518 EVOLUTION OP MODERN SOCIETY. 



Continent i^rogress was much slower. But tlie crisis could not belong 

 delayed. The dark and smooth surface of society but served to con- 

 ceal the current underneath. 



Still waters ruu deep. 



The close of the eighteenth century marks the end of what is known 

 in history as the ancient regime. It was signalized by the most drastic 

 and, in its immediate eflects, the greatest social revolution we have to 

 deal with. It was the bursting of the pent-up storm of misery. It 

 was preceded by a fearful calm. Then the tempest broke out, relent- 

 less and irresistible. It spared neither old nor young, father, mother, 

 brother, sister, husband, wife, or child. It cared nothing for associa- 

 tions and sentiments, the work of genius, or the toil of years. As the 

 whirlwind swept across the country — shrieking as if in mockery liberte 

 and egalite, it left in its track ruin and desolation. 



Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, like death angels, guided the storm, 

 yet were powerless to control it. 



The Revolution did its work cruelly, but thoroughly. Every vestige 

 of the old was swept away — king, crown, home, and kindred. Men 

 could start afresh on a new system. The tempest of the Revolution in 

 France reached Britain only as a great ground swell. Society there 

 was agitated, l)ut nothing more. Ilad it been one hundred years earlier, 

 I tremble to think what our country might have been to day. Kings- 

 ley says, "The human race owes more to the eighteenth century than 

 to any century since the Christian era. This may seem," he goes on to 

 say, "to be inconsistent Avith my description of the very same era as 

 one of decay and death. But, side by side with the death there was 

 manifold fresh birth; side by side with the decay there was active 

 growth; side by side with them, fostered by them, though generally in 

 strong opposition to them, whether conscious or unconscious." 



Again, in another place, Kingsley remarks: " We shall find through- 

 out the eighteenth century a stirring of thought, an originality, a 

 resistance to circumstances, which would have been impossible had 

 circumstances been the true lords and shapers of mankind. Had that 

 latter been the case, the downward progress of the ancient regime would 

 have been irremediable." 



Yet again, talking of the French Revolution, he says that one of the 

 doctrines then specially proclaimed was that "in each man there is a 

 God-given individuality, an independent soul, which no government or 

 man has a right to crush, or can crush, in the long run." 



The eighteenth century drew to a close in storm and darkness. 

 Society was moved to the roots — strained and torn. But when a new 

 century dawned the clouds of revolution were dispelled before the sun 

 of liberty, and all gave token of a glorious noon. And men were not 

 mistaken. 



