,,what ,,does ,,history  ,,teach8       
,,two ,,edinburgh ,,lectures    ,,by    
,,john ,,stuart ,,blackie    ,london    
,,macmillan ,,and ,,co4  #ahhf          
,,transcriber',s ,,notes4    ,this book 
was originally digitized by ,google and 
is intended for  personal1              
non-commercial use only4    ,footnotes  
have been relocated to the end of the   
book4    ,passages originally rendered  
in small-caps have been changed to      
all-caps  in the text version of this   
work4        ,,contents4                
,,prefatory ,,note4    ,i4 ,,the        
,,state4    ,,ii4 ,,the ,,church4       
,,prefatory ,,note4    ,,the following  
,lectures were prepared for the         
,philosophical ,institution  of         
,edinburgh1 and were delivered1 with the
 exception of a few passages1  before   
audiences consisting of ,members of that
 ,institution on the  evenings of #hth  
and #aath ,december in the present year4
    ,,edinburgh1 ,december #ahhe4       
,i4  ,,the ,,state4                     

4--,,aristotle4    ,,history1 whether   
founded on reliable record1 or on       
monuments1 or on  the scientific        
analysis of the great fossil tradition  
called language1  knows nothing of the  
earliest beginnings4 ,the seed of human 
society1  like the seed of the vegetable
 growth1 lies under ground in darkness1 
and its earliest processes are invisible
 to the outward eye4  ,speculations     
about the descent of the primeval man   
from a monkey1 of the  primeval monkey  
from an ascidian1 and of the primeval   
ascidian from a  protoplastic bubble1   
though they may act as a potent stimulus
 to the  biological research of the     
hour1 certainly never can form the      
starting-point of a profitable          
philosophy of history4    ,as revealed  
in history1 man is an animal1 not only  
generically different  from1 but        
characteristically antagonistic to the  
brute4 ,that which makes  him a man is  
precisely that which no brute possesses1
 or can by any  process of training be  

made to possess4 ,the man can no more be
 developed  out of the brute than the   
purple heather out of the granite rock  
which  it clothes4 ,the relation of the 
one to the other is a relation of mere  
outward attachment or dependency--like  
the relation which exists  between the  
painter's easel and the picture which is
 painted on  it4 ,the easel is essential
 to the picture1 but it did not make the
  picture1 nor give even the smallest   
hint towards the making of it4 ,so  the 
monkey1 as a basis1 may be essential to 
the man without being in any  way       
participant of the divine indwelling    
which makes a man a  man4 ,the two are  
related only as all things are related1 
inasmuch as  they are all shot forth    
from the great fountain-head of all     
vital  forces1 whom we justly call      
,,god4    ,the distinctive character of 
man as revealed in history is threefold4
  ,man is an inventive animal1 and he   
does not invent from a compulsion of    
nature1 as bees make cells or as        

swallows build nests4 ,these are all    
prescribed operations which the animal  
must perform2 but the inventive  faculty
 in man is free1 in such a manner that  
the course of its action  cannot be     
foreseen or calculated4 ,it revels in   
variety1 and1 above all  things1 shuns  
that uniformity which is the servile    
province of brute  activity4 ,a man may 
live in a hole like a fox1 but his      
proper humanity  is shown by building a 
house and inventing a style of          
architecture4 ,a  man can sing like a   
bird1 but--what the bird cannot do--he  
can  make a harp or an organ4 ,he can   
scrape with his nails like a terrier1   
but1 as a man manifesting his proper    
manhood1 he prefers to make a  shovel of
 wood and a hatchet of stone or iron4   
,the other animals1  however cunning1   
and often wonderfully adaptable in their
 instincts1 are  mere machines4 ,man    
makes machines4 ,in this respect he is  
justly entitled  to look upon himself as
 the ,god to the lower animals1 just as 

the  sheriff in the counties by         
delegated right represents the supreme  
authority of the ,crown4 ,but1 above all
 things1 man is a progressive           
animal1--not merely progressive as the  
grass grows from root to  blade and from
 blade to blossom to perfect its        
individual type of  vegetable life1 but 
advancing from stage to stage and       
mounting from  platform to platform for 
the perfectionation of the race2 nor    
even  progressive as plants and fruits  
are improved by culture and favourable  
surroundings1 and what is called        
forcing1 or as the breed of sheep and   
cattle is improved by selection4 ,no    
doubt progress of this kind is made  by 
man as well as by plants and brutes2 but
 his most distinctive human  progress is
 made1 not by imposition from without1  
but by projection from  within4 ,these  
projections from within are what in     
philosophical language  is called the   
idea2 they proceed from the essential   
nature of mind1  whose imperial function

 it is to dictate forms1 as it is the   
servile  function of the senses to      
receive impressions4 ,these intelligent 
forms1  coming directly from the divine 
source of all excellence1 and projected 
from within with sovereign authority to 
shape for themselves an outward         
embodiment1 constitute what in art1 in  
literature1 in religion1 and in  social 
organisms1 is called the ideal2 and man 
may accordingly be  defined as an animal
 that lives by the conception of ideals1
 and whose  destiny it is to spend his  
strength1 and1 if need be1 to lay down  
his  life1 for the realisation of such  
ideals4 ,the steps of this realisation1 
often slow and painful1 and always      
difficult1 are what we mean by human    
progress2 and it is the dominant        
characteristic of man1 of which amongst 
the lower animals there is not a        
vestige1 neither indeed could be2 for   
so long as they have no ideas1 neither  
reason nor the outward expression  of   
reason in language--two things so       

closely bound together that  the wise   
,greeks expressed them both by one word1
 --so  long must it be ridiculous to    
think of them shaping their career      
according to an inborn type of          
progressive excellence4 ,to do so is    
exclusively human4 ,hence our poems1 our
 high art1 our churches1 our            
legislations1 our apostleships1 our     
philosophies1 our social  arrangements  
and devices1 our speculations and       
schemes of all kinds1  which1 though    
they are sometimes foolish1 and always  
more or less  inadequate1 deliver the   
strongest possible proof that man is an 
animal  who will rather die and embrace 
martyrdom than be content to live as the
  brutes do1 neither spurred with the   
hope of progress nor borne aloft on  the
 wings of the ideal4    ,of the very    
earliest state of human society1 as we  
have already said1  history teaches     
nothing2 but1 as man is a progressive   
animal1 and the  plan of ,providence    
with regard to him seems plain to let   

him shift for  itself and learn to do   
right by blundering1 as children learn  
to walk by  tumbling1 we may safely say 
that the easier1 more obvious1 and more 
rude  forms of living together must have
 preceded the more difficult1 the more  
complex1 and the more polished4 ,and in 
perfect consistency with this           
presumption1 we find three social       
platforms rising one above the other  in
 human value1 duly accredited either by 
monuments1 by popular  tradition1 or by 
the evidence of comparative philology4  
,these three  are--7#a7 ,the prehistoric
 or stone period1 from which such a rich
  store of monuments has been set up in 
the ,copenhagen ,museum1 and the        
existence of which is indicated in ,gen4
 iv4 #bb as antecedent to ,tubal  ,cain1
 the instructor of every artificer in   
brass and iron4 7#b7 ,the  shepherd or  
pastoral stage1 represented by ,abel    
7,gen4 iv4 #b71 in which  men subsisted 
from the easy dominance which they      
asserted over wild  animals1 and from   

fruits of the earth requiring no        
culture4 7#c7 ,the  agricultural stage1 
when cereal crops were systematically   
and  scientifically cultivated1 which1  
of course1 implied the limitation of    
particular districts of ground to       
particular proprietors1 and those       
agrarian laws which caused the ,greek   
,demeter to be honoured with the  title 
of 1 or lawgiver--a step of marked and  
decided advance1  insomuch that we may  
justly attribute to it the redemption of
 society  from the vagus concubitus of  
the earliest times1 and the firm        
establishment of the family1 with all   
its sanctities and all its binding      
power1 as the prime social monad4 ,to   
the priestess of this goddess           
accordingly1 amongst the ,greeks1 was   
assigned the function of ushering  in   
the newly-married pair to the peculiar  
duties of their new social  relation4#a 
,the fact that the family is the great  
social monad1 as it is undoubtedly  one 
of the oldest and most accredited facts 

in human tradition1 so it  presents to  
us perhaps the most important of all the
 lessons that  history teaches--a lesson
 as necessary to be inculcated at the   
present hour as at the earliest stages  
of social advance2 and ,aristotle       
certainly was never more in the right   
than when he emphasised this truth      
strongly in traversing ,plato's fancy of
 making the state the  universal family1
 to the utter absorption of all         
subordinated family  monads4 ,here1 as  
in one or two other matters1 the great  
idealist would  be wiser than ,god2 and 
so his philosophy1 so far as that point 
was  concerned1 became only a more      
sublime attitude of folly4 ,the         
importance  of the family1 as the       
divinely instituted social monad1       
depends  manifestly on the happy        
combination and harmonious blending of  
authority  and love which grow out of   
its constitution--two elements with the 
full development and true balance of    
which the well-being and happiness  of  

all societies is intimately bound up4   
,the fine moral training which  the     
family relation alone can inspire we    
find not only at our own door1  in the  
fidelity and self-sacrificing devotion  
of our noble ,highlanders1  who derived 
their inspiration from the clan system1 
of which the family  love and respect is
 the binding element1#b as contrasted   
with the  slavish system of vassalage1  
the badge of feudalism2 but in the      
habits  and institutions of the three   
great ancient peoples to whom modern    
,europe owes its higher civilisation1   
,hebrews1 ,greeks1 and ,romans1         
specially the last1#c the great masters 
of the difficult art of  government1    
who1 to use ,mommsen's phrase1 carried  
out the unity of  the family through the
 virtue of paternal authority with an   
inexorable consistency1 the beneficial  
effect of which could not  fail to      
display itself in social life far beyond
 the sphere from which  it originally   
emanated2 for obedience to authority is 

the fundamental  postulate of all       
possibie societies4 ,with the family1 if
 not absolutely1  certainly with the    
best and normal state of it1 most       
closely connected  is monogamy2 for1    
though instances of bigamy and polygamy1
 from ,lamech  downwards 7,gen4 iv4 #ai7
 to ,king ,david and ,solomon in the    
,old ,testament  history1 crop up here  
and there in the oldest times1 and even 
in the  post-,babylonian period1 without
 any formal mark of disapprobation1 yet 
it is quite certain that the ,greeks and
 ,romans were guided by a sound  social 
instinct when they held the practice of 
bigamy to be inconsistent  with the     
proper constitution of a family4 ,what  
troubles are apt to arise  from a       
multiplication of contending wives and  
ambitious mothers the  latter story of  
,king ,david tells in more unhappy      
episodes than one2 and  generally it may
 be laid down as one of the great       
lessons of history  that polygamy1 in   
every shape1 is one of those acts of    

,oriental  self-indulgence which may be 
sweet in the mouth but has a very strong
  tendency to be bitter in the belly1   
and therefore ought by all means to  be 
avoided4    ,by the instinct of         
aggregation1 which belongs to an        
essentially social  animal1 families    
will club together into townships or    
villages1 and  townships will be        
centralised into states4 ,humanity      
without townships  would degenerate into
 tigerhood1 or whatever type of animal  
existence  might express an essentially 
self-contained1 solitary1 and selfish   
creature2 townships without that sort of
 headship which the word ,state         
implies1 would make society cry halt at 
a stage of loosely-connected  aggregates
 which would render common action for   
any high human purpose  extremely       
difficult1 and1 in the general case1 as 
human beings are1  impossible4 ,hence   
the centralisation of the ,attic        
townships at ,athens in  the legendary  
traditions of the ,athenians attributed 

to ,theseus2#d  hence also the lax      
confederation of the earliest ,latin    
states under the  headship of           
,albalonga2 and1 after the humiliation  
of that old  stronghold1 the more       
closely cemented union of those states  
under the  hegemony of ,rome4#e         
,whatever may be the evils connected    
with the growth  of large towns1        
especially when1 as in modern times1    
they have been  allowed to swell to     
enormous magnitude without regulation or
 control1 it  is one of the undoubted   
lessons of universal history that the   
social  stimulus necessary for the      
creation of vigorous thought1 no less   
than  the centralised force             
indispensable to great achievement1 is  
found only  in the large towns4 ,the    
,christians were called ,christian first
 at  ,antioch2 and1 had there been no   
,rome to unify a little ,latium1 there  
would have been no great ,roman ,empire 
to amalgamate the rude barbarians  of   
the ,north with the smooth civilisation 

of the ,south by the force of a  common 
law and common language4#f    ,the form 
of government natural to such infant    
states as the expansion of  the original
 social monad1 the ,,family1 is a loose 
but not unkindly  mixture of monarchy1  
democracy1 and aristocracy--the         
aristocracy  being always the           
preponderating element4 ,in the single  
family1 of  course1 we have only the    
monarchical element in the father1 and  
the  democratic element in the children2
 but1 as families expand into           
townships1 it could not be but that the 
heads of the families composing  it1    
partly from their age and experience1   
partly from the force of  individual    
character1 should form a sort of natural
 aristocracy1 while  the less notable   
and less prominent members would form   
the 1  or great body of the constantly  
increasing multitude of the associated  
families4 ,below these three dominant   
elements of the body social1 there      
would always be found a loose company of

 dependents and  onhangers--the class   
called  in ,homer 7,od41 iv4 #fdd71  and
 in the ,solonian constitution--who had 
no civic rights any more  than the serfs
 and vassals of our medieval feudalism4 
,the weakness of  the monarchical and   
the strength of the aristocratic        
elements in the  early societies arose  
from the original equality of the heads 
of  families1 and from the jealousy with
 which they would naturally look on  any
 functions of superiority exercised by  
any of their order naturally  no better 
than themselves4 ,the king1 accordingly1
 like ,agamemnon in  ,homer1 would claim
 the homage which the title implies only
 for purposes  of common action2 and    
even in such cases would always be kept 
in check  by a 1 or council of the      
aristocracy1 of whose will properly  he 
was only the executive hand2 while the  
great mass of the people1  occupied with
 the labours that belong to an          
agricultural and pastoral  population1  
and unaccustomed to the large views     

which statesmanship and  generalship    
require1 would come together only on    
rare occasions of  peculiar urgency4    
,the element in that loose triad of     
social forces that was first  formulated
 into a more distinct type1 and endowed 
with more imperative  efficiency1 was   
the kingship4 ,the power of the king was
 increased1 which  of course implies    
that the power of the people1 and       
specially of the  aristocracy1 was      
diminished4 ,and here let it be observed
 generally that  the progress of        
civilisation in its natural and healthy 
career is the  progress of limitation   
and the curtailment in various ways of  
that  freedom which originally belonged 
to every member of the community4 ,the  
tanned savage of the backwoods is the   
freest man in existence2 next to  him1  
the nomad or the wandering gipsy1 such  
as may still be seen in  their glory at 
,st4 ,james' fair in ,kelso1 whose house
 is at once  his dwelling-place1 his    
manufactory or place of business1 and   

