s _Cyclopaedia_, a mighty
monument of human learning indeed, but even more a mighty sermon against
tyranny, a scornful protest against Christianity, a teacher spreading
over all the earth the preachings of Voltaire.

If there was evil in this movement there was also good. Thought was
aroused, was stimulated, and everywhere the products of awakened genius
began to appear. The marvellous development of modern music had its
origin in this period with the creations of Bach.[6] The modern novel
began its tremendously important career with Richardson and Fielding.[7]
Inventive genius achieved the first great triumph of modern mechanicism
in Watt's steam-engine.[8] Even across the ocean spread the intellectual
impulse, and the New World had its Franklin to astonish and delight the
old with his experiments in electricity--childish experiments at first,
as man reached out slowly, shudderingly, toward control of this last and
most marvellous of his servants.[9]

Philanthropy awoke also. Serious folk began to have vague
self-questionings as to the righteousness of human slavery. The prison
system was investigated; in England there were vague attempts at its
reform. The noble Oglethorpe did what he could to arouse public
sentiment against imprisonment for debt, and in his own person led to
America a colony of the unfortunate victims of the system. They founded
Georgia, the latest of the colonies; and the chain of settlements along
the Atlantic coastline was complete.[10]

Who would find waste land to live on after that, must journey farther
west, must seek the interior of the new continent--a simple fact, but
one that was soon destined to produce tempestuous results.

In this age also, as if in answer to the spiritual apathy of which
Voltaire was only the expression, not the cause, there arose Methodism,
which in externals at least showed itself the most passionate and the
most expressive form of devotion to Christianity. Wesley and Whitefield,
the celebrated preachers, spread their doctrines over England in the
face of insult and persecution. They penetrated the American colonies;
their doctrines reached even beyond their language and affected the
entire European Continent. The revival of devotion may have been
hysterical, yet a vast revival it assuredly was; it has been called by
some critics the most important religious movement since the
Reformation.[11]

WARS OF EUROPE AND ASIA

In face of such events as these, we lea