no longer limited to one nation, became the heritage of all, and the central Sun of our modern civilization.
The last judgment executed in the world of spirits in the year 1757, was another grand dissolution of the accumulated shadows of many centuries; and it is the true and efficient cause of the stupendous changes which have occurred during the last hundred years, and the secret spring of the still more extraordinary events which are impending. The Divine Word is now spiritually opened, which is equivalent to the second coming of the Lord; and its spiritual light will be the centre of a purer and more brilliant civilization than has ever yet dawned upon the race.
The last century has exceeded all the others since the time of Christ, in the development of arts and sciences, in the spread of liberty and liberal principles, in the diffusion of knowledge, in the elevation of the masses, in the amelioration of evils, in the organization of charities; in material prosperity, literary power and artistic splendor; in the activities of free thought; in culture and refinement; in the renunciation of error and the discovery of truth.
What is the cause of these things? Some spontaneous and accidental outburst of mental activity
