Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/297

 of Christ and of their fellow-creatures, as because they have not the ability for law or medicine, nor spirit enough for the army and navy, nor capital enough for commerce, nor income enough to lead an idle life."

There is, then, unquestionable evidence for the truth of this mournful picture of society and of the Church, during the preceding century, which we have attempted to draw. The broad outline might have been filled in with more detail, and the whole might have received a more distinctive colouring, but the general sketch presented is sufficient for our purpose: it points out some of the principles which underlay the history of the times to which we are referring.

The evils, however, which then prevailed, and which were uprooting the welfare of mankind, have been long abating; some of their most flagrant forms have passed away, and there can be no doubt that an extraordinary change has taken place among the people since that period. Every one who will take up the history of the last century and compare it with the annals of the present, will at once perceive that some mighty change has been accomplished; that some desolating cause has been removed, and some new influences set to work. We do not here so much refer to those common advantages which are everywhere surrounding us, as to that blow by which it is certain a great variety of public evils have been struck down;—evils which were rampant in society, and generally connived at by our ancestry a few generations ago. The vices which distinguished the reigning courts; the tyranny of governments; the corruption of Parliaments; the intemperance of statesmen; the sanguinary character of the laws; the corruption of the Church, the looseness of its clergy, their open simony,