Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy

e are told, "God made th

to deal with the inexplicable and tremendous problem of the Universe! How self-centred and sure the faith which could so arrange the work of Infinite and Eternal forces to suit its own limited intelligence! It is easy and natural to believe that 'God,' or an everlasting Power of Goodness and Beauty called by that name, 'created the heavens and the earth,' but one is often tempted to think that an altogether different and rival element must have been concerned in the making of Man. For the heavens and the earth are harmonious; man is a discord. And not only is he a discord in himself, but he takes pleasure in producing and multiplying discords. Often, with the least possible amount of education, and on the slightest provocation, he mentally sets Himself, a

o do, and because we blunder foolishly over it and add it up to a wrong total, it is again and again wiped off the blackboard, and again and again rewritten for our more careful consideration. Possibly the secret of our failure to con

s world's affairs as, seated on the terrace of a Royal palace fronting se

he court of Louis XVI. "It only intensifies the

had gone with it unresistingly wherever it had led. It was the best way; the wisest way; the way Solomon found most congenial, despite its end in 'vanity and vexation of spirit.' But with the passing of the years a v

upward from the terrace to the wider extent of the palace pleasaunce beyond, scattered such perfume with his snipping shears as might have lured another Proserpine from Hell. Cluster after cluster of white blooms, carefully selected for the adornment of the Royal apartments, he laid beside him on the grass, not presuming to look in the direction where that other Workman in the ways of life sat silent and absorbed in thought. That other, in his own long-practised manner, feigned not to be aware of his dependant's proximity,-and in this fashion they twain-human beings made of the same clay and relegated, to the same dust-gave sport to the Fates by playing at Sham with Heaven and themselves. Custom, law, and all the paraphernalia of civilization, had set the

ion which cannot be abandoned for a change of humour, or cast aside in light indifference and independence because a man is bored by it and would have something new. It is a routine and drudgery to which some few

d give all their freedom and peace of mind to occupy for a few years an unea

hing him as he bound the blossoms together carefully, with the view of giving as little trouble as possible to those whose duty it would be to arrange them for the Royal pleasure. His work done, he walked quickly, yet

page-in-waiting,-or what was still more commonplace as well as ominous, a detective,-lurked abo

s alone,-alone for a brief space to consider, as he had informed his se

ionally wrote his letters, would, if sold, have kept a little town in food for a year,-the rich furs at his feet would have bought bread for hundreds of starving families,-and every delicious rose that nodded its dainty head towards him with the breeze would have given an hour's joy to a sick child. Socialists say this kind of thing with wildly eloquent fervour, and blame all kings in passionate rhodomontade for the tables, the furs and the roses,-but they forget-it is not the sad and weary kings who care for these or any luxuries,-they would be far happier with

or wise, sane or crazed, still are they as of old elected; only no more as the Strongest, but simply as the Sign-posts of a traditional bygone authority. This King however, here written of, was not deficient in either mental or physical attributes. His outward look and bearing betokened him as far more fit to be lifted in triumph on the shoulders of his battle-heroes, a real and visible Man, than to play a more or less cautiously inactive part in the modern dumb-show of Royalty. Well-built and muscular, with a compact head regally poi

that he might have won a success on the stage as Chief Toady in a burlesque of Court life. He was a pale, thin old man, with a wizened face set well back amid wisps of white hair, and a scraggy throat which asserted its working muscles visibly whenever he spoke, laughed or took food. His way of shaking hands expressed his moral flabbiness in the general dampness, looseness and limpness of the act,-not that he often shook hands with his pupil, for though that pupil was only a boy made of ordinary flesh and blood like other boys, he was nevertheless heir to a Throne, and in strict etiquette even friendly liberties were not to be too frequently taken with such an Exalted little bit of humanity. The lad himself, however, had a certain mischievous delight in making him perform this courtesy, and being young and vi

aid on one occasi

gent and reasoning being, evolved by natural processe

is Sup

, or superior to, the res

he so su

erally so

father

he question i

kes him

hereditary right to

y over the rest of creation, a king is mor

e than a man, but men choose him a

Simply because he is born

cise

cripple, a fool or a cowa

indubi

d continue to hold supremacy over a n

ned, forced smile. "If an idiot or a madman were unfortunately born to a throne, a regency would be appoin

tranger patience in the people who would tolerate it! Yet over all men,-k

he nature of that force, and for the benefit of the illiterate masses we call it God. A national worship of something superior to themselves

im in order, if it be only a fetish wherewith to tickle his imagination?" suggested the pr

, attends public worship with punctilious regularity, and you are accustomed to accompany him. It is a rule whic

l's father; with the additional observation that he feared, he very humbly and respectfully feared, that the developing mind of the prince appeared undesirably disposed towards discursi

husiasms,-it will make you over-cautious and doubtful of your friends,-it will cause you to be indifferent to women in the plural, but it will hand you over, a weak and

ous, for his father was a man of fine presence and fascinating manner, and knew well the extent of his power to charm and subju

ningly, and his eyes were full

Passion,-comes to kings as to commoners,-but whereas the commoner may win it if he can, t

of soft fair hair. Needless to say the portrait was not that of the late Queen-Consort, who had died some years before her Royal spouse, nor was the hair hers,-but when they brought the relic to the new King, he laid it ba

love is possible to women, if not to men. When he was about twenty, he had loved, or had imagined he loved, a girl,-a pretty creature, who did not know him as a prince at all, but simply as a college student. He used to walk with her hand in hand through the fields by the river, and gather wild flowers for her to wear in her little white bodice. She had shy soft eyes, and a timid, yet trusting look, full of tenderness and pathos. Moved by

d true she is as fit to be a queen as any woman roy

ed in the fields so confidingly; and in the bewilderment of her poor little broken heart and puzzled brain, she gave herself to the river by whose flowering banks she had sworn her maiden vows,-though she knew it not,-to her future King; and so, drowning her life and love together, made a piteous ex

love!-fo

s recognized and excused, and fiery temper more admired than censured, and where,-so far as social matters went,-his word, whether kind, cold, or capricious, was sufficient to lead in any direction that large flock of the silly sheep of fashion who only exist to eat, and to be eaten. Sometimes he longed to throw himself back into bygone centuries and stand as his earliest ancestor stood, sword in hand, on a height overlooking the battle-field, watching the swaying rush of combat,-the glitter of spears and axes-the sharp flight of arrows-the tossing banners, the grinding chariots, the flying dust and carnage of men! There was something to fight for in those days,-there was no careful binding up of wounds,-no provision for the sick or the mutilated,-nothing, nothing, but 'Victory or Death!' How much grander, how much finer the old fierce ways of war than now, when any soldier wounded, may write the details of