Luther moved Europe by ideas which emancipated the millions, and set in motion a progress which is the glory of our age; Loyola invented a machine which arrested this progress, and drove the Catholic world back again into the superstitions and despotisms of the Middle Ages, retaining however the fear of God and of Hell, which some among the Protestants care very little about.

What is the secret of such a wonderful success?  Two things:  first, the extraordinary virtues, abilities, and zeal of the early Jesuits; and, secondly, their wonderful machinery in adapting means to an end.

The history of society shows that no body of men ever obtained a wide-spread ascendancy, never secured general respect, unless they deserved it.  Industry produces its fruits; learning and piety have their natural results.  Even in the moral world natural law asserts its supremacy.  Hypocrisy and fraud ultimately will be detected; no enduring reputation is built upon a lie; sincerity and earnestness will call out respect, even from foes; learning and virtue are lights which are not hid under a bushel.  Enthusiasm creates enthusiasm; a lofty life will be seen and honored.  Nor do people intrust their dearest interests except to those whom they venerate,—­and venerate because their virtues shine like the face of a goddess.  We yield to those only whom we esteem wiser than ourselves.  Moses controlled the Israelites because they venerated his wisdom and courage; Paul had the confidence of the infant churches because they saw his labors; Bernard swayed his darkened age by the moral power of learning and sanctity.  The mature judgments of centuries never have reversed the judgments which past ages gave in reference to their master minds.  All the pedants and sophists of Germany cannot whitewash Frederic II. or Henry VIII.  No man in Athens was more truly venerated than Socrates when he mocked his judges.  Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, appeared to contemporaries as they appear to us.  Even Hildebrand did not juggle himself into his theocratic chair.  Washington deserved all the reverence he enjoyed; and Bonaparte himself was worthy of the honors he received, so long as he was true to the interests of France.

So of the Jesuits,—­there is no mystery in their success; the same causes would produce the same results again.  When Catholic Europe saw men born to wealth and rank voluntarily parting with their goods and honors; devoting themselves to religious duties, often in a humble sphere; spending their days in schools and hospitals; wandering as preachers and missionaries amid privations and in fatigue; encountering perils and dangers and hardships with fresh and ever-sustained enthusiasm; and finally yielding up their lives as martyrs, to proclaim salvation to idolatrous savages,—­it knew them to be heroic, and believed them to be sincere, and honored them in consequence.  When parents saw that the Jesuits entered heart and soul into the work of education, winning their pupils’ hearts