Towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  worship
of  the  Great  Revolution  reached  a  degree  of  fervour  which  our
generation  can  hardly  comprehend.  Lamartine's  Girondists,
Louis  Blanc's  and  Michelet's  Histories,  all  of  which  began
to   appear  in  1847,  were  in  their   authors'  intentions  gospels


CONCLUSION  273

rather  than  critical  narratives.  The  following  quarter  of  a
century  had  a  sobering  effect  on  the  French  mind.  De  Tocque-
ville,  Mortimer-Ternaux,  Quinet  published  their  studies,  which
were  by  no  means  blindly  enthusiastic.  The  influence  of
the  "Prophets  of  the  Past,"  Joseph  de  Maistre  especially,
hitherto  limited  to  a  narrow  school,  became  a  factor  of  national
importance.  Then  appeared  the  gigantic  and  virulent  arraign-
ment of  the  Revolution  by  Taine,  which,  partial  and  unhistorical
as  it  was,  was  effective  in  ruining  the  heroic  legend.  Victor
Hugo's  Ninety-Three  is  perhaps  the  last  great  work  in  the  pure
revolutionary  tradition.  The  centenary  of  1789  caused  a
temporary  revival  of  the  old  feelings :  the  riots  which  inter-
rupted the  performances  of  Sardou's  Thermidor  in  1891
were  prompted  by  a  sort  of  fanaticism  which  was  not  simply
political.  To  criticise  the  Revolution  was  a  sacrilege.  M.
Clemenceau's  words,  "La  Revolution  est  un  bloc,"  expressed
the  constant  principle  of  all  orthodoxies.
The  principles  of  1789,  the  sombre  epic  of  1793,  formed,
indeed,  a  sufficient  basis  for  a  religion — were  it  only  of  the
Mohammedan  type.  France  had  in  these  souvenirs  an  ideal
and  a  legend — a  legend  fertile  in  miracles.  All  the  efforts  of
Carlyle  and  Taine  have  failed  to  disprove  the  fact  that  for
a  few  years  France  was  in  very  truth  a  missionary  nation.
