Kings are the first object of their attack—then a nobility—then commons.
To prepare the way for the accomplishment of these objects, all former systems of thinking and acting, must be annihilated, and the reign of reason firmly established.
But it will be enquired, where have these novel theories appeared? I answer—They have dawned upon New-England—they have glowed in the southern states—they have burnt in France. We have seen a few projectors in Boats, Balloons and Automatons—A few philosophical farmers—A few attempts to propagate the breed of naked sheep—and we have at least one Philosopher in the United States, who has taken an accurate mensuration of the Mammoth's bones—made surprising discoveries in the doctrine of vibrating pendulums, and astonished the world with the precise guage and dimensions of all the aboriginals of America.
But in France, for many years, these speculations in agriculture, the mechanic arts, education, morals and government, have been adopted and pursued. It is there declared and established, by law, that ancient habits, customs and manners, modes of thinking, reasoning and acting, ought to be ridiculed, despised and rejected, for that a totally new order of things has taken place. All those rules of action which civilized nations have deemed necessary to their peace and happiness, have been declared useless or arbitrary, unnecessary or unjust. The most distinguished treatises on the laws of nations—treatises which have been considered as containing rules admirably adapted to the situation of different countries, and therefore of high authority, have not only been disregarded, but publicly contemned as musty, worm-eaten productions. Even that accomplished
