,,critical ,,miscellanies   ,,by  ,,john
 ,,morley   ,,vol4 ,,ii4  ,essay #d3    
,joseph de ,maistre     ,london         
,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,limited ,new  
,york3 ,the ,mac,millan ,company #aije  
,,joseph ,,de ,,maistre4                
,,page  ,the ,catholic reaction in      
,france at the beginning of the century 
#beg  ,de ,maistre the best type of the 
movement                            #bfb
  ,birth1 instruction1 and early life   
#bfc  ,invasion of ,savoy1 and ,de      
,maistre's flight                       
#bfh  ,at ,lausanne1 ,venice1 and       
,cagliari                               
#bgj  ,sent in #ahjb as minister to ,st4
 ,petersburg                            
#bge  ,hardships of his life there from 
#ahjb to #ahag                          
#bgf  ,circumstances of his return home1
 and his death                     #bhe 
,de ,maistre's view of the eighteenth   
century                         #bhg    
,and of the ,french ,revolution         
#bia  ,the great problem forced upon the

 ,catholics by it                   #bic
  ,de ,maistre's way of dealing with the
 question of the divine   method of     
government                              
#bic  ,nature of divine responsibility  
for evil                            #bid
  ,on ,physical ,science                
#bih  ,significance of such ideas in a  
mind like ,de ,maistre's                
#bii  ,two theories tenable by social   
thinkers after the ,revolution          
#cjc  ,de ,maistre's appreciation of the
 beneficent work of the   ,papacy in the
 past                                   
#cjg  ,insists on the revival of the    
papal power as the essential   condition
 of a restored ,european order          
#cac  ,views ,christianity from the     
statesman's point of view               
#cad  ,his consequent hatred of the     
purely speculative temper of   the      
,greeks                                 
#caf  ,his object was social or         
political                               
#cah  ,hence his grounds for defending  

the doctrine of ,infallibility          
#cai  ,the analogy which lay at the     
bottom of his ,ultramontane   doctrine  
#cbj  ,his hostility to the authority of
 ,general ,councils                     
#cbc  ,his view of the obligation of the
 canons on the ,pope                #cbe
  ,his appeal to ,european statesmen    
#cbf  ,comte and ,de ,maistre           
#cbi  ,his strictures on ,protestantism 
#cca  ,futility of his aspirations      
#cce     ,,joseph ,,de ,,maistre4       
,owing to causes which lie tolerably    
near the surface1 the remarkable        
,catholic reaction which took place in  
,france at the beginning of the present 
century1 has never received in ,england 
the attention that it deserves2 not only
 for its striking interest as an episode
 in the history of ,european thought1   
but also for its peculiarly forcible and
 complete presentation of those ideas   
with which what is called the modern    
spirit is supposed to be engaged in     
deadly war4 ,for one thing1 the         

,protestantism of ,england strips a     
genuinely ,catholic movement of         
speculation of that pressing and        
practical importance which belongs to it
 in countries where nearly all spiritual
 sentiment1 that has received any       
impression of religion at all1          
unavoidably runs in ,catholic forms4    
,with us the theological reaction       
against the ideas of the eighteenth was 
not and could not be other than         
,protestant4 ,the defence and           
reinstatement of ,christianity in each  
case was conducted1 as might have been  
expected1 with reference to the dominant
 creed and system of the country4 ,if   
,coleridge had been a ,catholic1 his    
works thus newly coloured by an alien   
creed would have been read by a small   
sect only1 instead of exercising as they
 did a wide influence over the whole    
nation1 reaching people through those   
usual conduits of press and pulpit1 by  
which the products of philosophic       
thought are conveyed to unphilosophic   

minds4 ,as naturally in ,france1        
hostility to all those influences which 
were believed to have brought about the 
,revolution1 to sensationalism in       
metaphysics1 to atheism in what should  
have been theology1 to the notion of    
sovereignty of peoples in politics1     
inevitably sought a rallying-point in a 
renewed allegiance to that prodigious   
spiritual system which had fostered the 
germs of order and social feeling in    
,europe1 and whose name remains even now
 in the days of its ruin1 as the most   
permanent symbol and exemplar of stable 
organisation4 ,another reason for       
,english indifference to this movement  
is the rapidity with which here1 as     
elsewhere1 dust gathers thickly round   
the memory of the champions of lost     
causes4 ,some of the most excellent of  
human characteristics--intensity of     
belief1 for example1 and a fervid       
anxiety to realise aspirations--unite   
with some of the least excellent of     
them1 to make us too habitually forget  

that1 as ,mill has said1 the best       
adherents of a fallen standard in       
philosophy1 in religion1 in politics1   
are usually next in all good qualities  
of understanding and sentiment to the   
best of those who lead the van of the   
force that triumphs4 ,men are not so    
anxious as they should be1 considering  
the infinite diversity of effort that   
goes to the advancement of mankind1 to  
pick up the fragments of truth and      
positive contribution1 that so nothing  
be lost1 and as a consequence the       
writings of antagonists with whom we are
 believed to have nothing in common1 lie
 unexamined and disregarded4  ,in the   
case of the group of writers who1 after 
a century of criticism1 ventured once   
more with an intrepid                   
confidence--differing fundamentally from
 the tone of preceding apologists in the
 ,protestant camp1 who were nearly as   
critical as the men they refuted--to    
vindicate not the bare outlines of      
,christian faith1 but the entire scheme1

 in its extreme manifestation1 of the   
most ancient and severely maligned of   
all ,christian organisations1 this      
apathy is very much to be regretted on  
several grounds4 ,in the first place1 it
 is impossible to see intelligently to  
the bottom of the momentous spirit of   
ultramontanism1 which is so deep a      
difficulty of continental ,europe1 and  
which1 touching us in ,ireland1 is      
perhaps already one of our own deepest  
difficulties1 without comprehending in  
its best shape the theory on which      
ultramontanism rests4 ,and this theory  
it is impossible to seize thoroughly1   
without some knowledge of the ideas of  
its most efficient defenders in its     
earlier years4 ,secondly1 it is among   
these ideas that we have to look for the
 representation in their most direct1   
logical1 uncompromising1 and            
unmistakable form of those theological  
ways of regarding life and prescribing  
right conduct1 whose more or less       
rapidly accelerated destruction is the  

first condition of the further elevation
 of humanity1 as well in power of       
understanding as in morals and          
spirituality4 ,in all contests of this  
kind there is the greatest and most     
obvious advantage in being able to see  
your enemy full against the light4      
,thirdly1 in one or two respects1 the   
,catholic reactionaries at the beginning
 of the century insisted very strongly  
on principles of society which the      
general thought of the century before   
had almost entirely dropped out of      
sight1 and which we who1 in spite of    
many differences1 still sail down the   
same great current1 and are propelled by
 the same great tide1 are accustomed    
almost equally either to leave in the   
background of speculation1 or else      
deliberately to deny and suppress4 ,such
 we may account the importance which    
they attach to organisation1 and the    
value they set upon a common spiritual  
faith and doctrine as a social basis4   
,that the form which the recognition of 

these principles is destined to assume  
will at all correspond to their hopes   
and anticipations1 is one of the most   
unlikely things possible4 ,this1        
however1 need not detract from the worth
 for our purpose of their exposition of 
the principles themselves4 ,again1 the  
visible traces of the impression made by
 the writings of this school on the     
influential founder of the earliest     
,positivist system1 are sufficiently    
deep and important to make some         
knowledge of them of the highest        
historical interest1 both to those who  
accept and those who detest that system4
  ,at the beginning of the nineteenth   
century1 there were three chief schools 
of thought1 the ,sensational1 the       
,catholic1 and the ,eclectic2 or as it  
may be put in other terms1 the          
,materialist1 the ,theological1 and the 
,spiritualist4 ,the first looked for the
 sources of knowledge1 the sanction of  
morals1 the inspiring fountain and      
standard of sthetics1 to the outside of 

men1 to matter1 and the impressions made
 by matter on the corporeal senses4 ,the
 second looked to divine revelation1    
authority and the traditions of the     
,church4 ,the third1 steering a middle  
course1 looked partly within and partly 
without1 relied partly on the senses1   
partly on revelation and history1 but   
still more on a certain internal        
consciousness of a direct and immediate 
kind1 which is the supreme and          
reconciling judge of the reports alike  
of the senses1 of history1 of divine    
revelation4#a ,each of these schools had
 many exponents4 ,the three most        
conspicuous champions of revived        
,catholicism were ,de ,maistre1 ,de     
,bonald1 and ,chateaubriand4 ,the last  
of them1 the author of the ,gnie du     
,christianisme1 was effective in ,france
 because he is so deeply sentimental1   
but he was too little trained in        
speculation1 and too little equipped    
with knowledge1 to be fairly taken as   
the best intellectual representative of 

their way of thinking4 ,de ,bonald was  
of much heavier calibre4 ,he really     
thought1 while ,chateaubriand only felt1
 and the ,lgislation ,primitive and the 
,penses sur ,divers ,sujets contain much
 that an enemy of the school will find  
it worth while to read1 in spite of an  
artificial1 and1 if a foreigner may     
judge1 a detestable style4  ,de ,maistre
 was the greatest of the three1 and     
deserves better than either of the      
others to stand as the type of the      
school for many reasons4 ,his style is  
so marvellously lucid1 that1            
notwithstanding the mystical1 or1 as he 
said1 the illuminist side of his mind1  
we can never be in much doubt about his 
meaning1 which is not by any means the  
case with ,bonald4 ,to say nothing of   
his immensely superior natural capacity1
 ,de ,maistre's extensive reading in the
 literature of his foes was a source of 
strength1 which might indeed have been  
thought indispensable1 if only other    
persons had not attacked the same people

 as he did1 without knowing much or     
anything at all at first-hand about     
them4 ,then he goes over the whole field
 of allied subjects1 which we have a    
right to expect to have handled by      
anybody with a systematic view of the   
origin of knowledge1 the meaning of     
ethics1 the elements of social order and
 progressiveness1 the government and    
scheme of the universe4 ,and above all1 
his writings are penetrated with the air
 of reality and life1 which comes of    
actual participation in the affairs of  
that world with which social            
philosophers have to deal4 ,lamennais   
had in many respects a finer mind than  
,de ,maistre1 but the conclusions in    
which he was finally landed1 no less    
than his liberal aims1 prevent him from 
being an example of the truly ,catholic 
reaction4 ,he obviously represented the 
,revolution1 or the critical spirit1    
within the ,catholic limits1 while ,de  
,maistre's ruling idea was1 in his own  
trenchant phrase1 'absolument tuer      

l'esprit du dix-huitime sicle4' ,on all 
these accounts he appears to be the     
fittest expositor of those conceptions  
which the anarchy that closed the       
eighteenth century provoked into        
systematic existence4  ,,footnote3  #a  
,see ,damiron's ,la ,philosophie en     
,france au ,x,i,xime ,sicle4            
,introduction to ,vol4 ,i4 7,fifth      
edition47     ,i4   ,joseph de ,maistre 
was born at ,chambry in the year #aged4b
 ,his family was the younger branch of a
 stock in ,languedoc1 which about the   
beginning of the seventeenth century    
divided itself into two1 one remaining  
in ,france1 the other establishing      
itself in ,piedmont4 ,it is not         
wonderful that the descendants of the   
latter1 settled in a country of small   
extent and little political importance1 
placed a high value on their kinship    
with an ancient line in the powerful    
kingdom of ,france4 ,joseph de ,maistre 
himself was always particularly anxious 
to cultivate close relations with his   

,french kinsfolk1 partly from the old   
aristocratic feeling of blood1 and      
partly from his intellectual            
appreciation of the gifts of the ,french
 mind1 and its vast influence as an     
universal propagating power4 ,his father
 held a high office in the government of
 ,savoy1 and enjoyed so eminent a       
reputation that on his death both the   
,senate and the ,king of ,sardinia      
deliberately recorded their appreciation
 of his loss as a public calamity4 ,his 
mother is said to have been a woman of  
lofty and devout character1 and her     
influence over her eldest son was       
exceptionally strong and tender4 ,he    
used to declare in after life that he   
was as docile in her hands as the       
youngest of his sisters4 ,among other   
marks of his affectionate submission to 
parental authority1 we are told that    
during the whole time of his residence  
at ,turin1 where he followed a course of
 law1 he never read a single book       
without previously writing to ,chambry  

to one or other of his parents for their
 sanction4 ,such traditions linger in   
families1 and when he came to have      
children of his own1 they too read      
nothing of which their father had not   
been asked to express his approbation4  
,de ,maistre's early education was      
directed by the ,jesuits2 and as might  
have been expected from the generous    
susceptibility of his temper1 he never  
ceased to think of them with warm       
esteem4 ,to the end of his life he      
remembered the gloom which fell upon the
 household1 though he was not nine years
 old at the time1 when the news arrived 
of the edict of #agfd1 abolishing the   
,society in the kingdom of ,france4 ,one
 element of his education he            
commemorates in a letter to his         
favourite daughter4 ',let your brother1'
 he says1 'work hard at the ,french     
poets4 ,let him learn them by heart1    
especially the incomparable ,racine2    
never mind whether he understands him   
yet or not4 ,i didn't understand him    

when my mother used to come repeating   
his verses by my bedside1 and lulled me 
to sleep with her fine voice to the     
sound of that inimitable music4 ,i knew 
hundreds of lines long before ,i knew   
how to read2 and it is thus that my     
ears1 accustomed betimes to this        
ambrosia1 have never since been able to 
endure any sourer draught4'  ,after his 
law studies at the ,university of       
,turin1 then highly renowned for its    
jurisconsults1 the young ,de ,maistre   
went through the successive stages of an
 official career1 performing various    
duties in the public administration1 and
 possessing among other honours a seat  
in the ,senate1 over which his father   
presided4 ,he led a tranquil life at    
,chambry1 then as at all other times an 
ardent reader and student4 ,unaided he  
taught himself five languages4 ,english 
he mastered so perfectly1 that though he
 could not follow it when spoken1 he    
could read a book in that tongue with as
 much ease as if it had been in his own4

