78 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



the deluge of barbarians had SAvcpt over tlie empire; 

 nothing remained of it but ruins. After that there 

 began to reappear, with better races and under novei 

 forms, mitigated withal by Christianity, that reign of 

 chieftaincies of which Asia is the cradle. Those in 

 wliom the government was vested were called lords. It 

 was the reign of the castle, tlic preponderance of the 

 domestic element over the civil. ... In what way did 

 life come back into civil society ? Under the floating 

 wrecks, the waves, the drifting sea-weeds of that ocean 

 of barbarians, the germ of the Roman municipality had 

 survived. "When the hour of Providence had struck, 

 this germ flourislied anew. It fructified in France, in 

 Italy, everywhere, under the dawning sun of tlie Middle 

 Age, under the vernal breath of modern civilization. 

 But there is -no need that I should recount here the 

 glorious history of the toicns. 



[2. Such is the first spliere of civil society. But the towns are 

 many, and liave need to be united without losing their proper 

 existence. Hence the necessity of the 'province.'] 



The too little remembered history of our past bears 

 witness, and the actual practice of the free and pros- 

 perous nations of Europe confirms the testimony of 

 history, that ])etween those tAVo centres of national ac- 

 tivity, the restricted centre of the town and the im- 

 mense centre of the State, there is always Avantcd an 

 intermediate centre. Call it by wluit name you like. I 

 am satisfied witli the mime transmitted to us by his- 

 tory — Provincia, the province. Originally, no doubt, a 

 name of the vanquished, whether of the empire or of 

 the feudal power; but afterward a triumplial name, 

 the first and liveliest expression of a spirit of race, and 

 an historical tradition in the formation of new nations. 



