Part 39 (2/2)

Doubtless, circumstances much aided the success of this marvellous revolution; but circumstances only second that which is just and true

Each branch of the developed epoch, in which it attains perfection by a sort of spontaneous instinct, and without effort No labor of reflection would succeed in producing afterward the masterpieces which Nature creates at those e of Greece was for arts and literature, the age of Jesus was for religion Jewish society exhibited the most extraordinary moral and intellectual state which the huh It was truly one of those divine hours in which the sublime is produced by coreat souls find a flood of admiration and sympathy to sustain them The world, delivered from the very narrow tyranny of sreat liberty Roman despotism did not make itself felt in a disastrous manner until much later, and it was, moreover, always less oppressive in those distant provinces than in the centre of the empire Our petty preventive interferences (far s of the spirit) did not exist Jesus, during three years, could lead a life which, in our societies, would have brought hial exercise of medicine would alone have sufficed to cut short his career The unbelieving dynasty of the Herods, on the other hand, occupied itself little with religious movements; under the Asmoneans, Jesus would probably have been arrested at his first step An innovator, in such a state of society, only risked death, and death is a gain to those who labor for the future Iine Jesus reduced to bear the burden of his divinity until his sixtieth or seventieth year, losing his celestial fire, wearing out little by little under the burden of an unparalleledfavors those who have a special destiny; they becolorious by a sort of invincible impulse and command of fate

This sublime person, who each day still presides over the destiny of the world, we may call divine, not in the sense that Jesus has absorbed all the divine, or has been adequate to it (to employ an expression of the schoolmen), but in the sense that Jesus is the one who has caused his fellow-reatest step toward the divine Mankind in its totality offers an asses, selfish, and superior to the animal only in that its selfishness is more reflective From the midst of this uniform mediocrity, there are pillars that rise toward the sky, and bear witness to a nobler destiny Jesus is the highest of these pillars which show to ht to tend In hiood and elevated in our nature He was not sinless; he has conquered the sael of God coood conscience; no Satan tempted him, except that which each one bears in his heart In the sah the fault of his disciples, it is also probable that many of his faults have been concealed But never has any one so much as he made the interests of humanity predominate in his life over the littlenesses of self-love

Unreservedly devoted to his ree that, toward the end of his life, the universe no longer existed for him It was by this access of heroic will that he conquered heaven There never was a ree trampled under foot, family, the joys of this world, and all temporal care Jesus only lived for his Father and the divine mission which he believed himself destined to fulfill

As to us, eternal children, powerless as we are, ho labor without reaping, and ill never see the fruit of that which we have sown, let us bow before these demi-Gods They were able to do that which we cannot do: to create, to affirain, or will the world content itself henceforth by following the ways opened by the bold creators of the ancient ages? We know not

But whatever may be the unexpected phenomena of the future, Jesus will not be surpassed His worshi+p will constantly renew its youth, the tale of his life will cause ceaseless tears, his sufferings will soften the best hearts; all the ages will proclaireater than Jesus

[THE END]

MODERN LIBRARY GIANTS

_A series of full-sized library editions of books that formerly were available only in cumbersome and expensive sets_

THE MODERN LIBRARY GIANTS REPRESENT A SELECTION OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS

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G1 TOLSTOY, LEO War and Peace

G2 BOSWELL, JAMES Life of Samuel Johnson

G3 HUGO, VICTOR Les Miserables

G4 THE COMPLETE POEMS OF KEATS AND ShellEY

G5 PLUTARCH'S LIVES (The Dryden Translation)

G6} GIBBON, EDWARD The Decline and Fall of the Roman G7} Empire (Complete in three volumes)

G8} G9 YOUNG, GF The Medici (Illustrated)

G10 TWELVE FAMOUS RESTORATION PLAYS (1660-1820) (Congreve, Wycherley, Gay, Goldsmith, Sheridan, etc) G11 JAMES, HENRY The Short Stories of

G12 THE MOST POPULAR NOVELS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT (Quentin Durward, Ivanhoe and Kenilworth)

G13 CARLYLE, THOMAS The French Revolution

G14 BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY (Illustrated)

G15 CERVANTES Don Quixote (Illustrated)

G16 WOLFE, THOMAS Look Hoel

G17 THE POEMS AND PLAYS OF ROBERT BROWNING

G18 ELEVEN PLAYS OF HENRIK IBSEN

G19 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HOMER

G20 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN