irs [See History of Jacobinism by the
Abbe Barruel, 4 vols. 8 VO, translated by the Hon. Robert Clifford, F.
R. S., and printed in London in 1798. The learned Abbe defines
Jacobinism as "the error of every man who, judging of all things by the
standard of his own reason, rejects in religious matters every authority
that is not derived from the light of nature. It is the error of every
man who denies the possibility of any mystery beyond the limits of his
reason, of every one who, discarding revelation in defence of the
pretended rights of Reason, Equality, and Liberty, seeks to subvert the
whole fabric of the Christian religion." B. 4.] to detect in the
writings of Voltaire and of the leading Encyclopedists, a conspiracy not
only against the Altar but also against the Throne. He severely
denounces the "Last Will of Jean Meslier,--that famous Curate of
Etrepigni,--whose apostasy and blasphemies made so strong an impression
on the minds of the populace," and he styles the plan of D'Alembert for
circulating a few thousand copies of the Abstract of the Will, as a "base
project against the doctrines of the Gospel." [Ibid, page 145] He even
asserts his belief that:

"The Jacobins will one day declare that all men are free, that all men
are equal; and as a consequence of this Equality and Liberty they will
conclude that every man must be left to the light of reason. That every
religion subjecting man's reason to mysteries, or to the authority of
any revelation speaking in God's name, is a religion of constraint and
slavery; that as such it should be annihilated in order to reestablish
the indefeasible rights of Equality and Liberty as to the belief or
disbelief of all that the reason of man approves or disapproves: and
they will call this Equality and Liberty the reign of Reason and the
empire of Philosophy." [History of Jacobinism, page 51.]

The results which the Abbe Barruel so clearly foresaw have at length
been realized. The labors of the Jacobins have not been in vain, and the
Revolution they incited has restored France to the government of the
people!

"With ardent hope for the future," says President Carnot in his
centennial address, May 5, 1889, "I greet in the palace of the monarchy
the representatives of a nation that is now in complete possession of
herself, that is mistress of her destinies, and that is in the full
splendor and strength of liberty. The first thoughts on this solemn
meeting turn to our fathers.