IN describing a struggle between two rival powers
in a State, it is extremely difficult to give a correct
impression of the exact balance of success on either
side at a particular crisis in the controversy; and this
difficulty is enormously increased when the struggle
is concerned partly with the question of spiritual
(and therefore mainly individual) liberty; and
partly with the growth of those more material
forms of centralisation which check constitutional
freedom and local self-government. When we hear
of Ferdinand yielding on his death-bed to the prisoner
whom he had been trying for so many years to crush
into obedience, we feel that the victory lies, in the
main, with those spiritual forces which were working
against ecclesiastical uniformity. Nor does the resist-
ance of the Moravian Estates seem less important as
a victory of constitutional freedom, than the firmness
of Augusta as a security for spiritual independence.

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