his  travelling car2 least free is the  
civilised citizen hemmed in on all      
sides by police-officers1 soldiers1     
sentinels1 door-keepers1 and            
game-keepers1 and the whole fraternity  
of dignified but unpopular  officials of
 various kinds whose business it is to  
the general public to  say ,no6 ,this   
accretion of strength to the king       
proceeded first from his  mere personal 
influence and the general deference paid
 to him during the  continuance of a    
prolonged and easily-exercised          
sovereignty2 all  classes1 even the     
aristocracy1 whose ambition is thus kept
 in check and  their perilous enmities  
softened1 feel the benefit of a wise    
head and a  firm hand2 but the party    
specially benefited by the kingship is  
the  demos2 for this body1 from its     
position peculiarly liable to be        
trampled  on by an insolent aristocracy1
 naturally looks up to the king as the  
father of the whole family1 who1 on his 
part1 feels his position  strengthened  

and his respect increased by performing 
with tact and  firmness the delicate    
functions of a mediator4 ,but the great 
social  force which operates in giving  
prominence and predominance to the      
monarchy is ,,war2 and1 though war is   
unquestionably an evil1 it is an  evil  
only as death is1 and a form of dying   
accompanied not seldom with  an         
exhibition of more manhood than the     
experience of many a peaceful  deathbed 
can show4 ,in fact1 as stout old        
,balmerino said on the scaffold  in     
#agdf1 ,the man who is not ready to die 
is not fit to  live2 that is1 we hold   
our life under the condition that we may
  at any time be called on to sacrifice 
it1 whether for the preservation  of our
 own self-respect1 or for the integrity 
of the community of which  we are a     
member4 ,all great nations1 in fact1    
have been cradled in war1  the ,hebrews 
no less than the ,greeks and ,romans2   
and it is only an  amiable              
sentimentalism1 pardonable in women1 but

 inexcusable in men1  that1 in          
contemplation of the hard blows1 red    
wounds1 and gashed bodies  with which   
war is accompanied1 will allow itself to
 forget the  hardihood1 endurance1      
courage1 self-sacrifice1 and devotion to
 public  duty1 of which1 under          
,providence1 it has always been the     
great training  school4#g ,there is no  
profession that ,i know more favourable 
to the  growth of noble sentiment and   
manly action than that of the soldier2  
and  to its beneficial action in the    
formation of ,states every page of      
history bears flaming testimony4 ,war1  
in fact1 is the principal agent in      
producing that unification so absolutely
 necessary to social existence1  but    
which is lost so soon as the headship of
 the common father of the  expanded clan
 ceases to be recognised4 ,thus it was  
under the compulsion  of war from their 
,lombardian neighbours on the west and  
,sclavonians on  the east that the petty
 democratic communities1 which after the

  disruption of the ,roman ,empire      
occupied the ,venetian isles1 found     
themselves1 in the year #fig1 obliged to
 elect a king for life1 wisely  masking 
his absolute authority under the name of
 ,doge or ,duke4 ,and in a  similar     
fashion the situation of the            
,piedmontese1 constantly forced to      
defend themselves against ,gallican and 
,teutonic ambition1 begot in them  a    
stoutness of self-assertion and a       
general manhood of character which  up  
to the present hour has placed them in  
favourable contrast to the  inhabitants 
of the southern half of the peninsula2  
and the manhood  displayed by the       
,counts of ,savoy in asserting their    
independence against  great odds was no 
doubt the cause why1 in the ,peace of   
,utrecht in #agac1  their lords were    
allowed to assume and maintain the title
 of  kings--a circumstance which gave   
rise to the saying of ,frederick  the   
,great of ,prussia1 that the lords of   
,savoy were kings by virtue of  their   

locality4#h ,this is certainly true1 not
 only of ,sardinia1 but of  all ,states 
that ever rose above the loose          
aggregation of the original  townships4 
,it was the necessity of adjusting      
matters with troublesome  neighbours    
that caused a perpetual succession of   
petty wars2 and these  could not be     
conducted without a prolongation of the 
power of the  successful general1 which 
acted practically as a kingship4 ,the   
successful general in such times did not
 require to usurp a title which  the    
people were forward to force upon him2  
and only a few1 we may  imagine1 like   
,gideon 7,judges viii4 #bb71 had virtue 
enough to remain  contented with the    
distinction belonging to a private      
station when the  grace of the crown and
 the authority of the sceptre were      
formally  pressed upon them by a        
grateful people4 ,so in ,greece we find 
an early  kingship signalised by the    
names of geus1 ,theseus1 and ,codrus2 so
 in  ,rome a succession of seven kings1 

more or less distinctly outlined1 the   
last of whom1 ,tarquin the ,proud1      
stands forward as the head of the great 
,latin league1 and entering in this     
capacity into a formal treaty with      
,carthage1 the great commercial ,state  
of the ,mediterranean4 ,closely         
connected with war1 or1 more properly1  
as the natural development of it  in its
 more advanced stages1 we must mention  
,,conquest2 that is1 the  violent       
imposition of the results of a foreign  
civilisation on the  native social      
foundations of any country4 ,here1 no   
doubt1 there may  often be on the       
conquering side something very different
 from a manly  self-assertion--viz4     
self-aggrandisement at the expense of an
  innocent neighbour1 greed of          
territory1 lust of power1 and the vanity
 of  mere military glory1 which our     
brilliant neighbours the ,french were so
  fond to have in their mouth4 ,the     
virtue of war as a training school of   
civic manhood does by no means exclude  

the operation of many forces far  from  
admirable in their motive2 and it is the
 presence of these unholy  influences1  
no doubt piously brooded over1 that has 
generated in the  breasts of our mild   
friends the ,quakers that anti-bellicose
 gospel which  they preach with such    
lovable persistency4 ,but whatever the  
motives of  famous conquerors have been1
 the results of their achievements in   
the  great history of society have been 
most important4 ,the imposition of a    
foreign type on the peoples of ,western 
,asia by the brilliant conquests  of    
,alexander the ,great1 gave to the whole
 of that valuable part of the  world1   
along with the rich coast of ,northern  
,africa1 a common medium of  culture of 
the utmost importance to the future     
civilisation of the race4  ,the         
imposition of the ,norman yoke #ijj     
years ago on this island gave to  the   
contentious ,saxon kingdoms1 by a single
 vigorous stroke from  without1 that    
social consistency which the bloody     

strife of five  centuries of petty kings
 and kinglets among themselves had      
failed to  produce2 while in ,india the 
imposition of the most highly advanced  
mercantile and ,christian civilisation  
of the ,west on crude masses of an      
altogether diverse type of ,asiatic     
society1 presents to the thoughtful     
student of history a problem of         
assimilation of an altogether unique    
character1 the final solution of which1 
under the action of many complex        
forces1 no most sagacious human         
intellect at the present moment can     
divine4 ,on the other hand1 it cannot be
 denied that the blessings which        
conquest brings with it1 when vigorously
 managed and wisely used1 are  lightly  
turned into a bane whenever the power   
which has the force to  conquer has not 
the wisdom to administer2 of which      
unblissful lack of  administrative      
capacity and assimilating genius the    
conquests of the  ,turks in ,europe1 and
 of the ,english in ,ireland1 present a 

most  instructive example4    ,the      
monarchies created in the above fashion1
 by the combination of old  patriarchal 
habits with military necessities1       
however firmly rooted they  may appear  
at the start1 carry with them a certain 
germ of  dissatisfaction1 which1 under  
the influence of popular irritability1  
seriously endangers their permanence1   
and may at any time break up their      
consistency4 ,the causes of such        
dissatisfaction are chiefly the         
following3--7#a7 ,the original motive   
for creating a king1 the  pressure of   
foreign war1 as war cannot last for     
ever1 in time of peace  will cease to   
operate1 and the instinct of individual 
liberty1 which  belongs to all men1     
unless when violently stamped out1 will 
revive1 and  cause the subjection of all
 men to the will of one to be looked on 
with  disfavour4 7#b7 ,this feeling will
 be specially strong with the  1 or     
natural aristocracy1 whose individual   
importance  must diminish as the power  

of the king increases4 7#c7 ,a great    
danger  will arise from the fixation of 
the order of succession to the throne4  
,the natural tendency will be to follow 
the example of succession in  private   
families1 and recognise the right of the
 son to walk into the  public heritage  
of his father2 but the additional       
influence thus given  to the king will  
have a tendency to sharpen the jealousy 
of the nobles4  ,and1 again1 the son may
 be a weakling or a fool1 and utterly   
unfit to  play the part of a supreme    
ruler with that mixture of intelligence1
  firmness1 and tact which the royal    
function for its fair and full action   
requires4 7#d7 ,and if1 in order to     
avoid these evils1 the elective         
principle is maintained1 either         
absolutely or within certain limits1 the
  tendency to faction inherent in all   
aristocracies1 stimulated by the  potent
 spur of a competition for power1 will  
be increased2 and this  factious yeast  
will work so potently in the blood of   

the nobles that  they will either reduce
 the power of the king to a mere name1  
and change  the government into an      
exclusive oligarchy1 as in ,venice1 or  
they will  even go the length of calling
 in foreign arbiters to heal their      
dissensions1 which1 as in the case of   
,poland1 will naturally end in          
subjection to some foreign power2 or1   
lastly1 they will dispense with  the    
kingship altogether1 and return to their
 original mixture of  aristocracy and   
democracy with more firmly-defined      
functions and more  reliable guarantees4
 7#e7 ,this result may be precipitated  
by some  outbreak of that insolence     
which is so naturally fostered by the   
possession of absolute power2 the       
sacredness of personal property and  the
 reverence of ancestral possession will 
not be respected by some ,ahab  of the  
day2 some young ,tarquin or ,hipparchus 
may cast his lustful eye on  the fair   
daughter of an humble citizen2 and then 
will be unsheathed the  sword of a      

,brutus1 and then uprise the song of a  
,harmodius and  ,aristogeiton1 which    
will sound a long knell to monarchy1    
during the  manhood of a free1 an       
independent1 a self-reliant1 and a      
self-governing  people4    ,the system  
of self-government thus introduced1 as  
the natural fruit of  the elements out  
of which it arose1 would be a mixture of
 aristocracy  and democracy1 with a     
decided predominance of the former      
element at  starting1 but with a        
gradually increasing momentum on the    
side of the  inferior factor in         
proportion as the mass of the people    
excluded from  aristocratic privileges  
by a necessary law of social growth     
advanced in  numbers and in social      
importance4 ,greece and ,rome1 or rather
 ,athens and  ,rome1 present to us here 
two types from which important lessons  
may be  learned4 ,in both the discarding
 of the kings was the work of the       
aristocracy2 but1 while the germ of the 
democratic element was equally  strong  

in both1 in ,athens1 partly from the    
genius of the people1 partly  from      
peculiar circumstances1 this germ       
blossomed into an earlier1 a more       
marked1 and a more characteristic       
manhood2 whereas in ,rome1 in the most  
brilliant period of its political       
action1 the form of government might    
rather be defined as a strong           
aristocracy limited by a strong         
democracy  than a pure democracy1 to    
which category ,athens undoubtedly      
belongs4 ,in  both ,states the          
aristocratic element did not submit to  
the necessary  curtailment of its power 
without a struggle2 but in ,athens the  
names of  ,solon 7#fjj ,b4,c471         
,clisthenes1 ,aristides1 and ,pericles  
distinctly marked  the early formation  
of a democracy almost totally purged    
from any  remnant of aristocratic       
influence1 at an epoch in its           
development  corresponding to which we  
find ,rome pursuing her system of       
worldwide  conquest under a system of   

compromise between the patrician and the
  plebeian element1 similar in some sort
 to what we see before our eyes at  the 
present moment in our own country4 ,to  
,athens1 therefore1 we look1 in  the    
first place1 for an answer to the       
question1 ,what does history teach  in  
regard to the virtue of a purely        
democratic government8 ,and here we  may
 safely say that1 under favourable      
circumstances1 there is no form of      
government which1 while it lasts1 has   
such a virtue to give scope to a        
vigorous growth and luxuriant fruitage  
of various manhood as a pure  democracy4
 ,instead of choking and strangling1 or 
at least depressing1  the free          
self-assertion of the individual1 by    
which alone he feels the  full dignity  
of manhood1 such a democracy gives a    
free career to talent  and civic        
efficiency in the greatest number of    
capable individuals2 but  it does not   
follow that1 though in this regard it   
has not been surpassed  by any other    

form of government1 it is therefore     
absolutely the best of  all forms of    
government4 ,all that we are warranted  
to say is1 as  ,cornewall ,lewis does1#i
 that without a strong admixture of the 
democratic spirit humanity in its social
 form cannot achieve its highest        
results2 of which truth1 indeed1 we have
 the most striking proof before  our    
eyes in our own happy island1 where1    
even before the time which ,mr4  ,green 
happily designates as ,puritan ,england1
 powerful kings had received  a lesson  
that as they had been elected so they   
might be dismissed from  office by the  
voice of ,london burghers4 ,neither1 on 
the other hand1 does  it follow from the
 shortness of the bright reign of       
,athenian  democracy--not more than #bjj
 years from ,clisthenes to the          
,macedonians--that all democracies are  
short-lived1 and must pay1  like        
dissipated young gentlemen1 with        
premature decay for the feverish  abuse 
of their vital force4 ,possible no doubt

 it is that1 if the power  of what we   
may call a sort of ,athenian ,second    
,chamber1 the ,areiopagus1  instead of  
being weakened as it was by ,aristides  
and ,pericles1 had been  built up       
according to the idea of schylus and the
 intelligent  aristocrats of his day1   
such a body1 armed1 like our ,house of  
,lords1  with an effective negative on  
all outbursts of popular rashness1 might
  have prevented the ambition of the    
,athenians from launching on that       
famous ,syracusan expedition which      
exhausted their force and maimed their  
action for the future4 ,but the lesson  
taught by the short-lived glory of      
,athens1 and its subjugation under the  
rough foot of the astute  ,macedonian1  
is not that democracies1 under the      
influence of faction1  and1 it may be1  
not free from venality1 will sell their 
liberties to a  strong neighbour--for   
aristocratic ,poland did this in a much 
more  blushless way than democratic     
,greece--but that any loose aggregate   

of independent ,states1 given more to   
quarrel amongst themselves than to      
unite against a common enemy1 whether   
democratic1 or aristocratic1 or         
monarchical in their form of government1
 cannot in the long run maintain  their 
ground against the firm policy and the  
well-massed force of a  strong monarchy4
 ,athens was blotted out from the map of
 free peoples at  ,chronea1 not because 
the ,athenian people had too much       
freedom1 but  because the ,greek ,states
 had too little unity4 ,they were used  
by ,philip  exactly in the same way that
 ,napoleon used the ,german ,states at  
the  commencement of the present        
century4 ,,divide ,,et ,,infera is the  
politician's most familiar maxim1 which1
 when wisely and  persistently applied1 
whether by an ancient ,macedonia or a   
modern  ,russia1 will always give a     
strong monarchy a decided advantage over
  every other form of government4       
,surround me with a belt of petty       
principalities1 says the despot1 however

 highly civilised and however  well     
governed1 and ,i shall know to make them
 play my game and work  themselves into 
confusion1 till the hour comes when ,i  
may appear as a  god to allay by my     
intervention the troubles which ,i have 
fostered by my  intrigues4    ,so much  
for ,athens4 ,let us now see what       
lessons are to be learned from  ,,rome4 
,and here1 on the threshold1 it is quite
 plain that the abolition  of kingship  
goes in the first place to strengthen   
the aristocracy1 on  whom as a body the 
supreme functions exercised by the      
monarch naturally  devolve4 ,the highly 
aristocratic type of the early ,roman   
republic1  unlimited from above by any  
superior power1 and with only a slight  
occasional check from a plebeian        
citizenship in the tender bud1 is       
universally admitted4 ,plainly enough   
also it stands written on the face  of  
the early history of the ,commonwealth  
that the administration of the          
aristocracy was marked in no ordinary   

