io Contemporary Evolution. 



One spirit then may, at least to a certain extent, be 

 said to have influenced the course of events from the 

 commencing disintegration of mediaeval civilisation down 

 to the present day. Such, at least appears at first sight, 

 to be the case. Further reflection may, or may not, con- 

 firm this view, and may indicate what is the true nature of 

 that spirit. 



The persistence of national characteristics, and the 

 strange latent vitality of apparently extinct modes of 

 thought and feeling, frequently cause surprise. 



In how many respects do not the Gauls of Caesar live 

 to-day under the presidency of the gallant marshal, Duke 

 of Magenta ? 



Who can fail to see in Prince Bismarck the representative 

 of one of those Teutons who gained baptism through the 

 sword of Charlemagne, and who in turn now seeks, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, to replace the symbol of the 

 Cross by the hammer of Thor, and the last relics of a 

 Christian polity by an avowed system of " blood and iron." 



In the existing Spanish civil war between the Carlist 

 north and the passionately democratic south with its 

 strong infusion of Moorish blood, we see (whatever may 

 be its result) a certain resemblance to that struggle be- 

 tween the Mahometan hosts and those Christians who 

 in the fortresses of the Pyrenees turned the tide of the 

 Saracenic invasion. 



In Belgium, the conflict of the sixteenth century in a 



