Ney, and Murat, and Soult, and Davoust, and Macdonald, and Kleber, and a host of others, were baseborn men, and he pitted them against princes and dukes and nobles of every degree, and the plebeians proved themselves the better men. Nay, he did more -he shocked and disgusted, and for ever disgraced royalty itself, in their estimation, by making kings of plebeians, and finally taking the daughter of one of the haughtiest monarchs of Europe to his plebeian bed. He forced the haughty aristocracy to mingle in blood and companionship with those of his own making; and carried out, to its utmost limit, the just act of the tiers etat, when they wished simply to have the orders verify in common with them. He thus broke up this iron system over the continent-drove everything into fragments, and sent thrones, emptied of their kings and all the insignia of royalty, drifting like a floating wreck on the ocean he had set heaving. The strongest pillars of royalty were shattered to their bases the objects of oldest, deepest reverence treated as baubles, and the spell-word, by which pride and tyranny had conjured so long, made powerless as the tricks of a play actor. He confounded and confused everything, and put the crowned heads of Europe in such a tumult and wonderment, that they have not yet recovered their senses. He started every rivet in the chain of despotism, so that it can never be fully fastened again—and, more than all, waked up the human soul to think for itself, so that the dark ages which preceded his appearance can never more return. The

Man

work of reformation may be slow, but it is sure. is for ever exalted, and he cannot be depressed anew. Reverence and fear are rapidly diminishing, while the dawning light is spreading higher and brighter on the horizon. With Bonaparte's motives we now have nothing to do, but with the effect of his actions alone. His own imperial reign, though despotism to France, was republicanism to the world. It was the Revolution rolled out of France, and working amid the thrones of Europe. In this respect Bonaparte had an important mission to fulfil, and he accomplished it. The elements he so strangely disturbed, slowly settled back towards their original places, but never did, and never can reach them. The solid surface of feudalism has been broken, and can never reunite. Other experiments are to be worked out, and other destinies reached, different from those which have heretofore made up the history of man.

There is another aspect in which the Revolution may be regarded. It was like a personal struggle between freedom and tyranny, which must have taken place before man could be benefited; and when it did occur, must, from the very fierceness of the conflict, be simply a wild and desperate effort for victory-victory alone. The strife was too deadly and awful to admit of any other thought than bare victory, and hence the means employed, and the distress occasioned, were minor considerations. The struggle was necessarily terrible from the very magnitude of the consequences involved in the issue, and the convul

sions inevitable from such a struggle. The benefits are yet to be received. We believe the French Revolution has settled the question, whether all reform is to be checked by the bayonet. We see, already, its effect on the despotisms of Europe. England might have been the victim of this strife between liberty and tyranny, if France had not. But now she yields. rights, one after another, in obedience to the stern. voice of the people. Kings speak in a humble tone of their power, and in a more respectful manner of their subjects. Man, simple, untitled Man, is no longer a cipher in government. He is consulted silently, if not openly. The king fears him as he stands in the might and majesty of truth, more than hostile armies. The French Revolution, and Bonaparte afterwards, rent everything to pieces by the vehemence of their action, but left room for truth to perform its silent and greater work. France went back to military despotism, and is now a monarchy-but the world is no longer what it was. Whatever the final goal may be, it has, at least, taken one step forward.

LUTHER.

THE human race has always been subjected to violent shocks from the commencement of its history, till now. We turn from " REVOLUTIONS with a shudder, for the violence and bloodshed that accompany them are revolting to our feelings; but we forget that constituted as governments and society are, they are necessary. A higher wisdom, guided by a truer sympathy than ours, has said, "I come not to send peace, but a sword, to set a man at variance against his father,"&c. The world is full of oppressive systems, whose adherents will not yield without a fierce struggle, and the solid structure of which will not crumble except to heavy blows. Nearly, if not all the moral strugles of the race have at length come to a physical adjustment, for the party weakest in the justice of its cause has generally been the strongest in external force. Hence, when overthrown with argument it has resorted to the sword. Then comes martyrdom; but with increase of strength to the persecuted,

and the co-operation of rulers, resistance has followed, ending in long wars and wasting battles.

Thus did the Reformation under Luther-begun in silence and in weakness-end in revolutions, violence and bloodshed.

There seems sometimes a vast disparity between causes and the results they accomplish. We behold a poor monk, haggard and wan, praying alone in his cell with tears and groans-we look again, and he is shaking thrones and principalities and powers. Today he is sweeping the convent and engrossed in the occupations of a menial-to-morrow confronting kings and awing princes by the majesty of his bearing. And yet no visible power has passed into his hands-he is a single solitary man, with nothing to sustain him but truth, and leaning on no arm but that of the invisible God.

But we are to look for the cause of the Reformation out of Luther. That great movement was not a sudden impulse-the wave that swept over Europe was born in a deeper sea than Luther's bosom. Although Rome seemed secure, and her power supreme, the heavens had been for a long time giving indications of an approaching tempest. The world was expecting some great change, and this expectancy grew out of its need. The church had no spirituality, and was worse than dead-it was corrupt. With its observances and ceremonies and indulgencies, it could not reach the heart and wants of man. The human soul slowly awakening from its long slumbers, called