degree by all that exclusiveness1       
insolence1 selfishness1 and rapacity1   
which are the besetting sins of an      
order of men cradled in hereditary      
conceit1 and eating the bread not of    
labour1 but of privilege1 das           
unverbesserliche ,junkerthum1  as       
,mommsen calls them4 ,to such an extent 
did they abuse the natural  vantage     
ground of their social position that1   
while the great body of  the substantial
 yeomanry1 who shed their blood in a    
constant succession  of petty wars for  
the safety of the ,state1 were stinted  
of their natural  reward and degraded   
from their rightful position1 the       
insolent  monopolisers of all dignities 
and privileges did not blush to take    
from  the people their natural heritage 
in the public land1 and1 for the        
enlargement of their own order1 to      
deprive the ,state of its stoutest      
citizens1 and the army of its most      
effective soldiers4 ,the irritation     
produced by this insolent and           

anti-social procedure of the old ,roman 
landlords1 by the law of reaction common
 to all forces1 produced as its  natural
 consequence a revolt2 for1 as it has   
been truly said that the  blood of the  
martyrs is the seed of the ,church1 no  
less true is it in  all history that the
 insolence of the aristocracy is the    
cradle of the  democracy4 ,that happened
 accordingly in ancient ,rome which     
,sismondi  prophesied might happen in   
modern ,scotland3 ,if the mighty thanes 
who  rule in those trans-,grampian      
regions begin to think that they can do 
without the people1 the people may begin
 to think they can do without  them4#aj 
,so at least the ,roman plebs thought   
when1 in the year of the  city #bei1    
they marched in a body out to the       
,sacred ,mount on the banks of  the     
,anio1 and refused to return to the city
 till their just claims had  been       
conceded and their wrongs redressed4    
,their wrongs were redressed3           
conferences1 concessions1 and           

compromises1 in a hurried and blundering
  sort of way1 were made2 tribunes of   
the plebs were appointed1 with the      
absolute power of stopping the whole    
machinery of the ,state with a  single  
negation2 and thus was sown the seed of 
a democracy destined to  grow into      
monstrous proportions1 and ripen into   
the bloody blossom of a  military       
despotism by the hands of the very class
 of persons who were  chiefly interested
 in preventing it4    ,the different    
stages of the battle between plebeians  
and patricians1 or1  as we term it1     
,whig and ,tory1 as they evolved        
themselves by a social  necessity from  
time to time1 belong to the special     
history of ,rome1 not  to the general   
philosophy of history with which we are 
here concerned4  ,the seed of democracy 
sown at the ,sacred ,mount went on from 
one stage of  expansion to another1     
breaking down every barrier of          
hereditary  privilege between the mass  
of the people and the old aristocracy1  

till  it ended in the ,lex ,hortensia1  
passed ,b4,c4 #bhh1 which gave to all   
ordinances passed by the ,comitia       
,tributa--that is1 the  people assembled
 in local tribes and voting             
independently of all  aristocratic check
 or co-operation--the full validity of  
law4 ,and  in this progress of          
equalisation between class and class in 
a community1  the ,muse of history sees 
only a special illustration of a general
 law  that every aristocracy contending 
for the maintenance of exclusive        
privilege against natural right fights a
 losing battle4 ,but the  necessity of  
the adjustment of the opposing claims of
 a conservative and  a progressive body 
in the ,state is a very different thing 
from the  fashion in which the          
adjustment may be made1 and from the    
consequences  that may grow out of the  
adjustment4 ,here there is room for any 
amount  of wisdom1 and unfortunately    
also for a large amount of blundering4  
,no  man can say that the ,roman        

constitution as it stood1 after the     
plebeians  had broken through all       
aristocratic barriers1 was a cunningly  
compacted  machine1 or that it afforded 
any strong guarantee against that       
degeneracy into licence towards which   
all unreined democracies naturally      
tend4 ,but one thing certainly was      
achieved4 ,out of the plebeian and      
patrician elements of the body social1  
no longer arrayed in hostile  attitude1 
but fronting one another with equal     
rights before the law1 and  adjusting   
their forces in a fairly-balanced       
equilibrium1 there was  formed a great  
political corporation1 deliberative and 
administrative1  which for independence1
 dignity1 patriotism1 and sagacity1 used
 its  authority in such a masterly style
 and to such world-wide issues that it  
has earned from ,mommsen the            
complimentary acknowledgment of having  
been  the first political corporation of
 all times4#aa ,this  corporation was   
the ,roman ,senate1 which ruled the     

policy of ,rome for a  period of #bjj   
years1 from the passing of the          
,hortensian ,law through a  long period 
of ,african and ,asiatic wars down to   
the civil war of ,sulla  and ,marius1   
#hh ,b4,c4--a body of which we may      
perhaps best easily  understand the     
composition and the virtue if we imagine
 the best  elements of our ,house of    
,commons and the best elements of the   
,house of  ,lords merged in one ,supreme
 ,assembly of practical wisdom1 to the  
exclusion at once of the feverish       
factiousness and multitudinous babble   
of the one assembly1 and the brainless  
obstructiveness and incurable  blindness
 of hereditary class interests in the   
other4 ,but there was  something else in
 the mixed constitution of ,rome besides
 the tried  wisdom and the great        
practical weight of the ,senate4 ,what  
was that8  ,there was1 in the first     
place1 the evil of an elective          
kingship--for  the ,consul was really an
 annual king under a different name1 as 

the  ,president of the ,united ,states  
is a quadriennial king1 with greatly    
more  power while his kingship lasts    
than the ,queen of ,great ,britain2 and 
this  implied an annual fit of social   
fever1 and the annual sowing of a germ  
of faction ready to shoot into          
luxuriance under the strong stimulant of
  the love of power4 ,then1 as in the   
natural growth of society1 a new        
aristocracy grew up1 formed by the      
addition of the wealthy plebeian        
families to the old family aristocracy1 
and along with it a new and  numerous   
plebeian body1 practically though not   
legally excluded from the  privilege of 
the optimates1 the old antagonism of    
patrician and  plebeian would revive1   
and the question arose1 ,what machinery 
had the  legislation of the previous    
centuries provided to prevent a         
collision  and a rupture between the    
antagonistic tendencies of the          
democratic and  oligarchic elements in  
the ,state8 ,the answer is1 ,none4 ,the 

authority of  the ,senate1 great as it  
was both morally and numerically1 was   
antagonised by the co-equal legislative 
authority of the ,comitia  ,tributa--an 
assembly as open to any agitator for    
factious or  revolutionary purposes as a
 meeting of a ,london mob in ,hyde      
,park1 and  composed of elements of the 
most motley and loose description1 ready
 at  any moment to give the solemn      
sanction of a national ordinance to any 
act of hasty violence or calculated     
party move which might flatter the      
vanity or feed the craving of the       
masses4 ,but this was not all4 ,the     
tribunate1 originally appointed simply  
for the protection of the  commonalty   
against the rude exercise of patrician  
power1 had now grown  to such formidable
 dimensions that the popular tribune of 
the day might  become the most powerful 
man in the ,state1 and only require     
re-election  to constitute him into a   
king whose decrees the consuls and the  
senators  must humiliate themselves to  

register4 ,here was a machinery         
cunningly1  one might think1 constructed
 for the purpose of working out its own 
disruption1 even supposing both the     
popular and aristocratic elements  had  
been composed of average good materials4
 ,but they were not so4 ,in  the age of 
the ,gracchi1 #acc ,b4,c41 the high     
sense of honour1 the proud  inheritance 
of an uncorrupted patrician body1 and   
the shrewd sense and  sobriety of a     
sound-hearted yeomanry1 had equally     
disappeared4 ,the  aristocracy were     
corrupted by the wealth which flowed in 
from the spoils  of conquest2 they had  
become lovers of power rather than      
lovers of ,rome2  lords of the soil1 not
 fathers of the people2 banded together 
for the  narrow interests of their own  
order rather than for the general       
well-being of the community4 ,the sturdy
 yeomanry again1 of which the  mass of  
the original popular assemblies had been
 composed1 had partly  dwindled away    
under maladministration of the public   

lands1 and partly  were mixed up with   
motley groups of citizens of no fixed   
residence1 and  of a town rabble who    
could be induced to vote for anything by
 any man  who knew to win their favour  
by a large distribution of ,sicilian    
corn or  the exciting luxury of         
gladiatorial shows2 in a word1 the      
populus had  become a plebsy or1 in our 
language1 the people a populace4        
,furthermore1 let it be noted that this 
people or populace1 tied down to  meet  
only in ,rome1 as the high seat of      
,government1 was called upon to  deal   
with the administration of countries as 
far apart and as diverse in  character  
as ,madrid and ,cairo1 or ,bagdad and   
,moscow are from ,london4  ,think of a  
mob of ,london artisans1 on the motion  
of a ,henry ,george1 or  even a rational
 ,radical like ,mr4 ,chamberlain1       
drummed together to pass  laws on landed
 property and taxation through all that 
vast domain6 ,but  so it was2 and most  
unfortunately also the original fathers 

of the  agitation which1 at the time of 
the ,gracchi1 ranged the great rulers of
  the world into two hostile factions1  
stabbing one another in the back  and   
cutting one another's throats1 and      
plotting and counter-plotting in  every 
conceivable style of baseness1 after the
 fashion which is now  being exemplified
 before us in ,ireland1--the authors of 
this agitation  were not the demagogues1
 but the aristocracy2 as indeed in all  
cases of  general discontent1 social    
fret1 and illegal violence1 the parties 
who  are accused of stirring class      
against class are not the agitators who 
appear on the scene1 but the            
maladministrators who made their        
appearance  necessary4 ,man is an animal
 naturally inclined to obey and to take 
things quietly2 insurrection is too     
expensive an affair to be indulged  in  
by way of recreation2 and there is no   
truth in the philosophy of  history more
 certain than that whenever the         
multitude of the ruled rebel  against   

their rulers1 the original fault--,i do 
not say the whole blame1  for as things 
go on from bad to worse there may be    
blame and blunders on  both sides--but  
the original fault and germinative cause
 of discontent  and revolt              
unquestionably lies with the rulers4    
,whatever may be said  about ,ireland   
and the ,scottish ,highlands1 there can 
be no doubt that in  the case of ,rome  
the original cause of the democratising 
of the old  constitution and the        
over-riding of senatorial authority by  
tribunician  ordinances was the senators
 themselves1 who1 in direct             
contravention of  the public law of the 
,state1 with that greed for more land   
which is the  besetting sin of every    
aristocracy1 had quartered themselves1  
after the  fashion of colonial          
squatters1 on the public lands1 and     
refused to  surrender them to the ,state
 till compelled by the cry of popular   
right  against might1 raised by such    
patriotic and self-sacrificing agitators

  as the ,gracchi--patriotic men who    
attained their object at last by the    
only means in their power1 but means so 
drastic that1 like doctor's  drugs1 they
 drave out one devil by bringing in a   
score1 and paid for the  partial healing
 of an incurable disease by destroying  
for ever the  balance of the            
constitution1 and inaugurating with     
their own martyr  blood one of the most 
woeful epochs in human history--an epoch
 varied by  periodical assassinations   
and consummated by wholesale butcheries4
    ,i said the ,gracchi attained their 
object1 and that by appointing a        
,commission for a distribution of the   
public lands1 such as the friends  of   
the crofters in the ,highlands now      
propose for the repeopling of the  old  
depopulated homes of the clan4 ,but ,i  
said also that the disease  under which 
,rome laboured was incurable4 ,how was  
this8 ,simply because1  whatever might  
have been the merits of the special     
,agrarian ,law carried  by the ,gracchi1

 the violent steam by which the ,state  
machine was moved  remained the same1   
the clumsy machine itself remained1 and 
the materials  with which it had to deal
 in a long and critical course of       
foreign  conquest became every year     
larger and more unmanageable4 ,it was   
not to  be expected either1 on the one  
hand1 that a strong and influential     
aristocracy should die with a single    
kick1 or1 on the other1 that a          
democracy1 which had once learned the   
power of a popular flood to break  down 
aristocratic dams1 would cease to       
exercise that power when a  convenient  
occasion offered4 ,and so the strife of 
oligarchic and  plebeian factions       
continued4 ,the political struggle1 as  
always happens  in such cases1 became a 
struggle for personal supremacy2 the    
sanguinary  street battle between the   
younger ,gracchus and the ,consul       
,opimius1  though followed by a lull for
 a season1 was renewed after a few years
 in  more startling form and much       

bloodier issues1 first between ,marius  
and  ,sulla1 and finally between ,csar  
and ,pompey4 ,such a succession of      
embittered civil wars could end only in 
exhaustion and submission2 and  this is 
the last emphatic lesson which the      
history of ,rome has taught to  the     
governors of the people4 ,every         
constitution of mixed aristocratic  and 
democratic elements which fails by      
kindly control on the one side1  and    
reasonable demand on the other1 to      
achieve that balance of those           
antagonising forces which means good    
government1 must end in a military      
despotism4 ,that which will not bridle  
itself must be bridled2 and when        
constant irritation1 fretful jars1 and  
cruel collisions are the bloody  fruit  
of unchastened liberty1 slavery and     
stagnation seem not too high a  price to
 pay for peace4    ,i have enlarged on  
the development and decay of the ,roman 
republic1 not  only because in point of 
political achievement ,rome is by far   

the most  notable of the great ,states  
of the world1 but because in the        
struggle  between aristocracy and       
democracy which was the salient feature 
of its  history from the expulsion of   
the kings to the battle of ,actium1 it  
presents a very close and instructive   
parallel to what has been going on      
amongst ourselves from the revolution   
settlement of #afhh to the present      
hour4 ,if for annual kings with large   
power we put hereditary kings with      
small power1 the parallel is            
complete4#ab ,let us now cast a glance1 
for  time and space allow us no more1   
over some modern developments4 ,the     
modern ,states of ,europe have good     
reason1 upon the whole1 to think        
themselves fortunate in their having    
retained the kingship1 which the        
,greeks and ,romans rejected1 either as 
their original type1 or elevated  and   
glorified from the dukedoms1            
margravates1 and electorates with which 
they started4 ,there cannot be much     

doubt1 ,i imagine1 that1 if the ,romans 
had retained their king in a hereditary 
or nearly hereditary form1 he  might    
have exercised a mediatorial function   
between the contending  parties that    
would have prevented those bloody       
strifes and those ugly  civic wounds    
with which the record of their political
 career stands now  so sorrowfully      
defaced4 ,in the experience of their own
 earliest story1  ,servius ,tullius had 
already shown them how a king in the    
strife of  classes might step in by a   
peaceful new model to open the ranks of 
a  close aristocracy with dignity and   
safety to a rising democracy2 and in    
modern times the case of ,leopold ,,ii4 
of ,tuscany does not stand alone as  an 
example of what good service a wise king
 may do in the adjustment of  contending
 claims and smoothing the march of      
necessary social  transitions4 ,in fact1
 the most democratic people amongst the 
ancients1  in order to effect such an   
adjustment in a peaceful way1 had been  

