proofs which they ever adduced," against the Royalists in La Vendée. On the subject of this fyftematic falsehood, he obferves :

"I have not here advanced a fingle word that is not rigidly true; and this theory of lying, this confecration of calumny, will hereafter be cliffed among the phenomena of the revolution. The harangues of Danton and his affociates on The Calumny which is allowable against the Enemies of Liberty, cannot be forgotten; and it is well known, that the words enemies of liberty, like all the other revolutionary deDominations, fuch as Ariftocrats, Royalifts, Chouans, &c. always meant and ftill mean, in the mouth of the execrable faction, all those who are not their accomplices or their flaves. So much for the principle. The babit is fo well known, fo openly avowed, that the attempt to prove its existence would not be merely fuperfluous, but abfolutely tidiculous; it is fo notorious, that if, by any chance, fome few exceptions fhould occur to the rule, hiftory will quote them as extraor dinary facts, as a fpecies of prodigy. It is a fact, that all who are called Jacobins, Mountaineers, Patriots, &c. are every day employed in the fabrication of lies for the ufe of the morrow.-As to the daty, falfehood is fo far a duty with them, that were any one of them to evince the fmalleft fcruple on that head, he would be treated as an apoftate, a deferter, in fhort, as an honest man. Among innumerable facts that might be adduced in fupport of what I advance, I fhall only mention one which occurred in l'endemiaire,* and is too well confirmed to be difputed. It was declared in the tribune of the Convention, that, the Sections were labouring to starve Paris. This impofition was not a whit more abfurd than a thoufand others that were hourly practifed. Yet I know not how it happened that, in one of the committees, a member obferved that it was not true that the Parifians were endeavouring to starve themselves, and that such a ftory was too ridiculous; when another member answered, with evi dent ill humour, It may poffibly not be true; but it is neverthelejs a very proper thing to be jaid in the tribune. And he was right.

"Obferve, that, in the adoption of this fyftem, their conduct is confiftent and the refult of neceflity. Men, whom every truth accufes and condemns, have no other aim to ufe for the purpose of defence or attack (by words), than falfehood. They, therefore, will continue to lie fo long as they fhall be able to lie with impunity. The mo ment that impunity ceafes, all their refources will be destroyed."

The author traces in a masterly manner the infamous machinations of the revolutionifts for the deftruction of all reli

* In October 1795, when the Convention infifted on the re-election of two-hirds of its own body, and the Parifians refifted this gros violation of the fundamental principle of their new constitution.Reviewer.

gion in France; and he fhews that the word religion has even been excluded from the revolt onary vocabulary; for in all the decrees of the legislature, in all the refolutions of the muni cipalities, in all the harangues of their orators, it never once occurs: the expreflions, fanaticifm and worship being invariably substituted for it. This he confiders as a faint but certain mark of inward fhame, as a real but involuntary homage to religion itself. The abolition of Sunday, and the forced obfervance of decadary festivals, are alternately the objects of his ridicule and indignation; he infifts that it is no more in the power of men to change ideas, which are the intellectual reprefentation of objects, than to change the very nature of those objects; and that it will be impoffible to enforce the general obfervance of any periodical feftival, which is not founded in religion. Names may be changed, but not things.

"In the French revolution particularly the name of festival may be given to the anniversary of a great crime, a famous murder, or a memorable maffacre. The Jacobins, were they once more to become mafters of France, might render their September the object of a fefti val, as it will always be, what Collot D'Herbois properly called it, an article of their credo; but would no more be a feftival with the people of France, or with any other people in the world, than if a gang of highwaymen were to celebrate an orgy in their cavern, to infult the memory of all the travellers whom they had murdered; and yet nothing could prevent them from renewing their festival, and rendering it annual, until they were fent to the gallows.

On the blafphemous fubftitution of the Temples of Reason for the Temples of God, he thus cloquently exclaims:

"O human extravagance! can your archives, fo ancient and fo rich, prefent any thing to be compared with the Temples of Reafon? Fifty thoufand Temples of Reafon! No, nothing lefs than the French Revolution was requifite to reduce the human mind to this abject state of degradation. Nothing lefs than a nation half delirious, half stupified, was requifite to give birth to Temples of Reafon. In a word, the Temples of Reajon are the chef d'œuvre, the ne plus ultra, of madness; and it was juft, it was proper, that they should be given to us. Juftus es, Domine, et re&tum judicium tuum.

