The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-13

age, had no quarrel with the political
institutions of his time. There were
certain reforms in these that he wished
to see effected, but he desired nothing
further. Nor was the church as So
clal institution the special object of his
attack. 1t was rather its extraordinary
political privileges. which he considered
unjust; its traditional theology, which
he considered irrational; its excessive
and al-pervading ecclesiasticism,
which he considered absurd. Monies
quieu, too, had no thought of political
or ecclesiastical reforms being brought
about except by methods which today
would be described as constitutional
But it is, of course, nevertheless true
that the opinions of these men as to
matters of faith and religion were OPP
posed to the orthodoxy OF the day. And
not only they, but almost every writer
of note in France during the period we
are now contemplating, was in respect
Of theology at most only deist. The
church, once so all-powerful, and her
creed, once so universally accepted,
were left with scarcely a defender.
Atheism, however, does not seem to
have been much accepted. Even Vol
taire was not an atheist. But a pro-
fession of simple deism as opposed to
Christian theism and the teachings of
the Bible was general, not only out of
the church, but in it. For the most
part those in the church who did not
accept the church's teachings kept a
discreet silence. Il may have my fist
full of opinions and yet care only TO
open my little finger" This is the way
one prominent churchman expressed
his caution, and the caution was gem
eral.
1t was, however, in the writings of
the philosophers proper, rather than in
Of oil af nd Tor ,fer-x ion
that the anti-spiritual, anti-religious
spirit of the age was most plainly
shown. The encyclopedias frankly ig-
nored the existence of any divine power
other than what may be discerned in
the forces of nature. The System of
Nature" work supposed to have been
written by Baron Holbach, the friend
of Diderot and a chief supporter of the
encyclopedia movement, represented
God as the mere creation of
Superstitious men. Man a Machine"
Man a Plant" were the titles of some
what similar productions written by
La Metric, another member of the
group. 1t is noteworthy that Noltaire
opposed and condemned all these works.
and even undertook the duty of seri-
ously refuting the first of them. Hell
vetius, a third member of the group,
wrote works in which he founded NOR
ais wholly on self-interest. 1t is note
worthy that the works of Helvetius
were also assailed, not only by Voltaire
and his party, not only by the church
and its party Cndeed, they were burned
by the common hangman), but also
even by Diderot himself. The greatest
philosophical thinker of the age, how
ever, was Condillac. Condillac Q715-
SOD, though at one time he was men,
Der of the encyclopedia group, did not
maintain his association with it. But
his philosophy, although it was not ma
terialistic. was scarcely more in con-
sonance with the spiritualistic ideas of
the orthodox school than materialism
was With him all ideas were but SEN
sations- The human age was but a
bundle of sensations. When sensation
ended. all ended.
When so critical and examinant were
the writings of all the leading spirits of
the age it is not to be wondered at if
among the more humble and less in
structed people of the time a feeling of
uncertainty and disquietude as to all
the graver matters of life and conduct
also sprung up. AS a matter of fact,
1t dad spring up, and the common peo-
pie broke away from their theological
mornings and drifted into unbelief and
dissatisfaction with existing institu-
lions quite as hopelessly as did their
better-instructed fellows. In their case.
however, unbelief and dissatisfaction
were intensified by the terrible injus-
tice which they suffered at the hands
of both church and state.
Contemporary with the PHILOSOPHERS"
and for a time a member of the en-
cyclopeddst group, although he shortly
severed himself from it, was a writer
who was destined to have more infiu-
ence upon the rank and file of the peo-
ple-that great body that we have de-
scribed as blindly drifting into unbeljef
and dissatisfaction for want of guild
ance and efficient leadership-than any
other writer of his day. perhaps than
all other writers of his day put to-