precisely the one which is not protected by the State; still, there is a saying in China, universally acknowledged, and of daily application, that “the three faiths are only one,”—­that is to say, they agree in essentials.  The Emperor confesses all three together at the same time.  And Europe is the union of Christian States:  Christianity is the basis of every one of the members, and the common bond of all.  Hence Turkey, though geographically in Europe, is not properly to be reckoned as belonging to it.  In the same way, the European princes hold their place “by the grace of God:”  and the Pope is the vicegerent of God.  Accordingly, as his throne was the highest, he used to wish all thrones to be regarded as held in fee from him.  In the same way, too, Archbishops and Bishops, as such, possessed temporal power; and in England they still have seats and votes in the Upper House.  Protestant princes, as such, are heads of their churches:  in England, a few years ago, this was a girl eighteen years old.  By the revolt from the Pope, the Reformation shattered the European fabric, and in a special degree dissolved the true unity of Germany by destroying its common religious faith.  This union, which had practically come to an end, had, accordingly, to be restored later on by artificial and purely political means.  You see, then, how closely connected a common faith is with the social order and the constitution of every State.  Faith is everywhere the support of the laws and the constitution, the foundation, therefore, of the social fabric, which could hardly hold together at all if religion did not lend weight to the authority of government and the dignity of the ruler.

Philalethes.  Oh, yes, princes use God as a kind of bogey to frighten grown-up children to bed with, if nothing else avails:  that’s why they attach so much importance to the Deity.  Very well.  Let me, in passing, recommend our rulers to give their serious attention, regularly twice every year, to the fifteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel, that they may be constantly reminded of what it means to prop the throne on the altar.  Besides, since the stake, that ultima ration theologorum, has gone out of fashion, this method of government has lost its efficacy.  For, as you know, religions are like glow-worms; they shine only when it is dark.  A certain amount of general ignorance is the condition of all religions, the element in which alone they can exist.  And as soon as astronomy, natural science, geology, history, the knowledge of countries and peoples have spread their light broadcast, and philosophy finally is permitted to say a word, every faith founded on miracles and revelation must disappear; and philosophy takes its place.  In Europe the day of knowledge and science dawned towards the end of the fifteenth century with the appearance of the Renaissance Platonists:  its sun rose higher in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries so rich in results, and scattered the mists