de nuestro Rey era tener á Dios
+         por amigo, grangear y beneficiar su gracia, para que le
+         asistiese propicio en quanto obrase y dixese. De aqui tuvieron
+         principio tantos dones ofrecidos á Dios, tanta fundacion de
+         Conventos, y favores hechos á Iglesias y Religiones.' _Davila_,
+         _Historia de Felipe Tercero_, lib. ii. p. 170. His wife,
+         Margaret, was equally active. See _Florez_, _Reynas Catholicas_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 915, 916. 'Demas de los frutos que dió para el
+         Cielo y para la tierra nuestra Reyna, tuvo otros de ambas lineas
+         en fundaciones de Templos y obras de piedad para bien del Reyno
+         y de la Iglesia. En Valladolid fundó el Convento de las
+         Franciscas Descalzas. En Madrid trasladó á las Agustinas
+         Recoletas de Santa Isabel desde la calle del Principe al sitio
+         en que hoy estan. Protegió con sus limosnas la fundacion de la
+         Iglesia de Carmelitas Descalzas de Santa Ana; y empezó á fundar
+         el Real Convento de las Agustinas Recoletas con titulo de la
+         Encarnacion en este misma Corte, cuya primera piedra se puso á
+         10 de Junio del 1611. En la parroquia de S. Gil junto al Palacio
+         introdujo los Religiosos Franciscos, cuyo Convento persevera hoy
+         con la misma advocacion.' How the country fared, while all this
+         was going on, we shall presently see.
+
+The increasing power of the Spanish Church during the seventeenth
+century, may be proved by nearly every description of evidence. The
+convents and churches multiplied with such alarming speed, and their
+wealth became so prodigious, that even the Cortes, broken and humbled
+though they were, ventured on a public remonstrance. In 1626, only five
+years after the death of Philip III., they requested that some means
+might be taken to prevent what they described as a constant invasion on
+the part of the Church. In this remarkable document, the Cortes,
+assembled at Madrid, declared that never a day passed in which laymen
+were not deprived of their property to enrich ecclesiastics; and the
+evil, they said, had grown to such a height, that there were then in
+Spain upwards of nine thousand monasteries, besides nunneries.[1255]
+This extraordinary statement has, I believe, never been contradicted,
+and its probability is enhanced by several other circumstances. Davila,
+who lived in the reign of Philip III., affirms that in 1623, the two
+orders of Dominicans and Franciscans alone amounted to thirty-two
+thousand.[1256] The other clergy increased in proportion. Before the
+death of Philip III., the number of ministers performing in the
+Cathedral of Seville had swelled to one hundred; and in the diocese of
+Seville, there were fourteen thousand chaplains; in the diocese of
+Calahorra, eighteen thousand.[1257] Nor did there seem any prospect of
+remedying this frightful condition. The richer the Church became, the
+greater was the inducement for laymen to enter it; so that there
+appeared to be no limit to the extent to which the sacrifice of temporal
+interests might be carried.[1258] Indeed, the movement, notwithstanding
+its suddenness, was perfectly regular, and was facilitated by a long
+train of preceding circumstances. Since the fifth century, the course
+of events, as we have already seen, invariably tended in this direction,
+and insured to the clergy a dominion which no other nation would have
+tolerated. The minds of the people being thus prepared, the people
+themselves looked on in silence at what it would have been impious to
+oppose; for, as a Spanish historian observes, every proposition was
+deemed heretical which tended to lessen the amount, or even to check the
+growth of that enormous wealth which was now possessed by the Spanish
+Church.[1259]
+
+  [1255] The burden of the petition was, 'Que se tratasse con mas veras de
+         poner limite á los bienes, que se sacauan cada dia del braço
+         Seglar al Eclesiastico, enflaqueciendo no tan solo el patrimonio
+         Real, mas el comun, pues siendo aquel libre de pechos,
+         contribuciones, y gauelas, alojamientos, huespedes, y otros
+         grauamenes mayores, presidios, guerras, y soldados.' ... 'Que
+         las Religiones eran muchas, las Mendicantes en excesso, y el
+         Clero en grande multitud. Que auia en España 9088 monasterios,
+         aun no cõtando los de Monjas. Que yuan meti[~e]do poco á poco,
+         con dotaciones, cofradias, capellanias, o con cõpras, á todo el
+         Reyno en su poder. Que se atajasse tanto mal. Que huuiesse
+         numero en los frayles, moderacion en los Cõuentos, y aun en los
+         Clerigos seglares.' _Cespedes_, _Historia de Don Felipe IV._,
+         Barcelona, 1634, fol. lib. vii. cap. 9, p. 272 rev. This is the
+         only noticeable passage in an unusually dull chronicle, which,
+         though professing to be a history of Philip IV., is confined to
+         the first few years of his reign.
+
+  [1256] 'En este año, que iba escribiendo esta Historia, tenian las
+         Ordenes de Santo Domingo, y S. Francisco en España, treinta y
+         dos mil Religiosos, y los Obispados de Calahorra y Pamplona
+         veinte y quatro mil clerigos; pues qué tendran las demas
+         Religiones, y los demas Obispados?' _Davila_, _Historia de
+         Felipe Tercere_, lib. ii. p. 215. See also cap. xcvii. pp. 248,
+         249; and, on the increase of convents, see _Yañez_, _Memorias
+         para la Historia de Felipe III._, pp. 240, 268, 304, 305.
+
+  [1257] 'The reign of Philip III., surnamed from his piety the Good, was
+         the golden age of Churchmen. Though religious foundations were
+         already too numerous, great additions were made to them; and in
+         those which already existed, new altars or chancels were
+         erected. Thus, the duke of Lerma founded seven monasteries and
+         two collegiate churches; thus, also, the diocese of Calahorra
+         numbered 18,000 chaplains, Seville 14,000. How uselessly the
+         ministers of religion were multiplied, will appear still more
+         clearly from the fact that the cathedral of Seville alone had a
+         hundred, when half-a-dozen would assuredly have been sufficient
+         for the public offices of devotion.' _Dunham's History of
+         Spain_, vol. v. p. 274. According to the passage quoted in note
+         93, from Davila, there were twenty-four thousand 'clerigos' in
+         the two dioceses of Calahorra and Pamplona.
+
+  [1258] 'Entre tanto crecia por instantes y se aumentaba prodigiosamente
+         el poder y la autoridad de la Iglesia. Sus pingües riquezas
+         desmembraban de una manera considerable las rentas de la corona;
+         y el estado eclesiástico, que muchos abrazaron en un principio á
+         consecuencia de las desgracias y calamidades de la época, fué
+         despues el mas solicitado por las inmensas ventajas que ofrecia
+         su condicion comparada con la de las clases restantes.'
+         _Antequera_, _Historia de la Legislacion_, pp. 223, 224. See
+         also in _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion_, Madrid,
+         1775-1777, vol. i. p. 465, and vol. iv. p. 219, a statement made
+         by the University of Toledo in 1619, or 1620, that 'hay doblados
+         religiosos, clerigos y estudiantes; porque ya _no hallan otro
+         modo de vivir_, _ni de poder sustentarse_.' If the eye of M.
+         Lafuente had lighted upon this and other passages, which I shall
+         shortly quote from contemporary observers, he would, I think,
+         have expressed himself much more strongly than he has done
+         respecting this period, in his recent brilliant, but
+         unsatisfactory, History of Spain. On the great wealth of the
+         convents in 1679, when the rest of the country was steeped in
+         poverty, see a letter dated Madrid, July 25, 1679, in
+         _D'Aulnoy_, _Relation du Voyage d'Espagne_, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii.
+         p. 251. But the earliest evidence I have met with is in a
+         letter, written in 1609, to Prince Henry of England, by Sir
+         Charles Cornwallis, the English ambassador at Madrid. 'The
+         furniture of their churches here, and the riches and lustre of
+         their sepulchres made in every monasterie (the general povertye
+         of this kingdome considered), are almost incredible. The laity
+         of this nation may say with Davyde (though in another sense),
+         "Zelus domus tuæ comedit me:" for, assuredly, the riches of the
+         Temporall hath in a manner all fallen into the mouthes and
+         devouring throates of the Spiritual.' _Winwood's Memorials of
+         Affairs of State_, vol. iii. p. 10, London, 1725, folio.
+
+  [1259] 'Deux millions de ducats, que le clergé possédait sous le règne
+         de Charles V, étaient réputés comme un revenu exorbitant; et, un
+         demi-siècle plus tard, lorsque ces revenus s'élevaient à huit
+         millions, on qualifiat d'hérétique, toute proposition tendant à
+         opérer quelque modification dans leur accroissement.' _Sempère_,
+         _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii. p. 16.
+
+How natural all this was, appears also from another fact of considerable
+interest. In Europe generally, the seventeenth century was distinguished
+by the rise of a secular literature in which ecclesiastical theories
+were disregarded; the most influential writers, such as Bacon and
+Descartes, being laymen, rather hostile to the Church than friendly to
+it, and composing their works with views purely temporal. But in Spain,
+no change of this sort occurred.[1260] In that country, the Church
+retained her hold over the highest as well as over the lowest
+intellects. Such was the pressure of public opinion, that authors of
+every grade were proud to count themselves members of the ecclesiastical
+profession, the interests of which they advocated with a zeal worthy of
+the Dark Ages. Cervantes, three years before his death, became a
+Franciscan monk.[1261] Lope de Vega was a priest; he was an officer of
+the Inquisition; and in 1623 he assisted at an auto da fé, in which,
+amid an immense concourse of people, a heretic was burned outside the
+gate of Alcalá at Madrid.[1262] Moreto, one of the three greatest
+dramatists Spain has produced, assumed the monastic habit during the
+last twelve years of his life.[1263] Montalvan, whose plays are still
+remembered, was a priest, and held office in the Inquisition.[1264]
+Tarrega, Mira de Mescua, and Tirso de Molina, were all successful
+writers for the stage, and were all clergymen.[1265] Solis, the
+celebrated historian of Mexico, was also a clergyman.[1266] Sandoval,
+whom Philip III. appointed historiographer, and who is the principal
+authority for the reign of Charles V., was at first a Benedictine monk,
+afterwards became bishop of Tuy, and later still, was raised to the see
+of Pampeluna.[1267] Davila, the biographer of Philip III., was a
+priest.[1268] Mariana was a Jesuit;[1269] and Miñana, who continued his
+History, was superior of a convent in Valencia.[1270] Martin Carrillo
+was a jurisconsult as well as an historian, but, not satisfied with his
+double employment, he too entered the Church, and became canon of
+Saragossa.[1271] Antonio, the most learned bibliographer Spain ever
+possessed, was a canon of Seville.[1272] Gracian, whose prose works have
+been much read, and who was formerly deemed a great writer, was a
+Jesuit.[1273] Among the poets, the same tendency was exhibited.
+Paravicino was for sixteen years a popular preacher at the courts of
+Philip III. and Philip IV.[1274] Zamora was a monk.[1275] Argensola was
+a canon of Saragossa.[1276] Gongora was a priest;[1277] and Rioja
+received a high post[1278] in the Inquisition. Calderon was chaplain to
+Philip IV.;[1279] and so fanatical are the sentiments which tarnish his
+brilliant genius, that he has been termed the poet of the
+Inquisition.[1280] His love for the Church was a passion, and he
+scrupled at nothing which could advance its interests. In Spain, such
+feelings were natural; though to other nations they seem so strange,
+that an eminent critic has declared that it is hardly possible to read
+his works without indignation.[1281] If this be so, the indignation
+should be extended to nearly all his contemporary countrymen, great or
+small. There was hardly a Spaniard of that period who did not entertain
+similar sentiments. Even Villaviciosa, author of one of the very best
+mock-heroic poems Spain has produced, was not only an officer in the
+Inquisition, but, in his last will, he strongly urged upon his family
+and all his descendants, that they too should, if possible, enter the
+service of that noble institution, taking whatever place in it they
+could obtain, since all its offices were, he said, worthy of
+veneration.[1282] In such a state of society, anything approaching to a
+secular or scientific spirit was, of course, impossible. Every one
+believed; no one inquired. Among the better classes, all were engaged in
+war or theology, and most were occupied with both. Those who made
+literature a profession, ministered, as professional men too often do,
+to the prevailing prejudice. Whatever concerned the Church was treated
+not only with respect, but with timid veneration. Skill and industry
+worthy of a far better cause, were expended in eulogizing every folly
+which superstition had invented. The more cruel and preposterous a
+custom was, the greater the number of persons who wrote in its favour,
+albeit no one had ventured to assail it. The quantity of Spanish works
+to prove the necessity of religious persecution is incalculable; and
+this took place in a country where not one man in a thousand doubted the
+propriety of burning heretics. As to miracles, which form the other
+capital resource of theologians, they, in the seventeenth century, were
+constantly happening, and as constantly being recorded. All literary men
+were anxious to say something on that important subject. Saints, too,
+being in great repute, their biographies were written in profusion, and
+with an indifference to truth which usually characterizes that species
+of composition. With these and kindred topics, the mind of Spain was
+chiefly busied. Monasteries, nunneries, religious orders, and cathedrals
+received equal attention, and huge books were written about them, in
+order that every particular might be preserved. Indeed, it often
+happened that a single convent, or a single cathedral, would have more
+than one historian; each seeking to distance his immediate competitor,
+and all striving which could do most to honour the Church and to uphold
+the interests of which the Church was the guardian.[1283]
+
+  [1260] In a work on Spanish literature which was published about seventy
+         years ago, and which, at the time of its appearance, made
+         considerable noise, this peculiarity is frankly admitted, but is
+         deemed rather an honour to Spain than otherwise, inasmuch as
+         that country, we are told, has produced philosophers who have
+         gone much deeper into things than Bacon, Descartes, and Newton,
+         who, no doubt, were clever men, but were nowise comparable to
+         the great thinkers of the Peninsula. Such assertions,
+         proceeding, not from some ignorant despiser of physical science,
+         who contemns what he has never been at the pains to study, but
+         from a really able and, in some respects, competent judge, are
+         important for the history of opinion; and as the book is not
+         very common, I will give two or three extracts. 'Confiesan los
+         Franceses con ingenuidad que Descartes fué un novelista: y con
+         todo eso quieren hacerle pasar por el promotor de la filosofía
+         en Europa, como si su filosofía se desemejase mucho de la que
+         dominaba en las sectas de la antigüedad. Su tratádo "Del Metodo"
+         es nada en comparacion de los libros "De la Corrupcion de las
+         Artes" de Juan Luis Vives, que le antecedió buen número de
+         años.' _Oracion Apologética por la España y su Mérito Literario
+         por D. J. P. Forner_, Madrid, 1786, p. xi. 'No hemos tenido en
+         los efectos un Cartesio, no un Neuton: démoslo de barato: pero
+         hemos tenido justísimos legisladores y excelentes filósofos
+         prácticos, que han preferido el inefable gusto de trabajar en
+         beneficio de la humanidad á la ociosa ocupacion de edificar
+         mundos imaginarios en la soledad y silencio de un gabinete.' p.
+         12. 'Nada se disputaba en España.' p. 61. At p. 143 a comparison
+         between Bacon and Vives; and the final decision, p. 146, that
+         Vives enjoys 'una gloriosa superioridad sobre todos los sabios
+         de todos los siglos.'
+
+  [1261] The final profession was not made till 1616; but he began to wear
+         the clothes in 1613. 'Tal era su situacion el sábado santo 2 de
+         abril' [1616] 'que por no poder salir de su casa hubieron de
+         darle en ella la profesion de la venerable órden tercera de San
+         Francisco, cuyo hábito habia tomado en Alcalá, el dia 2 de julio
+         de 1613.' _Navarrete_, _Vida de Cervantes_, p. cii. prefixed to
+         _Don Quijote_, Barcelona, 1839. Even in 1609, says Navarrete,
+         (p. lxii.), 'Se ha creido que entónces se incorporó tambien
+         Cervantes, como lo hizo Lope de Vega, en la congregacion del
+         oratorio del Caballero de Gracia, mientras que su muger y su
+         hermana doña Andrea se dedicaban á semejantes ejercicios de
+         piedad en la venerable órden tercera de San Francisco, cuyo
+         hábito recibieron en 8 de junio del mismo año.'
+
+  [1262] _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. ii. pp. 125, 126,
+         137, 147, 148.
+
+  [1263] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 374. _Biographie Universelle_, vol. xxx.
+         pp. 149, 150.
+
+  [1264] _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. ii. pp. 276, 327.
+
+  [1265] _Ticknor_, vol. ii. p. 327.
+
+  [1266] _Bouterwek's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. i. p. 525. But
+         the best account is that given by his biographer, who assures us
+         of two facts; that he received 'todas las órdenes sagradas,' and
+         that he was 'devotísimo de María santísima.' _Vida de Solis_, p.
+         15, prefixed to _Solis_, _Historia de la Conquista de Mejico_,
+         edit. Paris, 1844.
+
+  [1267] _Biographie Universelle_, vol. xl. p. 319.
+
+  [1268] 'Sacerdote soy.' _Davila_, _Historia de la Vida de Felipe
+         Tercero_, lib. ii. p. 215.
+
+  [1269] _Biographie Universelle_, vol. xxvii. p. 42.
+
+  [1270] _Ibid._ vol. xxix. p. 80.
+
+  [1271] _Ibid._ vol. vii. p. 219.
+
+  [1272] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 293.
+
+  [1273] _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. p. 177.
+
+  [1274] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 491, vol. iii. pp. 117, 118.
+
+  [1275] _Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 348,
+         London, 1846.
+
+  [1276] 'Pero en fin murio Don Andres Martinez, y sucediole en la
+         Canongia nuestro Bartholome.' _Pellicer_, _Ensayo de una
+         Bibliotheca_, Madrid, 1778, 4to. p. 94. This was the younger
+         Argensola.
+
+  [1277] _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. ii. p. 486.
+
+  [1278] 'Occupied a high place in the Inquisition.' _Ticknor_, vol. ii.
+         p. 507. 'Prit les ordres, et obtint un canonicat.' _Biographie
+         Univ._ vol. xxxviii. p. 120.
+
+  [1279] In 1663 Philip IV. 'le honró con otra Capellanía de honor en su
+         real Capilla.' _Vida de Calderon_, p. iv., prefixed to _Las
+         Comedias de Calderon_, edit. Keil, Leipsique, 1827.
+
+  [1280] 'Calderon is, in fact, the true poet of the Inquisition. Animated
+         by a religious feeling, which is too visible in all his pieces,
+         he inspires me only with horror for the faith which he
+         professes.' _Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe_, vol.
+         ii. p. 379. Compare _Lewes on the Spanish Drama_, pp. 176-179.
+
+  [1281] Salfi says, 'Calderon de la Barca excite encore plus une sorte
+         d'indignation, malgré son génie dramatique, qui le mit audessus
+         de Vega, son prédécesseur. En lisant ses drames sans prévention,
+         vous diriez qu'il a voulu faire servir son talent uniquement à
+         confirmer les préjugés et les superstitions les plus ridicules
+         de sa nation.' _Ginguenè_, _Histoire Littéraire d'Italie_, vol.
+         xii. p. 499, Paris, 1834.
+
+  [1282] 'Entró en el año de 1622 á ser _Relator del Consejo de la General
+         Inquisicion_, cuyo empleo servió y desempeñó con todo honor
+         muchos años.' And he declared, 'en esta clausula de su
+         Testamento: "Y por quanto yo y mis hermanos y toda nuestra
+         familia nos hemos sustentado, autorizado y puesto en estado con
+         las honras y mercedes, que nos ha hecho el santo Oficio de la
+         Inquisicion, á quien hemos servido como nuestros antepassados;
+         encargo afectuosissimamente á todos mis successores le sean para
+         siempre los mas respetuosos servidores y criados, viviendo en
+         ocupacion de su santo servido, procurando adelantarse y
+         señalarse en él, quanto les fuere possible, en qualquiera de sus
+         ministerios; pues todos son tan dignos de estimacion y
+         veneracion."' _La Mosquea, por Villaviciosa_, Prologo,
+         pp. x.-xii., edit. Madrid, 1777.
+
+  [1283] 'Hardly a convent or a saint of any note in Spain, during the
+         sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, failed of especial
+         commemoration; and each of the religious orders and great
+         cathedrals had at least one historian, and most of them several.
+         The number of books on Spanish ecclesiastical history, is,
+         therefore, one that may well be called enormous.' _Ticknor's
+         History of Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. p. 132. Forner assures
+         us, somewhat needlessly, of what no one ever doubted, that 'los
+         estudios sagrados jamas decayéron en España.' _Forner_, _Oracion
+         Apologética_, Madrid, 1786, p. 141.
+
+Such, was the preponderance of the ecclesiastical profession, and such
+was the homage paid to ecclesiastical interests by the Spaniards during
+the seventeenth century.[1284] They did everything to strengthen the
+Church in that very age when other nations first set themselves in
+earnest to weaken it. This unhappy peculiarity was undoubtedly the
+effect of preceding events; but it was the immediate cause of the
+decline of Spain, since, whatever may have been the case in former
+periods, it is certain that, in modern times, the prosperity of nations
+depends on principles to which the clergy, as a body, are invariably
+opposed. Under Philip III. they gained an immense accession of strength;
+and in that very reign they signalized this new epoch of their power by
+obtaining, with circumstances of horrible barbarity, the expulsion of
+the whole Moorish nation. This was an act so atrocious in itself,[1285]
+and so terrible in its consequences, that some writers have ascribed to
+it alone, the subsequent ruin of Spain; forgetting that other causes,
+far more potent, were also at work, and that this stupendous crime could
+never have been perpetrated, except in a country which, being long
+accustomed to regard heresy as the most heinous of all offences, was
+ready, at any cost, to purge the land and to free itself from men whose
+mere presence was regarded as an insult to the Christian faith.
+
+  [1284] In 1623, Howell writes from Madrid: 'Such is the reverence they
+         bear to the church here, and so holy a conceit they have of all
+         ecclesiastics, that the greatest Don in Spain will tremble to
+         offer the meanest of them any outrage or affront.' _Howell's
+         Letters_, edit. London, 1754, p. 138. 'The reverence they show
+         to the holy function of the church is wonderful; Princes and
+         Queens will not disdain to kiss a Capuchin's sleeve, or the
+         surplice of a priest.' ... 'There are no such sceptics and
+         cavillers there, as in other places.' p. 496. In 1669, another
+         observer writes: 'En Espagne les Religieux sont les maîtres, et
+         l'emportent partout où ils se trouvent.' _Voyages faits en
+         divers Temps en Espagne_, Amsterdam, 1700, p. 35. And, to quote
+         one more authority, the following picture is given of Spanish
+         society in the reign of Philip IV.: 'No habia familia con quien
+         no estuvieran entroncados los frailes por amistad ó parentesco;
+         ni casa que les cerrara sus puertas; ni conversacion en que no
+         se les cediera la palabra; ni mesa en que no se les obligara á
+         ocupar la primera silla; ni resolucion grave entre ricos ó
+         pobres que se adoptara sin su consejo; y si no tomaban parte en
+         ellas, las satisfacciones domésticas no eran cabales.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. i. p. 94.
+
+  [1285] 'Le cardinal de Richelieu, qui n'étoit pas très-susceptible de
+         pitié, l'appelle "le plus hardi et le plus barbare conseil dont
+         l'histoire de tous les siècles précédens fasse mention."'
+         _Sismondi_, _Histoire des Français_, vol. xxii. p. 163, Paris,
+         1839.
+
+After the reduction, late in the fifteenth century, of the last
+Mohammedan kingdom in Spain, the great object of the Spaniards became to
+convert those whom they had conquered.[1286] They believed that the
+future welfare of a whole people was at stake; and finding that the
+exhortations of their clergy had no effect, they had recourse to other
+means, and persecuted the men they were unable to persuade. By torturing
+some, by burning others, and by threatening all, they at length
+succeeded; and we are assured that, after the year 1526, there was no
+Mohammedan in Spain, who had not been converted to Christianity.[1287]
+Immense numbers of them were baptized by force; but being baptized, it
+was held that they belonged to the Church, and were amenable to her
+discipline.[1288] That discipline was administered by the Inquisition,
+which, during the rest of the sixteenth century, subjected these new
+Christians, or Moriscoes, as they were now called,[1289] to the most
+barbarous treatment. The genuineness of their forced conversion was
+doubted; it therefore became the business of the Church to inquire into
+their sincerity.[1290] The civil government lent its aid; and among
+other enactments, an edict was issued by Philip II. in 1566, ordering
+the Moriscoes to abandon everything which by the slightest possibility
+could remind them of their former religion. They were commanded, under
+severe penalties, to learn Spanish, and to give up all their Arabic
+books. They were forbidden to read their native language, or to write
+it, or even to speak it in their own houses. Their ceremonies and their
+very games were strictly prohibited. They were to indulge in no
+amusements which had been practised by their fathers; neither were they
+to wear such clothes as they had been accustomed to. Their women were to
+go unveiled; and as bathing was a heathenish custom, all public baths
+were to be destroyed, and even all baths in private houses.[1291]
+
+  [1286] 'Porque los Reyes queriendo, que en todo el Reino fuesen
+         Christianos, embiaron á Frai Francisco Ximenez, que fue
+         Arzobispo de Toledo i Cardenal, para que los persuadiese. Mas
+         ellos, gente dura, pertinaz, nuevamente conquistada, estuvieron
+         recios,' _Mendoza_, _Guerra de Granada que hizo Felipe II.
+         contra los Moriscos_, Valencia, 1776, 4to. p. 10. The author of
+         this book was born early in the sixteenth century, at Granada,
+         where he lived for a considerable period.
+
+  [1287] 'L'année 1526 vit donc disparaître dans toutes les parties de
+         l'Espagne les signes extérieurs de l'islamisme.' _Circourt_,
+         _Hist. des Arabes d'Espagne_, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 220. M.
+         Lafuente (_Historia de España_, vol. x. p. 132) says of 1502,
+         that 'desde entónces, por primera vez al cabo de ocho siglos, no
+         quedo un solo habitante en España que esteriormente diera culto
+         á Mahoma:' but in vol. xi. p. 447, he says that, in 1524,
+         'volvieron inmediatamente á sus ritos y ceremonias muslímicas.'
+         As M. de Circourt was well acquainted with all the materials
+         used by M. Lafuente, and is, moreover, a much more critical
+         writer, it seems likely that his statement is the correct one.
+
+  [1288] 'Ces malheureux auraient tous été exterminés, s'ils n'avaient
+         consenti à recevoir le baptême. Au milieu des décombres de leurs
+         maisons, sur les cadavres fumans de leurs femmes, ils
+         s'agenouillèrent. Les germanos, ivres de sang, firent l'office
+         de prêtres; l'un d'eux prit un balai, aspergea la foule des
+         musulmans, en prononçant les paroles sacramentelles, et crut
+         avoir fait des chrétiens. L'armée des germanos se répandit
+         ensuite dans le pays environnant, saccageant d'abord, baptisant
+         après.' _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_, vol. ii.
+         p. 175. See also p. 202.
+
+  [1289] That was their general name; but, in Aragon, they were termed
+         '"tornadizos," en lenguage insultante.' _Janer_, _Condición de
+         los Moriscos de España_, Madrid, 1857, p. 26.
+
+  [1290] 'Recibieron el Sacramento por comodidad, no de voluntad, y asi
+         encubrian todo lo possible el viuir y morir en la secta de
+         Mahoma, siendo infieles apostatas.' _Vanderhammen's Filipe
+         Segundo_, p. 12. 'Porque la Inquisicion los comenzó á apretar
+         mas de lo ordinario.' _Mendoza_, _Guerra de Granada_, p. 20.
+         'Poner nuevo cuidado i diligencia en descubrir los motivos
+         destos hombres,' p. 26. And yet this very writer has the
+         impudence to declaim against Mohammedanism as a cruel religion.
+         'Cruel i abominable religion aplacar á Dios con vida i sangre
+         innocente!' pp. 107, 108.
+
+  [1291] Vanderhammen (_Filipe Segundo_, p. 12, Madrid, 1632) merely tells
+         us that 'Por cedula el año sesenta y seis les mandó dexassen el
+         habito, lengua y costumbres de Moros, y fuessen Christianos y lo
+         pareciessen.' But the exact provisions were, 'Que dentro de tres
+         años aprendiesen los moriscos á hablar la lengua castellana, y
+         de allí adelante ninguno pudiese hablar, leer ni escriber
+         arábigo en publico ni en secreto: que todos los contratos que se
+         hiciesen en arábigo fuesen nulos: que todos los libros así
+         escritos los llevasen en término de treinta dias al presidente
+         de la audiencia de Granada para que los mandase examinar,
+         devolviendoseles aquellos que no ofrecieran inconveniente para
+         que los pudiesen guardar solo durante los tres años: que no se
+         hicieran de nuevo marlotas, almalafas, calzas ni otra suerte de
+         vestidos de los que se usaban en tiempos de moros; que durante
+         este tiempo, las mujeres vestidas á la morisca llevarian la cara
+         descubierta; que no usasen de las ceremonias ni de los regocijos
+         moros en las bodas, sino conforme al uso de la Santa Madre
+         Iglesia, abriendo las puertas de sus casas en tales dias, y
+         tambien en los de fiesta, no haciendo zambras ni leylas con
+         instrumentos ni cantares moriscos, aunque no dijesen en ellos
+         cosas contraria á la religion cristiana,' &c. _Janer_,
+         _Condicion de los Moriscos_, pp. 31, 32, where other particulars
+         will be found, which should be compared with _Circourt_,
+         _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_, vol. ii. pp. 278, 283, 459-463.
+
+By these and similar measures,[1292] these unhappy people were at length
+goaded into rebellion; and in 1568 they took the desperate step of
+measuring their force against that of the whole Spanish monarchy. The
+result could hardly be doubted; but the Moriscoes maddened by their
+sufferings, and fighting for their all, protracted the contest till
+1571, when the insurrection was finally put down.[1293] By this
+unsuccessful effort, they were greatly reduced in numbers and in
+strength; and, during the remaining twenty-seven years of the reign of
+Philip II. we hear comparatively little of them. Notwithstanding an
+occasional outbreak, the old animosities were subsiding, and in the
+course of time would probably have disappeared. At all events, there was
+no pretence for violence on the part of the Spaniards, since it was
+absurd to suppose that the Moriscoes, weakened in every way, humbled,
+broken, and scattered through the kingdom, could, even if they desired
+it, effect any thing against the resources of the executive government.
+
+  [1292] Some of the other steps which were taken, before 1566, to affront
+         the Moriscoes are enumerated in _Prescott's History of Philip
+         II._, vol. iii. p. 10, and elsewhere. In the reign of Charles
+         V., there were many acts of local tyranny which escape the
+         general historian. One of them, on the part of the Bishop of
+         Guadix, is worth quoting. 'On le vit pousser l'intolérance
+         jusqu'à faire raser les femmes et les obliger à racler leurs
+         ongles pour en faire disparaître les traces du henné, cosmétique
+         inoffensif dont il abhorrait l'usage, en raison de ce que les
+         Arabes l'avaient introduit.' _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes
+         d'Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 226.
+
+  [1293] Its concluding scene, in March, 1571, is skilfully depicted in
+         _Prescott's History of Philip III._, vol. iii. pp. 148-151. The
+         splendid courage of the Moriscoes is attested by Mendoza in his
+         contemporary history of the war; but, in narrating the horrible
+         outrages which they undoubtedly committed, he makes no allowance
+         for the long-continued and insufferable provocations which they
+         had received from the Spanish Christians. What he mentions of
+         one of the battles is curious, and I do not remember to have
+         seen it elsewhere recorded. 'Fue porfiado por ambas partes el
+         combate hasta venir á las espadas, de que los Moros se
+         aprovechan menos que nosotros, por tener las suyas un filo i no
+         herir ellos de punta.' _Mendoza_, _Guerra de Granada_, edit.
+         4to. Valencia, 1776, p. 168.
+
+But, after the death of Philip II., that movement began which I have
+just described, and which, contrary to the course of affairs in other
+nations, secured to the Spanish clergy in the seventeenth century, more
+power than they had possessed in the sixteenth. The consequences of this
+were immediately apparent. The clergy did not think that the steps taken
+by Philip II. against the Moriscoes were sufficiently decisive; and even
+during his lifetime they looked forward to a new reign, in which these
+Christians of doubtful sincerity should be either destroyed or driven
+from Spain.[1294] While he was on the throne, the prudence of the
+government restrained in some degree the eagerness of the Church; and
+the king, following the advice of his ablest ministers, refused to adopt
+the measures to which he was urged, and to which his own disposition
+prompted him.[1295] But, under his successor, the clergy, as we have
+already seen, gained fresh strength, and they soon felt themselves
+sufficiently powerful to begin another and final crusade against the
+miserable remains of the Moorish nation.[1296]
+
+  [1294] An instance of this was exhibited in 1578, on the very day in
+         which Philip III. was born. 'Predicando en un lugar de Aragon,
+         todo de Moriscos, llamado Ricla, ó Torrellas, un religioso,
+         llamado Vargas, el mismo dia que nació su Magestad, viendo el
+         poco fruto que hacia con sus sermones, dixo, como en Profecia, á
+         aquella gente rebelde: Pues no quereis despedir de vuestros
+         pechos esta infernal secta, sabed, que ha nacido en Castilla vn
+         Principe que os ha de echar de España.' _Porreño_, _Dichos y
+         Hechos de Phelipe III._, in _Yañez_, _Memorias_, Madrid, 1723,
+         p. 224; and nearly the same words in _Janer_, _Condicion de los
+         Moriscos_, p. 60. Mr. Prescott, in his _History of Philip II._,
+         vol. iii. p. 139, quotes a Ms. letter from Don John of Austria
+         to Philip II., written in 1570, and stating that the Spanish
+         monks were openly preaching against the leniency with which the
+         king treated the Moriscoes. 'Predicando en los púlpitos
+         publicamente contra la benignidad y clemencia que V. M. ha
+         mandado usar con esta gente.'
+
+  [1295] In a recent work of considerable authority, it is denied that
+         Philip II. entertained the desire of expelling the Moriscoes.
+         'El carácter austero y la severidad de Felipe II. redundaban en
+         favor de los moriscos, porque no daba oidos á las instigaciones
+         de algunos personajes que señalaban la expulsion general como
+         unico remedio eficaz para los males que ofrecia al pais aquella
+         desventurada raza. Acababa el monarca de tocar los tristes
+         resultados de una emigracion por las funestas consecuencias de
+         la despoblacion del reino granadino, y preferia continuar en la
+         _senda de la conciliacion_, procurando de nuevo la enseñanza de
+         los conversos.' _Janer_, _Condicion de los Moriscos_, Madrid,
+         1857, p. 59. But to say nothing of the fact that this is
+         contrary to all we know of the character of Philip, we have, on
+         the other side of the question, the testimony of Archbishop
+         Ribera, who had often communicated with the King on the subject,
+         and who distinctly states that Philip desired the expulsion of
+         the Moors from Spain, 'El hechar los Moros deste Reyno, ha sido
+         cosa muy desseada, y procurada por los Reyes Predecessores del
+         Rey nuestro Señor, aunque no executada.' ... 'El Rey Don Felipe
+         Segundo, nuestro Señor, despues de suceder en estos Reynos,
+         _tuvo el mismo desseo_; y assi mandó, que se juntassen los
+         Prelados deste Reyno para buscar remedio el año de 1568; siendo
+         Arçobispo desta Metropoli el Reverendissimo Don Hernando de
+         Lloazes. Hizieronse en aquella Junta algunas Constituciones de
+         consideracion. Visto que no aprovechaban, mandó el año 1587 que
+         se hiziesse otra Junta, _en la qual me hallé yo_: añadimos
+         tambien algunas nuevas Constituciones. Y constando á su Magestad
+         que no eran bastantes las diligencias passadas, y que siempre
+         perseveraban en su heregia, se resolvio de mandarlos hechar del
+         Reyno, ó por lo menos meterlos dentro de la tierra.' _Ximenez_,
+         _Vida de Ribera_, Roma, 1734, 4to. pp. 419, 420. This important
+         passage is decisive as to the real feelings of Philip, unless we
+         assume that Ribera has stated a deliberate falsehood. But,
+         strange to say, even the book in which so remarkable a passage
+         is contained, appears to be unknown either to M. Janer or to M.
+         Lafuente.
+
+  [1296] 'El rey Felipe III., hombre de rudo ingenio, se dejaba gobernar
+         con facilidad por aquellos que sabiendo los temores de su
+         conciencia, se aprovechaban de su imbecilidad para conseguir
+         cuanto querian. Muchos eclesiásticos, recordando las espulsiones
+         de judios y moros ejecutadas de órden de Fernando é Isabel, y
+         conociendo que á Felipe III. seria agradable imitar á estos
+         monarcas, le aconsejaron que condenase al destierro á todos los
+         moriscos que vivian en sus reynos; pues no solo se obstinaban en
+         seguir la ley mahometana, sino que tenían tratos con los turcos
+         y entre sí para buscar sus libertades por medio del rigor de las
+         armas.' _Castro_, _Decadencia de España_, Cadiz, 1852,
+         pp. 101, 102.
+
+The Archbishop of Valencia was the first to take the field. In 1602,
+this eminent prelate presented a memorial to Philip III. against the
+Moriscoes; and finding that his views were cordially supported by the
+clergy, and not discouraged by the crown, he followed up the blow by
+another memorial having the same object.[1297] The Archbishop, who spoke
+as one having authority, and who from his rank and position was a
+natural representative of the Spanish Church, assured the king that all
+the disasters which had befallen the monarchy, had been caused by the
+presence of these unbelievers, whom it was now necessary to root out,
+even as David had done to the Philistines, and Saul to the
+Amalekites.[1298] He declared that the Armada, which Philip II. sent
+against England in 1588, had been destroyed, because God would not allow
+even that pious enterprise to succeed, while those who undertook it,
+left heretics undisturbed at home. For the same reason, the late
+expedition to Algiers had failed; it being evidently the will of Heaven
+that nothing should prosper while Spain was inhabited by
+apostates.[1299] He, therefore, exhorted the king to exile all the
+Moriscoes, except some whom he might condemn to work in the galleys, and
+others who could become slaves, and labour in the mines of
+America.[1300] This, he added, would make the reign of Philip glorious
+to all posterity, and would raise his fame far above that of his
+predecessors, who in this matter had neglected their obvious duty.[1301]
+
+  [1297] These memorials are printed in the Appendix to his Life by
+         Ximenez. See the very curious book, entitled _Vida y Virtudes
+         del Venerable Siervo de Dios D. Juan de Ribera_, _por el R. P.
+         Fr. Juan Ximenez_, Roma, 1734, 4to. pp. 367-374, 376-393. This
+         work is, I believe, extremely rare; at all events, I endeavoured
+         in vain to obtain a copy from Spain or Italy, and, after some
+         years' unsuccessful search, I met with the one I now have, on a
+         London book-stall. M. de Circourt, in his learned History of the
+         Spanish Arabs, does not appear to have been aware of its
+         existence, and he complains that he could not procure the works
+         of Ribera, whose Memorials he consequently quotes second-hand.
