essence, no longer overruled the spiritual power; and the spiritual power was no longer directed by the patricians. The court of Rome had become the first court of Europe. Since the establishment of the papacy, all the popes, and almost all the cardinals, were taken from the class of plebeians. The aristocracy of talent had precedence of the aristocracy of riches, as well as of the aristocracy founded upon the rights of birth.
Society possessed a religious system and a system of morals combined together, since the love of God and of one's neighbour gave a unity of character to the most generous sentiments of the faithful.
It was Christianity which had become the basis of social organization; it had supplanted the law of the strongest: the right of conquest was no longer considered as the most legitimate of all rights.
America had been discovered, and the human race, knowing the extent of their territorial possessions, was enabled to draw a general plan of the labours calculated to obtain the greatest advantages from the surface of the globe.
Pacific capacities had developed themselves, acquiring in the same time a distinct direction. The fine arts had just revived; the sciences of observation, as well as industry, had received a new impulse.
The philanthropic sentiment, which is the true basis of Christianity, had replaced patriotism in every generous heart; if all men did not treat each other as brothers, at least, they all admitted that they ought to regard each other has children of the same father.
III. If the reform of Luther had been complete, Luther would have discovered, and would have proclaimed, the following doctrine: he would have said to the pope and to the cardinals,—
"Your predecessors have sufficiently perfected the theory of Christianity; they have sufficiently propagated this theory; Europeans are sufficiently imbued with it; it is now the general application of this doctrine which ought to occupy your attention; true Christianity ought to render men happy, not only in heaven, but on earth.
