earning.--FREEMAN, Historical Essays, iv. 301. The diffusion of a
critical spirit in history and literature is affecting the criticism
of the Bible in our own day in a manner not unlike the burst of
intellectual life in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.--JOWETT,
Essays and Reviews, 346. As the revival of literature in the sixteenth
century produced the Reformation, so the growth of the critical
spirit, and the change that has come over mental science, and the
mere increase of knowledge of all kinds, threaten now a revolution
less external but not less profound.--HADDAN, Replies, 348

#56 In his just contempt and detestation of the crimes and follies of
the Revolutionists, he suffers himself to forget that the revolution
itself is a process of the Divine Providence, and that as the folly of
men is the wisdom of God, so are their iniquities instruments of His
goodness.--COLERIDGE, Biographia Literaria, ii. 240. In other parts
of the world, the idea of revolutions in government is, by a mournful
and indissoluble association, connected with the idea of wars, and all
the calamities attendant on wars. But happy experience teaches us to
view such revolutions in a very different light--to consider them only
as progressive steps in improving the knowledge of government, and
increasing the happiness of society and mankind.--J. WILSON, 26th
November 1787, Works, iii. 293. La Revolution, c'est-a-dire l'oeuvre
des siecles, ou, si vous voulez, le renouvellement progressif de la
societe, on encore, sa nouvelle constitution.-REMUSAT, Correspondance,
11th October 1818. A ses yeux loin d'avoir rompu le tours naturel des
evenements, ni la Revolution d'Angleterre, ni la notre, n'ont rien
dit, rien fait, qui n'eut ete dit, souhaite, fait, on tente cent fois
avant leur explosion. "Il faut en ceci," dit-il, "tout accorder a
leurs adversaires, les surpasser meme en severite, ne regarder a leurs
accusations que pour y ajouter, s'ils en oublient; et puis les sommer
de dresser, a leur tour, le compte des erreurs, des crimes, et des
maux de ces temps et de ces pouvoirs qu'ils ont pris sous leur
garde."--Revue de Paris, xvi. 303, on Guizot. Quant aux nouveautes
mises en oeuvre par la Revolution Francaise on les retrouve une a une,
en remontant d'age en age, chez les philosopher du XVIII/e siecle,
chez les grands penseurs du XVI/e, chez certains Peres d'Eglise et
jusque dans la Republique de Platon.--En presence de cette belle
continuite