510 EVOLUTION OF MODERN SOCIETY. 



marked influence upon social development. From this point our course 

 is clear. We can not enter into particulars; that is impossible here; 

 neither can we trace, even in barest outline, the course of the history 

 of the world and its peoples. It is, however, generally understood that 

 the history of society — social, moral, and political — is the history of 

 European peoples ; and of these the course of progress is traced in the 

 history of a certain few. Not that we can exclude Asiatic, African, or 

 American races from the conception of society as a whole, but only in 

 so far as these have advanced a certain length, while our inquiry is 

 from the lowest to the highest i>osition yet attained, we must leave 

 these lagging societies behind, and follow that i>ortion of the human 

 race in the van of the army of progress. Our course is marked by 

 many grea't landmarks, impossible to be mistaken, and every one sig- 

 nificant in a peculiar degree. These landmarks are social revolutions. 

 A certain writer (Edgar Quinet, I think, but can not at this time verify) 

 sai<l that "great revolutions are the jn'ominent and enduring landmarks 

 on the highway of the world, far raised above all surrounding objects 

 pointing the progress not of particular nations but of the human 

 race." 



Our first halting stage is on the ruins of the Roman Empire. 



The social question and society as we understand it to-day had its 

 rise in the feudal system. And this, for so long a net about the feet of 

 the world, was yet a benefit in disguise of an evil adapted to the age in 

 which it flourished. As snow enveloping the earth in a mantle of white 

 renders all external things bleak, bare, and unpromising, yet under its 

 cold covering keeps warm and living the seeds that, when the due time 

 comes, will burst and beautify the face of nature, so the feudal system 

 enveloped society for nine centuries in a cloak of darkness; yet under- 

 neath it nourished tlie spirit and the principles which, when the time 

 arrived, burst forth and blossomed into rational institutions and made 

 the Avorld what it is to-day. But the feudal system had its rise when 

 Rome had lost her greatness and been humbled in the dust; when the 

 Roman character as much resembled the ancient conception of old 

 Cato the Censor as an Anglo-Saxon of the Conquest resembles an Eng- 

 lishman of the present day. 



When, in course of time, Roman conquests embraced every part of the 

 then civilized world and every king or prince yielded obedience to her 

 authority, then was the time that sealed her fate. The old Roman 

 character was sapped and enervated by wealth and luxury. The 

 Roman conquests were maintained by mercenaries, her public offices and 

 funds were filled and controlled by aliens and self-seekers. Abandon- 

 ing herself to ease, yet^^ith the lust of conquest still as strong as ever, 

 she intrusted her rule to tlie hands of a few and watched the course of 

 events. Her Eini)ire, spreading on every side, at last overbalanced 

 itself. She was drawing her life from her extremities. As these fell or 

 rotted away by coriuptiou she grew weaker and weaker. Her officers, 



