Page:Conventional Lies of our Civilization.djvu/87

Rh self under the ægis of Religion. He would recall to mind the fact that during the Middle Ages, the churches were an asylum of refuge, and he would hasten to seek protection at the foot of the altar from the pursuit of reason The blade of the sword alone is no longer sufficient, he must have the cross welded to it for a handle.

The sources of the tyrant's power are too clearly visible to all, he must make them fade into indistinctness by enveloping them in a cloud of incense. The hard facts of history are softened in a mist of legendary lore, and the priest is called upon to reply to the question: "Why should the feeble son, who never could carve out a throne for himself, why should he inherit the power of his father?" by a simple: "Because God so wills it." This is the rock upon which young dynasties will strike and go down. The sons of the Nineteenth Century can not see God in the fire of a fusillade as Moses saw Him in the burning bush; neither can they accept a street-barricade skirmishes a manifestation of His will.

It is a tedious task to throw a halo c sacredness around the prosaic proclamations which form the certificate of birth of a dictatorship and if the inheritor of it is not strong enough to uphold it by force of arms it will not help him much to draw the right to govern from heaven. The catholic church has strictly forbidden the canonization of any person until at least four generations have passed away since his death. The believers must be allowed time to forget his human frailties; for even with the best intentions, we find it hard to believe that the John or Harry, who sat next to us at school has got angel wings now, and is one of the most distinguished soloists of the celestial choir. The church was even wiser on this point than those monarchs who had it proclaimed that they were demi-gods, before their contemporaries had