51 G EVOLUTION OF MODERN SOCIETY. 



Industries at this time there were noue, to briug the people together 

 and let them feel "the beating- of the selfsame heart in each." War 

 and religion were the only professions. Cultivation of the soil was 

 often an impossibility; hence poverty and pestilence stalked every- 

 where, feasting on thousands of victims. 



I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus, 



The cries of agony, the ceaseless groan, 

 AVhich, through the ages that have gone before us, 



In long reverberations reach our own. 



* * * * ^ 



Is it, oh Man, witli such discordant noises, 



With such accursed instruments as these. 

 Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices, 



And j arrest the celestial symphonies ? 



Yet there were, latterly, small communities, outside the power of the 

 feudal lord, Avhich formed the nucleus of future towns. It is there we 

 must look for all the intellectual advancement, for the theoretical and 

 practical organization of society upon a basis more in keeping with 

 man's mind and mission. Their growth was rapid and their influence 

 proportionate. Little by little the conception of a state was altered 

 from that of a sovereign, omnipotent and divine, fountain of all mercy 

 and justice, and a people, a collection of atoms, whose iluty it was to 

 support the sovereign in whatever caprice might lead him to perform, 

 to that of a people, a collection of individuals, whose combined desires 

 were represented and executed in the will and actions of a sovereign. 



This is the modern conception of society, and brings our view some- 

 what beyond the point at which we last halted — the establishment of 

 the commonwealth in Britain. 



From now our view becomes so extended that we must either restrict 

 ourselves to a bare outline or swell our investigation beyond all 

 proportions. 



European states now began to assume a more deflnite form. 8till 

 they were far from agreeing with our present day conceptions of what 

 a state should be. Louis XIV, in France, was rising to the height of 

 his power. His subjects, carried away by enthusiasm and repeated 

 victory, were devoted to him. But it was not a true devotion; it was 

 a false enthusiasm. For all his magnanimity — and he had much — the 

 people had no more iiower than before. Louis lavished gifts, encour- 

 aged commerce and art, and rewarded men of letters. Yet all the 

 power was vested in the King. Success depended on the King's 

 favor and caprice. All these eflbrts were spasmodic and ill-timed; 

 many were fruitless, and their failure but increased the general confu- 

 sion. It was impossible that, in a period of constant warfare and con- 

 tinual change, there could be any consistency or definiteness in the 

 aims of society. The age of Louis XIV represents the state of Europe 

 in the seventeenth century — an age of unrest, warfare, and diplomacy, 



