His speedy fall dispelled their hopes, but did not teach them the secret of liberty.

They had no quarrel with the principle of the censorship, though they writhed under its tyranny; they did not want to abolish it.
They only complained that it was used against reason and light, that is against their own writings; and, if the Conseil d'Etat or the Parlement had suppressed the works of their obscurantist opponents, they would have congratulated themselves that the world was marching quickly towards perfection.

[Footnote: The principle that intolerance on the part of the wise and strong towards the ignorant and weak is a good thing is not alien to the spirit of the French philosophers, though I do not think any of them expressly asserted it.

In the following century it was formulated by Colins, a Belgian (author of two works on social science, 1857-60), who believed that an autocratic government suppressing liberty of conscience is the most effective instrument of Progress.

It is possible that democracy may yet try the experiment.].