l of the revolutionists to
abolish prescriptive rights and establish republican forms of society.
In January 1793 Louis XVI was beheaded. The act was followed pretty
promptly by a coalition of England, Holland, Spain, Naples, and the
German states against the Republic.

36--*Yet still my voice*. In "Religious Musings," 1794-6, and more
ardently in the parts that he contributed to Southey's "Joan of Arc,"
1796.

42--*Britain's name*. England was from the beginning the centre of
resistance to the violence and ambition of revolutionary France; and
Pitt, who controlled English policy in these years, was looked upon as a
cold-blooded agent of tyranny by the French republicans and their
English sympathizers.

44--*sweet music of deliverance*. The French were so convinced that
their Revolution marked the beginning of a new era in human affairs that
they determined to have a new chronology. Accordingly a commission of
scientists was appointed to formulate a system, which was adopted in
October 1793. The "Era of the Republic" was to be counted from the
autumnal equinox, 1792. The year was divided into twelve months, as
before, but they were renamed (_Thermidor_ hot month, _Fructidor_ fruit
month, _Nivose_ snow month, &c.), and ran in periods of thirty days each
from the 22d of September. This left five days undistributed, which were
set apart as feast-days in celebration of five virtues or ideals. Each
month consisted of three decades, and each tenth day, or _decadis_, was
a holiday. The purpose of this was to eradicate the observance of the
Christian Sunday. This chronology was in actual use in France until
Napoleon put an end to it in 1806.

The municipality of Paris in 1793 decreed that on the 10th of November
the worship of Reason should be inaugurated at Notre Dame. "On that day
the venerable cathedral was profaned by a series of sacrilegious
outrages unparalleled in the history of Christendom. A temple dedicated
to 'Philosophy' was erected on a platform in the middle of the choir ...
the Goddess of Reason, impersonated by Mademoiselle Maillard, a well
known figurante of the opera, took her seat upon a grassy throne in
front of the temple; ... and the multitude bowed the knee before her in
profound admiration.... At the close of this grotesque ceremony the
whole cortege proceeded to the hall of the Convention, carrying with
them their 'goddess,' who was borne aloft in a chair of state on the
shoulders of four men. Havi