gifts
and attainments.--To his maxims the royal defenders of the Catholic
faith have been indebted for the spirit of that policy which they have
uniformly opposed to the innovations of the reformers." Hallam indeed
has said: "We continually find a more flagitious and undisguised
abandonment of moral rules for the sake of some idol of a general
principle than can be imputed to _The Prince_ of Machiavel." But the
unaccustomed hyperbole had been hazarded a century before in the
obscurity of a Latin dissertation by Feuerlein: "Longe detestabiliores
errores apud alios doctores politicos facile invenias, si eidem
rigorosae censurae eorum scripta subiicienda essent." What has been,
with us, the occasional aphorism of a masterful mind, encountered
support abroad in accredited systems, and in a vast and successful
political movement. The recovery of Machiavelli has been essentially the
product of causes operating on the Continent.

When Hegel was dominant to the Rhine, and Cousin beyond it, the
circumstances favoured his reputation. For Hegel taught: "Der Gang der
Weltgeschichte steht ausserhalb der Tugend, des Lasters, und der
Gerechtigkeit." And the great eclectic renewed, in explicit language,
the worst maxim of the _Istorie Fiorentine_: "L'apologie d'un siecle est
dans son existence, car son existence est un arret et un jugement de
Dieu meme, ou l'histoire n'est qu'une fastasmagorie insignifiante.--Le
caractere propre, le signe d'un grand homme, c'est qu'il reussit.--Ou
nul guerrier ne doit etre appele grand homme, ou, s'il est grand, il
faut l'absoudre, et absoudre en masse tout ce qu'il a fait.--Il faut
prouver que le vainqueur non seulement sert la civilisation, mais qu'il
est meilleur, plus moral, et que c'est pour cela qu'il est vainqueur.
Maudire la puissance (j'entends une puissance longue et durable) c'est
blasphemer l'humanite."

This primitive and everlasting problem assumed a peculiar shape in
theological controversy. The Catholic divines urged that prosperity is a
sign by which, even in the militant period, the true Church may be
known; coupling _Felicitas Temporalis illis collata qui ecclesiam
defenderunt_ with _Infelix exitus eorum qui ecclesiam oppugnant_. Le
Blanc de Beaulieu, a name famous in the history of pacific disputation,
holds the opposite opinion: "Crucem et perpessiones esse potius
ecclesiae notam, nam denunciatum piis in verbo Dei fore ut in hoc mundo
persecutionem patiantur, non vero ut armis s