the franchise is threatened, it is safeguarded by the freedom of the
Press. Any attempt against either of them is a treachery to the
sovereignty of the people.

The movement of this great nineteenth century is the movement not of one
people only, but of all. France leads, and the nations follow. We are
passing from the old world to the new, and our governors attempt in vain
to arrest ideas by laws. There is in France and in Europe a party
inspired by fear, which is not to be accounted the party of order; and
its incessant question is: Who is to blame?

In the crisis through which we are passing, though it is a salutary
crisis which will lead only to good, everyone exclaims at the dreadful
moral disorder and the imminent social danger. Who, then, is guilty of
these ravages? Whom shall we punish? Throughout Europe, the party of
fear answers "France." Throughout France, it answers "Paris." In Paris,
it blames the Press. But every thoughtful man must see that it is none
of these, but is the human spirit.

It is the human spirit that has made the nations what they are. From the
beginning, through infinite debate and contradiction, it has sought,
unresting, to solve the problem eternally placed before the creature by
his Creator. It is the human spirit which takes from age to age the form
of the great revolts of history; it has been in turn, and sometimes
altogether, error, illusion, heresy, schism, protest, and the truth. The
human spirit is ever the great shepherd of the generations, proceeding
always towards the just, the beautiful, and the true, enlightening the
multitude, ennobling souls, directing the mind of man towards God.

Let the party of fear throughout Europe consider the magnitude of the