ower of an old kind. It is a new power of a new species. When such
a questionable shape is to be admitted for the first time into the
brotherhood of Christendom, it is not a mere matter of idle curiosity to
consider how far it is in its nature alliable with the rest, or whether
"the relations of peace and amity" with this new state are likely to be
of the same nature with the _usual_ relations of the states of Europe.

The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations as
one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution were
not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, but to
produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France free, but
to make her formidable,--not to make her a neighbor, but a
mistress,--not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a
condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable, it was
necessary that France should be new-modelled. They who have not
followed the train of the late proceedings have been led by deceitful
representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive that
this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a change,
was made with a view to its internal relations only.

In the Revolution of France, two sorts of men were principally concerned
in giving a character and determination to its pursuits: the
philosophers and the politicians. They took different ways, but they met
in the same end.

The philosophers had one predominant object, which they pursued with a
fanatical fury,--that is, the utter extirpation of religion. To that
every question of empire was subordinate. They had rather domineer in a
parish of atheists than rule over a Christian world. Their temporal
ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit, in which
they were not exceeded by Mahomet himself.

They who have made but superficial studies in the natural history of the
human mind have been taught to look on religious opinions as the only
cause of enthusiastic zeal and sectarian propagation. But there is no
doctrine whatever, on which men can warm, that is not capable of the
very same effect. The social nature of man impels him to propagate his
principles, as much as physical impulses urge him to propagate his kind.
The passions give zeal and vehemence. The understanding bestows design
and system. The whole man moves under the discipline of his opinions.
Religion is among the most powerful