New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-06-10
SECRET SOCIETIES
Four Essays on Eighteenth
Century France.

SECRET SOCIETIES AND THE FRENCH
i h;ENoLt .d3cs Together with some
PIP. 262. John Lane Company.
These four papers, reprinted from the
Edinburgh Review" and the Nine
tenth Century" fall into two groups,
close connection existing between the
first essay. which gives the book It's
name, and that on Religious Liberty
and the French Revolution" OF the
remaining two. that on the Comte de
Saint German marshals all that is
known about that typically eighteenth
century man Of mystery, but leaves the
mystery itself in the unsolved state in
which it has been these many years
The closing study, on Mime. de Staa
and Napoleon, is, on the either hand
most serviceable as a strongly focused
view Of the influence of single womans
opposition to the world conqueror. "A
Study in Ideals" Miss Birch calls this
PAPER, the ideals being fundamentally
those Of Rousseau. which Napoleon re-
linquished. practical. hardheaded ruler
Stael chung to them. True It is. how
ever. that the France of 1900 needed a
Napoleon. man Of action, not the
theories of the philosopher. The author
admits this. yet claims the victory for,
the woman in the changed attitude Of
the Emperor If the Hundred Days The
study is based throughout on Nine. de
StaGl's 'Dix Annees d'Exil"
The opening paper takes up the infu-
ence eXerted in the preparation OF
France for the revolution by the secret
societies that in their numbers. were so
marked a feature of the Europe Of the
eighteenth century. The subject has
been studied before in more or less
desultory fashion. Miss Birch attempts
to give it its definite historical place by
making il the third factor in the precipi-
,ation Of the great upheaval. The eco
nomic causes Of the French Revolution
have hitherto held the first place I'm the
opinion of the historians. she SAYS, the
philosophers receiving credit as the sec
end influence of Importance To these
she adds the idealism OF the numerous
secret and mystical societies. which
reached the masses Of the people. Their
origin in France she finds I'm the Ma
sonic lodges brought across the channel
by exiled Jacobites. The brain that or
ganZed all these influences into one sim
gle movement she attributes to Weis-
ha hnad Of tho Per-
fectibilists or illuminate. with whom
alone lay the credit not only Of realiZ-
ing the cause Of the ineffectiveness Of
societies upon society, but of celebrating
n homogeneous scheme which was des-
tined to embrace and eventually absorb
all lodges and all rites" The theory is
clevorly worked out with wealth OF
detail that in itself, makes the essay
profitable reading.
The paper on the French Revolution
&c the Church in France from the be-
ginning OF the sixteenth century and the
transference of its persecution from
Protestants to rationalists. encyclo-
pedists, Masonic lodges and secret So
cieties. thus explaining the violence OF
the reaction Of the Revolution, which yet
ended in the establishment OF the
Church. since neither philosophers nor
mystics had a definite new religion to
offer in place of the age-old creed. The
attempts made at civic and secular cults
were foredoomed to failure. The book
Is richly suggestive addition To the
literature OF its main subject.