 ,to ,greek and ,german he did not apply
 himself until afterwards1 and he never 
acquired the same proficiency in them as
 in ,english1 ,french1 ,italian1 ,latin1
 and ,spanish4 ,to be ignorant of       
,german then1 it will be remembered1 was
 not what it would be now1 to be without
 one of the literary senses4  ,like     
nearly every other great soldier of     
reaction1 he showed in his early life a 
decided inclination for new ideas4 ,the 
truth that the wildest extravagances of 
youthful aspiration are a better omen of
 a vigorous and enlightened manhood than
 the decorous and ignoble faith in the  
perfection of existing arrangements1 was
 not belied in the case of ,de ,maistre4
 ,his intelligence was of too hard and  
exact a kind to inspire him with the    
exalted schemes that present themselves 
to those more nobly imaginative minds   
who dream dreams and see visions4 ,he   
projected no ,savoyard emigration to the
 banks of the ,susquehanna or ,delaware1
 to found millennial societies and      

pantisocratic unions4 ,these generous   
madnesses belong to men of more poetic  
temper4 ,but still1 in spite of the     
deadening influences of officialism and 
relations with a court1 ,de ,maistre had
 far too vigorous and active a character
 to subside without resistance into the 
unfruitful ways of obstruction and      
social complacency4 ,it is one of the   
most certain marks1 we may be sure1 of a
 superior spirit1 that the impulses     
earliest awakened by its first fresh    
contact with the facts of the outer     
world are those which quicken a desire  
for the improvement of the condition of 
society1 the increase of the happiness  
of men1 the amelioration of human       
destiny4 ,with this unwritten condition 
of human nature ,de ,maistre1 like other
 men of his mental calibre1 is found to 
have complied4 ,he incurred the         
suspicion and ill-will of most of those 
by whom he was immediately surrounded1  
by belonging to a ,reform ,lodge at     
,chambry4 ,the association was one of a 

perfectly harmless character1 but being 
an association1 it diffused a tarnishing
 vapour of social disaffection and      
insurgency over the names of all who    
ventured to belong to it1 and ,de       
,maistre was pointed out to the         
,sardinian court as a man with leanings 
towards new things1 and therefore one of
 whom it were well to beware4 ,there was
 little ground for apprehension4 ,in    
very small countries there is seldom    
room enough for the growth of a spirit  
of social revolution2 not at least until
 some great and dominant country has    
released the forces of destruction4 ,so1
 when the menacing sounds of the        
approaching hurricane in ,france grew   
heavy in the air1 the little lodge at   
,chambry voluntarily dissolved itself1  
and ,de ,maistre was deputed to convey  
to the king1 ,victor ,amadeo ,,iii41 the
 honourable assurance of its members    
that they had assembled for the last    
time4  ,in #aghf1 at the age of         
thirty-two1 ,de ,maistre had married1   

and when the storm burst which destroyed
 all the hopes of his life1 he was the  
father of two children4 ,in one of his  
gay letters to a venerable lady who was 
on intimate terms with them both1 he has
 left a picture of his wife1 which is   
not any less interesting for what it    
reveals of his own character4 ',the     
contrast between us two is the very     
strangest in the world4 ,for me1 as you 
may have found out1 ,i am the           
pococurante senator1 and above all      
things very free in saying what ,i      
think4 ,she1 on the contrary1 will take 
care that it is noon before allowing    
that the sun has risen1 for fear of     
committing herself4 ,she knows what must
 be done or what must not be done on the
 tenth of ,october #ahjh1 at ten o'clock
 in the morning1 to avoid some          
inconvenience which otherwise would come
 to pass at midnight between the        
fifteenth and sixteenth of ,march #ahaj4
 ,but1 my dear husband1 you pay         
attention to nothing2 you believe that  

nobody is thinking of any harm4 ,now ,i 
know1 ,i have been told1 ,i have        
guessed1 ,i foresee1 ,i warn you1 etc4  
,come now1 my dear1 leave me alone4 ,you
 are only wasting your time3 ,i foresee 
that ,i shall never foresee things3     
that's your business4 ,she is the       
supplement to me1 and hence when ,i am  
separated from her1 as ,i am now1 ,i    
suffer absurdly from being obliged to   
think about my own affairs2 ,i would    
rather have to chop wood all day4444 ,my
 children ought to kiss her very steps2 
for my part1 ,i have no gift for        
education4 ,she has such a gift1 that ,i
 look upon it as nothing less than the  
eighth endowment of the ,holy ,ghost2 ,i
 mean a certain fond persecution by     
which it is given her to torment her    
children from morning to night to do    
something1 not to do something1 to      
learn--and yet without for a moment     
losing their tender affection for her4  
,how can she manage it8 ,i cannot make  
it out4' ,she was laughingly called by  

himself and her friends1 ,madame        
,prudence4 ,it is certain that few women
 have found more necessity for the      
qualities implied in this creditable    
nickname4  ,they had not been married   
many years before they were overtaken by
 irreparable disaster4 ,the ,french     
,revolution broke out1 and ,savoy was   
invaded by the troops of the new        
,republic4 ,count ,de ,maistre1 with his
 wife and children1 fled from ,chambry  
across the ,alps to ,aosta4 ',ma chre   
amie1' he said to his wife1 by the side 
of a great rock which he never          
afterwards forgot1 'the step that we are
 taking to-day is irrevocable2 it       
decides our lot for life2' and the      
presentiment was true4 ,soon the ,loi   
des ,allobroges was promulgated1 which  
enjoined upon all who had left their    
homes in ,savoy to return instantly1    
under pain of confiscation of all their 
property4 ,it was the very depth of     
winter4 ,madame de ,maistre was in the  
ninth month of her pregnancy4 ,she knew 

that her husband would endure anything  
rather than expose her to the risks of a
 journey in such a season4 ,so1 urged by
 a desire to save something from the    
wreck of their fortune by compliance    
with the ,french decree1 she seized the 
opportunity of her husband's absence at 
,turin1 and started for ,savoy without  
acquainting him with her design4 ,she   
crossed the ,great ,st4 ,bernard in the 
beginning of ,january on the back of a  
mule1 accompanied by her two little     
children wrapped in blankets4 ,the      
,count1 on his return to ,aosta two or  
three days afterwards1 forthwith set off
 in her steps1 in the trembling         
expectation of finding her dead or dying
 in some ,alpine hovel4 ,but the favour 
of fate and a stout heart brought her   
safe to ,chambry1 where shortly         
afterwards she was joined by her        
husband4 ,the authorities vainly        
tendered him the oath1 vainly bade him  
inscribe his name on the register of    
citizens2 and when they asked him for a 

contribution to support the war1 he     
replied curtly that he did not give     
money to kill his brothers in the       
service of the ,king of ,sardinia4 ,as  
soon as his wife was delivered of their 
third child1 whom he was destined not to
 see again for nearly twenty years1 he  
quitted her side1 abandoned his property
 and his country1 and took refuge at    
,lausanne1 where in time his wife and   
his two eldest children once more came  
to him4  ,gibbon tells us how a swarm of
 emigrants1 escaping from the public    
ruin1 was attracted by the vicinity1 the
 manners1 and the language of ,lausanne4
 ',they are entitled to our pity1' he   
reflected1 'and they may claim our      
esteem1 but they cannot in their present
 state of mind and fortune contribute   
much to our amusement4 ,instead of      
looking down as calm and idle spectators
 on the theatre of ,europe1 our domestic
 harmony is somewhat embittered by the  
infusion of party spirit4' ,gibbon died 
in ,london almost at the very moment    

that ,de ,maistre arrived at ,lausanne1 
but his account of things remained true1
 and political feuds continued to run as
 high as ever4 ,among the people with   
whom ,de ,maistre was thrown was ,madame
 de ,stal4 ',as we had not been to the  
same school1' he says1 'either in       
theology or in politics1 we had some    
scenes enough to make one die of        
laughter2 still without quarrelling4    
,her father1 who was then alive1 was the
 friend and relative of people that ,i  
love with all my heart1 and that ,i     
would not vex for all the world4 ,so ,i 
allowed the migrs who surrounded us to  
cry out as they would1 without ever     
drawing the sword4' ,de ,maistre thought
 he never came across a head so         
completely turned wrong as ,madame de   
,stal's1 the infallible consequence1 as 
he took it to be1 of modern philosophy  
operating upon a woman's nature4 ,he    
once said of her3 ',ah6 if ,madame de   
,stal had been ,catholic1 she would have
 been adorable1 instead of famous4' ,we 

can believe that his position among the 
,french migrs was not particularly      
congenial4 ,for though they hated the   
,revolution1 they had all drunk of the  
waters of the eighteenth century        
philosophy1 and ,de ,maistre hated this 
philosophy worse than he hated the      
,revolution itself4 ,then again1 they   
would naturally vapour about the        
necessities of strong government4       
',yes1' said the ,savoyard exile1 'but  
be quite sure that1 to make the monarchy
 strong1 you must rest it on the laws1  
avoiding everything arbitrary1 too      
frequent commissions1 and all           
ministerial jobberies4' ,we may well    
believe how unsavoury this rational and 
just talk was to people who meant by    
strong government a system that should  
restore to them their old prerogatives  
of anti-social oppression and selfish   
corruption4 ,the order that ,de ,maistre
 vindicated was a very different thing  
from the deadly and poisonous order     
which was the object of the prayers of  

the incorrigible royalists around him4  
,after staying three years at ,lausanne1
 ,de ,maistre went to ,turin1 but       
shortly afterwards the ,sardinian king1 
at the end of a long struggle1 was      
forced to succumb to the power of the   
,french1 then in the full tide of       
success4 ,bonaparte's brilliant ,italian
 campaign needs no words here4 ,the     
,french entered ,turin1 and ,de         
,maistre1 being an migr1 had to leave   
it4 ,furnished with a false passport1   
and undergoing a thousand hardships and 
dangers1 he made his way1 once more in  
the depth of a severe winter 7#agig71 to
 ,venice4 ,he went part of the way down 
the ,po in a small trading ship1 crowded
 with ladies1 priests1 monks1 soldiers1 
and a bishop4 ,there was only one small 
fire on board1 at which all the cooking 
had to be done1 and where the unhappy   
passengers had to keep themselves warm  
as they could4 ,at night they were      
confined each to a space about three    
planks broad1 separated from neighbours 

by pieces of canvas hanging from a rope 
above4 ,each bank of the river was lined
 by military posts--the left by the     
,austrians1 and the right by the        
,french2 and the danger of being fired  
into was constantly present to aggravate
 the misery of overcrowding1 scanty     
food1 and bitter cold4 ,even this       
wretchedness was surpassed by the       
hardships which confronted the exiles at
 ,venice4 ,the physical distress endured
 here by ,de ,maistre and his           
unfortunate family exceeded that of any 
other period of their wanderings4 ,he   
was cut off from the court1 and from all
 his relations and friends1 and reduced 
for the means of existence to a few     
fragments of silver plate1 which had    
somehow been saved from the universal   
wreck4 ,this slender resource grew less 
day by day1 and when that was exhausted 
the prospect was a blank4 ,the student  
of ,de ,maistre's philosophy may see in 
what crushing personal anguish some of  
its most sinister growths had their     

roots4 ,when the cares of beggary come  
suddenly upon a man in middle life1 they
 burn very deep4 ,alone1 and starving   
for a cause that is dear to him1 he     
might encounter the grimness of fate    
with a fortitude in which there should  
be many elevating and consoling         
elements4 ,but the destiny is           
intolerably hard which condemns a man of
 humane mould1 as ,de ,maistre certainly
 was1 to look helplessly on the physical
 pains of a tender woman and famishing  
little ones4 ,the anxieties that press  
upon his heart in such calamity as this 
are too sharp1 too tightened1 and too   
sordid for him to draw a single free    
breath1 or to raise his eyes for a      
single moment of relief from the        
monstrous perplexity that chokes him4   
,the hour of bereavement has its        
bitterness1 but the bitterness is       
gradually suffused with soft            
reminiscence4 ,the grip of beggary      
leaves a mark on such a character as ,de
 ,maistre's which no prosperity of after

 days effaces4 ,the seeming inhumanity  
of his theory of life1 which is so      
revolting to comfortable people like ,m4
 ,villemain1 was in truth the only      
explanation of his own cruel sufferings 
in which he could find any solace4 ,it  
was not that he hated mankind1 but that 
his destiny looked as if ,god hated him1
 and this was a horrible moral          
complexity out of which he could only   
extricate himself by a theory in which  
pain and torment seem to stand out as   
the main facts in human existence4  ,to 
him1 indeed1 prosperity never came4     
,hope smiled on him momentarily1 but1 in
 his own words3 ',it was only a flash in
 the night4' ,while he was in ,venice1  
the armies of ,austria and ,russia      
reconquered the north of ,italy1 and    
,charles ,emanuel ,,iv41 in the natural 
anticipation that the allies would at   
once restore his dominions1 hastened    
forward4 ,austria1 however1 as ,de      
,maistre had seen long before1 was      
indifferent or even absolutely hostile  

to ,sardinian interests1 and she        
successfully opposed ,charles ,emanuel's
 restoration4 ,the king received the    
news of the perfidy of his nominal ally 
at ,florence1 but not until after he had
 made arrangements for rewarding the    
fidelity of some of his most loyal      
adherents4  ,it was from ,florence that 
,de ,maistre received the king's        
nomination to the chief place in the    
government of the island of ,sardinia4  
,through the short time of his          
administration here1 he was overwhelmed 
with vexations only a little more       
endurable than the physical distresses  
which had weighed him down at ,venice4  
,during the war1 justice had been       
administered in a grossly irregular     
manner4 ,hence1 people had taken the law
 into their own hands1 and retaliation  
had completed the round of wrong-doing4 
,the taxes were collected with great    
difficulty4 ,the higher class exhibited 
an invincible repugnance to paying their
 debts4 ,some of these difficulties in  

the way of firm and orderly government  
were insuperable1 and ,de ,maistre vexed
 his soul in an unequal and only        
partially successful contest4 ,in after 
years1 amid the miseries of his life in 
,russia1 he wrote to his brother thus3  
',sometimes in moments of solitude that 
,i multiply as much as ,i possibly can1 
,i throw my head back on the cushion of 
my sofa1 and there with my four walls   
around me1 far from all that is dear to 
me1 confronted by a sombre and          
impenetrable future1 ,i recall the days 
when in a little town that you know     
well'--he meant ,cagliari--'with my head
 resting on another sofa1 and only      
seeing around our own exclusive circle  
7good heavens1 what an impertinence67   
little men and little things1 ,i used to
 ask myself3 ,am ,i then condemned to   
live and die in this place1 like a      
limpet on a rock8 ,i suffered bitterly2 
my head was overloaded1 wearied1        
flattened1 by the enormous weight of    
,nothing4'  ,but presently a worse thing

 befell him4 ,in #ahjb he received an   
order from the king to proceed to ,st4  
,petersburg as envoy extraordinary and  
minister plenipotentiary at the court of
 ,russia4 ,even from this bitter proof  
of devotion to his sovereign he did not 
shrink4 ,he had to tear himself from his
 wife and children1 without any         
certainty when so cruel a separation    
would be likely to end2 to take up new  
functions which the circumstances of the
 time rendered excessively difficult2   
while the petty importance of the power 
he represented1 and its mendicant       
attitude in ,europe1 robbed his position
 of that public distinction and dignity 
which may richly console a man for the  
severest private sacrifice4 ,it is a    
kind destiny which veils their future   
from mortal men4 ,fifteen years passed  
before ,de ,maistre's exile came to a   
close4 ,from #ahjb to #ahag he did not  
quit the inhospitable latitudes of      
northern ,russia4  ,de ,maistre's       
letters during this desolate period     

furnish a striking picture of his manner
 of life and his mental state4 ,we see  
in them his most prominent              
characteristics strongly marked4 ,not   
even the painfulness of the writer's    
situation ever clouds his intrepid and  
vigorous spirit4 ,lively and gallant    
sallies of humour to his female friends1
 sagacious judgments on the position of 
,europe to political people1 bits of    
learned criticism for erudite people1   
tender and playful chat with his two    
daughters1 all these alternate with one 
another with the most delightful effect4
 ,whether he is writing to his little   
girl whom he has never known1 or to the 
king of ,sardinia1 or to some author who
 sends him a book1 or to a minister who 
has found fault with his diplomacy1     
there is in all alike the same constant 
and remarkable play of a bright and     
penetrating intellectual light1 coloured
 by a humour that is now and then a     
little sardonic1 but more often is      
genial and lambent4 ,there is a certain 

