19S 



JACOBINE MONKS JACOBINS. 



liy the study of the best productions of French litera- 

 ture. In consequence of the taste he had acquired 

 for letters, he returned home with reluctance, in order 

 to take cliarge of his father's business. He soon 

 after married a lady of Aix-la-Chapelle, adorned with 

 the finest qualities of mind and person. After having 

 conducted the business for some time, an appoin - 

 ment at court was conferred on him, which relieved 

 him from any further mercantile engagements. I i is 

 brother introduced him to an acquaintance witli Wie- 

 land, and he soon appeared as an author. In 1779, 

 he was called to Munich, but soon fell into disgrace 

 on account of his exposure of the abuses of the Bava- 

 rian system of customs. More of his writings ap- 

 peared at this time, and his summers were spent at 

 Pernpelfort, in a charming country seat, which he had 

 built. But the death of his wife interrupted this 

 tranquil and happy life. He now applied himself, 

 with renewed zeal and industry, to his studies, en- 

 couraged by a journey to Weimar, where he saw 

 Goethe again, and became acquainted with Herder. 

 His letters on Spinoea appeared in 1785, from which 

 time his mind was much occupied with metaphysical 

 speculations on religious subjects. As the influence 

 of the French Revolution extended itself, he went 

 from Dusseldorf, in 1794, to Holstein, the native 

 country of his father, and lived part of the time at 

 Wandsbeck and Hamburg, and partly at Eutin. In 

 1801, he went to Paris, and returned to Eutin, where 

 he intended to end his days ; but, in 1804, having 

 received an invitation to the new academy erected at 

 Munich, he was induced to accept it on account of 

 the loss of a considerable part of his fortune by the 

 misfortunes of his brother-in-law. He was made 

 president of the Bavarian academy, and retired from 

 office at the age of seventy years, retaining, however, 

 his salary. His last days were occupied with the 

 collection of his works. He died March 10, 1819. 

 Jacobi's works are rich in whatever can attract ele- 

 vated souls, yet the opinions respecting him are very 

 different. He has been called the German Plato, on 

 account of the religious glow in his metaphysical 

 writings. But, whatever opinions may be entertained 

 respecting his philosophy, all admit that he was a 

 most exemplary man, truly revered by all who had 

 the good fortune to be acquainted with him. His 

 philosophy, among other traits, is characterized by 

 an aversion to systems, all of which, he maintains, 

 when consistently carried out, lead to fanaticism. 

 His views were opposed to those of the dogmatic 

 Mendelssohn, the critical Kant, the idealizing Fichte, 

 nd the pantheistic Schelling. Of his works, we 

 mention Edward Allwill's Collection of Letters (Ko- 

 nigsberg, 1792) ; tVoldemar, a philosophical novel 

 (Konigsberg, 1794) ; Letters on the Doctrine of 

 Spinoza (Breslau, second edition, 1789); his work on 

 Mendelssohn's charges against these Letters (Leipsic, 

 1786) ; David Hume on Belief, or Idealism and Real- 

 ism (second edition, Ulm, 1795) ; Sendschreiben an 

 Fichte (Hamburg, 1799). His works were published 

 by Fleischer (Leipsic, in six volumes), to which is to 

 be added his Correspondence (published by Fr. Roth, 

 in two volumes, 1825 and 1827). SchlegePs review 

 of Jacobi's fVoldemar (in volume 1, page 1 to 46 of 

 Charakteristiken und Kritikeri) deserves the attention 

 of the student of Jacobi. H is dispute with Schelling 

 was carried on with considerable animosity. It gave 

 birth to Schelling's Denkmal der Schrift von den 

 Gottlichen Dingen (Tubingen, 1812). 



JACOBINE MONKS. See Dominican. 



JACOBINS. The club of the Jacobins is one of 

 the most surprising phenomena in history. That, in 

 a civilized nation, so large a body of men could be 

 found, uniting rare energy with execrable vice, poli- 

 tical madness, and outrageous cruelty, commuted 



always in the name of virtue, is an historical pheno- 

 menon of the highest interest. It is of great import- 

 ance for the historian to know this period, but it re- 

 quires extensive study to understand thoroughly the 

 proceedings of this club and their causes. In tlie 

 article France, division France before the Revolution, 

 the deplorable state of that country before that event 

 is set forth. The great mass of the people was totally 

 uneducated and grievously oppressed, and the whole 

 political organization so rotten, that, once touched, 

 it necessarily fell to pieces. The religious state of 

 the country was not unlike the political. The church 

 was too corrupt to withstand the bold attacks of 

 reformers, enthusiastically devoted to their new sys- 

 tems. The court, and the higher classes in general, 

 had for centuries set an example of gross immorality 

 to the people, which had produced its natural effects 

 in vitiating their character. The opponents of the 

 church and aristocracy, who came into power upon 

 the overthrow of the old order of things, were wholly 

 unacquainted with the practical administration of 

 government, and had nothing to guide them but 

 general philosophical principles. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, the excesses which the French people 

 committed, when left to govern themselves, are 

 matter of sorrow rather than wonder. The Jacobin 

 club had the following origin. Before the breaking 

 out of the revolution, particularly after the American 

 revolution, political societies were formed in Paris 

 (where bureaux d'esprit, or associations for the dis- 

 cussion of literary subjects, had previously been com- 

 mon), modelled after the London debating societies, 

 in which political subjects were debated, and the 

 members of which were almost universally inclined 

 to republicanism. The example of Great Britain 

 and the United States of America was before the 

 French. Some distinguished members of the first 

 national assembly, principally from Bretagne, and 

 commoners, on account of the opposition of the 

 privileged classes and of the court party, saw the 

 necessity of acting in concert, and of preparing for 

 the measures of each day by previous deliberations; 

 for which purpose they assembled in the evenings at 

 the house of one of their body, or held a caucus, as 

 we should term it. Among them was count Mira- 

 beau, who, when the Jacobins subsequently passed 

 the constitutional limits, seceded from them, and even 

 denounced them. The same was the case with La 

 Fayette. But, when both perceived that they could 

 effect nothing in the national assembly without the 

 consent of the Jacobins, they returned to the club, in 

 order to influence the assembly by this means. 

 Meanwhile Mirabeau died, April 2, 1791. The 

 monarchical club, under Clemont-Tonnerre, which 

 opposed the arrogance of the Jacobins, was menaced 

 by the mob, Jan. 21 and March 28, 1791, and finally 

 dispersed by violence. The Jacobins now became 

 sensible that the pike-men were their real auxiliaries. 

 The flight of the king still more exasperated the 

 most zealous of them, and, after the close of 1792, 

 their principles were so exaggerated, that the ori- 

 ginal Jacobins were now expelled from the club as 

 royalists or moderes; for instance, Freron, Legendre, 

 and others. Whatever was resolved upon in these 

 and similar meetings, was supported by all the 

 members of the club in the national assembly. The 

 Bretons soon admitted a greater number, in order to 

 carry through their opinion with more certainty. 

 Thus the members became pledged to a certain line 

 of conduct on each question, before it was brought 

 forward in the general assembly of national repre- 

 sentatives, and H party was formed which, in the 

 assembly, always voted together. Besides the intol- 

 erance towards those of different opinions, which 

 afterwards dt-generated into political iTosrription and 