obliged to make ,solon a king for the   
nonce2 and the ,romans1 urged by a  like
 social pressure1 named their dictator1 
or re-elected their consuls  and their  
tribunes1 in order to secure for the    
need of the moment that  unity of       
counsel1 energy of conduct1 and moral   
authority which is the  grand           
recommendation of the kingship4 ,no     
doubt kings in modern as in  ancient    
times have erred2 they have not been    
able always to keep  themselves sober   
under the intoxicating influence of     
absolute power1 and  they have paid     
dearly for their errors2 but we were    
wise in this  country1 while beheading  
one despot and banishing another1 to    
punish the  offender without abolishing 
the office4 ,true1 a thorough-going and 
sternly-consistent republican may ask1  
with an indignant sneer1 ,what is  the  
use of a king1 when we have shorn him of
 all honours save the grace  of a crown 
and the bauble of a sceptre--reduced    
him1 in fact1 to a  mere machine to     

register the decrees of a democratic    
assembly8 ,but such  persons require to 
be reminded that there is nothing more  
dangerous1 not  only in political1 but  
in all practical matters1 than logical  
consistency2 that the most narrow-minded
 people are always the most  consistent1
 and this for the very obvious reason   
that they have only  room for one idea  
in their small brain chambers1 whereas  
,god's  world contains many ideas1 stiff
 ideas too1 and given to battle1 which  
must be brought into some friendly      
balance or compromise1 or set about     
throat-cutting on a large scale--a      
process to which consistent  republicans
 have never shown a less bloody         
inclination than consistent             
monarchists4 ,they must be reminded also
 that the person of the monarch  is an  
incarnated1 visible1 and tangible symbol
 of the unity of the  nation1 of which  
parties and factions are so apt to be   
forgetful2 and if  our                  
logically-consistent republican may look

 on this as a matter of  association and
 sentiment which he will not            
acknowledge1 he must simply  be told    
that the man who does not acknowledge   
the important place played  by          
associations and sentiments in all      
matters of ,church and ,state knows     
nothing of human nature1 and is         
altogether unfit for meddling with the  
difficult and dangerous art of politics4
 ,he may write books1 and lecture  to   
coteries1 and harangue electoral        
meetings1 and delight himself  largely  
in the reverberation of his own wisdom1 
but by all means let him  not be a prime
 minister4 ,to what ends logical        
consistency can lead a  politician in   
high places ,charles ,i4 and ,archbishop
 ,laud learned when it  was too late2   
and the fate of these two high-perched  
worthies stands as  a speaking lesson to
 all politicians1 whether of the        
democratic or the  monarchical type1 how
 easy a thing it is for a man to be a   
good  ,christian and a consistent       

thinker1 and yet on all political       
matters a  perfect fool4    ,among the  
notable modern ,states three stand      
before us with  an exceptional          
preference for the democratic form of   
government--,switzerland1 ,france1 and  
the great trans-,atlantic  ,republic4   
,these must be regarded with curious    
interest and kindly human  sympathy as  
great social experiments1 by no means to
 be prejudged and  denounced by any     
sweeping conclusions made from the      
unfortunate  breakdown of the two       
celebrated ancient republics4 ,the      
experiment in  these cases1 as made in  
altogether different circumstances and  
under  different conditions1 cannot     
warrant any such denunciations4 ,the    
representative system which now         
universally prevails1 and which enables 
a most widely-scattered and             
diverse-minded population to vote with a
  coolness and a precision and a large  
survey of which the urban system of     
,greece and ,rome never dreamed2 the    

general growth of intelligence among    
all classes through the action of cheap 
education and the large  circulation of 
cheap books2 the rapid and ever more    
rapid travelling of  contagious thought 
from the centre to the extreme limbs and
 flourishes  of social unities2 and1    
above all1 let us hope the improved tone
 of  social feeling in all the relations
 of man to man1 which we owe to the     
great ,christian principle of living as 
brother with brother1 and sister  with  
sister1 under a common heavenly         
fatherhood1--these are all  forces      
largely operating in the present day    
which justify us in hoping  that many a 
social experiment which signally failed 
with the ancients  may be crowned in the
 centuries which are now being          
inaugurated with  encouraging success4  
,of the three which we have named1      
,switzerland is  the country in which1  
from topographical peculiarities1 the   
interests of  jealous1 neighbours1 and  
the traditional habits of a peasant     

population  well trained to provincial  
self-government1 the permanence of a    
democratic federation may be prophesied 
with the greatest safety1 but at  the   
same time with the least interest to the
 general march of humanity4  ,ancient   
,rome1 had it continued as compact and  
as little disturbed by  external forces 
and internal fermentations as modern    
,switzerland1 might  have remained      
during the whole course of its career as
 sober-minded and  as stable as in the  
days of ,cincinnatus1 and the yeomanry  
which were  displaced by huge absentee  
landlords1 and ,syrian or ,sicilian     
slaves4 ,the  case of ,france is        
altogether different4 ,a republic in an 
over-civilised1  highly-centralised1    
bureaucratically-governed country1 with 
a  religiously hollow1 hasty1 violent1  
excitable1 and explosive people1  seems 
of all social experiments the least     
hopeful3 and that is all that  can      
wisely be said of it at present4 ,but   
the social conditions in  ,america are  

altogether different2 and the experiment
 of a great  democratic republic for the
 first time in the history of the       
world--for ,rome in its best times1 as  
we have seen1 was an  aristocracy--will 
be looked on by all lovers of their     
species with  the most kindly curiosity 
and the most hopeful sympathy4 ,here we 
have  the stout1 self-reliant1          
sober-minded ,anglo-,saxon stock1 well  
trained in  the process of the ages to  
the difficult art of self-government2   
here we  have a constitution framed with
 the most cautious consideration1 and   
with the most effective checks against  
the dangers of an over-riding           
democracy2 here also a people as free   
from any imminent external danger  as   
they have unlimited scope for internal  
progress4 ,under no  circumstances could
 the experiment of self-government1 on a
 great scale1  have been made with a    
more promising start4 ,no doubt they    
have a  difficult and slippery problem  
to perform4 ,the frequent recurrence of 

elections to the supreme magistracy has 
always been1 and ever must be1  the     
breeder of faction1 the nurse of        
venality1 and the spur of ambition4     
,once already has this ,titanic         
confederacy1 though only a hundred years
  old1 by going through a process of a  
long1 bitter1 and bloody civil war1     
shown that the unifying machinery so    
cunningly put together by the           
conservative genius of a ,washington1 an
 ,adams1 and a ,madison1 was            
insufficient to hold in check the       
rebellious forces at war within its     
womb4 ,no doubt also it were in vain to 
speak ,america free from those  acts of 
gigantic jobbing1 blushless venality1   
and over-riding of the  masses in       
various ways1 which were working the    
ruin of ,rome in the days  of ,jugurtha4
 ,the aristocracy of gold and the       
tyranny of capitalists in  ,christian   
,new ,york has shown itself no less able
 to usurp the public  land and defraud  
the people of their share in the soil   

than the lordly  aristocracy and the    
slave-dealing magnates of heathen ,rome4
 ,nevertheless  we need not despair4    
,the sins of ,american democracy may    
serve as a  useful hint to us not rashly
 to tinker our own mixed constitution   
without waiting for a verdict on issues1
 which1 as ,socrates wisely says1  lie  
with the gods2 nor1 on the other hand1  
is there any wisdom in  ascribing to the
 ,american form of government evils     
which1 as belonging  to human nature1   
crop up with more or less abundance     
under all forms of  government1 and     
which may be specially rife among       
ourselves4 ,we also  have our ,glasgow  
banks1 our bubble companies of all      
kinds1 our heady  speculations1 our hot 
competitions1 our over-productions1 our 
haste to  be rich1 our idol worship of  
mere material magnificence1--these are  
evils1 and the root of all evil1 with   
the production of which no form of      
government has anything to do1 and      
against which every form of  government 

will be in vain invoked to contend4     
,in conclusion1 we must bear in mind    
that democracy or social                
self-government is the most difficult of
 all human problems1 and must be        
approached1 not with inflated hopes and 
rosy imaginations1 but with  sobriety   
and caution and a sound mind1 and at    
critical moments not  without prayer and
 fasting4 ,before entering on any scheme
 for rebuilding  our social edifice on a
 democratic model1 we should consider   
seriously  what a democracy really      
implies1 and what we may reasonably     
promise  ourselves from its possible    
success4 ,of the two rallying cries     
which  have made it a favourite with    
persons given to change1 equality and   
liberty1 the one is no more true than   
that all the mountains in the           
,highlands are as high as ,ben ,nevis1  
and can only mean at the best that  all 
men have an equal right to be called men
 and to be treated as men1  while the   
other is only true so far as concerns   

the removal of all  artificial barriers 
to the free exercise of each man's      
function1  according to his capacity and
 opportunities4 ,but this is a mere     
starting-point in the social life of a  
great people4 ,when the bird is  out of 
the cage1 which it must be in order to  
be a perfect bird1 the  more serious    
question emerges1 what use it shall make
 of its  newly-acquired liberty4 ,here  
certainly to men1 as to birds1 there are
  great dangers to be faced2 and with   
nations the progress of society1 as     
already remarked1 is measured to a much 
larger extent by the increase of        
limitations than by the extension of    
liberties4 ,then1 again1 the            
fundamental postulate of extreme        
democracy that the majority have        
everywhere a right to govern is         
manifestly false4 ,no man as a member of
  society has a natural right to govern3
 he has a right to be governed1  and    
well governed2 and that can only be when
 the government is conducted  by the    

wisest and best men who compose the     
society4 ,if the numerical  majority is 
composed of sober-minded1 sensible1 and 
intelligent persons  who will either    
govern wisely themselves or choose      
persons who will do  so1 then democracy 
is justified by its deeds2 but if it is 
otherwise1  and if1 when an appeal is   
made to the multitude1 they will choose 
the  most daring1 the most ambitious1   
and the most unscrupulous1 rather than  
the most sensible1 the most moderate1   
and the most conscientious1 then        
democracy is a bad thing1 at least      
nothing better than the other  ocracies 
which it supplants4 ,it is manifest1    
therefore1 that of  all forms of        
government democracy is that which      
imperatively requires  the greatest     
amount of intelligence and moderation   
among the great mass  of the people1    
especially amongst the lower classes1   
who have always  been the most numerous2
 and1 as history can point to no quarter
 of the  world where such a happy       

condition of the numerical intelligence 
has  been realised1 it cannot look with 
any favour on schemes of universal      
suffrage1 even when qualified with a    
stout array of effective checks4  ,the  
system1 indeed1 of representing every   
man individually1 and giving  every     
member of a society a capitation vote1  
as they have a capitation  tax in       
,turkey1 however popular with the       
advocates of extreme democracy1  seems  
quite unreasonable4 ,what requires to be
 represented in a  reasonable           
representative system is not so much    
individuals as  qualities1 capacities1  
interests1 and types4 ,every class      
should be  represented1 rather than     
every man in a class4 ,besides1 the     
equality of  votes which democracy      
demands1 on the principle that ,i am as 
good as you  and perhaps a little       
better1 is utterly false1 and tends to  
nourish  conceit and impertinence1 to   
banish all reverence1 and to ignore all 
distinctions in society4 ,anyhow1 there 

can be no doubt that great masses  of   
men acting together on exciting         
occasions are peculiarly liable to      
hasty resolutions and violent opinions2 
all democracies1 therefore1 are  unsafe 
which are unprovided with checks in the 
form of an upper chamber  composed of   
more cool materials1 and planted firmly 
in a position that  makes them          
independent of the fever and faction of 
the hour4 ,a strong  democracy stands as
 much in need of an aristocratic rein as
 a strong  aristocracy does of a        
democratic spur4 ,and let it never be   
forgotten--what democracies are far too 
apt to forget--that  minorities have    
rights as well as majorities2 nay1 that 
one of the great  ends to be achieved by
 a good government is to protect the few
 against  the natural insolence of a    
majority glorying in its numbers1 and   
hurried  on by the spring-tide of a     
popular contagion4 ,a state of society  
is not  at all inconceivable in which   
the many shall make all the laws and    

monopolise all the offices of a fussy   
bureaucracy1 while the few are  burdened
 with all the taxes4 ,never too         
frequently can we repeat1 in  reference 
to all public acts1 no less than to the 
conduct of individuals  in private life1
 the great ,aristotelian maxim that     
,,all ,,extremes ,,are  ,,wrong2 that   
every force when in full action tends to
 an excess which  for its own salvation 
must be met by a counterpoising force2  
that all  good government1 as all       
healthy existence1 is the balance of    
opposites  and the marriage of          
contraries2 and that the more mettlesome
 the charger  the more need of a firm   
rein and a cautious rider4 ,he who      
overlooks this  prime postulate of all  
sane action in this complex world may   
pile his  democratic house tier above   
tier and enjoy his green conceit for a  
season2 but the day of sore trial and   
civic storm is not far1 when the  rain  
shall descend1 and the floods come1 and 
the winds blow and beat  upon that      

house1 and it will fall1 because it was 
founded upon a dream4        ,,ii4      
,,the ,,church4         1 1             
4-- 4    ,,man is characteristically a  
religious animal2 in fact1 as ,socrates 
teaches1 the only religious animal2#ac  
for1 though a dog has no doubt          
reverential emotions1 it cannot be said 
with any propriety that he has          
religious ideas or ecclesiastical       
institutions1 for a very good reason1   
because he has no ideas at all3         
observation he has very keen1 and memory
  also wonderfully retentive2 instincts 
also1 like all primal vital  forces1    
divine and miraculous2 but ideas        
certainly none1 for ideas mean          
knowledge2 and brutes that have no      
language properly so called that is a   
system of significant vocal signs       
expressive of ideas1 but only cries1    
gesticulations1 and visible or audible  
signs expressive of sensations  and     
feelings1 can by no law of natural      
analogy be credited with the  possession

 of a faculty of which they give no     
manifestation4 ,language is  the outward
 body and form of which thought and     
reason and knowledge and  ideas are the 
inward soul and force2 and hence the    
wise ,greeks1 unlike  our modern        
scientists1 who delight in confounding  
man with the monkey1  expressed language
 and reason with one word 1 while what  
we  dignify with the name of language in
 birds and other animals was simply  1  
or significant voice4 ,if1 therefore1   
there is any thing most  human that     
history has to teach1 it must be about  
religion4 ,all the  great nations whose 
names mark the march of human fates have
 been  religious nations4 ,a people     
without religion does not exist1 or1 if 
it  does exist1 it exists only as an    
abnormal and deficient specimen of the  
genus to which it belongs1 which is of  
no more account in the just  estimate of
 the type than a fox without a tail1 or 
a lawyer without a  tongue2 and as for  
individual atheists1 who have been      

talked about in  ancient times1 and     
specially in these latter days1 they are
 either  philosophers like ,spinoza1 the
 most pious of men1 falsely baptized    
with  an odious title from the          
stupidity1 prejudice1 or malice of the  
community1 or1 if they really are       
atheists1 they are monsters which a  man
 may stare at as at an ass with three   
heads or with no head at all in  a show4
    ,the form in which religion         
generally presents itself in early      
history is  what we commonly call       
,polytheism1 though it is quite         
possible--a  matter about which ,i am   
not careful curiously to dogmatise--that
  there may have been in some places an 
original ,dualism1 like the ancient     
,persian1 or even a ,monotheism1 out of 
which the ,polytheism was  developed4   
,for there cannot be the slightest doubt
 that1 whatever may  have been the      
starting-point1 there lay in the popular
 theology a  tendency to multiply and to
 reproduce itself in kindred but not    