+         _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_, Paris, 1846, vol.
+         iii. pp. 168, 351. Nor does Watson seem to have known it; though
+         both he and M. de Circourt refer to Escriva's Life of Ribera.
+         _Watson's Philip III._, London, 1839, pp. 214-221. An abstract
+         of these Memorials is given by Geddes, who, though a learned and
+         accurate writer, had the mischievous habit of not indicating the
+         sources of his information. _Geddes' Tracts_, London, 1730,
+         vol. i. pp. 60-71.
+
+  [1298] 'Por lo qual se puede creer, que nuestro Señor ha querido
+         reservar esta obra tan digna de pecho Real para Vuestra
+         Magestad, como reservó la libertad e su pueblo para Moyses, la
+         entrada de la Tierra de Promission para Josue, la vengança de la
+         injuria antigua de los Amalequitas para Saul, y la victoria de
+         los Filisteos para David.' _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, p. 370.
+         Again, p. 377: 'Y al primer Rey que tuvo el Mundo, en siendo
+         elegido por Dios, y confirmado en su Reyno, le embia á mandar
+         por un Propheta que destruya á los Amalequitas, sin dexar
+         hombres, ni mugeres, ni niños, aunque sean de leche, en fin que
+         no quede rastro de ellos, ni des sus haziendas. Y porque no
+         cumplió exactamente su mandamiento, cayó en indignacion de Dios,
+         y fue privado del Reyno. Al segundo Rey, que fue David, le mandó
+         Dios en siendo jurado, que destruyesse los Philisteos, como lo
+         hizo.'
+
+  [1299] 'El año quando se perdio la poderosa Armada, que iba á
+         Inglaterra, confiado de la benignidad del Rey nuestro Señor, que
+         está en el Cielo, me atreví con el zelo de fiel vassallo y
+         Capellán, á dezir á Su Magestad; que aviendo gastado mucho
+         tiempo en discurrir, que causa podia aver para que Dios, nuestro
+         Señor, permitiesse aquel mal sucesso se me havia ofrecido una
+         cosa de mucha consideracion, y era, querer dezir la Magestad
+         Divina á Su Magestad Catolica; que mientras no ponia remedio en
+         estas Heregias de España, cuyos Reynos le avia encomendado, no
+         se debía ocupar en remediar las de los Beynos agenos. Y ahora
+         confiando en la misma benignidad, y clemencia de Vuestra
+         Magestad, me atrevo tambien á dezir, que aviendo considerado la
+         causa, porque Dios nos ha quitado de las manos la toma de Argel,
+         aviendose dispuesto todas las prevenciones para ella con la
+         mayor prudencia, y sagacidad, que hemos visto en nuestros
+         tiempos, y sirviendonos el mar, y los ayres, y las ocasiones, de
+         la manera, que podiamos dessear, tengo por sin duda, que ha
+         sido, querer nuestro Señor dar á Vuestra Magestad el ultimo
+         recuerdo de la obligacion, que tiene, de resolver esta platica.'
+         _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, p. 373. It would be a pity if such
+         admirable specimens of theological reasoning were to remain
+         buried in an old Roman quarto. I congratulate myself and the
+         reader on my acquisition of this volume, which is a vast
+         repertory of powerful, though obsolete, weapons.
+
+ [1300] 'Todas estas cosas, y otras muchas, que dexo de dezir, por no ser
+         prolixo, me hazen evidencia, de que conviene para el servicio de
+         Dios nuestro Señor, y que Vuestra Magestad está obligado en
+         conciencia, como Rey, y Supremo Señor, á quien toca de justicia
+         defender, y conservar sus Reynos, mandar desterrar de España
+         todos estos Moriscos, sin que quede hombre, ni muger grande, ni
+         pequeño; reservando tan solamente los niños, y niñas, que no
+         llegaren á siete años, para que se guarden entre nosotros,
+         repartien dolos por las casas particulares de Christianos
+         viejos. Y aun hay opinion de personas doctas, que estos tales
+         niños y niñas, los puede Vuestra Magestad dar por esclavos, y lo
+         fundan con razones probables.' _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, pp.
+         379, 380. 'Destos que se han de desterrar, podra Vuestra
+         Magestad tomarlos que fuere servido por esclavos, para proveer
+         sus Galeras, ó para embiar á las minas de las Indias, sin
+         escrupulo alguno de conciencia, lo que tambien será de no poca
+         utilidad.' p. 384. To do this, was to be merciful; for they all
+         deserved capital punishment, 'merecian pena capital.' p. 381.
+
+  [1301] 'Aora, Catolica Magestad, vemos que Dios nuestro Señor ha
+         reservado para Vuestra Magestad, y para su Real Corona, el
+         nombre, y hechos de Rey Catholico: permitiendo por sus secretos
+         juizios, que los que han sido siempre enemigos de su Iglesia se
+         conserven, y que los que antes eran Catholicos, ayan degenerado,
+         y apostatado de su santa ley y assi va la honra de Dios nuestro
+         Señor, y el exemplo, y confusion de los otros Reyes, en que
+         Vuestra Magestad tenga sus Reynos limpios de Hereges, y
+         principalmente á España. Y quando esto huviesse de costar
+         grandes trabajos, y todo el oro, y plata, que hay en las Indias,
+         estaria muy bien empleado: pues se atraviessa la honra de Dios,
+         la de su Santa Iglesia, el antiguo renombre desta Corona,' &c.
+         _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, p. 382. And on the neglect of duty
+         by Charles V. and Philip II., see p. 370.
+
+These remonstrances, besides being in accordance with the known views of
+the Spanish Church, were warmly supported by the personal influence of
+the Archbishop of Toledo, the primate of Spain. In only one respect did
+he differ from the views advocated by the Archbishop of Valencia. The
+Archbishop of Valencia thought that children under seven years of age
+need not share in the general banishment, but might, without danger to
+the faith, be separated from their parents, and kept in Spain. To this,
+the Archbishop of Toledo strongly objected. He was unwilling, he said,
+to run the risk of pure Christian blood being polluted by infidels; and
+he declared that sooner than leave one of these unbelievers to corrupt
+the land, he would have the whole of them, men, women, and children, at
+once put to the sword.[1302]
+
+  [1302] 'The most powerful promoter of their expulsion was Don Bernardo
+         de Roias y Sandoval, Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, and
+         Inquisitor-General and Chancellor of Spain. This great prelate,
+         who was brother to the Duke of Lerma, by whom the king for some
+         years before, and for some years after the expulsion was
+         absolutely governed, was so zealous to have the whole race of
+         the Moriscoes extinguished, that he opposed the detaining of
+         their children who were under seven years of age, affirming that
+         of the two he judged it more advisable to cut the throats of all
+         the Moriscoes, men, women, and children, than to have any of
+         their children left in Spain, to defile the true Spanish blood
+         with a mixture of the Moorish.' _Geddes' Tracts_, vol. i. pp.
+         85, 86. Navarrete has pronounced a glowing eulogy upon the piety
+         and other noble qualities of this prelate; and says that
+         'llenando de esplendor con su virtud tres sillas episcopales,
+         mereció que Clemente VIII. le honrase con el capelo, y fué
+         elevado á la primada de Toledo y al empleo de inquisidor
+         general.' _Vida de Cervantes_, pp. xcvii., xcviii., Barcelona,
+         1839.
+
+That they should all be slain, instead of being banished, was the desire
+of a powerful party in the Church, who thought that such signal
+punishment would work good by striking terror into the heretics of every
+nation. Bleda, the celebrated Dominican, one of the most influential men
+of his time, wished this to be done, and to be done thoroughly. He
+said, that, for the sake of example, every Morisco in Spain should have
+his throat cut, because it was impossible to tell which of them were
+Christians at heart, and it was enough to leave the matter to God, who
+knew his own, and who would reward in the next world those who were
+really Catholics.[1303]
+
+  [1303] 'He did assure all the old Christian laity, that whenever the
+         king should give the word, they might, without any scruple of
+         conscience, cut the throats of all the Moriscoes, and not spare
+         any of them upon their professing themselves Christians; but to
+         follow the holy and laudable example of the Croisado that was
+         raised against the Albigenses, who, upon their having made
+         themselves masters of the city of Bezeir; wherein were two
+         hundred thousand Catholics and hereticks, did ask Father Arnold,
+         a Cistercian monk, who was their chief preacher, "Whether they
+         should put any to the sword that pretended to be Catholics;" and
+         were answered by the holy Abbot, "That they should kill all
+         without distinction, and leave it to God, who knew his own, to
+         reward them for being true Catholics in the next world;" which
+         was accordingly executed.' _Geddes_, vol. i. p. 84.
+
+It was evident that the fate of the wretched remnant of a once splendid
+nation was now sealed. The religious scruples of Philip III. forbade him
+to struggle with the Church; and his minister Lerma would not risk his
+own authority by even the show of opposition. In 1609, he announced to
+the king, that the expulsion of the Moriscoes had become necessary. 'The
+resolution,' replied Philip, 'is a great one; let it be executed.'[1304]
+And executed it was, with unflinching barbarity. About one million of
+the most industrious inhabitants of Spain were hunted out like wild
+beasts, because the sincerity of their religious opinions was
+doubtful.[1305] Many were slain, as they approached the coast; others
+were beaten and plundered; and the majority, in the most wretched
+plight, sailed for Africa. During the passage, the crew, in many of the
+ships, rose upon them, butchered the men, ravished the women, and threw
+the children into the sea. Those who escaped this fate, landed on the
+coast of Barbary, where they were attacked by the Bedouins, and many of
+them put to the sword. Others made their way into the desert, and
+perished from famine. Of the number of lives actually sacrificed, we
+have no authentic account; but it is said, on very good authority, that
+in one expedition, in which 140,000 were carried to Africa, upwards of
+100,000 suffered death in its most frightful forms within a few months
+after their expulsion from Spain.[1306]
+
+  [1304] '"Grande resolucion!" contestó el débil monarca al ministro
+         favorito: "hacedlo vos, duque."' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xv. p. 375. But this reply, so far from being a
+         mark of weakness on the part of Philip, was a strictly logical
+         application of the principles which he entertained, and which,
+         indeed, were almost universal in Spain. We know from his
+         contemporary biographer, that 'Determinó el Rey en los
+         principios de su Reynado, como Rey tan poderoso y Catolico, de
+         consagrar y dedicar à Dios la potencia de sus Consejos y Armas
+         para extinguir y acabar los enemigos de la Iglesia Santa.'
+         _Davila_, _Historia de la Vida de Felipe Tercero_, lib. i.
+         p. 44.
+
+  [1305] This is the average estimate. Some authors make it less, and some
+         more; while one writer says, 'The numbers expelled have been
+         estimated at four hundred thousand families, or two millions of
+         souls.' _Clarke's Internal State of Spain_, London, 1818, p. 33.
+         But this is incredible. M. Castro (_Decadencia de España_,
+         Cadiz, 1852, p. 105) says, 'España perdió en los moriscos un
+         millon de habitantes;' and M. Janer (_Condicion de los
+         Moriscos_, Madrid, 1857, p. 93), 'Sin entrar en cálculos sobre
+         los que habia cuando se expidio el edicto de Valencia en 1609,
+         ni sobre los que fenecieron en las rebeliones, de mano armada,
+         de sed, de hambre ó ahogados, creemos poder fijar,
+         aproximadamente, en novecientos mil los que llegaron á poner el
+         pie fuera de la península, despidiéndose para siempre de las
+         costas y fronteras de España, cuya cifra deducimos del exámen y
+         contexto de unos y otros escritores, de las listas que nos han
+         quedado de los expulsos, de los datos de diversas relaciones,
+         estados y documentos examinados con este solo intento;' and
+         further on, p. 105, 'la expulsion de un millon, ó novecientos
+         mil de sus habitantes.' Llorente (_Histoire de l'Inquisition_,
+         vol. iii. p. 430, Paris, 1818) says, 'un million d'habitans
+         utiles et laborieux;' Ximenez (_Vida de Ribera_, Roma, 1734,
+         4to. p. 70), 'novecientos mil;' and Boisel, who was in Spain,
+         fifty years after the expulsion, and collected the traditionary
+         evidence, says, 'Il sortit neuf cens tant de mille hommes de
+         compte fait, de Valence, d'Andalousie, et de Castille.'
+         _Boisel_, _Journal du Voyage d'Espagne_, Paris, 1669, 4to. p.
+         275.
+
+  [1306] _Watson's Philip III._, pp. 234-235. _Davila_, _Vida de Felipe
+         III._, p. 146. _Yañez_, _Memorias para la Historia de Felipe
+         III._, pp. 281, 290. _Janer_, _Condicion de los Moriscos_, pp.
+         83, 84, 90. Some particulars respecting their expulsion may also
+         be seen in Cottington's Letters from Madrid, which were written
+         in 1609, but are of very little value. _Winwood's Memorials of
+         Affairs of State_, vol. iii. pp. 73, 91, 103, 118, London,
+         folio, 1725.
+
+Now, for the first time, the Church was really triumphant.[1307] For the
+first time, there was not a heretic to be seen between the Pyrenees and
+the Straits of Gibraltar. All were orthodox, and all were loyal. Every
+inhabitant of that great country obeyed the Church, and feared the king.
+And from this happy combination, it was believed that the prosperity and
+grandeur of Spain were sure to follow. The name of Philip III. was to be
+immortal, and posterity would never weary of admiring that heroic act by
+which the last remains of an infidel race were cast out from the land.
+Those who had even remotely participated in the glorious consummation,
+were to be rewarded by the choicest blessings. Themselves, and their
+families, were under the immediate protection of Heaven. The earth
+should bear more fruit, and the trees should clap their hands. Instead
+of the thorn should come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier, the
+myrtle. A new era was now inaugurated, in which Spain, purged of her
+heresy, was to be at ease, and men, living in safety, were to sleep
+under the shade of their own vineyards, sow their gardens in peace, and
+eat of the fruit of the trees they had planted.[1308]
+
+  [1307] In a contemporary sermon in commemoration of their expulsion, the
+         preacher joyfully exclaims, 'Pues, que mayor honra podemos tener
+         en este Reyno, que ser todos los que vivimos en el, fieles á
+         Dios, y al Rey, sin compañia de estos Hereges y traydores?'
+         _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, p. 423. Another clergyman cries
+         out, 'Al fin salieron estos, y quedó la tierra libre de la
+         infamia de este gente.' _Davila_, _Vida de Felipe Tercero_, p.
+         149. See also p. 151. 'Y es digno de poner en consideracion el
+         zelo que los Reyes de España tuvieron en todo tiempo de
+         sustentar la Fé Catolica; pues en diferentes expulsiones que han
+         hecho, han sacado de sus Reynos tres millones de Moros, y dos
+         millones de Judios, enemigos de nuestra Iglesia.'
+
+  [1308] See the sermon by the Archbishop of Valencia, printed at length
+         in the Appendix to _Ximenez_, _Vida de Ribera_, pp. 411-428. I
+         would fain quote it all, but the reader must be content with
+         part of the peroration, pp. 426, 427. 'Entre las felizidades,
+         que cuenta el Espiritu Santo que tuvieron los hijos de Israel en
+         el govierno del Rey Salomon, es una; que vivian los hombres
+         seguros, durmiendo á la sombra de su parra, y de su higuera, sin
+         tener de quien temer. _Assi estaremos en este Reyno de aqui
+         adelante_, por la misericordia de nuestro Señor, y paternal
+         providencia de Su Magestad, todo nos sobrará, y la misma tierra
+         se fertilizará y dará fruto de bendicion. Brocardico es, de que
+         todos usabades, diziendo que despues, que estos se bautizaron,
+         no se avia visto un año fertil; _aora todos lo seran_, porque
+         las heregias y blasfemias de estos tenian esterilizada,
+         abrasada, y inficionada la tierra, como dixo el Real Propheta
+         David, con tantos pecados y abominaciones.' ... 'Y edificarán en
+         las tierras, que antes eran desiertas, plantando viñas, y
+         bebiendo el vino de ellas, y sembrarán huertas, y comeran del
+         fruto de los arboles, que han plantado, y nunca seran hechados
+         de sus casas, dize Dios. Todo esto promete nuestro Señor por dos
+         Prophetas suyos. _Todo (digo otra vez) nos sobrará._' All this
+         was to happen to the people; while, as to the king, he, in the
+         same sermon, p. 416, is likened to David; and it was declared by
+         another high authority, that his expulsion of the Moriscoes was
+         so great an exploit ('hazaña'), that 'durára su memoria por los
+         venideros siglos.' _Porreño_, in _Yañez_, _Memorias para Felipe
+         III._, p. 281.
+
+These were the promises held out by the Church, and believed by the
+people. It is our business to inquire how far the expectations were
+fulfilled, and what the consequences were of an act which was instigated
+by the clergy, welcomed by the nation, and eagerly applauded by some of
+the greatest men of genius Spain has produced.[1309]
+
+  [1309] 'Amidst the devout exultation of the whole kingdom,--Cervantes,
+         Lope de Vega, and others of the principal men of genius then
+         alive, joining in the general jubilee.' _Ticknor's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. i. pp. 428, 429. Compare _Dunlop's
+         Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 16. Porreño says that it may be placed
+         among the seven wonders of the world; 'la podemos poner entre
+         las siete maravillas del mundo.' _Yañez_, _Memorias_, p. 297:
+         and Davila (_Vida de Felipe Tercero_, lib. ii. cap. 41, p. 139)
+         pronounces it to be the most glorious achievement which had been
+         seen since the days of Pelayo. All this is natural enough; but
+         what is really curious is, to trace the modern remains of this
+         feeling. Campomanes (_Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol. iv.
+         p. 130, Madrid, 1777), a very able man, and far more liberal
+         than most of his countrymen, is not ashamed to speak of 'la
+         justa expulsion de los moriscos desde 1610 á 1613.' Ortiz, in
+         1801, expresses himself with more hesitation, but is evidently
+         in favour of a measure which liberated Spain from 'la perniciosa
+         semilla de Mahoma que restaba en ella.' _Compendio de la
+         Historia de España_, vol. vi. pp. 304, 305. Nay, even in 1856,
+         the great modern historian of Spain, while admitting the serious
+         material injury which this horrible crime inflicted on the
+         country, assures us that it had the 'immense advantage' of
+         producing religious unity; unable to perceive that the very
+         unity of which he boasts, generates an acquiescence and
+         stagnation of mind fatal to all real improvement, because it
+         prevents that play and collision of opinions by which the wits
+         of men are sharpened and made ready for use, 'Con la expulsion
+         se completó el principio de la unidad religiosa en España, que
+         fué un bien inmenso, pero se consumó la ruina de la agricultura,
+         que fué un inmenso mal.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol.
+         xvii. p. 340, Madrid, 1856. And, the year after this sagacious
+         sentiment had been given to the world, another eminent Spaniard,
+         in a work crowned by the Royal Academy of History, went still
+         further, and declared, that not only did the expulsion of the
+         Moriscoes cause great benefit by securing unity of creed, but
+         that such unity was 'necessary on the Spanish soil.' 'Y si bajo
+         el aspecto económico reprobamos semejante medida por la
+         influencia perniciosa que tuvo desde el momento de dictarse, la
+         imparcialidad de historiadores nos obliga á respetarla por los
+         inmensos bienes que produjo en el órden religioso y en el órden
+         político.' ... 'La unidad religiosa era necesaria en el suelo
+         español.' _Janer_, _Condicion Social de los Moriscos de España_,
+         Madrid, 1857, pp. 110, 114. What are we to think of a country in
+         which these opinions are expressed, not by some obscure fanatic,
+         from the platform or the pulpit, but by able and learned men,
+         who promulgate them with all the authority of their position,
+         being themselves deemed, if anything, rather too bold and too
+         liberal for the people to whom they address their works?
+
+The effects upon the material prosperity of Spain may be stated in a few
+words. From nearly every part of the country, large bodies of
+industrious agriculturists and expert artificers were suddenly
+withdrawn. The best systems of husbandry then known, were practised by
+the Moriscoes, who tilled and irrigated with indefatigable labour.[1310]
+The cultivation of rice, cotton, and sugar, and the manufacture of silk
+and paper, were almost confined to them.[1311] By their expulsion, all
+this was destroyed at a blow, and most of it was destroyed for ever.
+For, the Spanish Christians considered such pursuits beneath their
+dignity. In their judgment, war and religion were the only two
+avocations worthy of being followed. To fight for the king, or to enter
+the Church was honourable; but everything else was mean and
+sordid.[1312] When, therefore, the Moriscoes were thrust out of Spain,
+there was no one to fill their place; arts and manufactures either
+degenerated, or were entirely lost, and immense regions of arable land
+were left uncultivated. Some of the richest parts of Valencia and
+Granada were so neglected, that means were wanting to feed even the
+scanty population which remained there.[1313] Whole districts were
+suddenly deserted, and down to the present day have never been
+repeopled. These solitudes gave refuge to smugglers and brigands, who
+succeeded the industrious inhabitants formerly occupying them; and it is
+said, that from the expulsion of the Moriscoes is to be dated the
+existence of those organized bands of robbers, which, after this period,
+became the scourge of Spain, and which no subsequent government has been
+able entirely to extirpate.[1314]
+
+  [1310] 'Los moros eran muy diestros en todo lo que mira á obras de
+         agua.' _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol.
+         iii. p. cvii. 'The Moors were the most intelligent
+         agriculturists Spain ever had.' _Laborde's Spain_, vol. ii. p.
+         216. Even Jovellanos admits that 'except in the parts occupied
+         by the Moors, the Spaniards were almost totally unacquainted
+         with the art of irrigation.' _Clarke's Internal State of Spain_,
+         p. 116. See also _Circourt_, _Arabes d'Espagne_, vol. i. p. 255,
+         vol. ii. p. 12, vol. iii. pp. 162, 222; _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de
+         l'Espagne_, vol. ii. pp. 170, 171; and _Townsend's Spain_, vol.
+         iii. p. 74. Remains of their splendid aqueducts still exist.
+         _Hoskins' Spain_, vol. i. pp. 120, 125, 291, 292. Compare _Spain
+         by an American_, vol. ii. p. 112 with _L'Estat de l'Espagne_,
+         Genève, 1681, p. 399.
+
+  [1311] Compare _Janer_, _Condicion de los Moriscos_, pp. 47, 48, with
+         _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol. iii.
+         p. xxii., and _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 13.
+
+  [1312] The more sensible among the Spaniards notice, with regret, this
+         national contempt for every form of useful industry. See
+         _Campomanes_, _Educacion Popular_, p. 128, and _Sempere_,
+         _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii. pp. 277, 278. A traveller in
+         Spain in 1669, says of the people, 'ils méprisent tellement le
+         travail, que la plûpart des artisans sont étrangers.' _Voyages
+         faits en divers Temps par M. M****_, Amsterdam, 1700, p. 80.
+         Another traveller, between 1693 and 1695, says, they 'think it
+         below the dignity of a Spaniard to labour and provide for the
+         future.' _Travels by a Gentleman_ (by Bromley?), London, 1702,
+         p. 35. A third observer, in 1679, assures us that 'ils souffrent
+         plus aisément la faim et les autres nécessitez de la vie, que de
+         travailler, disent-ils, comme des mercenaires, ce qui
+         n'appartient qu'à des esclaves.' _D'Aulnoy_, _Relation du Voyage
+         d'Espagne_, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. pp. 369, 370. For further
+         illustrations of this, see _Labat_, _Voyages en Espagne_, Paris,
+         1730, vol. i. pp. 285, 286. _Capmany_, _Qüestiones Criticas_,
+         pp. 43, 49, 50. _Laborde's Spain_, vol. i. p. i. _Ranke's
+         Spanish Empire_, p. 103. _Townsend's Journey through Spain_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 240, 241.
+
+  [1313] 'Pudo, pues, decirse con razon de nuestra patria, que de Arabia
+         Feliz se habia convertido en Arabia Desierta, y de Valencia en
+         particular, que el bello jardin de España se habia convertido en
+         páramo seco y deslucido. Dejóse en breve sentir en todas partes
+         el azote del hambre; y al alegre bullicio de las poblaciones
+         sucedió el melancólico silencio de los despoblados, y al
+         frecuente cruzar de los labradores y trajineros por los caminos
+         siguió el peligroso encuentro de los salteadores que los
+         infestaban, abrigándose en las ruinas de los pueblos desiertos.'
+         _Janer_, _Condicion de los Moriscos_, p. 100. See also _Dunlop's
+         Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 16. Campomanes says, 'El gran número de
+         artesanos, que salieron con la expulsion de los moriscos, causó
+         un golpe mortal á las manufacturas, y á la labranza.' _Apendice
+         á la Educacion Popular_, vol. i. p. 13. And p. 268, 'El punto de
+         decadencia de nuestras manufacturas, puede fixarse desde el año
+         de 1609, en que tubo principio la expulsion de los Moriscos.'
+
+  [1314] 'Sur la carte d'Espagne, en mille endroits est inscrit ce funeste
+         mot, _despoblado_; en mille endroits la nature sauvage a repris
+         la place des cultures. Étudiez la direction des despoblados, et
+         consultez les registres des commissaires de l'expulsion, vous
+         verrez presque toujours que les familles morisques couvraient
+         ces solitudes. Leur patrimoine abandonné forma le domaine des
+         voleurs, qui établirent avec une sorte de sécurité leurs
+         correspondances effrontées à travers toute l'Espagne. Le
+         brigandage s'organisa comme une profession ordinaire; et la
+         contrebande, sa compagne, leva le front avec autant d'audace,
+         autant de succès.' _Circourt_, _Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne_,
+         vol. iii. pp. 227, 228.
+
+To these disastrous consequences, others were added, of a different,
+and, if possible, of a still more serious kind. The victory gained by
+the Church increased both her power and her reputation. During the rest
+of the seventeenth century, not only were the interests of the clergy
+deemed superior to the interests of laymen, but the interests of laymen
+were scarcely thought of. The greatest men, with hardly an exception,
+became ecclesiastics, and all temporal considerations, all views of
+earthly policy, were despised and set at nought. No one inquired; no one
+doubted; no one presumed to ask if all this was right. The minds of men
+succumbed and were prostrate. While every other country was advancing,
+Spain alone was receding. Every other country was making some addition
+to knowledge, creating some art, or enlarging some science. Spain,
+numbed into a death-like torpor, spellbound and entranced by the
+accursed superstition which preyed on her strength, presented to Europe
+a solitary instance of constant decay. For her, no hope remained; and,
+before the close of the seventeenth century, the only question was, by
+whose hands the blow should be struck, which would dismember that once
+mighty empire, whose shadow had covered the world, and whose vast
+remains were imposing even in their ruin.
+
+To indicate the different steps which mark the decline of Spain would be
+hardly possible, since even the Spaniards, who, when it was too late,
+were stung with shame, have abstained from writing what would only be
+the history of their own humiliation; so that there is no detailed
+account of the wretched reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II., which
+together comprise a period of nearly eighty years.[1315] Some facts,
+however, I have been able to collect, and they are very significant. At
+the beginning of the seventeenth century, the population of Madrid was
+estimated to be 400,000; at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
+less than 200,000.[1316] Seville, one of the richest cities in Spain,
+possessed in the sixteenth century upwards of sixteen thousand looms,
+which gave employment to a hundred and thirty thousand persons.[1317] By
+the reign of Philip V., these sixteen thousand looms had dwindled away
+to less than three hundred;[1318] and, in a report which the Cortes made
+to Philip IV., in 1662, it is stated that the city contained only a
+quarter of its former number of inhabitants, and that even the vines and
+olives cultivated in its neighbourhood, and which comprised a
+considerable part of its wealth, were almost entirely neglected.[1319]
+Toledo, in the middle of the sixteenth century, had upwards of fifty
+woollen manufactories; in 1665, it had only thirteen, almost the whole
+of the trade having been carried away by the Moriscoes, and established
+at Tunis.[1320] Owing to the same cause, the art of manufacturing silk,
+for which Toledo was celebrated, was entirely lost, and nearly forty
+thousand persons, who depended on it, were deprived of their means of
+support.[1321] Other branches of industry shared the same fate. In the
+sixteenth century, and early in the seventeenth, Spain enjoyed great
+repute for the manufacture of gloves, which were made in enormous
+quantities, and shipped to many parts, being particularly valued in
+England and France, and being also exported to the Indies. But Martinez
+de Mata, who wrote in the year 1655, assures us that at that time this
+source of wealth had disappeared; the manufacture of gloves having quite
+ceased, though formerly, he says, it had existed in every city in
+Spain.[1322] In the once-flourishing province of Castile, every thing
+was going to ruin. Even Segovia lost its manufactures, and retained
+nothing but the memory of its former wealth.[1323] The decay of Burgos
+was equally rapid; the trade of that famous city perished; and the
+deserted streets and empty houses formed such a picture of desolation,
+that a contemporary, struck by the havoc, emphatically declared that
+Burgos had lost every thing except its name.[1324] In other districts,
+the results were equally fatal. The beautiful provinces of the south,
+richly endowed by nature, had formerly been so wealthy, that their
+contributions alone sufficed, in time of need, to replenish the imperial
+treasury; but they now deteriorated with such rapidity, that, by the
+year 1640, it was found hardly possible to impose a tax on them which
+would be productive.[1325] During the latter half of the seventeenth
+century, matters became still worse, and the poverty and wretchedness of
+the people surpass all description. In the villages near Madrid, the
+inhabitants were literally famishing; and those farmers who had a stock
+of food refused to sell it, because, much as they needed money, they
+were apprehensive of seeing their families perish around them. The
+consequence was, that the capital was in danger of being starved; and
+ordinary threats producing no effect, it was found necessary, in 1664,
+that the President of Castile, with an armed force, and accompanied by
+the public executioner, should visit the adjacent villages, and compel
+the inhabitants to bring their supplies to the markets of Madrid.[1326]
+All over Spain, the same destitution prevailed. That once rich and
+prosperous country was covered with a rabble of monks and clergy, whose
+insatiate rapacity absorbed the little wealth yet to be found. Hence it
+happened, that the government, though almost penniless, could obtain no
+supplies. The tax-gatherers, urged to make up the deficiency, adopted
+the most desperate expedients. They not only seized the beds and all the
+furniture, but they unroofed the houses, and sold the materials of the
+roof, for whatever they would fetch. The inhabitants were forced to fly;
+the fields were left uncultivated; vast multitudes died from want and
+exposure; entire villages were deserted; and in many of the towns,
+upwards of two-thirds of the houses were, by the end of the seventeenth
+century, utterly destroyed.[1327]
+
+  [1315] 'Declinó pues muy sensiblemente la vasta monarquía, y callaron
+         atonitos los historiadores, como huyendo la necesidad de traer á
+         la memoria lo que veian y apenas creian. Enmudeció pues la
+         historia de España en los dos reynados de Felipe IV. y Carlos
+         II. viendo continuaba nuestra decadencia, hasta quedar España al
+         nivel de los menos poderosos Estados de Europa. Este silencio
+         nos ha privado de saber no solo las causas de nuestra
+         decadencia, sino tambien de los acontecimientos civiles y
+         militares del siglo xvii.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio de la Historia de
+         España_, vol. vi., Prologo, p. i. No attempt was made to supply
+         the deficiency complained of by Ortiz, until 1856, when M.
+         Lafuente published, in Madrid, the sixteenth and seventeenth
+         volumes of his History of Spain, which contain the reigns of
+         Philip IV. and Charles II. Of this work, I have no desire to
+         speak disrespectfully; on the contrary, it is impossible to read
+         it without interest, on account of the admirable clearness with
+         which the different topics are arranged, and also on account of
+         its beautiful style, which reminds us of the best days of
+         Castilian prose. But I feel constrained to say, that, as a
+         history, and especially as a history which undertakes to
+         investigate the causes of the decline of Spain, it is a complete
+         failure. In the first place, M. Lafuente has not emancipated
+         himself from those very prejudices to which the decline of his
+         country is owing. And, in the second place, he has, particularly
+         in the reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II., not used sufficient
+         diligence in searching for materials for studying the economical
+         changes through which Spain has passed. Looking too intently at
+         the surface, he mistakes symptoms for causes; so that the real
+         history of the Spanish people every where escapes his grasp. As
+         the object to which my studies are directed, compels me to
+         contemplate affairs from a larger and more general point of view
+         than he has done, it naturally happens that the conclusions at
+         which we arrive are very different; but I wish to bear my
+         testimony, whatever it may be worth, to the great merit of his
+         book as a work of art, though, as a work of science, it appears
+         to me that he has effected nothing, and has thrown no new light
+         on the real history of that unfortunate, albeit once splendid,
+         nation, of which his eloquence, his learning, and his taste,
+         make him one of the chiefest ornaments.
+
+  [1316] See _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 320; and the interesting
+         calculations in _Uztariz_, _Theorica y Practica de Comercio_,
+         Madrid, 1757, folio, pp. 35, 36. Owing to the ignorance which
+         formerly prevailed respecting statistics, such estimates are
+         necessarily imperfect; but, after the desolation of Spain in the
+         seventeenth century, an extraordinary diminution in the
+         population of the capital was inevitable. Indeed, a contemporary
+         of Charles II. states that in 1699, Madrid had only 150,000
+         inhabitants. _Mémoires de Louville_, Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 72.
+         This account is taken from 'un mémoire manuscrit, en langue
+         espagnole, trouvé dans les papiers du marquis de Louville.'
+         p. 67.
+
+  [1317] Capmany (_Qüestiones Criticas_, p. 30), who seems to have written
+         his able, but not very accurate, work for the express purpose of
+         concealing the decline of his country, has given these figures
+         erroneously. My information is derived from an official report
+         made in 1701, by the trade-corporations ('gremios') of Seville.
+         'Fijan la época de la ruina de nuestras fábricas desde el
+         reynado de Felipe II. y añaden "haber llegado á tener solo en
+         esta ciudad al arte mayor, y menor de la sede, el número de mas
+         de diez y seis mil telares, y se ocupaban en los exercicios
+         adherentes á él, mas de ciento treinta mil personas de ambos
+         sexos."' _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol.
+         i. p. 473, Madrid, 1775. See also _Uztariz_, _Theorica y
+         Practica de Comercio_, p. 14, 'diez y seis mil telares;' where,
+         however, no authority is quoted.
+
+  [1318] 'El principal origen y causa de que los 16,000 telares de seda,
+         lana, oro y plata, que se contaban en Sevilla, se hallen oy
+         reducidos á menos de 300.' _Uztariz_, _Theorica de Comercio_, p.
+         243.
+
+  [1319] _Sempere_, _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii. p. 52, who refers to
+         the report of the Cortes published by Alonso Nuñez de Castro.
+
+  [1320] _Laborde's Spain_, vol. iv. p. 338, where it is also said, that
+         Tunis became, in consequence of the expulsion of the Moriscoes,
+         famous for the manufacture of caps, which 'were subsequently
+         imitated at Orleans.' Compare, on the cap-manufactories of
+         Tunis, a note in _Campomanes_, _Apendice, á la Educacion
+         Popular_, vol. iv. p. 249.
+
+  [1321] 'Tolède, où se mettaient en [oe]uvre 435,000 livres de soie,
+         avait déjà perdu ce travail, qui suffisait autrefois à
+         l'existence de 38,484 personnes. La population de cette ville
+         avait éprouvé un tiers de diminution, et vingt-cinq maisons de
+         ses familles les plus illustres étaient passées dans le domaine
+         de divers couvens.' _Sempere_, _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii.
+         p. 50.
+
+  [1322] See his interesting essay, reprinted in the appendix to
+         _Campomanes_, vol. iv. p. 251. He says, 'La fábrica de los
+         guantes, que tenian pocos años ha todas las ciudades de estos
+         reynos para el consumo de España y las Indias, era muy
+         considerable; y se ha destruido, despues que se dió entrada al
+         consumo de guantes estrangeros.' Such a statement, made by a
+         contemporary, is unimpeachable; but the reason he assigns is
+         inadequate.
+
+  [1323] Segovia, as it appeared in 1659, is thus described in _Boisel_,
+         _Journal du Voyage d'Espagne_, Paris, 1669, 4to. p. 186:
+         'Autresfois, cette ville qui paroist assez grande, estoit fort
+         riche, tant à cause que les rois de Castille y demeuroient, qu'à
+         cause du grand commerce des laines et des beaux draps qui s'y
+         faisoient; mais à présent le trafic n'y est plus, et on n'y fait
+         plus que fort peu de draps, de sorte que la ville est presque
+         désert et fort pauvre. Une marque de sa pauvreté, du mauvais
+         ordre d'Espagne, et du peu de prévoyance des Espagnols (quoy
+         qu'on dise de leur flegme), c'est que le jour que j'y arrivay
+         jusques à deux heures après midy il n'y avoit point eu de pain
+         en toute la ville, et ils ne s'en étonnoient point.' The decline
+         of the silk and wool manufactures of Segovia is also noticed by
+         Martinez de la Mata, who wrote in 1650. See his _Dos Discursos_,
+         edited by Canga, Madrid, 1794, p. 8. Saint Simon, who was there
+         in 1722, says, 'A l'égard de leurs laines, j'en vis les
+         manufactures à Ségovie qui me parurent peu de chose et fort
+         tombées de leur ancienne réputation.' _Mémoires du Duc de Saint
+         Simon_, vol. xxxvii. p. 230, Paris, 1841. Segovia used to be
+         famous for the beautiful colour of its cloth, the dye of which
+         was taken from a shell-fish found in the West Indies, and is
+         supposed to be the same as the purpura of the ancients. See a
+         note in _Dillon's Spain_, Dublin, 1781, pp. 19, 20.
+
+  [1324] Such is the language of a Spaniard in the middle of the
+         seventeenth century. 'Porque á la ciudad de Burgos, cabeza de
+         Castilla, no le ha quedado sino el nombre, ni aun vestigios de
+         sus ruinas; reducida la grandeza de sus tratos, Prior, y
+         Cónsules, y ordenanzas para la conservacion de ellos, á 600
+         vecinos, que conservanel nombre y lustre de aquella antigua y
+         noble cuidad, que encerró en si mas de seis mil, sin la gente
+         suelta, natural, y forastera.' _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la
+         Educacion_, vol. i. p. 453, Madrid, 1765. An intelligent
+         Dutchman, who visited Spain in 1665, says of Burgos, 'elle a
+         esté autrefois fort marchande, mais depuis peu, elle a presque
+         perdu tout son commerce.' _Aarsens de Sommerdyck_, _Voyage
+         d'Espagne_, Paris, 1665, 4to. p. 16. To me, it certainly appears
+         that facts of this sort have more to do with the real history of
+         Spain than the details of kings, and treaties, and battles,
+         which the Spanish historians love to accumulate.
+
+  [1325] 'Could contribute little to the exigencies of the state.'
+         _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 285. Compare _Lamentos
+         Apologéticos_, in _Dos Discursos_, edit. Canga, Madrid, 1794, p.