semi-latent quality of hardness lying at
 the bottom of ,de ,maistre's style1    
both in his letters and in his more     
elaborate compositions4 ,his writings   
seem to recall the flavour and bouquet  
of some of the fortifying and           
stimulating wines of ,burgundy1 from    
which time and warmth have not yet drawn
 out a certain native roughness that    
lingers on the palate4 ,this hardness1  
if one must give the quality a name that
 only imperfectly describes it1 sprang  
not from any original want of           
impressionableness or sensibility of    
nature1 but partly from the relentless  
buffetings which he had to endure at the
 hands of fortune1 and partly from the  
preponderance which had been given to   
the rational side of his mind by long   
habits of sedulous and accurate study4  
,few men knew so perfectly as he knew   
how to be touching without ceasing to be
 masculine1 nor how to go down into the 
dark pits of human life without         
forgetting the broad sunlight1 nor how  

to keep habitually close to visible and 
palpable fact while eagerly addicted to 
speculation4 ,his contemplations were   
perhaps somewhat too near the ground2   
they led him into none of those sublimer
 regions of subtle feeling where the    
rarest human spirits have loved to      
travel2 we do not think of his mind     
among those who have gone      ,voyaging
 through strange seas of thought alone4 
,if this kind of temper1 strong1 keen1  
frank1 and a little hard and mordent1   
brought him too near a mischievous      
disbelief in the dignity of men and     
their lives1 at least it kept him well  
away from morbid weakness in ethics1 and
 from beating the winds in metaphysics4 
,but of this we shall see more in       
considering his public pieces than can  
be gathered from his letters4  ,the     
discomforts of ,de ,maistre's life at   
,st4 ,petersburg were extreme4 ,the     
dignity of his official style and title 
was an aggravation of the exceeding     
straitness of his means4 ,the ruined    

master could do little to mitigate the  
ruin of his servant4 ,he had to keep up 
the appearance of an ambassador on the  
salary of a clerk4 ',this is the second 
winter1' he writes to his brother in    
#ahaj1 'that ,i have gone through       
without a pelisse1 which is exactly like
 going without a shirt at ,cagliari4    
,when ,i come from court a very sorry   
lackey throws a common cloak over my    
shoulders4' ,the climate suited him     
better than he had expected2 and in one 
letter he vows that he was the only     
living being in ,russia who had passed  
two winters without fur boots and a fur 
hat4 ,it was considered indispensable   
that he should keep a couple of         
servants2 so1 for his second1 ,de       
,maistre was obliged to put up with a   
thief1 whom he rescued under the shelter
 of ambassadorial privilege from the    
hands of justice1 on condition that he  
would turn honest4 ,the ,austrian       
ambassador1 with whom he was on good    
terms1 would often call to take him out 

to some entertainment4 ',his fine       
servants mount my staircase groping     
their way in the dark1 and we descend   
preceded by a servant carrying luminare 
minus quam ut presset nocti4' ',i am    
certain1' he adds pleasantly1 'that they
 make songs about me in their ,austrian 
patois4 ,poor souls6 it is well they can
 amuse themselves4'  ,sometimes he was  
reduced so far as to share the soup of  
his valet1 for lack of richer and more  
independent fare4 ,then he was          
constantly fretted by enemies at home1  
who disliked his trenchant diplomacy1   
and distrusted the strength and         
independence of a mind which was too    
vigorous to please the old-fashioned    
ministers of the ,sardinian court4      
,these chagrins he took as a wise man   
should4 ,they disturbed him less than   
his separation from his family4 ',six   
hundred leagues away from you all1' he  
writes to his brother1 'the thoughts of 
my family1 the reminiscences of         
childhood1 transport me with sadness4'  

,visions of his mother's saintly face   
haunted his chamber2 almost gloomier    
still was the recollection of old       
intimates with whom he had played1      
lived1 argued1 and worked for years1 and
 yet who now no longer bore him in mind4
 ,there are not many glimpses of this   
melancholy in the letters meant for the 
eye of his beloved trinit fminine1 as he
 playfully called his wife and two      
daughters4 ',a quoi bon vous attrister1'
 he asked bravely1 'sans raison et sans 
profit8' ,occasionally he cannot help   
letting out to them how far his mind is 
removed from composure4 ',every day as  
,i return home ,i found my house as     
desolate as if it was yesterday you left
 me4 ,in society the same fancy pursues 
me1 and scarcely ever quits me4' ,music1
 as might be surmised in so sensitive a 
nature1 drove him almost beside himself 
with its mysterious power of            
intensifying the dominant emotion4      
',whenever by any chance ,i hear the    
harpsichord1' he says1 'melancholy      

seizes me4 ,the sound of the violin     
gives me such a heavy heart1 that ,i am 
fain to leave the company and hasten    
home4' ,he tossed in his bed at night1  
thinking he heard the sound of weeping  
at ,turin1 making a thousand efforts to 
picture to himself the looks of that    
'orphan child of a living father' whom  
he had never known1 wondering if ever he
 should know her1 and battling with a   
myriad of black phantoms that seemed to 
rustle in his curtains4 ',but you1 ,m4  
de ,chevalier1' he said apologetically  
to the correspondent to whom he told    
these dismal things1 'you are a father1 
you know the cruel dreams of a waking   
man2 if you were not of the profession  
,i would not allow my pen to write you  
this jeremiad4' ,as ,de ,maistre was    
accustomed to think himself happy if he 
got three hours' sound sleep in the     
night1 these sombre and terrible vigils 
were ample enough to excuse him if he   
had allowed them to overshadow all other
 things4 ,but the vigour of his         

intellect was too strenuous1 and his    
curiosity and interest in every object  
of knowledge too inextinguishable4      
',after all1' he said1 'the only thing  
to do is to put on a good face1 and to  
march to the place of torture with a few
 friends to console you on the way4     
,this is the charming image under which 
,i picture my present situation4 ,mark  
you1' he added1 ',i always count books  
among one's consoling friends4'  ,in one
 of the most gay and charming of his    
letters1 apologising to a lady for the  
remissness of his correspondence1 he    
explains that diplomacy and books occupy
 every moment4 ',you will admit1 madam1 
there is no possibility of one's        
shutting up books entirely4 ,nay1 more  
than ever1 ,i feel myself burning with  
the feverish thirst for knowledge4 ,i   
have had an access of it which ,i cannot
 describe to you4 ,the most curious     
books literally run after me1 and hurry 
voluntarily to place themselves in my   
hands4 ,as soon as diplomacy gives me a 

moment of breathing-time ,i rush        
headlong to that favourite pasture1 to  
that ambrosia of which the mind can     
never have enough--      ,et voil ce qui
 fait que votre ami est muet4'  ,he     
thinks himself happy if1 by refusing    
invitations to dinner1 he can pass a    
whole day without stirring from his     
house4 ',i read1 ,i write1 ,i study2 for
 after all one must know something4' ,in
 his hours of depression he fancied that
 he only read and worked1 not for the   
sake of the knowledge1 but to stupefy   
and tire himself out1 if that were      
possible4  ,as a student ,de ,maistre   
was indefatigable4 ,he never belonged to
 that languid band who hoped to learn   
difficult things by easy methods4 ,the  
only way1 he warned his son1 is to shut 
your door1 to say that you are not      
within1 and to work4 ',since they have  
set themselves to teach us how we ought 
to learn the dead languages1 you can    
find nobody who knows them2 and it is   
amusing enough that people who don't    

know them1 should be so obstinately bent
 on demonstrating the vices of the      
methods employed by us who do know      
them4' ,he was one of those wise and    
laborious students who do not read      
without a pen in their hands4 ,he never 
shrank from the useful toil of          
transcribing abundantly from all the    
books he read everything that could by  
any possibility eventually be of service
 to him in his inquiries4 ,his notebooks
 were enormous4 ,as soon as one of them 
was filled1 he carefully made up an     
index of its contents1 numbered it1 and 
placed it on a shelf with its           
unforgotten predecessors4 ,in one place 
he accidentally mentions that he had    
some thirty of these folios over the    
head of his writing-table4  ',if ,i am a
 pedant at home1' he said1 'at least ,i 
am as little as possible a pedant out of
 doors4' ,in the evening he would       
occasionally seek the society of ladies1
 by way of recovering some of that      
native gaiety of heart which had        

hitherto kept him alive4 ',i blow on    
this spark1' to use his own words1 'just
 as an old woman blows among the ashes  
to get a light for her lamp4' ,a student
 and a thinker1 ,de ,maistre was also a 
man of the world1 and he may be added to
 the long list of writers who have shown
 that to take an active part in public  
affairs and mix in society give a       
peculiar life1 reality1 and force to    
both scholarship and speculation4 ,it   
was computed at that time that the      
author of a philosophic piece could not 
safely count upon more than a hundred   
and fifty readers in ,russia2 and hence1
 we might be sure1 even if we had not   
,de ,maistre's word for it1 that away   
from his own house he left his          
philosophy behind4 ,the vehemence of his
 own convictions did not prevent him    
from being socially tolerant to others  
who hated them4 ',if ,i had the good    
fortune to be among his acquaintances1' 
he wrote of a heretical assailant1 'he  
would see that among the people with    

convictions it would be hard to find one
 so free from prejudice as ,i am4 ,i    
have many friends among the             
,protestants1 and now that their system 
is tottering1 they are all the dearer to
 me4' ,in spite of his scanty means1 his
 shabby valet1 his threadbare cloak1 and
 the humbleness of his diplomatic       
position1 the fire and honesty of his   
character combined with his known       
ability to place him high in the esteem 
of the society of ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,his
 fidelity1 devotion1 and fortitude1     
mellowed by many years and by meditative
 habits1 and tinged perhaps by the      
patrician consciousness of birth1 formed
 in him a modest dignity of manner which
 men respected4 ,they perceived it to be
 no artificial assumption1 but the      
outward image of a lofty and            
self-respecting spirit4 ,his brother    
diplomatists1 even the representatives  
of ,france1 appear to have treated him  
with marked consideration4 ,his letters 
prove him to have been a favourite among

 ladies4 ,the ,emperor ,alexander showed
 him considerable kindness of the cheap 
royal sort4 ,he conferred on his        
brother1 ,xavier de ,maistre1 a post in 
one of the public museums1 while to the 
,sardinian envoy's son he gave a        
commission in the ,russian service4     
,the first departure of this son for the
 campaign of #ahjg occasioned some of   
the most charming passages in ,de       
,maistre's letters1 both to the young   
soldier himself and to others4 ,for     
though without a touch of morbid        
expansiveness1 he never denied himself  
the solace of opening his heart to a    
trusted friend1 and a just reserve with 
strangers did not hinder a humane and   
manly confidence with intimates4 ',this 
morning1' he wrote to his stripling1    
soon after he had joined the army1 ',i  
felt a tightening at my heart when a pet
 dog came running in and jumped upon    
your bed1 where he finds you no more4   
,he soon perceived his mistake1 and said
 clearly enough1 after his own fashion3 

,i am mistaken2 where can he be then8   
,as for me ,i have felt all that you    
will feel1 if ever you pursue this      
mighty trade of being a father4' ,and   
then he begs of his son if he should    
find himself with a tape line in his    
hand1 that he will take his exact       
measure and forward it4 ,soon came the  
news of the battle of ,friedland1 and   
the unhappy father thought he read the  
fate of his son in the face of every    
acquaintance he met4 ,and so it was in  
later campaigns1 as ,de ,maistre records
 in correspondence that glows with      
tender and healthy solicitude4 ,all this
 is worth dwelling upon1 for two        
reasons4 ,first1 because ,de ,maistre   
has been too much regarded and spoken of
 as a man of cold sensibility1 and      
little moved by the hardships which fill
 the destiny of our unfortunate race4   
,and1 secondly1 because his own keen    
acquaintance with mental anguish helps  
us to understand the zeal with which he 
attempts to reconcile the blind cruelty 

and pain and torture endured by mortals 
with the benignity and wisdom of the    
immortal4 ',after all1' he used to say1 
'there are only two real evils--remorse 
and disease4' ,this is true enough for  
an apophthegm1 but as a matter of fact  
it never for an instant dulled his      
sensibility to far less supreme forms of
 agony than the recollection of         
irreparable pain struck into the lives  
of others4 ,it is interesting and       
suggestive to recall how a later        
publicist viewed the ills that dwarf our
 little lives4 ',if ,i were asked to    
class human miseries1' said             
,tocqueville1 ',i would do so in this   
order3 first1 ,disease2 second1 ,death2 
third1 ,doubt4' ,at a later date1 he    
altered the order1 and deliberately     
declared doubt to be the most           
insupportable of all evils1 worse than  
death itself4 ,but ,tocqueville was an  
aristocrat1 as ,guizot once told him1   
who accepted his defeat4 ,he stood on   
the brink of the great torrent of       

democracy1 and shivered4 ,de ,maistre   
was an aristocrat too1 but he was       
incapable of knowing what doubt or      
hesitation meant4 ,he never dreamt that 
his cause was lost1 and he mocked and   
defied the ,revolution to the end4 ,we  
easily see how natures of this sort1    
ardent1 impetuous1 unflinching1 find    
themselves in the triumphant paths that 
lead to remorse at their close1 and how 
they thus come to feel remorse rather   
than doubt as the consummate agony of   
the human mind4  ,having had this       
glimpse of ,de ,maistre's character away
 from his books1 we need not linger long
 over the remaining events of his life4 
,in #ahad his wife and two daughters    
joined him in the ,russian capital4 ,two
 years later an outburst of religious   
fanaticism caused the sudden expulsion  
of the ,jesuits from ,russia1 to ,de    
,maistre's deep mortification4 ,several 
conversions had taken place from the    
,orthodox to the ,western faith1 and    
these inflamed the ,orthodox party1     

headed by the ,prince de ,galitzin1 the 
minister of public worship1 with violent
 theological fury4 ,de ,maistre1 whose  
intense attachment to his own creed was 
well known1 fell under suspicion of     
having connived at these conversions1   
and the ,emperor himself went so far as 
to question him4 ',i told him1' ,de     
,maistre says1 'that ,i had never       
changed the faith of any of his         
subjects1 but that if any of them had by
 chance made me a sharer of their       
confidence1 neither honour nor          
conscience would have allowed me to tell
 them that they were wrong4' ,this kind 
of dialogue between a sovereign and an  
ambassador implied a situation plainly  
unfavourable to effective diplomacy4    
,the envoy obtained his recall1 and     
after twenty-five years' absence        
returned to his native country 7#ahag74 
,on his way home1 it may be noticed1 ,de
 ,maistre passed a few days in ,paris1  
and thus1 for the first and last time1  
one of the most eminent of modern       

