Retrospect of French Literature— History, 639 
amalgamate with them, so as to attain a 
portion of their knowledge. The Romans 
afford a specimen of one of these modes, 
as they carried light with them where- 
soever they went; the children of the 
North, who precipitated themselves to- 
wards the south of Europe, and carried 
their darkness along with them, exhibit 
an instance of another. 
“On this, chans seemed to be-repro- 
duced; and it required ten centuries of 
fermentation before so many heteroge- 
neous elements could assimilate. At 
length, however, light was every where 
seen amidst the darkness. During the 
three or four first centuries it extended, 
and made a rapid progress. At length, 
the culture of Athens and Rome was 
beheld and practised, not only through- 
out the whole of Europe, but also at 
Calcutta and Philadelphia.’ Rome and 
Athens, both of which would be asto: 
nished at our arts and knowledge, would 
also admire the humanity of the Euro- 
pean, who glories in being a man, and 
will no longer suffer’ slavery to exist on 
his soil.” 
While treating of modern reformers, 
the author alludes to the great events of 
antiquity. He represents Moses as 
“leaving Egypt at the head of a body of 
mutinous slaves, who were both sensual 
and superstitious, yet of whom it was 
necessary to make obedient subjects; 
men at once capable of undertaking any 
thing, and animated against every nation 
that occupied any land in which they 
might be desirous to establish them- 
selves. On this occasion, Moses directed 
the reformation of his people in the best 
possible manner, for the accomplishment 
of his designs. 
“‘ Mahomet, on the other hand, re- 
formed a free and lofty nation; sensual 
indeed to excess, but capable of virtue 
and exaltation. He knew how to impress 
on them a great character, and reduced 
to very simple terms the external form 
of that pure deism which he preached. 
Both of these amalgamated the religious 
constitution which ought to appertain to 
all men, with rhe political constitution 
which should appertain to only one na- 
tion; and, thus confounding the church 
and the state, rendered their religion 
merely local. 
<¢ As to Jesus, in conformity to his 
celestial orivin, he separated’ the cares 
of the state from those of religion, loudly 
proclaiming that its empire was not of 
this world. The divine reform operated 
by. him, in opposition to the other. two, 
ev ° , 
was cosmopolitical or catholic, accords 
ing to the true etymology of the term. 
Yet the spirit of Christ was no longer 
visible in the constitution of the Christian 
church in the fifteenth century. Every 
thing was altered and confoundéd; and . 
a reform, an appeal to the primitive spt- 
rit, became necessary, which was prog 
duced in part by Luther, the principal 
and most courageous author of it.” 
Two objects, we are told, have become 
particularly dear to mankind, and it’ is 
not uncommon to behold them sacrifice 
all their other interests, and, even life 
itself, to these. The first is the presere 
vation of our social rights; the second, 
the independence of our religious opie 
nions, or liberty in respect to evil and 
conscientious notions. Both of these 
dispositions prevailed in most parts of 
Europe at the commencement of the 
16th century; for every nation, deprived 
of its civil and religious liberty, began to 
feel the weight and the indignity of its 
chains, while those who still. enjoyed a 
certain degree of independence, shud- 
dered at the idea of its loss. 
All the states of the Germanic con- 
federation had been long agitated by the 
obstinate disputes between the emperors, 
successors of Cesar, and the pope’s suc- 
cessors of St, Peter: this was a strugule 
for a unlimited monarchy over the an- 
cient territory of the Roman empire, 
Both parties affected equal rights over 
Rome ; and it was evident that the mase« 
ter of Rome was also to be the master 
of the empire; so difficult is it to root 
out vulgar prejudices! Rome had long 
been the capital of the world, anda great 
contest took place in order to determine 
who should remain in possession of the 
sovereign city. The quarrel had for 
object—to which of those two rivals mane 
kind were to submit? the world disputed 
literally for the choice of tyrants. The 
modern successors of Charlemagne 
called themselves Caesars, and because 
the ancient Cwsars had. been masters of 
Rome, and Rome was the mistress of 
Europe,. it appeared an unanswerable 
argument that they should reign both 
over Rome and Europe! The claims of 
the pope’s were not quite so clear: as 
Rome was the natural mistress of all the 
‘universe, and the prince who had resided 
so long at Rome was the chief of the 
empire, it was deemed evident that the 
bishop of Rome ought to be at the head 
of the church! Yn after times, when 
Rome was without an emperor, the cone 
sideration of the pontiff increased ; he 
was 
