784 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



apologized for, whittled down, or modified (as the writer has 

 often heard from Presbyterian pulpits) if they ran counter 

 to the occasion. And need we wonder at the result today? 



Constantine, perceiving the inexorable superiority of the 

 synthetic Christian doctrine for daily life, did one of the worst 

 acts for it that ever happened to it. He made Christianity 

 a fashionable, royal, and aristocratic appanage, that would 

 sanction and bless "the divine right of kings," that would 

 hedge round and protect from popular anger "the holy ofl5ce 

 of bishop," that would regard it as a state crime when the 

 mass of the people "spoke evil of dignitaries" who had de- 

 ceived them, led them to slaughter, and forged the tools that 

 laid waste their home and country. 



So, while Frederick dubbed the time from the 5th to the 

 15th century "the insane period of history," he might more 

 appropriately have called it "the hypocritical period of his- 

 tory." True, to the credit of some rulers it should be said 

 that they aimed high and fulfilled much, while beset by cunning 

 and relentless schemers in the persons of popes, prelates, pre- 

 miers, and politicians. So Charlemagne, Alfred, Cromwell, 

 William of Orange, and Gustavus of Sweden accomplished 

 much in demonstrating how many millions of people can be 

 wisely guided and helped. But that fundamentally sacred 

 principle, 'Hhe will of the people,'' was largely ignored by them, 

 with the result that the death of each brought weakness or 

 disaster to his country. 



That "will of the people" as a ruling principle had been 

 attempted with many handicappings by the Iranians, the 

 Greeks, the Romans, and others, but when the little uprising 

 of a rural people hemmed in by mountains took place at Mor- 

 garten it only attracted such attention as did the defeat of 

 Charlemagne's army by the Wascones nearly five centuries 

 before. It was, however, "the stone cut out of the moun- 

 tain" for future centuries, for, from that eventful day till now, 

 "Swiss freedom" has been a sacred example and altar-fire to 

 the rest of the world. For Switzerland has demonstrated 

 that government "of the people, for the people, and by the 