+         82, on the state of things in 'lo mas fértil de Andalucia.' The
+         government first became alive to all this when it found that no
+         more money could be wrung from the people. In May 1667, a
+         council of state, convoked by the queen, reported that 'quant
+         aux ressources qu'on voudrait tirer de l'Espagne, sous forme de
+         dons volontaires ou autrement, le conseil estime qu'il est bien
+         difficile d'imposer aux peuples des charges nouvelles;' and in
+         November of that same year, at another meeting of the council, a
+         memoir was drawn up, stating that 'depuis le règne de Don
+         Ferdinand le Catholique jusqu'à ce jour, la monarchie d'Espagne
+         ne s'est pas encore vue si près de sa ruine, si épuisée, si
+         dénuée des ressources nécessaires pour faire face à un grand
+         péril.' See extracts from the proceedings of the Councils,
+         published, for, I believe, the first time, by M. Mignet, in his
+         _Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne_, vol. ii. pp.
+         124, 601, Paris, 1835, 4to. See also, in the same valuable work,
+         vol. ii. p. 127, a letter to Louis XIV., from his ambassador at
+         Madrid, dated 2nd June, 1667, and stating that 'l'extrémité est
+         ici si grande qu'il se fait une contribution volontaire de tous
+         les particuliers que l'on appelle _donativo_, pour fournir
+         quelque argent présent pour les nécessitée publiques.'
+
+  [1326] In 1664, Sir Richard Fanshawe writes from Madrid to Secretary
+         Bennet, 'Since my last to you, of yesterday, the President of
+         Castile, having, by the king's special and angry command, gone
+         forth to the neighbouring villages, attended with the hangman,
+         and whatsoever else of terror incident to his place and
+         derogatory to his person, the markets in this town begin to be
+         furnished again plentifully enough.' _Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe_,
+         _written by herself_, edit. London, 1830, p. 291.
+
+  [1327] Nothing but the precise and uncontradicted evidence of a
+         contemporary witness could make such things credible. In 1686,
+         Alvarez Osorio y Redin wrote his _Discursos_. They were
+         published in 1687 and 1688; they were reprinted at Madrid in
+         1775; and from the reprint, pp. 345-348, I extract the following
+         particulars: 'Es preciso decir con la mayor brevedad, que pide
+         el asunto, en la forma que los comisionantes continuamente están
+         saqueando todos los lugares, con capa de servir á V.M. Entran en
+         ellos, intíman sus comisiones á las justicias, y ellas les
+         suplican, tengan misericordia de los moradores, que estan con
+         mucha necesidad. Y luego que toman el uso, dicen: que á ellos no
+         les toca dispensar en hacer gracias: que traen orden de cobrar
+         con todo rigor las cantidades, que deben los lugares; y tambien
+         dicen han de cobrar sus salarios. Y se van entrando por las
+         casas de los pobres labradores, y demás vecinos; y con mucha
+         cuenta y razon, les quitan el poco dinero, que tienen: y á los
+         que no tienen, les sacan prendas: y donde no las hallan, les
+         quitan las pobres camas, en que duermen: y se detienen en vender
+         las prendas, todo el tiempo que pueden.' ... 'Los saquéos
+         referidos van continuando, obligando á los mas vecinos de los
+         lugares, á que se vayan huyendo de sus casas, dexando baldías
+         sus haciendas de campo; y los cobradores no tienen lástima de
+         todas estas miserias, y asolaciones, como si entráran en lugares
+         de enemigos. Las casas, que hallan vacías, si hay quien se las
+         compre, las venden: y quando no pueden venderlas, las quitan los
+         texados; y venden la texa, y madera por qualquier dinero. Con
+         esta destruicion general, no han quedado en pie en los lugares
+         la tercera parte de casas, y han muerto de necesidad gran
+         multitud de personas. Con lo qual los lugares no tienen la mitad
+         de familias, que antiguamente habia en España. Y si no se pone
+         remedio á todo referido, será preciso, que la vengan á poblar de
+         otros Reynos.'
+
+In the midst of these calamities, the spirit and energy of Spain were
+extinguished. In every department, all power and life disappeared. The
+Spanish troops were defeated at Rocroy in 1643; and several writers
+ascribe to that battle the destruction of the military reputation of
+Spain.[1328] This, however, was only one of many symptoms.[1329] In
+1656, it was proposed to fit out a small fleet; but the fisheries on
+the coast had so declined, that it was found impossible to procure
+sailors enough to man even the few ships which were required.[1330] The
+charts which had been made, were either lost or neglected; and the
+ignorance of the Spanish pilots became so notorious, that no one was
+willing to trust them.[1331] As to the military service, it is stated,
+in an account of Spain, late in the seventeenth century, that most of
+the troops had deserted their colours, and that the few who were
+faithful were clothed in rags, received no pay, and were dying of
+hunger.[1332] Another account describes this once mighty kingdom as
+utterly unprotected; the frontier towns ungarrisoned; the fortifications
+dilapidated and crumbling away; the magazines without ammunition; the
+arsenals empty; the workshops unemployed; and even the art of building
+ships entirely lost.[1333]
+
+  [1328] 'Allí acabó aquella antigua milicia española que desde el tiempo
+         de los reyes católicos habia ganado tan gloriosos triunfos,
+         siendo el terror de sus enemigos.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. iii. p. 150, Madrid, 1840. 'La batalla de
+         Rocroy, en que el jóven Condé recogió los laureles con que
+         engalanó la dorado cuna del niño Luis XIV., acabó con la
+         reputacion que aun habian podido ir conservando los viejos
+         tercios españoles de Flandres.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xvii. p. 368, Madrid, 1856.
+
+  [1329] In the _Clarendon State Papers_, vol. i. p. 275, Oxford, 1767,
+         folio, I find a letter written by Hopton to Secretary Windebank,
+         dated Madrid, 31st May, 1635. The author of this official
+         communication gives an account of the Spanish troops just
+         raised, and says, 'I have observed these levies, and I find the
+         horses are so weak, as the most of them will never be able to go
+         to the rendezvous, and those very hardly gotten, the infantry so
+         unwilling to serve, as they are carried like galley-slaves, in
+         chains, which serves not the turn, and so far short of the
+         number that was proposed, as they come not to one of three.'
+         This was eight years before the battle of Rocroy; after it,
+         matters became rapidly worse. A letter from Sir Edward Hyde to
+         Secretary Nicholas, dated Madrid, 18th March, 1649-50, states,
+         that Spanish 'affairs are really in huge disorder, and capable
+         of being rendered almost desperate;' and another letter, on 14th
+         April, 1650, 'if some miracle do not preserve them, this crown
+         must be speedily destroyed,' _Clarendon State Papers_, vol. iii.
+         pp. 13, 17, Oxford, 1786. An official Report on the Netherlands,
+         presented to Louis XIV. in 1665, declares that the Dutch
+         'considered Spain so weakened, as to be out of condition to
+         renew the war within the next one hundred years.' _Raumer's
+         History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_,
+         _illustrated by Original Documents_, London, 1835, vol. i. p.
+         237. See also _Mignet_, _Négociations relatives à la Succession
+         d'Espagne_, Paris, 1835-1842, 4to. vol. i. pp. 37, 38, 314, 315,
+         vol. iii. p. 684, vol. iv. p. 218; and _L'Estat de l'Espagne_,
+         Genève, 1681, pp. 83, 271. 'L'Espagne faisant en nos jours plus
+         de pitié que de peur à ceux qu'elle a tenus long-tems dans une
+         crainte perpétuelle, et dans une respectueuse vénération.' ...
+         'Aussi peut-on dire que les Espagnols qui étoient autrefois des
+         lions, ou des véritables hommes et incomparables en valeur, sont
+         maintenant des cerfs, ou des femmes, et enfin des personnes peu
+         propres à la guerre.' And finally, the Spanish explanation of
+         all this in _Yañez_, _Memorias_, Prologo, pp. 148, 149, Madrid,
+         1723. 'La Monarquia de España, cuya decadencia la avia yá Dios
+         decretado desde el año de 1621,' &c.; blasphemously ascribing to
+         the Almighty, what was the result of their own folly, and
+         obstinately shutting their eyes to the real cause of their ruin.
+
+  [1330] 'A century ago, Spain had been as supreme at sea as on land; her
+         ordinary naval force was 140 galleys, which were the terror both
+         of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. But now' (1656), 'in
+         consequence of the decline of commerce and fisheries on the
+         coast, instead of the numerous squadrons of the Dorias and
+         Mendozas, which were wont to attend the movements of the first
+         great John of Austria and the Emperor Charles, the present
+         High-Admiral of Spain, and favourite son of its monarch, put to
+         sea with three wretched gallies, which, with difficulty, escaped
+         from some Algerine corsairs, and were afterwards nearly
+         shipwrecked on the coast of Africa.' _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. i.
+         p. 549. In 1663, 'Il n'y avait à Cadix ni vaisseaux ni galères
+         en état d'aller en mer. Les Maures insultaient audacieusement
+         les côtes de l'Andalousie, et prenaient impunément les barques
+         qui se hasardaient à une lieue de la rade. Le duc d'Albuquerque,
+         qui commandait les forces navales, se plaignait hautement de la
+         position humiliante dans laquelle on le laissait. Il avait
+         demandé avec instance qu'on lui donnât des matelots et des
+         soldats pour mettre sur les vaisseaux; mais le Comte de
+         Castrillo, président du Conseil de Finances (de la _hacienda_)
+         avait déclaré qu'il n'avait ni argent, ni la possibilité d'en
+         trouver, et conseillait de renoncer à l'armée navale.' _Mignet_,
+         _Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne_, vol. i. pp.
+         315, 316, Paris, 1835, 4to. from contemporary manuscripts. Even
+         in 1648, Spain had 'become so feeble in point of naval affairs
+         as to be obliged to hire Dutch vessels for carrying on her
+         American commerce.' _Macpherson's Annals of Commerce_, vol. ii.
+         p. 435, London, 1805, 4to. And, to complete the chain of
+         evidence, there is a letter in the _Clarendon State Papers_,
+         vol. ii. p. 86, Oxford, 1773, folio, written from Madrid in June
+         1640, stating that, 'For ships they have few, mariners fewer,
+         landsmen not so many as they need, and, by all signs, money not
+         at all that can be spared.' The history of Spain during this
+         period never having been written, I am compelled, in my own
+         justification, to give these and similar passages with a fulness
+         which I fear will weary some readers.
+
+  [1331] And when they did, it was to their own cost, as Stanhope found,
+         at the beginning of his career as British minister to the court
+         of Madrid, in 1690. See his letter to Lord Shrewsbury, in
+         _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._, London, 1840, p. 3. 'We were
+         forced into a small port, called Ferrol, three leagues short of
+         the Groyne, and, by the ignorance of a Spanish pilot, our ships
+         fell foul one with another, and the admiral's ship was on ground
+         for some hours, but got off clear without any damage.' Indeed,
+         the Spanish seamen, once the boldest and most skilful navigators
+         in the world, so degenerated, that, early in the eighteenth
+         century, we find it stated as a matter of course, that 'to form
+         the Spaniard to marine affairs, is transporting them into
+         unknown countries.' _The History of Cardinal Alberoni_, London,
+         1719, p. 257.
+
+  [1332] 'Le peu de soldats qui résistaient à la désertion, étaient vêtus
+         de haillons, sans solde, sans pain,' _Mémoires de Louville_,
+         edit. Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 72. 'Dans l'état le plus
+         misérable.' p. 43. Compare Lefuente, in the reign of Philip IV.
+         (_Historia_, vol. xvi. p. 519), 'los soldados peleaban
+         andrajosos y medio desnudos;' and D'Aulnoy, in 1679 (_Relation
+         du Voyage d'Espagne_, vol. i. p. 168), 'Il est rare que dans
+         tout un régiment, il se trouve deux soldats qui ayent plus d'une
+         chemise.'
+
+  [1333] 'Ruinosos los muros de sus fortalezas, aun tenía Barcelona
+         abiertas las brechas, que hizo el duque de Vendoma; y desde
+         Rosas hasta Cadiz, no habia Alcazar, ni Castillo, no solo
+         presidiado, pero ni montada su artillería. La misma negligencia
+         se admiraba en los puertos de Vizcaya, y Galicia; no tenian los
+         almazenes sus provisiones, faltaban fundidores de armas, y las
+         que habia, eran de ningun uso. Vacios los arsenales y
+         artilleros, se habia olvidado el arte de construir naves, y no
+         tenia el Rey mas que las destinadas al comercio de Indias, y
+         algunos galeones; seis galeras, consumidas del tiempo, y del
+         ocio, se ancoraban en Cartagena.' _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la
+         Guerra de España_, vol. i. p. 43. Another eye-witness describes
+         'the best fortresses consisting of ruined walls, mounted with
+         here and there a rusty cannon, and the man thought an able
+         engineer who knew how to fire them.' _Ripperda's Memoirs_,
+         second edition, London, 1740, p. 227.
+
+While the country at large was thus languishing, as if it had been
+stricken by some mortal distemper, the most horrible scenes were
+occurring in the capital, under the eyes of the sovereign. The
+inhabitants of Madrid were starving; and the arbitrary measures which
+had been adopted to supply them with food, could only produce temporary
+relief. Many persons fell down in the streets exhausted, and died where
+they fell; others were seen in the public highway evidently dying, but
+no one had wherewithal to feed them. At length the people became
+desperate, and threw off all control. In 1680, not only the workmen of
+Madrid, but large numbers of the tradesmen, organized themselves into
+bands, broke open private houses, and robbed and murdered the
+inhabitants in the face of day.[1334] During the remaining twenty years
+of the seventeenth century, the capital was in a state, not of
+insurrection, but of anarchy. Society was loosened, and seemed to be
+resolving itself into its elements. To use the emphatic language of a
+contemporary, liberty and restraint were equally unknown.[1335] The
+ordinary functions of the executive government were suspended. The
+police of Madrid, unable to obtain the arrears of their pay, disbanded,
+and gave themselves up to rapine. Nor did there seem any means of
+remedying these evils. The exchequer was empty, and it was impossible to
+replenish it. Such was the poverty of the court, that money was wanting
+to pay the wages of the king's private servants, and to meet the daily
+expenses of his household.[1336] In 1693, payment was suspended of
+every life-pension; and all officers and ministers of the crown were
+mulcted of one-third of their salaries.[1337] Nothing, however, could
+arrest the mischief. Famine and poverty continued to increase;[1338]
+and, in 1699, Stanhope, the British minister then residing in Madrid,
+writes, that never a day passed in which people were not killed in the
+streets scuffling for bread; that his own secretary had seen five women
+stifled to death by the crowd before a bakehouse; and that, to swell the
+catalogue of misery, upwards of twenty thousand additional beggars from
+the country had recently flocked into the capital.[1339]
+
+  [1334] _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 224, 225. In 1680, Madame de
+         Villars, the wife of the French Ambassador, writes from Madrid,
+         that such was the state of affairs there, that her husband
+         thought it advisable that she should return home. _Lettres de
+         Madame de Villars_, Amsterdam, 1769, p. 169. A letter written by
+         the Danish ambassador in 1677, describes every house in Madrid
+         as regularly armed from top to bottom; 'de haut en bas.'
+         _Mignet_, _Négociations relatives à la Succession_, vol. iv. p.
+         638, Paris, 1842, 4to. The deaths from starvation are said to
+         have been particularly numerous in Andalusia. See _Tapia_,
+         _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iii. p. 167. 'En Andalucia
+         especialmente moria mucha gente de hambre, y el consulado de
+         Sevilla envió una diputacion para representar que aquella ciudad
+         habia quedado reducida á la cuarta parte de la poblacion que
+         habia tenido cincuenta años antes.' On the state of the people
+         generally, in 1680, compare _Lettres de Villars_, pp. 145, 152,
+         161.
+
+  [1335] 'Point de libertés et point de frein.' _Mém. de Louville_,
+         vol. i. p. 68.
+
+  [1336] In 1681, the French ambassadress writes from Madrid, 'Je ne vous
+         parle point de la misère de ce royaume. La faim est jusques dans
+         le palais. J'étois hier avec huit ou dix camaristes, et La
+         Moline, qui disoient qu'il y avoit fort long-tems qu'on ne leur
+         donnoit plus ni pain ni viande. Aux écuries du roi et de la
+         reine, de même.' _Lettres de Madame la Marquise de Villars_,
+         Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 216, 217. The year after Charles II. died:
+         'II n'y avoit pas de fonds pour les choses les plus nécessaires,
+         pour la cuisine, l'écurie, les valets de pied,' &c. _Millot_,
+         _Mémoires du Duc de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 26, ed. Petitot,
+         Paris, 1828. Among other reckless expedients, the currency was
+         so depreciated, that, in a letter from Martin to Dr. Frazer,
+         dated Madrid, March 6th, 1680, we hear of 'the fall of money to
+         one fourth part of its former value.' _Miscellany of the
+         Spalding Club_, vol. v. p. 187, Aberdeen, 4to. 1852.
+
+  [1337] 'The king has taken away, by a late decree, a third part of all
+         wages and salaries of all officers and ministers without
+         exception, and suspended for the ensuing year, 1694, all
+         pensions for life granted either by himself or his father.'
+         Letter from the English Ambassador, dated Madrid, November 18th,
+         1693, in _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._, London, 1840, p. 40.
+         This is also stated in _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. i.
+         p. 359, Paris, 1828; 'retranchant le tiers des dépenses de sa
+         maison, et des appointemens de ses officiers tant militaires que
+         civils.' In the preceding reign, the pension had been stopped,
+         at all events for a time. In 1650, Sir Edward Hyde, writes from
+         Madrid, 'there is an universal stop of all pensions which have
+         been granted formerly.' _Clarendon State Papers_, vol. ii. p.
+         538, Oxford, 1773. The next step which was taken was a proposal,
+         in 1667, to tax the salaries of the members of the Council of
+         Castile, Arragon, &c.; but this idea was abandoned, until at
+         length, they, like all other public servants, came under the
+         comprehensive edict of 1693. See the letter from the French
+         Ambassador to Louis XIV., dated Madrid, June 2nd, 1667, in
+         _Mignet_, _Négociations_, vol. ii. p. 128, Paris, 1835, 4to. The
+         only chance of recovering the history of Spain in the
+         seventeenth century, is by collating these and similar documents
+         with the meagre notices to be found in Spanish writers.
+
+  [1338] In 1695, 'the miserable poverty in this country.' _Travels
+         through Spain_, _performed by a Gentleman_, London, 1702, p. 62.
+         And, in the same year, 'L'Espagne, manquant de tout d'hommes, et
+         d'argent.' _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. i. p. 402. 'L'Espagne,
+         presque anéantie.' p. 424.
+
+  [1339] See the letters in _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._,
+         pp. 138-140. On the 21st of May, 'We have an addition of above
+         20,000 beggars, flocked from the country round, to share in that
+         little here is, who were starving at home, and look like
+         ghosts.' On the 27th of May, 'The scarcity of bread is growing
+         on apace towards a famine, which increases, by vast multitudes
+         of poor that swarm in upon us from the countries round about. I
+         shifted the best I could till this day, but the difficulty of
+         getting any without authority, has made me recur to the
+         Corregidor, as most of the foreign Ministers had done before;
+         he, very courteously, after inquiring what my family was, gave
+         me an order for twenty loaves every day: but I must send two
+         leagues, to Vallejas, to fetch it, as I have done this night,
+         and my servants with long guns to secure it when they have it,
+         otherwise it would be taken from them, for several people are
+         killed every day in the streets, in scuffles for bread, all
+         being lawful prize that any body can catch.' ... 'My secretary,
+         Don Francisco, saw yesterday five poor women stifled to death by
+         the crowd before a bakehouse.'
+
+If this state of things had continued for another generation, the
+wildest anarchy must have ensued, and the whole frame of society been
+broken up.[1340] The only chance of saving Spain from a relapse into
+barbarism, was that it should fall, and fall quickly, under foreign
+dominion. Such a change was indispensable; and there was reason to fear
+that it might come in a form which would have been inexpressibly odious
+to the nation. For, late in the seventeenth century, Ceuta was besieged
+by the Mohammedans; and as the Spanish Government had neither troops nor
+ships, the greatest apprehensions were entertained respecting the fate
+of this important fortress; there being little doubt, that if it fell,
+Spain would be again overrun by the infidels, who, this time, at least,
+would have found little difficulty in dealing with a people weakened by
+suffering, half famished, and almost worn out.[1341]
+
+  [1340] Even M. Lafuente, who having used scarcely any of the authorities
+         which I have quoted in the last few pages, can have no adequate
+         idea of the utter wretchedness of Spain, confesses that 'Jamás
+         monarca ni pueblo alguno se vieron en tan lastimosa situacion y
+         en tan mísero trance como se hallaron en este tiempo' (1699).
+         'Carlos II. y la España.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_,
+         vol. xvii. p. 426, Madrid, 1856.
+
+  [1341] 'Les Maures d'Afrique assiégeoient Ceuta. Le roi d'Espagne
+         manquait non seulement de troupes, mais de vaisseaux pour
+         transporter le peu de secours qu'il pouvoit y envoyer: Louis XIV
+         lui fit offrir les troupes et les vaisseaux dont il auroit
+         besoin. Il s'agissoit non seulement de conserver Ceuta, mais de
+         plus Oran; par conséquent d'empêcher la prise de deux places
+         dont la conquête facilitoit aux Maures un retour en Espagne.'
+         _Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy_, vol. i. p. 46, ed. Paris, 1828.
+         Respecting the attacks made on Ceuta, from 1696 to 1698, see
+         _Ortiz_, _Compendio de la Historia de España_, vol. vi. pp. 556,
+         567, 561.
+
+Fortunately, in the year 1700, when affairs were at their worst, Charles
+II., the idiot king, died; and Spain fell into the hands of Philip V.,
+the grandson of Louis XIV. This change from the Austrian dynasty to the
+Bourbon,[1342] brought with it many other changes. Philip, who reigned
+from 1700 to 1746,[1343] was a Frenchman, not only by birth and
+education, but also in feelings and habits.[1344] Just before he entered
+Spain, Louis charged him never to forget that he was a native of France,
+the throne of which he might some day ascend.[1345] After he became
+king, he neglected the Spaniards, despised their advice, and threw all
+the power he could command into the hands of his own countrymen.[1346]
+The affairs of Spain were now administered by subjects of Louis XIV.,
+whose ambassador at Madrid frequently performed the functions of prime
+minister.[1347] What had once been the most powerful monarchy in the
+world, became little else than a province of France; all important
+matters being decided in Paris, from whence Philip himself received his
+instructions.[1348]
+
+  [1342] A celebrated modern writer has made some remarks upon this, which
+         are too apposite to be omitted. 'Con el siglo xvii. acabó
+         tambien la dinastía austriaca en España, dejando á esta nacion
+         pobre, despoblada, sin fuerzas marítimas ni terrestres, y por
+         consiguiente á merced de las demas potencias que intentaron
+         repartir entre sí sus colonias y provincias. Así habia
+         desparecido en poco mas de un siglo aquella grandeza y poderío,
+         aquella fuerza y heroismo, aquella cultura é ilustracion con que
+         habia descollado entre todas las naciones.' _Biografia de
+         Ensenada_, in _Navarrete_, _Opúsculos_, vol. ii. p. 5, Madrid,
+         1848.
+
+  [1343] Except during the short interregnum of Louis, in 1724, which only
+         lasted a few months, and during which, the boy, though called
+         king, exercised no real power, and Philip remained the actual
+         ruler. 'Aun el nuevo rey no resolvia negocio de consideracion
+         sin asenso de su padre.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. vii. p. 374.
+
+  [1344] Saint Simon, who knew Philip well, and who was in Spain in 1721
+         and 1722, says of him, 'L'amour de la France lui sortait de
+         partout.' _Mémoires du Duc de Saint Simon_, vol. xxxvii. p. 3,
+         Paris, 1841. And, in 1746, shortly before his death, Noailles
+         writes from Aranjuez, 'Ce prince a le c[oe]ur tout français.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. iv. p. 191, Paris, 1829.
+
+  [1345] 'N'oubliez jamais que vous êtes Français, et ce qui peut vous
+         arriver.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 6.
+         Compare _Coxe's Memoirs of the Bourbon Kings of Spain_, London,
+         1815, vol. i. p. 103.
+
+  [1346] In 1702, Philip 'parlait moins que jamais, et seulement aux
+         Français, comme s'ils eussent été les seuls êtres de son
+         espèce.' _Mémoires de Louville_, vol. i. p. 276. 'Le dégoût que
+         Philippe laissait voir pour sa cour espagnole.' p. 333. A
+         Spanish statesman, celebrated, or, I would rather say,
+         notorious, at the close of the century, indignantly exclaims,
+         'It was on the accession of the Bourbon dynasty, that foreigners
+         came to govern us on our native soil.' _Godoy's Memoirs_, ed.
+         London, 1836, vol. ii. p. 271.
+
+  [1347] In 1701, it was the duty of the French ambassador, 'qu'il pût au
+         besoin être premier ministre d'Espagne.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de
+         Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 31; 'que l'ambassadeur de sa Majesté soit
+         ministre du roi Catholique; que, sans en avoir le titre, il en
+         exerce les fonctions; qu'il aide au roi d'Espagne à connoître
+         l'état de ses affaires, et à gouverner par lui-même.' p. 55. In
+         1702, Marsin writes to Louis XIV., 'Comme il est absolument
+         nécessaire que l'ambassadeur de Votre Majesté en Espagne ait un
+         crédit sans bornes auprès du Roy son petit-fils.' p. 183. In
+         1705, Amelot, the French ambassador, 'décidoit de tout en
+         Espagne.' _Mémoires de Louville_, vol. ii. p. 165; and in 1706,
+         'étant à la tête des affaires, et joignant presque les fonctions
+         de premier ministre à celles d'ambassadeur.' _Noailles_,
+         vol. ii. p. 398.
+
+  [1348] In 1703, 'Il est clair que l'embarras de Philippe venoit surtout
+         de la crainte que ses décisions ne fussent point approuvées en
+         France, où toutes les affaires importantes se décidoient.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 244. 'The King of
+         France had always certain persons at Madrid, which compos'd a
+         Council, of which that of Versailles was the soul; and whose
+         members were all creatures of the French Court, and sent to
+         Madrid from time to time to direct all affairs there, according
+         to the views of the Most Christian King, and to give him an
+         account of every thing that pass'd in the Councils of the
+         Escurial. Alberoni got to be initiated in the mysteries of this
+         cabal.' _History of Cardinal Alberoni_, London, 1719, p. 70.
+
+         The Spanish historians are not very fond of admitting this
+         unquestionable fact; but Bacallar, after mentioning the
+         influence of the French Ambassador, frankly adds: 'Desde
+         entonces tomaron tanta mano sobre los de España los ministros
+         franceses, que dieron mas zelos á los Principes, viendo
+         estrechar la union á un grado, que todo se ponía al arbitrio de
+         Luis XIV.' _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de España_,
+         vol. i. p. 33.
+
+The truth is, that Spain, broken and prostrate, was unable to supply
+ability of any kind; and if the government of the country was to be
+carried on, it was absolutely necessary that foreigners should be
+called in.[1349] Even in 1682, that is, eighteen years before the
+accession of Philip V., there was not to be found a single native well
+acquainted with the art of war; so that Charles II. was obliged to
+intrust the military defence of the Spanish Netherlands to De Grana, the
+Austrian ambassador at Madrid.[1350] When, therefore, the War of the
+Succession broke out, in 1702, even the Spaniards themselves desired
+that their troops should be commanded by a foreigner.[1351] In 1704, the
+extraordinary spectacle was exhibited of the Duke of Berwick, an
+Englishman, leading Spanish soldiers against the enemy, and being in
+fact generalissimo of the Spanish army.[1352] The King of Spain,
+dissatisfied with his proceedings, determined to remove him; but,
+instead of filling his place with a native, he applied to Louis XIV. for
+another general; and this important post was confided to Marshal Tessé,
+a Frenchman.[1353] A little later, Berwick was again summoned to Madrid,
+and ordered to put himself at the head of the Spanish troops, and defend
+Estremadura and Castile.[1354] This he effected with complete success;
+and, in the battle of Almansa, which he fought in 1707, he overthrew the
+invaders, ruined the party of the pretender Charles,[1355] and secured
+the seat of Philip on the throne.[1356] As the war, however, still
+continued, Philip, in 1710, wrote to Paris for another general, and
+requested that the Duke de Vendôme might be sent to him.[1357] This able
+commander, on his arrival, infused new vigour into the Spanish counsels,
+and utterly defeated the allies;[1358] so that the war by which the
+independence of Spain was established, owed its success to the ability
+of foreigners, and to the fact that the campaigns were planned and
+conducted, not by natives, but by French and English generals.
+
+  [1349] Even the veteran diplomatist was so struck by the escape of Spain
+         from complete ruin, that he ascribes its change of masters to
+         the direct interference of the Deity. 'Sa seule puissance avait
+         placé Philippe V sur le trône d'Espagne; elle seule pouvait l'y
+         maintenir; les hommes n'avaient pas conduit ce grand événement.'
+         _Mémoires de Torcy_, vol. i. p. 333. 'Le trône où Dieu l'avait
+         placé.' p. 401. See also vol. ii. pp. 3, 227. 'The Spanish
+         people received him with unhesitating obedience to the deceased
+         king's will, and rejoiced at the prospect of a rule that would
+         at least have the merit of being different from that under which
+         they had so long withered.' _Memoirs of Peterborough_, London,
+         1853, vol. i. p. 102. 'Muchos españoles recibieron por su
+         soberano á Felipe V., cansados de la dominacion de la casa de
+         Austria. Esperaban de la mudanza de la dinastia la felicidad y
+         el buen gobierno.' _Castro_, _Decadencia de España_, Cadiz,
+         1852, p. 131. To the same effect, _Millot_, _Mémoires de
+         Noailles_, vol. i. pp. 420, 426, vol. ii. p. 9.
+
+  [1350] He 'committed the military defence of these provinces to the
+         Marquis of Grana, the Austrian ambassador at Madrid, from the
+         want of any Spanish commander whose courage or military
+         endowments qualified him to repel such an enemy as the king of
+         France.' _Dunlop's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 232. Compare, on the
+         want of Spanish generals, _Mémoires du Maréchal de Gramont_,
+         vol. ii. p. 82, edit. Paris, 1827. The opinion which Grana
+         himself formed of the Spanish government, may be learned from a
+         conversation which he held at Madrid, in 1680, with the French
+         ambassadress, and which is preserved in her correspondence.
+         _Lettres de Madame la Marquise de Villars_, Amsterdam, 1759, pp.
+         118, 119.
+
+  [1351] See the letter of Philip V. to Louis XIV., dated June 22, 1702,
+         in _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257, Paris, 1828,
+         edit. Petitot.
+
+  [1352] See _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de España_, vol. i.
+         pp. 137, 166, where he is called 'el Duque de Bervich.' His own
+         account is, 'J'arrivai à Madrid le 15 février' (1704), 'où
+         d'abord S. M. Catholique me fit Capitaine-Général de ses
+         armées.' _Mémoires de Berwick_, Paris, 1778, vol. i. p. 227; and
+         see p. xxv. No one would suppose this, from the observations of
+         M. Lafuente, in his _Historia de España_, vol. xviii. p. 80,
+         Madrid, 1857.
+
+  [1353] 'Philippe n'étoit pas content de Berwick, ou plutôt il témoigna
+         ne le pas être, et il demanda un autre général à Louis XIV. On
+         lui envoya le maréchal de Tessé, pour qui il avoit montré du
+         penchant.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 331.
+         Berwick himself ascribes his dismissal to the influence of
+         Gramont and of the Queen of Spain. _Mémoires de Berwick_, vol.
+         i. pp. 269-273. At all events, the new general became supreme.
+         In December 1705, the Princess des Ursins writes from Madrid to
+         Madame de Maintenon, 'M. le maréchal de Tessé, quand il est à
+         Madrid, est consulté, et décide sur toutes les affaires,
+         _autant, pour le moins, que M. l'ambassadeur_; et lorsqu'il est
+         à l'armée, il est le maître absolu non seulement des troupes de
+         France, mais encore de celles d'Espagne, commandant aux
+         capitaines-généraux, ses anciens, contre l'usage du pays.'
+         _Lettres inédites de Madame de Maintenon et de Madame la
+         Princesse des Ursins_, vol. iii. p. 259, Paris, 1826.
+
+  [1354] In 1706, 'Le duc de Berwick, redemandé par Philippe V., arrivé à
+         Madrid le 11 mars, avec le titre de maréchal de France, pour
+         défendre l'Estramadure et la Castille, ayant rassemblé ce qu'il
+         peut de troupes espagnoles, empêcha les ennemis d'entreprendre
+         le siège de Badajoz.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii.
+         p. 387. Philip 'pria le Roi, son grand-père, d'envoyer un
+         général pour commander sur les frontières de Portugal. Ce fut
+         donc sur moi que le choix tomba.' _Mémoires de Berwick_, vol. i.
+         p. 305.
+
+  [1355] In a recently published work (_Memoirs of Peterborough_, London,
+         1853, vol. i. pp. 148, 155, 161, 206, 210, vol. ii. pp. 34, 93),
+         Charles is not only called King of Spain, which he never was, as
+         Spain always refused to accept him, but, in the teeth of all
+         history, he is actually termed Charles III.; while Philip V. is
+         merely 'Philip of Anjou.' If this were allowed, the consequence
+         would be, that the king whom the Spaniards now call Charles
+         III., would have to change his appellation, and become Charles
+         IV.; and Charles IV. would be changed into Charles V. It is
+         really too much when mere biographers obtrude, in this way,
+         their own little prepossessions into the vast field of history,
+         and seek to efface its established nomenclature, because they
+         are enamoured of the hero whose life they write.
+
+  [1356] 'This victory established the throne of Philip.' _Dunham's
+         History of Spain_, vol. v. p. 136. 'A victory which may be
+         justly said to have saved Spain.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of
+         Spain_, vol. i. p. 408. Even Ortiz allows that if Berwick had
+         failed, Philip would have been ruined. 'Esta batalla de Almansa,
+         que las circunstancias hicieron ruidosa, comenzó á poner mejor
+         la corona de España en la cabeza de Felipe V.; y se tuvo por
+         indubitable que si la hubiera perdido, tambien hubiera perdido
+         la corona.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_, vol. vii. p. 116. See also
+         _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. xviii. p. 185. 'Berwick,
+         á quien, sin duda, debió su salvación la España.'
+
+  [1357] 'Sa réputation étoit grande et bien établie; le roi d'Espagne
+         avoit été témoin de sa conduite en Lombardie; il demanda au Roi
+         un général si capable de commander ses armées.' _Mémoires de
+         Torcy_, vol. i. p. 386. See also _History of Alberoni_, London,
+         1719, p. 45. 'Le duc de Vendôme alloit enfin commander les
+         troupes d'Espagne.' _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. iii. p. 12.
+         According to Berwick, the offer was first made to himself.
+         _Mémoires de Berwick_, vol. ii. pp. 106, 109. M. Lafuente,
+         without quoting any authority, says (_Historia de España_, vol.
+         xviii. p. 279), 'Luego que se perdió la batalla de Zaragoza
+         escribió Felipe al rey Cristianísimo, su abuelo, rogándole que,
+         ya que no pudiera socorrerle con tropas, le enviára al menos _al
+         duque de Berwick ó al de Vendome_.' But, as Berwick must have
+         had the means of knowing the real state of the case, he is
+         probably correct in saying that the first application was in his
+         own favour.
+
+  [1358] 'Vendôme arrived at this moment to call into action the spirit of
+         the monarch and the zeal of his subjects.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings
+         of Spain_, vol. ii. p. 41. 'The arrival of the Duke de Vendôme
+         again changed the fate of Spain.' _Memoirs of Peterborough_,
+         vol. ii. p. 130.
+
+In the same way, the finances were, by the end of the seventeenth
+century, in such deplorable confusion, that Portocarrero, who at the
+accession of Philip V. was the nominal minister of Spain, expressed a
+desire that they should be administered by some one sent from Paris, who
+could restore them.[1359] He felt that no one in Spain was equal to the
+task, and he was by no means singular in this opinion. In 1701, Louville
+wrote to Torcy, that if a financier did not soon arrive from France,
+there would shortly be no finances to administer.[1360] The choice fell
+upon Orry, who reached Madrid in the summer of 1701.[1361] He found
+everything in the most miserable condition; and the incompetence of the
+Spaniards was so obvious, that he was soon forced to undertake the
+management, not only of the finances, but also of the war-department. To
+save appearances, Canalez became the ostensible minister at war; but he,
+being completely ignorant of affairs, merely performed the drudgery of
+that office, the real duties of which were fulfilled by Orry
+himself.[1362]
+
+  [1359] 'Portocarrero, abrumado con las dificultades de la gobernacion,
+         que excedian en mucho á sus escasas luces, no contento con haber
+         inducido al rey á que aumentára su consejo de gabinete con dos
+         ministros más, que fueron el marqués de Mancera, presidente del
+         de Aragon, y el duque de Montalto, del de Italia, pidió á Luis
+         XIV. le enviára una persona que pudiera establecer un plan de
+         hacienda en España, y corregir y reformar los abusos de la
+         administracion.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_, vol. xviii.
+         p. 15. On 22nd June 1701, Louis XIV. writes to the Duc
+         d'Harcourt, 'Qu'enfin le cardinal Porto-Carrero m'a fait
+         demander quelqu'un intelligent en matière de finances pour voir
+         et connoître l'état de celles du roi d'Espagne, pour examiner
+         les moyens les plus propres de soulager ses sujets, et de
+         pourvoir aux plus pressans besoins du public; qu'il m'assure que
+         _toute l'Espagne le désire en général_: toutes ces raisons m'ont
+         déterminé à choisir le sieur Orry, pour l'envoyer à Madrid.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 44.
+
+  [1360] 'Il faudra que l'homme que vous enverrez pour les finances (car
+         vous aurez la bonté d'en envoyer un, ou bien nous n'aurons plus
+         de finances).' _Mémoires de Louville_, vol. i. p. 149.
+
+  [1361] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 181.
+
+  [1362] 'Canalez, qu'on a substitué à Rivas pour le département de la
+         guerre, n'a aucun talent pour cet emploi, selon l'instruction;
+         et toute l'Espagne voit clairement qu'Orry ne le lui a procuré
+         qu'afin d'en exercer les fonctions sous le nom d'un Espagnol.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 305; under the
+         year 1704. See also, on the power of Orry in the war-department,
+         _Mémoires de Berwick_, vol. i. pp. 226, 227, 306, 316, vol. ii.
+         p. 166. Berwick, who hated Orry, says of him (vol. i. p. 232),
+         'il se mêloit de tout et faisoit tout,' But there can be no
+         doubt of his being a man of very considerable ability; and M.
+         Lafuente (_Historia de España_, vol. xix. p. 253, Madrid, 1857)
+         candidly says, 'Es lo cierto que hizo abrir mucho los ojos de
+         los españoles en materia de administracion,' Compare vol. xviii.
+         p. 369; _Mémoires du Duc de Saint Simon_, vol. vii. pp. 102,
+         195, Paris, 1842; and _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de
+         España_, vol. i. pp. 82, 83, 99, 168, vol. ii. pp. 95, 107.
+         Bacallar treats him harshly.
