48 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



was born in pangs of travail, it grasped the sovereignty 

 in its own bloody and jealons hands, and to this day it 

 has not let it go. There every man is at once citizen 

 and kin^-. 



[There is, thcu, such a thing as sovereignty — legitimate and to 

 be respected — besides the sovereignt}^ of absoUite princes : the 

 sovereignty of the nation itself, or democracy. 



Can the nation whicli retains the sovereignty retain also the 

 exercise of it ? " Pure democracy," or power exercised directly 

 by all the citizens, has been possible only in little republics like 

 those of Greece, which were substantially nothing but sovereign 

 villages ; moreover, as has been excellently said, " the ancient 

 commonwealth, gay but fragile flower, found the moisture of its 

 root in slavery." In larger communitios tlie people can exercise 

 Bovereignt}^ only through representatives. This is representative 

 democracy, whatever the form of it, republican or monarchical. 

 Autocracy, that is, the riglit of commanding in its own name- 

 in other M'ords, absolute power — still rcsirlcs in the hands of the 

 nation ; but the exercise of it is delegated to magistrates of its 

 choice. 



In presence of these two forms of sovereignty, which share be- 

 tween them the present of mankind, as they have shared the past, 

 and doubtless are to share the future, Christianity has no choice 

 to make, but one unvarying instruction to give. Be it man or 

 nation that holds sovereign power on earth, this power is held 

 only in trust. In truth, the sovereign is only the minister of 

 God,^" who alone is the real sovereign.] 



Part Secoxd. — The Exercise of Sovereignty. 



Power is divine in its origin, and therefore inviolable. 

 Power is hnman in its depositary, and therefore limited. * 

 These are the two laws of sovereignty, alike in the most 

 absolnte of monarchies and in the most radical of de- 

 mocracies. 



I. Power is divine in its origin. " There is no power 



* Romans, xiii. 1. 



