THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 77 
be more inventive than others, more prompt to meet 
sudden emergencies, more buoyant in recovering from 
calamity; its people will be more easily adaptable to 
all sorts of climates and situations, more ready to 
engage in all kinds of activity, more fertile in expedi- 
ents, and more self-reliant in character. The nation, 
on the other hand, which systematically seeks to 
enforce uniformity of disposition among its members 
—which kills out all nonconformists or drives them 
beyond its borders —is sure, in proportion to its suc- 
cess, to sink into an inferior position in the world. 
The establishment of the Inquisition in Spain and 
the expulsion of the Moriscoes were the two greatest 
calamities which any nation ever voluntarily inflicted 
upon itself. The evil wrought by the violent expul- 
sion of the Moriscoes, involving as it did the sudden 
downfall of several of the principal industries of the 
country, is plain enough to every student of history. 
But the deadly Inquisition, working quietly and 
steadily year after year while fourteen generations 
lived and died, unquestionably wrought still greater 
evil. The Inquisition was simply a great machine for 
winnowing out and destroying all such individuals as 
surpassed the average of the nation in quickness of 
wit and in strength of character, so far as to entertain 
opinions of their own and to be bold enough to declare 
those opinions. The machine worked with such ter- 
rible efficiency that it was next to impossible for such 
people to escape it. They were strangled and burned 
by tens of thousands; and as the inevitable result, 
the average character of the Spanish people has been 
lowered. The brightest and boldest have been cut 
off, while the dullest and weakest have been spared 
