[17] The passing of the Catholic Relief Bill has happily rendered this observation obsolete.—Trans.
[18] Peter the Great.
[19] The late Emperor Alexander.
END OF LECTURE XVII.
LECTURE XVIII.
On the general spirit of the age, and on the universal Regeneration of Society.
“I come soon, and will renew all things.”
There are in the history of the eighteenth century, many phenomena which occurred so suddenly, so instantaneously, so contrary to all expectation, that although on deeper consideration we may discover their efficient causes in the past, in the natural state of things, and in the general situation of the world, yet are there many circumstances which prove that there was a deliberate, though secret, preparation of events, as, indeed, in many instances has been actually demonstrated. I must now say a few words on this secret and mysterious branch of Illuminism, and on the progress it made during the period of its sway, in order to complete the sketch of that period, and to shew the