the highest, he used to wish all thrones to be regarded as held in fee
from him. In the same way, too, Archbishops and Bishops, as such,
possessed temporal power; and in England they still have seats and votes
in the Upper House. Protestant princes, as such, are heads of their
churches: in England, a few years ago, this was a girl eighteen years
old. By the revolt from the Pope, the Reformation shattered the European
fabric, and in a special degree dissolved the true unity of Germany by
destroying its common religious faith. This union, which had practically
come to an end, had, accordingly, to be restored later on by artificial
and purely political means. You see, then, how closely connected a
common faith is with the social order and the constitution of every
State. Faith is everywhere the support of the laws and the constitution,
the foundation, therefore, of the social fabric, which could hardly hold
together at all if religion did not lend weight to the authority of
government and the dignity of the ruler.

_Philalethes_. Oh, yes, princes use God as a kind of bogey to frighten
grown-up children to bed with, if nothing else avails: that's why they
attach so much importance to the Deity. Very well. Let me, in passing,
recommend our rulers to give their serious attention, regularly twice
every year, to the fifteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel, that
they may be constantly reminded of what it means to prop the throne on
the altar. Besides, since the stake, that _ultima ration theologorum_,
has gone out of fashion, this method of government has lost its
efficacy. For, as you know, religions are like glow-worms; they shine
only when it is dark. A certain amount of general ignorance is the
condition of all religions, the element in which alone they can exist.
And as soon as astronomy, natural science, geology, history, the
knowledge of countries and peoples have spread their light broadcast,
and philosophy finally is permitted to say a word, every faith founded