They had not as yet learned that institutions are but ideas, and that those ideas, when overthrown, involve in their fall thrones and nations.

Whatsoever the spirit of God wills, that also do all mankind will, and are to accomplish, unperceived even by themselves.
Europe bestowed attention, time, and astonishment on the commencement of the French Revolution, and that was all it needed to bring it to maturity.

The spark not having been extinguished at its outbreak was fated to kindle and consume every thing before it.

The moral and political state of Europe was eminently favourable to the contagion of new ideas.

Time, men, and things, all lay at the mercy of France.
II.
A long period of peace had softened the minds, and deadened those hereditary hatreds that oppose the communication of feelings and the similarity of ideas between different nations.