+
+This dominion of the French continued, without interruption, until the
+second marriage of Philip V., in 1714, and the death of Louis XIV., in
+1715, both of which events weakened their influence, and for a time
+almost destroyed it. The authority, however, which they lost, was
+transferred, not to Spaniards, but to other foreigners. Between 1714 and
+1726, the two most powerful and conspicuous men in Spain were Alberoni,
+an Italian, and Ripperda, a Dutchman. Ripperda was dismissed in
+1726;[1363] and after his fall, the affairs of Spain were controlled by
+Konigseg, who was a German, and who, indeed, was the Austrian ambassador
+residing at Madrid.[1364] Even Grimaldo, who held office before and
+after the dismissal of Ripperda, was a disciple of the French school,
+and had been brought up under Orry.[1365] All this was not the result of
+accident, nor is it to be ascribed to the caprice of the court. In
+Spain, the national spirit had so died away, that none but foreigners,
+or men imbued with foreign ideas, were equal to the duties of
+government. To the evidence already quoted on this point, I will add two
+other testimonies. Noailles, a very fair judge, and by no means
+prejudiced against the Spaniards, emphatically stated, in 1710, that,
+notwithstanding their loyalty, they were incapable of ruling, inasmuch
+as they were ignorant both of war and of politics.[1366] In 1711, Bonnac
+mentions that a resolution had been formed to place no Spaniard at the
+head of affairs, because those hitherto employed had proved to be either
+unfortunate or unfaithful.[1367]
+
+  [1363] _Ripperda's Memoirs_, London, 1740, second edition, pp. 117, 118.
+         Saint Simon (_Mémoires_, vol. xxxvi. p. 246) says, that Ripperda
+         was 'premier ministre aussi absolu que le fut jamais son
+         prédécesseur, Alberoni.' The English pamphleteers and
+         politicians of the last century were very unjust to Alberoni,
+         who, notwithstanding the dangerous boldness of his nature, was
+         one of the best ministers who ever governed Spain. M. Lafuente,
+         while admitting his faults, says (_Historia de España_, vol.
+         xix. pp. 437, 438), 'Negarle gran capacidad seria una gran
+         injusticia. Tampoco puede desconocerse que reanimó y regeneró la
+         España, levantándola á un grado de esplendor y de grandeza en
+         que nunca se habia vuelto á ver desde los mejores tiempos de
+         Felipe II.' See also a good summary of what he did for Spain, in
+         _Tapia_, _Historia de la Civilizacion Española_, Madrid, 1840,
+         vol. iv. pp. 50, 51.
+
+  [1364] 'The all-powerful Konigseg.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_,
+         vol. iii. p. 154; 'the prime mover of the Spanish counsels,' p.
+         159; in 1727-8, 'Konigseg usurped the control over every
+         operation of government,' p. 190; and see p. 235. His great
+         power is likewise noticed in _Lafuente_, _Historia de España_,
+         vol. xix. p. 71: 'el hombre de mas influjo y valimiento en la
+         córte.'
+
+  [1365] 'Originally a clerk under Orry, he gained the favour of his
+         employer,' &c. _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iii. p. 39.
+         Coxe had access to a large mass of letters, which were written
+         in the eighteenth century, by persons connected with Spain, and
+         many of which are still unpublished. This makes his book very
+         valuable; and, as a recital of political events, it is superior
+         to anything the Spaniards have produced, though the author is, I
+         need hardly say, far inferior to M. Lafuente as a writer, and
+         also as an artistic arranger of facts.
+
+  [1366] 'Que les Espagnols depuis longtemps ignoroient la guerre et la
+         politique; qu'on devoit être sensible à leurs démonstrations
+         d'attachement et de zèle, sans les croire, suffisantes pour
+         soutenir un État' ... 'l'incapacité des sujets pour le
+         gouvernement.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. iii. pp.
+         24, 25.
+
+  [1367] 'C'étoit un parti pris, comme l'observe Bonnac, de ne plus mettre
+         le gouvernement entre leurs mains. On avoit trouvé parmi eux peu
+         d'hommes capables des grands emplois: ceux à qui on les avoit
+         confiés, malheureux ou infidèles, avoient inspiré de
+         l'éloignement pour les autres.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de
+         Noailles_, vol. iii. p. 81.
+
+The government of Spain being taken from the Spaniards, now began to
+show some signs of vigour. The change was slight, but it was in the
+right direction, though, as we shall presently see, it could not
+regenerate Spain, owing to the unfavourable operation of general causes.
+Still, the intention was good. For the first time, attempts were made to
+vindicate the rights of laymen, and to diminish the authority of
+ecclesiastics. Scarcely had the French established their dominion, when
+they suggested that it might be advisable to relieve the necessities of
+the state, by compelling the clergy to give up some of the wealth which
+they had accumulated in their churches.[1368] Even Louis XIV. insisted
+that the important office of President of Castile should not be
+conferred on an ecclesiastic, because, he said, in Spain the priests and
+monks had already too much power.[1369] Orry, who for several years
+possessed immense influence, exerted it in the same direction. He
+endeavoured to lessen the immunities possessed by the clergy, in regard
+to taxation, and also in regard to their exemption from lay
+jurisdiction. He opposed the privilege of sanctuary; he sought to
+deprive churches of their right of asylum. He even attacked the
+Inquisition, and worked so powerfully on the mind of the king, that
+Philip, at one time, determined to suspend that dreadful tribunal, and
+abolish the office of grand inquisitor.[1370] This intention was very
+properly abandoned; for there can be no doubt that if it had been
+enforced, it would have caused a revolution, in which Philip would
+probably have lost his crown.[1371] In such case, a reaction would have
+set in, which would have left the Church stronger than ever. Many
+things, however, were done for Spain in spite of the Spaniards.[1372] In
+1707, the clergy were forced to contribute to the state a small part of
+their enormous wealth; the tax being disguised under the name of a
+loan.[1373] Ten years later, during the administration of Alberoni, this
+disguise was thrown off; and not only did government exact what was now
+called 'the ecclesiastical tax,' but it imprisoned or exiled those
+priests who, refusing to pay, stood up for the privileges of their
+order.[1374] This was a bold step to be taken in Spain, and it was one
+on which, at that time, no Spaniard would have ventured. Alberoni,
+however, as a foreigner, was unversed in the traditions of the country,
+which, indeed, on another memorable occasion, he set at defiance. The
+government of Madrid, acting in complete unison with public opinion, had
+always been unwilling to negotiate with infidels; meaning by infidels
+every people whose religious notions differed from their own. Sometimes,
+such negotiations were unavoidable, but they were entered into with fear
+and trembling, lest the pure Spanish faith should be tainted by too
+close a contact with unbelievers. Even in 1698, when it was evident that
+the monarchy was at its last gasp, and that nothing could save it from
+the hands of the spoiler, the prejudice was so strong, that the
+Spaniards refused to receive aid from the Dutch, because the Dutch were
+heretics. At that time, Holland was in the most intimate relation with
+England, whose interest it was to secure the independence of Spain
+against the machinations of France. Obvious, however, as this was, the
+Spanish theologians, being consulted respecting the proposal, declared
+that it was inadmissible, since it would enable the Dutch to propagate
+their religious opinions; so that, according to this view, it was better
+to be subjugated by a Catholic enemy, than to be assisted by a
+Protestant friend.[1375]
+
+  [1368] In 1701, 'Les églises d'Espagne ont des richesses immenses en or
+         et en argenterie, qui augmentent tous les jours par le crédit
+         des religieux; et cela rend l'espèce très-rare dans le commerce.
+         On propose d'obliger le clergé à vendre une partie de cette
+         argenterie. Avant que de prendre ce parti, il en faudroit bien
+         examiner non seulement l'utilité, que l'on connoît, mais aussi
+         les inconvéniens qu'un pareil ordre pourroit produire.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 60.
+
+  [1369] 'Il insistoit sur la nécessité de ne pas donner à un
+         ecclésiastique, ni à une créature du cardinal, la présidence de
+         Castille, quand on rempliroit cette importante place; les
+         prêtres et les moines n'avoient déjà que trop de pouvoir.'
+         _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. ii. p. 77. Compare pp.
+         71, 72; a letter from Louville to Torcy, dated August 5th, 1701.
+
+  [1370] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. ii. pp. 163-165. _Mémoires
+         de Noailles_, vol. iii. p. 143.
+
+  [1371] In 1714, it was thought necessary, that Philip V., not having had
+         the benefit of a Spanish education, should be enlightened on the
+         subject of the Inquisition. He was, therefore, informed, 'que la
+         pureza de la religion Catolica en estos reynos se debia á la
+         vigilancia de la Inquisicion y sus ministros, todos justos,
+         clementes y circunspectos, no rigidos, violentos ni crueles,
+         como por error ó malicia los pintan comunmente los Franceses. Y
+         que _la conservacion de la Monarquia dependia en gran parte de
+         mantener ilibata la religion Catolica_.' _Ortiz_, _Compendio_,
+         vol. vii. p. 286. Bacallar (_Comentarios_, vol. ii. pp. 122-125)
+         gives an interesting account of the attacks made on the rights
+         of the Church, and which, he says, p. 122, were 'poco ajustados
+         á la doctrina de los Santos Padres, á la Inmunidad de la
+         Iglesia, y que sonaban á heregía.' He significantly adds, p.
+         125, 'Los pueblos de España, que son tan religiosos, y professan
+         la mayor veneracion á la Iglesia, creían que esta se
+         atropellaba, _y huvo alguna interna inquietud, no sin fomento de
+         los adversos al Rey, cuyo puro, y sincero corazon podia ser
+         engañado_; pero no inducido á un evidente error contra los
+         Sagrados Canones,' &c. Such passages, proceeding, in the
+         eighteenth century, from a man like the Marquis de San Phelipe,
+         are of no slight importance in the history of the Spanish mind.
+
+  [1372] So early as May 1702, Philip V., in a letter to Louis XIV.,
+         complained that the Spaniards opposed him in every thing. 'Je
+         crois être obligé de vous dire que je m'aperçois de plus en plus
+         du peu de zèle que les Espagnols out pour mon service, dans les
+         petites choses comme dans les grandes, et qu'ils s'opposent à
+         tout ce que je désire.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol.
+         ii. p. 136. The dislike which the Spaniards felt for the liberal
+         reforms advocated by the French, went on increasing, until, in
+         1709, 'se renovaron los antiguos odios entre las dos naciones,
+         con tanto ardor, que deseaban las tropas españolas el haber de
+         combatir con los Franceses.' _Bacallar_, _Comentarios_, vol. i.
+         p. 360.
+
+  [1373] 'L'opulence de l'Église devoit évidemment fournir des secours à
+         la patrie. Un emprunt de quatre millions, fait sur le clergé
+         l'année précédente, 1707, avoit cependant fort déplu au Pape ou
+         à ses ministres.' _Millot_, _Mémoires de Noaulès_, vol. ii. p.
+         412.
+
+  [1374] 'He' (Alberoni) 'continued also the exaction of the
+         ecclesiastical tax, in spite of the papal prohibitions,
+         imprisoning or banishing the refractory priests who defended the
+         privileges of their order.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_,
+         vol. ii. p. 288.
+
+  [1375] On January 2nd, 1698, Stanhope, the British Minister at Madrid,
+         writes from that capital: 'This Court is not at all inclined to
+         admit the offer of the Dutch troops to garrison their places in
+         Flanders. They have consulted their theologians, who declare
+         against it as a matter of conscience, since it would give great
+         opportunities to the spreading of heresy. They have not yet sent
+         their answer but it is believed it will be in the negative, and
+         that they will rather choose to lie at the mercy of the French,
+         as being Catholics.' _Mahon's Spain under Charles II._,
+         pp. 98, 99.
+
+Still, much as the Spaniards hated Protestants, they hated Mohammedans
+yet more.[1376] They could never forget how the followers of that creed
+had once conquered nearly the whole of Spain, and had, during several
+centuries, possessed the fairest portion of it. The remembrance of this
+strengthened their religious animosity, and caused them to be the chief
+supporters of nearly every war which was waged against the Mohammedans,
+both of Turkey and of Africa.[1377] But Alberoni, being a foreigner, was
+unmoved by these considerations, and, to the astonishment of all Spain,
+he, on the mere ground of political expediency, set at naught the
+principles of the Church, and not only concluded an alliance with the
+Mohammedans, but supplied them with arms and with money.[1378] It is,
+indeed, true, that, in these and similar measures, Alberoni opposed
+himself to the national will, and that he lived to repent of his
+boldness. It is, however, also true, that his policy was part of a great
+secular and anti-theological movement, which, during the eighteenth
+century, was felt all over Europe. The effects of that movement were
+seen in the government of Spain, but not in the people. This was because
+the government for many years was wielded by foreigners, or by natives
+imbued with a foreign spirit. Hence we find that, during the greater
+part of the eighteenth century, the politicians of Spain formed a class
+more isolated, and, if I may so say, more living on their own
+intellectual resources, than the politicians of any other country during
+the same period. That this indicated a state of disease, and that no
+political improvement can produce real good, unless it is desired by the
+people before being conferred on them, will be admitted by whoever has
+mastered the lessons which history contains. The results actually
+produced in Spain, we shall presently see. But it will first be
+advisable that I should give some further evidence of the extent to
+which the influence of the Church had prostrated the national
+intellect, and by discouraging all inquiry, and fettering all freedom of
+thought, had at length reduced the country to such a plight, that the
+faculties of men, rusted by disuse, were no longer equal to fulfil the
+functions required from them; so that in every department, whether of
+political life, or of speculative philosophy, or even of mechanical
+industry, it was necessary that foreigners should be called in, to do
+that work, which the natives had become unable to perform.
+
+  [1376] 'Entre el catolicismo y las diferentes sectas que brotaron en las
+         imaginaciones de Calvino y de Lutero podia mediar tolerancia, y
+         aun transaccion, si bien, como dice un escritor político, cuando
+         se comienza á transigir sobre un principio, ese principio
+         comienza á perder su imperio sobre las sociedades humanas. Pero
+         entre el cristianismo de los españoles y el mahometismo de los
+         moriscos era imposible todo avenimiento.' _Janer_, _Condicion
+         Social de los Moriscos_, Madrid, 1857, p. 112.
+
+  [1377] The Marquis of San Phelipe, who wrote in 1725, says, 'Es ley
+         fundamental de los Reyes Catholicos, nunca hacer la paz con los
+         Mahometanos; y esta guerra permanece desde el Rey Don Pelayo,
+         por mas de siete siglos, sin hacer jamás paces, ni treguas con
+         ellos, como cada dia las hacen el Emperador, y otros Principes
+         Catholicos.' _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de España_,
+         vol. ii. p. 169. And, in the most influential work on commerce
+         which the reign of Philip V. produced, I find the following
+         instructive passage: 'Aunque en los Puertos de las dilatadas
+         Costas, que de Europa, Asia y Africa baña el Mediterraneo, se
+         hace comercio muy considerable, y util por diversas naciones, no
+         podrá España tener gran parte en él, mientras se observare la
+         maxima de hacer continua guerra á todos los Moros y Turcos, en
+         cuyo dominio se hallan la mayor parte de aquellas Provincias;
+         sin embargo de ser constante, que _en esta guerra, aunque
+         procedida de zelo Christiano, es mayor el daño que recibimos,
+         que el que ocasionamos á los Infieles_' (the way the mercantile
+         spirit peeps out here, is extremely curious) 'á lo menos de
+         muchos años á esta parte, como lo he explicado en diversos
+         capitulos.' _Uztariz_, _Theorica y Practica de Comercio_,
+         Madrid, 1757, p. 399. This is the third edition of a book,
+         which, considering the circumstances under which it was written,
+         is a very remarkable production.
+
+  [1378] Compare _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, London, 1815, vol. ii.
+         p. 314, with _The History of Alberoni_, London, 1719, pp. 119,
+         253; and _Bacallar_, _Comentarios de la Guerra de España_, vol.
+         ii. pp. 168, 169. The outcry which this caused, may be easily
+         imagined; and Alberoni, finding himself in great peril, took
+         advantage of the secrecy of the negotiations, to deny part, at
+         least, of the charges made against him. See his indignant, but
+         yet cautious, letter to the Pope, in _History of Alberoni_,
+         1719, p. 124. Ortiz, who had evidently not looked into the
+         evidence, is so ill-informed as to suppose that this was a
+         calumnious accusation brought against Alberoni after his fall.
+         'Caido ya por entonces Alberoni de su grandeza, expelido
+         ignominiosamente de España, y aun perseguido por el Rey en
+         Italia, preso en Roma por orden del Papa, etc., no era dificil
+         atribuirle culpas agenas ó no cometidas.' _Note in Ortiz_,
+         _Compendio_, vol. vii. p. 321.
+
+The ignorance in which the force of adverse circumstances had sunk the
+Spaniards, and their inactivity, both bodily and mental, would be
+utterly incredible, if it were not attested by every variety of
+evidence. Gramont, writing from personal knowledge of the state of
+Spain, during the latter half of the seventeenth century, describes the
+upper classes as not only unacquainted with science or literature, but
+as knowing scarcely any thing even of the commonest events which
+occurred out of their own country. The lower ranks, he adds, are equally
+idle, and rely upon foreigners to reap their wheat, to cut their hay,
+and to build their houses.[1379] Another observer of society, as it
+existed in Madrid in 1679, assures us that men, even of the highest
+position, never thought it necessary that their sons should study; and
+that those who were destined for the army could not learn mathematics,
+if they desired to do so, inasmuch as there were neither schools nor
+masters to teach them.[1380] Books, unless they were books of devotion,
+were deemed utterly useless; no one consulted them; no one collected
+them; and, until the eighteenth century, Madrid did not possess a single
+public library.[1381] In other cities professedly devoted to purposes of
+education, similar ignorance prevailed. Salamanca was the seat of the
+most ancient and most famous university in Spain, and there, if
+anywhere, we might look for the encouragement of science.[1382] But De
+Torres, who was himself a Spaniard, and was educated at Salamanca,
+early in the eighteenth century, declares that he had studied at that
+university for five years before he had heard that such things as the
+mathematical sciences existed.[1383] So late as the year 1771, the same
+university publicly refused to allow the discoveries of Newton to be
+taught; and assigned as a reason, that the system of Newton was not so
+consonant with revealed religion as the system of Aristotle.[1384] All
+over Spain, a similar plan was adopted. Everywhere, knowledge was
+spurned, and inquiry discouraged. Feijoo, who, notwithstanding his
+superstition, and a certain slavishness of mind, from which no Spaniard
+of that age could escape, did, on matters of science, seek to enlighten
+his countrymen, has left upon record his deliberate opinion, that
+whoever had acquired all that was taught in his time under the name of
+philosophy, would, as the reward of his labour, be more ignorant than he
+was before he began.[1385] And there can be no doubt that he was right.
+There can be no doubt that, in Spain, the more a man was taught, the
+less he would know. For, he was taught that inquiry was sinful, that
+intellect must be repressed, and that credulity and submission were the
+first of human attributes. The Duke de Saint Simon, who, in 1721 and
+1722, was the French ambassador at Madrid, sums up his observations by
+the remark, that, in Spain, science is a crime, and ignorance a
+virtue.[1386] Fifty years later, another shrewd observer, struck with
+amazement at the condition of the national mind, expresses his opinion
+in a sentence equally pithy and almost equally severe. Searching for an
+illustration to convey his sense of the general darkness, he
+emphatically says, that the common education of an English gentleman
+would, in Spain, constitute a man of learning.[1387]
+
+  [1379] 'Leur paresse, et l'ignorance non seulement des sciences et des
+         arts, mais quasi généralement de tout ce qui se passe hors de
+         l'Espagne, et on peut dire même hors du lieu où ils habitent,
+         vont presque de pair, et sont inconcevables. La pauvreté est
+         grande parmi eux, ce qui provient de leur extrême paresse; car
+         si nombre de nos Français n'alloient faucher leurs foins, couper
+         leurs blés et faire leurs briques, je crois qu'ils courroient
+         fortune de se laisser mourir de faim, et de se tenir sous des
+         tentes pour ne se pas donner la peine de bâtir des maisons.' ...
+         'L'éducation de leurs enfans est semblable à celle qu'ils ont eu
+         de leurs pères, c'est-à-dire sans qu'ils apprennent ni sciences
+         ni exercices; et je ne crois par que parmi tous les grands que
+         j'ay pratiqués, il s'en trouvât un seul qui sût décliner son
+         nom.' ... 'Ils n'ont nulle curiosité de voir les pays
+         étrangers, et encore moins de s'enquérir de ce qui s'y passe.'
+         _Mémoires du Maréchal de Gramont_, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78, 82, 83,
+         in _Collection des Mémoires par Petitot et Monmerqué_, vol.
+         lvii. See also _Aarsens de Sommerdyck_, _Voyage d'Espagne_,
+         Paris, 1665, 4to. p. 124. 'La terré mesme n'y est pas toute
+         cultiuée par des gens du pays: au tempe du labourage, des
+         semailles et de la recolte, il leur vient quantité de paysans du
+         Bearn et d'autres endroits de France, qui gagnent beaucoup
+         d'argent, pour leur mettre leurs bleds en terre et pour les
+         recueillir. Les architectes et charpentiers y sont aussi pour la
+         plûpart estrangers, qui se font payer au triple de ce qu'ils
+         gagneroient en leur pays. Dans Madrid on ne voit pas un porteur
+         d'eau qui ne soit estranger, et la plûpart des cordonniers et
+         tailleurs le sont aussi.'
+
+  [1380] 'Mais aussi de quelle manière les élève-t-on? Ils n'étudient
+         point; on néglige de leur donner d'habiles précepteurs; dès
+         qu'on les destine à l'épée, on ne se soucie plus qu'ils
+         apprennent le latin ni l'histoire. On devroit au moins leur
+         enseigner ce qui est de leur mestier, les mathématiques, à faire
+         des armes et à monter à cheval. Ils n'y pensent seulement pas.
+         Il n'y a point ici d'Académie ni de maîtres qui montrent ces
+         sortes de choses. Les jeunes hommes passent le tems qu'ils
+         devroient emploïer à s'instruire dans un oisiveté pitoïable.'
+         Letter from Madrid, dated 27th June 1679, in _D'Aulnoy_,
+         _Relation du Voyage d'Espagne_, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. pp. 232,
+         233.
+
+  [1381] 'Madrid étant la capitale d'une monarchie aussi vaste, il n'y eut
+         dans cette ville jusqu'à l'époque du règne de Philippe V aucune
+         bibliothèque publique.' _Sempere_, _De la Monarchie Espagnole_,
+         Paris, 1826, vol. ii. p. 79.
+
+  [1382] The university was transferred from Palencia to Salamanca, early
+         in the thirteenth century. _Forner_, _Oracion Apologética por la
+         España_, Madrid, 1786, p. 170. By the beginning of the fifteenth
+         century, it had become very prosperous (_Sempere_, _De la
+         Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. i. p. 65); and in 1535, it is
+         described as 'a great Universitie, conteyning seven or eight
+         thowsand students.' See a letter from John Mason, dated
+         Valladolid, 3rd July, 1635, in _Ellis's Original Letters_, second
+         series, vol. ii. p. 56, London, 1827. But, like every thing else
+         which was valuable in Spain, it declined in the seventeenth
+         century; and Monconys, who carefully examined it in 1628, and
+         praises some of its arrangements which were still in force,
+         adds, 'Mais je suis aussi contraint de dire après tant de
+         loüanges, que les écoliers qui étudient dans cette université
+         sont des vrais ignorans.' _Les Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys_,
+         Quatrième Partie, vol. v. p. 22, Paris, 1695. However, their
+         ignorance, of which Monconys gives some curious instances, did
+         not prevent Spanish writers, then, and long afterwards, from
+         deeming the University of Salamanca to be the greatest
+         institution of its kind in the world. 'La mayor del orbe, madre
+         gloriosísima de todas las ciencias y de los mas vehementes
+         ingenios, que han ilustrado las edades.' _Vida de Calderon de la
+         Barca_, pp. iii. iv., reprinted in Keil's edition of _Calderon_,
+         Leipsique, 1827. Compare Davila (_Felipe Tercero_, p. 81),
+         'Salamanca, madre de ciencias y letras;' Yañez (_Memorias_, p.
+         228), 'Universidad insigne, y Oficina de las buenas Letras de
+         España;' Bacallar (_Comentarios_, vol. i. p. 238), 'El emporio
+         de las ciencias;' and Ximenez (_Vida de Ribera_, p. 6),
+         'Salamanca, cathedra universal de las artes, y emporio de todas
+         ciencias.'
+
+  [1383] 'Says, that, after he had been five years in one of the schools
+         of the university there, it was by accident he learned the
+         existence of the mathematical sciences.' _Ticknor's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. p. 223. A celebrated Spanish
+         writer of the eighteenth century, actually boasts of the
+         ignorance of his countrymen concerning mathematics, and
+         discerns, in their neglect of that foolish pursuit, a decisive
+         proof of their superiority over other nations. 'No se dexe
+         deslumbrar con los ásperos calculos é intrincadas demostraciones
+         geométricas, con que, astuto el entendimiento, disimula el
+         engaño con los disfraces de la verdad. El uso de las matemáticas
+         es la alquimia en la fisica, que da apariencias de oro á lo que
+         no lo es.' _Forner_, _Oracion Apologética por la España y su
+         Mérito Literario_, Madrid, 1786, p. 38. Compare his contemptuous
+         notice (p. 66) of those insignificant persons, who 'con título
+         de filósofos han dado algun aumento á las matemáticas;' and his
+         comparison (p. 222) of Mercado with Newton.
+
+  [1384] 'L'université de Salamanque, excitée par le Conseil, à réformer
+         ses études, en l'année 1771, lui répondit "qu'elle ne pouvait se
+         séparer du péripatétisme, parce que les systèmes de Newton,
+         Gassendi et Descartes, ne concordent pas autant avec les vérités
+         révélées que ceux d'Aristote."' _Sempere_, _Monarchie
+         Espagnole_, vol. ii. p. 152. This reply, says M. Sempere, p.
+         153, may be found 'dans la collection des ordonnances royales.'
+         In _Letters from Spain by an English Officer_, London, 1788,
+         vol. ii. p. 256, it is stated, that, in all the Spanish
+         universities, 'Newton, and modern philosophy, is still
+         prohibited. Nothing can supplant Aristotle, and the
+         superstitious fathers and doctors of the Church.'
+
+  [1385] Or, as he, in one place, expresses himself, would know 'very
+         little more than nothing.' 'El que estudió Logica, y
+         Metaphysica, con lo demás que, debaxo del nombre de Philosofia,
+         se enseña en las Escuelas, por bien que sepa todo, sabe muy poco
+         mas que nada; pero suena mucho. Dicese, que es un gran
+         Philosofo; y no es Philosofo grande, ni chico,' _Feijoo_,
+         _Theatro Critico Universal_, vol. ii. p. 187, quinta impression,
+         Madrid, 1741.
+
+  [1386] 'La science est un crime, l'ignorance et la stupidité la première
+         vertu.' _Mémoires du Duc de Saint Simon_, vol. xxxv. p. 209,
+         Paris, 1840. Elsewhere (vol. xxxvi. p. 252) he says, 'Les
+         jésuites savants partout et en tout genre de science, ce qu ne
+         leur est pas même disputé par leurs ennemis, les jésuites,
+         dis-je, sont ignorants en Espagne, mais d'une ignorance à
+         surprendre.'
+
+  [1387] 'The common education of an English gentleman would constitute a
+         man of learning here; and, should he understand Greek, he would
+         be quite a phenomenon.' _Swinburne's Travels through Spain in
+         1775 and 1776_, vol. ii. pp. 212, 213, 2d edit., London, 1787.
+
+Those who know what the common education of an English gentleman was
+eighty years ago, will appreciate the force of this comparison, and will
+understand how benighted a country must have been, to which such a taunt
+was applicable. To expect that, under such a state of things, the
+Spaniards should make any of the discoveries which accelerate the march
+of nations, would be idle indeed; for they would not even receive the
+discoveries, which other nations had made for them, and had cast into
+the common lap. So loyal and orthodox a people had nothing to do with
+novelties, which, being innovations on ancient opinions, were fraught
+with danger. The Spaniards desired to walk in the ways of their
+ancestors, and not have their faith in the past rudely disturbed. In the
+inorganic world, the magnificent discoveries of Newton were
+contumeliously rejected; and, in the organic world, the circulation of
+the blood was denied, more than a hundred and fifty years after Harvey
+had proved it.[1388] These things were new, and it was better to pause
+a little, and not receive them too hastily. On the same principle, when,
+in the year 1760, some bold men in the government proposed that the
+streets of Madrid should be cleansed, so daring a suggestion excited
+general anger. Not only the vulgar, but even those who were called
+educated, were loud in their censure. The medical profession, as the
+guardians of the public health, were desired, by the government, to give
+their opinion. This, they had no difficulty in doing. They had no doubt
+that the dirt ought to remain. To remove it, was a new experiment; and
+of new experiments, it was impossible to foresee the issue. Their
+fathers having lived in the midst of it, why should not they do the
+same? Their fathers were wise men, and must have had good reasons for
+their conduct. Even the smell, of which some persons complained, was
+most likely wholesome. For, the air being sharp and piercing, it was
+extremely probable that bad smells made the atmosphere heavy, and in
+that way deprived it of some of its injurious properties. The physicians
+of Madrid were, therefore, of opinion that matters had better remain as
+their ancestors had left them, and that no attempts should be made to
+purify the capital by removing the filth which lay scattered on every
+side.[1389]
+
+  [1388] So late as 1787, Townsend, a very accomplished man, who travelled
+         through Spain with the express object of noting the state of
+         knowledge, as well as the economical condition of the country,
+         and who, by previous study, had well qualified himself for such
+         an undertaking, says, 'I have observed in general, that the
+         physicians with whom I have had occasion to converse, are
+         disciples of their favourite doctor Piquer, who denied, or at
+         least doubted of, the circulation of the blood.' _Townsend's
+         Journey through Spain_, 2d ed., London, 1792, vol. iii. p. 281.
+         At that time, the Spanish physicians were, however, beginning to
+         read Hoffmann, Cullen, and other heretical speculators, in whose
+         works they would find, to their astonishment, that the
+         circulation of the blood was assumed, and was not even treated
+         as a debatable question. But the students were obliged to take
+         such matters on trust; for, adds Townsend, p. 282, 'In their
+         medical classes, they had no dissections.' Compare _Laborde's
+         Spain_, vol. i. p. 76, vol. iii. p. 315, London, 1809, and
+         _Godoy's Memoirs_, London, 1836, vol. ii. p. 157. Godoy,
+         speaking of the three colleges of surgery at Madrid, Barcelona,
+         and Cadiz, says that until his administration in 1793, 'In the
+         capital, even that of San Carlos had not a lecture-room for
+         practical instruction.'
+
+  [1389] This little episode is noticed by Cabarrus, in his _Elogio de
+         Carlos III._, Madrid, 1789, 4to. p. xiv. 'La salubridad del
+         ayre, la limpieza y seguridad de las calles,' ... 'Pero ¿quién
+         creerá que este noble empeño produxo las mas vivas quejas: que
+         se conmovió el vulgo de todas clases; y que tuvo varias
+         autoridades á su favor la extraña doctrina de que los vapores
+         mefiticos eran un correctivo saludable de la rigidez del clima?'
+         But the fullest detail will be found in the recently published
+         and very elaborate History of Charles III. by M. Rio, from which
+         I will give one or two extracts. 'Para la limpieza de las calles
+         poseia mayores ó menores fondos el ayuntamiento, y cuando el Rey
+         quiso poner la mano en este ramo de policía, le presentaron
+         dictámenes de médicos en que se defendia el absurdo de ser
+         elemento de salubridad la basura.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado
+         de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1856, vol. iv. p. 54. See also vol. i.
+         pp. 267, 268, where it is mentioned, that when the minister,
+         Esquilache, persevered in his attempts to have the streets of
+         Madrid cleaned, the opponents of the scheme made inquiries into
+         the opinions of their fathers on that subject; and the result
+         was, 'que le presentaron cierta originalísima consulta hecha por
+         los médicos bajo el reinado de uno de los Felipes de Austria, y
+         reducida á demostrar que, siendo sumamente sutil el aire de la
+         poblacion á causa de estar próxima la sierra de Guadarrama,
+         ocasionaria los mayores estragos si no se impregnara en los
+         vapores de las inmundicias desparramadas por las calles.' That
+         this idea had long been entertained by the physicians of Madrid,
+         we also know from another testimony, with which none of the
+         Spanish historians are acquainted. Sir Richard Wynne, who
+         visited that capital in 1623, describes a disgusting practice of
+         the inhabitants, and adds, 'Being desirous to know why so
+         beastly a custom is suffered, they say it's a thing prescribed
+         by their physicians; for they hold the air to be so piercing and
+         subtle, that this kind of corrupting it with these ill vapours
+         keeps it in good temper.' _The Autobiography and Correspondence
+         of Sir Simonds D'Ewes_, edited by J. O. Halliwell, London, 1845,
+         vol. ii. p. 446.
+
+While such notions prevailed respecting the preservation of
+health,[1390] it is hardly to be supposed that the treatment of disease
+should be very successful. To bleed and to purge, were the only remedies
+prescribed by the Spanish physicians.[1391] Their ignorance of the
+commonest functions of the human body was altogether surprising, and can
+only be explained on the supposition, that in medicine, as in other
+departments, the Spaniards of the eighteenth century knew no more than
+their progenitors of the sixteenth. Indeed, in some respects, they
+appeared to know less. For, their treatment was so violent, that it was
+almost certain death to submit to it for any length of time.[1392] Their
+own king, Philip V., did not dare to trust himself in their hands, but
+preferred having an Irishman for his physician.[1393] Though the Irish
+had no great medical reputation, anything was better than a Spanish
+doctor.[1394] The arts incidental to medicine and surgery, were equally
+backward. The instruments were rudely made, and the drugs badly
+prepared. Pharmacy being unknown, the apothecaries' shops, in the
+largest towns, were entirely supplied from abroad; while, in the smaller
+towns, and in districts remote from the capital, the medicines were of
+such a quality, that the best which could be hoped of them was, that
+they might be innocuous. For, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
+Spain did not possess one practical chemist. Indeed, we are assured by
+Campomanes himself, that, so late as the year 1776, there was not to be
+found in the whole country a single man who knew how to make the
+commonest drugs, such as magnesia, Glauber's salts, and the ordinary
+preparations of mercury and antimony. This eminent statesman adds,
+however, that a chemical laboratory was about to be established in
+Madrid; and although the enterprise, being without a precedent, would
+surely be regarded as a portentous novelty, he expresses a confident
+expectation, that, by its aid, the universal ignorance of his countrymen
+would in time be remedied.[1395]
+
+  [1390] Even thirty years later, it was said, with good reason, that 'es
+         menester _deshacer todo lo que se ha hecho_,' and 'confiar
+         exclusivamente el precioso depósito de la sanidad pública á las
+         manos capaces de conservarlo y mejorarlo.' _Cartas por el Conde
+         de Cabarrus_, Madrid, 1813, p. 280. These letters, which, though
+         little known, contain some interesting statements, were written
+         in 1792 and 1793. See p. 34, and Prologo, p. i.
+
+  [1391] Bleeding, however, had the preference. See the curious evidence
+         in _Townsend's Journey through Spain in 1786 and 1787_, vol. ii.
+         pp. 37-39. Townsend, who had some knowledge of medicine, was
+         amazed at the ignorance and recklessness of the Spanish
+         physicians. He says, 'The science and practice of medicine are
+         at the lowest ebb in Spain, but more especially in the
+         Asturias.' Compare _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol.
+         iii. p. 217, Paris, 1815, with _Winwood's Memorials_, London,
+         1725, folio, vol. ii. p. 219. The last reference shows the
+         terrible 'purging and letting blood,' to which the unfortunate
+         Spaniards were exposed in the reign of Philip III. Another
+         observer, much later, states that 'La saignée leur est assez
+         familière. Ils se la font faire hors du lit tant que leurs
+         forces le permettent, et _lorsqu'ils en usent par précaution,
+         ils se font tirer du sang deux jours de suite du bras droit et
+         du gauche, disant qu'il faut égaliser le sang_. On peut juger de
+         là, si la circulation leur est connue.' _Voyages faits en
+         Espagne, par Monsieur M****_, Amsterdam, 1700, p. 112. See
+         further _Clarke's Letters concerning the Spanish Nation_,
+         London, 4to. 1763, p. 55, and _Spain by an American_, London,
+         1831, vol. ii. p. 321.
+
+  [1392] In 1790, poor Cumberland, when in Madrid, was as nearly as
+         possible murdered by three of their surgeons in a very few days;
+         the most dangerous of his assailants being no less a man than
+         the 'chief surgeon of the Gardes de Corps,' who, says the
+         unfortunate sufferer, was 'sent to me by authority.' See
+         _Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, written by himself_, London,
+         1807, vol. ii. pp. 67, 68.
+
+  [1393] Duclos says of Philip V., 'Il étoit fort attentif sur sa santé;
+         son médecin, s'il eût été intriguant, auroit pu jouer un grand
+         rôle. Hyghens, Irlandois, qui occupoit cette première place,
+         fort éloigné de l'intrigue et de la cupidité, instruit dans son
+         art, s'en occupoit uniquement. Après sa mort, la reine fit
+         donner la place à Servi, son médecin particulier.' _Mémoires par
+         Duclos_, 2^e édit. Paris, 1791, vol. ii. pp. 200, 201. 'Hyghens,
+         premier médecin, était Irlandais.' _Mémoires du Duc de Saint
+         Simon_, vol. xxxvi. p. 215, ed. Paris, 1841.
+
+  [1394] In the eighteenth century, the Spaniards, generally, began to
+         admit this; since they could not shut their eyes to the fact
+         that their friends and relations succumbed so rapidly under
+         professional treatment, that sickness and death were almost
+         synonymous. Hence, notwithstanding their hatred of the French
+         nation, they availed themselves of the services of French
+         physicians and French surgeons, whenever they had an opportunity
+         of doing so. In 1707, the Princess des Ursins writes from Madrid
+         to Madame de Maintenon, 'Les chirurgiens espagnols sont
+         mésestimés même de ceux de leur nation;' and, in another letter,
+         'Les Espagnols conviennent que les médecins français sont
+         beaucoup plus savants que les leurs; ils s'en servent même
+         très-volontiers, mais ils sont persuadés que ceux de la faculté
+         de Montpellier l'emportent sur les autres.' _Lettres inédites de
+         Madame de Maintenon et de la Princesse des Ursins_, vol. iii. p.
+         412, vol. iv. p. 90.