"Will you tell me of the idolatry of the Egyptians which has been the object of fo much derifion?It was a thousand times lefs abfurd than your own; and had, at least, a real object, a meaning, an intention. It is, no doubt, ridiculous to adore an onion and a crocodile; but the onion is good to eat, and the crocodile is an object of fear. They adored, in a wholesome vegetable, that fertility of which it was the fymbol; in the mischievous animal, they impre cated the vengeance of Heaven, of which it was the inftrument. With them every fpecies of worship was directed through emblems and figures

APPENDIX. VOL. III.

Na

figures to the Deity himself. We know that all their rites, all their hymns, were firft addreffed to the fuperior Gods, to Ifis, the earth that afforded nourishment; to Hermes, the inventor of the fciences, &c. Every other idea was fymbolical and fecondary, and only expreffive of gratitude or fear. But have the founders of the Temples of Reafon ever told us that under that name they only adored the God from whom all intelligence emanated? Not one of them dared to do fo, and even this explanation, all infufficient as it would have been, was above the comprehenfion of moft of them; as their Festivals of ReaJon, and their Goddeffes of Reajon too plainly demonftrate. No mention was ever made of God at thofe feftivals; at left, his name was never uttered but to be blafphemed. It was at the Feftivals of Reafon that the Goddess of Reafon was reprefented by the first prostitute that fell in their way, who was paid for performing her part, and who was placed in a car with a crucifix under her feet. It was at the Fefti val of Reason that a ftage-player afcended the pulpit at St. Roch, and making God a party in his caufe, denied his exiftence in the front of his altais, and nevertheless vomited forth a thousand furious impreca tions against that non-existing God, dared him to exert his vengeance; and becaufe, he did not crush him with his thunder, concluded that there was no God;* a demonftration which produced the greateft effect on the audience. It was at the Feftivals of Reason that the buft of Marat was placed upon the altar, and that thofe who were fufpected of fanaticifm (that is of believing in God) were forced to bend their knee to Marat. It was at the Festivals of Reafon, that Liberty, another Divinity of thofe feftivals, alfo appeared in great pomp, reprefented alfo, moft aptly, by a Prostitute.And yet I am not to be

* "This wretch probably imagined that God was bound in honour to answer his appeal; and that he could not, without difgrace, refufe the challenge. One would have supposed that God could have crushed him no where but in the pulpit at Saint Roch, and that if he loft fo fair an opportunity to revenge himself he never would recover it. I will not name this actor, because it is poffible he may repent. But you, who, without being mad like him, evince your impatience at the forbearance of God to exterminate those who infult him, reflect on the fublime expreflion of St. Auftin: Patiens, quia æternus; God is patient, because he is eternal. Think that it is just that he, whose blow is remedilefs, and its effects eternal, fhould not be in a hurry to inflict it. Think, ye who have fome idea of a God, that effential order, is not, cannot be found upon earth; that the wicked are more to be pitied because they are mere inftruments deftined to be broken; that the good, although they may fuffer, are much less to be [pitied, fince they are fupported by confcience and by hope, which cannot both fail them; and leave Him to purfue his own course, who, for the punishment of the one and the reward of the other, has eternity before him."

