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APPENDIX. 



the utmost eagerness, regardless whether death 

 shall prove the precursor to permanent happiness 

 or misery, or to a state of &quot; eternal sleep.&quot; Never, 

 perhaps, in a Pagan country, was the Epicu 

 rean philosophy so systematically reduced to prac 

 tice as in the country of Voltaire, Buffbn,,Mi- 

 rabeau, Condorcet, Helvetius, and Diderot. It 

 tannot be difficult to trace the present demorali 

 sation of BVance to the sceptical and atheistical 

 principles disseminated by such writers, which 

 were adopted in all their extent, and acted upon 

 by the leaders of the first Revolution. Soon 

 after that event, education was altogether pro 

 scribed. During the space of five years, from 

 1791 to 1796, the public instruction of the young 

 was totally set aside, and, of course, they were 

 .eft to remain entirely ignorant of the facts and 

 doctrines of religion, and of the duties they owe 

 to God and to man. It is easy, therefore, to con 

 ceive what must be the intellectual, the moral, 

 and religious condition of those who were born a 

 little before this period, and who now form a con 

 siderable portion of the population arrived at the 

 years of manhood. A gentleman at Paris hap 

 pened to possess a domestic of sense and general 

 intelligence above his station. His master, upon 

 some occasion, used to him the expression, &quot; It 

 is doing as we would be done by,&quot; the Christian 

 maxim. The young man looked rather surpris 

 ed: &quot; Yes,&quot; (replied the gentleman) &quot; I say, it 

 is the doctrine of the Christian religion, which 

 teaches us not only to do as we would be done 

 oy, but also to return g ood for evil.&quot; &quot; Jt may be 

 so Sir,&quot; (replied he) &quot; but I had the misfortune 

 to be born during the heat of the revolution, when 

 it would have been death to have spoken on the 

 subject of religion ; and so soon as I was fifteen 

 years old, I was put into the hands of the drill- 

 serjeant, whose first lesson to me was, that as a 

 French soldier, I was to fear neither God nor 

 devil.&quot; It is to be hoped, that the rising genera 

 tion in France is now somewhat improved in 

 intelligence and morality beyond that which 

 sprung up during the demoralizing scenes of 

 the first revolution ; but, in spite of all the coun 

 teracting efforts that can now be used, another 

 generation, at least, must pass away, before the 

 immoral effects produced by infidel philosophy, 

 and the principles which prevailed during the 

 i( reign of terror,&quot; can be nearly obliterated. 



I shall conclude these sketches with the follow 

 ing account of the consecration of the &quot; Goddess 

 of Reason,&quot; one of the most profane and pre 

 sumptuous mockeries of every thing that is ra 

 tional or sacred, to be found in the history of 

 mankind. 



&quot; The section of the Sans Culottes, declared at 

 the bar of the Convention, November 10, 1793, 

 that they would no longer have priests among 

 hem, and that they required the total suppression 

 fall salaries paid to the ministers of religious 

 worship , The petition was followed by a nume 



rous procession, which filed off in the hall, ac 

 companied by national music. Surrounded by 

 them, appeared a young woman* of the finest 

 figure, arrayed in the robes of liberty, and seated 

 in a chair, ornamented with leaves and festoons. 

 She was placed opposite the President j ana 

 Chaumette, one of the members, said, Fanaticism 

 has abandoned the place of truth ; squint eyed, 

 it could not bear the brilliant light. The people 

 of Paris have taken possession of the iemple, 

 which they have regenerated ; the Gothic arches 

 which, till this day resounded with/ies, now echo 

 with the accents of truth ; you see we have not 

 taken for our festivals inanimate idols, it is a 

 cheftfceuvre of nature whom we have arrayed in 

 the habit of liberty ; its sacred form has inflamed 

 alt hearts. The public has but one cry, &quot; No 

 more altars, no more priests, no other God but 

 the God of nature.&quot; We, their magistrates, we 

 accompany them from the temple of truth to the 

 temple of the laws, to celebrate a new liberty, and 

 to request that the cidevant church of Notre Dame 

 be changed into a temple consecrated to reason and 

 truth. This proposal, being converted into a 

 motion, was immediately decreed ; and the Con 

 vention afterwards decided, that the citizens of 

 Paris, on this day, continued to deserve well of 

 their country. The Goddess then seated herself 

 by the side of the President, who gave her a.fra- 

 ternalkiss. The secretaries presented themselves 

 lo share the same favour ; every one was eagej 

 to kiss the new divinity, whom so many saluta 

 tions did not in the least disconcert. During the 

 ceremony, the orphans of the country, pupils of 

 Bourdon (one of the members) sang a hymn to 

 reason, composed by citizen Moline. The na 

 tional music played Gosset s hymn to liberty. 

 The Convention then mixed with the people, to 

 celebrate the feast of reason in her new temple. A 

 grand festival was accordingly held in the church 

 of Notre Dame, in honour of this deity. In the 

 middle of the church was erected amount, and on 

 it a very plain temple, the facade of which bore 

 the following inscription a la Philosophic. 

 The busts of the most celebrated philosophers 

 were placed before the gate of this temple. The 

 torch of truth was in the summit of the mount, 

 upon the altar of Reason, spreading light. The 

 Convention and all the constituted authorities 

 assisted at the ceremony. Two rows of young 

 girls, dressed in white, each wearing a crown of 

 oak leaves, crossed before the altar of reason, at 

 the sound of republican music ; each of the girls 

 inclined before the torch, and ascended the sum 

 mit of the mount. Liberty then came out of the 

 temple of philosophy, towards a throne made of 

 turf, to receive the homage of the republicans o 

 both sexes, who sang a hymn in her praise, ex 

 tending their arms at the same time towards her. 



Madame Desmoulines, who was afterwards gvO 

 Mined. 