always  easily recognisable forms1 like 
the children of a family or the         
cousinship of a clan4 ,but1 taking      
,polytheism as the type under which     
history presents the objects of         
religious faith in the earliest times1  
we have to remark that under this common
 name1 as in the case of  ,christianity1
 the greatest contrasts1 both in        
speculative idea and in  social         
efficiency1 stare us everywhere in the  
face4 ,in the eye of the  ,christian or 
the monotheistic devotee the worships of
 ,aphrodite and of  ,pallas ,athene are 
equally idolatrous2 but1 allowing that  
these  anthropomorphic forms of divine  
forces and functions of the universe are
  equally destitute of a foundation in  
fact or reason1 the reverence paid  to  
them by a devout people might be as     
different as passion is from  thought1  
and sense from spirit4 ,as the ideal of 
wisdom in counsel and in  action1 the   
,athenian ,pallas no doubt exercised as 
beneficent a sway over  her ,hellenic   

worshippers as the ideal of ,christian  
womanhood1 in the  person of the ,virgin
 ,mary1 does at the present day over    
millions of  ,christian worshippers4 ,it
 is only when the cosmic function       
impersonated  in the polytheistic god1  
being of an inferior order1 leaps from  
its  proper position of subordination   
and usurps the controlling and          
regulating action belonging to the      
superior function1 that polytheistic    
idolatry becomes immoral2 though1 of    
course1 the very facility of this       
usurpation1 and the stamp of a pseudo   
divinity that may thereby be given  to  
beastly vice1 is a sufficient reason for
 the denunciations of the  heathen      
idolatries so frequent in the ,old      
,testament1 which ultimately  ripened   
into the spiritual apostleship and      
monotheistic aggression of  ,st4 ,paul4 
,one other striking feature of all      
polytheistic religions may  not be      
omitted4 ,they are naturally            
complete--more catholic1 more           

sympathetic with universal nature and   
universal life than monotheistic        
religions2 if they make a philosophical 
mistake in worshipping many  gods1 they 
do not make a moral mistake in excluding
 any of his  attributes4 ,with the      
polytheistic worshipper everything is   
sacred3 the  sun and the sea and the    
sky1 dark earth and awful night1 excite 
in him  an emotion of reverence4 ,if the
 ,greek polytheist was devout at all1 he
  was devout everywhere2 whereas1 under 
monotheistic influences1 there is  a    
danger that devout feelings may respond 
exclusively to the stern  decrees of an 
absolute lawgiver and the awful         
threatenings of a violated  law4        
,polytheistic piety1 whatever its       
defects1 was always ready to add a      
grace to every innocent enjoyment2      
monotheistic religiousness1 as we see   
its severe features in some modern      
churches1 contents itself with adding  a
 solemn sanction to the moral law--a    
severity which here and there  has not  

been able to keep itself free from the  
unlovely phase of  regarding the        
innocent enjoyments and the graceful    
pleasantries of life  as a sin4    ,so  
much for the soul of the business2 the  
body is what we call the  ,church4 ,and 
here the very word is significant4 ,in  
one sense1 as a  separate ethical       
corporation1 the ancients had no        
,church4 ,why8 ,because  ,church and    
,state were one2 or1 if they were two1  
they were too like the  famous ,siamese 
twins that used to be carried about the 
country as a  show1 two so closely      
connected that they could no more be    
torn from one  another and live than the
 limpet can be separated from the rock  
to which  it clings4 ,with the peoples  
of the ancient world the ,state was the 
,church and the ,church was the ,state2 
the priest was a magistrate and the     
magistrate was a priest4 ,this identity 
of two things1 or loose  intercommunion 
and fusion of two things in modern      
association so  instinctively kept      

apart1 arose from the common germ out of
 which both  ,church and ,state         
grew--viz41 as we saw in the previous   
lecture1 the  ,,family4 ,every father of
 a family1 in the normal and healthy    
state of  society1 is his own priest as 
well as his own king4 ,in religion and  
morals1 as well as in all domestic      
ordinances1 he is absolute and  supreme2
 and the functions which necessarily    
belonged to him as supreme              
administrator in his own family would1  
under the influence of family  feelings1
 naturally be conceded to him when the  
family grew to a clan1  and the clan to 
a kingdom4 ,and this is the state of    
things which we meet  with in the ,book 
of ,genesis1 long before the            
promulgation of the ,mosaic  law1 where 
we read 7xiv4 #ah7 that ,melchizedek1   
king of ,salem1  went out to bless      
,abraham1 and he was priest of the ,most
 ,high  ,god2 the distinction between   
priest and layman1 to which our ears are
 so  familiar1 being in this1 as in a   

thousand other well-known instances1    
altogether ignored4 ,not only in ,homer1
 where we find ,agamemnon1 the king  of 
men1 performing sacrificial functions   
without even the presence of a          
priest1#ad but in the sober historical  
age we find the ,king of ,sparta        
performing all the public               
sacrifices--being1 in fact1 in virtue of
  his office1 high priest of ,jove4#ae  
,so closely indeed was the ,state       
religion identified with the person of  
the supreme magistrate that1 when  the  
kingship was abolished in ,greece1 and  
three principal archons and  seven      
secondary ones shared his functions1 one
 still retained the title  of 1 king1   
and had the supervision1 or1 as we      
would say1 supreme episcopacy and       
overseership of all matters pertaining  
to religion4#af ,the same thing took    
place in ,rome1 where the name of  king 
was even more odious than in ,greece2   
but nevertheless a rex  sacrificulus1 or
 king-sacrificer1 with his regina or    

queen1 took rank in all the public      
pontifical dinners above the  pontifex  
maximus himself4 ,the college of        
pontiffs in ,rome1 which  had the       
supreme direction of all religious      
matters1 was not a board of  priests1   
but of laymen--or at least of laymen    
who1 without any  qualification but some
 inaugurating ceremony1 might be assumed
 into the  pontifical college2 whence   
the title of pontifex maximus1 which    
the emperors assumed1 was no more of the
 nature of a usurpation than the  title 
of imperator1 which belonged to them as 
supreme commanders  of the army4 ,who1  
then1 were the priests1 and what need of
 them1 at all  if the laity might       
legally perform all their functions8    
,the answer is  simple4 ,both in ,greece
 and ,rome there were priests and       
priestly  families1 as the ,eumolpid in 
,eleusis1 specially dedicated to  the   
service of certain local gods2 but there
 was no order1 class1 or  body of       
persons having the exclusive right to   

officiate in sacred  matters over the   
whole community4 ,no doubt the social   
position of  priests in democratic      
,greece and monarchical ,egypt was      
extremely  different1 but in one respect
 they were identical3 in ,athens ,church
 and  ,state were one as much as in     
,memphis4 ,in ,egypt there was a        
remarkably  strong body or clan of      
priests enjoying the highest dignities  
and  immunities2 but there is no proof  
that they were a caste1 in the strict   
sense of the word2 and their virtues    
were so far from being  incommunicable  
that1 when the ,pharaoh did not happen  
to be a born  priest1 but of the        
military class1 he was obliged to be    
made a priest  before he could be a     
king2 and when once king he became ipso 
facto the high priest of the nation1 and
 took precedence of all  priests in all 
great public acts of religious          
ceremonial4 ,it must not be  supposed1  
however1 that1 though he was supreme in 
all sacred matters and  the actual head 

of the ,church1 to use our language1 he 
could set  himself1 like our ,henry     
,,viii41 to carve creeds for the people1
 and  imprison or burn devout persons   
for refusing to acknowledge his         
arbitrary decrees4 ,the exercise of     
sacred functions in the hands of the    
masterful ,tudor and his ,machiavelian  
minister was a usurpation tolerated  by 
a loyal people as their readiest and    
most effective way of getting  rid of   
the masterdom of the ,roman ,pope1 which
 in those days pressed like  an incubus 
on the ,european conscience2 it was     
invoking one devil to turn  out another1
 and was successful1 as such operations 
are wont to be1 in a  blundering sort of
 way4 ,but the worshipful ,sons of the  
,sun--for so they were betitled--on the 
banks of the  sweet-watered ,nile1 had  
no monstrous pretension of this kind1   
and could  not even have dreamt of it4  
,they did not sit on the throne to      
reform  religion1 but to maintain it4   
,neither in ,egypt nor in ,greece in    

those  days was any such thing known as 
the rights of the individual            
conscience2 but both kings and people   
received religious laws and  consuetudes
 as we do ,magna ,charta2 reasonable    
people1 in the long  course of the      
centuries before ,christ1 would no more 
dream of disturbing  the ancestral      
belief about the gods than they would   
think of influencing  the settled       
courses of the stars4 ,it was their very
 deep-rooted  permanency1 in the midst  
of the startling mutabilities to which  
human  affairs are liable1 that made the
 fundamental truths of religion so      
valuable to their souls2 and as to the  
particular forms under which  these     
fundamental truths might have been      
symbolised by venerable  tradition1 the 
people were not given to form themselves
 into hostile  camps on the ground of   
any local difference1 as we do in       
,scotland about  ecclesiastical conceits
 and crotchets2 and every devout        
,egyptian allowed  his neighbour without

 offence to pay sacred honours to a     
crocodile or a  cat1 convinced that     
these honours were equally legitimate   
and equally  beneficial whenever the    
sacred symbolism peculiar to the worship
 was  wisely understood4 ,collisions1   
therefore1 between ,church and ,state1  
or  between priesthood and kingship1    
such as signalised the medieval         
struggles of the ,popes and ,emperors1  
and the convulsions of our infant       
,protestant freedom in ,england1 could  
not take place amongst the ancient      
polytheists4 ,a wise ,socrates was      
equally willing with the most           
superstitious devotee1 when pious       
gratitude called1 to sacrifice a cock   
to sculapius2 and the  1 by the custom  
of the  ,state1 was the direction which 
he gave to all who inquired of him by   
what rites they ought to worship the    
gods4#ag ,only amongst the ,hebrews1  as
 a people in whose religious habitude   
polytheistic and monotheistic           
tendencies had never come to any        

decisive settlement of their inherent   
antagonism1 do ,i find a record of a    
very serious collision between  ,church 
and ,state1 after the fashion of our    
,german ,henries and  ,transalpine      
,hildebrands in the days of ,papal      
aggression4 ,scotsmen  familiar with    
their ,bibles will easily see that ,i   
allude to the case of  ,uzziah1 as      
recorded in #b ,chron4 xxvi4            
#af-bj3--;,but when he  was strong1 his 
heart was lifted up to his destruction3 
for he  transgressed against the ,lord  
his ,god1 and went into the temple of   
the  ,lord to burn incense upon the     
altar of incense4 ,and ,azariah the     
priest  went in after him1 and with him 
fourscore priests of the ,lord1 that    
were  valiant men3 ,and they withstood  
,uzziah the king1 and said unto him1 ,it
  appertaineth not unto thee1 ,uzziah1  
to burn incense unto the ,lord1 but  to 
the priests the sons of ,aaron1 that are
 consecrated to burn incense3  go out of
 the sanctuary2 for thou hast           

trespassed2 neither shall it be  for    
thine honour from the ,lord ,god4 ,then 
,uzziah was wroth1 and had a  censer in 
his hand to burn incense3 and while he  
was wroth with the  priests1 the leprosy
 even rose up in his forehead before the
 priests in  the house of the ,lord1    
from beside the incense altar4 ,and     
,azariah the  chief priest1 and all the 
priests1 looked upon him1 and1 behold1  
he was  leprous in his forehead1 and    
they thrust him out from thence2 yea1   
himself hasted also to go out1 because  
the ,lord had smitten him4    ,so much  
for ,polytheism4 ,that it should have   
served the spiritual needs  of the human
 heart so long--five thousand years at  
least1 from the  first ,pharaoh that    
looked down from his ,memphian pyramid  
on the mystic  form of the ,sphinx1 to  
the last ,roman ,emperor that sacrificed
 white  bulls from ,clitumnus at the    
altar of the ,capitoline ,jove--is proof
  sufficient that1 with all its faults1 
it was made of very serviceable  stuff2 

but creeds and kingdoms1 like           
individuals1 must die4 ,at the          
commencement of the eighth century of   
the ,roman ,republic heathenism was     
doomed in all ,romanised ,europe1 in all
 ,northern ,africa1 and in ,western     
,asia1 and that for four reasons4 ,the  
polytheistic religions of the ,old      
,world1 created as they were in the     
infancy of society1 no doubt under  the 
guidance of a healthy instinct of       
dependence on the ruling power of  the  
universe1 but in the main inspired by   
the emotions and formulated by  the     
imagination1 without the regulating     
control of reason1 could not  hope to   
hold their ground permanently in the    
face of that rich growth of  individual 
speculation which1 from the sixth       
century before ,christ1  spread with    
such ample ramification from ,asiatic   
and ,european ,greece  over the greater 
part of the civilised world4 ,if it was 
a necessity of  human beings at all     
times to have a religion1 it was a no   

less urgent  problem1 as the range of   
vision enlarged with the process of the 
ages1  to harmonise their theology with 
their thinking4 ,and if1 on the         
intellectual side1 the polytheistic     
religions of that cultivated age  were  
threatened with a collapse1 the sensuous
 element1 always strongly  represented  
in emotional faiths1 was in constant    
danger of being dragged  down into a    
disturbing and degrading sensuality4    
,then1 again1 when the  ,roman          
,republic1 in the age of ,augustus      
,csar1 had completed the range  of its  
world-wide conquests1 two social forces1
 unknown in the best ages  of ,greece   
and ,rome1 viz41 wealth and luxury1     
added their perilous  momentum to the   
corrupting elements which were already  
at work in the  bosom of the            
polytheistic system4 ,and in what a     
hot-bed of fermenting  putridity these  
evil leavens had resulted at this       
period1 the pages of  ,suetonius and    
many chapters in ,st4 ,paul are         

witnesses equally credible  and equally 
tragic4 ,add to all this the fact that  
the motley  intermixture of ideas and   
the inorganic confusion and forced      
assimilation of creeds which1           
accompanied the universal march of      
,roman  polity1 brought about a vague   
desire for some sort of religious unity 
which might run parallel with the       
political unity under which men lived2  
and this desire could be gratified only 
by placing in the foreground the  great 
truth of the unity of the ,supreme      
,being1 which to vindicate in           
pre-,christian ages had been the special
 mission of the ,hebrew race1 and  which
 the ,greeks themselves had not         
indistinctly indicated by placing  the  
moral government of the world and the   
issues of peace and war in the  hands of
 an omnipotent1 all-wise1               
all-beneficent1 and absolute ,jove4     
,these and the like considerations will 
lead the thoughtful student of  history 
easily to understand how the appearance 

of such an extraordinary  moral force as
 ,christianity was imperatively called  
for at the period  when our ,saviour1   
with ,his divine mission to a fallen    
race1 began ,his  preaching on the      
shores of a lonely ,galilean lake2 and  
the most  superficial glance at the     
contents of ,his preaching1 as          
contrasted with  the heathenism which it
 replaced1 will show how wonderful was  
the new  start which it gave to the     
moral life of the world1 and how        
effective  the spur which it applied to 
the march of the ages--a spur so  potent
 that we may1 without the slightest     
exaggeration1 say that to  ,christianity
 we owe almost exclusively whatever mild
 agencies tempered  the harshness and   
sweetened the sourness of crude         
government in the  ,middle ,ages2 and no
 less1 whatever hopeful elements are at 
the present  moment working among       
ourselves to save the ,british people1  
at a critical  stage of their social    
development1 from the decadence and the 