+
+  [1395] Campomanes (_Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, Madrid, 1776,
+         vol. iii. pp. 74, 75), speaking of a work on distillation, says,
+         'La tercera (parte) describe la preparacion de los productos
+         químicos sólidos: esto es la preparacion de varias sustancias
+         terreas, como argamasa, magnesia blanca, ojos de cangrejo, etc.,
+         la de varios sales, como sal de glaubero, amoniaco, cristal
+         mineral, borax refinado, etc., y la del antimonio, mercurio,
+         plomo, litargirio, etc., comunicando sobre todo lo expresado
+         varias noticias, que demuestran lo mucho que conducen á los
+         progresos del arte, las observaciones del fisico reflexivo:
+         unidas á la práctica de un profesor experimentado. _Este arte en
+         toda su extension falta en España._ Solo le tenemos para
+         aguardientes, rosolis, y mistelas. _La salud pública es
+         demasiado importante, para depender de los estraños en cosas
+         esenciales_; quando no estimulase nuestra industria la
+         manutencion de muchas familias.' ... 'Gran parte de estas cosas
+         se introducen de fuera, por no conocerse bien las operaciones
+         químicas. No son dificultosas en la execucion; pero _es
+         necesario enseñarlas, y conocer los instrumentos que son
+         aproposito_. Un laboratorio químico, que _se va á establecer en
+         Madrid_, producirá maestros para las capitales del reyno.'
+
+Whatever was useful in practice, or whatever subserved the purposes of
+knowledge, had to come from abroad. Ensenada, the well-known minister of
+Ferdinand VI., was appalled by the darkness and apathy of the nation,
+which he tried, but tried in vain, to remove. When he was at the head of
+affairs, in the middle of the eighteenth century, he publicly declared
+that in Spain there was no professorship of public law, or of physics,
+or of anatomy, or of botany. He further added, that there were no good
+maps of Spain, and that there was no person who knew how to construct
+them. All the maps which they had, came from France and Holland. They
+were, he said, very inaccurate; but the Spaniards, being unable to make
+any, had nothing else to rely on. Such a state of things he pronounced
+to be shameful. For, as he bitterly complained, if it were not for the
+exertions of Frenchmen and Dutchmen, it would be impossible for any
+Spaniard to know either the position of his own town, or the distance
+from one place to another.[1396]
+
+  [1396] 'Su ministro el célebre Ensenada, que tenia grandes miras en
+         todos los ramos de la administracion pública, deseaba
+         ardientemente mejorar la enseñanza, lamentándose del atraso en
+         que esta se hallaba. "Es menester, decia hablando de las
+         universidades, reglar sus cátedras, reformar las superfluas y
+         establecer las que faltan con nuevas ordenanzas para asegurar el
+         mejor método de estudios. No sé que haya cátedra alguna de
+         derecho público, de física esperimental, de anatomía y botánica.
+         No hay puntuales cartas geográficas del reino y de sus
+         provincias, _ni quien las sepa grabar, ni tenemos otras que las
+         imperfectas que vienen de Francia y Holanda_. De esto proviene
+         que ignoramos la verdadera situacion de los pueblos y sus
+         distancias, que es una vergüenza."' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion
+         Española_, Madrid, 1840, vol. iv. pp. 268, 269. See also
+         _Biografia de Ensenada_, in _Navarrete_, _Coleccion de
+         Opúsculos_, Madrid, 1848, vol. ii. pp. 21, 22. 'Le parecia
+         vergonzoso que para conocer la situacion y distancias
+         respectivas de nuestros mismos pueblos y lugares, dependiésemos
+         de los franceses y holandeses, quienes por sus mapas imperfectas
+         de la península extraían de ella sumas considerables.' Eighty
+         years after this complaint was made by Ensenada, we find a
+         traveller in Spain stating that 'a decent map of any part, even
+         of the country round the gates of the capital, cannot be found.'
+         _Cook's Spain from 1829 to 1832_, London, 1834, vol. i. p. 322.
+         Compare _Notices of Geological Memoirs_, p. 1, at the end of the
+         _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_, vol. vi., London,
+         1850; 'even a good geographical map of the Peninsula does not
+         exist.'
+
+The only remedy for all this, seemed to be foreign aid; and Spain being
+now ruled by a foreign dynasty, that aid was called in. Cervi
+established the Medical Societies of Madrid and of Seville; Virgili
+founded the College of Surgery at Cadiz; and Bowles endeavoured to
+promote among the Spaniards the study of mineralogy.[1397] Professors
+were sought for, far and wide; and application was made to Linnæus to
+send a person from Sweden who could impart some idea of botany to
+physiological students.[1398] Many other and similar steps were taken by
+the government, whose indefatigable exertions would deserve our warmest
+praise, if we did not know how impossible it is for any government to
+enlighten a nation, and how absolutely essential it is that the desire
+for improvement should, in the first place, proceed from the people
+themselves. No progress is real, unless it is spontaneous. The movement,
+to be effective, must emanate from within, and not from without; it must
+be due to general causes acting on the whole country, and not to the
+mere will of a few powerful individuals. During the eighteenth century,
+all the means of improvement were lavishly supplied to the Spaniards;
+but the Spaniards did not want to improve. They were satisfied with
+themselves; they were sure of the accuracy of their own opinions; they
+were proud of the notions which they inherited, and which they did not
+wish either to increase or to diminish. Being unable to doubt, they
+were, therefore, unwilling to inquire. New and beautiful truths,
+conveyed in the clearest and most attractive language, could produce no
+effect upon men whose minds were thus hardened and enslaved.[1399] An
+unhappy combination of events, working without interruption since the
+fifth century, had predetermined the national character in a particular
+direction, and neither statesmen, nor kings, nor legislators, could
+effect aught against it. The seventeenth century was, however, the
+climax of all. In that age, the Spanish nation fell into a sleep, from
+which, as a nation, it has never since awakened. It was a sleep, not of
+repose, but of death. It was a sleep, in which the faculties, instead of
+being rested, were paralyzed, and in which a cold and universal torpor
+succeeded that glorious, though partial, activity, which, while it made
+the name of Spain terrible in the world, had insured the respect even of
+her bitterest enemies.
+
+  [1397] M. Rio (_Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. i. p. 185)
+         mentions this in a very characteristic manner. 'Varios
+         extranjeros distinguidos _hallaron fraternidad entre los
+         españoles, y correspondieron hidalgamente al hospedaje_: Cervi
+         dió vida á las sociedades médicas de Madrid y Sevilla; Virgili
+         al colegio de Cirugía de Cádiz; Quer trabajó sin descanso para
+         que el Jardin Botánico no fuera un simple lugar de recreo, sino
+         principalmente de estudio; Bowles comunicó grande impulso á la
+         mineralogía,' &c.
+
+  [1398] I have mislaid the evidence of this fact; but the reader may rely
+         on its accuracy.
+
+  [1399] Townsend (_Journey through Spain in 1786 and 1787_, vol. ii.
+         p. 275) says, 'Don Antonio Solano, professor of experimental
+         philosophy, merits attention for the clearness and precision of
+         his demonstrations: but, unfortunately, although his lectures
+         are delivered gratis, such is the want of taste for science in
+         Madrid, that nobody attends them.'
+
+Even the fine arts, in which the Spaniards had formerly excelled,
+partook of the general degeneracy, and, according to the confession of
+their own writers, had, by the beginning of the eighteenth century,
+fallen into complete decay.[1400] The arts which secure national
+safety, were in the same predicament as those which minister to national
+pleasure. There was no one in Spain who could build a ship; there was no
+one who knew how to rig it, after it was built. The consequence was,
+that, by the close of the seventeenth century, the few ships which Spain
+possessed, were so rotten, that, says an historian, they could hardly
+support the fire of their own guns.[1401] In 1752, the government, being
+determined to restore the navy, found it necessary to send to England
+for shipwrights; and they were also obliged to apply to the same quarter
+for persons who could make ropes and canvass; the skill of the natives
+being unequal to such arduous achievements.[1402] In this way, the
+ministers of the Crown, whose ability and vigour, considering the
+difficult circumstances in which the incapacity of the people placed
+them, were extremely remarkable, contrived to raise a fleet superior to
+any which had been seen in Spain for more than a century.[1403] They
+also took many other steps towards putting the national defences into a
+satisfactory condition; though in every instance, they were forced to
+rely on the aid of foreigners. Both the military and the naval service
+were in utter confusion, and had to be organized afresh. The discipline
+of the infantry was remodelled by O'Reilly, an Irishman, to whose
+superintendence the military schools of Spain were intrusted.[1404] At
+Cadiz, a great naval academy was formed, but the head of it was Colonel
+Godin, a French officer.[1405] The artillery, which like everything
+else, had become almost useless, was improved by Maritz, the Frenchman;
+while the same service was rendered to the arsenals by Gazola, the
+Italian.[1406]
+
+  [1400] 'La ignorancia reinante en los últimos años del siglo xvii.
+         depravó en tal manera el buen gusto, que á principios del xviii.
+         las artes se hallaban en la mas lastimosa decadencia.' _Tapia_,
+         _Civilizacion Española_, Madrid, 1840, vol. iv. p. 346. See
+         also, on this decline, or rather destruction, of taste,
+         _Valasquez_, _Origines de la Poesia Castellana_, Malaga, 1754,
+         4to. 'Un siglo, corrompido, en que las letras estaban
+         abandonadas, y el buen gusto casi desterrado de toda la nacion.'
+         p. 70. 'Al passo que la nacion perdia el buen gusto, y las
+         letras iban caminando á su total decadencia.' p. 107. 'Los
+         caminos por donde nuestros poetas en el siglo pasado se
+         apartaron del buen gusto en esta parte.' p. 170.
+
+  [1401] 'Solo cuatro navíos de línea y seis de poco porte dejaron los
+         reyes de orígen austriaco, y todos tan podridos que apenas
+         podian aguantar el fuego de sus propias baterias.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1856, vol. i.
+         p. 184.
+
+  [1402] 'Se mandaron construir 12 navíos á la vez, y se contrataron
+         otros. Por medio de D. Jorge Juan se trajeron de Inglaterra los
+         mas hábiles constructores y maestros para las fábricas de
+         jarcia, lona y otras.' _Biografía de Ensenada_, in _Navarrete_,
+         _Coleccion de Opúsculos_, Madrid, 1848, vol. ii. p. 18. M. Rio,
+         taking all this as a matter of course, quietly says, 'D. Jorge
+         Juan fue á Lóndres para estudiar la construccion de navíos.'
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1856, vol. iv. p.
+         485.
+
+  [1403] M. Lafuente says that Ensenada was the restorer, and almost the
+         creator, of the Spanish navy; 'de la cual fué el restaurador, y
+         casi pudiera decirse el creador.' _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xix. p. 344, Madrid, 1857.
+
+  [1404] 'C'est par un Irlandais aussi, Oreilly, que la discipline de
+         l'infanterie est réformée.' _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de l'Espagne
+         Moderne_, Paris, 1808, vol. ii. p. 142. 'Las escuelas militares
+         del puerto de Sta. Maria para la infanteria, que dirigió con
+         tanto acierto el general Ofarril bajo las ordenes del conde de
+         O'Reilly.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iv. p. 128.
+
+  [1405] 'Vino á dirigir la academia de guardias marinas de Cadiz.'
+         _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iv. p. 79. 'Godin figuró
+         como director del colegio de Guardias marinas.' _Rio_, _Historia
+         de Carlos III._, vol. i. p. 186. Compare _Biographie
+         Universelle_, vol. xvii. p. 564, Paris, 1816.
+
+  [1406] See the interesting remarks in _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de l'Espagne
+         Moderne_, Paris, 1808, vol. ii. pp. 96, 142. With good reason,
+         therefore, was it stated, some years afterwards, that 'c'est à
+         des étrangers que l'Espagne doit presque tous les plans, les
+         réformes utiles, et les connoissances dont elle a eu besoin.'
+         _Voyage en Espagne par le Marquis de Langle_, 1785, vol. ii.
+         p. 159.
+
+The mines, which form one of the greatest natural sources of the wealth
+of Spain, had likewise suffered from that ignorance and apathy into
+which the force of circumstances had plunged the country. They were
+either completely neglected, or if worked, they were worked by other
+nations. The celebrated cobalt-mine, situated in the valley of Gistan,
+in Aragon, was entirely in the hands of the Germans, who, during the
+first half of the eighteenth century, derived immense profit from
+it.[1407] In the same way, the silver-mines of Guadalcanal, the richest
+in Spain, were undertaken, not by natives, but by foreigners. Though
+they had been discovered in the sixteenth century, they, as well as
+other matters of importance, had been forgotten in the seventeenth, and
+were reopened, in 1728, by English adventurers; the enterprise, the
+tools, the capital, and even the miners, all coming from England.[1408]
+Another, and still more famous, mine is that of Almaden in La Mancha,
+which produces mercury of the finest quality, and in great profusion.
+This metal, besides being indispensable for many of the commonest arts,
+was of peculiar value to Spain, because without it the gold and silver
+of the New World could not be extracted from their ores. From Almaden,
+where every natural facility exists for collecting it, and where the
+cinnibar in which it is found is unusually rich, vast supplies had
+formerly been drawn; but they had for some time been diminishing,
+although the demand, especially from foreign countries, was on the
+increase. Under these circumstances, the Spanish government, fearing
+that so important a source of wealth might altogether perish, determined
+to institute an inquiry into the manner in which the mine was worked.
+As, however, no Spaniard possessed the knowledge requisite for such an
+investigation, the advisers of the Crown were obliged to call on
+foreigners to help them. In 1752, an Irish naturalist, named Bowles, was
+commissioned to visit Almaden, and ascertain the cause of the failure.
+He found that the miners had acquired a habit of sinking their shafts
+perpendicularly, instead of following the direction of the vein.[1409]
+So absurd a process was quite sufficient to account for their want of
+success; and Bowles reported to the government, that if a shaft were to
+be sunk obliquely, the mine would, no doubt, again be productive. The
+government approved of the suggestion, and ordered it to be carried into
+effect. But the Spanish miners were too tenacious of their old customs
+to give way. They sank their shafts in the same manner as their fathers
+had done; and what their fathers had done must be right. The result was,
+that the mine had to be taken out of their hands; but as Spain could
+supply no other labourers, it was necessary to send to Germany for fresh
+ones.[1410] After their arrival, matters rapidly improved. The mine,
+being superintended by an Irishman, and worked by Germans, assumed quite
+a different appearance; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages with
+which new comers always have to contend, the immediate consequence of
+the change was, that the yield of mercury was doubled, and its cost to
+the consumer correspondingly lowered.[1411]
+
+  [1407] 'Como los del pais entendian poco de trabajar minas, vinieron de
+         Alemania algunos prácticos para enseñarlos.' ... 'Los Alemanes
+         sacaron de dicha mina por largo tiempo cosa de 500 á 600
+         quintales de cobalto al año.' _Bowles_, _Historia Natural de
+         España_, Madrid, 1789, 4to. pp. 418, 419. See also _Dillon's
+         Spain_, Dublin, 1781, pp. 227-229.
+
+  [1408] 'In 1728, a new adventurer undertook the work of opening the
+         mines of Guadalcanal. This was Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of
+         the Marquis of Powis.' ... 'Lady Mary departed from Madrid for
+         Guadalcanal, to which miners and engines had been sent from
+         England at her expense, and at that of her relation, Mr. Gage,
+         who accompanied her, and of her father, the marquis.' _Jacob's
+         Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the
+         Precious Metals_, London, 1831, vol. i. pp. 278, 279.
+
+  [1409] 'Los mineros de Almaden nunca hicieron los socavones siguiendo la
+         inclinacion de las betas, sino perpendiculares, y baxaban á
+         ellos puestos en una especie de cubos atados desde arriba con
+         cuerdas. De este mal método se originó todo al desórden de la
+         mina, porque al paso que los operarios penetraban dentro de
+         tierra, era forzoso que se apartasen de las betas y las
+         perdiesen.' _Bowles_, _Historía Natural de España_, Madrid,
+         1789, 4to. p. 14.
+
+  [1410] 'Fué mi proyecto bien recibido del Ministerio, y _habiendo hecho
+         venir mineros Alemanes_, le han executado en gran parte con
+         mucha habilidad. Los mineros Españoles de Almaden son atrevidos
+         y tienen robustez, maña y penetracion quanta es menester, de
+         suerte que _con el tiempo serán excelentes mineros, pues no les
+         falta otra cosa que la verdadera ciencia de las minas_.'
+         _Historia Natural de España_, p. 16. The latter part of this
+         sentence is an evident struggle between the interests of truth,
+         and the exigencies of a book printed at the Royal Press of
+         Madrid, and licensed by the Spanish authorities.
+
+  [1411] 'Encargado por el gobierno el laborioso extrangero Bowles de
+         proponer los medios convenientes para beneficiar con mas acierto
+         las famosas minas de azogue del Almaden, descubrió algunos
+         nuevos procedimientos por medio de los cuales casi se duplicaron
+         los productos de aquellas, y bajó una mitad el precio de los
+         azogues.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iv. p. 117.
+
+Such ignorance, pervading the whole nation, and extending to every
+department of life, is hardly conceivable, considering the immense
+advantages which the Spaniards had formerly enjoyed. It is particularly
+striking, when contrasted with the ability of the government, which, for
+more than eighty years, constantly laboured to improve the condition of
+the country. Early in the eighteenth century, Ripperda, in the hopes of
+stimulating Spanish industry, established a large woollen manufactory at
+Segovia, which had once been a busy and prosperous city. But the
+commonest processes had now been forgotten; and he was obliged to import
+manufacturers from Holland, to teach the Spaniards how to make up the
+wool, though that was an art for which in better days they had been
+especially famous.[1412] In 1757, Wall, who was then minister,
+constructed, upon a still larger scale, a similar manufactory at
+Guadalajara in New Castile. Soon, however, something went wrong with the
+machinery; and as the Spaniards neither knew nor cared anything about
+these matters, it was necessary to send to England for a workman to put
+it right.[1413] At length the advisers of Charles III., despairing of
+rousing the people by ordinary means, devised a more comprehensive
+scheme, and invited thousands of foreign artisans to settle in Spain;
+trusting that their example, and the suddenness of their influx might
+invigorate this jaded nation.[1414] All was in vain. The spirit of the
+country was broken, and nothing could retrieve it. Among other attempts
+which were made, the formation of a National Bank was a favourite idea
+of politicians, who expected great things from an institution which was
+to extend credit, and make advances to persons engaged in business.
+But, though the design was executed, it entirely failed in effecting its
+purpose. When the people are not enterprising, no effort of government
+can make them so. In a country like Spain, a great bank was an exotic,
+which might live with art, but could never thrive by nature. Indeed,
+both in its origin and in its completion, it was altogether foreign,
+having been first proposed by the Dutchman Ripperda,[1415] and owing its
+final organization to the Frenchman Cabarrus.[1416]
+
+  [1412] _Memoirs of Ripperda_, 2d ed., London, 1740, pp. 23, 62, 91, 104.
+         'A ship arrived at Cadiz with fifty manufacturers on board, whom
+         the Baron de Ripperda had drawn together in Holland.' ... 'The
+         new manufactures at Segovia, which, though at this time wholly
+         managed by foreigners, he wished, in the next age, might be
+         carried on by the Spaniards themselves, and by them only.'
+
+  [1413] 'The minister, Wall, an Irishman, contrived to decoy over one
+         Thomas Bevan, from Melksham, in Wiltshire, to set the machinery
+         and matters to rights.' _Ford's Spain_, London, 1847, p. 525.
+
+  [1414] 'Ademas de la invitacion que se hizo á millares de operarios
+         extrangeros para venir á establecerse en España,' &c. _Tapia_,
+         _Civilizacion Española_, vol. iv. pp. 112, 113. In 1768, Harris,
+         who travelled from Pampeluna to Madrid, writes, 'I did not
+         observe a dozen men either at plough or any other kind of
+         labour, on the road.' _Diaries and Correspondence of James
+         Harris, Earl of Malmesbury_, London, 1844, vol. i. p. 38.
+
+  [1415] 'A national bank, a design originally suggested by Ripperda.'
+         _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. p. 202.
+
+  [1416] Bourgoing, not aware of Ripperda's priority, says (_Tableau de
+         l'Espagne Moderne_, vol. ii. p. 49), 'L'idée de la banque
+         nationale fut donnée au gouvernement par un banquier français,
+         M. Cabarrus.' Compare _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos
+         III._, vol. iv. pp. 122, 123: 'Banco nacional de San Cárlos;
+         propúsolo Cabarrús, apoyólo Floridablanca, y sancionólo el
+         Soberano por Real cedula de 2 de junio de 1782.' This sounds
+         well; but the inevitable catastrophe soon came. 'Charles IV.,'
+         says the Prince of the Peace, 'had just ascended the throne; the
+         bank of St. Carlos was rapidly falling, and on the verge of
+         bankruptcy.' _Godoy's Memoirs_, London, 1836, vol. i. p. 124.
+
+In everything, the same law prevailed. In diplomacy, the ablest men were
+not Spaniards, but foreigners; and during the eighteenth century the
+strange spectacle was frequently exhibited, of Spain being represented
+by French, Italian, and even Irish ambassadors.[1417] Nothing was
+indigenous; nothing was done by Spain herself. Philip V., who reigned
+from 1700 to 1746, and possessed immense power, always clung to the
+ideas of his own country, and was a Frenchman to the last. For thirty
+years after his death, the three most prominent names in Spanish
+politics were, Wall, who was born in France, of Irish parents;[1418]
+Grimaldi, who was a native of Genoa; [1419] and Esquilache, who was a
+native of Sicily.[1420] Esquilache administered the finances for several
+years; and, after enjoying the confidence of Charles III. to an extent
+rarely possessed by any minister, was only dismissed, in 1766, in
+consequence of the discontents of the people at the innovations
+introduced by this bold foreigner.[1421] Wall, a much more remarkable
+man, was, in the absence of any good Spanish diplomatist, sent envoy to
+London in 1747; and after exercising great influence in matters of
+state, he was placed at the head of affairs in 1754, and remained
+supreme till 1763.[1422] When this eminent Irishman relinquished office,
+he was succeeded by the Genoese, Grimaldi, who ruled Spain from 1763 to
+1777, and was entirely devoted to the French views of policy.[1423] His
+principal patron was Choiseul, who had imbued him with his own notions,
+and by whose advice he was chiefly guided.[1424] Indeed, Choiseul, who
+was then the first minister in France, used to boast, with exaggeration,
+but not without a considerable amount of truth, that his influence in
+Madrid was even greater than it was in Versailles.[1425]
+
+  [1417] 'A Londres, à Stockholm, à Paris, à Vienne et à Venise, le
+         souverain est réprésenté par des étrangers. Le prince de
+         Masserano, Italien, ambassadeur en Angleterre; le comte de Lacy
+         Irlandais, ministre à Stockholm; le marquis de Grimaldi,
+         ambassadeur en France, avant de parvenir au ministère; le comte
+         de Mahoni, Irlandais, ambassadeur à Vienne; le marquis de
+         Squilaci, ambassadeur à Venise, après sa retraite du ministère.'
+         _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de l'Espagne_, vol. ii. pp. 142, 143. To
+         this, I may add that, in the reign of Philip V., an Italian, the
+         Marquis de Beretti Landi, was the representative of Spain in
+         Switzerland, and afterwards at the Hague (_Ripperda's Memoirs_,
+         1740, pp. 37, 38); and that in, or just before, 1779, Lacy
+         filled the same post at St. Petersburg. _Malmesbury's Diaries
+         and Correspondence_, 1844, vol. i. p. 261. So, too, M. Rio
+         (_Historia de Carlos III._, vol. i. pp. 288, 289) says of the
+         important negotiations which took place in 1761, between Spain,
+         England, and France, 'Y así de las negociaciones en que Luis XV.
+         trataba de enredar á Carlos III. quedaron absolutamente
+         excluidos los españoles, como que por una parte las iban á
+         seguir el duque de Choiseul y el marques de Ossun, franceses, y
+         por otra el irlandés D. Ricardo Wall, y el genovés marques de
+         Grimaldi.' About the same time, Clarke writes (in his _Letters
+         concerning the Spanish Nation_, London, 1763, 4to. p. 331),
+         'Spain has, for many years past, been under the direction of
+         foreign ministers. Whether this hath been owing to want of
+         capacity in the natives, or disinclination in the sovereign, I
+         will not take upon me to say; such as it is, the native nobility
+         lament it as a great calamity.'
+
+  [1418] Lord Stanhope, generally well informed on Spanish affairs, says
+         that Wall was 'a native of Ireland.' _Mahon's History of
+         England_, vol. iv. p. 182, 3d edit., London, 1853; but in
+         _Mémoires de Noailles_, vol. iv. p. 47, edit. Paris, 1829, he is
+         called 'irlandais d'origine, né en France.' See also _Biografía
+         de Ensenada_, in _Navarrete_, _Opúsculos_, Madrid, 1848, vol.
+         ii. p. 26, 'D. Ricardo Wall, irlandés de orígen, nacido en
+         Francia.' Swinburne, who knew him personally, and has given some
+         account of him, does not mention where he was born. _Swinburne's
+         Travels through Spain_, second edition, London, 1787, vol. i.
+         pp. 314-318.
+
+  [1419] 'A Genoese, and a creature of France.' _Dunham's History of
+         Spain_, vol. v. p. 170.
+
+  [1420] 'Era siciliano.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._,
+         vol. i. p. 244.
+
+  [1421] The fullest account of his dismissal is given by M. Rio, in the
+         first chapter of the second volume of his _Historia del Reinado
+         de Carlos III._, which should, however, be compared with _Coxe's
+         Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. pp. 340-346. Coxe terms him
+         Squilaci; but I follow the orthography of the Spanish writers,
+         who always call him Esquilache. Such was his influence over the
+         King, that, according to Coxe (vol. iv. p. 347), Charles III.
+         'publicly said that, "if he was reduced to a morsel of bread, he
+         would divide it with Squilaci."'
+
+  [1422] _Coxe's Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. pp. 15, 135. _Rio_, _Historia
+         de Carlos III._, vol. i. pp. 246, 247, 400, 401. _Navarrete_,
+         _Biografía de Ensenada_, pp. 26-28.
+
+  [1423] He resigned in 1776, but held office till the arrival of his
+         successor, Florida Blanca, in 1777. _Rio_, _Historia de Carlos
+         III._, vol. iii. pp. 171, 174. In reference to his appointment,
+         in 1763, M. Rio observes (vol. i. p. 402), 'De que Grimaldi
+         creciera en fortuna se pudo congratular no Roma, sino Francia.'
+         In 1770, Harris, the diplomatist, who was then in Spain, writes,
+         'His doctrine is absolutely French; guided in everything by the
+         French closet,' &c. _Malmesbury's Diaries and Correspondence_,
+         vol. i. p. 56, London, 1844.
+
+  [1424] 'Guided in his operations by the counsels of Choiseul.' _Coxe's
+         Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. p. 339. 'The prosecution of
+         the schemes which he had concerted with Choiseul.' p. 373. 'His
+         friend and patron.' p. 391, and vol. v. p. 6.
+
+  [1425] 'Personne n'ignoroit le crédit prodigieux que M. de Choiseul
+         avoit sur le roi d'Espagne, dont il se vantoit lui-même, au
+         point que je lui ai ouï dire, qu'il étoit plus sûr de sa
+         prépondérance dans le cabinet de Madrid, que dans celui de
+         Versailles.' _Mémoires du Baron de Besenval_, _écrits par
+         lui-même_, vol. ii. pp. 14, 15, Paris, 1805.
+
+However this may be, it is certain that four years after Grimaldi took
+office, the ascendency of France was exhibited in a remarkable way.
+Choiseul, who hated the Jesuits, and had just expelled them from France,
+endeavoured also to expel them from Spain.[1426] The execution of the
+plan was confided to Aranda, who, though a Spaniard by birth, derived
+his intellectual culture from France, and had contracted, in the society
+of Paris, an intense hatred of every form of ecclesiastical power.[1427]
+The scheme, secretly prepared, was skilfully accomplished.[1428] In
+1767, the Spanish government, without hearing what the Jesuits had to
+say in their defence, and indeed, without giving them the least notice,
+suddenly ordered their expulsion; and with such animosity were they
+driven from the country, in which they sprung up, and had long been
+cherished, that not only was their wealth confiscated, and they
+themselves reduced to a wretched pittance, but even that was directed to
+be taken from them, if they published anything in their own vindication;
+while it was also declared that whoever ventured to write respecting
+them, should, if we were a subject of Spain, be put to death, as one
+guilty of high treason.[1429]
+
+  [1426] M. Muriel (_Gobierno del Rey Don Carlos III._, Madrid, 1839,
+         pp. 44, 45) terms their expulsion from Spain 'este acto de
+         violencia hecho meramente por complacer al duque de Choiseul,
+         ministro de Francia y protector del partido filosófico.' See
+         also _Crétineau-Joly_, _Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus_, vol.
+         v. p. 291, Paris, 1845; and _Georgel_, _Mémoires pour servir à
+         l'Histoire des Évènemens depuis 1760_, vol. ii. p. 95, Paris,
+         1817.
+
+  [1427] Archdeacon Coxe, in a somewhat professional tone, says of Aranda,
+         'In France he had acquired the graces of polished society, and
+         _imbibed that freedom of sentiment_ which then began to be
+         fashionable, _and has since been carried to such a dangerous
+         excess_.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. p. 402. His
+         great enemy, the Prince of the Peace, wishing to be severe,
+         unintentionally praises him; and observes, that he was
+         'connected with the most distinguished literary Frenchmen of the
+         middle of the last century,' and that he was 'divested of
+         religious prejudices, though swayed by philosophical
+         enthusiasm.' _Godoy's Memoirs_, London, 1836, vol. i. p. 319.
+         The hostility of some men is extremely valuable. The Prince
+         further adds, that Aranda 'could only lay claim to the inferior
+         merit of a sectarian attachment,' forgetting that, in a country
+         like Spain, every enlightened person must belong to a miserably
+         small sect.
+
+  [1428] Cabarrus (_Elogio de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1789, 4to. p. xxiv.)
+         says, rather magniloquently, 'El acierto de la execucion que
+         correspondió al pulso y prudencia con que se habia deliberado
+         esta providencia importante, pasará á la ultima posteridad.'
+
+  [1429] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. p. 362. M. Rio, in the
+         second volume of his _History of Charles III._, Madrid, 1856,
+         has given a long, but not very philosophical, nor very accurate,
+         account of the expulsion of the Jesuits, which he considers
+         solely from the Spanish point of view; overlooking the fact,
+         that it was part of an European movement headed by France. He
+         denies the influence of Choiseul, p. 125; censures the perfectly
+         correct statement of Coxe, p. 123; and finally ascribes this
+         great event to the operation of causes confined to the
+         Peninsula. 'De ser los jesuitas adversarios del regalismo emanó
+         su ruina en España, cuando triunfaban las opiniones sostenidas
+         con heróico teson desde mucho ántes por doctísimos
+         jurisconsultos.' p. 519.
+
+Such boldness on the part of the government[1430] caused even the
+Inquisition to tremble. That once omnipotent tribunal, threatened and
+suspected by the civil authorities, became more wary in its proceedings,
+and more tender in its treatment of heretics. Instead of extirpating
+unbelievers by hundreds or by thousands, it was reduced to such pitiful
+straits, that between 1746 and 1759, it was only able to burn ten
+persons; and between 1759 and 1788, only four persons.[1431] The
+extraordinary diminution during the latter period, was partly owing to
+the great authority wielded by Aranda, the friend of the encyclopædists
+and of other French sceptics. This remarkable man was President of
+Castile till 1773,[1432] and he issued an order forbidding the
+Inquisition to interfere with the civil courts.[1433] He also formed a
+scheme for entirely abolishing it; but his plan was frustrated, owing to
+its premature announcement by his friends in Paris, to whom it had been
+confided.[1434] His views, however, were so far successful, that after
+1781, there is no instance in Spain of a heretic being burned; the
+Inquisition being too terrified by the proceedings of government
+to do anything which might compromise the safety of the Holy
+Institution.[1435]
+
+  [1430] One of the most recent historians of the Jesuits indignantly
+         observes, 'Depuis deux cent vingt ans les Jésuites vivent et
+         prêchent en Espagne. Ils sont comblés de bienfaits par des
+         monarques dont ils étendent la souveraineté. Le clergé et les
+         masses acceptent avec bonheur leur intervention. Tout à coup
+         l'Ordre se voit déclaré coupable d'un crime de lèse-majesté,
+         d'un attentat public que personne ne peut spécifier. La sentence
+         prononce la peine sans énoncer le délit.' _Crétineau-Joly_,
+         _Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus_, vol. v. p. 295, Paris,
+         1845.
+
+  [1431] _Dunham's History of Spain_, vol. v. p. 285, where the facts are
+         well brought together. The valuable _History of the
+         Inquisition_, by Llorente, is not quite precise enough in these
+         matters; though it is a very accurate, and, what is still more
+         surprising, a very honest book.
+
+  [1432] _Rio_, _Historia de Carlos III._, vol. iii. pp. 103-107, which
+         must be compared with the account of Coxe, who derived some of
+         his information from a friend of Aranda's. _Coxe's Bourbon Kings
+         of Spain_, vol. iv. pp. 401-415. A good life of Aranda would be
+         very interesting. That contained in the _Biographie Universelle_
+         is extremely meagre, and carelessly written.
+
+  [1433] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. p. 407.
+
+  [1434] 'When at Paris, in 1786, I received the following anecdote from a
+         person connected with the encyclopædists. During his residence
+         in that capital, D'Aranda had frequently testified to the
+         literati with whom he associated, his resolution to obtain the
+         abolition of the Inquisition, should he ever be called to power.
+         His appointment was, therefore, exultingly hailed by the party,
+         particularly by D'Alembert; and he had scarcely begun his
+         reforms before an article was inserted in the Encyclopædia, then
+         printing, in which this event was confidently anticipated, from
+         the liberal principles of the minister. D'Aranda was struck on
+         reading this article, and said, "This imprudent disclosure will
+         raise such a ferment against me, that my plans will be foiled."
+         He was not mistaken in his conjecture.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of
+         Spain_, vol. iv. p. 408.
+
+  [1435] Even the case in 1781 appears to have been for witchcraft rather
+         than for heresy. 'La dernière victime qui périt dans les flammes
+         fut une _béate_: on la brûla à Séville, le 7 novembre 1781,
+         comme ayant fait un pacte, et entretenu un commerce charnel avec
+         le Démon, et pour avoir été impénitente négative. Elle eût pu
+         éviter la mort en s'avouant coupable du crime dont on
+         l'accusait.' _Llorente_, _Histoire de l'Inquisition d'Espagne_,
+         Paris, 1818, vol. iv. p. 270. About this time, torture began to
+         be disused in Spain. See an interesting note in _Johnston's
+         Institutes of the Civil Law of Spain_, London, 1825, p. 263.
+
+In 1777, Grimaldi, one of the chief supporters of that anti-theological
+policy which France introduced into Spain, ceased to be Minister; but he
+was succeeded by Florida Blanca, who was his creature, and to whom he
+transmitted his policy as well as his power.[1436] The progress,
+therefore, of political affairs continued in the same direction. Under
+the new minister, as under his immediate predecessors, a determination
+was shown to abridge the authority of the Church, and to vindicate the
+rights of laymen. In everything, the ecclesiastical interests were
+treated as subordinate to the secular. Of this, many instances might be
+given; but one is too important to be omitted. We have seen, that early
+in the eighteenth century, Alberoni, when at the head of affairs, was
+guilty of what in Spain was deemed the enormous offence of contracting
+an alliance with Mohammedans; and there can be no doubt that this was
+one of the chief causes of his fall, since it was held, that no prospect
+of mere temporal advantages could justify an union, or even a peace,
+between a Christian nation and a nation of unbelievers.[1437] But the
+Spanish government, which, owing to the causes I have related, was far
+in advance of Spain itself, was gradually becoming bolder, and growing
+more and more disposed to force upon the country, views, which,
+abstractedly considered, where extremely enlightened, but which the
+popular mind was unable to receive. The result was, that, in 1782,
+Florida Blanca concluded a treaty with Turkey, which put an end to the
+war of religious opinions; to the astonishment, as we are told, of the
+other European powers, who could hardly believe that the Spaniards would
+thus abandon their long-continued efforts to destroy the infidels.[1438]
+Before, however, Europe had time to recover from its amazement, other
+and similar events occurred equally startling. In 1784, Spain signed a
+peace with Tripoli; and in 1785, one with Algiers.[1439] And scarcely
+had these been ratified, when, in 1786, a treaty was also concluded with
+Tunis.[1440] So that the Spanish people to their no small surprise,
+found themselves on terms of amity with nations, whom for more than ten
+centuries they had been taught to abhor, and whom, in the opinion of the
+Spanish Church, it was the first duty of a Christian government to make
+war upon, and, if possible, to extirpate.
+
+  [1436] 'Menesteres decir que el marqués de Grimaldi cayó venciendo á sus
+         enemigos, pues, léjos de legarles el poder, á que aspiraban con
+         anhelo, trasmitiólo á una de sus más legítimas hechuras; que tal
+         era y por tal se reconocia el conde de Floridablanca.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iii. pp. 151, 152.
+
+  [1437] In 1690, it was stated that 'since the expulsion of the Moors,'
+         there was no precedent for the King of Spain ever sending an
+         envoy to a Mohammedan prince. See _Mahon's Spain under Charles
+         II._, p. 5. In that year an envoy was sent to Morocco; but this
+         was merely concerning the redemption of prisoners, and certainly
+         without the remotest intention of concluding a peace.
+
+  [1438] 'The other European courts, with surprise and regret, witnessed
+         the conclusion of a treaty which terminated the political and
+         religious rivalry so long subsisting between Spain and the
+         Porte.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. pp. 152, 153.
+         'Une des maximes de la politique espagnole avait été celle de
+         maintenir une guerre perpétuelle contre les mahométans, même
+         après la conquête de Grenade. Ni les pertes incalculables
+         éprouvées par suite de ce système, ni l'exemple de la France et
+         d'autres puissances catholiques qui ne se faisaient point
+         scrupule d'être en paix avec les Turcs, n'avaient suffi pour
+         détromper l'Espagne sur l'inconvenance d'une telle politique. Le
+         génie éclairé de Charles III corrigea un préjugé aussi
+         dangereux; dicta la paix avec les empereurs de Turquie et
+         d'autres potentats mahométans; délivra ses sujets de la terrible
+         piraterie des corsaires, et ouvrit à leur commerce de nouvelles
+         voies pour spéculer avec de plus grands avantages.' _Sempere_,
+         _La Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii. p. 160.
+
+  [1439] _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. pp. 11-13.
+
+  [1440] _Ibid._ vol. iv. pp. 16, 17.
