y arose upon France, in full glory; when, "blind
with excess of light," and maddened by the too rapid circulation of
the blood which had so long stagnated in their veins, they passed in
a few years, from the extreme of despotism to the extreme of anarchy,
and deeds of horror were perpetrated which humanity shudders to
recall. They frightened the rest of Europe by their example, instead
of alluring them to an imitation of it.

But widely different is the state of information at this day. That
revolution itself, dreadful as it was, has awakened the whole
continent from the sleep of ages, and put them upon inquiry into the
foundations of government, and the purposes for which it was ordained:
and during nearly half a century which has since elapsed, a degree
of light has been thrown upon the great subject of the rights of
man which has found its way into every hamlet and every cottage of
southern Europe, and is advancing to the north with such increasing
lustre as will ere long scatter the gloom that yet hangs over Siberia
and Kamschatka. Hence the people of France, certainly, and perhaps
of the whole south of Europe, are now prepared for the temperate
enjoyment of liberty, under the administration of a regular
government, for which they were totally unfitted in 1789.

There is another striking difference between the cases, and a most
important one it is, as it affects the question before us.

France has now the benefit of her own past experience before her eyes:
she had no such lamp to light her steps in 1789. Yes; that dreadful
lesson is fresh in her recollection. She has had full time to study
it: to discover every false step that was then taken, and to observe
the causes which led to the miscarriage of that revolution. And to
satisfy us that she has profited by this study, a comparison of her
very different conduct on those two occasions will suffice.

The former revolution was one long-protracted tragedy of horrors to
which there seemed to be no end, and of which the most sagacious men
among us could not guess the _denouement_, except that from its very
protraction and violence it would probably end in a despotism. At the
close of every scene of horror, we kept saying to ourselves, "surely
it will close _now_, and France will at length have rest and peace."
But we were doomed to be disappointed, time after time. One explosion
followed another until the heart sickened "with hope deferred," and we
turned away our ey