two writers who did more than all others to prepare the Revolution, who determined its later paths, and who still spiritually lead and rule the French race. Even the enmity between these two has had a marvellous after-effect; perhaps the party strife among the men of the Revolution itself even to this hour is only a continuation of this conflict.
[1] For the battle among the revolutionary men of the Convention was nothing but the secret ill-will (Groll) of Rousseau rigorism to Voltairean légèreté. The true Montagnards cherished all the manner of thought and feeling of Rousseau, and as they guillotined at the same time Dantonists and Hebertistes, it came to pass not altogether because the former preached a relaxing moderatism, and the latter degenerated into the most unbridled sans-culottéism, or as an old man of the Mountain said to me lately, "Parce qu'ils etaient tous des hommes pourris, frivoles, sans croyance et sans vertu." When the old state of affairs was overthrown, the wild men of the Revolution were tolerably at peace; but when something new was to be enacted and the most positive questions were discussed, natural antipathies awoke. That
- ↑ The following passages, unto the words "Injustice, however, is done to Voltaire," were added by the author as a note; but as they belong substantially to the text, I have included them in it.—Translator.
