But with all their talents and
resources, and the apparent momentary extent of their power, we see the
fate of their projects, their power, and their persons. We see before
our eyes the absurdity of thinking to establish order upon principles of
confusion, or with the materials and instruments of rebellion to build
up a solid and stable government.
Such partisans of a republic amongst us as may not have the worst
intentions will see that the principles, the plans, the manners, the
morals, and the whole system of France is altogether as adverse to the
formation and duration of any rational scheme of a republic as it is to
that of a monarchy, absolute or limited. It is, indeed, a system which
can only answer the purposes of robbers and murderers.
The translator has only to say for himself, that he has found some
difficulty in this version. His original author, through haste, perhaps,
or through the perturbation of a mind filled with a great and arduous
enterprise, is often obscure. There are some passages, too, in which his
language requires to be first translated into French,--at least into
such French as the Academy would in former times have tolerated. He
writes with great force and vivacity; but the language, like everything
else in his country, has undergone a revolution. The translator thought
it best to be as literal as possible, conceiving such a translation
would perhaps be the most fit to convey the author's peculiar mode of
thinking.
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