It is not given to irreligion to destroy a religion on earth.

There is but a religion more enlightened which can really triumph over a religion fallen into contempt, by replacing it.

The earth cannot remain without an altar, and God alone is strong enough against God.
VIII.
It was on the 5th of August, 1791, the first anniversary of the famous night of the 4th of August, 1790, when feudality crumbled to atoms, that the National Assembly commenced the revision of the constitution.

It was a solemn and imposing act, was this comprehensive _coup d'oeil_ cast by legislators at the end of their career, over the ruins they had scattered, and the foundations they had laid in their course.

But how different at this moment was the disposition of their mind from what they felt in commencing this mighty work! They had begun it with an enthusiasm of the ideal, they now contemplated it with the misgivings and the sadness of reality.