"Mark the insolence of the priests[5120] who, in sharing authority with what they call the temporal power, reserve to themselves all action on the mind, the noblest part of man, and take it on themselves to reduce my part merely to physical action. They retain the soul and fling me the corpse!" In antiquity, things were much better done, and are still better done now in Moslem countries. "In the Roman republic,[5121] the senate was the interpreter of heaven, and this was the incentive of the force and strength of that government. In Turkey, and throughout the Orient, the Koran serves as both a civil and religious bible. Only in Christianity do we find the pontificate distinct from the civil government." And even this has occurred only in one branch of Christianity. Everywhere, except in Catholic countries, "in England,[5122] in Russia, in the northern monarchies, in one part of Germany, the legal union of the two powers, the religious control in the hands of the sovereign, 'is an accomplished fact.' One cannot govern without it; otherwise, the repose, dignity, and independence of a nation are disturbed at every moment." It is a pity that "the difficulty[5123] cannot be overcome as with Henry VIII. in England. The head of the French government would then, by legislative statute, be the supreme head of the French Church." Unfortunately, this is repugnant to France. Napoleon often tries to bring it about, but is satisfied that in this matter "he would never obtain national cooperation"; once embarked," fully engaged in the enterprise, "the nation would have abandoned him." Unable to take this road, he takes another, which leads to the same result. As he himself afterwards states, this result "was, for a long time and always, the object of his wishes and mediations.... It is not his aim[5124] to change the faith of his people; he respects spiritual objects and wants to rule them without meddling with them; his aim is to make these square with his views, with his policy, but only through the influence of temporal concerns." That spiritual authority should remain intact; that it should operate on its own speculative domain, that it to say, on dogmas, and on its practical domain, namely, on the sacraments and on worship; that is should be sovereign on this limited territory, Napoleon admits, for such is the fact. We have only to open our eyes to see it; right or wrong, spiritual authority on this distinct domain is recognized sovereign, obeyed, effective through the persistent, verified loyalty of believers. It cannot be done away with by supposing it non-existent; on the contrary, a competent statesman will maintain it in order to make use of it and apply it to civil purposes. Like an engineer who comes across a prolific spring near his factory, he will not try to dry it up, nor let the water be dispersed and lost; he has no idea of letting it remain inactive; on the contrary, he collects it, digs