hat had
already degraded the Kings; and then, with the failure of the
priesthood, practically ceased the education of the people for many
and many a long century, and intelligence was not developed, and the
power of the mind was not assisted to manifest itself.

And so onward and onward till we come to Middle Age Europe, and we
find a down-trodden proletariat, an indifferent and luxurious kingship
and priesthood, allied now to oppress, not to raise. Therefore,
contest between the Church and the State, until the Pontiff of Rome
remained the only representative of the union of the spiritual and
temporal authority--his spiritual authority enormous, his temporal
authority growing smaller, and badly used, so that in the States of
the Church in Italy there was almost the acme of bad temporal
government; and there was little to choose, really, between the States
of the Church and the odious tyranny of Naples. In the States of the
Church the old ideal of the Priest-King was degraded to its lowest
point, and neither on the side of Pontiff, nor on the side of King,
was the ruler of Rome the father, the shepherd of his people, but
often only a devouring wolf. Hence the last degradation of a once
magnificent office.

Meanwhile the Democracy was growing, and numbers were beginning to
claim their power, until the people, having seen how badly Kings and
priests could rule, thought that they could not, after all, do very
much worse themselves, if they seized authority by the power of
numbers, and took the helm of the States, of the Nations, into their
own rough and untrained grip. And so has risen in the modern life of
Europe the power, as it is called, of the Democracy. Practically, at
the present time, Democracy may be said to be on its trial. It cannot
claim so far to be a very splendid success, but its trial is not yet
over, and many a year may yet lie before it, in order that the world
may have an object-lesson to show that the only true authority is the
authority of Wisdom, and not the authority of numbers; and that it is
not possible for humanity to take its next step onwards until it has
managed to draw out of the lessons of the past and of the present some
way of blending, some way of uniting, the different experiences
through which it has passed. For all who study the world's unfolding
and believe that this world is not alone, but is a part linked with
other worlds, and that other beings above humanity take their share in