Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1851-05-14
NO. XVI
LAmARTINE ON THE RELIGION OF REV.
OLuTloNARY MEN.

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know, l sigh when think of it, that
hitherto the French people have been the
least religious of all the nations of Europe.
1t is because the idea of God-which arises
from the evidences of Nature, and from tha
depths of reflection, being the most profound
and most weighty idea of which human in.
tellect is capable; and the French mind be.
ing the most rapid; but the most superficial,
the lightest, the most reflective of all Eu.
ropean races, this mind has not the force
and severity necessary to carry far and long
the greatest conception of the human under.
standingl 1e
Is it because our governments have al
ways taken upon themselves to think for us,
to believe for us and to pray for usi Is it
because we are and have been a military
people, soldier nation, led by kings, he
roes, and ambitious men, from battle field
to battle field, making conquests and never
keeping them, ravaging, dazzling, charming
and corrupting Europe; and bring home
the manners, vices, bravery, ightness and
impiety of the camp to the 6resides of the
people1
know not but certain it is that the ma
ton has an immense progress to make in
serious thought if she wishes to remain free.
If we look at the characters, compared as
regards religious sentiment, of the great ma
tons of Europe, America, even Asia, the ad-
vantage is not for us. The great men of
other countries live and die, forgetting COM
pletely the only idea for which it is worth
living and dying-they live and die looking
at the spectator, or, at most, at posterity.
Open the history of America, the history
of England, and the history of France; read
the great lives, the great deaths, the great
martyrdoms, the great words at the hour
when the ruling thought of life reveals itself
in the last words Of the dying-and COM
pare.
Washington and Franklin fought, spoke,
suffered and descended in their political life
of popularity, in the ingratitude of glory, in
the contempt of their fellow citizens, always
in the name of God, for whom they acted
and the hberator of America died confding
to God the liberty of the people and his own
soul.
Sydney, the young martyr of patriotism,
guilty of nothing but impatience, and who
died to expiate his country's dream oflib-
erty, said to his jailor-"1 rejoice that die
innocent toward the king, but victim, re-
signed to the King on High, to whom all
life is DUE"
The Republicans of Cromwell only sought
the way Of God, even in the field of battle.
Their politics were in their faith, their reign
a prayer, their death psalm. One hears,
sees, feels, that God was in all the move
ments of these great people.
But cross the sea traverse La Mancha,
come to our time, open our annals, and lis
ten to the last words of our great political
actors of the drama Of our liberty. One
would think that God was eclipsed from the
soul that His name was unknown in the
language. History will have the air of an
atheist, when she recounts to posterity these
rather than deaths, of celebra-
ted men in the greatest year of France -
The victims only have God; the tribune
and lictors have none.
Look at Mirabeau on the bed of DEATH
"Crown me with flowers" said he, ''intox-
icate me with perfumes. Let me die to the
sound of delicious music"-not a word Of
God or of his soul. Sensual philosopher, he
desired only supreme sensualism, last vo-
luptuousness in his agony. Contemplate
Madame Roland, the strong hearted woman
of the Revolution, on the cart that conveyed
her to death. She looked contemptuously on
the besotted people who killed their proph-
cts and sibyls. Not glance towards Heav-
EN- Only one word for the earth she was
quithng-"Oh, Liberty?"
Approach the dungeon door of the Giron-
dins. Their last night is banquet; the only
hymn the Marseillaise3
Follow Camille Desmoulins to his execu-
ton. A cool indecent pleasantly at the
trial, and long imprecation on the road to
the guillotine, were the last two thoughts
of this dying man on his way to the last
tribunal.
Hear Danton on the platform ofthe scaf-
fold, at the distance of a line from God and
eternity. II have had good time oft, let
me 60 to Sleep" Then to the executioner,
"you will show my head to the people-it is
worth the troublep His faith, annihilatlon;
his last sigh, vanity. Behold the Frenchman
of this latter age
What must one think of the religious sen.
timent of free people whose great figures
seem thus to march in procession to anni-
hilation, and to whom that terrible minister,
death, itself recalls neither the threatenings
nor promises of God
The republic Of these men without God
has quickly been stranded. The liberty, won
by so much heroism, and SO much genius,
has not found in France a conscience to
shelter it, God to avenge it, people to
defend it against the atheism which has been
called glory. ALI ended in soldier, and
some apostate republicans travestied into
courtiers. An atheistic republicanism cam
not be heroic. When you terrify it, it bends;
when you would buy it, it sells itself.
Who would take any heed! the people un.
grateful, and God non-existent! So finish
atheistic revolutions.
q Don't live in hope with your arms fol !
ded. Fortune smiles on those who roll up
Al .Jaovac md x,,,t 81 -, A.