e
corruption of nations. The Creator surely has not ordained laws which
must necessarily result in the death of society.

The real solution, we think, it is not difficult to find. All religions,
one excepted, which have hitherto appeared in the world, have been
unable to hold the balance between the _intellect_ and the _conscience_
beyond a certain stage; and therefore, all kingdoms which have arisen
hitherto have been unable to exist beyond a certain term. So long as a
nation is in its childhood, a false religion affords room enough for the
free play of its intellect. Its religion being regarded as true and
authoritative, the conscience of the nation is controlled by it. So long
as conscience is upheld, law has authority, individual and social virtue
is maintained, and the nation goes on acquiring power, amassing wealth,
and increasing knowledge. But whenever it attains a certain stage of
enlightenment, and a certain power of independent thinking, it begins to
canvass the claims of that religion which formerly awed it. It
discovers its falsehood, the national conscience breaks loose, and an
era of scepticism ensues. With the destruction of conscience and the
rise of scepticism, law loses its authority, individual honour and
social virtue decline, and slavery or anarchy complete the ruin of the
state. This is the course which the nations of the world have hitherto
run. They have uniformly begun to decline, not when they attained a
certain amount of power or of wealth, but when they attained such an
amount of intellectual development as set free the national conscience
from the restraints of religion, or what professed to be so. No false
religion can carry a nation beyond a certain point; because no such
religion can stand before a certain stage of light and inquiry, which is
sure to be reached; and when that stage is reached,--in other words,
whenever the intellect dissolves the bonds of conscience,--the basis of
all authority and order is razed, and from that moment national decline
begins. Hence, in all nations an era of scepticism has been
contemporaneous with an era of decay.

Let us take the ancient Romans as an example. In the youth of their
nation their gods were revered; and in the existence of a national
conscience, a basis was found for law and virtue; and while these lasted
the empire flourished. But by and by the genius of its great thinkers
leavened the nation; an era of scepticism ensued; that scepticism