General History of Civilisation in Europe, From the Fall of the Roman Empire Till the French Revolution. A Treatise on Death Punishments.Guizot, François
History
General History of Civilisation in Europe, From the Fall of the Roman Empire Till the French Revolution. A Treatise on Death Punishments.
Guizot, François
Europe -- Civilization
If, therefore, we consider the church in its relations with the
liberty of its members, we perceive that its principles in this
respect were less legitimate and salutary than those which
presided at the formation of the ecclesiastical power. We are
not, however, to conclude that one evil principle radically
vitiates an institution, nor even that it does all the mischief
with which it is pregnant. Nothing falsifies history more than
logic. When the human understanding has fixed upon an idea, it
deduces therefrom all possible consequences; it makes it bring
forth all that in pure possibility it could bring forth, and then
represents it in history as attended by all these results. But
matters do not come out after this fashion; events are not so
prompt as the deductions of the human mind. There is in all
things a mixture of bad and good so deep-seated and invincible,
that when you dive to the most hidden elements of society or the
mind, whatever portion you open out, you there find these two
orders of things co-existent, developing themselves side by side,
and struggling with, but not exterminating each other. Human
nature never goes to the last limits either of good or bad; it
passes unceasingly from one to the other, recovering itself when
it seems nearest the fall, and faltering at the moment that its
step seems firmest. We discover here once more that
characteristic of discordance, variety, and strife, which I have
already remarked as the fundamental characteristic of European
civilisation.
There is, furthermore, a general fact illustrative of the
government of the church of which it is necessary to take notice.
At the present day, when the idea of a government, whatever may
be its nature, presents itself to us, we feel that there is no
longer any pretension of controlling aught else than the outward
actions of men, and their civil relations amongst themselves;
governments profess to go no farther. As to the human thought and
conscience, morality, properly so called, or as to individual
opinions and private manners, they do not interfere; those
matters fall to the domain of liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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