General History of Civilization in Europe: From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution

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D. Appleton, 1842 - Europe - 316 pages

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Page 48 - At the end of the fourth century, and the beginning of the fifth, Christianity was no longer a simple belief, it was an institution — it had formed itself into a corporate body.
Page 25 - Wherever the exterior condition of man becomes enlarged, quickened, and improved ; wherever the intellectual nature of man distinguishes itself by its energy, brilliancy, and its grandeur ; wherever these two signs concur, and they often do so, notwithstanding the gravest imperfections in the social system, there man proclaims and applauds civilization.
Page 249 - The period of our inquiry must extend from the beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century ; for this period embraces, so to speak, the life of this event from its birth to its termination. All historical events have in some sort a determinate career. Their consequences are prolonged...
Page 4 - NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY. MDCCCXLH. V ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
Page 15 - BEING called upon to give a course of lectures, and having considered what subject would be most agreeable and convenient to fill up the short space allowed us from now to the close of the year, it has occurred to me that a general sketch of the History of Modern Europe, considered more especially with regard to the progress of civilization — that a general survey of the history of European civilization, of its origin, its progress, its end, its character, would be the most profitable subject upon...
Page 30 - Human societies are born, live, and die, upon the earth ; there they accomplish their destinies. But they contain not the whole man. After his engagement to society there still remains in him the more noble part of his nature ; those high faculties by which he elevates himself to God, to a future life, and to the unknown blessings of an invisible world.
Page 188 - This is true to a certain extent; though some of these assertions may be disputed. But what cannot be disputed is this influence, this general effect of the crusades upon the human mind on the one hand, and the state of society on the other. They drew society out of a very narrow road, to throw it into new and infinitely broader paths; they began that transformation of the various elements of European society into governments and nations, which is the characteristic of modern civilization.
Page 18 - ... to run — a destiny for it to accomplish ; whether nations have not transmitted from age to age something to their successors which is never lost, but which grows and continues as a common stock, and will thus be carried on to the end of all things. For my part...

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