xviii Progress is not 



religious orthodoxy and ecclesiastical conformity 

 was regarded as a sacred duty of the State. The 

 Christian virtues of humanity and mercy were 

 scarcely known in the political sphere ; with the 

 partial exception of England, every European state 

 practised torture in the administration of justice, 

 and excessive cruelty in the judicial infliction of 

 death. 



Such, in extremest outline, was the intellectual and 

 political state of Europe four hundred years ago. 

 How vast is the change ! Yet four hundred years is 

 but a short period in the history of the world, and a 

 short period even in comparison with the life of man. 

 Many of us can ourselves look back over fifty years 

 of history ; and to none of us is it a period that 

 baffles the imagination. Yet fifty years is one-eighth 

 of the time that has passed since modern history 

 began. But if we consider the changes, excluding 

 those which are merely physical and industrial, which 

 have occurred during the past fifty years, and com- 

 pare their magnitude with the total magnitude of 

 those which began with the discovery of America, 

 we shall probably conclude that scarcely one-eighth 

 of the total change of the past four hundred years 

 has occurred during the last half-century ; and that 

 change and progress have in no degree increased 

 their rapidity during the last fifty years of the four 

 hundred. Or, instead of the past fifty, let us speak of 

 the past hundred years. One hundred years ago the 

 vast industrial changes of the modern age had not 



