here is on the whole probably
a freer discussion of a greater number of subjects than ever was before
in the world, we know how much power bigotry retains. But discussion,
to be successful, requires tolerance. It fails wherever, as in a French
political assembly, any one who hears anything which he dislikes tries
to howl it down. If we know that a nation is capable of enduring
continuous discussion, we know that it is capable of practising with
equanimity continuous tolerance.

The power of a government by discussion as an instrument of elevation
plainly depends--other things being equal--on the greatness or
littleness of the things to be discussed. There are periods when great
ideas are 'in the air,' and when, from some cause or other, even common
persons seem to partake of an unusual elevation. The age of Elizabeth
in England was conspicuously such a time. The new idea of the
Reformation in religion, and the enlargement of the MOENIA MUNDI by the
discovery of new and singular lands, taken together, gave an impulse to
thought which few, if any, ages can equal. The discussion, though not
wholly free, was yet far freer than in the average of ages and
countries. Accordingly, every pursuit seemed to start forward. Poetry,
science, and architecture, different as they are, and removed as they
all are at first sight from such an influence as discussion, were
suddenly started onward. Macaulay would have said you might rightly
read the power of discussion 'in the poetry of Shakespeare, in the
prose of Bacon, in the oriels of Longleat, and the stately pinnacles of
Burleigh.' This is, in truth, but another case of the principle of
which I have had occasion to say so much as to the character of ages
and countries. If any particular power is much prized in an age, those
possessed of that power will be imitated; those deficient in that power
will be despised. In consequence an unusual quantity of that power will
be developed, and be conspicuous. Within certain limits vigorous and
elevated thought was respected in Elizabeth's time, and, therefore,
vigorous and elevated thinkers were many; and the effect went far
beyond the cause. It penetrated into physical science, for which very
few men cared; and it began a reform in philosophy to which almost all
were then opposed. In a word, the temper of the age encouraged
originality, and in consequence original men started into prominence,
went hither and thither where they liked, arrived at