ve, I
don't mean to compare their bad men,--I don't mean to take Tiberius as a
type of Classicalism, nor Ezzelin as a type of Mediaevalism, nor
Robespierre as a type of Modernism. Bad men are like each other in all
epochs; and in the Roman, the Paduan, or the Parisian, sensuality and
cruelty admit of little distinction in the manners of their
manifestation. But among men comparatively virtuous, it is important to
study the phases of character; and it is into these only that it is
necessary for us to inquire. Consider therefore, first, the essential
difference in character between three of the most devoted military
heroes whom the three great epochs of the world have produced,--all
three devoted to the service of their country,--all of them dying
therein. I mean, Leonidas in the Classical period, St. Louis in the
Mediaeval period, and Lord Nelson in the Modern period.

Leonidas had the most rigid sense of duty, and died with the most
perfect faith in the gods of his country, fulfilling the accepted
prophecy of his death. St. Louis had the most rigid sense of duty, and
the most perfect faith in Christ. Nelson had the most rigid sense of
duty, and----

You must supply my pause with your charity.

Now you do not suppose that the main difference between Leonidas and
Nelson lay in the modern inventions at the command of the one, as
compared with the imperfect military instruments possessed by the other.
They were not essentially different, in that the one fought with lances
and the other with guns. But they were essentially different in the
whole tone of their religious belief.

113. By this instance you may be partially prepared for the bold
statement I am going to make to you, as to the change which constitutes
Modernism. I said just now that it was like that of the worm to the
butterfly. But the changes which God causes in His lower creatures are
almost always from worse to better, while the changes which God allows
man to make in himself are very often quite the other way; like Adam's
new arrangement of his nature. And in saying that this last change was
like that of a chrysalis, I meant only in the completeness of it, not in
the tendency of it. Instead of from the worm to the butterfly, it is
very possible it may have been from the butterfly to the worm.

Have patience with me for a moment after I tell you what I believe it to
have been, and give me a little time to justify my words.

114. I say that Classicalism