degradation that overtook the ,romans   
after their great military mission  had 
been fulfilled4 ,let us look            
articulately at the main constituents of
  that new leaven wherewith             
,christianity was equipped to regenerate
 the  world4 ,these ,i find to be--     
7#a47 ,by asserting in the strongest way
 the unity of ,god1 it at once cut  the 
root of the tendency in human nature to 
create arbitrary objects of  worship    
according to the lust or fancy of the   
worshipper1 and accustomed  the popular 
intelligence to a harmonised view of the
 various forces at  work in the         
constitution of a world so various and  
so complex as to a  superficial view    
readily to appear contradictory and     
irreconcilable4    7#b47 ,by preaching  
the unity of ,god1 not as an abstract   
metaphysical  idea1 but as what it      
really is1 a divine fatherhood1         
,christianity at one  stroke bound all  
men together as brethren and members of 
a common  family2 and in this way1 while

 in the relation of nation to nation it 
substituted apostleships of love for    
wars of subjugation1 in the  relation of
 class to class it established a sort of
 spiritual democracy1  in which the     
implied equality of all men as men      
gradually led to the  abolition of the  
abnormal institution of slavery1 on     
which all ancient  society rested4      
7#c47 ,christianity1 by starting        
religion as an independent moral        
association altogether separate from the
 ,state1 at once purified the  sphere of
 the ,church from corrupting elements1  
and confined the ,state  within those   
bounds which the nature of a civic      
administration  furnishes4 ,religion in 
this way was purified and elevated1     
because in  its nicely segregated sphere
 no secular considerations of any kind  
could  interfere to tone down its ideal1
 direct its current1 or lame its        
efficiency2 while the ,state1 on the    
other hand1 was saved from the folly  of
 intermeddling with matters which it did

 not understand1 and  professing        
principles which it did not believe4    
7#d47 ,christianity1 by planting itself 
emphatically at the very first  start1  
as one may see in the ,sermon on the    
,mount1 in direct antagonism  to        
ritualism1 ceremonialism1 and every     
variety of externalism1 and  placing the
 essence of all true religion in        
regeneration1 or1 as ,st4  ,paul has it1
 a new creature--i4e4 the legitimate    
practical  dominance of the spiritual   
and ethical above the sensual and carnal
 part  of our nature--broke down the    
middle wall of partition which had so   
often divided piety from morality2 so   
that now a man of culture might         
consistently give his right hand to     
religion and his left hand to           
philosophy1 an attitude which1 so long  
as ,homer was all that the ,greeks  had 
for a bible1 no devout ,hellenist could 
assume4    7#e47 ,by placing a firm     
belief in a future life as a guiding    
prospect in  the foreground1 the        

religion of ,christ gave the highest    
possible value  to human life1 and the  
strongest possible spur to perseverance 
in a  virtuous career4    7#f47 ,by     
appealing directly to the individual    
conscience1 and making  religion a      
matter of personal concern and of moral 
conviction1 it raised  the value of each
 individual as a responsible moral      
agent1 and placed  the dignity of every 
man as a social monad on the firmest    
possible  pedestal4    7#g47 ,by making 
love its chief motive power1 it supplied
 both the steam  and the oil of the     
social machine with a continuity of     
moral force never  dreamt of in any of  
the ancient societies--a force which no 
mere  socialistic schemes for organising
 labour1 no boards of health1 no        
political economy1 no mathematical      
abstractions1 no curiosities of         
physical science1 no democratic         
suffrages1 and no school inspectorships1
  though multiplied a thousand times1   
apart from this divine agency1 can  ever

 hope to achieve4    ,thus equipped with
 a moral armature such as the world had 
never yet  seen1 it might have been     
expected that the triumph of            
,christianity over  the ruins of        
heathenism would have been as complete  
and as pure from all  admixture of evil 
as it appears in the great evangelical  
manifesto  commonly called the ,sermon  
on the ,mount4 ,but it was not to be so2
 nor1  indeed1 created as human nature  
is1 could possibly be4 ,the miraculous  
virtue of the seed could not change the 
nature of the soil1 and the  sweet new  
wine put into old bottles could not fail
 to catch a taint from  the acid        
incrustations of the original liquor4   
,corruptia optimi  pessima is the great 
lesson which history everywhere teaches1
 and  nowhere with a more tragic        
impressiveness than in the history of   
the  ,christian ,church4 ,what a rank   
crop of old wives' fables1 endless      
genealogies1 ceremonial observances1    
worship of the letter1 voluntary        

humilities1 and disputations of science1
 falsely so called1 started into        
fretful array before the spiritual      
swordsmanship of ,st4 ,paul1 no reader  
of the grandest correspondence in the   
world need be told2 but it was not  so  
much from ,jewish drivel1 ,attic        
subtlety1 or ,corinthian sensualism1    
that the corrupting forces were to      
proceed which in the post-,apostolic    
age insinuated themselves like a poison 
into the pure blood of the  ,church4 ,it
 is from within that1 in moral matters1 
our great danger  flows3 if the kingdom 
of heaven is there1 the kingdom of hell 
is there  no less distinctly4 ,the      
doctrine of ,aristotle1 and the teaching
 of  history that ,,all ,,extremes ,,are
 ,,wrong1 is ever and ever repeated to  
passion-spurred mortals1 and ever and   
ever forgotten4 ,in the green  ardour of
 our worship we make an idol of our     
virtue2 the strong lines of  the        
particular excellence which we admire   
are stretched into a  caricature2 our   

sublime1 severed from all root of       
soundness1 reels over  into the         
ridiculous2 we revel and riot and get   
into an intoxicated  excitement with the
 fruit of our own fancy2 and work       
ourselves from one  stage of            
inflammation to another1 till1 as our   
great dramatist says1      ,goodness1   
grown to a pleurisy1    ,dies of its own
 too much4    ,the excess into which    
,christianity at its first start most   
naturally  fell was ultra-spiritualism1 
asceticism1 or by whatever name we may  
choose to characterise that high-flying 
system in morals which1 not  content    
with the regulation and subordination1  
aims at the violent  subjugation and1 as
 much as may be1 the total suppression  
of the  physical element in man4 ,how   
near this abuse lay is evident1 not only
  from the general tendency of every man
 to make an idol of his  distinctive    
virtue1 and of every sect to delight in 
the exaggeration of  its most           
characteristic feature1 but there are   

not a few passages of the  ,new         
,testament which plainly show that the  
masculine ,christianity of ,st4  ,paul  
had not more occasion to protest against
 those ,greek libertines who  turned the
 grace of ,god into licentiousness1 than
 against those  offshoots of the ,jewish
 ,essenes who professed a self-imposed  
arbitrary  religiosity 7,col4 ii4 #ah1  
#bc71 even forbidding to marry and      
commanding  to abstain from meats 7,i   
,tim4 iv4 #c74ah ,there is1 indeed1     
something  very seductive in these      
attempts to acquire a superhuman virtue1
 whether  they be made by a poet casting
 off the vulgar bonds that bind him to  
his  fellows1 like ,percy ,bysshe       
,shelley1 that he may feed upon sun-dews
 and  get drunk on transcendental       
imaginations1 or by a religious person1 
that  he may devote himself to spiritual
 exercises1 free from the disturbing    
influence of earthly passions4 ,such a  
renunciation of the flesh  gratifies his
 pride1 and has1 in fact1 the aspect of 

a heroic virtue in  a special line2     
while1 at the same time1 it is with some
 persons more  convenient1 inasmuch as  
when the resolution is once formed and a
 decided  start made1 it is always      
easier to abstain than to be moderate4  
,nevertheless1 all such ambitious       
schemes to ignore the body and to cut   
short the natural rights of our physical
 nature must fail4 ,it never can  be the
 virtue of a man to wish to be more than
 man2 and every religion  which sets a  
stamp of special approval on superhuman1
 and therefore  unhuman1 virtue1 erects 
a wall of separation between the gospel 
which it  preaches and the world which  
it should convert4 ,in fact1 it rather  
gives  up the world in despair1 and     
institutes an artificial school for the 
practice of certain select virtues1     
which only a few will practise1 and     
which1 when practised1 can only make    
those few unfit for the social  position
 which ,providence meant them to occupy4
    ,the second excess into which       

,christianity1 under the action of frail
  human nature1 easily ran was          
intolerance4 ,this intolerance1 as in   
the  previous case1 is only a virtue run
 to seed2 for1 as all asceticism is     
merely a misapplication or an           
exaggeration of the virtue of           
self-denial  and self-control1 so all   
intolerance1 or defect of kindly regard 
to the  contrary in opinion or conduct1 
is merely a crude or an impolitic       
extension of the imperative ought which 
lies at the root of all moral  truth1   
and specially of all monotheistic       
religions4 ,there is1 indeed1 a  certain
 intolerance in truth which will not    
allow it to hold parley with  error2 and
 every new religion with a lofty        
inspiration1 conscious of a  divine     
mission1 is necessarily aggressive3 it  
delights to pluck the  beard of         
ancestral authority1 and marches right  
into the presence of  hoary absurdity   
and consecrated stupidity4 ,no doubt    
there is a boundary  here which the     

divine wisdom of the ,son of ,god       
pointed at emphatically  enough when he 
was asked to bring down fire from heaven
 on those who  taught or did otherwise2 
but the evil spirit of self-importance  
which  prompted this request was too    
deeply engrained in human nature to be  
eradicated by a single warning of the   
great teacher4 ,this spirit of  arrogant
 individualism asserted itself at an    
early period in the  disorderly         
,corinthian ,church very much in the    
same way as it does  amongst ourselves1 
specially in ,scotland1 at the present  
moment--viz4  by the multiplication of  
sects1 the exaggeration of petty        
distinctions1  and the fomenting of     
petty rivalries1--,now this ,i say1 that
 every one  of you saith1 ,i am of      
,paul2 and ,i of ,apollos2 and ,i of    
,cephas2 and ,i  of ,christ 7,i ,cor4 i4
 #ab71--;a spirit which the apostle most
 strongly  denounces as proceeding      
manifestly from the overrated importance
 of  some secondary specialty1 or some  

accessory condition1 of the body of     
believers1 who thus clubbed themselves  
into a denomination1 and  resulting in  
an unkindly divergence from the common  
highway of  evangelic life1 and an      
intolerant desire to override one       
,christian  brother with the private    
shibboleth of another1 and to stamp him 
with  the seal of their own conceit4    
,the field in which this intolerant     
,spirit  displayed itself was of course 
different1 according to the influences  
at  work at the time2 but there is one  
field which1 if church history is to    
teach us anything1 we are bound to      
emphasise strongly1 that is the field   
of dogma2 for1 if there be any influence
 that has worked more powerfully  to    
discredit ,christianity than even the   
immoral lives and selfish maxims  of    
professing ,christians1 it is the       
fixation and glorification and          
idol-worship of the dogma4 ,no doubt    
,christianity is far from being that    
system1 or rather no system1 of vague   

and cloudy sentiment to which some      
persons would reduce it3 it has bones1  
and a firm framework2 it stands  upon   
facts1 and is not without doctrines1 but
 it does not make a parade  of          
doctrines2 and the faith which it       
enjoins1 as is manifest from the        
definition and historical examples in   
,hebrews xi41 is not an  intellectual   
faith in the doctrines of a metaphysical
 theology1 but a  living faith in the   
moral government of the world and a     
heroic conduct  in life1 as the         
necessary expression of such faith4 ,the
 mere  intellectual orthodoxy on which  
the ,christian ,church has1 by the      
tradition of centuries1 placed such a   
high value1 is1 in the apostolical      
estimate1 plainly worth nothing2 for the
 devils also believe and  tremble1 as   
,st4 ,james has it1 or as our ,lord     
himself said in the  striking summation 
to the ,sermon on the ,mount1 ,not they 
who call me  ,lord1 ,lord1 shall enter  
into the kingdom1 but they who do the   

will of  my ,father who is in heaven4   
,by their works1 not by their creed1 ye 
shall  know them4#ai ,nevertheless1 the 
exaltation of the dogma has always  been
 a favourite tendency of the ,church1   
and the besetting sin of the  clergy4   
,with the mass of the people1 to swear  
to a curious creed is  always more easy 
than to lead a noble life2 while to the 
clerical  intellect it must always give 
a secret satisfaction to think that the 
science of theology1 which is the       
furthest removed from the handling of   
the great mass of men1 has in their     
hands assumed a well-defined shape1  of 
which the articulations are as subtle   
and as necessary as the steps  of       
solution in a difficult algebraic       
problem4 ,the late ,baron ,bunsen1 for  
many years ,prussian ambassador in      
,london1 one of the most large-minded   
and large-hearted of ,christian men1 in 
the preface to his great ,bibel  werk1  
devotes a special chapter to ,dogmatism 
as a vice of the clerical  mind leading 

to false views of ,scripture2 over and  
above what he calls  the modern revival 
of scholastic theology in ,germany1 he  
enumerates four  dominant epochs of     
ecclesiastical life in which this       
anti-evangelical  tendency has          
prominently asserted itself4 ,these     
are--7#a7 the dogmatism  of the great   
,church councils in the reigns of       
,constantine1 ,theodosius1  and         
,justinian2 7#b7 the medieval           
scholasticism of the ,western ,church2  
7#c7  the ,protestant scholasticism of  
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries2
  7#d7 the dogmatism of the ,jesuits1   
,perron1 ,bossuet1 and others4 ,had this
  dogmatic tendency of the ,church      
contented itself with tabulating a      
curious scheme of divine mysteries1     
though it might justly have been  deemed
 impertinent1 and here and there a      
little presumptuous1 yet it  might have 
been condoned lightly as a sort of      
clerical recreation in  hours which     
might have been worse employed2 but it  

could not be content  with this3 it     
passed at once into action1 and in this 
guise prevailed to  deface the fair     
front of the ,church with gashes of more
 bloody and  barbarous inhumanity than  
ever marked the altars of the ,baals and
  ,molochs of the most savage heathen   
superstitions4    ,another monstrous    
abuse born out of the bosom of the      
,church1 though not  so directly1 is    
,sacerdotalism4 ,i say not so directly1 
because the genius  of ,christianity is 
so distinctly negative of all priesthood
 that1 had  there been even an express  
prohibition of it1 its contradiction to 
the  whole tone of the ,new ,testament  
could not have been more apparent4 ,not 
more certainly are the sacrifices of the
 ,jewish law abolished in the  sacrifice
 of ,christ1 according to the ,pauline  
theology1 than the  ,levitical          
priesthood stands abolished in the      
priesthood of ,christ and in  the       
priesthood of the individual members of 
his spiritual body 7#b ,peter  v4 #i74bj

