protest against the existing
order on the part of interests which it did not recognize. I do not
mean that these interests were not tolerated; they were, of course,
protected, and even given a legal status. But in the reckoning of good
and evil they were not _counted_. Women and slaves, the poor, the
ill-born, and the ignorant, were instruments which the happy man might
use, or incidents of life which might test his charity and magnanimity.
These classes rose to overthrow no single institution, but a whole
conception of life, or standard of well-being which was defined to
exclude them. In paganism, which did not pass with the advent of
Christianity, but still lingers as the creed of the very precious
souls, humanity is conceived only qualitatively, and not
quantitatively. The good of the race is conceived to consist in the
perfection of a few, chosen for their superior endowment and fortune.
The eminent refinement and nobility of these demigods is substituted
for the saving of lives, for the general distribution of welfare and
opportunity. The many are to find compensation for their hardship in
the happiness of the few. But the Christian principle of atonement was
the precise opposite of this: one suffered that all might be blessed.
Christianity {141} looked towards a good that should number every one
in the multitude and endure throughout all time. Now it has since
appeared that this was no more than the truth; and that it might have
been conceived and executed by the wise men, had they only been more
wise. But they were wise only within the limits of their own conceit.
Hence it took the form of an assault on the established enlightenment.
The many, with their yearning for a universal happiness, with their
deep concern for the greater good, and their jealous compassion for all
souls, destroyed the narrow eminence of the few. Thus Christianity was
a revolution, and not a constructive reform.

The French Revolution was a protest not only against apathy, but
against insolence as well. It was a demand of the many not merely to
be happy, but to have what they called their "rights" respected; a
protest against authority, not only because it was cruel, but because
it was arbitrary, tyrannical. Hence it was aimed against priestcraft
as well as against monarchy. It was based on the conviction that no
one is so justly entitled to pass judgment on a man's affairs as a man
himself. But it was a cry from the depths, t