Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/422

372 The northern nations of Europe, the Dolicho-Cephalic or long-headed Scandanavian [sic] races who are little susceptible to emotions, adopted the freer faith which afforded a greater scope for individual freedom and judgment; while the southern nations, the Bracho [sic]-Cephalic or broad-headed Gaelic or Celtic races who are naturally more emotional, clung to the ancient faith which afforded a higher scope for the development of our loftiest emotions and faith.

Young soldiers who fought the Seven Years' War were scarcely yet in their old age when another great question ripened for decision, and was decided in another sanguinary war or series of wars. The question was, whether the people should rule themselves, or be ruled by absolute kings and feudal lords. This question had been decided by Englishmen, for themselves, in the seventeenth century, between 1640 and 1688, but it came up for decision over a vaster area in Continental Europe a hundred years later. The French Revolution was the struggle of popular power against Toryism and absolute power in Europe. If France alone had been concerned in the matter, the question might have been decided without prolonged wars, as the events of the first years of the Revolution seemed to indicate. But Royal power all over Europe was interested in the issue, and Sovereigns in Vienna and Berlin trembled on their thrones, and made common cause with the French Sovereign and the fugitive French lords to crush the rising power of the people. And England, which had