+
+Putting aside, for a moment, the remote and intellectual consequences of
+these transactions, there can be no doubt that the immediate and
+material consequences were very salutary; though, as we shall presently
+see, they produced no lasting benefit, because they were opposed by the
+unfavourable operation of more powerful and more general causes. Still,
+it must be confessed that the direct results were extremely
+advantageous; and to those who take only a short view of human affairs,
+it might well appear that the advantages would be permanent. The immense
+line of coast from the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco to the furthest
+extremity of the Turkish empire was no longer allowed to pour forth
+those innumerable pirates who, heretofore, swept the seas, captured
+Spanish ships, and made slaves of Spanish subjects. Formerly, vast sums
+of money were annually consumed in ransoming these unhappy
+prisoners;[1441] but now all such evils were ended. At the same time,
+great impetus was given to the commerce of Spain; a new trade was thrown
+open, and her ships could safely appear in the rich countries of the
+Levant. This increased her wealth; which was moreover aided by another
+circumstance growing out of these events. For, the most fertile parts of
+Spain are those which are washed by the Mediterranean, and which had for
+centuries been the prey of Mohammedan corsairs, who frequently landing
+by surprise, had at length caused such constant fear, that the
+inhabitants gradually retired towards the interior, and abstained from
+cultivating the richest soil in their country. But, by the treaties just
+concluded, such dangers were at once removed; the people returned to
+their former abodes; the earth again gave forth its fruits; regular
+industry reappeared; villages sprung up; even manufactures were
+established; and the foundation seemed to be laid for a prosperity, the
+like of which had not been known since the Mohammedans were driven out
+of Granada.[1442]
+
+  [1441] 'Ha sido notable el número de cautivos, que los piratas de
+         Berbería han hecho sobre nuestras costas por tres centurias. En
+         el siglo pasado se solian calcular exístentes á la vez en Argel,
+         treinta mil personas españolas. Su rescate á razon de mil pesos
+         por cada persona á lo menos, ascendia á 30 millones de pesos.'
+         _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol. i. p. 373,
+         Madrid, 1775. On the precautions which had to be used to guard
+         the coasts of Spain against the Mohammedan corsairs, see
+         _Uztariz_, _Theorica y Practica de Comercio_, Madrid, 1757,
+         folio, pp. 172, 173, 222-226; and _Lafuente_, _Historia de
+         España_, vol. xv. p. 476, Madrid, 1855. In the middle of the
+         eighteenth century, a regular watch had to be kept along the
+         Mediterranean coast of Spain, 'in order to give the alarm upon
+         the appearance of the enemy.' See _A Tour through Spain by Udal
+         ap Rhys_, 2d edit., London, 1760, p. 170. As to the state of
+         things in the seventeenth century, see _Janer_, _Condicion de
+         los Moriscos_, Madrid, 1857, p. 63.
+
+  [1442] 'De esta suerte quedaron los mares limpios de piratas desde los
+         reinos de Fez y Marruecos hasta los últimos dominios del
+         emperador Turco, por el Mediterráneo todo; vióse á menudo la
+         bandera española en Levante, y las mismas naciones mercantiles
+         que la persiguieron indirectamente, preferíanla ahora,
+         resultando el aumento del comercio y de la Real marina, y la
+         pericia de sus tripulaciones, y el mayor brillo de España y de
+         su augusto Soberano: termino hubo la esclavitud de tantos
+         millares de infelices con abandono de sus familias é indelebles
+         perjuicios de la religion y el Estado, cesando tambien la
+         continua extraccion de enormes sumas para los rescates que, al
+         paso que nos empobrecian, pasaban á enriquecer á nuestros
+         contrarios, y á facilitar sus armamentos para ofendernos; y se
+         empezaban á cultivar rápidamente en las costas del Mediterráneo
+         leguas de terrenos los más fertiles del mundo, desamparados y
+         eriales hasta entónces por miedo á los piratas, y donde se
+         formaban ya pueblos enteros para dar salida á los frutos y las
+         manufacturas.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._,
+         vol. iv. pp. 17, 18.
+
+I have now laid before the reader a view of the most important steps
+which were taken by those able and vigorous politicians, who ruled Spain
+during the greater part of the eighteenth century. In considering how
+these reforms were effected, we must not forget the personal character
+of Charles III., who occupied the throne from 1759 to 1788.[1443] He was
+a man of great energy, and though born in Spain, had little in common
+with it. When he became king, he had been long absent from his native
+country, and had contracted a taste for customs, and, above all, for
+opinions, totally dissimilar to those natural to the Spaniards.[1444]
+Comparing him with his subjects, he was enlightened indeed. They
+cherished in their hearts, the most complete, and therefore the worst,
+form of spiritual power which has ever been exhibited in Europe. That
+very power, he made it his business to restrain. In this, as in other
+respects, he far surpassed Ferdinand VI. and Philip V., though they,
+under the influence of French ideas, had proceeded to what was deemed a
+dangerous length.[1445] The clergy, indignant at such proceedings,
+murmured, and even threatened.[1446] They declared that Charles was
+despoiling the Church, taking away her rights, insulting her ministers,
+and thus ruining Spain beyond human remedy.[1447] The king, however,
+whose disposition was firm, and somewhat obstinate, persevered in his
+policy; and as he and his ministers were men of undoubted ability, they,
+notwithstanding the opposition they encountered, succeeded in
+accomplishing most of their plans. Mistaken and short-sighted though
+they were, it is impossible to refrain from admiring the honesty, the
+courage, and the disinterestedness, which they displayed in endeavouring
+to alter the destiny of that superstitions and half barbarous country
+over which they ruled. We must not, however, conceal from ourselves,
+that in this, as in all similar cases, they, by attacking evils which
+the people were resolved to love, increased the affection which the
+evils inspired. To seek to change opinions by laws is worse than futile.
+It not only fails, but it causes a reaction, which leaves the opinions
+stronger than ever. First alter the opinion, and then you may alter the
+law. As soon as you have convinced men that superstition is mischievous,
+you may with advantage take active steps against those classes who
+promote superstition and live by it. But, however pernicious any
+interest or any great body may be, beware of using force against it,
+unless the progress of knowledge has previously sapped it at its base,
+and loosened its hold over the national mind. This has always been the
+error of the most ardent reformers, who, in their eagerness to effect
+their purpose, let the political movement outstrip the intellectual one,
+and, thus inverting the natural order, secure misery either to
+themselves or to their descendants. They touch the altar, and fire
+springs forth to consume them. Then comes another period of superstition
+and of despotism; another dark epoch in the annals of the human race.
+And this happens merely because men will not bide their time, but will
+insist on precipitating the march of affairs. Thus, for instance, in
+France and Germany, it is the friends of freedom who have strengthened
+tyranny; it is the enemies of superstition who have made superstition
+more permanent. In those countries, it is still believed that government
+can regenerate society; and therefore, directly they who hold liberal
+opinions get possession of the government, they use their power too
+lavishly, thinking that by doing so, they will best secure the end at
+which they aim. In England, the same delusion, though less general, is
+far too prevalent; but as, with us, public opinion controls politicians,
+we escape from evils which have happened abroad, because we will not
+allow any government to enact laws which the nation disapproves. In
+Spain, however, the habits of the people were so slavish, and their
+necks had so long been bowed under the yoke, that though the
+government, in the eighteenth century, opposed their dearest prejudices,
+they rarely ventured to resist, and they had no legal means of making
+their voice heard. But not the less did they feel. The materials for
+reaction were silently accumulating; and before that century had passed
+away the reaction itself was manifest. As long as Charles III. lived, it
+was kept under; and this was owing partly to the fear which his active
+and vigorous government inspired, and partly to the fact that many of
+the reforms which he introduced were so obviously beneficial as to shed
+a lustre on his reign, which all classes could perceive. Besides the
+exemption which his policy insured from the incessant ravages of
+pirates, he also succeeded in obtaining for Spain the most honourable
+peace which any Spanish government had signed for two centuries; thus
+recalling to the popular mind the brightest and most glorious days of
+Philip II.[1448] When Charles came to the throne, Spain was hardly a
+third-rate power; when he died, she might fairly claim to be a
+first-rate one, since she had for some years negotiated on equal terms
+with France, England, and Austria, and had taken a leading part in the
+councils of Europe. To this, the personal character of Charles greatly
+contributed; he being respected for his honesty, as well as feared for
+his vigour.[1449] Merely as a man, he bore high repute; while, as a
+sovereign, none of his contemporaries were in any way equal to him,
+except Frederick of Prussia, whose vast abilities, were, however,
+tarnished by a base rapacity, and by an incessant desire to overreach
+his neighbours. Charles III. had nothing of this; but he carefully
+increased the defences of Spain, and, raising her establishments to a
+war-footing, he made her more formidable than she had been since the
+sixteenth century. Instead of being liable to insult from every petty
+potentate who chose to triumph over her weakness, the country had now
+the means of resisting, and if need be, of attacking. While the army was
+greatly improved in the quality of the troops, in their discipline, and
+in the attention paid to their comforts, the navy was nearly doubled in
+number, and more than doubled in efficiency.[1450] And this was done
+without imposing fresh burdens on the people. Indeed, the national
+resources were becoming so developed, that, in the reign of Charles
+III., a large amount of taxation could have been easier paid than a
+small one under his predecessors. A regularity, hitherto unknown, was
+introduced into the method both of assessing imposts, and of collecting
+them.[1451] The laws of mortmain were relaxed, and steps were taken
+towards diminishing the rigidity of entails.[1452] The industry of the
+country was liberated from many of the trammels which had long been
+imposed upon it, and the principles of free trade were so far
+recognized, that, in 1765, the old laws respecting corn were repealed;
+its exportation was allowed, and also its transit from one part of Spain
+to another, uninterrupted by those absurd precautions, which preceding
+governments had thought it advisable to invent.[1453]
+
+  [1443] M. Rio, whose voluminous History of the reign of Charles III. is,
+         notwithstanding its numerous omissions, a work of considerable
+         value, has appreciated the personal influence of the king more
+         justly than any previous writer; he having had access to
+         unpublished papers, which show the great energy and activity of
+         Charles. 'Entre sus mas notables figuras ninguna aventaja á la
+         de Cárlos III.; y no por el lugar jerárquico que ocupa, sino por
+         el brillante papel que representa, ora tome la iniciativa, ora
+         el consejo, para efectuar las innumerables reformas que le
+         valieron inextinguible fama. Ya sé que algunos tachan á este
+         Monarca de cortedad de luces y de estrechez de miras; y que
+         algunos otros suponen que sus ministros le engañaron ó
+         sorprendieron para dictar ciertas providencias. Cuarenta y ocho
+         tomos de cartas semanales y escritas de su puno desde octubre de
+         1759 hasta marzo de 1783 al marqués de Tanucci, existentes en el
+         archivo de Simancas, por mí leidas hoja tras hoja, sacando de
+         ellas largos apuntes, sirven á maravilla para pintarle tal como
+         era, y penetrar hasta sus más recónditos pensamientos, y
+         contradecir á los que le juzgan á bulto.' _Rio_, _Historia del
+         Reinado de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1856, vol. i. pp. xxii. xxiii.
+
+  [1444] 'Although born and educated in Spain, Charles had quitted the
+         country at too early an age to retain a partiality to its
+         customs, laws, manners, and language; while, from his residence
+         abroad, and his intercourse with France, he had formed a natural
+         predilection for the French character and institutions.' _Coxe's
+         Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. p. 337.
+
+  [1445] He 'far surpassed his two predecessors in his exertions to reform
+         the morals, and restrain the power of the clergy.' _Ibid._
+         vol. v. p. 215.
+
+  [1446] His measures 'alarmaron al clero en general, que empezó á
+         murmurar con impaciencia, y aun algunos de sus individuos se
+         propasaron á violentos actos.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_,
+         vol. iv. p. 98.
+
+  [1447] A popular charge against the government was, 'que se despojara á
+         la Iglesia de sus inmunidades.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de
+         Carlos III._, vol. ii. p. 54. See also at pp. 201, 202, a
+         letter, in 1766, from the Bishop of Cuenca to the King's
+         confessor, in which that prelate stated, 'que España corria á su
+         ruina que ya no corria, sino que volaba, y que ya estaba perdida
+         sin remedio humano;' and that the cause of this was the
+         persecution of the poor Church, which was 'saqueada en sus
+         bienes, ultrajada en sus ministros, y atropellada en su
+         inmunidad.'
+
+  [1448] Coxe (_Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. p. 144) calls the peace
+         of 1783 'the most honourable and advantageous ever concluded by
+         the crown of Spain since the peace of St. Quintin.' Similarly,
+         M. Rio (_Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iii. p.
+         397), 'Siglos habian pasado para España de continuas y porfiadas
+         contiendas, sin llegar nunca, desde la famosa jornada de San
+         Quintin y al alborear el reinado de Felipe II., tan
+         gloriosamente al reposo.'
+
+  [1449] Towards the close of his reign, we find a contemporary observer,
+         who was anything but prejudiced in his favour, bearing testimony
+         to 'the honest and obstinate adherence of his present Catholic
+         Majesty to all his treaties, principles, and engagements,'
+         _Letter by an English Officer_, London, 1788, vol. ii. p. 329.
+         Compare Muriel (_Gobierno del Rey Don Carlos III._, Madrid,
+         1839, p. 34), 'Tan conocido llegó á ser Cárlos III. en los
+         reinos estraños por la rectitud de su carácter, que en las
+         desavenencias que ocurrian entre los gobiernos, todos consentian
+         en tomarle por árbitro, y se sometian á sus decisiones;' and
+         Cabarrus (_Elogio de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1789, 4to. p. xl.),
+         'Esta probidad llega á ser el resorte político de la Europa;
+         todas las cortes penetradas de respeto á sus virtudes le buscan
+         por árbitro y mediador.' Evidence of the great respect paid to
+         Charles III. by foreign powers, will also be found in _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. pp. 41-43, 253.
+
+  [1450] On the increase of the navy, compare _Tapia_, _Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. iv. p. 127, with _Muriel_, _Gobierno del Rey
+         Carlos III._, pp. 73, 82.
+
+  [1451] These financial improvements were due, in a great measure, to the
+         Frenchman, Cabarrus. See _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos
+         III._, vol. iv. pp. 122, 123.
+
+  [1452] Rio, _ibid._ vol. iv. pp. 164-166, and _Tapia_, _Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. iv. pp. 96, 97.
+
+  [1453] 'La providencia mas acertada para el fomento de nuestra
+         agricultura fué sin duda la real pragmática de 11 de julio de
+         1765, por la cual se abolió la tasa de los granos, y se permitió
+         el libre comercio de ellos.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_,
+         vol. iv. p. 105. See also _Dillon's Spain_, p. 69, and
+         _Townsend's Spain_, vol. ii. p. 230. The first step towards this
+         great reform was taken in 1752. See the edict issued in that
+         year, 'Libertase de Derechos el trigo, cebada, centeno y maiz
+         que por mar se transportáre de unas provincias á otras de estos
+         dominios.' This document, which is important for the history of
+         political economy, is printed in the Appendix to _Campomanes_,
+         _Educacion Popular_, vol. ii. pp. 16, 17, Madrid, 1775.
+
+It was also in the reign of Charles III. that the American Colonies
+were, for the first time, treated according to the maxims of a wise and
+liberal policy. The behaviour of the Spanish government in this respect,
+contrasts most favourably with the conduct pursued at the same time
+towards our great Colonies by that narrow and incompetent man who then
+filled the English throne. While the violence of George III. was
+fomenting rebellion in the British Colonies, Charles III. was busily
+engaged in conciliating the Spanish ones. Towards this end, and with the
+object of giving fair play to the growth of their wealth, he did
+everything which the knowledge and resources of that age allowed him to
+do. In 1764, he accomplished, what was then considered the great feat of
+establishing every month a regular communication with America, in order
+that the reforms which he projected might be more easily introduced, and
+the grievances of the Colonies attended to.[1454] In the very next
+year, free trade was conceded to the West Indian Islands, whose
+abundant commodities were now, for the first time, allowed to circulate,
+to their own benefit, as well as to the benefit of their
+neighbours.[1455] Into the Colonies generally, vast improvements were
+introduced, many oppressions were removed, the tyranny of officials was
+checked, and the burdens of the people were lightened.[1456] Finally, in
+1778, the principles of free trade having been successfully tried in the
+American Islands, were now extended to the American Continent; the ports
+of Peru and of New Spain were thrown open; and by this means an immense
+impetus was given to the prosperity of those magnificent colonies, which
+nature intended to be rich, but which the meddling folly of man had
+forced to be poor.[1457]
+
+  [1454] 'Pronto se establecieron los correos marítimos y se comunicaron
+         con regularidad y frecuencia no vistas hasta entónces la
+         metrópoli y las colonias. Por efecto del importante decreto de
+         24 de agosto de 1764, salía el primero de cada mes un paquebot
+         de la Coruña con toda la correspondencia de las Indias;
+         desembarcábala en la Habana, y desde allí se distribuia en
+         balandras y otros bajeles á propósito para puntear los vientos
+         escasos, á Veracruz, Portobelo, Cartagena, islas de Barlovento y
+         provincias de la Plata; y aquellos ligeros buques volvian á la
+         Habana, de donde zarpaba mensualmente y en dia fijo otro
+         paquebot para la Coruña.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos
+         III._, vol. i. p. 452. That part of the plan, however, which
+         aimed at making Coruña a rival of Cadiz, appears to have been
+         unsuccessful. See a letter from Coruña, written in 1774, in
+         _Dalrymple's Travels through Spain_, London, 1777, 4to. p. 99.
+
+  [1455] See the edicts in _Campomanes_, _Apendice_, vol. ii. pp. 37-47,
+         Madrid, 1775. They are both dated October 16th, 1765.
+
+  [1456] It was said, with reason, by Alaman, 'que el gobierno de América
+         llego al colmo de su perfeccion en tiempo de Carlos III.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. p. 151. And
+         Humboldt observes (_Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la
+         Nouvelle-Espagne_, Paris, 1811, 4to. vol. i. p. 102), 'C'est le
+         roi Charles III surtout qui, par des mesures aussi sages
+         qu'énergiques, est devenu le bienfaiteur des indigènes; il a
+         annulé les _Encomiendas_; il a défendu les _Repartimientos_, par
+         lesquels les corregidors se constituoient arbitrairement les
+         créanciers, et par conséquent les maîtres du travail des natifs,
+         en les pourvoyant, à des prix exagérés, de chevaux, de mulets et
+         de vêtemens (_ropa_).'
+
+  [1457] _Cabarrus_, _Elogio de Carlos III._, Madrid, 1789, p. xlii., and
+         Canga's note in _Martinez de la Mata_, _Dos Discursos_, Madrid,
+         1794, p. 31. But these writers were not sufficiently familiar
+         with political economy, really to appreciate this measure.
+
+All this reacted upon the mother country with such rapidity, that
+scarcely was the old system of monopoly broken up, when the trade of
+Spain began to advance, and continued to improve, until the exports and
+imports had reached a height that even the authors of the reform could
+hardly have expected; it being said that the export of foreign
+commodities was tripled, that the export of home-produce was multiplied
+fivefold, and the returns from America ninefold.[1458]
+
+  [1458] 'Early in the reign of Charles, steps had been taken towards the
+         adoption of more liberal principles in the commerce with
+         America; but, in the year 1778, a complete and radical change
+         was introduced. The establishment of a free trade rapidly
+         produced the most beneficial consequences. The export of foreign
+         goods was tripled, of home-produce quintupled; and the returns
+         from America augmented in the astonishing proportion of nine to
+         one. The produce of the customs increased with equal rapidity.'
+         _Clarke's Examination of the Internal State of Spain_, London,
+         1818, p. 72.
+
+Many of the taxes, which bore heavily on the lower ranks, were repealed,
+and the industrious classes, being relieved of their principal burdens,
+it was hoped that their condition would speedily improve.[1459] And to
+benefit them still more, such alterations were effected in the
+administration of the law, as might enable them to receive justice from
+the public tribunals, when they had occasion to complain of their
+superiors. Hitherto, a poor man had not the least chance of succeeding
+against a rich one; but in the reign of Charles III., government
+introduced various regulations, by which labourers and mechanics could
+obtain redress, if their masters defrauded them of their wages, or broke
+the contracts made with them.[1460]
+
+  [1459] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. pp. 197, 317, 318.
+
+  [1460] See Florida Blanca's statement in _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of
+         Spain_, vol. v. p. 331; 'to facilitate to artisans and
+         journeymen the scanty payment of their labours, in spite of the
+         privileges and interest of the powerful.'
+
+Not only the labouring classes, but also the literary and scientific
+classes, were encouraged and protected. One source of danger, to which
+they had long been exposed, was considerably lessened by the steps which
+Charles took to curtail the power of the Inquisition. The king, was,
+moreover, always ready to reward them; he was a man of cultivated
+tastes, and he delighted in being thought the patron of learning.[1461]
+Soon after his accession, he issued an order, exempting from military
+service all printers, and all persons immediately connected with
+printing, such as casters of type, and the like.[1462] He, also, as far
+as he was able, infused new life into the old universities, and did all
+that was possible towards restoring their discipline and
+reputation.[1463] He founded schools, endowed colleges, rewarded
+professors, and granted pensions. In these matters his munificence
+seemed inexhaustible, and is of itself sufficient to account for the
+veneration with which literary Spaniards regard his memory. They have
+reason to regret that, instead of living now, they had not lived when he
+was king. In his reign, it was supposed that their interests must be
+identical with the interests of knowledge; and these last were rated so
+highly, that, in 1771, it was laid down as a settled principle of
+government, that of all the branches of public policy, the care of
+education is the most important.[1464]
+
+  [1461] _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. pp. 317,
+         318, and elsewhere.
+
+  [1462] '"Desde mi feliz advenimiento al trono" (dijo el Rey en la
+         ordenanza de reemplazos) "ha merecido mi Real proteccion el arte
+         de la imprenta, y, para que pueda arraigarse sólidamente en
+         estos reinos, vengo en declarar la exencion del sorteo y
+         servicio militar, no solo á los impresores, sino tambien á los
+         fundidores que se empleen de continuo en este ejercicio, y á los
+         abridores de punzones y matrices."' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado
+         de Carlos III._, vol. iii. p. 213.
+
+  [1463] On the steps taken to reform the universities between 1768 and
+         1774, see _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol.
+         iii. pp. 185-210. Compare vol. iv. pp. 296-299.
+
+  [1464] 'La educacion de la juventud por los maestros de primeras letras
+         es uno y aun el más principal ramo de la policía y buen gobierno
+         del Estado.' _Real Provision de 11 de julio de 1771_, printed in
+         Rio, vol. iii. p. 182.
+
+But this is not all. It is no exaggeration to say, that in the reign of
+Charles III., the face of Spain underwent greater changes than it had
+done during the hundred and fifty years which had elapsed since the
+final expulsion of the Mohammedans. At his accession, in 1759, the wise
+and pacific policy of his predecessor, Ferdinand VI., had enabled that
+prince not only to pay many of the debts owed by the crown, but also to
+accumulate and leave behind him a considerable treasure.[1465] Of this
+Charles availed himself, to begin those works of public splendour,
+which, more than any other part of his administration, was sure to
+strike the senses, and to give popularity to his reign. And when, by the
+increase of wealth, rather than by the imposition of fresh burdens,
+still larger resources were placed at his command, he devoted a
+considerable part of them to completing his designs. He so beautified
+Madrid, that forty years after his death, it was stated, that, as it
+then stood, all its magnificence was owing to him. The public buildings
+and the public gardens, the beautiful walks round the capital, its noble
+gates, its institutions, and the very roads leading from it to the
+adjacent country, are all the work of Charles III., and are among the
+most conspicuous trophies which attest his genius and the sumptuousness
+of his taste.[1466]
+
+  [1465] M. Lafuente, who has justly praised the love of peace displayed
+         by Ferdinand VI. (_Historia de España_, vol. i. p. 202, vol.
+         xix. pp. 286, 378), adds (vol. xix. p. 384), 'De modo que con
+         razon se admira, y es el testimonio más honroso de la buena
+         administracion económica de este reinado, que al morir este buen
+         monarca dejára, no diremos nosotros repletas y apuntaladas las
+         arcas públicas, como hiperbólicamente suele decirse, pero sí con
+         el considerable sobrante de trescientos millones de reales,
+         despues de cubiertas todas las atenciones del Estado: fenómeno
+         que puede decirse se veia por primera vez en España, y resultado
+         satisfactorio, que aun supuesta una buena administracion, solo
+         pudo obtenerse á favor de su prudente política de neutralidad y
+         de paz.'
+
+  [1466] 'But it is to Charles III. that Madrid owes all its present
+         magnificence. Under his care, the royal palace was finished, the
+         noble gates of Alcalá and San Vincente were raised; the
+         custom-house, the post-office, the museum, and royal
+         printing-office, were constructed; the academy of the three
+         noble arts improved; the cabinet of natural history, the botanic
+         garden, the national bank of San Carlos, and many gratuitous
+         schools established; while convenient roads leading from the
+         city, and delightful walks planted within and without it, and
+         adorned by statues and fountains, combine to announce the
+         solicitude of this paternal king.' _Spain by an American_,
+         London, 1831, vol. i. p. 206; see also p. 297.
+
+In other parts of the country, roads were laid down, and canals were
+dug, with the view of increasing trade by opening up communications
+through tracts previously impassable. At the accession of Charles III.,
+the whole of the Sierra Morena was unoccupied, except by wild beasts
+and banditti, who took refuge there.[1467] No peaceful traveller would
+venture into such a place; and commerce was thus excluded from what
+nature had marked as one of the greatest highways in Spain, standing as
+it does between the basins of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir, and in the
+direct course between the ports on the Mediterranean and those on the
+Atlantic. The active government of Charles III. determined to remedy
+this evil; but the Spanish people not having the energy to do what was
+required, six thousand Dutch and Flemish were, in 1767, invited to
+settle in the Sierra Morena. On their arrival, lands were allotted to
+them, roads were cut through the whole of the district, villages were
+built; and that which had just been an impervious desert, was suddenly
+turned into a smiling and fruitful territory.[1468]
+
+  [1467] The following passage describes its state so late as the year
+         1766: 'Por temor ó por connivencia de los venteros, dentro de
+         sus casas concertaban frecuentemente los ladrones sus robos, y
+         los ejecutaban á mansalva, ocultándose en guaridas de que
+         ahuyentaban á las fieras. Acaso á muy largas distancias se
+         descubrian entre contados caseríos algunos pastores como los que
+         allí hizo encontrar el ilustre manco de Lepanto al ingenioso
+         hidalgo de la Mancha. Parte de la Sierra estuvo poblada en
+         tiempo de moros; actualmente ya no habia más que espesos
+         matorrales hasta en torno de la ermita de Santa Elena, donde
+         resonaron cánticos de gracias al Cielo por el magnífico triunfo
+         de las Navas.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._,
+         vol. iii. p. 9. On the condition of the Sierra Morena a hundred
+         years before this, see _Boisel_, _Journal du Voyage d'Espagne_,
+         Paris, 1669, 4to. pp. 62, 296; where it is termed 'le lieu le
+         plus désert, et où il n'y a que quelques _ventas_ sans
+         villages.'
+
+  [1468] _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iii. pp. 9-11,
+         35. By 1771, 'sin auxilio de la Real hacienda pudieron
+         mantenerse al fin los colonos.' p. 42. See also vol. iv. pp.
+         114, 115. On the subsequent history of this settlement, see
+         _Inglis' Spain_, vol. ii. pp. 29-31, London, 1831.
+
+Nearly all over Spain, the roads were repaired; a fund having been, so
+early as 1760, specially set apart for that purpose.[1469] Many new
+works were begun; and such improvements were introduced, while at the
+same time, such vigilance was employed to prevent peculation on the part
+of officials, that in a very few years the cost of making public
+highways was reduced to less than half of what it used to be.[1470] Of
+the undertakings which were brought to a successful issue, the most
+important were, a road now first constructed from Malaga to
+Antequera,[1471] and another from Aquilas to Lorca.[1472] In this way,
+means of intercourse were supplied between the Mediterranean and the
+interior of Andalusia and of Mercia. While these communications were
+established in the south and south-east of Spain, others were opened up
+in the north and north-west. In 1769, a road was begun between Bilbao
+and Osma;[1473] and soon after, one was completed between Galicia and
+Astorga.[1474] These and similar works were so skilfully executed, that
+the Spanish highways, formerly among the worst in Europe, were now
+classed among the best. Indeed, a competent, and by no means
+over-friendly, judge gives it as his opinion, that at the death of
+Charles III. better roads were to be found in Spain than in any other
+country.[1475]
+
+  [1469] 'En 1760 se destinó por primera vez un fondo especial para la
+         construccion de caminos.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion Española_,
+         vol. iv. p. 123.
+
+  [1470] Indeed, M. Rio says, that the expense was reduced by two-thirds,
+         and, in some parts, by three-fourths. 'Antes se regulaba en un
+         millon de reales la construccion de cada legua; ahora solo
+         ascendia á la tercera ó cuarta parte de esta suma.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. p. 117.
+
+  [1471] A note in _Bowles_, _Historia Natural de España_, Madrid, 1789,
+         4to. p. 158, terms this 'un camino alineado y sólido.' In
+         _Cook's Spain_, London, 1834, vol. i. p. 209, it is called 'a
+         magnificent road.'
+
+  [1472] 'Para dar salida á los frutos, que regaban los pantanos de Lorca,
+         ejecutóse una bien trazada via al puerto de las Aguilas.' _Rio_,
+         _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._, vol. iv. pp. 115, 116.
+
+  [1473] In 1769, Baretti writes, in great surprise, 'the Biscayans are
+         actually making a noble road, which is to go from Bilbao to
+         Osma.' _Baretti's Journey through England, Portugal, Spain, and
+         France_, London, 1770, vol. iv. p. 311.
+
+  [1474] 'Otras diferentes carreteras, construidas de nuevo ó
+         rehabilitadas, multiplicaron las comunicaciones durante los
+         nueve primeros años de estar á cargo de Floridablanca la
+         superintendencia general de caminos, haciéndose de fácil y
+         cómodo tránsito puntos escabrosos como el del Puerto de la
+         Cadena y los que médian entre Astorga y Galicia, y Málaga y
+         Antequera.' _Rio_, _Historia del Reinado de Carlos III._,
+         vol. iv. p. 115.
+
+  [1475] 'The reigns of Ferdinand the Sixth and Charles the Third produced
+         the most beneficial changes in this important branch of
+         political economy. New roads were opened, which were carefully
+         levelled, and constructed with solidity. There are at the
+         present time in Spain several superb roads, such as may vie with
+         the finest in Europe; indeed, they have been made with superior
+         judgment, and upon a grander scale.' _Laborde's Spain_, edit.
+         London, 1809, vol. iv. p. 427.
+
+In the interior, rivers were made navigable, and canals were formed to
+connect them with each other. The Ebro runs through the heart of Aragon
+and part of Old Castile, and is available for purposes of traffic as
+high up as Logroño, and from thence down to Tudela. But between Tudela
+and Saragossa, the navigation is interrupted by its great speed, and by
+the rocks in its bed. Consequently, Navarre is deprived of its natural
+communication with the Mediterranean. In the enterprising reign of
+Charles V., an attempt was made to remedy this evil; but the plan
+failed, was laid aside, and was forgotten, until it was revived, more
+than two hundred years later, by Charles III. Under his auspices, the
+great canal of Aragon was projected, with the magnificent idea of
+uniting the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This, however, was one of
+many instances in which the government of Spain was too far in advance
+of Spain itself; and it was necessary to abandon a scheme, to which the
+resources of the country were unequal. But what was really effected, was
+of immense value. A canal was actually carried to Saragossa, and the
+waters of the Ebro were made available not only for transport, but also
+for irrigating the soil. The means of a safe and profitable trade were
+now supplied even to the western extremity of Aragon. The old land,
+becoming more productive, rose in value, and new land was brought under
+the plough. From this, other parts of Spain also benefited. Castile, for
+example, had in seasons of scarcity always depended for supplies on
+Aragon, though that province could, under the former system, only
+produce enough for its own consumption. But by this great canal, to
+which, about the same time, that of Tauste was also added,[1476] the
+soil of Aragon became far more productive than it had ever yet been; and
+the rich plains of the Ebro yielded so abundantly, that they were able
+to supply wheat and other food to the Castilians, as well as to the
+Aragonese.[1477]
+
+  [1476] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. p. 287.
+
+  [1477] _Ibid._ vol. v. pp. 198, 199, 286, 287. _Townsend's Spain_, vol.
+         i. pp. 212-215. _Laborde's Spain_, vol. ii. p. 271. This canal,
+         which was intended to establish a free communication between the
+         Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, is slightly noticed in
+         _Macpherson's Annals of Commerce_, vol. iv. pp. 95, 96: a
+         learned and valuable work, but very imperfect as regards Spain.
+         The economical value of this great enterprise, and the extent to
+         which it succeeded, are seriously under-estimated in _Ford's
+         Spain_, p. 587; a book which, notwithstanding the praise that
+         has been conferred upon it, is carelessly composed, and is sure
+         to mislead readers who have not the means of comparing it with
+         other authorities. M. Rio's History of Charles III. contains
+         some interesting information on the subject; but, unfortunately,
+         I omitted to mark the passages.
+
+The government of Charles III., moreover, constructed a canal between
+Amposta and Alfaques,[1478] which irrigated the southern extremity of
+Catalonia, and brought into cultivation a large district, which, from
+the constant lack of rain, had hitherto been untilled. Another and still
+greater enterprise belonging to the same reign, was an attempt, only
+partly successful, to establish a water-communication between the
+capital and the Atlantic, by running a canal from Madrid to Toledo,
+whence the Tagus would have conveyed goods to Lisbon, and all the trade
+of the west would have been opened up.[1479] But this and many other
+noble projects were nipped in the bud by the death of Charles III., with
+whom every thing vanished. When he passed away, the country relapsed
+into its former inactivity, and it was clearly seen that these great
+works were not national, but political; in other words that they were
+due merely to individuals, whose most strenuous exertions always come to
+naught, if they are opposed by the operation of those general causes,
+which are often undiscerned, but to which even the strongest of us, do,
+in our own despite, pay implicit obedience.
+
+  [1478] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. pp. 288, 289, on the
+         authority or Florida Blanca himself.
+
+  [1479] _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. p. 199. _Townsend's
+         Spain_, vol. i. p. 304.
+
+Still for a time much was done; and Charles, reasoning according to the
+ordinary maxims of politicians, might well indulge the hope, that what
+he had effected would permanently change the destiny of Spain. For these
+and other works which he not only planned but executed,[1480] were not
+paid for, as is too often the case, by taxes which oppressed the people,
+and trammelled their industry. At his side, and constantly advising him,
+there were men who really aimed at the public good, and who never would
+have committed so fatal an error. Under his rule the wealth of the
+country greatly increased, and the comforts of the lower classes,
+instead of being abridged, were multiplied. The imposts were more fairly
+assessed than they had ever been before. Taxes, which, in the
+seventeenth century, all the power of the executive could not wring from
+the people, were now regularly paid, and, owing to the development of
+the national resources, they became at once more productive and less
+onerous. In the management of the public finances, an economy was
+practised, the first example of which had been set in the preceding
+reign, when the cautious and pacific policy of Ferdinand VI. laid a
+foundation for many of the improvements just narrated. Ferdinand
+bequeathed to Charles III. a treasure which he had not extorted, but
+saved. Among the reforms which he introduced, and which an unwillingness
+to accumulate details has compelled me to omit, there is one very
+important, and also very characteristic of his policy. Before his reign,
+Spain had annually been drained of an immense amount of money, on
+account of the right which the Pope claimed of presenting to certain
+rich benefices, and of receiving part of their produce; probably as a
+recompense for the trouble he had taken. Of this duty the Pope was
+relieved by Ferdinand VI., who secured to the Spanish crown the right of
+conferring such preferment, and thus saved to the country those enormous
+sums on which the Roman Court had been wont to revel.[1481] This was
+just the sort of measure which would be hailed with delight by Charles
+III., as harmonizing with his own views; and we accordingly find, that,
+in his reign, it was not only acted upon, but extended still further.
+For, perceiving that, in spite of his efforts, the feeling of the
+Spaniards on these matters was so strong as to impel them to make
+offerings to him whom they venerated as the Head of the Church, the
+king determined to exercise control over even these voluntary gifts. To
+accomplish this end, various devices were suggested; and at length one
+was hit upon, which was thought sure to be effectual. A royal order was
+issued, directing that no person should send money to Rome, but that if
+he had occasion to make remittances there, they should pass not through
+the ordinary channels, but through the ambassadors, ministers, or other
+agents of the Spanish crown.[1482]
+
+  [1480] See Florida Blanca's statement in _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of
+         Spain_, vol. v. p. 289. 'In many other parts similar works have
+         been promoted, for canals of irrigation, and for encouraging
+         agriculture and traffic. The canals of Manzanares and Guadarrama
+         are continued by means of the national bank, which has
+         appropriated one-half of the profits derived from the export of
+         silver to this end.' ... 'The town of Almuradiel, formed in the
+         middle of the _campo nuevo_ of Andalusia, for the rugged pass of
+         Despeña Perros, is another example of agriculture for the
+         neighbouring places; since, instead of woods and frightful
+         deserts, we have seen in a few years public buildings, houses,
+         plantations, and cultivated lands, producing every species of
+         grain and fruits, which border the road, and banish the danger
+         of robbers and banditti.' See also _Muriel_, _Gobierno del Rey
+         Don Carlos III._, p. 5. 'Habiendo sido el reinado de Carlos III.
+         una serie continua de mejoras en todos ramos;' and the striking
+         picture (p. 15), 'Agricultura, artes mecánicas, comercio,
+         enseñanza, milicia, navegacion, ciencias, letras, legislacion,
+         en una palabra, todo cuanto puede influir en la prosperidad del
+         Estado, todo llamó la atencion de los ministros, y en todo
+         hicieron las mejoras que permitian las circunstancias.' On the
+         improvements in internal communications, see the same valuable
+         work, pp. 187-192.
+
+  [1481] Respecting this step, which as effected in 1754, see _Tapia_,
+         _Civilizacion Española_, Madrid, 1840, vol. iv. pp. 81, 82. 'Fué
+         este tratado utilísimo para la España, pues por él se libertó
+         del pago de enormes sumas que hasta entonces habian pasado á los
+         estados pontificos. En el informe canónico-legal escrito á
+         virtud de real órden en 1746 por el fiscal de la cámara de
+         Castilla Don Blas de Jover, se decia; que según el testimonio
+         del historiador Cabrera, en el espacio de 30 años el solo
+         renglon de las coadjutorías y dispensas habia hecho pasar á Roma
+         de la corona de Castilla millon y medio de ducados romanos. Y
+         añade el mismo Jover que á principios del siglo xviii. subia aun
+         esta contribucion cada año en todos los estados de la monarquia
+         española á 500,000 escudos romanos, que era _un tercio poco mas
+         ó menos de lo que Roma percibia de toda la cristiandad_.'
+
+  [1482] See Appendix I. to _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v.
+         p. 334.
