an immense step has been taken in the right direction by the abolition of
caste, the divorce of Church and State, and the limitation of intrusion
by either on the domain of the individual, it is yet only a step from
which, without eternal vigilance, a falling back is very easy; and that
here, more than in other lands, ignorance of the scientific and moral
truths on--which national happiness and prosperity depend, deserves
bitter denunciation--for us it is wholesome to confirm our faith in
democracy, and to justify our hope that the People will prove itself
equal to the awful responsibility of self-government by an occasional
study of the miseries which the opposite system is capable of producing.
It is for this reason that the reign of the sovereign whose closing
moments have just been recorded is especially worthy of a minute
examination, and I still invite a parting glance at the spectacle thus
presented, before the curtain falls.

The Spanish monarchy in the reign of Philip II. was not only the most
considerable empire then existing, but probably the most powerful and
extensive empire that had ever been known. Certainly never before had so
great an agglomeration of distinct and separate sovereignties been the
result of accident. For it was owing to a series of accidents--in the
common acceptation of that term--that Philip governed so mighty a realm.
According to the principle that vast tracts: of the earth's surface, with
the human beings feeding upon: them, were transferable in fee-simple from
one man or woman to another by marriage, inheritance, or gift, a
heterogeneous collection of kingdoms, principalities, provinces, and:
wildernesses had been consolidated, without geographical continuity, into
an artificial union--the populations differing from each other as much as
human beings can differ, in race, language, institutions, and historical
traditions, and resembling each other in little, save in being the
property alike of the same fortunate individual.