4] 
sophers. Philosophy gratified vani- 
ty, consoled disappointment, and, 
as a vehicle of censure, gratified re- 
venge. Philosophy became the 
tone, the passion of the nation: and 
a junto of philosophers, by manag- 
ing this passion, which was directed 
with greater energy, against all esta- 
blished authority, humanand divine, 
than to the investigation of truth 
and knowledge, supplanted the in- 
fluence of the court, and took vio- 
lent possession of the French mo- 
narchy. Thus did Louis XIV. 
blindly labour for the overthrow of 
his throne: and thus the French 
academy, both in its origin and 
consequences, shows how much the 
great affairs of the world are go- 
verned by public opinion. It was 
the taste and turn of the public for 
letters, and the example of esta- 
blishments for their promotion, 
both imported into France from Ita- 
ly, that suggested the idea of the 
French academy: and it was the 
general spirit to which that institu- 
tion gave birth, that produced the 
change of government in 1789: the 
fruitful parent of other revolutions. 
On a survey of the political his- 
tory of modern times, certain dis- 
tinguished names on the theatre, 
whether in the cabinet or field, are 
apt to engross almost the whole of 
our attention; while in reality, 
even those illustrious characters are 
only bornealong the popular stream, 
which to vulgar apprehension they 
appear to agitate and direct. The 
habit of looking up to a Frederic, 
or a Catherine, was natural in their 
respective dominions, where the 
power of the sovereign had not yet 
been imperceptibly limited by the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1799. 
influence of civilization, or the 
diffusion of wealth; and where the 
extraordinary talents of the rulers 
connected obedience with admira- 
tion. But Catherine and Frederic 
were both of them warm and pow- 
erful patrons of all the arts and sci- 
ences; and the latter, with all his 
prudence and penetration, was yet 
so improvident as to introduce and 
cherish, together with the French 
language and literature, an atheisti- 
cal philosophy into Berlin, from 
whence it has struck out its roots 
into all parts of his dominions, Of 
these changes we have not yet seen 
all or many of the consequences: 
but of this we may be certain, that 
the future historian, who in trac- 
ing the great chain of causes and 
effects, measures the passing events 
of the times, not by years, but 
centuries, will view the counsels 
and actions of those illustrious 
princes, not as governing, but as 
being themselves governed by the 
spirit of the agein which they lived. 
Still less willhe consider the French 
revolution as flowing from the par- 
ticular charactersof Lewis XVI.and 
Mr. Necker. Even a sovereign 
such as Henry IV. aided by a mi- 
nister such as Sully, could not have 
long prevented a convulsion in the 
French government; unless indeed 
it should have been found possible 
to protract this, or finally to render 
a dissolution and change of govern- 
ment more gentle and easy, by a 
gradual and prudent accommoda- 
tion of established institutions to 
the varying opinions, manners, and 
circumstances of the nation and of 
mankind.* 
Whether the designs of the first 
* See on this subject, Stewart’s Elements of the Philosophy of the Human 
Mind, chap, iv. 
movers 
‘ 
