Page:Georges Sorel, Reflections On Violence (1915).djvu/111

Rh be better cultivated. The illusions of Christian authors contemporary with the invasions may be compared to those of the numerous Utopians who hope to see the modern world regenerated by the virtues which they attribute to the man of average condition; the replacing of the very rich classes by new social strata should bring about morality, happiness, and universal prosperity.

The barbarians did not establish any progressive state of society; there were not many of them, and almost everywhere they simply took the place of the old lords, led the same life as they did, and were devoured by urban civilisation. In France, the Merovingian royalty has been made the subject of particularly thorough investigation; Fustel de Coulanges has-used all his erudition in throwing light on the conservative character which it assumed; its conservatism appeared to him to be so strong that he was even able to say that there had been no real revolution, and he represented the whole of the history of the late Middle Ages as a movement which had carried on the movement of the Roman Empire with a little acceleration. "The Merovingian Government," he said, "is more than three parts the continuation of that which the Roman Empire had given to Gaul."

The economic decadence was accentuated under these barbarian kings; no renascence could take place until very long afterwards, when the world had gone through a long series of trials. At least four centuries of barbarism had to be gone through before a progressive movement showed itself; society was compelled to descend to a state not far removed from its origins, and Vico was to find in this phenomenon an illustration of his doctrine of