The smallest link was let drop by the artificers of the Mediterranean, and the lion of ancestral pessimism burst his chain in the forgotten forests of the north.

Of these theological equalisations I have to speak afterwards.

Here it is enough to notice that if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness.

A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe.

A slip in the definitions might stop all the dances; might wither all the Christmas trees or break all the Easter eggs.