,french writers found himself on ,french
 soil4  ,the king accorded ,de ,maistre 
an honourable reception1 conferred upon 
him a high office and a small sum of    
money1 and lent his ear to other        
counsellors4 ,the philosopher1 though   
insisting on declaring his political    
opinions1 then1 as ever1 unwaveringly   
anti-revolutionary1 threw himself mainly
 upon that literary composition which   
had been his solace in yet more evil    
days than these4 ,it was at this time   
that he gave to the world the supreme   
fruit of nearly half a century of study1
 meditation1 and contact with the world1
 in ,du ,pape1 ,les ,soires de ,saint   
,ptersbourg1 and ,l',eglise ,gallicane4 
,their author did not live long to enjoy
 the vast discussion which they         
occasioned1 nor the reputation that they
 have since conferred upon his name4 ,he
 died in ,february #ahba after such a   
life as we have seen4  ,,footnote3  #b  
,the facts of ,de ,maistre's life ,i    
have drawn from a very meagre biography 

by his son1 ,count ,rodolphe de         
,maistre1 supplemented by two volumes of
 ,lettres et ,opuscules 7,fourth        
edition4 ,paris3 ,vaton4 #ahfe71 and a  
volume of his ,diplomatic               
,correspondence1 edited by ,m4 ,albert  
,blanc4     ,,ii4   ,it is not at all   
surprising that they upon whom the      
revolutionary deluge came should have   
looked with indiscriminating horror and 
affright on all the influences which in 
their view had united first to gather   
up1 and then to release the destructive 
flood4 ,the eighteenth century to men   
like ,de ,maistre seemed an infamous    
parenthesis1 mysteriously interposed    
between the glorious age of ,bossuet and
 ,fnelon1 and that yet brighter era for 
faith and the ,church which was still to
 come in the good time of ,divine       
,providence4 ,the philosophy of the last
 century1 he says on more than one      
occasion1 will form one of the most     
shameful epochs of the human mind3 it   
never praised even good men except for  

what was bad in them4 ,he looked upon   
the gods whom that century had          
worshipped as the direct authors of the 
bloodshed and ruin in which their epoch 
had closed4 ,the memory of mild and     
humane philosophers was covered with the
 kind of black execration that prophets 
of old had hurled at ,baal or ,moloch2  
,locke and ,hume1 ,voltaire and         
,rousseau1 were habitually spoken of as 
very scourges of ,god4 ,from this temper
 two consequences naturally flowed4 ,in 
the first place1 while it lasted there  
was no hope of an honest philosophic    
discussion of the great questions which 
divide speculative minds4 ,moderation   
and impartiality were virtues of almost 
superhuman difficulty for               
controversialists who had made up their 
minds that it was their opponents who   
had erected the guillotine1 confiscated 
the sacred property of the church1      
slaughtered and banished her children1  
and filled the land with terror and     
confusion4 ,it is hard amid the smoking 

ruins of the homestead to do full       
justice to the theoretical arguments of 
the supposed authors of the             
conflagration4 ,hence ,de ,maistre1     
though1 as has been already said1       
intimately acquainted with the works of 
his foes in the letter1 was prevented by
 the vehemence of his antipathy to the  
effects which he attributed to them1    
from having any just critical estimate  
of their value and true spirit4 ',i do  
not know one of these men1' he says of  
the philosophers of the eighteenth      
century1 'to whom the sacred title of   
honest man is quite suitable4' ,they are
 all wanting in probity4 ,their very    
names 'me dchirent la bouche4' ,to      
admire ,voltaire is the sign of a       
corrupt soul2 and if anybody is drawn to
 the works of ,voltaire1 then be sure   
that ,god does not love such an one4    
,the divine anathema is written on the  
very face of this arch-blasphemer2 on   
his shameless brow1 in the two extinct  
craters still sparkling with sensuality 

and hate1 in that frightful rictus      
running from ear to ear1 in those lips  
tightened by cruel malice1 like a spring
 ready to fly back and launch forth     
blasphemy and sarcasm2 he plunges into  
the mud1 rolls in it1 drinks of it2 he  
surrenders his imagination to the       
enthusiasm of hell1 which lends him all 
its forces2 ,paris crowned him1 ,sodom  
would have banished him4#c ,locke1      
again1 did not understand himself4 ,his 
distinguishing characteristics are      
feebleness and precipitancy of judgment4
 ,vagueness and irresolution reign in   
his expressions as they do in his       
thoughts4 ,he constantly exhibits that  
most decisive sign of mediocrity--he    
passes close by the greatest questions  
without perceiving them4 ,in the study  
of philosophy1 contempt for ,locke is   
the beginning of knowledge4#d ,condillac
 was even more vigilantly than anybody  
else on his guard against his own       
conscience4 ,but ,hume was perhaps the  
most dangerous and the most guilty of   

all those mournful writers who will for 
ever accuse the last century before     
posterity--the one who employed the most
 talent with the most coolness to do    
most harm4#e ,to ,bacon ,de ,maistre    
paid the compliment of composing a long 
refutation of his main ideas1 in which  
,bacon's blindness1 presumption1        
profanity1 and scientific charlatanry   
are denounced in vehement and almost    
coarse terms1 and treated as the natural
 outcome of a low morality4  ,it has    
long been the inglorious speciality of  
the theological school to insist in this
 way upon moral depravity as an         
antecedent condition of intellectual    
error4 ,de ,maistre in this respect was 
not unworthy of his fellows4 ,he        
believed that his opponents were even   
worse citizens than they were bad       
philosophers1 and it was his horror of  
them in the former capacity that made   
him so bitter and resentful against them
 in the latter4 ,he could think of no   
more fitting image for opinions that he 

did not happen to believe than          
counterfeit money1 'which is struck in  
the first instance by great criminals1  
and is afterwards passed on by honest   
folk who perpetuate the crime without   
knowing what they do4' ,a philosopher of
 the highest class1 we may be sure1 does
 not permit himself to be drawn down    
from the true object of his meditations 
by these sinister emotions4 ,but ,de    
,maistre belonged emphatically to minds 
of the second order1 whose eagerness to 
find truth is never intense and pure    
enough to raise them above perturbing   
antipathies to persons4 ,his whole      
attitude was fatal to his claim to be   
heard as a truth-seeker in any right    
sense of the term4 ,he was not only     
persuaded of the general justice and    
inexpugnableness of the orthodox system1
 but he refused to believe that it was  
capable of being improved or            
supplemented by anything which a        
temperate and fair examination of other 
doctrines might peradventure be found to

 yield4 ,with ,de ,maistre there was no 
peradventure4 ,again1 no speculative    
mind of the highest order ever mistakes1
 or ever moves systematically apart     
from1 the main current of the social    
movement of its time4 ,it is implied in 
the very definition of a thinker of     
supreme quality that he should detect1  
and be in a certain accord with1 the    
most forward and central of the ruling  
tendencies of his epoch4 ,three-quarters
 of a century have elapsed since ,de    
,maistre was driven to attempt to       
explain the world to himself1 and this  
interval has sufficed to show that the  
central conditions at that time for the 
permanent reorganisation of the society 
which had just been so violently rent in
 pieces1 were assuredly not theological1
 military1 nor ultramontane1 but the    
very opposite of all these4  ,there was 
a second consequence of the conditions  
of the time4 ,the catastrophe of ,europe
 affected the matter as well as the     
manner of contemporary speculation4 ,the

 ,french ,revolution has become to us no
 more than a term1 though the strangest 
term in a historic series4 ,to some of  
the best of those who were confronted on
 every side by its tumult and agitation1
 it was the prevailing of the gates of  
hell1 the moral disruption of the       
universe1 the absolute and total        
surrender of the world to them that     
plough iniquity and sow wickedness4     
,even under ordinary circumstances few  
men have gone through life without      
encountering some triumphant iniquity1  
some gross and prolonged cruelty1 which 
makes them wonder how ,god should allow 
such things to be4 ,if we remember the  
aspect which the ,revolution wore in the
 eyes of those who seeing it yet did not
 understand1 we can imagine what        
dimensions this eternal enigma must have
 assumed in their sight4 ,it was        
inevitable that the first problem to    
press on men with resistless urgency    
should be the ancient question of the   
method of the ,creator's temporal       

government4 ,what is the law of the     
distribution of good and evil fortune8  
,how can we vindicate with regard to the
 conditions of this life1 the different 
destinies that fall to men8 ,how can we 
defend the moral ordering of a world in 
which the wicked and godless constantly 
triumph1 while the virtuous and upright 
who retain their integrity are as       
frequently buffeted and put to shame8   
,this tremendous question has never been
 presented with such sublimity of       
expression1 such noble simplicity and   
force of thought1 as in the majestic and
 touching legend of ,job4 ,but its      
completeness1 as a presentation of the  
human tragedy1 is impaired by the       
excessive prosperity which is finally   
supposed to reward the patient hero for 
his fortitude4 ,job received twice as   
much as he had before1 and his latter   
end was blessed more than his beginning4
 ,in the chronicles of actual history   
men fare not so4 ,there is a terribly   
logical finish about some of the        

dealings of fate1 and in life the       
working of a curse is seldom stayed by  
any dramatic necessity for a smooth     
consummation4 ,destiny is no artist4    
,the facts that confront us are         
relentless4 ,no statement of the case is
 adequate which maintains1 by ever so   
delicate an implication1 that in the    
long run and somehow it is well in      
temporal things with the just1 and ill  
with the unjust4 ,until we have firmly  
looked in the face the grim truth that  
temporal rewards and punishments do not 
follow the possession or the want of    
spiritual or moral virtue1 so long we   
are still ignorant what that enigma is1 
which speculative men1 from the author  
of the book of ,job downwards1 have     
striven to resolve4 ,we can readily     
imagine the fulness with which the      
question would grow up in the mind of a 
royalist and ,catholic exile at the end 
of the eighteenth century4  ,nothing can
 be more clearly put than ,de ,maistre's
 answers to the question which the      

circumstances of the time placed before 
him to solve4 ,what is the law of the   
distribution of good and evil fortune in
 this life8 ,is it a moral law8 ,do     
prosperity and adversity fall           
respectively to the just and the unjust1
 either individually or collectively8   
,has the ancient covenant been          
faithfully kept1 that whoso hearkens    
diligently to the divine voice1 and     
observes all the commandments to do     
them1 shall be blessed in his basket and
 his store and in all the work of his   
hand8 ,or is ,god a ,god that hideth    
himself8  ,de ,maistre perceived that   
the optimistic conception of the deity  
as benign1 merciful1 infinitely         
forgiving1 was very far indeed from     
covering the facts4 ,so he insisted on  
seeing in human destiny the ever-present
 hand of a stern and terrible judge1    
administering a ,draconian code with    
blind and pitiless severity4 ,god       
created men under conditions which left 
them free to choose between good and    

evil4 ,all the physical evil that exists
 in the world is a penalty for the moral
 evil that has resulted from the abuse  
by men of this freedom of choice4 ,for  
these physical calamities ,god is only  
responsible in the way in which a       
criminal judge is responsible for a     
hanging4 ,men cannot blame the judge for
 the gallows2 the fault is their own in 
committing those offences for which     
hanging is prescribed beforehand as the 
penalty4 ,these curses which dominate   
human life are not the result of the    
cruelty of the divine ruler1 but of the 
folly and wickedness of mankind1 who1   
seeing the better course1 yet           
deliberately choose the worse4 ,the     
order of the world is overthrown by the 
iniquities of men2 it is we who have    
provoked the exercise of the divine     
justice1 and called down the tokens of  
his vengeance4 ,the misery and disaster 
that surround us like a cloak are the   
penalty of our crimes and the price of  
our expiation4 ,as the divine ,st4      

,thomas has said3 ,deus est auctor mali 
quod est poena1 non autem mali quod est 
culpa4 ,there is a certain quantity of  
wrong done over the face of the world2  
therefore the great ,judge exacts a     
proportionate quantity of punishment4   
,the total amount of evil suffered makes
 nice equation with the total amount of 
evil done2 the extent of human suffering
 tallies precisely with the extent of   
human guilt4 ,of course you must take   
original sin into account1 'which       
explains all1 and without which you can 
explain nothing4' ',in virtue of this   
primitive degradation we are subject to 
all sorts of physical sufferings in     
general2 just as in virtue of this same 
degradation we are subject to all sorts 
of vices in general4 ,this original     
malady therefore which is the           
correlative of original sin has no other
 name4 ,it is only the capacity of      
suffering all evils1 as original sin is 
only the capacity of committing all     
crimes4'#f ,hence all calamity is either

 the punishment of sins actually        
committed by the sufferers1 or else it  
is the general penalty exacted for      
general sinfulness4 ,sometimes an       
innocent being is stricken1 and a guilty
 being appears to escape4 ,but is it not
 the same in the transactions of earthly
 tribunals8 ,and yet we do not say that 
they are conducted without regard to    
justice and righteousness4 ',when ,god  
punishes any society for the crimes that
 it has committed1 he does justice as we
 do justice ourselves in these sorts of 
circumstance4 ,a city revolts2 it       
massacres the representatives of the    
sovereign2 it shuts its gates against   
him2 it defends itself against his arms2
 it is taken4 ,the prince has it        
dismantled and deprived of all its      
privileges2 nobody will find fault with 
this decision on the ground that there  
are innocent persons shut up in the     
city4'#g  ,de ,maistre's deity is thus a
 colossal ,septembriseur1 enthroned high
 in the peaceful heavens1 demanding     

ever-renewed holocausts in the name of  
the public safety4  ,it is true1 as a   
general rule of the human mind1 that the
 objects which men have worshipped have 
improved in morality and wisdom as men  
themselves have improved4 ,the quiet    
gods1 without effort of their own1 have 
grown holier and purer by the agitations
 and toil which civilise their          
worshippers4 ,in other words1 the same  
influences which elevate and widen our  
sense of human duty give corresponding  
height and nobleness to our ideas of the
 divine character4 ,the history of the  
civilisation of the earth is the history
 of the civilisation of ,olympus also4  
,it will be seen that the deity whom ,de
 ,maistre sets up is below the moral    
level of the time in respect of         
,punishment4 ,in intellectual matters he
 vehemently proclaimed the superiority  
of the tenth or the twelfth over the    
eighteenth century1 but it is surely    
carrying admiration for those loyal     
times indecently far1 to seek in the    

vindictive sackings of revolted towns1  
and the miscellaneous butcheries of men1
 women1 and babes1 which then marked the
 vengeance of outraged sovereignty1 the 
most apt parallel and analogy for the   
systematic administration of human      
society by its ,creator4 ,such          
punishment can no longer be regarded as 
moral in any deep or permanent sense2 it
 implies a gross1 harsh1 and revengeful 
character in the executioner1 that is   
eminently perplexing and incredible to  
those who expect to find an idea of     
justice in the government of the world1 
at least not materially below what is   
attained in the clumsy efforts of       
uninspired publicists4  ,in mere point  
of administration1 the criminal code    
which ,de ,maistre put into the hands of
 the ,supreme ,being works in a more    
arbitrary and capricious manner than any
 device of an ,italian ,bourbon4 ,as    
,voltaire asks--      ,lisbonne1 qui    
n'est plus1 eut-elle plus de vices      
,que ,londres1 que ,paris1 plongs dans  

les dlices8     ,lisbonne est abme1 et  
l'on danse  ,paris4   ,stay1 ,de        
,maistre replies1 look at ,paris thirty 
years later1 not dancing1 but red with  
blood4 ,this kind of thing is often     
said1 even now2 but it is really time to
 abandon the prostitution of the name of
 ,justice to a process which brings     
,lewis ,,xvi4 to the block1 and consigns
 ,de ,maistre to poverty and exile1     
because ,lewis ,,xiv41 the ,regent1 and 
,lewis ,,xv4 had been profligate men or 
injudicious rulers4 ,the reader may     
remember how the unhappy ,emperor       
,maurice as his five innocent sons were 
in turn murdered before his eyes1 at    
each stroke piously ejaculated3 ',thou  
art just1 ,o ,lord6 and thy judgments   
are righteous4'#h ,any name would befit 
this kind of transaction better than    
that which1 in the dealings of men with 
one another at least1 we reserve for the
 honourable anxiety that he should reap 
who has sown1 that the reward should be 
to him who has toiled for it1 and the   

pain to him who has deliberately        
incurred it4 ,what is gained by         
attributing to the divine government a  
method tainted with every quality that  
could vitiate the enactment of penalties
 by a temporal sovereign8  ,we need not 
labour this part of the discussion      
further4 ,though conducted with much    
brilliance and vigour by ,de ,maistre1  
it is not his most important nor        
remarkable contribution to thought4     
,before passing on to that1 it is worth 
while to make one remark4 ,it will be   
inferred from ,de ,maistre's general    
position that he was no friend to       
physical science4 ,just as moderns see  
in the advance of the methods and       
boundaries of physical knowledge the    
most direct and sure means of displacing
 the unfruitful subjective methods of   
old1 and so of renovating the entire    
field of human thought and activity1 so 
did ,de ,maistre see1 as his school has 
seen since1 that here was the stronghold
 of his foes4 ',ah1 how dearly1' he     

