Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
So underneath the laws and the institutions of each modern nation,
underneath the monarchy and the republic, there is another and unseen
State, with sentiments not yet become popular, and with ideas not yet
confirmed in actions, not organized into institutions, ideas scarcely
legal, certainly not respectable. Slowly from its depths comes up this
ideal State, the State of the Future; and slowly to the eternal deep
sinks down the actual State, the State of the Present. But sometimes an
earthquake of the nations degrades of a sudden the actual; and speedily
starts up the ideal Kingdom of the Future. Such a thing has just come to
pass. In France, within five-and-forty days, a new State has arisen from
underneath the old. Men, whose words were suppressed, and their ideas
reckoned illegal but two months ago, now hold the sceptre of
five-and-thirty millions of grateful citizens, hold it in clean and
powerful hands. A great revolution has taken place; one which will
produce effects that we cannot foresee. It is itself the greatest act of
this century. God only knows what it will lead to. We are here to
express the sympathy of republicans for a new republic. We are here to
rejoice over the rising hopes of a new State, not to exult over the
fallen fortunes of the Bourbons. Louis Philippe has done much which we
may thank him for. He has kept mainly at peace the fiercest nation of
the world; has kept the peace of Europe for seventeen years. Let us
thank him for that. He has consolidated the French nation, helped to
give them a new unity of thought and unity of action, which they had not
before. Perhaps he did not intend all this. Since he has brought it
about, let us thank him for it, even if his conduct transcended his
intention. But, most of all, I would thank this "Citizen King" for
another thing. His greatest lesson is his last. He has shown that
five-and-thirty millions of Frenchmen, in this nineteenth century, are
only to be ruled by Justice and the Eternal Law of Right. We have seen
this crafty king, often wise and always cunning, driven from his throne.
He was the richest man in Europe, and the embodiment of the idea of
modern wealth. He had an army the best disciplined, probably, in the
world, and, as he thought, completely in his power. He had a Chamber of
Peers of his own appointment; a Chamber of Deputies almost of his own
election. He ruled a nation that contained three hundred thousand
office-holders, appointed by himself, and only two hundred and forty
thousand voters! Who sat so safe as the citizen king on his throne,
surrounded by republican institutions! So confident was he, as the
journals tell, that he bade a friend stop a day or two, "and see how I
will put down the people!" For once, this shrewd calculator reckoned
without his host.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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