See where we were when the Republic arose: happy was it that the
People had at bottom more of the true sentiment of God than these
masters and heads of sects. For, what would have become of us, if, in
that total eclipse of government, of armed force, and of law, which
followed the 24th of February, the People, masters of all, of the
fortunes and lives of the citizens, of Heaven and earth, had been a
People of Materialists, of Terrorists, and of Atheists? The Revolution
would have been a pillage, the Republic a scaffold, the dynasty of the
People a deluge of blood. But there was no such thing. God was there.
He revealed Himself in the multitude; Materialism disappeared in
enthusiasm, which always exhibits the divinity of the human heart.
We heard but one cry,--"Honor to God! Respect for the altars! Liberty
to their ministers! Self-denial, harmony, protection to the weak,
inviolability of property, assistance to the miserable!" Yes,--on the
first day, and during the whole time that the People was alone and
burning with excitement, it was religious! It was not until after the
cooling of this enthusiasm that the materialistic sects, who waited
their opportunity afar off, and who now torment the People, dared to
offer their sensual symbols, and to set up Capital and Interest, the
organization of labor, the increase of wages, and equality of
conditions in this human manger, as the sole Divinities,--dared to
infuse envy against the happy, the breath of hatred as the only
consolation to the hearts of the miserable, lightning vengeance
against the wrongs of Providence, imprecations against society,
blasphemies against the existence of God, the enjoyments and
bestialities of the corporeal nature, purchased by complete
forgetfulness of the moral nature, and enjoyed in a debauch of ideas,
and in a deification of matter.
This cannot last; the People will not allow themselves to be changed
into hogs by the Circes of Atheism. Their souls will flash indignation
against their transformers. A day will come when they will see that
they are impoverished under the pretext of being enriched; that, when
they are robbed of their souls and of God, both their titles to
liberty are stolen from them. Atheism and Republicanism are two words
which exclude each other. Absolutism may thrive without a God, for it
needs only slaves. Republicanism cannot exist without a God, for it
must have citizens. And what is it that makes citizens? Two
things,--the sentiment of their rights, and the sentiment of their
duties as a republican People. Where are your rights, if you have not
a common Father in Heaven? Where are your duties, if you have not a
Judge between your brothers and you? Republicanism draws you in both
these ways to God.