assume, however, that it did not suffer any essential change
internally, because in appearance everything remained as before,
is inconsistent with a just view of cause and effect. Many
historians seem to have adopted such an opinion; accustomed, as
usual, to judge of the moral condition of the people solely
according to the vicissitudes of earthly power, the events of
battles, and the influence of religion, but to pass over with
indifference the great phenomena of nature, which modify, not only
the surface of the earth, but also the human mind. Hence, most of
them have touched but superficially on the "Great Mortality" of
the fourteenth century. We, for our parts, are convinced that in
the history of the world the Black Death is one of the most
important events which have prepared the way for the present state
of Europe.

He who studies the human mind with attention, and forms a
deliberate judgment on the intellectual powers which set people
and States in motion, may perhaps find some proofs of this
assertion in the following observations:- at that time, the
advancement of the hierarchy was, in most countries,
extraordinary; for the Church acquired treasures and large
properties in land, even to a greater extent than after the
Crusades; but experience has demonstrated that such a state of
things is ruinous to the people, and causes them to retrograde, as
was evinced on this occasion.

After the cessation of the Black Plague, a greater fecundity in
women was everywhere remarkable--a grand phenomenon, which, from
its occurrence after every destructive pestilence, proves to
conviction, if any occurrence can do so, the prevalence of a