If facts were not already too numerous, we would repeat here the account of St. Genevieve, to whose vision may be attributed the salvation of Paris. We should read the account of that saint, in the interesting paper by M. Thierry on Attila, in order to entertain no doubt of the exalted state of her mind.‡

The more we multiply cases drawn from history, the more we are forced to recognize the fact that celebrated men, above all those who have striven to ameliorate the condition of their kind, would find a niche in the pandemonium of lunacy, if morbid hallucination alone would justify their admission.

* M. Ch. Louandre, Revue des Deux Mondes, le Juillet, p. 106. † K.W. Ideler, Versuch einer Theorie des religiosen Wahnsinnes, p. 30, 1 vol. 8vo. Halle, 1348. ‡ Attila, Revue des Deux Mondes, Mars, 1852.

Every one has heard of the sect of Friends, or Quakers; their probity has become proverbial; but with existing medical doctrines, George Fox, the founder of the Society, would be but a lunatic. I do not know how that great man has escaped modern iconoclasts, since he possessed all the necessary qualities to be crushed by them.

In order to give himself up to a work of regeneration, George Fox, early in life, abandoned his family, and during a long series of years dressed in skin from head to foot. Now concealed in his chamber, now hidden in the cleft of a large tree, fasting, praying, and meditating on the Holy Scriptures, he was assailed by a variety of temptations and discouragements. About this period, he had many revelations which struck him with astonishment; it was disclosed to him that all Christians, whether Protestants or Papists, were believers and sons of God. Alarmed and distressed at finding no support on any side, he was finally consoled by a voice which said to him: "There is one who can console and aid you, even Christ himself.1' As was the case with St. Francis, of Assise, it was during a vision that he received the consecration of the spirit. For fourteen days, he remained in a kind of lethargy, and whilst his body lay to all appearance dead, his mind plunged into eternity, and he witnessed what no language could describe. "I saw," said he, "the greatness, the infinity, and the love of God." One Sunday, in 1649, he felt himself drawn to enter Nottingham Cathedral in order to bear witness. It is, therefore, undeniable that the founder of the Society of Quakers had visions and revelations. These psychological phenomena were also manifested in the first disciples who responded to his voice. Like him, all were deeply convinced of their infallibility, all looked on themselves as saints delivered from all sin, and endowed with the gift of prophecy; but all were likewise endowed with a kind of heroism, a contempt of danger, and a passion for plainness.*

Let us now return to those four characters drawn from different countries, who increase in grandeur in proportion as we view them from a distance, and towards whom posterity is beginning to show justice. Will they emerge with less brilliancy and parity for being submitted to the test of human science? The account already given answers this question; what we are about to add will leave no doubt on the subject. A principal and decisive fact is, that each of these personages is the representative, the personification of one of those ideas which exert so great an influence in the world. Their mission is providential; their acts are impelled by a superior power; they are forced to do as they do. The kingdom of France is nearly destroyed; scarcely a single town remains to the Dauphin; at this point (this is a main fact in our history), a simple, innocent, and virtuous young girl comes forth from the fields, accomplishes that which the greatest warriors have failed in doing, and the king of France receives the crown from her hands.

* Les Quakers, George Fox et les premier Prophetes, Revue des Deux Mondes, 2 vol., 1850, p. 94, et seq., par M. J. Milsand.

The religious curb imposed for several ages on the human mind has become too weighty; serious mistakes have made it still more difficult to be borne; low groanings, precursors of the tempest, are heard muttering around; human reason reclaims her rights; the cohorts are ready; they wait but a leader; at length he crosses the threshold of his cloister, and gives to the world the right of investigation. But the violence of his attacks, the ruin which he deprecates, and the destruction with which he threatens the Catholic Church, produces a reaction; an obscure soldier rises from the midst of the camp, who, with an eagle glance, scans the plan of the Reformer, seizes its vulnerable parts, arranges his own, and reconstructs the tottering edifice with such success, that all the efforts of Protestantism fall shattered at its feet.

Without attaining the level of those three illustrious men, the founder of Quakerism supplied a need of his time. He came, as M. J. Milsand remarks, at a period when old customs were about to yield. An infinitude of unsatisfied wants were crowded together in his nature, whence a future was to be formed; an infinitude of instincts were developed, but were not yet defined or classed. He experienced to the highest degree an invincible repugnance to the worldly vanity and morose dogmatism of the bigots who surrounded him. The language of the doctors had incensed him, and he felt an irresistible desire to reply to them.

This feeling he took for a revelation. He did as others then did.

In fact, in 1648, these convictions, instead of being ascribed to the evidence of truth, and to indisputable principles, as was the case in later times, were attributed to a revelation. " Religion was the fashion of the day," said one of the most religious writers (Daniel Neal, the historian of the Puritans). Officers preached, women mounted the pulpit, children received for their Christian names, "Praise God," or "Serve the Lord." Every one interpreted for himself the will of the Most High, as if he alone held the register of the divine law. Fox, far from being an anomaly, was a popular prophet, or rather, an exaggeration of his time; his course was guided by the age, and ignorance had raised his fixed ideas to exaltation, causing him to mistake his desires for actual facts.