exclaimed1 'has man paid for the natural
 sciences6' ,not but that ,providence   
designed that man should know something 
about them2 only it must be in due      
order4 ,the ancients were not permitted 
to attain to much or even any sound     
knowledge of physics1 indisputably above
 us as they were in force of mind1 a    
fact shown by the superiority of their  
languages which ought to silence for    
ever the voice of our modern pride4 ,why
 did the ancients remain so ignorant of 
natural science8 ,because they were not 
,christian4 ',when all ,europe was      
,christian1 when the priests were the   
universal teachers1 when all the        
establishments of ,europe were          
,christianised1 when theology had taken 
its place at the head of all            
instruction1 and the other faculties    
were ranged around her like maids of    
honour round their queen1 the human race
 being thus prepared1 then the natural  
sciences were given to it4' ,science    
must be kept in its place1 for it       

resembles fire which1 when confined in  
the grates prepared for it1 is the most 
useful and powerful of man's servants2  
scattered about anyhow1 it is the most  
terrible of scourges4 ,whence the marked
 supremacy of the seventeenth century1  
especially in ,france8 ,from the happy  
accord of religion1 science1 and        
chivalry1 and from the supremacy        
conceded to the first4 ,the more perfect
 theology is in a country the more      
fruitful it is in true science2 and that
 is why ,christian nations have         
surpassed all others in the sciences1   
and that is why the ,indians and        
,chinese will never reach us1 so long as
 we remain respectively as we are4 ,the 
more theology is cultivated1 honoured1  
and supreme1 then1 other things being   
equal1 the more perfect will human      
science be3 that is to say1 it will have
 the greater force and expansion1 and   
will be the more free from every        
mischievous and perilous connection4#i  
,little would be gained here by serious 

criticism of a view of this kind from a 
positive point4 ,how little1 the reader 
will understand from ,de ,maistre's own 
explanations of his principles of ,proof
 and ,evidence4 ',they have called to   
witness against ,moses1' he says1       
'history1 chronology1 astronomy1        
geology1 etc4 ,the objections have      
disappeared before true science2 but    
those were profoundly wise who despised 
them before any inquiry1 or who only    
examined them in order to discover a    
refutation1 but without ever doubting   
that there was one4 ,even a mathematical
 objection ought to be despised1 for    
though it may be a demonstrated truth1  
still you will never be able to         
demonstrate that it contradicts a truth 
that has been demonstrated before4' ,his
 final formula he boldly announced in   
these words3 ',que toutes les fois      
qu'une proposition sera prouve par le   
genre de preuve qui lui appartient1     
l'objection quelconque1 ,m,,me          
,,insoluble1 ne doit plus tre coute4'   

,suppose1 for example1 that by a        
consensus of testimony it were perfectly
 proved that ,archimedes set fire to the
 fleet of ,marcellus by a burning-glass2
 then all the objections of geometry    
disappear4 ,prove if you can1 and if you
 choose1 that by certain laws a glass1  
in order to be capable of setting fire  
to the ,roman fleet1 must have been as  
big as the whole city of ,syracuse1 and 
ask me what answer ,i have to make to   
that4 ',j'ai  vous rpondre qu',archimde 
brla la flotte romaine avec un miroir   
ardent4'  ,the interesting thing about  
such opinions as these is not the exact 
height and depth of their falseness1 but
 the considerations which could         
recommend them to a man of so much      
knowledge1 both of books and of the     
outer facts of life1 and of so much     
natural acuteness as ,de ,maistre4      
,persons who have accustomed themselves 
to ascertained methods of proof1 are apt
 to look on a man who vows that if a    
thing has been declared true by some    

authority whom he respects1 then that   
constitutes proof to him1 as either the 
victim of a preposterous and barely     
credible infatuation1 or else as a flat 
impostor4 ,yet ,de ,maistre was no      
ignorant monk4 ,he had no selfish or    
official interest in taking away the    
keys of knowledge1 entering not in      
himself1 and them that would enter in   
hindering4 ,the true reasons for his    
detestation of the eighteenth-century   
philosophers1 science1 and literature1  
are simple enough4 ,like every wise man1
 he felt that the end of all philosophy 
and science is emphatically social1 the 
construction and maintenance and        
improvement of a fabric under which the 
communities of men may find shelter1 and
 may secure all the conditions for      
living their lives with dignity and     
service4 ,then he held that no truth can
 be harmful to society4 ,if he found any
 system of opinions1 any given attitude 
of the mind1 injurious to tranquillity  
and the public order1 he instantly      

concluded that1 however plausible they  
might seem when tested by logic and     
demonstration1 they were fundamentally  
untrue and deceptive4 ,what is logic    
compared with eternal salvation in the  
next world1 and the practice of virtue  
in this8 ,the recommendation of such a  
mind as ,de ,maistre's is the intensity 
of its appreciation of order and social 
happiness4 ,the obvious weakness of such
 a mind1 and the curse inherent in its  
influence1 is that it overlooks the     
prime condition of all2 that social     
order can never be established on a     
durable basis so long as the discoveries
 of scientific truth in all its         
departments are suppressed1 or          
incorrectly appreciated1 or socially    
misapplied4 ,de ,maistre did not        
perceive that the cause which he        
supported was no longer the cause of    
peace and tranquillity and right living1
 but was in a state of absolute and     
final decomposition1 and therefore was  
the cause of disorder and blind wrong   

living4 ,of this we shall now see more4 
,,footnotes3  #c ,soires de ,saint      
,ptersbourg 7#hth ed4 #ahfb71 vol4 i4   
pp4 #bch-bdc4  #d ,soires de ,saint     
,ptersbourg1 #f;ime entretien1 i4       
#cig-ddb4  #e ,ib4 7#hth ed4 #ahfb7 vol4
 i4 p4 #djc4  #f ,soires1 i4 #gf  #g ,de
 ,maistre found a curiously             
characteristic kind of support for this 
view in the fact that evils are called  
flaux3 flails are things to beat with3  
so evils must be things with which men  
are beaten2 and as we should not be     
beaten if we did not deserve it1 argal1 
suffering is a merited punishment4      
,apart from that common infirmity which 
leads people after they have discovered 
an analogy between two things1 to argue 
from the properties of the one to those 
of the other1 as if1 instead of being   
analogous1 they were identical1 ,de     
,maistre was particularly fond of       
inferring moral truths from etymologies4
 ,he has an argument for the            
deterioration of man1 drawn from the    

fact that the ,romans expressed in the  
same word1 supplicium1 the two ideas of 
prayer and punishment 7,soires1 #b;ime  
entretien1 i4 p4 #ajh74 ,his profundity 
as an etymologist may be gathered from  
his analysis of cadaver3 ca-ro1 da-ta1  
ver-mibus4 ,there are many others of the
 same quality4  #h ,gibbon1 c4 xlvi4    
vol4 v4 #che4  #i ,see the ,examen de la
 ,philosophie de ,bacon1 vol4 ii4 #eh et
 seq4     ,,iii4   ,when the waters of  
the deluge of '#hi began to assuage1 the
 best minds soon satisfied themselves   
that the event which ,bonaparte's       
restoration of order enabled them to    
look back upon with a certain           
tranquillity and a certain completeness1
 had been neither more nor less than a  
new irruption of barbarians into the    
,european world4 ,the monarchy1 the     
nobles1 and the ,church1 with all the   
ideas that gave each of them life and   
power1 had fallen before atheists and   
,jacobins1 as the ancient empire of     
,rome had fallen before ,huns and       

,goths1 ,vandals and ,lombards4 ,the    
leaders of the revolution had succeeded 
one another1 as ,attila had come after  
,alaric1 and as ,genseric had been      
followed by ,odoacer4 ,the problem which
 presented itself was not new in the    
history of western civilisation2 the    
same dissolution of old bonds which     
perplexed the foremost men at the       
beginning of the nineteenth century1 had
 distracted their predecessors from the 
fifth to the eighth1 though their       
conditions and circumstances were widely
 different4 ,the practical question in  
both cases was just the same--how to    
establish a stable social order which1  
resting on principles that should       
command the assent of all1 might secure 
the co-operation of all for its         
harmonious and efficient maintenance1   
and might offer a firm basis for the    
highest and best life that the moral and
 intellectual state of the time allowed4
 ,there were two courses open1 or which 
seemed to be open1 in this gigantic     

enterprise of reconstructing a society4 
,one of them was to treat the case of   
the eighteenth century as if it were not
 merely similar to1 but exactly         
identical with1 the case of the fifth1  
and as if exactly the same forces which 
had knit ,western ,europe together into 
a compact civilisation a thousand years 
before1 would again suffice for a second
 consolidation4 ,christianity1 rising   
with the zeal and strength of youth out 
of the ruins of the ,empire1 and        
feudalism by the need of                
self-preservation imposing a form upon  
the unshapen associations of the        
barbarians1 had between them compacted  
the foundations and reared the fabric of
 medival life4 ,why1 many men asked     
themselves1 should not ,christian and   
feudal ideas repeat their great         
achievement1 and be the means of        
reorganising the system which a blind   
rebellion against them had thrown into  
deplorable and fatal confusion8 ,let the
 century which had come to such an end  

be regarded as a mysteriously           
intercalated episode1 and no more1 in   
the long drama of faith and sovereign   
order4 ,let it pass as a sombre and     
pestilent stream1 whose fountains no man
 should discover1 whose waters had for a
 season mingled with the mightier       
current of the divinely allotted destiny
 of the race1 and had then gathered     
themselves apart and flowed off1 to end 
as they had begun1 in the stagnation and
 barrenness of the desert4 ,philosophers
 and men of letters1 astronomers and    
chemists1 atheists and republicans1 had 
shown that they were only powerful to   
destroy1 as the ,goths and the ,vandals 
had been4 ,they had shown that they were
 impotent1 as the ,goths and the        
,vandals had been1 in building up again4
 ,let men turn their faces1 then1 once  
more to that system by which in the     
ancient times ,europe had been delivered
 from a relapse into eternal night4     
,the second course was very different   
from this4 ,the minds to whom it        

commended itself were cast in a         
different mould and drew their          
inspiration from other traditions4 ,in  
their view the system which the ,church 
had been the main agency in organising1 
had fallen quite as much from its own   
irremediable weakness as from the direct
 onslaughts of assailants within and    
without4 ,the barbarians had rushed in1 
it was true1 in #agic2 but this time it 
was the ,church and feudalism which were
 in the position of the old empire on   
whose ruins they had built4 ,what had   
once restored order and belief to the   
,west1 was now in its own turn overtaken
 by decay and dissolution4 ,to look to  
them to unite these new barbarians in a 
stable and vigorous civilisation1       
because they had organised ,europe of   
old1 was as infatuated as it would have 
been to expect the later emperors to    
equal the exploits of the ,republic and 
their greatest predecessors in the      
purple4 ,to despise philosophers and men
 of science was only to play over again 

in a new dress the very part which      
,julian had enacted in the face of      
nascent ,christianity4 ,the eighteenth  
century1 instead of being that home of  
malaria which the ,catholic and         
,royalist party represented1 was in     
truth the seed-ground of a new and      
better future4 ,its ideas were to       
furnish the material and the implements 
by which should be repaired the terrible
 breaches and chasms in ,european order 
that had been made alike by despots and 
,jacobins1 by priests and atheists1 by  
aristocrats and sans-culottes4 ,amidst  
all the demolition upon which its       
leading minds had been so zealously     
bent1 they had been animated by the     
warmest love of social justice1 of human
 freedom1 of equal rights1 and by the   
most fervent and sincere longing to make
 a nobler happiness more universally    
attainable by all the children of men4  
,it was to these great principles that  
we ought eagerly to turn1 to liberty1 to
 equality1 to brotherhood1 if we wished 

to achieve before the new invaders a    
work of civilisation and social         
reconstruction1 such as ,catholicism and
 feudalism had achieved for the         
multitudinous invaders of old4  ,such   
was the difference which divided opinion
 when men took heart to survey the      
appalling scene of moral desolation that
 the cataclysm of '#ic had left behind4 
,we may admire the courage of either    
school4 ,for if the conscience of the   
,liberals was oppressed by the          
sanguinary tragedy in which freedom and 
brotherhood and justice had been        
consummated1 the ,catholic and the      
,royalist were just as sorely burdened  
with the weight of kingly basenesses and
 priestly hypocrisies4 ,if the one had  
some difficulty in interpreting         
,jacobinism and the ,terror1 the other  
was still more severely pressed to      
interpret the fact and origin and       
meaning of the ,revolution2 if the      
,liberal had ,marat and ,hbert1 the     
,royalist had ,lewis ,,xv41 and the     

,catholic had ,dubois and ,de ,rohan4   
,each school could intrepidly hurl back 
the taunts of its enemy1 and neither of 
them did full justice to the strong side
 of the other4 ,yet we who are1 in      
,england at all events1 removed a little
 aside from the centre of this great    
battle1 may perceive that at that time  
both of the contending hosts fought     
under honourable banners1 and could     
inscribe upon their shields a rational  
and intelligible device4 ,indeed1 unless
 the modern ,liberal admits the strength
 inherent in the cause of his enemies1  
it is impossible for him to explain to  
himself the duration and obstinacy of   
the conflict1 the slow advance and      
occasional repulse of the host in which 
he has enlisted1 and the tardy progress 
that ,liberalism has made in that       
stupendous reconstruction which the     
,revolution has forced the modern       
political thinker to meditate upon1 and 
the modern statesman to further and     
control4  ,de ,maistre1 from those      

general ideas as to the method of the   
government of the world1 of which we    
have already seen something1 had formed 
what he conceived to be a perfectly     
satisfactory way of accounting for the  
eighteenth century and its terrific     
climax4 ,the will of man is left free2  
he acts contrary to the will of ,god2   
and then ,god exacts the shedding of    
blood as the penalty4 ,so much for the  
past4 ,the only hope of the future lay  
in an immediate return to the system    
which ,god himself had established1 and 
in the restoration of that spiritual    
power which had presided over the       
reconstruction of ,europe in darker and 
more chaotic times than even these4     
,though1 perhaps1 he nowhere expresses  
himself on this point in a distinct     
formula1 ,de ,maistre was firmly        
impressed with the idea of historic     
unity and continuity4 ,he looked upon   
the history of the ,west in its         
integrity1 and was entirely free from   
anything like that disastrous kind of   

misconception which makes the ,english  
,protestant treat the long period       
between ,st4 ,paul and ,martin ,luther  
as a howling waste1 or which makes some 
,americans omit from all account the    
still longer period of human effort from
 the crucifixion of ,christ to the      
,declaration of ,independence4 ,the rise
 of the vast structure of ,western      
civilisation during and after the       
dissolution of the ,empire1 presented   
itself to his mind as a single and      
uniform process1 though marked in       
portions by temporary1 casual1          
parenthetical interruptions1 due to     
depraved will and disordered pride4 ,all
 the dangers to which this civilisation 
had been exposed in its infancy and     
growth were before his eyes4 ,first1    
there were the heresies with which the  
subtle and debased ingenuity of the     
,greeks had stained and distorted the   
great but simple mysteries of the faith4
 ,then came the hordes of invaders from 
the ,north1 sweeping with irresistible  

