The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

436 INFLUENCE OF POPERY ON GOVERNMENT.by keel ; and America would still have been hid in the mysteriousregions of the unexplored west. The great law ofgravitation, which first certified to man the order and grandeurof the universe, would still have been undiscovered ;and the whole furniture of the heavens, fixed in their crystallinespheres, would have been performing a diurnal revolutionround our little earth. We would have been tremblingat eclipses, and helpless before the power of diseaseand pestilence. We would still have been engrossed in thepursuits of alchemy and judicial astrology, discussing quidlibetsand quodlibets, and, for our spiritual food, listening tothe mendacious legends of the saints. We would have beenmoved to compassion by the example of St Francis, who dividedhis cloak with the mendicant,—stimulated to zeal bythe story of Anthony, who sailed to St Petersburg on a millstoneto convert the Russians,—fortified against temptationby the courage of St Dunstan, who led Satan about with apair of red-hot pincers, when he tempted him in the likenessof a fair lady,—exhorted against the fear of danger by thestory of St Denis, who carried his head half a dozen milesafter it was separated from his body,—and schooled into devotionby St Anthony of Padua's mule, which, after threedays' fasting, left his provender to worship the host. Had thePapacy had her wall, Milton would never have sung, Baconand Locke would never have reasoned, the classic page ofErasmus and Buchanan would have remained unwritten,the steam-engine would still have been to be invented, andthe age of mechanical marvels, which ennoble our cities, andgive to man the dominion of the elements, would have beenstill to come. Our ships would have carried from our shoresother products than those of our learning, our science, andour industry ; and would have returned laden, not with thosevaried commodities with which distant countries abound,and of which ours is destitute, but with papal bulls, beads,crucifixes, indulgences, dispensations, and occasionally excommunicationsand interdicts. If our tempox'al wealthwould have been less, our spiritual comforts would have been