From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

The men who were now fleeing from France
were the first to tread a path which was to be
trodden again and again by hundreds of thousands
of their countrymen in years to come. During the
following two centuries and a half these scenes
were renewed at short intervals. Scarcely was there
a generation of Frenchmen during that long period
that did not witness the disciples of the Gospel
fleeing before the insane fury of the persecutor, and
carrying with them the intelligence, the arts, the
industry, the order, in which, as a rule, they preeminently
excelled, to enrich the lands in which
they found an asylum. And in proportion as they
replenished other countries with these good gifts
did they empty their own of them. If all that was
now driven away had been retained in France; if,
during these 300 years, the industrial skill of the
exiles had been cultivating her soil; if, during these
300 years, their artistic bent had been improving
her manufactures; if, during these 300 years, their
creative genius and analytic power had been
enriching her literature and cultivating her science;
if their wisdom had been guiding her councils, their
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