ed for the degenerate race of Anglo-Saxon kings a virile
dynasty able to give to England what it needed--a vigorous
central administration--and brought the English people into the
stream of European civilisation.

It was the hope of Erasmus that Catholic forms could be blended
with the Greek spirit.

Luther's songs express the very soul of old Germany; above all,
the great hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott."

Though the Reformation in freeing the mind of man from
ecclesiastical tyranny made eventually for political liberty, its
whole tendency in England for the time being was in favour of
absolute monarchy. Its first outcome here was to set up a secular
monarchy, supreme in Church and State, founded on the theory of
the divine right of kings, based on an aristocracy made loyal by
the instinct of self-interest.

Commerce and national wealth were at stake in the war between
England and Spain in the sixteenth century, and not merely,
perhaps not even mainly, religion.

Drake was a very great sailor, but he was undoubtedly a
buccaneer.

Many Ministers had been sent to the block for offences far less
rank than those of Charles I; nevertheless, his execution was
absolutely illegal and a fatal mistake in policy.

Few men experienced such hard treatment at the hands of fortune
as Cromwell. In every case, save the rule of the major-generals,
his constitutional experiments were wise, far-seeing and
well-conceived. It was the perverse conduct of those who
professed to be his followers that ruined all.

There has never been a shrewder king on a throne than Charles II.

In the popular view, James II will always be regarded as the
tyrannical despot, the subverter of the religious and political
institutions of England, while his brother, Charles II, will be
looked upon as a kindly and amiable gentleman, who oppressed no
one and treated everyone kindly. Yet in the view of the student
of history Charles becomes the tyrant and James an honest though
bigoted fool.

To compare the age of Cromwell with that of Charles II is to see
the Dorian and Lydian spirits respectively in their most
contrasted lights.

The difference between Richelieu and Mazarin is the difference
between the creator and the developer.

The political