The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-04-08
IRRELIGIOF OF THE GREAT MEN
OF FRANCE.


/ know not when, but, certain it Is
that the nation has an immense progress
to make in serious thought, ifshe wishes
to remain free. If we look at charac-
tiers compared, as regards religious SEN
timent, of the great nations Of Europe
and America, and even Asia, the ad-
vantage is not for us. The great men
of other countries live and die on the
scence Of history, looking up to heaven
our great mon appear to live and die,
forgetting completely the dhly idea for
which it is worth living and dying
they live and die looking a, the specta-
tor, or at most, at posterity.
Open the history of America, the his
tory of England, and the history of
France, read the great lives, the great
deaths, the great martyrdoms, fhe great
words at the hour when the ruling
thought of life reveals itself in the last
words of the dying. But cross the At
lantic, traverse the channel, come to
our times, open our annals and listen to
the last words. of the great political ac-
tols of the drama Of our liberty.
One would think God was eclipsed
from the south, that his name was un-
known in the language. History will
have the air of an atheist, when it re.
counts to posterity these annihilaiioEs.
rather than deaths of celebrated men in
the greatest year of orance.
Look at Mirabeau on the bed of death.
Grown me with flowers said he; Tin
to4icate me with perfumes. Let me
die to the sound of delicious music"
Not word of God or of soul. Sem
sual philosopher he desired only su-
preme sensualism, last voluptutuous-
ness in his agony. Contemplate Mad
anne Roland, the rong-hearted women
of the Revolution, on the car that con-
veyed her to death. She looked con.
temptuously on the besosted people who
killed their prophets and sibyls. Not
a glance toward heaven. Only one word
for the earth she was quitting" Oh,
liberty p
Approach the dungeon door of the
Girondins. Their last night is ban
quet; the only hymn, Marseillaise {
Follow Camille Desmouline to his exc
cution A cool and indecent pleasan-
try at the trial, and long imrrecation
on the road to the guillatine, were the
two last dying thoughts of this dying
man on his way to his last tribunal.
Hear Danton on the platform of the.
scaffold, at the distance of line from
God and eternity. al have had good
time oft; let me go to sleep" Thea
to the executioner--"Yo Y on will show my
head to the people; it is worthy the
trouble !'
His faith, annihilation;. bis last sign,
vanity. Behold the Frenchman of this
latter age!
What must one think of the religious
sentiment of people. Whose great
figures seem thus to march in procession
to annihilation, and to whom that terri
BILE 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
BY SO much genius, has not in France
conscience TO shelter it, God to aVengs
it, people to defend it, against that
atheism which has been called glory
All ended in soldier, and some apos-
tate repu blicans cannot be heroic
When you terrify it, it bends; when
you would buy it, it sells itself It
would be very foolish to immolate itselfs.
Who would take any heed ? the un-
grateful, and God non-existentl So in-
ished atheist revolutions--Lamartine