had been previously restrained
from indulging these dispositions by their fear of God, will, of course,
break out into open vice, when that fear is removed. But the heads of
the families of the people, instructed in the pure habits and perfect
delights of an honest life, and to whom the thought of a Father in
heaven had been a comfort, not a restraint, will assuredly not seek
relief from the discomfort of their orphanage by becoming uncharitable
and vile. Also the high leaders of their thought gather their whole
strength together in the gloom; and at the first entrance to this Valley
of the Shadow of Death, look their new enemy full in the eyeless face of
him, and subdue him, and his terror, under their feet. "Metus omnes, et
inexorabile fatum,... strepitumque Acherontis avari." This is the
condition of national soul expressed by the art, and the words, of
Holbein, Duerer, Shakspeare, Pope, and Goethe.

51. But if the people, at the moment when the trial of darkness
approaches, be not confirmed in moral character, but are only
maintaining a superficial virtue by the aid of a spectral religion; the
moment the staff of their faith is broken, the character of the race
falls like a climbing plant cut from its hold: then all the earthliest
vices attack it as it lies in the dust; every form of sensual and insane
sin is developed; and half a century is sometimes enough to close in
hopeless shame the career of the nation in literature, art, and war.

52. Notably, within the last hundred years, all religion has perished
from the practically active national mind of France and England. No
statesman in the senate of either country would dare to use a sentence
out of their acceptedly divine Revelation, as having now a literal
authority over them for their guidance, or even a suggestive wisdom for
their contemplation. England, especially, has cast her Bible full in the
face of her former God; and proclaimed, with open challenge to Him, her
resolved worship of His declared enemy, Mammon. All the arts, therefore,
founded on religion and sculpture chiefly, are here in England effete
and corrupt, to a degree which arts never were hitherto in the history
of mankind; and it is possible to show you the condition of sculpture
living, and sculpture dead, in accurate opposition, by simply comparing
the nascent Pisan school in Italy with the existing school in England.

53. You were perhaps surprised at my placing in your educational series,