 ,whence1 then1 came our ,christian     
priesthood8 ,partly1 ,i  suspect1 as the
 ,jewish ,sabbath was interpolated into 
the ,christian  ,lord's ,day1 from the  
nearness and external similitude of the 
two  things--the presbyter being to the 
outward eye pretty much the same  as the
 priest was to the ,jewish worshippers2 
partly from the  self-importance which  
is the besetting sin of all bodies of   
men  prominently planted in the social  
platform1 and which induces them to     
magnify their vocation1 and in doing so 
stilt their professional pride  up into 
the attitude of a very stately and a    
very reputable virtue4 ,the  proper     
functions of the office-bearers of the  
early ,christian ,church1  call them    
overseers1 bishops1 or what you will1   
were so honourable and  so beneficent   
that1 especially with an unlearned and  
unthinking people1  the reverential     
respect due to the actors might easily  
pass into a  superstitious belief in the
 mystical virtue of the operations of   

which  they were the conductors2 and    
this ready submission on the part of the
  people1 holding out a willing hand to 
the natural self-importance and         
potentiated self-estimate of the        
clerical body1 resulted in a            
four-square system of sacerdotal        
control1 sacerdotal virtue1 and         
sacerdotal influence1 to which we shall 
search for a parallel in vain  through  
all the annals of ,asiatic and ,african 
heathenism4 ,nay1 ,i can  readily       
believe that those who can find a       
priesthood in the genius of  the gospel 
and the apostolic institution of the    
,christian ,church1 will  naturally be  
inclined to maintain that the superior  
power of the  ,gregories1 ,bonifaces1   
and ,innocents of the medieval ,church1 
as  contrasted with anything that we    
read or know of the ,egyptian1 ,hebrew1 
and ,roman pontiffs1 is the natural and 
necessary outcome of the superior       
excellence of the ,christian religion2  
and this1 no doubt1 is the only         

comfortable belief on which all forms of
 ,christian sacerdotalism can  repose4  
,so much for the corruptions of the     
,christian religion proceeding from     
what1 in theological language1 might be 
called the indwelling sin of the        
,church1 unstimulated by any strong     
external seduction4 ,but this  seduction
 came4 ,after three centuries of        
hardship1 manfully endured in  the      
school of adversity1 the more severe    
trial of prosperity had to be  gone     
through4 ,the ,church1 which had been   
declared to be not of this  world1 and  
had stood face to face with the greatest
 political power the  world ever knew in
 a position of sublime moral isolation1 
was now  adopted by the ,state1 and     
formed a bond of the most intimate      
connection  with its hereditary         
persecutors4 ,the starting-point of the 
oldest  heathen social attitude1 the    
identity of ,church and ,state1 seemed  
to be  recalled2 and a ,justinian on the
 shores of the ,bosphorus seemed as     

really a head of the ,church as a ,menes
 or an ,amenophis on the banks of  the  
,nile4 ,but under the outward likeness a
 radical difference lay  concealed4 ,as 
an essentially ethical society1 with its
 own special  credentials1 its separate 
history1 and its independent triumph1   
the  ,christian ,church might form an   
alliance with a purely secular          
institution like the ,state1 but it     
could not be absorbed or identified     
with it4 ,that alliance might be made   
beneficially in various ways and on     
various terms2 the civil magistrate     
might be proud to be called the  friend 
and the brother of the ,christian       
bishop1 or he might humble  himself to  
be its servant1 but he never could be   
its master4 ,the  alliance therefore    
was1 as it ought to be1 all in favour of
 the  spiritual body2 the ,church gained
 the civil power to execute its decrees 
and to patronise its missions2 but a    
,christian ,state could never gain  the 
right to dictate the creed or perform   

the functions of the ,church4  ,the idea
 that there is anything absolutely      
sinful1 or necessarily  pernicious1 in  
the conception of an alliance between   
the ,church and the  ,state1 is one of  
those hyperconscientious crotchets of   
modern ,british  sectarianism at which  
the ,muse of history can only smile4    
,there can be  no greater sin in an     
,established ,church than in an         
,established  ,university or an         
,established ,royal ,academy4 ,religion 
and ,science and ,art  have their       
separate and well-marked provinces1 in  
the administration of  which they may   
wisely seek for the co-operation1 though
 they will always  jealously avoid the  
dictation1 of the ,state4 ,but1 though  
there could be  no sin in the ,church   
receiving the right hand of fellowship  
from the  ,state1 there might be danger1
 and that of a very serious description4
  ,nothing strikes a man so much in the 
reading of the ,new ,testament as the   
little respect which it pays to riches  

and the pomp and pride of life1  and    
worldly honours and dignities of all    
kinds4 ,how can ye  believe who receive 
honour one from another8 is a sentence  
that cuts very deep into the connection 
between the ,church and ,state1  which  
might readily mean the alliance of a    
secular institution1  delighting in pomp
 and parade and glittering show1 with a 
religion of  which1 like the philosophy 
of the porch1 the most prominent feature
 was  unworldliness1 humility1 and      
spirituality4 ,here unquestionably was  
danger3 an alliance in which1 as in an  
ill-consorted marriage1 the lower       
element was as likely to drag down the  
higher as the higher to lift up  the    
lower4 ,and so it actually happened4    
,the ,church was secularised4           
,alongside of the hundred and one       
monkeries of stolid asceticism and the  
hundred and one mummeries of sacerdotal 
ceremonialism1 there grew up in  the    
process of the ages a consolidated      
hierarchy of such concentrated1         

secular1 and sacred potency that the    
loftiest crowned heads of ,europe       
ducked beneath its shadow and quailed   
beneath its ban4 ,to understand  this1  
we must take note of the change by which
 the scattered presbyters  of the       
primitive ,church were gradually massed 
into a strong aristocracy1  which in due
 season1 after the fashion of the       
,state1 found its key-stone  in an      
ecclesiastical monarch4 ,it was the     
wisdom of the founders of the           
,christian ,church not to lay down any  
fixed norm of official  administration1 
but to leave all the external machinery 
of a purely  spiritual institution free 
to adapt itself to the existing forms of
  society as time and circumstance and  
national genius might demand4 ,the  form
 of government natural to the ,church in
 its earliest stages was  democratic1   
with a certain loose1 ill-defined       
element of presidential  aristocracy4   
,but in an age which had bidden a long  
farewell both to the  spirit and the    

form of democracy in civil              
administration1 such a form of          
government in the ,church could not hope
 to maintain itself4 ,under the         
influence of the magnificent autocracy  
of ,rome in its decadence1 the  simple  
overseer or superintendent 77 of a      
remote  provincial congregation of      
believers gradually grew into a         
metropolitan  dignitary1 and culminated 
in the wielder of a secular sovereignty 
sitting in council with the most        
influential monarchs of ,europe4 ,the   
epiphany of an absolute monarch with a  
triple tiara on his head when           
contrasted with the simplicity and      
unworldliness of the primitive  bishops 
wears such a strange look that it has   
been judged1 especially in  ,protestant 
countries1 with a more sweeping severity
 than it deserved4 ,as  a mere form of  
government1 no man can give any good    
reason why the  ,church should not be   
governed by a monarch as well as the    
,state2 the  bishop of ,rome1 as supreme

 head of the body of bishops all over   
,christendom1 and guided by them as his 
habitual advisers1 was at least  as     
natural and as reasonable a guide for   
the direction of the conscience  of     
,christendom in the ,middle ,ages as the
 ,council of ,protestants who at  ,dort1
 in the year #afah1 condemned the       
greatest theologian and jurist of  the  
day to pine in a ,dutch prison1 or the  
,assembly of ,divines in  ,westminster  
who empowered the supreme magistrate to 
suppress the right  of free thought in  
the breasts of all persons who were not 
prepared to  set their seal to the      
damnatory dogmas of extreme ,calvinism4 
,nay1 so far  from there being anything 
anti-,christian or anti-social in the   
,popedom  as a form of ,church          
government1 we may safely say that in   
ages of  general turmoil1 confusion1 and
 violence1 the admitted supremacy of the
  visible head of a church founded on   
principles of peace and conciliation    
could not act otherwise than            

beneficially4 ,but when the person in   
whom  this moral supremacy was vested   
became the acknowledged head of a       
secular princedom1 the case was altered4
 ,it was an unhappy day for the         
,christian ,church1 the most unhappy day
 perhaps in its whole eventful  history1
 when ,pepin1 the ambitious minister of 
the last of the  ,merovingian kings1 in 
the year #gea1 contrived to get out of  
,pope ,zachary  a spiritual sanction for
 his usurption of his master's throne4  
,from that moment the ,church was doomed
 to a blazing and brilliant1 but a  sure
 career of downfall4 ,the spiritual     
abetter of a secular crime had to  be   
rewarded for his pious subserviency3 he 
received the exarchate of  ,ravenna1 and
 became a temporal prince4 ,from that   
time forward the head  of the ,christian
 ,church1 who ought to have stood before
 the world as a  model of all purity1   
truthfulness1 peacefulness1 and ethical 
nobility1  was condemned to serve two   
masters1 ,god and ,mammon1 unworldly    

morality  and worldly power1 which was  
impossible4 ,from this time forward     
there  was not a single court intrigue  
in ,europe1 nor a single plot of any    
knot  of conspirators1 into whose       
counsels the supreme bishop of the      
gospel of  peace might not be dragged1  
or1 what is worse1 into whose lawless   
and  ungodly machinations he might not  
be officially thrusting himself1 in     
order to preserve some accessory        
interest or gain some paltry advantage  
altogether unconnected with his         
spiritual function4 ,if there is any one
  element1 always of course excepting   
the element of gross sensuality and     
absolute villainy1 which more than      
another is adverse to the spirit of     
,evangelical ,christianity1 it is the   
element of court intrigue1 political    
contention1 and party feuds4 ,in this   
region love1 which is the life of  the  
regenerate soul1 cannot breathe2 truth  
is put under ban2 lies  flourish2       
conscience is smothered2 and low        

expediency everywhere takes  the place  
of lofty principle4 ,so it fared not    
seldom with the ,popes2 and  much worse 
in the last degree2 for wickedness1 like
 everything that  lives1 must live by   
growing1 and the seed of secular        
ambition which was  sown in lies1 will  
grow to robbery1 blossom in lust1 and   
ripen into  murder4 ,this anywhere1 but 
specially in ,italy1 where from the time
 of  the patrician ,scipio1 who         
suppressed the elder ,gracchus1 the hot 
contenders for absolute power1 in the   
eager pursuit of their object1  have    
never shrank from the free use of the   
assassin's dagger and  the poisoner's   
bowl4 ,in fact1 if the love of mere     
animal pleasure  makes a man a beast1 it
 is the love of power that translates   
him into a  fiend2 and of this sort of  
human fiends ,italian history presents  
as  appalling a register as can be found
 anywhere in the annals of our race2    
and at the top of this register stand   
some of the ,popes1 whose names are  as 

prominent in the story of ecclesiastical
 ,rome as those of ,nero1  ,domitianus1 
and ,heliogabalus are in the story of   
the imperial decadence4  ,when we cast a
 rapid glance--for it deserves nothing  
more--on  the revolting record of the   
,roman ,popes in the age immediately    
preceding  the ,reformation1 we hear the
 solemn voice of history repeating again
 the  maxim above quoted--corruptio     
optimi pessima3 when priests  are bad1  
they are very bad2 when the salt of the 
gospel1 which was meant  to preserve the
 moral life of society from putrescence1
 has lost its  savour1 if not cast out1 
it is worse than useless--it becomes a  
poison4    ,before proceeding to the    
modern history of the ,church1 we ought 
to  emphasise in a special paragraph the
 fact that one unfortunate result of    
the incorporation of the ,church with   
the ,state was that the ,church was  now
 in a position to request the ,state to 
lend its potent aid in  establishing the
 true doctrine of the gospel and        

suppressing all  heresies4 ,that the    
,state had a right to do so no man      
doubted2 even in  democratic ,greece    
free-thinking philosophers1 such as     
,anaxagoras1  ,diogenes1 and ,socrates1 
were banished or suffered death on      
charges of  impiety2 and though1 no     
doubt1 political elements1 as in the    
case of the  ,arminians in ,holland1    
worked along with the strictly religious
 feeling  to set the brand of atheism on
 those men1 there cannot be any doubt   
that  where the ,state and the ,church  
were so essentially one1 persecutions   
for  unauthorised religious observances 
were perfectly legitimate1 as indeed    
the memorable case of the forcible      
suppression of the ,dionysiac           
mysteries1 more than two hundred years  
before the earliest of the  ,christian  
martyrdoms in ,rome1 abundantly         
testifies4 ,but there was a  double     
horror in the religious persecution1    
after the establishment of              
,christianity1 now inaugurated for the  

first time--the horror of a  conduct so 
diametrically opposed to the spirit and 
the express  injunction of the ,founder 
of the ,gospel1 in whose defence it was 
practised1 and the horror also that what
 was now violently suppressed  was not1 
as in the case of the ,dionysiac        
mysteries1 rather immoral  practices    
than erroneous beliefs1 but simply and  
nakedly metaphysical  objections against
 metaphysical propositions in theology1 
which1 whether  true or false1 could not
 be made the subject of ,state action1  
or1 in my  opinion at least1 of         
ecclesiastical censure1 without a       
flagrant  violation of that law of      
charity which a large philosophy and a  
catholic  ,christianity equally enjoin4 
,the banishment of ,arius to ,illyria1  
as the  civil consequence of the formal 
signature of the ,trinitarian creed by  
the decision of the ,council of ,nice in
 the year #cbe1 though it made no  small
 noise in the world in those days1 was a
 very innocent overture to  the         

barbarous dramas of fire and blood that 
were in after ages to be  enacted on    
this evil precedent4 ,there are many    
grand places rich with  historical      
lessons in ,london1 and not a few sad   
ones2 but the saddest of  all is        
,smithfield4 ,i can never pace the      
stones of this memorable site1  where   
our noblest ,scot1 ,sir ,william        
,wallace1 was disembowelled and         
quartered to gratify the vengeance of an
 imperious ,norman1 without  thinking of
 the sad fate of the young and beautiful
 ,anne ,askew4 ,this  lady1 the daughter
 of a knight of good family in          
,lincolnshire1 under  some of those     
stimulants of thought which were        
stirring up the stagnant  traditions of 
medieval piety1 had been led to conceive
 serious doubts  with regard to the     
,scripture authority for some of the    
most universally  received doctrines of 
the ,roman ,church4 ,this pious         
scepticism coming to  the ears of       
certain leading persons in ,church and  

,state1 who1 after the  example of the  
,nicean doctors1 considered it a sacred 
duty in matters  pertaining to religion 
to tolerate no contradiction1 first     
brought this  lady before the ,lord     
,chancellor1 who tore her limb from limb
 on the  rack1 because she would not say
 that she believed what she could not   
believe without denying her senses1 and 
then dragged her to the  blood-stained  
pavement of ,smithfield1 where she was  
girt with gunpowder  bags and fenced    
with faggots1 to be burnt to death1 as  
if the ,god of  ,christians were a      
second and enlarged edition of the old  
,moloch of  ,palestine4 ,and what was   
her offence--beautiful1 young1 pure1 and
  truthful woman1 not more than         
twenty-five years of age--that she      
should be treated in this worse than    
cannibalic style in the name of the     
gospel of ,jesus ,christ8 ,simply that  
,henry ,,viii41 in that style of        
insolent masterdom which he showed so   
royally1 and conceiting himself1  like a

