The power represented by this symbol, must, then, be some power which in 1798 stood in this position before the world.
That the leopard beast is a symbol of the papacy, there can be no question; but some may want more evidence that the wounding of one of its heads, or its going into captivity, was the overthrow of the papacy in 1798.

This can easily be given.

A nation being represented by a wild beast, the government of that nation, that by which it is controlled, must as a very clear matter of course be considered as answering to the head of the beast.

The seven heads of this beast would therefore denote seven different governments; but all the heads pertain to one beast, and hence all these seven different forms of government pertain to one empire.

But only one form of government can exist in a nation at one time; hence the seven heads must denote seven forms of government to appear, not simultaneously, but successively.