+
+If we now review the transactions which I have narrated, and consider
+them as a whole, extending from the accession of Philip V. to the death
+of Charles III., over a period of nearly ninety years, we shall be
+struck with wonder at their unity, at the regularity of their march, and
+at their apparent success. Looking at them merely in a political point
+of view, it may be doubted if such vast and uninterrupted progress has
+ever been seen in any country either before or since. For three
+generations, there was no pause on the part of the government; not one
+reaction, not one sign of halting. Improvement upon improvement, and
+reform upon reform, followed each other in swift succession. The power
+of the Church, which has always been the crying evil of Spain, and which
+hitherto none of the boldest politicians had dared to touch, was
+restricted in every possible way, by a series of statesmen, from Orry to
+Florida Blanca, whose efforts were latterly, and for nearly thirty
+years, zealously aided by Charles III., the ablest monarch who has sat
+on the throne since the death of Philip II. Even the Inquisition was
+taught to tremble, and made to loosen its hold over its victims. The
+burning of heretics was stopped. Torture was disused. Prosecutions for
+heresy were discouraged. Instead of punishing men for imaginary
+offences, a disposition was shown to attend to their real interests, to
+alleviate their burdens, to increase their comforts, and to check the
+tyranny of those who were set over them. Attempts were made to restrain
+the cupidity of the clergy, and prevent them from preying at will upon
+the national wealth. With this view, the laws of mortmain were revised,
+and various measures taken to interpose obstacles in the way of persons
+who desired to waste their property by bequeathing it for ecclesiastical
+purposes. In this, as in other matters, the true interests of society
+were preferred to the fictitious ones. To raise the secular classes
+above the spiritual; to discountenance the exclusive attention hitherto
+paid to questions respecting which nothing is known, and which it is
+impossible to solve; to do this, and, in the place of such barren
+speculations, to substitute a taste for science, or for literature,
+became the object of the Spanish government for the first time since
+Spain had possessed a government at all. As part of the same scheme, the
+Jesuits were expelled, the right of sanctuary was infringed, and the
+whole hierarchy, from the highest bishop down to the lowest monk, were
+taught to fear the law, to curb their passions, and to restrain the
+insolence with which they had formerly treated every rank except their
+own. These would have been great deeds in any country; in such a country
+as Spain, they were marvellous. Of them I have given an abridged, and
+therefore an imperfect, account, but still sufficient to show how the
+government laboured to diminish superstition, to check bigotry, to
+stimulate intellect, to promote industry, and to rouse the people from
+their death-like slumber. I have omitted many measures of considerable
+interest, and which tended in the same direction; because, here, as
+elsewhere, I seek to confine myself to those salient points which most
+distinctly mark the general movement. Whoever will minutely study the
+history of Spain during this period, will find additional proof of the
+skill and vigour of those who were at the head of affairs, and who
+devoted their best energies to regenerating the country which they
+ruled. But, for these special studies, special men are required; and I
+shall be satisfied, if I have firmly grasped the great march and outline
+of the whole. It is enough for my purpose, if I have substantiated the
+general proposition, and have convinced the reader of the clearness
+with which the statesmen of Spain discerned the evils under which their
+country was groaning, and of the zeal with which they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief, and to resuscitate the fortunes of what had once
+not only been the chief of European monarchies, but had borne sway over
+the most splendid and extensive territory that had been united under a
+single rule since the fall of the Roman Empire.
+
+They who believe that a government can civilize a nation, and that
+legislators are the cause of social progress, will naturally expect that
+Spain reaped permanent benefit from those liberal maxims, which now, for
+the first time, were put into execution. The fact, however, is, that
+such a policy, wise as it appeared, was of no avail, simply because it
+ran counter to the whole train of preceding circumstances. It was
+opposed to the habits of the national mind, and was introduced into a
+state of society not yet ripe for it. No reform can produce real good,
+unless it is the work of public opinion, and unless the people
+themselves take the initiative. In Spain, during the eighteenth century,
+foreign influence, and the complications of foreign politics, bestowed
+enlightened rulers upon an unenlightened country.[1483] The consequence
+was, that, for a time, great things were done. Evils were removed,
+grievances were redressed, many important improvements were introduced;
+and a spirit of toleration was exhibited, such as had never before been
+seen in that priest-ridden and superstitious land. But the mind of Spain
+was untouched. While the surface, and as it were the symptoms, of
+affairs were ameliorated, affairs themselves remained unchanged. Below
+that surface, and far out of reach of any political remedy, large
+general causes were at work, which had been operating for many
+centuries, and which were sure, sooner or later, to force politicians to
+retrace their steps, and compel them to inaugurate a policy which would
+suit the traditions of the country, and harmonize with the circumstances
+under which those traditions had been formed.
+
+  [1483] It is important to observe, that the Cortes, where alone the
+         voice of the people had a chance of being heard, was assembled
+         but three times during the whole of the eighteenth century, and
+         then merely for the sake of form. 'Les Cortès ne se réunirent
+         que trois fois pendant le dix-huitième siècle, et plutôt encore
+         comme des solennités formulaires pour la prestation du serment
+         aux princes héritiers de la couronne, que comme étant
+         nécessaires pour de nouvelles lois et des contributions.'
+         _Sempere_, _Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne_, Bordeaux, 1815,
+         p. 270.
+
+At length the reaction came. In 1788, Charles III. died; and was
+succeeded by Charles IV., a king of the true Spanish breed, devout,
+orthodox, and ignorant.[1484] It was now seen how insecure everything
+was, and how little reliance can be placed on reforms, which, instead of
+being suggested by the people, are bestowed on them by the political
+classes. Charles IV., though a weak and contemptible prince,[1485] was
+so supported in his general views by the feelings of the Spanish nation,
+that, in less than five years, he was able completely to reverse that
+liberal policy which it had taken three generations of statesmen to
+build up. In less than five years everything was changed. The power of
+the Church was restored; the slightest approach towards free discussion
+was forbidden; old and arbitrary principles, which had not been heard of
+since the seventeenth century, were revived; the priests re-assumed
+their former importance; literary men were intimidated, and literature
+was discouraged; while the Inquisition, suddenly starting up afresh,
+displayed an energy, which caused its enemies to tremble, and proved
+that all the attempts which had been made to weaken it, had been unable
+to impair its vigour, or to daunt its ancient spirit.
+
+  [1484] By combining these three qualities, he has deserved and received
+         the cordial approbation of the present Bishop of Barcelona, who,
+         in his recent work on the Spanish Church, styles him 'un monarca
+         tan piadoso.' _Observaciones sobre El Presente y El Porvenir de
+         la Iglesia en España_, _por Domingo Costa y Borras_, Barcelona,
+         1857, p. 80.
+
+  [1485] Even in _Alison's History of Europe_, where men of his character
+         are usually made much of, he is treated with moderate disdain.
+         'Charles IV. was not destitute of good qualities, but he was a
+         weak, incapable prince.' Vol. viii. p. 382, Edinburgh, 1849.
+
+The ministers of Charles III., and the authors of those great reforms
+which signalized his reign, were dismissed, to make way for other
+advisers, better suited to this new state of things. Charles IV. loved
+the Church too well to tolerate the presence of enlightened statesmen.
+Aranda and Florida Blanca were both removed from office, and both were
+placed in confinement.[1486] Jovellanos was banished from court, and
+Cabarrus was thrown into prison.[1487] For, now, work had to be done, to
+which these eminent men would not put their hands. A policy which had
+been followed with undeviating consistency for nearly ninety years, was
+about to be rescinded, in order that the old empire of the seventeenth
+century, which was the empire of ignorance, of tyranny, and of
+superstition, might be resuscitated, and, if possible, restored to its
+pristine vigour.
+
+  [1486] _Sempere_, _Monarchie Espagnole_, vol. ii. p. 167. I need hardly
+         say, that not the slightest credit is to be attached to the
+         account given in Godoy's Memoirs. Every one tolerably acquainted
+         with Spanish history, will see that his book is an attempt to
+         raise his own reputation, by defaming the character of some of
+         the ablest and most high-minded of his contemporaries.
+
+  [1487] _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. pp. 277,
+         278.
+
+Once more was Spain covered with darkness; once more did the shadows of
+night overtake that wretched land. The worst forms of oppression, says a
+distinguished writer, seemed to be settling on the country with a new
+and portentous weight.[1488] At the same time, and indeed as a natural
+part of the scheme, every investigation likely to stimulate the mind,
+was prohibited, and an order was actually sent to all the universities,
+forbidding the study of moral philosophy; the minister, who issued the
+order, justly observing, that the king did not want to have
+philosophers.[1489] There was, however, little fear of Spain producing
+anything so dangerous. The nation not daring, and, what was still worse,
+not wishing, to resist, gave way, and let the king do as he liked.
+Within a very few years, he neutralized the most valuable reforms which
+his predecessors had introduced. Having discarded the able advisers of
+his father, he conferred the highest posts upon men as narrow and
+incompetent as himself; he reduced the country to the verge of
+bankruptcy; and, according to the remark of a Spanish historian, he
+exhausted all the resources of the state.[1490]
+
+  [1488] 'In all its worst forms, therefore, oppression, civil, political,
+         and religious, appeared to be settling down, with a new and
+         portentous weight, on the whole country.' _Ticknor's History of
+         Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. p. 318.
+
+  [1489] 'Caballero, fearing the progress of all learning, which might
+         disturb the peace of the Court, sent, not long since, a circular
+         order to the universities, forbidding the study of moral
+         philosophy. "His Majesty," it was said in the order, "was not in
+         want of philosophers, but of good and obedient subjects."'
+         _Doblado's Letters from Spain_, p. 358.
+
+  [1490] 'Le gouvernement de Charles IV avait épuisé toutes les ressources
+         de l'État.' _Sempere_, _Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne_, p. 323.
+
+Such was the condition of Spain, late in the eighteenth century. The
+French invasion quickly followed; and that unhappy country underwent
+every form of calamity and of degradation. Herein, however, lies a
+difference. Calamities may be inflicted by others; but no people can be
+degraded except by their own acts. The foreign spoiler works mischief;
+he cannot cause shame. With nations, as with individuals, none are
+dishonoured if they are true to themselves. Spain, during the present
+century, has been plundered and oppressed, and the opprobrium lights on
+the robbers, not on the robbed. She has been overrun by a brutal and
+licentious soldiery; her fields laid waste, her towns sacked, her
+villages burned. It is to the criminal, rather than to the victim, that
+the ignominy of these acts must belong. And, even in a material point of
+view, such losses are sure to be retrieved, if the people who incur them
+are inured to those habits of self-government, and to that feeling of
+self-reliance, which are the spring and the source of all real
+greatness. With the aid of these, every damage may be repaired, and
+every evil remedied. Without them, the slightest blow may be fatal. In
+Spain, they are unknown; and it seems impossible to establish them. In
+that country, men have so long been accustomed to pay implicit
+deference to the Crown and the Church, that loyalty and superstition
+have usurped the place of those nobler emotions, to which all freedom is
+owing, and in the absence of which, the true idea of independence can
+never be attained.
+
+More than once, indeed, during the nineteenth century, a spirit has
+appeared, from which better things might have been augured. In 1812, in
+1820, and in 1836, a few ardent and enthusiastic reformers attempted to
+secure liberty to the Spanish people, by endowing Spain with a free
+constitution. They succeeded for a moment, and that was all. The forms
+of constitutional government they could bestow; but they could not find
+the traditions and the habits, by which the forms are worked. They
+mimicked the voice of liberty; they copied her institutions; they aped
+her very gestures. And what then? At the first stroke of adverse
+fortune, their idol fell to pieces. Their constitutions were broken up,
+their assemblies dissolved, their enactments rescinded. The inevitable
+reaction quickly followed. After each disturbance, the hands of the
+government were strengthened, the principles of despotism were
+confirmed, and the Spanish liberals were taught to rue the day, in which
+they vainly endeavoured to impart freedom to their unhappy and
+ill-starred country.[1491]
+
+  [1491] In Spain, the voice of the people has always been opposed to the
+         liberal party, as many writers have observed, without being
+         aware of the reason. Mr. Walton (_Revolutions of Spain_, London,
+         1837, vol. i. pp. 322, 323) says of the Cortes, 'Public
+         indignation hurled them from their seats in 1814; and in 1823
+         they were overpowered, not by the arms of France, but by the
+         displeasure of their own countrymen,' &c. See also p. 290; and
+         _Quin's Memoirs of Ferdinand the Seventh_, London, 1824, p. 121,
+         where it is mentioned, that 'in all the towns through which the
+         King passed, the multitude, excited by the friars and clergy,
+         overturned the constitutional stone, and uttered the most
+         atrocious insults against the Constitution, the Cortes, and the
+         Liberals.' Compare _Sempere_, _Histoire des Cortès_, p. 335, and
+         _Bacon's Six Years in Biscay_, p. 40. Indeed, a very intelligent
+         writer on Spanish affairs in 1855, asserts, with, I believe,
+         perfect truth, that Spain is 'un pays où les populations sont
+         toujours, à coup sûr moins libérales que les gouvernemens.'
+         _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1854, 1855, Paris, 1855, p. 266.
+
+What makes these failures the more worthy of observation is, that the
+Spaniards did possess, at a very early period, municipal privileges and
+franchises, similar to those which we had in England, and to which our
+greatness is often ascribed. But such institutions, though they preserve
+freedom, can never create it. Spain had the form of liberty without its
+spirit; hence the form, promising as it was, soon died away. In England,
+the spirit preceded the form, and therefore the form was durable. Thus
+it is, that though the Spaniards could boast of free institutions a
+century before ourselves, they were unable to retain them, simply
+because they had the institutions and nothing more. We had no popular
+representation till 1264;[1492] but in Castile they had it in
+1169,[1493] and in Aragon in 1133.[1494] So, too, while the earliest
+charter was granted to an English town in the twelfth century,[1495] we
+find, in Spain, a charter conferred on Leon as early as 1020; and in the
+course of the eleventh century the enfranchisement of towns was as
+secure as laws could make it.[1496]
+
+  [1492] _Buckle's History of Civilization_, vol. ii. p. 117.
+
+  [1493] _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. i.
+         p. xlviii.
+
+  [1494] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. xcvi.
+
+  [1495] _Hallam's Middle Ages_, ninth edition, London, 1846, vol. ii.
+         pp. 153-157, which must be compared with _Hallam's Supplemental
+         Notes_, London, 1848, pp. 323-327.
+
+  [1496] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 373. _Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella_,
+         vol. i. pp. xlv. xlvi.
+
+The fact, however, is, that in Spain these institutions, instead of
+growing out of the wants of the people originated in a stroke of policy
+on the part of their rulers. They were conceded to the citizens, rather
+than desired by them. For, during the war with the Mohammedans, the
+Christian kings of Spain, as they advanced southwards, were naturally
+anxious to induce their subjects to settle in the frontier towns, where
+they might face and repel the enemy. With this object they granted
+charters to the towns, and privileges to the inhabitants.[1497] And as
+the Mohammedans were gradually beaten back from the Asturias to Granada,
+the frontiers changed, and the franchises were extended to the new
+conquests, in order that what was the post of danger, might also be the
+place of reward. But, meanwhile, those general causes, which I have
+indicated, were predetermining the nation to habits of loyalty and of
+superstition, which grew to a height fatal to the spirit of liberty.
+That being the case the institutions were of no avail. They took no
+root; and as they were originated by one political combination, they
+were destroyed by another. Before the close of the fourteenth century,
+the Spaniards were so firmly seated in the territories they had lately
+acquired that there was little danger of their being again
+expelled[1498] while, on the other hand, there was no immediate prospect
+of their being able to push their conquests further, and drive the
+Mohammedans from the strongholds of Granada. The circumstances,
+therefore, which gave rise to the municipal privileges had changed; and
+as soon as this was apparent, the privileges began to perish. Being
+unsuited to the habits of the people, they were sure to fall, on the
+first opportunity.[1499] Late in the fourteenth century, their decline
+was perceptible; by the close of the fifteenth century, they were almost
+extinct; and, early in the sixteenth century, they were finally
+overthrown.[1500]
+
+  [1497] 'Ce fut alors que les successeurs de Pélage descendirent de leurs
+         montagnes dans les plaines, de leurs forteresses perchées sur
+         des rocs inaccessibles dans les villes populeuses, le long des
+         fleuves, dans de fertiles vallées et sur les côtes de la mer; ce
+         fut alors que la ville d'Astorgue revint du pouvoir des Arabes à
+         celui des Asturiens et chassa toute la partie musulmane de ces
+         habitants; ce fut alors, enfin, que commencèrent en Espagne ces
+         concessions de franchises municipales par lesquelles les rois et
+         les seigneurs chrétiens cherchèrent à attirer des populations
+         chrétiennes dans les lieux d'où ils avaient chassé les
+         Musulmans.' _Fauriel_, _Histoire de la Gaule Méridionale_,
+         Paris, 1836, vol. iii. p. 215. See also _Sempere_, _Monarchie
+         Espagnole_, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.
+
+  [1498] On the increasing confidence of the Spaniards in the middle of
+         the fourteenth century, see an interesting passage in _Mariana_,
+         _Historia de España_, vol. iv. pp. 172, 173.
+
+  [1499] The deputies of the towns did, in fact, eventually overthrow
+         their own liberties, as a Spanish historian truly remarks. 'Il
+         n'est pas étonnant que les monarques espagnols tâchassent
+         d'affermir leur autorité autant que possible, et encore moins
+         que leurs conseillers et leurs, ministres coopérassent à leurs
+         desseins. L'histoire de toutes les nations nous offre de
+         nombreux exemples de cette politique; mais _ce qu'il y a de plus
+         remarquable dans celle d'Espagne, c'est que les députés des
+         villes qui auraient dû être les plus zélés défenseurs de leurs
+         droits, conspirèrent ouvertement contre le tiers-état_, et
+         tentèrent d'anéantir les restes de l'ancienne représentation
+         nationale.' _Sempere_, _Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne_, p. 213.
+         It strikes one as singular, that M. Sempere should never have
+         inquired, why this happened in Spain, and not elsewhere. A later
+         writer, reflecting on the destruction of the municipal element
+         by the royal authority, gives a solution, which, like many other
+         so-called solutions, is merely a statement of the same fact in
+         different words. 'Al fin la autoridad real logró alcanzar un
+         gran predominio en el gobierno municipal de los pueblos,
+         _porque_ los corregidores y alcaldes mayores llegaron á eclipsar
+         la influencia de los adelantados y alcaldes elegidos por los
+         pueblos.' _Antequera_, _Historia de la Legislacion Española_,
+         Madrid, 1849, p. 287. This, instead of explaining the event, is
+         simply narrating it afresh.
+
+  [1500] The final destruction of popular liberty is ascribed by many
+         writers to the battle of Villalar, in 1521; though it is quite
+         certain that, if the royalists had lost that battle, instead of
+         gaining it, the ultimate result would have been the same. At one
+         time, I had purposed tracing the history of the municipal and
+         representative elements during the fifteenth century; and the
+         materials which I then collected, convinced me that the spirit
+         of freedom never really existed in Spain, and that therefore the
+         marks and forms of freedom were sure, sooner or later, to be
+         effaced.
+
+It is thus that general causes eventually triumph over every obstacle.
+In the average of affairs, and on a comparison of long periods, they are
+irresistible. Their operation is often attacked, and occasionally, for a
+little time, stopped by politicians, who are always ready with their
+empirical and short-sighted remedies. But when the spirit of the age is
+against those remedies, they can at best only succeed for a moment; and
+after that moment has passed, a reaction sets in, and the penalty for
+violence has to be paid. Evidence of this will be found in the annals of
+every civilized country, by whoever will confront the history of
+legislation with the history of opinion. The fate of the Spanish towns
+has afforded us one good proof; the fate of the Spanish Church will
+supply us with another. For more than eighty years after the death of
+Charles II. the rulers of Spain attempted to weaken the ecclesiastical
+power; and the end of all their efforts was, that even such an
+insignificant and incompetent king as Charles IV. was able, with the
+greatest ease, rapidly to undo what they had done. This is because,
+during the eighteenth century, while the clergy were assailed by law,
+they were favoured by opinion. The opinions of a people invariably
+depend on large general causes, which influence the whole country; but
+their laws are too often the work of a few powerful individuals, in
+opposition to the national will. When the legislators die, or lose
+office, there is always a chance of their successors holding opposite
+views, and subverting their plans. In the midst, however, of this play
+and fluctuation of political life, the general causes remain steady,
+though they are often kept out of sight, and do not become visible,
+until politicians, inclining to their side, bring them to the surface,
+and invest them with open and public authority.
+
+This is what Charles IV. did in Spain; and when he took measures to
+favour the Church, and to discourage free inquiry, he merely sanctioned
+those national habits which his predecessors had disregarded. The hold
+which the hierarchy of that country possess over public opinion has
+always been proverbial; but it is even greater than is commonly
+supposed. What it was in the seventeenth century, we have already seen;
+and in the eighteenth century, there were no signs of its diminution,
+except among a few bold men, who could effect nothing, while the popular
+voice was so strong against them. Early in the reign of Philip V.,
+Labat, who travelled in Spain, informs us, that when a priest performed
+mass, nobles of the highest rank deemed it an honour to help him to
+dress, and that they would go down on their knees to him, and kiss his
+hands.[1501] When this was done by the proudest aristocracy in Europe,
+we may suppose what the general feeling must have been. Indeed, Labat
+assures us, that a Spaniard would hardly be considered of sound faith,
+if he did not leave some portion of his property to the Church; so
+completely had respect for the hierarchy become an essential part of the
+national character.[1502]
+
+  [1501] 'Ceux qui servent la Messe en Espagne, soit Religieux, ou
+         Séculiers, ne manquent jamais d'aider le Prêtre à s'habiller, et
+         le font avec beaucoup de respect. Les plus grande Seigneurs s'en
+         font honneur, et à mesure qu'ils présentent au Prêtre quelque
+         partie des ornemens, ils lui baisent la main. On se met à genoux
+         pour donner à laver au Prêtre pendant la Messe, et après qu'il a
+         essuyé ses doigts, celui qui lui a donné l'eau demeurant à
+         genoux lui présente le bassin retourné, sur lequel le Prêtre met
+         sa main pour la lui laisser baiser. Au retour à la Sacristie, il
+         ne manque pas d'aider le Prêtre à se déshabiller, après quoi il
+         se met à genoux pour recevoir sa bénédiction et baiser sa main.'
+         _Labat_, _Voyages en Espagne et en Italie_, Paris, 1730, vol. i.
+         p. 36.
+
+  [1502] 'Telle est la coûtume du Païs, on s'exposeroit à laisser douter
+         de sa foi, et passer au moins pour Maran, ou Chrétien nouveau,
+         si on ne laissoit pas le tiers de ses biens mobiliers à
+         l'Eglise.' _Labat_, _Voyages en Espagne_, vol. i. p. 268.
+
+A still more curious instance was exhibited on the occasion of the
+expulsion of the Jesuits. That once useful, but now troublesome, body
+was, during the eighteenth century, what it is in the nineteenth--the
+obstinate enemy of progress and of toleration. The rulers of Spain,
+observing that it opposed all their schemes of reform, resolved to get
+rid of an obstacle, which met them at every turn. In France, the Jesuits
+had just been treated as a public nuisance, and suppressed at a blow,
+and without difficulty. The advisers of Charles III. saw no reason why
+so salutary a measure should not be imitated in their country; and, in
+1767, they, following the example which had been set by the French in
+1764, abolished this great mainstay of the Church.[1503] Having done
+this, the government supposed that it had taken a decisive step towards
+weakening ecclesiastical power, particularly as the sovereign cordially
+approved of the proceeding. The year after this occurred, Charles III.,
+according to his custom, appeared in the balcony of the palace, on the
+festival of St. Charles, ready to grant any request which the people
+might make to him, and which usually consisted of a prayer for the
+dismissal of a minister, or for the repeal of a tax. On this occasion,
+however, the citizens of Madrid, instead of occupying themselves with
+such worldly matters, felt that still dearer interests were in peril;
+and, to the surprise and terror of the court, they demanded, with one
+voice, that the Jesuits should be allowed to return, and wear their
+usual dress, in order that Spain might be gladdened by the sight of
+these holy men.[1504]
+
+  [1503] It was the opinion of the Pope, that Charles, by this act, had
+         endangered his own soul. 'Dans un bref adressé à Charles III; il
+         déclara: "Que les actes du Roi contre les Jésuites mettaient
+         évidemment son salut en danger."' _Crétineau-Joly_, _Histoire de
+         la Compagnie de Jésus_, Paris, 1845, vol. v. p. 302.
+
+  [1504] As this circumstance, which is noticed by Crétineau-Joly
+         (_Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus_, vol. v. p. 311) and other
+         writers (_Dunham's History of Spain_, vol. v. p. 180), has been
+         much misrepresented, and has even been doubted by one author, I
+         will transcribe the statement of Coxe, whose information
+         respecting the reign of Charles III. was derived from
+         eye-witnesses. 'A remarkable and alarming proof of their
+         influence was given at Madrid, the year after their expulsion.
+         At the festival of St. Charles, when the monarch showed himself
+         to the people from the balcony of the palace, and was accustomed
+         to grant their general request; to the surprise and confusion of
+         the whole court, the voice of the immense multitude, with one
+         accord, demanded the return of the Jesuits, and the permission
+         for them to wear the habit of the secular clergy. This
+         unexpected incident alarmed and mortified the King; and, after a
+         vigilant inquiry, he thought proper to banish the Cardinal
+         Archbishop of Toledo, and his Grand Vicar, as the secret
+         instigators of this tumultuary petition.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings
+         of Spain_, 2nd edit., London, 1815, vol. iv. pp. 368, 369. The
+         remarks made on this event by M. Rio (_Historia del Reinado de
+         Carlos III._, Madrid, 1856, vol. ii. pp. 197-199) are not very
+         creditable, either to his criticism or to his candour. It is
+         uncritical to doubt the statement of a contemporary, when that
+         statement relates what is probable in itself, and what those who
+         lived nearest to the period never denied. Indeed, so far from
+         denying it, M. Muriel, the learned translator of Coxe's work
+         into Spanish, gave it the sanction of his name. And, it is
+         surely, to say the least, very uncandid on the part of M. Rio to
+         impute to Coxe the error of placing this occurrence in 1767, and
+         then proving that, owing to circumstances connected with the
+         Archbishop of Toledo, it could not have happened in that year.
+         For, Coxe distinctly asserts, that it was in 1768; 'the year
+         _after_ their expulsion.'
+
+What can you do with a nation like this? What is the use of laws when
+the current of public opinion thus sets in against them? In the face of
+such obstacles, the government of Charles III., notwithstanding its good
+intentions, was powerless. Indeed, it was worse than powerless: it did
+harm; for, by rousing popular sympathy in favour of the Church, it
+strengthened what it sought to weaken. On that cruel and persecuting
+Church, stained as it was with every sort of crime, the Spanish nation
+continued to bestow marks of affection, which, instead of being
+diminished, were increased. Gifts and legacies flowed in freely and from
+every side; men being willing to beggar themselves and their families,
+in order to swell the general contribution. And to such a height was
+this carried, that, in 1788, Florida Blanca, minister of the crown,
+stated that, within the last fifty years, the ecclesiastical revenues
+had increased so rapidly, that many of them had doubled in value.[1505]
+
+  [1505] See the statement of Florida Blanca, in Appendix I. to _Coxe's
+         Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. v. p. 282. Another Spaniard, the
+         Prince of the Peace, says, that at the accession of Charles IV.,
+         in 1788, 'the cloisters were encumbered with an ever-increasing
+         number of monks of all orders and of all ages.' _Godoy's
+         Memoirs_, edit. London, 1836, vol. i. p. 126. See also, on the
+         state of ecclesiastical establishments in the same year, some
+         interesting remarks in the Letters of Cabarrus; 'con qué
+         horrible desproporcion superabundan los individuos estériles á
+         los operarios útiles y preciosos.' _Cartas escritas por el Conde
+         de Cabarrus_, Madrid, 1813, p. 133.
+
+Even the Inquisition, the most barbarous institution which the wit of
+man has ever devised, was upheld by public opinion against the attacks
+of the crown. The Spanish government wished to overthrow it, and did
+everything to weaken it; but the Spanish people loved it as of old, and
+cherished it as their best protection against the inroads of
+heresy.[1506] An illustration of this was exhibited in 1778, when, on
+occasion of a heretic being sentenced by the Inquisition, several of the
+leading nobles attended as servants, being glad to have an opportunity
+of publicly displaying their obedience and docility to the Church.[1507]
+
+  [1506] Of it, a celebrated writer in the reign of Philip V. boastfully
+         says, 'Su exacta vigilancia comprehende igualmente á Naturales y
+         Estrangeros.' _Uztariz_, _Theorica y Practica de Comercio_,
+         tercera impression, Madrid, 1757, folio, p. 27. When such a man
+         as Uztariz could pen a sentence like this, we may imagine what
+         was felt by the people, who were far more ignorant than he, and
+         far more orthodox. M. Tapia, in a remarkable and unusually bold
+         passage, frankly admits that it was the pressure of public
+         opinion which prevented Charles III. from abolishing the
+         Inquisition. 'Estraño pareceria que habiéndose hecho tanto en
+         aquel reinado para limitar el poder escesivo del clero, y acabar
+         con absurdas preocupaciones, no se suprimiese el monstruoso
+         tribunal de la inquisicion; pero es necesario tener presente que
+         el rey despues del motin de Madrid procedia con timidez en toda
+         providencia que pudiese contrariar la opinion pública; y él
+         creia que los españoles querian la inquisicion, como se lo
+         manifestó al ministro Roda y al conde de Aranda, añadiendo que
+         en nada coartaba su autoridad.' _Tapia_, _Civilizacion
+         Española_, vol. iv. p. 98, Madrid, 1840. To us, the Inquisition
+         seems rather a singular object for men to set their affections
+         on; but of the existence of the passion there can be no doubt.
+         'L'Inquisition si révérée en Espagne.' _Mémoires de Louville_,
+         vol. i. p. 36. And Geddes (_Tracts_, London, 1730, vol. i. p.
+         400) tells us that 'the Inquisition is not only established by
+         law, but by a wonderful fascination is so fixed in the hearts
+         and affections of the people, that one that should offer the
+         least affront to another, for having been an informer or witness
+         in the Inquisition, would be torn in a thousand pieces.'
+
+  [1507] 'The familiars of the Inquisition, Abrantes, Mora, and others,
+         grandees of Spain, attended as servants, without hats or
+         swords.' _Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain_, vol. iv. pp. 418, 419.
+         This was in the great case of Olavide.
+
+All these things were natural, and in order. They were the result of a
+long train of causes, the operation of which I have endeavoured to
+trace, during thirteen centuries, since the outbreak of the Arian war.
+Those causes forced the Spaniards to be superstitious, and it was idle
+mockery to seek to change their nature by legislation. The only remedy
+for superstition is knowledge. Nothing else can wipe out that
+plague-spot of the human mind. Without it, the leper remains unwashed,
+and the slave unfreed. It is to a knowledge of the laws and relations of
+things, that European civilization is owing; but it is precisely this in
+which Spain has always been deficient. And until that deficiency is
+remedied, until science, with her bold and inquisitive spirit, has
+established her right to investigate all subjects, after her own
+fashion, and according to her own method, we may be assured that, in
+Spain, neither literature, nor universities, nor legislators, nor
+reformers of any kind, will ever be able to rescue the people from that
+helpless and benighted condition into which the course of affairs has
+plunged them.
+
+That no great political improvement, however plausible or attractive it
+may appear, can be productive of lasting benefit, unless it is preceded
+by a change in public opinion, and that every change of public opinion
+is preceded by changes in knowledge, are propositions which all history
+verifies, but which are particularly obvious in the history of Spain.
+The Spaniards have had everything except knowledge. They have had
+immense wealth, and fertile and well-peopled territories, in all parts
+of the globe. Their own country, washed by the Atlantic and the
+Mediterranean, and possessed of excellent harbours, is admirably
+situated for the purposes of trade between Europe and America, being so
+placed as to command the commerce of both hemispheres.[1508] They had,
+at a very early period, ample municipal privileges; they had independent
+parliaments; they had the right of choosing their own magistrates, and
+managing their own cities. They have had rich and flourishing towns,
+abundant manufactures, and skilful artizans, whose choice productions
+could secure a ready sale in every market in the world. They have
+cultivated the fine arts with eminent success; their noble and exquisite
+paintings, and their magnificent churches, being justly ranked among the
+most wonderful efforts of the human hand. They speak a beautiful,
+sonorous, and flexible language, and their literature is not unworthy of
+their language. Their soil yields treasures of every kind. It overflows
+with wine and oil, and produces the choicest fruits in an almost
+tropical exuberance.[1509] It contains the most valuable minerals, in a
+profuse variety unexampled in any other part of Europe. No where else do
+we find such rare and costly marbles, so easily accessible, and in such
+close communication with the sea, where they might safely be shipped,
+and sent to countries which require them.[1510] As to the metals, there
+is hardly one which Spain does not possess in large quantities. Her
+mines of silver and of quicksilver are well known. She abounds in
+copper,[1511] and her supply of lead is enormous.[1512] Iron and coal,
+the two most useful of all the productions of the inorganic
+world,[1513] are also abundant in that highly favoured country. Iron is
+said to exist in every part of Spain, and to be of the best
+quality;[1514] while the coal-mines of Asturias are described as
+inexhaustible.[1515] In short, nature has been so prodigal of her
+bounty, that it has been observed, with hardly an hyperbole, that the
+Spanish nation possesses within itself nearly every natural production
+which can satisfy either the necessity or the curiosity of
+mankind.[1516]
+
+  [1508] An accomplished modern geographer says: 'From the extent of its
+         coast-line, its numerous ports, its geographical position, and
+         natural products, Spain possesses greater commercial advantages
+         than any other country of Europe.' _Johnston's Dictionary of
+         Physical, Statistical, and Historical Geography_, London, 1850,
+         p. 1213.
+
+  [1509] 'No quiero hablar de los frutos de España, no obstante que los
+         produzca tan exquisitos de todas especies. Solo diré que sus
+         naranjas dulces las traxeron de la China los Portugueses, y que
+         de Portugal se ha difundido su planta por lo restante de Europa.
+         En fin, España es celebrada entre otras cosas por sus limones,
+         por la fragrancia de sus cidras, por sus limas dulces, por sus
+         granadas, por sus azeytunas, que merecieron ser alabadas hasta
+         del gran Ciceron, y sus almendras, sus higos, sus uvas, etc.'
+         _Bowles_, _Historia Natural de España_, Madrid, 1789, 4to.
+         p. 236.
+
+  [1510] 'The marbles of Spain are in greater variety and beauty than
+         those of any country in Europe, and most valuable kinds of them
+         are in situations of easy access and communication with the sea;
+         but they have long been entirely neglected, the greater part
+         being unknown, even to the more intelligent of the natives.'
+         _Cook's Spain_, London, 1834, vol. ii. p. 51. In the Cabinet of
+         Natural History at Madrid, 'the specimens of marbles are
+         splendid, and show what treasures yet remain buried in the
+         Peninsula.' _Ford's Spain_, London, 1847, p. 413.
+
+  [1511] 'Hay infinitas minas de cobre en España las quales nunca se han
+         tocado.' _Bowles_, _Historia Natural de España_, Discurso
+         Preliminar, p. 34.
+
+  [1512] In 1832, Cook writes, 'The lead-mines of the Sierra de Gador are
+         in a state of repletion at present from the enormous quantity of
+         the mineral, and the facility of raising it.' ... 'Lead abounds
+         in other parts of the same chain, nearer to Almeria.' _Cook's
+         Spain_, vol. ii. p. 75. 'The most valuable of the existing
+         Spanish mines are those of lead in Granada; and the supplies
+         obtained from them during the last twenty years have been so
+         large, that they have occasioned the abandonment of several less
+         productive mines in other countries, and a considerable fall in
+         the price of lead.' _M'Culloch's Geographical and Statistical
+         Dictionary_, London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 705.
+
+  [1513] I use the popular language in referring coal to the inorganic
+         world, despite its cellular tissue and vegetable origin.
+
+  [1514] 'The most valuable of the whole mineral riches of Spain will be,
+         in all probability, in a few years, the iron, which is found
+         every where, and of the best qualities.' _Cook's Spain_, vol.
+         ii. p. 78. See also _Bowles_, _Historia Natural de España_,
+         pp. 56, 67, 106, 273, 346, 415, and _Ford's Spain_, pp. 565, 618.
+
+  [1515] 'The quantity is inexhaustible, the quality excellent, the
+         working of extraordinary facility, and they possess an easy
+         communication with the sea; yet they are practically useless,
+         and afford only a miserable existence to a few labourers and
+         mules used in conveying the mineral to Gijon.' _Cook's Spain_,
+         vol. ii. pp. 79, 80. 'In the immediate neighbourhood of Oviedo
+         are some of the largest coal-fields in Europe.' _Ford's Spain_,
+         p. 381; compare pp. 392, 606.
+
+  [1516] 'La nacion española posee casi quantas producciones naturales
+         puede apetecer la necesidad, ó curiosidad de los hombres.'
+         _Campomanes_, _Apendice á la Educacion Popular_, vol. iv. p. vi.
+         Madrid, 1777.
+
+These are splendid gifts; it is for the historian to tell how they have
+been used. Certainly, the people who possess them have never been
+deficient in natural endowments. They have had their full share of great
+statesmen, great kings, great magistrates, and great legislators. They
+have had many able and vigorous rulers; and their history is ennobled by
+the frequent appearance of courageous and disinterested patriots, who
+have sacrificed their all, that they might help their country. The
+bravery of the people has never been disputed; while, as to the upper
+classes, the punctilious honour of a Spanish gentleman has passed into a
+bye-word, and circulated through the world. Of the nation generally, the
+best observers pronounce them to be high-minded, generous, truthful,
+full of integrity, warm and zealous friends, affectionate in all the
+private relations of life, frank, charitable, and humane.[1517] Their
+sincerity in religious matters is unquestionable;[1518] they are,
+moreover, eminently temperate and frugal.[1519] Yet, all these great
+qualities have availed them nothing, and will avail them nothing, so
+long as they remain ignorant. What the end of all this will be, and
+whether in their unhappy country the right path will ever be taken, is
+impossible for any one to say.[1520] But if it is not taken, no
+amelioration which can possibly be effected will penetrate below the
+surface. The sole course is, to weaken the superstition of the people;
+and this can only be done by that march of physical science, which,
+familiarizing men with conceptions of order and of regularity, gradually
+encroaches on the old notions of perturbation, of prodigy, and of
+miracle, and by this means accustoms the mind to explain the
+vicissitudes of affairs by natural considerations, instead of, as
+heretofore, by those which are purely supernatural.
+
+  [1517] 'Ils sont fort charitables, tant à cause du mérite que l'on
+         s'acquiert par les aumônes, que par l'inclination naturelle
+         qu'ils ont à donner, et la peine effective qu'ils souffrent
+         lorsqu'ils sont obligés, soit par leur pauvreté, soit par
+         quelqu'autre raison, de refuser ce qu'on leur demande. Ils ont
+         encore la bonne qualité de ne point abandonner leurs amis
+         pendant qu'ils sont malades.' ... 'De manière que des personnes
+         qui ne se voyent point quatre fois en un an, se voyent tous les
+         jours deux ou trois fois, dès qu'ils souffrent.' _D'Aulnoy_,
+         _Relation du Voyage d'Espagne_, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. p. 374.
