358 On the Moral Influence of History . 



of a wicked policy to an end, which is the 

 most remote from the thoughts and the most 

 remote from the wish of the proud actors. The 

 revival of letters and arts, the deliverance of 

 man from the most abject and oppressive 

 slavery, that of Papal Rome, was not owing 

 to the great men of the day, but to obscure in- 

 dividuals, whom, but for the magnitude of the 

 events, history would not have noticed. But 

 these splendid reverses succeeded to a dark and 

 dismal gloom of more than twelve hundred 

 years ^ and in spite of all their benign influence, 

 the same fell ambition, which sweeps before it 

 in one general ruin, letters and arts and huma- 

 nity, still goes on; and the fate of Europe, I 

 may say, of the world, depends at this moment 

 Q\\ the resistance of one gallant, enlightened, 

 and comparatively virtuous nation ; in one 

 awful struggle it is soon to be decided, whether 

 man shall not be driven back by the wild 

 spirit of conquest to the same debased and 

 horrid state from which he was happily re- 

 deemed. 



