CIVIL SOCIETY AND ( HKISTIANITY. 21 



carl il, and day l)y day, as tliese arc laid open, gocdogLsts 

 bring up again before our eyes the unknown ages un- 

 nieasuivd by (lie life of man. But it has been not less 

 ingenious for tln' moral world; only, instead of dumb 

 relics entombed in dcatli, it reveals to us living relics 

 which it has cherished in the bosom of the human 

 family, in such wise tliat tlie successive stages which 

 our race has passed through, arc displayed to us simul- 

 taneously in the light of day. — 1 trausi)ort myself witli 

 vou for a moment to those loftv summits of the fflobe, 

 those table-lands of central Asia which have been so 

 well styled '' the hive of nations." It is the region of 

 heavy grasses, and from immemorial time the dwelling- 

 j)lace of nomadic tribes. It is one of the most magn ill- 

 cent and fascinating sights which man can contemplate. 

 Nothing equals the steppe, or at least nothing surpasses 

 it; not the sea Avith its monotonous and majestic im- 

 mensity, nor the virgin forest with its mysterious depths, 

 nor the mountains Avith their sublime upspringing of 

 earth toward heaven. Plains Avithout end, covered in 

 spring Avitli luxuriant and spontaneous vegetation ; an 

 ocean of floAvers and verdure, undulating from east to 

 west, from AVest to east, nnder the June breezes; toAver- 

 ing grasses, the offspring of nature, untouched by the 

 sweat of man's broAA% engulfing in their dense groAvth 

 the caravans of the desert, men, horses, camels, even, 

 and spreading afar their intoxicating perfumes ! . . . . 

 For whom has God made these faA'ored regions? Was 

 it for those saA'ages who, according to Rousseau and 

 the " Contrat Social,'' CA-eryAvhere preceded the estab- 

 lishment of civil society ? ÂVas it for that man-monkey 

 which the false science of our generation exhibits to 

 us, struggling through ages of endeaA'or to free itself 

 from the limitations of brute-existence? "Tor mv 