+         'They are grave, temperate, and sober; firm and warm in their
+         friendships, though cautious and slow in contracting them.' _A
+         Tour through Spain by Udal ap Rhys_, second edition, London,
+         1760, p. 3. 'When they have once professed it, none are more
+         faithful friends.' ... 'They have great probity and integrity of
+         principle.' _Clarke's Letters concerning the Spanish Nation_,
+         London, 1763, 4to. p. 334. 'To express all that I feel, on the
+         recollection of their goodness, would appear like adulation; but
+         I may venture at least to say, that simplicity, sincerity,
+         generosity, a high sense of dignity, and strong principles of
+         honour, are the most prominent and striking features of the
+         Spanish character.' _Townsend's Journey through Spain_, second
+         edition, London, 1792, vol. iii. p. 353. 'The Spaniards, though
+         naturally deep and artful politicians, have still something so
+         nobly frank and honest in their disposition.' _Letters from
+         Spain by an English Officer_, London, 1788, vol. ii. p. 171.
+         'The Spaniards have fewer bad qualities than any other people
+         that I have had the opportunity to know.' _Croker's Travels
+         through Spain_, London, 1799, pp. 237, 238. 'Spanish probity is
+         proverbial, and it conspicuously shines in commercial
+         relations.' _Laborde's Spain_, London, 1809, vol. iv. p. 423.
+         'Certainly, if it be taken in the mass, no people are more
+         humane than the Spaniards, or more compassionate and kind in
+         their feelings to others. They probably excel other nations,
+         rather than fall below them, in this respect.' _Cook's Spain_,
+         London, 1834, vol. i. p. 189. 'The Spaniards are kind-hearted in
+         all the relations of life.' _Hoskins' Spain_, London, 1851, vol.
+         ii. p. 58. Finally, I will adduce the testimony of two
+         professional politicians, both of whom were well acquainted with
+         the Spaniards. In 1770 Mr. Harris, afterwards Lord Malmesbury,
+         writes, 'They are brave, honest, and generous.' _Diaries and
+         Correspondence of the Earl of Malmesbury_, London, 1844, vol. i.
+         p. 48. And Lord Holland, according to Moore, deemed 'that the
+         Spaniards altogether are amongst the best people of Europe.'
+         _Moore's Memoirs_, _edited by Lord John Russell_, vol. iii.
+         p. 253, London, 1853.
+
+  [1518] This their whole history decisively proves; and as to their more
+         recent state, the author of _Revelations of Spain in 1845_, vol.
+         i. p. 340, says: 'But religion is so deeply rooted in the
+         national character, that the most furious political storms,
+         which prostrate everything else, blow over this and leave it
+         unscathed. It is only amongst the educated male population that
+         any lack of fervour is witnessed.'
+
+  [1519] 'The habitual temperance of these people is really astonishing: I
+         never saw a Spaniard drink a second glass of wine. With the
+         lower order of people, a piece of bread with an apple, an onion,
+         or pomegranate, is their usual repast.' _Croker's Travels in
+         Spain_, London, 1799, p. 116. 'They are temperate, or rather
+         abstemious, in their living to a great degree: _borracho_ is the
+         highest term of reproach; and it is rare to see a drunken man,
+         except it be among the carriers or muleteers.' _Dalrymple's
+         Travels through Spain_, London, 1777, 4to. p. 174. 'Drunkenness
+         is a vice almost unknown in Spain among people of a respectable
+         class, and very uncommon even among the lower orders.'
+         Esménard's note in _Godoy's Memoirs_, London, 1836, vol. ii. p.
+         321.
+
+  [1520] 'This is the most wonderful country under the sun; for here,
+         intellect wields no power.' _Inglis' Spain_, London, 1831,
+         vol. i. p. 101. 'Tandis que l'activité publique, en Espagne, se
+         porte depuis quelques années dans la sphère des intérêts
+         pratiques et matériels, il semble, au contraire, qu'il y ait une
+         sorte de ralentissement dans la vie intellectuelle.' _Annuaire
+         des Deux Mondes_ for 1850, p. 410. 'La vie intellectuelle n'est
+         point, malheureusement, la sphère où se manifeste le plus
+         d'activité en Espagne.' _Ibid._ for 1856-1857, p. 356. Now,
+         listen to the practical consequences of not giving free and
+         fearless scope to the intellect. 'It is singular, upon landing
+         in the Peninsula, and making a short excursion for a few miles
+         in any direction, to see reproduced the manners of England _five
+         centuries back_,--to find yourself thrown into the midst of a
+         society which is a close counterpart of that _extinct
+         semi-civilization_ of which no trace is to be found in our
+         history later than the close of the fourteenth century and the
+         reign of Richard the Second.' _Revelations of Spain in_ 1845 _by
+         an English Resident_, vol. ii. p. 1.
+
+To this, in the most advanced countries of Europe, every thing has been
+tending for nearly three centuries. But in Spain, unfortunately,
+education has always remained, and still remains, in the hands of the
+clergy, who steadily oppose that progress of knowledge, which they are
+well aware would be fatal to their own power.[1521] The people,
+therefore, resting ignorant, and the causes which kept them in
+ignorance continuing, it avails the country nothing, that, from time to
+time, enlightened rulers have come forward, and liberal measures been
+adopted. The Spanish reformers have, with rare exceptions, eagerly
+attacked the Church, whose authority they clearly saw ought to be
+diminished. But what they did not see is, that such diminution can be of
+no real use unless it is the result of public opinion urging on
+politicians to the work. In Spain, politicians took the initiative, and
+the people lagged behind. Hence, in Spain, what was done at one time was
+sure to be undone at another. When the liberals were in power, they
+suppressed the Inquisition; but Ferdinand VII. easily restored it,
+because, though it had been destroyed by Spanish legislators, its
+existence was suited to the habits and traditions of the Spanish
+nation.[1522] Fresh changes occurring, this odious tribunal was, in
+1820, again abolished. Still, though its form is gone, its spirit
+lives.[1523] The name, the body, and the visible appearance of the
+Inquisition, are no more; but the spirit which generated the Inquisition
+is enshrined in the hearts of the people, and, on slight provocation,
+would burst forth, and reinstate an institution which is the effect, far
+more than the cause, of the intolerant bigotry of the Spanish nation.
+
+  [1521] 'That the Spaniards, as a people, are ignorant, supremely
+         ignorant, it is impossible to dissemble; but this comes from the
+         control of education being altogether in the hands of the
+         clergy, who exert themselves to maintain that ignorance to which
+         they are indebted for their power.' _Spain by an American_, vol.
+         ii. p. 360. 'The schools in Madrid are all conducted by Jesuits;
+         and the education received in them, is such as might be expected
+         from their heads.' _Inglis' Spain_, vol. i. p. 156. 'Private
+         education here, is almost entirely in the hands of the clergy.'
+         _Revelations of Spain in 1845_, vol. ii. p. 27. In Spain, as in
+         all countries, Catholic or Protestant, the clergy, considered as
+         a body, inculcate belief instead of inquiry, and, by a sort of
+         conservative instinct, discourage that boldness of investigation
+         without which there can be no real knowledge, although there may
+         be much erudition and mere book-learning. In Spain, the clergy
+         are stronger than in any other country; therefore in Spain they
+         display this tendency more fearlessly. A good instance of this
+         may be seen in a work lately published by the Bishop of
+         Barcelona, in which a violent attack upon all physical and
+         philosophical knowledge is concluded in the following terms: 'No
+         intento recriminar á ningun católico de los que se asocian al
+         nuevo sistema de filosofar y de extender indefinidamente el
+         imperio de esta ciencia, pero deseo que fijen toda su atencion
+         en los puntos que no haré sino indicar. Primero, que las
+         escuelas de Holanda, Alemania, Inglaterra y Francia desafectas
+         al Catolicismo, han iniciado y promovido con el mayor empeño
+         ciertas discusiones filosóficas, presentándolas como un triunfo
+         de la razon sobre la Religion, de la filosofía sobre la
+         teología, del materialismo sobre el espiritualismo. Segundo, que
+         sus máximas no son, en gran parte, mas que reproducciones ó
+         nuevas evoluciones de errores mil veces refutados y condenados
+         por la sana filosofía y por la Iglesia; bajo cuyo concepto no
+         tienen por qué felicitarse en razon de su progreso, sino mas
+         bien avergonzarse por su retroceso.' _Costa y Borras_, _Iglesia
+         en España_, Barcelona, 1857, p. 150.
+
+  [1522] 'Immediately after his arrival in Madrid, Ferdinand
+         re-established the Inquisition; and his decree for that purpose
+         was hailed throughout all Spain with illuminations,
+         thanksgivings, and other rejoicings. '_Quin's Memoirs of
+         Ferdinand VII._, London, 1824, pp. 189, 190. This and similar
+         acts gave such delight to the Church as well as to the people,
+         that, according to a great divine, the return of Ferdinand to
+         Spain is to be deemed the immediate act of Divine Providence,
+         watching over the interests of Spain. 'La divina Providencia
+         abrevió los dias de prueba, y la católica España respiró ceñida
+         con los laureles del triunfo, recobrando luego á su tan deseado
+         monarca, el señor rey don Fernando VII.' _Costa y Borras_,
+         _Observaciones sobre la Iglesia en España_, Barcelona, 1857,
+         p. 91.
+
+  [1523] 'The spirit of the Inquisition is still alive; for no king,
+         cortes, or constitution, ever permits in Spain any approach to
+         any religious toleration.' _Ford's Spain_, London, 1847, p. 60.
+         'Les cortès auraient beau permettre l'exercice du culte
+         protestant ou juif, il n'est point certain que cela ne suscitât
+         de périlleux conflits.' _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, _ou Histoire
+         Générale des Divers Etats_, 1854-1855, vol. v. p. 272, Paris,
+         1855; a work of considerable ability, planned on the same scheme
+         as the _Annual Register_, but far superior to it. Respecting the
+         chance of the Inquisition being again restored, compare two
+         interesting passages in _Spain by an American_, 1831, vol. ii.
+         p. 330, and _Inglis' Spain_, 1831, vol. i. p. 85. Since then,
+         the balance of affairs has, on the whole, been in favour of the
+         Church, which received a further accession of strength by the
+         success of the essentially religious war recently waged against
+         the Moors. Hence, if any fresh political catastrophe were to
+         occur in Spain, I should not be at all surprised to hear that
+         the Inquisition was re-established.
+
+In the same way, other and more systematic attacks which were made on
+the Church, during the present century, succeeded at first, but were
+sure to be eventually baffled.[1524] Under Joseph, in 1809, the monastic
+orders were suppressed, and their property was confiscated.[1525]
+Little, however, did Spain gain by this. The nation was on their
+side;[1526] and as soon as the storm passed away, they were restored. In
+1836, there was another political movement, and the liberals being at
+the head of affairs, Mendizabal secularized all the Church property, and
+deprived the clergy of nearly the whole of their enormous and ill-gotten
+wealth.[1527] He did not know how foolish it is to attack an
+institution, unless you can first lessen its influence. Overrating the
+power of legislation, he underrated the power of opinion. This, the
+result clearly showed. Within a very few years, the reaction began. In
+1845, was enacted what was called the law of devolution, by which the
+first step was taken towards the re-endowment of the clergy.[1528] In
+1851, their position was still further improved by the celebrated
+Concordat, in which the right of acquiring, as well as of possessing,
+was solemnly confirmed to them.[1529] With all this, the nation heartily
+concurred.[1530] Such, however, was the madness of the liberal party,
+that, only four years afterwards, when they for a moment obtained power,
+they forcibly annulled these arrangements, and revoked concessions which
+had been made to the Church, and which, unhappily for Spain, public
+opinion had ratified.[1531] The results might have been easily foreseen.
+In Aragon and in other parts of Spain, the people flew to arms; a
+Carlist insurrection broke out, and a cry ran through the country, that
+religion was in danger.[1532] It is impossible to benefit such a nation
+as this. The reformers were, of course, overthrown, and by the autumn of
+1856 their party was broken up. The political reaction now began, and
+advanced so rapidly, that, by the spring of 1857, the policy of the two
+preceding years was completely reversed. Those who idly thought that
+they could regenerate their country by laws, saw all their hopes
+confounded. A ministry was formed, whose measures were more in
+accordance with the national mind. In May 1857, Cortes assembled. The
+representatives of the people sanctioned the proceedings of the
+executive government, and, by their united authority, the worst
+provisions of the Concordat of 1851 were amply confirmed, the sale of
+Church property was forbidden, and all the limitations which had been
+set to the power of the bishops were at once removed.[1533]
+
+  [1524] Compare some very sensible remarks in _Bacon's Six Years in
+         Biscay_, London, 1838, pp. 40, 41, 50, with _Quin's Memoirs of
+         Ferdinand the Seventh_, pp. 192, 193.
+
+  [1525] _Walton's Revolutions of Spain_, London, 1837, vol. ii. p. 343.
+
+  [1526] Very shortly before the suppression of the monastic orders, 'Le
+         respect pour le froc en général est poussé si loin, qu'on lui
+         attribue une vertu préservative, même au-delà de la vie, quelque
+         peu régulière qu'elle ait été. Aussi n'y a-t-il rien de si
+         commun que de voir les morts ensevelis en robe de moines, et
+         conduits ainsi à leur dernière demeure à visage découvert.' ...
+         'De même que le froc accompagne les Espagnols au tombeau, de
+         même il en saisit quelques-uns au sortir du berceau. Il n'est
+         pas rare de rencontrer de petits moines de quatre à cinq ans
+         polissonnant dans la rue.' _Bourgoing_, _Tableau de l'Espagne_,
+         Paris, 1808, vol. ii. pp. 330, 331.
+
+  [1527] The confiscation took place at different periods between 1835 and
+         1841. Compare _Ford's Spain_, p. 48. _Revelations of Spain by an
+         English Resident_, vol. i. p. 366. _Costa y Borras_, _Iglesia en
+         España_, p. 95. _Annuaire des Deux Mondes for 1850_, Paris,
+         1851, p. 369. I have sought in vain for any detailed history of
+         these transactions.
+
+  [1528] 'Dès 1845, une loi dite de _dévolution_, en attendant un
+         règlement définitif, applique à la dotation du clergé une
+         portion des biens ecclésiastiques non vendus.' _Annuaire des
+         Deux Mondes_, 1851-2, Paris, 1852, p. 318.
+
+  [1529] 'Il y a ici un règlement solennel, sous la forme d'un traité, de
+         toutes les affaires relatives à l'église; c'est le concordat de
+         1851. Le concordat reconnaît à l'église le droit d'acquérir et
+         de posséder.' _Ibid._ 1854, 1855, p. 273, Paris, 1855.
+
+  [1530] The very year in which the Concordat became law, Mr. Hoskins, the
+         well-known traveller in Africa, a gentleman evidently of
+         considerable intelligence, published, on his return from Spain,
+         an account of that country. His work is valuable, as showing the
+         state of public feeling just before the Concordat, and while the
+         Spanish clergy were still suffering from the well-intentioned,
+         but grossly injudicious acts of the liberal party. 'We visited
+         these churches on a Sunday, and were surprised to find them all
+         crowded to excess. The incomes of the clergy are greatly
+         reduced, but their fortunes are gradually reviving.' _Hoskins'
+         Spain_, London, 1851, vol. i. p. 25. 'The priests are slowly
+         re-establishing their power in Spain,' vol. ii. p. 201. 'The
+         crowded churches, and, notwithstanding the appropriation of
+         their revenues, the absence of all appearance of anything like
+         poverty in the chapels and services, prove that the Spaniards
+         are now as devout worshippers, and as zealous friends of the
+         Church, as they were in her palmy days,' vol. ii. p. 281.
+
+  [1531] 'La loi de désamortissement promulguée le 1^{er} mai, 1855,
+         ordonne, comme on sait, la mise en vente de tous les biens de
+         main-morte, et en particulier des biens qui restent encore à
+         l'église.' _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1855, 1856, p. 310. See
+         also _Annuaire_, 1854, 1855, p. 274. For an account of other
+         steps taken against the Church in the spring and summer of 1855,
+         see _Costa y Borras_, _Observaciones sobre la Iglesia en
+         España_, Barcelona, 1857, pp. 119, 286, 292; and respecting the
+         law of the 1st of May, see p. 247.
+
+  [1532] 'Aussi le premier mot d'ordre de l'insurrection a été la défense
+         de la religion.' _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1854, 1855, p. 275.
+
+  [1533] _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1856, 1857, pp. 315-317, 324-331,
+         336.
+
+The reader will now be able to understand the real nature of Spanish
+civilization. He will see how, under the high-sounding names of loyalty
+and religion, lurk the deadly evils which those names have always
+concealed, but which it is the business of the historian to drag to
+light and expose. A blind spirit of reverence, taking the form of an
+unworthy and ignominious submission to the Crown and the Church, is the
+capital and essential vice of the Spanish people. It is their sole
+national vice, and it has sufficed to ruin them. From it all nations
+have grievously suffered, and many still suffer. But nowhere in Europe,
+has this principle been so long supreme as in Spain. Therefore, nowhere
+else in Europe are the consequences so manifest and so fatal. The idea
+of liberty is extinct, if, indeed, in the true sense of the word, it
+ever can be said to have existed. Outbreaks, no doubt, there have been,
+and will be; but they are bursts of lawlessness, rather than of liberty.
+In the most civilized countries, the tendency always is, to obey even
+unjust laws, but while obeying them, to insist on their repeal. This is
+because we perceive that it is better to remove grievances than to
+resist them. While we submit to the particular hardship, we assail the
+system from which the hardship flows. For a nation to take this view,
+requires a certain reach of mind, which, in the darker periods of
+European history, was unattainable. Hence we find, that, in the middle
+ages, though tumults were incessant, rebellions were rare. But, since
+the sixteenth century, local insurrections, provoked by immediate
+injustice, are diminishing, and are being superseded by revolutions,
+which strike at once at the source from whence the injustice proceeds.
+There can be no doubt that this change is beneficial; partly because it
+is always good to rise from effects to causes, and partly because
+revolutions being less frequent than insurrections, the peace of society
+would be more rarely disturbed, if men confined themselves entirely to
+the larger remedy. At the same time, insurrections are generally wrong;
+revolutions are always right. An insurrection is too often the mad and
+passionate effort of ignorant persons, who are impatient under some
+immediate injury, and never stop to investigate its remote and general
+causes. But a revolution, when it is the work of the nation itself, is a
+splendid and imposing spectacle, because to the moral quality of
+indignation produced by the presence of evil, it adds the intellectual
+qualities of foresight and combination; and, uniting in the same act
+some of the highest properties of our nature, it achieves a double
+purpose, not only punishing the oppressor, but also relieving the
+oppressed.
+
+In Spain, however, there never has been a revolution, properly so
+called; there never has even been one grand national rebellion. The
+people, though often lawless, are never free. Among them, we find still
+preserved that peculiar taint of barbarism, which makes men prefer
+occasional disobedience to systematic liberty. Certain feelings there
+are of our common nature, which even their slavish loyalty cannot
+eradicate, and which, from time to time, urge them to resist injustice.
+Such instincts are happily the inalienable lot of humanity, which we
+cannot forfeit, if we would, and which are too often the last resource
+against the extravagances of tyranny. And this is all that Spain now
+possesses. The Spaniards, therefore, resist, not because they are
+Spaniards, but because they are men. Still, even while they resist, they
+revere. While they will rise up against a vexatious impost, they crouch
+before a system, of which the impost is the smallest evil. They smite
+the tax-gatherer, but fall prostrate at the feet of the contemptible
+prince for whom the tax-gatherer plies his craft. They will even revile
+the troublesome and importunate monk, or sometimes they will scoff at
+the sleek and arrogant priest; while such is their infatuation, that
+they would risk their lives in defence of that cruel Church, which has
+inflicted on them hideous calamities, but to which they still cling, as
+if it were the dearest object of their affections.
+
+Connected with these habits of mind, and in sooth forming part of them,
+we find a reverence for antiquity, and an inordinate tenacity of old
+opinions, old beliefs, and old habits, which remind us of those tropical
+civilizations which formerly flourished. Such prejudices were once
+universal even in Europe; but they began to die out in the sixteenth
+century, and are now, comparatively speaking, extinct, except in Spain,
+where they have always been welcomed. In that country, they retain their
+original force, and produce their natural results. By encouraging the
+notion, that all the truths most important to know are already known,
+they repress those aspirations, and dull that generous confidence in the
+future, without which nothing really great can be achieved. A people who
+regard the past with too wistful an eye, will never bestir themselves to
+help the onward progress; they will hardly believe that progress is
+possible. To them, antiquity is synonymous with wisdom, and every
+improvement is a dangerous innovation. In this state, Europe lingered
+for many centuries; in this state, Spain still lingers. Hence the
+Spaniards are remarkable for an inertness, a want of buoyancy, and an
+absence of hope, which, in our busy and enterprizing age, isolate them
+from the rest of the civilized world. Believing that little can be done,
+they are in no hurry to do it. Believing that the knowledge they have
+inherited, is far greater than any they can obtain, they wish to
+preserve their intellectual possessions whole and unimpaired; inasmuch
+as the least alteration in them might lessen their value. Content with
+what has been already bequeathed, they are excluded from that great
+European movement, which, first clearly perceptible in the sixteenth
+century, has ever since been steadily advancing, unsettling old
+opinions, destroying old follies, reforming and improving on every side,
+influencing even such barbarous countries as Russia and Turkey; but
+leaving Spain unscathed. While the human intellect has been making the
+most prodigious and unheard-of strides, while discoveries in every
+quarter are simultaneously pressing upon us, and coming in such rapid
+and bewildering succession, that the strongest sight, dazzled by the
+glare of their splendour, is unable to contemplate them as a whole;
+while other discoveries still more important, and still more remote from
+ordinary experience, are manifestly approaching, and may be seen looming
+in the distance, whence they are now obscurely working on the advanced
+thinkers who are nearest to them, filling their minds with those
+ill-defined, restless, and almost uneasy, feelings, which are the
+invariable harbingers of future triumph; while the veil is being rudely
+torn, and nature, violated at all points, is forced to disclose her
+secrets, and reveal her structure, her economy, and her laws, to the
+indomitable energy of man; while Europe is ringing with the noise of
+intellectual achievements, with which even despotic governments affect
+to sympathize, in order that they may divert them from their natural
+course, and use them as new instruments whereby to oppress yet more the
+liberties of the people; while, amidst this general din and excitement,
+the public mind, swayed to and fro, is tossed and agitated,--Spain
+sleeps on, untroubled, unheeding, impassive, receiving no impressions
+from the rest of the world, and making no impressions upon it. There she
+lies, at the further extremity of the Continent, a huge and torpid mass,
+the sole representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of
+the Middle Ages. And, what is the worst symptom of all, she is satisfied
+with her own condition. Though she is the most backward country in
+Europe, she believes herself to be the foremost. She is proud of every
+thing of which she should be ashamed. She is proud of the antiquity of
+her opinions; proud of her orthodoxy; proud of the strength of her
+faith; proud of her immeasurable and childish credulity; proud of her
+unwillingness to amend either her creed or her customs; proud of her
+hatred of heretics, and proud of the undying vigilance with which she
+has baffled their efforts to obtain a full and legal establishment on
+her soil.
+
+All these things conspiring together, produce, in their aggregate, that
+melancholy exhibition to which we give the collective name of Spain. The
+history of that single word is the history of nearly every vicissitude
+of which the human species is capable. It comprises the extremes of
+strength and of weakness, of unbounded wealth and of abject poverty. It
+is the history of the mixture of different races, languages, and bloods.
+It includes almost every political combination which the wit of man can
+devise; laws infinite in variety, as well as in number; constitutions of
+all kinds, from the most stringent to the most liberal. Democracy,
+monarchy, government by priests, government by municipalities,
+government by nobles, government by representative bodies, government by
+natives, government by foreigners, have been tried, and tried in vain.
+Material appliances have been lavishly used; arts, inventions, and
+machines introduced from abroad, manufactures set up, communications
+opened, roads made, canals dug, mines worked, harbours formed. In a
+word, there has been every sort of alteration, except alterations of
+opinion; there has been every possible change, except changes in
+knowledge. And the result is, that in spite of the efforts of successive
+governments, in spite of the influence of foreign customs, and in spite
+of those physical ameliorations, which just touch the surface of
+society, but are unable to penetrate beneath, there are no signs of
+national progress; the priests are rather gaining ground than losing it;
+the slightest attack on the Church rouses the people; while, even the
+dissoluteness of the clergy, and the odious vices which, in the present
+century, have stained the throne, can do naught to lessen either the
+superstition or the loyalty which the accumulated force of many
+centuries has graven on the minds, and eaten into the hearts of the
+Spanish nation.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                        END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+                           LONDON: PRINTED BY
+                 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
+                          AND PARLIAMENT STREET
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and
+formatting have been maintained.
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation and accents are as in the original if not marked
+as a misprint.
+
+Text in italics has been marked with underscores (_text_).
+
+The ligature oe has been marked as [oe] and the tilde above e as [~e]
+
+The sign ^ has been used as a superscript.
+
+The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text.
+
+  p. v: minority of Louis XIII -> XIII.
+  p. 3: _Geoffroy Saint Hilaire_ -> _Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_
+  p. 6: vol. iv. p. 511, 4to. -> 4to,
+  p. 10: vol. xviii. pp. 431-436: -> 431-436;
+  p. 10: _Hist. de la Sorbonne_ -> _Hist. de la Sorbonne_,
+  p. 11: _Benoist_ -> _Benoist_,
+  p. 12: vol. xi. pp. 30, 77, 131. -> 131;
+  p. 23: _Mably's Observations_, vol. iii. p. 220: -> 220;
+  p. 24: humane and enlightend -> enlightened
+  p. 24: Historiettes de Tallement -> Tallemant
+  p. 25: prevents them from doing so. - > so.'
+  p. 27: read the contemporay -> contemporary
+  p. 29: endeavoured to instil -> instill
+  p. 30: innocence of a religious life. -> life.'
+  p. 30: Hist. of Louis XIII. -> XIII
+  p. 31: convoked at Mantes -> Nantes
+  p. 32: _Mém. de Retz_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 32: vol. v. pp. 51, seq. -> 51 seq.
+  p. 34: Tallemant des Reaux -> Réaux
+  p. 35: fils aîné de l'Eglise -> l'Eglise'
+  p. 35: _[OE]conomies Royales_ -> _[OE]conomies Royales_,
+  p. 36: prix que ce fust -> fut
+  p. 37: 'Sismondi says, under -> Sismondi
+  p. 37: Felice Hist. -> Felice's Hist.
+  p. 40: livre ii. chap -> chap.
+  p. 41: interests were alogether -> altogether
+  p. 41: Element ist zurückge reten -> zurückgetreten
+  p. 42: with infinte -> infinite
+  p. 49: vol. xi. p. 450, vol. xii. p. -> pp.
+  p. 53: conscientiously be tolerant. -> tolerant.'
+  p. 54: Lettres d'un Français -> François
+  p. 56: processions whorever -> wherever
+  p. 60: Tallement des Réaux -> Tallemant des Réaux
+  p. 62: Béarn démanderent aussytost -> aussytôt
+  p. 63: Mem. de Montglat -> Mém. de Montglat
+  p. 63: Mém de Montglat -> Mém. de Montglat
+  p. 75: 'The Edict of Nismes -> The
+  p. 78: Hist. des Mathemat. -> Mathémat.
+  p. 78: vol. ii. pp. 419-421 -> pp. 419-421;
+  p. 79: _Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society_, p. 364: -> p. 364;
+  p. 80: greatest mathemetician -> mathematician
+  p. 83: tout ce qu -> qui
+  p. 88: p. 432. Compare vol -> vol.
+  p. 88: _Berkeley's Works_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 90: _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. ii -> vol. ii.
+  p. 91: _[OE]uvres_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 91: 8vo. 1847 -> 8vo., 1847
+  p. 91: _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii, pp. 220 -> vol. ii. p. 220
+  p. 91: Auf das innigste verbunden -> 'Auf
+  p. 94: 242, 342, 498 -> 242, 342, 498,
+  p. 95: _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 153: -> p. 153;
+  p. 95: _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 258: -> p. 258;
+  p. 95: _Leslie's Nat. Philos._ p. 121: -> p. 121;
+  p. 97: Hist de l'Edit de Nantes -> Hist.
+  p. 100: _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
+  p. 110: faith, of sceptism -> scepticism
+  p. 111: vol. i. pp. 5, 64: -> 64;
+  p. 114: Mills's Hist. of Chivalry -> Mills' Hist. of Chivalry
+  p. 115: Brougham's Polit. Philos -> Philos.
+  p. 117: Compare, _Meyer_ -> Compare _Meyer_
+  p. 120: canaille, dès qu on -> qu'on
+  p. 121: Les états-généraux -> 'Les états-généraux
+  p. 122: began to excercise -> exercise
+  p. 123: énergique de la centralisation') -> centralisation'
+  p. 123: couvent ni collége -> collège
+  p. 125: 1843, _in_ -> in
+  p. 125: _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol, -> vol.
+  p. 129: p. 118: _Saint Aulaire_ -> p. 118; _Sainte-Aulaire_
+  p. 135: which deprived knightnood -> knighthood
+  p. 136: _Hist. de France_ -> _Hist. de France_,
+  p. 137: _Milice Françoise_ -> _Milice Française_
+  p. 137: vol. ii. p. 582; _Sully_ -> _Sully_,
+  p. 137: vol. iv. pp. 27, 28, 152, -> 152;
+  p. 143: Collier's Eccles. Hist -> Hist.
+  p. 144: (reprinted London, 1842), p -> p.
+  p. 149: 401, 476: -> 476;
+  p. 149: p. 78; Hutchison's -> Hutchinson's
+  p. 150: Mem. de Retz -> Mém. de Retz
+  p. 152: part. i. pp. 28, 29 -> part i. pp. 28, 29
+  p. 153: _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
+  p. 154: laid, the slighest -> slightest
+  p. 158: Holland the linke-boy -> link-boy
+  p. 158: part. i. p. 167. -> part i. p. 167.
+  p. 166: _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. iii. p. 6.; -> p. 6;
+  p. 168: Saint Aulaire -> Saint-Aulaire
+  p. 168: _Mém. de Retz_ vol. 1. -> vol. i.
+  p. 169: _Mém. de Motteville_ -> _Mém. de Motteville_,
+  p. 170: vol ii. p. 357 -> vol. ii. p. 357
+  p. 178: Capefigue's Louis XIV -> XIV.
+  p. 178: tyranny of the clergy -> clergy.
+  p. 179: the feet of others -> others.
+  p. 180: vol. v. pp 887-889 -> vol. v. pp. 887-889
+  p. 181: _Hist. de l'Economie Politique_, vol. ii, -> vol.
+  p. 181: les plus industrieux," -> industrieux,'
+  p. 182: brillant d'une clarte -> clarté
+  p. 187: apostles of knowlege -> knowledge
+  p. 190: _Philos Pos._ -> _Philos. Pos._
+  p. 190: vol. ii. pp. 627, 628 -> vol. ii. pp. 627, 628.
+  p. 191: _Aubrey's Letters_. -> _Aubrey's Letters_,
+  p. 191: vol ii. p. 624. -> vol. ii. p. 624.
+  p. 192: et de Boörhaave -> Boerhaave
+  p. 195: part. ii. p 42 -> part. ii. p. 42
+  p. 199: _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 200: _Royal Society_. -> _Royal Society_,
+  p. 201: corner-stone of the Linnean -> Linnæan
+  p. 201: Gesch der Botanik -> Gesch. der Botanik
+  p. 207: _Ibid._ xxiii. p, 496. -> p. 496.
+  p. 207: vol. xxxvi p. 42 -> vol. xxxvi p. 42.
+  p. 208: state of degradation.' -> degradation.
+  p. 209: both in 1639. _Biog. Univ_ -> _Biog. Univ._
+  p. 211: was only saved by -> 'was only saved by
+  p. 211: Lock, who was -> Locke, who was
+  p. 212: Lady Mary Wortley Montague -> Montagu
+  p. 213: Hist. des Francais -> Français
+  p. 213: _Duclos_, _Mémoires_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 214: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
+  p. 215: sur la poésie épique. -> épique.'
+  p. 216: ses amitiés, il n'etait -> n'était
+  p. 217: vol. i. 341 -> vol. i. p. 341
+  p. 218: _Le Blanc_, _Lettres_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
+  p. 218: _Corresp._ vol. 1. p. 352; -> vol. i. p. 352,
+  p. 219: Mém de Morellet -> Mém. de Morellet
+  p. 220: _Biog Univ._ iii. 253 -> _Biog. Univ._ iii. 253
+  p. 221: _Biog. Univ._ l. 42. -> _Biog. Univ._ i. 42.
+  p. 221: _Murray's Life of Bruce_, 121, -> 121;
+  p. 223: _Biog. Univ._ xlviii. 217. 218. -> 217, 218.
+  p. 227: vol. ii. p. 291.' -> 291.
+  p. 228: even from the king himself. -> himself.'
+  p. 234: croire que les ministrès -> ministres
+  p. 238: by Reboulet, in 1752: -> in 1752;
+  p. 238: Anomalies, de l'Organisation -> Anomalies de l'Organisation
+  p. 241: _Biog. Univ._ xi. 314 -> xi. p. 314
+  p. 242: Vie de Rosseau -> Rousseu
+  p. 242: Quel est aujourd'hui -> 'Quel est aujourd'hui
+  p. 242: _Grimm_. _Corresp._ -> _Grimm_, _Corresp._
+  p. 243: de cachet pour enleve -> enlever
+  p. 245: vol. i. p. 141, vol -> vol.
+  p. 246: Les reproches d'avoir -> 'Les
+  p. 248: first heard in France -> France.
+  p. 253: vol. iii. pp. 178, 179: -> 179;
+  p. 253: Dieu d'être protestants. -> protestants.'
+  p. 259: the most obnoxious laws -> laws.
+  p. 262: to ecclesiastical dogmas, -> dogmas.
+  p. 265: et regna dix ans -> et régna dix ans,'
+  p. 265: conseillers, pour sçauoir -> sçavoir
+  p. 266: vol. viii. p. 101-117 -> vol. viii. pp. 101-117
+  p. 270: _Méthode pour étudier l'Histoire_ -> _l'Histoire_,
+  p. 271: undergone from the griping -> gripping
+  p. 271: la cour.' _Le Long_ -> _Le Long_,
+  p. 273: _François, in Mémoires_ -> _François_, in _Mémoires_
+  p. 275: _Etablissement de Louis_ -> _Etablissement de Louis XIV_
+  p. 276: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
+  p. 277: Madame de Sevigné -> Sévigné
+  p. 277: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
+  p. 283: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
+  p. 283: _Lettres de Sévigné_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 283: stated by Sismondi -> _Sismondi_
+  p. 293: Charles XII, l'homme -> 'Charles
+  p. 300: descriptions de siéges -> sièges
+  p. 301: combats et des siéges -> sièges
+  p. 303: _Milman's History of Christianity_, 1840, vol -> vol.
+  p. 303: _in [OE]uvres de Voltaire_ -> in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_
+  p. 303: History of the Church. -> Church
+  p. 311: article on Chronology, vol -> vol.
+  p. 318: livre xiv. chap. ii, -> chap. ii.,
+  p. 320: _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 326: intuitives Erkenntniss klärer -> klarer
+  p. 326: an sichgleich -> an sich gleich
+  p. 330: Mém. sur Lebrun -> Le Brun
+  p. 330: _Brougham's Men of Letters_, vol, -> vol.
+  p. 334: letter written in 1751 -> 1751.
+  p. 335: Lavallé -> Lavallée
+  p. 339: Staüdlin -> Stäudlin
+  p. 352: Hist. du Jacobin -> Jacobin.
+  p. 352: vol. ii. pp. 250 350 -> 250, 350
+  p. 353: their awowed -> avowed
+  p. 360: L'imagination est la -> 'L'imagination
+  p. 391: _Bichat sur la Vie_, pp. 23-25 -> 23-25.
+  p. 391: (vol. ii p. 8) -> (vol. ii. p. 8)
+  p. 395: environ huit mille espèces; -> espèces;'
+  p. 398: Hence the remóval -> removal
+  p. 404: à son histoire.' _Georget_ -> _Georget_,
+  p. 407: vol. x. p. 341, vol -> vol.
+  p. 412: Mém. sur Marie Antoinette -> Mém. sur Marie-Antoinette
+  p. 416: _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 432: frightful desolation there. -> there.'
+  p. 440: 509, 561. _Lafuente_ -> _Lafuente_,
+  p. 445: Isabella may be -> 'Isabella may be
+  p. 446: vol. i. p. 23, London, 1857 -> 1857.
+  p. 450: vol. xxxiv, p. 273. -> vol. xxxiv. p. 273.
+  p. 453: One of the most -> [60] One of the most
+  p. 454: et action necessaire. -> necessaire,
+  p. 454: devinast le reste. -> reste,
+  p. 459: je vous l'ai déja -> déjà
+  p. 459: vous conduise, je na'i -> n'ai?
+  p. 471: tenement or pelting farm. -> farm.'
+  p. 472: _Historia de Felipe Tercero_ -> _Historia de Felipe Tercero_,
+  p. 473: desmedido.' _Lafuente_ -> _Lafuente_,
+  p. 480: _Ibid._ vol. ii, -> vol. ii.
+  p. 481: de su santo servido. -> servido,
+  p. 483: decayéron en España. -> España.'
+  p. 489: M. Janer or to M. Lafuente.' -> Lafuente.
+  p. 494: evidence, says, "Il -> says, 'Il
+  p. 496: people. It is ou -> our
+  p. 496: expectations were ulfilled -> fulfilled
+  p. 502: _Theorica de Comercio_. -> _Theorica de Comercio_,
+  p. 510: et point de frein. -> frein.'
+  p. 510: 'In 1681, the French -> In
+  p. 510: de la reine, de même. -> même.'
+  p. 512: _Historia de España_ -> _Historia de España_,
+  p. 520: a clerk under Orri -> Orry
+  p. 520: l'incapacité des sujets -> 'l'incapacité
+  p. 527: Ellis' Original Letters -> Ellis's Original Letters
+  p. 529: parce que les systémes -> systèmes
+  p. 533: London, 1831, vol -> vol.
+  p. 533: son médecin particulier, -> particulier.'
+  p. 539: Dublin, 1781, pp. 227-229 -> 227-229.
+  p. 546: ecclesiastical power[26] -> power[264]
+  p. 547: vol. v. p. 295. Paris -> 295, Paris
+  p. 553: Civilizacion, Española -> Civilizacion Española
+  p. 553: atropellada en su inmunidad. -> inmunidad.'
+  p. 556: Historia de ->  del
+  p. 560: Reinado de Carlos III -> III.
+  p. 568: the regularity of them -> their
+  p. 568: Looking at their -> them
+  p. 574: que les gouvernemens. -> gouvernemens.'
+  p. 575: Prescott's History of Ferdidinand -> Ferdinand
+  p. 587: order of people, a peace -> piece
+  p. 590: De même que le froc -> 'De même que le froc
+  p. 591: vol. ii. p. 281 -> 281.
+  p. 595: but leaving Spain unscathed -> unscathed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Civilization in England, 
+Vol. 2 of 3, by Henry Thomas Buckle
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44494 ***