SECT. III.] SCOPE OF CHRISTIANITY. 389 



the successes hitherto obtained by the various missions, it ap- 

 pears doubtful whether Christianity will ever, not merely in 

 name, but in spirit, enter the hearts of mankind all over the 

 globe. Our European civilization is, on the whole, too artificial 

 and abstract immediately to attract uncivilized nations : such 

 peoples must first pass through a long series of transitional 

 stages before our culture becomes accessible to them. In order 

 to arrive at it, the vital power and energy of a people must 

 neither have degenerated into idleness and sensual enjoyment, 

 nor have been exhausted by misery and distress ; a happy 

 combination is requisite to enable it gradually to encounter 

 difficulties raised by nature and man, but in such a manner, 

 that its power of resistance and its external and internal re- 

 sources should be adequate, so that the people may emerge 

 from the struggle physically and morally strengthened. 



Where the necessary transitional stages, which a primitive 

 people has to pass through to arrive at a higher development, 

 are wanting, it will, after a short apparent elevation, relapse 

 again into the original state, and, as so frequently occurs when 

 primitive and civilized peoples come in contact, the former will 

 unavoidably perish. Civilization may then continue to spread 

 in the habitable world, but it will crush these peoples, for a 

 sudden transition from the natural state to Christianity and 

 European civilization is opposed to the laws of nature. The 

 attempt to effect it resembles the attempt of the ignorant 

 pedagogue, who expects by one powerful effort suddenly to 

 transform the character of his pupil. Civilization must pro- 

 gress slowly, or it will retrograde; the history of revolutions 

 yields the same results in this respect as the history of the 

 missions. 



END OF VOLUME THE FIRST. 



