t did prevail, was strikingly attested by the fact, that the
leading actors in that fearful drama found themselves compelled to
provide for the public safety by restoring at least the forms of
religious worship, and to acknowledge that "if there were no God, it
would be necessary to invent one."--"The true light," says the eloquent
Robert Hall, "in which the French Revolution ought to be contemplated is
that of a grand experiment on human nature." "God permitted the trial to
be made. In one country, and that the centre of Christendom, Revelation
underwent a total eclipse, while Atheism, performing on a darkened
theatre its strange and fearful tragedy, confounded the first elements
of society, blended every age, rank, and sex, in indiscriminate
proscription and massacre, and convulsed all Europe to its centre, that
the imperishable memorial of these events might teach the last
generations of mankind to consider Religion as the pillar of society,
the safeguard of nations, the parent of social order, which alone has
power to curb the fury of the passions, and secure to every one his
rights; to the laborious the reward of their industry, to the rich the
enjoyment of their wealth, to nobles the preservation of their honors,
and to princes the stability of their thrones."[20]

In the case of individuals holding atheistic opinions, but living in the
midst of Christian society, the full influence of these opinions cannot
be felt, nor their effects fully developed, in the presence of those
restraints and checks which are imposed by the religious beliefs and
observances of others. We cannot estimate their influence either on the
personal happiness, or the moral character, or the social welfare of
men, without taking this circumstance into account. To arrive at even a
tolerable approximation to a correct judgment, we must endeavor to
conceive of Atheism as prevailing universally in the community, as
emancipated from all restraint, and free to develop itself without let
or hindrance of any kind, as tolerated by law, and sanctioned by public
opinion, and unopposed by any remaining forms either of domestic piety
or of public worship, as reigning supreme in every heart, and as forming
the creed of every household; and thus conceiving of it as an
inveterate, universal epidemic, we are then to inquire whether, and on
what conditions, society would in such a case be possible, and how far
the prevalence of Atheism might be expected to affe