THE PHILOSOPHERS. 349 



fast friends, and the crown was protected by the 

 thunders of the church. 



The rebellion of the German monk established an 

 idol of ink and paper, instead of an idol of painted 

 wood or stone ; the Protestant believed that it was his 

 duty to study the Bible for himself, and so education 

 was spread throughout the countries of the Reformed 

 Religion. A desire for knowledge became general, and 

 the academies of the Jesuits were founded in self- 

 defence. The enlargement of the reading class gave 

 the Book that power which the pulpit once enjoyed, 

 and in the hands of Voltaire the Book began to preach. 

 The fallacies of the Syrian religion were exposed : and 

 with that religion fell the doctrine of passive obedience 

 and divine right : the doctrine that unbelievers are the 

 enemies of God : the doctrine that men who adopt a 

 particular profession are invested with magical powers 

 which stream into them from other men's finger ends : 

 the doctrine that a barbarous legal code was issued viva 

 voce by the Creator of the world. Such notions as 

 these are still held by thousands in private life, but 

 they no longer enter into the policy of states or dictate 

 statutes of the realm. 



Voltaire destroyed the authority of the Church ; 

 and Rousseau prepared the way for the destruction of 

 the Crown. He believed in a dream-land of the past, 

 which had never existed : he appealed to imaginary 

 laws of Nature. Yet these errors were beneficial in 

 their day. He taught men to yearn for an ideal state, 

 which they with their own efforts might attain ; he 

 inspired them with the sentiment of Liberty, and with 

 a reverence for the Law of Right. Virtuous prin- 

 ciples, abstract ideas, the future Deities of men were now 

 for the first time lifted up to be adored. A thousand 



