The sovereignty of intelligence over prejudices;

The sovereignty of people over governments.

Revolution in rights; equality.

Revolution in ideas; reasoning substituted for authority.

Revolution in facts; the reign of the people.

A Gospel of social rights.

A Gospel of duties, a charter of humanity.

France declared itself the apostle of this creed. In this war of ideas
France had allies every where, and even on thrones themselves.


VIII.

There are epochs in the history of the human race, when the decayed
branches fall from the tree of humanity; and when institutions grown old
and exhausted, sink and leave space for fresh institutions full of sap,
which renew the youth and recast the ideas of a people. Antiquity is
replete with this transformation, of which we only catch a glimpse in
the relics of history. Each decadence of effete ideas carries with it an
old world, and gives its name to a new order of civilisation. The East.
China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, have seen these ruins and these renewals.
The West experienced them when the Druidical theocracy gave way to the