Do we want to
contemplate His wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which
the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate His
mercy? We see it in His not withholding His abundance even from the
unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not written
books, but the Scriptures called the Creation."
If it were possible to establish a new _cultus,_ based upon mere
abstract principles, Frenchmen, we should say, would be about the last
people who could do it. This new worship, like any other play, drew
well as long as it was new, and no longer. The moral men and women soon
grew tired of it, and relapsed into the old faith and the old forms.
The end of all this child's play at government and at religion came at
last. Bonaparte, checked at Acre by Sir Sydney Smith, left the East,
landed in France in October, 1799, sent a file of grenadiers to turn
Ancients and Five Hundred out of their halls, and seated himself in the
chair of state.
After this conclusive _coup d'etat,_ Paine sunk out of sight.
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