 ,scotch fool who came after him1 to be 
a considerable theologian1  assumed the 
right to put the stamp of absolute      
kingship on the doctrine  of the ,church
 that a piece of bread1 over which a    
priestly benediction  had been          
pronounced by a priest1 was by the      
mystical virtue of this  benediction    
changed into flesh1 while the fair young
 lady persisted in  seeing nothing but  
bread4 ,let it be granted that the lady 
was in the  wrong and the churchly      
tradition right1 it never could be right
 to tear  her flesh to shreds and to    
burn her bones to ashes because she held
 an  opinion which1 to say the least of 
it1 looked as like the truth as its     
opposite4 ,how sad1 how sorrowfully sad1
 and what a commentary on what we  are  
ever and anon tempted to call poor1     
pitiful1 prideful1 and  presumptuous    
human nature1 that ,christianity had at 
that time been more  than fifteen       
hundred years in the world1 sitting in  
high places1 and  walking with triumphal

 banners over the earth1 and yet neither
 the  princes of the earth nor the      
rulers of the ,church should have       
retained  even a slight echo of that    
reproof from a mild ,master to a zealous
  disciple1 to the effect that no man   
who knew the spirit of the divine       
religion which ,he taught1 would ever   
propose to bring fire down from  heaven 
or up from hell to consume the          
unbeliever4    ,such enormities in the  
doctrine and practice of the ,church1 as
 we have  indicated rather than         
described1 could lead to only one of two
  issues--,reform or ,revolution4 ,the  
change brought about1 though  contenting
 itself with the milder name1 was in    
fact the more drastic  procedure4 ,the  
,european reformation of ,martin ,luther
 in #aeag was a  revolution in the      
,church1 much more radical and much more
 worthy of so  strong a designation than
 the political revolution of #afhh in   
,great  ,britain4 ,it is needless to    
recapitulate the causes of offence2 they

 were  only too patent--insolence1      
secularity1 sensuality1 venality1       
idleness1 vice1 and worthlessness of    
every kind in the ,church2 but there    
were two causes which1 in addition to   
corruption from within1 tended to  open 
the ears of ,christendom largely to the 
cry for ,church reform4 ,these  were the
 stir in the intellectual movement from 
the days of the author  of the ,divine  
,comedy downwards1 enforced by the      
invention of printing in  the middle of 
the fifteenth century1 which was amply  
sufficient to  become a danger to even a
 much less vulnerable creed than that   
which had  satisfied the crude demands  
of medieval intelligence2 and1 in the   
second  place1 the hostility which the  
insolence and ambition of ,churchmen had
  roused in the secular magistracy--that
 is1 not only the monarch and  his      
official ministers1 but the great body  
of the higher nobility who  found       
themselves ousted from their place in   
the familiar counsels of the  monarch by

 the advocates and ambassadors of a     
foreign potentate4 ,thus  the two best  
friends of every ,established ,church in
 its normal state  were converted into  
enemies2 and the natural indignation of 
the common  people at the licentious    
lives and gross venality of the clergy  
was  stimulated into an explosion by the
 desire of the secular dignities to     
curb the pride of the clergy1 and1 it   
might lightly happen also1 to rob  them 
of part of their overgrown wealth1      
nominally for the public good1  really  
for the aggrandisement of the ,crown and
 the nobility4 ,the  shameless nepotism 
of ,pope ,sixtus ,,iv41 the flagitious  
lives and  abhorrent practices of the   
,borgias1 more fit for a sensational    
melodrama  in the lowest ,parisian      
theatre than for the home of a          
,christian bishop2  the military rage of
 a ,julius1 who turned the ,church of   
,christ into a  travelling camp and the 
bishop's crozier into a soldier's       
sword2 the literary dilettantism of the 

,court of ,leo ,x41 more eager to       
distinguish itself by the elegant       
trimming of ,latin versicles than by    
apostolic zeal and ,christian           
purity1--all this1 so long as it        
disported itself on ,italian ground1 the
 aristocracy of ,england and  ,scotland 
might have continued to look on with    
indifference2 but that the  son of      
anybody or nobody1 in a county of       
unvalued clodhoppers1 should  jostle    
them in the antechamber of the monarch1 
and claim precedence in  the hall of    
audience1 simply because he was the     
supple instrument of an  insolent       
,italian priest1 this was not to be     
borne2 and so the  ,reformation came1   
with the mob of the lowest classes1 the 
mass of the  respectable middle classes1
 the most influential of the nobility1  
and  the power of the ,crown1 all in    
full cry against the ecclesiastical fox4
  ,the revolution thus volcanically     
effected1 and known in history under    
the name of ,protestantism1 meant simply

 the right of every individual  member  
of the ,christian ,church to take the   
principles and the practice  of his     
,church directly from the original      
records of the ,church1 without  the    
intervention of any body of authorised  
interpreters2 and the  necessary product
 of this right when exercised was first 
to declare  certain practices and       
doctrines that had grown up in the      
,church through  long centuries to be   
unauthorised departures from the        
original  simplicity and purity of the  
gospel2 and1 further1 to deny that there
  existed in the ,christian ,church1 as 
originally constituted1 any class or    
caste of men enjoying the exclusive     
privilege to perform sacred  functions1 
and endowed with a divine virtue to     
perform sacramental  miracles by their  
consecrating touch1--in a word1 that    
there was no  priesthood1 properly so   
called1 in the ,reformed ,christian     
,church4 ,nor is  this doctrine1 as some
 may think1 the teaching only of the    

,helvetic  confession1 what certain     
persons have been fond to call extreme  
,protestantism2 for1 though the word    
priest has been retained in the         
,english prayerbook as a minister in    
sacred things of a particular grade  and
 exercising a particular function1 the  
attempt made by ,archbishop  ,laud and  
the ,romanising party in the ,reformed  
,church of ,england to  retain in the   
bosom of the ,anglican ,church the ideas
 which the ancient  ,jews and the       
,romish ,christians attached to the word
 priest1  proved a signal failure2 and  
for the sacerdotal despotism which it   
implied1 as well as for the secular     
despotism which the priest advised  and 
encouraged the unfortunate king to      
assert1 the adviser and the  advised    
justly lost their heads4 ,of all the    
teachings of ,church history1  from the 
,waldenses in the twelfth century down  
to the present hour1  there is nothing  
more certain than this1 that between    
,popery and  ,protestantism there is no 

middle term possible4 ,they may agree1  
in fact  they do agree1 in many         
essential things1 and in a few          
accidental2 but in  the fundamental     
principle of ,church administration they
 are  diametrically opposed4 ,the       
principle of the one is sacerdotal      
authority1  absolute and unqualified2   
the principle of the other is individual
 and  congregational liberty4 ,the one  
form of polity is a close oligarchy1 the
  other either a free democracy or an   
aristocracy more or less penetrated  by 
a democratic spirit4    ,the practical  
outcome of this great ,protestant       
movement1 in the midst of  which we     
live1 cannot fail to a reasonable eye to
 appear in the highest  degree          
satisfactory4 ,never was the life of the
 ,christian ,church at once  more       
intensely earnest and more expansively  
distributive than at the  present       
moment4 ,on the one hand1 the ,roman    
,church1 wisely taught by the           
experience of the past1 though          

obstinately cleaving to that stout      
conservatism of doctrine and ritual     
inherent in the very bones of all       
sacerdotal religions1 has been1 in the  
main1 studious to avoid those  causes of
 offence from which the great rupture   
proceeded4 ,on the other  hand1 the     
,protestant ,churches1 shaken free from 
the distracting  influence of sacerdotal
 assumption and secular ambition1 have  
found  themselves in a condition to     
permeate all classes of society with a  
moral virtue1 of whose regenerative     
action ,plato and ,socrates1 in their   
best hours1 could not have dreamed4     
,some people1 while gladly admitting    
the immense amount of social good that  
is done by the various sections  of the 
,protestant ,church1 never cease to sigh
 for a lost ecclesiastical  unity1 and  
to lament the unseemly strifes that     
arise among those that  should be       
possessed by one spirit and strive      
together for a common end4  ,but the    
persons who speak thus are either       

sentimental weaklings1 being            
,protestants1 or are ,romanists and     
sacerdotalists in their heart4 ,variety 
is the law of nature in the moral no    
less than in the physical world2  and   
the absorption of all sects into one    
results in a stagnation which  will     
never be found amongst moral beings1    
unless when produced by  weakness of    
vital force from within1 or unnatural   
suppression from  above4 ,the two       
dominant types of church polity         
recognised in this  country since the   
,reformation--the ,episcopal and the    
,presbyterian--of  which the one boasts 
a more aristocratic intellectual        
culture1 and the  other a more fervid   
and forcible popular action1 may well be
 allowed to  exist together on a mutual 
understanding of giving and taking      
whatever  is best in each1 and thus1 in 
apostolic language1 provoking one       
another  to love and to good works4     
,competition is for the public benefit  
as much  in churches as in trades4      

,dissent from any dominant body1 even   
though it  may proceed from the         
exaggerated importance given to a       
secondary matter1  will always produce  
the good result that the dominant body  
will thereby  be stirred to greater     
activity and greater watchfulness2 so   
that1 in  this view1 we may lay it down 
as one of the great lessons of history  
that the best form of church government 
is a strong establishment  qualified by 
a strong dissent4 ,as to the proposals  
which have in recent  times been made   
for the formal separation of ,church and
 ,state1 they bear  on their face more  
of a political than of a religious      
significance4  ,impartial history offers
 no countenance to the notion that      
,established  ,churches1 when well      
flanked by dissent1 and in an age when  
the spiritual  ruler has ceased to make 
the arm of the ,state the tool of       
intolerance1  are contrary either to    
piety or to policy2 and in the desire so
 loudly  expressed at election contests 

to lay violent hands on the valuable    
organism of church agency existing in   
this country1 the venerated  inheritance
 of many ages of patriotic struggle1 the
 student of history1  with a charitable 
allowance for the best motives in not a 
few1 feels  himself constrained to      
suspect in all such movements no small  
admixture  of sectarian jealousy1 fussy 
religiosity1 and domineering democracy4 
,christianity1 of course1 stands in no  
need of an ,established ,church2        
religion existed for three hundred years
 in the church without any ,state       
connection1 and may exist again2 but    
,christianity does1 above all  things1  
abhor the stirring up of strife betwixt 
,church and ,church from  motives of    
jealousy1 envy1 or greed2 and1 along    
with the highest  philosophy and the    
most far-sighted political wisdom1 must 
protest in  the strongest terms against 
the abolishing of a useful ethical      
institution to gratify the insane lust  
of levelling in a mere numerical        

majority4    ,the ,church of the future1
 whether established or disestablished1 
or1 as  ,i think best1 both together1   
provoking one another to love and to    
good  works1 has a great mission before 
it1 if it keep sharply in view the two  
lessons which the teaching of eighteen  
centuries so eloquently enforces4  ,our 
evangelists must remove from the van of 
their evangelic force all  that sharp   
fence of metaphysical subtlety and      
scholastic dogma1 which1  being         
ostentatiously paraded in creeds and    
catechisms1 has given more  just offence
 to those without than edification to   
those within the  ,church2 the gospel   
must be presented to the world with all 
that catholic  breadth1 kindly humanity1
 and popular directness which were its  
boast  before it was laced and screwed  
into artificial shapes by the decrees of
  intolerent councils1 and the          
subtleties of ingenious schoolmen4 ,and1
  again1 they must not allow the gospel 
to be handled1 what is too often  the   

case1 as a mere message of hope and     
comfort in view of a future  world2 but 
they must make it walk directly into the
 complex relations of  modern society1  
and think that it has done nothing till 
the ideal of  sentiment and conduct     
which it preached on ,sunday has been   
more or less  practised on ,monday4 ,in 
fact1 there ought to be less vague      
preaching on  ,sunday1 and more specific
 and direct application through the week
 of  gospel principle in various spheres
 of the intellectual and moral life  of 
the community4 ,if1 in addition to this1
 our prophets of the pulpit  take care  
to keep abreast of the intellectual     
movement of the age1 so as  not only to 
stir the world in sermons1 but to guide 
them in the wisdom  of daily life1 they 
have nothing to fear from all the windy 
artillery  that the speculations of a   
soulless physical science1 the          
imaginations  of a dreamy socialism1 or 
the dogmatism of a cold philosophical   
formalism1 can bring to bear upon them4 

,let them grapple bravely with  all     
social problems1 and prove whether      
,christianity1 which has done so  much  
to purify the motives of individuals1   
may not be able also to put a  more     
effective steam into the machinery of   
society4 ,if they shall fail  here1 they
 will fail gloriously1 having done their
 best4 ,it is not given  to any people1 
however great1 to solve all problems4   
,when ,great ,britain  shall have played
 out her part1 there will be scope      
enough in the  process of the ages for  
another stout social worker to place the
 cornice  on the edifice of which she   
was privileged to raise the pillars4    
,the ,end        ,,footnotes4           
,footnote #a    ,plutarch conjugalia    
prcepta init4      ,footnote #b    ,the 
word clan is the familiar1 well-known   
,celtic word for children4              
,footnote #c    ,nulli alii sunt homines
 qui talem in liberos habeant potestatem
 qualem  nos habemus4 ,institut4 i4 #i1 
#b4      ,footnote #d    ,thucyd4 ii4   

#ae4 ,the ,athenians went further1 and  
attributed to the son  of geus the      
creation of their democracy 7,pausan41  
,att4 iii472 but  this1 of course1 was  
only the popular instinct1 everywhere   
active1 which  loves to heap all graces 
upon the head of a favourite hero4      
,footnote #e    ,see the words of the   
,latin league1 ,dionys4 ,hal4 vi4 #ie1  
contrasting  strongly with the original 
collection of autonomous villages       
described  by ,strabo1 v4 #bbi1   4     
,footnote #f    ,the influence of the   
great city in centralising the villages 
and making  a state possible was in     
,greece philologically stereotyped by   
the fact  that for city and state the   
language had only one word1 4 ,the  city
 was the state in the same sense that   
the head is the body1 for  without the  
head no living body could be4           
,footnote #g           4--,aristot4     
,pol4 ii4 #i4  ,st4 ,paul also          
frequently in the ,epistles1 and        
,clemens ,romanus 7,oxon4  #afcc1 p4    

#dh7 refers to the military profession  
as a great school of  manly virtue4     
,footnote #h    ,spalding's ,italy1 ii4 
p4 #bhd4      ,footnote #i    ,on       
,method in ,political ,science4         
,footnote #aj    ,sismondi1 ,etudes sur 
l'economie politique1 ,essai iv4        
,footnote #aa    ,with which sentence   
,mr4 ,freeman agrees4 ,comparative      
,politics1  ,lecture iii4 p4 #gh4       
,footnote #ab    ,this parallel has been
 noticed by the thoughtful ,germans2 see
  particularly ,zacharia ,sulla1 i4 #dj4
      ,footnote #ac                     
3         4--,xen4 ,mem4 i4 #d4         
,footnote #ad    ,iliad1 iii4 #bga2 and 
compare ,virgil1 neid1 iii4 #hj4        
,footnote #ae    ,xen41 ,rep4 ,lac41 i4 
#ae2 ,herod1 vi4 #ef4      ,footnote #af
    ,pollux1 viii4 #ij4      ,footnote  
#ag    ,xen41 ,mem4 i4 #c4              
,footnote #ah    ,from the   1 or ,early
 ,teaching of the ,apostles1  lately    
discovered1 ch4 viii41 we learn that it 
was the custom of  the early ,christians

 to observe two days of fasting in the  
week--,wednesday and ,friday4--,edit4   
,oxford ,parker1 #ahhe4      ,footnote  
#ai    ,in the    there is absolutely no
 dogma4 ,it is all  practice1 and this  
is quite in harmony with the use of  by 
,paul  7,i ,tim4 i4 #aj71 and indeed    
with the whole tone of these two        
admirable  epistles4      ,footnote #bj 
,in the   1 c4 xiii41 the prophets are  
said to be  to ,christians what the high
 priests were to the ,jews1--a          
phraseology which could not possibly    
have been used had any priesthood1  in  
the ,hebrew sense1 existed in the early 
,church4