466 PERIOD OF LIBERTY. 



is confined to the upper classes. All the discoveries, 

 and inventions, and exploits of ancient times are due 

 to the efforts of an aristocracy ; not only the Persians 

 and Hindoos, but also the Greeks and the Romans 

 were merely small societies of gentlemen reigning 

 over a multitude of slaves. The virtues of the lower 

 classes were loyalty, piety, obedience. The third 

 period is that of Liberty : it belongs only to Europe 

 and to modern times. ■ A middle class of intelligence 

 and wealth arises between the aristocracy and the 

 plebeians. They -contend with the monopolies of caste 

 and birth ; they demand power for themselves ; they 

 espouse the cause of their poorer brethren ; they will 

 not admit that equality in heaven is a valid reason 

 for inequality on earth ; they deny that the aristocracy 

 of priests know more of divine matters than other 

 men ; they interpret the sacred books for themselves, 

 and translate them into the vulgar tongue ; they 

 separate religion from temporal government, and re- 

 duce it to a system of metaphysics and morality. It 

 is in this period that we are at present. Loyalty to 

 the king has been transformed into Patriotism ; and 

 Piety, or the worship of God, will give way to the 

 reverence of Law and the love of mankind. Thus 

 the mind will be elevated, the affections deepened and 

 enlarged; morality ceasing to be entangled with theo- 

 logy, will be applied exclusively to virtue. 



It is difficult to find a title for the fourth period, 

 as we have as yet no word which expresses at the 

 same time the utmost development of mind, and the 

 utmost development of morals. I have chosen the 

 word Intellect, because by the education of the intel- 

 lect the moral sense is of necessity improved. In this 

 last period the destiny of Man will be fulfilled. He was 



