formidable ordeal. It was reserved for the little town of Constance to afford a spectacle which the world had not witnessed for ages. There, one man, weakened by sickness and long imprisonment, isolated from a few friends dispersed and trembling, resisted, strong in the gospel and in his conscience, all that external authority could display to intimidate and subjugate souls. He yields not before the efforts of all the spiritual and temporal powers united. John Huss, lastly, by his example, still more than by his doctrines, re-opened to the Christian world a path that had been long closed; and, if it is permitted to compare sacred things with profane, effected in the sphere of religion and morality what, at a later period, Columbus brought to pass in the external and physical world; he laid open a new empire, or, to speak more correctly, he discovered a domain which had been forgotten for ages--that of the Conscience in matters of faith. Inquiry was a field interdicted to all. Huss entered on it anew, in the midst of hostile clamours, and re-opened it amidst the noise of the thunder and the tempest. He fell in his attempt; but it was important to prove that the conscience of the Christian was stronger than all the powers of the earth; for that end one of those sublime sacrifices which terminate in death was requisite. John Huss, therefore, must die; and in his death consisted his victory. It was the firmness of his character which gave him influence over the people, like most of those whose passage through the world has left the most durable impression. He was great, especially by the heart; and although he was, by the qualities of his mind, one of the most distinguished men of his age, yet his greatness was rather moral than intellectual. He established no new system, nor attached his name to any religious creed; and his glory is, in consequence, the purer. Not being the author of his doctrines, he had no personal interest in their triumph; and the love of the truth did not, in his heart, confound itself with vanity. He was not able to obtain external liberty for religious worship; but he did more; for by his faith, by his courage before a tribunal the most elevated in the opinions of men; by the vast renown of his virtues, condemnation, and martyrdom, he caused a part of Europe to understand the sacred right of that freedom of conscience which, when properly employed, constitutes the Christian equally on the throne as in chains. John Huss, in a word, greatly contributed to bring back Christianity to its primitive character, viz., that of being the religion of the heart, and to restore its real spirit--a spirit of life, of progress, and of liberty. If Religion be not this; if it be the monopoly of a college of priests, or the privilege of a sect, it becomes immediately exclusive, intolerant, and oppressive. The history of antiquity, as well as of modern times, teaches us that men