62 



Contemporary Evolution. 





feebleness invigorated by the sharp cautery of his mer- 

 ciless invasions. 



The old historic Christian German sovereignty, with 

 its majestic hierarchical system, in the State as well as 

 in the Church, in the early part of the Middle Ages, as 

 powerful as it was magnificent, was indeed at an end ; but 

 with marvellous rapidity arose that strong instinct and 

 sentiment of unity, of which we see the result to-day 

 a unity not based on Christianity (and now, indeed, in 

 deadly contest with it), but reposing on race and nature 

 only, and in perfect harmony with that reviving paganism 

 which in . the first chapter of this essay it was endea- 

 voured to describe. Of this latent power Napoleon I.'s 

 aggression elicited the manifestation, but the full force 

 of it was reserved for the overthrow of Napoleon III. 

 The course of evolution in Germany, then, has been 

 substantially similar to that we have seen elsewhere out 

 of Prussia, though so complex, that an exposition of the 

 causes of local differences in its development would alone 

 form a work of the highest interest. After the final 

 religious effect of the Reformatory movement had sub- 

 sided, the old imperial authority was, strange to say, 

 amongst the first to evolve and develop the further 

 growth of that spirit which was most fatal to its own 

 foundation. The profoundly anti-Christian policy of 

 Joseph II. anticipated that of the French revolution 

 and of the pagan German government of to-day. 



