It is the godly life according to the precepts and example of
Jesus. There may be men who think they are attacking
Christianity when they investigate the historical origin or
the morality of some dogma; I do not think so. Honest
investigation can result only in growth. Christianity, with
or without its whole apparatus of dogma, will endure in its
essence for thousands of years after us; there will always
be spiritually-minded people who will be ennobled by it, and
some made great. I honor all the noble. I have friends among
the Christians, whom I love, and never for a moment have I
thought of attacking their Christianity. I have no higher
wish than to see them by its help transform certain aspects
of our society into seriousness. (2) _Concerning the attack
on monarchy._ Monarchy is, on the other hand, an institution,
here the circumstances are naturally different. I have
attacked monarchy, and I will attack it. But--and to
this 'but' I call the closest attention. Shortly before
the July Revolution, when its first signs were declared,
Chateaubriand was talking with the King, who asked what
it all meant. 'It is monarchy that is done with,' replied
the royalist, for he was also a seer. Certainly there have
been in France both kingdom and empire since that day. If
there should be no more hereafter, they still exist in other
lands, and will endure for generations after us. But 'done
with' are they none the less; notice was given them by the
French Revolution. It does not concern them all simultaneously;
it fixes terms, different for the different kingdoms, and far
removed for the kingdoms based upon conquest. But the face of
civilization is now turned toward the republic, and every
people has reached the first, second, or third stage of the way.