s of public opinion."

* * * * *

REFERENCES.--Macaulay's, Hume's, Hallam's, and Lingard's
Histories of England. Mackintosh's Causes of the Revolution
of 1688. Fox's History of the Reign of James--a beautiful
fragment. Burnet's History of his Own Times. Neal's History
of the Puritans. Life and Times of Richard Baxter. Southey's
Life of Bunyan. Memoir of George Fox, by Marsh. Life of
William Penn. Chapters on religion, science, and the
condition of the people, in the Pictorial History of
England. Russell's Modern Europe. Woolrych's Life of Judge
Jeffreys.

CHAPTER XVI.

LOUIS XIV.

[Sidenote: Louis XIV.]

We turn now from English affairs to contemplate the reign of
Louis XIV.--a man who filled a very large space in the history of
Europe during the seventeenth century. Indeed, his reign forms an
epoch of itself, not so much from any impulse he gave to liberty or
civilization, but because, for more than half a century, he was the
central mover of European politics. His reign commemorates the triumph
in France, of despotic principles, the complete suppression of popular
interests, and almost the absorption of national interests in his own
personal aggrandizement. It commemorates the ascendency of fashion,
and the great refinement of material life. The camp and the court of
Louis XIV. ingulphed all that is interesting in the history of France
during the greater part of the seventeenth century. He reigned
seventy-two years, and, in his various wars, a million of men are
supposed to have fallen victims to his vain-glorious ambition. His
palaces consumed the treasures which his wars spared. He was viewed as
a sun of glory and power, in the light of which all other lights were
dim. Philosophers, poets, prelates, generals, and statesmen, during
his reign, were regarded only as his satellites. He was the central
orb around which every other light revolved, and to contribute to his
glory all were supposed to be born. He was, most emphatically, the
state. He was France. A man, therefore, who, in the eye of
contemporaries, was so grand, so rich, so powerful, and so absolute,
claims a special notice. It is the province of history to record great
influences, whether they come from the people, from great popular
ideas, from literature and science, or from a single man. The lives of
individuals are comparatively insignificant in the history