dissolution beyond what had hitherto been attempted by Protestant reformers. This was necessarily the movement which doomed Catholicism beyond recall; but, for the same reasons, it made Protestantism too like mere modern deism, to let this phase stand as the representative of the transition, of which Presbyterianism remains, in an historical sense, the special organ. After this, there remains really nothing to distinguish among the multiplicity of sects, in regard to social progress, except the general testimony borne by the Quakers against the military spirit of Quakerism. the old régime, when the destruction of the spiritual system by the three instrumentalities just noticed, led to a similar action upon the temporal system. We have seen that the spirit of Protestantism is generally averse to any military system, countenancing war only for the benefit of its own principles: but there is no doubt that the celebrated sect of the Friends, with all its absurdities, and even its quackeries, served as a special organ for that particular manifestation, which places it above all other Protestant sects for the more complete spread of the great revolutionary

movement.

Political revolutions of Protestantism.

Lest my readers should take, or should suppose that I give, too systematic a view of the process of decomposition, I must remind them that the only way in which Protestantism can be viewed as operating systematically is that it caused the decay to go on under the direction of reforming doctrines, instead of by mere conflict of the old political elements. The formation of the negative philosophy into a system could take place, as far as it was possible at all, only under the deistical phase, whose chief office it was, as we shall see, to effect this. The mental operations of Protestantism were in fact the results and not the causes of the revolutions with which we historically connect them; and no political explosions, whatever their force and their interest on other grounds, could establish the tendency of modern societies to complete renovation till they had been preceded by a thorough and systematic critical preparation, which could not happen except under the following phase. For this reason, I can only barely indicate the purely Protestant revolutions which, apart from their local and temporary importance, could be nothing more than a mere introduction to the great final change destined to open an issue for the general movement of the human race. The first of these revolutions was that by which Holland threw off the Spanish yoke: and it will be ever memorable as a lofty manifestation of the energy proper to the critical doctrine, thus directing the fortunate insurrection of a small nation against the most powerful monarchy in Europe. The dogma specially illustrated in this case was that of the sovereignty of the people, and also that of national independence, the chief need being to break an external bond which had become intolerably oppressive.

Holland.

A more general character, more complete and decisive, more marked in its direction towards the social regeneration of the race, was the great, unsuccessful English revolution:-not England. the little aristocratic and Anglican revolution of 1688, which could meet only a local want; but the democratic and Presbyterian revolution, superintended by the lofty genius of the most advanced statesmen that Protestantism has to boast of. It was the dogma of equality which was mainly elaborated under that conflict. Historically the revolution consisted in the generous but premature effort for the political degradation of the English aristocracy, the chief temporal element of the ancient nationality; and the fall of royalty, under the Protectorate of Cromwell, was only a secondary incident in comparison with the bold suppression of the House of Lords. The social revolution failed politically, for want of due mental preparation; but it was the chief in the whole series of symptoms which were the known precursors of the great decisive European revolution remaining to be examined hereafter.

The

American revolution was as purely Protestant as the America. others, and ought to be classed with them, though its date causes it to be erroneously referred to a more advanced stage of the general movement. It did not volve any new portion of the critical doctrine; and it was simply an extension of the other two Protestant revolutions, but with a prosperous development of political consequences through a combination of favourable conditions. In its origin, it was a reproduction of the Dutch revolution, and in its final expansion, it carried out the English, which it realizes as far as Protestantism will allow. There is nothing to be said for its success, as a decisive social enterprise; for it has developed to excess the inconveniences of the critical doctrine; it sanctions more emphatically than any other society the political supremacy of metaphysicians and legists, among a people who pay, through their innumerable unconnected modes of worship, without any real social purpose, a tribute more costly by far than the treasury of any existing Catholic clergy. Thus this universal colony, notwithstanding the eminent temporal advantages of its present position, must be regarded as, in fact, in all important respects, more remote from a true social reorganization than the nations from whom it is derived, and to whom it will owe, in course of time, its final regeneration. The philosophical induction into that ulterior state is not to be looked for in America,-whatever may be the existing illusions about the political superiority of a society in which the elements of modern civilization are, with the exception of industrial activity, most imperfectly developed. This sketch of the revolutionary doctrine and its action would Attendant not be complete without some notice of its attendant errors. Omitting all merely local and exceptional abuses, I will briefly refer to a few evils which may be called natural

errors.

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to the doctrine. Of these errors the oldest, the most general, and the most mischievous is the prejudice which condemns, in the absolute spirit of the metaphysical philosophy, the political existence of any spiritual power, distinct from the temporal, and in- Subjection of dependent of it. Inevitable and indispensable as was spiritual power. the temporal dictatorship which followed upon the Catholic period, it could not destroy the value of the principle of the separation of the two powers, the theory of which is the most valuable legacy left us by Catholicism, and the only one on which, when united with a true positive doctrine, the reorganization of society can proceed. As the reorganization must begin, as did the decline, with the spiritual order of power, this absolute spirit, which aims at establishing eternal principles from transient facts, is a serious misfortune; and the more so, of course, from its universality during the last three centuries. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the revolutionary spirit has assumed this form in its operation upon all classes of society. Protestantism took advantage of the prejudice, though it did not originate it; and the greater part of the Catholic clergy have undergone their political degradation with a growing submission which has effaced the very memory of their ancient independence. Thus has the main principle of modern civilization,-that of the separation of the two powers,been lost sight of throughout Europe; and the only appearance a rational appreciation of it is found among the Italian clergy, where it is of no social value, because of the partiality and selfinterest naturally attributed to those who hold it. No adverse influences can however prevent the ultimate recognition of a principle so accordant with the condition and needs of modern society. It will assume its full force when the positive philosophy opens the way to social reorganization. We may attribute to the prevalence of this great error the irrational disdain of the Middle Ages entertained in our time, even by Catholics who do not appreciate the theory of Catholicism; and also the blind admiration for the polytheistic system of antiquity, which prevailed so deplorably during the revolutionary period, though Catholicism had before rightly assigned an inferior position to the civilization of that régime and again, to this error is owing the exclusive predilection of Protestantism for the primitive church, and its yet more injurious enthusiasm for the Hebrew theocracy. The great conception of social progress has thus been overlaid, and wellnigh lost; saved only, as we shall presently see, by that growth of new social elements which has proceeded amidst all the disturbances of the critical period.