force over regions that the weakness or 
cowardice of the wearers of the purple  
left defenceless before them4 ,before   
the northern tribes had settled in their
 possessions1 and had full time to      
assimilate the faith and the            
institutions which they had found there1
 the growing organisation was menaced by
 a more deadly peril in the incessant   
and steady advance of the bloody and    
fanatical tribes from the ,east4 ,and in
 this way ,de ,maistre's mind continued 
the picture down to the latest days of  
all1 when there had arisen men who1     
denying ,god and mocking at ,christ1    
were bent on the destruction of the very
 foundations of society1 and had nothing
 better to offer the human race than a  
miserable return to a state of nature4  
,as he thus reproduced this long drama1 
one benign and central figure was ever  
present1 changeless in the midst of     
ceaseless change2 laboriously building  
up with preterhuman patience and        
preterhuman sagacity1 when other powers1

 one after another in evil succession1  
were madly raging to destroy and to pull
 down2 thinking only of the great       
interests of order and civilisation1 of 
which it had been constituted the       
eternal protector1 and showing its      
divine origin and inspiration alike by  
its unfailing wisdom and its unfailing  
benevolence4 ,it is the ,sovereign      
,pontiff who thus stands forth          
throughout the history of ,europe1 as   
the great ,demiurgus of universal       
civilisation4 ,if the ,pope had filled  
only such a position as the ,patriarch  
held at ,constantinople1 or if there had
 been no ,pope1 and ,christianity had   
depended exclusively on the ,east for   
its propagation1 with no great spiritual
 organ in the ,west1 what would have    
become of ,western development8 ,it was 
the energy and resolution of the        
,pontiffs which resisted the heresies of
 the ,east1 and preserved to the        
,christian religion that plainness and  
intelligibility1 without which it would 

never have made a way to the rude       
understanding and simple hearts of the  
barbarians from the ,north4 ,it was     
their wise patriotism which protected   
,italy against ,greek oppression1 and by
 acting the part of mayors of the palace
 to the decrepit ,eastern emperors1 it  
was they who contrived to preserve the  
independence and maintain the fabric of 
society until the appearance of the     
,carlovingians1 in whom1 with the rapid 
instinct of true statesmen1 they at once
 recognised the founders of a new empire
 of the ,west4 ,if the ,popes1 again1   
had possessed over the ,eastern empire  
the same authority that they had over   
the ,western1 they would have repulsed  
not only the ,saracens1 but the ,turks  
too1 and none of the evils which these  
nations have inflicted on us would ever 
have taken place4#aj ,even as it was1   
when the ,saracens threatened the ,west1
 the ,popes were the chief agents in    
organising resistance1 and giving spirit
 and animation to the defenders of      

,europe4 ,their alert vision saw that to
 crush for ever that formidable enemy1  
it was not enough to defend ourselves   
against his assaults2 we must attack him
 at home4 ,the ,crusades1 vulgarly      
treated as the wars of a blind and      
superstitious piety1 were in truth wars 
of high policy4 ,from the ,council of   
,clermont down to the famous day of     
,lepanto1 the hand and spirit of the    
,pontiff were to be traced in every part
 of that tremendous struggle which      
prevented ,europe from being handed over
 to the tyranny1 ignorance1 and         
barbarism that have always been the     
inevitable fruits of ,mahometan         
conquest1 and had already stamped out   
civilisation in ,asia ,minor and        
,palestine and ,greece1 once the very   
garden of the universe4  ,this admirable
 and politic heroism of the ,popes in   
the face of foes pressing from without1 
,de ,maistre found more than equalled by
 their wisdom1 courage1 and activity in 
organising and developing the elements  

of a civilised system within4 ,the maxim
 of old societies had been that which   
,lucan puts into the mouth of           
,csar--humanum paucis vivit genus4 ,a   
vast population of slaves had been one  
of the inevitable social conditions of  
the period3 the ,popes never rested from
 their endeavours to banish servitude   
from among ,christian nations4 ,women in
 old societies had filled a mean and    
degraded place3 it was reserved for the 
new spiritual power to rescue the race  
from that vicious circle in which men   
had debased the nature of women1 and    
women had given back all the weakness   
and perversity they had received from   
men1 and to perceive that 'the most     
effectual way of perfecting the man is  
to ennoble and exalt the woman4' ,the   
organisation of the priesthood1 again1  
was a masterpiece of practical wisdom4  
,such an order1 removed from the fierce 
or selfish interests of ordinary life by
 the holy regulation of celibacy1 and by
 the austere discipline of the ,church1 

was indispensable in the midst of such a
 society as that which it was the       
function of the ,church to guide4 ,who  
but the members of an order thus set    
apart1 acting in strict subordination to
 the central power1 and so presenting a 
front of unbroken spiritual unity1 could
 have held their way among tumultuous   
tribes1 half-barbarous nobles1 and proud
 and unruly kings1 protesting against   
wrong1 passionately inculcating new and 
higher ideas of right1 denouncing the   
darkness of the false gods1 calling on  
all men to worship the cross and adore  
the mysteries of the true ,god8 ,compare
 now the impotency of the ,protestant   
missionary1 squatting in gross comfort  
with wife and babes among the savages he
 has come to convert1 preaching a       
disputatious doctrine1 wrangling openly 
with the rival sent by some other       
sect--compare this impotency with the   
success that follows the devoted sons of
 the ,church1 impressing their          
proselytes with the mysterious virtue of

 their continence1 the self-denial of   
their lives1 the unity of their dogma   
and their rites2 and then recognise the 
wisdom of these great churchmen who     
created a priesthood after this manner  
in the days when every priest was as the
 missionary is now4 ,finally1 it was the
 occupants of the holy chair who        
prepared1 softened1 one might almost say
 sweetened1 the occupants of thrones2 it
 was to them that ,providence had       
confided the education of the sovereigns
 of ,europe4 ,the ,popes brought up the 
youth of the ,european monarchy2 they   
made it precisely in the same way in    
which ,fnelon made the ,duke of         
,burgundy4 ,in each case the task       
consisted in eradicating from a fine    
character an element of ferocity that   
would have ruined all4 ',everything that
 constrains a man strengthens him4 ,he  
cannot obey without perfecting himself2 
and by the mere fact of overcoming      
himself he is better4 ,any man will     
vanquish the most violent passion at    

thirty1 because at five or six you have 
taught him of his own will to give up a 
plaything or a sweetmeat4 ,that came to 
pass to the monarchy1 which happens to  
an individual who has been well brought 
up4 ,the continued efforts of the       
,church1 directed by the ,sovereign     
,pontiff1 did what had never been seen  
before1 and what will never be seen     
again where that authority is not       
recognised4 ,insensibly1 without threats
 or laws or battles1 without violence   
and without resistance1 the great       
,european charter was proclaimed1 not on
 paper nor by the voice of public       
criers2 but in all ,european hearts1    
then all ,catholic ,kings surrender the 
power of judging by themselves1 and     
nations in return declare kings         
infallible and inviolable4 ,such is the 
fundamental law of the ,european        
monarchy1 and it is the work of the     
,popes4'#aa  ,all this1 however1 is only
 the external development of ,de        
,maistre's central idea1 the historical 

corroboration of a truth to which he    
conducts us in the first instance by    
general considerations4 ,assuming1 what 
it is less and less characteristic of   
the present century at any rate to deny1
 that ,christianity was the only actual 
force by which the regeneration of      
,europe could be effected after the     
decline of the ,roman civilisation1 he  
insists that1 as he again and again     
expresses it1 'without the ,pope there  
is no veritable ,christianity4' ,what he
 meant by this condensed form needs a   
little explanation1 as is always the    
case with such simple statements of the 
products of long and complex reasoning4 
,in saying that without the ,pope there 
is no true ,christianity1 what he       
considered himself as having established
 was1 that unless there be some supreme 
and independent possessor of authority  
to settle doctrine1 to regulate         
discipline1 to give authentic counsel1  
to apply accepted principles to disputed
 cases1 then there can be no such thing 

as a religious system which shall have  
power to bind the members of a vast and 
not homogeneous body in the salutary    
bonds of a common civilisation1 nor to  
guide and inform an universal           
conscience4 ,in each individual state   
everybody admits the absolute necessity 
of having some sovereign power which    
shall make1 declare1 and administer the 
laws1 and from whose action in any one  
of these aspects there shall be no      
appeal2 a power that shall be strong    
enough to protect the rights and enforce
 the duties which it has authoritatively
 proclaimed and enjoined4 ,in free      
,england1 as in despotic ,turkey1 the   
privileges and obligations which the law
 tolerates or imposes1 and all the      
benefits which their existence confers  
on the community1 are the creatures and 
conditions of a supreme authority from  
which there is no appeal1 whether the   
instrument by which this authority makes
 its will known be an act of parliament 
or a ukase4 ,this conception of temporal

 sovereignty1 especially familiarised to
 our generation by the teaching of      
,austin1 was carried by ,de ,maistre    
into discussions upon the limits of the 
,papal power with great ingenuity and   
force1 and1 if we accept the premisses1 
with great success4  ,it should be said 
here1 that throughout his book on the   
,pope1 ,de ,maistre talks of            
,christianity exclusively as a statesman
 or a publicist would talk about it2 not
 theologically nor spiritually1 but     
politically and socially4 ,the question 
with which he concerns himself is the   
utilisation of ,christianity as a force 
to shape and organise a system of       
civilised societies2 a study of the     
conditions under which this utilisation 
had taken place in the earlier centuries
 of the era2 and a deduction from them  
of the conditions under which we might  
ensure a repetition of the process in   
changed modern circumstance4 ,in the    
eighteenth century men were accustomed  
to ask of ,christianity1 as ,protestants

 always ask of so much of ,catholicism  
as they have dropped1 whether or no it  
is true4 ,but after the ,revolution the 
question changed1 and became an inquiry 
whether and how ,christianity could     
contribute to the reconstruction of     
society4 ,people asked less how true it 
was1 than how strong it was2 less how   
many unquestioned dogmas1 than how much 
social weight it had or could develop2  
less as to the precise amount and form  
of belief that would save a soul1 than  
as to the way in which it might be      
expected to assist the ,european        
community4  ,it was the strength of this
 temper in him which led to his         
extraordinary detestation and contempt  
for the ,greeks4 ,their turn for pure   
speculation excited all his anger4 ,in a
 curious chapter1 he exhausts invective 
in denouncing them4#ab ,the sarcasm of  
,sallust delights him1 that the actions 
of ,greece were very fine1 verum        
aliquanto minores quam fama feruntur4   
,their military glory was only a flash  

of about a hundred and fourteen years   
from ,marathon2 compare this with the   
prolonged splendour of ,rome1 ,france1  
and ,england4 ,in philosophy they       
displayed decent talent1 but even here  
their true merit is to have brought the 
wisdom of ,asia into ,europe1 for they  
invented nothing4 ,greece was the home  
of syllogism and of unreason4 ',read    
,plato3 at every page you will draw a   
striking distinction4 ,as often as he is
 ,greek1 he wearies you4 ,he is only    
great1 sublime1 penetrating1 when he is 
a theologian2 in other words1 when he is
 announcing positive and everlasting    
dogmas1 free from all quibble1 and which
 are so clearly marked with the eastern 
cast1 that not to perceive it one must  
never have had a glimpse of ,asia4444   
,there was in him a sophist and a       
theologian1 or1 if you choose1 a ,greek 
and a ,chaldean4' ,the ,athenians could 
never pardon one of their great leaders1
 all of whom fell victims in one shape  
or another to a temper frivolous as that

 of a child1 ferocious as that of       
men1--'espce de moutons enrags1 toujours
 mens par la nature1 et toujours par    
nature dvorant leurs bergers4' ,as for  
their oratory1 'the tribune of ,athens  
would have been the disgrace of mankind 
if ,phocion and men like him1 by        
occasionally ascending it before        
drinking the hemlock or setting out for 
their place of exile1 had not in some   
sort balanced such a mass of loquacity1 
extravagance1 and cruelty4'#ac  ,it is  
very important to remember this constant
 solicitude for ideas that should work  
well1 in connection with that book of   
,de ,maistre's which has had most       
influence in ,europe1 by supplying a    
base for the theories of ultramontanism4
 ,unless we perceive very clearly that  
throughout his ardent speculations on   
the ,papal power his mind was bent upon 
enforcing the practical solution of a   
pressing social problem1 we easily      
misunderstand him and underrate what he 
had to say4 ,a charge has been forcibly 

urged against him by an eminent ,english
 critic1 for example1 that he has       
confounded supremacy with infallibility1
 than which1 as the writer truly says1  
no two ideas can be more perfectly      
distinct1 one being superiority of      
force1 and the other incapacity of      
error4#ad ,de ,maistre made logical     
blunders in abundance quite as bad as   
this1 but he was too acute1 ,i think1   
deliberately to erect so elaborate a    
structure upon a confusion so very      
obvious1 and that must have stared him  
in the face from the first page of his  
work to the last4 ,if we look upon his  
book as a mere general defence of the   
,papacy1 designed to investigate and    
fortify all its pretensions one by one1 
we should have great right to complain  
against having two claims so essentially
 divergent1 treated as though they were 
the same thing1 or could be held in     
their places by the same supports4 ,but 
let us regard the treatise on the ,pope 
not as meant to convince free-thinkers  

or ,protestants that divine grace       
inspires every decree of the ,holy      
,father1 though that would have been the
 right view of it if it had been written
 fifty years earlier4 ,it was composed  
within the first twenty years of the    
present century1 when the universe1 to  
men of ,de ,maistre's stamp1 seemed once
 more without form and void4 ,his       
object1 as he tells us more than once1  
was to find a way of restoring a        
religion and a morality in ,europe2 of  
giving to truth the forces demanded for 
the conquests that she was meditating2  
of strengthening the thrones of         
sovereigns1 and of gently calming that  
general fermentation of spirit which    
threatened mightier evils than any that 
had yet overwhelmed society4 ,from this 
point of view we shall see that the     
distinction between supremacy and       
infallibility was not worth recognising4
  ,practically1 he says1 'infallibility 
is only a consequence of supremacy1 or  
rather it is absolutely the same thing  

under two different names4444 ,in effect
 it is the same thing1 in practice1 not 
to be subject to error1 and not to be   
liable to be accused of it4 ,thus1 even 
if we should agree that no divine       
promise was made to the ,pope1 he would 
not be less infallible or deemed so1 as 
the final tribunal2 for every judgment  
from which you cannot appeal is and must
 be 7est et doit tre7 held for just in  
every human association1 under any      
imaginable form of government2 and every
 true statesman will understand me      
perfectly1 when ,i say that the point is
 to ascertain not only if the ,sovereign
 ,pontiff is1 but if he must be1        
infallible4'#ae ,in another place he    
says distinctly enough that the         
infallibility of the ,church has two    
aspects2 in one of them it is the object
 of divine promise1 in the other it is a
 human implication1 and that in the     
latter aspect infallibility is supposed 
in the ,church1 just 'as we are         
absolutely bound to suppose it1 even in 