allowed

allowed to exprefs my admiration; to fay, that my admiration is equal to my horror!They may fay what they will; but this is glorious, because it is horrible; it is glorious, because it is difgufiful; it is glorious because it excites pity. What! you have an inftinct just enough to applaud, when you fee a bully chaftifed for his infolence; and yet you will not make ufe of that fame inftinct to applaud when a people, intoxicated with the most infolent vanity which ever fet the good fenfe of all nations and all ages at defiance, exclaims to the world, Learn of me to be great,' and instantaneously fails into a ftate of abject degradation hitherto unexampled ; Learn of me to be wife,' and inftantaneouily difplays an excefs of extravagance of which no human being had before been capable ;- Learn of me to be free,' and instantaneoufly finks into a ftate of fubjugation which the vileft flaves in the world would never have borne for a moment! What, you do not think it glorious that a people who no longer believes in God, who prohibits the adoration of God, fhould adore Marat! (and he was really adored by the French ;) that a nation who rejects all worship, fhould establish a worship for Marat! (and it was established in good earneft). What! do you not fee that people immerged in filth, and celebrating its glory, and its greatnefs! Do you not hear the univerfal fhouts of the whole world, extended through all ages! I hear them diftinctly, and I predict, that whenever children shall be taught to read, there will be a chapter, in the books devoted to their ufe, entitled: Of what happened in France when he refolved to regenerate the world; and that chapter will be a fhort abridgement of the French Revolution, adapted to the capacity of children. (Pp. 63-67.)

We would willingly extend our extracts from this interefting book to a much greater length, but the prefcribed limits of our work render fuch extenfion impracticable. With one other fhort quotation, therefore, we must conclude our review of it. The author, having contended that all the evils which have defolated his country are chiefly imputable to the writings of the Philofophers, urgently calls on them, either publicly to abjure their principles, or, at least, to keep them to themfelves, and thus prevent the inevitable confequences of their propagation.

66

Only one of you, in 1790, only one (the Abbé Raynal) figned a kind of difavowal of this nature, but drawn up in a manner that gave too great a fcope for ridicule, and too little ftrength to truth.* What

This celebrated letter of the Abbé Raynal, which excited great confternation among the Philofophers of the Affembly, at the time when it was prefented, and would in all probability have brought the Abbé to the Guillotine, had not death anticipated the ftroke of the ex

Nn 2

ecutioner,

What have the reft done? What are they ftill doing? I fpeak not of the old masters; few of them remain, and thofe few are filent. But the Scholars become Doctors, fo proud, and fo pleased to reft their philofophy on the revolution, and the revolution on their philofo phy (and in fact they are truly worthy of each other). What is their prefent conduct? Some of them read at the national inftitute treatifes on materialism and atheifin, with fuch a commanding tone of authority, that one of their brethren thinks himself obliged, with all humility, to ask their permiffion to believe in God; others ftill conduct, with an intrepid conftancy, philofophical Journals, much patronized but little read, in which our philofophy and our revolution are always held up as the most glorious objects that have been feen fince the creation of the world, excepting Robefpiere and the Jacobins, whom they give up without dfficulty, though the Jacobins do not give up their Robef. piere, nor yet themfelves. The former re-print the works of a madman, named La Métrie, configned, before the revolution, to the contempt, even of the philofophers themselves, but again brought into vogue by the revolution, as a brave atheist, who gloried in being at once a machine and a plant. The latter eagerly publish rhapfodies which the authors themfelves did not dare to print, infipid though fcandalous; tedious though impious; ftupid though extravagant ; * fuch in short that it becomes doubtful which are the greateft objects of contempt, thofe who conceived and wrote them, or those who have the effrontery to praise them. Great works are published, in which

a falfe

ecutioner, was previously fhewn to Meffieurs Malouet and Mallet du Pan, who were then at Paris; and who, we believe, did not entertain the fame opinion of it, as that here expreffed by M. de la Harpe.--Reviewer.

"Among others James the Fatalift and the Supplement to the Voyage to Otaheite. I have no doubt that this declaration will greatly offend the profeffors of atheifm, who daily proftrate themfelves before the thade of Diderot, and of other old mafters of the fame school, who exclaim, in the language of the illuminati, which they fancy is fo folemn and auguft, Shade of Helvetius, hail! Patience, gentlemen, you shall hear by and bye the grounds of my decifion."

"That of Mr. Dupuis, already confuted by fome excellent writers, but to which I may return hereafter. It is lefs dangerous than the others, becaufe it difplays great depth of research, and is not fuited to the capacity of most readers; but the author is a fuperficial fcholar, a tirefome writer, and a deteftable reafoner. His work even contains follies, which may be called revolutionary, because they exceed all the follies that were ever known before; and phrafes in which the ideas and the words are at direct variance. Hitherto atheists had been, very confiftently, termed ungrateful; because it is an act of odious ingratitude to difavow, in God, the necessary Being