of

Another consequence of the error has been that all ambition, political and philosophical, has tended towards the absolute concentration of the two kinds of power. Kings dreamed of the Mohammedan type as the ideal of modern monarchy; priests, and

especially the Protestant clergy, dreamed inversely of a kind of restoration of the Jewish or Egyptian theocracy; and philosophers renewed, under a different form, the primitive Greek dream of that metaphysical theocracy which they called the reign of Mind. The last is now the most dangerous of these dreams, because it seduces the greatest number of active minds. Among the thinkers of the progressive school who have devoted themselves to social speculation, within three centuries, Leibnitz seems to me to be the only one who has entirely escaped the delusion. Descartes would doubtless have done so, if it had lain in his way to state his deliberate view of the subject, as Aristotle alone did in ancient times: but Bacon certainly participated in this illusion of philosophic pride. We shall hereafter consider the serious consequences of this view: and this brief notice of it is merely historical.

Finally, this capital error keeps up a habit of social disturbance by leading men to seek the satisfaction of social needs in change of legal institutions; whereas, in general, the thing wanted is a preparatory reformation of principles and manners. The temporal dictatorship, whether monarchical or aristocratic, was little aware of its own responsibility when it made political questions of all that had hitherto been moral. It matters little that such avidity for power brought on its own punishment: but the results to society have been most disastrous, as we see in a long series of disorders and disappointments, and in the mischievous operations of quacks and fanatics, who see, or pretend to see, the solution of all social difficulties in barren political revolutions: and, during the quietest times, in that narrow view which embraces only the immediate redress of social wants, when moral means, extensive and long-prepared, are the true remedy. All political parties agree in proscribing lofty and comprehensive speculation, because all are alike involved in the error which causes the low and material view: and it is only under the positive philosophy that the true solution can be found.

As for the moral evils engendered by the Protestant introduction of the critical doctrine, we need not dwell long on Moral changes under Protes them, serious as they are; for they are too evident to tantism. require explanation. Considering that every mind was confided to its own decision on subjects the most important, and about which it must be least disinterested, the wonder is that the moral dissolution has not been complete. That it has not been so, that morality has remained stable in the most evident cases, -is owing first to the spontaneous rectitude of human nature, which it is impossible altogether to corrupt; and next, to the power of modern habits of steady toil, which divert the nations of our day from the social extravagances into which, in their position, the idle populations of Rome and Greece would certainly have fallen. Protestantism must be charged with having seriously impaired the

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fundamental principles of morality, both domestic and social, which Catholicism had established, under precepts and prohibitions which will be sanctioned, in their spirit, more and more emphatically as the positive philosophy prevails. It was a sound observation of Hume's, that the Lutheran revolution was aided by the passions of ecclesiastics who desired a release from celibacy, and the rapacity of nobles who coveted the territorial possessions of the clergy; and it was a necessary consequence of the lowered position of the moral authority, that it lost the power, and even the will, to sustain the inviolability of the most elementary rules of morality against the attacks of the critical spirit. I need point out only the permission of divorce, the relaxation of rules about the marriage of relations; and, as a decisive instance, the disgraceful dogmatic consultation by which the chiefs of Protestantism, with Luther at their head, solemnly authorized bigamy in the case of a German prince; and again, the accommodating temper of the founders of the English Church towards the shocking weaknesses of their strange national pope. Catholicism was never thus openly degraded; but its growing weakness produced nearly equivalent effects. It was unable to repress the license of the time, in public speech and private act; and it so far supported moral excess that it roused a spirit of rebellion against its own authority by its repression of mental development. Thus the various religious doctrines showed themselves inadequate to the moral guidance of mankind; either by using their intellectual liberty to impair the principles of morals, or by proving their impotence to keep moral order; or, by discrediting invariable laws by obstinately connecting them with articles of belief which human reason could never again receive. We shall perceive more and more as we proceed that morality, so far from having any occasion to dread philosophical analysis, can find a solid intellectual foundation only outside of all theology whatever; resting on a rational appreciation of human dispositions, actions, and habits, according to their total results, public and private. It was necessary to say thus much, to mark the period at which religious faith began to lose its power of moral guidance, and to show its tendency, so striking for three centuries past, to promote hatred and disturbance rather than order and charity. We see, now, that the degeneracy dates from the political degradation of the spiritual power, the dignity and purity of the moral laws being deeply impaired by their being subjected to the ascendency of the passions which they were intended to rule.

Stage of full Development of the Critical

We have now observed the advent of the negative philosophy, and of the corresponding social crises. The last phase remains to be reviewed,-that which presents the revolutionary doctrine in its full development. This phase however is little more than a protraction of the last, and we shall have a sufficient view, generally speaking, of the

doctrine.