the sentences, upon whose
text it may be profitable to dwell. Let us look to his propositions.
From the first this conclusion must follow, that as nature has given men
all his faculties for use, any system of society in which the moral and
intellectual powers of any portion of the people are left undeveloped for
want of cultivation, or receive a perverse direction, is plainly opposed
to the system of nature, in other words, to the will of God. Is there
any government upon earth that will bear this test?

_Montesinos_.--I should rather ask of you, will there ever be one?

_Sir Thomas More_.--Not till there be a system of government conducted in
strict conformity to the precepts of the Gospel.

_Montesinos_.

"Offer these truths to Power, will she obey?
It prunes her pomp, perchance ploughs up the root."

LORD BROOKE.

Yet, in conformity to those principles alone, it is that subjects can
find their perfect welfare, and States their full security. Christianity
may be long in obtaining the victory over the powers of this world, but
when that consummation shall have taken place the converse of his second
proposition will hold good, for the species having obtained its perfect
development, the condition of society must then be such that individuals
will obtain it also as a necessary consequence.

_Sir Thomas More_.--Here you and your philosopher part company. For he
asserts that man is left to deduce from his own unassisted reason
everything which relates not to his mere material nature.

_Montesinos_.--There, indeed, I must diverge from him, and what in his
language is called the hidden plan of nature, in mine will be the
revealed will of God.

_Sir Thomas More_.--The will is revealed; but the plan is hidden. Let
man dutifully obey that will, and the perfection of society and of human
nature will be the result of such obedience; but upon obedience they
depend. Blessings and curses are set before you--for nations as for
individuals--yea, for the human race.

Flatter not yourself with delusive expectations! The end may be
according to your hope--whether it will be so (which God grant!) is as
inscrutable for angels as for men. But to descry that great struggles
are yet to come is within reach of human foresight--that great
tribulations must needs accompany them--and that these may be--you know
not how near at hand!

Throughout what is called the Christian world there will be a contest
between Impie