n of the passages from Macaulay and Ruskin; but
which, because it is simply an exposition of opinions addressed to the
understanding, will excellently illustrate the principle I am
enforcing. He is treating of the dethronement of kings. "As it was not
made for common abuses, so it is not to be agitated by common minds.
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and
resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable. It
is not a single act or a single event which determines it. Governments
must be abused and deranged, indeed, before it can be thought of; and
the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the
past. When things are in that lamentable condition, the nature of the
disease is to indicate the remedy to those whom nature has qualified to
administer in extremities this critical, ambiguous, bitter potion to a
distempered state. Times and occasions and provocations will teach
their own lessons. The wise will determine from the gravity of the
case; the irritable from sensibility to oppression; the high-minded
from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands; the
brave and bold from love of honourable danger in a generous cause. But
with or without right, a revolution will be the very last resource of
the thinking and the good."

As a final example I will cite a passage from M. Taine:--"De la encore
cette insolence contre les inferieurs, et ce mepris verse d'etage en
etage depuis le premier jusqu'au dernier. Lorsque dans une societe la
loi consacre les conditions inegales, personne n'est exempt d'insulte;
le grand seigneur, outrage par le roi, outrage le noble qui outrage le
peuple; la nature humaine est humilie a tous les etages, et la societe
n'est plus qu'un commerce d'affronts."

The law of Sequence by no means prescribes that we should invariably
state the proposition before its qualifications--the thought before its
illustrations; it merely prescribes that we should arrange our phrases
in the order of logical dependence and rhythmical cadence, the order
best suited for clearness and for harmony. The nature of the thought
will determine the one, our sense of euphony the other.

IV. THE LAW OF CLIMAX.

We need not pause long over this; it is generally understood. The
condition of our sensibilities is such that to produce their effect
stimulants must be progressive in intensity and varied in kind. On this
condition rest the laws of Climax a