Society, on the other hand, is no less threatened by the spread of intellect than it is by the development of brute nature: suppose labour to be condemned to idleness by reason of the multiplication and variety of machinery; admit that one only and general mercenary, matter, replaces the mercenaries of the farm and the household: what will you do with the unemployed human race? What will you do with passions that are idle at the same time as, the intellect? The vigour of the body is maintained by physical occupation; when labour ceases, strength disappears; we shall become like those nations of Asia which fall a prey to the first invader and which are unable to defend themselves against a hand that bears the sword. Thus liberty is preserved only by work, because work produces strength; withdraw the curse pronounced against the sons of Adam, "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread[430]," and they will die in servitude. The divine curse therefore enters into the mystery of our lot; man is less the slave of his sweat than of his thought: that is how, after making the circuit of society, after passing through the different civilizations, after supposing unknown perfections, we find ourselves once more at the starting-point, in the presence of the truths of Scripture. [Sidenote: The Monarchy.] At the time of our Monarchy of eight centuries, Europe had in France the centre of its intelligence, its perpetuity, its repose; when deprived of that Monarchy, Europe at once inclined towards democracy. The human race, for good or ill, has become its own master; the princes have enjoyed its property during its minority; now that the nations have come of age, they contend that they have no more need of guardians. From David to our time, the kings have been called: the vocation of the peoples is commencing. The brief and small exceptions of the Greek, Carthaginian, Roman Republics, with slaves, do not take away the fact that, in antiquity, the monarchic state was the normal state of the globe. The whole of modern society, since the banner of the French kings has ceased to exist, is laying aside the monarchy. God, to hasten the degradation of the royal power, has delivered the sceptres in different countries to infirm kings, to little girls in long-clothes[431] or in the white veils of their weddings[432]: those are the toothless lions, the clawless lionesses, the sucking babes, the marrying babes, whom grown men are to follow in this era of unbelief. The boldest opinions are proclaimed in the face of the monarchs, who pretend to feel safe behind the three-fold hedge of a suspected guard. The flood of democracy is overtaking them; they climb from storey to storey, from the ground-floor to the attic roof of their palace, whence they will leap into the water through the dormer windows.