providence of knaves and fools.  Man, when free, wants no other divinity than himself.  This god will not cost us a single farthing, not a single tear, nor a drop of blood.  From the summit of our mountain he hath promulgated his laws, traced in evident characters on the tables of nature.  From the East to the West they will be understood without the aid of interpreters, comments, or miracles.  Every other ritual will be torn in pieces at the appearance of that of reason.  Reason dethrones both the Kings of the earth, and the Kings of heaven.—­No monarch above, if we wish to preserve our republic below.

“Volumes have been written to determine whether or no a republic of Atheists could exist.  I maintain that every other republic is a chimera.  If you once admit the existence of a heavenly Sovereign, you introduce the wooden horse within your walls!—­What you adore by day will be your destruction at night.

     “A people of theists necessarily become revelationists, that is to
     say, slaves of priests, who are but religious go-betweens, and
     physicians of damned souls.

     “If I were a scoundrel, I should make a point of exclaiming against
     atheism, for a religious mask is very convenient to a traitor.

     “The intolerance of truth will one day proscribe the very name of
     temple ‘fanum,’ the etymology of fanaticism.

     “We shall instantly see the monarchy of heaven condemned in its turn
     by the revolutionary tribunal of victorious Reason; for Truth,
     exalted on the throne of Nature, is sovereignly intolerant.

     “The republic of the rights of man is, properly speaking, neither
     theistical nor atheistical—­it is nihilistical.”

Many of the most eminent conforming Prelates and Clergy were arrested, and even individuals, who had the reputation of being particularly devout, were marked as objects of persecution.  A new calendar was devised, which excluded the ancient festivals, and limited public worship to the decade, or tenth day, and all observance of the Sabbath was interdicted.  The prisons were crouded with sufferers in the cause of religion, and all who had not the zeal or the courage of martyrs, abstained from manifesting any attachment to the Christian faith.

While this consternation was yet recent, the Deputies on mission in the departments shut up the churches entirely:  the refuse of low clubs were paid and encouraged to break the windows and destroy the monuments; and these outrages, which, it was previously concerted, should at first assume the appearance of popular tumult, were soon regulated and directed by the mandates of the Convention themselves.  The churches were again opened, an atheistic ritual, and licentious homilies,* were substituted for the proscribed service—­and an absurd and ludicrous imitation of the Greek mythology was exhibited, under the title of the Religion of Reason.—­