us sectarians
do the adherents of the Church of Rome.

It is a remarkable and most consolatory circumstance, that these just
and enlightened views on the subject of religion, and its beneficial
influence on society, are now entertained by all the deepest thinkers
and most brilliant writers in France. There is not an intellect which
rises to a certain level now in that country--not a name which will be
known a hundred years hence, which is not thoroughly _Christian_ in its
principles. _That_, at least, is one blessing which has resulted from
the Revolution. Chateaubriand, Guizot, Lamartine, Vilmain, De
Tocqueville, Michelet, Sismondi, Amadee Thierry, Beranger, Barante,
belong to this bright band. When such men, differing so widely in every
other respect, are leagued together in defence of Christianity, we may
regard as a passing evil whatever profligacy the works of Victor Hugo,
Eugene Sue, and Sand, pour forth upon the Parisian world and middle
classes throughout France. They, no doubt, indicate clearly enough the
state of general opinion _at this time_. But what then? Their great
compeers, the giants of thought, foreshadow what it will be. The
profligate novels, licentious drama, and irreligious opinions of the
middle class now in France, are the result of the infidelity and
wickedness which produced the Revolution. The opinions of the great men
who have succeeded the school of the Encyclopedie, who have been taught
by the suffering it produced, will form the character of a future
generation. Public opinion, of which we hear so much, is never any thing
else than the re-echo of the thoughts of a few great men _half a century
before_. It takes that time for ideas to flow down from the elevated to
the inferior level. The great never adopt, they only originate. Their
chief efforts are always made _in opposition_ to the prevailing
opinions by which they are surrounded. Thence it is that a powerful mind
is always uneasy when it is not in the minority on any subject which
excites general attention.

The reign of Louis XV. is peculiarly favourable for a writer possessed
of the philosophic mind, calm judgment, and contemplative turn of M. de
Tocqueville. It was then that the many causes which concurred to produce
the Revolution were brought to maturity. We say _brought to maturity_:
for, great as were the corruptions, enormous the profligacy of that
reign, and of the regency which preceded it, it would be absurd to
suppose th