are
approaching great catastrophes in Europe, the doom of the whole
edifice of the present social order,--events of which the ruin of the
Roman State is only the precursor and the herald.

The reasons for which, of these three possibilities, I think the
first the most probable, I have developed in this book. Concerning
the second alternative, there is nothing to be said; it is an
unknown, and therefore, indescribable, quantity. Only we must retain
it against certain over-confident assertions which profess to know
the secret things to come, and, trespassing on the divine domain,
wish to subject the Future absolutely to the laws of the immediate
Past. That the third possibility must also be admitted, few of those
who studiously observe the signs of the time will dispute. One of the
ablest historians and statesmen--Niebuhr--wrote on the 5th October
1830: "If God does not miraculously aid, a destruction is in store
for us such as the Roman world underwent in the middle of the third
century--destruction of prosperity, of freedom, of civilisation, and
of literature." And we have proceeded much farther on the inclined
plane since then. The European Powers have overturned, or have
allowed to be overturned, the two pillars of their existence,--the
principle of legitimacy, and the public law of nations. Those
monarchs who have made themselves the slaves of the Revolution, to do
its work, are the active agents in the historical drama; the others
stand aside as quiet spectators, in expectation of inheriting
something, like Prussia and Russia, or bestowing encouragement and
assistance, like England; or as passive invalids, like Austria and
the sinking empire of Turkey. But the Revolution is a permanent
chronic disease, breaking out now in one place, now in another,
sometimes seizing several members together. The Pentarchy is
dissolved; the Holy Alliance, which, however defective or open to
abuse, was one form of political order, is buried; the right of might
prevails in Europe. Is it a process of renovation or a process of
dissolution in which European society is plunged? I still think the
former; but I must, as I have said, admit the possibility of the
other alternative. If it occurs, then, when the powers of destruction
have done their work, it will be the business of the Church at once
to co-operate actively in the reconstr