temporal sovereignties 7where it does   
not really exist71 under pain of seeing 
society dissolved4' ,the ,church only   
demands what other sovereignties demand1
 though she has the immense superiority 
over them of having her claim backed by 
direct promise from heaven4#af ,take    
away the dogma1 if you will1 he says1   
and only consider the thing politically1
 which is exactly what he really does   
all through the book4 ,the pope1 from   
this point of view1 asks for no other   
infallibility than that which is        
attributed to all sovereigns4#ag        
,without either vindicating or          
surrendering the supernatural side of   
the ,papal claims1 he only insists upon 
the political1 social1 or human side of 
it1 as an inseparable quality of an     
admitted supremacy4#ah ,in short1 from  
beginning to end of this speculation1   
from which the best kind of             
ultramontanism has drawn its defence1 he
 evinces a deprecatory anxiety--a very  
rare temper with ,de ,maistre--not to   

fight on the issue of the dogma of      
infallibility over which ,protestants   
and unbelievers have won an infinite    
number of cheap victories2 that he      
leaves as a theme more fitted for the   
disputations of theologians4 ,my        
position1 he seems to keep saying1 is   
that if the ,pope is spiritually        
supreme1 then he is virtually and       
practically as if he were infallible1   
just in the same sense in which the     
,english ,parliament and monarch1 and   
the ,russian ,czar1 are as if they were 
infallible4 ,but let us not argue so    
much about this1 which is only          
secondary4 ,the main question is whether
 without the ,pope there can be a true  
,christianity1 'that is to say1 a       
,christianity1 active1 powerful1        
converting1 regenerating1 conquering1   
perfecting4'  ,de ,maistre was probably 
conducted to his theory by an analogy1  
which he tacitly leaned upon more       
strongly than it could well bear1       
between temporal organisation and       

spiritual organisation4 ,in inchoate    
communities1 the momentary self-interest
 and the promptly stirred passions of   
men would rend the growing society in   
pieces1 unless they were restrained by  
the strong hand of law in some shape or 
other1 written or unwritten1 and        
administered by an authority1 either    
physically too strong to be resisted1 or
 else set up by the common consent      
seeking to further the general          
convenience4 ,to divide this authority1 
so that none should know where to look  
for a sovereign decree1 nor be able to  
ascertain the commands of sovereign law2
 to embody it in the persons of many    
discordant expounders1 each assuming    
oracular weight and equal sanction2 to  
leave individuals to administer and     
interpret it for themselves1 and to     
decide among themselves its application 
to their own cases2 what would this be  
but a deliberate preparation for anarchy
 and dissolution8 ,for it is one of the 
clear conditions of the efficacy of the 

social union1 that every member of it   
should be able to know for certain the  
terms on which he belongs to it1 the    
compliances which it will insist upon in
 him1 and the compliances which it will 
in turn permit him to insist upon in    
others1 and therefore it is             
indispensable that there should be some 
definite and admitted centre where this 
very essential knowledge should be      
accessible4  ,some such reflections as  
these must have been at the bottom of   
,de ,maistre's great apology for the    
,papal supremacy1 or at any rate they   
may serve to bring before our minds with
 greater clearness the kind of          
foundations on which his scheme rested4 
,for law substitute ,christianity1 for  
social union spiritual union1 for legal 
obligations the obligations of the      
faith4 ,instead of individuals bound    
together by allegiance to common        
political institutions1 conceive        
communities united in the bonds of      
religious brotherhood into a sort of    

universal republic1 under the moderate  
supremacy of a supreme spiritual power4 
,as a matter of fact1 it was the        
intervention of this spiritual power    
which restrained the anarchy1 internal  
and external1 of the ferocious and      
imperfectly organised sovereignties that
 figure in the early history of modern  
,europe4 ,and as a matter of theory1    
what could be more rational and         
defensible than such an intervention    
made systematic1 with its rightfulness  
and disinterestedness universally       
recognised8 ,grant ,christianity as the 
spiritual basis of the life and action  
of modern communities2 supporting both  
the organised structure of each of them1
 and the interdependent system composed 
of them all2 accepted by the individual 
members of each1 and by the integral    
bodies forming the whole4 ,but who shall
 declare what the ,christian doctrine   
is1 and how its maxims bear upon special
 cases1 and what oracles they announce  
in particular sets of circumstances8    

,amid the turbulence of popular passion1
 in face of the crushing despotism of an
 insensate tyrant1 between the furious  
hatred of jealous nations or the violent
 ambition of rival sovereigns1 what     
likelihood would there be of either     
party to the contention yielding        
tranquilly and promptly to any          
presentation of ,christian teaching made
 by the other1 or by some suspected     
neutral as a decisive authority between 
them8 ,obviously there must be some     
supreme and indisputable interpreter1   
before whose final decree the tyrant    
should quail1 the flood of popular      
lawlessness flow back within its        
accustomed banks1 and contending        
sovereigns or jealous nations           
fraternally embrace4 ,again1 in those   
questions of faith and discipline1 which
 the ill-exercised ingenuity of men is  
for ever raising and pressing upon the  
attention of ,christendom1 it is just as
 obvious that there must be some        
tribunal to pronounce an authoritative  

judgment4 ,otherwise1 each nation is    
torn into sects2 and amid the throng of 
sects where is unity8 ',to maintain that
 a crowd of independent churches form a 
church1 one and universal1 is to        
maintain in other terms that all the    
political governments of ,europe only   
form a single government1 one and       
universal4' ,there could no more be a   
kingdom of ,france without a king1 nor  
an empire of ,russia without an emperor1
 than there could be one universal      
church without an acknowledged head4    
,that this head must be the successor of
 ,st4 ,peter1 is declared alike by the  
voice of tradition1 the explicit        
testimony of the early writers1 the     
repeated utterances of later theologians
 of all schools1 and that general       
sentiment which presses itself upon     
every conscientious reader of religious 
history4  ,the argument that the voice  
of the ,church is to be sought in       
general councils is absurd4 ,to maintain
 that a council has any other function  

than to assure and certify the ,pope1   
when he chooses to strengthen his       
judgment or to satisfy his doubts1 is to
 destroy visible unity4 ,suppose there  
to be an equal division of votes1 as    
happened in the famous case of ,fnelon1 
and might as well happen in a general   
council1 the doubt would after all be   
solved by the final vote of the ,pope4  
,and 'what is doubtful for twenty       
selected men is doubtful for the whole  
human race4 ,those who suppose that by  
multiplying the deliberating voices     
doubt is lessened1 must have very little
 knowledge of men1 and can never have   
sat in a deliberative body4' ,again1    
supposing there to present itself one of
 those questions of divine metaphysics  
that it is absolutely necessary to refer
 to the decision of the supreme         
tribunal4 ,then our interest is not that
 it should be decided in such or such a 
manner1 but that it should be decided   
without delay and without appeal4       
,besides1 the world is now grown too    

vast for general councils1 which seem to
 be made only for the youth of          
,christianity4 ,in fine1 why pursue     
futile or mischievous discussions as to 
whether the ,pope is above the ,council 
or the ,council above the ,pope8 ,in    
ordinary questions in which a king is   
conscious of sufficient light1 he       
decides them himself1 while the others  
in which he is not conscious of this    
light1 he transfers to the              
,states-,general presided over by       
himself1 but he is equally sovereign in 
either case4 ,so with the ,pope and the 
,council4 ,let us be content to know1 in
 the words of ,thomassin1#ai that 'the  
,pope in the midst of his ,council is   
above himself1 and that the ,council    
decapitated of its chief is below him4' 
,the point so constantly dwelt upon by  
,bossuet1 the obligation of the canons  
upon the ,pope1 was of very little worth
 in ,de ,maistre's judgment1 and he     
almost speaks with disrespect of the    
great ,catholic defender for being so   

prolix and pertinacious in elaborating  
it4 ,here again he finds in ,thomassin  
the most concise statement of what he   
held to be the true view1 just as he    
does in the controversy as to the       
relative superiority of the ,pope or the
 ,council4 ',there is only an apparent  
contradiction1' says ,thomassin1        
'between saying that the ,pope is above 
the canons1 and that he is bound by     
them2 that he is master of the canons1  
or that he is not4 ,those who place him 
above the canons or make him their      
master1 only pretend that he has a      
dispensing power over them2 while those 
who deny that he is above the canons or 
is their master1 mean no more than that 
he can only exercise a dispensing power 
for the convenience and in the          
necessities of the ,church4' ,this is an
 excellent illustration of the          
thoroughly political temper in which ,de
 ,maistre treats the whole subject4 ,he 
looks at the power of the ,pope over the
 canons much as a modern ,english       

statesman looks at the question of the  
coronation oath1 and the extent to which
 it binds the monarch to the maintenance
 of the laws existing at the time of its
 imposition4 ,in the same spirit he     
banishes from all account the crowd of  
nonsensical objections to ,papal        
supremacy1 drawn from imaginary         
possibilities4 ,suppose a ,pope1 for    
example1 were to abolish all the canons 
at a single stroke2 suppose him to      
become an unbeliever2 suppose him to go 
mad2 and so forth4 ',why1' ,de ,maistre 
says1 'there is not in the whole world a
 single power in a condition to bear all
 possible and arbitrary hypotheses of   
this sort2 and if you judge them by what
 they can do1 without speaking of what  
they have done1 they will have to be    
abolished every one4'#bj ,this1 it may  
be worth noticing1 is one of the many   
passages in ,de ,maistre's writings     
which1 both in the solidity of their    
argument and the direct force of their  
expression1 recall his great predecessor

 in the anti-revolutionary cause1 the   
ever-illustrious ,burke4  ,the vigour   
with which ,de ,maistre sums up all     
these pleas for supremacy is very       
remarkable2 and to the crowd of enemies 
and indifferents1 and especially to the 
statesmen who are among them1 he appeals
 with admirable energy4 ',what do you   
want1 then8 ,do you mean that the       
nations should live without any         
religion1 and do you not begin to       
perceive that a religion there must be8 
,and does not ,christianity1 not only by
 its intrinsic worth but because it is  
in possession1 strike you as preferable 
to every other8 ,have you been better   
contented with other attempts in this   
way8 ,peradventure the twelve apostles  
might please you better than the        
,theophilanthropists and ,martinists8   
,does the ,sermon on the ,mount seem to 
you a passable code of morals8 ,and if  
the entire people were to regulate their
 conduct on this model1 should you be   
content8 ,i fancy that ,i hear you reply

 affirmatively4 ,well1 since the only   
object now is to maintain this religion 
for which you thus declare your         
preference1 how could you have1 ,i do   
not say the stupidity1 but the cruelty1 
to turn it into a democracy1 and to     
place this precious deposit in the hands
 of the rabble8  ',you attach too much  
importance to the dogmatic part of this 
religion4 ,by what strange contradiction
 would you desire to agitate the        
universe for some academic quibble1 for 
miserable wranglings about mere words   
7these are your own terms78 ,is it so   
then that men are led8 ,will you call   
the ,bishop of ,quebec and the ,bishop  
of ,luon to interpret a line of the     
,catechism8 ,that believers should      
quarrel about infallibility is what ,i  
know1 for ,i see it2 but that statesmen 
should quarrel in the same way about    
this great privilege1 is what ,i shall  
never be able to conceive4444 ,that all 
the bishops in the world should be      
convoked to determine a divine truth    

necessary to salvation--nothing more    
natural1 if such a method is            
indispensable2 for no effort1 no        
trouble1 ought to be spared for so      
exalted an aim4 ,but if the only point  
is the establishment of one opinion in  
the place of another1 then the          
travelling expenses of even one single  
,infallible are sheer waste4 ,if you    
want to spare the two most valuable     
things on earth1 time and money1 make   
all haste to write to ,rome1 in order to
 procure thence a lawful decision which 
shall declare the unlawful doubt4       
,nothing more is needed2 policy asks no 
more4'#ba  ,definitely1 then1 the       
influence of the ,popes restored to     
their ancient supremacy would be        
exercised in the renewal and            
consolidation of social order resting on
 the ,christian faith1 somewhat after   
this manner4 ,the anarchic dogma of the 
sovereignty of peoples1 having failed to
 do anything beyond showing that the    
greatest evils resulting from obedience 

do not equal the thousandth part of     
those which result from rebellion1 would
 be superseded by the practice of       
appeals to the authority of the ,holy   
,see4 ,do not suppose that the          
,revolution is at an end1 or that the   
column is replaced because it is raised 
up from the ground4 ,a man must be blind
 not to see that all the sovereignties  
in ,europe are growing weak2 on all     
sides confidence and affection are      
deserting them2 sects and the spirit of 
individualism are multiplying themselves
 in an appalling manner4 ,there are only
 two alternatives3 you must either      
purify the will of men1 or else you must
 enchain it2 the monarch who will not do
 the first1 must enslave his subjects or
 perish2 servitude or spiritual unity is
 the only choice open to nations4 ,on   
the one hand is the gross and           
unrestrained tyranny of what in modern  
phrase is styled ,imperialism1 and on   
the other a wise and benevolent         
modification of temporal sovereignty in 

the interests of all by an established  
and accepted spiritual power4 ,no middle
 path lies before the people of ,europe4
 ,temporal absolutism we must have4 ,the
 only question is whether or no it shall
 be modified by the wise1 disinterested1
 and moderating counsels of the ,church1
 as given by her consecrated chief4     
99       99       99       99       99  
,there can be very little doubt that the
 effective way in which ,de ,maistre    
propounded and vindicated this theory   
made a deep impression on the mind of   
,comte4 ,very early in his career this  
eminent man had declared3 ',de ,maistre 
has for me the peculiar property of     
helping me to estimate the philosophic  
capacity of people1 by the repute in    
which they hold him4' ,among his other  
reasons at that time for thinking well  
of ,m4 ,guizot was that1 notwithstanding
 his transcendent ,protestantism1 he    
complied with the test of appreciating  
,de ,maistre4#bb ,comte's rapidly       
assimilative intelligence perceived that

 here at last there was a definite1     
consistent1 and intelligible scheme for 
the reorganisation of ,european society1
 with him the great end of philosophic  
endeavour4 ,its principle of the        
division of the spiritual and temporal  
powers1 and of the relation that ought  
to subsist between the two1 was the base
 of ,comte's own scheme4  ,in general   
form the plans of social reconstruction 
are identical2 in substance1 it need    
scarcely be said1 the differences are   
fundamental4 ,the temporal power1       
according to ,comte's design1 is to     
reside with industrial chiefs1 and the  
spiritual power to rest upon a doctrine 
scientifically established4 ,de         
,maistre1 on the other hand1 believed   
that the old authority of kings and     
,christian pontiffs was divine1 and any 
attempt to supersede it in either case  
would have seemed to him as desperate as
 it seemed impious4 ,in his strange     
speculation on ,le ,principe ,gnrateur  
des ,constitutions ,politiques1 he      

contends that all laws in the true sense
 of the word 7which by the way happens  
to be decidedly an arbitrary and        
exclusive sense7 are of supernatural    
origin1 and that the only persons whom  
we have any right to call legislators1  
are those half-divine men who appear    
mysteriously in the early history of    
nations1 and counterparts to whom we    
never meet in later days4 ,elsewhere he 
maintains to the same effect1 that royal
 families in the true sense of the word 
'are growths of nature1 and differ from 
others1 as a tree differs from a shrub4'
  ,people suppose a family to be royal  
because it reigns2 on the contrary1 it  
reigns because it is royal1 because it  
has more life1 plus d'esprit            
royal--surely as mysterious and occult a
 force as the virtus dormitiva of opium4
 ,the common life of man is about thirty
 years2 the average duration of the     
reigns of ,european sovereigns1 being   
,christian1 is at the very lowest       
calculation twenty4 ,how is it possible 

