Three Ideals. 99 



mulated aversion from a civilisation which has cast off 

 almost all the grace, with much of the material, and still 

 more of the moral alleviations, which attended the earlier 

 condition of the Christian theocracy. 



It would be unjust to our species to deny the miti- 

 gating circumstances attending the surging of democratic 

 passion to-day. Careworn toilers may view with com- 

 placency the glittering splendour of barons whose rank 

 they view as God-ordained and yet evanescent, they being 

 essentially and for eternity but the equals of themselves, 

 whose humble path is no less God-appointed, and on that 

 account no less worthy of esteem both being actors for 

 a little time upon ;the same stage, and to be judged 

 not by their accidental trappings, but by their due fulfil- 

 ment of their respective parts ! 



But this belief has been, and is being sedulously de- 

 stroyed. Can we wonder that with its disappearance the 

 same phenomena come to be viewed in a very different 

 aspect ? 



Nevertheless, there are grounds for thinking that the 

 violences of social antagonisms are on the whole likely to 

 diminish, however noisily or brutally they may upon 

 occasions here and there assert themselves. Even if 

 Europe should become the scene of disorder which some 

 fear, it is impossible that the whole world can simul- 

 taneously be the theatre of the most extreme and bloody 

 red-revolutionary tyranny. 



