ILLUSTRATIONS AND CRITICISMS 



with the most urgent social requirements of the 

 time, and the fact of its long duration shows 

 how profound was the harmony. While this 

 state of things lasted, there was but little room 

 for scepticism. But after a while the psychical 

 environment had so far altered as to be out of 

 balance with this conception of the world. The 

 Copernican revolution unseated Man from his 

 throne in the centre of the universe, and ad- 

 vancing physical generalization cast discredit 

 upon the theory of providential government, 

 and so arose the long line of " infidels '* from 

 Bruno and Vanini to Voltaire and Diderot. 

 While, on the other hand, the increasing power 

 of monarchy, especially in France, gradually un- 

 dermined the moral independence of the Papacy, 

 converting it from an upholder of equity and a 

 friend of the people into an unscrupulous ally 

 of regal usurpation and iniquity ; and thus arose 

 the Great Schism, followed by the Protestant 

 revolt, and the grand democratic movement 

 which culminated in the French Revolution. 

 Now what is all this infidel rebellion against 

 dogma and democratic rebellion against author- 

 ity but the intellectual and moral turbulence 

 caused by the growing conviction that the psy- 

 chical relations comprised in the authorized con- 

 ception of the world were out of balance with 

 the new aggregate of relations formed by the 

 discoveries of science and the altered require- 

 VOL. Ill 337 



