empt to force upon the French doctrines
convenient, in France as in England, to the wealthy merchants, the
intellectuals and the squires was met by popular risings." He believes
that to the Catholic tradition descended from the Roman Empire that idea
of the State which is always the salvation of the people as opposed to
the rich. The violent adhesion of France to the Church--only tempered by
some jealousy of Austria--saved the Faith for Europe: France thus became
the capital stronghold of the Western idea, whence it issued in renewed
force at the Revolution.[7] The Revolution itself was a drastic return
to the ideas of universality and equality which are essentially Roman.

It has been Mr. Belloc's task and delight to reconcile the principles of
the Revolution with his own faith. He would show that the two were
opposed only by this intellectual accident or that political blunder:
that the dogmas of each are capable of being held by the same mind. And,
in the revival of religion in our own times, which "may be called,
according to the taste of the scholar, the Catholic reaction or the
Catholic renaissance," he sees not only the first and most beneficent
result of the principles of the Revolution, but also a sign that the
wounds then inflicted are beginning to be healed.

His clearest and most connected exposition of these things is to be
found in the little book which is called _The French Revolution_, of
which the object, he says, is "to lay, if that be possible, an
explanation of it before the reader."

He begins by making a detailed explanation of the democratic theory,
which is drawn from Rousseau's treatise _Le Contrat Social_. Let us
select one significant passage on the doctrine of equality:

The doctrine of the equality of man is a transcendent doctrine: a
"dogma" as we call such doctrines in the field of transcendental
religion. It corresponds to no physical reality which we can grasp,
it is hardly to be adumbrated even by metaphors drawn from physical
objects. We may attempt to rationalize it by saying that what is
common to all men is not _more_ important but _infinitely more_
important than the accidents by which men differ.

On such a simple statement does he found his explanation of the greatest
event of the modern world, an upheaval and a remoulding which
astonishes us equally whether we consider how far it fell short of its
highest intentions or how much it actually