154 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



the common feelings of human nature. The way 

 for Mch a revolution was prepared by the writ 

 ings of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Diderot, Helvetius, 

 D Alembert, Condorcet, Rousseau, and others 

 of the same stamp in which, along with some 

 useful discussions on the subject of civil and re 

 ligious liberty, they endeavoured to disseminate 

 principles subversive both of natural and revealed 

 religion. Revelation was not only impugned, 

 but entirely set aside ; the Deity was banished 

 from the universe, and an imaginary phantom, 

 under the name of the Goddess of Reason, sub 

 stituted in his place. Every thing was reduced 

 to a system of pure materialism; the celestial 

 spark of intelligence within us was assimilated 

 to a piece of rude matter, and the fair prospects 

 of immortality, which Christianity presents, 

 transformed into the gloom of an eternal night. 

 Every previous standard of morals was discard 

 ed; every one was left to act as selfishness, 

 avarice, and revenge might dictate ; religion of 

 every description fled from the torch of the pre 

 vailing philosophy ; and, while &quot; justice and mo 

 rality&quot; were proclaimed as &quot; the order of the 

 day,&quot; every moral principle, and every human 

 feeling, were trampled under foot. It is stated, 

 on good authority, that a little before the revolu 

 tion, a numerous assembly of French Literati, 

 being asked, in turn, at one of their meetings, by 

 their president, &quot; Whether there was any such 

 thing as moral obligation,&quot; answered, in every 

 instance, that there was not. Soon after that 

 revolution, the great body of French infidels, who 

 then ruled the nation, not only denied all the ob 

 ligations which bind us to truth, justice, and kind 

 ness, but pitied and despised, as a contemptible 

 wretch, the man who believed in their existence. 

 Atheism was publicly preached, and its mon 

 strous doctrines disseminated among the mass of 

 the people, an occurrence altogether novel in the 

 history of man. A professor was even named by 

 Chaumette, to instruct the children of the state 

 in the mysteries of Atheism. De la Metherie, 

 the author of a Philosophical Journal, when dis 

 cussing the doctrine of crystallization, made the 

 wild and hideous assertion, u that the highest and 

 most perfect form of crystallization is that which 

 is vulgarly called God&quot; In the National Con 

 vention, Gobet, archbishop of Paris, the rector 

 Vangirard, and several other priests, abjured the 

 Christian religion ; and for this abjuration they 

 received applauses and the fraternal kiss. A priest 

 from Melun slated, that there is no true religion 

 but that of nature, and that all ihe mummery with 

 which they had hitherto been amused, is only 

 old wives fables ; and he was heard with loud 

 applause. The Convention decreed, that &quot; all 

 the churches and temples of religious worship, 

 Known to be in Paris, should be instantly shut 

 jp, and that every person requiring the opening 

 ;f a church or temple should be put under arrest, 

 as a suspected person, and an enemv to the 



state.&quot; The carved work of all religious belief 

 and moral practice was boldly cut down by Car- 

 not, Robespierre, and their atheistical associates, 

 and the following inscription was ordered to be 

 displayed in all the public bury ing-grounds 

 &quot;Death is only an eternal sleep ;&quot; so that the dying 

 need no longer be afraid to step out of existence. 

 Nature was investigated, by these pretended 

 philosophers, only with a view to darken the 

 mind, to prevent mankind from considering any 

 thing as real but what the hand could grasp or 

 the corporeal eye perceive, and to subvert the es 

 tablished order of society. 



The consequences of the operation of such 

 principles were such as might have been expect 

 ed. They are written in characters of blood, 

 and in crimes almosWunparaUeled in the history 

 of nations. A scene of inhumanity, cruelty, 

 cold-blooded malignity, daring impiety, and in 

 satiable rapacity, was presented to the world, 

 which excited in the mind of every virtuous 

 spectator amazement and horror. Savage atro 

 cities were perpetrated which would have been 

 shocking in the most barbarous and unenlighten 

 ed age ; and, perhaps, at no era has there been 

 more wretchedness occasioned by licentious 

 principles and moral degeneracy. The ties of 

 friendship were cut asunder, the claims of con 

 sanguinity disregarded, and a cold-blooded self 

 ishness pervaded the great mass of society. 

 &quot; The kingdom appeared to be changed into one 

 great prison; the inhabitants converted into 

 felons, and the common doom of man commuted 

 for the violence of the sword, and the bayonet, 

 and the stroke of the guillotine.&quot; Such was the 

 rapidity with which the work of destruction was 

 carried on, that, within the short space of ten 

 years, not less than three millions of human be 

 ings (one half more than the whole population 

 of Scotland) are supposed to have perished in 

 that country alone, chiefly through the influence 

 of immoral principles, and the seductions of a 

 false philosophy. The following i? a briet 

 sketch of some of the scenes to which we allude, 

 drawn by one who was an eye-witness of the 

 whole, and an actor in several parts of that hor 

 rid drama. &quot; There were,&quot; says this writer. 

 &quot; multiplied cases of suicide ; prisons crowded 

 with innocent persons ; permanent guillotines ; 

 perjuries of all classes ; parental authority set at 

 nought ; debauchery encouraged by an allowance 

 to those called unmarried mothers ; nearly six 

 thousand divorces in the city of Paris within a 

 little more than two years ; in a word, whatevei 

 is most obscene in vice and most dreadful in 

 ferocity.&quot;* 



Notwithstanding the incessant, shouts of 

 &quot; Liberty and Equality,&quot; and the boasted illu 

 minations of philosophy, the most barbarous per 

 secutions were carried on against those whose 



Greeoire. 



