What an illustrious example of misdirected thought, and misguided
ambition does the
French
revolution and its prime movers afford? and how clearly are the
dangerous excesses into which men of thought liable to run portrayed, by this
memorable crisis. Those
so called pylosophers, those
free thinkers, were the prime movers of the
Revolution, not only of the political, but the social,
moral, and domestic. These your boasted men of thought were not satisfied with
overturning the established form of government, but they invaded every branch
of society and corrupted
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its very fountains; they
demolished sacred and time honored institutions, with the ruthlessness of
brigands, and walked into the domestic circle, with the head of Orgres and the
leer of Satyrs, and poisoned all the nation had been
taught for centuries to hold most dear. It was these that laughed marriage to
scorn, and sneered at all human virtue. The event might not have been so
disasterous had they been men of ordinary capacity, but, as I have said, these
p
hilosophers were among the first talents in
the natin. They were blind
giants, who madly threw
their hundred arms around the pillars of the nation, and brought the whole
fabrick topling to the dust. Had
Voltare,
Rousseau, and
Fénalon been men of Action, and taken prominent places in
the cabinet and field,
France
might now be the pride of her countrymen, the glory of patriots, and blessed
with free institutions. It is true that
Robspierre,
Danton, and
Murat [possibly
Jean
Paul Marat], those leaders of the
reign of
terror spilt some of the best blood of
France,
and glutted the guillotine with thousands of innocent victims; but they could
only destroy their lives, while the
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while the
philosophy
6
of
Voltare
consigned their souls to everlasting destruction, nor does it stop here; but
like the opning of
Pandora's
box, its baneful influence is felt wherever civilization has extended its wide
arms, and will be felt wherever his books are read. What a title has he left
behind him? "the assassin of nations."