COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



epoch would simply leave the work of civili- 

 zation to be (at least, to a great extent) done 

 over again. An instructive historical example of 

 such a dissolution of social relations, partially- 

 effected, and of the consequent partial return to- 

 ward barbarism, is to be found in the history of 

 Romanized Europe from the fourth to the tenth 

 centuries of the Christian era. And as this par- 

 tial dissolution cannot be referred solely to the 

 barbaric attacks from without — which during at 

 least seven centuries had been steadily kept up 

 without impairing the integrity of the Empire 

 — it must be referred to causes operative within ; 

 to the demoralization consequent upon general 

 scepticism as to the validity of the principles of 

 action by which men had formerly been guided. 

 Now the violent breaking up of the feudal and 

 mediaeval Christian system, which occurred dur- 

 ing the last century, was attended by some of 

 the same dangerous symptoms as those which 

 marked the dissolution of ancient polytheism 

 and ancient notions of civic patriotism ; though 

 in the modern case the succession of pheno- 

 mena was more rapid, and there were no as- 

 saults from outside barbarism to complicate 

 matters. We have lately remarked upon the cu- 

 rious phenomenon of a free-thinker, like Rous- 

 seau, openly advocating a return to barbarism, 

 upon the ground — which admirably illustrates 

 his statical view of things — that social relations 

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