The Evolution of States Part 55

[Footnote 1240: "That narrow and foolish woman." Hallam, _Const.i.tutional History_, iii, 124, _note_. Cp. Buckle, i, 419: "a foolish and ignorant woman."]

[Footnote 1241: "It seems rather a humiliating proof of the sway which the feeblest prince enjoys even in a limited monarchy, that the fortunes of Europe should have been changed by nothing more n.o.ble than the insolence of one waiting-woman and the cunning of another. It is true that this was effected by throwing the weight of the Crown into the scale of a powerful faction; yet the house of Bourbon would probably not have reigned beyond the Pyrenees but for Sarah and Abigail at Queen Anne's toilet" (Hallam, iii, 210).]

[Footnote 1242: A work in course of preparation.]

[Footnote 1243: "Then as to all this activity, so many movements of all things celestial and all things earthly, turning without ceasing, only to return forever there whence they set forth, I can divine no use and no fruition" (Leopardi's _Nocturnal Song of a Nomad Shepherd in Asia_).]