3 stuffed with this respect for la.w; even the physical sciences have been pressed into the service by introducing artificial modes of expression, borrowed fr.om theology and arbitrary power, into knowledge which is purely the result of observation. Thus our intelligence is succ,:3ssfully befogged, and always to maintain our respect for law. The same work is done by newspapers. They have not an article which does not preach respect for law, even where the third page proves every day to demonstrate the imbecility of that law, a.nd shows how it is uragged thrnugh every variety of mud and filth.by those charged with its ad.ministration. Servility before the law has become a ·virtue, and I doubt if there was ever even a revolutionist who did not begin in his youth as the defender of ·law against what are generally called " abuses," although these last are inevitable consequences of the law itself. Art pipes iu unison with \\'·ould-be science. The hero of the sculptor, •the painter, the musician, shields Law 'beneath his buckler, -and with flashing eyes and distended nostrils stands ever ready to strike down the man who would lay hands upon her. Temples are raised to her;· revolutionists themselves hesitate to touch _the high priests consecra.ted to her service, a.nd when revolution is about to sweep away some ancient institution, it is still by law that it endeavours to sanctify the deed. The confused mass_of rules of conduct called La.w, which has been bequeathed to us by slavery, serfdom, ·feudalism, a.nd royalty, has taken the place of those stone monsters before whom human victims used to be immolated, and whom slavish ' savages dared not even touch lest they should be slain by the thunderbolts of heaven. This new worship has been established with especial success since the rise to supreme power of the middle class-since the great French Revolution. Under the ancient reqime·, men spoke little of laws; unless, indeed, it were, with Montesquieu, Rousseau and Volta'ire, to oppose them to royal caprice; obedience to the good pleasure of :the king and his lackeys was compulsory' on pain of hanging or imprioonment. But during and after the revolutions when the lawyers rose to power, they did their best to strengthen the principle upon which their asce~dBiblioteca Gino.Bianco
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