But, if the regeneration of the Church of England by a re-Judaising process and by return to the Targum of the Pharisees has proved abortive, it must be admitted that, from the political point of view, the conception announced in the "trilogy," and rhapsodically illustrated in _Tancred_--the conception of the Anglican Church reviving its political ascendancy and developing "the most efficient means of the renovation of the national spirit"--has not proved quite abortive. It shows astonishing prescience to have seen fifty years ago that the Church of England might yet become a considerable political power, and could be converted, by a revival of Mediaeval traditions, into a potent instrument of the New Tory Democracy. Whatever we may think about the strengthening of the Established Church from the point of view of intellectual solidity or influence with the nation, it can hardly be doubted that in the fifty years that have passed since the date of the "trilogy," the Church as a body has rallied to one party in the State, and has proved a potent ally of militant Imperialism and Tory Democracy. Lord Beaconsfield lived to witness that great transformation in the Church of the High and Dry Pluralists and the Simeonite parsons, which he had himself so powerfully organised in Parliament, in society, and on the platform. His successor to-day can count on no ally so sure and loyal as the Church. But it was a wonderful inspiration for a young man fifty years ago to perceive that this could be done--and to see the way in which it might be done. _Coningsby_ and _Sybil_ at any rate were active forces in the formation of a definite political programme. And this was a programme which in Parliament and in the country their author himself had created, organised, and led to victory. It cannot be denied that they largely contributed to this result. And thus these books have this very remarkable and almost unique character. It would be very difficult to mention anything like a romance in any age or country which had ever effected a direct political result or created a new party. _Don Quixote_ is said to have annihilated chivalry; _Tartuffe_ dealt a blow at the pretensions of the Church; and the _Marriage of Figaro_ at those of the old _noblesse_. It is possible that _Bleak House_ gave some impulse to law reform, and _Vanity Fair_ has relieved us of a good deal of snobbery. But no novel before or since ever created a political party and provided them with a new programme. _Coningsby_ and _Sybil_ really did this; and it may be doubted if it could have been done in any other way. "Imagination, in the government of nations" (we are told in the preface to _Lothair_) "is a quality not less important than reason." Its author trusts much "to a popular sentiment which rested on a heroic tradition and which was sustained by the high spirit of a free aristocracy."