oods and ideal democracies, should coincide with the spread of the
great tidings that a star had been seen by the Magi, or "wise men of the
East, who came _from the east_ to Jerusalem." Occurring, as it did, after
"the interregnum as regards pole-stars," during which nomadic tribes and
seafarers had vainly sought the fixed star which had guided their
forefathers, the appearance of a brilliant pole-star must have seemed
doubly significant and revived, among pagan philosophers, the ideal of an
earthly kingdom ruled by Heaven. The advent, at this time, of the Messiah
who, with his twelve disciples, announced that the kingdom of heaven was
nigh and taught that God was to be worshipped in the Spirit only, must
indeed have appeared particularly impressive and well-timed.

Faithfully clinging to the ideal of a regenerated religious democracy, the
early Christian church maintained itself through centuries of persecution
and is slowly advancing, amidst almost overwhelming and innumerable
difficulties, towards its realization.

Returning to Mexico we find that its civilization at the time of the
Conquest was precisely what might be expected if a small body of men of
superior wisdom and experience, such as was possessed by a remnant of
Graeco-Egyptian philosophers, had embarked in ships manned by the
descendants of Phoenician seafarers, and found refuge in the "land of the
West," amongst simple, docile people, existing in large numbers, who,
treated "as little children and instructed with love and gentleness,
willingly submitted themselves to the guidance of their teachers." A
single, short-lived generation of these would have amply sufficed for the
establishment of the governmental system and calendar, the firm
institution of a "celestial kingdom," and the spread of knowledge of the
technique of various arts and industries deemed most useful to the
natives. On the other hand, the foreign element, whose aims were chiefly
ideal, could have left little or no impression upon the evolution of the
native race, its art and industry, which doubtlessly followed its original
independent line of development.

It is remarkable how the echo of great events in Old World history seem to
have reached the Western hemisphere. In the Old World the eleventh and
twelfth centuries were marked by a revival of religious enthusiasm, by the
Crusades, the persecution of infidels by the Christian world and by a
general stirring amongst oriental people, the