that 'lives should be only thirty years1
 and reigns from twenty-two to          
twenty-five1 if princes had not more    
common life than other men8' ,mark      
again1 the influence of religion in the 
duration of sovereignties4 ,all the     
,christian reigns are longer than all   
the non-,christian reigns1 ancient and  
modern1 and ,catholic reigns have been  
longer than ,protestant reigns4 ,the    
reigns in ,england1 which averaged more 
than twenty-three years before the      
,reformation1 have only been seventeen  
years since that1 and those of ,sweden1 
which were twenty-two1 have fallen to   
the same figure of seventeen4 ,denmark1 
however1 for some unknown cause does not
 appear to have undergone this law of   
abbreviation2 so1 says ,de ,maistre with
 rather unwonted restraint1 let us      
abstain from generalising4 ,as a matter 
of fact1 however1 the generalisation was
 complete in his own mind1 and there was
 nothing inconsistent with his view of  
the government of the universe in the   

fact that a ,catholic prince should live
 longer than a ,protestant2 indeed such 
a fact was the natural condition of his 
view being true4 ,many differences among
 the people who hold to the theological 
interpretation of the circumstances of  
life arise from the different degrees of
 activity which they variously attribute
 to the intervention of ,god1 from those
 who explain the fall of a sparrow to   
the ground by a special and direct      
energy of the divine will1 up to those  
at the opposite end of the scale1 who   
think that direct participation ended   
when the universe was once fairly       
launched4 ,de ,maistre was of those who 
see the divine hand on every side and at
 all times4 ,if1 then1 ,protestantism   
was a pernicious rebellion against the  
faith which ,god had provided for the   
comfort and salvation of men1 why should
 not ,god be likely to visit princes1 as
 offenders with the least excuse for    
their backslidings1 with the curse of   
shortness of days8  ,in a trenchant     

passage ,de ,maistre has expounded the  
,protestant confession of faith1 and    
shown what astounding gaps it leaves as 
an interpretation of the dealings of    
,god with man4 ',by virtue of a terrible
 anathema1' he supposes the ,protestant 
to say1 'inexplicable no doubt1 but much
 less inexplicable than incontestable1  
the human race lost all its rights4     
,plunged in mortal darkness1 it was     
ignorant of all1 since it was ignorant  
of ,god2 and1 being ignorant of him1 it 
could not pray to him1 so that it was   
spiritually dead without being able to  
ask for life4 ,arrived by rapid         
degradation at the last stage of        
debasement1 it outraged nature by its   
manners1 its laws1 even by its          
religions4 ,it consecrated all vices1 it
 wallowed in filth1 and its depravation 
was such that the history of those times
 forms a dangerous picture1 which it is 
not good for all men so much as to look 
upon4 ,god1 however1 having dissembled  
for forty centuries1 bethought him of   

his creation4 ,at the appointed moment  
announced from all time1 he did not     
despise a virgin's womb2 he clothed     
himself in our unhappy nature1 and      
appeared on the earth2 we saw him1 we   
touched him1 he spoke to us2 he lived1  
he taught1 he suffered1 he died for us4 
,he arose from his tomb according to his
 promise2 he appeared again among us1   
solemnly to assure to his ,church a     
succour that would last as long as the  
world4  ',but1 alas1 this effort of     
almighty benevolence was a long way from
 securing all the success that had been 
foretold4 ,for lack of knowledge1 or of 
strength1 or by distraction maybe1 ,god 
missed his aim1 and could not keep his  
word4 ,less sage than a chemist who     
should undertake to shut up ether in    
canvas or paper1 he only confided to men
 the truth that he had brought upon the 
earth2 it escaped1 then1 as one might   
have foreseen1 by all human pores2 soon1
 this holy religion revealed to man by  
the ,man-,god1 became no more than an   

infamous idolatry1 which would remain to
 this very moment if ,christianity after
 sixteen centuries had not been suddenly
 brought back to its original purity by 
a couple of sorry creatures4'#bc        
,perhaps it would be easier than he     
supposed to present his own system in an
 equally irrational aspect4 ,if you     
measure the proceedings of omnipotence  
by the uses to which a wise and         
benevolent man would put such superhuman
 power1 if we can imagine a man of this 
kind endowed with it1 ,de ,maistre's    
theory of the extent to which a supreme 
being interferes in human things1 is    
after all only a degree less ridiculous 
and illogical1 less inadequate and      
abundantly assailable1 than that        
,protestantism which he so heartily     
despised4 ,would it be difficult1 after 
borrowing the account1 which we have    
just read1 of the tremendous efforts    
made by a benign creator to shed moral  
and spiritual light upon the world1 to  
perplex the ,catholic as bitterly as the

 ,protestant1 by confronting him both   
with the comparatively scanty results of
 those efforts1 and with the too visible
 tendencies of all the foremost agencies
 in modern civilisation to leave them   
out of account as forces practically    
spent8         99       99       99     
99       99  ,de ,maistre has been      
surpassed by no thinker that we know of 
as a defender of the old order4 ,if     
anybody could rationalise the idea of   
supernatural intervention in human      
affairs1 the idea of a ,papal supremacy1
 the idea of a spiritual unity1 ,de     
,maistre's acuteness and intellectual   
vigour1 and1 above all1 his keen sense  
of the urgent social need of such a     
thing being done1 would assuredly have  
enabled him to do it4 ,in #ahag1 when he
 wrote the work in which this task is   
attempted1 the hopelessness of such an  
achievement was less obvious than it is 
now4 ,the ,bourbons had been restored4  
,the ,revolution lay in a deep slumber  
that many persons excusably took for the

 quiescence of extinction4 ,legitimacy  
and the spiritual system that was its   
ally in the face of the ,revolution1    
though mostly its rival or foe when they
 were left alone together1 seemed to be 
restored to the fulness of their power4 
,fifty years have elapsed since then1   
and each year has seen a progressive    
decay in the principles which then were 
triumphant4 ,it was not1 therefore1     
without reason that ,de ,maistre warned 
people against believing 'que la colonne
 est replace1 parcequ'elle est releve4' 
,the solution which he so elaborately   
recommended to ,europe has shown itself 
desperate and impossible4 ,catholicism  
may long remain a vital creed to        
millions of men1 a deep source of       
spiritual consolation and refreshment1  
and a bright lamp in perplexities of    
conduct and morals2 but resting on      
dogmas which cannot by any amount of    
compromise be incorporated with the     
daily increasing mass of knowledge1     
assuming as the condition of its        

existence forms of the theological      
hypothesis which all the preponderating 
influences of contemporary thought      
concur directly or indirectly in        
discrediting1 upheld by an organisation 
which its history for the last five     
centuries has exposed to the distrust   
and hatred of men as the sworn enemy of 
mental freedom and growth1 the          
pretensions of ,catholicism to renovate 
society are among the most pitiable and 
impotent that ever devout1 high-minded1 
and benevolent persons deluded          
themselves into maintaining or          
accepting4 ,over the modern invader it  
is as powerless as paganism was over the
 invaders of old4 ,the barbarians of    
industrialism1 grasping chiefs and      
mutinous men1 give no ear to priest or  
pontiff1 who speak only dead words1 who 
confront modern issues with blind eyes1 
and who stretch out a palsied hand to   
help4 ,christianity1 according to a     
well-known saying1 has been tried and   
failed2 the religion of ,christ remains 

to be tried4 ,one would prefer to       
qualify the first clause1 by admitting  
how much ,christianity has done for     
,europe even with its old organisation1 
and to restrict the charge of failure   
within the limits of the modern time4   
,to-day its failure is too patent4      
,whether in changed forms and with new  
supplements the teaching of its founder 
is destined to be the chief inspirer of 
that social and human sentiment which   
seems to be the only spiritual bond     
capable of uniting men together again in
 a common and effective faith1 is a     
question which it is unnecessary to     
discuss here4 ',they talk about the     
first centuries of ,christianity1' said 
,de ,maistre1 ',i would not be sure that
 they are over yet4' ,perhaps not2 only 
if the first centuries are not yet over1
 it is certain that the ,christianity of
 the future will have to be so different
 from the ,christianity of the past1 as 
to demand or deserve another name4      
,even if ,christianity1 itself renewed1 

could successfully encounter the        
achievement of renewing society1 ,de    
,maistre's ideal of a spiritual power   
controlling the temporal power1 and     
conciliating peoples with their rulers  
by persuasion and a coercion only moral1
 appears to have little chance of being 
realised4 ,the separation of the two    
powers is sealed1 with a completeness   
that is increasingly visible4 ,the      
principles on which the process of the  
emancipation of politics is being so    
rapidly carried on1 demonstrate that the
 most marked tendencies of modern       
civilisation are strongly hostile to a  
renewal in any imaginable shape1 or at  
any future time1 of a connection whether
 of virtual subordination or nominal    
equality1 which has laid such enormous  
burdens on the consciences and          
understandings of men4 ,if the ,church  
has the uppermost hand1 except in       
primitive times1 it destroys freedom2 if
 the ,state is supreme1 it destroys     
spirituality4 ,the free ,church in the  

free ,state is an idea that every day   
more fully recommends itself to the     
public opinion of ,europe1 and the      
sovereignty of the ,pope1 like that of  
all other spiritual potentates1 can only
 be exercised over those who choose of  
their own accord to submit to it2 a     
sovereignty of a kind which ,de ,maistre
 thought not much above anarchy4  ,to   
conclude1 ,de ,maistre's mind was of the
 highest type of those who fill the air 
with the arbitrary assumptions of       
theology1 and the abstractions of the   
metaphysical stage of thought4 ,at every
 point you meet the peremptorily        
declared volition of a divine being1 or 
the ontological property of a natural   
object4 ,the ,french ,revolution is     
explained by the will of ,god2 and the  
kings reign because they have the esprit
 royal4 ,every truth is absolute1 not   
relative2 every explanation is          
universal1 not historic4 ,these         
differences in method and point of view 
amply explain his arrival at conclusions

 that seem so monstrous to men who look 
upon all knowledge as relative1 and     
insist that the only possible road to   
true opinion lies away from volitions   
and abstractions in the positive        
generalisations of experience4 ,there   
can be no more satisfactory proof of the
 rapidity with which we are leaving     
these ancient methods1 and the social   
results which they produced1 than the   
willingness with which every rightly    
instructed mind now admits how          
indispensable were the first1 and how   
beneficial the second4 ,those can best  
appreciate ,de ,maistre and his school1 
what excellence lay in their            
aspirations1 what wisdom in their       
system1 who know most clearly why their 
aspirations were hopeless1 and what     
makes their system an anachronism4      
,,footnotes3  #aj ,de ,maistre forgot or
 underestimated the services of ,leo the
 ,isaurian whose repulse of the         
,caliph's forces at ,constantinople     
7,a4,d4 #gag7 was perhaps as important  

for ,europe as the more renowned victory
 of ,charles ,martel4 ,but then ,leo was
 an ,iconoclast and heretic4 ,cf4       
,finlay's ,byzantine ,empire1 pp4 #bb1  
#bc4  #aa ,du ,pape1 bk4 iii4 c4 iv4 p4 
#bih 7ed4 #ahff74  #ab ,du ,pape1 bk4   
iv4 c4 vii4  #ac ,a remark of ,mr4      
,finlay's is worth quoting here4 ',the  
,greeks1' he says1 'had at times only a 
secondary share in the ecclesiastical   
controversies in the ,eastern ,church1  
though the circumstance of these        
controversies having been carried on in 
the ,greek language has made the natives
 of ,western ,europe attribute them to a
 philosophic1 speculative1 and polemic  
spirit1 inherent in the ,hellenic mind4 
,a very slight examination of history is
 sufficient to prove that several of the
 heresies which disturbed the ,eastern  
,church had their origin in the more    
profound religious ideas of the oriental
 nations1 and that many of the opinions 
called heretical were in a great measure
 expressions of the mental nationality  

of the ,syrians1 ,armenians1 ,egyptians1
 and ,persians1 and had no conception   
whatever with the ,greek                
mind4'--,byzantine ,empire1 from #gaf to
 #ajeg1 p4 #bfb4  ,the same writer 7p4  
#bfc7 remarks very truly1 that 'the     
religious or theological portion of     
,popery1 as a section of the ,christian 
,church1 is really ,greek2 and it is    
only the ecclesiastical1 political1 and 
theoretic peculiarities of the fabric   
which can be considered as the work of  
the ,latin ,church4'  #ad ,sir ,j4      
,fitzjames ,stephen in the ,saturday    
,review1 ,sept4 #i1 #ahfe1 p4 #ccd4  #ae
 ,du ,pape1 bk4 i4 c4 i4 p4 #ag4  #af   
,ib4 bk4 i4 c4 xix4 pp4 #abd1 #abe4  #ag
 ,ib4 bk4 i4 c4 xvi4 p4 #aaa4  #ah ',il 
n'y a point de souverainet qui pour le  
bonheur des hommes1 et pour le sien     
surtout1 ne soit borne de quelque       
manire1 mais dans l'intrieur de ces     
bornes1 places comme il plat  ,dieu1    
elle est toujours et partout absolue et 
tenue pour infaillible4 ,et quand je    

parle de l'exercice lgitime de la       
souverainet1 je n'entends point ou je ne
 dis point l'exercice juste1 ce qui     
produirait une amphibologie dangereuse1 
moins que par ce dernier mot on ne      
veuille dire que tout ce qu'elle opine  
dans son cercle est juste ou tenu pour  
tel1 ce qui est la vrit4 ,c'est ainsi   
qu'un tribunal suprme1 tant qu'il ne    
sort pas de ses attributions1 est       
toujours juste2 car c'est la mme chose  
,,dans ,,la ,,pratique1 d'tre           
infaillible1 ou de se tromper sans      
appel4'--,bk4 ii4 c4 xi4 p4 #bab        
7footnote74  #ai ,thomassin1 the eminent
 ,french theologian1 flourished from the
 middle to the end of the seventeenth   
century4 ,the aim of his writings       
generally was to reconcile conflicting  
opinions on discipline or doctrine by   
exhibiting a true sense in all4 ,in this
 spirit he wrote on the ,pope and the   
,councils1 and on the never-ending      
question of ,grace4 ,among other things1
 he insisted that all languages could be

 traced to the ,hebrew4 ,he wrote a     
defence of the edict in which ,lewis    
,,xiv4 revoked the ,edict of ,nantes1   
contending that it was less harsh than  
some of the decrees of ,theodosius and  
,justinian1 which the holiest fathers of
 the ,church had not scrupled to        
approve--an argument which would now be 
thought somewhat too dangerous for      
common use1 as cutting both ways4       
,gibbon made use of his ,discipline de  
l',eglise in the twentieth chapter1 and 
elsewhere4  #bj ,du ,pape1 bk4 i4 c4    
xviii4 p4 #abb4  #ba ,bk4 i4 c4 xvii4 p4
 #aag4  #bb ,littr1 ,auguste ,comte et  
la ,phil4 ,posit4 p4 #aeb4  #bc ,du     
,pape1 ,conclusion1 p4 #chj4         99 
99       99       99       99  ,,end    
,,of ,,vol4 ,,ii4         99       99   
99       99       99  ,printed by ,r4   
,r4 ,clark1 ,limited1 ,edinburgh4       
,transcribers' ,notes3  ,minor printer  
errors 7omitted quotation marks7 have   
been amended without note4 ,other errors
 have been amended and are listed below4

  ,,oe_/oe ligatures have not been      
retained in this version4  ,list of     
,amendments3  ,page #cje3 lights amended
 to rights2 444 freedom1 of equal       
rights1 and by 444  ,page #cbi3         
impressisn amended to impression2 444   
theory made a deep impression on the    
mind 444