From 1606 indeed to 1610 Poland was in an anarchical condition.
In some communities they fell into the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical aspects of the movement excited the North to vigorous condemnation.'
All these forces were equally necessarythe revolutionists to keep up agitation and make government by bayonets impossible; the moderates to curb the impetuosity of the revolutionists and to present a scheme of society that was neither reactionary nor anarchical; the volunteers abroad to gain military experience; and the more peaceful exiles to spread the name of Italy among foreign peoples.
It would have been a miracle if the first generation of Mexican and South American history had not been anarchical.
Had that dynasty been prolonged for another century, there is every reason to suppose that it would also have dealt satisfactorily with Poland's still more dangerous internal difficulties, and arrested the development of that anarchical constitution which was the ruling factor in the ruin of the Republic. Simultaneously with the transformation into a great power of the petty principalities which composed ancient Poland, another and equally momentous political transformation was proceeding within the country itself.
