_This cult brings out a silliness of mind which to me seems wholly an
acquisition of the nineteenth century._
This silliness of mind assumes another form, i.e. the belief (rigidly
formulated by Maurras) that in politics you can find laws of cause
and effect as certainly valid as those of weight or electricity.
(‘Politics are a _science_.’) This is the superstition of science,
held to be competent in all domains, including that of morality; a
superstition which, I repeat, is an acquisition of the nineteenth
century. It remains to discover whether those who brandish this
doctrine believe in it or whether they simply want to give the prestige
of a scientific appearance to the passions of their hearts, which they
perfectly well know are nothing but passions. It is to be noted that
the dogma that history is obedient to scientific laws is preached
especially by partisans of arbitrary authority. This is quite natural,
since it eliminates the two realities they most hate, i.e. human
liberty and the historical action of the individual.